This is Personal with Your Host, Mike Milligan, CFP® (Ep. 1)

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 onto the show.

Hello and welcome to the Ideas by Mike podcast with your host, Mike Milligan. I'm Wendy McConnell. Good morning, Mike.

Good morning, Wendy. How are you?

I'm good. How are you feeling? This is day 1, first podcast ever. How are you feeling?

I'm feeling great. For me, it's like a relaunch of a podcast because I had an old podcast called Stories, Resources, and Ideas for years. So this is the one that is Ideas by Mike, which is also the name of the company. So I'm feeling, I'm feeling really good about today and And what we're going to get into.

So you're an old pro. You're just not going to have any troubles at all. You're excited. You're ready to go. It's going to go perfectly.

No, it's not. Does life ever really go perfectly? It's going to be authentic and people will get to know me. And that's going to be the interesting part about this is because you never know what's going to come out of this mouth or this brain. And so it's going to be what it's going to be. And so I'm really looking forward to it, Wendy.

Okay. So being that I don't know much about you, but what I do know is that you are one of the best in your industry. So tell, tell me a little bit about what you do for your clients.

So I am a certified financial planner, which in the— there's so many different type of professionals operating within the retirement income space, you know, insurance-only agents, Securities-regulated people, certified financial planners, even accountants and attorneys are in this space helping people now. And the— but the certified financial planner is the highest distinction. It is the gold medal. We are the ones standing at the top. You know, as we enter the Olympic season, we are the ones standing at the top of the podium as ones who can help people achieve the goals and hopes and desires they want to. Now, I've been a certified financial planner for 22 years. I've been in this industry for 25. I bring really what I think and what my clients tell me is a unique perspective to what people want out of their retirement. Because not only do we talk about the numbers, because they're very important, but we talk about what the numbers mean. And I do reality checks, not only as people are coming on board, in working with us, but throughout their time working with us, because we have to face reality. We can't live in a fairy tale world. Reality is, if we embrace it, what reality is, it allows us to get to the point where we want to be, and that is to be happy and healthy and have a community where we are making an impact and hopefully where we're healthy both mentally and physically along the way. And so it's going to be unique. And you'll hear that. You'll hear what drives me in that because it's really based on my past. It's based on how we've developed our company. It's the strength of our company because not only the sheer number of people that work in Ideas by Mike, but the strategic partners that are behind us, the billions and trillions of dollars of investments that our partners manage. Is what makes us important, but we do it in a way that you're going to feel like you are one of a kind because that is our ultimate mission, which is to create one of a kind financial plans for our clients' one of a kind life.

So it's more than like you said; it's more than about the money. It's about the life you want to lead.

Right? That's exactly it. That's it. And so you know that, Wendy. I mean, it all started if I could just give like my origin because we all have an origin, right? Of where we get started. That's really the most important thing is people have to understand my origin. They have to understand, you know, what has happened to me on my path in my career. But everything that's happened to me that shaped the company that we are today and how we serve people, it's all personal to me. Okay? You will hear this over and over, Wendy, is the term one of a kind, because that is our mission to create one of a kind financial plans for our clients, one of a kind life. But it started. Because there was a one of a kind. And Wendy, you would agree with me, I think, is that we all live a one of a kind life.

Sure. Right?

We do. And a lot of people think they live an average life. And people say it to me all the time. Why do you want to deal with the average old me? Well, because nobody, nobody is average. Everybody is one of a kind. There's this world, this earth really centers around the you, your being, your, your, your as a person, you're one of a kind. But see, this all started to me because there's a couple one-of-a-kind people in my life that were like my sun, you know, you know, the sun, right? They gave me life and, you know, they gave me energy. And, uh, the first one was my grandmother. And there, there's a YouTube video out there on my YouTube channel that will talk about my grandmother in just detail. So I'm not going to spend a lot of time there because I want people to not only listen to the podcast, but I want them, I want them to interact on YouTube with me. But, but my grandmother was 3rd grade educated. She raised me a lot because my mom, who I love and adore, but she was a high schooler when she had me. When I was about 11 years old, my grandmother got some devastating news. My grandfather got cancer. He was the main provider, you know, financially. And my grandmother, like many people of that— or many women of that generation, So, you know, her primary goal was to support my grandfather. Well, now the main breadwinner of the family was gone. And, and my, and my grandmother at the age of 64 had to then figure out a way to live the rest of her life. And she did the one thing that she knew how to do well, and she started cooking. And she would wrap it up like she did for my grandfather every day into lunch pails. But now what she'd do is make many, and she would go to the construction sites where he used to work. And she would sell lunches to the to the workers that my grandfather used to work with because my grandfather had cancer. He soon died after that, but she did this over and over again, and and she started bringing this money home. She would pick me up from middle school. We would sit around the the dining room table, and we would count the money. Now again, my grandmother had a third grade education. She wasn't she wasn't very articulate. She didn't she didn't know numbers well. She knew how to use a calculator. She didn't know what to do with her money. And so here I'm at eleven. I'm counting the money. We're putting it in Folgers coffee cans. You remember Folgers coffee cans?

Oh yeah.

We'd put them in coffee cans and put them up in the kitchen cabinet. And, uh, eventually it got to the point where the kitchen cabinet got full. And, and so I actually went down to the First Bank, which was right down the street, and opened my grandmother's first checking account when I was 12 years old.

Wow.

That, that, that's my, my grandmother lived a one of a kind life. She, she sold collard sandwiches. That was her hit. She sold collard sandwiches to people at lunch for $5 when you could get a Big Mac for a dollar. What my grandmother was really selling was love. That's what she was selling, that, you know, she loved my grandfather. The people that bought from her loved her. They loved our family. I was actively involved in that as a kid. I didn't understand what I was involved in, but I was involved in a one-of-a-kind experience where a community came together to support my grandmother and helped her. Right. My grandmother then later in life got, you know, she got dementia. She was in a long-term care facility for about 20 years. She passed away in 2018, but she really lived a one-of-a-kind life. And a lot of my practice at Ideas by Mike is built off like what my grandmother taught me, this 3rd grade educated woman, on what it meant to— when life throws you the most sour lemon you could ever have, right? Just the sour lemon that is not even good for making lemonade, right? We got this whole idea where turn any lemon into lemonade. You can't turn sour lemons into lemonade. What she did is she threw the sour lemon out. And took, and she picked up the next one. And then she lived a great life. Now, you know, so I got to experience so much with my grandmother. And that is why Ideas by Mike is what we are today, because everybody that comes next, I'm going to treat them just like my grandmother, you know, just like I treated my grandmother. And so one of a kind is important because I learned what one of a kind is. It's getting up when you're down. It's having a community that loves you and then taking financial responsibility for yourself. My grandmother was a late bloomer when it came to saving money. She was late, right? She was 64 years old when she started saving money, yet she never did without throughout the rest of her life because we started a program for her that took care of her long-term care needs. And it was all done through a community and it was done through love and it was done from her entrepreneur spirit. And that's what I'm going to bring to the table over and over again for my clients.

It reminds me the story of your grandmother of it's not about resources, it's about resourcefulness.

It is about resourcefulness.

Yeah. And she was very resourceful.

Yes. Yes, she was very resourceful.

That's a great story. Thank you for telling it.

Absolutely. There's, there's one other story that's important for people to know about me. And it's, it's another, it's, but this one's, one's a little bit of tragedy. I'm not, and I'm not going to get emotional about this because I'm now just starting to get to the ability in my life to be able to talk about it. But a couple summers ago, I got a call from my, from my mother. Remember I told you, you know, I love my mother, she's in my life, but my brother was involved in a car accident. And he passed away. It was a tragic car accident. I mean, nobody really expects to ever get a phone call that your perfectly healthy 41-year-old brother is dead. Right. And the reason that this shapes this kind of one-of-a-kind life, because my 41-year-old brother in his 41 years, Impacted people more than some people who lived for 100 years. Like just his funeral, the outpouring. I mean, you know, funerals are, are, you know, celebrations, sad events. And it was a combination of both. But what you realize is what I realized is that my brother was impacting people through his profession. But more importantly, the impact was that I got from him was that he listened to really sound financial advice. And even though life was interrupted at the age of 41, listening to sound financial advice meant that his family's life was not interrupted financially. We had put some life insurance in place for him that people just kind of throw away, that I don't need life insurance, right? Because I'm, I'm healthy and I'm strong, right? But, you know, without that life insurance, my sister-in-law and my niece and nephew wouldn't have been able to cope with what they're doing now. And so, when I do things like help people not only with their retirement but with life insurance, this is very personal to me because I've seen the impact that saving wisely, that being resourceful like you said, but also putting some foundational pieces in place in a true financial plan, what difference that makes when life really does get tough. And so it's a, you know, you know, one of a kind. Being one of a kind is about, you know, being very personal. And being a financial planner is personal to me because I bring the experience of my family, right? That's happened to me through my grandmother, through my mother having cancer at 35 and now being uninsurable, right? You know, life happened. My brother passing away. But then there's so many more in my family chain where we've been able to You know, really change the trajectory of our family because of sound financial planning, you know, doing the right things with our money, but realizing most of all that this is a one-of-a-kind life and we have to live it every day. So, yeah, that's Mike. That's Mike. And that's our business.

Okay.

Yeah.

So, this is why it's important to you to focus on people's one-of-a-kind lives, but also The importance of having money and your finances in order for the just in case.

Correct. That's exactly right.

Okay. So what is the one thing that you recommend most to clients, family, or friends when it comes to preparing for life?

The number one recommendation is that you've got to, you've got to have at least a one-page financial plan. Written out. A one-page financial plan serves as a guidebook for when decisions have to be made. So we, we construct one-page financial plans for all of our prospects even before they become clients because we want them to see what it looks like to be a client of ours. But a one-page financial plan is going to have 3 really important things on it. It's going to have a summary of what you are financially. So it's going to have those, those accounts listed almost like a balance sheet. The second thing it's going to have is going to have a statement of financial purpose. A statement of financial purpose, clearly, it just says what you want those assets to be able to do for you. And then the next part is just going to be action steps. So in order to turn those assets into a more purposeful thing in your life, it's going to have action steps. And the great thing, Wendy, about a one-page financial plan is that if it's well constructed, it's well thought out, it becomes your map for how you do everything you can in life. And so if there's ever a point in time where somebody tries to offer you something or there's an opportunity financially to do something else, if it gets you off the route of where you want to go, if it violates your statement of financial objective, if it goes against other action steps that you want to take to get somewhere, well, you could say my one-page financial plan told me I could— I can't do that. It's not I can't do it. It's just the plan that I have for my life financially means I can't do this investing, or I shouldn't sell that stock, or I shouldn't go in that business, or, you know, I can't take that trip, right? Because I have a bigger one in the future planned. So, the one thing that kind of differentiates us from so many else is we literally create that one-page financial plan summary that helps people, that they can pull it out and they'll understand the big picture of where they're going. And ultimately, it'll put them in a place where they could say no to things that would clutter their life or derail them from getting where they want to be.

So, it's about, does this make sense for where I want to go?

Correct.

This decision.

That's right. It does.

And it's a way to keep it always, to keep that, that future focus always in mind.

That's right. It's, I taught, I said earlier that I believe in doing reality checks often. You know, sometimes we want to live in this kind of fantasy world of, should I run out and buy Bitcoin because it's gone up 300%, right? Or, or should I go out and buy Nvidia stock because it's, you know, it's gone crazy or, Or, you know, should I make this change to, you know, my investment strategy because my neighbor told me to do it, or my friend or family told me to do it because they've had great success in it? If you really believe that you live a one-of-a-kind life, well, you should have a one-of-a-kind financial plan that's simple to understand so that you can take the money stress or the money anxiety out of your life. And be able to really live the type of life that you know you're meant to live—one that's you know full of community, one that's out there to make an impact—and that's what and that's what when you have a strong partner like me and my team beside of you, that's what we're going to do is hopefully we're going to be anxious about the market to make sure we're doing the right things for you. But we want to make take anxiety, the fear. of running out of money, the fear of having to rely on somebody else, you know, the fear of not reaching the end well. We're going to take that fear out and give you comfort knowing that we've— we're doing everything we can with everything being thrown at us and put that into the equation to make sure that your one-page financial plan stands the test of your life and then ultimately gets to the place you want it to get to in the future.

Okay. So if you had all the money in the world, all the money in the world, what would you be doing with your life?

I would do this. And, and my wife and I have had this question, right? Because I'm sure you've, you've seen recently some billion-dollar lotteries, these Powerball and Mega Millions. They've, they've, you know, they've got to a billion. I mean, we'll go buy a ticket, you know, we'll put $10 out there because, you know, hey, who wouldn't like A billion dollars, right? But but if I won that billion, I would be doing the same thing. One of the things you need to know, Wendy, and what our clients who listen to this and our prospects who are listening to this in the future is that we are virtual, and we do this wherever we are. When you get a chance to meet our team and you realize she lives in Dallas and he lives in Midland, and she works out of Chicago and he works out of Detroit, and Lorraine's in the Philippines, and When you start seeing where all of our team is, we are living in a financial planning world right now where we can do it wherever we are. So, the one thing that would change in my life is if I had all the money in the world, I'd still be doing this, but I may be doing it in Santiago, Chile, virtually for people who live in America, or I may be doing it in Paris where I just was. And I was there for a week and I was working while I was there. I was talking with people in Georgia, in California, in Wisconsin while I was in Paris. So nothing would change. I would still be a planner because this is my calling. This is my— this is what I'm meant to do. When you find what you're meant to do, you want to do nothing else, right? I don't want to go play golf, right? I don't want to have a 4th or 5th stream of income or a 3rd stream of income. I don't want to. You know, I don't want to invest in a laundromat or buy a plumbing company. I want to be a financial planner, right, who not only helps you, my clients, but also helps other financial planners around the country change this industry because this industry needs to be changed, right? What worked 40 years ago is not going to work today. When I talk to clients and when I talk to prospects, Especially young people these days. What worked for their parents is not going to work for them because what worked for their parents was not what their parents used. We have to change and we have to evolve. And so many companies right now are trying to do the same old, same old for what was done 20, 30 years ago. And that's not what's going to get this generation of people to a one-of-a-kind lifestyle or one-of-a-kind retirement in the future.

Yeah, yeah, I like that a lot. So let's get out of the office a little bit. What is, you know, obviously very passionate about financial planning, and we love that, Mike, but, you know, do you have some hobbies? Do you play golf? Is there something that you like to do when you are outside of the office?

I'm a husband and I'm a father and I'm also a grandfather. So what I like to do is I like to travel. Uh, we are, uh, my My wife and I, you know, we want to put our feet on all seven continents, and you know, just not just to touch the continents. We want to have a meaningful time there. You know, so we we've spent some, you know, we've spent time in Europe. We've spent time in in South in South America, a lot of time in South America, and we're doing both of those again this year. Next year, our focus is going to spend some time in Africa, and then you know we we we want to get to Asia. Asia is a beautiful historical place. That you know history to them is not 200, 250 years like it is us in America. History is thousands of years, right? That's the same in Europe too.

Yeah, everybody's everybody's old except for us. That's exactly right.

So travel is like in my blood, right? That's what I that's what I want to do, right? Again, I don't play golf. I'll I'll play pickleball from time to time. We do. My my wife and I work out. We work out at Orange Theory, which is a A national brand. We love it, but it's travel, right? And you know, my kids, travel is in their blood too. Like, I have a— my youngest child Paige has spent this last year traveling the globe. She's been to Cambodia, Thailand, South Africa. Now she's at Guatemala, and this is before she goes to college next year, right? We, we want to experience the world. We want to live this life. And you know, it's ironic is Most of my clients, the ones we attract, are people who love to travel also, because it's just like we get in these natural conversations and people, people who love to travel love being with us. Now, we also have golfers and grandmothers and grandfathers in our practice, and we have, you know, people who like to stay home. But because one of the other things that we love to do also is we love to eat great food. Right. We love great food. So traveling and having great food and trying great wine when we're not working, that's what we do. And, and that's, that's who I am, right? So travel, food, good wine, working out, you know, trying to stay healthy. That's what I do outside of the office.

Yeah. So this good food that you experience, how hard is that to stay healthy and eat the good food?

Moderation, right? Yeah.

That's always been a struggle, that moderation, that moderation word.

Yeah, it's all in moderation. But really good quality food can fill you up very fast. And so if you just, you know, if you just do it in moderation, it's going to, you know, stay healthy. Being healthy is very important to me, Wendy. I mean, I— we all have a desire, or we all think we're going to live long, but it's really, you know, there's a direct There's a direct relation to how wealthy you're going to be versus how much you save, right? There's a direct correlation, right?

Right.

There's also a direct correlation to the— to your longevity with how you take care of your body in the younger years. One of my— one of my core sayings is that the only person you can count on to take care of your older self is your younger self. You can't really count on anybody else. But if, if me as my younger self, I'm never going to be younger than I am right now. If my younger self today takes care of my— of what I'm doing today, I'm really taking care of my older self.

And it's really so important to it. And unfortunately, I don't think it's something that we think about until we start to get a little bit older. We still— we start to get those little bit of aches and pains in here and there. We want to be mobile. We want to make sure that as we grow older, not only are we living long, but we're actually able to, you know, have all the benefits of living, of walking easily, of you know, playing pickleball if we want to, of getting from place to place. You know, that's a, that's a big deal.

100%. Because it's one thing to be alive, but it's another thing to really be alive. There's a lot of people who are sitting in nursing homes, who are, you know, sitting in recliners, who can't move, who, you know, would give anything to go out and be active again. And so the people who get to know me over this time is, you know, they're going to get to go along my adventures. You know, one of the things my wife and I are doing on New Year's Day next year is we're hiking Rainbow Mountain. And if you don't know what Rainbow Mountain is, is you should look at it. And when you look at it, and I'll be honest with you, I'm scared to do this hike because it's at 16,000 meters, which we know is a whole lot more than 16,000 feet or so. It's something crazy like that, right? And it's a beautiful place to experience. But, but it's going to be grueling and taxing. And that's the way we're going to start 2025. So imagine what we're going to do beyond that in the future. And I want to be able to live and do stuff like that. That's why we do the daily stuff, like try to work out, try to take walks, try to eat within moderation, eat really good food in moderation.

Right. So it's also important. Most definitely. Yeah. So this has been great getting to know you a little bit, Mike. I do. I felt like a You know, I feel like we we can see each other now. We're we're good. We've bonded. I agree with you. So how can people get in touch with you if they have more questions?

So we we have a we have a great YouTube channel. It's @ideasbymike, Instagram @ideasbymike, LinkedIn Mike Milligan CFP, our website www.ideasbymike.com. There's so many ways to connect with us and. On all of those social platforms or on our website, you're going to have direct contact with us. The key in connecting with us, Wendy, is you're not just connecting with one of the best financial planners in the country. You're connecting with a group of like-minded people in our office. And I can't wait to share more, like on our next podcast, about who our team is and about who we, you know, how we help people. directly, but it's really about what we bring from our strategic partners. We have, again, like I mentioned, partners that manage trillions of dollars. And, you know, our clients don't have trillions of dollars, but they manage trillions of dollars. And we only bring the best of the best for our clients every time.

So I'm looking forward to learning more about the team then, for sure.

Yeah, Wendy.

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

Thank you for tuning in to 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.