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Video Transcript
Cynthia De Fazio – 00:19
Welcome to retirement You TV, my name is Cynthia de Fazio, I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta. He is president and founder of secure money advisors, how many stars you did great. Five Star stars right out of the gate? Well, I knew it’s gonna happen eventually, I can’t say it’s gonna last the whole show. So I know you’ve been so extremely busy, let’s talk about what life has been like in the office for you and for your team that you have in place. Well, we’re growing,
Brian Quaranta – 00:49
you continue to grow and grow and grow. And, you know, I think that just, we’ve been very passionate about trying to educate, you know, every year, whether it be through the radio show that we do, or the TV program, or even the educational events that we do, every Friday. And because of that, I think more and more people are just seeking good advice, knowing that they’re coming in to get advice and not be sold. Yeah. And so our team is just continuing to grow, which is hard to grow a good team, because you know, you want to bring people in that care as much as you do. And have a vested interest in an individual when they come in. And we’ve just been very fortunate to find that talent. And and put those that that team together so that people when they come in, get what they deserve to get, you know, and that’s that’s to have someone that truly cares about helping them create a customized portfolio that gets them on the right track.
Cynthia De Fazio – 01:41
Absolutely. And, Brian, I know you so well, that when you are interviewing other advisors, you’re obviously looking for a combination of someone who is genuine, and compassionate, because that’s exactly what you’re like,
Brian Quaranta – 01:53
Well, you know, it’s important because you’re not going to be able to relate to people unless you have empathy towards the situation, and truly, can take that and then turn it into something that can help them solve the problems that they’re concerned about. And so you have to have a very caring and understanding personality, and not everybody has that DNA. And it’s important to secure money advisors, because we truly do look at our clients as our family of clients. And, you know, we, we don’t take it lightly. You know, we know that there’s a lot of choices out there. You know, the financial industry is loaded with people that you know, want to tell you about how they can manage your money and do it better. And, you know, everybody’s got a better mousetrap. But at the end of the day, where we’re differentiating ourselves is really just true. truly understanding taking the time to truly understand what their situation is, that takes a lot of time. That’s not that’s not a transaction. It’s not a transaction. And, and a lot of people just don’t know what to ask. And, you know, when we created the right track retirement system, it was all designed around creating the proper questions to ask people so that they could think through these five areas that they need to think through, and questions that probably they’ve never been asked before. Sure. Right. Like, how’s your health? How’s your what’s your family history? Like? People say, why you’re asking about my family health history? Well, it’s a good thing to know when we decide when is the best time for you to collect your Social Security. Because if you’re not healthy, or you don’t have longevity in your family, even though you might want to collect it at your full retirement age, it might not be the best thing to do.
Cynthia De Fazio – 03:24
Yeah. So that’s very important. And I’ve heard from so many of your clients, Brian, that, again, they’ve been asked questions that no one has taken the time to really ask them before, but they also feel across the board that you give them very individualized, individual attention when they’re in the office with you. So let me ask you a question. How do you keep in contact with all of your clients? Because I know that you have many that you’re working with right now?
Brian Quaranta – 03:47
Yeah, well, we have a communications plan, you know, and that communication plans has multiple touch points throughout the course of the year. And through technology, we’re able to automate some of this stuff to keep in touch. But you know, the nice thing about what we do is not only do we do annual reviews and quarterly reviews with our clients, but But what we also do is we’re constantly out there in the in the community, doing educational events, and our clients come to those educational events. So whether you know, we’re doing an educational event at a winery or a restaurant or a university, our clients get the opportunity to come to these events. And what’s nice about that is they always can come to these events, because once they’re quiet, they can come anything they want. And what’s nice is things change over time, right? tax laws change the way you might think about social security changes, investment strategies, techniques, or products might change. And during these educational events, that’s when we’re keeping a lot of these topics very current so that we’re making people aware of these changes, and it’s a great place for clients to come. I have clients that come four or five times a year. And they’ll say every time they come, they’ll say I learned more this time than I did last time. And that’s just a compliment to us and the information that we’re providing.
Cynthia De Fazio – 04:58
Absolutely, yeah. Brian, let me ask you When is the ideal time to start a plan for retirement?
Brian Quaranta – 05:04
When would now be a good time? That’s my favorite line. Now, today, quit procrastinating, I don’t know what more to say quit procrastinate, this is not something you want to kick the can down the road with. Yeah, and too many people do, because I think they’re either scared or they’re they have anxiety about going to see a financial advisor, you know, or a lot of people there with a financial advisor. And every time they leave the office, they have that feeling that something’s not right here, I don’t, I don’t feel that I’m getting what I should, but for some reason, they hang on to that person, because they have a relationship with that person, they can’t break it. And that’s the worst thing that you can do. I mean, I’ve done that in my own personal life I had, I had an accountant. That was my accounting professor in college. And I thought when I moved to my accounting professor from college, that I would never need another accountant again. Well, as the business kept growing and growing and growing, we just outpaced the services and the skill sets that her firm could provide. And it was starting to get to a point where I had to move on. And it took me two years to finally end that relationship. Because every time I would go in, she’d say, Well, how’s your brother? How’s your mom? How’s your dad, you know, and she’s so nice. But I still wasn’t getting what I needed. And how many of you out there are in a relationship with an advisor or a firm where you’re maybe not getting what you need, you know, and at the end of the day, what you’ve got to realize it’s this is your money, you have to do what’s right for for it. And you can’t make this about a relationship. It’s about what’s right for you and what’s right for your money.
Cynthia De Fazio – 06:33
Absolutely. Brian, I have to ask you a question. What are some things people should be concerned about right now I know we have to take a commercial break in about a minute. But if they’re thinking about retiring, let’s say in the next five years, what should they be thinking about?
Brian Quaranta – 06:46
Well, number one paying down debt, right? If we can get most debt paid down, we pick up cash flow. What do I mean by that? Let’s say you got $1,000 monthly mortgage. If we can get that paid down, and you no longer have that mortgage, that’s $1,000, in additional cash flow that we pick up, right, that’s better than investing in a 401k. Because if you invest in a 401k, or retirement account, we that money may not be there, it may go down in value, right? Where if I pay off the mortgage, I literally am guaranteed to pick that additional income up, right as cash flow, right? Because I pay the debt down. Absolutely. The other thing they should be thinking about is tax strategies, they should be thinking about how to go from taxable money to tax free money. And these are all the things that we teach you about with the right track retirement system, but you’ve got to do your part, you can’t kick the can down the road, you have to call it and schedule a time to come in and sit down with us. So the right track retirement system has all been built around helping you understand when would be the best time to collect Social Security, which most people have that question. Most people say, Well, I’m not gonna have enough income between my sole security, or maybe they’re getting a little pension, right. And that’s not going to be enough income. So they need to generate income from the money that they’ve saved. Or they’ll say I don’t, I’m in a situation right now where I can’t afford to take a big market loss. And you shouldn’t be putting yourself in a position to where you could take a big market loss. Look, retirement planning is not a dress rehearsal, you don’t get a second chance at it, you got to get it right from from the start. So if you call 18883821298, you can schedule your right track retirement meeting, no cost, no obligation. And we’re going to go over five key areas. When you come in. We’ll talk about income, taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. We’re truly there to help you solve problems that will make a difference in your life. So if you call 18883821298, you can schedule that complimentary meeting now.
Cynthia De Fazio – 08:30
Brian, thank you so much to the viewers at home. as Brian mentioned, the phone lines are now open that number to call is 8883821298. You’ve worked your whole life to get to the retirement years and you deserve to retire with confidence and retire comfortably. Please take advantage of the opportunity to pick up the phone and call today at 8883821298. We’ll be right back after this very short commercial break.
Commercial Break – 8:55:00 AM
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 – 10:29
And welcome back to retirement You TV My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta. He is president and founder of secure money advisors just hit that last name out of the park. The Rocky Bay ladies today? I did. Well, Brian, you have been so amazingly popular with the viewers at home. And I love them. We’re watching the phone calls come in the phones light up. They’re also leaving behind some questions for you. So if you don’t mind, I’d like to spend a couple of segments they just kind of getting through some of those because they’ve been so patient waiting for the answer. So okay. So this is a great question. This is Brian, my ex husband and I were married 25 years before we divorced, he passed away this year, he was 68. And I am as well. My question is How is so security affected? Will I still be entitled to half of his social security, even though he passed away?
Brian Quaranta – 11:24
Yeah. So she, they were married for 25 years and divorced, right? So yep, husband, ex husbands. So as long as as long as they were married for 10 years or more, and she hasn’t been remarried, she’s still going to be entitled to to have physical security if it’s higher than her own social security credits. So she should be able to qualify for that. And you know, that’s important, because this is where social security can get really confusing, because there’s so many different things that can happen under different circumstances. So for example, if she was married for 25 years, divorced, and then she got remarried. Now, she would disqualify for that, right. So there’s just all these little twists and turns but for her, she should be able to, and this is why it’s so important to understand how social security works. for your specific situation. I have people that come in and say, you know, I was married for 15 years. I’m divorced. I haven’t been remarried. And I can’t collect my Social Security. Because if the wait till my husband collects the sole security, that’s not how it works, you can actually collect your Social Security under a strategy with Social Security, which is a a, as long as you were married for 10 years or more, and then divorce for two and not remarried, you can qualify to turn your social security on, you don’t have to wait for your spouse to turn the social security on. Wow. You know, a lot of women will say, if I would have known this, I would have been clothed This was agreed to three years ago. So there’s just all kinds of different stuff. Yeah.
Cynthia De Fazio – 12:49
Interesting. Thank you, Brian. Excellent response. This is a great question to us. as Brian, I’m curious as what you think about the 4% retirement rule? Is it still accurate? If it is what type of mix of stocks and bonds and annuities would be appropriate to use with it?
Brian Quaranta – 13:05
Yeah. Well, the 4% rule, let’s let’s first take a step back and understand what it is. So if you if you go back in history, and you look at where was this whole thing started? And why did it become such gospel in the financial industry to use this 4% rule? Right? Well, if you go back to the early 90s, there was a financial advisor out of California, his name was Bill Benjen. And what Bill did was he ran a number of different Monte Carlo scenarios where he’s just running 1000s of different calculations. And he’s looking at a different mix of stocks and bonds. And he’s figuring out a withdrawal rate. Well, what he determined was, if an individual retired, and they had a 60-40, split between stocks and bonds, so 60% of stocks, 40% bonds, that they could comfortably withdraw about 4% a year, and increase that withdrawal by 3% a year to keep pace with inflation. So if I start off at $40,000, in the first year of retirement, let’s say off of a million dollar portfolio, right, like $1,000,000.04 percent of $1,000,000.40 1000. The next year, I’m going to increase that withdrawal by 3%. To keep pace with inflation. So now I’m going to take out 41,000 and change, okay, this is what the whole 4% rule was based around it. But if you go back and you look at the calculations that were being run at the time, they were getting bond interest rates around 8%. At that time, Bond interest rates today are at 3%, were less, and inflation is at 2.1%. So just do the math on what you’re getting in a bond rate versus inflation. And now you’ve got a major problem. And this is why the 4% rule is false. It doesn’t work anymore. Now you can use it, you can certainly use it and and people are being advised to use it every single day. But if you do your research on it, you find it and you look at the homework, and the data that exists out there, The Wall Street Journal has come out and said, Look, this whole thing is flawed. As a matter of fact, if you follow this 4% withdrawal rule, there’s up to a 57% chance that you could run out of money before you die. Now think about that. If you’re you Utilizing the 4% rule, ask yourself this, if you’re utilizing the 4% rule, and somebody said to you, hey, by the way, I just want you to know that whole plan that I’ve put together for you, there is a 57% chance it won’t work, are you gonna want to stay in that plan or move to something else? So anyway, this is what the right track Retirement System is all about, though. And this is why we’ve created the right track retirement to help address some of these things. Absolutely.
Cynthia De Fazio – 15:23
Because so many people right now we’ve talked about this in the past, Brian might be sitting in the viewing audience, and they don’t have a true written retirement plan, they just have a box of stuff. So basically, without having a plan for retirement, it’s a very scary time,
Brian Quaranta – 15:38
you have to have a plan. And the most important thing is the plan. Now, a plan is not investment products, right? A plan is a written plan, there’s a couple things you should have, number one, you need to have an income worksheet, so we need to see all your sources of income, okay, Social Security, any pension income, rental income, investment income, and then we need to see what that gross amount is. From there, we need to minus out taxes, because we’re gonna have to pay taxes, depending you know, whether you did tax plan, or you didn’t, most likely, the average person gonna have to pay taxes. So, with to minus out taxes, what do we have left, we’ve got a net amount left. Well, from there, we’ve got to pay expenses. So then we pay expenses. And then from there, we have a net disposable amount leftover. So we have to build a cash flow worksheet or an income worksheet that addresses all the sources of income plus the taxes, minus the expenses. From there, we need a withdrawal worksheet, the withdrawal worksheet will show you if you need to start taking money out of your accounts, what impact those withdrawals will have. Because what we’re trying to find out there is three very important interest rates. Number one is what we call the spend down interest rate, which is the interest rate, you would need to spend your money down to zero, let’s say over 25 to 30 year period, then we need to figure out what the preservation rate is, that’s if I want to take a certain amount of money out but still preserve the principal. And then from there, the legacy rate that is if I want to take a certain amount of money out and still grow my money. So we’re going to teach you all that with the right track retirement system. As a matter of fact, if you call 18883821298, we’re going to show you these five key areas, and I’m going to teach you ways that you can maximize what you’re getting from Social Security, how you can protect your money from from another market downturn. And most importantly, make sure that you don’t run out of money. And a lot of people have the questions of when they should take Social Security, should I take it at 62? Should I take it at 66? Or they might say, you know, I’m in a situation where when I retire, I’m not going to my wife and I aren’t going to have enough income between our social security checks, or maybe they get a little pension check also, and they are going to need to generate income from the retirement accounts. The biggest thing I hear is people say, Look, do I have enough resources Am I if I start doing this, am I going to run out of money. These are the things that we’re going to give you clarity on and give you peace of mind. So the right track Retirement System for the next 10 callers who call in right now we’re going to do this complimentary at no cost. And you’re going to find out about the five key areas that we talk about all the time on this show income taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning. My guarantee to you is that you will walk out of there more informed than when you walked in. But you’ve got to do your part, you’ve got to call 18883821298 and schedule that time, we truly are going to take the mystery out of financial planning for you. And we’re going to help you think through all the different turns that you need to make in retirement to make sure that you maximize the years that you’ve worked and accumulated your dollars.
Cynthia De Fazio – 18:30
Brian, thank you so much to the viewers at home. as Brian mentioned, the phone lines are now open. That number to call is 8883821298 you’ve worked your entire life to get to the retirement years you deserve to have a roadmap put in place to make sure that you are on the right track. We have to take a very short commercial break, but don’t go anywhere. When we come back. We’re going to have more viewer questions and one of those could be yours. Stay tuned. As a good saver
Commercial Break – 6:55:00 PM
you’ve been putting away money during your working years. studies find that the biggest fear of retirees is running out of money. market volatility isn’t just the downward movement of stock prices. It’s the size and frequency of change. The more dramatic the ups and downs The higher the volatility. This can put savers who are newly retired or a few years away from being retired at greater risk. today’s generation of retirees is not receiving traditional pensions as our parents or grandparents did. Instead, we have retirement accounts such as 401 case or a 403. B’s. These accounts typically expose your money to market risk. The last thing you want right before retirement is to lose a portion of the money you need for income. But how do you turn these accounts into a retirement income? Is it safe to keep all your retirement money sitting in the stock market. The last thing you want is to lose a portion of the money you need for income due to market loss. By working with a financial professional. You can learn how to turn a portion of your savings into an income stream for life. income for the life of your spouse if you’re married. We all have moments in our lives when we wish we had taken action sooner. Don’t let procrastination rain on your retirement parade. Act now before it’s too late. Please call our office to set up your no cost no obligation retirement income review today.
Cynthia De Fazio – 20:19
And welcome back to retirement You TV. My name is Cynthia de Fazio. I’m joined today by Brian Quaranta. He is president and founder of secure money advisors. Good to see you. Good to see you. It’s always good to see you. And I love that we’re tackling the viewer questions because they’ve been very patient waiting for your response. So in an effort to save time, I’m just going to jump right back.
Brian Quaranta – 20:40
Yeah, I just want to say, you know, folks, you take advantage of some of our educational events that we have to if you go to WWI secure money. advisors.com go to our Events tab. We do educational event every Friday right now we’re at the narcissi winery, we try. We’re trying to be at the varsity winery every Friday for lunch. So if you want to join us for a lunch, go to WWF, secure money advisors calm, you can go in there and you can fill out a reservation and come on down and join us. And we answer a lot of these questions down there. I mean, this is talking about an hour and a half of going through this in person with people we get to go around the room, find out why people are there. And what winds up happening is people wind up helping people, you know, so this person might have been in a very similar situation, and they’re given advice to an individual. And it’s really great to see the camaraderie amongst people like that. So if you get a chance Come on out, folks. It’s very beneficial.
Cynthia De Fazio – 21:28
Absolutely. I love that. Well, Brian, I’m gonna jump right back in just to save time here a little bit. It says, Brian, I am 64. And I’m still working. I make 130,000 plus bonus each year, I don’t have any debt, and I don’t own any property. I am about to inherit 1 million half of it this month, I have a decent 401k Where should I invest the inheritance? Would real estate be a viable option? Well, first off,
Brian Quaranta – 21:55
let’s talk about inheriting the money, because this is a big taxable event that we’re going to be dealing with. So, you know, again, if we want to make sure that we avoid the taxation on that money, and again, I’m assuming that most of this million dollars may be coming from some type of retirement accounts. If it is, we’ve got a major problem, because in order for that individual to want to use that for real estate, if they cash that money in Keep in mind, they’re gonna be paying taxes on a million dollars. Also, the state of Pennsylvania is going to get you at four and a half percent, depending on if you were what they call a linear beneficiary, meaning, you know, your your child, or if you are a niece and nephew, or you could be looking at 15% on top of all the income taxes that you have to pay. Wow, okay, you know, this is why we wind up seeing about 40% of people’s wealth has poof, disappeared during inheritance, because they don’t take into account the inheritance tax. So people say, Well, wait a second, I don’t have to pay inheritance tax unless I had 5 million. You’re right. That’s the federal inheritance tax. But the state of Pennsylvania, we’re very lucky in the state of Pennsylvania. See, we’re one of the six states that still has to pay the death tax. So and there’s no way you’re getting out of that one, no trust No, nothing there, you’re not getting out of it, that one, you’re going to have to pay. And it depends on whether you’re a linear descent or a nonlinear descent, the Senate so so that’s what’s going to matter. But in this case, if we go to real estate, we could be talking about paying taxes on a million dollars if we tried to do real estate. Now, there’s ways that that individual could actually remember I talked about inherited IRAs, yes, there’s actually a way that that individual could inherit that IRA, they’d have to use what they call a independent, an independent trustee. And the IRS does allow you to invest in real estate within your IRA, but you have to have a custodian that will do the record keeping for you. And there’s only a few in the country that were willing to do that. So it all depends on where that’s going to go. It’s not as clean cut as moving over and say I’m gonna invest in real estate or I’m gonna you know, there’s there’s a big taxable Scituate taxable event that’s about to be created there. You got to be very clever in the way that you handle that.
Cynthia De Fazio – 23:57
Okay, Brian, thank you so much. This is a great question, too. It says, Brian, I would like to invest money from my stock portfolio into something else, especially a good ETF, either in gold or exponential technologies or possibly healthcare. I know that not all ETFs are created equal. So I wanted to get your opinion. I am already invested in some traditional stocks and index funds.
Brian Quaranta – 24:21
Yeah, I mean, ETFs are kind of the new thing. I mean, that’s a you know, an ETF is just a package of stocks. It’s kind of like a mutual fund, but it trades just like a stock does meaning, you know, if we buy Google, you know, right now, and it said, you know, and I’m just making these numbers up, you know, Google’s very expensive, but let’s just say it was $50 a share. Wouldn’t that be nice? Let’s go right now. $50 a share. And Google goes up over the next couple hours to $50 a share, we sell it we get it for $50 a share mutual funds traditional mutual funds, you have to wait till the end of the day close to get the actual price, which is called the net asset value with exchange traded funds. You’re kind of getting that mutual fund feel At a lesser cost, but you’re getting that stock that that active stock price that you would if you’re trading a stock throughout the course of the day. So again, I mean, you just want to go with a well balanced ETF and you can buy a number of different ones to, you know, to, to be diversified amongst different sectors. But at the end of the day, it’s really we’re kind of the industry itself is moving. The ETF is kind of the iPhone to the world, where as the mutual fund is kind of a flip phone of the world. Right. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Right.
Cynthia De Fazio – 25:30
Well, this, I think we have time for just one more question, Brian. I love this one. It says, Brian, I’m very curious to know, I was able to gain one of your complimentary consultations. Can you tell me what to expect when I first come into your office?
Brian Quaranta – 25:42
Yes. So well, that’s easy. So first off, when you come in, we’re easy to find. Okay, you know, we’re in zelienople. Most people that are listening, this show probably knows where zelienople is or the Kauffman house or Bollinger’s candy store, we got this great place called ball dingers. Candy, which is an old fashioned kind of candy. All the candies you had as a kid, you’ll go find it ball fingers, right? That’s amazing. Yeah, you know, little Ruthie, or the little roofie or candies. Remember the candy cigarettes? sticks with the powder. That’s it. You got a guy? That’s exactly right. I’m usually given a list. You know, I’ve all my families in New Jersey. And usually when I’m coming home, they’re like, Can you stop at the candy store. So anyway, but in regards to what you can expect, I mean, it’s exactly what we say here on the show you what you can expect is is a thorough look at what you’re currently doing. And that’s why I created the right track retirement system so that we don’t miss a beat. When we look at everything you need to look at through retirement, all you want to make sure is that all the i’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed. And you’re only going to do that by having a system to follow. the right track Retirement System is all about the five key areas that everybody’s going to be concerned about in retirement most importantly is income to his taxes, investments, health care and legacy planning, we’re going to go through it all. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, you know, when’s the best time to collect Social Security or you’re at a point to where you can’t take another loss in the market. Or maybe you’re even worried about your money lasting the rest of your life. The number one fear for most people is running out of money. the right track Retirement System is going to address all of these to give you the peace of mind and confidence that you need to move into retirement but also through retirement, we’re going to put you in a position to where you don’t have to come out of retirement if the market doesn’t cooperate, but you’ve got to do your part. You gotta call 18883821298 for that complimentary meeting. It’s 1-888-382-1298.
Cynthia De Fazio – 27:33
Brian, thank you for another amazing show this week. Most importantly to the viewers at home. Thank you for spending time with us. That number to call is 888-382-1298. If you have any questions about how to retire comfortably or with confidence, Brian has the answers for you. All you have to do is pick up the phone and call. Thank you so much for spending time with us again this week. Be safe, be happy, be blessed. We’ll see you back here again one week from today.