If you’ve spent any time talking to a traditional financial advisor, you’ve heard the same old song. They tell you to just “stay the course” and “ride out the volatility.” It’s easy for them to say. They aren’t the ones who have to go back to work at sixty-seven if the market takes a twenty percent haircut. For the average retiree, that advice isn’t just lazy. It’s dangerous.
The Retirement Renegade team believes that the “buy and hold” strategy is a young man’s game. When you have thirty years of work ahead of you, time is on your side. But when you’re standing on the doorstep of retirement, time is the one thing you can’t waste. You need a strategy that prioritizes the return of your money over the return on your money.
The Lesson of 2008
Andrew Winnett remembers the 2008 crash like it was yesterday. He saw advisors running around without a plan while their clients’ life savings vanished into thin air. He made a promise right then. He would never be involved in losing a client’s money. Ever. That wasn’t just a business goal. It was a moral line in the sand.
He saw the human cost of market risk. He saw what happens to a family when the “potential” of a portfolio doesn’t meet the reality of the bills. It’s why he shifted his focus to a multi-dimensional approach. We don’t just look at the upside. We build a floor so that no matter how hard the market falls, our clients stay on solid ground.
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A New Way to Think About Income
The problem with the old-school model is that it treats your retirement like a giant pile of cash you slowly chip away at. That’s a recipe for anxiety. What if the market stays down for five years? What if you live longer than the math says you should? It’s a constant guessing game.
We prefer to help our clients structure a reliable retirement income using contractual guarantees. We want to take the guesswork out of the equation. By using hybrid products, we can capture some of the market’s growth while stripping away the market’s risk. It’s about creating a personal pension that you can’t outlive.
The No Advisor Fee Difference
Most folks are shocked when they find out how much they’re actually paying in fees. It’s often tucked away in the fine print. At our firm, we decided to be the “protective rebels.” We offer a No Advisor Fee Guarantee. We think it’s wrong to charge a client a fee while their account is losing value.
Instead, we act as independent guides. We have access to over 75 different institutions and 1,200 products. We aren’t beholden to some big corporate office in New York. We’re beholden to the person sitting across from us at the kitchen table. We want to help you create a secure pension plan that serves your family, not some bank’s bottom line.
It’s Time for a Relationship Sit-Down
We don’t believe in “institutional” service. We believe in relationships. That’s why we invite folks to a Relationship Sit-Down. We want to hear about the “why” behind your money. Maybe you want to travel. Maybe you just want to know your spouse will be okay if something happens to you.
We take that information and build a battle-tested roadmap. This isn’t about being “meticulous” with spreadsheets. It’s about being human. We want you to retire with more than just your dignity. We want you to retire with the freedom to do what you love without checking the Dow Jones every two hours.
The Renegade Promise
The financial world is full of people trying to sell you something. We’re here to educate you. We want to be the partner that helps you navigate the looming storms of tax hikes and social security changes. We’re in your corner, fighting for the underdog.
Our family-oriented trust mission is the foundation of everything we do. We treat your retirement like it was our own mother’s. Because at the end of the day, that’s how Andrew got started. He wanted to protect the people who were being ignored by the system. We’re still doing that work today.
