June 22, 2022 • 13 mins
Walter Stith, Former Buffalo Bills offensive tackle turned financial planner, returns in this deep dive to share the importance of setting goals and determining a set of beliefs to help with your financial goals.
Guest IG: @walterstith
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. We are joined once
again by former NFL and CFL offensive tackle turned into
(00:22):
financial planner, Walter Stiff. Walter, welcome back to the podcast.
Thanks for having me back. So great to have at
you back. And in case you missed our previous episode,
Walter shared his journey about his transitions from an illustrious
NFL career to pivoting to becoming a financial planner and
building generational wealth for others. So this deep dive today
(00:46):
is going to focus on financial planning. Walter, as we
welcome you back to the podcast, can you tell us
what is a financial planner and how did you stop
from throwing a football to getting into securing the bag
of money for our audience. Yeah. So, I'm a financial
advisor Morgan Stanley in Atlanta on the team the Armed
(01:07):
Conference Group, and the the basis of what we do
is financial planning. Um and I started out as an
intern at Morgan at City Group Smith Barney in New
York City through the NFL Internship program during my rookie
season for the Bills. I went to New York City
because I wanted to uh put emphasis on what I
(01:31):
wanted to do after football was over, knowing that you know,
it was, knowing that the average career was three and
a half years, that I needed to leverage the platform
of being in the NFL to think about what I
wanted to do next. Uh, And so financial advising was
a natural choice for me. And so I learned about
financial advising at City Group Smith Barney, and after my
(01:52):
first offseason, I kept the relationship with the managers there.
UH ended up playing four years pro and then I
was done. I joined Mortgage Stanley full time as a
financial advisor. Wow, okay, so now you're in the money
moves business. When I am looking for a financial advisor,
at what point you know, and especially for athletes that
(02:15):
are at their new athletes rookie athletes, like when should
I go and seek out the services of a financial advisor.
I think you should seek the services of a financial
advisor at the first site of a change in your
financial trajectory. So, for example, with professional athletes are more
specifically football players, UH, there's they're scouting services, their rankings,
(02:40):
there's mock drafts, um and so when you're listed on
one of these mock drafts and you realize that you
have an opportunity to play on a professional level as
a baseball player, basketball player, football player, even an artist
or a business owner, anyone that is looking to increase
(03:01):
the amount of money that they make more than you know,
three times what they've ever made. This drastic influx, of course. Yeah,
it's especially newfound affluence, right, It's really good that you
find a financial advisor, and you know, and working with
a lot of athletes, you know, the analogy that I
make to them is, you know, when you go to
(03:22):
your team and you get to your first meeting, one
of the very first things that your coach is gonna
give you is a playbook, right, and that playbook is
gonna outline what your schedule is. It's gonna outline you
know what position you're playing, what you know, what your
teammates positions are, what your goal is for the season,
(03:43):
and then it's going to get into what the strategy
is for the season. And then there's gonna be you know,
in terms of a positional level, you know what you
do from a tactical standpoint. So if that's what you're
doing to prepare for a sport or game. Then you
need to being for or your finances. Right, you need
to get a financial playbook so that you want you understand, right,
(04:06):
who's on your team? Right, how much money? Yeah, you
to be going to make? Uh, And then you need
to make sure that you understand how much you're gonna
take home how much you have to potentially paying taxes.
So I would advise you know, talking to UH certified
financial planner and getting some tax advice on making sure
(04:27):
that your withholdings are correct, find out what are some
things that you can do to reduce your tax liability
but potentially putting money. So this is really about building
a team's because it's not just you alone as a
financial planner. You're talking about tax advisors, everyone. I think
you know, everybody really needs to come in. And the
other thing that I really implore people is like choose
(04:48):
the best. You know, if you're an athlete, you're this
like really go out and do your research to be
like who is the best fit. It not necessarily the
person on the corner just because they're close. Like, really
look at like who will make my money work the
best for me? Yeah, that's really important, I think when
you're selecting a plantial advised And a part of the
process that I go through with Prospects is one people
(05:12):
do business with people that they like, in people that
they trust. And how do you get to a point
of likability and trustworthiness. That's through having conversations, right interviewing
somewhere uh. And I take a values based approach by
sharing the things that I value. Uh. You know, I
will share the first and foremost, Like, my value is
in my faith, uh, in my family and also in
(05:34):
my legacy. Those are those are three things that are
really really important to me. And so with sharing those values,
you can get a sense of, um, you know, the
type of advisor that you're working with based upon the
principles that come along with those. Absolutely. And it's funny
because I think that's one of those things that people
don't like to mix, you know, um, money with their
(05:55):
family or politics or this, or just even talking about it.
But I think in this sort of conversation when you're
looking for people to join your team, it's important you
know your finances and your money and your family they're
so intertwined. You want someone who aligns with you on
all those factors absolutely, and also it is your I
want to as an advisor, I want to find out
(06:17):
what motivates you, right, do your values motivates you? If
I know that your family is really important to you,
I want to make sure that you have the financial
tools and resources to be able to provide a cultable
lifestyle for your family while you're you know, making a
lot of money and as a professional athlete, and in
the case of many of my clients, so also beyond
(06:37):
being a professional athlete after football is over, continuing to
be able to provide for your family because if that's
something that you value, you want to make sure that
they're taken care of. Great answer. Okay, as we go
deeper into financial planning, you know, as let's say you're
an athlete, you're an entrepreneur, and you've got a little
bit of money now, so you've got some liquidity that
(06:58):
you're looking to invest. You know, we're starting we're still
the top half of two. Q one. What is some
advice that you are giving to your clients now to
explore We've heard a lot of people come on the
show and talk about cryptocurrency. Is you know, there's a
lot of volatility in the market today. What are some
of the things that people should be considering and looking
(07:18):
at well, First and foremost, I would say that everyone's
um investment advice is going to be particular to their
risk tolerance. It's gonna be it's gonna be specific to
how much money they're looking to invest. But the risk
tolerance is really important understanding how much risk you're willing
to take on as an investor. But more importantly, when
(07:41):
we go back to the planning aspect and like advising
someone okay, like how should you invest? More importantly, it's
in a conversation about understanding your cash flow and saying
that investments are a means to an end, right, So
why do you need investment? Uh? If you look at
(08:01):
the news now, and especially economic news, you'll see uh.
In the headlines, they've been talking about inflation and what
that means. And so if you want to understand inflation,
you need to just look at your own purchases at
the grocery store. Right. Our milk, eggs, cheese, bread, butter
costing a lot more today than they did last year. Yes,
(08:25):
housing prices are going up really high, right, So in
order to combat that inflation, you need to have a portfolio, right,
a mixture of stocks, bunds, It can insurance products be
you know, see these money markets. Whatever your risk tolerance
has an appetite for it to be able to allow
(08:46):
your cash to keep pace with or outpaced inflation. Um.
So just you know, you can't really give blanket investment
advice because everybody's wrist tolerance is different. Everybody has a
different financial profile in terms of what their liquid network is,
what they're total network is, what their goals are, you know,
(09:08):
long term and short term. So this is why I
think relationship is so important. You know, if people if
you don't have a relationship with your financial advisor, are
they really making your money move right in the directions
that you want exactly? Right? Your money, your money ship
moved by the motivation of your passenger interests in your lifestyle. Right.
(09:30):
So depending upon how much money you make, there's a
certain percentage of that that you have to live off of,
uh in depending upon like how much money you have,
that would determine how much income can be produced from
that that nestay. So it just it just depends on
the individual person. So I would say, you know, definitely
connect with you know, a financial advisor to find out
(09:53):
what it is I want to determine, um, what things
can help you to eat your goals. But putting it
together an investment policy statement is can be really helpful.
And that's just saying, all right, these are the things
that I believe in, These are the things that I'm
passionate about, and these are my goals. Um, and goals
(10:14):
are quite naturally taught to an amount. So how much
money do I need to be able to meet my
goals and to be able to sustain my lifestyle, meet
my goals, have a budget, live the lifestyle I want
that's within my means, but also that we'll secure, you know,
a future, a comfortable future for my family for you know,
years to come. All right, well, we have reached the
(10:35):
end of our ropes for today with you Walter. It's
such a pleasure to have you on the podcast. But
I wanted to send us out, or if you could
close us out with um some sort of financial perspective
for the year to come. Should we be saving our
money more intensely? You know, what are the markets looking like? Well?
As of today, you know, the markets have been very volatile, right.
(11:01):
The one thing that I will say that over the
past for two years, let's just let's use that number
right there, being wars, there's been terrorism, global financial crisis,
and also pandemics as well. You know, but despite all
of these negative bits, the markets, while being volatile, were
wrestling and so you know, while markets are seeing volatility
(11:22):
steep declines, they eventually smooth out and produce positive return
for investors over the long term. So you know, just
make sure that you know you have a plan and
that you're working with the financial advisor that can help
you to select the appropriate tools, resources and investments to
help you reach your goals. Oh that is great advice.
(11:45):
And I like leaving this program on with an optimistic
outlook that smooth sailing always and invariably comes back to us.
So whatever you guys wake up today worried about smooth
sailing is eventually going to be in your future. Walter,
thank you so much for coming to the Money Moves podcast.
Can you again let our audience know where they can
find you on social media? Yes, you can find me
(12:07):
on all platforms at Walter stiff s t A. T. H. Chania.
Thanks again for having me. I really appreciate appreciate you
for sharing the space with me and allowing us to
uh enlightening your listeners with some financial literacy and education.
Thank you. That's what we aim to do here at
Money Moves. We just want to help educate, share the
(12:29):
other experiences. Share you know, your journey from football player
to financial planner. So thank you so much Walter for
inspiring so many of us in our audience. We hope
to make your money move. Please make sure to let
us know by sending us a like, sharing the knowledge,
and or leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts, and
make sure you tune into Money Moves Monday to Friday
(12:50):
and subscribe to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood,
so that you too can have the keys to financial
freedom you so rightly deserve. Thank you so much for
tuning in Money Moves audience. If you want more or
a recap of this episode, please go to the bank
Greenwood dot com and check out the Money Moves podcast blog.
(13:12):
Money Moves is an I Heart radio podcast powered by
Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc. For more podcast
on I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts from
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. We are joined once
again by former NFL and CFL offensive tackle turned into
(00:22):
financial planner, Walter Stiff. Walter, welcome back to the podcast.
Thanks for having me back. So great to have at
you back. And in case you missed our previous episode,
Walter shared his journey about his transitions from an illustrious
NFL career to pivoting to becoming a financial planner and
building generational wealth for others. So this deep dive today
(00:46):
is going to focus on financial planning. Walter, as we
welcome you back to the podcast, can you tell us
what is a financial planner and how did you stop
from throwing a football to getting into securing the bag
of money for our audience. Yeah. So, I'm a financial
advisor Morgan Stanley in Atlanta on the team the Armed
(01:07):
Conference Group, and the the basis of what we do
is financial planning. Um and I started out as an
intern at Morgan at City Group Smith Barney in New
York City through the NFL Internship program during my rookie
season for the Bills. I went to New York City
because I wanted to uh put emphasis on what I
(01:31):
wanted to do after football was over, knowing that you know,
it was, knowing that the average career was three and
a half years, that I needed to leverage the platform
of being in the NFL to think about what I
wanted to do next. Uh, And so financial advising was
a natural choice for me. And so I learned about
financial advising at City Group Smith Barney, and after my
(01:52):
first offseason, I kept the relationship with the managers there.
UH ended up playing four years pro and then I
was done. I joined Mortgage Stanley full time as a
financial advisor. Wow, okay, so now you're in the money
moves business. When I am looking for a financial advisor,
at what point you know, and especially for athletes that
(02:15):
are at their new athletes rookie athletes, like when should
I go and seek out the services of a financial advisor.
I think you should seek the services of a financial
advisor at the first site of a change in your
financial trajectory. So, for example, with professional athletes are more
specifically football players, UH, there's they're scouting services, their rankings,
(02:40):
there's mock drafts, um and so when you're listed on
one of these mock drafts and you realize that you
have an opportunity to play on a professional level as
a baseball player, basketball player, football player, even an artist
or a business owner, anyone that is looking to increase
(03:01):
the amount of money that they make more than you know,
three times what they've ever made. This drastic influx, of course. Yeah,
it's especially newfound affluence, right, It's really good that you
find a financial advisor, and you know, and working with
a lot of athletes, you know, the analogy that I
make to them is, you know, when you go to
(03:22):
your team and you get to your first meeting, one
of the very first things that your coach is gonna
give you is a playbook, right, and that playbook is
gonna outline what your schedule is. It's gonna outline you
know what position you're playing, what you know, what your
teammates positions are, what your goal is for the season,
(03:43):
and then it's going to get into what the strategy
is for the season. And then there's gonna be you know,
in terms of a positional level, you know what you
do from a tactical standpoint. So if that's what you're
doing to prepare for a sport or game. Then you
need to being for or your finances. Right, you need
to get a financial playbook so that you want you understand, right,
(04:06):
who's on your team? Right, how much money? Yeah, you
to be going to make? Uh, And then you need
to make sure that you understand how much you're gonna
take home how much you have to potentially paying taxes.
So I would advise you know, talking to UH certified
financial planner and getting some tax advice on making sure
(04:27):
that your withholdings are correct, find out what are some
things that you can do to reduce your tax liability
but potentially putting money. So this is really about building
a team's because it's not just you alone as a
financial planner. You're talking about tax advisors, everyone. I think
you know, everybody really needs to come in. And the
other thing that I really implore people is like choose
(04:48):
the best. You know, if you're an athlete, you're this
like really go out and do your research to be
like who is the best fit. It not necessarily the
person on the corner just because they're close. Like, really
look at like who will make my money work the
best for me? Yeah, that's really important, I think when
you're selecting a plantial advised And a part of the
process that I go through with Prospects is one people
(05:12):
do business with people that they like, in people that
they trust. And how do you get to a point
of likability and trustworthiness. That's through having conversations, right interviewing
somewhere uh. And I take a values based approach by
sharing the things that I value. Uh. You know, I
will share the first and foremost, Like, my value is
in my faith, uh, in my family and also in
(05:34):
my legacy. Those are those are three things that are
really really important to me. And so with sharing those values,
you can get a sense of, um, you know, the
type of advisor that you're working with based upon the
principles that come along with those. Absolutely. And it's funny
because I think that's one of those things that people
don't like to mix, you know, um, money with their
(05:55):
family or politics or this, or just even talking about it.
But I think in this sort of conversation when you're
looking for people to join your team, it's important you
know your finances and your money and your family they're
so intertwined. You want someone who aligns with you on
all those factors absolutely, and also it is your I
want to as an advisor, I want to find out
(06:17):
what motivates you, right, do your values motivates you? If
I know that your family is really important to you,
I want to make sure that you have the financial
tools and resources to be able to provide a cultable
lifestyle for your family while you're you know, making a
lot of money and as a professional athlete, and in
the case of many of my clients, so also beyond
(06:37):
being a professional athlete after football is over, continuing to
be able to provide for your family because if that's
something that you value, you want to make sure that
they're taken care of. Great answer. Okay, as we go
deeper into financial planning, you know, as let's say you're
an athlete, you're an entrepreneur, and you've got a little
bit of money now, so you've got some liquidity that
(06:58):
you're looking to invest. You know, we're starting we're still
the top half of two. Q one. What is some
advice that you are giving to your clients now to
explore We've heard a lot of people come on the
show and talk about cryptocurrency. Is you know, there's a
lot of volatility in the market today. What are some
of the things that people should be considering and looking
(07:18):
at well, First and foremost, I would say that everyone's
um investment advice is going to be particular to their
risk tolerance. It's gonna be it's gonna be specific to
how much money they're looking to invest. But the risk
tolerance is really important understanding how much risk you're willing
to take on as an investor. But more importantly, when
(07:41):
we go back to the planning aspect and like advising
someone okay, like how should you invest? More importantly, it's
in a conversation about understanding your cash flow and saying
that investments are a means to an end, right, So
why do you need investment? Uh? If you look at
(08:01):
the news now, and especially economic news, you'll see uh.
In the headlines, they've been talking about inflation and what
that means. And so if you want to understand inflation,
you need to just look at your own purchases at
the grocery store. Right. Our milk, eggs, cheese, bread, butter
costing a lot more today than they did last year. Yes,
(08:25):
housing prices are going up really high, right, So in
order to combat that inflation, you need to have a portfolio, right,
a mixture of stocks, bunds, It can insurance products be
you know, see these money markets. Whatever your risk tolerance
has an appetite for it to be able to allow
(08:46):
your cash to keep pace with or outpaced inflation. Um.
So just you know, you can't really give blanket investment
advice because everybody's wrist tolerance is different. Everybody has a
different financial profile in terms of what their liquid network is,
what they're total network is, what their goals are, you know,
(09:08):
long term and short term. So this is why I
think relationship is so important. You know, if people if
you don't have a relationship with your financial advisor, are
they really making your money move right in the directions
that you want exactly? Right? Your money, your money ship
moved by the motivation of your passenger interests in your lifestyle. Right.
(09:30):
So depending upon how much money you make, there's a
certain percentage of that that you have to live off of,
uh in depending upon like how much money you have,
that would determine how much income can be produced from
that that nestay. So it just it just depends on
the individual person. So I would say, you know, definitely
connect with you know, a financial advisor to find out
(09:53):
what it is I want to determine, um, what things
can help you to eat your goals. But putting it
together an investment policy statement is can be really helpful.
And that's just saying, all right, these are the things
that I believe in, These are the things that I'm
passionate about, and these are my goals. Um, and goals
(10:14):
are quite naturally taught to an amount. So how much
money do I need to be able to meet my
goals and to be able to sustain my lifestyle, meet
my goals, have a budget, live the lifestyle I want
that's within my means, but also that we'll secure, you know,
a future, a comfortable future for my family for you know,
years to come. All right, well, we have reached the
(10:35):
end of our ropes for today with you Walter. It's
such a pleasure to have you on the podcast. But
I wanted to send us out, or if you could
close us out with um some sort of financial perspective
for the year to come. Should we be saving our
money more intensely? You know, what are the markets looking like? Well?
As of today, you know, the markets have been very volatile, right.
(11:01):
The one thing that I will say that over the
past for two years, let's just let's use that number
right there, being wars, there's been terrorism, global financial crisis,
and also pandemics as well. You know, but despite all
of these negative bits, the markets, while being volatile, were
wrestling and so you know, while markets are seeing volatility
(11:22):
steep declines, they eventually smooth out and produce positive return
for investors over the long term. So you know, just
make sure that you know you have a plan and
that you're working with the financial advisor that can help
you to select the appropriate tools, resources and investments to
help you reach your goals. Oh that is great advice.
(11:45):
And I like leaving this program on with an optimistic
outlook that smooth sailing always and invariably comes back to us.
So whatever you guys wake up today worried about smooth
sailing is eventually going to be in your future. Walter,
thank you so much for coming to the Money Moves podcast.
Can you again let our audience know where they can
find you on social media? Yes, you can find me
(12:07):
on all platforms at Walter stiff s t A. T. H. Chania.
Thanks again for having me. I really appreciate appreciate you
for sharing the space with me and allowing us to
uh enlightening your listeners with some financial literacy and education.
Thank you. That's what we aim to do here at
Money Moves. We just want to help educate, share the
(12:29):
other experiences. Share you know, your journey from football player
to financial planner. So thank you so much Walter for
inspiring so many of us in our audience. We hope
to make your money move. Please make sure to let
us know by sending us a like, sharing the knowledge,
and or leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts, and
make sure you tune into Money Moves Monday to Friday
(12:50):
and subscribe to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood,
so that you too can have the keys to financial
freedom you so rightly deserve. Thank you so much for
tuning in Money Moves audience. If you want more or
a recap of this episode, please go to the bank
Greenwood dot com and check out the Money Moves podcast blog.
(13:12):
Money Moves is an I Heart radio podcast powered by
Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc. For more podcast
on I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts from
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