309: [Michael Scarpati] Empowering Your Financial Journey: A Guide for the Sandwich Generation
In this episode, we explore the often-overlooked aspects of financial awareness with Michael Scarpati, a seasoned financial professional dedicated to empowering individuals on their journey to financial literacy. We kick off the conversation by addressing the blind spots that many encounter in their financial planning, particularly when it comes to retirement. Michael emphasizes the importance of understanding your financial landscape and recognizing the red flags that could derail your goals. We delve into actionable steps to transform these red flags into green flags, including utilizing tools like the Financial Checkpoint to assess your retirement readiness.
We also discuss the significance of working with an independent fiduciary, someone who is legally obligated to prioritize your best interests. Michael shares insights on how to vet financial professionals and the qualifications to look for, ensuring you receive trustworthy advice. As we navigate the complexities of financial planning, we touch on the importance of starting early, especially when it comes to saving for your children's education through 529 plans.
Join us as we unpack these essential topics and more, helping you take control of your financial future with confidence!
Takeaways:
- Understanding your financial blind spots is crucial for effective planning and achieving your retirement goals.
- Utilize free tools like the Financial Checkpoint to identify red flags in your financial strategy.
- Working with an independent fiduciary can provide you with trustworthy, personalized financial advice.
- Early planning for children's education through 529 plans can significantly impact their future financial stability.
- Clarity on your financial goals is essential for creating a roadmap to success.
Chapters:
- 00:00 - Understanding Financial Advice
- 00:21 - Understanding Financial Awareness: The Journey Begins
- 12:09 - Understanding Financial Planning and Its Importance
- 19:38 - Planning for Children's Futures
- 23:37 - Navigating Parenthood and Financial Planning
- 28:46 - Understanding Wealth and Financial Mistakes
- 32:52 - Cooking and Favorite Dishes
Links referenced in this episode:
- https://retireus.com/
- https://www.instagram.com/retire.us/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-a-scarpati/
Thank you for tuning in! Your support helps us empower more people to build strong financial habits and engage in meaningful conversations about money.
📩 Join the About That Wallet Monthly Newsletter for budgeting tips, saving strategies, and more:
👉 https://aboutthatwallet.com/newsletter
✨ Follow Anthony Weaver:
Instagram: @AboutThatWallet
Twitter: @AboutThatWallet
Website: aboutthatwallet.com
⚠️ DISCLAIMER:
This content is for educational purposes only and is not financial advice. Always consult a licensed financial professional when needed.
Episode 309
Transcript
This episode is sponsored by Retire Us.
Speaker B:And so, you know, that's the big thing is understanding, right?
Speaker B:Becoming more aware of where you're seeking financial advice and guidance, especially in the investment space.
Speaker B:That is the person on the other side of the equation.
Speaker B:An independent fiduciary, meaning independent.
Speaker B:They're not tied to a specific financial institution.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:They work for you.
Speaker B:They don't work for somebody else.
Speaker B:And fiduciary, meaning they have to, in the eyes of law, they're legally obligated to give you advice that's in your best interest.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:That is the keys to kind of feeling a little bit more confident that you can trust the.
Speaker B:The advice that you're being given.
Speaker A:Welcome everybody back to another exciting show, the about that Water podcast, where we help the sandwich generation build strong financial habits so that they can talk about money, spend money, and enjoy the their money with confidence.
Speaker A:Today I have somebody who has been in this industry for over at least 15, 20 years at this point now, and he is willing to kind of share this lovely information to you all so that we can actually start saving up for that retirement and figuring out what we're going to do with the excess money that we have.
Speaker A:And, Michael, thank you so much for coming to the show.
Speaker B:My pleasure.
Speaker B:Thank you for having me, man.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So the very first question that I have for you to kind of kick this off is that we always have a lot of blind spots in our finances, and we just don't know where to go with it.
Speaker A:So what are some of those red flags that we should start focusing on to kind of turn those red flags into green flags with our finances?
Speaker B:It's a good place to start, right when we're thinking.
Speaker B:Financial consciousness at its core is the biggest issue to become conscious is we don't know what we don't know.
Speaker B:We don't know where to start.
Speaker B:The blind spots are those areas that we probably are just unaware of at the current state.
Speaker B:And that's kind of.
Speaker B:This first step is starting to create some awareness around what are the.
Speaker B:The major red flag.
Speaker B:So actually, on the retired US Platform, you can access a free tool that we have that pulls these red flags out.
Speaker B:It's called a financial checkpoint.
Speaker B:Takes like four minutes, free tool.
Speaker B:And it will give you an assessment on things like retirement place pacing and tax planning.
Speaker B:But I think the most valuable component of it is actually bringing out the red flag.
Speaker B:So red flags are things like, have we calculated our retirement goal?
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Do we actually know where we're headed?
Speaker B:That huge red flag?
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:If we're just saving arbitrarily without knowing where we're headed.
Speaker B:How do we possibly know what that investment account should be doing, what types of rates of return it should target, how much risk should be associated with it, how much we should be saving into it?
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So that's a major red flag.
Speaker B:The investments being out of alignment or our market risk being too high, or our inflation risks being too high.
Speaker B:Things that we're just not consciously taking a look at on a regular basis, that can really hurt us in the long run if we're not aware of it.
Speaker B:So the best way to turn them into green flags is first you got to list them out, you got to find them, you got to figure out are the ones that are really applying to you because it's going to be different.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Depending on who you are.
Speaker B:And then educating ourselves, that second step in the financial consciousness journey is literacy.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So we start as unconsciously incompetent.
Speaker B:We don't know what we don't know.
Speaker B:The second step is now we know areas where we gotta spend a little bit more time educating ourselves.
Speaker B:So literacy kind of comes next.
Speaker B:And that's where the red flag should give you that direction.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Start learning, start, start figuring out kind of what, what you need to understand more about your own financial situation to, to start to turn them into, into green flags.
Speaker A:I like that because there was a report done by the Federal Reserve bank of Minneapolis and they said approximately 28% of Americans report having no retirement savings, while significant 40% lack access to employer sponsored retirement plans like the 401 or the 435.
Speaker A:And so, you know, just because they don't have access doesn't mean they shouldn't start.
Speaker A:So where would somebody really start diving into it?
Speaker A:You said go to your website to start looking at figuring out where those flags are.
Speaker A:But what is it like a tool or anything like that just to kind of get people familiar?
Speaker A:Is there like a, what they call like paper money where they can start playing around and to just kind of get familiar with different tools that you recommend?
Speaker B:Yeah, I think the big thing is starting to get comfortable with our own financial situation.
Speaker B:Helps us understand where the best place to go next is.
Speaker B:And what I mean by that is do we really know what we need from our savings?
Speaker B:You know, the habits are the things that are going to drive us.
Speaker B:But at the end of the day, where do we want to go?
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:What's the direction that we're moving in?
Speaker B:Everybody wants to build wealth, right?
Speaker B:There's nothing special about that.
Speaker B:It's a matter of what is the timeline for what, what's purpose that, that wealth, what are you going to use it for?
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Is it for retirement?
Speaker B:Is it for higher education?
Speaker B:Is it for kids and, and you know, their livelihood or their higher education potentially down, down in, in the future?
Speaker B:Is it for, for legacy long term?
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So, so having clarity on what we really want to accomplish, I think is, is really the first key step because that's how, you know, that's how you can kind of unravel it.
Speaker B:You start at the end goal.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker B:That's, that's, I think that's where most people just kind of start arbitrarily saving somewhere.
Speaker B:Whether That's a savings account, 401k.
Speaker B:And we don't know if it's right for us.
Speaker B:We don't know what we need to do to hold it accountable.
Speaker B:We don't know what the real true, you know, what means it's doing well versus not doing well.
Speaker B:All that is relative based off of what it's for and the timeline and the understanding of how that's going to come to fruition and what it means for success.
Speaker B:And so I think that the first step that people need to take is taking inventory.
Speaker B:Actually it's taking inventory on your current lifestyle is taking inventory on, you know, what that that lifestyle will cost in the future.
Speaker B:For retirement generally is a really good place to kind of plan another flag and, and start planning around and then doing the work, doing the math to find the in between.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:What do we need to do to take us from where we are right now to the, to the promised land.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:So to where we want to end up.
Speaker B:That's where a lot of times, you know, interfacing with a professional starts to become helpful is to build the map, build the roadmap and, and help us understand what that means for our day to day decision making.
Speaker A:And you said, you mentioned a professional because it's one of the things that a lot of people have right now is trust.
Speaker A:Everybody's leaning towards AI or trying to find some other online solution before they talk to somebody.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:How do you vet that person?
Speaker B:Well, that's a great question.
Speaker B:And people have trust issues in the financial services industry and they should, they have issues and they should.
Speaker B:Because the financial service industry is not built to provide everybody the highest quality advice possible.
Speaker B:It is actually top heavy in the opposite direction.
Speaker B:So 85 to 90% of licensed financial professionals have no fiduciary standard over their clients.
Speaker B:Meaning that in the eyes of the law they do not have to be giving advice that is absolutely in the best interest of the client.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So it's a very small subset that actually exists in the industry that you can, you know, hold them accountable and say, hey, I'm gonna take you to court if I don't feel like this was in my best interest because they have that fiduciary standard.
Speaker B:And so, you know, that's the big thing is, is understanding.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Becoming more aware of where you're seeking financial advice and guidance, especially in the investment space.
Speaker B:That is the person on the other side of the equation.
Speaker B:An independent fiduciary, meaning independent, they're not tied to a specific financial institution.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:They work for you, they don't work for somebody else.
Speaker B:And fiduciary, meaning they have to in the eyes of the law, they are legally obligated to give you advice that's in your best interest.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:That is the keys to kind of feeling a little bit more confident that you can trust the, the advice that you're being given.
Speaker B:The problem is, is, is it's not super abundant in, in the, in the industry right now.
Speaker B:The platform, the retired US Platform is actually meant to solve that in a big way.
Speaker B:We pair you with those independent fiduciary financial professionals so that you can, you know, know that the advice is, is legally going to be in, in the best interest for, for you to the best of the ability of the, of the advisor.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I believe most of, because you're bringing up the law and it's one of the things that I, I like to make sure everybod because that's one of the things is, you know, for me as a coach, I'm coaching, just kind of guiding them through, but I'm not telling them exactly what to do because personal finance is personal.
Speaker A:And you have a certification called the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor.
Speaker A:So can you dive in, just kind of like hand wave over like what is that?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Another great question that, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm pretty far removed now from the, from the direct day to day financial planning, acting as the CEO of retired U.S. however, the credentialing, you know, I've been in this industry for 15 years at the same standpoint.
Speaker B:So the credentialing comes in.
Speaker B:There's a handful of designations and credentials you can get.
Speaker B:Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor is one of them where there's more of a focus on retirement planning and strategy and building systems for retirement.
Speaker B:Certified Financial Planner is another one.
Speaker B:That's the highest designation really in the field field.
Speaker B:And that is all encompassing, from taxes to legacy, to, to investments.
Speaker B:You know that there's a lot of different components that go into the certified financial planner.
Speaker B:So that's a really good designation to, to look for specifically if you're focused on planning and you're looking to build out frameworks and structure for how to drive your decision making.
Speaker B:So, yeah, those are, those are some good designations to, to look into.
Speaker B:But then there's also security licensing.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So financial planners need to be licensed with the series, the series seven, the series six.
Speaker B:One of those two is series 65, series 66.
Speaker B:Those are big licenses that you need to hold.
Speaker B:So the, the professionals that are giving advice, you know, you do want to make sure also that they are licensed and in compliance with, you know, with the SEC and FINRA and the regulatory bodies to make sure that it's, you know, it's sound and they've gone through the training that's required as well.
Speaker A:Yeah, thanks for going over that because that's one of the things that we hear a lot.
Speaker A:We see all these acronyms and like, we don't even know what they are half the time.
Speaker A:And I just want to make sure that we have a clear understanding of what that is because, you know, we don't know.
Speaker A:And like I said, we don't know what we don't know.
Speaker A:And it requires more research behind that.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:But why did you decide to get into this particular space?
Speaker A:Like, like, why did you felt that it was good, it was a good time to like, you know, I need to start focusing on retirement.
Speaker A:Why retirement?
Speaker B:So, you know, I've been in this industry for 15 years and I started out as an independent fiduciary financial planner.
Speaker B:That was kind of the track that went down.
Speaker B:So I got to see the consumers from, from a little bit of a different perspective.
Speaker B:You know, there's only a small subset of financial professionals that are in that independent fiduciary track.
Speaker B:And it's just a different, it's just a different lane.
Speaker B:You know, there's, there's more access to products, there's more access to professionals and strategies that you can come in to, to implement and, and support clients with.
Speaker B:And you kind of just saw this recurring trend of people have been working with professionals, you know, licensed financial professionals, but we're just missing.
Speaker B:There was still a lot of gaps, just a lot of gaps in their overall plan, their overall strategies outside of just the investments.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:There's more that goes into this stuff.
Speaker B:You know, how are we managing our cash Flow.
Speaker B:How are we making the right decisions to make sure that we're putting money in the, in the right places?
Speaker B:How does that impact taxes?
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Depending on where you save mathematically based off of how that money is going to be taxed, you're going to end up with a different amount in the future.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Tax prioritization is a major, major thing that changes how much retirement income you will ultimately end up with.
Speaker B:And there's all these different nuanced things that most people are just not paying attention to.
Speaker B:They think financial planning, they think investments.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:They think my portfolio, what, you know, what's my 401k doing?
Speaker B:When in reality those things should all be the result of a bigger plan.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Just because you have investments or a portfolio does not mean that you have a financial plan.
Speaker B:And I saw that year after year when I was really consistently back meeting with clients, operating as a financial professional.
Speaker B:And this theme kept poking out of like, how can we actually make independent fiduciary financial planning more accessible?
Speaker B:How can we make more of this holistic retirement planning more accessible?
Speaker B:And that's kind of how the platform was, was born.
Speaker B:We saw that the, the vast majority of the market is underserved and is not working with this independent fiduciary tier of professional.
Speaker B:And we started building tech and processes and ultimately a business to unlock that for the public.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker A:Because I'm thinking like, usually most people have an event that happens in their lives that kind of push them to kind of get there.
Speaker A:Was it like you just saw like your mom got like, as you could say, taken advantage of, to kind of like, you know what, I don't like this.
Speaker A:Or was it like your dad or something like that was like, you know, I hate the retirement industry or I hate these financial analysts.
Speaker A:Like, they just doing everything wrong for me.
Speaker A:Was that something like that happened for you?
Speaker B:Yeah, it wasn't.
Speaker B:It was.
Speaker B:There's a particular client that actually comes to mind.
Speaker B:So I was already in the business.
Speaker B:It changed my perspective on kind of like the mission behind what I was doing.
Speaker B:And it was, it was a retired couple.
Speaker B:They've been retired for years.
Speaker B:They've been working with a financial professional for years.
Speaker B:And they were dead set that they had the retirement plan all figured out.
Speaker B:And after sitting down with them and reviewing things, there was two key things that were just, aha, moments of wow, this, I really need to do a better job and make it a little more of a mission to have people take a deeper look at what they actually already have.
Speaker B:Because their quote unquote retirement plan across five different accounts.
Speaker B:Everything was in one mutual fund, right?
Speaker B:So the professional put everything in.
Speaker B:It was, it was all the same fund across all accounts.
Speaker B:And these people were retired for many years and they thought that.
Speaker B:So no diversification, ton of unnecessary risks.
Speaker B:And the second thing was the husband had a pension.
Speaker B:He had a pension from his retirement.
Speaker B:So they weren't touching a lot of their savings because the pension was covering most of the expenses, including Social Security.
Speaker B:They were good, they were comfortable.
Speaker B:But when we did a deeper dive, that pension, if anything happens to the husband, that income completely stops.
Speaker B:The wife gets, right?
Speaker B:And so huge, huge thing that needs, you know, a lot of financial planning.
Speaker B:A lot of times you're planning for the worst and hoping for the best, right?
Speaker B:If things are happening positively in the market and you're positively invested, you're going to capture those gains.
Speaker B:But if the negative happens and you're not prepared for it, right.
Speaker B:We're going to fall to the level of the systems that we have in place.
Speaker B:And if we have no system that is meant to account for these things, or in this client's case, an unexpected death in the household dramatically changes everything.
Speaker B:All of a sudden, two social securities turn to one and that one pension disappears, and then what's going to happen?
Speaker B:And all the savings is in one mutual fund.
Speaker B:So that was kind of the.
Speaker B:I left that meeting.
Speaker B:Fortunately, we were able to restructure things for them, set a lot of different things and safeguards in place to protect, you know, even if something happens to the husband now, there's still income and things that will be there for, for, for the surviving spouse.
Speaker B:You know, leaving.
Speaker B:That was like, I kind of approach things a little bit differently where like, before that it was about, you know, I'm entrepreneur, I got to build my, build my business.
Speaker B:It's kind of that, that I think that typical entrepreneur perspective of, you know, business first and a little bit more driven by the, the, the financial gains that come.
Speaker B:Whereas that was kind of the flip moment where I was like, I need to, I need to save, I need to save some of these people that are out there and make sure that they are in a good spot.
Speaker B:Like, I need to make sure people are protected and that their, their financial situation actually is in good standing.
Speaker B:And you know, for me, back when I was in the financial planning world, building up, building out a financial planning practice, that was kind of.
Speaker B:Now that became my why right in the business.
Speaker B:And then that's what's kind of bled into the platform, right?
Speaker B:That's Kind of become the why.
Speaker B:What if we could build tech?
Speaker B:What if we could build a platform to connect people with independent professionals and make it easy, make it cost effective.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Not make it thousands and thousands of dollars or have you required to have hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to access these professionals.
Speaker B:What if we could create a better way to impact people on scale and that, you know, that's how we, we've gotten here to retire us and the platform itself.
Speaker A:That's amazing.
Speaker A:And thank you again for creating such a great platform, easy to use and making it accessible.
Speaker A:One of the things that I'm thinking of now is a lot of the, my listeners have kids and they trying to find the best way to kind of align their finances so that they can make sure that their kids have a solid financial future in a sense of like though the kids never asked for it, it just that the parents, it's almost like their duty to kind of make sure that they, they make this happen.
Speaker A:Is there a, is there something in place right now that you would suggest that they do?
Speaker B:Yeah, well, what I would say is I think we all know this, but kids are expensive and that's not changing.
Speaker B:If anything, with the way inflation's been going, things are just going to get more and more expensive.
Speaker B:One of the big things is higher education.
Speaker B:Education, the inflation rate on education is much higher than traditional inflation that we've seen historically with just regular goods and services.
Speaker B:And so education inflates, higher education inflates at a higher rate.
Speaker B:The biggest asset that you have for your children is time really is to, is to take advantage.
Speaker B:So I think the big trap people fall into is they're waiting a little too long to get started planning for their kids.
Speaker B:You know, the moment that that baby is born, you have the ability to open up like a 529 savings account for, for college savings that will grow tax free for, for higher education purposes.
Speaker B:And even just getting started in that, you know, when they're six months old versus waiting until they're six years old has a massive, massive difference.
Speaker B:And so a lot of times what I've seen really been successful for people to plan for the future is in lieu of, of having a bunch of different gifts and things for, for birthdays for, for the kids, like trying to get maybe one big gift, having people combine, you know, everybody contribute to this pool.
Speaker B:Instead of having a 100 gifts that come through or, you know, maybe that's exorbitant, but see a 10, 10, 15 toys that, you know, they're not going to be able to play with all of them, and it's.
Speaker B:It can be kind of wasteful.
Speaker B:Everybody contribute 20 bucks, if you're okay with that.
Speaker B:What we'll do is we're going to buy them one really cool gift, and we'll deposit the rest into their college fund.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:And you can start to be a little bit more strategic with some of these milestones in the.
Speaker B:In.
Speaker B:In the children's lives to build for them instead of just, you know, getting the dopamine hip of whatever the cool present is now.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Kind of playing a little bit of the middle ground and being more mindful of helping them build for the bigger picture is.
Speaker B:Is definitely something that.
Speaker B:That will pay dividends long term.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:One of my friends, actually a couple of my friends, even my family members, sent me, what's it called, like a 529 gift link and was like, hey, we don't need them to have gifts, but if you can just gift them $20 to their 529, we'll go far, a long way.
Speaker A:And I thought that was actually a pretty cool deal because I usually just give out books.
Speaker A:Like, I. I have a small collection of books.
Speaker A:I always give out books as gifts.
Speaker A:And I was like, man, that ain't bad to actually do that, because I'm not have it.
Speaker A:I don't plan on having any kids because the podcast is my.
Speaker C:My baby.
Speaker B:That's your baby.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker A:So I was like, if y' all want to donate, y' all listen.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's.
Speaker B:That's in.
Speaker B:In the age of technology, it's easier and easier to be more financially savvy.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:The problem is there's so many things that you can do, and sometimes it can be like paralysis by analysis.
Speaker B:There's too many things.
Speaker B:There's too many directions.
Speaker B:So having a, you know, specific lane in mind, like, that's a really great opportunity.
Speaker B:The 529s, these days, there's a link where external parties can contribute.
Speaker C:Boom.
Speaker B:There you go.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm solved.
Speaker A:Too easy.
Speaker A:And so we come out to the third segment here, which is the features.
Speaker A:And this is where we kind of talk about the future for you as a business or even you yourself in your personal life.
Speaker A:So where do you feel that, you know, what areas of focus that you feel you have to grow?
Speaker B:Well, right now, in the personal life, where I need to grow most is in that parenting side.
Speaker B:So I'm.
Speaker B:I'm.
Speaker B:We're.
Speaker B:We're going down that track.
Speaker C:We have a.
Speaker B:We have a baby expected in December My wife and I. Congrats.
Speaker B:Well, first, thank you very much.
Speaker B:Thank you, man.
Speaker B:We are first.
Speaker B:So it's.
Speaker B:I'm right now in that stage of unconsciously in company.
Speaker B:I don't know what.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:And we've started to now schedule different classes and start to build out the list of the documentaries and the books and things that we need to educate ourselves on to just get prepared.
Speaker B:I'll tell you.
Speaker B:I mean, putting together the baby registry was like, I'm looking at this saying where both of us were, like, what is half of this stuff?
Speaker B:Like, you know, it's just when you're not in that world, it's all new.
Speaker B:And I know that that, that correlates for a lot of people with the financials.
Speaker B:They feel that same level of overwhelm.
Speaker B:It can be overwhelming when you're just kind of dipping your toes in.
Speaker B:And so, you know, we're, we're on that journey now to start, you know, peeling it back and educating ourselves.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Becoming.
Speaker B:Becoming literate in parenting and what, you know, what all those steps mean.
Speaker B:So on the personal side is there's a big driver for me now and a lot of incentive for me to really start to master that domain of parenting and understand all the things that go into it.
Speaker B:On the business side, we're really looking to master tech and grow as a tech company.
Speaker B:In this age of artificial intelligence, there is so much opportunity for us to create more and more accessibility for people and reduce more and more friction in the process of becoming more financially conscious and financially healthy.
Speaker B:And there's just a big initiative on what we're doing for the platform to make things simpler for both the consumer and the financial professional and really create just more and more impact through the platform and through the technology itself.
Speaker A:Because I want to go back to you're.
Speaker A:You're planning for the.
Speaker A:The new one, the new addition to the family.
Speaker A:Has the money conversations changed where, like, y' all have like a small baby fund now or what is that like, now?
Speaker B:Yeah, it definitely has shifted things because, you know, you're, you're, you're thinking through other layers of expense that just never were there before when it comes to childcare and support.
Speaker B:You know, that stuff isn't cheap and then obviously just supplies another.
Speaker B:Another.
Speaker B:Another mouth to feed into the equation.
Speaker B:More space actually in, in the house, right, where, you know, we're an apartment right now that is not going to be suitable and doesn't have enough space for us to have a child, plus support that would be required.
Speaker B:So it's opened up a ton of more forecasted planning conversations of.
Speaker B:All right, let's.
Speaker B:Let's align the vision.
Speaker B:So what does this really look like?
Speaker B:You know, thinking through the timeline, here's where the baby comes, here's when maternity and maternity leave ends.
Speaker B:What's the next step?
Speaker B:What's the next step in terms of where's the support coming from?
Speaker B:It's, you know, is it.
Speaker B:Is it going to become.
Speaker B:From family?
Speaker B:Probably, somewhat, but we're also going to probably need to supplement that, which is going to cost money.
Speaker B:So we're kind of in that stage right now of we're mapping it out, we're starting to forecast out, you know, what are the things.
Speaker B:But it all starts with our vision.
Speaker B:And it's the same thing for.
Speaker C:For.
Speaker B:For anybody with your own personal finances.
Speaker B:Defining the vision of what does it actually look like five years from now, three years from now, one year from now, six months from now?
Speaker B:Having clarity on those things is the only way to then get clarity on the financial and the actual mathematics that go into the equation.
Speaker B:So we're right there.
Speaker B:It's early, early stages, but.
Speaker B:But we're moving.
Speaker A:That's nice.
Speaker A:The reason why I asked, because some might be a new parent that's listening and was like, well, I never thought about, you know, should I actually stop putting money away?
Speaker A:And from one of my buddies, he's on the second child, and he said the.
Speaker A:The best advice is to get everything you need to get done now before the baby comes.
Speaker A:Because he was like, once the baby comes, it's here.
Speaker A:And that's your.
Speaker A:That's your bread and butter right there.
Speaker A:That's your.
Speaker A:Your soul all in.
Speaker A:So I was like, congratulations to you.
Speaker A:I'm living vicariously for everybody else.
Speaker A:And, man, congrats again.
Speaker C:Thanks, man.
Speaker B:I appreciate that.
Speaker A:Is there anything that you want to leave the audience before we dive into the final four questions?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:Let's get it.
Speaker A:All righty.
Speaker A:Well, the final four questions are the final four questions of the show.
Speaker A:All right, so number one, what does wealth mean to you?
Speaker B:To me, it means optionality.
Speaker B:You know, wealth.
Speaker B:Wealth to me means optionality and.
Speaker B:And freedom.
Speaker B:At the end of the day, giving.
Speaker B:Giving true wealth gives us.
Speaker B:Gives us freedom.
Speaker B:And I think that it starts with having kind of a level of peace.
Speaker B:Like peace is wealth.
Speaker B:At the same time, I think, like peace with our financial situation or what, what we're doing.
Speaker B:You know, wealth isn't limited to finance, though, of course.
Speaker B:And so there's a lot of things that can categorize in that.
Speaker B:But at the end of the day, you know, if you have true wealth, I mean, you have freedom, you have the ability to choose and to manifest and create the life that you want without, you know, without roadblocks and stipulations there.
Speaker B:That's what, that's what true wealth is to me, I think.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:Number two, what was your worst money mistake?
Speaker B:Oh, I mean, there's been a lot of them over my lifetime.
Speaker B:What.
Speaker B:You know what?
Speaker B:I think the biggest one actually is kind of a more recent one, which was purchasing a car.
Speaker B:We purchased this car.
Speaker B:I'm not going to go into exactly which one it was, but we purchased this car without a ton of due diligence about the specific model.
Speaker B:And then we found out later through experience that this car was like, riddled with issues that a lot of people had and things broke down and it turned into such a money pit.
Speaker B:You know, cars.
Speaker B:Cars are just traditionally a very terrible investment because they depreciate and they cost a lot to, you know, to.
Speaker B:To maintain.
Speaker B:And so it was like, it was a five plus year process of us just dealing with issues with this car until finally.
Speaker B:And then it just, you know, kept deteriorating and losing value that was harder and harder to sell.
Speaker B:And like, finally we just, you know, kind of like had to take the L. But the entire, the entire time was definitely a big learning of like, all right, the next time we're going to do a lot more due diligence with this purchase.
Speaker B:So I think just like, you know, not doing good due diligence with bigger major purchases.
Speaker B:Lesson learned.
Speaker A:All right, it sounds like one of your clients now is like doing a due diligence on your people.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:Number three, is there a book that inspired your journey or your perspective?
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's probably.
Speaker B:There's a.
Speaker B:There's a handful that come to mind.
Speaker B:Atomic Habits by James Clear is.
Speaker B:Is one that I think has been in more recent, more recently, impactful.
Speaker B:Becoming conscious of our habits and really understanding the power of habits.
Speaker B:Where do they come from?
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:The.
Speaker B:Our human nature and how we can have better awareness and understanding of the things that make and break us.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Habits either make us or they break us.
Speaker B:But the thing is, as human beings, we are creatures of habit.
Speaker B:Fact.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Nothing will change that.
Speaker B:And so we're either creating habits consciously and those habits are moving us towards our goals or our ideal vision for our life, or they're moving us further away from it.
Speaker B:And that book really helped me get a better grasp and understanding of how it all kind of works.
Speaker A:I like that.
Speaker A:It's an awesome book.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:That's what kind of got my show going.
Speaker B:It's good.
Speaker B:It's good.
Speaker B:The audience hasn't read it.
Speaker B:Definitely.
Speaker B:Check it out.
Speaker B:It's an impactful one, for sure.
Speaker A:Number four, what is your favorite dish to make?
Speaker C:Let's see.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:I am the cook of the household.
Speaker B:Like, I do more of the cooking.
Speaker B:I'm kind of going a lot of different directions with it.
Speaker C:Man.
Speaker B:That's hard to say what the favorite actually is.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:What's your favorite?
Speaker B:Give me some inspiration.
Speaker A:Well, my favorite one is a. I have two.
Speaker A:Really?
Speaker A:So my favorite one that I do seasonally, it's corn soup.
Speaker A:It was like a Trinidadian dish.
Speaker A:It's a hodgepodge of stuff, like dumplings.
Speaker A:You got your corn.
Speaker A:You have all your seasonings and everything like that.
Speaker A:But the second one is a.
Speaker A:It's a quick dish, which is white rice.
Speaker A:You have tuna fish, but you actually sauteed the tuna fish with some pepper, some onion, use fresh ginger, fresh garlic, not the stuff in the can, and then throw that with some light olive oil, because the tuna fish is really already done.
Speaker A:You just really heating it up a little bit.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker A:As long as it takes for the rice to cook less than five minutes, put that together, and then you finish it off with some green onions or some chives on top.
Speaker A:Done and done.
Speaker A:And if you want to spice it up, we'll take it up a notch.
Speaker A:You use balsamic glaze, and just to drill over the top of it.
Speaker A:It's amazing dish.
Speaker B:That sounds incredible.
Speaker B:Yeah, that sounds incredible.
Speaker B:I've been.
Speaker B:Recently, I've been on this.
Speaker B:This tuna kick.
Speaker B:There's like, a seared ahi tuna that.
Speaker B:That I make that.
Speaker B:Similarly, you prep.
Speaker B:You prep the fish with a bunch of different rubs and the sesame, see, or there's a sesame, A sesame seeds on it, and then you sear it for.
Speaker B:On all the different sides.
Speaker B:And then there's, like, this really good kind of.
Speaker B:I don't know, it was like, a little bit of, like, a dressing that you would accompany it with, like, a condiment on the side, put it over rice, and like, a bed of lettuce.
Speaker B:That's probably, like, one of the best dishes that.
Speaker B:That I go to.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It doesn't happen too often because it takes some work to put that one together, but that's probably one of the most fun to probably cook up.
Speaker A:It Sounds like it probably go good with like a nice aioli, like a spicy aioli.
Speaker B:Definitely.
Speaker A:It's almost like you're doing like five star restaurant cooking over there.
Speaker B:I'm just trying to keep up with you, man.
Speaker A:This is the very last question of the show, which is where could people find out more about you?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:So Retired Us is the best for anything in the financial wellness, you know, financial, conscious, financial planning that, that space go to Retire Us.
Speaker B:There's some free services there.
Speaker B:We have a free mindfulness tier which can help you start to become more conscious and aware of those red flags, those blind spots.
Speaker B:And then same on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Speaker B:Retire us also on LinkedIn.
Speaker B:Michael Scarpatti.
Speaker B:I'm.
Speaker B:I'm pretty active on LinkedIn too, in terms of content.
Speaker A:Awesome, man.
Speaker A:Michael, thank you so much for coming through, sharing your story.
Speaker A:And I'm glad to be one of the first podcasters to know that you got a young one on the way.
Speaker A:I mean, you have free retirement, right?
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker B:Thank you, man.
Speaker B:I appreciate the time.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:Well, thank you everybody for listening.
Speaker A:This has been great.
Speaker A:Please make sure that remember, personal finance is personal.
Speaker A:So what you heard here today is might not align with you, but definitely share this with somebody who can take advantage of it and really check out Retire Us so that you can go down and get your red flags out the way.
Speaker A:Let's start turning those red flags into green flags.
Speaker A:All right, everybody.
Speaker C:Yelt.
Speaker A:Peace.
