A Wiser Retirement®

321. 10 Financial Resolutions to Kick Off the New Year Right

• Wiser Wealth Management • Episode 321

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It’s January 5th. Your financial app chirps, “You’re on the best financial track ever!” Do you believe it? Probably not, because we’ve all seen New Year’s momentum fade fast. On this episode of the A Wiser Retirement® Podcast, we lay out 10 practical financial resolutions that are designed to actually stick, ordered from quick wins to long-term payoffs.

Related Podcast Episodes: 

Ep 238. Is Instant Gratification Ruining Your Financial Goals?

Ep 200. Setting and Achieving Financial Goals in the New Year

Related Financial Education Videos:

How do I prioritize my financial goals?

Tips for Sticking to Your Financial Goals

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This podcast was produced by Wiser Wealth Management. Thanks for listening!

Kicking Off Financial Resolutions

SPEAKER_05

All right, so it's January 5, and imagine your financial app sends you a message that you're on the best financial track ever. Do you believe it? Probably not, because you know, New Year's resolutions are always broken, right? So today we're going to talk about 10 resolutions that you can set that I think you can probably keep by year end and make your financial life better.

SPEAKER_02

Welcome to a wiser retirement podcast, where we cut through the noise and bring you real, honest conversations about investing, retirement, and building lasting wealth. No sales pitches, no gimmicks, just everything your financial advisor won't tell you.

SPEAKER_05

I'm Casey Smith. Today I'm joined with our senior financial advisor, Shauna Theriault. And today we're discussing 10 financial resolutions to kick off the new year right. Hey, Shauna.

SPEAKER_03

Hello.

SPEAKER_05

So 10 resolutions. We've ordered them from what I think is the easiest to the longest term payoff.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

You think they're more random, I think.

SPEAKER_03

But I I think they're more in like order of like where you should start.

SPEAKER_05

But I don't know. We'll we'll we'll let people, the listeners will decide.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_05

But yeah, I I've always thought about uh bringing in like a fitness guru this time of year to talk about how to create an exercise plan that you can actually keep to or how to keep those habits, you know. I think you do it for like 30 days or something. I think you do something for 30 days and it becomes becomes a routine.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, it does. It's like and and uh to ingrain it in you, it's like 66 days, I think is what they say. 66 days. Yeah, I don't know that you have to do it every day, but yeah, you do the best thing I can say is do something you enjoy doing. If you hate running, don't run. Yeah, if you like, you know, try something new. If you like yoga, do that. If you like whatever you like to do, do what you like to do, or else it's not gonna be sustainable.

SPEAKER_05

Drink whiskey for breakfast.

SPEAKER_03

Well, no, that doesn't that's not that's not a thing.

SPEAKER_05

Your hand goes up and down. That's not that's true.

SPEAKER_03

It's really good workout for your arm, not good for your metabolic. Whiskey for breakfast.

SPEAKER_05

Don't worry about that. Do you have you don't have to worry about me? I'm fine.

SPEAKER_03

You don't even drink that much. I don't really. No, no, you're making that sound bad.

SPEAKER_05

No, I am making that sound bad.

SPEAKER_03

You don't you don't even drink like that.

SPEAKER_05

No, I don't. I have all this whiskey in my office, though.

SPEAKER_03

If anybody wants to be there for like 10 years or something, it's aged. Try to give it away.

SPEAKER_05

It's aged, yes. Well, that that's the that's the whole part is like, you know, you have a bottle of whiskey that that that that I probably bought for an occasion, but never opened it.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_05

And um uh, but you don't want to look at your client and go, uh, hey, do you drink whiskey? You know, because a lot of time because you can go it can go multiple ways. It can go, they're a scotch person, and that and that's like, oh, I don't drink, I drink scotch. And it's like you're a whiskey person. Like, I don't, I thought we liked each other. I'm sure you wouldn't be or we're still in the Bible bells. Yeah, I don't drink at all. I you know, so you just have to, I don't know. So yeah, it there's there's there's uh lots of bottles in my in my office that are all very good.

SPEAKER_03

It's not because you drink a lot, it's because you don't drink a lot.

SPEAKER_05

Well, no, it's because my best friend, you know, he has these whiskey nights and you have to bring a a bottle of whiskey. So I'd bring a bottle of whiskey, and then what do you do with it? Because, you know, and then having teenagers at home, I just don't want yeah, I don't want alcohol in my house. Yeah, so it all just gets stored, stored here. But but yeah, man, if you if you're a whiskey drinker next time you pass through the office, uh let's talk.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05

Let's let's let's talk. I've learned a lot more um over the years just by being around people who are really into the different types of whiskey. So anyway, this is not a whiskey podcast. We did that already. I don't even drink, so that's right. You don't even drink. I don't drink at all. You can go back to uh uh I don't know November. You go back to November and you can get you can get our whiskey, uh listen to our whiskey episode uh if you're still trying to gift whiskey.

SPEAKER_03

But a lot of people do dry January, so maybe that's not a good episode to listen to, right? Maybe not dry January, and a lot of people, this is really fun, do dry January and then they just keep going because they realize they don't really need it. So that's awesome too. Yeah, I have a lot of friends that have done that. I hang out with a lot of non-drinkers now, so that's probably good. It's good, it's very good. It's better for your body, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

You shouldn't drink because you it's because it's uh trying to pacify something.

SPEAKER_03

No, no, no, but you know anyway.

SPEAKER_05

I'm pretty good at a couple of things, and so my whole thing is I'd I jump in with both feet, like I'm all in. Yeah, yeah. So I feel like if I really got into whiskey, it'd be I'd just be walking around drunk all the time.

SPEAKER_03

That's not good. Why don't you jump all into exercise and working out? Then that would be the good part.

SPEAKER_05

We should jump in all into that. Instead, I'd just jump all into building the best wealth management firm.

SPEAKER_03

Well, I mean, that's a good thing too.

SPEAKER_05

That's nothing wrong with it. It already occupies 70 hours a week. So I don't I don't have room for anything else.

SPEAKER_03

Well, that's not a bad thing either.

The 30-Minute Money Reset

SPEAKER_05

All right, well, let's get back to the topic. Uh, 10 resolutions. Uh, let's start with number one. We should always start with number one.

SPEAKER_03

Doing a 30-minute money reset.

SPEAKER_05

30-minute money reset. So here's your challenge. Can you do it in 30 minutes? Um, so I I think the point the point here is is awareness. Yeah, and just looking at so a lot of times people just aren't aware of what's happening. They just they think they've convinced themselves that everything's okay, everything's fine. I don't mean I don't have cash out problems or anything like that. Yeah. And they just go about their life. But if you sit down for 30 minutes and you write down what your assets are, what your liabilities are, yeah, what the minimum payments are, what the interest rate is, yeah, and then you look at your income and then your expenses, your living expenses, do you have excess every month? Are you at a deficit? Do you need to shift some things around to make to make some big changes? Yeah. These are these are all things that um a 30-minute back of the napkin reset could uh to get you, could get you, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I mean, anytime you're starting something, taking an honest, honest, honest look at where it is and starting there is always the best place to start.

SPEAKER_05

So once you know where you are, you now know how to make changes. Right. So I don't know if that's really a resolution, but um, I think that's uh that should be a monthly thing, honestly. Um, if anything quarterly, but you should understand what's happening to your finances and how how can you make changes.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, absolutely. And where you are for sure. Uh number two setting one clear money goal.

SPEAKER_05

So we have mini podcast on setting SMART goals and the acronym for that.

SPEAKER_03

I don't know if we want to dive into that today, but Michaela and I actually did that at year end.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, that's right.

SPEAKER_03

We did the SMART setting goals and all of that.

SPEAKER_05

So you wanna you wanna make sure that you write a goal down, you create a deadline, you create a target. So if it's very vague, like I want to be better with money this year, well, that is not a goal. That's just a vague statement. Yeah. Um, I want to eliminate six thousand dollars of my credit card debt by March. Yeah. That's very specific. Yeah. And it has a deadline.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So that way it's you can uh you can judge it and make sure you're getting there.

SPEAKER_05

And I think it's important you set one goal. You know how many times I've met with um people that are trying to get out of debt for various reasons and they're like, Oh, you send an extra$25 to this one, and we send an extra$50 to this one, extra$100 to this one, and we send an extra$200 to the mortgage. Like you're you're just spreading dollars around everywhere. Let's let's let's rein that in and let's pick one thing that we want to pay off as soon as possible. And let's take all of our extra and apply it to that.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

And you're gonna you're gonna feel like you're moving somewhere. Right versus just random randomness. Right. You know, right. Same way it go for goes for savings.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, I put an extra hundred dollars in this account, and then I put an extra hundred dollars in this this other Roth, and I put a hundred, you know, it's just focus on one thing.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_05

Max out your 401k.

SPEAKER_03

Right. Right. Right, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05

Uh okay. Uh number three.

SPEAKER_03

Automating savings. So, you know, obviously deferring to your 401k. Um, if you're saving to a brokerage account. So if you have that excess and you realize you have that excess every month after, you know, putting money towards your 401k, maybe looking at, you know, education savings, five, two, nines. But if you have that excess, then putting it automatically into a brokerage account or savings account if you're saving up for something. So moving it out of the checking where it inflows and outflows so that way you can either invest it or save it, um, you know, and automate that process so that it's not there at your disposal.

SPEAKER_05

That's right.

unknown

That's right.

SPEAKER_03

And then it's working for you. So you can do automatic movements, but you can also do automatic purchases just like in your 401k.

SPEAKER_05

Make it disappear before you actually get it.

SPEAKER_03

It's usually the it's always a good rule to pay yourself first, you know.

SPEAKER_05

Yep. Now we're getting into more budgeting things. Uh, number four.

SPEAKER_03

Tracking your spending for 30 days. Maybe even a quarter, because there's some that are quarterly payments. Yeah. But definitely tracking your spending. Because I I feel like, you know, a lot of times we ask clients. There's it's like either one or the other. When clients come in, it's like, what do you spend? And they're like, hold on.

SPEAKER_05

And they pull out their spreadsheet and it's like their 10-page spreadsheet.

SPEAKER_03

Right. And that's awesome, though. That's awesome. But then the other ones are like, I don't really know. What can I spend? Give me a budget, you know? And so it's kind of, I don't know.

SPEAKER_05

It's both ways.

SPEAKER_03

I would say it's probably 60, 40, I'd say 40% or maybe even 30% have it like right there. And then the other really don't know.

Automate Savings So It Disappears

SPEAKER_05

Most banks now have built-in money tracking apps. It's free, it's already set up. Yeah. And you can categorize everything. Uh, Grace here, one of our paint associates, she likes money penny. It's an app in the app store. So you can add that to your account. I think if you pay a little extra, it'll automatically categorize things. Uh, but the free app you can um categorize.

SPEAKER_03

I'm using I use Rocket Money.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It downloads that and it tells you it categorizes it automatically. And if something doesn't have a category, doesn't know what to do, it like alerts you. It's actually really good. That's awesome. Good. It's actually really good.

SPEAKER_05

I should have a whole episode on that, honestly, about different money apps.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's really good. And it tells you, you know, do you want to save money on your bills or like a bill went up this month? You know, like you know how you always renegotiate like your cable bill or whatever. It tells you if it goes up, like maybe you need to renegotiate. It'll actually negotiate for you too. I haven't tried that, but yeah, I don't know. It's really rocket money for the win. Yeah, I don't know. I've I've liked it.

SPEAKER_05

I would also say if you decide to keep a budget that I would keep it. The category is very broad. Like you don't need to say I spent X amount of dollars on socks and my sock allowance is X. Unless that's your hobby, and that's weird. But um, but yeah, so I I would, you know, household expenses.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Food and or groceries and dining out, you know, just I I would completely say that unless you just feel like there's this black hole of household expenses and you're in and you're in, you know, the red every month, then maybe dig in a little bit. Yeah. You know, if there's if you need to find if you if at the beginning you like take that honest look and you're running a deficit, then that's where you really need to drill in and say, okay, where can I cut?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Also, where can I trim? So that way we're not, I mean, running deficits bad.

SPEAKER_05

And then once you set the budget, then yeah, it that should take care of itself. Right. Because you would it you wouldn't have to be as granular because you just know what the max category is. But yeah, but if you're if you're investigating, sure, then maybe dig dig it out a little deeper.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05

Um, thinking uh speaking of budgets, number five, create a fun, guilt-free budget.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

So this is where a long time ago in my house, I would say, hey, we were off budget, and then there would be a big, big argument. And I got tired of fighting about it, so I just got got kind of tired of talking about money in general. And so finally one day I said, I don't want to fight about anything, but I need you to answer one question for me. Okay, what does budget mean to you? And budget meant we have to take the kids out of private school, can't travel, can't get our nails done, can't, can't um do anything fun. We just sit at home and stare at each other. I said, Wow, that's interesting because I believe that budget means every dollar has a purpose. Two, two very different, you know, because people say, I'm on a budget, and they'd say it in a like in an hopefully they say it with hope, but a lot of people say it in a negative context, right?

Track Spending With Simple Categories

SPEAKER_03

So I think that I think everybody's on a budget, whether whether it's a good budget or a bad budget, you have a spending habit, right? Whether it's positive or negative, negative, right?

SPEAKER_05

That's so that's my point. My point is is that your your budget is every dollar has a purpose, and maybe there's a category for a dollar that means nothing. This dollar, this category over here is fun. We spend it on whatever we want to spend on, right? Yeah. So so just have a um make sure that every dollar has a purpose and you have a budget that makes sense. No one wants to live like a popper.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

You know, now some people do. We we know those people, but but you if you want to go stop and get Chick-fil-A, you should be able to do it guilt-free because it's in your budget. Right, right. You've this is what we do, this is our lifestyle, right? Right. Some people want to drive nicer cars than others. It's built into the lifestyle, right? But you make sure you just make sure you can afford that lifestyle. Right. That's a big thing.

SPEAKER_03

Um, okay, so number six building or rebuilding an emergency fund.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, so this prevent prevents from having to go back to a few steps ago and add up all your credit card debt. So you need to have a reserve fund available so you don't have to live on credit cards.

SPEAKER_03

Right. Right. And if you dig yourself out of that, then have that emergency fund set aside.

SPEAKER_05

I mean, usually that's a great resolution for families um is to make sure they have six months of their expenses.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely. Three to six months and just starting with a thousand dollars and then paying off debt and then, you know, yeah, then starting to build that three to six months. So that way you just have that reserve there.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, no, that's important. And it doesn't need to be invested anything. Your reserve is not your brokerage account. No, your reserve needs to be cash, earning hopefully three to three and a half percent in the high yield savings.

SPEAKER_03

So you can, you know, checking accounts typically don't have that. Um, you can do like a money market or a high yield savings. There's you know, tons of different banks that have high yield savings that you don't have to buy into in CDs and have it locked in.

SPEAKER_05

Correct.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Speaking of debt, what if we need to get rid of uh high interest debt? So that's number seven.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

So you think about how much if you if you add it up how much you spend in interest every year on high interest credit card debt, that's enough to scare you to death.

SPEAKER_03

It is scary.

SPEAKER_05

Even with mortgages at two and a half, three and a half percent. Um, the ones that have obviously been taken out, not the current ones. Uh if you if you when you look up the on a 30-year mortgage, what how much interest you'd paid over 30 years, it's it's like a whole nother house. It's crazy. And it's it's 10 times worse with um with credit cards.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, we have a spreadsheet on our website that can help with that. But um, you know, uh it depends on what motivates you more. I mean, honestly, taking that honest look and then seeing, you know, what excess can I put and then attacking one card at the time at a time. You can start with the lowest balance first so that you feel like you have more wins, um, paying things off. But, you know, from a financial standpoint, it may make more sense if you don't need that win feeling for that, you know, instantaneous um to pay the highest interest rates first. Yeah. And just tackle that.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. So there's two. It's called avalanche and uh snowball method. So avalanche is that you pay the highest interest for snowballs, the smallest. I like the snowball because the small you get something small, it's paid off. You you get a quick win. And that and that win is dopamine, right? Yeah. I win, I won. Yeah. So you feel like a winner and go again next next one, the next one, the next one.

SPEAKER_03

I don't know. It would bother me if I had a really high one and I was paying one that was zero, though. Because it's like some people have zero and some people have a high one, and I'm like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_05

That's true. Uh bottom line, come up with a strategy, set a goal, eliminate it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Uh once you do that and you're out from underneath those payments, don't get into it again. You can yeah, don't get into it again, but more importantly, you can start building wealth. You can't build wealth if if you're spending everything on uh no interest payments.

SPEAKER_03

No. Um it's a bad cycle.

SPEAKER_05

Number eight.

SPEAKER_03

Increasing your retirement contributions.

SPEAKER_05

All right. So we're out of debt. We have an emergency reserve fund. I see what you mean now. This is good that we're gonna be able to do that. I feel like it is.

SPEAKER_03

It's like budgeting and then emergency. That's what I felt like.

SPEAKER_05

So we want to increase our retirement contributions. So ideally, yes, you wouldn't be maxing out your 401k plan at a minimum.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

Build A Fun, Guilt-Free Budget

SPEAKER_05

Uh, and for younger people, that's gonna be harder to do. Yeah. Uh for people who have more, I would say, hey, maybe you should be not only saving, maxing out your 401k, but let's put money into brokerage account save in addition to that. But if you could, if you could just raise it by 1%. Well, if you just did 1% a year. Imagine if you were like, you know, 28, 30 years old, and you just raise it by 1% a year until you max it out in the future.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Like how powerful that would be.

SPEAKER_03

Very powerful. The earlier you can start, the better, just because the power of compounding, of course, you know that. But yeah, um, I don't know. I've seen a shift though. It's like, I don't know if it's a shift, but I've seen I've seen, you know, younger couples come in and they're like, well, I want to enjoy my money now, though. And it's so hard for them to forecast. The older we get, the more we're like, yeah, oh, we really need to, you know, really start, but really start contributing there, but also increasing the contributions. But it's also hard when you first get out of school. Maybe you have student loan debt or you're new in your career. And so then you're trying to buy a house maybe at the same time. And, you know, then maybe you start a family. It's like all those expenses at once come when your income is you're not at your highest earning years, you know. So it's it feels hard. It feels like it's so far in the future, but it also feels financially hard where you really have to budget in those early years. And later years, maybe you don't have to budge as much because you did early on.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, but I can tell you, catching up is much harder.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Making up ground later because you don't have any compounding. Right. It is much harder and you have less options in the future. So it's like, yes, do do have that fun budgeting built in, but you know, your future self needs your current self right now to be disciplined so that your future self has you have more options in the future. Yeah. So and it's hard to see that when you're in your 20s, I think.

SPEAKER_05

When I'm reviewing uh planning notes uh in our team meetings on Mondays, I noticed one this past week that said uh they wanted to know if now is the right time to be planning for retirement. And they were they were like 48 years old. And I'm like, wow, 48, like you should have started 10 years ago.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_05

But that's what that's often what happens. Like, I want to retire. Am I ready to retire? And they're 62 years old when they come in for the first time. If they'd been in 20 years prior, think of how much more money they would have.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, if they would have had some guidance and yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05

And then you have sometimes it's just it's just dumb luck. They they were good savers and it just it kind of worked out, yeah. Right. Yeah, but there was no real plan put in place early on.

SPEAKER_03

That's true. That's that's true, and being just happened to be at the right place at the right time or just lucky like that. Yeah, absolutely. And then some people have no luck, you know. It's like everything has happened, right? I don't know. It's funny. I was we um we were going over a client plan this week, and it's like they're mid 40s and they're gonna retire in like a couple years. Wow, but they have no children.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, that's the key.

SPEAKER_03

But just I mean, I know like not that I like a lot of myself.

SPEAKER_05

Think about how sad they'd be with no family fights and I know.

SPEAKER_03

I'm sitting here going.

SPEAKER_05

Their cars are probably always clean. Oh, those people.

Emergency Funds That Prevent Chaos

SPEAKER_03

Nobody's fighting. I know. Like I'm kind of jealous. No, I'm just I love I love my children, obviously. But it's like sometimes the the the people with the most options I've seen, they just they haven't had children, you know? Purposefully, like they didn't want children, and it's like they have so much more income and and savings. It's interesting. But anyway, that's not the normal. Um that's not the typical American, I would say.

SPEAKER_05

Correct.

SPEAKER_03

So that's not really part of your financial plan. Don't get rid of the children. But they can be on a budget too, because I always like to tell parents, you know, I mean, first of all, you don't realize how much money they cost as teenagers. You think they're expensive when they're little? Just wait. And um, you know, but really we all learned our habits when we were young, like with food and money and you know, really. And you have to untrain those habits if you learned habits that weren't that good for you. And so you're setting the stage in doing these resolutions. So get your family involved in this, you know, teach them about this, do it together and set goals together, even you know, kids, especially teenagers. Um, so it can be like a family event, yeah, even so they're not in the dark and they learn these things.

SPEAKER_05

Some families, uh these more modern families, um, they the kids know how much parents make and they know what their assets and liabilities are. And yeah, it's it's kind of a uh I wouldn't say that's the norm. But they they have to be your kid has to be mature enough to, you know.

SPEAKER_03

And I always like if you have some excess doing custodial accounts for the kids, you know, a lot of people will start like a savings account. Well, the savings account doesn't earn anything in a bank. Yeah, you know, starting a custodial account at like Charles Schwab of Fidelity, buying some mutual funds or ETFs if there's enough in there, and then putting like birthday money and Christmas money at you know, the$50, the$100, the$25, they don't need more stuff. Kids don't need stuff. You know, if you do that, I mean, obviously you want to have the separate, you know, college savings. I'm not saying to avoid the college savings, but then when they're in middle school and they start learning about the stock market, you can show them their custodial account. Now, the downside is they get it at age 21 or 18, depending on the state you're in, no matter what, even if they're responsible or not.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, but if you start teaching them about it early and then they can actually see the fruits of the labor and you know what their accounts have grown to, and they can kind of put when they're learning about it in school or just you talking about it, when they can actually see that in the works simultaneously, what has grown for them over time. It's it could be very powerful. I've seen it go both ways where the you know, young adult blew the money. Um, but I've I've actually seen it more times than not work in the favor of, oh, this has been saved for me. You know, I'm gonna continue the savings now that I'm working. Um, and it may actually give them like a down payment on a house or something so significant that they would have not had otherwise, and they didn't need all the stuff growing up.

unknown

Right.

Kill High-Interest Debt With A Plan

SPEAKER_03

You know what I mean? So it's just I think it's very valuable. And a lot of parents don't know about that. I mean, you can just start a custodial account at say Charles Schwab, um, just a low cost, you know, with no fees, and start investing even like$50, you know. I mean, just start something so that way it's building for them over time. It's just can be very powerful. Sure.

SPEAKER_01

Before we jump back into the episode, do you know if you are ready to take off and launch into retirement? Get your pre-retirement checklist, a free guide from Wiser Wealth Management, from cash flow to social security. We've got your account down covered. Go to wiserinvestor.com/slash guides to download your free guide today. Now let's get back to the episode.

SPEAKER_05

Uh, let's get to number nine.

SPEAKER_03

Uh, reviewing insurance and estate basics.

SPEAKER_05

I think insurance is kind of a sleeper. Uh, I don't think insurance agents ever call us up and say, hey, your home's up increase in value based on the square footage. I think you're underinsured. Or hey, there's a couple of things we should add to your policy to uh to help with flooding or whatever. Because they're so concerned that people are, oh, they'll just the the premium will go up and they're just gonna leave and get a quote somewhere else. So I don't know that people are because they're not fiduciaries, they're salespeople in the end. Uh so this is something you should be checking out. Not necessarily are you paying, do you have the best rate?

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_05

Do you have the best quality coverage? Yes. That's what you're looking for. Yes. Most in most people, especially people coming to a wealth management firm, we're not looking for the general for insurance.

SPEAKER_04

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_05

We're looking for chub, vault, computer, uh, to ensure our million dollar plus home. Um, we're driving nicer cars. Yeah. Uh sometimes people have classic car collections that probably are not covered properly. They should have their special insurance for that. Um so you you need to be focused on do if my house burned down to the ground, can I build that same house back?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Uh not, oh my gosh, my premium went up um$100 a month.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_05

You you have assets to protect and you have liability to to protect. If there was a judgment against you for some reason, defamation. Yeah. Um uh someone hurt themselves in the yard. I I had a client that uh uh the daughter had a girlfriend over, I think is the story, and she had a weight or something in her hand from like their workout room, and she dropped it uh she dropped it on, I think she dropped it on her own toe or something. And it damaged her toe and she couldn't cheer. And the parents sued uh the the kids the parents sued the the the the parents that own the home.

SPEAKER_03

Wow.

SPEAKER_05

And the umbrella policy had to go and cover uh protect that is the homeowner insurance and then eventually the umbrella policy. So you you have to think about these crazy scenarios and do you have the proper coverage for that? That's why you should be doing an insurance review.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

And I'll let you speak to the to the estate side. Um either you don't have it or you might have something that isn't right. Right. I found one recently that their IRAs that so the IRA beneficiary is the um trust. But then I reviewed the trust and the trust has no IRA provisions in it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So that forces it out in five years.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. So now you don't the money has to get paid out over five years instead of 10 years.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_05

So it's little things like that. That's why you want to have your estate documents reviewed.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and estate, we've done several Arun and I have done several shows on that. There's a lot of good shows out there. Um, you know, just getting in into details and we'll do more because it is so complex, you know, it's it's really it can be complex. It doesn't have to be, but I mean, having documents in place is better than not having documents in place, making sure your beneficiaries are updated. Um, but if you have any changes in your situation or your family or anything, definitely look then. Um, annually, when you know, renewal at work, they say update, look at your confirm your beneficiaries. Just make sure everything is still accurate. Um, usually they have you look at it then. But don't forget about the IRAs you have elsewhere, your other 401ks from other employers. Maybe you should roll that to your new 401k, or maybe an IRA, it depends on the situation. There's pros and cons to that, but just make sure that you're updating and looking at all of your beneficiaries and you know, making sure your wills and powers of attorney are up to date.

SPEAKER_04

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

And the titling of the assets as well. And if you need help with that, obviously we can, you know, look at things with you and talk about that because it can be complex. Um, and if you don't understand it, then definitely come to your advisor or attorney, you know, just to make sure that because we we may, you know, I've seen some people download documents offline and then just do it.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

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SPEAKER_03

Not saying that's completely bad, but is it just because to your point, if you have a will, you know, and it says X, you know, your beneficiaries may say something completely different. And then the nuances of what you just said, a lot of listeners may not know about, you know, the trust paying out in five years versus and what that even means. You know, it's just it it there's a lot of nuances to titling in beneficiaries that can be complex that have taken me close to 30 years to learn. So, you know, that's where it's um just make sure that you're reviewing it. If you don't understand it, get help with it for sure.

SPEAKER_05

Uh, number 10. This is an interesting one. Schedule a money date every month.

SPEAKER_03

I think I don't know most people do that when they're looking at their bills. I don't know. Some people may just automate. We have no money dates in our house. Money dates. I mean, I look at the bills, I I just go through everything and make sure we're on track, but um I don't know that it's a date or like a meeting.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I thought it was meant meeting, but I think you're right. I I think it's uh maybe it's a money date with yourself. So but make sure everybody's in the know in the house. Look at your bank statements and make sure everything looks legit. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03

Credit cards and all of that. Yeah, um, I actually have automatic alerts set up for all of my credit cards. If something gets charged to the card, like I get a text. Yeah, because we have teenagers that have the card. Yeah, that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_05

I one month I went through my credit cards. So why am I why are their credit card bills so big? Like, as I started kind of going through it and realized that most of it was was my son.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So it's like that way.

SPEAKER_05

I was like, I called him downstairs and I said, Hey, like, I don't understand why you have so many Chick-fil-A charges. Like, you're in school. He's like, Well, they let the seniors go get lunch.

SPEAKER_03

I said, Isn't it part of your are you paying the food plans?

SPEAKER_05

I know, right? And so I'm like, you're spending more money than what like the lowest income people in America, what they make. Like, this is ridiculous. And so we we we just created new rules like use your allowance money for that.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. Well, we we we do that too. So we have our teenagers, they work. So I'm like, if you want extra stuff, you pay for it. If you want to charge the card, then you have to ask. Because I don't want to just see a random poop pop up, like, who's charging my card? Right. And if the second I do it, I reinforce them like who charged this. And so, you know, it's like now, you know, they know they have to ask. And sometimes they don't, they just spend their own money now. I'm like, okay, but then they have to budget because it's not endless. So I feel like it's helping, but I'm sure they feel like I'm the money police. But you know, we can't just have like no, I'm like, that's stealing if you're just taking money out of my account.

SPEAKER_05

It'll disappear very fast if there's not guidelines set up for sure.

SPEAKER_03

But like with anything, with any resolution that you set, with any health goal, consistency always beats intensity. So setting clear goals, being consistent with what you're doing, that's a discipline, right? So it's like consistently eating healthy, consistently spending or saving or budgeting, just being consistent. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Right. You know, doing something is better than nothing. But, you know, and the more that you build on that, the better that you can be at it. Then you can just keep building on it. So you make these small changes over time, that adds up to huge results, you know. Um, and so just being consistent is just better than intensity overall with whatever you're doing.

SPEAKER_05

So let's uh let's transition to a new segment that we're doing once with everybody. And it is now Shauna's turn. Three questions in three minutes. It's the same questions that we ask every team member or guest that comes on the show. Number one, Shauna, what is a money mistake that you're weirdly glad that you made?

SPEAKER_03

Well, I don't know that it's a mistake, but it's kind of a story and it was an unintended. And so, you know, the Taylor Swift eras tour came around and my oldest daughter got a code for us to be able, so I sat there for two and a half hours of my life, and I like Taylor Swift, I have respect her. Um, you know, and I got a code and we got tickets, four tickets for twelve hundred dollars. Okay. And we were gonna go, and it was in New Orleans, which I don't New Orleans is okay, it's not my favorite place, but yeah, we were gonna go. I was gonna bring the three girls, it was gonna be the four of us. We're going in the era store. So that was like in the fall of 23 that I got those tickets. Well, a few months later, I find out that my niece is getting married the same weekend. Oh, and I was like, we can't go to the concert. Oh no, and I was like, we can't miss my niece or niece's, you know, wedding. They were so upset with me because they were like, it's the Aeros Tormom. I'm like, I know. And I did not do this intentionally, but I listed the tickets and I sold them for$12,000.

SPEAKER_04

Wow.

SPEAKER_03

And again, I did not buy the tickets in order to sell them. We were gonna go to the concert, right?

SPEAKER_05

They were heartbroken,$12,000,$12,000.

SPEAKER_03

Wow, and so I had to pay capital, I had to pay gain on that. Gain on that, yeah. And it was short term also because yeah, so I had to pay income, I had to pay income tax on that, which is crazy. Um, but yeah, and I I honestly wasn't doing it for the purpose of selling it at all, right? Um, but I ended up selling them and it was crazy. So I mean, you know, we made money off of it. Um, so again, they're still upset that they did not get their parents door. They're like, that was a once in a lifetime thing. And I'm like, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I apologize, but it's like we can't they're gonna get divorced anyway. I hope not. I hope not. They've actually been together since like ninth grade in high school. It's so super cute, actually. They've been together for like 10 years or nine years or something, and they made it through two separate colleges and now they've been married for a year.

SPEAKER_05

So they schedule their wedding on top of an heiress tour. What the hell?

SPEAKER_03

Well, I think I mean, I don't even know that they listen to Taylor Swip, right?

SPEAKER_05

So if you could only travel to one place, where would you go and who would you take?

SPEAKER_03

I have always I had to think about this. I I don't know, I haven't traveled a ton. I have some, but I've always wanted to go, and you're gonna laugh at me. I've always wanted to go on like a health retreat. Oh, okay. Where I know I really have, like where it's like, I don't know, where they do like yoga and there's stuff outdoors and you eat really healthy, and it's like a whole mind, body, spirit reset.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, I've always wanted to do that. I don't know where it would be because I think they're all over, but I've always wanted to do that. I would love to take my girls, but I don't know if they'd be down with that. Maybe my mom and my sister or some girlfriends. Um, but I've actually always wanted to do that. Like to me, that sounds like there's been movies made about this.

SPEAKER_05

I feel like there have been.

SPEAKER_03

I don't know, but I've always wanted to do that. Um I really have, honestly.

SPEAKER_05

I've never heard of such a thing.

SPEAKER_03

You haven't? No. I think there's like there's it's maybe it's more like a spa-like thing where, but it's like all health and like wellness.

SPEAKER_04

Maybe.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I've heard of like I know, I know like our yoga studio or the one of the yoga studios I go to, they do it in other countries where they go together as a group and they do like outdoor yoga and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04

Totally see that.

SPEAKER_03

I don't I don't know, but I've always wanted to do like a whole health retreat. So I don't know. I've always wanted to do that.

SPEAKER_05

Shonda's bucket list, you got you now know. Uh, what's something you believe strongly 10 years ago that you don't believe anymore?

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SPEAKER_03

So I used to believe that the more that you achieved, the more confidence that you would have. And so I set out to like do all these things to prove myself and you know, gain confidence and and all of that. I would say probably being more, I know that's not true now. Achievements, while they're great and they help, that's not everything. It's really being in alignment with yourself, um, finding out who you really are and being aligned with that, you know, what you do in your daily work, um, being true to myself with my health, you know, listening and keeping promises to myself, keeping promises to yourself and actually treating yourself like somebody you love, um, it is like the biggest confidence builder, I would say. And and it's not confidence in a in a boastful way. It's just being, you know, centered with yourself and just being, you know, closer to God, closer to, I don't know, it's just being centered in yourself. So it's not really, it's nothing everything you need is already inside of you. And I didn't know that. So it's like, you know, when you can tap into who you are and your potential, that's where alignment comes and that's where the confidence comes because you're just being yourself. So I think you do that actually very well. The way that you treat people and the way I think that's why I feel so aligned working with you and what we're doing is because you I feel like you do that. And I don't know that a lot of people do tap into who they are, and then they live every life, you know, every day of their life being who they actually are, no matter what room they're in. Do you know what I mean? I know we wear different faces, but it's like that's really deep, Shauna. Well, but that's you asked me about something I've learned in 10 years.

SPEAKER_05

I would say that that I'm very simple. And so it comes down to I've I don't know how to be anybody else other than me. So it's it's uh uh sometimes the situation as my kids say, it's like what did my daughter say recently? She says she says, Dad, I don't yeah, I don't know if you should be at this event. And I was like, Why what's wrong? Well, you know, I'm just kind of being dad, just kind of bugging her, you know. And she's like, Well, you're just you're just you just say everything you think.

SPEAKER_03

Is that just because you're in your late 40s, like mid forties? Like now it's like that's not old, that's just coming into your own where you're like, you don't care what people think about like you don't hold back.

SPEAKER_05

I'm just saying, I have so many stories with with that. I I remember uh coaching uh my son's basketball team. Now, this was not like this is these were like 11-year-olds, and but I love I I have to win, like I have to find a way to win. And so we were undefeated the first season, and then we only have one practice a week, and then you have the game. Like it's not that you're right, it's like it's not that intense. It's not not intense, it's not travel ball, but it was a volunteer dad coach. It was like done through the it was done through the church, and you see where this is going, and then and then the clock doesn't stop, like it just runs.

SPEAKER_03

But you're treating it like the NBA with 11-year-olds.

SPEAKER_05

Everything I do is is gonna be a hundred percent. Like you don't you don't do anything half-assed. Like, you do of course not.

SPEAKER_03

Why would you why do it then?

SPEAKER_05

So yeah, I remember um I I remember there was this really bad call, and one of our best players was like fouled out or something the game. And and I I said something that was that was kind of ugly directly to the ref, like right in his face.

SPEAKER_03

The Christian ref from the church.

SPEAKER_05

He's like, You can't say that this is a church. And I looked at him and I said, I'm the same person outside this building as I am inside this building. And he didn't he didn't know what to say to that. But but yes, that's me. Uh it's just me.

SPEAKER_03

It's well see maybe you turn when it becomes competitive, right?

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SPEAKER_05

No, I don't turn, I just am competitive. You know, he's it's I don't know. That's why family won't play me Monopoly, you know. It's like, no, we're not playing Monopoly with dad. He's ruthless.

SPEAKER_03

He's ruthless. He makes everybody poor and he takes all the rents and all the hotels. That's right.

SPEAKER_05

I thought it'd be a little like this Thanksgiving, this past Thanksgiving that'd be a little different because we played Elf Monopoly. Oh, isn't that fun? Well, it's like, you know, it's confusing because you're like, I don't know what's important in Elf World, but you know, it's the from the movie theme elf, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Uh but yeah, no. After I figured it all out, I was like, Oh, this is just like real monopoly.

SPEAKER_03

Of course it is.

SPEAKER_05

This is one every single game. Took me hours, but you know.

SPEAKER_03

We did the whole family feud thing. Oh. There was like people just sitting around and we had the host, and it was hilarious. It was hilarious. It was silly.

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SPEAKER_05

Well, these are your questions, not my questions. Those are good answers. Thank you. Yeah. Um so really guys, uh go make it a good year. Just just um be intentional, set goals. We do that as a company, we set goals, we achieve goals. We set goals really, really high. We don't always achieve the very highest goal, and that's okay because if you fall short of the highest goal, you're still better than everyone else. And so just just don't live life um just by chance. Just set goals, make a difference.

SPEAKER_03

Consistency.

SPEAKER_05

Consistent uh and and you know, sometimes you have to you have to not let things happen to you, you have to go make things happen. I think that's probably the best advice for this new 2026 year is go make things happen. Don't be the victim. Victims never victims never win.

SPEAKER_03

No, right? No.

SPEAKER_05

Go go be the hero or go be someone else's guide. But don't um don't don't don't play the victim card. Let's make it a great 2026. Uh thank you for listening to this episode. If you're interested in learning more about wiser wealth management, want to schedule a consultation to meet with one of our fiduciary financial advisors, you can do so by going to wiserinvestor.com or you can click the link in the episode notes. See you guys next week.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks for listening to a wiser retirement podcast. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. Make sure to subscribe wherever you're listening. That way you don't miss any new episodes. We'd also appreciate if you could leave a rating and review. If you have any questions about anything that was discussed today, head to wiserinvestor.com and reach out. This podcast is strictly for informational purposes only and is not to be considered as investment advice or solicitation to buy or sell any financial products, securities, digital assets, or any other investment vehicles or a basis to make any financial decisions. Wiser Wealth Management Incorporated is a registered investor advisor with the SEC. The host and or guest may personally own securities, digital assets, or other investment vehicles mentioned on this podcast. Neither the host nor guests of the show are compensated for their participation, and no referral fees are paid to or received by any host or guest for clients, listeners, or similar interests. Investments involve risk, and unless otherwise stated are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor, tax professional, insurance professional, andor legal professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.