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Video Transcript
Rebecca Powers 00:23
Welcome, and thanks so much for joining us this week’s edition of on the money with secure money with Brian Quaranta of secure money advisors. I’m Rebecca powers. Thank you for doing the show. Thank you for having me every week.
Brian Quaranta 00:35
Yeah, it’s a love of mine, you know, to provide as much education as we can to the public about retirement planning. So, thank you.
Rebecca Powers 00:42
Yeah, absolutely. And I want to, since you mentioned that, here’s a book that Brian wrote, Right Track Retirement, and that’s really a big part of his passion is making sure everyone gets this in his hand. So, in your hands, if you call the number, we’ll even pay for the shipping and handling. And as you can see, it’s very short, easy to read. Why do you think it’s so important? And I mean, I know the answer to this. But why is it so important for all of us to understand retirement? Because we were certainly never taught it and you only do it once? Right?
Brian Quaranta 01:10
Yeah. It’s not a dress rehearsal. Right? You don’t get a second chance at it? Well, when we look at what planning is, I think people are confused. And I think some of the big box firms are even confused of what retirement planning really is. Yeah. Because when I got into the financial industry, right at the end of 1999, the only strategies that I was being taught by the firm were risk strategies. And it didn’t matter what your age was, you were going to use a risk strategy. Now, you might use a more conservative strategy for someone that was older, but it was still risk. And what I mean by that is, they would use this rule of thumb called the age rule of 100. Okay, and the rule of 100 basically says, Take 100 minus your age. So, if you’re 60 years old, you would take 100 minus 60, which equals 40. So, your portfolio should be a 6040. Split. I’ve heard between bonds and stocks. So, 60% of your money in bonds, 40% of your money in stocks at
Rebecca Powers 02:17
But 100% in the market.
Brian Quaranta 02:18
Yeah. So, and this is where this is where things got challenging along the way. First off, what we don’t, what a lot of people don’t understand is that bonds are risky, just like stocks are risky, bonds can lose money. You know, last year, I believe bonds were down about 17%. So that’s a big loss to take and something that you probably were going into to be safe.
Rebecca Powers 02:46
And historically, when stocks were up, bonds were down and vice versa. But things have changed. It’s a whole new world, really.
Brian Quaranta 02:52
Last year, they will say it’s 100 year, you know, Black Swan event, but so was COVID was, you know, so is 2007, eight to 2007 2008. There’s always well, this has never happened before. Well, yeah, how many more of those events are we going to have? And how many more of those events can you absorb if you’re going into retirement? I mean, if you lose a good portion of your money very early on in retirement, well, we know that it’ll recover. But that’s not the question. The question is, is it going to recover in the time period you need it to recover it?
Rebecca Powers 03:30
And you mentioned the perfect storm? On top of that, let’s talk about record inflation and how that shrinks your dollar?
Brian Quaranta 03:37
Yeah, well, so purchasing power becomes a big part of the retirement equation. So, if we use a simple example, like needing $1,000 a month from your retirement accounts, when you take money out of your retirement accounts, that money counts as income. So that’s taxable at whatever your tax rate is. So, let’s say you’re in a 20% tax rate. So, you take out $1,000 out of your account, and you’re only going to net $800. Right? So, but what happens if tax rates go up, and they probably will. So, if you go to 30%, you take that same $1,000 out, you’re only netting $700. But now what happens when you have 5%, Inflation 8% Inflation 9% Inflation? Now you calculate that into that amount that you’ve already paid taxes on, and you can see how your purchasing power starts to decrease. So, what happens when your purchasing power decreases, it means you have to take more money out of your account. Well, what happens when you have to take more money out of your account, you’re spending it down at a faster rate? Well, if you haven’t done any retirement planning and you’re still in an investment strategy, if your account balance had zero, tell you folks, you’re out of money. And you’ll hear me say this often whether you listen to the radio show I do, or you watch the TV show or you come to one of our educational events, but in my opinion, one of the best things What you can do is give yourself income insurance and retirement. And
Rebecca Powers 05:03
I’ve said it before, that’s why the name secure is in the name of the show. But it’s also the name of your business. You name it, Brian Quaranta advisors, secure money advisors, because you knew as a very young person when you started with the big box. That’s what they’re not teaching people because inherently they need you to. Street needs our money. Yeah, of course.
Brian Quaranta 05:23
Yeah, I was taught to I was taught to put a diversified portfolio together of stocks and bonds.
Rebecca Powers 05:27
Right? That’s their definition of diversified different stocks and bonds. Yeah, yeah. And
Brian Quaranta 05:31
the bond portion of the portfolio was going to be the income portion that was going to be the portion that would provide income to the client later on in life. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it didn’t work. When I found out early on in my career, about income annuities, I thought to myself, Why in the world is not everyone doing this? And I remember going to the manager of the firm, and I said, Look, is there a reason why we’re not using these income annuities? I’d like to use them. He says, Well, you can’t use them here. And I said, Why can’t I use them? And he said, well, because we have a grid. And I said, What is the grid mean? Yeah. And he says, Well, we have a product grid, which means that you see that product grid there. Those are the only things that you’re allowed to recommend here. Oh, hold on a second, I thought I was a financial adviser to be able to offer and do the things that were right for the client. so, I very quickly got an awakening in the financial industry that I quite frankly didn’t like, and that
Rebecca Powers 06:29
We’re lucky to get it early, though. Some people are just now getting and moving independent away from the big box. A lot of people are Yeah, I always say will get you away from the dark side and bring you over the good side. You know, when you sleep well at night, because you know, there’s no conflict.
Brian Quaranta 06:40
Yeah, there’s no conflict, I do sleep well at night. Because at the end of the day, I know that the clients plan is going to work, you know. So there’s, there’s no uncertainty like, right now, if you’re a financial advisor, you’re having some tough meetings, because with the volatility that peer blow experienced, especially if you’re a financial advisor, that’s been working with somebody that’s close to retirement retired, you’re having to do a lot of explaining, and a lot of counseling, you know, I like to consider us behavioral finance counselors. Yeah. But the big box firms do it in a way that is a little bit concerning to me, like telling a 65-year-old or a 70-year-old, that just lost 30% of their money, that everything is going to be okay. And it will all work out over the long term. If they don’t have the time to regain the losses, well, remember, they don’t have a crystal ball, right. But yet, they’re willing to say that everything will be okay, if they actually had a crystal ball, and that’s very concerning to me. So, I got a lot of heat when I started bringing in annuities to our practice. It not to my practice, but when I was wanting to offer them at the big box firms, and I realized very quickly that they were going to have no part of this. And so, when I went to the manager, I said, what is explained to me, what is it that you hate so much about an account that guarantees someone’s income for the rest of their life? You know, I mean, we buy life insurance to protect our families. Yeah, right? Why would we not buy something that provides us with insurance to protect our income? And he says, Let me tell you why we won’t Brian, he said, because if we take money out of these clients’ accounts and put them into an annuity, we can’t charge a fee. Exactly. And will cannibalize the revenue of the practice. So, folks, I could go on and on about this. And I want to talk a little bit more about this in the next segment but go to on the money offer.com And get a copy of my book, right track your retirement, it is a simple read. And it will give you a step-by-step process of how to build a retirement plan that will give you a peace of mind insecurity. I talked about five key areas in here that you absolutely need to know about and understand as you approach retirement. It’s not just about your investments, it’s about your income. It’s about your tax strategy, your investment allocation, your healthcare strategy, and your estate planning strategy. Everything I talked about in this book will give you a framework, why you’re on the money offer.com getting a copy of the book, schedule a time to take advantage of a complete comprehensive right track review, where we can help you really get this system dialed in for yourself or just call the 800 number 1-888-382-1298. Our team is standing by to take your call and get you scheduled, and we’ll be right back. Stay with us. 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 09:43
The last thing you want to do is have a really good job and you’re in your 60s retire, be looking for work again in their late 70s.
Brian Quaranta 09:51
The average person might say Well a good portfolio would be a good mix of stocks, bonds and mutual funds. A good portfolio is all designed around the five key areas income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning.
Neil Major 10:06
Because we’re not just product pickers here, what we do best here as we build retirement plans,
Brian Quaranta 10:11
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 10:21
People, you know, can actually see a vision once we start to really build out their plan.
Brian Quaranta 10:26
This is about you, if you’re not getting what you need, and you feel that when you walk out of the advisor’s 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 of the difference at secure money advisors. As a fiduciary firm, we help you manage the risk, build the income, and give you the retirement you dream of.
Rebecca Powers 10:57
Welcome back, we’re talking about securing your money preparing your retirement plan in writing. Let’s go back to what you were saying. When you were a young guy, you first started with a big box. Yep. When they told you about the grid, and they said you can’t say annuities. You can’t tell him about the safe products because we don’t sell them basically. Yeah. And I like the analogy. If you need a car, and you go to the Chevrolet dealership, they’re going to show you every Chevrolet, but they’re not going to say go down the street to Toyota, or Ford or Honda Hyundai however you say it, it’s kind of the same thing. But you as an independent. You can search every insurance company, every product in the world and cherry pick for the client’s specific needs. Explain the difference?
Brian Quaranta 11:40
Yeah, well, first off, I mean, as a financial advisor, you want to do your very best for every client that you’re working with. And when you have a when you have a certain select grouping of products that you can only choose from, and, and that product may be subpar compared to something else. It’s the only option you have. Now you got to remember something, these financial advisors are just like everyone else, they have families, they have to pay the bills. So, what are they going to do not recommend that product, right. And that’s where the problem lies. So, the good news is this, though, there are a lot of people leaving the big box firms, you just did it sooner, I did it very early on, and they’re going independent and becoming a fiduciary firm. And this is such a great change in the financial space. Because if you’re working with a good fiduciary practice, I can promise you that that person is taking their jobs very, very, very serious. And they are looking for what they feel is the very best in the marketplace for you. We are not held. Behold, we’re not beholden to any specific companies at all. So, whether it’s insurance products we’re using, or we’re using professional money managers, we have the ability to look wherever we want, and find whatever we want for what we feel is going to produce the best result for that specific client. And I would tell you, whether you come in to secure money advisors, and take a look at what we’re doing and how we’re helping our clients. Or you already have an advisor, or you just need to find a new advisor, just try to find a good fiduciary firm that is not beholden to any specific company. That’s a boutique firm that’s going to provide you with a written plan and an unbiased opinion of what you’re trying to accomplish.
Rebecca Powers 13:39
And it’s so powerful what you do in that first retirement review. Because you’re showing, you know, it’s kind of like stress testing, like you’re a little weird feeling in your heart, and you’re gonna get a stress test from your cardiologist. Let stress test what’s going on. Yo, I like my adviser. He’s great. Yep. But let’s stress test it, you’re doing it no charge to show people what’s really going on?
Brian Quaranta 14:01
Yeah, we use a very powerful software called Riskalyze. And, you know, any financial planning firm can go out and buy it. It’s just expensive. It’s expensive. Yeah, it’s expensive. And what it does is it allows us to really lift up the hood and look at how the engines actually running. And it lets us look at the fees, the risk that is being taken within the portfolio, what type of income the portfolio could generate or dividends that it’s generating. And it just gives us a number of key performance indicators that allow us to look at it compared to other things that you might be able to do. And it scores your portfolio based on a risk score. And so typically, you know, you’ll see people’s scores, maybe in the 70s or 80s. And to give you an example of what I mean by this number, is the S&P 500 comes in at a risk score of 75. So, when you look at people’s portfolios and they come in at risk or 85 or 90 and They’re telling me that they’ve asked and spoken to the adviser to be conservative, but yet they’re showing riskier than the overall market. That’s a powerful piece of information for you, the client to have. And there’s many times we’ve showed people these reports, and they’ve got a great relationship with their current advisor. And we give them the report, and they go back and they’re able to have better conversations. And you know, those folks, believe it or not, I had one gentleman. I told him, I said, Look, if you’ve got a 25 year relationship with your advisor, stay with him. There’s no reason to onboard with us. Yeah, but I would definitely have a conversation with him about the risk that you’re taking within this portfolio. Because, you know, we went through a 10-year bull market. So, things were going well. And I’m glad that we had that conversation, because it was two years ago. And I hope that that gentleman made changes, but I do know this. We got two referrals from him. Never became a client, but two referrals from him. You see, no, we’re good does pay off. And I thought to myself, Well, geez, he’s never come over to us. But he was he wanted other people to come to us. So, and you know, I write about breaking up with your financial advisor about to break up with them. Yeah. Because it’s really hard for people to do Rebecca are truly loyal, they’re loyal. You know, if you’ve had a hard time breaking up with girlfriends or boyfriends, you know, it could be hard for you to break off a relationship. It’s difficult look, my first tax accountant was my accounting professor, right. And I thought this person was the smartest person in the world. I mean, heck, it was my accounting professor, right. Yeah. But as I grew as a company, and I became more sophisticated, and my needs became more sophisticated, I realized that there was a cap of what she was able to provide. And, and I would go in every year with the intentions of changing accounts. And I would go in and as soon as we would start talking to you would ask about my family. And we talked about, I’ll just stay another year. And I think a lot of you folks out there probably understand what I’m talking about, right? You know that something’s not right, you feel that right, where you’re either walking out of there, and you’re, you’re confused, or you just feel like nothing, they’re telling you is making sense, or that gut feeling we all have where you go, I just feel like a change would be better. But there’s such a nice person and you can’t break away from that emotional part, I would tell you to start to think about it differently, I had to do it. In my own case with my account, I had to start thinking about it like a business. In my case, it was a business, but you should think about your retirement as a business. And at the end of the day, there’s money that comes into that business, and there’s money that goes out and you need what’s right for that business. Yes, relationships are important, but what your money is doing is even more important. So, folks, I want you to go to on the money offer.com on the money offer.com request a copy of this book, we pay for the shipping and handling, I it’s free. I don’t know how to make this any easier to get this into your hands. When you get it, read through it, mark up the pages. But then come into the office. So, when you’re on the money offer.com Get the book but schedule a time for a complete comprehensive review with the team. And we’ll go through the five key areas with your income taxes, investments, health care and estate planning, you’ll get a lot of clarity out of that meeting. Nobody in my office is ever going to try to sell you anything that I promise you. So again, on the money offer.com scan the QR code or the team standing by right now you can call 1-888-382-1298
Rebecca Powers 18:33
And we’ll be right back.
Announcer 18:41
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Rebecca Powers 19:33
Welcome back I’m Rebecca powers here with Brian Quaranta. He’s an independent fiduciary in beautiful Pittsburgh and we are talking every single week on the radio and on TV about securing your money. You’ve said it so many times you’ve won the game yeah, you know to 80-year-old who walks in you have won the game by yours. Why are you still playing? Why are you still risking and that’s your number one goal. Let’s stop. Risk and retirement are like oil and water. So, let’s take the risk out Right, you’ve said that the losses will hurt you more than the gains will help you. Yeah, exactly what you mean. Yeah. Well,
Brian Quaranta 20:06
everybody thinks in retirement that they need 100% of the gains. Yeah. But you don’t, that’s just a greedy way of thinking you do not need 100% of gains, what you need to protect yourself from as 100% of the losses? Yeah, on a portion of your money. Um, okay, if you want to risk some of your money, okay. But there’s a calculation that can get you to that right number. All right. But remember, if you’re going to risk money, it’s got to be money that you’re willing to have in a long-term account, meaning every statistic that’s quoted about the market, the market permanently goes up, or the markets averaged eight to 10%. We’re talking about long time periods. But think about retirement. If you retire today, and you need your money is that a long period know you need money over the next year, that’s a short period of time, you need money over the next two years, three years, four years fire, that’s a short period of time, there’s a different strategy to build in those earlier years of what you need, you cannot use a market strategy that is going to need long term time to work. Because that means if you’re trying to use a market strategy, and the market is not cooperating, right, right, you’re gonna be in trouble. And we know the market just doesn’t cooperate 100% of the time, and we just came out of one of the best bull markets we’ve ever seen. But that’s not how it normally goes, right? It’s not how it normally goes.
Rebecca Powers 21:34
Explain how you would think this is common sense. If I have $100. And I lose 40%. I need to earn 40% To get back to that. $100. Yeah, but it doesn’t work that way. No, no, explain it. This really was an Oh, wow moment for me when you explained it a while back? Yeah. So.
Brian Quaranta 21:52
So, we’ll use some bigger numbers. So, let’s use 100,000. Okay. And let’s make the math even easier. Let’s say you lose 50% of your money. Okay, so your 100,000 now goes to 50,000. So, if you ask people, if you just lost 50% of your money, what rate of return? What percentage do you need to get back to even and mostly I would say 50. Most people will say 50. But if you earn 50%. Now on your $50,000, you’re only earning $25,000. So, if you added 25,000. Now, to your 50, you have 75,000. If my math is right, you’re still down 25%. So, the only way to get back to even, is to actually earn 100% To get back to even now, here’s what we know, that’s a very extreme example. Okay? But what happens when you lose 10%, but you got to do like 12 to get back what happens if you lose 20% You got to do over 30% To get back to even now, your losses will compound on themselves, especially if you’re taking money out on top of it. And that’s the mistake that people make is they’re losing money, but on top of it, they’re using those accounts as income. And that’s where people get themselves into trouble of potentially running out of money before they die.
Rebecca Powers 23:09
And you know, an AARP report asked I think 1000 Americans, do you remember that their number one fear 100% of them? Yes. Which running out of money? Was not death not losing their spouse? Not this or that? Yes. Their biggest fear was running out of money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, your whole goal is you don’t have to, you don’t have to risk at all, there are ways we can move it here, we can move it there. And we say like walking into a casino, it’s really lose what you can afford,
Brian Quaranta 23:38
Only what you can; look, it’s your choice to believe what you want to believe the biggest challenge with people is getting them properly educated on the facts. And the problem is, is that marketing has done a really good job brainwashing people in giving them the wrong information. And so, like when I talk about annuities, people will say, Oh, that guy just wants to sell annuities because of the Commission’s, let me tell you something, I will make way more money if I manage your money in the stock market, because I get paid a fee. Every single year, as long as you’re with me, an annuity pays a company one dime, that’s and never get paid on that money again, ever, ever again. So, when I talk about, you know, clients putting certain amounts of money in annuities, the great thing is number one, when they deposit that money, all of that money gets deposited and the insurance companies already compensated the financial firm, right? It’s almost like a finder’s fee.
Rebecca Powers 24:37
So, the insurance company is paying you, not the person
Brian Quaranta 24:41
Literally out of their pocket right now that the only way that the person could ever get hurt, right, is if they decided to pull out withdraw that money in a certain period of time. Because if they withdraw that money in a certain period of time, five years, six years, seven years, whatever the time period is, and when I say withdrawal, I’m talking to Not all of it, not the income we’re going to take, you can take up to 10% a year with no penalty, right? You could take out way more than 10% because of the income features on Okay, guys, okay, so, but we never will, would ever take all of that money out at once. But if you needed to an emergency, you absolutely could. But we would never even put money into that account that if an emergency came up, we’d have to go to it. That would defeat the whole purpose of planning. And that’s what responsible planning is. Right. You see, we’re, we’re annuities sometimes get a bad rap is it’s not the annuity, it’s usually the person recommending, so maybe they don’t recommend the right amount. They recommend too much going in
Rebecca Powers 25:34
Or they say to get a variable, which is not a good annuity. They’re not good.
Brian Quaranta 25:38
Yeah, in my opinion, they’re not good. You know, I like purely simple income annuities that have a fixed rate of return or an index rate of return that doesn’t expose any of the money to losses, it just makes for a better plan for the first phase of that retirement. Right. Right. But people think that people selling annuities are commission hungry, you know, insurance salesmen. They’re not. I mean, it finally, we actually have the momentum going in our direction, because a lot of us has been screaming at the top of our lungs for so long. That why in the world, wouldn’t you ensure the most important thing we all need? And that’s your income. Just think about that for a bit, you know, as you when you were younger? Did you buy life insurance to protect your family? Yeah, you did. And now as you get older, you say, well, maybe I don’t need that life insurance, because I’ve got all these assets now. Well, you need income insurance that I promise you. So, look, folks, I want you to take advantage of our comprehensive right track review. If you go to on the money offer.com, you can schedule this review. It’s about a 45-minute review at our office, we have a very specific process that will bring you through, don’t worry, if you don’t know the questions to ask, we got a lot of questions that will ask you, I cannot promise that we’ll be able to help. Okay, and I’m fully aware that we are not the right fit for every individual out there. So, you may come in, and we may tell you, you know, we’re just not the right firm for you. Okay, but that’s okay, you’ll still get the information that you need. So again, go to on the money offer.com. Schedule your comprehensive right track review, you also get a copy of the book, or call 1-888-382-1298 You can schedule your comprehensive right track review there. And we’ll also send you a copy of the book.
Rebecca Powers
27:24
Yes, and if anything we are saying is resonating with you. If you don’t have a written plan, not just a portfolio, that’s just your statement. You need an in-writing plan and a beautiful binder with your name scheduling out your life till 100 years old. Everything is you know, social security, income. Everything that Brian and I talked about is in that written plan for you. There’s the number there’s the QR code, you can always go to on the money offer.com And he will mail you that book immediately. Thanks for joining us. We’ll see you next week.