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 you can go to www.howtoretireontime.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 advisor, 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 at Kedrick today by going to www.yourwealthanalysis.com. With me in the studio today is mister David Fransen. Dave, thanks for being here today.

Welcome.

Yeah. David's gonna be reading your questions, and I'm gonna do my best to answer them. You can send your questions in by either texting them to (913) 363-1234. Again, that number is (913) 363-1234, or you can email them to heymike@howtoretireontime.com. Let's begin.

Hey, Mike. When does it make sense to work with a financial professional, and when does it make sense to manage your money on your own?

Yeah. So the answer you're probably gonna expect is work with a financial professional right away. Yeah.

And that's just not the case. I think it's really good that people get exposure to the market and they start by doing it themselves. Mhmm. I think that is a wonderful thing. So in my mind, go to chat GPT, go read Kiplinger or go read these financial articles.

Maybe get some of the, just start exposing yourself to the world of personal finance. There are some reputable influencers out there. Like I don't agree with everything Dave Ramsey says, but he's a pretty smart guy. Whether you agree with him or not, he has some very good commentary from a personal finance standpoint. We've got a a a show coming out soon that we'll be talking about as well, but just, just expose yourself to finance and different perspectives.

Diversify your thought on finance, and then just take one piece of paper, open up a word document, whatever, and just write out the direction you're going and what, you know, how do you manage your cash flow? Just start there. And if you want a good app, download cash flow and capital. We created it to help people develop a healthier relationship with money, but that's how you start mastering your finances is starting with your cash flow and understanding where your money is going. At some point, if you do this right, if you make more than you spend, you're gonna start to accumulate some money just in your savings account.

That's when you then open an account at Schwab or Acorns or Robinhood or wherever it is and start buying stuff. I hope the younger people, they buy a couple of the dumb stocks and they hope they make a couple of dumb mistakes. I don't wish ill on you. What I'm saying is I want you to make mistakes so that you can gain that experience and then build off of that experience. It is so invaluable.

Look, if you're working with a big house, a name you'd recognize from the street. Great. Look at their fees. Look at the mutual funds and the fees. This is how you're starting to develop the acumen for financial planning is just exposure.

At some point though, then you need to start developing a relationship with someone you think can help you get to where you want to go. The only reason. Why you hire a financial professional is that you found someone that you believe can get you a better return year over year over the long term period of time, net of fees than you would on your own. That's the only reason you work with a professional and that could be through tax efficiency. That could be just doing better risk management.

That could be whatever it is. There's a number of, of kids and grandkids that are, you know, 16, 17, 18 years old, opening up Roths with a couple thousand bucks in there. We're not doing extensive financial planning for them, but we're helping them grow their wealth. Then we've got thirty, forty, fifty year olds. It's different people in different phases, but the same thing is with all of them.

Everyone got to a point where they just wanted a competitive edge, and they believed that we were the solution. And so then they decided, okay. Hey. Here's some money. We can do this.

Let's start developing that relationship. And I think that's a wonderful thing. But there isn't really much of a plan there. It's more of a cash flow plan. How do you save?

And then the plan's more about investment. There's an investment plan, an investment strategy. And then at some point, maybe you start having kids. Now you have a financial plan based on loss of life. So you're incorporating insurance.

Mhmm. And do you do term life insurance? Do you start finding cash value life insurance? And do you explore those options? Because one of the worst things you could have as a young father who's breadwinner or a young mother is a breadwinner.

They've got a couple of kids in the mortgage and they unexpectedly pass. Leaving the rest destitute. I mean, it's these things happen. So who is your guide? How involved do they need to be?

And then develop the relationship. So when you're ready to increase that level, maybe you're getting closer to retirement plan and you can say, Hey, I wanna get more detailed. I actually want a written plan and not just a general direction. Hey, I've mastered my cash flow. Now I've got more money.

Can we do, some sort of investment? Do you see how it starts with the person? Yeah. It starts with them making healthy mistakes, which is okay. Just don't break the law.

Yeah. But, and then you're moving in the direction to where you're working with someone who's going to help ask the questions you don't know to ask, get you answers to those questions and then help you get more out of your money. Help you find efficiencies. I know how to change the oil of my car, but I prefer to have a professional do it. I would never perform heart surgery myself.

There are certain things we have professionals do,

right.

But it has to make sense from a fee standpoint. Right. So it starts with the individual, but have a plan, have a direction you're going. And then as the complexities increase, bring them in. Most people, in my opinion, start too late working with a financial professional because they don't feel like they have enough money to work with someone.

Like, no, hold on. You just might not have a comprehensive relationship, but you can still start that relationship. You can start growing your wealth. You can start doing all sorts of wonderful things. You just don't know, unless you ask and you've got to at least start the conversation and go from there.

And look, we're not the only financial professional out there. Yeah. But you gotta interview, you know, it's like your first date's not with your future spouse. Got a date around a little bit. Right.

It's a good thing. You know, everyone's gonna be a little bit different here. I do think you, you start the day you make income and then you increase the relationship based on your needs and the complexity of your situation. That's my that's my official answer. Anything else?

That sounds reasonable. One quick plus thing. How how do we know when you do have this relationship with, with a financial professional? How can we sort of vet them to know if if they're just trying to sell us something or if they truly do have our best interests at heart?

Yeah. If they're asking you questions and they're proactive in contacting you, that's a sign of a healthy relationship. Mhmm. If they're not doing much, I would question I'm not saying it's the wrong relationship. Mhmm.

I would then question the relationship. If you've hired a financial professional with the sole purpose of growing your money in the market and you don't talk that often, I don't really have an issue with that because that's clearly what was defined as the relationship.

Sure. Sure.

If you're wanting to talk about other things and they're not having those conversations with you, then I'd question the relationship with you. Just like there are foot doctors, knee doctors, hip replacement doctors. There's all sorts of different doctors. There are different people that specialize in different things in the financial services space. So it's just define what you want.

And then are you with the right person that specializes with it? Like for example, we specialize in a couple of different ways, but our bread and butter is financial planning. It's how to get the most out of your cash flow and your overall plan. One of our other ones is specializing in active management in the market. So for your qualified accounts, your retirement accounts, we actively trade those and we love it.

And we are very proud of our returns.

Mhmm.

But that's a niche thing that we do here. Right? Right. So everyone's different. You gotta find the person that's right for you based on their specialty and the relationship you're looking for.

Anything else, David?

I don't think so. I think we got it.

And by the way, most people go through five different financial professionals in their in their lifetime. So you're not making lifelong commitments. You're not marrying them.

Oh, right.

It's just like you're dating them for a period of time based on those certain needs, and then you move on. 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.