September 9, 2025 • 36 mins
In this episode, we explore the often-overlooked aspects of financial awareness with Michael Scarpati, a seasoned financial professional dedicated to empowering individuals on their journey to financial literacy. We kick off the conversation by addressing the blind spots that many encounter in their financial planning, particularly when it comes to retirement. Michael emphasizes the importance of understanding your financial landscape and recognizing the red flags that could derail your goals. We delve into actionable steps to transform these red flags into green flags, including utilizing tools like the Financial Checkpoint to assess your retirement readiness.
We also discuss the significance of working with an independent fiduciary, someone who is legally obligated to prioritize your best interests. Michael shares insights on how to vet financial professionals and the qualifications to look for, ensuring you receive trustworthy advice. As we navigate the complexities of financial planning, we touch on the importance of starting early, especially when it comes to saving for your children's education through 529 plans.
Join us as we unpack these essential topics and more, helping you take control of your financial future with confidence!
Takeaways:
- Understanding your financial blind spots is crucial for effective planning and achieving your retirement goals.
- Utilize free tools like the Financial Checkpoint to identify red flags in your financial strategy.
- Working with an independent fiduciary can provide you with trustworthy, personalized financial advice.
- Early planning for children's education through 529 plans can significantly impact their future financial stability.
- Clarity on your financial goals is essential for creating a roadmap to success.
Chapters:
- 00:00 - Understanding Financial Advice
- 00:21 - Understanding Financial Awareness: The Journey Begins
- 12:09 - Understanding Financial Planning and Its Importance
- 19:38 - Planning for Children's Futures
- 23:37 - Navigating Parenthood and Financial Planning
- 28:46 - Understanding Wealth and Financial Mistakes
- 32:52 - Cooking and Favorite Dishes
Links referenced in this episode:
- https://retireus.com/
- https://www.instagram.com/retire.us/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-a-scarpati/
Thank you for tuning in! Your support helps us empower more people to build strong financial habits and engage in meaningful conversations about money.
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⚠️ DISCLAIMER:
This content is for educational purposes only and is not financial advice. Always consult a licensed financial professional when needed.
Episode 309
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This episode is sponsored byRetire Us.
And so, you know, that's thebig thing is understanding, right?
Becoming more aware of whereyou're seeking financial advice and
guidance, especially in theinvestment space.
That is the person on theother side of the equation.
An independent fiduciary,meaning independent.
(00:21):
They're not tied to a specificfinancial institution.
Right.
They work for you.
They don't work for somebody else.
And fiduciary, meaning theyhave to, in the eyes of law, they're
legally obligated to give youadvice that's in your best interest.
Right.
That is the keys to kind offeeling a little bit more confident
that you can trust the.
(00:42):
The advice that you're being given.
Welcome everybody back toanother exciting show, the about
that Water podcast, where wehelp the sandwich generation build
strong financial habits sothat they can talk about money, spend
money, and enjoy the theirmoney with confidence.
Today I have somebody who hasbeen in this industry for over at
(01:04):
least 15, 20 years at thispoint now, and he is willing to kind
of share this lovelyinformation to you all so that we
can actually start saving upfor that retirement and figuring
out what we're going to dowith the excess money that we have.
And, Michael, thank you somuch for coming to the show.
My pleasure.
Thank you for having me, man.
(01:24):
Yeah.
So the very first questionthat I have for you to kind of kick
this off is that we alwayshave a lot of blind spots in our
finances, and we just don'tknow where to go with it.
So what are some of those redflags that we should start focusing
on to kind of turn those redflags into green flags with our finances?
(01:49):
It's a good place to start,right when we're thinking.
Financial consciousness at itscore is the biggest issue to become
conscious is we don't knowwhat we don't know.
We don't know where to start.
The blind spots are thoseareas that we probably are just unaware
of at the current state.
(02:09):
And that's kind of.
This first step is starting tocreate some awareness around what
are the.
The major red flag.
So actually, on the retired USPlatform, you can access a free tool
that we have that pulls thesered flags out.
It's called a financial checkpoint.
Takes like four minutes, free tool.
And it will give you anassessment on things like retirement
(02:31):
place pacing and tax planning.
But I think the most valuablecomponent of it is actually bringing
out the red flag.
So red flags are things like,have we calculated our retirement
goal?
Right.
Do we actually know wherewe're headed?
That huge red flag?
Right.
If we're just savingarbitrarily without knowing where
we're headed.
How do we possibly know whatthat investment account should be
(02:53):
doing, what types of rates ofreturn it should target, how much
risk should be associated withit, how much we should be saving
into it?
Right.
So that's a major red flag.
The investments being out ofalignment or our market risk being
too high, or our inflationrisks being too high.
Things that we're just notconsciously taking a look at on a
(03:14):
regular basis, that can reallyhurt us in the long run if we're
not aware of it.
So the best way to turn theminto green flags is first you got
to list them out, you got tofind them, you got to figure out
are the ones that are reallyapplying to you because it's going
to be different.
Right.
Depending on who you are.
And then educating ourselves,that second step in the financial
(03:36):
consciousness journey is literacy.
Right.
So we start as unconsciously incompetent.
We don't know what we don't know.
The second step is now we knowareas where we gotta spend a little
bit more time educating ourselves.
So literacy kind of comes next.
And that's where the red flagshould give you that direction.
Right.
Start learning, start, startfiguring out kind of what, what you
(03:58):
need to understand more aboutyour own financial situation to,
to start to turn them into,into green flags.
I like that because there wasa report done by the Federal Reserve
bank of Minneapolis and theysaid approximately 28% of Americans
report having no retirementsavings, while significant 40% lack
(04:21):
access to employer sponsoredretirement plans like the 401 or
the 435.
And so, you know, just becausethey don't have access doesn't mean
they shouldn't start.
So where would somebody reallystart diving into it?
You said go to your website tostart looking at figuring out where
(04:43):
those flags are.
But what is it like a tool oranything like that just to kind of
get people familiar?
Is there like a, what theycall like paper money where they
can start playing around andto just kind of get familiar with
different tools that you recommend?
Yeah, I think the big thing isstarting to get comfortable with
our own financial situation.
(05:04):
Helps us understand where thebest place to go next is.
And what I mean by that is dowe really know what we need from
our savings?
You know, the habits are thethings that are going to drive us.
But at the end of the day,where do we want to go?
Right?
What's the direction thatwe're moving in?
Everybody wants to buildwealth, right?
There's nothing special about that.
(05:25):
It's a matter of what is thetimeline for what, what's purpose
that, that wealth, what areyou going to use it for?
Right.
Is it for retirement?
Is it for higher education?
Is it for kids and, and youknow, their livelihood or their higher
education potentially down,down in, in the future?
Is it for, for legacy long term?
(05:46):
Right.
So, so having clarity on whatwe really want to accomplish, I think
is, is really the first keystep because that's how, you know,
that's how you can kind ofunravel it.
You start at the end goal.
Right?
That's, that's, I think that'swhere most people just kind of start
arbitrarily saving somewhere.
Whether That's a savingsaccount, 401k.
(06:08):
And we don't know if it'sright for us.
We don't know what we need todo to hold it accountable.
We don't know what the realtrue, you know, what means it's doing
well versus not doing well.
All that is relative based offof what it's for and the timeline
and the understanding of howthat's going to come to fruition
(06:28):
and what it means for success.
And so I think that the firststep that people need to take is
taking inventory.
Actually it's taking inventoryon your current lifestyle is taking
inventory on, you know, whatthat that lifestyle will cost in
the future.
For retirement generally is areally good place to kind of plan
(06:49):
another flag and, and startplanning around and then doing the
work, doing the math to findthe in between.
Right.
What do we need to do to takeus from where we are right now to
the, to the promised land.
Right.
So to where we want to end up.
That's where a lot of times,you know, interfacing with a professional
starts to become helpful is tobuild the map, build the roadmap
(07:11):
and, and help us understandwhat that means for our day to day
decision making.
And you said, you mentioned aprofessional because it's one of
the things that a lot ofpeople have right now is trust.
Everybody's leaning towards AIor trying to find some other online
solution before they talk to somebody.
Yeah.
How do you vet that person?
(07:31):
Well, that's a great question.
And people have trust issuesin the financial services industry
and they should, they haveissues and they should.
Because the financial serviceindustry is not built to provide
everybody the highest qualityadvice possible.
It is actually top heavy inthe opposite direction.
(07:54):
So 85 to 90% of licensedfinancial professionals have no fiduciary
standard over their clients.
Meaning that in the eyes ofthe law they do not have to be giving
advice that is absolutely inthe best interest of the client.
Right.
So it's a very small subsetthat actually exists in the industry
(08:16):
that you can, you know, holdthem accountable and say, hey, I'm
gonna take you to court if Idon't feel like this was in my best
interest because they havethat fiduciary standard.
And so, you know, that's thebig thing is, is understanding.
Right.
Becoming more aware of whereyou're seeking financial advice and
guidance, especially in theinvestment space.
(08:38):
That is the person on theother side of the equation.
An independent fiduciary,meaning independent, they're not
tied to a specific financial institution.
Right.
They work for you, they don'twork for somebody else.
And fiduciary, meaning theyhave to in the eyes of the law, they
are legally obligated to giveyou advice that's in your best interest.
(08:59):
Right.
That is the keys to kind offeeling a little bit more confident
that you can trust the, theadvice that you're being given.
The problem is, is, is it'snot super abundant in, in the, in
the industry right now.
The platform, the retired USPlatform is actually meant to solve
that in a big way.
(09:21):
We pair you with thoseindependent fiduciary financial professionals
so that you can, you know,know that the advice is, is legally
going to be in, in the bestinterest for, for you to the best
of the ability of the, of the advisor.
Yeah.
And I believe most of, becauseyou're bringing up the law and it's
one of the things that I, Ilike to make sure everybod because
(09:45):
that's one of the things is,you know, for me as a coach, I'm
coaching, just kind of guidingthem through, but I'm not telling
them exactly what to dobecause personal finance is personal.
And you have a certificationcalled the Chartered Retirement Planning
Counselor.
So can you dive in, just kindof like hand wave over like what
(10:06):
is that?
Yeah.
Another great question that,you know, I'm, I'm, I'm pretty far
removed now from the, from thedirect day to day financial planning,
acting as the CEO of retiredU.S. however, the credentialing,
you know, I've been in thisindustry for 15 years at the same
standpoint.
So the credentialing comes in.
There's a handful ofdesignations and credentials you
(10:26):
can get.
Chartered Retirement PlanningCounselor is one of them where there's
more of a focus on retirementplanning and strategy and building
systems for retirement.
Certified Financial Planner isanother one.
That's the highest designationreally in the field field.
And that is all encompassing,from taxes to legacy, to, to investments.
(10:49):
You know that there's a lot ofdifferent components that go into
the certified financial planner.
So that's a really gooddesignation to, to look for specifically
if you're focused on planningand you're looking to build out frameworks
and structure for how to driveyour decision making.
So, yeah, those are, those aresome good designations to, to look
(11:11):
into.
But then there's also security licensing.
Right.
So financial planners need tobe licensed with the series, the
series seven, the series six.
One of those two is series 65,series 66.
Those are big licenses thatyou need to hold.
So the, the professionals thatare giving advice, you know, you
do want to make sure also thatthey are licensed and in compliance
(11:34):
with, you know, with the SECand FINRA and the regulatory bodies
to make sure that it's, youknow, it's sound and they've gone
through the training that'srequired as well.
Yeah, thanks for going overthat because that's one of the things
that we hear a lot.
We see all these acronyms andlike, we don't even know what they
are half the time.
(11:54):
And I just want to make surethat we have a clear understanding
of what that is because, youknow, we don't know.
And like I said, we don't knowwhat we don't know.
And it requires more researchbehind that.
So.
But why did you decide to getinto this particular space?
Like, like, why did you feltthat it was good, it was a good time
(12:17):
to like, you know, I need tostart focusing on retirement.
Why retirement?
So, you know, I've been inthis industry for 15 years and I
started out as an independentfiduciary financial planner.
That was kind of the trackthat went down.
So I got to see the consumersfrom, from a little bit of a different
perspective.
(12:37):
You know, there's only a smallsubset of financial professionals
that are in that independentfiduciary track.
And it's just a different,it's just a different lane.
You know, there's, there'smore access to products, there's
more access to professionalsand strategies that you can come
in to, to implement and, andsupport clients with.
(12:58):
And you kind of just saw thisrecurring trend of people have been
working with professionals,you know, licensed financial professionals,
but we're just missing.
There was still a lot of gaps,just a lot of gaps in their overall
plan, their overall strategiesoutside of just the investments.
Right.
There's more that goes intothis stuff.
You know, how are we managingour cash Flow.
(13:19):
How are we making the rightdecisions to make sure that we're
putting money in the, in theright places?
How does that impact taxes?
Right.
Depending on where you savemathematically based off of how that
money is going to be taxed,you're going to end up with a different
amount in the future.
Right.
Tax prioritization is a major,major thing that changes how much
(13:40):
retirement income you willultimately end up with.
And there's all thesedifferent nuanced things that most
people are just not payingattention to.
They think financial planning,they think investments.
Right.
They think my portfolio, what,you know, what's my 401k doing?
When in reality those thingsshould all be the result of a bigger
(14:02):
plan.
Right.
Just because you haveinvestments or a portfolio does not
mean that you have a financial plan.
And I saw that year after yearwhen I was really consistently back
meeting with clients,operating as a financial professional.
And this theme kept poking outof like, how can we actually make
independent fiduciaryfinancial planning more accessible?
(14:25):
How can we make more of thisholistic retirement planning more
accessible?
And that's kind of how theplatform was, was born.
We saw that the, the vastmajority of the market is underserved
and is not working with thisindependent fiduciary tier of professional.
And we started building techand processes and ultimately a business
(14:48):
to unlock that for the public.
Nice.
Because I'm thinking like,usually most people have an event
that happens in their livesthat kind of push them to kind of
get there.
Was it like you just saw likeyour mom got like, as you could say,
taken advantage of, to kind oflike, you know what, I don't like
this.
Or was it like your dad orsomething like that was like, you
(15:10):
know, I hate the retirementindustry or I hate these financial
analysts.
Like, they just doingeverything wrong for me.
Was that something like thathappened for you?
Yeah, it wasn't.
It was.
There's a particular clientthat actually comes to mind.
So I was already in the business.
It changed my perspective onkind of like the mission behind what
(15:31):
I was doing.
And it was, it was a retired couple.
They've been retired for years.
They've been working with afinancial professional for years.
And they were dead set thatthey had the retirement plan all
figured out.
And after sitting down withthem and reviewing things, there
was two key things that werejust, aha, moments of wow, this,
(15:53):
I really need to do a betterjob and make it a little more of
a mission to have people takea deeper look at what they actually
already have.
Because their quote unquoteretirement plan across five different
accounts.
Everything was in one mutualfund, right?
So the professional puteverything in.
It was, it was all the samefund across all accounts.
(16:15):
And these people were retiredfor many years and they thought that.
So no diversification, ton ofunnecessary risks.
And the second thing was thehusband had a pension.
He had a pension from his retirement.
So they weren't touching a lotof their savings because the pension
was covering most of theexpenses, including Social Security.
(16:35):
They were good, they were comfortable.
But when we did a deeper dive,that pension, if anything happens
to the husband, that incomecompletely stops.
The wife gets, right?
And so huge, huge thing thatneeds, you know, a lot of financial
planning.
A lot of times you're planningfor the worst and hoping for the
best, right?
(16:56):
If things are happeningpositively in the market and you're
positively invested, you'regoing to capture those gains.
But if the negative happensand you're not prepared for it, right.
We're going to fall to thelevel of the systems that we have
in place.
And if we have no system thatis meant to account for these things,
or in this client's case, anunexpected death in the household
(17:17):
dramatically changes everything.
All of a sudden, two socialsecurities turn to one and that one
pension disappears, and thenwhat's going to happen?
And all the savings is in onemutual fund.
So that was kind of the.
I left that meeting.
Fortunately, we were able torestructure things for them, set
a lot of different things andsafeguards in place to protect, you
(17:39):
know, even if somethinghappens to the husband now, there's
still income and things thatwill be there for, for, for the surviving
spouse.
You know, leaving.
That was like, I kind ofapproach things a little bit differently
where like, before that it wasabout, you know, I'm entrepreneur,
I got to build my, build my business.
It's kind of that, that Ithink that typical entrepreneur perspective
(18:02):
of, you know, business firstand a little bit more driven by the,
the, the financial gains that come.
Whereas that was kind of theflip moment where I was like, I need
to, I need to save, I need tosave some of these people that are
out there and make sure thatthey are in a good spot.
Like, I need to make surepeople are protected and that their,
their financial situationactually is in good standing.
(18:24):
And you know, for me, backwhen I was in the financial planning
world, building up, buildingout a financial planning practice,
that was kind of.
Now that became my why rightin the business.
And then that's what's kind ofbled into the platform, right?
That's Kind of become the why.
What if we could build tech?
What if we could build aplatform to connect people with independent
(18:45):
professionals and make iteasy, make it cost effective.
Right.
Not make it thousands andthousands of dollars or have you
required to have hundreds ofthousands or millions of dollars
to access these professionals.
What if we could create abetter way to impact people on scale
and that, you know, that's howwe, we've gotten here to retire us
(19:06):
and the platform itself.
That's amazing.
And thank you again forcreating such a great platform, easy
to use and making it accessible.
One of the things that I'mthinking of now is a lot of the,
my listeners have kids andthey trying to find the best way
to kind of align theirfinances so that they can make sure
(19:28):
that their kids have a solidfinancial future in a sense of like
though the kids never askedfor it, it just that the parents,
it's almost like their duty tokind of make sure that they, they
make this happen.
Is there a, is there somethingin place right now that you would
suggest that they do?
(19:48):
Yeah, well, what I would sayis I think we all know this, but
kids are expensive and that'snot changing.
If anything, with the wayinflation's been going, things are
just going to get more andmore expensive.
One of the big things ishigher education.
(20:08):
Education, the inflation rateon education is much higher than
traditional inflation thatwe've seen historically with just
regular goods and services.
And so education inflates,higher education inflates at a higher
rate.
The biggest asset that youhave for your children is time really
(20:30):
is to, is to take advantage.
So I think the big trap peoplefall into is they're waiting a little
too long to get startedplanning for their kids.
You know, the moment that thatbaby is born, you have the ability
to open up like a 529 savingsaccount for, for college savings
that will grow tax free for,for higher education purposes.
(20:54):
And even just getting startedin that, you know, when they're six
months old versus waitinguntil they're six years old has a
massive, massive difference.
And so a lot of times whatI've seen really been successful
for people to plan for thefuture is in lieu of, of having a
bunch of different gifts andthings for, for birthdays for, for
(21:18):
the kids, like trying to getmaybe one big gift, having people
combine, you know, everybodycontribute to this pool.
Instead of having a 100 giftsthat come through or, you know, maybe
that's exorbitant, but see a10, 10, 15 toys that, you know, they're
not going to be able to playwith all of them, and it's.
It can be kind of wasteful.
(21:39):
Everybody contribute 20 bucks,if you're okay with that.
What we'll do is we're goingto buy them one really cool gift,
and we'll deposit the restinto their college fund.
Right.
And you can start to be alittle bit more strategic with some
of these milestones in the.
In.
In the children's lives tobuild for them instead of just, you
(21:59):
know, getting the dopamine hipof whatever the cool present is now.
Right.
Kind of playing a little bitof the middle ground and being more
mindful of helping them buildfor the bigger picture is.
Is definitely something that.
That will pay dividends long term.
Yeah.
One of my friends, actually acouple of my friends, even my family
(22:22):
members, sent me, what's itcalled, like a 529 gift link and
was like, hey, we don't needthem to have gifts, but if you can
just gift them $20 to their529, we'll go far, a long way.
And I thought that wasactually a pretty cool deal because
I usually just give out books.
Like, I. I have a smallcollection of books.
(22:43):
I always give out books as gifts.
And I was like, man, thatain't bad to actually do that, because
I'm not have it.
I don't plan on having anykids because the podcast is my.
My baby.
That's your baby.
Right?
So I was like, if y' all wantto donate, y' all listen.
Yeah, that's.
That's in.
In the age of technology, it'seasier and easier to be more financially
(23:07):
savvy.
Right.
The problem is there's so manythings that you can do, and sometimes
it can be like paralysis by analysis.
There's too many things.
There's too many directions.
So having a, you know,specific lane in mind, like, that's
a really great opportunity.
The 529s, these days, there'sa link where external parties can
(23:29):
contribute.
Boom.
There you go.
Yeah, I'm solved.
Too easy.
And so we come out to thethird segment here, which is the
features.
And this is where we kind oftalk about the future for you as
a business or even youyourself in your personal life.
So where do you feel that, youknow, what areas of focus that you
(23:50):
feel you have to grow?
Well, right now, in thepersonal life, where I need to grow
most is in that parenting side.
So I'm.
I'm.
We're.
We're going down that track.
We have a.
We have a baby expected inDecember My wife and I. Congrats.
Well, first, thank you very much.
Thank you, man.
We are first.
So it's.
I'm right now in that stage ofunconsciously in company.
(24:13):
I don't know what.
I don't know.
And we've started to nowschedule different classes and start
to build out the list of thedocumentaries and the books and things
that we need to educateourselves on to just get prepared.
I'll tell you.
I mean, putting together thebaby registry was like, I'm looking
at this saying where both ofus were, like, what is half of this
(24:36):
stuff?
Like, you know, it's just whenyou're not in that world, it's all
new.
And I know that that, thatcorrelates for a lot of people with
the financials.
They feel that same level of overwhelm.
It can be overwhelming whenyou're just kind of dipping your
toes in.
And so, you know, we're, we'reon that journey now to start, you
know, peeling it back andeducating ourselves.
Right.
Becoming.
(24:56):
Becoming literate in parentingand what, you know, what all those
steps mean.
So on the personal side isthere's a big driver for me now and
a lot of incentive for me toreally start to master that domain
of parenting and understandall the things that go into it.
On the business side, we'rereally looking to master tech and
(25:16):
grow as a tech company.
In this age of artificialintelligence, there is so much opportunity
for us to create more and moreaccessibility for people and reduce
more and more friction in theprocess of becoming more financially
conscious and financially healthy.
And there's just a biginitiative on what we're doing for
(25:39):
the platform to make thingssimpler for both the consumer and
the financial professional andreally create just more and more
impact through the platformand through the technology itself.
Because I want to go back to you're.
You're planning for the.
The new one, the new additionto the family.
(26:00):
Has the money conversationschanged where, like, y' all have
like a small baby fund now orwhat is that like, now?
Yeah, it definitely hasshifted things because, you know,
you're, you're, you'rethinking through other layers of
expense that just never werethere before when it comes to childcare
and support.
You know, that stuff isn'tcheap and then obviously just supplies
(26:21):
another.
Another.
Another mouth to feed into the equation.
More space actually in, in thehouse, right, where, you know, we're
an apartment right now that isnot going to be suitable and doesn't
have enough space for us tohave a child, plus support that would
be required.
So it's opened up a ton ofmore forecasted planning conversations
(26:44):
of.
All right, let's.
Let's align the vision.
So what does this really look like?
You know, thinking through thetimeline, here's where the baby comes,
here's when maternity andmaternity leave ends.
What's the next step?
What's the next step in termsof where's the support coming from?
It's, you know, is it.
Is it going to become.
From family?
Probably, somewhat, but we'realso going to probably need to supplement
(27:06):
that, which is going to cost money.
So we're kind of in that stageright now of we're mapping it out,
we're starting to forecastout, you know, what are the things.
But it all starts with our vision.
And it's the same thing for.
For.
For anybody with your ownpersonal finances.
Defining the vision of whatdoes it actually look like five years
from now, three years fromnow, one year from now, six months
(27:27):
from now?
Having clarity on those thingsis the only way to then get clarity
on the financial and theactual mathematics that go into the
equation.
So we're right there.
It's early, early stages, but.
But we're moving.
That's nice.
The reason why I asked,because some might be a new parent
that's listening and was like,well, I never thought about, you
(27:49):
know, should I actually stopputting money away?
And from one of my buddies,he's on the second child, and he
said the.
The best advice is to geteverything you need to get done now
before the baby comes.
Because he was like, once thebaby comes, it's here.
And that's your.
That's your bread and butterright there.
(28:10):
That's your.
Your soul all in.
So I was like, congratulationsto you.
I'm living vicariously foreverybody else.
And, man, congrats again.
Thanks, man.
I appreciate that.
Is there anything that youwant to leave the audience before
we dive into the final four questions?
(28:33):
No.
Let's get it.
All righty.
Well, the final four questionsare the final four questions of the
show.
All right, so number one, whatdoes wealth mean to you?
To me, it means optionality.
You know, wealth.
(28:54):
Wealth to me means optionality and.
And freedom.
At the end of the day, giving.
Giving true wealth gives us.
Gives us freedom.
And I think that it startswith having kind of a level of peace.
Like peace is wealth.
At the same time, I think,like peace with our financial situation
(29:14):
or what, what we're doing.
You know, wealth isn't limitedto finance, though, of course.
And so there's a lot of thingsthat can categorize in that.
But at the end of the day, youknow, if you have true wealth, I
mean, you have freedom, youhave the ability to choose and to
manifest and create the lifethat you want without, you know,
(29:37):
without roadblocks andstipulations there.
That's what, that's what truewealth is to me, I think.
Awesome.
Number two, what was yourworst money mistake?
Oh, I mean, there's been a lotof them over my lifetime.
(29:58):
What.
You know what?
I think the biggest oneactually is kind of a more recent
one, which was purchasing a car.
We purchased this car.
I'm not going to go intoexactly which one it was, but we
purchased this car without aton of due diligence about the specific
model.
And then we found out laterthrough experience that this car
(30:20):
was like, riddled with issuesthat a lot of people had and things
broke down and it turned intosuch a money pit.
You know, cars.
Cars are just traditionally avery terrible investment because
they depreciate and they costa lot to, you know, to.
To maintain.
And so it was like, it was afive plus year process of us just
(30:45):
dealing with issues with thiscar until finally.
And then it just, you know,kept deteriorating and losing value
that was harder and harder to sell.
And like, finally we just, youknow, kind of like had to take the
L. But the entire, the entiretime was definitely a big learning
of like, all right, the nexttime we're going to do a lot more
due diligence with this purchase.
(31:07):
So I think just like, youknow, not doing good due diligence
with bigger major purchases.
Lesson learned.
All right, it sounds like oneof your clients now is like doing
a due diligence on your people.
That's right.
Number three, is there a bookthat inspired your journey or your
perspective?
(31:35):
It's.
It's probably.
There's a.
There's a handful that come to mind.
Atomic Habits by James Clear is.
Is one that I think has beenin more recent, more recently, impactful.
Becoming conscious of ourhabits and really understanding the
(31:57):
power of habits.
Where do they come from?
Right.
The.
Our human nature and how wecan have better awareness and understanding
of the things that make andbreak us.
Right.
Habits either make us or theybreak us.
But the thing is, as humanbeings, we are creatures of habit.
Fact.
Right.
Nothing will change that.
And so we're either creatinghabits consciously and those habits
(32:22):
are moving us towards ourgoals or our ideal vision for our
life, or they're moving usfurther away from it.
And that book really helped meget a better grasp and understanding
of how it all kind of works.
I like that.
It's an awesome book.
Yeah.
That's what kind of got myshow going.
(32:44):
It's good.
It's good.
The audience hasn't read it.
Definitely.
Check it out.
It's an impactful one, for sure.
Number four, what is yourfavorite dish to make?
Let's see.
I don't know.
I am the cook of the household.
(33:04):
Like, I do more of the cooking.
I'm kind of going a lot ofdifferent directions with it.
Man.
That's hard to say what thefavorite actually is.
I don't know.
What's your favorite?
Give me some inspiration.
Well, my favorite one is a. Ihave two.
Really?
So my favorite one that I doseasonally, it's corn soup.
(33:28):
It was like a Trinidadian dish.
It's a hodgepodge of stuff,like dumplings.
You got your corn.
You have all your seasoningsand everything like that.
But the second one is a.
It's a quick dish, which iswhite rice.
You have tuna fish, but youactually sauteed the tuna fish with
some pepper, some onion, usefresh ginger, fresh garlic, not the
(33:55):
stuff in the can, and thenthrow that with some light olive
oil, because the tuna fish isreally already done.
You just really heating it upa little bit.
Yep.
As long as it takes for therice to cook less than five minutes,
put that together, and thenyou finish it off with some green
onions or some chives on top.
Done and done.
And if you want to spice itup, we'll take it up a notch.
(34:16):
You use balsamic glaze, andjust to drill over the top of it.
It's amazing dish.
That sounds incredible.
Yeah, that sounds incredible.
I've been.
Recently, I've been on this.
This tuna kick.
There's like, a seared ahituna that.
That I make that.
Similarly, you prep.
You prep the fish with a bunchof different rubs and the sesame,
(34:38):
see, or there's a sesame, Asesame seeds on it, and then you
sear it for.
On all the different sides.
And then there's, like, thisreally good kind of.
I don't know, it was like, alittle bit of, like, a dressing that
you would accompany it with,like, a condiment on the side, put
it over rice, and like, a bedof lettuce.
That's probably, like, one ofthe best dishes that.
(35:01):
That I go to.
It's.
It's.
It doesn't happen too oftenbecause it takes some work to put
that one together, but that'sprobably one of the most fun to probably
cook up.
It Sounds like it probably gogood with like a nice aioli, like
a spicy aioli.
Definitely.
It's almost like you're doinglike five star restaurant cooking
(35:21):
over there.
I'm just trying to keep upwith you, man.
This is the very last questionof the show, which is where could
people find out more about you?
Yes.
So Retired Us is the best foranything in the financial wellness,
you know, financial,conscious, financial planning that,
(35:42):
that space go to Retire Us.
There's some free services there.
We have a free mindfulnesstier which can help you start to
become more conscious andaware of those red flags, those blind
spots.
And then same on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Retire us also on LinkedIn.
Michael Scarpatti.
(36:02):
I'm.
I'm pretty active on LinkedIntoo, in terms of content.
Awesome, man.
Michael, thank you so much forcoming through, sharing your story.
And I'm glad to be one of thefirst podcasters to know that you
got a young one on the way.
I mean, you have freeretirement, right?
Yep.
Thank you, man.
I appreciate the time.
(36:23):
Awesome.
Well, thank you everybody for listening.
This has been great.
Please make sure thatremember, personal finance is personal.
So what you heard here todayis might not align with you, but
definitely share this withsomebody who can take advantage of
it and really check out RetireUs so that you can go down and get
your red flags out the way.
Let's start turning those redflags into green flags.
(36:44):
All right, everybody.
Yelt.
Peace.
This episode is sponsored byRetire Us.
And so, you know, that's thebig thing is understanding, right?
Becoming more aware of whereyou're seeking financial advice and
guidance, especially in theinvestment space.
That is the person on theother side of the equation.
An independent fiduciary,meaning independent.
(00:21):
They're not tied to a specificfinancial institution.
Right.
They work for you.
They don't work for somebody else.
And fiduciary, meaning theyhave to, in the eyes of law, they're
legally obligated to give youadvice that's in your best interest.
Right.
That is the keys to kind offeeling a little bit more confident
that you can trust the.
(00:42):
The advice that you're being given.
Welcome everybody back toanother exciting show, the about
that Water podcast, where wehelp the sandwich generation build
strong financial habits sothat they can talk about money, spend
money, and enjoy the theirmoney with confidence.
Today I have somebody who hasbeen in this industry for over at
(01:04):
least 15, 20 years at thispoint now, and he is willing to kind
of share this lovelyinformation to you all so that we
can actually start saving upfor that retirement and figuring
out what we're going to dowith the excess money that we have.
And, Michael, thank you somuch for coming to the show.
My pleasure.
Thank you for having me, man.
(01:24):
Yeah.
So the very first questionthat I have for you to kind of kick
this off is that we alwayshave a lot of blind spots in our
finances, and we just don'tknow where to go with it.
So what are some of those redflags that we should start focusing
on to kind of turn those redflags into green flags with our finances?
(01:49):
It's a good place to start,right when we're thinking.
Financial consciousness at itscore is the biggest issue to become
conscious is we don't knowwhat we don't know.
We don't know where to start.
The blind spots are thoseareas that we probably are just unaware
of at the current state.
(02:09):
And that's kind of.
This first step is starting tocreate some awareness around what
are the.
The major red flag.
So actually, on the retired USPlatform, you can access a free tool
that we have that pulls thesered flags out.
It's called a financial checkpoint.
Takes like four minutes, free tool.
And it will give you anassessment on things like retirement
(02:31):
place pacing and tax planning.
But I think the most valuablecomponent of it is actually bringing
out the red flag.
So red flags are things like,have we calculated our retirement
goal?
Right.
Do we actually know wherewe're headed?
That huge red flag?
Right.
If we're just savingarbitrarily without knowing where
we're headed.
How do we possibly know whatthat investment account should be
(02:53):
doing, what types of rates ofreturn it should target, how much
risk should be associated withit, how much we should be saving
into it?
Right.
So that's a major red flag.
The investments being out ofalignment or our market risk being
too high, or our inflationrisks being too high.
Things that we're just notconsciously taking a look at on a
(03:14):
regular basis, that can reallyhurt us in the long run if we're
not aware of it.
So the best way to turn theminto green flags is first you got
to list them out, you got tofind them, you got to figure out
are the ones that are reallyapplying to you because it's going
to be different.
Right.
Depending on who you are.
And then educating ourselves,that second step in the financial
(03:36):
consciousness journey is literacy.
Right.
So we start as unconsciously incompetent.
We don't know what we don't know.
The second step is now we knowareas where we gotta spend a little
bit more time educating ourselves.
So literacy kind of comes next.
And that's where the red flagshould give you that direction.
Right.
Start learning, start, startfiguring out kind of what, what you
(03:58):
need to understand more aboutyour own financial situation to,
to start to turn them into,into green flags.
I like that because there wasa report done by the Federal Reserve
bank of Minneapolis and theysaid approximately 28% of Americans
report having no retirementsavings, while significant 40% lack
(04:21):
access to employer sponsoredretirement plans like the 401 or
the 435.
And so, you know, just becausethey don't have access doesn't mean
they shouldn't start.
So where would somebody reallystart diving into it?
You said go to your website tostart looking at figuring out where
(04:43):
those flags are.
But what is it like a tool oranything like that just to kind of
get people familiar?
Is there like a, what theycall like paper money where they
can start playing around andto just kind of get familiar with
different tools that you recommend?
Yeah, I think the big thing isstarting to get comfortable with
our own financial situation.
(05:04):
Helps us understand where thebest place to go next is.
And what I mean by that is dowe really know what we need from
our savings?
You know, the habits are thethings that are going to drive us.
But at the end of the day,where do we want to go?
Right?
What's the direction thatwe're moving in?
Everybody wants to buildwealth, right?
There's nothing special about that.
(05:25):
It's a matter of what is thetimeline for what, what's purpose
that, that wealth, what areyou going to use it for?
Right.
Is it for retirement?
Is it for higher education?
Is it for kids and, and youknow, their livelihood or their higher
education potentially down,down in, in the future?
Is it for, for legacy long term?
(05:46):
Right.
So, so having clarity on whatwe really want to accomplish, I think
is, is really the first keystep because that's how, you know,
that's how you can kind ofunravel it.
You start at the end goal.
Right?
That's, that's, I think that'swhere most people just kind of start
arbitrarily saving somewhere.
Whether That's a savingsaccount, 401k.
(06:08):
And we don't know if it'sright for us.
We don't know what we need todo to hold it accountable.
We don't know what the realtrue, you know, what means it's doing
well versus not doing well.
All that is relative based offof what it's for and the timeline
and the understanding of howthat's going to come to fruition
(06:28):
and what it means for success.
And so I think that the firststep that people need to take is
taking inventory.
Actually it's taking inventoryon your current lifestyle is taking
inventory on, you know, whatthat that lifestyle will cost in
the future.
For retirement generally is areally good place to kind of plan
(06:49):
another flag and, and startplanning around and then doing the
work, doing the math to findthe in between.
Right.
What do we need to do to takeus from where we are right now to
the, to the promised land.
Right.
So to where we want to end up.
That's where a lot of times,you know, interfacing with a professional
starts to become helpful is tobuild the map, build the roadmap
(07:11):
and, and help us understandwhat that means for our day to day
decision making.
And you said, you mentioned aprofessional because it's one of
the things that a lot ofpeople have right now is trust.
Everybody's leaning towards AIor trying to find some other online
solution before they talk to somebody.
Yeah.
How do you vet that person?
(07:31):
Well, that's a great question.
And people have trust issuesin the financial services industry
and they should, they haveissues and they should.
Because the financial serviceindustry is not built to provide
everybody the highest qualityadvice possible.
It is actually top heavy inthe opposite direction.
(07:54):
So 85 to 90% of licensedfinancial professionals have no fiduciary
standard over their clients.
Meaning that in the eyes ofthe law they do not have to be giving
advice that is absolutely inthe best interest of the client.
Right.
So it's a very small subsetthat actually exists in the industry
(08:16):
that you can, you know, holdthem accountable and say, hey, I'm
gonna take you to court if Idon't feel like this was in my best
interest because they havethat fiduciary standard.
And so, you know, that's thebig thing is, is understanding.
Right.
Becoming more aware of whereyou're seeking financial advice and
guidance, especially in theinvestment space.
(08:38):
That is the person on theother side of the equation.
An independent fiduciary,meaning independent, they're not
tied to a specific financial institution.
Right.
They work for you, they don'twork for somebody else.
And fiduciary, meaning theyhave to in the eyes of the law, they
are legally obligated to giveyou advice that's in your best interest.
(08:59):
Right.
That is the keys to kind offeeling a little bit more confident
that you can trust the, theadvice that you're being given.
The problem is, is, is it'snot super abundant in, in the, in
the industry right now.
The platform, the retired USPlatform is actually meant to solve
that in a big way.
(09:21):
We pair you with thoseindependent fiduciary financial professionals
so that you can, you know,know that the advice is, is legally
going to be in, in the bestinterest for, for you to the best
of the ability of the, of the advisor.
Yeah.
And I believe most of, becauseyou're bringing up the law and it's
one of the things that I, Ilike to make sure everybod because
(09:45):
that's one of the things is,you know, for me as a coach, I'm
coaching, just kind of guidingthem through, but I'm not telling
them exactly what to dobecause personal finance is personal.
And you have a certificationcalled the Chartered Retirement Planning
Counselor.
So can you dive in, just kindof like hand wave over like what
(10:06):
is that?
Yeah.
Another great question that,you know, I'm, I'm, I'm pretty far
removed now from the, from thedirect day to day financial planning,
acting as the CEO of retiredU.S. however, the credentialing,
you know, I've been in thisindustry for 15 years at the same
standpoint.
So the credentialing comes in.
There's a handful ofdesignations and credentials you
(10:26):
can get.
Chartered Retirement PlanningCounselor is one of them where there's
more of a focus on retirementplanning and strategy and building
systems for retirement.
Certified Financial Planner isanother one.
That's the highest designationreally in the field field.
And that is all encompassing,from taxes to legacy, to, to investments.
(10:49):
You know that there's a lot ofdifferent components that go into
the certified financial planner.
So that's a really gooddesignation to, to look for specifically
if you're focused on planningand you're looking to build out frameworks
and structure for how to driveyour decision making.
So, yeah, those are, those aresome good designations to, to look
(11:11):
into.
But then there's also security licensing.
Right.
So financial planners need tobe licensed with the series, the
series seven, the series six.
One of those two is series 65,series 66.
Those are big licenses thatyou need to hold.
So the, the professionals thatare giving advice, you know, you
do want to make sure also thatthey are licensed and in compliance
(11:34):
with, you know, with the SECand FINRA and the regulatory bodies
to make sure that it's, youknow, it's sound and they've gone
through the training that'srequired as well.
Yeah, thanks for going overthat because that's one of the things
that we hear a lot.
We see all these acronyms andlike, we don't even know what they
are half the time.
(11:54):
And I just want to make surethat we have a clear understanding
of what that is because, youknow, we don't know.
And like I said, we don't knowwhat we don't know.
And it requires more researchbehind that.
So.
But why did you decide to getinto this particular space?
Like, like, why did you feltthat it was good, it was a good time
(12:17):
to like, you know, I need tostart focusing on retirement.
Why retirement?
So, you know, I've been inthis industry for 15 years and I
started out as an independentfiduciary financial planner.
That was kind of the trackthat went down.
So I got to see the consumersfrom, from a little bit of a different
perspective.
(12:37):
You know, there's only a smallsubset of financial professionals
that are in that independentfiduciary track.
And it's just a different,it's just a different lane.
You know, there's, there'smore access to products, there's
more access to professionalsand strategies that you can come
in to, to implement and, andsupport clients with.
(12:58):
And you kind of just saw thisrecurring trend of people have been
working with professionals,you know, licensed financial professionals,
but we're just missing.
There was still a lot of gaps,just a lot of gaps in their overall
plan, their overall strategiesoutside of just the investments.
Right.
There's more that goes intothis stuff.
You know, how are we managingour cash Flow.
(13:19):
How are we making the rightdecisions to make sure that we're
putting money in the, in theright places?
How does that impact taxes?
Right.
Depending on where you savemathematically based off of how that
money is going to be taxed,you're going to end up with a different
amount in the future.
Right.
Tax prioritization is a major,major thing that changes how much
(13:40):
retirement income you willultimately end up with.
And there's all thesedifferent nuanced things that most
people are just not payingattention to.
They think financial planning,they think investments.
Right.
They think my portfolio, what,you know, what's my 401k doing?
When in reality those thingsshould all be the result of a bigger
(14:02):
plan.
Right.
Just because you haveinvestments or a portfolio does not
mean that you have a financial plan.
And I saw that year after yearwhen I was really consistently back
meeting with clients,operating as a financial professional.
And this theme kept poking outof like, how can we actually make
independent fiduciaryfinancial planning more accessible?
(14:25):
How can we make more of thisholistic retirement planning more
accessible?
And that's kind of how theplatform was, was born.
We saw that the, the vastmajority of the market is underserved
and is not working with thisindependent fiduciary tier of professional.
And we started building techand processes and ultimately a business
(14:48):
to unlock that for the public.
Nice.
Because I'm thinking like,usually most people have an event
that happens in their livesthat kind of push them to kind of
get there.
Was it like you just saw likeyour mom got like, as you could say,
taken advantage of, to kind oflike, you know what, I don't like
this.
Or was it like your dad orsomething like that was like, you
(15:10):
know, I hate the retirementindustry or I hate these financial
analysts.
Like, they just doingeverything wrong for me.
Was that something like thathappened for you?
Yeah, it wasn't.
It was.
There's a particular clientthat actually comes to mind.
So I was already in the business.
It changed my perspective onkind of like the mission behind what
(15:31):
I was doing.
And it was, it was a retired couple.
They've been retired for years.
They've been working with afinancial professional for years.
And they were dead set thatthey had the retirement plan all
figured out.
And after sitting down withthem and reviewing things, there
was two key things that werejust, aha, moments of wow, this,
(15:53):
I really need to do a betterjob and make it a little more of
a mission to have people takea deeper look at what they actually
already have.
Because their quote unquoteretirement plan across five different
accounts.
Everything was in one mutualfund, right?
So the professional puteverything in.
It was, it was all the samefund across all accounts.
(16:15):
And these people were retiredfor many years and they thought that.
So no diversification, ton ofunnecessary risks.
And the second thing was thehusband had a pension.
He had a pension from his retirement.
So they weren't touching a lotof their savings because the pension
was covering most of theexpenses, including Social Security.
(16:35):
They were good, they were comfortable.
But when we did a deeper dive,that pension, if anything happens
to the husband, that incomecompletely stops.
The wife gets, right?
And so huge, huge thing thatneeds, you know, a lot of financial
planning.
A lot of times you're planningfor the worst and hoping for the
best, right?
(16:56):
If things are happeningpositively in the market and you're
positively invested, you'regoing to capture those gains.
But if the negative happensand you're not prepared for it, right.
We're going to fall to thelevel of the systems that we have
in place.
And if we have no system thatis meant to account for these things,
or in this client's case, anunexpected death in the household
(17:17):
dramatically changes everything.
All of a sudden, two socialsecurities turn to one and that one
pension disappears, and thenwhat's going to happen?
And all the savings is in onemutual fund.
So that was kind of the.
I left that meeting.
Fortunately, we were able torestructure things for them, set
a lot of different things andsafeguards in place to protect, you
(17:39):
know, even if somethinghappens to the husband now, there's
still income and things thatwill be there for, for, for the surviving
spouse.
You know, leaving.
That was like, I kind ofapproach things a little bit differently
where like, before that it wasabout, you know, I'm entrepreneur,
I got to build my, build my business.
It's kind of that, that Ithink that typical entrepreneur perspective
(18:02):
of, you know, business firstand a little bit more driven by the,
the, the financial gains that come.
Whereas that was kind of theflip moment where I was like, I need
to, I need to save, I need tosave some of these people that are
out there and make sure thatthey are in a good spot.
Like, I need to make surepeople are protected and that their,
their financial situationactually is in good standing.
(18:24):
And you know, for me, backwhen I was in the financial planning
world, building up, buildingout a financial planning practice,
that was kind of.
Now that became my why rightin the business.
And then that's what's kind ofbled into the platform, right?
That's Kind of become the why.
What if we could build tech?
What if we could build aplatform to connect people with independent
(18:45):
professionals and make iteasy, make it cost effective.
Right.
Not make it thousands andthousands of dollars or have you
required to have hundreds ofthousands or millions of dollars
to access these professionals.
What if we could create abetter way to impact people on scale
and that, you know, that's howwe, we've gotten here to retire us
(19:06):
and the platform itself.
That's amazing.
And thank you again forcreating such a great platform, easy
to use and making it accessible.
One of the things that I'mthinking of now is a lot of the,
my listeners have kids andthey trying to find the best way
to kind of align theirfinances so that they can make sure
(19:28):
that their kids have a solidfinancial future in a sense of like
though the kids never askedfor it, it just that the parents,
it's almost like their duty tokind of make sure that they, they
make this happen.
Is there a, is there somethingin place right now that you would
suggest that they do?
(19:48):
Yeah, well, what I would sayis I think we all know this, but
kids are expensive and that'snot changing.
If anything, with the wayinflation's been going, things are
just going to get more andmore expensive.
One of the big things ishigher education.
(20:08):
Education, the inflation rateon education is much higher than
traditional inflation thatwe've seen historically with just
regular goods and services.
And so education inflates,higher education inflates at a higher
rate.
The biggest asset that youhave for your children is time really
(20:30):
is to, is to take advantage.
So I think the big trap peoplefall into is they're waiting a little
too long to get startedplanning for their kids.
You know, the moment that thatbaby is born, you have the ability
to open up like a 529 savingsaccount for, for college savings
that will grow tax free for,for higher education purposes.
(20:54):
And even just getting startedin that, you know, when they're six
months old versus waitinguntil they're six years old has a
massive, massive difference.
And so a lot of times whatI've seen really been successful
for people to plan for thefuture is in lieu of, of having a
bunch of different gifts andthings for, for birthdays for, for
(21:18):
the kids, like trying to getmaybe one big gift, having people
combine, you know, everybodycontribute to this pool.
Instead of having a 100 giftsthat come through or, you know, maybe
that's exorbitant, but see a10, 10, 15 toys that, you know, they're
not going to be able to playwith all of them, and it's.
It can be kind of wasteful.
(21:39):
Everybody contribute 20 bucks,if you're okay with that.
What we'll do is we're goingto buy them one really cool gift,
and we'll deposit the restinto their college fund.
Right.
And you can start to be alittle bit more strategic with some
of these milestones in the.
In.
In the children's lives tobuild for them instead of just, you
(21:59):
know, getting the dopamine hipof whatever the cool present is now.
Right.
Kind of playing a little bitof the middle ground and being more
mindful of helping them buildfor the bigger picture is.
Is definitely something that.
That will pay dividends long term.
Yeah.
One of my friends, actually acouple of my friends, even my family
(22:22):
members, sent me, what's itcalled, like a 529 gift link and
was like, hey, we don't needthem to have gifts, but if you can
just gift them $20 to their529, we'll go far, a long way.
And I thought that wasactually a pretty cool deal because
I usually just give out books.
Like, I. I have a smallcollection of books.
(22:43):
I always give out books as gifts.
And I was like, man, thatain't bad to actually do that, because
I'm not have it.
I don't plan on having anykids because the podcast is my.
My baby.
That's your baby.
Right?
So I was like, if y' all wantto donate, y' all listen.
Yeah, that's.
That's in.
In the age of technology, it'seasier and easier to be more financially
(23:07):
savvy.
Right.
The problem is there's so manythings that you can do, and sometimes
it can be like paralysis by analysis.
There's too many things.
There's too many directions.
So having a, you know,specific lane in mind, like, that's
a really great opportunity.
The 529s, these days, there'sa link where external parties can
(23:29):
contribute.
Boom.
There you go.
Yeah, I'm solved.
Too easy.
And so we come out to thethird segment here, which is the
features.
And this is where we kind oftalk about the future for you as
a business or even youyourself in your personal life.
So where do you feel that, youknow, what areas of focus that you
(23:50):
feel you have to grow?
Well, right now, in thepersonal life, where I need to grow
most is in that parenting side.
So I'm.
I'm.
We're.
We're going down that track.
We have a.
We have a baby expected inDecember My wife and I. Congrats.
Well, first, thank you very much.
Thank you, man.
We are first.
So it's.
I'm right now in that stage ofunconsciously in company.
(24:13):
I don't know what.
I don't know.
And we've started to nowschedule different classes and start
to build out the list of thedocumentaries and the books and things
that we need to educateourselves on to just get prepared.
I'll tell you.
I mean, putting together thebaby registry was like, I'm looking
at this saying where both ofus were, like, what is half of this
(24:36):
stuff?
Like, you know, it's just whenyou're not in that world, it's all
new.
And I know that that, thatcorrelates for a lot of people with
the financials.
They feel that same level of overwhelm.
It can be overwhelming whenyou're just kind of dipping your
toes in.
And so, you know, we're, we'reon that journey now to start, you
know, peeling it back andeducating ourselves.
Right.
Becoming.
(24:56):
Becoming literate in parentingand what, you know, what all those
steps mean.
So on the personal side isthere's a big driver for me now and
a lot of incentive for me toreally start to master that domain
of parenting and understandall the things that go into it.
On the business side, we'rereally looking to master tech and
(25:16):
grow as a tech company.
In this age of artificialintelligence, there is so much opportunity
for us to create more and moreaccessibility for people and reduce
more and more friction in theprocess of becoming more financially
conscious and financially healthy.
And there's just a biginitiative on what we're doing for
(25:39):
the platform to make thingssimpler for both the consumer and
the financial professional andreally create just more and more
impact through the platformand through the technology itself.
Because I want to go back to you're.
You're planning for the.
The new one, the new additionto the family.
(26:00):
Has the money conversationschanged where, like, y' all have
like a small baby fund now orwhat is that like, now?
Yeah, it definitely hasshifted things because, you know,
you're, you're, you'rethinking through other layers of
expense that just never werethere before when it comes to childcare
and support.
You know, that stuff isn'tcheap and then obviously just supplies
(26:21):
another.
Another.
Another mouth to feed into the equation.
More space actually in, in thehouse, right, where, you know, we're
an apartment right now that isnot going to be suitable and doesn't
have enough space for us tohave a child, plus support that would
be required.
So it's opened up a ton ofmore forecasted planning conversations
(26:44):
of.
All right, let's.
Let's align the vision.
So what does this really look like?
You know, thinking through thetimeline, here's where the baby comes,
here's when maternity andmaternity leave ends.
What's the next step?
What's the next step in termsof where's the support coming from?
It's, you know, is it.
Is it going to become.
From family?
Probably, somewhat, but we'realso going to probably need to supplement
(27:06):
that, which is going to cost money.
So we're kind of in that stageright now of we're mapping it out,
we're starting to forecastout, you know, what are the things.
But it all starts with our vision.
And it's the same thing for.
For.
For anybody with your ownpersonal finances.
Defining the vision of whatdoes it actually look like five years
from now, three years fromnow, one year from now, six months
(27:27):
from now?
Having clarity on those thingsis the only way to then get clarity
on the financial and theactual mathematics that go into the
equation.
So we're right there.
It's early, early stages, but.
But we're moving.
That's nice.
The reason why I asked,because some might be a new parent
that's listening and was like,well, I never thought about, you
(27:49):
know, should I actually stopputting money away?
And from one of my buddies,he's on the second child, and he
said the.
The best advice is to geteverything you need to get done now
before the baby comes.
Because he was like, once thebaby comes, it's here.
And that's your.
That's your bread and butterright there.
(28:10):
That's your.
Your soul all in.
So I was like, congratulationsto you.
I'm living vicariously foreverybody else.
And, man, congrats again.
Thanks, man.
I appreciate that.
Is there anything that youwant to leave the audience before
we dive into the final four questions?
(28:33):
No.
Let's get it.
All righty.
Well, the final four questionsare the final four questions of the
show.
All right, so number one, whatdoes wealth mean to you?
To me, it means optionality.
You know, wealth.
(28:54):
Wealth to me means optionality and.
And freedom.
At the end of the day, giving.
Giving true wealth gives us.
Gives us freedom.
And I think that it startswith having kind of a level of peace.
Like peace is wealth.
At the same time, I think,like peace with our financial situation
(29:14):
or what, what we're doing.
You know, wealth isn't limitedto finance, though, of course.
And so there's a lot of thingsthat can categorize in that.
But at the end of the day, youknow, if you have true wealth, I
mean, you have freedom, youhave the ability to choose and to
manifest and create the lifethat you want without, you know,
(29:37):
without roadblocks andstipulations there.
That's what, that's what truewealth is to me, I think.
Awesome.
Number two, what was yourworst money mistake?
Oh, I mean, there's been a lotof them over my lifetime.
(29:58):
What.
You know what?
I think the biggest oneactually is kind of a more recent
one, which was purchasing a car.
We purchased this car.
I'm not going to go intoexactly which one it was, but we
purchased this car without aton of due diligence about the specific
model.
And then we found out laterthrough experience that this car
(30:20):
was like, riddled with issuesthat a lot of people had and things
broke down and it turned intosuch a money pit.
You know, cars.
Cars are just traditionally avery terrible investment because
they depreciate and they costa lot to, you know, to.
To maintain.
And so it was like, it was afive plus year process of us just
(30:45):
dealing with issues with thiscar until finally.
And then it just, you know,kept deteriorating and losing value
that was harder and harder to sell.
And like, finally we just, youknow, kind of like had to take the
L. But the entire, the entiretime was definitely a big learning
of like, all right, the nexttime we're going to do a lot more
due diligence with this purchase.
(31:07):
So I think just like, youknow, not doing good due diligence
with bigger major purchases.
Lesson learned.
All right, it sounds like oneof your clients now is like doing
a due diligence on your people.
That's right.
Number three, is there a bookthat inspired your journey or your
perspective?
(31:35):
It's.
It's probably.
There's a.
There's a handful that come to mind.
Atomic Habits by James Clear is.
Is one that I think has beenin more recent, more recently, impactful.
Becoming conscious of ourhabits and really understanding the
(31:57):
power of habits.
Where do they come from?
Right.
The.
Our human nature and how wecan have better awareness and understanding
of the things that make andbreak us.
Right.
Habits either make us or theybreak us.
But the thing is, as humanbeings, we are creatures of habit.
Fact.
Right.
Nothing will change that.
And so we're either creatinghabits consciously and those habits
(32:22):
are moving us towards ourgoals or our ideal vision for our
life, or they're moving usfurther away from it.
And that book really helped meget a better grasp and understanding
of how it all kind of works.
I like that.
It's an awesome book.
Yeah.
That's what kind of got myshow going.
(32:44):
It's good.
It's good.
The audience hasn't read it.
Definitely.
Check it out.
It's an impactful one, for sure.
Number four, what is yourfavorite dish to make?
Let's see.
I don't know.
I am the cook of the household.
(33:04):
Like, I do more of the cooking.
I'm kind of going a lot ofdifferent directions with it.
Man.
That's hard to say what thefavorite actually is.
I don't know.
What's your favorite?
Give me some inspiration.
Well, my favorite one is a. Ihave two.
Really?
So my favorite one that I doseasonally, it's corn soup.
(33:28):
It was like a Trinidadian dish.
It's a hodgepodge of stuff,like dumplings.
You got your corn.
You have all your seasoningsand everything like that.
But the second one is a.
It's a quick dish, which iswhite rice.
You have tuna fish, but youactually sauteed the tuna fish with
some pepper, some onion, usefresh ginger, fresh garlic, not the
(33:55):
stuff in the can, and thenthrow that with some light olive
oil, because the tuna fish isreally already done.
You just really heating it upa little bit.
Yep.
As long as it takes for therice to cook less than five minutes,
put that together, and thenyou finish it off with some green
onions or some chives on top.
Done and done.
And if you want to spice itup, we'll take it up a notch.
(34:16):
You use balsamic glaze, andjust to drill over the top of it.
It's amazing dish.
That sounds incredible.
Yeah, that sounds incredible.
I've been.
Recently, I've been on this.
This tuna kick.
There's like, a seared ahituna that.
That I make that.
Similarly, you prep.
You prep the fish with a bunchof different rubs and the sesame,
(34:38):
see, or there's a sesame, Asesame seeds on it, and then you
sear it for.
On all the different sides.
And then there's, like, thisreally good kind of.
I don't know, it was like, alittle bit of, like, a dressing that
you would accompany it with,like, a condiment on the side, put
it over rice, and like, a bedof lettuce.
That's probably, like, one ofthe best dishes that.
(35:01):
That I go to.
It's.
It's.
It doesn't happen too oftenbecause it takes some work to put
that one together, but that'sprobably one of the most fun to probably
cook up.
It Sounds like it probably gogood with like a nice aioli, like
a spicy aioli.
Definitely.
It's almost like you're doinglike five star restaurant cooking
(35:21):
over there.
I'm just trying to keep upwith you, man.
This is the very last questionof the show, which is where could
people find out more about you?
Yes.
So Retired Us is the best foranything in the financial wellness,
you know, financial,conscious, financial planning that,
(35:42):
that space go to Retire Us.
There's some free services there.
We have a free mindfulnesstier which can help you start to
become more conscious andaware of those red flags, those blind
spots.
And then same on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Retire us also on LinkedIn.
Michael Scarpatti.
(36:02):
I'm.
I'm pretty active on LinkedIntoo, in terms of content.
Awesome, man.
Michael, thank you so much forcoming through, sharing your story.
And I'm glad to be one of thefirst podcasters to know that you
got a young one on the way.
I mean, you have freeretirement, right?
Yep.
Thank you, man.
I appreciate the time.
(36:23):
Awesome.
Well, thank you everybody for listening.
This has been great.
Please make sure thatremember, personal finance is personal.
So what you heard here todayis might not align with you, but
definitely share this withsomebody who can take advantage of
it and really check out RetireUs so that you can go down and get
your red flags out the way.
Let's start turning those redflags into green flags.
(36:44):
All right, everybody.
Yelt.
Peace.
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