So, you think you’re doing everything right. You think you’re planning for your retirement, you’ve got it all covered, and you think that it’s all going to work out for you. And then, all of a sudden, you realize that there are the five worst enemies to your financial well‑being, and maybe you didn’t think of one of them. Okay, so in this podcast, we’re going to be talking about all five of them to make sure that you don’t miss one, because that could be the one that gets you.

Hello and welcome back to the Retirement Planners of America podcast. I am Ken Moraif, the founder and CEO of Retirement Planners of America, and we are very fortunate to be able to serve over 6,500 beautiful, wonderful families all across the country. You might have heard of our firm, and you may also have heard of our radio show, which we started doing in 1995 — Money Matters with Ken Moraif. The show aired across the Southwest. But you know, in today’s world, radio isn’t the same thing anymore. So now we are doing our podcast, and I’m glad that you’ve tuned in again. Make sure you tune into all of them and subscribe.

I want to use an example of what we do with a client when they come in, and then, as we do it on an ongoing basis, we create for them what we call a retirement cash‑flow plan. Okay? RCFP is what we call it for short. In the retirement cash‑flow plan, we want to take into account the five worst enemies that we see to your financial well‑being. We want to address all five enemies, and hopefully mitigate, if not eliminate, the effects of those five enemies. Unless you consider these important elements, we don’t think you’ll have an accurate picture of where you’ll be five years, 10 years, 15, even 20 years down the road.

So, what are those five worst enemies to your financial well‑being? Well, the first one is the person you see in the mirror every morning when you’re brushing your teeth. Yes, you—potentially the worst enemy to your own financial well‑being. And so, we want to talk about that. The second is longevity. A lot of times people think that because they want to live well—and I think most of us want a long, healthy life—that longevity is actually an enemy to your financial well‑being, and we’ll explain why. The other one, of course, is pretty obvious: taxes. You want to mitigate taxes and lower them as much as possible. Inflation—we’re in the middle of a lot of inflation, so I think I don’t need to explain why that’s one of the worst enemies to your financial well‑being. And finally, bear markets. As a firm, we believe that bear markets are the single worst enemy you have to your financial well‑being. The other ones we think we can address with investments and other strategies, but bear markets need a strategy all by themselves to address them, and we’ll go over that with you here in this podcast. I hope you’ll stay tuned for the entire program.

So, first of all: yourself. Enemy number one is, well, you. You are subject to emotions—fear, greed, indecision, impatience. All of those things can negatively impact the decisions you make concerning your financial well‑being. A lot of times, people chase after whatever the hot soupe du jour investment is—Bitcoin, for example, dot‑coms back in the day—there’s always a glittering, shiny object people want. You might think, “I want to recapture what I lost,” so there’s this emotion of staying in too long because you lost money and you want to recoup it. But what you should be asking is: “Where do I go from here? Is it even a good investment anymore? Should I cut my losses?” Your emotions don’t want you to fail. They want to protect you from feeling bad, so you don’t want to sell anything, right? That’s one thing. Also, when I say the person in the mirror, I also mean your health, and that’s one of the most important things. You know, if you’re working with a financial advisor, hopefully what they’ll do is take you out of the picture. We always say, we want you to enjoy your second childhood without parental supervision. What does that mean? We want you to go—get out of here—and let us worry about all this for you, so you don’t have to. We should be able to remove the emotions and greed from the equation. But the fact is, as you get older, things happen—health and other issues—and those can have a significant impact on your financial well‑being. It’s important to plan ahead for those possibilities. We believe you should hope for the best, but plan for the worst. If you plan ahead, you’re ready if those things happen—and even if they don’t, that’s okay, because you’re prepared.

So number one: you, the person in the mirror. Number two: longevity. This one sounds strange, because everybody says, “I want to live a long and healthy life.” You want to be active, engaged, mentally sharp, physically fit, maybe live to 100. But when it comes to your money: if you retire at 60 and live until 100, that means your money must support you for 40 years. The more active you are, the more money you’ll spend. Contrast that with somebody who dies five years into retirement—they probably haven’t spent all their money yet. Longevity can be a significant danger if you don’t plan for it. When we create the retirement cash‑flow plan, we always look far into the future—beyond average life expectancy—because the worst‑case scenario is that you live a long time. We want your money to last as long as you do. Funny story: when we first came up with that tagline, we phrased it as “we want your money to outlast you.” A lot of clients said, “No. The last check I write, I want it to bounce—my job here is done; the kids can take care of themselves.” So we changed it to “we want your money to last as long as you do.” That resonated much better. Of course, if you want your money to last even longer, we can plan for that too.

Enemy number three: income taxes. This one doesn’t need much explanation. But when you’re retired, your tax world changes. You have Social Security, which is taxed differently than wages were. You have required minimum distributions (RMDs) from IRAs and 401(k)s—if you take money out, you’ll likely pay taxes. So we need strategies to mitigate those taxes: Roth IRA conversions, for example, take pain now to gain tax‑free withdrawals later. A Roth IRA is a fantastic inheritance—it grows tax‑free, pays out tax‑free. Everyone loves that. We also need a tax‑efficient withdrawal strategy: taxable accounts first, because they’re taxed at more favorable capital‑gains rates, then tax‑deferred accounts, and then tax‑free accounts—generally speaking. Delaying taxes by deferring withdrawals makes sense. Also, watch your provisional income, which determines how much of your Social Security is taxed—up to 85% may be taxable—but there are ways to reduce or avoid that. Retirement changes everything, and that’s where specialized planning helps most.

Enemy number four: inflation. For a long time, inflation was around 2%, and people forgot about it. But inflation slowly raises your cost of living—it’s an insidious enemy, like boiling a frog when the water’s warmed little by little. In our retirement cash‑flow plans, we assume a “semi worst‑case” inflation rate—if you’re okay under that, you’ll be fine if inflation is lower. You may have heard claims that gold is the best inflation fighter—like back in the 1980s, when inflation was raging and gold soared. But gold is more of a fear hedge than an inflation hedge—people buy gold when they’re scared. Over the long term, the best inflation fighter is the stock market. As inflation rises, companies raise prices, maintain profit margins, boost earnings, and stock prices rise too. So having the right amount of equities in your portfolio post‑retirement is important. We determine how much risk and return you need to cover inflation, taxes, and your spending needs—and only then decide how much stock exposure to include.

Enemy number five—and what we believe is the single worst enemy to your financial well‑being—is bear markets. According to Ned Davis Research, over the last 100 years there have been 33 bear markets—an average of one every three years—with an average drop of 37% in the S&P 500 . Diversification and steady investing aren’t enough—we had our clients out of the market during 2008, the pandemic, and the inflation shock. Protection of principal matters more than growth. Bear markets can strike fast—a 49% drop in 2002, 57% in 2008, over 90% during the Great Depression. The buy‑and‑hold myth says the market always comes back—but where’s the guarantee? Japan’s 1980s crash hasn’t fully recovered. The Great Depression bottomed in 1932, but didn’t reach pre‑crash levels until 1954—25 years later. And the 2000–2007 recovery was wiped out by 2008, not fully recovering until 2013—a 13‑year span. If you’re living off your portfolio during these times, you’re forced to sell into a down market—what farmers call “eating your seed corn.” You might miss the growth season entirely.

That’s why, especially for those over 50—or within five years of retiring—we believe you need a separate protective strategy overlay. You need to know when to get out, when to preserve your gains, and when to re‑engage. Like Kenny Rogers said: “You gotta know when to hold ’em, and know when to fold ’em.” Professionals do this. Retail investors are often told to just buy and hold forever—no matter how long the downturn. That’s risky. Our firm uses an “investment protect strategy.” We exited equities in 2008, the pandemic, and during inflation shocks. We believe that’s paramount for anyone retired or nearing retirement. Bear markets are the worst enemy—but with the right strategy, you can mitigate their damage.

In conclusion, the five enemies to your financial well‑being: yourself, longevity, taxes, inflation, and bear markets. It’s crucial that you plan for the worst and hope for the best—not vice versa. That’s bad investing. If you enjoyed this podcast, I encourage you to subscribe, tell everyone about the Retirement Planners of America podcast. Thanks for listening, and we’ll talk soon.