Stop Betting Your Retirement On Perfect Timing

The market can drop hard, surge 1,125 points in a day, then whipsaw you again and that’s a nightmare if you’re retiring right as you start taking withdrawals. I talk straight about what I’m seeing at the end of Q1 2026, including a real panic call from someone who trusted online reviews, handed over their life savings, and watched their account fall fast because their portfolio didn’t match their risk tolerance. That story isn’t about “bad people.” It’s about bad timing, poor risk analysis, and the retirement reality that losses early on can do damage you never recover from. 

We break down sequence of returns risk in plain English and why the five years before and after retirement are the danger zone. Then we zoom out to the bigger trend: record annuity sales and growing demand for guaranteed lifetime income. I explain why retirees often spend down lump sums far faster than they expect, why dependable monthly income lowers anxiety, and why I believe your plan should cover the basics with Social Security, pensions, and annuities before you take market risk with the rest. 

I also react to Warren Buffett’s comments about today’s stock market feeling more like a casino, plus his massive cash reserves and what that might mean for everyday investors. Finally, I share my own annuity numbers and the “sleep insurance” mindset behind building guardrails that help you avoid panic decisions. If you care about retirement planning, tax-smart income, and protecting your nest egg from volatility, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more families can find it.

To learn more about Brad Pistole and the Ozark Retirement Group, please visit www.ozarksretirement.com 

Transcript

Welcome And Market Reality Check

SPEAKER_02 0:11

Welcome to Safe Money Radio with your host, Brad Pistol. Brad is a retirement income and tax planning certified professional, primarily serving clients in the Midwest, but he's sought after nationally for his expertise in helping people secure their retirements. Mr. Pistol is a licensed life insurance professional in approximately 20 different states, and he specializes in working with people who are near retirement and those who have already retired with wealth management, income planning, and asset protection strategies using life, health, long-term care, and annuity insurance products. And now, here to talk with you about securing your retirement, it's your host, Brad Pistol.

Oversaturation And A Panic Call

Sequence Of Returns Risk Made Simple

Why Annuity Sales Keep Surging

Buffett’s Cash Pile And Warnings

Who Should You Trust For Advice

Brad Shares Real Annuity Numbers

Retirement Asset Trends And Annuity Types

Closing Thoughts And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Well, hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining us again today on Safe Money Radio. And I just want to say this as we begin the show today, I'm recording this on March the 31st of 2026. So the official end of the first quarter of 2026. And I just want to say this there's going to be a lot on the show today. This is one of those fly by the seat of your pants, off the cuff, no script. This is one of the things where I'm just going to be sharing my heart, and I've done that for 18 years now. On radio and in this career, I've always been very open and honest with people. I think that's one of the reasons why so many of you listen to the show, you subscribe to the podcast, and you appreciate the way we work with you, especially in distributing vital information to retirees and those re planning for retirement all across the country, is that what you see is what you get. And so a lot of what I'm going to share with you today is going to come from very recent information, some of which involved three different phone calls that I've had today at the office, some of which was an interview that I watched this morning with Warren Buffett on Squawk Box. Many of you maybe watch this. If you're listening right now, of course, this is going to be airing a three to four weeks after I've recorded this, but I want to share information with you that's current and cutting edge and vital to the safety and the growth and the income from your own retirement accounts and retirement plans because that's why people listen. This is Safe Money Radio. I have written a best-selling book, Bulletproof, The Safe and Secure Retirement Income Plan. And why do people read and listen and follow? Because most people who are headed into retirement, they're not looking for the next hot stock. They're not looking for some big roller coaster ride, some major risk-taking adventure. They're looking for the return of their money, not the return on their money. They want to make sure that they don't lose it. In early 2026, the first quarter has been a reminder of what it's like to go through the bumps, the ups, and the downs of the market. Now it's very ironic. As we get started in a time in 2026 when the markets are saying, hey, remember, we don't always go up, we also go down, and people are starting to panic a little bit, they're starting to worry a little bit, they're starting to think about what does this mean for my future. Everything is relative. It's very, very interesting. In 2025, we set the all-time record for annuity sales. You know, annuities, the words that all the people who used to hate on me, who said that that Brad Pistole guy, he's just an annuity guy. He doesn't do anything else. And now they all sell annuities, right? Because now they've realized they were late to the party. Now, in 2025, 461 billion with a B, 461 billion dollars went into annuities in 2025. As a matter of fact, I'll share this later again in the show. Nine straight quarters in a row, there have been$100 billion quarters of sales and annuities. Why are people flooding out of the markets and into annuities? Well, part of the reason is because 4.1 million people are turning age 65 every single day, and those people don't want to ride the roller coaster anymore. So we're going to be talking about all kinds of things today. It's going to be a lot about the annuity market and annuity education and why income from guaranteed sources can be so important. As a matter of fact, I'm going to talk about a book that is sitting on my counter right now. The very first time I've looked at it, the very first time anyone's looked at it. It was just released today and Amazon delivered it today. So very, very interesting how there's a lot of information out there about guaranteed lifetime income and the safety and protection of annuities. But guess what? We need both sides. Part of one of the phone calls today from one of my clients was someone who loves their annuity right now, but they don't love their brokerage account right now. And they're like, why did we do that? I don't remember. Why did your team do that? Why does your son do that side? I wish it was all in an annuity. Well, it can't all be in an annuity. That's not great advice. I own several, and as a matter of fact, we're going to be going over some of my own personal returns today. I have them in front of me. Some of my newest annuities that have only been in force for one to two years. We're going to talk about the power of annuities. I'm going to share my own numbers, my own returns. But I also have more than seven figures in the stock market. And so right now, when the market's doing what it's doing with the ups and the downs, I'm not over here panicking. I'm not hitting the sell button. Sell, sell, stop, stop. That's not the time to do that. So we're going to talk about a lot of these things on the show today. And what I want to do, I want to give you our number and I want to give you a website so that at any point, if anything that we're saying resonates with you, know that you can just call us or you can go to the website to look up more information. Hey, I've been doing this for almost two decades now. This is a third generation family business. My father was in business for more than 50 years as a financial advisor. I've been in business almost two decades. My son's been on our team for seven years now. He's an investment advisor representative. And so we have three generations of history covering all things financial. There's so many different financial designations between my son, myself, my father, and now additional members of our staff team that we we are committed to education. I have six different financial designations for a reason. We're going to continue to study and learn and put the best information out in front of you. So call us anytime at 866-780 SAFE. That's 866-780-7233. We are the Ozarks Retirement Group. And I've been hosting Safe Money Radio for almost two decades now. You can also go to Ozarksretirement.com and just click on contact us. You can find all of our videos there. You can subscribe to the podcast there. Just go to YouTube and type in Brad Pistol. And you can stay up to the wee wee hours of the night with your popcorn and your coke and just pick on any topic that you want regarding financial planning, and I guarantee you we've covered it. So let's do this. As we begin today, let's deal with one of those things I don't love to deal with, but I do share these stories with permission because this is the reality of what happens in the world every single day because of what I call oversaturation. You know, today I've had three different phone calls. One of them involved a phone call along with three follow-up emails, and then two other phone calls. I want to start with the first one. It was a phone call of panic, a phone call from someone that met with me about a year and a half ago. They've listened to me on the radio for more than a decade. So there's a long history there. I'm a voice they trust. I'm a voice of reason. I'm a voice of knowledge. I'm someone who gives them information that they really appreciate. And so they came in about a year ago knowing they were planning for their retirement. And as they got closer to their retirement, and this happens for those of you listening right now, if you've not turned 65 yet, just wait. The day is coming where you're going to get stuff in the mail nonstop, 24-7. You're going to get invited to five dinner seminars a week. Just come listen to us. We've got the magic bullet. We'll buy your golden corral, we'll buy your steak, we'll buy your lasagna, your Italian, your whatever, depending on where you live in the country and where you're listening right now. Maybe it's a Ruth's Chris, and they're going to buy you a hundred dollar steak. Just come listen to them talk and they're going to give you the information. And as I've said many times before, that might cost you tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars over your lifetime. If they give you advice that's not great and you lose a lot of money, or you don't have guaranteed lifetime income, or you pay taxes that you shouldn't have paid and could have been avoided, that free stake could cost you a lot of money. But here's the thing: if you're turning 65 or actually just age 60, you're going to start hearing from everyone Medicare, Social Security Planning, Investment Planning, Retirement Planning, IRAs, Roth Conversions, you name it, they're going to call you. Well, this is one of the people who got caught up in the trap of oversaturation. Even though they listened to me for more than 10 years, as they neared retirement, they started hearing from other people who invited them to different events, and they went to one. And they looked this group up, and online, this is coming straight from the client for me to share to you. They said, you know, I'll tell you why I went with them. I went with them because they had really good five-star ratings online, more than a hundred five-star ratings online. Great. I think we've got about 75. We don't push and beg and plead with our clients to do it. If they want to go leave us a review, that's great. We're grateful for it. From time to time, we'll ask them to remember to do it. But the one thing that sold this client on this group was they went online, they Googled, and they fell into the trap of all five-star reviews. They've got to be great, amazing people, really good at what they're doing because they're all five-star reviews, 100% of them. Well, they went. They went in early January. They gave this group of people that they'd never listened to on the radio, they'd never read any of their books because they aren't on the radio and they don't have any books, but they have really good ratings on Google. They gave them their entire life savings. More than$600,000. They did this in early March. I believe the account opened March 1st. It might have been late February, but it was around March 1st. In three weeks' time, this person hit the full-on all-out panic button. Their account dropped more than$50,000 in three weeks. That's when the phone call came to me. That's when they called, and I didn't even know what they had done. I just knew they had listened to me for a long time. They came in for a meeting about a year ago and they said, Brad, I've made a mistake. I need your help. Okay, what's going on? Well, I went and saw these people, and I think they're good people. I don't think there are anything wrong with them, but they put me in this account and look at this. And I looked at it and I said, Hmm, well, I've never heard of them. I don't know anything about them. So let me Google them and look them up because Google's what got them in this mess. So let's see what kind of mess I can get into. So I Google and I look them up. And I see, boy, they've got some great ratings. Boy, they're I I see a lot of really good things about them. I've never heard of them, but they seem like decent people. And I said, Let me look at what you're in. Let me have my son look at what you're in. And very quickly we diagnosed the problem. They took someone who's above the age of 60, who just retired, who has a very low risk tolerance, and they put them 100% in the naked wide, wide open, broad stock market into 100% mutual funds. 100%. And guess what's happening in the market right now? Well, it's not been pretty. And so this client's down 50 grand, and they simply said, I can't do it. I can't, I can't take anymore. And I, of course, had to quickly say, listen, the worst thing you can do in a lot of situations is sell right after you get into something. And I went into all the details. But the bottom line was this this client had had enough. They trusted this person, they gave them their hard-earned money, their life savings. They they let them know I'm not comfortable with risk. I don't want to ride the roller coaster at age 60. And guess what? They put them into the roller coaster. And I'm not saying they're bad people from everything I can read and see online with all these lovely five-star reviews. They're probably pretty good people. But I do know this, they didn't listen to this client. They didn't do a proper risk analysis for this client. And if they did, and it told them what it needed to tell them, they did the exact opposite. And that's not a very fiduciary type of thing to do. So this client, now$50,000 in the hole, simply says, I want out. Make the bleeding stop. So we had to help. We did what we were supposed to do. We listened to this client to their risk tolerance, and they brought in, actually brought in a family member with them who said, Uh, You can't believe what our life has been like this last month. You need to make it stop. They can't take this level of risk anymore. So we did. And we were able to put some things in place, some guardrails, some protections, even use some things regarding bonus money, bonus products that tied to annuities, which is what they thought they wanted for the previous ten years anyway. And we were able to recoup their losses and put them back on the path to the right direction. Now, that's just one example. One example. But here's the thing. Was it because the people that they chose to go with because of the Google review, was it because they were bad people? No, not at all. It's because of this one word. It's called timing. And you know what they say about timing. See, putting these people into 100% mutual funds when they're above the age of 60, it does not prepare them for something called sequence of returns risk. And all the people who are my mentors, who've written all kinds of best-selling books, who have PhDs behind their names say sequence of returns risk is not something you can ignore. It's a real factor when it comes to retirement planning. What is sequence of returns risk? Well, it is the five-year window period of time before you retire and the five years right after you retire, which says this. If you put your money into something that's extremely volatile and you start taking withdrawals while experiencing losses, it is a really bad situation and your portfolio will not recover from it depending on when that happens. You can take the same two people, you can put a million dollars into an account and have it show you the graphs and the charts and how it all plays out. And if one person puts it in and for the first three years, the market goes boom, boom, boom on an upward cycle, you know, the upward drive of the roller coaster, and then they start taking out distributions in year four and five when the market drops, they're going to be all right. But if you put that other person with the same million dollars on a roller coaster and when they go out the gates, it drops immediately and it drops years one, two, and three while they're taking out distributions. Even if over a 10-year period of time, those two clients have the exact same rates of return, but in an inverse order, where one starts off with gains at the beginning and the other one starts off with losses at the beginning, the person who started off with losses is going to be in a mess. Their account will never recover from it. They will not have the same returns that the other person had, even though they had the exact same numbers on the chart. Are you following me? When timing of bad returns happen, and that's coupled with what I call the quadruple whammy. If you retire and you start taking distributions, that's number one, distributions, while experiencing losses like the market's experiencing right now, number two, while experiencing fees, you're paying a fee to that advisor you just gave the 600 grand to while paying taxes on the account. So you take out distributions while experiencing losses, while paying a fee, while paying taxes on that tax-deferred account, your head will spin so fast you won't know what day it is, what month it is, what year it is, or what in the world has happened to you. It will not be a pleasant ride. Ask anyone who retired in 2001. Ask anyone who retired just before the crash of 2008. Ask anyone who retired in 2022 and they started taking distributions in a year in which, their first year of retirement, the market dropped more than 20%. It was not a good thing. Ask anyone who retired on January 1st of 2026 and have them look at their portfolio three months in. It's a very small sample, but three months in, they've been taking distributions while experiencing losses, while paying a fee, while paying taxes. They are not a happy camper right now. Now, I want you to stay with us because here's what's interesting. Now, I am literally opening my phone while I record this. It does happen to be just after three o'clock. And today, on March the 31st, 2026, how ironic, the day that I'm recording this show, the market climbed 1,125 points in one day. Now, that closed while I was recording this first 15 minutes of the show. So I don't know what the statistical data will represent. How much of a gain was that? Well, of course, I can click on the little button here and it will tell me that for the stock market for the Dow Jones, that was plus 2.49% in one day. I know that the SP gained 2.91% today. But now, what is it in regard to the overall month or the overall quarter? I don't know. This is gonna be the point. Markets go up and markets go down. And you do not know what they're gonna do, when they're gonna do, because when we come back from this first break, we're gonna hear from my main man, Warren Buffett, who is on TV today. I just know this that we are retirement income certified professionals, we are tax planning certified professionals, and there's a reason why we do all the things that we do. I'm also a certified financial fiduciary, I'm a certified annuity specialist, I'm a registered social security analyst, and I'm one of the Irma people that you hear about all the time. Income related, monthly adjustment amounts, certified planner. Why did I do all this stuff? Because all of those things together, when they all come together, you have all kinds of elements of risk and protection and understanding and knowledge and fiduciary responsibility. You understand products that people need to have guardrails in place, and you also understand people need the broad markets. They need higher growth. That's why you don't own all of one thing. And that's what we do here at the Ozarks Retirement Group. Our website is Ozarksretirement.com. Go to the website, click on the contact us button if you want more information. We'll be right back after this quick break. Well, friends, it's always good to hear from my good friend Glenn Beck. It was such a blessing to go visit him at his studio and spend a day talking with him and to be able to continue talk to talking to his team on a regular basis about the things that we believe in and things that are going on in this world. So I'm always grateful to have an endorsement from him and have him say to you that here are some people that you can trust. I trust them and you can trust them. And that leads us into our second segment today, what we're going to be talking about in the next part of the show. Today we started the show with the not surprising fact to me, but maybe to many of you, that in 2025, annuities hit the all-time record for sales in the United States. As a matter of fact, I'm holding a report in front of me right here where it says big trends are converging on retirement right now. And the data tells a clear story about what's going right and what's still failing retirees. U.S. retail annuity sales hit a record all-time high,$461 billion in 2025, reflecting strong demand for guaranteed lifetime income solutions. Now, this isn't a blip. It's a fundamental shift in how people are thinking about retirement cash flow. And it continues to go. It says now, not only are they in demand, but it's about behavior in the real world and what's going on in the real world in 2026 right now? War. A lot of ups and downs in the stock market, a lot of 401ks and portfolios where people are going, whoa, I don't like this. It's not doing what it did for the last three years. It's supposed to only go up, up, up. And so this study continues to go on and say retirees who take lump sums from their defined contribution plans end up spending them down much faster on average. The money is normally gone in four and a half years, even though they need them to last 20 plus years. So it's saying when it comes to retirement planning, and when you start what's called the decumulation phase, taking the money back out, a lot of times when people retire, they have an option to take a lump sum. Now, depending on the company plan and the company that you work for, you might be able to take an annuity payment from them, a lifetime guaranteed income annuity. Or you could take it out as a lump sum distribution and either stick it in your bank account or manage it yourself, or you could roll it over. Into an annuity, if that annuity in a personal annuity, one that you find with a qualified financial professional, maybe it outperforms the one that they were offering you at work. But this is what it's saying. Historically, the math doesn't lie. When people say, I'll take it and I'll do it myself, oh, I'll never forget. I got a sidebar. I had someone do that a couple of years ago. They were a referral from one of some of our existing clients. They came in and met with me four different times. I've made every graph, every chart, everything under the sun, showing them what it would mean if they took their lump sum distribution and rolled it into one of the annuities we offered. And at the end of the fourth meeting, they said, Hey, I tell you what, I don't I don't want this to offend you, but I think I can do a better job than you can. And I said, Really? And I said, Aren't you the person that in the first meeting told me you really have no financial planning background, you're a dummy when it comes to all things financial? They said, Yeah, but I've I've done some charting and some studying and some thinking, and I I think I can beat these numbers. Well, you know, I happened to run into them about two weeks ago, right here in the middle of all the financial mess that's going on in 2026, in the middle of war, in the middle of the fact that I know their money was in a brokerage account, and I know they were about to start taking distributions, and I I wanted so bad to say, hey, how's that do-it-on-your own thing working out for you? How's it going? Are you are you beating the plan I showed you? But I didn't. I just kept my mouth shut. I used to learn to do that. Hey, they were a referral. I gave them my best information and education. They thought they could do better on their own. And my good friend Ed Slot says, you better realize one thing right now. You do live in a you're on your own economy, but you better not try to do this retirement planning thing by yourself. It's far more complicated than you think. And so that's why when people choose to take out their money and do a rollover as a lump sum and manage it themselves, they run out of money about four and a half years later. They're just not that great with it when it's not set up inside a contractually agreed annuity that says, I'll pay you the rest of your life no matter what, as long as you abide by these rules. It goes on to say nearly half of those who had a guaranteed option wish they had taken it instead. And the vast majority say dependable monthly income is very important in retirement. And retirees with remaining lump sum options often report anxiety about their fears for running out of money later in life. Friends, I just want to say this here as we begin the second quarter of 2026. When it comes to lifetime income, this isn't some niche product. It's not something that's here today, gone tomorrow. Annuities aren't going anywhere. People that think, oh, those are only 10 or 15 years old, annuities have existed for hundreds and hundreds of years. They were written about in books hundreds of years ago. Just go back and do your research. Lifetime income is a retirement essential. So I want to say this. There's a reason why all these 401k plans are currently creating annuity options inside the plan. There's a reason why lifetime income is so important. There's a reason why$461 billion went into this in 2025. And we're already setting records now again in 2026. I'll say it again in case you missed it earlier. Nine straight quarters in a row, annuity sales have been more than$100 billion per quarter. Nine quarters in a row. Now, here's what I want to do. I want to take a quick break again because when we come back, I want to jump into the fact that Warren Buffett was on television this morning being interviewed, and he's been interviewed a lot lately because he's retiring in 2026. He's done, he's hanging up the shoes, he lost his partner last year, and uh it's the end of an era. But they are interviewing him and asking him questions because they know he's the stock market guy, the stock market guru, the buy and hold forever and ever. And who's been more successful with the market than Warren Buffett? We're gonna talk about that when we come back, and we're gonna talk about the importance of guaranteed lifetime income and why you need both market volatility and market upside potential, along with the guardrails that come with annuities. So we want you to know you can call us anytime at 866-780 SAFE. That's 866-780-7233. Or just go to Ozarksretirement.com, click on the contact us button, and I will personally reach out to you. I will give you a copy of my number one best-selling book, Bulletproof, The Safe and Secure Retirement Income Plan. My good friend, America's IRA expert Ed Slott, wrote the forward to the book. And we're going to talk about not just what you make, it's what you keep that counts. We're going to talk about tax planning, removing the tax tumors from your accounts, getting rid of Uncle Sam. 866-7807233, or go to Ozarksretirement.com and click on contact us. We'll be back right after this short break. Friends, did you know that on the last day of March in 2026, Warren Buffett told the world that he was sitting on nearly$380 billion in cash reserves? That's billion with a B. You see, Mr. Stock Market himself has roughly$373 billion in cash right now in 2026. This is highly publicized. You can go look it up anywhere. Just Google it. If you missed the interview with him on March 31st with one of the hosts of Squawkbox, you need to go watch it. I'm sure you'll be able to find this interview. Just listen to what he has to say about the stock market and how he compared it to a casino. In fact, in his second to last annual letter to his shareholders, Buffett compared the modern stock market to a casino, writing that markets exhibit far more casino-like behavior than when he was young, and that their active participants are neither more emotionally stable nor better taught. He warned of Wall Street's affinity for feverish activity and reaffirmed that Berkshire Hathaway would never risk permanent loss of capital. Did you hear what I just said? Warren Buffett, Mr. Stock Market, is sitting on$373 billion in cash and has vowed that Berkshire Hathaway will never risk permanent loss of their capital. It would seem that Warren Buffett was concerned by what he's seen recently. Something called AI fueled euphoria. What is that? It's artificial intelligence fueled euphoria, an increasing willingness from investors to pay a premium for the possibility of future returns, global instability, and stocks that are trading at extreme levels. Now, I want you to listen to the following facts. This should shake you up today. Berkshire Hathaway sold$12.5 billion in stocks last quarter and grew its cash position from$100 billion to$370 billion, which represents 30% of its assets. Buffett has been a net seller for 13 consecutive quarters, the longest streak in his career, because he isn't finding stocks worth buying at current prices. Now, I don't want that to just glaze over you and be no big deal. Now, you know, I say this on the show all the time. I'm a big believer in market potential. I have more than seven figures in the market in my own retirement accounts. I use it and participate in it. I also own eight annuities and am hedged against volatility very strongly. I know what my retirement income is going to be because of my annuities and my guaranteed lifetime income. And because I know my bills are going to be taken care of, my daily expenses, everything that I need regarding debt or bills or taxes or food or play, it's all covered through my annuities. Therefore, I can invest in the markets. And personally, I believe you can only invest in the markets once you've covered your guaranteed lifetime income from sources such as Social Security pensions and annuities. But I don't want you to miss what I just said. So I want to say it again. Listen very closely. Berkshire Hathaway sold$12.5 billion in stocks last quarter. That's 2026. And grew its cash position from$100 billion to$373 billion, 30% of his assets. Buffett has been a net seller. In other words, he has sold more than he has purchased 13 consecutive quarters, the longest streak in his career, because he isn't finding stocks worth buying at current prices. Now again, I watched this interview with Warren Buffett this morning on Squawk Box. If you can watch it, you should go watch it. You should hear when he describes what it was like for he and his wife to first go to the casino land of Vegas and see all these wealthy people getting out of these fancy cars with these fancy clothes coming off of private jets just to walk in and he used his own mannerism to pull a lever. He says it's not smart. In fact, he used the word stupid. It's kind of a stupid thing to have all this wealth and to walk in and go, I think I'm going to get wealthy today. It's worth the risk. He says, never bet against the house. Never bet against the house. People are trying to go do momentary, instant, get rich, quick schemes using markets and casino-like things when he says, really, the only way, if you want to buy the stock, there's nothing wrong with buying the stock, just hold it for 50 years. That's what he said. So you need to go listen to it. I just want to ask you this on the show today. What does it mean when one of the world's wealthiest people, who has been a major advocate of the stock market for the past 70 years, to sell off their stocks for 13 straight quarters and move$380 billion into cash? Does it mean that the market's about to crash? Well, not necessarily, but it does mean that you should probably take a long, hard look at your current portfolio with someone who isn't giving you the advice that they're going to give you because of the way it affects their own income or their own pocketbook. Do you ever think about that? Hey, I really want to ask this person their advice because I really trust them. But does their advice hinge on whether or not their income goes up or down? It's going to affect their bottom line? Is that the person you should trust? There are some people that are really, really good in the financial world and they're going to tell you what's best for you simply based on your own risk management and because of the fact that they know you, they know what your profile is, and they simply have taken an oath to say, it cannot have anything to do with me. I'm going to do what's in that person's best interest. And when they tell me what their situation is, I'm going to give them advice based on that. What is best for them? You need to be talking to that type of person. You need to look at your own risk corridor. How much of your portfolio do you have at risk in the open stock market right now? Is the majority of your so-called retirement plan just to let it ride with the same mutual funds your Edward Jones rep told you you needed to own 30 years ago? Never making a single change to your portfolio now that you're retired? Friends, I've been doing this for a long time. I've watched that happen over and over and over again. Everyone has an Edward Jones account. This isn't a knock on them, but everyone's had one. They either have one or they've had one. They're on every single street corner, and they're going to do almost the exact same thing every single time for every single person. It's cookie cutter. They're going to stick you in mutual funds and they're never going to tell you to change anything. They're probably going to talk to you every three, four years if and when you go talk to them first. Just let it ride. You might get the same advice from Merrill Lynch or anyone else. But is that what's best for you in today's world? I can tell you that advice doesn't fly in today's world. How is your account doing at the end of the first quarter in 2026? Friends, here's a fact: you need safety, security, diversity, and guaranteed lifetime income. There's a reason why new records continue to be set every single year in indexed annuity sales. Remember, 2025 was the all-time record for annuity sales at more than$460 billion. For nine straight quarters, annuity sales have exceeded$100 billion a quarter. Think about that for a minute. People want safety, they want a real nest egg. One that won't be affected by war, one that won't be affected by the outcome of an election or some other event that changes everything around them. If you're 100% invested in the stock market, that's going to affect you. War markets will be affected by war. They're going to be affected by elections. They're going to be affected by things that get tweeted. They will. We've proven it historically. But people need guaranteed lifetime income. And they want to know that they will never have to worry about running out of money in retirement. So before we take a quick break, I want to share this. I'm going to just pull up a couple of my annuities real quick. Got them right here on post-it notes. Let's talk about three of them before we go to the break. Why am I pro annuity? Because of things like this. Now, again, I've got a lot of money in the market. I've got a lot of money in real estate. I own farms. I own homes. But here's the thing. Let's go back to January the 4th of 2024. Two years ago, I put$100,000 into an annuity that's now worth$118,123 today. The stock market corrections of this first quarter of 2023 had absolutely nothing to do with the returns of that market. It did not take that annuity backwards. It's not down 5% or 6% or 10%. It grew from 100 to 118 in two years. It's called peace, sleep insurance. I have no worries about that account. No matter what happens this year, it's not going backwards. Let's go to another one. This one was opened on February the 22nd, 2025. It's been enforced for one year. I put$109,493 into that account. It is a Roth account. It is now worth$129,565.80. Now, those of you that are good at math, that's a little over a$20,000 gain in one year.$20,000 from 2022-25 to$2,000. Sorry, from 2 February the 22nd of 25 to February the 22nd of 26, one year in force. It's up 20 grand. That is a Roth. That is 100% tax-free gain. It was held in an annuity. Am I worried about it going backwards? No. Did the stock market volatility of the first quarter of 2026 affect it? No. I just shared with you. It's already locked in the game. It's called annual reset design. It made more than 20 grand in this first year with a closing date of February the 22nd. It's now reset and started another year of growth. The market did not cause it to lose one single penny. Does your brokerage account look like that right now? Of course it doesn't. Let me give you one more. I opened this account on January the 3rd of 2024. This was the value on January the 3rd of 2026, two years later. I put$200,000 into this annuity. It's now worth$223,259.77. That's a$22,000,$23,000 gain, no risk, no fee, no worry about the market, no worry about war with Israel. No worry about interest rates. No worry about any of it. There's three accounts, several hundred thousand dollars, almost half a million dollars there. That's just three of my eight annuities. I just picked the ones that had just come due in this calendar year. My other annuities are spread out throughout the year. Why did I want to share that? Because that portion, that bucket of my money, is 100% safe. I don't have to worry about it. I don't lose sleep over it at night. I don't have to open it up like a brokerage account and go, oh my goodness, I can't take this anymore. I know that money's going to be there when I need it. That's why$460 billion went into annuities in 2025. That's why nine straight quarters,$100 billion a quarter have gone into them. That's why people love safety and security. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, I'm going to share with you some information from a book of a great friend of mine, brand new book that just hit the markets today. So call us anytime, 866-7807233, or simply go to Ozarksretirement.com. Click on the contact us button. I will personally reach out to you myself. Friends, as we wrap up the show today, I want to share some facts with you. This came from Investment News in March of 2026. Total U.S. retirement assets climbed to$49.1 trillion at the end of December 2025. That's a rise of 2.1% from the end of September and up 11.2% for the year, according to new data from the Investment Company Institute. Now, things aren't in that same place at the end of one quarter in 2026 because the market's been down, but still yet,$49.1 trillion in retirement accounts. Retirement assets represented a third of all household financial assets in December of 2025. This reflects how closely market performance and contributions can shape the retirement balance sheet that advisors monitor across client thresholds. Now, here's some other things. 19.2 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter, 2025, represented individual retirement accounts, IRAs. I like to call them what the IRS calls them individual retirement arrangements. Because when you own one, you're in an arrangement with Uncle Sam, but that's 19.2 trillion. Here's one. 2.6 trillion was held in annuity accounts.$2.6 trillion. Why is it that so much money continues to fall into the hands of annuity companies and advisors and financial professionals who understand just how important annuities are? Well, here would be a great example. Jamie Hopkins, who's been on the show before. I'm going to interview him again at Horizons 2026, when the brightest minds in the world are all gathered together in Florida for the Horizons Conference. His new book just released today. I received it on March 31st. 125 Retirement Planning Lessons from Financial Experts. Jamie and Bob Bonnie wrote this book together, and I looked through it very quickly. Of course, I knew I had the show today. I also did a podcast today and I did two client meetings today, but I did notice that chapter 33 is about annuities. And here's what it says annuities could be the future financial sidekick that you need to make your life easier. It involves a contract between you and an insurance company, a way to turn your savings into a predictable paycheck for retirement. Often you pay a lump sum or you could pay in overtime. And then sometime in the future, either immediately with an immediate annuity or sometime in the future through a deferred annuity, payments could start to you for the rest of your life. It says annuities are one of the most misunderstood but potentially powerful tools in retirement planning. And it goes on and on talking about them. And at the end it says, do you understand what your annuity provides? Are you confident in the protections it offers and the income that it guarantees? Friends, I can tell you this. As a certified annuity specialist, which it's estimated that less than 1% of all people who sell annuities are certified annuity specialists. 99% of them are just salesmen. 1% of them understand how they were created, why they were created, and what the tool is to people in their retirement plan. And I will say, I've seen a lot of people that have bought an annuity, and it's not a bad thing. The annuity wasn't a bad thing, but they were sold the wrong one at the wrong time in the wrong situation. Remember me talking about earlier in the show, the person who had given some local person$600,000 and they had lost$50,000 of it in one month, in three weeks. Was that person that put them in those mutual funds a bad person? Probably not. But timing was wrong, and timing of putting them into mutual funds at their age with their risk corridor was wrong. That shouldn't have happened. They should have done a better job. Sometimes you can own an annuity, and the annuity may be a great annuity, but it was the wrong one for you, the wrong one for your family. There are at least seven different types of annuities. There are immediate annuities, SPIAs, single premium immediate annuities. There are my gas, multi-year guaranteed annuities, there are fixed annuities, there are fixed annuities. Indexed annuities, there are variable annuities, there are Rylas, registered index length annuities. There are, I could go on and on and on and on. There are all these different types of annuities out here. Which one do you have? Which one do you own? Do you own the right version of that one type? Hey, just take the fixed indexed annuities. There's more than 200 different types of FIAs. So even if you were in the right category, did you buy the right one at the right time? Will it provide the need that you have? It's just like taking money and throwing it in the stock market and going, well, here we go. I hope I got the right thing. Do you know how many different things can be invested in in the stock market? Do you own stocks, bonds, mutual funds? Do you own what is it that you own? ETFs, real estate, gold, silver, precious metals, everything under the sun. That's why you need to be working with someone who not only understands what they're doing, but also understands you and your need and your goals and your purposes. And that's exactly what we do here at the Ozarks Retirement Group. We're so grateful for you. Thank you so much for joining us today. We wanted to share some current stats. I know the markets are volatile right now. What a crazy time. The market's down for the first quarter of 2026, yet the stock market was up. What did I say earlier today? Let's just pull the phone up and look as we close the show. What was it up today? It was up 1,000 2.49%, but it was up 1,125 points today. What a crazy world we live in. A world that's at war. A world with a lot of unknowns. And I do know this. In a world of unknowns, having some things that are known and are guaranteed is very important to give you sleep and peace of mind. We want the Swan Effect. We want you to sleep well at night. So, my friends, go to our website, Ozarchretirement.com, click on the contact us button. I will gladly give you a copy of a book that will show you the path to peace. Bulletproof the Safe and Secure Retirement Income Plan. Call us, we'll meet with you free of charge, and we'll put you on the path to safety and security. Well, I'm about out of time, and I would like to thank you for listening to Safe Money Radio. If you're serious about your financial future, give me a call, and together we'll get your retirement savings on the fast track to accumulation while reducing exposure to market losses. Thanks for listening, and until next time at the same time, I'm Brad Pistol, reminding you to stay safe so you can step into a secure future.

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You've been listening to Safe Money Radio with your host, Brad Pistol. Find out how to contractually guarantee that your hard-earned money is safe while avoiding market loss so you can have the retirement that you deserve. Call Brad Pistol now for your complimentary safe money book and safe money information kit at 866-780 SAFE. That's 866-780-7233.

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The preceding information does not represent tax, legal, or investment advice. Surrender charges apply to base contracts. Optional lifetime income benefit writers are used to calculate lifetime payments only and are not available for cash surrender or in a death benefit unless specified in the annuity contract. Fees may apply. Guarantees are based on the financial strength and claims paying ability of the insurance company. No information presented today should be acted upon without meeting with a qualified and licensed professional. Obviously, by calling us now, you are just taking the first step towards protecting your retirement. It's important that you read all insurance contract disclosures carefully before making a purchase decision. Rates and returns mentioned on this program are subject to change without notice.