Benefits of Aging Ep. 125

Investment advisory services offered through CreativeOne Wealth, LLC. Clients Excel, LLC and CreativeOne Wealth are not affiliated companies. Licensed Insurance Professionals. Investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal. Any references to protection or lifetime income generally refer to fixed insurance products, never securities or investments. Insurance guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims paying abilities of the insuring carrier. Annuity withdrawals are subject to ordinary income taxes and potentially a 10% IRS penalty before age 59-1/2. Roth distributions are tax free after age 59-1/2 and the account has been open for at least 5 years. This video is intended for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be used as the sole basis for financial decisions, nor should it be construed as advice designed to meet particular needs of an individual’s situation. Clients Excel is not permitted to offer and no statement made during this show shall constitute tax or legal advice. Our firm is not affiliated with or endorsed by any governmental agency. The information and opinions contained herein provided by third parties have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed by Clients Excel. The use of logos and/or trademarks of hosting sites are the property of their respective owners and are not an endorsement by those owners of our firm or our program.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Excel in Retirement podcast,
where we help good people makewise financial decisions so that
they may excel in retirementwith confidence.
Learn more at clientsexcel.com.
Now to your host, David Treese.

UNKNOWN (00:18):
David Treese.

SPEAKER_00 (00:25):
All right, well, here we are for episode 125 of
the Excel and Retirement Show.
I am so grateful to have youlistening.
Well, anytime we tell Amelia,our six-year-old, that it's time
for a nap or it's bedtime, shesays, I'm not tired.
And she says it with a voiceinflection that will make you
wish you did not hear her.

(00:45):
Our strategy oftentimes is totire her out.
So we took her and our otherdaughter to the park on Sunday
afternoon, and the goal was justto tire them out so they would
sleep well and be ready for bed.
And as I was sitting therewatching the girls play, I
started thinking.
And I was thinking about howmuch easier life is now versus

(01:08):
10 years ago.
Now, I'm not talking abouttechnology-wise or anything
else.
I'm just talking about how mucheasier it is from an aging
perspective.
My life is easier now at 40 thanit was at 30.
And then I started thinking, Ibet it'll be easier at 50 than
it was at 40.
Maybe you could speak to this.
There's something about growingour knowledge and abilities

(01:30):
while gaining insights that tendto make life easier, I think.
And there's benefits to aging.
Maybe we tend to make betterdecisions as we age.
I think I see it daily in mywork.
I get to see people who havemade wise choices over the
course of their years, and I seepeople, for whatever reason, who

(01:50):
are entering the sunset of theirlives with less than favorable
circumstances.
And as we age, if we've takenappropriate steps over the
course of our lives to preparefor the next season, we may have
much to look back on and befilled with gratitude for.
But sometimes we allow outsidecircumstances to still our joy.

(02:11):
On Sunday, the pastor asked apertinent question.
He said, Sometimes we allow ourwillingness to care about things
to affect us in a negative way.
Maybe it's things we care aboutin society or in other people's
lives.
We fret about the upcomingelection or we debate our

(02:31):
friends about things we havelittle to no control over.
And sometimes we do it at theexpense of things that we can
have an impact on.
So maybe we should be focusingon something different and yet
we're focusing on things that wehave no control over.
And I've got to admit, I've beenguilty of this.
We get wrapped up in the largemacro problems of our country

(02:52):
and we neglect to see what weare responsible for around us.
Or we see people struggling Onthe other hand, and we try to
lend a hand only to get turneddown.
And you might be able to see theproverbial wall that the person
is heading towards, but youcan't convince them of the peril
that's ahead.
And sometimes we get so worriedand wrapped up in that other

(03:16):
person's life that it affects usin a negative way.
And sometimes we worry about themicro details and the lives of
random people we see on theInternet.
And we fail to worry about thepeople or things that are under
our sphere of influence.
Yeah, absolutely.

(03:48):
It just kind of begs thequestion, but what are we really
responsible for?
We can't be responsible for allthe things that we read on the
internet.
It's impossible, right?
Or how many of us turn on the TVand we get riled up about the
topic of the day to be fearfulabout?
And then we spend time dwellingon that doom that we just
consumed.

(04:08):
The natural thing after that isto tell the next person you see
about the doom that you justheard about.
And it's like blowing on acampfire.
It perpetuates the doom.
Something else grows when wegive it attention, and that's
gratitude.
When we stop and reflect on thegood things in our lives, most
of us will find we have much tobe thankful for.

(04:29):
Who do you want to help?
Someone who isn't thankful orsomeone who lets it be known
that they appreciate you?
Gratitude, I have found, tendsto be contagious too.
In essence, everyone wins whenwe have a spirit of gratitude.
So last night, Amelia and I werewatching Andy Griffith.
I love Andy Griffith.

(04:50):
And I've seen all the episodes agazillion times.
I probably haven't seen thecolor episodes quite as much,
but certainly the black andwhite episodes I've seen a
gazillion times.
And I said, oh, this one's aboutErnest T.
Bass.
He's a real nut.
And that wasn't in mysix-year-old's vocabulary,
probably a good thing.
So we had to have a talk aboutwhat a nut is.

(05:11):
And in case you don't rememberthe episode, he's the character
that has an obsession withthrowing rocks through windows
to get revenge on people when hethinks he was wronged.
And in the episode, Ernestwanted to join the military, but
he was turned down due to hiswild antics.
What was...
What he was really after was auniform.

(05:31):
He thought a uniform wouldimpress girls.
And so Barney Five, the deputy,the funny deputy on the show, he
was the only one of a similarsize.
And so in order to get Ernest togo back home to the mountains
and to quit throwing rocksthrough the windows, Barney had
to give up his uniform.
And the last scene shows Ernestskipping off in Barney's uniform

(05:53):
back to the mountains.
And in many ways, he was happybecause he was grateful for the
new uniform he just got.
Or maybe it was just because hegot his way and he manipulated
people.
But we'll gravitate towards thefirst one.
And at any rate, if you can'tthink of anything to express
gratitude about, just thinkabout it.
You're not a nut who throwsrocks through windows, right?

(06:16):
We have so much to be thankfulfor.
And I hope this little humorthat I've shared with you
generates that in you.
And I would challenge you tospend a few minutes thinking
about what you are grateful fortoday.
Investment

SPEAKER_01 (06:30):
advisory services offered through Creative One
Wealth, LLC.
Clients Excel, LLC, and CreativeOne Wealth are not affiliated
companies.
Licensed insuranceprofessionals.
Investing involves risk,including potential loss of
principal.
Any references to protection orlifetime income generally refer
to fixed insurance products,never securities or investments.

(06:53):
Insurance guarantees are backedby the financial strength and
claims-paying abilities of theinsuring carrier.
Annuity withdrawals are subjectto ordinary income taxes and
potentially a 10% IRS penaltybefore age 59½.
Roth distributions are tax-freeafter age 59½and the account has
been open for at least fiveyears.

(07:14):
This podcast is intended forinformational purposes only.
It is not intended to be used asthe sole basis for financial
decisions, nor should it beconstrued as advice designed to
meet particular needs of anindividual's situation.
Clients Excel is not permittedto offer and no statement made
during this show shallconstitute tax or legal advice.

(07:37):
Our firm is not affiliated withor endorsed by any governmental
agency.
The information and opinionscontained herein provided by
third parties have been obtainedfrom sources believed to be
reliable, but accuracy andcompleteness cannot be
guaranteed by clients Excel.
The use of logos and ortrademarks of hosting sites are
the property of their respectiveowners and are not an

(07:59):
endorsement by those owners ofour firm or our program.