Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Allen Masri Founder of Safe Money Income & Insurance Discussing Navigating Retirement with Confidence

Episode Date: July 29, 2025

Allen Masri’s wife, and 2 children have called sunny South Florida home for 55 years. As a federal employee benefits consultant and previous host of the Safe Money Income Retirement radio show, Allen is a financial educator who has helped people from all walks of life to be well prepared for their retirement years. Allen has made it his mission to educate retirees and those nearing retirement to achieve a secure financial future by protecting their hard-earned money from losses, fees, and inflation. Not one of his clients has ever lost a penny due to market downturns.Learn more: https://safemoneyforincome.com/This material is for educational purposes only and not meant for any financial or tax adviceInfluential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-allen-masri-founder-of-safe-money-income-insurance-discussing-navigating-retirement-with-confidence

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have back with us, Alan Mazri, who's the founder of Safe Money, Income, and Insurance. And we'll be talking about navigating retirement with competence. Alan, welcome back to the program.

Thank you for having me, Mike. Pleasure to be here. Yeah, so I know that this is something that's super, super important because, number one, people tend to put off planning for retirement until it's later. And then if it's later, they're making some snap decisions that they're not really confident about. So talk a little bit about where you start working with your clients to make sure that they have a good, clear blueprint and plan in place.

to give them that confidence so that they can navigate to and through retirement. Well, you know, it's an emotional journey, you know, from working life to retirement. And, you know, retirement is often seen as a reward after years of hard work. But again, it's emotionally, the transition can be very complex. So for many, it's not just about leaving a job. It's about leaving behind a routine, you know, a sense of purpose, their identity, and social connections. That's a really, really big one.

So, you know, I'm just going to get into some of the, you know, the emotional challenges that people have. So let's look at loss of identity, for example. You know, many people define themselves by their career. You know, when they step away from a career, it creates a feeling of like, you know, who am I? And what do I do now? You know, one of the biggest ones I see in this is law enforcement officers. They really struggle with this.

Another big one is, you know, the loss of structure, you know, without a daily schedule. You know, some retire is really struggle with how to spend their time, you know, productivity. You know, and, you know, life doesn't feel meaningful anymore. You know what I mean? And another big one is the social isolation, as you know, when we look at our elderly population, they are somewhat socially isolated. And what I try to do is, you know, try to provide or show them how to get regular interaction.

And, you know, so they don't have that loneliness. So, you know, we try to, you know, show them how to look at new social outlets, you know, and develop them. And then, you know, the anxiety about the future. You know, a big one is to worry about the health, the aging. And again, running out of money can cast a shadow over what's meant to be a joyful time. So what we do is we try to position them with products and investments that, and I shouldn't really say the word investment. Let's say financial products that will help them, you know, stay balanced, you know, and, you know, knowing that they have a steady income every month.

It really helps in many ways. And there are vehicles out there that we do use to help them achieve those goals. You know, you mentioned a couple things that I want to dive a little bit deeper on because I think it's something that people only think, oh, retirement, do I have enough money? Where's my investments? All of those things. Well, identity, sense of purpose. You know, you spend X number of years, decades, working, and then all of a sudden you throw a party because you retired. Well, six days later, you're like, maybe.

be on board. Maybe I don't have a purpose to get up for it, you know, to go to work and punch the clock and maybe I don't have certain goals. And that can really affect their lifespan. You know, I've heard some research that says, oh, wow, if you don't have a purpose or something to live for with your work and you retire, all of a sudden that can really shorten your lifespan. Have you seen that be like a concern for some of your clients as well? Absolutely. I have. I could tell you and maybe I shouldn't say this, but I'm going to say it. You know, I have a lot of, again, federal employees, but the postal employees in general, you know, I'd work with a person two, three years later, the spouse would call me,

say, hey, you know, so-and-so just passed away. I'm like, what happened? He was very healthy. He was great. What happened? She's like, all he did was sitting home and watch TV all day and just, you know, eat ice cream, drink sugar drinks. He never got involved in anything. I can tell you firsthand, that plays a major role. I mean, I tell people to have to, I talk to you all time, look, find something you do, you like, and volunteer because I do that here. I do that basis. I do that quite often.

I probably spend more than 20 hours a week volunteering. And, you know, what I tell them is when you volunteer and you do something that's, you're helping others, it is so rewarding. It makes you feel so good because that's my personal experience with it. and I see that so often where people just isolate, they don't really get involved. They feel that, you know, things have changed so much for them that they just don't know how to even go out there and do it. So I try to make recommendations to them. I give them names of organizations where they can volunteer, you know, if it's religious, if it's a medical setting with children, whatever it is.

and the ones that actually go out there and pursue that, they do very well in retirement, very well. The ones that isolate and do it the opposite, they don't tend to do very well. You know, and you mentioned charity and nonprofit. I mean, there could be some people that go, you know what?

I took my month or two off and I'm kind of now, I'm going to start that little side hustle, that little side business or something, even some consulting to where they can, maximize their mind that they still have fresh. But I think that that's a big thing that probably you have the conversations with your clients of not only what does retirement look like for you as far as money and how much you're going to need, but how are you going to spend your hours?

And having some quantifiable things like what you mentioned there is super, super important. So have you worked with any clients that struggled emotionally with that and they found out? And then when you kind of helped guided them into that, it kind of gave them that sense of purpose and freedom. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, I'm glad you mentioned the side hustle. That's a big one. And when I run to the client that really is going to, that I know they're going to struggle financially in retirement. And if they're typically pretty healthy, I tell them, I say, hey, you know, find something that you enjoy doing, but now it's not a full-time job. You're doing something you enjoy. But at the same time, you can make. some extra money. And if you don't really need it every month, you can put it away, save it, do things like that with it. But that's, you know, that's a great point that you made, Mike, and I appreciate you brought

that up. And the ones that are able to do that, they do also very well. They really do. You know, and they do probably another word that you brought up in a previous conversation with, like, your community, your interacting with other people, meaning what if you are a widow or a widower? and then you're sitting at home all alone, well, if you went out and got that part-time job, if you, and see, I think you'll agree with this, if you have made poor financial decisions

and you have to get that job to make ends meet, that's not a fun situation. But if you go get a part-time job, just to have a little pocket change and have some fun money, but mostly to get out and be active and interact with people. And I don't care if it's, you know, working at a, you know, I was literally at getting my vehicle emissions tested this weekend. And there was an older gentleman helping check cars in. And I was like, well, you know what? He probably works part time and has a good time, you know, interacting with people.

It doesn't have to be, you know, 24 hours a day of work and feeling that pressure. It can just be something for fun. So pick that way, you know, in your career, you might have not had the luxury of picking something you enjoy. Well, now you do. Exactly. And I'll tell you, I got a guy that I work with. I know him very well, actually.

And he loves working at the car options. He just likes driving the cars and bringing them into driving in different cars he can drive. They never was able to drive before, pull them into the option line and run them back out. I have guys that work security. They just enjoy it. They just like to interact with people because, you know, some security jobs, you know, you're interacting with people all day long, you know. Yeah. And it does give you a sense of purpose and it does allow you to socialize.

and I tell them all time, just do what you enjoy. And it's not a full-time thing. No, I tell them, don't, you know, that's not what this is about. This is about just doing something to help you get by, but something you enjoy, it gets you out of the house, it keeps you mobile, you're not static. And I'll tell you, I got some folks, they love doing stuff like that in retirement. They just enjoy it. They could never, ever do it in their original career. And they love it.

They enjoy it. They really, really do. And I'll tell you, I've seen, you know, I had a couple that sat around for maybe the first year and then had a follow-up meeting with them, you know, on an annual basis I meet with some of my clients. And I had mentioned that to him. And he was really going downhill. But he did, you know, take the advice and he went and started doing something he enjoyed. He couldn't do when he was working. Maybe 10 hours, 15 hours a week.

but I'll tell you the difference I made in that person was shocking when I saw him after that. Yeah. Yeah. That's huge. And it kind of gets into mindset. And it reminds me of this question as you were talking, you know, there's different, you know, stages of our life. You know, we got to accumulate and grow and strive and get money. And then we got to make sure we have enough money of retirement.

But then how about this? How can financial security, making these good decisions? of this good plan. How can financial security ease the transition from growing and striving to actually giving yourself permission to actually spend some of your money in retirement? Because I think if you start getting into, you know, we got to save, save, save and put money away, put money away, then you get to retirement. You're like, we can't take that trip. Well, maybe you can. You should give yourself permission. What do you advise your clients in that respect? I'll tell you, I have some clients that, that, you know, because of their financial situation,

where we would put an annuity together just for them to go on a vacation every year. It's guaranteed they know how much they can spend and how much they, you know, will be coming in, and they will actually use it just for a vacation every year. And then you have the ones that, you know, have enough to get by every month, but they do want to do some traveling. And they will go out and do something where they can. can earn a little bit of extra money where they'll be able to travel. There's there's so many ways that it can it could be done.

But again, it really comes down to what they're able to do and what, what, what, how their mindset is. The mindset is very important. And if you can get them to that mindset where, hey, you know, uh, you can't have fun. You should have fun. Okay, maybe it's, it's a little difficult, but here's what you can do to get that additional income or money or whatever. in retirement to allow you to do those things.

So that's, you know, that's one of the ways we do it. But a big one is I do have clients where we do set up annuities just for an annual vacation. Yeah. Yeah. And you need to, you know, ease up your and give yourself permission to take it and enjoy it and not, oh, we can't spend any more of this money because. So you've earned it. You've worked hard all throughout your career. Take a little bit and enjoy it.

I think that's really powerful. So what are some of these common doubts that people have about their retirement plan? Because I think that if someone sits down and goes, okay, we're going to plan our retirement, put together this retirement plan so we have confidence. What are some of the doubts and misconceptions that your clients before they have a plan have? And then how do you help guide them to overcome some of those doubts? Sure. You know, there's a lot of questions and uncertainty in retirement.

and some of the most common doubts people face, and one of them is the fear, again, as outliving their savings, is very, very common, especially with the rising healthcare costs and longer lifespans. And what I'd ease it is, you know, again, work with a financial advisor to build a retirement income plan and use very conservative withdrawal strategies like the 4% rule. And they can also include guarantee,

income sources like Social Security pensions and or guaranteed lifetime income annuities. You know, those are some of the best ways to be able to take care of those things. You know, I think that people might hear, oh, well, here's, you know, one option of a financial tool you can consider. And our knee-jerk reaction in life typically is, let me go Google it, find it, set it up, done. So what role does professional advice from someone like yourself, what role does that play in helping someone craft that retirement plan and avoid kind of the noise and clutter that they might see, you know, getting 427 opinions online or whatnot? Sure. You know, you know, most retirees are very sensitive to market drops since they're no longer in the accumulation phase of their lives. and, you know, they're no longer working,

and now they're in the distribution phase of their life. So, you know, they should work with someone, first of all, that they trust, that they have confidence in, that can show them, look, you know, if you want to go into retirement, you got to do A, B, and C. You have to be conservative with your money. You have to be smart where you put it. And, you know, what I do is I show them,

the vehicles that they can use to accomplish those goals. For example, and I've said it 100 times, and I don't think there's any other way really to do it other than one of the best ways, I should say, is through a fixed index annuity, which gives them potential upside, zero downside, and can provide them with a guaranteed income

that they cannot outlive, no matter how long they live. So if the person lives to be 120, 130, you never know. even if the account goes to zero because of the guarantee, they're always going to get that income as long as they're living, they and their spouses. So, you know, we look at very conservative products.

We look at very conservative vehicles that will accomplish those goals. I don't feel very comfortable at all, to be honest with you, Mike, you know, working or jeopardizing a person's money when they're in retirement. Yeah. That's my mindset as a, as a, you know, professional in the financial services industry is my mindset is when I say with somebody, it's all about safety.

It's all about not outliving the income. It's all about not depleting their, you know, their assets. And that's how I design everything. And I use several products to do that. And I always make sure that my clients always have some type of annuity with a guaranteed income. in some type of life insurance to mitigate the cost of a long-term care situation, number one, and to mitigate the fact that they'll never outlive their money. That's what I try to do. That's just my mindset. But you have other people out there, their mindset is very different. And they don't look at it.

It's like the tortoise and the hair. You know, if you want to sprint and make big returns, the downside is you might have some big losses. So if you achieve what you just laid out, let's not lose money. keep it safe, let's have guaranteed income, that's a win right there. Absolutely, absolutely. That's my mindset, and that's how I approach every case I work on. That's how I approach every client. I never approach clients saying, hey, let's look at the big returns.

Let's look at this. I just don't, personally, I don't feel comfortable doing that at all. Because I know the reality. The reality is when you subjugate your assets to risk, especially when there's nothing coming in and you don't have the time. I mean, then you're at an age where. You know, it's your distribution aid. There's just no time to make it back.

There's no time to recoup and catch up. Yeah. Yeah. That's my mindset. Yeah, I love it. And I love that you feel care and empathy and for, you know, you don't want to help someone lose the money. How would you feel if some advisor made a recommendation someone lost a big chunk of money? Well, all of your recommendations are based on safety, security, guarantee.

You can't lose there. So I think that is just so spectacular. I like the cookies when the market goes down. Yeah, right. The brownies and the cookies. Yep, send them on because their friends came running to them going, oh, my word, look at how much we lost. And now your clients will be like that client that came in when you were doing your business. Like, I didn't lose anything.

So you make them you're able to make your clients look like a hero. Absolutely. We try our best. We really do. We really do. Well, Alan, how can people reach out and connect with you? and learn a little bit more about getting some of that peace of mind and never outliving their money and just making sure that they've got that retirement confidence.

Sure. They can email us at Allen at SafeMoneyforIncome.com or they can call me on my direct cell phone number, which is 954-270-8972. If I don't pick up, just leave a message or send a text. That's another way. and give me about 24 hours and I typically get back to everybody. And it will be a pleasure to serve the community that's going into retirement and make sure that everybody is doing the right thing for themselves.

Excellent. Well, Alan, thank you so much for coming back on. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you again. Thank you, Mike. It was a pleasure here also. Thank you. You've been listening to influential entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes,

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