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Video Transcript
Randy Major – 00:23
Hello, and welcome to On The money with secure money. I’m your host, Randy Major. And joining me today is president and founder of secure money advisors, Brian Quaranta. Hi, Brian,
Brian Quaranta – 00:35
great to see you.
Randy Major – 00:35
I’m so happy to be here with you. It’s your show
Brian Quaranta – 00:38
I want to talk about today.
Randy Major – 00:39
We sure do. Yeah, your show always, you know, brings a lot of viewers and a lot of calls and a lot of energy. So tell me about the energy in the office right now, what’s happening,
Brian Quaranta – 00:49
we’re busy, very, very busy. And I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we’ve made a commitment to try and to provide a public service in providing people with good information, you know, as great as the internet is, it’s also created, I think, a lot of challenges for us in the world we live in, because there’s a lot of noise in the marketplace. So people are very confused on what to do. You know, I’ve been practicing for 22 going on 23 years, and probably 18 years of that 23 year career, I was out doing public education events, I was the only person out there doing them. Now, if you’re a listener, and you’re watching this show, you know what I mean, you probably could go out to dinner every night of the week on a financial advisor. And every time you go out to dinner, you’re hearing a different story or a different message. And it creates confusion. And unfortunately, what happens is a confused mind does nothing. So people are really hungry for good information from one source. And between our TV show, the radio show and our educational events. I think people are getting that. And they’re sensing that, hey, these guys have taken the time to take a very complicated topic, and simplify it to where I can understand. And we can implement a plan that’s easy for them to process to understand. And of course, when you’re able to do that, it gives you a peace of mind security. And every single one of us that’s all we want in life is peace of mind is secure, especially when it comes to our finances, especially
Randy Major – 02:26
when it comes to retirement. Yes, we’ve worked our whole lives and the retirement years are meant to be enjoyed. So we want to retire with peace of mind. We want it to be stress free. So what is your approach for making it so easy?
Brian Quaranta – 02:38
Well, you got to look at you got to look at how much retirement has changed. Because if you look at retirement 30 40 years ago, compared to today, it’s so different. I mean, you go back 3040 years ago, when people retired, we actually had retirement parties remember those I mean, I can remember going to my grandfather’s or my uncle’s retirement parties, you don’t see that anymore. But the reason we had those retirement parties was because 30 40 years ago, you knew the date that you were going to be able to retire because the company that you were working for said, Hey, if you give us this much time, right, and you wait till this point, we’ll pay you a certain amount of money every single month for the rest of your life. And that was called a pension. Wow. Now, believe it or not 85%, almost 90% of the people retiring today do not have pensions. So what’s happening is 30 40 years ago, the reason why you were able to retire at the age of 62 is because you got a Social Security check. And you got a pension check. And for most people, that was enough money for them to be able to live in retirement, and enjoy their retirement, do the things that they wanted to do. If they needed any additional money above and beyond what they get in Social Security and pension. It was really simple because all you had to do was take your savings, you didn’t have to put it in the stock market, you could go down to the bank and buy a CD paying 10 or 15% and get interest, could you imagine just taking an extra $100,000 down to the bank back then get a CD paying 10%. And every single year you get $10,000 of additional income without touching principal. For those of you that are listening, imagine if you could get a CD paying 10 to 15%. i My question is, if you could, how many of you would take your money out of the market and guarantee yourself a 10 to 15% rate of return. So I would hope that most of you would say yes to that. If you didn’t you’re either lazy or crazy. I don’t know. But the reason why we’re so busy is because people are not getting pensions. Right. And so what’s happened is employers have replaced guaranteed pensions with 401k plans 403 B plans. It’s what I call the yo yo retirement plan. You’re on your own. You have to figure out How to generate something for the rest of your life income. Because think about it, when you retire, the paychecks gonna stop. But bills, taxes and the money you need to do all the things you want to do, that’s not going to stop. So how are you going to get the income, because Social Security was only designed to replace about 40% of your income, that’s it. And most people’s, the, you know, the the retirement statistics out there say that you need about 80% of your income to be able to retire. So where you gonna get the other 40% from, you’re going to have to take it, most likely from your retirement savings, which is going to be a 401k or four, three, B, and see what is taught in the marketplace. Today, nine out of 10 firms focus on building an investment strategy for you. That’s easy. You buy a few good stocks, bonds, mutual funds, whatever it might be. And it’s easy, you just wait, you keep putting money away, and you wait because you have time on your side. But what happens now, when you’re getting to retire, and you got to figure out how to distribute that money as monthly income, you got to figure out how to prepare for the taxation of that money, you have to understand that the investment strategies that you’ve been using up to this point, are not the same investment strategies that are going to get you through retirement started the investment years and the distribution years are completely different. And then you got to think about a health event if it happens, right? And you got to think about when the good Lord takes you home, you don’t want the IRS becoming the largest beneficiary of your money. So it’s just changed so much, right. And I think what we’ve done really well at secure money advisors is made a very simple and easy to understand process with the clients through our right track retirement system.
Randy Major – 06:46
So let’s talk about the right tracker Retirement System.
Brian Quaranta – 06:49
Yeah, well, it was built out of the fact that most people when they came to the office, the number one question I would get guess what it was? Am I on the right track? Am I on the right track? You know, so everybody wants to know, am I doing the right things? Am I on the right track? My question to you is, if you were not on the right track, if you were not doing the right things? When would you want to know that? Right? I mean, if you’re going to be retiring in the next five, even 10 years, are you on track to even be able to retire and generate the monthly income that you’re going to need to generate when it comes to retirement. And our right track Retirement System is designed, and it’s built around five key areas. It’s built around income. And the reason why income is number one, is because you can’t live without monthly income. Number two is taxes. Right? Number two is taxes without without proper planning for taxes. The two things that are going to erode your wealth quicker than anything is taxation and inflation. I mean, look at what’s happening right now, inflation around 5.66%, somewhere around there. And we’ve got tax policy in place right now that looks like they may go up. So now you’ve got withdrawals coming out of retirement accounts, and you got less and less money netting. And after you have to pay these taxes, the investment part is critical, because what you’re doing up to this point is not the same thing that you’re going to do through retirement. So our right track retirement system really is built to cover these areas to make sure that all the i’s are dotted, all the T’s are crossed in those areas.
Randy Major – 08:34
Well, folks, you heard Brian, it’s a different situation now from retiring 30 years ago, come in and get your complimentary portfolio analysis, let Brian and his team guide you and make sure you’re on the right track, we are going to take a quick commercial break. But we will be back in just 60 seconds. And during the break, we’re going to go ahead and open the phone lines. So you can call the number on your screen 888-382-1298. And the first 10 callers who are calling today are going to receive this complimentary portfolio analysis. Brian, we’ll be right back in 60 seconds.
Commercial Break – 09:10
So 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 also tell you that they’re scared. And the reason they’re scared is because they’re afraid of running out of money. The last thing you want to do is have a really good job and your 60s retire and be looking for work again in your late 70s. The average person might say Well, a good portfolio would be a good mix of stocks, bonds and mutual funds, then a good portfolio is all designed around the five key areas income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. There’s we’re not just product pickers hear what we do best here as we build retirement plans. Nine out of 10 people when they walk through the door would 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. Probably now, people you know can actually see a vision once we start to really build out their plan. This is about you, if you’re not getting what you need, and you feel that when you walk out of the advisors 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. The difference at secure money advisors, as a fiduciary firm, we help you manage the risk, build the income, and give you the retirement.
Randy Major – 10:40
Thank you so much for staying with us. Again, the phone lines are now open, we do encourage you to pick up the phone and give us a call. get that ball rolling today, whether you haven’t, or whether you need a second opinion. And you feel Brian’s right track Retirement System. And portfolio analysis is good for you. 8883821298. Brian, let’s chat some more about all things retirement, you’re very busy. People are calling in people are hungry for information. What are the main concerns you’re hearing from your clients today?
Brian Quaranta – 11:12
Well, really, it’s really whether or not when I can retire, right? Most people don’t have a plan in place of determining the date in which they’re gonna retire. And there’s a lot of variables that go into, you know, they’re not sure when they collect social security. They’re not sure how to start withdrawing money from their investment accounts, a lot of people will tell me that they’re at a point in their life, where they can’t afford to lose a lot of money in the market anymore. Which is understandable. Because, you know, in your earlier years, if you take a large loss in the market, it’s not that big of a deal, because you have time on your side. And as you get closer in retirement, that time compresses on you. And so of loss is going to be a something that could delay your retirement. Or, you know, if you look at things that happened in 2007 2008, a big loss when the market could actually have somebody come out of retirement and have to go back to work. So with proper planning, especially with the investment vehicles that have been created by the industry today, the financial industry today, they are more focused today on protection of principle and the generation of income more than we’ve ever seen before. Because the financial industry did a really great job answering the biggest concern that we had coming with this big wave of baby boomers retiring, and they designed products that act like private pensions, so that when you do build a plan, you’re always going to need a strategy. And we call it a two bucket approach. Because you’re always going to need a strategy that generates monthly cash flow for you. But you’re also going to need growth because you got to keep pace with inflation, right. And in order to do that, you’re going to need the market to be able to do that. But you also need time. So the bucket that you put in the market, you really don’t want to be withdrawing money from that bucket. You know, I think the biggest mistake that we see, when people come in, the advice that they’re getting is just to start taking money out of their stock accounts. Well, the problem with that is a mathematical problem called sequencing risk, which we could do a whole show on. But to simplify it, it’s very simple. It’s if I need $30,000 A year for my investment account. And let’s suppose that I plan on taking that $30,000 out. But at the same time the market goes down and I lose 50,000, I just had $80,000 Come out of the account that year, a $50,000 market loss plus $30,000 in income, what happens is that locks in the losses, and it compounds the losses. And so the portfolio just can’t earn enough to recoup itself with the continued withdrawals. And this is where you’ll see people running into issues where they’re running out of money before they die.
Randy Major – 14:03
Oh, well. That sounds awful. We don’t want that to happen, which is why we need to come and see your team and work with a licensed fiduciary tell me just the important facts of working with someone like you rather than trying to kind of manage it on your own or get advice from your neighbor.
Brian Quaranta – 14:21
Yeah. The napkin advice, or the Thanksgiving table advice? Yeah, you know, Uncle Joe said I should be doing this. Well, you know, what most people don’t understand is that when we’re listening to other people talk about their investments, we might be only hearing a part of their investment strategy. You know, a lot of people these days because it’s so easy to acquire stocks through apps like TD Ameritrade, fidelity, Robin Hood, all of these places where you can very easily go buy a few shares of stock. People start talking about the trading of stocks, but those fundamentals don’t really apply when it comes to retirement planning, because you just you can’t take that level of risk with all of your money, right? So you have to think about retirement planning more as how do I create security and consistency with my plan, and the security and the consistency is going to come from putting a plan together, that provides you with the income that you need, without running the risk of running out of money. And as I said earlier, the financial industry has done an incredible job building product designs that allow us to be able to do that. Now, working with a licensed fiduciary is important, because at the end of the day, you want to work with somebody that is held to the highest standard, and that is a fiduciary is required to do what’s in the clients best interest, versus a broker can can do something that’s suitable. So they can say, well, he was 65. So it would kind of be suitable for him to do this. But the truth is, that’s not really what’s was in the clients best interest. And I think most advisors out there are working hard to provide the very best advice that they can. But at the end of the day, what we see missing more than anything, is a plan. It’s it’s the biggest missing piece. People come in with their POS, in our office, the POS stands for the pile of stuff, right? The pile of stuff, it’s splintered, splattered everywhere, but there’s no synergy for the plan to work together. They may have accounts at the bank, they may have old 401k plans, they’ve got life insurance policy they bought a long time ago, no one’s helped them organize it in a way that becomes a very structured plan. When you organize the finances in a way that become very structured and very purposeful. Now you have a plan that you’re leveraging and maximizing the best result from the plan. And our right track retirement analysis helps do that. So folks, for the next 10 callers who call in, we’re actually going to give you a complimentary right track retirement review. Now let me tell you why this is important that you pick up the phone and call us. Because most of you out there probably do not know whether or not you’re on the right track. And remember, when you’re seeking a second opinion, you cannot get a second opinion from the person that gave you the first opinion, it’s always good to double check somebody else’s work. What we find a lot of times when people come in is the responses that we’ll get is they’ll say, nobody’s ever shared this with me before. I didn’t know that that was important. I didn’t realize it could be this simple. It makes sense to me the way that you guys lay it out. Most people when they meet their advisors, typically might understand a little bit about what’s going on in the meeting. But when they leave, they’re a little bit more confused than when they walked in. So the right track Retirement System is all designed around simplicity. And simplicity is what makes it powerful. So again, for the next 10 callers, we’re going to give you a complimentary right track retirement review. That’s at no cost. But you’ve got to do your part, you got to pick up the phone, you’ve got to call us put down a cup of coffee or whatever you’re doing right now. Pick up the phone call 18883821298. Again, that’s 1-888-382-1298 and call for your complimentary right track retirement review.
Randy Major – 18:31
Thank you so much, Brian. Again, we’re going to take a quick commercial break, we’re going to be back in just 60 seconds with viewer questions. So please do give us a call. One of those questions could be yours.
Brian Quaranta – 18:41
If I could help you increase your income. If I could help you pay less taxes, if I could help you potentially maximize the returns of your investments while reducing risk reducing fees if I could help you prepare for a health event, or more importantly, when the good Lord decides to take you home to make sure that the money you’ve accumulated over your lifetime goes to your family and to your charities rather than the IRS. Would that be worth the time to come in and get a second opinion.
Randy Major – 19:11
Thank you so much for staying with us. We’re gonna go ahead and get to some viewer questions. Now. The phone lines are very busy. Y’all are calling in with your questions and to get that one of those complimentary appointments that you’re offering today. Brian’s offering such invaluable information. So let’s go ahead and get to those of your questions. Brian. Okay. Peter, and so quickly has a question. My wife and I are approaching retirement and our financial advisor is recommending that we put about 70% of our nest egg in stocks and about 30% in bonds. This approach seems risky to me, is it my preferred mix is about 6040.
Brian Quaranta – 19:51
Well, you know, here’s what I would say. You know, as a fiduciary, it’s very hard for me to answer that question because there’s a lot more to somebody said to me than just that question, so but let’s just generally speak here, on average, what we should consider doing. Number one, and most importantly, when it comes to minimizing risk in retirement, the way that Wall Street has recommended that we do it for a long time, is that as we get older, we could have a certain percentage of money in stocks a certain percentage of money in bonds. And it was typically a 60 40 split between stocks and bonds as you got older. The problem is, is that if you look at the interest rate market right now, bonds used to be a place where you could protect some money with a degree of safety, there’s always still interest rate risk and default risk and everything else that comes with bonds, but relatively speaking, it was a safer place to go. The challenge that you have in today’s market with bonds is that bonds are at all time lows, bond rates averaged between two and a half, maybe 3%. Yet the quality of the bond, in order to get a higher interest rate, the quality of the bond goes down. So you might not be able to buy triple A rated bonds, you might have to buy more junk bonds to get a higher return. But the dangerous part, and the challenge that people have when they go to the bond markets in a low interest rate environment is that when bond prices go up, it’s a seesaw, right? So we got bond prices over here, they go up, but the value of the bond goes down. So if I have a bond, and we’ll just make it simple, I buy the bond for $100. And I get an interest rate of 4%. Okay, while the sudden interest rates go to 6%, well, who’s going to want to buy a bond, you know, for 4%, they’re not going to want to buy a bond for 4%. So how are you going to be able to sell that bond, you’re going to have to sell the bond at what we call a discount, so you’re not going to get $100 for it, you might get $90 or $80 for it, because nobody wants a bond paying 4% When I can buy one at six. So again, that inverse relationship becomes dangerous in retirement, because here you are being recommended to protect money or go to a more safer investment strategy by utilizing bonds. But at the same time, you have risk just like you would in the stock market, the risks are a little bit different, right interest rate risk, default risk, that’s different than equity, markets risk and stuff like that, but there’s still risk associated with it. And the way that we define risk at our office is if it can go down in value, it’s risky, period. Bottom line, compare that to a bank CD, the only place that can go is up. So there are investments today that if properly position, your portfolio, when the market goes up, you make money when the market goes down, you don’t lose any money. I personally use some of those in in my portfolio, and sometimes they’re suitable for some of our clients. And so when we’re talking about the proper mix of investments in retirement, I hate to say it, but it really everybody’s situation is is very unique. It’s like their own fingerprint. And that’s why when we develop the right track retirement system, it really takes us about an hour to go through with people because we have so many questions about what they’re currently doing. So many questions about their income, their tax strategies, their investments, health care, Legacy questions that people say, nobody’s ever asked me these things before. But this is what real retirement planning is about. See my industry, I’ve been in it long enough 23 years to know that the industry for the longest time was a transaction based industry, right? sell a stock, sell a mutual fund, move on to the next client. That’s not where the industry is headed anymore. We have the industry, there’s a group, a small group, but it’s getting larger and larger, that are truly providing real advice. And the job of a fiduciary. Right is to provide a real plan. And that’s what the right track Retirement System is all about and providing the right plan.
Randy Major – 24:03
Thank you, Brian. And we’re just about at the end of the show. But if a viewer is watching, and you know, money is such a sensitive and very personal thing, and someone might be watching at home and just be on the fence to pick up that phone call, what would you say to them?
Brian Quaranta – 24:17
Yeah, what do you have to lose? Right? Yeah, I mean, first off, I understand that coming to a financial advisors office can be intimidating. But you know, my industry doesn’t allow me to say a whole lot of things when it comes to promises. But one promise I can make you is that you’d never be asked to do anything. When you come to our office, we’re there to truly have a conversation with you. We’re not there to pressure you into doing anything. We don’t need to do that we have a very successful firm. And because of that success, our job, my team’s job and you know, we’ve got 15 People are office, multiple advisors, and that’s the other great thing too is that, you know, most people are used to working with just one person at secure money advisors, you get an entire dedicated team that works works with you. And we plan together at secure money advisors, because it’s good to have multiple advisors, no matter what size the account is, you know, most people think that, well, you know, I really don’t get paid too much attention to it my financial firm because I don’t have enough money. I disagree with that. Because I think if you’re not getting the attention you deserve or the service you deserve, it’s not because you don’t have enough money. It’s because they don’t have systems in place, and processes in place to provide you with the level of service that we all want when it comes to our money. So you know, when we when you come in, understand that it’s going to be a very comfortable experience, it’s going to be like walking in to your childhood home, you’re going to have very welcoming people, very kind people. And you’re going to see that the process is so well thought out, that you don’t have to be worried walking through the door, whether or not do I have everything? Am I going to ask the right questions? We guide you through all of that. Because with any planning, there are very important things you need to know. Like, if you did move forward, what’s the servicing model look like? What’s the cost? Is it what would it be to work with secure money? You know, what does it cost to build a plan? What does it cost to manage the money? Are you fee based or commission based, right? These are all things that we’ll disclose to you. And you don’t even have to worry about asking them. And you know, people will come in, they’ll print list of questions to ask financial advisors, you don’t need to do that, because we’re gonna ask you anyway. So for us at secure money advisors, it really is about providing you with a very welcoming experience to make the process very stress free, and very easy for you to understand. So I think it’s probably time to go to an offer here, do
Randy Major – 26:48
you think? Absolutely. All right. So,
Brian Quaranta – 26:51
again, what we’re talking about on this show today is the right track retirement system that I created in 23 years of my career, sitting down with as many families as I have, we successfully retired over 1400 households, we got a 90% client retention rate. And that’s for a reason, because we care. So for the next 10 callers who call in right now again, that’s a right track retirement review, at no cost. But you got to do your part. You got to pick up the phone you got to call us today at 8883821298. Again, 18883821298.
Randy Major – 27:29
Brian, thank you so much for a wonderful show. And to the viewers at home. Thank you for staying with us. I hope you enjoyed the show, and we hope you’ll give us a call at 18883821298. We’ll see you next week.