July 31, 2025 • 36 mins
What if retirement planning wasn’t just about the money—but about the life you truly want to live?
This episode is with Joseph Curry, a Certified Financial Planner who believes that retirement should be about True Wealth: the freedom to do what you love, with who you love, while creating a legacy aligned with your values. We explore how retirement planning becomes life planning when you put purpose ahead of projections.
Joe Curry is a Certified Financial Planner and host of Your Retirement Planning Simplified, where he helps Canadians design retirement plans that reflect their deepest values and priorities—not just their finances. His mission is to guide people toward True Wealth: a fulfilling, flexible retirement rooted in purpose, freedom, and family.
Find out more about Joseph Curry by visiting: 🌐 https://www.retirementplanningsimplified.ca/ 🌐
Book an Intro Call with Joe: If you're curious about whether a Strategy Session is the right fit for your financial situation, Joe invites you to an optional, no-obligation introductory phone call. Gain insight into what to expect, explore alignment, and move toward a confident financial future. 📅 https://calendly.com/d/4x9-36x-jj9/intro-call
🔑Rob Z Wentz is a Leadership Communication Expert. Rob teaches, trains, and develops people and organizations to become exceptional communicators and leaders. With Rob, leaders find clarity, take action, and succeed with integrity, making them “the expert” in their industry.
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🔑Rob is also a Christian entrepreneur, founder of The Unstuck Movement (on all social & podcast platforms), best-selling author, social media marketer and strategist, award-winning radio personality, speaker, and influencer. For over 20 years Rob has been leading people to communicate at a higher level.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:24):
Hey, welcome back to the unstuckmovement.
I'm your host, Rob Z. These are true testimonies of
breakthrough. Today on the show, we have Joe
Curry with us. We're going to be talking about
true wealth today, redefining retirement, purposeful planning,
confidence spending and and how do you have a a dynamic
retirement? How do you make that a great
(00:45):
transition, a smooth transition,and an impactful transition for
your life? These are really important
things to talk about because we're all going to come to that
stage at some point in our life.And the more we think about
this, the more we can prepare for it and plan for it.
And if you're somebody like me, it's something I've probably
ignored for a lot of my life until my wife really started
driving at home, like, hey, someday you're going to retire.
(01:06):
You got to have a plan in place.So I'm really glad that I have
you on the show today. And Joe, I'd like to dive in
with the question right off the bat.
Let's go back to when you were 15 years old.
You were talking about how you saw the power of sound advice.
You had a, your father's client said that you, your guidance
helped her sleep at night duringthe.com crash around the
year 2000. That moment ignited your passion
(01:28):
for financial planning. Can you talk a little bit about
that? Because I think that's really
amazing to have such a clear vision for what you want to do
with your life at 15. Talk about that moment and how
that left a a big impact on you.Yeah, sure.
So I think that at that moment, I kind of realized that work
didn't have to just be somethingyou grinded out to be able to
(01:49):
pay the bills. And that you could do something
where you're helping other people and you're getting, you
know, a sense of satisfaction and also being able to pay the
bills kind of all from one thing.
So I really love that idea when I and I mean, I knew what he had
been doing for quite a while, but it just kind of clicked at
that point like, hey, he's actually really helping people.
(02:09):
And at the same time, I knew that, you know, he worked hard.
He worked a lot of hours, but also he was able to still be
flexible and be there, you know,for my brother's hockey and my
hockey and baseball and all thatkind of stuff.
So that really got me, you know,passionate and, and going down
this road of, you know, financial planning.
Yeah. A career where I can be helping
people and also doing well myself and enjoying it.
(02:31):
Yeah, man, I mean, it's a, it's a great career because it makes
sense, right? It's it hits all the checks, all
the boxes. You're serving people at a high
level, helping them plan for their future, but also that
teaches you the financial planning that you need for your
future. I'd love any sort of win win
scenario like that is perfect. And as we dive into this
conversation, I think this that opening right there is really
(02:51):
important because as we were saying before we started, people
leading into the retirement, they don't necessarily know who
they are or know what they quoteUN quote wanna do with their
life because they've been so identified with their job,
right? And that's something that is, is
a huge issue coming up towards retirement.
So we're gonna go there in a second.
(03:11):
I wanna welcome everybody here. First, the unstuck movement,
true testimonies, A breakthrough.
I created this platform because I've been stuck in my life.
Joe, I'm sure you've been stuck at places in your life.
We all find places where we get stuck.
We need to find breakthrough. So I bring incredible guests on
the show who have true testimonies of making those
breakthroughs a reality. So you know it's possible for
yourself. Also, we're sponsored by the
(03:31):
connected Leaders Academy. Check out connected
leadersacademy.com and the pro podcaster Academy.
So if you're somebody who has been thinking about starting a
podcast for a long time, you don't know how to get through
all the nuts and bolts of actually making it happen, but
you want to make a lasting impact on people's lives.
You want to be the go to authority in your space.
You want to make incredible personal and professional
connections. I'll help you launch your
(03:53):
podcast. If you have a podcast, how do
you streamline it? How do you monetize it?
I'd love to help you with that. Also, you can join the Pro
Podcaster Academy at robzwentz.com today.
Joe Curry with us, a certified financial planner and the
founder of Your Retirement Planning Simplified, where he
helps Canadians align their retirement plans with value life
(04:13):
values, not just numbers. As host of Canada's Fastest
Growing Retirement Podcast, Joe simplifies financial planning
with clarity, confidence, and a focus on true wealth.
Interesting. I might switch gears as we start
here. What?
What does true wealth mean to you?
Yeah. So I think we, you know,
sometimes we get lost in the numbers, like, hey, you know,
(04:35):
what's that optimal choice? But really, and money is just a
means to an end, right? So when we think of a true
wealth, everyone can define thatfor themself.
But the way that we look at thatis, you know, it's having the
financial freedom to do the things you want with the people
you want. Yeah, being able to have that
space, to have that opportunity to live the life that you want
(04:57):
to live and, and the sooner we can get to that, the better.
And having the right target is really the most important key
there. It sounds like you were really
lucky, blessed that you figured out at 15, wow, this is what I
want to do with my life. And a lot of people never figure
that out. So what do you do when you're
(05:17):
how do you advise somebody who'sheading getting close to
retirement, maybe even their 40s, fifties, and they're still
unclear? The job is their identity.
How do you help them to shift that perspective so they can
figure out who am I going to be once I am retired?
Yeah. So really it's doing some
reflection, but really we try tohelp people start with rather
(05:39):
than just the finances, take a step back and start thinking
about your values. Now a lot of people kind of
intuitively maybe know some of their values, but they've never
really done the work to figure out like what are the core
values? And if they're, you know, if
you're married, you have a sparepartner, you know, what are our
family core values and are we living to those, right.
So, you know, we have an exercise we do with our clients
(06:00):
to kind of help them get some clarity around what those values
are so that we can use the values as a a bit of a filter in
our process for spending our time and spending our money.
And then beyond that, to get a little more specific to your
question, for a lot of people, our purpose is our work, it's
our career, it's our business, whatever we're doing.
(06:22):
And so some people have a hard time leaving that some people
think, hey, I just want to get out of this job to retirement.
But they get there and they haven't planned for what life
looks like when they get to retirement.
They just, they know they have enough money, which is great.
That's one part, but that's onlyone part.
So then it's identifying like what is your purpose?
What's going to get you out of bed in the morning?
So again, we have an exercise that can help people get some
(06:46):
clarity around that when they haven't figured that out.
We try to get people to kind of come up with three priorities.
So for me, for example, right now while I'm working, my
priorities, which I would also consider my purpose as my
family, as my business and my health.
Those are the three things. You know, there's lots of things
I like to do and spend time around, but those are the three
(07:07):
things I got to make sure I takecare of.
So as you're approaching retirement, the example I give
is, you know, my, you know, my family and my health are
probably going to remain priorities for me and I'm going
to continue to take care of and,and focus on.
But that other piece that was fulfilled by work, like what's
that next piece going to be? So if for some people they
already know that for some people it's like I have
(07:29):
grandkids and you know, that's enough for me.
That's the purpose that gets me up and keeps me going.
But for others, it's not quite that simple.
And so, you know, sometimes whenit is difficult to figure that
that piece out, we kind of can look at that that other purpose
of the other priority as actually going out and trying
new things. So, you know, every month or
every quarter, you know, we're trying something else.
(07:50):
We're going to try a new volunteer position or a new
activity where we're getting outand meeting people.
So sometimes it's just experimentation, but it's being
intentional about it and not just, you know, kind of going
through retirement or that next stage without any intention.
It's pickleball, right? Isn't that the thing you do?
That's the big thing, yeah. At least that's what I've seen
(08:13):
from my my stepdad. He loves playing pickleball and
it is a lot of fun. But yeah, it's, it's, it's so
important, man, because our school system, literally you
never talk about vision. You never talk about goals.
You never talk. I mean, at least most of the
schools, no schools that I have been to talked about these
things, talked. Nobody talks about your values.
(08:35):
You know, those things don't come up.
So when and you wonder why when you sit down and make a vision,
make a plan, what are my values?It's like deer in the headlights
because like you said, it can bein somebody's head.
It could be like, well, here's, you know, I know what I value,
but to verbalize it and put it on paper is really hard for
people to do because we've literally probably never had to
(08:56):
do this unless somebody outside of school made us do it, which
is crazy to think of. I, I would imagine, I would hope
and pray that some private schools, and I mean Montessori
schools and things like that go through these things.
At public schools, you don't touch on any of this stuff.
And so unless you've had somebody help you through that
process, it can be really hard. Do you find that to be a, a real
(09:18):
struggle for some people to put those things to paper?
Because I know even just workingwith businesses, business
owners, that can be, I mean, it can be a huge roadblock and it
can take a long time to finally make that a reality.
Yeah. So we used to do it a different
way where I would kind of walk clients through this through
asking questions. But what I found is a lot of
(09:39):
people had a really hard time opening up to that.
So we came up with a new exercise where it is more, you
can do it independently and we give examples.
And so there's a process to workthrough.
So that has definitely, you know, we've got very little push
back since we went this way where people can kind of do it
in their own space and, and workthrough it.
(10:01):
And it's also really interestingand you can tell how many people
really haven't thought about this or at least haven't had
conversations about it because we've had a lot of, you know,
really interesting and, and goodconversations with our clients
who are couples where they're like, yeah, I didn't really know
this or, you know, how the how important this was to, you know,
my spouse, things like that. So it really creates some
interesting and and powerful conversations.
(10:24):
Yeah, the fact that it usually doesn't get talked about means
that the person you've been married to for maybe 1020,
thirty years doesn't even know the answers to your own like
values, to your own goals, to your own vision.
And that's what a what a beautiful thing too, to bring
people together, right? Especially heading into
retirement, you could set a vision for your like second life
(10:44):
together and that and that wouldgive you a lot of hope and
purpose too. What is the, you probably know
this better than I would, the percentage of people who pass
away once they retire, right. There's there's like a if, if
you don't find that, meaning once you retire, there's a
higher chance that you're going to die quicker.
Is that true? Yeah, So I don't know what the
(11:05):
exact numbers are, but, I mean, I think we all know people
who've passed away right after retiring, right?
They just kind of get depressed.And then, you know, a lot of
times the first year is excitingand there's a lot of new things
to try, but you can only play somuch pickleball or golf or
whatever. And if you were, you know,
pretty career driven, all of a sudden, if you haven't figured
out your purpose, yeah, depression can sit in.
(11:25):
And then next thing you know, like, you seen people pass away,
who you're just completely unexpected.
And in fact, that actually just happened recently, just someone
we know who is 9 months into retirement.
So I don't know the actual numbers on it.
But yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely a thing and
definitely important to be thinking about what is going to
be that driver. I just, I think about this, it's
(11:47):
interesting because I have my mom and dad, my, my stepmom, my
stepdad and literally my mom became an entrepreneur when she
retired, she started a painting business.
So now she has, she has a littleJapanese, one of those little
Japanese trucks and it says she paints on the side of it and she
literally goes around town and paints people and she's like
booked. She's like booked up which, and
she's 67 years old. My dad, he started building a
(12:10):
house. He retired.
He's like he, he's building a house attached to my sister's
house, which is just wild. Like it's he and he's like the
foreman, the general contractor for the job.
And he's not a general contractor at all.
So he's found a purpose. My stepdad, he sold his business
and started sailing, no lie, like he became a captain and
(12:32):
he's down in the British Virgin Islands sailing people around
the, the Keys and the, the, the islands down there, which is
just amazing. And I, I look at that and I'm
like, what? I'm looking for myself, like,
wow, what a great example. Three of my parents are like
doing things they never would have done before that they love
(12:53):
doing. They found that second wind and
it didn't seem, it didn't seem like it was difficult for them.
It's just kind of like happened naturally.
So I have that example, but I'm sure there's tons of people out
there who, who don't have those examples of like, OK, what are
we going to do next? And what would you say to
somebody who is maybe in their 40s, not really thinking about
(13:15):
these things, who needs to prepare for this stuff coming up
in, you know, 20 years? Can can you start preparing now?
And would you say that's something that is what, what
advice would you give somebody in that area?
Yeah. So I'd say the first thing is
you can start by getting clear on what your values are today,
right? And so from a financial
standpoint, getting clear on your values also, as I mentioned
(13:37):
earlier, gives you a bit of a filtering process for how you're
spending your time and your money, Right.
So yeah, there's a good book by I think it's David Bach.
It's called The Latte Factor. And it basically just tells the
story of a girl who's a travel writer.
Anyway, she's spend, you know, spending money, The latte
Factor, she spends her $7.00 every day in a latte and in the
morning and it, it goes through kind of how she can't figure out
(14:00):
how there's no money left at theend of the day.
So it walks through, she meets aguy and explains the importance
of living with intentionality. So it's not that you can't have
whatever it is you want, you just can't have everything
right. So getting clear on those
values, living more intentionally can allow you to
now when you start thinking forward like how long do I want
to do what I'm doing in this career?
(14:20):
And if you or when do I want to be financially free, you can
start doing the planning, figureout how much money you need to
be putting aside. And having that filtering
process makes it easier to be just spending the money on
things that are really importantfor you today and then having
still some money leftover to be putting away to that future you.
So that's one thing I would say.And then kind of as you get
closer, I'm kind of maybe drifting through the 40s here a
(14:42):
bit, but you just gave some really great examples.
A lot of people think that I have to like just grind it out
until I'm a specific age and then I just completely stop
working and that's retirement. But like, I don't really love
the word retirement, but from, you know, a business standpoint,
a podcast standpoint, retirement's good for SEO 'cause
that's how people are searching.But really?
(15:04):
There's no other word for it, right?
Yeah, exactly. But I mean, I think striving for
financial independence, financial freedom is, is good.
So freedom to choose what you want to do, right.
So it doesn't mean you have to stop working, but it's getting
to a point where you're, you know, you have some freedom
around your finances. So maybe you can take another,
you know, a career change or another occupation that you
(15:27):
actually really love doing, likeyour mom or your stepmom.
Whoever's doing. Your mom, yeah, yeah, Your mom
doing the the art stuff, right. So maybe that is something you
can actually transition out of your career you're doing today
that you don't like earlier because there's still another
way to make some money. It's just actually making money
doing something you like to do. Yeah, identifying those things
(15:47):
that you like to do super important, not leaving those in
the background. It's really an incredible
opportunity to step into that 'cause I know there's a guy that
I'm working with right now and in his plan in five years
they're going to retire and he's, they're going to travel,
right. So the I was like, OK, so that
might, that might take up like 3years, but what about after the
travelling is done? Then what do you, I mean, I
(16:08):
guess you could. I've known elderly people who go
on cruises their entire life. That's, I guess it's something
you can do, but there's probablygot to be something past that.
I'm curious for yourself, I mean, this is what you do for a
living. Do you have a plan for yourself
already laid out? So for me, I think it's just
evolving within the business that I have.
Like I really like what I do. I also love the like the
(16:30):
business planning side and running the business and
thinking about how we continue to grow the business and provide
more value to our clients. So I think really over time I'm
probably just more transitioningin my role within the firm,
maybe less client facing, more mentoring other advisors within
in the business, things like that do.
(16:52):
You think you'll ever truly retire?
Probably not. And I don't know, there might be
like I, I just know. So like one of my core values is
just like, I think the best way of putting it is a better way.
Like I so growth maybe is another way of putting it, but
like I need to have something that I'm just learning and
improving on all the time, right?
So but I also feel like I don't really have a hard time finding
(17:15):
something else to focus on and learn about and and continue to
grow with. So I'm for myself, I thought a
lot about this but I'm also not too worried about it just
because I I know I've had I justhave no trouble finding
different things that I can go all in on and as long as it's
allowing me to grow and find again like a better way to do
things. Yeah, man, it's, it's like
(17:36):
creativity and imagination, right?
There's, there's so many things you can do.
If you can't find something, then you just haven't even tried
hard enough yet, because there'sa a billion things that would.
Well, I'd like to think that at least for me, that'd be the
case. Too many things I can have my
attention on, right. So it's like, how could you ever
be bored? But I totally understand for
some people that's that's a that's a gigantic issue.
(17:57):
And they've never had to to comeface to face with that.
Yeah, absolutely. So I want to transition.
We're going to take a break realquick shot at the sponsor of the
show. When we come back, though, talk
about the financial side of things.
How do we prepare? You know, how do we actually
practically get the preparation for the finances right and, you
(18:21):
know, make sure that we have what we need whenever we do
retire to do the things we love to do.
Just like to know the steps thatyou walk people through in that
arena to help them prepare. We'll talk about that in one
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(18:43):
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(19:06):
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(19:28):
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So Joe, I, I love this conversation because it's, it's
really important and something we can really push off.
And so it's really valuable to dive into this and to get it, to
get it in your head, be thinkingabout it, what you're going to
do and one of the biggest things.
(20:11):
When you do retire revolves around money.
So how can somebody who is heading towards that retirement
age transition from saving to spending without worrying about
running out of money? Yeah.
So I'd say the first thing I start early, ideally just
thinking about this and planningthis long before you get to that
age or that time where you're ready to transition out of work
(20:34):
or to whatever the next stage is.
But I mean, so most people who we're working with are within
five years of retirement. And this is what we're doing is
we're trying to help them get some clarity on what life looks
like once they stop working so that we can get a better
understanding of, you know, whatdo they need from their finance
finances to be able to create a paycheck, not outlive their
(20:55):
money, Be prepared if things don't go as planned.
So it really starts with, yeah, that like figuring out that
vision, as you said earlier, Rob, and then from there getting
clarity on where you are today, like, you know, what do we have
for available resources today and then fill in the gap.
So what do we need to do to get you from where you are today to
(21:17):
where you need to be in order tostop doing the work that you're
currently doing? Right.
And so that's going to include cash flow planning, like making
sure there's enough freed up cash flow to be putting aside
into an investment plan. So figuring out that an
investment portfolio and based on your, you know, your time
horizon, your comfort level around investments, that's going
to determine what does that portfolio look like, like how
(21:39):
much risk are you comfortable taking?
And the based on that, we start to get an idea of what we could
expect for ready to return into the future, which helps us kind
of fine tune and, and how much you should be putting away.
And then it also at the same time we're looking at, you know,
what could go wrong? Like if things don't go to plan,
you know, we get hurt and need to be off work earlier or God
(21:59):
forbid, you know, my spouse passes away earlier.
One of the things we need to putin place to make sure that God
forbid something like that happens, everything still works
out at least financially at the very least.
So that's a pretty high level, pretty high level overview.
I don't know if you want to diveinto any more specifics.
Well, I'm just, I'm thinking, you know, it's really valuable
(22:22):
if you're like me, somebody likemyself, I usually for better or
worth, maybe live in the now. I don't think or worry too much
about the future, which can be like a delusional optimism kind
of thing. So hopefully you have somebody
in your life that pushes these things on you #1 hopefully your
spouse, if you're not that person, your spouse pushes you
towards it, 'cause my wife, she's like on it with me and
(22:44):
she's like, we got to get these things figured out.
I'm like, yeah, but I've got 20 years, 2530 years, whatever.
And I don't even want to retire anyways.
And she's like, it doesn't matter.
You got to, we got to get this figured out, right?
So if you don't, and if you don't have somebody like that in
your life, you're the perfect person to go to, right?
It's, it's being mindful. Well, even if you do have
somebody like that in your life,still go to a professional who
can help you really get practical in the ways of walking
(23:07):
through that. But I think that's a huge piece
of the puzzle is just knowing this is super important.
I really need to focus on it andyou want to get it right.
And I'm in the beginning phases of that right now with my wife
because she's, you know, just kind of like nudging us in that
direction. Somebody who's more future
thinking. And, and I, I love that it's
(23:28):
such a, a good balance to have when you talk about tax
efficient retirement strategies,maybe some simple ways that
retirees can maximize their taxes, keep more of their money,
because obviously that's going to be a, a huge issue.
Yeah. So it'd be a bit different
between Canada and the US, but same, I mean similar in a lot of
(23:49):
ways that we have different types of accounts, but from a
naming standpoint, but a lot of them work similarly.
So you have like your retirementaccounts, you have your, we call
them non registered accounts, which would just be no kind of
tax efficiency built around them.
You guys would have Roth accounts, we have tax free
savings accounts, you guys will have Social Security, we have
Canada Pension Plan. So there's these similarities.
(24:10):
But at the end of the day, from a tax efficiency standpoint
before retirement, we're lookingat, OK, you know, what kind of
tax bracket are we in today versus what kind of tax bracket
do we expect to be in, in retirement.
And so that's going to drive some of the decisions of where
we're putting our savings today.So for example, in Canada we
have an RRSP, so that's a retirement account.
(24:31):
We put money into that account and we get a tax deduction, but
when we take it out in retirement, we pay tax on it, we
pay that future tax. So I think an IRAIRA would be
similar for you guys or 4O1K. So making that those decisions.
So if our if our tax bracket is going to be the same in
retirement as it is while we're working, we might want to look
at actually putting money into tax free savings accounts or
(24:54):
Roth accounts, for example. Now once we get into retirement,
it's really figuring out. So we have these different
buckets, we have our tax deferred buckets.
So meaning it's growing in thereand we're not paying tax until
we take it out. Then we have our taxable
buckets. That just means that we're
paying tax as we go. And then we have our tax free
bucket, which means that, you know, as it grows, we pay no tax
(25:14):
and when we take it out, we pay no tax.
So we're managing those different buckets along with
things like Social Security income or if, you know, you
start a painting business and you have other income coming in,
like how are we looking at all these different buckets?
We have to minimize our lifetimetaxes, right?
I think one of the difference between a, a financial planner
(25:36):
and an accountant sometimes is an accountant is looking at
typically looking at, you know, how do we pay the least amount
of tax this year? Whereas a financial planner,
what we're trying to look at is how are we limiting your
lifetime tax bill? And so maybe that means paying a
little bit more tax today to getsomething out of that tax
deferred account, knowing that it's actually going to lessen
(25:56):
the amount of tax we pay over a lifetime and maybe lessen the
amount of tax that our, you know, next generation our kids
are paying when we pass away. So it's a bit of a puzzle just
kind of taking all the differentbuckets or the different sources
of income and putting it together.
So we're talking about optimizing retirement income
from a tax standpoint. That's what we're looking at.
Yeah, man. And it's, it's really important
(26:17):
to have somebody like yourself because you're objectively
looking at it, no emotion involved.
And I think that's a huge piece of it too, right?
If you're doing this for yourself, you can get kind of
wrapped up in, in your own head around the whole thing.
But if you have somebody like yourself who's strictly just
there to help look at it objectively and make the right
decisions, it's hugely impactful, which I, I mean, I
(26:38):
encourage everybody should have a mentor.
You should have a coach, you should be a coach for somebody.
You should be a mentor for somebody.
But you should have financial planner without a doubt, like in
your life, because that's somebody who's, you know,
coaching you on your money. And that's really, really
valuable. And again, one of those things
was never taught to us in school, right?
Never, we were never taught how to handle money, how to deal
(27:00):
with things like that. And so just the same as the
vision, same as the, the goals and the values and things of
that nature, You really need somebody to kind of walk you
through that process who's an expert in it, unless you're an
expert in it yourself, right? So it's, it's such a, a big
piece of the puzzle. Yeah, I mean, I think a a big
thing, and I mean there's a few things where I think working
(27:21):
with someone like myself would make sense is 1.
You don't know what you don't know.
So you might, you know, think you're doing OK, but there might
be things out there you have no idea ways to save tax.
Maybe you're paying too much taxor maybe your money is not
invested in a way that's as, youknow, as safe as you think it
is. So that's part of it.
Part of it is accountability. So, so once you know, have your
(27:44):
vision, what's the accountability for you to
actually follow through on the actions for you to achieve your
vision, right. So one of the things would be,
you know, you talked about thinking about today and it's
hard to think into the future sometimes.
So if you're working with somebody, you say, yeah, you
know what, this is what I want things to look like.
You come up with a plan for how to get there.
So a lot of that could be automated, right?
So having a planner set it up soit's automated so you don't have
(28:06):
to think about it all the time, you know, what's just happening.
And then you do your regular check insurance to see, are you
on track? Have things changed where we
need to make some adjustments? And then there's the just
avoiding the big mistake, right?Like you never know, things look
scary. You kind of panic with your
money. That could be like that one big
mistake could cost you hundreds of thousands or more of future
(28:27):
retirement income, right? So just make it ensure you're
avoiding that big mistake. Great point.
Yeah, you can make gigantic mistakes and be paying for them
for years to come. And that kind of stuff can
happen in a heartbeat. It can happen in the moment,
right? So it's having that advisor
there, somebody who's kind of holding your hand, watching what
(28:47):
you're doing is really vital. What are some overlooked aspects
of retirement people don't thinkabout until they get there?
Is there anything we haven't touched on yet that is like, I
didn't see that one coming untilI'm actually retired now.
And you're like, oh crap. Yeah.
So I think we've touched a lot on that purpose piece, like what
are we actually doing? What's getting us out of bed
once we're no longer doing, you know, what we did for 30 years.
(29:11):
So that that really is is the biggest one.
But then there's other things you talked a little bit about
kind of living in the now or thinking about now.
Like I think that is important because we see a lot of
retirees. I mean, a lot of them live
healthy long lives, but a lot ofthem also, you know, they're
seeing their friends get sick orfamily members get sick when and
it's so it's just a bit of a different dynamic.
So I think that it, you know, one of those priorities really
(29:35):
needs to be health like, like take take care of yourself.
Think about that, because thingsstart to break down at a certain
point and you want to make sure if there's things you want to
do, like I've seen so many timesin here, we're trying to get
clients. Hey, you've been saying for, you
know, five years, you want to dolike this trip or what do you
know this activity and you stillhaven't done it?
What's holding you back? So we try to work people through
(29:56):
those things, but so many times it just gets to a point where,
you know, they just can't do it anymore.
Mobility issues or make cognitive issues, things start
coming up or they just they can't do it.
So I think it's really, you know, understanding that again,
that comes back to the values, the vision.
Like what do you want things to look like?
What is important to you? And then act on that.
(30:16):
Don't just do it as an exercise,but use that to filter in how
you're spending your time. Yeah, you just brought up a
great point too, because a lot of the times we'll push off the
things that would be the most enjoyable in life, right?
We'll push off things that you really want to do.
They aren't necessary to do. But at the end of the day, the
things that are going to bring you joy are necessary things to
do like because they're going tobring you that fulfillment that
(30:39):
you need, the experiences that you'd want to have, memories
that you're going to make. And that stuff can be seen as
unimportant when really it's kind of, I would say near the
top of the list of of great things to do you.
I always ask for quotes when people come on the show.
And the quote that you gave me was, do we stop playing because
we grow old or do we grow old because we stop playing?
(31:03):
I think that speaks to exactly what we're talking about right
now, Right? So what does that quote mean to
you? How have you applied that to
your life, even though you're not even to that retirement age
yet? Yeah, so for me, I mean, we have
a couple of buddies who we stilldo tons of activities together.
We're always trying new things, but I just noticed a lot of our
(31:24):
friends, so I'm 40 now. You know, over the last 20
years, a lot of our friends stopped doing a lot of things
that we used to do for fun. So I mean, I still play hockey
usually a couple times a week, still out golfing.
And I've gone through different I started doing Spartan races a
few years ago and I've switched that to doing a couple half
marathons. So always looking for something
else to kind of push myself. And a big part of it is I also
(31:47):
want like, I have kids who are 8and 6 now and I want to continue
to, you know, play with hockey with them when they get older.
Like I got to play with my, my dad still plays hockey, we still
play together sometimes, which is kind of fun.
So I want to see that in the future to be able to do that
with my kids. And then like, I just, you know,
started doing some mountain biking a few years ago, which,
you know, I don't think most people think you're starting
(32:07):
mountain biking in your 40s. Obviously you can, but it's not
typical, especially when I look around me.
So, you know, for me it's never not doing something 'cause, you
know, I'm too old for that. For me, it's always like, yeah,
let's try something new. Or how do we, you know, keep
going? So that's something I definitely
live by. Yeah.
And really, really important because why not?
(32:29):
And like you said, like hitting 40, like it's, there's nothing
saying that you're not allowed to except for the thoughts
inside of your head that are like, oh, I'm too old to do this
thing now. Like you got to try new stuff
out. And if you don't do that, you're
gonna live a life of, well, regret, number one.
But also that it keeps you mentally sharp.
I mean, we look at like dementiaand Alzheimer's.
(32:51):
I mean, there are studies that show that the more mentally
active you are and more physically active you are, you
can, you can stave off a lot of those things.
You can push those things back because you're constantly
creating new neural pathways in your brain.
And it's also it's, it's just healthy.
It's just creatively healthy foryou to do that, let alone
physically healthy. So I love that, man.
(33:12):
That's, that's really important.And I think when it comes to
retirement, right, people, usually it's about money.
It's like, oh, do I have enough money and I don't want to work
anymore. And that leaves this giant void
of wow, what could be. So I love the fact that you're
getting people prepared to do that.
What's to come? What could be the next thing?
(33:32):
So as we come to the close of this episode, I want to
encourage people to check you out online so you have a you can
click the Get the Navigator tab at
retirementplanningsimplified.ca.What happens when they they
click that tab? Yeah.
So you get the retirement navigator.
So you'll also go on our, our newsletter, we put out a lot of
(33:53):
just twice a week, put in some tips around a lot of it is kind
of what we've been talking abouttoday, right?
So we follow kind of an Alex Hermozi, I'm not sure if
anyone's familiar with that, buthis kind of formula for like
just super short, read it under 60 seconds, real advice you can
use. And then it's Alex Hermozi.
Oh, OK. Yeah, yeah.
(34:14):
You probably know him. And then the navigator itself
though, it has an exercise rightin there for figuring out your
values. The same exercise we use with
our clients. And it also has an exercise
around finding purpose, right? So figuring out your purpose,
your those priorities. I mentioned like 3 priorities
ideally. So we have that exercise right
(34:35):
in there. And then beyond that, we have
some other pieces around like figuring out what do you need
for cash flow in retirement, youknow, thinking about the
different retirement income streams you're going to have
once you get to retirement, setting up a retirement income
plan and other things to think about.
So there's a, it's a pretty in depth guide.
But you know, I think even if you just went in there, no
matter what age or stage you're at, the values and the purpose
(34:57):
BS, I think it would be very worthwhile.
Yeah, no doubt do that today. If you have never done that
before, that is super valuable. So you can click the navigator
tab at retirementplanningsimplified.ca.
The link is in the bio. Joe, thank you for your time
today. There's one question I always
love to ask people as we sign off.
So pretend, say you're never going to talk to me or see me
(35:20):
ever again. Anybody who's been on here on
the live stream or who watches this, you're never going to hear
from them or talk to them ever again.
What message would you leave? Oh, just live a life of
intention. That's good.
Be in tension with what you do It's impactful.
Good man. Awesome.
(35:40):
I love this. Another true testimony of
breakthrough. Thank you for your time.
Until next time. This has been the unstuck
movement.
Hey, welcome back to the unstuckmovement.
I'm your host, Rob Z. These are true testimonies of
breakthrough. Today on the show, we have Joe
Curry with us. We're going to be talking about
true wealth today, redefining retirement, purposeful planning,
confidence spending and and how do you have a a dynamic
retirement? How do you make that a great
(00:45):
transition, a smooth transition,and an impactful transition for
your life? These are really important
things to talk about because we're all going to come to that
stage at some point in our life.And the more we think about
this, the more we can prepare for it and plan for it.
And if you're somebody like me, it's something I've probably
ignored for a lot of my life until my wife really started
driving at home, like, hey, someday you're going to retire.
(01:06):
You got to have a plan in place.So I'm really glad that I have
you on the show today. And Joe, I'd like to dive in
with the question right off the bat.
Let's go back to when you were 15 years old.
You were talking about how you saw the power of sound advice.
You had a, your father's client said that you, your guidance
helped her sleep at night duringthe.com crash around the
year 2000. That moment ignited your passion
(01:28):
for financial planning. Can you talk a little bit about
that? Because I think that's really
amazing to have such a clear vision for what you want to do
with your life at 15. Talk about that moment and how
that left a a big impact on you.Yeah, sure.
So I think that at that moment, I kind of realized that work
didn't have to just be somethingyou grinded out to be able to
(01:49):
pay the bills. And that you could do something
where you're helping other people and you're getting, you
know, a sense of satisfaction and also being able to pay the
bills kind of all from one thing.
So I really love that idea when I and I mean, I knew what he had
been doing for quite a while, but it just kind of clicked at
that point like, hey, he's actually really helping people.
(02:09):
And at the same time, I knew that, you know, he worked hard.
He worked a lot of hours, but also he was able to still be
flexible and be there, you know,for my brother's hockey and my
hockey and baseball and all thatkind of stuff.
So that really got me, you know,passionate and, and going down
this road of, you know, financial planning.
Yeah. A career where I can be helping
people and also doing well myself and enjoying it.
(02:31):
Yeah, man, I mean, it's a, it's a great career because it makes
sense, right? It's it hits all the checks, all
the boxes. You're serving people at a high
level, helping them plan for their future, but also that
teaches you the financial planning that you need for your
future. I'd love any sort of win win
scenario like that is perfect. And as we dive into this
conversation, I think this that opening right there is really
(02:51):
important because as we were saying before we started, people
leading into the retirement, they don't necessarily know who
they are or know what they quoteUN quote wanna do with their
life because they've been so identified with their job,
right? And that's something that is, is
a huge issue coming up towards retirement.
So we're gonna go there in a second.
(03:11):
I wanna welcome everybody here. First, the unstuck movement,
true testimonies, A breakthrough.
I created this platform because I've been stuck in my life.
Joe, I'm sure you've been stuck at places in your life.
We all find places where we get stuck.
We need to find breakthrough. So I bring incredible guests on
the show who have true testimonies of making those
breakthroughs a reality. So you know it's possible for
yourself. Also, we're sponsored by the
(03:31):
connected Leaders Academy. Check out connected
leadersacademy.com and the pro podcaster Academy.
So if you're somebody who has been thinking about starting a
podcast for a long time, you don't know how to get through
all the nuts and bolts of actually making it happen, but
you want to make a lasting impact on people's lives.
You want to be the go to authority in your space.
You want to make incredible personal and professional
connections. I'll help you launch your
(03:53):
podcast. If you have a podcast, how do
you streamline it? How do you monetize it?
I'd love to help you with that. Also, you can join the Pro
Podcaster Academy at robzwentz.com today.
Joe Curry with us, a certified financial planner and the
founder of Your Retirement Planning Simplified, where he
helps Canadians align their retirement plans with value life
(04:13):
values, not just numbers. As host of Canada's Fastest
Growing Retirement Podcast, Joe simplifies financial planning
with clarity, confidence, and a focus on true wealth.
Interesting. I might switch gears as we start
here. What?
What does true wealth mean to you?
Yeah. So I think we, you know,
sometimes we get lost in the numbers, like, hey, you know,
(04:35):
what's that optimal choice? But really, and money is just a
means to an end, right? So when we think of a true
wealth, everyone can define thatfor themself.
But the way that we look at thatis, you know, it's having the
financial freedom to do the things you want with the people
you want. Yeah, being able to have that
space, to have that opportunity to live the life that you want
(04:57):
to live and, and the sooner we can get to that, the better.
And having the right target is really the most important key
there. It sounds like you were really
lucky, blessed that you figured out at 15, wow, this is what I
want to do with my life. And a lot of people never figure
that out. So what do you do when you're
(05:17):
how do you advise somebody who'sheading getting close to
retirement, maybe even their 40s, fifties, and they're still
unclear? The job is their identity.
How do you help them to shift that perspective so they can
figure out who am I going to be once I am retired?
Yeah. So really it's doing some
reflection, but really we try tohelp people start with rather
(05:39):
than just the finances, take a step back and start thinking
about your values. Now a lot of people kind of
intuitively maybe know some of their values, but they've never
really done the work to figure out like what are the core
values? And if they're, you know, if
you're married, you have a sparepartner, you know, what are our
family core values and are we living to those, right.
So, you know, we have an exercise we do with our clients
(06:00):
to kind of help them get some clarity around what those values
are so that we can use the values as a a bit of a filter in
our process for spending our time and spending our money.
And then beyond that, to get a little more specific to your
question, for a lot of people, our purpose is our work, it's
our career, it's our business, whatever we're doing.
(06:22):
And so some people have a hard time leaving that some people
think, hey, I just want to get out of this job to retirement.
But they get there and they haven't planned for what life
looks like when they get to retirement.
They just, they know they have enough money, which is great.
That's one part, but that's onlyone part.
So then it's identifying like what is your purpose?
What's going to get you out of bed in the morning?
So again, we have an exercise that can help people get some
(06:46):
clarity around that when they haven't figured that out.
We try to get people to kind of come up with three priorities.
So for me, for example, right now while I'm working, my
priorities, which I would also consider my purpose as my
family, as my business and my health.
Those are the three things. You know, there's lots of things
I like to do and spend time around, but those are the three
(07:07):
things I got to make sure I takecare of.
So as you're approaching retirement, the example I give
is, you know, my, you know, my family and my health are
probably going to remain priorities for me and I'm going
to continue to take care of and,and focus on.
But that other piece that was fulfilled by work, like what's
that next piece going to be? So if for some people they
already know that for some people it's like I have
(07:29):
grandkids and you know, that's enough for me.
That's the purpose that gets me up and keeps me going.
But for others, it's not quite that simple.
And so, you know, sometimes whenit is difficult to figure that
that piece out, we kind of can look at that that other purpose
of the other priority as actually going out and trying
new things. So, you know, every month or
every quarter, you know, we're trying something else.
(07:50):
We're going to try a new volunteer position or a new
activity where we're getting outand meeting people.
So sometimes it's just experimentation, but it's being
intentional about it and not just, you know, kind of going
through retirement or that next stage without any intention.
It's pickleball, right? Isn't that the thing you do?
That's the big thing, yeah. At least that's what I've seen
(08:13):
from my my stepdad. He loves playing pickleball and
it is a lot of fun. But yeah, it's, it's, it's so
important, man, because our school system, literally you
never talk about vision. You never talk about goals.
You never talk. I mean, at least most of the
schools, no schools that I have been to talked about these
things, talked. Nobody talks about your values.
(08:35):
You know, those things don't come up.
So when and you wonder why when you sit down and make a vision,
make a plan, what are my values?It's like deer in the headlights
because like you said, it can bein somebody's head.
It could be like, well, here's, you know, I know what I value,
but to verbalize it and put it on paper is really hard for
people to do because we've literally probably never had to
(08:56):
do this unless somebody outside of school made us do it, which
is crazy to think of. I, I would imagine, I would hope
and pray that some private schools, and I mean Montessori
schools and things like that go through these things.
At public schools, you don't touch on any of this stuff.
And so unless you've had somebody help you through that
process, it can be really hard. Do you find that to be a, a real
(09:18):
struggle for some people to put those things to paper?
Because I know even just workingwith businesses, business
owners, that can be, I mean, it can be a huge roadblock and it
can take a long time to finally make that a reality.
Yeah. So we used to do it a different
way where I would kind of walk clients through this through
asking questions. But what I found is a lot of
(09:39):
people had a really hard time opening up to that.
So we came up with a new exercise where it is more, you
can do it independently and we give examples.
And so there's a process to workthrough.
So that has definitely, you know, we've got very little push
back since we went this way where people can kind of do it
in their own space and, and workthrough it.
(10:01):
And it's also really interestingand you can tell how many people
really haven't thought about this or at least haven't had
conversations about it because we've had a lot of, you know,
really interesting and, and goodconversations with our clients
who are couples where they're like, yeah, I didn't really know
this or, you know, how the how important this was to, you know,
my spouse, things like that. So it really creates some
interesting and and powerful conversations.
(10:24):
Yeah, the fact that it usually doesn't get talked about means
that the person you've been married to for maybe 1020,
thirty years doesn't even know the answers to your own like
values, to your own goals, to your own vision.
And that's what a what a beautiful thing too, to bring
people together, right? Especially heading into
retirement, you could set a vision for your like second life
(10:44):
together and that and that wouldgive you a lot of hope and
purpose too. What is the, you probably know
this better than I would, the percentage of people who pass
away once they retire, right. There's there's like a if, if
you don't find that, meaning once you retire, there's a
higher chance that you're going to die quicker.
Is that true? Yeah, So I don't know what the
(11:05):
exact numbers are, but, I mean, I think we all know people
who've passed away right after retiring, right?
They just kind of get depressed.And then, you know, a lot of
times the first year is excitingand there's a lot of new things
to try, but you can only play somuch pickleball or golf or
whatever. And if you were, you know,
pretty career driven, all of a sudden, if you haven't figured
out your purpose, yeah, depression can sit in.
(11:25):
And then next thing you know, like, you seen people pass away,
who you're just completely unexpected.
And in fact, that actually just happened recently, just someone
we know who is 9 months into retirement.
So I don't know the actual numbers on it.
But yeah, it's definitely, it's definitely a thing and
definitely important to be thinking about what is going to
be that driver. I just, I think about this, it's
(11:47):
interesting because I have my mom and dad, my, my stepmom, my
stepdad and literally my mom became an entrepreneur when she
retired, she started a painting business.
So now she has, she has a littleJapanese, one of those little
Japanese trucks and it says she paints on the side of it and she
literally goes around town and paints people and she's like
booked. She's like booked up which, and
she's 67 years old. My dad, he started building a
(12:10):
house. He retired.
He's like he, he's building a house attached to my sister's
house, which is just wild. Like it's he and he's like the
foreman, the general contractor for the job.
And he's not a general contractor at all.
So he's found a purpose. My stepdad, he sold his business
and started sailing, no lie, like he became a captain and
(12:32):
he's down in the British Virgin Islands sailing people around
the, the Keys and the, the, the islands down there, which is
just amazing. And I, I look at that and I'm
like, what? I'm looking for myself, like,
wow, what a great example. Three of my parents are like
doing things they never would have done before that they love
(12:53):
doing. They found that second wind and
it didn't seem, it didn't seem like it was difficult for them.
It's just kind of like happened naturally.
So I have that example, but I'm sure there's tons of people out
there who, who don't have those examples of like, OK, what are
we going to do next? And what would you say to
somebody who is maybe in their 40s, not really thinking about
(13:15):
these things, who needs to prepare for this stuff coming up
in, you know, 20 years? Can can you start preparing now?
And would you say that's something that is what, what
advice would you give somebody in that area?
Yeah. So I'd say the first thing is
you can start by getting clear on what your values are today,
right? And so from a financial
standpoint, getting clear on your values also, as I mentioned
(13:37):
earlier, gives you a bit of a filtering process for how you're
spending your time and your money, Right.
So yeah, there's a good book by I think it's David Bach.
It's called The Latte Factor. And it basically just tells the
story of a girl who's a travel writer.
Anyway, she's spend, you know, spending money, The latte
Factor, she spends her $7.00 every day in a latte and in the
morning and it, it goes through kind of how she can't figure out
(14:00):
how there's no money left at theend of the day.
So it walks through, she meets aguy and explains the importance
of living with intentionality. So it's not that you can't have
whatever it is you want, you just can't have everything
right. So getting clear on those
values, living more intentionally can allow you to
now when you start thinking forward like how long do I want
to do what I'm doing in this career?
(14:20):
And if you or when do I want to be financially free, you can
start doing the planning, figureout how much money you need to
be putting aside. And having that filtering
process makes it easier to be just spending the money on
things that are really importantfor you today and then having
still some money leftover to be putting away to that future you.
So that's one thing I would say.And then kind of as you get
closer, I'm kind of maybe drifting through the 40s here a
(14:42):
bit, but you just gave some really great examples.
A lot of people think that I have to like just grind it out
until I'm a specific age and then I just completely stop
working and that's retirement. But like, I don't really love
the word retirement, but from, you know, a business standpoint,
a podcast standpoint, retirement's good for SEO 'cause
that's how people are searching.But really?
(15:04):
There's no other word for it, right?
Yeah, exactly. But I mean, I think striving for
financial independence, financial freedom is, is good.
So freedom to choose what you want to do, right.
So it doesn't mean you have to stop working, but it's getting
to a point where you're, you know, you have some freedom
around your finances. So maybe you can take another,
you know, a career change or another occupation that you
(15:27):
actually really love doing, likeyour mom or your stepmom.
Whoever's doing. Your mom, yeah, yeah, Your mom
doing the the art stuff, right. So maybe that is something you
can actually transition out of your career you're doing today
that you don't like earlier because there's still another
way to make some money. It's just actually making money
doing something you like to do. Yeah, identifying those things
(15:47):
that you like to do super important, not leaving those in
the background. It's really an incredible
opportunity to step into that 'cause I know there's a guy that
I'm working with right now and in his plan in five years
they're going to retire and he's, they're going to travel,
right. So the I was like, OK, so that
might, that might take up like 3years, but what about after the
travelling is done? Then what do you, I mean, I
(16:08):
guess you could. I've known elderly people who go
on cruises their entire life. That's, I guess it's something
you can do, but there's probablygot to be something past that.
I'm curious for yourself, I mean, this is what you do for a
living. Do you have a plan for yourself
already laid out? So for me, I think it's just
evolving within the business that I have.
Like I really like what I do. I also love the like the
(16:30):
business planning side and running the business and
thinking about how we continue to grow the business and provide
more value to our clients. So I think really over time I'm
probably just more transitioningin my role within the firm,
maybe less client facing, more mentoring other advisors within
in the business, things like that do.
(16:52):
You think you'll ever truly retire?
Probably not. And I don't know, there might be
like I, I just know. So like one of my core values is
just like, I think the best way of putting it is a better way.
Like I so growth maybe is another way of putting it, but
like I need to have something that I'm just learning and
improving on all the time, right?
So but I also feel like I don't really have a hard time finding
(17:15):
something else to focus on and learn about and and continue to
grow with. So I'm for myself, I thought a
lot about this but I'm also not too worried about it just
because I I know I've had I justhave no trouble finding
different things that I can go all in on and as long as it's
allowing me to grow and find again like a better way to do
things. Yeah, man, it's, it's like
(17:36):
creativity and imagination, right?
There's, there's so many things you can do.
If you can't find something, then you just haven't even tried
hard enough yet, because there'sa a billion things that would.
Well, I'd like to think that at least for me, that'd be the
case. Too many things I can have my
attention on, right. So it's like, how could you ever
be bored? But I totally understand for
some people that's that's a that's a gigantic issue.
(17:57):
And they've never had to to comeface to face with that.
Yeah, absolutely. So I want to transition.
We're going to take a break realquick shot at the sponsor of the
show. When we come back, though, talk
about the financial side of things.
How do we prepare? You know, how do we actually
practically get the preparation for the finances right and, you
(18:21):
know, make sure that we have what we need whenever we do
retire to do the things we love to do.
Just like to know the steps thatyou walk people through in that
arena to help them prepare. We'll talk about that in one
minute. Are you struggling to make
consistent, valuable content foryourself?
Do you want to have an efficientand effective way to create
content that attracts the peoplethat you want to connect with in
(18:43):
life? The people you want to build
relationships? With in business, do you?
Want to be the go to? Authority at what you do, at
what you're great at. Would it be helpful for you if
you had a platform that connectsyou to incredible people in your
industry? The kind of platform that gets
you leads and lands you clients without you having to beat down
anybody's door or blow up anybody's inbox.
Whether you're already. Creating content or you're
(19:06):
desiring to start and it's something that's been kind of
burning inside of you for a while.
I urge you and encourage you to check out the Pro Podcaster
Academy. Get started right now.
Join the at robzeewentz.com. Hi, my name is Jose Escobar and
I'm the founder and CEO of the Connected Leaders Academy.
We're a growing tribe, a community of entrepreneurs all
(19:28):
over the world, globally. If you're an entrepreneur and
you're looking to grow personally and professionally,
scale your influence, develop your skill sets, move the needle
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The bottom line and of course, grow your circle and your
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today. Check me out on Instagram and on
(19:49):
Facebook The at symbol Jasco 25.We look forward to having you
join us. Take care.
So Joe, I, I love this conversation because it's, it's
really important and something we can really push off.
And so it's really valuable to dive into this and to get it, to
get it in your head, be thinkingabout it, what you're going to
do and one of the biggest things.
(20:11):
When you do retire revolves around money.
So how can somebody who is heading towards that retirement
age transition from saving to spending without worrying about
running out of money? Yeah.
So I'd say the first thing I start early, ideally just
thinking about this and planningthis long before you get to that
age or that time where you're ready to transition out of work
(20:34):
or to whatever the next stage is.
But I mean, so most people who we're working with are within
five years of retirement. And this is what we're doing is
we're trying to help them get some clarity on what life looks
like once they stop working so that we can get a better
understanding of, you know, whatdo they need from their finance
finances to be able to create a paycheck, not outlive their
(20:55):
money, Be prepared if things don't go as planned.
So it really starts with, yeah, that like figuring out that
vision, as you said earlier, Rob, and then from there getting
clarity on where you are today, like, you know, what do we have
for available resources today and then fill in the gap.
So what do we need to do to get you from where you are today to
(21:17):
where you need to be in order tostop doing the work that you're
currently doing? Right.
And so that's going to include cash flow planning, like making
sure there's enough freed up cash flow to be putting aside
into an investment plan. So figuring out that an
investment portfolio and based on your, you know, your time
horizon, your comfort level around investments, that's going
to determine what does that portfolio look like, like how
(21:39):
much risk are you comfortable taking?
And the based on that, we start to get an idea of what we could
expect for ready to return into the future, which helps us kind
of fine tune and, and how much you should be putting away.
And then it also at the same time we're looking at, you know,
what could go wrong? Like if things don't go to plan,
you know, we get hurt and need to be off work earlier or God
(21:59):
forbid, you know, my spouse passes away earlier.
One of the things we need to putin place to make sure that God
forbid something like that happens, everything still works
out at least financially at the very least.
So that's a pretty high level, pretty high level overview.
I don't know if you want to diveinto any more specifics.
Well, I'm just, I'm thinking, you know, it's really valuable
(22:22):
if you're like me, somebody likemyself, I usually for better or
worth, maybe live in the now. I don't think or worry too much
about the future, which can be like a delusional optimism kind
of thing. So hopefully you have somebody
in your life that pushes these things on you #1 hopefully your
spouse, if you're not that person, your spouse pushes you
towards it, 'cause my wife, she's like on it with me and
(22:44):
she's like, we got to get these things figured out.
I'm like, yeah, but I've got 20 years, 2530 years, whatever.
And I don't even want to retire anyways.
And she's like, it doesn't matter.
You got to, we got to get this figured out, right?
So if you don't, and if you don't have somebody like that in
your life, you're the perfect person to go to, right?
It's, it's being mindful. Well, even if you do have
somebody like that in your life,still go to a professional who
can help you really get practical in the ways of walking
(23:07):
through that. But I think that's a huge piece
of the puzzle is just knowing this is super important.
I really need to focus on it andyou want to get it right.
And I'm in the beginning phases of that right now with my wife
because she's, you know, just kind of like nudging us in that
direction. Somebody who's more future
thinking. And, and I, I love that it's
(23:28):
such a, a good balance to have when you talk about tax
efficient retirement strategies,maybe some simple ways that
retirees can maximize their taxes, keep more of their money,
because obviously that's going to be a, a huge issue.
Yeah. So it'd be a bit different
between Canada and the US, but same, I mean similar in a lot of
(23:49):
ways that we have different types of accounts, but from a
naming standpoint, but a lot of them work similarly.
So you have like your retirementaccounts, you have your, we call
them non registered accounts, which would just be no kind of
tax efficiency built around them.
You guys would have Roth accounts, we have tax free
savings accounts, you guys will have Social Security, we have
Canada Pension Plan. So there's these similarities.
(24:10):
But at the end of the day, from a tax efficiency standpoint
before retirement, we're lookingat, OK, you know, what kind of
tax bracket are we in today versus what kind of tax bracket
do we expect to be in, in retirement.
And so that's going to drive some of the decisions of where
we're putting our savings today.So for example, in Canada we
have an RRSP, so that's a retirement account.
(24:31):
We put money into that account and we get a tax deduction, but
when we take it out in retirement, we pay tax on it, we
pay that future tax. So I think an IRAIRA would be
similar for you guys or 4O1K. So making that those decisions.
So if our if our tax bracket is going to be the same in
retirement as it is while we're working, we might want to look
at actually putting money into tax free savings accounts or
(24:54):
Roth accounts, for example. Now once we get into retirement,
it's really figuring out. So we have these different
buckets, we have our tax deferred buckets.
So meaning it's growing in thereand we're not paying tax until
we take it out. Then we have our taxable
buckets. That just means that we're
paying tax as we go. And then we have our tax free
bucket, which means that, you know, as it grows, we pay no tax
(25:14):
and when we take it out, we pay no tax.
So we're managing those different buckets along with
things like Social Security income or if, you know, you
start a painting business and you have other income coming in,
like how are we looking at all these different buckets?
We have to minimize our lifetimetaxes, right?
I think one of the difference between a, a financial planner
(25:36):
and an accountant sometimes is an accountant is looking at
typically looking at, you know, how do we pay the least amount
of tax this year? Whereas a financial planner,
what we're trying to look at is how are we limiting your
lifetime tax bill? And so maybe that means paying a
little bit more tax today to getsomething out of that tax
deferred account, knowing that it's actually going to lessen
(25:56):
the amount of tax we pay over a lifetime and maybe lessen the
amount of tax that our, you know, next generation our kids
are paying when we pass away. So it's a bit of a puzzle just
kind of taking all the differentbuckets or the different sources
of income and putting it together.
So we're talking about optimizing retirement income
from a tax standpoint. That's what we're looking at.
Yeah, man. And it's, it's really important
(26:17):
to have somebody like yourself because you're objectively
looking at it, no emotion involved.
And I think that's a huge piece of it too, right?
If you're doing this for yourself, you can get kind of
wrapped up in, in your own head around the whole thing.
But if you have somebody like yourself who's strictly just
there to help look at it objectively and make the right
decisions, it's hugely impactful, which I, I mean, I
(26:38):
encourage everybody should have a mentor.
You should have a coach, you should be a coach for somebody.
You should be a mentor for somebody.
But you should have financial planner without a doubt, like in
your life, because that's somebody who's, you know,
coaching you on your money. And that's really, really
valuable. And again, one of those things
was never taught to us in school, right?
Never, we were never taught how to handle money, how to deal
(27:00):
with things like that. And so just the same as the
vision, same as the, the goals and the values and things of
that nature, You really need somebody to kind of walk you
through that process who's an expert in it, unless you're an
expert in it yourself, right? So it's, it's such a, a big
piece of the puzzle. Yeah, I mean, I think a a big
thing, and I mean there's a few things where I think working
(27:21):
with someone like myself would make sense is 1.
You don't know what you don't know.
So you might, you know, think you're doing OK, but there might
be things out there you have no idea ways to save tax.
Maybe you're paying too much taxor maybe your money is not
invested in a way that's as, youknow, as safe as you think it
is. So that's part of it.
Part of it is accountability. So, so once you know, have your
(27:44):
vision, what's the accountability for you to
actually follow through on the actions for you to achieve your
vision, right. So one of the things would be,
you know, you talked about thinking about today and it's
hard to think into the future sometimes.
So if you're working with somebody, you say, yeah, you
know what, this is what I want things to look like.
You come up with a plan for how to get there.
So a lot of that could be automated, right?
So having a planner set it up soit's automated so you don't have
(28:06):
to think about it all the time, you know, what's just happening.
And then you do your regular check insurance to see, are you
on track? Have things changed where we
need to make some adjustments? And then there's the just
avoiding the big mistake, right?Like you never know, things look
scary. You kind of panic with your
money. That could be like that one big
mistake could cost you hundreds of thousands or more of future
(28:27):
retirement income, right? So just make it ensure you're
avoiding that big mistake. Great point.
Yeah, you can make gigantic mistakes and be paying for them
for years to come. And that kind of stuff can
happen in a heartbeat. It can happen in the moment,
right? So it's having that advisor
there, somebody who's kind of holding your hand, watching what
(28:47):
you're doing is really vital. What are some overlooked aspects
of retirement people don't thinkabout until they get there?
Is there anything we haven't touched on yet that is like, I
didn't see that one coming untilI'm actually retired now.
And you're like, oh crap. Yeah.
So I think we've touched a lot on that purpose piece, like what
are we actually doing? What's getting us out of bed
once we're no longer doing, you know, what we did for 30 years.
(29:11):
So that that really is is the biggest one.
But then there's other things you talked a little bit about
kind of living in the now or thinking about now.
Like I think that is important because we see a lot of
retirees. I mean, a lot of them live
healthy long lives, but a lot ofthem also, you know, they're
seeing their friends get sick orfamily members get sick when and
it's so it's just a bit of a different dynamic.
So I think that it, you know, one of those priorities really
(29:35):
needs to be health like, like take take care of yourself.
Think about that, because thingsstart to break down at a certain
point and you want to make sure if there's things you want to
do, like I've seen so many timesin here, we're trying to get
clients. Hey, you've been saying for, you
know, five years, you want to dolike this trip or what do you
know this activity and you stillhaven't done it?
What's holding you back? So we try to work people through
(29:56):
those things, but so many times it just gets to a point where,
you know, they just can't do it anymore.
Mobility issues or make cognitive issues, things start
coming up or they just they can't do it.
So I think it's really, you know, understanding that again,
that comes back to the values, the vision.
Like what do you want things to look like?
What is important to you? And then act on that.
(30:16):
Don't just do it as an exercise,but use that to filter in how
you're spending your time. Yeah, you just brought up a
great point too, because a lot of the times we'll push off the
things that would be the most enjoyable in life, right?
We'll push off things that you really want to do.
They aren't necessary to do. But at the end of the day, the
things that are going to bring you joy are necessary things to
do like because they're going tobring you that fulfillment that
(30:39):
you need, the experiences that you'd want to have, memories
that you're going to make. And that stuff can be seen as
unimportant when really it's kind of, I would say near the
top of the list of of great things to do you.
I always ask for quotes when people come on the show.
And the quote that you gave me was, do we stop playing because
we grow old or do we grow old because we stop playing?
(31:03):
I think that speaks to exactly what we're talking about right
now, Right? So what does that quote mean to
you? How have you applied that to
your life, even though you're not even to that retirement age
yet? Yeah, so for me, I mean, we have
a couple of buddies who we stilldo tons of activities together.
We're always trying new things, but I just noticed a lot of our
(31:24):
friends, so I'm 40 now. You know, over the last 20
years, a lot of our friends stopped doing a lot of things
that we used to do for fun. So I mean, I still play hockey
usually a couple times a week, still out golfing.
And I've gone through different I started doing Spartan races a
few years ago and I've switched that to doing a couple half
marathons. So always looking for something
else to kind of push myself. And a big part of it is I also
(31:47):
want like, I have kids who are 8and 6 now and I want to continue
to, you know, play with hockey with them when they get older.
Like I got to play with my, my dad still plays hockey, we still
play together sometimes, which is kind of fun.
So I want to see that in the future to be able to do that
with my kids. And then like, I just, you know,
started doing some mountain biking a few years ago, which,
you know, I don't think most people think you're starting
(32:07):
mountain biking in your 40s. Obviously you can, but it's not
typical, especially when I look around me.
So, you know, for me it's never not doing something 'cause, you
know, I'm too old for that. For me, it's always like, yeah,
let's try something new. Or how do we, you know, keep
going? So that's something I definitely
live by. Yeah.
And really, really important because why not?
(32:29):
And like you said, like hitting 40, like it's, there's nothing
saying that you're not allowed to except for the thoughts
inside of your head that are like, oh, I'm too old to do this
thing now. Like you got to try new stuff
out. And if you don't do that, you're
gonna live a life of, well, regret, number one.
But also that it keeps you mentally sharp.
I mean, we look at like dementiaand Alzheimer's.
(32:51):
I mean, there are studies that show that the more mentally
active you are and more physically active you are, you
can, you can stave off a lot of those things.
You can push those things back because you're constantly
creating new neural pathways in your brain.
And it's also it's, it's just healthy.
It's just creatively healthy foryou to do that, let alone
physically healthy. So I love that, man.
(33:12):
That's, that's really important.And I think when it comes to
retirement, right, people, usually it's about money.
It's like, oh, do I have enough money and I don't want to work
anymore. And that leaves this giant void
of wow, what could be. So I love the fact that you're
getting people prepared to do that.
What's to come? What could be the next thing?
(33:32):
So as we come to the close of this episode, I want to
encourage people to check you out online so you have a you can
click the Get the Navigator tab at
retirementplanningsimplified.ca.What happens when they they
click that tab? Yeah.
So you get the retirement navigator.
So you'll also go on our, our newsletter, we put out a lot of
(33:53):
just twice a week, put in some tips around a lot of it is kind
of what we've been talking abouttoday, right?
So we follow kind of an Alex Hermozi, I'm not sure if
anyone's familiar with that, buthis kind of formula for like
just super short, read it under 60 seconds, real advice you can
use. And then it's Alex Hermozi.
Oh, OK. Yeah, yeah.
(34:14):
You probably know him. And then the navigator itself
though, it has an exercise rightin there for figuring out your
values. The same exercise we use with
our clients. And it also has an exercise
around finding purpose, right? So figuring out your purpose,
your those priorities. I mentioned like 3 priorities
ideally. So we have that exercise right
(34:35):
in there. And then beyond that, we have
some other pieces around like figuring out what do you need
for cash flow in retirement, youknow, thinking about the
different retirement income streams you're going to have
once you get to retirement, setting up a retirement income
plan and other things to think about.
So there's a, it's a pretty in depth guide.
But you know, I think even if you just went in there, no
matter what age or stage you're at, the values and the purpose
(34:57):
BS, I think it would be very worthwhile.
Yeah, no doubt do that today. If you have never done that
before, that is super valuable. So you can click the navigator
tab at retirementplanningsimplified.ca.
The link is in the bio. Joe, thank you for your time
today. There's one question I always
love to ask people as we sign off.
So pretend, say you're never going to talk to me or see me
(35:20):
ever again. Anybody who's been on here on
the live stream or who watches this, you're never going to hear
from them or talk to them ever again.
What message would you leave? Oh, just live a life of
intention. That's good.
Be in tension with what you do It's impactful.
Good man. Awesome.
(35:40):
I love this. Another true testimony of
breakthrough. Thank you for your time.
Until next time. This has been the unstuck
movement.
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