Crash Proof Retirement Educates Consumers about Financial Risks

Crash Proof Retirement Educates Consumers about Financial Risks

Crash Proof Retirement hosted their first educational event of 2022 and received a resounding response from guests who expressed concerns about the monetary and legislative policies of the current government administration. 

King of Prussia, PA — Consumers from the Downingtown area of Pennsylvania braved the cold and threat of snow to hear retirement phase experts, Phil Cannella and Joann Small, speak about critical retirement issues at Ron Jaworski’s Downingtown Country Club, including concerns about the direction of the current administration. Cannella and Small presented the audience with the two largest financial risks to any retirement plan and offered safe market alternatives as a solution to these pressing issues. 

“Your greatest financial risk is long-term care,” Cannella asserted. “In fact, if you’re 65 or older, man or woman, you have a 70% chance of spending three years or more in a long-term care facility, which would knock most people off the highway of retirement.” Cannella encouraged proactiveness to a crowd of consumers who expressed concerns about the safety and security of their nest eggs and emphasized the need for more women to be prepared. “Women should particularly be concerned because on average you live four more years than men,” Cannella proclaimed. “You’re going to have more healthcare expenses, you’re going to need more income since you’re living longer, and inflation is going to hit you a little harder; so, who is going to take care of you when the time comes?” 

To expand further on the topic of long-term care insurance, Joann Small joined Phil Cannella on stage to present her case for why Americans over 65 need long-term care protections. “You worked all your life, you saved and put money away, don’t be foolish, because if you look around this room, 70% of us will need some type of long-term care protection,” Small encouraged. While explaining her own policy, Small used a descriptive metaphor to describe how long-term care insurance works. “I took a piece of our nest egg and I parked it in a vehicle that’s going to sit there and if I don’t need long-term care, that money is going to go right to our heirs, but if I need it that parking spot is going to triple in value.” This concept raised more than a few eyebrows throughout the audience. 

Marionette Shahadi, a Pennsylvania resident was in attendance with her husband Anthony and was intrigued with the discussion about long-term care protections. Shahadi expressed that she was worried about the financial repercussions if something were to happen to her husband. “Personally, for me, because I just retired and he’s older than me, I worry about what’s going to happen if something happens to him—I’ll be by myself,” Shahadi explained. “I need to make sure I have enough money to live, like you said long-term care, hopefully I’m healthy enough, but you never know.” Other guests took note of the warnings about market volatility the threat of a historic market crash occurring in 2022. 

“The S&P 500 is up to 4,800 points over the eleven years and it’s all synthetic,” Cannella argued. “It’s a big disconnect between what’s happening in the economy and what’s going on in the markets; the economy and the fundamentals do not support the numbers.” The problem that Cannella posed to the audience is that market risk cannot be managed and the only way to avoid market risk is to not be involved with risk assets to begin with. Cannella stated, “Risk assets offer gains that can be taken back with ease, while fixed assets offer interest that cannot be taken back.” 

Market volatility was on the minds of most guests in attendance, including Bruce Bassett of Berwyn, Pennsylvania. “I had bad luck, I would say, with the stock market and I’m tired of making very little interest in other investments,” said Bassett. “I’m particularly concerned about the stock market now because this rise of the stock market has to end at some point and I’m of the feeling that it has to happen pretty soon.” In concurrence with the sentiment portrayed by Bassett, Cannella pointed the audience’s attention to a recent interview that was conducted by Crash Proof Retirement with world renowned economic forecaster Harry Dent, who’s research model analyzing spending and demographics accurately predicted economic booms and busts in both Japan and the United States from the 1980s to the early 2000s. 

In the interview, Dent highlighted 24 years of stock market activity that helped create a market pattern that resembles a megaphone and could be used to predict future stock market activity, such as a crash. “The megaphone pattern projects the next crash will take us down to about 2,000 on the S&P 500, versus 4,800 recently,” Dent exclaimed. “That’s a big drop, more than 50%. The biggest first crash ever and then the broader one predicts we’ll go down to about 670 [on the S&P 500] a couple of years from now.” Cannella compared this market activity to Newton’s Law of Physics, stating that, for every new record high, there will be a new record low and listed several financial issues that were contributing to the volatility of the stock market, such as taxes, inflation, and increased government spending.  

Robert Luca, a guest from Downingtown, Pennsylvania conveyed unease about the issue of taxes and their likelihood to rise as he prepares to enter retirement. “It’s easier to give debt relief to people who go to school, those are things that I didn’t have the opportunity to take advantage of so I’m troubled that as I get later on in years that my taxes are going to go up [and] my retirement accounts are going to be treated differently,” Luca stated. “I was able to take advantage of the opportunity and save and because of that now I’m going to be expected to help, you  know, the later generations deal with it and that doesn’t sit really well with me.”

Following the event, guests were eager to begin their one-on-one, no-pressure educational process as more than 63% of those in attendance started the process of scheduling an in-person appointment. Retirement phase experts Phil Cannella and Joann Small will be hosting their next Crash Proof Educational event at the William Penn Inn on February 8, 2022. Call 1-800-722-9728 or visit https://crashproofretirement.com to reserve your seat or to schedule an appointment with a licensed educator.