New Year's Resolutions to Make You Healthier & Wealthier

Episode Transcript
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Announcer (00:00):
The financial huddle does not provide tax, legal,
financial, or other professionaladvice.
Listeners are encouraged toconsult with their own advisors
in these areas.
Alright, everybody, huddle up.

Brian Minier (00:07):
Good.
Playful.
This is the financial huddle.
Ready?
Hello, everybody.
Welcome, huddlers.
We are here once again with mycompadres, Ryan Fleming.
Thanks for huddling up with us,everybody.
Ed B.
Miller.

Ed Beemiller (00:24):
Hello, hello.

Hey, hey.
And we are a few days away fromthe brand new new year.
And I have to ask, what is yourNew Year's resolution this year
or coming year?
Oh man.

2026.
Gonna be a big year.
Big year.
Um resolutions from mystandpoint.
I I did kind of have one lastyear because, you know, you
know, both of my children gotmarried, and I just I felt like
I wanted to get into kind offighting shape, back back to my
you know, college shape.
Fighting shape.
I I got I got close to it.

(00:56):
I did get close to it.

You are the east side of Cleveland boy.

Yeah, east side.
I'm not a west sider.
No, come on.

Is that a uh a weight goal?

Yeah, it was a weight goal.
And I I I got I got prettyclose, but you know, I always go
back to well, you know, muscleweighs more than than fat.
So, you know, I I I figure Iwas right about right about
there.
You're saying you have moremuscle?
Well, of course.
I'm saying I'm thinking it.
You know, fact and realitycould be two completely.
That's right.

(01:26):
Yep.
But I I think you know,resolutions, we always, you
know, want to do better or bebetter or or be a better
iteration of ourselves per se.
But uh yeah, so I honestly Ihaven't even started thinking
about what 2026 will be.

That's how about you remain New Year's gonna be
here in a couple days?
Well any resolutions.

Ryan Fleming (01:47):
I want my oldest son's gonna get off the payroll.
Um and you I'm gonna try totake those dollars.
I'm gonna try to take thosedollars and uh save them instead
of spending them.

I'm tired of spending them.
I think that's a good goal aswell.
Um the first is just gettingthem off the payroll, yeah.
And then we'll see what we cando with it.
Yep.
So well, for for all of you outthere who are a few days away.
Happy New Year.
Glad you are here.
Um, Ryan, stats.
Oh man.

Hit me up.

Let's hear it, man.

Stat time.
Stat time.
It's stat time.
You know, um, in allseriousness, when when we talk
about New Year's resolution, um,and we talk about things like
um money and health.
You know, Ed, you talked abouthealth.
I talked about money.
Um, it's just so important thatour listeners know, and and and

(02:42):
I think they know this umorganically, but but money and
health are just incredibly tiedtogether.
So I thought that we would talka little bit about just kind of
connect the two, um, money andhealth.
A couple, some alarming statsum to think about when it comes
to like money and health.
72% of Americans report thatmoney is like the number one

(03:04):
major stressor in their life.
Think about that.
You know, 72% of Americans saythat.
A lot of studies out there uhthat talk about chronic stress
is the leading cause of heartdisease, anxiety, digestive
issues, and weakened immunesystems.
I saw a uh article from a lawfirm called the Jimenez Law

(03:25):
Firm, and uh they they focus ondivorce.
Um they they focus on thatstat.
I didn't look this up, but uhin years past I saw a stat that
uh in America, I think it'spretty close to like one out of
every two marriages ends in somekind of divorced or separated
agreement.
But this article from a JimenezLaw estimates that 20 to 40
percent of all marriages thatend in a divorce uh is caused by

(03:48):
financial problems.
Uh I also saw a report fromYahoo Life that said in all
long-term relationships, money,finances, uh, those were
reported as the biggest conflictin about 40 plus percent of all
disagreements.
And not uh last but not least,uh even in the Bible, for

(04:09):
example, in the Bible, money,the topic of money, the word
money is mentioned 140 to 200times, depending on what version
that you're reading.
And even outside of that, wordslike riches, silver, and gold
uh appear appear even more inthe Bible.
So this idea of health andwealth is everywhere in our

(04:32):
culture, and it's important thatwe uh as financial fiduciaries
uh help our clients thinkthrough that and and coach them
in a way so that so that they'reboth thriving.

There's a direct tie-in between your overall
health and the health of whatyou have saved.
100%.

Yep, yep.
To to use a uh it's not aphemism because it is you know a
real word, but I I have to givecredit, you know, to to Ryan
here.

Here you go.

Uh symbiotic.
You know, it's it's really tofocus on one thing without the
other.
They're intertwined, you know,from that standpoint.
And uh this is a specialepisode because once again, we
get stat time for a secondround.
Second rounds for stats.
First time in the history ofthe Financial Huddle podcast.

(05:22):
Wow.
Double stats.
Mark that day the episode.
That double stats.
So, you know, obviously thetopic of you know, this time of
the year, the new year's, and westarted off with resolutions.
And um I I just thought it wasinteresting.
You know, I I I Googled andlooked at resolutions and the
number of people that actuallymake resolutions.

(05:44):
You know, I I kind of said whenyou asked me, I haven't really
thought about it a lot.
Well, recent survey states thatapproximately 38% of the
general population make NewYear's resolutions.
So 38%.
All right.
A little less than half.

Yeah.
Less and less than what I wouldhave thought.

Yeah, 38%.
And then here's the thing thatthat gets me, and and I have
personal experience with this,um from not not myself, but but
from uh certain situations thatuh that that I put myself in as
far as working out and uh reallybeing religious about that.

(06:24):
Of those 38%, only 25% of that38%, so we're getting into
numbers here, are stillcommitted to that resolution
they made 30 days later.

Oh man.

Okay, yeah.
And that number, listen, thatnumber falls off and gets worse
and worse.
60, um, if we go 60 days out,two months out, only 21.9% of
that 25% is still basicallydoing their New Year's
resolution.
That goes down to 13.1% of that21.9 three months.

(07:04):
Is still doing it, well, fourmonths.
They they kind of skip out.
And then here's the thingthat's in in you know incredible
to me.
Only approximately one percentsaid that they kept the
resolution for the full year.

They they fell into the abyss.

Right.
And and so what I was speakingto before is you know, I I think
we all do.
We're all avid, you know, welike to work out and and you
know, keep ourselves relativelyfit, you know.
I'm a little older than youguys, so maybe it's a little
harder for me.
We're all fighting third, yeah.
We're fighting.
We're fighting father time.
Yeah, yeah.
But, you know, uh I I belong tolifetime, and you know, just go

(07:43):
along all all year.
It's you know, there's it's notoverly crowded.
I can get in there, get myworkout done, and everything
else.
Well, you hit January 1, man.
All of a sudden there's two tothree times more people.
I can't get on to a bench, Ican't get on to a machine.
Everybody and their mother'sthere, and I'm just like, I've
never seen any of these peoplebefore.
Yeah.
Well, 30 days out, I stopseeing most of those people.

(08:05):
Still see a few.
Well, 60 days out, I see evenless of them.
And then everything, maybe afew new members, you know, keep
it going, but outside of that,you know, most of those, which
which kind of agrees with thesestats, just kind of go through
that and then and then they'redone.

You're living it.
Just go in week one, take abullhorn, and just say, you're
not gonna be here in a month, soget out and get out.

Get off my get off my piece of paper.

I need to get on the treadmill, get to stepping.

And yeah, so you know, when we're talking about
these different things, whichwhich which Ryan brought up, you
know, New Year's resolutionshistorically tend to focus more
on health, you know, and anddoing what we do as as financial
planners, you know, the healthof your finances is is just as
important, you know, which wesaid, you know, okay, it's this

(08:52):
symbiotic, intertwinedrelationship.
And too often stress is createdbecause we we don't focus on
that financial side, or we getinto a period where we are
focused on what others have.

(09:12):
You know, so like a comparisongame.
Comparison game where I think Ineed to keep up with so-and-so
or you know, that type of thing.
The reality of this is youdon't have to keep up with the
Joneses.
You know, when we would sitdown and meet with people,
whatever you have is what youhave.
All right.
I'm not gonna say, you know,people always say, I don't have

(09:32):
a whole lot.
Well, you got what you got, solet's let's let's basically plan
around that.
And when when you don't compareyourself to someone else, but
uh you you look at what youhave, you can be happy and
satisfied with that.
Don't don't think that you haveto have you know two to three
times as much because yourneighbor has that much, you

(09:54):
know, and you can still befinancially healthy, and when
you're financially healthy, youhave what did you just say, less
stress, you know, lesssickness.
A lot of times sickness is aleading cause or stress is a is
a leading cause that leads intoyou know sickness,
relationships, you know, makingsure you have a solid long-term
relationship.

(10:14):
Not having that concern is isvery important from that
standpoint.

Yeah, it's like your health and your wealth, if
you if you added them together,that's where we get the
terminology wellness.
Yep.
Your overall wellness is thecombination of your health and
how you manage your wealth.
And most uh a lot of peoplearen't doing great on their
wellness.
And and that's part of our job.
Yeah, yeah.
That really is.

And I think that the the other side of that is
when people feel like they'rebehind or they haven't done a
good job saving, then it getsinto an attitude of, well, I
didn't start, I'm just not goingto, and it's too late anyways.
Right.
And then the dominoes of yourhealth and your wellness, that's
a great word, start to decline.

Yeah.
So if we look at, you know,we're we're talking about New
Year's resolutions and stuff,let's focus on the financial
side of things.
Brian, you know, what what kindof tips would we potentially
recommend for for our clients?

Yeah, I would I would say number one in this
doesn't necessarily have to dowith with wealth, but it does
have to do with wellness issleep.
And and we've talked about thisas as a group of if you get
your sleep right and you getadequate rest, I'm a big
believer that everything startsthere.
If if you're rested, if if youtake the time to get the number

(11:29):
of hours you're supposed to get,then you're gonna be refreshed,
you're gonna be alert, and thenyou can start getting those
other parts of your wellness inorder.
So I think that's reallyimportant.

Yeah, I remember a few weeks back when the uh
World Series was happening, youknow, the greatest player that
ever walked the planet Earth,Shohei Otani.
Remember they had that18-inning game, it was a
marathon.
And they interviewed himafterwards and they said they
asked him a question, and hegoes, the number one thing I
want to do right now is hurry upand get to my bed and sleep.
You know, he is a he is like aa sleep snob.
But I think medically, if youlook if you do some research

(12:02):
into that, it is the number onemost important thing we can need
to do for our health, is to isto get adequate sleep.
Yeah, a lot of people don't.

And I think when you think of things like uh
resolutions, you think of goalsthat are measurable.
Yeah, another measurable goal,if you haven't done this, is
just start tracking yourexpenses for a week or even do
it a month.
That way you can get an idea ofhow to set a budget because now
you know what you're going tospend.
There are a number of easy waysto do it.

(12:31):
There's there's a thousanddifferent apps that you can
download on your phone.
Some of those will automatedirectly to your bank account or
your credit card.
Some of them I have one thatyou have to manually do it.
And I'm I'm that weird OCDperson that I like to feel the
oh, I just spent that money.
So I know that's that's ashocker.
Pumping gas, get out the phone,put it in there.

(12:53):
My wife's with me, she makesfun of me.
But you know, we're on the roada lot.
I know what it is that we spendand we can track it.
And it's a discipline.
And once you start that, thenit's it's a lot easier to
continue that habit once youhave done it for a number of
days.

Yeah.
Yeah, I'll add to that.
I I mean, I think uh humanbeings are creatures of
procrastination just by nature.
Um, but I also know that whatwhat we care about the most,
like what what human beingsreally kind of truly care about
inside their heart, we aremasters at trying to figure out
how to get that.
Right?
So if you really want toimprove your health and your

(13:28):
wealth and have better wellness,um kind of like what Ed said as
far as working out, I I wouldactually throw out there, um,
you know, build a financialfitness plan.
You know, and and try not to bethe the people that fall off,
you know, incrementally every 30days or right.
And that that that only 1%still standing.
It's like seriously, I you bitin the same way you'd go in and

(13:49):
figure out what rep schemeyou're gonna do in the weight
room, you know, three sets of 10or whatever.
I I would say set a specifickind of money rep goal for
yourself.
Like um, I'm gonna save $500 amonth every single month.
I'm not gonna skip a rep.
I'm gonna hit all my reps, I'mgonna hit all my sets.
And we know if we do that inthe weight room over a period of
time, we're gonna see results.
We're gonna feel better, we'regonna look better.

(14:11):
Um, things about like, howabout break it down
incrementally?
Um the first half of the year,I'm gonna get out of debt.
Uh, I'm gonna be out of debt byJune.
And I'm gonna hit my goal byJune.
So then, you know, the secondhalf of the year, I can start
saving that money into like aRoth IRA or something like that.
So hit that goal, put it out infront of you, work towards that

(14:31):
goal.
Or, or maybe it's a goal towhere you you know you should do
it, but you should uh bump your401k contribution up.
Hit those reps every singlepaycheck, whether you get paid
once a month, twice a month,whatever it is, you're gonna
bump that up from 10 to 15%.
And every single paycheck,every single rep that you get,
uh, you're gonna increase thatside of the house.

(14:53):
Um, you know, just just like inthe same way you do those rep
schemes in a weight room, setthose in your financial plan.

And when you automate it, man, that's just an
easy way that you don't have toeven do it.
It makes it way easier.
It's easier, that's the way togo.
Yeah.

Yeah, and and kind of um, you know, once again,
going on the same topic ofwellness, meaning both financial
and health.
Most people, a lot of people,have an annual medical exam,
right?
Yep.
Once a year you go in, maybeget your blood tests, or at
least me, you know, I'm 58.
Maybe you guys, you know, justturn in the 5-0 and you know,

(15:28):
everything else.
Maybe it's not so much.
But you know, you just go in,right?
You just go in and make sureeverything's still working and
everything else.
But you know, the from afinancial standpoint, same
thing.
Schedule a financial wellnessreview.
And, you know, from thatstandpoint, I had a client, or I
do have a client, thatliterally would write down his

(15:49):
entire financial picture and hisgoals and objective, and he
would put it in a sealedenvelope, and then at the end of
the year, and and and he wouldhe would basically give me that
envelope, and at the end of theyear when we scheduled our
meeting, I'd open up theenvelope, he'd he'd he'd be
there, and we'd basically lookto say, All right, did you

(16:13):
accomplish what you had writtendown?
I mean that's really cool.
That's taking it.

That's really cool, man.

You know, we don't have too many clients like
that, but he basically just it'skind of like his mission,
financial mission statement forthe year.
Here's where I am, I want to behere.

Yeah.

And then he would, by writing it down as opposed
to just stating it, it's like,all right, here it is, tangible,
and then giving me, you know,his financial professional a
copy of it, it's accountability.
And it's the same thing likeworking out.

Yep.

I tend to work out better when you have
accountability, whether it's toa trainer or just work out with
someone else.
It's a lot easier.
That person's gonna push you,that person's gonna motivate
you, and that's the same thinglike we do as a financial
planner, is you know, we we askfor accountability to our
client.
So in that case, he presentedthat to me, so I had to, or he

(17:06):
wanted me to hold himaccountable for those things.
I love that.
So, you know, scheduling thatreview because I like to say I
use the term life happens allthe time.
And what that means is, youknow, we could have met last
year, your circumstances werethis.
Well, all kinds of things couldhave changed the following
year, just like you go to yourdoctor for your annual review.

(17:29):
Well, you need an annualfinancial review, you know.
So true.
And so from you know, this timeof year, you know, a lot of
times those financial reviewsare really held in the first
quarter because you want to seehow things are going through the
full year and that kind ofstuff.
But that's just that's justanother you know thing that we
could look at as you know, wordsof wisdom or advice, you know,
to those, you know, to ourhuddlers, you know, and the

(17:49):
people listening out there.

Take those steps, yeah.
Set your budget, track yourexpenses, automate, try to get
uh a few more dollars saved,Ryan, as you said, and and
schedule those reviews.
And that's why we are here.
We want to help you.
It's as we look at thebeginning of 2026, getting back
to those basics, that's going tomake all the difference in the
world.
So, with that, I want to wisheverybody happy holidays, happy

(18:13):
new year.
Happy New Year, thank you somuch for attending.
And just a reminder pleasesubscribe, hit that notification
bell, and we look forward toseeing you next time.

See y'all next time.
Take care, everybody.

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