THE RETIREMENT BUZZ: Issue 07

Retire Strong. Speak Loud. Live Free.

Author

Retirement Dreammaker
April 20, 2025

💰 The Secret the Rich Use in Retirement (And You Can Too)

Here’s a hard truth most financial advisors won’t say: Retirement isn’t about having a pile of cash. It’s about how that cash flows—without Uncle Sam taking a chunk every time you breathe.

🔍 This Week’s Spotlight Strategy:
 Tax-Free Buckets. Rich folks use them all the time:

  • Roth IRAs (and conversions)

  • Life insurance retirement plans (LIRPs)

  • HSA triple tax benefits (yes, you can use it in retirement!)

🧨 Danger Ahead: If you hit 73 with a fat traditional IRA and no strategy? Get ready to feed the IRS more than your grandkids.

📘 Action Tip: Get with an advisor who understands “distribution planning,” not just “accumulation.” There’s a BIG difference.

🩺 How to Outlive the System

Want to make it past 90 without being a slave to pills and co-pays?

Here’s what the data actually shows:

  • Daily movement reduces dementia risk by 35%

  • Intermittent fasting + strength training = powerful combo for hormones and longevity

  • Most folks are over-medicated and undernourished

🚫 Red Flag of the Week:
Doctors are getting bonuses from insurers for pushing more meds and less time with you. That’s not care—that’s control.

✅ Your Plan:

  • Get off sugar

  • Lift something heavy (your grandkid counts)

  • Stop eating “food products” and return to food your grandma would recognize

💥 Retire strong or retire sick. That choice is still yours.

🌅 You Don’t Have to Be a Monk to Hear God

It’s noisy out there—politics, scrolling, endless updates. But your soul still whispers.

Spiritual Check-In:

  • Are you building a rhythm of stillness?

  • Do you spend more time reacting to headlines than listening to heaven?

  • Have you forgiven that one person you promised yourself you would?

📖 Verse of the Week:
 “Be still, and know that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10

✨ Reflection : If God gave you 10 more years, what would He want you to do with them?

🎯 This Isn’t the Finish Line—It’s the Launch Pad

Quick story: 68-year-old Carl turned his old garden hobby into a side gig teaching local kids to grow food. Now? He’s part of a city-wide urban farming movement.

Don’t underestimate what your hands know. Or what your heart still wants to give.

🛠️ Try This:

  • Offer to mentor at a local trade school

  • Start a podcast about your life lessons

  • Create one YouTube video sharing something you wish you knew at 30

🧠 You’ve got wisdom the world needs. Don’t die with it still in your head.

🦅 Army Vet Turned Guardian Angel for Homeless Vets

Meet David, 74, Vietnam vet, ex-electrician. Tired of watching his brothers in arms suffer on the streets, he bought an old RV, parked it downtown, and turned it into a mobile shower unit and safe space.

Today, “Dave’s Patrol” helps dozens every week. No funding. No help. Just grit and God.

🔥 Quote from David: "You can’t fix the world. But you can give one guy a clean shirt and some dignity."

💡 Want to donate socks, funds, or supplies?

🚨 The Battle for Your Bank Account Has Already Started

Did you hear about the FedNow system? It’s already rolling out—a prelude to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

Here’s the playbook:

  1. Make digital payments sound “convenient”

  2. Phase out cash

  3. Introduce programmable currency (aka, control your spending)

📛 Real Talk: With a CBDC, they can limit how and where you spend. Imagine being cut off for donating to the “wrong” cause.

🗽 Freedom Move:

  • Keep cash on hand

  • Build local barter and community networks

  • Use credit unions and local banks—not the big ones

🧨 It’s not “paranoid.” It’s prepared.

📉 Retirement Math Is Broken (And Here’s Why)

You’re told to live on “4%” of your savings. Let’s do the math.

If you have $500,000 saved, that’s $20,000/year.
Add Social Security (~$21,000 avg).
Total: ~$41,000.

Now look at real inflation—not the fake 3% nonsense. Real rate: 7-9%.

🥩 What went up most?

  • Beef

  • Rent

  • Car insurance

  • Property taxes

  • Home maintenance

📉 Solution:

  • Add a side income

  • Cut out luxuries that don’t add joy

  • Invest in freedom assets (land, tools, skills)

📊 Freedom isn’t free—and it’s not getting cheaper.

Forget the stuffy lawyer jargon—here’s what really matters:

✅ Have a Trust? If not, your family could lose 20-40% of what you built to probate.

✅ Have clear beneficiaries? Outdated forms = lawsuits.

✅ Left instructions for digital assets? Crypto, bank logins, and even Facebook profiles.

🛠️ Do This This Month:

  • Schedule a meeting with an estate planner

  • Review ALL beneficiary forms (insurance, bank, IRA)

  • Write a letter to your heirs (the why, not just the what)

🧠 Die organized. Leave wisdom. Not a mess.

💬 I’m Bored, Lonely, and Tired of Golf. Now What?

We hear this all the time:

“I spent 35 years looking forward to retirement. But now, every day feels like Groundhog Day. My wife and I argue more, I miss my work crew, and I feel...useless.”

Our Response:
You’re not alone. Boredom is one of retirement’s biggest lies.
Here’s what we recommend:

  1. Structure. Even one task a day gives purpose.

  2. Brotherhood. Find a tribe—men’s groups, vet orgs, church missions.

  3. Mission. Your career might be over—but your calling isn’t.

🧠 Send us your toughest question. We’ll tackle it head-on, no fluff.

🇺🇸 Your Convictions Don’t Expire at 65

America’s in a spiritual identity crisis. Schools are teaching values you don’t recognize. Churches are going silent. And the media mocks tradition at every turn.

But you? You’re still here.
And you’ve got a voice.
Use it.

📜 Founding Quote:
 “The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments... they are written as with a sunbeam.” – Alexander Hamilton

✊ Do This:

  • Read your state constitution

  • Attend a local town meeting

  • Volunteer as a poll worker

📣 Retirement isn’t an excuse to disengage—it’s the platform to lead boldly.

🧠 Riddle of the Week:
 I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?
👉 Answer: An echo.

🇺🇸 Trivia:
Which U.S. president signed Social Security into law?
A) FDR
B) Truman
C) Hoover
D) Eisenhower
👉 Answer: A) Franklin D. Roosevelt (1935)

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