1:12

We

1:12

got a first timer on this whole podcast,

1:14

let alone this series, but Tommy Sykes with

1:16

travel travel retirement, which is

1:19

a phenomenal thing. We're going to have an episode

1:21

directly about him, his business and everything

1:23

that he does. But be sure to check

1:25

out his YouTube channel today is all about the

1:27

12 days of giving. And I'm very excited

1:29

to have his client story, knowing his background

1:32

and everything that's a little different than we've had on

1:34

before. So without further ado, tell

1:36

me once you once you tell us your client's story, give us the

1:38

profile and let's get into

1:39

this. tHe travel

1:41

retirement phenomenon, I'll say

1:44

is fell in my lap. I

1:47

as you and I follow each other on Twitter and

1:50

I'm a huge fan of affordability.

1:53

We have a major, housing issue in the United

1:55

States. Not only just numbers of houses, but obviously

1:57

the cost and and I,

1:59

a while back, I was, I'm a big fan

2:02

of Italy and France. For

2:04

travel and been to both countries,

2:06

France several times. Anyway, I

2:08

started posting these just short

2:11

tweets of pictures of very

2:13

affordable, super affordable housing

2:16

in in Italy and France. And

2:19

again, just completely just a personal Oh my

2:21

gosh, this is pretty cool. Did you realize you can,

2:24

buy a house in Italy for, 90,

2:26

000. Completely livable. Anyway,

2:29

I got a lot of responses

2:31

from that. And and I was like, oh, there's

2:34

some interest here. And then I started realizing,

2:37

these, this is a direct

2:39

result of the housing issues

2:42

in the United States and

2:45

I grew up, I was very, money

2:47

secure. My dad was a doctor. We

2:49

loved, very well. I was honestly

2:52

clueless to money for a

2:54

long stretch. Until I realized

2:56

like a lot of my high school friends and a lot of some

2:58

of my college friends really struggled

3:01

with their families and. A

3:04

lot of it again is related to housing.

3:07

And that insecurity about, affordability.

3:10

It's it's a big issue. So

3:13

anyway, the travel retirement is basically

3:15

a platform where I'm showcasing these low

3:17

cost affordable properties,

3:20

which is like the carrot um, of

3:22

the whole thing in Italy and France.

3:25

Again, super affordable. It's just, it's. People,

3:28

honestly, one of the most common questions I get from

3:30

people is what's wrong with these places? Are the walls

3:33

filled with mold or, whatever? And it's no there's

3:36

like demographic things that have

3:38

gone on. People who don't

3:40

visit these places and live like I said, in the United

3:42

States don't realize how affordable

3:44

it can be in certain parts of

3:46

the world. But showcasing

3:50

these low cost properties, I realized

3:52

there's a, there's a need here

3:55

for people to, again,

3:58

not just, pack up and do

4:00

it, but to give people options.

4:03

And that's what a lot of financial planning to me

4:05

is about opening people's eyes

4:08

to possibilities, think about things that they

4:10

maybe haven't thought about before. Again,

4:13

from the affordability standpoint, as,

4:16

and you talk about this a ton, our,

4:18

our industry, sadly. Is

4:22

focused mostly on

4:24

the higher net worth, people out there,

4:26

the people where the affordability

4:29

housing, especially. Is not necessarily

4:32

an issue and so

4:34

anyway, my, my idea with this and it's a

4:36

work in progress is

4:38

again to provide a platform. Where

4:41

people where we can build out basically,

4:43

simple financial plans um, incorporating

4:45

the possibility of again, an

4:47

expat retirement, maybe.

4:50

Moving to France or Italy um,

4:53

whether you're want to go and maybe just

4:55

live on your social security, which is completely

4:57

possible whether

4:59

you want to sell your house, which maybe is appreciated

5:01

some in the United States by a

5:03

lower cost place there and then have that extra

5:06

money to, to live, more sustainably

5:09

there's a lot of, there's a lot

5:11

of, moving parts but the big goal is

5:13

again, open people's eyes to

5:16

the possibility. Absolutely. Absolutely. That just,

5:19

I would call middle class Americans

5:21

who are getting crunched, there

5:23

are some avenues that, that they can consider

5:26

that maybe they haven't before. So that's

5:29

the kind of big picture, what I want

5:31

to what I want to help educate people about.

5:34

Yeah,

5:34

absolutely. So what does that client that

5:37

I don't want to say ideal client because it's not the

5:39

right word But like that person

5:41

that we're speaking to right now that

5:43

may be in this realm Middle

5:46

class. What does that look like from

5:48

a I guess monetary

5:50

standpoint where they're at mentally

5:53

that this expat idea

5:55

would really trigger them. Cause there's a lot of them out

5:57

there, right? Even my own clients have thought about

6:00

not being in the United States. So yes,

6:02

they think about it, but what does that really

6:04

make up look like

6:05

or of that person? I

6:07

Would say there, there's a mix. There's

6:09

a good number of people who

6:12

again, get in touch with me. They subscribe to the channel

6:14

or they join the email list and

6:17

they'll. They'll message

6:19

me and say, Oh, we love your videos. Our,

6:22

my grandmother was Italian

6:24

and she grew up in this region. And,

6:27

we've always wanted to go see like

6:30

where the family came from. And, there's

6:32

a family connection there. There's

6:34

a lot of those where it's,

6:37

Hey, we've always talked about this. Ever since

6:39

we got married and, after

6:42

the grandmother passed away, and we talked about, we

6:44

really need to do this and things get put off or

6:46

it's unaffordable at the time. Part

6:49

of it is that people just

6:51

have this longing for either a

6:53

familiar, familial reason, or

6:55

they're again, just. France

6:58

is the most visited country in the world.

7:00

Italy is the fifth most visited country

7:02

in the world. So there's no shortage

7:04

obviously of amazing things

7:07

to see the food, the culture, the history,

7:09

the landscape. But

7:12

again it, it typically comes back down to

7:14

a personal either a personal connection

7:17

or a longing for that. The

7:19

other thing, the other kind of common

7:23

I don't want to say, Issue, but

7:25

the desire people have is

7:28

there, maybe in their fifties

7:31

or even in their sixties, they're,

7:33

they're behind on, on the retirement

7:36

savings. There's a. There's

7:39

not a number I would, I would put to it because again

7:42

that's individual. Some people feel

7:44

like if they had, 400, 000, they'd

7:46

be. Richer than

7:48

they ever thought they would, whereas

7:51

it's, a 1M for somebody else, but

7:53

it's that feeling of I'm

7:56

running out of time. I

7:59

have limited resources and I have the

8:01

time, but the time is the issue. I don't have

8:03

the time to. Save

8:05

40 percent for 10 years, 10

8:08

years. I want to, I'm going to be in my 70s, maybe.

8:11

And and so I want to make the most of

8:13

what I have now. I'm

8:15

like, you completely judgment free. There's

8:17

no, you are where you are. We

8:19

can't go back. But like I said,

8:21

we can look at options. Let's

8:23

talk about, what we can do potentially

8:26

and give people that. At

8:29

least hope that things can be

8:31

can be better or reach some dream that

8:33

they had when they were younger. Yeah, I would

8:35

say if you look at my videos

8:38

on YouTube demographics

8:40

and again, I assume they're fairly accurate.

8:42

Google. I Guess they know everything about

8:44

everybody nowadays, but

8:46

they're, typically in the, I would

8:48

say 45 to

8:51

65, 70 year old

8:53

range is what it shows. So

8:55

again, it's just, it's those people that are. Probably

8:59

not super independently wealthy, because they

9:01

would have already bought a place, in Italy, or

9:03

it'd be their 2nd or 3rd house. But

9:05

people who are either

9:07

they have a dream, but then

9:09

they also have fears and

9:12

they're not sure. Number 1, they're not

9:14

sure about the numbers, which is, it's

9:16

part of it, but that's not the driving force. Usually

9:18

it's the, we, we want

9:20

to, we have a desire we want to go towards

9:23

or we have a fear that we're not gonna be

9:25

able to live like we want to hear. Yeah,

9:28

so that the demographic usually

9:30

is that kind of scenario. Okay,

9:32

and obviously the fears come up

9:35

so I and we touch on

9:37

briefly We don't have to dive into them because you have YouTube

9:39

videos on those But like the

9:41

top three that off top my head obviously the affordability

9:44

just in general is gonna be probably

9:46

number one And then it's probably

9:48

more like the livability, like health care,

9:51

taxes, those types of things.

9:53

Can talk through those of affordability

9:56

being obviously you said, probably for 90, 000

9:58

for us in America, that's relatively low. So

10:00

everyone's Hey, is it full of mold? No,

10:02

that's a normal ass house. Can you talk

10:04

to us about in terms of like, how does one achieve

10:07

a mortgage? What does it look like over there? Is

10:09

it different? And then we'll back into,

10:11

health care obviously American health care

10:13

is a lot different than others. And then the

10:15

third, like taxes, obviously taxes are a lot

10:17

different as well. So can you

10:19

attest to those three things? Yeah.

10:21

And the housing, the affordability thing

10:25

it also goes to rent. Rents over there

10:28

are, again, relative to American

10:30

standards, super affordable. You're in,

10:32

you live in Iowa. Is that right?

10:34

Yeah. So I'm in like rural North Carolina, middle

10:37

of North Carolina. It's not crazy.

10:39

It's not like obviously Northeast

10:42

or California prices, but still,

10:45

over there you could rent in Italy in particular,

10:47

it's Italy is a lower cost generally

10:49

than France, but parts of France are super

10:52

affordable too. You can rent

10:54

a two bedroom, uh,

10:56

apartment, like in a little village, a little, in a town

10:59

for six,

11:01

700 um, again. Ready

11:04

to go no renovation renovations

11:06

needed things like that. So

11:08

it's the purchase is very affordable, but also

11:10

you can rent for very affordable. Affordably

11:14

you mentioned mortgages, you can

11:16

get mortgages in both. Italy

11:18

and France, it's hard though as

11:21

a non citizen, as a non

11:23

EU citizen, it's not impossible.

11:27

What's probably the best idea for people

11:29

who maybe you can't afford

11:31

to just buy, have cash and buy a place for cash

11:35

is to actually rent for

11:37

a year and establish

11:39

a a history there. Unlike

11:42

the United States, I don't think Italy or

11:44

France use like a credit

11:46

reporting system. Like we do. So

11:48

if you want to get a mortgage, you

11:51

basically go to your local bank. aNd

11:54

the point being, if you live there for a year,

11:57

you open up a local bank account, you go

11:59

in and see your banker on

12:02

a regular basis. They're going to be much more, reasonable

12:05

when it comes to, Hey, I

12:07

have all these accounts still in the United States,

12:09

or I'm getting this. Here's my social security from the

12:11

United States. Yeah. It's

12:13

more personal, than just filling

12:16

out a rate calculator

12:19

with information, like in the United States, you might do where they're

12:21

going to, they're going to check your credit score. Do you meet this number?

12:23

Do you have this income? It's much more

12:26

analog,

12:27

more relationship based a lot. Like we used

12:29

to be in the past, right? Like where it's, Hey,

12:32

I have a banker. He takes care of me in that relationship.

12:34

As opposed to nowadays. It's, it

12:36

seems like if you don't check any of the boxes, it

12:38

doesn't matter, right? Yeah, if you don't

12:40

check a certain box, you're not even going to get a call back. You're not

12:43

going to get an email. But my

12:45

point being mortgage is possible,

12:47

but initially

12:50

it's probably again, we can build this into a

12:52

plan to go

12:54

over and. Rent first

12:56

for a year again, meet

12:58

people. Part of it too, is regardless

13:02

of how much research you do online,

13:04

there's nothing like being boots on the ground,

13:07

and when you go over there, you might realize this play

13:09

this area region or whatever. I

13:11

thought it was going to have this vibe, but it has this other

13:13

vibe or it might be perfect, going

13:17

over there and doing like a test drive of

13:19

the expat retirement for a year. Like

13:21

I said, rents can be very affordable

13:23

can also give you a chance to look around for properties.

13:26

If you want to, there's a lot of properties online, but there's,

13:29

probably an extra another 40 percent

13:31

of them that don't get publicized online. You

13:33

have to go to a, like a local real estate agent.

13:36

sO yeah, mortgages, not

13:38

impossible, but it's not like the

13:40

United States where you can just be like, Hey,

13:42

here's my income and my credit score, what do you, what

13:45

you got, they're going to be a little more

13:48

risk averse for someone

13:50

who, again you don't already have assets there that

13:52

they can potentially, Value

13:55

and attached to your mortgage. But

13:58

again it's doable. It's just a process that you have to

14:00

go through. Yeah. What was the next one? Oh,

14:02

healthcare. Healthcare. Yeah. Healthcare,

14:04

which obviously is a massive cost

14:07

in the United States. Obviously if you're 65.

14:10

Medicare covers a lot

14:13

still cost involved with, policies

14:16

and things like that. But Italy

14:18

and France both have universal

14:20

health care. And that's not just for

14:22

citizens, but for all residents, whether

14:25

you're. A citizen of the country

14:27

or not. So I know

14:30

I know with both of them, like with the rent thing,

14:32

when you move over there you have to apply for a visa

14:35

to get long term stay, and

14:38

when you arrive, you do have

14:40

to show proof of private

14:42

health. Insurance program for the, at

14:44

least the 1st year, and

14:46

they basically want you to come over there and say, hey, I

14:50

want to come live here. But number 1 I

14:52

can prove I have this some passive income

14:54

again. That can be social security, some investments.

14:57

It could be, if you have rental properties in the United

14:59

States, you can show there's a

15:01

number of ways to do that, but the

15:03

health insurance is a big 1 to there. They're

15:05

like, hey. You can't just come over here

15:07

and the next week get free

15:09

health care for everything. It just doesn't make

15:11

sense. But once

15:13

you're there and you become, a resident

15:16

again, they're very, it's written into their

15:19

basically constitutions that everybody

15:21

gets health care. It doesn't matter how much

15:23

you make, how much you have. So

15:26

there's a process you go through to apply for that

15:29

can take, several months. And

15:31

so they, they require you have some health

15:33

care, at least that 1st year after that,

15:36

again, super affordable. Even if

15:38

you were going to pay, most of it's free.

15:40

Literally free. But even if you were

15:42

going to go in and pay out of pocket for stuff,

15:44

we're talking 20 bucks,

15:47

40 bucks, 50 bucks For a full doctor's

15:49

visit, consultation tests,

15:52

everything like that. It's unbelievably

15:54

affordable. But again that's

15:56

why a lot of people love these countries is they,

15:59

as a society they've made this decision that,

16:01

Hey, yes, we're

16:03

our tax rates, income tax rates

16:05

are higher, but. You're

16:07

going to get a bunch of benefits from it, healthcare

16:10

being a huge one. So yeah, and

16:12

that's a massive savings again on, on

16:14

what you would pay in the United States, obviously

16:18

medical bankruptcy in the United States is

16:20

insane.

16:21

Yeah. And that's just talk. We're just talking about cost of just

16:23

premiums a month, let alone the actual healthcare

16:25

costs. So that's crazy. You had

16:27

brought up taxes. So now obviously if you're

16:29

going to have universal healthcare, you're going to have these benefits.

16:31

It comes with a higher tax rate. Can you talk us

16:33

through what they're around there and what people

16:35

can expect moving over

16:38

and staying for more than 12 months?

16:40

Sure. And this is again, a pushback. I get

16:42

a lot for like my YouTube videos where

16:44

people are like, Oh, why would I want to go to Italy and

16:46

pay, 25 percent income

16:49

tax rate? And it's yeah, but

16:51

now you got to back out, like you mentioned, you got to back

16:54

out your monthly insurance premium of

16:57

1200 dollars or what, whatever it is. Public

16:59

universities are free for residents. A

17:02

lot of education is free. All the public

17:04

transport is subsidized, there's

17:06

a cost, but anyway, there's a lot of benefits.

17:08

I could get on that soapbox, but You

17:11

have to think about it 2 ways. I'll

17:13

talk about general income taxes and then bring

17:16

me back because Italy has a special incentive

17:19

for to get people to move

17:21

to Italy tax incentive. So bring

17:23

me back to that. But in France

17:25

and Italy, tax rates, income tax rates. Higher

17:28

than the United States. I think everybody understands

17:31

that, but if

17:34

you're only looking at the rate,

17:37

that's only part of the equation.

17:41

If you consider the cost of living, that

17:44

is the other part of the equation. Say

17:46

in Italy, you don't go to one of

17:48

the places where you can get the special tax rate. The

17:51

taxes range from 23

17:53

percent to 43

17:56

percent on income, and it's

17:58

progressive like the United States. So you're first. First

18:00

X amount, 23, then it's 25,

18:03

then I think it's 31.

18:05

And then anyway, it goes up from

18:08

there. The rate again, considerably

18:11

higher. If

18:14

you can live on 24,

18:17

000, 30, 000, number

18:21

one, you don't have to have as much saved.

18:24

Again, they don't it's not like you move over there

18:26

and your U. S. Social security gets

18:29

adjusted down because the cost of

18:31

living over there is lower. It's

18:33

the same. Your dollar is going to go a lot further. so

18:37

You can live on a lot less, which means your

18:40

income is going to be your gross income

18:42

is going to be a lot less. You can pull a

18:44

lot less money. Yeah, France

18:46

is similar. The progressive

18:49

rates again, start around 20 percent

18:51

go up to about 40 40%. But

18:54

again, same thing. Tons of services,

18:57

universal health care, public transport,

19:00

just a lot of stuff included, but

19:02

again, lower cost of living. So

19:04

I was actually doing some numbers before we came

19:06

on. I saw somewhere online

19:09

that to live in the United States comfortably.

19:12

anD again, I don't know the, I think it's from smart asset.

19:15

I don't know the basis for the, the exact survey

19:17

question, but it basically the

19:20

answer was around 68, 000.

19:23

Net, so before,

19:25

after taxes in the United States to

19:28

live similarly in Italy,

19:31

you would need about 30, 000.

19:34

So that's less than half. So

19:37

now if now, if you then add

19:40

in the, what you would need gross for

19:42

taxes, I

19:44

was calculating it. So that would mean you

19:46

would need about 87, 000 in

19:49

the U S and I just use like a 20%,

19:52

Real average tax return tax

19:54

rate 42, 000

19:56

in Italy. So again, now

19:58

we're talking, yes, your tax

20:00

rate is higher in Italy. That

20:02

42, 000, you're going to lose more

20:05

of that in a percentage to

20:07

taxes, but you only

20:09

have to have 42, 000. You don't have to have

20:11

87, 000. And

20:14

that's where I think a lot of people let the tail

20:16

wag the dog when it comes

20:18

to taxes is there I can't imagine

20:20

the feeling of giving the government,

20:23

35 percent of my income and it's yeah,

20:25

but it's on half the income that you

20:27

would have to pay. In the United

20:29

States. And so the actual tax you pay

20:31

might be about the same, if

20:33

that makes sense. Yeah. So

20:36

that's what you said. It's going to stretch out your

20:38

dollar be able to last a lot longer

20:41

in it and as we know, in a healthier society,

20:44

it's just being real, we're not even going

20:46

to get into the health rates and all of that stuff, but

20:48

that's a huge piece of it too. And

20:51

we're not going to dive too much more on taxes, but everyone's

20:53

going to be like aren't I getting taxed in the United States too,

20:55

on top of it? Yes,

20:58

exactly. And, obviously, if you're doing IRA

21:00

distributions, ordinary income tax

21:02

rates social security can

21:05

be taxed depending on how much money, extra

21:07

money you have. But again, if we're talking

21:09

about living on, you

21:11

got to live on 50,

21:14

dollars, the United States, you're

21:16

going to have some more. There's going to be

21:18

some money having to come in from somewhere else other

21:20

than social security. Oh, yeah. Let me come

21:22

back because I mentioned it and I didn't want, I don't

21:25

want to tease people. So Italy

21:27

has a flat 7 percent

21:30

income tax. Program

21:33

basically, there are 8 regions, mostly

21:36

in the South of France. If you look at

21:38

a map of if Italy and Rome,

21:40

which is midway down from

21:42

there, pretty much to the South all

21:45

of those regions. If you relocate

21:47

to Italy, um, you

21:50

have to move to a town or village that has.

21:52

20, 000 people or less,

21:55

which are some of the most beautiful, these

21:57

like hilltop, classic Italian, towns

21:59

that you think of, um, you

22:02

can qualify for 10 years

22:04

to pay a flat 7 percent tax

22:07

on your income. That's it. Years.

22:10

10 years, so the year you arrive, whatever,

22:13

how many, however many months is left in that

22:15

year and then 9 additional years.

22:18

And then at that point, it reverts just to, regular

22:20

income tax rates, but the

22:23

south of Italy, south of France too

22:25

but Italy, especially over the

22:27

past decades has had this massive migration

22:30

of younger people. Moving

22:32

out of these rural, villages and towns

22:35

moving to the north of the country, where

22:38

the majority of the industry is Milan

22:40

and turn people think of Venice

22:42

that's all up in the north, near the Alps. So

22:45

they've had this massive immigration or migration

22:48

issue, I should say and to

22:51

incentivize people like Americans,

22:53

there's a ton of UK expats

22:55

there. It doesn't matter what country you come from,

22:59

but if you have a passive income

23:02

from another country, so social security

23:04

from the U S or it could be just your investment

23:06

returns. You can

23:09

move to these regions and

23:11

to again, 20, 000

23:13

sounds like small town. My town in North Carolina,

23:16

I think there's 9, 000. And we

23:18

have everything we have grocery stores, we have shops, we

23:20

have bars and restaurants. So it's not

23:22

like you're. Moving into, nowhere

23:25

anyway, but you can do this and again,

23:28

qualify for this tax regime, which for

23:30

10 years, 7 percent

23:32

income tax, as opposed to the again,

23:35

30 or 40 percent that

23:37

I mentioned earlier. So it's a huge deal

23:39

again, if you want your dollars to

23:41

go further, low cost of living,

23:44

flat tax rate, Mediterranean

23:46

climate, food,

23:48

wine. Love Dolce

23:51

Vita, the suite life in Italy

23:53

France, again, the same things, France just doesn't

23:55

have the incentive it's

23:58

France. Castles, rivers,

24:02

vineyards, I don't have, I

24:04

don't have to pitch it. Yeah. bUt

24:07

yeah, that's a huge, that 7 percent tax rate

24:09

thing is massive in Italy. So

24:11

if

24:11

you're, everyone listening and you're thinking about

24:13

it, your toes are dipping in the water, one,

24:16

reach out to Tommy, but two, plan

24:18

for it. It ultimately is

24:20

and running the numbers off the top of my head, going

24:23

to be a benefit for you if

24:25

this is where your heart desires, right? Like you

24:27

had said, this is more of an emotional

24:29

thing. I want to live there. I want to live this

24:32

life. If you are going to, There's

24:34

pathway to doing so as Tommy

24:36

mentioned the first 12 months go

24:39

rent figure out where you want to be It also

24:41

buys you time for the health care and

24:43

for the mortgage situation Figure

24:45

out what you want to do and then don't worry

24:47

about health care because you're good to go in that

24:49

regard and taxes again it

24:52

is a conversation that is to be had

24:54

but it is not like the United States You would have

24:56

less income needed Therefore, you're probably

24:58

paying roughly the same tax rate. So Tommy,

25:00

I appreciate it. What do you want to leave everyone left?

25:03

Listening with what do you want to leave them with right

25:05

here before the

25:05

holidays? Just to follow up on what

25:08

you just said that it's not honestly,

25:11

it just takes a little research. I've done a

25:13

ton myself just because I'm fascinated with this.

25:15

There's a lot of information out there. Not

25:17

all of it's true. So make sure

25:20

you do again, double check if you hear.

25:22

Rumors about, various things, numbers

25:25

and cost of living and things like that. You want to double

25:27

check that put together of

25:29

a financial plan does not have to be super

25:31

complicated. It's better

25:33

to be approximately, correct

25:36

than trying to get every little minutiae

25:38

detail. Perfect. Because. You

25:41

can, we want to generally say,

25:43

Hey, is this a go or a no go? Is

25:45

this something feasible? And if it is like doing

25:48

a plan, you can be like, oh my gosh, I can retire.

25:51

Five years earlier than I thought, or

25:54

I can, I don't have to worry about trying to

25:56

get an extra job to make ends meet, I

25:58

can actually be retired and live

26:00

that life that I'd been thinking about again,

26:02

a plan is going to. Not only show

26:05

you the numbers, but it's going to give you the confidence to,

26:07

to to again, move forward. And

26:10

that's what I want. I want people to feel empowered

26:12

to take action. And it's important

26:15

to do that with a plan. You heard it

26:17

here first.

26:17

Take action, everybody.

26:32

The proceeding program was sponsored by Black

26:35

Mammoth. Any awards, rankings,

26:37

or recognition by unaffiliated third

26:39

parties or publications are in no

26:41

way indicative of the advisor's future

26:43

performance or any individual client's

26:46

investment success. No award

26:48

ranking or recognition should be construed

26:50

as a current or past endorsement of black

26:53

mammoth. Information regarding specific

26:55

awards, rankings, or recognitions

26:57

is available on the Black Mammoth website,

27:00

www.black mammoth.com.

27:03

All investment strategies have the potential

27:05

for profit or loss. Investment

27:07

strategies such as asset allocation,

27:10

diversification, or rebalancing

27:12

do not assure or guarantee better

27:14

performance and cannot eliminate the

27:16

risk of investment losses. There

27:19

are no guarantees that a portfolio

27:21

employing these or any other strategy

27:23

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27:25

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27:27

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27:30

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27:32

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27:36

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27:38

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27:40

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27:43

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27:45

may no longer be reflective of current positions

27:47

or recommendations. While information

27:50

presented is believed to be factual

27:52

and up to date, Black Mammoth do not

27:54

guarantee its accuracy, and it should

27:56

not be regarded as a complete analysis

27:59

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28:01

and the state planning information discussed

28:03

is general in nature and is provided

28:06

for informational purposes only and

28:08

should not be construed as legal or tax

28:10

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28:14

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28:17

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