Travel

I was in a bus with my wife heading back to Guanajuato from Texas. We had visited my childhood friend Mark. My wife had fallen asleep. I took up a conversation with a Mexican heading to Mexico City. When he learned we lived in Guanajuato he said something I found most curious, “You must be taking your chances living in Guanajuato.”

Not knowing what he meant I requested an explanation. He informed me that all the emergency services, except the police, were all volunteer. The fire and paramedic rescue workers were all under the auspices of the Red Cross. I was taken aback. I had no idea. We had not lived here, at the time, for more than a few months. He was correct. All of the emergency services, save the police, are Red Cross volunteers.

I would not have thought it.

Their facilities are top notch. The vehicles look top of the line. The equipment looked just like what you would see in the States. The firemen and paramedics looked tough as nails and I had watched them train as hard as anywhere in America. They do it, not for money, but for the love of saving their fellow Guanajuatenses in the event of a fire or medical emergency. I find that inspiring.

Once, perched high on an oxygen depriving callejon, sitting on stoop outside a small house, was an equally small, frail, and almost dead old woman. She was having some sort of heart event. The paramedics were called.

When they responded they had to leave their ambulance at the bottom of the mountain and run up its side taking two cement steps at a time. They carried equipment, stretcher, and themselves up the side of this mountain like they were supermen. They ministered to this old lady; loaded her on the stretcher and within seconds had her stabilized. They carried her to the waiting ambulance.

I wanted to find the guy in the bus and say,

“We aren’t taking our chances at all. We have Supermen and Wonder Women watching over us!

THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO

The first of the baby boomers are now turning 60. With Medical advances giving us more years of life, one of their retirement concerns is Longevity of life. Will my retirement income last as long as I will.

If you are a healthy 65 year old , there is a 33% chance for males, and a 44% chance for females that you will still be living at age 90. With more years of retirement, we need to have more money for retirement, and / or the desire for more guarantees that our retirement income will last.

How long will your income last ? Can it be guaranteed at a reasonable rate? Another retirement concern is inflation. What impact will inflation have on your retirement savings ? A modest 2% inflation rate over 30 years will erode almost half of our savings, and at 4% per year, over 30 years, it will erode about two thirds of our savings.

Another concrete example of inflation. For a person who retired in 1976, and is still living, the cost of a postage stamp has gone up from 8 cents to 51 cents. That is over a 6 times increase.

A history of interest rates in Canada shows that they have been declining for a number of years. Many retirees depend on GIC’s, to provide them with interest for their retirement income. With lower GIC interest rates, it has forced many retirees to search for other higher yielding securities, to maintain the same income. The concern of equity investments is Market Volatility, and the possibility of larger losses and larger gains. Many retirees would have opted to invest all or part of their savings in

All retirees face the greatest retirement risk, in the Risk Retirement Zone, which is the few years just before and after you retire.

For decades, retirees have worried about the problem of suffering large losses late in life.

Choosing the right investment product is critical to overcoming an uncertain retirement income. Now for the first time, these problems are addressed contractually in a new retirement income product.
3 New Guarantees on retirement income, are allowing people to plan for & obtain a much more secure retirement income. Get the full story at the link in the author’s Resource Box.

Manulife Financial nows offers their Income Plus Segregated Fund with 3 new guarantees, that are the first of it’s kind in Canada. The first guarantee, is a guaranteed income of 5% for 20 years. This represents a guaranteed return of all your money. The magic is that this will happen, even if the securities in the account, have a market value that has been reduced to $0, say in year 15, due to a bear market.

The second guarantee, is for the first 10 years of the plan, in which no money is withdrawn from the plan, Income Plus will guarantee a 5% per year growth rate, even if the market value of the account has not attained a 5% growth.

The third guarantee, is a 3 year automatic reset. Every 3rd anniversary of the policy, will lock in the market value, if the market value is higher than it was 3 years ago. It is this higher value that is used to calculate the 20 year income, in guarantee 1. All 3 of these guarantees work together to provide a product, that is the first of it’s kind in Canada.

Consider how this product can provide new guarantees on your retirement income.

Richard Lepinsky - EPC - 250-889-3784
Insurance & Investment - Advisor & Broker
Victoria, BC Canada

Your Guy to call, to protect your lifestyle and nestegg from a fall. http://www.nestegganalytics.ca/reports/gs-incomeplus1.htm