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Video Transcript
Rebecca Powers 00:23
Welcome to this week’s edition of all the money with secure money with Brian Quaranta, he’s the CEO and founder of Secure Money Advisors, and he brought with him this week Neil major, one of their senior advisors that so many families love and trust. Producer, said, I need to mention a little bit about myself, because people ask, where did I come from? Am I a fiduciary? No, I am not. I was a longtime reporter, producer, news anchor. I survived Hurricane Katrina. There was a documentary about my family on The Weather Channel. I have been happy to host the view. I’ve hosted Good Morning America since I graduated, I say graduated since I retired from television, little slip, how funny, I have been a consumer advocate for child advocacy in my state and the whole area, and just so thrilled to be a part of what Brian does and his amazing family. You are all about freedom, information, transparency. It really drives you crazy, the Wall Street model, the big box model, of us not feeling informed, and that’s why my family went with an independent I can say that, and that is what you all strive to do every single day.
Brian Quaranta 01:34
You better believe it. I mean, if you even look at what’s happening in the financial industry right now, there’s a big exit of financial advisors out of the big box firms into the independent world, because they just don’t want to have to sit down with a client anymore and have an agenda. They want the freedom to really talk to the client, understand their goals, understand their risk level, and be able to go out to the marketplace and look at the best products for the clients, so that they can solve the problems for each individual client. Because really, everybody’s situation is so different, completely different. They’ve got different goals with their money. They have different amounts of money. Some people have pensions. Some people don’t have pensions. Some people have saved a lot of money in retirement accounts. Some people have saved a little bit of money in retirement accounts. So when we’re working at our office, we see all kinds of shapes and sizes. And what’s really great about secure money advisors is that we’ve been able to help a wide variety of people with different situations. That’s something we really pride ourselves on.
Rebecca Powers 02:43
And that’s the opposite of the cookie cutter approach. And I think that’s why so many people are exiting going independent. You started exiting before a lot you saw the writing on the wall when you were very young man working for big box chain.
Brian Quaranta 02:55
I did, and that had happened because my first year, yeah, at a big box firm, I had a situation that really bothered me. It was my first two weeks on the job. I was told that I was going to answer the phones. This is 1999 going into 2000 the stock bubble had bursted, and of course, people were losing money, left and right. And I took a phone call from a gentleman that was very upset that he was losing money, and I didn’t know what to say to him, so I had said, Sam, who’s your advisor? And let me go talk to him. So I put the gentleman on hold. I go to his advisor, and I said, look, we’ve got an upset client on the line. He says he needs to sell out of the market today, because this is all the money he’s got. He’s been living off of it for the past five years, and this money needs to last the rest of his life. And every time he keeps taking withdrawals, the balance keeps going down, not only because he’s taking the withdrawals, but because the market’s going down. And what the advisor said to me affected me so badly, and it made me change the mind, my mind about whether or not I even wanted to be in this industry. But he told me, he said, I want you to get back on the phone with that gentleman and let him know that everything’s going to be okay, to remind him that he’s in this thing for the long haul, and as long as he sticks it out, he’s going to be fine. So what did I do? I went back and I had the conversation with him, and I said, Look, spoke to the advisor. Said, don’t worry about anything. Just hang in there. You’re in it for the long haul. And what he said to me next is why I wrote this book; it’s why I started Secure Money Advisors. He said, Brian, I am 75 years old. How much damn long haul does this guy think I’ve got left? And it’s very true, the biggest concern for every retiree, for every person that we meet at our office is the concern of running out of money for sure.
Rebecca Powers 04:44
Yeah, 100% and the biggest thing, I think that the big box experience misses, not only the cookie cutter, but is also that in writing financial plan, it’s not just what stocks you have. It’s that in writing. So let’s talk about that. How do you start your retirement plan? What is it? And. Why is it so imperative?
Neil Major 05:01
Well, I think you know, just to use me as an example, you know, my expectation is that I’ll probably work at least 25 more years, right? So what are my goals right now for my financial plan? Well, save as much money as possible, right? To put us in position to be able to retire, try and grow the money the best I can, because I have that long time frame be as tax efficient with certain investments and the type of account that they’re in, right, but just accumulate right? Well, when you’re focusing on someone who’s retiring without a pension, it’s really building out the safety and the predictability that we all crave as human beings in anything that we do, but in particular, going into the next 2025, 30 years of their life, they want to make sure that they have that safety and the predictability. So, you know, we can print out all these fancy charts and graphs and hypotheticals and probabilities, but it’s not satisfying. Who is coming into our office, yeah. They’re saying, Listen, I want some predictability. Yes. Show me how I can achieve that. Yes. And that really helps them understand, yeah. So that’s our goal, yeah.
Brian Quaranta 06:12
And the start of that planning process all starts with some basic questioning. Like, for example, what are going to be your sources of income in retirement, what are your expenses right now? Right? What’s going to be your tax rate? And what we’re doing when we’re asking these questions, is we’re actually building out a simple cash flow model for them, so we can see all of their sources of income coming in, how much they’re going to have to pay in taxes, and what the net amount is going to be left over. Then we have to calculate how much additional money they’re going to need. Because when you do that first calculation of, what are your income sources, what is your tax rate, and what are your expenses, a lot of people have a shortfall, meaning they have a gap that they need to fill, and that gap needs to be filled from the retirement savings. So the question is, how are you going to do that in a way like Neil said, that provides that predictability and stability, because nobody wants to be Sam that I just talked about at the beginning of segment, where you’re, you know, you’re panicked, because the market is in absolute disarray. You’re losing money like crazy, but you’re taking money out at the same time. And now the worst day of retirement, Rebecca, the day you find the day you find out you’re going to run out of money. It’s not the day that you actually run out of money. It’s the day you find out that you’re not going to have enough money for the next three years, four years, five years, and your plan is going to fail, and nobody plans to fail. What happens is they fail to plan.
Rebecca Powers 07:45
Exactly. All right, give us a call. We want to get a copy of this book. As Brian said, this is why he wrote this. Right Track retirement. Everyone said, Am I on the right track? I have no idea. Am I on the right track? This exactly why you wrote this book. Very, wonderful, short, easy to read. Tell them more about what that first appointment is like, no obligation, no cost. It’s a get to know each other.
Brian Quaranta 08:07
It really is. We spend a lot of time getting to know them. We probably asked them, you know, questions that they’ve never been asked before. They’re not used to somebody taking the time to really evaluate who they are, what their goals are, what they want to do with the money, right? But more importantly, what they need to make it work in the way that they want it to work. Meaning, most people, if you ask them if they want to take risk with their money, they’ll say, No, I don’t Why don’t be in a position to lose money. So in the book, right track your retirement it, folks, it really is. It’s a simple guide to help you build a plan that gives you peace of mind and confidence. I wrote this book in a way that gives you the facts very quickly. There’s no fluff in it. It’s a very short read, but it’s going to give you the basic fundamentals that you need to understand what the retirement planning process really looks like, because most people think retirement planning is the same thing as investment planning, and it’s a completely different strategy. There’s five key areas that we focus on, your income, your tax strategy, your investment strategy, because the investments that get you to retirement are not the investments that are going to get you through retirement. So we have to fundamentally change. So again, if you want this book, I send it to you absolutely free. I pay for the shipping and handling. I can’t make it any easier for you. Go to on the money offer.com. Right now. Put down your coffee. Put down whatever you’re doing. Go to on the money offer.com. Scan the QR code, or just if you got your cell phone on you right now. Dial 1-888-382-1298, My team is standing by to take your call and schedule your appointment and get a copy of the book out to you.
Rebecca Powers 10:05
Yeah, there’s also that QR code that you can use. It’ll take you straight to the landing page. Get that book when you call, tell them what maybe you’re really concerned about. So, we’ll know before you come in. All right, I’m Rebecca powers here with Brian Quaranta and Neil major, and we’re talking about how to secure your hard-earned money, we’ll be right back.
Brian Quaranta 10:23
See 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 will 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 10:36
The last thing you want to do is have a really good job in your 60s, retire, be looking for work again in your late 70s.
Brian Quaranta 10:45
The average person might say, well, a good portfolio would be a good mix of stocks, bonds and mutual funds. None of them. A good portfolio is all designed around the five key areas, income taxes, investments, healthcare and legacy planning.
Neil Major 10:59
We’re not just product pickers. What we do best here is we build retirement plans.
Brian Quaranta 11:04
Nine out of 10 people, when they walk through the door, we 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?
Neil Major 11:15
Probably now people you know can actually see a vision once we start to really build out their plan.
Brian Quaranta 11:21
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 opinion. 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 11:50
Welcome back. Most people have the question, Do I have enough money to retire? And that is a great question. And the cookie cutter Big Bucks might say, oh, you should be able to take out three maybe 4% each year, and you should be okay. Neil, what someone says to you, do I have enough to retire? The answer is, always, I don’t know. I need to get to know you absolutely.
Neil Major 12:10
Yeah, we got to understand your situation a lot better before I can answer that question. You know, it’s a very, very common question, right? Because we always talk to our coworkers, our friends and family about what point you know, is it 500,000 is a million? Is it 2 million? What do we need to get to? And you know, for each and every family, it’s going to be entirely different. We live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where a lot of the folks are pretty conservative with their lifestyle, and so maybe they don’t require as much as someone that lives in a different part of the country, but really the way that I like to help people focus on how much money they need for retirement is, let’s get a good understanding and idea of what your take home pay is while you’re working each and every month. And if we can understand your take home pay and understand if we use that take home pay, well, that’s going to be our target income need, right as we move into retirement, that take home pay, right? And so now we try and figure out, with all of our sources of income, social security, and if they do have any pensions, how much additional do we need from the investments to get them successfully retired? Now, a lot of people that we deal with actually spend a little bit more in retirement. That’s right, you agree?
Brian Quaranta 13:24
And you know, what’s interesting is that the statistics show that you might only need 70, 80% of your income, but we have found, you know, when we’re building plans, is that, especially you, you you really like to get their income as close, if not better, than what their take home pay is right now, for sure. And the reason he uses the take home pay, which is really a genius approach to this, is the fact that he knows that that’s the deduction of their health care. It’s the deduction of contributions going into into their 401, K, so he knows that that’s the money hitting their bank account. That’s the money they’re used to living off of, that’s the money they’re used to paying the bills with, and so that’s why we use that take home pay as more or less the starting point for figuring out what that income needs to look like in retirement.
Neil Major 14:13
I just had a client who I’m helping retire, and you know his nerves were in the fact that he makes $200,000 a year, and we’re going down and targeting like $115,000 a year, right? And what I said to him, as I said, you know, listen, what we have to remember is you max out your 401, K with $30,000 you’re not going to be doing that anymore, right? Retirement, you pay federal taxes, state taxes, local taxes into Medicare and Social Security, but in Pennsylvania, we only need to pay those federal taxes. That’s right. So, you know, the income can be much different, but if we focus on that net income, it’s the same,
Brian Quaranta 14:54
it’s the same.
Rebecca Powers 14:56
You ever make them do the B word about budget?
Brian Quaranta 14:59
Said women don’t like that’s a dirty word. That’s a dirty word. It’s a dirty word. You know why we don’t do a budget? Because you don’t pick up the ancillary stuff that happens throughout the year, like, oh, I have to stop by a hallmark real quick and buy a birthday card or a balloon or whatever, you know? And this is why what I like to do, and Neil and his family do the same thing. We put everything on a credit card, and the reason is, is because we can, number one, look at the credit card statements on a monthly basis, add them all up, divide by 12, and we know what our average monthly spend rate is, because we’re grabbing everything. If we stop off at Starbucks, we’re putting it on the card, and that gives you the more accurate budget, if you will, that if you were to just yeah, that if you were just to add up, what’s my electric, gas cable, you’re missing a lot of stuff. If you do it that way.
Neil Major 15:52
I’ve seen so many times where people from the first meeting to the second meeting will say, I’ve taken the time to write out all my monthly expenses, and it’s $4,000 a month. And then we do that take home pay, where we get an understanding of that, and the take home pay is like 10 grand a month. And so it’s like, well, where do you save that $6,000 it’s like, well, I use it. So maybe your bills aren’t actually four grand. Because listen, in retirement, we’re still going to want to go out to eat with our friends. We’re still going to, yes, you know, go golfing. We’re still going to want to travel.
Brian Quaranta 16:28
Maybe even more thing, you get more frequency of that than ever.
Rebecca Powers 16:33
And you pointed out you want people to spend the right amount. If you spend too little, you did not enjoy your retirement and what you worked hard for let’s talk about the basic types of retirement accounts.
Brian Quaranta 16:46
I mean, you’ve got the basic types of your 401, K’s your 403, B’s your 457, plans, your tsps, right? All different letters and numbers. But really, all we’re saying there is that that type of account is a tax deferred retirement account, and when you retire, you’re going to be able to roll that money over to some type of self directed IRA, which is the right thing to do, because if you want to take money out of your retirement accounts, the best way to do that is through an individual retirement account, because most of those accounts that I just mentioned the 401, k4, 3b, 457, some don’t even let you take systematic monthly withdrawals or any income out. Or if you do, there’s a 20% mandatory tax withholding along with any other additional income tax you may owe. So, getting that money out of those accounts into an individual retirement account is your first step in making sure that you’re going in the right direction for retirement strategy.
Neil Major 17:50
I just had a new client who he had left his money in his 401 K, and he needed income from it. So periodically he would go there, he’d have to fill out paperwork. Every time he took a withdrawal, he’d have to pay 50 bucks. Every time he took a withdrawal, he had to pay the 20% taxes. He said, This doesn’t make any sense. I need to figure out how to get this actually. I’d prefer it to come in monthly, systematically, right? So that’s the importance of when you exit and separate from service, get your money into it.
Rebecca Powers 18:23
Take it with you, for sure.
Brian Quaranta 18:25
Rebecca, when we come back, I really want to talk about how we go about building the income structure at Secure Money Advisors, because one of the things that people really need to get used to understanding, especially in the world that we live in today, is that an income annuity can be your best friend in retirement, right? If you’re like most of our clients, and you’re concerned about running out of money, you’re concerned about stock market volatility, you’re concerned about maybe not being able to generate enough income from your retirement accounts. This is why, when we come back, you’re going to want to learn about the type of income annuities that we use, and why they can be such a benefit for you, and why you shouldn’t be scared of them, and why you shouldn’t listen to the negative press, because most people just haven’t taken the time to educate themselves on the new types of income annuities that are very flexible, that give you a lot of access to your money, that don’t tie your money up with the insurance company to where if you die, they keep it. The type we use are very flexible. You got access to your money if you die, it goes to your children. So but the first step, folks, really is going to on the money offer.com and getting a copy of my book. Look, if you want a simple guide to understanding retirement, a guide that’s going to help give you peace of mind and security that’s going to help you understand how. To build a strategy of income because if you’re like most people we see every single day, and you don’t have a pension, you’ve got a problem, and that problem is an income problem, you’re going to have a cash flow problem. And if you do it any other way, other than the use of an income annuity, you have to understand that you’re subjected to market risk, interest rate risk, political risk, I could go on and on. So go to on the money offer.com. I’m giving you the book for free, folks. I’m paying for the shipping and handling. It’s going to show up in a gold envelope. All you have to do is go to on the money offer.com. Scan the QR code or my team standing by right now to take your call at 1-888-382-1298.
Rebecca Powers 20:44
and while you’re there, feel free to also book a date to come in and meet us and have your complimentary appointment, a look under the hood, a second opinion. It is absolutely no obligation. All right, stay with us. We’re talking more about how to secure your money.
Commercial Break 20:58
We know the market is going to get worse from here. This is the biggest monthly decline in 10 years. People’s 401 case took a major hit. My investments are tanking. My retirement isn’t going as planned. Can’t believe I let my kid talk me into buying crypto. I mean, what is that? Anyway? This was the fourth worst contraction in history. So how are you two doing? Your financial future doesn’t have to be uncertain. I’m Brian parent 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 21:54
All right. Thanks for staying with us. Before we took a break, Brian mentioned annuities, and it has often gotten a bad rap in the past. And do you know annuities actually started in Roman times, when all those warriors were coming back, they needed jobs. They needed money so they could get wives and, you know, build the community with their families. Let’s talk about annuities. How do they fit so beautifully? And I have one. My husband and I Ben, we have one. How do they fit so beautifully in that income gap.
Neil Major 22:23
You made a key point earlier on the show about how sometimes people don’t actually spend so you know, you’ve created this bucket list when you have your freedom of time, of all these things you’re going to do, and then you don’t do them because you’re worried about running out of money. So an annuity can fit in really, really well when you’re looking for predictability and cash flow and guaranteed lifetime income, and right now, because the products are so strong, it’s actually incredible leverage.
Brian Quaranta 22:51
Oh, the products are the strongest we’ve probably seen them in 20 years. Unbelievable.
Neil Major 22:57
Good, so good, so good. So I just work with, working with, a single woman she wants to retire in three years now. These numbers are predicated on circumstance, age and a lot of different things, but she’s got a million dollars. She’s gonna need little over $3,000 a month from her investments. She’s got a million dollars right now. And so what I’m doing is I’m gonna buy an annuity for her guaranteed lifetime income annuity. She’s gonna put $400,000 in the income annuity when she retires in a couple years, it’s gonna pay her $42,000 guaranteed for life. The leverage is phenomenal, amazing.
Brian Quaranta 23:39
Here’s the important thing you’re talking about over a 10% payout yield on that.
Neil Major 23:44
The lab money, right? Yes, it’s incredible. But here’s the important piece, we’ve taken 40% of the money, we’ve created 100% of the income. Right? Now I take the $600,000 because that now is more long term money, because we’ve created all the income from the $400,000 and so I can run a little bit faster on that side, take a little bit more risk, because we’ve solved the biggest concern.
Brian Quaranta 24:10
Absolutely, income. yeah, and you follow the most basic fundamental that Wall Street teaches all of us, whether you watch Warren Buffet, Charlie Munger, or any talking head out there on stock investing, they let you know that if you’re going to buy a stock, you need to hang in there for the long haul with it. Well, that’s where the contradiction comes in with retirement planning, because for most people in retirement planning, they need income. So how are you going to be able to hang on for the long haul? If you have money coming out of your accounts, you’re going to ruin the compounding of your investments by taking money out on a monthly basis. Even if the stock market is going up, you’re disturbing the compound. Of that account on the way up. So, the way that we maximize returns on the investment side is by taking a portion of that money, a small portion, and getting a big leverage on that money from the insurance companies, which, by the way, folks understand this, if you’re comparing an annuity to an investment, you’re looking at it all the wrong way. An annuity does something that no other investment does. It’s an insurance policy for your income. So what does that mean? Take Neil’s example, if his client that he put the $400,000 into lives to a point to where that annuity spends down to zero. She does not run out of money, because the insurance component of that annuity kicks in, and the annuity continues to pay her as long as she’s living. And a lot of these annuities can be set up, not only as single life, but a lot of our married clients do it as joint and you can do a joint annuity with your husband’s IRA or your wife’s IRA, so that when your husband dies, your wife would continue to get the income for the rest of her life, and if the balance went to zero, she would continue To get it, but if there was still a balance in the account and you both died, it gets paid out to the children so you don’t lose anything. This is why it’s so important to ensure. I talk about it all the time. We insure our health, we insure our cars, we insure our homes. We have to ensure the income if we need it now, you can try other ways, right? And you might try to outsmart that guaranteed annuity by saying, Well, I’m going to buy dividend paying stocks, but you better hope and pray that those dividend paying stocks don’t lower their dividends, or all of a sudden, that stock itself doesn’t get beat up and decline in the market. GE was a great example of that.
Neil Major 27:06
What if you need more income, the right dividends paying? What if the stock is down when you need that more income playing at a loss group now you’re getting less dividend income? Yes, from there on out, yes, there’s, you know, obviously there can be some advantages of using a income plan like that, but there can also be some challenges.
Brian Quaranta 27:27
Folks, listen. Go to on the money offer.com. Get a copy of my book, please. I want to put this in your hands. I’m very passionate about the information that I have in here. It will change your life. Go to on the money offer.com it’s absolutely free. Or call 1-888-382-1298 my team standing by to not only get you a copy of the book, but they get you scheduled to come in for a complimentary appointment.
Rebecca Powers 27:49
Absolutely all right, can’t believe we’re out of time already. Thank you so much for joining us. We love you. We’ll see you again next time.