I HATE TAXES, AND I BET YOU DO TOO. NOW IS THE TIME TO STOP HATING AND DO SOMETHING SMART ABOUT IT! Today, most of us buy smartphones and smart TVs, but what are we doing to get smart with our money? In SMART Retirement, author and SMART Advisor Network founder Matt Zagula shows readers how a SMART retirement can be built with little-known techniques. SMART is the Strategic Movement Around Retirement Taxation® and its goal is to limit your postretirement taxation—not your income. Inside, you’ll learn: • How to use tax awareness to increase your net retirement income without adding risk. • Ways to reduce the amount of money you give the IRS during your retirement. • How Warren Buffett continues to grow his wealth through an actuarial concept called float and how you can integrate a similar approach in your personal finances. • The three dates that forever changed the face and future of the American retirement system and how to use this knowledge to better protect your money. • Why rate of return is a half-truth and how you can enhance your net returns by lowering your effective tax cost. •The banker’s best math trick and how to stop it from costing you a comfortable retirement. Are you ready to get SMART about your retirement? By integrating these techniques into your existing financial plan, you can secure a better financial future for you and your loved ones for generations to come. SMART Retirement helps hardworking people and business owners reach their lowest effective tax cost in retirement by diversifying into lesser-utilized, tax-exempt assets for their future. Since its introduction, SMART Retirement has done more than change lives—it’s changed the future for multiple generations of American families. As thousands of people have already found, SMART does not recycle the same old financial planning ideas. Instead, it focuses on strategies used by financial institutions, top executives, and the wealthy elite. Featured in more than 130 publications including Forbes, the SMART Retirement planning strategy has swept the nation. Now, it’s your turn to see how it can completely transform your retirement. The tax code is clear: you are legally obligated to pay tax only once on the dollars you have. Get ready to learn how to use the Strategic Movement Around Retirement Taxation® to your advantage! SMART Retirement assembles the collective wisdom of the SMART Advisor Network members. Within this book, network founder Matt Zagula shares techniques that members use to help clients become more tax-aware during their pursuit to reduce future retirement tax liabilities. Techniques focus on reaching the lowest effective tax cost possible while maintaining retirement income on a tax- and inflation-adjusted basis. In this third edition, SMART Advisor Network members share new ideas that work in tandem to reduce the effective tax cost in retirement and eliminate the effective interest cost on debts. This SMART approach accounts for the two largest expenses we face throughout our lives: taxes and debt. Its approach has value for open-minded individuals of all ages who are interested in building their net worth and retirement income in a more tax-aware and debt-avoidant way. MATT ZAGULA , founder of SMART Retirement, likens his professional journey to the mountain climb that retirees make. Matt spent years accumulating knowledge from many different perspectives with the idea that when he finally hit that pinnacle of the mountain, he would be well prepared to distribute quality advice that could be accounted for mathematically and not rely on hypothetical market illustrations. His goal was, and remains, to provide advice with confidence based on fact & not fiction. Matt has followed a unique path, from being a very early adopter and pioneer in what is known today as income planning, to creating a distinctive practice model and level of notoriety in the industry that allowed his firm to be acquired in 2001, when Matt was just thirty-one, by a publicly traded company, National Financial Partners (NYSE Symbol: NFP). After the market crash in 2008, Matt purchased his firm back from NFP at a huge discount using his life insurance cash value to make this smart investment at the perfect time. He remains independent to this day. Today, Matt is the cofounder of SMART Planz, LLC, a premier provider of tax-aware 401(k) plan design and SMART Retirement, the country's first mutual and fraternal company-focused marketing organization serving the members of the SMART Advisor Network. His focus is on helping pre-retirees and those in retirement get more & more income, more financial freedom, and more peace of mind knowing their plans are built on a solid foundation using the commonsense SMART Retirement Planning Process. Matt has spent decades continually adapting and evolving the model, and today, he is considered to be a thought leader and planning innovator for tax, estate, and retirement income advanced-plan desi