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When natural disasters or market crashes occur, Houses of Straw and Sticks get blown down and will need to be rebuilt.

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Houses of Bricks allow you to participate in real estate and stock market growth, without having your funds lodged there, keeping them protected during financial storms.

About 80 million baby boomers are approaching retirement in the next 20 years with less than $50,000 accumulated for retirement. Social Security isn't the answer. Taking ownership of your retirement is! Nearly one-third of baby boomers ages 51 to 61 are at risk of not having enough in savings to finance a comfortable retirement, according to a study being released by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. There is a retirement crisis because people are living longer, health care costs are escalating and workers aren't saving enough. But if you are adamantly saving, where is your money being held; in a house of straw, a house of sticks, or a house of bricks?

Money has to find a home and there are three lodging places for money. One home for money is to lodge it in moderate risk investments such as real estate. We refer to real estate as houses of STICKS. When your real estate goes up in value through the years, you can participate in the appreciation, but if you leave your equity trapped in the real estate and it temporarily goes down in value, you may lose in the short run. Therefore, we advise separating your equity when market values go up, so if and when your house goes down in value, you will not lose.

Another home for money would be in the houses of STRAW- those are higher risk investments such as in the stock market or growth mutual funds. Many people feel like they have to diversify by putting some money in the stock market. The stock market can get tossed to and fro by the changing winds of the market, as experienced in the correction of 2000-2002 when most Americans lost 30-40% of their retirement portfolio. So houses of straw can be fragile and can often get blown down. The risk is not worth the reward.

Lower risk investments would be houses made of BRICKS. These investments would include insurance contracts, annuities, municipal bonds, certificates of deposits and money market accounts. When we lodge our money in a house of bricks, it has a more stable, safe rate of return that is less volatile. However, there are strategies that will allow you to keep your money safely protected in a house of bricks that accumulate your money tax-free at an attractive rate of return while you can participate indirectly in the houses of sticks and straw- the real estate and stock markets. By having your money safely lodged in a house of bricks, you can let your equity grow in your home when it appreciates in value, but you separate your equity every time it is feasible and tuck it safely over in the house of bricks so that when your house goes down in value, your will not lose because your money is actually not lodged there. Likewise, your return can be safely linked to an index like the Standard and Poor's 500, Dow Jones, or Euro Stock Index without your money at risk in the market. So when the stock market goes down you don't lose because you have a guaranteed floor of 1, 2, or 3 percent because you money is actually residing in the house of bricks. This strategy allows you to participate in the growth of the market when the house of straw is standing, or the house of sticks is appreciating.

Unpredictably, when the big bad wolf, in other words, the hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, stock market crashes, or terrorist attacks occur, which we have no control over, you don't have to worry. You can sleep better at night when the wind is blowing because your money is actually lodged or tucked safely over in the house of bricks when the houses of straw and sticks get blown down. And until those houses get rebuilt, your money is earning a guaranteed rate of return.

Ogan Financial Group, Inc. is the premier Ventura County-based financial services firm that specializes in assisting individuals, families, businesses, and institutions in the optimization and protection of their assets. To learn more about employing these Strategic Equity strategies for Wealth Optimization as illustrated in the Missed Fortune book series by Douglas Andrew, please register for one of our free upcoming educational seminars by visiting our website at www.OganFinancialGroup.com