Mercurio Wealth Advisor, Alan Mercurio discuses how to lean away from your friend's hot tip and focus on The Retirement Pyramid. Your retirement lifestyle is not based on your rate of return on your investments but on the rate of income on your investments.

The base will consist of protected income - life insurance, homeowner insurance, long-term care policies.

The next middle level will include - guaranteed income like Social Security, company pension, portfolio dividends.

The top level of the pyramid will gather your investments and continued growth of your portfolios in the stock markets.