Cutting The DistanceEp. 121: Must Be Nice Hunting Out of State with Jeff Bynum
New year, new me! Ever felt like "It Must Be Nice" when you see other hunters take to the field out of state? Dirk has a great conversation with financial adviser Jeff Bynum about how to afford those out of state hunts that you feel like they are just out of reach.
Financial Outfitters Group: https://www.finoutfitters.com/
Jeff Bynum and Financial Outfitters Group offers Investment Advisory Services through Coho Advisory Services, LLC (CAS), a registered investment adviser. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through Coho Financial Group, LLC (CFG) and individually licensed and appointed agents. This platform is solely for informational purposes and is not offering advisory services or sales of securities. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.
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And we're back with another episode of Cutting the Distance podcast. I'm Dirk Durham and this week's guest is somebody I've got to know over the last few years and really enjoy his company. The first time I met this guy, he kept tagging me on Instagram with these ridiculous videos. There's these freaking weird redneck videos. He'd kept on tagging me and sending me in my dms. He was sliding into my DMS with these ridiculous damn redneck videos. I'm like, who the hell is this crazy bastard. He's like weird as can be. Like I thought, Man, this guy is redneck as they come. And then fast forward quite a while before I actually got to meet you and get to know you, and he's not quite as redneck as he seemed in his posts and his things he sent me. So, uh my good buddy, Jeff bid him, welcome to the show.
Thank you. It's good. Good to see you, Derek. I miss you, man. It's you know, it's been a minute since we've gotten some FaceTime in together. And you know, we we've traveled all across the country together. We've definitely had a few moments, if you will and so I missed some of those days, but it's good to see you.
Yeah, I mean we we spent like, I don't know, six or seven weekends in a row for like four years together. We went to these elkshamp elk shaped camps, and I got to teach folks how to call elk and and how to hunt elk and and Jeff he put in his two cents there too, But he also tried to tell people how to be a better with their money. I guess you could say kind of life kind of a life coach if you will.
Yeah, it's it's funny how much money impacts your life. And uh and and so it's you know, the Olk shape camps. Uh I still happening, kind of a new version of them, and and uh excited for that. But you know, that was a lot of trial and error on how those went. And we had some amazing experiences, got to meet tons of great people. Uh. Some of my fondest memories. I don't miss some of those early morning Texas drives. You know where We're running across the state of Texas at three am, and I think all of us have had too much dairy. Uh. You know that cramped in a small car. It wasn't good, but it's a lot of fun memories.
Yeah, those we had some good times. Good times you weren't kind of you know, I will say, you're such a good sport. You're always kind of the butt of the butt of a joke of some kind. Full disclosure, Jeff is a ginger. He is a redheaded fella, and we take full advantage of that. You know, his own his own humility, he will he will jump right on that bandwagon too and just take the shots and kind of add a little bit to it for us.
So, yeah, you know, I believe I'm gonna go to heaven, but I'm not sure how that's gonna work as a solace ginger. So we'll figure it out when we get there.
So, yeah, you have to work really hard and find a soul before it's before your time comes for Saint calls your name. Well, hey, Matt, we haven't got to talk much about ELK season twenty twenty four. How'd you do? Did you do? Did you slay the beast or did the beast lay you?
Boy? It's a twenty twenty four felt like a failure to me until I got beyond it and looked back and I did not kill an elk in twenty twenty four. And I am I am not near as good of el kunture as the people that I often get to hang out with, yourself included, but I can get I get the job done most years, and I got my buckcacked this year. But it was I think my season. The highlight of my season actually has nothing to do with elk hunting, you know. I I for those of you that are parents, have two kids and daughters, want to get done with this podcast. She's in driver's ed fourteen years old and I gotta go take her driving after this. Yeah, I know it's scary. My son is eleven, gonna be twelve here soon. And I've always tried to be involved in as much as possible in their worlds. And I'd coached their spring baseball season and it was amazing, phenomenal, awesome experience. You know, it was really good for me and my son. There were some challenging moments. I think we both cried probably at several points throughout the season, and you know, I like there were several times where I had to come to him and apologize because I'm like, oh my coaching sucked there, especially as a father. And and so when it got to the fall, we signed up for football and I show up to football practice the first day to drop him off, and it's all the coaches from baseball and they're they're looking at me and they're like, dude, what are you doing. I'm like, what do you mean? You're good with these boys? Why are you not out here? And they they pressured me into signing up to be an assistant coach on his sixth grade football team. And I played football in high school, but not a lot of experience since then other than being a football fan. And it you know, there was thirty two boys on that team, and we went this is our third season, so last two seasons. They went undefeated season before that, and so they've lost one game in three seasons. And so it was, uh, it was five days a week, games on Saturday, and all the way through September and most of October. And so I committed to that, and it was a massive sacrifice for my ELK season. I had Idaho tags, I had Montana tags. I had all this ambition on what I was going to do, and the truth is I probably spent less time elk hunting in twenty twenty four than I have any year in the last probably ten. And if I get the opportunity to coach his football again that time with my son being able to build that depth of relationship with him and work with him in that way, I will trade that for an elk every single year.
Yeah, well, congrats, good job, dad, because that's you can't get those years back, right, you know you've got way more elk hunting years in front of you than you got time with your kids at home. So good job, good job.
I will say that that's the frustration of the season. BJ my right hand, BJ Cable amazing dude. Loved the guy killed his first bowl this year, his first elk went out there, did it solo, did it the right way North Idaho. I mean, you know what this area is like, Dirk. You know how hard it is to get into elkap here, especially after they're decimated by wolves. But M and I were out a couple of times and the one day, I think it was the nineteenth September nineteenth, we get into a drainage and there were six bowls bugling, and I mean it was it was awesome and worked one bowl, got busted, headed for the next bowl. He was he was kind of headed to the bedroom, probably in his bedroom, and we kept him talking, kept him talking. We're working through and brush. We're about two hundred yards out and I'm just these tag alders and spruce trees everywhere. You're just climbing through this North Idaho br USh, trying to get within, get close, and a blue spruce branch came and swung and whacked me straight across my eyeballs and it ended up like I couldn't open my eyes for probably a solid hour. Finally we were able to pry my eyes open. We looked in my one hole eye was solid a shot and go to the trauma center. You know. BJ had to hold my hand out of the woods. Yeah, it was. If you would have stumbled on us in that moment, you would have had some questions on what was going on in the North Idaho woods. Crying with tears in my eyes and BJ's holding my hand.
Oh is this a proposal?
Yeah, but dang it, no it was. It was a good season and my freezers, I'm down to sixty pounds of elk meat, so I'm taking elk donations. If anybody's needs some freezer space. Uh, no at all. Honestly, I think I'm going to go try to kill a buffalo here pretty soon stock up the freezer.
So nice. Nice, So, Jeff, I kind of touched on it lightly that you kind of talked a little bit about people's financial decisions and whatnot. The elk shaped camps. Uh, tell the tell the listeners what you do for a living well.
I am a financial advisor of financial planning. I'm the founder of a kind of a boutique firm, Financial Fitters Group, that I started in twenty fifteen. And so I am. You know, I started this practice, this firm with the intention of changing the hunting industry. And you know, I fast forward to today. I had no idea how this was going to go. As a matter of fact, most people told me it would not. Most people said that demographics of hunters does not make sense to work and as a financial advisor, and I says, well, I'm either going to do this or I'll get out of the industry and go do something honest, like build houses or whatever. I don't know, but so I started Financial Offerers Group beginn at twenty fifteen, and you know, you fast forward to today. I get to help all kinds of amazing people across the country thinks through everyday life decisions, how to buy cars, retirement insurances, send kids to college, start businesses, invest in real estate. You know, I just I get you know you kind of said life coach. The reality is a lot of what I do is life coaching and helping people navigate the financial side of decision making is just the reward of that is something I never imagined I'd be able to be in a position to receive. It's been phenomenal watching people create businesses and do all kinds of amazing things in their life.
Yeah. Yeah, I kind of like I kind of compare you this for say, you're kind of like a doctor, right, Doctors kind of give you advice you never want to hear. Hey, don't don't eat those donuts, don't drink those beers, don't don't don't do eat celery, do do more setups. And I feel like you kind of have that kind of advice too. It's like, hey, don't can Hey Jeff, what do you think I'm gonna go buy a twenty twenty four Duramax And you're like, no, you can do whatever you want, but no, don't do that. I feel like you have you're kind of that same kind of person, you know, you're trying to keep people's finances healthy.
Yeah, well, I think you know. The way society has taught people to make financial decisions is often backwards, you know. It's it's kind of the shoe first, aim later approach to financial decision making, and a lot of what we hear often told always do this, you know, And there's all these financial I'm gonna air quote financial entertainers, and they give out this blanket advice that people accept wholesale, and they buy into these myths, these financial myths, and they don't find out that they're on a path that they don't want to be in until five, ten, twenty years down the raided twenty years later, when they've created some sort of unintended consequence in their life. So a lot of my role, in my relationship, in my client's lives is helping them look at these different paths they could take so they can make whatever decision is right for their family and they don't wake up somewhere they don't want to be.
Right now, you talked about what we're kind of taught from a long time ago, like you know, do this with your money, don't do that with your money, and and over the time and listen to you you speak at these different venues. It's really made me think, like, wow, I've got to rethink things a little bit from what I was taught and it really kind of makes sense. But let's rewind a little bit, do you You you always give an impactful speech at ELK shape camps and kind of told about where you came from and how you got to where you are today, and it always like really sunk into me. Is like it was kind of a vulnerable speech too, so I always really enjoyed it. Can you can you give that?
Yeah? Yeah? Let me How I even ended up in this role? It's, uh, you know, it's a story that on paper looks like a lot of failure, but in reality it's you know, you could have given me a blank sheet of paper and I never could have drawn out this this life that I get to live now. And so I mean, I I grew up in a poda little farmtown with more dairy cows than people, grew up in a very poor household, broken household. You know, I went my mom went through several step dads that you know, I was the classic Ginger if you will, you know, a redheaded step child. And you know, by the time I got to high school, I was not on a very good path in life. And you know, this was early nineties, and I sat down with my high school counselor and they told me I didn't need to worry about taking a second language because I'd never go to college. And so I kind of just wrote off the traditional approach that we were all told to take at that time in life and got out of school. The good news of growing up so poor as I learned how to work really hard if I wanted something. So I got into the construction industry, started working my way up through the construction trades, and I ended up going on a vacation in Seattle, met my wife, and then I never came home. I said, Hey, I'm staying here, like in work construction here and yeah, and I started my own construction company. At twenty five. My wife graduated from SPU the degree in interior design. She started her own here, her own interior design practice, and we were making a lot of money, more money than our families had ever made. This was kind of the heyday of the real estate market pre two thousand and eight, and we got we decided that we wanted to be smart with money, so we went out and got a couple of financial advisors, and most of their advice revolved around real estate, which makes sense because it was an insurance salesman and a mortgage broker that we're our financial advisors, and so they had us take out a million dollars in debt in two thousand and seven, and they told us that we'll never lose if we do this, And we bought investment properties in Seattle in two thousand and seven and woke up about a year later in the middle of two thousand and eight where all of our income, assets, my abilities, cash flow, like everything in our life was tied to the real estate market, and we lost everything we owned, had to go through bankruptcy, ended up moving into my in law's basement with my nine month old baby girl, my daughter, and that sucked. That that was not fun. Don't don't move into your in law's basement, that's all. That's not a place you want to find yourself in life. And so you know, at twenty eight, that's what I was when that while that happened, I made it my mission to make sure that this was never going to happen again to me in my life. And so I started going to the different financial institutions out there, all of the ones that people see on every street corner, you know, and all over the place, and I heard a lot of the same thing. It give us this much money, we'll get you this much rate of return, and here's where you're going to be in thirty years. And and to me, I knew I'd already heard this. This is that it was not financial planning. That was just a sales pitch. And through that process, I realized that the financial services industry, and this is whether we were talking about investment advice or insurance planning, or benefits from an employer, or taxes or mortgage real estate, like all of these different products or services that we need in our lives are all being provided to us through a sales process, and no one has taken the time to say, let's make sure that all of this fits together so that you don't wake up somewhere like how I woke up in two thousand and eight and I realized had someone helped me make decisions different than I did it. Had someone looked out for my best interest, I would have never made the decisions I had. I would have never taken out a million dollars. I had no business whatsoever taken out that type of debt in two thousand and seven. I didn't have the right liquidity, I didn't have good protection, Like I was essentially kind of a wreck, just making a ton of money, and so I saw an opportunity to go help people avoid making the mistakes I made. So I took off the car hearts and put on a suit and tie, which you know, fast forward to twenty fifteen, I ended up moving my family to Texas. God bless Texas. I love Texas. They just don't have much public lands or all hunting there, unfortunately. But it was down in Texas, and it was still it was still suit and tie sales goals, and you know, I just and I just I was fed up with it. I was fed up with this world and the pressure that this industry puts on most advisors to perform. And I was going to leave the industry. And that's when I I can't remember what book I was reading, but you know, one of these inspirational books to pursue your dreams and all that stuff. And I was like, I'm gonna go work in the hunting industry. And that's why I quickly realized I wouldn't be able to provide for my family if I did. It's you don't get into the hunting industry to to to make a ton of money. Like that's that's the reality. It is a modest life. But for me, what I saw there was people. I saw people that were similar to me. I saw people that were salt of the earth, that were blue collar, that had a what I would say is a natural distrust for the financial services world. And I thought, you know, if if there was one group of people that I could go out and help succeed in life, these were my people. And so I sat down with my firm that I was with then and I told them that. And that's when they're like, yeah, you're gonna fail, You'll be out of the industry. There's not enough money in it, blah blah blah. It's as well, I'm gonna do this my way or not. And uh, you know here we are today.
Yeah, well, I think you've been doing a good job. And I think You've helped a lot of people, including me, and uh, you know, I think you're living the dream.
Well, uh what you what's publicly you see there there. I still have challenges myself, you know, we all do. I got a I got a gut kick last week. It was, you know, being business for yourself, especially as a financial advisor's hard. And you know I'm an all transparency. I had a I had some message me that they didn't have a good experience in planning, and for me, it crushed me. It still hurts, like I you know, I almost postponed this podcast because it's torn me up so bad. And it wasn't that they didn't like my advice. It was that their experience was bad. And so and I'm analyzing that, I'm looking at that. I'm always trying to grow and figure out, Okay, how do I have the most impact inside of people's lives. And you know, thankfullest person as a friend and you know help helping me. See so, I'm still growing and evolving. Our firm is still growing and evolving. We've got some exciting things happening that that we're gonna be able to support clients. But yeah, it's been it's been a constant uh climb, uphill, steep grade and a yah, NonStop. Lakes are burning.
So yeah, I think that's a common thing with entrepreneurs, right, It's you just about the time you think I can take a deep breath and it's like, oh what about this, and it's like it's a grind. I haven't. I know a lot of entrepreneurs and I just don't know any of them that have you know, every days of ten, right you know. Yeah, it's it's a lot of hard work and dedication and late nights and grind. So yeah, now you well, I'm a circle back here. You mentioned real. I mean you just dropped the subtle hint early in the conversation. You said, Montana ELK tag. Yeah, must be nice. Yeah, yeah, it must be nice to get one of those tags. I mean you know that. I'm just gonna say it, Jeff, I didn't get a Montana tag last year, and I you got mine, and you didn't probably even hunt on it that much. So I will have a little animassie towards you. Yeah, we got it, Like you've had a I think you've had more ELK tags in Montana in the last three years than I have. So yeah, we really need to talk about how you're getting tags.
I mean, you know, somebody, do you know I wish it worked that way, Man, I would be kissing, but no, I've you know, I've gotten I've gotten lucky, and you know I've it.
It didn't start this way, that's for sure. You know. My first out of state hunt that I went on was in twenty fourteen to Wyoming. That's that bowl there. That bowl's also Wyoming, But you know it, it is something that I looked at and said, you know, I would like this to be a normal part of my life. And it took a lot of a lot of years and adjustments and shifts and how I manage my finances and to be able to afford to be able to hunt several states a year or at least another state a year. So in drawing tags is a big part of that as well.
Yeah, Yeah, it's tougher every year. Yeah. The first time I ever got it out of state, it was it was Wyoming and after and I shot a nice six point. When I get back to work, one of the guys there that always had had something to say, He's like, it must be nice until he's getting getting paid too much money around here. It's like, all right, well, first off, I know that guy made a lot more money than me because he'd worked there a lot longer he was. And also it's sometimes you know, what what are you affording? What other luxuries are you affording through the year? What are you wasting your money on versus putting that money towards going hunting out of state?
Right?
I can think of it a lot of things, but you know, he just kind of adds up, right.
Yeah, it's you know, and this is a big part of what I hope people take away from this message is that we need to think about our decision making different. And I'm going to tie this into wealth And this wasn't actually this was an elk shaped camp that I that I figured out how to pointingly say how I felt about wealth creation. Derek, you came to some of the Texas camps with us, right the at the Iron Game Ranch. Amazing amazing ranch, beautiful high fence. Uh, every exotic animal that was there, you know, every bass in the pond was five plus plant pounds. You know, it was there. Their cabins we were staying at or nicer than most people's homes, and so it was one of these mornings that that before camp started, and oftentimes I'd done this where I'll get up in the morning and have coffee, let's go walk around doing a little bit of preying before camp and you know, for everything that's going to be happening and everybody's message and all that stuff. And this ranch was owned by one of the founders of PayPal, and I never actually met him. I think Dan had met him a few times. I don't know the guy's name. But that morning, it was a little bit dark, and I could as I was walking, I could see into their house and his private chef was cooking and breakfast. And I remember thinking to myself, you know, this guy, when he wakes up in the morning, there's not anybody that tells him how he has to spend his time that day. He is in complete control of his time, right And as I thought about that, meditated on it, and I realized that that is that is what we are all actually seeking in life. Is that is the greatest measurement of wealth. You know, I've had money, I've lost money, I've made money. Money is replaceable, but the time that we have in this life, our time here on earth is irreplaceable. It is our most precious resource. And for me it clicked with my messaging to my client tele the people that I work with, is that we've been taught that how much money we have, how big our retirement account is, how big our bank account, our boat, our twenty four duromats, whatever it maybe represents our wealth, when the reality is our ability to control our time should be how we measure our wealth, which which trickles into how we are making financial decisions. And if controlling our time is the most precious resource that we have, it means that we need to be making decisions different than what society, what generations before us, have done. What is often said from financial advisors, I oftentimes talk people out of putting money into vehicles or products or environments where I get paid to do. I talk myself out of paychecks because I want them to be in a position to control how control their time. And so you know, the must be nice. You know, yeah, it is nice. It is nice to be able to go hunt other states. But it's not accidental. It's not because I got lucky, it's not it's none of that. It's because I've made decison is intentionally different than what I think most people have to create this level of capacity to control my time in my life.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Uh, if you could say, if you could give us five things, it sounds like.
The cover of Cosmo magazine five best practices to make your Man Happy.
I mean, so give me five if you want. Okay, let's give me five things that our listeners can do to if they have a goal of wanting to go hunt out of state or have or maybe just hunting in state. Maybe it's just a struggle even to be able to get to go hunting you're in your home state. What are five things they can do? Maybe that's too many, but what are some things folks can do to set themselves up good to like not take away from their every day either living and their family and you know all those things are important retirement stuff. How can they still participate in those things yet put some money away for for sure hunting for a fun, fun time.
Well, let me let me start with addressing something that you mentioned there, and that is hunting taking away from your family. If hunting is taking away from your family, if hunting is building resentment between you and your spouse, You're doing it wrong. Like, that's just straight up. Hunting is if you're a hunter, it is core to your DNA and like and I and that's that's how I look at hunting in my life, Like there are a few human activities that are core to who I am as hunting, Uh, hunting is I love gardening and one of them is between me and my wife. And that's about it. And those are those are the core human activities that are part of that are gettingrained in us in our DNA. And so hunting should not be something that is a liability in your relationship. You know, you go back throughout time and you look at the hieroglyphs on walls and like those are celebrations of hunting stories, and that's how that should be in our in our life. But the problem is we're self as human beings oftentimes and oftentimes we are poor managing our finances and we don't financially prepare. It's hey, we're going hunting, which means something else is not happening in our life that should be happening. And so first, if if that is you, if you felt that, and I've felt this, I've seen this in my own life. Like, everything I'm talking about are things that I have made, these.
Mistakes, right, we've all been there.
Yeah. Yeah. So on the practical side of things, if there is something that is that important to you, you should have a hunt budget. Like it's not it's not complicated. Uh, you know, there's there's a lot of different budgeting techniques out there, but the practically there should be a bank account at your bank. At least create a structure a location that you and your wife can see together that you know that money that's in this environment is earmarked and its sole purpose is to produce this experience activity in your life. And so for you know, at the very minimum, set up a bank account at your bank, have it labeled your Hunt budget, and have a conversation with your spouse about what type of money you would like to spend, where those dollars are coming from in your life, and is it appropriate to spend as much as you're hoping to.
Now, we can't let her see that money, like, okay, I think they call I believe they call that mad money. Well, because when she finds it, she canna be mad.
And this is where if if, that is where the conversation stopped. You've you've failed, misery because at the end of the day, you know, stereotypical, like most of us men, this is our thing. There are a lot of amazing, badass women hunters out there, mad respect for you, most of them out hunt me. But for the most part, this is us. And maybe we take our kids every now and then, but we have to recognize how important hunting is to us as well as recognize that there's something in our wife's lives that is just as important. And so if you're setting up your hunt budget and not your wife's whatever version of hunting is for her budget, you've failed. Like I tell everybody, you will go on more hunts if you set up your wife's hunt budget first rather than yours. That will pay dividends in a lot of ways. And so it's not just it's not just hey, here's what I'm gonna spend. Take it or leave it, babe. This is let's talk about our lives. Let's talk about what's important to us. Let's talk about things that are not really creating value. And this was a big one that I had to kind of go through this exact same process when my children were young. Once I moved out of my in laws basement and uh back, you know, back in normal life and living under one roof. I snowboarded all the time, I mountain biked, I salmon fished. I did all of these things that required money and time for me, and I couldn't afford all of those things. And so I looked at my life and I recognized the most important activity that that I can do that I want my children to experience is hunting. It had the most impact in my life. It's what I and And so I carved almost all of that other stuff out of my life and focused my time and energy into one space. And ironically, I started killing more ouk when I did that too. So it's surprising what happens when you get intentional and focus your time, energy and money. And so that that's that will be the like foundationally, everybody should have a hunt budget, unless you're one of those people that make so much money that if you spend twenty thirty forty thousand dollars a year and your family doesn't even notice, it doesn't even hurt you at all, Like, good for you. That is nice. That be really nice.
That must be nice.
It must be nice.
How come you looked at me like that, Yeah, I don't have that kind of money. And I think, you know, like I think a lot of like a lot of wives too. You know, maybe maybe they haven't found their version of hunting. You know, maybe they haven't found an act life activity that they enjoy or passionate about because a lot of them they're so you know, busy and invested into raising children, right. You know a lot of these moms are just they don't allow themselves or don't have a fun out, you know, something they can go do that's that's really fun. And maybe we just have to get you know, we have to kind of advocate for them to find something and help them find it and nurture that that thing. You know, maybe maybe you if they're a little bit on the fence on this thing because of you know, maybe they don't get to go have any fun, be like, Okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna split this this mad money right down the middle, and half will go into my hunting fund and half's gonna go into your fund to do X y Z. Maybe that's a weekend away with their girlfriends. Maybe it's a day at the spa or it's some little spoiled thing whatever they're into. Maybe it's a piece of jewelry, whatever, they're really into it. So it's like, all right, we're gonna do this together. And and as as I build mine, you're gonna build yours. And we're gonna you know, we wanted this to be fair. I feel like that it would be a huge and then also uh full transparency. Uh man. A lot of a lot of guys get slack a lot of flak when they want to go hunt and they're like, oh, yeah, I told my wife last week I'm going hunting next week, and she was mad. She didn't want me to go, and she's about ready to burn the house down and mad about it. And we've talked about this before in our camps that you know, back to that being intentional, planning ahead, being full fully transparent with your wife or significant other, that you know, this is my intentions for fall, this is the time I want to do it, this is how much it's gonna cost, and this is what I'm doing to make that all happen. So yes, now I'm going to you know, opera shows on Saturday night in the middle of summer that I never really would have ever done. Or I'm taking a trip to Mexico or whatever whatever she's into. Like, you're building those hall pass points. You know, absolutely hate a lot of the things they love, but you used to have to grin and bear it and shut your fat mouth and go enjoy it and try to make it enjoyable for them. That way, you can be like, yeah, I'll do all this stuff and then you know, and I'm gonna I want to do this hunt in season. If you can kind of tee all that up ahead of time, it kind of softens it a little bit. You know, they still may not like it that much when you're gone, but it'll it'll still be like, Okay, well yeah he did do all those things. I mean, you don't want to rub it in their face, but they know that you've been intentional to get to the point where you could have little leeway too.
Yeah. And it's I think a lot of this, you know, is what Elk Shape camps have turned into. It's it's how to develop a level of self discipline, you know, fueled by your passion for hunting. And you know, tremendous respect for Dan, He's he's a wild man, I've never I don't know anybody who works as hard as he does.
He is.
I mean, there's been multiple nights in Dirk. You and I both know where camp gets done. We may be, you know, sitting down talking about the day and enjoying a barley pop, if you will. And Dan is still working away and you know his his passion for elk hunting. He kind of figured out how and it makes total sense how to take that passion and use that to stay focused every area in our life. And I would say the first area you need to focus is your spouse. If your priorities are out of line, if they feel whether it's turkey hunting or whitetail hunting or meal ear, elk, whatever it is, but if they're not your priority, they're gonna look at what your priority is and they're gonna be resentful towards it. And so you know, just the basic bank account with her name on it labeled whatever her activity is, family vacation. That's ninety percent of really what women are looking for is just to go spend time as a family, whatever it may be. That communicates to them that they are the priority. And pretty soon what happens over time is you know, similar to what I know Jessica does for you, Derek, and my wife does for me, is when it's elk season, Like my wife tells me, don't come home without killing something, you know, and they are excited for us. They're thrilled they see us going out and you know, killing ourselves on this mountain and accomplishing goals in our lives. And there there are biggest fans, and it hasn't always been that way. And so you know, if if you can look in the mirror and you know, like, hey, this is a liability in my life, it may be time to start looking at how to reposition that in your world so that hunting can be an asset rather than a liability in your relationship in your life.
Absolutely. Absolutely, something I always talk about is when you're trying to figure out how you're gonna afford hunting and stuff. We go through our day to day life and sometimes we just kind of get on autopilot and we just do our thing, like, Okay, on the way to work today, I'm gonna stop by the gas station. I'm gonna get you know, a breakfast sandwich and some coffee, and I'm gonna spend twelve to fifteen bucks on that, right. So there there's a simple thing, one simple thing a person can cut to out of their day to day life. And let's just talk about that or vices, cutting vices from your life. Typically, a vice is an unhealthy practice, you know, whether you're using tobacco or maybe it's alcohol, whatever your vice or your jam or wherever it is, if you could cut that out, if you just start looking at dollar insents, it's like, okay, i'd buy a thirty pack of beer every week. How much is a thirty pack of beer? That's twenty bucks. Let's say I depend on what kind you drink. Let's just say it's about twenty bucks. Fifty two weeks in a year times twenty bucks, that adds up a lot. Yeah, and that's just that's just beer. Well, guess what beer? What else is bad? Beer's bad for the budget, Well, beller's bad for the belly.
Yeah, you know my vice is thankfully you know, I don't mind a beer every now and then, but it is it's not alcohol. It's good food. I mean, my office since the above a brewery with great food. So I walked out my office down the stairs and it's not the beerer that tempts me. It's you know, it's it's the buffalo sandwich that they've got down there and so and you're exactly right, like these are things that even I have to practice and intentionally tell myself no in this space because it is not supporting my ambition. I can I can drop twenty five bucks a day on lunch and and it. I mean, I've gone through seasons of life and I and I get through that season, I'm like, man, I'm ten pounds everything I want to be and I hate this. I yo, Yo, every year I've spent you know a lot of money that you know, I realistically is not hurting my family today, but it's just not in alignment with my ambition on who I'm called to be.
And and so forgetting that's gone, it's yea god, yeah, And I'll tell.
You it's not easier to drop ten pounds the older you get.
No, absolutely not.
Oh right now, right about? But you know, I think that overall, you know, if we go back to the hunting out of state, you know that that is something that people I hear people talk about like, oh if I could only like you can't you can do this. It is not impossible to go on and out of stake up out of state elk hunt. It's not that expensive. A few thousand dollars and covers all of it. Most people with the right amount of time can come up with that money. And there's lots of resources to hey, what's this going to cost? All that type of stuff, But you know, set up a hunt budget and start systematically saving towards your goal. And I you know when I when I first start working with clients, especially young clients that don't have a lot of savings capacity, I connect savings the same as I do weightlifting. Like if you hadn't lifted weights before, you're new to weightlifting, and you walk in the gym, you don't walk up to the squat rack and see what your pr is. You walk up to the squat rack and then you grab a PBC bar and you see if you can get your butt to the ground, like you see if you can even make the movement like ooh right, my hamstrings allow me to get level with the ground. And eventually then you start doing the bar and then you add weight, and you add weight and you add weight. And so for those of you that have never had a hunt budget that are just beginning this adventure. Want to course correct how hunting is impacting your life. Start with the movement. Just perfect the movement. Set up the financial structure, perfect the movement. Even if it's just twenty five bucks a paycheck, you can always add weight to the bar. And once you're at that spot, that self discipline leads to other areas of your life. And at the end of the day, if you want to be someone that has the capacity to hunt out of state consistently, that means that you have to align your life with that and you have to make financial decisions that look very differ than society. And that will be my first like the first big thing there is. Like if you are making decisions that look the same as everybody else, you're going to be producing the same result. And oftentimes, you know, if you if you look at the kids getting out of college today, to get out of college, get their first job, Better go buy that new bmw uh you know, and then oh, I've got a new job that I better sign up for my four oh one K and start funding my retirement. These things like you're gonna you're gonna end up in the same spot as everybody else. You have to do things different, and so your overall financial health if you focus on your overall financial health, you focus on and I'll talk through some of these things that I that I see people make these mistakes every day and they don't realize it because they're doing what people with society has told them to do. But if if you are financially healthy and you are liquid, you have savings, you have emergency funds, you have different types of money in your life, guess what You're going to go on more l cuts. It's it's not going to be a big deal to spend three grand every year or five grand every year, or start mixing in a buffalo hunt and went on a mountain lion hut last year. Like these things just show up the healthier your financial life is. That makes sense.
Yeah, yeah, Another thing as you were kind of talking that out, I was thinking about a friend of mine told me one time what they do to help save money is they're like, you know, oh, it's the weekend, we want to go out. We want to go out on the town. We want to go out to nice dinner and whatever. And I mean that you can shoot a hundred dollars bill right in the face going out on the town. You know that that or more right? And what they would do is they would they would write themselves a check out of their checking account and deposit it into their save into their savings account for that amount of money, and they would stay home. And uh, as a guy, if if you were to do that. So, okay, honey, we're not going out of town. What we're gonna do. I'm gonna cook dinner tonight for you. What I'm gonna make your favorite thing. Don't ask her what she wants, because you're gonna sit there for forty five minutes like, I don't know what do you want? I don't know, well, what do you want? Just just just say, hey, I'm gonna make you your favorite thing whatever that is. Her favorite thing is whatever you cook. Usually she doesn't.
To cook it, especially if you're doing the dishes afterwards.
And then you you deposit that, you know, half in her account half in your account. Man. Just just little things like creative ways to like put some money away into something good instead of just throwing it down a hole.
Yeah, yeah, well, there's there's lots of good things that can be financial holes as well, and so if we if if we go a little broader as far as your financial health, there are a few decisions that I see people make consistently that create a ripple impact throughout their life that if they understood, they probably would have made the decision different. And so one of those first ones is your home. You know, it's I'm not saying home ownership is bad by any means, but I hear almost every single day your home is your asset, a greatest asset. A home is an asset. And the problem I have with that is when we look at the baby Boomer generation, you know, the majority of them, there was a massive shift pre Baby Boomer to the Baby Boomer generation as far as what people were doing financially, and you know, the baby Boomers were taught like home ownership is the quickest way to creating wealth, and your home is your greatest asset and all of this. And now as we see that generation retiring, the majority of them have a home may or may not be paid off. And unfortunately it's turned out to be true for them that their home is their greatest asset. And you have to ask yourself, how much income is your home produced for you? In retirement, that's nothing. Matter of fact, even if your home is paid off, it will only always require income from you. And so by no means here, don't hear me say the home ownership is bad. But it's not uncommon that when you are entering the home ownership space that you sit down with mortgage brokers, real estate agents, and it's easy to get approved for what's called a debt to income ratio, essentially how much of your income is required to be paying for the mortgage on this home. And people are committing twenty five, thirty thirty five percent of their income. The million dollars I took out in two thousand and seven was about a fifty five percent debt to income ratio for me. And so like, trust me, I've been there. I made these mistakes. But when what happens when you go down that path and your home is your greatest asset and you feel society's pressure, we got to own a home, we gotta do this, Like all of a sudden, you've made a decision that does not leave you financial capacity to have flexibility in life. You know, I wholeheartedly believe that the best wealth building strategies that exist out there are going to be strategies that show up inside of your life, opportunities that come from the people that you surround yourself with, your community, your network, whether that means walking away from a good job and starting a business, whether it means, you know, buying the old Ladies farm that your family has always been friends with, whatever it may be. But the greatest wealth building strategies are not something that is going to come from your retirement account. It's not to come from a fancy insurance policy or anything like that. It's going to come from you taking a risk that you have the ability to control inside of your own life, having the financial capacity to take that risk, and starting a business, becoming a real estate investor one of those things. But if you have thirty percent of your income going just to pay for the roof over your head, you do not leave yourself the financial capacity to accumulate enough money, let alone go l hunting, but to take advantage of those opportunities when they show up. And you know, most of us here probably have seen some opportunities come and go in our lifetime that we can look back on and say, man, if I only could have done this at that time, my life would look different today. And that's a big part of the message that I hope that people are hearing here is like, let's start making decisions different so that we don't have to be the person that looks back and you know, day dreams about taking advantage of opportunities that have come by. That you have the financial capacity that you to go el coming, but you also have the financial capacity to walk away from steady income, start your own job, to to you know, be a real estate investor, all of those things. And most of those decisions tied directly back to how much of your income is going to pay that mortgage and so, and it's hard like today's world, this isn't a this isn't an easy solution. You know, I generally encourage people not to have any more than fifteen percent of their gross income going to cover their housing expenses. And this applies towards renting too. So you know, simple math, if you're making one hundred thousand dollars a year gross, fifteen percent is fifteen thousand, divide that by twelve, that's twelve fifty a month. Like you shouldn't be spending more than twelve to fifty a month, and that is your that is your target, that is your goal of where you want to be. It's an ideal, it's not doesn't always work out that way, but that's what you want to aim towards. Because when you get to that spot, all of this sudden You now have the capacity to not only take advantage of the match in your four oh one K, but now you can pay off that truck loan, you can get out a student loan debt, you can have a savings account, you can have an emergency fund, you can have mid term money, you can you have the financial opacity to be prepared to make decisions that lead to a different life than most. And I will tell you that is nice being in that position.
Yeah, yeah, I like you said, you know, I've I think we've all seen like that, that those opportunities come and go, and it's like like nowadays, I look back and like, man, remember back when houses were this much money and property was that much money, And man, if I could have afforded to buy that property and then you know, done something with it, you know, build storage sheds or sit on it for ten years and then and then dump it and make a whole bunch of money. Man, I could have made a lot of money. But but like you said, you know, when you're when you're when you're at that twenty five percent, thirty five percent whatever debt income on your on your home, sometimes you just do not have that luxury having that extra money to throw around. You're not able to save anything and put it away.
So house rich, cash poor. Yeah, it's an awful spot to be there, really is.
You get to enjoy a lot of nice steakhadations when you know a situation you went on vacation, you oh, we had a staycation. I mowed lawn and shovel dog crap out of the yard. It was great.
Yeah. Well, the other big one that I often see is, uh, and this sounds counterintuitive, but people being too aggressive and funding their retirement. You know, iras four o one case are good. We need those financial tools, but we really need to understand actually how those tools work. It's not just hey, the S and P has done X y Z for thirty years. You know, let's do a linear math equation. That is not the way investments work. And we need four oh one case. We need iras. Those are an important part of our overall financial profile. But good example, just talking to a client that we would all know right before this meeting, and you know, we're talking about how much is appropriate to put in this four oh one K and he's only contributing enough to receive the match, which is exactly what I recommend for the majority of people is contribute up to the match, get that free money. But any money beyond the match has to be money that you very carefully think about and make sure is this the best use of these dollars. Those dollars are essentially in that environment in the thirty years, however long it is that you have retirement and you know they're at risk or paying fees and taxes on those eventually somewhere along the way, they're kind of not part of your life until you're at least fifty nine and a half. And so if you want to have the financial capacity to do other things in life, anything beyond the match is money that you really need to think is this the best location to do this or should these dollars be part of my life today?
Yeah, that's really good because in essence, you're basically taking those dollars out of play, you're taking them off the table, putting them in something you don't get to play with for a long time. Whereas back to those opportunities, if you're putting that extra money into some opportunity fund that may fund your next project. Let's say, Okay, now I'm able to become an entrepreneur if that's your dream or or whatever, to take advantage of this next next thing that comes along.
So yeah, I love that. Absolutely, it makes sense, you know. And so and let me say this. You know, I have to read my disclosure at the end of this podcast, but you know, I'm a financial advisor. None of this advice, none of this stuff that I'm talking about should be listeners out there. You don't take this as financial advice. Financial advice needs to be given on an individual basis. These are just ideas, thoughts, things that I've seen that have had impacts for other people. Whether or not these are the right decisions for you, it's between you and your financial advisor or financial planner. But you know, just like medicine, you know, it's weird your people think of the medical world and they you know, they think of adults versus kids, Like you're not going to receive the same prescription. It may be the same drug, but the dosage looks different. Money is no different than that. The dosage here needs to be individually applied. And so if nothing else, I hope that you know, the listeners here are getting some ideas and thoughts, maybe a little bit of a different perspective than what they traditionally hear from this space, and so they maybe they questioned a little bit deeper and start looking at kind of what's going on in their own life and take some action so they can get some more of those non resident out of state text.
Oh yeah, heck, yeah, Well man, it's been good having me on the podcast and catching up with you. I feel like, you know, we've got past the new year, the new year knew me thing, but I think it's still well, how many weeks are we into the year now?
Three?
Yeah? Like how many of us raise your hand if you already fell off your goals? Okay, we'll just get back on that horse and keep riding and dang it. But I thought it'd be a good time of year, you know. I think that's uh, finances and try and hunting, trying to figure out your your tags and stuff for the year. That's in everyone's mind right now. It's like, how the heck am I going to afford it? Maybe I can't afford it this year, but man, if I start now next year this time, I'll definitely build a afford that you know, must be nice hunt somewhere cool.
Yeah, well, start now, because five years from now you're gonna be happy. You did, you know? And and uh, your financial life impacts every aspect of your life. And so it's just as important as as exercise or nutrition or faith. This is this is an important part of your world. And and so start making the movement. Start with reps, even if there's not a lot of weight on the bar, and add weight as capacity increases.
Yeah, you talked to a lot of couples too, you know, relationships and and a common theme is what strains a couple's relations and ship is finances. Right, you know, there's always like some kind of a rift. There's things aren't going good in your finances. A lot of times things aren't going good with your marriage either, and it's really hard to get along and nobody wants that, dang it. Yeah, man, we're just becoming life coaches in this episode.
Oh man, No, it's uh, You're not wrong though, you know you want to want to talk about an expensive hobby and try divorce. That's at that's really you know, I have never made that mistake, and yeah and so and it happens. I mean, lets talk to a client yesterday that you know it's it's going to cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars to get divorced. And it's just it's heartbreaking. I'm a big fan of marriage and working things out. And you know, it's any anybody's been married. I think we've got eighteen years here of this fall and they know it's not all it's not all uh peaches and cream, it's it's all. So so it's the hardest adventure I've ever been on and and the most rewarding. And yes, your finances have an impact on that, and so take it serious.
In the words of the Tiger King, you may never financially recover from it. Big fan. I'm waiting for Tiger King two to come out. I wonder if Trump's gonna like pardon him and get him out of there and then we can get part two of Tiger King.
Oh mans right here on the podcast. Oh boy, Well thanks again, Jeff, you need any closing thoughts or you said you have to read your disclaimer.
Yeah, yeah, I've got a disclosure all ready, but I'll just I'll just say I hope that I hope people are encouraged from this. It is absolutely possible to go out there and be going on this level of hunts. You know, there's there's lots of resources out there for people to learn about the points system, and you know what it costs to go on these hunts, all of that, but start today, like you're not going to get there if you don't start today with at least the movement. And as far as disclosures go, Investment advisory services are offered through co HO. I am a representative of Coho Advisory Services. Nothing I've given into this podcast is considered investment advice. This is solely for informational purposes. Please talk to your advisor about anything that I've talked about here today.
Awesome, awesome, Well, good luck this next fall. And I hope your your son's football team carries on the winning streak. I know Sandpoint's got a strong football program all the way through high school, so good job.
It's impressive. It's a great community. We love it, blessed to be here for sure.
All right, we'll catch you up again later Thanks
Derek, Thanks no
