The Pete the Planner® Show

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Ep. 172: Lynette is in her mid 30’s and trying to do it all. Jul 11, 2017

Show notes

Meet Lynette. Lynette’s main concerns, in her own words: My husband (38) and I (34) paid off all our debt, except our mortgage. We have a toddler, and a dog. We’re about to move to another state and will be... Read More

Ep. 171: Mailbag Jul 06, 2017

Show notes

On this episode of the Million Dollar Plan, I answer your questions. Once a month, or every four weeks or so, I like to dive into my mailbox and revisit some of your emails. They intrigue me–I never know what I’m... Read More

Ep. 170: Jordan, a school teacher, reverses roles as I grade him on his financial life. Jul 04, 2017

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Meet Jordan. Jordan’s main concerns, in his own words: I am a school teacher with two children under 4 and a third on the way. I have a net worth of $110,000 but only an income of $50,000 because my... Read More

Ep. 169: Setting Your Financial Rules. Jun 29, 2017

Show notes

This week, I’m talking about rules. You need rules to live by. For each component of your life you need to set some personal rules, or standards if you will, that apply to you and your everyday obligations. If you don’t–you are going to struggle through each part of you life. And that..sounds..miserable. Anyways, when I say you need rules, these rules do not have to be you declaring complex, multi-part thesis statements in order for you to gain credit. No. These rules just need to be personal standards you set up as barriers and guidelines that work for you, your obligations and goals. *Example time* One of my co-worker’s rules is that she doesn’t eat fast food. It isn’t that she is against it, she’s just set a standard to make a conscious decision of picking a different option. So, when she has lunch in the office and someone brings in taco bell she’s not lusting and drooling for a part of that cheesy gordita crunch. Nope, she’s good. She’s set her rule and it has become a part of her every day life style. You can go about setting these rules, in which ever way you’d like. They can be religious, they can be ethical, they can be apart of a moral standard you uphold–whatever. Your rules just need to set up guidelines that are going to get to you abide by said rules every day. So, what are your financial rules? If you don’t have any or are still working through what you want your financial standards to be, that’s ok. Grab a piece of paper, start writing them down. I want to know about, and I’m going to talk about these more with you today, what your: * Budgeting and Spending Rules * Debt and Saving Rules * Major Purchase Rules * Rules about Your Future As you move through different stages of your financial life, some of your rules may change a little bit. Again, that’s ok, just make sure that your rules/standards consistently reflect your financial obligations and goals. I’ll be here to help you stick to your rules and work towards your goals.

Ep. 168: The Return of Omar Jun 27, 2017

Show notes

In October of 2016, I talked with Omar about a daunting feat: to retire by 40. When we first talked to him, here were his main concerns in his own words: I think my wife and I could make for an interesting case study. We’re both 30 with aspirations of achieving very early financial independence/retirement by 40. Neither one of us are doctors/lawyers/engineers (I feel like all the high-earners typically are), and started at 22 out of college with a combined income of $47,000 per year (living right outside of NYC – yikes!). My wife actually stepped away from her job at 24 to pursue an additional bachelor’s degree in an entirely different field (she had originally majored in dance and English, then went back to school for astrophysics … yes, you read that correctly) while I walked away from what I had envisioned my lifetime career being (working in the professional sports world) to pursue a job at a market research firm in sales. We had somewhat of an epiphany last year after our first child was born that we really had seen our salaries/careers inflate without our lifestyle following behind (we’re currently making a combined income of $195,000 per year before bonuses). The epiphany moment occurred after an opportunity for a significant life change (moving to California, and a chance for a large pay bump for me but to be a single income household and have my wife stay home without baby) came and we passed on it. We determined that more money wouldn’t increase our level of happiness – but more time would. After sitting down and attempting to learn as much as possible about investing, we fell into the blogosphere of the early retirement/financial independence world (I actually uncovered Pete through Stacking Benjamins which came via a Paula Pant recommendation). After consuming dozens of podcasts/blogs/personal finance books, we’ve worked pretty hard to optimize our finances as much as possible in the last year. A year ago I didn’t know the difference between a traditional 401K vs. a Roth 401k; fast forward a year and I can hold a pretty solid conversation regarding why I don’t believe in the advantages of a Roth 401k for someone pursuing early retirement (I’d rather execute a Roth IRA conversion ladder upon early retirement). With all that being said, most of what I’ve learned is self-taught, and would be nice to get a second opinion and explore any angles I may have not thought about or left out. This could either be an interesting podcast for people who are good with their money but can see what possibilities are there if they strive to become great (worst case scenario here is I’m a few years off and 45 is more realistic). It could also be an awful podcast since Pete could crush my hopes and dreams or people would find a couple making nearly $200K a year and trying to retire by 40 unrelatable and downright obnoxious (actually, this pretty much describes how my wife would have felt 2 years ago … heck, she might even feel this way now!). Almost a year later, he’s back to discuss his progress and his goals. Planning to still retire by 40, Omar (currently 31) has a little over $300,000 in investments and his big push for 2017 is to set aside $100,000. With medical bills, housing repairs and other unexpected life happenings in 2017, Omar is having to do a little investing re-evaluation to hit his $100k.

Ep. 167: The Four Stages of Your Financial Life Jun 22, 2017

Show notes

This week, we’re talking about The Four Stages of Your Financial Life. In your financial life there are 15, yes count’em, 15 things that you need to do. 15 sounds daunting, doesn’t it? If you write them all down that’s not a quick post-it note, it is a full blown and hardy list. That’s why I’ve broken up your financial life into four stages for you to accomplish those 15 things in. Because how much nicer of a number does four sound than 15. Your financial life starts between the age of 18 to 22 and goes all the way until you retire around the age of 67-ish. In your financial life, you are going to work through four different stages. I like to call those: Survivin’, Drivin’, Arrivin’ and Thrivin’ (yes, I know those rhymed). Within each of those four stages I have broken up those 15 things you need to accomplish appropriately in each. When you have completed the designated set of “to-do’s” in each category, you can move onto the next the stage. Before we dive into all you need to get done, we’re going to do a little self-evaluation. If you’ve been following my blog or podcast for a while you know I’m big on the self-evaluation. It gives us a starting point. A great inside to not only where you are in your financial life, but it will tell us the stage you’re in and whether there are things you need to catch up on or plan for. In this episode I will break down each stage and the tasks they include for you to successfully, at your own pace, make it to the next stage of your financial life. You may be sitting there reading this and asking yourself, “How long does it take to make it through each stage?” Excellent question. It will be different for each individual, and that’s the beautiful thing about it. It may take a fresh college graduate who started a respectable salaried job right after school only two or three years to get out of survivin’. While it may take someone who has restarted their financial life 10 years to accomplish all the tasks in the first stage. This is where the 15 things come into role as: goals. Goals are apart of why I created these stages, to help focus on individual tasks to be accomplished. If you aren’t setting and working towards a goal(s), then you could be survivin’ for the rest of your life. You don’t want that, and I don’t want that. Focus on working towards your goals. The more your focus on them, the sooner you’ll make it through to the next. I’ll be here to help you through each and every stage along the way.

Ep. 166: Melissa has saved for retirement since the age of 25 and is getting ready to reap the benefits. Jun 20, 2017

Show notes

Meet Melissa. Melissa’s main concerns, in her own words: My base pay is $74,800 plus overtime on top of that. I have been saving for a house aggressively since January 2015 at about $700 a paycheck (last month I scaled that down to $500) plus any extra money I made from switching to work the night shift as well as tax refunds. I now have $58,000 saved. $50,000 will be for the down payment and the rest is a catch-all for vacations, car repair, and immediate house expenses when I find one. I am looking to buy a house later this summer, I know my expenses will increase some and the amount I am saving will decrease. I already have a separate emergency fund of $50,000. I max out my retirement at $18,000 a year that, as of January 2015, is all Roth (total value $189,000), a Roth IRA $5,500 a yr (total value $74,000) and an play account of several single stocks I purchased for $1,500 (total value $1,900), plus a separate international travel account of $700 that I deposit $200 a paycheck into. My question is what do I do next? My minimum retirement age is 53 (I will have access to retirement funds without penalty) but I have a mandatory retirement age of 57. I am looking to buy a house on a 10 or 15 yr mortgage if I can comfortably afford the payments. I plan to have the house paid for when I retire. I will have a pension that I estimate will be $2,900 a month. If my plan stays the same and I choose to move back to my home state after retirement, I have some paid off land and I’d like to build a home on using $$ from the sale of this house. But where else can I save money for growth that I can access when I retire at age 53 and how does that work from a tax stand point? Please help, I don’t know where else to go from here.

Ep. 165 Life Insurance Jun 15, 2017

Show notes

*important editor’s note: in light of recent listeners’ feedback, it has been brought to my attention last week’s show had too many jokes, too many personal stories, and not enough information. This week, I switched it up a little bit. All information, no jokes. If a joke just happens to slip, at least I can say I tried* I’ve been getting a lot of questions on the blog and during my podcast lately about life insurance. And honestly–not nearly enough of you have the amount of coverage you and your family need. This–I’m going to be frank– is alarming to me. I’m not sure if some of you don’t understand how much is necessary, if you don’t know where to start, or if you just don’t realize the quick u-turn things will take for your family should something bad happen to you.You need life insurance. You really need life insurance. I get it, I don’t like thinking about not being around to support my family, but who does? (I chose a great topic to do a joke-less episode)but none-the-less just because you don’t want to think about it doesn’t mean it evaporates into thin air and becomes any less important. However, I digress. Life insurance isn’t us trying to out run the inevitable, it’s about creating one less worry after the passing of a loved one. It is meant to pick up any financial pieces for your family should anything bad ever happen to you or a loved one. Over the course of your lifetime you are going to pay several thousand dollars for a benefit you’ll never see a cent of, and that’s okay! Because life insurance isn’t for you, it’s for your survivors. Buying life insurance isn’t just a financial decision, it’s a long-term commitment to caring for your family. In this episode I’m going to break down all you need know about making sure you have the adequate amount of coverage, into three segments. *****During this episode, I misspoke and said AD&D stood for Accidental Death and Disability. That’s not right. Apparently removing jokes from my brain made me ignore dismemberment. AD&D stands for Accidental Death and Dismemberment. Ah yes, dismemberment.

Ep. 164: Brian’s paid off over $60,000 in debt and is ready to get back on track. Jun 13, 2017

Show notes

Meet Brian. Brian’s main concerns, in his own words: My wife and I are in our early 30’s. We have been on the wrong track financially for years. We got ourselves into some serious financial trouble early on in our marriage. Since then we have made a serious turn around. We have paid off somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-80K in debt in the last 2 years. We are starting to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have paid off her student loans, our car, and all credit cards. We feel like it’s time to start preparing for the next step and don’t really know where to turn. I have 14k left on student loans and a small amount of medical. We have very little in retirement and about 8k in savings. We need guidance on where to go from here.

Ep.163: The Reality Gap Jun 08, 2017

Show notes

This week on the Pete the Planner® Show, I’m going to be talking about: The Reality Gap. Ah, the reality gap–so, this is what I’m really into right now and I’m going to explain and walk you through this concept. But first I want to talk about that there are actually a lot of applications to this, however for the time being, what I want you to focus on is your financial health reality gap. So, if you will, think about your financial life and how you think you’re doing in two different ways: how you think you’re doing , a little self evaluation if you will, of where you feel your financial life is at. This may stem from how you good you feel about your current income level or how you good you feel about the medical bills, student loans, ect. that you are paying off. And then, you knew this had to be the second part, *sigh* there is how you are actually doing. After evaluating on how you think you’re doing, we need an objective measure to show us how you’re actually doing and the difference between how you think you’re doing and how you’re actually doing. That, my friend, is the Reality Gap.

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