On the Money with Secure Money: Episode 63

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Video Transcript

Cynthia de Fazio – 00:20

And welcome to On The money with secure money. My name is Cynthia De Fazio and I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta. He is president and founder CEO of secure money advisors as well as Neil Major senior investment advisor. Brian, how are you today?

Brian Quaranta – 00:34

We’re great. Cynthia, how are you today?

Cynthia de Fazio – 00:35

I am fantastic. I had a lot to say there in the beginning. This morning, Neil, how are you?

Neil Major – 00:42

I’m well, Cynthia, how are you?

Cynthia de Fazio – 00:43

I am doing fantastic. Thank you so much for asking. And I’m so excited about having you both in the studio today. And obviously, we have so much to talk about because people are so curious about how to retire with confidence how to retire comfortably. So Brian, I should leave you with clarity is so important. Why are so many people concerned right now about retirement, specifically, if they don’t have a plan in place?

Brian Quaranta – 01:07

Yeah. Well, the biggest problem is nobody has a pension anymore. Everybody has this thing called a 401k. So you know, 401 K’s came onto the scene, probably 25 years ago, pensions went out the door, right. And retirement was simple if you really think about it, because when you retired, you got a social security check, and you got a monthly pension check. Now it’s up to each of us to create our own pension. And we have to do this to the use of this 401k. So the game has changed quite a bit. I mean, you go back 35-40 years ago, people weren’t as confused about retirement as they are today. Because when they retired, they had Social Security a pension. So it’s the what do I do? Now? Question, right. Okay. So I’ve been working, I’ve had money coming in, in the form of a paycheck. Now I’m going to stop working, I don’t have this paycheck coming anymore. But bills, taxes and all the things I want to do. I still need money for that. So how am I going to do this? And how am I going to do it in a way that I’m not going to run out of money? And I think that’s the number one concern that people have is if I start pulling money out of my retirement accounts, how long is it gonna last?

Cynthia de Fazio – 02:12

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Neil, is that something that you’re hearing quite a bit, Neil, do? How do I know if I’m gonna run out of money or not?

Neil Major – 02:19

Yes. So to Brian’s point, it was very simple. He previously, you know, the put the pension, the Social Security checks. And we also had a great place to park money because as you get closer and closer to retirement, most people don’t want to take a lot of market risk. Yeah. And we used to be able to take the money down to our local bank by a bank, CD, FDIC insured and get a 10% 15%, I’ve heard as high as 18%, bank CD. So that’s where we were taught that basic principle of invest your money, live off of the interest. So, you had a pension, his social security check, and you had a nice, safe place to invest your money and add a little bit of extra income if you needed it. Now, like Brian said, we’re dealing with these 401 K’s, we’re not really sure how to how to go about getting Safe Money returns, you know, a lot of people, you know, we don’t turn to the banks anymore. A lot of people used to turn the bonds, but the yields have dropped so significantly, and you’re still taking some risk. So that’s not a great option. So, it’s really kind of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together to make sure that we can give you this retirement, that’s going to provide you a lot of clarity, that’s going to give you peace of mind.

Cynthia de Fazio – 03:31

Absolutely. And Brian, I should ask you a question. Are you finding that people in general are retiring sooner today versus years past?

Brian Quaranta – 03:39

The answer is yes. But this is only happened within the past two years. Okay. The pandemic is what’s pushed people into earlier retirements. Before that, you know, I don’t think we really were seeing people coming in with an urgency to retire. But because people had the opportunity to work from home, when companies started calling them back to the offices, they kind of got a taste for what it was like to not have to wake up, rushed down to the office, fight traffic every day. And now a lot of those people are coming, and they’re saying, I want to retire now. And we love hearing that. Because really, that’s where we as a company shine. Because that’s what we do really well. I mean, you know, when people come in, and we build out the plan, and we, and they’re not retired yet, and we’re tracking towards retirement. It’s great. We’ve given them a plan. But you know, the best day at our office is when we actually watch person retire, because a lot of our hard work has gone in to helping execute that. Now. They did the most of the hard work because they saved all the money, but they wouldn’t have done it without the strategies that we put in place for them. Sure. It’s very rewarding for us.

Cynthia de Fazio – 04:45

That makes sense. Now, what does that feel like when you tell someone that they’re okay to retire today if they want

Neil Major – 04:50

to, you know, like Brian said, a lot of work goes into it, right? So it’s not something that we’re just, you know, kind of analyzing and saying, Yeah, you’re in great shape. Now, I hear that a lot people come in They say, Well, I’ve met with my broker and he says, I can retire. No, we do a lot of planning, in order to make sure that we’re able to give that advice. Because really, that’s life altering sort of advice to say, hey, you no longer have to trade your time for money, you’re going to be safe and secure over the next 35-40 years, and you can retire. So we don’t take that decision lightly. And we want to make sure that a lot of planning has been involved, that we’ve made a lot of decisions over the years to put them in a position to succeed in it, it’s very rewarding. It’s very rewarding, because that’s the dream, right? I mean, throughout all those years, where we sacrificed, maybe we raised the family. Now all of a sudden, we’re still healthy enough, we have a bucket list that we want to accomplish. So yeah, it’s a great, it’s a great position to be in for us to say, you’re ready to go.

Brian Quaranta – 05:50

And when people retire, we don’t create paychecks for people in retirement, we create play checks, I’m not there, we create play checks, because that’s what it’s all about. So and it does, it takes a tremendous amount of work to get there. And it takes the right strategies to know how to my favorite. There was a there was something I read the other day, about a older gentleman that was he was asked to fix this, this boat, and they were having trouble with this boat getting it out of the the harbor, and this engine wouldn’t start. And they had brought in all these people and they couldn’t figure out what to do. And so this older guy comes in, and he looks around the engine, and he’s looking up and he’s looking down. And he pulls out a hammer, and he taps on the engine and the engine starts. And he sends the ship owners a bill for $10,000. They said why $10,000? He said, All he did was tap the engine with a hammer. And so they said well, we want an itemized bill. So the old man sent him an itemized bill. And it said $1 for the hammer, Hammer Tap, $9,999 to know where to tap with the point is, we know where to tap with the hammer. Yeah. And that’s what makes us so different is that there are very specific things that need to be addressed, that people are not addressing with most of their planners, because most of their planners are technically not planners, they’re just investors, they’re investing their money. They’re not helping them execute on an entire investment or planning strategy, which we call a retirement plan. Sure. And those are the things we talk about all the time, right, the five key areas income taxes, investments, healthcare and estate planning.

Cynthia de Fazio – 07:34

Sure. So it’s important to work with someone who specializes in the distribution phase of life versus accumulation when you’re entering retirement, correct. Yeah,

Brian Quaranta – 07:42

that’s where the change takes place. I mean, if you’re working with some of you’re still in the accumulation phase, you might be fine. You might not need to make any changes at all. But the question is, are you going to get the advice you need to be successful in the distribution? And we’ll hear this a lot. I really liked my person, but they don’t do what you do. Yeah, right. I don’t like I like my person, but they don’t do what you do. And and that says it all to us. Because when they sit down, they’re not seen from their other advisor, what we’re showing them. And so they can see the difference when they come in of what a real plan should look like and what they really should be getting. I mean, I remember this, I was dealing with my tax accountant for many years, who was actually my college professor, you know, my college accounting professor, I mean, what smart over an accountant could I get then the lady that taught me about accounting, and I thought for sure that I was never going to need another accountant. But as my business grew, as the business became more mature, as things started to change within the practice, I went and got a second opinion from another accountant. And he starts sharing with me all these things that I should be doing with the practice and strategies that I could have been doing to maximize our taxes, savings, give more to the employees. And I said, Why hasn’t she told me any of this? And it wasn’t that she wasn’t a good tax account. It was she didn’t do what he did. And so sometimes you just outgrow the people that you’re with. And and that’s okay. They get you to where you are, but sometimes you got to make a change to get to where you need to go.

Cynthia de Fazio – 09:15

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, Brian, I know that you and Neil have a very special offer to present to the viewers at home today. Let’s talk about what that is. And then open the phone lines. Yeah,

Brian Quaranta – 09:24

our right track retirement system really has been designed with you in mind, folks, it’s all about getting you on the right track. For years, people would come to our office and say, Am I on the right track? Am I doing the right things? Let me ask if you weren’t on the right track. When would you want to know our right track retirement system is going to help you identify whether or not you’re doing the right things. And it’s going to walk you through the five key areas of planning income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. So, for the next 10 callers who call in right now we’re going to give you a complimentary retirement review a right track retirement you at no cost, but you got to do your part, you got to call and schedule the appointment today. 1-888-382-1298.

Cynthia de Fazio – 10:08

Brian, thank you so much, Neil, thank you so much to the viewers at home, the phone number to call is on your screen, that number is 888-382-1298, we have to take a very short commercial break, but don’t go anywhere. When we come back, we do have some viewer questions this week, the next one could be yours.

Brian Quaranta – 10:25

So everybody can tell you how to invest your money. There’s not a lot of people out there and a lot of firms that can teach you how to use your money. Most people also tell you that they’re scared. And the reason they’re scared is because they’re afraid of running out of

Neil Major – 10:39

money. The last thing you want to do is have a really good job and your 60s retire, be looking for work again in the late 70s.

Brian Quaranta – 10:47

The average person might say, well, a good portfolio would be a good mix of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, kind of a good portfolio is all designed around the five key areas income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning.

Neil Major – 11:02

There’s we’re not just product pickers here, what we do best here as we build retirement plans,

Brian Quaranta – 11:07

nine out of 10 people, when they walk through the door would ask us, we just want to know if we’re on the right track. And I always say if you’re not on the right track, when would be a good time to know it. Probably now,

Neil Major – 11:18

People, you know, can actually see a vision once we start to really build out their plan.

Brian Quaranta – 11:23

This is about you if you’re not getting what you need. And you feel that when you walk out of the advisor’s office, it’s time to get a second opinion. And you can’t get a second opinion from the person that gave you the first the difference at secure money advisors. As a fiduciary firm, we help you manage the risk, build the income and give you the retirement you dream of.

Cynthia de Fazio – 11:56

And welcome back to on the money with secure money. My name is Cynthia De Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Covanta. He is founder and president of secure money advisors as well as joined by Neil major senior investment advisor, gentlemen, a wonderful show we’re having today talking about such an important topic, of course planning for retirement. This is my favorite part of the show, because we do have viewer questions. I’m hoping we can actually fill this segment in the final segment because people have been so patient waiting for their questions to be addressed. So, Neil, I’m gonna start with you. This is a great caller that came actually came in it says, Neil, I want to leave a reasonable amount of money to my kids. But I also don’t want to pinch pennies throughout my entire retirement to make it happen. Do you have any tips in this area?

Neil Major – 12:39

Yeah, I mean, this is pretty common for folks that we deal with, you know, leaving a legacy to their family. You know, a lot of a lot of times, people that we’re dealing with are concerned that their children aren’t going to have pensions. So, they want to leave money to make sure that they’re going to have some sort of income in retirement. And I can appreciate that. Absolutely. And there are certain ways that we can go about planning to make sure that we’re going to maximize what’s left to the family. I look at it like this, though, you’re number one, you’re the priority here, right? You, and we got to make sure that your income enables you to do all the things that you want to do, we got to be smart about it, we got to make sure that we can get through, you know, a 30 35 40-year retirement. So that’s, that’s always going to be my priority to make sure that we solve your needs. And then there, there’s money left over, we want to make sure that we’re doing planning along the way to make sure that we can get more in your children’s pockets, at least right? Yeah. But I think, you know, if you ask a lot of kids, they’d prefer to see mom and dad doing all the things they don’t really want mom and dad’s money, they they’d prefer to see them enjoying their retirement after working and sacrificing for 35 40 years. Sure.

Brian Quaranta – 13:57

And some parents could care less about giving their kids money. They said no, we’ve taken care of their on the road along the way. But you know, I will say that a good strategy is what I call a spend it twice strategy where literally, and this I’m dumbing this down for the purpose of the show here to make it very simple. But literally, you could buy a life insurance policy, right? That would pay to the kids as an inheritance and you could spend 100% of your own money, right? So, this way, you’re able to spend all of your money down to zero. And when you die, the death benefit is left with the life insurance policy tax free to the kids. And that’s a real strategy called spend it twice and it’s an excellent strategy for those that want to spend all their money and still leave an inheritance. I think it’s the greatest way to do it. But unfortunately, most people don’t qualify to do it because you have to qualify for the for the life insurance to be able to do it. But my gosh, literally for most people most of their money is in retirement accounts. If you leave it to the kids, the IRS is going to get a ton of that money through taxation. And here you could spend all of your money in your lifetime, you know, and do whatever you wanted to do. And then you leave the kids a beautiful inheritance tax free, and it works really, really nice that strategy. But again, you got to be healthy to qualify. So not everybody can do it.

Cynthia de Fazio – 15:12

Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Neil. Bryan, this next question is coming to you. I have two retirement accounts. One that is my main account that I’m contributing to and on track for retirement, but I also have another IRA from a previous employer with about 330,000. I’d like to cash that out and buy some investment property, but I’m not sure about taxes and penalties. I don’t want a huge tax bill at the end of the year, and I’m currently in the 28% tax bracket with an AGI of 250,000. What should I do to minimize losing money?

Brian Quaranta – 15:47

Well, I mean, you can buy real estate within your IRA, you have to use a custodian, like Ira services, or there’s lots of independent custodians out there. So I would say, if your main priority is to buy real estate, what a couple ways you can do it, you could do it through a Real Estate Fund, right. So you could just buy a real estate ETF, or you could buy even a real estate investment trust known as a REIT, that would get you in the real estate market. And then you wouldn’t have to cash in that money and pay all the taxes. But you can also set your IRA up through an IRA custodian, which would allow you to buy real estate through the IRA, and then you wouldn’t have a taxable event for buying into the investment property, because you’re buying it through the IRA. And there’s some reporting that gets that you have to do through that. That gets a little bit technical. But you know, if that has saved you from paying taxes on $338,000, or whatever it is there that he wants to pull out of the account by the investing, the

Neil Major – 16:41

other avenue that you might want to explore is, you know, interest rates are still pretty low. Yeah. Right. So do you think about, you know, maybe taking out a mortgage at three and a half 4%. Before rates go up? Yeah, instead of thinking about pulling out $330,000 and paying taxes on 37.

Brian Quaranta – 16:59

With interest rates as low as they are, Neil makes a great point. I mean, you’re basically using other people’s money, and it’s hardly costing you any money, they use other people’s money right now. So that’s always right now an avenue to look at. You know, I’ve we’ve had a number of clients that have called and wanted to pull large sums of money out of their accounts, to buy properties. And we show them mathematically that they’re better off if they were to get a mortgage, and we build now the mortgage into the income strategy, but it alleviates from having to take a large sum of money out, which means that down the road, 20 years, we still have more money by having the mortgage than if we were to take the money out and buy the house of cash.

Cynthia de Fazio – 17:37

Excellent. Thank you so much, Neil, this next question is for you. And I’m glad that we brought up real estate a little bit because the question is, Neil, I’m entering the retirement years, I want to pay off my mortgage. What is your advice on that before retirement?

Neil Major – 17:51

Yeah, so it’s kind of going back and checking on all the areas that we just talked about, you know, what’s the balance left on your mortgage? What interest rate are you currently paying? So and where are we going to get the money to pay off the mortgage? Do you have it sitting in a bank account or any nothing, are we going to have to take pre tax dollars and pull it out and add it to our tax bill and get into a significant rate I, I had a family member talk to me over Christmas time. And what she had said was, you know, I got $250,000 left on my mortgage, I want to retire in four years, I think I’m gonna pull money out and pay off the mortgage. And, you know, I know what kind of income she makes. And to me, it was not a good idea just because of the amount of taxes that she was going to have to pay. We sat down and actually figured out a strategy for her, where she was actually going to take her Social Security at full retirement age, and work till 70. And she was going to use the additional money from Social Security to pay off the mortgage balance. And it was going to kind of kill two birds with one stone by utilizing that strategy. And not, you know, having a significant tax problem by pulling a bunch of money out of

Brian Quaranta – 19:09

it, you know, and I would say you could see from the questions that are being asked, you know, their financial planning, there’s a lot of I don’t want to say creativity. But there’s a lot of strategy that goes into coming up with the best strategy, because there’s lots of different ways that you can maneuver to leverage your situation the best. And, you know, that’s one example. But you could do that three or four different ways for somebody else. Yeah. So that’s the uniqueness about financial planning. And that’s why working with experienced people when it comes to retirement strategies is very, very important. And that’s one thing that we’ve done to secure money advisors is, you know, we have a team of people that have a lot of experience. And we have a team of people across the country that have lots of experience for us, no matter how complicated it is. We can pick up the phone and we can solve anything complicated problem that we run into the give the client at least three or four different ways that they can solve the problem.

Cynthia de Fazio – 20:05

Yeah, yeah. I love that. Well, Brian, I know that you and Neil have a very special offer to present to the viewers at home. Let’s talk about what that is again before we reopen the phone line.

Brian Quaranta – 20:14

Yeah, folks, the right track Retirement System was truly designed for you. It’s designed to help you determine whether or not you’re on the right track. For years, people would come to the office and ask, Am I doing the right things? Am I on the right track? If you weren’t on the right track? When would you want to know now’s your opportunity to find out for the next 10 callers who call in right now we’re going to give you a complimentary right track retirement review. All you got to do is pick up the phone and call us and schedule that appointment today. The phone numbers 1-888-382-1298 Again, 1-888-382-1298. Schedule your appointment today.

Cynthia de Fazio – 20:52

Brian, thank you so much, Neil, thank you so much to the viewers at home, the phone lines are once again now open that number is 888-382-1298. As Brian and Neill have mentioned, if you’re not on the right track for retirement, when you want to know that today, again, all you have to do is pick up the phone and call in 88838 to 1298 we have to take a very short commercial break. When we come back, we have time for a couple more viewer questions. And again, to be yours. Stay tuned.

Brian Quaranta – 21:18

If I could help you increase your income. If I could help you pay less taxes. If I could help you potentially maximize the returns of your investments while reducing risk reducing fees if I could help you prepare for a health event or more importantly, when the good Lord decides to take you home to make sure that the money you’ve accumulated over your lifetime goes to your family and to your charities rather than the IRS. Would that be worth the time to come in and get a second opinion.

Cynthia de Fazio – 21:49

And welcome back to on the money with secure money. My name is Cynthia De Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian quanta. He is founder and president of secure money advisors as well as Neil, major senior investment advisor. Gentlemen, we have time for a couple more questions. So do you mind if I jump right in? Alright, Brian, I’m gonna guide this next one to you. My mom is 79 and doesn’t have any tolerance for risk in her nest egg. She has more income than she’ll ever need. Because of my dad’s military pension that she’s now getting. I’m considering an annuity for her not because she’ll need the income but as a way to protect the principal. Is this a good idea?

Brian Quaranta – 22:23

Yeah, look, I mean, I personally have an annuity, and I buy a fixed annuity. Why? Because I have money that I don’t want to take risk with. And I want to get a reasonable rate of return. One of the annuities that I own, I get a 3.3% Guaranteed interest rate. Where are you getting 3.3%? Today? Yeah, right. A fixed annuity can do that for you, I don’t have to take income from it. So it just grows like a bank seed a matter of fact, it’s even better than a bank CD because it grows tax deferred. So in this case, that may be an appropriate decision that they’re making there. Because all they’re looking to do is earn interest on that money and keep it safe. And an annuity can do that. So you know, there are restrictions if you’re needing to take that money out. But typically the annuity companies will allow you to have access to 10% of the account value each year during its maturity period. And then the other type of annuity you could purchase is even one that when the market goes up, you make money. But when the market goes down, you don’t lose any money. And I own that type of annuity to why because there’s money that I don’t want to lose in the market. But I would like to earn a little bit better rate of return and 3.3%. Right. So this gives me the opportunity to have some leverage when the market goes up, but not lose any principal when the market goes down. Again, not suitable for everybody, right? Everybody situations different. But those are alternatives to bank CDs and bonds. Right? And that’s what you got to think about these days, because the economic environment has changed so much that the product choices are different than what they’ve been before because who wants to buy a what do they call it a certificate of disappointment? Disappointment? Oh, it’s a certificate of appreciation.

Neil Major – 24:01

Brian, to your plane in to answer the question there. I just recently had a woman and her husband come in of the same age late 70s. And, you know, she had taken a lump sum pension option when she retired. Now, she retired in the early 2000s. So, she experienced the early market volatility of the 2000. And once again, 2008. And so, the money was all gone. She ran out of money. Okay. Well, the reason that she was in the office was because they just inherited some money from a family member. And what she said, she said, I experienced I need cash flow, I need income from this money. But I’ve experienced market volatility and market loss before and I don’t want to take those risk. And so, when I looked at the available options on the marketplace for her, what I did was I put a portion of her money that was going to satisfy her income needs and just simply a fixed annuity, because that was the right strategy. For what their needs were right. So, like Brian said, it doesn’t make sense for everybody. But there are cases that even getting 3.3% will work out beautifully for you. Well, now

Brian Quaranta – 25:11

now think about this lady situation. Yeah, right. She takes her lump sum pension, this, this is the big concern. She takes her lump sum pension in early 2000. And they think that they’re going to live off of this. But to their surprise, because of market volatility and the income, they’re taking out that money has gone, right. Fortunately for them, they get an inheritance. And now she’s saying, I don’t ever want to do that, again. I don’t want to invest this in the market and do what I do with my pension because I ran out of money. I’m lucky this time that I got this inheritance. Oh, my God, the inheritance. Right. So, this is where, you know, this is where with proper planning for distribution, we should never be in a situation to where somebody just runs out of money, right? Yeah, yeah. just shot a

Neil Major – 25:55

dress rehearsal. Right. I mean, shots. Yeah. So we got to do it right now. Like Brian said, thankfully, she is getting a second shot because of a family inheritance. But she learned from her mistakes and learn her lesson. And she doesn’t want all of her money in the market. And we, you know, are able to calculate a 3.3% She’s gonna be very successful.

Cynthia de Fazio – 26:14

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well, Brian, with only a minute, 40 seconds left of the show this week, any final words of wisdom and advice you would like to give the viewers at home?

Brian Quaranta – 26:23

Yes, get a second opinion, it doesn’t hurt. You don’t know what you don’t know. And you know, a lot of times people want to find out if they’re on the right track, this is an opportunity for you to be able to do that. You might be working with somebody for quite some time, you might have some questions of whether or not, you’re actually doing the very best that you can take advantage of the second opinion. Okay, take advantage of the right track retirement review. For the next 10 callers, we’re going to do a complimentary, so all you got to do is pick up the phone, call us today and schedule the appointment. It’s 1-888-382-1298. When you come in, we’ll spend about 45 minutes to an hour with you. We’ll talk about your concerns. We’ll address the five key areas, we always talk about income, taxes, investments, health care, and of course estate planning, you will have a tremendous amount of clarity. We’ll also look at how much risk you’re taking. Are you taking this much risk and only getting this much return? Right when you could be taking this much risk and getting this much return? We’ll do that complimentary again. Just call us today schedule the appointment 1 888-382-1298.

Cynthia de Fazio – 27:29

Gentlemen, thank you so much for another amazing show this week. To the viewers at home most specifically thank you for spending time with us. That number to call is 888-382-1298. Any questions about planning your retirement with confidence and clarity? We have the answers for you just pick up the phone and call 888-382-1298 Be safe. Be happy, be blessed. We’ll see you back here one week from today.