To see a full schedule of our TV airtimes, please click here.
Video Transcript
Cynthia de Fazio – 00:21
And welcome to On The money with secure money. My name is Cynthia De Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta. He is president and founder of secure money advisors. Brian,
Brian Quaranta – 00:30
how are you? Good to see Cynthia,
Cynthia de Fazio – 00:32
it’s great to see you as well. I always look forward to our time together. Because I know obviously, people have been calling in with so many different types of questions about all of the things we talk about. But just in case someone is tuning in, for the very first time this week, let’s talk about how important it is to have a retirement plan when you’re planning for retirement.
Brian Quaranta – 00:54
And how about a written plan. Right, a written plan is very, very important. And at our office, we actually have a binder that we give to our clients that have all the written planning documents in there when people are organized in retirement, and they’ve thought through all of the five key areas that we talked about. And if someone’s listening for the very first time, those five key areas are income, taxes, investments, health care, and legacy planning. When you think through all five key areas, and you understand the way that we do it secure money advisors, the best practices, they’re utilized to make sure you’re maximizing each of those areas, you truly go into retirement with peace of mind. And that’s what it’s all about. Sure, it’s about being able to go into retirement, with the peace of mind knowing that your plan will work, you’re not going to run out of money. If the market goes down, you’re not going to have to come out of retirement go to work. Now we say it’s not a dress rehearsal, we don’t get a second shot at this thing. We want to get it right one time. And that’s it, you know, you can see, go to 2007 2008 men, many stories of people that were close to retirement, or retired that had to come out of retirement, because they lost so much money. Sure. And we should never put ourselves in a position to where our plan could fail. And there’s very, there’s very specific strategies we want to use along the way to make sure that we put enough of a foundation under the portfolio, that we can generate enough income that we can protect enough money, so that if there is volatility, we need to generate income, we’re not running out of money.
Cynthia de Fazio – 02:30
Because that’s so important. I mean, obviously, you mentioned a very important time period, 2008 2009, what have you and everyone lost so much. We’re guarding against that. So basically, what I love so much about our shows, Brian is that you’re showing people how to put guard rails up, so that if something does come up again, if you will, yeah, they’re gonna be protected.
Brian Quaranta – 02:49
guard rails buffers, you name it there. I mean, that’s ultimately what we want to do. Because remember, folks, when you’ve won the game, when you’ve accumulated enough money, there’s no reason to continue to gamble with your life savings anymore. You know, if you think about where we were 35-40 years ago, in retirement, when you retired, it was actually pretty simple. Because when you retired, you got a social security check, you got a pension check. And the money that you saved, you didn’t have to take risk with it. Because you could go down to your local bank and buy a CD paying between 10 and 15%. So if you had an extra $100,000 laying around, or $200,000 laying around, and you put it in the bank CD, at a 10 or 15% interest rate that could be 1020. You know, 15 $30,000 a year in additional income with no risk to the principal. Yeah, right. And this is what we were all taught, you know, my grandfather used to tell me, he said, Brian, you’re going to work hard for your money, make sure that you in vest your principal and live off the interest, right. That’s the most important thing. And unfortunately, it’s more difficult to do today, because the banks don’t want to pay us any interest. So people see no other option than putting their money at risk. And I’m here to tell you folks, there are better options out there than putting 100% of your money at risk. We definitely still need the stock market to keep pace with inflation and have a portion of our portfolio growing, but it becomes more about protecting your lifestyle and making sure that when you retire, you stay retired.
Cynthia de Fazio – 04:19
Absolutely. Brian, this is a great question. I love this. They want to know what exactly is rebalancing a portfolio and is it necessary?
Brian Quaranta – 04:28
I’m not a big fan of rebalancing. Now, let me tell you why. So let’s just say for example, we’ve got three stocks in our portfolio. Okay. And let’s just suppose that one of the stocks we have is a big winner, right? It’s growing and growing and growing and growing and growing. And maybe we put $10,000 A piece in each of these stocks, right, okay, but this stock over here is worth maybe 15,000. This stock here is worth 20,000 And this stock, here’s worth 100,000. Well, what rebalancing means is that I’m going to take profits that I’ve earned over here in this larger one, and I’m going to re balance or put the equal amounts back into those three stocks. Okay? Now, what I don’t like about that is, what if this stock is a winner, right? I want that thing to continue to grow and grow and grow. So now I’m going to take a winning stock, okay, and I’m going to take the profits from it, and I might put it into two losers, or two very mediocre performers. And I just don’t see that being beneficial. Right. So there’s better ways to do it than rebalancing. I think having professionally managed money, like we do it secure money advisors, where we’re actually, we’re actually using an algorithm to determine the asset classes to be buying based around the economic cycle is a little bit better than just having a portfolio that automatically rebalances itself, because rebalancing does not always is not always the best option. So that makes sense. Yeah, that makes I’m not a big fan of it.
Cynthia de Fazio – 05:59
Okay, thank you so much. This is a great question to Brian, before we have our first opening for the commercial spot, should people consider using life insurance to build tax free cash value? What is your opinion?
Brian Quaranta – 06:10
Yeah, good question. I do it. And then not in a, you know, tell you viewers why I do it. I mean, first off, you know, when you’re looking to save money, there’s only so many places we can do it. You’ve got you know, IRAs, Roth IRAs, you have brokerage accounts, so individual stock accounts where we can buy individual stocks, or we can buy cryptocurrencies, or whatever we want. Why utilize life insurance. And again, this is not for everybody, but I’m gonna tell you why I do it. So I can say, as you know, Roth, IRAs only allow you to make so much of a contribution, there’s a cap, I can’t remember what the cap is, I think it’s like 7000, this year, or whatever, what, $7,000 a year, that’s a whole lot of money that you can put away into an account every single year. But what’s the benefit of a Roth, the benefit of the Roth is I put this money away, eventually, in the future, I can take it out all tax free. When life insurance, I have no cap, I could put $50,000 A year into it every single year and build up this cash value within the life insurance policy. And because the IRS honors they tax free loan provision from a life insurance policy, when you go to pull money out of that in the future. It’s all tax free to you. So am I telling you to run out and put all your wealth into something like that? No, but think about it, like diversification, we diversify our money, right, we should be diversifying our money also from a tax perspective also. And these are just other ways, you know that you can create tax free income for you, because some of you out there, but you know, like myself, I don’t qualify to put money into a Roth IRA, the IRS won’t allow me to do it. And because I can’t do that, I still want tax free money later on down the road. And life insurance is a great way for me to be able to take advantage of that.
Cynthia de Fazio – 07:56
That makes sense. Is that something that’s new, Brian, it’s probably
Brian Quaranta – 07:59
the oldest strategy in the book, really. And here’s the thing. When you talk to people about it, yeah, the first thing they think is I don’t want to buy life insurance, right? Because people think of life insurance, as something you buy when you’re younger. So that if you die, your family’s protected. Yeah, exactly. What if you understand cash value life insurance, and you understand the tax benefits of it. And you know how to properly utilize it like I do, like we do it secure money advisors, it can be a great tool for accumulating wealth, and having a big pot of money later on a life that’s tax rate. Not only that, you’re kind of, you know, taking care of two things at once. Because, you know, not only could you be building up this nice cash value, that’s all tax free to in the future. But if you ever died, it’d be a big death benefit that paid your Family Tax Free to Wow, your retirement account doesn’t do that.
Cynthia de Fazio – 08:54
Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. Well, Brian, you have a special offer that you want to present to the viewers at home today. Let’s talk a little bit about that. And then open the phone line. Yeah,
Brian Quaranta – 09:02
our right track Retirement System is really all about getting you on the right track. It’s about helping you get the peace of mind security that you want in need in retirement, the best thing that you can do is have a written plan going into retirement. And that written plan should revolve around five key areas income taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. And if you dot every I and cross every T in those five key areas, you will have a true written plan that gives you the peace of mind that no matter what shows up in retirement, you’re going to be able to get through retirement, I always look at the planning we do at secure money advisors is kind of an SUV, right? It doesn’t matter what storm rolls through. We’re gonna still be able to get from point A to point B and that’s the confidence you want going in retirement. But you’ve got to do your part in order to take advantage of the right track Retirement System. You’ve got to call us right schedule that complimentary portfolio analysis with us Call 188838 to 1298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298.
Cynthia de Fazio – 10:07
Brian, thank you so much to the viewers at home, the phone number to call is on your screen. That number is 888-382-1298. If you have questions for Brian about how to plan your perfect retirement, all you have to do is pick up the phone and call that number today. That number again is 888-382-1298. We have to take a very short commercial break, but don’t go anywhere. When we come back. I have so much more with Brian, please stay tuned.
Commercial Break – 10:32
How confident are you in your current financial plan? Do you know with certainty how the recent market volatility will affect your future hopes and dreams? How much are you paying in taxes? And how much are you losing to unnecessary high fees? You didn’t work to save this money so that you could spend your time worried in retirement. Now is the time to take charge of your finances so you can feel confident about your future call in during the next 30 minutes of today’s show only to set up an absolutely complimentary no obligation full blown financial review that will result in your own customized written plan. This is a $999 value that we’re giving away complimentary to the first 10 people who respond. We’ll start with a full blown analysis of what you already have, by running a report to untangle how much you are currently paying in fees, how you’re allocated for risk, and what it’s costing to work with your current advisor. Next, we’ll identify your goals. Where do you see yourself in the next five years? Where do you want to go? And who do you hope to go there with is your current financial plan set up to get you there without mishap? Let’s design a roadmap to create a financial plan you can follow with confidence, get the piece that so many people are missing from their retirement. Find out how having a written plan can make a difference to your retirement dreams. Call now to schedule your complimentary no obligation full blown financial review today.
Cynthia de Fazio – 12:06
And welcome back to on the money with secure money. My name is Cynthia De Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian co entre he is president and founder of secure money advisors. Brian, a great show that we’re having today, obviously talking about a variety of topics. One thing I want to ask you specifically, we talked so much about being on the right track for retirement. Can we talk a little bit about is there one specific area that people fail to plan for more than anything else across the board?
Brian Quaranta – 12:33
Yes, it’s income. Really? Yeah, you wouldn’t think because the most obvious thing that most of us are going to need when we retire is an income stream. Sure. People are investing for growth, people are investing to accumulate dollars. They’re not making the transition to an income strategy, which is completely different than accumulating your dollars and growing your money. And so it’s one of the most overlooked areas. And I think it’s because for the longest time, my industry has taught people that if you have an investment portfolio, a diversified investment portfolio of stocks and bonds, that you could keep that money invested. And you could start withdrawing 4% a year. Okay, it was called the 4% rule. I started by a gentleman by the name of Bill Benjamin. And this rule had been created back in the early 90s. And basically what this individual had found out is that if you had a diversified portfolio 60 40 split between stocks and bonds, you could comfortably retire by pulling 4% out a year. And you could even increase your withdrawal 3% a year to keep pace with inflation. So for the longest time, that’s how every advisor was taught, including myself. However, as the largest wave of baby boomers has started to come in to retirement when I can’t remember the statistic. It’s like 10,000 people a day or something like that. It’s ridiculous. But basically, what they found out what the 4% rule is, it’s actually flawed. And so the Harvard School of Business, the Wall Street Journal, there’s a number of publications that have come in, and they’ve retested this 4% rule. And what they found out is that it’s not as good as what it used to be. And the reason is obvious. We’re not in the 90s anymore, right? We’re in a completely different time period. And so there’s more market volatility than we’ve ever seen. And they’ve tested it. And they said, if you utilize this 4% rule today, there’s up to a 56% chance that you could run out of money. Now think about this for a moment. So for you viewers out there that are watching the show right now, if you have a retirement plan that you’re going to need income from, and you’re going to try to take that all from a portfolio that’s invested in the stock market. It’s a flip of a coin. You may make it you may not make it The question is, which one are you going to be? Now I would prefer to know that I’m going to make it period. But if I’ve got a, I’ve got studies showing that there could be a potential 56% chance of failure. I don’t want a plan that has a 56% chance of failure. I mean, that would be like you and I, getting on an airplane today. And let’s suppose that right before we’re about to back out of the gate, the captain gets on the intercom. And he says, folks, I want you to know, we just got word from the tower, there is a 56% chance that we may crash into the ocean, before we get to the destination. I don’t know about you, Cynthia, but I’m going to get off the plane.
Cynthia de Fazio – 15:36
I agree with you, Brian. Now,
Brian Quaranta – 15:38
when I ask people this, I always say, Well, let me ask you, Cynthia, what percentage would you feel comfortable with? Would you be okay? If the captain said, there’s only a 36%? Chance we’d crash in the ocean? Would you stay on the plane? If no, no, you wouldn’t know what if he said there was only a 26%? Chance? Would you stay on the plane? Nope. Okay. What percentage? Would it need to be for you to stay on the plane?
Cynthia de Fazio – 16:01
100%? No chance we’re going into the ocean. Right? Yeah,
Brian Quaranta – 16:05
you want to guarantee you’re gonna get there. Now do you know want to know what their percentage probability is that you might crash when you’re on an airplane? Of course, I actually don’t know. If I did a terrible if I told you.
Cynthia de Fazio – 16:19
This is going in all different directions. But
Brian Quaranta – 16:21
the point is, is that when we’re building a plan, we want the highest probability of success, right? And when it comes to retirement planning, remember, in order to have a good retirement, you have to think about your income first. And you might even be one of those folks out there to say, Well, Brian, I don’t need it, because I’m one of the 10%, that’s still going to get a pension, well, you’re still going to have to think about why. Because the IRS is going to force you to take money out whether you want to or not, it’s called an RMD. Right now, it starts at the age of 72. And you’re gonna have to start pulling that money out paying taxes on it becomes very, very messy. And this is why the planning process around income, whether it’s voluntary or forced is so important.
Cynthia de Fazio – 17:02
And I love that you just mentioned income, it ties into our next question, actually, it says, Brian, I’ve heard you mentioned this in the past. But what exactly is a retirement income gap?
Brian Quaranta – 17:11
Yeah, so this is B, let’s suppose that we’ve got husband and wife. And let’s suppose that they need $80,000 A year to live their lifestyle. Okay. And let’s suppose that the only source of income that they have is a social security check. Okay. And let’s suppose that their Social Security together adds up to 50,000. Well, if they need 80,000, and they’re only generating 50,000, 80 minus 50, is 30. That’s the income gap. 30,000 is the amount of money that they have to withdraw from their investment portfolio to meet their income need, hence the income gap. Right. Okay. So and that’s very important that you brought that up, because the income gap is the number one problem to solve for most people retiring today. And that’s when solving when you’re solving for the income gap, you’ve got to think about, okay, what impact will these withdrawals have on my portfolio? What consequences will I have when it comes to taxation? And so having a written retirement plan like we do at secure money advisors, will help you address all of these key areas to make sure that when you go into retirement, you’ve got the peace of mind and security you deserve?
Cynthia de Fazio – 18:27
Well, Brian, I know you have a special offer to the viewers at home today. Let’s talk a little bit about that one more time before reopening the phone line,
Brian Quaranta – 18:34
our right track Retirement System, Cynthia, we’re going to give away complimentary no cost to you for the next 10 callers. So if you’re one of the next 10 callers, we are going to walk you through when you come in what being on the right track looks like we’re going to go through the five key areas with you. We’re going to talk about your income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. But again, as always, you’ve got to do your part. You’ve got to pick up the phone, you have to call us it’s 1-888-382-1298 again, 1-888-382-1298 Pick up the phone and schedule with us today.
Cynthia de Fazio – 19:10
Brian, thank you so much to the viewers at home, the phone lines are once again now open that number to call is 888-382-1298. We know you have a lot of questions for Brian about how to plan your perfect retirement. Please take advantage of the complimentary consultation. That number once again is 888-382-1298. After this very short commercial break, I have a few more viewer questions to get through. One of those could be your own. Stay tuned.
Commercial Break – 19:36
As a good saver you’ve been putting away money during your working years. Studies find that the biggest fear of retirees is running out of money. Market volatility isn’t just a downward movement of stock prices. It’s the size and frequency of change. The more dramatic the ups and downs, the higher the volatility. This can put savers who are newly retired or a few years away from Being retired at greater risk. Today’s generation of retirees is not receiving traditional pensions as our parents or grandparents did. Instead, we have retirement accounts such as 401, K’s or 403 B’s. These accounts typically expose your money to market risk. The last thing you want right before retirement is to lose a portion of the money you need for income. But how do you turn these accounts into a retirement income? Is it safe to keep all your retirement money sitting in the stock market? The last thing you want is to lose a portion of the money you need for income due to market loss. By working with a financial professional, you can learn how to turn a portion of your savings into an income stream for life and income for the life of your spouse if you’re married. We all have moments in our lives when we wish we had taken action sooner. Don’t let procrastination rain on your retirement parade. Act now before it’s too late. Please call our office to set up your no cost no obligation retirement income review today.
Cynthia de Fazio – 21:01
And welcome back to on the money with secure money. My name is Cynthia De Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta. He is president and founder of secure money advisors, Brian, a great show that we’re having today talking about a multitude of topics. And the viewer questions have been from all over and I love the interest that we have from the viewer. So do you mind if we tackle it?
Brian Quaranta – 21:20
Let’s do it. Yeah, let’s do it.
Cynthia de Fazio – 21:22
All right. This is a great question. Brian, I have a question for you. What are the best tips for someone if they’re 10 years away from retirement? By the way, my brother is 10 years away from retirement.
Brian Quaranta – 21:35
That’s cute. Yeah, you should retire now. And with a good plan, you might be able to determine if you can, I think one of my favorite things to do though, when people come in, because so many people come in. And they really are they’re not even sure if you’re gonna be able to retire. And you know, when you have a system like we do, you can show people how to retire way earlier than they thought. I can’t tell you how many times over the course of the last probably 15 to 20 years, we’ve heard stories of people saying, Gosh, I’m so glad I met you guys, because I didn’t think we had a chance I had no idea that we were going to be able to do this. And I think that for most people, they’re working in their professional environment, right? They’re doing whatever their skill set is whatever they’ve been blessed to do. And whatever professional job they’re doing. They don’t know. They don’t know the money side of things. They’re just doing life and doing their work and trying to save as much money as they can. And I always kid around my staff and I said, Do you remember the scene from Karate Kid? And when Daniel went to Mr. Miyagi his house, and he wanted to learn karate so bad, but Mr. Miyagi, what did he have him doing? He had him painting the house, sanding the deck, right? Waxing the cars. And after weeks of doing this for Mr. Miyagi, Danielson says, I’m done. I quit, right. And Mr. Miyagi says Danis, and come back. And he starts to we get into the scene to where he’s saying dance and paint the house. And he’s doing karate with him, he didn’t realize that he was learning the fundamentals. And I always say, we’re kind of like Mr. Miyagi. They don’t know what they don’t know. And they don’t know that they already have a good foundation, right, that we can actually build off of, because nobody’s taught them what that foundation really means and what it can do for them. We’ve had so many stories over the years of people saying, oh, my gosh, we you know, we were talking for years about building our house or moving or whatever it might be. And because we met you guys, we’re able to do that now. So we just we feel blessed to be able to provide that level of advice to people that they’re making such big decisions in life changing decisions, you know, retiring early, or moving to places, they’ve talked about moving for years that they didn’t think were possible, buying the dream home that they said they wanted to buy for years, but never knew how to use their money to be able to do it. So those are exciting parts of our work. So I was
Cynthia de Fazio – 24:03
gonna ask you, Brian, does that feeling ever get old when you tell someone you know what, you’re in great shape, you can retire today, if you want to? What does that feel like for you?
Brian Quaranta – 24:13
Well, first off, you got to remember, it’s very shocking to people, right? Because making the mental transition, but here’s what typically does happen when you tell them that it’s kind of like a deer in headlights look, but what happens is, as they start to work with you, and they come back for their next meeting, and they come back for their next meeting, they start to study what you’ve put together, they’ll come back and go, Wow, you’re right. We really can do this. And you know, what’s, what’s fun for us is when you have a couple come in, and you know, maybe their husbands you know, getting ready to retire and the wife says, Well, I’m just gonna work another five years or six years. I’m fine with it. I like my work. And then I showed them that if you want to work I’ll say to you know the way view Want to work? It’s optional. And let me show you why. But you could retire at the same time if you want it to none. And no, I’m happy with my work, I’m gonna keep working. So we go, when we go maybe to our second meeting or third meeting, they come back. And now all of a sudden, the wife says, You know what? I think I want to retire when he does. And those are special moments for us, because we know that they get it, right. They see it, they understand what they’ve accumulated. And they understand that if we position the money, the way that I’m showing you, and we follow these fundamentals, you’re going to be able to do this years earlier than you thought.
Cynthia de Fazio – 25:33
We’ve talked so often in the past, Brian, about how those first years of retirement are typically the Go Go years. So you probably have some great bucket list items. We have a couple minutes left of the show any really neat bucket list items that you’ve heard recently.
Brian Quaranta – 25:45
Oh, well, you know, the big one I hear about now is have you everybody wants to go on this, this glass train ride, there’s they’re all over the country. Now we’ve seen this. So public television had, I think I saw one piece on public television, but they’ve got these trains all over the country now that have these glass roofs, right. And you can go through the Smoky Mountains, you can go through the mountains of Colorado, and it’s this long trip where the train stops at all these different towns, and you can pick the route you want to do. But the entire time you’re sitting up in this train, and it’s just a full glass cockpit around you. And the scenery is outstanding. And they’ve got meals and cocktails and everything as they’re traveling and seeing the countryside, beautiful pictures I’ve seen. You know, of course, you hear about, you know, the people that want to get a Winnebago and you know, travel and live on the road. And we’ve got lots of clients that have done it, I will tell you after about three to five years, they come off the road. They’re usually done. Yeah. They don’t want to do it, it becomes exhausting for him. But they’ll say we’ve met some of the greatest people all over the country, we’ve met new friends that we’ll have for the rest of our lives, you know, and when they travel, they find things to do they work at the campgrounds or they’ll, you know, I’ve got one some clients that have worked the balloon festivals. And so they find all kinds of different. It’s a neat life for people that go into retirement, especially when you go in with a good plan and you have peace of mind and security. So basically, it’s about enjoying your retirement, it is always about enjoy your retirement, making sure it’s on the right track. And that’s why we always make sure you’re on the right track. It’s secure money advisors. And that’s what we’re going to do for you but you have to call us to schedule your complimentary portfolio analysis where we’re going to help you determine whether or not you’re on the right track. Call us today. 18883821298. Visit us today and find out whether or not you’re on the right track.
Cynthia de Fazio – 27:39
Brian, thank you so much for another amazing show. And thank you for tackling some of the viewer questions. They were awesome answers to the viewers at home most specifically. Thank you for spending time with us again this week. We look forward to seeing you back next week. Be safe, be happy, be blessed. And remember, you get one shot at retirement. Make sure you’re on the right track. Take care.