Welcome to RetireMentorship, Your Mentor to and Through Retirement. I am your host, Freeman Linde, Certified Financial Planner. 

In this Zeroeth episode, I introduce RetireMentorship so that we can dive right into the topic in all subsequent episodes without having to re-explain any of this.

We will cover why we’ve created the podcast, what is the structure of the podcast, and who is the audience for the podcast.

Why Have We Created the Podcast

The point of this podcast is three-fold: 

1. To challenge and increase your knowledge of finances. 
2. To deepen and grow your belief in financial planning.
3. To inspire and encourage you to act on your plan.

1. To Challenge and Increase Your Knowledge of Finances

Personal Finance is not a required class in most middle schools, high schools, or universities. When I was getting my degree, I was required to take calculus, geology, and two of either Dance, Art, or Music Appreciation. But Personal Finance, the skills we need almost every day? I’m not sure if the course was even offered, let alone required. 

Financial illiteracy is a huge problem in the United States. Most of what we know about finances in the United States we learned from the marketing departments of Credit Card companies, banks, and insurance companies. Perhaps we’ve learned from a finance guru, whose broad rules of thumb we find hard to apply to our circumstances. Or maybe we’ve learned from a Financial Services Representative, who said he was a “Financial Advisor” and gave us some “advice.” But it turns out he learned everything he knows from the internal wholesalers at the insurance company that employs him. 

I want to increase your knowledge about the financial planning topics you need to know with this podcast. The ones that affect you directly. And I want to challenge your assumptions that erroneous sources may have told you. 

2. To Deepen and Grow Your Belief in Financial Planning 

I may be biased as a Certified Financial Planner, but I am a big believer in Financial Planning. Let’s clarify what I mean by Financial Planning.

First, I don’t mean the sale of financial products. Many people are claiming to do financial planning. In reality, they are merely selling financial products for the companies they represent. I believe a good strategy combined with solid belief and consistent behavior trumps most financial products. 

Second, I don’t mean a one-hundred-and-twenty-page financial binder full of charts and graphs and tables claiming to be a plan. The glorified paper-weights are rarely if ever read and rarely if ever come true.

Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Planning is Everything. The Plan is Nothing.” 

The process of proper financial planning is everything. The method of defining what one wants out of life, determining where they are now, and demonstrating a path to get there is invaluable. But then the goal, or the circumstances, change. And the plan must change with it. 

A pilot flying from LA to New York always files a detailed flight plan before taking off. Always. How often does the flight go precisely according to plan? Never.

They catch a tailwind, and they are ahead of schedule. Then headwind slows them down. A storm brewing causes them to need to change course to skirt it. And with each change, the pilot recalculates and adjusts his flight plan. Only in doing so can he land safely at his destination reasonably close to the planned arrival time.

So it is with life. So it is financial planning. By getting to the point of planning each week, I hope to deepen and grow your belief in the planning. From deep roots, a sturdy oak grows strong limbs. From deep belief in financial planning grows your success in life. 

Why “belief in planning” instead of “knowledge of planning?” Episode four is going to cover in-depth why belief is more important than knowledge, but it short:

People act on what they believe, not on what they know. 

This leads us to our third why:

3. To Inspire and Encourage You to Act on Your Plan

We get so many messages these days about what we should and should not be doing. Sometimes we can distill it down to the things we know that we should do. 

An individual financial plan built with a financial planner who knows you and adapts with you can certainly help you understand what you should do. And, hearing the same message, again and again, you may even believe that you should do it. 

But none of that matters unless you act on that knowledge and those beliefs. And sometimes we need a little encouragement and a little inspiration to help us put it into action. 

This podcast will inspire and encourage you to act on the things you know and believe you should do. 

Turn “should” into “did.” 

That is why we have created this podcast. 

What is the Structure of the Podcast?

We will have a new episode every Monday. It is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and more, so be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Each episode will have a corresponding article on our website. It will contain the transcript of the podcast, as well as and pictures, resources, and links referenced. The web address for each episode will be http://www.RetireMentorship.com/ followed by the digit of the episode number you are listening to. So, as the podcast’s zeroth episode, its address is http://www.RetireMentorship.com/0. You can also find a link to the article in the Show Notes of each Podcast.

Some episodes will be interviews with resources that I believe may be helpful. Many episodes will be me sharing our beliefs and philosophy about financial planning and life. 

There are plenty of podcasts out there that are purely interviewing podcasts. The host interviews various people about various topics, often with differing or conflicting opinions. At some point, you need to decide on what your belief system is and act on that system. Perhaps you may need to exclude all other conflicting beliefs that could distract you from your convictions and plans.

There is an inherent danger in pursuing only one belief to the exclusion of all others. The risk is that the idea turns out to be wrong, and you bet all your chips on a falsehood. A “putting all your eggs in one basket” kind of danger. 

But I believe there is a difference between investing all your money in one fund and investing all your belief in one philosophy.

And I believe there is a greater danger in following multiple philosophies at once. Paralysis of Analysis being one of those dangers. You absorb so much conflicting knowledge that you end up believing none of it and therefore do not act on any of it. 

Therefore this podcast will remain unified in its philosophy and message, rather than a convolution of conflicting beliefs. 

Who is the Audience of the Podcast?

There are three possible audiences for this podcast.

1. Clients
2. Others
3. Advisors

Clients. This podcast is first and foremost for current clients of my financial planning practice. If you are one of our clients, thanks for listening! I appreciate you being here. We have only a few precious hours with you each year. This is nowhere near the time we would need to combat all the conflicting messages you are being told or cement the profound truths we share. We also lack the capacity to spend more time with you teaching all this, nor do you have the time to come into the office and learn it! We both know you’re too busy for that.

By putting this into a form you can listen to on your commute, we can teach and reinforce all year what we talk about in person once or twice a year. 

Most of you realize that other people you care about could use our assistance. We know that you often refer our financial planning practice to those people. However, they often do not act on those referrals because they don’t know us from Adam. This podcast becomes an easy recommendation for them to start listening and gaining valuable insight. Eventually, they may reach out to us when they feel comfortable with our philosophy. 

Others. If you’re not a client of ours, welcome! You don’t need to be to listen. Hopefully, the Why of this podcast mentioned above will still be helpful to you. You will hear me repeatedly say throughout this podcast that you should be working with a financial planner. Find one who knows and cares about you and can be trusted to give you the right advice to make the right decisions. I hope you have that now. And if not, let this be the first encouragement to reach out to us or to someone else you know is trustworthy and begin working on your financial plan. If you’re still unsure if we are trustworthy, keep listening, and it will become apparent to you one way or another.

Advisors. I happen to have an abundance mentality when it comes to clients and real financial planners. Many people out there need good advice and planning, and there are not nearly enough true advisors. 

If you are a real financial planner or investment advisor, keep up the excellent work! You’re welcome to listen, and I hope you gain insights to use with your clients.

If you are an “Advisor” who deep down knows that you are actually a financial services rep or insurance salesperson, then welcome as well. Hopefully this encourages and inspires you to become a true financial advisor. The world could use less financial sales and more financial advice.

What this Podcast is Not

This podcast is not meant to be financial or investment advice, whether direct or indirect. Anyone listening to this should have their own investment plan and asset allocation based on their unique situation, goals, and time horizon. You should have developed that plan with a competent investment advisor or financial planner. You should not get your specific investment advice from this podcast or any other.

This podcast is also not legal or tax advice. I am not licensed to practice law, and I wouldn’t give you tax advice without knowing your specific circumstances. Consult with your tax professional and attorney for tax and legal advice for your situation. 

This podcast helps you think about financial matters deeply and give you insight into asking the right questions to your current financial advisor or us. 

Thanks for listening. 

I hope this has been helpful as to what to expect. We have published episodes already, many more in productions, and many more planned besides. 

Clients, we encourage you to listen to all published episodes and the new ones that come out on Mondays. 

This article is educational only and is not intended to be investment, legal, or tax advice or recommendations, whether direct or incidental. Again, this is not investment advice. Consult your financial, tax, and legal professionals for specific advice related to your specific situation. Never take investment advice from someone who doesn’t know you and your specific situation. All opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the people expressing them. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly. RetireMentorship is not affiliated with any Registered Investment Advisor, Broker-Dealer, or other Financial Services Company. 

1. Equity benchmark performance and systematic equity investing examples are represented by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Composite Index, an unmanaged index of 500 common stocks generally considered representative of the U.S. stock market. Indexes do not take into account the fees and expenses associated with investing, and individuals cannot invest directly in any index. Past performance cannot guarantee future results. Bond benchmark performance are represented by the BloombergBarclays Aggregate Bond Index, an unmanaged index of bonds generally considered representative of the bond market. Indexes do not take into account the fees and expenses associated with investing, and individuals cannot invest directly in any index. Past performance cannot guarantee future results. Average stock investor, average bond investor and average asset allocation investor performance results are based on a DALBAR study, “Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior (QAIB), 2020.” DALBAR is an independent financial research firm. Using monthly fund data supplied by the Investment Company Institute, QAIB calculates investor returns as the change in assets after excluding sales, redemptions and exchanges. This method of calculation captures realized and unrealized capital gains, dividends, interest, trading costs, sales charges, fees, expenses and any other costs. After calculating investor returns in dollar terms, two percentages are calculated for the period examined: Total investor return rate and annualized investor return rate. Total return rate is determined by calculating the investor return dollars as a percentage of the net of the sales, redemptions, and exchanges for the period.