Episode 152 – Strategies to Help You Avoid the Pain of Inflation

On this week’s episode of On the Money with Secure Money, Brian Quaranta discusses the major obstacles of inflation and how to create a retirement plan to overcome them.

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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

All this printing of new money certainly is rising, the prices of the goods that we purchase and retirees face to obstacles regarding inflation, rising prices are going to put stress on fixed income and investing every time I plan to keep up with higher cost of living. And on today’s show, we’re going to share some strategies that can help you avoid the pain when we come right back with on the money with secure money.

Announcer 01:03

And now on the money.

Brian Quaranta 01:06

Any good retirement plans start with the foundation.

Announcer 01:09

Asset protection, tax reduction list planning,

Brian Quaranta 01:13

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

Announcer 01:17

Retirement doesn’t have to be complicated.

Brian Quaranta 01:20

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

Announcer 01:23

And now on the money with secure money.

Steve 01:31

Hey, welcome, everybody. This is On the Money with Secure Money’s Brian Quaranta. I’m consumer advocate Steve, and Brian is an author, He’s president and CEO of secure money advisors. He is he’s a fiduciary, he’s an independent, he’s been helping folks for more than 20 plus years and soon to be dad times two. Hey, Brian, how are you?

Brian Quaranta 01:49

Dad times two. I know we’re about a week away here. Yeah. Pretty excited. We might have Neil filling in next week for the radio show or the next two weeks or the radio show. We’ll see. But, yeah, we got an official due date. What April 6. You know, the original due date was March 30. Which was my birthday. Oh, well, it would have been fun. I said, you know, I really, you know, I hope that he’s not born on my birthday. I said, you know, the poor kid would have to share a birthday with me. And then I thought to myself, you know what, it’s important that he’s not born on my birthday, then everybody will forget my birthday.

Steve 02:28

Well, that’s good thinking right there. Anyway, but

Brian Quaranta 02:31

But yes, look at this inflation. I mean, it’s tough, man. I mean, go to the grocery store. Gas Pump. I mean, it’s big. Cost me $100 to fill my tank the other day, Steve,

Steve 02:42

I know, thing I was I got up as high as 85. And went, Oh, my gosh, that’s just incredible.

Brian Quaranta 02:48

Yeah, I mean, the last four years, the most I’ve ever spent to fill my tank was probably $65. That sounds about right. Yeah. And then it went to 70. And then, boy, you know, and I was sticker shocked when I saw 100 bucks. So, it is definitely real. And the thing is, is that inflation really hurts those that keep their money in the bank, or, you know, people that don’t have the ability to take risk with their money. You know, typically an inflationary environment will be good for those that can deploy it and investments like real estate and stocks and things along those lines. But for those people that have to be a little bit safer, and have the majority or all their money, in a bank account, that hurts when you look at a seven and a half percent inflation rate. You know, when you look at your bank accounts, you don’t see them going down in value. But theoretically, you are because you’re losing purchasing power. And this is one of the things that we talk about all the time with our clients and, and people that are considering becoming clients is our job as advisor is to make sure that we keep your purchasing power, as strong as we can throughout retirement so that you can continue to live the lifestyle that you want. But you know, there’s all kinds of different ideas on there about how to, you know, build an inflationary retirement strategy. And you can start by building in higher inflation rate for your annual spending budget,

Steve 04:12

Brian, that’s something that you’ve done to Secure Money Advisors since the beginning, you’ve always taken inflation into account.

Brian Quaranta 04:18

Well, we always do. Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s and I think any good advisory firm is going to take inflation into account because if you’re not, you’re just not thinking about the right way. But you know, if you look at over the past 30 years, when in affiliation generally hovered around two and a half percent, many advisors, you know, use 3% You know, as an inflation rate adjustment. Now, some advisor using four or five to help clients plan their spending for the next 12 months. I mean, when we’re running scenarios, we’re looking at anywhere from five to seven, because I don’t know how transitory this inflation really going to be. But I always say, hey, let’s make bad things happen on paper. So, if they actually happen, we have a plan. Right? Right. So nice. That’s the nice thing about making bad things happen on paper. But that’s the other important part about having a plan C, unfortunately, what I typically see is that most people will come into our office, what I call their POS. Now that stands for their pile of stuff. And usually, they don’t have a plan that is built around that pile of stuff, you know, most people will come in, they’ll say, Well, I’ve got an IRA over here, I’ve got some money at the bank, I’ve got some money with this advisor, I’ve got some money in a 401k. And it’s kind of splintered all over the place. But there’s no real written plan on how to actually get that money to start working for the client. And that’s what we teach people how to do. You know, most people have been taught the basic fundamentals on how to accumulate money over a period of time. But there’s not a whole lot of help out there, when it comes to teaching you how to get your money to start working for you start paying you a paycheck every single month, and providing you with what you need, so that you can get your time back. And that’s all people really want. When they retire. They no longer want to have to trade their time for money. So, the money that they have accumulated over their lifetime, through their working years, that money needs to start working for them and providing them with a paycheck. Because when you retire, that paycheck is going to stop. But the bills, the taxes and the money that you need to do the things that you want to do are not going to stop. You know, last week I met with a a, a woman that was recently widowed, had never taken care of her finances, her husband always took care of the finances. And here she is, you know, three years into the retirement and she loses her husband. And she came in and she had heard us on the radio. And then she came to one of our educational events. And we sat down, and I walked her through, we built her plan right there in front of her I wanted to see, I wanted her to see exactly how we did it. Because I don’t like the idea of an advisor taking a bunch of notes, and then going back and sitting down behind closed doors. And then coming back with this magical plan. It’s nice to roll up your sleeves, and kind of build the plan right there together. So, you can see the plan come together and you understand the what and the how of how we came to the decision that we did to allocate the investments, the way we did generate the income that we’re talking about generating, it’s very helpful. And you know, she is in a position now where she has to be the one that runs the household. And so, I walked her through the plan. And she started crying. And she said, I didn’t realize that it could be this simple. And I said it is simple. The problem is our industry makes it more difficult than it needs to be. And folks, I’m telling you if you want to have a plan that’s going to give you a peace of mind and security. That’s going to give you the ability to do the things that you want to do that’s not going to have you stressed out worrying about whether the markets up or down, come in to secure money advisors and get a second opinion from us. And that’s what a good fiduciary financial advisors should do. So, you have the opportunity right now. Complimentary to come in schedule an appointment for the next 10 callers who call in we’re gonna give you the opportunity to sit down with a fiduciary financial advisor who can guide you and possibly help improve your situation. Again, for the next 10 callers who call and we will perform a right track retirement review. We talked about it every single week. It’s an easy to understand financial review that really is going to indicate whether or not you’re in need of a comprehensive financial plan. We’ll look at how much you’re paying in fees how much risk you’re taking; will help you recognize any unnecessary losses your portfolio and simply see by protecting your retirement investments if you could experience some better growth potential. Second, we’ll perform a tax analysis will reveal how much you could possibly reduce your taxes. But we’re also going to help you design a customized income plan utilizing proven strategies which can strengthen your retirement income. So again, for the next 10 callers that’s a comprehensive right track Financial Review complimentary with no obligation

Steve 08:53

800-656-8616 10 callers right now gets that comprehensive financial review. You’ll see where you are today. But more importantly, you’ll find that you have a roadmap that can help get you to where you need to be 800-656-8616 800-656-8616

Brian Quaranta 09:12

Shifting gears from saving for retirement to spending in retirement can be a difficult adjustment. Good news. One of my specialties is helping people do just that. details when we come right back with On the Money with Secure Money.

Announcer 09:29

Do you ever feel like you’re fighting for financial knowledge? Don’t let bad 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 Khurana host of retirement your radio 800-656-8616 or text Brian Q 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 Brian Q two 800 656 8616

Announcer 10:06

We are back on the money with secure money and Brian Quaranta, I’m consumer advocate Steve, and Brian is CEO of Secure Money Advisors. He’s a fiduciary, he’s been helping folks for better than 20 years. So, Brian, this is uh, this is kind of right up your alley, you said this is one of your specialties. And I think it is because it is a big adjustment. And we’ve talked about this before spending a career saving with our focus only on saving to suddenly change gears and go into Okay, now I’ve got a decumulate. This money, that’s an adjustment for folks.

Brian Quaranta 10:38

Well, it comes with a lot of anxiety too. Well, absolutely. It does. It sure does. Because the number one thing that people ask all the time, or they’ll say to me is my one of my biggest concerns is running out of money. And, and we’re looking to use your retirement savings, you know, to start giving yourself some additional monthly income. That is a concern. And unfortunately, there is a percentage of people that will run out of money before they die. And according to AARP, who did a study, matter of fact, they interviewed 1000 people, and one of the questions they asked them is 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. And I can understand that I would not want to run out of money. I know nobody that would want to run out of money. And here’s the thing, folks, when you do run out of money, it’s going to be at a time where you really don’t have the health or the physical ability to go back to work. And the worst day of retirement is not actually the day you run out of money, the worst day of retirement is when you figure out, you’re gonna run out of money, and there’s nothing you can do to solve that problem. And unfortunately, I see these folks, you know, I met a gentleman a couple of weeks ago, that I was helping build a plan for that was in that exact same situation. And he was working with another firm, he, he was very concerned about the market volatility and recently sold his investments to go into cash. Because his concern is, is that if he’s withdrawing money, and at the same time, the markets going down, that he’s going to just compound his losses and make the day of running out of money comes sooner than later. And, and I had agreed with that, because he is really walking on thin ice here with the amount of money that he’s trying to generate from his portfolio. And he’s never had anybody sit down with him and bring him through a mathematical plan built around good solid math that demonstrates visually to him. The way that things need to look, it was the first time that things were really being put in perspective for him. Because, again, we build the plan right there with you. We’ve got big screen TVs in the office, we bring up the worksheets, we go through them, we start to build together, we build in worst case scenarios. What happens if you’re in if you’re a married couple? What happens if your husband dies? What happens if your wife dies? What happens if we have a health event, and you need to spend more money? What happens if you take a loss in the market this year and next year? What happens if you continue to take money out and the markets going down? And you know, we’re going through five very important areas with everybody, when they come in, we’re looking at their income, we’re looking at their taxes, we’re looking at their investment strategy. What happens if they have a health event and of course, the one that most people forget about is that when the good Lord decides to take you home, who are you going to make your largest beneficiary, the IRS or your family members, unfortunately, for most people, because they don’t understand how IRAs pass to their loved ones other than their spouse, meaning if you’re married, you don’t have to worry your spouse gets your IRA. No problem. But, boy, when it goes to your kids and your grandkids, that’s where the big tax event happens. But spending money in retirement is a whole different strategy than accumulation. And what we’re really talking about here is two different phases of retirement, we’re talking about the accumulation phase, versus the distribution phase, and the distribution phase. There’s a plan. And that plan is much different than the accumulation phase, the strategies and techniques that you use during the years that you are growing your money are not the same strategies and techniques that you’re going to use when you start to use your money. And for about 85% of people today, Steve, most people are not getting pensions today. So, what’s happening is you’re having people retire, they’ve got large 401 K balances 403 B’s 450 sevens. And they’re basically leaving their employers and employers are saying, hey, good luck. I know you’re retired, and you can take this money and you can figure out how you’re gonna live off of it for the rest of your life. That’s a monumental task to somebody that’s been an engineer their whole life or a doctor their whole life or a steel worker their whole life. You know, their specialty was in what they did. You know, I had a few guys come in from the steamfitters. Union last week, and you know, these guys are incredible at their work, and they make a lot of money doing what they do. I could never step on a job site and do what they do and build the facilities that they do. A lot of these guys are working up at the big A gas facility that’s being built here in Pittsburgh. And, you know, they’re getting ready to retire. And, you know, they don’t have anybody teaching them how to actually generate cash flow from their investments. And that’s exactly what we do here at secure money advisors. And there’s things that you really have to be prepared for when you’re going into this distribution phase number one, you got to get mentally prepared, you got to shift from a savings to a spending down your assets mindset. And it’s psychologically hard for savers to become spenders. So, you need to think this through in advance or you’ll run the risk of not enjoying the fruits of all your earned savings and investing. And with a plan, you can confidently start to spend your money without having the anxiety and worry that most people do. Number one, number two is you need to document your spending and build a real budget. This is what we help you do. This is also an opportunity for you to really imagine what your life would look like and get more efficient about the spending. And that’s what we want to do. We want to help you set up your goals and your dreams and help you build that out so that you can do the things that you want to do whether it’s spending more time with the grandkids, traveling the world buying a fishing camp, joining a country that whatever it might be, these are all things that people need a real plan to be able to execute on. Number three is simplifying your life remember when you moved in the past. Yeah. Jody Eisner, by the way, method to the madness is the name of her company. She’s absolutely outstanding. She a great friend, Jody Eisner method to the madness. I’ve worked with her for probably five years. My house and office are so organized because of her and everything is in containers and labeled and we’ve literally simplified everything. So for the next 10 callers who call on right now we are going to perform a complimentary right track retirement review, our right track system truly is going to help you get on the right track, it’s easy to understand financial review of your portfolio. And the review is really going to help you understand whether or not you’re in need of a comprehensive financial plan. The analysis is going to include a fee report and a risk assessment to help you recognize unnecessary losses in your portfolio and see if by protecting your retirement investment, you could experience dramatic growth potential. Second, we’re going to perform a tax analysis, we’re going to reveal how you could possibly reduce taxes, we’ll also develop a customized income plan, utilizing proven strategies, which could strengthen your retirement income. So again, for the next 10 callers. That’s a comprehensive right track financial review. We’re providing complimentary with no obligation

Steve 17:28

10 callers right now. 800-656-8616, you’re gonna get that comprehensive financial review that Brian just described, and then all of the extras that go along with it, you’ll find that you now have a roadmap to get you on the right track to retirement 800-656-8616. Again, 800-656-8616.

Brian Quaranta 17:48

If you’re wondering what’s happening to retirement accounts, and missed all the ups and downs recently, it’s the perfect time for retirement planning checkup to find out that and more we come right back with On the Money with Secure Money.

Announcer 18:04

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.

Announcer 18:21

Play your best retirement game call Brian Q 800-656-8616. Or text Brian Q to 800-656-8616. Call or text Brian Q to 800-656-8616.

Steve 18:40

And we are back one more segment On the Money with Secure Money and Brian Quaranta. I’m consumer advocate Steve’s at all I love our conversation today, Brian, we’ve covered so much ground and we’re talking I think we’re talking about things that are so current and so topical from inflation to, you know, the right plan. And right now, with things feeling in a bit of flux. I think having that confidence that we talk about, you have to know that that plan is actually in place, and it’s up to date, and it’s going to help us get to where we need to be. That is the beauty of working with you guys.

Brian Quaranta 19:11

There’s only one thing that gives you confidence. And that’s clarity. And if there’s anything that we do really well, it’s giving our clients and even those of you that are coming in for a second opinion, the clarity that you need to make good financial decisions. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of here at secure money advisors is that we have found a way to make retirement strategies and planning simple and easy to understand.

Steve 19:35

Right? Well, I’m again, give us a call folks 800-656-8616. I know a lot of you already have but we’ve still got some availability for you. And in the meantime, let’s jump into some of these questions. Brian, what do you think? Yeah, let’s do it. I think we got a question coming in from Jerry here. Yep. Here is Jerry. Jerry says I was born in 1956 and worked enough years to draw some social security retirement benefits. My spouse was born in 1954 She’ll be waiting until 70, to start collecting their retirement benefits, now, if I start to draw my own benefit now, will it affect the amount of my spousal benefit when I switch since that amount will be larger than my retirement benefit, a lot going on there.

Brian Quaranta 20:16

There’s a lot going on there. But I will tell you this, I mean, you’ll still get a little bit of a spousal bump, you know, Social Security has a way of calculating that Now, depending on what your wife’s primary insurance amount is going to be on, on her social security. But you know, 70 is a great time to collect, you know, especially if you feel you’re gonna live a long time. And I think that’s the big thing that a lot of people have to determine for themselves is, when is going to be the best time to collect here. And whether or not you’re going to qualify, like Jerry is talking about here for some type of spousal benefit. Keep in mind, you know, the easiest way to understand a spousal benefit is let’s suppose that you have a husband or wife, that was a homemaker, you know, and, you know, both genders play a role here. Now, I mean, I see, you know, I’ve got a good friend of mine, who’s a homemaker, matter of fact, he just entered back into the workforce after like 20 years, when he’s the one that raised the kids and his wife retired from the military. And now he’s back out and working. And the spousal benefits are great, because let’s suppose that your spouse was a homemaker and you collect social security, your spouse can get up to 50% of your Social Security, depending on when you collect and the ages of both of you at that time, but Social Security will give at least up to half of that amount. So, if you’re going to be entitled to let’s say, $3,000 a month, your spousal benefit, if you were entitled to 50% would be up to $1,500 a month. So, spousal benefits are important to understand and look into. And that’s certainly something we can do when you come in is help you figure out what strategy to go with when it comes to taking that spousal benefit. And I think we’ve got another one coming in from Grace here, Steve.

Steve 21:52

Here it is. Yeah, Jerry, again, 800-656-8616 is the number grace is wondering. She says, I’m a divorced woman, aged 67, and lost my job due to the pandemic being eligible for retirement and having no family close by, I thought it was a good time to move from my little town to a sunny senior community. Unfortunately, I did not think about what retirement would actually look like, now I’m at a loss, the club’s pickleball other activities, just don’t do it for me after a 35-year management position, is retirement a process? And how do I get a more fulfilling life? Wow, why would she want to leave sunny Pittsburgh?

Brian Quaranta 22:34

Well, you know, this is this is a big issue, right? Now, a matter of fact, you’re seeing a lot more life coaches pop up that specialize in this area. So, what do I mean by a life coach? Well, there’s people that are helping those of you that are retiring, make a transition and find a new purpose. And what grace is really talking about here is, you know, 35 years in a management position, you know, and now transitioning to where she’s got her time. You know, there’s all these activities that may not be for her. And there’s people that just don’t do well in retirement. After doing this for almost 24 years now, and helping over 1000 people retire, what I’ve come to understand is that if you retire with a purpose, you’re going to be a lot healthier and happier throughout your retirement, and you got to find out what that purpose is going to be. But it can’t just be that I’m going to play pickleball. And I’m going to do things around the house, because eventually, there’s going to be a day you wake up and you don’t feel like playing pickleball. Although that may not be the case, because I’ve got a lot of clients at play, and it seems to be quite the addiction. Yeah, but the reality of the situation is, you really got to find out who are you in retirement, you know, because for a lot of people, and this happens with a lot of executives that we retire, I have a CEO of a company that retired, you know, and he was responsible for 3000 people flew all over the country and a private jet. And now he’s retired. And so he went from one day, having access to the corporate jet and flying all over the place and staying, you know, all over the country and all over the world, and, you know, telling 3000 people, you know, what the next strategy moves gonna be for the company to the very next day being just an average person, you know, and, and that was not easy for him. And it’s still been a struggle. And so, finding that new purpose is very important. It’s important that you figure out what your purpose is, folks. And that’s what we can help you do here at secure money advisors. We have a few openings on our calendar each week for our listeners, and we’d love to hear from folks who want to really get a plan in place, want to have some clarity and confidence around what they’re doing. Those of you that have seen some recent market volatility affect your portfolios might be a good time for you to come in and get a second opinion, see if you’re doing things and get you on the right track, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. Our right track retirement review will help you identify the five key areas that we believe are important to be Get on the right track number one and most importantly, is having a strategy for income. Number two is a strategy for taxes. Three is a proper investment strategy, a health strategy, and of course an estate planning strategy. You have an opportunity right now to sit down complimentary with a fiduciary advisor who can guide you and possibly help you improve your situation. So again, folks for next 10 callers that’s a complimentary right track retirement review that we’re going to perform complimentary it’s easy to understand review that’s going to help you indicate whether or not you’re in need of a comprehensive financial plan. So, pick up the phone call us today. This is something you don’t want to procrastinate on. Give us a call now and schedule.

Steve 25:37

Absolutely. It’s 800-656-8616 you heard Brian 10 callers right now. Get that comprehensive financial review. You’ll see where you are today. But more importantly, you’ll walk out the door with your own right track retirement review your right track retirement plan 800-656-8616, 800-656-8616 Brian, as always, a pleasure to be here. I love the conversations the information is really important.

Brian Quaranta 26:03

Always a pleasure. And folks we’re so grateful for you keep the questions coming in and we look forward to seeing you 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 streams refer only to 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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