L V Plummer Jr. #1

"Financial Regrets and How to Avoid Them",  with Laurence Plummer Jr., Certified Financial Planner Practitioner and LPL Wealth Strategist on The Bev Johnson Show on WDIA Radio.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Memphis probably presents the Bem Johnson Show.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Let me say Bath.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
I've gone me first, let me you say.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
She's gone nappistogain.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
No matter of the problem she can have.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
So just all the phone and the Normans on your mind.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
She was there, Jimmy heading in.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
The hair by challing you to just keep the fair.

Speaker 5 (00:48):
When a wrangle a pegging out them Johnson Show, because
we've got out in hacking here every day. D I
am well, got me a missed up?

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Good morning, Good morning, good morning, and welcome into w
d i A The Bev Johnson Show. I'm Bev. It
is indeed a pleasure to have you with us once
again and on this Tuesday, June Live, fifteenth, twenty twenty five.
Enjoyed this fiabulous day Today, get ready to put your

(02:12):
ears on as we share the good news back in
the house. As we ask the expert are certified financial
Planner practitioner lpl Wealth Strategists will be here to help
us with our money. I'm talking about Lawrence Plumber Junior.
This morning, LV will talk about financial regrets and how

(02:37):
to avoid them. So stick and stay for that. When
it's your turn to talk, you know you can here
are the numbers to dial nine zero one, five, three, five,
nine three four two nine zero one five three five,
nine three four two eight hundred five zero three, nine

(03:00):
three four two eight hundred five zero three, nine three
four two eight three three five three five nine three
four to two will get you in to us. And
if this day, this, this this day, Tuesday, July fifteenth,

(03:29):
twenty twenty five, is your birthday. Happy birthday to each
and every one of y'all out there who may be
celebrating a birthday on this day. You know what we say,
Go out, y'all, go out and celebrate your life. You better,
you better. When we come back, we'll talk with our

(03:52):
certified Financial Planner practitioner LPL Wealth Strategist, lawrencemer Junior. We
know a Mayor's l V. Next with me Bev Johnson
on the Bev Johnson Show only on double D.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
I A.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Good good, good, good morning, and welcome back to w
D I a the heart and soul of members the
Bev Johnson Show. I BEV good to have you here
on this hot Year's hot y'all, It's Tuesday, July fifteenth,
twenty twenty five. Enjoy this fabulous day to day. As
I said earlier, back in the house, to help us

(05:16):
with our money. Before I tell you again, who's here.
Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a Registered
Investment Advisor member FINRA sipsy. The opinions expressed are those
of Lawrence Plummer, Junior, Certified Financial Planner, Practitioner, LPL Wealth Strategists.

(05:38):
Now LV and Plumber Wealth Strategists will be offering a
complementary consultation to the first five five callers today, y'all,
only five and the five first people who book an
appointment online. For those who may be at work and
cannot call, just go to Pwsplanning dot com. PWS Planning

(06:00):
dot com, send LV and email by clicking the contact
us button to schedule your complementary consultation with LV. That
number y'all to call for those first five callers nine
zero one seven four eight zero zero five zero nine
zero one seven four eight zero zero five zero or

(06:21):
email LV at LV at PWS Planning dot com. Service
at Pwsplanning dot com and also, y'all, you can navigate
to their website PWS Planning dot com. Well let's get
him in. Here are certified financial planner practitioner l P.

(06:43):
L Welth strategist Lawrence Plummer Junior, better known to us
round here as l V. Good morning, LV.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
Good morning Beth. How you been.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
I'm doing well today, LV? How about you?

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Good? I'm I'm pretty tired. I'm not gonna lie. Yeah,
it's been I can tell you that our current clients
we get from the show and my team here at
our office can attest. I think this may be the
busiest summer we've had, probably in the history of our
entire company, of our entire lifetime of our company. It's
been that crazy.

Speaker 5 (07:19):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Again, this is a good thing to complain about, and
we'll say and we appreciate everyone that's called, and this
is a blessing to work with so many people. But
it's been a busy one and I'm looking forward. I'm
going to Saint Thomas next week. So for those that call,
please forgive me. I take a little bit away for
a minute, so I'll take plenty of pictures for you. Ben,
please do Yeah, definitely just go with the family to

(07:41):
break away for a minute.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
You know what, LV. Everybody needs a break, and I
get you, everybody, everybody, you have to take a breast
break and and and with all the stress that's going
on in our country and around you know, take care
of yourself.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
And and that's an lynn no bev. And that's something
that a lot of clients don't realize that I'm really
passionate about until they actually come and meet me and
we do our consultations. Is I'm one of those advisors that, yes,
you know, we can talk all day long about investing
in saving and building and wealth and all this stuff,
but if you don't enjoy your life and enjoy the
journey that God's blessed you with, this is all for nothing.

(08:18):
So I've think clients are surprised to hear when I
actually tell them, hey, go spend some money, go enjoy
your time. You know, if you have young children, you know,
people are surprised to how much I actually travel and
get away because I just have that belief. You know,
I got two young kids. I got a six year
old and I got a three year old, and God's
been good to us to where we're able to go
and take a few trips a year and get away
from the from the craziness every once in a while. So,
you know, if you're a healthy and able body. Then

(08:40):
you saved well and you invested. Enjoy your life and
enjoy the journey because tomorrow is not promised. And you
know that. You're very passionate, and I say this.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
He'll be enjoy your money because you earned it.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yes, there you go, and you can't take all of
it with you, exactly exactly so, but yeah, I really
appreciate everyone. It's been a great experience we've had with
your show, bed everyone that's called. Even after we're done
with the show, we get calls trickling in after our
sessions here with you, BEV, and it's been a blessing
for us. So I really appreciate it, and we look

(09:15):
forward to anybody that does call following this show, which
hopefully we can. We can offer some good information today
for those listening.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Sounds good. I love this morning's topic, LV. The topic
is financial regrets. Wow, I got some of those and
how to avoid it well, ELV. Before we get started
into our topic today, did you want to open the
show with a few stock market updates and voicemen crazy?
There seems to be a lot of going on out there, LV.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, yeah, and I had a lot of clients from
your show and even clients that I've gotten from referrals
that really wanted me to talk about the state of
things because I think there's a big there's a big
dislocation between reality and perception right now, right And what
I mean by that every new client I've worked with,
I won't say everyone. I'll say like eighty percent of

(10:06):
new clients I've taken on the summer, Bev. All them.
They've come in and they are just I'll say a
lot of people are very doom and gloom. That's the
way I can maybe put it colloquially. Right now, the
sentiment is dampened right now. People are really pessimistic about
where things are, about the economy, about the stock markets.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Bev.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
You know me by now, we've worked together for years.
You know I'm not political, But right now, the world
of politics, I think is casting a shadow over where
we really are as a domestic and a global economy.
So what I wanted to really let people know today,
as I've done for years in your show, BEV, is
let everyone know, calm down, everything is fine, Everything is
not perfect. I'm not endorsing or not endorsing things happening

(10:46):
right now. I'm talking about from my station, which is
looking at the economy, the stock markets, the bond markets,
the world that we really invest in and recommend for
our clients to really put their money. From our view
right now, in my opinion, things are actually not bad
at all, and actually the stock market so far, we're
having a pretty good year, and I wanted to throw
some numbers out there for those listening, you know, right now,

(11:07):
the Dow Jones Industrial Average believer we're clocking in right
under four percent for the year, which is so far,
so good. Since we're only in July. NASDAK actually earned
over twenty three percent this last quarter. It is knocking
it out of the park right now. Due to artificial
intelligence tech firms and Microsoft, Apple and VideA, Amazon, these
companies are actually kind of going crazy right now. Three

(11:29):
month return the NASDAC to highlight that is about twenty
three point five percent. But for the year, even after
that tariff crash, we're right there at around seven point
six percent for the year as far as the return,
so NASDAK in my opinion, though it's been a rocky
roller coaster, it's been a really healthy roller coaster as
far as the trajectory and also I think which is
the most important benchmark I look at as the SMP
five hundred, right, SMP five hundred last three months is

(11:52):
actually up sixteen point one percent for the year. We're
looking at right there as six point five percent as
far as the year return. So what I'm saying Benev
is people coming in they're like, oh my, I have
a lot of clients that have that that you know,
it's like you smash that bug in the book and
you're afraid to open it up because you don't want
to see the blood and guts. People have that feeling
where they they come to my office, they're like, oh, man,

(12:12):
I don't want to open up the book. I know
there's a squash bug in there. Let me see my
accounts and see how things are going. I know I
lost a ton of money, and honestly, ten of the
ten times this year in this summer, you know, I
you know, I kind of show them the numbers, and
most people are actually very pleased about where we are
this year. Though you're hearing about the contention, you know
with Congress and the White House. You hear about interest
rates and your own power. There's a lot of things

(12:34):
that are being jumped around right now. A lot of
market pulses and news and headlines that are really driving
the market. But right now, the economy is healthy, unemployment,
wage growth, you know, housing starts, the real estate market,
everything we look at so far, even with the teriffs
kind of throwing a curveball in our in our in
our machine for this year. You know, even the inflation
that the terriffs have caused so far, I can't keep

(12:56):
saying that enough so far have not been enough to
derail the market. It's an economic growth and project and
progression as far as our GDP so right now, bottom
line for everyone listening, it's okay, check your accounts, don't
you know. There's not going to be that squash bug
in the book. It should be looking pretty good if
you have a good investment strategy, and if you have
something that you've diversified and worked with an advisor or
even done yourself to where you have a good sensible

(13:18):
investment plan. So that's what those consultations are for. If
you're one of those that's afraid to look into your
book and see how you're doing, call us. That's the
very first thing we do with our consultation clients. Is
look at everything and give you an assessment on where
things are going, Measure how you're progressing through years like
this year where things are kind of up and down,
and just to make sure you feel good about where
you're headed. But right now, in my opinion, so far

(13:38):
in July of twenty twenty five, it's been a solid year.
So hopefully we can talk about that for those that.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
Call all right, sounds good, okay, LV, Well let's jump
into today's title.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
What is it?

Speaker 3 (13:49):
And the title again you all is financial regrets and
how to avoid them?

Speaker 1 (13:54):
What is it?

Speaker 3 (13:55):
LV? Is that that you hope to get accomplished with
our listeners today?

Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, but you know what, I say it all the time.
I hear a lot of people's stories right when we
first meet them as a new client. We hear a
lot of great things. We hear a lot of bad things.
We have clients that come from humble beginnings and some
that start with us with five, ten to fifteen million dollars.
So we've seen a lot at our company over its
life over the last forty years. So one thing I

(14:21):
like to do is this, you know, and Bev, you
said it earlier when I first got on you mentioned
how you had some regrets. Right, yeah, yeah, but let
me let me make you feel better and let some
of the listeners feel better. It doesn't matter who I
sit down with. There are some people that come to
me they have five dollars hit their name, and they're like,
it'll be listen. I've never had more than five dollars
to my name. I want that to change. I want

(14:41):
to get on a plan. I want to invest, I
want to build, I want to learn. So I have
a lot of those clients. People think we only deal
with millionaires. That's not true. We have a lot of those,
but a lot of my every day just I want
to do better clients for some of my favorites because
I know we make a very high impact for those
that are just looking to get into this world. So
but I'll say that, you know, when I talk to
those five five dollars, we'll say a few thousand dollar clients, right,

(15:02):
you know, they're filled with regrets. They say, man, alb,
you know, I really wish we had done this earlier.
I wish I'd started when I was in my twenties
and thirties. So, you know, we have those clients. But
it's funny bev. The weird paradox that I see. There
are older clients that I've met that started with us
with one million, two million, ten million dollars, I can
tell you. And it's so funny because even those clients

(15:23):
that you and I would deem as financially successful still
have that same mindset. They come to me and they're like,
you know what, man, I really do wish I you know,
even though I got five million or whatever to my name,
I'm good for retirement. There's so much I could have
done over the last twenty thirty forty years that I
didn't do. And I'm also filled with regret right right,
It's weird. It doesn't matter how much money someone has.

(15:43):
And that's why my very first finance professor back in
high school, when I first started learning about this world,
he actually wrote that on the board. I'll never forget it.
He actually wrote down that finance on the board. He said,
he said, we're studying the art of regret. Right, And
what he meant by that, now what twenty plus year
years later, and then I'm realizing what he wrote on
that board is, you know, this is a world where

(16:05):
no one is truly satisfied you're gonna have regrets. It
doesn't matter if you succeed, if you don't succeed, you know,
there's always going to be a woulda, coulda should have.
And really my goal on today's show, BEV is that
to talk about some of those regrets that I hear
and maybe for one person, at least one person that's
hearing today, and we can spur some action to say, hey,
you know what, this is something I can address right now.

(16:26):
I heard it on the radio. I want to make
some adjustments to my plan or get with an advisor.
I want to make sure I get at least one
to five people that maybe we can do some course
correction for them to avoid the regrets that I usually
hear some of our older clients talk about. So that's
really my goal today is just to talk about what
I hear and offer some solutions on how we can
avoid those regrets.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Sounds good, I'm looking forward to that. Well for the
first regret, since you mentioned it, LV, it sounds like
you'd like to discuss a common regret that you hear
a lot. I wish I had started this journey earlier.
So I know a lot of people probably say that,
So how can people avoid this LV.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
It's funny, that is the most I'm glad you brought
it up, because that's the most common regret I hear. Bev.
In fact, I don't think a day goes by. I
won't say a day. I'll say it. I'll say a
week doesn't go by. When I don't hear those words, well,
you know, especially with our clients that really latch on,
that are really convicted to move forward with our strategies
and our plans, and they see all this stuff for
the first time, it's weird. The better I am at

(17:28):
my job, the more I hear that regret. So in
other words, people come in they've never met with an
advisor before I give them their plan. We'd help them implement.
My team steps in. Again, all four of them are superstars,
so they really take over once we get the plan
taken care of, and you know, once we really adopt
them and on board them as a client and we
start talking about things like ROS investing, like dividend stocks investing,

(17:48):
you know, doing tax planning, doing a state planning, you know,
the better job me and my team do. Usually that
client says, man, you know, why did I do this?
When I was twenty five or thirty years old, right,
and honestly, it's not not even just about the tax
and the estate planning. Really, honestly, the best way to
avoid that bev I tell people all the time, even
if you are older, let's say you're fifty, sixty, seventy

(18:09):
years old, you're listening to me right now, you know,
and it is quote unquote too late for you to
really benefit froe of them. What I'm saying that the
best gift you can give your children is for them
to call not just me, any advisor that's really good,
a certified financial planner, and just for them to begin
as soon as humanly possible. Right when I talk to
those twenty five year olds, it's some of our NFL

(18:29):
athletes or some of our entertainers that are really young
that are building up their millions and kind of starting
out fresh. You know. I tell people all the time,
you don't have to make a lot of money to
have a lot of money. You really don't. Some of
our most successful financial clients are the ones that started
when they were young. They were consistent, they were disciplined,
They learned about this world, not being experts in this world,
but they learned just enough to make sure they made good,

(18:50):
knowledgeable decisions about their money that they're working hard to
generate right, And the numbers I always start with when
I talk to a twenty five year old, it's actually astonishing.
If your goal at twenty five five years old, if
you're blessed enough to hear an advisor at that young
of an age, your goal should be, arbitrarily to have
a million dollars by the time you retire. Right, average
agent retirement in America is about sixty two to sixty five.

(19:11):
So it's funny, BEV. You would think you would have
to save thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dollars a
year at twenty five to get to that million. And
you want to know what the number is that I
ran before the show, was you want that million? If
you want that million at sixty two to sixty five
years old, with a nine percent rate of return, which
is nothing fancy, just invest in the SMP five hundred
and you know, ride the index. You know you would

(19:33):
only need two hundred twenty five to two hundred and
fifty dollars per month to get to that million. By
the time you get your sixty third to sixty fifth
birthday based on the markets, right, so that's two hundred
bucks we'll say two to three thousand dollars a year,
you know, starting at twenty five years old would get
you to that million. And that's astonishing because that's not
you know, that's not putting away twenty grand a year,
it's not putting five grand a year. That's literally two

(19:55):
to three thousand dollars per year out of your salary
without even including an employer match to get that million
by the time you're in your sixty fifth birthday. So
I tell people that's the value of time. That's why
you want to start soon. You want to start early,
get your kids going, start rough accounts, and you know,
and again there's very few twenty five year olds listening.
But that's why I'm telling older clients, give that gift

(20:15):
to them. If it's grand excuse me, grandchildren, maybe some
children that are again before their thirtieth birthday, make sure
that you push them and implore them not to even
hire an advisor. You don't even need an advisor to
start early. Just start somewhere and start building and start
investing at it as soon as age you can. Now,
one thing I also wanted to talk about that. I
wanted them. I like to talk about kind of measuring

(20:36):
up where I think clients should be as far as
their wealth building journey. Right, And you know, there's a
lot of articles. There's a lot of four one K articles,
IRI articles. I kind of don't like them where you know,
you're sitting on your computer and you're you know, you
see that article flash from Fidelity or you know, Vanguard
and saying, hey, this is you know, this is the
average balance you should have in your four one k,

(20:56):
you know, relative to what you know, who else in
the country is investing with you. Right, It's kind of
like a peer to peer kind of analysis they've done.
And again it's called the average account of four one
K by age. So you know, I wanted to at
least even THO I don't like comparing someone's chapter one
to so much chapter ten, I still want to just
throw some numbers out there as far as if you
are wondering, man, you know, am I on track? Am

(21:19):
I average? Am I below average? Am I above average?
I wanted to actually go over some of the numbers
that Fidelity furnished out this year because they did run
an analysis across the country based on your age, on
how much the average person has saved up. And this
is just some thoughts I want to roll through and
give me thirty seconds for this bev okay. So the average,
the average four to one k bounce by age, right,

(21:41):
and this is all going to be a testament to
you know, to you know what's happening in America right
now at this current moment in time twenty to twenty four,
the average balance is seven three hundred dollars. Right based
on Fidelities research, the age twenty five to twenty nine
is twenty four thousand dollars. As far as the average
four one k. Age thirty to third twenty four is
forty five one thousand, seven hundred dollars. Age thirty five

(22:04):
to thirty nine is seventy three thousand dollars. As the
average balance age forty to forty four is one hundred
and nine thousand dollars. Age forty five to forty nine
is one hundred and fifty two thousand dollars. Age fifty
to fifty four is actually right there south of two
hundred thousand. And I'm going to shorten the rest of
the brackets from fifty five to seventy. It looks like

(22:26):
two hundred and fifty thousand is that average balance. When
people usually tap out and life happens, they may need
to pull money out, they're still kind of investing in
getting ready for retirement. The average retiree usually gets to
seventy years old with about two hundred and fifty one
thousand had to finish line. So my thing is this, BEV.
When I see analytics and data like that, you know
what that tells me. Most people are not planning. They're

(22:48):
not being intentional because I hate the bus bubbles. BEV.
Two hundred and fifty grand, and my opinion is not
enough to retire comfortably unless you have a monster pension
waiting for you and you have no debt and you
can live off of Social Security, which is very hard
to do. Yeah, So that's really when I see analytics
like this, that really is the emblematic of the fact
that gets me up in the morning. Most people are
not running projections, they're not looking into the future with

(23:09):
their advisor. They're not being intentional too much. They need
to target for their retirement savings. That's why again where
you coming as an advisor, So we can start punching
those numbers figuring out what needs to go to go
where on a monthly basis, are we maxing out your match,
are we investing in the right investment classes, and are
we really building it up to where? In my opinion, Bev,
I really think, depending on the home, talking to at

(23:30):
least seven to fifty to one point five in that
range is usually where I try to get people to
be as far as their total retirement nest egg, not
two hundred and fifty grand. That's very hard to retire
on that nest egg overall. So I want to throw
those numbers out there and not to make people feel
good or bad about where they are as far as
their progression, but just to give you an idea about
what the nation is doing right now. And as the
bottom line, Bev, you know, not enough. I think people

(23:53):
are not learning enough about this. And again that's what
gets me up in the morning is making sure that
our clients are not one of those statistics.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
Sounds good, LV, We're off to a great start today.
If you've just tuned in, we are talking with our
certified Financial Planner, practitioner and lp L Wealth Strategists LV
Plumber Junior. We're talking this day financial regrets and how

(24:21):
to avoid them. If you have a question or two
four LV, you can call me nine zero one five
three five nine three four two eight hundred five zero
three nine three four two eight three three five three
five nine three four two. If you can't call in,
email me the question. Bev Johnson at iHeartMedia dot com.

(24:46):
Bev Johnson at iHeartMedia dot com, and don't get the
first five people that call LV today at nine zero one.
This is his office number. Seven four eight zero zero
five zero nine zero one one seven four eight zero
zero five zero. You can sign up for free consultation

(25:06):
or email LB. Go to PWS Planning dot com send
an email, click the contact us button to schedule your
free complementary consultation. We're talking finances today. Yeah, your money
with our certified financial Planner Practitioner LP L wel Strategist

(25:30):
LB Plumber Junior.

Speaker 6 (25:34):
Don't go away. The Bev Johnson Show returns after these messages.

Speaker 4 (25:38):
The bevjus show.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
Around and we're talking with our certified Yeah, he is
our certified financial Planner practitioner l P L Wealth Strategist

(26:42):
l B Plumber Junior.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Now l V.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
The next regret looks like it's going to cover investing.
Have a problem with that. What are some of the
common things you hear from clients when they talk about
would have, could have, should have?

Speaker 1 (27:01):
Yep, that great point, you know, yeah, you know, And
that's where I have a heart for this regret, betecause
I'll be honest. I mean, it doesn't even matter your
socioeconomic background. It doesn't matter if you came from you know,
silver spoon, or you came from the humblest of beginnings.
You know, it's it just if you were never exposed
to this and you've never were learning about things like

(27:23):
dividend stocks, things like municipal bonds, private equity, real estate.
You know, some some of our wealthiest clients, the first
time they've heard the word stock usually comes out of
my mouth. And that's not it. That's not a good thing,
you know, And I try to have a heart for
that because some people just simply were not exposed to
this world. And it's an honor when I meet those
people that are the fact that when they meet me
for the very first time, or you know, if if

(27:44):
anyone just meets an advisor, that's a good one for
the first time that you know, this is the first
avenue for them to say, Okay, you know what, this
is the world I've been missing out on. And at
the end of those meetings with the regret I usually
hear is, man, you know, I know, I know that
I've done well. I know say that vested in my
four one. Kay. I have a lot of good people
that have done really good work before they met us

(28:04):
over the years, But when they look at the vast
universe of things that were out there that they did
not take advantage of, that's the regret I usually hear is,
you know, I know I did good, but I wish
I had done better by exposing myself and exposing my
wealth to these areas that I'm not just now learning about.
So you know, I talk about it a lot bit
of you know, it's back to that art of regret

(28:24):
from my first professor back in the day. Right, you know,
it doesn't matter how much money you got, you're going
to have a regret. But then you know, I throw
I throw statistics out there for a lot of people,
and that's why I really try to make sure I
position clients' assets in vehicles that you know, we can't
promise returns and you know, go for the next hottest stock.
No one has a fortune tell you know, a crystal
ball on that. But you know, but I do make
sure that we exhaust every possible effort to make sure

(28:47):
our clients at the very least are exposing their wealth
to as many opportunities as possible based on what's right
for them. And you know, I talk about something like Apple.
You know, it's something that every advisor talks about, but
you know, you talk about those statistics like back in
my eighty you know, if I would have invested in
Apple when they first went public during the IPO, right
in nineteen eighty. And it's funny, I haven't said it
in a while, but you know, if you invested ten

(29:09):
grand back in Apple in nineteen eighty when they first
went public, I'm the New York Stock Exchange, and you
reinvested the stock splits the dividends, that ten thousand dollars
would be worth thirty two point seven million dollars today.
That's kind of astonishing, isn't it. Wow? Yeah, thirty two
point seven million. That's a one hundred and forty two
thousand percent game. If you were lucky enough and blessed

(29:31):
enough to invest at the ground level of a company
like Apple. So I like talking about that because that
represents really the key thing that we help our clients
expose their well to, which is opportunity. But I also
don't like talking about it because it's extremely difficult and
it's a one in a million situation to find a
company like Apple at the very beginning. So again, it's
not a you know, you can never promise anyone that

(29:51):
they're going to find that diamond in the rough. But
the good thing and the exciting thing about that is
that there's opportunities popping up right now that could become
the next Apple and the next Amazon, the next Google.
So again, our clients and really the regrets that we
talk about is a lot of our people play it
way in just in my opinion that people pay it
way too safe when it comes there investing what they
usually do thatad of finding and working with advisors to

(30:14):
maybe try to research and find those opportunities. Most people say,
you know what, and they go into what I call
and it's kind of a fatal error if you ask me.
People go into a financial autopilot, right, And what I
mean by that is not a good thing. There's a
good version of that, and there's a bad version of
going in autopilot. But what I see a lot of
is clients they have that sensibility in the back of
their head to do the absolute basics, to do what's

(30:35):
considered financially smart. Right, they take ten percent of their salary,
they defer it into their four one K, they either
hire the digital advisor, or they just buy mutual funds
in there and their accounts a Vanguard or Fidelity, and
they just invest. And usually that client is they've done
that long enough and consistently enough, they're going to be fine.
You know, they're not going to be wealthy, but they're
going to be fine and maybe even find enough to
retire at a good age. My problem with doing just that, right,

(30:58):
just taking ninety percent of your wealth and dumping it
all into one account, is that you kind of put
yourself in a prison. Right. There's there, and I mentioned earlier,
there is a universe of things that you can do
if you're if you have enough income and enough planning,
and you have a good advisor. I tell clients, you know,
you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket.
A four one K is one of the absolute best
things in the world to put your money into, especially

(31:20):
if there's a match, which I talk about enough on
the show. Matching is free money. But there's a million
things out there I can talk about all the time.
Real estate investment trust, dividend stocks, ETFs, there's municipal bonds,
there's corporate bonds, there's private equity. Uh, there's a million
things out there that I can say. In some market
scenarios may actually outperform what you're doing in your four

(31:41):
one K, but the key is to learn about those,
work with an advisor to see what's right for you
based on your situation and your gut for risk, and
make sure you have multiple facets and multiple arms and
opponents of a broader wealth picture, not just dumping everything
into your four one K, which again is a good thing.
So just remember diversification is key. And I think a
lot of the regrets I hear from clients is like that,

(32:01):
you know, we meet and you know. The weird thing
that I usually say to clients whenever I run their
retirement analysis is I say, hey, great, you know awesome,
you have enough? You got one, two, three million you're
ready to go for retirement. But you know, but you've
never owned any stock. I know that sounds weird to
have be investing in your four one k and to
say you've never invested in the stock. Remember when you
invest in mutual funds and you invest in those index

(32:23):
funds in your company, you own a piece of a
basket of investments. You don't own. Know, you don't own
Apple and Amazon and Google. You don't owe those shares
directly where you're able to enjoy dividends or reinvest and
enjoy stock splits things like that. Really, what you're doing
is you're taking everything in buying kind of like a
you know, a mixture of investments with millions of other investors,

(32:43):
versus having a more private experience where you can envoy
enjoy direct participation in owning things like stock. So, you know,
I tell people all the time, you know a lot
of people I meet this is their first time actually
diving into those more direct investments, and you know, investing
in things like you know, dividend investments, real estate investment
trusts where you're investing in condos and hotels and apartment
complexes and multifamilies. A lot of great things you can

(33:05):
do like that to where you can have a good, diversified,
multifaceted picture versus dumping everything into what you know and
what you're comfortable with. So the more you learn, the
more you'll be comfortable, and the more, in my opinion,
the more comprehensive and broader your wealth picture will be
when it's time to retire. So that's a big thing
I hear a lot of older clients I need to
talk about. Was man, You know, I just wish I

(33:25):
had learned about this a little bit sooner. So it's
never too late. But make sure you talk with the planner.
And again that's what our conversations are for. If you
want to learn more about what's right for you and
what else is out there outside of the realm of
your four to one K, that's where you call a
certified financial planner to see what's best for you.

Speaker 3 (33:41):
All right, very good, LB so LV. How do you
assist people with what's called the unspoken regret? I've heard
about that, but what is that exactly?

Speaker 1 (33:55):
Yep, So it's a grim term we use in our industry, BEV.
But put this way, that the dead can't speak, right,
it's unfortunate that you know, dead men can't talk, so
you know, it's not a regret I hear from someone directly,
but with the aftermath of those mistakes or what I
hear from whoever is inheriting the wealth of our clients

(34:18):
after mom or dad or grandma and grandpa passes away.
So it's an unspoken regret which you know, kind of
in one sentence here, why did I not do enough
to leave behind a more organized and more intentional and
you know, I guess we can say a more comfortable
situation from my family after I've passed away, right, you

(34:39):
know when people pass away and they don't do estate planning.
And you know I've talked about it before, and you
have some great attorneys on the show too. That's the
talk more about it than I do. But I am
a big proponent and a big fan of what you
hear about trust, about wills, medical directives, powers of attorneys.
I don't talk about it enough because we you know,
we lose clients every year. We get calls every month

(34:59):
at least I'll say once or twice a month, but
one of our clients does pass away, and whether my job,
which don't weep for me. But my job is easy
for the clients that leave behind a good, well structured
estate plan. And it's very, very difficult whenever I have
to tell our clients, hey, I'm so sorry, but you
got to go to the courts to get all your
money and your wealth behind or your family left behind.

(35:20):
And usually that does cause family fighting, contesting and taxes
and attorney fees. So what I usually try to do
in these shows, but is you know that big regret
that not my clients stay, the unspoken regret coming from
the next generation that's inheriting that wealth. You know, if
you're in line to receive any money from a parent
or a grandparent or a family member or a friend,

(35:41):
and y'all have not had a discussion about hey, listen, like, mom,
I know you're leaving me and my siblings some money.
What is your plan?

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Please?

Speaker 1 (35:50):
Anyone listening, if you have not said those words to
your parents, and you can have a good, respectable dialogue
about it, talk to your family and say, okay, guys,
you know, let's not make this taboo. What is the
playing with you or mom, or my sister or my
brother passes away? Right, who's the executor? What's the game plan,
What do you want in your will, what do you
want in your trust? What's going to be given to
us directly? What's going to go to a vocable family

(36:11):
trust that we need to really make sure we're aware of.
So you know, I'm not saying to force any kind
of conversation if you if your family's uncomfortable with it.
I just would love for everyone listening to know what's
happening whenever one of your family members stops breathing.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
Right, Yeah, you know, I'm so glad you're saying that,
because every month I have my attorneys on who talks
about Attorney Monika Johnson a talk talks. She talks about
wills and trusts and what you need to do.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yes, and she's fantastic by the way. I think she's
actually worked with some of our clients, and I really
appreciate the time she's putting with you guys too. Be
that and I can't echo her enough on the fact
that it's especially in our community, it's one of those
things that people just don't do. I looked up the
stat before the show BEV. Only twenty six percent I
think is the number. And that's why money, because you know,
probably you know, giving as much info just like I

(37:03):
am about her world like I do in mind in
the world of finance, right, you know, it's one of
those things where it's such an area that's overlooked for
financial planning because it's just a very unpleasant topic. No
one wants to talk about their death, No talk about
when the show's over and the lights are out. You know,
it's like, this is not even me and my household.
We're not perfect. It took me like five years for
my wife to come around, for us to get our
trust set up, you know, because she just didn't want

(37:25):
to stomach the thought of me not being around or
her not being around, and our kids, you know, having
one less parents. So it's just it's not fun. And
you know, it's easy to get to talk about the
fun stuff like stocks and getting rich and investing in
all that stuff and building wealth, but the most necessary
component in order to make all of that wealth planning
worth it for your ultimate generational transfer of wealth is

(37:46):
again setting up a good estate plan. Don't be part
of that twenty six percent that lives an entire life
and that money just is open season whenever you pass
away and there's no organization and the attorneys are getting
rich off of what you've left behind, right because that's
all that's the only people who win when you don't
do this stuff. It's the attorneys meeting against them, the
probate attorneys. They did great work, but I'm just saying,
you know, I love our clients to minimize that cost

(38:08):
and make sure overall that while you're alive, you have
that dialogue you say, hey, this is what I want
to put into a trust for my family. This is
what is going to be whilled out to my kids
and grandkids, even down to the granular details, like you know,
stuff in your home like personal articles, you know, your
your rings, your jewelry, your artwork, your collectibles. You know,
some clients you know, I had to quin a few
years ago that left behind a plane and a you

(38:30):
know in like a hangar bay and a random state
that you forgot about. And that was one thing that
was worth over ninety thousand dollars that we had to
really kind of uncover. And unfortunately stuff like that had
to go to probate because there wasn't a will, right.
So I think that whole thing that a lot of
good attorneys like when you could talk about is you know,
taking inventory of everything you have now putting it into
a system. Again I use trust and will dot com

(38:51):
or again you can go to a good attorney to
get this stuff done. But sitting down with you and
your family taking stock of your cash, your investments, your property,
your articles and saying okay, let's get organized and then
once something happens, this is what's going to my trust,
this is what's going to my will, this is what's
going to you know, this is my power of attorney.
Where if I have dementia or Alzheimer's, which unfortunately that
if we deal with that a lot as well. Remember

(39:13):
we get that call from a family member and they're
not really mentally confident to keep making decisions. That's a
big thing we encounter. So just have a game plan
that way, your family is not left with a mess.
You don't have to leave your family millions of dollars,
but just leave behind order, not chaos. That's my thing
as an advisor. Just leave even if you got five
grand to your name, make sure you have a plan
for that and your family doesn't fight over over your

(39:34):
wealth exact way yep. So so you know, so those
are things that we talk about at our company. We'll
do in a state review and see, okay, you know,
let's measure this out and kind of do a map
together on who gets what and who your executor is
going to be, if we're going to set up a trust,
and then we link all those trust and wills to
all your assets. That way, if we ever get that
grim call that you're out of here, you know you

(39:55):
have a good, smooth plan and your family doesn't have
to fight over all your wealth. So this is a
very big point of the that I wanted to talk about,
and also one more thing that I wanted to talk
about as far as the fun topic of death. You know,
it's it's one of those things where I tell people
you want to leave the world a better place after
you've you know, you've you're done with it, right, And

(40:15):
I think a big area of people overlook and don't
and for those that are wealthy enough or well off
enough to talk about and think about these strategies. Remember
if you are one of those that's in this camp
or the school of thought where hey, I have enough
life insurance and I have enough investments for my kids
and my family. I'm good. But you want to make
an impact to nonprofits, charities and churches. You know, I

(40:38):
have a lot of church clients. I have a lot
of you know, I have a lot of ministers and
pastors and bishops. And one thing I try to tell
congregation members, if you were a giver your entire life again,
it doesn't have to be church. It can be your
alma mater, you know, it can be a nonprofit like
Saint Jude, who's my favorite in the world, can be
a American Red Cross whoever you want to give, right,
don't ignore the very last check that your a state

(41:00):
should right. In my opinion, if you think your family
has enough, make sure you think about giving back after
you're out of here. I think a lot of people
don't realize you can give ninety five or ninety percent
of your wealth to your family, which is most of
our goals, right as far as planning for posterity. But
why right in five to ten percent going to your
church if they really made an impact in your life
and brought you closer to Christ, you know, or if

(41:21):
you want to give to Saint Jude or you know,
any other nonprofit that really means a lot and resonates
with you, a lot of these nonprofits that do really
great work in the community, whether it's the black community,
whether it's the feeding the hungry, or the church community.
You know, a lot of those funds are raised from
the state assets where someone says, hey, listen, as a
last check when God calls me home, I want to
give ten grand to my favorite charity or church. And

(41:43):
of course that's a good way to leave that lasting impact.
Make sure your family's taken care of, and also making
sure that you can make an impact as your last
kind of act before you go home. So so just
a thought. You know a lot of people don't realize
that they can do that with setting up like charitable
trust or you know, just making sure you have maybe
your nonprofit or church as a beneficiary. So just think
about how you really want to leave this world after

(42:04):
you're done with it, and if you do the right
appropriate planning, you shouldn't need to leave all your money
to your kids. They should be fine. Yeah, that's why
the god to think about who you want to impact.
And again, you know, our clients that are not phalanthropic,
I ever judge them. But if you are a giver
and you've proven to your life that giving back is important,
which I think personally is very important. Then don't don't
disregard the ability for you to leave behind money to

(42:25):
to whoever you would think would make a good impact
after God's called you home.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
I love it. Hold on, LV, we'll take this next break.
We are talking with L V Plumber Junior, our certified
Financial Planner practitioner LP L Well Strategists. We're talking financial
regrets and how to avoid them. If you have a
question or two for LV, you can call him five

(42:49):
three five nine three four two eight hundred five zero
three nine three four two eight three three five three
five nine three four two can't call email me your
question BEV Johnson at iHeartMedia dot com. And don't forget
those first five people. I don't know if LB already
got them. You can get a free complementary consultation by

(43:12):
calling nine zero one seven four eight zero zero five
zero nine zero one seven four eight zero zero five zero.
That will get you a free consultation. Or you just
can't call that number, Go to the website book an appointment.
Go to PWS Planning dot com. Send el via email

(43:33):
by clicking the contact us button to schedule your free
complementary Consultation. We're talking finances with LV Plumber Junior and
me Bev Johnson on w d IA.

Speaker 6 (43:50):
All hail the Queen, the Queen of Talk. That is
Bev Johnson on w d IA The Bevjes.

Speaker 4 (43:58):
Show over the.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Working Hard to bring you outa days now s.

Speaker 3 (44:45):
Welcome back to w d I A. We're talking with
our certified financial Planner practitioner l p L Wealth Strategist
l B. Hold on. I'm going to our phone lines
to talk with Roger.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Hi, Roger, Hey, how you doing.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
I'm doing well today in yourself.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
I'm doing just finding a good afternoon to your yest
as well. I just had a quick question though, did
he say they.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
Yes, Wills and trust? Yeah, because to do wills and
trust Rogers, So you know who you're gonna leave your
property to your money to.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
Yeah, Well, I definitely need to try to get in
touch with him.

Speaker 3 (45:32):
Well, no, let me tell you who to get in
touch with. Attorney and if you have, if you hang up,
I'll give you the number. But her name is attorney
Monika Johnson. Attorney Monika Johnson, and and I will give
you her. Her number is real simple, It's five four

(45:52):
one if you can remember help five four one four
three five seven or five four one help attorney Monika Johnson.
OK okay, Roger, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
You get on that, brother, Yeah, I definitely need to
do this.

Speaker 6 (46:09):
Okay, you will, all.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
Right, you welcome, Roger. I love that LV Roger heard
himself get on that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
Yeah, Hey, and Roger, I appreciate you asking that or
making that comment because that's a just So everybody's one
hundred percent clear, so and my team, so they don't
hate me for not saying this, yeah, because it can
be a lot of work. And you're right, thank you
so much. Bet if you're one hundred percent correct, if
you are looking, if you're one of those that definitively knows, like, hey,
I need a will, I need a trust, and I

(46:39):
want to sit down with a professional like Monika that
does nothing but wills and trust and a state law
and probate law and all that stuff. Undoubtedly call a
good attorney like her to get that stuff done right,
because I am not an attorney. But I will say
this though even though I'm not an attorney, but the
thing is this, there is overlap in our industry. So
I'm remember everyone I'm a certified financial planner, so ideal

(46:59):
with multiple areas. We talk enough about investing building, well,
if everyone knows that's that's really my core area. But
a state planning is an area that I'm trained in
to know my way around and to identify the need
for a client, like, hey, listen, there's money I'm managing
for you. It doesn't have any direction we need to
set up a trust, or we need to manage taxes
and avoid the estate tax we need. So whenever I
deem it necessary and I make a recommendation to have

(47:22):
an estate plan established for a client, I usually say, hey, listen,
we either do that, and we do have a service
and house called Trust and Will dot com. If it's
a good simple situation, if you're one of those that
doesn't want to pay a whole bunch of money and
you don't have a very complex estate and we want
to kind of do a DIY with an advisor, we
can do that. And you know, it can be as
low as one to two hundred bucks for a will
and maybe have to think four hundred to five hundred

(47:43):
for a trust. So we have Trusting Will dot Com.
If I have a client that wants to keep it
as simple as possible and may not go through an
attorney to get it done, but again we still need
an attorney to implement and execute it. So if you're
one of those that's not a DIY and you really
want to sit down with an attorney to really look
at your situation the same way I do with our
clients and their wealth and say, hey, let's look at
all the different vehicles out there, let's set up this

(48:04):
estate plan. If you want to have very highly specific
and customized estate plan. And you know, one instance that
if I can maybe quote, is if you have children
that are very inexperienced, you're young, and you want to
put even irresponsible and you want to put a lot
of rules and regulations on who gets to get your
money when they get it, what criteria they have to
need to tap into their inheritance. That's when you need

(48:27):
the customization and the expertise of an attorney like Monika
to get that done. So we can handle the simple
stuff here, but the more complex stuff I always recommend
to go with an attorney, And again we always refer
clients to attorneys if we think you need a little
bit more supervision and a little more customization. So that's
a great question there, Roger, and just a good thing.
I wanted to make sure I expand it.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
On good good Clarify well, LV, I know you deal
with business owners, So what's a regret you hear from
many business owners that you work with.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
Yeah, so here's the thing that when you the vast
majority of Americans are not business owners.

Speaker 6 (49:03):
Right.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Most people get that good job, they get W two's,
they have a good simple situation and you know, and
you have everything you need to be a you know,
to do well financially as a W two. It's a
very controlled world when you're working with an employer that's
paying you a salary. Now, if you're like me and
you're in the wild wild West and you're self employed,

(49:23):
you have your own business, you don't have the i'll say,
the comfort and the guard rails of like having a
predetermined and pre set then you of things you can
do with your employer, right, like benefits and everything. Then
the burden of that is on you. You as a
business owner. You have to set up your own benefits.
You have to set up your own four one K,

(49:44):
your own succession plan. You're how you're going to break
out your stock, maybe get other investors, your insurance benefits.
There's a million things that you can do as a
business owner, and there's an almost infinite amount of latitude
that you have to be able to set up your
own plans and your own benefits and that burden, and
again it's on you, it's not under the employer. So
my thing is is if you are self employed, like

(50:05):
a lot of my clients. I have clients that are
in real estate. I have clients that are in pharmaceutical
They have their own you know, some of our doctors, attorneys, physicians,
surgeons that maybe have their own groups and their own practices.
So if you're if you're in that, or if you're
you know, in a rest you're in a restaurant owner,
anything like that, where you are ten ninety nine, just remember,
if I can narrow down the complexity of what I

(50:26):
talk about for our business owners, it can come down
to three words. Assemble your team. And I've talked about
that before a lot on the show. I don't do
it all on your own, right when you have a
good team, you know for a people, and again that
team usually starts with someone like us, a good advisory
team to quarterback all this for you and to put
together a checklist of things you need to do as

(50:46):
a business owner, and we'll say investments and benefits that
you need to set up on your own for you
and your staff. If you have a staff, then you
want to start with a good certified financial planner that
can look at this and quarterback the whole plan right
right on top of that, you want to have a
good My pinion, my my Avengers style team checklist I
go with is having a good CSP. Number two having

(51:06):
a really good bookkeeper. That's a big thing. A lot
of our clients, for some reason that are self employed
enjoy doing and I say that, I say that, of
course sarcastically. No one enjoys bookkeeping. So you know, if
you know, you want to delegate the riggers and the
just the hard work of bookkeeping and managing your profit
and loss documents, income statements, bound sheets, looking at your

(51:27):
KPIs right, your key performance indicators right, you know how
your revenue is growing and how your business is growing
and expanding. You want to put all that that data
with a good bookkeeper that's going to be able to
do all that day and night for you. So you
don't have to worry about it, and you can focus
on your business right and then of course look at
those reports to really measure how your business is performing.
I can't say that enough about the bookkeepers BEV. That

(51:48):
is one of the most overlooked areas for business owners
that for some reason people don't hire. I have some
and a beautiful network I work with of really good
bookkeepers that will, you know, link all your investments and
all of your revenue and your bank accounts to a
good bookkeeping system like QuickBooks, and they can do all
the work at keeping track of your numbers, making sure
you're getting ready for your tax filing, making sure that

(52:10):
they look at all your expenses and all your write offs.
It's just a beautiful thing to have, and honestly, it's
very inexpensive if you have enough, again a good amount
of cashlow to set up a bookkeeper. And the one
thing I love bookkeepers for that I speak at nauseum
about BEV, is you know, when I talk to business
owners for the first time, one of my first questions is, hey,
you know, how is your business performing? Are you growing?

(52:30):
Are you dying? Are you and are you in the
mature phase? Are you in are you in is your
business and its infancy and you know, and one thing
I always ask, like, hey, what's your growth rate on
the year to your basis how are you actually doing it?
And I'll be bold here, bev and say ten out
of ten of my business owner glans don't know what
their growth rate is. They don't know how they performed
over the last five to ten years. They don't know

(52:52):
their KPIs, their key performance indicators as far as how
their revenue is scaling, and you know, basically how they're
performing quarter to quarter. They don't They don't have those
things established. So not knowing the health of your business
and out performing, in my opinion, is very very very
very very dangerous. You want to know what those numbers are.
You want to see how you're performing overall. You want
to see your debt to income. You want to see

(53:12):
all the different indicators that really signal you know that
you're getting better and growing a business as a business
and not just making money but retaining money. Looking at
your earnings, looking at your wages, measuring you against other
industry benchmarks and competitors, and helping you make investment decisions
and whether you should hire or a fire, you know,
So having a good bookkeeper and of course a good
CPA who I think you've had on the show too,

(53:34):
you know, a good tax team. They're really help you
with the filing, the preparing, and of course the books
and records is essential for you doing what I really
want all of our self employee people doing, you know,
not being on their own and also focusing on what
they do best, which is growing your business and your firms.
So that's a regret, I hear, bev. I'll meet a
lot of mature business owners that have been doing this

(53:56):
some as long as I've been alive, and they've been
just bearing the low of all the different faces of
running their business without really having a third party, and
I think that's a big mistake. And when I get
them set up with that super team again, that Avengers
level team, where you got people that are holding you accountable,
doing all the heavy lifting of your business, your records,
your growth rates, helping you kind of see how you're

(54:17):
doing and performing, they look back a few years later
and like, man, like, that's a massive regret. Why did
I not do this sooner? Even though I'm paying more
money to professionals to do this you would be shocked
at how much of an emotional and a time based
load is off those business owners shoulder when they finally
have teams helping them out with this. So again that's
my role as a CFP is to help build that

(54:38):
Avengers team together bookkeepers, attorneys, CPAs, tax planners. That way, overall,
you know, within a good respectable cost range, you can
focus on really, you know, just spending time with your
family and growing your business. That's all I wanted in
my life, and I think a lot of business owners
share that sentiment. They don't want to sit at home
like I used to do fifteen years ago, and you know,
do our profit and loss and be ready for tax

(54:58):
reporting for April. Like no, you'll have a great team
to do that for you. That way, you can really
make the most of your time here and build your
business and really have free up your mind to think
about creative and innovative ways where you can separate yourself
among the competition. You'll want to drain your entire talent
and brand on things you're not an expert at. So anyway,
that's a really big regret out here. And also a
few things like to throw out their real quick bev.

(55:19):
You know, there's a vast world of things as a
business owner that the US government will allow you to do.
And I'm not going to get political, but everyone saw
the big beautiful bill, right there's even changes coming from
the Trump administration where I am really I'll send out
a newsletter here this week to our current clients about
things on how it's going to impact you if you
do it, even if you don't know your bit own
your own business, there's a lot of change on the horizon,

(55:40):
so it's very vital and important that you know and
are aware of those changes and what you need to
do with your money now to prepare for those changes
that are coming in twenty twenty six. So you know,
there are things like solo for one case, there's tax
saving and incentives plans. There's cross purchase plans where if
you die as a business owner, you got to have
a game plan for who's going to buy out your
shares and how you're going to pass on the ownership

(56:01):
and the control of that business to a family member
or a partner. So if you know, even if you
are solo or if you have partners or investors and
you don't have a again, what we call a succession plan,
like what happens if you stop breathing to the shares
of your business to the cash flow to your clients. Right,
that's the big thing that we talk about a lot.
You know, you got to sit down and do that

(56:21):
stuff and having a good team to draw that type
of succession plan up for you, not just for if
you die, but also which I think would be the
goal of eventuality, which is you turn sixty five, seventy
years old and you want to sell your business right
on the open marketer, pass it or sell to a
family member so you can retire and go off into
the sunset. You got to plan for that stuff, and
you can't do that on your own. So you know,

(56:42):
setting up those vehicles, those benefits, insurance plans, equity plans,
stock options, and all those things you can do as
a business owner. You know, it all starts with having
a good discussion with an advisor to say, hey, what
am I doing now and WHI should that be implementing
for me, my team, my staff and my partners if
I have them right. So again, don't be that business
owner that just rise into the sunset, no plan, no

(57:05):
succession strategy. And then you just you know, you build,
You spend your whole life building these companies and then
you get to sixty five years old and you say, Okay,
I'm gonna close shop and just move on. No, like,
you're missing out on a ton of opportunities by not
having you know, evaluation in your business and having a
plan about how you're gonna sell your practice or sell
whatever you've built that baby built up over the years.

(57:26):
And also even manage the taxes for when you're able
to sell on the open market and make sure you
can get a good check and walk away and go
enjoy some beaches for retirement. So just again, if you
haven't gone to that level, that's what advisors are for,
to show you what's out there.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
All right. And lastly, LV, I know this last regret
talk about those people in debt, deep debt. Yeah, so
what are some of those regrets you hear though? That's
struggling you know, I know, like, oh, student loans and
credit cards and what not. LB.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
Yeah, oh man, yeah, I know you saw the news
on student loans this morning, right.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
No I missed, I missed it. I missed.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
Yeah, So for those who I mean, that was the
first thing I saw this morning when I woke up.
Let me pull it up real quick here. I know
that Trump administration just now overhauled the student loan deferment
if you recall, under the Save plan from the Biden era.
So bottom line is is not to get off track,
but it is on track kind of. If you do

(58:23):
have student loans and you were deferring them, then you
have a very short window. Don't call me in this.
I think it's September thirtieth. Wow to where? Yeah, to
where that's going to be restarting again? Where now it's
going to start because member interest accumulation on those student
loans at federal loans has been stopped for a long
time since Biden was in office. So starting in here,

(58:44):
you know, I believe it is September thirtieth. It again,
don't hold me on that. This is very fresh news.
But we have until then to get on some kind
of payment plan. And you can't just you can't put
it in the corner anymore and not talk about it
and not think about it. A lot of my clients
admittedly have done that. We haven't talked for years since
COVID about student loans because everyone's like you know what,
you know, it's not building up interest. I'm gona leave
it alone. I'm not gonna make any payments. For everyone

(59:06):
that does have those federal loans, those days are now over.
So if you haven't looked at your student loans, please
please look at them, especially if you have federal loans.
And if you don't, you know, you have to talk
to me or an advisor about it if that's all
you're dealing with, But at least set up a game
plan to figure out what your next step is going
to be, because you can't just leave it in the
corner anymore and say, hey, I'll see you down the road.
Now you have to make a decision. So with that

(59:28):
bill that was passed, you know, try to make sure
you're enrolling in some kind of income based repayment plan
or something to where you know what's going to happen
beginning this fall, because that deferment period is now officially
done as far as that forbearance. So just yeah, the
last thing I want everyone to do is to keep
ignoring it and then instead of you having fifty grand
in student loans, you turn around a year from now

(59:48):
and now it's sixty grand. Because this built up so
much interest, so you really want to make sure you're
putting it away at least enough to fight that interest
build up. And again, sitting down with a planner will
help you kind of figure that out, or even a
debt spec if you really really need to talk more
about that. So, just as a quick note, Bev, thanks
for bringing that up about student loans. So but as
far as the regrets I hear, it's tough. It's a

(01:00:09):
tough area for me. It's not an area that we
deal with every day, but for our clients that are
looking around and they say, man, you know I'm in
crippling debt, right, credit cards, student loans, private loans, bank loans,
just stuff that you just built up over time. It's
tough because Bev, you know, I can easily be that
guy that can help people build wealth on the asset

(01:00:30):
side of their balance sheet.

Speaker 3 (01:00:31):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:00:32):
I think that's the easiest and funnest part of my job.
But a lot of people say, Ohvy, listen, I got
I got one hundred grand and student loans, I got
this home equity line of credit, I got these credit cards,
I got all this other stuff that's kind of small.
Fires I got to put out or big fires I
got to put out. You know, we have to really
strike a balance with making sure our clients don't evolve
with that regret and then look back when they're seventy
years old and say, Okay, now I'm still drowning in debt.

(01:00:54):
I don't have enough for retirement, and now all I
got to do is work the rest of my life
to pay off my debts. And you know, so my
spouse or my kids don't have to pay this out
of my estate. So what I usually tell clients then
it's hard for me, is I try to do a
debt analysis with them and really figure out what are
things we can do now to make the debt journey
easier and more efficient. And a lot of people don't

(01:01:14):
do that, looking at the interest rates on each debt,
putting it in all in our system, looking at what's
hurting you the most, and figure out what is the
most effective strategy with your cash flow to get rid
of those fires as soon as possible. And now it
sounds simple, it depends on the client situation. Sometimes, if
you're higher income, it's very easy. You've got to get
on the plan and stay in the plan. But for
those that are not blessed enough to make one hundred

(01:01:35):
two hundred thousand dollars a year and every dollar really
counts for their household. It's tough, and I can only
show clients to the door. I can't push you through it,
but I can show you the door, and then it's
up to you on a monthly basis to execute that plan.
But I think the one mistake and regret people have
is they don't really have a high level of intentionality
when it comes to looking and examining all the debt
they've built up to figure out, hey, should I refinance,

(01:01:57):
should I consolidate? Should I look at? One thing I
do a lot better that people don't really think about
a lot is using things like home equity lines of
credits to consolidate loans and take those thirty percent credit
card you know, interest accounts and use your home equity
to pay it off, and then you kind of corral
that debt, shred the credit cards, and then we just
pay that debt off at four percent instead of thirty percent. Right,

(01:02:19):
those little moves like that can actually really help you
if you are disciplined, and if you don't move your
credit cards over to your home equity lines. Then not
only that, but then now you start racking up that
credit card to debt, and then you got a two
headed monster instead of one. Right, so you know, you
got to really know your behaviors, your habits, figure out
why you got where you are, you know, so we
don't of course, you know, we can avoid that pitfall

(01:02:40):
going forward and really just saying, okay, let's work this
in phases. Right. A lot of my clients, I kind
of I think people forget I was a Dave Ramsey
advisor a few years ago. I'm the Smart vesteror Pro program.
So there's a lot that I really learned and I
really enjoyed about that program that I do apply even
to this day. And it's one of those things where
you know, you just have to really roll your sleeves
up and just get to work. And it's not fun work.

(01:03:03):
It's like you're not going to see your wealth grow
by putting so much money towards your debt. But my
thing is really isolate the problem, figure out why you
got there in the first place, whether it was life
happening or medical events or losing a job, and then
building up good emergency reserves. That way we can go
into our cash bucket instead of having to swipe the
car to go and get loan. So building up that
first line of defense and then just making sure overall

(01:03:25):
that we chart a path for you know, not just
focusing on debt the next thirty years of your life,
but kind of striking that nice balance between debt erosion
and elimination, and also you know, building up your balance
sheet and making sure you don't ignore thirty years of
investing in saving as well. So you kind of I'm
that advisor that kind of likes to do both. You
don't want to focus on just one or the other
unless you are just absolutely crippled in debt and you

(01:03:46):
can't move a muscle until you file bankruptcy God forbid,
or just focus all of your energy and effort into
hanging your head off. So we just will run a
cash flow analysis for our new clients that call if
debt stresses you out, I'll take a shot and see
if I can help. And if it's too much for
me to handle, then that's when you use the UR
refer clients to debt specialists. But the main thing is
just do something. If you're one of those that has

(01:04:07):
debt that's not a mortgage, and just things that you're
getting like no economic benefit for like credit cards, and
it seems like it's a big psychological stress for you.
That's you need to see somebody. Don't file bankruptcy please,
for those thinking about it, there's usually other ways to go.
That's an absolute last resort. I've been hearing that a
lot where people are just happy to file bankruptcy for
some reason. Big decision that you can't take back. So

(01:04:28):
exhaust every option first, work with a debt strategist or
work with an advisor like us, and we can help
you kind of map all this out to make sure
that overall we don't carry all that debt until your
retirement years, and then we have a much harder time
living comfortably. So just the thing I wanted to throw
out there for today.

Speaker 3 (01:04:43):
Well, LV, you've given us a lot of good information today.
Your last words.

Speaker 1 (01:04:49):
Yeah, yeah, So thanks again, Beth. Yeah, I know, I
appreciate everyone's time today. I look forward to the calls.
We need to get some consultations, so appreciate those that
are calling. And if you didn't and if you did
not get a chance to call, email me. By the way,
we have actually two emails. One is LV at PWS
Planning dot com and I believe our service line is

(01:05:10):
service at PWS Planning dot com. Yes, sometimes we will
get emails or calls after these shows, but there are
people that may be at work that can't call. So
if you're one of those, email us. We'll still respect
that you listen today's show, We'll still get you in.
And for those that again are just listening, I appreciate
your time. I look forward to it. If you do call.
If you don't, I just hope I helped out a
little bit today with some information. And next next time

(01:05:31):
I get on the show, bid I will go over
kind of more rapid fire stuff and things that we
get closer to wrapping up the year, because this year
is just blowing by a fashion and I can breathe
at this crisis. It's crazy. It's already almost August. So
we will start wrapping up some tax planning and some
year and stuff on the next call. And for those
that choose to work with us, I really look forward
to it. It's an honor and I look forward to
hearing from you.

Speaker 3 (01:05:52):
Thank you LV. Good information today. LV Plumber Junior Lawrench
Plummer Junior CENTERFI, Financial Planner, Packeditioner lp L Wealth Strategists.
Thank you LV. Enjoy your vacation in Saint Thomas.

Speaker 1 (01:06:06):
Hey, I'll get a pin icolada for you, Bess. Thank
you LV. All right, let's know how it goes.

Speaker 3 (01:06:12):
All right, Bye bye, bye bye. And lv's number is
nine zero one seven four eight zero zero five zero.
Get ready, y'all, we're going to the other side of
the Bev Johnson Show. He's back in the house. I
got some news for him too. He's back in the house.

(01:06:32):
Mister Willie Jacobs of the Jacobs Final Expense Agency is
here gonna give us some good news next right here.

Speaker 6 (01:06:41):
On dou w d i A whether you're in Arkansas, Tennessee,
or Mississippi on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, thank you for
listening to the Bev Johnson Show on doub d Ia Memphis.

Speaker 4 (01:06:55):
The bevj showed ver there in the