Retirement You TV: Episode 3

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Video Transcript

Cynthia De Fazio – 00:23

Hello, my name is Cynthia de Fazio I’m sitting with Brian quandra of secure money advisors. Good morning. Good morning.

Brian Quaranta – 00:30

Good morning. Good morning. You didn’t you even did better on that one I missed you and Brian, we’re gonna have quite a few quite a bit now and you’re getting to their phonetic spelling. But we’re gonna stick with Brian. Brian Q works perfectly Yeah.

Cynthia De Fazio – 00:47

You’re on the radio you announced yourself is Brian Q

Brian Quaranta – 00:49

you know on the radio on the radio? Really? We do. Retirement you radio increasing your financial IQ. Brian Q. Okay. And you know, a lot of people know me as Brian Q, but I think it’s important to to try to get people to somewhat pronounce my name. But you know, I have clients who’ve been working with me for 20 years, it’ll say how do I say your last name? And I just say it just just call me Brian. Q.

Cynthia De Fazio – 01:10

Okay. So the question is, when you’re ordering a pizza, yeah, ask for the name, what name do you use?

Brian Quaranta – 01:13

Yeah. They usually is Italian restaurant that I’m calling. So they know. That’s awesome. Yeah,

Cynthia De Fazio 01:21

well, I enjoyed your show together so much, because we’re talking a lot of important topics rather about just retirement, like, what are we doing as we move forward towards that age of retirement? Because Brian, would you agree that the retirement age has changed through the years?

Brian Quaranta – 01:36

over the years, it has, I mean, there’s really no specific age anymore. And I think that really is because people just don’t have pensions like they used to. And you know, and if you look at retirement planning, you know, 30 40 years ago, it was a lot different, we actually knew the date of someone’s retirement because when you retired, you got a pension. And you knew if you work for this company, and you put in 25 years, 30 years, 40 years, you were going to get x amount, and you would have the choice of retiring on this state or this state or this state. And then of course, you probably at the same time got a social security check. So this is why we had retirement parties. I remember my grandfather retired, you know, he got a gold watch, you know, at a big retirement party. Nobody has retirement parties anymore, because, you know, more and more people are working for multiple companies. Sure. And and that’s really kind of the big challenge today is that because people are working for multiple employers, the majority of people that we see at our office are entitled to little or no pensions at all. And really, and of course, everybody’s still got this whole security check. You know, and and, and I think they’ll continue to get social security checks, even though Social Security has its own financial problems, but but the grand experiment in our country, and nobody really knows how this is gonna work out yet is that employers, it did not take employers a long time to realize that it was a lot cheaper to provide an individual with a 401k, rather than a pension. And so that the retirement date has changed, because now people don’t know whether or not they can retire until they really sit down, you know, with a planner and go through that process, and you don’t secure money advisors. that’s who we’re working with, we’re working with the retiree, you know, if you look at our client base, people are 55. and older. Now, we work as a complimentary service to our clients, we work with their kids and their grandkids and things along those lines. But the people that we specifically market our services to are those that are retiring, because what we do at secure money advisors, and the type of planning we do and are doing are geared towards that type of planning. And there’s a very specific process to go through. So if you look at like an investment plan versus retirement plan, completely to different animals, you know, an investment plan is solely designed for growth, right? I’m going to diversify my portfolio in as many risk investments where I can, I’m going to put as much money away as I can, I’m going to try to get the highest rate of return that I can so that when I retire, I’ve got the biggest pile of money possible. Yeah. But once you retire, and you have this big pile of money now what what got you here is not going to get you through the next 30 years. Yeah, the the strategy has to change and the thought process of what you’re doing with that money needs to change. Now, it’s about protecting that principle show, it’s about generating cash flow. And it’s about positioning yourself. So you’re never ever going to run out of money. And more importantly, when you die, right? What happens to that money, we want to make sure that that money goes to your family, not to Uncle Sam. And so these are the things that we need to think about. But there’s other things that pop up in retirement, you know, unexpected things like a health event. What happens if one of you have to go into a nursing home? What does that look like? Do you have some type of long term care insurance? You know, the majority of people out there do not have long term care insurance because if they’ve ever tried to get it, there’s two things that have happened. Either they’ve been declined because of their health, or it’s so expensive that they can’t afford it. So a lot of people are still out there, expose to an event like that, well, at secure money advisors, we can teach you the proper measures to actually protect yourself from a health event, even if you don’t have long term care insurance. And that’s very important, because these are the things that we’re all going to deal with, you know, what happens? If tax rates go up? What happens if the cost of living goes up? Again, what happens if you lose a spouse? That’s a big one, because you may be earning this much money together as a married couple. But if one of you die, there’s going to be an immediate loss of income. Sure. And when that income losses happens, what measures need to take place to make sure that the surviving spouse isn’t living out of poverty level and they can maintain their lifestyle? Sure. So yeah, there’s lots of different things in the retirement age has changed so much, because everybody’s situation is different. And that’s why when you come into our office, we truly sit down and build a customized tailored plan to your situation. It’s not once we get to retirement planning, it’s not turnkey. I mean, if you think about investment planning, it’s pretty much everybody has the same thing. I mean, if you work with a company, and you got 500 people working there, and everybody’s got access to the same 401k, that’s basically cookie cutter, right? Everybody’s got the same thing. Yeah. But when you retire, it changes. And working with a licensed fiduciary, like secure money advisors, truly allows you to know when you come in that we are working in your best interest. And what that means is we really sit on the same side of the table as you as a licensed fiduciary, we’re held to the highest standard that there is. And what that really means is, that means it’s no different than me sitting down with my mom and dad. So if I’m sitting down with my mom and dad, what’s the best thing for them? And when you come in to secure money, advisors, same thing, when I’m sitting down with the folks that come in, what is the best thing for their situation, right? And as a fiduciary, we’re very transparent. You know exactly what you’re paying, you know exactly what you’re getting into. But we always say, it starts with a plan. It’s not about financial products. It’s about the financial plan. But once we design that plan, we can actually figure out what that data retirements going to be

Cynthia De Fazio – 06:57

sure, yeah. And Brian, isn’t it frightening when you think about how many people do not have a financial plan?

Brian Quaranta – 07:03

You will, there’s more and more people that don’t have a financial plan. And that’s really scary, because you want to have a true written plan. And that’s why for the next 10 callers, we’re going to offer a complimentary review. We’re going to walk you through exactly what your retirement looks like what you currently have and where you need to go. We’ll look at the fees that you’re paying what risk you’re taking, if your position for income will teach you the proper measures to take play to put into place for your retirement plan. There’s very key factors that you need to be aware of again, for the next 10 callers, complimentary review, it’s $1,000 value that you’re going to get at no cost, if you call 18883821298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298.

Cynthia De Fazio – 07:51

Ryan, that is perfect. And I believe it’s time for us to take a break. Viewers, please stay tuned. We’re going to be right back with questions for Brian, the number to call is 1-888-382-1298. For your complimentary review with Brian, please give that number a call. And stay tuned. We’ll be right back.

Commercial Break – 8:09

How confident are you in your current financial plan? Do you know with certainty how the recent market volatility will affect your future hopes and dreams? How much are you paying in taxes? And how much are you losing to unnecessary high fees? You didn’t work to save this money so that you could spend your time worried in retirement. Now is the time to take charge of your finances so you can feel confident about your future call in during the next 30 minutes of today’s show only to set up an absolutely complimentary no obligation full blown Financial Review that will result in your own customized written plan. This is a $999 value that we’re giving away complimentary to the first 10 people who respond. We’ll start with a full blown analysis of what you already have, by running a report to untangle how much you are currently paying in fees, how you’re allocated for risk, and what it’s costing to work with your current advisor. Next, we’ll identify your goals. Where do you see yourself in the next five years? Where do you want to go? And who do you hope to go there with? Is your current financial plan set up to get you there without mishap? Let’s design a roadmap to create a financial plan you can follow with confidence. Get the piece that so many people are missing from their retirement. Find out how having a written plan can make a difference to your retirement dreams. Call now to schedule your complimentary no obligation full blown Financial Review today.

Cynthia De Fazio – 09:44

Welcome back. My name is Cynthia de Fazio I’m sitting with Brian Q of security money advisors. Brian, welcome back to the show.

Brian Quaranta – 09:52

We got Brian Q is perfect that rolls off your tongue perfect.

Cynthia De Fazio – 09:59

It’s so easy. I’m just gonna stay with you from this point forward. So Talking about retirement, different types of accounts that people would have in place, let’s discuss fees a little bit, as are people aware of the different types of fees that

Brian Quaranta – 10:08

can be involved, I don’t think they are, you know, and keep in mind, I want everybody to remember this fees will reduce your gains, and they will compound your losses, okay, so knowing what you’re paying is critical. And a lot of fees in the financial industry are hidden, especially when you get into specific types of mutual funds or annuities. annuities are not very transparent with the cost of the fees, you know, you know, we’ll have folks come in and we’ll review an annuity they might have purchased and what they own. And the average cost of an annuity can be three 4%, but it doesn’t say anywhere on the statement, what they’re actually paying. So being aware of what you’re paying is very, very important, because again, it’s reducing your gains, and it’s compounding your losses. So, you know, as a fiduciary, our, we have to be completely transparent about what our cost is. And that’s, that’s peace of mind, sure, to the investor, because you really don’t know what you’re getting a lot of times when you’re working with someone that doesn’t have to fully disclose what they’re being paid. So it’s just very critical that we understand what we’re paying, and we can help them understand what they’re paying, you know, our team of analysts can actually dissect what they currently have, and we can look into, and really dive in to find out where their fees are. And a lot of people are very, very surprised of how expensive the the the planning is that they’re getting. And, and a lot of a lot of people are paying a lot of money and not getting a whole lot of value. And we see it all the time. You know, somebody comes in and, you know, they might have, you know, specific financial products, but they don’t have a written plan. Yeah, you see, and that and that’s really the key difference here is the fact that the products are not going to get it done. Right. The plan is what gets it done. Sure, the plan always comes first, the products come later. And so we always want to lead with understanding where the plan needs to be and where it needs to go. Okay, and then we can design the products around that.

Cynthia De Fazio – 12:09

Yeah, that’s perfect. And then Brian, once you have that plan in place, how often do you recommend that people come back to you to sit with you and talk through it again?

Brian Quaranta – 12:17

Yeah, that’s a great question. So we have a mandatory one year review. Okay. Now, our clients have the option. We talked to him about this when we come in, because it’s part of customizing their plan, you know, how often do they want to review, but we have to review at least once a year. And the nice thing about that is when you have a plan in place, you don’t have to meet every quarter to review everything. Because with a plan, we know where we’re going. And our team, if we see something throughout the course of the year, we’re definitely gonna contact our clients. But it’s critical that you at least are meeting with your planner at least once a year to review things. Talk about what’s happened in life, have you have you sold a house bought a house? Have you, you know, changed a job, whatever it might be those life events, we need to take into consideration? Are you considering moving in a year or two? Because we need to make sure that that gets implemented into the plan. So that if we need to change direction at all we can.

Cynthia De Fazio – 13:12

okay, yeah. And Brian, for the viewers at home, tell us what the experience is like when they do come in to sit with you or with one of your advisors on staff.

Brian Quaranta – 13:19

Yeah, it really was important for us to make secure money advisors, a very inviting place, you know, because the whole financial planning process can be so intimidating. Yeah. Because my industry has done a very poor job and making people feel comfortable about sharing what’s going on, because they think they’re going to be sold something. And you know, we’re not there to sell anybody anything, we’re there to truly solve problems. And in order to understand what the problems are, we we we do this by asking questions, really good questions, and a lot of these questions people have never thought of before. Sure. And so when they come in, it really is kind of just a very laid back environment. It’s a very welcoming environment. Our whole goal was really to kind of set it up. Like if you were visiting mom and dad, right? Like what it’s like when used to go home. Oh, yeah. And so yeah, yeah, the warm fuzzy feelings when you get to go home, you know, right. So, but we have not made the process intimidating. And financial planning should not be intimidating. It should be very simple, very easy to understand. And are my industry has done a very poor job, because a lot of times they talk over people’s heads, they use industry lingo, and people feel very intimidated. They feel very uncomfortable. And, you know, there’s so many times that people have come into our office and said, You know, I was so scared about setting this appointment. But this couldn’t have been a better experience. I felt so comfortable. And I’m so glad that I came because I had no idea that this was possible. And that just gives us real joy to see that because I want people to know that retirement planning and the landscape is changing and we are on the forefront of making that happen. Because I know when I was growing up, my parents didn’t get the advice they should have gotten Sure. And and I want people to get good advice, and easy to understand advice, and know that they can comprehend what they’re doing. And they could actually, if they were asked, What are you doing for retirement, they could actually explain their plan to somebody else.

Cynthia De Fazio – 15:20

That’s amazing. And that provides peace of mind. And it’s life. Yes, it is life changing. It absolutely is life changing, because I believe that’s the biggest fear still today is am I gonna run out of money when I retire. So you can alleviate that for people.

Brian Quaranta – 15:35

It is the biggest concern, you know, there’s, you know, there’s, there’s, you know, if you think about it, you know, retirement planning is like driving down a road and there’s two guardrails, you don’t want to hit one is running out of money. And the other one is hoarding money. And hoarding money is just important. It’s not running out of money, because a lot of people never spend the money they should spend. You know, a lot of people never do the things they want to do they live what I call a just in case retirement, you know, you’ll talk to these people. And you’ll say, Well, tell me what you want to do. And they’ll say, Well, I want to travel, I want to go here, I want to go there, I want to build a new home. And what happens is if they never take the time to put together a plan, you’ll see these folks, you’ll say how’s retirement going? Are you doing the traveling, you said you were going to do that you build a home? And they’ll say No, we haven’t. And I’ll say why? And they’ll say well, just in case. And I say just in case what they say, Well, what happens if one of us gets sick? What happens? If my spouse dies, these are all the things that we solve as secure money advisors, and so they never use their money. They never use it, they hoard it and what happens is they die. And guess who spends it for him? The kids do. Now, here’s some good trivia for you. According to AARP, according to AARP, and I’m going to ask you, what do you think it takes the average? How long do you think it takes the average beneficiary to spend their inheritance

Cynthia De Fazio – 16:49

to spend the entire enhance the entire inheritance? Oh, my goodness, I’m gonna go with one to five years.

Brian Quaranta – 16:55

Okay. Not bad. Six months? No, yes. Six months. So for those of you that are watching this show, just keep in mind, if you’ve got a lot of money, you’re not spending it right, you know that your kids are gonna spend it for about six months in that amazing. So guess what, guess who’s go through goes on all the trips? Yeah. Guess who builds the house, you know, guess who joins the country clubs the kids do the kids do. So you know, knowing how to use your money is important one, you won’t hit both guardrails with us, you’re not going to run out of money. And you’re not going to hoard your money, because we’re gonna teach you how to properly use it. And when you understand the proper ways to use it, you’re going to enjoy retirement because retirements not a time to live on a budget. Yeah, retirements a time to understand how to maximize what you save, so that you can go do all the things you said you were going to do.

Cynthia De Fazio – 17:43

Right? I think that’s a call that we’d all love to get. We insist you take a vacation. You must go right now it’s in your best interest. Right? Exactly,

Brian Quaranta -17:51

exactly. So, you know, it’s very important that we do that. So you know, and that’s why we offer these complimentary reviews at secure money advisors, you know, so, you know, for the next 10 callers that do call in to, to the phone lines, you’re going to get a complimentary view from us. And you know, it’s $1,000 value, you’re going to have the opportunity to sit down with a fiduciary go through the process with us look over things, we’ll be able to tell you what fees you’re paying, if you’re set up for income, what risk you’re taking, these are all the different things we go through. It’s a really simple process with us. It’s really simple, easy to understand. And again, it’s a 15 hour, I’m sorry, that’s $1,000 value, you’re going to get at no cost. So if you call 18883821298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298. You’ll get a complimentary view, keep trying I know the phone lines are really busy. But keep trying. You’ll get through to us and we’ll be able to get you scheduled to come in.

Cynthia De Fazio – 18:45

Brian, I believe it’s time for us to take a break. Viewers, please stay with us. When we come back. We’re going to have more questions for Brian about planning for your ideal retirement. Again, the number is 888-382-1298 for you to call in. And please don’t give up. We know the phone lines are busy. Stay with us. We’ll be right back.

Commercial Break – 19:08

Retirement Plan is just all about getting to know somebody. I mean, retirement planning is really about just building trust with people. I have a responsibility that when I wake up in the morning to be the very best that I can be because people are relying on me to take care of a lifetime’s worth of work that they’ve worked 3040 years for. I don’t take that lightly. That’s what drives me. That’s what I’m passionate about. You know, our clients really are our family of clients. We know their grandkids, we know their kids. We see them often throughout the community. We see them at the coffee shop, we see them at lunch. We really enjoy it. You know we take pride in the quality of the relationships that we build with our clients. Choosing the right advisors starts with choosing someone that shares the same beliefs about money that Do you have secure money advisors, our focus here is about building plans around principal protection, low risk investments are a great way to approach retirement. You know, when people have low risk investments, they’re not worried. They don’t have anxieties. They don’t have fears, they don’t have to worry about what’s going on in the stock market. There are other options available, other than risk options that people need to know about when it comes to retirement. And that’s what we do at secure money advisors. There’s a lot of responsibility and helping somebody plan for the retirement. And that’s why we take the time to listen, we take the time to understand their concerns, their worries, their needs, so that we can put together a customized plan. You know, we believe in what we do, everybody that works for secure money advisors is on a mission to be the very best that they can be, and to serve our clients in the best way that they can possibly serve them. You know, we just are a simple company. And it’s the simplicity in what we do that makes everything so powerful. You know, you don’t need to make this thing complicated. Retirement should not be complicated. It should be simple, easy, predictable. And we pride ourselves on providing that to people.

Cynthia De Fazio – 21:30

Welcome back to secure money advisors. My name is Cynthia de Fazio and I’m sitting with Brian Q. Just give me the introduction. Well, Brian, we’ve had some viewer questions, which I love. This is like the favorite part of the show for me, because it’s really interesting to see how people are receiving the information that we provide. And because we talked a little bit about fees, one of the questions that came in I love this. Actually, you know, I’m going to segue to a different what is the safe amount of money we can withdraw from our portfolio with little risk of running out of money?

Brian Quaranta – 22:04

Wow, yeah, this is a really good one. Because there’s a lot of confusion on this, right? Yeah, you see, and the reason why there’s a lot of confusion is because if you do your research, you’ll find that for many, many, many years going back, probably, I don’t know, 25 years, if not more, the financial industry has opted to use a rule of thumb called the 4% rule. And so they would say if you had a million dollars, you could withdraw 4% or $40,000, in your first year of retirement. And then every year you can increase those withdrawals by 3% a year to keep pace with inflation. So in the first year, you could take out 40,000, the next year, you could take 41,000, and then maybe 42, and then keep increasing that. Okay. Well, there’s been a lot of research done on this. And if you look back at the history of where this all started from, it was a financial advisor that had created this back in the 90s. His name was Bill Benjen. And what he did is he ran all these Monte Carlo scenarios, and he said, Look, if somebody had a 6040 split between stocks and bonds, they could comfortably withdraw 4% a year. Well, things have changed since he’s created that because that was created back in the maybe the early 90s. Right. And a lots changed, especially with the markets, the markets are more volatile than we’ve ever seen them before. And as a matter of fact, a lot of economists have now done a lot of work relooking at this 4% rule. As a matter of fact, the Wall Street Journal recently came out and said that in retirement, if you plan on having 100% of your money at risk, which by the way, is never a good idea. This is, you know, risking 100% of your life savings is never a good idea, we should only be risking money we can afford to lose. The problem is, there’s guys out there getting paid a lot of money to convince people to keep 100% of their money at risk, which is not a good idea. But that’s a whole nother show. Okay. But here’s what Congress has found. They said, Look, due to current market volatility, the 4% rule doesn’t work anymore. As a matter of fact, if you plan on using this, you better drop it from 4% down to 2%. If you don’t want to want to run the risk of running out of money, that’s for a couple of things. Number one, market volatility has increased. But number two, life expectancy has gone up so people are living longer. Okay. And so the 4% rule really doesn’t work like it used to. So think about this, The Wall Street Journal article went on to say that, depending on the time in which you retired, there could be a 57% chance up to a 57% chance that you could run out of money before you die if you follow the 4% rule. So think about this. If someone’s recommending that you use this 4% rule, which we see all the time, I’ll say, tell me a little bit about your current withdrawal plan. What’s being recommended to you, they’ll say, Well, my advisor has me pulling out 4% a year. Now, the Wall Street Journal says Look, if you’re following the 4% rule up to a 57% chance of failure, so I really have to put things in perspective. So let’s say that I don’t let’s say we’re about to hop on an airplane and we’re headed for hold Why, yeah. And right before we’re about the back out of the gate, the captain gets on the intercom. And he says, folks, I want you to know, we just got word from the tower, there is a 57% chance that we may crash into the ocean, before we reach Hawaii. Now, if anybody’s listening this, if you were on this airplane, how many of you would actually stay on this airplane, if there was a 57% chance it was gonna crash in the ocean, right? I want you to think about your money the same way, if someone’s telling you the probability and statistics is that there’s up to a 57% chance, we better rethink how we’re going to engineer this plan. So the 4% rule, economists have found it just doesn’t work like it used to with market volatility. And there’s other things that go into it called sequence returns risk and things along those lines that make it very challenging to use too. So yeah, so people really need to understand, there’s better ways to generate retirement income today. And because of that, you know, and I’ll use my analogy of the cell phone, right, the cell phone back in the 80s. Very, very big, you look at a cell phone today, you know, it basically is a computer in your pocket, definitely financial planning is done the same thing. I mean, there’s so many advances that have come out. And there’s so many things that have been designed around retirement planning today, that you need to have access to, and working with a fiduciary that’s not beholden to any company that doesn’t have an agenda that truly sits on the same side of the table is you to do what’s in your best interest, you’re going to be exposed to these types of things that help you avoid some of these things that other people are still gonna be exposed to, because maybe they’re working with brokers that you know, only can sell from a menu of services that tell you that they can do anything. But you know, I used to work in the big brokerage firms, they’d give you a menu of things that you could sell. And that’s not what you want to be doing today, you really have to look at the entire marketplace, you have to design a plan first, and you got to find out how are we going to build this thing, so that we can generate the income we need and not run the risk of running out of money. But you know, so the This is why we always offer these complimentary plans. And I know that, you know, meeting with a financial advisor can be very intimidating. And one of the things we’ve done work really hard at secure money advisors is number one, to talk at your level, we’re not going to use industry terminology and make things confusing. And we’re going to make it very easy to understand and the more simple this process becomes the better decision you can make. Because if you’re getting lots of different opinions and you’re confused, a confused mind says no, no action is taken at all. So again, you’re gonna get a complimentary view next 10 callers if you call 18883821298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298. Again, that’s a compliment real for the next 10 callers. $1,000 value. And we look forward to seeing at the office, take advantage of it, folks.

Cynthia De Fazio – 27:50

Brian, I cannot believe that we are at the end of the show. Thank you for watching secure money advisors. It’s been a pleasure having you with us. We’ll see you next week.