Episode 159 – How to Maintain & Sustain Your Lifestyle in Retirement

On this week’s episode of On the Money with Secure Money, Brian Quaranta discusses how to build a portfolio that can evolve over time to sustain the lifestyle you want in retirement.

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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

One way to maintain your lifestyle retirement is to make sure your plan evolves. That’s right, your plan needs to evolve with what’s going on in the markets right now with volatility. On today’s show, we’re gonna highlight some steps to take to help you get there when we come right back with on the money with secure money. And now on the money. Any good retirement plans starts with the foundation,

Announcer  01:04

Asset protection, tax reduction, holistic planning

Brian Quaranta  01:08

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

Announcer  01:12

Retirement doesn’t have to be complicated.

Brian Quaranta  01:15

You think that’s the difficult part, that’s just getting started.

Announcer  01:18

And now on the money with secure money.

Steve  01:25

Hey, welcome, everybody. This is On the Money with Secure Money. I’m consumer advocate Steve, Brian Quaranta is here. Brian, of course president and CEO of Secure Money Advisors, he is a fiduciary and independent and a tired Dad. Hi, Brian, how are you?

Brian Quaranta  01:39

A tired dad a father of two. Yeah, you know, look, you know, I thought kids were actually relatively easy, but I only had one of them. So now having to I heard somebody say the other day one is one and two is 10. And that’s certainly the way. Yeah, you know, but I waited, I waited a long time to have kids. You know, here I am at 45 years old. You know, having kids, I didn’t really think it was going to have kids. But I was fortunate to meet the right person. Secure Money Advisors has been my baby for the last 22 years. And still is, you know, my baby, but yes, surviving off of a little bit of sleep. Certainly getting very accustomed to drinking quite a bit of coffee throughout the day. But glad to be back doing a new show here with you. Because boy, has a lot happened since I’ve taken the break with the new baby coming here. So, we’ve got a lot to catch up on. And speaking of catching up on this, let’s Yeah, let’s the secure act. How about how to maximize catch up contributions? Right, right. That’s another big that’s a big thing coming down the pipeline. I mean, you know, many Americans are actually when you look at a lot of studies out there, they’re behind on their savings. As they approach retirement. The IRS allows investors to actually contribute extra money to the retirement accounts once they reach the age of 50. Once the secure act 2.0 is passed, though. And again, we did have the original secure Act, which we’ll talk about a little bit as we go through secure act 2.0. But when secure APAC act 2.0 as passed by the Senate, there are going to be even more opportunities to boost those catch-up contributions.

Steve  03:31

Well, and again, what I find interesting about that is that they they’re targeting 62, 63, 64 year olds can actually continue to catch up. And in some cases, as much as $10,000 More is what the IRS is allowing, and that’s fantastic for folks that are really in that spot. Again, like 62, 63, 64 if you’re behind there, here’s an opportunity to really do something to help make your retirement a lot better.

Brian Quaranta  03:58

And I have been talking about this for decades, because with the pensions going away, and people now being responsible for funding their own retirement, when you look at all the different ways that we have to save for retirement, whether it’d be a traditional IRA, or Roth IRA or a 401 K, we’re limited to contribution amounts. And when we’re responsible for building our own retirement, contribution amounts has always been one thing at the top of my list that needed to be increased in order for people to have enough money for retirement. And certainly, it’s going to take more and more money to retire these days, especially when you look at the inflationary environment that we’re dealing with right now. But one thing you know all retirement accounts have in common is that you won’t have to pay taxes on your investment gains as you go but some accounts such as 401k plans and traditional IRAs are generally going to require you to pay tax says on any withdrawals. And that’s another important topic of conversation that we have to have. Because for most people, if you ask them what their primary purpose of their retirement money is, they’re going to tell you that it is an account that or money that they need to work for them in retirement, meaning they’re going to need to generate monthly income from the retirement savings. So typically, people retiring today are going to turn their social security on, that’s not going to be enough money for them to live off of. So now they’re going to have to start to build a strategy to generate cash flow from their retirement savings.

Steve  05:37

And as we get closer and move towards retirement, one conversation that you have, with people I know is where are you going to live? Are you going to downsize? What are you going to you’re going to stay where you are, move into someplace different, you’re going to move south towards warmer, what are you going to do? Right?

Brian Quaranta  05:52

Yeah, and we deal with this every day at secure money advisors. I mean, I just helped a couple move to Wyoming. You know, so you’re seeing people going west, you’re seeing people go south, you’re seeing people stay here at home. Some people want to live in two different places six months out of the year, they’re here six months out of the year, they’re in a warmer climate. But where you will live, where you choose to live can have a huge impact on how long your retirement savings will last. You know, because there are vast disparities and cost of living across America is something you can you know, use to your advantage once you retire. Certainly, I wouldn’t recommend going to California that could certainly deplete your money pretty quickly. At seven or $8 a gallon of fuel right now. But yes, there are places in the country to live that can be a lot easier on your wallet than other places.

Steve  06:46

Well, getting- making it easier on your wallet, we have to decide if we want to work as well, maybe part time maybe doing something that we’ve always kind of wanted to do, or just you know, just for socialization, and you’re gonna have a few extra bucks.

Brian Quaranta  06:59

Yeah, this is a big one redefining your purpose, right? I mean, you know, whether you’re going to you know, not work or work is important. And you have to ask yourself are you know, are you somebody that has hobbies? Do you intend on volunteering? Are you going to become a babysitter for your grandchildren, what is going to be your purpose, your new identity, there’s lots of things to think about as we approach retirement. But more importantly, is what we’ve got to talk about is how we’re going to deal with this volatility. And that’s what we’re going to talk about on the next segment, Steve. But before we come back, we always keep a few openings on our calendar each week for our listeners, we’d love to hear from folks who have seen the recent market volatility, impact their retirement and are concerned about it, you have an opportunity right now to sit down and have a conversation with a fiduciary financial advisor who can guide you and possibly help you improve your situation. So, for the next 10 callers who call in right now, we’re going to perform a complimentary right track retirement review. That review will indicate if you’re in need of a comprehensive financial plan. This analysis is going to include a theory poor risk assessment is going to help you get organized it’s going to help you recognize also any unnecessary losses in your portfolio and simply also looking at ways that we can help you protect your retirement investments. And you could experience dramatic growth potential second, we’re gonna perform a tax analysis help you reveal how it’s possible, reduce your taxes, we’ll help you build a customized income plan utilizing proven strategies which could strengthen your retirement income and take the worry out of living too long. So again, for the next 10 callers that’s a comprehensive right track financial review, that we’re providing complimentary with no obligation, but you got to do your part folks. Pick up the phone call us today and schedule right now.

Steve  08:42

800-656-8616 It’s that simple. Folks. Give us a call. You heard Brian; the next 10 callers are going to get that comprehensive financial review. You’ll see where you are today. But more importantly, you’ll walk out with a roadmap that can help get you on the road to retirement making sure you’re on the right track for retirement with this review 800-656-8616, Again 800-656-8616

Brian Quaranta  09:07

how to navigate your retirement and volatile market is no easy task. When we come back, we’re going to outline some ways to get you the kind of retirement you’ve always wanted. We come right back with on the money with secure money

Announcer  09:24

Do you ever feel like you’re fighting for financial knowledge? Don’t let that advice be a punch in the gut your retirement to take advantage of a complimentary no cost no obligation consultation with a local trusted financial coach. Call Brian Quaranta host of retirement you radio 800-656-8616 or text BrianQ to 800-656-8616 we’ve made it easy for you to take advantage of this fantastic offer. All you have to do is call or text BrianQ to 800-656-8616.

Steve  10:01

We are back on the money with secure money and Brian Quaranta. I’m consumer advocate Steve, Brian, of course President CEO of Secure Money Advisors. He is a fiduciary, independent, got a great team of folks. So secure money, securemoneyadvisors.com is the website, I encourage you to check that out as well. So, Brian, this is a this is a meaty topic that we’re jumping into here, and one that really has a lot of, well, a lot of questions and not as many answers as we’d like, I think.

Brian Quaranta  10:26

Yeah, volatility, right. Yeah, we haven’t seen our they haven’t seen this type of volatility in a long time. The markets are really shifting and correcting big time right now. And you have a lot of people out there very anxious. And you can understand why you have a lot of people out there still today taking risk with 100% of the retirement savings. Something that I just don’t believe in. You know, one of the things that I’ve been preaching for the last 22 years of my career is that you have to protect some of the money going into retirement. Why is that important? Because during times of volatility, especially if you’re in an income phase of your life, you certainly don’t want to be pulling money out of a stock portfolio when the markets are going down. So, I’ll give you an example. Let’s say you need $1,000 A month in additional income above and beyond what you’re getting from Social Security. And this month, you plan on taking that $1,000 out but your account value is also down because the markets down. So, let’s say your account values down, you know, maybe five or $6,000, and you take another $1,000 out on top of it, you’ve just locked into those losses and compounded those losses. And this is what we call sequence of returns risk. And this is a risk that tends to lead with a high probability of people running out of money in retirement. There’s a lot of old technology that’s been preached for a long time, things like the 4% rule, which do not work very well in the high volatility markets that we have with, especially with the low interest rate environment that we’ve been in for a long time. But the market across the board, very difficult place to make money right now. You got you got total bond portfolios down over 11%. Right now. You have the NASDAQ that just ended one of the worst months since 2008. So, it’s very, very scary times. And if you do not commit to a plan right now, you are going to be panicked. And one of the most important things that we need to have going into retirement is a plan. And what I mean by that is the fact that most people take risk with 100% of their money, Steve. And if you ask Google, if you search, you know how to handle market swings in retirement, you know, you’ll get a million and one articles, and many of them are focused. Yeah, many of them are focused on investment allocation. Not a bad thing. But you know, there are other areas that should be addressed, like, you know, ways to protect the money and increase your income. Because in order to be successful retirement, there’s two things that need to happen. One, you need to have reliable income and two, you need to put yourself in a position that you do not run out of money.

Steve  13:18

Well, it again, that’s what everybody fears the most. And I’ll tell you what, we’re hearing numbers across the board, whether it’s inflation. And you know, the GDP the gross domestic product decreasing, decreased at an annual rate of 1.4%, in the first quarter that was very disappointing, was that not? Sure was, so there are fears of recession. That’s what we’re going to talk about here. We checked with the chief us economist with Oxford economist economics, Cathy Bostjancic. She said on CNBC, that there’s momentum in the economy, but the risk for the risk for recession is there.

Cathy Bostjancic  13:57

And that’s really because some of this momentum that we see in the economy starts to ease and at that time, we think the Fed gets to more restrictive policy stance, and maybe really, the Fed does hold the key here, as many times does for the economy and also clearly for the financial markets.

Steve  14:16

Well, and again, I think she makes a point, do we need to worry about a recession? Brian,

Brian Quaranta  14:21

I think you do. You absolutely do. And so, it’s a real thing. And if you’re not worried about it, I think you’ve got your head in the sand. You know, look at all the factors that are lining up right now. I mean, you know, we’ve had interest rates at debt zero for how long now you’re seeing the Fed aggressively raising interest rates to control the inflationary environment we’re in right now. You look at the price of food, you look at the price of gas. And you know, you look at the big tech companies, you know, what we consider in the investing world? The Fang stocks, Fang stocks, which are Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google Facebook lost 40% of its value, Netflix lost 25 30% of its value. These are stocks that, you know almost every mutual fund and ETF held a large position in and this is why you’re seeing people down 15-20% Right now, but this is why you have to build a strategy that can absorb volatility. The biggest mistake people make is they continue to take risk with 100% of their money. I believe simply in having a three-bucket strategy. Your first bucket should be a cash account with emergency reserves, typically about one year’s worth of your monthly expenses. Your second bucket needs to be a safe guaranteed bucket what I call your buffer account or your pension account, that during volatile times, we can still generate cash flow, but not do any further damage to the account balance because the buffer account or pension account is protected from market volatility, meaning there is no risk to that principle. And then you need to have a longer-term bucket of risk. And that risk bucket needs to be long term money. Now, people still get concerned when they see their account balances going down. This is why we keep the openings on our calendar each week. For our listeners, we’d love to hear from your folks, especially those of you that have seen the recent market volatility and are concerned about it, you have an opportunity right now to sit down and have a conversation with a fiduciary advisor who can guide you and possibly help you improve your situation. So, for the next 10 callers, we’re going to give you a complimentary right track retirement review. It’s easy to understand, it’s simple. And it’s a review that’s going to indicate whether or not you’re in need of a comprehensive financial plan, we’ll run an analysis for you we’ll look at a fee report, we’ll look at how much risk you’re taking, we’ll look at what your exposure to loss is. We’ll show you ways to protect your retirement investments so that you could potentially experience dramatic growth potential without the worry of loss. Second, we’ll show you how to save on taxes. We’ll that tax analysis will reveal how you could possibly reduce taxes. And more importantly, we’ll show you the proper way to build a customized income plan, utilizing proven strategies which could strengthen your retirement income and take the worry out of living too long. So again, folks, for the next 10 callers it’s a complimentary right track retirement review, but you got to do your part, pick up the phone and schedule the appointment today.

Steve  17:22

That sounds great, folks. 800-656-8616. That’s how you get the ball rolling, 10 callers right now get a comprehensive financial review, you see where you are today. But you walk out the door with a roadmap that can help to get you where you need to be when it comes to retirement 800-656-8616, 10 callers right now 800-656-8616.

Brian Quaranta  17:44

Going from the accumulation phase to the distribution phase of retirement is a big change. It also can be a financial stumbling block. For a lot of people. When we come back, we’re going to break down some ways that you can prepare for this right here with On the Money with Secure Money.

Announcer  18:05

He’s letting the clock run out on his social security to age 70 for maximum benefits. And here comes the Roth conversion. He’s got some outstanding coaching with that lifetime income plan. He’s created his own pension as well. And it looks like he’s going to go All! The! Way!

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  18:40

Welcome back, everybody on the money with secure money with Brian Quaranta here, I’m consumer advocate Steve. So, Brian, I know that you’ve been sort of preoccupied dealing with a new life at all. So aside from that, what are you hearing from clients? Are you hearing good things? Are you Are they nervous? are getting new clients that say, hey, I really need some help. What’s your scene like there?

Brian Quaranta  19:03

Well, we’re the busiest we’ve ever been in the last three months. I mean, people, you know, we’ve got people coming in, you know, very, very concerned about their portfolios, you know, and these are folks that are with other advisory firms. You know, our clients tend to do pretty well during volatile times. I mean, we do a really good job communicating with them, I send out a weekly video. We have a state of the market’s webinar coming up here, where we continue to address the volatility, we communicate at a very, very high level. And I think what our clients really appreciate is how much we’re out there. Speaking about this, you know, my clients can listen to me on the radio every single weekend. They can watch our TV shows on Fox and KTK and they hear what we’re talking about and the things that we’re saying and so it reinforces the planning model that we use. So you know our phones are relatively quiet You’ll have a few people that call in here and there that just want to check in and, you know, speak to us, you know, personally for a little bit about the plan. And but, you know, we feel very fortunate because you see, when you take time to really put together a real plan for somebody a real written plan, the anxiousness and the worry just tends to dissolve, when they have a written plan that logically makes sense. So but you got a lot of people coming in right now, I just met with a gentleman the other day that, you know, has lost probably about 25-30% of his portfolio is down about three $400,000 in his portfolio, working with a very large firm, but we are busier than we’ve ever been, because people are coming in, they’re saying, Look, I we really don’t have a plan. I’m not hearing from my advisor, I listened to you on the radio, I really need someone that’s going to kind of hold our hand through this process. So, but yes, very, very, very busy right now meeting with people.

Steve  21:02

Oh, that’s, and that’s a good thing. I guess busy is good. As we get into the spring and summer 800-656-8616 is the phone number you can call right now. All right, let’s jump into a couple of these questions. Well, we’ve got some time here, Brian, Bob is up. First, he says I’m a little bit torn about how to approach my retirement planning. On one hand, I really want to understand the details about my plan. But I’ve talked to a couple of advisors who act like I should just let them handle all of the details. Am I being a control freak, by wanting to know everything that’s going on?

Brian Quaranta  21:34

I mean, I guess it depends, you know, I mean, there are people that you know, like to have a level of control over their portfolio, that would not be a good fit for a financial planner. And those people are better off kind of, you know, managing the money on their own, or they’re better off seeking somebody that you know, would just be willing to sit down with them for an hourly rate, like we charge $500 an hour, if somebody wanted to sit down with us, and, and just help us and wanted to ask us some questions or help build out a little bit of a model. But the majority of people that seek out our services typically just have us manage their money, too. So, it could be but I mean, you know, everybody wants details. I mean, I think it’s important for you to have a good grasp on what your advisor is going to be doing. I mean, you know, when you look at the work that we do here at secure money advisors, we take the time to walk people through the details of the plan. Explain the pros and cons, because it’s everybody knows there’s no perfect investment out there. So, we always walk through the pros and cons and the risk associated with things. But more importantly, walk them through the details of the plan itself. And once people really connect to the logic of the plan, they don’t have a whole lot of questions beyond that. So, it depends on what level of control freak Bob is, is here, but he may be better off doing it. And he may be better off doing himself or just finding a, you know, a fee for service or a, you know, somebody that charges an hourly rate to help him he may wind up being better off just doing it himself. All right, Bob,

Steve  23:09

Bella 800-656-8616. If you want to know more on we go to Shirley, she says I’m considering cutting back to part time work. I’m 63 years old, my husband passed away a few years ago, would it be possible to receive his social security benefits and still work part time?

Brian Quaranta  23:26

Yeah, she would be able to collect her widow benefit there. So, you know that that’s not a problem at all, and she can still work, there’s no issues with that. And then she can eventually, you know, potentially start collecting on her own social security. The thing I always recommend is to visit social security.gov. And you can research there the survivor benefits, you know, and have a conversation with somebody at Social Security. But in Shirley’s case, I would definitely reach out to Social Security because there’s some money there that she could be receiving right now.

Steve  23:57

Okay, good to know. And 800-656-8616. Shirley, if you want to get started here. And, boy, on that note, we are about out of time, Brian.

Brian Quaranta  24:08

We sure are. And I know there was a few more questions here. But folks, we’ll get to them again next week. Again, don’t forget, take advantage of our right track retirement review. You know, every week for our listeners, we give you the opportunity come down, sit down with us. It’s not very often that you get to have a conversation with a fiduciary advisor complimentary at no cost. We’re literally going to spend about an hour with you talking about the things that you’re concerned about showing you exactly things that you should be thinking of will show you some examples, approaches about how we approach the planning model and what our philosophy is. It’s very eye opening for people when they come in. So, for the next 10 callers who call in right now. That’s a complimentary right track retirement review. Again, there is no obligation and there is no cost to you. So, take advantage of it. They have reports the work that we’ll do, we’ll do a fee report, we’ll do a risk assessment. We’ll show you ways to help better Check your retirement savings. We’ll show you how to save on taxes. We’ll show you how to create a customized income plan that literally could strengthen your retirement income. So again, for the next 10 callers, that’s a comprehensive right track retirement review. Take advantage of it today, folks, give us a call and schedule a time to come sit down with us.

Steve  25:18

And that call is toll free 800-656-8616 Sit down with Brian and his team will get let’s get that financial roadmap put together once and for all. Things that are complicated can become very clear and easy to understand. It’s a practical Financial Review. It’s a phone call away at 800-656-8616. You heard Brian 10 collars right now, we’ll get that comprehensive financial review. And again, you’ll see where you are today. But you’re gonna walk out the door with that roadmap that can truly help get you to where you need to be 800-656-8616 again, 800-656-8616 Well, Brian, Sal was good to chat with you. Welcome back. Congratulations and all of that. We certainly look forward to talking again soon.

Brian Quaranta  26:05

Steve, thank you very much. And folks, we’ll see you again next week 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.

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