Insurance Myths That Keep You Broke and Exposed

Insurance isn’t boring—it’s the foundation of your wealth plan. Most people treat it like an afterthought, only glancing at benefits during open enrollment and hoping nothing bad happens. That’s exactly why so many families end up scrambling when life hits them with the unexpected.

In this episode, I sit down with Maxwell Schmitz, a disability insurance and income protection expert, to rip apart the myths and excuses around insurance. We cover the psychology behind why people ignore it, the real risks you’re facing, and why disability insurance is more likely to impact your life than death during your working years.

We break down the most common myths:

• “I’m too young for that.”
• “I’ve got coverage through work, I’m good.”
• “Insurance is a waste of money.”

Max exposes the flaws in that thinking with numbers, stories, and blunt truth. We also dive into why group plans don’t cover nearly as much as you think, why cost isn’t the real barrier, and how insurance fits on the defensive side of your wealth strategy.

You’ll walk away knowing the exact policies to check before the year ends, the one question you should be asking your advisor, and why your emergency fund is the first move if you do nothing else.

This is a raw, no-BS conversation about protecting your income, your family, and your peace of mind. Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aCx9zCcjhII

As always we ask you to comment, DM, whatever it takes to have a conversation to help you take the next step in your journey, reach out on any platform!

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DISCLOSURE: Awards and rankings by third parties are not indicative of future performance or client investment success. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investment strategies carry profit/loss potential and cannot eliminate investment risks. Information discussed may not reflect current positions/recommendations. While believed accurate, Black Mammoth does not guarantee information accuracy. This broadcast is not a solicitation for securities transactions or personalized investment advice. Tax/estate planning information is general - consult professionals for specific situations. Full disclosures at www.blackmammoth.com.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why insurance matters now
• 1:45 Why people treat insurance as an afterthought
• 4:20 Disability vs life insurance: the hidden risk
• 7:10 Myth 1: “I’m too young for that”
• 9:30 Why work coverage isn’t enough
• 14:00 Myth 2: “Insurance is a waste of money”
• 16:20 Reframing insurance inside a wealth plan
• 20:00 The biggest misunderstanding about insurance
• 23:10 Questions to ask your advisor
• 25:30 Two policies to review before year end
• 28:00 The one move you must make today
• 30:00 Closing thoughts – you’re not alone

Transcript

Stoy: 0:22

Well then it's time. It is that time of the year, right? Open enrollment. We all have benefits. Well, hopefully we all have benefits, but a lot of us do have benefits, and that's where insurance really comes into play for most of us. Most of us are not like nerds, like Max and I sitting here thinking about insurance all the time, working with our clients throughout the year on it. Uh, a lot of us, it comes up now and for a couple reasons. One, you think it's boring and you just want to get it over with, but it's one of the most impactful things in someone's life, right? The foundation of their wealth is going to be the insurance side of things. So without further ado, we got our expert Max on. A lot of you have never seen him before'cause he is never been on the podcast before, but he is definitely part of our new collective and is going to be an integral part of that. So, without further ado, max, welcome to the show for the first time.

Maxwell Schmitz: 1:16

Thank you, Stoy. Yeah, longtime listener. First time caller. Happy to be here.

Stoy: 1:20

Yeah, absolutely. And like I've said on the other ones, for the first time, first timers, if you will, we're gonna have his bio, we're gonna have a newsletter come out. We will do a deep dive into him as another episode. But we wanted to get this whole new collective going. And when this one comes out in October, it's benefits season, it's insurance time. And so we really wanted to hit, hit that first. So now that we've introduced the topic, I think people understand it's gonna be about insurance. Uh, I think we've, uh. Hit that one enough times. So let's dive into kind of just an overarching question, right? Here's your first one. Why do people treat insurance like an afterthought? Why is it not on the forefront of their mind?

Maxwell Schmitz: 1:59

Oh my gosh. There's so many psychological biases at play when we think about risk and insurance. I mean the, the one that jumps out the most notably in just my daily conversations is an optimism bias, right? We're sort of wired and it's this evolutionary, you know, ideal where we think good stuff is gonna happen to us and, and that maybe now today is kind of the bottom tier and we're always gonna move up. In fact, there was, I think it was, it was John Steinbeck who was talking about how people are more likely to think that they're just temporarily embarrassed millionaires if they don't have wealth yet or if they're in poverty. So it's, it's just one of those things where we're always kind of feeling the up and up. Risk and certainly disability and death fall right into that category too. So I think that's number one, uh, as far as the objection goes to, to speaking and thinking about insurance.

Stoy: 2:52

Absolutely. And I'll throw in there too, it's kind of like the same thing when people talk about their money. That again, the optimism one, two. If I don't talk about it, then it won't hurt me type of situation. And I see that a lot when it comes to life insurance and, and health insurance. Not so much, but definitely disability, long-term care and, and life insurance of like, yeah, if I just don't talk about it, it's not gonna happen to me. Right. It's, it's not gonna be me. And that is such a poor way of thinking about it. And yeah, people listening, if you don't have any of those policies. And you're healthy enough to get one. You might, you might want to get that now, but when someone thinks of the insurance policy as an afterthought, like we had just said, what's truly at stake when they do think that way,

Maxwell Schmitz: 3:36

I, you know, there's a lot of things that can go wrong. I try not to focus too much on the negative. What we like to really sort of frame things around is the impact to, to one person's. Life so we could talk about the statistics. The statistics are just kind of crazy, especially looking at the disability side. That's where I'm, I'm, you know, kind of carry my expertise so to speak, is, is on the disability, the long-term care planning front. But same goes for life insurance too, except life insurance is a lot more splashy in a certain way because, you know, everybody sees the obituary, they see the post on social media about somebody who's now gone. From the community, from their lives, from their families, and that's, that's just like, that always hits you. And disability is just so much more of an individual silent struggle that not as many people put out there. It happens. I mean, you can't really log on to social media these days without seeing a GoFundMe for somebody's health issues or something going on like that. But it's still one of those things where you're just not, you don't see the person's mental health issues on display like you would see a death. You don't see their back issues and the musculoskeletal problems that come across a claims desk. Cancer's a little bit more visible, but even that, so many people wait until. It's deep into the process of trying to either, you know, reintegrate or really take this fight to a more public level. So there's, there's so much that we don't see under the surface and under the current with the disability that I think is just, uh, it's just a different flavor of risk, but the impact is so outsized because. Of one, the probability there's about one in four of us entering the workforce as 20 year olds will experience a long-term disability more than 90 days at some point during their working career. I compare that to life insurance and, you know, a death during a working career. It's, it's absolutely something that can happen and something everybody needs to prepare for, prepare their family for financially. But you know, it, it pales in comparison to the disability statistics, but it could be just as impactful from a financial standpoint. And that's where I think a lot of people just kind of. Either omit this part of the process in their planning, or, you know, aren't aware quite frankly about what's going on because it's not being brought up by their advisors. The advisors wanna focus on, you know, wealth management and growing assets. And that's just, and it's, that's obviously incredibly important in the financial planning space, but so is that protection of the income because all those assets that you're planning on accumulating down the road, all that is fueled by this, or you know, it's created by this engine of your income. So disability insurance is, is uniquely designed to protect an income and create an income replacement source for somebody who can no longer work just because they, they need a leave of absence to focus on their recovery or maybe because they're completely unable to work for the foreseeable future. So you see this stuff really have an impact on people's lives?

Stoy: 6:34

For sure. For sure. Our next segment's really fun'cause we, we pull from social media to society. The regular asks media and we pose about four questions if they're myths or not. Right? Kind of like MythBuster, if you will in this. So first one, I'm too young for that. We hear that a lot. Anything insurance, not just disability across the board. It is always, I'm too young for that. What do you have to say to that?

Maxwell Schmitz: 6:58

Whew. Uh, yeah, so I, I think about it in two ways. One is the benefit side, so how much benefits at stake when you're younger versus when you're older. Um, you know, if you're making, let's just try to keep this math easy for my, for my brain here, but you say you're making a hundred thousand dollars a year at age 35, and then you've got. 30 more years, right of, of your working career for most people. So a thousand dollars say there's no increases in pay. It's just a hundred thousand for 30 years. That's$3 million. And a lot of people don't realize that that potential, that they're yet worth their future earnings, their human life values, what some people call it. I think there's a little more value to human life than just the earnings, but you, you know, you have this impact that you're not really calculating and tabulating. So that's one side of the equation for saying youth is more important, right? You, you need to take care of this while you're young because something happens to you when you're 26, you know, that's 40 years potentially, you know, of, of, you know, dealing with a traumatic brain injury or some sort of catastrophic scenario that could. That could take you outta the workforce for a prolonged period of time. The other piece is the underwriting side because a lot of people don't wanna confront this, but there is the subject of medical evaluation and eligibility for these benefits, right? Not just anybody can sign up. There is an underwriting process, and I can promise probably 99% of people they are going to be in their best health when they're at age 25. And while, you know, they might physically or like, you know, they might get jacked when they're late, a little later in life or something. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about diagnoses and things that show up in your medical records because that's what prevents people from being able to access this type of coverage later on. So those are really the two main points that I would, I would probably highlight for why it's important to consider this stuff while you're still young and healthy and have a lot of earnings left to, to create.

Stoy: 8:59

And it costs less when you're younger, right? And it costs less all of that. Plus it's gonna cost you less to get started now. Uh, hundred percent. Just like we say when we're investing and everything else, if you just get started now, it'll pay dividends down the road. And I wholeheartedly believe that on the insurance side, specifically the disability side as well. Alright, next one. I just got, I got something through work. I'm good, right? I'm good. I see this one a lot come through both on the life insurance and disability. But the importance of like what work coverage means, I don't think people really grasp. So what would you say to that, that situation where someone's like, you know what, I got through work. I'm good.

Maxwell Schmitz: 9:37

So it's, it's always good to, to, I think, fortify that position and, and make sure that they understand that is an awesome benefit if an employer is extending that. I give them kudos all day long. I'm not one to, to crap on, on those types of policies. There are some things you gotta be aware of if you're relying that on that as your sole income replacement plan. And that, I think that's, you know, that's just something to highlight here is like, you know, you don't think of really a 401k as a financial plan. So you could, you shouldn't really think about just a group disability policy as a disability plan because it's just one component, right? And it's a vehicle for sure for replacing income. But what happens is a lot of the time people just aren't aware of this vast majority of group disability policy. Are based solely on a salary. So for people in sales, for business owners taking distributions, most of the time that that type of income is not even being covered. So you're just looking at base salary. Um, and that's fine for a lot of people. You know, if you're making less than a hundred thousand dollars a year, maybe even less than 150,000. You might be good if it's all salary. Your group disability is gonna be pretty awesome in that situation. But if you have that, that bonus, that commission, that distribution, or even the RSUs that we see a lot these days, you know, again, that equity compensation is a major factor, a major component for your, for your compensation. Um, none of that's covered. And if you stop working for Facebook or whoever, I don't know if we're allowed to say names here, but. If, if, if that's the case and you're no longer getting those, those, uh, grants that were promised to you, um, because you can't work there anymore, that's a huge loss to your overall portfolio, to your financial plan and everything. So that's all insurable on the individual side, but not gonna be covered by a group policy. The other factor, the big factor is the taxation on that. So. Again, the vast majority, nine times outta 10 or more, the group disability policy is gonna be paid for by the employer. You know, that's a, it sounds great, sounds very, um, you know, benevolent, I think when you put it that way. But guess what? They're also taking that tax deduction for those premium dollars that they're spending. So they're getting, they're getting a little bit of. You know, a, a kick, I shouldn't say kickback, but you know, there's some sort of like, it's, there's something in it for them too, right? They get a big, nice tax deduction for all of the premiums that they're paying for their workforce. And so with that. Uncle Sam's gotta get paid somehow. Right? And so since the, the employer's taking a deduction, that means any tax is gonna be collected on the benefits paid from the policy. So if you go on claim and you're collecting your$6,000 a month benefit, um, from your group policy, well, you're gonna have to pay back what, 20%, 25% for some people. So it's gonna be pretty significant to have to, you're already getting 60%. Of, of your paycheck. Typically, that's how these policies are structured. It's like 60 or 66% of your salary up to a certain maximum. So if it's 66% to 6,000, um, you know, you're getting, you're getting that 6,000 if you're earning over a 120 or something like that. So you're getting that full 6,000, but then you gotta pay tax on that. So you're already getting a haircut. You're, and then it's a haircut on top of a haircut. So. Most people I'm talking to, you know, ask the simple question, okay, how much of your paycheck do you need? It's, they almost always laugh because it's like a hundred percent that, what kind of stupid question is that? So it's like, okay, well you're talking about 60% and then you're talking about paying tax on that as well. So it ends up being a lot less than what a lot of people realize. Um, so again, great to have these plans in place. Almost always worth looking at some type of supplemental policy. There's a few other factors like definitions and stuff like that. We can dive into portability. Um, so can you take that policy with you? The answer's usually no. The carrier can, can you unilaterally cancel the policy? The employer can unilaterally cancel the policy. So there's all different other factors that I think you gotta take into consideration as well as like, am I gonna be with this company for life or am I ever gonna maybe consider going out and starting a venture on my own? Or, you know, working for a startup that has zero coverage. So there's, there's all these considerations you gotta take into place before you, like, just kind of rubber stamp it done. Um, you know, I've got my di through work.

Stoy: 14:05

Yeah. Good points. Made all very good points. I'm, I'm on board with all of it. Awesome. This other one is a longer, maybe deeper type answer because. People think about this all the time. Obviously, there's only one guaranteed in life, although people say two'cause of taxes and death, there's only really one and that we're all gonna die at some point. So we're not really talking about life insurance per se when it comes to this, but we are gonna talk about the long-term care, disability, vision, dental, all of the other ones. And this is what people say. Insurance is just a waste of money. Right. I'm not gonna see the benefit from it. Mm-hmm. What do you have to say to that?

Maxwell Schmitz: 14:43

Uh, it, it, I think the, where I usually end up going is, again, taking this optimism with me. It's like we could all be so lucky if it is a waste of money, and, and again, it just comes down to that individual impact. I try not to talk about the statistics, but I think working through a wider audience here, it's always helpful to just sort of touch on that as well, you know? If you're, if you're a financial advisor and you're looking at the stats, you've got a hundred clients in your bank here and you know that you're working with, and 25% potentially are going to have some type of disabling illness or injury at some point, you know, that's something you just gotta pay attention to. And so talking about the statistic I, I don't think is super, super helpful. But really, again, focusing on that impact, understanding if this was a one in 1000 risk where I'm not gonna be able to provide for my family anymore. What are you gonna do about it? I mean, it doesn't even matter that it's one in four. It could be, yeah, one in a hundred, one in a thousand doesn't really matter. If there's action that I need to take to make sure that we're gonna be okay, um, through a very challenging, probably the hardest time in my life. I am, you better believe I'm, I'm taking care of things and, and making sure that we're, we're at least checking that box to, to see what else is out there. Absolutely.

Stoy: 15:59

Next subject of ours is really one of my fun ones because it, it dives into more of your brain and how you operate with your own clients, right? We call this, this topic your point of view, right? And so we really want the audience to understand like how you operate, what you think through how your processes work and regards to these questions and things that you get into. So let's dive into this first one. And, and it's kind of cool'cause it's a little combo of ours. How do you, when someone says wealth plan. How are you reframing insurance inside of the wealth plan? Because like you had mentioned, a lot of advisors stick to, when they say wealth, we're really talking about investments. Investments and, and their business and stuff like that. Right. Less so not myself. Guys. Everyone, listen, it's not me. I said some advisors don't really speak about the insurance. So how do you reframe that for people who, when they hear wealth plan insurance really isn't even part of it?

Maxwell Schmitz: 16:52

Right. Uh, we see this a lot. You know, I work with a ton of RIAs and, and they're all doing great work, truly. But it, it is something that they'll self-identify as a, a, a point of weakness. For their, for their planning in general. So, you know, really the, the whole point I, I think that I try to invoke is that when you've got a wealth manager who's focused on a wealth plan and driving wealth and driving value through investments and assets, I kind of see that as like playing offense. You know, we're trying to score, we're trying to go go hard at. At all this stuff and, and make sure that we're, we're putting people in the right position so that we can get everything in place for that final output, that that touchdown, that victory, whatever. But of course, that's one side of the ball, right? The other piece is the defense. And so we, I mean, everybody understands this to a certain level. I think they just, again, that optimism kind of overrides and they're like, oh, no, but if we just follow the playbook here, it's all good. Without even thinking about like, okay, well what if life takes over and. You have that diagnosis or your spouse has that diagnosis and, and suddenly you're at home caregiving. I mean, this, this happened to my folks too. It's funny because we're, we're a family business. You know, my grandfather started the agency. My mom and dad really built it up after my grandfather passed away pretty young. And so. My mom and dad are doing all this disability planning, and my mom had a lung transplant outta nowhere. So it was something where, you know, this interstitial lung disease, just, it sort of, it started slow, but then it really accelerated and that resulted in a situation where, you know, they had to suddenly, um, they both had to take time away from work. Right? So it's not just, you know, one individual as, you know, a, a financial contributor to the family. There's so much more to this problem of of, of playing defense that I think you've gotta have really a whole sub subset of, of people back there to keep the football analogy going a little bit here since we're we're in October, and in the thick of it, you know, we really gotta make sure that you've got, you know, your specialists out there, the people who just play on one side of the field all the time instead of trying to do everything. Imagine I'm a Niners fan, so imagine Brock Purdy playing cornerback or, or a linebacker. It's just he's gonna get steamrolled all day long. So, um, you know, you see that stuff and, and you, you want the right people in the right place. Absolutely.

Stoy: 19:19

What do you think it is that people misunderstand the most when it comes to insurance, but also disability in general of between the cost and the overall impact? I know we've hit upon it a little bit with everything that we've been mentioning and everything, but what do you think's the most underst misunderstood?

Maxwell Schmitz: 19:37

The most misunderstood, I think around insurance in general. Is that there's people in suits who are trying to screw you. And I think it's something that I've definitely subscribed to in my life before I started meeting a lot of these people and sort of understanding the balance sheets and stuff like that. So I can, I'm skeptic by nature, cynic by nature, but. It's one of those things where if you actually have the curiosity to take a look at this, I'd really try to train people's focus on loss ratios where you see that, you know, a carrier's got a 60% loss ratio maybe, and that sounds like, oh, they're profiting 40%, but really a lot of that is going to reserves into operations and to all these, paying everybody for sure. And there's a CEO making a ton of money, of course. But it's not just to, you know, polish his statute, right? This is all about spreading the risk out. So what a loss ratio is, is, you know, you take a dollar and if it's a 60% loss ratio, they're paying 60 cents of that back out to people in need, right? And, and that's what disability is, especially. It's like these are people going through the most difficult stuff in their life. And so that's, that's the way I see it now. And after paying claims and seeing this firsthand with my mom, we're seeing this really kind of. I, I think that shift is really important for people to understand like, Hey, this is, this is a community aspect. Like insurance is not, it's not, it wasn't invented to screw people over. It was actually invented to help a community out, right? To, to make sure that people were cared for and that they had the resources they need to, to help their families get through life with or without them. I think life insurance is one of the first types of insurance invented for that reason. And you've got, you know, disability, which has only been around for a hundred years now, a little more than a hundred years. And so that's, that's one of those things where, you know, I think we just forget as a society that this is really about taking care of each other. Um, and similar to that, to that GoFundMe type of thing. Right? You've got this GoFundMe mentality out there right now in society. Where it's like, okay, we all need to band together and help each other out. So this is just, it's more like a prepaid GoFundMe, if you think about it that way. Like a subscription based GoFundMe, if there's kind of like a specific thing that's going on and you don't have to petition your community, you just call up the 800 number and start a claim or call your agent to help you start the claim. So, so I think just the, the focusing on the loss ratio in the community, when I got really curious about that stuff, I started to really see this for what it is, which is like. We're helping people through the most difficult times in their life, and I challenge carriers to, to keep that culture, keep that mindset, and. Fortunately, I've been blessed to work with some really good carriers and, and have seen it all come through the right way. There's been sticking points. You know, I don't wanna paint just a perfectly rosy picture here. There have been sticking points that almost always falls on the fact that there wasn't clear communication. And so again, having an agent who knows those communication channels is really important. Come claim time.

Stoy: 22:41

It's a great segue into the next, uh, subject of ours, and that's actionable steps, right? So in this one, we want you to provide what should be their actionable step that they can take from this conversation, right? We've given a lot. Um, and so the first one. Actually, it's the second one on my list. However, what you had just said, I think triggers this a little bit and that is what is one question that they should ask their rep.

Maxwell Schmitz: 23:07

So asking the rep is, you know, do we have a plan? What's my, what's my plan? B? I think that's, that's really the question people need to ask themselves. Ask their rep if they, if they're working with a financial advisor already, why hasn't that been addressed, I guess would be my main question because. People know if it has or if it hasn't generally. So asking that, that one question, what's my plan, is the biggest thing. But I think just to ize it a little bit more, if somebody's more DIY, a little more hands-on, or at least they need to see a little more proof before they, before they get to a point where they're gonna start asking around about it, I think it's just helpful to understand. How much of a runway you have. So an action point could be as, I mean, look at, look at your, look at what you've got saved up. You gotta know what you've got at at some level, right? You know, if you have a million dollars saved up and you're making 200,000 a year, well if your income goes south, that million dollars sounds like a great start to a retirement saving. But that's gonna last you five years if you're using that full income. So that, that's just, that's gonna create a lot of hardship for you, because then you're gonna have to start from zero when you get back to it. Hopefully, you know, you're back to work after five years. But if it goes beyond that, I mean, your lifestyle is changing big time. Um, your family's lifestyle is changing. So there's, uh, there's, it's not hard, it's just math at the end of the day. It, and it takes a curiosity and it takes kind of like a. A little, a little willpower, I think, to get people off the starting line. But once you go there, you'll find it's pretty simple to do the math. Um, and, you know, so just help. Do yourself a favor, do your family a favor and, and do, do some basic math here, and ask your advisor to fact check you or math check you, or whatever you want to do there. But, um, definitely get your rep involved so that you know, you can, you can have somebody working alongside you to affirm or tell you otherwise, like, Hey, no, you're good. Actually, that 60% policy through work is gonna cover your. The vast majority of your needs and you know, you're, you're steady. So it, it'll give you a lot of, a lot of, uh, a lot more peace of mind to have that all figured out.

Stoy: 25:12

What, give me two specific insurance policies that people should check before the end of this year.

Maxwell Schmitz: 25:19

I mean, life and di stick out the most, to me. Health insurance is a given, right? I think you have to have that to some extent. Um, but you know, those three, I, I like to focus on this kind of group of, of coverages called family benefits because this is, um, if you, if you think about how we, how we. The vernacular, at least within the industry, is like we're looking at employee benefits and we're looking at commercial lines, and we're looking at personal lines, but there's nothing really in that fourth quadrant, the personal lines and commercial lines. Of course being property and casualty coverage, employee benefits, you are looking at more life and health type of coverage. But that family benefits is really kind of the missing piece that a lot of people aren't focused on, especially business owners. Right. Family businesses and And I think are just. Number one, you know, as far as who needs this stuff the most on a group basis, especially because if you think about working with your family, these are all people you care about for the most part. Right? Um, and so that's, you have to make a really difficult decision if you, if that person has to take, you know, six months off to focus on that, you know, late stage cancer diagnosis that came out of nowhere, you know? And are you gonna continue to pay that person throughout the full six months? What if it goes on to a year or 24 months? You have to have some kind of plan designated for each one of your employees. And so you know, whether or not you're gonna pay them or not is, is, is good to identify, but there's a way to transfer that risk. Both the risk of, you know, actually coming out of pocket and paying the person. You know, you can transfer that to an insurance company, but you can also transfer. The decision, you know, if it's something that's a little bit more gray area, like, you know, maybe an employee has or a family business partner has bipolar or something where it's just a little bit more, more difficult for you to kind of make that call, like, you know, I feel a little uncomfortable about this. You can have an an, an insurance company go through that process and medically evaluate whether or not the claim is legitimate or not, or, or something, if there is a question mark about that. So, you know, you don't have to bear all of that as a business owner. And I think, you know, it just helps for to, you know, I, I just wanna encourage people to, to understand that that's exactly what these companies are in the business of doing and we, you can, can help'em get there. Did I answer the question? I feel like

Stoy: 27:45

I went, you actually answered both questions because the next one was about what entrepreneurs and small businesses need to be reviewing and thinking about. So you just bridged them all. You jumped right in front. That's fine. I guess

Maxwell Schmitz: 27:54

that's good.

Stoy: 27:56

Alright, so the last one, and I think this probably is gonna hit home for a lot of people out there, what is one move that they should make today if they don't do anything else? Listen to anything else we said. What is that one move you think they need to do today? For their, for their health or for their wealth journey and stuff.

Maxwell Schmitz: 28:15

Oh man. So the move today, and this is pretty blanket advice, but it's, it's fully fund your emergency fund. Um, it's not by insurance. It's not, you know, contact somebody to help you through this process. It, it's. You know, take, make yourself accountable to yourself and your family and make sure that you have a fully funded emergency fund. Six months is what I always recommend. Um, you know, you might only have to use three of it if you've got a 90 day waiting period on your disability insurance policy, but that's the type of emergency we're talking about, right? You need to make sure that you, you guys, you, your family, everybody can, can be in the same place from a lifestyle perspective for six months if you're not doing that. I mean, really encourage you to just put all your effort into that. So yeah, I guess that that's, that's where I'd leave it right now is just make sure that you're, you're fully funding that emergency fund and, and that you can weather some storms if they come your way.

Stoy: 29:11

That's very simple advice, like fund that thing. Um, and it does a lot of things. Not only does it help and protect for. Shit situations. Right. But the mental health side of it and how much freer you are knowing that no matter really what happens, like, we're good, we'll figure it out, or we have six months to figure it out. That is, that is huge and massive. So I, I definitely jump on board with. Today, let's make a plan and let's start moving on that For sure.

Maxwell Schmitz: 29:40

I remember, I, I mean, you bring up the emotional side of it too. Like, I remember to the day where, when that happened for us and I was like, oh my God, I finally felt like that, like there was some peace. And as far as what, you know,'cause every, every once in a while, you know, you'll still, when you're starting a family and stuff and you just get a house and all this stuff. Life can feel so expensive and so overwhelming, and those bills just keep on coming. And, and so you might go over the credit card or, you know, whatever balance you've got in that account or, or what have you. And so it's good to just feel like, okay, I can, I can go over a little bit here and there and I don't have to just like, you know, just try to continue to recreate the wheel and rewrite the budget every single month. So that's, that's a powerful point.

Stoy: 30:25

Yeah, everybody, Hey, you're not alone. That's what we're doing. All this whole topics and the collectives for is the fact that you are not alone in your life, right? There are experts who have seen a lot. We've, we have more stories than you know, and we're here to help. And we understand that A lot of you think all of this is a money decision, and truthfully, it's an emotional decision, right? And that's why part of the collective Max is part of it. Obviously others are, we're focused about you. And what matters to you in your life? Not what? Plan A, plan B, step one. Step three has taught every one of us in a book, right? Your situation in life is different. So it's insurance season review. Take the time, reach out if you have questions, we're here for you. Right? And ultimately, again, it is your life, your journey, but you're not alone, max. Appreciate you.

Maxwell Schmitz: 31:18

Alright, thanks soy.

Black Mammoth: 31:33

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