Celebrating 100 Episodes: Top 10 Financial Takeaways

Celebrating 100 Episodes: Top 10 Financial Takeaways

In the special 100th episode of The Retire Early Retire Now podcast, host Hunter Kelly, a certified financial planner and owner of Palm Valley Wealth Management, reflects on the journey of creating the podcast and achieving the milestone of 100 episodes. Kelly expresses gratitude to the listeners for their support and shares 10 key financial takeaways from the podcast's history. These takeaways cover topics such as the true meaning of retirement, the importance of cash flow over net worth, tax-saving strategies, the significance of asset allocation, flexibility in financial planning, the value of staying invested, career growth as a wealth-building tool, the importance of estate planning, the power of community and conversation, and the impact of consistency in financial growth. Kelly also invites listeners to share their best financial decisions for future episodes. The episode concludes with a message of gratitude and hopes for the future of the podcast.

00:00 Welcome to Episode 100!
00:15 Reflecting on the Journey
00:58 Listener Appreciation
02:15 Top 10 Financial Takeaways
03:10 Takeaway 1: Retirement is About Freedom
05:54 Takeaway 2: Cashflow Beats Net Worth
07:49 Takeaway 3: Taxes are Your Biggest Expense
09:44 Takeaway 4: Allocation Over Returns
12:22 Takeaway 5: Flexibility is Key
14:18 Takeaway 6: Stay Invested
17:53 Takeaway 7: Your Career is Your Biggest Asset
20:15 Takeaway 8: Estate Planning for Everyone
21:11 Takeaway 9: Community and Conversation Matter
22:57 Takeaway 10: Consistency Compounds
25:26 Closing Remarks and Future Plans

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Transcript

0:00

And welcome back to The Retire Early Retire Now podcast. I'm your host, hunter Kelly, certified financial planner and owner of Palm Valley Wealth Management, and today is a really special episode. It is episode number 100. When I first hit record on this podcast, I wasn't sure if anyone outside of a few friends or clients would even tune in. I had this goal of hitting a hundred episodes, but honestly, I did not know if I had it in me to get there. How would I come up with, the ideas, the content? and be able to communicate that in a way that more than just my mom and dad would want to listen, right? And so here we are, episode 100 or a hundred episodes later, thousands of downloads, thousands of listeners each week, conversations with incredible guests, and most importantly, an amazing community of listeners who want to take control of their money. And their future. So before I dive in, I just wanna say thank you. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for pressing play. Thank you for leaving reviews, sharing episodes with your friends and coworkers, and reaching out to tell me about how you've made great financial decisions, whether that's saving on taxes or something with your investments, or you just feel more confident about your financial situation. This podcast has always been more than just investments or retirement accounts. It's been about helping professionals and families turn money into freedom, into time, into options, and after a hundred episodes, I can honestly say the lessons I've learned through these conversations have made me a better communicator, a better planner, and a better business owner. Now I'd love to hear from you as we celebrate this milestone. There's a link in the show notes of this episode where you can send me a quick text. I would love to know your best financial decision that you've ever made. It could be paying off debt, it could be maximizing a Roth IRA. Buy him back your time, Or even something unconventional that gave you peace of mind. I'd love to share these responses in a future episode. So here's what I want to do today. I went back and thought through everything we've covered over the past two years, client case studies, tax strategies, expert. Guess the mistakes, the wins. I narrowed it all down to 10 of the biggest takeaways I've learned from recording a hundred episodes. These aren't just financial tips. They are principles that keep showing up again and again in my clients' lives, in my own life, and the lives of the families I get to serve through my practice. by the end of the episode, I hope that you walk away. With clarity, encouragement, and maybe even a fresh perspective on what financial freedom actually looks like for you. So let's dive in. Here are the 10 biggest takeaways from a hundred episodes of the Retire Early Retire Now podcast. Number one takeaway. Retirement is about freedom. It is not about a number, not just hitting a million dollars or even a hundred million dollars. It's about choices. It's about freedom. It's about using. Those dollars as tools to do the things that you want to do that you enjoy doing with the people that you love. And so over the past couple weeks or a few weeks, we've been talking about this idea of coast fire. and one of the great examples that I use, was a couple, and we talked about Jill and her husband. They're around 51 years old. They just hit their coast fire number. a few years ago, Jill had a cancer scare. luckily it was very treatable. They caught it early. but because they had been, saving and doing all the right things, financially, they were fine and they had that freedom and it wasn't about the amount of money they had, it was about making the correct choices throughout their life. To give them the freedom, the optionality, to be able to have her take off time, get her the treatment that she needed, and now she's back at work, doing the things that they want to do, and they're gonna have the option to retire, fairly early. they, again, they were doing the right things so that they would have freedom and options. It wasn't about just hitting, that million dollars, right? I often think about. and this is just me because this, these are the things that I like to do. but one of the analogies that I like, to think about when we think about, not think about freedom or. The experience, of life versus just hitting these numbers. So if you think about hunting, everybody thinks about trophy hunting and things of that nature, but one of the things I love about hunting, specifically is a trip that I do every year, with a handful of buddies of mine. we go up to a camp that we, are able to hunt at in South Carolina. And the hunting's fun, right? it's fun. I enjoy it. Obviously, I wouldn't be there if I didn't enjoy that part. But the best part is after we've been hunting all day, or all morning, we get together, we hang out, we do what? Guys do we ride around in four wheelers and hang out and watch football and do all those sorts of things. And that experience itself, to me is better, most of the time than the hunting, right? Yeah, those are the things that I want people to get out of this. What are the experiences that you enjoy? and then how do we get there from a financial standpoint? What are the decisions that I need to make? being able to be intentional about your decisions so that you can do things, and the experiences and hobbies and all of that, that you want to do. And so again, retirement is not about. A number. It is about freedom. Number two, cashflow beats net worth for peace of mind. So couple examples here, right? you could have a$2 million net worth, but it could be all tied up in a house or some place where you couldn't. Couldn't access it if you needed to. So that's gonna give you more stress. Right. I've met with physicians that have felt broke because their, cashflow is tied up in debt or whatever that may be because they made some, poor financial decisions, right. Maybe no faults are their own. they just got into a place where they felt trapped because they have a car loan, they have a large house payment, they have suited loan debt, all of these things. And they thought, Hey, once I become an attending physician, once I get outta medical school, things will be easy. But they made some decisions along the way that made them feel strapped. While I met with other physicians that kept their debt low, had high cash flow, and had more of a peace of mind about their situation. and so I've met with people or heard stories from friends where, they've had some sort of emergency where there's a couple thousand dollars expense, whether that be, for their AC or car or what have you. and they're extremely stressed out about it, and I can empathize with that'cause I've been there before. but if you are. diligent and intentional about your saving and where your cash is going each month. things like that can be avoided where, a$2,000 expense isn't going to break you financially or emotionally, things of that nature. While it's may not be fun to have to go out and buy an AC unit or whatever that case may be for you at the time, it certainly is doable and, will allow you to have that peace of mind that, hey, this is taken care of. While nobody wants to make this purchase, it has to be done right. Number three, you've heard me say this all the time, and no surprise that I'm saying it now, but taxes are often your biggest expense over your lifetime and in retirement, right? So it's bigger than your housing, your mortgage. It's bigger than healthcare. if you can find ways to save on taxes. Over your lifetime, lower that lifetime tax bill, your net worth is going to be much larger over time than, some other strategies that maybe people, will recommend some of those things that. You can look at doing right Roth conversions, timely Roth conversions, maybe early on in retirement. if you are lucky enough to have employer stock, within, inside your 401k, doing things like, transferring that employer stock from your 401k to a brokerage account. It's called net UN Realized appreciation, where you can essentially. Pay capital gains on those, holdings versus ordinary income tax, which could potentially save you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your lifetime. and so those are some of the biggest things, most common things that we can see, early on in retirement, but. If you're working with an advisor or you're just working on your financial plan yourself, tax planning should be a key part of your financial plan, because it is the. Place where you can make, the most dent in your expenses. because again, taxes are going to be the most expensive thing that you'll pay for, over your lifetime. So smart tax planning equals compounding in disguise, right? So the more you can save, the more you can keep invested, which will grow over time, compound over time, which will. Increase your net worth, increase your liquidity, and allow you to do more things over time, right? Whether that be, trips, things that you enjoy, or, eventually leaving a legacy to your family. Number four, allocation over returns. Everyone wants the best investment, but allocation or asset location will win. Most of the time. All right. discipline allocator beats the performance chaser. I've had multiple clients over time, when they were prospective clients come in and they want to be the hot stock picker. They want day trade, things of that nature. it's just, it doesn't work over a long period of time. You can get lucky and hit big. I'm working with a, a client right now, where I'm onboarding and he did get lucky and he hit a stock fairly big. Right. Um, but. Things, he's not gonna be able to do that consistently, right? He got lucky, right? He did some research, put some money on a couple of different stocks, and one of'em went off, right? And so the odds of him being able to do that over and over and over, is not very likely, and he understands that. And is, it makes your situation a lot more complicated, right? Picking a well diversified portfolio over time that meets, your risk tolerance. So a well diversified portfolio can be all equities, right? So if you want to be more aggressive, you can certainly do that. if you want to be more conservative, you can get into more fixed income and things of that nature. Where the investments are not going to fluctuate, as much, but you'll lose a little bit on that return, right? having a disciplined investment approach will outperform, over the long haul then trying to, pick that next hot stock. One of the analogies I like to use, is if you're a runner, you probably will understand this, but, in order to run faster and for longer, you need to run slower when you're training, right? So they call this zone two training. and so this is how you want to think about your investments. You want to build a solid foundation through your asset allocation, different asset classes. So you want some big companies, some growth companies. Some small companies that have potential for a lot of growth. some companies in the middle, some international companies, and I know I'm being very basic here, just so for the sake of time, but you want a solid base. And so that zone two training, that slow running builds that base so that when you're ready to go race, you. You have that base, that foundation, to run and hit your time, right? so make sure that you have a well diversified asset allocation, within your investments. Don't go chasing those shiny objects. Number five. Life happens. Flexibility is the real plan. Job loss, health, surprise, expenses, they'll all happen. Divorce, death, all of it, right? My job is highly rewarding. I love, I. Working with clients, building these financial plans and then seeing these plans come, into real life, right? It's not just a dream, it's not just a plan anymore. It's happening, it's being implemented, right? But sometimes. it is not fun, right? the amount of death I've had to deal with, the amount of divorce I've had to deal with, is never fun. It's not easy to talk about. and I debated talking about it right now, but it is life, right? And so having a plan, obviously no one plans, for divorce, but, having a plan for those events, Can suit you well, right? And so whether that's having proper life insurance, proper dis disability insurance, estate planning, those types of things, or an emergency fund, for those larger items, the, the story of Jill and her cancer treatment, A spouse passing away unexpectedly. All of these things will happen, right? May not happen to you, but you will know someone, that will have one of these events happen. having a plan and being flexible with that plan, is a key, right? and again, as much as, it's painful to see. My clients lose a spouse or get divorced or have cancer scares and things of that nature. it is a little bit reassuring that the plans that I've helped them develop, have worked out, and so life is gonna happen. what do you do? How do you respond to these bouts of adversity? and is your plan able to be flexible enough to, be resilient against these, negative events? number six, Staying invested will always outperform trying to be a market timer, right? 2020, you had all these panic sellers. they got out in mid to late March, and by late April, the end market had already recovered. And so if you blinked, you missed out on that rebound right? And so we wanna stay invested. Not only, talking about investing, but your saving your day-to-day, budgeting, things of that nature. That is where, the behavior really is important. Right. I've been working with a client for a handful of years. We just had a meeting, last week or two weeks ago, and, On the outside, if you, if you kind of knew their situation, from a 30,000 foot view, you're like, Hey, he's, in a management role at a large company. He makes good income. he has, a good amount of savings in his 401k and, and some other investments. but he and I. Talked, and they are, him and his wife are just spending too much right now, right? he knows that they're okay right now, but if they cannot fix this behavior where they need to start getting at least, net zero every month, outside of what they're saving for retirement and things of that nature, they're just gonna continue to pile on credit card debt and other debt. And eventually it'll come to a head where, they won't be in a good spot financially, right? The behavior piece is often the hardest piece to fix, right? having conversations with your spouse about money, and why it's important to save and budget and things of that nature, getting on the same, same page and having the same goals and the same values, right? And then having, having the discipline and the behavior to stick with it for long periods of time, just like running, right. you're not gonna get fast for a week's worth of running. you're gonna have to, if you wanna run a half marathon, you're gonna have to train for, potentially 3, 4, 5 months, especially if you're untrained, untrained runner. Right. You're gonna have to potentially train for six months, right? Depending on what type of time you want. If you just want it finished or you have a goal time in mind, you may have to train for months and months and months, right? Same thing with, financial planning, right? If, if there's a, a certain benchmark that you're trying to hit so that you can leave your job or, change a career or start a business. That is going to take time to be disciplined, to save, invest, do all the right things that you need to do. Maybe you have student loans that you need to pay off, right? And that's maybe it's a large amount, right? Maybe it's over six figures. And generally speaking, most people can't pay that often two months, right? and you're gonna have to be disciplined to make that payment month after month after month, after month, after year, after year, after year, right? The behavior is, the most important thing about financial planning. It's the thing that most people struggle with, right? And I think Dave Ramsey does a really good job of trying to make it easy through his baby steps and things of that nature. so there are a lot of good. Talking heads out there that give you good strategies. And I find it one of the most difficult things, to work with clients on because, most people don't want to change their behaviors, right? the ones that do, are great to work with and the ones that don't, you just have to get a hope and pray that they get on the right track so that they can accomplish the things that they set out to wanna accomplish. behavior is everything, right? Number seven, your career is the biggest wealth building tool. if you're still young out there, if you're still in your early thirties, even in your forties, early forties, Figuring out ways to build your income and increase your income is going to be the fastest way to start building your wealth, as long as you can, eliminate lifestyle creep, right? So income growth early is one of the most important things, not the fanciest investment. Again, not the hot stock, right? If you're able to build your income 10, 20, 30, 40, 50% a year, depending if you own a business and things of that nature, you're able to grow that income. Your ability to save and invest is going to grow exponentially versus trying to find that hot stock or hot investment, whatever that may be. if it. Just think about physicians coming outta residency, right? If you're a physician in residency, you're making somewhere probably between 45 and$60,000 a year, generally speaking. but when you hit, attending physician status, that, that number, uh, can grow astronomically, tenfold, right? depending on what your practice is and things of that nature. And so that's an easy example to say, Hey, I've taken the, I've taken this, This role of resident physician of$45,000 and now I'm making$400,000. Right. Of course you can save more, right? And so it, you don't have to be a physician, right? You could just go out and get a different degree, maybe a master's degree or some sort of certification, start your own business, whatever that is. Just switch companies, figure out a way to continue to increase your income. Add more value to your employer, whatever you have to do, because that is going to be, one of the top determiners of your ability to build wealth. I talk about this all the time. Build your skills, invest in yourself, network, negotiate your salaries, and then allocate those extra dollars wisely. Obviously. the last thing you wanna do is increase your, your income 50%, but then also increase your expenses 50%.'cause then you're just net. Same place you were before, maybe you have a little bit nicer car, but you're not, you're not building wealth essentially, right? Number eight, estate planning isn't just for the wealthy. It is not just about the money, it's about the family protection. Young parents, you need to know who's taking care of your kids and if you have any amount of wealth, who's going to, shepherd that money for your kids, if you were to die, before they are. Adults, right? have all those plans in place because the last thing you want, is your kids not having the life that you want them to have because you're not there, right? And so estate planning can give you, that clarity. It can give the people that will be taking care of your kids, the clarity, right? and. It'll take stress off of your loved ones, in the event that you pass away untimely, even if it's not untimely, even if you live a long, prosperous life, they're still grieving and, planning that needs to be had, right? making sure that you take care of that. Number nine, community and conversation matter. Number nine, community and conversation matter. I love getting all of your feedback and your questions about these podcast episodes. I've been able to gain a handful of clients through these podcasts over the last few years. And so those relationships, the relationships with listeners and stories, I love hearing that. This is why I do the podcast. I want, People that are building wealth and wanting to retire early to live the life live like every day is Saturday, right? I used to have a shirt that said that, I felt weird that I was in my thirties wearing that, but if you can build a life that. Hey, every day is Saturday, whether you're quote unquote working or not. how freeing or how fulfilling would that be, right? If you woke up and you felt like today it was Saturday, even though it's Tuesday, to me, that hey, you're living the dream baby, right? this is why I do the podcast. So I love. Getting the feedback. I love hearing stories from the listeners and my clients about, Hey, these are the things that I'm doing. These are the things that I love doing, and because of the planning, the decisions financially that I've made, I'm able to do that, right? finance is human. It is not just numbers, and I love the human aspect. This is why I got into financial planning in the first place. I love meeting with people. I love hearing about their stories, about the decisions they made, whether negative or positive learning from those decisions, and then becoming better humans, after those decisions. And becoming better humans after those decisions. Number 10, consistency compounds. And so this goes along with, the behavior aspect of things. So this is the last one. I think it's one of the most important ones. Small repeated actions build momentum. And so if you're one of these people that are listening in the budgeting, talk about the client that I just spoke about resonates with you, make a small. Goal, even if it's a one day budget, I'm only gonna spend this much today, or I'm not gonna spend today, whatever that is for you. and do that for one day, right? And then do it again. And then do it again, and then do it again, and then do it again. And that repeated action will build momentum. Yeah, earlier this year I made a conscious decision, to lose some weight and run another half marathon. I had not run one, in about three, four years. and so I decided, hey, I'm gonna start running. And in February, if you were would've told me to run a half marathon, it would've probably been one of the most painful experiences of my life. But now I am about six weeks out from my half marathon. And I could run one right now with a much better pace, than I could in February and, at a much lower heart rate, and I would be fine, right? Because I took repeated action of running week after week after week after week, and now I'm at a place where my fitness is much higher. I've lost some weight, things of that nature. Same thing with budgeting, right? Same thing with recording this podcast. I have not done it in a while. I used to do it, and I probably should do it. Go back and listen to my first episode. I am much better. I'm still probably not the best podcaster there's ever been. I'll concede that, but I'm much better than I was day one. and how awkward it was staring at a microphone talking for. 20 minutes seemed like a insurmountable, goal or task. Right Now, I can sit in front of a microphone and talk for 20 minutes, and generally it's not a problem. If I plan properly, I can do it with fair amount of ease, right? So whatever those things are that you want to accomplish in your financial life or life in general, make those small goals. And repeat those actions that help you reach those goals over and over and over and over, and you will reach those goals. again, thank you so much for listening to this podcast. I'm glad we've gotten to the hundredth episode. I'm glad you're listening. I'm thankful and grateful that you're listening. Please continue to listen. Please continue to share, and leave reviews again. I I can't be thankful enough. And so I would love to make this milestone interactive again. Send me. A text from the link in the show notes, below what's your biggest financial decision that you've ever made, whether that's buying your first rental property, maxing out your Roth IRA, or finally just creating a budget that worked. I want to hear about it and I would love to share some of these responses in upcoming episodes. Here is to the next a hundred episodes and here's to helping more families retire early. Or retire now and most importantly, retire on their terms. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you in the next episode. This podcast is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to be financial or investment advice. Do not make decisions solely based on this podcast alone. Please seek professional help when making decisions about your personal situation.