On this week’s episode of On the Money with Secure Money, Neil Mager shares tips to make sure you are ready, willing and able to have a retirement without regrets.
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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.
Steve 00:39
Good stuff planned for you today. The old saying “If I only knew now what I didn’t know”, then too many times will probably say you have experienced that. Let’s cut to the chase. And we’re gonna get into some things that advisors hear from clients that maybe outlines their biggest regrets, so maybe we can avoid them.
Announcer 01:02
And now On the Money
Brian Quaranta 01:03
Any good retirement plan starts with the foundation,
Announcer 01:08
asset protection tax reduction, holistic planning.
Brian Quaranta 01:12
These are the things that start to move you towards having a retirement plan.
Announcer 01:16
Retirement doesn’t have to be complicated.
Brian Quaranta 01:19
You think that’s the difficult part. That’s just getting started. And now on the money with secure money.
Steve 01:30
And welcome everybody this is On the Money with Secure Money when to Neil Mager here today filling in for Brian Quaranta. I’m consumer advocate Steve. Neil is a fiduciary. He is the senior advisor at secure money advisors, and so much more than that. Hi, Neil. What’s going on?
Neil Mager 01:47
Hey, Steve, how are you? Today?
Steve 01:48
I am well, thank you. I like this, you know, we talk about regrets. And I’m guessing in the in your experience you have, you know, obviously talked to a lot of people and I would guess as they get close to retirement, they probably share things like what we’re going to talk about here today. And topping the list and I’ll see what how this how you see this. They say I wish I had started my transition plans earlier. In other words, start that plan yet not a couple of days before you want to retire.
Neil Mager 02:18
Shoulda Coulda, Woulda, right, exactly. The famous lines, yeah, we talk a lot about it right now, as you know what’s coming up. And most people’s vacations, its summertime, and a lot of people travel to the beach or wherever they like to go on vacation. And we always talk about, it seems to us people that are walking in our door, they spend more time planning their summer vacation than their retirement. Now, Steve, that used to be okay, because retirement was very, very simple. And why I say that is because previous to more recent times, is people collect a pension from their employer when they retire, right. And they combined that with Social Security. And oftentimes that pension that Social Security often added up to a pretty similar income stream to their work income. Now, obviously, now that’s totally different. And so, we hear a lot about, you know, I wish I would have started saving sooner because we know, the longer that we can save, the longer our money has a chance to compound and grow. But it’s really kind of all these little things, that maybe they’re not connecting the dots on that need done over the years that really you don’t want to be waiting. What you don’t want to do is retire June 1 and be in our office, June 28. Right, right. Now, if you haven’t created a plan, obviously, you want to make sure that you do get in here as soon as possible to start to make sure you are doing things correctly. But you know, the sooner the better.
Steve 03:51
Yeah, the sooner the better. (800) 656-8616 You got to take action. And in order to make something happen. Here’s another one that I’m curious to see how many people say this. I wish I had gotten help with high level strategies sooner. And I mean that to me. I mean, if you’re just seeing an advisor at that point, yeah, I would say those high-level strategies come into play way before that.
Neil Mager 04:16
For sure. Yeah, making assumptions about your retirement is a really slippery slope, because there’s so much to be considered. And time is of the essence for a plan to unfold and be successful. You know, I think of so many, you know, right now, what’s, uh, what’s a really trending topic on top of all the trending topics, but one is taxes. And I think why I say taxes is because a lot of people certainly understand that since a lot of money has been printed off over the past few years, that at some point, we’re gonna have to pay that money back. And that’s going to be increased tax rates for everybody. And so, a lot of people are saying, well, what can I do now to help my situation that puts me in a better position 5 10 15 years from now, 20 years from now. And so, a lot of people want to consider tax strategies as tax planning. And what we’ll see is that people have never done this before. And now maybe they’re 70 to 75 years old, and they want to execute tax strategies. But maybe it would have been something that if we would have been working together over time, that’s something that we could have executed slowly, and really put you in a great position to succeed. So, you know, all these things is really add up to little mistakes that ended up causing you big headaches on down the line.
Steve 05:32
Absolutely, folks, if you’d like to get in 800-656-8616. So, another regret that I wish I had been open to changing strategies. This one I kind of understand, because I think we’re we start, you know, when we’re saving for retirement, we think we need to go one way, because maybe that was what that’s what our parents did, or that’s what you know what I mean, but you got to be interested, you got to be willing to listen to, you know, the options that you’re gonna give us.
Neil Mager 05:57
Yeah, I mean, this is another trending topic. Right? With all the market volatility. You know, this is a certainly a direction. I mean, if you think about, really, since 2008, Steve, I mean, the markets been straight up, up until the start of 2022. Right. And not only has the market been up, but the Safe Money options have been really poor. So, if you start to think about okay, as what we’ve been taught, historically was, as you get closer and closer to retirement, you shift more from equity positions to bonds, you get safer, more conservative. Now, if you look at since 2008, bonds have performed very average to poor over that period of time. So, what we were starting to see here at secure money advisors was really a lot of people were keeping more of their money in equity positions, because they really didn’t want the poor performance of the bonds. So now all of a sudden, you’re dealing with volatility, and maybe you weren’t utilizing the right approach. You had all this volatility, and now all of a sudden, you’re really suffering from being too aggressive. But not only that, obviously, strategies have changed a lot. So, a lot of people still don’t use the bonds for safe money anymore. Because of all the volatility. And if you’ve utilizing bonds and 2022, you’re certainly understanding, you know, how much loss can go into those positions? Right?
Steve 07:23
Yeah, well, it’s a pretty much it’s a wakeup call for sure. And before we run out of time, there’s one more I wish I had kept my eye on the prize. What does that mean, really?
Neil Mager 07:33
Well, we live in a society that promotes consumption. And there’s a thin line between living abundantly versus living in scarcity, finding the right balance between living for now and saving is really the key to success. You know, a lot of people, you know, do too much right now. And all of a sudden, they hit 55-60. And they really have nothing saved for retirement. And it’s really time to buckle down and start saving. But you know, Steve, I also see people on the opposite end of the spectrum on that, where people, they really don’t create a plan.
Steve 08:06
And folks, if that sounds like something that you’d be interested in learning more about now would be a great time to give Neil a call. Come on in and have the conversation.
Neil Mager 08:13
Yeah, absolutely. Steve, we caught our right track financial review each and every week, we reserve 10 spots on our calendar for our right track financial review. And what we’re going to do is go over the five key areas of financial planning with you, starting with income tax planning, investment planning, health care planning, and legacy planning. We’re going to go through those five, see where you’re lacking, see if you need a full, comprehensive financial review of your portfolio. So, for the next 10 callers, our Right Track Financial Review available, but you got to do your part, pick up the phone right now and give us a
Steve 08:50
Call 800-656-8616 You’ll find out where you are today. But more importantly, it does become that path that guide that can help get you to where you need to be 800-656-8616 800-656-8616
Neil Mager 09:06
The only constant in life is change. planning for retirement is no exception. Coming up next, what you can do to better navigate your way to retirement, how we manage our savings and stretch our dollars to make sure we don’t run out of money. We’ll unpack this next.
Announcer 09:27
Hurricanes, tornadoes and fire. These are serious situations we plan in advance for the volatility of the market can be just as devastating. When a market correction does occur. There are strategies you can employ to bounce back. Call Brian Carranza and his team at secure money advisors at 800-656-8616 or text key word BrianQ two 800-656-8616. We’ve made it easy folks. All you have to do is call or text the keyword BrianQ to 800 656 At 616
Steve 10:08
We are back On the Money with Secure Money. Neil Mager is here sitting in for Brian Quaranta. And so, you said a mouthful there, Neil, when we got started, I mean, you summed it up nicely what the only constant in life has changed. And when it comes to planning for retirement, we’ve really got a lot of stuff going on there. And so, we kind of put together an interesting collection, if you will, of, of some sound bites from various people. In fact, let’s just get started with that. Let’s, we talked about managing our savings, stretching our dollars, we don’t want to run out of money. Well, here is Doug Sandler with his take.
Doug Sandler 10:45
Inflation. That’s the 800 pound gorilla, ultimately, right? That’s what started this, and that’s probably what’s gonna end it.
Steve 10:51
Yeah, inflation. I don’t think that’s the 900 pound gorilla anymore. I think it’s pretty much obvious.
Neil Mager 10:57
Yeah, I think you know, something that we’re all dealing with now, obviously, some people are better positioned to handle inflation than others. And one thing about retirement is the fact that you’re on more of a fixed income. So, it makes it a little bit more challenging to add significant cost increases, you know, when you think about kind of just the teaser that we had laid there, Steve, when you start to think about, you know, just planning in general and the constant change, you know, we build out a plan for our clients. And what we tell each and every one of them is, this is not a plan laid out in stone, you know, what we have to do is, we have to be flexible, and there’s going to be a lot of changes that occur over the years, there’s going to be things that come up, like inflation, there’s going to be tax law changes, there’s going to be different investments that come into play. And what we really need to do is be flexible, be aware of those changes, and make adjustments to best position you. But one of our goals at secure money advisors, when we’re really building out a plan is how do we make bad things happen on paper? So, we know that there is a possibility of those types of things happening, like volatility, like inflation, you know, sometimes we get people that come into our office that are so conservative, that, you know, they say, “well, I just want my money to, I’m fine keeping it in a bank account at 1%. That’s all I need.” Well, now all of a sudden, when you’re dealing with eight, nine, 10%, inflation, wherever it’s at today, the so they say that we have the ability to add additional income who can’t keep up with the cost of living?
Steve 12:41
Well, exactly. And, you know, with inflation the way it is right now, and there’s always talk of recession, and in fact, Peter Schiff, he is the the Euro Pacific Capital, Chief Economist, global strategist and host of the Peter Schiff show, anyway, Peter has some ideas about the future and what it may hold on.
Peter Schiff 13:00
Not only are we likely entering a recession, we’re probably already in one. But this is not just going to be a recession, it’s going to be the recession, we have a bigger bubble now than we had in 2008. And when the air comes out of this bubble, is gonna leave a much bigger hangover than the one we had, then the difference is there can be no bailouts this time.
Steve 13:21
Interesting. What are your thoughts on that Neil?
Neil Mager 13:22
Yeah, very interesting. Right. I mean, saying “The worst is yet to come.” I don’t know how many people that are either in retirement or near retirement, want to hear something like that.
Steve 13:32
Right. Do you think he was being a little dramatic?
Neil Mager 13:35
Well, I think Peters, known for that. He’s a big gold guy, right? Oh, yeah, sure. Yeah. Peter is a big gold guy. So yeah, he’s pretty, he’s probably being a little bit dramatic. But yeah, I mean, are we facing a recession? Sure, absolutely. And it might be a reset that we need in this country, to be perfectly frank with you. You know, it doesn’t mean doomsday. It doesn’t mean there’s gonna be tanks in the street, but it might be the reset that we need. And so really, you know, preparing for bad things happening is really what you should be focused on right now. And making sure that your retirement is secure and safe and in built out in a way that you can withstand whatever takes place over the next year to a few years. Sure.
Steve 14:20
Well, now let’s turn to Sharon Epperson when answering the question. So, what should we do now?
Sharon Epperson 14:25
Focus on what you can control continue to contribute to your retirement accounts. But no matter what, do not panic or make emotional decisions with your retirement money.
Steve 14:36
Now that seems like solid advice.
Neil Mager 14:38
Yeah. I mean, I couldn’t tell you how many calls I’ve taken from my clients that have said, hey, you know, I’m still contributing to my 401 k should I stop but absolutely continue to contribute to your 401 K? You know, that’s, you’re, you’re doing something called dollar cost averaging. And you’re able to actually buy more shares at a cheaper cost. And so right now is actually a really good time to continue to invest. But I would take action, I would sit down with a fiduciary, in review your plan, and review how you’re allocated and review just, you know, everything in, in total, to make sure that you are on the right track. Because I think now more than ever, it’s really, really important to feel more comfortable. Well, of course.
Steve 15:19
And I think that that the don’t panic line is one that really rings true because it’s very easy to panic at a time like this. And the inclination then is to sell. But I mean, again, resist that urge, right?
Neil Mager 15:35
Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, that’s tough to say, Steve, I mean, resist in a way in a manner. It’s hard to go to cash, because you got to figure out when to get back into the market at some point. You know, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people come in 2008. And it talked to him last year. And they said, We’ve been sitting in cash since 2008. Oh, wow. So, the challenge is always going to be, you know, how do I how do I get back in. Now, that’s not to say that it’s not too late to build out a retirement plan and start to maneuver some positions around. Because think about it over the past 12 plus years, you’ve really been able to capitalize on a lot of market gains. And don’t forget that that’s a key component to it, it’s really probably propelled you to towards the possibility of retirement. And so, keep that in mind too, as you as you consider making changes
Steve 16:27
800-656-8616. So once again, Neil, we are up against the clock. Let’s invite folks to call come on in.
Neil Mager 16:33
Yeah, we keep a few openings on our calendar each week for listeners. And we’d love to hear from folks who have seen the recent market volatility and are concerned about it. Our right track financial review really focuses on the five key areas of retirement planning, starting with income taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. We have the opportunity right now to sit down and have a conversation with a fiduciary financial advisor who can guide you and possibly help improve your situation. So, for the next 10 callers, we offer a complimentary easy to understand financial review of your portfolio. The review will indicate if you are in need of a comprehensive financial plan, but you got to do your part, pick up the phone right now, give us a call. Because we’re only offering 10 spots this week.
Steve 17:19
Hey, folks, this is a great opportunity for you to call us at 800-656-8616. Take advantage of the offer, get that financial roadmap put together once and for all, it’s a chance for you to get that mile comprehensive financial review, see where you are today. Get that map drawn up to help you get on the road to retirement where you want to go 800-656-8616, 800-656-8616
Neil Mager 17:42
It’s a concept that we have learned again, and again, if you fail to prepare, then you prepare to fail. But saving for retirement might mean you’ve won a battle, but you still haven’t won the war yet. It’s essential to create that income plan for yourself to use in that retirement.
Announcer 18:05
He’s letting the clock run out on his social security to 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!
Announcer 18:21
Play your best retirement game call BrianQ 800-656-8616. Or text BrianQ to 800-656-8616. Call or text BrianQ to 800-656-8616.
Steve 18:41
Hey, we’re back on the money with Secure Money. Neil Mager is here in for Brian Quaranta. Brian will be back at some point won’t he Neil?
Neil Mager 18:49
Yeah, we miss him. He was attending a conference and had another conference start of this week. So, we’re looking forward to seeing him back here at the office. But we miss him. And now he maybe he’s getting some time with his with his two young children.
Steve 19:05
Yes, exactly. Right. Well, in any case, you’re here and again, doing a great job. As always. The one of the other things I know that you do is you do a lot of educational, you know, presentations, don’t you?
Neil Mager 19:17
Yeah, I mean, we do. And we think it’s really important to educate the public. Because, you know, like I said, at the beginning of the show retirement has totally changed. It’s no longer the fact that we’re going to take our pension, combine it with a social security check, and not have to worry, you know, there’s a lot of moving parts and there’s a lot of pieces. That’s why we talk about the five key areas of financial planning. You know, some people are just so focused on the accumulation model, that they never really think about anything else. They just want to see their accounts go from A to B to C. Now they’re back to A and so they’re wondering, you know, how do I make adjustments but really, you know, the focus needs to be on what we do a good job of educating the public on as the focus needs to be on these five areas. And those five areas are. First and foremost, we’ve talked a lot about this today, Steve, but you got to create your income plan, what’s your cash flow model look like now that you’re in retirement, because about 85% of the people that we’re seeing, they don’t have pensions. And they want to know, how do I actually go about building out cash flow from the money that I’ve saved? Now, I read an interesting article not too long ago, and it talks about how people that don’t work with advisors, you know, the money that they’ve saved, what ends up happening with it is one of two things. One, they either, you know, kind of use that money as a checking account, and they blow through it very, very quickly. Or two, they do the total opposite. And what I mean by that is, they end up living very conservatively off of their Social Security. And they never end up spending in a VM, any of the money that they’ve saved and worked hard to save over the years, because they’re afraid, they’re afraid it’s going to run out, they’re afraid of market volatility, they’re afraid of a healthcare event. They’re afraid of a lot of different things. And so that becomes the challenge. So, income, taxes, investments, healthcare, and legacy, really our focus, and what you can do is you can go onto our website, secure moneyadvisors.com. And one, you can get a lot of good information about our company, archived our radio shows, and our television shows that you can find there. But also you can see where we’re going to be locally, in your area, too, for you to come out and attend an event.
Steve 21:37
Sure, again, folks that’s secure money. advisors.com secure money. advisors.com is the website. Let’s jump into a couple of questions here, before we run out of time, because that seems to be a premium. Let’s see Walt is up first, Walt says, “what’s going to happen to my two retirement accounts in this market?” Well, that’s a broad question there.
Neil Mager 21:57
Can you rub your crystal ball? Yeah.
Steve 22:01
Well, that’s just it, because we don’t know. Well, do I mean, we know what’s happening right now?
Neil Mager 22:05
Yeah. I mean, we don’t know all I mean, in the challenge becomes, as no way knows, nobody knows. But you know, depending on where you’re at in life, well, you know, you might want to protect yourself somewhat. Hopefully, you’ve created somewhat of a retirement plan if you are close. But you know, what do we know about the market? Steve, it’s historically they always come back. Right. So if you do have time, you know, as challenging as it might be, and as much as it might give you an upset stomach, you know, oftentimes, the best thing to do is, is let it come back, you know, if you do have time, now, if you don’t have time, I actually would take action at this point, it doesn’t mean that you’re going all to cash or going all to a bank CD or anything like that. But what you might consider is, you know, how much loss can I actually withstand to be able to position myself but maybe this might actually cause people to have to work a little bit longer? Who knows, depending on how they’ve protected themselves? Sure.
Steve 23:03
Again, that’s great insight. 800-656-8616. Walter, if you want to know a little bit more, let’s see, we’ve got time. For more, let’s go to Mark. Here’s another one. Mark says My 401k is lost over 20% This year, I can’t afford to lose that kind of money. Every month, I express my concerns to my advisor, but he says not to worry. But I do worry and would love to know what you can do to help alleviate my fears.
Neil Mager 23:28
Seems like market volatility is a common theme.
Steve 23:30
Seems like it. People are concerned.
Neil Mager 23:35
Yeah, I can understand and appreciate that for sure. You know, it sounds like your advisors. advice is don’t worry, hang in there, you’re in for the long haul. It’s just the paper loss, right? For some people that that might be the case. For others, it’s definitely not. And what I would encourage you to do is maybe to get a second opinion Mark, if you’re feeling a certain way about the advice that you’re getting, get a second opinion, come in, you know, to our office schedule an appointment and we’ll give you a true second opinion. But if you’re that concerned, what I would not do is do nothing.
Steve 24:10
Right. So, Neil, do you do a lot of second opinions? I mean, do you find yourself in that situation?
Neil Mager 24:14
Yeah, we do. And I think you know, it was typically last year what we’re experiencing in 21 was people are saying, well, you know, my advisor might be good might not be I’m not sure the markets been straight up. And I’m not real sure if I’m, you know, averaging 7% Should I be averaging 12%? I’m not real sure. So, I’d like a second opinion and a review of what I’m currently doing.
Steve 24:39
Well, again, we are up against the clock. And so, Mark, if you want to know some more now’s the time, in fact, is the last opportunity today to give us a call.
Neil Mager 24:45
Yes, Steve our Right Track Financial Review. It follows the five key areas of financial planning, income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy. We keep a few openings on our calendar each and every week for listeners, and we’d love to hear from you Do we know a lot of you are concerned about market volatility and want a true second opinion? Well, right now you have the opportunity to sit down with a fiduciary financial advisor who can guide you and possibly help improve your situation. You got to do your part, though, folks. It’s only available for the next 10 callers. And what we’re going to do is perform a complimentary easy to understand financial review. So, pick up the phone right now, give us a call.
Steve 25:26
800-656-8616. That’s all you got to do, folks, it’s a chance to well get that second opinion, like we were just talking about a practical financial review. And again, it’s a comprehensive financial review that will show you where you are today. But more importantly, it becomes that roadmap. You know, you talk about the right track retirement, yes, getting you on the right track to retirement. That’s the goal. 800-656-8616 That’s 800-656-8616. Neil, as always, it’s a pleasure to chat with you and to really dig into some of these things that certainly are on people’s minds. Steve, my pleasure has a great talk, and we are going to be back next week with lots more we really appreciate you listening and on the money was secure money next week.
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 usage of information discussed. 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.
