Episode 175 – Annuities and What Happens if a Spouse Dies

On this week’s episode of On the Money with Secure Money, Brian Quaranta discusses recent and upcoming changes to tax policy, what an annuity is, and what commonly happens to your finances if a spouse dies unexpectedly.

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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, they’re 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. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results, investments will fluctuate and when redeemed to 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 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.

Steve 00:43

Hey, welcome everybody. This is On the Money with Secure Money. Brian Quaranta’s here, I’m Steve, and you know, last year record-breaking inflation, volatile markets, all of that added to our anxiety and our you know, unsure of what’s going on secure act 2.0 opened up some other doors for us. What we’re going to do today is talk a little bit about that and get back the get the background from Brian Quaranta. Brian, hey, how are you?

Brian Quaranta 01:01

Steve, I am doing great. And it’s great to be back with you. It’s great to have my family healthy. I’m excited about today’s show. And I would say that most people would agree that 2022 was a rough road. The good news, though, is that there are some strategies. Matter of fact, I’ve laid out five strategies that can help you boost your retirement savings going into 2023. And we’ve got a lot of details we come back next with On the Money with Secure Money.

Announcer 01:30

And now On the Money.

Brian Quaranta 01:33

Any good retirement plan starts with the foundation,

Announcer 01:37

Asset protection, tax reduction, holistic planning,

Brian Quaranta 01:40

These are the things that start to move you towards having a retirement plan.

Announcer 01:45

Retirement doesn’t have to be complicated.

Brian Quaranta 01:47

You think that’s the difficult part? That’s just getting started!

Announcer 01:52

And now On the Money with Secure Money.

Steve 01:58

Hey, welcome in everybody, this is On the Money with Secure Money. Brian Quaranta is here. Brian, of course is President CEO of Secure Money Advisors. He is a fiduciary, independent, and he’s an author, Right Track Your Retirement: A Simple Planning Strategy to Help You Reduce Risk, Build Income and Provide Peace of Mind. I will always say the title once in the show. Otherwise, I’m just going to just brief it down to Right Track Your Retirement, huh Brian?

Brian Quaranta 02:22

Right. Yeah, yeah. And don’t forget, you can go to righttrackyourretirement.com and get a copy of that book absolutely free. We pay for the shipping and handling to and it truly is, I mean, I worked on that book, I put my heart and soul into it laid it out from A to Z how to how to think about retirement, how to do it in a simple, very easy, effective strategy that provides a lot of principle protection to and I think when people get this in their hands, they’re going to be pleasantly surprised to realize that they don’t have to have the anxieties and worries that they do when dealing with the stock market. Although I believe in the stock market, I just think people are risking money they can’t afford to lose. So righttrackyourretirement.com you go there, get a copy of the book and also schedule a right track review meeting with our advisors, which is about an hour meeting. And it really is about an hour that will change the next 30 years of your life if you take advantage of it. So do that folks, righttrackyourretirement.com

Steve 03:13

Sounds like a plan. And that’s what it’s all about, the plan, Brian. And so again, you know, inflation and the stock market. And the good news, though, as you said is we’ve got some things you’ve come up with some things that can maybe help us recover a little bit of what we lost last year. One of the things has nothing to do with The Secure Act, it just has to do with the IRS and rearranging the income brackets and withholdings.

Brian Quaranta 03:39

Yeah, that’s right. And you may already be benefiting from one of the IRS is biggest changes. If you’ve noticed a bump in your net pay after January 1 is a good chance. It’s probably connected to the package of adjustments made to the federal income tax brackets and standard deductions by the tax agencies. So, the tax tables adjusted by the IRS establish how much employers should withhold in federal taxes. So, the increased brackets means withholding should go down, which incidentally should result in workers getting a bump and their take-home pay.

Steve 04:09

Well, I noticed it. It was just a bump. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to notice.

Brian Quaranta 04:12

We’ll take the bump.

Steve 04:13

I’ll take it. Absolutely. So, one of the other things. So that’s a way that we you, know, start to kind of take some of the pressure off. But one of the other things that’s happening, however, not until 2024, is that right? And that’s the tax deductions are going up. I like that.

Brian Quaranta 04:28

Yeah, this is a great thing. So standard deductions are going up. So, though the effect again, like you said, I mean, it’s probably not gonna be felt until you file your 2023 taxes. Taxpayers are gonna get some relief. I mean, married couples that are filing jointly will see their standard deduction of $27,700 which is going to which is up about $1,800. And single taxpayers will also see their standard deduction raise about $900 to about $13,850.

Steve 04:54

Okay, well, let me again every year October November, the IRS comes out with the contribution limits for the 401k, the IRA, the Roth. And again, it went way up for this year.

Brian Quaranta 05:06

Well, this is the one I really liked seeing is because we need to be able to have people save more money for retirement. And these contribution limits really just, they need to go up even higher than what they’ve gone up recently here. But the good news is for retirement savers contribution limits are higher, caps for employees participate in a 401Ks or a 403B or even a 457 plan. And federal government Thrift Savings Plans, also known as your TSP are up by $2,000. So, they’re going about 22,500. So that’s a nice little bump and additional. And then, of course, annual contribution limits on IRAs also increased to 6500. And contributions for people that are 50 and older jumped to about $7500. So again, all good things here, things that everybody should be taking advantage of, because 85 to 90% of the people retiring today are not retiring with pensions. So, it is your job to fund your retirement and figure out how you’re going to be able to retire and enjoy the lifestyle that you want to retire. And that all comes with you being able to save enough money, and most importantly, generate enough income on a monthly basis for you to be able to stop working and continue to lifestyle that you want to continue. And this is why I wrote right track your retirement because everybody wants to know, am I on the right track? Am I doing the right thing? Am I making all the right moves? And there’s really five key areas to retirement planning. There’s the income component, there’s taxes, there’s investments, there’s the health care component, and there’s the estate planning component, the three that you absolutely must get dialed in in retirement is income taxes and investments. Because when you want to retire, and if you don’t have a pension, like 85-90% of people retiring today, when you retire, the paycheck is going to stop. So, the question you have to ask yourself is how are you going to replace your paycheck? Now, according to Social Security, Social Security Administration says that Social Security was only meant to cover about 40% of your current income, which means you’re going to have additional income that you’re probably going to need. The question is where are you going to get that income? And how are you going to do it? Are you going to take from your IRA accounts first you can take from your savings accounts. First, you’re going to take from your Roth IRA accounts, you have to get the sequence of which you withdraw money, right? You cannot get this wrong, folks. And in right track your retirement, I talk about the best ways to generate income in retirement, all you got to do is go to righttrackyourretirement.com, you’ll be able to schedule a right track review there with my team, you can schedule with them. And it’s about an hour appointment that truly will give you insights and change the next 30 years of your retirement. And it’s not a sales pitch. We’re not there to sell you anything. It’s truly there to help you. And we’ll tell you the best practices when it comes to income taxes and investments.

Steve 07:33

Well, again, it’s all about the plan and understanding and educating and that’s what you do so well. You and the team at Secure Money Advisors, you know, one of your mantras, if you will, is education – teaching folks the right thing about retirement.

Brian Quaranta 07:47

It is and you know, it’s why we do the radio show, we do the TV show we do you know, probably 80 Plus educational events every single year because we’re out there to educate people on the right ways to do it. Look, retirement was a lot easier 30-40 years ago, because when you retired, you did get a pension. So, you had a pension check and a Social Security check. People didn’t need to worry about where their income was coming from today, they do. And that’s why every week Steve, we leave at least 10 spots open every single week on our calendars for our radio listeners. So, for the next 10 callers who call in right now we’re going to give you a complimentary right-track retirement review. And if you call the number, you can get it immediately. So, our complimentary right track review is gonna go through three key areas with your retirement income, it’ll go through your taxes, it’ll go through your investments, right and it’ll tell you how much you’re paying in fees, how much you’re taking in risk, and it will tell you what the probability of success will be if you were to retire or if you’re already retired. If you’re going to run the potential of running out of money, take advantage of this folks. This is definitely in this economic environment. Not something you want to kick the can down the road on, so Steve, tell them how they can take advantage of that.

Steve 08:48

My pleasure, Brian. It’s a phone call away. 800-656-8616 take advantage of what Brian is offering here. It’s a way for you to really get ahead of the curve when it comes to retirement 800-656-8616, 800-656-8616

Brian Quaranta 09:04

A successful retirement plan has multiple income streams there are plenty of strategies to achieve cash flow you need in retirement one ways in annuity, love them or despise them. They are a solid tool in the retirement toolbox. we’ll unpack annuities pros and cons we come right back with On the Money with Secure Money.

Announcer 09:29

And now On the Money with Secure Money

Steve 09:36

we are back on the money with secured money. I’m consumer advocate Steve, Brian Quaranta is here. Brian is President CEO of secure money advisors, fiduciary or fiduciary firm. You’ve got a great team there. I’ve had the pleasure of working with a couple of them. Brian, Neil Mager of course, Mike Diulus as well. I mean, again, you’ve just got some very talented people around you and that really gives you a great edge for success.

Brian Quaranta 09:58

Yeah, I mean, we’ve got you know, two name of 15 people here. And you know, we’ve got Michael, we’ve got Niel, we’ve got Maggie, we’ve got myself, we’ve got a whole group of people. So very, very talented group. And you know, we care very much about people’s retirement future. And look, I’ve been in the business for almost 25 years, and I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. And, you know, I think I’m well versed at this point in my career to understand the big mistakes that people make. And unfortunately, we still see people making these mistakes, you know, risking money, they can’t afford to lose buying into the cookie cutter phrases of staying in the market when they should be getting out of the market. Like, don’t worry about it, hang in there. You’re in it for the long haul. It’s just a paper loss. You know, I mean, you got to ask yourself, folks, Wednesday’s a long haul ever. And, you know, if you talk to a financial advisor, they’ll tell you, if you’re going to be investing money, be in it for the long haul, you know, I heard somebody say the other day, you know, if you have at least 20 years, before you need the money, you know, go ahead and put your money in the market. So, my question is, when that 20-year clock ticks by and you reach the 20th year, what do you do that you don’t go back into another 20 years, but that’s what people do all the time. And I don’t mind people being in the market, but they’re taking risks with money, they can’t afford to lose. And so, people have to think about how they’re going to retire and how they’re going to generate the income. And that’s where annuities can be a smart investment for the right person.

Steve 11:17

Sure. Well, again, let’s dig into it. Because, you know, there are very strong feelings about annuities. And I certainly in the time that we’ve been working together, I have learned a lot about annuities from you, and what makes sense for people; and sometimes it makes sense, and sometimes it doesn’t. So, let’s talk about that.

Brian Quaranta 11:33

Well, let’s first understand that there’s no perfect investment out there, right. And there’s pros and cons to everything we do whether I’m buying a treasury bill, or I’m buying an individual stock, or I’m buying, you know, a mutual fund. There’s pros and cons to it all. So, the real question you have to ask is, number one is an annuity right for me. So, the annuities draw criticism from some and they get praise from a lot of others. Both are sometimes the reserve deserved. And you know, if we dig into what annuities are and what they aren’t, they aren’t for everyone, but you might want to consider one, especially if you’re going into retirement and needing income. So, one of the criticisms that annuities get is they come with high fees. And this is just disingenuous, though, because there are different types of annuities and just how high the fees are vary between annuity an annuity. So, for example, a fixed annuity has no fees at all. Matter of fact, it works exactly like a bank CD. The only difference is your money is with a financial institution like an insurance company versus the bank. The other big difference is that when I buy a bank, CD, the bank doesn’t allow me to withdrawal any type of income from that CD, I’ve got to wait for that CD to mature before I can touch it where an annuity you can put money in and you can start withdrawing money on a monthly basis to supplement your income needs. And so, you know, a perfect example of that is you know, we had somebody come in, as is going back about four months ago, and they were getting on $400,000. At the bank, they were getting roughly about $1,000 a year in interest. And all we did was move that money from the bank to a fixed annuity paying over 4%. And now they’re getting $15000-$16,000 a year in interest that they’re using to supplement their income, no fees, complete liquidity, if they die, the family keeps the money, you know, so a lot of people are very misled. They think that when you put money with these insurance companies and these annuities that when you die, the insurance company keeps the money and it’s all locked up. And this is just all incorrect information.

Steve 13:35

Well, I mean, there was a time when they it was like that, and certainly over the last 10 But really even the last five years the insurance industry has risen to the occasion because they need to stay in business too. And they have come up with some pretty innovative ways to use annuities that help us all through retirement.

Brian Quaranta 13:53

Yeah, the way I look at purchasing an annuity, and I personally own it myself is, you know, if you think about it, an annuity is just a form of insurance. It’s an insurance of your monthly income. So we insure a lot of things in our lives, we insure our cars, we insure our homes, we insure our health, right, because if something happens and we have a heart attack or we get sick and we go to the hospital, we have an insurance that pays for that. Same thing with a car, right, the reason I have insurance on my vehicle is because if I leave the radio studio and I get T-boned by a tractor-trailer, my car can be fixed but also my medical bills can be taken care of. Annuities guarantee and protect your income. They basically insure your income and so my question always is, wait a minute, we insure everything in our lives that are important, but the one thing we don’t insure is our retirement income. And my question is why? Well, because Wall Street’s done a really good job marketing to people that annuities are a bad thing. I mean, look, you’ve got people out there like Ken Fisher that say “annuities, I hate annuities and you should too” or you know Suze Orman who hates annuities and you know, they might be talking about a very specific type of annuity like it may be a variable annuity or something, but it’s unfair to, you know, to say that about all annuities because they serve a purpose, they truly provide peace of mind security. For a lot of people, there’s a lot of people out there that do not want to take risk with the money, they’ve worked hard for it. And they would rather put their money someplace that they can guarantee and protect the principal. And they can get a guaranteed income just like they would from a pension for the rest of their lives. And if they die, if they’re married, their spouse continues to get that income for the rest of their lives. And by the way, if they both die, any money that’s left in the annuity pays out to the family members. So, it’s very hard for me to debate any financial advisor and say, why is it that- why would you hate an account that guarantees and protects your principal and provides you with guaranteed monthly income? How could you hate an account like that? The other big thing that they get a rub on, Steve, is the fact that they pay these high commissions to financial advisors. Again, Steve, this is why every single week we leave at least 10 spots open on our calendar for people to take advantage of our complimentary Right Track Review. It’s no cost to you about an hour appointment with our team scheduled today.

Steve 16:05

800-656-8616, 800-656-8616.

Brian Quaranta 16:10

Most experts agree making major financial decisions after the loss of a spouse is not a good idea. Let your emotions settle down, then meet with your advisor and you can avoid costly mistakes. We’ll talk more about this when we come back with On the Money with Secure Money.

Announcer 16:32

And now On the Money with Secure Money.

Steve 16:40

Hey, welcome back everybody On the Money with Secure Money and Brian Quaranta’s here. I’m consumer advocate, Steve, and we have lots to discuss. Boy, that was great to you know, I always learned stuff. We’re listening to you, Brian, I mean, when you talk about annuities, I know a lot of people, their eyes just glaze over. But I mean, you dig in, you really make some good points there about them and why they work for some people?

Brian Quaranta 17:03

Well, I’m just not one of these people out there that want to shame a product or an idea until I fully research it. And that’s what I’ve done, you know, and my clients rely on me to do the research and find out the facts and read the fine detail. And that’s what we do, you know, because at the end of the day, you know, the way that we look at it here at secure money advisors is, you know, how would we build our own retirement plans? How would we build our mom and dad’s retirement plans, you know, the way that we would build our own or our families is exactly how we want to build the peoples that are coming in. You know, that’s the nice thing about working with an independent fiduciary firm is that we have no agenda, we’re not beholden to any specific company, we can truly go out there and shop the marketplace and find the very best for our clients based on what’s going on the economic environment and put them in the right places at the right time. And that’s something I’m very proud of, you know, and that’s, that’s something that the big box firms can’t do. And you know, when you have people working at the big banks and the big box firms, their hands are tied, you know, those, those institutions have agendas. And you know, they’ve got a menu of products that those advisors are required to recommend from. And so that doesn’t mean that those products are always going to be the best fit, but it may be what they’re recommending. So, it’s just something you need to think about as you move forward with your retirement planning. And you got to find a good independent fiduciary firm that also believes in providing you with a real written plan, because one of the major financial mistakes that we see is that people don’t have a real written plan. And that really becomes a problem when you lose a spouse. And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about in this segment is the loss of a spouse. Yeah,

Steve 18:35

It’s never an easy subject to broach even. But again, it’s part of what you do, it’s part of your job as difficult as it is. And again, you’re there to help folks get through one of the most difficult times of their life.

Brian Quaranta 18:48

It is and I write about this stuff in my book, right track your retirement, as matter of fact, you can go to righttrackyourretirement.com, you can get a copy of my book, where I lay out from A to Z, how to build a retirement plan, all the things that you need to think of, and you can also at the same time schedule a complimentary Right Track Retirement Review with our advisors, where you can take advantage of an hour meeting where we truly will open your eyes up to five key areas of retirement planning and truly give you a path to run on. But ignoring tax implications at the time of death is one that’s really missed. And people don’t realize that when you lose a spouse, it’s going to push you into a higher tax bracket. You know, one of the things you’ll hear a lot as people will say, well when my spouse dies, it’s not gonna be that big of a deal. You know, it’ll cost that individual less to live, they won’t be spending as much they won’t be spending as much on insurance. Well, that’s fine, but you also have to take into consideration that they’re also going to be a single tax filer now and single tax brackets are much higher than joint married tax brackets. So, taxes will go up.

Steve 19:55

Exactly. And this, I mean, the thing is, is when you that’s something that happens immediately, right? I mean, all of a sudden, you’ve got to file a single. Alright, there’s just- and the same can be said about Social Security. And that, you know, one of those checks is going away. And there is no, you know, lag time there.

Brian Quaranta 20:08

No. And that, again is immediately you know, you, when you lose your, your, your spouse, this Social Security immediately takes away the lowest social security check, and they don’t wait to do it, it’s done immediately. So, the living off of less income and paying higher and taxes starts to happen very, very quickly. And this is why planning is so important. And this is why having a written plan is so important. Because one of the things that we feel very passionate about here at secure money advisors is that if we can make all of these bad things happen on paper, while you’re both living alive and healthy, and we can make really hard financial decisions, like what are we going to do when Bob dies? First, what are we going to do when Sally dies first, and you can make those decisions together as husband and wife while your sound mind and in good health? That means when it happens, we already have a plan to execute on and now your spouse isn’t there emotionally distraught, wondering, what do I do? What’s going to be the best move for me to make? You make that move together. And that’s why having a written plan is so important.

Steve 21:08

Because you take a lot of things into account that normally we wouldn’t, because you’ve been there done that kind of thing, and you’re going to help make sure that all the bases are covered, like you just said.

Brian Quaranta 21:19

Yeah, you know, a good example of that is typically when you lose a spouse, and there’s a loss of income, sometimes the spouse needs more money. And a lot of times if people don’t have a plan, they’ll wind up taking unplanned withdrawals from the retirement accounts. And many people look to make up that lost income by taking these additional withdrawals from the retirement accounts. And sometimes they make mistakes, and they pay big taxes and big penalties, or they take too much out too soon. And they wind up running out of money later on in life. So, these are all things that can be addressed with a real written plan. And if you’ve got investment statements, and you’ve got investment accounts, that’s great, but that’s not a plan. Those are just accounts having a plan means that we’re going to think about how to generate income while you’re both living how to best generate income if one of you die what order to withdraw your money. You know, do I withdraw from my IRA accounts? First, my Roth IRA accounts for us Do I take money from my savings accounts? When I do all those withdrawals? What impact is that going to have on taxes? What investments should I be owning now? 10 years from now 20 years from now what happens if a health event occurs? What do we do with the estate when we’re both gone? That’s a real financial plan. That’s why those five key areas have to be addressed and if you haven’t addressed them, that’s okay. It just means you have to because that’s having a retirement plan it Look folks for the next 10 callers who call in right now, I want to give you a complimentary Right Track Retirement Review all you got to do is call the number and schedule today.

Steve 22:47

Make that call while you’re thinking of that, folks. 800-656-8616 is the number 800-656-8616 again 800-656-8616

Brian Quaranta 22:59

The questions from listeners just keep coming in and we love it answers next we’ll be right back with On the Money with Secure Money.

Announcer 23:14

And now On the Money with Secure Money

Steve 23:26

We are back with another segment here On the Money with Secure Money Brian Quaranta’s here. I’m Steve, and we have been having a great show today. We’ve covered everything from touching on the Secure Act, and talking about taxes, Talking about annuities. I mean, again, you cover it all Brian and the beauty is at Secure Money Advisors, you guys are that one-stop shop. So, whether we’re talking estate planning, whether we’re talking Social Security, certainly investments, our overall retirement plan, you got it all covered.

Brian Quaranta 23:48

We do. Yeah, I mean, that was a mission of mine, when we built Secure Money Advisors was I wanted to make it a place that people could come and make sure that all their needs were handled, because all of it ties together. I mean, a lot of our clients that are retiring, they’re retiring before the age of 65. But then eventually, when they hit 65, they’ve got to do Medicare, and we do all their Medicare work for them and educate them on the best ways to file for Medicare and what programs that are going to be best based on how many times they see the doctor or what medications are on. And then we’ve got tax professionals that help us build out the best tax strategies. We’ve got estate planning attorneys that helped us build up with us estate strategies. So, what’s really nice is it all takes place here at secure money advisors. And, you know, I think people have really appreciated that rather than trying to go from one place to the next to the next. And what happens when you do that you’ve got a splintered plan. And when you have a splintered plan, you know the left-hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. And sometimes mistakes are made. So, to avoid that. We like to have essentially one-stop shop. Right? Help keep all that organized. So yeah, it’s very beneficial to the client.

Steve 24:54

800-656-8616. That’s the number to call, folks. All right. Let’s jump into some of these questions here. Brian. Michael’s up first, he says a coworker recently used the phrase Mega Backdoor Roth IRA and I pretended to understand, but in reality, I was completely confused. Now I’ve heard you talk about Roth conversions on the show, but a Mega Backdoor Roth IRA, Is that even a thing?

Brian Quaranta 25:13

Yeah, well, you know, I think these names are made up for show. But yes, the backdoor Roth is very simple. I mean, let’s take myself, for example. So, for some people, they might be in an income tax bracket where they can’t contribute to a Roth IRA, but they might be able to contribute to maybe a SEP or a traditional or a 401k. And one of the things that they can do, you know, for myself, one of the things I like to do is I can invest a large sum of money, let’s say, into a SEP IRA, where I get a tax deduction, and in the year that I make that contribution and get the tax deduction, at the same time, it can turn around a couple of days later, and remove that money from the IRA and convert it to a Roth IRA. And the reason why it’s called mega backdoor is because if you were just to contribute to a Roth IRA, your contribution limit is going to be anywhere from six to $7,500 a year, and with a mega backdoor, you can put money into let’s say, a solo 401k, or a SEP or any of these higher contributed plans, and then turn around and do a conversion because there’s no limit on conversion. So, it can be a great strategy. We’ve done it before for folks that it’s the right thing for and this is why seeking out the right financial firm really can open your eyes up to strategies that you might not even know about. All right, Michael,

Steve 26:28

there you go. Have some great thoughts on that. 800-656-8616. All right, and he’s ready. And he’s wondering, he says I’m 50 years old make $65,000 a year, my company does not offer a 401 K plan. But I recently opened a Roth IRA with a contribution of 10% of my paycheck now, is this a good investment for me? And how much can I expect to make in 10 years when I’m planning to retire?

Brian Quaranta 26:51

I mean, it may be I mean, if that’s all he can put money into it, it may be the best thing for him. I don’t know there’s a lot that goes into figuring out whether or not something like that is great. And in regards to how much can he expect to make in 10 years? I mean, that really depends on how he’s investing the money. The question is, how much do you need to make? Right? Not how much will you make? Because this is another thing that I think people get wrong is that they need to work backwards and say, “Okay, well, let’s say you need a million dollars by the time they retire.” Well, you got to back into those numbers and figure out, okay, if I save X amount of year, let’s say you can only save so much a year, okay, let’s say you can only put away $20,000 a year, but you want to be at a million dollars by the time you retire. The next question is okay, well, what rate of return are you going to need? These are the simple math problems that people don’t take the time to figure out or, and what happens is they’re basically shooting in the dark. And I can tell you, if you aim at nothing. It’s amazing how accurate you’ll be. You want to make sure that you’re figuring out exactly how much money you need to save. But more importantly, what rate of return are you going to need, because the rate of return that you need is also going to drive the types of investments you may choose to use.

Steve 27:58

Perfect. Andy, there you go. 800-656-8616. Let’s see, we’ve got time for another one here. Janet has a question about her mother-in-law. Janet says her mother-in-law is 61 years old, and she has savings, but nothing invested in a way of employer plans like IRAs. The initial plan has been to live within her means and rely on Social Security. Now, could she invest in bonds or maybe an index fund? Or is there a structured plan you would recommend?

Brian Quaranta 28:32

Yeah, that’s, that’s tough. I mean, you know, there’s bigger questions that go into that. I mean, I would tell you get together with a firm, that’s a fiduciary and put together a plan because there’s a lot that goes into figuring out what’s going to be best for her. You know, before you can even risk any money, you have to ask yourself, What’s the purpose of the money. And that’s another thing I don’t think people take the time to do is define the purpose of their money, you know, and there’s really only four things your money can do for you. It can provide you with income, it can be safe, it can be liquid, or you can take risk with it and grow it. I write about a lot of this stuff in my book, Right Track Your Retirement and if you go to righttrackyourretirement.com you can get a copy of my free book, but you can also call the number today and schedule a complimentary right track retirement review right now with us. And during our complimentary review, we’ll go through the five key areas with you that we talked about every week on the show income taxes, investments, health care, and estate planning. Take advantage of it, folks. Our Right Track Retirement Review is not a sales pitch. We’re not selling anything, leave your checkbooks at home when you come in. We’re truly there to help you identify problems and see if there’s ways that we can help you improve your situation. If you’re already doing the right things. We’ll shake your hands, we’ll part as friends and you will just feel better that you’re doing all the right things. But if you’re not, it might be a good time for you to find that out sooner than later. So, call the number today schedule your Right Track Retirement Review or go to righttrackyourretirement.com get a copy of my free book and schedule there also.

Steve 29:50

Give us a call 800-656-8616, 800-656-8616 Brian, as always, a pleasure to catch up with you. The show is always fun and so fast paced.

Brian Quaranta 29:55

Yes, Steve, and we’ll see you again next week. Folks, thanks for being with us. Until we come back with On the Money with Secure Money, have a great week.

Announcer 30:06

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 discuss 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. 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 that 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.

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