Retirement For Life

Retirement Trends, Lottery Question, and a Peek Behind the Curtain - Ep 42

• Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP® • Season 2 • Episode 42

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To get the full RFL experience, watch the episode here at https://youtu.be/cbLr-zpQEqU

What keeps experienced retirement planners up at night? After decades in the business, I'm tracking three critical trends that will reshape retirement planning for years to come.

First, we're witnessing an extraordinary market streak—15 positive years out of the last 17. But history tells a sobering story: since 1869, only 13.5% of four-year periods have shown positive returns in all four consecutive years. While we've positioned our clients to weather any market environment, this statistical reality reminds us why removing investment risk from retirement planning is crucial.

More importantly, I'm watching a seismic shift in retirement planning priorities. While most advisors have expanded from investment-centric approaches to include estate planning and tax strategies (which we embrace as CPAs), insurance is rapidly becoming retirement planning's fourth critical pillar. The evidence is alarming: health insurance premiums jumping 10%+ annually for even young, healthy groups; homeowners insurance spiking 10.4% in 2024 alone; and long-term care options dwindling from over 100 providers to merely 6-8 companies today.

These escalating costs represent significant risks to retirement security that must be addressed proactively. I believe we're moving toward socialized medicine in America as healthcare funding approaches 50% government contribution (up from just 22% in 1970).

Beyond these technical concerns lies what truly matters in retirement. I always ask new clients: "If you won a billion-dollar lottery today, what would change in your life?" Their answers reveal what retirement planning should ultimately serve—your deeper values and aspirations.

Life is short. Buy a lottery ticket. Dream a little. What would you do with complete financial freedom? Whatever that answer is, surround yourself with people who encourage you to pursue those dreams. Because retirement isn't about investments or taxes—it's about living the life you truly want.

We love hearing from you!! Record your retirement questions anytime at www.RetirementForLife.com


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Intro:

Retirement for Life, your passport to a comfortable and confident retirement. The podcast that's equal parts education and entertainment, where we break down the retirement maze with a dash of fun and a heap of wisdom from your host, Christian Sear, CPA, the passionate retirement specialist and president of Sear Financial Wealth Advisors. The independent registered investment advisor specializing in the AIM retirement system.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

All right, today, retirement for Life podcast, there are three things that specifically are on my mind with my retirees and I think they're very interesting, meaningful and timely. But today is episode 42. This is our 42nd episode and, in addition to those three things which I promised to be interesting to my retirees, we are doing something special today. What are we doing?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, it's Brooke's favorite number, number 42. So we're going to highlight Brooke today, show a little bit behind the scenes of how we film our podcast and how we get to the final product.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yeah. So, brooke, how long have you and I been working together?

Brooke Fay:

Nine years.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Okay, so we even. It's probably not necessary to share details, but why not we? Actually? We've run out of room and Brooke and I work closely together, so we actually share an office. So we know each other intimately well and you know, as you're talking to your colleagues at work, lots of things are shared. She loves the number 42. Why do you love the number 42? What is it about the number 42 that?

Brooke Fay:

Yeah, honestly, I don't even know how it came to be. You know, when you're like in junior high, and you make your first email, like it was my, mine was veranda42atlivecom. I feel like ever since, like I can remember, I've always seen 42 everywhere, like every day she loves Jackie Robinson.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Like every day she sees either 42 deer or like 42 four leaf clovers.

Brooke Fay:

Yeah, I don't know. I should look it up sometimes I don't believe you.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

She's like, like you're never going to believe this. There's like 42 glasses in the sink. The other day I'm like what, how did?

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

you know, but anyway. So on a serious note, I want to get to these three things because I think they're all really interesting and I'm kind of the funny things that have happened in this podcast in the last year and a half and some of the interesting things that I think people might want to see. The first thing is now Emma is in charge of investments at our firm, sear Financial Wealth Advisors. She's the CFA, we've talked about it and to some degree, emma was brought on to kind of take the load off of my shoulders on the investment strategy, building investments, and it's been great. But you know, emma and I I have to say to Emma's credit this year we had a discussion at the beginning of every year how should our investments look like, and we've taken a long-term approach and this year Emma was really important in helping me understand and just kind of giving me a little bit of confidence that, like we preach about staying the course was right.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

My biggest concern coming out of 2024 was look, we've had two good years. 2025, could it really be three good years in a row? Be three good years in a row? And we really lean back on our education, our knowledge and our thesis about investing, which is take investment risk out of retirement, right, and then it shouldn't be a big issue, right? Yeah, you should be in a position where the investments don't matter. So here we go again. Here's the confessions the diary of an older, balder retirement guy who's been doing this for a long time Now. I'm already starting to look ahead to 2026. Is it possible that we have four years in a row? Let's assume that 2025, right now, market's up. What 10% 10%.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

What did we predict at the beginning of the year?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

About 10%.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Basically, it's like too good to be true, right Markets hitting all-time highs. So now the old retirement guy goes back and says okay, wait a second. The responsibility on my shoulders is to take care of my retirees and I feel like I have. I feel like I've taken the stock market risk out of people's portfolios, out of their retirement, not out of their portfolios. Is it possible that we have four years in a row of good stock market gains? Is it possible?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

It's possible. I mean, I think the most important thing is what we preach to our clients all the time. You have to remove emotions from investing. We're investing for the long term. We have you positioned so that you have some safety in your portfolio. You have guaranteed income. There's really no need to worry about the stock market in the short term and we're investing for the long term. So it's possible the market goes up next year. It's possible the market goes down. We've told our clients to prepare for volatility and we've got them positioned, so it shouldn't matter.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Okay, but we'll have this conversation again in December or January and have a more definitive discussion about it. So we don't know what we're going to decide in four months from now. But I will say this Brooke, I want you to roll a guess the numbers game.

Intro:

Guess the number game.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Dow Jones Industrial Average. It's kind of the longest US stock market index that we know, of it started, by the way, with 19 companies. Today it's 30 companies. I've been on record as saying it's a terrible index to follow. 30 companies does not make up the stock market. But, anyway, it goes back to 1869. So in that period, 1869, there's been 126 distinct four-year consecutive periods. So we have 126 data points to choose from. How many of those? What percent? I'm looking for a percent, what percent of those 126 timeframes?

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

four years in a row. So we're talking like 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003,. That's one sample. We're talking 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011,. That's another sample. How many of those samples? What percent did the market go up four years in a row? Now I'm going to make Emma go first. I'm going to make Andrea go second and, brooke, you're in the podcast today.

Brooke Fay:

Yeah.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

So you're going to go last? Okay, but you can lean on their answers.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Oh, I will. Okay, this is a good question.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

I haven't really seen this before. This is for my retirees, right? The point of this question my retirees is. We said it doesn't matter if the market goes down next year or up.

Brooke Fay:

We put you in a position where it doesn't matter.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

But it's going to be on, andrea. Is it going to be on our retirees' mind if the market goes down next year? Absolutely, we're going to hear about it, so let's prepare them that it might go down. What do you think? What is the chances? What percent chance does the stock market go up a fourth year in a row next year, in 2026?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

So this is.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

it's going up every year for four years, Four years in a row, four good years positive above 0% return.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

I'll say 65%.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

I was going to say 50%.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

So you say 65% of the time the market goes up four years in a row, yeah, and you say lower 50%. What do you say?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

58%.

Brooke Fay:

No, oh bro, you guys.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

No, that's good, she went in the middle. I like that.

Brooke Fay:

That's all I'm going.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

No, no, this is the old 52-year-old experience man. Only 13.5% of the time do we see a market go up four years in a row. It's very, very rare Okay, very, very rare, going back to 1869, about two out of every three years goes up. One of every three years goes down.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

I would argue, though, since COVID, things have not been behaving the way that they used to.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

And that's a whole nother thing. And we're probably not going to get to 20 minutes today because I've got two more very important points and we're just going to go because that's what we do. If people like us, they like us, they don't. But this to me is an enthralling topic. Okay, yes, but to me the stock market is this thing in people's minds all the time. And I go back to my experience. You know, number one reason people leave a financial advisor Did anyone know what it is?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, the market performance.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

They're like the market's down, my retirement's in jeopardy. We've taken that out of the equation, but still it's the number one reason why people leave their financial advisor. Oh, my performance is down. Well, the truth of the matter is there's not a financial advisor in the world that can control the stock market right so we do the things that we can control. Just a point of contention that I want to start putting in people's minds. We listen to a common podcast. I don't know if you listen to it still.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

I do.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yep, I think the economists that we listen to right now are saying chance of a recession is less than 50%, maybe 50%.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, around 40 or 50%.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

So you know. And another thing right now, for those of us who are paying attention, jerome Powell, his boss, just got fired by Donald Trump. Did you see that? Yes, she says she wasn't fired, but he says she was fired Bottom line. She doesn't have a job anymore. So, whatever you want to call it, you know there's a lot of pressure on that office to reduce interest rates. But historically, why do we reduce interest rates at the Federal Reserve?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

It's usually either, if the economy is basically falling apart.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yeah.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, that's the main reason.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

If we are going to decrease interest rates, which the White House wants us to, and probably I would argue we should be reducing interest rates.

Brooke Fay:

It's a sign that maybe some bad things are on the horizon right.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

We don't decrease interest rates when things are going great.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Right right, we're starting to see some cracks in the labor market, but it's almost. I think the issue here is waiting too long to reduce interest rates. If they don't, then we've kind of gone too far and it's too late.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

All right bottom line of point number one to retirees, my retirees it's going to perhaps start being a more rocky road, we don't know. Could go up for seven, eight years in a row, but let's prepare ourselves emotionally for the possibility that the last 15 out of 17 years including 2025, the market's been up. That's irrational. It doesn't usually happen. Let's just be emotionally prepared for this and let's know, more importantly, in the back of our minds, the retirement system attempts to reduce that risk, so we don't care. Okay, Yep, Okay. So on to point number two. Are you guys ready for this? Again pertains to retirees. There is a shift coming and I want you two young people to remember this, because by the time this comes to fruition, I'm not Nostradamus, but again, old experienced. My opinion. You too will have to worry about this, Andrea, and I, I think, won't have to but, there's a shift coming in retirement planning.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Okay, we know that most financial advisors focus on investments. We know that we've said investments, you can't control them. We just talked about it. You know, the big movement in the late 80s and 90s was to introduce estate planning as part of retirement planning, which makes sense, right, we embrace that. And lately, though, the very advanced planners are now really focusing on taxes and, as a CPA, we have brought the CPAs into the mix, which is why I think we resonate with people. We talk to people from across America on a daily basis. Today, we have three or four different people we're talking to from different states, and one of the main reasons they're talking to us is because we are CPAs and we're doing that?

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

tax planning, we're bringing that into the mix. So that's three levels, right, investments, estate planning, taxes. But I want to tell you, insurance is going to become the number one thing within the next 20 years. Insurance is becoming more and more of a risk. We say we take risk out of retirement. Do we take investment risk out? Yes, we just talked about it. Do we try and take tax risk out? Yes, roth conversions.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

So I want to bring you back to when I was a CFO at a company. I remember we had to provide health insurance to all of our employees and I remember one time an insurance company that we were using a well-known health insurance company came to us for our annual renewal and they said to us health insurance this year for your employees is going up 6%. We stopped everything at the company, everybody in the administration. We had an emergency meeting. What in the world are we going to do? Can you believe Now this was a decade and a half ago, two decades ago, more. It was a long time ago Can you believe that insurance is going up 6% this year? We were freaking out. This is a big company. What in the world are we going to do? Do you know what our little tiny firm? We're a niche firm. Okay, we have less than 20 employees. Do you know what? The health insurance went up? You probably know.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

I don't.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Do you know Brooke? Do you know Our little company? Now, keep in mind we have at least five or six 20-something-year-olds. We have 30-year-olds.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

How many people in our firm are over the age of 40?

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Four, four, we're a young, healthy group. Okay, our insurance, health insurance, went up over 10% this year and that the broker tells us, don't worry about it, everyone else is going up 15%. Okay, insurance is becoming an issue Now, and here's what's happening In America. What you're seeing is a push towards and I believe and this is prediction number one, I said it here socialized medicine in America Back in 1970, this is over 50 years ago. Guess the numbers game. What percent of healthcare funding do you think came through some sort of government, right, medicare government, medicaid government? What percent in 1970 do you think the government funded overall total US health expenditures? Now we're going to go reverse. Brooke gets to go first. How much?

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

was the government involved in health insurance costs and coverage in 1970?

Brooke Fay:

20%.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Okay 30% 25%. Great, you guys are great. The answer is 22%. What do you think it is today?

Brooke Fay:

60.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

I would say 65%, 70.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

So today it's approaching 50%. We're getting to the point where health care costs is growing out of control and from a retirement planning standpoint, you know, we have health care costs that go up 5% a year. Is that enough? Is it enough?

Brooke Fay:

Maybe not.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

And it's not just health care. Think about long-term care. Is it enough? Maybe not. And it's not just healthcare. Think about long-term care. You know, 15 years ago there was over 100 plus companies that had long-term care, traditional long-term healthcare insurance. Today there's like six to eight left.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

It's becoming just too cost intensive to even have. Now here's one, and I've said this for years. I'm going to put Andrew in a spot. I'm going to give you a little hint, and I've said this for years I'm going to put Andrew in a spot. I'm going to give you a little hint because I've said this a lot. How many times do you think I've said this?

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

I wouldn't want to be a what company? Do you remember me ever saying that, if you don't know, it's fine, just an insurance company. I've always said I said the last thing I'd want to do is I don't know who in their right mind wants to invest in an insurance company. It just does not make sense. Do you want to insure the homes in Louisiana or California or Florida? Last year, 2024, the average price of homeowners insurance rose 10.4%. The year before, home insurance went up 12.7%. This is an example of one man. I can't pronounce his name, but he was in Barron's Thomas Barron. His last name starts with a, b. It doesn't matter what his last name is. He built his house five years ago in Louisiana. At the time he built his house, the insurance premium was $1,575. Five years later let's take a guess what do you think he's paying now, five years later, he was paying, say, $1,600 for his homeownership.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

I bet it's double $3,000.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

$5,000. Oh Okay, Ouch, the state that saw the biggest increase last year Nebraska almost 23% increase in homeowners. What's driving this?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Weather.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Weather Weather. Okay, Today I saw on the news high winds, high temperatures. It's just fires, right, it's everywhere. And there's now like did you see the dust storms in Arizona.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Yeah, yeah, I'd never heard that term before. It was crazy.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

They were at the airport. Did you see the picture of the airport? The dust storm was so powerful it broke some of the windows in the airport. Okay, this is chapter four of retirement planning. So, again, for our retirees, we need to be thinking about insurance. It's the fourth chapter of comprehensive retirement planning that we have to be aware of. Okay, now the third thing is and this is a short thing, but this is critical to what we do with our retirees One of the first questions we ask people the very first time we meet them. It has something to do with a lottery. Does anyone know what question I ask?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yes.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

We have a lot of first appointments. We want to go beyond the numbers. We want to understand who you are emotionally, what truly drives right here, the heart, the stomach, the gut, what really matters to you? Numbers are one thing, finances are one thing, but finances are really the key to taking care of what's in here. So, what's the question I ask people in the first meeting every time?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

I always say if you won a billion dollars in the lottery today, would you keep working or would you quit, and what would you do?

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yeah, this tells me. Do you really love your job? I'm talking to a 64-year-old. They say I think I'm going to work for another three years. Why, why? Now, of course we have to be smart about it. But do you really love your job? On a scale of 1 to 10? If you won the billion-dollar lottery and, by the way, did you see that the Powerball is now up to a billion dollars? No really, let's all go play.

Brooke Fay:

Yeah.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Brooke. Okay, let's put her on the spot. It's her show today. If you won the billion-dollar lottery, would you still work with us?

Brooke Fay:

No, I would not, andrea Nope.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Emma.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

I don't know what else I would do.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

I don't think I would change much.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

I don't know, I'd travel.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yeah, but here's the thing. Point number three for retirees is you need to be able to answer that question what would change in your life if you won the lottery? You know, whatever that answer is, it's important for retirees to surround themselves with people who say and encourage them to do those things. And so go buy a lottery ticket, just be crazy, go do it, dream a little dream and then, when you're in that mindset, what would I do if I had a billion dollars? If you're retired, you should be thinking about that, because life is short. It's not about investments, it's not about taxes. It's about what do you really want to do with your life? All right, so let's segue. Today's show is about Brooke, and let's just be honest, brooke and let's just be honest, I'm not easy to work with. I like to challenge people. I often put people in an uncomfortable position, which Brooke is in today. Sorry, brooke, that's okay.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

But I think I would like to think that it brings out the best in people and that we can all succeed if we're doing something better every day. It was two years ago. I came to Brooke Her job was a lot different and I said we're going to do this. And it's really been Brooke and I the whole way right Pushing this. We decided to start a YouTube channel and you know, brooke has walked with me every step of the way. Very rarely does she punch me back. Sometimes she do.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

So we thought for today's episode 42, brooke's favorite number, unique number, special number it'd be fun to talk about for those who listen to us and watch us. Let's talk a little bit about what it's like to be behind the scenes, behind the curtain, as it were, and I think you're going to like it. So let's get started. So I think the first question, andrea, you should bring up and make listeners aware of is I said it just a second ago sometimes I'm difficult to work with what would be an example in context with this podcast slash video. Give me an example of what that means and ask Brooke to comment on it.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Yeah, I was just going to ask Brooke, what are some of the worst ideas that Chris has had that you've had to try to make the best of, maybe?

Brooke Fay:

Uh well, I mean, you know Chris, you know he has a hundred ideas a day and probably about 80 of them shouldn't see the light of day. So, um, it's mostly just pivoting and trying to see like okay, we need, he wants this. Like let's try to pivot and see like this route, or it's more like that, it's not. I don't know if I have a specific bad idea, but um, you can.

Brooke Fay:

No, it's okay to be honest. No, I am a lot of times. They are good, but you know, it's more just like trying to move with which way he wants, which direction he wants to go and we change our minds a lot.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Uh, oftentimes the shots we take miss yeah but uh, it's better to take 100 shots and miss 80 of them than to take two shots and make two of them Right Right. Yep, so is that a problem for you?

Brooke Fay:

No problem.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Are you going to go buy 10 lottery tickets?

Brooke Fay:

Yeah, I should.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yeah, we have a lot of ideas here. We throw a lot of things around. I think what we've learned here is just to be ourselves, because when you're talking to people, being authentic, really, if it resonates, it does, if it doesn't, it doesn't, and we're getting traction right. Our last podcast, we had more viewers than we've ever had before, and so let's just be ourselves, and I apologize if no need. But we've had some oops moments. I think what's some oops moments we've had.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

I know there's a lot of bloopers.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

There's probably hundreds of thousands of hours of bloopers, and most of it probably comes from us just talking and talking and Brooke having to try to make that work into a 20-minute podcast. So there's a good mix of funny clips and probably just hours and hours of us talking about nothing.

Brooke Fay:

Well, and I think that's like the best part is going through the. You know, I get like about 45 minutes of actual footage when all said and done, and just being able to watch it all over and like when Chris messes up, he does like the most funny faces or like you know, like it's just that like in a day when you maybe haven't laughed yet, it's like okay, that's funny, like you know, I do hear it when Brooke's editing the videos of this podcast and these videos.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

sometimes I'll just hear her laughing.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

I'm like what, and it's funny. Yeah, brooke has a good sense of what the listener would want to hear and what they would want to see. So I think she does a good job of kind of reeling us in and kind of steering us in the right direction so that the video that we want to put out actually works and people want to watch us.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Yeah, and like, for example, today I asked Brooke. I go, hey, I've got this crazy idea back to being authentic For some reason. Today I felt like wearing a hat. I'm under the weather, I got a cold. If you can't, tell.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

I'm just in that chicken soup sweater, homey type of comfort type of feeling, homey type of comfort type of feeling and I walk in with the Sear Financial hat, the ball cap, and I go can I do the hat today? And she'll tell me. Basically, it was a no. I could just see her face. She's like but yeah, I appreciate you being honest with us. We've had victories, though, and the best victory that comes to mind is the Christmas morning, which was less than a year ago. They say, when you do a podcast, it's a struggle, it's a long haul. We've made a commitment to this. We're just going to do it, even if nobody watches, we're going to do it right. So we're all sitting there on our phones Now. Did you have access to this on Christmas Day? Did you have access to this? Yeah, did you have access to this on Christmas?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Day Did you have?

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

access to this? Yeah, did you have access? So the four of us and a few other people at the firm have access to the calendar, the company calendar. And I remember sitting on my couch this past Christmas having my coffee. I was comfy, I was wearing my robe and all of a sudden, what happens.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

We were just getting hundreds of emails, so-and-so, took your AIM assessment and they want to talk to you.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Ding, ding, ding, I mean one after the other.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, we were all like texting each other. We were texting each other like what happened? What are we going to do? What if our calendar is still up? Somebody?

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

actually watched our video. Yeah, that video has a quarter million views right now, and so that's the victories, and it means that we're talking about things that resonate with people.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

And we've been able to meet with a lot of people and help a lot of people too, which is the main goal of this podcast is to steer people in the right direction and give them someone they can partner with throughout their retirement.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

When I talked to retirees for the first time, one of the first questions we asked them besides, what would you do if you won the lottery is you know what did you see? Why did you decide that you wanted to even speak to us? And recently, one of the gentlemen who actually wasn't a good fit for us at the end of the day, but he said something that made me feel good. He said you know, you said da, da, da, da, and I thought I need to talk to that person. So if we're saying something that resonates with people, that's really the main goal of this. So, but we have a question for Brooke about like what is it really like to edit a podcast? Emma, did you have a question or did you?

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, I mean we have, like I said, a lot of topics that we come to Brooke with. She's really the one that kind of okays our topic. So I want to know how do we get from that I was just throwing topics at the wall to us getting a very like concise, visually appealing video out to the public.

Brooke Fay:

Yeah, Like I said, at the end of the day I have about 45 minutes of actual footage that I have to file through and just making sure that it's easy for the viewers to watch you know, I don't want them to be confused on what we're talking about. So being able to add graphics or B-rolls and just making the flow, good, you know, throughout the whole video. I would say one video takes me about five hours to do from start to finish. But I mean it's fun, you know, being able to add those little graphics in and just trying to make it all make finish. But I mean it's fun, you know, adding, being able to add those little graphics in and just trying to make it all make sense. It's like a math problem, you know I love it.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Like I'm always very proud of Brooke. Whenever we talk to vendors they always want to sell stuff like hey, you need a better camera, hey, you need better software. And they say we need your marketing manager on the call. So Brooke and I will be on these calls and I always love bragging about her, because what's the software you use to edit Premiere Pro?

Brooke Fay:

Adobe Premiere Pro yeah.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Okay, so this is what they use to edit movies. Okay, this is not like some. Hey, use your phone, make a few clicks. This is like serious stuff, right, and I always I'm proud to say that Brooke has become the Premiere Pro Ninja. Oh, wow, that's what you are. You're the premier pro ninja, yeah, so there's a lot that goes into this. So, to kind of circle back to episode 42, let's remember that Brooke has been instrumental in bringing this podcast to life. Brooke, let's give us a clap.

Brooke Fay:

Clap for Brooke. Thank you, thanks for bro. Thank you Thanks.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

And let's remember, insurance is the fourth chapter. Upcoming chapter Medicine healthcare will be socialized. Chris Sear the old man is worried about investments, but we don't need to be, because I don't know if the market's going to go up four years in a row. And let's just remember that we should all go out and buy a lottery ticket. Okay, If you're still with us, please just go out there. What's it like? A dollar or two bucks?

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Something like that.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Okay, should we say anything else about traditions we have on this podcast before we start, or should we leave that better left unsaid.

Brooke Fay:

No, we can talk about it Before every podcast. We take a shot.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

That is an unknown. That is really behind the curtain. Tell me more about that.

Brooke Fay:

Yeah, everyone needs a little liquid courage.

Emma Bean, CFA®:

Yeah, when we start filming at 9 am, so it's really a pick-me-up in the morning.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Because we were all nervous on our very first podcast.

Andrea Brannon, CFA®-IF:

Yeah, I mean, I know, the very first time that you had me get behind camera, I was like a deer in headlights. I hated it.

Christian Cyr, CPA, CFP®:

Gotta push people. We're never gonna go behind the curtain again. I can tell you this. Retirement for Life. Today was a special episode. Thank you for listening, thank you for watching and sorry it was so long, but we're gonna be authentic. We're gonna be ourselves Until. Until the next time. Retire for life. See you guys.

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Christian J. Cyr, CPA, CFP®

Host
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Andrea Brannon

Co-host
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Emma Bean, CFA

Co-host