In this episode of the One of a Kind Financial Show (December 16, 2025), host Mike Milligan and co‑host Gary Nolan walk listeners through five core questions that shape a retirement investment strategy. They define and illustrate each question—risk tolerance (emotional comfort with market swings), risk capacity (financial ability to absorb losses), time horizon (how long the portfolio must last, influenced by health and lifestyle), required rate of return (the return needed to meet expenses, income sources, and legacy goals), and legacy goals (the amount and method of passing wealth to heirs or charities). Throughout, they blend educational explanations with personal anecdotes, behavioral finance insights, and practical prompts for listeners to assess their own situations. The segment includes promotional calls‑to‑action for a personalized “One of a Kind Financial Plan,” contact numbers, and a regulatory disclaimer noting Mike Milligan’s status as a Certified Financial Planner and Investment Advisor Representative with Advisory Alpha LLC. The tone is conversational, instructional, and upbeat, aiming to empower listeners to take control of their retirement planning.
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Welcome to the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily with your host, Mike Milligan. It's December 16th. It is a Tuesday. We are getting closer and closer down to single digits until Santa Claus comes to town. Who else is excited? Well, I am, right? But before we get there, right, when it come on the One of a Kind Financial Show, we addressed 5 questions about asset allocation that can help you adjust your investments to suit your lifestyle. And this is, uh, this is asset allocation is a term that when I educate people, when I work at Old Dominion University, when I'm teaching financial planning, principles of financial planning, when I'm teaching my personal financial planning class, when I'm teaching the capstone to aspiring financial planners, asset allocation is a core topic that we didn't even dive much into, into the segment that you're getting ready to listen to. Asset allocation. Is how much of your total assets is split between stocks and bonds, equity mutual funds, bond mutual funds, equity ETFs, bond ETFs, real estate, small cap, mid cap, international emerging markets, annuities, and other products. So when we, when we talk about asset allocation, we're really talking about like a pie and how much is each slice, right? And how does it eventually get you to where you want to be? So if you want other Topics or other tools that can help you understand more about anything we talk about in this segment today, I would invite you to reach out to us. Text the word NEWS. It's a different one than we talk about in the segment, but text NEWS, N-E-W-S, to 600-700, and we'll get you on our email list so that you can get more educational content to help drive you to a better understanding of these critical contents. our concepts when it comes to investing and retiring. Enjoy this segment from the One of a Kind Financial Show. And until next time, be one of a kind.
All right, answering these 5 questions about asset allocation can help you adjust your asset allocation to suit your lifestyle. This is the big question: what's your risk tolerance?
Well, when you understand how much market fluctuation you can emotionally handle without panic selling or making impulsive decisions, that's when you know you're emotionally comfort— comfortable with volatility. When you know you have access to other income sources like pensions, Social Security, maybe annuity income that can cover your basic expenses and allow for more flexibility in your retirement choices, that's when you know you have financial stability. And when you reflect on your previous investment experience and how you reacted to market downturns or volatility, that's when you bring the past to help you in the comfort. So when you, um, ultimately, Gary, risk tolerance is about knowing what you have invested. Can you sleep at night?
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
All right. What's the difference with risk capacity though, Mike?
Well, uh, risk capacity is that ability to to go down in value? How much can you take without freaking out?
Exactly.
Without getting anxiety, without getting a panic attack. So if you only look at your statements once a month when they come in the mail and you have $1 million in there and it comes and it says $920,000, are you okay? If it says $850,000, are you okay? If it says $700,000, are you okay? What number on that statement is going to drive you to panic? Well, so in order to know more about it, you have to evaluate your financial situation. Do you have an emergency fund? Do you have liquid assets that are easy to get to, to determine how much risk you can afford to take? Your income. If you have monthly expenses, are you covering those monthly expenses with guaranteed income? And as inflation, if you want to hit the buzzer, Gary.
There you go.
Inflation. If you want to keep pace with inflation, do you have increasing income to keep pace with inflation? And are those guaranteed to never run out of your life? And then factor in, you have to factor in potential healthcare costs and your expected lifespan. And when you put the financial reserves, the income needs, and health and longevity in play, It helps you determine what really is your capacity when you look at that statement. What can you absorb when that statement comes out at the end of the month? Right.
I got you. What's your time horizon? That's our 3rd question, Mike.
Oh, listen, I've been reading some economic behavior books and talking to some people in economic behavior lately, Gary. And one of the things that's true about most people is you're either an optimist or a pessimist.
Yep. Either way.
An optimist is going to think they're living to 98 years old no matter what the reality is. And a pessimist is going to think they're dying tomorrow no matter what the reality is. See, time horizon is really something that you should try to get some answers around. Genetics are a clue. What you have for dinner, do you consume alcohol? Do you smoke? What's your lifestyle been? That'll leave clues. And if you're 70 years old and both of your parents lived to 102, well, the clue is you're probably going to live another 30 years. If you're 70 years old and you smoke 2 packs of cigarettes a day and drink a bottle of bourbon every day and had a pound of bacon, maybe not.
Maybe not.
Maybe not. So if you know what your time horizon is, and guys, I'm not attacking anybody here because you are all unique and you're one of a kind, and I love people. Right? Who have a little bit of bourbon and have some bacon, but I also love people who go out and run marathons. I love you all, right? You're unique and you're one of a kind, but you have to determine your time horizon. Like, how long do you need your money to last? And is any of that money guaranteed to last over that lifetime?
I'll take the bacon and bourbon, Mike. Okay. That's what I'm going to do. The show is the One of a Kind Financial Show. I'm Gary Nolan, your consumer advocate. Let's get you on a calendar all set up with that comprehensive plan, that one of a kind financial plan, 800-748-1838. 800-748-1838, or text the word IDEAS to 600-700. The folks at One Oak Financial standing by, ready for your phone call. Do it right now. Get yourself on the calendar. Get yourself on solid footing for 2026. We're almost at the end of the year here. One more time, and the number: 800-748-1838, or text the word IDEAS to 600-700. What kind of returns do you need? That's our 4th question, Mike.
That's a question that when people come in and meet, I ask a lot of questions, but one of the questions I ask is, why money is important to you? And then once we start getting along in the conversation a little bit, one of the questions I always ask to people is like, what is your required rate of return? Because it's a very similar question to what kind of returns do you need? See, just like longevity, your parents' longevity and what you eat and if you exercise leaves clues about longevity, what you have available to you in investments What you have available to you in guaranteed income and what your expenses are, they leave clues about how much you need for your investments to actually grow by. And then if you add in like, what do you actually want to leave as a legacy to your family? You, you, the required rate of return or how much you need is what we calculate based off those, the, your expenses, the sources of income and the investments. So, and then we just have to decide what portfolio. is do we have to have to get that return based off either historical evidence, economic conditions, or even what we expect to go in the future? So, um, clients always, when I ask them what their required rate of return, this is where that optimist pessimist always comes in again too. Um, you know, some people will say I need 5, some people will say I need 15.
Yep.
But, but listen guys, math will tell us when we put the math to the one-of-a-kind financial plan, it'll tell us what you need.
Right. Absolutely. What are your legacy goals? That's our next question.
Yeah. And so considering the amount of money or assets you want to leave behind for your heirs or charitable organization, that is your inheritance plan. My, uh, all of our good friends, your good friend, my good friend, Tom Hegna, uh, was on episode 32 of the Ideas by Mike podcast. And he just came back on episode 38 to talk about who wants to be a millionaire. But he talked about, in episode 38, he spoke a lot about his kids. He, he, he spoke to, he, he talked about how he left them a legacy of working hard, how he's going to leave assets to them. But one of the things that he says over and over again is it's okay to take a little bit of interest off of your assets and use that interest to buy a life insurance policy to put a wealth floor on your estate. When we looked at those 5 questions, Gary, what's your risk tolerance? What's your risk capacity? What's your time horizon? What kind of returns you need? And what are your legacy goals? Guys, You know what answers all of those questions, Gary?
What is that, Mike?
The One of a Kind Financial Plan.
There you go.
What the One of a Kind Financial Plan is about is about you. It's about your goals, your dreams, your aspirations, and it's about the choices you've made in your life to save. And I've talked to people from the radio show who have $22,000 saved, and I've talked to people who have $38 million saved. Guys, all financial experiences throughout, but we help We help you guys. There's no minimum to work with us. There's no maximum to work with us. And if you want a one-of-a-kind financial plan built for you, I invite you to call us today because I cannot wait to speak to you.
800-748-1838. 800-748-1838. Or text the word ideas to 600-700.
Thanks again for listening to that segment of the One of a Kind Financial Show. Gary and I enjoy producing this every day or every week for our listeners on radio, and then being able to repurpose this for you, for you to be able to, uh, begin to take action and control of your finances. As a reminder, Mike Milligan is an investment advisor representative with Advisory Alpha LLC, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ideas by Mike, doing business as OneUp Financial and Mike Milligan LLC, are unaffiliated entities of Advisory Alpha and are both outside investment activities from the standard transactions we conduct at Advisory Alpha LLC. Financial planning, uh, Mike is a certified financial planner registered with the Certified Financial Planning Board. All opinions expressed by Mike on this episode today are those of Mike and do not reflect the, the beliefs necessarily of Advisory Alpha LLC, Walnut Financial, Ideas by Mike, or Mike Milligan LLC.
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