#6 - Retirement is Living by Design with Darren P. Wurz

Get ready for an engaging and insightful conversation with financial advisor Darren P. Wurz, as he shares his expertise on achieving financial success, especially tailored for law firm owners. Join us in this episode as we delve into the world of personal and business finance, uncovering valuable insights, actionable tips, and the psychology behind financial decision-making.

Darren's refreshing perspective on financial planning emphasizes the importance of living your ideal lifestyle now while still securing your future. Whether you're a law firm owner, business professional, or anyone interested in mastering your finances, this episode offers valuable insights and actionable advice to help you achieve your financial goals.

Episode Highlights:
1. Discover why it's crucial to have a clear vision of your financial goals, both short-term and long-term, and how this vision can guide your financial decisions.
2. Learn practical strategies for managing cash flow effectively, whether you're just starting or have an established business. 
3. Find out how and why it's important to start planning for retirement now. 

Tune in now to gain valuable financial wisdom and take a step closer to financial success! Visit "The Lawyer Millionaire" website to access additional resources and connect with Darren P. Wurz for personalized financial guidance. Don't miss this opportunity to transform your financial future.

Darren P. Wurz, MSFP, CFP®, is a renowned expert in financial planning for law firm owners, the author of "The Lawyer Millionaire," and an engaging public speaker. With over 8 years of experience, Darren specializes in guiding law firm owners to manage their finances wisely, make strategic investments, and plan for retirement. He co-owns Wurz Financial Services, applying his insights as a small business owner to assist his clients. Holding the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation and a master's in financial planning, Darren's expertise is highly regarded. He is also the host of "The Lawyer Millionaire Podcast" and a sought-after speaker at prestigious legal organizations nationwide.

Darren's Links:
www.thelawyermillionaire.com
https://linktr.ee/darrenwurz
https://wurzfinancialservices.com/the-lawyer-millionaire-the-book/

Always and Never About Money Episode Links:
Video Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@MoneyMasteryWithChelsea
Socials: https://linktr.ee/the_money_whisper
Money Mastery Website: www.moneymastery.work
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AlwaysandNeverMoney/

Transcript

Welcome to Always and Never About the Money. Are you ready to embark on a journey that will forever change the way you perceive money? We'll get ready because we're about to dive deep into the fascinating world of finances and human behavior. I'm your host, Chelsea Williams and Money Whisperer. I'm here to help you realize what your money story is telling you and how you can change it. But hold on tight because this is not the dull black and white talk about money. We're gonna splash all the color into this typical nap inducing conversation on Always and Never About the Money. We're gonna explore the intricate relationship between money and our daily lives from the impact history has left on us, and how we still manage it.


How your habits shape your money, and what beliefs are driving your habits, choices, and relationships to the deeper values and emotions we've come to attach to it. We are going to unravel it all through insightful conversation and personal anecdotes. We'll bring you the expert insights, real life stories and meaningful thought provoking ideas that will inspire you, educate you, and initiate some serious perspective change when it comes to your money. Remember, money is just a tool. Together we'll untangle the web of emotions, beliefs, and values. We've come to attach to it and find a new perspective on how it can enhance our lives. So whether you're looking for motivation, practical advice, or a good laugh always and never about, the money's got you covered.


Thank you for joining us in this transformative journey. Get ready to challenge your beliefs and embark on a financial exploration like no other. Without further ado, let's kick off the episode of Always and Never About the Money.


Hey listeners, welcome back. Today, we are going to make sure that you're not going through life working for work's sake, making money now, but not making sure you have it when you're ready to move on from running a business or being in the workforce.


If retirement is something you've not thought about yet or you've started, but maybe you've lost track of it or maybe even you're on top of it, this episode is full of nuggets and practical advice that will get you thinking with more intention around the money you're setting aside now for your future Self statistics tell the story that we aren't taking retirement seriously until about the age of 45 and overall, while 75% of us are actively setting our money aside for when that day comes, only 40% of us are on track to reach the goals we want inside retirement. So, needless to say, this is an important topic.


If you want to live life 100% financially free to do all the things you want to do, at some point down the road, the guests I bring on this show are invited and vetted with intention. I believe that especially when it comes to your money, you need to consider the who behind the advice you take. The who determines the intention, and I want you to be able to connect these dots. This guest goes about his profession, his business, and his life with some of the same core value and beliefs that I know lead to sound advice that is tailored to you specifically, and not just the masses or with the wrong intentions.


All right? So I'm really excited about this episode I have with me one of what I call your key financial players. And you know, sometimes we don't know what we don't know, right? And when it comes to your money and your finances, be it personal, be it business, because when it comes to what we're about to talk about, even if you own a business, this is incredibly personal at a personal level, right? And so I have with me today Darren w Darren, I'm really excited to have this conversation with you. Thanks for coming on.


Speaker 2Yeah, me as well. I'm excited to be here.


Speaker 1Perfect. So I wanna, I want people to get to know a little bit about you first and kind of where you're coming from and how you came to do what you're doing now.


Speaker 2Yeah, for sure. So I'm a financial planner and I specialize in working with law firm owners specifically. And that kind of evolved over time. I, I started out my career as a a generalist. I, I, I worked with lots of different people and a lot of my early clients were attorneys and law firm owners. And so I kind of got to know some of the issues and, and struggles they had and also some of the opportunities they had.


And as my career kind of progressed, I knew that it was good marketing to focus on a really specific audience and, and many law firm owners listening, maybe familiar with the idea of niching that it's, it's important to know your audience and to tailor your, your services and products and, and marketing and everything, you know, towards that group. You can be more efficient that way and you can deliver a higher value. So I, you know, kind of looked through my client list and I was like, you know what? I have a lot of lawyers and law firm owners who are existing clients. Why don't we focus on building a business that really caters to them and try to understand everything that we can about them and and really tailor our financial planning services and processes towards their specific needs and challenges.


And, you know, that was about four years ago now at that point when I decided to make that shift. And it's so interesting because I have learned so much along the way from that point in, in working with more law firm owners and lawyers. And it's really been an exciting journey.


Speaker 1Yeah, and I, like, I wanna talk about like this, the idea of the niche, right? Because you hear this phrase, it's like, get rich in a niche, but what I think people like you and I see is that it's not just about getting rich in a niche. It's about getting to know a specific type of person and situation, especially when it comes to money and planning that allows you to help them in a more effective way than if you were kind of like that jack of all trades.


Speaker 2All big time. Yeah. So what I, one of the things I learned is that the traditional method or approach to financial planning doesn't work for law firm owners.


And, and let me, let me caveat all of this by saying the world of attorneys, the legal world, what I discovered is that it's extremely broad and there is a big difference between someone who's in big law, someone who's a law firm owner, someone who's a PI attorney. There are so many different components to this legal world and in a lot of variety. So I decided that my focus was going to be entrepreneurial law firm owners, folks who own a firm, have maybe a couple of associates working with them, maybe have a partner, but they're really looking to grow and they're really entrepreneurial minded. They want to be business owners. So yeah, I decided to focus on that and I found that the traditional approach of financial planning, it's not really, doesn't really work. You know, our, our traditional conversation about, okay, at what age would you like to retire and how do we make sure you're saving enough money to retire?


It's like law firm owners don't think that way. They're not, you know, and may, maybe some of them are, but the ones I work with, they're not thinking about, okay, I'd like to stop working at age 65 and move to Florida. You know, they have a different kind of mindset and you know, they wanna stay involved in the business longer term, you know, maybe in a different kind of capacity. So it's more about planning for that transition from, and, and really it's, it's all about business planning. So it's, it's helping law firm owners plan for that transition from working in their business to scaling their business and moving into more of an ownership role where they can, you know, manage their law firm still, but have it set up in such a way that it runs without them.


And meanwhile they can be enjoying the lifestyle and, you know, the things that they really want to do in life. The other thing I found, you know, a lot, a lot of times our approach to financial planning as financial planners has been, let me create this financial plan for you. Okay? We're gonna sit down, we're gonna go through all of your documents, and we're going to create a plan. We're gonna look at your income, figure out how much you need to save and where you need to be putting it and send you on your way. Well, you know, that's only good as that one moment in time.


Life is constantly changing. And one of the things is that if you're an entrepreneurial law firm owner, your trajectory is exponential. You're starting here, you may have no ability to save at all, but you're on this exponential trajectory where things are gonna kind of hockey stick upwards. And so financial planning really needs to be more of an ongoing partnership between planner and law firm owner. And so that's kind of the process that we created was one that was really focused on let's journey with you because yeah, you want to buy that two and a half million dollar house in California one day, and based on your current income, that doesn't look like it's anywhere near feasible.


But I know where you're going and I know the business that you're building and I know that you have the capacity to get there, so let's create a plan for how you can get there.


One other aspect of financial planning that I found law firm owners really need is cash flow management. So, you know, the people I work with, they're busy, they don't have time, they're not reviewing their expenses. Oftentimes they're making great money, we're talking, you know, half a million dollars a year or more, but they have no idea where it's going and they're spending a lot of money and, but they feel like it's like, wait a minute, I'm making all this money. I should have more to show for it. Why don't I have, you know, how come my investment accounts are so low? So, you know, it's all about helping them create a plan, first of all, create an awareness about where the money is going. Okay.


And then let's be strategic about where we're putting it. And it's not just about, okay, I need to save X amount of dollars for retirement. It's more like, okay, I need to put $10,000 a month away for my Malibu beach house. Right? So it, it's, it becomes more goal-oriented, more specific, and it's more like, okay, let's make sure we're being purposeful and intentional and strategic with where we're putting our funds.


Speaker 1Oh, and that is one of the things, 'cause you know, you had described your kind of internal process with me, and that's one of the things that I really appreciate about how you partner with people to do what you do. And there were two things that you said that I think people really need to hear because whether you're a law firm owner, a different business owner, whether you have a W two income, there are two things that stick out a lot to me in what you said that I think would resonate. The first of which is, what is retirement to you? What does that mean to you? Because like me growing up retirement was portrayed to me as this point in time where you quit working and you just do whatever you wanna do.


But it sounds like in your space, and I can agree that in my space, these people that I'm speaking to, their goal is not to quit working.


Their goal is to find something like we're living in this day and age where people are making a living inside of something they're very passionate about. And because they're passionate about it, people hear retirement and they're like, wait a minute, I don't wanna retire. I just wanna work and live by design and do what I love and I'm making money doing what I love. And so like figuring out what is retirement to you.


Speaker 2And by the way, that can start now, you know, that can start whenever you want it to start. So when we do, when I do financial planning, it's more like, okay, we're, we're talking about retirement, but more, more importantly, we're talking about what are your goals along the way? You know, what do you want to achieve five years from now, 10 years from now? And let's create a plan to make those things happen. We don't just have to think about saving money for 30 years from now. You know, you want to let, let's make some of those retirement dreams happen now let's live that retirement lifestyle a little bit now. And you know, because the fact of the matter is life is short and a lot of times we don't, people don't make it all the way to retirement, or by the time we get there, we're frail and feeble and maybe we don't have the energy or capacity to do some of these things that we wanted to do. So it's more about like, let's create this financially independent lifestyle and let's figure out a way that we can do that and we can still think about the long term and make sure that we are set up for that as well.


Speaker 1Yeah. Because it can be really overwhelming, right? Thinking about retirement and for those of you that haven't even started yet and and thinking about, well, I want this, like you said, $2.5 million home in California, but I am nowhere in a position right now to do that. Yeah. Right. That can be very overwhelming. It can feel very defeating. But what you said, like it's a journey and take the next step and yeah, think about 30 years from now, but also think about three years from now, five years from now. Yeah. Like start with where you're at. So for people that maybe haven't, that they're in that position where they're super overwhelmed and they're like, I haven't even thought about these things. It's overwhelming, so it's causing me not to address it at all. Like, what would you say to them?


Speaker 2Oh man, you know, it's, it's baby steps, right? You don't have to start out with the perfect plan right away. And I think that's, that's the big thing. People think, oh my gosh, I've gotta put together this financial plan and I've gotta just completely change everything. No, we can start small. And in fact, that's really the only way you can start and the best way you can start. You know, I have a client right now, it's like, we set a goal to save like 20 grand a month, but it's like, okay, wait a minute, I can't do that right now. I know he can get there, but it's like, okay, and it, and he came up with this plan and wants to do this, but putting it into practice, it's like, okay, I don't know where the money's gonna come from necessarily, or where I'm gonna carve it out from my budget. And it's like, okay, hold on a minute. We don't need to start there.


Let's start with a much smaller amount. Let's at least get the habit going, get the momentum going, and then we can slowly make improvements and we can work towards a goal and towards, you know, a certain amount of savings for a specific goal. It's very interesting because, you know, I used a financial planning software to do long-term financial plans and I've, I've used that for years. Some of these clients, you know, when we put together their initial plan, the software gives us a probability of success and you know, we'll plug in the numbers and we'll look at all of it and you know, these are your more traditional financial planning models and it'll say 0% probability of success. And it's like, okay, yes, we know that, you know, this looks like it's a crazy plan, but that's okay. You know, I want clients to dream big. I want them to think huge, make some big outrageous financial goals. Why not?


You know what I mean? And let's see what happens. And, and maybe we get there, maybe we don't get there, but we've got to aim high and we've got to set our sights high and have some inspirational motivational things that can drive us to success.


Speaker 1Yes. And it's really scary. You know, I kind of, I do this same thing with what I do for businesses, which is we'll create a, a growth forecast. Like what is your big, hairy, audacious goal? Where are you at now? And what does the journey look like in numbers to get you there? Right? And first of all, it's really, really scary to sit down and say out loud and see the numbers that tell you there's 0% probability of the, like you feel that in your soul, right? Like, this feels impossible right now and it is scary, but there is so much value in at least getting it out there. Like at least say out loud what you want, see what that looks like in black and white.


Because there's also magic in seeing it in black and white because you can see that it is possible.


Speaker 2Absolutely.


Speaker 1Right. And then the rest is up to you to take those kind of incremental steps. And that's, I feel like that's step one. And even if you're in your process, start with your vision. Start with your vision in time and money. Like get those numbers really ironed out. You had mentioned you have to create the habit. Yes. Right? And so one of my, I have like 10 money myths that I talk about, and one of the money myths that people choose to believe is that I don't make enough to save.


And to that I say saving is more about the habits than it is about the amount that you save. Like if you transfer 50 cents to your savings account, you are saving Yeah. Like you can, and that gives people no excuse to at least start the process of what it's gonna take.


Speaker 2Absolutely. By the way, if you think that you don't make enough money to save, you will never make enough money to save.


I have clients who make half a million dollars or more a year and struggling to figure out how to save. And other people are like, well, I could save so much money. You know, because it's this lifestyle thing. And our lifestyles expand and they creep and they move and you know, we sign up for things, we sign up for subscriptions and you know, before we know it, there's nothing left in the budget. And you really have to treat savings like a bill. Hmm. You've gotta treat it like this is an absolute must. This is something that's gotta be paid. And there is, there really is something to the psychology of having that big, hairy, audacious goal. You know, it really anchors you and it affects your behavior.


It affects the way that you approach everything. If you have some really specific goals and a and a really specific vision of where you want to go and what you wanna achieve, you're gonna think differently about your spending habits. It's just going to happen very naturally. So you really have to have to do that. It, you know, there, there's really some powerful psychology there that, that underlies, you know, having that, that vision. The other thing too is, you know, you can, there's so much you can do mentally, you know, if you're struggling with like, you know, accumulating credit card debt, and by the way, there's no shame in credit card debt. I know, you know, people who make tons of money and have credit card debt. So, you know, it, it really doesn't say anything about, you know, how much money you make if you have credit card debt. It, it's a, it's a phenomenon that happens to people at all income levels. Yes.


But I just had a conversation with a client, 'cause I did this, you know, when I was starting my business, you know, there wasn't a lot of income and I was putting stuff on credit cards and accumulating credit card debt, and that was not a very good fi you know, financially savvy practice, you know, and, and the other thing too is I was withdrawing money from my retirement accounts and, and kind of depleting those in order to help myself get through those early first years. I had to say to myself, okay, I'm drawing a line in the sand and here's the line.


No more. We're done, we're done putting money on credit cards. I'm, you know, the credit cards I have, I'm just going to work on paying those down. Whatever I'm capable of paying those down. But any new spending, I'm just gonna spend the cash that I have. And I said, and the other thing too is I'm not gonna take a dime out of my retirement accounts. That's just, we're just gonna, right here, we're just gonna draw this line in the sand right here, and that's it. And you may think, oh, well that's just, you know, that's silly. It's just, you know, words. But it's powerful. And, and if you do that for yourself, you really can, you know, draw that line and you really can make that change for yourself if you're committed to it. I just had this conversation with a client who has, he started his practice a couple of years ago.


He's all by himself and he's been struggling with some credit card debts. And I, I, we had this conversation and he said, okay, you know what? I did what you said. I'm not putting any more money on the credit cards. I'm just spending the money I have. And another thing, and this is, you know, going into a whole nother topic on cash management, but I, the other advice I gave him was to pay himself weekly. I, there's no reason you can't just pay, pay yourself weekly. And then, you know, okay, for this week, here's how much money I have. That's it. Okay. So, yeah. And, and that's a big one for attorneys I find for law firm owners, is managing the cash flow and figuring out ways that you can do that.


You own your own company, so pay yourself a regular salary. And why not pay yourself weekly? You don't, you don't have to pay yourself monthly. Pay yourself in a way that's gonna give you the best money habits.


Speaker 1Yes. Oh my gosh. So much of what you said. So like, first of all, I feel like having that vision, like what we're talking about here, give us your big hairy, audacious goals and we'll show you in time and money and retirement what that looks like for you. The other gift that you're giving yourself when you come to the table and say those out loud and allow people like us to map that out in numbers for you, is that you have a direction, you have like a compass of which you can make these decisions in life, right? Like, do I save this money or do I buy a few more outfits on sheen with this money?


Right? And those, it gives you naturally, like you said, this naturally happens when you have that vision, that goal, that directions set, naturally, you're going to make decisions based off of that goal because that's what you're working towards. Also, naturally, you're going to be faced with what I call financial boundaries, right. And what you can and cannot do. And also knowing your limits. And I, I could feel a sense of relief on behalf of the listeners when they're listening to you. The guy that preaches this stuff say, you know what? I did this right when I started my business, I did this. Like I'm human too.


These are some of the decisions that we have to make. But at some point you have to draw that line in the sand and that's where people are faced with the task of managing their actual cash. And people are different. And you have to understand what's gonna work for you may not be what works for the next person, right? Some people can't get paid one time a month and manage it for 30 days. Some people work best when they are managing from week to week. And it's not that one's right or one's wrong, or that one's better or worse. It's, you have to know what works best for you. Yeah.


Speaker 2Absolutely. And, and you know, depending on your own strengths and weaknesses and also your own circumstances, I mean, I, I know people who get paid quarterly and it's like, okay, now how do we manage that? And I have some clients I'm working with that get paid quarterly and they're like, okay, our money comes in and then it's, we just spend it down, down, down, down, down. And then we're getting close to zero, you know, around the time it's time to get paid again. Maybe we put a little bit on credit cards 'cause we're a little bit behind, and then boom, we get an influx, influx of cash pay off the credit cards.


Now we've got our money to spend. And the conversation I had with them was, okay, how about getting just one cycle ahead of that cycle?


Hmm. So if you get paid $50,000 a quarter, how about at the end of the quarter, instead of having zero, you have 50,000. Hmm. And you're just one quarter ahead. See how much less stressful, how much peace that gives you, right?


Speaker 1Yes. Yes. It's that sense of almost like, regardless of when you get paid, I think that people need to understand that you are still in control of your cash, right? Like yeah, you use a multi-bank account, cash management system that works for business and personal. Yes. Just because you get cash in your account once a month doesn't mean that you give yourself access to it once a month. Maybe you use a cash system that only drips it into your spending accounts once a week. Like you still have that control. I think people need to, to know that. And there are yes. Manage it still.


Speaker 2I definitely, I definitely preach that the multiple bank accounts thing, you gotta separate it out. Your money coming into you from your business shouldn't go directly into your spending account, but it's somewhere else. Let that fluctuate and then pay yourself a regular amount that's gonna help you. So, so, so very much. And you know, it's funny because the basics seem like, you know, everybody knows this, right? Like one of the basics is have a, a sufficient emergency fund. It's something everybody knows, right? It's piece.


Speaker 1Of psychology part, right?


Speaker 2Right. But then it's like, so many people I talk to, they don't have one. It's like something we know we should do. Like, oh, I know I should eat better, you know, I know I shouldn't have those french fries, but it's like the practice of it, it's so hard to put it into practice sometimes. And so sometimes people just need a professional, they need somebody else to come alongside them and help them and, you know, motivate them to get these things set up and put into place. But, you know, these are the basics and the basics work and the basics help. And, you know, we hear this, I should have this emergency fund and the, but I think one, maybe one of the things that people don't hear is that that emergency fund should be separate.


Speaker 1Not easily acquired, not easily accessed. Yes. Yes. Yeah.


Speaker 2Hi, hide money. Hide money from yourself.


Speaker 1Absolutely. It's that like we have to know ourselves, right? It's that psychology piece of if you know, you're a person that if you log into your banking app and you see what you can spend, but then you also see what you're saving. Like, you know, where your mind goes when you see that savings account. Like, ooh, I could get a new deck with that, or that car down payment is sitting right there. Like, it's very tempting.


Speaker 2Yeah. Wait, here's another little trick, right? Let's say you have $50,000 in your, in your savings account, or that's what you need in your emergency fund, right? Don't put it all in one account. $50,000 in one account makes you feel a lot wealthier than $10,000 in five accounts.


Speaker 1Hmm.


Speaker 2It's a, it's a very subtle trick, but your mind, when you see that big dollar amount, you're like, Ooh, I've got a lot of money. But when you just see a bunch of, a bunch of accounts with small amounts of money, you don't feel as wealthy, you'll be less tempted to spend big bucks.


Speaker 1I I love that. Like tricking our minds, like biohacking our own minds.


Speaker 2Absolutely. Yeah. Why not?


Speaker 1Yes. Yes. And it's not, it's, it's an ongoing thing. It's not something that you can just, you know, come to one of us and you have this plan and you're done and you start doing it. Like you need that support in your life. You need that regular touchpoint in your life. And like you said, and I say the same thing, you should be meeting with your advisor at a minimum twice a year just to have a conversation, just to get them updated on what your, your goals in life are and what you're headed towards. Because look, our goals change, right? Yeah. We dream big until we get there and now we have to dream bigger and that changes the numbers.


So meeting with you regularly I think is one of those things that people can do in their business and at an individual level to really hold themselves accountable and tap into your expertise and like all these amazing things that you're saying that are just these little things we can do to actually make this come to life for ourselves.


Speaker 2For sure. Yeah. And it's the implementation, that's the hard part. You know, creating a plan, knowing what you should do, you know, that's easy, so to speak, you know, somewhat, but putting it into action and actually implementing it and actually taking action on it, you know, that can be a lot, lot more difficult. So that's why for my clients, you are more often we're meeting quarterly or monthly to really get these things put together and, and address things as they're changing.


Speaker 1I love it. Yeah. Even, I mean, the more you can tap into it's like motivation. It's not, it's like a bath, right? You have to keep doing these things, you have to stay on it. But, you know, I think at the root of actually implementing this in your life, it goes back to where you start with your people. Like what is it that you want? I think a lot of people haven't even thought about that. So for those of you listening that are in that place, like think about what it is that you want and write it down. Like, and, and I talk about this, no matter what business you're in, you're the leader.


Even if you have a me a fractional C F O and you have a, you, you know, a financial advisor and you have a team and you have all these people, you create the vision, you are that compass. And if you don't figure out what your personal compass is, you can't possibly lead these team of people towards that vision for yourself.


Speaker 2Yeah. We get so caught up in working in our businesses, we forget to step back and say to ourselves, wait a minute, what am I doing this for? Is it just to get, you know, grow a great business? Is it just to get more and more clients? I think so often we get so focused on that and, and the work and the busyness and I, I, oh, I gotta get to work and I gotta do this meeting and I gotta do that. And we forget to step back and say, okay, there's a purpose behind all of this, which is why at a certain point in your business, it's important to make a very strategic pivot from growth only to profit maximization.


You know, in the early phase of your business you might be reinvesting, reinvesting, reinvesting, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow. But then at a certain point you need to step back and say, okay, I need to use this business to actually grow my net worth. And at that point, you need to start thinking about cost effectiveness, developing efficiency in your business. How can we really drive this, you know, and create this into a really powerful machine that's going to enable me to meet those goals that I have for myself.


Speaker 1Yeah. It, it's those moments in time where it's what got me here is not gonna be the same thing that gets me to the next place. And that's one of the things that I appreciate about your approach is you're not just looking at the 30 year plan, you value the present moment, which is why you're like, look, we're not going to invest so much into retirement that you can't enjoy today. Right? Yeah. And that's a very delicate balance and it looks very different for people. But I think it's important because people would feel that pressure of, okay, I have to sacrifice everything today. Right? And that's just not the case.


So it's those unique boundaries that we have to juggle and revisit and, and yes, whether it's monthly, quarterly, biannual, some people do annual planning, like step outta the bubble, step outta the moment for right now and like reassess the bigger picture while balancing the present.


Speaker 2For sure. Yeah. It is so important to do that because it's so easy just to get lost in the day-to-day stuff. And we really have to keep the big picture front and center. One of the things we do for clients is we create a one page financial plan for them that has a summary of their big numbers, their their key numbers personally, but then also their goals so that they can keep that front and center. So often I've created plans for clients and we forget what those goals were. Wait, wait a minute, what were we planning for? What did we really want? So I was like, okay, we have to keep this front and center. Here are the goals, here are the things, you know, long-term. Here's the intermediate stuff, here's the stuff we wanna accomplish this year.


Like let's keep that very central in our focus.


Speaker 1Yes intention. But yes, we de we definitely need intention to come back to the table periodically. I love that. And so for people that are listening and wanna reach out to you, wanna see, you know, if you would make a good partner for them and then even for people that are listening that maybe haven't gotten started, how can we get in touch with you and what resources would you suggest people go and check out?


Speaker 2Yeah, absolutely. The best way to learn about me is to go to the lawyer millionaire.com. There you've got my book is there, you can check out the book, you can even download a sample of that. There's also the podcast link to the podcast if you're interested in personal or business, anything about finance, financial success related to law firm owners, check that out. That's a great resource for you. And also on that page, there is a calendar, so you can schedule a meeting with me if you wanna chat about anything related to your own personal planning.


Speaker 1Yes. And we will put the links to the website and the book and the podcast in the show notes. And if you're listening and you don't own a law firm or even a business, I have looked through this book and skimmed it and I'm going to read it in its entirety. But even if that's not you, like I would suggest you get this book, like I think Daring could put out a book for the individual on everything that he outlines in there because there truly are so many nuggets in there that you can take from this no matter your position in life. So.


Speaker 2Well thank you so much Chelsea. I appreciate that.


Speaker 1Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for contributing your wisdom and knowledge on the podcast. You're.


Speaker 2Welcome. It's great being here.


Speaker 1Hey listeners, if you heard this episode and you're left feeling behind, if you're one who doesn't have the first step of knowing what lifestyle you're looking to live and what, what we're calling retirement or knowing how much money you need to reach that place, if you don't have that vision to begin to assign numbers to, I have something I want to gift you. I have a simple calculator to help you figure this out. It's only step one, but step one is the biggest and most important step you can take when planning to live by design inside of retirement. It's a tool that will help you consider all the things, get you thinking about what it is that you want, what your vision is, and it's a tool you can take directly to your financial professional and give it to them so that they can plug the numbers into your plan and work with you to make it better and clearer.


You can access the tool called What is Your Retirement Number on our website in the free resources section. This doesn't have to be overwhelming and remember Darren's words, even when he plugs numbers into the computer and the computer tells them there's a 0% likelihood of this actually happening. We know what the data doesn't. We know we have the drive, ambition, and willingness to make it happen.


If you liked this episode, be sure to show us some love by subscribing and turning on those notifications. You can find me on Instagram under The Money Whisper, and also where we encourage you to contribute to join the conversation, ask questions and share your thoughts so we can create more episodes tailored exactly to what you wanna know about Money. I'm your host and your personal Money whisperer. Until next time, remember, it is always and never about the money.