185: Ex-Husbands, Co-Parenting, and Financial Security with Jeremy Gonzalez
Natalie Jill and her ex-husband Jeremy Gonzalez, a financial planner, talk co-parenting and money. They cover how to handle retirement accounts when markets drop, why financial planners matter, and how to build long-term security while raising a daughter together.
Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback. On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst, learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. Today I've got a special guest on Leveling Up. We're going to be talking about financial planning. All questions about money right now. But what makes this guest super extra, extra unique is it's my ex husband. What?
Yes. And probably the most good looking guest you have.
I'm sure my husband would agree with that.
Yeah, totally.
Brooks. Brooks would be on board with that.
So.
Okay, y', all, we'll get to that part first because you're going to have a lot of questions about that too. But I'm so excited to talk with Jeremy today. His name is Jeremy Gonzalez and he is a financial planning expert. And yes, he's my ex husband. In another life, we were married and we made my daughter. So today we're actually really good friends. Super close friends. If you guys have followed me for any number of time, especially on social media, you've probably seen that we celebrate holidays together. Him and his wife and his amazing son, and then my husband Brooks and our daughter. So we're a super duper modern family.
Yes, we are. So it's actually fun during the holidays to get together with you guys and hang out.
It is now. It is now.
Yeah.
It wasn't always that way.
It wasn't always that way. So before we get into the financial planning stuff, because I know people are going to wonder about our story, I always get questions like, how did you get lucky that like you're friends with your daughter's stepmom and your ex husband. And I want to talk about that a little bit if you're okay with that because this is unfortunately not common for people to be friends with their ex.
Right.
And you know, I get a lot of questions, too. A lot of my friends, whether they're divorced or even, you know, on their first marriage or going through a rough patch, they always think it's so amazing that. That we're friends.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, here's what I want to share with you guys. So it was not, it's not luck. It was a choice. Like we literally, me, Jeremy, my husband Brooks, Jeremy's wife now Deidra. We literally all made a decision on our own, but we all decided that we were, for the benefit of my daughter, going to get along.
Yeah.
It was a decision.
Right.
And uniquely, when Jeremy and I got a divorce, we're probably. I'm the only ones that we know that did this. We didn't use a mediator. We didn't use an. A divorce attorney. Him and I literally went down to the courthouse and filed together. And I remember them. Do you remember when they, they asked us, they said, you have to list out your community property. And we're like, we don't have any. We just wanted it to be simple. And I think we wrote Toaster like, we wrote. We literally wrote like Toaster because they wouldn't let us off. Remember that?
Yeah, yeah.
It was some lady that helped us, like, fill out, like, basically, you know, some of that paperwork. But yeah, we used no attorney. There was no support. We basically just did it on our own because we were both in agreement. In agreement, yeah. Ready to. To make that decision together.
Yeah. And we just decided out. No reason to fight this out or whatever. We just, we follow California law is really what we did.
Yeah.
I think we did that and think we spent $800. We got the divorce. And. And I want to share too. It wasn't like this super easy peasy thing. Like we weren't in. We weren't best friends immediately.
No. And you, I mean, how many days in a row do you think you cried? Like 103.
Whatever.
I. I lost count.
You lost count. I would say the interesting thing is Jeremy and I, just a little background on us. We. I had just moved to California when I met him and we were engaged within like three months of meeting. It was quick.
Yeah.
So it happened really, really quick. But we were instant best friends. We were friends. And I just think we maybe probably shouldn't have gotten married, but we were. We should have been friends.
Right.
So when we decided to divorce, it was definitely not super easy on either one of us, but it was a decision because my daughter was a baby at the time. We both decided that, okay, she's a baby. It's better to do this now when she's not going to go through, like, the pain of knowing our parents are divorcing. Let's do this now. Let's both raise her. Because I never had a doubt that Jeremy was going to be a good dad. He felt I was going to be a good mom. So we didn't have any reason to go battle things out. We Just decided to do that. And we made a decision right then and there that for the best thing for our daughter would be for us to get along. And we made that decision.
Yeah, I agree. And, you know, I think. I think one of the things that a lot of people do that I feel is a mistake is they continue to stay married and they're miserable and they actually set a really bad example for their children on what marriage should look like.
So true.
Yeah. And so, like, you know, we talk about Penelope, and so now Penelope knows that even though it didn't work out, she sees two amazing marriages, you know, with you and Brooks and with Deidre and I. And so she has a good example now of what marriage needs to look like.
Yes. But the only thing that I will say is really funny about my daughter, though, she'll say things like, so, mom, when I have my second marriage, she thinks that's normal now, so that might be a problem.
Yeah, it's like a car lease, you know, you just turn it in.
When my second marriage happens, I think that's funny. And she also makes. She. She thinks it's funny if any of her friends at school are getting a divorce. I don't know if you've seen this. If any of her friends are getting a divorce at school, their parents, she'll say, I don't know why so. And so, so upset. I told them it's no big deal.
Yeah.
Like. Like she just thinks it's normal.
Now, what. What about earlier when we were eating and Penelope showed me the picture of, you know, of our wedding day or something? And. And then you said, I still have the dress. And I said, well, you can't wear it. It's bad luck.
It is bad luck. So. Oh, my gosh. So we all get. And I will say, even to stretch this further, so, yes, Jeremy and I get along, but I. I think of his wife as like a relative to me. I'm super close with his wife. I think of her literally like a relative. She's like a sister to me. In fact, I think I'm closer with her than I am with you. I talk to her more.
Yeah.
No, I don't even know the schedule.
Like, you don't.
You don't even call me. It's just you. You just go straight to the source.
Yes. And I'll have to. One day, I'll have to share Deidre to my audience as well. But some of you have seen me talk about her on social media, but literally, you all, for those of you that think you Wish you had, you know, your ex's wife to be like that to you. We all literally had to create it. It was a decision, and it always started with a decision. And I think we were all just very committed to that's the way it's going to be. And, and I do think that is the mature way to handle it. Because if you do have a child with your ex, like, you owe it to your children to do your best to get along with the people in their, in your child's life.
Right.
Like, what? That would not have created a good environment for me to say, I don't. I'm not gonna like whoever he marries or dates. That would have been stupid.
No, absolutely.
Yeah.
You, you have to make a conscious decision that you're, you're doing everything in the best interest of the child.
Yeah.
And, and it doesn't mean that you need to create something that we've created. We've just, you know, we've all put in a lot of time and effort and work to create what we have, but at the same time, too, just being cordial and, you know, being pleasant because, you know, the bad mouthing or, you know, talking behind your ex's back like, oh, your mother's so horrible, like, that just doesn't work for the good. And so it's really important to create that environment.
Totally. And I'll also share that if this, if this is helpful for anyone listening that's going through a divorce or they're newly dealing with, um. I remember Penelope was really young when we divorced. She was a baby. So I remember thinking, okay, she's going to be at, you know, Jeremy, her dad's house at age two or, you know, three without me. I. The last thing I wanted was to not have a good relationship with who you were serious with or who you were dating. Because I wanted to know if I needed to reach my daughter. I wanted to hear what's going on. I needed to be able to call. And when we don't work to create that relationship, then there'd be. You can't. You don't have that.
Right.
So to me, as a parent, that was super critical.
Yeah.
And I've never felt, I think we all feel that way. We have never felt when she's at her dad's house that I can't reach her or she's at mine. We've all been very respectful of that. And it's, it's really something, I'll tell you, is so worth creating. Yeah, it really is.
No, it really is. I mean, think about how many times we've. I mean, you've watched my son.
Yeah, yeah.
So, like just being able to have someone to lean on or count on when you're in a bind, like, hey, can you get her from school? Or hey, can you do. I mean, you know, I mean, think about those people out there that have to, you know, pick up and drop off their kid at a police station or something like. And granted, everyone's different, right? Like, that may be a completely different scenario, but I do believe you're totally in control of what you want to create.
It's so true. It's so true. So back to the financial stuff because. So Jeremy and I actually got a divorce back in Gosh. So Penelope was born in 2007. I think we were going through the divorce 2008, 2009. So right in the heart of the economic collapse. So this is. We were in the house together that we ended up. I was going to foreclose on it and then ended up short selling it in the. In the end, we both went through watching financial stuff collapse. And he was a financial planner when I met him. He took a little detour as a landscaper. That's a whole nother. There's a whole other episode. That's a whole other episode. The detour, as the gardener or landscaper was. Yes. I actually helped run a landscaping business at one point in my life. I'll never forget that. I know every type of tree now. Like, I walk with Penelope and I'll point out tree names. Palm tree, agapanta. But anyways, he's. He's a financial planner. He does very well with this. And I wanted him to come on the show because he's helped me a lot with financial questions. He's helped a lot of my friends. He is very good at simplifying things. And especially now in the freakout of what is going on right now during the. The virus and people losing their jobs, so many questions that I had and that I know my audience has. So thanks for being here because I really wanted to go through some of these.
Yeah.
So what's your first question?
Well, I want to start with the basics. So let's start with the basics. Like if you are somebody listening. Somebody's listening. They are freaked out in general just about the stock market. Maybe they have their 401k there, their retirement, their savings. And they've not really looked through this before. And it's. They're freaking out. They look at it, they see that it's dipped down. What do you want to say to them? What do they need to know?
You know, the best thing I could tell them is, and I'm sure they hear it all the time is don't panic.
Right?
Don't. The, the worst thing anyone can ever do is sell. Okay? So you know, you, you log into your 401k and you're like, I'm just going to sell everything because I'm freaking out. Because truth of the matter is, 99.9% of the time, you're never going to get the big signal the day before that. Okay? The market is now going up. So just, you know, strap on your boots and you know, it's going to be a bumpy ride and you know, depending on how old you are. You know, we went through this in 2000, 2000 with the dot com crash. We did again in 2008 with the financial crisis and you know, now we hit a little hiccup. And so you just have to be prepared and just weather the storm because it's so much harder for an investor emotionally to get back in because they've suffered a loss. Do you see what I'm saying?
So you're saying like, so if you, if you pull out now because, and then you're going to be more gun shy to get back in, you're not going to likely to go back in.
Yeah, you don't want to go back in like, because, because now the, the loss is real and it's emotionally painful. You're like, I don't know, maybe I shouldn't get back in. You know, there are plenty of people out there who still haven't got in since 2008 because like, it's going to go back down. It's going to go back down. Meanwhile, had they just stayed invested, they would have what we talked about earlier, they would have three times their money.
Okay, so, so what do you do though? Okay, let's say somebody's listening or they have parents listening or they're thinking for their parents and they're near retirement. Like they're about, and this happens, do you still say keep it in there or do you pull out what you have to help yourself right now?
Well, hopefully if, if you're, if you're near retirement, then you probably would have, you know, the way your money would have been invested would have been a little different. You weren't, you know, let's, let's say, let's say you had $100,000. The hundred thousand dollars would have been diversified enough because every, obviously like every year we get older, we should be making small changes, you know.
Okay.
The way you invest money for a 20 year old is so much different than the way you'd invest money for a 65 year old who's near retirement.
Got it.
Right.
So they're not as aggressive. So they would have already, they should have already been on the defensive, like, okay, I'm getting ready for retirement, I don't want to take the risk.
Right.
And even leading up to the whole COVID 19 thing, you know, people already sort of anticipating we're going to have a bad year in the market. I mean, we've had such a long run.
Yeah.
You know, the market has just continually gone up for 12 years, you know, or 10 years.
If somebody didn't plan for this or they didn't and they're, and they're stuck now and they had this retirement they see going down and they need the money, do you advise them pulling out or borrowing against it? What would, what would you suggest they do?
Good question. You know, some companies will allow you to borrow against your 401k. Not a bad idea. Because the interest that you're paying on that money, you're basically paying yourself back.
Okay.
Okay. The problem that you could run into, okay, so let's, let's say I have a hundred thousand dollars in my 401k. I've been, you know, my employers allowed me to keep my job. Okay. And so I'm going to borrow, I'm going to take a loan out against it. Okay. I'm gonna, I'm gonna borrow $20,000.
Sure.
If you lose your job in three months, you need to then pay yourself completely back.
Wow.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
So, so there are a lot of people who take loans out against their 401k, and for some reason, you know, for some reason or another, they end up losing their job. Now you need to make that lump payment back. So that becomes the problem.
Right.
But it's not a bad way to go. And, you know, now with this whole, you know, stimulus package that came out, people can actually take early withdrawals. Like, okay, so if you were employed.
Sure.
And you wanted to take $20,000 out of your 401k before the stimulus package, you would have to pay a 10% penalty. Okay. For early withdrawal. And then you'd have to claim it as income.
Okay.
Okay. So right now you can actually take money out of your 401k or your IRA, your SEP IRA, your retirement account. They're waiving the 10% penalty and you can pay yourself back within three years.
Okay, so that's a big difference.
It's a, it's a huge difference because normally if I were to take money out of my retirement account, I have 90 days to put it back before I'm. Before I'm dinged, the penalty and the income. So now Instead of the 90 days, now they're giving you three years, which.
Makes a big difference.
Right?
Okay.
Right.
Okay.
And you can defer the taxes for three years. So because, like, you know, let's say you. Let's say you make $100,000 a year and you take $100,000 out of your 401k. You know, now you're going to get taxed at 200,000, right, because you have to claim it as income. So right now what you can do is you can actually defer it out three years. So you could probably do 31 year, 30 the next year, 30 the third year, and help keep your income, your tax bracket lower. Okay, makes sense.
Yeah, totally makes sense. Okay, so now what if you, you were telling me before we started recording about how if somebody had invested Money back in 2009, you shared some numbers with me. Can you talk explain that to the listeners? Because I also want them to know the importance of why you suggest investing right now, even in the middle of all this.
Yeah. So, I mean, you know, everyone's, you know, everyone's situation is different. And, you know, you, you probably have listeners right now who, you know, obviously make a great living. They have all this extra cash. Like, this is the only thing different for them right now is they have to stay home.
Right.
In terms of their lifestyle and their income and everything else, everything's still, you know, status quo.
There's a lot that don't have that situation too.
Right.
A lot that don't, and some that do. I would be encouraging those people to be buying into the market at these levels. You know, like the market, the market was at 29,000 and we went all the way down to 18,000. I mean, almost cut in half.
Right.
So, you know, if we go back to 2008, the market goes from 12,000 to 6,000. You know, the Dow Jones. If you would put $10,000 into the market, which, you know, obviously seems really crazy at the time, like there's no way the market's going to go to.
Zero.
Then you would have basically three times your money. So it's a great opportunity. It's like, it's like going to Nordstrom and everything on sale. Like, it's a huge sale. Right now going on. Does that make sense?
Yeah.
So the opportunity is great.
So I know this to you is super simple, a lot of this. So I want to. I want to break it down even simpler because I know there's a lot of people that don't understand this at all, but can you explain just sort of how the market works over time? Like, because I know, because you expect these ups and downs even if there's not a crisis like this.
Right.
Can you just sort of explain in general how that works? Like, because it's very different than putting your money in the bank and just watching your small amounts of interest go up.
Right. Yeah.
And, you know, that's a whole other situation that we have going on. I mean, basically, rates are at, you know, zero. So sticking your money in a bank account isn't. Isn't really help.
Putting it under the mattress.
Yeah, it's exactly what it. Yeah, you're going to bury it in the backyard. Great idea. Yeah. You know, so I mean, if, you know, depending on time frames, like, you know, you know, you can, you can roll back 20 years or 30 years. And some people like, well, I'm 50, like, you know, what's 30 years gonna help me? And, and so just depending on how old you are and how much money you have, you know, the stock market, on average, you know, if you were just to, you know, go buy the. The Dow Jones or the s and P500, and some of you may know what that is and some may not, you're generally looking to get somewhere between 7 and 9%. I mean, that's, that's sort of the rate of return. And so over time, right, your hundred dollars turns into 109, and then your 109 turns into, you know, whatever, like 119 or something like that. So it's like a snowball that's. I mean, it's literally like pushing a little snowball down a hill and just watching it get bigger and bigger and bigger because the interest that you're earning is compounding every year. And so that's the great benefit. Now, granted, along the way, you're going to, you know, have some ups and downs.
Right.
You might lose some money along the way, like you did in 08. And, you know, currently, like, you're like, we're all doing right now.
Right.
You know, I mean, everybody's losing money.
Sure.
You know, and so. But as long as you stick with it, as I'm saying, once you get off the roller coaster, it gets very, very difficult to get back In.
So I'm for sure not a financial expert, but I am an expert in worry and anxiety, for darn sure. So for me, I will share that. What I have learned that I have to do is I do a financial checkup once a year where I'm really looking at, okay, what did my money do over the years? You know, what do I need to make adjustments around. We meet with our financial planner, go through all of that. But I know for me personally, I can't look at it all the time because this would create that anxiety. So what do you tell clients about that and people listening about that?
I, I tell them one of the was actually told to me many, many years ago, a friend of mine who is in the same industry, he had told me, you can't predict a storm by watching the waves come in, right? So if you're sitting on the beach and you're expecting a storm, but you're just continually watching the waves. And so the people who are like, you know, constantly watching the, you know, the news or, you know, CNBC every day and they look at their statements and they're, they're always, they're logging into their account every day, like, oh, my God, the market's down 200 points. Oh my goodness, it's up 500 points. It's. You're not going to know, right? And even for some of you out there who have a financial advisor or, you know, a CFP or whomever you work with, you can't give anyone a fair shake if you're not going to give them at least like, you know, two years, three years, five years.
Okay.
Do you see what I'm saying? Like, I would look like the worst person in the world if I had a brand new client in January. We invested all their money and all of a sudden the market corrects 30%. I mean, that's not really my fault.
No.
Do you see what I'm saying? And there's never a good time to get in. Like, no one predicted this. So, yeah, once a year, you know, looking at your statements, maybe every six months.
Yeah, I mean, I definitely look at them every quarter. I just, it's once a year that I sit down, financial planner and say, okay, let's. Do we need to make any tweaks, adjustments? Are we on path? Speaking of which, I want to talk about that because I think a lot of people are really shooting in the dark with their money. A lot of people are. They don't actually work a financial planner and they don't understand that. Can you Talk a little bit about that because to me, I think that's a critical part of your planning is to have somebody that is an expert around this to help you with the planning, just like you said, for retirement. So, so you are very aware and then you know how to weather storms like this.
Yeah, absolutely. You know, when I, when I meet with prospective clients, I, I always tell them, you know, I tell them one thing is you have to like the person you're working with. Okay. They have to be willing to educate you. They have to be transparent with you. So you know exactly what you're paying and why you're paying it.
And because how to make, how do financial planners make money? They make a percentage or how does that work? Always?
Yeah. You know, the industry's really been moving and changing, but you know, 90% of the guys out there maybe, or, you know, guys or gals, 80% of them are charging a fee.
Okay.
Right. And that fee will range anywhere from, let's just say, you know, depending on your dollar amount, a half a percent to one and a half percent. So industry standards, probably like 1%. So you have a hundred thousand dollars and I'm managing your money. We're going to charge you 1%. Okay. So you're going to pay us$250 every quarter.
Okay.
Okay. This would be a thousand dollars. That's pretty standard. So. Yeah. So you have to know what you're paying. You have to know how much your investments cost and you have to like the person because, you know, I, I tell people all the time, if you don't like me, then I'm always going to lose you too much money and I'm never going to make you enough.
Right.
Like you're, it's just not going to work.
That makes sense.
So you have to, you have to like the person you're working with and you have to understand what they're doing. If they can't explain to you what they're doing, then why are you hiring an advisor?
Right.
And I do think it's a really slippery slope to just say, well, I don't understand money or I'm confused like you. I feel like this is critical. We have to, to understand.
You have to understand. Yeah.
Doesn't mean you have to own it and run it. Like, you can definitely work with. I, I suggest working with a financial planner.
Yeah. Like, why are we buying these investments? Okay. This is why we're buying them. This is what they mean.
Right.
Like, yeah, you don't need to get into the weeds.
Right.
But like in your industry. Right. Like I need to know why. I need, you know, like I have to be able to understand like what I'm doing from a fitness perspective and what my results are going to be and why.
Yeah, right.
And so it's the same thing and everything else, the same thing in finance. Like you, you have to understand why he or she is doing this for you and what the end result can be. And also too, what's the downside?
Right.
Because it doesn't matter if it's me or if it's Mary Jo or if it's, you know, someone down the block. Like we're all going to lose you money at some point because the market goes down.
Sure.
So you're gonna lose money. It's the name of the game. Right. At some point in time you're gonna have a loss and you have to understand.
Yeah.
Why you had the loss. Because if you can understand it, then the worries are like, oh yeah, well duh. The market went down 30%. I know that when I opened my, my statement next month it's going to be down.
Right?
Yeah.
Now the question is how much is it down? Like if the market's down 20 and you're down 30, then that's, that's where the explanation needs to be.
So for me personally, and I'm curious your thoughts. The reason I like having a financial planner in general is just to have the long term plan, like to, to think through the like the what if or what if that. Like I like to know, like if I were to get sick or if the injury or lose can't work or whatever. Like just to have that plan for me that gives me a peace of mind and comfort.
No, absolutely. And there's, there's plenty of, you know, strategies or products are out there. Like, you know, I'm an avid skier and you know, what if this happens? What if I break my leg and I can't go to work? Okay, so maybe it's a disability.
Right?
So being, I guess upfront and honest with your advisor and also like calling him like, hey, I'm thinking about buying a car. You know, how does this impact my plan? Or hey, we're thinking about downsizing our home or you know, should we, should we refi right now?
Right.
Like there's all kinds of questions that, you know, sometimes people don't think to ask. But when you, but when you do ask, it can actually help your overall plan because now we can change things to yes. Basically suit whatever you decide to do.
Always be honest with your doctor and your financial planner.
100.
Don't lie to you.
Yeah.
Is there anyone that can't work with a financial planner? Like, do you have to have a certain amount of money to start, I mean, obviously to invest something, but can, can you always talk to a financial planner? Some people think they have to have a certain amount to do that.
No, I, I, you can, that door is always open, I think, I think that's like a, you know, it's kind of like a, like a common stigma of a sort.
Right.
Like, oh, I don't have enough money.
Right.
Well, what is enough money? And everyone's different. And so whether it's, you know, $10,000 or $5,000 and you, and you want to start creating a plan for yourself, then. Yeah, absolutely. Like, ask your friends or, you know, do some research and figure out, like, there's, there's so many, like, so much information is available to people and yeah, it's easy to create a plan. I mean, sometimes it, sometimes it's just like sitting down an Excel spreadsheet and creating a budget.
Right.
I know many people, too, that had, they felt they didn't have any money or know how to do it, but sitting with a financial planner actually helped them get a plan in place to create a budget and a plan for things to automatically go and invest, and now their situations change.
Yeah.
So I think it makes a big difference there.
And I think too, like, you know, so many people, they, they sort of think of the financial planner as like the stuffy guy in the suit behind the big desk. And yeah. You know, the glasses on. I mean, look at me, I'm on.
A pair of shorts, flip flops on.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, you're lucky if I show up in a T shirt.
Well, you know, they might invest more if you don't. I don't know. I don't. So is there anything that people should be aware of? Like to. Because I know there's also, unfortunately, in this business, there's people you can't trust too. Like, what, what are some basics, like, to know? Like, hey, this is to look for this or to not go here. If this, do you have any, any advice around that?
Yeah, that's a tricky question.
Or like, where do, where do people go wrong with financial planners? Like, what, what's the downs? Like, what can, what have you seen? Once you've had somebody say, wow, I had this person, it didn't work. Like, what would you say?
I, I think. And, and this just kind of goes, you know, into my philosophy Right. Of like how we invest money for clients. I think it's, I think it's always important if, if the person you're working with or you're making a choice to work with, if they can't tell you how they get paid and how much you're paying because you have to pay your advisor, nothing in this world is free. We all know that.
Right.
So obviously your investments will cost you something. So you have to really understand exactly what you're paying.
Okay.
And, and why you're paying it. And also to, you know, depending on insurance, like insurance products are great and they have us, they have a place for specific people. Just depending on why the insurance product or products are being put in place, sometimes can raise a red flag. I'm not going to say always, but I'm just going to sometimes.
Right.
Because a lot of times we can create things for clients outside of insurance that are just as good, if not better.
Okay.
And so, you know, and I've run across it a few times and yeah, there are guys out there who are pushing a lot of insurance products. And the reason being is because that is like one of the last places in our industry where there's huge commissions.
So look at the motives too. Like what?
Look at the motives.
Someone's pushing something. Like what is ask how they're being.
Paid for that and ask them how they're being paid. And, and I mean that's, that's always the number thing. If they're not willing to tell you, then you're probably working with the wrong person.
Totally.
Yeah.
Because a good planner and honest one with integrity is going to be honest upfront about all that and then you make your own decision.
Right.
And hey, and not to say that insurance products are bad because there's a lot of people out there who like, are literally so risk adverse, like they don't like risk and it worries them to the point where they can't sleep. Then it's a great product for them because there might be, you know, a guarantee, there might be a guaranteed rate of return. And so it makes perfect sense for people. So I'm not saying that they're bad, I'm just saying you have to be careful. And again, that also falls on the shoulders of the advisor being able to explain to you the client.
Right.
Why they're doing what they're doing.
Right.
So again, it's transparency, it's education and it's agreement. Like you always have to be in agreement.
Got it. Okay.
Makes sense.
Yeah, it makes total sense. Okay, so what else are you seeing right now from clients during this time? I just want to make sure I haven't missed any questions that you've been getting from clients or that have come up from me that you're hearing. I mean, the number one thing I hear or I'll see on social media are just comments I get. It's just people just really scared because they've, their income has gone down, and then they're talking about their investments and their retirement going down. And I've seen that, and that's a big reason I wanted to have you on, is just to point that out. Like, we can't be watching that every day for this reason. Is there anything else I'm missing that you're hearing from clients?
You know, I, I just, obviously the fear. What should we do? Some, some clients have been like, should we be selling? Other clients, like I've said, you know, like, some of you out there, you know, who do have additional capital, you're like, is this a great buying opportunity? When should we buy? And so it's, it's really been, you know, if, if we, if we really look at, if we just go back 10 years to 2010, right? We're like, we're still making money, right? We're just not as high as we were. Okay, so that's the loss. But if you go back just 10 years, like in the past 10 years, we've almost, we've still doubled, you know, or around there.
Right?
And so this is a great opportunity. Just obviously look at how your money's being invested and just understand, like, where the risk can be. So, so here's a good example. Market was at 18,000. You know, let's, let's just say a week ago or so. Most of my conversations to people like, okay, you want to make 10%, let's just throw a number out there. You have to be will, if you want to make 10%, you have to be willing to lose 20%, 25%. The downside. And, and so in the financial, in the financial planning world or the investment world, the downside is always more than the upside. If you want to make 10, you have to be willing to lose 20. Make sense? Okay, so if we just rewind the tape a week and a half ago or so, the market's at 18,000. Let's say it goes from 18 down to 15. Okay. So, you know, roughly call it another 20%. Okay. The market, we're just going to, we're going to move the market average up at its high. Was it. Let's say 30, 29 and change. This is. Call it 30. So we were actually in a position a week ago, a week and a half ago where Your downside was 20, say 20 more percent somewhere in there and your upside was going to be 100%.
Okay.
So it was like, when you look at it from that perspective, like, it's huge.
Right.
Like, okay, now I'm in a position where I can only lose 20, but I can make a hundred because the market would have been cut in half.
Right.
So we almost would have created another scenario like 2008 where the market got cut in half. And so this is a, this is a really good opportunity for people who are able to take the risk because obviously everything has risk. Right. Take that risk and, and capitalize on a time where the market has basically gone on sale.
Yeah.
You know, like we talked about earlier. And so I think that's a great opportunity right now. Obviously people looking to refi their homes. Another great opportunity. And I would just tell people, like, really explore your options before you have to start dipping into your savings.
That's good, right?
Like, maybe you have money in a savings account that's going to get you by, you know, the last thing you, like the last resort is, okay, now I'm going to go take money out of my retirement account.
I'm a huge fan of that. And what I would have told my business clients is I always believe that this is the time to learn a new skill and look at earning more versus pulling from things.
Right.
Because that's a reaction and that's, that's reacting to circumstance versus looking at what you can create. So if that's, I always suggest, first look at how you can bring in and generate more versus pulling out.
Yeah. And I mean, think about our government's pumping $2 trillion into, you know, small businesses, the economy, like everything. And you know, for a lot of business owners out there who have been, you know, trying to decide whether or not they want to expand, this is a great time. Money is cheap.
Totally.
Money is really cheap right now. Like to go borrow. Like, you know, if you're going to expand, now's the time, you know.
Really good advice.
Yeah. It's a great opportunity, you know, no matter what you're doing.
Wow, this is super helpful today. Where can people learn more about what you do? If they want to learn more about even working with you, where should they go?
They can go to new wealth builder.com forward/cares care.
C A R E S. C A R E S. Okay, repeat that One more time. I'm gonna put in the show notes, but I just want to make sure we're saying it here too.
Yeah. New wealth builder.com forward/cares.
Awesome.
Yeah. And we, we're actually putting together some information for people that are looking to, you know, should they, should they take a loan out of their 401k, should they, you know, should they actually take money out of their retirement? Where can they go, depending on what state they live in, to get more information just during this time and what's available to them, like what are their options? So we'll provide something for them so that they can. They'll actually have, you know, to be able to sit down, read something and actually make a good decision on what they think they should do. Yeah.
Super helpful.
Awesome.
Thank you so much, Jeremy.
Yeah, thank you, Natalie. It was great.
Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram @nataliejofit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.
Sam.
