Retirement 101

Chris

Barron: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ag View Pitch, and we are going to have another financial conversation here titled Retirement 101. And so we're gonna have conversation around that. We've got Mike Finley with us. Mike, how's it going?

Mike

Finley: It's going well, Chris.

Chris

Barron: Good, good. Thank you again for being here. I think this is a great critical thing that we talk about. Um, you, you threw some things out, you know, the puzzle of retirement, you know, Social Security, Medicare, taxes, insurance, investments, pensions, the psychological side of it, the expenses, and how do we live after we're retired and all those things. I don't think we're gonna have any shortage of anything to talk about, probably, will we?

Mike

Finley: No. And it can be a little anxiety-driven for someone trying to understand all those issues and do it well.

Chris

Barron: For sure. And the other thing I want to make a point of is stay tuned here if you are under the age of even 25, right? Or maybe even under the age of 18, right?

Mike

Finley: Without a doubt, it's an opportunity to start learning and start adding to your toolbox of knowledge on money, right?

Chris

Barron: Yeah. So, so let's get rolling here, um, Mike. What are some of the first things, like when you're doing a class on retirement, what are some of the first things that you point out and talk about?

Mike

Finley: Well, there's, there's 4 big questions that I want people to answer. First one is, what are your yearly expenses? What's it going to cost you to live on a yearly basis? That includes your basic expenses, it includes vacations and fun. What is that number? So we want to have that number walking into retirement. Number 2, what is your fixed income? How much are you going to be receiving on a monthly or yearly basis? Could be rent from a farm, could be Social Security, could be a pension. What is that number that you know is going to be coming in? 3, what is the size of your portfolio? How big is your portfolio that is going to be producing income for you over time? And then 4, what is 4% of that portfolio? And the idea here with the 4% rule is if you're pulling out less than 4% of your portfolio on a yearly basis, it will probably grow.

It will probably be bigger 20, 30 years later if you properly allocate, keeping expenses low, and basically preparing for the later years for either your needs or the needs of your loved ones.

Chris

Barron: So let's start, let's hit on all 4 of those. Let's start with the first one. You said knowing your cost of living, and that's one of the big things I told you offline when we started here is a lot of times we're working with farm operations that are in the midst of transition and they've got a good CPA, a good attorney, a good lender, a good insurance person and all that. But they're not exactly sure what their cost of living is because they've just pulled it out of the farm, or they've, you know, just done a draw and they've had kids in college and now they're out, or they're done and they're done paying for that stuff. But, you know, so what recommendations do you have for the individuals?

They do it because a lot of people are listening to this, probably do a really good job of having a market value balance sheet for the whole farm, for the whole business, for the whole operation. But they don't do that stuff personally maybe as well as they should. What, what are some of the first steps that they need to do to start figuring out what they need to earn personally for, say, mom and dad or the exiting, potentially exiting partners?

Mike

Finley: So a couple things, uh, starting, I would say, within about 5 years. So you're 5 years out from retirement, start identifying how much of your expenses are being covered by the farm. And you're going to have to start accounting for those expenses when you retire. So, what does that number look like? Start identifying all of those expenses as you start to think about how you're going to cover those bills at retirement. And then two, you know, once you're there, you have an idea of that, exactly how are you going to go about pulling that money out, right? Are you going to pull it out of a retirement account, a brokerage? Exactly where is it coming from? And what is your plan for that money? So understanding those expenses is important. I would focus on probably spending 100% of what you were spending when you were working.

So sometimes people will say, oh, you'll probably spend about 70%. I don't think so. I think people have a tendency to redirect their spending. So whatever you were spending prior to retirement, I would expect you to be spending the same amount in retirement.

Chris

Barron: You might be spending more if you go to Florida.

Mike

Finley: It could be. We end up redirecting expending. So the spending goes to one place versus another while you're working, and then it can change very differently in retirement.

Chris

Barron: And, you know, and I think the rebuttal or the thought process from a lot of listeners are like, well, the, the land that we own, we're going to rent that. And, you know, and we've got equity in the machinery, we've got equity in some of these other things, and we'll start to transition all that. It still doesn't negate the need to figure out what your cost is and what you want to, want to have. That's right. Both for themselves and also for the next generation that's taking over the business.

Mike

Finley: That's right. You still need a plan. And even if most of that money that you're going to be living on, maybe that comes from the farm, well, okay. But you still want to plan. You want to have a clear idea of where that money is coming from and what your expenses are so you'll be able to cover those expenses without the anxiety of not knowing.

Chris

Barron: And then the fixed income is going to be pretty variable for a lot of farmers with regard to Social Security. The pensions would probably be from a spouse or something along those lines that, you know, was either teaching or, you know, or in the medical field or some other occupation. Um, any comments on those other fixed income segments?

Mike

Finley: Here's what I would say. A lot of people may say Social Security may not be there. I think it's going to be there. I think old people vote, so I wouldn't worry about Social Security not being there. I would factor it into a financial plan, but I would factor in a lot of things.. And Social Security is simply one of them. And what is your Social Security strategy, for example, as a couple? So one idea would be the person with the biggest Social Security benefit waits the longest, i.e., age 70, while the other one may pull their Social Security benefit earlier, again, based off needed income. So you want to have a strategy on your fixed income.

Chris

Barron: Mm-hmm. Awesome. So that kind of covers that. The third one you said was portfolio. Talk a little bit about the— what, what you see there.

Mike

Finley: It would be wise to start building a portfolio outside of the farm. So we're talking about a 401k, a Roth IRA, a brokerage account. And the idea is to start owning stocks and bonds and real estate so you're diversified beyond just the farm. And this portfolio, while you feed it during your working years, it feeds you during your non-working years. So it's a strategy of building it up so then it can pay you out over time from an IRA, whether that's a traditional or Roth, from a brokerage, paying capital gains taxes. All these matters come into play because taxes will play an important part of your life in retirement.

Chris

Barron: Okay, we're going to come back to 401 and SEP and all that stuff here in a minute, but I want to get to number 4, which was your 4% rule of that portfolio. Explain that a little more detail, what you mean by that.

Mike

Finley: Sure. So the 4% rule was put together in 1994 by a financial planner. He'd run years and decades of research on returns of the stock markets and the bond markets What he found was if you pulled out 4% or less from a portfolio that was at least 50% stocks and you kept your fees very low, that, that portfolio would probably last 30 years or more. So it's the idea that you're trying to make sure that your money lasts longer than you do. So the 4% rule is a guide for someone to use on how much to pull out from the portfolio So it doesn't eat itself. So if someone were to be pulling out, let's say 8% a year from a portfolio, well, it's probably not going to last 30 years. It may not last 20 years based on how the returns are going year to year. So you want to have a plan on the withdrawal amounts.

Chris

Barron: Interesting. Okay, so let's go back to the 401. So what do we have? 401, SEP, and SIMPLE, right? Those are kind of the options that the businesses listening would have. To offer to employees and themselves. Yes. So let's go through those one at a time, if you wouldn't mind just kind of hitting on what they are and why. Well, first of all, let's say why that's important that they look into that, right? You know, there's some big advantages from a diversification standpoint and providing those opportunities for employees.

Mike

Finley: Sure. And certainly a tax standpoint. So if someone has a high income, putting money into a 401, pretax can certainly help with reducing your taxable burden at the federal and state levels. And so maxing out a 401, for example, somebody this year who's 50 years old could put away $27,000 pretax into a 401, and they could look at profit sharing possibly on top of that. If you have a spouse, putting money in a 401 there can also make a difference. If the income is not very high, they might consider a Roth version in the 401. That's the tax benefit years down the road. So you get the tax benefit now, the income is high, get the tax benefit later if the income is not so high. And that's a 401. A simple IRA can be a start for a business, for a farm business, but generally speaking, the 401 is going to be a better deal if you're trying to put away more money over time.

And of course, the SEP IRA is an easy way to get started for a small business owner. But again, when they start adding employees, that's when the 401 pops in.

Chris

Barron: And what about SEP?

Mike

Finley: SEP IRA is for that small business owner, let's say, by himself. So as that, as that changes, that's when you can change your retirement plans and you should just make sure that you're— you have a nice list of investments that you can pick from. And make sure those investments are low fee, and that generally takes you to index funds.

Chris

Barron: So we've talked about that in prior podcasts with you, Mike, as far as making sure that we're in low fee index funds. Talk a little bit about setting up the 401, because we've also talked about finding the right quote-unquote helpers that aren't taken all the cookies out of the cookie jar, and then you get the crumbs that are left. So talk about that.

Mike

Finley: So you're trying to find a way to put together a retirement plan that serves your organization well, and that generally means you're going to have to find somebody who charges a reasonable fee to put together a plan for you. So I have one company locally, Benchmark Financial. They can help someone, and there are others But you want transparent fees. You want to know exactly what they're charging to help you set up a retirement plan and then make sure that the right investments are in there to serve the needs of you and your employees. And that's going to be very important. And you want to take some time and really understand this issue because you could be looking at decades of investing in this 401. So you want to make sure it gets set up right. And it serves you well.

Chris

Barron: And for a lot of those listening that are older that are wondering, what, I'm not sure I need this, but if the farm operation is going to go on and you want the legacy of the business and the farm to go on, there will be multiple employees, it will be multiple family members, and all you're going to do is benefit them by structuring this, correct?

Mike

Finley: Exactly. You're, you're not just doing this for yourself, you're doing this for generations to come. And by creating a, a plan you can really help with generational wealth. And you do that really with systems, and building the right systems can help the individual build the right life.

Chris

Barron: Do you know if there's— maybe I'm asking you a question you don't know the answer to directly, but do you know, is there an age limit? A lot of these farm operations have kids working on the farm starting at a pretty young age. Do they need to be a certain age to be eligible for the 401? Do you know?

Mike

Finley: Yes, there, there's some different rules when it comes to a 401. So you, you certainly want to look at the age differences. You want to look at part-time workers versus full-time workers. How you set up a 401 is going to dictate who can put money in and when.

Chris

Barron: Okay. Interesting. And they— and people could have an account and set it up for the kids though, right? And, and let them put money in there. Just wouldn't be a Roth.

Mike

Finley: So a wonderful opportunity that I would say is if I had a young child, it could be as young as 1 year old. Start an account inside a brokerage account for that child. Could be a target retirement fund that fits their college years. It could be a, an index fund. It could be an ETF, exchange traded fund. That, that investment is earmarked for the child. And then you put money in it over the years. You put money in during birthdays and Christmas. You just keep feeding that account. And by the time they hit 18, Who knows what they might have?

Chris

Barron: And then are there any stipulations on that? So when they reach 18—

Mike

Finley: when they reach 18, so here's the good news. See, I was a, I was a young man once, so 18-year-old boys don't always make the best decisions.

Chris

Barron: Really? There's a really cool truck that's got a lift kit on it, it looks awesome, and if I got that truck, you know, I'd look pretty cool driving that.

Mike

Finley: Exactly. Well, here's the good news: that money is in mom and dad's brokerage, it's in their name. That money is only distributed by mom and dad when they feel like the money is going to be used for the right purposes. So you get to, you know, decide these matters. And if the decisions aren't very good at 18, well, you may wait until they're 20 or 22, whatever age where you feel like that money is going to be used appropriately to advance their life.

Chris

Barron: So talk a little bit more On the 401, you know, in other podcasts we've talked about finding the right helpers. Again, and I know we've done this a couple times, I'm going to ask you again because I think it's so important. What are the questions that we ask the quote-unquote helpers that are going to help us with a 401? What are the, you know, and people need to write this down so you don't forget to ask these key questions.

Mike

Finley: So my first question is, how do you make money? I want to know if you're going to help me, how do you make money? And am I the only one paying you? Who else is paying you? And so how much are they paying you? I want to know that. And again, if they hesitate, go somewhere else. If you can't give me clear, transparent answers, then I can, I'll go somewhere else because clearly you're not willing to be totally upfront and honest. So start there. And once you identify that, Yeah, sure. You wanna ask about their investment philosophy. I would wanna hear people talk about the market knows more than the individual. So we wanna own markets. That means index funds. We're not trying to time the market. We're not trying to get in and get out when we think it's good or when it's bad. We're not trying to pick winning companies.

We, we accept the reality that the market knows more than any individual. So I would want to know that. I'd like to know their philosophy. I'd like to know exactly how they run their business, because part of this is a relationship that we're building as well.

Chris

Barron: So how do you know if it's a fair payment? So you said ask them those questions and they say, I'm going to charge X amount. What's fair? Yeah, what's a good number?

Mike

Finley: That's, that's not an easy answer, Chris. But I— well, here's what I would say. It's good to talk to multiple parties. Go ahead and look at 3 to 4 to 5 individuals who offer you a retirement plan. Compare those costs, compare their philosophies, look at the numbers, and make a fair comp— just like you would when you're looking to run your business. All right, you're trying to get the right value for what you're purchasing. That same thing should happen with a 401. And so, you know, what is fair? We have to look at your situation and then make a determination once you have something to compare it to.

Chris

Barron: And they need to understand the size of your business and the number of employees and how you want to structure.

Mike

Finley: That's right. And, and we should have that conversation.

Chris

Barron: So those are all really good things. That was kind of diving into your 4 things, you know, knowing your cost of living, understanding the fixed income, the portfolio, and the 4%. That kind of hits those things. We started out though talking a little bit about the whole puzzle of retirement, right? And we rattled off and we talked Social Security. We didn't really hit Medicare. I don't know, is there anything on that one that you want to hit on?

Mike

Finley: Well, it's a, it's a very big, diverse program. What an individual wants to do is contact SHIP, ship.gov. SHIP is a not-for-profit government program helping individuals understand their Medicare benefits. So that's important. Take your time to understand that prior to age 65.

Chris

Barron: Okay, ship.gov, right? Okay. And then, um, another one too while we're hitting where to look, um, you know, if people are like, well, I'm not even sure who I need to get a hold of to set up a 401 or a SIMPLE or a SEP or whatever that I can trust and look around, is there a place online they can look to find somebody local or a company that can help them?

Mike

Finley: Yeah. I, I'm not sure I have an answer on that one. What I would say is you can go ahead and check some things out, but I would almost say reach out to me.

Chris

Barron: Okay.

Mike

Finley: If you, if you give me some information, I can help you maybe find the right people, or I can tell you if you have the right people. Because at the end of the day, uh, the devil's in the details, and we have to look at the details. And sometimes Uh, that can get pretty, uh, intense.

Chris

Barron: Okay, so they're in the middle of podcast listening to this. How do they get a hold of you? And we'll do it at the end here too.

Mike

Finley: But so you can go to mikefinley@thecrazymaninthepinkwig.com. That's my email. Easier way might be to go to my website, thecrazymaninthepinkwig.com. Reach out to me. I'm happy to help at no cost. I'm here to help you see the right path that serves you best.

Chris

Barron: And you're kind of on a, or have been on a mission to make sure that people are educated well, right? I mean, that's kind of the cool thing with you, Mike, and what's helped me and our farm operation. And I think you can help a lot of others just to make sure that they get the right information.

Mike

Finley: Well, that's right. I'm not trying to make a buck off you, right? And so that's the idea. And I'm sure some of your listeners might be just a little skeptical, like, I don't know about this guy. Well, that's okay. Take some time, check out my website, look at my books maybe. But what I'm here to tell you is I have enough. I, I don't need more money. I have enough money. What I need is to find people to help. And I have whatever talents I have. I'm happy to use those to help you make good financial decisions. Because at the end of the day, I teach individuals and organizations to take control of their own finances.

Chris

Barron: And you, you do that at the university or at, um, UNI, right? Correct. Northern Iowa.

Mike

Finley: University of Northern Iowa. Provide classes in the evenings to young people and adult and older adults, as well as many places throughout the community for those people who want to learn. Cause it's really, that's what it comes down to. How much do you want to learn? And what are you going to do with that information?

Chris

Barron: And the younger you can do it, the better.

Mike

Finley: Oh, it's huge.

Chris

Barron: It's huge.

Mike

Finley: If we can grab—

Chris

Barron: why don't you find me like 20 years ago?

Mike

Finley: Well, yeah, yeah, I would have— I wish I'd have found myself. So part of this is, yes, trying to reach people at a young age so they don't end up causing problems that they have to fix later. And so I call it don't dig craters that you got to dig your way out of. Get rid of those craters. Yep.

Chris

Barron: So we kind of— I kind of veered off there, but I thought that was all important stuff. So let's get back. We did Social Security, we did Medicare. Taxes was another piece of the puzzle. Any comments on just the tax side of the equation in retirement? Oh, taxes, they're fun. Our— all the farmers that we work with, Mike, they love paying taxes. Yeah, you know, there's no bulldozed forward tax consequences or anything, you know. Yeah.

Mike

Finley: It's so— it's, it's a big issue, right? And so you, you want a good tax plan in retirement because every decision you make, taxes should be considered. So you want a good accountant if you feel like you need help with a tax strategy. You want to be thinking about that not only in retirement, but leading up to retirement. You want to put yourself in a position, for example, where you have money that you can pull from a traditional retirement account, from a Roth retirement account, and from a non-retirement brokerage account where capital gains are involved. So by having multiple accounts, you're going to give yourself more opportunities and more flexibility as it deals with taxes in those ways. And of course, you're still considering taxes as it relates to Social Security, as it relates to a pension, as it relates to your, your farm income.

Chris

Barron: All right, so that's the tax thing. Insurance is next.

Mike

Finley: Yeah, so we also have to kind of redirect the way we think about insurance. So you may have life insurance. Well, why do you have life insurance? You might say, well, for the kids. Well, are the kids grown up? Well, they might be. If that's the case, you may be self-insured. You may not need life insurance. You may or may not need long-term care insurance. In other words, there's many different insurance policies that could apply, but I would tell you, if you become self-insured, most insurance policies are not going to be required. You're going to need the basics: health insurance, which could be Medicare or maybe the marketplace prior to 65. You're going to need car insurance, of course, and you're going to need home insurance. But many of these insurance policies are not going to be needed.

And the idea here is buy the insurance that you need and get rid of the stuff that you don't need. And much of what you see and hear from the insurance industry, you don't need. Insurance products are created to make money for the insurance industry. Your job is to only buy the ones that are absolutely needed.

Chris

Barron: Mm-hmm. One of them that I'm going to say that I always see that is needed that sometimes gets missed, Mike, and I'll get your two cents on it real quick here, but in transition, the senior party is transitioning over to the younger party, and that transition might take, let's say it takes 7 years. Okay, well, they probably should be buying, the senior party should probably be buying some term life for that duration of the expected transition to the amount of value that's transitioning in the event something happens. Because if something happens to that individual they think they're transitioning over to, now they're in business with the spouse, or some other aspect of things can get messed up.

And so I'm a huge proponent of having, you know, the, the senior parties have term life on the younger people, which is kind of different than— and a lot of people don't think about that, but we've ran into that in a few instances with clients that you, you lose a younger per— you don't think the younger person's— anything's going to happen to them. All of a sudden they're out of the picture, and now we got a whole bunch of issues going on. So any comments on that, or do you, do you buy that with— oh yeah, that one's—

Mike

Finley: I do buy that, Chris. And I think that's just being strategic in how you plan for the future. And it's also a reminder that these issues are intertwined. Your, your insurance is involved in your other plans when it comes to your other income and your portfolio and your taxes and your Social Security and all these issues. So they, they can interconnect into basically putting together a financial life.

Chris

Barron: And if they structure it right through the business, the business can pay the term life insurance policy, and it's a deductible item. It's tax deductible, and it's not that expensive in the first place when you're buying it on somebody between, you know, say 40 and $20-something. That's pretty, pretty inexpensive.

Mike

Finley: That's correct. And you might be looking to add an umbrella policy as well. So an umbrella policy extends insurance beyond the car and the home up to your net worth. So you're also trying to protect your net worth as you go into retirement.

Chris

Barron: Right, right. Awesome. So, um, we've kind of hit investments on the other podcast, Investments 101, if they've already listened to that one and, and financial happiness that we did a couple weeks ago. Any, any other comments on investments before we get to the last couple things I want to ask you on?

Mike

Finley: Well, a couple issues. So some people might think that when they go into retirement that they should either reduce or eliminate their stock allocations, and I would say that's a mistake. Your stocks are there to keep you ahead of inflation. So staying still somewhat heavy on stocks into and long into retirement, I would tell you is a good move. So what does that mean? I would keep personally at least 50% of your portfolio in stocks when you're looking at your bonds and stocks and real estate. But as you age, there's certainly a case to be made for adding more high-quality bond funds into a portfolio. That's your low-risk money. Money that you would be accessing in retirement and short-term needs.

Chris

Barron: Interesting, tough question. Maybe, maybe not. What about the farmer that says, okay, I don't have anything in the stock market, maybe my spouse does. Do you, do you start putting something in there at a certain point if the, if there's excess funds? Or do you, or, you know, the, because the farmer is going to be more apt just to throw it back into the farm. You know, what's the advantage, or is there advantages?

Mike

Finley: The advantage is diversification, adding more of your portfolio than just farm. And I know that's tough. I know farmers like farms, but at the end of the day, adding stocks and bonds and real estate is going to reduce the risk of the entire portfolio. And long term, that can be beneficial. Again, it doesn't have to be expensive. It doesn't have to be complicated. You can understand this issue in pretty simple form by taking the time to understand it from teachers, people like John Bogle. You can go to YouTube, listen to him, and take some time to understand how to do this investment game well.

Chris

Barron: Um, speaking of YouTube, I want to, um, and we need to put the link, so I'll make sure Joseph or Sloan puts the link to this YouTube video, The Retirement Gamble, right? Talk about that for just a second.

Mike

Finley: It's a great documentary that they put together helping the individual understand how the financial services industry works. Basically, it, it really gives you a glimpse behind the scenes, helps you understand exactly what's going on and how you can do this better by understanding how how it works. And for 1 hour of your time, it could be enlightening.

Chris

Barron: Well, and if you're, if you're planting or in the field doing any field work and you're on autosteer anyway, just mount your phone and, and kick it on, and you can listen to it and get 99% of the message anyway. And I would just tell you, when I watched it, and I'm going to watch it again, but it kind of frustrated me with the financial industry. I was like, you got to be kidding me, this Oh, it was kind of frustrating.

Mike

Finley: Here's the dirty little secret. What's best for the financial services industry is not what's best for you. What's best for you is not what's best for them. So your education on the topic is going to be paramount to getting yourself in a better place financially. And that means learning from the teachers, not from the salespeople.

Chris

Barron: And there's a lot of salespeople in the media too. I mean, it gets you hyped up. You see the market's down today, it's down, down, down, or it's up, up, up, and it's all hype. On the— and from the media as well.

Mike

Finley: Yeah, I would change the channel. Yeah, most of that is not worth your time. All it really does is feed your fears.

Chris

Barron: Yeah, you probably learn about as much watching The Simpsons, I suppose. All right, so the last question I want to ask you, and, and we talked about this offline a little bit, and Sloan was here and brought this up as well, so give him a little credit on this, is that In transition, there's a lot of emotion, right? So when farmers transition or retire, they never do, right? I mean, it's like, it's, it's like, you know, it's, it's just like this. You don't ever see a farmer hardly ever have a retirement party, right? Because they don't want to. They, they love what they do. They're going to continue to do it until they completely drive the next generation crazy or whatever, and that's part of their job. But, you know, talk a little bit about the importance of transition, or maybe even talk about your transition.

I mean, you got out of the military after, what, 26 years and became a college student. So I mean, talk about the emotions and transition and some of the things that might help.

Mike

Finley: So we may have our identity created within that job. Your identity may be a farmer, and if you start to transition out of farming, maybe you slide into retirement, so you're doing it part-time, or you just drop out. You can lose your identity, and that can be, that can be tough. And it's a transition we all have to go through at some point. My advice is to start working on who it is you're going to be in this next phase of your life. I think of it like the snake that sheds its skin. It has to shed its skin to be reborn into the new version. And here I'm not saying that you need to quit farming, For some of you, you love it. You're going to want to do it as long as you can. Sometimes it's going to end. Either we want it to end or it ends without our permission. Well, what is it that's going to get you excited about getting up in the morning?

You can find new ways to, you know, open your world up and, and become something else besides the farmer that you once were. And, and sometimes that may be a teacher. Sometimes you may be helping teach the younger generation about the world of farming, and that's fine. But finding ways to recreate yourself can be very important, and it's not always easy. I would tell you that the retirement process is exciting and scary at the same time. And us having a plan, us trying to figure out what it is that we are going to do is going to make a difference over time.

Chris

Barron: Interesting. And, and I think, you know, the, the big challenge that we see a lot of times when— and I talked to you about this offline— is dad or the senior party says, I'm gonna, I'm gonna retire. And it's about a three-phase deal, you know. It's like they, they announce it but then come back and wonder what in the hell the kids are doing that for the— what the hell are they thinking? They're doing that all wrong. And it's hard to not micromanage, you know, in this kind of an industry, in the farming industry, because it's such a visual thing too. If we screw up, we screw up right by the highway where everybody can see it. We don't screw up in the back of a field or whatever. We make pretty visual mistakes.

And so I think it's just part of that emotional component, isn't it, to make sure that we maybe don't have any hobbies, but maybe we better start thinking about what, what is life all about and what things can we do to be meaningful.

Mike

Finley: Well, that's right. And again, I would tell you it's not the easiest transition to make. Ideally, I would say for a lot of people, if you can slide into retirement, that's going to be a little easier way to go than to just drop in where you one day you're a farmer, the next day you're not. And if you can slide in, that's great. But yeah, uh, when you have family members who are now running a bigger part of the business, uh, it can be hard to let go. But, you know, put yourself in their spot. There's a balance there. Some of us have to learn as we go. I mean, getting some help, getting some guidance is great, but there's times when we have to let people learn on their own.

Chris

Barron: I would say that from the other side of the equation too, for the younger people, because sometimes the younger people— I mean, I get phone calls occasionally, not a lot, but I, you know, maybe one or two a month where, you know, I can't believe Dad's doing this, you know. He's like, I'm supposed to be doing this and now I'm getting second-guessed, or he's bitching about I did this instead of that, or whatever. But it's pretty common, right, you know. And so I think Part of it too is for the younger generation to be also patient with the older generation too, right? Because they're going through something that you do not understand as the younger person.

Mike

Finley: That's right.

Chris

Barron: And you won't understand until you go through it.

Mike

Finley: And there's something that can be brought to the table by both parties, right? The older generation has so much experience to share, and the younger generation, they may have some very new ideas that could be very exciting. And so there's a blend to that, and, and You know, having a little understanding of the other side is important.

Chris

Barron: It's a two-way street for sure. Yes, it is. So in wrapping up then, you talked about the four big questions, you know, knowing your cost of living, having that budget done, understanding those fixed income sources and making sure they're known, and then your portfolio and the 4% rule. Anything else that you would like to leave the listeners with?

Mike

Finley: I would say that retirement is a process. It's not just figuring out the numbers and if they work, you're good to go because it's, it's the psychological piece just as much, uh, figuring out who you're going to be and what you're going to do. And so get your, get your finances in order, you know, get all the numbers right and then figure out you, you know, look in the mirror and say, who is it that I am and who do I want to be? And at the end of the day, uh, you can make it a great part of your life. You know, it's, it's not over. It maybe it's just beginning.

Chris

Barron: That's awesome. Then it's— you said it's a process, and it— and I would add to that, it's, it's an evergreen process too, because you can think one thing one day and you might tweak this or tweak that a little bit just to enhance or make things better, right?

Mike

Finley: Yes. And, and for me personally, I try to stay nimble. I try to be open to something new happening. And, and that's the wonderful thing about retirement. You can change course pretty quick. If something comes around and all of a sudden you think, okay, I'd rather do that, go do that. That the process of doing right, getting out there and trying new things. And if it really connects with you, keep doing it. If it doesn't stop doing it and start doing something else, you'll find the things that connect once you just get in there and start doing it and seeing if it connects.

Chris

Barron: Awesome. Mike, really appreciate you being here.

Mike

Finley: Thank you, Chris.

Chris

Barron: Yep. And again, real quick, they want to get a hold of you, how do they email you, call you, whatever?

Mike

Finley: Yep, best way would be Mike Finley, F-I-N-L-E-Y, at thecrazymaninthepinkwig.com. You can go to my website, The Crazy Man in the Pink Wig, reach me there, educate yourself, learn as much as you can. At the end of the day, I'm here to tell you You can take control of your money as you take control of your life.

Chris

Barron: That's awesome. And definitely you have some really good YouTube videos. I've been on there, and so a lot of good information. Just want to thank everybody for listening to this episode of Retirement 101. Hopefully you got a lot out of that. If you have other questions or other things you'd like us to hit, or that you have questions for Mike, let us know as well. Appreciate you being here. We will catch you again next time on the AGV view pitch.

Mike

Finley: Ah!