The Importance of Financial Planning for Young Adults with Joel Miller - 183 - Money Talk

Episode Transcript
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Speaker (00:00):
Welcome Money Buddies to this week's episode of Money

(00:02):
Talk.
This week we're talking aboutfinancial planning for young
adults and the opportunity ofworking with a professional when
you're young.
I'm your host, Skylar Fleming,and let's get talking.
I.

(00:24):
Today we're talking about one ofthose areas that can be a bit
intimidating for people, afinancial plan.
Most people hear that and theythink it's gonna be this big,
scary, long process with anexpensive professional, and that
they may as well just avoid it.
But know everyone should reallyhave a financial plan.
I like to use it as a way for mywife and I to know what to do
with our next dollar.

(00:45):
It doesn't have to be thismassive, scary, long, and
intimidating process.
It can be pretty simple andstraightforward.
And today's money buddy and Iare talking about how financial
plans can be so helpful foryoung adults.
They really are something thatyou can implement and use to
your advantage regardless of howmuch money or wealth you have.
You probably think a financialplan is only for the wealthy and

(01:06):
those with money burning a holein their pocket.
But really, everyone should havea plan of what to do with their
money.
When you have this plan inplace, it makes it a whole lot
easier to manage your financesin a way that makes you feel
confident and proud of how youhandle money.
The plan doesn't have to besuper complicated, and I'm
excited for today's interviewbecause I think it's gonna help
each and every one of you,regardless of whether you're a

(01:27):
young adult or not.
This is an episode that's gonnahelp you learn why and how to
implement a financial plan intoyour life.
I did mention previously that Iwas gonna share some more
information about a story withmy wife's student loans.
Here it comes, in today'sversion of Skyler Story Time, I
wanna share a story about myexperience and frankly nightmare

(01:47):
with Nelnet and my wife'sstudent loans.
So couple years ago, and that'sa crazy starting point for this
story because it's been going onfor a few.
Years.
So a couple years ago, my wifegot a student loan in, I wanna
say the fall of 2022.
Well, in January of 2023, greatLakes decided to transfer the
loan that we had over to nailnet, and that loan never showed

(02:11):
up.
And then she got another loan inthe spring of 2023 that was
gonna be combined into one loan,that 2022 loan and 2023.
Should have been one loan, butthey never showed up at Nelnet.
So long story long, it took usforever to finally get through
to anybody.
We were calling the school, wewere calling Nelnet.
I called the Department ofEducation.

(02:31):
I was talking to whoever I couldto try to figure out where in
the world this loan went.
And this is just a story abouthow crazy debt can be and if
it's something you owe moneyfor, while it does come back to
get you, because this loan wasaccruing interest from September
of 2023, I believe, when studentloan interest resumed.
Until a couple weeks ago when itfinally decided to show up.

(02:51):
Years later, they tried to tellme that we owed$2,000 in
interest on this loan, but wehad been making payments to all
of our other loans, and theywouldn't let us make a payment
to this loan because it didn'texist in the system yet.
So long story, it was grueling.
It was brutal.
I took very good notes, andfinally we were able to come to
a point where I said, Hey, we'regonna have to go back through.

(03:13):
And any payment that I would'veapplied to this loan, we need to
make some adjustments.
So they combed through.
It took several days.
They combed through, I think, 17or 20 different payments that
they went through and backdatedto our old loan because we were
paid ahead on a lower interestrate loan.
So I would rather have madethose payments to the higher
interest rate loan.
And I had to work my way up allthe way to, I wanna say it was a

(03:34):
manager in their call center.
'cause one time I called andevery time I called Nelnet, it's
a long process of, oh, we don'tknow when that'll be done.
Our estimates say three weeks.
It'll probably be more, call usback whenever you have to submit
some sort of ticket with them.
So this last time I had tosubmit a ticket and I'm like,
listen, this case has been goingon four years.
At this point, can I talk to asupervisor?

(03:54):
And I talked to the supervisorand they gave me the same thing
of, oh, I'm gonna have to submita request.
It'll take three weeks, call usback next week, and you can get
a status.
And of course, that status isjust gonna be, we're working on
it.
So, no, I asked for that.
Supervisor's, manager.
And sometimes if you're everdealing with a financial
institution, sometimes you haveto work your way up the chain
and it's completely okay andthey're okay with it too.
They have processes in place tohandle this.

(04:15):
So that is something toabsolutely consider doing if
you're dealing with a toughfinancial situation.
Ask for a supervisor, ask for amanager.
Ask for someone who can actuallyhelp you until you get the
solution that you want.
Because then it only took a fewdays for them to get it figured
out and get us the updates madeto the account that we needed to
have happen.
So make sure you're asking andbeing your own advocate when it
comes to dealing with financialinstitutions because.

(04:37):
We were able to get thatinterest reduced greatly by
backdating a bunch of payments,and I wasn't gonna just give up
and make a large payment to getthe interest down because I knew
we didn't rightfully owe thatmuch.
So this is, again, another timewhere it's important to have a
plan and to keep track of yourfinances because when a
situation like this comes up,you're gonna want to have your
story straight so that you candemand and know what you should

(04:58):
expect to have happen.
With a financial institution.
So that's the story of my wife'sstudent loans.
I wanted to put'em out here.
Is there anyone else listening?
Have you had an issue with yourstudent loan provider?
I would love to come on and talkabout student loan debt and how
that's impacted a fellow moneybuddy that listens to this show.
So if you've had some sort ofhorror story with student loans,
send me a text in the top of theshow notes or send me an email

(05:19):
and I'd love to get on a podcastepisode and talk about it with
you.
But today's money Buddy is JoelMiller.
Joel Miller is a CFPprofessional, dedicated to
building relationships andcreating memories.
He uses his energy andenthusiasm to help individuals
and families with their personalfinances.
He enjoys competing in Half IronMan triathlons and pickleball,
and this is a fantastic and funconversation.

(05:40):
I'm glad we had Joel on the showand let's get moving along with
this with the money talkingpoints.
The first one is, how can youstart building a financial plan?
The second one is, what smallarea can you begin with?
And third, how can sharing yourfinancial plan with others help
you with those money talkingpoints in mind?
Let's get talking and welcomeJoel to the show.

Joel Miller (05:57):
Absolutely.
So happy to be here, Skyler.
Thank you so much for what youdo and having me as a guest
appearance on the show.

Skyler (06:03):
Yeah, I am excited for this one.
This has been a thought that Ihave had brewing in my mind for
the last couple months.
I'm right now in the CFP examreview stage.
I'm taking the exam in July, soI.
I'm,

I'll be

Skyler (06:15):
yeah,

you.

Skyler (06:16):
I'm pretty pumped for that.
But I've been thinking about mypodcast audience.
I try to talk to young adults,and that can tend to be a crowd
that says, oh, financialplanning is for rich people.
Financial planning isn't for me.
I don't need it.
I don't have any money.
So I'm excited to talk aboutthis episode with you because
we're talking about how youngadults can use financial
planning and how it can be soimportant.

(06:36):
let's kick it off with a simpledefinition right out the gate.
What is financial planning?

Yeah, this is such an important conversation'cause
I wanna bust that myth, right?
Financial planning is foreveryone who either cares about
your own finances or thefinances of maybe your family or
people who depend on you.
So the way I like to definefinancial planning is being
aware.
Conscious and proactive

Skyler (06:59):
Mm-hmm.

what's coming in and what's leaving your net
worth.
Right?
So it has everything to do withyour income, your expenses, your
budgeting, maybe benefits atwork, your

Skyler (07:10):
Mm-hmm.

So what is this big comprehensive subject?
I think oftentimes weunfortunately put it off too
long because it almost feels alittle scary to talk about'cause
there's so many differentcomponents.

Skyler (07:20):
Yeah.
since there are so manycomponents, you can take it one
thing at a time.
I like to tell people you don'thave to develop this 50 page
financial plan in one hour.
You can do it.
Say, Hey, I am starting a 401kat work.
How do I plan about that?
Or, Hey, I have an HSA.
How do I plan about that?
And then you can work it alltogether into one bigger thing.
You mentioned that it's morethan just investments, but how

(07:42):
is it more than investments?
What other things do we need toconsider?

I love the way you said that oftentimes we are
impatient and want somethingdone quickly, but this is a
process.
This is a marathon.
not a sprint, so it takes time.
I, I actually think of it verysimilar to going to the gym.
When you go to the gym once youdon't see incredible gains.
You don't gain all of thismuscle over one, over one time.

(08:06):
You go over and over.
It's a repeatable process youfall in love with, and that's
where you see major results overtime.
One of my other favoriteanalogies is this is a puzzle.

Skyler (08:18):
Mm.

Financial planning is a piece of the puzzle, but
there's so much more than that.
everyone files a tax return.
Everyone probably should have anestate plan.
You should have life insuranceif someone else depends on you
financially.
we're putting together thesedifferent puzzle pieces and some
of them are more or lessapplicable to you at different
points in your life.

Skyler (08:39):
Yeah, that's such a great way to paint that picture,
or build the picture when you'rebuilding your puzzle.
But there's so many differentlittle pieces.
And then the fun thing is, youput that puzzle together and
then some toddler comes alongand smashes it all up and
something changes.
There's some sort of emergencythat happens.
My wife and I, her studentloans, we had one that didn't
transition correctly betweenproviders.
So there was this$20,000 loanthat was just missing and it

(09:02):
decided to show back up with$2,000 of interest.
So we weren't completelyplanning for that.
We knew in the back of our mindsit was going to be owed and we'd
have to do something with it,but we had planned around the
loans that were showing up.
now we have to go back in andrebuild our plan and say, oh
yeah, we're not gonna be able topay it off in the same amount of
time something happened.
And the people listening, thatmight be something like a flat

(09:23):
tire and now you're not gonna beable to pay off your car as fast
or something like that.
It always comes in and somethingalways screws it up.
But if you don't have a plan inplace, don't you think that can
be so much more of a headache totry to make those adjustments?

Oh my gosh.
The worst plan is having no plan

Skyler (09:36):
Yeah.

when it rains, it pours.
You're gonna notice all of thosethings are happening at the same
time.
And that's why the firstquestion I always start in
financial planning with peopleis, let's nail down your
emergency fund.
Let's figure out.
What you typically spend in anaverage month and how we can put
that together.
Do you want three months or sixmonths?
How do we keep this in a highyield savings account?

(09:58):
It is foundational.
Just like you build a house, youstart at the ground level and
you go up.
So you need to start with thebasic and most important
features of your financial plan,like an emergency.
And one of my favorite thingsabout financial planning and
building a puzzle and doing someof these things.
so much easier with someoneelse.
Imagine if you sat down for a2000 piece puzzle and you tried

(10:20):
to do it all by yourself.
It's difficult.
You can get distracted.
Things can come up If you bringone person in to help you out
with that, you it speeds up thatprocess immensely.
You're held accountable forstaying to the goal of
completing it, and that allowsyou to get more time back to do
everything else that you love.
The more.

(10:41):
bring someone into that, you getto do it as an accountability,
and makes it way more fun alongthe way too.
it's not as hard if you have togo buy a new dryer'cause yours
broke or you got a flat tire.
is hard enough.
But when you get to

Skyler (10:55):
Yeah.

with someone else and they become almost a
therapist for you, your moneytherapist there's so many
benefits to, talking about itout loud.

Skyler (11:02):
you mentioned a couple things that we're gonna get to
today, like accountabilitypartners because just having
someone on your side, even ifit's not like, big financial
plans where maybe you're amultimillionaire and you have to
work all the tax code and allthat sort of fancy stuff, but.
More often than not, that's notthe normal person A financial
plan can still help you outtremendously.
Even just in the fact of having.

(11:23):
Some sort of direction with yourmoney.
I like to tell people that whenyou have a plan, you know where
to put your next dollar,

Yeah.

Skyler (11:28):
I think so many people don't realize there's money
coming into their lives becausethey don't know where to put it.
It just kind of goes into somechecking account and eventually
gets spent.
But when you have a plan for it,you begin to notice all these
different amounts of money thatare just kind of coming up, oh,
hey, I made some money from thisside job.
I made some money from my taxreturn, and then you actually
know where to put it.
Why is financial planninghelpful for people beyond just a

(11:49):
direction for their money?

Yeah, I think you nailed it.
It's having a plan of attack sothat way we know where that next
dollar is gonna go.
What debt should I pay off?
Where should I be?
How much should I be saving?
How much can I be spending?
Oftentimes, are off also like,Hey, I don't know how much I can
spend.
How much should I be spending

Skyler (12:09):
Hmm.

vacations or home improvements?
Am I putting away enough forretirement?
I wish.
It's kind of shocking how manypeople I talk to and I ask, Hey,
what is your ideal retirementage?
I want to pencil something in.
We're so far out from this, butwhen do you want to retire?
And they're like, well, I don'tknow.
I've never thought of that.
Sometimes this is your.
First opportunity to have aconversation like this with

(12:34):
other people.
And that's why it's so importantbecause when you go into
something with a plan, you'regonna be more efficient, you're
gonna be more effective, you'regonna have goal setting.
And we need to be moldable.
We have to be shapeable andadapt because life is gonna
throw us curve balls.
So we might be on track for sixmonths or two years, but

Skyler (12:53):
Mm-hmm.

happens if something does come up that
you're not ready for?

Skyler (12:58):
Yeah.
That's when you have thatlittle, like it's in the back,
it's in the appendix that sayswhat to do in case of emergency,
and that's when you have thoseaccounts lined up.
You say, I'm taken from thisone.
And I think you mentioned, howmuch can I spend can be a part
of the plan?
And I think that's one thingthat's intimidating for young
adults is you have to spendmoney like it.
It feels like a stage of yourlife where everything's ramping

(13:18):
up, you're making more money,but maybe you're getting
married, maybe you're having akid, maybe you're trying to find
a nicer apartment closer to yourjob, and you have to spend money
to do that sort of thing.
How can feeling confident withspending be helpful in terms of
a plan?

Oh my gosh, it's so freeing.
It feels so good to be like.
I'm on track and I'm notoverspending.
One of the things that I love isto help empower my clients or my
friends and family to know thatthey are doing the right thing.
What I tell people is, if yourshort-term goals are looking
good and we feel good about'em,if you're long-term goals like

(13:52):
retirement or maybe

Skyler (13:54):
Mm-hmm.

(14:21):
Mm-hmm.

original goals are not on track, that's when I get
to step in and say, Hey, can wepull back here?
Can we pull back there?
I think we might be overspendingin this area, but that
empowerment feels really good.
And some of the ways I love todo that, and this is applicable
for anyone, no matter how muchyou make, are sinking funds.

Skyler (14:39):
Mm-hmm.

like to have what I call a sinking fund every single
week I'm putting money away for.
Home improvements vacationslarge bills or a

Skyler (14:49):
Mm-hmm.

It can be as small or as big as you want, but that
weekly accountability of theautomatic movement from my
checking account to my highyield savings account, those
syncing funds can absolutely bea cheat code when it comes to
saving goals in general.

Skyler (15:03):
Yeah.
And when you do hit thatemergency, that is completely
unexpected.
That money becomes available.
it's the break glass in case ofdire emergency.
It's kind of like an extrapadding to your emergency fund
in case everything really hitsthe fan.
Right.
And I liked what you said aboutbudgeting extra or creating
sinking funds.
My wife and I, probably go alittle bit extreme in the
sinking fund category where wehave every category rollover.

(15:25):
So we just build our savings inevery different area, and it's
probably led to us being alittle too cash heavy.
But that's a different podcastepisode.

And as

Skyler (15:32):
thing,

good interest,

Skyler (15:34):
yes.

wrong with that.
And the thing that you mentionedis everyone's unique.

Skyler (15:38):
Mm-hmm.

a one size fits all because you might prefer
something, someone else mightprefer something else.
Humans are unique and specialand fun,

Skyler (15:46):
Mm-hmm.

so cool is I can't take your financial plan and
throw that and implement thatinto my life, which is why the
one-on-one relationship is soimportant because you don't want
to be talking to a differentfinancial planner.
Every single time you have aquestion,

Skyler (16:01):
Hmm.

speaking to the same person who knows you, knows
your values, and that you trust,and that they have your best
interest in mind, and you're notjust another call center.

Skyler (16:11):
Yeah.
that's a fantastic way to put itis if you keep going with the
same person or the sameaccountability partner or money
buddy, you're gonna be able tobuild that rapport with them and
that consistency.
And then, like you said, itallows people to do different
things with their differentfinancial plans.
For my wife and I, we have thatcash buffer there.
It allows us to, optimize.
Our HSA like crazy, like we usethat thing to the extreme when

(16:32):
it comes to the tax efficiencyin terms of reimbursing
ourselves later.
But because of that cash bufferwe have, we're allowed to do
that.
because of the way we have ourplan set up, we haven't paid for
medical expenses because themoney's invested and then we use
the growth to reimburseourselves.
So that sort of thing issomething that our plan allows
us to do because we wanted to dothat with our medical expenses.
Maybe you want to invest a lotmore so you don't keep a big

(16:53):
sinking fund like we do, and youjust funnel more things towards
investing.
There's a bunch of differentways to do it and that's what's
so much fun and I think that'swhat can really be enlightening
for people once they realize.
But how can financial planningand the uniqueness of it help
out young adults?

Yeah, I think this is one of the things that I find
so often is I talk to people intheir thirties and forties who
are getting more to that midlifephase and they're like, wow, I
wish I would've started thisearlier.
If someone would've told me thisor educated me this, why don't
they teach this in high school?
Why didn't I learn this incollege?
We just as adults kind of getthrown into this when.

(17:30):
Our parents don't wanna havethat responsibility anymore.
And that's at a different agefor a lot of people.
Right.

Skyler (17:35):
Mm-hmm.

I think there's so many things that young adults
can absolutely learn, and one of'em is the power of compounding
interest.

Skyler (17:44):
Mm-hmm.

A small number multiplied by a small number
over a long period of timebecomes a big number.

Skyler (17:51):
Hmm.

you might wanna start saving and investing
earlier than you thought.
You might wanna look at yourfinancial risk earlier than you
thought.
If you're thinking about thisnow, I want you to attack that.
I want you to jump on it andtake advantage of that, because
the best day to plant a tree wasyesterday.
The

Skyler (18:09):
Yep.

day is today.
We're so scared to talk aboutour finances because it's
private.
that's why you wanna find thatfinancial planner that you love
doing life with, that you enjoyyour conversations, you enjoy
getting to know them and theirlife, and they love getting to
know you and you life.

Skyler (18:27):
Mm-hmm.

no matter how young or old you are, you are gonna
have to file a tax return.

Skyler (18:33):
Mm-hmm.

adult, you probably do need a estate plan.
You are going to needinvestments, you're gonna have
benefits at work.
There are so many things comingat you from different
directions, and unfortunately,options oftentimes create people
to do nothing because we getscared to do the wrong thing.
I'll talk to someone who thoughtthey were contributing to their
401k for years.

(18:54):
Then we have a conversation andI have to tell them Hey,
actually you never got this setup correctly.
It never finished,

Skyler (19:00):
Or it's all in cash.

yeah, it's all in cash.
You didn't know that yourinvestments weren't in the right
place.
A rollover happened.
You switched jobs

Skyler (19:06):
Mm-hmm.

money never got moved over.
You either have to have thetime, willingness, and ability
to take on all of theseresponsibilities yourself, or we
have to have the maturity toknow when we need to bring in a
professional to assist us with

Skyler (19:20):
Mm-hmm.

big things in life.

Skyler (19:23):
Yeah, and it's certainly something that people could do
themselves.
there's some organization andsimplification that you can do
on your own.
It requires some learning anddifferent things, but there's
also people out there that canhelp, I think that's where
things really come into play andcan be really helpful so many
people think financial planningand there's kind of this stain
of insurance sales on the theindustry, but there's so much

(19:43):
more to that.
they may also think, oh, it'sjust for people who are loaded,
or people who are the uberwealthy.
Right.
What other aspects besides justa ton of money that you're just
sitting on a pile of cash, howcan financial planning help
beyond that?

Yeah, that's a great question, I think we're
seeing this big push to flat feeplanning, which I'm a big fan of
because traditionally financialplanning has often been tied to
the amount of money you have,because that's how financial
advisors get.
Paid.
So oftentimes they only wannaspeak to you if you have 500,000
or a million dollars.
So they can charge you 1% onthat.

(20:16):
And I love this huge push inthis change that is called flat
fee planning, which means, aslong as you make enough money,
we would love to partner withyou in life because this
membership is affordable foryou.

Skyler (20:31):
Mm-hmm.

So we look at your income, we look at your
discretionary amount you haveleft over and we say, Hey, will
this membership push you in theright direction, or is it going
to slow you down?
Or how do we help get you there?
Right?
So I think that this is gonna bea game changer for a lot of
people because more and morefirms are coming out with these
flat fee options, which is greatbecause then that opens up the

(20:56):
door for

Skyler (20:56):
Mm.

to get financial planning.
We were.
Gate kept from financialadvisors for so long and now
this is so cool.
'cause I have clients in theiryoung twenties, mid twenties,

Skyler (21:09):
Hmm.

twenties, early thirties the very first time.
That was never accessible beforebecause those type of clients,
those type of people have.
Just as important financialplanning

Skyler (21:20):
Mm-hmm.

but no financial advisor wanted to work with them
and that's why I'm so thankfulfor like my business and flames,
financial planning, because someof my favorite conversations
are, we're having our firstchild,

Skyler (21:32):
Mm-hmm.

our first house.
nervous about switching jobs'cause I want to get a pay
raise, but I'm not sure how this

Skyler (21:37):
Mm-hmm.

So that's what I, I just love that.
competition is really healthyand good and more firms are
coming out with flat feeplanning, which I think just
opens up the door for a wholelot more people to get help.

Skyler (21:49):
Yeah, that helps with all those basic aspects of a
plan, because you mentioned that1% fee, if these people come
into the financial planner havea negative net worth because
they're just coming outtacollege.
Like, how does that fee work?
It just can't.
So I think that's where thesenew models and these new
opportunities are gonna become.
much more of a greatopportunity, especially for
younger and younger audiences.

(22:09):
But I wanna talk a little bitabout how people can take these
plans and implement them and,and use them in their life.
How are plans that are actuallywritten down?
How can a written plan help whenit comes to going forward with
our finances?

I think writing down goals is a practice that we
should do regardless of whateverindustry it is, right?
We should be writing down ourcareer goals.
We should be writing down,whether it's writing down or
speaking it out loud, and kindof like back to the
accountability a little bit,percentage chance of something
happening.
Goes up by a lot

Skyler (22:45):
Mm-hmm.

we should be doing that with our physical goals We
should be doing that with ourcareer goals.
We should be doing that with ourfinancial goals.
We should be doing that with oursocial goals.
I'm a big fan of goal setting Ifyou think it, it might come
true.
If you think it and write itdown, there's a higher chance of
that coming true.
if you think it, write it downand tell someone, we are just
increasing our chances of thatcoming true.

(23:08):
Every single step we takefurther along in that process.

Skyler (23:11):
And you led perfectly into my next question.
How can community or like, Ilike to call'em money buddies,
help take that next step withyour goals and actually talk to
somebody about it?

Accountability is everything.
That is when you bring someoneinto your life and you say, Hey,
I trust you and I love you, andI want you to hold me
accountable to this.
So I try to do that in so manyaspects of my life.
I'm a big triathlete, and one ofthe things that's most difficult
is training alone.
I want to train with otherpeople.

(23:41):
So when I'm waking up for my5:00 AM workouts, my long bike
rides, I want to be going outand doing that with someone else
because that makes it more funand holds me accountable to
getting up to my alarm, gettingoutside and going on that long
run or workout.
So I think the same thingtranslates to our finances.
we don't have to be afraid ofbringing someone in and talking

(24:02):
about our finances because it'sthe same exact thing that's
gonna hold you accountable tothe spending goals that you want
to set the retirement age, thatyou want to do the emergency
fund that's sitting

Skyler (24:12):
Mm-hmm.

there's a vacation I want to go on, or there's
something I want to do and Ihave all this cash sitting right
here and I have to hold peopleaccountable.
Like, no, don't touch that.

Skyler (24:20):
Mm-hmm.

that's what I love most about it it's fun to go
through life with people.
Life is short, life isdifficult, and it's a whole lot
better when you bring in someonethat you know or love.

Skyler (24:30):
Yeah, because money is stressful as is, but if you can
have someone to offload thatstress or they can say, Hey,
that's not actually that big ofa deal.
Look at it from thisperspective, and then you're
like, wow, yeah, that's not abig deal.
Let's move on from it.

Yeah,

Skyler (24:41):
much more fun when you can talk to people.

People have different ideas.
We think of things at differenttimes.
So one of my favorite things isto bring up something that they
would've never thought about.
And then when that light bulbmoment goes on and they're like,
oh my gosh,

Skyler (24:54):
Mm-hmm.

I'm here, to bring up subjects.
We all have different levels ofexpertise and knowledge.
that's ideally what you'redoing.
You're bringing in anaccountability partner so that
you can say, Hey, my backpack isreally heavy right now and I
can't carry this alone.
a good financial planner shouldbe able to help offload some of
that and put that on their back,and they can carry that weight

(25:16):
for you.
I also use this analogy ofspinning plates.

Skyler (25:20):
Mm-hmm.

all have X amount of spinning plates, and the more
you add, you might startdropping them.
some decisions that we make youcan fix or there's not a
long-term impact.
Your finances are one thatabsolutely can and do have a
long-term impact.
when you're trying to figureout, okay, what plate do I wanna
spin?

(25:40):
How many can I spin?
This is one of those where it'slike, Hey, you don't wanna drop
the ball on these because thesedo have long lasting impacts.

Skyler (25:48):
Mm-hmm.

big or small decisions can impact years or
thousands of dollars.
I think this is one of thosewhere you're like, all right,
I'm ready to pass this on to aprofessional.
Like you mentioned earlier, youabsolutely can do this on your

Skyler (26:03):
Mm-hmm.

some people do it on their own very well.
You have to look at yoursituation.
You have to know this aboutyourself to figure out, is this
something I can do or is thissomething that I should not do
my on my

Skyler (26:15):
But you talked about, one of the things I want to
touch on for young adults isestate planning.
you mentioned most people shouldhave one, and it's like everyone
does have one.
You either have the state'sestate plan.
That's going to happenautomatically.
Or you can figure out your ownand we'll talk about some areas
that young adults can set upearly and on their own.
one of them is estate planning.
it doesn't have to be ascomplicated as you think.
It doesn't have to be this bigold binder.

(26:37):
It probably should be a folderthat has some key information in
it.
how can young adults whenthey're just getting started,
think about estate planning toget things rolling.

I love this question because it gets pushed
off way too

Skyler (26:51):
Mm-hmm.

to people in their sixties and seventies that don't
have an estate plan.
So if you even say the wordestate plan in your twenties and
thirties, you are way ahead ofthe curve.
That's one of the things I caremost about is how can we
decrease your financial risk ifyou have a loved one, a
dependent a child,

Skyler (27:09):
Mm-hmm.

is there in your life.
It is a gift to them to starthaving this conversation early
and often.
I want you to have the properamount of life insurance and I
want you to have a estate plan,even if it is the most basic

Skyler (27:24):
Mm-hmm.

possible that is better than no estate plan.
'cause like you mentioned, ifyou don't have a plan, the
government and the

Skyler (27:30):
Yeah.

has a plan for you.
we like your plan more than we

Skyler (27:34):
Mm-hmm.

there are three or four basic documents, will,
power of attorney, medicaldirective, and guardianship
paperwork.

Skyler (27:42):
Mm-hmm.

we don't need to over complicate it.
Maybe you can add a trust inlater on if you want more
control and more privacy of yourestate plan.
But if you.
in your early to mid twenties.
You have wealth, you haveassets,

Skyler (27:57):
Mm-hmm.

that is gonna go to someone.
So the least we can do is writethat down because life gets cut
short way too often.
We don't know when and we don'tknow how long we're gonna be
here.
it is a gift to.
family or your loved ones, ifyou have this set up proactively
done beforehand, even assomething as simple as

(28:19):
beneficiaries

Skyler (28:20):
Yep, that's what I was gonna say.

done, man, we just have to get it done.
It doesn't take that long.
It's not that expensive, butpeople put off life insurance
and an estate plan because weovercomplicate it way too often.

Skyler (28:33):
Yeah, it can be as simple.
if all you do after this episodeis set up a beneficiary on your
401k, that's a win.
that account might grow overtime and then maybe you die in
10 years, but you set up thebeneficiary 10 years ago so you
at least know.
It has some sort of correct pathto go and the state isn't just
going to decide.
But there are other key areasthat young adults can set up

(28:55):
early.
What are some of those that cometo your mind that people can get
working besides estate plans?

I think a 401k match is a no brainer.

Skyler (29:02):
Mm-hmm.

money that we're turning down.
If we can't even get up to thattypical three or 4%, average.
employer match

Skyler (29:08):
Mm-hmm.

So that's one of the things I love to set up on
day one is let's make sure weare at minimum putting away the
employer match.
And then a Roth IRA is reallypopular right now and I think
for great reasons.
A Roth IRA, you can put in moneyusing after-tax dollars.
It can grow tax free.
You get it invested in low costETFs.
So those are just some reallygood ones that I think a lot of

(29:30):
people could either start orthink about starting very, very
soon.
One of the biggest things rightnow is we just love to take out
loans.

Skyler (29:39):
Yeah,

loan

Skyler (29:39):
everything.

house, we have a loan on our car, we have a loan
on our swing

Skyler (29:43):
You have a loan on dinner sometimes.
Now even.

Yeah.
There's so many options and yousee commercial after commercial
about, hey, take out a loaninterest free.
We want money so quick, and weare not patient enough to wait
for it to actually be there.
So I think something that I tryto push in my practice into my
clients is.
We need to save up for somethingbefore we actually buy it.

Skyler (30:06):
Mm-hmm.

the money for it, then that means it has to wait
one month, three months, sixmonths, or one year because I'm
sick of how large these carloans are nowadays, cars are
expensive and they're basically,we're driving a, a driving
around a laptop nowadays.
So that's something I want youngadults, people in their twenties
and thirties to think about getback to a world where we save up

(30:28):
for something and then try tobuy it in cash.
That doesn't apply for everysituation and every purchase,
but if we have a large car loan,might attack that loan.
We might try to get out of thatloan before we do something
else.

Skyler (30:42):
Mm-hmm.

those are the things that I care most about.

Skyler (30:45):
Debt is a huge burden on people.
the amount of times people rollone car loan into the next with
trade-ins, they don't realizehow damaging.
That is on their personalfinance.
When your loan to value is like110%, that emergency fund is not
going to help you.
When you, when that car gets inan accident and it's total like
you, you are so screwed becauseof that high loan to value, your

(31:05):
insurance isn't gonna pay morethan the value of the vehicle.
And even then they're gonna payless because It depreciates.
So, yeah, you're gonna get megoing on cars.
I think they're very damagingfinancially, but that's a huge
one.

I see a lot of college grads come out and go
buy that$35,000

Skyler (31:20):
Mm-hmm.

I think that's one of the biggest decisions that's
gonna set you back,

Skyler (31:24):
Mm-hmm.

are trying to best utilize our resources, and I'm
not saying you shouldn't have anice car, I want you to be safe.
I want you to get to and fromyour activities, but I just
don't see a reason why youshould be putting yourself into
20, 30 or$40,000 in car debtbecause all that's gonna do is

(31:45):
slow us down from achieving therest of our goals.
One of the most, Ironic thingsabout a car is you can get from
A to B in a$5,000 car,

Skyler (31:54):
Mm-hmm.

car, or a$500,000 car.
So they are very differentassets and different to plan for
compared to a lot of otherthings in life.

Skyler (32:03):
Yeah, you just said one of my favorite things.
My wife and I love to ride oure-bikes and I just laugh
continuously when we go from onestoplight to the next, next to
this$80,000 pickup truck orwhatever, and I'm like, I am
sure glad you paid$80,000 to godown that stretch of road when I
paid a thousand.
So that's.

right next to each

Skyler (32:19):
Yep.
it makes me laugh every time.
let's move back into talkingabout financial planning.
What is the value in having afinancial plan?
Let's send it off here with awrap up and put a bow on the
idea of building a plan.

I don't want to quantify it from a dollar
perspective, Because I talk to alot of people and they're like,
I paid X amount, but I didn'teven get that much in interest
in my account.

Skyler (32:42):
Hmm.

did you do that created X amount of value in
this one month?
And that's when I take it backto a gym membership.
why I love the flat fee planningindustry is because.
everyone at the same gym ispaying the same amount and
you're whoever's going the most,whoever is the most accountable
to the process and the goals isgetting the most value when it

(33:02):
comes to a financial plan andpaying for that.
You should find, that onededicated advisor that you love
doing life with, that you haveimmediate access to, that you
know that you're not gonna beput on a two week wait

Skyler (33:17):
Mm-hmm.

I think the right time to hire a financial planner
is when you have enoughdiscretionary income after your
expenses are paid, where you'relike, Hey, I know that we can
afford a financial planner andthey are going to help me go
forward

Skyler (33:51):
Mm-hmm.

They're gonna help me review my short-term goals,
review my long-term goals, belooking out for me, and bringing
in subjects that I might nothave thought about

Skyler (34:01):
Mm-hmm.

So to kind of answer your question, it's not
always about the dollar value,but it's about the
responsibilities that they aregoing to.
Take off your shoulders

Skyler (34:12):
Mm-hmm.

you time back.
If I talk to one of my clientsand they say, wow, I'm less
stressed about my finances.
I don't have to think about themoften.
I haven't thought about this orthat in three to six

Skyler (34:24):
Mm-hmm.

that's a win, and that's hard to put a dollar
value on, but that's a win in myopinion.
That means you're paying for aservice you are utilizing to its

Skyler (34:32):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, that's a fantastic way toput it.
There's so much more than just adollar value to a plan, and I
think that's the hard sell forgetting people on, budgeting
apps and things like that.
They're like, why would I pay$15a month to have someone manage
my money?
But there's so much more valuethan that dollar amount that
comes, especially when you startthinking about compound
interest.
Like if you're able to getsomeone set up with their
employer match, I hope theyactually realize that that

(34:55):
decision and someone pointingthem in that decision was your
doing.
And they attribute that value toyou because there's.
A lot that can come from that.
Like I remember the other day Ilooked at my 401k at my work and
half of the value was growth andemployer match.
I've doubled my moneyessentially, just from meeting
that employer match and lettingthat grow.
But let's wrap it up here.
I got two final questions foryou to send us off.

(35:17):
The first one is how can peoplecontact you or learn more about
you?

I love to provide free educational, financial
content.
So if you love learning and ifyou love watching short form
content, I post a daily videobetween 30 to 60 seconds.
That's just educating you on acertain subject, and I haven't
asked me anything form where youcan submit any question, and I
would love to answer that in avideo.

(35:40):
if you're looking for freecontent, you can follow me on
Instagram or YouTube If you'reinterested more about a
membership at Flames FinancialPlanning, I am the CEO and
founder of Flames fp.
you can send me a text at 9 5 2.
3 0 0 9 6 3 2 and I would loveto meet you.
We can do an introduction callcompletely for free.

(36:02):
You can send me a text and Iwould love to learn more about
your financial story and tellyou about a membership at Flame
Financial Planning.

Skyler (36:10):
Awesome.
That's fantastic.
texting is such a fun way.
It's an easy way to send a quicktext.
You can text me.
In the show notes, I'll putJoel's number in there as well.
send us a text if you have aquestion.
If there was something thatstood out that you want more
information about, just send usa quick text.
it's super fun and easy to chatwith people that way.
my final question that I askevery guest, some sort of
variation of this, is, what'sone thing you wish you would've
known sooner about implementinga financial plan in your life?

Something very important to me and my why of
everything I do are my two boys.
Parker is three and Brady iscoming up on 1-year-old, I
probably could have planned alittle better for the expenses
of a baby, I was fully utilizinga 5 29 A-U-T-M-A, which are
great accounts for investmentsfor kids.
But I, I think Iunderappreciated and maybe under

(36:55):
planned for the diapers and thewipes and the clothes and the,
just everything else that comesalong with that.
So that's something that's nearand dear to me with two boys
right now.
It, but kids are expensive andthere's trade-offs with
everything.
I'm happy to spend more on thekids than myself and my wife
and, and some of the other goalsthat we had, but that's
definitely something I was notready for the Costco runs where

(37:17):
you go into Costco hoping to, toescape under a hundred dollars
and then somehow it turns intotwo to$300.
But we're thankful for our bestfriend Costco, who helps us out
with all of our major expenses.
But that's definitely somethingthat I probably could have
planned for a little bit morebefore.
For I had kids was just beingready for more expenses for kids
than I previously would'vethought.

Skyler (37:39):
Yeah, and that's something you can implement in
that plan to start a sinkingfund.
maybe you're planning on kids infive to eight years.
that's kind of in that timehorizon where you could invest
it a little bit.
there's so many options if youget ahead of it.
Just a little bit that you canbuild into your financial plan.
But Joel, thank you so much forcoming on.
This has been a greatconversation.
I.

It was my pleasure.
It was great to meet everyone.
excited to be here.
Thanks so much, Skyler forhosting.

Speaker (38:12):
Thank you so much to Joel for coming on the show and
for that fantastic interview.
I know I thoroughly enjoyed thatone, and that was a fun
conversation.
But let's get into the moneytalking points here.
These are gonna be some greatones today.
The first one is, how can youstart building a financial plan?
Well, you need to start from avery simple place.
Take it one small step at atime, and that's honestly been a
theme on the podcast over thelast few weeks and it continues

(38:33):
into next week's episode.
So be sure to subscribe.
But find one small thing thatyou can do in an area that you
want to get started with andstart with that.
Don't try to do it all at oncebecause that gets very
overwhelming, incredibly fast,like insanely fast.
If you try to learn everythingall at once, start with some
short term planning.
I.
Outline some goals like buildingan emergency fund, saving for a

(38:54):
small purchase, and I say smallso that you can get a quick win
with this one.
Like something like shoes, maybeyou wanna buy a nicer pair of
shoes.
That can be a short term goal,or maybe you wanna save up to
buy you a new phone.
That can also be a short termgoal, and I say small so you can
get a quick win and all of thisthat you're working on or
thinking about, this isplanning.
It doesn't have to only belong-term, gigantic financial

(39:18):
goals when it comes to financialplanning.
So get started with someshort-term goals and some
short-term plans because thesecan be a massive deal and a huge
motivator for you to show youthat it can be done and that you
can achieve goals.
So I'm gonna ask you, what is ashort-term goal that you have in
mind?
What would you like to seehappen in your life financially
in the next two to three years?
I think that's a good short termrange, but what's something you

(39:40):
wanna see happen financially?
In the next two to three years,and I'm gonna need some
responses on this one.
So send me a text or an emailand let me know.
I want to hear from each andevery one of you listening, and
if you're driving or on a walkor something, set a reminder
right now.
Tell your phone to remind youwhen you get to wherever you're
going to send Skyler a textabout what is a short term
financial goal that you wannasee in the next two to three

(40:03):
years.
I want to get to know more ofyou out there listening, so
please reach out and let me knowwhat you think, because I'd love
to have money talks with eachand every one of you.
But the second money talkingpoint is what small area can you
begin with?
Well, for me and my wife, it'sestate planning.
And I know that sounds like abig one and it might not be your
next small area, but for us, wehave other things under a good

(40:23):
control, but we need to organizeour beneficiary information and
that's really the main thing weneed to do.
That's our next small step thatwe need to take because we have
life insurance in place, but wealso need to make sure we know
who is going to get our moneywith the beneficiary
information.
We also need to look into ourpower of attorney and medical
documents to make sure we knowwho is in charge of us or who is

(40:44):
in charge of our money.
If anything should happen, thatis the next smallest step for my
wife and I.
And the next thing could besomething completely different
for you.
Here are a few key differentlittle areas that you could
consider when you're trying tofind your small area to begin.
The first one is have youalready done a few things in the
area that you're considering?
I think that's a great place tocontinue and keep up your

(41:05):
momentum.
Maybe your small area isemergency planning, and you've
already started saving for anemergency fund.
Great job.
Well, that means it's gonna be agreat place to continue working
on.
The key is to make it small andbreak it down into small pieces.
Figure out somewhere that youcan build a plan around.
It doesn't mean you have toorganize the entire world and
get everything situated at once.
Do it a small step at a time.

(41:26):
Take a small area and work onfiguring that out and how that
little area could work betterfor you.
But that does it for the secondmoney talking point.
Let's talk about the third onehere.
How can sharing your financialplan with others help?
And this again, just goes tothat.
I want to hear from more of you.
I would love to be your moneybuddy, your accountability
partner.
And my episode coming up nextweek is gonna be fantastic for

(41:47):
this.
So be sure to subscribe so youdon't ever miss an episode.
But next week we're gonna talkall about how we do better with
money by talking about it.
But in relation to this episode,sharing your plan with others,
especially your spouse, andespecially building your plan
with your spouse if you'remarried, but sharing it can be a
huge deal.
You can get someone on your sideto help encourage you and
motivate you towards your goal.

(42:08):
You can have someone check inwith you and bounce ideas off.
It could be a great way tocollaborate and work together.
One of my favorite things thatJoel and I talked about is how
you can have someone who canhelp give you a different
perspective.
Especially if you're indifferent financial situations
or if you're working with acoach or an advisor, you can get
different ideas and a differentroute to go on, which is
fantastic.
Like it's such a big deal ifsomeone is able to maybe

(42:30):
redirect you down a better pathor help you stay away from a
credit card debt laden path.
There are so many greatperspectives out there and
that's why we need to be talkingabout money with everyone else.
Maybe you get told that youshouldn't bother with credit
card hacking and that'ssomething you didn't realize was
even possible.
Maybe you thought that you hadto put all of your effort into
credit card hacking, but now youhave this new idea and you're
free from the burden of trackingand spreadsheets when it comes

(42:53):
to your credit cards.
This was me for a while.
I thought that my wife and I hadto hack our way to free travel
and it's all we could do, andthat I had to do all the credit
card tracking, and it wasfrankly overwhelming to me.
So once I realized I could justsimply do cash back, I was
freed.
I was freed from the burden ofcredit card hacking, and I was
all for that.
And I found some great cash backcards, and we stuck with those

(43:15):
where we just find a 5% backcard or a 2% back card.
But now that I've gotten astable foundation under me with
credit card reward, I've beenable to wade back into some
credit card rewards as needed,and it's phenomenal.
It's working really well for us.
Like I shared a few weeks ago.
My wife and I, we booked all ofour flights on our trip to New
York City for free.

(43:35):
How awesome is that?
But the main thing here is toshare with someone so you can
get different ideas and thatsomeone else can help hold you
accountable because thosedifferent ideas.
Are gonna be incrediblyvaluable, and if you need
someone to help hold youaccountable, I would love to be
your financial coach and yourmoney buddy.
I have a link in the show noteswhere you can sign up for a free
money talk with me and we canwork on figuring out some of
your goals and building a planto get you moving in the right

(43:56):
direction.
But that does it for today'sepisode.
And as we wrap up this one, Iwant to remind you that building
a financial plan does not haveto be complicated.
You don't need a 50 pagespreadsheet or a perfectly
polished portfolio.
Just start from a simple place,one small step, and that is all.
That's been a theme here on thepodcast lately, and it's going
to continue next week.
But maybe for you, the firststep is setting a short-term

(44:17):
goal, like building a$500emergency fund, or saving for a
small purchase to get a quickwin.
That is planning.
Financial planning isn't onlyabout big retirement goals that
are decades away.
It's all about what you wannasee happen in your life over the
next two to three years orlonger.
So what is a short term goal foryou?
I'd love to hear it.
Send me a text or an email andlet me know.

(44:37):
But for me and my wife, the nextsmall area for us is estate
planning.
We've got life insurance inplace and we really need to
organize our beneficiary info tomake sure that we're covered
with power of attorneydocuments.
And I know it might not soundsmall to you or be the thing
that you wanna work on, butthat's completely okay.
Your small area might besomething else.
Maybe it's continuing to buildthat emergency fund that you've
started working on, or reviewyour 401k contributions.

(45:00):
Whatever it is, don't try to doit all at once.
That's when it getsoverwhelming.
Break it down and work on onelittle area at a time to make it
work a little bit better foryou.
And finally, don't do this allalone.
One of my favorite things thatJoel and I talked about was the
power of sharing your financialplan with someone else.
Whether it's a spouse, a friend,or a coach, talking about your
money goals with someone canunlock so much clarity and

(45:20):
motivation.
I've seen it in my own life,especially when I realized I
didn't have to hack my way tofree travel with credit card
points.
I could just use cashback andsimplify it.
That shift came from aconversation and from listening
to other people talk aboutmoney.
So make sure you're havingregular money talks, and if
you're looking for someone to beyour money buddy, I'd love to
help.
Use the link in my show notes toschedule a money.
Talk with me and we can figureout your next small step for

(45:42):
your financial plan.
But thank you for listening totoday's episode.
The best way to stay up to dateand connected with All Things
Money Talk is to subscribe tothe podcast and sign up for my
email list.
Head over to Money talk.show andsubmit your name and email right
there on the homepage.
You can also use the contactpage on my website to send me
any questions.
If you're looking to get startedwith budgeting, I've partnered
with my budget coach, a platformthat connects your budget

(46:04):
directly to your financialcoach, and I'd love to work with
you over there and help you withyour budgeting.
The link, of course, is in theshow notes.
And remember, the best way tolearn from today's episode is to
go and have a money talk abouttoday's topic with a fellow
money buddy.
But thank you for listening tothis week's episode of Money
Talk.
I'm your host, Skyler Fleming.
Have a great week.

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The Importance of Financial Planning for Young Adults with Joel Miller - 183

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Importance of Financial Planning for Young Adults with Joel Miller - 183