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Video Transcript
Rebecca Powers 00:25
Welcome to this week’s edition of on the money with secure money with Brian Quaranta. I’m Rebecca powers, we are so happy to have you with us. Of course, Brian created Secure Money Advisors. Great to see you, and we have one of our star senior advisors who came in this week. Good to see you, Neil Major.
Neil Major 00:42
Thank you. I’m happy to be here.
Rebecca Powers 00:44
So, we always talk about how to secure your money. Obviously, that’s the name of their business. That’s how passionate they are about it. You shouldn’t be rolling the dice. You shouldn’t wonder if you have enough money for retirement. It is all about a written plan. That is really what you specialize in. Let’s talk about income, because you always say that’s the foundation you have to know how much income you will need to last you the rest of your life so you can sleep well at night and not worry about that. Social Security was it meant to be taxed when it was created? Why is it taxed? And how does that affect your overall retirement? I guess.
Brian Quaranta 01:19
Well, this guy is the smarter one.
Neil Major 01:25
Yeah. I mean, if you think about Social Security, we paid into that, so the expectation is that when we receive it, that we wouldn’t be getting taxed on it again. But of course, it didn’t exactly work out that way. So it is taxed. And you know, if you think about it, different states are going to have different rules based on are you paying just federal taxes? Are you paying state taxes? Pennsylvania is a pretty good retiree because Pennsylvania you’re only taxed at the federal level. You don’t have to pay state taxes on Social Security or pension or IRA distributions. But, yeah, I mean, I think we all kind of thought that this would be like.
Brian Quaranta 02:06
Well, we were promised, I think, in what, 1934 by Roosevelt, that we would never be taxed. And he said, as long as I’m alive, you will never be taxed on your social security. This is not a trick this is not a trick question, but there’s a good reason why we pay taxes. He died, right? Yes, the end of that story.
Rebecca Powers 02:25
The law is the law. But there are strategies, when you become informed, that we can use That’s right, to kind of minimize taxation from Social Security. What are the strategies you use? If you think about
Neil Major 02:35
If you think about the bulk of the people that we’re seeing, you know, Brian talks about all the time that 85% of the people, 90% come in with no pension. And what they actually have, though, is this big bucket of money, yeah, that they saved in their retirement plans through their employer. And the problem with that is it’s never been taxed before,
Rebecca Powers 02:52
right, right? And tax time bomb is
Neil Major 02:55
really and they were promised that, you know, you lower tax bracket in retirement, pay the taxes then. But then you kind of start to think about 2020, and the national debt, and you’re going, wait a minute, what happens if tax rates skyrocket on me and that reduces my purchasing power at the same time, inflation is going through the roof, right?
Brian Quaranta 03:17
So, imagine you’re taking these withdrawals out, right? And, you know, let’s say you need $1,000 a month, and your tax brackets at, I don’t know, 20% right? I mean, you’re really only netting $800 then, right? But if tax rates go to 30% on you, now you’re only netting $700 so just through taxation alone, you lose purchasing power. And then on top of it, inflation on that, and you’re really losing purchasing power, and that’s what we’re really talking about, folks. When we’re talking about taxation, we’re talking about your purchasing power declining and becoming less powerful and buying less goods. And this is why you’ve got to be prepared, and this is why part of our planning process is helping you put together a tax strategy that’s going to help you potentially reduce the amount of taxes you pay. Because if we can get rid of Uncle Sam right now and buy him out at an earlier stage in your life, then that means that ultimately, when we start to take withdrawals, for example, if I’m taking $1,000 withdrawal from a Roth IRA, I don’t care what your tax bracket is. It could be 50% I’m getting $1,000 because it’s tax-free money. You’ve already paid tax yes and converted Yes. And a lot of people that are still investing in their 401k’s, you have the option now in your 401k’s, to put money in the Roth side of your 401k which we highly recommend that you do.
Neil Major 04:40
I actually just acquired a new client who had talked about, and we had kind of walked through, kind of some of the issues that he’s going to be facing in the future with taxation, with this big pot of money that he’s got, it’s never been taxed before. And I said, you know, we understand that you have a problem, and are you. Continuing to add to the problem by going into your 401 K with pre-tax dollars. And he goes, Yeah, I am. But you know, I didn’t think it would help that much to switch it to Roth. I’m going, gosh, you plan on working five more years. Yeah, right. You’re putting $30,000 a year into your 401 K. That’s $150,000 at a minimum, just in contribution like that is a big step in a tweet
Rebecca Powers 05:27
that we did, you put it on paper, do the math and say, this is the money you’ll save.
Neil Major 05:33
That’s exactly, I mean, that’s kind of our goal is to utilize a lot of data spreadsheets to help with that point.
Brian Quaranta 05:40
And, yeah, no, I was going to say, you know, just to his point. You know, the spreadsheets that we provide the people is just to prove the math, right? So, it’s like, do you want this tax bill, or do you want this tax bill? Because if you want this tax bill, which is the lesser one, then these are the things that you have to do now, right, right. And those are the conversations that people are not having with their financial advice exactly because most firms are focused on investing their money, and most firms are focused on the performance of those investments, but not actually a plan that focuses on five key areas, which is your income, your taxes, your investments, your health care and your estate planning.
Rebecca Powers 06:21
And that’s why we always say, please get a plan. You know, you do anything in life, you have a party, you go to vacation, you have a written plan. And so many Americans do not have that written plan. It all starts with a phone call, invite them in, give them the number, tell them just how it feels. It’s such low pressure, no obligation. Well, look,
Brian Quaranta 06:39
I mean, we’re a very busy firm. Yes, we’re not looking to move money, just to move money, we’re looking to see if you’re a good candidate for us to be able to help you. And there’s many times Neil and myself have and the other advisors of the office have told many people that, come in, hey, look, there’s nothing we can do for you. We’re not going to be a good fit, and you’re not going to be a good candidate, because you actually are on the right track. You’re doing the right things. What more peace of mind can you get than when you walk into a financial advisor’s office and they take a look at your stuff for you, complimentary at no charge, and tell you, Look, we’ve looked at everything, and you’re doing all the right things. What peace of mind you could get from that alone. But again, I’ve always said, if you were on the right track, if you weren’t doing the right things, when would you want to know? I would want to know sooner than later, because I would want to make the adjustments. And that’s why I wrote this book for you right track your retirement. And I got to give Neil credit, because he did come up with a name. We were brainstorming for quite some time. We were brainstorming for quite some time, and he said, how about right track your retirement? I said, beautiful name. Yeah, I told you, the smarter one of the bunch. So, but folks really go to on the money offer.com get a copy of the book. It’s, it’s absolutely free. We said it to you in a gold envelope, just like Willy Wonka’s golden ticket, you know, and it’s a physical book that comes and it’s a nice, short read. It’s about 98 pages. I call it an airplane read because I read a lot, and I always like a book that I can read on a quick trip somewhere, but go to onthemoneyoffer.com get a copy of the book. While you’re there, you can schedule an appointment to come in, scan the QR code that will take you to the same place, or our team is standing by you. All you got to do is call 1-888-382-1298, and schedule an appointment, get a copy of the book we’ll see at our office. Absolutely.
Rebecca Powers 08:31
Take this next two minutes on our quick break to give us a call. Don’t forget, you can always use the QR code and stay with us. We’ll be right back.
Commercial Break 08:39
We know the market is going to get worse from here. This is the biggest monthly decline in 10 years. People’s 401k’s took a major hit. My investments are tanking. My retirement isn’t going as planned. I can’t believe I let my kid talk me into buying crypto. I mean, what is that? Anyway? This was the fourth worst contraption in history. So how are you two doing? Your financial future doesn’t have to be uncertain. I’m Brian Quaranta with secure money advisors. If you have amassed a nest egg, it’s time for a financial advisor to help you reach your retirement goals. This is one of the greatest tax windows in history. Now is the time to take advantage of this tax discount while you can we specialize in retirement planning, tax mitigation, estate planning and more. Plan your retirement right Call now for your complimentary portfolio review and tax analysis.
Rebecca Powers 09:34
All right? All you have to do to get that complimentary review is to give us a call. The amazing thing about what you do is that third party software. I know I say that a lot, but when people say, what makes him smarter than other people, you are about transparency. Yes, that’s what makes you smart. You work for the big box. You know what? We were not told, and you are here. That’s why he spent the money to write this book and wants to give it to each and every one of you. And Neil came up with. The name, because so many people asked, I don’t know, am I on the right track? Exactly? And that’s the issue. People don’t know. Number one fear of Americans pulled by AARP, their number one fear in life. Nine out of 10 said running out of money, yeah, before they die. Talk about the plan. How you make sure that does not happen? Yeah, go for it.
Neil Major 10:21
Well, I think you know, one of the things that people are craving as they come in pension less, are some predictability and safety if they’re going to make this big life decision to end employment and go into retirement, they want to know that they have some predictability and safety built into their plan, and not just hypotheticals based around x percent rate of return, right? And so, I think, you know, as thorough as we are with the planning process and kind of making sure that we go through all those five key areas, I think probably the best compliment that we receive. And I was talking to Maggie and Michael this morning, couple other advisors in the office, I said, probably the best compliment that we receive on a weekly basis is, how come no one has shown me this before? How come no one has broken it down and created this vision for me? How come no one has shown me the predictability aspect of this portion of the money, and that portion of the money generating the cash flow that we need to do, all the things that we want to do.
Brian Quaranta 11:24
And we’re always shocked, because we’re going, how are they not showing this at what point do they not catch on to that this is the major retirement problem, and these are the main solutions, and they continue to go with the antiquated strategies of just trying to invest the money in the market, get the best rate of return, try to do dividend investing. But we got to understand all of that stuff comes with risk. And we’re, look, we are a full-service financial firm. It’s not that we don’t we don’t dislike risk. We just see people risking money they can’t afford to lose, and what we’re doing is helping you only risk money that you can afford to lose, but you can also have a long-term time horizon on because we know the only way to be successful in the market is to have a long-term horizon on your money that you cannot touch. Because as Albert Einstein said, the eighth wonder of the world is compounding interest. And most people do not understand compounding interest. And what most people understand is that you can ruin compounding interest on the if the market’s going up or if it’s going down. Let me explain if the market’s going up, and your advisor is having you pull money out of your stock accounts. You are ruining the future. Compounding of that money, you’re ruining it if, in reverse, though, the market is going down and your advisor is having you take money out, you’re compounding the losses. You’re locking into those losses. So compounding interest. You hear Warren Buffett talk about it. You have Albert Einstein saying it’s the eighth wonder of the world. And most people don’t understand to properly take advantage of compounding interest, you can’t touch the money period. But that’s the contradiction in retirement, because in retirement, most people need to touch a portion of their money, and there’s a better way to do it, and that’s why we wrote it in the book, right track your retirement. That’s why when you come in, you see Neil or you see Maggie or Michael, you’re going to get someone that truly understands the process, that’s going to be able to ask you the right questions, to get you to understand how to get on the right track.
Rebecca Powers 13:43
And being an independent fiduciary, you are cherry picking. You have the whole world is your oyster. They can look at any insurance company, any product, any bank, that is the opposite of what big boxes. They only have certain proprietary things that they can sell.
Brian Quaranta 13:58
Yeah. Well, look, we were just in a meeting yesterday. I mean, we can build any type of portfolio we want, from late-stage venture capital to interval funds to leveraged accounts. I mean, you name it, we can do anything. All we got to do is make a phone call and say we want a portfolio built this way. But where people get it wrong is that they overcomplicate it. There needs to be simplicity to this. And so, like, if you look at just our risk money, it’s basic, right?
Brian Quaranta 14:31
It’s pretty basic, yeah, you know. I mean, you know, we use ETFs, you know, S and p5, 100, Q, Q, Q for that. Because, at the end of the day, most actively managed mutual funds as matter of fact, the last data I read since 2019 only 85 85% of the actively managed mutual funds out there don’t beat their benchmark of the S and p5 100, really, 85%
Neil Major 14:53
I just had a really interesting interaction with a new client. He had said to me. He goes, You know, it’s not about what investment right it’s about having the tools necessary to build the right plan according to the client’s needs. But this new client said to me, he goes, you know, I’ve had a best friend for over 60 years now. Since we were 10 years old, this guy has been my best friend. And he goes over those 60 years, we’ve never talked about how much income we make on a yearly basis. We’ve never had that conversation. He said, we’ve never talked about how much money we have set aside and saved for retirement. But what do you think his buddy tells him day in and day out, what how to invest his money? He has no idea. He has no idea the strategy, yeah, what the goals are of him and his family? Yeah. So how are you taking advice saying, hey, build a dividend portfolio to generate your cash, yes, right? Or buy an annuity, a generated cash flow. You don’t know. You don’t know. You don’t know until
Brian Quaranta 15:55
you know their story, right? And again, people will listen to these talking heads on TV, you know, all the stock channels, and they’re saying, buy this stock, buy that stock. Or, you know, this stock now is offering this dividend. They go out and they try to buy, or they talk to their advisor about but yet, what they don’t understand is all these talking heads don’t know what these people’s individual stories are, and that’s why you have to work with a fiduciary planning firm like secure money advisors, or just go find any good fiduciary firm. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t have to be secure money advisors. Go find any good fiduciary firm that’s willing to put together a plan for you, that’s willing to sit down understand your situation thoroughly, spend the time with you to grasp your situation so that a proper recommendation can be made for you because the recommendation is being made for your brother, your sister, your friend, your aunt, your uncle, are all going to be different, because everybody has different goals and desires and different amounts of money and different challenges in life that they want to deal with.
Rebecca Powers 16:54
Absolutely we need to take a very short break. I want to make sure you give us a call. Brian will mail this to you even pay the shipping and handling, as he said, he puts it in a gold envelope to make it exciting, very short, easy read, and it’s so important to have a clear vision to know if you’re on the right track for retirement. Stay with us. Give us a call during this quick break.
Brian Quaranta 17:13
Most people worry they’ll run out of money in retirement. Are you one of them? After decades of working? You deserve peace of mind knowing your money will last 20, 30, even 40 years, maybe you want to leave some for your family after you’re gone. I’m Brian Quaranta, president of secure money advisors, after getting to know you and hearing your goals, we build you a customized principal protection plan based on your unique needs, focusing on five key areas of retirement, Secure Money Advisors helps you with things like income, investments, taxes, health care and legacy planning. We can right track your retirement. Let us show you how visit our website or call us to schedule a free meeting today.
Rebecca Powers 18:01
That’s all you have to do. Make that first phone call. There’s the QR code, and again, make sure you ask for a copy of this book. It is really awesome. I’ve made my husband read it, and I caught him highlighting it one night, and I said, Oh, good job. We love taking questions. We’re already kind of at the end of our show, but I did want to talk about required minimum distributions. We had a lot of questions this week. Does the government tell me when I have to take my RMDs? Or would you be the ones to tell me? How does it work? And this is from Ruth and cranberry.
Neil Major 18:31
Well, actually a little bit of both. The institution lets you know what’s required. Our firm is making sure that we have that detailed information of what this client needs to take, how much they’ve taken out with systematic monthly income. And that’s
Rebecca Powers 18:46
in the plan. Years before it’s time RMD, age is what? 72 now, 75
Brian Quaranta 18:54
was it 2036 it going to 75 somewhere around there.
Neil Major 18:57
We differ on those 29 but okay, it’s going to age 75.
Rebecca Powers 19:07
One thing you can be sure of is that the government can change the rules at any time.
Neil Major 19:12
Not even necessarily tell a lot of people think that it’s an advantage to them to wait, and it can be if you’re doing some good tax plan, yeah, to that age, right? But also, what’s the advantage to the government is that your money continues to grow and compound, and now you have to put pull more money out, and maybe that shoots you into a higher tax bracket. And who knows what tax brackets will become that time, and how does that impact your Medicare costs and all these different other things that it can impact, Brian, you said
Rebecca Powers 19:41
this two years ago in one of our shows that the Trump tax cuts will be sunsetting. Well, here we are in 2024 Yeah, in a year, it’s over.
Brian Quaranta 19:49
And they want to tax you 25% on unrealized capital gains that you haven’t
Rebecca Powers 19:55
even gotten you have not even gotten you. Could you imagine if they did that to you on your home.
Neil Major 20:04
Had a $300,000 home, and you go on Zillow one day and you see the values, $400,000 Well, Uncle Sam now wants you to pay $25,000 you still live in the home, but they want you to pay 25,000 now, that’s basically what you’re suggesting.
Brian Quaranta 20:21
As far as capital, you haven’t sold the home. Your home’s just gone up in value, but they want to hit you with a 25% tax on the value in which it went up before you even sell it.
Rebecca Powers 20:30
That cannot be
Brian Quaranta 20:34
It’s insanity, and this is why, folks, I’m going to tell you right now, if there is one thing you should absolutely consider with your retirement money, and that is getting Uncle Sam out of your life right now, and one of the quickest ways you can do that is to convert that money to a Roth IRA. But I am telling you right now, too many people wait too long to make that decision, and they’re not having the conversations with their advisors. Let me tell you. I had a friend recently, okay, that was going to the doctor, and the doctor had recommended that he start taking cholesterol medication. This was in his early 30s, okay? And he was having memory loss, which is a side effect of some cholesterol medications. Very small percentage of people get memory loss. So, he started reading a number of books about cholesterol, and that cholesterol is a little bit of a myth, and that it can be handled through diet. So, he convinces his doctor that he can handle this, and the doctor agrees. And so, every year they get together, the doctor doesn’t push the issue. Even though his cholesterol is going up. He doesn’t push the issue of any concern whatsoever. Well, he gets a new doctor, and the new Doctor says to him, I am so concerned about your cholesterol. And what concerns me and worries me about this is that you’re not worried about it. And if you could at least go get a stress test for me. I would appreciate it. And you know what? He went and got a stress test, and two days later, he was in the hospital having quadruple bypass surgery, and I was supposed to go skiing with him the following week, he would have never came back. And if it wasn’t for that doctor telling him the truth, as I Neil and the rest of the team want to tell you the truth. You need to know the hard facts. I mean, look, we’re all about building relationships, but if you’re staying with an advisor because you get a birthday card or they take you to dinner, but they’re not talking to you about the hard things, like the taxes you’re going to pay, or what your Medicare premiums are going to be because of how much income you’re getting, or how much you’re going to pay, not social security, or how to optimize your Social Security. And all they’re doing is taking you to dinner and showing you your statements about how your performance was, folks, I am telling you it is time to get a second opinion. It is time to have somebody else, look at what you’re doing, and it’s time to go to onthemoneyoffer.com and get a copy of my book so you can read about what to do. It is a simple guide that will change your perspective on what retirement planning should look like and give you an easy path and an easy strategy to follow going into retirement.
Rebecca Powers 23:21
And just one great analogy that you’ve given many times is taxes have never been lower. Okay, I know nobody wants to pay taxes, but they’re historically low. So basically, taxes are on sale right now. Do you want to wait to pay on the big, beautiful harvest, or do you want to pay on the seed? And that’s the bottom line, right? Pay on the seed.
Brian Quaranta 23:43
Well, I’ll tell you something Neil’s been talking about a lot lately, is refinancing your retirement.
Rebecca Powers 23:48
Yes, I love that.
Brian Quaranta 23:49
Talk about that a little bit.
Neil Major 23:51
Gosh. I mean, if you think about, like, look, you know, obviously interest rates have gone up a lot, yeah. Well, how does that impact investments? Right? I mean, bonds have an inverse relationship with interest rates. So, if interest rates go up, bonds go down in value. But you know, the annuity markets changed a lot with higher interest rates. I mean, bank CDs have changed a lot. My money market pays me nearly 5% right now, right was paying zero. Yeah, it wasn’t paying me anything. And so, what you really want to take a look at is, okay, do I have any investments that I could improve, right? And so, as we kind of take a look at different scenarios, and we’ve been able to have someone come in, and maybe they’re projected to get $24,000 a year from this annuity that they bought five years ago in income starting at X date, and we may be able to improve it to say $36,000 a year. So, a significant job. Huge job. Why we call it refinancing? Because sometimes it can be, you know, not ideal and tire. Lee just kind of like when you buy a home at 7% interest rate, and then a couple years later you’re able to find 4% and you might have to you refi because you want a lower monthly payment.
Rebecca Powers 25:13
You might have to pay some closing costs or something like that, and the appraisal and things. But it’s worth it.
Neil Major 25:18
It’s worth it because of the amount of interest that you’re not going to have to pay the lower monthly payment. And so it’s a really, really good idea to get a second look to see if you can refinance your retirement.
Brian Quaranta 25:29
I mean, I think it’s the most important thing for retirees to understand right now, or even pre retirees, you know, is that, just like Neil said, when interest rates go down, you refinance your mortgage, when interest rates go up, you refinance your retirement. Brilliant. And nobody is looking No, they’re not looking at it that way. There is so many cases that he’ll come to me and say, I just reran a calculation for a husband and wife that was only going to get $26,000 a year, and we’re getting them $40,000 a year now, double their pay, doubled their pay, doubled their pay.
Neil Major 26:03
I just had a couple come in. He had an annuity about a long, long time ago. He’s going to get $21,000 a year. The problem was, it was single life annuity, which so his wife wasn’t covered. His wife wasn’t covered, and there was a 10-year age difference between him and her. Oh, wow. Okay, we were able to transition into a different company and get him $24,000 a year, but it’s joint life income.
Rebecca Powers 26:30
She’ll keep it even after he’s gone.
Brian Quaranta 26:34
Correct. Huge improvement. Huge improvement, huge improvement. Folks, take advantage of this market that we’re in right now, take advantage of the interest rate environment. Take advantage of refinancing your retirement. And please take advantage of this offer today, of getting a copy of my book absolutely free. Go to on the money offer.com and there you can get a copy of the book, but you can also schedule a complimentary appointment. And my promise to you is that if you come into our office, you will learn one or two new things that you don’t know about right now. Not only that, none of my team members, none of my advisors, will ever try to sell you anything or press you to do anything, because as a fiduciary firm, our job is to help you solve a problem. If you have no problems, we’re going to shake your hands and tell you to keep doing the things that you’re doing. That you’re doing. So again, on the money offer.com get a copy of the book, or our team is standing by right now. Go to 1-888-382-1298, and they’ll get you scheduled and get a copy of the book to you.
Rebecca Powers 27:34
And the best feeling in the world is for someone to say, good job. You’re on the right track. Give us a call. Get this book. Neil, we love you. Thank you so much for being with us today. See you. We’ll see you all next time.