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Video Transcript
Rebecca Powers 00:26
Welcome to this week’s edition of On the Money with Secure Money with Brian Quaranta, of course, Brian created Secure Money Advisors. This is an independent fiduciary firm, holistic, looks at everything in your financial plan. Really the opposite of the Wall Street, big box, and great to see you.
Brian Quaranta 00:46
Good to see you. You think people know what holistic means, or when you look at everything?
Rebecca Powers 00:52
Well, we know what it means with our body? Yeah? Holistic Medicine, holistic medicine. Nobody understands what holistic financial planning means, I guess.
Brian Quaranta 01:00
Well, until they read my book.
Rebecca Powers 01:01
There you go, good plug. It’s absolutely free, right? Yeah, no joke. He even pays the shipping and handling, yeah, and it comes in a gold envelope, but you literally named your business Secure Money Advisors. Secure Money Advisors, because that’s what it’s all about, taking the risk off the table.
Brian Quaranta 01:18
That’s right, that’s it. Yes, security guarantees. They create freedom. They create a predictable lifestyle. You know, predictable income creates a predictable lifestyle. Non predictable income is a non-predictable lifestyle. You don’t know what you’re going to be able to do, because you don’t know whether or not that money is going to continue to come in. I don’t like when firms call themselves financial planners, when all they do is work with the stock market. That’s such a good point. I just don’t like it. It’s just, it’s not the truth. And if you’re not, in order to call yourself a fiduciary, the only thing that you have to do is be able to have a series 65 license and be able to say that you charge a fee to call yourself a fiduciary. But in order to charge a fee, the only thing that our regulators allow us to charge a fee on is stock investments. So, let’s think about that for a moment. Yeah, to me, a fiduciary, the definition of it is to do what’s in the client’s best interest. So how can you do what’s in the client’s best interest if you are a fee only firm, because that would mean that you’re only working with one type of investment, which would be a risk investment that’s in the market that you’re charging a fee on because you can’t charge a fee on insurance products. Can’t charge a fee on life insurance, can’t charge a fee on Medicare insurance, health insurance planning, right? Can’t charge a fee. So in order to provide holistic planning, how can you say that I’m a financial planner, if you’re not looking at someone’s income, if you’re not looking at their investments, if you’re not looking at their tax strategy, if you’re not looking at their healthcare strategy, their estate planning strategy, and these all require different products, right? So if I’m looking at someone’s healthcare strategy, I’m thinking about, Okay, well, if you want to retire early prior to the age of 65 you’re going to need some type of health insurance to bridge the gap until you hit 65 and do Medicare, or you’re going to if you are 65 you’re going to need a Medicare plan. You’re going to need either Original Medicare or some type of Medicare Advantage plan. But what about long-term care insurance? Right? What happens if you have a stroke, get sick, need care? Medicare is only going to pay for that for so long. Not going to pay for it forever. Did you know that today’s income annuities will double the income that they give to you and your spouse if you go into a nursing home?
Rebecca Powers 04:02
I didn’t know that. Is it a rider?
Brian Quaranta 04:04
It’s a rider, which is just a fancy way of saying an additional benefit. Yeah, right. And so, if it’s paying you $5,000 a month and you get sick and go into a nursing home, it’s now going to pay you $10,000 a month. I did not if it starts paying you $10,000 a month, don’t you think that account might drain down to zero a little bit quicker? Yeah, of course. Well, in an annuity, you don’t have to worry about the account draining to zero, because the idea of the annuity is that if the balance ever does hit zero, you’ve signed a contract with the insurance company that says as long as you’re alive, we will continue to pay this money to you and your spouse. Now, you tell me, what other financial product can do that? Yeah, there is none. I mean, I can go through the list of different ways to generate income. I mean, you’ve got individual stocks, but in order to generate income from an individual stock. It has to go up in value. If I put $100,000 into a stock, and I want to start taking, you know, let’s say, you know, a couple $1,000 a year out of there. Well, that’s stock needs to go up that that 100,000 needs to go to 105,000 or 110,000 what happens if it goes to 90,000? I need to take money out. Now I’m going to, you know, reduce the amount of principle I have by compounding your loss, compounding my losses. That’s right, which is a tragedy. Which is a tragedy because you start compounding losses in retirement, you’re going to run out of money. You’re going to run out of money. See, what people don’t realize is time is everything. See, time in the market is what allows you to win. But what they don’t talk about is that us as humans don’t have this infinite amount of time. We’ve got these windows of time. So, think about the fact that, like, what happens if the window of time you retire is 2000 2001 2002 and that’s your first couple years of retirement. Wow, yeah. How scary would that be? Or you retire in 2006 and now all of a sudden you got 2007, 2008, 2009 Wow, yeah, scary. And these are the things that you can’t predict. Nobody can predict those.
Rebecca Powers 06:17
Yeah, no one has a crystal ball. It’s just a matter of hedging your risk. What are you doing to protect money that you’ve already earned? So many people are still rolling the dice you’ve won the game. Quit playing right. Quit throwing the Hail Mary.
Brian Quaranta 06:29
That’s right. Yeah. I talk about that in the book. When you’ve won the game, why are you going to keep playing it right? I mean, think about it at this point in your life, folks, would you rather have a sure thing or a maybe? Because I know for me, being in the financial business, every single day, I will build my plan for my spouse and I off of guarantees. There’s no doubt about it, because the 1000s of people that I’ve retired, I have never had to apologize for a plan going wrong and having to tell somebody they have to go back to work. Amazing people I’ve met that have had to come out of retirement, really, because the investments didn’t work out the way they were supposed to work out. They never produced the returns that they were going to produce. That’s why, when you sign paperwork for investments, in that very fine print that nobody reads Rebecca first, it’s going to tell you that you know that past results don’t equal future results, right? Yes, right. And it’s also going to tell you in that fine print that if we lose all your money, you can’t sue us, right? I’m going to sign a contract with an insurance company for myself, a rated you’ll only use a rated, big, strong, safe company that says that if you hand over this amount of money today, in five years, 10 years, 20 years, whenever you want to retire, we’ll pay you X amount for the rest of your life, for the rest of your life. And by the way, if I die for the rest of Kate’s life, which is my spouse, right, right? What better deal are you going to get than that? I’ll take that all day long over gambling with my money. And if you’re someone that has the stomach to gamble with 35, 40 years’ worth of work, Secure Money Advisors just is not the right firm for you, because I, as a fiduciary, will not bring you on and take that kind of risk. Because if you want me to look you and your family in the eyes and let you know that you’re capable of retiring and you’re going to be okay, I cannot do that if 100% of your money is in the stock market, absolutely. And if that’s what you want to do, go find the guy down the street, because they’ll be more than happy to do it. But I promise you, if things go wrong, they will not pay your electric bill, they won’t pay your food bill, and they pay your mortgage, right?
Rebecca Powers 09:13
Amen, you mentioned annuity. So, I want to say when we come back, we’re going to talk about Babe Ruth, because there’s actually something in this book you wrote about Babe Ruth. It’s a Babe Ruth. It’s a fascinating story about annuities. When did he live, in the 20s? The 30’s?
Brian Quaranta 09:28
Yeah, 1920s.
Rebecca Powers 09:29
We talk about that when we come back, but invite our friends in. We want you to get a copy of this book. First of all, even if you don’t call to get that first appointment, which is also free, we really, really want you to get a copy of this right. Track your retirement absolutely free, and Brian even pays the shipping and handling.
Brian Quaranta 09:43
That’s right. And there is information in this book, folks, that will change you and your family’s life. This is information that is so critical that you understand and know, I don’t care whether you do it through Secure Money advisor or somebody else. This information is. So important, it’s so urgent that you have it, that you need to get a copy of this book to understand how a true Retirement Plan is put together.
Rebecca Powers 10:08
Go to OntheMoneyOffer.com. Get that book ordered and stay with us.
Brian Quaranta 10:14
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 principle 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 11:02
All right, welcome back. Of course, we hope you went to OntheMoneyOffer.com. Again, absolutely free, right. Track your retirement. And Brian is just starting to write his second book. We were talking about annuities. It’s guaranteed safety. You don’t get all of the gains of the market because it’s tied to it. It’s not in the market, but your principle is protected. I love the story about Babe Ruth, when so many people, what was the market crash? I mean, and he,
Brian Quaranta 11:27
Yeah, ’29 market crash, right? Yeah.
Rebecca Powers 11:29
He was okay. Why?
Brian Quaranta 11:30
Well, he- his agent was smart enough to tell him that during the 1929 depression, when nobody was buying baseball tickets, he said, Babe, you need to take some of your money. And I need, I want you to go buy an annuity. And he did that. And matter of fact, he owned a couple of them. This is actually one of his annuity contracts right here, amazing, right? And, and I write about in the book, because if you know about the bambino, right, this guy swung for the fences.
Rebecca Powers 12:01
Every time, 1000s of times.
Brian Quaranta 12:03
And you can swing for the fences when you have the protection of annuity. Nice, you can swing for the fences. What do I mean by that? Well, once you put enough money away to provide yourself enough income for the rest of your life, you could take risk with the rest of your money. That is a good strategy. But in order for you to take risk with the money, you have to have time on your side. What do they tell you? Right? Don’t touch it. Just leave it alone. Yeah, now think about that for a moment. If the advice is, if you don’t touch about it, if you don’t touch it, you don’t do anything, you just leave it alone. It’s going to grow and it’s going to grow and it’s going to be fine. Well, how is that possible? In retirement, you’re going to have to touch it right. So, you’re destroying the number one fundamental of actually, compound interest, and that is, you’re removing money from the account when it’s growing, right? And now you have no chance of actually even using compound interest, right, because you’re removing the money, but then you’re also compounding losses if the market goes down. So, if you want to be in the market, the first thing you must understand is you have to build a plan that allows you to keep that money in the market without touching it. How do you do that? You first set enough money aside in an account that provides you a guaranteed income stream. And I know we always talk about, you know, an annuity is great because it protects your principal. If the market goes up, you can make some money. If the market goes down, you don’t lose any money. That’s all great stuff. But that’s not the real reason to use an annuity. The real reason to use an annuity is to provide you with a guaranteed paycheck. Do you understand the reason why we had retirement parties? The reasons why people knew when they were going to be able to retire is because of the pension. They knew at the age of 62 they were going to be able to retire because their pension was going to pay them X amount, and then they would also get X amount from Social Security, and they would say, at 62 I’m out of here, because that’s when I can take my retirement. And what they were talking about when they could take their retirement was not a lump sum. They were talking about the annuity that the pension would provide. Ask somebody that’s a law enforcement officer or a teacher how much they love their annuity, I’ll tell you it’s the best thing ever, because it provides peace of mind, right? An annuity provides peace of mind. A lump sum is anxiety, right? Why? Because a lump sum of money that you now have to take and move into what the stock market, hope that you buy the right stocks at the right time with the right companies. That’s insanity.
Rebecca Powers 14:48
Right? But we’re all conditioned, I think to think about our account balance, like so many people are watching their numbers rise, hope it doesn’t fall. Is that something we’ve been taught by Wall Street just to think about the number, don’t worry about the yield, just look at your average rate of return.
Brian Quaranta 15:02
Your account balance is meaningless to you in retirement, the thing that means the most to you is how much money is going to show up every single month, every single week, however many times you want to get paid per month, right?
Rebecca Powers 15:16
Yeah. So, you can set it up to get paid twice a month, if you
Brian Quaranta 15:19
Whatever you want, yeah, whatever you want, because you all you want to do is replace your paycheck. That’s how simple this is. But so many of you are making this more difficult than it needs to be, because we’re brainwashed by the big box firms to believe that the stock market is the only way to retire. You know, people that are, I would call them stock gurus, right? Yeah, that talk about their stock portfolios all the time. You know, they don’t tell you what, how much cash they have sitting aside. I bet they do, right? For the average American, they don’t have millions of dollars in cash, like some of these stock gurus do, right, right? The stock gurus call that cash dry powder, by the way. Why? Because when the market falls, they’ve got money to buy. When the market’s down, the average American doesn’t have that.
Rebecca Powers 16:16
Wow. You’re right.
Brian Quaranta 16:19
They’ve replaced the pension with the 401(k), and I’m not saying that that was a terrible thing, because, let’s face it, the truth is, there was a lot of companies out there that lost their pensions.
Rebecca Powers 16:34
That’s true.
Brian Quaranta 16:35
We saw it in Pittsburgh.
Rebecca Powers 16:37
Hospital systems.
Brian Quaranta 16:38
Yeah, LTV Steel, US Airways, right? I mean, those companies are improperly managed and poof, those pensions disappear, right, right? So all we’re doing when we retire the way that you build a real retirement plan that’s going to allow you to do the things you want to do in retirement, to give you the freedom that you want is the first understand that the number one job of your money is to provide you with cash flow.
Rebecca Powers 17:07
And a guarantee instead of a gamble.
Brian Quaranta 17:10
That’s right, it’s all about the guarantee. Look, Babe Ruth’s annuities- by the way, he owned more than just one annuity, but the amount of money he was receiving was equivalent to $200,000 in annual income today. So, when nobody-
Rebecca Powers 17:24
Wow. So, if he had left it in the market, it would have been gone.
Brian Quaranta 17:27
It would have been gone. It was 1929, it was the Great Depression. I mean, the market just: poof. It just disappeared. Vapor, gone. You know. It was like, 07, 08, I mean, you know there was, I mean, people every day tell me, I’ve never recovered from that period of time had to go to work. Yeah, the joke was that your 401(k) turned into a 201(k). That’s not a joke, terrible, that’s heartbreaking, that’s devastating to you to put that amount of time and effort into working and saving and sacrificing and going to work on the days that you didn’t want to work, right? Sacrificing birthday parties, your kids’ sporting events, working overtime, and just like that, the market takes it all away from you. I mean to me, I just don’t understand how Wall Street has sold this story to the American public for so long, and again, people are risking money they cannot afford to lose. Right? Once we have enough money set aside to provide ourselves with the guarantees and the peace of mind and enough money to pay the bills and to go on vacation and do all the things you want to do. Fine, take that other money and buy some good stocks with it, yeah, but just understand that that bucket of money that you’re buying the stocks with, that’s long-term money. Let’s define what long term money means. It means 10 years or longer. We know if we look at stock charts, if we look at any stock chart over a 10-year period, there’s a high probability that you’ll make money as long as you’re not taking money out, right, right? The minute you start taking money out, you just, you bust the financial, the fundamentals, right. And that’s the challenge that people have every single day when they’re retiring and they take their money, and they roll it over into an IRA account, and they mix it up with some stocks and some mutual funds, and the advisor says, ah, yeah, pull out 4% a year. It’s insanity, yeah, look in my book, right track your retirement. This information is so important, it is so urgent that you understand the information that I write about in this book, because this book will change you and your family’s lives. You know, when you think about estate planning? Rebecca, yeah, people spend all this money on these estate planning documents, but if you run out of money, you got no money left. Yeah, all you have is an expensive piece of paper that says this amount of money goes to this kid, but the kid’s never going to receive any money. There’s no money left. You just got an expensive estate planning binder that does nothing. All it’s going to do is pass along your automobiles in your house, and what I want for you and for your family is a way for you to enjoy retirement, to have the monthly income that you need, but also to leave a legacy to your kids. And there’s a way to do that, and that’s why I wrote this book. So go to OntheMoneyOffer.com, get a copy of it right now. I pay for the shipping and handling. It’s absolutely free. I hate saying the word free, because it devalues the book, right? But I am telling you, it is so important to get this information in your hand, that that’s why I’m making it so easy for you to get, so, again, OntheMoneyOffer.com All you got to do is fill out the form. You get a copy of the book. While you’re there, you can also schedule a complimentary appointment to come in. Let me tell you what you can expect. We’re not there to say anything. We’re there to help you identify if you have any challenges, any problems, and then determine if there’s any way we can help you maximize and fix what you’re currently doing. If you’re on the right track, if you’re doing the right things, we’re going to shake your hand, and we’re going to tell you, keep doing what you’re doing. You’re on the right track, you’re doing all the right things. And wouldn’t that in itself, be worth it to know that you are on the right track and you are doing the right things? So OntheMoneyOffer.com go there right now and get a copy of the book.
Rebecca Powers 21:32
That’s why you can’t get a second opinion from the person who gave you the first. Wonderful little second opinion would feel great. All right, I’m Rebecca Powers here with Brian Quaranta, and we will be right back. Stay with us.
Speaker 1 21:43
You’ve got quite an extensive resume. Wow, so many years of management. Bet that was fun. So, this job requires basic knowledge of the social media and video platforms, content creation and SEO. How proficient are you in those areas?
Brian Quaranta 22:05
Going back to work after retiring is not ideal. 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 22:37
Welcome back. Of course, the name of the show is On the Money with Secure Money. And Brian Quaranta created Secure Money Advisors because you started in Wall Street. You started in the big box firm. Your conscience didn’t want to let you stay there for much longer. But Wall Street has really not helped with educating us. And we all feel like we’re just kind of little ships aimless in the night, right? And that’s where your fire and passion comes from, that I love.
Brian Quaranta 23:04
Well, Wall Street thrives on risk,
Rebecca Powers 23:06
Right. They have to.
Brian Quaranta 23:07
Yeah, and they make money on fees, whether the market goes up or down. Think about that good point. I mean, can you imagine, like hiring a contractor to do work for you, and he doesn’t do a good job, or he doesn’t finish your kitchen, but yet he still wants paid, right, right? That’s so true. It’s kind of craziness when you think about it, yeah, but like you think about, you know, annuities, the reason I’ve taken such a strong stance on them, yeah, even though for the longest time it’s been a dirty word. Now, keep in mind, there’s a lot of people out there now that are finally coming around talking about the use of annuities. You know, I’ve been standing on a pedestal for over 20 years talking about it. You know, when they weren’t popular. I can remember back in 2006 2007 I was talking about utilizing a fixed annuity, paying a 7% guarantee. And people would say, Are you crazy? 7% that’s it. I’m not buying a 7% account. Do you know how much money I made in 1997 and 98 and right? They just were still caught up in that whole .com mindset. They couldn’t get past it. They just thought it was going to come back again and they were going to see those types of returns. So, I remember, I remember talking to a gentleman, he was a CFO for a big company in Pittsburgh, and I said, look, I mean, you’ve got more than enough money to retire right now, if all you did was take half of it off the table and protect it. Right, half it off table and protect it. Now, you know, what you typically find is that the spouse right is usually the more conservative one. Men tend to be okay with risk. Well, she, for whatever reason, convinced him back in 2007, right before everything had crashed in ‘08 to take half of the money off the table, and we bought that 7% guarantee. Nice. And it was a 10-year account paying 7% guaranteed. Let me tell you, to this day, still a client, and to this day, he thinks I’m the smartest guy in the world.
Rebecca Powers 25:09
And to this day she is still saying, I told you so.
Brian Quaranta 25:14
That’s right, you know. But you know, Wall Street pushes growth. They don’t, they don’t preach protection. It’s growth, growth, growth, growth, growth.
Rebecca Powers 25:23
Well, it’s kind of against what they need to happen, yeah, I mean, like they need to stay in or they don’t have any money.
Brian Quaranta 25:31
I was told. I was told early on in my career, when I learned about the annuity, I went to the owner of our firm, and I said, Why are we using dividend paying stocks? Why are we using bonds to generate income when both of those strategies have risk to principle? Yeah. I said, why wouldn’t we just take 20, 30% of somebody’s portfolio and utilize a guaranteed fixed annuity that provides an income stream for the rest of their life. Yeah, you know what he said to me, because we will cannibalize the revenue of the firm. So, think about that, right? I mean, just do it on a million dollars, right? So, if you have a million dollars under management, you charge somebody 2% management fee, right? That’s $20,000 a year. If I take half of that money now and I put it into an annuity, you can’t charge a fee on it. So now the annual fees of the firm just went from $20,000 down to $10,000.
Rebecca Powers 26:36
And the big insurance company who you would decide and purchase from for the client’s needs, they pay you.
Brian Quaranta 26:42
Insurance companies pay us.
Rebecca Powers 26:43
Not the client. That’s another bonus that I love about my annuity.
Brian Quaranta 26:46
Yeah. I mean, think about your insurance agent that helps you buy your car insurance or homeowners insurance, right? Gotcha, they charge you a fee. No. Do you think they work for free? No, the insurance companies pay them for utilizing that product to protect your house, to protect your car. Same thing with health insurance, same thing with Medicare insurance. Those are all commission-based products. The insurance company sets the commission rates on those.
Rebecca Powers 27:16
Since you said that, I’m going to say one more thing that you have said that has echoed in my mind. You said, Rebecca, we have home insurance. We have legs. You know, we have this insurance. We have car insurance, jewelry insurance. But nobody ever insures their retirement.
Brian Quaranta 27:29
And never insures their income. The best thing you could ever have for you and your family is income insurance. I call it sleep insurance.
Rebecca Powers 27:38
All right, if you would love a copy of Brian’s book, I promise you, it is a very short, easy to read about. Takes about 20 minutes. I’ve highlighted it. My husband has read it. Go to OntheMoneyOffer.com, it is free. We’ll even ship it to you. We love you. Thanks for being with us, and we hope to see you again next week.
