Nerds On Tap

From Forbes Honors to Financial Planning: Andrew Martin's Journey

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Have you ever envisioned a seamless transition from a dream of managing a gym to mastering the finance industry? Listen as we join Andrew Martin of Atlas Financial Strategies on that very journey, navigating his transition and discussing the vital need for financial literacy. Over a few cold ones, including the Tate's Hell German-style lager, we unpack the joy found in equipping others with the tools to secure their financial future. From the challenges that various demographics face in investing to the limitations of the traditional assets under management model, our conversation covers the full spectrum of financial planning and the triumphs of personal fiscal empowerment.

Cracking open the Red Drum Amber Ale, Andrew and I explore the nitty-gritty of the financial advisor's world, considering the impact of regulations and the evolving nature of client engagement in this complex industry. Our candid chat also covers the influence of social media on investing, the surge of stocks like GameStop, and the psychological nuances behind financial decisions. But it's not all about the numbers; we delve into the personal touch that an advisor like Andrew brings to the table, emphasizing the value of tailored advice and investment strategies that align with an individual's unique life story and financial goals.

As our discussion winds down with the Maduro Brown Ale, we stress the importance of starting your financial planning journey early, the psychological factors of money management, and the resources available for anyone looking to enrich their financial knowledge. From personal success stories to strategies that weather life's uncertainties, this episode is a toast to wealth-building, savvy investing, and that delightful nerdy love for finance. So whether you're a fledgling investor or a seasoned financial aficionado, pour yourself a favorite beverage and join us for a blend of insightful anecdotes and valuable strategies that are sure to resonate with your own fiscal aspirations. Cheers!


Atlas Financial: https://www.atlasfinancialstrategies.com/Planning-Team.1.html
Andrew Martin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-martin-76b127158/


Beers:

Oyster City - Tates Helles
https://oystercity.beer/beer

The Ravenous Pig -  Red Drum
https://www.theravenouspig.com/items/red-drum

Cigar City Brewing - Maduro
https://www.cigarcitybrewing.com/beer/maduro-brown-ale/

Lord Hobo - Boomsauce
https://lordhobo.com/boomsauce/

Sponsor of this episode:  Digital Boardwalk
Digital Boardwalk is one of the top 10 Managed IT Service Providers in the United States.  If you are seeking to outsource your IT Management, or if your IT Team could use some help with projects or asset management, give Digital Boardwalk a call today!  They offer a FREE IT Maturity Assessment on their website.  If you want to see how your business's IT scores against industry standards, go to GoModernOffice.com now.

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Tim Shoop:

Hey everybody, welcome to another fantastic show of Nerds On Tap, where you get to get nerdy with us for an hour with me and my special guest. Nerds On Tap is always brought to you by Digital Boardwalk, america's top managed services provider, and SmarterWeb, your go-to marketing experts in the world of digital marketing. Today, on Nerds, we bring you Mr Andrew Martin, founder of Atlas Financial Strategies. Andrew is the founder and president of Atlas. Andrew has been a financial advisor since 2011 and was honored to be named in the top 50 financial security professionals in the state of Florida by Forbes magazine for two consecutive years. He has a passion for helping clients gain clarity on their financial plan and helping them find creative solutions to address their needs. He holds a bachelor's in business administration from the University of South Alabama. He is passionate about business planning, financial planning and retirement planning. Welcome to the show, andrew. Thank you, tim. Thanks for having me.

Andrew Martin:

Thank you, I like your suspenders. Oh, thanks man. I'm either professional or homeless.

Tim Shoop:

Professor or homeless, I think.

Andrew Martin:

You're a furrier, my attire is homeless. No, no, no, that's dressing up for me, man, I don't know why.

Tim Shoop:

I'm a T-shirt and jeans guy when you see, I think the only time you've ever seen me. Well, the only time you've ever seen me, I've been dressed up. Yeah, yeah, you're a shnazzy. Yeah, man, this is my incognito mode. So you get to. Now you're going to spot me out in the back and go. That's Tim over there. That looks like the homeless.

Andrew Martin:

I was going to say, when I see people out that are used to seeing me like this, you know you can tell there's like a second where they're like is that?

Tim Shoop:

is that the same guy? I dig the suspenders, I told you that last?

Tim Shoop:

time I ran into you. So, andrew, you know what this show's all about. We're going to talk about what you do and how you engage with your clients and help your clients, but we also do something else on this show. It wouldn't be called Nerds on Tap if we didn't have a good beer to crank it up. All right, suds, what do we got? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Nerds on Tap. I'm your host, tim Schu, and I couldn't be more excited to embark on this nerdy adventure with all of you. So grab your favorite brew, because things are about to get exciting. Three, two, one go.

Jared Shoop:

All right. Our first beer of the day is the Tate's Hellest German style lager from Oyster City Brewing Company in Appalachicola, Florida. A brewer describes it as a traditional lager utilizing all German malts and hops to produce malt. Accident, lightly hopped, golden crisp and crushable experience for the drinker. It's named after the local Tate's Hell State Force in Appalachicola. That's real good.

Tim Shoop:

That is real good yeah.

Andrew Martin:

Where's that from Appalachicola? Appalachicola Stone's throw man right down the road. That's very good.

Tim Shoop:

That's tasty. I'm going to sip on that while we get into your background, Andrew. So tell me so your journey as a financial advisor. We talked about how you started in 2011. Tell me, you know. Let's start just by talking about how you got into it. What started this journey for Mr Andrew?

Andrew Martin:

Sure, I knew from an early age that I needed to work for myself. I just don't have the kind of personality to be a good employee. So I knew from an early age I would want to work for myself, be in control of my destiny and income and all the things. And so I went to college for business, thinking I wanted to own a gym. And because you know, I can own a business and be in the gym all day, that sounds great.

Tim Shoop:

Stay fit and you know, and build your future while you do it.

Andrew Martin:

Right Getting to college and start kind of looking at the business model of that and kind of what it takes to do that, and I was like I don't think that's for me no disrespect to the gym owners out there but just seemed like, wow, that's a lot of work and a lot of upfront costs there, lot of overhead, yeah yeah. And so I was lost there for a little bit and remember taking a personal finance course as an elective, which is a kind of whole conversation in and of itself that it's not a mandatory course, that it was an elective. I remember taking that course and kind of immediately after a few weeks being like, wow, all of this is super useful information and will have a direct impact on the rest of my life. Found it terribly interesting because, you know it's like I, this, you know, this will, you know, really have an impact on my financial health and things like that. And all of this is super applicable to, you know, the rest of my life.

Andrew Martin:

And I remember being terribly interested in it and kind of talking to other students in the class and you know wondering like why is this the first time I've ever heard this? Why is this an elective and not a required course and all that sort of stuff. Everybody else kind of felt the same way. And then you know, you start talking to your parents about the things that you're learning assuming that they know those things and kind of quickly find out like, oh y'all, y'all weren't taught these things either.

Tim Shoop:

Hey, let me tell you something. I had to help my fifth grader, my fifth grade daughter, with math one night, and I had to relearn math the new way in one evening and it wasn't fun. So I can only imagine go ahead, yeah.

Andrew Martin:

I talked to the parents and realized that they never learned these things either, or they've had to learn it the hard way, taught to other adults, and kind of find it's that's the commonality with 90 plus percent of people. And I remember thinking I was so enthralled by it, so interested in it, that I was like if I could do the I didn't really know what it looked like, but I was like if I could do something like this as a career and help educate people on these things, like what a great way to make a living, right To help people with things that you know. Unfortunately, most things cost money and most people struggle with money. So like what a great way to make a living if you can help people with that and make a living while doing that. And then started kind of on that journey of all right, well, what does it look like to what you know? There's different ways to get into that industry and different things that you could do, and kind of happened upon that and started in that direction.

Andrew Martin:

So that's why I would have needed to go another year to get my finance degree and I was like, well, I don't really need a degree to do this. There's all sorts of licenses you have to pass to do you know. So the degree doesn't actually do any good, but I started down that path of taking more finance courses before I graduated and things like that, but graduated with my business degree, I guess with an emphasis in finance, if you will. But again it is. It's very, it's very nice to be able to make a living having an impact on people's lives via their finances.

Tim Shoop:

So I'm thinking about that and I'm thinking about myself, as I, you know, was growing up and experiencing the world and, you know, moving around and figuring out my future. And in my 20s, investing in the world of finance was pretty. You know, it was far fetch for me because I didn't make a lot of money. Sure, I was homeless at one point, I think.

Tim Shoop:

I told you that for a couple months and technically lived in a tent. And I will tell you that people were telling me oh yeah, it's your job, yeah, you shouldn't. You know, do the 401k, do this and that? And all I saw in my 20s was how that took away from my weekend beer money and how it would impact me very short-sighted, in a very short-sighted way. What is your demographic? I'm going off script a little bit because this hits home. You know, I started late in life investing. I wish I had started earlier. I had the capability to start earlier. I just didn't know where to start. So your demographic? It's all over the place, isn't it? Young and old.

Andrew Martin:

It is, and I just will say, saying what you said. Everyone says they wish they would have started earlier or gotten serious about it earlier, or taken the advice of whoever gave them some advice earlier in life.

Tim Shoop:

I think part of it is it rolls down generationally too, because my father wasn't an investor. Unless it was a short-term CD, sure, he wasn't investing oh, that's gambling. But then when he got older and he was retired and mom was gone, he was gambling all the time. So instead of investing he'd go to the casino. But your demographic's all over the place. Talk to me about that and talk to me what happens when somebody comes to Mr Martin, when somebody says, hey, I just where do?

Andrew Martin:

I start Sure, I'll start by saying that, being young-ish, right, getting my start fresh out of college and this industry kind of by default, a lot of your clients end up looking like you, right? So I mean, those are your peers and that's who you know, and you end up getting a lot of clients that look like you. And I'll say, I guess, before I dive into that real quick, I think the traditional model in the industry is broken in a lot of ways in this industry because the traditional model is the assets under management model or AUM model. So, like back in the day, there used to be stock brokers and they would make a 1% commission for buying and selling stocks and that's just the way it was done. There wasn't really financial advisors, it was stock brokers, right? And then people kind of wised up to the very glaring, obvious conflicts of interest with that model. So you're getting paid every time you buy and sell. What if it's in my best interest to buy the stock and hold it for a long period of time or something like that, right? So you can see that they're encouraged to churn, right, whether you need to buy or sell this stock right now or not, they want you to buy or sell it, because that triggers a commission for them. People kind of wised up to that and then it moved to like the rap fee, right? So that 1% or 2% fee that most advisors are going to charge nowadays to manage your assets.

Andrew Martin:

I think the inherent conflicts of interest with that model is one you know your ability to work with that advisor is contingent upon you having a sizable amount of money to invest. Number one. Number two, that you are willing to let them manage it for you and you're willing to let them charge that 1% or 2% fee to manage the assets. So that leaves a lot of young people out, right. That leaves a lot of you know. So I mean, even if you had and you know, even if you had a million dollars in your 401k or something like that, the advisor can't take custody of that money to manage for you and charge the 1% or 2% fee. So even still, even if you have, you know, a sizable portfolio, if it's not in the form that the advisor can take, manage, can take custody of and manage for you, you're not a client for them, right? And so there's a lot of the firms, some of the firms that everybody would know the names of that. The advisors get paid nothing on accounts under $250,000. So you can imagine, right, the majority of people, particularly younger people, don't have that amount of investment, so it's not somewhere that the advisor can take custody of. So it leaves a lot of people unserved or underserved.

Andrew Martin:

And again there's a lot of conflicts and because again it's basically do you have money to invest, is it sizable, are you willing to let me manage it and charge you the 1% or 2% fee? And then usually the advice kind of begins and ends with what to do with that money, right, how to invest it. And that's all the conversations. Here's what the stock market is doing, here's what we're doing, here's whatever changes we've made. And generally the advice doesn't go outside sorry, doesn't go outside that circle of what to do with that money. No-transcript. You know you might come to the advisor and say, hey, I have this money, what should I do with it? And maybe that money should go to paying down debt, maybe should go to padding savings, maybe you want to invest in other types of assets, like real estate or something like that, or your business or what have you.

Tim Shoop:

But so you help. You help them plan with things that even fall outside of your portfolio. Like that you'll help them manage their assets. If it's real estate, obviously you're not. You know you're not being commissioned or or your fees on the real estate, but you're helping them go. I think that's. I mean, do you help them decide on the investment? Probably not.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, no, I mean we're not helping them pick out which property to buy or anything but the planning that goes around, that as as as it pertains to the cash flow that may or may not come from that property, the cash outlay of that property, the costs associated with it, how it fits into the other things that they're doing, the asset protection and the estate planning that needs to be involved with this new asset addition to your portfolio, and things like that.

Tim Shoop:

So if they come to you and they go hey, I found this great piece of property, I'm going to borrow. You know I'm going to. I'm going to borrow the money to do this instead of using cash, but unfortunately the interest rates are pretty high. I'm paying. You know, maybe they didn't get such a great deal as far as their investment, even though they had money, but it's all tied up. Are you going to just kind of you're going to give them tips that that might not be?

Andrew Martin:

I'll give you a a recent example. So we have a client that owns a business and you know her thought process was, and she, she would like to sell the business in maybe five-ish years is kind of the plan. And she's, you know, 50-ish or so and she's, you know, wondering she's renting her commercial property that she's running her business out of. Now. She's like I'd like to buy it and you know, I don't know about renting it. I'd love to, you know, have that asset and things like that. And I'm like, okay, so let's assume that you're talking about a million dollar piece of property, which is probably pretty reasonable for what she's looking at.

Andrew Martin:

I was like, all right, you're going to have to put 20% down typically, so that's $200,000. And then it's going to be closing costs and things like that. Let's call it to call that $250,000. And then there's going to be inevitable you know the likelihood of it being a completely turnkey piece of property and obviously you're going to have to fill it with stuff. You know you're either going to have to want to paint it, you're going to put furniture or decorations or things, and anyway, so let's call it another $50,000. And now you're talking about $300 or $1000, you know, cash outlay for that property and then of course you have the payment for it and things like that.

Andrew Martin:

And I'm like you're going to sell the business in the next five years. So I mean, we, you know, we just got to kind of look at does that $300,000 investment make more sense in that piece of property If you're going to sell it in five years which totally could make sense or does it make more sense at this stage in your business to spend that money reinvested back into your business to grow it to get a higher sale price in five years, right? So where's the best return on that capital and where's the best flexibility with that money and things like that? Right Now? You're talking my language.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, reinvesting back into the business yeah.

Andrew Martin:

I'm going to you know that's, that's one of the things that we preach to business owners, because I think, if you look at so I'm sorry for getting off script oh it's okay.

Tim Shoop:

I just know from my own perspective a business owner's biggest asset is their business 100%. You know you've got your, your homes, your real estate, your home real estate. You know your vehicles, this and that you've got appreciation and depreciation. But a business, if it's managed well, it is always going to grow.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, and I I could, um, I could, just really you could take a nap and I could talk for the next couple hours about that. But, um, yeah, so a couple of things. One, a lot of business owners don't own a business. They own a job and they hire other people to help them with that job. So it's not the type of business, you know what I mean. If the business is too overly reliant upon them, you're just self employed and hired other people with that job. Right. So that's working in it, not on it, that's right. So that's that's number one.

Andrew Martin:

Um, yes, the business typically, for most business owners, is far and away the biggest asset. Unfortunately, most business owners 80 plus percent never get to capitalize on this asset that they built. So 80 something percent of businesses never sell because they're the value, because they're the value typically, and they just, um, I think, beginning with the end in mind, I think being intentional, beginning with the end in mind, understanding. So I was just talking to, um, uh, a client, uh, you know a buddy about this yesterday. He's not a client yet, but and, um, yeah, right, he, uh the type of company that he has. Um, and it's just him and one other guy and you know, just trying to tell him, cause he talked about selling it one day and but it's just you and this guy right now, like it's not, it's not a business. It's just you're just selling your service Like it's not a business, this is not sellable at all.

Andrew Martin:

Like there's a lot of things you got to do and you just got to decide do you want to make this a business? And you're going to have to, you know. You know your leadership. You're going to have to grow as a, as a entrepreneur and as a leader to do that, which is going to be uncomfortable and it's going to be hard and it's going to take time. Or you can just say I'm just fine on this job, I'm going to take income, you know, create income by doing this thing and then I'll invest that income elsewhere. Or do you want to invest in the business and make it a business? Anyways, I say that to say you know, 80 something percent of businesses never sell this. You know of the small percentage that do. The vast majority of them do not sell for anywhere near what the business owner is hoping to get or think it's worth or any of that stuff. Right, so that's a whole other show.

Tim Shoop:

That's a whole other show and and I I get passionate when we talk about that because there's a lot of little things that business, business owners could be doing within their business to maximize their value. But I'm going to have to save that for another show. Sure, sure.

Andrew Martin:

Um, in my opinion, wisely reinvesting back into a well run business is arguably one of the best things that you can do. Not saying that you shouldn't diversify outside of the business. Obviously there's, there's benefit to diversification, but most business owners would like to grow the value of the business. If they're that forward thinking, um number one, number two every business owner would like to reduce taxes, right.

Tim Shoop:

So no, you don't know, that's the last thing on our minds. So we talked about that when we had a, had a bourbon one night, right.

Andrew Martin:

Um, so weirdly. A weird uh kink in the tax code is income is taxed at the highest rate. Capital gains taxes are taxed at a much lower rate. Okay, income tax right now highest is 37%. Highest capital gain tax right now is 20%. So you look like you have something.

Tim Shoop:

I'm all too familiar with all those numbers, yeah.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, um. So if you can reinvest back into the business in a way to reduce your highest rate, such as income, and grow the value of the business, which is arguably, arguably, going to be a better return on that capital than on a lot of other places, and you don't have to pay taxes on the growth of the business until it's sold, and then, depending on how you structure the sale, whether it be an asset sale or stock sale, and even if it's asset sale, depending on how that's structured, hopefully the majority of it is going to be capital gains taxes, which are going to be taxed at a much lower rate.

Tim Shoop:

And those, those are going to be your, your shareholder distributions from ownership Right. So so, just speaking to our audience from from a business owner's viewpoint, if you're going to reinvest back into your business, what is the most expensive thing to reinvest back in your business, where you're going to get your biggest return? I don't, in my opinion. I don't think it's real estate, I don't think it's, uh, physical things. I think it is your talent, your people, the people that that are your friends, your front line and and are going to replicate what your vision was for that business moving forward. You invest in people and and, and, of course, the evolution of your product offerings. You are going to maximize your return.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, so, um, obviously, caveat being, it depends on the industry and you know the industry the business is in and so on. But, yeah, generally speaking, um, it's whatever the revenue drivers of the business are Right. So, um, that could be people right If you're in a type of business, um, that that's the case. But whatever is going to increase the cash flow and or revenue slash profitability of the business? Um, because you know, probably, as you well know, most businesses sell for multiple of EBITDA. There's all sorts of different, you know ways that businesses sell, but that's a pretty typical one. Ebitda is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and it's a fancy accounting metric for what basically boils down to profit, right, so profit and that's another thing too with a lot of business owners is they'll say you know how much revenue they're doing and I'm like that's great, how much of that is profit?

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, you don't multiply times, uh, the amount of revenue you have. You multiply times the amount of profit. That's right. That's right.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah. So I think, investing in something that's uh, you know, in revenue drivers of the business, um, obviously making things more efficient. But to your point, um, yes, people, um, and I think there's a lot of business owners that try to not pay more than they have to for certain positions, or they're too caught up on what's the market rate of this position, like, basically, how, how much can I get away with paying this?

Tim Shoop:

person. I think it's how valuable that person is to to the growth of the business, more so than just what the role is. Now you have to structure it. Of course you have to structure that. People know this is what they're projecting. But if you see a top performer and you see somebody that's really killing it, you know and and you're going to want to keep them around a lot longer because they're going to help you grow. And turnover, which is a um, what's the word I'm looking for? It's a. It's an outcome from not paying people enough. When you have high turnover and you have to replace those people. What do you think? Does it actually cost more to bring a new person on in the form of training and getting them ramped up, and maybe the loss of business in the meantime because people are missing their you know their star um, or is it just par for?

Andrew Martin:

the course. I think that, um, I forget what the name of the HR, the national, like HR group, whatever they have some sort of association or group, I forget the name of, of theirs, uh, of that group, but they say that on average. Obviously industry and things like that play a role, but um, I think they say on average, um, it costs uh three months salary to replace a person.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, that sounds right, yeah.

Andrew Martin:

So, um, yeah, a players want to play where a players can play best, right. So I mean you have, you have to uh build an organization that a players want to play in. And you know a lot of business owners miss. I think it was Henry Ford that said. You know, he went through and doubled the, the salary for all of his workers across the board and he called it his best money saving thing he ever did.

Tim Shoop:

Was. This was where was that in the milestone of Ford? Was that after the Model T, or was that down the road? I don't know.

Jared Shoop:

See, I don't know either.

Tim Shoop:

I'm going to have to look that up because it's interesting to know where he was in the evolution of that company. That's true. Oh, that's cool.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, and you know, so I think you know, paying for a position, being willing to pay 30, 50% above what the market is to attract a players, uh, if not more than that, um, because an A player is going to be three to five times more productive than a kind of typical uh employee, right. So if I mean, if you can pay 50% or even 100% more but get three to five times of productivity from that person, right. And if you're paying really well, people are. So, just like with Henry Ford, he paid double the the pay for everybody.

Andrew Martin:

The people working there felt very grateful to um to work there. They're happy to work, they're happy to be employees, a productive employee and um. And then you know he had people from other uh car companies beaten down his door to want to work there, right. So I mean he drastically skewed the supply demand, uh the labor supply demand, in his favor because everybody wanted to work there. So everybody worked there. No, as soon as I leave, this is the best job I'm going to get, yeah, uh, and there's a line of people waiting to take my job, so I better be.

Tim Shoop:

Well, before we get into our next beer, let's talk about so, and we kind of already touched on some of these things. But I mean, when I know, when I invest, I you know, and I focus on financial goals, which are one of the key things. I look at, um, I look at milestones, wealth creating and sort of building a plan for my future and my eventual retirement, whatever that is these days. So I mean, we talked about that. What is retirement Right? Tell us about some of the things you may not have discussed already, uh, and what you do and your role in in helping someone secure their future. Maybe, um, I mean, even if there's a case study or something that we can talk about to kind of take our audience down a little bit of a path on things they may not have thought about.

Andrew Martin:

So I'll just say so, uh, this is for, let's just say, personal financial planning, not business planning or anything. So, just just, and because every business owner needs personal financial planning too, so I'll just talk about personal financial planning, since it will apply to most people. Uh, yeah, to your point. There's a lot of things that there's a lot of things that we know, there's a lot of things that we know we don't know, and there's a lot of things that we don't know we don't know, right. So I think, for the average person, um, there's what we call your financial foundation. All the not sexy stuff, right State planning, emergency fund, insurances, all that sort of stuff, right, but things that we need to make sure to have these things in place, um, because that's the foundation to your financial plan, right, that kind of props everything up, and without those things, um, everything can kind of crumble if, uh, that crack in the foundation becomes exposed. So there's a lot of that sort of stuff.

Andrew Martin:

And if you're younger, really in any stage, but particularly if you're younger um, small things. Usually there's not huge drastic changes we have to make to a person's plan to have a very meaningful impact. It's usually just small inefficiencies, right. So I feel like most people. They're like I'm doing good things, I'm saving, I'm investing and I'm paying down debt all objectively good things. I feel like what they they're not exactly sure if what they're doing is the most efficient way to do it and if what they're doing is going to allow them to achieve their goals. So they're just focused on kind of the short term. I know I'm doing good things. I don't know if I'm what I'm doing is the best thing Right.

Tim Shoop:

So this is what I hear when you say that and correct me if I'm wrong. But if you're, uh, if you're using a credit card that has a 22% interest rate and you've got money, well, let me rephrase that. Let me let me do this in a way I can understand. Let's say you have a loan that's at 3% on a house or whatever it is, and you have money that you want to invest, but you know that you can invest it in a short term CD and I'm going to use these things short, short, kind of short term things as a, as a, as a concept here and you can get five and a quarter back on that in six months. Let's say should I, should I pay down that loan or should I put it towards a CD?

Andrew Martin:

I'll say there's there's, you know, I'll say there's, there's, there's, there's, there's behavioral finance is a very big part of this. So if it's just dollars and cents, this job is easiest job.

Tim Shoop:

So is that what I'm talking about? Behavioral?

Andrew Martin:

So there's two parts to it. Okay, so there's the dollars and cents part of it and then there's a behavioral part. So just numbers, right? Just you know numbers on paper. Obviously you know, from an efficiency of the dollar standpoint, simple math. Yeah, this is a right If you're paying 3% on a mortgage and you can take that money and invest it somewhere in a CD or how you'll save Making extra two and a quarter percent. But even if it was 4% or something you net it had 1%. So that's that's number one.

Andrew Martin:

Number two I hear a lot of people, particularly with mortgages, like well, I'm paying extra towards one mortgage because I want to get it paid off and once it's paid off it's going to bring me a lot of comfort to have it paid off. It's like all right, well, you know, based on the pace of how much extra you're putting towards, that you'll get it paid off in 20 years instead of 30. That's still 20 years that things can hit the fan. That's still a long time. Right that you still got that payment. Number one. Number two if things did hit the fan, would you rather not have a $2,000 a month mortgage or would you rather have tens of thousands of dollars or in the six figures, maybe of money somewhere that you can get your hands on if you needed it. I think that's a pretty obvious right. You'd rather have a bucket of money somewhere that you can get your hands on instead of not having a $2,000 a month payment yeah, I think we all like buckets of money?

Andrew Martin:

I think so too, right? So, um, having said that, right, it's our job to give the context and the information and all that about that. And then if somebody says you've done your job and showing me that from a financial standpoint this might not be the best decision and I realize I will likely lose money by paying down the house, as opposed to putting that money somewhere else, however, it will help me sleep better at night to have the house paid off. Great, let's move forward with that assumption. I've done all I can do. We're all adults here. I've given you the information. That's what this is. I'm here to help you make an educated decision. I've given you the, the education to be able to make that decision.

Andrew Martin:

This is a decision you're making and we will move forward with that assumption, right? So to your point. Yes, it was. You know, generally it's it's arbitrage, right? So, whether it be interest rate arbitrage or, as a business owner, time arbitrage, labor arbitrage, right, it's all arbitrage. How can we leverage things in a way that's going to give us the best bang for a buck?

Tim Shoop:

So one short tip for the audience out there on what they can do, just one short tip that they may not know about before we grab another beer, cause I'm ready to get another beer, okay.

Andrew Martin:

Um, from a personal planning standpoint, yeah.

Tim Shoop:

Why don't we take that? I think we've got a well. We have a lot of business owners watching this too.

Andrew Martin:

So, um, I'll say one of the things that I see most. I could probably count on one hand, if I was missing some fingers, how many people we've met with who have their estate planning done and up to date. So and again, that doesn't. That's not anything that, uh, you know you need to see an attorney to do that, right, we can help with the planning of that, but the actual writing up the, the documents you need to see an attorney for, but that is one of the main things that we see, and I mean we could all. So you're telling me they don't have it, they don't have it done. Okay, yeah, so I mean I've. I literally I struggle thinking of um. There's probably only two or three people in my entire career that I've met with who had their estate planning done and it was up to date.

Tim Shoop:

We did ours two or three years ago. I feel like somehow I'm overcompensating later in life for all the things I didn't do early in life.

Andrew Martin:

At least you're doing it now. Well, that's good.

Tim Shoop:

That is a good segue into beer number two, but you know I I hate when I see a guest on here that hasn't finished their first be. Oh, it's gone, seds. What do we?

Jared Shoop:

have All right. Our second beer of the night is the red drum amber ale from the ravenous pig brewery in winter park, florida. It's described as deliciously balanced, medium bodied, hoppy amber ale, emerald on cascade hops lead the charge and compliment the toffee and caramel notes.

Andrew Martin:

Oh, that's nice and smooth.

Tim Shoop:

You like that one? Yeah, yeah, that's good. Yeah, this is a. This is a good evening good evening beer.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, I feel like this is something my mom would like. She's not a big beer drinker, but if we go out to eat she'll get one, and she usually likes something.

Tim Shoop:

I think that last beer that we had from Appalachicola, I think, would be more of a simple go to. I think this beer is that I got him from work. I just want to sit down and relax, maybe with a meal. Where's that from Jared?

Jared Shoop:

This is from winter park, Florida. The rat was pig brewery.

Andrew Martin:

Sorry, suds, now everybody knows you really do no Cat out of the bag, all right.

Tim Shoop:

So let's talk about so. Segment two achieving financial security. How do we get there? So first I want to start by talking about top achievement here Top 50 financial security professionals recognized by Forbes magazine in 22 and 23. Is that you? Yes, sir, yeah.

Andrew Martin:

That's when I got there and I was asking for kind of an application you know process and qualification process and when I originally got the email about it asking to apply, I thought it was like spammy or something like that. I was like, ah, this probably.

Tim Shoop:

They probably said we get a lot of those where you're like, is this real? Yeah, am I really did? I really yeah, but this is Forbes.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah. And so I was like, ah, they probably send this to everybody. This isn't meant for me. And so the first one, I think we didn't respond to at all. And then they followed back up and I was like, all right, well, you know what the heck? Well, we'll apply. I'm not really, you know, don't hold a lot of hope that we'll get it. It'd be cool if we did. But you know we'll, we'll apply anyways. We didn't know that the application process was going to be as arduous as it was, but luckily I have, you know, great team members that will do the heavy lifting on that for me. And then, you know, it took them. I think they got the information either early in the year or late, you know, late in the year, but they announced it I think it was like July or something like that. But so I, you know, kind of forgot about it. And then we got the email. So what is this?

Tim Shoop:

award. Is this an award for top advisors or does this impact any other verticals?

Andrew Martin:

So I, what I'm going to tell you what I believe it to be is yeah, I mean they've, and again, the application process wasn't, was thorough. So I, I believe they looked at you know everybody, at least everybody who implied in the state, or they looked at the folks in the state and I'm I think they had their metrics on whether it be, you know, production method, methodology or I'm not really sure what they looked at, but I mean we had to give them all sorts of information, so they were kind of looking at everything and I know, I know all too well how those work, because I mean digital boardwalk.

Tim Shoop:

We've won what? Over 20, 20 industry awards. Good for you, man, and and the the administrative process of that. As far as applying, I mean, it's all essay driven and you're you're writing a and I think that's going to be. You know how are they going to know the difference nowadays, if people are leveraging it AI, we don't use AI. We write everything by hand. We do leverage AI to help, for instance, structure the show, but we don't use it for original content Copy man, it's just you.

Tim Shoop:

You, you always know, yeah, you can always see certain words, god who uses that word? But you know, I, I know about that. I mean, most of these things are really essay focused and and if you know your stuff, you're going to, you're going to rank, yeah, if you don't know your stuff, you're not going to rank. So, kudos to you, man, oh, thank you. Kudos to you, that's a big deal. So tell me, I want to know. I want to know from business owner to business owner, two completely different industries. I want to hear about your challenges and opportunities, both challenges and opportunities In the ever-evolving world of the financial industry. So go.

Andrew Martin:

Challenges in this industry are from a operational standpoint, and this might be the case in your industry, it's the case in a lot of industries, but the obviously it's highly regulated, and for good reason, right, there's been a lot of challenges in the industry, and for good reason, right, there's been a lot of bad actors, and I mean, you got to create guardrails and do things like that, but it just is hard to.

Andrew Martin:

Every year they, there's more things, there's more forms we have to fill out in paper and, and you know their, their rationale is like well, this is meant to protect the average person and what did? The adverse side effect of that is that it makes financial help less attainable because it makes it more expensive to for us to operate. So we can't, you know, we have to charge a certain amount for clients and things like that, or only take on certain clients or whatever it is to be able to operate profitably, right? So that's some of the biggest struggles. And then and then things like, for the most part until maybe last year, as I think, when the when the rule on this changed. But I don't know if you've ever noticed in the past, but you've never seen any like testimonials or reviews on planners or advisors websites or any of that stuff, because you're not allowed to have them, even if it was something as so that's a compliance thing in your industry.

Tim Shoop:

Is that FINRA, or is that?

Andrew Martin:

It's the SEC. The SEC, yeah, it could be FINRA as well, I don't know. But but they, that rule has been on the books since, I think, either the 60s or the 60s or the 80s, so obviously pre-internet and they just now changed the rule on that and even with changing the rule, saying, yeah, we allow that now. So we've, you know, on the website. What you want to is that. So you see, the Forbes thing, and I don't know how compliance approves the Forbes things. Maybe it's because it's Forbes, I don't know. Right, you know, we've been lucky enough to have been voted best financial advisor in Pensacola for 17 times and they can't be on the website. Yeah, that's impressive, um, and because they can't prove that we didn't pay for it or we did. I don't know, I don't know what their rationale is, but we, they, you know, we can't have it on the website. We can't even have, even if you wanted to say, like Andrew, a nice guy testimonial on on the website or something like that can't be there. So they just recently changed the rule.

Andrew Martin:

And then, when they changed the rule, um, I was all excited about it, right, saw it come in and it was uh, you know, nothing happens quickly. So we knew it was coming for a little while and, uh, reached out to compliance. About it. I was like, hey, this is great. When can we do that? And they said well, you know, us and many other companies have reached out to the SEC because the the guidance on it isn't very clear. So we've reached out for further guidance and clarification and the SEC basically says we think it's clear enough.

Tim Shoop:

Okay, literally. So prior to that change, were you able to come on a show like this? I mean it's? Is that a gray area? Is that?

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, I think, um, I think probably you could, but obviously you just got to be careful about what you say.

Tim Shoop:

Okay.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, so, um, but yeah, you can't have anyway, so and there, so it's, it's. You know you have the SEC that is making the rules and forcing the rules. Um, you know, judge, jury, all the stuff, right. So, um, basically they're like no, we think it's clear enough. Um, do what you think is best and hope we don't come around and find you if you break our rules that we didn't, we wouldn't answer questions about or clarify so that, so that those are challenges.

Tim Shoop:

Um, wow, yeah, yeah, that's, and I already knew about that um to a degree, um, but uh, it's great to be able to tell the world about it, because I'm sure they go to a website and they're like, but nobody's talking about it.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, yeah, I mean, in today's world with Google and everything else, obviously reviews help a lot and you know, obviously I mean we. You know there's social proof. People like to see that like, oh, there's lots of other people who are happy with this person or with this firm or whatever, and we just can't have that. So, um, that's from an operational standpoint. I'll I'll say from a client. You know, talking with clients there's a lot of, especially with. You know, we live in the in the information age. So, you know, having the ability to Google things, um is great because you can learn a lot. Um, but the problem is obviously, as you can imagine, I get people send me, you know, reels and ticktocks and you know YouTube videos and different things of. We don't use ticktock.

Tim Shoop:

Okay, yeah Well, I mean, that's cyber security industry. We don't use ticktocks.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, I don't either, but that's a whole other show. Yeah, and I'll, if people send me, you know, clips and little short videos and stuff of you know whatever person on there talking about whatever financial or business thing, financial bros. Yeah.

Jared Shoop:

That's right.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, yeah, sipping their white claws and it's fun.

Tim Shoop:

You know what I I'm going to. I'm going to segue into this. So, I'm watching a uh, oh God, what is the name of it? It's about that kid that uh ran up the uh GameStop stock.

Andrew Martin:

I have that on my Netflix list. I haven't watched it.

Tim Shoop:

I'm in the middle of it right now and it's so entertaining and it's got Seth Rogen in it A few others Dumb money, dumb money.

Tim Shoop:

Of course Suds knows, um, but thank you, suds. Uh, it's, yeah, and and it's neat. I mean this guy ran by the name of what Exploding Kitty, or what was his handle? Uh, yeah, something like that. Something Something like that Like explain any work cat, a cat shirt, and he had cats that he would put up on the screen. But he also had his portfolio that he shared on the screen and talked about it, and he had young people, uh, other millennials, um, going on and listening to them and investing and and throwing money into it, and it ran up the stock. What is your from knowing what? You know, what, what maybe me and the audience don't know. How in the world does something like that happen and what did it do? Or how? How would that impact the hedge fund guys, the guys you know, the, the, the guys that are in it for the money, that are in it for the big money? How did it impact them? Or can we not talk about that?

Andrew Martin:

on this show. So a couple of references you mentioned. Your dad said, oh, that's gambling. Now that's gambling, that's not investing, right. So um, and then you know referencing I talked about behavioral finance. So there is all sorts of um, there's what's called herding, there's, you know, recency bias there. I mean there's all sorts of you know um, you know kind of mental things. I guess that, uh, trip you up when it comes to making decisions in general, but certainly financial decisions. So that's a classic case of hurting right and fear of missing out, right, and so, um, and social media and the internet is, is great at kind of proliferating. That I say great kind of tongue in cheek, right, so, um, it's not great, but you know a lot of it can, it can catch on and a lot of people I mean you see that with some cryptocurrencies and things like that, where people are like to the moon and everybody piles in and piles in, and so that drives the price up and then at some point it comes back down.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah.

Andrew Martin:

Um, I think that's kind of those classic cases of that's what's happening. So people don't understand, um why they make the decisions that they make. I know that sounds really, um Kind of like a crazy thing to say, but it's influencers.

Tim Shoop:

It's it's, it's. You know, anybody watching this show might be influenced by this show. Sure, uh, and you know we don't. I think he at the time only had like 400, 400 followers, and the people that were investing in them were just people that were trying to learn a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and then when he gave them that tip, they just threw their money in what little bit of money they they had at the time. And so did they, and I haven't finished that show and I know you haven't watched it yet, but did they make money?

Andrew Martin:

Oh, there's a certain amount of people that I mean, just like with cryptocurrencies and GameStop and AMC and some of those other. You know some of those trades like, but it's gambling it is gambling. Okay, it is, it is game. You know it's investing. If you made money right, you can justify it yourself to say like I made money.

Tim Shoop:

I'm gonna do it again. I'm gonna lose it. Yep, I'm the same way. You put a, put money in the slot, you want a thousand bucks, and then you start feeding another slot. It pays out a little bit and then after the end of the day, you're back to ground zero.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, gambling. So casinos really do have that figured out like they understand behavior. And they understand again. You know, these companies understand what makes us tick more than we do and they I don't want to say manipulate that, but they, they take advantage of it. Yeah, right, so they understand that. Yeah, that little bit of dopamine hit every time you like, oh, you want a little bit, and so it'll keep you right. But you know, right at the time you're at the slots and you're like you know what I'm done with this, and then you went a little bit. You're like well, you know.

Tim Shoop:

Okay, that's probably why they issue those cards so they can track you around the casino.

Jared Shoop:

Mm-hmm.

Tim Shoop:

That's. That was a member when I got one of those cards and I don't go to the casino there. I haven't been in the casino, I think, since my dad passed away Quite a while ago. I used to go with him to take him there and you know, and I remember putting my card in that machine going, all I saw was a tracking device.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, yeah, guess why else would you need yeah?

Tim Shoop:

I know, yeah, but they give it to you going, you're gonna get perks, you're gonna get a free hotel stay, whatever. But what they're really doing is tracking your behavior. Now I would if I want a thousand bucks on a machine. One thing they can't they don't know about me is I'll take 20 out of that thousand bucks, gamble it to waste a little bit of time and leave, yeah, so well, and there was another, I forget.

Andrew Martin:

So this was. Somebody told me this the other day and I think it was a Casino. But yeah, they had a card, right. So they have your email and they have your other information. And I guess he hadn't gone in a while. So they sent him an email like hey, we're giving you 20 bucks or 100 bucks, whatever it was like on your card. So, yeah, to come to that time you come. You got 20 bucks or 100 bucks or whatever the dollar you know, whatever the number Sucking you in.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah. So I mean, you know the psychology of I'm not gonna wait, I can only spend this $20. I'm not gonna waste 20 dollars, I'm just, you know, I'm just not not gonna spend this $20. So I need to go spend the $20, right, I need to go. It's a free $20. It's free money, right? So yeah, they again, they know all these little it's all.

Tim Shoop:

It's kind of my lash. Our last show Was on marketing and how, how smarter web uses data To help steer those campaigns for companies, and that's what the world is now. It is a world of data collection and using that data to analyze behavioral patterns so you can get marketed to and sold to, and and whatever else, and so this is a good segue into you, because I can gamble, I Can or I can use, for instance, an app. There's tons of apps out there now by a, a number of different organizations where you can load it on your phone and invest in the stock market, but what I see there is I'm having to read and learn by reading, and I don't have anybody sitting there really truly understanding my assets, where I am in life, who I am, what my passions are. It is just mere data. Now. Data uses algorithms.

Tim Shoop:

So from once you invest in maybe a stock, it's gonna do a very similar thing to what you might do, but Tell me, from your perspective, your innovative approach To helping me with my strategic planning and then investing in those things that you, that somebody, would invest in on that app, but through you, and what the differences are and and you know, on the surface, it's the personal relationship and the fact that I can call you and go hey man, you know, I Got a little bit of money here and I don't know what to do with it. I think I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna spend it on a Depreciation, depreciating assets like a cyber truck. Well, that might not be, I don't know, we'll have to see. But you know, and I really want it, but I want to make money. Where do you come in and what are you gonna say to me and and where's that conversation gonna go?

Andrew Martin:

so I think the point that I started to make earlier that I never got to because I went on a rabbit trail was you know, the information age and googling stuff and my googles or whatever you know, when you're searching for stuff, it's gonna show you what you're searching for, not other things that you may not know to search for. So I mean I run into that sometimes, where you know somebody will come and say, hey, I want to do this thing. It's like all right, well, why? Well, I'm trying to do this, okay, well, there's probably a better way. You know, did you know about this thing? Because this is a better way to do that thing that you say you're trying to do? Well, no, I didn't know about them, right. So that's kind of the problem with with you know the information age is, you know, and even if that thing was good and good, you know who knows if it was the right thing for you to do in your situation.

Tim Shoop:

So the approach that so the apps, in my opinion, or for a younger person that doesn't have that minimum To spend with an advisor, is that, is that? Is that?

Andrew Martin:

what I see is that some people just like doing it just for the fun of it, and so that's why and again, I promise I'll answer your question here in this moment but you know, we, we I think working with a fee based firm that charge for charges for their time and advice Kind of democratizes that. So we work with a lot of younger people who, I mean, you know you have to pay us for our services, but it doesn't matter to us if you have a little money or a lot of money or if you want to self-manage or any of that other Kind of stuff, because I mean, you're paying for the, for the advice, which is what you're here for. I think most people want thorough, unbiased advice that isn't contingent upon you buying something from me or me managing your money. They just want good, thorough, unbiased advice, and there's not a lot of ways to get that right. So that and the approach we take is we want to, if we can help you with your finances, help you achieve the things in life that you want to achieve. That's the biggest one for us. So to be able to help you achieve the things in life that you want to achieve, we need to have a good, thorough understanding of you and what makes you tick and your experiences and what's important to you and what your goals are not just personal goals but family goals and all that sort of stuff. And to People's goals change, right, people's, my you know ideas about things change and so not just like, great, here's your, you know, here's your profile, and I'm assuming that you're a static person that never things don't change and so this is the way we're gonna do things. No, I mean having you know the relationship with the person, understanding them, really understanding them and their and their family and the dynamics and all those things Is what's most important.

Andrew Martin:

So we generally start With what I call the you know, kind of touchy-feely questions. So like, all right, we're really not talking about money much, but I need to have a good understanding of you and your family and what makes you tick and your experiences. And one of the first questions we ask is, like, when you were growing up, what was your family's experience and attitude around money? And you'll get all sorts of different answers, right, so you were either was an area of anxiety and they didn't grow up with much, or they just didn't talk about it, or they were spenders, or I, you know, you know you'll hear all sorts of stuff. And then the next question is well, so that experience, how does that Shape the way you feel about money and finances today? Right, because that will inevitably have some sort of direct impact on that. So just to give you an idea funny.

Tim Shoop:

I'm thinking about the psychology of it for my own personal experiences and I think about myself and my my I'm a baby is six children, so I'm the baby. So I had something to prove, I think, growing up. But my next oldest, my brother, he's seven years apart from me, so I came along way. Way, baby, yeah, I'm the baby, baby. They were all kind of grouped together and then here I come along and you know, they saved the smartest guy for last.

Andrew Martin:

That's right, I'm not humble, yeah.

Tim Shoop:

So no, but my brother spent money like it was going out of style still does. He's that guy that has to have the latest flashy boat, the lay, the biggest truck, the. You know everything and Love my brother and he, of course, you know I, I support him, I love to. You know, go over there and and and hang out with him and and uses. You know, help him use this stuff. But here I am. I saved my money as a kid. I still save money today. You know, when I make money I'm looking at ways to turn that money into more money to Establish a good retirement for me and my wife and and and help my kids as they get older. But when we were kids I would. I Would I once a week I would pour my piggy bank out and count my money and every now and then my money would come up a little short. My brother was coming into my room and taking my money.

Andrew Martin:

Seven years, six. Seven years old.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, but he knew I always had money and he couldn't figure out why it's cuz I never spent it and oh my god. But it's funny how I mean this is as I was a little kid when I was saving that money, and now here we are in our in our 50s and 60s and we're the same way. We're the same way, but it's just funny.

Andrew Martin:

I know we got off topic.

Tim Shoop:

I had to use an analogy here because it's all about psychology and who you are as a person and where you really want to put your money.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, and I again back to like the behavioral finance and like I'll never be the type of planner that tells somebody like no, you can't buy that thing or you shouldn't buy that thing, right, it's. It's my job to Show you financially what the consequences are, positive or negative, of the decision that you're making, right, whatever that decision is. So, as an example, we worked and this is a younger couple and they came to us and they're up to their eyeballs and stupid debt. I mean up to their eyeballs. And you know we had to really gonna get creative on how we're gonna tackle this. And because they didn't work the kind of jobs where they can, you know, business owners is like, well, we can work harder and make more money, hopefully, right, but you know, when you're w2 95 job, you can't do that.

Andrew Martin:

So we really had to get creative on how we're gonna try to tackle this debt and what we're gonna do. And so obviously one of the things that they had that was a big expense, a big monthly expense, was a boat. And I was like, look, you know, you got some of these things that just From the outside looking at, looks like can be easily cut. So I'm just kind of putting in front of you to help you make the decisions, and the boat was one of those things and they're like the boat is what we do as a family for fun and like that's how we hang out with friends and stuff like that.

Andrew Martin:

So we would really like and not the boat, yeah, boat and I, you know, and I like I get that, like I you know, so okay, so that's just so. Something else has got to go right. So we are, or like here's the consequences of that and that's fine, keep the boat like I totally understand that, because if that's your thing, that that's what you do as a family, Totally get that they have younger kids and all that stuff.

Andrew Martin:

It's like you know, that's, that's experiences, and that's certainly worth something. So here's some other ways that we can do that right. So I Just think get a smaller boat.

Jared Shoop:

Yeah.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, you know. Just point is, though, is that there's things that make sense on paper, and then there's things that make sense to a person, right.

Andrew Martin:

So yeah, it's not my job to tell them how to live their lives, but I do want to have a really good understanding of them and what makes them tick and what's important to them. So, again, the boat was important. So, okay, that that's a that's kind of a non-negotiable that can't be cut great, we have to make other decisions, right, we have to. We have to make other sacrifices elsewhere if the boat is kind of a non-negotiable. So but yeah, I just think that Having a really good understanding of the person, instead of just looking at Dollars and cents and numbers and what's on paper, obviously that's important but yeah.

Tim Shoop:

So this is fantastic. This is exactly what you're not going to get from a nap. This is what you're going to get from from Andrew Martin. This is what you're going to get from your financial advisor. It's going to sit down with you and map out your financial future and help you manage and grow your wealth or lack of, in the case of of those folks, but it sounds like you help them maintain their lifestyle while you know growing their wealth and attempting to get out of debt. So this is a good segue into technology. We're on nerds on tap. We always get nerdy on here. We have to talk about technology. That's part of our MO, it's in our DNA and so Tell me so. In the tech industry, we're always adapting To the changing world of tech to stay on the cutting edge for our clients. How often do you have to adapt, and the adapt in the world of financial planning?

Andrew Martin:

in Go ahead, yeah so, you know, covid, for a lot of people, was a very kind of a Recent real-world example of that right, people working remotely and stuff like that. So we were lucky in the fact that we had been working with clients via zoom for, you know, years before that or a good while before that, working virtually with clients, and so we didn't have to. There wasn't a big adjustment, right, it was just, you know, great, we've been doing this, we're used to it and and all that I will say as an industry, the cybersecurity obviously being a very important part of that, because you know, you have people's information.

Tim Shoop:

I Know a good company that can help everyone. Uh-huh, yeah and I boardwalk.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, and I mean seriously. I mean you know as well as anybody that that is a ever-growing concern on all sorts of fronts, right, and becomes increasingly important because these, the Criminals or whatever, are becoming more and more sophisticated and how they're utilizing that. But so that's a big concern. But you know, I think, like with AI and stuff like that, so obviously in this, in our industry at least, there's it's just buzz about it kind of in general with everybody.

Andrew Martin:

But you know, I think there's a lot of Fear with some of the folks about like, oh, is that gonna replace us or is that gonna? It's like, well, it's the same thing with the internet, right, it's just there's just gonna be a Ever-growing gap between the people who are using technology and people who aren't. Just like with the internet, right, yeah, and the internet came around, you know, maybe some advisors Didn't hop on that train, some did, and I think there just became kind of a growing gap between the success of the ones who did and didn't or who were late to the party, and I think, same thing with, I think AI is gonna be kind of one of those pivotal moments as well, just in how they utilize it. But yeah, I mean.

Tim Shoop:

AI has been around for a long time. People just don't know it because now it's a buzzword in the media. That's right. You know chat, gpt and Google's Google solution there, you know they're, they're shaping the future and you know AI is is driving more things than people realize nowadays. And AI in in terms of Robotic process automation, as far as making apps talk to one another and software talk to one another, algorithms in the world of finance Right, I mean it. It helps shape Someone's financial future. Because behind the scenes, under the hood of Andrew Martin's Atlas, you guys are probably leveraging AI, or at least you know your back offices right.

Tim Shoop:

And they're leveraging AI to find the best investments for your clients.

Andrew Martin:

It's going to be really interesting to the marriage between AI and quantum computing, and you can probably speak to them much better than I could, but yeah, the relatively near future is going to be interesting.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, and I'm not going to get into a lot of those topics. We actually talked about it on the episode before last when we had James Todd from Digital Boardwalk on. We talked all about cybersecurity. You need to check out that episode, andrew, because that he he's one of our top lieutenants. I've known James for going on 16 years now, since since I brought him in as a young pup and we we kind of grew up together in the in the world of cybersecurity and he is a. He is a top resource for that and if you listen to that episode, it'll open your eyes to what's going out, what's going out on the landscape. So let's have a beer, suts.

Jared Shoop:

Alrighty, our next beer is from is the Maduro Brown Ale from the Scar City Brewery in Tampa, florida. It's a Northern English brown ale brewed with flaked oaks, full in body and silky on the palate. Maduro's brown ale chocolate and expressive notes, are rounded out by toffee-like qualities and a light woody hop presence. That's another evening one.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, and I'm not when I hear nuts in beer. I'm not a big nut beer or brown you know nut guy. But yes, that is definitely evening one. Oh, I'll finish it. It's not my favorite of the four here, so it's got a nice aftertaste, I think. Yeah, the aftertaste is good.

Jared Shoop:

That's the toasty, nutty aftertaste. Yeah, the eat-a-lake.

Tim Shoop:

Yeah, yeah, well, maybe I lied, I'm a less hoppy guy.

Andrew Martin:

I don't like super hoppy, bitter.

Tim Shoop:

You know it's funny. When IPAs came out, I was all about the IPA. Ipas give me headaches. Really it's I. Can I drink two IPAs Next day? I'm going to wake up with a headache. Oh man, yeah, so I, my wife's the same way. We were all about the IPAs because I liked the zing, you know, at the end of the beer. Yeah, but we don't. I'm more of a logger Pilsner guy these days. And bourbon Well.

Tim Shoop:

I'm learning, yeah, I'm learning the world of bourbon and I'm really becoming fascinated by it, to be honest with you. So we're going to get into we got a little bit of time left. We're going to go into our final segment and then conclude the show. We're going to talk about navigating financial uncertainties. Let's talk about your expertise in helping clients navigate those uncertainties. I mean, we don't we don't have a crystal ball or sporting sport betting book like Martin McFly did. So how do you, how do you, mr Martin? How do you predict the future when it comes to how to handle my money?

Andrew Martin:

Sure, I think, creating a plan that we've stressed us at everything as much as we can, or right. So when we we'll do cash flow analyses and we'll look at, all right, if we were to make these decisions over a long period of time based on these assumptions, how does this turn out? Then we start throwing curve balls at it. What happens if this happens, what happens if this happens, what happens if this happens, and so on, and then you know that'll give us a good kind of idea of all right, well, what happens if there's a really bad recession right after you retire? What happens if one of the spouses needs long-term care, which there's a 91% chance between a married couple that one of you will need long-term care? Yeah, what happens if there's an early death of a spouse? Right?

Andrew Martin:

So there's what's called the widows widows penalty tax, which is kind of a made up term for a phenomenon that happens. That you know, if you're a surviving spouse, you're going to realize a loss in income, at least via social security. The surviving spouse gets to keep the higher of the two social securities, but not both. So they're going to lose one of the social securities and you'll probably you're going to go from being married finally jointly, to now being a single filer, so you're probably going to be in higher tax brackets. So if you're making $50, $60, $70, $80,000 a year, married finally jointly, that puts you in a 12% tax bracket. If you're a single filer making $50, $60, $70, $80,000 a year, that puts you in a 22% tax bracket, right? So kind of the double way. And you have loss of income, higher taxes, which is another form of loss of income. And so how do things look over a long period of time with that?

Andrew Martin:

So, anyways, that's just some examples, but point is that we start throwing curveballs at the plan and say, all right, here's how this holds up in all these different scenarios, right, and if one of those scenarios would really kind of break the plan, all right, we've identified this as a risk. What do we need to do to start mitigating against this risk, because there's always answers to things, right. So how do we mitigate against that? What do we need to do? So, I think, just having a good, well thought out plan that, to the extent that we can. You know, one of the scenarios is not an alien invasion or a zombie apocalypse, right, we're not looking at those sorts of things.

Andrew Martin:

But to the extent that we can and what makes sense, we're trying to stress test things.

Andrew Martin:

And so I think, having a plan that you know, whatever you give me there's a gotcha right. So, if we can, all right, we're going to do this with this amount of money or with this asset or what have you, and here's the reasons why, and we're going to have to give up this to get what this is going to give us. But this is going to give us right. This, this makes sense in context with everything else. So I think, again, I'm a big balance guy. So I think, looking at everything in perspective and context of all, right, we have this type of asset or we have this here that it's going to do this for us, there's strengths and weaknesses to this part, and so what can we do to counter those weaknesses with another part, all right. So I think, boil it down into a sentence, I think creating a plan that is, I don't want to say bulletproof, but as well thought out, to make sure that, to the extent that we can, whatever life throws at us, that we're able to withstand that stressor, yeah.

Tim Shoop:

I mean it's, it's crazy. The world is crazy right now right. I mean there's a lot of crazy things going on out there. You know, like in the words of my 11 year old daughter's favorite singer, olivia Rodrigo, it's brutal out here.

Tim Shoop:

Indeed. So the so let's this is always our shortest segment of the show. Before we conclude, tell me about and I think you touched on one earlier, but a success story. I'd like to hear a successful story and an example from your career and this success story could be anything pivotal along your career where you really made someone or a family very happy with what with something you might have done for them. Now, I know we talked about the boating family. That was a good example of how you helped steer a family. But tell me because I know there's got to be gratification in this for you and it's not just a job for you. You're you really, I think gratification when you see smiles, when you're getting a return for those customers. Let's talk about that because you're creating someone's retirement.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah and yes to your point, the kind of living vicariously through other people's situations and knowing that, like all right, I albeit it was a very small part, but you know and those successes you're like, I had a part in that and that felt good.

Andrew Martin:

So there's been times that people have gone through and maybe I don't want to share too many details, just for you know, no, I understand, yeah, but there's been times that people have gone through really tough things that you know afterwards they're you know I've gotten messages and emails and I mean we've gotten cards from clients and stuff like that and they're like I'm just so thankful that you came into our lives and you were like this would have been a totally different experience had it not been for you. And what you've done with us, done for us over the last couple of years and it's you know, it's emotional even to you know kind of think about. But you know it feels real good, albeit. You know like that was a you know tough situations and stuff like that, but it feels real good that the gratitude that you get from those people and just the working with great people that can you know, after they've gone through something terrible, still have the mindset of being thankful for you know the things that they're thankful for.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah that's a really neat experience.

Tim Shoop:

Am I going to make you cry on the show man?

Andrew Martin:

it's tough. I'm thinking about a case in particular that is tough, but yeah, it is really. It is.

Tim Shoop:

It's been nice. I understand we can't talk about that case on the show because obviously you have obligations you have the fiduciary obligations and privacy obligations to that family but I like hearing about it and I like seeing you light up and I enjoy seeing your emotional reaction to it. Folks, you may want to watch this one on YouTube because, andrew, it's the first time I think I've gotten a guest to cry on the show. But that's great because that's it's the beer.

Andrew Martin:

I'm an emotional-.

Tim Shoop:

Ah, it's the beer? No, but it shows your personal, passionate involvement with your customers and I think that says a lot about you and it says a lot about what you can do for the folks out there. So I want to kind of jump over here a little bit and let's talk about a call to action for listeners to seek professional financial guidance, steer them in the right direction, and I'm going to dump a bunch of questions here and let you answer them how you will. When should they start investing? So I know the answer to that, but I'm going to let you answer it. How do they start? What if they don't have any money to invest? Or is that a short-sighted way of looking at it? And then we can maybe toast a beer to all your answers.

Andrew Martin:

Go ahead. Obviously, getting started is so right. Everybody we talk to that is they always say I wish I would have gotten started earlier. I mean, just across the board everybody says that. So I think, just taking the first step. So, again, talking about psychology, taking the first step, getting started doing something, is the hardest, just like getting the ball rolling right. So that old analogy and the hardest is just getting it moving at all. And then the faster it gets moving, the easier it is to keep it moving right. But the hardest part is that huge push to get it moving. And so, just like getting off the couch, the hardest part is getting off the couch right, taking that first step.

Andrew Martin:

So whatever that looks like for you whether that be to sign up for your retirement plan through work and start putting in 1% into it or something like that whether that be to reach out to a financial professional or start reading books and watching YouTube pages or doing something like that to try to educate yourself on some things and that's the interesting thing about education, skills and knowledge, is that the compounding effect on skills and knowledge is amazing and nobody can take those things from you. Right, you can lose money, you can't lose skills and knowledge. So building your own skills and knowledge, I think, is a good place to start, and that could come from seeking help from somebody who in trust or what have you? Or, of course, picking up books and doing that sort of stuff, but I think that's a good place to start. The younger you are, so again to your point, right when you're in your 20s or something like that, and you think like, oh well, this is beer money that I'm putting in my 401K or whatever it is and I should be-.

Andrew Martin:

They don't take my beer money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you know what's interesting. It takes $27.40 a day to blow in frivolous spending, to blow $10,000 a year, especially if you shop at.

Tim Shoop:

Starbucks. Right right right, they shouldn't say that on the show. My 11 year old daughter, Starbucks and Stanley Cups. I have no idea.

Jared Shoop:

Yeah.

Tim Shoop:

I was just and you saw me looking back here at our backdrop. I have a lot of books here and I thought I brought in. I think I have a book called the Beginner's Guide to Investing, which is a very thin short read which gives you the basic outline of how to get started and what you should be doing. Do you have a book?

Andrew Martin:

recommendation yeah, there's a psychology of money, which is a great one. There is behavioral finance books out there. So, again, I think, really understanding some of our own biases and some of the things that can you know again back to like the gambling and these, you know, the casinos understand what makes us tick and how we make decisions better than we do, yeah, so understanding those things will really help. The psychology of money there's some behavioral finance books. There's the intelligent investor.

Tim Shoop:

That's how I like the title of that one Is that? So that's a book you read coming up.

Jared Shoop:

Mm-hmm.

Tim Shoop:

And what is that? The intelligent investor. Yeah, I think that one is more on like the stock picking or stuff like that, but that's not going to help someone when they first get started, right.

Andrew Martin:

It. Could you know if they are on the apps and choosing individual stocks or something like that? Maybe instead of chasing you know, the GameStop stocks or something like that, maybe they can take a more intelligent approach to what stocks they hold if they choose to go that round. But there's lots of other books out there that I'm sure I'm not mentioning. And you know, when you're young, you know I don't agree with everything that Dave Ramsey has to say. In fact, I probably disagree. You know, agree with less than you know, disagree with more than what I agree with. But his, you know, thought on like budgeting and debt elimination and things like that are pretty good. You know universal stuff that if you're just starting out, what can really hinder your growth is not knowing how to budget. Again, you know you can budget for beer money, right. So not knowing how to budget and getting yourself in debt and then having to climb out of that.

Tim Shoop:

You know how I budgeted for beer money when I lived in the tent Mm-hmm, I limited my food intake to ramen noodles, beanie weenies and crackers and I had enough money left over for beer.

Andrew Martin:

There's calories in beer, right you?

Tim Shoop:

know I had enough money to buy beer. I wasn't. I won't eat ramen noodles today, but hey, it is what it is.

Tim Shoop:

It was a long, long time ago in my life. And you know what? I'm glad I did it, because it really made me work harder through life and understand the value of family and growth personal growth. So tell our audience before we toast our last beer and introduce our last beer. They can find you a on your website at atlasfinancialstrategiescom. Tell them how else they can find you. Look at this camera on the left. Oh sure, talk to the audience and just tell them how they can find you, andrew.

Andrew Martin:

Yeah, we have a YouTube page as well. It's relatively new, so there's a couple dozen videos on there, but we're adding to it, of course, every week. So we you know again, hopefully it's good, useful content there. And of course, you know I'm happy to take phone calls if you and again, just take it as your opportunity to get free advice.

Andrew Martin:

I'm not trying to say anything, I'm not trying to talk into working with me, but if there's something that you've, you know, from a financial planning standpoint or business planning standpoint, it's like you know I really need somebody's help or advice with these things and you're not sure where to go, I'm happy to take a phone call, help you as much as I can. If I need to refer you to somebody to get the help that you need or whatever, I'm happy to do that. But the point is is that you get the help that you need, so that'll be free. And again, nobody's trying to sell you anything. I'm not going to try to talk into working with me, but it's just meant to be a valuable, free piece of you know some free information hopefully.

Tim Shoop:

Andrew, it's been a pleasure having you on the show today. Suds, tell us about our it's all right. Tell us about our final beer and let's toast and toast. What a great episode.

Jared Shoop:

All right. So this beer? The beer distributor was loading them up and he said you have to try this one. It's really good. But I don't know if I'm trusting him. He seemed like a frat guy. It's the Boom Sauce double IPA from the Lord Hobo Brewhouse and Woburn Mass, a big boat IPA with a complex hop profile. With five different hops it hits you with a strong tropical fruit flavors before mellowing out to finish with a hint of earthiness. That's pretty mild.

Andrew Martin:

It's hoppy.

Jared Shoop:

It starts out like it's going to really hit you, but it doesn't get that finish that you're expecting.

Andrew Martin:

It doesn't.

Tim Shoop:

You don't get that, that back throat bite that you get in an IPA, yeah, but you get it up. You get it all as you're taking it in. Yup, that's 8%. It's much more mild than I thought. Well, we need more of that if it's 8%. No, I kid, I kid. Thank you everybody for getting nerdy with us for an hour, well, an hour and a half, and thank you, mr Andrew Martin, for coming on the show. You guys go check out atlasfinancialstrategiescom. Become a client if you will. Otherwise, take his advice. Go make money, ladies and gentlemen. Grow your wealth, build your retirement. Have a great day. Thank you, cheers my fellow nerds and beer lovers. Stay tuned for more nerds on tap. Oh, and one more thing Help us spread the nerdy love and the love for great brews by sharing this podcast with your friends, colleagues and fellow beer enthusiasts. Build a community that embraces curiosity, innovation and the enjoyment of a cold one.

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