What will it take to maintain or improve your standard of living?

I’m writing these words in the year 2022. Can we all agree that America has changed a lot this year? Do any of the things happening around you look like danger signs?

AT&T is laying off 15% of their work force.
Inflation is at a level we haven’t seen in four decades. As of today, 8.6% and climbing.
Has the rising cost of fuel and groceries affected your ability to think about retirement?

Is inflation eating at you?

Inflation is simply astronomical. The average cost of a college education in 1990 was $30,000. Now up to over $150,000. The price of a house today has gone up 4 and a half times in 32 years. A gallon of gas averaged $1.12 in 1990. It’s gone up and down recently thanks to election year tinkering, but it’s still high, and certain to go higher in the coming years as government social engineering forces us to accelerate the change away from fossil fuels before the alternatives are ready. The cost of an automobile has gone up 470% since 1990.

Costs have gone up on everything. But our savings have not. We do not save enough, and now with the erosion of inflation, we face some major obstacles.

But what can we do?

The objective of this book is to teach you how you can take back control of your finances. How? By learning how to Bank Like the Bank™, not for the bank.

US tax rates are going to go up in the future. Most likely way up. There is no way we can avoid it. It doesn’t matter which political party controls Congress or who becomes President. Our government has been on an accelerating out-of-control spending spree for decades, and no matter what kind of games some economists play with the numbers to try to make them look like we’re not in trouble — we are in trouble.

In fact, the US national debt at the time of this writing (and it will be even larger by the time you read this) is so astronomically large that neither we nor our grandchildren will ever be able to pay it back.
At some point, tax rates will have to rise. The government will have no choice. Uncle Sam will be coming to collect more of your money. And what will they do with that additional revenue?

Whenever the government receives additional tax revenue, they throw a party. A spending party! That’s right. The debt will never go down because Congress reacts to any increase in revenue by increasing spending at least twice as much.

We work our lives away to earn enough money to support our current lifestyle, to put away for a comfortable retirement, to have a reserve for emergencies, and hopefully to have enough left to pass on to our children. We all owe it to ourselves to legally move as much of our hard earned savings into protected, tax-free instruments, in compliance with IRS rules.

This is particularly true if you are continuing to place your retirement savings into an outmoded traditional 401-K or conventional IRA account in hopes that when you take the money out later you will be in a “lower tax bracket”. Not only is your future tax rate likely to be significantly higher, but you will no longer have many or most of the deductions and credits you had during your working life.

Does it sound like I’m trying to scare you into taking action? I’m sorry if you feel that way, but you know what? If your money is not protected, you should be scared. This stuff is real. It’s happening, and it’s terrifying. But don’t panic. Stay calm and keep reading. Unfortunately, the story of the problem gets worse before it gets better.