Investors earn returns over time that are far lower than those quoted by mutual fund firms.  In fact, it’s not even a close race.”

This is the conclusion of DALBAR, Inc., the well-respected independent investment research firm.¹

For the past 20 years ending December 31, 2009, “the average equity investor managed to eke out an annualized return that outpaced inflation.”  The average return was 3.17% per year – just slightly more than the inflation rate for that period!

Asset allocation and fixed income investors weren’t so lucky (if you can call that “luck”); they lost ground after adjusting for inflation.

Why most investors don’t come close to getting the returns touted in mutual fund prospectuses…

There are plenty of reasons for this.  For starters…

Investor Trap #1:  “Investors are impatient and irrational,” and “consistently make buy and sell decisions at the worst possible moments,” according to DALBAR, a finding backed up by many experts in the emerging field of behavioral finance.

Investor Trap #2:  You could get a 25% “average annual return” for years and still not make a single dime or even lose money!

This is due to the smoke and mirrors the Wall Street illusionists have been using to pull the wool over your eyes for decades.  Don’t take my word for it – I exposed the mutual fund “rate of return” myth” here.

Investor Trap #3:  If you’re investing in mutual funds inside a 401(k) plan, fees can “eat up to half your income over a 30-year span,” according to an exposé on 60 Minutes.

In addition, most people aren’t aware that employers are making risky decisions on how to invest your money in your 401(k) for you without your knowledge or approval!  And they are automatically moving your money into higher-fee funds, too.

This is all courtesy of the Pension Protection Act of 2006.  Makes you wonder who they’re trying to protect!

Knowledge is power, so I urge you to learn what the government and your employer aren’t telling you about your 401(k).

Investor Trap #4:  Taxes, taxes and more taxes!

Nothing I’ve talked about so far takes into account the wealth-destroying effect of taxes.

If you’re like most Americans, much of your savings is in tax-deferred accounts, like 401(k)’s.  Paying taxes later is one of the big appeals of these plans.

But what direction do you think tax rates will go over the long term?  If, like most people, you think taxes are going to go up, and you’re successful in growing a nest-egg, you’re only going to pay higher taxes on a larger number!

The bottom line is that most people’s financial future rests on a game whose rules they do not understand and have no control over.  No wonder most Americans have no confidence they’ll be able to reach their financial goals and dreams.

Which is why Bank On Yourself should be a part of almost everyone’s financial foundation.

It gives you guaranteed growth in both good times and bad, as well as predictability and control.

A Bank On Yourself policy goes in only one direction:  UP.  Both your principal and gains are locked in.  It gives you peace of mine for retirement planning, because you can know how much income you could take every year in retirement (guaranteed), and for how long you’ll be able to take it.

You can take that income without tax consequences, if you do it right, under current tax law.

You can also use your cash value in the policy to inject needed capital into a business or to help you get through tough times.  To learn more about the many different ways people use Bank On Yourself, check out Chapters 6-12 of my best-selling book.

If you haven’t already added Bank On Yourself to your financial plan, why not find out today what your bottom-line numbers and results could be if you did?  Whatever your long-term or short-term financial goals and dreams are, you may be surprised to find out how many of them Bank On Yourself can help you achieve.

There’s no cost or obligation to receive an Analysis that will show you how a program custom tailored to your unique situation could improve your financial picture and help you turn your back on the stomach-churning twists and turns of traditional investments.

If you haven’t already started to Bank On Yourself, please take the first step today and take back control of your financial future!

¹ DALBAR 2010 Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior

It also hit #2 on the USA Today Money Best Seller list for the week ending March 28th.

If you don’t have a copy yet, you can get it today for only $9.95 – 38% off the retail price.

The hardcover edition was released a year ago and immediately hit the USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Business Week best seller lists.

Find out what all the buzz is about and learn more about this proven, time-tested way to grow a nest egg, so you can take back control of your money and finances today.

The interview will play on all audio-equipped flights on Virgin America and US Airways early next year, but you can listen to a sneak preview of it here.

Pamela Yellen and Bank On Yourself will also be featured in January in a video series on “The Innovators” that will be broadcast in prime time on the CNN Airport Network in 44 of the busiest U.S. airports.

We’ll post a preview of that video here as soon as it’s ready.

Enjoy! And please tell us what you think…

My wisest move was buying whole life insurance in the 1990s, precisely when countless books and articles mocked whole life as obsolete. My wife, Debbie, did the same. In the ten-plus years that we’ve paid $5,000 a year combined into our policies, both from extremely sound mutual-insurance companies, we’ve built substantial five-figure cash values, can borrow from them instantly at virtually no cost and haven’t paid a cent of tax on the earnings.”*

Like most people who have Bank On Yourself plans, Jeff’s only regret is probably that he didn’t put more into the policies!

It’s a virtual certainty that Jeff and Debbie’s policies are traditional dividend-paying whole life policies, rather than the specially-designed, super-charged variation used for the Bank On Yourself method.

Had Jeff and Debbie’s policies been designed the Bank On Yourself way, they’d have significantly more cash value now.

As the Dow moved through the 10,000 mark this week, a dose of reality is in order…

1. The Dow first closed above 10,000 on March 29, 1999 – more than a decade ago!

It’s just now catching up to where it was then.

By contrast, a Bank On Yourself-type policy grows by a guaranteed and predictable amount EVERY single year. It never takes a ten-year vacation… or even a one-year vacation! (For the record, the stock market takes a 10-year or longer “vacation” pretty often, as any glance at a stock market timeline reveals.)

Both your principal and gains are locked in – they don’t vanish in a market crash.

The growth is not only guaranteed, it’s exponential - it gets more efficient every year you have it. That gives you some built-in protection against inflation.

2. The typical mutual fund investor has actually been LOSING money every single year for the past TWENTY years, after adjusting for inflation!

That’s because most investors – and even most investment “experts” – continually buy and sell at precisely the wrong time.

(Source: DALBAR’s 2008 Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior)

3. For the past forty years, ordinary long-term treasury bonds have outpaced investing in the stock market!

That means the only “rewards” investors have received for taking the extra risk of stocks and equity mutual funds are sleepless nights and broken retirement dreams (Source: “Bonds Why Bother?” Journal of Indexes, May/June 2009 Issue)

Sheesh! Is this the best Wall Street has to offer us?

You’ve probably heard the old saying,

Fool me once, shame on you, Fool me twice, shame on me.”

How many times have you already been fooled and had your hopes raised, only to be dashed again and again?

If you’ve had enough of that, and want a financial plan that never takes a vacation, never goes backward, and never disappoints, why not take a step in a positive direction and request a free Bank On Yourself Analysis that will show you how much brighter your financial picture could be when you Bank On Yourself?

*Source: “Our Best And Worst Financial Moves,” www. finance.yahoo.com, September 22, 2009

Click here to read the article

Pamela Yellen was one of a panel of four experts profiled in the supplement.

The article about Bank On Yourself was titled, “A New Approach to Personal Financial Security.”

After reading the article, if you want more details about what Bank On Yourself is and how it works, you can get Pamela Yellen’s free Special Report here… or get Pamela’s best-selling Bank On Yourself book at a 35% discount here.

Martin Weiss, Ph.D.

Finance and investment expert and New York Times best-selling author, Martin Weiss, Ph.D., recently interviewed me. You can listen to this fast-paced and timely interview by just turning up your speakers and click here.

Dr. Weiss wrote the subscribers to his “Money and Markets” newsletter about how he had just read my book and felt it has excellent advice on “coping with low investment income in tough times.”

So, I hope you enjoy our 35-minute interview.

You can get your personal copy of my book at a 35% discount here.

The book is flying off the shelves, and the publisher rushed to print more copies, which will soon flood all the major book sellers, as well as Target, Costco, Wal-Mart and other outlets to fill demand for the book.

I’ve been interviewed on dozens of radio and TV stations, including a number of nationally syndicated shows, and I’m almost half way through a 17-city tour in which I am leading free public workshops in each city.

While the actual travel part of this cross-country tour has been a bit grueling, with canceled and delayed flights and days that often start at 4:00 a.m. and don’t end ’til midnight, the most gratifying part has been meeting the people in each city who are already using Bank On Yourself to reach a wide range of both short-term and long-term personal and financial goals.

Their stories are heartwarming and give me renewed energy and inspiration to continue my mission of sharing the message of Bank On Yourself.

They all speak of how Bank On Yourself has given them the peace of mind and the financial security they were so desperately seeking.

It’s still astonishing to me how many people in the media keep saying we need a new financial game plan, but offer no alternatives, when the solution is right under their noses!

Maybe the media thinks stories like…

“All Americans who have Bank On Yourself plans once again received guaranteed annual increases, none of their principal or growth was lost when the market tumbled, and they also received a dividend – just like they have every year for over 100 years”…

are just too boring.

No matter – I’m going to keep fighting the good fight.

If you use Bank On Yourself in your own financial plan, I encourage you to share your comments here, about how this method has helped you achieve financial peace of mind. I’d also love to hear how you’re using your plan(s), too.

Check it out – it’s only 4 minutes long. My friends have been known to call me “motor mouth”, and I can tell you that paring the message down to fit into a two-to-four minute time frame for the many TV and radio interviews I’ve been doing isn’t easy, but I’m getting better at it. Check it out here and let me know what you think:

Click here to view the embedded video.

The secret is definitely out and the feedback has been phenomenal – and very gratifying.

If you haven’t already grabbed your copy of the book, you can order it here now.