July 10, 2025 • 20 mins
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering whether you really need a financial advisor, this episode is for you. James and Ari unpack the deeper reasons people seek financial guidance—and why the decision often goes far beyond dollars and cents.
Much like seeing a doctor for preventative care, working with the right advisor is about protecting your future, reducing stress, and reclaiming your most precious resource: time. From saving 20+ hours a month of DIY management to gaining peace of mind, better sleep, and a trusted partner for life’s biggest financial decisions—this conversation explores the emotional and practical value of professional advice.
You’ll hear a powerful testimonial from a self-proclaimed DIY-er who discovered five unexpected benefits of hiring an advisor—and why, in hindsight, it was one of the best investments they’ve made.
Whether you’re confident in your current strategy or simply curious if you could be doing more with your time and money, this episode will help you ask the right questions about your financial life.
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Advisory services are offered through Root Financial Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is intended for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Viewing this content does not create an advisory relationship. We do not provide tax preparation or legal services. Always consult an investment, tax or legal professional regarding your specific situation.
The strategies, case studies, and examples discussed may not be suitable for everyone. They are hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. They do not reflect actual client results and are not guarantees of future performance. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.
Comments reflect the views of individual users and do not necessarily represent the views of Root Financial. They are not verified, may not be accurate, and should not be considered testimonials or endorsements
Participation in the Retirement Planning Academy or Early Retirement Academy does not create an advisory relationship with Root Financial. These programs are educational in nature and are not a substitute for personalized financial advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement with Root Financial.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
James, when you work with an advisor, most people
reach out because they go.
I want peace of mind.
I don't want to have to worrywhere I have a new job, having
to do this in retirement.
However, when you first go tohire an advisor, it's not as
black and white as you mightthink.
Some people think it's assimple as hey, I just broke my
leg.
Now my leg's broken.
I need to go to a doctor who'sgoing to fix my leg so I can
(00:21):
walk again.
When you work with an advisor,sometimes it's about timing.
It's about oh, I currently havean advisor, they're my best
friend.
How am I going to break up withthem?
When it comes time to workingwith an advisor, there's often a
framework that we'll talk aboutand there's a way to think
about it so that when you dohire an advisor, you go my
life's way better and I'vethought through this
intentionally when it comes totruly going, yes, it's time to
(00:45):
hire an advisor.
How is it that you think aboutthis when you're speaking to
someone?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Kind of like what you just mentioned, I think, but in
the sense of is somethingbroken?
Is there pain, is theresomething that needs to be fixed
?
And that's only one part of it,though.
And I'll say, like, like thedoctor, very much like the
doctor, to be fixed.
And that's only one part of it,though.
And I'll say, like, like thedoctor, very much like the
doctor, your leg is broken, youfeel pain, you know that that
needs to be fixed.
(01:14):
The difference is, when you'redoing that, that's very much a
reactionary thing, that's verymuch of a something already
happened.
I need to fix it, hopefullywith an advisor.
It's also a preventative thing.
It's not just a doctor thatfixes things.
It's the doctor that helps tokeep you healthy, it's the
doctor that helps to keep you inshape, in line, and all of this
from a financial perspective,of course, to hopefully avoid
some of those pains that mayhave existed without an advisor.
(01:35):
And so I think that the biggestthing is well, does something
hurt?
Is something painful?
That could be anything from.
I know I'm getting crushed intaxes because I don't know how
to manage my portfolio, my taxstrategy, correctly to.
I know I'm not performing aswell as I should, or my
portfolio is way out of whack.
Whatever the case might be,that is a type of pain.
(01:56):
Maybe you feel totally good andin fact, I would venture to say
a lot of people who arelistening to this, people that
listen to podcasts and listen tovideos, and they're they know a
lot of that stuff.
They've listened to the, thehow to's, the.
What to look for is.
It's not necessarily a myportfolio is out of whack, my
tax strategy is missing, or it'smore of that.
Peace of mind is lacking, whichis very much a type of pain, and
(02:18):
one of the things that we'lltalk about a lot, ari, is we'll
encourage people to spend theirmoney a lot.
What do you spend it on?
Spend it on something that'sgoing to increase your quality
of life.
That can be a vacation, thatcan be a home upgrade, that can
be something that feels totallyfrivolous, but it just adds to
your quality of life.
It increases your peace of mindIn many ways.
If it's the right advisor and ifit's the right person looking
(02:41):
for advice, that's the role thatan advisor can fill as well.
You are paying for somethingthat's providing peace of mind.
It's making you happier.
There's actual studies thatshow this that there is this
pain I feel and it's not asquantitative as I know I'm
paying $30,000 per year too muchin taxes.
As much as it's, I'm feelingthe weight of this financial
burden that I have to manage forthe rest of my life, or I'm
(03:03):
feeling like the cost of amistake here is not something
that I want to potentially livewith and it's that anxiety or
that burden that is a pain andyou hire an advisor a good
advisor if you want to alleviatethat pain and much like a
doctor, not just fixing thingswhen they're broken, but take
that preventative approach to ahealthier, overall, more
(03:24):
well-balanced approach to thingsthat hopefully prevents a lot
of the things that otherwise mayhave broken.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
The number one word that you just said is proactive.
Throughout all of that is Iwant a proactive planner to tell
me things I otherwise couldn'thave known, because I'm not to
ask you, but I'm going to besharing just a moment a
statement from a current clientat Root, who has given us
permission very kindly.
When we asked him, hey, whatwas your experience like working
(03:52):
with Root?
He shared something that Ithink might surprise a lot of
you, and I'm going to startsharing this in a moment.
But, james, my first questionfor you is if someone were to
ask you, such as myself, when isthe best time to invest, what
would you say?
Yesterday, and that's the exactstatement I'll hear from most
people when it comes to whydidn't I hire Root earlier.
(04:14):
Now, that is us tooting ourhorn, but I will give the
example of.
I don't necessarily wake up inthe morning and go.
I need to go to the dentisttoday, but I know I should wake
up in the morning and go.
I need to go to the dentisttoday, but I know I should, and
so we all know, okay, what'sreally best for us in terms of
our health, which is start assoon as possible.
I'm going to give you guys thestatement partial statement from
(04:35):
a client, and I'm going tostart digesting this with James
so you guys can start to see whyit is that we're making this
episode today.
So this comes from a client whosays I am a DIY person.
We're going to explain whatthat means in a second.
But he goes on to say I oftendo things myself, even if it
means buying tools that costnearly as much as hiring someone
(04:56):
else or spending hours of studyon how to do something.
It's not unusual for me to takeon almost any job to save money
, and in some cases not just tosave money but just to do it
myself.
He gives five reasons why hehired Root.
I'm going to go through all ofthem by the end of the episode,
but I'm going to start with thefirst one.
And the first one he says hereis outside expertise.
(05:19):
He goes on to say sure, I couldspend hours or days trying to
get versed in all the rules andissues, but my wife and I both
agreed that even if I did that,we might not trust that we
didn't miss something and likelynot sleep very well on a plan
we created on our own.
He goes on to talk about howhis advisor saved him money and
that that's not the main reasonhe hired Root.
(05:40):
So when it comes, james, toactually going, wow, peace of
mind, is it worth it?
Could I do it on my own?
Do you actually?
And have you met with peoplewho said, hey, I can do it on my
own?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
I don't want to, of course a lot of people who have
gotten to the point wherethey're reaching out to us.
They didn't just wake up oneday with a massive inheritance
or win the lottery.
They got there because theysaved prudently, they invested,
they did a lot of the rightthings along the way.
It's just they're at the pointwhere they're saying I recognize
(06:12):
that life is kind of short.
I recognize that this window oftime to enjoy everything I want
to do is not going to be hereforever.
Why would I want to do anythingthat pulls me away from being
able to love the best version ofthe life I want to love?
And I think that that's thatdoesn't have to start when you
retire.
By the way, I'm not going totry to make this about me, but
like, I think that, as I look atlike what my wife and I will do
(06:33):
, a big part of our philosophy Iused to talk about like, yeah,
what we'll do is we'll pay for agrocery delivery, because I
hate going to the grocery storeand if that saves us two hours a
week, I'll pay for that $10delivery fee plus tip all day
long.
Like that's just two hours backthat we now get, and I think of
just how that's even evolvedover time of everything from and
obviously this depends uponfinancial situation.
(06:54):
Don't just spend frivolouslybased on how you are, but a lot
of the financial decisions thatmy wife and I have made are very
much.
How can we spend our money toget our time back so we can
spend that time with each other,and that's everything from meal
delivery grocery delivery Ishould say to can someone help
clean the house to things aroundthe least handy person in the
(07:16):
world.
So that was an easy one todelegate.
If something breaks in thehouse, have someone come fix it.
But even like we're recordingthis on a Monday, monday night,
ashley and I we do our datenights every single week and we
have someone who comes andwatches our kids and that's an
expense and we could try to say,well, let's try to time it to
make sure my parents areavailable, or actually your
parents, or we get.
No, we're just going to paysomeone and every single week
(07:38):
this is going to be a thingwe're, and these are just simple
examples, but it's the.
We know that we don't have tothink about this.
We just get to go spend somequality time together because we
have someone that we fullytrust watching over the two most
important people in our livesand we just get to go, be
together and connect.
And that doesn't necessarilyrelate perfectly to an advisor,
but people hire an advisorbecause it's look, I've gotten
(07:59):
to this point.
I don't want a mistake to bemade by myself continuing to do
this.
But, more importantly, life isshort.
There's only so many, and it'snot even just a time thing.
Yes, there's only so much timethat we have, but there's only
so much attention that we have.
There's only so many things wecan focus on.
There's only so much bandwidthI can give.
There's only so much bandwidthI should say that I can give all
(08:23):
of myself to is being my ownadvisor One of those things I
want to give all of myself to.
It might be good on you ifthat's the case.
Great, if that's not detractingfrom your ability to do
everything else, awesome.
But for those people that say Iknow what I value, I know
what's important to me.
It's my time with my spouse,it's my time with my family,
(08:45):
it's my time pursuing the thingsI'm passionate about Wonderful.
How do you take everythingthat's not that and use the
money that you have to buy backyour time to buy back your
attention, to buy back the onlynon-renewable currency they'll
talk about.
Which is your time to actuallydo the things that you love
currency they'll talk about.
Which is your time to actuallydo the things that you love.
And that's a big part of whypeople come to root.
Of course, they can do some ofthese things.
I would argue that we couldprobably do them better, just
simply because this is ourprofession.
(09:05):
This is what we've studied,this is what we spend all day,
every day, doing.
But the biggest thing isn'tjust the we're doing it better.
Which can we substantiate?
That depends on the situation.
All that stuff, full better.
Which can we substantiate?
That depends on the situation.
All that stuff you have fulldisclosure.
That's who knows.
But it's the bigger picturestuff.
It's the peace of mind, it'sthe time they get back, it's the
(09:26):
bandwidth they get back, it'sthe attention they get back,
that now they can just totallygo live and do what they want to
do, knowing that this very bigpiece of their life is being
taken care of.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I'm going to pretend to be someone who's reaching out
to Root, and I'll often do thisbecause it's fun.
I think a lot of you resonatewith it.
You tell me this.
But, james, everything you justsaid there was very logical.
Yes, you go pay for grocerydelivery so you get more time to
record more podcasts and youcan hang out with your family,
and beautiful.
But is it worth it?
That's what I think a lot ofpeople are always going back to.
(09:57):
Is it worth it?
Now, the answer very well may be, and I think you do a beautiful
job of framing this of you canquantify it to the nth degree.
And if that is what's going tobe the decision for you, meaning
you're going to have to pay Xdollars and that's going to
stress you out because everymonth you're going to see a
dollar and wonder could I dothat instead?
I believe we would be thepeople to truly say I don't
(10:19):
think you should hire us becauseyou're going to be beating
yourself up every month going Idon't want groceries delivered,
I want to go pick out thegroceries.
But for most of you, if we wereto ask you, what do you want to
spend your time doing inretirement, I have never had
someone tell me I want to readtax laws.
Now, if someone were to say thatI'd go, look, it sounds like
you really love it and that thisis what you'd want to spend
your time doing.
(10:39):
But going back to that, is itworth it?
If someone were to ask you,james, is it really worth it?
I know I could probably figurethis out.
I mean, my wife yeah, I haven'tseen her in a few years because
I've been working, but I can'tbe with her all the time at home
.
Or vice versa, my husband, isit really worth it to pay an
advisor?
How would you help frame theirmindset?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Do you enjoy doing it , mr Ari, who's my prospective
client right now?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I really enjoy doing it, but I am getting older and
so I'm starting to enjoy it less, only because I know I have
less time, but I do think I'mreally good at it.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
How much of your time and attention are you spending
ballpark each month doing this?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Each month, I would say each month I'm probably
spending 20 hours 20 hours.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Okay, what are the things that you do care about
most?
What lights you up?
What makes life worth living toyou?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I love traveling more than anything in the world.
I want to be in an RV, andthat's actually one of the
things that is interesting,because sometimes I don't have
Wi-Fi when I'm in my RV and I'mtrying to rebalance my portfolio
, so that stresses me out, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Could it be, ari, that we're playing the wrong
game, and by the wrong game, Imean, are we tracking the right
things?
If the financial optimizationis all that there is we talk
about this all the time Couldyou have saved a dollar here?
Optimization is all that thereis.
We talk about this all the time.
Could you have saved a dollarhere?
If you really enjoy this, ifthis lights you up, if you get
excited by doing this, if you'rereally good at this, ari, I
(12:06):
can't speak to that or not.
I'm just meeting you for thefirst time.
I don't know what you're doingfor those 20 hours in your RV,
rebalancing your portfolio.
Maybe you're really good, maybeyou really enjoy it.
Maybe there aren't familyconcerns of what happens.
If something happens to you interms of your estate plan, your
legacy plan, the continuity ofyour financial affairs being
continued, if that's the case,you probably don't need to see
an advisor.
(12:26):
Make sure everything's dialedin.
You know, it's not justinvestment stuff, it's taxes,
it's insurances, it's legacy,it's all that.
But Maybe you don't.
Someone that loves doing thisand wants to save money like why
would you go see an advisor?
At least my dad is an example.
I was shopping for a new car.
This was about 10 years ago.
(12:47):
I hate car shopping.
He loves it.
He was going online everywhere.
He was like Dad, you're doingall this and you might save I
don't know 300 bucks for hoursand hours and hours.
Is it really worth it?
He said, yeah, I love doing it.
It's like a game to him, verydifferent.
So if this is a game to you, ifyou love doing this, if you
(13:07):
enjoy it and you're getting somesavings, awesome.
If you're not enjoying it, Iwould rather see you pay someone
so you could spend your timedoing what you actually enjoy.
I don't mean to cut you offthere.
I think you're trying to saysomething.
The last thing I'll say here iswhen I started talking about
playing the wrong game.
Sometimes the game that we'replaying is just a financial game
.
How do I optimize the numbers?
It's that's because it's all weknow.
(13:29):
We've kind of been living this.
I don't want to get toophilosophical but puppeted
lifestyle our whole lives ofwe're supposed to get the bonus
we're supposed to save and itjust becomes all about
optimizing the numbers on paperor on the balance sheet and less
about well, who do I actuallythink that I am?
What do I actually want to dowith my life?
Is that really rebalancing andtax loss, harvesting and
(13:52):
retirement planning and all thisstuff?
If the answer is yes, great, doit.
But if it's not, yes, thatmight be time to consider having
someone help you with this, sothat you can figure out who you
are and go do those things thatlight you up.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Role play.
Ari was ready to interrupt youand say oh, james, trust me, I
get all these calls.
It says likely spam, but Ithink it's people who just want
me to manage their money becausethere's no way they can know.
But I think they just knowsecretly, deep down, that I'm an
expert.
And the joke that I'll oftentell clients is I'll say hey,
you just told me that this is aprospective client.
I'll say you just told me thatyou love this, is that right?
And they go yeah, I really lovethis.
And I go why are you reachingout?
(14:30):
And they'll say well, I feellike maybe there's something I'm
missing, but I just don't know.
Like maybe I have everything,and I'll go do you want to live
your entire life wondering ifthere's something you're missing
?
And then they start to go youknow what?
No, and I'll say is thissomething that you love doing?
Or your spouse?
And they'll go I love doing it,but my spouse, they have no
interest at all.
And then all of a sudden theystart to go wow, it feels
(14:52):
different having an advisor.
So I like what you're saying,james, which is it's not for
everyone.
I don't think what we do is aneed for everyone.
I think it's a desire wherepeople go.
You know what.
My life would be better withRoot or a financial advisor in
it, and that's when it makessense to hire an advisor.
Do not go hire an advisor ifyou're going to look at this
statement every month and wonder, oh my gosh, this is so
(15:15):
annoying, could I be doing thismyself?
So what I would like to do now,james if any other thoughts
save them, I want to hear them.
This is I just want to read thelast few comments from this
statement from our client, andonce again I left off.
They said look, my wife and Iboth agreed that even if I did,
we might not trust we didn'tmiss something and likely not
(15:37):
sleep very well on a plan wecreated on our own.
He goes on to say the secondreason we hired Root no hassles.
We meet with our advisor often.
In between, we exchange emailswithout any effort on our part.
We see a deposit every monthfor our expenses coming from the
optimal place.
We get an extra deposit for anytaxes that are due.
No work on our part.
(15:58):
We just enjoy what we want tofocus on.
Number three is we just sleepbetter, knowing we're not alone
on a multi-decade journey letsus sleep better.
He goes on to say I was theprimary financial control for
our accounts before joining Rootand now I know if anything were
to happen to me, my wife wouldbe in great hands.
He goes on to also say fees arepre-tax for our accounts, which
(16:20):
are majority in a 401k.
Ira, james, I think in a momentit's worth explaining that, not
because people should work withus because of this, but many
people aren't even aware of this.
And he goes on to say thisisn't a huge thing, but it does
mean the effect of paying themdoesn't show up as income.
You need to pay taxes, on whichwe'll explain in a second.
And then number five he justsays bottom line.
(16:42):
As someone who doesn't usuallylike paying for something, for
anything I can do myself, I haveto say I don't mind the fees at
all.
Sure, would I rather not paythem?
I'm a human, but when I weighout the cost benefits, it's
certainly worth it to us to havemy time.
So, james, that point there onfees or pre-tax.
Happy to kind of touch on thatto end.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
But if there's something else you just think
people need to take away fromthis episode, please, no, I mean
pre-tax.
What does that mean?
It means that if you're taking$1,000 out of your IRA and
you're in a 30% tax bracket,combined, you're only keeping
$700 of it.
So really you need to takesomething like $1,300, $1,400 to
end up with $1,000 of expenses.
Well, if you're paying anadvisory fee and that's coming
from an IRA, that fee is nottaxable when it comes out.
(17:29):
So if I pull $1,000 in fees outof an account, it's $1,000
pre-tax.
I mean that $1,000 in 30% taxbracket represented, or
represents $700 to you of actualspendable money when you look
at it that way.
So it's spending the money tohire an advisor before taxes
come out.
(17:50):
Big picture, just taking thisback.
Why are we doing this episode?
Yes, is this to promote Root?
To some extent?
Only to the extent that webelieve that the work we do is
really powerful, transformativework.
There's a lot of amazingadvisors that we think do
incredible work, transformativework.
So, yes, is this self-promoting?
Of course it's self-promoting,but that's only because when you
(18:10):
see something and you see thetransformation it has, why
wouldn't you want every singleperson to experience that, and I
think that those people askwhen is it right to work with an
advisor have experienced that,and I think that those people
ask when is it right to workwith an advisor?
If you're asking that question,if you're feeling like you might
want to work with, there'sprobably a reason you're feeling
like you might want to workwith an advisor.
If that question never comes up, it probably means you're so
(18:31):
confident in what you're doing.
Either you've got a ton ofblind spots and just aren't
aware of them, or you're maybegood, maybe you have this in
hand.
Not everyone needs an advisor Idon't think everyone does but
if you're asking that, if you'reasking yourself that and if
you're continuing to askyourself that, it's probably a
symptom.
It's probably a signal thatthere's something in your
financial life that's not fullyat peace in your mind, something
(18:55):
that could be done better,something that could be done in
a way that gives you more peaceof mind.
That by itself, might be thesign that it's time to reach out
and at least talk to a fewadvisors about possibly working
together.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Beautifully said, that's it for this episode.
I hope this was helpful.
We have our joint episodes,james, called Root Talks, which
is where all of you arelistening or watching this right
now.
We both have our individualchannels, both under our
individual names.
This is what we love to do.
We make videos and podcasts tohelp give you insight when it
comes to retiring, when it comesto making you think differently
(19:28):
and really asking you to go wow, am I making the most out of
what I'm working so hard for?
If you really want to take itto the next level and optimize,
this is, once again, what welove to do.
If you go to our website,rootfinancialcom, you'll see a
button in the upper right thatsays see if you're a fit.
You can click there and getstarted.
Thank you.
James, when you work with an advisor, most people
reach out because they go.
I want peace of mind.
I don't want to have to worrywhere I have a new job, having
to do this in retirement.
However, when you first go tohire an advisor, it's not as
black and white as you mightthink.
Some people think it's assimple as hey, I just broke my
leg.
Now my leg's broken.
I need to go to a doctor who'sgoing to fix my leg so I can
(00:21):
walk again.
When you work with an advisor,sometimes it's about timing.
It's about oh, I currently havean advisor, they're my best
friend.
How am I going to break up withthem?
When it comes time to workingwith an advisor, there's often a
framework that we'll talk aboutand there's a way to think
about it so that when you dohire an advisor, you go my
life's way better and I'vethought through this
intentionally when it comes totruly going, yes, it's time to
(00:45):
hire an advisor.
How is it that you think aboutthis when you're speaking to
someone?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Kind of like what you just mentioned, I think, but in
the sense of is somethingbroken?
Is there pain, is theresomething that needs to be fixed
?
And that's only one part of it,though.
And I'll say, like, like thedoctor, very much like the
doctor, to be fixed.
And that's only one part of it,though.
And I'll say, like, like thedoctor, very much like the
doctor, your leg is broken, youfeel pain, you know that that
needs to be fixed.
(01:14):
The difference is, when you'redoing that, that's very much a
reactionary thing, that's verymuch of a something already
happened.
I need to fix it, hopefullywith an advisor.
It's also a preventative thing.
It's not just a doctor thatfixes things.
It's the doctor that helps tokeep you healthy, it's the
doctor that helps to keep you inshape, in line, and all of this
from a financial perspective,of course, to hopefully avoid
some of those pains that mayhave existed without an advisor.
(01:35):
And so I think that the biggestthing is well, does something
hurt?
Is something painful?
That could be anything from.
I know I'm getting crushed intaxes because I don't know how
to manage my portfolio, my taxstrategy, correctly to.
I know I'm not performing aswell as I should, or my
portfolio is way out of whack.
Whatever the case might be,that is a type of pain.
(01:56):
Maybe you feel totally good andin fact, I would venture to say
a lot of people who arelistening to this, people that
listen to podcasts and listen tovideos, and they're they know a
lot of that stuff.
They've listened to the, thehow to's, the.
What to look for is.
It's not necessarily a myportfolio is out of whack, my
tax strategy is missing, or it'smore of that.
Peace of mind is lacking, whichis very much a type of pain, and
(02:18):
one of the things that we'lltalk about a lot, ari, is we'll
encourage people to spend theirmoney a lot.
What do you spend it on?
Spend it on something that'sgoing to increase your quality
of life.
That can be a vacation, thatcan be a home upgrade, that can
be something that feels totallyfrivolous, but it just adds to
your quality of life.
It increases your peace of mindIn many ways.
If it's the right advisor and ifit's the right person looking
(02:41):
for advice, that's the role thatan advisor can fill as well.
You are paying for somethingthat's providing peace of mind.
It's making you happier.
There's actual studies thatshow this that there is this
pain I feel and it's not asquantitative as I know I'm
paying $30,000 per year too muchin taxes.
As much as it's, I'm feelingthe weight of this financial
burden that I have to manage forthe rest of my life, or I'm
(03:03):
feeling like the cost of amistake here is not something
that I want to potentially livewith and it's that anxiety or
that burden that is a pain andyou hire an advisor a good
advisor if you want to alleviatethat pain and much like a
doctor, not just fixing thingswhen they're broken, but take
that preventative approach to ahealthier, overall, more
(03:24):
well-balanced approach to thingsthat hopefully prevents a lot
of the things that otherwise mayhave broken.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
The number one word that you just said is proactive.
Throughout all of that is Iwant a proactive planner to tell
me things I otherwise couldn'thave known, because I'm not to
ask you, but I'm going to besharing just a moment a
statement from a current clientat Root, who has given us
permission very kindly.
When we asked him, hey, whatwas your experience like working
(03:52):
with Root?
He shared something that Ithink might surprise a lot of
you, and I'm going to startsharing this in a moment.
But, james, my first questionfor you is if someone were to
ask you, such as myself, when isthe best time to invest, what
would you say?
Yesterday, and that's the exactstatement I'll hear from most
people when it comes to whydidn't I hire Root earlier.
(04:14):
Now, that is us tooting ourhorn, but I will give the
example of.
I don't necessarily wake up inthe morning and go.
I need to go to the dentisttoday, but I know I should wake
up in the morning and go.
I need to go to the dentisttoday, but I know I should, and
so we all know, okay, what'sreally best for us in terms of
our health, which is start assoon as possible.
I'm going to give you guys thestatement partial statement from
(04:35):
a client, and I'm going tostart digesting this with James
so you guys can start to see whyit is that we're making this
episode today.
So this comes from a client whosays I am a DIY person.
We're going to explain whatthat means in a second.
But he goes on to say I oftendo things myself, even if it
means buying tools that costnearly as much as hiring someone
(04:56):
else or spending hours of studyon how to do something.
It's not unusual for me to takeon almost any job to save money
, and in some cases not just tosave money but just to do it
myself.
He gives five reasons why hehired Root.
I'm going to go through all ofthem by the end of the episode,
but I'm going to start with thefirst one.
And the first one he says hereis outside expertise.
(05:19):
He goes on to say sure, I couldspend hours or days trying to
get versed in all the rules andissues, but my wife and I both
agreed that even if I did that,we might not trust that we
didn't miss something and likelynot sleep very well on a plan
we created on our own.
He goes on to talk about howhis advisor saved him money and
that that's not the main reasonhe hired Root.
(05:40):
So when it comes, james, toactually going, wow, peace of
mind, is it worth it?
Could I do it on my own?
Do you actually?
And have you met with peoplewho said, hey, I can do it on my
own?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
I don't want to, of course a lot of people who have
gotten to the point wherethey're reaching out to us.
They didn't just wake up oneday with a massive inheritance
or win the lottery.
They got there because theysaved prudently, they invested,
they did a lot of the rightthings along the way.
It's just they're at the pointwhere they're saying I recognize
(06:12):
that life is kind of short.
I recognize that this window oftime to enjoy everything I want
to do is not going to be hereforever.
Why would I want to do anythingthat pulls me away from being
able to love the best version ofthe life I want to love?
And I think that that's thatdoesn't have to start when you
retire.
By the way, I'm not going totry to make this about me, but
like, I think that, as I look atlike what my wife and I will do
(06:33):
, a big part of our philosophy Iused to talk about like, yeah,
what we'll do is we'll pay for agrocery delivery, because I
hate going to the grocery storeand if that saves us two hours a
week, I'll pay for that $10delivery fee plus tip all day
long.
Like that's just two hours backthat we now get, and I think of
just how that's even evolvedover time of everything from and
obviously this depends uponfinancial situation.
(06:54):
Don't just spend frivolouslybased on how you are, but a lot
of the financial decisions thatmy wife and I have made are very
much.
How can we spend our money toget our time back so we can
spend that time with each other,and that's everything from meal
delivery grocery delivery Ishould say to can someone help
clean the house to things aroundthe least handy person in the
(07:16):
world.
So that was an easy one todelegate.
If something breaks in thehouse, have someone come fix it.
But even like we're recordingthis on a Monday, monday night,
ashley and I we do our datenights every single week and we
have someone who comes andwatches our kids and that's an
expense and we could try to say,well, let's try to time it to
make sure my parents areavailable, or actually your
parents, or we get.
No, we're just going to paysomeone and every single week
(07:38):
this is going to be a thingwe're, and these are just simple
examples, but it's the.
We know that we don't have tothink about this.
We just get to go spend somequality time together because we
have someone that we fullytrust watching over the two most
important people in our livesand we just get to go, be
together and connect.
And that doesn't necessarilyrelate perfectly to an advisor,
but people hire an advisorbecause it's look, I've gotten
(07:59):
to this point.
I don't want a mistake to bemade by myself continuing to do
this.
But, more importantly, life isshort.
There's only so many, and it'snot even just a time thing.
Yes, there's only so much timethat we have, but there's only
so much attention that we have.
There's only so many things wecan focus on.
There's only so much bandwidthI can give.
There's only so much bandwidthI should say that I can give all
(08:23):
of myself to is being my ownadvisor One of those things I
want to give all of myself to.
It might be good on you ifthat's the case.
Great, if that's not detractingfrom your ability to do
everything else, awesome.
But for those people that say Iknow what I value, I know
what's important to me.
It's my time with my spouse,it's my time with my family,
(08:45):
it's my time pursuing the thingsI'm passionate about Wonderful.
How do you take everythingthat's not that and use the
money that you have to buy backyour time to buy back your
attention, to buy back the onlynon-renewable currency they'll
talk about.
Which is your time to actuallydo the things that you love
currency they'll talk about.
Which is your time to actuallydo the things that you love.
And that's a big part of whypeople come to root.
Of course, they can do some ofthese things.
I would argue that we couldprobably do them better, just
simply because this is ourprofession.
(09:05):
This is what we've studied,this is what we spend all day,
every day, doing.
But the biggest thing isn'tjust the we're doing it better.
Which can we substantiate?
That depends on the situation.
All that stuff, full better.
Which can we substantiate?
That depends on the situation.
All that stuff you have fulldisclosure.
That's who knows.
But it's the bigger picturestuff.
It's the peace of mind, it'sthe time they get back, it's the
(09:26):
bandwidth they get back, it'sthe attention they get back,
that now they can just totallygo live and do what they want to
do, knowing that this very bigpiece of their life is being
taken care of.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
I'm going to pretend to be someone who's reaching out
to Root, and I'll often do thisbecause it's fun.
I think a lot of you resonatewith it.
You tell me this.
But, james, everything you justsaid there was very logical.
Yes, you go pay for grocerydelivery so you get more time to
record more podcasts and youcan hang out with your family,
and beautiful.
But is it worth it?
That's what I think a lot ofpeople are always going back to.
(09:57):
Is it worth it?
Now, the answer very well may be, and I think you do a beautiful
job of framing this of you canquantify it to the nth degree.
And if that is what's going tobe the decision for you, meaning
you're going to have to pay Xdollars and that's going to
stress you out because everymonth you're going to see a
dollar and wonder could I dothat instead?
I believe we would be thepeople to truly say I don't
(10:19):
think you should hire us becauseyou're going to be beating
yourself up every month going Idon't want groceries delivered,
I want to go pick out thegroceries.
But for most of you, if we wereto ask you, what do you want to
spend your time doing inretirement, I have never had
someone tell me I want to readtax laws.
Now, if someone were to say thatI'd go, look, it sounds like
you really love it and that thisis what you'd want to spend
your time doing.
(10:39):
But going back to that, is itworth it?
If someone were to ask you,james, is it really worth it?
I know I could probably figurethis out.
I mean, my wife yeah, I haven'tseen her in a few years because
I've been working, but I can'tbe with her all the time at home
.
Or vice versa, my husband, isit really worth it to pay an
advisor?
How would you help frame theirmindset?
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Do you enjoy doing it , mr Ari, who's my prospective
client right now?
Speaker 1 (11:07):
I really enjoy doing it, but I am getting older and
so I'm starting to enjoy it less, only because I know I have
less time, but I do think I'mreally good at it.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
How much of your time and attention are you spending
ballpark each month doing this?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Each month, I would say each month I'm probably
spending 20 hours 20 hours.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Okay, what are the things that you do care about
most?
What lights you up?
What makes life worth living toyou?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I love traveling more than anything in the world.
I want to be in an RV, andthat's actually one of the
things that is interesting,because sometimes I don't have
Wi-Fi when I'm in my RV and I'mtrying to rebalance my portfolio
, so that stresses me out, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Could it be, ari, that we're playing the wrong
game, and by the wrong game, Imean, are we tracking the right
things?
If the financial optimizationis all that there is we talk
about this all the time Couldyou have saved a dollar here?
Optimization is all that thereis.
We talk about this all the time.
Could you have saved a dollarhere?
If you really enjoy this, ifthis lights you up, if you get
excited by doing this, if you'rereally good at this, ari, I
(12:06):
can't speak to that or not.
I'm just meeting you for thefirst time.
I don't know what you're doingfor those 20 hours in your RV,
rebalancing your portfolio.
Maybe you're really good, maybeyou really enjoy it.
Maybe there aren't familyconcerns of what happens.
If something happens to you interms of your estate plan, your
legacy plan, the continuity ofyour financial affairs being
continued, if that's the case,you probably don't need to see
an advisor.
(12:26):
Make sure everything's dialedin.
You know, it's not justinvestment stuff, it's taxes,
it's insurances, it's legacy,it's all that.
But Maybe you don't.
Someone that loves doing thisand wants to save money like why
would you go see an advisor?
At least my dad is an example.
I was shopping for a new car.
This was about 10 years ago.
(12:47):
I hate car shopping.
He loves it.
He was going online everywhere.
He was like Dad, you're doingall this and you might save I
don't know 300 bucks for hoursand hours and hours.
Is it really worth it?
He said, yeah, I love doing it.
It's like a game to him, verydifferent.
So if this is a game to you, ifyou love doing this, if you
(13:07):
enjoy it and you're getting somesavings, awesome.
If you're not enjoying it, Iwould rather see you pay someone
so you could spend your timedoing what you actually enjoy.
I don't mean to cut you offthere.
I think you're trying to saysomething.
The last thing I'll say here iswhen I started talking about
playing the wrong game.
Sometimes the game that we'replaying is just a financial game
.
How do I optimize the numbers?
It's that's because it's all weknow.
(13:29):
We've kind of been living this.
I don't want to get toophilosophical but puppeted
lifestyle our whole lives ofwe're supposed to get the bonus
we're supposed to save and itjust becomes all about
optimizing the numbers on paperor on the balance sheet and less
about well, who do I actuallythink that I am?
What do I actually want to dowith my life?
Is that really rebalancing andtax loss, harvesting and
(13:52):
retirement planning and all thisstuff?
If the answer is yes, great, doit.
But if it's not, yes, thatmight be time to consider having
someone help you with this, sothat you can figure out who you
are and go do those things thatlight you up.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Role play.
Ari was ready to interrupt youand say oh, james, trust me, I
get all these calls.
It says likely spam, but Ithink it's people who just want
me to manage their money becausethere's no way they can know.
But I think they just knowsecretly, deep down, that I'm an
expert.
And the joke that I'll oftentell clients is I'll say hey,
you just told me that this is aprospective client.
I'll say you just told me thatyou love this, is that right?
And they go yeah, I really lovethis.
And I go why are you reachingout?
(14:30):
And they'll say well, I feellike maybe there's something I'm
missing, but I just don't know.
Like maybe I have everything,and I'll go do you want to live
your entire life wondering ifthere's something you're missing
?
And then they start to go youknow what?
No, and I'll say is thissomething that you love doing?
Or your spouse?
And they'll go I love doing it,but my spouse, they have no
interest at all.
And then all of a sudden theystart to go wow, it feels
(14:52):
different having an advisor.
So I like what you're saying,james, which is it's not for
everyone.
I don't think what we do is aneed for everyone.
I think it's a desire wherepeople go.
You know what.
My life would be better withRoot or a financial advisor in
it, and that's when it makessense to hire an advisor.
Do not go hire an advisor ifyou're going to look at this
statement every month and wonder, oh my gosh, this is so
(15:15):
annoying, could I be doing thismyself?
So what I would like to do now,james if any other thoughts
save them, I want to hear them.
This is I just want to read thelast few comments from this
statement from our client, andonce again I left off.
They said look, my wife and Iboth agreed that even if I did,
we might not trust we didn'tmiss something and likely not
(15:37):
sleep very well on a plan wecreated on our own.
He goes on to say the secondreason we hired Root no hassles.
We meet with our advisor often.
In between, we exchange emailswithout any effort on our part.
We see a deposit every monthfor our expenses coming from the
optimal place.
We get an extra deposit for anytaxes that are due.
No work on our part.
(15:58):
We just enjoy what we want tofocus on.
Number three is we just sleepbetter, knowing we're not alone
on a multi-decade journey letsus sleep better.
He goes on to say I was theprimary financial control for
our accounts before joining Rootand now I know if anything were
to happen to me, my wife wouldbe in great hands.
He goes on to also say fees arepre-tax for our accounts, which
(16:20):
are majority in a 401k.
Ira, james, I think in a momentit's worth explaining that, not
because people should work withus because of this, but many
people aren't even aware of this.
And he goes on to say thisisn't a huge thing, but it does
mean the effect of paying themdoesn't show up as income.
You need to pay taxes, on whichwe'll explain in a second.
And then number five he justsays bottom line.
(16:42):
As someone who doesn't usuallylike paying for something, for
anything I can do myself, I haveto say I don't mind the fees at
all.
Sure, would I rather not paythem?
I'm a human, but when I weighout the cost benefits, it's
certainly worth it to us to havemy time.
So, james, that point there onfees or pre-tax.
Happy to kind of touch on thatto end.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
But if there's something else you just think
people need to take away fromthis episode, please, no, I mean
pre-tax.
What does that mean?
It means that if you're taking$1,000 out of your IRA and
you're in a 30% tax bracket,combined, you're only keeping
$700 of it.
So really you need to takesomething like $1,300, $1,400 to
end up with $1,000 of expenses.
Well, if you're paying anadvisory fee and that's coming
from an IRA, that fee is nottaxable when it comes out.
(17:29):
So if I pull $1,000 in fees outof an account, it's $1,000
pre-tax.
I mean that $1,000 in 30% taxbracket represented, or
represents $700 to you of actualspendable money when you look
at it that way.
So it's spending the money tohire an advisor before taxes
come out.
(17:50):
Big picture, just taking thisback.
Why are we doing this episode?
Yes, is this to promote Root?
To some extent?
Only to the extent that webelieve that the work we do is
really powerful, transformativework.
There's a lot of amazingadvisors that we think do
incredible work, transformativework.
So, yes, is this self-promoting?
Of course it's self-promoting,but that's only because when you
(18:10):
see something and you see thetransformation it has, why
wouldn't you want every singleperson to experience that, and I
think that those people askwhen is it right to work with an
advisor have experienced that,and I think that those people
ask when is it right to workwith an advisor?
If you're asking that question,if you're feeling like you might
want to work with, there'sprobably a reason you're feeling
like you might want to workwith an advisor.
If that question never comes up, it probably means you're so
(18:31):
confident in what you're doing.
Either you've got a ton ofblind spots and just aren't
aware of them, or you're maybegood, maybe you have this in
hand.
Not everyone needs an advisor Idon't think everyone does but
if you're asking that, if you'reasking yourself that and if
you're continuing to askyourself that, it's probably a
symptom.
It's probably a signal thatthere's something in your
financial life that's not fullyat peace in your mind, something
(18:55):
that could be done better,something that could be done in
a way that gives you more peaceof mind.
That by itself, might be thesign that it's time to reach out
and at least talk to a fewadvisors about possibly working
together.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Beautifully said, that's it for this episode.
I hope this was helpful.
We have our joint episodes,james, called Root Talks, which
is where all of you arelistening or watching this right
now.
We both have our individualchannels, both under our
individual names.
This is what we love to do.
We make videos and podcasts tohelp give you insight when it
comes to retiring, when it comesto making you think differently
(19:28):
and really asking you to go wow, am I making the most out of
what I'm working so hard for?
If you really want to take itto the next level and optimize,
this is, once again, what welove to do.
If you go to our website,rootfinancialcom, you'll see a
button in the upper right thatsays see if you're a fit.
You can click there and getstarted.
Thank you.
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