Jason R. Parker - Sound Retirement Planning

About the Author

Jason Parker is the founder of Parker Financial LLC, a fee-based registered investment advisory firm specializing in wealth management for retirees. His office is in old town Silverdale, Wash. Jason grew up in the foothills of Northern California where he attended and graduated from Heald Business College in Rancho Cordova, California with a degree in business administration. Shortly thereafter he moved to Juneau, Alaska where he worked for several years at a small bank and then for a short time at the Alaska Commission on Post Secondary Education. Jason has more than ten years of experience in the financial services arena including banking, insurance and investments. He holds the series 65 securities license as well as being licensed to offer life and health insurance in Washington State .

In addition to being a respected investment adviser, insurance professional, and business leader in Kitsap County, Washington, he is a member in good standing with the Better Business Bureau, and the Silverdale Chamber of Commerce. Jason works with a small group of private clients, and he is a well-known financial strategist, speaker, and educator. He is the host of the popular radio program Sound Retirement Radio broadcast on 1300am KKOL on Saturdays at 8 a.m. He is also a regular article contributor to the Kitsap Peninsula Business Journal . He specializes in working with retirees who share the common values of faith, family, community, integrity and honesty. Jason lives in Poulsbo, Washington with his wife, Rebecca (married since 1997), and their two children. You can visit him at:

www.soundretirementplanning.com or subscribe to our radio podcast at www.itunes.com

Acknowledgments

Much of the success I have experienced wouldnt have been possible if it werent for some very important people.

First, I have the greatest family a man could ever ask for. My wife, Rebecca, is my inspiration and encouragement. Without her I wouldnt have the great life I have today. She keeps me focused on whats truly most important in my life, which is my faith, family, and the relationships we create along the way. We have two beautiful, healthy, and vibrant children, and its my greatest honor to hold the title of dad.

Dean Schennum is an adviser with my firm. He has also been my mentor. He has more than thirty years of experience in the financial services arena, and Parker Financial never would have become what it is today without his guidance, support, insight, and sense of humor.

Heather Henrichsen is my chief operations officer. Heather is brilliant, super-efficient, and a great asset to our firm. Because of Heathers editing and journalism experience, this book is ten times better than it would have been.

No man is an island. Id like to say that I created and engineered every system or concept you will read about in these pages. Unfortunately, that isnt the case. I surround myself with some of the top advisers in the country, and I am dedicated to always learning. My company would not be where it is today if it werent for the opportunity to tap into the insight and experience of some of the greatest advisers in the country and, for that, I am grateful.

Chapter 1

Conquering Change

There is no shortage of knowing what to do;
there is, however, a shortage of those willing to do.
Author Unknown

In this book, I will show you how to create a retirement plan that reduces stock market volatility while providing growth, warding off inflation, and generating a lifetime cash flow.

Within the first five minutes of my educational seminars, I describe some of the common challenges or fears people have as they transition through retirement. The biggest is the fear of making an irreversible financial mistake.

As people age and transition through retirement, their willingness and ability to change becomes more difficult. Fear paralyzes people into inaction. They will choose to do nothing rather than confront change. Most of the time, people dont make rational decisions about their finances or future, and thats unfortunate. Most of us tend to make emotional decisions about our money and lives. So when I present a client with a very rational reason to make a change such as diversification to reduce volatility, or using a tax-deferred or tax-free investment instead of a taxable investment, he may have a very difficult time making a decision even when the decision to change would greatly improve his situation.

One of my clients is currently eighty-nine years old. She has been widowed for years. When she was in her early eighties, her family encouraged her to move into a senior living facility. My client was opposed to this idea. She valued, as most of us do, her freedom and independence. Then a few years later, as she headed down the stairs in her home, she tripped and fell. She was in terrible pain. When I visited her in the nursing home, she told me her kids had been right and she was now going to move. Had she made the move earlier, perhaps she could have avoided this very unpleasant experience. I am happy to report that after a two-month recovery in the nursing home, she went home, packed up her life, and sold a bunch of stuff. She sold the home her husband and she had built, where they had raised their children and where she had lived for more than fifty years, and she moved into an independent senior living apartment complex. Talk about being brave.

I talk about change like its something easy to do, but I cant imagine how hard that move must have been for her. Every time I speak with her now, she tells me how much she loves her life, and how moving out of her house was one of the best decisions she ever made. She talks about the freedom she has now to do more of what she truly enjoys, which in her case is painting and counseling. Change is the one constant in our lives, and no matter how comfortable we become, it will eventually sneak up on us and force us to grow.

The concepts I discuss in this book are going to challenge the way you have always done things. They may challenge conventional wisdom. They may challenge which investment vehicles or tools you use, and they will certainly rattle many of your most fundamental beliefs about how you have been growing and managing your money. I encourage you to temporarily suspend your pre-conceived ideas about finance and wealth management. Remember, retirement is a different animal. Even if you have accumulated great knowledge about creating wealth, a big difference exists between accumulating assets and the de-accumulation of assets. This book serves as a guide for the latter.

Education can be powerful, but only when it becomes an action. I dedicate time to writing every month, to offering free educational seminars, and to hosting Sound Retirement Radio to give people a greater understanding of the proper resources and tools available to them so they can make better decisions and become much more comfortable overcoming the hurdle of change.

Many of my clients are retired professionals. These sophisticated individuals have spent a lifetime developing their areas of expertise. Unfortunately and most admittedly, many of them have not had the inclination or the time to understand personal finance. Many of my clients tell me they have no desire to learn such things, so theyve hired me as a professional to do it for them. Can you blame them? If I go to my doctor, I am relying on his years of expertise and training. It wouldnt make any sense for me to go back to medical school so I could spend all day diagnosing my health issues. At some point, you begin to realize that your time, not your money, is your most valuable asset, so how you spend that time becomes increasingly important as you transition through retirement.

The primary purpose of this book is to help retirees develop a plan for diversifying their investment assets in retirement. My goal is simple: