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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;22;15
Unknown
Let's say, you know, I hit the nail on the head. I put together a perfect plan to get you out of debt and, you know, start to contribute and everything else. If we're not changing the habits that got you into this, the last thing I want to do is have to do it again.
00;00;22;17 - 00;00;47;22
Unknown
Welcome to real world retirement. We're in episode two, and, you know, real world retirement. What are we doing? We're talking about real situations with real families. In retirement. And the things that you can do to educate yourself, but also make sure you're being proactive. I am super excited. Today. I have, Adam Spheres who is, well, top advisor.
00;00;47;24 - 00;01;08;05
Unknown
This guy has spent an extensive part of his life, actually, in the real estate world, and then transitioned to financial planning. So he has a phenomenal perspective of multiple industries that I'm going to really, try to carve and dive into today. But, Adam, do me a favor. Let these folks kind of know your story. What?
00;01;08;07 - 00;01;29;22
Unknown
What got you into financial planning and being an advisor? Yeah, that's a great question. And first, just thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here. So you know a little bit about my story. You know, my, my parents were divorced when I was very, very young. So, with that, I saw two very different philosophies on money.
00;01;29;24 - 00;01;53;13
Unknown
Okay. You know, there was three of us kids. My mom raised us most of the time. And, you know, on one side of that coin I saw, my mom was a teacher. Never made great sums of money. But, you know, she always stuck to a plan, always had a plan. You know, so much so that I would sit at the kitchen table and watch her balance her checkbook to the penny.
00;01;53;13 - 00;02;10;04
Unknown
And that meant a lot. There wasn't a lot of pennies to go around the good old days. It was not a lot of pennies to go around. So, but she, you know, she'd always stuck to a plan. And so because of that, you know, she's been retired for 20 years. And, you know, that affected me, affected me so much that that made a career out of it.
00;02;10;04 - 00;02;29;07
Unknown
But, then on the other side of that coin, you know, I saw my dad, which, you know, he became very successful in his 40s. But, you know, didn't really have a great plan laid out. You know, there was a certain point in his life where he was probably, you know, as any entrepreneur, probably spending money as fast as he made it.
00;02;29;07 - 00;02;47;22
Unknown
Right. And so I never really had retirement in mind. And, you know, because of that, you know, don't get me wrong, my, my, my father still loves what he does, but I think there's a part of him that maybe still has to work. Right. And so, you know, I saw both sides of that. And again, it did really did fundamentally affect me.
00;02;47;22 - 00;03;14;00
Unknown
And how could I set people on the right path. Right. You know, how could people, you know, really understand can I retire or what are some of the inhibitors from me retiring? And so, you know, early on in my finance career, I kind of did that on a real estate and lending and really helping people. You know, whether it was buy that first home or kind of create that first step to generational wealth.
00;03;14;03 - 00;03;35;10
Unknown
But with that came, you know, a very kind of in-depth understanding of debt. Yeah. And, you know, good debt. Bad debt. Yeah. And I bring that to, you know, my financial advising practice because I do sit down with a lot of people that are, wondering about the debt load they carry. And so that's really what got me into it.
00;03;35;13 - 00;03;53;08
Unknown
And that's a really interesting story. And that makes a lot of sense. So you have two polar opposites, right? You have your mom who's not making a ton of money but is a very diligent planner, right. And very proactive about what do I want. So what I want my life to look like when you pull that trigger and then you hear your dad.
00;03;53;09 - 00;04;14;14
Unknown
Yeah. Who's maybe a larger earner and didn't do as much planning ahead of time. And so you got to see two very different perspectives, which is oh yeah, very unique. Yeah, very much so. And again, it's I'm not saying that there was, you know, one was ultimately better than the other, but it, it does give me a level of understanding because even inside of a household.
00;04;14;15 - 00;04;32;18
Unknown
Right, right. I think we see that. And you've probably seen that even inside of a household, there's typically a larger breadwinner. Absolutely. And then maybe someone that doesn't earn as much and, you know, how are you allocating those resources and, you know, you'd be shocked at sometimes it is the person that isn't earning as much that has saved more.
00;04;32;19 - 00;04;49;06
Unknown
Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. The squirrel right away. Correct. Winter. Right. So, on on and on on the debt piece. That's a great segue. I think, for us to jump into kind of some of the case studies that you had brought to the table today. Yeah. And just so everybody knows again today we're going to be talking about debt.
00;04;49;13 - 00;05;06;15
Unknown
And, the name of the episode is going to be The Game of Debt. And again, it's phenomenal because Adam was giving me a little bit of a recap before we jumped in. And we were just talking about, I mean, how often people are asking, should I pay off my house? Yeah. How do I handle this debt? Oh, right.
00;05;06;15 - 00;05;26;25
Unknown
Credit cards. Yeah, I get that question. And credit cards are one thing, right. And obviously, you know, we're we're really coming out of a very high interest rate environment. Yeah. Right. You know, mortgage rates weren't great credit cards that, you know, interest rates were going up. You kind of felt like people were gouging it and there was less access to credit.
00;05;26;25 - 00;05;50;22
Unknown
And we've kind of seen it as a nation, you know, our our debt grow right. Individual household debt really grow. And so I have noticed in my practice and meeting with people that it can be a very large inhibitor towards retirement, right outside of credit card debt and mortgage debt. You know, there's parents that did parental plus loans and, you know, help put their kids through college and now they're on the hook for their kids are done.
00;05;50;22 - 00;06;10;27
Unknown
And, so, yeah, so, you know, there's a couple of cases that come to mind. But more importantly, kind of want to stick on the housing one. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Right. Because that's one of those things where, you know, the thought process I wouldn't say is wrong. Right. Like not carrying debt into retirement. I don't think that that the thought process is wrong.
00;06;11;00 - 00;06;31;28
Unknown
I think it's maybe misguided. Okay. Right. So, you know, again, we're coming out of a high interest rate environment. But we were right before that in a very, very low interest rate retirement. And if you were one of those people that took advantage of that, right, refinanced your home, maybe you're at, you know, sub 3% or 3.25, right, right.
00;06;31;28 - 00;06;50;12
Unknown
And so, you know, I sit down with, with couples and they're like, yeah, we you know, we've been putting an extra $500 a month towards our mortgage. And, you know, as a as I spoke to you about it earlier, sometimes it's just a simple math equation. Yeah, right. You know, if listen, if this was the A's. Yeah.
00;06;50;12 - 00;07;11;11
Unknown
You know, and okay, first off, crazy times. Yeah. But if this was the 80s and, you know, you had purchased your first home and your interest rate was 11, 12, 17%, I had somebody tell me 19.4. Yeah. Exactly. Right. Like that is that is an absurd amount. And, you know, you feel like you just only put money towards interest, right?
00;07;11;11 - 00;07;35;20
Unknown
Right. But you and I know because we talked about like we refinanced during that time and you know what our interest rates were. And again talking to couples about that, it's you know, listen if you're at 3% right, and you're putting an extra $500 a month towards your mortgage, I simply ask this question, right. You know, do you think that if you were to put that money in the market or put it even into, you know, a CD or anything, right?
00;07;35;20 - 00;07;59;25
Unknown
Do you think you could potentially make more than 3%? Right. And that's what I say is at some point it can be a simple math equation. Absolutely. And the thing about your home is when I talk to people about debt, you know, again, it's not for everybody. But what I'll say is I'm okay with carrying debt into retirement on an appreciating asset.
00;07;59;27 - 00;08;20;08
Unknown
A home, a second home. That's an appreciating asset, right? You're gaining equity, right? No matter what. And I tell them I'm like, listen, add a 3% interest rate. I would not be in a rush to give the bank back their their principal. Right, right. You know, people say that interest rates that low, it's almost free money now.
00;08;20;10 - 00;08;43;17
Unknown
Now I know it's not. But again it's you know we're kind of getting into taglines. So that's what I would say is you know let's assess each case by case right now. If you're carrying $50,000 in credit card debt and you know your interest rate is 24, 25%, that's the debt I do not want to take into retirement.
00;08;43;19 - 00;09;02;02
Unknown
Right. And that that bad that bad debt. Right. And, you know, that's the stuff that, you know, you could pay $500 a month towards that and you're not even cutting into the principal. Right? Right. You know what I mean? Like that's those are the the inhibitors. Those are the different types of debt. So, yeah, specifically around the house.
00;09;02;02 - 00;09;19;00
Unknown
And I don't know if you've had, you know, clients that that come into you and ask that also and they say, listen, I just want to lower. Yeah. What my monthly outflow. Right, right. And again, it's like most of the time when I see that it's people have a goal. Right. Well, I had a goal to have my house paid off by the time I retired.
00;09;19;03 - 00;09;35;28
Unknown
And, and it actually has nothing to do with math or the quote unquote financial planning. No, it but it's a personal thing, right? Correct. I know you had a couple specific cases and kind of stories. Yeah. Do you maybe want to dive into one of those is a good segue. And then we can kind of keep keep that moving on that one.
00;09;35;28 - 00;10;00;28
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. So specifically we'll just call them, you know, John and Jane Smith. All right. So you know, specifically they had, you know, kind of to go back to my dad. Yes. Right. You know, living outside of their means. Right. And, you know, during your accumulation phase when you're earning money and maybe putting money away, maybe not, you know, that.
00;10;01;00 - 00;10;30;04
Unknown
I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it seems a little bit easier when there's still checks coming in. Right? Right. And people have gotten themselves into trouble. Absolutely. But kind of the extensive planning that I put together when we went through their income plan and I factored in their debt load and, you know, I, I looked at all their statements, I looked at the outflow of cash that just went to debt and, you know, luckily, this gentleman had put together a spreadsheet over the last year about what he was paying and what he was paying towards and everything else.
00;10;30;07 - 00;10;58;04
Unknown
And again, one of the words I used was was misguided, right? You know, he wasn't tackling the highest interest rate debt first. He was just kind of spreading everything out thin. Yeah. Right. And so I sat down with them and I just said, hey, here's if we're going to create a path forward. Right. If we're going to, you know, get you out of this situation so that you can retire in the next seven years, whatever it was.
00;10;58;06 - 00;11;26;08
Unknown
You know, let's put together this five year plan and let's start tackling this bad debt. Let's start tackling highest interest rates first. And, you know, really getting that down. And, you know, again, the other thing that we potentially looked at and don't get me wrong, this is not for everybody. Right. Is, you know, the equity that you might have in your home because I'm going to go back to that thing of lesson debt on an appreciating asset I do not have a problem with as an advisor.
00;11;26;10 - 00;11;48;05
Unknown
Now, again, interest rates are high and I'm not telling everybody to run out of debt and get a home equity line. Right. It's not true. It's not professional. But you know, again, going back to that simple math equation, right. You know, if I if you have the equity equity in your home and you know, you could get a home equity line for, you know, the interest rate is far less than the high interest rate debt that you're paying down.
00;11;48;12 - 00;12;09;08
Unknown
Sometimes that does make sense. And it can it can speed that process up. And again it's tying debt to one secured debt. It's based on a hard asset in an asset that's appreciating right. You're not tying it to you know a car that's a depreciating asset. Right. And credit card debt is unsecured. It's not there's nothing backing it.
00;12;09;08 - 00;12;32;28
Unknown
Correct. And so, you know, we really laid out this kind of multi-tiered, 3 to 5 year plan to put them in a place that one, you know, after the first two years, they could start contributing to retirement again. That was the big one. Okay. Right. Okay. So this outlay of cash was not just going towards debt, it was getting the debt down to a point where now we can start contributing again.
00;12;32;28 - 00;12;56;10
Unknown
So now this put us on our seven year retirement time. Got it. So so this is interesting though Adam, because what you're talking about is, you know, a lot of the time it's like there's not a plan in place on that because really because, hey, it's not like anybody likes talking about that. Right? It's not a fun hey, the stock market, the buys though, there's are the fancy and sexy fun conversations in financial planning.
00;12;56;10 - 00;13;17;14
Unknown
And that's not one of them. And so you're saying hey listen you. And again you're doing a math equation. Yeah. Hey, this is what we're going to pay for this amount of time towards this debt. We're going to be here in one year here in two years. And and basically you're just setting up to where, hey, over this amount of time, we're not only going to clear the debt, we're going to start saving and then X, right.
00;13;17;14 - 00;13;38;08
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, you and I, you say this all the time. You know I'm going to let the math and data will tell me you know let it let it tell us what to do. Right. Right. And as advisors, you know, our, you know, at the core, our job is to present the math and the data and say, here's what we should do.
00;13;38;10 - 00;13;55;13
Unknown
Now, at the end of the day, it's your money, right? But here's what we should do. And here's what the math. And here's what the data is telling us. And here's how this not affects, you know, not only affects this year of paying down debt or the next year. Here's how this affects the next five, ten, 15, 25 years of your retirement.
00;13;55;13 - 00;14;15;00
Unknown
You know, and that's so powerful to have those visual aids. And I'll again lean into the math, science, economics and data. Yeah. To tell you this story or at least give you the options to then educate the family. And and what I would also is just, you know, to encourage families out there who might be listening or an individual, who has problems with debt.
00;14;15;00 - 00;14;35;05
Unknown
Right. And you don't know how to tackle that. That is exactly what we're here for, you know, drop a comment in here, make sure you're you're following us on on social media, focus financial. And we're going to do our best to educate you. But this is a community and I know how important it is to you. I mean, going back to your parents, going back to my grandparents.
00;14;35;05 - 00;14;55;14
Unknown
Right. What's what got me in the business is we are here is a resource. So do not hesitate. Like like our page is follow us. We're always going to be giving you a great information. But on top of that, if you are somebody who needs some help and you need a debt plan, not fun. But the debt plan is what leads to that retirement, that savings, that income plan.
00;14;55;20 - 00;15;09;19
Unknown
If you're somebody out there and you're trying to figure out, man, should I pay off my house or not? Again, please reach out to us, send us a message, comment. That's what we're here for is to help educate. And we're going to put you in touch with a great professional, just like Adam here, who's going to be able to do this.
00;15;09;19 - 00;15;30;03
Unknown
Because your experience matters, right? You do something 100 times, a thousand times and the numbers will reveal themselves. Yeah. And the kind of the last piece I'll, I'll add to this. Right. Kind of the last piece about this, the debt thing is even I could put together the perfect plan. Right. Let's say let's say, you know, I hit the nail on the head.
00;15;30;03 - 00;15;54;27
Unknown
I put together the perfect plan to get you out of debt and, you know, start to contribute and everything else. If we're not changing the habits that got you into this and I. That's that list. I'm no psychologist. Right. But identifying those right, identifying those triggers or identifying those habits that got you into this situation, now, some of them might not be habits, some of them could have been life.
00;15;54;27 - 00;16;17;22
Unknown
And it's unavoidable, right? But in most of these cases, I have found that it's it's these habits that that put us into this situation, identifying those. And you know, changing habits is one of the hardest things to do in life, right in there. But, you know, really focusing on that because, again, if I put together this perfect plan, not they're not all going to be perfect, but let's say it was and, you know, we stuck to our table perfectly.
00;16;17;25 - 00;16;44;17
Unknown
The last thing I want to do is have to do it again for you in five years. Right. That's and I can't I can't talk about the planning side without talking about the habitual or mental side of what got us. Absolutely the root of the cause, if you will, 100%. And so let me ask you another question, because, again, I, I love always talking about the mortgage stuff and the debt stuff, just because I know you've helped out so many different families in that space when it comes to paying off.
00;16;44;19 - 00;17;03;25
Unknown
You know, because like, I'll give you a scenario and then do me a favor and just kind of give me your intake from from knowing limited information. Yeah, yeah. So I had a client, the, the other day that I was talking to, they have a mortgage. They owed about $95,000. Right. They're retiring. I think they had somewhere in the neighborhood of eight $900,000 in the 41K.
00;17;04;00 - 00;17;23;03
Unknown
Okay. And you know as well as I you sit down with somebody and they have a plan like, this is what I plan to do. And then it's almost like we're here to verify a is that a good idea? B is there other options. So okay. Again, it was right around 90, $95,000 in debt. Their mortgage was at about 4.1.
00;17;23;05 - 00;17;39;01
Unknown
Okay. And the first thing they want to do is hey Alex, we want to get rid of our mortgage and pay it off. Didn't have any other debt. So that, you know, is a good thing. Yeah. You know, how do you go into that conversation to figure out should we or should we not do it? Yeah. Is it always going back to what that interest rate is?
00;17;39;02 - 00;17;54;24
Unknown
Is it always going up to the opportunity cost of what we can get. Kind of give me just like what you'd be asking or thinking about when somebody gives you, you know, that type of scenario. Yeah. And that's a great question because there is a lot more tied into it than just interest rate versus rate of return. Yes.
00;17;54;27 - 00;18;11;05
Unknown
Right. Because in everybody's situation is unique. So with that, you know, a big part of our planning is, you know, planning for your income or your income equation. Right. Like I like to refer to it is how are we making up your income? Not just do I have enough for the next? But what do you mean by that?
00;18;11;05 - 00;18;26;29
Unknown
What do you mean by that? So what do I mean by your income equation? Is, you know, during your working years, your income is probably coming in in one way, most people's W-2. But, you know, maybe you're a business owner. I won't get into that. You know, I don't wanna bore anybody, but but you have your one source, right?
00;18;26;29 - 00;18;47;05
Unknown
Yes. And and it's always going to be kind of taxed the same way. Whereas, you know, in retirement, if, you know, you and I and in doing our due diligence and planning and they say, hey, I want to live on this amount, we have that, you know, yearly or monthly, whatever it is, the luxury you have in retirement is you get to choose the sources, right?
00;18;47;05 - 00;19;07;04
Unknown
If you're if your buckets are adequately funded, you get to choose. All right. How do I get to this number now there's going to be some constants, right. Maybe it's Social Security, maybe it's a pension. But how we get the rest the balance right. We get to choose. Yeah. So back to that is it's not as simple as rate of return versus interest rate.
00;19;07;04 - 00;19;27;25
Unknown
Right. It's all right. Well what do you want your monthly income goal to be. Right. And and part of that is is my inference. Part of that is what the you know, their goal is. And then we look at that and then we say, all right, well do you have the assets to reach that goal? And out of that goal, how much of that is going towards debt or mortgage debt?
00;19;27;25 - 00;19;46;14
Unknown
Right. And so if you have the capacity or limited assets or, you know, you have this monthly number in mind and you don't want it to factor in to your mortgage debt or how many years you might have left. Right. You know, then again, it's not that it's an honor answerable question, but I have to bring in all of that data.
00;19;46;15 - 00;20;09;22
Unknown
Right, right. Because so to your point, that's kind of limited. But there's a there's a higher level of planning. And, you know, us sitting down and really getting the ins and outs of kind of, you know, as well as I do, we always plan comprehensively. Right? So I have to factor in your all of your assets and, you know, how are we going to allocate these assets in retirement.
00;20;09;22 - 00;20;30;15
Unknown
Is it going towards mortgage debt or other debt or do you not at want, you know, again if you can have the lowest interest rate in the world. Right. But there's only, you know, $20,000 left on your mortgage. Right. Well you know okay, I get it. You know, maybe don't race to pay that off. But then there's other people where, you know, their interest rate is extremely high.
00;20;30;15 - 00;20;51;18
Unknown
And I'm like, you know, it might make sense. We're getting we're nearing to retirement. You know, let's look at an amortization schedule, right. How many payments you have left. If we were to make extra payments, you know, when does this debt fall off. And then let's calculate that and bring that, you know, that that that expense out of your income plan.
00;20;51;20 - 00;21;13;01
Unknown
Right. And it's getting kind of high level here, but out of your income plan to say, oh, now I have this much in disposable income, I can actually slow down. I might draw right on my assets. So I'm not sure if that answered your question, but it did. And you brought one thing up, though, that I want to just dig into a little bit deeper, because then, you know, there's always those folks out there like, all right, fine, I'm not going to pay it off.
00;21;13;04 - 00;21;40;06
Unknown
Right. How do I just speed it up? And then now, one of the things that, like I do personally, is I'll just usually like, okay, if you took, my monthly mortgage. Right, and called $2,300. Yeah. I will make, like 2 or 3 x, $2,300 payments per year. Okay. You know what I'm saying? And I've heard people that say, hey, if you do an extra, you know, two payments a year, it speeds it up by X.
00;21;40;06 - 00;22;01;05
Unknown
Yep. I've heard other people talk about, hey, I split my mortgage payment up into two payments a month, right? So the insurance doesn't carry what's your take on the some of these kind of like speed up the process strategies. Yeah. And they can and again it always kind of ties back into you know was there a bonus. And should that bonus go to this or you know, how are we speeding it up.
00;22;01;05 - 00;22;22;00
Unknown
And I would always say, you know, one check with your servicer. And I know mortgage servicers change all the time, but, there's a lot of great resources kind of online when it comes to just, you know, amortization calculators or mortgage calculators. Right. And you can run that math and say, all right, if I made two extra payments or if I made three extra payments, right.
00;22;22;03 - 00;22;39;03
Unknown
I'm on a, you know, I've got 15 years left of a 30 year mortgage. Right. You know, it's kind of like us looking at, you know, I can't do the math in my head. It's the same thing as, like, you know, compounding interest rate. It gets. It gets a little dicey. Yeah. After that, after that first two years.
00;22;39;05 - 00;23;04;25
Unknown
But, No. But to your point, yes. And and I've run those scenarios for people saying, hey, you know what your retirement timeline is ten years from now, right? To kind of go back to it and, and your goal. Right. The goal you had was I don't want to carry any debt into retirement. Okay. Well, now we get into let's see what it would take, how many extra payments would it take.
00;23;04;28 - 00;23;24;21
Unknown
And then we have that number. Yeah. Right. Then it's easy to kind of go back and say all right would that number right. The extra payments be better allocated towards your home or towards your retirement. And again that's what brings me back to Got. Well, how is the rest of your retirement funded. Right. Are we underfunded in certain areas?
00;23;24;21 - 00;23;46;10
Unknown
Yeah. You know what it makes sense to put this more towards, you know, an after tax or a non-qualified or, you know, even toward your four. Okay. Are you reaching your match. Right. So, so it's I wish it was if it was as easy as a, as a yes or no answer right then I want, I probably wouldn't have a job.
00;23;46;12 - 00;24;12;18
Unknown
No. Just kidding. But, but no, in reality right. And it is everybody's situation is unique because I could have the exact same people. They have the exact same retirement assets. Their mortgage rate is exactly the same. And the answer could be different for both of them. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. It's a very interesting world that we work and, and you know, so basically what you're saying is with any type of decision around that, you can't just take it and put it in an island.
00;24;12;18 - 00;24;32;01
Unknown
Right. You can't just silo that decision. No. You have to consider all your aspects of okay, what what's what's my what's my for example, what's my social security, what's my pension, what's my inflation rate. What's my Cola. Am I at RMD age am I not? What are my total assets. Are they non-qualified. Are they IRA. Is it Roth.
00;24;32;07 - 00;24;49;19
Unknown
Yeah. Oh what's my interest rate average over the last ten years on investment I yeah like that is what we're you're talking about of like when you say comprehensive. Yeah. You're talking about factoring in every piece. Hey how old are you and what's your medical age? You know what I mean? Like the list keeps going a while. You're while you were saying all those things.
00;24;49;19 - 00;25;07;20
Unknown
Another thing part to me is, is one of the, you know, are you married or one of the or are you with a partner? One is someone going to work longer than somebody else? Is it okay because there's going to be more money coming? Like so many things go into the decision. Yes. And while on surface, yes. Can it be sometimes as simple as a math equation?
00;25;07;20 - 00;25;33;10
Unknown
Sure. But the equation can have a lot of factors. Yeah. And again, just kind of going back to that, I always I you know, encouraging if you're listening. And again your mind's kind of running with questions. Again drop a comment and send us a message. Adam is one of the most passionate guys and financial professionals that I've worked with pertaining to like, really wanting to give the right answer and not just giving the answer to give it.
00;25;33;15 - 00;25;53;04
Unknown
And that's the type of folks that I always want to encourage families to work with is like, hey, don't just take a surface level answer, right? There's more to there's more to the conversation, and there's sometimes you're going to have tough conversations that people don't want to have. Right? Yeah. And the the debt one is it's never an easy.
00;25;53;05 - 00;26;08;10
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. Right. And that's why, you know, we kind of joke around and call it the game of debt because it's the game of debt. Yeah. You know, is it good debt. Is it bad. That is it. Is it debt that we can even tackle right now, or is it going to take us seven years? Yeah. And that's not something fun to hear.
00;26;08;10 - 00;26;41;15
Unknown
Hey it's going to take you seven years to do this. No. And those are the difficult conversations are right. But yeah, to that point it is there's a lot of moving pieces. And just like any, you know, board game or anything else that's that's that. Yeah. Anything else you would want to kind of leave. You know, leave leave the families who are listening in with pertaining to, you know, maybe some, some just unique rules or ideas around that and or like the mortgage space because again, I know, you know, dealing with the lending in the mortgage and all that stuff, like, is there any, you know, kind of little tips you would throw
00;26;41;15 - 00;27;00;29
Unknown
out there maybe. I mean, the main thing is just kind of evaluating, you know, it's it's interesting with what the Fed's doing. And I know that they've kind of cut rates twice now. And a large portion of that I get around that is, you know, if we have debt, should we wait. Do we know if the fed is going to continue to cut rates?
00;27;00;29 - 00;27;25;24
Unknown
You know, where home equity, you know, lines of credit at if if that's going to be factoring into your kind of debt relief plan. And what I would say is, you know, one if you, if you need resources, I have them obviously coming from that industry, I have them, and just, you know, do your research. Right again, it's okay to kind of get those figures of, you know, what would the interest rate be?
00;27;25;24 - 00;27;44;02
Unknown
What would that be? And then bring it back to me. Yeah. Right. Because again, what is the main thing that we do? It's not just about this year or next year. It's I want this I want you to have the data backing and showing. How does this affect the next five, ten, 15, 20, hopefully 35 years of your life.
00;27;44;02 - 00;28;05;24
Unknown
Right? Right. And that's the big one is, is, you know, if you need resources, you know, I can help or if, you know, if you're just saying I don't know if this is the right choice. Well, let's again, let's put some data or some math behind. Yeah. And, and I think to that, that encouragement piece of hey, go you know, unfortunately sometimes somebody will bring you a question.
00;28;05;24 - 00;28;23;24
Unknown
You're like, hey, listen, I got homework for you before I can give you the answer. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Hey, I need you to go get the exact interest rate on what your like would be. And how much will they approve you for? Yeah. Hey. Well, then what's the, you know, and so there's unfortunately some back and forth, but to your point, don't take that surface level answer.
00;28;23;26 - 00;28;41;25
Unknown
Yeah. Right. Because again good bad indifferent. There's good and bad in every industry. Yeah. You don't want people who are going to say, oh yeah, this is the answer. And just to get you out of their hair and quote unquote be lazy about it. Right. You're going to do your due diligence and you have a process because I know I know everything we do is very process oriented.
00;28;42;03 - 00;28;57;21
Unknown
Right. And to your point, sometimes that's going to involve doing some homework and getting a little bit more information. Yeah. And I guess the one main thing that I, you know, would really like people to take from this is I'm not here advocating to load your house up with that. Yeah, right. I'm like, that's not that's not where I'm going with this.
00;28;57;21 - 00;29;20;09
Unknown
And because I know those are the questions I'm going to get, I'm not advocating for that. I really just want to shed light on kind of the overall debt, you know, debt and retirement and, you know, just it's not an easy conversation. But if we start. Right, and you and I know this and I say this is one of my corniest lines ever, but I love it, right.
00;29;20;11 - 00;29;39;14
Unknown
You know, the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, right? The second best time is today. And I really take that attitude when it comes to it's not difficult, but let's bring all the debt or all the negative things that would impact your retirement to light so that we can tackle them. Yeah, I love that and I appreciate it.
00;29;39;14 - 00;29;55;06
Unknown
And again, I can't encourage anybody who's listening out there if this is you, if you have questions around this, that's what we're here to do. You know, talking to us, getting some of these solutions figured out. There's not a cost to that. Like, we just do this because we want to be a good part of a community.
00;29;55;13 - 00;30;12;29
Unknown
And, you know, again, we got great, great families. We serve. We have great clients. We serve. But at the heart of it, it's about education. And so. Yeah. Adam, thank you again. Thank you so much for coming on, sharing some of your wisdom. I'm happy to. And, and that's all good, cuz somebody reaches out. You're more than happy to help.
00;30;13;06 - 00;30;33;27
Unknown
Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. That's what I'm here for. Awesome. Well thank you that that's going to be wrapping up our, our second episode here of real world retirement. The game of debt. We're hoping and join again. Do not hesitate to engage with us. Follow us on social media. Comments. Again, anything you need out there, we are here to support you.
00;30;33;27 - 00;30;56;13
Unknown
And again, if you're somebody who's struggling with debt and or just how to deal with some of that stuff in retirement, do I pay off my house, do I not, and or anything really mortgage or lending related pertaining to the financial planning piece? We're here to support you. Thanks for tuning in a lesson and we'll see you next time.