Episode 157 – Steps to Take to Achieve a Comfortable Retirement

On this week’s episode of On the Money with Secure Money, Brian Quaranta discusses steps to determine a comfortable retirement date and how to make your money last.

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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.

Steve 00:39

Hey, welcome, everybody. This is on the money with secure money. Brian Quaranta, here on consumer advocate Steve’s at all in this on this week’s show, we are going to highlight some steps you can take right now to help you have a comfortable retirement we’re going to dig into inflation. Yeah, that’s everybody’s happy topic. And we’ll talk about that, but also give you some tips on maybe how you can weather some of those rough patches. We’ve got some great questions from listeners that and a whole lot more. Brian, what do you think?

Brian Quaranta 01:07

That’s right, Steve, coming up on today’s show. We’re gonna highlight steps you can take now to help you achieve a comfortable retirement. Yes. And it all starts with a plan. Stay tuned, we come right back with On the Money with Secure Money.

Announcer 01:21

And now on the money.

Brian Quaranta 01:23

Any good retirement plans starts with the foundation.

Announcer 01:27

Asset protection, tax reduction, holistic planning

Brian Quaranta 01:31

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

Announcer 01:35

Retirement doesn’t have to be complicated.

Brian Quaranta 01:38

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

Announcer 01:41

And now on the money with secure money.

Steve 01:48

And welcome everybody this is On the Money with Secure Money. Brian Quaranta is here, he is the guy on the money. And he is Secure Money, Secure Money Advisors is what I’m talking about. Brian is an author. Yes, he’s a published author. We’re going to talk about the book today. He’s president and CEO of Secure Money Advisors, and so much more. Hi, Brian. Good to catch up.

Brian Quaranta 02:08

Steve, how are you doing?

Steve 02:09

Very, very well. Thank you. And are you getting any sleep these days?

Brian Quaranta 02:13

Yeah, you know, that little guy right? Yeah, three months old now. And we’re doing pretty good. He’s a good sleeper. So, I feel blessed. But oh, yeah, we’ll see, you know, with our other little guy. That changed after about four months, so we’ll see if this little guy stays just as quiet but yes, I am sleeping which is good news is good news. Really good to considering everything that’s going on in the marketplace today. I need all the rest that I can get.

Steve 02:35

Are you saying things are a little tense out there?

Brian Quaranta 02:38

Yeah, you know, it’s interesting. I was having my driveway paved this weekend. By Z’s paving. By the way, I gotta give a shout out to these guys. Jared at Z’s paving, if anybody needs a good paver contact Z’s paving, okay, Jared, get a hold of them. He’s a great, great guy. And I gotta tell you, I was watching these guys pay my drive when I got this big, long driveway. You ever seen one of these big pavers they use on the roads, right? And you got the truck that backs up the asphalt that this thing and then it spreads it out. There’s got to be 10 guys down there to pave my driveway. 10 guys to pave my driveway. And they’re all working together as a team and I’m watching them. And the truck comes in and you got a guy on the left hand side guy, the right hand guy beside a guy driving the paver two to three guys in the back, you got the big dump truck pulling in the dump the asphalt, and it’s this coordinated symphony of getting a road paved, I was sitting there thinking to myself, Wow, if it takes 10 guys to pave my driveway, how many people does it take to plan a retirement. And I can tell you here at secure money Advisors, a team of 15 people that you get access to, you know, most people today are working with one advisor, one, just one person. And in today’s marketplace, if you don’t have a team of people, helping you create a financial plan, it’s you’re just not going to be as ahead of the curve is what you should we have so many eyes, looking at our planning for our clients because everything’s customized to the client’s particular situation. And when you have a team of people and you have multiple eyes, looking at a case, and working through that case, this is how we really figure out ways to maximize income, protect from inflation, protect from market risk, get good rates of returns, know when to buy and sell. I mean, we’ve got an entire investment team. We’ve got an entire strategy team when it comes to taxes and income and estate planning. And that’s the type of approach that you really have to take when it comes to building a retirement plan. Just like these guys paved my driveway at Zs, paving. I mean, it takes a team effort because everybody plays a role in making sure that that foundation is laid. And jeez, if it takes 10 guys to do a driveway. It should take just as many to do a great financial plan. And that’s the one thing that really separates us Here at secure money advisors that seem planning approach. And I think everybody deserves to have a real financial plan written down. If you don’t know how much you need to save for retirement, or you aren’t sure what your vision is for retirement is supposed to look like, it’s never too late to meet with a team of financial advisors and create a financial plan together.

Steve 05:21

Well, I like the way you describe that, Brian, because it’s so important that I never thought about that, before that you’ve got a team of 15 people that all end up touching on that, you know, to help that plan come together. And that’s why you so many people that go through you that use you some of your clients, let me just say that, that you can successfully get them retired and want a great sense of joy and accomplishment that is for you.

Brian Quaranta 05:45

Well, listen, you know, when I wrote write, track your retirement, it was really about taking 25 years’ worth of work and putting it into a book and trying to make it as simple as possible. And, you know, I really talk about how simple our planning strategy is to help reduce risk and build income and provide peace of mind. In a world that can be so complicated, we really have broken it down to give the client a roadmap that makes things very, very, very simple. I mean, everything from creating tax, diversified sources of income, these are things that people don’t think about, I mean, tax diversified sources of income. For individual planning, a comfortable retirement should include a mix of pretax and post-tax vehicles, I mean, think about a traditional 401 k or IRA, along with Roth 401, Ks and Roth IRAs to avoid paying extra taxes when you take distributions. Additionally, if you’re currently employed, and your employer offers a retirement plan, you know, Delk, Walker, which is a Service recommends contributing to this retirement plan to the point of maximizing a company match. And you can also consider even using the Roth component of your 401k. And if your employer doesn’t have a Roth component yet, you should really push on your employer to get that Roth portion of the 401k. Because it’s really beneficial to have tax free income coming into retirement. And you could do that with a Roth 401 K.

Steve 07:05

Well, and I think when you talk about the Roth 401 K, I think many times and this is my wife since this situation, she started a new job. And I asked her, I said, do they have a Roth 401 K? She goes, I don’t know, I know I’m in the 401k. So, we’ll ask she asked they do she’s in?

Brian Quaranta 07:20

Yeah. Right. Well, you know what, it’s interesting, you bring that up? Because I do find that a lot where I asked people, have you considered putting money into the Roth portion of your 401k? And they said, we don’t even know if we have it. And I said, You know what, let’s find out. As part of your homework for the next meeting, let’s find out if your employer has this. And usually, they’ll come back 80% of people come back and say, Yes, we have it, but nobody ever told me we did have it. So, they’re not even being communicated to by their, by their HR department or their employer that the Roth portion of the 401k even exist. Now, keep in mind when you make a contribution to the Roth portion of the 401k, that company match still has to go in the tax deferred side. So, your contributions will be tax free.

Steve 08:01

So again, folks if you’d like to get in 800-656-8616. And in fact, Boy, these segments go by so quick, Brian, let’s go ahead and invite folks to call or right now get on there prior to retirement.

Brian Quaranta 08:12

That’s right, Steve, you know, I’m very passionate about my belief that everybody deserves a secure independent retirement and that’s why we keep a few openings on our calendar for listeners to sit down and get a no cost, no obligation, consultation, or second opinion review. To help put you on the right track. My right track retirement system built around five key areas income taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. When you come in, I will run a number of reports for you will show you a risk analysis that can show you how much risk you’re currently taking. show you ways that you can get upside potential in the market with no downside risk, and I’ll show you how to beat this inflationary environment. Most importantly, we’re work hard to show you all the ways that you can protect and grow your money but you got to do your part. You need to call us today. So, give us a call for a right track retirement review.

Steve 08:57

Sounds like a plan Brian, make take advantage of the offer here folks, it’s a great way for you to well again, get a financial roadmap put together get you on the right road to retirement starts with that call 800-656-8616 You get the comprehensive financial review the right track retirement review, you will get that no cost, no obligation and then you will also have your own roadmap that will help guide you to get you to where you need to be when it comes to retirement 800-656-8616, 800-656-8616

Brian Quaranta 09:29

rising inflation is really beginning to take a toll on most everybody, especially those near retirement when we come back, we’re going to outline what kind of threat inflation is to retirement offers some tips to help you weather this rough patch when we come right back with on the money with secure money.

Announcer 09:47

Hurricanes, tornadoes and fire. These are serious situations we plan in advance for. The volatility of the 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 10:29

We are back on the money with Secure Money. I’m consumer advocate, Steve, Brian Quaranta is here. Brian is an author, and I’ve just got a Brian, you just sent me a little, you know, a snippet of your manuscript. I look forward to digging into this thing and reading it.

Brian Quaranta 10:45

Yeah, yeah. There’s a great story about Babe Ruth and in the book. You know, a lot of the strategies I use go back to the time that Babe Ruth was playing baseball. Yeah, so I talk about the old technology versus the new technology, that’s really important chapter I talked about which is chapter two is Think like a pension or not a gambler. Too many people are gambling with their life savings. And not a lot of people know if they have enough to retire because they are gambling. And they don’t know what rates of return are yet. But the other big monster in the room that we need to deal with is inflation. And it’s always there, not to the extent that it’s there right now. But I think a lot of experts will agree that real inflation is probably well over 9%. But inflation is always there, it’s it just sometimes will feel a lot more. And it’s great. If you’ve saved a million dollars for retirement. I mean, those are today’s dollars, inflation must be considered and factored into your retirement plan. And, you know, what it means is that if inflation continues in the direction that it is, I mean, you basically just losing purchasing power. And there’s two things that erode your purchasing power very quickly. That’s inflation and taxation. So, when you look at the inflation rate, right now, you look at where taxes are headed right now, a person had saved a million dollars today, you know that purchasing power is not what it was just a few years ago. And that loss of purchasing power really refers to the decrease of how much you can buy with any given amount of money. So, for example, if you spend $3, to buy a dozen eggs, today, but that same doesn’t cause four hours in the future, you’ve lost 33% of your purchasing power. So, you know, over time, loss of purchasing power is almost inevitable, because inflation will always be increasing. But inflation has never been this high. And this is why it’s so important that you have a really good strategy in place for retirement to offset and fight this monster of inflation, right now.

Steve 12:40

And it really is, isn’t it? I mean, when you think about it, you’re talking about the compounding effect of inflation. We talk about compounding interest and how wonderful that is, well, when you stay compounding inflation, that’s just the opposite.

Brian Quaranta 12:55

Yeah, well, in inflation can be devastating. I mean, to a retirement nest egg, I mean, not just because it rises over time will because it compounds for example, if inflation, let’s say just hold steady at 4% per year, all right, sure. Forget this transitory inflation, quote, unquote, we’re supposedly dealing with right now, but let’s just say it steadily holds it 4% per year prices will be expected to double in 25 years. But reality, they will double closer to 13 years. So over a long retirement, this compound effects becomes even more pronounced. I mean, if you look at just the rule of 72, you know, if you have an eight or 9% inflation rate says that, you know, you’re gonna need the same amount of purchasing power as you have today, or you’re gonna double the amount of purchasing power, you know, seven, eight years from now, that you that you do today, it’s crazy. So things will just continue to cost more very rapidly. So making sure that your, that your financial house is an order is very important. And this is why we do so much work in the analyzation stage of helping people, you know, the first step and working with anybody really is to understand where they currently are, what they have, and where they’re headed with what they have. I find that a lot of people have an investment strategy, which is more of a long-term approach. A lot of people don’t have a retirement strategy. A retirement strategy is one that’s going to provide you with the appropriate amount of cash flow, not only today, but also 5, 10, 15 years from now. You know, according to the Wall Street Journal, they did an article on people withdrawing money under something called the 4% rule. And they said that if you follow this withdrawal rule, and you’re let’s say you’re trying to withdraw money from a portfolio that’s invested in the stock market, depending on the rate of return that you get very early on in retirement, you can have up to a 56% chance that your plan could fail, meaning you could run out of money before you die. Now according to AARP, they surveyed about 1000 people, and they said to these folks, you know, what do you fear most running out of money? Or death? And you know, 90% of those people said they fear running out of money more than they fear death alone.

Steve 15:10

And I would say it was- I would go like 95%. I mean, you know what I mean? Because- that’s because it’s- I mean,- if you’re,- I mean, running out of money is the biggest fear, I understand that, I get it. I can’t imagine what that would be like.

Brian Quaranta 15:21

Well, unfortunately, Steve, the reality is I meet those people every single year. And I’ll tell you the worst day of retirements, not the day you run out of money, the worst day of retirement is the day that you figure out, you’re going to run out of money, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. And unfortunately, it’s just that people have been being given the wrong advice, they’ve been being given bad advice. So for example, you know, they’re trusting someone to manage their money, and they lose a good chunk of it, and they tell these people, you know, don’t worry about it, hang in there, you’re in it for the long haul, it’ll come back. You know, a lot of times these people are being led down the wrong path, you should only be risking money that you can afford to risk. And you should only be risking money, that you at least have a 10-year time horizon on. If you’re going to need that money within the next five to 10 years, you really need to do what I call a split funding strategy, where we actually break the money up into two buckets. And this is something that I actually teach you when you come to the office. And this is why I’m so passionate about building a secure and independent retirement. And that’s why I always keep a few openings on our calendars for our listeners to sit down and get a no cost, no obligation consultation, or second opinion review to help put you on the right track. And the right track retirement system is built around five key areas. It’s built around income taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. It truly will show you where you are and where you need to go. It’ll show you potential ways to help you maximize your returns and reduce risk. It’ll show you how to get your income as high as you can as quickly as you can as safely as you can. But you got to do your part, you got to call us, and you’ve got to schedule. Now this is a no cost, no obligation consultation at our office, all you got to do is bring a good attitude and the things that you’re concerned about. And we can walk through a very simple strategy with you to give you an idea of what a real retirement plan should look like. So, for the next 10 callers who call in right now that’s a complimentary right track retirement review.

Steve 17:16

Hey, that sounds fantastic. Folks, take advantage of this one. It’s a great way to be able to come on in, sit down, get that financial roadmap put together. It’s exactly what Brian was talking about the right road to retirement the road to retirement review. Yep, make it smooth sailing. And that’s what they can help you do at with Brian and the team. It’s a great way to be able to get a true practical Financial Review. It’s 800-656-8616 10 collars right now we’ll get that comprehensive financial review, you’ll see where you are today. But more importantly, you’re going to find that you now have a roadmap that can help get you to where you need to be 800-656-8616 again, 800-656-8616.

Brian Quaranta 17:58

The last thing we want to do is sabotage our retirement plan. But sometimes things happen, and missteps occur, the good news is behavior can be corrected, and how to segment isn’t X when we come right back with on the money with secure money.

Announcer 18:15

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 to 800-656-8616 or text BrianQ to 800-656-8616 Call or text BrianQ to 800-656-8616.

Steve 18:51

We are back on the money with secure money and Brian Quaranta, Secure Money Advisors is the company securemoneyadvisors.com is the website, I encourage you to check that out, see the see behind the scenes, so to speak. But also, you get updated on a whole lot of great information that you guys do. You just do a good job of keeping that website fresh.

Brian Quaranta 19:12

Yeah, not but not only that, they can listen to the radio shows there. So, we’ve got the radio shows that have been archived for your listening. So, there’s a lot of information in depth information that you know, if you’re trying to find answers to certain questions, whether it be about income taxes, investments, health care strategies, estate planning strategies, there’s probably some shows on there that will help answer those additional questions you have. We also have all the TV shows uploaded on there. So, for those of you that don’t know, but we do a TV show every single week on KDK. Right now, we’re on Saturday nights, I believe we come on at 1130. You can check your guide, it’s on the money with secure money, and then we’ll be coming on April 10 on Ktk on Sundays and that will be airing In, I believe around 12 or 1230 on Sundays, and then you can also find us on a few Fox channels, the 22 to the point, it’s all on our website, all the different showtimes. So, but yeah, listen to them. And then also go to our website and find out where our upcoming educational events are going to be. You know, we try to teach some educational events at least four to five times a month. Most of the times were at universities, libraries, but with COVID restrictions, that’s been a little bit tough. So right now, we’ve been using narcissi winery, Jackson’s restaurant, cranberry library, LaRoche College, Slippery Rock, so check us out. And there’s a lot of places for you to find us. But our job we feel it secure money advisors is to be an asset to the community. And truly give people the advice that they deserve. And what we do so differently here at secure money advisor, Steve, is that we provide people with the black and white information that they need to make an informed decision, we’re not here to give them our opinion, the world we live in today allows us through technology, to very easily show people where they currently are at with their current portfolio by looking at a few data points. And where they could go by making a few changes. The importance of that is that we keep our opinions out of it, and you’re truly making decision based on numbers. And that puts you the client in a position of strength because you don’t have to worry about being sold anything here at secure money advisors, we truly are problem solvers. We identify the problems, and then we help you solve the problem. Should you want to hire us to help implement and solve those problems for you. We’re more than happy for you to hire us. If you take advantage of one of our complimentary right track retirement views. And you didn’t want to hire us. That’s fine, too. We shake hands we part as friends. All right,

Steve 21:46

I got one. I’m going to pose this to you, Brian. The so I know you get a lot of questions. And let me how often do you get this one? After you’ve explained things after you’ve helped them put together a plan? I can do that?

Brian Quaranta 22:01

Well, how about this one? This is the one we get a lot. I wish I would have met you 10 years ago? Ah, all right. Even better. Yeah, I wish I would have met you 10 years ago. And and that speaks volumes. And usually, you know, we’re competing. Typically, between you know, the client typically is you know, going out and maybe seeing two or three different advisors who are typically competing with quite a lot of different firms. And we win, we went about 98% of that business. So you know, and that’s and the feedback that I get when I asked people why did you choose us over you know, the other company is they’ll say, you know, you guys are the ones that really took the time to understand our situation, you took the time to really explain where we were at you gave us the data and the metrics to look at to to make an informed decision. And then not only did you show us a way to solve the problem, but you showed us in black and white numbers, how our retirement would actually look. And we’re not doing that through fancy charts and graphs, and you know, retirement planning software, we have a very simple approach through what we call our bucketing strategy, where we bring people through our blue, green, red bucketing strategy. And so all of our clients start to think about their money in buckets. So, but yeah, that’s what we typically hear Steve.

Steve 23:11

800-656-8616. Let’s see, we have time for one. Well, yeah, one question probably is only good. Let me go to Pamela. She says, I’m a physician with my own practice and for employees. Right now, I have a set plan that I’m contributing to, but I’ve been told that a defined benefit plan would be better. Can you explain to me how these work and whether or not you recommend them for someone like me?

Brian Quaranta 23:32

Yeah, so having your own practice would be like me having my own financial practice with employees. So when I first started, I had a set plan to which is a self-employment retirement plan. And it allows for higher contribution amounts, you could contribute up to about $50,000 A year into a SEP, but the defined benefit plan would be better solely for the fact that you would now be providing a really nice benefits package to your employees make yourself a more attractive employer to be able to attract a better and more talent. But this is why we keep the openings on our calendar, Steve each week, I mean for our listeners, and you know, these are the things that we exactly the types of things that we help people solve. I mean, if you bring a problem to our table, we will have a solution because we’ve connected and have a network of probably 50 to 60 professionals in all different industries that we lean on, to really help give you the best advice at all times. I think most people have an investment strategy, but they don’t have a real retirement plan. Because a real retirement plan has to deal with five key areas your income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. 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 at no cost also for the next 10 callers who call in right now and schedule an appointment with us to take advantage of this complimentary financial assessment which we call our right track retirement Review. I’m also going to give you a copy of my book complimentary, where I lay out all the strategies from start to finish of how to build a retirement plan that will allow you to still grow your money, mitigate your risk and get the income that you deserve. So again, for the next 10 callers who call in right now, that’s a complimentary right track analysis along with a complimentary copy of my book

Steve 25:23

Sounds fantastic, Brian, folks take advantage of it. Here’s a great way for you to get your own financial roadmap put together. It’s a practical financial review. And if you’ve never done it before, no time like the present 800-656-8616 That’s the first step you got to take 10 callers right now gets the comprehensive financial review, you’ll see where you are now. But more importantly, you’ll have a roadmap that can help get you to where you need to be. And along with that when you make your appointment you will get a copy of right track your retirement a simple planning strategy to help you reduce risk, build income and provide peace of mind and if you ask Brian nicely, I’m guessing he’ll sign it for you. Alright 800-656-8616 Brian, as always, a pleasure. These shows go by so quickly, but the information is so important. That’s right, Steve, we’ll

Brian Quaranta 26:05

Be back again next week with more on the Money with Secure Money have a great week folks.

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 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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