With Christmas just around the corner, now is a great time to make sure credit card thieves and identity pirates cannot mess with your world. Identity thieves operate year round and the holiday season is prime time for credit card theft.

I am passionate about retirement income planning; however, if you don't protect your assets from creditors, predators, floozys and gigolos - what will your retirement income look like? Think identity theft won't happen to you because you pay for credit monitory? WRONG. Your identity is probably already stolen! Watch this video if you want to learn the best way to prevent identity theft.

Got questions about maximizing your retirement income, saving for retirement, life insurance, or estate planning? Send me an email to kraig@kraigstrom.com. I am always willing to see if i can Help!

DISCLAIMER: Kraig Strom is not an attorney or a certified public accountant. Kraig is a Certified Financial Planner Professional®, a Chartered Financial Consultant®, and an Investment advisor representative. As cool as all that may sound, this video is only helpful hints, tips and education. This video is not specific tax, legal or investment advice. Before you decide to take action on anything you see in this video, please consult with your tax, legal or investment advisor first.

The Wall Street answer to maximum retirement income is to invest more money. That is usually the answer to everything. Lose your dog - you need to invest more money. Flat tire - you must not have invested enough money. Investments are critically important to your retirement happiness; however, protection is often ignored.

Protection should be the first thing we talk about in a retirement planning conversation. It does not mater how good your retirement investments are if a civil liability claim blows up your plans. Dave Ramsey says that the answer to retirement is may off your house early and invest in a diversified basket of investment that will earn you a mythical twelve (12%) return. I agree that maximum income in retirement does require savings and investment.

It requires diversified investments and a good plan but what if something unrelated to the stock market threatens to ruin your plans? Will your retirement plan withstand the unexpected? Got questions about maximizing your retirement income, saving for retirement, life insurance, or estate planning? Send me an email to kraig@kraigstrom.com.

I am always willing to see if i can Help!

Before 1975, most Americans had two financial powers working for them as they headed up the financial mountain to retirement. 1. Accumulation 2. Actuarial Power in the form of pensions.

Today, less than 10% of workers have a pension to look forward too and most of those are government workers. WHY you ask - because governments can afford the pension because they can tax the Populous to pay for them! Did you catch the part about 1975? That is when the IRA and 401k came entered the scene.

That means that the primary retirement vehicle for most people is less than 50 years old!!! So - 50 years ago, people had Two Financial Powers they could rely on for retirement. They would give up some of their potential salary in return for a pension.

The pension company would professionally manage the investments and you would get the FIRST FINANCIAL POWER - Interest rate and/or rate of return. At retirement, the pension company would pay the retiree an income based on their actuarial mortality - ACTUARIAL SCIENCE. Pension companies spread out the risk of income payouts over a large POOL of pensioners and paid income based on actuarial based mortality tables, not on investment returns.

Today, most people rely on the 401k that they manage themselves They still get the opportunity to have a rate of return BUT when it comes time to take income from your 401k - you are ALONE in the RISK pool. You don't have anyone to share the risk with and therefore you must be very careful with how much you DRAW. This is where the 4% Rule comes from.

How can you bring both financial powers back to your retirement plans? What financial institutions specialize in ACTUARIAL SCIENCE? Got questions about maximizing your retirement income, saving for retirement, life insurance, or estate planning? Send me an email to kraig@kraigstrom.com.

I am always willing to see if i can Help!