Retirement You TV: Episode 29

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Video Transcript

Cynthia De Fazio – 00:20

Welcome to retirement YouTV My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta. He is president and founder of secure money advisors. Brian, how are you today?

Brian Quaranta – 00:31

I must say over the last quarter what the last 10 shows you’re just nailing the last name. And

Cynthia De Fazio – 00:38

well, you know, it took me a little over a year. We got I don’t like to rush into anything I like to take my time. Good to see Oh, it’s so good to see you, too. Thank you so much for always taking the time to come in and do the shows because I know how busy you are. I know, obviously, you have a beautiful family that you’re devoted to. So thank you for taking the time to share the information with the viewing audience.

Brian Quaranta – 00:59

Yeah, we’re, we’re feel very blessed to be able to provide this, you know, I think it’s, it’s a very noisy marketplace and the retirement world. And you know, I think people today, there’s a little bit of a paralysis by analysis that happens with all the information that’s available online, and you know, different events people attend. So people are really hungry for good, solid information. And we just feel very blessed to be in a position to be able to provide that.

Cynthia De Fazio – 01:26

Absolutely. And we’ve talked in the past, Brian about how important it is to really plan properly for retirement. So often people will go to the mailbox, they grab statements out. And they think that that’s a retirement plan. But Brian, that’s not a retirement plan. Let’s talk about that this morning.

Brian Quaranta – 01:41

It’s not retirement plan is made up of many key components. And there’s there’s many variables, and really an investment plan is even different than a retirement plan. And I think people even get confused there. They think that, hey, I’m investing in my 401k, or I’m making contributions to an IRA. This is my retirement plan that and it’s not, because there’s an accumulation phase, there’s a distribution phase, you know, the accumulation phase is what I call the investment plan, right. And that’s where you can take a lot of risk with your money, you know, you’re trying to put as much money away as you can, if the market goes up and down, it doesn’t have as much of an impact on you, because you have something very important on your side. And that’s Time, time to recover, right time to put money away. And so but as we get five years from retirement and into retirement, we shift to a whole different phase, which is the distribution phase. Why do we call it the distribution phase, it’s because we actually have to start distributing money. And for 85% of the people that are retiring today, they’re not retirement pensions, so they’re probably going to need to build a plan that distributes money to them, so that they have the monthly income to live off of sure. But a retirement plan consists of five key areas. Number one, and most importantly, is your income. Because when we stop working, the paycheck is going to stop. But bills, taxes and all the things you want to do your bucket list, things that you want to do, that’s not gonna stop, and it’s gonna require that you have the monthly income to be able to do those things. Number two, is making sure that you’re in the right investments, the investment strategy that got you to retirement is not the same strategies, it’s going to get you through retirement, right? That’s true. And then of course, taxes. Taxes are is a big, big, big, big one to take account for. Because we got to remember, for most people today, the number one way that they’re saving is in some type of tax deferred retirement savings account, like an IRA or a 401k. And when we take money out of those accounts, we have to pay taxes on it. So why is tax planning important? Well, let’s say you’re planning on taking $10,000 a month from your investments. And let’s say that you’re in a 20% tax bracket. Well, that means after you take the withdrawal of $10,000, and you pay the taxes, you’re gonna net out $8,000. Right? 20% on the 10. On the 10,000. Well, what happens if tax rates go to 3%? Or 40%? They go to 40%. Yeah, now you’re talking about that same withdraw? Sure netting you $6,000. So your your wealth, the biggest, the biggest thing that will erode your wealth over time, is inflation and taxation. So taxes are the key component. The other part is health. Healthcare, right? Absolutely. You know, what happens if I want to retire before the age of 65? How am I going to bridge that gap up to Medicare? Once I hit the Medicare age, what type of supplement should I get? And and of course, there’s no point in doing all this great work. If at the time when you die, you leave Uncle Sam is the largest beneficiary and that’s the legacy component of it is making sure that we maximize the amount of wealth that transfers to your family. So, and this is all this all should be in an organized binder. Sure, right, that it has all these written sections so that you know that each area area has been handled. And each of our clients get a financial planning checklist to make sure that every i’s are dotted and every T has been crossed. And that’s really a 30,000 foot view of what retirement planning should look like.

Cynthia De Fazio – 05:11

Absolutely. So Brian, when people are coming in, and they’re sitting with you for the very first time, because obviously, I know the appointments have been just astronomical that you’ve been booking. Is there one question that you hear more than anything else right now?

Brian Quaranta – 05:24

Brian? Are we on the right track? Yeah, yeah. And this is why I developed the right track Retirement System, because the right track retirement system really is going to address whether or not you’re on the right track, if you’re not on the right track. When would you want to know that? You know, most people would want to know that now, more than later, because you can make adjustments. You know, if there’s some red flags that currently exists within your plan, it’s better to know that now than later. And the idea of taking advantage of the right track Retirement System is making sure that moving all the way into retirement, whether you’re five years to retire, 10 years from retirement, that you’re maximizing everything that you could be from investment performance to the level of risk that you’re taking your portfolio, and also really gearing that portfolio to maximize cash flow once you actually get to retirement. And that right track retirement system really is going to help you get some clarity on what that roadmap to retirement should look like. And we’re going to help give you turn by turn directions. When you call in. As a matter of fact, if you call 1883821298, you can get access to that right track Retirement System is a complimentary review on our part that will address all those five key areas. We’ll talk about that a little bit more later, too.

Cynthia De Fazio – 06:36

Absolutely. So Brian, obviously, we have 10 spots that we’re going to be offering to the viewers today. How long should a person be planning to spend with you if they obtained one of those 10 spots? Is it 30 minutes, 45 minutes an hour? How does it look,

Brian Quaranta – 06:49

we block off at our time and our time usually gets gets it done. You know, we asked that they come in prepared, we’ll send a letter out just stating you know, some some things that they should bring in and, and the idea is for for you to get as much out of the meeting as you possibly can. Because this is really designed for you, you know, we’re gonna sit down, we’re going to talk about you because you are different than everybody else. And you know, when we’re building a real retirement plan, everybody’s situation is different as far as what they want to do. Some people need cash flow. Now some people need cash flow later. Some people have no interest in leaving money, their kids, some people want to leave a lot of money, their kids, some people want to leave money to charity. Some people want to want to plan for taxes. Now some want to plan for taxes later. So there’s all kinds of different conversations that we have, we will guide you through those conversations, but expect an hour and over that hour of time, we dedicate a lot of time and resources to giving you that complimentary meeting. So the more prepared that you come in, the better job we can do in giving you everything we can during that hour of time.

Cynthia De Fazio – 07:54

Well, Brian, this is the perfect time for us to go ahead and open up the phone lines to the viewers at home. Would you agree?

Brian Quaranta – 07:58

Yeah. Folks, look, I’ve been practicing for over 21 years. And I’ll tell you the number one thing that I hear every single time somebody comes into the office is are we on the right track? Are we doing the right things? My question to you is, are you on the right track? If you’re not, when would you want to know the right track retirement system that we’ve built, it’s going to help you focus on five key areas that’s going to focus on your income, your investments, your taxes, your health care, and most importantly, your legacy, making sure that your wealth that you’ve accumulated goes to your family, your charities, and not to Uncle Sam. And for the next 10 callers who call in right now this is going to be complimentary. We get a lot dedicate a lot of time and resources to this hour that we’re going to give you at no cost. I’ve seen other people’s charge over $1,000 for other similar offers and features that we’re going to do for you for absolutely no cost. When you come in, we’re going to build out a riskalyze report for you, which is going to show you the risk level in your portfolio. We’re going to run a Morningstar report. We’re going to look at social security maximization options. We’re really going to pack a lot into that hour. But you need to do your part you got to get up off the couch, put that cup of coffee down, grab the phone call 18883821298. Talk to my team schedule an appointment today. And we’ll see at the office.

Cynthia De Fazio – 09:16

Brian, thank you so much to the viewers at home, the number is now open the call the number to call. The number is 8883821298 I know the viewers knew what I’m doing. phone lines are now open again. 888-382-1298. Like Brian said, all you have to do is put down your cup of coffee and make the call today he has 10 spots available only Don’t miss the opportunity to grab one of those spots. We have to take a very short commercial break. But when we come back, we have some viewer questions. So please don’t go anywhere. This could be actually one of your questions that are coming up for Brian to answer so we’ll be right back momentarily.

Commercial Break – 9:51:00 AM

How confident are you in your current financial plan? Do you know with certainty how the recent market volatility will affect your future hopes 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 it’s the time to take charge of your finances so you can feel confident about your future call in during the next 30 minutes of today’s show only to set up an absolutely complimentary no obligation, full blown Financial Review that will result in your own customized written plan. This is a $999 value that we’re giving away complimentary to the first 10 people who respond. We’ll start with a full blown analysis of what you already have, by running a report to untangle how much you are currently paying in fees, how you’re allocated for risk, and what it’s costing to work with your current advisor. Next, we’ll identify your goals. Where do you see yourself in the next five years? Where do you want to go? And who do you hope to go there with? Is your current financial plan set up to get you there without mishap? Let’s design a roadmap to create a financial plan you can follow with confidence. Get the piece that so many people are missing from their retirement. Find out how having a written plan can make a difference to your retirement dreams. Call now to schedule your complimentary no obligation full blown Financial Review today.

Cynthia De Fazio – 11:26

Welcome back to retirement You TV My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta He is president and founder of secure money advisors. Brian a great show we’re having today obviously talking about the importance of planning for retirement, we talked about the difference between investment planning and planning for retirement, which are different things totally different things. You have a lot of viewers that have been so patient just waiting for their questions to be answered. So if you don’t mind, we’re just gonna jump right in today. Is that okay? We’re gonna speed question. That’s what we’re gonna do. Exactly. We’re gonna do just as many as we can. This is a great question. This is Bernie from South Hills. And Bernie wants to know, Brian, I’m 64. And I’m still working. I make 130,000 plus bonus each year. I don’t have any debt. I don’t own any property. I’m about to inherit $1 million, half of the half of it this month. If I have, I’m sorry, I have a decent 401k. Where should I invest the inheritance? Would real estate be a viable option for me? Yeah, good questions, Ronnie from South Hills,

Brian Quaranta – 12:30

Bernie from South Hills, you know, I would have a lot of follow up questions for Bernie and like Bernie, or you know, you know, how much is your sole security going to be? Have you looked at when to collect the social security? Are you? Are you going to be receiving a pension from your employer? Are you going to need additional money from your 401k? If you were to buy real estate, what if you rental real estate that would generate some type of cash flow for you? So there’s lots of questions that we need to ask Bernie and as a fiduciary, that’s my job, right? Because there’s no cookie cutter answer here for Bernie without a an intelligent conversation between him and I. But this happens all the time in, you know, one of the questions we always ask is, you know, number one, do you expect to receive an inheritance at all? And number two, do you expect to have to maybe potentially care for a parent. And those are big things because of what Bernie is about to experience with this inheritance? You know, depending on how it’s handled, we don’t know where that money is coming from either. I mean, if that’s coming from mom and dad’s IRA accounts, or it’s coming from bank accounts, you know, there’s going to be all kinds of different tax consequences based on where it’s coming from. So I think he’s asking a really great question that the unfortunate thing is, there’s really no solid answer. Now, I’m not against Real Estate. I like real estate, if it’s purchased correctly. But at the end of the day, the question would be, would that be what he actually needs for his money? You know, would he need a high degree of liquidity? Because if we buy real estate, you know, even though we’ve got a tangible asset, how, you know, if you needed to liquidate How long would it take to liquidate? Right so these are a lot of things that have to be determined for you just go out and say, hey, what Where should I put this? Yeah, that’s like somebody saying, hey, should I take the million dollar investment and buy bitcoin?

Cynthia De Fazio – 14:12

What’s your opinion on? Should I buy? Okay, let’s go on to Chad’s question. Actually, he’s calling from Monroeville. Chad would like to know, Brian, I would like to invest money from my stock portfolio into something else, specifically a good ETF either in gold or exponential technologies or possibly healthcare. I know that not all ETFs are created equal. So I wanted to get your opinion. I am already invested in some traditional stocks and index funds.

Brian Quaranta – 14:45

Yeah, ETFs are great. I mean, you know, one thing about ETS is they’re very cost efficient. And they trade you know, daily, you know, every second like, like a stock would you know, the problem with mutual funds, traditional mutual funds, and if you look, you know, subscribe. To a journal called investment news, which is an industry publication that I get. And I was just reading an article before the show about how much money is pouring out of traditional mutual funds. Yeah, you know, what we considered actively managed traditional mutual funds. And the reason is, is because everybody’s moving to professionally managed money, whether you’re utilizing ETFs. And the great thing about ETFs is they can be traded, like a stock can, you know, if I, if I want to sell a mutual fund, okay, I can put the order in the morning, but I don’t get the I don’t get the price until the end of the day. If I put in a stock trade right now, I get the price right now. And an ETF does the same thing. And so the ETFs have been a really great way to increase the diversification of the portfolio also really control the cost of the portfolio, but also maximize the allocation of the portfolio. Because, you know, an ETF basically is just a collection of stocks within this ETF package, but it’s just priced more efficiently and cost more efficiently. So in his case, you know, you know, depending again, on the ETF, right, yeah, I mean, you know, what’s his risk tolerance? Right. You know, but but I’m a fan of ETFs. I personally own ETFs, myself, as I own individual stocks. So, you know, in his case, you know, it could be a blend between both, you know, that could be good, but I’ve got nothing against ETS, I think they’re a better choice than even a traditional mutual fund.

Cynthia De Fazio – 16:24

Okay. Brian, thank you so much. Here’s a great question. This is add in Butler, he’s calling in saying, Brian, I’m 92. And I want to invest some money with a company that has a bond fund where they buy and sell bonds, and you receive a share of the return that they are able to produce. I’m sure there are hundreds of companies that do that. But what is your experience been?

Brian Quaranta – 16:44

bonds? Yeah, bonds, bonds, bonds. You know, I remember I had, I remember, this was probably Oh, eight, nine years ago. I remember a gentleman had come into my office. And he had over $2 million in Lehman Brothers bonds. And you know, Lehman Brothers been around forever. Yeah. And of course, for those of you watching that another story of Lehman Brothers, you know, this individual with over $2 million in bonds, I had asked him, you know, does he feel comfortable having such a large position with one specific company? And he says, you know, Lehman Brothers has been around for 100 plus years, they’re not going anywhere. And well, we all know what happened. I mean, Lehman Brothers is now worthless. And I think about that guy every day, because literally, the bond is worth nothing, pretty much, and he had over $2 million. And I think that’s what you have to really think about when you purchase a bond is what’s the strength of the company that you’re you’re buying with, because there’s default risk. Also interest rate risk, there’s liquidity risks. So you know, depending on what the company is, what the term of the bonds are, what the interest rate is currently going to be a pain. At the same time, he’s 92 years old, you know, he’s 92 years old. The question is, does he even need to take risk? I mean, heck, he could probably just put the money under his mattress and call it a day, you know, and with bond rates, you know, interest rates at averaging over, you know, a little over 2%? Is it even worth him taking the risk with the bond, and being subjected to interest rate risk, default risk, credit risk, and all the stuff that goes along with purchasing a bond.

Cynthia De Fazio – 18:16

But how awesome is that? He’s 92 years old, and he’s watching your show. And he’s asking you these questions.

Brian Quaranta – 18:22

Yeah, and we see this all the time, I’ll tell you, my favorite thing to do for folks that are in that age group is, you know, some really great local companies that offer some some really great interest rates, specific interest rates, you know, where they can get three 4% short term, keep their money, pretty, relatively liquid. But you know, that’s just, you know, I think it’s, I think it’s neat on his part, that he’s 92 and going, Hey, I got money, I need to, you know, make sure I’m maximizing what I get. But look, our right track retirement system, that, you know, we’ve worked so hard to pack so much into this system for you. And it really is a roadmap, that gives you turn by turn directions of how to get through retirement, get to retirement, get through retirement. And the first phase is really about what you’re going to do today. And that’s taking action to pick up the phone and schedule an appointment with my office. during that meeting, we’re going to spend about an hour to get it, we’re going to go through five key areas, we’re going to talk about your income, we’re gonna talk about your investments, taxes, health care, legacy planning. And we’re going to look at your current situation, and we’re going to identify any red flags and a yellow flags. And we’re going to see if there’s any ways to improve what you’re currently doing. We do this by starting by asking you a number of questions about what your goals are with the money, what challenges you have, what the purpose of the money is, what you want to do with it long term, what your risk tolerance is, you know, there’s many times that we’ve run through the right track retirement system with people and they tell us that they don’t want to be taking a whole lot of risk. And we run what we call a riskalyze report, which you’ll get and this report actually identifies the risk of your portfolio. And some people will tell us well, we’re not real big risk takers. And I’ll run the risk live report for them and their risk will be off the charts. And it’s the first time that they’re actually finding out about that. And it makes them very uneasy to know that they asked to not be in a very risky portfolio, but we’re showing that they are in a very risky portfolio. And that’s the power of having data at your fingertips to be able to see what’s going on. And those Morningstar reports that we’re going to run for you, you know, they’re going to be an X ray into your current situation, looking at a number of different data points. So that’s the right track Retirement System, we’re going to give this to you at no cost. You just need to do your part and get up off the couch, put the cup of coffee down, put down whatever you’re doing the paintbrush, whatever activity you’re doing right now call 18883821298. This is complimentary to you at no cost.

Cynthia De Fazio – 20:46

Brian, thank you so much to the viewers at home, the phone lines are once again now open that number to call is 888-382-1298. We have to take a very short commercial break when we come back. We’re gonna have time for a couple more viewer questions. So please stay tuned and don’t go away.

Commercial Break – 9:02:00 PM

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Cynthia De Fazio – 22:29

And welcome back to retirement You TV. My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta. the president and founder of secure money advisors. It is like so funny. I don’t know what it is. It makes sense. To we’ll get it we’ll get it down. There we go. We have a caller named Daryl actually calling in from Butler. And Darryl wants to know, Brian, I’m 62. And I was planning to work for another four years before retiring. However, my job is wearing me down and I’m not happy there anymore. So I’m tempted to just quit and start taking so security now that I’m eligible and then work a low stress part time job somewhere. Have you seen people do this successfully? Brian, I love your show. And I would appreciate your advice.

Brian Quaranta – 23:17

Well, first off there. All right, Darrell, and I see this all the time, and we have lots of clients doing it. And you’re definitely not alone here. There’s lots of people that are burnt out on what they’re doing, and they just want to change. And you know, one of the things that we do very successfully for our clients is actually showing you how to do that because it can be done and it’s very easy to be done. So, you know, I want to encourage you that possibly cutting social security and helping offset the the income need that you would need by getting a part time job very easily could be a viable strategy, but the numbers will show that we have a way of actually mapping that out for you. So you can make an informed decision of whether that mathematically makes sense. And we know right around where you need to be. So we’d be able to give you the thumbs up or the thumbs down of whether or not something like that would make sense for you to do, but is absolutely possible. We’ve got many of our clients doing it. And they’re so happy that they actually made that transition. Yeah. And you know, there are only a lot of times we will say My only regret is I just didn’t do it sooner. So yeah, yeah. But that’s a great question, Darrell.

Cynthia De Fazio – 24:26

Absolutely. And I think we have time for one more. Brian, we have a caller from Mount Lebanon, her name is Phyllis. She said the whole idea of not working anymore makes me really nervous about our financial future. I’ve worked for over 50 years, and I can’t imagine just stopping How can I know that the resources I have accumulated will meet our needs for the rest of our lives?

Brian Quaranta – 24:44

Yeah, fellas, it’s math. Math will tell you whether or not that will meet your need. But I get it. I mean, what Phyllis is asking. I mean, I think this is what terrifies everybody. Absolutely. I mean, we think about the monumental task that’s in front of us here. I mean, we’re talking about People working for, you know, 40, 50 years and then all of a sudden stopping. And you know, you’re accumulating this, this chunk of money, and now it needs to last for the next 25, 30 years. I mean, it’s hard for people to wrap their minds around making something like that happen. But there’s best practices to make sure that that can happen. And when you, when you walk through a real retirement strategy, and you walk through the map, you’re going to see exactly how that would work. But I would tell you successfully retiring over 1200 people in my career having a 90% client retention rate, there’s a reason why we’ve been able to do what we’ve done, because there are some really simple strategies. And what I will tell every listener out there, every viewer out there, the more simple you keep this, the better off you’re going to be. The mistake that people make is they make it way more complicated than it needs to be. The whole idea is to have a stream of income that you can rely on, that will never go away. And then whatever else you can take risk with to make sure it grows. And we’ll teach you how to do that when you come in. And this is why we built out the right track Retirement System. Cynthia Absolutely. I mean, this is this is everything that we do at secure money advisors in helping you approach retirement, and making sure that we’re giving you the confidence and peace of mind by giving you turn by turn directions with the right track Retirement System. You know, there’s so many people that have asked me, whether it be from my radio show or from the TV shows, where people just write in from the website and just say, I’ve got a question in regards to when to collect Social Security. So many people just don’t even know when the best time is to collect for Social Security. Other people will say to me, I wish I had a pension. Is there a way that I can create my own pension? Yeah, you know, but the big one I hear is people say, look, I can’t afford to take the risk anymore. I can’t afford to be subjected to another big market correction. How do I approach retirement if I can’t take that kind of risk anymore. That’s what we’re going to teach you with the right track Retirement System. But you have to do your part. You’ve got to pick up the phone, call my team at 1-888-382-1298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298 we’re gonna pack a lot in the hour that we spend with you. And I’ve seen other people charge over $1,000 for what we’re going to do for you complimentary with no obligation. So again, do your part pick up the phone call my team today schedule an appointment, it’s 18883821298.

Cynthia De Fazio – 27:26

Brian, thank you for another amazing show this week. I can’t wait to see you next week. to the viewers at home. Thank you for spending time with us. Again, that number to call is 8883821298. Please keep the viewer questions coming. We love hearing what you’re thinking about. And Brian loves answering those questions. Again, thank you for spending time with us. We look forward to seeing you here next week. Be safe, be happy and be blessed. Take care now.