Welcome to How to Retire on Time, a show that answers your questions about all things retirement, including income, taxes, Social Security, health care, and more. This show is an extension of the book, How to retire on time, which you can grab today on Amazon or by going to www.how to retire on time.com. My name is Mike Decker. I'm the author of the book, how to retire on time, but I'm also a licensed financial adviser, insurance agent, and tax professional, which means when it comes to financial topics, we can pretty much talk about it all. Now that said, please remember this is just a show.

Everything you hear should be considered informational as in not financial advice. If you want personalized financial advice, then request your wealth analysis from my team today by going to www.yourwealthanalysis.com. With me in the studio today is my esteemed colleague, co host, friend, and mister David Franson. David, thank you for joining me today.

Hello. Hello.

Alright. David's gonna be reading your questions, and I'm gonna do my best to answer them. You can send your questions in right now to 913-363-1234. Again, that's 913-363-1234, or email them in at hey mike at how to retire on time.com. Let's begin.

Hey, Mike. I've never worked with a financial professional before. What should I expect?

Yeah. This is, usually when people are hesitant to work with a financial professional, they've heard horror stories of, well, they didn't do anything Uh-huh. Or they weren't listening, or they were just trying to sell me something. And that's very prominent, at least in my opinion, in the industry. There are many financial professionals who are doing a wonderful job selling the product that they're supposed to sell.

I had a friend that worked at a firm, big name. If I said the name, you'd you'd recognize it. They were given a short list of the mutual funds they were supposed to promote that day. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just many times we don't realize we're talking with a salesperson.

There's nothing wrong to try and sell something, but there are differences in the industry. But the the lines are so blurred that oftentimes it's it's hard to detect when you're talking with a salesperson and when you're talking with a consultant. Sure. Let me say that differently. K?

One of my favorite things about Auto Trader

Like the magazine, the website?

The website Oh, yeah. Is that they don't care. Yeah. They just say, here's the inventory of used cars. If you want a used car, here you go.

And, yeah, the others maybe some sponsored stuff, and they'll say sponsored on there and all that. That's totally fine. Right? They need to make money, but auto trader doesn't care what you buy.

You can you have control to filter it down.

Yep. You're filtering it down by your specifications. K?

Yeah. Right.

And if you want more help on that, you know, you you'll look at the car. Maybe you involve a third party mechanic to check it out. Right? Does this make sense? Is it a lemon?

Are there things they're not telling you about the car? I love the neutrality of auto trader. Yeah. Now that said, my last car is a Toyota. My wife and I decided we wanted to buy new.

I don't typically buy new cars. K. K? I'm not a car person, but we wanted to buy a a newer car. She was safe.

We were starting a family. So we went out and bought a new Toyota. I know it's not a financially prudent thing to do, but we wanted the lifetime warranties. We wanted we just it was a decision we made after much deliberation. So we went to a Toyota dealership knowing that we would talk with a Toyota salesperson about Toyota products.

Yeah. And we had no problem with that because we knew what we were signing up for. And we had a wonderful experience, and we love our Toyota and have had no problems since then. That's not an endorsement to Toyota.

They're not sponsoring this. Right?

Toyota is not sponsoring. Nissan does great. Tesla does great. Jeep does great. You know, they all have something a little bit different to offer.

Sure. But my point being is unless you know what you're signing up for, it's easy to get blindsided. And many people in the financial services space want to look like they're a full service space. You know, they they can offer it all, and they they do full planning, comprehensive plan. They use similar terms to create this illusion, when it's not the case.

So I liken it to in the food industry, it's called the health halo effect. They want your food to appear as if it's healthy, when it's actually not that healthy for you at all. It's very similar in this. And so to answer the question, I think it might be best if we kind of walk through what I believe an interaction from a comprehensive financial professional, who is more of a consultant and less of a salesperson to give you the example so you can talk to whoever you you can call us. You can Mhmm.

Vet your own, what you're currently working with. You can look elsewhere. You know, this is for you. Do do what you want with this information, but it may help you target and identify certain red flags that maybe you're being sold something too fast or something that isn't right for you. I wanna set a baseline.

I think that's the best way to answer this question. So let's walk through this, and I'd be curious. Everyone listening in, did you have this experience? Yeah. Let's go through this.

And by the way, why would you hire a financial professional when you could, you know, just trade on Robinhood or your Schwab app or your Fidelity Vanguard, whatever it is. Yeah. You can trade on your phone. You can file your taxes on TurboTax. You can go online and do pretty much whatever research you want.

Right? So why would you hire a financial professional? In my opinion, at the end of the day, it's to get 2 to 3%, at least better performance year over year than what you would be able to do on your own. Mhmm. If you can get more out of your money, net of fees, then why wouldn't you?

The problem is, maybe the professional can do something more than what you would be able to do. Maybe they can't. So let's, let's dive in. In my opinion, you should probably start with a phone call. People are nervous about this.

A phone call is safe. Just have a simple conversation. Because you can't be strong armed in anything or have some sort of fear based conversation on the phone. Because the worst thing that could happen is you just hang up on them. Yeah.

That's not that hard to do. To walk out of an office of an uncomfortable situation is harder to do than hanging up on someone. I think you ought to maybe start with a phone call. Fill it out. Ask questions.

It's just safer. And in the phone call, make sure you set an agenda. What are you trying to accomplish? It's clear as day. Be in control.

Say, this is what I'm looking for. And they may push back. They may not. There may be a conversation. That's okay.

But to walk into a financial professional's office and say, well, I want the best stock. That's the wrong question. It should be, this is the lifestyle I want to achieve. These are the legacy intentions I have. It should start with the abstract, the plan first.

Why that? Because investments in products are nothing more than tools in a toolbox intended to use the materials or the resources you have to build the house that you want. So if you start with products, whether the advisor is talking about products first, or you're asking about research on products first, you've both missed the boat. You start with the lifestyle and legacy conversation. And if you're not talking about the lifestyle you want, legacy you want first, I would say it's a red flag.

So it's very normal for say, well, what does retirement look like to you? When you wanna retire? Why then? People will say, well, I wanna travel or I don't wanna travel. Well, I I hate my job.

Why is that? You need to have a real conversation about what's going on with life. Then if the person is comprehensive, is really trying to get the most out of your money, you don't talk about products. You don't talk about investments. You talk about strategies.

Sure. And this may or may not be in the first phone call. But when you're putting the plan together, you start with the plan, then you look at the strategies, then you look at the investments. Why? Because what if you have all of your assets in a 401k right now, and taxes are gonna be an issue, and you want guarantee for life income.

Let's say you want the annuity. I know that's a swear word on here in the financials. Swear word. You know, annuities, It's just a tool. My entire book, How to Retire on Time, talks about why you may not want a guarantee for life income stream.

Some people want it anyway. That's okay. Yeah. But let's say, just for simplistic sake, you want a new do you want a certain portion of your retirement income guaranteed for life? Wouldn't you like to look at the strategies first to say, okay.

What's the implication of if we put money into an annuity, turned on income stream in coordination with your health care benefits, your Social Security benefits, and your overall tax benefits with also your tax minimization strategies? Because you may want to convert some of the assets from IRA to Roth, put those into a Roth annuity, some of it in a pretax annuity, and do social security optimization and get more out of your money by paying less in taxes. Wouldn't you wanna know that strategy first and those thresholds before you start picking products?

Absolutely.

When you're building a house, do you say, I wanna put up this wall here first, or do you wanna say, you know, I really wanna use the hammer. What can I go hammer right now? Right. There there's a sequence to putting a plan together. It starts with your lifestyle and legacy conversation first.

I think that's the first part of the phone call. And if that's not happening, that's a red flag. Then and this is what I ask everyone. I think it's very important. What do you want from an adviser?

I think it's ludicrous to assume that everyone wants an advisor to manage all of their assets, especially when you've only been talking with them at this point for 10 minutes. Oh, that makes sense. Hey. I just met you. How about you manage everything I've spent the last 30 to 40 years working for?

Well, he was on TV. That doesn't mean he he's perfect. Right? It may not be a fit. He may be smart.

We were on TV recently. Doesn't mean we're the right fit. That's why what do you want from an adviser clearly defined? You know, I want fee only planning. Maybe the advisor is willing to do that.

Maybe they're not. We do that. Maybe I want some of my assets professionally managed and others that I'm managing myself. What would that look like in the relationship standpoint? It's important to say upfront what you want and will the adviser is the adviser willing to work with that or not?

Why not? This might sound blunt or frank or a bit forward, But why not get this out in the open and not waste anyone's time? So I I like that. You know, the lifestyle legacy plan, then you what do you want from an advisor? Define the relationship you're looking for.

And then I'd like to ask, and I think this is important to get it out in the air, who's currently involved with your financial decisions? Are you working with another financial adviser? If so, why is that relationship not working, and why are you talking with this new financial adviser? You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain to openly speak about what's going on. Why?

Because you can hang up anytime you want. Right. If you do end up in the office, you can walk out at any time that you want. But do you see how this sets very clear boundaries for both sides that can be held with civility in the pursuit of trying to figure out what is right, and does it make sense to proceed or not? Yeah.

I don't think anyone's really addressed this, at least from a radio standpoint, but this is this is how I believe it should be because you need to create a a safe space. That's so so cliche. But you need to create a space where you're not stressed. Uh-huh. That you can openly speak and say no.

If you can't say no, you can't say yes. There's always a trade off to everything, and so you need to understand that. And then in the call, maybe dialing into any time frames that you'd be aware of. So did you just lose your job? Are you planning to quit soon?

Is there a medical reason? Are you trying to retire before the end of the year? Are you concerned about tax minimization by the end of the year? You know, any timelines that are concerning, put those out there because you don't need to rush through planning if you don't have to. I ask people, is there any reason you'd feel uncomfortable working with me or my team?

Because we're a small boutique practice. Some people emotionally only wanna work with the big names. That's okay. It just means we're not a fit. No problem.

Some people only wanna work with the boutique practices, the independent people like us. That's okay too. But let's have the conversation. Assuming we can provide services that you want, is there anything lurking in the background that would prevent you from working with us? Why do I ask that question?

Well, sometimes people will admit they have control issues. Okay. Let's have that conversation. Yeah. What what are we really trying to solve for?

If you can't work with someone because you have control issues, then what are we really trying to solve for? And then let's work to that point. Maybe you have trust issues. Okay. Let's address that.

Very difficult, but trust, is built through time. There's nothing anyone could say that would just immediately build trust. Doesn't exist, but time can build trust. So how do you solve for that? What do you really want at the end of the day?

Maybe you have a family member that works in the financial services space, and you you're concerned about breaking up with that relationship. It happens a lot. Yeah. Let's address these things in advance So that we understand what we are solving for. People are often sheepish about admitting to certain things.

It's like going to a doctor and saying, hey, I'm hurting. And the doctor says, where? And you said, I don't wanna say. The doctor can't help you. And if if it's an appropriate call that's not manipulative, that you're trying to figure out what we're solving for, then you can move into a healthy direction based on what is right.

But if you're on a call, and this happens often. Okay. So it says, what do you want? Great. Here's the solution.

And they put together something, and then they say, alright. Are you in or are you out? That's a high pressure situation. You don't have time to think about it. That's a red flag.

You need to kind of explore these things. So if I were to sum it up, if you're looking for a new relationship, whether it's the first time you're working with a financial adviser or a professional, maybe you're looking for a new financial professional, or maybe you're just trying to get more information and you're willing to switch the relationship if it's a better situation for you. Don't start with products or investments. Avoid that at all costs. Don't say, hey.

Here's my portfolio. Can you do better? That pushes the call into a sales call, and it's not helpful for anyone. What you're looking for is the right relationship with the right strategies. And then you can explore the investments and the products.

Some people unintentionally compromise the call by asking a full service comprehensive financial professional to be a salesperson when they really just wanna be neutral about it. I mean, when people say, can you do better than this? I say, I'm not a fit. Yeah. I feel confident in how we manage money.

I feel confident in our models. But I'm not gonna get into a relationship where I'm being leveraged against someone else and and could I don't wanna be asked to compromise my integrity Yeah. To win some business. Just not worth it. And that's what sometimes unintentionally happens.

That's why I wanted to really dive through what a first appointment could look like or a phone call, which I recommend.

Mhmm.

Explore it. Because at the end of the day, if you can find a financial professional that can help lower your taxes, increase your overall income, help lower risk, you know, really get more out of your money. And you're getting 2, 3% more growth year over year than you would get on your own. Why wouldn't you work with a financial professional? The trick is you've got to find one that you can work with based on trust and respect.

At the end of the day, time is your most precious commodity. Do you wanna spend it in fear, or do you like managing your money? Do you want to retire sooner, or do you like your job and wanna retire later? Do you want to explore efficiencies in the tax world, in the health care world, in the, you know, go down the list or not? That's a big part of what why we do things at Kedrick from a comprehensive position because it's all connected.

And unless you know the right questions to ask, you could be leaving money on the table. That's all the time we've got for the show today. If you enjoyed the show, consider subscribing to it wherever you get your podcast. Just search for how to retire on time. Discover if your portfolio is built to weather flat market cycles or if you're missing tax minimization opportunities that you may not even know exist.

Explore strategies that may be able to help you lower your overall risk while potentially increasing your overall growth and lifestyle flexibility. This is not your ordinary financial analysis. Learn more about Your Wealth Analysis and what it could do for you regardless of your age, asset, or target retirement date. Go to www.yourwealthanalysis.com today to learn more and get started.