Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 This is annuity straight talk since 2008. Your host Brian Anderson has helped clients nationwide navigate the complex market for annuities with Brian's assistance. Hundreds of clients have achieved a profitable and secure retirement. I would know because Brian has answered many of my questions concerning annuities and retirement planning So that you can benefit as well. Let's get started. Here's Brian.
Speaker 2 00:00:48 Hello and welcome everyone to the annuity straight talk podcast, episode number 40. My name is Brian Anderson, founder, creator of annuity straight talk. Everything written scene published is of my own making my journey through discovery of retirement topics, annuities, financial planning, asset allocation, and generally just kick an ass in retirement. My journey is well documented on the website. Try me. There's not a question I can't answer. And if I can't, I know how to find the answer very quickly. So I'm a good resource. If you ever need me 804 3 8 5 1 2 1. So you'll notice a couple weeks ago there was no podcast or newsletter, and that's because of an annual tradition I do with a few buddies of mine where we go fishing in April, March, April, may. It's kind of weather dependent depending on when roads get cleared with snow and all that stuff. So sometimes we've been there in late March and sometimes we don't get there until may.
Speaker 2 00:01:45 This year we went, uh, end of April and it brought up a topic a few weeks ago. I told you guys a story about how I got into Alaska, and I thought I'd alternate financial topics with maybe some stories, get, let you get to know me a little bit better. And so this week I figured since I, uh, I was last week was, uh, render free annuity. And now this week, I'll just tell you a little story and I'll relate it to one of the newsletters I wrote about a few years ago. Let's share the screen and I'm gonna show you this newsletter I'm talking about. And it was actually, man, it was written longer ago that I thought, man, I've been doing this for a long time, 2019. So this is right about three years ago, I wrote a new his letter about what's more important than money in retirement.
Speaker 2 00:02:27 Now, obviously money is the key factor. Once you get that figured out, you can focus on and that's, I always tell people, once you get everything sorted out and your money's in good shape and you gotta plan, then you can focus on the things that you really were the purpose of retirement, relaxation, kids, golfing, travel, you know, family, just general thing that people like to do. And I, the reason I, I thought this was worthy of a newsletter is because there were a lot of people like everybody's different when it comes to how they plan to spend their retirement years. I've got a lot of stories and that's again, like one of the benefits of picking my brain and asking me questions is I got the answers to these questions by probably talking to someone in your same situation, with your same perspective. I mean, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people over the years, hear the stories, create ideas, solve problems, all these, and, and you hear good stories and bad like failure and success.
Speaker 2 00:03:22 I think everybody's got a bad experience, a bad financial experience either with an advisor or the markets or an employer plan, or maybe bought something. They shouldn't have all that stuff. So, I mean, it's good and bad. And that's, I think it's important to understand all this comes from fairly well grounded place, where I've seen a lot of stuff. Okay. And so what I think it's important to talk about time and retirement, because everybody's gotta have a different plan. And I know, I know people that, oh, I had a couple years ago, they retired at 48 and moved to Panama because was their dream. They had kids young, they got their kids raised outta the house through college. And by 48 they were done. And literally from the time they were 20, they got married young from the time they were 20 till they were 48.
Speaker 2 00:04:11 They saved every red scent they had, and that was their dream. And they worked for it. And before they even turned 50, they were able to retire as expats to Panama. And it was pretty cool for the first year. So they did it periodically after that. But I, I think first year, so they did a little blog about what they were doing and they were grilling with friends there down with a bunch of other us people. So when I get down to central America, I'm gonna do a podcast on, uh, expat retirement, because I was supposed to do that this year or when I was gonna go to Columbia and Panama Costa Rica. But well, those of you who've heard the story, know why I couldn't go because I didn't get Jabed anyway. That's a different, different topic, but no, it's really interesting. So those guys had it figured out, knew exactly what they wanted to do.
Speaker 2 00:04:55 They wanted to go golf and grill and chill in the sunshine and live a cheap life. You know, Panama required to have $1,250 a month of proved income, which is really cool. So that's why I do expat retirement. Cuz you can live a great lifestyle if that appeals to you anyway, but those guys had it figured out. And I also know guys on the other end of the spectrum, you know, mid seventies, late seventies who like what they do, they enjoy working. They love supporting their family with a good income and they've never known anything else. And so that's what they plan to keep doing. My dad's kind of one of those people where he doesn't know anything but work I'm really good at, at leisure. I'm really good at having fun and getting out and taking some time off. My dad doesn't know how to work.
Speaker 2 00:05:37 He was a school principal for 42 years teacher for about three or four before that. And, and when he got done, when he retired, he didn't know what to do with himself. Cause all he ever did was work. And so now he runs his little hobby farm and he stays busy. Like he'll pick up a fence panel one day and move it 10 feet one way. And the next day he'll move it 10 feet back. Hey, what dad? What are you doing? Oh, I'm just moving these fence panels. Didn't you do that yesterday? Yeah, I didn't. I decided I didn't like where I put 'em, you know, things like that. So he is just puttering. I aspire to work at a gas station or a hardware store when I retire. I, I would say that I probably won't but I like traveling. I being in, I like gas stations.
Speaker 2 00:06:18 I like stopping in 'em. I like meeting people on the road. Um, I also like hardware stores cuz I like fix it project. I worked at home Depot about 15 years ago for a few months and I loved working in the hardware department because you, you to help people pick out tools and it's like, Hey, what are you doing? Here's my project, you know, do this. I like it. So I like solving problems. I like creating things anyhow. So it's worthwhile to focus on some of those things. And I remember I did, you know, I told the story about, you know, my first job in the financial services business, where they remodeled the conference room and I convinced them to do like a vacation theme to get people comfortable, confident, maybe dream and wonder and you know, pursue beautiful things. So, you know, once money's out of the way, you gotta figure out what to do with your time.
Speaker 2 00:07:00 And so I've known, I've have clients who have more than enough money who took a part-time job just to keep themselves busy. And I know some people who couldn't wait to get out in early fifties, they start traveling or they just, you know, some guys say I'm gonna spend every single day on the golf course and I don't care. It that's just what I want to do. I'm not a golfer. So I wouldn't spend every day out there. I'll never be good enough to enjoy it. And I can't enjoy something I'm not good at. So anyway, when it comes to leisure, I just figured like that's, it's really important. That's why I like, I like the fact that I'm in Montana. I get several people that will come through every year and visit me. You know, national parks are kind of a bucket list item for people that say, oh, they just wanna see Yellowstone and glacier and a piece of Yellowstones in Montana, all of glaciers in Montana.
Speaker 2 00:07:46 And so I'm gonna talk to you about what I'm gonna do is just kind of tell you a quick story about trip with my buddies last week. And this is kind of how we've been. We've all been hanging out since college and doing stuff like this. And it's not like something that everybody would love to do except fishing is incredible, but the weather's kind of sloppy and it's grows, but we decided, so it was, I dunno, two weeks ago we all met at my buddy's house in Missoula and the four of us jumped in the truck and we stuffed the back of it with coolers and gear and all sorts of stuff when we hit the road. Okay. And I'm not gonna, I can't tell you where it is. If you're a fisherman or a hunter, you know, you guard your secrets closely. And since this is a well, it's a hundred percent public, I wouldn't say the reach is that far on my podcast, but I'm not gonna go spout.
Speaker 2 00:08:33 My secret fishing spots here. I'll give you a hint. It'll get you in the neighborhood within, I don't know, 60, 80 aisle, then you'll have 50 different options. So you'll never figure it out. Anyhow. So we hit the road. It is about a five hour drive till we got where we're going. And this is the one thing I will tell you the first stop, Butte, Montana. Now I give everybody a hint. If you do come to Montana and a lot of people will drive between glacier and Yellowstone. It's probably a six hour drive between the two from the north end of Yellowstone to the south end of glacier. And there's a lot of beautiful stuff in between. There's a good chance. You might go by Butte, Montana, which is a very interesting place in it own right? Very historical richest hill on earth, early 19 hundreds, the copper Kings.
Speaker 2 00:09:19 You can look that up if you don't know about it. One of the wealthiest areas in the early 20th century. So first stop is, and I'm gonna give you a tip freeway, Tavern, Butte, Montana. So we had to stop. This is a tradition. We go there. It's been a tradition. The last five, six years, we stop and go to the freeway Tavern for some w chops. And I apologize to any of the Italian Americans. The w chop goes back to, you know, all the guys that worked in the mines, you know, there was a heavy Italian influence in the areas. Well as many other nationalities. And so a w chop is a fried pork chop sandwich. Now, if your health conscious and a health nut, it's probably not for you, but if you don't mind indulging once in a while, I've actually got a photo of one of my buddies like biting into it.
Speaker 2 00:10:10 But I thought that might be a little embarrassing if I put that out there. So this is just the four of us. It's uh, a re reasonably well lit kind of a little dive bar right off the freeway in Butte, Montana. Look it up. Freeway Tavern, going for a w chop. They're like eight bucks, man. That's a good deal. People are nice. You can see, it's just kind of a tiny little bar. You can sit there and eat it or you can take it to go. It's awesome. But I highly recommend giving it a shot. There's a one more well known play in Butte that serves the pork chop sandwich. I'm not gonna mention them because I prefer the freeway Tavern amazing spot. Anyway. So there's a tip for anyone who is traveling through Butte, stop and grab a nice meal, reasonable price, meet some nice people.
Speaker 2 00:10:51 That's the thing about Butte. The people are really, really nice. So then we went to, I will tell you this, like we were Idaho and we, you know, we're all getting kind of old enough. So I decided to, we used to do campers or tents and stuff like that. And as you can see, like we're all kind of big guys real quick. I'll show, I'll introduce you to the, the, a team here, here on the left. It's chunk. That's me. Of course. And then we got big Jim and case. He I'm the smallest guy and I'm not a small guy. I'm the smallest guy, just so four of us in a camper. Isn't that easy. So chunks of banker I'm, uh, insurance and financial services. Jim's a HVAC guy is a boiler specialist. Casey's a real estate agent. So it kinda sounds like a joke, like a banker, an insurance guy, an HVAC and real estate agent, all walk into a bar.
Speaker 2 00:11:39 There's no punchline. It's just kind of funny. So those are the dudes. Those are the characters on the trip. We stayed in Idaho, got a vacation rental. We each pitched an extra couple hundred bucks and it was nice to have our own space and a place to relax and dry out and all that stuff, which cuz the weather was pretty nasty while we were there. It wasn't too windy, but it was snowing a lot. So we went out on the stream and here's the first photo fish after fish. We cut nice big Yellowstone cut throats. Anybody that's a fisherman will probably recognize where you find those fish, its around the Yellowstone area, but in night hose, all I'm gonna tell ya. And anyway, so that's me. Uh, we take turns, uh, fishing, these little holes, one guy on the net, one guy on the rod and pulling out really nice, chunky about a 23 inch cut throat, just a beautiful, beautiful fish.
Speaker 2 00:12:27 And when I save, there's got a lot of 'em. So there was that one. Then we had this one or I was on the net for another one about the same size chunk, nailed that one. I grabbed the net. You can see the snow falling down the banks of snow on the river. There wasn't a lot of snow on the ground, but the river bed was carved into a canyon and the drifting snow drifted over. And there were places I should have taken a photo that would've been really cool. And there were places where the drifts were 10 or 12 feet high and there was just a total, just an ice canyon going for about a quarter mile. Really, really cool to see that when there's not a lot of snow on the ground, but you have those giant drifts that are probably not gonna melt until July cuz we're in really, you get around like Yellowstone area, uh, hint, then you know, you're high, you know, you're around 7,000 feet, something like that.
Speaker 2 00:13:14 A lot of those places, I think west Yellowstone seventh, we didn't go to west Yellowstone. We're in Idaho. So don't get any ideas anyway, but it just really, really cool area and the best part about it. And again, when you talk about retirement, like some people, if you're like me, I mean I love being around people. Obviously I spend my days talking to people and hearing stories and all that stuff. But when I get out, I want to be disconnected. I wanna out. So when we were at the vacation rental, we had cell service, I checked my emails and stuff. I don't think, I think I made one phone call. Someone said they really needed me. Other than that, I'd check the emails and just kind of, I'd see 'em I wouldn't read 'em I'd be like, okay, there's an email, but I really wanted to check out.
Speaker 2 00:13:50 And so, uh, during the days we're out in the middle of nowhere and we saw, I don't know, maybe three people the whole time. So it was really, really cool, great trip. And these are the kind of things I like to do. So one thing that Casey said, he was kind of the ringleader of the trip and we got out the first day on a muddy road and started putting our waiters on. And the snow's kind of coming in sideways is a little windy. It was snowing pretty hard and he just laughed. He said, oh I love it. I was like, he's like, I love that. There's three other guys that are just as crazy as me. That'll do this stuff. Cause there probably not a lot of people that will be out there. But then again, like I said, that rental help, you know, we'd go, we'd go out in the river about 10 in the morning and we'd do heat up some chili for lunch around one and then we'd fish till four or five.
Speaker 2 00:14:32 So it's a lot easier to handle when you know, you're going back to a warm, dry place. So, and then, uh, the Kuda GRA this happened on multiple occasions. This one in particular was the last cast of the day for Casey and Jim Chuck grabbed the net, got both of those hogs in the net. At one time I was on the camera and that about sums up the trip because everybody was happy. We had a great time and that is what I consider. So I say if, and when I retire, which is not gonna be for 20 plus years, I'll never retire. Anybody that works with me, I'm gonna be doing this till a day. I die. When I say retire, it means I'm not taking new clients, which might be about 10 years out. But anyway, I can continue doing this in my sixties and seventies might go a little bit slower, but I will be out there in a heartbeat.
Speaker 2 00:15:16 And this is the kind of thing I like doing. I wanted to share it with you guys. So I appreciate you being patient again. This is just a little, little taste of, uh, Montana life. That's what I like to do summer is coming. And I like to do all that stuff. You guys know, I got me mules and you know, maybe we'll do a mule podcast. I don't know. I don't know if I could take the equipment back, but I'll think about it. I like to do fun stuff. Just kind of keep it interactive and keep it light. So this isn't heavy in content, but again, just a little story about me. Those are my best buddies from college. Love. Those guys got a lot of friends that are like, I talked two weeks ago. I said, I got a lot of friends are in their sixties and seventies.
Speaker 2 00:15:53 You know, clients that are friends and some clients that are just clients. I, I'm not gonna force my way in anybody anybody's life. But I do appreciate the fact that I've, my life has been enhanced by meeting a lot of you guys. And I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to do this. It's been great and I've loved every minute out. So there's a little bit more about me and just a quick story about why it's important to plan for time and retirement. Maybe that gives you guys some ideas. You wanna start fly fishing. That's a really nice relaxing exercise, harder and harder to find the hidden places. That's why it takes meals to get past the people that think they can walk a few miles. Oh, ride 10, then I'll start. But no. So anyway, I just, uh, yeah, thought it'd be a good idea to share it with you.
Speaker 2 00:16:31 I appreciate the opportunity. My calendar is open. I'm not really leaving anytime soon. So not until probably July and I'll be gone a day or two at a time. But if you wanna talk about it, tell me what your plans are. I'd love to hear about your summer plans, your vacation plans. If you want to come to Montana, my door is open and if you catch me on the right day, I'll even smoke you a burger from the beef that my dad raised homegrown Montana beef. Good as it gets. If you haven't had a smoke burger, try one. If you want one, come to Montana, I'll serve it up with some, uh, some bacon and oh, I like to pepper Jack cheese, but you can take whatever kind of cheese you want. So anyway, I hope you guys have a great day. I appreciate you joining me for episode 40 leisure your time and retire.
Speaker 2 00:17:13 Think about it. Dream. Imagine the money's easy. Make your decision, set it aside. Don't worry about it. A lot of crap going on in the world. And sometimes it's nice to have a slice of paradise to get away from it all. So there we go. My number (800) 438-5121. Schedule a call top right corner of annuity, straight talk.com. Respond to the email. This takes out. This goes out by email. You can reply to the email. If you wanna talk to me or if you wanna chat or if you wanna comment, there's also a, a post or comment section below each post. So it's there. If you wanna communicate, if you wanna say something then, uh, by all means, I'd love to hear from you. So thank you again for joining me and have a great day. Okay, bye.
Speaker 1 00:18:05 You have been listening to annuity straight talk. The proceeding information is for informational and educational purposes on legal Does represent tax legal or investment advice. The views expressed by guests on program are their own and do not necessarily views No information presented to should be acted upon without meeting with the qualify professional, Its important that you all insurance contract diss careful before Makings based. I.
