Episode Transcript
[00:00:22] Speaker A: Welcome to your life and legacy, the show where we explore how faith, wisdom, and intentional decisions shape the life you live today and the legacy you leave tomorrow. I'm your host, Christopher Nudo. Today we're joined by Bob Niederber, a seasoned financial expert, co founder of Benefit RFP and recipient of the 2022 Humanitarian Award. Bob has advised leaders and families for decades, helping them prepare not just financially, but thoughtfully and purposely for the future.
We're starting with something many people quietly carry.
Anxiety. Anxiety about retirement. For many, it feels very complicated, uncertain, and overwhelming.
Bob, we're so grateful to have you here with me today. Let's begin by bringing clarity and calm to this important season of planning.
The problem facing many people, including myself, is that retirement planning feels complicated. And it feels like I'll never truly know if there's going to be enough or if I've done enough.
So why, why in this sphere of retirement planning do so many people have this black hole of uncertainty?
[00:01:56] Speaker B: You know, I think, I think anything that, that has fear around it for people comes from a position of not being truly educated on, on how to manage it. And we spend a lot of time doing concierge, concierge programs for people at all levels of their, of their incomes. You know, most of the people I work with are, are folks that have already created quite a bit of wealth. Now they're looking to either shed themselves from a business kind of getting ready to retire, and some of the wealthiest people that you'll ever meet really have, like you say, a black cloud around this, an unknown, and that provides the fear. And so what we do through our concierge programs is make sure people understand how savings, saving for themselves, for retirement. And these days, retirement is going to take about 25 to 30 years, which is, you know, equal to about the same time you're going to spend working during your career.
And we just lay out a roadmap for them so they understand, so their spouses understand.
We educate people on how to reduce or eliminate taxes during retirement when they take the distributions out. And once people have the education, they have the knowledge, they understand truly what their needs are for their specific situations, the fear subsides, it goes away. And fear for me is just a motivator, meaning, you know, there's something that I've got to learn, there's something I have to step forward and understand. And at the end of the day, we explain to people that when you're talking about the fears around retirement, you know, this is money. This is not that big of a Deal. This is not that real. There's a lot more things in life that are much more important than money. But you do want to have those steps laid out for yourself so that you're not walking into the big unknown when you hang up your cleats for the last time.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: Well said. Excellent. And, and so how can people shift this fear based thinking to a stewardship mindset? Stewardship mindset where they're planning for the future?
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Well, I, you know, I think the first thing to do is make sure that you partner with somebody that, that truly can take them through this. And when I, when I talk about partner with people, I'm not talking about going out to the local stockbroker or something like that. I'm, I'm talking about getting somebody on your team that's truly trained and has experience working with folks to get them through retirement, to get them past these fears and to get them going on the right track. And you know, you're talking about money. It should be fun, it shouldn't be anything hard.
But when people go into it with misinformation, with information that they get from the Internet or from the newspapers or whatever, these are generally bits of information that are given from folks that are not experts in this area, that are not truly educated in this, maybe have a master's or two or three in, in this area.
And they're not going to necessarily lead you down the right path, not intentionally taking you down the wrong road. But if they don't know, then they can't be a good mentor to you and they can't help you steward your direction and what your needs are and what your family's needs are.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: I love the way you clarify that. On one hand, we're only talking about money, and so there's so many more important things in life that we should be dealing with.
But on the other hand, it's money. And money is important.
And money is the way that we set ourselves up for working less and enjoying the fruits of our labor. So what are some of the practical steps that can help simplify retirement planning for families?
And I'm sure this is done differently at stages, right? Young couples to people in their 50s, to people in their 70s. It looks different. Unpack that for us.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Well, and, and one of the things that, that you say is very important. Forget about your age.
You know, some people don't, don't save anything. And all of a sudden they're 60, 65 years old and they're going, my gosh, what do I do? On, you know, I really put myself in a bad situation. I can never recover. That's simply not true. And you have to really approach it as, you know, know, I've got to start someplace at some time. You know, I've been very fortunate in my business practices.
I've sold personally over $100 million worth of businesses and I've authored a lot of books in this area and outside books.
And so I've been financially free for decades.
That doesn't mean, though, that if I was starting when I was 60 years old and thinking about this, that I would just, you know, give up. You have to, you have to really sit down with somebody and understand that there are really three steps with when you're thinking about retirement dollars, you're first, you want to save as much as you can. So if you're Saving when you're 30s or saving when you're 50s or saving when you're in your 60s, it doesn't matter. Get as much money as you can. If you're working with a company and they have programs that have company matches, you need to be deferring whatever you can because these are pre tax dollars. These are dollars that are not taxed yet. And then as you get closer to the time where you want to actually make the distributions to yourself, whether it's retirement, other or other financial goals that you've set up, you can take advantage of tax laws that exist in this country that are very powerful for people that are taking out distributions. Most people don't realize that the Department of Labor has a Reg.
92. 6 that allows people to get money out of 401ks without paying taxes.
There's also, if I'm in California, so we're one of the highest tax states in the, in the country.
But I can work on parity with people living in Florida or Texas, because when I take out my distributions, maybe I don't retire in California, maybe I move to another state with no taxes and I can take advantage of source taxes, which was a program put together during Clinton's time, which means I don't have to pay the taxes based on the state where I would have earned the money. Rather, it can be based on where I take the money out. So if I'm in California where, you know, the top individual tax rate is 13.3% and I retire in Nevada or Florida or any state of lesser taxes, I can take advantage of, of the taxes from that state where I'm taking the distributions. And then there's, then there's understanding investments. That's the third part of the equation, you know, a lot of people say, well, you know, I'm risk adverse, I don't like the stock market, I want to put everything into bonds. Well, we know bonds is a long term way to lose all your money because you're not even going to keep up with inflation. And so if you have, let's say you have 30 years of retirement, let's say you have longevity and you want to retire when you're 65 or, you know, like a lot of people are doing, retiring when they're 70 years old. Now you really have three periods of time. You have the go go period, which is really the first 10 years of retirement. It's where you got most your money. You're, you're still young enough, you feel good, you're out traveling the world. And then you have the slow go period. That's the next 10 years where you start slowing down a little bit. And then you have the no go period. And that's the, you know, period where we're relaxing, sitting in the rocking chair.
You know, a lot of times maybe we're, we're living with family who's taking care of us or living in a retirement center, but these are, these are periods of time where you don't have as much activity. But when you think about that, you have 30 years of periods of time. And so if you just threw your money into something like the s and P500 or the, the 10 year average is over 13%, that's more than going to be substantial. And then we explain to people how risk works around that, how real financial risk works. And, and a lot of people, by being risk adverse, are actually taking more risk than somebody that's in, in actual the stock markets or any of the indices or any of these types of things. And so really, again, it comes down to education, comes down to understanding how everything gets put together and how to stretch these dollars. We also explain to people, you know, you hear a lot of negativity in this country about the Social Security programs. And I'll tell you, from my experience of doing this for over 35 years and working with people at all levels of the spectrum, you know, the Social Security is probably the best annuity it's ever been created on the face of the earth. That's the envy of the world because you know, you can get to the dollars to support you through the rest of your life.
If you retire early at 65 or age 62 when you can, into these dollars, you're probably taking about a Third, that you can get for the rest of your life if you had just worked another, say, five or seven years and maximize that so that you'd have maximum value during your lifetime, and then that would extend to your spouse if you passed away. So there's a lot of benefits out there. But again, it's not simply, I got to save some dollars for retirement. There's a lot of benefits, a lot of tax rules, a lot of Department of Labor regs and ERISA rules that actually benefit you, that you can take advantage of. And once you do this and you understand what your real replacement needs are during retirement, now all of a sudden you can take a deep breath, you can say, you know, it's going to be okay. I've had plenty of people come to me, you know, with a couple hundred thousand dollars and that's all they have saved for that. And they're 65 years old and they are flat out freaked out. And yeah, I'll be the first to tell you, you need a couple million dollars saved for retirement. And it's not that hard to get there once you know what you're doing. But, but at the same time, once you understand the values of what you have, whether it's large or small, we can help you get across the finish line so that, that you have maximum value. You know, there's an equation out there that's been out there for as long as I can remember, Christopher. It's you take a dollar, you double it every year for 20 years, you'll have $1 million. You take that same exact equation, you put in a 40% tax bracket, you'll have about $12,000. And people are shocked by that equation.
Nobody knows this equation better than the irs. And so rather than lose those dollars to be compounded by the IRS instead of on your own portfolio, we teach people how to reduce or eliminate those taxes so that they maintain those dollars, they maintain that human life value. The other thing that we do quite, quite a lot is sometimes people get themselves into a bad situation where they've saved nothing and they need to have quite a bit because they have longevity. Will bring in the banks. The banks are great about putting together programs that enable participants to utilize dollars from the banks that can be paid off through death benefit or those types of things. But they can fund your retirement program just like you would fund a house or anything else so that you can live out the rest of your life in comfort and you know what you're used to living in. And then everything gets trued up upon your death. So there's, there are a lot of options to help you.
That's great.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, for sure, what we're recognizing here, Bob, is there is a plethora of options and you are well schooled at educating. What we're going to do is up next, we're going to talk about how your financial decisions can become a reflection on your values and faith.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: Sam,
[00:13:41] Speaker A: Welcome back to your life and legacy. Want more of what you're watching? Stay connected to your life and legacy. And every NOW Media TV favorite live and on demand anytime you'd like. Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS and unlock non stop bilingual programming in English and Spanish on the move. You can also catch the podcast version right from our website, NowMedia TV. From business and news to lifestyle, culture and beyond, Now Media is streaming around the clock. Ready whenever you are. Welcome back to your life and legacy. And we are here today with Bob Niederbeer. And we're turning to a question many people don't stop to ask.
Do my financial decisions actually reflect what I believe and I value most?
Amazing. This is just, you know, Bob, the problem facing many people is that their financial decisions don't match their values. And it often feels like money choices are made on pressure instead of purpose.
You and I both discussed how we're both Bible believers and the Lord controls our life, but yet we know so many people, including myself, at times where I let money decisions redirect my core values in my faith. What do you do to help people stop from drifting away from these personal deep convictions they have in their faith?
[00:15:24] Speaker B: Well, you know, for me it's, it's an easy question because I'm very faith driven and I've had the opportunity, as you know, Christopher, I've traveled the world, I've been through Qumran, been into where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found and traveled all over those parts. So I've, I've, you know, really studied Christianity, its, its beginnings, understand kind of the, the plight of life that people go through from all areas. And, and for me, it's always been a guiding light. So, you know, I know a lot of people will use it as I'm going to treat others the way they treat me, the golden rule, those types of things.
I probably take it a lot, a lot deeper than that just because of my experience and some things that I learned, especially when I did the Dead Sea Crawl, the Devil's Abyss, which was very spiritually driven, very eye opening to that part of the world and a lot of information came to me from, you know, where Jesus started from and, and kind of the direction he went and, and how he became so magnified.
But I use that every day. And, and you know, I had people, people would say it must be awful, but, but I'll share with you. I had the fortune of, of growing up in a family where I had a Down syndrome sister.
She taught me much more about just religion, but values of how you treat other people that are different.
You know, I saw people treat her differently. It doesn't matter where you come from, what your background is, what your purpose is, as long as it's a good purpose and along a good direction and you have such a long amount of time to, you know, always stay on top of that. I do a lot of charitable givings to organizations that help others. I've always done that. It's, it's been a main factor in my life. I probably get some of my best internal, heartfelt feelings from doing that, seeing how helping others can, can really help themselves. And in turn, that, that helps them continuously help others along the way.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: I'm sure that really helps in your family values too, right?
Yeah. I mean, the people, we often hear the saying more is caught than taught. And you leading by that example is demonstrating to, you know, the next generation really an intentional way of living. And speaking of that, what, what role does intentional planning play in helping families live out their values financially? So what do you see as it relates down to your clients and then their children?
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Well, I can tell in 10 seconds when I'm talking to somebody what their intentions are. If somebody gets on the phone with me or a face to face meeting or a zoom call or whatever it may be, and their goals are just about themselves.
I know what type of person I'm dealing with. If I have somebody that comes in that the first thing out of their mouth is, you know, I have others that I want to help, I want to make sure I provide for, I want to do some things for. I want to leave a legacy for.
That's a very different conversation. And, and so you can really see the heart from what people are telling you when you're having these conversations.
And then you just have to take out the time to map out what's important to them. What, what are their goals, who do they want to help, how do they want to magnify what their offerings are to them? And, and you know, whether it's their church or family members or specific cause or charity, that's where we then start to do financial models. Based on what they want to leave as their legacy. And I love working with those people because it's off the map. You're all over the place. Some things really surprise you, but when they're leading from their heart, you always know it's going to be a very positive, very grounded conversation. Now we just have to provide the roadmap to help them get to those points.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: Excellent. I love that.
How can faith guide decisions around spending, saving, and giving? I mean, I think you really touched on it there. But people often want to put spending, saving, and giving in their own like buckets. But aren't they interwoven and aren't they ultimately controlled by your faith?
[00:19:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it always starts there. There is no separation for most people I know that I've had the good fortune of working with that are faith driven.
They know what they want to do. You know, for, for me personally, the way faith works is I really don't worry about myself. You know, I've. I've learned how to make money. I've learned how to be successful. I've learned how to do whatever you got to do in life to, to have money. And I'm the first one that'll tell you it's much. You're much better off being rich than poor. Because, you know, I don't have to worry about where my next meal is coming from. But that's really not my guiding light. My guiding light is making sure that my family knows where their next meal is coming from, that my charities that I work with know that they're going to be okay and that they're going to be taken care of and they're, they understand the models and, and you know, how to magnify that and how to get the growth around that. So that becomes. I wouldn't say it's a part of your retirement. I wouldn't say it's a part of what your goals are. It is what your goals are. And, and then you're just putting together the, the map, like I say, to tie everything together. But everything that you're wanting to do, everything that you're wanting to achieve for others is always simple if you really think about it. It's much harder to think about what you want to do for yourself because most people that are faith driven aren't really focusing on themselves. They're focusing on everybody else. And this is where I know the big guys that work all the time upstairs. Because if I start doing stuff selfishly, it may or may not happen. If I start doing things that are going to Help other people. It always happens. And I don't know what the answers are to that. I don't know how it's manifested. I don't know if it's, you know, part of manifestation itself, which I'm a big believer in because I've seen the results.
But I will tell you, anytime you're out there helping somebody else, especially if you have the great opportunity of mentorship with people to help them help others, it always works out. And you know, it just makes the charge a lot easier when you're out there working with all these things.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: That's right. And you know, and we know that the Bible says for the one who much is given, much is expected.
And so I do believe that. And while that's not, you know, a legal principle, it is definitely a guiding light. And so I think you're right, Bob, in that the Lord kind of corrects us when our selfish nature starts to take over, knowing that the Lord has guided us and blessed us with so much.
It's his correcting mechanism to get us back on path.
[00:22:42] Speaker B: Oh yeah, and I think the path is key there, Christopher. You know, I think the, you start getting selfish and the path disappears completely. You have no more direction. You start helping other people. And you know, there's not, there's not a part of the path that's hidden.
There's not a part of the path that's bumpy. There's not a part of the path that has pitfalls. It is all just open up for you. And you know, and, and I think that's really the key. That's the secret, is taking people down the right route. One of the.
My next book that's getting ready to come out, it's about parlay and really it was designed to help people that don't have wealth understand how to get to the wealth at least so that they can get in through things like, you know, whether it's their kids education funding or if you're trying to do something for your retirement, whatever the deal is, I want other people to understand how easy it is to get what you need as long as you're helping others along the way. And so I think the path is the key thing there. And if you just open your heart and open your mind to helping others, the rest comes into play.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: I love it. So for those viewers out there who want to know more about you and your firm, Bob, and explore the value based financial planning that you obviously just exude and, and help your clients with, how do they find out more about
[00:24:08] Speaker B: you the, the best ways to go to Benefit RFP Benefit RFP is a simplicity company.
You know, it's a huge organization.
We're located in Sacramento. That's where, that's where I'm located. I've co founder with benefit RFP for, you know, 25 years or something, you know, and, and if you just go out to www.benefitrfp you can track us down through the site. There's all kinds of information, all kinds of data that, that you can use to track us down. If you want to set up a conversation, we're happy to do so. We have a huge team. We, we manage a ton of different individual and business portfolios for all the way up through the Fortune 100. So we're very broad in our reach and we don't do any marketing. So you know, these are all just referral based conversations. Kind of like today where we'll get referrals based off of the conversation. We like to keep it, want to keep it simple, we want to keep it fun. Again, we're talking about money. It shouldn't be that, it shouldn't be a tough conversation.
And so yeah, and so once, once we're going down the right path with folks, we love to see and hear about their successes because that means, you know, like I said, the path has been open in the right way and they're, they're finding their solutions and we love that.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: Wonderful. Coming up, we'll talk about how preparing today can protect tomorrow's family stability.
Welcome back to your life and legacy. Many people say they want to protect their family's future, but they're not always sure what financial steps truly make a difference.
The problem facing many people is that they want to protect their family's future. And, and it often feels hard to know which financial step truly makes the difference. Because in our world today, when we talk about financial planning and planning for the future, Bob, there seems to be an unlimited myriad list of confusion.
That's the layman's interpretation of the landscape. But for guys like you, you have clarity in this. So what are the most, what are the most important financial protections families can often overlook?
[00:27:06] Speaker B: Well, I think the biggest mistake that most families make with financial discussions is they don't discuss mom and dad, you know, might have different plans with the money than the kids.
And you know, they don't discuss what the goals are. They don't discuss what their goals are. With the disposition of dollars, whether you're rich or poor, you know, you need to have these discussions. It'll help you with your path. And a lot of times people are embarrassed because, oh gosh, I haven't saved a lot, my kids aren't going to get a lot. And this is, this is horrible.
It doesn't matter where you're at, have those discussions, find out what the fears and goals are for the other members of the family. If, if I'm doing a financial plan and I don't have both the husband and wife there, then somebody's missing out. And that's one of the biggest fears that spouses have, is they admits the fear of the unknown. They don't know what's going on.
One of the things that we do with our concierge program is we share those results not only with the spouse, we give them a report card when we go through those, but we open it up. If they have a stock broker that they work with, or an insurance broker or an estate planner or any of these folks, we bring them into the fold because we want to make sure everybody's on the same page. That way the intentions are brought out properly. The other thing that when we go through and we do this and we open up these discussions and people start discussing amongst their own family members or if it's a business, their business partners, those types of things, now everybody's on the same page. Everybody understands not only how to maximize the values that they have, whether it's little or big, but also how to then transition it properly and then how to do the distributions properly so that not only are the folks that you're working with being protected, but anything that's going to be be after their demise is going to be handled properly based on their goals, based on their needs. And we have that on the other end of the spectrum too, where people that are, are very well off billionaires, that they don't want to tell everybody what they have in fear that somebody will take something in fear that it will mess up their kids lives by giving them too much money.
You know, so again, it's just, it's really about communication. It's about just being open with it. It doesn' you're at with whatever point that you're on. And I always let them know. And kids always remind me too. Beneficiaries always remind me that they don't really care about mom and dad's money, they just care about mom and dad.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Well, and you, you bring up communication. And I want to expound upon communication because I've always said that planning ahead, whether it would be estate planning, financial planning, retirement planning, all the Things that are all rolled up in this convers.
It truly is a love language because at the end of the day you are planning ahead for the care of somebody else. Because often it's a succession. We're going to leave it behind and we're going to do it in such a way that it cares for others. So help us out. From the financial aspect, you know, why is planning ahead one of the most caring things you can do for someone that you love?
[00:30:36] Speaker B: Because it's, it's because of that love that you have for them that you take the time out to plan.
If I'm just getting started, and this is when you're probably at your poorest point, when I'm just getting started as a 20 year old and I have children and I have no money, if I don't do any plan, and God forbid something happens, I'm in a car wreck and I die.
I missed out on an opportunity to think about them. I missed out on putting life insurance in place. And it can just be the cheapest term on the face of the planet to cover, you know, the extreme events. But as I go, as I, as I start increasing the amount that I have saved now it becomes more of a discussion of, okay, I'm going to leave some assets once I'm done, but in the meantime, if I am done quicker than I thought, I still have some life insurance on. There might not be the original term that I started with, but I'm going to have something I'm going to leave people. So I'm always thinking about it. It's not, it's not a secondary thought, it's a primary thought. You know, how am I going to feed the family today? How am I going to feed them, you know, when I'm 60 and I'm taking money out and then how am I going to feed them once I pass? Pass on.
These are all ongoing thoughts that you have. And it's just like anything else. You're trying to raise kids to be caring, loving, nurturing people like yourself. And so you have to demonstrate that for them. So you have to educate them by communicating with them. And if you don't know the answers and you have to bring in outside experts, bring the, bring the children, bring the family into those same discussions so they can also learn from that. It's not something they teach in schools, it's something that you learn as you go.
And I've never gotten anywhere financially, you know, prosperous by, by myself. I've always had people around me and I've always made sure, I've had the best people around me so that I can achieve the goals and directions that I want to. And it's the same with any other family member just getting started. I don't care if you have, you know, just two nickels to rub together and you're just getting started. Surround yourself with people that have expertise. Surround yourself with people that can get you there and communicate that and keep those communications open and teach your children that the key to everything is really proper communication.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: And speaking of people, we have two types of viewers that are watching with us today. We have the employee and we have a lot of business owners. And both of them intersect at employee benefit and retirement plans. And so explain to our viewers the role of these employee benefit and retirement plans as long term family security for those employees.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: Well, the biggest area that we focus on as a company are executive benefit plans. These are for very wealthy people, high income earners, people that own businesses, you know, public company shareholders, those types of things. And what's, what's key with that is when you're thinking about their concerns. A business owner very rarely thinks of themselves first. I know, you know, the, the media doesn't do a good job of portraying this properly, but they usually think of all their executives first. They think of everybody else that's helping build the organization that, that they just happen to have the shares in. And so when you use these plans, you utilize and giving them the opportunity to set aside dollars on a pre tax basis without limits so they can set aside a bunch of money so they can have the, you know, the financial freedom when they retire or when they come up to the kids education, whatever the goals are.
You know, one of the biggest areas that, that we utilize these plans with is during times of business succession. And most business owners, when they go to sell a business, almost all their net value is tied up in those companies. And so it's a, that's a big, it's a big risk. It's scary for them.
It's a, it's a big job.
And you know, just like I mentioned with the, the communications with your family, your business associates, associates are the same in their mind as family, that they need to communicate with them. They them in on their discussions. And I would say business owners do a much better job.
Especially the more successful business owners do a much better job of bringing in their teams and communicating everything, communicating how the success the succession is going to be.
And the reason that's important is it takes away that fear of, you know, when Charlie or Susie retires what's that going to mean for me? Am I going to be left out in the dust? No, you bring them into the plane. You bring them into the fold. If they're your top people, you, you make, you want to make sure they're well taken care of. And that doesn't just mean, here's how I'm going to leave the business for you, but here's how the business is going to transit transition from a tax standpoint. Here's what your new roles are going to be with the business as we go through this transition.
Here's where your wealth is going to be tied into so that you can help your family and you can communicate this with your family. So it's an ongoing, really just an ongoing storybook of conversations that take place, whether it's a business owner or non business owner.
But again, those conversations are priceless. You have to have them.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: So let me interrupt real quick.
What I'm hearing from you is from these people's vantage point, they have two families. They have the family of their executives of the company that they are running, who they're caring for, and in a very loving way, no different than they care for their own family. And, you know, so I resonate with that. That was so well said. So at this intersection where these people are caring for others, how does faith, you know, we only have a couple minutes, but how does faith help people see preparation as an act of stewardship rather than worry? You know, so this intersection of where faith is really building into both components here, the family and the employees.
[00:36:47] Speaker B: Yeah, and I would say the faith is already there in most cases. And so you're, you're just operating the way you would normally like, you know, at work, when you go to work and you're talking to your work associates, you're generally talking about each other's family members and what's going on in their personal lives. When you're with your family, you're generally talking about what's going on with your, your work family. And, and it's funny, but, you know, the, the, the whole conversation is not missed that everything comes together. And if you are faith based, your, your employees know, your family knows, and everybody works together. I know my, I just have one daughter and she knows everybody at work and everybody at work knows her. And you know, so they, they just know each other. They become one big family. They depend on each other. They understand them, the importance of the relationships.
And you know, from your normal conversations, whether you're helping your, your family, if you will, or your business, family.
If you're a person of faith, then that's going to come through on those conversations as you are always going to be really leaning, leading those conversations by the concerns that you have towards others and what's going on with the world around us. You know, we, we are bombarded every day with politics and crazy stuff and, and, you know, if you don't have some kind of faith with all the stuff that goes on these days, then the world would be much more of a chaotic mess.
[00:38:18] Speaker A: Absolutely. So let's, let's hold that thought right there. Up next, we'll close by talking about finding peace of mind even in seasons of financial uncertainty.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: SAM
[00:39:03] Speaker A: welcome back to YOUR Life and legacy.
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Welcome back to YOUR Life and legacy. In our final segment, we're talking about something everyone longs for, peace of mind, especially when the economy or personal circumstances feel uncertain. The problem facing many people is that economic changes create fear, and it often feels like financial security is always just a little out of reach.
So why do economic shifts make people feel like their financial plans are fragile?
[00:40:23] Speaker B: BOB yeah, I think it's a great question. I think a big part of that, Christopher, is we're always taught to, to, you know, worry about and manage the things that we have control of. And when you're talking about the economy, you know, I work with probably 10 or 11 different economists, and a lot of things they talk about are things that are outside of our area of expertise or control. And so now you, you know, all of a sudden you come into the, the housing crunch or the Y2K where the computers were going to kill us all, or Black Friday when the stock market just drops and nobody understands what's going on. You know, there's these big factors that change our financial world overnight, and it provides anxieties, it provides fears and all that. And one of the things that I would say with that is just like anything else, whether it's a, you know, sports game or, or business or anything, is you do want to stick with what you can control. You do want to stick with, you know, understanding what your path is, what your goals are, what your role is that you're going to be playing and what road you're going to take and then stick with it. Because there are going to be bumps. You know, any, you watch the super bowl coming up this weekend, there are going to be exciting times. You know, an interception that's going to all of a sudden change the whole direction of the game and the team that's going to win is the one that sticks with their path and says, you know, that happened, let's move forward, let's keep going down the direction that we're going and then at the end of the day they'll, they'll achieve their goals. If you don't have that direction, if you don't have a path, that's where you get into trouble. And you can't all of a sudden change everything because of some unknown thing that happened.
You know, we're working with a, a president right now who can change the roadmap on, on people's finances overnight with tariffs or anything else that they come up with. We can't control that, but we can stay on our path and we can also know what to do. And part of being on that path is knowing what to do when there is turmoil that's out of your control. Right.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: You're saying stay on your game. And I love the football analogy and because it is the team that sticks to their game plan that ultimately prevails. And you know, for those that, you know, I don't really necessarily like the term, long term, because long term can mean different, something different to literally everybody. But, but, but what you said, Bob, is more applicable. Sticking to the game. And if you, if you stick to your plan, I assume that that creates seasons of calmness because it brings certainty to an uncertainty world.
[00:43:13] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And you're right. Long term events are simply a lot of little time events, all metal to one. And if you have your string of, you know, here's what I'm going to do from A to Z on the long term and here's what I'm going to do when little short term events happen then and how I'm going to adjust, then that's part of your, your long term path and you're going to be successful. But it is a matter of just staying on track, staying on course.
You know, the, the world can be hostile sometimes and you know, we're seeing that in America right now with, with a lot of different things, generally politically motivated. And that doesn't mean I'm going to go and change from a good person, a good Christian, somebody that, that believes in taking care of others to, oh my gosh, I need to demonize this group or that group because of something that was said on tv. No, I'm going to keep with my path. I'm going to keep always protecting whoever I mentoring whoever I can mentor to make sure that they get the information.
And then things will shake out, things will calm down, things will get back into orderly fashion and at the end of the day, I'll be right on goal. I haven't changed anything. And so, you know, you don't change your personality, you don't change your financial goals, you don't change a lot of things if you have a long term premise set aside for yourself or you're following.
But there are going to be adjustments that you make along the way, for sure.
[00:44:39] Speaker A: Yeah. And they're tweaks. Right. And that's why you have a firm like yourself behind them to just help be that guiding light. And speaking of guiding lights, you know, focusing back on faith for a moment, faith and stability and financial conditions.
I'm sure there's little steps that you remind people of like faith. You know, whether it would be prayer, whether it would be community, whether it would be fellowship, all of these little tangibles that affect and grow our faith and then help us with our financial conditions.
Help unpack how you guide people of similar faith and encourage them.
[00:45:24] Speaker B: You know, I don't know if I necessarily give verbal guidance on that.
You know, as you know, I've worked with the Senate Finance Committee, the House Ways and Means Committee, and four or five of the White Houses in my walks of life.
And when opportunities come up for me to speak up that serve a positive intention for people, or if I see people that are wrongfully being attacked, I'm going to say something in those conversations because those are very powerful people that have the ability to change the world that we live in. And, and so you always want to speak up from those positions. Same thing with, with business owners. You know, if I'm working with a business owner that has, you know, three, four or five thousand employees under their employee, and, and I see something that I can make a statement on that that, you know, will, will keep them going in the right direction or maybe even give them a pat on the back for being in the right direction.
You know, I'm not trying to be a savior. I'm just trying to offer words of advice or wisdom from somebody that's been doing this for a long time and have had, has had a lot of success around it.
The I think, I think what I run into though are more of conversations with people that are already faith based and, and, and, and I think it's important to point out I, I don't mind other faiths either. I've studied, you know, all the major world religions in my travels.
I believe in Christianity, I believe in Jesus, you know, and, and I'm a strong believer but primarily because that is a religion that really focuses on the teachings are treat each other well, be, be good to each other, you know, be good mentors with people, be good stewardships with, with your, your knowledge or your power or your money, all those types of things. And anybody that regardless what, what faith they come from, if they have the same underlying basics, I'm all for. I, the only time I ever get into a really disagreement, real big disagreement with somebody that I really can't work with is if they come from a, that preaches hate or ill will or something like that to other people. And you know, and I know there's been people, quote unquote Christians that have gone down some bad paths and you know, I, I call them imposters in, in my mind because at the end of the day you can't be Christian and treat people bad. You can't be Christian and, and misuse resources that are there to help other people, all these different things and people get off track and you know, they'll make mistakes and I understand, you know, giving people a second chance and, and, and making themselves right again, but I don't think I really search out necessarily to find them. I just identify and work with folks that identify with a, with a positive proper direction and you know, in, in I try and be a good player within that community.
[00:48:31] Speaker A: Excellent. And, and that, that is, that is your call and it is so clear that that is your calling. Bob, this has been such a reassuring and insightful conversation. Please remind our viewers again how they can follow your work and continue to learn about your faith centered financial planning.
[00:48:51] Speaker B: Well, thank you Christopher. It's always a pleasure and thank you for your time today.
[00:48:56] Speaker A: Remind us again about what was the
[00:48:58] Speaker B: website benefit RFP like?
[00:49:01] Speaker A: Requestforproposal.com Fantastic.
So Bob, you have brought such wisdom, clarity, faith filled perspective to a topic that feels heavy and overwhelming for sure. And today we've learned that retirement planning doesn't have to be driven by fear, that our money choices can reflect our values. That preparation in the act of love and that peace of mind, mind is possible even in uncertain times. To everyone who's watching. Your life is being written one decision at a time. And your legacy is shaped not just by what you leave behind, but how you faithfully and thoughtfully live today.
I'm Christopher Nudo, and this has been your life and legacy, where we help you live with purpose today and leave a legacy that lasts for generations.
