June 12, 2025 • 18 mins
What does it really mean to change someone’s life through financial advice? While we’re not saving lives like doctors, the impact we have on our clients’ futures can be just as meaningful. Often, it’s not about the numbers—it’s about helping someone move forward when fear is holding them back.
We’ve seen it firsthand. Like the dentist who had every detail in place to open her own practice but couldn’t take the final step. What helped wasn’t another spreadsheet—it was a mindset shift. Or the couple who had more than enough to retire but needed a gentle nudge to believe it was truly okay. These are the moments where great financial advice becomes personal and transformative.
At Root, we believe a solid financial plan is about more than projections. It’s about building a life you’re excited to live. That’s why we focus not only on technical guidance, but on walking with our clients through the real-life decisions that matter most.
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Viewing this video does not create an advisory relationship with Root Financial. We only provide advisory services to clients under a written agreement.
Investment strategies discussed may not be suitable for everyone. All investments involve risk, and past performance is not indicative of future results.
Any opinions expressed are as of the date of recording and are subject to change.
Comments left on this video reflect the views and opinions of the individual commenters and do not necessarily represent the views of Root Financial Partners, LLC. Comments should not be considered a testimonial or endorsement of our services and have not been solicited or compensated. Root does not verify the accuracy of comments and is not responsible for their content.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have a really fun job as advisors.
We change lives.
We don't save lives, but wechange them, and the reason I'm
picking that word change livesis because I've been watching a
TV show called the Studio onApple James.
Have you seen it by chance?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Never seen it.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Okay.
So this is going to be extrafun because I think a lot of
people listening, slash,watching have also not seen it.
And so there's an episode whereSeth Rogen he is the studio
head and his role is to controlwhat shows go out and the
absolute media production andthe quality.
And that's his role.
And he plays this figure ofsomeone who goes I have the most
(00:37):
important job in the world Isave lives.
And he starts to date aphysician who legitimately saves
lives, children who have cancer.
And the funny part of theepisode, which then makes it so
real, is he starts talking aboutand it's comical he goes can't
we just admit that we do thesame thing?
(00:58):
And the person he's dating goes.
No, seth, that's not his namein the episode, I forget his
name, but he goes.
Seth, you do good work, yes,you inspire and you make movies,
but I'm actually changing lives.
And he goes what's in everysingle hospital room?
A TV.
I'm the one changing lives.
And the funny part of it to usis here's someone who really
(01:20):
believes this guy is changinglives.
He's saving lives.
He's not saving them, he ischanging them in a big way.
When you've ever seen a movie oryou've read a book that really
changed your life.
I know it has for me.
It really makes me think aboutit, and there's one book called
the Undoing Project that I thinkabout, I want to say every day,
but at least every single week,and it really hit me hard.
(01:42):
But I am not saving a life.
So what we're going to talkabout today are what are some
stories that really come to mindwhen we talk about changing our
clients' lives?
James, I'm sure you have somegood stories when you can think
about.
Well, I remember giving thisclient this advice and they
really told me that it impactedthem in a major way.
I know I have a story that I'mexcited to share, but what we
(02:03):
are not going to do is we arenot going to pretend that we are
saving lives.
We are not operating on a childwho has cancer and saving their
life, but we are changing lives.
And it was comical because inthe show these people are
thinking oh my gosh, I'm asimportant as a doctor.
And at the end of the episodewhich is the funniest part is he
got hurt and he needed help andand the person he was dating
(02:27):
was like I just need you toadmit that what we do is the
exact same thing equalimportance and he decided to
just sit in pain.
So it was a very funny episode.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
That is a very funny concept.
I like that.
Framing though the changingversus saving.
Yeah, I think a lot of peopleget this sense of an overly
inflated view of their ownimportance, of their own
significance, and let's be veryclear that we're not trying to
do that.
At the same time, let's be veryclear that, hopefully,
financial planning, when doneright, is extremely impactful.
I think there's a lot ofstories we can share, one that
(02:58):
this has happened recently,which is why it's top of mind
for me.
I remember this is actually aclient I started working with
maybe a decade plus ago.
She actually started work.
We did work together at myfirst firm that I joined out of
college and she was a dentistand fast forward till today or
maybe a year ago, working tonsof hours, making good money, but
(03:18):
working tons of hours.
Three kids, not seeing her kidsenough, not being able to
prioritize herself, not beingable to do some of the things
that she wanted to do, lots ofmoney but very little freedom is
how I would categorize her life.
And she came to me and she hadthese plans to open up her own
practice.
She had secured the financing,the office space, the lease, the
(03:39):
business plan and she was aplanner, she had it dialed in
and this goes back to even whatyou just said.
There's nothing I did to saveanything.
But as we started reviewingthis, it was very clear to me
that she had the planning.
Work was done on the businessside, the modeling, the
projections, how she was goingto run it, how she's going to
(03:59):
get patients.
What was holding her up was notthe technical planning, the
numbers, it was.
It was fear and I walked herthrough.
I sent her actually thisresource.
Tim Ferriss talks about a lot.
It's called fear setting.
I want to say, if I'm gettingthat right, where he'll talk
about what's a big, scary thingthat you're thinking about doing
but you can't bring yourself todo it and on the you know,
(04:20):
maybe I'm probably not gonnadescribe this perfectly, but
good piece of paper, divide itevenly.
What are the risks of whathappens if you move forward full
steam ahead with this thing?
Like what's the worst casescenario?
In her case?
It doesn't go according to plan.
I don't get enough patients,miss out on some higher income
years because I spent it doingthis thing that didn't pay me.
List all those risks on theleft-hand side and on the
(04:43):
right-hand side.
List all the risks if you don'tpursue that thing, and those
risks were the sense of neverfeeling free, not being able to
see my children as they grow up,always having to chase more
hours worked for more dollarscoming into the personal.
And that might not be exactly.
I want to make sure I'm notquoting something that's wrong.
(05:04):
The fear setting project thatTim Ferris talks about might be
a little bit different, but justto the best of my recollection,
it's something along thoselines and we had a very simple
conversation where I encouragedher to go through that and she
went through it and she said,hey, this is great.
And then I got an email fromher.
This was maybe a few monthsback now, but she said something
along the lines and I actuallypulled up the email.
(05:25):
She said I just wanted to letyou know that you've been such a
positive and supportiveblessing in my life and my
family.
You really helped me last yearwhen I was deliberating whether
to start my own practice.
My office has been open for sixweeks now and I love it.
I don't know if I'll ever makeas much money as I was before,
but the fulfillment of knowing Ihave the control to do what is
right is priceless.
Plus, my children think it'sthe coolest thing ever.
(05:46):
Thank you for everything, andmy guess is she will end up
making way more money from that.
And by the way, just adisclosure, this is not a
testimonial, to say anyendorsement of us, it's just.
This was a story from a clientwhere it wasn't a financial
thing, it was just helping to bea guide on the journey, helping
to understand when she washaving these roadblocks.
(06:06):
It wasn't actually a financialthing, it was just this fear
thing, and I think that's whathas surprised me most about
being in this business is thethings that prevent people from
living their best lives don'talways tend to actually be the
financial things, and it's justour ability to maintain some
objectivity around what they'redoing, have some perspective
around what they're doing havingdone it with hundreds of people
(06:26):
over the course of our careersthat we get to have that very
intimate seat across the tablefrom them and help them
understand, yes, what are theright financial things to do,
but also, how can we remove thebarriers, how can we help you
illuminate the blind spots inyour thinking so that you can
see those and overcome those?
And it was that simple thingthat I didn't save her life by
(06:48):
any means.
I just helped her to giveherself permission to put things
in proper perspective andultimately make a decision that
will absolutely have a prettyprofound impact on her ability
to spend time with children, to,in my guess, probably end up
making more money than she wasbefore, but, most importantly,
just having that fulfillment andthat confidence that I did
something special and I wasn'theld back from the fear that
(07:12):
holds back too many people fromdoing those types of things.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
When's the last time she felt cool from her kids,
like I don't know.
But that is powerful and youcannot quantify that and a lot
of you will reach out going.
Just tell me what's the Rothconversion?
What bracket do I fill up?
Help me optimize.
How does someone know and thisis a semi-plug James for Root
Ready, which, if you're notlistening now, root Ready is the
podcast that James hosts solo,where he's going over what are
(07:39):
the things that, if you want tobe an amazing advisor, that you
need to learn, that are not in atextbook?
So I do think that this doesrelate to that.
What is it about this RootReady show that lights you up,
because it's not yourtraditional?
Hey, I'm going to record anepisode talking about what
bracket we fill up and here'show tax arbitrage is going to
impact it.
So, if you pass away, yourspouse can inherit this.
(08:01):
Why did you start Root Ready?
Speaker 2 (08:04):
A whole bunch of reasons.
I mean, first and foremost, weat Root.
Our vision is to how can ourservice offering be the gold
standard of what excellentservice looks like, what
excellent advisors look like inthe industry?
And so that doesn't just meanyou try to attract the best
advisors.
It means, yes, attract the best.
And also, how do we have thisplace where we can develop the
best?
So that's obviously a big partof it, but I think that for an
(08:25):
advisor to be a really effectiveadvisor we say this so often
that it almost goes beyond thetechnical skill set.
Of course, yes, you need toknow taxes and retirement and
investments and insurance andestate, but that's just the
basics.
There's a whole bunch ofadvisors that know that stuff
that I would never want to be myadvisor.
I think there's this importanceof you.
(08:46):
Leading your own life well isgoing to be the number one
contributor to you being able tohelp, lead others and guide
others, which is exactly whatwe're doing as advisors.
How can we expect to not justimpart financial guidance, but
we talk about financial planninga lot that if all you're
talking about is a technical,you're missing it.
It's not about pursuing moneyfor money's sake.
(09:09):
It's about money being thecatalyst to help you live a
better, more fulfilling, morepurposeful life.
That ability to live a better,more purposeful, more fulfilled
life.
That's something that is only alearned experience that you as
an individual, you as an advisor, need to be pursuing, that if
you want to have the ability tobe the best you possibly can
sitting across from a client whois looking to do the same on
(09:31):
their end.
So root ready is about yes,there's a technical side of it,
there's the investment side ofit, but it's also this maybe
financial, psychology side of itof how does money work, how do
we think about money, how do ourexperiences as people shape our
viewpoint on money?
There's also thisself-leadership aspect of it of
how can you be excellent when itcomes to building trust, when
(09:53):
it comes to communicating, whenit comes to the importance of
all the little things and beingthe big things as an advisor,
but just an overall commitmentto excellence as a person.
What does that look like?
Because those are the types ofpeople that we want and have at
root, and that kind of lays outthe standards for what is our
standard here?
How do we objectively definewhat it means to be an excellent
(10:16):
financial advisor, and thenjust our internal approach to
that being put into externalformat in the form of a podcast.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Yeah, here's the big risk I hear.
Let's pretend that you did notstart root ready and let's
pretend we did not train ouradvisors on here's how to think
beyond the technical aspect.
And we're going to go back tothe story of this woman that you
helped start this business.
And if she came and she said,hey, james, I need to run more
numbers, and you went, my job isto be a financial advisor, I'm
going to run more numbers Would.
(10:45):
And you never brought up thefear-based test that you just
mentioned there.
If you never did that, did youdo anything wrong?
I would say no on paper, butthe only thing that never
occurred is she never took asecond to look and ask herself
what is the real risk?
That was you giving life advice.
And so that is you being you.
(11:09):
If we have people who areincredible with just technical
advice and I'll take the exampleof my dad, who previously had a
surgery the surgery was donevery well, but if this person
had gotten to know my dad inmore detail, he would have known
hey, this is someone that Ineed to be really clear when
they get out of surgery.
You are not working out, eventhough I know you want to, even
though you are going to probablydo it anyway.
I'm going to give moreeducation or I'm going to put
(11:30):
extra stitches when I'm doingthe surgery a additional
knowledge going beyond thetechnical book answer.
So I think that's the mostpowerful statement that I heard
from this, because you doingthis root ready podcast is
allowing other advisors who areworking at root and want to work
at root one day go wow, there'smore to this and I need to kind
(11:52):
of lead by example, because youdidn't read a book that said if
client has issue, ask them todo fear test.
You just did it.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, the, the.
The real financial planningbegins where the textbook answer
ends like the.
That's called this client,sarah that's not her real name,
but Sarah had done the numbersand we could have optimized and
optimized and optimized inthought Okay, just a better
projection, a better pro forma,better, whatever is going to be
the answer to her finally takingthe leap to doing this?
(12:21):
And, by the way, how many timesdo we see that with clients?
Oh, let's run one moreprojection.
Hey, one more projection.
What if I spend this instead ofthat?
Hey, one more projection.
What if we do this conversionstrategy instead of that?
Hey, one more projection.
What if we have this investmentallocate?
What you start to realize isit's not an investment decision
or a retirement decision or atax decision that's holding that
person back.
It's a life decision.
(12:42):
That's what we have to realize.
We are using money to livebetter lives.
Therefore, we have to have somereally strong knowledge and
what it looks like to lead abetter life, which all of us can
do better at.
That's always a journey foreveryone.
But if your sole focus is onbeing the technical master of
this stuff, you're only gettingone side of the equation.
(13:03):
It has to connect to somethingmuch bigger, and the only way we
can learn to lead better livesso that we can then, in turn,
help our clients do the same isthat's something that you can't
learn in a textbook.
You have to be pursuing that onyour own.
That's a big part of our hiringprocess and the things that
we're looking for for people.
It's a big part of what we tryto promote internally.
How do we lead better lives sowe can be better spouses, better
(13:25):
parents, better friends, betterchildren, better people, better
everything?
One we just want to do thatbecause of a principle of like.
That's one of the core reasonswe exist.
But number two I do stronglybelieve that makes us better
advisors because our clients areparents, children, siblings,
friends, coworkers, people, andso there's that ability to
(13:46):
communicate beyond just thefinancials.
That's going to be way moreimpactful than if our advice was
limited to whatever the certainfinancial curriculum might
teach.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah, we really do change lives.
I believe that wholeheartedly.
I think we have the best job inthe world.
We are not saving lives in thetraditional sense on the
operating room, and I want to bevery clear about that, because
we see what doctors do who reachout to work with us, and it is
something that we will never sayhey, yeah, we're doing that
same level of planning, but in adifferent way, without it being
(14:18):
too ego, whatever you want tocall it.
Like we are giving someone thegreen light to say, hey, you
never have to work again, andthat is something.
You don't want to retire again.
That is something we take veryseriously.
The story that comes to mindwhen I talk about changing lives
is I had a couple lovely couple.
They were really worried toretire early solely because of
health insurance, and they haddone a really good job saving
(14:41):
and so they were really hesitantto become a spender.
It's something a lot of youtell me that you struggle with.
I know I have enough, but Istill struggle to spend.
When I was a child, moneywasn't around.
I just it's weird.
I know I've done a good job,but I feel like it's going to be
hard for me to spend.
So one of the things I used todo and, james, you might be
aware of this, but I used towhen I was speaking to a nice
couple, I'd say great.
(15:05):
And the next time we met I'dsay you are actually scheduled
for a reservation the followingweek for you and two friends
that you want to retire with.
Because if you guys retirealone, even if I'm sure you guys
love each other, you're gonnawant to still hang out with
people.
So if you don't want to go tothat reservation, that's fine,
but you have to cancel it.
You have to take action.
You told me you wanted to spendmore.
(15:25):
You're in a good spot, it'stime to do.
And then, all of a sudden theystarted going.
We now have friends that we canretire early with and hang out
with, and so if we just retired,yeah, it would have been fine.
Yeah, it's nice redating myspouse because it's been a while
, but the truth is it feelsdifferent.
(15:46):
Now there's a community.
We feel like we prepared for it.
All I did was book a dinnerreservation that they could have
done.
They just didn't feel hey, dowe have permission to go do that
?
So it's not a surgery, but inour world.
It's giving someone theconfidence to go out.
No, I'm in a good spot, andwhat I wouldn't have done is
book them a Nobu reservation ifI didn't think they were in a
spot to afford that.
(16:07):
So these stories that we talkabout, they are powerful.
I do believe we change lives.
You can't exactly quantify thefinancial advice when working
with an advisor.
There's a lot of different waysof looking into it, and so I
wanted to highlight that I thinkwhat we do is special.
I think we do change lives.
I don't think we necessarilysave them like a doctor does.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
The sign of a good financial plan is life well
lived, something we say quite abit, and I think that sums that
up.
So good stuff.
Thank you, ari.
Anything else that would begood to touch upon before we
wrap up this episode today?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Next week we're going to be talking actually in two
weeks, because these arebiweekly now.
Most of you know that by nowbut we're going to be talking
about how do you actually quityour job.
Like it's one thing to goretire, but like do you just
tell HR what if you've beenthere for 30 years?
And what's the stress aroundthat?
We've had a lot of people tellus hey, I know I'm in a good
spot, but the thought of havingto break up with my employer is
(17:00):
the sole reason I don't want toretire.
It can sound a little odd,because there's things that you
might want to go do.
I'm ready to travel, I want togo hiking, but one more project,
maybe it's not a big deal.
Yeah, just six more months.
I get a bonus anyways.
Five years later your spousegoes.
Can we hang out?
So that's what's coming in twoweeks.
Right now, james, you have yourReady for Retirement podcast and
(17:22):
you have your Root Readypodcast.
I have the Early Retirementpodcast.
We have our YouTube channels.
We both work together and doeverything in conjunction at
Root.
So for those of you who foundJames now digest my content
Awesome If you found me nowdigest James's content Awesome.
If you found me now digestJames's content Awesome.
We do all of this together andthen we encourage all of you, at
the very minimum, if you arelistening to this podcast or
(17:45):
watching this going hey, thisdoes feel different.
This is what we help clients dohere at root, so we encourage
you to reach out.
Go to root financialcom in theupper right.
You'll see a apply to see ifyou're a good fit and we'll talk
to you then.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Great teaser for next time.
We'll see you all then, thankyou.
We have a really fun job as advisors.
We change lives.
We don't save lives, but wechange them, and the reason I'm
picking that word change livesis because I've been watching a
TV show called the Studio onApple James.
Have you seen it by chance?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Never seen it.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Okay.
So this is going to be extrafun because I think a lot of
people listening, slash,watching have also not seen it.
And so there's an episode whereSeth Rogen he is the studio
head and his role is to controlwhat shows go out and the
absolute media production andthe quality.
And that's his role.
And he plays this figure ofsomeone who goes I have the most
(00:37):
important job in the world Isave lives.
And he starts to date aphysician who legitimately saves
lives, children who have cancer.
And the funny part of theepisode, which then makes it so
real, is he starts talking aboutand it's comical he goes can't
we just admit that we do thesame thing?
(00:58):
And the person he's dating goes.
No, seth, that's not his namein the episode, I forget his
name, but he goes.
Seth, you do good work, yes,you inspire and you make movies,
but I'm actually changing lives.
And he goes what's in everysingle hospital room?
A TV.
I'm the one changing lives.
And the funny part of it to usis here's someone who really
(01:20):
believes this guy is changinglives.
He's saving lives.
He's not saving them, he ischanging them in a big way.
When you've ever seen a movie oryou've read a book that really
changed your life.
I know it has for me.
It really makes me think aboutit, and there's one book called
the Undoing Project that I thinkabout, I want to say every day,
but at least every single week,and it really hit me hard.
(01:42):
But I am not saving a life.
So what we're going to talkabout today are what are some
stories that really come to mindwhen we talk about changing our
clients' lives?
James, I'm sure you have somegood stories when you can think
about.
Well, I remember giving thisclient this advice and they
really told me that it impactedthem in a major way.
I know I have a story that I'mexcited to share, but what we
(02:03):
are not going to do is we arenot going to pretend that we are
saving lives.
We are not operating on a childwho has cancer and saving their
life, but we are changing lives.
And it was comical because inthe show these people are
thinking oh my gosh, I'm asimportant as a doctor.
And at the end of the episodewhich is the funniest part is he
got hurt and he needed help andand the person he was dating
(02:27):
was like I just need you toadmit that what we do is the
exact same thing equalimportance and he decided to
just sit in pain.
So it was a very funny episode.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
That is a very funny concept.
I like that.
Framing though the changingversus saving.
Yeah, I think a lot of peopleget this sense of an overly
inflated view of their ownimportance, of their own
significance, and let's be veryclear that we're not trying to
do that.
At the same time, let's be veryclear that, hopefully,
financial planning, when doneright, is extremely impactful.
I think there's a lot ofstories we can share, one that
(02:58):
this has happened recently,which is why it's top of mind
for me.
I remember this is actually aclient I started working with
maybe a decade plus ago.
She actually started work.
We did work together at myfirst firm that I joined out of
college and she was a dentistand fast forward till today or
maybe a year ago, working tonsof hours, making good money, but
(03:18):
working tons of hours.
Three kids, not seeing her kidsenough, not being able to
prioritize herself, not beingable to do some of the things
that she wanted to do, lots ofmoney but very little freedom is
how I would categorize her life.
And she came to me and she hadthese plans to open up her own
practice.
She had secured the financing,the office space, the lease, the
(03:39):
business plan and she was aplanner, she had it dialed in
and this goes back to even whatyou just said.
There's nothing I did to saveanything.
But as we started reviewingthis, it was very clear to me
that she had the planning.
Work was done on the businessside, the modeling, the
projections, how she was goingto run it, how she's going to
(03:59):
get patients.
What was holding her up was notthe technical planning, the
numbers, it was.
It was fear and I walked herthrough.
I sent her actually thisresource.
Tim Ferriss talks about a lot.
It's called fear setting.
I want to say, if I'm gettingthat right, where he'll talk
about what's a big, scary thingthat you're thinking about doing
but you can't bring yourself todo it and on the you know,
(04:20):
maybe I'm probably not gonnadescribe this perfectly, but
good piece of paper, divide itevenly.
What are the risks of whathappens if you move forward full
steam ahead with this thing?
Like what's the worst casescenario?
In her case?
It doesn't go according to plan.
I don't get enough patients,miss out on some higher income
years because I spent it doingthis thing that didn't pay me.
List all those risks on theleft-hand side and on the
(04:43):
right-hand side.
List all the risks if you don'tpursue that thing, and those
risks were the sense of neverfeeling free, not being able to
see my children as they grow up,always having to chase more
hours worked for more dollarscoming into the personal.
And that might not be exactly.
I want to make sure I'm notquoting something that's wrong.
(05:04):
The fear setting project thatTim Ferris talks about might be
a little bit different, but justto the best of my recollection,
it's something along thoselines and we had a very simple
conversation where I encouragedher to go through that and she
went through it and she said,hey, this is great.
And then I got an email fromher.
This was maybe a few monthsback now, but she said something
along the lines and I actuallypulled up the email.
(05:25):
She said I just wanted to letyou know that you've been such a
positive and supportiveblessing in my life and my
family.
You really helped me last yearwhen I was deliberating whether
to start my own practice.
My office has been open for sixweeks now and I love it.
I don't know if I'll ever makeas much money as I was before,
but the fulfillment of knowing Ihave the control to do what is
right is priceless.
Plus, my children think it'sthe coolest thing ever.
(05:46):
Thank you for everything, andmy guess is she will end up
making way more money from that.
And by the way, just adisclosure, this is not a
testimonial, to say anyendorsement of us, it's just.
This was a story from a clientwhere it wasn't a financial
thing, it was just helping to bea guide on the journey, helping
to understand when she washaving these roadblocks.
(06:06):
It wasn't actually a financialthing, it was just this fear
thing, and I think that's whathas surprised me most about
being in this business is thethings that prevent people from
living their best lives don'talways tend to actually be the
financial things, and it's justour ability to maintain some
objectivity around what they'redoing, have some perspective
around what they're doing havingdone it with hundreds of people
(06:26):
over the course of our careersthat we get to have that very
intimate seat across the tablefrom them and help them
understand, yes, what are theright financial things to do,
but also, how can we remove thebarriers, how can we help you
illuminate the blind spots inyour thinking so that you can
see those and overcome those?
And it was that simple thingthat I didn't save her life by
(06:48):
any means.
I just helped her to giveherself permission to put things
in proper perspective andultimately make a decision that
will absolutely have a prettyprofound impact on her ability
to spend time with children, to,in my guess, probably end up
making more money than she wasbefore, but, most importantly,
just having that fulfillment andthat confidence that I did
something special and I wasn'theld back from the fear that
(07:12):
holds back too many people fromdoing those types of things.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
When's the last time she felt cool from her kids,
like I don't know.
But that is powerful and youcannot quantify that and a lot
of you will reach out going.
Just tell me what's the Rothconversion?
What bracket do I fill up?
Help me optimize.
How does someone know and thisis a semi-plug James for Root
Ready, which, if you're notlistening now, root Ready is the
podcast that James hosts solo,where he's going over what are
(07:39):
the things that, if you want tobe an amazing advisor, that you
need to learn, that are not in atextbook?
So I do think that this doesrelate to that.
What is it about this RootReady show that lights you up,
because it's not yourtraditional?
Hey, I'm going to record anepisode talking about what
bracket we fill up and here'show tax arbitrage is going to
impact it.
So, if you pass away, yourspouse can inherit this.
(08:01):
Why did you start Root Ready?
Speaker 2 (08:04):
A whole bunch of reasons.
I mean, first and foremost, weat Root.
Our vision is to how can ourservice offering be the gold
standard of what excellentservice looks like, what
excellent advisors look like inthe industry?
And so that doesn't just meanyou try to attract the best
advisors.
It means, yes, attract the best.
And also, how do we have thisplace where we can develop the
best?
So that's obviously a big partof it, but I think that for an
(08:25):
advisor to be a really effectiveadvisor we say this so often
that it almost goes beyond thetechnical skill set.
Of course, yes, you need toknow taxes and retirement and
investments and insurance andestate, but that's just the
basics.
There's a whole bunch ofadvisors that know that stuff
that I would never want to be myadvisor.
I think there's this importanceof you.
(08:46):
Leading your own life well isgoing to be the number one
contributor to you being able tohelp, lead others and guide
others, which is exactly whatwe're doing as advisors.
How can we expect to not justimpart financial guidance, but
we talk about financial planninga lot that if all you're
talking about is a technical,you're missing it.
It's not about pursuing moneyfor money's sake.
(09:09):
It's about money being thecatalyst to help you live a
better, more fulfilling, morepurposeful life.
That ability to live a better,more purposeful, more fulfilled
life.
That's something that is only alearned experience that you as
an individual, you as an advisor, need to be pursuing, that if
you want to have the ability tobe the best you possibly can
sitting across from a client whois looking to do the same on
(09:31):
their end.
So root ready is about yes,there's a technical side of it,
there's the investment side ofit, but it's also this maybe
financial, psychology side of itof how does money work, how do
we think about money, how do ourexperiences as people shape our
viewpoint on money?
There's also thisself-leadership aspect of it of
how can you be excellent when itcomes to building trust, when
(09:53):
it comes to communicating, whenit comes to the importance of
all the little things and beingthe big things as an advisor,
but just an overall commitmentto excellence as a person.
What does that look like?
Because those are the types ofpeople that we want and have at
root, and that kind of lays outthe standards for what is our
standard here?
How do we objectively definewhat it means to be an excellent
(10:16):
financial advisor, and thenjust our internal approach to
that being put into externalformat in the form of a podcast.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Yeah, here's the big risk I hear.
Let's pretend that you did notstart root ready and let's
pretend we did not train ouradvisors on here's how to think
beyond the technical aspect.
And we're going to go back tothe story of this woman that you
helped start this business.
And if she came and she said,hey, james, I need to run more
numbers, and you went, my job isto be a financial advisor, I'm
going to run more numbers Would.
(10:45):
And you never brought up thefear-based test that you just
mentioned there.
If you never did that, did youdo anything wrong?
I would say no on paper, butthe only thing that never
occurred is she never took asecond to look and ask herself
what is the real risk?
That was you giving life advice.
And so that is you being you.
(11:09):
If we have people who areincredible with just technical
advice and I'll take the exampleof my dad, who previously had a
surgery the surgery was donevery well, but if this person
had gotten to know my dad inmore detail, he would have known
hey, this is someone that Ineed to be really clear when
they get out of surgery.
You are not working out, eventhough I know you want to, even
though you are going to probablydo it anyway.
I'm going to give moreeducation or I'm going to put
(11:30):
extra stitches when I'm doingthe surgery a additional
knowledge going beyond thetechnical book answer.
So I think that's the mostpowerful statement that I heard
from this, because you doingthis root ready podcast is
allowing other advisors who areworking at root and want to work
at root one day go wow, there'smore to this and I need to kind
(11:52):
of lead by example, because youdidn't read a book that said if
client has issue, ask them todo fear test.
You just did it.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yeah, the, the.
The real financial planningbegins where the textbook answer
ends like the.
That's called this client,sarah that's not her real name,
but Sarah had done the numbersand we could have optimized and
optimized and optimized inthought Okay, just a better
projection, a better pro forma,better, whatever is going to be
the answer to her finally takingthe leap to doing this?
(12:21):
And, by the way, how many timesdo we see that with clients?
Oh, let's run one moreprojection.
Hey, one more projection.
What if I spend this instead ofthat?
Hey, one more projection.
What if we do this conversionstrategy instead of that?
Hey, one more projection.
What if we have this investmentallocate?
What you start to realize isit's not an investment decision
or a retirement decision or atax decision that's holding that
person back.
It's a life decision.
(12:42):
That's what we have to realize.
We are using money to livebetter lives.
Therefore, we have to have somereally strong knowledge and
what it looks like to lead abetter life, which all of us can
do better at.
That's always a journey foreveryone.
But if your sole focus is onbeing the technical master of
this stuff, you're only gettingone side of the equation.
(13:03):
It has to connect to somethingmuch bigger, and the only way we
can learn to lead better livesso that we can then, in turn,
help our clients do the same isthat's something that you can't
learn in a textbook.
You have to be pursuing that onyour own.
That's a big part of our hiringprocess and the things that
we're looking for for people.
It's a big part of what we tryto promote internally.
How do we lead better lives sowe can be better spouses, better
(13:25):
parents, better friends, betterchildren, better people, better
everything?
One we just want to do thatbecause of a principle of like.
That's one of the core reasonswe exist.
But number two I do stronglybelieve that makes us better
advisors because our clients areparents, children, siblings,
friends, coworkers, people, andso there's that ability to
(13:46):
communicate beyond just thefinancials.
That's going to be way moreimpactful than if our advice was
limited to whatever the certainfinancial curriculum might
teach.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Yeah, we really do change lives.
I believe that wholeheartedly.
I think we have the best job inthe world.
We are not saving lives in thetraditional sense on the
operating room, and I want to bevery clear about that, because
we see what doctors do who reachout to work with us, and it is
something that we will never sayhey, yeah, we're doing that
same level of planning, but in adifferent way, without it being
(14:18):
too ego, whatever you want tocall it.
Like we are giving someone thegreen light to say, hey, you
never have to work again, andthat is something.
You don't want to retire again.
That is something we take veryseriously.
The story that comes to mindwhen I talk about changing lives
is I had a couple lovely couple.
They were really worried toretire early solely because of
health insurance, and they haddone a really good job saving
(14:41):
and so they were really hesitantto become a spender.
It's something a lot of youtell me that you struggle with.
I know I have enough, but Istill struggle to spend.
When I was a child, moneywasn't around.
I just it's weird.
I know I've done a good job,but I feel like it's going to be
hard for me to spend.
So one of the things I used todo and, james, you might be
aware of this, but I used towhen I was speaking to a nice
couple, I'd say great.
(15:05):
And the next time we met I'dsay you are actually scheduled
for a reservation the followingweek for you and two friends
that you want to retire with.
Because if you guys retirealone, even if I'm sure you guys
love each other, you're gonnawant to still hang out with
people.
So if you don't want to go tothat reservation, that's fine,
but you have to cancel it.
You have to take action.
You told me you wanted to spendmore.
(15:25):
You're in a good spot, it'stime to do.
And then, all of a sudden theystarted going.
We now have friends that we canretire early with and hang out
with, and so if we just retired,yeah, it would have been fine.
Yeah, it's nice redating myspouse because it's been a while
, but the truth is it feelsdifferent.
(15:46):
Now there's a community.
We feel like we prepared for it.
All I did was book a dinnerreservation that they could have
done.
They just didn't feel hey, dowe have permission to go do that
?
So it's not a surgery, but inour world.
It's giving someone theconfidence to go out.
No, I'm in a good spot, andwhat I wouldn't have done is
book them a Nobu reservation ifI didn't think they were in a
spot to afford that.
(16:07):
So these stories that we talkabout, they are powerful.
I do believe we change lives.
You can't exactly quantify thefinancial advice when working
with an advisor.
There's a lot of different waysof looking into it, and so I
wanted to highlight that I thinkwhat we do is special.
I think we do change lives.
I don't think we necessarilysave them like a doctor does.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
The sign of a good financial plan is life well
lived, something we say quite abit, and I think that sums that
up.
So good stuff.
Thank you, ari.
Anything else that would begood to touch upon before we
wrap up this episode today?
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Next week we're going to be talking actually in two
weeks, because these arebiweekly now.
Most of you know that by nowbut we're going to be talking
about how do you actually quityour job.
Like it's one thing to goretire, but like do you just
tell HR what if you've beenthere for 30 years?
And what's the stress aroundthat?
We've had a lot of people tellus hey, I know I'm in a good
spot, but the thought of havingto break up with my employer is
(17:00):
the sole reason I don't want toretire.
It can sound a little odd,because there's things that you
might want to go do.
I'm ready to travel, I want togo hiking, but one more project,
maybe it's not a big deal.
Yeah, just six more months.
I get a bonus anyways.
Five years later your spousegoes.
Can we hang out?
So that's what's coming in twoweeks.
Right now, james, you have yourReady for Retirement podcast and
(17:22):
you have your Root Readypodcast.
I have the Early Retirementpodcast.
We have our YouTube channels.
We both work together and doeverything in conjunction at
Root.
So for those of you who foundJames now digest my content
Awesome If you found me nowdigest James's content Awesome.
If you found me now digestJames's content Awesome.
We do all of this together andthen we encourage all of you, at
the very minimum, if you arelistening to this podcast or
(17:45):
watching this going hey, thisdoes feel different.
This is what we help clients dohere at root, so we encourage
you to reach out.
Go to root financialcom in theupper right.
You'll see a apply to see ifyou're a good fit and we'll talk
to you then.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Great teaser for next time.
We'll see you all then, thankyou.
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