May 1, 2025 • 18 mins
Many great savers struggle to switch gears once they retire—unsure how to spend with confidence after decades of discipline. James and Ari reflect on the mindset shift from saving to spending, exploring how to use money and time more intentionally to create a meaningful life now, not just someday.
Prompted by a thoughtful comment from a Root Collective member, they share personal stories and client examples about the “little splurges” that actually matter—upgrading experiences, investing in health, buying back time, and being generous in ways that deepen relationships.
They also walk through five key categories that tend to lead to high-impact, low-regret spending: experiences, time, giving, health, and environment.
Whether you’re already retired or still working toward it, this conversation will help you think more clearly about the value of your money—and how to use it to support the life you truly want to live.
Advisory services are offered through Root Financial Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is intended for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Advisory relationships are established only through a signed agreement. Any examples discussed are hypothetical and for illustrative purposes. If client experiences are referenced, no compensation was provided and their experience may not be representative of others. Root Financial does not provide tax or legal advice. Tax planning topics are discussed in the context of comprehensive financial planning and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional advice. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Watching or listening to this content does not create an advisory relationship. Comments shared publicly are unsolicited and do not reflect the views or experience of all clients. They are not verified and should not be construed as testimonials or endorsements.
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Ari Taublieb, CFP ®, MBA is the Chief Growth Officer of Root Financial Partners and a Fiduciary Financial Planner specializing in helping clients retire early with confidence.
“Early Retirement – Financial Freedom” is a podcast produced by Root Financial Partners, an SEC-registered investment adviser. The content provided is for informational and educational purposes only. It should not be interpreted as investment, legal, or tax advice. I may reference planning situations based on real client experiences, but they’ve been simplified for clarity. Always consult your own financial advisor before making decisions.
Listening to this podcast does not create or imply an advisory relationship with Root Financial. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Testimonials and endorsements do not reflect all client experiences and are not compensated. Learn more at our website or by reviewing our Form ADV at https://adviserinfo.sec.gov.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm going to guess that the majority of you
watching this content orlistening right now are good
savers.
That's why you are where youare.
That's why you're listening tothis content, thinking of ways
to further optimize yourfinances.
Now, some of you are thinkingmy partner is a great spender.
Okay, well, we're not talkingabout them right now.
We're talking about you in thissavers mindset, and one of the
(00:21):
coolest things that we haveright now at Root going on is
this community.
It's called the Root Collective,and in this collective, there
are certain prompts that I'llsee that will catch my eye or
James's eye, and that's how wecome up with what we want to
talk about today, and so todayis a really interesting one, and
this was prompted by Tommy C,who says the following For those
(00:43):
who are great savers beforeretirement and are now retired,
what are the little splurgesthat you now spring for that you
wouldn't before retirement?
And he has a couple in herethat might make you think a
little differently about how youwant to save or potentially
spend or give, or X, as we'lltalk about today.
James, when you're seeingsomeone talk about, oh my gosh,
(01:07):
what are some of these thingsthat maybe I wouldn't normally
do, but now that I'm retiredI'll consider doing what's
coming to your head.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, first thing is number one let's not wait until
retirement to do some of thesethings.
This isn't like a binary youdon't do these things before you
retire, do these things afteryou retire.
But number two I think thatwe've heard a lot of cool things
, a lot of cool tips, if youwant to call it that spending
strategies, of what are someexamples of things people spent
money on and they haven'tregretted it, because no one
(01:37):
wants to spend money and thenregret it Like why did I buy
that stupid thing?
I never ended up liking it.
What a waste of money.
I feel dumb for doing it.
But there's other things peoplespend money on and they say
that was one of the best thingsI've ever spent money on.
And so I think that I, broadlyspeaking, categorize things into
one of five buckets where wesee these are like some pillars
of good spending and so we'll goover those.
(01:58):
And then you have some personalthings.
I know I have some personalthings.
I know you have some personalthings.
I know I have some personalthings, I know, and I, you know,
when we're talking to clients,I think one of the fun things is
because our advice isn't justabout money, money, money.
It's really about how do youhave a, how do you live better
lives, how do you live moreintentional lives Like these
aren't things that are unique toage 65 and above.
(02:19):
These are really principlesthat all of us can try to live
better by, and things that youand I personally try to live
better by, so we'll share someof those stories as well.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
We certainly will.
We talk about this phrase ofgoalpost planning One more year,
one more bonus.
Oh yeah, just one more project,then I'm going to officially
retire.
Now, if you're doing thosethings, some of you are like
it's because I don't know what Iwant to do in retirement.
Others of you are like you knownow that you've actually
brought it up.
I think you're right and Ithink when I'm hearing you guys
(02:47):
talk, it's resonating becauseI'm doing that, but I wasn't
even aware, am I doing that?
So what we want to do today isreally shed some light as to
some of these ideas, whichhopefully will make you think a
little bit more.
Intentional is the way I wouldsay it.
So, if it's okay, excuse me,james, I'd like to start with a
quick story, because it's afunny one and my clients like
when I share it.
(03:07):
So some of you guys alreadyknow this, but for those who
don't, my dad loves his phone toan unhealthy degree and I love
spending quality time with mydad.
My dad loves surfing.
I'm not a huge surfer, but Iwill go out with him in the
water because it's when I gettime with him.
Now he actually has his AppleWatch, so sometimes he takes
calls when we're in the water,which he knows he's not allowed
(03:29):
to do, and I feel like I'm theparent when that occurs.
But my brother and I werethinking for a long time how do
we get more quality time withour father?
And we can't surf all the timeif waves are up or it's windy or
whatever it is and so we boughta sauna to intentionally ensure
that his phone or Apple watchwould overheat, so he's forced
to talk to us.
(03:50):
Now some of you are thinkingwell, that's silly.
Why don't you just talk to yourdad for dinner?
And if it was that simple, wewould do that.
But we all know some of us havethese family members where it's
just more difficult to get themengaged, whether it be game
night or you just have to takethem out to dinner because at
home they're going to kind of bewatching TV.
(04:10):
So I am literally payingthousands of dollars, along with
my brother, to just get qualitytime with my father, and that's
something that I could wait todo until I quote unquote have
millions of dollars retired.
But I want the time now, whileit's valuable.
So we'll certainly get into,james, your stories, we'll get
into what prompted today, butthat's a quick story about just
financially, why doing the rightthing might not always actually
(04:31):
lead to the right result.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, I think that's a perfect example of the.
Here's my five pillars.
There's nothing magical aboutthese as much as when I hear
great stories like that, by theway, of what people spent money
on that they feel really goodabout spending money on.
The first pillar is experience.
No one is ever upset that theyspent money to buy an experience
and in this case, theexperience was simply quality
time with your dad and that,theoretically, could have
(04:54):
happened on the sofa.
That could have happened.
Surfing, that could havehappened driving a car.
But, like you're saying, therewas a roadblock to that
happening.
You needed to eliminate theroadblock, which was overheat,
the phone, so it couldn't be.
But experiences, that's whattravel is, that's what doing fun
things is, that's what you'retalking about.
Number two is time.
(05:14):
No one ever regrets spendingmoney to buy their time back.
I've used this example before.
I do not like going to thegrocery store.
In fact, I hate going to thegrocery store and so we said how
do we spend a few bucks to getfood delivered, groceries
delivered, I think it's $10 perorder, so weekly it's 10 bucks,
plus the tip that you leave.
(05:34):
How many hours does that saveof driving to the grocery store,
going through the aisles andit's just not a fun experience.
And so that's a couple hours oftime back that I now have.
So time, how do you spend moneyon time?
The third is giving.
No one's ever upset that theygifted money.
This could be gifted to acharity, to church, to family,
to friends, to whoever it isYou're not going to feel like
(05:55):
that's a great thing to quoteunquote.
Spend money on is giving.
Then you have health.
No one's ever upset that theyspend a lot of money in health.
You tell a lot of stories aboutthis, ari, of getting the best
doctor, of the physical therapy,of the things that you do, and
health is one of those things.
That.
What's the saying?
A healthy man has a thousandworries, a sick man has but one,
(06:18):
or something like that.
Like, until you don't have yourhealth, you don't think about
it.
But health is, health is whatallows us, of course, to enjoy
everything else that we have.
So spending money on yourhealth gym memberships, good
food for you, eating good food,spending money to do things that
makes you healthier is a greatthing to spend money on.
And then, finally, I'll justbroadly talk.
(06:38):
Call it environment, like youwant to live in a beautiful
environment you want, whetherthat environment is
aesthetically pleasing, and thisis about people who like to
decorate their home a certainway or do certain things for
their home.
This environment could beproximity to people you love or
you care about.
The environment could beproximity to things you enjoy
doing.
So I think those are categoriesof, broadly speaking, we should
(07:02):
be spending money on.
I like your example.
For me, an example that comesto mind is not so much spending
money, but spending time is.
You mentioned goalpost planningjust a bit ago, and it's the
sense of oh, I'm going to workone more year because I'm going
to get one more bonus, or I havesome more stock vesting, or
it's one more year of socialsecurity benefits increasing, or
it's one more year of maxing.
(07:23):
There's so many good financialreasons we can use to justify
that, and what we always pointto is they, at some point you
could take that to the extremekeep working forever, keep
maxing your 401k forever, keepgetting bonuses forever, but you
missed the whole point.
You, you, you missed the movieLike it's your.
Your life passed you by becauseyou spent it working, and I'm
(07:45):
assuming you're working at adead end job not dead end job,
but a job that you don't like, ajob that's not bringing you fun
and fulfillment in the thingsthat you love doing.
So we try to help clients bevery intentional with that of.
Money has a purpose a veryimportant purpose but at some
point has a purpose a veryimportant purpose but at some
(08:06):
point the money needs to not bethe main thing.
At some point you've crossedthis threshold where there is
enough that it can now supportyou doing the things that you
actually want to do, andcontinuing to work to get even
more of it is actually pullingyou away from what you're
actually trying to do.
I face that too, not because I'mtrying to retire.
I love what we get to do.
This is one of my favoritethings in the world.
To me, it's not a goalpostplanning of okay, I'm going to
(08:27):
stay at root for one more year.
Two more years is man.
I can get one more thing done,two more things, three more
things done, and surfing issomething I claim to love to do.
I haven't done it in two and ahalf years and I blame it on
okay.
Well, we have young kids andlife's busy, and I blame it on
well, roots growing and thatkeeps me busy.
The reality is, I'm just notmaking time to be intentional
(08:47):
with it.
And Wednesdays is typicallywhen I record YouTube videos,
podcasts et cetera, and I alwaystell myself, okay, I'm going to
record and like the reward fordoing that is going to be then
I'll go surfing, or then I'll goI don't know do something fun.
I'll go do jujitsu, I'll gotrain.
But I fall into that same trapthat we encourage clients not to
(09:08):
none of of.
Oh, there's one more thing Ican be productive with.
There's one more thing I cancheck off the list.
Look, I have three more hourstill I got to go home and it's
and and just last week, for thefirst time in two and a half
years, I finally said you knowwhat I'm going to commit to.
Here's the things I need to getdone today.
The my enough.
Like, if I get these threethings done, which was filming a
(09:29):
certain amount of videos, I'mgoing to go surf.
And I did it and I went surfingand I was reflecting on the way
back that, as much as we tellclients to do this of, don't
goalpost plan, don't keeppushing off the things you
actually want to do I personallyam guilty of now.
I love work, and so it's notlike I'm continuing to do
something that I dislike doing.
(09:50):
But there's a certain amount ofintentionality that doesn't
come from continuing to do thesame old same thing Like how do
you constantly reflect on?
What should I be spending moneyon, like your story?
What are the things I can do tocreate more meaningful
experiences?
What are the things I can do tospend money on, to improve my
health, to buy back my time tothose various things I talked
(10:13):
about?
The same thing happens with howdo we spend our time Not just
how do we spend our money, buthow do we spend our time, and
sometimes it's thinking aboutthe life that we want to live.
It's thinking about whatactually matters to us, and
surfing is obviously not theonly thing that matters In fact,
it's pretty low on the prioritylist of the things I actually
care about but in general, it issomething that I do want to do,
and it's this sense of justconstantly reevaluating and
(10:36):
reassessing.
Where are we and how can wespend our time, spend our money,
spend our energy, spend ourtalents, doing the things that
bring us closer to the life thatwe want to live.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Now this is interesting.
What was it about last weekversus any other week in the
last two and a half years thatmade you go?
Today is the day I'm going togive myself the reward.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
You know I didn't think that.
Well, I'm glad you just askedthat, because I hadn't thought
about this until literally thesecond.
An office mate came in thismorning and said guys, we work
four blocks away from the oceanand we never get in the ocean.
How ridiculous is that.
How dumb are we that we live inthis paradise and we don't
actually utilize the paradise welive in?
And so I said, okay, well, if Ican get you're right, first and
(11:17):
foremost.
But number two, if I do thisisn't to say abandon all work
and go.
If I can get my enough done, ifI can get my top three things
that are my priorities for theday done, instead of just saying
, okay, cool, there's alwaysmore things to do, so I'll just
pour myself into that, then I'mgoing to go do this.
Other thing is that is called areward for getting those things
(11:39):
done.
So part of it was okay.
I don't want to call it peerpressure, but having someone do
this and I think in fact, thatcomment, ari, that you started
with from Tommy C mentioned thatI believe.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
But one of his experiences onething he spends money on is
doing something that friends cancome along, and it's that sense
of doing something with someoneelse makes it way easier to do
(12:03):
and way more enjoyable to do.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
It's so fascinating because, let's assume, you go
surfing every week and nowyou're happier at home, and now
your wife goes.
We're connecting more.
I don't know what's happening,but I just feel it's different
and you're more present and youcan't quantify that on some
spreadsheet, as hard as you try.
And there are financialadvisors as nerdy as us who will
try, but the reality is you arenot going to look back going.
(12:28):
Oh my gosh, I'm so glad I didthose 12 more projects and you
know I didn't need more timewith my grandkids, like we've
never heard anyone ever say that, and this is all we're doing
all day.
So I think when we're talkingto clients, we will pride
ourselves on being verytransparent.
We will pride ourselves onbeing very transparent.
We are not mean, but we aretransparent because, as you just
(12:51):
saw, what prompted James toactually right now go surfing
was someone came into the officeand said how dumb are we?
And so some of you are workingright now going.
I'm 60.
There's no way I could retirebecause I've never had
healthcare outside of myemployer, so surely I'm waiting
until 65 because, like, why not?
And then you'll see a videothat might wake you up and go
hey, maybe that's not the deal.
(13:12):
And then all of a sudden youmight have years back of
prioritizing health or family orfriends.
And next week we'll talk aboutan even bigger story actually
two weeks from now where there'san actual woman I spoke to who
was really upset that she had $3million, and I said look,
that's just I don't want to bemean here, I just don't hear
that every day.
Why are you mad that you have$3 million?
(13:33):
And she goes on to say that shedidn't need 3 million and now
she can't hike to the degreeshe'd like because of the health
impact from sitting at work.
So we'll talk more about thatin a few weeks.
But the point here isfinancially, there are things
that you can only do when youknow your plan allows for it,
but you don't have to wait untilthis magic date to actually
(13:54):
start doing some of these things.
So I think it would be helpfulto maybe give some of you guys a
few ideas here.
Then, james, if there'sanything you want to add, please
feel free.
But this is straight from Tommy,once again in the community.
These are just a couple of hisideas, and so he says whenever I
have an experience, he springsfor the better and the closer
seats.
That might not be valuable toyou, but that's what he likes to
(14:15):
do.
He talks about whenever he can.
He gets prepaid parking so he'snot worried about finding
street or cheaper parking orhaving to walk a mile to the
venue like James did when he wasyounger at the baseball games.
He says he'll upgrade to alarge or even extra large coffee
.
He says when I'm on a cruise, weopt for excursions that have
less people and they cost alittle bit more.
(14:36):
The experiences have been 100%worth it.
He tips more generously andthen our favorite one that we
read here is he said when I buyexperiences, I buy two extra
tickets.
This forces us to find twofriends to go with us.
If they pass back, great, andif not, I'm not worried.
More fun with friends is worththe additional cost.
So he goes on to say what littlethings do you splurge on that
(14:58):
makes you happy?
I don't think those are litterthings.
I think those are big things.
And I want to tell Tommy I'mproud of you because it's really
hard Unless you know.
And I want to tell Tommy I'mproud of you because it's really
hard unless you know,financially you're in a good
spot to go.
I'm going to buy two extratickets.
What if my friends don'tactually join?
So if there's anything you takeaway from today's episode, I
hope you think about it and letthis be.
Maybe this episode.
(15:18):
The person walking in to youroffice going maybe today's the
day to go surfing.
Anything else, james, you wantto add no?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
that would be it, like.
I encourage everyone listeningwhat are and just keep it super
simple.
How could you better spend yourtime and how could you better
spend your money?
My example was a time thing,your example was a money thing,
and now you're spending yourmoney to get time, and I think
that that's how do we livebetter lives.
We look at those two things.
Where are we spending money?
How are we spending money?
(15:47):
I have five things that like tofall in those categories.
Again, experiences, time giving, environment or health.
If it's checking one of thoseboxes, I'm going to feel good
about it.
So what is one little thingthat we can do?
What gym can you go sign up forNot just sign up for a gym
You're probably never going togo.
Can you sign up for a personaltrainer to keep you accountable?
Can you sign up and do so witha friend to keep you accountable
(16:10):
, to make it fun?
What are those things that youcan begin doing?
What are those experiences?
To me, the simple experience wasI'm going to go surfing for 30
minutes in the middle of the daybecause I got my enough done.
What are those things that youcan do?
I'm really glad I did it.
Whatever I would have gottendone in those 30 minutes pales
in comparison to the fun I hadbeing in the water, doing that,
having fun with a friend.
So just those little things.
So what's one single thing youcan do to stop?
(16:32):
I'm guilty of this.
You're actually really goodabout this.
I bet you're not actuallyguilty of this.
You get in the routine, you getin a thing that's comfortable
and it's hard to kind of pullourselves out of that until
someone comes along and showsyou those blind spots that by
nature, by definition, you'renot seeing in your own life and
you have to go make a change toget out of it.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Well, thank you, and we're going to put the thread of
what Tommy said in the linkbelow.
So if you want to go comment onthe exact post, which is the
reason we're making this exactepisode, go comment in there and
let us know and we will readthose ideas on future episodes.
So you can check all of thatout in the description, whether
you're on YouTube or on thepodcast app.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
All right.
Thank you everyone forlistening and we will see you
all next time.
See ya.
The information presented isfor educational purposes only
and is not intended as an offeror solicitation for the sale or
purchase of any specificsecurities, investments or
investment strategies.
Investments involve risk andare not guaranteed.
Any mention of rates of returnare historical and illustrative
(17:32):
in nature and are not aguarantee of future returns.
Past performance does notguarantee future performance.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Viewers are encouraged to seek advice from a
qualified tax, legal orinvestment advisor professional
to determine whether anyinformation presented may be
suitable for their specificsituation Once again.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I'm James Canole, founder of Root Financial, and
if you're interested in seeinghow we help our clients at Root
Financial get the most out oflife with their money, be sure
to visit us atwwwrootfinancialpartnerscom.
I'm going to guess that the majority of you
watching this content orlistening right now are good
savers.
That's why you are where youare.
That's why you're listening tothis content, thinking of ways
to further optimize yourfinances.
Now, some of you are thinkingmy partner is a great spender.
Okay, well, we're not talkingabout them right now.
We're talking about you in thissavers mindset, and one of the
(00:21):
coolest things that we haveright now at Root going on is
this community.
It's called the Root Collective,and in this collective, there
are certain prompts that I'llsee that will catch my eye or
James's eye, and that's how wecome up with what we want to
talk about today, and so todayis a really interesting one, and
this was prompted by Tommy C,who says the following For those
(00:43):
who are great savers beforeretirement and are now retired,
what are the little splurgesthat you now spring for that you
wouldn't before retirement?
And he has a couple in herethat might make you think a
little differently about how youwant to save or potentially
spend or give, or X, as we'lltalk about today.
James, when you're seeingsomeone talk about, oh my gosh,
(01:07):
what are some of these thingsthat maybe I wouldn't normally
do, but now that I'm retiredI'll consider doing what's
coming to your head.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Well, first thing is number one let's not wait until
retirement to do some of thesethings.
This isn't like a binary youdon't do these things before you
retire, do these things afteryou retire.
But number two I think thatwe've heard a lot of cool things
, a lot of cool tips, if youwant to call it that spending
strategies, of what are someexamples of things people spent
money on and they haven'tregretted it, because no one
(01:37):
wants to spend money and thenregret it Like why did I buy
that stupid thing?
I never ended up liking it.
What a waste of money.
I feel dumb for doing it.
But there's other things peoplespend money on and they say
that was one of the best thingsI've ever spent money on.
And so I think that I, broadlyspeaking, categorize things into
one of five buckets where wesee these are like some pillars
of good spending and so we'll goover those.
(01:58):
And then you have some personalthings.
I know I have some personalthings.
I know you have some personalthings.
I know I have some personalthings, I know, and I, you know,
when we're talking to clients,I think one of the fun things is
because our advice isn't justabout money, money, money.
It's really about how do youhave a, how do you live better
lives, how do you live moreintentional lives Like these
aren't things that are unique toage 65 and above.
(02:19):
These are really principlesthat all of us can try to live
better by, and things that youand I personally try to live
better by, so we'll share someof those stories as well.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
We certainly will.
We talk about this phrase ofgoalpost planning One more year,
one more bonus.
Oh yeah, just one more project,then I'm going to officially
retire.
Now, if you're doing thosethings, some of you are like
it's because I don't know what Iwant to do in retirement.
Others of you are like you knownow that you've actually
brought it up.
I think you're right and Ithink when I'm hearing you guys
(02:47):
talk, it's resonating becauseI'm doing that, but I wasn't
even aware, am I doing that?
So what we want to do today isreally shed some light as to
some of these ideas, whichhopefully will make you think a
little bit more.
Intentional is the way I wouldsay it.
So, if it's okay, excuse me,james, I'd like to start with a
quick story, because it's afunny one and my clients like
when I share it.
(03:07):
So some of you guys alreadyknow this, but for those who
don't, my dad loves his phone toan unhealthy degree and I love
spending quality time with mydad.
My dad loves surfing.
I'm not a huge surfer, but Iwill go out with him in the
water because it's when I gettime with him.
Now he actually has his AppleWatch, so sometimes he takes
calls when we're in the water,which he knows he's not allowed
(03:29):
to do, and I feel like I'm theparent when that occurs.
But my brother and I werethinking for a long time how do
we get more quality time withour father?
And we can't surf all the timeif waves are up or it's windy or
whatever it is and so we boughta sauna to intentionally ensure
that his phone or Apple watchwould overheat, so he's forced
to talk to us.
(03:50):
Now some of you are thinkingwell, that's silly.
Why don't you just talk to yourdad for dinner?
And if it was that simple, wewould do that.
But we all know some of us havethese family members where it's
just more difficult to get themengaged, whether it be game
night or you just have to takethem out to dinner because at
home they're going to kind of bewatching TV.
(04:10):
So I am literally payingthousands of dollars, along with
my brother, to just get qualitytime with my father, and that's
something that I could wait todo until I quote unquote have
millions of dollars retired.
But I want the time now, whileit's valuable.
So we'll certainly get into,james, your stories, we'll get
into what prompted today, butthat's a quick story about just
financially, why doing the rightthing might not always actually
(04:31):
lead to the right result.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Well, I think that's a perfect example of the.
Here's my five pillars.
There's nothing magical aboutthese as much as when I hear
great stories like that, by theway, of what people spent money
on that they feel really goodabout spending money on.
The first pillar is experience.
No one is ever upset that theyspent money to buy an experience
and in this case, theexperience was simply quality
time with your dad and that,theoretically, could have
(04:54):
happened on the sofa.
That could have happened.
Surfing, that could havehappened driving a car.
But, like you're saying, therewas a roadblock to that
happening.
You needed to eliminate theroadblock, which was overheat,
the phone, so it couldn't be.
But experiences, that's whattravel is, that's what doing fun
things is, that's what you'retalking about.
Number two is time.
(05:14):
No one ever regrets spendingmoney to buy their time back.
I've used this example before.
I do not like going to thegrocery store.
In fact, I hate going to thegrocery store and so we said how
do we spend a few bucks to getfood delivered, groceries
delivered, I think it's $10 perorder, so weekly it's 10 bucks,
plus the tip that you leave.
(05:34):
How many hours does that saveof driving to the grocery store,
going through the aisles andit's just not a fun experience.
And so that's a couple hours oftime back that I now have.
So time, how do you spend moneyon time?
The third is giving.
No one's ever upset that theygifted money.
This could be gifted to acharity, to church, to family,
to friends, to whoever it isYou're not going to feel like
(05:55):
that's a great thing to quoteunquote.
Spend money on is giving.
Then you have health.
No one's ever upset that theyspend a lot of money in health.
You tell a lot of stories aboutthis, ari, of getting the best
doctor, of the physical therapy,of the things that you do, and
health is one of those things.
That.
What's the saying?
A healthy man has a thousandworries, a sick man has but one,
(06:18):
or something like that.
Like, until you don't have yourhealth, you don't think about
it.
But health is, health is whatallows us, of course, to enjoy
everything else that we have.
So spending money on yourhealth gym memberships, good
food for you, eating good food,spending money to do things that
makes you healthier is a greatthing to spend money on.
And then, finally, I'll justbroadly talk.
(06:38):
Call it environment, like youwant to live in a beautiful
environment you want, whetherthat environment is
aesthetically pleasing, and thisis about people who like to
decorate their home a certainway or do certain things for
their home.
This environment could beproximity to people you love or
you care about.
The environment could beproximity to things you enjoy
doing.
So I think those are categoriesof, broadly speaking, we should
(07:02):
be spending money on.
I like your example.
For me, an example that comesto mind is not so much spending
money, but spending time is.
You mentioned goalpost planningjust a bit ago, and it's the
sense of oh, I'm going to workone more year because I'm going
to get one more bonus, or I havesome more stock vesting, or
it's one more year of socialsecurity benefits increasing, or
it's one more year of maxing.
(07:23):
There's so many good financialreasons we can use to justify
that, and what we always pointto is they, at some point you
could take that to the extremekeep working forever, keep
maxing your 401k forever, keepgetting bonuses forever, but you
missed the whole point.
You, you, you missed the movieLike it's your.
Your life passed you by becauseyou spent it working, and I'm
(07:45):
assuming you're working at adead end job not dead end job,
but a job that you don't like, ajob that's not bringing you fun
and fulfillment in the thingsthat you love doing.
So we try to help clients bevery intentional with that of.
Money has a purpose a veryimportant purpose but at some
point has a purpose a veryimportant purpose but at some
(08:06):
point the money needs to not bethe main thing.
At some point you've crossedthis threshold where there is
enough that it can now supportyou doing the things that you
actually want to do, andcontinuing to work to get even
more of it is actually pullingyou away from what you're
actually trying to do.
I face that too, not because I'mtrying to retire.
I love what we get to do.
This is one of my favoritethings in the world.
To me, it's not a goalpostplanning of okay, I'm going to
(08:27):
stay at root for one more year.
Two more years is man.
I can get one more thing done,two more things, three more
things done, and surfing issomething I claim to love to do.
I haven't done it in two and ahalf years and I blame it on
okay.
Well, we have young kids andlife's busy, and I blame it on
well, roots growing and thatkeeps me busy.
The reality is, I'm just notmaking time to be intentional
(08:47):
with it.
And Wednesdays is typicallywhen I record YouTube videos,
podcasts et cetera, and I alwaystell myself, okay, I'm going to
record and like the reward fordoing that is going to be then
I'll go surfing, or then I'll goI don't know do something fun.
I'll go do jujitsu, I'll gotrain.
But I fall into that same trapthat we encourage clients not to
(09:08):
none of of.
Oh, there's one more thing Ican be productive with.
There's one more thing I cancheck off the list.
Look, I have three more hourstill I got to go home and it's
and and just last week, for thefirst time in two and a half
years, I finally said you knowwhat I'm going to commit to.
Here's the things I need to getdone today.
The my enough.
Like, if I get these threethings done, which was filming a
(09:29):
certain amount of videos, I'mgoing to go surf.
And I did it and I went surfingand I was reflecting on the way
back that, as much as we tellclients to do this of, don't
goalpost plan, don't keeppushing off the things you
actually want to do I personallyam guilty of now.
I love work, and so it's notlike I'm continuing to do
something that I dislike doing.
(09:50):
But there's a certain amount ofintentionality that doesn't
come from continuing to do thesame old same thing Like how do
you constantly reflect on?
What should I be spending moneyon, like your story?
What are the things I can do tocreate more meaningful
experiences?
What are the things I can do tospend money on, to improve my
health, to buy back my time tothose various things I talked
(10:13):
about?
The same thing happens with howdo we spend our time Not just
how do we spend our money, buthow do we spend our time, and
sometimes it's thinking aboutthe life that we want to live.
It's thinking about whatactually matters to us, and
surfing is obviously not theonly thing that matters In fact,
it's pretty low on the prioritylist of the things I actually
care about but in general, it issomething that I do want to do,
and it's this sense of justconstantly reevaluating and
(10:36):
reassessing.
Where are we and how can wespend our time, spend our money,
spend our energy, spend ourtalents, doing the things that
bring us closer to the life thatwe want to live.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Now this is interesting.
What was it about last weekversus any other week in the
last two and a half years thatmade you go?
Today is the day I'm going togive myself the reward.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
You know I didn't think that.
Well, I'm glad you just askedthat, because I hadn't thought
about this until literally thesecond.
An office mate came in thismorning and said guys, we work
four blocks away from the oceanand we never get in the ocean.
How ridiculous is that.
How dumb are we that we live inthis paradise and we don't
actually utilize the paradise welive in?
And so I said, okay, well, if Ican get you're right, first and
(11:17):
foremost.
But number two, if I do thisisn't to say abandon all work
and go.
If I can get my enough done, ifI can get my top three things
that are my priorities for theday done, instead of just saying
, okay, cool, there's alwaysmore things to do, so I'll just
pour myself into that, then I'mgoing to go do this.
Other thing is that is called areward for getting those things
(11:39):
done.
So part of it was okay.
I don't want to call it peerpressure, but having someone do
this and I think in fact, thatcomment, ari, that you started
with from Tommy C mentioned thatI believe.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
But one of his experiences onething he spends money on is
doing something that friends cancome along, and it's that sense
of doing something with someoneelse makes it way easier to do
(12:03):
and way more enjoyable to do.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
It's so fascinating because, let's assume, you go
surfing every week and nowyou're happier at home, and now
your wife goes.
We're connecting more.
I don't know what's happening,but I just feel it's different
and you're more present and youcan't quantify that on some
spreadsheet, as hard as you try.
And there are financialadvisors as nerdy as us who will
try, but the reality is you arenot going to look back going.
(12:28):
Oh my gosh, I'm so glad I didthose 12 more projects and you
know I didn't need more timewith my grandkids, like we've
never heard anyone ever say that, and this is all we're doing
all day.
So I think when we're talkingto clients, we will pride
ourselves on being verytransparent.
We will pride ourselves onbeing very transparent.
We are not mean, but we aretransparent because, as you just
(12:51):
saw, what prompted James toactually right now go surfing
was someone came into the officeand said how dumb are we?
And so some of you are workingright now going.
I'm 60.
There's no way I could retirebecause I've never had
healthcare outside of myemployer, so surely I'm waiting
until 65 because, like, why not?
And then you'll see a videothat might wake you up and go
hey, maybe that's not the deal.
(13:12):
And then all of a sudden youmight have years back of
prioritizing health or family orfriends.
And next week we'll talk aboutan even bigger story actually
two weeks from now where there'san actual woman I spoke to who
was really upset that she had $3million, and I said look,
that's just I don't want to bemean here, I just don't hear
that every day.
Why are you mad that you have$3 million?
(13:33):
And she goes on to say that shedidn't need 3 million and now
she can't hike to the degreeshe'd like because of the health
impact from sitting at work.
So we'll talk more about thatin a few weeks.
But the point here isfinancially, there are things
that you can only do when youknow your plan allows for it,
but you don't have to wait untilthis magic date to actually
(13:54):
start doing some of these things.
So I think it would be helpfulto maybe give some of you guys a
few ideas here.
Then, james, if there'sanything you want to add, please
feel free.
But this is straight from Tommy,once again in the community.
These are just a couple of hisideas, and so he says whenever I
have an experience, he springsfor the better and the closer
seats.
That might not be valuable toyou, but that's what he likes to
(14:15):
do.
He talks about whenever he can.
He gets prepaid parking so he'snot worried about finding
street or cheaper parking orhaving to walk a mile to the
venue like James did when he wasyounger at the baseball games.
He says he'll upgrade to alarge or even extra large coffee
.
He says when I'm on a cruise, weopt for excursions that have
less people and they cost alittle bit more.
(14:36):
The experiences have been 100%worth it.
He tips more generously andthen our favorite one that we
read here is he said when I buyexperiences, I buy two extra
tickets.
This forces us to find twofriends to go with us.
If they pass back, great, andif not, I'm not worried.
More fun with friends is worththe additional cost.
So he goes on to say what littlethings do you splurge on that
(14:58):
makes you happy?
I don't think those are litterthings.
I think those are big things.
And I want to tell Tommy I'mproud of you because it's really
hard Unless you know.
And I want to tell Tommy I'mproud of you because it's really
hard unless you know,financially you're in a good
spot to go.
I'm going to buy two extratickets.
What if my friends don'tactually join?
So if there's anything you takeaway from today's episode, I
hope you think about it and letthis be.
Maybe this episode.
(15:18):
The person walking in to youroffice going maybe today's the
day to go surfing.
Anything else, james, you wantto add no?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
that would be it, like.
I encourage everyone listeningwhat are and just keep it super
simple.
How could you better spend yourtime and how could you better
spend your money?
My example was a time thing,your example was a money thing,
and now you're spending yourmoney to get time, and I think
that that's how do we livebetter lives.
We look at those two things.
Where are we spending money?
How are we spending money?
(15:47):
I have five things that like tofall in those categories.
Again, experiences, time giving, environment or health.
If it's checking one of thoseboxes, I'm going to feel good
about it.
So what is one little thingthat we can do?
What gym can you go sign up forNot just sign up for a gym
You're probably never going togo.
Can you sign up for a personaltrainer to keep you accountable?
Can you sign up and do so witha friend to keep you accountable
(16:10):
, to make it fun?
What are those things that youcan begin doing?
What are those experiences?
To me, the simple experience wasI'm going to go surfing for 30
minutes in the middle of the daybecause I got my enough done.
What are those things that youcan do?
I'm really glad I did it.
Whatever I would have gottendone in those 30 minutes pales
in comparison to the fun I hadbeing in the water, doing that,
having fun with a friend.
So just those little things.
So what's one single thing youcan do to stop?
(16:32):
I'm guilty of this.
You're actually really goodabout this.
I bet you're not actuallyguilty of this.
You get in the routine, you getin a thing that's comfortable
and it's hard to kind of pullourselves out of that until
someone comes along and showsyou those blind spots that by
nature, by definition, you'renot seeing in your own life and
you have to go make a change toget out of it.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Well, thank you, and we're going to put the thread of
what Tommy said in the linkbelow.
So if you want to go comment onthe exact post, which is the
reason we're making this exactepisode, go comment in there and
let us know and we will readthose ideas on future episodes.
So you can check all of thatout in the description, whether
you're on YouTube or on thepodcast app.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
All right.
Thank you everyone forlistening and we will see you
all next time.
See ya.
The information presented isfor educational purposes only
and is not intended as an offeror solicitation for the sale or
purchase of any specificsecurities, investments or
investment strategies.
Investments involve risk andare not guaranteed.
Any mention of rates of returnare historical and illustrative
(17:32):
in nature and are not aguarantee of future returns.
Past performance does notguarantee future performance.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Viewers are encouraged to seek advice from a
qualified tax, legal orinvestment advisor professional
to determine whether anyinformation presented may be
suitable for their specificsituation Once again.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
I'm James Canole, founder of Root Financial, and
if you're interested in seeinghow we help our clients at Root
Financial get the most out oflife with their money, be sure
to visit us atwwwrootfinancialpartnerscom.
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