The Power Of Zero Show

Some people have a concern about the implications of the tax arbitrage they could be receiving if they just waited. This is the key to the Roth plans and Life Insurance vehicles that Ed described. The big myth is that you will be in a lower tax bracket when you retire. If you let your IRA just continue to grow, at age 72 the plan will be out of your control, and you will be forced to take the money out at the prevailing rates, whatever they are at the time, for the rest of your life. For married couples, there is another problem they don't think about, and that's that one spouse usually dies first. This means the surviving spouse becomes a single taxpayer again. This means they will have the same assets and income but at much higher rates. If you don't pay the taxes now, there will always be uncertainty. If you lock them in now, you will never have to worry about taxes again. Most retirees don't suddenly begin spending like rock stars. If your single child inherits a million dollar IRA, they are going to be forced to realize it as income over the course of 10 years when they are probably at their highest earning potential, at a period of time when they can least afford to pay the taxes. If you don't need some of your money in retirement, doing a Roth conversion on that money is like a gift to your children and grandchildren. You can give them a tax-free account which can be coupled with a tax-free life insurance plan to maximize the benefits. We are in a period of historically low tax rates, and in a rising tax rate environment, it only makes sense to pay the taxes now and get the money moved to tax-free. Yet 90% of all retirement dollars are in tax-deferred accounts. Most people believe that tax rates are on the rise, yet still have the majority of money in tax-deferred accounts. The secret to having more later is to pay the tax now. All the good things in life you pay for upfront, but it's the bad things that you defer that end up costing you. If you take care of the problem early, you have less to worry about. Like spending money on dental care, waiting until the very end makes the problems more painful and more expensive. Covid has led to people running to their estate planners. It has put more attention to making sure people have a plan in place in case they die or get sick. When you combine that with the additional $3 trillion dollars in debt the US government has accumulated, we are going to have to face the day of reckoning much sooner than we thought. Just like stocks, with taxes we should buy low and sell high. Right now taxes are low, and they may never be this low again in our lifetime. A good analogy is like paying off the mortgage to your house. When you finally make that last payment and own your house free and clear, it's a great feeling. You can get that same feeling by paying the taxes now and owning your investments tax-free forever. You can do everything right when it comes to your IRA. You can build and save and invest well, but if you don't protect it, all your family will remember about you is that you blew it. The people with the most money want the best trained advisors. Ed has several opportunities for advisors to learn how to help people keep more of their money and other tax planning technologies. All people want larger inheritances, more control, and less tax. You control your rate and which advisor you work with. Only invest with an advisor that invests in their education. The problem with the tax rules in the tax code is that they are rigid and unforgiving. You need to get the right answer the first time. Mentioned in this Episode: The New Retirement Savings Time Bomb by Ed Slott can be pre-ordered on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TSZSSY5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Ed Slott has a new book coming out called The New Retirement Savings Time Bomb. It's the updated version of the original book written 20 years ago where the time bomb was the tax building up in your IRA account. If you didn't know how to plan, you could be hit twice and lose up to 80% and 90%. Some of the Estate taxes have gone away since then, but there are other new threats to your retirement savings than ever before. Congress always needs money, and they will always go for the lowest hanging fruit, which is your retirement savings. It's like a deal with the devil, getting those deductions on the front end with the hope that you will be in a lower tax bracket. This assumption is where the danger lies. The Secure Act has ironically made your retirement savings less secure. The biggest threat is the elimination of the stretch IRA and the estate implications. Every plan needs to be reviewed and revised, maybe scrapped altogether for different thinking entirely. Congress needs money, which means tax rates are going to go up and that people will have less money in retirement. What is driving the need for these huge infusions of cash? Deficits and debts are the issue. The government has been recklessly spending for decades, and now it's only increased with the effects of Covid-19. When most people think of compound interest, they think of how Albert Einstein is the 8th wonder of the world. It's great when it's working for you, but awful when compounding is working against you. Compounding debt is the real issue. The math doesn't discriminate. The math bears it out that we will never see tax rates as low as they are today. We need a more stable and secure plan for the future. The history of tax rates shows that we could return to where rates were as high as 90% for the top tax brackets. You may only have one more year to take advantage of these historically low tax rates. People have to realize that they are in control of their tax rates. Taking advantage of the current low tax rates is the best tax planning you can do. Always pay taxes when the rates are the lowest. That may mean paying some taxes now, but you have to remember that taxes are a bill that won't go away. The concern about losing out on compounding interest when converting to a Roth IRA is a myth. If you are truly comparing apples to apples, there is no loss when using the same rates of return and taxes, but if rates go up, then everything changes. When rates go up, everything tax-free becomes more valuable. When you have money in your IRA, it is accruing to the benefit of the IRS. When you convert now, you are claiming your portion of the money, as well as the future interest. Taxes have to be paid for. It's not if, it's when. Why not pay them while they are on sale? Even in the worst case scenario, by converting now you lock in a zero percent tax rate for the rest of your life, which is not a bad consolation prize. After the Secure Act, using a trust to protect your money after death is no longer viable. Regardless of what happens with tax rates, this is going to become a huge burden for a number of people, and this makes a permanent life insurance policy even more attractive. People don't care about the vehicle. They want the results. They want low taxes, larger inheritance, and post death control, and a permanent life insurance plan that fits the bill. Mentioned in this Episode: The New Retirement Savings Time Bomb by Ed Slott can be pre-ordered on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TSZSSY5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Joe Biden's tax proposal has serious implications for anyone attempting to use the Power of Zero paradigm for their retirement planning. We know that the current tax cuts enacted by President Trump will remain at their current levels for the next five years and will revert to what they were in 2017 starting January 1, 2026. This tax sale gives us a historic opportunity to take advantage of low tax rates when we are executing a shift between the tax-deferred and tax-free buckets. If you wait until 2026 to shift that money, the tax brackets will go up and it will cost you significantly more. The Democrats won the runoff elections in January which have created an opening for Joe Biden to bring about the tax initiatives that he campaigned on. Joe Biden wants to raise taxes on anyone making more than $400,000 per year. Not only that, but you will pay a FICA tax on any dollars above the $400,000 mark of 14%. Right now, Joe Biden has to go through the budget reconciliation process to effect a permanent tax cut, but he can use the same process to extend the current tax cuts. For all intents and purposes, Covid has thrust us into a recession. This means that Joe Biden will not likely raise taxes until 2022. Joe Biden could create a tax cut that would last for 8 years essentially extending the Trump tax cuts for another 3 years. For people making less than $400,000, their tax brackets would stay historically low almost until 2030. This gives you 8 years to get your shifting done and allows you to spread out the burden even more. David calculated the benefits of an additional 3 years when shifting $1.5 million to the tax-free bucket. The difference is an 11% difference in taxes that you would have to shift the money in a shorter time period. This won't be a great deal if you make more than $400,000 or if you are planning on shifting enough money to put you above that threshold. The reality is that tax rates are likely to be much higher in 2030 and beyond. Even if the dates are pushed back, it only kicks the can further down the road. When taxes are on sale, every year counts. As of Jan 1, 2018 you are on the clock. By keeping tax rates low for middle America the day of reckoning is a bit further away, but the fix will have to be much more draconian. Joe Biden is not fixing the root of the problem. In order to balance the budget by raising the tax rates on everybody, tax rates would have to go up to 49% across the board. Simply taxing the top 1% is not enough in order to get the revenue we need to right our financial ship. The tax base has to be broadened and everyone will have to pony up eventually. David believes that Joe Biden will work through the budget reconciliation to extend the Trump tax cuts by the end of 2021, despite that it's the opposite of what we need to do to fix our financial situation. If you're looking to get into the zero percent tax bracket this will be a great opportunity to stretch out your tax burden over a longer period of time. The Covid stimulus and vaccine are the priorities right now, but once those are dealt with he's going to start tackling tax reform.

There are some basic updates and thresholds you need to be aware of if you're interested in implementing the Power of Zero strategy. The first change is that your standard deduction went from $24,800 to $25,100. This may not seem like a big deal but does mean that you can have a larger amount of money in your IRA by the time you're 72. The Roth IRA rules are not being changed at all, despite other account types having their thresholds changed. There haven't been any dramatic increases within the tax brackets yet, just the usual adjustments to keep up with inflation but there are still numbers you need to pay attention to, particularly where the 22% and 24% tax brackets start. The 24% tax bracket is still the sweet spot within the tax code. It's only 2% more than the 22% tax bracket but allows you to convert nearly an extra $150,000. In the grand scheme of things when we are trying to protect ourselves from the impact of tax rate risk the 24% tax bracket is an important tool. The Roth income limit phase-out range has shifted slightly, this means that when you reach the top of that range your ability to contribute to a Roth IRA reduces commensurately. If you exceed that range your options include a backdoor Roth or a LIRP. As we go forward into 2021 you are likely to see changes to the deductibility of your 401(k). Joe Biden plans to level the deductibility around 26%, which means that at higher levels of income the 401(k) becomes less attractive and you should forego that deduction and put that money into your Roth 401(k). You are likely to see a change in the marginal tax rate for people making more than $400,000 per year. In an article by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, they did some studies that showed that at a certain level of tax will depress economic growth. It appears that the Biden administration may have taken their cues from the study. For example, if you live in California and add up all the taxes proposed by the Biden administration (39% Federal, 13% State, 3.8% Obamacare surcharge, +14% New Biden Tax Increase) it approaches the threshold that studies show directly impacts the economy. We are also likely to see forgiveness of federal student loan debt up to $10,000. Other people are lobbying for up to $50,000 of student loan forgiveness. If you have $10,000 or less in student loans, avoid making payments on those loans until the Biden administration confirms their plans over the next 6 months or so.

Due to low prevailing interest rates, the federal government has restricted the ability of industry experts to show the robust rates of return that LIRPs are capable of. When the Consolidated Appropriations Act was passed in the final hours of 2020 it amounted to a Christmas miracle, and it will be immensely positive for LIRPs and will position them to thrive in an environment of low-interest rates. Section 7702 is the section of the tax code that governs the tax treatment of life insurance and it hasn't been changed in decades. The tax limitations within the section are calculated by asking a simple question. Namely, at what premium level will the policy stay in force based on the life insurance expenses and assumed interest rate? Baked into the 7702 code was the assumption that your cash value would grow at either 6% or 4%, depending on premiums. When you put money into a life insurance policy, there is a relationship between how much money you can contribute and the death benefit that you are purchasing. This is because the IRS wants to define how much tax benefit you can get, this was directly affected by the assumed interest rates. On page 4923 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act that was passed at the last moment of 2020 we find a hard coded rate of 2% for 2021 and a floating rate based on prevailing interest rates in 2022 and beyond. This essentially means that you are going to be able to put considerably more money into a life insurance policy for the same death benefit. The expenses of these life insurance policies are relatively fixed, which means you are incentivized to put in as much money as you can to maximize your return. For people between 40 and 55, the amount you can contribute has increased anywhere from 60% to 100% with triggering a modified endowment contract which would result in the distributions becoming taxable as regular income. The end result is that LIRPs are going to become more efficient going forward. Bobby Samuelson runs some calculations in his article to illustrate the differences between the past regulations and the recently passed act. Using the new 2% hard coded interest rate, the scenario illustrates that you could contribute significantly more money while still maintaining the preferential tax-free treatment, while also increasing the rate of return. This allows you to also increase the distributions over the life of the program. Because of this act, all policies will now have more efficient cash value growth, which means the LIRP will be an even more attractive alternative to those who are using it as an accumulation and distribution tool. Other countries will eventually stop loaning the US money as we experience a sovereign debt crisis, which means that interest rates won't stay low for very long. The long and short of it is we should feel better and more optimistic about LIRPs now than we ever have. The ACLI and Finesca were primarily responsible for the new act by persuading legislators to lower the hard coded interest rate and linking it to prevailing rates in the future. This change will not affect any existing LIRPs that are currently in force but there is still some uncertainty regarding whether increasing the death benefit of an existing policy will be affected by the new legislation. This is great news for anyone who has a LIRP or is considering one to maximize their tax-free benefits. Mentioned in this Episode: https://lifeproductreview.com/2021/01/05/257-the-section-7702-christmas-miracle

Things may seem bleak when you look at the numbers, but there are solutions that we can implement that could help our situation and ultimately prevent the worst outcomes when it comes to the national debt. David Walker's book was divided into three parts: a wake up call, a call to action, and a way forward. He has a number of solutions that he's proposed that meet six principles. Any solution would have to be: pro-growth, socially equitable, culturally acceptable, have mathematical integrity, be politically feasible, and have meaningful bipartisan support. We have to agree that the real metric to measure is debt-to-GDP and we need to get it to a sustainable level within a reasonable period of time. We also have to recognize that this can't be done one reform at a time and needs to be addressed as a package. Medicare seems like the hardest nut to crack because it is tied to demographics and health care costs grow faster than inflation, which prevents the US government from printing their way out of the problem. Most Americans agree regarding gradually increasing the age of retirement over several years which was done in the 1980s Social Security reform package. Increasing the the taxable wage base cap and adjusting the benefits paid out (e.g., higher replacement rate for lower income and somewhat lower for higher income individuals) are reasonable solutions for Social Security. When it comes to healthcare there are a number of more complex issues to deal with. The first is that the US government has overpromised on healthcare. Government needs to determine a reasonable, affordable and sustainable level of healthcare that should be available to everyone and government needs to have a budget. Government will do more for the poor, disabled and veterans. The US is the only country on the Earth that doesn't have a budget for healthcare, which is one of the reasons that there are so many healthcare horror stories in the US. If interest rates simply return to 2003 levels, the cost of servicing our current debt quintuples. Interest rates are not going to stay low, they are going to go up. The only question is how much and how fast. David Walker believes that we will not default on the debt because federal debt is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The responsibilities of the federal government envisioned by the founders took up 97% of the budget in 1912. This has fallen to 29% of the budget, and was declining as of 2019. The higher the debt-to-GDP goes, the higher that taxes are likely to be, and the lower the level of economic growth we are likely to achieve. The longer we wait to solve the problem, the higher that taxes are likely to go as well. The biggest deficit the United States has is a leadership deficit. We have too many people living for today and not enough people focused on how to create a better tomorrow. The two party system is part of the problem. 43% of voters are unaffiliated, and are largely unrepresented. It ultimately falls onto the President to make this issue a top priority. We need a mechanism that engages the American people in unprecedented ways and sets the table for tough fiscal choices in Congress (e.g., a Fiscal Sustainability Commission), and the sooner we do it the better off we'll be. President Biden needs to deal with this problem because we only have one President at a time and one bully pulpit where the message can really make an impact. We need a number of political reforms because today we have a Republic that's not representative of, or responsive to, the general public. David recommends redistricting reform, integrated open primaries, ranked choice balloting, campaign finance reform, and 12-year term limits. Career politicians are not what the US needs. It's not what the founding fathers intended and it's one of the many things that we need to change to revitalize our republic. On a personal level, we need to focus on our families and our clients. We can't control what happens in Washington but we have to take steps to hold our elected officials accountable as much as we can.

David Walker is a certified public accountant and has spent many years in public accounting. He's run three federal agencies, two in the executive branch and one in the legislative branch. As the Comptroller General of the United States he was the chief performance and accountability auditor of the US. More recently, David Walker has run two non-profit companies and been a distinguished visiting professor at the US Naval Academy and has been on a number of boards and advisors groups dealing with a number of issues facing the US. Historically, there have been four things that have defined a superpower and the question is whether the US will still be a world superpower by the year 2040. The four main things are global economic, diplomatic, and military power, and global cultural influence. Under these definitions, in the years after World War 2 the US was the only country to qualify as a superpower, but in modern times China is beginning to overtake the US in many of those areas. China has already passed the US in terms of GDP on a Purchasing Power Parity basis. They have more embassies around the world than the US does. China is currently the #2 military power in the world today but they are dedicated to becoming #1, and they are spending a lot of money on it. Culturally, Chinese investors own the largest movie chain in the United States as part of their effort to have a cultural impact. Economics, demographics, and foreign alliances are starting to work against us instead of for us. It's important that we wake up, learn from history, and heed the lessons from our nation's founders, and that we start to change course so that we can remain a superpower and make sure our future is better than our past. The reasons that we are currently having problems today is because we have strayed from the values on which the US was founded. We have also not heeded the prescient warnings of George Washington: to avoid foreign wars, not have excessive debt, to avoid regionalism and factionalism. We are actually experiencing the same challenges as the Roman Empire did before it fell. It's important that we learn the lessons of history so that we can do what is necessary to stay great and ensure greater opportunities for future generations. We were on an unsustainable fiscal path before Covid-19, and now we are in much worse shape. Debt-to-GDP in 2020 increased by 20% which is the most important metric we need to be paying attention to. It's clear that additional legislation will be passed now that Biden will be President and the democrats control the House and the Senate. We will defeat Covid-19 but once we do, we need to put a mechanism in place that will allow us to make the tough choices that will get the debt-to-GDP ratio to a reasonable and sustainable level over the next 10 to 20 years. Prior to Covid-19, the Social Security and Medicare trustees estimated that the trust funds were supposed to go to 0 by 2035 and 2026, respectfully, but because of the economic effects of Covid-19, the years are now 2031 and 2023, respectfully. This means that revenue will still be coming in but any bills would have to be paid out of those funds. In the case of hospital insurance, payments will have to be cut 10-15% immediately and across the board, with cuts of 20-25% to Social Security benefits. All the more reason we need to recognize reality and start making the tough choices now. What are the implications of having debt balloon out of control? We have passed the all-time record for Debt-to-GDP which was previously set after World War 2. Unlike then though where we rapidly decreased Debt-to-GDP dramatically after the war, we are now adding Debt-to-GDP and plan to add more. Currently, our interest expense is not increasing because we are not experiencing regular market conditions. The Federal Reserve is buying significant portions of US debt and artificially holding down interest rates, which isn't sustainable. The other problems stem from the proponents of Modern Monetary Theory, a theory that runs contrary to history and long established economic history. Politicians are already fiscally irresponsible, the last thing you want to do is give them an excuse to be even more fiscally irresponsible. History has shown that when debt as a percentage of the economy reaches unsustainable levels, it has an adverse effect on economic growth and this has a knock on effect on personal opportunity. Over 70% of the national budget is already on autopilot, the remaining 30% covers all the governmental responsibilities envisioned by the founding fathers. Modern Monetary Theory is dangerous and fundamentally flawed. The Biden administration will probably not adopt the theory, but even if that's true we still need to make tough choices on spending and revenue. The problem can not be solved solely by controlling spending and economic growth, revenue will have to go up because of the reality of compounding and math. A wealth tax will enter the conversation, but it's not possible to solve the issue only by taxing the rich. There is no question that the tax base will have to be broadened and that most individuals will have to pay higher taxes. One of the most important things to understand is that tax rates will never be lower than they are now. Assuming you will pay lower tax rates in retirement is no longer a viable plan. Tax rates may still have to double in the future, the longer we wait to make changes the more likely that's going to be the case.

David has written a number of books on the Power of Zero paradigm for retirement and still does about 90 speaking engagements each year. He also runs a program with around 250 advisors that help him espouse the Power of Zero worldview. The basic premise of the Power of Zero is that due to the fiscal irresponsibility of the US, tax rates will have to rise dramatically over the next few years just to keep the country solvent. Combine that situation with a skyrocketing national debt and unfunded liabilities and there are massive implications for a generation that has the majority of their retirement money in the tax-deferred bucket. If you can situate your retirement assets such that in retirement you are in the zero percent tax bracket then you have effectively insulated yourself from the impact of higher taxes. If you're in the zero percent tax bracket and tax rates double, two times zero is still zero. Conventional wisdom says that you will be in a lower tax bracket in retirement than during your working years, and that made sense in the 70's but it doesn't hold true for the current situation. What he found was that a lot of the deductions you enjoy when you're working disappear once you retire and many people end up in a higher tax bracket instead. We know that the current tax rates expire on Jan 1, 2026 and they will return to what they were in 2017, but the real danger is what will happen to tax rates in 2028, 2030, and beyond. We are moving into a future where the debt we are taking on will be unsustainable and we will either default on the debt or raise taxes. It will be challenging but there are ways for people to insulate themselves from these dire repercussions. Most people believe that tax rates will be higher in the future, but they still have the majority of their retirement portfolio in the tax-deferred bucket. This means there is a disconnect between what people believe and how they act because of the inertia of traditional wisdom. Like the average person, the federal government has trouble delaying gratification. We do a lot of things as a country that help us scratch our itch in the short term but that has a lot of adverse repercussions over time. This is a problem that pervades every single part of government and society, but there are things we can do to forestall these eventualities. There isn't an official zero percent tax bracket, but it is possible to not pay tax in retirement by positioning your money in the right amounts in the right accounts. David's second favorite tax bracket is the 24% tax bracket because it doesn't "cost" as much. If you're in the 22% tax bracket, increasing your taxes by 2% will give you an additional $150,000 in shifting capacity to get more of your money into the tax-free bucket before tax rates go up for good. There is a right amount of money to shift each year that doesn't push you up into a higher tax bracket but allows you to complete all the shifting before 2026. The Roth conversion is the workhorse that allows you to shift your money to the tax-free bucket. The Power of Zero strategy is not hard to implement. Roth conversions are relatively easy to do, in terms of not having to liquidate assets. You just have to be willing and able to pay the taxes from some other source. When you figure out your taxable income, you figure out what your highest marginal tax bracket is. David breaks down the basic process of a Roth conversion and why you should pay your tax at the time of the transfer. Your taxable bucket is your least efficient bucket. You know you have a taxable investment if you receive a 1099 form from your financial institution. This isn't good because when you amortize those efficiencies over a lifetime, it can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. Shift money from your tax-deferred bucket to your tax-free bucket by using money from your least efficient bucket. In the act of paying taxes on our Roth conversion out of our taxable bucket, we are reducing our least efficient bucket and maximizing our most efficient bucket. Study the tax brackets and the fiscal condition of the country. Let's not invest our money in a reflexive sort of way, let's be more cognizant of the fiscal condition of the country and make investment decisions accordingly.

There are a lot of stigmas around retirement planning and David's new book addresses two of the most difficult problems facing retirees right now, longevity risk and tax rate risk, and how to deal with them at the same time. Tax rate risk has always been a big problem for retirees, but it's not their biggest concern. Most people worry more about running out of money before they run out of life. David has observed that financial advisors are stuck believing they can solve one risk or the other. 99.5% of advisors fall into this trap where they mitigate longevity risk within the tax-deferred bucket, and that unleashes a chain of unintended consequences that can bankrupt a stock market portfolio ten to twelve years faster than you thought possible. Daniel recommends to every financial professional he meets that they read the Power of Zero collection of books. You're not relevant to the retirement space if you don't have some part of your company's philosophy centered in the Power of Zero message. David isn't making big claims about a specific timeframe. His message is universal and experts have been saying we'll need to deal with all this debt at some point in the future. It's not a political issue, we all need to prepare for this. An object at rest stays at rest. People are averted to paying taxes to the IRS sooner than they need to, even if they believe that tax rates will be higher in the future. More people are coming over to the Power of Zero way of thinking. There is an incredible divide between the people who think that tax rates will never go up and those who think that the Power of Zero paradigm is the gospel of retirement planning. The biggest skeptics don't believe that tax rates will rise in the future and the very thought threatens their way of living. David McKnight's top three advisors to pay attention to include Ed Slott, Tom Hegna, and Van Miller. Each of them has something extremely valuable to add to the conversation. Many experts decry annuities unnecessarily and consumers need to be careful about overgeneralizing. Financial gurus on television and the internet have to paint with a very broad brush so that it applies to a large swath of people. Unfortunately, the people that need more customized strategies get sucked in by the one-size-fits-all idea. Would David ever consider hosting a moderated financial planning debate with the traditional gurus on one side and the Power of Zero paradigm on the one side? Just like in politics, there is an establishment in finance. David's first book was the #2 bestselling business book in the world, but despite that, it didn't make it onto any bestseller lists. David and Daniel are up against the invisible hand of the establishment to get the word out. What can we expect from the Joe Biden administration? Much of the answer depends on the Georgia runoffs and whether the Democrats gain control of the Senate. If that's the case, Joe Biden will push through a number of changes that will affect millions of Americans no matter what tax bracket they are in. If you're making more than $400,000 each year you better duck and cover. What should you do if you haven't done anything yet? Start with educating yourself on where you think the fiscal condition of the country will be in the next decade or so. There are a number of experts predicting a perfect financial storm in 2030. If you believe tax rates will be lower in the future, keep putting money into your 401(k)s and IRAs, but if you think tax rates will be higher in the future then start moving money into your tax-free bucket. Be preemptive about your future retirement.

The Power of Zero occasionally gets a negative review. Today's episode is going to deconstruct and rebut a recent one-star review and go through the different perspectives. The first claim is the book is based on a misleading assertion regarding taxes in retirement. They are basically subscribing to the idea of tax diversification and the idea that we don't really know what taxes will be in the future, and in that case we should hedge our bets against all possibilities. This would be a fine approach if we didn't have any data to base a decision on. That's not the case. The current fiscal trajectory can not sustain the current level of taxation and number of prominent experts in the financial world agree. Absent a dramatic cut in spending, tax rates will have to go up and we will go bankrupt as a country. Tax rates will have to go up or eventually the interest on the debt will consume the entire federal budget. Most people believe that tax rates will go up in the future, but they also have most of their money positioned in the tax-deferred bucket. This means there's a massive disconnect between what people think of the future of tax rates and what people are doing about it. If you believe that tax rates will be higher in the future, tax diversification is not the right solution. There is a mathematically perfect amount of money to have in your tax-deferred bucket and it's rarely a fifty-fifty split. The second claim had to do with the LIRP and Roth IRAs. An LIRP costs an average of 1.5% of your bucket per year over the life of the program, which is undoubtedly more expensive than an index fund. You have to remember that the LIRP and an index fund are not designed to do the same thing. If low fees were the only thing we were after we would simply put everything into a savings account. The LIRP is providing a death benefit that doubles as long term care in exchange for that 1.5%. The other thing to keep in mind is that an index fund doesn't provide long term care or a death benefit. Dave Ramsey is guilty of this comparison by not taking all the variables into the calculation. The LIRP is not a replacement for the Roth IRA, it's meant as a complementary strategy. It's not a one or the other choice which is how the review frames it. There is a cost that comes with low fees as well. Vanguard did a study that found people with a financial advisor had a 3% greater return over time because the advisor is there to make sure you are following through with your investment objectives. There are insurance companies that guarantee their 0% loans. David breaks down the way this works and why the review is incorrect on how the loan process works. When the Power of Zero was written the Roth 401(k)s were not that available, but since then David has spoken and advocated for those plans. The choice is not either/or, having a Roth IRA and Roth 401(k) is a good way to create more than one stream of income. The reviewer also doubts that taxes will rise across the board in the near future. If we confiscated all the wealth of the 2500 billionaires in the US it would be enough money to fund the government for 7 months. We can't just tax the rich to solve the US debt problems. We have to broaden the tax base and this means taxes will go up for every American or the country will eventually become bankrupt. Mentioning the tax brackets of the 1960's is not to say that those are the tax rates of the future. It's to take people out of the belief that tax rates are low today and will always be low in the future. Tax rates ebb and flow over time. They are artificially low right now but that should not give us any false sense of security. We will likely soon see the types of tax rates we see in Scandinavia or Canada where the effective tax rate is 50%. There is no cap on interest on the national debt. Defaulting on the debt results in a global depression which is something we definitely want to avoid. A sovereign debt crisis could be the result of not reigning in spending.