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The Measuring Post is a podcast about growth, not perfection.
It’s a place to pause, reflect, and measure what actually matters in your life, your work, and your personal development. Not by comparing yourself to others, but by comparing who you are today to who you were yesterday.
I'm Joe Massa, and I created this show because I believe growth isn't a solo journey. Each week, you’ll hear thoughtful interviews with incredible guests: entrepreneurs, leaders, creatives, and everyday people doing meaningful work, sharing real experiences, lessons learned, and practical insights you can apply right away. These conversations are designed to help you think differently, grow intentionally, and move forward with clarity.
Alongside the interviews, you’ll also find The Daily Measure, short, bite-sized solo episodes focused on simple words of wisdom and actionable ideas you can use in your daily life. Think of these as quick check-ins to help you stay grounded, focused, and consistent.
This isn’t about hype or shortcuts. It’s about honest conversations, small improvements, and growing together over time.
If you’re someone who values progress, reflection, and becoming a better version of yourself, you’re in the right place.
Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, join the conversation, and grow with us.
Joe Massa (00:13.176)
Hello everyone, welcome to another edition of The Measuring Post where we actually measure what matters. And today I'm bringing you another really cool guest, somebody that's actually the president of Serenity Retirement, which is an independent retirement planning practice. They're based out of Pasadena, California. And since 2006, he's helped individuals and families turn what they've saved into an actual retirement plan that works for them. He specializes in income planning, social security, Medicare taxes, even long-term.
care. So please welcome today Mr. Ben Mian, the president of Serenity Retirement to the Measuring Post. Ben, how are you today,
Ben Millan (00:51.559)
Good Joe, thank you for having me.
Joe Massa (00:53.58)
Yeah, appreciate you coming on and we've actually done several shows similar to this where we talk about the importance of finances. The show itself is more about how to be the best version of yourself, but that definitely includes your finances and how to plan for the later years in life, which is something I think we all think about, but we don't always execute properly. you know, before we talk shop about serenity retirement, tell us a little bit about yourself and where you come from outside of Pasadena, correct?
Ben Millan (00:54.877)
Thank
Ben Millan (01:22.523)
Yes, so thank you for that introduction. I've been in this business, August will be two decades in this business. prior to COVID, Joe, actually was a typical advisor who would help people accumulate their assets, know, help them get out of debt, work with people usually under 50 that are trying to trying to build their portfolios. And then COVID hit and I started doing
online marketing because I'm home, have time, can't really go and see individuals anymore. And started doing online marketing and noticed people that were
Coming in I was I was I was trying to target the people that I'm used to targeting the people that are trying to build their wealth and People that were calling in were actually seniors that are in retirement or near retirement and They want all their money. They're 95 % of their money that's in qualified accounts those are like iris 401k stuff that has not been taxed and they want it tax-free and I also started doing Medicare and
the end of 2018. So I said, you know what, this is a great transition. Why not just my mom was aging into Medicare. So I said, why not just concentrate strictly on seniors? So after COVID around 2021, I just started concentrating on the senior market. it's basically it's lot easier to deal with the seniors, Joe. It's a
Like being a parent, like I'm a parent of a 10 year old and a seven year old. And you really now me being almost 46 in July, I realized, you know what, my parents weren't so bad. You know, they actually did pretty good stuff. And it's kind of like when you're a senior, you realize, you know what, the stuff that I learned wasn't the best. There was actually better ways to do it. So there's really no, it's easier to do the senior market because they already know the mistakes that they made.
Ben Millan (03:29.213)
just like it's easier to be a grandparent because your kids realize that you weren't actually that bad of a parent. So I started concentrating strictly on the senior market and now help people protect their wealth. You know, because once you're a senior, you're pretty much done growing it. Now it's time, let's protect it. And also help people with their income as well. So that's my main focus is protecting their wealth.
and providing that income gap for families.
Joe Massa (04:01.825)
Yeah, such a valuable service and we're very similar in age. I got two kids as well. One's a little older. My son's in college. But you know, teaching him what I didn't know when I was his age, he'll be in a much better place than I was at, you know, in my early twenties. But also I love your sort of angle on the seniors. They already know the mistakes they've made. But in all fairness, in hindsight, there was a completely different rule book for them, right?
You know, if you go back far enough, was a single income household. Mom stayed home, raised the kids. Dad worked at the factory. He got his 30 year, you know, gold watch his pension paid out and they were able to be happy and survive off of that. That's simply not the case anymore. And you know, it's almost really difficult to have a home with only one single source of income because of the inflation, because of the new rules, because of the way things are.
designed in the financial world. So I love the focus on seniors. Do you find yourself when you're working with that population that they wish that they could break into more of the modern day stuff like cryptocurrencies and real estate investing, or is that more of a scary dynamic to them? They just want the old tried and true platforms, IRAs, 401ks.
Ben Millan (05:17.001)
I would say Joe that 95 % of them are old school. In fact, you brought up about the single household. I was actually raised by my dad, only working my mom was a stay at home mom. My dad actually told me not to go to college, go get a trade. you know, so this way after 34 years, like my dad retired with the pension.
So those people are definitely the old school mentality, the baby boomers where they want to touch stuff. lot of people love real estate because they can touch it. Crypto they can't touch, cash they can touch. So a lot of the people are not that savvy with that. They're very old school.
You know what they know the hours of 401ks I can touch cash I can touch real estate but the ones that are savvy I'm actually impressed usually the Older ones and their 70s and 80s. I say, know what? I want a day trade and they're doing I have this one guy that I know in my church that he's in his mid 70s and he's doing day trading three day trades on crypto and Loves it. So
I tell people, know, it's up to, as long as you're having fun with it, it's your golden years. Golden years don't mean going in a rocking chair and doing nothing. You you have to enjoy what you built. And a lot of seniors, unfortunately, they end up dying with their money because they're too scared to pull it out. One, because of taxes. And they just say, what am I going to do with all this money? They don't want to move up to the next tax bracket because of Irma for their Medicare jumping up there.
A lot of people just don't really want to spend their money. And then you have those other people that say, yeah, forget my kids. I'll live my life and they spend it. But the majority of people actually just don't want to spend their money and they don't want to grow it. They just want to just protect it and leave it to their kids.
Joe Massa (07:05.517)
You
Joe Massa (07:18.209)
Yeah, that's very, very common. would imagine. And really, I think a lot of that could probably stem from fear. Like you said, it's the unknown. How do I take this out? How do I utilize it without getting a huge slap on the wrist from, you know, uncle Sam taking a big chunk of my money. And that's really what a lot of people don't understand about certain types of IRAs. They're really a great tax vehicle to hold on and be able to utilize some of your money. So is there any one particular product that you recommend over the other? And then a secondary,
Ben Millan (07:44.241)
if
Joe Massa (07:48.233)
question on that. What sort of the dollar amount you recommend somebody retires with to comfortably be able to live if they wanted to use their earned assets?
Ben Millan (07:58.439)
Good to to good question, which most people ask me a lot and to to the first one when it comes to the product.
When it comes to taxes, I always tell people and I'm not a tax expert, but I know enough and I'm just a common sense person. And when you look at the tax bracket, right? So when you're the head of household married, let's say that the 24 % tax bracket and I'm just throwing a number here because I don't have it in front of me. Let's just say that is $200,000. And the next tax bracket from 24 % and jumps up to 32%.
So let's say that you're at 200,000 to keep it in the 24 % tax bracket. Well, if you're hovering on that 201,000, 210,000, you're gonna jump up to the next tax bracket. That's when you put your money into those IRAs, into those 401Ks to jump you down to the next tax bracket or keep you in that lower tax bracket. A lot of people and CPAs, accountants, advisors do not tell people only contribute to those
qualified accounts if it's gonna lower your tax bracket but if you're gonna be in that same tax bracket all you're doing is delaying the inevitable which is why I work with seniors because they realize you're so true. The younger people like nah I'm gonna max it out max it out max it out okay well I don't have I don't have to wait you know I don't have time to wait 30 years to say hey I told you so so the seniors are like you know what that is so true but no one ever taught me that stuff so one put money in qualified accounts
Finance 101 is take the free amount. if your company's matching the 3%, take the 3%. But if there are anything over that.
Ben Millan (09:45.687)
only put in if it's gonna keep you in that low tax bracket or put you below the tax bracket. And then after that, you put money in non-qualified account, stuff that's tax free. Roth IRA is one of them, but then again, you're limited on how much you could put in a Roth IRA. So I like life insurance. I call it the rich man's Roth. Why? Because you can make as much money as you want.
And people that have a Roth, say, you're pretty much middle to lower middle class people that put money in life insurance. Well, they're pretty much wealthy people because you're not limited on how much you can put in it and also on the income that you make to put in that stuff.
Put money in qualified accounts if it's gonna put you in the tax bracket, lower it, and then after that, put money in tax-free buckets like a Roth if you qualify or life insurance. And to your second question about the amount of money, it's not really the amount of money per se. It's...
It's turning people's money into income. For example, when you retire, you don't say, you know what, I want a million dollars or two million dollars. When you retire, you say, I can retire if I have this amount of income. So for example, let's say the overall household income, because pretty much Joe Meany can retire today, everyone can retire today if they can produce their monthly bills and income and some extra for some fun, right?
But the problem is we can't retire today because we don't have that income saved. So I help people fill that income gap. So for example, let's say your monthly bills are...
Ben Millan (11:28.317)
Or I ask the senior, what is your dream amount? They say, my goal is $5,000 a month. I know, that's okay, great. Well, what are you bringing in from Social Security, from your pension? And you add all that stuff together, your guaranteed money, let's say Joe is $2,500. Great. Their income gap now is $2,500. So you have to get their million dollars, whatever they saved, to produce that $2,500. So I don't tell people how much money do they need per se. I say, what is that income gap?
So if you need an extra $2,500 to retire in the next five years, then X amount of money will get you that $2,500. Too many people work because they're trying to reach that dollar amount. Joe, have you ever heard of the 4 % rule?
Joe Massa (12:17.184)
don't believe I have.
Ben Millan (12:18.397)
Okay, so the 4 % rule is pretty much, you if I want, if I have a million dollars, 4 % of a million dollars is $40,000. So people try to work until they get that 4%. Why? Because if you're managing someone's money, then it can take some hits, but if you're taking off 4%, your money should last you your lifetime. Well, I say forget the 4 % rule. We need that income gap. What is that exact income amount? And what I do is I fill that income gap with
with guaranteed income and I have a software that has every single guaranteed income in the nation that people say I want extra $2,500 great it'll take X amount of money to get you $2,500 so that's pretty much people need to start focusing on when it comes to retirement is not that dollar amount because we don't know what is that that dollar amount is going to be in 20 years from now right because
inflation and all that stuff like that is just crazy. So we need to bring it in terms of what is my income gap? Income gap is the word people need to realize. And once we do that, then we can find out what the dollar amount is.
Joe Massa (13:25.76)
Yeah, that's a brilliant strategy and one that I've never heard explained that way. And it actually makes perfect sense because a dollar amounts only as good as what you can pull out of it, what you can utilize it for. So that actually makes more sense, you know, the cost of your living. but again, you know, I'm sure that changes when you're talking about maybe someone who's 70 or 80 years old. It's been in the same house for 50 years that they bought for 42 grand. It's been paid off for four decades versus somebody like, you know, our age.
Ben Millan (13:34.301)
Exactly.
Joe Massa (13:53.645)
in the market today where say I go and buy a new house and it's a $700,000 house, which is a median price in certain places. The interest rates, six to 7%. All of a sudden my monthly payments are significantly higher than somebody that purchased in that sort of same echelon 40, 50 years ago. So there's a new disparity between what we need to make today versus what somebody is, you know, based basically living off of back then. But I want to circle back to one.
Ben Millan (14:10.301)
Mm.
Joe Massa (14:21.088)
product that you mentioned specifically, because a gentleman that I used to talk to and do a lot of financial stuff with was a really big proponent on the whole life insurance savings accounts. Can you explain a little bit about that? Does it have to be whole life or can it be a term policy? And how does the ability to put money into it? Cause you can put as much cash into it as you want, and then you can borrow from it and never repay it. From my understanding, is that accurate?
Ben Millan (14:48.391)
That is correct. Pretty much, when it comes to insurance, there's two types of assurances. One is term. Term is like renting a home. So you're renting it for a period of time. Usually, max is 30 years. So I would say people, when it comes to insurance, you want to get both. You want to get a term. Like for example, when I...
started this business, I was around 25, 26. So I got myself a permanent policy. But then you can't get as much coverage when you get a permanent cause you're paying because the cost of it costs more just like when you rent a house. It costs more to rent a house. You need a down payment. So I started off with two permanent policies and then I got married.
I said, you know what? I think I need more coverage for my family. So I got a 20 year term right when my son was born. said, I need some coverage. So if I pass away, my wife has has a good amount to carry on my income as well as, you know, pay for all the necessities possible. So you need term. I always say term if term to to figure out is pretty much like what your mortgage is. So if you have a 20 year mortgage left.
get a 20-year term, 15-year mortgage, 15-year term. We call the Dye Method to figure out insurance. People don't realize this, but everything has an equation to it. There's always a math to everything we do. And in insurance, it's called the Dye Method. D stands for debt. So what is your overall debt? Then I stands for income. What is your income replacement? M is mortgage. What's your mortgage? And E is education. So if I have two kids, I want to leave 100 grand per kid or 200,000, you put that there.
What is your mortgage amount? So if that person passes away, because like I said earlier, Joe, now we're a two income society. My dad's days of just him working, my mom being a stay at home mom is pretty much over now. People need two incomes. So if one income passes, if one spouse passes away, then there goes that income. And that's why people end up in foreclosures. They end up moving back with their parents and they get into financial distress because of that stuff.
Ben Millan (17:05.645)
And then the debt is pretty much the debt on yourself because like for example when my dad passed away all the debt in my dad's name passed away with my dad. So my mom became debt free because why it was all in my dad's name. So I say if it's debt then get the debt on your spouse on you and then vice versa. So this way if you pass away your spouse's debt is all taken care of mortgage is taken care of.
income and placement are taken care of and then the kids education is taken care of. So we need some type of replacement. If we can't afford a house, we have to live somewhere so we rent a home. Then once we can buy a house, great, now we get cash by life insurance. Why? This is why I like working with seniors, because senior says, if I knew that insurance thingy, I would have done that cash values type of thing before I said.
And they say, can I get it? And I said, sorry, you're a little tool for that now. You can't get it. But they say, yeah, but only if I knew that before. The young people really don't see that stuff, because like I say, they're into the qualified accounts. But when it comes to cash value, whole life is a little outdated. I call whole life like the Toyota Corolla. It works, it's good, but it's not fast like a Ferrari.
or you know like these awesome cars that are driving themselves now. So, Tesla's you know. So, now the new thing is, Joe, is the index universal life. Whole life is pretty much gonna last your whole life. It has a place for it, but it's pretty much for people that wanna final expense. The cash value one is the index universal life, which is a cash value one, and I call it the whole life on steroids. So it's,
It's the most upgraded one and that's the one that most people are now using for to build people's wealth. And that's what I have on myself. I have two on myself. I have one on my kids. The reason why Joe, I like it so much is because if we put money in our kids college five to nine plans, put money in Ross, when you apply for financial aid, then it's going to show that mom and daddy had money saved here in
Ben Millan (19:28.637)
in these accounts. But when we apply for the same thing and our money, let's say, have $120,000 in your child's life insurance plan, it's not considered an asset on your kids when you're applying for financial aid. So that's why it's a very good vehicle to use for that stuff. And then also, I use it for my retirement as well. It's...
It's a good place to, if we're trying to build just cash value and compare it to a 401k or an IRA or mutual funds, stocks, it's not gonna outperform it, Joe. That's what it's built for. It's built for, one, protection, and two, do I want it taken and come out of it later? So lot of these things get tricked and there's a lot of bad PR about it online because a lot of advisors, I would probably say 95 % of them do.
do not know how to properly structure a cash value insurance plan. So if you want it strictly for death purposes, then use it for death purposes. If you want it for cash value, then you gotta structure it for cash value. One of my friends asked me, I heard that in these plans that you only get just the death benefit. That's what Dave Ramsey says, only the death benefit. That's incorrect. There's three ways you can structure it. One, I only wanna structure it for death benefit purposes.
That's level A, that's called level. That means if you die and you have 50,000 worth of cash value and your death benefit is 100,000, you're only gonna get the 100,000. Then two is increasing, that's B, meaning that if I have 100,000 plus 50,000 and I pass away, they get both the 150,000. Then there's C, which is return of premium. That if they have 100,000 and they put in 20,000 worth of premium,
then they're gonna get the 120,000. lot of people, 99.9 % of people do not know that there's three levels to do these things. They say if you die, you only get the death benefit, horrible investment. That is not correct. It's all on how you structure it. And one thing about myself, Joe, is I consider myself one of the best in the nation on understanding these plans. And I know how to structure it. Because it does take a lot of time, a lot of time and effort. But I'm very competitive by nature. I love sports, games, you know, I'm like the...
Ben Millan (21:51.485)
You know how they talk about Michael Jordan does want to even lose in card games? Well, I'm pretty much like that too. Like even my wife says, Ben, you should lose to your kids once in a to make them feel good. I said, no, I want to teach them that life isn't about that. So I'm very competitive and I want someone that when I build these plans that no one in the industry can beat the way that I prepared these plans.
Joe Massa (22:05.705)
You
Joe Massa (22:18.751)
Yeah, I love that. And I will state as a father, we do not let the kids win ever. No, no, no. You got to learn how to lose to dad. Someday you'll beat us and then we'll pass the torch. But until then.
Ben Millan (22:27.863)
My son's pretty much almost there. Yeah, yeah, know. He's catching up.
Joe Massa (22:29.843)
Yeah, no, no, no. Yeah, my son's almost 19. He beats me in most things now, but I had a good run for quite a while. Yeah. My dad used to say, by the time you're old enough to beat me, I'll be too old and you'll feel bad. So yeah, you know, little trick of the trade, a grandpa, you know, terminology now. but no, I love the idea of structuring sort of that B category in the, in the index life insurance where you can put cash value into it get both. That would seem to make the most sense. But I have a question because I've, I've heard the term a lot. It's more of an old school product.
Ben Millan (22:33.649)
Go,
Ben Millan (22:41.024)
wow.
Joe Massa (22:59.783)
but considering you work with a lot of seniors is annuities. And annuities, from my understanding, right, is that even really a big thing anymore? It's where you put money into some sort of fund and then eventually you get like a guaranteed monthly return off of your long-term investment. But that has to sit for quite a while. Do you have a lot of people that still ask for annuities? Is that still even worth considering?
Ben Millan (23:21.789)
So the word annuity is an ugly word. Like I tell people, hey, you what, what if I can guarantee your money? If the market goes up, you gotta capitalize on the up part, but if it goes down, then you don't lose your money. Great, sign me up. What is it? It's annuity. I don't want it, I hate the word. It's like a bad word that people have in their mouths because industry, society has made that a bad word. But Joe, do you the first annuity ever made was? Or?
Joe Massa (23:51.019)
I have no clue.
Ben Millan (23:51.931)
The most common annuity? Social Security. Social Security is the most common annuity in America. So when people say that they don't want an annuity, say, great, here's my address, send your Social Security check to my house, because that's annuity. All an annuity means is that you're, well, first of all, there's different types of annuity. I like to work in the fixed annuity realm, that fixed, like a fixed interest rate, fixed mortgage, right?
that you're not gonna lose your money. So I work with fixed annuities, but I use annuities, like I said in the beginning, because I'm all about the income gap. So the only way to fill the income gap in America is with a guaranteed income annuity. That's what Social Security is. Imagine if we gave Joe people a million dollars or two million dollars, all the money that they've, instead of putting money into,
into Social Security, we just allowed them to just save that money on their own or put it into an account and then after they get it collected. So now they have a million, two million dollars. How many Americans, Joe, do you think would just spend that two million dollars?
Joe Massa (25:07.88)
I would say a large amount would spend it much more quickly than if it were given to them in small increments.
Ben Millan (25:13.467)
That is correct. Mostly everyone would do that because when people win the lottery or when these athletes make this big chunk of money, why are they going bankrupt for? Because they're spending. So America saw the need that hey, if we get people the money and they could access it, they're going to blow it. So they said, let's give them a guaranteed paycheck, which is an annuity.
Social Security is annuity. means I get a guaranteed paycheck for the rest of my life. So that's what I do. Like I said, if people have a income gap of twenty five hundred, we fill that income gap from their 401k from their IRA for whatever they have saved mutual funds, brokerage accounts and fill their income gap with a fixed indexed annuity income annuity. After their income gap is fixed, then
We want to protect their money. There's this thing you ever heard of, the 100 minus your age rule?
Joe Massa (26:12.97)
It sounds familiar, but please enlighten me.
Ben Millan (26:14.941)
Okay, so 100 minus your age means if you're 70 years old, 100 minus 70 is 30. That means only 30 % of your money should be risky, like a roller coaster. But yet, 99 % advisors, you go and they wanna manage your entire $2 million portfolio and have it in a risk account. And they're gonna do the 4 % rule by giving them income. So here's a million dollars and now we're gonna give you $40,000 every year.
Well, with income annuity, you now could get six or seven percent. It all depends on your age and the amount of time you're going to take it out and your state. But let's just say that you're getting getting getting seven percent. Now with the million dollars, you're now getting seventy thousand dollars. That's right. So you could use now now if you need forty thousand dollars, you can use less money and we can now grow and invest the the the rest of the money. Everyone.
There's a step that's done that says if people have a guaranteed income in life, they will live a longer life. Because they're not stressed by market going up and down. Like you mentioned earlier about the crypto. They can invest in crypto. They can have fun with their money as long as their income gap is filled. Now, I mean people who are firefighters, police officers, they had several pension jobs, and they have like 13,000, 14,000 coming in. Great.
Their income gap is filled. They need no more income. Any more income, they don't need any more income. It is completely filled. So, now from there, is annuity good for them? Well, maybe not, maybe it is. But in that situation, their income gap is taken care of. The main thing that you use annuities for is to fill someone's income gap. My wife is a school psychologist, so is my mother-in-law. When she retires, she's gonna get a pension. What is it? In annuity.
My dad worked for Department of Water and Power, got a pension. He passed away in 2010. My mom still gets his pension. What is it? It's an annuity. They're all annuities. So when people say, I don't like the word annuity, great, me your pension, give me your Social Security check. All right, after you put my address on the screen, send it to me if you don't like annuities. But annuities are good. It's just people, just like life insurance, they don't understand them and they're selling them the wrong way.
Ben Millan (28:39.037)
But the number one thing here is income gap, income gap. How do you fill it? By an income annuity. After that, if you want your money safe, we can do it safe. If you want it to grow, it can grow. But the number one thing is we need to fill our income gap. And that's only way in America. And people say, well Ben, I will find another way. Okay, great, what do do? Call me up. Because there's no other way.
Joe Massa (29:02.206)
No, that's actually brilliant. And I love the way you explained that because you're right. Annuities is sort of like a four letter word in the financial industry. And it got a really bad rap a long time ago. And people that I've even talked to were like, no, that's just an outdated vehicle. But I guess you're absolutely right. Social security is exactly that. But where is sort of the state of social security long-term in your opinion? Obviously there's a lot of potential, you know,
Ben Millan (29:08.402)
yeah.
Joe Massa (29:26.108)
murmurings around the water cooler about it's gonna go away, it won't exist in 20 years, it's being mismanaged by the government and those funds are depleting. Is that something that people my son's age, your children's age, should rely on or count on to be there for them? Or is it much smarter now to start doing it personally on your own?
Ben Millan (29:46.257)
Well, Joe, I'm not God or anything, but yeah, mean, I don't have a crystal ball, but the way that things are going now, I mean, it even says on your social security check, like it literally tells you when you get your statement, it says when it's gonna go away. So it's not gonna be there for us, I doubt it unless we do some crazy things with the stuff, but I mean, but honestly, I don't really need it just because I understand how to save.
But no, anyone who thinks that it's gonna be there for us is crazy. mean, because they're gonna have to raise taxes like more than you ever seen before. I mean, it's it's not possible. And then plus also more people are becoming business owners, okay? So when you become a business owner, you have a lot more write-offs. So let's say someone makes a million dollars as a business owner, but they pay themselves 100,000.
How would they pay Social Security? As a $100,000 person. Social Security was invented because back then, like my dad was born in 1945, there were people that were one income. One income, so they had Social Security because almost back then, everyone's working. You hardly hear anyone owning their businesses. If they own a business, they're like super wealthy, super rich, right? But no one really did businesses. So everyone's paying to Social Security at their actual wages.
Now there's so many ways to do tax write-offs. mean, not even one CPA knows all the different ways to do write-offs. Just like not every advisor knows every single product out there, right? So with less people now contributing into Social Security because they're doing so many good, tricky write-offs, it's just going away because we fund it. So without us funding it, it's gonna go away. And I don't see it lasting, which is why we need to educate ourselves and...
start planning for themselves, which is why my social security check, one, is my business. I could pass it on to my kids as long as my kid and my wife gets licensed. I could leave it, you that's generational wealth. And two is my insurance policies where that's my pension stream. I can take money out of my insurance policy. People don't, people think only cash value, but you can pull money out of that death benefit side too. So that's how I'm building my wealth is with my planning for myself.
Ben Millan (32:13.949)
and building it yourself because we cannot rely on the government to protect us. And people that are, they're the ones that are only on Medicaid and Medicare. Now, people talk about also Medicare too, that that's gonna go away. If Social Security, now I don't think Social Security will go away per se, because if that happens, we're in an economic collapse. Literally, when I have people that I go to church with and all they have is a Social Security check, that is literally it. They make like 900 bucks a month and then.
If you take that away from people, then we're in an economic collapse. So will it go away for them? I think whoever has it will continue to have it, but no one else will be able to get on it. But if they take away social security and Medicare, we're doomed. Now, I'm a Christian guy. I believe in Jesus Christ is gonna return. So, you know, when that happens, all the money in the world, nothing's gonna happen. know, nothing's going to protect you.
At that point, there's no safe plan. All the plans I gave you, they're all down the drain. Only God can protect you at that point. But until then, we need to save. So I always say, my philosophy is live life physically like we have 100 years to live, but live life spiritually like it's gonna end tomorrow. And too many people have the opposite. Where we're living life physically like it's end tomorrow. Well, then tomorrow doesn't happen, tomorrow doesn't happen, then all of sudden you retire, shoot, I never saved.
and now you're strictly on Medi-Cal in California or Medicaid. So we need to protect ourselves because we can't rely on anyone but ourselves.
Joe Massa (33:48.01)
Yeah, I love that. And definitely as a God fearing man, I wholeheartedly agree with you on that last point. But again, that also just goes back to what worked in the past for our parents, grandparents, won't work for us. The same way that you can't retire off of putting money in a savings account. And if you are going to use a savings account, certainly use the high interest or high yield savings account. And it's good to have some liquid money in a savings account, but you can't use that as a vehicle to retire on. You do have to explore some of these other assets, other programs
products out there that can exponentially grow your wealth and also then something that you can tap into later when you actually need it because whether or not something like social security is going to be around for me and you or our kids, the chances are very slim. So I definitely agree. It's wise to have some of these things, but also know what you currently have. I know I've read articles and talked to other advisors. You'd be blown away by the amount of people that have 401k sitting out there that they just walked away from and have no idea they even exist. Even if there's
five, 10, 20 grand in them. That's your money that you worked for that either your employer matched to a certain dollar amount and then you quit the job. You forget about it. You move on down the road. There is big bucks in things out there like forgotten 401ks. Do you deal with a lot of that?
Ben Millan (34:54.845)
.
Ben Millan (35:05.757)
Joe, is amazing on how people really don't care that they have money out there. They're so nonchalant about it where I say, okay, well, do you have a formal K? Because when I go over their budget, what do you have? And they say, yeah, you know what? I think I have one. there's like two companies that go, well, how much is it? I don't know. It could be like eight, 10,000. I don't know. Or like, you don't know?
People have money in all these accounts from previous job, previous job, previous job. They don't even know that they even have it. Yeah, I got some guys, you know what, eh, you know, we'll talk about later. Later? Like, when is later? And they never talk about it. It it amazes me on how many 401ks are out there from previous jobs, or it could be 4-3-Bs, you know, or 457, depending on who you're working for. And they're just so nonchalant about it,
That is crazy because I'm telling you, if I just took 10,000 from your savings, you would freak out. But you have 10,000 somewhere else you really don't care about or even 100,000 like they don't even know.
Joe Massa (36:15.665)
And there's a really good.
reason I think that psychologically we feel that way. It's because when something's taken out of your paycheck, just like if you're paying for benefits, you're paying your taxes out of there to you psychologically that money's already gone. So it's not your money that money's out of the way. So when you're getting a portion of your money, that's automatically taken and put an into a safe account for you. It's like the blinders are on you just assume that it doesn't exist, but that's sort of the mentality we should take with ourselves moving forward. Certainly if you're a business owner, you have to pay yourself for
If I make $10,000 in a single month and I just pay my bills and put the rest in my, you know, Wells Fargo savings account, which I don't go to Wells Fargo, just throwing a name out there, but I'm not doing myself any,
Benefits by doing it that way. I need to take a chunk out of there Automatically move it into one of my retirement accounts my IRA my you know money market accounts And if I do that sort of like at the beginning when payday hits my account It's out of sight out of mind then I don't have to worry did I save this month it happened before I even saw the money and then on top of that I don't miss it right I think there's a psychological trigger that if I have to manually get my hundred dollars and Bills and then take ten of them and put them in a separate,
Ben Millan (37:26.715)
Right.
Joe Massa (37:30.539)
Say rainy day fund all of a sudden I can see that money I can touch it much easier for me to take it back and spend it but if you make your money automated and sort of work for you with you know a certain amount of Parameters and rules built into it. That's how you're gonna slowly start to see your wealth actually, you know grow
Ben Millan (37:48.861)
And you know what Joe, that's actually the biggest reason why people don't keep their Roths going and why they don't keep their life insurance, cash flow life insurance going because they can't get it taken out of their paycheck. So they'll keep that 401k going, hey well at least they have something when they retire, but they don't keep the Roths going because Roths is optional.
unless they have a Roth form, okay? And they don't keep their insurance plans going too. I have a couple that did keep them going. I got a post office client, which that comes directly out of her paycheck, and some military people, but.
On average, no, 9 % of them. They have to get it and then they have to get it funded every time. And a lot of people don't want to do that. I, when it comes to saving, whether, you know, whether you believe in the Bible or not, I say still have the 10 % philosophy, you like on tithing where I'm to put 10 % away. And if you don't put 10 % away, you're not going to retire. People say, Oh, that's, that's too much. People say, uh, I want to give you a hundred bucks.
and have a million dollars but not retire. Mathematically speaking, it's mathematically impossible to have a million dollars but put a hundred bucks away. You just can't, right? Like you need to put a lot of money away and just think on how much the Netflix is and Disney and all these other, Amazon, all these other stuff that we're paying for all these programs, right? ESPN plus and all these other, if you add all that up.
That's probably maybe 10 % money right there, right? Like lowering your cell phone bill. Just a little tiny things that are like, join a plan with all your family. Why don't you get your own account? Just jump on your friend's account. Hey, throw them a couple bucks, right? And that'll actually save you a lot of money in the long run. no, 10 % minimum. If you don't even do, but we need more than that. If you want a good life, more than that. So I mean, what percentage is social security taken out of our paychecks?
Ben Millan (39:59.772)
My wife works for the school system. They're taking about 9 % out of her paycheck. So even they know 9 % is going to get her pension. So you got to do something. But 1 % or 0.5 % or 0.1 % is not magic. I don't care. You can't talk to anyone. No one's going to magically make you a retirement plan putting less than 10 % away.
Joe Massa (40:23.528)
Yeah, and it's amazing how much money we actually spend and blow without realizing it. You know, I'm also a licensed NMLS mortgage broker. So I talk to people all the time when they're, hey, I'm trying to save for a new house. need a down payment. I just can't come up with the money. just can't. So looking at people's spending habits is a really good indicator of
Ben Millan (40:32.742)
Okay.
Joe Massa (40:43.976)
what they understand about money. It's like, okay, well, let's look at your bank statements. Let's take a look at what you're spending each month. You know, now they have like, you know, the rocket money app that'll automatically do this for you, but it's amazing. Okay. Well, you get Starbucks twice a day and you do that seven days a week. If you do the simple math, you're spending $20 a day. That's $140 a week. If you were eliminated that imagine how much, and again, putting it down payment on a house is significant, but when you're looking at like, I can't afford that dream vacation. can't afford.
a new car, but you can spend 140 a week drinking fruity coffee drinks. So you can, you just spend your money irresponsibly instead of, hey, why not?
Do a one-time investment, buy a coffee maker, make your coffee at home. Well, convenience. I like to drive through and get it handed to me. Well, then you're not really truly saving or working that hard on your end goals. Instead, you're just making an excuse of why you're justifying that expense. It's okay for me to spend $140 a week on coffee, but not save that into an account where then I can use that in three years from now and buy a house. you're just mismanaging, misappropriating funds. And again, I think that's just something sometimes you need someone to shine
of light on you and say, we found one of your culprits. Here's what you're doing. Here's why you're not being able to accomplish what you want to accomplish because you're just sort of.
Ben Millan (41:58.663)
Yeah.
Joe Massa (42:04.614)
you're just doing things a little backwards. But again, it's an easy fix and it's something that people can learn, which will automatically segue me into my next topic for you. You actually wrote a book about this called Stress-Free Retirement. So tell us a little bit about the book and who is it for and what can they learn when they read this that probably is something they need to know now.
Ben Millan (42:27.485)
Well, Thumbrication, I actually didn't write a book on that. But it is a great book on it. But no, I wish I did. But that was actually written by Patrick Kelly. He's a genius when it comes to the life insurance space. And basically, he has quite a bit of books out there. it's basically...
teaching all the concepts that a lot of people are misinformed about. Like for example, when it comes for about life insurance, right? Or or in that income gap with annuities. That's what it's about. It's saying that if you want to stress free life, we need to fill in that income gap. That income gap is with an annuity, even
Even.
Ted Band, I believe his name is, the father of the 401k. Even he, the guy who invented the 401k said that every single person needs an income annuity in their life to have that stress-free retirement. Once our income gap is filled, great. Now, if we use some money in the market.
It's okay, why? Because we have money coming in every month. We're have a lot longer life and be happier when we have guaranteed income coming in. And then it talks about life insurance. About how to put money away and cash by life insurance and things like that. it goes through all these steps that a lot of advisors don't do. You you were talking about going over people's bills. The majority of advisors, Joe, don't go over people's bills. And I'll tell you why. Years ago, I was help training.
Ben Millan (44:21.337)
One of my agents went to his parents' and he was actually helping out his parents and then giving them money every month. And after I went over the budget, I'm like, yeah, $1500, Joe, $1500 to save every month. And they're like, no. And the husband doesn't do the bills that the mom does. The husband looks at the wife and says, we do, honey? No, he's wrong. I do it again. I do it again. After the fourth time, they're realizing,
Shoot, we have $1,500 to save every month. The mom looks at me and says, we are done here, get out of my house. Because people don't want to know that the way that they've been doing stuff is wrong. So lot of advisors won't point that out to them, which is why, me, like I said, I'm competitive and I want to tell people, no, you've been doing it wrong. I'm sorry, but if you're gonna work with me, you've been doing it wrong and we gotta change it up. So.
The book talks about stuff that people just don't want to hear. know, that you gotta go over this stuff. You you gotta go over budgets. You gotta, you know, fill that income gap. You gotta do these programs that a lot of people are not doing, which is why America's messed up. If people say, well, how come I never heard of this before? Well, if you've heard of this before, you would be in a different place. We only know what we know, and the government only wants us to know what they want us to know. Which is why seniors realize, why didn't anyone ever tell me that I
that I was gonna be in a higher tax bracket. Well, if you actually save Joe 10 % of your money, you actually took the match in your 401k, you actually did what you're supposed to do, yes, you will be in a higher tax bracket. So when you pull all money out of your 401ks and IRAs, guess what's gonna happen? You're gonna be taxed a lot, which you're gonna raise your IRM up for Medicare, and then you're like, which is why they died with the money, because they don't wanna pull money out, right? Which is why we have the RMDs, that's 73, which the government says,
You gotta pull money out when you're 73. So the book talks about all the stuff that we don't want to hear, but when I hand the book to the people, here it is, they don't wanna read it. Because why? Because they wanna keep doing what they're doing. That's why said, I'm done, Joe, talking to the young people. I'll talk to the seniors who will listen to me. And all my friends later on, I don't wanna be the guy that I said I told you so, but I'm pretty much AI, I told you so and but.
Ben Millan (46:44.989)
20 years from now.
Joe Massa (46:46.439)
Yeah, there's definitely a level of shame. think people feel when you're sort of exposed to new information that kind of goes against what you've been doing, you know, into to take it away from a financial matter. Think of like physical health. If I'm trying to lose weight and then a personal trainer comes into my kitchen and goes through my pantry and goes, well, here's your problem right here, bro. You're eating Oreos and beef jerky and crap. Well, then you could feel offended and shame. Well, I was told this says organic. Well, it's not an attack.
It's a realization that people need to come to like, hey, I'm coming in as the expert in this field and I'm here to help you and show you what you could be doing better. And again, some people could take that as a personal attack, but wise people would not. It's sort of, okay, I can feel a little guilty for a minute, but now let's fix this and get back to work.
and do the right things. I think that's really what a lot of people need is a sound voice to give them the information and really explain it. So based off of that, if somebody wants to work with you in Serenity Retirement, how can they find you? What's the website? Are you looking, you know, open to taking on new clients? How do they get in touch with Ben?
Ben Millan (47:54.493)
So my website is Serenity-retirement. So Serenity-retirement. You can also find me on LinkedIn. My name's not that popular. There are a couple of Mian's out there, and it's Mian, know, so with a yes out there. But you can find Benjamin Mian out there. I also have a Facebook as well. And then also my phone number. Can I get my phone number out?
Joe Massa (48:22.311)
Sure, absolutely.
Ben Millan (48:23.357)
And my phone number, my direct number is 323-702-9551. 323-702-9551. I would always tell Joe people what makes me different and unique than other advisors. As other advisors have their typical work hours, know, eight to four, nine to five, they have their office hours. I do have an office in Pasadena, but I'm also virtual too. So I am there for my clients.
My family already knows this, they get a little annoyed, but they know that daddy, my wife knows that I do this, that, you know, if I'm on vacation, you know, I will, I will pick up. Nothing bugs me more than when one of my reps that I do business with and I call them up.
I'm on vacation, I'm on vacation, I'm on vacation. Well, if you're managing people's money and or you you're the metric agent and they need help with their prescriptions or something and you're on vacation, they're gonna get upset. So I really don't have office hours. The only time I tell people don't call me is from sundown Friday, sundown Saturday. That's my Sabbath, that's my rest day. But other than that, call me. I mean, I'll pick up on Sundays and I usually get back with you within an hour or two.
Latest is 24 hours, but that's what makes me unique. You know when people say Ben, why should I go with you? Virtual advisor versus a person down the street. I said well the person down the street give you their cell phone number, know, do they give you you know, are they your Facebook friend? Like if I screw you over then
My reputation is ruined because you have links to every single access that I give you. But instead, they give you the office number and then it's closed. So you have direct access to The number that I gave out is my direct cell phone number. So people can reach me whenever they want. Text message if I'm in a meeting or so on that. But I will get back to you. So that's makes me unique is you get that white glove service. I have a smaller firm, so it's not just me. I have around 50 agents on my staff as well.
Ben Millan (50:21.563)
When you're working with me, it'll be just me. So people say, Ben, will I get hand off to someone else? I say, no, it'll be me. Well, what if you die? Well, if I die, someone will take care it. Don't worry about it, but hopefully, but don't worry. You're with me until yes, until I pass away. But other than that, yeah, you're working directly with me. I'm not gonna pass you off to another agent, to another advisor. You're working directly with me.
Joe Massa (50:43.696)
Yeah, and that's the way it should be. love that. And you're right. That's the best way to handle clients and people that you're helping with their biggest life.
sort of investments. appreciate you coming on and sharing all this wise information today. Don't forget guys, serenity dash retirement.com. I'll also put your cell phone number in and around this video. So make sure to give them a call. If you're interested in learning more about serenity retirement, check out the website. If nothing else, take this valuable information and start building a plan with your financial advisor. If Ben's not going to be the guy for you, definitely start to build your long-term wealth. Stop thinking the old school way. Things are going to be different.
for us moving forward and our children and their children so we have to plan accordingly. So Ben this was great I really appreciate you coming on the measuring post and sharing all this wonderful information. Again check out Serenity Retirement and yeah really looking forward to growing my financial wealth. Hopefully you can be a big part of me doing that moving forward myself.
Ben Millan (51:40.561)
Thank you, Joe. your time. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Joe Massa (51:42.855)
Yes, All right, so don't hang up.