On this week’s episode of On the Money with Secure Money, Neil Mager discusses a recent Transamerica Center survey and how it helps determine if you’re truly ready for retirement.
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Radio Show Transcript
Announcer 00:00
Investment advisory services are offered through foundation investment advisors, LLC. an SEC registered investment advisor Brian Quaranta and his guests provide general information not individually targeted, personalized advice and are not liable for the usage of information discussed. Exposure to ideas and financial vehicles should not be considered investment advice or recommendation to buy or sell any of these financial vehicles. This information should also not be considered tax or legal advice. As performance is not a guarantee of future results. investments will fluctuate and when redeemed may be worth more or less than when originally invested. Any comments regarding safe and secure investments and guaranteed income streams refer only to fixed insurance products, they do not refer in any way to securities or investment advisory products, fixed insurance and annuity product guarantees are subject to the claims paying ability of the issuing company.
Steve 00:39
Welcome in, this is On the Money with Secure Money. I’m consumer advocate Steve, a big show planned today we’ve got a recent survey done by Transamerica that shows that the biggest issue that stands between you and a worry-free journey to and through retirement might be the many variables necessary to factor in the equation. But stick around we’re gonna break down the numbers and some of them are going to surprise you. No question. We have gotten Neil Mager filling in for Brian Quaranta today. And if you’d like to get a head start, it’s 800-656-8616, 800-656-8616 and let’s just kick this thing off right now.
Announcer 01:20
And now on the money. Any good retirement plan starts with the foundation, asset protection tax reduction listed plan. These are the things that start to move you towards having a retirement plan.
Announcer 01:34
Retirement doesn’t have to be complicated.
Brian Quaranta 01:37
You think that’s the difficult part? That’s just getting started.
Announcer 01:42
And now On the Money with Secure Money.
Steve 01:47
Hey, welcome, everybody. This is on the money with secure money. And we have got Neil Mager here filling in for Brian Quaranta. Neil, of course, is a fiduciary with Secure Money Advisors. He’s a senior advisor at Secure Money Advisors and so much more. Hey, Neil, how are you today?
Neil Mager 02:02
Hey, Steve, I am well, how are you today?
Steve 02:04
I’m doing fine. Thank you. And so, I thought these numbers in this survey were pretty remarkable. am you know, when we talk about Transamerica doing a study, they did a survey to find out what people knew about retirement and really what they didn’t. Someone what they didn’t know, is kind of scary, don’t you think?
Neil Mager 02:22
Yeah, for sure. I mean, but it’s not surprising news to us in dealing with people each and every day and kind of understanding their retirement. This is this is the world that we’re in right now. It’s the yo-yo retirement you’re on your own. You know, what we’re finding is actually concerning. What people don’t know about their retirement.
Steve 02:40
Oh, yeah, well, let’s, let’s set the stage. We’ve got the Sharon Epperson, along with Shelly talking about just that.
Sharon Epperson 02:48
Yet many Americans know they’re unprepared. A recent survey finds only 29% have a written financial plan, which some experts say can serve as a guide to help stress test your strategy.
Shelly 03:01
Illustrate or simulate how your retirement goal will be impacted by different inflationary periods, different periods of market volatility.
Steve 03:12
So, does any of that surprise you?
Neil Mager 03:15
No, it really doesn’t. And I think that’s something that we kind of talked to people a lot about, you know, let’s stress test the plan. Let’s make bad things happen on paper. So that if and when they do occur, we know how to react, we know exactly how to react. Because you know, what a lot of times people don’t do is they just, you know, punch in their party analysis sheet, a nice 6% 8% rate of return and think everything’s just gonna go as planned. And, you know, I think we all know, that’s not the case doesn’t always happen, quite that always happen that way. No, it doesn’t. And we need to stress tested. I mean, there’s so many different things that can happen. You know, one of the things that we’ve dealt with a lot since really 2020. Is people retiring at different ages than we expected, you know, a lot earlier than we expected. I mean, a lot of things between, you know, health concerns, or maybe job changing. So, if you’re planning on retiring at 67, then all of a sudden, you’re retiring at 63. You know, that’s something that we need to stress test into the plan. Once you say, Steve,
Steve 04:19
oh, I’m absolutely and again, I was surprised. I guess I shouldn’t be but I because just of what you have said in the past, but only 29% of the people have a written plan, although 70% say they had some form of financial strategy, and that translates to over 40% Heaven unwritten plan. How’s that gonna work out for you?
Neil Mager 04:37
It’s funny, it’s Secure Money Advisors. We believe in handing you a binder with a written plan then it’s a little bit old school, right? But it’s important. It’s important that we have this written plan, and the written plan helps you understand one where your all your assets are to what the incomes plans going to look like three it helps the kids if something happened to you and your spouse, it helps the kids kind of navigate. Right? So, a written plan is an absolute necessity. Now, here’s the thing, Steve, everybody still thinks that they’re in the accumulation model. And the accumulation model is very, very simple. The accumulation model is designed in your working years, to just get there as fast as you can, you’re not really concerned about risk or income or market fluctuation, all that stuff, right, you’re just looking to get from point A to point B. But when you hit the retirement red zone, which is really the last 10 years, you know, you got to really have those five key areas that Brian and I always talk about on the radio really dialed in. And those are, first of all, you need to start with income, that’s going to be important if you’re going to retire. And number two is tax planning. Number three is investment planning. Number four is health care planning. And finally, it’s the legacy plan. So you better have a written plan, because all those five areas are so, so important.
Steve 06:07
Well, and again, as we start to go through retirement, they will start to get close to retirement. I like what you mentioned this just a moment ago, you’re talking about if something happens that we’ve you know, we’ve retired a different time 37% Only 37% say they’ve got a backup plan. But that’s again, part of what you do overall. In other words, that backup plan is already in place.
Neil Mager 06:27
Yeah, we need to we need to factor these things into the plan. You know, what if there’s market volatility? What if we experienced the 2000 to 2008 scenario? And the markets really the last decade? What if you have a health event? You know, unfortunately, we see that a lot as well, you know, somebody’s planning on retiring at 6770 years old, and all of a sudden, they have a health event that makes them not able to work? What’s the plan look like? And so, what we want to do is map out different ages for you. And as you come into the office, we have a good understanding of what things look like, what if your spouse passes away, and you have a loss of income or a loss of an income stream? So those are all the things that we need the stress test? Sure.
Steve 07:09
800-656-8616 is the number you can call, folks. Let’s dig into a couple other stats here. I like this. expected sources of retirement income 72% believe that self-funding is the way to go. Social Security is the 60% and income from working 33%. So, do you find that to be true is that are those numbers, especially the first two about self-funding versus social security?
Neil Mager 07:33
Well, I hope so I hope people that are saving for retirement. I mean, first of all, you know, we’re in a different era. Now. It used to be that we used to trade our time for money, we worked for a company for a long, long time. And when we retired, they gave us a nice monthly income stream till the day that we died. And oftentimes that income stream passed to our spouse if we predeceased them. That’s obviously not the typical scenario anymore. We’re left to save our own money through 401 K’s 403, B’s, IRAs, things like that, right?
Steve 08:05
And in fact, let’s suggest that give us a call right now, Neil, and come on in, sit down and grab that spot on your calendar.
Neil Mager 08:12
Yeah. So, what we’re offering today is our right track financial review. This will teach you how to increase your probability of retiring when you want, it may be sooner than he thought possible. He will show you how to make small changes to your investments that will lead to the biggest reductions in risk of losing money. They’ll give you a plan, a written plan for determining how much income you’ll need in retirement and exactly how to get there. We will go over and stress test those five key areas that we find crucial to retirement planning. Those are income taxes, investments, health care, and legacy. Give us a call today. Don’t delay we’re only giving this offer to the first 10 callers.
Steve 08:52
Okay, that sounds fantastic. Neil, folks take advantage of what Neil just described there an opportunity to get that financial roadmap put together. If you’re feeling a little uneasy the way things are. Now’s the time to get that second opinion. Make the call while you’re thinking about it today. 800-656-8616. You heard Neil 10 callers right now we’re going to get that comprehensive financial review and you’ll see where you are today. But more importantly, you walk out the door with a roadmap that can help get you to where you need to be 800-656-8616 800-656-8616 Let’s take a quick break and we’ll come right back and continue our conversation on the money with secure money and Neil Mager.
Neil Mager 09:32
Well, what do you know, apparently not much.
Announcer 09:39
hurricanes, tornadoes and fire. These are serious situations we plan in advance for the volatility of the market can be just as devastating. When a market correction does occur. There are strategies you can employ to bounce back. Call Brian Quaranta and his team at Secure Money Advisors at (800) 656 8616, or text keyword, BrianQ to 800-656-8616. We’ve made it easy, folks. All you have to do is call or text the keyword BrianQ to 800-656-8616.
Steve 10:21
We’re back on the money with secure money. And Neil Mager on consumer advocate Steve’s at all. And, Neil, you’re certainly up there. What do we know? Apparently not much. We’re gonna just continue with some of these statistics from this survey by Transamerica. And you were, you know, there’s some startling stuff here.
Neil Mager 10:38
Yeah, there really is. I mean, obviously, when they put figures and stats to it, it really becomes eye opening, doesn’t it? I was telling you during the break, Steve, I had a friend, tell me this weekend. We’re talking about retirement 401K’s in the future and how we’re left to kind of navigate these waters on our own. It’s pretty challenging. You know, we see the most sophisticated educated folks come into our office each and every day. And they really have no idea what this is going to look like, how it’s going to work out. I think anybody that you asked would much prefer the guaranteed lifetime income that companies used to offer us in the form of a pension. If you read any retirement book, that’s what they talk about. The folks with the most guaranteed monthly income are the happiest in retirement. But one of my friends was joking. She had said that she’s not contributing to her 401k. Steve, she’s contributing to her 401 M. What’s that? What M stands for? It stands for memories. Oh. So that’s what she said she
Steve 11:39
Is that what she said would get you through retirement?
Neil Mager 11:41
No, no. So, she said she’s traveling and just really enjoying her life. And as much as I can appreciate that, Steve, we don’t know exactly when the good Lord is going to take us home. I think we also have to prep and prepare. So, when we do get there that we’re not living on just a Social Security check.
Steve 11:59
Indeed, you know, so let’s talk about this. So, retirement savings, planning and preparations. I thought this was interesting. 28 years old, the median age at which people start saving for retirement, you think that’s true?
Neil Mager 12:12
I mean, that’s, I hope so. Yeah, that’s a pretty good number. That’s a pretty good number. I believe Tony Robbins does a figure. And I think he said, if you start saving at age 20, and save for 10 years, and you max out your IRA during those 10 years, because of the compounding on your money that you never actually have to save again. Now, I don’t know what number he’s targeting to get to there. But it just really focuses on the fact that the sooner you start, the better, you’ll be, because of the compounding effect. Sure, he had also mentioned and utilizing, you know, Roth IRAs, as a form to get to the end. Because as we know, Roth IRAs, we paid the taxes upfront, but the money grows entirely tax free. So, when you have a long time like that, if you started saving at 20, and you don’t retire till 65, you got 45 years of growth, with no one to share your money with no Uncle Sam share your money with Right, right.
Steve 13:13
Well, and again, as we as we continue these some of these numbers here, people have a very limited understanding of asset allocation. And that I know is true.
Neil Mager 13:24
Yeah, only 31% of workers they know a great deal or quite a bit about asset allocation. What we typically see here is a lot of people utilize target date funds. And they think that these target date funds are pretty conservative. So, you might be planning on retiring next year, and you’re in a 2025 target date fund. Well, only once per year, are they going to turn down the risk on that portfolio. So, if we’re experiencing volatility throughout the year, they’re not going to make any asset allocation or adjustments to that portfolio, they’ve already turned down the risk one time. Now we utilize a really impressive software program here. That’s a third-party software that can enable us to see how much risk somebody’s actually taking. And the most common thing that we’ll hear Steve, is that we’ll hear people say, you know, I’m in a portfolio, it’s moderately conservative. And I, my advisor told me I’m moderately conservative. So, this analysis that we do, it actually provides risk scores to folks. So, do you know Steve, a moderately conservative portfolio? Can range and risk score anywhere from a 40 to a 73? On a scale of 100? Wow, that’s a heck of a big difference. So yeah, it’s a real spread, right? Yeah. So, you think you’re mildly conservative. Your portfolio comes in at a risk score of a 73. The S&P 500 It’s at a 75 You’re taking as much risk as the market, and you might be ready to retire. Need to redo the eye opening? Yeah, exactly. And those are those are the people going back to the first segment that don’t have the written plan, right? Because maybe they haven’t exactly doubt things and yet
Steve 15:13
sure, and some other things. So, when they say how much do you need to retire? The estimate? The median is about $350,000. That I mean, that couldn’t be enough. It might not be enough.
Neil Mager 15:26
Yeah, we have no idea until we sit down in our conference room and understand your situation. To be truthful, your brother might need $3 million, your neighbor might need 2 million in your coworker might need 200,000. Right. So, everybody’s situation is going to be a lot different. What we really have to focus on is how much do you need on a monthly basis? What’s our guaranteed sources, but how much do you need on a monthly basis? So, let’s think about this. This is a good example. Okay. I had a woman come in. And she said to me, Neil, and preparing for our meeting, I wrote down all of my monthly expenses, taxes, insurances, utilities, food, everything. And I need $2,500 A month. I said, Sharon, that’s good news. Because when you retire next year, at your full retirement age, your social security should cover your monthly expenses. It’s going to be pretty close. I said, share. And let’s let’s talk a little further about this, though. So, you listed out your net monthly income as a little over $5,000 a month. Okay. And I said, Sharon, you know, $5,000 a month is your monthly net income. $2,500 is what you need on a monthly basis, the $2,500 difference there. Where do you save that at the save it in a bank account? You save it on a brokerage account? Where’s that money go? And she goes, well, Neil, I don’t I don’t save it. I spend it. I said, okay, well, Sharon, I think that we need $5,000 A month in retirement.
Steve 17:00
But that’s how it works. Folks, if you’d like to find out what you need, and to help get you there, secure money advisors that can help you kneel, let’s go ahead and invite folks to call.
Neil Mager 17:10
Yeah, we’re offering our right track financial review with each and every one of the 10 callers that call in today, we’re going to teach you how to increase your probability of retiring when you want. And it may be even sooner than you thought possible, we’re going to show you how to make small changes to your investments that will lead to the biggest reductions in risk of losing money, we’re gonna give you a plan for determining how much income you’ll need in retirement, and exactly how to get there, we’re gonna go over those five key areas of financial planning, and dial in on each and every one of them. But you got to do your part, pick up the phone, give us a call right now.
Steve 17:42
800 656 8616, that’s the number to call, folks. 10 callers are going to get that comprehensive financial review that Neil just described, plus all the extras that go along with it. There’s no cost, there’s no obligation. And the good news is when you walk out, you’ll have a roadmap in your hand that can really help get you to where you need to be 800 656 8616 800-656-8616. Another quick break. But we’re back we’ve got more on the money with secure money and the major coming up.
Neil Mager 18:09
piles of cash and streams of income.
Announcer 18:17
He’s letting the clock run out on his social security to age 70 For maximum benefits. And here comes the Roth conversion. He’s got some outstanding coaching with that lifetime income plan. He’s created his own pension as well. And it looks like he’s going to go all the way! Play your best retirement game call BrianQ 800-656-8616. Or text BrianQ to 800-656-8616. Call or text BrianQ to 800-656-8616.
Steve 18:52
And we’re back On the Money with secure money. Neil Mager is here, I’m consumer advocate Steve’s and Brian Quaranta is away this week, but he’ll be back, I’m sure. And Brian, by the way, we haven’t mentioned this, Neil. But Brian’s book is just out. It’s called right track your retirement, a simple planning strategy to help you reduce risk, build income and provide peace of mind. It’s a mouthful, but it’s a great little
Neil Mager 19:14
book. It is a great little book. It’s an easy read. You know, Brian, I think did a really great job of simplifying the process and making it easy to read. So, this isn’t a 500 page retirement book. But it’s a really helpful little book. And I believe if you go to right track your retirement.com you can order a copy, which would be great. I think almost anybody would get a lot of benefit out of the book.
Steve 19:40
Sure. Well, I agree. So, folks, again, what was the website?
Neil Mager 19:44
Right Track your retirement.com right
Steve 19:47
track your retirement.com All right, check that out. And my guess is that if you had a book and you came in, Brian would be happy to sign it.
Neil Mager 19:56
Of course. Yeah, of course if we can track him down. He’s always so Busy is always running around like a chicken with his head cut off. So, if we can track him down, absolutely. And oftentimes when people come in and schedule their right track financial review, we send them home with a copy of the book. Also, we can read it. In between that meeting and our next meeting. Would you give them homework? Yeah. It’s optional, though.
Steve 20:23
Let’s jump into a couple of questions here. We’ve got time. Harry’s up first. He says, What’s the difference between a 401 K and a pension plan? Night and day
Neil Mager 20:32
work? A lot of work on your part here. Exactly. Yeah. So, you know, the biggest difference between a 401k in a traditional pension plan is a pension is just a guarantee of a given amount of monthly income and retirement. And they place the investment risk on the plan provider. 401 K’s allow individual employees choose their own retirement investments, no guaranteed minimum or maximum benefits. You assume your own investment risky, you got to figure out your own income strategy. That’s what you know, going back to once again, the yo-yo, retirement, you’re on your own, save a bunch of money, figure out how to do it. Start early enough. And hopefully you’re disciplined enough because guess what’s the sometimes life gets in the way? Doesn’t it? Or does, you know, you’re having kids? I have a personal example. My sister, her husband, they have five kids, and her husband just tore his Achilles. Oh, and so unfortunately, he’s going to be off for two months, because he’s not able to work. Right. So sometimes things happen. And we get it right, yes. But what we need to do is really focus in doing our best to save. So, in their case, you know, what’s important to them? Well, they better have a nice nest egg built of savings, right to be able to provide income over the next few months, but also saving in our 401k. So, we can develop that pension like income when you get to retirement. But, you know, the pension plan is few and far between any longer. I believe only about 15% of people have pensions any longer. Wow.
Steve 22:14
Yeah. Well, and then again, that’s a government worker or a teacher or a nurse, you know, law enforcement, those are the people that have pensions these days.
Neil Mager 22:21
Right, right. It’s definitely few and far between
Steve 22:24
800-656-8616. Harry, if you’d like to get together with Neil, let’s see, let’s go to Paul. Paul says, Should I roll over by traditional IRA into my Roth IRA at 60 years old, I also have a work-related 401k with $107,000, as well as a designated trading account with $90,000. I’ve got nothing but standard deduction, deductions as our home is paid for, seems to be in a pretty good situation.
Neil Mager 22:53
Yeah. So Paul, it’s, we’re not able to answer your question. Because more information is needed, I can understand why you might want to consider doing something like that. So, if people understand the difference between a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA, Paul would be eligible to do what’s called a conversion from his traditional into his Roth. So, we have to understand what are the tax consequences for doing that conversion? What’s his current income? So, there’s a lot more to discuss with Paul to understand his situation. So, Paul, I would do yourself a favor, buddy, pick up the phone, give us a call, schedule, your right track financial review, that’s something that we can definitely help you with.
Steve 23:35
800-656-8616 That’s the number. So, Neil, are you guys at secure money advisors? Secure money? advisors.com. That’s the website. Do you have all of your sort of events listed up there?
Neil Mager 23:49
Yeah, we do. So that’s a good a good place to find us. What we’re typically doing is about six educational events per month, at different universities, libraries, restaurants. So, it’s a good way to gather more information and get more of an understanding of exactly what secure money advisor does, why it’s so important to educate yourself, and just continue the learning process as you get into the financial redzone.
Steve 24:18
Sure. Well, again, on that note, we have once again backed into the clock here, Neil one more time, let’s invite folks to call.
Neil Mager 24:25
Yeah, folks, you’re right track Financial Review. Each and every one of you are offered this if you pick up the phone and be one of the first 10 callers that will teach you how to increase your probability of retiring exactly when you want. It actually may be sooner than you thought possible. It’s going to show you how to make small changes to your investments that will lead to the biggest reductions and risk of losing money. They’ll give you a plan for determining how much income you’ll need in retirement and exactly how to get there. But more importantly, we’re going to discuss and go over the five key areas of retirement planning. They are income, tax planning, investment planning, health care planning and legacy planning. Folks, you got to do your part, pick up the phone right now give us a call, schedule the right track Financial Review.
Steve 25:16
Hey, that sounds fantastic. Folks, this is the last time today, we’re going to invite you to call and fill up that calendar, there’s a few spots you have available. You know, Neil is there for you he can take, we’ll take a lot of that financial double talk and turn it into something that really makes sense. A practical financial review is what we’re talking about. 800-656-8616 is how you get the ball rolling, you’re going to get that comprehensive financial review showing you where you are now, but more importantly, you’ll walk out with a roadmap that can help get you to where you need to be 800-656-8616 800-656-8616. Neil, as always a pleasure to chat with you and go through a lot of stuff that is so important for people to hear.
Neil Mager 25:58
Yeah. My pleasure, Steve, thanks for having me.
Steve 26:01
And again, we want to thank everybody for listening. We really appreciate it and we’re going to come back again next week with new topics and questions and a whole lot more right here on the money with secure money.
Announcer 26:17
Investment Advisory services are offered through foundation investment advisors, LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. Brian Quaranta, and his guests provide general information not individually targeted, personalized advice, and are not liable for the use of drip information. Discuss exposure to ideas and financial vehicles should not be considered investment advice or recommendations, buy or sell any of these financial vehicles. This information should also not be considered tax or legal advice. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. investments will fluctuate and when redeemed may be worth more or less than when originally invested. Any comments regarding safe and secure investments and guaranteed income stream for only two fixed insurance products did not refer in any way to securities or investment advisory products. Fixed insurance and annuity product guarantees are subject to the claims paying ability of the issuing company.
