Looking for a review of the book called New American Retirement Plan?
Bob Carlson wrote this book targeting people in their retirement age to shed light on a variety of issues he feels they need to address as they navigate the American retirement system.
Filled with tips and insights from the self-proclaimed retirement expert, the book also addresses government legislation impacting retirees and demonstrates how the affected can navigate new laws and exploit loopholes.
After doing my research, I put together this review to share my findings on the estate planning strategies Carlson shares as well as how he wants you design your retirement plans.
Keep reading to get all the details.
Before I start…
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New American Retirement Plan Review
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What is The New American Retirement Plan?
The New American Retirement Plan is a book by Bob Carlson. Carlson is an American retirement expert who writes about estate planning strategies designed to help his readers build a financially secure retirement.
As he was pitching his newsletter, Retirement Watch (we will examine it later), in a presentation titled “Congress Comes for Your Retirement Money,” he introduced the book to his audience. He describes it as follows (in his own words):
It’s highly specific. And highly personal. It’s the same blueprint I use for my own retirement.
In its pages, I show you everything from how to maximize your Social Security benefits — including getting up to 76% MORE on your monthly payouts PAGE 43…
To how to legally offset the spiraling costs of long-term care (LTC) medical expenses — saving potentially tens of thousands of dollars PAGE 182…
To creating a monthly (and tax-free) income stream to last the rest of your life. PAGE 77
In the presentation, he was telling his audience that the U.S. government is intent on eroding your retirement benefits with its new laws and regulations. He goes on:
And when I realized Congress was coming after the retirement funds of every American…
I made it my personal mission to create a brand-new approach to retirement…
At a time when American retirees need it most, before this new law — nicknamed the SECURE Act — wreaks havoc on millions of unwitting U.S. citizens.
According to him, the government’s new legislation is not ideal for retirees.
Before we get into what the book is about and how you can get your hands on it, let’s tackle some basic concepts related to retirement planning that you will encounter in the book.
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What are 401K Retirement Plans?
A 401K is a retirement account offered by many employers that allows automatic payroll withholding.
The employer can match their contributions known as a defined contribution plan. These accounts are tax-advantaged because you are not taxed until you withdraw the money. A Roth 401K plan allows tax-free withdrawals.
What is an IRA?
An IRA is an individual retirement account. It is set up at a financial institution and it allows you to save for your retirement with tax-free growth or on tax-deferred terms.
What is the SECURE Act?
The SECURE Act (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement) was signed into law by President Trump on December 20, 2019 as part of the federal budget.
It altered the most popular retirement plans used in the US and is the most significant retirement-related legislation passed since the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Here are the key provisions of the legislation:
- It raised minimum age for required minimum distributions to 72 years (previously 70.5 years)
- It allows workers to contribute to traditional IRAs even when they surpass 70.5 years (including employer related retirement plans)
- It enables individual to pay student loans using 529 plan money.
- It eliminated stretch IRA by requiring non-spouse beneficiaries of inherited IRAs to withdraw and pay taxes on all distributions from inherited accounts within 10 years.
- It makes it easier for 401(k) plan administrators to offer annuities.
According to Bob Carlson, it isn’t a great law and you need protection from it. His book is meant for that.
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Topics Covered in The New American Retirement Plan
Overall, The New American Retirement Plan is a book about planning for your sunset years by diversifying your retirement savings options to guarantee your retirement security.
The book is divided into four sections, each filled with hundreds of tactics and strategies you can implement in your retirement planning journey.
In the presentation, he lets us “look under the hood” of the book and from this excerpt, here are some of the topics he’s covered:
The “end-around” maneuver for avoiding congress’ devastating new retirement law [NOTE: I’ve laid out 7 distinct strategies here for successfully accomplishing this end-around. A few are simple; others are slightly more complicated. YOU decide which are best for your goals and situation.] PAGE 62
How To Practically Guarantee You Never Out-Live Your Money in Retirement PAGE 9
The Surefire Way To Get 76% More on Your Social Security Payouts PAGE 136
How To Get Paid Monthly or Quarterly Using my Retirement Paycheck Portfolio PAGE 35
How to Collect TAX-FREE Payouts, Every Month for Life PAGE 68
The New American Retirement Plan Method for Best Managing Your IRAs and Roth IRAs (Once You’ve Accumulated It) PAGE 98
3 Changes Every American Should Consider for their Estate Plan — No Matter How Much Money You Have PAGE 143
Mutual Funds Tax Secrets that 99% of Americans Know Nothing About PAGE 97
The Do’s & Don’ts of IRA Investing PAGE 72
Some of these are borrowed from the estate plans of high net worth individuals.
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Who Is Bob Carlson?
Robert C. Carlson, also known as Bob Carlson, is a retirement expert. He trained as an accountant and attorney. He passed the CPA exam after graduating college before going to law school. He wanted to become a tax attorney and advisor but he enjoyed writing and researching more. He has been offering advisory financial services and writing about low cost investment options.
Newsletters
Bob edits a monthly newsletter called Retirement Watch. He produces a monthly video series called Retirement Watch Spotlight and in each issue and video, he offers what he thinks is independent and objective research on the financial aspects of retirement and retirement planning. He has also written about how you can get a Second Social Security Check besides your regular one.
He also offers a free weekly e-letter called Retirement Watch Weekly through which he gives tips and insights on retirement topics like IRAs, taxes, estate planning, just to mention a few.
He also offers an exclusive service called Lifetime Retirement Protection Program that provides members with the tools and knowledge they need to maximize their retirement finances. It incorporate all issues of his newsletter, his video webinars, and his premium reports and white papers.
Books and Publications
He has published two books, namely The New Rules of Retirement and Invest Like a Fox…Not Like a Hedgehog.
Bob has also written numerous other reports and books like 199 Loopholes That Survived Tax Reform, The New Rules of Estate Planning, Bob Carlson’s Estate Planning Files, Tax Wise Money Strategies, Retirement Tax Guide, Securing Your Lifetime Stream of Income, and How to Slash Your Mutual Fund Taxes.
He has been featured in publications like Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Money, Worth, the Washington Post, Reader’s Digest, Barron’s, AARP Bulletin, and The Wall Street Journal.
Advisory Roles
Since 1992, Mr. Carlson has been on the Board of Trustees of the Fairfax County Employees’ Retirement System and has served as chairman since 1995. The system has more than $4 billion in assets. He has served other retirement systems with billions in assets too.
He was a on the Virginia Retirement System’s Board of Trustees. It oversaw $42 billion in assets. In 2011, he joined the Virginia Retirement System Deferred Compensation Plans Advisory Committee.
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How to get a copy of New American Retirement Plan
You can get a free copy of the book if you sign up for his Retirement Watch newsletter. Alternatively, you can buy it on Amazon but, here we are more interested in the former.
Besides getting a free copy of the book, joining the newsletter exposes you to strategies that can enable you to sidestep Congress’s new laws that are designed to take more from you in taxes while shrinking tax benefits provisions.
What is the Retirement Watch? (the newsletter)
If you’re worried about your estate planning and financial future after retirement, then this is the newsletter that tackles those issues. Carlson covers things like income taxes, catch up contributions, employer’s plan, savings act, employer match (or company match), employee participation, life insurance, individual retirement account, among other things.
The basic principle of this newsletter is quite straight-forward: walk you through your retirement planning journey
Carlson also explains why if you have already invested in a 401k and IRAs and you’re relying on them, your nest egg may not be as safe as you think.
The market may go against you and the government may pass new legislation that eats into your savings.
What you get when you subscribe to Retirement Watch
When you join Retirement Watch, here is what you get as a member:
- A free copy of Bob’s book, The New American Retirement Plan. As we’ve mentioned, it is full of actionable ideas to maximize retirement finances, including ways of sidesteping new laws that erode your retirement savings.
- 12 monthly issues of Bob Carlson’s Retirement Watch (newsletter issues). Each month, he sends you a newsletter filled with expert answers and simple solutions to secure your finances when you retire. He has described these issues as powerful, useful, and unbiased retirement planning tools.
- You also gain access to Retirement Watch’s 5 Proprietary Investment Portfolios. They include Retirement Paycheck, Balanced, True Diversification, Income Growth, and Sector. With these, he says that they meet the investment goals of people with different approaches.
- Members-only LIVE Conference Calls. On these calls, he allows you to ask your retirement questions and he updates you on the most important retirement news of the day, along with updates to the portfolios.
- Access to the Retirement Watch Private Website. From the website, you can access special reports, newsletter issues, and an archive of past newsletter issues. You access everything from a central place.
- Access to the Online Retirement Spending Calculator with which you can craft your own retirement plan. It has tools that calculate inflation seamlessly thus enabling you to plan your spending. It also helps you keep track of expenses and correctly estimate the cost of retirement.
- Retirement Education Series that teaches you how to manage your retirement account. He also updates various special reports.
This newsletter is all about showing you how to hold on to your retirement savings as much as possible.
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Special Reports
In addition to the book and the annual membership, you also receive the following special reports for free as a subscriber:
- How to Inflation-Proof Your Nest Egg with ETFs
- Your 20-Minute Estate Plan: Builkding a Lasting Legacy
- The Truth About Annuities — And How to Make Them a Lifetime Stream of Income
- The New Rules of Retirement (recently updated)
- Cashing in Congress’ $350,000 “Retirement Shocker”
- Gimme Shelter: Hidden Real Estate Time Bombs to Avoid
- The IRA Investment Guide: A Roadmap to Avoiding Tax Traps & Penalties
- How to Insure Your Way to a Rock-Solid Retirement
- Keep Your Nest Egg Safe from the IRS Money Grab
Each of them cover an aspect of retirement planning.
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Subscription Fee and Refund Policy
An annual subscription to the Retirement Watch will cost anywhere between $49 (gold subscription) and $149 (Diamond Elite). There is another plan called the Platinum Subscription for $87. The differences between what these plans involve is in what they offer.
The cheapest plan only gives you the annual newsletter, the moderate one comes with a couple of special reports, and the most expensive one has everything offered by the other two plus a special report called The New Rules of Estate Planning.
Pros
- It’s easy to follow.
- You gain access to new ideas on how to manage your retirement account.
- The subscription comprises of a bunch of benefits
- It’s backed by Bob Carlson’s years of expertise and experience in this sector
Cons
- You have to subscribe to the Retirement Watch to receive a free copy of the book
Is New American Retirement Plan Legit?
Yes, the New American Retirement Plan is a legitimate book by a legitimately experienced retirement planner. Bob Carlson isn’t just a guy talking without experience to back his words up, he has been writing about the subject for many years and has served on the board for more than one retirement system.
With this book, you can explore various ways in which you can protect your retirement savings as you seek financial security.
Plus, it comes with several bonus reports that will help you make better decisions as you plan your retirement.
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New American Retirement Plan Verdict
Bob Carlson says that Congress (even in state and local governments) is always passing laws to increase tax rates thus impacting your retirement plans and his book helps you protect your nest egg.
He says that he wrote the book because almost all studies and surveys were showing that the biggest fear retirees have is running out of money during retirement. He says that the new laws being passed are only going to make matters worse because they will take a bigger chunk of your retirement money.
A survey by The alliance for Lifetime Income revealed that 80% of non-retired Americans are anxious that their savings will not be enough to live on when they retire. The study also shows that 63% of Americans are unprotected from retirement and they have no source of lifetime income outside Social Security (pension plans or annuities).
This necessitates the need for planning beyond the existing structure because that’s the best way you can secure you future. He says that you need an alternative source of income.
So, according to Carlson, if you want to safeguard your retirement benefits you need to follow the strategies he writes about in his book.
I think the book has common sense investment strategies and actionable tips but I don’t think it will solve everything. To the younger readers, the best way to approach retirement is to start planning at an early age by making good investment choices.
Before you leave
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David Fortune has been the editor NoBSIMReviews.com since 2019. He is an expert at writing content on stock advisory services, side hustles, reviewing online business opportunities and many more topics. You can learn more about David on our about us page.