Purpose with Mark Bertrang

: If you research down through the ages, you can actually see how your simple cup of morning Joe has been maligned. Coffee was thought to make you weak, lazy and of questionable value. Coffee? This simply tells of a then popular opinion before people actually knew the facts. Some of these researched opinions were still considered valid as little as thirty years ago. Think how your days would be di...

What does the upcoming acquisition of insurer Alleghany Corp. for $11.6 billion dollars by Berkshire Hathaway have to do with Pampered Chef parties? It's all about having the cash to take advantage of opportunities. You probably think you have to be Warren Buffett to have 'cash-on-hand' to build your future. You can also make a difference in your financial future with a simple loan against a mutua...

People gamble. They love to gamble. Unfortunately, there is always someone willing to help us depart from our hard earned money. It doesn't come as a surprise that during 2021 casinos took in more money than ever before, even during a time of limited public contact with one another due to Covid-19. What once was taboo is now embraced by the states, by national sports leagues and your local conveni...

We have experienced little or no inflation for decades in the United States. Now inflation is hitting people where they live - groceries, cars, gasoline, auto, homeowner and health insurance premiums. There is still an asset that you can buy for pennies on the dollar and that can provide you with a place to store your safe money for emergencies and future opportunities. Mark Bertrang discusses the...

This is a free chapter from Mark Bertrang's book - Investments Don't Hug: Embracing the Life Insurance Asset, taken from Chapter six, titled "We thought we invincible". Enjoy this gift as read by the author and consider your purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble or listen to the audio through Audible or iTunes.

A recent article from the Wall Street Journal outlines exactly how an employer can take away a retirement benefit its employees' thought was untouchable. At the end of 2021, as many as 220,000 AT&T retirees had their life insurance benefits drastically reduced. After working for this company; many for their entire careers were affected. Could this happen to you? What can you do? Where do you begin...

The government regulates the safety features in every car that drives off the production line of America. Last year the safety features of each automobile were approximately four percent of its total price, not including the cost of the title, licensing and taxes. What can we learn about this four percent average and how the same four percent can safely protect our dignity and future incoming earn...

It's time to talk year-end taxes. This is not a boring conversation. This is an extremely interesting visit with my guest is Mary Jo Werner, Attorney, Certified public account and Certified in Financial Forensic who is a partner with Wiplfi, who ranks among the top 20 accounting and business consulting firms in the nation. Mary Jo Werner specializes in litigation support for law firms and assists...

What can you learn about an 80-year-old woman who needed three things to happen with her safe money? Number one – A better return than the bank. Number two - No taxes due on her gains, and Number three - an immediate increased estate for her children; Plus, the availability and liquidly of her money, if needed. Here's a real-life story using the Life Insurance Asset.

News anchors usually ask the questions. In a role reversal, Amy DuPont-News Anchor at WKBT-News 8 is asked questions about her decades-long career in reporting and delivering the news; a journey of serving multiple diverse communities. You will feel like you are visiting an old friend, who shares the heart of the ups and downs of television news, concerns for local news outlets and poignant storie...

Walt Disney partially financed Disneyland with a loan against his Whole Life Insurance Policy. The Bushes Baked Bean Company was partially financed with a Whole Life Insurance Policy. The Pampered Chef Company was entirely financed through a loan against a Whole Life Insurance Policy. A Whole Life insurance policy provides a place to store your safe money. Learn what Milly did with the cash value...

At the headwaters of the Mississippi River, you can literally dip your cup and take a drink of water; but, by the end of the same river - 2,350 miles later at the Gulf of Mexico, you probably wouldn't even want to eat a fish from it. Money works the same way. In the beginning it's pure. Yet, once it's flowed through government constructed retirement programs like 401(k)s and IRAs, taxes, fees and...

At the headwaters of the Mississippi River, you can literally dip your cup and take a drink of water; but, by the end of the same river - 2,350 miles later at the Gulf of Mexico, you probably wouldn't even want to eat a fish from it. Money works the same way. In the beginning it's pure. Yet, once it's flowed through government constructed retirement programs like 401(k)s and IRAs, taxes, fees and...

How do you love a population of offenders? Can God create something good out of people who are not seen as worthy due to incarceration? Ann Wales is the chaplain of the La Crosse Jail Ministry. Ann's story begins in northern Minnesota, serving as a missionary in Lebanon and losing her husband to cancer on Christmas Day. We have all experienced pain in our lives; but, it's what we do with that pain...

Herbert Freudenberger coined the term "burnout" forty years ago as he described a state of mental and physical exhaustion caused by one's professional life. Our guest, Richard Kyte is the director of the D.B Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership at Viterbo University in La Crosse, WI. Together, we discuss job burnout, work/life balance and the stress and unhappiness many people struggle with...

Vicki Markussen takes us into her deep-dive by engaging us into a greater La Crosse, Wisconsin. Local media outlets may provide a few short column inches of print or perhaps ninety seconds of airtime on the radio or tv. Vicki uses her unique skill as a journalist with a servant leader heart to cut through the social media clutter creating a hub for those who are passionate about their community, w...

This is visit number two with Chris Crye, executive director of Next Chapter/La Crosse about its mission of building lasting relationships with people who have been impacted by crime, restoring them to God, family, and their community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Next Chapter provides safe, secure and stable housing - Transitional housing (Discipleship Home) integrated with Christian living pr...

A visit with Chris Crye, executive director of Next Chapter/La Crosse about its mission of building lasting relationships with people who have been impacted by crime, restoring them to God, family, and their community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Next Chapter provides safe, secure and stable housing - Transitional housing (Discipleship Home) integrated with Christian living programs for men re...

Mark Bertrang visits with Kim D.H. Butler about her eighth book – "Perpetual Wealth: How to use 'Family Financing' to build Prosperity and Leave a Legacy for Generations". Making the list of one of American's most influential financial advisors by Investopedia, Kim learned through the hard work of growing-up as a farm girl with her own dairy cow. She chose to make an impact by taking a non-typical...

Here's the complaint: "Life Insurance only works when I die" or "How will Life Insurance benefit me?" or "When I've built up my wealth, why would I want or need Life Insurance?" If maximized to it fullest, a Whole Life Insurance Policy can provide multiple uses while you're living. It can become the Swiss Army Knife of your financial castle with great flexibility, liquidity and safety. It allows y...

Permanent Life Insurance Policies come with an assortment of levers, which are controlled by the insurance companies. New and improved policies or "levers" sold to the public may actually give insurance companies even more control over you. These levers may control future internal costs, charges and fees based upon need for company shareholder profitability. By comparison, a whole life policy, iss...

What is the rate of return of a whole life insurance policy? There are actually three different rates of return to consider – Internal, External and Eternal rate of return. People often fixate upon the internal rate of return and do so incorrectly. To properly make a side-by-side comparison, you need to strip away the multiple benefits a whole life insurance policy, issued by a mutual life insuran...

Experience has taught me, that the more money people have, the more they are motivated in the 'return of that money' and less on the 'rate of return' of that money. This is why a portfolio of mutual insurance issued whole life policies fit so well into the foundation of one's financial life. The guarantees of regulated reserve requirements and not the potential future values are what provides cert...

No one wants to think about their own funeral. If you don't plan ahead, someone will need to make the decisions for you quickly during a difficult and emotional time. They will wonder if they were following your actual wishes, because there wasn't a plan in place to help with the guidance, they so desperately wish they had. Jake Kramar of Schumacher-Kish Funeral and Cremation Services provides ins...

Many "opportunities" require financing, whether it's a new business, a commercial property, investment real estate or perhaps for a quality-of-life change like a second home. Opportunities often require money or the access to money. The terms of that money are usually arranged and determined by a large lending institution such as a bank, a savings and loan or a credit union. Wouldn't you love to b...