July 28, 2025 • 15 mins
What does soccer have to do with retirement? A lot more than you'd think. As a 5'5" former college soccer player turned financial advisor, I’ve learned it’s not about brute strength. It’s about smart decisions. That mindset guides the way I approach financial planning today.
At 29, people ask why I care so much about retirement. The answer is simple: good planning gives you time. And time with the people you love is the most valuable thing there is. I've seen how a well-structured plan, from managing taxes to optimizing healthcare and using flexible accounts, can buy you years with aging parents, a spouse, or even just your own freedom.
But there are traps, like being "qualified rich." That $2 million in your 401(k)? After taxes and penalties, it’s not what it seems. That's why I'm a big fan of what I call “superhero accounts” like brokerage accounts that let you retire on yourterms. And don’t get me started on the healthcare gap between early retirement and Medicare. It’s one of the biggest mindset hurdles we help people overcome.
I got into this work after watching my own parents get burned by multiple advisors. Some were too fancy, some were too hands-off, and none truly planned holistically. That gap in the industry is what I aim to close.
To me, the goal is recreational employment. Working because you want to, not because you have to.
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Advisory services are offered through Root Financial Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is intended for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Viewing this content does not create an advisory relationship. We do not provide tax preparation or legal services. Always consult an investment, tax or legal professional regarding your specific situation.
The strategies, case studies, and examples discussed may not be suitable for everyone. They are hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. They do not reflect actual client results and are not guarantees of future performance. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.
Comments reflect the views of individual users and do not necessarily represent the views of Root Financial. They are not verified, may not be accurate, and should not be considered testimonials or endorsements
Participation in the Retirement Planning Academy or Early Retirement Academy does not create an advisory relationship with Root Financial. These programs are educational in nature and are not a substitute for personalized financial advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement with Root Financial.
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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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am 29 years old and I love retirement planning.
That is weird.
I am the first person torecognize that I love retirement
planning for many of thereasons.
I love soccer.
I am not tall.
I'm five foot five, I'm notfast and I'm not that strong,
despite me doing everything Ican to put myself in the best
position possible.
There's only so much I can do.
(00:20):
But soccer is about decisionmaking and this is a magical
sport to me because you can bevery slow, you don't have to be
tall and you can be veryimpactful on the field.
I ended up playing collegesoccer, so why am I connecting
this to retirement planning?
I find retirement planning isvery much just high level
(00:40):
decision making and there areinstances where I will go to
someone and say would you ratherkeep working?
It doesn't sound like you would, but confirm with me would you
rather keep working?
But if you do keep working, youwill be able to spend $10,000 a
month after taxes, adjusted forinflation, for the rest of your
life.
Assuming we manage yourhealthcare subsidy in the
following way we do this taxstrategy, you set up this estate
(01:03):
plan, or would you rather stopworking and start spending
$6,500 per month right now?
What would you prefer?
And I find most people don'tjust hit me with yes, this is
the answer.
It's well, right now it wouldbe really hard to stop working,
because I'm currently working ona project.
So even if I could, I wouldn'twant to.
(01:23):
And you just said 10,000 amonth.
But I feel like I'm probablygoing to want to spend more at
the beginning because I have myenergy and my health, and then
maybe it will come down.
So I don't want to tell you10,000 a month and then all of a
sudden I'm only spending 8,000a month and then I pass away
with like $5 million.
So what I find is, if I ask aquestion like that, it gets
(01:44):
people's brains spinning andthen I'm really seeing what
they're thinking.
Then we can really start divinginto planning.
So I'll ask a question, I'll dohypotheticals, I'll run
scenarios, I'll make so manywhat ifs so I can understand how
someone is thinking.
I eventually became a financialadvisor.
Is they would talk to theiradvisor Advisor would say, yeah,
(02:10):
fill out this questionnairewhat's your risk tolerance on a
scale of one to 10?
And my dad would say he's aneight, and then my mom would say
she's a two, and then marketswould change and then the
advisor would say what's yourrisk tolerance now?
And then my dad would say, well, maybe I'm a six now.
I was an eight before, but I'mdown to a six.
And my mom's, like I was a twoand now I'm like a negative 1000
.
And I would always think what adumb question.
I know that sounds harsh, but Igo risk tolerance how do you
(02:34):
feel, on a scale of one to 10,that there's no way to judge
financial planning this way,like if you have better
questions, you will get betteranswers.
And so I'm obsessed with thisstuff, because the reason that
many of you are working so hard,you're trying to optimize, is
because you want to spend yourtime on what matters most, with
who matters most.
If you can be wise withfinancial planning, with numbers
(02:55):
, quite simply, and you getthree more years with your
spouse or your mother or father,who might not be in great
health once again, because youare good with math, you now can
spend more time with who youcare about most.
I mean, good luck quantifyingthat, okay.
So the reason I love this stuffexcuse me there the reason I
love this stuff is because ifyou ask good questions and you
(03:17):
use high quality decision-making, you can get your time back,
which, honestly, you can'texactly quantify, and I cannot
tell you how many people havecome saying I can't wait to
retire at 60 years old andtravel for so many years with my
beloved spouse and then ahealth event occurs and it's
because they were workingunnecessarily or they were
(03:38):
adding more money to a 401k whenit should have gone to a
different account, because theyfound out they wanted to retire
at 54, but all their money waslocked up, so locked up in the
sense of you can't touch it till59 and a half.
So now, what the heck do you do?
You want to retire early.
You don't want to pay crazytaxes.
You want to pay crazy penalties.
If this person had maybe stoppedmaxing out their 401k at 50 and
(04:00):
instead put money to abrokerage account, which I call
a superhero account, they wouldhave been in a great spot to
retire early.
And all they did was theyinvested too well.
What does that mean?
Well, they invested too well.
They put too much money in anaccount that really gave them a
tax benefit in the short term,but it made it so they can't
actually access that money.
So how helpful is that.
(04:22):
This is a phrase I made up.
It's called qualified rich.
If most of your money is in apre-tax 401k, that's great.
But if you tell me you have 2million, I will tell you you
don't.
You might have 1.6 or 1.7 aftertaxes.
So many people don't factorthis in.
They don't factor in healthcare.
I beg my clients, please do notcheat yourself.
Don't just say there's no way Ican retire early.
(04:46):
I have healthcare.
I've been having my employerprovide that for me.
Now I'm 60 and I'm going toretire and Medicare doesn't come
on till 65.
Yep, I'm going to have to workpart-time or I'm going to have
to figure out something, andthere are situations where it
does make sense to do that.
But there are other situationswhere it just makes sense to pay
the fee because you have theability to do so.
You have the means.
(05:06):
It might feel weird, but I haveclients that go oh my gosh, the
idea of paying four or five, athousand dollars a month,
potentially four or 500 bucksnot four or 5,000, but four or
500 bucks a month and maybe athousand on healthcare for me
and my spouse oh my God, I couldnever do that, when the reality
is, it might be for a few shortyears and you're able to
(05:27):
actually really prioritize yourhealth and do what you want to
do.
So obviously I'm already goingon my ramble here before I've
gone over what I want, but I amobsessed with this stuff because
if you are smart with numbers,you can live a better life.
That is why financial planningis, quite frankly, cool to me.
Now, over a year ago, if you'rewatching this on YouTube, you
can see on my screen.
If you're listening on thepodcast app, I'm going to
(05:50):
explain it for you.
It'll be the same experience,but I put this out and the title
of the episode was I didn'twant to become an advisor.
After what I saw, financialadvisor reveals the full truth
on what it means to be anadvisor, and that is the truth.
The last thing I ever wanted tobecome was a financial advisor.
Now I'm really grateful I'm anadvisor now.
I'm currently making all thesevideos and podcasts for all of
(06:12):
you and I love what I get to dohere.
But what really changed my lifewas James Canole.
Not what, but who changed mylife was James Canole and I
worked at a company calledNuveen, which is this big, fancy
municipal bond shop where Iworked in Beverly Hills and the
lights and the parking and I wasthe only person that brought my
lunch to work and I just didn'tfit in and I was miserable.
I had the job out of collegethat other people said aren't
(06:36):
you so happy?
And I'm like maybe I should be,but I'm just not, and so I
don't know what to tell you.
In the same way, if you said,hey, why do you love soccer so
much?
I'm like it's just playingchess with my body.
That's just how I feel and Ilove it.
So you guys left over like 90comments on this, just amazing
comments.
Some of these I want to sharenow, just to highlight how much
(06:56):
I love you guys, because I'mmaking these videos, whether you
guys watch them or not, becauseI love it and if one person
watches it and they get value.
That's why I do all of this,which reminds me, and I do all
these podcasts where, yes, Iprep them.
I have an agenda, but sometimesI just have an idea and I'm
running with it.
So I'm going to pull up a chartthat I want to show all of you.
(07:18):
Many of you have seen this,actually, I have it right here,
(07:39):
so I'm going to bring this up,but if you're not watching this,
still all good, you can see it.
You can't see it?
That would be very hard, butI'm going to explain it for you.
But you can see, when I startedthis podcast, it was in
December of 2020.
So it's been, you can see, avery long time oh, almost five
years.
But what you can see here isfor the first year and a half to
two years nearly.
No, not, nobody listened to it,but it would get three, five,
10 views per month, 10 downloadsper month.
And my now spouse would kindlysay why are you talking to the
wall every single Monday?
Because no one's listening tothis.
Now, she wasn't trying to sayit in a berating way.
(08:01):
She was saying it in the senseof hey, like, is this the best
use of your time?
She was trying to be helpfuland the truth is she was right.
Very few people were listening,but I just did not care.
I wanted to do it and I thoughtpeople would care about tax
planning, which is the numberone thing, in my opinion, that
people overlook.
That adds tremendous value tosomeone's retirement.
So here I am, recording thesepodcasts talking to this
(08:22):
inanimate object all the time,and then, all of a sudden, it
really started to grow.
When I talked about this phraserecreational employment.
Are you working because youwant to or because you have to?
And if you still love what youdo in the same way, I love it,
I'm not going to stop.
But things change, politicschange, and I never want to have
to work.
I want to choose that.
(08:43):
I want to work and I want allof you to know when that is
possible for you.
So if you're still workingtoday, you're working because
you want to, not because youhave to.
You can now see it's donemillions, not millions, but you
can see between YouTube andpodcast, it has done millions of
downloads and every singlemonth the show is continuing to
grow and that is because of allof you who share this with your
friends and loved ones, and Ijust thank you for that.
(09:05):
So this is a cool chart to see.
For basically two years it tooka very long time and so, for
those who are just listening, itwas basically doing almost no
downloads every single monthuntil I started talking and
would get 5 000, 10 000, 20 000.
It recently excuse me, earlierthis year I did 80,000 downloads
.
(09:25):
80,000 of you decided to listento this podcast, where here I am
talking about tax planning for10, 15, 20 minutes, or financial
planning or how to make yourspouse interested in finances,
from a 29-year-old who is notclose to retiring to empathize
(09:46):
and resonate with these people,and my answer has always been
because I'm going to care aboutit more than they are, and it's
not because it's not even up tome, I just do it is how I feel
I'm going to research andunderstand and speak to clients
who I work with, and we havehundreds of clients here at Root
that I want to know deeply whatare your concerns?
What are your fears?
What's made you so excitedabout retirement?
What's worked well, what hasn't.
There are over 3,500 people inour free community, the Root
(10:09):
Collective, which you can joinin the description of this
episode of people not me,including me, but not only me
who are going.
Yep, I'm listening to Ari'spodcast, or Ari's partner, james
, and they are helping meunderstand what I need to do so
I can retire with confidence.
And has anyone else done X, y,z so you're able to share
thoughts?
I'm able to provide input, but,quite frankly, I just love this
(10:31):
stuff.
So here's a few comments I justwant to highlight to say thank
you, guys.
So this was over a year ago.
Mark Wilbanks here saysexcellent, you understand your
why and that is priceless.
Mark B says very nice to get toknow more about your life
history and why you became anadvisor.
Jody Filute says thanks forsharing this.
I found your historyinteresting.
I also had bad advisorexperiences.
(10:53):
So for those who don't know, myparents were burned by multiple
advisors.
That's why I eventually becamean advisor.
They started at one firm I'mnot allowed to say the name but
they started at one firm whereit was good.
I wouldn't say it was optimalvitamins, but it wasn't terrible
.
But that advisor eventuallyretired and my parents got
passed off to a younger advisorthat they did not resonate with.
(11:14):
So they switched to a differentadvisor that other advisor and
I've told this story before.
But my parents?
They grew up.
My mom grew up in the SanFernando Valley.
My dad grew up in Long Island,new York.
My dad's a big surfer.
They moved to Malibu.
They would rather live in ashack in Malibu if that meant
they could surf, and by they Imean my dad.
My mom was like the weathersounds good and I married some
(11:35):
nut job, who loves surfing, somy dad is living on a very nice
street.
That's where I grew up inMalibu.
We did not have anywhere nearthe wealth as the other families
around us, but it was still anamazing childhood.
My mom was walking one day andhit it off with Barbara
Streisand who literally thesinger Barbara Streisand, who
(11:55):
said that they could use I mean,my mom, could use her advisor.
My mom's like we hit thejackpot greatest thing ever.
They got terrible servicebecause my parents don't have
$10 trillion.
So they found that the servicewas a mismatch.
Barbara's advisor worked withpeople like Barbara, not like my
parents.
So then my parents went to thesuper low cost solution that
many of you know today who went.
It's good, but it's just notgiving me the tax or estate or
(12:18):
withdrawal planning guidance Ineed.
My parents were great at makingmoney, not great at saving and
investing.
It's a completely differentskill set.
They chose to spend it on me,and so I'm grateful for that,
but it means they are stillworking today in their seventies
, even though if it was up tothem, they would be scaling back
and not working to the samedegree.
Luckily, they like what they do.
But Jody C here says I had badadvisor experiences pitching
(12:41):
front end load investments, thenresigning from a company with
my commission telling me payingcash for medical and using my
HSA as an investment is notsmart, even stating they're not
allowed to give me tax advice.
Jody goes on to say I'vesearched for holistic advice.
I finally just gave up onadvisors, says.
I think James and you, james,your partner have great podcasts
(13:02):
and I've been telling myfriends and family about them.
I've done so much research andnever came close to the great
data and easy explanations youboth provide.
Gina G says I love you made thevideo.
I know some of it, but not inthis detail.
Very happy for you and thewhole root team.
You didn't just accept the normand saw there was a better way.
Your passion and dedication isamazing.
Keep up the great work.
Then, finally, carrie Evan heresays I enjoyed hearing your
story.
Soccer, power Rangers, surfingyour parents must be proud.
(13:28):
As a 55-year-old getting readyto retire this year, I feel
confident in our plans, thanksin part to you, james, and a few
other CFPs I've learned from onYouTube.
Thank you so.
So many comments, guys.
I just want you to know I lovethis.
I'm never going to stop.
This is your show, not mine.
If there's ever something youwant me to address, you go to my
website,earlyretirementpodcastcom,
submit a question.
I give you all access, if youwant, to the Early Retirement
(13:50):
Academy.
That's where you can go, pay afew hundred bucks, go run your
own what-if scenarios.
It's a good gut check.
It's not the root experiencewhere you get us as your true
partner.
You can run some what-ifscenarios, you can kind of build
your own plan.
It's a good starting spot andthen ultimately, we do
everything we do so you canspend your time on what you care
about most or we can handleeverything else for you, but
(14:10):
we're a true partner.
We're not just telling you whatto do.
You're still the CEO, we're theCFO.
It's our job to work as a teamto accomplish your goals.
That is it for this episode.
Thank you guys for watching.
I appreciate and love all ofyou.
Thank you all, as always, forlistening to the early
retirement podcast.
I love getting to host theseshows and make different content
for you guys every single week.
(14:32):
I've not missed a single weekin years and that is because I
love getting to do this.
Now, please be smart about thisbefore you actually execute any
strategy that you see me talkabout or hear me talk about.
Should I say Please talk toyour financial advisor, your tax
preparer, your estate attorney?
Please be smart about this.
None of this should beconstrued as financial advice.
(14:52):
This is for fun, educational,informational purposes only.
Once again, just quickdisclaimer here.
Guys, please be smart aboutthis.
Appreciate you listening, asalways, and you can, of course,
submit a question on my website,earlyretirementpodcastcom.
If you, of course, want me toaddress a specific case study or
topic.
I will not promise I can get toit, but I respond to every
(15:15):
single person and if I find itwill be helpful for a lot of
people, I will absolutely makean episode on it, at the very
least give you some insight.
That's it.
Thanks, guys.
I am 29 years old and I love retirement planning.
That is weird.
I am the first person torecognize that I love retirement
planning for many of thereasons.
I love soccer.
I am not tall.
I'm five foot five, I'm notfast and I'm not that strong,
despite me doing everything Ican to put myself in the best
position possible.
There's only so much I can do.
(00:20):
But soccer is about decisionmaking and this is a magical
sport to me because you can bevery slow, you don't have to be
tall and you can be veryimpactful on the field.
I ended up playing collegesoccer, so why am I connecting
this to retirement planning?
I find retirement planning isvery much just high level
(00:40):
decision making and there areinstances where I will go to
someone and say would you ratherkeep working?
It doesn't sound like you would, but confirm with me would you
rather keep working?
But if you do keep working, youwill be able to spend $10,000 a
month after taxes, adjusted forinflation, for the rest of your
life.
Assuming we manage yourhealthcare subsidy in the
following way we do this taxstrategy, you set up this estate
(01:03):
plan, or would you rather stopworking and start spending
$6,500 per month right now?
What would you prefer?
And I find most people don'tjust hit me with yes, this is
the answer.
It's well, right now it wouldbe really hard to stop working,
because I'm currently working ona project.
So even if I could, I wouldn'twant to.
(01:23):
And you just said 10,000 amonth.
But I feel like I'm probablygoing to want to spend more at
the beginning because I have myenergy and my health, and then
maybe it will come down.
So I don't want to tell you10,000 a month and then all of a
sudden I'm only spending 8,000a month and then I pass away
with like $5 million.
So what I find is, if I ask aquestion like that, it gets
(01:44):
people's brains spinning andthen I'm really seeing what
they're thinking.
Then we can really start divinginto planning.
So I'll ask a question, I'll dohypotheticals, I'll run
scenarios, I'll make so manywhat ifs so I can understand how
someone is thinking.
I eventually became a financialadvisor.
Is they would talk to theiradvisor Advisor would say, yeah,
(02:10):
fill out this questionnairewhat's your risk tolerance on a
scale of one to 10?
And my dad would say he's aneight, and then my mom would say
she's a two, and then marketswould change and then the
advisor would say what's yourrisk tolerance now?
And then my dad would say, well, maybe I'm a six now.
I was an eight before, but I'mdown to a six.
And my mom's, like I was a twoand now I'm like a negative 1000
.
And I would always think what adumb question.
I know that sounds harsh, but Igo risk tolerance how do you
(02:34):
feel, on a scale of one to 10,that there's no way to judge
financial planning this way,like if you have better
questions, you will get betteranswers.
And so I'm obsessed with thisstuff, because the reason that
many of you are working so hard,you're trying to optimize, is
because you want to spend yourtime on what matters most, with
who matters most.
If you can be wise withfinancial planning, with numbers
(02:55):
, quite simply, and you getthree more years with your
spouse or your mother or father,who might not be in great
health once again, because youare good with math, you now can
spend more time with who youcare about most.
I mean, good luck quantifyingthat, okay.
So the reason I love this stuffexcuse me there the reason I
love this stuff is because ifyou ask good questions and you
(03:17):
use high quality decision-making, you can get your time back,
which, honestly, you can'texactly quantify, and I cannot
tell you how many people havecome saying I can't wait to
retire at 60 years old andtravel for so many years with my
beloved spouse and then ahealth event occurs and it's
because they were workingunnecessarily or they were
(03:38):
adding more money to a 401k whenit should have gone to a
different account, because theyfound out they wanted to retire
at 54, but all their money waslocked up, so locked up in the
sense of you can't touch it till59 and a half.
So now, what the heck do you do?
You want to retire early.
You don't want to pay crazytaxes.
You want to pay crazy penalties.
If this person had maybe stoppedmaxing out their 401k at 50 and
(04:00):
instead put money to abrokerage account, which I call
a superhero account, they wouldhave been in a great spot to
retire early.
And all they did was theyinvested too well.
What does that mean?
Well, they invested too well.
They put too much money in anaccount that really gave them a
tax benefit in the short term,but it made it so they can't
actually access that money.
So how helpful is that.
(04:22):
This is a phrase I made up.
It's called qualified rich.
If most of your money is in apre-tax 401k, that's great.
But if you tell me you have 2million, I will tell you you
don't.
You might have 1.6 or 1.7 aftertaxes.
So many people don't factorthis in.
They don't factor in healthcare.
I beg my clients, please do notcheat yourself.
Don't just say there's no way Ican retire early.
(04:46):
I have healthcare.
I've been having my employerprovide that for me.
Now I'm 60 and I'm going toretire and Medicare doesn't come
on till 65.
Yep, I'm going to have to workpart-time or I'm going to have
to figure out something, andthere are situations where it
does make sense to do that.
But there are other situationswhere it just makes sense to pay
the fee because you have theability to do so.
You have the means.
(05:06):
It might feel weird, but I haveclients that go oh my gosh, the
idea of paying four or five, athousand dollars a month,
potentially four or 500 bucksnot four or 5,000, but four or
500 bucks a month and maybe athousand on healthcare for me
and my spouse oh my God, I couldnever do that, when the reality
is, it might be for a few shortyears and you're able to
(05:27):
actually really prioritize yourhealth and do what you want to
do.
So obviously I'm already goingon my ramble here before I've
gone over what I want, but I amobsessed with this stuff because
if you are smart with numbers,you can live a better life.
That is why financial planningis, quite frankly, cool to me.
Now, over a year ago, if you'rewatching this on YouTube, you
can see on my screen.
If you're listening on thepodcast app, I'm going to
(05:50):
explain it for you.
It'll be the same experience,but I put this out and the title
of the episode was I didn'twant to become an advisor.
After what I saw, financialadvisor reveals the full truth
on what it means to be anadvisor, and that is the truth.
The last thing I ever wanted tobecome was a financial advisor.
Now I'm really grateful I'm anadvisor now.
I'm currently making all thesevideos and podcasts for all of
(06:12):
you and I love what I get to dohere.
But what really changed my lifewas James Canole.
Not what, but who changed mylife was James Canole and I
worked at a company calledNuveen, which is this big, fancy
municipal bond shop where Iworked in Beverly Hills and the
lights and the parking and I wasthe only person that brought my
lunch to work and I just didn'tfit in and I was miserable.
I had the job out of collegethat other people said aren't
(06:36):
you so happy?
And I'm like maybe I should be,but I'm just not, and so I
don't know what to tell you.
In the same way, if you said,hey, why do you love soccer so
much?
I'm like it's just playingchess with my body.
That's just how I feel and Ilove it.
So you guys left over like 90comments on this, just amazing
comments.
Some of these I want to sharenow, just to highlight how much
(06:56):
I love you guys, because I'mmaking these videos, whether you
guys watch them or not, becauseI love it and if one person
watches it and they get value.
That's why I do all of this,which reminds me, and I do all
these podcasts where, yes, Iprep them.
I have an agenda, but sometimesI just have an idea and I'm
running with it.
So I'm going to pull up a chartthat I want to show all of you.
(07:18):
Many of you have seen this,actually, I have it right here,
(07:39):
so I'm going to bring this up,but if you're not watching this,
still all good, you can see it.
You can't see it?
That would be very hard, butI'm going to explain it for you.
But you can see, when I startedthis podcast, it was in
December of 2020.
So it's been, you can see, avery long time oh, almost five
years.
But what you can see here isfor the first year and a half to
two years nearly.
No, not, nobody listened to it,but it would get three, five,
10 views per month, 10 downloadsper month.
And my now spouse would kindlysay why are you talking to the
wall every single Monday?
Because no one's listening tothis.
Now, she wasn't trying to sayit in a berating way.
(08:01):
She was saying it in the senseof hey, like, is this the best
use of your time?
She was trying to be helpfuland the truth is she was right.
Very few people were listening,but I just did not care.
I wanted to do it and I thoughtpeople would care about tax
planning, which is the numberone thing, in my opinion, that
people overlook.
That adds tremendous value tosomeone's retirement.
So here I am, recording thesepodcasts talking to this
(08:22):
inanimate object all the time,and then, all of a sudden, it
really started to grow.
When I talked about this phraserecreational employment.
Are you working because youwant to or because you have to?
And if you still love what youdo in the same way, I love it,
I'm not going to stop.
But things change, politicschange, and I never want to have
to work.
I want to choose that.
(08:43):
I want to work and I want allof you to know when that is
possible for you.
So if you're still workingtoday, you're working because
you want to, not because youhave to.
You can now see it's donemillions, not millions, but you
can see between YouTube andpodcast, it has done millions of
downloads and every singlemonth the show is continuing to
grow and that is because of allof you who share this with your
friends and loved ones, and Ijust thank you for that.
(09:05):
So this is a cool chart to see.
For basically two years it tooka very long time and so, for
those who are just listening, itwas basically doing almost no
downloads every single monthuntil I started talking and
would get 5 000, 10 000, 20 000.
It recently excuse me, earlierthis year I did 80,000 downloads
.
(09:25):
80,000 of you decided to listento this podcast, where here I am
talking about tax planning for10, 15, 20 minutes, or financial
planning or how to make yourspouse interested in finances,
from a 29-year-old who is notclose to retiring to empathize
(09:46):
and resonate with these people,and my answer has always been
because I'm going to care aboutit more than they are, and it's
not because it's not even up tome, I just do it is how I feel
I'm going to research andunderstand and speak to clients
who I work with, and we havehundreds of clients here at Root
that I want to know deeply whatare your concerns?
What are your fears?
What's made you so excitedabout retirement?
What's worked well, what hasn't.
There are over 3,500 people inour free community, the Root
(10:09):
Collective, which you can joinin the description of this
episode of people not me,including me, but not only me
who are going.
Yep, I'm listening to Ari'spodcast, or Ari's partner, james
, and they are helping meunderstand what I need to do so
I can retire with confidence.
And has anyone else done X, y,z so you're able to share
thoughts?
I'm able to provide input, but,quite frankly, I just love this
(10:31):
stuff.
So here's a few comments I justwant to highlight to say thank
you, guys.
So this was over a year ago.
Mark Wilbanks here saysexcellent, you understand your
why and that is priceless.
Mark B says very nice to get toknow more about your life
history and why you became anadvisor.
Jody Filute says thanks forsharing this.
I found your historyinteresting.
I also had bad advisorexperiences.
(10:53):
So for those who don't know, myparents were burned by multiple
advisors.
That's why I eventually becamean advisor.
They started at one firm I'mnot allowed to say the name but
they started at one firm whereit was good.
I wouldn't say it was optimalvitamins, but it wasn't terrible
.
But that advisor eventuallyretired and my parents got
passed off to a younger advisorthat they did not resonate with.
(11:14):
So they switched to a differentadvisor that other advisor and
I've told this story before.
But my parents?
They grew up.
My mom grew up in the SanFernando Valley.
My dad grew up in Long Island,new York.
My dad's a big surfer.
They moved to Malibu.
They would rather live in ashack in Malibu if that meant
they could surf, and by they Imean my dad.
My mom was like the weathersounds good and I married some
(11:35):
nut job, who loves surfing, somy dad is living on a very nice
street.
That's where I grew up inMalibu.
We did not have anywhere nearthe wealth as the other families
around us, but it was still anamazing childhood.
My mom was walking one day andhit it off with Barbara
Streisand who literally thesinger Barbara Streisand, who
(11:55):
said that they could use I mean,my mom, could use her advisor.
My mom's like we hit thejackpot greatest thing ever.
They got terrible servicebecause my parents don't have
$10 trillion.
So they found that the servicewas a mismatch.
Barbara's advisor worked withpeople like Barbara, not like my
parents.
So then my parents went to thesuper low cost solution that
many of you know today who went.
It's good, but it's just notgiving me the tax or estate or
(12:18):
withdrawal planning guidance Ineed.
My parents were great at makingmoney, not great at saving and
investing.
It's a completely differentskill set.
They chose to spend it on me,and so I'm grateful for that,
but it means they are stillworking today in their seventies
, even though if it was up tothem, they would be scaling back
and not working to the samedegree.
Luckily, they like what they do.
But Jody C here says I had badadvisor experiences pitching
(12:41):
front end load investments, thenresigning from a company with
my commission telling me payingcash for medical and using my
HSA as an investment is notsmart, even stating they're not
allowed to give me tax advice.
Jody goes on to say I'vesearched for holistic advice.
I finally just gave up onadvisors, says.
I think James and you, james,your partner have great podcasts
(13:02):
and I've been telling myfriends and family about them.
I've done so much research andnever came close to the great
data and easy explanations youboth provide.
Gina G says I love you made thevideo.
I know some of it, but not inthis detail.
Very happy for you and thewhole root team.
You didn't just accept the normand saw there was a better way.
Your passion and dedication isamazing.
Keep up the great work.
Then, finally, carrie Evan heresays I enjoyed hearing your
story.
Soccer, power Rangers, surfingyour parents must be proud.
(13:28):
As a 55-year-old getting readyto retire this year, I feel
confident in our plans, thanksin part to you, james, and a few
other CFPs I've learned from onYouTube.
Thank you so.
So many comments, guys.
I just want you to know I lovethis.
I'm never going to stop.
This is your show, not mine.
If there's ever something youwant me to address, you go to my
website,earlyretirementpodcastcom,
submit a question.
I give you all access, if youwant, to the Early Retirement
(13:50):
Academy.
That's where you can go, pay afew hundred bucks, go run your
own what-if scenarios.
It's a good gut check.
It's not the root experiencewhere you get us as your true
partner.
You can run some what-ifscenarios, you can kind of build
your own plan.
It's a good starting spot andthen ultimately, we do
everything we do so you canspend your time on what you care
about most or we can handleeverything else for you, but
(14:10):
we're a true partner.
We're not just telling you whatto do.
You're still the CEO, we're theCFO.
It's our job to work as a teamto accomplish your goals.
That is it for this episode.
Thank you guys for watching.
I appreciate and love all ofyou.
Thank you all, as always, forlistening to the early
retirement podcast.
I love getting to host theseshows and make different content
for you guys every single week.
(14:32):
I've not missed a single weekin years and that is because I
love getting to do this.
Now, please be smart about thisbefore you actually execute any
strategy that you see me talkabout or hear me talk about.
Should I say Please talk toyour financial advisor, your tax
preparer, your estate attorney?
Please be smart about this.
None of this should beconstrued as financial advice.
(14:52):
This is for fun, educational,informational purposes only.
Once again, just quickdisclaimer here.
Guys, please be smart aboutthis.
Appreciate you listening, asalways, and you can, of course,
submit a question on my website,earlyretirementpodcastcom.
If you, of course, want me toaddress a specific case study or
topic.
I will not promise I can get toit, but I respond to every
(15:15):
single person and if I find itwill be helpful for a lot of
people, I will absolutely makean episode on it, at the very
least give you some insight.
That's it.
Thanks, guys.
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