5 Steps for Retiring Into a Life You’ll Love

Published Jun 26, 2024, 2:15 PM

Most people expect to retire one day, and while they may have images of their future selves perfecting their golf game and hitting Wimbledon-worthy serves, let's face it: There's only so much golf and tennis you can play before becoming bored.

In fact, if you don't find some purpose beyond work after you retire, you could literally be at risk of dying sooner!

Today, we're talking to Nicholas Yeomans, CFP and president of Yeomans Consulting Group. We're going to discuss a new type of retirement. One where you find passion and purpose, stay engaged, and best of all, stay ALIVE!

You can download the episode wherever you get your podcasts:

Don't forget to check out our podcast page for more episodes designed to help you make the most of your money.

What will your retirement look like?

So often, we recognize that we need to save for retirement, but we don't often stop to think about what it will look like. What will you do during retirement? How will your lifestyle change?

Our guest, Nic, talks about The Millionaire Next Door, and the fact that you can develop a lifestyle that leads to a fulfilling retirement. Don't forget to go back and listen to our episode with Thomas J. Stanley's daughter about the latest millionaire lifestyle trends you can use to create a life you can enjoy.

We also go through some of the different things to consider as you plan for retirement—including your lifestyle preferences. Some of the items we address include:

The whole point of retirement is to enjoy your later years. But too many people don't actually think about what retirement looks like. Our guest takes us through the most important things to consider, so you know how to take the next steps.

Planning for retirement income

Once you've figured out what matters most to you in retirement and what you want it to look like, you need the money to make it happen. With our guest, we discuss how to map out your income, including a debate over the 4% rule, mention of annuities, and how to invest for a bigger nest egg.

Don't forget that you can learn how to spend less, save more and grow your income to work toward your goals. The reality is that understanding what you want from your retirement can help you visualize the results and keep you on track. That's why it's so important to understand your values and how you want your retirement to look so that you remain motivated.

Meet this week's guest, Nicholas Yeomans

Nicholas "Nic" Yeomans, CFP, is President of Yeomans Consulting Group, Inc., a registered investment advisor (RIA) based in Marietta, Georgia serving pre-retirees, retirees, family businesses, and professional real estate investors.

As a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) and fiduciary, Yeomans specializes in tax planning, estate planning, and retirement income strategies, providing clients with education and understanding so they can make important financial decisions for a successful retirement. With more than 20 years in the financial industry, Yeomans considers himself a "retirement coach" and is passionate about providing guidance to those seeking lasting financial security by finding opportunities to build financial legacies that benefit them for years to come.

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About the hosts

Stacy Johnson founded Money Talks News in 1991. He's a CPA, and he has also earned licenses in stocks, commodities, options principal, mutual funds, life insurance, securities supervisor and real estate.

Miranda Marquit, MBA, is a financial expert, writer and speaker. She's been covering personal finance and investing topics for almost 20 years. When not writing and podcasting, she enjoys travel, reading and the outdoors.

Hey guys and welcome to Money Talks news, the podcast. We're making you richer. One day at a time. This episode, we're talking about how to retire into a life you'll love. You know, most people expect to retire one day, of course. And while they may have images of their future selves perfecting their golf game or hitting Wimbledon worthy serves. Let's face it. There's only so much golf and tennis you can

play before you become really, really bored. In fact, if you don't find some type of purpose beyond work after you retire, you can literally be at risk of dying sooner or so says some surveys. So today we're talking to Nick Yeoman CFP and president of Yeoman's consulting group. Hello, Nick. Hi,

Stacey. So glad to be here. Thanks for having me

aboard. And so today we're gonna talk about a new type of retirement. Nick's gonna help us with that. And this type of retirement is one in which you find passion and purpose, you stay engaged and best of all you stay alive. And by the way, Nick, just so, you know, that happens to be my prime directive. Staying alive is number one on my list of things to do.

Well, that's fantastic. I'll make sure your wife

knows. Thank you. Thank you. And you, and you know, by the way, Nick, I am 68 years old. So I'm theoretically a candidate for retirement. Why? What about you? What do you do for a living? I assume that you're a financial advisor. Is that true?

Sure. Yeah. So, uh, we are an investment advisory firm and, uh what we do is we, we've labeled ourselves as your retirement coach. We believe that coaching people through that transition into retirement and maintaining that retirement life is really, really important. And many times people can look back in their life and think of a coach, maybe it was a pe coach or a sports coach for me. I was a wrestler for about 13 years and

I think about the impact that coach has had on my life. And so what we've done is we've taken, you know, financial planning and financial advising and really transformed it into retirement coaching.

So you deal with a lot of people in my situation, you deal with a lot of people my age.

Yeah, our average client is between 55 and 80 years old. And so it's really that transition, uh, you know, in those last few years before you retire and then maintaining that retirement life.

And so is there, is it difficult to deal with because you, you sound like you're much younger than that.

Yeah. But you have lots, lots of experience with people my age.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, one, I might be an old soul. Uh, but my dad started a firm about 41 years ago and this will be my 22nd year of practice and I'm getting ready to turn the ripe old age of 44. Uh, so,

wow. That, that makes Nick the youngest person on this podcast right now. How old are you, Miranda?

Uh,

older than 40. Well, I'm 44 right now. So, how old are you? Aaron? Aaron? You just turned 50 didn't you? Well, you all wet behind the ears as far as I'm concerned. So, Nick, I was listening to your podcast today as a matter of fact and I was riding my bicycle. What's it called?

Coffee with your retirement coach?

Ok, cool. Uh, and I was listening to you guys talk about this stuff, but let me, let me get back on topic here. Some Randa doesn't get pissed because she made those notes. Ok. So generally speaking, I remember when my dad retired, uh, and he retired pretty early. Uh, I think he was sixtyish, you know, he worked for the government, hated his job and he did a lot of gardening and they, and they went, uh, they bought a trailer and they went around, you know, and went around the United States and camped and stuff like that

is, that's what most people do. When they retire. What, what's wrong with that? Just hanging out, you know, watching Fox News is what my dad ended up doing. But anyway, just hanging out. What's wrong with that? That's what people look forward to doing. Right. Just relaxing.

Yeah. Well, you know what, there is an element of relaxation. Right. And that so many people as they get ready for retirement they look forward to. But the reality is, um, as we look back in, uh, the Bob Hope generation, the greatest generation, right? We look back to that older generation and we know that life expectancy was so different, our quality of life and our health was so different.

You know, it was one thing when you lived a couple of years after retirement and maybe you did a last cruise, your home was paid off and, you know, you, you sat on your rocking chair on the front porch with a glass of lemonade, which sounds great. And then you died a couple of years later. Over the last 100 years, we've added 30 extra years of life and I'm willing to bet Stacy and I don't know your dad, but I'm willing to bet that you are younger at your age than

he was at the same exact age.

Nick. I'm basically 14. But yes, I am much younger than my dad was at his age. At least, I think so when you get to be my age, you start thinking about how you when your dad started breaking down and everything, you know? But my, my dad was driving a truck with a, with a trailer when he was 75. But, uh, I think I'm healthier than he was then, you know why I have no kids. That's why

I, I have no one to entertain but myself and my wife,

that's probably a big part of it. Right. Um, but, you know, I've got three teenage daughters, I'm going wider, you know, in the head by the minute, you

know,

no doubt.

That sounds really stressful,

stressful. But we're having a blast. So, you know, when I think about what real retirement is, I think we've got it wrong. Ok. Uh, you know, retirement, that word in and of itself was made up back in the 19 twenties before that, that word didn't even exist.

There was retire and the root word for retire was that you would retire to your chambers, you would pull away, you would go away. You would, you know, basically be God. Well, who wants to be put away? Right.

And so what we're trying to do is help people understand retirement's not really an age, it's a phase of life. It, it, and really it's your thoughts on life. So if I was to look at retirement, it's not do nothing at age 65

it's doing the right things, it's doing the things you care about that you're called to do. Why stop work if you love it. And so I think there's so much today, you know, you look at Fidelity's website or, you know, Schwab or all these wonderful, great companies and they're all trying to help you identify your number. And they're talking about like the number you've got saved in your retirement couch, your 401k s and your Ira s and, and that's all important and good.

But really, what is the money for? And that's why, you know, things like a I and which I think again, wonderful tools. They don't help people really understand how you match that 401k and that number to what your purpose calling and passion is.

You know, what's weird dick? Because I'm listening to you talk, I'm thinking about, uh, I should be retired. I mean, using air quotes, should be retired. And I actually, and I've been, I've been giving people financial advice for 40 years and, and I'm like, you know, when you retire, you know, blah, blah, blah. And I think my dad retired as soon as he could and blah. And it's like, and so here I sit at 68 no plan to retire whatsoever. And then, and really never even thought much about it

because, you know, it's, what else am I gonna do? My wife is younger than me and she's in the middle of her career. Um And so I just keep working but I, I, it makes me feel kind of guilty like I'm supposed to be playing tennis or golf, you know. And,

yeah. Yeah. Well, there is, and there's nothing wrong with continuing to work also, you know. Uh, it, it's, it's weird. It is weird because it's like retirement is not necessarily something you have to do but, and yet you, you aim your whole life at it, you know, when I reach age X, I will, I will stop working

and, and yet that's not necessarily the case, right? Go ahead. Yeah, I was gonna say that's kind of funny you say that because like, I actually have no retirement plans, like, I mean, right, I mean, I invest, I do the things like if I had to retire I could retire, but I have no plans for retirement. You know, I joke around about like, what am I gonna retire from like this life that I have? Like, I like, I like my life. So why would I want to retire from it?

And I think a lot of that has to do with our, our shift as well in mindset and some of the things Nick is talking about, um, if you've been able to create for yourself a life that you enjoy, there is no need to like, have some

sort

of official

type

retirement,

you know, and I think, you know, as you were talking about your dad, Stacey, I was thinking about my dad. So his name is Randy. And uh, so in the office, we call him Randy, but everywhere else it's dad but here, here's the thing.

Um, he is in better shape physically than he's been in the last 40 or 50 years. He's got a rule

as your dad. Uh,

he's 65. He'll be 66 this year.

Oh,

my God. Your father's younger than me. I find myself saying stuff like that a lot.

You know, you've got the right to, you earn the right to say things like that.

Uh But

if it

makes you feel better,

my dad's older than you,

Stacy. Oh, thank you. I didn't know there was somebody older than me. I'm happy. Anyway.

So, uh, you know, here's the deal. My dad, he skis all over the world.

He dives with sharks. He does live boards. He, uh, he was doing CRAV mcgaw and he's into fighting. Uh, he was, uh, also the, um, inducted in the Hall of Fame for coaching wrestling. Very active, right?

Holy cow. Is your dad Chuck Norris,

right? And so, you know, the older he gets, you know, the running joke in my family, the more of a risk taker he becomes, you know, we're waiting for dad to show up on the X games on a skateboard as his next adventure, right?

But he's still in our, he's still retirement coaching today. He'll never stop. He loves it. He loves helping people. There's so much purpose behind that. Why would he stop? Even if he's economically able to, why would he stop doing something he feels called to do.

But you know, OK, now let, let's circle back here for a minute

because what we're all describing is we're so cool that our jobs are so awesome that we're never gonna quit working and we're, and we're the perfect retirees who will never retire and blah, blah, blah. But what about people who hate their damn job? What about people who work on an assembly line? And for whatever reason, like my dad worked for the government and he, and boy, he couldn't, he was counting the minutes till he could get his pension.

Um So what, what about people like that? What's gonna prevent them from watching Fox News all day? I mean, how, how are you gonna become passionate about something? How do you, how do you develop that sort of, you know, to find passionate purpose, easy to say? But how do you go about doing

it?

Well, step one is, uh we find out where you're located and we show up at your house and we cut your cable line. So we start there. That's correct. Right.

So it's one of the added values of our firm. You know, it helps you cut the cord. Uh But, you know, really, uh we have a discovery process and there's a lot of firms out there that have some great processes. Uh But ours, we call it the map. Ok. And what we're wanting to do is get the husband and wife on the same page. And you know, we, we have this idea of, let's create a living legacy today. Let's not think about the legacy when you

die. What does it look like to design the life that you're living in such a way that you would create a legacy while you were alive? And let's look at the qualitative part of your retirement life. So if we were to look at it, what does your health look like? What does your relationship life look, look like your community involvement, you know, be at church or even volunteering to coach or mentor. What does that look like? Where would you rate it 1 to 10

and having that discovery conversation? And what's really interesting. Uh When I did this exercise with my wife, I thought we were gonna be so much more on the same page than we were when it comes to values. Yes. When it comes to faith. Yes. When it comes to money, we're both very frugal people. Yes. But where we discovered something that was so different was our view of time.

You know, my wife, she's incredible. Ok. She's got a master's in counseling. She's almost got me fixed. Ok. Like she's, she's awesome. She volunteers. She, she helps raise our three wonderful, wonderful kids. And when I look at what, how she sees time, her short term goals are like next week, next month, right?

That's a short term goal for her. My short term goals are three months or even a year. My long term goals are three and five years. Her long term goal is the end of the quarter or the end of the school year.

So we looked at our time as being so different. But, you know, here we are trying to design these lives that we love and I see the same thing transcend to people that are 59 60 61 years old as they're looking to retirement. And uh the, the two spouses, the husband and wife, they sit down and they're looking at how they view time and how they view the quality of their relationships. And all these incredible markers is what I would call them

only to identify that the relationship life, especially typically for the husband, he writes it, he ranks it, uh you know, two out of 10, 3 out of 10, you know, the wife, she ranks it, you know, eight out of 10, we look at community involvement and it's, you know, four out of 10 or six out of 10. So then the discussion is

what should we do to now move those numbers higher closer towards the 10. And we start mapping out literally a game plan so that you have improved relationship life, you have improved community involvement, life, you have improved, uh you know, even uh health, you know, um those conversations are probably 70% of the conversations we have today. It's not the portfolios, it's not the retirement accounts.

Well, Nick, I, I need, I'm gonna stop you there and I don't mean to put you on the spot because we haven't talked about, you know, I'm just talking to Nick for the first time as you guys are listening to this podcast. But can you, can we walk through some of those questions? II, I really want, I want our listeners to understand the kind of thing you're talking about. In other words, I want them, I want you to ask these questions and have them,

um go, go through, answer them in their own minds and, and we can answer them here too. I mean, you know what I know and like I said, I know you don't have this question in front of you and I assume that it takes a long time to do. But can you just ask me a few basic things that help me decide because you're, I don't know what the hell I wanna do. I mean, other than what I'm doing right now, you know, working. But I, I, I'm not really sure how I would answer these questions. Ask me a few.

Yeah, sure. Well, why don't we start with a category of health because health is wealth, right? I know a lot of people with a lot of money but they have no health. If you don't have health, you don't have, you know, typically that health, that happy and that contentment. So, let's start there. So, one, you know, we would typically ask, how old are you today?

So, I'm 68.

And how old do you think you'll be at your cod? Do you know what your cod is? Your checkout date?

Well, how the hell am I gonna know that I'm gonna, I'm gonna guess 100 and 80 or, or it could be, it could be this weekend. I don't know. I'm gonna say 85 because that's how old my father lived.

Yeah. You know what's interesting. We start that conversation and it's amazing. I'd easily say nine out of 10 people are able within five seconds to give me a number.

Really?

Really?

Well, that's crazy.

Well, the crazy thing is how many of them might be. Right. We don't know. Right. We don't know. No one knows. Right. But we've got a plan, at least our direction. We've got a plan to deal with that in mind. Now, the next questions that we start asking are, how would you rate your health life, your overall health

life.

I'm gonna go eight out of 10. I mean, you for a person my age, I'm very healthy.

Yeah. And I think that's wonderful. You know, as we start getting older, you know, we've heard over the years I'm old. I need help. My dad's life motto is I'm old. I can help. And one of the ways you gotta do that is staying healthy.

So we would have you write that and then we would say if you're as an example, let's just say Stacy that you said you were a four out of 10, that's where you put yourself. The follow up question then is what would it take to get you to move from a four to a six to a seven?

I have to eat better, get more exercise,

right? So we have these conversations and so then we have you rate, how would you rate your diet 1 to 10?

How would you rate your exercise? 1 to 10? How would you rate your relationship with your primary care doctor? One through 10? How would your kids rate your health? One through 10? How would your spouse rate your health one through 10? If you can make one radical difference in your health in the next 12 months? What would it be?

This is really fascinating stuff and now I kind of see how this is going now, you know, the purpose of these questions of coaching with your retirement.

Yeah. So you know what we're driving here is that most of the time we're living in, you know, as Dan Sullivan, the ST strategic coach, he would say you're living in the gap, you're living in a place that you really don't want to be. And it's like, you know, you can see the horizon but you can never get there

you know, so what is your horizon? What are, what is the thing that you want to move towards? And what we find is that as people start making these incremental changes in their health, well, they find out really if they could achieve a six in their overall health, they identify now that it's possible that they can move it to an eight,

they've identified that, you know, really, if they're working out maybe one or two times a week and we say, you know what, it would really increase your health if you can move it to four times a week. Next thing, you know, they're at four times a week and feeling great. You know what I think I could do five or six times a week. You know, the, you know, if we could do one thing as an example, here's one of the most common ones I get, it's, you know, I want more energy

so I can spend better quality time with my grandchildren.

Ok? If you have no health and you don't have energy even to keep up with the grandkids that bothers a lot of people

or you, you and your wife had these amazing travel plans someday. Baby. We're gonna do X one day, baby, we're gonna travel to, you know, such and such place, you know, one day, right? And one day and as you start thinking about it, as you get older, you find maybe you're dealing with knee pain, hip, pain, back pain,

you're dealing with all these physical ailments, maybe you're overweight, maybe, you know, you're worried that you would be able to walk the streets in Italy as you saw yourself, you know, or go into these mountainous regions and enjoying wine and all these wonderful things that you said one day would happen and really, it's not the money that's keeping you from it. It's your health.

Now, Nick, is this a conversation you're having early on? I mean, you're not having it with, with, I mean, you may be having it with me but you'd be talking to someone. Aaron's age, right? 50. That's what I was wondering. How, how many years before retirement are you talking to people?

So here's what's really wonderful about this exercise?

You can have it at any age.

This is a, I, I have the same conversation with my client's kids. Now, they're looking at it from sometimes a different viewpoint because they're seeing maybe uh their parents that didn't keep up with their health.

So now they have cause to live life different. So how do you break freedom and how do you bring freedom to that?

You know, it's wonderful. You're maxing out your 401k. However, would it make sense to take $1000 and book that towards your personal training sessions for the next three months?

If you don't want to be a dependent? What are you doing about it? And who in your life. I, I have you given permission to actually speak that to you.

You know, there has been several surveys that talk about how men in retirement. Uh One of the hardest things that they uh go through is the realization they don't have any friends.

And, you know, a lot of their ego and colleagues that they worked with for 30 years at Lockheed Martin, like those were their friends.

That's very true. That's something my dad went through, which is like their retirement,

depression,

very bad. And it's a very real thing.

So if we're having these very intentional conversations with you, which are not always easy, but you've given us permission to have those conversations with you, then what we're doing is we're trying to help you. Understand. You don't have to be that dependent. You, you, you might have seen that in your parents' generation or your grandparents, but that doesn't have to be you.

So, living life on purpose very intentionally. What do we do to make this work? And yeah, it gets harder sometimes as we get older. But if you were to ask my dad, you know what he best shape of his life in his sixties. Ok. Outside of high school

and he's got a couple of rules. One, you exercise for at least 10 minutes every day. You can miss one day, but you can never miss two days in a row. Does he want to do it? No, but he wants to be old, to be able to help. He doesn't want to need help.

That's a paradigm shift. You have to have.

Yeah. And it's not easy to, to bring. My wife is a nurse practitioner. Nick. And she tells me all the time. People come in her office. There are people who drive to her office that are 95 years old. I mean, and then there are people who are 50 in horrible shape. But the point is she'll say here's what you need to do. You know, you're prediabetic, you need to do this, this and this, you need to change your diet and you need to do it now

and then they'll come in six months later, having not done a damn thing. It's hard when you're 68 all of a sudden become somebody who exercises or, you know, does all, I mean, we have habits they're built in and they're hard. But

Stacy, is it possible?

Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Possible.

If you've got a coach in your corner, if you've got accountability and you've got a good relationship life, it makes it more probable. Not possible.

Ok. Ok. That, well, that's the best you can do anyway. Right. I mean, all you can do is the best you can do, but having that, having that extra, uh, the, the coaching probably would help. What, what other kind besides health, where would you go next

or? So, you know, as amazing as it is, you know, people really don't focus on designing their relationship life. OK. So I would go there next. And when I think about, again, men typically

struggle in this area just as we discussed, you know, what can you do more purposely to make sure you've got right relationships in your life. So we would ask questions like, how would you rate your relationship life? Who makes up your relationship life? Can you list out your 10 best friends? Can you, if you've got Children, can you rate the relationship 1 to 10 with each of your Children? Can you rate the relationship with you and your wife today?

If you were to make one, like the biggest relationship change in your life, that would make the biggest impact this year. What would it be? And what would it take to get it done?

Hold on, let me ask my wife for that question real quick, you know. You know, actually that's funny, Aaron because I was Aaron and I are friends as well as coworkers. But, and we hang around a lot together. But you know what? Ask me what I'm doing this weekend or ask Aaron and we'll both say the same thing. I don't know. Ask the wife because they're the ones who are planning everything. We just show up, you know. And so if something should happen to Sarah, uh and I do know a lot of people, I mean, we, we've been to a party every Saturday night for the last five weekends.

Um, but I, but I don't really hang out with them. Now, my wife is, tonight is going out for a happy hour with a bunch of her girlfriends. I don't do that with other men and if I didn't have her, I don't know that I'd have a social life. So, what would you advise me to do in that situation? Nick.

Yeah. So, you know, I think number one is having a real talk with your wife.

No. Hey, this is the potential obstacle. I'm thinking about

what have you observed about this? If you've been married for any kind of meaningful time and you've got trust built in with your spouse, you know, um I believe that they're gonna have insights into you might not like it, but they're probably gonna have insights about you that you're not gonna see yourself. Like if so this is why I'd start there. Ground zero is having the conversation with my wife. I'm concerned if I didn't have you in my life today,

my relationship life really goes away and I'm concerned about the impact that would have on me.

After that, we start having more conversations around things that bring you joy, peace and purpose. And this is a kind of like new a g kind of guru stuff. This is like really what is it that makes you happy? What is the thing that you could get up? You know, if work is not making you get up at 7 a.m. to get to work, what is it that you would want to get up for?

Is it to spend more time with certain people? Is it to do a particular activity? Uh, I've got a client who is 78 years old who still plays in rec league softball every single Thursday night. They go out for a beer afterwards.

Yeah,

you go. and, you know, actually, as you're saying this, I'm so glad you're doing this this way, Nick, because I'm answering these questions in my own mind as you're saying them, you know, and I know what my wife would say because she said it to me before. She said, why don't you go out and have, and have beers with your buddies? Uh, in fact, I went to a bachelor party in Colombia, um, a few months ago and, and I was like, eh, what do I want to go to a bachelor party for? And she goes, get off your ass and go, get on the plane and go with these men to Colombia.

And I had a hell of a great time. But if it's, if left to my own devices, I think I'd just sit here and I, and I don't know why I'm doing that. If I, if I can recognize this as an issue, why are, why aren't I going out and having beers with my buds?

Well, and you know, to take that just one step deeper. Stacey. That's great to have beers with the buds. But do you have one or two of those buddies that if you were really struggling with something that you'd be able to have real talk

with?

Oh, sure. Absolutely. Nick. Are you gonna send him a bill after this? I'll tell you what, this is the most interesting conversation I've ever had with a money manager before because we haven't even talked about money. I mean, I think it's really fascinating stuff

and, and it makes me wanna, it makes me wanna pay. Well, let's not get overboard. I was gonna say, pay for your services. But, uh, but anyway, it is really fascinating. So we don't have a whole bunch more time and I feel like I'm wasting a lot of it. What, what other kinds of topics would we be bringing up in this conversation?

Well, you know, well, and I'm gonna touch on something that is touch for you. Ok. Uh, do you know the definition of politics?

No.

Polly is Minnie and ticks her blood suckers.

Right? I only have three jokes and that was one of them. So, if you didn't think that was funny, musician, does he?

Oh, that's right. You are a politician.

It's all a good fun. It's all good fun. But here's the, here's the reality, here's the reality we're in election season, right? And, you know, when I hear about people, like my grandmother who passed away about a year ago. Ok. So she was Canadian,

had her green card for her whole, you know, life here in the United States and lived here roughly 70 years. Ok. And so she'd complained about politics all the time. And my dad's response was get your citizenship and vote,

do something about it. And I think in the same manner, we approached the community life. So we've talked about health life, we've talked about relationship life, believe it or not, we also talk about aspirations in your retirement life. OK. You know, the goals don't go away just because maybe your career ended. What are the aspirations? But circling back, we get into community life. If you don't like something, what are you doing about it?

You know, how are you making a change

and to what extent do you want to make a change? Do you want to make an economic impact by giving to those charities and those organizations you really care about? Do you want to make a bigger impact? And you're gonna volunteer your time? Like I'm here in Marietta Georgia just north of Atlanta. And there's this organization called Must here that, I mean, they feed literally several 100,000

sandwiches to kids throughout the summer because they no longer have free uh breakfast and lunch at school. That's impact, right? Like what could you do to make an impact in your community life if you're ranking that a three out of 10. And you're not happy about it. What are you specifically doing about it?

You are genuinely a coach.

Well,

uh, I mean, we, we hope to, uh, be, you know, I coach juniors wrestling and, uh, you know, I, I, I'm very passionate about helping people win and live the best life. They can, we have so much more opportunity and potential than we realize. And just because we age doesn't mean, you know, the potential goes away, we might have to shift the potential.

But that's a lot of mindset, right? And that's what a coach does. They help you with that mindset so that you can get to where you really wanna go. And that all starts with questions. Do you remember the book Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People?

So Covey

Covey. That's right. That's right. It's a book that changed my dad's life, my family's life and our business forever. And there was one particular habit. I actually, you know, my wife and I discipline my kids. Hey, what habit should we be preaching right now? Or working on right now and practicing right now. And they know daddy's favorite habit is the fifth habit and the fifth habit is seek first to understand

then to be understood.

And I think in our industry, especially, people aren't looking to be told what to do.

They wanna be heard, they wanna be understood and then they wanna be guided.

You're the hero of your own story. You don't need me to be your hero. You're the hero. I'm just that guide that coach who's gonna help you succeed. And that all starts with me understanding you what you're about. Goals, purpose, passion, gotta understand that stuff. So it starts with asking really great questions.

You're a great coach, Nick and I, I don't say that lightly either. I don't like most of the people that come on this podcast, but you're really, you're really good at this. And by the way, I grew up in, uh, Avondale. I went to Avondale High School.

Oh, awesome. Awesome. Yep. Uh, did you know, uh, coach Brian Haigh?

Um, no, this was, uh, it was a dirt floor one room school at that time. There were, I don't remember anyone from my high school.

Gotcha. All right. Uh, one of the greatest wrestling coaches in, uh, Harrison's history or, excuse me in, uh, the State of Georgia was a Gilman who was one of my mentors. Coach Brian Haigh who passed away just recently, but he was a coach at Ada.

Oh,

really? Well, I graduated high school in 1973. That was a long time ago.

Yeah. Yeah. So I think he was there in the

eighties anyway. So, what we, we're running a little low on time. What other things can we just talk about? All the stuff you said has been really good though. Just really trying to figure out who you are where you're going and how, and how to get there. Right. And, and then, so when you arrive at retirement and you're not just sitting there watching TV. Um, you're already engaged in other parts of life.

Yeah. Well, let's transition this to the economic. Right. So, if we're marrying the qualitative life and we understand where you are from a qualitative nature and where you're trying to go.

Let's talk about how that matches. And Mary's the quantitative part of that. Ok.

My wife would just say marry rich.

That's funny. My wife said she'd never remarry for love. I said, what would you remarry for money?

I'm just refusing to get remarried.

Oh, don't be like that.

You might end up with more money. But, uh, you know, so anyway, if we were to think about this,

we need to map out our money matching, you know, or our income need matching all of these wonderful things that, you know, the char, uh, intent, the travel, the health and well being all these wonderful things. Well, many times we think we like to think just naturally in a straight line. Right. So, if I, if I think about I've got $5000 a month, you know, bill and, and, and, and that's what I budget towards is $5000 a month.

You know, we have a hard time thinking about inflation and the impact of that $5000

and that's why things like annuities can uh fixed annuities can sound really, really good to a lot of people if you know, you've got a 5000 or a $6000 a month income need and you look at your social security and you look at maybe a pension and you look that an annuity would be able to help make up the difference. The challenge is we don't think about inflation and inflation. As we know over the last couple of years, it could be a killer. You know, in our industry, we call it the silent killer. It creeps up on you over time.

And so we like to think in straight consistent lines, but the reality is retirement income really doesn't look like that. You know, typically as we enter into our retirement life, uh what we have found with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of clients the 1st 8 to 10 years, you're spending way more than what the proverbial 4% per year. You know, our industry would say, don't, you know, withdraw 1 4% per year. Well, I actually would disagree with that.

I think in those first couple of years, it's gonna be ok if you spend a little more than that. Of course, it depends on what your goals are and what you're trying to achieve. But the reality is if you are now doing those things that you said you really wanted to do the Sunday, honey, I wanna do these things and one day we wanna travel to here and, and, and, and that's really where we're going.

Well, then we should map our income towards doing those really high priority things in those 1st 8 to 10 years. And I would suggest that for many people as they enter into retirement and it's a purpose driven retirement that you should have permission and not feel guilty about spending more than what maybe many of the experts would say just take out 4% and you'll be ok.

But what we do know is that over the course of 8 to 10 years retirement income, uh or the needs for retirement income can start to slow down. You've had many of the experiences that you were looking for. Your experiential life maybe became very saturated and maybe you do want a little bit

more of that relaxation, a little bit more step back. You already have toys, gidgets and gadgets. So you're not spending a lot of money towards stuff. You're probably even trying to get rid of stuff. Right. And so we see retirement income go up in those early years only to kind of reset in later years. And I'm saying that's ok. Now, after that, we start seeing 5, 1015, depending on how old you are. Years later

the income needs, starts to creep up again and many times that's not just because of inflation, but it's health related costs. Do we need a caregiver? Do we need uh you know, more supplements do we need uh you know, maybe assisted living in the future, things like that. So that can, you know, cause a bigger debt. So what I'm trying to convey is that we take the qualitative part of your life and all those things that you wanna accomplish and do and all the impact you wanna make

and we marry it towards an income that you can't outlive. But,

but we have to understand there may be seasons or periods of time where your income need is much greater and other times it's not, and that's gonna be ok. As long as you have the coach by your side who's helping you make sure that you're not doing anything that's gonna cause you long term harm. So that's how we would marry the economic or the quantitative part of your life with the qualitative as you're entering into that retirement phase.

Do, do you not like annuities?

Uh I am completely annuity, agnostic, meaning, you know, for the right person, I think they can make a lot of sense. What I've got a problem with today if I'm being just really, really candid with you, it's the people who are opposing more as the fiduciary who are recommending people put 100% of their money in equity index to Moody's, which I think is probably the most oversold product in the United States today. I don't have a problem with the product itself. I probably used two or three of them last year for clients.

The challenge is when anyone starts recommending 100% of your money to do. One specific thing that can lock you up as you're entering retirement. I do have challenges with being ok with that.

Interesting. Yeah, I've thought about annuities myself. Um, but you know, another thing, another problem I have too, Nick is one of the reasons I don't wanna retire is because I make a lot of money and I spend a lot of money and I don't want to be on a fixed income. I don't even know. I, I have, I mean, I'm not such an idiot that I don't realize what my expenses are. But, you know, when I, when I look at social security, I mean, social security would barely pay the property taxes on my house. Um, and the insurance, you know, I live in Florida. It's very expensive.

Uh, and so I, I don't wanna cut, I don't wanna quit my job because I don't wanna cut back. I, I don't wanna scrimp and save, I, I'm not used to that. I buy whatever the hell I want. And I don't, what do you, how would you respond to that?

Stacy, your li life on purpose,

don't stop. Enjoy it. Just recognize there may be a period of time where that changes and that will be ok. I think having conversations with your spouse about what the future would look like if you did stop is a healthy practice and a good exercise. But that doesn't mean you have to say, you know, if five years from now I decide to stop that. This is what life could look like. That doesn't mean you have to be done in five years. It just means you thought it out

and that's ok. So if you love what you're doing, like we said at the beginning, why stop?

Enjoy it?

I, I think I'm gonna have to transfer my account to you.

No, as, as if I, as if I have a financial advisor already, which I don't, but you're just really good man. I've really enjoyed talking to you. Uh Do we, I know we're all, we've got to be out of time. But do, do you have anything else you wanna contribute? 01 thing we needed to do, uh Miranda tell, tell everybody what, why you're a politician because you mentioned that. So we have to explain it. Why are you a politician? Yeah. So I'm involved in local politics because I think local politics is where you can make a difference. And so,

um when Nick is talking about, you know, finding meaning, finding stuff, stuff that matters to you, fighting for, you know, what matters to you. I like doing local politics because that's where you can do things like, um you know, make sure you preserve the park. We did a, we had a, we had a big fight, they were going to destroy a park to build a new water tower. And, um, you know, we, we,

we found a solution and, uh, that kept the park and had adequate place for the water tower. And so I think it sounds really silly. Um, but at the same time, like this is a thing that affects people's lives. And so, you know, when we're talking about having your time, having the ability, having, you know, that uh that 1 to 10 scale, right? Um Doing local politics really puts me at about

seven on that scale. And then I'm also involved in local nonprofits and that bumps it up to a nine on that scale because of the community involvement and how much

I love doing this work and the

fact

that I have the

time

and flexibility to

do it, Miranda, I love how you just state all that is. So in line with what our beliefs are. And uh you know, it's one thing to talk about it. It's another thing to walk your slims and do something about it. So kudos to you for being the

and you know, and, and when you were talking Miranda, I literally heard passion and purpose.

Exactly. Yes.

That's very cool. And you know what, what, what makes me passionate is berating politicians.

We, we love it, we love it. We, we're a perfect combination.

Uh Nick, do you have any closing thoughts? We do? I've really enjoyed this conversation, but I'm afraid we are gonna have to close it out. Do you have any closing thoughts for us?

You

know, I, I love what you are doing and what this show is about. You are helping real people think different about money and that's what we're about getting people to think different about money. Think different.

Don't just because someone says it just because you read it in a newspaper. You know, as my dad said, when I was growing up, be a student, not a follower, you know, the book you don't read can't help you. Keep searching, keep educating yourself. And I think you'll be able to make a really excellent impact in your life and the life of those that you really care about. So thanks for having me.

You are such an inspiration. We will definitely have you back. If you will come back again, we would love to have you

in the meantime, guys, we are out of time, but we are never out of topic. Isn't it funny how that is dig a little deeper? You're gonna find links to lots more info in our show notes. And remember if your goal is to make more, to spend less to retire rich. Well, your online home is money talks news.com and don't forget to check out Miranda's online home as well. That is Miranda Marquet Ma rquit.com and contribute to her campaign.

Uh and you can visit Nick at his website. That is your retirement coach.com. If you didn't get it, it's gonna be in our notes. If you got a question, comment or topic, you'd like to suggest, tell us about it. You can email us at, hello at Money Talks news.com.

And one final thing if you like what we do then do a little something for us. Subscribe to our podcast. Takes you two seconds. Really helps us and tell your friends too. Ok. So tell your friends, get on social media, spend, be passionate about getting more listeners to our podcast. I'm Stacy Johnson. I'm Miranda Mart. I'm Aaron Freeman. And thanks again for being here, Nick. We really enjoyed having you. We were counting the minutes until your next, until you return to us.