On this week’s episode of On the Money with Secure Money, Brian Quaranta shares some facts that you should consider to help create a solid income plan in retirement.
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Radio Show Transcript
Announcer 00:00
Investment advisory services are offered through foundation investment advisors, LLC. an SEC registered investment advisor Brian Quaranta and his guests provide general information not individually targeted, personalized advice and are not liable for the usage of information discussed. Exposure to ideas and financial vehicles should not be considered investment advice or recommendation to buy or sell any of these financial vehicles. This information should also not be considered tax or legal advice. As performance is not a guarantee of future results, investments will fluctuate and when redeemed may be worth more or less than when originally invested. Any comments regarding safe and secure investments and guaranteed income streams refer only to fixed insurance products, they do not refer in any way to securities or investment advisory products, fixed insurance and annuity product guarantees are subject to the claims paying ability of the issuing company.
Brian Quaranta 00:39
Turns out many Americans don’t know some basic truths about retirement on today’s show. We’re going to share some facts that can help you make a solid retirement income plan when we come right back with On the Money with Secure Money.
Announcer 00:53
And now On the Money.
Brian Quaranta 00:56
Any good retirement plans starts with the foundation,
Announcer 01:00
asset protection, tax reduction, holistic planning.
Brian Quaranta 01:03
These are the things that start to move you towards having a retirement plan.
Announcer 01:07
Retirement doesn’t have to be complicated.
Brian Quaranta 01:11
You think that’s the difficult part. That’s just getting started.
Announcer 01:16
And now On the Money with Secure Money.
Steve 01:21
And welcome everybody. This is on the money with secure money. I’m consumer advocate Steve, Brian Quaranta is here. Brian is President and CEO of Secure Money Advisors. He is an IRA specialist. He is a fiduciary. He’s an independent, he’s been helping folks for more than 20 years. So this is this is in your wheelhouse as they like to say, right, Brian, how are you, by the way?
Brian Quaranta 01:41
I’m doing good, Steve. Yeah, just a little bit in my wheelhouse. I know, it’s, I can’t believe it’s actually going on almost 24 years now. We’re looking back. It’s a blink of an eye. But you know, it’s taken a long time to get to where we’re at today. So, but I got to share this recent report from the insured retirement Institute, the IRI.
Steve 02:03
sounds like a joyful place.
Brian Quaranta 02:05
Doesn’t it? So, how about this, they surveyed adults to determine just how prepared they are for retirement. And the data showed about three crucial retirement realities. Many people simply just don’t know. Here’s one of them. Okay, Americans are confused about how much income growth is needed to offset inflation.
Steve 02:28
Well, that is as topical as you can get. I mean, inflation is crazy. It’s on everybody’s mind. And you’re right. How do we know how do we deal with that?
Brian Quaranta 02:37
Well, it’s interesting, because just before we started the show here, I had one of my team members come in. And she said, you know, for the first time, I’m kind of worried about what I’m seeing right now. And I said, well, tell me what you mean. And she said, I could not believe our grocery bill over the weekend. And she said, then it costs me like $37, to put a quarter tank of gas in my car. And I said, I know I said, I filled my truck up last weekend, and it cost me $87. Now, I don’t get sticker shock too much, because you know, the company costs a lot of money to run so. But I was sticker shocked waited at $7 gas bill. And the reason why it’s important to talk about how much growth is needed to offset inflation is because we’re feeling every bit of inflation right now. I mean, for the longest time, it just has kind of been a non-issue. But according to the insured retirement Institute, just 26% of workers were correctly able to identify the level of income growth that would be necessary to offset normal inflation over time. And unfortunately, a failure to understand the consequences of inflation, or the returns that you need to offset it can be especially a big problem in today’s environment, with prices surging everywhere. And if you’re invested too conservatively, your assets may not earn enough to avoid a steep reduction in buying power. And even assuming a normal inflation rate of around 3% a year. If you had $60,000 in income at 65, you’d need about $80,000 By the age of 75, to maintain that same buying power.
Steve 04:22
Yeah, we do that, Brian?
Brian Quaranta 04:24
I mean, what do we do? Well, first, we have to understand that there’s a big difference between an investment plan and an income plan. And, unfortunately, what we see a lot in our industry is a lot of investment plans. And that’s just the way the industry has been built. It’s taught people how to invest money, not how to use their money. And one of the things that we specialize in at secure money advisors is when you retire, the paycheck is going to stop, but bills taxes and the money you need to live. That’s not going to stop and we teach you how to take 30-40 years worth of work and start get that money work. for you, so that you can maintain your lifestyle without having to trade your time for money anymore. And so, but the other big thing is that most people don’t know how much income Social Security will provide, you know, in America.
Steve 05:13
That’s a key element, isn’t it? Brian, I mean, we’ve got to know where that where that’s coming from and how much it’s going to be.
Brian Quaranta 05:19
Right. And that’s why when you come into secure money advisors, our goal is to start with the income plan. We believe in five key areas of retirement, we believe in income, taxes, investments, health care, and of course, estate planning. But the reason why we always start with income here is because if you’re a married couple, doesn’t matter whether you’re married, single or divorced, but I’m gonna use the married couple as the example if you’re a married couple, we need to know how much income that you’re receiving together. We need to know; do you have a pension? Do you not have a pension? Do you have? What are you? Do you have Social Security turned on? Are you waiting to collect social security? You know, does your pension have an inflation rider? How much is Social Security going to go up each year, and we need to see how much income above and beyond you’re going to need from your guaranteed sources. So, if I have a couple that’s just getting a social security check, you know, and maybe together they get in 50,000 a year, but they need $80,000 A year to live off of, well, they have a $30,000 a year income gap. And we have to replace that income. But that’s just half the battle. They’re figuring out how much income we need. While you’re both living is just part of the strategy. But then we have to look at what happens if one of you die. And we have to look at what happens if the husband dies. First, what happens if the wife dies first, because there will be a drop in income. According to AARP, the average drop in income for a married couple is about 40%. And we know we know we’re going to lose income because you know, if you are retired right now, and both you and your wife are receiving a social security check, the check that’s going to disappear is the lowest one. So, if you’re getting $3,000 a month, and your wife’s getting $2,000 A month doesn’t matter who dies first, the $2,000 a month Social Security check is going to drop off. So, the reason why income is so important is because we have to worry about it more today than we ever had, you know, you go back 3040 years ago, retirement was a lot easier because for most people, things were much more simple. They worked for companies for 30 or 40 years, and you had people retiring with a social security check and a pension check. And usually just between those two sources of income, that was enough money for them to maintain their lifestyle. So, if they were looking to offset an inflationary environment, they would use the retirement savings that they had to offset inflation. But now what we’re doing is we’re using that retirement savings not only to offset inflation, but also to build the base income. So now it becomes a monumental challenge in retirement, there is a strategy and a system to follow. And we have put that together here at secure money advisors. So, for folks for the next 10 callers who call in right now. We’ve got a few openings on our calendar each week for listeners, and we’d love to hear from you. And we’ve seen a lot of market volatility right now and people are concerned about it. And you have the opportunity right now to sit down and have a conversation with a fiduciary financial advisor who can guide you and possibly help you improve your situation. So again, for the next 10 callers, we will perform a complimentary easy to understand financial review of your portfolio that will indicate if you’re in need of a comprehensive financial plan. We’ll look at a fee report we’ll look at a risk assessment we’ll do a tax analysis. And we’ll also help you develop customized income plan utilizing proven strategies which could strengthen your retirement income and take the worry out of living too long. So again, for the next 10 callers. That’s a comprehensive financial review, that we will provide complimentary with no obligation
Steve 08:53
800-656-8616 You’ll get that comprehensive financial review plus all the extras that Brian just described. And when you walk out the door, you will have a roadmap it’s a guide that can help get you to where you need to be 10 collars right now. 800-656-8616, 800-656-8616
Brian Quaranta 09:13
When we come back, we’ll highlight some expenses that can eat into your retirement savings we come back with on the money with secure money
Announcer 09:26
Do you ever feel like you’re fighting for financial knowledge? Don’t let that advice be a punch in the gut your retirement to take advantage of a complimentary no cost no obligation consultation with a local trusted financial coach. Call Brian Quaranta, host of retirement you radio 800-656-8616 or text Brian Q to 800-656-8616 we’ve made it easy for you to take advantage of this fantastic offer. All you have to do is call or text Brian Q to 800-656-8616
Steve 10:03
We are back on the money with Secure Money. Brian Quaranta. Here, I’m consumer advocate Steve Brian is a president and CEO of Secure Money Advisors. And you can find them online at securemoneyadvisors.com. I would, I would encourage you to visit that website. There’s lots of great stuff there. And you can learn a little bit more about Brian and his team. So, Brian, you know, this is something expenses that eat into our retirement, there’s always going to be something, right. I mean, there just is. So, we’ve got to be aware of, you know, things that can happen. So, we don’t get blindsided. I mean, we can’t be prepared for everything, but we can be prepared for most things. Agree.
Brian Quaranta 10:39
Yeah, agreed. And no matter how much we save for retirement; I would say there’s at least five expenses that can really make a dent our savings. So first is major medical expenses. And I think everybody knows this.
Steve 10:52
Oh, that’s just a reality we got to face.
Brian Quaranta 10:55
Yeah, healthcare is an obvious one. And people are right to be concerned about it. And it’s already costly. And inflation will only make things worse over time. Plus, seniors tend to require more care as they age adults 65 And older spend three times as much on health care on average. And, you know, I see this all the time. I mean, my clients will tell you, they’ve got more things on their calendar these days, because of doctor’s appointments than anything else. You know, it’s the same thing with my mom and dad, you know, they’re almost at and, you know, I call them and are usually on a way to a doctor’s appointment. So, you know, you compare that to working age adults, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Even if you consider yourself a healthy person and injury could still land you with a pretty hefty medical bill. The other thing is debt, Steve, I mean, bringing debt into retirements not smart.
Steve 11:50
Well, especially consumer debt, I mean, you know, the credit cards, the car payments, that kind of thing really needs to be handled before you get to retirement. Yeah, there’s
Brian Quaranta 11:58
a lot of great debt payment programs out there. And when I say that, I mean, there’s systems if you are in debt, you need a system. There’s a system that I remember, from about 20 years ago, it was a guy by the name of John commuter, and he had a program called Transforming debt into wealth. And, boy, what a great program. I remember that. Do you remember that? Yeah, I mean, and he would teach you a snowballing technique. And it was just incredible how quickly, you could get out of debt with that. So, you have to have a system to get out of debt. If you are in debt, if you think you’re just going to try to keep paying on the credit cards, the way that you are pay a little bit more here pay a little bit more there. I’m telling you, that’s like standing in a thing a quick, Stan, you know, as much as you’re trying to get out, you just keep sinking, so, but the credit card debt, you got to get rid of it, you know, the problem can get worse instead of better over time. Again, if you’re only making these minimum payments, falling behind on your payments are going to hurt your credit score. And you can lose anything you put up for collateral, you know, like your home or car or anything along those lines, which would be a worst-case scenario. But the point here is get out of debt going into retirement. You know, a lot of people will ask me, you know, we have some money to pay off on the mortgage still. We’re two years out from retirement, should I do I tell you what I look at and I build people plans, there’s a lot of times when I’m looking at their retirement strategy, I get more leveraged by recommending that they pay off their home than continuing to invest in their 401 K plan. Yes, you heard me correctly, folks. They get more leveraged by redirecting the money that they’re putting in their 401 K plan to pay off the home than they would if they kept putting the money in the 401k. Why is that? Because let’s say that you have a mortgage payment of $2,000 a month. Well, if we get that mortgage paid off, that’s a guarantee of $2,000 a month in income that you will pick up. So, the question you have to ask yourself is, in order to generate $2,000 a month from an investment? How much money do you have to put away into your 401 K? So, if I’m redirecting that money, I know with absolute certainty, if that mortgage is paid off, I’m going to increase my income by $2,000 a month because I no longer have that debt. The other thing is taxes. I mean, you’re going to owe taxes and retirement. unless all of your retirement savings is in a Roth account. You don’t see many people that have taken the time to do that or rip the band aid off. And for those of you that don’t know, the beautiful thing about a Roth IRA, is it’s 100% tax free. state federal income tax free. You know, when it passes on to the beneficiaries, it’s income tax free. You don’t you’re not required to take RMDs out I mean, it’s a really nice account, but you got to pay taxes now versus later, which is not a terrible idea, right? I mean, would you rather pay taxes on the seed or the harvest? So, but it is possible to minimize what you owe by carefully choosing which retirement accounts you contribute money to and withdrawal from and you know, we see this a lot where the order in which you withdraw your money, what accounts you start taking money out of First matters. I had a couple come in last week, and they had about $900,000 sitting in retirement accounts about $400,000 sitting in cash in the bank. And their advisor had them taking all the income that they needed for the next, like seven years out of the $400,000 that they had sitting in the bank. Now, see, let me ask you this, you think taxes are going up or down in the future up up? Didn’t even have to So. Right. So, think about it, they have $900,000 sitting in a retirement account. If you believe taxes are gonna go up in the future? What monies Do you want to have in the future? Not retirement account money, you want to have the money that’s in the bank account? Because that’s not taxable at all, when you withdraw that? So why wouldn’t we build the first phase of retirement income from the retirement accounts that you’d be forced to take from anyway, while tax rates are still relatively low, and leave the other money for later. And this is where people get it wrong. A lot of times, Steve, is the order in which you withdrawal the money makes a big difference in the way you control fat taxes. The other two are 401 K fees. And of course, caregiving, right, sometimes, we still have parents that are living and sometimes those parents now become your responsibility. And I’ve got a lot of clients that are taking care of their parents, but we keep a few openings on our calendar each week for listeners, and we’d love to hear from the folks who have seen the recent market volatility and are concerned about it. You have the opportunity right now to sit down and have a conversation with a fiduciary financial advisor who can guide you and possibly help you improve your situation. So, for the next 10 callers, we will perform a complimentary easy to understand financial review of your portfolio. That review is going to indicate if you’re in need of a comprehensive financial plan. This analysis is going to include a fee report a risk assessment to help you recognize unnecessary losses in your portfolio and see if by simply protecting your retirement investments, you could experience dramatic growth potential second, we’re going to perform a tax analysis to reveal how much you could possibly reduce your taxes by we will also develop a customized income plan utilizing proven strategies which could strengthen your retirement income. So, for the next 10 callers, that’s a comprehensive financial review, that we are providing complimentary with no obligation.
Steve 17:13
Sounds great, Brian, folks take advantage of what he’s offering here. Today, it’s a chance to sit down and get that financial roadmap put together. Don’t hesitate, don’t procrastinate. Give Brian a call 800-656-8616. Those spots fill up pretty quickly each and every week. But here’s your chance to get a true practical financial review. If you make that phone call 800-656-8616 You’ll get that financial review. The Right Track Retirement System is waiting for you and you’re going to see where you are today. But more importantly, we’ll we’ll show you a roadmap that can help get you to where you need to be when it comes to retirement. 800-656-8616. Again, 800-656-8616 quick break for us. We’re coming right back. We’ve got much, much more right here on the money with secure money and Brian Quaranta.
Announcer 18:06
He’s letting the clock run out on his social security at age 70 For maximum benefits. And here comes the Roth conversion. He’s got some outstanding coaching with that lifetime income plan. He’s created his own pension as well. And it looks like he’s going to go all the way. Play your best retirement game call Brian Q 800-656-8616. Or text Brian Q to 800-656-8616. Call or text Brian Q to 800-656-8616.
Steve 18:42
We are back on the money with secure money and Brian Quaranta. I’m consumer advocate Steve, having a great show today prime and boy fast paced lots of stuff going on. So, as we read around the corner into the new year and things are people are feeling a little bit more optimistic. What kinds of things have you got planned for the new year that there’s going to help that education process that you care a lot about you care a lot about that?
Brian Quaranta 19:04
We do not I mean, you know, and you know, Steve, not only do we do on the radio show, but you know, we have the TV show that airs which by the way, if you want to see any of the TV show, the schedule of when we’re on is on our website. So, you could go to WWE dot secure money advisors.com You can see when we’re going to be on, but we’ve also taken the TV shows and radio shows and we’ve archived them on our website. So, if you want to go in and get educated and you can do that right on the website by watching the TV show or radio show. So, it’s really great. Not only that, but we’re also going to be updating the list of educational events. We’re going to try to do about 60 educational events this year where you can come out at one of the universities like Robert Morris or LaRoche college and sit down with us and go through an educational course on this right track retirement system where we really teach you from start to finish how to build a really good plan and most importantly, keep it very simple and easy to understand. Because I’m telling you when you have a plan that’s simple and easy to understand. And it’s a tangible physical plan, a written plan. This is, this is what people are missing so much, Steve is that they have a pile of investment statements, but they don’t have a real written plan. Folks, I’m telling you, when you get a real written plan in place, and it’s in, it’s easy to understand, and you get it, boy, the confidence for you to retire, stay retired, do the things that you want to do on your bucket list in retirement with a peace of mind security, that you’re not going to run out of money that you’re not going to have to go to work. Boy, that’s a real position of strength that you’re in. And we hear that all the time from our clients. The other big thing that we hear is when clients are coming in to see if they can retire, they’ll say I want to retire in five years. Great. You want to fire five years? Why don’t we look at two plans? Why don’t we see what retirement two years would look like? And what five years would look like, oh, I’m not ready to retire in two years? Well, let’s build a plan around two years and five years, okay. So, we do that we build a plan around it, they love it, they wind up going forward with us. And what do we do a year later, we get a call, and they say, you know, I think I’m gonna retire in two years. Okay, great. I mean, what a great position to be in, right? You walk into work one day, somebody ticks you off, you don’t want to be there anymore, right? You’re just fed up with it, you’re burnt out, and you go, you know, I don’t need to do this anymore. I know, I’m going to be fine. I’m putting in my paper for retirement. And that’s the type of leverage we want to give you. That’s the type of clarity we want to give you, and confidence to be able to do what you want to do when you want to do it.
Steve 21:29
Right. Wow, that’s fantastic. 800-656-8616. I love that when you get all passionate like that, it really makes sense. So, let’s see what let’s see what the listeners are saying today, Lillian has checked in, she says, I don’t have a retirement plan through an employer, what’s the best way I can save money and lower my taxes? Well, she’s thinking, right,
Brian Quaranta 21:50
she’s thinking, right, yeah, but she’s thinking, right, because obviously, if your employer is not giving you a plan, there’s a few things you could do. If you could, you could open up a traditional IRA account. And you can make contributions to that, which would also give you a tax deduction. But keep in mind with that tax deduction, you’re now going to have an account an IRA, that’s tax deferred. So, when you need that money later on in life, you are going to have to pay the taxes. And if taxes go up in the future, that could be a problem. So, you know, you may want to consider a Roth IRA. Now, that may not help with lowering your taxes, but it certainly would help with lowering your taxes in the future. And I’d rather you have you have no taxes to pay in the future, versus paying a little bit of taxes right now.
Steve 22:34
I like that too Lily. And if you’d like to know some more 800-656-8616, Steve has checked in and he says I’m 65. And I’ll be retiring early next year, I’ve got about 150,000 in my Roth IRA, about 450,000. And my 401k. Now, doesn’t matter which one I start taking money from first, or should I just take a little from each one? If we were just talking about that? Yeah,
Brian Quaranta 22:58
well, look, you know, if you believe like we do, that taxes are going up in the future versus down, then your order of withdrawal would be the IRA money first, right? And this way, when that IRA money is drawn down, right, that the money that you had to pay the tax on, you have this big pot of tax-free money still growing, boy $150,000 in his Roth IRA, if that’s invested correctly, he could wind up having four or $500,000 in the next 10 years, which would be all tax free. Right? So, some advisors might say, well, let’s take the Roth money first, because you don’t have to pay any taxes. I disagree with that. Because if you’re healthy, and we believe taxes are gonna go up in the future, what pot of money? Would you rather have a lot of 10 years from now, I would rather have a lot of tax-free money of 10 years from now versus taxable money. So, the order of withdrawal here would be take the 401 K money, right? And pay the taxes on it, and then maybe, maybe defer the Roth now again, I don’t know Steve’s exact situation. So that might not be the best thing for him. But speaking theoretically, that could potentially be the best way to do it. Right?
Steve 24:04
Well, again, you know, you make sense when you talk that way. And Steve, again, I would suggest you give Brian a call. 800-656-8616. That’s it. We’ve got time for another one here. Let’s go to Kate. Kate says I’m a 64-year-old single woman trying to get rid of some of my debt. I want to take $125,000 out of my IRA to pay off my mortgage. And everyone tells me not to. What do you think?
Brian Quaranta 24:29
Well, again, this is a tough one as a fiduciary, because, you know, I don’t know the rest of her situation. Right, exactly. You know, I don’t know how much is in her total 401k or her IRA? Have we’ve done that strategy before? Sure, we have. This is exactly why we offer the right track retirement review. This is what the system is all about. This is why we’ve built it because these are the questions, we hear every single week at our office. We see 25 to 30 people a week at our office, and everybody’s got similar situations, but everybody’s situation is different for the next 10 callers who call in take advantage of our right track retirement review. We truly are going to take the mystery out of financial planning help you map out where you are where you need to go. We will run a free report for you will run a tax analysis we’ll show you how to build income utilizing proven strategies that can literally help turbocharge your income in retirement. Most importantly, we take the guesswork out of financial planning make it simple, clear and easy for you to understand, which gives you a peace of mind and security go into retirement. Do your part though. This is not the time to procrastinate. start the new year off right call us today. For the next 10 callers it’s a comprehensive financial review. We’re giving away complimentary with no obligation
Steve 25:42
800-656-8616 You’ll receive that comprehensive financial review you’ll see where you are today. But more importantly, you’ll find you have a roadmap that can help get you to where you need to be when it comes to retirement. Call right away. 800-656-8616 10 callers right now 800-656-8616 As always, we appreciate you listening and we’re gonna come back again next week with new topics and questions and more all right here on the money with secure money.
Announcer 26:17
Investment Advisory services are offered through foundation investment advisors, LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor Brian Quaranta and his guests provide general information not individually targeted, personalized advice and are not liable for the use of drip information. Discuss exposure to ideas and financial vehicles should not be considered investment advice or recommendations, buy or sell any of these financial vehicles. This information should also not be considered tax or legal advice. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. investments will fluctuate and when redeemed may be worth more or less than when originally invested. Any comments regarding safe and secure investments and guaranteed income streams refer only to fixed insurance products did not refer in any way to securities or investment advisory products. Fixed insurance and annuity product guarantees are subject to the claims paying ability of the issuing company.
