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 00:00:49 Hello and welcome everyone to the annuity straight talk podcast, episode number 38. My name is Brian Anderson coming to you again from Western Montana. Beautiful spring day here today, I got a little glare behind me, so the shot's not that great. I have, well, aside from the audio and video capabilities, I don't have a whole professional studio by any means, but I hope you forgive me because the objective of this podcast is to get good information to good people who are curious, give everyone another platform to absorb the information. Some people like to read it. Some people like to watch it. Some people like to hear it. You know, other people like to do it hands on and dig into the numbers right away. And I, I wanna say, you know, I've talked to, I think I mentioned it last week. A lot of clients have found that this is a really good way.
Speaker 2 00:01:40 Like some people said, well, we really like seeing you out there. All the, you know, people have done business with me for years. Some I talk to all the time. Some I talk to once a year, some people seem like they don't ever need me at all. I would consider those people, maybe customers, not clients, but I'm always available. And I think a lot of people just like seeing that. So also, uh, I brought it up with, uh, you know, one of the guys I talked to a lot, who's become more of a friend than a client and we've always had a good relationship, but we share a lot of obviously March madness just finished. We both like sports a lot. And so we end up talking about sports and so congrats to Patrick that Kansas won the national championship. This year. He's a Kansas fan.
Speaker 2 00:02:16 Couldn't be happier for him. So, and I'm sorry to anyone else whose team did not win. I enjoy it. I don't have a team, but anyway, so I, I was talking to him and I asked him, I said, you know, I got a lot, a lot of stories cuz when we talk, you know, we tell stories. And one of the things about Patrick is he and I kind of grew up the same way on farms and ranches and around. I think we both spent time bucking hay bales when we were kids. And so we just, we have a lot of things in common and I asked him, I said, what if I, so I've told him stories, he's told me stories are good stories. And I feel like I got a lot of stories. Cause a lot of things I've done in my life. And I asked him, I said, I wonder if maybe I should just do a couple of podcasts where I just tell stories, instead of talking about technical numbers, annuity, this annuity that he said, he thought it was a great idea.
Speaker 2 00:02:59 So I asked a few other people that I talked to last week. What, what if I just did this? So this doesn't really have anything to do with annuities. I just thought, yeah, I've done some interesting things. And I remember early in my career, this isn't the story, but I remember the, the agency I worked for the beginning of my career, they were doing an office remodel and wanted to make the conference room, look like a bank. You know, it looked like real money centered money focused. And I said, no, you can't do that. And I said, why? I said, well, here's my idea. I think you should make it more adventure oriented. I think you should make it look like a vacation, like a relaxing place and you should do, uh, something like that. So people feel imaginative when they come in there. And I think it would be a lot better than kind of a stuffy old, like, you know, 1920s bank theme in the conference room.
Speaker 2 00:03:47 So they liked the idea, they did it. So they had a bunch of pictures of saltwater flats and beaches. They put a saltwater fish tank in there. It was really cool. And that's kind of always been my mindset. Like I want people to and people that dream and a lot of that comes from my childhood, my college career, everything. And so I think what people will find interesting possibly is I think that way, because I'm always kind of, I'm kind of a dreamer, obviously. I think of alternative ways to do things. I'm kind of contrarian. I've got a lot of stories I can talk to about why I'm, you know, I look at things the way I do. But one of the things I thought about is I've always said this and not necessarily that to people, I said it to colleagues, other advisors, even friends of mine say, why are you doing what you're doing?
Speaker 2 00:04:34 And so I thought, well, this is something I don't communicate, but it's a really good a lesson is that understand that my young adult life, I was a rafting guy to fishing guide Montana and Alaska. And that kind of started when I was a kid, our big activities were camping trips and mountain lakes and going fishing with my dad and my brothers and friends and stuff like that. And that's what I really loved to do. That's why I kind of do from a recreational perspective, what I do today, cuz that stuff doesn't leave you once you get addicted to it. And one of the things my dad did is I think I was probably about 15 and he bought a whitewater raft and I thought it was really cool. So I started to learn how to float down rivers and row the boat and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 00:05:16 And at the time there weren't that many young kids that were able to do that. And I would always see it was, it was right outside of glacier park and I would always see the guided trips, the Outfitters taking people on whitewater trips and I'd see the guide in the back and I'd look and I'd say, man, wouldn't that be an awesome way to spend the summer? And so from that point I kind of made it my mission. I'm going to try to get a job doing that. And when I graduate from high school, I was 18. I was old enough to do it. And because I was well known in sports locally, I was not a star by any means. But remember this small town Montana, a lot of the business owners kind of knew who I was. So it was easier for me to get a job doing that.
Speaker 2 00:05:56 And I mean, I could, this podcast could be three hours long for crying out loud, but Joe Rogan does some of those, I guess I'm not Joe Rogan yet, but I remember it. So I started out as a whitewater guide and I had a day off one day. And so I went and I walked, I climbed down into the canyon and I was, I went fly fishing and I was fishing and it was one of those hot summer days where the raft company was really busy. And on those whitewater trips, each guide would take two, maybe three trips down the river. I was like, I would wait. And I, I knew and I had a really good day fishing and I would, I would wait until the boats from my company, the guys I knew and my friends were about to float past and I'd start fishing and I would catch a fish for all the people floating by and screaming in the whitewater.
Speaker 2 00:06:35 And it was really funny because I had, I had a great day and I didn't think anything of it, but yeah, I was kind of showing off a little bit, but just because the fishing was really good, I'd always say I'm not a great fisherman, but I know where the fishing is. Great. And that's kind of what I focus on finding anyway. So I remember that, you know, that was that. And the next day I was getting ready to go back to work. And I lived in a little camper trailer, right? The, the equipment shed for the raft company. And the next day there was a big family that was taking like 10 or 12 people. So as you know, as a fishing guide, you take two people per boat. And so they needed six boats. Well, the company wasn't really focused on fishing at the time, so they didn't have a whole lot of fishing guides and they were, I got a, on my trailer door, like bang, bang bang at about six 30 in the morning, the next day.
Speaker 2 00:07:23 And I said, yeah, what's up? And they said, Brian, get your ass outta bed. You're a fishing guy today. Whoa, Hey, that's cool. Now not to mention that the fishing guy makes like three, four times as bunch of money as just a guy who paddles a boat down the river. And so that was the story is they, they were talking around, well, everybody was sitting around talking, well, who else can take this trip? Who else can do it? And that they said, what about Brian? Every time we floated by him yesterday, he had a fish on. And so it was kind of by design. I wasn't intending to be a fishing guy, but anyway, so that kind of launched me into doing it. It was my first year, my second year I did a lot more. And then by my third and fourth year at that company, and this was just summertime trips, right by the third and fourth year, I did nothing but fishing trips.
Speaker 2 00:08:06 And so it was just a really fun way to spend the summer. Why I consider that the best annuity training possible is because the guys that can afford to take fishing trips are all 55, 60, 65 year old dudes that have money and are retired. So I spent hours in a boat with guys in their sixties, seventies, even who had money. And I got to pick up all their conversations between each other. And I also learned how to make small talk conversation or keep the conversation interesting with people that were of retirement age. I didn't know it at the time, but that was the best training I could possibly have asked for. I learned to communicate. I always liked to write. And so the point was to understand what people want, be able to give them. And at that time it was conversation. It's entertainment. Cuz as you're as a guide, you're kind of entertaining the people fishing always.
Speaker 2 00:08:58 Isn't great, but you have to have a good time, no matter what. So you have to be able to communicate the land to people. Hey look, we're on in glacier. It's amazing. Like you're floating on drinking water. It's cleaner than the stuff that comes out of taps in just about any American city. And so it's just a gorgeous place. So you could draw focus to other places and clearly you always want the fishing to pick up. But that was just one way of again, keeping people entertained, keeping people occupied and interested, no matter the situation. And I had hundreds of days of doing it. So I obviously want to take it one step further. I met another guide who said, Hey, you really should go to Alaska and I've got this great place for you. And, and I thought I've always wanted to go to Alaska.
Speaker 2 00:09:39 Kind of a funny story about that. My dad worked on the pipeline in the early seventies as a welder and he worked there for a couple of summers. And I remember he told me that when my mom was pregnant with me, so I was born in November and in September they were getting ready to go home for the season. And they had a couple of days and he took her fishing for silver salmon on the Kenai river in Alaska. And when I, cuz I kept telling him, I always wanted to go to Alaska. And he said, you know what makes sense to me that you were that close. You were in your mom's belly at the time she was having at the time of her life catching fish on the Kenai river in the early in the seventies. And it makes perfect sense. You were that close, but you didn't get to do it.
Speaker 2 00:10:26 So I guess that's why you always wanted to go back. And so I took a, a job at this place and a friend of mine that guided there as well. He said, this is, and he had done it for a couple years. He'd been doing it for a while and he said it, this is summer camp for big kids. I'm telling you it's the best. And so, and it really was cuz we were all 21, 22, a couple guys in their, you know, late twenties. But we were out there. We had jet boats, we had unlimited fuel. We got into float planes every morning and flew out to different rivers. I think I fish probably 35 or 40 different rivers in that time period. If the fishing wasn't good at one place, you jump in the plane and you go to another one. And but what that meant is that there again, I was spending four months out of a summer sitting in boats, talking to guys that are 60 years old.
Speaker 2 00:11:14 So it's no coincidence that a lot of my friends are actually in their sixties and seventies. Some of my closest friends now I've got buddies my age and all that stuff, but I've always been interested in being the young guy in the crowd. So that really transitioned to the beginning of my career as a financial advisor. I remember. And like at Alaska, its a notch above. I mean the guy guys that go up there have serious money. It's a dang expensive trip. You imagine having four or five big float planes and a helicopter and things to take you fishing. It's like it is summer camp for big kids. And, and a lot of those, a lot of the people up there, 95% of 'em are just wonderful people. I've made a lot. I met a lot of good people, but I was in college studying finance.
Speaker 2 00:11:58 So the first year I went up there was right before my senior year at college and I got to know a couple of people and I always ask 'em, you know, I, I couldn't come right out about it with everyone because again, you, you know, you're there, your job is to make sure they enjoy that this vacation, they spent 25, $5,000 on. Anyway, I remember asking this one guy, he had told me that he was in his late forties. He was retired. Hell I don't know. He is probably worth 20, 30 million, maybe more. And he had just kicked butt and he, he had worked in New York. He was in wall street. And anyway, I asked him, I said, Hey listen, maybe a little advice here. And I asked a lot of people, this is the one I remember most. And he said, I said, Hey, I'm getting a finance degree and I wanna make a good living.
Speaker 2 00:12:38 I wanna help people. And I want to be able to have the freedom to do stuff like you just did. You just came up here for a week and that, and I said, what would your advice be to me in the next couple of years? How should I get my start? And he stood there on the front porch of the lodge before he took the van into the airport to leave. And it was right on the edge of beautiful lake. There's no other human settlement on this lake. It's like 19 miles long, gorgeous Southwest Alaska. And he kind of took a deep breath and he looked across the lake and he said, if I were you, I wouldn't do anything different than you're already doing <laugh>. He said, if I could do it all over again, I would be doing a, exactly what you're doing right now.
Speaker 2 00:13:15 And he said, if you work hard and you're honest, the opportunity will come and you'll know to take advantage of it. And I thought, yeah, right. I mean that guy that got all that money and he's saying, oh, I wish I've done it differently, but fair enough. I thought that was very important. But again, that kind of gave me the idea that I want to be effective. And remember, this is all around the time when, you know, Enron and Arthur Anderson were going through fraud, investigations and charges and all that garbage came out on wall street. I was getting a finance degree and it seemed like corporate America was kind of in shambles and public confidence was shot. the.com bubble was bursting. People were losing money. I saw one 401k that it went from $2 million to 80,000 and never came back. Um, like incredibly hurtful things happened to a lot of people during that time.
Speaker 2 00:14:03 And so there wasn't a lot of confidence in, you know, the stock market or corporate America. I have since talked to a lot of people who never got back into it because of that. But anyway, I didn't know, I was kind of lost. And so I thought, well, what the heck all just graduate from college and I'll come back up here for another summer. So, which is what I did. But I did a, a lot of things that kind of drove that point home where recognizing good people, being able to communicate with them. And I think that was the absolute best training I could ever get. You know, some really big moments in my life. I was there nine 11, 2001. And I was there with a lot of people, people who had direct connections to business on wall street, they had family members involved and fortunately, nobody lost something.
Speaker 2 00:14:43 I remember there was one guy who had his office in the world trade center and he had not taken more than a three day weekend for 14 and a half years. And he was up there on nine 11, 2001. And that guy was very, very humbled. He gave all of his staff the week off. And so nobody that worked for him and I think he had an office on the 47th floor. So I don't know. I remember, but his office was destroyed and he happened to have taken the first vacation in 14 years. I thought, well, some things like that make me believe in a higher power. He's a very nice, nice person. Certainly didn't deserve what happened to a lot of other people that day. Anyhow, but not to, to focus on that too much. I've got so many stories about Alaska <affirmative> and I just remember, you know, to talk about like what an impression it made on me to talk to successful people, to recognize success, to appreciate the hard work of other people have respect for the assets they've got and the things they wanna keep private.
Speaker 2 00:15:45 A lot of people don't there's, you know, anonymity privacy's extremely important. And so I would, I learned this a long time ago in the guiding business is when people are on vacation, they don't necessarily want to talk about work. So I never brought it up. I didn't say, Hey, what did you do for a living? I know some greedy guys back in, you know, in the Montana raft company, they'd pick their guy that they were gonna take fishing or rafting based on what he did for they'd walk around the yard in front of the raft company. Hey, what do you do for a living? What do you do for a living? It's like, you're already taking them outta their vacation. They're going, maybe the guy hates his job. Maybe the guy hates his boss. Maybe this may be that they're on vacation. They don't want to talk about work.
Speaker 2 00:16:24 But when you put two successful guys, typically they came as friends. You sit in that middle of the boat and you own down the river and you listen to them, talk to each other, man, you can pick up a lot of things. And so what I learned from that is there are a lot of ways to do good business. And I remember speaking to the CEO of a major corporation and this is about Aron and Arthur Anderson and a dinner with him one night. And I said, Hey, his name was Mike. I won't tell you his last name, just a fantastic human being. And I said, how could I do, how, how could I honestly go into business or go into one of those large corporations given everything that's happened and nobody trusts what's going on. And he said, there are some bad actors in the corporate world.
Speaker 2 00:17:04 He said, but you have to understand that there are a lot of really good people out there. They may be caught in a bad system, but it does not mean they're bad people. And so it kind of restored my faith in it a little bit that if I did things the right way, then I would be able to attract the type of people that were worth the effort. And I think one of the best stories I have about Alaska was that I remember we had at the lodge, we had what was called an out camp where some of these places that we would fish consistently were 70, 60, 70, 80 miles from where people were staying. And that's what the float planes are for. Well, the lodge has to put out, put jet boats out there, a camp. They have to leave fuel there cuz the plane can't carry all the fuel all the time.
Speaker 2 00:17:48 And so we'd get assigned to go stay in the out camp. They'd take a big, a really nice tent with a full kitchen and all this stuff. So you had a pretty good setup out there, but I remember one in one summer I was there for a hundred days. I spent 72 days at an out camp that was 81 miles from the lodge itself. So one thing was, I had a lot of free time to do whatever I wanted because you know, people would leave the lodge at eight. They wouldn't get to that camp until 9 15, 9 30. They also had to leave earlier to get back to the lodge for happy hour and dinner. So I was working about a nine 30 to four 30 day, nine 30 to four, something like that. And I had a ton of read, which I truly enjoyed. And I was out there by myself for most of the other time.
Speaker 2 00:18:34 And there were, and there were times where the weather, if the weather wasn't bad, that's another thing I would radio the weather because the weather in my spot could be way different than the weather at the lodge or vice versa. They might have a fog bank and they can't fly off its line, a site flying. So they couldn't fly off the lake. Or I might have a fog bank on the river. They might not be able to land. So they didn't wanna burn the fuel to come out there if it wasn't worth doing. So. There were times when the weather would get really bad. There's one time I saw I went 12 days without seeing anyone. But what was awesome about it is I got to know of the freedom of having independence. I mean, when I was out there in June, the sun barely sets it's light 24 hours a day and I was buzzing around that river.
Speaker 2 00:19:19 And that's the other thing is they want you to go fishing. You gotta be able to tell where the fishing is good and it makes it easier. Cuz if they, when they come out there, they have a shorter day than they would in the places where they just take a, a 10 minute flight. So I got to scout the river a lot and I got to cruise around on drift boats. I saw like more bears than I could count giant moose met some natives that there were a lot of native villages on the river and they had little cabins kind of community property, little cabins. So I'd see the natives. I have a couple of not so great stories about at that, but I remember, yeah, it was really great. There was one native guy who was the head of the village council in one of the villages.
Speaker 2 00:19:58 And he had a big steam house and he'd come up from the village every weekend. Sometimes he'd stay there for a week, but uh, he was about 15 miles from my camp and he'd always buzz up to my camp to say, Hey Brian, I'm here. You know, Herman was his name him Herman Nelson, great guy in Nik, Alaska. So I got to know him really well. And I asked, I remember this is another thing that I said, I, I kind was interested in how their subsistence lifestyle and how they lived over the centuries. I thought that stuff was fascinated to me. And I asked him, I said, oh, kept asking him questions about certain things. He said, Brian, you asked lots of questions. I said, oh, I'm sorry. I don't mean to bug you. I just, I'm really curious about, you know, your life experiences.
Speaker 2 00:20:38 And he was probably in his mid fifties at the time he said, no, I didn't say it was a bad thing. <laugh> and so I've always asked a lot of questions cause I've always to learn and know, but it was a really crazy experience. Cause I, I got a lot of free time. And then in that seven hours a day, when people would show up, I was on with the rich dude that was 60, 65 years old. And I'd get to pick up conversations. He'd have with his buddy. There were a couple of corporate weeks that they hosted where a corporate would bring a bunch of. I remember Boeing was one of 'em where Boeing would bring the purchasing agents of all the other major airlines, wine and dynam at this lodge taken fishing. And they'd put a Boeing guy and a Delta guy in the boat or something like that.
Speaker 2 00:21:19 Right. And so you get to hear the stories of Boeing and Delta. You get to hear, you know, they're talking about economics and cause the point a trip was to do business. And, and I, I remember hearing of several multi-billion dollar deals that were struck based on that trip alone, which was really, really cool to me. But on those short days, when I'm out there for seven hours and I got seven hours, I go from personal, perfect, absolute freedom to being on with the 6 65 year old guy and picking up those business conversations, learning a lot about it. And I think maybe I was possibly more interested in that aspect because I was young enough where I could still make use of that information. And one of the, this is, uh, not related at all, but I remember there was a point in late guess early September where the weather was bad.
Speaker 2 00:22:10 And I said it before where they couldn't land a plane for 12 days. Well, the first day they couldn't land was the day they were supposed to bring my food cuz I was out of everything about everything but oatmeal. And so I was getting pretty desperate. Well in the early September is when all the moose hunters show up. And so a lot of the native cabins are leased out guides that take people, moose hunting. And what I had to do is I, you know, I, I don't remember what I had. I had more than oatmeal, but I didn't have a lot. And I remember I lost a lot of weight cuz I was really hungry. They couldn't get to me. And there was a village about 60 miles away. I was thinking about going down there cuz they've got a little store, but I don't, I didn't even have any money.
Speaker 2 00:22:49 So I didn't have money on me. What use was it? So I never took any anyhow. So I went 12 days without much to eat. Well, the silver salmon were running. And so every day I would, the people weren't coming, I'd go out and I would catch a silver salmon. I'd go fly fishing. And I'd haul in a salmon. I'd filet it. And that was what I basically lived on for 12 days. That's I lost a lot of wigs at him, much else. But I remember the night before they got there, they were really desperate to get there. And they said, well, we need to get to you no matter what, it had been almost been 12 days and we need to get to you no matter what, but we want you to go. What we're gonna do is we're gonna meet you down river and you're gonna take some, they said, you might have to go up 20 miles down river just so we can find a place to land the plane.
Speaker 2 00:23:33 We can get you your stuff and you can take these guys fishing for the day and then we'll leave off. So I thought, well, I haven't been down that far. So I cruised down the river and I was gonna go and I like, I was starving pretty. It was like pretty spiritual time for me because I think when you're fasting for that long living on nothing but salmon meat <laugh> was a very interesting story. But I remember the night before they said I was gonna be going downstream. So, so I decided, well I haven't fished down there. I'm gonna run down this afternoon and I'm gonna go fish the area, see if I can find the spots, make sure I at least can show these guys a good time and have some spots dialed in. While I was cruising a few miles below. My camp was one of those cabins where the outfitter had been taking people, moose hunting, and they'd been there for three or four days.
Speaker 2 00:24:14 Well, I come up upon on this. It was funny. Like there was, there were two channels right below my camp that went for about four or five miles and then met up again to make the main river. Again, I tip took, it was called the west braid rather than the main river channel, whatever reason this time I took the main channel and I was humming downstreaming my jet boat. And I got around to where I could see this camp. They had poles set up and they had a giant moose rack, obviously fresh that was sitting up on that was hanging from this rack. And the outfitter heard me coming by and he said, and he just stepped out and he just kinda gives me the come over here. And I thought, I said, okay, well I'll go talk to him. So I turned over and I cruise up onto the shoreline and beach the boat.
Speaker 2 00:25:02 And he said, how you doing? And shook his hand and met. He said, just wanna let you know with it. We've had a pretty good hunt so far that we got a steamship round of moose on the rotisserie <laugh> and a bunch of cold drinks. You're welcome. Welcome to come up and help yourself. And I almost started crying. I was so happy because I hadn't eaten anything but a few salmon for the last 12 days. It was amazing. I think I lost probably 20 pounds, great diet, but I wasn't. I was only 22 years old. So that wasn't the time I was looking for a diet. Anyway, that was pretty in an interesting moment where I went up there and I had fresh slices of moose meat, which was delicious. And man, I would've eaten anything about, I was about to eat my shoe. So that was kind of an interesting story about that.
Speaker 2 00:25:45 And the great thing about it is I stay there and stuff myself. I didn't go fishing downstream, but the next day I was able to catch the plane about 20 miles down. And fortunately they brought me some supplies and we had a good day fishing. So everything worked out. But anyway, don't want to take too much of this time. I think there's a point where I can do a follow up on this cuz there's lots and lots of stories, just really some amazing moments with bears and move and salmon and trout. Yeah, it was summer camp for big kids. So that is what I consider to be the best annuity training possible. Just hearing that high level, an analytics business discussion, helping me understand ways to think and use my certain form of intelligence. I'm not gonna consider myself to be intelligent, but in this path I am and a I've done a lot of work.
Speaker 2 00:26:29 That's out there for everybody to enjoy. So wanted to explain a little bit more about me and think, maybe get off of the serious annuity conversations, then we'll get back to some of that stuff. The technical details of that. I've got a lot of titles prepared, but again, I'm gonna try to intersperse these a little bit more when the newsletter comes out, I should have probably shared some photos, but they're all in weird different spots. I will look at that and see if I can get some uploaded for the newsletter, who knows. But anyway, again, best annuity training possible. I had it, not many other people got that opportunity and that really did a lot to shape who I am and why I do things the way I do. I like personal freedom. I like flexibility. I like making money. I like seeing other people make money and I wanna do good business for good people.
Speaker 2 00:27:14 So anyway, uh, thank you again for joining me. If you wanna share stories of your favorite adventures or if you wanna talk to me about what I did in Alaska or get some tips, if you wanna go up there. I, I know a lot of spots spend a lot of time out there. My number's (800) 438-5121. Schedule a call on the website, upper right corner. Schedule a call, pretty simple and easy. If you want to nail down a time and I'll give you a call if you do it. So thank you for joining for episode 38. I hope you guys all have a great day and I'll talk to you next time. Okay. Bye.
Speaker 1 00:27:55 You have an, It does not represent tax legal or investment advice. The views expressed by guests on this program are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or partners. No information presented should be. It's important that you all insurance contract disclosures carefully before making a decision Guarantees are based on the financial and claims paying ability of the insurance company.
