On this week’s episode of On the Money with Secure Money, Brian Quaranta discusses the three different segments of your finances you should analyze in order to get a handle on inflation in the new year.
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Radio Show Transcript
Announcer 00:00
Investment advisory services are offered through foundation investment advisors, LLC. an SEC-registered investment advisor Brian Quaranta and his guests provide general information not individually targeted, personalized advice, and are not liable for the usage of information discussed. Exposure to ideas and financial vehicles should not be considered investment advice or recommendation to buy or sell any of these financial vehicles. This information should also not be considered tax or legal advice. As performance is not a guarantee of future results, investments will fluctuate and when redeemed may be worth more or less than when originally invested. Any comments regarding safe and secure investments and guaranteed income streams refer only to fixed insurance products, they do not refer in any way to securities or investment advisory products, fixed insurance and annuity product guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing company.
Brian Quaranta 00:39
To close out 2022 and welcome in 2023, we’re going to offer some things you should keep your eye on if you are planning to retire next year, when we come right back with On the Money with Secure Money.
Announcer 00:54
And now On the Money.
Brian Quaranta 00:57
Any good retirement plan starts with the foundation,
Announcer 01:01
asset protection, tax reduction, holistic planning.
Brian Quaranta 01:03
These are the things that start to move you towards having a retirement plan.
Announcer 01:07
Retirement doesn’t have to be complicated. You think that’s the difficult part. That’s just getting started. And now On the Money with Secure Money.
Steve 01:22
Hey, welcome, everybody. This is On the Money with Secure Money. I’m consumer advocate Steve. Joining me today, as always is Brian Quaranta. He is On the Money with Secure Money, if anybody defines that that is you, Brian, how are you?
Brian Quaranta 01:33
I’m doing great. Steve. Good to see you again. Yeah, as we come to the close of the year here,
Steve 01:40
Right. It’s been a big year. 2022 is a perfect big year for you, certainly the company and in your personal life as well. But I think that, you know, we look forward to 2023, right?
Brian Quaranta 01:52
We do we do. It’s been a look, let’s just face it. I mean, it’s been a roller coaster ride for the last few years. I mean, we you know, between COVID and, you know, the stock market doing what it did during COVID. And, you know, lock downs. And I mean, it’s just been challenging all the way across the board. And I think we’ve got some challenging times in front of us still. And I think it’s important that we plan for that, because those of you that are getting ready to retire or are in retirement, really just don’t have the luxury of sitting back and hoping for the best. I mean, I think it’s a time when really you have to start to evaluate your overall plan. And make sure that as we go into these new economic times that you’re set up to plan for Worst case scenario, I always feel that a good plan is based around worst case scenario. But we want to expect the best right as everything in life, but you know, at the end of the day, we’ve got to be prepared for 2023 There’s a lot of people think that, you know, this recession is going to be inevitable sometime mid-year. And when you look at the data out there, it kind of proves that when you look at the trillions of dollars that is in in savings accounts, and those savings accounts are continuing to decline. And we’re already starting to see a lot of companies lay people off. So, you know, it’s better to be prepared than to stick your head in the sand and not pay attention to it all. So, my advice to everybody is prepare, look over your strategies right now. Remember that not worrying about it hanging in there, you’re in it for long haul that is not a strategy. So, if you’re getting that type of advice, I would tell you to get a second opinion. Because certainly not worrying about it and just hanging in there. And don’t worry about any losses, don’t worry about the volatility is not the way you would really want to approach retirement, especially if you’re taking risk with 100% of your life savings. Sure.
Steve 03:45
Well, I mean, one of the things that we talk about, and you’ve talked about this before, and this is kind of a hot button for you is that sequence of returns risk. And as far as things we need to look for going forward into 2023. We’ve got to understand that piece.
Brian Quaranta 03:58
Yeah, this is a big one. I talk about it all the time. And I and a lot of people are starting to understand it. We’ve been talking about it for years, because we focus on the distribution part of retirement. And people really need to understand that there are two very distinct parts that we all go through with our money. There’s the accumulation years, and then there’s the distribution years, the accumulation years are really simple. You know, if you’ve ever taken a road trip across the country, your accumulation years are like hopping on the highway, and you got four or 500 miles a highway in front of you. You know, if there’s an accident, you’ll probably slow down a little bit, but you’ll be able to make up time because you’re on the highway and you can go a little bit faster. That’s what your accumulation years are like I mean, you got a long stretch of road in front of you miles and miles and miles and miles the road. When you retire, you get off that main highway and you start to get off on the side roads. And now things make a difference, right? There’s all kinds of twists and turns that you have to be aware of. And this is why in my book, right track your retirement, I write about the five key areas that everybody needs to understand when shifting into retirement. Number one, most importantly is how to generate reliable consistent income without having to worry about the ups and downs of the market. Number two is making sure that we have a plan for taxes. Number three is making sure we’ve got a good investment strategy because the strategies that got you to retirement are not the same strategies that get you through retirement. Number four is making sure we have a plan for health events. And number five, a good estate planning strategy. But understanding sequence risk, Steve, this is a big one sequence of returns risk is really just a fancy term that financial advisors have been throwing around for years well since 1994, thanks to a paper written by a gentleman by the name of Bill Benjen. And it may sound like an obscure financial theory. But in 2023, it’s imperative to understand this unusual category of risk. It has a direct bearing on the wealth of people who plan to retire during difficult markets we are facing today. And here’s the simple version, during your 25 year retirement journey, there will be at least one bear market, your finances will be much worse off if the slump occurs at the beginning of your retirement rather than the middle or the end. And what we’ve got to remember about this sequencing risk is that the order in which you receive returns matters. And if you’re trying to generate income, like most people are from the money that they’ve saved in their retirement accounts. If you’re pulling money out and the markets going down, keep in mind you are compounding those losses, you are locking into those losses. And now you have a probability of running out of money or outliving your money. Okay. And this is what we want to avoid mitigation of risk and retirement comes from taking an approach called safety first. So there’s two approaches you can take in retirement, there’s a safety first approach. And there’s also the probability approach the safety first approach, sure that the money that I’m going to need for the rest of my life is absolutely guaranteed and insured. And then anything else can be invested in the market at risk, so that you have extra money there to, you know, do bigger things. And if the markets aren’t going well, well, maybe you just don’t do those things that year. But you’ve got to make sure at least your basic necessities are covered. But that’s why every single week on our radio show, we leave time slots open for you to talk with our team. It’s not very often that you get to sit down with a fiduciary firm, at no cost. It’s complimentary to you. And our right track retirement review will help you understand how to position and mitigate the risks that I’m talking about here today, along with many, many other risks. So for the next 10 callers who call in right now, we are going to give you a complimentary complimentary right track retirement review, we will spend about 45 minutes with you going through strategy with you now, when you call in, when you call in, you can either do this meeting with us via the phone, or you can come into the office, just let our team know who’s answering how you would like to handle this. So take advantage of this. Now our right track return review is going to go through five areas with your income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. But folks, you got to do your part, pick up the phone, this is not the time to procrastinate. Get yourself a second opinion, especially as we go into 2023. The economic environment is so much different. So call us today and schedule that time.
Steve 08:31
Make that call right away, folks. 800-656-8616. That’s the number to call Brian’s there for you taking things that are complicated and it can be tricky, especially with a crazy market like we have right now. Here’s your chance to get a true practical Financial Review. get you on the right road to retirement 800-656-8616 You’ll get that comprehensive financial review, you’ll see where you are today. But more importantly, you’ll find that you now have a roadmap that can help get you to where you need to be 800-656-8616 800-656-8616
Brian Quaranta 09:05
Nothing strikes as much fear into our hearts of retirees as inflation and that’s for good reason we come back we’re going to talk about how to deal with inflation. We come right back with On the Money with Secure Money
Announcer 09:22
Are you fighting for financial knowledge? Don’t let bad advice be a punch in the gut to your retirement. Take advantage of a complimentary no cost no obligation consultation with a local trusted financial coach. Call Brian Quaranta and his team at Secure Money Advisors 800-656-8616, 800-656-8616.
Hurricanes, tornadoes and fire. These are serious situations we plan in advance for. The volatility of them. market can be just as devastating. When a market correction does occur, there are strategies you can employ to bounce back. Call Brian Quaranta and his team is Secure Money Advisors at 800-656-8616 or text keyword BrianQ to 800-656-8616. We’ve made it easy, folks, all you have to do is call or text the keyword BrianQ 800-656-8616.
Steve 10:32
Welcome back, this is On the Money with Secure Money. Brian Quaranta is here. Brian is President CEO of Secure Money Advisors wrote a great little book called Right Track Your Retirement, a simple planning strategy to help you reduce risk, build income and provide peace of mind. It’s a great little book Brian and again, fast read, but really pertinent. And I dont know, just easy to understand, you know, dialogue, if you will.
Brian Quaranta 10:54
Yeah. And look, when you when you call in and you take advantage of our complimentary right track retirement review, we’re going to send you a copy of the book at no cost, I’m literally going to pay for shipping and handling and pay not one penny to receive a copy of the book when you schedule that right track retirement review. And in that book, I lay out a very basic plan to make sure that you have a simple strategy that’s going to give you a peace of mind and the protection you need. Folks, the best advice that I can give you is take the safety first approach, the safety first approach is the better approach in retirement, what all it means is this, you’ve got to make sure that you take care of all the necessities first, you’ve got to make sure that the bills are paid, you got to make sure that you’re going to have enough money to do the things you want to do. Then if you want to roll the dice with some of your money, go for it, take all the risks that you want, I believe in the market, but I believe in the market over the long term. Now understand that as you get older, that long term starts to get compressed on you. So, you don’t have as much time for recovery, as you did in your younger years, you just don’t have as much miles of road in front of you to be able to make up time. So, when you’re in retirement, you want to make sure that all of your necessities are taken care of first. And in my book, I talk about the safety-first approach. Because I’ve seen it my two decades of planning people’s lives absolutely destroyed because somebody got paid to convince them that it was a great idea to continue to take risks with 100% of everything they’ve accumulated over their lifetime. Now, folks, I don’t I don’t really get this strategy, quite frankly, personally, myself. And that’s because if you think about it, everything we do in life, whether we’re driving our cars, you know, purchasing a home, our health, at every bit of it’s insured, you know, our cars are insured, our homes are insured, our health is insured, the one thing we never insure is our retirement. And I would encourage you to ensure your retirement ensure your income, why wouldn’t you? I mean, think about you know, if you’re going to be retiring, what’s the most important thing you can have? It’s called income. So, what is one way that you can get income? Well, there’s something called Social Security, when you pay into Social Security, and you wait to take it, the larger that pot of money gets? Well, you can do the same thing in retirement, you can do that by purchasing a simple annuity, where you can buy the annuity, and the longer you wait, the more money you will receive. And this is a way that you can guarantee income not only for yourself, but if you die, also your spouse, the safety-first approach means guarantee what you need to guarantee then roll the dice all you want. Some of the most sophisticated investors out there today understand this very simple philosophy. But yet, we as the average investor, are taught to believe that it’s okay to roll the dice and remember, the person out there that’s telling you to risk 100% of your money. Well, it’s really easy to tell somebody to risk 100% of their money, especially if they get paid a fee or commission to do it. So again, take the safety-first approach, call us today. Schedule your right track retirement review, sit down with my team, get yourself a second opinion and learn this very simple approach that will give you a peace of mind and security as you go through retirement. There’s risks that you’ve got to mitigate in retirement income is one of them. Number two is taxes. The investments you’re using right now are not the investments that you want to use as you go into retirement or through retirement. Some of you might, you might be able to, but most people are using outdated strategies, or strategies that are really set up for somebody that might be 35 or 40 years old. So, keep in mind, inflation is here. It’s healthy, and it’s alive. And we better have a way of protecting ourselves. And Warren Buffett has been quoted saying the first way to keep pace with inflation is not to lose any money. His second rule of keeping pace with inflation is don’t forget the first rule.
Steve 14:41
Exactly. Exactly. Well, again, I think that ties right into lose the lose your fear of inflation. I mean, we’ve all lived through inflation, or at least if we’re getting closer to retirement. We’ve all lived through this before. It’s been a long time, but we’ve all done it before and you certainly have helped people weather a crazy market like right now, haven’t you?
Brian Quaranta 14:58
Yeah, look, don’t take my word. For I mean, listen to what Jamie Dimon CEO of JPMorgan has to say, at the numbers and the story they tell,
Jamie Dimon 15:08
If you look in the short run the consumer spending 10% More than last year and 40%, one pre-COVID, that’s a tremendous sum of money. And they have a trillion and a half dollars still in their checking accounts, more than pre-COVID. So, the spending is down. That’s the good news. The other news, which is not good is it rates are now you know, 4%, on their way to five, inflation is eroding everything I just said. And that trillion and a half dollars will run out sometime midyear next year. And so, when you’re looking at forward, those things, may very well derail the economy and causes mild or hard recession that people worried about.
Steve 15:40
Well, you know, he’s not got the brightest outlook on things. But again, he makes the point, look,
Brian Quaranta 15:46
I mean, preparation is where it’s all at. I mean, you got to be preparing for Worst case scenario. I mean, if you have a plan, where you’re just rolling the dice, and you’re hoping for the best, and you think, you know, the market downturn that we’ve had is going to recover as quickly as we saw with the COVID, where it bounced very, very quickly, where we call a V bottom recovery, that does not happen very often. Again, folks, take the safety-first approach, let us show you how to do that for next 10 callers who call in right now, we are going to give you a complimentary Right Track Retirement review. This review is going to really open your eyes up to what a retirement plan should really look like I want you to understand there is a true difference between a retirement plan and an investment strategy. So, we here at Secure Money Advisors, over two decades now have been helping thousands of families put together strategies that work really well. Let us show you how to do it. Let me send you a copy of my book Right Track Your Retirement at absolutely no cost when you schedule your appointment. So, for next 10 callers who call in right now you’re gonna get a complimentary Right Track Retirement Review, we’re gonna go over five key areas with your income taxes, investments, health care, and your estate planning. Look, what if I could show you a better way to get more income to maximize your income, show you a way to pay less in taxes, show you a better way to approach the markets than what you have currently been doing? Would that be worth 45 minutes of your time, folks, call us today and schedule you got to do your part, don’t procrastinate on this. Give us a call today.
Steve 17:16
That sounds great, Brian, folks, it’s 800-656-8616. You’re going to get that comprehensive financial review, and you’ll see where you are today. But what’s important is you’re going to find you now have a roadmap that’s going to guide you on that road to retirement that is uniquely yours. 800-656-8616. Again, 800-656-8616
Brian Quaranta 17:40
Planning for retirement income, while not rocket science is pretty complex. For example, here’s a list of questions, a comprehensive plan will address we come back we’re gonna go over some of these, we’ll come right back with On the Money with Secure Money.
Announcer 17:55
He’s letting the clock run out on his social security at age 70 for maximum benefits. And here comes the Roth conversion. He’s got some outstanding coaching with that lifetime income plan. He’s created his own pension as well. And it looks like he’s going to go All! The! Way!
Play your best retirement game call BrianQ 800-656-8616. Or text BrianQ to 800-656-8616 Call or text BrianQ to 800-656-8616.
Steve 18:28
Hey, welcome back, everybody. This is another segment of On the Money with Secure Money. And Brian Quaranta, Brian, of course President CEO of Secure Money Advisors, again, a fiduciary independent 20 plus years experience an author of Right Track Your Retirement. And again, we’ve been talking a lot about that today, Brian, but that book, like I said, it’s a pretty easy read. It’s not complicated, but it does sort of break things down in a way that I think we can understand.
Brian Quaranta 18:55
It does. And you know, when I wrote the book, it was designed to get right to the point very quickly. If you looked, you know, I’ve got probably a stack of you know, 15-20 books right by me right now. And you know, most of these retirement books are volumes thick. And you know, a lot of times these guys drone on and on and on about very, very complicated concepts. And you know, they’re running very sophisticated calculations that the average person is not going to follow along with. My job as a fiduciary advisor is to make sure that I take all of that complicated stuff and break it down to a very easy, simple, digestible format. And that’s what I do at Right Track Your Retirement. And that’s why so many people have said, Look, you know, your book really changed my life because it really gave me a better understanding of how to go about building things. And it kept it simple. And I’m telling you, folks, the things in life that work the best are the simple things.
Steve 19:52
All right, Brian. Well, let’s jump into some of these questions here. While we still have time available, Axel was wondering he says, in two years, my wife And I will be 67 years old and will be qualified to receive Social Security benefits. We have IRA accounts with a combined value of just over a million dollars, how can my wife and I reduce income tax when we start to withdraw from our IRA accounts during our retirement years?
Brian Quaranta 20:15
Yeah, well, that’s great question. So, there’s a few ways that you can, you can reduce the taxation out of your requirements or your IRAs. One, if you’re giving the charities, you can use something called a qualified charitable distribution where when the RMD start, rather than you’re paying money out of your savings or checking account to your charities, you can give it to your charity in the form of the RMD. And then you’re not taxed on that. You can also use something called a qualified longevity annuity contract where the IRS allows you to put 25% of your IRA balance into that account. And then you’re not subjected to RMDs on that, but it protects you later on down the road, if you need additional income, you know, in your later years, but they’ll actually exclude that from the total amount in your IRA. So, you don’t have to take RMDs on that. The other thing that you can do when you’re withdrawing money is you can set yourself up by doing Roth conversions right now. So that you can convert from taxable money to tax free money so that when you do start to withdraw money from your IRA accounts, maybe you’re withdrawing from a Roth IRA versus a traditional IRA, and now you don’t owe any tax, as a matter of fact, it’s all tax free to you. So, there’s lots of strategies and many more that I haven’t even talked about here, on ways that you can reduce or eliminate taxation when you have to withdraw money.
Steve 21:40
800-656-8616 Jonathan’s up next, he says, Not but alive, don’t know a lot about taxes or 401Ks just learning as I listened, so I’m struggling to understand the advantage, how does it help me? If I still need to pay taxes? When I withdraw the money later? Is there a strategy to this? Well, look, I’ll pay your taxes and go to jail, it’s that simple.
Brian Quaranta 22:06
We’ll look, I mean, at the end of the day, you know, the 401k, really, in my opinion, was not the best strategy to go all in on with employees. You know, when you look at the creation of 401k, in the late 70s, and it became very popular in the early 80s. The 401k was originally designed for executives that were getting, you know, bonuses or stock options, and it was a way for them to defer having to pay taxes on that money. But it didn’t take long for companies to realize that it was going to be a lot cheaper to provide a 401 K plan than provide you with a pension for the rest of your life. You know, the pension, in my opinion, is something that should have been protected, it should have never gone away. Because people have much more peace of mind knowing that if they work for a company for a period of time, and they put a certain amount of money away, that they’re going to be able to turn an income stream on just like they would with Social Security, and it would be guaranteed for their life. And if they die, it would be guaranteed for their spouse’s life. So, you know, if that’s all the option you got, and you’re growing and accumulating money, so for example, for myself here, I participate in the Secure Money Advisors 401 K, and I use the Roth component of it. So, I pay all the taxes upfront, but every deposit I make into my 401k is going to grow tax free. And then when I withdraw it in the future, it’s still tax free. So, lots of different strategies on how to do it, Jonathan, what I would tell you is get yourself with a good fiduciary firm that can help you build a plan and help you lay out a strategy
Steve 23:39
800-656-8616 There’s the number to call. Now let’s go to Rhonda. Rhonda is wondering, she says What’s your opinion of all the robo advisor stuff I’ve been hearing about? Is AI taking over retirement or should I look into it?
Brian Quaranta 23:54
Well, look, I mean, it’s a cheap way to do things and people. There’s a lot of people out there that just like to not you know, pay money to get advice. And you know, if that’s you, it’s a good direction to go. But I will tell you about a recent study that was done. I believe this was done by Bloomberg don’t quote me on this, but it was a study being done and it looked at the average return of the average mutual fund was 10.7%. The average return of the average investor was 3.7%. So why the difference between the average return of the average mutual fund and the average return to the average investor was a 7% difference right? 10.7% for the mutual fund 3.7% for the investor. What is going on here? What’s going on here is bad behavior, right? Investment behavior. A lot of people sell when the markets going down and they buy back in when the markets already up. And because of that bad behavior people actually are their worst enemies when it comes to dealing and investing with their own money. Again, this is why we offer the Right Track Retirement review because we want to be is to build your plan, folks, you owe it to yourself to give our office a call and schedule a complimentary Right Track Retirement Review, we leave 10 spots open every single week for listeners to call in and schedule this time. When you call in. Well, I’m also going to send you a copy of my book at no cost, you’re going to get it. It’s a simple planning guide to help you build income and give you peace of mind in retirement, we’re going to help you go through five areas of your retirement planning, your income, your taxes, your investments, your healthcare strategy, and your estate planning strategy. So again, you got to do your part, don’t procrastinate on this. Call us today and schedule a time to come in and go through the right track review. You won’t regret it. And my promise to you is when you come in, leave your checkbook at home because nobody’s going to try to sell you anything. There’s no high pressure here. We truly are here to help solve problems and do the very best for the community that we can do. Take advantage of it.
Steve 25:49
800-656-8616 again 800-656-8616 This has been a really fast show. Holy cow I was gonna come back for another segment.
Brian Quaranta 25:58
We gotta wait till next week. And folks, thanks again for joining us have a happy holiday and Merry Christmas and we’ll see you again next week right here same time with On the Money with Secure Money.
Announcer 26:17
Investment Advisory services are offered through foundation investment advisors, LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor Brian Quaranta and his guests provide general information not individually targeted, personalized advice and are not liable for the use of drip information. Discuss exposure to ideas and financial vehicles should not be considered investment advice or recommendations, buy or sell any of these financial vehicles. This information should also not be considered tax or legal advice. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. investments will fluctuate and when redeemed may be worth more or less than when originally invested. Any comments regarding safe and secure investments and guaranteed income stream for only two fixed insurance products did not refer in any way to securities or investment advisory products. Fixed insurance and annuity product guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuing company.
