Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Bill Wilson President of Wilson Financial Group Discussing How to Create Sustainable Income

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

Wilson Financial Group focuses on helping people keep what they work hard for when it comes to their retirement. It’s about how people get from where they are right now to where they want to be. It is about achieving their personal financial goals and enabling them to enjoy the fruits of their labor without having to worry if tomorrow will be a good or bad day in the markets. It is important to plot the path, have a plan for how to get there and get the right advice along the way. “We Help Clients Get to Retirement and Through Retirement.”Learn More: https://wilsonfinancialgrp.com/No Rendering of Advice. The information contained is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for obtaining accounting, tax, or financial advice from a professional accountant. Presentation of the information via the Internet is not intended to create, and receipt does not constitute, an accountant-client relationship. Internet subscribers, users and online readers are advised not to act upon this information without seeking the service of a professional accountant. Any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this website is not intended to be used for the purpose of avoiding penalties under U.S. federal tax law. While we use reasonable efforts to furnish accurate and up-to-date information, we do not warrant that any information contained in or made available through this website is accurate, complete, reliable, current or error-free. We assume no liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in the content of this website or such other materials or communications.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-bill-wilson-president-of-wilson-financial-group-discussing-how-to-create-sustainable-income

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of influential entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have back with this Bill Wilson, who's the president of Wilson Financial Group, and we'll be discussing how to create sustainable income. Bill, welcome back to the program.

Well, hey, Mike, how are you doing today? Hey, doing great. And I know that anytime we're talking about income, that's great. I want to hear about income, but let's define what is sustainable income. Well, you know, my model of my company is I help people get to retirement, but through retirement. And so, you know, income is lifestyle. Incomes everything. And, you know, I share with people that when it comes to retirement income that you truly can

not to live, you've got to focus on longevity, you've got to focus on market inflation risk, you've got to focus on control of spending and taxes. So, you know, there's some, there's some bullet points that kind of goes across my mind when I'm talking about that subject matter. And one, of course, is, you know, you build a lifetime income floor. You have have to's and you've got want to's. You know, the have to is, you know, housing, food, what, utilities, insurance, health care, you know, they're paid regardless of markets or lifespan, right? So your core would be your Social Security, if you have a pension, some lifetime annuities, that kind of helps build a lifetime income floor.

And then, you know, the other thing is, you know, use longevity insurance. There are Qlax. I'm sure you've heard that before. You have deferred income annuities for that. So you can do immediate incomes. You can do, but you can do those Qlax at a later age to, you know, protect against, you know, into your 90s or beyond. Another area I think about is layering income, you know, over the time instead of locking it all at once. So that means you're kind of anewitizing stages.

You can combine early income and then late life income. Also adjust for interest rates and life changes. Another area I think about when it comes to strategies is, you know, apply a flexible draw strategy, not the 4% rule. That's kind of out the window, especially the volatility we have in the country today. So, you know, use guardrails, you know, like maybe small spending adjustments after poor years, withdraw with cash or bonds during downturns. Another thing I think about it is maintain growth to fight inflation. You know, maybe you've got certain lifetime income must keep up with rising costs.

So you've got equity exposure for long-term growth. You've got Social Security. It has colas. That's cost of living allowances. You can ladder or increase income annuities. You can delay income start days. So all of those things kind of help towards, you know, sustainable income that you, if you set it up properly, they'll last, you know, and that's what's all about when it comes to income on a day in and day out basis, something that's sustainable, reliable, and guaranteed. Yeah, I think that's a big piece that a lot of, the way that you started off that point is I help people get to retirement and most people stop there.

but you focus on helping them to get through retirement. And I think that a lot of times people have in their mind, I want to retire at this age and have this much money in the bank because I think that should take care of things. Well, that's a big gray area. But that's the day of retirement. How long are you going to live past that and how much money are you going to need through those years and is that enough?

And I feel like many times, and maybe you've seen this with clients you've worked with, you know, they wouldn't retire at whatever the age is. and they need X number dollars a month because that's what they told you. But if you really dig in deeper, it's like, well, hey, when you were punching the clock working 40 hours a week, you didn't have as much time to spend money as when you have zero time requirements. And now you are retired. You're going to spend more, travel more, do more fun things, maybe start that, you know, project.

How do you help your clients realize how much they're going to need to get through retirement so that that sustainable income is actually, you know, going to work for them. Right. Exactly. Exactly. I use the perfect analogy of Mount Everest, you know, obviously, our audience, you know, they got a job, they got married, to raise kids, and then they save. And, of course, they finally get to the summit, right?

They're now at retirement time. But it's getting down that mountain where most people fail. And so having a plan is very, very important to make sure. sure you get through retirement. You've got to cover all the areas that certainly are challenging. Taxes, inflation, health, health being one of the key things, you've got to have some kind of plan put together for that to happen. So what is the kind of the framework or the process you help your clients go through to make sure they're prepared properly like that? Because I think that a lot of times people hear, you know, like, oh, I need $3,000 a month to pay the bills in retirement. But is that really

the case because what about increased health care? What about inflation? There's some things we cannot control like taxes and inflation. There's some things that we can control, like budgeting. Yeah. Well, you got to work through that. Yeah, you got your have-toes and your want-toes. Half-toes are things you just have to have every day. You've got housing, right? You've got utilities. You've got food. You got insurance. You got health care. You got basic transportation. Those are have to. You have to have money set to do those things. And I find that, guaranteed products, if it's set up properly, it's basically sized for non-negotiable costs. So market swings never threatened day-to-day living.

So you've got to have investments that will certainly continue to pay in day in, day out, to cover those have-toes and also have some want-to, things you want to do, travel, whatever it might be. you know, I think if we can envision that plan for getting to whatever age, 147, you know, or whatever age that you're going to plan for, and you put the pencil to paper and have the sustainable income, you know, like, hey, if all things are working together here, you're going to make it to that age and we're going to be just fine. Doesn't that create some pretty powerful peace of mind in the client's mind that you're able to help them with? Yeah, well, one thing I always share with people is, uh,

you know, if I was selling something, it's sleep insurance, you know, for people. Oh, yeah. Worry about that. Yeah. And, you know, there's certain layers when it comes to guarantee income sources. You know, you've got your Social Security. That's a, you know, I always share with people, there's no-so money. There's hope-so money.

You know, no-so would be Social Security. It would be pensions, it'd be annuities that have income elements to it. You know, hope so would be the market. You've got your stocks, your bonds, your mutual funds, your ETFs, your, you know, trust, whatever. But, again, those are a hope so. If you're going to focus on your retirement to have a sustainable income, you want to focus more on no-so type accounts than hope-so accounts. You've got to have hope-so for inflation, but you've got to focus on those areas. So I kind of layer it.

You know, Social Security is an already guarantee, right? And, of course, it's inflation-adjusted lifetime income. You know, we might would like to have the government kind of consider what inflation really is compared to what they think it is. But then you also have another layer. be your pension-like income from annuities. You can have immediate annuities, deferred income annuities. You can get involved with fixed or fixed index annuities for a later date, let that compound and grow, and then layer all that in so that you have this income. As you're getting older, you're getting sort of a bump up or your income is increasing to keep up with inflation. Yeah. Yeah, that's a really

good point. And I think that a lot of times people just gloss over many things like that. So talk a little bit more about that phrase you mentioned once, guaranteed. So how can guaranteed financial products be integrated into this retirement plan? Because I think a lot of times people go, oh, well, I'm just going to keep all my money in the market and it's been doing good. But it does that until it is not doing well. So talk a little bit about the power of guaranteed products. Well, guarantees reduce market dependence. You think about that. Again, that's the hope so part. Obviously, if you've got a lot of years, the market is going to do well. I mean, it has its ups and downs, but it's proven through history that if you've got the time on your side, being in the market is great. But, you know, there's some

essentials you also have to consider. You're no longer forced to sell investments during market downturns. If you have some sustainable guarantee income, you're going to have some ups and downs on your hope so money. But if you've got income, it's going to continually come in while that's correcting itself, the market part of it, you're going to be fine. You know, remaining assets that can stay invested for growth. You know, again, the growth part is to cover inflation down the road. And, of course, you have to consider a sequence of returns is reduced. You know, I show an example of two people that are the same age, they have the same money, they get the same return, and whether the market's good or not. You know, one of the things, you know, one of the things,

things that you have to, and my crystal balls don't better anybody else's, and that will be the day you retire. Will the market be up that year or the market be down that year? And that secrets of return shows one example, the market is up, and the other gentleman, the market is down. And they both end the same with money. But as they start to take money out, if that market's going down the same time you're taking a withdrawal, and depending if the market was up or down, Let's say, you know, could we have another 2008 when the market is flat for three straight years? And what if that was, you know, your time retired? And the market's down.

You're now pulling income from that. You can find yourself in trouble where you might run out of money given time. So having guaranteed layers is very, very important. Yes, having money in the market is important to have. Don't get me wrong. But I also use that rule of 100. You know, and this is the basic rule. I'll take the number 100, I'll minus your age.

And whatever the difference is, that's the most you should be at risk because you get older, you want to make sure you have sustainable income. It's going to cover all the have to the have to have. The have to have, the have to have, and, of course, the want to's. You can do that to a combination of proper planning. You know, I think when people hear volatility and inflation, you know, that guaranteed income health protect against that,

is there a specific, you know, like I've heard the number, if I'm thinking correctly, 6040, you know, know, certain percent in the market, a certain percent in bonds, is there a certain time or percentage of your money that you should start saying, okay, I'm this age, you should now be putting a certain percentage or this percentage of your money in guarantee products versus the market that are, you know, going to be faced with volatility? Well, I think there was somebody who won a Nobel Prize and they talked about the 4% rule. Well, that's kind of out the door.

You know, I think the new rule is like about 2.8 percent, okay? So, you know, obviously you're going to pull an income stream from those investments, but I think if it's focusing on the have-toes, you want to make sure you've got your nut covered based on that. So as far as percentage, I'd probably go a lower percentage than that just because of the volatility in the market and what it can certainly do to your assets. You know, I mentioned the sequence of returns. So I think that's of importance. You know, fight inflation with growth assets. So you have equities, which are long term. You've got your Social Security and you've got other investments that called like one, it's called tips. You've just got a variety of investments that will certainly, some are designed to, you know, pay now and others are designed to come down the road to help towards inflation. So how often should someone, once you put this plan into place for sustainable, income and guaranteed and that split. How often should you sit down and re-review that quarterly,

six months, yearly? I would say probably yearly. I would look at where things are at. You know, I just sat down with a couple that she's retiring from UPS and has a sizable 401K plan. And they have good income right now through both Social Security and pensions. But this chunk of money is something they want to use for not the want to's. They got plenty of money for the want tos. It's going to be for the half-toes. But it's the want-toes that they want to have. They want to do more traveling.

So this money is going to be designed to literally build and grow, but it still gives another guarantee income stream for them to take that for trips and things they want to do. So, you know, I guess it really comes back down to where a person's at and what their half-toes are, what they want to accomplish. I'm going to also address health issues and what you should do for, there are investments that certainly the income, if it's joint pay, would be one and a half times the income they're getting right now, or if it's single pay, it's double that. Those are areas that I would discuss as far as, you know, the proper percentage and all that needs to be the design to provide that income strength. Yeah.

You know, it's, I guess the big thing to keep in mind is everyone's different. Everyone has different needs. Everyone has different dates they're going to retire, how long they're going to stay retired, they're monthly. I mean, all of that is different. You cannot just have a cookie cutter. You need to have someone that can guide you through the process. And if someone is interested in reaching out and connecting with you to see what it looks like for them, what's the best way they can do that, Bill? My office number is 480-220349.

And you can also reach me on my website, which is Wilson Financial, grp.com. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for coming back on. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you again. Okay, thanks, Mike. It was good spending some time. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www. www.influentialentrepreneursradio.com.