Creating A Job Optional Life: Lessons from Alaska with Chad Hufford

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Money is a great servant.

(00:01):
It's a horrible master, and it's kindof one or the other, either it's serving
you or you're serving it, but we've evengone beyond that where we are worshiping
and pursuing consumption and comfortas a goal rather than stewardship.

(00:25):
do you take the lessons of financialplanning from the rugged terrains
of Alaska and make them universal?
us today is Chad Hufford.
A seasoned financial planner and thefounder of Veritas in Anchorage, Alaska.
Chad, who grew up under the tutelageof his father in the financial sector,
brings a unique blend of personalexperience and professional expertise.

(00:47):
As a devoted father of six and an avidoutdoorsman, Chad integrates his life's
passion with his professional mission,educating and empowering families across
America to achieve financial independence.
Tune in as we explore Chad's journeyfrom learning the ropes In a family
run business to becoming the longesttenured Dave Ramsey, smart Vesta pro

(01:08):
in Alaska, and how he uses his coachingmindset to help clients navigate the
complexities of financial planning.
stay tuned, please, to the very endfor a special announcement about
some future episodes that we have.
Chad, welcome to seek, go create.
It's a pleasure to be here andlooking forward to encouraging,
uplifting your audience and helpingthem create a more abundant life.

(01:33):
Yeah, I'm glad you're here too.
You are episode 299.
We've got 300 coming up and I'lltalk more about it at the end,
We've been going here for six years.
Sounds like we talked alittle bit beforehand.
We've, both had some fun weeks,so I'm glad we're here recording.
the listener needs to be thankful, right?
Absolutely.
And I just was reminding myself, youknow, as I was going through some

(01:53):
of this and some of the problemsthat I'm dealing with are problems
that some people would love to have.
And they're frustrating in the moment,but, it's, it's good to have perspective.
Yeah.
there's no sanctification thathappens inside a comfort zone, right?
No, it doesn't.
It doesn't.
We may talk about perspective as wego through here, because I love about

(02:14):
perspective when it comes to moneyand finances and looking forward
to getting your perspective on justwhat it's like being in Alaska.
So, uh, question, though,give you a choice here.
Would you rather answerdo you do who are you?
Just pick it and go ahead and answer.
What do I do?

(02:35):
I would say professionally, Imake sure people don't run out of
money or purpose in retirement.
And I think a lot of people in myfield only focus on the first part,
but if you run out of purpose beforeyou run out of money, it's hard to
experience freedom and abundance.

(02:55):
And when I say abundance, I'mtalking about so much more than just
money, finances and material things.
in fact, I would say that's what I domore as a person is try to empower people
to pursue a better version of themselvesand a life with more meaning and freedom.
It's cool that you brought up purposebecause I think I picked up on that,

(03:17):
but I didn't realize you would with it.
My wife and I right now are hangingout, in the warmth of Arizona
in a 55 and older community.
And it is fascinating.
A lot of these people are retired.
A lot of these people havedone well financially.
But my wife and I, youknow, we're still working.
We've got stuff going on andis interesting to see how many

(03:39):
people at this age, mature age,they really don't have purpose.
And, what do you, I mean, this is divinginto the deep end of the pool here, but,
what comes up when you bring up withpeople that not only do you want them
to handle money, because most people areprobably thinking money's the answer.
And then you start talking purpose,
Oh my goodness.

(04:00):
Okay, so we could spend the wholeepisode just on this right here.
So number one, money is a tool.
When money becomes the goal or theobjective, then we're on a dangerous path.
Money is a tool you use to build alife of meaning, purpose, and freedom.
it's what you use to buildindependence, and not the end goal.

(04:20):
I think here in the United States,we've done ourselves a huge disservice
by treating work as the thing to avoid.
Like I'm going to buildup a bunch of money.
I'm going to save a bunch of moneyso one day I can quit my job.
Well, guys, you can quit your job today.
The government will take care of you.
I'm not suggesting that, but if that'syour goal is to quit working, then you

(04:41):
can just turn this podcast off right now.
But the goal is independence topursue what is even more meaningful.
And I think so many people focuson what they're retiring from.
They don't really have a visionfor what they're retiring to.
And Tim, to your point aboutthe community you're in, most
of these people are successful.
They did well.

(05:01):
They're the worst types of peopleto not have meaningful pursuit.
Because they're probably more goalfocused and more your audience as well.
More ambitious, more intentional.
They're the worst type ofpeople to not have a mission.
And when you take that away fromsomebody, they will often end
up pursuing the wrong things.
They will chase the things that theyshouldn't be chasing because they don't

(05:23):
have something meaningful to pursue.
you know, or, or worse,they'll do nothing.
That's what we see.
Some doing nothing.
really here.
We're recording this on a Thursday,just to put a time stamp on it.
In this community, at about 4pm, allthese people start bringing their chairs
out to the, some little common areas.

(05:45):
And they have these happy hours.
And they're not all alcoholrelated, but many of them are.
I'm still doing some work.
I'm sorry.
I can't hang out.
I'd love to chit chat with y'all,but so that that's one thing, but at
least they're being social where weare here, there's 32 pickleball courts
and I, I love a little pickleball.
Okay.
I'm not against pickleball, butthere are people that will play five

(06:08):
and six hours of pickleball a day.
And you know what?
That's not a bad thing.
I think it might bebetter than doing nothing.
But my wife and I will often say, Hmm, youthink that's what God created him for to
when they hit 65, 70, 75, some are olderthan that to play pickleball all day long.
And again, maybe, maybe it is, I'm notjudging it, but, but, and this is a little

(06:30):
bit more of an active area than someretirement areas and also, so, I mean,
and again, this is a question to askChad, but I'm sure people come to you.
the money piece, how do you start nudgingthem to think about the purpose piece?

(06:52):
Again, it goes back to, you know, pursuit.
we want people to be focusedon what they're retiring to,
not what they're retiring from.
are you fleeing a career?
and even if it's a greatjob, you love what you did.
we worked with a lot of oil field folks.
We worked with a lot of law enforcement,their careers that are hard on the body.
You might love what you do.
It's just not somethingyou want to do forever.

(07:15):
are you leaving or exiting a career or areyou entering a new chapter of your life?
And I think that perspective isso important between those two.
I'll just give you a little metaphor.
as you mentioned in your introduction,I have six kids, so we watch a lot
of nature shows and there's a leopardchasing a warthog and I'm watching this.

(07:38):
I'm thinking both of these animals.
are running as hard as they possibly can.
They're as hard as their legs andlungs will allow them, but only one
of them is having any fun right now.
And the leopard is pursuingsomething and the warthog is fleeing.
The warthog is running for the life.
I think too many people spend life.

(08:00):
Using finances to flee fromsomething rather than to pursue
something even more important.
I just believe when people hit a period intheir life where they no longer have to go
to work, we call it a job optional life.
not even retirement, but when peopledon't need to produce a paycheck anymore,
I believe that's when they can have thebiggest impact, the biggest years of,

(08:23):
of impact than they ever had before.
Cause they don't have to spend thetime, the energy going to work, doing
things that might not really alignwith, with their soul and their passion.
So it's interesting that the fieldsthat you brought up, and I'm sure you
work with people outside of the oilfield and also first responders and
things like that, but those are, inmy opinion, they seem to be physical

(08:49):
type jobs, especially the oil field.
And I could see that a lot of people wouldwant to have to work as hard physically.
do you see that in that oil fieldindustry or is that just me maybe
reading it wrong because I haveno knowledge of that industry?
No, you're absolutely right.
That's a big part of it.
Another big part, at least here inAlaska, is a lot of these men and women,

(09:12):
they're working above the Arctic Circle.
I mean, there's actually a placein Alaska called North Pole, and we
don't see Santa a lot, but It's along ways past North Pole, Alaska.
I mean, it's out in the middle of nowhere.
And this time of year,they hardly see the sun.
They're working sometimes in 40 belowtemperatures and they're going weeks

(09:34):
at a time without seeing their family.
And again, some of these folks,they love what they do, not all
the time, but they give up a lot.
There's a lot of sacrifice.
So we, again, we're not in a hurryto get anybody to retire, but we are
trying to do is get them to a place.
Relatively early in life where they nolonger have to produce that paycheck.

(09:55):
they have the independence To transitionto maybe a new career maybe take a
lower paying job here in town Butthey don't have to do those things
anymore if they don't choose to andsome people do we have a guy We have
several actually, A couple come to mind.
They're in their 70s Theyreally enjoy what they're doing.
They love their community.
Their kids are grown.

(10:15):
and that is like their, their familykind of, but we just want them to make
that choice and not be dictated bytheir, their job or their finances.
And I think, you know, going backto your question about, you know,
people come to us for money, butit's, again, money is just a tool.
What we're trying to do isget them to think about where.
What do you want your life to look like?

(10:35):
Who do you want to become?
And we start reverse engineeringthat because again, money is
just a tool to build that it is.
It's an important part ofthe whole equation, but it
is not the entire equation.
and some of those people might endup down here in Arizona where I'm at
We have a lot of themdown there, But, no, we
yeah.

(10:58):
the sunshine.
I love being able to be inshorts, and I love taking a break.
We talked about theimportance of stillness.
Like, I'm not saying you shouldbe busy, busy, busy all the time.
I believe we are created with margin.
you know, the, God instituted theSabbath, if it was important for
God to take a rest, I think as humanbeings we probably need it too.
So I believe it's importantto find rest and relaxation.

(11:21):
It's important to have balance.
But again, I just disagree with thefact that retirement is where you
completely unplug and you have 20 yearsof weekends, just a two decade vacation.
I've seen that happen and I've seen alot of emptiness and loneliness that
come with that and the people who aremost fulfilled in a job optional life

(11:41):
are the people who are still serving,they're still connected, they're
still stretching themselves, they'regrowing and they're making some of
the biggest impact of their life.
right, yeah, my wife and I haverecently come to terms with, both of
our mothers are still living, my dadpassed a few years ago, and we've kind
of come to terms with what's going onin their lives, is they really, don't

(12:03):
have anything that they're living for,nothing that they're pursuing or going
after, they're both in their 80s, andit actually has been a little bit,
not depressing for us, but eye openingmight be a better term, I don't know.
that we are purposing notto, not to be that way.
not judging or throwing our momsunder the bus or anything like that.

(12:24):
and you know, this kind of brings upsomething really cool because I noticed
that your father, you commented thatyour father had similar business and,
and you learned some things from him.
One of the things that hascome up, because we've already
recorded, this is episode 299.
We've recorded 301 and 302.
We invited some guests back that werefive years ago, some of our first guests.

(12:46):
And both of them, there became a themeof people are reaching a certain age,
how do we turn around and share wisdomas we didn't call it old people, but
as mature, we share some of the thingswe learned with younger generations?
so I'll pose this inthe form of a question.
I picked up on that you, to havelearned a good bit from your father and

(13:08):
growing up and we'll talk I want to aska little bit about your growing up in
just a little while, but a little bitabout that role that your father had
Sharing wisdom informationwith you as he matured
Do you know who Larry Burkett is?
Does that name sound familiar to you, Tim?
Okay, so a lot of people listening to thiswill be very familiar with Dave Ramsey.

(13:31):
But before Dave was ever on a budget,There was a guy named Larry Burkett and
that's what we listened to growing up.
And I thought it waschild abuse at the time.
I'm like, you know, we're sittingaround a radio listening to this guy
talk about budgeting and money andstewardship and all these things.
But that was thehousehold I was raised in.
And we live in a culture now,Tim, where money is taboo.

(13:52):
We don't talk about that,which means people repeat the
mistakes of what they've done.
those around them and they don'tlearn from the victories, the wins.
So it's, we just have the blindleading the blind in a lot of respects.
I didn't realize thatthat's how people live.
I thought it was just normal to sit aroundthe dinner table and talk about maybe

(14:14):
a charity that you were excited aboutgiving to, or what you were saving up
for or the jobs you were planning to do.
I mean, as kids, My dad would giveus opportunities to earn money.
It wasn't an allowance opportunitiesto earn money based on a goal.
And there were sometimes extra incentives.
I just thought it wasnormal to talk about money.
And the other thing that was reallyimportant though, Tim, not only.

(14:35):
A couple things.
Number one, my parents modeled it.
They didn't tell us onething and do something else.
And I believe more is caught than taught.
It is really hard if we tellour kids, Hey, you need to be
intentional with your money.
You need to be a good steward.
You need to be generous.
You need to plan for your future.
But just don't do anything as I'm doing.

(14:57):
So I'm spending everything I have.
I don't live on a budget.
We don't give consistently.
We're not, you know, but that'swhat happens a lot of times, you
know, do what I say, not what I do.
My parents taught us, but theyalso, they walked their talk.
The other thing that wasreally cool is my dad.
I grew up with my parents.
Especially my dad teachingLarry Burkett's class.

(15:17):
They called it crown financial and it waskind of the predecessor to what everybody
knows as financial peace university.
Now a lot of the same, I mean the sameprinciples, they go back to Proverbs.
They're not Larry's principles, notDave's principles, or God's principles.
They've been working for 4, 000years, roughly, But they taught those
in our churches, in the community.

(15:39):
And what I saw Tim, it was so powerful.
I saw the impact that had notjust in people's finances,
but in their life in general.
Because when people started totake control of money and having
discipline and victory in thatarea, it had a ripple effect into
so many other areas of their life.

(15:59):
And when God's people start using.
money God's way.
It's amazing the impact that that hasand how the rest of their life lines up.
but the cool thing about that.
I just went straight to a scripture.
It's in Matthew 6 Somewhere in early inMatthew 6 you can't serve two masters

(16:22):
I'm, and I'm pretty confident manypeople are attempting to serve too,
but you can't serve too, because thatmoney is such an important thing for it.
the thing that popped into my mind, andthis is going to put a little bit of a
timestamp when we're recording this, isthat we don't have good examples of fiscal
responsibility in discussing money, andwe've got such an example of that right

(16:46):
now in the U. S. government, and in that.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump.
I don't, I'm not going political on this.
This shouldn't be a party issue,they are going through line by line
with what the government is spendingsome people are excited about it.
Some people are not, and we haven't hadfiscal responsibility in our government.

(17:08):
I don't think we've had goodmodels in our culture, Chad.
And so the fact that you had it inyour family, I think is really cool.
I'll pause.
Any thoughts on that?
A lot of thoughts.
So number one, again, there'sa phrase or a saying that
says fish discover water last.
I did not realize howblessed I was to grow up.
In that culture, in that environment.

(17:30):
Again, I thought it was normal.
the other thing you're absolutelyright is we don't have good
examples and the people who aredoing it well are doing it quietly.
I had somebody in my office the other day.
this was yesterday, multi millionaires,completely financially independent.
They retired to go do missions workin rural Alaska and they're wearing,

(17:53):
Car hearts and an old beat up jeanslike you would never know it and again
I'm not saying you need to be flashyBut the people who are doing really
well who are good stewards who do planfor the future Are usually doing it
quietly and I think money has alwaysbeen worshipped wealth has always been
worshipped But today in our culture Tim,we don't even worship wealth anymore.

(18:16):
We worship consumption It isthe exact opposite of wealth.
When you see somebody on Tok orwhatever kids are listening to these
days, you know, it's the fancy carsand the awesome vacations in the 4,
000 handbags and the designer jeans.
That's not wealth.
That's actually the consumption,it's the spending of wealth,

(18:39):
it's the exact opposite.
So not only are we, as you said,drawn to, to serving money, and I
believe money is a great servant.
It's a horrible master, and it's kindof one or the other, either it's serving
you or you're serving it, but we've evengone beyond that where we are worshiping
and pursuing consumption and comfortas a goal rather than stewardship.

(19:04):
Yeah, that, that's a, such a bigtopic that I'm not sure I want us to
dive into because it would be a greatconversation, but, I think the thing
I want to dig a little bit on Chad is.
It's very obvious that you grew up in ahousehold they lived within their means.
They spent less than they made.
And I believe that I had an example ofthat, but one of the things I did growing

(19:27):
up in the eighties, I just decidedI was going to make me some money.
It took me a while to learn thatyou can't spend more than you make.
And, I loved in the book, youtalked about some of the things
and you painted a picture.
Y'all, y'all dressed alike,not only dressed alike, but
it was homemade clothing.
And I had this vision of the VonTrapp family and sound of music.

(19:51):
Would that an accurate depictionof your family growing up?
No, because Yvonne Chaps weretalented and they could sing
homeschooling looks sodifferent than it did back then.
Like we were homeschooled.
So hard.
We were, we were the mosthomeschooled and you know, there's
no such thing as snow days.
You know, I'm here in Anchorage, Alaska.
They, we get horrible ice storms,snow storms, they cancel school.

(20:14):
And that just meant for us,we had more time to do school.
Mom's like, we're notgoing anywhere today.
We're doing extra.
If you got sick, there was no bringingsoup and crackers to you in bed.
It was, you know, here's your math book.
I'm sorry you don't feel good, but.
You can, you can do this in your bed.
Please don't get vomit on the math bookbecause your brothers and sisters are
going to have to use this same book too.
my mom was a pioneer of sorts and we bakedher own bread, we ground her own wheat.

(20:40):
I mean, it was, we were weird.
We were different.
my mom made us matching clothes.
We look like a travelingwhere's Waldo convention.
I mean, Looking back on it, it'sfunny now, but at the time, I'm
like, Oh my goodness, this is awful.
and my therapist says I'm well adjustednow, we grew up very, very differently.
And as I got older, I realized howThat was kind of a blessing, even

(21:02):
though it was painful in the moment.
And granted, we probably didn't have tobe as different as we, as we were, but it
being different as a superpower now thesedays, because our culture is, Is we've
made normal, very unhealthy behaviorsin our relationships, in our finances.
The thing that you said, just livingwithin your means, that is such a simple

(21:25):
concept, but almost nobody does it.
And it doesn't matter howgood your investments are, how
good your financial plan is.
If you don't live within your means,you can't feed your investment.
And that is the number onerule of wealth building
Less than you produce.
And so few people actually doit like, Oh, that's simple.
I know that.
Well then do it.

(21:45):
It's like saying, well, I know Ishould eat less and move more to
get in better shape, No, That's it.
You got to do the simple things.
Yeah, and it takes disciplineand things like that.
I want to talk about some of those injust a moment, but there's one other thing
on the homeschool thing I want to ask.
You mentioned you're okay nowyou've gone through the therapy
and all that kind of stuff.

(22:05):
But I also know, I think I readthat you and Tiffany y'all are
homeschooling y'all's children.
Being homeschooled yourself, and nowyou and your wife are homeschooling
your children, what are one or twothings that you are never going to do
with your children that you had growingup because it was just too, I don't
want to say traumatic, but it's like,okay, we're not doing it that way.

(22:29):
And then what are some things that'slike, absolutely, this is, this
is one thing we're doing becauseyou are still homeschooling.
So, what are some scars thatyou might still have from
your experience growing up?
I would say overall, I'm very grateful.
I was homeschooled.
my parents didn't do it perfectly.
They're.

(22:49):
fallible human beings just as I am.
We're not doing it perfectly, butthe benefits, the blessings from that
far outweighed any of the detriments.
the isolation was hard.
I'm an introvert, but there aredefinitely some very lonely times and
I know that affects who I am today.
so, you know, we're veryintentional surrounding our kids

(23:13):
with Good kids from solid homes.
who are like minded and tryingto find kids to actually stretch
our kids and challenge them.
we also want to expose them alittle bit to some of the craziness
that's out there in the world.
some of our friends, The few we hadgrowing up, some were so isolated

(23:33):
and sheltered that they didn't havethe opportunity to build up that
resistance and resilience that you need.
It's almost like having an immune system.
You have to be exposed to some ofit to build up that resistance.
they need to know what'sin this crazy world.
They just don't need to beinundated and overwhelmed by it.
some of the things that we aretrying to do though, is Giving,

(23:54):
giving them the opportunity toalso learn just practical lessons.
And, you know, we're nottrying to raise good kids.
We're trying to raise good adults,and getting them to interact very
early on with adults, with our peers.
My daughter started workinghere last year, at Veritas and
interacting with absolute phenomenalpeople on a regular basis.

(24:17):
kids.
will rise or fall to thestandard that you set.
And my parents set a high standard forus and we figured out a way to meet it.
So I'm definitely taking thoselessons and the encouragement
that I got from my family.
showing us that all these limitationsthat people have on themselves
are very much self imposed.

(24:38):
We're not, we're not going to acceptthe results that everybody else is
getting, which means we have to havesome different actions and behaviors.
And so those are the things we'retrying to teach our kids as well.
are you dressing them all alike?
Are you making them all dress alike?
No, I wish, man, Tim, Iwish we had a picture.
Like people probablythink he's exaggerating.
No, I have pictures of our entire family.

(24:59):
There was five of us kids.
So seven of us total wearing thesematching clothes, these horrible
like red and blue stripe patterns.
I mean, it was, it was, it was bad news.
now my wife will say our, we will haveour kids coordinate, but they don't match.
So for family pictures, Specialevents, stuff like that.

(25:20):
She's got a great eye for that style.
But no matching clothes over here.
Yeah, that does kind of bring up someof the, not so positive stereotypes
of homeschooling and things like that.
But, you know, here's the thing.
The reason I ask it a lot when I havepeople like that, we homeschooled
our kids, is that people are flockinginto the homeschool arena right now.

(25:40):
And I think people that have done it oryou're a second generation homeschool, I
think we need to share some wisdom becausea lot of people are learning as they go.
And so I do think, that's a good thing.
one of the things I was trying to thinkof how many people I've had on the
podcast the 299 episodes that were fromAlaska and I couldn't think of anyone.

(26:06):
Hmm.
we haven't had anyone, but whatare some things that those of us
in the lower 48 really should knowabout people that, know, your second
generation, at least Alaska sounds likeyour wife is to y'all are Alaskans.
are some things that we need to knowabout Alaska and people from Alaska?

(26:28):
Well, if you need some trivia,Alaska is the, the westernmost
state, which makes sense.
And we, we don't live down by Hawaii.
That's just on your maps.
We're actually up, up north quite abit, um, but it is also the eastern
most state because the Aleutians,which is the arm that heads out west,

(26:53):
goes so far, and the joke is like,we can see Russia from here, right?
But there's, there's a lot of places inAlaska that are closer to Russia than
they are to Anchorage, where I live.
And it's, it stretches so far, um, thatit actually is in the eastern hemisphere.
So, Alaska technically is thewestern and eastern most state.

(27:16):
It's also such a huge state.
Uh, we like to remind our friendsin the smaller state of Texas
that we're over twice their size.
But we have such a vast difference in, inIn geography and terrain, like people say,

(27:36):
you know, what is it like living a lot?
Well, where I live is completelydifferent than let's say Fairbanks
or down in Juneau where our capitalthere's, there's so many different
climates that even within Alaska you can,there's deserts, we have rainforests.
We have, I mean, it's, it is anunbelievable place to live and

(27:57):
I've lived here my entire life,as you said, and I still have
experienced only a fraction of it.
One thing that's tough, we, wevisit a lot of national parks.
You know, we've been traveling aroundfor years, but six years in our, in
our motor coach and we planning, we didOregon like in 2019 and then we were
planning to start mapping out how wecould get up to Alaska and then COVID

(28:21):
hit and we were like, Hmm, I don'tknow if, you know, we can't kind of go
through Canada, it is a long way, youknow, should we do something different?
I mean, but one of thethings I've looked at.
is some of the national parks there.
I don't want to say there, youalmost can't get to them, but if
you really look at some of the landthere, it is so remote, so massive.

(28:45):
It, it's almost daunting forsomeone who says, yeah, I'd like
to pick off a few national parks.
I mean, have you been ableto get to some of that?
You're an outdoors guy.
So what all have you been ableto quote, unquote, explore in
Alaska that, that you could share?
Well, it's both and I don't,I don't want to, I mean, there
are some very accessible places.

(29:05):
There's some places that arenearly impossible to get to.
So for people planning a trip toAlaska, I don't want to make it
feel more daunting than it is.
I mean, you can have a nice vacation.
This isn't.
You know, this is likegoing back in time up here.
You know, we have runningwater, electricity, we
have internet on most days.
Um, but, but there are places where youcan only get to by like boat or, or plane.

(29:29):
Um, there's some extremely remoteplaces and some of those places
are so ruggedly beautiful that,I mean, it's awe inspiring.
Like you will look at some of theseplaces and think, I don't know if another
human being has walked over there.
You know, and, but there's places,there's, Gorgeous places to drive to um,
there's places we have a train systemthat takes you to some of the I'll call

(29:55):
them the kind of hot spots, you know,some of the, the key places like you're
going to only be in Alaska for a week.
You need to see these things.
So it is a mix, but there'sdefinitely for people who are more
adventurous, they want to get outto more, those more remote places.
There's a lot of air taxis and even Italked to a guy yesterday that runs a
helicopter service and you know, theybring to people the parts of Alaska

(30:16):
that most Alaskans have never seen.
One of my favorite placeshere in Alaska is actually.
Where my wife and I built itoverlooks Anchorage and I'm only
about 15 20 minutes away from myoffice But it overlooks entire city.
have moose and bears and elk thatcome through our yard and It's
just it's a beautiful perspective.
It is peaceful We had agorgeous sunset last night.

(30:40):
One of my favorite thingsto do is The summer is sit
outside with a book and read.
Um, in the winter a little too coldfor that, but sitting by the, we
have these, these big windows, uh,facing where the sun sets and just
sitting there and just taking it in.
Um, and it's, uh, I pinch myselfsometimes, Tim, like that we live here and

(31:02):
I told, tell my kids like we experience ona regular basis for what a lot of people
is, is a bucket list and like, don't everlet this get old because I mean, just,
it's like God paints a masterpiece everysingle day that we get to experience.
As my wife and I travel, have traveled,we kind of coined this when we were

(31:24):
in New Zealand for a few months.
There are places, there arebeautiful places all over, but
Yes.
how, how great they are And it soundslike you kind of described something
that's, uh, how great they are.
Well, my wife and I are at 49states and Alaska is the only
state we have not traveled to.

(31:44):
foot on, done anything with.
So it'll definitely be in ourplans over the next few years
to figure out how to do that.
We've even discussed, we're not hugecruise fans, but we've considered
doing the cruise just to kind of getthat way and explore it that way.
So we'll, we, we shall see.
Well, come on.
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But, uh, thing, Chad, I'm alwaysintrigued by how people, I know you,

(32:07):
your father was in the business roughly.
It sounds like, and then.
And then, and then you kind ofmoved into the financial business,
but was, was it kind of a done dealthat you were going to go into this
industry or how did that come to be?
If it was, uh, if there'sa story behind it,
I'll try to give you this shortversion because it's a longer story,

(32:28):
but no, that was never the intent.
I actually have a degree inbiochemistry and medicine was my path.
And I was on my way to becoming what Ithought was going to be a hotshot surgeon.
And I met the woman who is now my wife,and she did not grow up like I did, Tim.
She grew up in legitimate poverty.

(32:49):
Um, she remembers havingChristmas in a homeless shelter.
I mean, that's the kind of,situation she grew up in.
And what I realized is what she wasreally longing for was stability.
She wanted a family.
She wanted somebody to raise kids with.
And not that you can't have balance as,as a surgeon or as a physician, but a

(33:10):
couple of my mentors, um, had difficultconversations with me and they, they
told me, I said, we know how you'rewired and if you pursue this path.
It might own you and you'll love it.
And that's the most dangerous partis you won't realize what's happening
because you're going to be so engrossedthat you won't, you won't see that

(33:30):
you're sacrificing your family foryour career, but they will feel it.
And that wasn't a tradeI was willing to make.
And I think I ultimately chose thisbecause I saw my dad at every game.
I saw him at every recital, every,uh, Every play, everything that
we did, my parents were there.

(33:50):
Not only there, but they were present.
They were very much involvedwith what we were doing.
And I wanted that.
And I thought, if my dad can makethat happen in this career field,
then maybe I can do that as well.
So it did not start as a passion.
It started as a very practical way for meto provide the family life that I wanted.
I wanted to own a business.
I didn't want a business that owned me.

(34:12):
So I started from scratchand built it that way.
But then my passion for this grew,especially 2008, 2009, as I saw
the destruction that financescan have in somebody's life.
Um, because our, our bodies, our mindscannot compartmentalize stress when
you're stressed about your finances, whenyou have anxiety and frustrations, they

(34:33):
will bleed into every area of your life.
And we saw that 2008, 2009.
And I thought, this is where I need to be.
This is where I canmake the biggest impact.
what'd you learn during that timethat you could share with us?
I learned perseverance in a new way.

(34:54):
Um, sometimes there are no answers.
There are, there are only questions.
And, um, Psalm 119, 105 saysyour word, Lord is light into
my path and lamp into my feet.
And what I was looking for in2008, 2009 was a floodlight.

(35:14):
Like, it lit up the entire highway.
And what I learned in that time issometimes God only shows us the next step.
He doesn't show us the whole path.
He show, he lights up just enough so wedon't trip and so we don't go off course.
But we don't get to see the wholeroad ahead, which is good because
if I had seen the whole roadahead, I think I would have quit.

(35:36):
I don't think I'd be here today.
I think I would have, um, notto say that medicine would
have been, uh, I don't know.
Uh, a horrible contingency, but I, Ithink that's where I would have gone.
It was a much clearer pathwayand I would have enjoyed it.
And I think I still would have had, uh,been enjoying a wonderful life, but it
wouldn't be the same as what I have.

(35:58):
And I learned to persevere inthe midst of extreme ambiguity.
Yeah.
Did you, uh, did you havefinancial clients at that time?
Yeah, I started in 2007it was just before.
So it started with a baby on theway with a biochemistry degree.
Oh, it was awesome.
Like I said, I would neverwant to go through it again.

(36:18):
And if I could have seen, if Icould have seen where the road
was leading, I don't think I wouldhave taken it, but God showed me
just enough to take the next step.
And I think that's one of thethings that really hold people
back is we want certainty andtoo often we will trade away.
Security and impact forcertainty in the moment.

(36:39):
And somebody's ability totolerate ambiguity is a huge,
huge indicator of the quality oflife that they're going to live.
The more ambiguity that you can stomachthat you can handle, I think the more
potential and in meaning your lifeis going to have, I mean, obviously
it's a broad statement, but, but.

(37:01):
certainty gets a lot of us in troubleand I learned to give up my need
for certainty during that time.
One thing that's cool.
It came to me is I, I actually thinkyou have more credibility you were
in the industry during that time.
Because one of the things I'm noticingin interacting with people here in
2025 is that there are many peoplethat have totally forgotten that

(37:26):
they know nothing about history.
some people that have forgottenwhat went on in 2021 22
Sure.
And, you know, I stillhave scars from 08, 09, 10.
And I think it, it brings perspective.
I love the wordperseverance you brought up.
I think in the book you talk about theimportance of just consistent and steady.

(37:49):
Those, those two aren't the sameword, but they're really related,
especially when it comes to financialplanning for, for the individual.
Talk, talk about theimportance of just consistency.
Well, I think perseverance, you couldeven define it as consistency under
pressure or consistency amidst trials.
So it's consistently doing the thingwhen you are faced with challenges and

(38:14):
consistency is hard even on the best days.
You know, you already mentioned yourrecording, um, early in 2025 and,
you know, the gyms are already empty.
Yeah.
Everybody was gung ho about, you know,2025 new, new me, new year, you know,
gonna, gonna get my body back on thesethings and they, they go out and there

(38:37):
is people haven't worked out in 20years and they're downloading like Navy
SEAL workouts, trying to do what thespecial forces do and they burn out.
it's not what you do one day.
It's what you do every day that matters.
And the people that who are successfulin relationships and business and
money in finance, I mean, they're not,they're not necessarily doing things
completely different from everybody else.

(38:58):
But what makes them different isthey do consistently what most
people do only sporadically.
So it is consistency under fire thatis absolutely necessary to build,
meaningful and sustainable wealth.
And I think to buildeven a meaningful life.
Yeah, I was gonna when you jumped onhere, I was going to comment on your pecs

(39:20):
because you used the story in your bookabout some guy at a conference coming.
But but we're reallyfrom the waist up here.
And I thought I said that thatcould get awkward just like that.
We'll let people read the bookand get the rest of that story.
We won't go there,
Well, the gist of it, just real quick,is somebody was trying to figure out,
you know, what is, what's the secretto, to developing their upper body?

(39:43):
And um, you know, it was asking aboutall these different exercises and
this technique and that technique.
I said, they'll all work, butyou have to do them and, and
just don't miss your workout.
And um, You know, that's,that's the most important.
So there's a lot of ways to build wealth.
There's a lot of ways to love yourspouse and to show appreciation for

(40:05):
your kids and to make them feel loved.
There's a lot of avenues, but we haveto consistently execute those things.
And I don't mean this to be crass, butat Warren Buffett, uh, he has a quote,
I believe it's Warren Buffett thatsays, If you want a baby in a month,
you can't go get nine women pregnant.
Like you, you can't, you can't gostart all these different things

(40:29):
and expect to speed up the process.
It takes patience and consistent.
You have to wait for time to develop.
And I think too often peopleare looking for that shortcut.
They're looking for the quick fix.
We tell people all the time, thisisn't about getting rich quick.
It's about building wealthslowly and meaningfully.
And When we look for shortcuts,we miss the paths that do work.

(40:51):
It's kind of going back tothe old tortoise and the hare.
Um, the tortoise wasn'tsexy, wasn't flashy.
He was slow and methodical,but he was persistent.
He persevered and he consistentlytook one step in front of the other.
And that is exactly how,how your financial, your

(41:11):
financial practice should work.
I noticed, I noticed with me, oneof the flaws that I, I'm hopeful the
work that the Lord and I have donehave removed is from my personality
is we for the longest had real estatecompanies leading up to oh eight.
I'm not going to tell you the rest ofthe story that you can probably guess.
And one thing I recognized aboutreal estate, the way we were building

(41:34):
it and we were very aggressive.
We were buying three to five single familyhomes or other properties per month.
Is that my mindset was always thatthe next deal was going to position
us, which is not the right mindset.
I'm looking back on it.
I know that was wrong, but, but whatI realized was that that was the

(41:59):
emotional state that was driving me.
And, and I realize I, when I was readingthrough your book, I was thinking
through the lessons you have there.
They're steady, they're calm.
I realized that emotionsat time, the, next deal
Mhm.
was, was driving a lot of my financialdecisions and things like that.

(42:20):
Talk about how emotion plays into this.
You, it's all throughout the book,but I never saw you really call
out emotions, but talk about thepros and cons of emotions when
we're dealing with our finances.
Well, it is an emotional journey and wecannot disconnect our emotions from it.

(42:41):
I think it's one of the reasons why somuch of the Bible talks about money.
It's very emotionally charged and it canget us off track if we're not careful.
Um, we are emotional beings, soI think emotions can get us in
trouble when they start driving us.
But, and this is one of thereasons we talk about life.

(43:01):
First, when people are coming to usfor the first time, we talk, what
do they want their life to look?
We're trying to get positive emotionswrapped around what they're building
longterm, get it beyond their money.
But we also see the flip side of this.
You mentioned 2008, 2009where, where scarcity and fear
emotions were driving people.
And it's good to have some fear, butfear can't dictate our decisions.

(43:25):
When our emotions startmaking our decisions for us,
that's when we get in trouble.
And I like what you said aboutfocusing on the next deal, like,
I think that's very common.
It's, it's the next investmentor what is this, you know, I
found this new mutual fund.
If we're looking external.
For some new tool.

(43:45):
We're missing the biggest part that wehave stewardship over and that's ourselves
and Here in our culture We we try to fixpoor money management with more money.
We try to out earn Poor financialdecisions a lot of those financial
decisions are emotional Maybe we feelinsecure and we we try to you know,

(44:07):
we're trying to You buy things wedon't need with money we don't have
to impress people we don't even like,or, or we buy what we think other
people will appreciate or admire.
Um, and what ends up happening isyou can never, you, you can never out
earn bad, funny, bad money management.

(44:28):
Um, it'd be like somebody who, who,Can't drive giving them a faster car.
We talked before we started recording.
My daughter's been in twoaccidents in the last month.
She's okay The cars are not but likeI'm not gonna I'm not gonna buy her
a Ferrari because She banged up theHonda CRV like, okay, we'll just

(44:49):
give you more horsepower that shouldfix it if you're just going faster.
But that's what we do with money.
People don't manage, they don't,they don't operate their finances
well and they try to solve it by justadding more money into the equation.
And it actually intensifies thosemaybe, I don't know what we'll call
them bad emotions, but the controlthose emotions have over that.

(45:13):
They don't get that part.
Uh, control that if their mindsetdoesn't get right, you add money
that it's just fueled the fire.
Uh, Dave Ramsey says money makesyou more of who you already are.
It magnifies your, yourstrengths and your weaknesses
and one of the things I recognize with meand I think this is fairly common is I had
a, and I'm not proud of admitting this.

(45:37):
I had a get rich quick mindset.
I had a, I had a short term, getrich quick, do a couple of deals.
That's going to set you up andthen you can, I don't know, retire,
right off into the sunset or something.
Yeah.
right off in the sunset,you know, golfing to it.
And, you know, I. I've even gotten inthe mode and I think a lot of people

(45:59):
need to do this of not really checkinga lot of the financial news daily I
think most of the financial news aretraining people to think short term.
You know, the Fed makes a speech andthe market goes up or down by 350
points and they're acting as if that is.

(46:23):
Significant, I mean, it's notinsignificant, but I mean, we're
being fed this short term mindset.
And And we're sensationalizingit and we're teaching people
that that's what matters.
And we already kind of talkedabout this journey, right?
The, the tortoise and the hare, the, thetortoise was steadily plodding along.

(46:43):
If we take that step further,it's like a marathon.
It's like a marathon up a mountain,but we're not going to be able
to stay on the right path.
If we're always looking at somethingright in front of our face, it'd be
like trying to read a book while hiking.
You're going to probably fall offa cliff if you're hiking in Alaska.
We need to keep our eyes on wherewe're traveling and making sure

(47:03):
we're aligned with the path.
That's one of the biggest thingsthat we do professionally is actually
create a path from where somebody istoday, where they want to be in the
future, something guiding their savingand investing decisions, and then
hold them accountable to that path.
But if we're always focusing on thenews and the economic weather reports

(47:24):
and, you know, We're, we're focusedon something so close to our face
that will actually get us to veer off.
And you're right.
It's almost impossible to havea longterm mindset with, with so
much emphasis on the short term.
Here's the other thing that isI think equally important is my

(47:44):
industry, the financial industryand the news media focuses on
everything that you can't control.
And we tell people, and I'll sayme personally, my industry, we
tell people how important it is.
You said, what is, what does the fed say?
What, what's, what areinterest rates going to do?
What was the last jobs report?
What are the inflation numbers?
What's going on in Ukrainein the middle East?

(48:07):
All those things.
Do they, do they have an impact?
Yes.
But can you control any of them?
No.
So so often people spend all theirtime and energy, uh, Focusing on what
they can't control that they actuallymiss the opportunities to influence the
things that they can control and theygive up their agency and they end up in

(48:29):
a state of victimhood or helplessness.
it's interesting, as you were sayingthat, I've attempted to, my phone is
actually my camera, so I can't pull itup here as an example, but, you know,
we've got access to all of this data now.
More, I think more than we need, butwe won't get into that conversation.
And one of the things I am constantlyattending, attempting to discipline

(48:53):
myself on is what do I look at every day?
And for me, I don't look at the market.
I don't look at stocks.
I even don't really lookat a lot of financial news.
But I'm about to tell you, you'regoing to learn something about me here.
There are two apps that I go to.

(49:14):
I go to a cryptocurrency app thatgives me the price, current price of
Bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies.
And I go to my gold app that tellsme the current price of gold that
probably also tells you a little bitabout some things about where I stand
politically and things like that.
I really am wanting to get to whereI don't even look at those because
I can't do anything about them.

(49:35):
Like you said, there'snothing that I can do.
And so when, when you have clients andthey're wanting to know things and they're
saying, do I really need to look at?
Are you watching this for me dailyor do I need to watch it daily?
kind of advice do you give people?
What do we really need to knowin the world we're in today?

(49:58):
I think it's, it's a balancebetween focusing on what we're
actually trying to build.
financially, like where we're tryingto go, where do we want our life to be?
And what are our actionsand behaviors today?
How well are theyaligned with that future?
So it's, it's ignoring most ofwhat's going on in the world.
So a lot of what you talk about,uh, when in your, in your leadership

(50:19):
coaching is about the differencebetween being proactive and reactive.
And we're reactive human beings.
We will always be reactive to somedegree, but the more proactive
you are, Towards a long term goal.
The more you are acting on a plan,the less likely you are to react
to the crazy world around us.

(50:40):
And you said we're, we're aninformation overload where we, we
take in a lot of data and information,but we don't execute very well.
And I think we need to bereally careful about, are we
getting intellectually obese?
Are we taking in so much information,but then we just sit around
and don't do anything with it.
And just one thing I'll say is, uh,Just kind of close up this thought

(51:04):
is not all data is information.
Not all information is knowledgeand not all knowledge is wisdom.
And I think we lack a lotof wisdom in our culture.
a lot of data, have a lot ofinformation, but what are you doing?
How are you stewarding, stewarding that?
Are you actually implementingthat into your daily life?
That's the question weneed to ask ourselves.

(51:26):
And that's how we circleback to our clients is.
Where are you in relation to wheredo you want to be in the future?
And what are the changes or what arethe steps you need to take to be in
alignment with that regardless ofwhat the world is doing around you?
Because Tim, what happens in your houseis always going to be a bigger impact to
your future than what happens in the whitehouse or on any other political platform.

(51:49):
Mm
I love that you brought this up.
Proactive for me is controllingthose things you can control.
Being reactive is allowing allthose things that you probably don't
really even have control over tocan at times beat you to a pulp.
I mean, I see it with leaders that Iwork with and I'm sure you see it with

(52:12):
people in the, in the financial arena.
Also, there's one more word I wantto bring up to you that I want you
to discuss before we talk aboutsomeone can connect with you and
what the process looks like, Chad.
And if we want to say anything about thebook, forging financial freedom, I'll
Seven wealth building lessons extracted.
I like that's a good word therefrom the Alaskan oil field.

(52:34):
I'm sure that was intentional withthat word extracted from the old field.
But, um, the word risk, as I wasreading through the book, the word risk
kept being the word that jumped up.
You talked about it a number of times,but I, I believe because we haven't talked
about money, we don't, we don't lookat it as a tool or maybe there's other
reasons, I think a lot of, and fear.

(52:57):
I think you brought up fear earlier.
I think a lot of people havea misconstrued, know if I use
that word right, a screwedup way of looking at risk,
hmm.
way of saying it.
I also think that if we go back to eventhings like COVID, I, I was watching
all that transpire and I'm going, Idon't think people know math and I'm

(53:18):
going to get controversial here, butI don't, I don't think they understand
the risk factors that are going on here.
Are we as a culture.
Or have we gotten to where we reallycan't evaluate risk well and how
does that feed into your business?
I believe absolutely 100%.
We have misidentified risk and,and sometimes we try to eliminate
all risk, which is impossible.

(53:39):
And we saw this in COVID.
Um, I was just talking to somebody inthe mental health space a couple of
days ago and He works in the schoolsystems, works with the youth a lot.
Uh, actually an ex NFL player and just hasa passion for youth, especially sports,
like sports probably saved his life.

(54:00):
Um, he was in a gang growingup and legitimate gang.
Like they were, he was in some bad stuffand there was a coach that kind of pulled
him aside and introduced him to Jesus.
And, but it was, it was thatcommunity around him that, that
there was a part of, of him being.
becoming a Christian and being converted.

(54:21):
And, um, anyways, point being it wasthis community that he was surrounded
with, like being part of a team.
It was so important.
And we were so concerned about ourkids getting sick as if that was the
biggest risk that we isolated them.
And now we have kids with severemental health and emotional issues.

(54:43):
I mean, look at the suicidenumbers coming out of COVID.
And I, I believe a lot of timeswe fight the wrong dragon.
Uh, somebody the other day was,uh, this is at our Superbowl party.
They were asking about some dietstuff and they're like, well, you
know, if this diet, if I do this,you know, here's some of the.
the risks associated with that.

(55:04):
And you know, what doyou think about this?
Like this seems extreme over here asthis person is talking to me, she's
shoving Oreos and Reese's in her face.
And I'm thinking you'reworried about the wrong risks.
Maybe, yeah, maybe this diet doesn'thave enough vegetables and maybe
this diet doesn't have enoughprotein, but any of those are better
than what you're doing right now.
So we, we do not.

(55:25):
I believe you're a hundredpercent right as a culture.
We do not assess risk.
Well, it's relationships.
It's in our health and it'scertainly in our investments.
So if I walk in your door andi'm i'm obviously misguided or
i'm talking about risk mean,how you how do you massage that?
How do you work somebody through thatwho is either fearful or or whatever?

(55:48):
And it's you know, we're comingup against our time here.
That might be a longer question, but howdo you deal with it when somebody comes
through your doors and and their risk?
Tolerance or whatever.
It's like way out of whack.
Number one, it's getting them toidentify what they think risk is
because a lot of people misconstruerisk and volatility is the same thing.

(56:09):
And they're, they're not now volatilitycan be a part of risk, but volatility
goes back to that idea of it's ambiguity.
It's if I put a hundred thousanddollars in this investment.
It might visit 80, 000 onthe way to half a million.
That's volatile, but isit necessarily risky?
And I'm just going to use, uh, you know,Alaskan analogy, climbing a mountain.

(56:35):
Um Not every step is up.
You sometimes have to crossvalleys to continue climbing.
I think life is that way, investingis that way, but a lot of us
come into investing and life.
We want a staircase.
Better yet, we want an escalator.
We just want to stay in there andthis thing gradually takes us up.
With a mountain, there is someuncertainty, but in order to keep

(56:56):
moving towards your goal, you haveto actually take some steps down.
It doesn't seem like you'regoing the right direction.
That's where a lot ofpeople get messed up.
And I think one of the biggestrisks facing investors today.
It's not the temporary principlefluctuations, the, the price volatility
of your investment, but it's the long-termconsistent and permanent eroding of

(57:19):
purchasing power due to inflation.
So even going back to when I was born,uh, prices on most things now are
four to five times higher than theywere when I was born, which means it
takes $5 to buy what a dollar did,uh, four and a half decades ago.
And that is a huge risk.

(57:41):
But going back to your question, Tim aboutwatching the news and the focus on the
now in the moment and being distractedby short term, we get so myopic.
We think that the Dow moving howevermany points in a certain day, that that's
the risk when really it's our dollarsbeing slowly chewed up by inflation.
That's it's very subtle.

(58:04):
It's usually quiet, maybe notin the last couple of years,
but that's just one example ofwhere we fight the wrong dragon.
We try to stabilize principleat the cost of hamstringing
our long term purchasing power.
And that's getting a lotof people in trouble today.
And, and it, and it goes back topeople aren't looking at longterm

(58:24):
thinking they're short term,they're still looking at that daily.
And that's, I think that's a bigthing that we're dealing with.
Chad, tell me a little bit about thebook or tell them, tell the listener
about the book, forging financialfreedom where they can get it.
And then I've got one or two morequestions here before we wrap up.
I enjoyed it by the way.
It was for a financial book, anice, uh, not a negative, a nice,

(58:49):
quick, easy read with some goodprinciples and I appreciate it.
tell us why you wrote it andwhere people can find it.
Well, just real quick, andthen I'll, I'll answer that.
going back to this idea of risk, Ithink one takeaway that people can,
can hear is A fixed income in a risingcost world is anything but safe.

(59:11):
And I think we have confusedstability with safety and, and
that's, that's a big issue.
Um, And, and the other thing that Iwant to remind people of is financial
independence is an income issue.
It's, we have to be worryingabout our income, uh, long term
and we cannot solve long termproblems with short term thinking.
So that's the end of that.

(59:32):
Um, why did I write the book?
I wrote the book because a lot of peoplearen't thinking correctly and this is,
the book is a little philosophical.
Um, but it's about mindsets becausewe can't act right for 20 to 30 years.
If we have the right mindset, we mightbe able to fake it for a little bit.
We might be able to, to white knuckleit, but to truly engage with a path.

(59:55):
That serves our long term futurerather than steals from it.
We have to think differently.
So I wanted to change people'sperspectives on how they view money,
how they view investing, even how theyview retirement to get their thinking
more aligned with an abundant future.
I guess Amazon, all theplaces, that's where
Yep.
it.

(01:00:15):
I think visit on Amazon, um,forging financial freedom.
Um, and Yeah, there's a Kindle version.
There's a, there's a hardbackversion and we're coming out
with an audio one here soon.
good, good.
Are you going to read it withthat awesome voice you've got?
Thank you.
That is the plan.
This was taking it so long to happencause I just wanted to outsource it.

(01:00:36):
And uh, my team's like, no, you need toread it because these are your stories.
There's stories from your clients.
You need to read it.
that's hard.
Doing an audio book reading.
It's hard thing.
I wrote a novel a few yearsago and I was going to do that.
And I've, you know, gotthe equipment and stuff.
I, I, I struggle with it.

(01:00:57):
So I actually got my son to do it for me.
So, uh, anyway, Hey Chad, if someone,someone's been listening to you and
they just love the mindset, you workwith people all over the U S correct.
Are
That's correct.
to do that?
Tell somebody.
How they would connect with youand maybe what, I think you gave
some glimpses along the way of thefirst few steps, but just what that

(01:01:19):
first interaction would look like.
remove some fear of what thatfirst interaction might look
like if they reached out to you.
Well, the way to get ahold of us, theycan visit our website at Veritas, alaska.
com.
And like you said, Tim, we workwith people all over the U S but
we were founded here in Alaskaand I think it's kind of catchy.
There's some cache to havingAlaska in there, but, um,

(01:01:43):
that's where they can find us.
We're also on Instagram, Veritasdot Alaska, and you can find me on
LinkedIn pretty active on there.
But where this starts isidentifying where people want to go.
And, uh, very few people have a consistentor at least an accurate target of
what they'll need to retire and remaincomfortably retired for a very long time.

(01:02:06):
And it's really hard tohit a target you can't see.
So that's where we start is gettingclear about where do you need to end
up to have the life that you want?
And I'll, I'll admit it.
I'll call out the elephant in theroom that can be uncomfortable.
You know, we're asking.
Some challenging questions, butthey're questions to get people
framing their perspective correctly.

(01:02:27):
Get them out of the today focused ontheir future self, because I can't
tell you what's meaningful to you, Tim.
I can't tell you what a meaningfulretirement, a job optional life would look
like, but if we can figure out togetherwhat that looks like, that can give you
some very clear pathways to get you there.
excellent.
Thanks for that.
We'll include links for the book andalso how people can connect with you.

(01:02:49):
Chad, we're Seek, Go Create.
Those three words, I'm goingto allow you to choose one of
those just as a last question.
It just resonates morewith you, means more.
So seek, go or create, whichone do you choose and why?
I'm going to choose create andthe reason is I never thought
of myself as a creative person.
I Can't draw I can barely write myown name But creative means a lot of

(01:03:15):
different things and and I've expandedmy view of what create means I believe I
was created by Created by God to createI believe God puts elements of himself
inside of each one of this and I thinkI think creation is a part of that
and we all create in different ways.
So with that desire, with that innateability to create, I also believe I've

(01:03:38):
been given specific gifts and talents usedor designed to create a better life for
those around me and to serve those people.
And finance is one of thetools I've used to do that.
Other people have, have other ways, but Ilove the word create and that is my goal.
My desire is to be a creator.

(01:04:00):
a creator of, of opportunity, a creatorof purpose, uh, and a creator of direction
and encouragement as long as I'm onthis earth and have breath in my lungs.
Love that.
Yes.
I also believe we're created to create.
Some people have that artistic ability.
My wife does.
I do not, but we are creators.

(01:04:21):
Chad Hufford.
Thank you.
I appreciate this conversation.
Make sure.
You get a copy of Forging FinancialFreedom, seven wealth building lessons
extracted from the Alaskan oil field.
And if you feel so compelled,just reach out to Chad.
I'm sure he'd love to have aconversation with you about of
these topics we've talked about.
The next few weeks are packed withsome of the most insightful and thought

(01:04:43):
provoking episodes we've ever done.
Make sure you're following and subscribedon your favorite podcast platform or on
YouTube so you don't miss a single one.
next episode, 300, this was 299, is amilestone and we're celebrating in a
way we've never done before, extremelyunique for the first time ever.
be sitting down for a long forminterview with AI using ChatGPT,

(01:05:08):
asking questions just like I didwith Chad today of AI and ChatGPT.
We'll see how it goes, we still haveto record that, it's going to be fun.
We're going to go deep into leadership,faith, business, and the future of
technology and will AI have the answers?
I don't know.
We'll see.
Could raise even more questions.
Make sure you're subscribed so youdon't miss this groundbreaking episode.

(01:05:30):
We will see you next week for episode 300.

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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;}Creating A Job Optional Life: Lessons from Alaska with Chad Hufford