Manage Retirement Time Like Money (Time Diversification)

Be one of a kind with Mike's Plan. Welcome to the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily with your host, Mike Milligan. It's Tuesday, October 21st, and you are one of a kind. I love that. I love being woken up to that every day because it gives me drive, purpose, and hope that today is going to be a special day. There, there, there are moments in my days, guys, that come with bad news. Recently, you know, in our, our corporate office on Colley Avenue, We've had to take up carpet, but to me, and it's not an inexpensive thing to deal with those costs, but I will tell you what is going to be renewed in that building is going to be absolutely fantastic. And I choose to use my time to focus on the things that are positive and things that I can only control. Recently on the One of a Kind Financial Show, Gary and I talked about time diversification. You know, most advisors will talk about asset allocation for diversification, or even, you know, we spend a lot of time talking about tax diversification in the One of a Kind Financial Plan. But I hope you enjoy this segment where Gary and I break down what it means to have time diversification for those heading into retirement and those actually in retirement.

Welcome back to the One of a Kind Financial Show. I'm your consumer advocate, Gary Nolan. Back with us to help you take charge of your money is Mike Milligan. Mike has helped hundreds of clients achieve their financial goals. Been doing it for quite a while, over 25 years experience in retirement planning business. And Mike is a fiduciary, very important distinction when you're looking for a financial advisor. Let's get into segment number 2. For 30 or 40 years, your calendar was shaped by alarm clocks, meetings, and responsibilities. Then retirement hits and suddenly every hour is yours. Sounds amazing until you realize freedom without direction feels surprisingly empty. Just like your financial assets need time for diversification, intention, and balancing. In this segment, we're exploring what it looks like to manage your time like your money with a healthy mix of growth, rest, and purpose. Our first question: why is time often harder to manage than money in retirement, Mike?

Well, money gets tracked, budgeted, and planned for. We put it on spreadsheets. But, uh, but most people wing Right.

Time.

You know, we track our time in a calendar and go from like appointment to appointment to appointment, but we don't assign, you know, our time a purpose other than like to be where somebody else wants us to be at a specific time. Like our doctor wants us to be there 15 minutes before 10:00 to check in. You know, church is on Saturday at 11— I mean, Sunday at 11:00 AM. You know, our grandkids' T-ball game is Friday at 6 PM, right? We put things where other people expect us to be on there, but we don't individually put on our calendar time for ourselves. Well, studies like done by the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic have come out and said that retirees who don't intentionally structure their time often report lower satisfaction and even higher rates of depression. And so, you know, I, I, this is just going to be a question I'm going to put out to our listeners. You will, um, you will plan your money down to the decimal. You'll balance your checkbook. But why do you plan your investments like that but leave your hours to chance?

Interesting. Yeah, I never thought of it like that, Mike, be honest with you. You know, that's really something different for a lot of people.

Yeah. And so, like, and, you know, we talk about, like, diversification in the investment world. In the— we also talk about diversification in the tax world. But, you know, we don't talk about, like, what we always— and you hear the saying, this is so cliché. The cliché saying is time is your most valuable asset.

Yep.

Well, you know, we'll, we'll spend— we'll spend— we just don't spend enough effort, enough energy to plan out and protect the most valuable asset, which is our time. And so, that's why it's important to look at like a time portfolio.

Yeah. Let's talk about that. So, what does a time portfolio actually look like in this practice?

Well, think of it like asset classes, but in the time world, it would be rest, relationships, contribution, Learning, and leisure. So, the 5 elements of what a time portfolio looks like. Just like you wouldn't put 100% of your assets in one stock or all your eggs in one basket, you probably don't want to put 100% of your time into golf or Netflix. So, you have to create a healthy balance that energizes you without burning you out.

So, let me ask you this. How can overscheduling be just as damaging as underscheduling, Mike?

Well, and Gary, I have this problem personally, right? Where I will go all in on something. I will like—

It's all in or nothing with you.

That's right. There'll be points in time in my life where, like in writing the One of a Kind Financial Plan book, like that was my sole focus, right? I was, I mean, on top of meeting with clients, my extra time was devoted to writing that book. And what, what was neglected during that period of time was my exercise routine. Right. And so like, I, I personally have a time portfolio and a time allocation to time spent for working out, time, right, that I'm going to spend with my extended family and friends. And then I have, you know, the person who gets my most time from a relationship standpoint is my wife, Liana. But then we have the— I have time portfolio balance to work where I'm meeting with clients, and then time allocated to creative, like doing the radio show is creative time. And so just like you can overschedule and go all in like I do, you will find yourself, if you do it for a long period of time, you'll find yourself exhausted even more so than when you were working. And so others do these things to find identity. But when you commit all into one thing and then that one thing goes away, you lose your identity.

Interesting. The show is the One of a Kind Financial Show. I'm Gary Nolan, your consumer advocate. With us each week at this time is Mike Milligan. I want you to get on Mike's calendar, get you all set up with that comprehensive plan, that one-of-a-kind financial plan that Mike talks about. It starts by picking up the phone. Mike and his team will be talking to you this weekend directly 800-748-1838. 800-748-1838. Or text the word ideas to 600-700. Do it right now. The slots do fill up quickly during the show. No cost, no obligation. Get a better handle on your financial situation. You deserve a more confident plan to retire. I want to be stress-free, peace of mind. Well, nothing changes till you pick up the phone. Dial that number, 800-748-1838, or text the word ideas to 600, 700. So what happens when couples' time alignments or allocations are out of sync? That could be dangerous.

It can. You're like, if one spouse wants spontaneity and other wants structure, if one spouse wants to book trips and the other just wants peace and quiet. See, retirement is bringing together 2 full calendars crashing into one shared lifestyle. Like I mentioned, um, A married couple, when they go into retirement, is entering a new era. And part of being in the new era is that you have a new marriage that requires some negotiation between each other and how you're going to spend time. See, I've luckily found Liana in my life, and Liana and I both are on the same page. We are spontaneous people. Right. Gary, if she walked in here right now in the middle of recording the show and said, let's go do something, and it was fun, I'd probably be like, see you later, Gary. But—

We'll finish the show later.

Yeah, right, right. We'll finish the show later. But here's the thing is that when you get on the same page from a relationship standpoint and then you start allocating, part of the time allocation is personal time. And so if you're on the same page that we're going to sit down and book travel at this time together, maybe the next one is, Uh, she's gonna go read a book and I'm going to go work out, right? But you, you allocate your time so that instead of crashing into each other, they're, they're, they're in sync and they work together.

Yeah. Forgive me if I told this story before, Mike, but I don't recall. I had a friend of mine as a radio consultant and he traveled 48 weeks out of the year. And he was, you know, had like 6 million miles on Delta. So, you know, Mr. Seat 1A, he was right. He was the man, right? And his, you know, Guess what he wanted to do when he went on vacation? Not get on a plane.

Yeah.

Guess what his wife wanted to do?

She wanted to get on a plane.

She wanted to travel. Yeah. So you know what? Yeah, they worked it out though. You know what they did? She goes with her girlfriends and travels with her girlfriends and he stays home and, you know, they, they make it work together. It's something that they both agreed to do and it works. He gets time alone. And she gets to travel, and it worked out beautifully, you know.

And that's what, like, when you get together and you have a time allocation, right, and that is in sync with each other, it creates a marriage that, you know, where they are going to stay to the end of their life together because they've created a portfolio of their time of diversified activities that are really going to work well with them.

So, how does faith influence the way we steward our time in relation— in retirement, Mike?

Oh, Psalms. We're going to go to the book of Psalms. Psalm 92:12 says, teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. So, time stewardship isn't just about being busy. It's about being intentional. So, retirees can use the season of this life from the season from retirement to legacy. To be able to pour in what matters most. And this is when I really talk about, we have these seasons of our life where we're being educated up through college, and then we have our parenting years from college through kids move out. And then we have our build asset years between kids moving out and retirement. And then we have this retirement to legacy phase. This is the time to focus on legacy. It's about the time to get organized. It's time to pass on the family memories. to the next generation. It's the time to build experiences so that your kids and grandkids know really who you are and like what your beliefs are. And so, you know, for some people, you know, time allocation to faith about mentoring and ministry or being present is very important in their time portfolio.

All right, up against the clock, Mike. Final thoughts. Tell us about The one-of-a-kind financial plan.

See, allocation and diversification, folks, most one-size-fits-all firms are going to use terms like that for just your investments. They're going to put you in some mutual funds and stocks, and maybe, you know, a little bit better than a one-size-fits-all firm will maybe allocate you to have some retirement income and then some play money. But we at One Oak Financial look way beyond Like the typical financial advisory firm, because we build portfolios and allocation for not only your money, but also your taxes and your healthcare and your retirement income, but also your time. And we build that through a vision called Retirement Chi and a plan called the One of a Kind Financial Plan that is there to reduce the amount of lifetime taxes you pay, because it's the biggest expense. ever have. We create retirement income that's going to be guaranteed for life to reduce the fear and anxiety that you're going to run out of money, which all retirees have until they meet with us. And then you're going to— and then from an investment standpoint, we're going to put an investment plan in place that allows for fees that are worthy, but risk that allows you to sleep at night, no matter what's coming across the news headline. A long-term care plan that allows the younger version of you to take care of the older version of you. And then a legacy plan that says, I love you, to the next generation. Because remember, your legacy is not about the money you leave behind, but the experiences and shared— and the shared knowledge that keeps being talked about in times way beyond your death. That's the one-of-a-kind financial plan, folks. We offer that at One Oak Financial because Because everything we do at our firm is about you. We want you to live a one-of-a-kind life.

Folks, advice like this shows you how important it is to meet with a financial coach, to meet with Mike and the team. They understand the ins and outs of the financial world. Take advantage of this opportunity right now. No cost, no obligation. Here's the phone number. Get on the calendar to get you all set up with that comprehensive plan. 800-748-1838. 800-748-1838 or text the word ideas to 600-700. Do it right now. The slots do fill up quickly during the show. One more time before we take our next break: 800-748-1838 or text the word ideas to 600-700.

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