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Real World Retirement is a podcast hosted by Alexander Pushman, dedicated to exploring all aspects of retirement planning with the help of expert financial advisors. Each episode dives into crucial topics like Social Security, investing, taxes, legacy planning, and income strategies, offering real-world insights and practical advice. Listeners are encouraged to stay engaged by following the podcast, sharing their questions, and shaping future episodes tailored to their retirement needs.
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;26;08
Unknown
Welcome back everybody. We are, believe it or not, an episode five of the Real World Retirement Podcast. Real Families, Real Solutions. And really, our goal with this is to help educate you folks out there who are, you know, coming up on retirement. Maybe you're already retired, or maybe you're 20 years away, but really, to just give you some real world tips that can absolutely help you in your financial journey.
00;00;26;08 - 00;00;48;09
Unknown
So I'm super excited today. I got a phenomenal guest, mister Joe Wilkinson, probably my my favorite advisor in the Midwest. But this guy is is amazing. Phenomenal father, phenomenal husband, and an absolutely wealth of information when it comes to financial planning. So I'm excited to have you here. Joe. Thank you for coming today.
00;00;48;10 - 00;01;04;17
Unknown
Thanks for having me. Absolutely. I always like to start off, Joe, you know, kind of talk to the the audience, you know, what's your story, you know, why did you get into this? What got you to be a financial advisor? Why do you love what you do? You know, what are you passionate about? Yeah. So, I became an advisor.
00;01;04;17 - 00;01;21;08
Unknown
I first got licensed in 2013, and it was kind of a long road for me to get here. And, it was one of those things where I didn't realize why I was doing it until I started doing it. Okay. So, I remember I met my wife, Katie in 2010, and her dad was an advisor, at Edward Jones.
00;01;21;08 - 00;01;40;02
Unknown
And he had met me, like, three times. And he was like, dude, you should absolutely do this job. You're built for it. And I was like, I, you know, whatever. I didn't do it. And I was working in tax and accounting at the time, and then had went to a tech startup, and worked there for about nine months.
00;01;40;04 - 00;01;57;29
Unknown
And after about six months there in that culture, I was like, all right, let's let's get serious about this. What does it look like? And so, you know, he brought me in and, you know, taught me what a bond was. And I didn't even know what it was at that point. I was just a stock guy. And, you know, I started at Edward Jones, shortly thereafter.
00;01;57;29 - 00;02;20;01
Unknown
And, you know, I when I first started, my main goal was just to provide for my family, right? I was a new dad. Eloise, my first born was, you know, six months old when I started. And, you know, I, I just went out, and I hustled and I tried to meet as many people as possible, and, at Edward Jones at that time, you know, you would have to knock on people's doors, right?
00;02;20;08 - 00;02;39;07
Unknown
Right. I, I did that for like, two days, and I was like, this, this isn't this isn't gonna work. Right. And so I tried to figure out different ways to do it. And it was actually when I went to a lead service, and I talked to the owner of the company, and him and I had, like, a conversation, and he was like, hey, what's your why?
00;02;39;10 - 00;02;57;25
Unknown
Yeah. Why are you doing this? And, you know, we started talking and I thought about it and I was like, went back to my childhood, you know, and I remember, you know, when I was in seventh grade and the youngest of five kids, my parents got divorced. Okay. They got divorced because my dad was not good with money.
00;02;58;00 - 00;03;13;20
Unknown
Right. He made enough. He was an administrator at a public school. My mom was a teacher. But they had five kids and lived in Ann Arbor. Right? It was wasn't a cheap place to live. And, at some point, it got caught up where, you know, we could no longer afford to keep our house. They didn't stay married.
00;03;13;20 - 00;03;38;16
Unknown
So the seventh grade, I had to switch schools. My parents divorced, moved into a really small condo with my mom and sister at that time. And that, like, that was sort of like the essence of what pushed you to get interested in this. Because I remember my Aunt Karen, who was always a savvy investor and, very successful woman, came up to Michigan from Florida, helped me furnish my room, help us furnish the the place.
00;03;38;18 - 00;04;00;28
Unknown
And when she was leaving, she gave me a Janice Henderson mutual fund book and, subscription to the New York Times. And, she was basically like, hey, you better learn this or else, or else you're going to be on that road. And, you know, when I started thinking about that, I was like, you know, if if I had knocked on my dad's door 30 years ago and he listened to me.
00;04;01;00 - 00;04;24;02
Unknown
Yeah, he never would have filed bankruptcy. My parents might have still ended up apart, but it wouldn't have been for that reason. Right? I wouldn't have went through this life that I lived that, you know, for a couple of years was really tough, a lot of struggles. And, you know, my, my high, as I call it, is if I can stop that cycle for my people.
00;04;24;03 - 00;04;39;14
Unknown
Yeah. Then I fulfilled my purpose as an advisor. And I love that you you know, I think a lot of people think, oh, a financial advisor. I have to be rich to talk to one. You don't. Right? You know, like, if you're a kid starting out with 100 bucks, I'll talk to you. I tell you what to do.
00;04;39;14 - 00;05;07;14
Unknown
I won't take you on as a client, but I'll tell you what to do. You know, and and for me, it's just I can help anybody if they're willing to listen and do the work. Absolutely. And that's a powerful story. And it's interesting because to your point, it's it's so funny because, you know, as as I've obviously been in the business and met a lot of different financial advisors, it's like it's usually a very close proximity of something happening to a parent, a grandparent or whatever.
00;05;07;16 - 00;05;29;25
Unknown
And it's like, you know, and I always use that reference of like, it's like the long term care thing for us as advisors. People usually don't ask unless they've watched it happen to their parents. You know what I'm saying? Like that close proximity to something taking place for you. So that's that's an amazing story. And obviously tell us a lot about the passion that you bring, you know, to your clients, to the business and overall like again and I you know, somebody would know this out here.
00;05;29;25 - 00;05;44;27
Unknown
But like your moral compass around the business is so strong and it makes a lot of sense that it feeds back into that, that, you know, with your focus. I think at the end of the day, my moral compass and my view on ethics is, would you do this for your mom? Right. Yeah. The answer's no. Then you don't.
00;05;44;27 - 00;06;09;25
Unknown
Don't do it. And you hate your mom. But yeah, I love my mom, so. Right. So I know you brought a pretty, pretty unique and a very, powerful case study, of a of a family. And so, you know, when we talk about the four seasons of investing, that's really the topic of today, the four seasons of investing.
00;06;09;27 - 00;06;35;22
Unknown
And we're really basically breaking down, you know, from when you're an early earner to your in your peak accumulation years to that retirement transition. And then lastly, that kind of legacy handing the money off. Right? So there's kind of when we look at it as profession, we're breaking people's, you know, age situation into these four seasons, which help us give advice on what they should and should not be doing right now.
00;06;35;22 - 00;06;56;09
Unknown
This case study that I think we're going to start with technically drops into the third season. Yeah. Somebody is retiring. You know, they're in retirement and what that looks like. So if you don't mind kind of jumping into the story. Yeah. Of I know the you know, I know it's going to come I know it's, I know it's a hard it's it's a hard strike.
00;06;56;10 - 00;07;20;22
Unknown
Yeah. So, if you want to tell them. Yeah, I think that'd be a great place for us. Yeah. So I was at, Plymouth, Michigan, like community center. I did a social Security seminar, and, you know, in the audience, there is a guy, you know, you you if you grew up around people that were old or you've ever watched somebody go, you can kind of tell, like, that guy's close to going home, you know?
00;07;20;24 - 00;07;43;11
Unknown
And so he was there with his wife and it was me and Laura back then, Laura used to do seminars and, you know, they booked an appointment, and, Don had stage four pancreatic cancer. And, you know, he was such a cool dude. Nice guy. Not afraid to go. You know, it's I think at a certain point, we all got to deal with mortality in a way.
00;07;43;11 - 00;08;04;09
Unknown
And, he had his faith, and his only concern was, I want to know that my wife's going to be okay. And so, you know, we we we went through our process and, you know, with me, typically if someone says, hey, I need some variables to this plan, I'll build them as many plans as they need. So built them a plan and said, hey, here's what I hope happens.
00;08;04;09 - 00;08;22;22
Unknown
I hope this gets cured. I hope you live. I hope you can travel and do everything you want and and here's the bad, the bad side if that doesn't happen, right? Yeah. Right. So we had some pretty sobering conversations and he was like, you know, I don't think I have that long. Maybe a year left to live.
00;08;22;24 - 00;08;46;06
Unknown
I said, okay, well, let's make the best of it. And, they had they had about $1 million. And, you know, obviously when we're when we're talking about allocations and we're talking about risk, now, it it's such a nuanced subject, right, where, you know, if someone looks at me and they're like, dude, I'm, I'm going to be gone in a year, like, I need you to do something for my family that I don't know how to do.
00;08;46;07 - 00;09;09;15
Unknown
Yeah. And so I built in the income plan, and, I found a product. You know, there's, there's lots of products out there that are available, right? There's lots of different investment vehicles, but I found one where, if we deposited the money into this product, they would give us 20% upfront. And if he passed away, that extra 20% would go to his wife.
00;09;09;17 - 00;09;34;09
Unknown
So we ended up putting, you know, $800,000 into that and then the other $200,000, into some growth assets and, after that meeting, man, I remember him, I remember him saying, you've given me solace to go. And he hugged me. And that was the last time I ever saw him. And, you know, I called him.
00;09;34;12 - 00;09;56;17
Unknown
I called him a month later, and, and I was like, hey, we have to, you know, we have to deliver this policy to you guys. When would it be a good time for you and John to meet? And, she said was funerals yesterday. So, you know, what do we do? You know, and, I freaked out because I was like, oh, we didn't deliver this.
00;09;56;17 - 00;10;25;03
Unknown
Yeah. Like what happened? Is it null and void? And the company was like, no, it's good, it's in force. Everything's fine. But we we made that woman $160,000 in 28 days, right? You know, real money, tangible money with the death benefit that came back to her. And, you know, knowing that she got that and, working with her in the years since, every time she meets me, she she obviously got emotional.
00;10;25;03 - 00;10;42;13
Unknown
Right. I'm an emotional dude, but, Yeah. I mean, every time we meet, she gives me a hug, and she always just says, thank you. You. You know, you have no idea how much peace you gave to my husband. Like, if we wouldn't have came to that seminar, we wouldn't have met you. He would have died afraid, right?
00;10;42;13 - 00;11;06;17
Unknown
And, he didn't. And, you know, for me, beyond why I started doing this, it's stories like that where, you know, your legacy is what you leave behind. And, you know, everybody imagines themselves old in a bed with their wife or husband next to them going close together. But oftentimes that's not the way it shakes out. So for her, you know, we increased her net worth significantly.
00;11;06;19 - 00;11;27;20
Unknown
We've grown her asset sense and we've given her the ability. You know, she's like, well, I want to keep working. You don't have to at this point. Right. We've we've replaced a couple of years of gains, you know, from your income plan growing at that rate. And and that one just always sticks out to me because, you know, you can grow people's assets and they don't even say thank you.
00;11;27;20 - 00;11;45;29
Unknown
You can beat the market. They don't say thank you. You can save them from absolute catastrophe. You can fix their taxes. You can do all these things. But seldom do you have somebody that like, is genuinely like, you changed my life and we change lives every day. But very seldom do you get that recognition. And you know, that will always stick out to me.
00;11;45;29 - 00;12;00;12
Unknown
And I, you know, I'm thankful that I was the person that was able to help him because it it changed the way I looked at a lot of stuff too. Yeah. And and, you know, it's like the way I see that from like a third party, obviously I'm in the business and I deal with it too. And I know exactly what you're talking about.
00;12;00;14 - 00;12;21;01
Unknown
But like, you know what I would say again, if you're somebody out there listening and there's a medical situation in your family, with your spouse, with it, with, with a parent, the most important thing. And I beat this drum all the time. It's like, you don't know what the options are unless you're educated on those options.
00;12;21;04 - 00;12;41;15
Unknown
And so if, if, if you're somebody out there who, you know that that that story pulls a heart string again, I just want to encourage you, please reach out to us, engage with us. One of the things and, you know, we got guys and gals with hearts just like gold all around here who genuinely want to do the right thing and honor fiduciary.
00;12;41;18 - 00;12;56;29
Unknown
And that's the technical term. But really, it's just about having a strong moral compass. And, you know, and I would go out on a limb and ask this, they probably had no idea those type of products and investments exist at clue. And unless you're in the business, you're not going to know. And then here's the other side of that story.
00;12;57;02 - 00;13;12;23
Unknown
There's thousands of them. Who's the best one? Who's the worst one? Right. Like that's the type of stuff that it's our job to sift through to give you the family or the person. That type of advice to say, hey, here's kind of the top three. This is why I'm going through these and this is where I think it makes sense.
00;13;12;29 - 00;13;28;24
Unknown
And then giving you the ability to make an educated choice. So if you feel that's you or you have questions around that, again, it could be a parent. It could be a brother or sister, a coworker or a child or your spouse. Please engage with us. You know, make sure you're liking us on social media for financial group.
00;13;28;27 - 00;13;47;11
Unknown
But also do not hesitate to email, send us an email, drop us a comment, a message on social, whatever's easiest for you. Because these are the type of conversations, like Joe's kind of highlighting that allow us to make a big impact in people's life. But you don't know it unless you open that door, right? You got to take a step and open that door.
00;13;47;11 - 00;14;17;13
Unknown
So I just like to encourage that because, again, I know all the stories I've had Joe in the same light. That one is very rare for the simple fact that happened so fast. Yeah. You know what I mean. The what? The crazy thing about it is, you know, there's so many things out there that'll promise that. Yeah, but there's stipulations and guidelines and every, you know, if you're if you're using certain types of investments for certain reasons, there's a lot of caveats, that can be had inside of those contracts.
00;14;17;13 - 00;14;39;05
Unknown
And now we specifically researched it. I think I'm going to talk to you about this one. I was like, hey, I need something where like, if he goes in the first year, it's still valid, right? And I know we even brought my yeah, you know, into it. Yeah. And, went a to to to to verify but then be on the back and making sure that they did what they said they were going to do.
00;14;39;05 - 00;14;57;12
Unknown
Yeah. And they did. And yeah, I mean there's not, not a, not a lot of time that goes by where I don't think about that family. And, you know, it's, it's an interesting job because, you know, sometimes people just see a dude in a suit. And I always tell people if he's running stock, it's. It's the only time you'll ever see me in.
00;14;57;12 - 00;15;15;25
Unknown
Want him a regular guy? Yeah. You know, and helping them and helping everybody is, you know, equally important. But that story just really sticks out. Yeah. I appreciate you sharing that, man. That's a powerful, powerful story. And again, getting back to the whole real world, that's a real world scenario. You have to have a tough conversation with somebody.
00;15;15;27 - 00;15;29;25
Unknown
Nobody likes talking about dying. Yeah, that's not a fun conversation. You know, I and I won't share the whole story, but I had a very similar case where, you know, I sat down the family, they're like, hey, he's terminally ill. He's going to be dead in two years. How do we how do we claim our Social Security, maximize it?
00;15;29;25 - 00;15;49;23
Unknown
What type of investments do we put in it? That's the stuff where, you know, there's a ROI on that knowledge that we've had. And, most of it comes through experience. Yeah. You know, you do something a couple thousand times, a couple hundred times, you're like, okay, I get it right. But it's not like, you know, it's I always joke around with clients, whether it's a nurse or a firefighter, an executive.
00;15;50;00 - 00;16;09;20
Unknown
If I were to step into your office, I'm lost. Yeah. I don't expect you to be an expert. Yeah, you know what I mean? So let's kind of go back to the Four Seasons of investing. So that's kind of a third season. Somebody who's retired and they have a medical situation. And again, we could dive into that. But let's start with season one of of life.
00;16;09;20 - 00;16;29;08
Unknown
Right. You get a new job. You got you. Hey, you're starting to make money. What are some tips and advice and some best practices that you would give to somebody, again, maybe in their 20 to 35 range who's earning. They're not at their peak years yet, but they need to start somewhere and build a foundation. What types of advice would you give that?
00;16;29;08 - 00;16;52;21
Unknown
Again, obviously the caveat is everybody's different and we're going to do different things with risk tolerance and all that stuff. You know, there's the asterisk, but what are some best practices you would encourage? So my mom's dad, his family left Ukraine very when he was very young. Right. They were. Yeah. Basically escaped and, famous thing.
00;16;52;21 - 00;17;13;01
Unknown
My mom always said that. He said that his parents. That is the only thing nobody can take away from you is your education. So number one, education, whether it's a trade, whether it's college, whether it's going and working under someone at a company, if you want to be successful, if you want to have money to save, you have to get educated in what you want to do.
00;17;13;06 - 00;17;33;25
Unknown
Period. Amen. Right. Yes. Bill gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college their freshman year. That's why there's only two of those guys, right? You got to figure out what you want to do, right? Get educated on how to do it. Well, that's the first step. For people starting out, if you're in your 20s, you know, 20 to 38 range.
00;17;33;27 - 00;17;52;24
Unknown
What I always thought was the best advice was, obviously, if you're at a company that's giving you a 401 K, you do, you do the 401 K and you start with the Roth version of the 401k. If you think you can't afford to save money into that, you can if at a minimum take whatever they're going to match you.
00;17;52;24 - 00;18;12;12
Unknown
So they say, hey, we're going to give you a 3% match. If you put in 3%, put in the 3%, my my recommendation would be 10%. Right? Right. You know, we give 10% to ourselves if you're spiritual or religious, you give 10% to your church. It's it it's a lot. But you, you get used to it, right?
00;18;12;12 - 00;18;31;18
Unknown
Right, right. And again, you know, it's it's kind of like, funny story. I know someone that lost a bunch of weight. Right? Right. So how'd you do it? And they said, well, I took a plate of food that I would normally eat, and I took 20% off the plate. They lost, like, 100 pounds. Right? Right. And it's inversely with wealth building.
00;18;31;18 - 00;18;55;21
Unknown
It's the same way where we're, we're kind of programed to work with what we have. And once you get used to it you make ends meet. Right. And so for the young people out there 10%, you don't even have to get complicated. And that's one place where I see people really screw themselves up is you know they go on Wall Street bets or they go online and they try to get rich quick.
00;18;55;21 - 00;19;17;09
Unknown
Right? That doesn't happen in real life. For 99.999% of people. Exactly. You're best off going into a growth asset, you know, investing in the S&P 500. And this happens a lot. People will send their kids into me and I'll tell them, I'll talk to your kid, but I'm not going to charge them to manage their money because they're in that growth and accumulation phase.
00;19;17;11 - 00;19;35;21
Unknown
Here's the three things you need to buy. Call me when you get married. You're probably going to need some life insurance. Go online and get it. I'm not going to sell it to you. I'll tell you how much to get. Right? What I do and specialize in is more. Once you've accumulated your assets, how can we protect them and make sure that they last beyond your lifetime?
00;19;35;23 - 00;19;52;02
Unknown
Right. But in that early stage, you know, it's really important. And for that second stage. Right? Because we're going to get there over the people listening in that second stage. Right? I want my kids to have, you know, I want my kids to not have to worry the way I worried when I was, you know, 18 through 30.
00;19;52;04 - 00;20;19;20
Unknown
And, I don't know the exact stat. Maybe we can link it later, but, it's something like if you invest $3,000 a year for your kid from the age of, like, you know, 6 to 18. And a Roth IRA, $3,000. Right. So that's a 12 year period. You're talking 36,000 bucks versus a person that starts saving at 25, putting away like 6 or 10,000 something crazy.
00;20;19;22 - 00;20;39;05
Unknown
The person that started that early for their kids. Their kids can never save money. And by the time they're 65, they will have more money. Right? And the person that started in their 20s is investing more. And, you know, that to me is like when I saw that, I was like, okay, you know, that's that's a that's a lot of money for a lot of people.
00;20;39;05 - 00;20;59;02
Unknown
But it's a worthwhile investment for your kids if you know, if you're in that second stage and trying to encourage them, right, you know, on what to do. Amen. And so, first and foremost, hey, if you got a match at work, make sure you get that match. In a perfect world, you're not taking just the match. You're doing 10% right.
00;20;59;04 - 00;21;23;10
Unknown
And then the second thing is, okay, you did the match. You did maybe the 10%. But if your employer has a Roth option, making sure you're doing the Roth option for obviously you and I know, but basically, hey, your IRA is tax deferred. Yep. Right. Your your Roth IRAs tax free. Yeah, exactly. So we're always going to encourage that tax free dollars above that tax deferred dollar.
00;21;23;13 - 00;21;44;27
Unknown
And so think about it in light of and one other thing that I would add to is, you know, look at your monthly budget and to your point, Joe, of like saying, hey, I have 10% that I'm going to be putting way out of sight, out of mind. Right? It's out of sight, out of mind. If if you're used to getting it right from the get, you're going to spend it, you're going to spend it, it's gone.
00;21;44;29 - 00;22;02;26
Unknown
But if you're not used to getting it, you know it's wild how that stuff works. So. So first season of life. If we can get into a Roth phenomenal. Make sure you're hitting the match. In a perfect world, you're doing 10%. Yep. And where do you invest it? A very generic. And again, if we were talking to you, you know, one off or you want to reach out, we're going to give you a little bit more specific.
00;22;03;00 - 00;22;22;26
Unknown
But a great place to start is investing in like an S&P 500 ETF. Yeah. So you're at your spire right. You know a lot of people like which is the Nasdaq right. We're yeah yeah. And you know where we are in the world right now. Right. And you know 100 years ago it was the Dow Jones for the last you know, 50 years it's been the S&P.
00;22;22;29 - 00;22;46;29
Unknown
Nasdaq has been kind of the darling lately because we're in a tech world and it's not really going to change less. And it's not going to change. So you know, so long term I think people need to look at long term trends. And most people aren't built to look at long term investing trends. But, you know, I've known some really successful investors in my life, and one of the best pieces of advice someone gave me is look about you, right?
00;22;46;29 - 00;23;06;10
Unknown
Look around your surroundings. What's in the fridge? What's what's Darius drinking right now? I was drinking a Coke, right? Right. Coke owns a lot of stuff. So it's Pepsi, right? There's like. Right. And so, like, what are people buying? What are people consuming? What is, you know, you know what what's going on in the world around you. Are those companies available for you to take ownership?
00;23;06;13 - 00;23;33;05
Unknown
Correct. Right and right. I think being able to do that, what I like about the S&P is the 500 biggest companies in America. You know, America has had a pretty good run. I think it's going to continue. And the 500 biggest companies here are probably going to continue to be good companies to own, grow and right. The big thing people make mistakes on and investing is, you know, 20 years ago somebody might have said, man, Nokia makes all the cell phones going all in on Nokia.
00;23;33;05 - 00;23;54;24
Unknown
And Nokia might have been in the S&P 500 in that time. Now they're nobody. Right. And a company that made colorful computers back then is the number one phone supplier globally. Nobody saw that coming. So the diversification you get by just saying you know what, I'm going to let economics handle my investments through the S&P 500. You're going to get diversification into all those companies and be an owner and all.
00;23;54;25 - 00;24;09;25
Unknown
That's a great point because like one of the things I talk about with clients all the time is like the seasons of investments, right? And I won't go to too deep on it, but it's the concept of, you know, a simple way to look at is a pay a visit if it's cold outside. Right. I'm not walking outside in a bathing suit.
00;24;09;27 - 00;24;30;28
Unknown
Oh, it's so Michiganders, you know. No, it's it's right. But but, opposite. Hey, when it's super hot out, I'm not going outside with a parka hat and winter boots. Right. And the the market and investing is a similar note. Hey, if their interest rates are rising, it's probably not a great time to own bonds. You know what I'm saying?
00;24;31;05 - 00;24;52;15
Unknown
Like bonds and interest rates have an inverse relationship. Right. So understanding that and to your point, a very easy beginner way to go about is, hey, just keep investing in the top 500 companies in the United States. And that's a pretty economically sound strategy. Yeah, right. And yeah, I think a lot one of the biggest disservice as I've seen is in advisors.
00;24;52;17 - 00;25;09;19
Unknown
You know, people don't understand what these target date funds are. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Like when I started working I was like, well I'm going to get rich quickly. So I'm probably going to retire in 2030, right. In 1987 it's not going to happen. Right. But I see people that are like, okay, I want to retire in 2040.
00;25;09;21 - 00;25;27;21
Unknown
So I'm just going to buy the 2040 fund. Like if you're no, like buy, you know, don't do that. Right. Walk the walk through how the target funds for those target funds right. Everybody wants to retire when they're 50, when they start working. And then after a while they realize that it's it takes more than 10% to do that.
00;25;27;21 - 00;25;55;20
Unknown
Right. And so people erroneously pick these target date funds thinking, well, I'm going to retire this year. That's when I want to retire. That's not when you're going to, though. And so in those funds, they're designed for people that hit retirement age in that year. So like if I'm going to hit, you know, 65 years old in 2052, right, then I would pick a 2055 target date fund.
00;25;55;22 - 00;26;26;18
Unknown
That being said, as you age, those funds add bond allocation, which takes away from the equity performance. If you look at bonds over the last 20 years, they haven't really done that much. Right. Especially not a bond fund because you can't they're they're picking the bonds for you. And so people that have been in those funds, I actually sat down with a couple, you know, about two months ago that came to one of our Michigan events and, they're in the 2035 Vanguard target Life Path Fund, whatever.
00;26;26;20 - 00;26;46;26
Unknown
They have made 16% over the last five years. Yeah, right. The S&P is up 26% this year, right. And so it's had they had they had someone managing it where they just said, you know what. We're going to stick with the 6040 or the 7030 or the 8020. Because these bonds it's not the time to use the bonds.
00;26;46;29 - 00;27;06;29
Unknown
They would have substantially more money. Right? Right. And that's approving. And basically, hey, the closer you get to the year. Right. So like if I pick the 2025 fund right now, they have almost all but it's almost all bonds. Yeah. Right. And just again a really simple education is bonds are the safer investment. Right. Which isn't always true.
00;27;06;29 - 00;27;29;26
Unknown
They're not safe. Safer. Because again if interest rates spike you can lose money. But equities right. Or stocks right S&P 500. That's more of the growth category. So the closer you get to the year the more safety and the less risk you're hypothetically taking in that. Exactly. Yeah. And I think, you know, there's a great quote by Benjamin Franklin where he says, you know, those who give up, freedom for security often get neither.
00;27;29;28 - 00;27;54;03
Unknown
Right. And it's very similar in investing where if you go 100% for security, chances are you're not going to get a great huge return like you would in equities. Right? That being said, there's a time and place for security, and there it's a needed part of every portfolio. But in that young stage, you know, if if the market drops 30% tomorrow, our jobs are going to suck for a while, right?
00;27;54;03 - 00;28;09;12
Unknown
Right. We're going to have a lot of phone calls and a lot of scared people to talk to you. Right. But for me personally and for you personally, we got time. I got a lot of time. I'm looking at a buying opportunity. That's that's a buying opportunity. It's like. It's like if you go to your favorite store and everything's 30% off, you're buying, right?
00;28;09;12 - 00;28;30;15
Unknown
Right. And so, you know, as you get, as you cross through those seasons of life and those seasons of investing, you know, you you have to be aware of what you need to protect. And one of the old adages, you know, was, hey, subtract your age from 100. So, you know, I'm 37. And whatever's remaining should be your allocation to equities, stocks or growth.
00;28;30;15 - 00;28;54;10
Unknown
Right, right. But I'm I'm almost 40. I'm not going to be in a 6040 portfolio because that doesn't align with my risk tolerance. Right? I think where a lot of people go wrong is they they take this layman's advice as gospel. All right. I've seen it happen. Oh. Wait. Right. My my mom listened to Susie Orman, took her money out at the bottom and bought CDs.
00;28;54;12 - 00;29;14;11
Unknown
Right. She missed out on five years of riding back up the market. And, you know how many people did that, right? Right. Exactly. Or they're better off being in it, or they're better off being protected from an oh eight level of that with part of their money. Right. And so, when you're young, you're young, you only get to do it once, and that's the right way.
00;29;14;11 - 00;29;37;27
Unknown
It should be for growth. Long term thinking. Put it in the account, forget that it exists. Go to work every day. Find someone you love, get married, have kids. There you go. Bang. And. And on that note, if risk is something that you're worried about out there, again, I'm going to encourage you. Please reach out. We can we can kind of highlight and go over what type of investment options, would make sense for you if you do have concerns about the market.
00;29;37;27 - 00;29;53;17
Unknown
Hey, what are my best safe and or safe investments and what are the pros and cons of those? I mean, that's the conversation. That's the education piece too. So if you do have concerns about the market, again, drop us a line, send us a comment, send us a message. You know, we're here to support you and educate you on those subjects.
00;29;53;24 - 00;30;11;28
Unknown
And it's funny because when when you talk about that, you know, I then start thinking, okay, well, let's kind of dive into the second season, right? You're now let's just call it 35 to 55, right? Yeah. You're, you're you're making more money. You know, you probably you probably may or may not have kids. So things are more expensive.
00;30;11;28 - 00;30;30;10
Unknown
Right? So there's a there's a give and take. But what are some best practices. You would you would just kind of throw out there for somebody. And again I know there's some similarities to that beginning part, but what are some best practices you would throw out for that kind of second season of life higher, higher money coming in probably have more opportunities for savings and investing.
00;30;30;12 - 00;30;50;26
Unknown
Yeah. So in that second season, right, you everybody's different. But if you're if your wages are increasing and you're and you're a homeowner right. It's different for everybody. So my personal experience. Right I can speak to my own experience of that because again, I, I hate that generic I do too. I totally agree with oh, buy a house.
00;30;50;26 - 00;31;13;13
Unknown
It's so hard to give a totally blanket answer, you know, so in my experience, it was it was very tough to continue saving, acquire a house, get married, have kids. And it wasn't until this career really started getting rolling, that I was able to do these things. So I speak on it from a point of privilege, and it's a blessing, right?
00;31;13;15 - 00;31;32;13
Unknown
But for me and for people I advise that are in this period, you have to commit to almost like when you're working out. Right? Like if you have a personal trainer, your next lift is going to be heavier than your last one, right? And you're going to get better results, and you're going to get to where you want to go faster.
00;31;32;15 - 00;31;56;15
Unknown
When most people are exercising, they pick the weight they're comfortable with, and they stay there their whole life and wonder why they're not getting results right. It's very similar with investing in the sense that if you keep it at that 10%, sure you're going to be fine. But like if you move it up to 11 over a one year period and then 12, like if you say, hey, over this over this time period where I'm 35 to 45, I want to go from 10 to 20, right?
00;31;56;18 - 00;32;16;24
Unknown
Right. By the time you're at that 45th year, you'll now be at 20%. And you'll have you'll have conditioned yourself to get used to it. You might even be maxing out your 401k at that point. More than likely, you will be if you make over six figures, and so conditioning yourself to get to that point is important. And the sooner you start doing that right, the sooner you're going to be better off.
00;32;16;25 - 00;32;36;23
Unknown
Yeah. For people with kids, I mean, the 529 is huge. For some people, they use, you know, whole life or universal whole life, you know, there we can get super into the weeds on that. But again, I think just a blank kind of like when I tell people about Roth conversions, I'm like, there's actually a lot of other strategies.
00;32;36;26 - 00;33;00;05
Unknown
We're not going to get into that during a seminar. So to keep it simple, invest something for the children, right. You can be in a non-qualified a, you know, uniform transfer to minors account 529 they all have different things that are really beneficial. But if your family is the type of family where the kids have to go to college after graduate college, and that's what you require and want as a parent, then it's the 529.
00;33;00;07 - 00;33;13;10
Unknown
The benefit of the 529 is if your kid, you know, says, you know what, dad, I really I love I want to be an electrician or I want to be a plumber, I want to go to, you know, I want to go to dance school in New York. Whatever. All of that money can still be used for all those things.
00;33;13;10 - 00;33;31;08
Unknown
Right? So those are all that's like my like the big thing. I say, if you have kids, make it happen. And I mean, when I always was born, you know, just side story, my daughter got diabetes when she was 18 months old. We had just bought a new big house. I had a new car and thought I was like, living high on the hog.
00;33;31;08 - 00;34;01;01
Unknown
I'm like, a life's great. And then, pal, you know, my wife stops working, and I. I emptied an IRA at that point. And so one of the, one of the things I learned at that point. Right. Was everything shouldn't go into the Roth in the IRA. So I know I say save 10% into the Roth IRA, but also have some money in a savings account or a brokerage account where, you know, everybody likes to think there's not going to be this bad event, but it happens sometimes.
00;34;01;01 - 00;34;21;09
Unknown
And, you know, nothing hurt more than me taking an IRA. I worked for for ten years down to zero just to keep my house and to keep my car. But during that time period, the one thing I never stopped funding was the 529, because I was like, I'm not a good dad. If I'm not doing something for my daughter, you know, my son now has the same, same deal.
00;34;21;11 - 00;34;40;14
Unknown
So those two things are big. The other thing that's big and, you know, during that 35 to 50 stage, you're still in that accumulation phase. But there's going to be a point probably closer to 50, depending on where you fall and where the market's at, where there's a year that just makes you want to throw up.
00;34;40;16 - 00;34;59;05
Unknown
All right. That's why that's when the protection stage begins. That's when that season begins, you know, and it's and it's to say there's four seasons, right. That if you lived to 100, there's four, four quarters basically. Right. When you're in that second quarter, you should still be focused on accumulation. You should still be focused on an equity style investing.
00;34;59;08 - 00;35;15;16
Unknown
And it's probably at the later part of that where you want to go build a relationship with a professional. Right? Yeah, absolutely. You know, if you should have one already, if you, if you went and got life insurance or, you know, things like that, that should be part of that cycle that people are going through. Yeah.
00;35;15;16 - 00;35;30;25
Unknown
And and you know, for me, one of the things I always talk about with kind of that, that accumulation phase because, you know, I'm 40 years old, right? I'm, I'm, we're in that kind of I was at your birthday party right. We're we're in that phase, right? Yeah. And so like, one of the things I always talk about it, a lot of times clients will be like, hey, will you talk to my kid?
00;35;30;28 - 00;35;51;04
Unknown
I've told him 50 times, but hearing it from another voice, who's in the boat, it usually lands differently. And I usually outline, hey, here's kind of 6 or 7 things you can do. Yeah, right. Take the match. You can max out your your your Roth or your foreign. Okay. Then you go into like a non-qualified brokerage account, right where that's where the capital gains and all that.
00;35;51;04 - 00;36;06;19
Unknown
But that's kind of like that can be an extra emergency bucket. Absolutely. It doesn't have the 59.5 rule, right? Yeah. Then you get into real estate investing. Hey, are you interested in rentals? Are you looking at the Airbnb market? I know my wife and I've obviously gone deep into that. And so I talked to a lot of people about that.
00;36;06;21 - 00;36;22;03
Unknown
Then the insurance, hey, you indexed universal life, whole life. Right. All those other insurance policies. And then lastly, there's like the private placement piece, right. Hey, I got a buddy open up a coffee shop, you know, or or, you're doing something that, again, it's more like, you know, those are high risk because you don't know if they're going to make it or not.
00;36;22;04 - 00;36;40;25
Unknown
Yeah, but we start going through like the list of eight. Where are all your options. Right. Like what can you do. So then let's go to the third season and hey you're you're you're you're close to, you're nearing retirement or you're retired. Yeah. To your point, I couldn't agree more. That's when you definitely want to start talking to a professional because now it matters more than ever.
00;36;40;25 - 00;37;02;15
Unknown
You don't get do overs. Yeah, right. Like, you know, it's a joke, but if it's a harsh reality, you get this wrong. You're either going back to work or you're moving in with the kids and and either those are great options. Nobody wants either of those. Yeah, nobody wants that. Right. Yeah. So, you know, I would say the third and the fourth season, we could probably spend 2.5 hours on each.
00;37;02;15 - 00;37;22;03
Unknown
Yeah. But maybe 1 or 2 tidbits a day or you're walking into retirement. You know, I know one of the things I always say is like, hey, if you can, if you can minimize losses for the first ten years of your retirement, your probability of success aka not running out of money goes way up right? So like that's one thing that I talk about.
00;37;22;05 - 00;37;43;16
Unknown
What what would be, you know, hey, you're retiring, you're close to retirement. You just retired. What would be a couple things that you would throw out to make people think about, hey, I should be doing this. So just should not be. You know, there's we break this down into four seasons in this in this episode, but, you know, wealth accumulation, you know, from a planning perspective, there's accumulation, production, distribution.
00;37;43;17 - 00;38;07;07
Unknown
Right. When you're in that, you know, third season, you are now officially in the protection phase, right. And so you more than likely have, have or are close to paying off debts. You're more likely having better cash flow. Your kids are probably moving out. You're done saving for college, right? It's at that point where you put savings into overhaul, right.
00;38;07;10 - 00;38;27;21
Unknown
Where you start, if you haven't maxed out or you're not used to it, where you start doing that right for the final ten years. When you get to those first ten years of retirement, I couldn't agree more. Loss mitigation is humongous. And we talk about this in our seminars. You can look at return sequencing risk. And, you know, for for a dude that retired in the year 2000, let's say, right.
00;38;27;24 - 00;38;51;20
Unknown
If that guy retired in the year 2000 and he had his money in the S&P 500, right, he wouldn't have gotten back to where he started from taking nothing out until 2013. That's 13 years. The last decade. Yeah. So like if you retired at 65, you would be 78 by the time if you retired with the million that you got back to a million sitting in the S&P 500 and didn't take a nickel out.
00;38;51;20 - 00;39;13;02
Unknown
Yeah. And people say you can't beat the S&P 500. I say, well, you also don't want to get beat up by it, right? Yes. And so yes, growth is going to be your friend for your whole life. But, you know, your money replaces your employer. And so if you've ever had a crazy boss, you know, those aren't great places to work sometimes versus a stable employment situation, right?
00;39;13;02 - 00;39;33;18
Unknown
That's what you're creating for yourself in those first ten years. And yeah, when I look at that distribution phase, right, if God gives us a long time on this planet, which some people get and some people don't, right. If I get 30 years in retirement, 65 to 95, right, then there's three phases of retirement as well. And so, you know, you're going to have those first ten years.
00;39;33;20 - 00;39;49;17
Unknown
The way I like to advise people is, hey, this is when you're going to be like living it up the most. And, God willing, that second ten year period, you get to do it too, right? I'm watching my mom age. She works out every day. She run, she does yoga, she goes to church, is a deacon. She's in great shape.
00;39;49;19 - 00;40;07;29
Unknown
She's getting that second ten years because of the choices she made, but also in setting up for retirement. We wanted to make sure, hey, you know, we need to make sure that that money's there if you are to get to 95. And so in a 30 year period, right, when people invest in their 30s, they say, oh, well, you know, I'm not going to spend this till I'm 65, so I don't care what happens.
00;40;08;01 - 00;40;25;15
Unknown
That's a way that you should honestly look at a third of your retirement money, right? If you're retiring at 65 and your mom and dad lived in their 90s, you need to consider 30% of your money an incredibly long term investment. The better that third does, the more likely you are going to have a legacy to set up.
00;40;25;17 - 00;40;46;04
Unknown
Right? And so when I'm allocating assets for people I'm a firm believer in, hey, you need to protect something. Here's the seven different things that can protect your money, right. We don't need to get product specific. But there's a there's a myriad of different ways to do it. There's options. And you know, typically what I like to figure out is, all right, why don't you take in social Security.
00;40;46;06 - 00;41;05;27
Unknown
What's that look like? A lot of people don't realize, hey, that benefit on the payment, the benefit on the paper, Medicare comes out of that, as do taxes. Right. So that's not what you're going to get deposited in your bank account. You're talking about Social Security. Yeah. Social security. So when that Social Security payment comes it might say 2500 bucks on the page.
00;41;06;00 - 00;41;28;29
Unknown
But after Medicare and taxes come out it might be $1,800. All right. So let's look at that from a silver perspective. If you need $60,000 and you have $1 million in a 401 K, you're going to need to pull about 40,000 to $50,000 out a year. So how do we make sure that that continues to happen in a stable environment where you don't need to touch your equity allocations so they can continue to grow?
00;41;29;01 - 00;41;55;05
Unknown
Right. And that's sort of what's important to me is figuring that stuff out. And there's so many paths to get there. Yeah, right. There's so many ways. And, you know, that that's the importance of sitting down with someone who's not pushing a product, but pushing a solution to your problems. Right? And, you know, I tell people, hey, here's here's option A, option B, option C all the way to Z, right.
00;41;55;08 - 00;42;13;15
Unknown
What do you feel most comfortable with? What makes the most sense, and what do you feel aligns with you the best? Because we can make anything work. But you have to choose something. Yeah. And, you know, typically the protected part is there to provide income in down markets and to let your equities continue to, to, to go up.
00;42;13;17 - 00;42;31;26
Unknown
Right. And so really season three, what you're talking about is it becomes of of identifying a certain portion that's going to be principal protected. Right. Correct. Where we have no to very minimal risk. Yeah. And part of the reasoning for that, like you know, how I talk about it is we don't know when there's going to be a bad year.
00;42;31;28 - 00;42;56;01
Unknown
Nope. So, so when that year comes, what you don't want to do is have to draw on those higher growth investments. Hey, accounts down ten, 20, 30%. You don't want your monthly draw coming from that. No. You want your monthly draw coming from the thing that didn't lose a nickel in that season, right? So season three is really about diversification 100% and identifying what's my safe bucket, what's my moderate bucket.
00;42;56;01 - 00;43;11;18
Unknown
And then what's that 30 year growth bucket. Yeah. Is that fair 100%. And so like that's one of the things like to your point, most of the time when people start asking us to, hey, we want to sit down, we want to come up with a plan. It's like, hey, hey, this thing's real. It's six months away. It's two years away.
00;43;11;18 - 00;43;32;03
Unknown
And it becomes real on them. And they realized, wait a minute, I don't really know. You know? And to your point, our job isn't necessarily to tell you to do what to do with your money. Yeah. Our job is to educate you on the options to allow you to feel comfortable and make informed choices. Exactly. So third season and again, we could talk about the investments for an hour.
00;43;32;06 - 00;43;49;18
Unknown
But for sake of the podcast, we get into the fourth season a life. Right. You're getting older, you know, it's got, you know, and we you know, we work in retirement planning. So we got a thousand jokes the go go years, right. The slow go and then the no go. So now we're talking about the no go years you know.
00;43;49;18 - 00;44;08;10
Unknown
And this could be 70 to 95. This could be 85. And you don't really know exactly. But it's when things start slowing down and now you're starting to plan for taxes, legacy, handing money down, making sure that you have the appropriate needs if you end up in a home. What are some advice and tips that you would give for that season?
00;44;08;12 - 00;44;27;04
Unknown
I've seen so many people, hold on to their money and not get to see the joy that it can give to their families. You know, I have I have clients across the spectrum. Right. So I have some clients that are like, if my kids aren't going to know, but they're going to be really happy when I die.
00;44;27;04 - 00;44;48;13
Unknown
And I ask them, like, but you're not going to be here. Like, maybe you'll maybe you'll see it in a, in a way, but you won't be here to see it. Yeah. And you deserve to. Right. So like if you're able to have a legacy and that's part of it, I think giving while alive is one of the biggest gifts that you can give yourself.
00;44;48;15 - 00;45;10;28
Unknown
Especially if you have grateful kids and grandkids, if they're ungrateful. You know, there's a lot of great charities out there. But, you know, seeing the joy that that can give, helping your grandkids pay tuition, I mean, I got this client, you know, one of my favorite clients. I won't mention his name, but, he he pays for his grandson's tuition at Michigan.
00;45;11;01 - 00;45;31;19
Unknown
He bought, you know, he bought one of his grandkids a car. And, like, the the pride and joy that he has from being able to do that. Yeah, you know, is why he saved the money. And, you know, I think I think realizing how you want, if you are able to have a legacy, right, if you're unable to have a legacy, we just got to make sure that you have enough money to to continue going.
00;45;31;21 - 00;45;53;11
Unknown
But the legacy planning in that fourth period of life, taxes, trusts, all of these things are going to have different places for different types of people. Right. And so, you know, we we spend a lot of time trying to help people, you know, realize tax efficiency and tax alpha in their portfolios. There's so many different ways to do it.
00;45;53;11 - 00;46;11;29
Unknown
And like I said earlier, we start talking Roth conversions. Sometimes those Roth conversions can be like those cartoons where you're dumping water out of a boat that's filling up with water, right? Like if you're growing your assets and you're converting them, you're you're never going to get rid of all of your assets unless you get really aggressive and into the Roth.
00;46;11;29 - 00;46;38;26
Unknown
So there's trusts that you can use. There's there's different types of insurances you can use. Right. So on a person to person basis, the most basic advice I can give is these are the final years you have that, that we've been given that we know of. And you should spend them doing things that give you joy. You know, and truthfully, the more money you give to your family, the more they're probably going to want to be around you.
00;46;38;29 - 00;46;56;11
Unknown
Right. So. Right. Less less likely to be sad there. But, that to me, I think that's like, the coolest thing that I'm seeing sort of become a trend is, is, you know, give. Well, I'm alive and, you know, as a guy who's not getting anything from my parents, my dad always says, I want you to be sad when I die.
00;46;56;11 - 00;47;20;27
Unknown
So nobody's getting anything right. Being able to do that is like my ultimate goal, and that's. Yeah, me too. At the end of the day, like, that's what motivates me is like, you know, I want to make sure that what I've worked so hard for creates a legacy of generational wealth. And if that's in the cards for you in that fourth season of life, truthfully, that's when an advisor and a team of advisors do their their best work.
00;47;20;27 - 00;47;37;12
Unknown
In my opinion. I couldn't agree with that more. And to your point, it's like, you know, there's multiple things going on at that end there, because usually by that time the writing's on the wall, right? You look at your accounts, you look at what they're spending, you look at averages on growth and like, you know, this is ballpark where we're going to land.
00;47;37;12 - 00;48;00;03
Unknown
You're not getting through it. Yeah. And so what things can we do whether it's an experience it's helping your kids or your grandkids out. Like that's the fun stuff to your point. Like that's a fun conversation to have. And then the fun part for us is coming up with the investment strategy and the tax planning, which, you know, tax planning is a tough one because, listen, I'm not a CPA, you're not a CPA, I'm not an attorney.
00;48;00;03 - 00;48;34;16
Unknown
You're not an attorney. Unfortunately, though, we have these conversations and we know enough to be dangerous and bring the right people in to give the right solutions to where, hey, if we can minimize your taxes, absolutely. And do it in an absolute, absolutely legal and planned matter, that's probably a conversation you should be having, right? Is is is it's not about, hey, like I'm, you know, I'm a law abiding American, but if you had to pin me down and say, hey, Alex, would you prefer more of your money goes to the government, or would you prefer more of your money go to your family?
00;48;34;16 - 00;48;48;04
Unknown
I mean, of course you're going to pick your family, pick everybody, no matter. And that would be my takeaway right there. Family. Yeah. And so it's important we have these conversations because a lot of people again it's the same thing. We always say, how are you going to play a game that you don't know the rules to play.
00;48;48;09 - 00;49;07;22
Unknown
Yeah. And that's where we come into that. And the other side of that is how are you going to play a game where the rules are consistently changing? Yes, right. I talk with so many people that have no idea that in 2026, in Michigan, retirees are no longer going to have to pay state income tax. Yes. And they act like I'm like the their savior for giving them this gullible and for me.
00;49;07;29 - 00;49;32;18
Unknown
And you know, but yeah, I mean, the laws change all the time. Administrations change all the time. And, and very seldom do I see, a retiree who is, is reading that information. Right. You want to you want to do exactly what we're talking about, enjoy your life. And that tax planning piece. You know what I always tell people is they're like, you know, when they come in and we expose their tax problem, right?
00;49;32;19 - 00;49;57;28
Unknown
You say, hey, yeah, you got a tax problem, which is the better of the two problems you can have in retirement. Right. But nonetheless a problem. They're like, why didn't my CPA stop this? Like, well, your CPAs job is to look at this year's taxes and the fiduciary, and the planner's job is to look at the future and help you in a legal, moral, and ethical way mitigate those taxes.
00;49;57;28 - 00;50;19;17
Unknown
Right. There's there's tens of thousands of pages of tax code, and about 100 of them are on how to pay your taxes. Right. So, and, you know, and it it can happen for the regular hardworking American person that's W-2 employee. You can follow the same rules that Warren Buffett and Jeff Bezos are following. You just have to know how to follow on.
00;50;19;17 - 00;50;42;23
Unknown
And. Yeah. And and to me, like there's this article that I read a long time ago when I was like, why am I doing this? What value am I providing? So the average financial advisor adds about 3% of value to your portfolio for every year you work with them, whether it's through tax advice, whether it's through minimizing investing mistakes, whether it's through efficiencies, they create whatever right.
00;50;42;25 - 00;51;04;03
Unknown
When we do this Roth math, I see people saving 70%. Yeah. Of what they would have paid in taxes like hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars. And, you know, that provides value and that allows you to create that legacy. And again, I think, you know, that's the besides love. That's the best gift you can give to your kids and grandkids.
00;51;04;03 - 00;51;25;12
Unknown
Absolutely. And it's funny because I remember I showed a report once to somebody on the on the Roth stuff and they're like, is this legal? You know, they were like, is this legal? I was like, it is 100% legal. And they're like, why? Why would the IRS allow this keep taking place? Now, obviously I don't work at the IRS and I one over ten, but the other side of that coin, when you think of it is like, well, they're like, hey, you're paying me the tax now I will take that.
00;51;25;12 - 00;51;43;04
Unknown
Yeah, like Gigi Wentworth. Yeah, he's my money. I want him out. Give me my money now, like I don't I don't think you know, I don't know this, but I'd imagine the government does have a problem with paying that tax. So, you know, you know, kind of wrapping up, you know, we've kind of gone through the four seasons of investing throughout somebody's life cycle.
00;51;43;06 - 00;52;04;05
Unknown
Is there any kind of, again, you know, best practices or tips or kind of closing statements that you think would be important that the audience would hear, you know, just knowing the wealth of information and how many people you've helped. Again, I think we kind of covered them. But, you know, don't get caught up in the day to day movements of the market.
00;52;04;05 - 00;52;24;05
Unknown
I mean, you're investing with the trend over a very, very long period of time, God willing, right. And as if you're starting at 25 and you've got a 40 year window, right? Who cares what happens in the market tomorrow? You know, if you're if you're 60 and you're retiring in 2 to 5 years, ten years, whatever. Yeah.
00;52;24;05 - 00;52;46;09
Unknown
The day to day starts to matter more, right? And everything starts to matter more as your time gets shorter. Which is why, you know, I stress to people, hey, if you're, if you're five, ten, even 15 years out from your goal date of retiring, if it's not me, just make sure it's somebody that follows that moral, ethical, legal guideline and you'll be in great hands.
00;52;46;09 - 00;53;08;24
Unknown
Now, you know, I think the biggest thing that changed my life was, you know, what I went through as a young man and, the advice that my aunt and mom gave me, just coming from their backgrounds of save 10%, get an education, you know, was the best advice I ever got, even if I didn't follow it that closely.
00;53;08;26 - 00;53;28;01
Unknown
It took me a while to get to 10% because, you know, it was. I graduated college right after the Great Recession, and it was tough. But yeah, those are my biggest pieces of advice and I think, don't beat yourself up. Right. If you're not making a lot of money in your first job, don't be afraid to get a new one.
00;53;28;04 - 00;53;45;10
Unknown
If you're late to the game in retirement, if you've gone through a divorce, if there's so many circumstances, we see there's literally always a path to get you to your goal, right? And again, I like to, like, make the references to working out right. Like, the best thing someone can do to lose weight is get off the couch.
00;53;45;10 - 00;54;08;20
Unknown
The best thing that you can do to retire, to get to your financial goals is to start just doing something. Yeah. You know. Yeah. And and one thing that I know you have been a big advocate for, for anybody staff at the company, people you're talking to your clients is also take the manual piece out of it and set it up to where it's a monthly occurrence.
00;54;08;20 - 00;54;26;03
Unknown
It's automated. Right. We we live in you know, we we live in the future. We are living in the future. And and you can you can click a button and set it up to where it automatically happens. So make sure that whether it's biweekly, monthly or quarterly, you have something set up with those savings and that investing that's taking place.
00;54;26;03 - 00;54;41;26
Unknown
So you don't have to manually do it. You don't have to manually go write a check. Like those are the little things that are going to land, whether whether you're 20 or whether you're 65 and you got five years left. Wherever you are, make sure you're taking that manual component because life happens and this is never going to be your top priority.
00;54;41;26 - 00;54;59;00
Unknown
You have a job, you have a family of things you want to go enjoy. You know, this isn't going to be something that, you know, unless you're hyper organized, which, you know, God bless those folks who are. But that would be one thing. I would also just add is that I know Joe's always been a big, big component of his is set it up to where it automatically takes place.
00;54;59;03 - 00;55;19;07
Unknown
Don't be don't be doing it manually. So, wrapping up episode five, the Real World Retirement here. I hope you're enjoying this journey with us. I hope you're getting some good stuff. First and foremost, I want to thank you, Joe, absolutely, for sharing your story and, you know, pouring a little bit of, knowledge out on us.
00;55;19;10 - 00;55;38;01
Unknown
And, we'll see you next time. Real world retirement. Make sure you're engaging with us. Follow us. Make sure if you have questions, you know, anything that we're talking about. If you have a specific question, do not hesitate to send to us, again in an email. Connect with us on social media. We are here, we are available and and we love what we do.
00;55;38;01 - 00;55;49;03
Unknown
So thank you will see you in the next episode and have a phenomenal day.
00;55;49;05 - 00;55;57;10
Unknown
If bye. Guys 744.