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Video Transcript
Rebecca Powers – 00:20
Welcome to On The Money with Secure Money with Brian Quaranta and Neil Major. I always slaughter your name Quaranta.
Brian Quaranta – 00:27
All right,
Rebecca Powers – 00:27
Is it Italian?
Brian Quaranta – 00:34
Quaranta. Yeah, it does mean 40. Yeah.
Rebecca Powers – 00:37
We want 40% return on everything.
Brian Quaranta – 00:43
I would rather see you not take a 40%.
Rebecca Powers – 00:46
Yes, like we’ve said before A penny saved is a penny earned that old adage. And it really is truth to that you’re not only trying to make people money, you’re trying to keep the money, they have money. Talk about that, what are some of the ways?
Brian Quaranta – 00:58
Well, the return of somebody’s money is more important than the return on the money, right? Because, you know, nobody really was going to call an advisor and thank them for making you know, 15 or 20%, but they’ll call you if they’ve lost money. But you really should have a strategy in place that can absorb market volatility. Most people do not because they have 100% of their money in the market. In my book that we wrote, right track your retirement, I talked about our methodology, which is basically a bucketing strategy, where we look at the amount of money you’ve accumulated, and we identify the purpose of it, and we separate it into these three different buckets. The importance of that is that in retirement, the number one priority for most people with the money that they’ve accumulated, is to generate some type of income, because when you retire, the paychecks going to stop, but bills, taxes and all those things you want to do vacation the bucket list up, you’re going to need money to do that. So, we’ve got to figure out a way how are we going to keep the cash flow coming in? And how are we going to do it in a way that if the markets are volatile, you don’t run out of money?
Rebecca Powers – 02:00
And it’s not just investing? Now let’s talk about all the different services, there’s wills, there’s Social Security, Medicare, let’s talk about that.
Neil Major – 02:07
Yeah, I mean, it’s secure money advisors, we’re very focused on a comprehensive financial plan that we want to look at all factors. And that’s why we call it the right track your retirement. And so first thing that we focus on income, obviously, like Brian said, you have that bucket list of things that you want to accomplish when you quit working, we want to make sure that you’re able to do that, then we look at tax planning, you know, what can we do today, that’s going to better your situation in the future? Where can we be generating cash flow from things like that, as far as tax planning goes? Next, we look at the investments, right? Once we determine the purpose of your money, we can determine the placement of your money, so then we can figure out how to invest it right. Next is health care. That’s number four. And fifth is legacy. And so when you talk about some of those things, you know, secure money advisors has been able to partner with professionals in each and every category. So we have an estate planner that we’ve partnered with. So there’s synergy between the two of us, we have a health care expert, Lisa, who’s in our office that is able to, you know, help identify the right supplement plans for our clients. We’ve tax partner with tax attorneys. So we have a partner in every area to make sure that we’re giving you the right track retirement.
Rebecca Powers – 03:25
We had a question from Libby and swiftclean. She was wondering about buying a rental house. Is that a smart way to invest your money as a 32-year-old disabled woman? Let’s answer that.
Brian Quaranta – 03:33
Yeah, well, rental properties are a good way to generate cash flow. You know, I mean, I think rental income is a great thing to have in retirement, not everybody’s going to be able to do it, though. Not everybody has the desire to go start buying rental properties and managing them and doing those things. So, you know, you’ve got to have other ways to approach Cash Flow Planning, you know, when I talk about investments for a moment, because, you know, when we think when people think about getting a review, or a second opinion of what they’re currently doing, I don’t think they really understand what that means, and maybe what the advisor is going to be looking for. And when we work with, with people, the first thing we want to do is analyze the risk at which they’re taking, if you look at the risk that most people are taking with the money that they’ve been working a long time for very hard for, they’re usually taking this much risk, and a lot of times only getting this much return. And that’s a very inefficient balance there. As far as the portfolio goes, we use a very powerful software that can very thin give us really great objective data. So there’s no opinions involved here. We’re just looking at Black and White information. It’s great. And it’s a program called Riskalyze. And we’re able to take your money, all the positions that you have, and we’re able to load it up into the software. And the software generates a report that says Hey, Mr. Mrs. Smith, you know, you’re taking this much risk and only getting this much return and by the way, if the market goes down, you could lose this much money. Wow. That’s what we Call a drawdown number when you are when you can lose this much money. That’s called a drawdown, how far your money can go down. And what we’re looking to do, especially for the risk bucket that we put together for folks, which again is a 10 year or longer bucket, we want to make sure that we’re mitigating that downside risk. So a lot of times we’ll have people come in, they don’t even know if the markets were to go down how much they could lose, No, nobody’s ever explained that to them before, right. But in a portfolio, there’s always a drawdown number, it can be determined by the amount of risk that is within the portfolio. And that’s very important, because a lot of times you’ll compare portfolios, and somebody might have a 30 or 40% drawdown. And we might be able to go in and make a few changes, keep this change this keep this change this and turn it into a from a 40% drawdown to maybe a 10% drawdown, which is much different, especially in volatile markets for you not to drawdown 40%, right?
Neil Major – 05:55
Yeah, I’ll give you an example. I just had somebody come in, and they had been with their advisor for 11 years, they’ve been very, very happy with their advisor, because obviously, the markets gone straight up share until easy till 2022. Right, yeah. But we did this risk of risk lies analysis for them. And what we actually found out is for the amount of risk their portfolio was taking, they actually didn’t do as well as they thought they could have right? Over the course of the past 1112 years, right. So there was a little more meat on the bone for upside potential. But what we discovered is their downside was so significant. And that’s why they were experiencing all the losses, they’re safe money was built on bond positions that were down 1214 16% year to date, with very, very little return over the past 10 years. And so, I think that’s what the analysis can really do for you can really kind of open your eyes to maybe what you have, or what you don’t have what you’re lacking.
Brian Quaranta – 06:52
it’s like it’s like an MRI or an x ray, that’s amazing. I mean, think about it, when you go in new, you work with a chiropractor, or you’re going in to see a back doctor, nobody’s doing anything until an X rays done right. And you know, once you do that, now you can really figure out what’s really happening here. And now, all of this starts to make sense. Now I see why we’re not getting the return that we should have been and why we’re losing so much money. But something Neil just said, think about this portfolio that he’s talking about with these folks, most of their money being in bonds, right, and then experiencing losses of 10 and 12%. In bonds. And this is the very scary part about the financial world that we live in today, you usually were able to utilize what we would call non correlated assets during times of volatility. So, if stocks weren’t doing well, you could shift more bonds, and you could protect your money over there. Now we’re seeing bonds and stocks go down at this together. So, it’s a different world. And in because we’re in a different financial world, you have to look towards things that are cutting edge. As far as technology goes, right? There’s new product designs out there that allow you if the market goes up to make some money, but if the market goes down, you don’t lose any money, there’s product designs out there, that will guarantee you a monthly paycheck, just like if you are getting a pension from your employer. And a lot of times people just don’t know about these other options, because they haven’t explored it, they’ve never gone and gotten a second opinion. Or every time they sit down with their adviser, the adviser always tells him, you know, don’t worry about anything. You know, it’s just a paper loss, right? kind of stuff, right? And that’s, that’s meaningless in retirement because we need a plan that works. I always say, this is not a dress rehearsal, we don’t get a second chance at it. This is we got to get it right, right out of the gates, we don’t have a lot of room for error here. The other thing we talked about is the probability of success of the portfolio. So not only does the software tell us what the drawdown potentially is, okay, but it also tells us what the probability of success is. So, what does that mean? Well, if you’re going to plan, is your plan going to work? Or is it going to fail? Right? How, how important would that be for somebody to know you’re the first person to ever even mentioned this? And I’ve met a lot of you.
Rebecca Powers – 09:05
Yeah, I’m kind of blown away. When did this program come about?
Brian Quaranta – 09:13
I’ve been around for quite some time now. So, probability of success, we always want to look at probabilities because too many people measure portfolios based off our returns, right? Or risk. We want to look at probability of success, because that’s the most important thing as a matter of fact, folks, speaking of probability of success, I want to have a high probability of success. And I’m going to ask if you weren’t on the right track, when would you want to know that? Hopefully now and if you do, I want you to take advantage of our right track retirement review. It’s complimentary, there’s no obligation, you get an opportunity to come and sit down with a fiduciary advisor at no cost and get a true second opinion, not a sales pitch, not a high-pressure situation, a true complimentary review where we can go over all the things that we’ve done Got it here. So, for the next 10 callers, who call in right now, you are going to get a right track retirement review where we’re going to go over our five key areas with you, we’re going to talk about income, taxes, investments, health care, and legacy planning. And we will give you clarity over a 45 minute to an hour meaning of where you stand. And if there were some things that needed to be changed. If there were problems that need to be solved, we can always talk about what that would look like. But you got to do your part in order to take advantage of this complimentary, right track retirement view, call us today at 1-888-382-1298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298.
Rebecca Powers – 10:38
And we’re going to take a quick break On The Money with Secure Money. We’ll be right back.
Brian Quaranta – 10:43
So everybody can tell you how to invest your money. There’s not a lot of people out there and a lot of firms that can teach you how to use your money. Most people also tell you that they’re scared. And the reason they’re scared is because they’re afraid of running out of money.
Neil Major – 10:58
The last thing you want to do is have a really good job and you’re in your 60s retire and be looking for work again in the late 70s.
Brian Quaranta – 11:06
The average person might say, well, a good portfolio would be a good mix of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, kind of a good portfolio is all designed around the five key areas, income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning.
Neil Major – 11:21
Because we’re not just product pickers here, what we do best here as we build retirement plans,
Brian Quaranta – 11:26
nine out of 10 people, when they walk through the door would ask us, we just want to know if we’re on the right track. And I always say if you’re not on the right track, when would be a good time to know it. Probably now,
Neil Major – 11:36
people you know can actually see a vision once we start to really build out their plan.
Brian Quaranta – 11:42
This is about you, if you’re not getting what you need. And you feel that when you walk out of the advisors office, it’s time to get a second opinion. And you can’t get a second opinion from the person that gave you the first the difference at secure money advisors, as a fiduciary firm, we help you manage the risk, build the income and give you the retirement withdrawal.
Rebecca Powers – 12:12
Welcome back. I’m Rebecca Powers here with on the money with secure money secure money is what we all want and need. Some people say when they come in to see their financial planner or really interviewing you is what’s happening? Do they have to bring paperwork, they have to bring pay stubs documents mean, what is their first kind of meeting look like?
Neil Major – 12:32
Yeah, yeah, so one of the things that we do when you schedule an appointment, we actually send you out a little packet to help you prepare for the meeting. Okay, now, that will tell you what the brain to get the most out of the meeting. But that first meeting, that strategy session that we’re doing with you bring as much or as little as you’d like, right, the meeting is really all about you. And we’re just trying to understand you get a better feel for your situation, you’re going to list out all the things that are currently concerning you about your plan, oftentimes, we don’t even really get into statements, things like that in that first meeting. So prepare as much or as little as you’d like, you know, some people prefer to kind of do the slow approach where they would kind of want to, you know, interview us first before they start divulging all these statements and things like that, get the most out of the appointment the way that you choose.
Brian Quaranta – 13:23
And then we have our overachievers that bring in their POS, for their pilot stuff. That’s funny. And that’s what we that’s what we call him the troops, because we’re going to have to get the whole team there. And that, you know, I do want to stress the importance of having a good financial planning team. And the one great thing about secure money advisors is that, you know, we’ve got four outstanding advisors at our office, we’ve got, you know, 15 Total people on the team, they all play a very critical role in making the client experience. And, you know, as, as the founder of the company, I can’t be more proud. When I get compliments from people and saying, you know, I’ve never worked with such a well-organized team that cares so much. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s our front office person who’s in charge of our client introductions, the way they answer the phone, or the way they greet you, or whatever it might be, all those things make a difference. But it’s, it’s a very welcoming environment. You know, when you think about financial planning, you think, Well, what kind of egos? Am I going to be walking? What kind of stuffiness or, you know, are they going to make me feel bad that I wasn’t doing the right thing? Exactly. That’s not what we’re there to do. I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. I needed that neither we worked very, very hard for I worked very hard for my money. My parents worked very hard for their money. And then and I would want to know that they were just going to go and sit down with somebody that actually cared and gave them real advice. And when I say real advice, it really is looking. Are there truly problems here? Because a lot of times we will come in and I’ll say I, the way that they’re explained. I’m good. I don’t really think you have a problem here. Maybe you don’t you don’t need me, right? I don’t see the problem here and explain to them why we don’t see the problem. And sometimes that’s, you know, it’s great for them to hear. But then sometimes the truth will come out. And they’ll say, yes, but my advisor doesn’t review in the depth that you guys’ review. And he doesn’t do all the things that you guys want to do. And so, they’re looking and saying, Well, they’ve done a pretty good job getting me here. But there’s all these things to do on retirement planning now, and he hasn’t listed, or she hasn’t listed off all of those things like you have. And I feel at this point in our lives, we need a more comprehensive plan. And we’ve worked very hard to build that out, to make sure that when somebody’s on boards with us, they are getting a very thorough plan.
Rebecca Powers – 15:40
And what did someone like I have to be honest, until I went with the fiduciary I trust, I didn’t really know all of my numbers, and it had been 15 years since I haven’t looked at my 401k. You can also look at you can find the information, if you don’t have the information, what I’m saying at home, you can also find that for them, correct? I mean,
Neil Major – 15:58
I’ve discovered a half a million dollars for people.
Brian Quaranta – 16:06
That’s not a true story. But that’s yes,
Neil Major – 16:09
yes, yeah, you’ll see two different statements, and they’ll see the numbers. Very similar. And I’m not real sure if this is the same account or different accounts. And, you know, we’ll check the account number and say good news. Half a million dollars richer. No. So it’s amazing. But yeah, it is amazing job is really, to get you very organized, right. And that’s why we give all of our clients, we take all their POS in this pot like that. They’re very detailed and organized. And, you know, to Brian’s point about the staff, I mean, I think that we have such a good staff, so many bright people that really are able to provide support, whether you’re an advisor or not, they’re really great, I think we’ve done a really a really, really good job and hiring staff much sooner than we needed them. And so that that way, you know, they’re fully trained, they’re ready to go, you know, six months a year when we do need them. So, we’ve done a really good job with that as well, looking
Brian Quaranta – 17:05
ahead and culture, something you can’t compete with, right, and you can’t fake it either. You can’t fake it either. And the thing is, is that look, at the end of the day, most financial planners have the same market to work with, we all have the same stock market to work with, right? We all have the same insurance companies to work with. culture matters, and philosophy matters. Some advisory firms thinks that they think it’s okay to take risk with 100% of somebody’s money, we do not we believe in protection first, if somebody said to me that they would want to leave 100% of their money in the market, I would tell them that we’re not going to be a good fit. Because I understand the liability that goes into that long term. If you don’t take the time to protect some of your 30, 40 years’ worth of work, in my opinion, you’re just setting yourself up for failure, and you have now have a lower probability of success. Now, if the market cooperated 100% of the time, you might be okay. But we know the markets don’t cooperate 100% of the time. And over the last, you know, decade people have gotten greedy, you know, to what was going on the market. And there’s a lot of people out there making a lot of money. And you know, up markets make a lot of geniuses.
Rebecca Powers – 18:14
Your psychic you knew Yeah.
Brian Quaranta – 18:17
Did you know how to buy? Buy Tesla. But you know, you look at all those a lot of you know, like Facebook, Netflix, I mean, I can go Amazon, you know, Google, they’re all They’re all down.
Rebecca Powers – 18:28
Right? Disney made a huge mistake with the woke. Yeah. And they’ve lost a huge amount that has been works for Disney. So, I know.
Brian Quaranta – 18:37
Yes. So, it’s so important that you really think about the protection of your money, more than taking the risk with the money because we can still get returns. But we can have a lot of safety built into.
Neil Major – 18:50
I mean, obviously our name secure money. Safety is our priority. It’s always amazing when we’re when we’re in the conference room, doing our strategy sessions with new folks. It’s amazing when they see what simple rates of return can enable them to accomplish. It’s kind of eye opening.
Brian Quaranta – 19:09
And I think that simplicity really is why people love our right track retirement system. As a matter of fact, folks, I am going to give you the opportunity again, to come in and get a complimentary no obligation, right track retirement review, where we will discuss the five key areas of income taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. We will make sure that we thoroughly show you how to build what I consider a real retirement plan, not an investment plan, a plan that has a high probability of success, something that when the markets are volatile, you can put your head on the pillow at night and still sleep well. So, but you’ve got to do your part. You’ve got to call us. Call us today. 1-888-382-1298 and schedule your complimentary right track retirement review,
Rebecca Powers – 19:57
and more wonderful, insightful info Meishan about your money on the money with secure money right after this.
Commercial Break – 20:05
As a good saver you’ve been putting away money during your working years. Studies find that the biggest fear of retirees is running out of money. Market volatility isn’t just a downward movement of stock prices. It’s the size and frequency of change. The more dramatic the ups and downs, the higher the volatility. This can put savers who are newly retired or a few years away from being retired at greater risk. Today’s generation of retirees is not receiving traditional pensions as our parents or grandparents did. Instead, we have retirement accounts such as 401 KS or 403. B’s. These accounts typically expose your money to market risk. The last thing you want right before retirement is to lose a portion of the money you need for income. But how do you turn these accounts into a retirement income? Is it safe to keep all your retirement money sitting in the stock market, the last thing you want is to lose a portion of the money you need for income due to market loss. By working with a financial professional, you can learn how to turn a portion of your savings into an income stream for life and income for the life of your spouse if you’re married. We all have moments in our lives when we wish we had taken action sooner. Don’t let procrastination rain on your retirement parade. Act now before it’s too late. Please call our office to set up your no cost no obligation retirement income review today.
Rebecca Powers – 21:32
Welcome back on the money with secure money and the name of the show is secure. Because that is your number one goal right Brian and nails Yes, check their channel protect, protect, protect. Yeah, you mentioned education in the last block. And when you just kind of you know, so that’s why we like to keep people informed. I think most people do feel intimidated. We were taught algebra in school, but we were never taught about interest rates or savings. Let’s talk about the free education that you do give even if someone is not your client.
Brian Quaranta – 22:00
Yeah, well, well, number one, it starts with the book. And if you come in and you schedule, we will give you have a copy of this book. Or you can order it for $20. But if you come in at a low cost.
Rebecca Powers – 22:11
and he’s really sweet, you want to meet him anyway. But you give like courses and they want you don’t have to go but if you want to you offer that. Yeah, Neil
Brian Quaranta – 22:20
does a lot of the teaching. You know, we get some other advisors doing some teaching. But yeah, we’re usually at some of the, you know, learning institutions like the local colleges and stuff, then go to our website and find out. But we feel that the education courses are absolutely critical to them understanding the basic fundamentals, and it actually makes for a better meeting when they come in. Because they do get they get educated or you know, they can just go to our website, and they can binge watch our TV show, because there are there’s a show.
Neil Major – 22:52
I think so much has changed. You know, it used to be that you had a pension, and you combine it with Social Security, and you weren’t far off of your work income, right? Most people coming into our office about 85% no longer have a pension or it’s a very, very small pension. And so, they want to understand, Okay, well, I don’t want to work any longer. How do I how do I turn this money that I saved in my 401 K or 403, B or 457 into an income stream. And it used to be the philosophy was, well, you could buy bank CDs, it paid really good rates, you switched from it made it your portfolio, safer, more conservative when you switch the bonds. But you know, a lot of that thought and a lot of those methods are outdated. Why?
Rebecca Powers – 23:35
Why has it changed? And just in recent years, right? Yeah. What’s been the big shift? Is it because we have so many baby boomers age?
Brian Quaranta – 23:42
Really, interest rates or rates are not good for savers and retirees, right. So as much as we all hate paying more for gasoline right now and food and we do need to get that under control. Inflation for a saver or retiree actually is not a bad thing. Because explain Yeah, right.
Rebecca Powers – 24:01
That’s a bad word. Isn’t that a naughty word?
Brian Quaranta – 24:05
That means we will typically see guaranteed rates go up. So for example, a an inflation protected treasury bond right or tips, bond right now pays about 10%. You can go to the you know, Treasury direct and buy a bond paying 10% interest rate really, you’re never even heard of that. So and people don’t know about these things. Now, if you work with secure money advisors, we’re always looking at the market of safety. Right? So we’re looking for the best products and the best designs and the best places to get the highest returns with zero risk or very, very, very little risk, right? We prefer zero risk, right? We like transferring the risk no different than when you bought a bank CD back in the day but imagine bank CD’s going back up to 10%. Right? Oh, I mean, if bank CD’s went back up to 10% How many people would keep their money in the stock market?
Rebecca Powers – 24:55
You know, things would change.
Brian Quaranta – 24:57
Things would change but interest rates were a big reason why we’ve seen so much Change, and people happen to take more risk with their money. But they’re also responsible for their own pensions now, and that’s the other big change is you ever see a retirement party anymore? Nobody goes to retirement. forever until one. Yeah, my grandparents would go to them like every other month, they would be at a retirement party because people knew exactly when they could retire. Yeah, people don’t know when they can retire anymore. Because they don’t have the pension. So they’re trying to figure out in their head, they’re going, Gosh, you know how many times we hear this in a conference room. I have been trying to figure this out for years that we’re going to get this social security and this, and they’re like, oh, my gosh, this is so easy. We don’t we know, we just wish everybody knew. It’s so simple.
Neil Major – 25:41
It’s always so interesting. You always know who has a pension. Because when you when you sit down with them, and they tell you, they’re retiring, December 1 of 20. Right, everyone else that has this retirement, you’re on your own, they have no idea until they sit down and go for a strategy session with someone like secure money advisors.
Rebecca Powers – 26:01
That’s amazing. Just about two minutes left in the show. We again, whenever we reiterate the word secure, secure money, and I think that is just such an your philosophy as far as your staff, they are so friendly. Yeah, yeah. And it’s no pressure. That’s the best part. Yeah, no pressure.
Brian Quaranta – 26:17
Look, you know, the biggest thing is, I think most people need a financial makeover. And they don’t know they need the financial makeover until they get the financial MRI or financial. Yeah. And these are very important things to do. Because look, the things that got you to retirement right are the strategies and techniques that you used all the way through your working years up until retirement are not the same strategies and techniques that you’re going to use in retirement and through retirement, the game completely changes, right? You’re trying to compare apples and oranges here, right? Your early accumulation years are completely different than your retirement years. We focus on those retirement years. Our clients are all 55 and older. If we have younger clients, it’s due to the fact that we work with our clients, you know, kids and grandkids. But we focus on the retiree and everything we specialize in all the strategies, all the product designs, all the philosophies are built around that. And what most retirees want is they want peace of mind and security. And that’s exactly what our right track retirement review does. It’s going to provide you with peace of mind and security. And when you are finally clear, and you have an understanding of how your plan is going to work. It gives you confidence and confidence lead to something very important. It’s called calmness and everybody wants to be calm and have peace of mind in retirement. And I want you to have that to call us today and take advantage of our right track retirement view 1-888-382-1298 Again 1-888-382-1298 call us and schedule today.
Rebecca Powers – 27:50
Fantastic. We’ll see you next week.