A Wiser Retirement®

340. 25 Years Of Wiser Wealth Management

• Wiser Wealth Management • Episode 340

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Celebrating 25 years in business offers a rare perspective, one shaped by market booms, financial crises, industry shifts, and, most importantly, real client experiences. In this episode of A Wiser Retirement® Podcast, founder Casey Smith reflects on the journey from a startup firm to a comprehensive financial planning team, sharing the lessons learned and what the future holds.

Related Podcast Episodes: 

Ep 241. The Heart and History of Wiser Wealth Management with President, Casey Smith

Ep 300. Built to Last: The History and Future of Wiser Wealth Management

Related Financial Education Videos:

Meet Casey Smith, President of Wiser Wealth Management

Learn More About Wiser Wealth Management: Who We Are & How We Help

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

25 Years And Why It Matters

SPEAKER_03

This year marks 25 years of wiser wealth management. If you've ever wondered what a financial advisory team learns after working with clients for 25 years, through bull markets, crashes, everything in between, this episode's for you. Stay tuned.

SPEAKER_01

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 insights to help you stop guessing and start planning your financial future.

SPEAKER_06

Welcome to the Wiser Retirement Podcast. I'm your host, senior financial advisor, Shauna Therrialt, and I'm joined by Casey Smith, founder and president of Wiser Wealth Management. Today we're going to look at the past, present, and future of the 25 years of Wiser Wealth Management. So exciting.

SPEAKER_03

I've never been on this side before, maybe once or twice. This is really intimidating. This is really intimidating.

SPEAKER_06

I bet you know the answers to the questions.

SPEAKER_03

I know the answers to all the questions.

Starting A Conflict Free Firm

SPEAKER_06

I bet you do. This is about your firm, our firm that you started. So yeah. Well, let's talk about the beginning and kind of you know how how it began, how the firm began. What was the original vision you had?

SPEAKER_03

First of all, we we are 25 years old, uh, but in 2007, I actually bought a company called Wiser Financial from a Mr. Weiser uh who founded his company in 1987. So we have roots back to 1987, although technically that company was dissolved and we modified the name obviously to Wiser Wealth Management. So we have we have clients that predate um the original start date in 2001, which is uh which is pretty neat. That was great. Um a lot of the senior citizens uh back in 07 have passed away, a lot of them during 2020, unfortunately. Uh and they were all such dear people. So I have great fond memories of uh of that era, despite you know, buying it for a right before a financial crisis. But um, yeah, if you go back 25 years ago, the world was a different place. Um financial planning wasn't as prevalent as it is now.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Uh and so really what what I was doing is I wanted to follow two passions. Um, I was in I was in financial services for about a year, uh, working in a broker dealer firm, which is a horrible experience, which we we'll talk about that later. But the premise for me starting my own company at a young age of 24 years old was basically I want to go develop portfolios using low-cost index funds. And at the time as a broker, there was zero compensation for that. If you put somebody in a low-cost Vanguard index mutual fund, which is primarily what we had back then, yeah, uh, there was zero compensation by the broker.

SPEAKER_06

Meaning the commissions, they didn't pay the commissions and the trails and everything, like the old model that people used to work by is the trails and the commissions.

SPEAKER_03

If you put money in the mutual funds that the company owned, you got a six percent commission. If you put in anybody else's, you got a five. Uh, and then they pushed you so hard to push annuities of uh amongst anything else. So if a client even remotely was suitable for an annuity, your boss would be on top of you saying, You've got to get this annuity sold, despite going, they'd be just fine buying low-cost index funds and having some cash reserves. Um, and so part of me being, you know, I've always been uh goal driven. Um, and tell me I can't do something, and I will find a way to figure out how to do it. Assuming we're talking about something illegal.

SPEAKER_05

Of course, of course.

SPEAKER_03

Um, not a risk taker in that sense. We're a fiduciary, but but yeah, it it's uh uh this this fiduciary feeling model uh originally started with just building being an asset manager and building portfolios that I felt like didn't have a hidden agenda uh built into it.

SPEAKER_06

So yeah. Well, what what problem were you trying to solve when you started the firm?

SPEAKER_03

Um I I think that's I think that's kind of the same on the same premise um of of how I got started. It's like I'm trying to build uh conflict-free portfolios, which you which you think that you know, a lot of people say, oh, if it if it's expensive, but the performance is still better than net of fees, then you'll be fine. But the problem is even I knew back in the early 2000s that that works for a short time span, but statistically over a long time period, uh those managers aren't gonna be able to keep up and that fee really hurts you.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And so that that's where later on, um, there was a Spiva report that would come out by standard and poorest comparing the S P 500 or whatever index the manager says um they track. So the manager gets to choose their benchmark, right?

unknown

Right. Right.

The Scrappy Early Building Years

SPEAKER_03

Uh over a 20-year period, we're we've now seen because that report's 20 years old. Over a 20-year period, we've seen that um only about 98% of fund managers failed to beat their assigned index, uh, which which pushes me more back toward uh low-cost index ones, which today we use ETFs. Uh, but essentially I was trying to solve that uh at the very beginning.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

What were the early days actually like?

SPEAKER_03

Uh it's hard to picture this, but I specifically remember living in a townhome here in Marietta, two bedroom, two-bat townhome, no children. That's really hard to imagine. Especially as much as I'm gonna do it. It feels like a lifetime ago, right? Probably like a 28-way size or something like that.

SPEAKER_05

Um you still almost do. You're so healthy.

SPEAKER_03

So the so the uh uh I remember sitting there at my computer going, okay, I'm starting this business. I've left um the big brokerage house, 24 years old. And I by the way, I will add, I had a one-year no-compete, and I was scared to death of getting sued um and and not having the resources to defend myself. Found a good attorney up in New Jersey who just said, Georgia's a right to work state, they can't do much to you, but you still have to defend yourself, just lay low for 12 months. So I was laying low for 12 months. Uh I was also getting my pilot's license and building this this the foundation of this company. So, so the uh uh I but I remember sitting in that room looking at my computer thinking, man, if I if I took this thing from$300,000 in NASA Center Management to$10 million, I'm good.

unknown

Wow. Right.

SPEAKER_03

Because you just have you, you have no rent, no overhead, no employees. It's just me, right? I just build this lifestyle firm. And we're like total opposite of a lifestyle firm at this point.

SPEAKER_06

That's not even in your general makeup, anyway. You can't just stop at that anyway.

SPEAKER_03

We know I don't know how to stop. So so that was the very, very beginning. That was day one and in June of 2001. Uh, and then fast forward to I went into an aviation, went uh flew at Colganier. Businesses formed, family and friends, not doing any marketing, don't have a place of business. Uh, 2004, we have now have an office, but it was inside another wealth management firm. Like, who'd do that?

SPEAKER_05

Right here's my competitor.

SPEAKER_03

It was Mr. Weiser who knew that he needed succession plan. He was in his mid-60s. So I literally just rented an office from him. And a lot of the initial clients came from him, going, These people aren't listening to me. He was kind of a grouchy man. Uh, so these people aren't listening to me. You take you take them. And they were perfectly fine people. There's nothing wrong with the people. He was just different personality, man. Different personality near the end of his career, he's kind of over it, I think. Uh, and so we we took uh I would take on some clients that way. Uh, and then I started getting more known in the aviation community as a person who was good with uh finance. And so I started doing uh retirement and insurance workshops through the uh airline palace association. It sounds really boring, but you'd have about a hundred people come out with their spouses uh to these events, and half of it was like Dave Ramsey, don't do stupid stuff with your money for the young people and then the people who are about to retire. Um, I was giving them um some retirement uh tips in the in the workshops. There's about four hours, lunch in the middle. Um, those were those are really good. Just I I it wasn't a bait and switch. I didn't ever I didn't even hand out business cards, I don't think. It was just trying to help my fellow aviators be smarter with money, which in aviation, I could we could write a whole book on crazy stories of what pilots do with their money. But um, but that th those were the very early days. I did back side of the clock flying, so I would fly at night and then I would work in the office during the daytime and maybe call it quits by two o'clock, go home, take a nap, uh, and then get back up, go back to the airport, do it all over again. Wow. Uh, so it it was it it was it was good times. Your body can only work both sides of the clock for so long. So I did that for 12 years.

SPEAKER_05

Wow.

SPEAKER_03

Uh really 10 years on the backside. Um, 12 the first two years were just normal day flying. But um, but yeah, that that's what the beginning looked like. It was myself, um, a very nice lady named Latrell Allen, who is still with us, still living. She's I guess she's approaching 80 by now. Um, we talked with her. She's still a client. We talked with her during during her review meetings. Uh, but she she kind of kept the place running when I was out out the out of the office. And then uh eventually uh we started growing, and then she was like, I'm I think I'm I'm slowing down a little bit. We need to find a replacement. And that's where Alexa Brandon came in and she replaced Latrell. Yeah. Uh and now Alexis in her 14th year of managing me and then uh keep making our making sure our firm runs.

From Investing Only To Planning

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, absolutely. Well, what would you say has changed over? So that was the beginning. What would you say has changed over the last 25 years? There's been, you know, major shifts and obviously financial planning and investing. Um, so you know, kind of go through with us what you think has changed over the last couple of decades.

SPEAKER_03

The roots of the firm were asset management. Um, Mr. Weiser's management style was picking individual stocks, individual bonds, saying thinking he can beat the SP 500. That was never my philosophy. So I was very quick to pivot the firm uh in 2007 out of individual stock picking back into indexing, which is really helped us through the financial crisis, um not having direct exposure to to certain asset classes. Um, but the big thing in our our industry is really the onset of financial planning. So everyone said that uh the fees that we charge would have to drop because computers can manage money now. It's there's no secret sauce in investing. Um now, now we're not as passive as we used to be. Uh there we have some more active sides of our portfolio. So I think that that has probably changed. But the um the the big thing is comprehensive financial planning. That is what's changed. So instead of just managing money, we're now looking at your property casuality insurance. Are you properly insured? We're diving deep into estate planning, we're doing tax planning now, we're doing uh all the things that money managers never even really thought about in the last generation. And that's to make sure that the tail's not wagging the dog. Does that make sense? Like if you do, if you do all portfolio management and you say this is all you need, well, what about what about everything else?

SPEAKER_06

Well, it's like one piece of like it's the whole comprehensive, it's one piece, it's very important piece of the pie, but it's one piece of it, it's not the full picture.

SPEAKER_03

Correct. And also I found uh really diving more into behavioral finance, understanding um how people react uh into to market movements. And if they have whole complete financial planning done and updated on an annual basis, uh they have so much less anxiety than the people who are just like, oh my gosh, my whole world's blowing up because the portfolio is down 20%.

SPEAKER_06

Well, and then they know they really know what the projected plan is and how, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03

And we've we've been able to show them, you know, we've baked in another financial crisis. So you can have one of those in your lifetime. Hopefully we have none of those. Yeah. Uh we thought we were gonna have that. We thought we were gonna have that maybe during COVID. That didn't happen at all. Uh so it it's it's uh uh it's shifting from an asset management firm uh in the mid-2000s to being more of a planning firm, which I think we were uh we were more leading edge on on that in that front uh versus other firms. Uh I remember I have a friend of mine in the business and he's like, I don't understand why you're doing all this financial planning. It's like because our firm's gonna be irrelevant if you don't become planners. And he adopted it maybe five years later, and I still think he's behind the ball uh and catching up is what what plans cover. Uh so you have to be you have to be forward thinking. Um, and and I think that that's something we do good here.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Well, uh are there any key inflection points that you can speak to over the last 25 years that you know really changed or helped or yeah, I would say the financial crisis um really shaped me as a planner because at the time we were kind of transitioning into planning, but we were really just asset managers prior to that. And that's where our cash bucket process came from. Cause like, holy crap, you're seeing you know, with almost a 60% drop in the market from peak to trough over a year and a half.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

SPEAKER_03

Uh, and you're watching that, and people are like, well, I have to do this withdrawal, I have to do this withdrawal. And but before that, the the theory was that you leave your money invested and you pull it, pull it out as you need it. Uh, and then during that period, I was like, wow, we need to establish cash reserves. We never have to touch mark uh the stock market when it's going through a period like that.

SPEAKER_06

Well, even the bonds were down then, which is really neat. Because usually it's like we usually when the market's down, the bonds are stable or up, you know. But that didn't happen in 08 and 09.

Tech Changes And New Marketing Reality

SPEAKER_03

In 08 and 09, the problem was in the bond market and it spread to the stock market. Right. Uh people solve the stocks because most people don't understand what bonds do exactly. Uh and so the closest thing we've had to that has been 2022. So, fast forward, you know, many, many years later, we had interest rates rapidly increasing, we had bond prices declining and stock prices declining. So, with with that happening, we were able to use our cash buckets as reserve to send our monthly payments to retirees without having to touch them, the portfolio. And then in 2023 came around, uh, we were able to capture those all-time highs again and replenish our cash buckets. And I, you know, I've never gone to calculate what the rate of return of that was if we had to keep doing what we're doing back in 06 and 07. Uh, but it's it's a um kind of an unspoken rate of return that I think that would probably have covered our fees for several years. Yeah. Uh just by having that process in place. Those are those are the the values that we probably don't get a good do a good job of explaining to people because our MO is not to walk into a meeting and say, look at what we did for you. You know, you you you need to those aren't good people. We don't like those kind of people, right? So so we want to be humble um and we we want to be kind of in the background. Uh, but knowing knowing that those were there gave me a lot of confidence in 2022 versus prior issues. Um, you think about tech changes in our industry. Uh I'm a big tech guy. Um, thank goodness for Alexa over the years, because if there's a shiny object and it looks good, I'm like, we need that. You know, and and uh she'll be like, uh no, we're not gonna, we don't need to be doing that right now. It just kind of reins me back in. Uh, but but you think about client portals didn't exist 20 years ago. You think about um uh how AI doesn't, it's not replacing us, but it's aiding us in being uh more in depth.

SPEAKER_06

Five years ago we didn't have what we have. Correct.

SPEAKER_03

And five years from now, it's gonna be even better. Um, what's really sad is is like we we have all the STC compliant AI tools that we use to help us be better advisors. And when I talk with Schwab, uh, the lady, her name's Paige in charge of Schwab, uh, she's a consultant basically to advisors like us. She says that we're probably one of the more advanced firms when it comes to tech. And I'm like, well, Paige, that's really disappointing because I was talking to you today to learn how what else I could be doing. So so that's where we have to go outside our industry and say, hey, what are we using for this or what are we using for that? Yeah. And develop develop to I love that you do that too.

SPEAKER_06

You don't just stay within the industry and you go outside.

SPEAKER_03

But I think the another thing, an inflection point probably is is the marketing rule, which is we've been successful with when you look at um a few years ago the SE up until a few years ago, the SEC would not allow testimonials and advertising, uh, or even meaning Google reviews, basically. And so we were waiting for that when the SEC said, okay, you can now use uh marketing uh uh or Google reviews in your marketing or ask for them. Uh we had a whole campaign built. So that day, enter, set enter, and off it goes. Yeah. And we have, I haven't looked lately, but it's over 160 plus five-star and four-star Google reviews. Yeah. And no one other firms are catching up to that, but they're never gonna have the SEO recognition that we have because we're just so far ahead on on that marketing front. Yeah. Uh, and it's not just Google reviews, it's there's so much other secret sauce when it comes to to marketing that that other people just don't get, or the old guys in our industry, and our industry is full, I have gray hair now, but full of gray headed 60 60 plus, yeah. 60 plus uh year olds that go, no, you can't do that in marketing. You're violating the SUC marketing rule. I'm like, no, it changed like four years ago and you missed it.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Yeah.

Truth Transparency And Client Confidence

SPEAKER_03

Um that's huge. Or compliance departments are reluctant to allow people to do it. So that that's a whole nother thing that they've been proud of our team on and on on staying um uh staying ahead.

SPEAKER_06

Well, and and thinking about our core philosophy and what wiser stands for and what we believe, what does Wiser stand for today?

SPEAKER_03

You know, I I think that it really comes down to um truth, transparency, and uh confidence. So we always want to tell people the truth. And a lot of times you meet with an advisor, they just want your assets under management, and everything's gonna be fine. Even if it's not gonna be fine 10, 15 years from now, that it it benefits the advisor to just say grab those assets. So I have told people in the past, like, no, you don't need to take your pension as a distribution. You need to take, um, you need to take the annuity from your company because they had multiple bankruptcies. I could tell they're bad with money. And so you're you're just like, I need you need to protect yourself from yourself. If you screw up, if you screw up this month, next month, there's another payment coming. Yeah, right. Right. And then and there's been other times when uh the you know, the polar opposite of that, where uh I think people have been with firms and they're managing their assets, but they're not telling them to go live their best lives. And I love those kind of meetings. I feel like I have more of those meetings now because we've had 10 good years in the market. Yeah, but I I'll sit there, usually with Grace, um one of the planning associates that works with me, and I'll say, What do you guys what have you guys done that you're not doing? Um, I had a meeting last week. They were they were talking about, oh, we'll it's been 20 years since we've been to Alaska. We'd love to take our kids and grandkids. Go. It's like, well, why aren't you planning that? Well, I don't know if we have the money for that. You do have the money. I just put it in. I just I just put into the plan double what you said it was gonna cost to do that, and the needle didn't even budge. So it's it's giving people uh telling people the truth about what they can do with their assets instead of trying to be selfish and and increase your assets under management by not telling them they can spend money.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Does that make sense? Yeah. Uh, which I think is pretty um that's pretty prevalent in our industry for especially the smaller firms that are that are trying to grow. Um, transparency is this is what we're gonna do for you, and this is what we charge. That's still not very transparent. Uh, one of the hardest things for a brand new client to understand is that we send them an invoice, they don't pay it, it comes out of their account. They don't pay it directly, indirectly, comes out of their account um our management fees and our planning fees that are all baked into one fee. Uh other firms don't do it that way. They tried to hide the fact that you actually pay them or go to the extent and saying, oh, you don't pay me, the fund company pays me. Well, if that's the case, you're probably paying over 2% a year in fees. We're half the cost. I'm not trying to be half the cost, right? But we're half the cost.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Uh, and so being transparent sometimes uh is a little risk because people don't always understand how this world works, and you have to do a good job of explaining that to them. And even then, you're probably living on trust because they still don't quite follow it after that. And then the confidence part again goes back to um giving people the confidence to go live their best lives without the fear and anxiety of money.

SPEAKER_06

Well, and that's true. That that's what the planning does too. It does give the confidence that you know that you can go do that. And a lot of advisors still don't do much planning. So I mean, you know, correct.

SPEAKER_03

Most advisors are doing planning retirement planning. This is how much money you have, this is how much money you need to live every month. They're not touching anything else. Right. Uh you you could have you could be severely underinsured, and if there was a judgment against you because you had a bad day driving, um you you might be out of money just as bad as the financial crisis. Yeah. But you can't recoup recoup that because your insurance policy wasn't designed properly. Those those are things that we can back up uh agents with and making sure that they understand what uh what is really needed.

SPEAKER_06

Absolutely. How do you or how do we approach clients differently than typical advisors, would you say?

SPEAKER_03

It's planning first. So when I meet with prospects or you meet with prospects, we often talk about we're a financial planning firm that Does asset management as opposed to an asset management firm that's kind of dabbling in planning. Um there in planning meetings, there's a lot of time, a lot of time is spent on updating the the life plan, the goals, um what we're trying to accomplish financially. And then the portfolio segment is probably I mean it's probably a 30-minute block allocated for in our minds, but it's like a five-minute conversation and clients just kind of move on because we've already established with the plan that they're gonna be fine. Right. We probably, if the markets were down, we probably was be spending more time on it. I mean, it's been a good 10 years. Yeah. But it's um, you know, it it it's it the planning first mentality is what people advertise that they are, but the plans that I see from new clients that have come from other firms are very, very light.

SPEAKER_06

Just like calculators, like retirement calculators.

SPEAKER_03

You could probably do it online for free, right?

SPEAKER_06

Honestly. Definitely can.

SPEAKER_03

So I think that's the big, um, that's the big thing that separates us from uh and then now with this year uh rolling out a new planning calendar for clients. Yeah. Where we used to do a lot of planning a couple weeks before they came in for the review meeting. Uh, some clients say, I want a review meeting this week. And you're like, oh my gosh, like we can't. So you're trying to piece it all together before they come in. You don't have that normal lead time.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Uh with the new planning calendar, we're doing every other year deep dives into different planning topics, uh, and then consistently doing retire um tax planning at the last in the last quarter of the year. Yes, that that is a big uh differentiator for us versus even other planning firms.

SPEAKER_06

And we really get into the numbers of the deep dive into the taxes and throughout the year, even too. I mean, I know there's clients we do running tax projections to see what's going on, so we can you know alert them to what's going on too. So that's a little different than, you know, I know many clients come to us, and you know, I just had one recently where it's like, you know, one came in and they just had to write a big check in April and their advisor didn't give them a heads up that they had huge gains. Huge gains, yeah. So that kind of thing is, you know. What would you say are the lessons you learned along the way?

SPEAKER_03

You know, being an entrepreneur, I didn't embrace that soon enough because you know, I'm a financial planner, and then I'm and then I'm a pilot, and then I'm a pilot and a financial planner. And I don't know that I identified exactly with both groups, but uh as far as who I am as a person, how I'm made up. But I found as I started meeting and engaging more with entrepreneurs, then I'm I'm an entrepreneur. I I can move I move things, I make things happen, I set goals, I achieve goals, right? Yes, and I have visions of what needs to happen in the future. So if I had embraced that sooner, we would have had a podcast sooner. We we're getting 9,000 downloads in those podcasts, which is amazing.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

But um when I should have started, it was in 08 because I had a lot of things to talk about in 08, and I had some people around me that could have helped me do that.

SPEAKER_06

Were they even as prevalent then though? No, but that's the whole idea. That's fair.

SPEAKER_03

It's it's kind of like um when YouTube started shorts, right? So we were one of the first people to really start using YouTube Shorts, and not so we're getting tens of thousands of views on YouTube Shorts with us in this podcast with just little segments, right? So so we've had tremendous success in YouTube Shorts because now we've been there a while and and it's the algorithm's used to seeing us there, right? Where we're in singing in podcast land, if I'd we'd done a podcast sooner, uh, I feel like that we could be that much more ahead of ourselves. I think we'll catch up. Um but but those were ideas uh that we had back then. Again, we were more of an asset management firm, so it'd been a very different type of podcast than what it is today. Uh I probably flew too long professionally, uh, stopped flying in 2014. I pretty good have stopped in 2011 or 2012. Uh, but there's there there were reasons, you know. You're scared, you're scared to leap. Of course. You're scared to leap.

SPEAKER_05

You're you just like a sure thing, and then you know, the entrepreneur track.

SPEAKER_03

Right. You know, because the the the allure of commercial aviation was fading at the time. Um uh the airline was starting to shrink, and I I was, you know, I couldn't do the night stuff as much. I was having to fly during the daytime, and it's like flying Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and I'd be in here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So I was starting to wear down.

SPEAKER_06

Um Yeah, but you also went through 08 and 09. So I mean that was a downturn and like everything. And so it was kind of like taking that leap is scary too.

SPEAKER_03

But if you look at, if you look at when we when I stopped flying in 2014, yeah, we've had a consistent 20% annual growth rate as a firm.

SPEAKER_06

Wow.

SPEAKER_03

Prior to that, in some years it was 30. Prior to that, it was like single digits, which is normal in our industry.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

But when when I could give a hundred percent attention and fo and focus, yeah, uh, it it was, you know, when I stopped flying in 2014, I said I'm gonna get my golf handicap down uh back down to four or single digits. So I got it to seven and then I did it, and I shot even a par a couple times, and I was like, I was like, okay, that's cool. It doesn't move the needle, but now what?

SPEAKER_05

Now what? Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_03

And then that's and then that's like okay, it's time, it's time to go uh read business books. And so I was reading multiple business books um a month and basically doing my own little master's program and saying, ah, okay, all right. This is how I should be talking about growth, and this is oh, this is how I hire people. Uh oh, this is how I replicate myself through processes, right? So, so just going through that journey. I wish I'd started that a little bit sooner. Um, it it honestly that one of the biggest reasons that I kept hanging on uh was healthcare for a family of five. Healthcare was so stinking expensive. I was like, well, if I do it there, they're almost paying almost all of it. And then so when I made the leap, um that that was a huge burden to take on. And then now it's like a big deal. Healthcare is still expensive. It's still expensive, but we have the revenue to cover it. I don't I don't think about it as much.

SPEAKER_06

What lessons did you learn from major downturns, such as 2000, 2008, 2020? You know, you know what's really funny? It's like when I'm dealing with clients, it's amazing now. You and I have been in the industry, I think about the same amount of 29 years, you're similar. It's like now we can actually talk through the market, you know? It's like I actually saw these and lived through these time periods. We have the wisdom to case with it. I don't know about wisdom, but at least the experience.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_03

So 2000 was pretty early for me. I graduated college in 2000. So the whole dot-com crisis, I didn't really have any clients. I was just kind of watching, going, oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, I would say 2008 hit me pretty hard. Um, it hit the airline travel pretty hard too. So I I was uh actually bidding for time off what they would pay for my healthcare and I wouldn't have to fly because I didn't need pilots as much. So I used that time uh to really kind of uh hand hold the clients that were uh handhold the clients that are that were in the firm at the time. Um I learned a lot in 2008, which I think applied to 2020. So when we got to 2020, I was like, okay, well, it's a different headline, but I have a journal from 2008. And it was kind of like this might happen again, but I'm not I'm not gonna make the same mistakes I did in 08. And so I referenced that in 2020, I referenced that journal. And so instead of being scared about the problem, I attacked the problem. And then when I learned how to change my rhetoric about things, the clients were also more positive. And we had people, instead of people going, Oh my God, move me to cash, they were like, How do we invest more money?

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And so we started thinking it's like, okay, well, you don't have any extra cash, but you're still working. So we're gonna front load your 401k. So how much we're gonna put like 50%, the max you can put in of your paycheck uh for that given company into your 401k plan. Uh so instead of being scared, we we coached our clients to take advantage of the situation. And then if you're already retired, it was like, you know, I had uh client phone call who said, Hey, you know, I got some extra cash. You don't have to send me my withdrawal this month. Yeah. And I said, Well, it doesn't matter because we already have the reserve. This doesn't really affect you unless we stay in this for two years.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Then we got a problem. But then we could use your bonds if we had to. Uh, and they were like, Oh, well, just keep sending my money then.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_06

So then they went through a downturn and felt that it, you know, their lifestyle didn't change. Correct.

SPEAKER_03

The whole premise of the planning and I I can almost tell them with 100% certainty that their lifestyle is not going to change, right? In in in that moment because of the cash bucket system.

SPEAKER_05

Right.

SPEAKER_03

Now, if they start shutting down capitalism and the government takes over cola companies and takes over the airlines and takes then that's a different, that's a whole different story. But there's no threat of that.

SPEAKER_06

No.

SPEAKER_03

Right?

SPEAKER_06

No, yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

So I I I think I think in the end, um those those lessons helped in all the series. And thank goodness for 2020, uh, it was not drawn out more than what, four months. I think by six months we were back to where we started. Uh, I think 2022 is harder, quite honestly, than than uh uh 2008, because in 2008 our bank accounts were falling apart in 2020. Uh we there's thing called COVID and didn't know what it meant, but people were dying. So we're just trying not to die.

SPEAKER_04

Right.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_03

Your your party was not to die versus versus is my money gonna be okay, right?

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, yeah. Totally different feel. And then there was 9-11 sprinkled in there too, which that affected the airlines. And you know, so so like the dot-com sit and then 9-11, that was actually the longest time recovery in our lifetimes where it took the longest for the market to recover. That's right. Oh eight and oh nine was like four and a half years, but that whole time period was probably close to nine years.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it was a flat decade.

SPEAKER_06

It was, it was, yeah. So that was I was in the industry in 1997, so I went through that um and saw and witnessed all of the dot-coms and you know in the industry during that time. So it it they all had different, they were somewhat similar, but different causes. But you know, it's just really interesting.

SPEAKER_02

Not all financial advice is created equal. Coming this summer, everything your financial advisor won't tell you. An eye-opening book that reveals what's really happening inside the financial industry and what it takes to build a plan that actually works. Because what you don't know could be costing you.

SPEAKER_06

What would you tell your younger self?

SPEAKER_03

You're gonna have a hard time believing this, but be bold and move faster. Think with people think I'm bold now and I move fast now. But I would have oh I should have done some things faster back then. Um, you just you don't you don't know as far as building a business, uh, the our marketing strategy. I thought about it too long, a couple years, and finally I was like, Well, someone told me, Well, if the marketing didn't work like this, all the marketing agencies would be out of business. We wouldn't do marketing, like it's gonna work. But are you are you ready for it to work? Uh so so that that was from a from a growth standpoint, um, growing a firm, uh, putting the right people in place. That's something I learned. Uh that was kind of my journey after I was stopped flying. Was the people, people, processes, and profits, right? So I was understanding processes, which we have so many processes now. Um it's kind of a vein of our existence, and some days these processes that we keep breaking for good reasons. Um, but the people part is is really, really tough. Uh you gotta find the right people. And so I think we have a magic formula now.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, but it starts with younger people.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And sometimes younger people, the older people look at the younger people. Well, you don't know anything. Why should you be my advisor? But our younger people are just made different and they're trained differently than other people. So our young people have wisdom.

SPEAKER_06

They do.

SPEAKER_03

And it's amazing what they're doing.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_03

And always hard hire people smarter than me. That's why you're here.

SPEAKER_06

Well, I you know what I think of when you're telling this story, and I think of this about the people you're talking about. All of these things you went through grew you into the leader that you are, so that you could have the people follow you too. You know what I mean? So, I mean, it's it's you're a great leader. So um, what are some common mistakes that you see clients make?

SPEAKER_03

Uh I feel like there's a lot. Yeah. I mean, that's why they come here. But um, I think most recently, probably politics mixing mixing with portfolios. Um, I've said it on the podcast many times. I'll say it again. If you hate Trump but Delta can sell seats and Trump and uh Coca-Cola can sell uh syrup, your portfolio is gonna be just fine, right? Yeah. Um if if you love Trump but Delta can't sell seats and no one wants to buy coke syrup, then you're not you're not gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Yeah, because we have to have a lot of people.

SPEAKER_03

And so what is the connection between politics and capitalism? And the reality is is it's not highly correlated. New cycles inside you know, three months, the markets will fluctuate, yes. Yeah, but whether Kamala had won versus Trump, would the world be a different place? Absolutely be a different place. There, there's different reasons why people voted for the people they voted for. Um, however, it comes back down to really making money, and neither party system is going to destroy the system that makes money. Yeah, right. So, so we get too wrapped up, uh, we get too wrapped up in in politics. I don't think this is I don't think our clients are this way. We're a wealth management firm, so we're meeting with a different segment of the population. But in reality, no matter who the president is, Americans, we just have it in embedded into us that we solve the problems ourselves. We don't need politicians to go solve the problem. We're a strong, we're strong people. We're a str we're a strong nation because of the people. And people discount that.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Right. Um, if you if if AI takes all the jobs like everyone's scared about, people are gonna find ways to make money. People are gonna find ways to to take care of themselves because we don't we don't lean on our government to do it for us. Now, there is a segment of our population that does that. They don't come to wealth management firms, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Right, sure.

SPEAKER_03

And you still should care for your neighbor. If we if we all cared for our neighbors, we we wouldn't need churches to do it, we wouldn't need government to do it because we we could handle it locally, right? Um, but so I would say just getting politics mixed in with portfolios, also um, people with that feeling. So I feel like there's there's less of this. I think we're doing a good job through our podcast of talking about this, but I have a feeling the market's just gonna crash. I know I want to pull some money back. You can't your feelings, your fight or flight mentality that we're born with as humans, those are all things that you kind of have to ignore when it comes to portfolios. Yeah. Um, you need to do uh database research. And most people don't have the tools and they're not actually doing the data research, say what's the best, what should I be doing in my portfolio based on what's happening? So um, those are the mistakes I see that people um people get caught up in. Uh, also probably with you think about with prospects, there's there's always someone someone's interviewed, and all they talk about is rate of return. I can get you this rate of return, we can do this. There is no secret sauce in investing. And and and there are certain firms that are really good about talking their book and talking what what they did and make make their prospective client feel special, but they are adding no more value to that portfolio than owning Vanguard index funds for the most part.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And that is a that's kind of a sucker play. Uh, and so the client doesn't have planning, they're overpromised on rate of returns that they're probably never gonna actually see.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And it's kind of a it's a it's a dead end. But those those are kind of the mistakes that I that typically um feel like I'm fighting maybe a more meeting-by-meeting basis.

SPEAKER_06

So the client stories is something that's you know, near and dear because that is what we're doing. We're in the people, you know, we're here with the relationships and the people. So um, you know, tell tell us a little bit about a typical client journey.

SPEAKER_03

Well, for new clients, you're going through that three-step planning process. It's a it's three meetings uh at a minimum, could be more, uh, where we're really diving into your overall situation. Um, so that that's a um typical um onboarding process. Um many clients we're managing assets for as well. So we get to the end, we've transferred assets in. Andrew started working his magic and setting up the portfolio, lowering their costs, focused on growth and income. Then what's interesting is um the the cadence in which we meet with clients is really set on them. I have clients that I meet with on a quarterly basis. Uh don't we don't really talk about investments anymore. They've been here for five years. We talk about family stuff or they complain about their spouse. Uh the spouse doesn't come. And and um uh but it's more of a relationship. Um and we there is the annual you know, nuts and bolts review meetings, right? That means those are still happening. Um but I think over time, you know, our value is to be there when things happen. Kids got kids get divorced, what are we gonna do? Um our how how do we make how do we protect our assets, or how can we help my daughter or son? Uh the kids uh or um, you know, there's a there's a market event, how do we handle this? Or we're paying for college now. What about this? Or we're kid got into a better college than what we expected. So how do we how can we handle this? It's just being there ready to go, and you've you've gotten all the all the planning done ahead of time, uh, and you have this relationship over the years and you just kind of remember that family and and and what they need. So it's a uh we have a 99% five-year retention ratio. Um there's a lot more people now, obviously, than there was 26 years ago or 25 years ago. Uh, but thank goodness for technology and and good note-taking, we're able to kind of stay on top of each each individual family. But I I think the the journey starts with a lot of heavy lifting followed by um long-term relationship that hopefully is invaluable to both of us, right?

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Uh tell us about a moment where your advice made a real difference in someone's life.

SPEAKER_03

I I hope there's many cases like that. Uh, there's one family I worked with that uh owed uh self-employed owed a lot of money to the government. And I was trying to negotiate to get the tax burden reduced, and they just made too much money. It wasn't gonna happen. And I don't do a whole lot of that. So part of it was kind of navigate, navigate all that. But I could sense a lot of tension between them. And I remember sitting across the table and I looked at them and I said, I'm willing to figure this out with you guys, but if you two get divorced, I'm out. And they just kind of sat there looking at me, like, you know, you could tell it's probably on the table with their reaction.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um, I money and stress, money, money and stress. Yeah, it's like, I'm not gonna do all this work, and then you two be like, you know, trying to split me in half, right? Um, and they've been clients here for probably 20 years now, and we they still kind of smile about that. And and I I don't remember the exact comments.

SPEAKER_06

And they're still married, we hope. Yes, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03

They've and they've gone through other things, uh, cancer and and things like that, and they've been there very strong, strong for each other. Um, so I I think that's probably one pitiful moment. I think I feel like more recently it's been more of encouraging people to go do something.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Like if you're 80 years old, I I think I feel like I say this in my sleep. If you're 80 years old and you're looking back in your life, what is it that you want to accomplish? Well, we've been good savers. So save, save, say, but now we're in our retirement phase where some people are in their mid-70s and they're like, I've always wanted to go to Paris. Well, why don't you go to Paris? Right. Well, I have no one to travel with. Well, join a group, you know, or or in some cases, like, I don't know. I don't know. One family it was uh, it was like, you know, oh COVID. COVID's just reason why we can't travel. I'm like, it's 2025. Like that, yeah. COVID and flu are just kind of intertwined now.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So so it's it's um encouraging people to go live their best lives. Uh I think that is probably the um the probably where we're making the biggest difference right now, assuming all the other things are just taken care of. The rest of it is just doing our job. Does that make sense? All the planning and the asset management, that's just doing our job. Right. But but to get people to live their best lives is is uh uh it's almost like an art of some point because you have to you have to speak that person's language and understand what's causing them not to do it, right?

SPEAKER_06

A lot of them are scared, like scared to spend money, then just show them the numbers again and you know, plug in worst case scenario and then doing, you know, just just speak to that so it they feel comfortable.

SPEAKER_03

And then twenty five percent of the people we meet with in prospects, twenty five. Of them don't have the resources or the money to pay us, even for one-time plans.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And recently I've had some conversations where I'm like, you need you're living above your lifestyle, you're above your means. Your lifestyle is above your means. You need, you need to cut it out. And this is you probably need to eat rice and beans for 18 months, and you can get rid of this and you can reintroduce things back into your life. And I remember the person on the phone or the uh video is a video chat video screen that says, Well, you mean I can't go on vacation this summer? I'm like, No, I'm telling you that if you don't do this, you'll never go on a vacation again.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And it's just being very direct and talking to them with love, but just saying, You you have to get out of this debt cycle. And this is the only way you can do that. And so I feel like we're making a difference there. Now, whether they'll ever come back, because I offered my services for free to have a meeting with a full meeting with them to give them a blueprint to get out of debt. Right. Yeah. And uh this happens again 25% of the time. One out of 10 come back and say, okay, I really want help with this. And that is so it's just hard. Yeah. It's hard to be good with money.

SPEAKER_06

Well, clear is kind, and it's, you know, you have to be you they're paying us to be honest, or they're coming to us to be honest, whether they're paying us or not. So that goes back to our honesty.

SPEAKER_03

So it it it's it's uh the purpose of the firm is to help people.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And sometimes that comes from an unsolicited hug because we help someone get through a tough situation. That's all they can give us. Yeah. And then other cases, uh, we we're paid very well for what we do because the situation is very complicated and we're giving them confidence that everything is buttoned up and and uh they can go live their best lives, right? So it so that I think that's the um that's also probably a wiser difference too. I think we we when we hire people, we screen so many people out that just sit there across the table from me and say, How much money can I make here?

unknown

No.

SPEAKER_03

I was like, if that's your you'll make a lot of money here if if your heart's in the right place. But if your heart's in the wrong place, you're gonna hurt me and yourself. So this isn't this is not right the right home for me. You need to go sell insurance.

unknown

Right?

SPEAKER_03

Insurance is you know, you can we need insurance. We need life insurance. So if you want to make a quick buck, go sell some life insurance. But this is this is a journey.

Writing The Book The Industry Avoids

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Yeah. So we've been working behind the scenes um on everything your financial advisor won't tell you. So this is uh uh I'll I'll let you do the intro.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, you know, what's um your your brainchild. One of the most watched TED talks is by a guy who uh did a whole talk on procrastination. And his whole TED talk was, I've always wanted to do, I've always wanted to say that I did a TED talk. But the process of doing a TED talk is very difficult. So he talked about the brain and he talked about all the things he got distracted with as he was trying to do his TED talk. Uh and he talked about, you know, he was he was preparing for his TED talk and he thought, you know, I've never been to Egypt. So he goes, I spent two hours on Google Earth walking the streets of Egypt in, you know, first person. Nothing to do with the TED Talk. He was just he was just completely distracted. So I can relate to that. Uh there's a lot of distractions in my life. Um, so I've always wanted to write a book. And I thought, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it. Um, I I uh reached out to a company that I felt like could help me do this, where I wasn't actually just keying in every single word. I could, I could kind of talk through my chapters and they could help me, help me, you know, flesh that out on paper, um, which turns out I've been better off probably just writing every single word. Because in the end, that's what happened.

SPEAKER_06

Changing everything and redoing it. And it's like, I wouldn't have said it.

SPEAKER_03

Like, here's a drop drive first chapter. I was like, this is horrible. Um, I'm just gonna start from scratch. You know, at first I tried editing and it's like, oh, I'm gonna start from scratch. Uh so the first chapter one probably had 25 revisions, and then the book kind of got its voice. But what I'm a firm believer in is I had every capability of writing a book by myself. But what was important to me is I bring you guys along the journey. And so um, that's what we did. We asked Andrew to write a chapter on investing. Uh, he's our king of data. So he's that chapter is exactly what it sounds like. There's lots of data. It goes kind of in in depth. Uh, you did the tax session uh section, the state planning section, uh, and insurance, correct?

SPEAKER_06

And education. Yep.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, that's right. The uh 529 plan section. Yep. So uh so we managed to get 200 pages down. I think I'm probably what, probably 65, 70 percent of the book. You need your about 30% of the book. Uh, and now we can all say that we're authors.

SPEAKER_06

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03

Uh and so the book uh again is is is um everything your financial advisor won't tell you. Uh and it will be coming out uh this summer. And I'm I'm excited about it. Um, I get to be genuinely me, and I don't mind poking the bear. You're the nicest person. I I I think my industry is a great industry, but it's the lowest barrier to entry. We have so many people in our industry that can hang their shingle and say, I'm a financial advisor with very little qualifications.

SPEAKER_06

And so it's throw that word around for sure. Yes.

SPEAKER_03

And so I this is a book that's about really our industry and everything that they're not telling you. It's how we conduct business here. So it's kind of has a lot of our operations and how we work and how we think, but um, for statistically, 96% of the industry does not operate we do. So we we're fiduciary fee only is four percent industry, according to uh NAFA, one of our um fee-only uh networks that we're we're a part of. So 4% of the industry operates the way we do. So I think this is an opportunity to a reach out to people who don't know who we are, um these people that we can't always help because they don't have the resources, they have a great book to learn. Uh people who might want to hire us can read the book to see, well, these are our thoughts on things and this is how we think. Yeah, right. So it has multi-uh a purpose to it. Um, but it I I think it's a um uh I think I think it should be a great read for people who are interested uh in financial planning, the process behind planning. One of my favorite chapters was writing one on goal setting. Yeah, I make I make my kids do that every single year. They write down and write down their goals for the year.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, it's a good practice because they're gonna have to do it going forward. Yeah, it's just good to do as a human and you're growing.

SPEAKER_03

That's right. So um, but yeah, look for that uh coming out this summer. Uh we have uh the the manuscript is completed and uh it'll be published through Amazon and it will be um uh I think be out by uh sometime in June.

SPEAKER_06

Um so where do you think the industry is heading?

SPEAKER_03

So there's gonna be a big push for AI-based advising. I think the market's gonna push the customers will push back. They want to have a person that they can reach out to. Uh what I think will happen is AI will be a great tool um for people. And full disclosure, I asked AI to proofread our book and I used two different versions of of uh uh uh AI models to to do it. And both came back and said one section, the math was wrong. And I was like, oh, how do we get the math wrong? It's an example. It's like if you give up your coffee every day and how much money you'd be saving, if you invest that in the market, and it said, oh no, this number is wrong. So we went back and recalculated it, and uh actually humans are right. Hey, I was wrong. So yeah, so there's a and I've had a couple of uh people come to me with chat GPT-based financial planning, and I was like, Oh, this is really good. It's it it writes very confident, but there's some holes here, and here's where the holes are. Yeah. So it we're gonna be um well, I think for once it gets better, general advice, it's it's just kind of like the robo advisors. So there were betterment.com, which uh surprisingly, we actually use betterment. It's one of our custodians now. But betterment.com came along uh probably 10, 15 years ago, and we don't need asset managers anymore. They're gonna take over the industry. And what's kind of ironic is we actually use them. We like their technology and how how it helps us manage portfolios, but it didn't take over, didn't replace the financial advisor. Now, what it caused is for advisors to go, oh wow, robots can ad can manage money now. So why do I need an advisor? And as advisors, we had to go, okay, well, we're doing financial planning now, and the robots will probably take over trading, trading and investing and all that stuff, right? So, so I I think that the that that was that would be one um one push. I think firms, financial advisory firms are to get very specific, have niches to be um to be successful going forward. I think the the Joe Schmo on the street with less than five hundred thousand dollars is gonna end up um is gonna end up probably using some type of AI planning, AI investing going forward.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

But the more wealthier people are are gonna want more cohesive planning not related to an AI model that is subject to errors as we speak, right?

SPEAKER_06

Absolutely. How would you say our firm is evolving?

SPEAKER_03

We're growing so fast that uh we've been we've been doing things in teams. So kind of how we have divided up our firm is you have a team, you're a senior advisor, I'm a senior advisor with my team. And it's not like me versus you. No, it's very much because we're all paid a salary, there's no commission uh here, but it's it's very much of you supervise a group of people and I'm supervising a group of people.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And as we evolve going forward, we have to make sure we're communicating that we're still the advisors to these families, but they have to understand that we are better as a team. If you have a single person who's in charge of everything for you, like if you think back to where we started, where I was a person who did the financial planning, who did the portfolio distributions, who did the trading, who did all that stuff, you're only as good as one person. Right. When we have our group meetings, our group think meetings and clients come in for review meetings, pre-meeting, or or uh clients going through our planning process, you have five people with different designations looking at the overall plan to say, is this the best option? Right. Michaela had one yesterday she put together. It was great. But when four of us sat there and worked out or worked on it, yeah, we're like, hey, what if you did this or what if you did that? We should tell them to do this with their money. Oh, great. How about this? That plan went from a good plan to an A plus plus plan.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And I think that we're gonna have to do a better job of explaining to clients how this is in their better, how this is in their their benefit. Uh, because they kind of see it as, oh, I want to talk to Casey and I only need to talk to Casey. But you guys have to understand, I hired people way smarter than me. That's a you have to be way smarter than me to get a job here. And I hired people way smarter than me because I want the best for you.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And just because I'm not the one doing your deposits or your withdrawals, or I'm not the one doing your tax calculations, I'm the person responsible for it, right? To make sure it all comes together. Uh, but but that's that's our future, is how we how we build these teams out and how we articulate that to our to our client base. I I don't know that they know.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You know, and actually I'll I should do a video and post that and talking about what happens behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

But uh, but there's a there's a lot that goes on and with our new technology tools, we're able to go a little deeper in that. Yeah. Uh so I see as being deeper planners, more valuable to the client, uh, and also being able to um uh solve problems that others uh other advisory firms are equipped to do.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. What excites you about the next 10 to 25 years?

SPEAKER_03

25 years from now? Uh 25 years from now. I I don't even want to think about that right now. Um I think what excites me is I like solving problems and we're the fastest growing firm at Charles Schwab, have been for many years now, several years now, I should say. I I like I like um bigger is not always better, but I I want to make sure that as we grow our our clients still feel like we're small, if that makes sense. So I'm working really hard on finding a way that we can that we can make sure that that happens. Um I think that building a team is exciting. I see it as maybe having a different location in a different state potentially. Uh that's exciting to me to be able to reach more people uh that way. Um I still enjoy the client interactions and the client feedback. Uh that's that's always good. But um uh it's I don't think we're ever gonna be perfect when it comes to systems and processes, but I've had great conversations with uh people that can build internal processes that replace humans, which replace pairs. And so I'm excited about just building something that is way beyond me, meaning that when I'm hopefully I'll still be here in 25 years. But absolutely. But the but the point is is that uh this is building something bigger than myself. That's really important.

SPEAKER_06

So just with you know, to wrap up advice for listeners, um what should people in different life stages focus on?

SPEAKER_03

You know, in in our in our 20s, people tend to uh uh do things that they regret in their 30s, they spend their 30s making up for it, and they finally figured things out in their 40s. So I I would say it's it's hard. Young people don't always listen. But if you're if you're older, reach out, mentor your kids, your grandkids, say, hey, admit to mistakes. These are things that I did I shouldn't have done. Don't make these mistakes. I want you to be better off than where I am, even if you're in a great position. You can probably think of things that you wish you hadn't done, right? So I I I would say, I would say be focused. Uh if you're younger, look to someone who's wise, no pun intended, uh to be able to be better at something. Um even if they don't understand technology and how the world works or if they can't use their iPhone, there's a lot of wisdom there. I think we discount the the wisdom of our elders very often. Yeah. Um if you're if you're middle-aged, um your income is probably increasing. You need to look for ways to to stop the lifestyle creep. Yeah, and you need to be banking reserve. We don't know exactly what AI is gonna replace in the future. You need to make sure that you're not replaceable. And that might be re having to retool something or rethink rethink something. Um don't be afraid to start that company or or um take that take that risk. You get one shot, right? Go back to 80 years old. Did you did you, you know, you're 80 years old and looking back, you're gonna be having regrets. That's how I got into aviation, honestly. So I I thought ahead and it's like I met so many people that said they wish they had done this, done aviation.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um and they didn't do it. It's like I can't do it in my older years. I don't know. I mean, you can do privately, I guess, but but to do it professionally, um, you gotta start pretty early, ideally. So, so anyway, that yeah, don't live without live without regrets. Understand that you can change your situation. Um, don't don't be a victim, um, be be the hero of your own story, right? And then uh I think for people that are that are um older, again, I I would say don't play golf every day, like the commercial show or sailing. We don't live in a sailing community really, but all this all the retired and they're always on a sailboat. I'm like, who does that? Who's on a sailboat all the time when they're retired? But but don't, you know, live your best life, but also make sure you're reaching back to help others. I think that's really important.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, yeah. Would you say there's one principle that has held true for 25 years?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, live below your means.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

It's hard to do it because society doesn't want you to do that. They want you to buy it for five easy payments.

SPEAKER_06

And it helps the market too, right? It's helping the economy too.

SPEAKER_03

It's helping the economy, yeah, trillions of dollars in credit cards.

SPEAKER_06

It's the excuse, right?

SPEAKER_03

It's up in the economy, a trillion dollars of credit card debt to buy things we don't really need that that in the end end up wasting away in our backyard or whatever.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, exactly. That nobody wants and your kids don't want.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, just just uh focus on your lane. Others are gonna do things differently. Yeah. Uh Dave Ramsey has a uh good saying, you know, live like no one else today, so you can live like no one else tomorrow. But that doesn't apply only just to money, it applies to uh to taking risk and and and and trying new things. And uh if it's not working out, then fail fast and move on to something else, right?

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Well, thank you. Is there anything else you want to add here before we wrap up?

SPEAKER_03

Um, no, this was this was great. I mean, a lot of these questions I didn't really uh super I didn't really anticipate. So you're you have good you have good questions, but um I I would I would say it's been a fun 25 years. Um, the joy that it brings to me to see um nearly 18 people employed at Wiser now and the lives that we're affecting and all the new clients, especially for you, that I don't even know. It's uh you know, I walk into the lobby and I'm like, are they here for me? Are they here from somebody else? I don't know if they're here. Yeah, I'm very approachable. So so if you ever want to just call me up and say, hey, I want to talk to Casey, I'm I that sounds great. Um but yeah, I as the as the clients increase and I I don't know them firsthand, um, that feels weird to me because I'm so used to being super involved in and everything. Um, but I know that you and William, Michaela uh carry that out very well and are are do this do things, think the same way that I do uh about caring for clients. So I I don't have worries or concerns, but uh but sometimes I I do go, this is really surreal. It's like yeah, you know, yeah. But uh but no, it's it's been fun. I I'd in my head, um, I'm only you know, I'm not 48 years old, I'm still 30 years old and know exactly what I want to do. So I just have a little less hair and look a little older than most 30 year olds. You're wiser. That's right. You look wiser. That's right.

SPEAKER_06

Well, there's a couple other episodes that are really good too that I love if you want to listen. Episode 241, the heart and history of wiser wealth management. And you led that one as well. That was a beautiful one. Episode 300, built to last the history and future of wiser wealth management. Thanks for listening to today's episode. If you're interested in learning more about wiser wealth management or 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 on the link in the episode notes. We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_03

See you guys.

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 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 guest 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.

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Casey Smith

Co-host
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Shawna Theriault, CFP®, CPA, CDFA®

Co-host