The Discipline Dividend: How You Do One Thing Is How You Do Everything with Josef Mehall (Ep. 24)

Today on the Ideas by Mike podcast, I'm going to introduce you to Joseph Mihal, retirement specialist with Ideas by Mike, the dynamic financial planning firm. How does an ice hockey player turned entrepreneur turned car detailer end up becoming one of the hottest retirement specialists in the industry today? He's helping people transform retirements. By meeting them where they are and taking them where they want to go. That's next on the Ideas by Mike podcast.

Welcome to Ideas by Mike, the podcast with Mike Milligan, where you will find one-of-a-kind financial planning advice for your one-of-a-kind life. With over 22 years of experience as a Certified Financial Planner, Mike shares experiences and advice on crafting simple, easy-to-understand financial plans based on your values and priorities. He believes that taking a personalized approach is the best way to prepare for the future and give meaning to your finances. So follow along as Mike, and from time to time his guests, explore different strategies and tools that could help you secure your financial future in retirement. Now on to the show.

Hello and welcome to the Ideas by Mike podcast with your host, Mike Milligan. I'm Wendy McConnell. Hi, Mike. How you doing today?

Wendy, it is another exciting day on the Ideas by Mike podcast as we are introducing somebody else on our team who is one of a kind. It's like, it's like the parade never ends as we are, as we are showing the world, you know, how deep and how talented we really are. And, uh, and today holds a special one because there's some great stories that Joseph has and that I'll share also as we're going about today. So, I can't wait to introduce everybody to Joseph Mihal. Joseph, I'd love for you in your own words to just say who you are.

Absolutely. I mean, other than being a retirement specialist here at Ideas by Mike, you know, I enjoy, you know, fitness, working out, going to the gym, hiking. I'm a brother. I'm a son. I'm a, you know, I'm a good neighbor. And overall, I mean, I like to have fun with my friends and golf on the weekends. But, you know, at the core of who I am, I just try to serve others and put others first and treat others how I would want to be treated. So that's how I live.

Joseph, at the heart of who you are, I want to tell a couple of stories, and I want you to— and I just want you to give some meaning to those stories. If we can, right? You said that— you said that you work out. I can't— I'll never forget the Instagram story you put up on your personal Instagram one day when you walked into a gym and you saw weights everywhere, right? And then by— you put another picture on the back of it that said where the weights were perfectly re-racked and it was all organized. Can you talk about like what you— when you go into the— when you go into a workout facility and you see disorganization and how your mind processes that?

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I think that's, you know, one of the standards that I try to live by is, you know, it goes back to, you know, leaving things better than how you found them. So especially the gym in a public place. If I see 100-pound, 120-pound dumbbells lying all over the floor, not everybody can move those. And, I just wanted to kind of take that upon myself to kind of better that environment for the next person even though it wasn't originally my responsibility. So, it kind of goes back to if I walk past a piece of trash on the floor a couple times or somebody missed that, then I'm going to take that upon myself and make that a better— Better place by, you know, put it in the trash or the recycling bin. So yeah.

Before, uh, before you were a retirement specialist with Ideas by Mike, you were running an entrepreneurial business that where, where, where you were cleaning cars, right?

Right.

Can you talk about— I mean, first of all, for those of you guys just getting to know Joseph, Joseph is a gearhead in the sense that he loves great cars. Joseph, talk about the satisfaction you got from— and I know you were hustling to build a business, but what's the satisfaction like from taking a, you know, a car from one place to another?

Absolutely. I mean, growing up outside the Motor City, outside of Detroit, Michigan, you know, we have the yearly Woodward Dream Cruise, but we always see, you know, the hot rods driving by in the summertime, the, you know, the Corvettes, the Mustangs, the Camaros. And I've always had a good passion for cars. You know, my grandpas, you know, they worked for, you know, the Big 3. My mom, you know, worked for Ford. So I've always loved cars, always enjoyed working on them. But back to like the detailing, how I started Joseph's Detailing, I just kind of wanted to save up for my first vehicle. So, you know, not everything's going to be handed to you. So I wanted to, you know, figure out how can I save, you know, the most and kind of turn into a business at the end of the day. And, and one summer turned into 2, and I ended up doing that for, for 10 years and growing a, a pretty successful business and a good, you know, good, good place to work. I was able to travel around Metro Detroit and I did, you know, everything from RVs to boats to, to motorcycles, you know, nice cars. It, it, it was really good, good experience.

What, for, for our listeners, what's the nicest car you've ever detailed?

That's, that's a good question. I was either, 1970 Chevelle SS, or, uh, back in like 2015 it was an Audi R8 convertible V10. So those are fun cars to work on.

All right, so going back in Joseph's story, okay, so we, we got from being a retirement income specialist to a story about the gym to, you know, you running a very successful auto detailing, but, you know, now you're doing the detailing of people's retirement. Right, versus their cars. Talk to us about ice hockey. Where— you were a player, right? Tell us about where you played ice hockey, where, you know, where ice hockey took you, and maybe a great story about, you know, you on the ice.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, again, growing up outside of Hockeytown— I mean, we're not just the Motor City, we're Hockeytown. with the Detroit Red Wings, you know, winning all the Stanley Cups. So, you know, my dad played hockey growing up and I've always loved, you know, skating on the rink. And yeah, I played all across Metro Detroit, but after high school, I played a year in Maine for the Maine Wild. I played for the Metro Jets. I played for a school in Massachusetts and ended up at Iowa State. So, I've been all across the country. We've had international tournaments, but— You know, a good story for my hockey journey was we were in Maine at our arrival there in Lewiston, Maine, and it went to overtime and ended up going to shootout. The only shootout I've ever played in. I ended up scoring the game winner there. So, that was a lot of fun.

Did they come and jump all over you and get in a dogpile after all that?

Yeah.

Is that what happens in ice hockey?

Right. Yeah. When you win the shootout, it's a lot of fun overtime. But yeah, that was a fun rink to play in there, especially in New England. They love their hockey, you know, in front of a couple thousand fans. It was a lot of fun.

Yeah, that is good. Now, Joseph, one of the most interesting things about your role with us is before you joined Ideas by Mike, right, you were trying to transition from being an entrepreneur you know, like detailing to really getting into this business, right? One of the most interesting things about you is you actually reached out to me and said, would you be willing to talk to my parents about their retirement? And we, you know, we, we actually sat down and talked. And it's a story you tell people all the time about when you're talking about their, their, their finances. So Now we talk— now that we talked about hockey and car detailing and all that, tell everybody— we call them like founder stories, right? But tell people, like, you know, if they come to a call with you, right, what is your— what do you have to offer somebody from a standpoint of being a retirement specialist for them?

In terms of, you know, meeting with people, I try to, you know, meet people where they are and take them where they want to go. So that's kind of overview of, you know, their legacy planning, investment planning, long-term care planning, and it's just kind of going into depth of where can we raise their standard for, you know, do they have a will and a trust? Most people don't. Are they, you know, properly invested in their TSP or in their retirement plan? Do they even have a retirement plan? So I try to kind of do a quick overview of where they're at, but I also try to build that connection with them and see really What is their desired outcome for retirement, for their financial plan? Because it looks a lot different for a lot of people. I mean, we're a one-of-a-kind financial planning firm. And they don't want to just go get the same financial plan that their neighbor has because maybe their neighbor wants to retire overseas in Costa Rica or the Philippines, but maybe they want to retire and build a lake house or build a cabin. And Everyone's a little bit different that we meet with, but I try to just, you know, get an overview of, you know, who they are and where they want to go.

Right.

Okay.

So one of the things that— let's just nerd out about who we talk to a little bit.

Okay.

Because Joseph is— Joseph has on a very slow week, he'll have 10 to 12 conversations with people. On a very busy week, it'll be 30, a little bit, a little bit more than that. Right?

Right.

But Joseph, you have the— you are in our firm, right? Have the kind of this unique position to where you talk to people in their 20s all the way to people up to retirement, right? You know, Marcus generally deals with people closer to retirement. You know, Scotty's dealing with long-term care and life. You know, our team just is, you know, is kind of doing stuff a little bit different, but you have a more broad approach. So when you, when you talk to somebody in their 20s, what are some of the biggest concerns that people in their 20s have?

Yeah, I mean, great. Um, in terms of like their 20s, a lot of them are like, they feel retirement's so far away. But, um, you know, when I compare that to conversations I had with someone, you know, who's 55, it's like, well, I should have, I should have been saving when I was 20. Um, so the conversations I have with somebody that's, you know, 25, you know, 27, and they're just getting started, it's that Roth IRA versus traditional IRA conversation. And, and, uh, if you can, you know, get out of the tax code sooner, that, that's better. If you can, um, you know, dial in your investment planning in terms of, you know, be aggressive early on so you don't have to be, you know, aggressive a year or two before retirement, um, that's really what I try to get to the core to.

Yeah, I mean, you mentioned something very key there, right? Roth versus traditional. Uh, internally we call Joseph Mr. Roth. We've never— I, you know, I've been, you know, everybody knows I've been doing this for 25 years. But Joseph is, in comparison, Joseph's been doing it not quite as long. But I've never seen anybody to be able to get people to embrace the Roth, Joseph, like you can. Right? So like, if, if, when, when you're talking to people about Roth versus traditional, what's the, what's the difference between like a Roth and a traditional? Contribution or balances.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, a Roth IRA or a Roth contribution is where, you know, you pay taxes this year. In 2025, that money's going to grow tax-deferred, and then eventually you're going to withdraw from it, you know, tax-free in retirement, you know, when you're 59 and a half and older. Whereas if you contribute to traditional, you know, that's pre-tax, it's going to grow tax-deferred, but then, you know, you're going to pay taxes in retirement. So if tax rates are going to go higher in the future, you're going to end up paying a lot more for traditional. But yeah, the sooner that you can get out of the tax code, I think, you know, removing that partner, Uncle Sam, from your retirement would be good in terms of Roth versus traditional.

Nearly 50% of Americans worry they won't have enough money saved for retirement. When you talk to people, do you hear that?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, it goes back to, you know, wishing that they would have started earlier in their 20s and understanding how retirement investing, retirement income planning works. A lot of people, you know, they just contribute what the match is, you know, in their 20s and 30s, they don't really look at what their investments are. And I think that's where you come into play, Mike, is that your expertise in that and understanding, especially what, you know, the S&P 500 has done the last, you know, 20, 25 years, and understanding how that can compound and that can grow. into a, you know, much larger number 20, 30 years from now where you'll have enough to retire on, maybe even a little bit early.

So yeah. That's the thing that, uh, Joseph, when— and you could testify to this one, right? When we get on with a 25, 30, 40-year-old even, right?

Right.

And we— and we're able to take, right, take them where they are and, uh, you know, and explain to them that if they keep doing what they're doing Now, right, they're going to have a certain amount of money. But when we show them that taking the right amount of risk, and you put history behind it, right? I mean, I mean, just the number of aha moments that we've had with people where, you know, if they keep going where they are now, they're only gonna have like $1.2 million. But if we— they make one change, right? The change is not how much they're saving. Right. The change is what they invest in, right? And, um, I mean, can you just talk about some of the aha moments that people have shown when we've, uh, or, or have expressed to you when we've showed them that, you know, what the wealth could be like for them in the future just by making small changes?

Absolutely. I mean, I think it's especially for somebody who's, you know, 30 or 40, you know, they have a couple kids. I think it's a sigh of relief that they feel when they meet with us, especially when we go through that process of, you know, showing them if you just kind of change a couple things in your plan, that the outcome is going to be drastically, you know, different. You know, it's just kind of, kind of like a sailboat, you know, it's like, you can't really change the wind, but you can change, you know, the way that your sails are set up. So your destination is where you want to go, you know, not, you know, in the middle of the ocean. So, absolutely.

Spoken like somebody who's been on Lake Michigan a few times.

Yes, yep, yep.

Let's, uh, let's talk about something that, uh, like I've coined the phrase recently, TikTok insurance.

Right.

TikTok, the, the, the social media platform, has, you know, got all of these great little IUL clips now about how if you put money into an IUL and You know, you keep funding it, you're going to have this great outcome in the future. We help people with IULs, but what's the difference between like the hope and the promise of TikTok insurance and like a properly structured indexed universal life policy?

Absolutely. I mean, I think it goes back to how we're one of a kind as a financial planning firm and our amazing team here is that We're going to meet with you, you know, every, you know, every quarter, every couple months, however often you need to meet to make changes to that, to that IUL in terms of the, the index that it's in. Whereas, you know, maybe someone from, from TikTok may be able to meet with you once, you know, and help you set up an okay structured IUL, but it kind of goes back to we want to properly structure that and then we want to meet with you, you know, every 6 months, every year to really dial it in, make sure it's performing well. If we need to make any changes, we can. So yeah, it goes back to, you know, building that long-term relationship with the financial planning firm versus just one transaction.

You have done a great job of building out something that we call assets under influence. Most big firms out there talk about this thing called assets under management. Can you talk about the difference between assets under management and assets under influence?

Absolutely. I mean, assets under management is where, you know, you're working with an investment advisor. Maybe they're charging you a flat fee to meet for just advice or maybe a fee on your investments. That's assets under management. You know, assets under influence is, you know, a lot of people that I meet with that are, you know, 30, 40, it's their current 401 plan that they're contributing to. We're not, you know, charging a fee to manage that, but we want to have that investment perform as high as it can. So it's really a matter of, you know, still meeting with them and still giving them, you know, the best path forward for that account, especially, you know, husband and wife, you know, maybe they have a couple different employer plans and that's the majority of their wealth or majority of their retirement planning. So maybe we'll help 'em with an older account, but we really want to make sure that your current plan that you're still contributing to is growing and invested where it should be.

That's the, uh, in the big firms, right? And I know you've got some friends that work in big firms, and—

Right.

I previously worked in big firms. I've got a lot of colleagues that work in big firms. Uh, one of the things about big firms is they only will address assets under management. They only give advice on what they actually manage, what they charge fees for. And their goal is we're not going to give anything away for free. Right. One of the things that makes us truly different is that we see the value in people keeping money in their employer plans like 401s, Thrift Savings Plans while they're working and maximizing the return on that while we're also helping to manage money on the other side. And so, you know, there's some, there's some key takeaways from that, right? The one, the one-size-fits-all approach that we often run into from big firms is not what we do. We do the one-of-a-kind financial plan. And so, Joseph, like, you know, the one-size-fits-all versus the one-of-a-kind— what's like some practical advice for listeners on like things that you give to people on their financial planning journey that's not one-size-fits-all but it's one-of-a-kind?

Absolutely. I mean, In terms of one-of-a-kind financial planning, you know, when we— when I meet with somebody on a call, you know, if it's just a quick phone call and they have, you know, a question about their investments, we're going to, you know, try to point them in the right direction with that. But it goes back to, you know, the whole 5-part planning process of, you know, legacy planning, long-term care planning, or, you know, do you have a long-term care policy? Do you want one? What does that look like? Because that's, you know, underlooked for a lot of people. Are you overpaying for life insurance? You know, most people don't have a will and a trust. It just goes back to that in terms of making sure that their, you know, financial plan is dialed in and up to the standard that they deserve it to be.

So, Joseph, I mean, that's really great advice, right? That's, you know, being— having a one-of-a-kind plan versus a one-size-fits-all is where people get trapped. I want to, I want to end our time together by talking about you personally a little bit more. Okay. Because there are some major things that are impacting your generation, right? People, you know, people between, you know, right out of college up until 35. Right. It's just a— you guys have come in to the job force at a different time. And so What are, what are some challenges personally that you've had to face with like your own finances? And how has that— how is that going to help you help people in your generation, right, accomplish great things with their lives financially?

Absolutely. I mean, from my own personal experience, it's been, you know, having a lot of student loan debt. You know, I played, played college hockey, but, you know, playing Division II, Division III, they don't give, you know, scholarships for Division III hockey players. So unfortunately, I had a lot of student loan debt. And the way that I was able to pay that off was, was discipline and just making that sacrifice of, okay, I'm going to pay, you know, this much each month and really try to just, you know, pay off the highest interest rate loan first, go to the next one. So it really goes back to just that discipline. I know you want to go out on the weekend or maybe you want to go on an extra golf trip, but it's just having that short-term sacrifice to get that debt under control, get it down to zero. Because I think a lot of people are kind of have student loans on a back burner and maybe they have, you know, 8%, 9%, 10% interest rates. So it's really important to kind of just take a deep breath, meet with somebody about it, figure out, okay, what's my interest rate? How can I pay this down quickly? And I was able to, you know, pay it down to zero through that, through that discipline and apply that and then build up your, your emergency fund after that and move forward.

So wait a minute, let's make sure our listeners heard that for a second.

Yeah, right.

Student loans typically take between 20 and 30 years to pay off, right? Joseph, you are not in your 40s or 50s, right? Did you just say that you have paid your student loan debt off?

Yes. Yep.

I mean, amazing. Absolutely amazing. Now, right, that's like a testimony to people that are in their 20s and 30s that with discipline and with a partner, you could do that right now. Joseph, have you sacrificed retirement savings during that time at all?

No, no, no, not at all. I mean, it's important to, you know, contribute to retirement now that, you know, that Roth IRA, especially for younger people, make sure that's invested correctly.

Yeah.

And not sacrifice retirement planning, you know, not sacrifice, you know, your emergency fund. But yeah, still focus on, you know, getting that student loans under control.

So Joseph, I, I know, I know your employer pretty well.

Yeah, right.

He's, he, uh, he, he makes a contribution to a SEP IRA for you, right?

Right.

Every year. But that, that's done on like a pre-tax basis. It's not done on a Roth basis. But, uh, But you believe in Roth IRAs a lot, right?

Right.

Uh, what do you do with your SEP, the money that's in your SEP, to get it into a Roth?

Absolutely. So, um, yeah, so I take the SEP IRA and I do a Roth conversion. So I, you know, move it over to Roth, you know, pay taxes obviously this year, um, and now it's, you know, in a Roth IRA growing, you know, tax-free. So, um, absolutely, I think that's super important if you do have a Is that all right? But that's what I do.

So, you know, you know, one of the things that's coming in 2026, Joseph?

No. What's coming around the corner?

TSP in-plan Roth conversions.

Oh, okay.

Can you imagine how much money you're going to get out of the tax code with federal employees by helping them do TSP Roth conversions?

Yeah, that's, that's, that's very exciting.

Yeah. Did you see— did you see in this whole conversation, everybody, That's the first time Joseph has got really excited when I told him that he's going to be able to get people out of the tax code. Yeah, right, going forward. So, so, Joseph, so we talked about, you know, what you do working with us. We— but we also, you know, we talked about you personally at the beginning, and we, we just, you know, talked about, about some of your personal philosophies, right? About being disciplined to get student loans paid off, being disciplined and retiring your retirement money from the tax code. Right. But I mentioned earlier, you're a car guy, right?

Do you—

would you share what kind of car you drive now?

Sure. Yeah. I mean, it goes back to that short-term sacrifice. And yeah, so I've had this car for a couple of years, but it's a— it's an oldie but a goodie. So it's a 2004 Lincoln Town Car and it's got 223,000 miles on it, but it It runs like it's brand new. It floats like driving a couch down the highway. It's got the front bench seat. Yeah, it's like a, like a little, like a taxi car, but it's extremely reliable, very, very cheap to maintain, very cheap to insure and pay gas. So I think that's—

Yeah.

It goes back to just having that discipline to drive a car maybe that you don't love. So you can have that, you know, dream car, you know, A little bit sooner.

So, but now that you've accomplished the goals of getting student loan debt paid off, that you're saving for retirement, will there be another car in your future soon?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, um, absolutely. I think it'll be, um, a truck, uh, so I can move around, you know, kayaks or, or a bike or two. So I think I'll probably get back into, into a truck again, but then, uh, maybe shortly after that, something a little bit more fun.

Joseph, one of the things that you do when you meet with people, I see this over and over again with people who are— who come through asking questions, right, who can't really articulate all the problems that they have. You do a good job of showing that you care about them. And that is when you're meeting with somebody where they are, right? In helping take them where they want to go, the take— the hearing them is the first thing. And you do an amazing job at that on your first call. And then you do an amazing job of explaining to people why a Roth may be better, why an investment reallocation may be better, why getting a will and trust is so important, or why life insurance. Right. You know, especially people in their 20s and 30s, it's so important. Um, if you, if you could tell anybody like what the first meeting with you would be like, uh, what would you say to them?

Yeah, I mean, um, absolutely. It'd probably be, you know, just a brief short call, a short phone call, maybe, you know, 10 to 20 minutes. I mean, some, some people like to meet a little bit longer than that, but we're gonna figure out what your current situation is, you know, kind of go Go through the numbers, the basics, and also try to build that connection with you of, okay, maybe you're feeling a little bit more stressed out about, you know, long-term care because maybe you know somebody who went through that process, or maybe you're a little bit stressed out about, you know, what happened in 2008 because you saw a family member, you know, lose a lot of their savings, have to go back to work for 5 or 10 years after that. So try to figure out what their current, you know, pain is, what their problem is, and build that you know, connection and have, you know, empathy with them, meet them where they're at, and then, you know, meet with you and the team to figure out their financial planning and to get them to where they want to go in that current to desired situation.

And then, Joseph, is there anyone that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that is going to listen to this podcast?

Yeah, I mean, probably my parents. They love supporting me, but also what we're doing here. Going back to how they're, they're, you know, happy clients for, for over a year now, whether that's, you know, engaging on LinkedIn or watching YouTube.

So, do you want to, do you want to say anything to them right now just to make sure they do listen so they'll come back to you?

Yeah, sure.

Hi, Mom.

I love it. Absolutely love it. So, Wendy, it's, uh, Joseph is such a valuable part of our team, right? He is He is meeting people literally where they are, and he's doing everything within his power, both with his experience but also the full experience of over 100 years of our firm, to be able to help to take people where they want to go. Meeting them where they are, taking them where they want to go. It's another way of saying building a one-of-a-kind financial plan for your one-of-a-kind life. And so I'd like to invite people, if you are in that situation where you need help Getting there, Joseph is very good at helping taking you there, to take you there. So, um, on our website ideasbymike.com, if you just hit contact us and in the notes say, you know, I heard Joseph and I want to talk to him, Joseph will do that initial consultation with you, bring it to our planning team, and with our planning team help craft a one-of-a-kind financial plan with you. So that's on our website. If you want to engage with us deeper, I would tell you to go to YouTube @IdeasByMike because we have such great content about who we are as a firm. One of my most recent downloads there for video usage is really a talk about target date funds. For federal employees, those are lifecycle funds. 401 is target date funds. I'd love for you to go subscribe to us on YouTube and listen to that video on target date funds. It is revolutionary. And the way I know that, Wendy, is 'cause the amount of views that we've had on it. It is touching a nerve on YouTube. And if you want to talk there, just comment on the YouTube video if you watch it, just comment Joseph, J-O-S-E-F, and we'll make sure Joseph gets in contact with you there too. But today has been great. I love sharing our team, Wendy, because we have built, we're building one of a kind financial plans for your one-of-a-kind life. But we're only able to do that because we have one-of-a-kind people on our team.

Absolutely. And it's been very nice getting to know Joseph today. So, thank you for being here. Thank you, Mike. And, um, if people just want to get in touch with you generally, how do they go about doing that?

You could go to Instagram @ideasbymike, Facebook @ideasbymike, YouTube @ideasbymike, or our website, www.ideasbymike.com. ideasbymike.com.

All right, great. Well, thank you so much for listening today. Please like, follow, and share this podcast with your friends. Until next time, I'm Wendy McConnell.

Thank you for tuning into Ideas by Mike, the podcast, the show where ideas turn into money. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to click the follow button to stay up to date on future releases. For additional information on becoming a part of the Ideas by Mike community, Check out our website at ideasbymike.com. Don't forget to take a look at the show notes, and for more financial insights, subscribe to the Ideas by Mike YouTube channel or visit the website to find one of the upcoming webinars. Also, connect on Instagram or Facebook @ideasbymike. Ideas by Mike is an LLC headquartered in Virginia with offices in 42 cities. The company owns an insurance agency registered in all states directly or through affiliate companies. Mike is an investment advisor representative with JB Wealth Advisors. Any financial planning information shared on the show should not be construed as financial advice for you personally. For your one-page financial plan, please reach out to Ideas by Mike through the website. The information covered and posted represents the views and opinions of the guest and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Ideas by Mike. The content has been Made available for informational and educational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional investment advice. Any financial planning information shared on the show should not be construed as financial advice for you personally. For your one-page financial plan, please reach out to Ideas by Mike through the website.