The Power Of Zero Show

Ken Fisher dislikes annuities. He is not shy about it and became controversially famous with his 'I Hate Annuities' campaign. But is his hatred justified? First, Fisher's claims that annuities have 'nosebleed' fees is just wrong. Most of them don't have any fees. The only exception is variable annuities, but the investor gets a guaranteed lifetime stream of income in exchange. Do annuities keep th...

Lane Martinsen from Financial Fast Lane interviews David McKnight on why you should use LIRP and the benefits of getting to the zero percent tax bracket.  David explains the motivation behind his book The Power of Zero. David reveals why he is convinced that future tax rates will be significantly higher and why it makes sense to be in the zero percent tax bracket in retirement. If you are in or ap...

Did Joe Biden just solve the national debt crisis? Here's why you shouldn't be celebrating just yet. David explains why most people believe passing the Inflation Reduction Act might be the first step to taming inflation and curbing the national debt crisis.  According to Maya MacGuineas, the President of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, this legislation represents an essential first...

David breaks down the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and how the bill will potentially curb inflation by reducing the deficit, investing in domestic energy production, and promoting clean energy solutions. As far as Biden's Build Back Better Initiative is concerned, imposing more taxes on individuals and couples who make $400k and $450k per year, respectively, is one of the major factors that con...

David is asked about the pros and cons of the Indexed Universal Life – or LIRP – and what to look for when researching it. As far as LIRPs are concerned, David suggests looking for contracts that are both tax- and cost-free. David discusses some mistakes that some experts such as Dave Ramsey make when talking about 'buy term, invest the difference'. David explains that running out of money before...

David shares that he got into the industry during the "calm before the storm." It was 1997 and, during the State of the Union, President Bill Clinton announced that the national deficit was simply zero. Today, less than 25 years later, the national debt is $30 trillion. By 2010, however, David Walker – former Comptroller General of the Federal Government and a personal hero of David's – appeared o...

There's this belief among financial experts that life insurance is the financial silver bullet. However, as David explains, that's not 100% accurate.  Yes, life insurance can mitigate every retirement risk and solve all forms of retirement problems, but it's never a safe bet when implemented all on its own. A Life Insurance Retirement Plan (LIRP) should not be the only cog in your retirement machi...

David shares that the 2022 Trustees Report raises a sharp warning cry about the catastrophic short- and long-term trajectories of the Social Security program. The surplus that had built up over the years as Baby Boomers plowed money into the Social Security program is beginning to draw down as the same Baby Boomers are moving out of the workforce at the tune of 10,000 per day. David talks about th...

One of David's jobs as the host of the Power of Zero Show is to constantly remind listeners of the horrifying fiscal outlook the U.S. is facing. This episode looks at components that are contributing to this "fiscal apocalypse". David Walker, former Comptroller General of the Federal Government, sees the Debt-to-GDP ratio as something worth focusing on. Currently, it's about 108% – about the same...

Life insurance retirement plans or LIRPs are long-term propositions. They only really work if you think of them like a marriage, meaning they work best if it's until death do you part.  Don't start an LIRP unless you're planning on dying while it's enforced, even if that means you have to keep it for 40 or 50 years. Your LIRP needs to be a 0% loan. One of the things that makes the LIRP so appealin...

Today's episode addresses the question 'Do we continue to let inflation run roughshod over our purchasing power, or do we raise interest rates and risk plunging our country into a recession?' David states that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is fast approaching a grim crossroad in which he may have to raise interest rates in order to rein in out-of-control inflation. David explains how Venezue...

This episode focuses on the unsettling math behind Dave Ramsey's recommendation to buy term and invest the difference. David shares the definition of the 'Buy Term and Invest the Difference' approach, and talks about Ramsey's claim that permanent life insurance is a rip-off. For David, Dave Ramsey makes a big mistake for the fact that his analysis doesn't include two major expenses: the cost of te...

David shares a stat from the US Labor Department: as of May 11th, inflation over the last 12 months through April of 2022 has been 8.3%. David explains that the general belief is that inflation doesn't necessarily translate to more taxes because the IRS has been historically good at indexing tax brackets to keep up with inflation. However, he says, there are a few thresholds in the IRS tax code th...

" I don't want to pay the taxes on my Roth Conversion" is the single greatest objection David sees every week. David believes that whoever makes that argument is basically saying that they don't want to pre-emptively pay a tax before the IRS absolutely requires it of them and that they think their tax rate down the road will be lower than it is today. He sees the latter point as the greater concer...

Today's podcast explains why it might be a massive mistake to invest in municipal bonds. The reason why this is such an important topic is our unusual fixation with municipal bonds when trying to set up a tax-free retirement. Interest from municipal bonds counts as provisional income. That means that it counts against the thresholds that cause Social Security taxation. So, while you may be looking...

For David, the problem is that the U.S. has promised its people way more than it can afford to pay. The debt clock says $30 trillion, which is a mind-boggling figure. According to other experts, however, the real number is actually higher than that. It is close to the $125 trillion mark. Citing Dr. Larry Kotlikoff from Boston University, David reveals that, according to a fiscal gap accounting, th...

In this episode, David wants to share the truth about Dave Ramsey, look at the two pillars of his financial worldview, and deconstruct those beliefs. David believes that if Dave Ramsey's audience followed his advice on paying off high-interest credit card debt, the U.S. would be a much healthier place from a financial perspective.  In David's assessment, Ramsey's audience is made of lower to middl...

David explains how Obamacare surtax, which was introduced back in 2013 when Obamacare passed, works and who it affects. The 3.8% of Obamacare surtax only applies to the investment income that reaches above and beyond specific thresholds: $200,000 for an individual person and $250,000 for a married couple filing jointly.  David addresses the question of how this could affect you if you're planning...

This episode revolves around when you should draw social security in a rising tax environment. David believes that if you have taken stock of the fiscal landscape of the U.S., it seems fairly obvious that tax rates will have to rise dramatically in the next 10 years to keep the country solvent. This should have a bearing on when you elect to receive your social security. As David explains, each ye...

This episode focuses on a question David recently got from a couple – they made $650,000 per year and wanted to know whether they should consider doing a Roth conversion. Some details about the California-based couple who asked David their question: they're both age 50, with $1.5M in their old IRAs and 401k. They had a lifestyle need of approximately $100,000 after tax, and had about $1M in liquid...

In May 2021, David recorded a podcast that focused on the Secure Act 2.0, the follow-up to the Secure Act that completely killed the stretch IRA and the stretch Roth IRA. Today's episode looks at the big surprise that has surfaced in the latest updated iteration of the Secure Act 2.0 that's currently gaining steam in Congress. In last year's podcast episode, David outlined six major changes to ret...

In this episode, David focuses on the true fiscal day of reckoning for the U.S., and how it should inform important retirement decisions when it comes to the Power of Zero paradigm. For David, asking yourself 'Over what time frame should I be shifting my tax-deferred retirement assets to tax-free?' is one of the most important variables to consider when executing your Power of Zero strategy. David...

The idea behind today's episode comes from a conversation David had with someone at a recent event he spoke at. He praised the LIRP as the "perfect Swiss Army knife-type of investment," and couldn't understand why more people didn't make it their only investment tool. David isn't a fan of conversations that position the LIRP as a "Holy Grail" of financial planning. David shares examples of questio...

Today's episode focuses on the difference between your effective and marginal tax rate and which one is relevant in different financial planning contexts. For David, the American tax system works exactly like a graduated cylinder: your money flows in and it goes all the way down to the bottom. Some of it gets taxed at 10%, some at 12, 24, 32, 35 or 37% – even Bill Gates briefly has some of his ear...

David explains how, normally, we think of the sequence of return risk as the risk associated with the order in which you experience investment returns in your stock market portfolio in retirement. There are a couple of different ways you can safeguard yourself against sequence of return risk.  The first one is to allocate money to an annuity that provides for your income during those early years o...