Peak Retirement Planning 11/16/25

Mindy and Boots speak with Joe Schmitz from Peak Retirement Planning and welcome his mentor!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
That first hour. We are now thought good fun on Facebook.
We weren't on Facebook the first hour, which could be
a good thing because of the topics that we discussed.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
My favorite young lady in the world, and you were
calling me out.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well, you know sometimes you you kind of that's right.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Sometimes it's like picking on.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
The TV show.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
So we are going to talk about I will say
one thing.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
If you are an investor, if you are in the market,
you are living good right now because things look so good.
Joe Schmit's with Peek Retirement Planning is in studio. He
comes in every single month. But this is a special,
really meaningful show for you today.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
You've been waiting to do this.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
Oh yeah, So I've got someone extremely special here with me.
So Kathy Gillen is the one who got me into
financial planning. She has been my mentor for the last
ten years now and almost it's over ten years, I
believe now. And so you know, I remember she a
family friend of ours, and I remember sitting down with
her when I was in college and just wondering what

(01:05):
did I want to do. I had no clue and.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
I met her and those college kids don't yeah, no, most.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Most don't and I met her at her office and
she was a financial planner for forty years. She's now retired,
and I remember she told me a couple of things.
She said, one, this is an awesome industry because you
can impact people very deeply, and not only people, but
their families and generations to come. And she served four
generations of families during her forty years. But she also said,

(01:33):
you know the other side of it is is you
can make a great living, and you can you know,
impact people, but also make a great living. And I
saw her just shadowing her, seeing what she did, and
it completely sold me on this is what I want
to do with the rest of my life. And so
that's what got me into the industry. And the good
news is this lady we're talking about, Yeah, we got
her sitting right from us here.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
I know, like, first of all, welcome your first time
to the studio. What was it about Joe that you thought,
you know what, this guy's gonna make it.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
It's going to make it work.

Speaker 5 (02:03):
I was impressed when I first sat down with him.
I thought he really had his head on straight for
somebody his age, for sure. I even went up to
where he was playing basketball for his college days at
Nazareene College, and I saw on the floor that he
was kind of the leader of the team, and that
was very impressive. So we made appointment to meet for

(02:27):
a longer session, and I brought in two interns that
particular year, and Joe was there every day as scheduled.
He would come early and stay late. The other intern
barely showed up, barely. Where's that other intern? Now you
wonder he's not in the business, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
But Joe was anxious to learn.

Speaker 5 (02:54):
He asked to sit in on meetings, and with clients' permission,
we did that and sit in on phone calls to
hear how it really goes. He would take the material
home at night to read all the research and material
that we have for our industry. He was just completely

(03:15):
industrious and interested in learning as much as he possibly could.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
Yeah, she's saying all the positive things, Kathy, Do you
want to tell him the negative things as well?

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Probably isn't any negativity.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
There's one, there's one major one that that she said
at the area.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
I got to hear it.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
Now, well you'd be you'll laugh now.

Speaker 5 (03:32):
But at the time I was concerned that he wasn't
outgoing enough that he was a little really that he
was a little shy. But really he was just hanging back,
trying to absorb everything he possibly could, And I took
it for shyness, and of course, as we could now see,
he's anything but shy.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
He was trying to be respectful. That came across strong.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Well, that's probably true.

Speaker 6 (03:54):
I mean I would say I was nervous.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
I mean, I'm around someone who's extremely successful.

Speaker 6 (03:58):
Yeah, I've no idea what to do or how to
do it.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
And like you said, I just wanted to learn as
much as I could, and I didn't want to do
something that was going to cause harm. I didn't want
to make a mistake, and so you know, I just
try to soak it in and learn as I went.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
But how smart, Kathy of you to observe everything about him,
even going to his college basketball game to see what
type of a person he is, would see what type
of a leader he is. Boots has said forever when
he hires people, he would always enjoy and like and
agree with hiring athletes.

Speaker 7 (04:29):
Yes, because or eagle scouts, eagle scouts and athletes, you
can't go wrong. Now if they have no personality that's
a that's a whole other story. But most most of them,
I got a shay got shy guy. He make a
great account. Sorry, it's just what it is.

Speaker 5 (04:46):
Well, and I even thought that there are so many
ways you can go with the licensing in our industry,
So if direct to clients didn't work out for him,
there were so many other ways to go. But as
I got to know my realized he wasn't quite as
shy as I initially.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Well.

Speaker 7 (05:03):
And the reason we're covering this is because one thing
I take pride, and I know many feels the same.
We want our advertisers and the listeners to know that
our advertisers are truly good people. I said before we
came on the show. There's investment people everywhere in our world.
There's probably fifty shows on the radio. But I want
people to know the real you, because you're not gonna

(05:24):
want you don't want. If you never wake up, money go,
I want to make sure that person loses money. I
don't think that's in your DNA. So what we tried
to do is promote that you are a good dude,
and dude good guy, and people want to come and
spend them investment invest with you, and that's the way audibly.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
The number one thing is you got to trust. You
have to trust someone when they're dealing with your money.
Money matters, and you really have to have that trust
and respect for someone because you are giving them a
lot of your lump savings.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Make me more money.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
This is what I've counted on when I retire, And
you have to have that feeling of trust. So what
was it about you, Kathy that you were so successful
through all those years?

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Scared?

Speaker 1 (06:07):
A lot of women aren't in this business, scared to death. Honestly,
I grew up really, really, really poor and decided really
early on, if I did what all of them my
family did, I would get what they got. That didn't
seem like a really good plan to me, so I
wanted to learn what rich people knew that poor people

(06:27):
didn't know. And really it's quite easy. It really is
quite easy. You got to live below.

Speaker 5 (06:34):
Your means and save money and do the right thing.
But I call it a huge advantage to have.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Been brought up poor.

Speaker 5 (06:44):
A silver spoon in my mouth was hardly the thing,
and I wanted better things for myself, for my family,
for the people I knew, and this was certainly a
way to do it, and at the time there weren't
very much any women.

Speaker 7 (07:01):
And see, I trust the lady as fast as a guy.
I don't understand that I didn't see another lesson learned
for boots.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
No, I interesting what you're saying, boots, why aren't wear?
Why are probably scared?

Speaker 5 (07:15):
It is kind of a good old boys really, it
really is. And they sort of looked at you a scance.
It was great at company conferences though. We could get
in and out of the restroom. We're all easy for
women and four hundred guys, so it's not like.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
The old concert oh boy lines, clear out the door.

Speaker 3 (07:34):
Yeah, this was we had it pretty easy.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
But as time went on, I would say it's probably
I don't know, Joe, what you would think, maybe thirty
or forty percent women now.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
Yeah, I mean it's it's probably even more than that.
It's probably twenty thirty. I'll look it up and we
can say it on the next sec.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
That surprises me.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, So how is the market looking right now?

Speaker 6 (07:53):
Yeah, it's doing great.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
And is this.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
Because of the new administration, the Trump administration?

Speaker 4 (07:57):
Yeah, I mean you could you could say some of
it's part of it. You know, no one knows what
the future will look like for the markets. You know,
we always say when in doubt, zoom out, you know,
because it's going to go up and down over time.
But obviously this year it's been been doing well.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Okay, we got to go to heartbreak, though I keep
saying heartbreak.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
It's just to a break, all right, n break a
heartbreak because they make us do it. I wish he didn't.
So this is raw Mini Boots on news radio six ten.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
W TV and the kind of person that brags about himself,
unlike Boots.

Speaker 6 (08:27):
But wow, you.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Has a lake house. I'm at the lake. You don't play.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
I don't even know if you know this about Peak
Retirement Planning. It was just named fastest growing company in Columbus, right.

Speaker 6 (08:44):
Private company in Columbus by Ink five thousand. That's huge, Yeah,
it was.

Speaker 4 (08:48):
We've seen a lot of growth and it was just
me and now we've got over forty team members, which
is really really exciting.

Speaker 6 (08:56):
It's fun.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (08:57):
Man.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
When you hear that and Kathy his mentor, when this
is why Joe first got into the business, When you
hear that and knowing that he really learned so much
of the trade of the business through you. And you
look at how successful he's become already, what do you think.

Speaker 5 (09:16):
Well, I'm obviously so proud of him, that's for sure.
It's it's not surprising with his work ethic, his study, habits.
He was just like a sponge when he was with me,
and that's very impressive. Its kind of restored my faith
in young people.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
To be honest with him, I got that. So it's
it's he.

Speaker 5 (09:40):
Gives me way more credit, I think than I deserve.
I sort of enjoy the credit, but I don't think
I deserve it. I had such a small part to
play in his success, but happy for whatever that was.

Speaker 4 (09:53):
I mean, it's kind of like rolling the ball, right, Yeah,
I would have never found this passion if it wasn't
for cath And so, like you know, it's it's hard
to even see a lot of.

Speaker 6 (10:02):
This possible if it's not for her.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
So whatever she says is small, big, whatever it is,
it's huge in my mind. But also, like when I
started Peek, I didn't know what to do. It's only
been the industry for a few years. Like, I didn't
know how everything worked together. Well, that's something she did
for the last forty years. So she was a huge
you know, just one I could go to ask questions
when I do for this? Who do I talk to
for this? And you know all that can lead to

(10:24):
something big and so small things go along way.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
So I got to ask you, I got to change
gears up a little bit.

Speaker 7 (10:28):
So when in the car business, when a new lease
comes out and we've got this program, we're like, call
your customers.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Is there ever a time.

Speaker 7 (10:36):
In your world where you're walking down the hallway and
something kicks in your head and you go, Joe, look, look.

Speaker 6 (10:41):
Look look at this.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
It can make my customer.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, I get this. Where did that come from? Does
that happen in your industry? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (10:47):
I mean Kathy used to pick up the phone all
the time. I mean, she took incredible care of her clients.
And so that's something that we really try to mimic
with what we do. And that's something our industry doesn't
necessarily do. You know, whenever someone called Kathy, she always
took that phone call. Whenever she needed to tell someone something,
she went ahead and got ahead of it so and
called them first. But yeah, I mean we we reach

(11:08):
out to our clients every quarter.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
I know.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
That's something Kathy was really adamant about. And you know,
that's something that Kathy asked me almost every time I
see her, she's like.

Speaker 6 (11:17):
How are you you know, are you taking good care
of the clients? How are you how.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
Reaching you say every quarter?

Speaker 7 (11:21):
Reaching out like hey, Bob, this is Joe and I
wanted to This is where it's going on, and it's
where you're at.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Do you have time to talk? Yes, that's how it goes.

Speaker 6 (11:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
So like for example, like in July, one big beautiful
bill got announced by President Trump, and so that was
something we called every single one of our clients.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
And that's the hallway. Oh yes, let's go do this.

Speaker 4 (11:37):
Yeah, I mean here, here's all these new rules that
are going to change the plan. We need to do this, this,
this and this, and we're going to take care of
everything for you. Because we're going to do everything for
you except cut our cut your grass is what we
always tell them.

Speaker 6 (11:47):
But you know that's something we do.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Earlier in the year.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
There's a lot of market volatility, so those are great
times to do things like a Roth conversion and you know,
get ahead of things.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
How many times is it a gamble?

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Do you just roll the dice and you look at
we should change your investment this way, or maybe you
want to put something else in this?

Speaker 3 (12:03):
Is it a gamble?

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Or how much research really goes into all of this
when you make a decision for your clients.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
Yeah, I mean we never throw darts when it comes
to investments. For example, when we decide to invest in
an investment, we're looking at a lot of data. So
like we're looking at the balance sheets, profit margins, pe ratio,
everything you can think about to see is this going
to be.

Speaker 6 (12:20):
A good buy or sell?

Speaker 4 (12:22):
But a lot of it's getting ahead of things. And
Kathy will tell you this too. A lot of the
clients we work with our internear retirement, they may want
to take some chips off the table at this point.
They may want to have more protection within their plan
and to make sure that they can have money for
income and make sure that they don't run out of
money if the market goes down. So you know, really
sitting down and just understanding what are the client needs
and then building a plant around that.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Wow, Kathy, when you look at how Joe started and
you look at how you started tencades ago.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
I don't want to age.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
I'm trying to do I'm trying to be like politically
correct here. But it's the difference so a lot, because
the same goal is to make money for your clients.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
When they're happy, you're going to be happy, right.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
But it has to have been so different if you're
looking now to then.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
So different.

Speaker 6 (13:10):
Everything's so different.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
When if we came in, you had a yellow tablet
and a pen.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
You had no.

Speaker 5 (13:20):
Equipment to help you analyze what they already had, study
what they needed.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
That took hours and hours and hours of research.

Speaker 5 (13:29):
You couldn't see as many people because it just was
so time consuming. I'm so even now, so backward on technology.
As Joe will tell you. I call and ask him
stuff sometimes, but we just had none of that. It
was all you know, your face in a book and

(13:49):
in publications, so you could try to learn as much
as you could. It's so dramatically different. I spoke at
his office a couple months ago and told him how
much better off they are, and he has a plan
he had, I mean I had no planned. You talk
about not knowing what you're doing, and there wasn't anybody

(14:13):
ahead of us. To lead us, to show us the
companies hadn't developed that yet.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
So basically, Joe's got it made now, he's got it easy.
He's got it easy. He's got it made. People haven't made.
That's what I'm saying. I'm glad I'm one of his clients.

Speaker 7 (14:27):
He'll say that for forty years you've been doing this.
Let's go back to nineteen eighty four eighty five. What
investment that you thought would.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Never go away is no longer available?

Speaker 7 (14:37):
Like a blockbuster question, I mean, what what do you go? Wow,
I can't believe that went away? Or can you legally
say that I should ask?

Speaker 3 (14:43):
I probably shouldn't say it. And on the flip side,
what did you think? And that'll never work?

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Well?

Speaker 3 (14:48):
Took off.

Speaker 5 (14:48):
I was always a big proponent of gold, and I
started buying gold in nineteen eighty two, which is when
I started in the business, and go was three hundred
dollars an ounce, And I had colleagues that were just
laughed made fun of me, probably again because I was
a woman. You don't know any better. But I'm pretty

(15:11):
happy with my gold. Okay, So four thousand.

Speaker 2 (15:17):
Where do you live? And how many elses? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (15:20):
I mean that you won't find it. I'm the executive
of her state, and I know everything.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
Such a trust that you had in her, she has
in you, and vice versa.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
That's really cool, it is.

Speaker 5 (15:35):
And then you want to be real careful who you
make the trustee of your trust, uh, the executor of
your will when you're not married. You have to be
very careful about how all that gets put together.

Speaker 3 (15:46):
And Joe is the trustee of my trust.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
So I bet one thing that hasn't changed in all
those years is when someone first comes to you or
Kathy and your sake, when someone first came to you
and they're interested in you helping them, one of the
first questions.

Speaker 5 (15:59):
Is what, Wow, what's your goals? You know, what are
their goals? What are you trying to accomplish here? You've
got to get to know them on them personal level.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
See, no matter what year it is, no matter how
long you start this visit, that part has stayed.

Speaker 7 (16:17):
The same because Joe, you yourself have said, don't live
a boring life, and just where you still got to
have good fun stuff. I mean, Mindy bought it. I
can't believe they bought a lake house. I'm still baffled.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
By that.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Only reason why I did this at this point in
my life is because we knew we were going to
be so sad and bored. When Ohio State softball season
came around and I needed something.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
I can't believe they made me happy.

Speaker 7 (16:38):
Why we're so And she bought Alexus half I'm calling
you out now.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
I couldn't believe it.

Speaker 7 (16:45):
She drove a beat up civic for she had everything
but the lottery with her car, and she drove the
heck out.

Speaker 1 (16:51):
I lived so below my means and I still do.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
I save on.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Everything if I go to the grocery store, always looking
for or the best sales, the best freebies.

Speaker 6 (17:02):
That midwestern millionaire.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
You look at my helme, my little lake house that
we have, it is all decorated with stuff from Goodwill,
the dollar store, flea markets. Because I don't overspend, because
I've lived my whole life this way, I'm able to.

Speaker 6 (17:15):
Spend a little bit.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Now.

Speaker 6 (17:16):
That's exact. Clients serve, that's exact.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
You guys got talking into having fun.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
And he's the complete opposite. And he doesn't have ten
dollars in the bank account. He lives for the moment.
He's like I like that I'm going to buy that
I like I get.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
If I see something I want, there's no Brinks truck
behind a her.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
See that's I'm saying, well, in no, you know what
we're both now, that's all we go along.

Speaker 7 (17:40):
Wrong.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
No, I mean it's it's whatever makes you.

Speaker 7 (17:42):
When I get in my overpriced fiberglass pig Corvette, I'm
the happiest guy on two seventy. I am buy it
for you or anybody else. I bought it from my
He'll Billy Appalachian concasion.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Glad that I saved every penny and I still do so.
Now I'm able to live a.

Speaker 6 (17:57):
Little do whatever you want whenever a little bit.

Speaker 5 (18:00):
Now, yes, and what you too are describing as the
balance we try to come to it. I'm terrible if
if you never spend. And I've had sure in depth
conversations with clients to get.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Someone sickness, I've got some friends.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
If my wife is one way and a husband's and
you want to try to get that.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 7 (18:24):
When when I go to dinner with somebody, this is
where I'm different than a lot of people, and I
always get like extra shrimp. And a buddy of mine
is a chief skate will go.

Speaker 6 (18:33):
Why would you.

Speaker 7 (18:33):
Pay an extra eight bucks because I can leave me alone.
I want extra shrimp and for.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Me, that's our role is for roles.

Speaker 3 (18:39):
Can I take those roles?

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Need?

Speaker 3 (18:42):
I need a doggy bag for those roles?

Speaker 2 (18:44):
No way in a world would I do that. That's terrible.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Well, all right, so we got to do radio. It's
coming up next.

Speaker 1 (18:50):
Speaking of companies and doing really well Wendy's, Wendy's fast
food restaurant. Yesterday, I actually celebrated fifty six years life.
So Rivia is about Wendy's.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Okay, that's good.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yeah, it'll be funy. So we have Jill as our
reigning champion. We need someone to call up and play Riva.

Speaker 1 (19:08):
With us at six one four eight two one nine
eight eight six six one four eight two one nine
eight eighty six.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
We should get your mom to call in and play
because it's birthday.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
H see, Happy birthday mom, all right?

Speaker 7 (19:20):
Rob Indian boots always protected by the ndfeated American made
Tattletale alarm system from the Hartley Bank Studios on News
Radio six ten be TV in