9-4-26 Don’t Be a Retirement Castaway

0:00And now for something completely different. Forget everything you've been told by others before. Get ready for the real deal. The full story. Real talk about money. Markets. Life. Now, it's the real investment show presented by RIA Advisors. And welcome to Financial Fitness. Friday. I'm Retroso CFP here with Jonathan Smarty. McCarty. Good morning, Rich. Happy Friday. Happy Friday. Happy Friday. We're going to talk a little bit lighter stuff today. Don't we have enough negative stuff going on? Every news cycle is something else. Oh man, I'm telling you, it is just... It was nice when we didn't have to deal with news 24-7. Although CNN was pretty cool back in the day when they would just sit there and port news. And then whenever you turned it on, you could turn it off. And then when you turn it on, you're just back in the news.

1:00It was like having the radio, but you could see the newscasters. It was just news all the time. Now, I think it's all content under the guise of news. I don't know if there's real news. You know, there's just a few... I used to. So, as you probably know, and I'm sure you knew, I'm a pretty avid reader. So, I had subscriptions to the... I had it to the financial times. The economist, business week, all these different publications. Wall Street Journal. Still have. I only have Wall Street Journal left. Because when Trump got elected the first time, all of a sudden there was no more economic news. It was all but bashing a president. And the other was it went from all of this great reporting that was bipartisan and just data. Even some of the columnists, like I really respected, like Martin Wolfe wrote some great books during the financial crisis.

2:06I think he's one of a great mind, but his mind just snapped when President got in. So, and the economist has turned into, I don't even know what that is. I mean, I am absolutely shocked when I see some. It's just sad that now I have to read books and just journals. And I do read the Wall Street Journal, but do you, is that one favor you like? I'm a fan of the journal, obviously. You're right though, the political bias of the economist. But that's not what I'm there for, and it wasn't like that. I think that's just across the board. No matter what side of the spectrum you follow, news reporting back when I was a younger kid, when I was in the early 90s, it was much more thought provoking and unbiased. And they would lead, they would typically lead, leave you off with a question around whatever they were presenting to help you form your own opinion. Well, they do that now too. They just say, why are you so stupid? Yeah. And you're now the news. It seems now more that it's more persuasive speech you see nowadays. No matter what station you're watching, you're, you're being convinced of a viewpoint rather than being educated to form your own.

3:10Form your own. So then you absorb whatever that, based on that political line, whatever it is. You fall in. You fall in. That's the goal. And you don't think anymore. Yeah. I think that the critical thinking is less and less common. Yeah. It's absolutely gone. Like during this podcast, absolutely gone. It is Friday. Yeah. So, yeah, I agree with you. So, you know, but we have to as advisors, we have to spend a lot of time reading. I was like, chide some of the younger CFPs right here. You reading every day? Yeah, I read all the time. Uh-huh. Okay. One tick talk headline at a time. You went to. Sorry, guys. I'm just kidding. I only go to only fans for CFP certified financial planner. He's certified financial fans. That's what I do. CFFs. Ah, now I know what you're doing. But the reading and updating, the reading and learning. Well, probably I'm sure in any profession, but of course, but in ours, it never stops.

4:12Because once you stop, you're no longer providing value. Right. You stagnate. You stagnate. You're still looking at old data, old methods like a lot of brokerage firms do. Yeah. A lot of brokerage firms like Schwab, for example, right? They go ahead and they just, they're still following studies from 1992. But, um, the last time they were relevant. Yeah, but you can't afford that anymore. You can't really afford to do that anymore. You, especially as it is with what could happen at the end of 2028. Once the one big beautiful bill act, sunsets, most of those provisions, we are, I think, we're going to be in a world of hurt. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So your tax, your, your, your financial advisor has a periphery around taxes. Believe me, they know or should know tax strategies. That doesn't mean that they prepare returns. Right. But they certainly can help you strategize across different areas to help you understand

5:15if you're missing something. Should you be doing something going forward that would make your tax burden easier. Yeah. Overall. So now you're getting to the end of the year. And you start thinking about certain tax elements, right? Because subconsciously, as soon as you finish your return or extension, you're just thinking about the next return. It's like an ongoing one return, like a Godzilla-sized return. Never really do 1040. You have to almost be thinking about taxes or at least through the year tax planning along the way. Like right now, you should really, to my opinion, you should be really getting all your charitable intents out of the way. In other words, from ideas to actual action. Yeah. I have clients already initiating QCDs so that we can make sure that they're paid in process

6:15before the end of the year. Before the end of the year. And just because we don't do taxes, just because we don't file taxes, doesn't mean we can't provide value in that space. For recent client, we review tax returns for clients, right? We can review them. And we actually found an error in one of our clients' tax returns where their CPA, who they have a CPA, is something they did this themselves. That's right. Their CPA checked the wrong box on their HSA contributions and checked single when they were a family, so they only got deductions for half of that HSA contribution. So we were able to help them go back and get that corrected. So I mean, there's still value to be provided, even though we can't complete the tax returns. Because what we do is strategy. That's right. We're trying to come up with a game plan. We're not tax attorneys nor are we CPAs, but unfortunately, I think, and there are a lot of wonderful CPAs. I think they're so wrapped up in returns and extensions. How do you have the ability to do with what you just did? Let's go back and review things. Go back and review. A return. I helped a client look at, he had a low basis position that was kicking butt.

7:19I mean, this stock is actually amazing, but he's smart enough to know that he wants to sell it. But when I analyzed his return, I realized he had big charitable intentions. So we opened a donor advice fund. Perfect. These are things you want to look at to preserve deduction value, get, make sure you can do this because qualified charitable distributions, maybe you want to just share a minute, less than a minute on what a QCD is. We like those little. A QCD is where you process a donation directly from an IRA or a beneficiary IRA, actually, you can do it from either. Only two, a 501c3 charity, and that just eliminates the taxable impact to you having to recognize that as income and then processing a donation. It basically cuts out the middle portion and just goes directly from your IRA to the charity without any taxable impact to you. Now there are some stipulations around how old you have to be. You have to be 70 and a half. So the weirdest thing is, and I don't know if the government did this because I think they did it not because they understand it probably benefits you.

8:20They just didn't do it. The old RMDH and some people still taking is based on 17 and a half for multiple iterations of the secure act, right? But they kept it at 17 and a half for the QCDs. For QCDs. So what's cool about the QCDs? And again, they get indexed over your was at a hundred, what's the max on a QCD? 111, right? And it gets indexed over your, but what's cool is like, you might be looking at, ah, well, I can do RMDs until 73 or 75. But when you hit 70 and a half and you have a charitable intention, you want to get that IRA balanced down before you lose tax control. You certainly can look to do this at 70 and a half, but it's still an arduous process, right? Because you have to get all the information for each charity. And then it had, you can't do it. It's hands off by you. Correct. And or a customer that's doing this, but you are going to then have your advisor work

9:21through the custodian to have literally, I think, send checks. They do send checks. And you also have to make sure you confirm those checks are deposited. So let's talk about that because you think, you think, I had the same thing, but you think that, oh, it's done, right? The R.A. team, they'll take care of it. So we can get it so far, but it's got to get to the charity and yet the charity needs to cash the check. Yes. Just because it's out of your account, that does not mean you're out of the woods. Go ahead. So explain it. So in this situation, it was sent to a charity. It was a small amount. So thankfully, not a big deal to have to deal with, but they did not cash the check. And that this was sent out at the end of the year, which is actually why we're doing these QCDs now for this particular client. Just make sure we get this done and that everything is taken care of before the end of the year. And so we had to go back and get a letter from the charity and communicate with the custodian to confirm these funds were sent out.

10:21My check has now been cash. It was intended for this particular tax year. It is a little bit of legwork, but it can be resolved, but it's headache you just don't want. Right. And to your point, you want to give it enough time for that to not only clear. Correct. But for some reason, you know, charities, you know, they're there and they may not have as much administrative help that might miss it. Right. Maybe volunteer help. That's right. Volunteer having paid. That's right. So they just missed it. So you, you know, so if you have quite a few, we have people that do quite a few checks from their accounts into QCDs. It has to be one of the more popular tax options older Americans have. Yes, definitely. So you want to start organizing this stuff now in September is the time. Yeah. Because of you need to open a donor advice fund. You need to transfer assets into it. So let's talk a little bit and then we'll move on to the fund stuff, but the donor advice fund.

11:22So I had this client and we went through his taxes and I said, you know what? You, first of all, he forgot. He had five figures worth of capital losses and I and didn't really just forgot, but thanks to we had, because you know, that's why the government pulls those out or pushes those out forever. Oh, you make carry forward. Carry forward losses. Yeah. Sorry. I would remember if I had five figures of losses in a single year. Yeah. Sorry. Carry forward losses. Okay. Yes. Understand. And they want you to forget. They want you to carry that forward to you though. I had losses. So carry forward losses and I said, you realize you have these? Nope. Forgot. Then the charitable intention that comes up through the tax return. Now, well, something called a donor advice fund. And we can go ahead and move that low-base is asset in there for a deduction. Sell it. And if you didn't want to give to the charity this year, you can wait.

12:26You can allocate those funds. Among various investment options. So you have options available to you to certain strategies that may be unorthodox. Like, oh, when you're selling a stock and you're worried about a big capital game, maybe the last thing you're thinking about is a charitable distribution because that's a pain in the neck and how do I do it? And, you know, but then when you run a calculation and say, if you do this, you're going to save $10,000 in taxes, $20,000 in taxes. As I've run with some clients because the impact of not only doing that, if you say you are going to do it, we can model it out. Yeah. So one client that also gives, you know, we have a lot of clients that are very charitable across the board. All he does is write a check. And he takes his deduction, you know, all that. And I said, you know what? Let me run the numbers. You are of QCD age.

13:28I wonder if it would be more beneficial from a tax perspective for you to instead of giving cash out of your checking account, is it worth to do a qualified charitable distribution? Yeah. When we ran the numbers, he was going to save something like $8,300 by using the QCD every year. Well, at least for that, you know, for that year, but it looks like he's pretty steady on what he's doing. So ongoing, it would make sense. Yeah. Absolutely. So $8,300 and you're doing the same thing that you were thinking about, but we're going to do it this way. Now this doesn't mean your CPA or tax person can't run these numbers, but they may, they just maybe not have the time because they're just one day away from another extension. I mean, it seems like getting returns together, getting everybody, it seems like that's just the job. There's no room for anything else unless you have a staff of people that can focus on the other stuff. Well, just like within the financial advising industry, within the accounting industry,

14:29there are CPAs that give that type of holistic planning. And I have some clients who have those type of CPAs and that's amazing. But the large majority in my experience are exactly what you're describing, Rich. They're there. They're processing paperwork and they're processing forms and they're not trying to think strategically about how they can improve their client's financial situation. Not because they don't want to. They just do not have the time. Correct. So when you have someone that is tax knowledgeable in one pocket, your financial advisor, your CPA and the other and they can work together to make sure things happen properly for you. I come across a lot of underpayment penalty. Knowing a safe harbor of how much you need to pay in taxes every year, depending on what you paid the previous year, other income you have coming this year, I think it's probably one of the most, the biggest issue I think that most people will have is because of they're not withholding enough whatever the situation is and they fall into this underpayment penalty

15:33issue. Especially if you run into a situation of a significant windfall or a big change. That's right. Or sale of a yes, exactly. Big change in your financial situation, whether that's windfall, changing jobs, one spell stopping working, all of these things can have an impact. That's right. And there's another thing that your advisor can do as well as your CPA overall. But how do we get into the boring talk? Yeah, that's taxes. This is supposed to be a fun day. Yes, it's been taxing. The holiday weekend. Come on. Taxing right here. So we always talk about retirees who are reluctant to spend. There is an understanding, emotional obstacle, something in your head. I get it. Right. So you're not going to be able to live nurturing, accumulating, making smart financial decisions to build this wonderful nest egg or what I call the tree. And then you started from a seed and now you got this beautiful tree. Now you're close to retirement and you got all this fruit on the tree and you let it rock.

16:33Because you are afraid to eat the apple. Go ahead. Take a bite. It sounds like that's serpent. I can make him sound like Scooby Doo. Woo-hoo. Really good. So if you have this emotional obstacle and believe me, it's very common. I think some of the best advice is to get out of your own head. And I recommend movies. No surprise there. Yeah. Well, because, you know, even though there are some crazy movies like, you know, that don't resemble life, like John Wick, although if you took out my dog, I cannot say what I would do. I'd be like Brittany with those knives. Crazy eyes. Crazy eye Brittany. I'm the only person that probably says Brittany. We have seen you naked so many times.

17:34Can you just get some clothes on, please? Yeah. You look like an address. But there are a lot of movies. I'm going to give you some of my favorites because, and I wrote a little something about one that is one of my favorite films, but it really does relate to retirement. But one of the films I love is Robert De Niro and, um, Anne Hathaway called The Intern. And it's about this guy, right? He's, he's, he's widowed. He's, he was like this businessman and all that. And they hire him like in a senior intern program for her, her shop, uh, textiles, fat, you know, designer. Did you watch it? Yeah. It is really. I've seen the movie. You've seen it. What? My watch. Wait a minute. All three of us have seen the same film. My wife absolutely loves Anne Hathaway. So anything she's in, I'm watching it. Whether I watch or not. Yeah. It's happening. But when I started watching, I'm like, ah, this is going to be corny and man, it hit

18:34me. That's some close to home parts for you. No, but just, you know, as an advisor, especially, right? That this guy, they have a senior intern program. How stupid do you feel? Have the, the, he was brave enough to do this and then become so instrumental in helping her. Yeah. Build this business. Like intergenerational, like friendship story. And I don't know. It's just one of those films that shows that I think you still have value. Because I think when people retire, everything's wrapped up in their job and deadlines and then they, they can't really get their feet, you know, anchored into, wait a minute, I am more. There's a lot of identity in my job. Yeah. There's a lot of identity people hold, you know, related, related to what they do. And that's a shift that you have to go through when you move to retirement. You no longer have that portion of your identity. And again, I think that finding it is an issue for some.

19:35Yeah. You can prepare financially so well, but that emotional hurdle is definitely formidable. There are movies that touch this, but I wrote this piece not too long ago that what I read the study and that's what generated it. I was in the middle of watching the movie Castaway, which I really like all those. And you know, there's always some conspiracy theorist. Yeah. Like there's a message in Wilson. What message is there? Like, like, well, you see, you know, it was blood in the ball and there's this, this, this, this, this, you know, whoo. I'm like, come on, man. What, what kind, I mean, everything turns into a conspiracy. How does a soccer ball would have hand on it? I mean, people just crazy today. I'm like, what year, where do I wake up? Yeah. Whatever iteration of the universe this is, Avengers, I'm in the wrong one.

20:36Wilson was deflationary. Well, does it? He was. But I'm some type. How dare he was in the fed. You know, he was working with Warsh. I thought you were using it as a euphemism for retirement because you're going to be alone and talk to yourself. That was going to say about playing with a ball that together. But I'm just saying it. Keep it curated. So the study show that people that have formal retirement plans are more successful than those who don't and intuitively, that sort of makes sense because if I am willing to open up everything to you, I, most people do that. They are super savers. Then you tell me, done a good job and they go, no, I didn't. I haven't been saving enough. You know, I'm eating black beans every day and, you know, there are people that are super savers and they're like that. But there's this storm that you go through after you retire. And that's when I was thinking about this. So with Tom Hanks, the way they characterized him, like this FedEx and systems employee, he's obsessed with time. You know what? His character would die today.

21:38They, time and productivity. Your FedEx package will be there between two and four. Very metric driven. And after five PM, you go, do they mean AM? So Tom, I'm sorry. So he's got to get these things delivered at Christmas. Is it a Christmas movie? Is cast away a Christmas movie? That's one of the theories online. Is it really it? It's an online conspiracy theory. It's really a Christmas movie. So many, especially look up Wilson and the soccer ball. You will be in some form of all universe. But you know, next to George Thorough's Wilson is compadre or worse. So this film came out a long time. I mean, it's 2020 2000. It's film came out. So he gets tossed like you free. The water, like this dude's dead.

22:39He gets stuck on this remote island and he's trapped. The ocean is beating the crap out of him. So four years. So everybody's moved on with their lives. They had a funeral for the dude. And his love of his life who is always he focused on, of course, she gets remarried, right? As well. So his character Tom Hanks is charred is Chuck Nolan. So you know, it's like these layers of them film acceptance, perseverance, resourcefulness. And this his perspective from being this time and productivity dude, it totally shifts. So he winds up right at the end of this movie. To me, it's one of the best endings. This Texas rural farm road crossing, you know, it's an old FedEx trucks. He's traveled before when he gets out, but he's got to decide the only thing that has helped him do this process was one of the boxes, right? That came up on the beach. That last package with the, with the angel wings.

23:43So he had to figure out, I'm going to deliver this damn package even after four years, right? So we're going to talk about that. So when you think about you were to sign something that'll change your life forever, you're going to, once that retirement decision is made, you're going to feel the weight of it because you can talk about it. I think people who actually do best retirement transition, they're not just thrown in, right? But you're going to be standing like Tom Hanks's Chuck Nolan, you're going to be standing on a crossroad. And then like what, what he had to figure out at the end of the movie is which direction do I go? So let's think about some lessons to minimize the stinging waves of retirement. You know, overall, you know, it's funny. You ever see the, you ever watch anything like this as before and after where they show film locations, what they look like then and what they look like now.

24:46So it's very cool when you look at like their old films, like it was really way amazing when they show you in LA, little risk, little rascals locations and three stooges and all that and they show and then they show what it looks then what it looked like in the 30s and the 40s and now what it looks like. And you could see how I'm, I don't know, I'm just fascinated with that to see how locations change. How everything gets developed. Yeah. This crossroad in rural Texas, they do the same thing. And you know what? Still a crossroad. It looks exactly the same as it did. Texas. It's what nothing changes here. A lot of space around here. No development. Everything is like, okay, but here's what it looked like during the movie. Here's what it looks like now. It's the same picture. It just gives you a perspective of about Texas. Like I just figured, oh, you know, I'm going to see it's going to be like a thousand houses in the background now, right? Data center in the corner. Data center.

25:46People protesting it. Right. You know, and it's the same. Just a fresh crossroad. And I'm not a big fan of change. So that's the one thing I really, really like about Texas. Nothing changes. In Houston, everything changes every day. Hate it. So that's just the funny part of that. Okay. Now we're going to get on. You have to, those people retire. So this guy, he's in this plane. It plummet stir in this stormy night. The odds are survival, right? So the aircraft's breaking apart. It sinks like a stone. His instinct kicks in. He makes it to the surface. He's the only one. So when you, that, that just came from somewhere inside him. Yeah. Right. And I didn't really, you know, you think, so I always think about character development.

26:47And I'm like, okay, this guy is so wrapped up in time and productivity. Why would he be the one guy that pops up out of the water and survives? Besides, maybe he was in the right place at the right time on the plane. But is there something in his, the way he, his character is that makes him think differently to not panic? Motivates action. Motivates him to move. Yeah. And it could be because he's so looking to have everything delivered at certain time. He's always looking ahead. He's not panicked about where he is. And that gets him to the surface, right? When you're a pre-retire rate, your employer's planes are headed in the same direction. Maybe it's different direction than yours. And there's turbulence. So you're at this job and you think you're going to work longer. And then like this new, shwanky Jonathan McCarty, middle manager comes in, is going to manage

27:52your ass. He sounds like a jerk. He does. He really does. He's very arrogant and look at him. Sort of funny. He thinks he knows everything. Sort of funny and cute, but a little bit. And you go, wait a minute. There's something in your gut that's telling you now. I'm waiting for the sign to tell me to go. This might be it. Well, and for a lot of people, it is a change in leadership. You know, you, I mean, you've heard the adage multiple times for sure. Rich people don't quit their jobs. They quit their boss. Yeah. And you get a new boss and that can really change your perspective. I think that was a hidden message. Yeah. You're the best boss I've ever had. I really had that. It's on camera. It's on my movie. In the movies, I like movies. But you're right, right? It's. It's a project that makes no sense. It's a middle-managed manager that wants to move up the chain on your back. And you go, you know, some change you don't want to adapt to. Jonathan just did this plan for me. Says I can launch anytime I want. It's in my control. You know what? Today's the day.

28:53Today's the day because this, you know what? I'm not dealing with anymore. Well, that's a piece of mind that a lot of people are constantly searching for. Of knowing that you have, you have the resources to say, you know what? Say is it? And deciding that that's the day that you want to call it quits? Yeah. And I think if you look to prepare for retirement, say five, seven years out, you're going to control your exit. Yeah. You're going to know what to focus on. And to your point, you might say, and we say this all the time, hey, John, you can retire now. Yeah. And some people go, go ahead. Go ahead. I'm going to retire at 67. Go ahead. Like, what are you daring me? What are you doing? Go ahead. You put it in there that I'm going to retire today. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. All right. Okay. You can. What? Yeah. You've done such a good job. You can. Yeah. But you have something so valuable in your back pocket. Man, the rest of this, what I'm going to do here is gravy because I can do now, right?

29:57I know from my financial advisor. Good to go, man. Good to go. Yep. Well, when to go? Well, and I just had this conversation with another client actually earlier this week, you know, her location, the office location is going to be moving. And that's going to be a much longer commute for her. And she wants to know, do I need to continue working this job? We had talked about it multiple times in the past. And things had shifted a little bit in her situation. But we reran the numbers, double checked everything. And she's definitely good to go. So now she's looking at, does she want to move when the company moves? Nice. Yeah. I love those clients. I go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go ahead. Put me in for retirement now. I think it's surprised that the results are okay. Okay. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You said today, right? Let's make it the beginning next year. Make it. You're fine. I don't, to me, that would be such psychological piece of it actually might make my job more and more enjoyable. Enjoyable. Right?

30:57Right. You're not quite losing it. I'm not free to lose it. Yeah. I could come in with my Bucky Beaver suit, cut the tail off. Nobody cares. Right? I mean, to have that and then know, be open to the message. Right? That's the key here that I get from cast away too. Right? Are you listening? When Chuck Nolan gets on that island, he's going to find any way to get off it. Right? So this island you're on? Make it control what you can. No one to get off. And you will know. So the first year retirement, I spoke to clients yesterday. She just retired from a really pressure cooker job. So because you don't retire, you're going to die. Wonderful career as an attorney. And I'm like, you don't have to do this anymore. I've told you this. Right? You are now, she goes, I'm going to the doctor. I got high blood pressure. And I'm like, you don't, now we don't have to do this anymore.

32:01So she goes ahead, this is, we talk about it. And I expect that that first year for her is going to be very challenging. Like I do think she has not done enough self discovery on her. What do I do outside of my job? Yeah. It's a lot of time to feel. Right? They, she's going to go through motions. She's going to try to find whatever this destination is. And that's what I told her. You're going to have to really reassess. So she gives her notice. They say, can you stay on, you know, an extra month, two months, whatever. You know, it doesn't until we can, you know, work through certain things. She calls me and says, she talks to me about that. And I told her, I said, this is good. Because this will allow you to go through the self discovery. Yeah. It will allow you to now start looking all of these qualitative things that you want

33:01to do. Right? Let, let, let those waves jostle you around on the island a little bit. Right? We discover who you are after 30, 40 year career. This is a journey. Right? I hope you just don't want me to talk to her like in six months. And she'll be in our house blubbering, talking to a soccer ball. And that would be really, and there's a conspiracy. There is a conspiracy there. So, so in cast away, this character, he keeps his watch set to Memphis talk, because that's where the headquarters, right, of FedEx was right or still is. So it's comforting to return to the hours you remember in retirement. You know, the best accumulation years you've been saving money. Nothing's changed. You had, but you had all these deadlines, you had all these meetings. And now you're on a clock. He kept it on Memphis time, regardless that he was on an island. You apt to now set this clock for whatever time it is for you.

34:03Because this is now a new clock, new time schedule, how you prepare mentally for this kind of condition. So he also keeps this antique pocket watch. It's a Christmas present from his girlfriend. And it gives him focused from the whole ill-fated flight. And you know, till he's floating almost dead by it, found by a cargo ship, right? She's his motivation to survive. Like she was with him on that island. Even though she was already found another dude. Even though she already found another dude. Okay. Well, that's on that part of the movie. You know, it's a movie. You just gotta have conflict, right? If he would have got off the island, went to his old girlfriend and she said, I've been sitting here, pining for you. Waiting. Waiting. This movie sucks. Like you always know, once the hero is up, one time when he's finally up, you kick him in the shin to take him down again to get to see who he really is.

35:07So when you're in new retiree, you gotta understand on how do you take these ambitions you've had, these core skills. They're not your job. You took those skills to the job. It was what I said. Yeah. You took these skills. Now, take these skills out, write them down the skills that you have. Now think about where you apply them. That's right. I know you like volunteering at certain types of events. I don't want to share over events, but what if you applied them, sure they need help to that? Yeah. People feel, I think, that once their jobs are over, their skill sets gone because everything like you said was wrapped up in the job. Yeah. I've told clients this often. It's not your job that made you successful. It's the value that you brought to that position that made you successful. And when you leave that job, you're still having all those skills and those values to bring

36:10to your next endeavor. So don't think that just because you've left your job, you're no longer going to be a productive member of society. You can do it in whatever capacity works for you. And you got to talk about it. You got to come by in a listener, right? Chuck's Confedant was a Wilson volleyball, named Wilson. Okay. I thought he was a little creepy. That smiley face with the bloody hand print. Never blinked. But that never blinked. Never that thing. But it was his comfort. It was like a way for that guy. He had to work through a survival and an escape plan. That became his focus. Actually, it's sort of get a little weird between them and sort of the more I'm like, wait a minute. Is he going to be marrying this ball? But they managed to pull that back, rein it in, get back to the story and the theme. So if you are getting into retirement, you want to find a confidant. You want to find even if it's your advisor, you can share your emotional concerns with

37:11your advisor. Your advisor is not all about numbers, right? I mean, I think someone last, I had a meeting at six o'clock the night before last and I was told, you know, boy, this has just been a psychology section, you know, thing we did. We didn't talk about any numbers because sometimes this is where we need to go because we've seen a lot of these behaviors before. Yeah, absolutely. Early retirees, right? Well, you know, I have clients when we meet, we very rarely talk numbers. The time we're talking current events or, you know, whatever is going on in their life that they'd like to discuss and how that may interrelate with their financial plan. But it's never, you know, it's never solely about here. The number is okay. Thanks. Talk to you later. And you can talk to your spouse. You have close friends, although a lot of wives don't really want their husbands home. I find out retirees wise and they're begging them to go back to work or do something. Get out of the house. Leave me alone. I'm having lunch with the girls.

38:12You know, you do have to do have someone that you can talk to anchor points that you would have, right? I call them human pocket watches. These are things that will help you get through to the next stage and never think that if you talk to your advisor, that it's someone out of their league, they can sometimes dribble in the numbers to make them feel the perspective. And if you can push that enough, you then can say now to, and that's how I use like, take those skills, place them here. We don't have to worry about money anymore. So what part of your brain, right? Let's break it into fours. There's a quarter of your brain or half of your brain that always worries about money. Now give that up and refill it with something that you're going to be able to use once you get into retirement. Yeah. Financial advisors can provide a peace of mind. Even if it's just reviewing the retirement plan or saying, it's okay, or you come up

39:13with a new budget and we go through that process. An objective voice that can validate your plan and then bridge that to some of the emotional bridges you need to cross is very valuable. I think that that could work really well. Absolutely agree. Absolutely agree. You know, we, we wear many hats as financial advisors. So, you know, we also get to draw experience from the numerous clients that we interact with. And chances are if you're thinking about something, one of our other clients has already had that thought and possibly already had that conversation with us. So we can bring not only our perspective, but the perspective of other clients into that conversation as well. It, yeah, it is amazing. And then I have witnessed in my career. I think some of the best emotional and creative discoveries from retirees that I've ever seen. Great works of fiction, great paintings. And this is from accountants, former accountants, attorneys, hard driving, right brain individuals

40:17didn't appear to me as art artistic at all. And some other area just never had the chance to use this. I had one client who had passed away a while back when he retired. His sculptors, he made copper, he made, they were nature scubs. They were in some of the most amazing things I had ever seen. And you would never think it from this guy who was so numbers oriented, genius. And his wife today, who's a client of ours for many years, she still has what he's put together. That's amazing. That's just eagles and I mean owls. I mean, I'm like, I'm amazed. You held all that in or maybe you used it in some form in your job, but you held all that in until now. And that though could be very fulfilling, right? Yeah. And listen, in cast away, that Chuck Nolan dude, he would have never made it without that ball, without that soccer ball.

41:19You know, you got to wonder what it would have been if it were in a soccer ball. Coconut. So now you got Wilson looks like some hairy crazy person, right? Not as fun to snuggle with. Yeah, tough. I don't think you could milk. I don't think you could have no milk in Wilson, though. There was not. But you'd have to break your precious friend. What would you call him? Koki? You would have to break Koki. And then you lose him. But that'd have to be a probably a thing. You're probably so sick of coconuts by a certain period of time. I'm never even a kid. No, unless you're on Gilligan's Island. They made, I always wondered as a kid, they made radios, they built structures. Why couldn't you use the coconuts and build a raft to get the hell off the island? Yeah, they do float. How do you get a coconut radio to broadcast a signal to come in?

42:20Not only that transmit. Don't watch it. It'll ruin your brain. There were a lot of shows that we watch in the 60s and 70s that I do believe I have brain damage from. Well, there were a lot of things going on in the 60s and 70s that were probably influencing the riders in a questionable way. Well, listen. We're going to talk about all this stuff. Who are your Wilson's, right? But Wilson could be anybody that inspires you. I was always inspired by television and movies because I didn't have, you know, I wasn't an athlete. I used to read a lot. You know, I was a math nerd. The football team would beat me up if I didn't do their homework. I mean, all that stuff. But you look at, again, your life in this retirement vein, don't watch Gilligan's Island, whatever you do, because you don't want to do that. Gunsmoke, maybe. You had all these goals and other things that you did.

43:22So Chuck had this FedEx time productivity consume life. You don't need goals in retirement. Even though we set goals, I'm talking qualitative, but themes, things you've always wanted to do, roads you wanted to travel that now you can do. Now you have freedom. Yeah, but free, right? Because with goals, you set a goal, you accomplished the goal. Like we have a client that hits a goal. We sometimes say, well, you already did this. We're going to take this goal out. But the theme of how you live your life in retirement, the values and what you bring to the table for whatever you're going to do is going to be so much more important. We'll cover the financial goals. But I don't like emotional goals. I think it's got to be these themes that you have to create. Sometimes you have to just create them yourself. But when you look at the end of cast away, that character was no more about goals. He wasn't the same person. He would never drive a rural route in Texas.

44:22This guy was so buttoned up. He's like, you know, then you see him and he's got, he's in sun roof open, sunglasses, road map of Texas. He's got a, now I think he's got a problem because he's got a new volleyball with him. In the car because I don't know who this is now. We'll see. And he's got this unopened FedEx package he has carried throughout this weathered, worn box, painted, you know, painted angels. That's his last goal. That was the last goal. And that box got so, remember, he couldn't open it. He, because if he would have opened his life would have been over. That's how deep this movie is. That box, especially with the symbolism of the angels, right? When you think about the writing that goes, is that I want to cry. Like really, it's so good. And when you think about that box and you got one delivery to make before continuing on

45:31this new adventure, right? So he goes there from what I remember, right? He's got one last delivery. He leaves the packages at the sender's address along with a note saying that the package kept them alive, right? Then he studies this cross road map, not far from that ranch house. And then this woman in a pickup truck, she pulls up alongside him. You remember that? Mm-hmm. So that woman, by the way, her name is Laurie White. And Laurie White was a country music artist. At the time? Yeah, she was sort of up and coming very down to earth kind of individual, really neat. So I couldn't believe that I actually saw her in a film. So she goes, where you headed? Because he studies this map, he's sticking at the cross road, he's not far from the ranch house. And this really, I mean, she's like in this pickup truck. Like it's all the Texas stereotypes right there, right? Gorgeous women, long hair, boots, hanging out.

46:33Like you're like, okay, this place is heaven, it's 130 degrees, but still heaven. How could something so hot be heaven, right? So he goes, she goes, where you headed? So this is where you talk about in script writing, exposition. I can say plain as the nose on your face, or can I say it another way? And she goes, where are you headed? And he goes, I was just about to figure that out, which wraps up the whole movie. Right? Where are you headed? Where is that guy always been headed? But where is he headed now in this new life? And she goes, well, that's 83 South. And this road here will hook you up to high 40 East. Turn right. And Marillo, Flagstaff, California, you head back in that direction, you're going to find a whole lot of nothing all the way to Canada and pulls away. And on the back of her truck, she's got those angels painted. Same wings. Same wings that was on the box.

47:34And right there, I'm passing out on the living room floor. Chef's kiss. Because that was so damn good. We call that, I call it closing circles as the movie ends, closing the loops, right? So he turns the road, she's traveling and smiles. What's cool is you don't know what happens. In my version, he goes back, she calls him a stalker, shoots him, cops come, he's dead. This is Texas, we all have guns. That's my point. That was the very wrong version. Right? So retirement, this is the crossroad. And that's what got me going thinking about this film and why retirees should watch it. That crossroad and saying, where are you headed? We'll ask you that. And you're still figuring that out. And you're still figuring that out. And then Jonathan drives by in his pickup and he's got wings.

48:37And beautiful blonde flowing hair. Yes. Okay. The thought of Jonathan and a blonde wig, this shows over folks. But that is the crossroad. That is one of the biggest crossroads. And when he was in the middle of that, any one of those roads, because everything looks the same in that part of Texas. But any one of those roads, and that's another genius line, she goes, if you go this way, you'll hit this. If you go that way, you'll hit that. That's exactly what he's looking for, not the way she says it, which makes me hate the screenwriter for being so damn good. Hate you. So every rock under your tires is an experience. So these are the themes. Those roads are the themes. You are that retiree and you got to figure out which gravel road am I going to take?

49:40So when I was at a funeral, before I wrote this, which also inspired me to write this, it was a client's brother who I knew, not very well, but someone came out to me and she said, hey, you are so and so financial advisor. And I was so taken by the funeral. Like I usually don't speak like Obama or Clinton. You know, right? And she goes, what am I supposed to do in retirement? She asks me this at the back of the funeral. I'm like, well, not what this guy just did. Yeah, I'm like, if you go up front and I said to her, and this is what drove it, because I think a couple of nights before this funeral, this is when I watched Castaway and I was taking notes. And I said, follow what makes you human. Find what you lost. You had wings once, most likely you were a child. Now use them to fly on the wind, the wind up themes you loved once and forgot.

50:46You know, I said before they're going to get clipped by your jaw. Very insightful. Yeah, she just looked at me like, this guy's lost his mind. But it was something along those lines. It was, you know, she goes, wow, that's some financial advisor you got there. Because again, it's such an emotional event. You realize that you are going to deal with the repercussions of that decision for the rest of your retirement life, hopefully long. Find a new direction, but maybe not so much look for the destination. And please avoid two things. You don't need a soccer ball with Wilson. Conspiracy. And avoid Gilligan's Island. And any other shows you'd like to avoid? Did you ever watch any of those shows when you were kid? I actually watched Gunsmoke quite, but that's one with Miss Kitty, right? You know, you could just kiss. Gunsmoke's Miss Kitty. Exactly. So when we would go hunting, hunting buddy of ours, they had an old cabin out the middle of nowhere that they built themselves and they would get gunsmoke on the television

51:47there. They do it's an old soul, man. Yeah, I've got some, I've got some culture. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Also had a nomadic canned crusher, which was really awesome. Yeah. No comedies. A lot of, a lot of cans crushed out of that. I dream a genie. Oh, yeah. I watched that dream a genie. Yeah. I got married to her a couple of times when I was like seven. You know, she started that show. I really tried to get myself in the bottle. She was mid-30s when she started that show, which back in the day, that's on her to a furniture, you know, it's a piece of weed actress at that age. So yeah, I did watch that. How can I ever remake that? I mean, how do you replace that? Yeah. That's just BMI count of the country. Yeah. Not a lot of people would have seen that costume. The readings 90 something and she still looks amazing. And listen, hey, this is all we got. We have events. So we rambled. You stuck with us this Friday. You rambled with us? It was a long one. We made it for last week. Yeah, we did. It was a long one. But we will see you again next week. Happy Labor Day.

52:48Happy Labor Day, everyone. Watch a movie. Cast away.