Using NASA's Structure to Achieve Your Financial Goal

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 Friday, not Friday, right? Maybe that was a little bit too excitement for this day, but welcome back because I want to talk about the final human moonwalk. It happened 53 years ago. Tomorrow, actually, December 13th. But I wanted to bring it here today because Gary and I on the One of a Kind Financial Show Daily, we recently had a lively conversation. Gary was alive then. I wasn't. You'll hear that in the segment. But we want to talk about what that final moonwalk has to do with your financial future today. So we're going to take a look at Apollo 17 and uncover the powerful lessons it holds for long-term planning, big goals, and staying on course even when life shifts your trajectory. Don't miss this one, folks. Stay tuned, right? Because this is a reminder that Every great mission starts with a clear plan, and our plan includes you being one of a kind. Enjoy this segment now.

And welcome back to the One of a Kind Financial Show. I'm your consumer advocate, Gary Nolan. Mike Milligan is with us today. We're taking back to time, December 13th, 1972, the day astronauts Gene Cernan And Harrison Schmitt took the last human steps on the moon during Apollo 17. Mike, you brought this to the table. What about Apollo 17 that connects to personal finance? What is this all about?

Well, first of all, Gary, do you remember that?

I do, absolutely, without question.

Yeah, what do you remember about that?

I remember that it was both gonna be the last time, and it was sad because we had so many successful moonwalks and moon landings before that, starting with, what, Apollo 11, right?

That's right. That's right. And guys, in all fairness, I wasn't born yet. I was born in 1976. I'll be turning 50 next year, right? But I don't remember this. I haven't been alive. And that's sad, right? I was never alive when somebody has actually been on the moon. But Gary, what Apollo 17 and how that connects to personal finances, Apollo 17 wasn't just a spacewalk. It was the final chapter of a massive decade-long mission that started way before rockets ever launched They took off. That's what planning is. Like, you set a vision, you map out every step, you prepare for setbacks. And boy, there were some setbacks in those times.

No kidding. Yes, there were.

And you build toward a long-term objective. You don't start at the moon. You start your way there. The moon is just where you want to get to.

Right. So essentially, financial planning is a moonshot, but not in a hype way, more of a— A disciplined, structured, and an engineering kind of way, Mike, I guess you'd have to say, huh?

Exactly. When people think of moonshots, they think of big dreams, right? Because, I mean, think about this, right? When this was first— I don't know who's— I mean, the idea, like who first said that we're going to take a man to the moon, right, was really not the person who orated it, right? It was somebody else in the background that was pushing this, right? designing it. In many movies that we've seen, we've seen engineers and folks and people that build the space shuttles and people that designed the spacesuits and the medical professionals that did this. But all of them bought into a common dream. The Apollo missions were the opposite. They were systematic. Every detail was tested. retested, reviewed, retested, documented, calibrated, and recalibrated. That's how we should approach the one-of-a-kind financial plan.

Yeah.

Where we have a dynamic system in place to be able to ensure that you have guardrails, you have benchmarks, you have annual reviews. And listen, when something comes up, we deal with it, right? When a tragedy comes up, we deal with it. Because we don't want to be guessing. Like, you're building a course with the One of a Kind Financial Plan, right, to get you to and through retirement, just like the Apollo program built a course to get people from Earth to moon. We want to get people from where they are now to their personal moon.

Yeah, it was President Kennedy in the early '60s that said, we're going to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. And, uh, the folks at NASA looked at each other and said, We have no idea how to do this. We had absolutely no idea how to do this. And it took a while, but they figured it out, obviously.

Well, and the interesting part about that is all it took was a vision, right? It took one person's vision, and he was bringing us out of— man, if you think about the '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, right? People that were living at that time remember that we needed something to look forward to because it had been War, depression, war, war, economic struggles, high taxes. We needed something to look forward to, right? And that, and that's what many people looked forward to.

Absolutely. 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. Want to get you on the calendar, get you all set up with that 5— uh, with that one-of-a-kind financial plan that Mike talks about. 800-748-1838. 800-748-1838 or text the word ideas to 600-700. Let's talk about the 5 Pillars Connection. There are 5 pillars that actually mirror the mission structure, Mike.

Yeah. And so just like, you know, like when people were building the mission of like on President Kennedy's vision to get us to the moon, you know, uh, and, and, you know, people like, you know, engineers like, uh, Margaret Hamilton who led the development of the Apollo flight software and, and Gene Kranz, an aerospace engineer.

Yep.

Helped bring those to light. That's what I am, right? I'm not going to go live your life. I'm not going to take— I'm not going to escort you to the moon. I'm not going to be the astronaut. The astronaut is you, folks. You're the people who get to live your one-of-a-kind life. What we do in the background is we provide the structure. And the structure in the financial plan is income planning. That's like fuel. You can't launch your dreams without income. Uh, investment planning, that's the navigation system that's guiding the trajectory of where you're going. Tax planning is like mission control. It adjusts course along the way based on environmental factors that a lot of time are out of our control, just like taxes. We don't know where taxes are going in the future, but we can adjust course when you have a one-of-a-kind financial plan. Healthcare and long-term care planning, we, that's our protective equipment. That's the insurance. That's the investment money allocated, right? Because you hope you don't need some sort of either one of those, excessive healthcare costs or long-term care, but you're in trouble if you don't have something in place for it. And then legacy and estate planning is like the mission log. That's what remains after the mission is complete. Each pillar helps keep the ship on course.

Right. And one thing people forget is how many steps it takes to get to that big goal. Even in finance, uh, people want a quick fix, Mike.

Right. But Apollo took thousands of small actions, tiny course corrections, quiet decisions behind the scenes. Same with financial planning. It's like rebalancing your portfolio, reviewing tax opportunities, checking progress, Updating beneficiaries, adjusting to life change. None of that is flashy, but it's what gets you to your personal moon.

And this is the perfect time of year to do that. Am I right, Mike? We got a couple years left.

Yeah, absolutely. Year-end is a mission review season. So we need to talk about things like, are you on track for retirement? Are you missing tax opportunities for this year? Did your family have a life change? Do you need to adjust your your trajectory. The Apollo astronauts didn't just hope for success, they reviewed it constantly. That's what clients should do right now.

All right. Tell us about the One of a Kind Financial Plan in the minutes we have remaining.

Well, just like Apollo 17 marked the end of an era, your financial life has chapters. Every year is a new mission phase. And if you want help building that roadmap, we'll walk you through it. Just like we talked about the pillars of the One of a Kind Financial Plan, tax planning, investment planning, income planning, long-term care planning, and legacy planning. A one-of-a-kind financial plan is going to do what, uh, what the engineers, the builders, the architects, the mission control folks, the janitors did for the Apollo series that got them to the moon. The one-of-a-kind financial plan is going to allow you to live a one-of-a-kind life.

And that phone number is 800-748-1838. 800-748-1838. That's the connect with Mike and the team at One Oak Financial, or text the word IDEAS to 600-700.

I hope you enjoyed that segment of the One of a Kind Financial Show. We're found weekly on WINS and WTAR in Norfolk, Virginia, and on AM in Midland-Odessa area in Texas, and anywhere you find your podcast. I want to remind you that I, Mike Milligan, am an investment advisory rep with Advisory Alpha LLC. Ideas by Mike, doing business as One of Financial is an unaffiliated entity to Advisory Alpha LLC. All opinions expressed on this mini podcast and on the One of a Kind Financial Show radio show are just of that. The opinions are mine and Gary's. We're here to provide educational content for you, but remember, as always, consult a licensed financial professional before making any decisions. Any tax advice references Social Security Administration should refer to the Social Security Administration and tax advice should reserve be reserved for the IRS website. And also consult a qualified tax advisor before making any tax decisions.

Be one of a kind with Mike's plan. In a face shot growth, take a stand. Visibility. Strategy, take that lead. Transformation's yours, fulfill the need. Mike's got the way to help you rise and stay. Leadership impact you'll find in your one-of-a-kind mind.