Maybe your retirement is just around the corner.  The pressure is on to make sure you’re covered.

Maybe retirement is the furthest thing from your mind.

• You’re just starting a new job and have college debts
• You’re starting a family
• You’re struggling to make ends meet with several kids

Is it ever really a good time to try to put away money for retirement?  I know it has never felt like a good time for me.  RetirementView can help you get a REAL picture of what your retirement will look like.  No fooling yourself!

Walter Updegrave posted an article on YahooFinance today that describes 4 lies we tell ourselves that can RUIN retirement.  Are you being deceived by any of them?

We’re happy to give you our October Newsletter for our Personal and Couples Edition customers.

We have a featured article of a trip Tim recently took.

We have a free resource for those of you confused by Medicare.

And a few more interesting articles and games.

Click here: October Consumer

If you are one of our Personal or Couple’s Edition customers, then this is for you.

Stay tuned if you’re a Financial Advisor. Yours will be along soon!

August RetirementView Consumer

Have you seen that episode of “The Office” where Michael Scott decides to divide his sales people up and send them out to their clients to develop a personal connection?

Phyllis takes Karen to get a makeover in order to look just like their client’s wife so they can make connection with him and hopefully make the sale…which they did.

When I found this article, I immediately thought of that episode. It then seemed necessary to share this and ask some questions. Read it I’m curious to know what you think.

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In her new book, The Primates of Park Avenue, author Wednesday Martin recalled how difficult it was to become accepted into the circle of wealthy New York mothers.

She finally succeed when she recalled her anthropology training in baboon culture where all females submit to the dominate female.

Martin writes that she picked out the leader of the group and began to mirror her. She dressed like the woman.  She exercised at the same place. She got a fantastically expensive handbag. She bought the right clothes. And it worked.

This is, perhaps, an extreme example of what salespeople have known for years: Building rapport, or relationships, depends, in part, on mirroring.

According to the New York Times, strangers are attracted to people who remind them of themselves.

Animated talkers like people who do the same. But people who speak calmly and deliberately also like people who do the same.

Body language is a powerful tool in face-to-face social situations. Subtle mimicry of body language — but not mocking — can forge ties.  If your client crosses his legs, doing the same after a moment or two can subtly suggest you are friends.

Common interests can be important. Finding something in common to speak about can create bonds. In the same way, asking friendly, but not rude, questions can do the same.

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What do you think?

Is “mirroring” just plain manipulative or is there some merit in what they’re saying in this article?

Is “mirroring” something you believe could pull off or would it come across disingenuous?

Have you ever tried this and found it successful or un successful?

What ways do you use to try and connect with your clients – or have you even thought about that as a sales strategy?

We would love to hear from you! Take a moment to share with us all something you’ve learned. What has worked for you and what hasn’t in building rapport with your clients. We’ll post some of your best suggestions in next month’s newsletter…so send in your winning ideas! If you prefer to remain anonymous, we will happily honor that request!

Send them to suzie@torrid-tech.com.

Promoting your intelligence can often backfire.

Researchers are checking out how people form first impressions of others’ intelligence and how well it works to try to manage those impressions. They say trying to look intelligent, by using big words, for example, can make people look dumb.

One of the strongest and most accurate signs of intelligence is looking at others when they are speaking to you, says Nora A. Murphy, an associate professor of psychology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Another study showed that people trying to look intelligent had a few behaviors in common. They looked at the speaker while listening or talking, put on a serious face, and they avoided gestures such as touching their hair or face. Just the first two were effective.

The Wall Street Journal’s Sue Shellenbarger says people trying to look intelligent risked showing what they didn’t know. Observers were more accurate in estimating IQs, including lower IQs, of those instructed to act intelligent than in estimating IQs of controls who weren’t given any instructions. Participants trying impression management actually magnified cues signaling low intelligence.

Simple stereotypes can also shape first impressions. Wearing glasses can lead strangers to regard you as more intelligent, according to a study in the Swiss Journal of Psychology. And people who embellish their writing with long, complicated words are seen as less intelligent by readers, according to a study in Applied Cognitive Psychology.

We, of course, believe that using RetirementView will certainly make you seem smarter!  You will know more about your retirement picture than most. Did you know that you can receive referral benefits? Share what you’ve learned and save!

For Personal and Couple’s EditionUsers: http://www.torrid-tech.com/refer/

For Professional Edition Users: http://www.torrid-tech.com/refer/refer-pro.html

Should you invest some of your savings in a deferred-income annuity?

To make a long story short, the  deferred-income annuity will provide a guaranteed monthly income, beginning at the age you set up, for the rest of your life. If you should die after it’s set up, however, you lose whatever is left. Your heirs won’t get anything.

But the chance that other buyers might die before collecting is one reason insurances offer a higher payout for this kind of annuity than for other products that guarantee income.

Say you’re 65 years old and invest $100,000 in New York Life’s Guaranteed Future Income Annuity. If you defer payouts for 15 years, at age 80, you will receive $28,695 annual income for the rest of your life.

If you have no serious health issues and people in your family tree lived long lives, it could be worth a look. If you doubt that you’ll live into your late 80s or 90s, maybe not.

One Treasury Department ruling offers another reason to consider a deferred-income annuity. You can now invest up to 25 percent of your IRA or 401(k) plan (or $125,000, whichever is less) in the annuity without having to take required minimum distributions at age 70 1/2.

Before the Treasury ruling, some insurers only allowed investors to use money from taxable accounts to purchase deferred-income annuities. Others required purchasers who used money from tax-deferred accounts to start receiving payments at age 70 1/2.

The Treasury ruling is expected to encourage more insurers to add deferred-income annuities to their lineups. If you’re tempted to buy one, retirement researchers at Morningstar Investment Management recommend waiting a few months because competition could lower prices.

Through a 1035 exchange, you can convert your life insurance into an income annuity without paying taxes on your gains. You’ll give up your death benefit, but you’ll also no longer have to pay premiums. You can lock in monthly income for the rest of your life or for a designated number of years.

Try putting those scenarios into your RetirementView and see what the graph shows. Does it make sense for you to do that or not. Just something to consider.

Check out our July Newsletter here:

July Consumer

Here’s a summary:

Universal Genius