Transcript
A (0:00)
James, I alluded to this a few weeks ago, but I spoke to a woman, very nice woman, who said, I'm really upset I have $3 million. And I said, look, I don't want to be mean here or anything, but by you saying that, you know, there's a lot of people who would love to have $3 million. So it's just weird. And I don't hear it every day. Why is it you're mad that you have $3 million? And I said it like that, almost a little bit. Hey, come on. Why are you mad? You have 3 million. And she said, you. You don't get it. I said, you're right. That's why I'm asking you to explain it. And she said, the reason I'm upset That I have $3 million is because I found out that I'm not going to be able to hike to the degree that I'd like, and I will not be traveling because my sciatica has gotten really bad. I said, okay, that's an interesting response. Sad response. Tell me more on the financial side. And she said, well, I was never doing any financial planning because my neighbor always had more money than me, and I always just thought I needed as much money as they had. And they had, I don't remember, four or five million bucks. So I just thought I needed what they had. And they were also single. And so this woman eventually went on to tell me that she has this sciatica, which is essentially a nagging disease that's basically in, like, your hip or outer leg where it's constantly just uncomfortable. You're not in, like, cruciating pain. Some people are. But she was saying this got really bad from her continuing to sit at work. And she said, I didn't need 3 million. I needed about 2 to 2.2 million. And the last three, four years at work was when this got really bad. So here I am upset, thinking, I don't really need this, and now I can't even spend what I have. So the reason that we're transparent on these episodes is because we don't want you to look back going, well, now I can't do what I want to do because. Because financially, I didn't plan well. And the theme of what we're going to be discussing today are, what are some of the biggest lessons that we've learned from our clients? And this was an actual thread left in the community from someone who says, what has root seen from clients who have passed on so who have actually passed away? What are some Things that you could tell us so that we can start preparing more efficiently. The story I just told was, was of someone who's still working or, sorry, they're now retired, but they were working and now they're regretting it. Is there a story that comes to mind when you're hearing this, James?
B (2:19)
Yeah, and I think I would drill down even a little bit more. It wasn't necessarily the $3 million that she was upset about. It was what she gave up to get that $3 million. And so there's this. But here's the hard part is the hard part is money is very tangible in the sense you can measure it. Like I know to the dollar exactly how much I have, I can keep score. Whether it's for competition with a neighbor, whether it's just his own, I'll feel safer, I'll feel more confident when I have X amount. You can always see that value. The intangibles are the things like health, the things like relationship, the things like adventure, experience, like the things you actually want to do with your life. But it's hard to keep score in the same way you can keep score with money. And I don't just mean keep score in terms of a competition. Most people don't actually have any idea how much the neighbors have. But it's almost for them, it's. This almost becomes a status thing. Like the more I have, I start to feel better about myself at least short term before it becomes a new normal. And so I think that the stories I think about is, yes, when this, this tangible measure of success has overtaken and displaced what should be the true measure of success in our lives because it's so much easier to manage. And the things that come to mind immediately, a couple of clients planned and saved and planned and saved. And he built up all this money in doing so, unfortunately, kind of sacrificed some health things, sacrificed some other things, and they retire finally with all this money and within 12 months they've passed away. A lot of times health related. And you look at that and it's the client's not sitting there kicking themselves saying, oh man, what a mistake, of course not, they've passed. But you look at that and think how tragic was that that this tangible scorecard of how well your life has gone can be measured. But when we're gone, like that's. That scorecard doesn't mean anything anymore. That money scorecard actually has zero relevance. The only value that it actually has is to the extent that we can translate that financial scorecard into real success. Into real stuff that we want to do, which we talked about this a little bit last time. But it's these experiences that you have. It's time with family. It's living a life that's aligned with your values. And it's the people that never got that opportunity because they prioritized the financial above. And they're not bad people.