October 20, 2022 • 30 mins
Rocco A. Carriero is a comprehensive Wealth Advisor specializing in working with Business Owners, CEO’s and Entrepreneurs. He is a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, Accredited Portfolio Manager Advisor and holds an MBA in Banking & Finance with over 20 years of experience. Rocco has appeared on Fox, NBC and his financial insights have been featured in publications including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Wealth Management Magazine as well as many other local and regional publications. Rocco is a member of the Columbus Citizens Foundation and has served on the board of directors of The American Heart Association, Southampton Business Alliance, East End Hospice, and Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center and serves as the Vice President of Integrated Medical Foundation. Rocco lives and works on Eastern Long Island, NY with his wife Heather and their two children Ella and Luca.
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Episode Transcript
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rocco (00:00):
That's a great question.
Because I get that question alot where people say, Well, this
is my situation. This is what Iearn. What should I do? And I
asked goes as people will, moreimportantly, to the as is you
just shared me share with meabout your the reality? What do
you really want for yourself? Sowhat do you what is it that you
(00:21):
would want for yourself? Youknow, 1020 30 years from now.
intro guy (00:29):
Welcome to the Josh Bolton show. interesting and
inspiring conversations. And nowyour host, Josh Bolton.
Josh Bolton (00:42):
But yeah, that's interesting. So then what else
do you do other than yourcoaching and financial advice
stuff?
rocco (00:52):
That's what you know, pretty much what I do is I work
with people on developing likestrategic financial plans, and
then and then after the planningis clear that we place the
investments for people in themarkets, okay.
Josh Bolton (01:09):
We do that every day. So is more of a vise or do
you actually manage their moneytoo?
rocco (01:15):
We manage their money, too. So it's advice first, and
then we implemented theinvestments. Okay.
Josh Bolton (01:23):
So for those who don't have like a high risk, but
they're the they're notcompletely conservative, would
you $1 cost average for the s&p500? We wonder that you would
advise,
rocco (01:34):
well, you know, the s&p 500 is considered to be, you
know, that's an aggressive assetclass. When you start talking
equities. Equities are notconservative, never fall to the
basket of conservative even thes&p 500. Right. So conservative
and equities are, are the polaropposite. So start mentioning
(01:56):
conservative you want to buyCDs, treasuries, certain bonds.
You know, when you start talkingabout equities, you start moving
to moderate, moderatelyaggressive and aggressive.
Josh Bolton (02:10):
What's the most aggressive in your scale? For
rocco (02:13):
I would say, you know, somebody's buying, like, small
cap and mid cap equities wouldbe the most aggressive. And but
if somebody's dollar costaveraging into those asset
classes, you know, the tenure atyou know, when you look at it
from a decade perspective, theyusually do pretty good.
Josh Bolton (02:32):
Yeah, usually, it'll be like we were talking
about earlier. It'll, it'll beinteresting how this plays out
currently, what's going on?
Totally.
rocco (02:42):
I think I think a lot of I think this has just been a
really bad year. I think thatnext year. I'm hopeful that you
know that things are gonna getbetter. Yeah.
Josh Bolton (02:57):
Me too. So then I'll chop all that out. How do I
properly say your your
rocco (03:04):
name? Rocco is my first name. My last name is career
row. So Rocco career rose, my
Josh Bolton (03:10):
arrow. Okay. Jump on that out. Welcome, everybody.
Today we have Rocco Carrera. Sohe I see there, right. But we're
going to talk about some awesomestuff. We were just chatting
about investing in trading,especially on a recording of
this on the sixth of October,how the markets just whipping
(03:34):
everywhere are different pointsof views, but he has some great
takes on business and advice andjust life in general. Take it
away.
rocco (03:44):
Well, Josh, first of all, thanks for having me on your
show today. Thank you. Yeah, Ithink the one of the things we
wanted to talk about today ishis book I wrote called The
three chords approach to life,and wealth management for
business owners. And the bookreally takes a look at a
person's business life, slashfinancial, their life as a
(04:06):
family person, and then theirlife as an individual. And the
three chords approach really isis another way to look at
comprehensive planning. So thebook goes over financial
planning strategies, if but usesa three quarter approach to make
all those different thingshappen.
Josh Bolton (04:25):
That's interesting.
Can we go into the first quarterof overall? Sure.
rocco (04:31):
So now, everybody's, so everyone's like, well, what's
the first chord? You know, eachof the chords are equally as
important. They really are. Andso there's no there's no right
or wrong way as to what somebodymight say the first quarter, the
second quarter, the third chordis and so for our purposes in
(04:52):
this conversation, let's kind oftake a look at the first chord
being business right? And sotake a business person first
quarter, you know, having havinga strong business, having things
set up financially, in a waywhere you're really strong is
really important. And so all aswell as your financial matters.
And that's, that's usuallyachieved through doing good long
(05:14):
term comprehensive financialplanning. And this is planning,
so that that represents sobusiness and finance is the
first chord.
Josh Bolton (05:24):
Okay. So then, on the note of business do, do you
talk about the, the aspect ofwork life balance, because an
entrepreneurs life is very, it'seither it's all or nothing kind
of thing at times. Yeah.
rocco (05:37):
So we do talk about that.
And, you know, it's very hard,you know, it's very hard to do
everything well at once. So inthe book, we kind of talk about,
you know, when you're, whenyou're focused on business, you
want to try to be focused onbusiness as much as possible.
When you're focused on family,to be there for your family,
when you're focused on yourself.
(05:58):
You're, you're, you know, you'repaying attention to what you're
doing on your own. And, andthat's really the concept, you
know, you can't do all three,well, at the same time, you got
to have periods of like, whenyou're doing things. So if
you're working in your business,you grown your business, you
kind of want to be there fullyfor your business, right? If
(06:20):
you're there with your family,and your your kids soccer game,
or make sure you're at thesoccer game, and that you're not
on your I product, texting or,you know, talking to somebody.
And then the last piece, ofcourse, is you know, yourself,
right? So it's, you got to makethe time to do the things for
yourself and make sure thatyou're healthy, mentally,
physically, spiritually, all ofthose different pieces.
Josh Bolton (06:41):
Yeah, that's the biggest one, as I've talked to
different entrepreneurs, thesome said, we learned this
lesson way too late in life andforgot to prioritize ourselves.
rocco (06:52):
Yeah, yeah. You know, that is, you know, I've met,
really, you know, I've beenworking with highly successful
CEOs, entrepreneurs and businessowners for 25 years. And, and,
you know, a lot of times, youknow, it's not intentional, but
business owners really focus themajority of their time on their
(07:12):
business. And then sometimeswhat happens is that their
family takes a backseat to it.
And that does impact thingslater on down the road. And
also, let's say you kick abusiness owners got a really
successful business, but they'rethere for their family, but then
they don't pay attention tothemselves as far as taking care
of their well being. Or you gota guy that's really terrific at
(07:34):
at being a family person,they're really great and looking
after themselves, but they'reletting their business just go
to the wayside. So all three areimportant. All three, you know,
each chord individually is notas strong as when all three
together, it's a reallyimportant point. And the three
chords separately, could snap,but it's when you put all three
(07:57):
together, you basically nowyou're on a rope. And that makes
things really strong.
Josh Bolton (08:03):
Yeah, I was gonna say, when you wrap the three
together to rope, it's hard tobreak it impossible. It is at
times. So then, what are some ofthe other aspects that you go
into with your book.
rocco (08:17):
Other aspects of, you know, we kind of talk about my
background is, you know, gettinginto business. You know, I
learned a lot about business.
From my father, basically, my,my dad had a tailor shop and my,
our local hometown and, andwhile I was at the tailor shop,
I got to see how he worked withwith his customers. And he
(08:40):
never, never wanted me to learnhow to be a tailor. I literally,
unfortunately, can't even sew abutton onto a shirt. And he
wanted me to sit at the desk andwatch how he dealt with his
customers. He wanted me to readand he wanted me to write and he
wanted me to do math, he said,you know, you're not going to
touch these machines, you're notdoing any of that. And, and, you
know, I really didn't understandthat at the time, I kind of was
(09:06):
actually kind of angry saying,why won't you let me use the
press machine? Why don't you letme do these different things.
And he was very adamant about menot and, you know, and, you
know, I guess it kind of workedout okay for me, by folk by by
focusing on the things that hetold me to focus on.
Josh Bolton (09:26):
Yeah, I'm sure he was seeing. He's like, my
industry, my business, it's notgoing to last. So I learned a
trade that's going to disappeareventually.
rocco (09:37):
Totally. That's basically what happened. You know, you
know, now people they rip theirpants and they just throw them
away. Go buy another one, youknow, years ago, people go to a
tailor get the pads fixed orwhatever. And now it's we live
in this disposable societiesthrow things out and go get
another pair.
Josh Bolton (09:54):
Yeah, yeah.
Although when I repent, it's theit's usually at the seams. So
it's not aren't really easy torepair.
rocco (10:02):
Because he should go out and buy a new pair.
Josh Bolton (10:04):
I would say that one is like, Okay, I'll go buy a
new one. But yeah, likedifferent shirts. For the
longest time, I would patch themup to.
rocco (10:10):
Yeah, that's, you know, and, and so yeah, that's so you
know, my, I'm a product of I'm afirst generation American, my
parents came from Italy, andthey came in the early 1960s.
And I'm very proud of ourheritage and very proud of the
lessons that I learned and proudof the culture the you know,
(10:33):
the, you know, Italian peopletelling people are very
hospitable. You know, they liketo eat and hang out and
socialize. And, you know, it'sone of the things that I was
around my whole life. And thattoo, has been a great, great
thing we so I kind of talkedabout that in the book, too. But
book is really a financialplanning book that's focused on
(10:56):
doing financial planning, andthen takes the three chords
approach and kind of wraps itinto it.
Josh Bolton (11:02):
So then, what are some of the strategies that you
go into for the financialplanning of the book?
rocco (11:07):
Well, you know, first thing we do is we kind of have
people take a look at their,their assets, their liabilities,
their income, their expenses,their risk management, their
estate planning, kind of wherethey stand today. Okay, and then
they talk about, okay, this iswhere I want to go, and then,
you know, so let's say a personhas, you know, $500,000. So
(11:28):
like, Listen, I want to have $3million, by the time I retire.
And then we build out this plansaying, Okay, well, if you do
this year, in year out, by thetime you retire, you will get to
that $3 million mark. And thatreally ties in with what we do
with people every day in withinour practice.
Josh Bolton (11:49):
That's impressive.
So I'm just curious, for me aprofile for 29 year old working
minimum wage job has a Roth IRA,what would be a strategy you
would recommend to that?
rocco (12:03):
That's a great question.
Because I get that question alot, where people say, Well,
this is my situation. This iswhat I earn, what should I do?
And I asked what was askedpeople will, more importantly,
to the as is you just shared meshare with me about your the
reality? What do you really wantfor yourself? So what do you
what is it that you would wantfor yourself, you know, 1020 30
(12:25):
years from now. And, and oncethat's clearly defined, you
said, you know, I'd like to workto be optional. I'd like to live
comfortably off of my resources,I'd like to do all these
different things, then we couldreally help you help to build
out a plan that's going to helpyou get there. So if you said,
you know, I need this muchincome, then I, I would suggest,
(12:48):
you know, if the if the incomethat you're earning now, cannot
fund the retirement goal, I'mgoing to suggest to you that you
go out there and do somethingdifferent to earn more or less.
Yeah.
Josh Bolton (13:05):
That very good point. And yeah, it was like you
were saying earlier, I guess mygoal is to get to the point
where a fork is optional. If Iwant to take a week off, I can,
because my assets are paying meenough. And the thing? Yeah.
Okay, yeah. I get the picture.
Thank you. So then, for gettingback to my case, let's say it's
(13:25):
a person earning 60k A year canset aside at least 20 Just needs
40k a year to get by there.
Clearly, they're not inCalifornia, because I like I
like that
rocco (13:39):
person, that person seems very financially responsible.
Okay.
Josh Bolton (13:44):
What would be some of the strategies from the book,
but also from you that you wouldrecommend to put that 20k to
work?
rocco (13:51):
Well, first thing is, if they're working someplace that
have access to a 401 K plan,they could put like, you know,
19,500 into their 401 K plan,maybe get a company match
depending on the company's plan.
But that's kind of a homerunright there. They bank 20 grand
they choose if they can bank20,000 bucks a year, for a
while. They'll they're gonna bethey'll be really, really great
(14:13):
shape and retirement. But youknow, let's see if they could
bank 20,000 a year over the next20 years, they'll be in great
shape.
Josh Bolton (14:23):
Okay, so yeah, I would just think of an avatar
where they can reasonably setaside that much money. Okay,
cool. What are yours? Do youalso in your practice, help
people figure out? I wouldn'tnecessarily say run their
business, but advise them indifferent ways to optimize it.
rocco (14:48):
Yeah, yeah, I did that this morning. That was my first
appointment this morning. Okay,and we work with business owners
on structuring a team, who thebusiness owner surrounds himself
with who's their risk manager.
levels of insurance was theirattorney who's their accountant
who's their banker, who's theirfinancial advisor, who's their
estate planning attorney. So welook at, we look at all those
different things and make surethat business owners really have
(15:10):
a sound group of people aroundthem, to help them achieve
their, their, their financialgoals.
Josh Bolton (15:19):
Interesting. So then was what was without giving
too much information away, whatwas their biggest critiques that
you pointed out to them thatthey didn't even see coming?
rocco (15:30):
They were, they were a young couple, and they didn't
have risk management? Well, youknow, three kids didn't have any
life insurance. That's, youknow, they had a great business
making lots of money. However,the if something happened to the
primary earning person in thatrelationship, they're in big
trouble. And so, you know, thatwas I said, before you really do
(15:51):
anything here, we need to getrisk management in place.
Josh Bolton (15:56):
Interesting. So would that be like terminal life
for them?
rocco (16:00):
You know, it depends on their cash flow, but probably be
a combination of both some termand some permanent. And that's
really the, you know, the bepart of the idea. Okay,
Josh Bolton (16:13):
do you also recommend if they go the whole
life route, they get the bank onnew certified insurer, so they
can also pull out on their lifeinsurance? Or is that more?
rocco (16:22):
Yeah, so people like to use that, you know, the cash
value life insurance and turn itinto retirement income life
insurance strategies?
Definitely, you know, but first,you know, we want them to max
out their 401 K plan. And thenafter that, if they want to use
retirement, if their cash flowis good enough, we then would,
you know, have them useretirement income life
insurance. Okay.
Josh Bolton (16:44):
So but that's a more once everything's establish
than you do that strategy. Yeah,
rocco (16:50):
but you know, once everything established, but the,
you know, getting the gettingthe term insurance set up quick,
is something for them. I said,you know, you really got to get
this going. So interesting.
Josh Bolton (17:04):
Very interesting. I just want to touch on something
earlier, you mentioned your DItalian family, can you give us
a little bit of a like a up andcoming story, like you told us
about your father and yourfamily, but what were like the
events that led up to you beingwhere you are today.
rocco (17:21):
Um, I would say that, so I've always liked helping
people. So I've always had thatinterest, even from young child
and I, I liked helping people, Iliked business. I liked looking
at companies and understandingwhy they were or why one company
(17:43):
was better than than the other.
And, and so, I, when I was incollege, I enter in the
business, and I can't really gotkind of a better idea as to how
it works with security selectionand doing that, and, and I but I
also decided, I knew I didn'twant to be an analyst, because I
(18:03):
like working directly withpeople, or a portfolio manager.
So I liked, I really liked theidea of sitting around the table
and talking to people, andpeople telling me their
problems, and then me coming upwith solutions, and I had to
help them achieve thosefinancial goals. And that's kind
of how I ended up in this world.
(18:24):
25 years ago, it was just
Josh Bolton (18:27):
was it the a lot of people were asking you, oh, you
know, this, can you help us withour finances or you like, bumped
into some person that puts youon this path?
rocco (18:39):
You know, I was, I knew that I wanted to be. I knew that
I wanted to be in the world offinancial services. Actually, my
first thought was that I wasgoing to be an investment
banker, and I was going totravel the world and raise
capital. But as I told you, yourfirst generation tie in America,
close with my parents, I knewthat that job would require me
(19:02):
to travel a lot. And I did notwant to be more than 2530
minutes away from my home. Sobeing in the world of financial
services, you have to work inthe world of retail, in order to
basically be able to work in youknow, suburbia Ville, right
suburbia. This me now there's somuch more technology where
(19:22):
people could trade fromanywhere. But, you know, 25
years ago, you would work withthe retail market, the
individual people, and thatallowed me to be close to home.
Josh Bolton (19:35):
Yeah, yeah, especially 25 years ago. I think
online trading was juststarting, but it's still kind of
clunky.
rocco (19:41):
Yeah, just start. Yeah, yep.
Josh Bolton (19:44):
Yeah, I've heard some horror stories of people
when they were first using Etrade. I believe it was and
there were some of the people Ihave a zoom call every like two
weeks and they're like, oh mygosh, we lost so much skin off
our back because of that E tradebecause it wouldn't execute when
we needed it. Do
rocco (20:00):
ya? Still probably, you know, when you think about, you
know, all this online trading ifyour system goes down I mean,
you know, people got to becareful a lot. A lot of this
stuff with technology is muchbetter now.
Josh Bolton (20:11):
Yeah. And there's a lot of server based stuff now.
Like my TD Ameritrade, I justplaced an order it's on the
server excu when my rules areactivated? Yeah. Yeah. That's
yeah. So was it because you wereyou had to be more in suburbia?
Was it? Because the clients ordid you have to be close to the
(20:34):
trading area?
rocco (20:35):
No, I, I wanted to be suburbia because I wanted to be
close to my hometown and wheremy parents were. So you know, I
could become a wealth managerfor people in New York City. But
that would, you know, that wasgonna get me like an hour and a
half commuting every day. So Iwanted to spend my time in the
office and working with clientsdidn't want to spend my time on
a bus or train or the car. Andso I was still living at home
(21:00):
with my parents at the time. Andso, you know, this type of work
was like, the, the ideal spacefor me.
Josh Bolton (21:08):
Okay, so then, well, tying back to your three
chords aspect, how did youbalance yourself with your rules
that you have now? What wouldyou recommend to your younger
self? With the three chordprinciple?
rocco (21:25):
I'm definitely to put more into my physical self,
right, you know, so, I wouldtend to start and stop with
exercising. And like, right nowI'm doing pretty good that
exercise it for a couple ofweeks, every day has gone great,
but but, you know, during theyounger years, it was like, I
(21:45):
really didn't have time foranything. But really, my work
and my family and, and I reallydidn't, I did a lot of
professional and personaldevelopment. They just wasn't in
the physical space. Okay,
Josh Bolton (22:01):
so it would be the focus on yourself and your, your
well being on top of everythingelse.
rocco (22:07):
Yeah, absolutely.
Josh Bolton (22:09):
I'm just guessing here, I'm sure you skipped a lot
of code. You had a couple ofsleepless nights
rocco (22:15):
I still have sleepless nights. I mean, I still do you
know, I worry about my kids, Itend to worry and you know,
think worrying is a is thishuman element thing that we were
programmed in as humans you know1000s of years ago right? And
(22:36):
you know, the kind of protectedus from from doing crazy things
right? So yeah, that's basicallybut I still do worry I worry
about different things that I'mworried about 20 years ago but
worry you know, I think worriesis not in a not as bad as people
like to make it out today. Thinksome worry is good.
Josh Bolton (22:58):
Yeah, gives you a little edge but not too much.
And I have to agree with ourancestors. Were he was good
because if you heard a bushfruit shake, you weren't alert
of it. It could have been a lionthat just jumps out and kills
you kind of thing. Exactly. Wedon't have random lions jumping
out and killing us at least herein New York and LA area. Maybe
Montana you might have thatproblem though.
rocco (23:19):
Sometimes in Southampton we got some we got some bears
locally but I'm just jokingjoking about that. But But yeah,
that's that's you know so Ithink the human body was brain
was programmed to as a defensemechanism to you know, have some
worry and had the sleeplessnights but obviously during the
caveman days they were worriedabout the same thing so we don't
(23:42):
know we all worry about to that
Josh Bolton (23:45):
Yeah, cuz we got our food relatively in check we
got our shelter. So it becomesthe hierarchy system like Okay,
now we got to worry about thisand this, which was Yeah. So
what are you doing? Currentlybecause you said you you're
exercising at least daily areyou doing like going to the gym
(24:06):
riding your bike,
rocco (24:07):
I kind of gym at home and I you know what I've been really
doing recently which I reallylike and it's kind of fun is
I've been working on arebounder. So a little
trampoline. And not a springbased trampoline. It's got like
these, these cords on it andgive them a little plug it's
called belly con is the companyand they make a premium little
(24:28):
trampoline, and I jump on it forI think if you jump on it for 20
minutes like it's equivalent tolike being on the treadmill for
like over an hour. And becausewhen you jump up and down as
you're you're using certainmuscles that you don't normally
use and that your boat your bodygets double the efficiency
because you're even thoughyou're not working when you're
(24:49):
coming down your muscles areflexing. So I found it to be a
very efficient way to exerciseis using the the trampoline
Josh Bolton (24:59):
it also gives you the benefit of moving your
lymphatic system to.
rocco (25:03):
Yes, yep. Yep. And which is great, too. So I like it,
it's fun, it's different. Andyeah, we continue to do it.
Josh Bolton (25:14):
That's awesome. So then I'm just curious for you,
if you're exercising, I'm justassuming you're, you're slowly
incorporating more healthierfoods or have been eating
healthier.
rocco (25:27):
You know, I go through phases with that sometimes they,
you know, eat really good, ketoor clean diet,
or this or that, and, and, youknow, it's the red wine that
actually kills me. It's, it's,you know, those are like,
unnecessary calories, but, but Ido try to eat good, as much as I
can. And I've got to do a betterjob of that as well.
Josh Bolton (25:53):
Is it more like the red wine in a passage, just like
your kryptonite kind of thing?
rocco (25:59):
You know, I read, you know, bread, red wine, pasta.
You know, I spent a lot ofthings they don't like, but um,
but it's, you know, trying tostay away from those. Those
complex carbs. sugars, right. Sothe that's inside of wine, bread
(26:20):
and pasta. But we're working outwe're working on it.
Josh Bolton (26:25):
Yeah, that is the hardest part. Because we
especially because it's so hardfor the body to digest it just
see how you see insulin, just ona whole gnarly level. And you're
just, our bodies were meant touse sugar, but not to that
caliber.
rocco (26:40):
Not to that caliber, right? I mean, I'll eat some
chocolate. But, you know, youknow, that's, that's another
thing I just, you know, we justgot to where you put energy
usually see results. So if I putmore energy into the diet, more
energy to the exercise, youwould think that you would see
more results. So I just needmore energy in that space.
Josh Bolton (27:04):
So then tying into that, how would we? How would
you advise people to structuretheir lives and give more energy
towards dieting?
rocco (27:18):
Yeah, I would say that they got to develop a model
calendar. And what a modelcalendar really does is it helps
you to kind of lay out your day,every day, you got to put it in
there and when you're gonna haveyour meals, and what you're
going to eat got to make it aseasy as possible. Right? Okay.
You know, eating at, you know,711 136. And this is what I'm
(27:42):
going to be eating, you know, ifyou make it if you make it as
easy as possible, it, you know,tends to actually happen.
Josh Bolton (27:49):
Yeah, yeah, that's the biggest one. As I've talked
to different entrepreneurs,they're the one of them it was a
lady, my earlier one shejokingly was telling me, she's
like, Yeah, my day is so busy. Ihave to literally scheduling
when I have to take a restroombreak. I'm like, you rent your
bells don't work that way. Like,oh, you only work from 2pm to
3pm. She works for me. Like,that's funny. But yeah, but
(28:15):
that's the biggest one. All thedifferent entrepreneurs I've
chatted with, they're like,yeah, like, have the schedule,
even if it's a rough outline,and just follow it.
rocco (28:23):
It's hard. This old stuff is hard, you know. But, but
listen, if you know, life'sgonna pass regardless, so we're
going to do it. Try to do thebest job we can.
Josh Bolton (28:34):
Yeah, try not to have as many regrets as
possible. Just just live life.
Honestly, I'm actually runningout of questions to talk about,
is there anything I might havemissed that you wanted to chat
about?
rocco (28:47):
No, I think you covered everything and he did a great
job. And thank you very much forhaving me today. Kind of talking
about up. People want to knowmore information about the book.
They go to my website, which isRocco a career row.com.
Josh Bolton (29:02):
Wonderful. Thank you so much for coming on. This
has been an absolute honor.
Thanks, Josh. Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
That's a great question.
Because I get that question alot where people say, Well, this
is my situation. This is what Iearn. What should I do? And I
asked goes as people will, moreimportantly, to the as is you
just shared me share with meabout your the reality? What do
you really want for yourself? Sowhat do you what is it that you
(00:21):
would want for yourself? Youknow, 1020 30 years from now.
intro guy (00:29):
Welcome to the Josh Bolton show. interesting and
inspiring conversations. And nowyour host, Josh Bolton.
Josh Bolton (00:42):
But yeah, that's interesting. So then what else
do you do other than yourcoaching and financial advice
stuff?
rocco (00:52):
That's what you know, pretty much what I do is I work
with people on developing likestrategic financial plans, and
then and then after the planningis clear that we place the
investments for people in themarkets, okay.
Josh Bolton (01:09):
We do that every day. So is more of a vise or do
you actually manage their moneytoo?
rocco (01:15):
We manage their money, too. So it's advice first, and
then we implemented theinvestments. Okay.
Josh Bolton (01:23):
So for those who don't have like a high risk, but
they're the they're notcompletely conservative, would
you $1 cost average for the s&p500? We wonder that you would
advise,
rocco (01:34):
well, you know, the s&p 500 is considered to be, you
know, that's an aggressive assetclass. When you start talking
equities. Equities are notconservative, never fall to the
basket of conservative even thes&p 500. Right. So conservative
and equities are, are the polaropposite. So start mentioning
(01:56):
conservative you want to buyCDs, treasuries, certain bonds.
You know, when you start talkingabout equities, you start moving
to moderate, moderatelyaggressive and aggressive.
Josh Bolton (02:10):
What's the most aggressive in your scale? For
rocco (02:13):
I would say, you know, somebody's buying, like, small
cap and mid cap equities wouldbe the most aggressive. And but
if somebody's dollar costaveraging into those asset
classes, you know, the tenure atyou know, when you look at it
from a decade perspective, theyusually do pretty good.
Josh Bolton (02:32):
Yeah, usually, it'll be like we were talking
about earlier. It'll, it'll beinteresting how this plays out
currently, what's going on?
Totally.
rocco (02:42):
I think I think a lot of I think this has just been a
really bad year. I think thatnext year. I'm hopeful that you
know that things are gonna getbetter. Yeah.
Josh Bolton (02:57):
Me too. So then I'll chop all that out. How do I
properly say your your
rocco (03:04):
name? Rocco is my first name. My last name is career
row. So Rocco career rose, my
Josh Bolton (03:10):
arrow. Okay. Jump on that out. Welcome, everybody.
Today we have Rocco Carrera. Sohe I see there, right. But we're
going to talk about some awesomestuff. We were just chatting
about investing in trading,especially on a recording of
this on the sixth of October,how the markets just whipping
(03:34):
everywhere are different pointsof views, but he has some great
takes on business and advice andjust life in general. Take it
away.
rocco (03:44):
Well, Josh, first of all, thanks for having me on your
show today. Thank you. Yeah, Ithink the one of the things we
wanted to talk about today ishis book I wrote called The
three chords approach to life,and wealth management for
business owners. And the bookreally takes a look at a
person's business life, slashfinancial, their life as a
(04:06):
family person, and then theirlife as an individual. And the
three chords approach really isis another way to look at
comprehensive planning. So thebook goes over financial
planning strategies, if but usesa three quarter approach to make
all those different thingshappen.
Josh Bolton (04:25):
That's interesting.
Can we go into the first quarterof overall? Sure.
rocco (04:31):
So now, everybody's, so everyone's like, well, what's
the first chord? You know, eachof the chords are equally as
important. They really are. Andso there's no there's no right
or wrong way as to what somebodymight say the first quarter, the
second quarter, the third chordis and so for our purposes in
(04:52):
this conversation, let's kind oftake a look at the first chord
being business right? And sotake a business person first
quarter, you know, having havinga strong business, having things
set up financially, in a waywhere you're really strong is
really important. And so all aswell as your financial matters.
And that's, that's usuallyachieved through doing good long
(05:14):
term comprehensive financialplanning. And this is planning,
so that that represents sobusiness and finance is the
first chord.
Josh Bolton (05:24):
Okay. So then, on the note of business do, do you
talk about the, the aspect ofwork life balance, because an
entrepreneurs life is very, it'seither it's all or nothing kind
of thing at times. Yeah.
rocco (05:37):
So we do talk about that.
And, you know, it's very hard,you know, it's very hard to do
everything well at once. So inthe book, we kind of talk about,
you know, when you're, whenyou're focused on business, you
want to try to be focused onbusiness as much as possible.
When you're focused on family,to be there for your family,
when you're focused on yourself.
(05:58):
You're, you're, you know, you'repaying attention to what you're
doing on your own. And, andthat's really the concept, you
know, you can't do all three,well, at the same time, you got
to have periods of like, whenyou're doing things. So if
you're working in your business,you grown your business, you
kind of want to be there fullyfor your business, right? If
(06:20):
you're there with your family,and your your kids soccer game,
or make sure you're at thesoccer game, and that you're not
on your I product, texting or,you know, talking to somebody.
And then the last piece, ofcourse, is you know, yourself,
right? So it's, you got to makethe time to do the things for
yourself and make sure thatyou're healthy, mentally,
physically, spiritually, all ofthose different pieces.
Josh Bolton (06:41):
Yeah, that's the biggest one, as I've talked to
different entrepreneurs, thesome said, we learned this
lesson way too late in life andforgot to prioritize ourselves.
rocco (06:52):
Yeah, yeah. You know, that is, you know, I've met,
really, you know, I've beenworking with highly successful
CEOs, entrepreneurs and businessowners for 25 years. And, and,
you know, a lot of times, youknow, it's not intentional, but
business owners really focus themajority of their time on their
(07:12):
business. And then sometimeswhat happens is that their
family takes a backseat to it.
And that does impact thingslater on down the road. And
also, let's say you kick abusiness owners got a really
successful business, but they'rethere for their family, but then
they don't pay attention tothemselves as far as taking care
of their well being. Or you gota guy that's really terrific at
(07:34):
at being a family person,they're really great and looking
after themselves, but they'reletting their business just go
to the wayside. So all three areimportant. All three, you know,
each chord individually is notas strong as when all three
together, it's a reallyimportant point. And the three
chords separately, could snap,but it's when you put all three
(07:57):
together, you basically nowyou're on a rope. And that makes
things really strong.
Josh Bolton (08:03):
Yeah, I was gonna say, when you wrap the three
together to rope, it's hard tobreak it impossible. It is at
times. So then, what are some ofthe other aspects that you go
into with your book.
rocco (08:17):
Other aspects of, you know, we kind of talk about my
background is, you know, gettinginto business. You know, I
learned a lot about business.
From my father, basically, my,my dad had a tailor shop and my,
our local hometown and, andwhile I was at the tailor shop,
I got to see how he worked withwith his customers. And he
(08:40):
never, never wanted me to learnhow to be a tailor. I literally,
unfortunately, can't even sew abutton onto a shirt. And he
wanted me to sit at the desk andwatch how he dealt with his
customers. He wanted me to readand he wanted me to write and he
wanted me to do math, he said,you know, you're not going to
touch these machines, you're notdoing any of that. And, and, you
know, I really didn't understandthat at the time, I kind of was
(09:06):
actually kind of angry saying,why won't you let me use the
press machine? Why don't you letme do these different things.
And he was very adamant about menot and, you know, and, you
know, I guess it kind of workedout okay for me, by folk by by
focusing on the things that hetold me to focus on.
Josh Bolton (09:26):
Yeah, I'm sure he was seeing. He's like, my
industry, my business, it's notgoing to last. So I learned a
trade that's going to disappeareventually.
rocco (09:37):
Totally. That's basically what happened. You know, you
know, now people they rip theirpants and they just throw them
away. Go buy another one, youknow, years ago, people go to a
tailor get the pads fixed orwhatever. And now it's we live
in this disposable societiesthrow things out and go get
another pair.
Josh Bolton (09:54):
Yeah, yeah.
Although when I repent, it's theit's usually at the seams. So
it's not aren't really easy torepair.
rocco (10:02):
Because he should go out and buy a new pair.
Josh Bolton (10:04):
I would say that one is like, Okay, I'll go buy a
new one. But yeah, likedifferent shirts. For the
longest time, I would patch themup to.
rocco (10:10):
Yeah, that's, you know, and, and so yeah, that's so you
know, my, I'm a product of I'm afirst generation American, my
parents came from Italy, andthey came in the early 1960s.
And I'm very proud of ourheritage and very proud of the
lessons that I learned and proudof the culture the you know,
(10:33):
the, you know, Italian peopletelling people are very
hospitable. You know, they liketo eat and hang out and
socialize. And, you know, it'sone of the things that I was
around my whole life. And thattoo, has been a great, great
thing we so I kind of talkedabout that in the book, too. But
book is really a financialplanning book that's focused on
(10:56):
doing financial planning, andthen takes the three chords
approach and kind of wraps itinto it.
Josh Bolton (11:02):
So then, what are some of the strategies that you
go into for the financialplanning of the book?
rocco (11:07):
Well, you know, first thing we do is we kind of have
people take a look at their,their assets, their liabilities,
their income, their expenses,their risk management, their
estate planning, kind of wherethey stand today. Okay, and then
they talk about, okay, this iswhere I want to go, and then,
you know, so let's say a personhas, you know, $500,000. So
(11:28):
like, Listen, I want to have $3million, by the time I retire.
And then we build out this plansaying, Okay, well, if you do
this year, in year out, by thetime you retire, you will get to
that $3 million mark. And thatreally ties in with what we do
with people every day in withinour practice.
Josh Bolton (11:49):
That's impressive.
So I'm just curious, for me aprofile for 29 year old working
minimum wage job has a Roth IRA,what would be a strategy you
would recommend to that?
rocco (12:03):
That's a great question.
Because I get that question alot, where people say, Well,
this is my situation. This iswhat I earn, what should I do?
And I asked what was askedpeople will, more importantly,
to the as is you just shared meshare with me about your the
reality? What do you really wantfor yourself? So what do you
what is it that you would wantfor yourself, you know, 1020 30
(12:25):
years from now. And, and oncethat's clearly defined, you
said, you know, I'd like to workto be optional. I'd like to live
comfortably off of my resources,I'd like to do all these
different things, then we couldreally help you help to build
out a plan that's going to helpyou get there. So if you said,
you know, I need this muchincome, then I, I would suggest,
(12:48):
you know, if the if the incomethat you're earning now, cannot
fund the retirement goal, I'mgoing to suggest to you that you
go out there and do somethingdifferent to earn more or less.
Yeah.
Josh Bolton (13:05):
That very good point. And yeah, it was like you
were saying earlier, I guess mygoal is to get to the point
where a fork is optional. If Iwant to take a week off, I can,
because my assets are paying meenough. And the thing? Yeah.
Okay, yeah. I get the picture.
Thank you. So then, for gettingback to my case, let's say it's
(13:25):
a person earning 60k A year canset aside at least 20 Just needs
40k a year to get by there.
Clearly, they're not inCalifornia, because I like I
like that
rocco (13:39):
person, that person seems very financially responsible.
Okay.
Josh Bolton (13:44):
What would be some of the strategies from the book,
but also from you that you wouldrecommend to put that 20k to
work?
rocco (13:51):
Well, first thing is, if they're working someplace that
have access to a 401 K plan,they could put like, you know,
19,500 into their 401 K plan,maybe get a company match
depending on the company's plan.
But that's kind of a homerunright there. They bank 20 grand
they choose if they can bank20,000 bucks a year, for a
while. They'll they're gonna bethey'll be really, really great
(14:13):
shape and retirement. But youknow, let's see if they could
bank 20,000 a year over the next20 years, they'll be in great
shape.
Josh Bolton (14:23):
Okay, so yeah, I would just think of an avatar
where they can reasonably setaside that much money. Okay,
cool. What are yours? Do youalso in your practice, help
people figure out? I wouldn'tnecessarily say run their
business, but advise them indifferent ways to optimize it.
rocco (14:48):
Yeah, yeah, I did that this morning. That was my first
appointment this morning. Okay,and we work with business owners
on structuring a team, who thebusiness owner surrounds himself
with who's their risk manager.
levels of insurance was theirattorney who's their accountant
who's their banker, who's theirfinancial advisor, who's their
estate planning attorney. So welook at, we look at all those
different things and make surethat business owners really have
(15:10):
a sound group of people aroundthem, to help them achieve
their, their, their financialgoals.
Josh Bolton (15:19):
Interesting. So then was what was without giving
too much information away, whatwas their biggest critiques that
you pointed out to them thatthey didn't even see coming?
rocco (15:30):
They were, they were a young couple, and they didn't
have risk management? Well, youknow, three kids didn't have any
life insurance. That's, youknow, they had a great business
making lots of money. However,the if something happened to the
primary earning person in thatrelationship, they're in big
trouble. And so, you know, thatwas I said, before you really do
(15:51):
anything here, we need to getrisk management in place.
Josh Bolton (15:56):
Interesting. So would that be like terminal life
for them?
rocco (16:00):
You know, it depends on their cash flow, but probably be
a combination of both some termand some permanent. And that's
really the, you know, the bepart of the idea. Okay,
Josh Bolton (16:13):
do you also recommend if they go the whole
life route, they get the bank onnew certified insurer, so they
can also pull out on their lifeinsurance? Or is that more?
rocco (16:22):
Yeah, so people like to use that, you know, the cash
value life insurance and turn itinto retirement income life
insurance strategies?
Definitely, you know, but first,you know, we want them to max
out their 401 K plan. And thenafter that, if they want to use
retirement, if their cash flowis good enough, we then would,
you know, have them useretirement income life
insurance. Okay.
Josh Bolton (16:44):
So but that's a more once everything's establish
than you do that strategy. Yeah,
rocco (16:50):
but you know, once everything established, but the,
you know, getting the gettingthe term insurance set up quick,
is something for them. I said,you know, you really got to get
this going. So interesting.
Josh Bolton (17:04):
Very interesting. I just want to touch on something
earlier, you mentioned your DItalian family, can you give us
a little bit of a like a up andcoming story, like you told us
about your father and yourfamily, but what were like the
events that led up to you beingwhere you are today.
rocco (17:21):
Um, I would say that, so I've always liked helping
people. So I've always had thatinterest, even from young child
and I, I liked helping people, Iliked business. I liked looking
at companies and understandingwhy they were or why one company
(17:43):
was better than than the other.
And, and so, I, when I was incollege, I enter in the
business, and I can't really gotkind of a better idea as to how
it works with security selectionand doing that, and, and I but I
also decided, I knew I didn'twant to be an analyst, because I
(18:03):
like working directly withpeople, or a portfolio manager.
So I liked, I really liked theidea of sitting around the table
and talking to people, andpeople telling me their
problems, and then me coming upwith solutions, and I had to
help them achieve thosefinancial goals. And that's kind
of how I ended up in this world.
(18:24):
25 years ago, it was just
Josh Bolton (18:27):
was it the a lot of people were asking you, oh, you
know, this, can you help us withour finances or you like, bumped
into some person that puts youon this path?
rocco (18:39):
You know, I was, I knew that I wanted to be. I knew that
I wanted to be in the world offinancial services. Actually, my
first thought was that I wasgoing to be an investment
banker, and I was going totravel the world and raise
capital. But as I told you, yourfirst generation tie in America,
close with my parents, I knewthat that job would require me
(19:02):
to travel a lot. And I did notwant to be more than 2530
minutes away from my home. Sobeing in the world of financial
services, you have to work inthe world of retail, in order to
basically be able to work in youknow, suburbia Ville, right
suburbia. This me now there's somuch more technology where
(19:22):
people could trade fromanywhere. But, you know, 25
years ago, you would work withthe retail market, the
individual people, and thatallowed me to be close to home.
Josh Bolton (19:35):
Yeah, yeah, especially 25 years ago. I think
online trading was juststarting, but it's still kind of
clunky.
rocco (19:41):
Yeah, just start. Yeah, yep.
Josh Bolton (19:44):
Yeah, I've heard some horror stories of people
when they were first using Etrade. I believe it was and
there were some of the people Ihave a zoom call every like two
weeks and they're like, oh mygosh, we lost so much skin off
our back because of that E tradebecause it wouldn't execute when
we needed it. Do
rocco (20:00):
ya? Still probably, you know, when you think about, you
know, all this online trading ifyour system goes down I mean,
you know, people got to becareful a lot. A lot of this
stuff with technology is muchbetter now.
Josh Bolton (20:11):
Yeah. And there's a lot of server based stuff now.
Like my TD Ameritrade, I justplaced an order it's on the
server excu when my rules areactivated? Yeah. Yeah. That's
yeah. So was it because you wereyou had to be more in suburbia?
Was it? Because the clients ordid you have to be close to the
(20:34):
trading area?
rocco (20:35):
No, I, I wanted to be suburbia because I wanted to be
close to my hometown and wheremy parents were. So you know, I
could become a wealth managerfor people in New York City. But
that would, you know, that wasgonna get me like an hour and a
half commuting every day. So Iwanted to spend my time in the
office and working with clientsdidn't want to spend my time on
a bus or train or the car. Andso I was still living at home
(21:00):
with my parents at the time. Andso, you know, this type of work
was like, the, the ideal spacefor me.
Josh Bolton (21:08):
Okay, so then, well, tying back to your three
chords aspect, how did youbalance yourself with your rules
that you have now? What wouldyou recommend to your younger
self? With the three chordprinciple?
rocco (21:25):
I'm definitely to put more into my physical self,
right, you know, so, I wouldtend to start and stop with
exercising. And like, right nowI'm doing pretty good that
exercise it for a couple ofweeks, every day has gone great,
but but, you know, during theyounger years, it was like, I
(21:45):
really didn't have time foranything. But really, my work
and my family and, and I reallydidn't, I did a lot of
professional and personaldevelopment. They just wasn't in
the physical space. Okay,
Josh Bolton (22:01):
so it would be the focus on yourself and your, your
well being on top of everythingelse.
rocco (22:07):
Yeah, absolutely.
Josh Bolton (22:09):
I'm just guessing here, I'm sure you skipped a lot
of code. You had a couple ofsleepless nights
rocco (22:15):
I still have sleepless nights. I mean, I still do you
know, I worry about my kids, Itend to worry and you know,
think worrying is a is thishuman element thing that we were
programmed in as humans you know1000s of years ago right? And
(22:36):
you know, the kind of protectedus from from doing crazy things
right? So yeah, that's basicallybut I still do worry I worry
about different things that I'mworried about 20 years ago but
worry you know, I think worriesis not in a not as bad as people
like to make it out today. Thinksome worry is good.
Josh Bolton (22:58):
Yeah, gives you a little edge but not too much.
And I have to agree with ourancestors. Were he was good
because if you heard a bushfruit shake, you weren't alert
of it. It could have been a lionthat just jumps out and kills
you kind of thing. Exactly. Wedon't have random lions jumping
out and killing us at least herein New York and LA area. Maybe
Montana you might have thatproblem though.
rocco (23:19):
Sometimes in Southampton we got some we got some bears
locally but I'm just jokingjoking about that. But But yeah,
that's that's you know so Ithink the human body was brain
was programmed to as a defensemechanism to you know, have some
worry and had the sleeplessnights but obviously during the
caveman days they were worriedabout the same thing so we don't
(23:42):
know we all worry about to that
Josh Bolton (23:45):
Yeah, cuz we got our food relatively in check we
got our shelter. So it becomesthe hierarchy system like Okay,
now we got to worry about thisand this, which was Yeah. So
what are you doing? Currentlybecause you said you you're
exercising at least daily areyou doing like going to the gym
(24:06):
riding your bike,
rocco (24:07):
I kind of gym at home and I you know what I've been really
doing recently which I reallylike and it's kind of fun is
I've been working on arebounder. So a little
trampoline. And not a springbased trampoline. It's got like
these, these cords on it andgive them a little plug it's
called belly con is the companyand they make a premium little
(24:28):
trampoline, and I jump on it forI think if you jump on it for 20
minutes like it's equivalent tolike being on the treadmill for
like over an hour. And becausewhen you jump up and down as
you're you're using certainmuscles that you don't normally
use and that your boat your bodygets double the efficiency
because you're even thoughyou're not working when you're
(24:49):
coming down your muscles areflexing. So I found it to be a
very efficient way to exerciseis using the the trampoline
Josh Bolton (24:59):
it also gives you the benefit of moving your
lymphatic system to.
rocco (25:03):
Yes, yep. Yep. And which is great, too. So I like it,
it's fun, it's different. Andyeah, we continue to do it.
Josh Bolton (25:14):
That's awesome. So then I'm just curious for you,
if you're exercising, I'm justassuming you're, you're slowly
incorporating more healthierfoods or have been eating
healthier.
rocco (25:27):
You know, I go through phases with that sometimes they,
you know, eat really good, ketoor clean diet,
or this or that, and, and, youknow, it's the red wine that
actually kills me. It's, it's,you know, those are like,
unnecessary calories, but, but Ido try to eat good, as much as I
can. And I've got to do a betterjob of that as well.
Josh Bolton (25:53):
Is it more like the red wine in a passage, just like
your kryptonite kind of thing?
rocco (25:59):
You know, I read, you know, bread, red wine, pasta.
You know, I spent a lot ofthings they don't like, but um,
but it's, you know, trying tostay away from those. Those
complex carbs. sugars, right. Sothe that's inside of wine, bread
(26:20):
and pasta. But we're working outwe're working on it.
Josh Bolton (26:25):
Yeah, that is the hardest part. Because we
especially because it's so hardfor the body to digest it just
see how you see insulin, just ona whole gnarly level. And you're
just, our bodies were meant touse sugar, but not to that
caliber.
rocco (26:40):
Not to that caliber, right? I mean, I'll eat some
chocolate. But, you know, youknow, that's, that's another
thing I just, you know, we justgot to where you put energy
usually see results. So if I putmore energy into the diet, more
energy to the exercise, youwould think that you would see
more results. So I just needmore energy in that space.
Josh Bolton (27:04):
So then tying into that, how would we? How would
you advise people to structuretheir lives and give more energy
towards dieting?
rocco (27:18):
Yeah, I would say that they got to develop a model
calendar. And what a modelcalendar really does is it helps
you to kind of lay out your day,every day, you got to put it in
there and when you're gonna haveyour meals, and what you're
going to eat got to make it aseasy as possible. Right? Okay.
You know, eating at, you know,711 136. And this is what I'm
(27:42):
going to be eating, you know, ifyou make it if you make it as
easy as possible, it, you know,tends to actually happen.
Josh Bolton (27:49):
Yeah, yeah, that's the biggest one. As I've talked
to different entrepreneurs,they're the one of them it was a
lady, my earlier one shejokingly was telling me, she's
like, Yeah, my day is so busy. Ihave to literally scheduling
when I have to take a restroombreak. I'm like, you rent your
bells don't work that way. Like,oh, you only work from 2pm to
3pm. She works for me. Like,that's funny. But yeah, but
(28:15):
that's the biggest one. All thedifferent entrepreneurs I've
chatted with, they're like,yeah, like, have the schedule,
even if it's a rough outline,and just follow it.
rocco (28:23):
It's hard. This old stuff is hard, you know. But, but
listen, if you know, life'sgonna pass regardless, so we're
going to do it. Try to do thebest job we can.
Josh Bolton (28:34):
Yeah, try not to have as many regrets as
possible. Just just live life.
Honestly, I'm actually runningout of questions to talk about,
is there anything I might havemissed that you wanted to chat
about?
rocco (28:47):
No, I think you covered everything and he did a great
job. And thank you very much forhaving me today. Kind of talking
about up. People want to knowmore information about the book.
They go to my website, which isRocco a career row.com.
Josh Bolton (29:02):
Wonderful. Thank you so much for coming on. This
has been an absolute honor.
Thanks, Josh. Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
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