February 21, 2022 • 44 mins
It's always a good time to make sure your finances are in order, but especially at the beginning of the year when you have to think about taxes. Michael Dunaway, Financial Advisor with Edward Jones, sits down with Mahala Landin to discuss how he helps his clients prepare for their future while also building strong, lasting relationships.
Get to know Michael:
- Website: https://www.edwardjones.com/us-en/financial-advisor/michael-dunaway
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaeldunawayEDJ/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-dunaway/
- Phone: 919.552.4237
Reach out to The Rachel Kendall Team:
- Website: https://rachelkendall.com/about/team/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRachelKendallTeam/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therachelkendallteam/
- Touring the Triangle Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/touringthetriangle/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rachel-kendall-team/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rkteam
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/rachelkendallteam
- Phone: 919.782.4505
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey Triangle lovers. Welcome toMaking Moves hosted by The
Rachel Kendall Team where wewill explore together the top
restaurants, community hotspotsand events in our area. Let's
make some moves. Hey, everyone,it's Mahala landin with Making
Moves and I've got a guest todaythat's on everybody's mind this
(00:22):
time of the year as we're goalsetting and planning for 2022.
Michael Dunaway from EdwardJones is here visiting with us
talking a little bit about hisexperience in the rally
community as well as helpingpeople with their financial
decisions. So welcome.
Good morning. Thank you.
It's good to have you here.
Thanks again, for coming in andvisiting with our team, they
really enjoyed it. You know, oneof the things as a team leader
(00:44):
for a real estate company, I'malways thinking about my agents
and helping them and guidingthem in a way that allows them
to be empowered to makedecisions, right, and to putting
people like yourself in front ofthem so that they can think
about what are they doing withtheir 1099 contract employee
income? And how can they planfor the future? And how can they
(01:06):
you know, get out of the grindand really think about what's
next. So I really appreciatedyou coming in and sharing a
little bit and even more thatyou're here today. Yeah, no,
I enjoyed it. You know, I asmuch as I can. I love to be able
to provide a little biteducation. And certainly, like
you mentioned, the goal settingat the beginning of the year,
but I love to be able to comein. So thank you for the
(01:28):
opportunity.
Awesome. Well, so let's talk alittle bit about you. Making
Moves is all about how thiscommunity is growing and rapidly
changing and how we asindividuals, and sometimes even
business owners are adapting tothat. So tell me a little bit
about what brought you here toRaleigh.
So I'm one of the few peoplethat can say I'm a local, yeah,
(01:49):
so I was born Well, native.
Well, so technically, I was bornin Mississippi, okay. But we
moved to apex when I was four.
Okay, so all of my actualmemories, you know, stemmed from
from living in APEX and growingup in this community. So that's,
I mean, I have family here, youknow, all of my family, mom,
(02:09):
dad, brother and sister arestill in the area. I did move
and live in Baltimore, Marylandfor about eight years. But even
then, I knew this was alwaysgonna be home. So that's why I'm
here. I'm out. I grew up here,you know, went to UNC Greensboro
and UNC Chapel Hill. And, youknow, there's something to be
said for a place that's alwaysvoted, you know, the best places
(02:31):
to live and have families. And,you know, I love being, you
know, a couple hours from themountains a couple hours from
the beach. So yeah,yeah, it's one of those things.
And I, we talked about this asreal estate agents, when we have
relocation clients coming in itis legitimately in the middle of
the state, and it provides youwith so much opportunity to
travel and experience everythingthat North Carolina has to
(02:52):
offer. So tell me a little bitabout what got you into the
position of a financial advisor.
So hopefully, this won't be toolong of a story. But it took a
pretty winding path to get towhere I am. So you know, as I
mentioned, I grew up in thisarea, I went to school at Athens
(03:13):
drive in here in Raleigh,because my mom taught there,
okay, even though I lived acrossthe street from Apex High
School, and I wasback then there was three high
schools. Yeah. Then apex andcarry. Exactly, exactly,
exactly. And they were alldefinitely rivals. But so, you
know, I went to Athens, I waskind of this weird kid that was
(03:35):
a sports star, but also likethis math, dork, you know. So
when I was thinking aboutcolleges, I wanted to go
somewhere that I could playsoccer. So I got a scholarship
to UNC Greensboro to play on thesoccer team there. But I also
got a scholarship for theacademic side through Bank of
America, as long as I studied,like business and economics and
(03:57):
finance. And so that's what Idid. I really enjoyed you into
Greensboro, love playing on thesoccer team and got a degree in
business. But after that, Iwrote wasn't exactly sure what I
wanted to do. I'd move toCharlotte. I was going to go
work for this like nonprofit,you know, counseling type of
company that use likebackpacking as a way to work on
(04:21):
like, Father Son relationships.
And there's this counselingpiece to that, because I always
really loved helping people.
That ended pretty quickly, thetwo guys who started that kind
of pulled the plug prettyquickly. And I was like, What
should I do? And I'd alwayswanted to go to UNC Chapel Hill,
I'd grown up like a basketballfan. And one of my best friends
(04:42):
had gone through the counselingprogram there for school
counseling. And I thought, Oh,that's a really great thing. I
can go to Chapel Hill, like Ialways wanted to do, and I love
the idea of counseling. So Iwent and got a master's in
Carolina, for Counseling andSchool Counseling. So that's
what I did for 10 years. So thatwas back in 2006. I got married,
(05:04):
got this degree moved toBaltimore and started working as
a middle school and high schoolcounselor. Wow. And I loved it.
I loved the kids that I workedwith, didn't always love the
parents. But, but I did enjoyit. When we, in 2014, I think we
moved back. And at that time, Iwas really wanting to get into
(05:28):
private practice counseling. SoI was working on getting my LPC
license, I started working as aprivate practice counselor
working on lots of differentthings in mental health. Clients
who had anxiety, depression, Iworked with couples doing
marriage counseling, all thosethings. And I enjoyed that. But
(05:49):
something happened, right, as italways does in life best laid
plans. Yes, yes. Sounfortunately, you know, my wife
at the time, and I decided that,you know, we were going to end
our marriage. And that was notsomething that was in the plan
for me. And when you're startinga small business from from
scratch, you know, you'rereally, it takes three to five
(06:09):
years to get to a place whereyou're probably even making any
money. And now I'm a single dad,you know, with at that time now
two kids and trying to figureout well, how am I going to
provide the life that I reallywant for them. At times along
that journey, I'd thought aboutbeing coming a financial
advisor. But I remember kind ofpulling up to a gas station with
(06:33):
my dad in the car just thinkinglike, Well, should I even apply?
You know, there's this company,Edward Jones, I looked at what
it takes to become a financialadvisor. There's these like big
licensing tests, I looked at thequestions, and it was just like,
I don't even know some of thesewords. And he just was like, you
gotta go for it. Right. And sothat was almost six years ago,
(06:54):
and it's changed my life in myfamily's life dramatically.
That's awesome. You've hit on alot of big buttons for me in
terms of what we talked abouthere on Making Moves, because
one of the things that we've hadin a lot of our our episodes is,
you know, this journey that westart on as kids, and you know
how that development gets us towhere we can really find our
(07:16):
passion and our purpose.
Absolutely. So I love that. Andso let's go back a little bit
and talk about this idea.
Because one of the things Iwanted to get to when, when
meeting with you was, there'sstages of life, and how that
relates to financial planning.
And you and your own life haveexperienced that firsthand. But
let's start with how does yourexperience with counseling
(07:38):
really complement your work thatyou're doing right now with your
clients on financial advising?
That's a perfect question. So itwas interesting, as I started to
think about, you know, taking onthis role, I talked to the
veteran advisors, and when theyfound out what my background
was, they did they said, like,oh, well, you're gonna do really
(07:59):
well. And now almost six yearsinto it, I understand why. So
much of what I do, really isabout like behavioral
psychology, right. And if youthink about why someone might
even talk to an advisor, theyare making a big decision about
life and wanting to retire.
Well, there's emotions tied tothat. Maybe they're getting
(08:20):
divorced, there's definitelyemotions tied to that, right? A
lot of times they're splittingassets, and they need to talk to
an advisor about what to do withthat. Maybe, you know, someone's
passed away, unfortunately. Andso there's an inheritance or an
estate that needs to be figuredout. There's definitely emotions
tied to those things. And thenwhen you think about investing,
(08:44):
you know, one of theconversations that I have to
have with clients is like howcomfortable they are with risk.
And there's a lot of people thatas they see their investments
and the value on their statementgoing up or down, especially
down. My job is to really makesure on the emotional side that
they understand, you know, hey,we're gonna be okay, I'm holding
(09:05):
their hand making sure theydon't kind of jump off that
ledge of making, you know, poorfinancial decisions based off of
maybe some emotions that they'refeeling as opposed to really
sound principles. So much of myrole is about being a really,
really, really good listener. Sothat I can understand you know,
(09:26):
who you are, what your, youknow, like financial situation
is, you know, what's importantto you? What are your concerns,
all boils down to a relationshipthat you're starting 100 100%
and hopefully seeing through fora very long time? Absolutely.
And my role is less about the,in my opinion, all right, is
about less about the analyticsand more about trust. Right. A
(09:49):
lot of times people are trustingme with their life savings
things. They worked very hardfor 3050 60 years. And so
absolutely, you know, trust isvery important. You know, being
a really good listener is veryimportant that relationship
piece is so, so important, Ieven go back to generational
behaviors to in terms of, like,they always say, if your parents
(10:14):
were really frugal, thensometimes the child or the
offspring is almost the oppositeof that, right? Because they,
they saw this as a restriction,right, growing up. And so their,
their relationship with money isjust so different. Right? And so
I'm sure you get to unpack thata lot, too.
(10:34):
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.
It's always interesting, tryingto understand, like, you just
said, what are some of thehabits or even the the thoughts
that they have about how thingswork? Compared to how they, they
really do probably work? Right,and helping, you know, educate
them? I think that's one of thethings clients really
appreciate, you know, kind ofgoing back to that question of
(10:55):
how is counseling help, as afinancial adviser, I always tell
them, I come from a differentapproach. And you know, the last
thing I want is someone to comein and feel like they're talked
to add or talk to over, youknow, so I come from, like I
said, you know, showing empathythat yet, you may not
necessarily know how this works.
So we're going to start from theground. And I'm going to talk to
(11:18):
you about the foundations ofinvesting. So that we're at
least on a, you know, the sameplaying field. And as we go
through and talk through things,you remember, oh, yeah, Michael,
explain that. Right. Or I tellthem, you can ask me the same
question five times. And that'sokay. Because my job is to
answer in a way that youunderstand it. And if you don't,
that's my fault. Right? Youknow, so I think people feel
(11:39):
very comfortable when they comeinto my office, to know that
they can ask questions, theyknow that I'm going to come from
a place of kindness and empathyand when to really listen, which
I don't know that I would haveall of that if I hadn't spent 10
years. Having to build trustreally quickly, you know, you
(12:00):
think about going into acounseling session. I mean, I
used to tell people, I got paidto hear their secrets. Because
that was really kind of whatwhat happened, what happened
pretty quickly.
And money can be a big secret.
For sure. So if you so starting,in terms of how you talked about
your own life and your own path,I mean, we really start to think
about our futures seriously, andthe impact of our decisions
(12:22):
seriously, not on our 20s.
Whether whether we want toacknowledge that or not, because
I'm sure there's a lot of 20somethings out there that are
like nominated and ready to growup yet. Yeah. But most of our,
you know, big life decisions arehappening in our 20s. Right. So
if you could give some bestpractices to a client that was
(12:43):
interested in starting to thinkabout their financial wealth or
their financial future, whatwould you give to them? What are
some of the questions that theyshould be asking themselves when
they're just starting off?
Either their college or career?
I mean, you mentionedscholarships. I'm thinking
school debt, right. You know,like, there's a lot of impactful
decisions are happening. Wherewould you start?
(13:03):
Yeah, yeah. And I'll start withsaying that, you know, anyone
listening, right, there's noadvice that I'm gonna give. I'm
mostly going to, like you said,just give good questions that
people can think about or bestpractices. Yeah, I mean, one of
the questions I get asked oftenis like, Oh, how much do I need
to have, like, saved up? Youknow, whether it's for
(13:24):
retirement or some other goal?
And I always tell people theanswer that is, it depends,
right? Because there's so manydifferent things that have to be
considered. When you're thinkingabout what your goal is, whether
it's paying for college, foryour kids, or paying off student
loan debt, if it's saving forretirement, if it's, you know,
saving to be able to travel orget that house or beach house.
(13:47):
You know, there's so manydifferent things like, like you
said, How old are you? How muchare you making, you know, how
much are you saving, from whatyou're making? How much are you
spending, you know, what's thetime frame from when you might
need to utilize those assets?
How comfortable are you with theidea of risk and investments,
(14:08):
you know, so all of those typesof things really make an impact
on what you should or maybeshouldn't do. But definitely
starting out, you know, a lot ofa lot of it is trying to figure
out, okay, you know, what's mycareer going to be right now? Am
I in a place where I'm, youknow, with a with a partner, am
I going to get married? Am Igoing to have kids? So a lot of
(14:28):
it is just trying to reallyunderstand how much you're
making, how much you'respending, you know, identifying,
you know, somewhat of a budget,and then identifying what are
some of those goals? And thenwhat are the priority of those
goals?
What percentage of your clientscome to you, you know, in their
20s or in their early, you know,adulthood? Phase? Yeah,
(14:50):
that's a great question. And thereason I say that is because
when I talk to people, I say thebiggest asset that we have,
especially when it comes toinvesting is time. You know, so
that when you can start early,even if it's just a little bit
being consistent, like that,that really has an impact on how
things play out 40 or 50 yearsdown the road. The reality is a
(15:14):
lot of my clients, and everyfinancial advisor is going to be
different. Some of this is justthe people that have come to me,
and some of it is, you know,identifying who I tend to work
well with, but a lot of myclients are, you know, older
4550 and above closer toretirement or living in
(15:35):
retirement. That doesn't meanthat as an advisor, you know, I
wouldn't want to help someone intheir 20s, right, it's just,
that's what I've seen in my ownpersonal.
And I think I was a lunaticgrowing up, because, you know, I
found myself, you know, reallybeing very introspective about a
lot of that stuff in early on,you know, I was an accounting
(15:56):
major in college, I was, youknow, at the time, double major
with finance and business. Andso I think it was just kind of
this inundation of theimportance of understanding this
aspect of my life. But noteverybody gets that right
exposure, not everybody getsthat even those life skills,
right, like we talked to ourchildren about, like, they don't
(16:18):
know what a checkbook is, youknow, oh, yeah, my kids have a
little like fat cat savingsaccount. And they're like,
where's my debit card, and like,I was just talking to my
daughter the other day, she wastrying to, you know, we were
talking about the differencebetween like a debit card, which
is a credit card, and like thedebit, it's like, you've
actually made that money, it'syours, you get to spend it,
whereas the credit card is like,it's a loan, you got to pay it
(16:38):
back. And she's nine. So yeah,and I think anybody in their
20s, that is, is aware, and canacknowledge that this is an
important thing, they shouldtalk to a financial advisor, you
know, I started working with onevery early on, I had an
internship in college. And so Ihad this, you know, on, like,
money I'd never had before. Andthat was when I made that
(16:59):
decision that it was importantfor myself, and and then I think
on the other side of that, inyour 20s, is that if you have no
awareness of it whatsoever, youshould be talking to a financial
advisor, because, you know,there's so much counseling, as
you've mentioned, that you cando that will set them up for
success as they do decide whatthey want to do for a living.
(17:20):
And I think we get intimidatedin our 20s. Because we think we
don't make enough money, rightto work with somebody.
Absolutely. Yeah. And getting anunderstanding of kind of the
spending side or getting rid ofdebt, you know, is important,
because, as a financial adviser,a lot of what I do is help
people understand like, Okay, wehave this goal, you have this
(17:41):
money, how can we make it workfor you, and we talk about
investing, you know, stocks,mutual funds, bonds, those kinds
of things. But I can't do that,right, if you've got, you know,
a mounting amount of debt, youknow, credit card debt, like, I
don't know, 16% or something, Imean, it's really hard. If you
don't have some assets that youcan invest, because early on,
(18:03):
you really didn't save, youreally didn't think about paying
down debt, you know,unfortunately, there are, you
know, situations where peoplejust most of their money has
been spent, as opposed to save.
And so it's just really hard to,you know, move forward from
there. It's not impossible,it's not, and even in our
profession, working with realestate and working with first
(18:26):
time homebuyers, we we hear alot of these same things. It's
it's their cash flow is great,but their debt is, you know,
eating that alive. So I thinkthat's why I loved you know, the
idea of talking about thisgenerationally and setting
people up for what questionsthey should ask. So, all right,
we're out of our 20s we havemade some big life decisions,
(18:46):
we're in our 30s. Where whatwhat's kind of the impact of
those shifts of dynamic of maybethat person does have a partner
now maybe there is some extraincome? Like, right, where are
some best practices for peoplein their 30s that have set
themselves up for working withsomeone like you?
(19:06):
Yeah, so I think you know,30s 40s, even 50s people kind of
in that timeframe have, youknow, they have a career that
they feel is pretty consistent.
He said, maybe they have afamily or they have children. So
it's really kind of on theplanning side, just trying to
understand, okay, if I want tobe here down the road, what do I
need to be doing right now,oftentimes, when we look at the
(19:30):
different financial goals thatpeople have, you know, so for
example, an emergency fund. Soit could be anywhere from six to
12 months of whatever yourmonthly bills are. So making
sure that you have somethingwhether it's at a bank or at a
financial firm, that you know,isn't going to that's going to
(19:51):
be there no matter what if youwere to lose a job or you
couldn't pay the bills for sixmonths, you know, you have a
place where you can go. Alright,so setting up something like an
emergency fund, really makingsure that you understand one of
the other big goals a lot ofpeople have is certainly
retirement. So are you workingfor a company that that offers,
(20:12):
you know, retirement plan a401k? Or some of the other plans
that are out there? You know,are you giving an you know,
enough to at least maybe gettingthe matching that the company
offers? Um, you know, one ofthe,
I was just gonna say, I thinkthe biggest thing in our 30s is
to look at life holistically.
And I like how you're talkingabout a lot of different
(20:33):
avenues, creating wealth, oreven creating, you know,
security. That is, again, youknow, I think about in my life,
some of the big mistakes, youknow, we get very focused in on
the future, and we forget aboutthe right now. Yeah, and that is
that holistic approach to takingcare of ourselves in a financial
(20:54):
way is, you know, can I dealwith today? And can I also be
planning for the future? Andthat, what is the weight of
that? And does it ever shift?
Like, do you ever, you know,talk to people and kind of lean
them one direction or another?
And what are those variablesthat you're considering?
Yeah, yeah, again, a lot of itcomes down to like, what their
goals are, and how theyprioritize those goals in their
(21:16):
situation. So like, when someonecomes in to talk to me, you
know, I always tell them, it'skind of like a financial,
physical or a checkup. There'stwo sides to that, like when you
go to the doctor, one is they'regoing to ask you lots of
questions, you know, height,weight, how you sleeping, eating
all that good stuff. And thenthe other part of that is going
to be like your blood work,right? Because there are things
(21:41):
that are going to come backwhere the doctors reading it,
and your cholesterol level orwhatever, which I would never
understand any of it. But forthem, it says a lot. When I have
clients come in, one they'regoing to come in, and I'm going
to definitely spend a lot oftime asking them all kinds of
questions about, you know, theircurrent financial situation. But
I'm also going to say, if youhave statements, that's the
(22:03):
blood work for me, because I cansee in a client statements, how
they're invested, what type ofaccount it is, you know, how
it's, you know, the taxation ofthat type of account. So there's
a lot that I can see that maybe,either they didn't know to
answer, or maybe they answeredincorrectly, right. So those two
things combined, really canimpact you know, what the advice
(22:26):
is moving forward.
Our clients sometimes don't knowthe right questions to even ask
100%. And I will tell people,you know, Hey, it's okay, I'm
going to try and fill in some ofthe questions that maybe you
don't know, to ask, just throughthe experience that I've had
over time, because I want themlike I said, I really want them
to understand that there's aplan. So one of the things I
(22:48):
always kind of tell people whenthey're looking for any
financial advisor, is there'sreally three things that
hopefully you're looking forsomeone that you like, someone
that you trust, and someone thatbuilds a plan that you
understand. Right? So if it's42, I probably hope to do this
another maybe 25 years? Well,some of my clients, I'm hoping
(23:10):
that they're gonna be with methat entire time. So you better
like them. Right? And I hopethey like me, right? When I,
when they see my name on theirphone, I hope like, Oh, it's my
goal, and not all crap. It's mygoal, right? Definitely, as I
mentioned earlier, trust is likesuch a major component, you
know, to this type ofrelationship. So you definitely
want to trust someone. But thatlast part, you know, build a
(23:32):
plan that you understand. Ithink sometimes people have
somebody and then they'reprobably good at maybe selling
them stocks and bonds andproducts that they might need.
But they don't really spend thattime really helping them
understand like, what is theactual plan? Here, your goals,
your your concerns? Here's yourcomfort with risk based off
(23:55):
those things. Here's theplanning that that is involved.
Yeah. So sounds like between our20s or 30s, we're laying that
foundation, we're settingourselves up to have that
ecosystem of balance betweenimmediate cash flow and future
retirement. And then as we gointo our 40s, we're starting to
make some real, you know,impactful decisions about, you
(24:18):
know, how can we leverage that?
I think that I'm about to be inthe 40. Club. Right. And you
know,that amazing are in the club.
It's,it's an amazing club, I cannot
wait for it. But it's fastapproaching. So, but I think
that's that's the time that westart thinking about how can we
leverage what we've alreadycreated? That always hits me
hard is, you know, here's whatI've done. Here's what I've
(24:39):
done. Well, this was a greatstart. Now, how do I leverage
that? Where Where do you play arole in that as, as people in
their 40s are leveraging theirassets are leveraging what
they've produced? What kind ofquestions should we be asking
about what that even means?
Yeah, no. So the leveraging ofwhat you've done up to that
point is sort of An importantthing and that 40 to 50
(25:03):
timeframe, you know, there,there are definitely some some
potential shifts. You know, oneof the things we talk about as
advisors is not just how do you,you know, grow your assets or
build wealth, but it's also howdo you kind of protect that life
insurance or long term careinsurance can become a part of
that. And a lot of people, youknow, think, Oh, well, you know,
I'm working for a company, Ihave life insurance, and they
(25:26):
don't understand, you know, kindof how it all works. And if they
don't have that job anymore,that that's gone, right. But
also, a lot of times go makingthat shift from things like, and
I won't get into too many of thedetails, but from like a term
policy, which a lot of peoplewill get, you know, in their 20s
or 30s, to maybe more of like apermanent life insurance policy
(25:47):
where you are, you know, itbecomes more of an investment,
not just for the death benefitof life insurance, but also some
of the the value that that growsin the in the life insurance
policy itself. And starting tothink to Alright, how do I start
to not just grow my moneytowards my goal, like, let's
say, retirement, but a lot ofpeople think, Alright, well, I'm
(26:10):
just trying to get there. Butthe reality is, you're invested,
you know, usually throughout therest of your life. And so
understanding how do I kind ofstart to change my mindset from
growing as much as I can to?
Alright, what what's theplanning of, you know, Social
Security? How do we createincome in retirement? You know,
what are some ways that I canprotect these assets? We start
(26:35):
talking about things like estateplanning, so you grown this
family, you have these children?
Or maybe you're a little older,and you started having grandkids
or whatever? How do I, you know,work with like an estate
attorney? How do I work withlike a CPA, and I work with my
financial advisor, to have aplan for not just protecting my
assets, but at some point, youknow, transfer the transferring
(26:58):
those assets, so thatultimately, maybe you can
create, like a generationalwealth. Yeah.
And also, within that same timeframe, you mentioned so many
things in terms of protectionand planning. But then, what
about the lifestyle that you'reenjoying today, right, like how
and we do this when we dolisting appointments, or if we
work with our past clients,especially in this market today,
(27:19):
where, you know, homes areappreciating so quickly, and
there's this instant equity, orthere's all of this newfound
opportunity, and people have bigdecisions to make? How has your
phone been ringing the last fewyears, during this pandemic? You
know, what should I do with thisand talk about, like, some of
the challenges that people arefacing with that, or maybe even
opportunities that maybe theydidn't know, they had?
(27:42):
Absolutely, you know, youmentioned kind of real estate,
you know, I always tell people,I stay in my lane, which is kind
of the investing side of, youknow, financial advising, but at
the same time, these are bigquestions that clients are
having, you know, should I berefinancing, you know, as rates,
you know, went down these lastcouple of years, or, you know,
I've got some debt to pay, andnow I have all this equity in my
(28:02):
house, you know, should I be,you know, looking to get some
kind of like a home equity loanand pay off some of this debt.
And so these are definitelyquestions that that I get asked,
and sometimes I'll say, well,let's, let's team up with, you
know, your mortgage broker areyour realtor and as a group,
let's, let's help you make thedecision that's going to be best
(28:23):
for you and your family. BecauseI always tell people like, for
me, the way that I see, youknow, the decision making
process, at least as as anadvisor, is I feel like my job
is to make sure that you know,all right, if you've got option
A or B, or maybe even a, b, andc, I want you to have those here
are the things that are positiveor good, but also what are the
(28:46):
things that you need to be awareof and think about, right, so
now you know what your optionsare, you know, the good and the
things that you need to thinkabout based off of our
relationship and be askingreally good questions and
understanding your situation,you know, you're paying me for
advice. So I'm going to giveadvice as to which of those
options I think is best for youand your family. But at the end
of the day, the client is alwaysthe one who needs to make that
(29:10):
decision, because it's theirmoney that they've worked really
hard for, it's their family. Soyes, I'm gonna understand your
your situation, I'm going tomake sure you know what the
options are. I'm going to giveyou advice, but you need to
ultimately make the decisionthat's best for you, your
family's right,we always say we don't, it's not
our money. It's not ourresponsibility to spend it
either. Right. And as in whenwe're helping families with some
(29:33):
of the biggest life decisionsthat they make, whether it's
real estate or financialplanning, that's a that's a lot
of responsibility. And so you'reright, it does boil down to
trust and relationship andcreating a team of people that
you know are going to keep yourbest interest and your fiduciary
in mind. So the other you know,piece of this as I'm listening
(29:56):
to you talk is the fact that itseems like you really found your
niche, and something that hasblended to things that you never
thought maybe would have beenblended. So if you could give
advice to somebody, let's goback to college or high school
about this path that you've beenon. Yeah. What would you give to
that person that saying, like, Ilike the way Michaels talking
(30:17):
about his job and the way thathe gets to impact people? I
think I might want to do that.
Yeah. So it's an interestingquestion. You know, having spent
many years counseling middleschool, but high school kids is
they're trying to think about,you know, going to college and
what are they going to, youknow, major end, because maybe
(30:38):
that's going to impacteight. And you last night, we're
driving home from cheer. And shegoes, Mom, I don't know what I
want to be when I grew up. I waslike, okay, yeah. Stay there for
a while. Yes. Yeah. And thenshe's like, I might want to be
like, work at Starbucks and havelike, an apartment, you only
work part time, right? Yeah,that's like, Well, yeah.
(31:01):
Okay. Well, so, you know, havingkind of going back to that, and
hope parents don't get mad at mefor saying this. But what I
found was the realization thatyes, college is super important.
But there are so many differentpaths to being successful. It
could be a community college, itcould be an associate's degree.
I mean, I remember. So for me tohave a master's degree and be a
(31:24):
school counselor, I was making,like, $42,000 a year, right. And
some of the kids who are 19years old and went through like
an apprenticeship for likemasonry, or plumbing or any of
those things, were making60 70,000. I was like, hey, you
know, there are so many waysthat you can do it. So I always
tell people, the two things thatI think are important when
(31:44):
you're thinking about, how do Iultimately get to where I want
to be in like a career is youhave to find something that you
really are passionate about. Andsometimes that takes time. But
you really do want to findsomething you're passionate
about. And then you have to workyour ass off right back and say
that, yeah, but you know, nobodyhas been successful without
(32:05):
working hard. That's right,right. And so again, going back
to this idea, yes, college isimportant, or getting a degree
or getting some kind oftraining. But at the end of the
day, when you look at the peoplewho've been very, very
successful, they did they foundsomething they are passionate
about, and then they workedreally, really hard
to get there. Yeah. And it canchange.
So yes. And so there was onething I didn't tell you. So I
(32:26):
have an undergrad degree inbusiness. And I got my Master's
in Counseling, and oh, six,there was a point in there where
I was kind of, you know, not,again, I liked what I did as a
council, but I was still tryingto find my way. And so I'd
always really love deviantbehavior, okay, you know, and it
kind of goes with thatpsychology and sociology. And I
(32:49):
had this little kind offascination with like, Silence
of the Lambs and serial killers.
Yes. But I actually went and gota master's in criminal justice.
Okay. And I say all that to kindof say, like, my path has
definitely not been straight,you know, asking, like, how do
you kind of get to where youwanted to be? Again, it just
took really trying differentavenues pursuing things that I
(33:11):
was interested in at that time,you know, and allowing myself
the freedom to kind of fail,like, I got this degree, and I,
you know, I had student loans topay, but I never used it, right.
But at the same time, it allowedme, you know, to explore
something that I was interestedin, you know, to, to, you know,
put two years of work towardsthis thing. So, it taught me the
(33:31):
idea that, you know, workingtowards those things that you're
passionate about, is what'sgonna help you, you know, get to
where you ultimately want to be.
Yeah, Ilike that. You're not you put
yourself in a position to failand be okay with it. Because the
other side of that is thegrowth, right? And how how we
get there, it's not a race,right, and how we get there as
(33:52):
part of the experience. Yes.
Yeah. I think that the morewinding and the more, you know,
flexible we can be with how toachieve goals, the more goals
we're able to achieve.
Absolutely. So okay, going backto our community, you mentioned
apex, yes. The peak ofgood living. That's right.
(34:13):
There's my first Apex visitor.
So tell me a little bit aboutsome of the changes that you've
seen in APEX and you know,especially since you stopped
family there and that yes, yourmemories are there because I
grew up in Cary. So neighbors,right. But it's a lot different.
Oh, yeah. Like paint thatpicture? Yeah.
Well, so I grew up right acrossthe street from the high school.
(34:36):
And I remember, you know, orDunkin lower Dunkin yes or no
words. I was like two housesfrom the school. But you know,
going downtown apex, I thinkthere was like a Mexican
restaurant. And that was aboutit. But my favorite place was
the library. Oh, yeah. You know,I think now it's like the
Chamber of Commerce or townhall. But yeah, you know, my mom
(34:57):
was a teacher and we love tojust like go to law. library,
you can get a bunch of books andgo home and read. But now you go
down there and there's like, youknow, scratch and you know, some
really great restaurants. And Imean, they've done so much to
just make that, you know, aplace where people really want
to go and enjoy and shop and,you know, spend time there. So
(35:19):
I'm really proud of that. So,you know, one of the other
things that just stands out tome is, so jock, who's now the
mayor of APEX, right, you know,he, you know, talked about
someone who's been successful,and just been a big huge impact
to the apex community, you know,working as like a school
resource officer, and I'm beinga police officer there. And
(35:40):
then, you know, recentlybecoming mayor, you know, I
think that it's really cool tosee people who really care about
that town in that community,helping it to grow and rise up.
And just it's funny, youmentioned that because I
participated in the Raleighregional associations Leadership
Academy, this past class, so Igraduated from that, and just
(36:04):
about a month ago, in January,and we had one of the program
pieces is that you attend thecandidate interviews for local
municipalities to figure out whoand the Realtors Association
should be endorsed, right? Youknow, and that's something I'm
learning in our real estateindustry is that there is a
political side to it, you know,how we were deemed essential
(36:27):
during the pandemic, all thatcame from our association in our
industry. And it was really coolto see in these local
municipalities that there are somany natives that are rising up
into leadership. So I thinkthat's a great pronunciation of
apex. Oh, yeah. Remember, therewas a couple of candidates that
we spoke to that they livethere, they grew up there, and
(36:48):
they have a real, you know,connection to how they want to
see the community grow.
Yeah, I mean, I would say that,you know, not just for apex,
we're just kind of this area. Imean, I know, there's a lot of
people who've kind of relocatedhere, and that's great. And, you
know, growth is important. Butthere are people that I've grown
up with, that are still in thisarea, that really have just made
(37:08):
an impact. You mentioned kind ofCarrie, and there's a guy named
Matt Perry, who's in the realestate world, right, but, but
he's just a great great guy,and, and really does care about,
you know, this area and thecommunities and has done a lot
to give back. You know, so Ijust think that there's, there's
a lot of people that who grew uphere that really, really
genuinely care, you know, mybest friend since I was in third
(37:30):
grade, you know, a guy namedBrent Saul's is the. So he's the
Dean of Students like BroughtonHigh School, you know, so again,
you know, having lived here andnow being in a place where, you
know, he can make a positiveimpact on the families that are
that are in that area. I justthink it's really important.
Like the people who are fromhere are very proud to be here,
(37:54):
and really care about thiscommunity growing. I agree
positive.
I think that's why we continueto be ranked and so widely
noticed by relocation clients isbecause that, you know, the way
that we're growing and the youknow, the local impact is so you
know, large, absolutely. Okay,so, five questions, maybe 333.
(38:19):
Let's do three, you mentioned,you're an avid reader. Okay. Are
you still an avid reader?
Oh, man, the invention of thecell phone is changed a little
bit. You know, so, yes, yeah. Sothe last thing I read was green
lights. Matthew McConaughey.
Second vote for green light. Oh,my question. Yes, it is one of
my favorites.
(38:39):
Well, I did actually listen toit on Audible as well. And he's
the one who reads it and yougotta love his voice. But just
even Yeah, such an amazing book.
And I love just the idea ofYeah, again, here's your
definitely lots of differentpaths that he took along the
way. Just saying, Okay, this isa green light, like this is an
opportunity for me to go and tryand do something and he failed
(38:59):
at some of those things, but hasbecome obviously a very
successful person. Yeah, Ireally love that
book. So much gratitude. Yeah.
What's your favorite thing to dowith your kids in your spare
time?
Oh man to do in this area? Yeah.
It's a great question. So Imean, the little things really,
like we just we spent, you know,time at the kitchen table
(39:21):
playing phase 10 You know, mydaughter's kicking me and my
sons but you know, we love goingand you know, seeing friends you
know, having been from aroundhere and family, they're very
involved right? So my son playsfootball and few clay and then
my daughter's been doing likevolleyball and soccer.
You talked a lot about yousports on making those and so
(39:43):
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, way ofinvolving your kid. Yeah,
I've always been the I'm notgonna coach my kids, but now
that my daughter's playingsoccer and she's 10 I'm at the
place where I'm like, oh, no,maybe I can coach you a little
soccer because that was my my goto sport. You know, we went to
defy you know, just this pastweekend. So, yeah, so we love to
be out. You know, I'm a big fanof experiences over things. So,
(40:09):
you know, anytime that I cantake my kids, you know, we
travel I think I mentionedbefore we started, you know,
I've took them to Turks andCaicos back in October and we've
done like the Disney cruise tothe Bahamas, you know, so I just
love to be able to show themexperience in this world that
will hopefully, you know, growtheir minds and
(40:29):
yeah, yeah. And how about you?
What's your favorite restaurantin the triangle?
Oh, you can't ask that. BecauseI'm a foodie. And I absolutely
love, love, love, love to eatand I love all different kinds.
So it could be Indian or Thai orsushi or Mexican or Italian. But
if you had to put me on thespot, I'm gonna say Maximilian
and Carrie.
Oh, wow. Okay, so it's beenthere for McGregor.
(40:54):
No, it's, it's um, I want to sayChapel Hill Road. Okay. Yeah. By
Woody's Yes. It's right by Woodywings.
Yeah. My best wings is Woody.
Yeah, am I arguing? Yeah, likemy way Tavern and Holly Springs.
But But yeah, Maximilian, likeit's the most unassuming little
place on the corner. But whenyou when you go inside you mean,
(41:18):
every every night they've gotanother carry restaurant before
cuz it was just one of the onlyones growing up was Roma's
pizza. Okay. Did you ever dothat? Oh my gosh, that's so
good. So,you know, shout out to Michael
Longo and Mario Longo and thelongest family. But you know,
the first pizza we ever ate wasthat so it was the Carrie mall
(41:39):
right Carrie village back in theday, their father started a
place called cousins beat. Oh,yeah. Now it's Vic's over like
in like a city market anddowntown Raleigh locations. But
for me, that's the best pizza intown.
And okay, outside ofrestaurants. What do you what do
you like to do on the triangle?
(42:00):
I just love to you know, to beoutside I love you know, play a
lot of golf and tennis now.
Best best course. Where do youlike to play?
I well. So I play a lot at Eagleridge. Okay, yeah. But, Garner?
Yep. Eagle ridge in Garner. Verygood, well done. But you know,
go into like, Umstead orsomewhere to like, go for hikes.
(42:20):
Jordan Lake, my sister lives outnear there. Awesome. I love the
water. You know, I wish I couldlive part time at the beach, you
know, somewhere in Wilmington.
But that's like a financialplanning goal. It really is. I
tell people it's like on my fiveyear plan. It's like even if I
just have like a, like a traileron a piece of land. I just love
being near the beach. So much.
And last question, best adviceyou've ever been given?
(42:47):
Gosh, that probably came from mygrandfather, because he was such
a big role model to me. But I'mgoing to say I'm going to give
you my favorite quote, to tellyou because it's kind of also
advice. So it's Maya Angelou andshe said people will always
remember what you say or whatyou did, but they'll always
remember how you made them feel.
Yeah. And so for me, like if Icould teach my kids or any
(43:10):
anybody in the world something,it's that how you treat people
really, really matters.
So true. Great way to wrap itup. Yeah. Michael, thank you so
much for sharing your journeyand your experience. And also,
you know, if if listeners didn'tget the sense of who you are as
a consultant, and who you are asa partner and their financial
(43:34):
success, then I think theyshould go back and re listen.
Oh, Iappreciate I just appreciate the
opportunity to come and talkabout all these things. And so
thank you very much for havingme this morning.
Absolutely. Thank you forjoining us on this episode of
Making Moves. We want to deliverthe highlights of the triangle
that you want to hear. Let usknow your feedback, comment on
(43:55):
our social media like and ofcourse subscribe to continue and
discover why we love where welive until next time with Making
Moves hosted by The RachelKendall Team.
Hey Triangle lovers. Welcome toMaking Moves hosted by The
Rachel Kendall Team where wewill explore together the top
restaurants, community hotspotsand events in our area. Let's
make some moves. Hey, everyone,it's Mahala landin with Making
Moves and I've got a guest todaythat's on everybody's mind this
(00:22):
time of the year as we're goalsetting and planning for 2022.
Michael Dunaway from EdwardJones is here visiting with us
talking a little bit about hisexperience in the rally
community as well as helpingpeople with their financial
decisions. So welcome.
Good morning. Thank you.
It's good to have you here.
Thanks again, for coming in andvisiting with our team, they
really enjoyed it. You know, oneof the things as a team leader
(00:44):
for a real estate company, I'malways thinking about my agents
and helping them and guidingthem in a way that allows them
to be empowered to makedecisions, right, and to putting
people like yourself in front ofthem so that they can think
about what are they doing withtheir 1099 contract employee
income? And how can they planfor the future? And how can they
(01:06):
you know, get out of the grindand really think about what's
next. So I really appreciatedyou coming in and sharing a
little bit and even more thatyou're here today. Yeah, no,
I enjoyed it. You know, I asmuch as I can. I love to be able
to provide a little biteducation. And certainly, like
you mentioned, the goal settingat the beginning of the year,
but I love to be able to comein. So thank you for the
(01:28):
opportunity.
Awesome. Well, so let's talk alittle bit about you. Making
Moves is all about how thiscommunity is growing and rapidly
changing and how we asindividuals, and sometimes even
business owners are adapting tothat. So tell me a little bit
about what brought you here toRaleigh.
So I'm one of the few peoplethat can say I'm a local, yeah,
(01:49):
so I was born Well, native.
Well, so technically, I was bornin Mississippi, okay. But we
moved to apex when I was four.
Okay, so all of my actualmemories, you know, stemmed from
from living in APEX and growingup in this community. So that's,
I mean, I have family here, youknow, all of my family, mom,
(02:09):
dad, brother and sister arestill in the area. I did move
and live in Baltimore, Marylandfor about eight years. But even
then, I knew this was alwaysgonna be home. So that's why I'm
here. I'm out. I grew up here,you know, went to UNC Greensboro
and UNC Chapel Hill. And, youknow, there's something to be
said for a place that's alwaysvoted, you know, the best places
(02:31):
to live and have families. And,you know, I love being, you
know, a couple hours from themountains a couple hours from
the beach. So yeah,yeah, it's one of those things.
And I, we talked about this asreal estate agents, when we have
relocation clients coming in itis legitimately in the middle of
the state, and it provides youwith so much opportunity to
travel and experience everythingthat North Carolina has to
(02:52):
offer. So tell me a little bitabout what got you into the
position of a financial advisor.
So hopefully, this won't be toolong of a story. But it took a
pretty winding path to get towhere I am. So you know, as I
mentioned, I grew up in thisarea, I went to school at Athens
(03:13):
drive in here in Raleigh,because my mom taught there,
okay, even though I lived acrossthe street from Apex High
School, and I wasback then there was three high
schools. Yeah. Then apex andcarry. Exactly, exactly,
exactly. And they were alldefinitely rivals. But so, you
know, I went to Athens, I waskind of this weird kid that was
(03:35):
a sports star, but also likethis math, dork, you know. So
when I was thinking aboutcolleges, I wanted to go
somewhere that I could playsoccer. So I got a scholarship
to UNC Greensboro to play on thesoccer team there. But I also
got a scholarship for theacademic side through Bank of
America, as long as I studied,like business and economics and
(03:57):
finance. And so that's what Idid. I really enjoyed you into
Greensboro, love playing on thesoccer team and got a degree in
business. But after that, Iwrote wasn't exactly sure what I
wanted to do. I'd move toCharlotte. I was going to go
work for this like nonprofit,you know, counseling type of
company that use likebackpacking as a way to work on
(04:21):
like, Father Son relationships.
And there's this counselingpiece to that, because I always
really loved helping people.
That ended pretty quickly, thetwo guys who started that kind
of pulled the plug prettyquickly. And I was like, What
should I do? And I'd alwayswanted to go to UNC Chapel Hill,
I'd grown up like a basketballfan. And one of my best friends
(04:42):
had gone through the counselingprogram there for school
counseling. And I thought, Oh,that's a really great thing. I
can go to Chapel Hill, like Ialways wanted to do, and I love
the idea of counseling. So Iwent and got a master's in
Carolina, for Counseling andSchool Counseling. So that's
what I did for 10 years. So thatwas back in 2006. I got married,
(05:04):
got this degree moved toBaltimore and started working as
a middle school and high schoolcounselor. Wow. And I loved it.
I loved the kids that I workedwith, didn't always love the
parents. But, but I did enjoyit. When we, in 2014, I think we
moved back. And at that time, Iwas really wanting to get into
(05:28):
private practice counseling. SoI was working on getting my LPC
license, I started working as aprivate practice counselor
working on lots of differentthings in mental health. Clients
who had anxiety, depression, Iworked with couples doing
marriage counseling, all thosethings. And I enjoyed that. But
(05:49):
something happened, right, as italways does in life best laid
plans. Yes, yes. Sounfortunately, you know, my wife
at the time, and I decided that,you know, we were going to end
our marriage. And that was notsomething that was in the plan
for me. And when you're startinga small business from from
scratch, you know, you'rereally, it takes three to five
(06:09):
years to get to a place whereyou're probably even making any
money. And now I'm a single dad,you know, with at that time now
two kids and trying to figureout well, how am I going to
provide the life that I reallywant for them. At times along
that journey, I'd thought aboutbeing coming a financial
advisor. But I remember kind ofpulling up to a gas station with
(06:33):
my dad in the car just thinkinglike, Well, should I even apply?
You know, there's this company,Edward Jones, I looked at what
it takes to become a financialadvisor. There's these like big
licensing tests, I looked at thequestions, and it was just like,
I don't even know some of thesewords. And he just was like, you
gotta go for it. Right. And sothat was almost six years ago,
(06:54):
and it's changed my life in myfamily's life dramatically.
That's awesome. You've hit on alot of big buttons for me in
terms of what we talked abouthere on Making Moves, because
one of the things that we've hadin a lot of our our episodes is,
you know, this journey that westart on as kids, and you know
how that development gets us towhere we can really find our
(07:16):
passion and our purpose.
Absolutely. So I love that. Andso let's go back a little bit
and talk about this idea.
Because one of the things Iwanted to get to when, when
meeting with you was, there'sstages of life, and how that
relates to financial planning.
And you and your own life haveexperienced that firsthand. But
let's start with how does yourexperience with counseling
(07:38):
really complement your work thatyou're doing right now with your
clients on financial advising?
That's a perfect question. So itwas interesting, as I started to
think about, you know, taking onthis role, I talked to the
veteran advisors, and when theyfound out what my background
was, they did they said, like,oh, well, you're gonna do really
(07:59):
well. And now almost six yearsinto it, I understand why. So
much of what I do, really isabout like behavioral
psychology, right. And if youthink about why someone might
even talk to an advisor, theyare making a big decision about
life and wanting to retire.
Well, there's emotions tied tothat. Maybe they're getting
(08:20):
divorced, there's definitelyemotions tied to that, right? A
lot of times they're splittingassets, and they need to talk to
an advisor about what to do withthat. Maybe, you know, someone's
passed away, unfortunately. Andso there's an inheritance or an
estate that needs to be figuredout. There's definitely emotions
tied to those things. And thenwhen you think about investing,
(08:44):
you know, one of theconversations that I have to
have with clients is like howcomfortable they are with risk.
And there's a lot of people thatas they see their investments
and the value on their statementgoing up or down, especially
down. My job is to really makesure on the emotional side that
they understand, you know, hey,we're gonna be okay, I'm holding
(09:05):
their hand making sure theydon't kind of jump off that
ledge of making, you know, poorfinancial decisions based off of
maybe some emotions that they'refeeling as opposed to really
sound principles. So much of myrole is about being a really,
really, really good listener. Sothat I can understand you know,
(09:26):
who you are, what your, youknow, like financial situation
is, you know, what's importantto you? What are your concerns,
all boils down to a relationshipthat you're starting 100 100%
and hopefully seeing through fora very long time? Absolutely.
And my role is less about the,in my opinion, all right, is
about less about the analyticsand more about trust. Right. A
(09:49):
lot of times people are trustingme with their life savings
things. They worked very hardfor 3050 60 years. And so
absolutely, you know, trust isvery important. You know, being
a really good listener is veryimportant that relationship
piece is so, so important, Ieven go back to generational
behaviors to in terms of, like,they always say, if your parents
(10:14):
were really frugal, thensometimes the child or the
offspring is almost the oppositeof that, right? Because they,
they saw this as a restriction,right, growing up. And so their,
their relationship with money isjust so different. Right? And so
I'm sure you get to unpack thata lot, too.
(10:34):
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.
It's always interesting, tryingto understand, like, you just
said, what are some of thehabits or even the the thoughts
that they have about how thingswork? Compared to how they, they
really do probably work? Right,and helping, you know, educate
them? I think that's one of thethings clients really
appreciate, you know, kind ofgoing back to that question of
(10:55):
how is counseling help, as afinancial adviser, I always tell
them, I come from a differentapproach. And you know, the last
thing I want is someone to comein and feel like they're talked
to add or talk to over, youknow, so I come from, like I
said, you know, showing empathythat yet, you may not
necessarily know how this works.
So we're going to start from theground. And I'm going to talk to
(11:18):
you about the foundations ofinvesting. So that we're at
least on a, you know, the sameplaying field. And as we go
through and talk through things,you remember, oh, yeah, Michael,
explain that. Right. Or I tellthem, you can ask me the same
question five times. And that'sokay. Because my job is to
answer in a way that youunderstand it. And if you don't,
that's my fault. Right? Youknow, so I think people feel
(11:39):
very comfortable when they comeinto my office, to know that
they can ask questions, theyknow that I'm going to come from
a place of kindness and empathyand when to really listen, which
I don't know that I would haveall of that if I hadn't spent 10
years. Having to build trustreally quickly, you know, you
(12:00):
think about going into acounseling session. I mean, I
used to tell people, I got paidto hear their secrets. Because
that was really kind of whatwhat happened, what happened
pretty quickly.
And money can be a big secret.
For sure. So if you so starting,in terms of how you talked about
your own life and your own path,I mean, we really start to think
about our futures seriously, andthe impact of our decisions
(12:22):
seriously, not on our 20s.
Whether whether we want toacknowledge that or not, because
I'm sure there's a lot of 20somethings out there that are
like nominated and ready to growup yet. Yeah. But most of our,
you know, big life decisions arehappening in our 20s. Right. So
if you could give some bestpractices to a client that was
(12:43):
interested in starting to thinkabout their financial wealth or
their financial future, whatwould you give to them? What are
some of the questions that theyshould be asking themselves when
they're just starting off?
Either their college or career?
I mean, you mentionedscholarships. I'm thinking
school debt, right. You know,like, there's a lot of impactful
decisions are happening. Wherewould you start?
(13:03):
Yeah, yeah. And I'll start withsaying that, you know, anyone
listening, right, there's noadvice that I'm gonna give. I'm
mostly going to, like you said,just give good questions that
people can think about or bestpractices. Yeah, I mean, one of
the questions I get asked oftenis like, Oh, how much do I need
to have, like, saved up? Youknow, whether it's for
(13:24):
retirement or some other goal?
And I always tell people theanswer that is, it depends,
right? Because there's so manydifferent things that have to be
considered. When you're thinkingabout what your goal is, whether
it's paying for college, foryour kids, or paying off student
loan debt, if it's saving forretirement, if it's, you know,
saving to be able to travel orget that house or beach house.
(13:47):
You know, there's so manydifferent things like, like you
said, How old are you? How muchare you making, you know, how
much are you saving, from whatyou're making? How much are you
spending, you know, what's thetime frame from when you might
need to utilize those assets?
How comfortable are you with theidea of risk and investments,
(14:08):
you know, so all of those typesof things really make an impact
on what you should or maybeshouldn't do. But definitely
starting out, you know, a lot ofa lot of it is trying to figure
out, okay, you know, what's mycareer going to be right now? Am
I in a place where I'm, youknow, with a with a partner, am
I going to get married? Am Igoing to have kids? So a lot of
(14:28):
it is just trying to reallyunderstand how much you're
making, how much you'respending, you know, identifying,
you know, somewhat of a budget,and then identifying what are
some of those goals? And thenwhat are the priority of those
goals?
What percentage of your clientscome to you, you know, in their
20s or in their early, you know,adulthood? Phase? Yeah,
(14:50):
that's a great question. And thereason I say that is because
when I talk to people, I say thebiggest asset that we have,
especially when it comes toinvesting is time. You know, so
that when you can start early,even if it's just a little bit
being consistent, like that,that really has an impact on how
things play out 40 or 50 yearsdown the road. The reality is a
(15:14):
lot of my clients, and everyfinancial advisor is going to be
different. Some of this is justthe people that have come to me,
and some of it is, you know,identifying who I tend to work
well with, but a lot of myclients are, you know, older
4550 and above closer toretirement or living in
(15:35):
retirement. That doesn't meanthat as an advisor, you know, I
wouldn't want to help someone intheir 20s, right, it's just,
that's what I've seen in my ownpersonal.
And I think I was a lunaticgrowing up, because, you know, I
found myself, you know, reallybeing very introspective about a
lot of that stuff in early on,you know, I was an accounting
(15:56):
major in college, I was, youknow, at the time, double major
with finance and business. Andso I think it was just kind of
this inundation of theimportance of understanding this
aspect of my life. But noteverybody gets that right
exposure, not everybody getsthat even those life skills,
right, like we talked to ourchildren about, like, they don't
(16:18):
know what a checkbook is, youknow, oh, yeah, my kids have a
little like fat cat savingsaccount. And they're like,
where's my debit card, and like,I was just talking to my
daughter the other day, she wastrying to, you know, we were
talking about the differencebetween like a debit card, which
is a credit card, and like thedebit, it's like, you've
actually made that money, it'syours, you get to spend it,
whereas the credit card is like,it's a loan, you got to pay it
(16:38):
back. And she's nine. So yeah,and I think anybody in their
20s, that is, is aware, and canacknowledge that this is an
important thing, they shouldtalk to a financial advisor, you
know, I started working with onevery early on, I had an
internship in college. And so Ihad this, you know, on, like,
money I'd never had before. Andthat was when I made that
(16:59):
decision that it was importantfor myself, and and then I think
on the other side of that, inyour 20s, is that if you have no
awareness of it whatsoever, youshould be talking to a financial
advisor, because, you know,there's so much counseling, as
you've mentioned, that you cando that will set them up for
success as they do decide whatthey want to do for a living.
(17:20):
And I think we get intimidatedin our 20s. Because we think we
don't make enough money, rightto work with somebody.
Absolutely. Yeah. And getting anunderstanding of kind of the
spending side or getting rid ofdebt, you know, is important,
because, as a financial adviser,a lot of what I do is help
people understand like, Okay, wehave this goal, you have this
(17:41):
money, how can we make it workfor you, and we talk about
investing, you know, stocks,mutual funds, bonds, those kinds
of things. But I can't do that,right, if you've got, you know,
a mounting amount of debt, youknow, credit card debt, like, I
don't know, 16% or something, Imean, it's really hard. If you
don't have some assets that youcan invest, because early on,
(18:03):
you really didn't save, youreally didn't think about paying
down debt, you know,unfortunately, there are, you
know, situations where peoplejust most of their money has
been spent, as opposed to save.
And so it's just really hard to,you know, move forward from
there. It's not impossible,it's not, and even in our
profession, working with realestate and working with first
(18:26):
time homebuyers, we we hear alot of these same things. It's
it's their cash flow is great,but their debt is, you know,
eating that alive. So I thinkthat's why I loved you know, the
idea of talking about thisgenerationally and setting
people up for what questionsthey should ask. So, all right,
we're out of our 20s we havemade some big life decisions,
(18:46):
we're in our 30s. Where whatwhat's kind of the impact of
those shifts of dynamic of maybethat person does have a partner
now maybe there is some extraincome? Like, right, where are
some best practices for peoplein their 30s that have set
themselves up for working withsomeone like you?
(19:06):
Yeah, so I think you know,30s 40s, even 50s people kind of
in that timeframe have, youknow, they have a career that
they feel is pretty consistent.
He said, maybe they have afamily or they have children. So
it's really kind of on theplanning side, just trying to
understand, okay, if I want tobe here down the road, what do I
need to be doing right now,oftentimes, when we look at the
(19:30):
different financial goals thatpeople have, you know, so for
example, an emergency fund. Soit could be anywhere from six to
12 months of whatever yourmonthly bills are. So making
sure that you have somethingwhether it's at a bank or at a
financial firm, that you know,isn't going to that's going to
(19:51):
be there no matter what if youwere to lose a job or you
couldn't pay the bills for sixmonths, you know, you have a
place where you can go. Alright,so setting up something like an
emergency fund, really makingsure that you understand one of
the other big goals a lot ofpeople have is certainly
retirement. So are you workingfor a company that that offers,
(20:12):
you know, retirement plan a401k? Or some of the other plans
that are out there? You know,are you giving an you know,
enough to at least maybe gettingthe matching that the company
offers? Um, you know, one ofthe,
I was just gonna say, I thinkthe biggest thing in our 30s is
to look at life holistically.
And I like how you're talkingabout a lot of different
(20:33):
avenues, creating wealth, oreven creating, you know,
security. That is, again, youknow, I think about in my life,
some of the big mistakes, youknow, we get very focused in on
the future, and we forget aboutthe right now. Yeah, and that is
that holistic approach to takingcare of ourselves in a financial
(20:54):
way is, you know, can I dealwith today? And can I also be
planning for the future? Andthat, what is the weight of
that? And does it ever shift?
Like, do you ever, you know,talk to people and kind of lean
them one direction or another?
And what are those variablesthat you're considering?
Yeah, yeah, again, a lot of itcomes down to like, what their
goals are, and how theyprioritize those goals in their
(21:16):
situation. So like, when someonecomes in to talk to me, you
know, I always tell them, it'skind of like a financial,
physical or a checkup. There'stwo sides to that, like when you
go to the doctor, one is they'regoing to ask you lots of
questions, you know, height,weight, how you sleeping, eating
all that good stuff. And thenthe other part of that is going
to be like your blood work,right? Because there are things
(21:41):
that are going to come backwhere the doctors reading it,
and your cholesterol level orwhatever, which I would never
understand any of it. But forthem, it says a lot. When I have
clients come in, one they'regoing to come in, and I'm going
to definitely spend a lot oftime asking them all kinds of
questions about, you know, theircurrent financial situation. But
I'm also going to say, if youhave statements, that's the
(22:03):
blood work for me, because I cansee in a client statements, how
they're invested, what type ofaccount it is, you know, how
it's, you know, the taxation ofthat type of account. So there's
a lot that I can see that maybe,either they didn't know to
answer, or maybe they answeredincorrectly, right. So those two
things combined, really canimpact you know, what the advice
(22:26):
is moving forward.
Our clients sometimes don't knowthe right questions to even ask
100%. And I will tell people,you know, Hey, it's okay, I'm
going to try and fill in some ofthe questions that maybe you
don't know, to ask, just throughthe experience that I've had
over time, because I want themlike I said, I really want them
to understand that there's aplan. So one of the things I
(22:48):
always kind of tell people whenthey're looking for any
financial advisor, is there'sreally three things that
hopefully you're looking forsomeone that you like, someone
that you trust, and someone thatbuilds a plan that you
understand. Right? So if it's42, I probably hope to do this
another maybe 25 years? Well,some of my clients, I'm hoping
(23:10):
that they're gonna be with methat entire time. So you better
like them. Right? And I hopethey like me, right? When I,
when they see my name on theirphone, I hope like, Oh, it's my
goal, and not all crap. It's mygoal, right? Definitely, as I
mentioned earlier, trust is likesuch a major component, you
know, to this type ofrelationship. So you definitely
want to trust someone. But thatlast part, you know, build a
(23:32):
plan that you understand. Ithink sometimes people have
somebody and then they'reprobably good at maybe selling
them stocks and bonds andproducts that they might need.
But they don't really spend thattime really helping them
understand like, what is theactual plan? Here, your goals,
your your concerns? Here's yourcomfort with risk based off
(23:55):
those things. Here's theplanning that that is involved.
Yeah. So sounds like between our20s or 30s, we're laying that
foundation, we're settingourselves up to have that
ecosystem of balance betweenimmediate cash flow and future
retirement. And then as we gointo our 40s, we're starting to
make some real, you know,impactful decisions about, you
(24:18):
know, how can we leverage that?
I think that I'm about to be inthe 40. Club. Right. And you
know,that amazing are in the club.
It's,it's an amazing club, I cannot
wait for it. But it's fastapproaching. So, but I think
that's that's the time that westart thinking about how can we
leverage what we've alreadycreated? That always hits me
hard is, you know, here's whatI've done. Here's what I've
(24:39):
done. Well, this was a greatstart. Now, how do I leverage
that? Where Where do you play arole in that as, as people in
their 40s are leveraging theirassets are leveraging what
they've produced? What kind ofquestions should we be asking
about what that even means?
Yeah, no. So the leveraging ofwhat you've done up to that
point is sort of An importantthing and that 40 to 50
(25:03):
timeframe, you know, there,there are definitely some some
potential shifts. You know, oneof the things we talk about as
advisors is not just how do you,you know, grow your assets or
build wealth, but it's also howdo you kind of protect that life
insurance or long term careinsurance can become a part of
that. And a lot of people, youknow, think, Oh, well, you know,
I'm working for a company, Ihave life insurance, and they
(25:26):
don't understand, you know, kindof how it all works. And if they
don't have that job anymore,that that's gone, right. But
also, a lot of times go makingthat shift from things like, and
I won't get into too many of thedetails, but from like a term
policy, which a lot of peoplewill get, you know, in their 20s
or 30s, to maybe more of like apermanent life insurance policy
(25:47):
where you are, you know, itbecomes more of an investment,
not just for the death benefitof life insurance, but also some
of the the value that that growsin the in the life insurance
policy itself. And starting tothink to Alright, how do I start
to not just grow my moneytowards my goal, like, let's
say, retirement, but a lot ofpeople think, Alright, well, I'm
(26:10):
just trying to get there. Butthe reality is, you're invested,
you know, usually throughout therest of your life. And so
understanding how do I kind ofstart to change my mindset from
growing as much as I can to?
Alright, what what's theplanning of, you know, Social
Security? How do we createincome in retirement? You know,
what are some ways that I canprotect these assets? We start
(26:35):
talking about things like estateplanning, so you grown this
family, you have these children?
Or maybe you're a little older,and you started having grandkids
or whatever? How do I, you know,work with like an estate
attorney? How do I work withlike a CPA, and I work with my
financial advisor, to have aplan for not just protecting my
assets, but at some point, youknow, transfer the transferring
(26:58):
those assets, so thatultimately, maybe you can
create, like a generationalwealth. Yeah.
And also, within that same timeframe, you mentioned so many
things in terms of protectionand planning. But then, what
about the lifestyle that you'reenjoying today, right, like how
and we do this when we dolisting appointments, or if we
work with our past clients,especially in this market today,
(27:19):
where, you know, homes areappreciating so quickly, and
there's this instant equity, orthere's all of this newfound
opportunity, and people have bigdecisions to make? How has your
phone been ringing the last fewyears, during this pandemic? You
know, what should I do with thisand talk about, like, some of
the challenges that people arefacing with that, or maybe even
opportunities that maybe theydidn't know, they had?
(27:42):
Absolutely, you know, youmentioned kind of real estate,
you know, I always tell people,I stay in my lane, which is kind
of the investing side of, youknow, financial advising, but at
the same time, these are bigquestions that clients are
having, you know, should I berefinancing, you know, as rates,
you know, went down these lastcouple of years, or, you know,
I've got some debt to pay, andnow I have all this equity in my
(28:02):
house, you know, should I be,you know, looking to get some
kind of like a home equity loanand pay off some of this debt.
And so these are definitelyquestions that that I get asked,
and sometimes I'll say, well,let's, let's team up with, you
know, your mortgage broker areyour realtor and as a group,
let's, let's help you make thedecision that's going to be best
(28:23):
for you and your family. BecauseI always tell people like, for
me, the way that I see, youknow, the decision making
process, at least as as anadvisor, is I feel like my job
is to make sure that you know,all right, if you've got option
A or B, or maybe even a, b, andc, I want you to have those here
are the things that are positiveor good, but also what are the
(28:46):
things that you need to be awareof and think about, right, so
now you know what your optionsare, you know, the good and the
things that you need to thinkabout based off of our
relationship and be askingreally good questions and
understanding your situation,you know, you're paying me for
advice. So I'm going to giveadvice as to which of those
options I think is best for youand your family. But at the end
of the day, the client is alwaysthe one who needs to make that
(29:10):
decision, because it's theirmoney that they've worked really
hard for, it's their family. Soyes, I'm gonna understand your
your situation, I'm going tomake sure you know what the
options are. I'm going to giveyou advice, but you need to
ultimately make the decisionthat's best for you, your
family's right,we always say we don't, it's not
our money. It's not ourresponsibility to spend it
either. Right. And as in whenwe're helping families with some
(29:33):
of the biggest life decisionsthat they make, whether it's
real estate or financialplanning, that's a that's a lot
of responsibility. And so you'reright, it does boil down to
trust and relationship andcreating a team of people that
you know are going to keep yourbest interest and your fiduciary
in mind. So the other you know,piece of this as I'm listening
(29:56):
to you talk is the fact that itseems like you really found your
niche, and something that hasblended to things that you never
thought maybe would have beenblended. So if you could give
advice to somebody, let's goback to college or high school
about this path that you've beenon. Yeah. What would you give to
that person that saying, like, Ilike the way Michaels talking
(30:17):
about his job and the way thathe gets to impact people? I
think I might want to do that.
Yeah. So it's an interestingquestion. You know, having spent
many years counseling middleschool, but high school kids is
they're trying to think about,you know, going to college and
what are they going to, youknow, major end, because maybe
(30:38):
that's going to impacteight. And you last night, we're
driving home from cheer. And shegoes, Mom, I don't know what I
want to be when I grew up. I waslike, okay, yeah. Stay there for
a while. Yes. Yeah. And thenshe's like, I might want to be
like, work at Starbucks and havelike, an apartment, you only
work part time, right? Yeah,that's like, Well, yeah.
(31:01):
Okay. Well, so, you know, havingkind of going back to that, and
hope parents don't get mad at mefor saying this. But what I
found was the realization thatyes, college is super important.
But there are so many differentpaths to being successful. It
could be a community college, itcould be an associate's degree.
I mean, I remember. So for me tohave a master's degree and be a
(31:24):
school counselor, I was making,like, $42,000 a year, right. And
some of the kids who are 19years old and went through like
an apprenticeship for likemasonry, or plumbing or any of
those things, were making60 70,000. I was like, hey, you
know, there are so many waysthat you can do it. So I always
tell people, the two things thatI think are important when
(31:44):
you're thinking about, how do Iultimately get to where I want
to be in like a career is youhave to find something that you
really are passionate about. Andsometimes that takes time. But
you really do want to findsomething you're passionate
about. And then you have to workyour ass off right back and say
that, yeah, but you know, nobodyhas been successful without
(32:05):
working hard. That's right,right. And so again, going back
to this idea, yes, college isimportant, or getting a degree
or getting some kind oftraining. But at the end of the
day, when you look at the peoplewho've been very, very
successful, they did they foundsomething they are passionate
about, and then they workedreally, really hard
to get there. Yeah. And it canchange.
So yes. And so there was onething I didn't tell you. So I
(32:26):
have an undergrad degree inbusiness. And I got my Master's
in Counseling, and oh, six,there was a point in there where
I was kind of, you know, not,again, I liked what I did as a
council, but I was still tryingto find my way. And so I'd
always really love deviantbehavior, okay, you know, and it
kind of goes with thatpsychology and sociology. And I
(32:49):
had this little kind offascination with like, Silence
of the Lambs and serial killers.
Yes. But I actually went and gota master's in criminal justice.
Okay. And I say all that to kindof say, like, my path has
definitely not been straight,you know, asking, like, how do
you kind of get to where youwanted to be? Again, it just
took really trying differentavenues pursuing things that I
(33:11):
was interested in at that time,you know, and allowing myself
the freedom to kind of fail,like, I got this degree, and I,
you know, I had student loans topay, but I never used it, right.
But at the same time, it allowedme, you know, to explore
something that I was interestedin, you know, to, to, you know,
put two years of work towardsthis thing. So, it taught me the
(33:31):
idea that, you know, workingtowards those things that you're
passionate about, is what'sgonna help you, you know, get to
where you ultimately want to be.
Yeah, Ilike that. You're not you put
yourself in a position to failand be okay with it. Because the
other side of that is thegrowth, right? And how how we
get there, it's not a race,right, and how we get there as
(33:52):
part of the experience. Yes.
Yeah. I think that the morewinding and the more, you know,
flexible we can be with how toachieve goals, the more goals
we're able to achieve.
Absolutely. So okay, going backto our community, you mentioned
apex, yes. The peak ofgood living. That's right.
(34:13):
There's my first Apex visitor.
So tell me a little bit aboutsome of the changes that you've
seen in APEX and you know,especially since you stopped
family there and that yes, yourmemories are there because I
grew up in Cary. So neighbors,right. But it's a lot different.
Oh, yeah. Like paint thatpicture? Yeah.
Well, so I grew up right acrossthe street from the high school.
(34:36):
And I remember, you know, orDunkin lower Dunkin yes or no
words. I was like two housesfrom the school. But you know,
going downtown apex, I thinkthere was like a Mexican
restaurant. And that was aboutit. But my favorite place was
the library. Oh, yeah. You know,I think now it's like the
Chamber of Commerce or townhall. But yeah, you know, my mom
(34:57):
was a teacher and we love tojust like go to law. library,
you can get a bunch of books andgo home and read. But now you go
down there and there's like, youknow, scratch and you know, some
really great restaurants. And Imean, they've done so much to
just make that, you know, aplace where people really want
to go and enjoy and shop and,you know, spend time there. So
(35:19):
I'm really proud of that. So,you know, one of the other
things that just stands out tome is, so jock, who's now the
mayor of APEX, right, you know,he, you know, talked about
someone who's been successful,and just been a big huge impact
to the apex community, you know,working as like a school
resource officer, and I'm beinga police officer there. And
(35:40):
then, you know, recentlybecoming mayor, you know, I
think that it's really cool tosee people who really care about
that town in that community,helping it to grow and rise up.
And just it's funny, youmentioned that because I
participated in the Raleighregional associations Leadership
Academy, this past class, so Igraduated from that, and just
(36:04):
about a month ago, in January,and we had one of the program
pieces is that you attend thecandidate interviews for local
municipalities to figure out whoand the Realtors Association
should be endorsed, right? Youknow, and that's something I'm
learning in our real estateindustry is that there is a
political side to it, you know,how we were deemed essential
(36:27):
during the pandemic, all thatcame from our association in our
industry. And it was really coolto see in these local
municipalities that there are somany natives that are rising up
into leadership. So I thinkthat's a great pronunciation of
apex. Oh, yeah. Remember, therewas a couple of candidates that
we spoke to that they livethere, they grew up there, and
(36:48):
they have a real, you know,connection to how they want to
see the community grow.
Yeah, I mean, I would say that,you know, not just for apex,
we're just kind of this area. Imean, I know, there's a lot of
people who've kind of relocatedhere, and that's great. And, you
know, growth is important. Butthere are people that I've grown
up with, that are still in thisarea, that really have just made
(37:08):
an impact. You mentioned kind ofCarrie, and there's a guy named
Matt Perry, who's in the realestate world, right, but, but
he's just a great great guy,and, and really does care about,
you know, this area and thecommunities and has done a lot
to give back. You know, so Ijust think that there's, there's
a lot of people that who grew uphere that really, really
genuinely care, you know, mybest friend since I was in third
(37:30):
grade, you know, a guy namedBrent Saul's is the. So he's the
Dean of Students like BroughtonHigh School, you know, so again,
you know, having lived here andnow being in a place where, you
know, he can make a positiveimpact on the families that are
that are in that area. I justthink it's really important.
Like the people who are fromhere are very proud to be here,
(37:54):
and really care about thiscommunity growing. I agree
positive.
I think that's why we continueto be ranked and so widely
noticed by relocation clients isbecause that, you know, the way
that we're growing and the youknow, the local impact is so you
know, large, absolutely. Okay,so, five questions, maybe 333.
(38:19):
Let's do three, you mentioned,you're an avid reader. Okay. Are
you still an avid reader?
Oh, man, the invention of thecell phone is changed a little
bit. You know, so, yes, yeah. Sothe last thing I read was green
lights. Matthew McConaughey.
Second vote for green light. Oh,my question. Yes, it is one of
my favorites.
(38:39):
Well, I did actually listen toit on Audible as well. And he's
the one who reads it and yougotta love his voice. But just
even Yeah, such an amazing book.
And I love just the idea ofYeah, again, here's your
definitely lots of differentpaths that he took along the
way. Just saying, Okay, this isa green light, like this is an
opportunity for me to go and tryand do something and he failed
(38:59):
at some of those things, but hasbecome obviously a very
successful person. Yeah, Ireally love that
book. So much gratitude. Yeah.
What's your favorite thing to dowith your kids in your spare
time?
Oh man to do in this area? Yeah.
It's a great question. So Imean, the little things really,
like we just we spent, you know,time at the kitchen table
(39:21):
playing phase 10 You know, mydaughter's kicking me and my
sons but you know, we love goingand you know, seeing friends you
know, having been from aroundhere and family, they're very
involved right? So my son playsfootball and few clay and then
my daughter's been doing likevolleyball and soccer.
You talked a lot about yousports on making those and so
(39:43):
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, way ofinvolving your kid. Yeah,
I've always been the I'm notgonna coach my kids, but now
that my daughter's playingsoccer and she's 10 I'm at the
place where I'm like, oh, no,maybe I can coach you a little
soccer because that was my my goto sport. You know, we went to
defy you know, just this pastweekend. So, yeah, so we love to
be out. You know, I'm a big fanof experiences over things. So,
(40:09):
you know, anytime that I cantake my kids, you know, we
travel I think I mentionedbefore we started, you know,
I've took them to Turks andCaicos back in October and we've
done like the Disney cruise tothe Bahamas, you know, so I just
love to be able to show themexperience in this world that
will hopefully, you know, growtheir minds and
(40:29):
yeah, yeah. And how about you?
What's your favorite restaurantin the triangle?
Oh, you can't ask that. BecauseI'm a foodie. And I absolutely
love, love, love, love to eatand I love all different kinds.
So it could be Indian or Thai orsushi or Mexican or Italian. But
if you had to put me on thespot, I'm gonna say Maximilian
and Carrie.
Oh, wow. Okay, so it's beenthere for McGregor.
(40:54):
No, it's, it's um, I want to sayChapel Hill Road. Okay. Yeah. By
Woody's Yes. It's right by Woodywings.
Yeah. My best wings is Woody.
Yeah, am I arguing? Yeah, likemy way Tavern and Holly Springs.
But But yeah, Maximilian, likeit's the most unassuming little
place on the corner. But whenyou when you go inside you mean,
(41:18):
every every night they've gotanother carry restaurant before
cuz it was just one of the onlyones growing up was Roma's
pizza. Okay. Did you ever dothat? Oh my gosh, that's so
good. So,you know, shout out to Michael
Longo and Mario Longo and thelongest family. But you know,
the first pizza we ever ate wasthat so it was the Carrie mall
(41:39):
right Carrie village back in theday, their father started a
place called cousins beat. Oh,yeah. Now it's Vic's over like
in like a city market anddowntown Raleigh locations. But
for me, that's the best pizza intown.
And okay, outside ofrestaurants. What do you what do
you like to do on the triangle?
(42:00):
I just love to you know, to beoutside I love you know, play a
lot of golf and tennis now.
Best best course. Where do youlike to play?
I well. So I play a lot at Eagleridge. Okay, yeah. But, Garner?
Yep. Eagle ridge in Garner. Verygood, well done. But you know,
go into like, Umstead orsomewhere to like, go for hikes.
(42:20):
Jordan Lake, my sister lives outnear there. Awesome. I love the
water. You know, I wish I couldlive part time at the beach, you
know, somewhere in Wilmington.
But that's like a financialplanning goal. It really is. I
tell people it's like on my fiveyear plan. It's like even if I
just have like a, like a traileron a piece of land. I just love
being near the beach. So much.
And last question, best adviceyou've ever been given?
(42:47):
Gosh, that probably came from mygrandfather, because he was such
a big role model to me. But I'mgoing to say I'm going to give
you my favorite quote, to tellyou because it's kind of also
advice. So it's Maya Angelou andshe said people will always
remember what you say or whatyou did, but they'll always
remember how you made them feel.
Yeah. And so for me, like if Icould teach my kids or any
(43:10):
anybody in the world something,it's that how you treat people
really, really matters.
So true. Great way to wrap itup. Yeah. Michael, thank you so
much for sharing your journeyand your experience. And also,
you know, if if listeners didn'tget the sense of who you are as
a consultant, and who you are asa partner and their financial
(43:34):
success, then I think theyshould go back and re listen.
Oh, Iappreciate I just appreciate the
opportunity to come and talkabout all these things. And so
thank you very much for havingme this morning.
Absolutely. Thank you forjoining us on this episode of
Making Moves. We want to deliverthe highlights of the triangle
that you want to hear. Let usknow your feedback, comment on
(43:55):
our social media like and ofcourse subscribe to continue and
discover why we love where welive until next time with Making
Moves hosted by The RachelKendall Team.
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