Retirement You TV: Episode 10

Video Transcript

Cynthia De Fazio – 00:21

Good morning and welcome to retirement You TV. My name is Cynthia de Fazio, I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta, otherwise known as Brian Q, president and founder of secure money advisors. Brian, good morning. Good morning. Good to see you again, it’s great to see you again, as well, I love our time together, because it’s just amazing. Just the information that you’re providing to the viewing audience, their response has been really amazing.

Brian Quaranta – 00:44

Well, it’s important that people get good information, accurate information, sure, you know, so that they can make good decisions about their retirement planning. Sure. And I think, you know, the challenge in today’s environment is there’s just so much noise in the marketplace. You know, and there’s so many different opinions out there, I mean, show there’s more advisors today than there’s ever been, you know, I we do a lot of educating in the community, at the local libraries and colleges. And, you know, I think most people will probably find an event somewhere in their area, whether it be at a restaurant or a college or library. And, you know, so what happens is, you might go to a number of different events, and you’re getting a lot of different opinions. And again, there’s just a lot of noise. So, or it’s hard for them to decipher what’s good for them, and what’s not good for them. So it’s more important than ever, that people have a good resource that they can go to. And that’s really, our goal here at secure money advisors is to be that number one resource for the community, so that people are getting accurate information so they can make these good decisions that they need to make.

Cynthia De Fazio – 01:49

Absolutely. And Brian, your passion has always been educating your client base. So tell me, where does that drive come from?

Brian Quaranta – 01:57

Well, I just think that for me, if I just look at my own life, you know, and I just take, for example, whether it be an accountant I’ve worked with, or an attorney I’ve worked with, in helping me with my business, it’s those that have spent the time to teach me and to educate me and help me understand why we’re doing what we’re doing. Yeah, that I’ve always connected with much better. And and I’ve always felt a sense of confidence in working with those individuals, because they took the time to get me to understand why we needed to do what we needed to do. Sure. And I think when you have a good understanding of what you’re doing, and why you’re doing it, and you’ve got at least a basic foundation, it just gives you a level of confidence, and peace of mind that we’re all looking for when it comes to our money. Absolutely. So for me, I’ve just always really connected with people that took the time to educate me. And that’s something that I’ve wanted to return and give back to the community and helping educate them. And in this in this complicated world of retirement. Sure. And quite frankly, it’s not as complicated as what the industry makes it seem okay. The industry makes it a lot more complicated than than what it needs to be. But what we’ve done at secure money advisors, we’ve taken these very complicated topics. And we’ve broken them down to very simple, easy to understand bites, okay. And that really helps people. And I think, you know, we just see it with the feedback that we get at the office, you know, that they’ll say to us, you know, this is the first time somebody is taking the time to truly walk me through what I’m doing, why I’m doing it, and how these things actually work. And for the first time, I’d actually understand what we’re doing. Sure. And so that that means the world to us, when we hear that kind of feedback.

Cynthia De Fazio – 03:42

Well, I love to hear that people feel that you’re really taking your time, because how often have we all been in an appointment with whoever it is? And they’re looking at their watch? And they’re like, okay, where do I have to be in the next 20 minutes, but the feedback has been overwhelming that you’re very patient with your client base that they come in, and they feel like you take as much time as needed with that specific person. So that’s amazing that you are able to do that, because that is a gift.

Brian Quaranta – 04:07

Well, we do. I mean, for me, there’s there’s no there’s no point in rushing somebody out the door. Right? You know that our focus is 100% on those individuals that we’re sitting with at that point in time, they are the most important people at that office at that point in time. And the reason why we take on that, you know, that that that mentality at our office is because again, you know, everybody, everybody needs a different level of understanding of what they’ve got. And some people’s situations are more complicated than others. Sure. And so by taking that time, number one, it’s because we care. That’s the most important thing is we truly care I you know, we’ve always said to my team, there’s no point in onboarding somebody as a new client, if we can’t truly impact their life. Sure. And so spending the time with the individuals to understand what their concerns are what their Goals are where they’re currently at, that’s the most important thing is because, you know, we’re not in the business of just moving money to move money, we want to make changes that are truly going to have an impact on their situation. So, by by, by being able to do that, we have to understand thoroughly where they’re currently at and what they’re doing. And we’ve got systems in place to do that we’ve got very powerful software that analyzes where they’re at what risk level they’re taken, what fees that they’re paying, and we are able to really get a good understanding of where they are. And that helps us now make a better recommendation of where they need to go to improve their situation. Yeah.

Cynthia De Fazio – 05:41

Brian, what are some questions that people should be asking themselves about? If they’re ready to retire? What kind of questions Do they ask you and themselves?

Brian Quaranta – 05:49

Yeah, well, that’s a big thing. Because you know that that’s the emotional part of the retirement planning process. Because some people are at a point where they’re just ready to be done with what they’ve been doing for the last 35 or 40 years, they’re just burnt out on that work. They’re actually not ready to stop working yet. They just want to retire from what they’re currently doing. We see that actually a lot. Yeah, people will say, you know, I still have a lot of energy left, I still want to be out there and be a productive, you know, member of society, and I want to be able to, to do things, but I just don’t want to do what I’m doing anymore. Sure. That’s what you’ll hear a lot of. But for those that really want to enter into retirement completely. It’s really taking the time to find out about yourself and what you’re going to become in retirement, right? Because your identity has been your work for so long. Sure. So what’s your identity going to be going into retirement? Who are you going to become what it what is it that’s going to keep you happy? Are you going to be the couple that wants to travel the world? Are you going to be the couple that wants to go see all the national parks? Are you going to be the couple that just wants to spend time with family and friends? And where are you going to be the you know, the full time babysitter? Yeah. Which which is a lot. But for most people, you know, the the emotional aspect of it, or the psychological aspect is really that what’s my going to be my new identity? What’s retirement really gonna look like? What’s it going to be like when I wake up in the morning? Because you have to have a purpose? Sure, if you don’t have a purpose, you’re going to die? Yeah, right. Let’s just face it, you’re gonna, you’re going to be bored, and you’re going to die. And this is the stories you hear right guy retires, and two years later, he dies. Because they haven’t figured out how to continue to be a productive member of society. And so and being productive could mean just traveling the world, right? But you got to have a purpose. And that’s really, really important. Absolutely. But the money part of it is, are you going to have enough money to maintain your lifestyle? Yes, that’s right. That’s important. Because if you look at retirement planning, you know, 3040 years ago, compared to today, a lot has changed. Sure. And if you go back 3040 years ago, retirement planning was really simple, because people retired and they got a pension, and they got a social security check. And for most people, that was enough money for them to maintain their lifestyle. Sure. And as a matter of fact, any additional money that they saved, they didn’t have to take risk with it, they didn’t have to put in the market, because 3040 years ago, the banks would all give you a CD paying maybe 10 to 15% yields were really great at the banks. So if you had an extra 100,000 or $200,000, laying around, you could go down to the bank, FDIC insured, right, get a CD Pan 10% interest. So let’s say you give the bank $200,000. And they’re giving you 10% interest, that’s $20,000 a year, in additional income above and beyond what you’re getting in social security and pension. Today, what’s happening is people are working for multiple employers, they’re entitled to little or no pensions at all. And the grand experiment, and I call it the grand experiment, cuz nobody knows how this is gonna work out is that employers replaced a guaranteed pension with a 401k plan, right retirement accounts. 401k is for three B’s 457 plans. We don’t know how it’s going to work out because all of those plans only have options to invest your money in the market, which means that the market needs to cooperate Sure, 100% of the time for you to be successful. And a lot of folks today, that money that they have saved in those retirement accounts, that’s where they’re going to need to generate income from Absolutely. So what secure money advisors, what we do is we teach folks how to create their own private pension. Okay, because that’s more than ever, people need to still have a pension. We just have to do it on our own today app. So right. So we always need, you know, for most people retiring today, they’re going to have their social security check. But they’re still going to need money above and beyond that to pay bills or travel or do whatever they want. So they need another source of guaranteed income, we have to be able to carve off enough money from the money that they’ve accumulated in these retirement accounts to generate that other stream of guaranteed income.

Cynthia De Fazio – 09:54

Absolutely. So Brian, we’re about ready to open up the phone lines for the very first time this week. Can you tell viewing audience what they can expect to receive by being one of your first

Brian Quaranta – 10:05

absolutely, folks. As a matter of fact, for the next 10 callers, here’s what we’re going to do. You know, we typically charge about $1,000. For this, we’re not going to be charging $1,000. For this complimentary review, we’re going to for the next 10 callers give you a complimentary Financial Review at no cost. And here’s what we’ll do when you come in, we’ll build a secure income report for you. And what we’ll be able to determine is what sources of guaranteed income Do you have. And that secure income report will show us how much additional income you’ll need above and beyond and we’ll be able to build that out for you also do a risk analysis for you will be able to determine what risk you’re taking what fees you’re paying, if your portfolio is tax efficient. So again, for the next 10 collars, that’s a complimentary Financial Review at no cost if you call 18883821298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298.

Cynthia De Fazio – 10:56

Brian, we have to take a very short commercial break to the viewing audience at home. Please stay tuned. After this commercial break. We’re going to come back with more questions and answers for Brian about planning your perfect stress free retirement. We’ll be right back momentarily.

Commercial Break – 11:11

How confident are you and 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 help 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 – 12:45

And welcome back to retirement You TV. My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta otherwise known as Brian Q. He’s president and founder of secure money advisors, Brian, a great first segment of the show so much really good information that you’re giving out to the viewing audience. Yeah, yeah, we try hard. Definitely. Are you doing well? Seems effortless for you?

Brian Quaranta – 13:08

Yeah, well, you know, 20, you know, I’ve been doing this for over 20 years, you know, and I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly of the industry. And, you know, when you work with retirees like we do on a day to day basis, you know, all of our clients are, you know, within five years of retirement or already retired. So the concerns that those individuals have, are pretty much the same for everybody. So we’re seeing the same issues over and over and over again. And because we’re in it every day, we know, the best solutions for all of these problems, whether it be social security, or Medicare, or trying to build an income strategy or reducing risk or maximizing returns, whatever it may be. We know the best practices for those specific issues, because we deal with them day in and day out.

Cynthia De Fazio – 13:56

Sure. Brian, you mentioned Social Security. And that’s a very important topic. I know, there’s a lot of confusion about when to start taking the Social Security benefits. So can you shed some light on that to the viewing audience?

Brian Quaranta – 14:07

Yeah, there there is a ton of confusion about Yeah, right. And so Social Security is one of those benefits that most of us have paid into for 40 plus years, right. And it’s a government benefit that we’re all entitled to. And obviously, for most people, well for everybody, you can start collecting as early as 62. And so people want to know, what should I do? Because if you collect at 62, all right, there’s an actuarial actuarial reduction of your Social Security, meaning you’ll only get about 75% of your full retirement amount. Social Security. So you’re on your social security statement, you’ll see something called f RA, that’s your full retirement age, okay. And that usually for most people is 6667. And a few months, whatever it might be. So if you collect before that age, there’s a there’s a reduction of how much you’ll get now, if you wait to collect your Social Security you collected at your full retirement age, you You’ll get 100% of your Social Security. Now, if you want to wait until age 70, for every year you wait beyond your full retirement age, you’ll get an 8% increase every single year. Okay, that’s pretty nice. Yeah, you know, there’s not a whole lot of investments out there today that you can get an 8% increase on every single year. Sure. However, when it comes to deciding what age to collect Social Security, the big question is, how’s your health? Yeah, right. How’s your health? That’s true. And I’ll never forget, you know, there’s a lot of there’s a lot of information about when to collect Social Security. And there’s all these strategies with delaying until age 70, and so on, and so forth. But, you know, I remember having a gentleman come to my office, and he said to me, I think I’m going to wait until age 70. To collect my Social Security, it just makes sense to me says, I’m going to get the maximum amount. And I said, Well, I can’t argue with the math. You’re I mean, you’re you’re right. I mean, if you wait till 70, you are going to get the largest amount from Social Security. However, before you make that decision, let me ask you, how’s your health? He says, Well, I had a heart attack last year, and I’ve got early onset of diabetes. And I said, Well, you know, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what the right answer is for this individual. It’s probably best that he start collecting as soon as possible. Yeah. So you know, there’s there’s a lot of different ways to maximize your Social Security. And of course, it’s secure money advisors, we can show you how to do that we’ve got a very powerful software that can figure out when would be the best time mathematically to collect your Social Security. But again, health plays a big role in when to collect that Social Security.

Cynthia De Fazio – 16:32

Absolutely. And I know that there’s just been so much topic lately about will Social Security go away? Brian, what is your opinion on that? Are we going to see it disappear?

Brian Quaranta – 16:40

Well, I think it would be, I think it would be political suicide, for any politician that would vote to take it away, right? I don’t think any baby boomer today or someone that’s within five years of retirement or retirement is going to have to deal with social security going away. You know, we certainly have kick the can down the road in solving this problem with how much money Social Security is going to be paying out versus how much it’s going to be taken in? Sure. But I think there’ll be other ways to solve the problem, like making the younger generation, not be able to collect our social security, maybe till 63 or 64. And making that early Social Security retirement age, much later in life than at the age of 62. So I don’t think for anybody retired today, or who are going to be retiring the next five years, I don’t think they’re gonna have to worry about social security going away. Okay, I don’t think we’ll see as many cost of living adjustments, as we might have seen in the past. But, you know, for most people that are collecting Social Security, the cost of living adjustment known as cola is kind of a joke to a certain degree, because every time your cost of living adjustment goes up, so does your Medicare premium. Okay, it’s pretty much a wash, but it actually going away and disappearing, I think we’d have tanks on the street. If that happened.

Cynthia De Fazio – 17:54

Absolutely. People would be very upset. So I have a question for someone who’s maybe in the viewing audience today, perhaps having a cup of coffee with their spouse? What does it feel like to be one of your clients Brian?

Brian Quaranta – 18:09

Well, first off, we really they become part of our family, and we call them our family of clients. Because truly, we know so many intimate details about their situation. Sure. And, and we get to know them, we get to know their family get to know their grandkids, because, you know, part of retirement planning, there’s five key components to retirement planning. There’s the income component of it, okay. There’s also the investment component, there is taxes, okay, there’s healthcare and then there’s a legacy part. Okay, what secure money advisors and it should be at the bottom of the screen. As you’re watching today. All of our clients get a physical written plan and and they get it all organized into one binder. And it’s so important to have these financial documents organized because if anybody out there listening to the show has ever been the executor of an estate, you know, that because of all the stuff that needs to be done. If those documents have not been organized, it’s very difficult to settle in a state. So we want to make sure that all of our clients have the ability to have everything organized in one spot, which we call their financial inventory binder. soundpoint. And so not in that financial inventory binder, we have a summary of all of their assets, everything from their non retirement accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance, long term care, real estate, then we have their Master Beneficiary page, who their primary beneficiaries are, who their contingent beneficiaries are. If they’re working with a tax accountant, our attorney outside of secure money advisors because we are full service, we provide all those services at secure money advisors, but if they’re working with an accountant or attorney outside of secure money advisors, we have all of that information in there. And then we have a written explanation of the plan. What are we going to be doing what what are the objectives and And what are the solutions that we use to solve for the objectives? And how is the plan going to operate over the next 5, 10, 15 years?

Cynthia De Fazio – 20:08

That’s all Brian, because we’re gonna get ready to open up the phone line. So speaking of written plan,

Brian Quaranta – 20:13

yes, speaking of a written plan, you’ll get one if you become a client of secure money advisor, it is the most important thing that you can have. As a matter of fact, the best way you can start today though, is if you’re one of the next 10 callers and you call in right now, we are going to give you a complimentary Financial Review. And then part of that financial review is going to be a secure income plan will actually determine what guaranteed sources of income you have. And if you need to build any additional guaranteed sources of income, your own private pension will also do a risk analysis for you the risk analysis is invaluable because it will literally tell you how much risk you’re currently taking what the probability of success of your portfolio is, what feeds your pain, if you can improve how you can improve. It just goes into a lot of depth of how to maximize your returns and minimize your losses. So again, for the next 10 callers who call in right now at a complimentary Financial Review, if you call 18883821298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298

Cynthia De Fazio – 21:19

Brian, thank you so much to the viewers at home. That number to call once again is 888-382-1298. After this very short commercial break, we’re going to come back with more questions and answers for Brian about planning your perfect retirement. Please stay tuned.

Commercial Break – 21:34

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Cynthia De Fazio – 23:00

And welcome back to retirement UTV My name is Cynthia de Fazio, I am joined by Brian Q president and founder of secure money advisors. Brian, sorry to cut you off there before we went to the commercial. I know you’re so passionate about what you’re speaking of. And I love that I know the viewers do as well. So I have a question for you. Are you hearing a lot of people that would like to save their principal and just live off their interest? if you will? Is that a common question?

Brian Quaranta – 23:26

I think that is what most people want to do. I mean, if you ask most people, that’s what they would love to do. They would love to get additional income off of their investments and not spend down their principal. Okay, if you really think about it, I mean, that’s kind of the, you know, that’s kind of the fundamentals of what we all hope to do. And you know, going back to me talking about retirement, you know, 30 40 years ago versus today. 30 40 years ago, that was simple. My grandfather had a Kirby vacuum cleaner story. Remember, Kirby? I do remember Kirby. By the way, if anybody’s listening if you need any Kirby parts my father, you know, when my grandfather died, kept them all. My dad’s one of those guys that thinks everything’s gonna be worth millions. But yeah, he’s probably right. Yeah, see money roadshow? Yeah. What is it American pickers is, those guys love to get them to come out. But you know, my grandfather used to always take me on to the bank with him. And he would always tell me, Brian, you’re going to work hard for your money over your lifetime. Remember, all you need to do is invest your principal and live off the interest. And what he was really referring to when we were going to the bank is he was buying CDs. Because CDs then again, we’re paying 10 15%. So it was very easy to put your money in the bank and get a good income off of that money and not spend down your principal. You know, today, it’s much more difficult to do it can be done. In today’s world, you can use something called a fixed annuity. Okay. And, you know, there’s lots of different annuities out there and there’s some good ones and there’s not some good ones, okay. So you got to be very careful when you choose an annuity that you’re choosing The right one. But if you want to make it as simple as possible as plain vanilla as you possibly can, you can you can go out there today in the marketplace and you can buy a fixed annuity. Now they’re gonna range anywhere between three and 4% interest. So, you know, I had a gentleman that came in, and he needed about $15,000 a year in income, that’s what he wanted. So we took about a half a million dollars, and he just bought a fixed CD, it’s paying about three and a half percent. So he’s gonna take his $15,000 a year in income off of his 500,000. But it’s actually still gonna grow, right? Because three and a half percent is going to give us much more than $15,000 a year in interest. So So can it be done today? Sure it can? Could it be done like we used to do it? Were we getting 10 and 15%? No, but it can still be done. If you need a small portion of retirement income, there’s products available to do that. And that’s the way that you’re really want to try to build your plan, because I’ve always said, if you’ve won the game, if you’ve saved enough money, and you can actually build your plan through guarantees, where you can get interest coming in every single day, and you can pull that money out and not affect that principle. That’s the best way to build it. Sure, that’s the best way to build it. So that’s why you always want to figure out, have you have won the game? Because if you have and that’s something we can teach it secure money advisors, mathematically, we can show you whether or not you’ve won the game, if you have, you should look towards a retirement that’s as risk free as possible.

Cynthia De Fazio – 26:28

Absolutely. And that’s providing true peace of mind to your clients. Brian, it’s like a security blanket, if you will, going over them.

Brian Quaranta – 26:33

It absolutely is. And this is why we’ll spend the time with you when you come in. And we’ll walk you through the process. And again, I’ve always said there’s five key components. There’s the income component, there are this the investment component, there’s taxes, there’s health care, and there’s the legacy part. We’ll walk you through all of that in a 45 minute to about an hour, meaning we will cover a lot of ground. And my team and I have very specific questions that will walk you through to help really start to build a very clear picture of what exactly you need. So for the next 10 callers who call in right now we are going to be given away the complimentary Financial Review at no cost. And we’ll build you a secure income report will show you exactly how much secure income you’ve got coming in. If you need to build more money off of that we can do that. We’ll also do a risk analysis where will determine how much risk you’re taking, what fees you’re paying, and so on and so forth. So, again for the next 10 callers. That’s a complimentary view, if you call 18883821298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298 for the next 10 callers that’s a complimentary Financial Review.

Cynthia De Fazio – 27:44

Thank you Brian to our viewing audience at home. Thank you so much for watching retirement You TV, it’s a pleasure to spend time with you each each week. We hope that you have a happy, blessed and safe week ahead. Thank you again for watching. See you soon