December 11, 2025 • 12 mins
LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE on:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
A reflection on why life only works when we anchor ourselves to a single guiding priority—faith and family—and stop chasing every flashing distraction. From sea turtles losing their way to kids building sandcastles that will wash away, Chris explores how purpose beats planning, why financial “preparation” matters more than rigid “plans,” and why joy, meaning, and relationships can’t be postponed for some mythical retirement finish line.
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watchdog-on-wall-street-with-chris-markowski/id570687608
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2PtgPvJvqc2gkpGIkNMR5i
WATCH and SUBSCRIBE on:
https://www.youtube.com/@WatchdogOnWallstreet/featured
A reflection on why life only works when we anchor ourselves to a single guiding priority—faith and family—and stop chasing every flashing distraction. From sea turtles losing their way to kids building sandcastles that will wash away, Chris explores how purpose beats planning, why financial “preparation” matters more than rigid “plans,” and why joy, meaning, and relationships can’t be postponed for some mythical retirement finish line.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Priorities, Sandcastle's Turtles and financial planning versus financial preparation. I've
mentioned this before here on the program. We could only
have one priority. Can't have priorities, even though it's in
the title here priorities, No, no such thing. There has
to be one underlying thing that is each in every
(00:42):
one of our our modus operendi. Our priority mine obviously
serve God and my family. That's it. That's it. They're
one and the same. They're one and the same. That's
not priorities. That's one in the same, and that guides
(01:03):
everything that I do. People I've noticed they get bogged
down with priorities and they lose focus. They lose focus,
they get off track when all of a sudden, you know,
this item they may desire may become a priorite or
(01:27):
whatever it may be. If you keep your focus, if
you get your mind right and have a priority, everything
else is going to fall in line. Chris Stephanick did
a bit on this several months ago, and he's talking
about sea turtles in Florida and how sea turtles when
(01:55):
they hatch, they are guided by the light of the
moon on the water. They go to the water, and
that's what they're supposed to do. And it is part
of a problem that they have down here in Florida
where these sea turtles hatch, is that people have, you know,
lights on their houses, lights elsewhere, and the sea turtles
(02:18):
they lose focus and they go in the wrong direction. Actually,
you know, they shootin areas you're not allowed to have
lights on at your house you live on the beach
certain times a year because it's bad for the sea turtles.
The sea turtles have got to go to the water.
That's what happens to us as human beings. We've got lights,
things flashing here there everywhere. I've got to be, you
(02:41):
know this, and it takes us takes us off our
true path, It takes us away from what really should
guide us our priority. Same castles. I was thinking about
this a column I wrote about twenty years ago, twenty
four years ago. Actually let's see a little bit less
(03:03):
in it, and I was talking about my son, my
son at the beach and was watching him build sand
castle time. I think he was maybe four years old.
And you know when you watch a little kid when
they get into something, and you know you're wondering what's
going on in their mind. Where they got that determined
look on their face and their you know, buckets of
(03:25):
sand and water and carving tunnels the plastic shovel and
they got the little action figures there. Uh, you know,
build a moat to keep the bad guys out. All
that stuff, priceless stuff that I'll never ever forget. But
there's a lesson behind that. And it's a project that
my son was working hard on. But he knew it
(03:46):
was going to get you know, it's gonna bitch that
the sea is gonna come, it's going to be gone.
He didn't care. He was enjoying what he was doing,
enjoying the process, enjoying the process, every minute of what
he was doing. And this is where I get into
(04:08):
and I've talked about this a lot over the years
here on the program and how much I am not
a big fan. And you have to use it because
it's the you know, it's the terminology in the industry.
I don't even like how it's used. You've got you know,
in my opinion, anybody that is working at a big
(04:30):
investment house, technically they're not a fiduciary because they have
shareholders beholding to so they can't put their clients interests
above their own. But anyway, the difference between financial planning
and financial preparation, I don't like the word financial planning.
I don't the idea that you are going to have
(04:53):
some sort of control. This is a fallacy. You control
your life, h and what's going to happen next, You're
not You're not. You know again, it's difficult for a
lot of people. Out of men. You can control what
(05:13):
you have control over. You are a hard worker, you
have control over that. You can bust your butt, But
you don't know what's going to come your way. You
don't know what pitfall you may run into. You may
not know what great I get, great fortune, great opportunity
(05:36):
may present itself to you. It's different for all of us.
We don't have control over that. We control what we
have controllver, work hard, bust your butt, do the right thing,
live you know the right way, all of that stuff
and that's quite frankly, the difference in what we do
that this idea is financial planning idea. And listen, it's cute,
(05:59):
it's qua and it's it's easy to sell. It's easy
to sell. I got my software and we're going to
punch in some dates here and what are you planning
on around tiring? And this is just and this is
how much you can spend at this point in time.
And then people they programmed their lives around these dates.
(06:28):
Why why would you do that? Why would you do that? Yeah,
I'm the same people. You know, they go on vacations.
Is something I never really understood. And sorry if I
have offending anybody who likes to do this stuff. Going
on vacations and you're going on a cruise and then
you're going with some tour and you've got some sort
(06:51):
of schedule and you've got to be back here at
a certain point in time, and you're following somebody around
with a flag. I'm like, that's only vacation. I was like, work,
So that's not vacation to me. You have vacation. Yeah,
you know you're in venice. Get yourself up early, you know,
go get yourself lost, Go have a good time. Okay,
(07:13):
figure out that's what makes it fun and that's how
you should treat life. Okay, don't have this false sense
that you have any sort of control, because you don't.
You don't. What you can do is you do the
(07:33):
right thing. And again this is obviously on a moral
level than by the rules, you know, living that way,
but also when it comes to what we do is again, yeah,
you're putting money away on a regular basis, you're doing
the right thing. But you know what you're also you're
not doing You're not missing out on the here and now.
(07:56):
This is this thing about retirement, thing about retirement. I
don't like that word, the finality of it. I am retired.
I'm retired. You know you think about that just you know,
you look at like a professional athlete, how long they
(08:18):
hold on. They never want to retire. It's because they
love what they do and they know it's the end
of something. What is the point throwing this ount? I
let'n throw some question. What is the point for grinding
for three to four decades? Okay, I'm gonna work all
(08:38):
these extra hours, gonna miss my kids ball game's gonna
do all this stuff, not gonna you know, not gonna
you know, do the things, take care of my health
the way I should. Then you know, up then, oh
don't worry. When I hit that finish line thirty forty
years on to roll up, then I can start enjoying life.
What are you kidding me? Did you understand? This was
(09:04):
almost like a George Carlin bit back when he's talking
about the Big Club and it was also talking about
education in America. And you know, you know, they want
you to just smart enough to follow the rules, do
what they tell you to do. You're gonna you know,
(09:25):
basically forfeit your younger years. When again we're all gonna
get older, things are gonna start breaking and that's inevitable. Okay,
happens to all of us, trust me. Well, so you
can make a couple extra bucks. I again, I'm all
(09:47):
for work hard, doing the right thing, But why are
you gonna work yourself silly? And I like, listen, Well,
you work, I listen. I work my butt off, Okay,
but I also spend a much time as I possibly
can with my family, still going on family vacase, doing
(10:09):
things together on a regular basis. You don't want to
miss that. Yeah, this is put together. This is actually
some real smart statement was given to me. When you
push off joy, purpose, relationships, health, adventure and meaning until
(10:34):
the final chapter of your life, you often don't get
the chapter you were promised. You promised anything. Okay, that's
Madison Avenue promising you crap. So I don't like the
concept of retirement in the first place. Okay, that's a
that's those stupid commercials that the brokerage. Well, I can replire.
(10:54):
I'm a school teacher. Oh save my money, and now
I got a I got a vineyard in Napolo. Shut up,
now you don't now you know, wouldn't it be better
to enjoy your younger g whizz maybe work a few
days a week. I'm just saying, when you get a
little bit older, maybe not check out completely. You know,
(11:19):
we all have again I talk about, you know, the
purpose that we have. We all have talent ability. It's
all different. It's all different, you know what, everybody's different.
You know when I was I was younger, Yeah, I
wanted to play for professional baseball for the Yankees. Guess what.
I didn't have the ability. Okay, didn't have it. It
didn't matter how hard I worked, and we busted our
(11:41):
butser a, kid good not good enough? Not good? That's okay,
that's all right. That wasn't for me. Okay, it wasn't
what I was destined to do. But what I'm getting at,
you're wired for a per purpose. You're wired for contributing,
(12:04):
for creativity. You're you're wired to have a mission. Don't
miss things, don't grind yourself into dust. Okay, never, never,
I'm telling you right now, don't give up on work. Okay,
you can give them work. It's gonna be in your
own terms. I did talk about this. I'll probably believe
(12:25):
you know, do a headplant in front of a microphone.
That's okay, not wrong with that. I've enjoyed the ride,
and you need to as well. This is the problem
and this is this, you know again, this pot of gold,
this retirement that they sell you. Oh yeah, don't participate
(12:51):
in that. People. There's better ways of doing things. Watch
Dog on Wall Street dot com
The Watchdog on Wall Street podcast explaining the news coming
out of the complex worlds of finance, economics, and politics
and the impact it we'll have on everyday Americans. Author,
investment banker, consumer advocate, analyst, and trader Chris Markowski.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Priorities, Sandcastle's Turtles and financial planning versus financial preparation. I've
mentioned this before here on the program. We could only
have one priority. Can't have priorities, even though it's in
the title here priorities, No, no such thing. There has
to be one underlying thing that is each in every
(00:42):
one of our our modus operendi. Our priority mine obviously
serve God and my family. That's it. That's it. They're
one and the same. They're one and the same. That's
not priorities. That's one in the same, and that guides
(01:03):
everything that I do. People I've noticed they get bogged
down with priorities and they lose focus. They lose focus,
they get off track when all of a sudden, you know,
this item they may desire may become a priorite or
(01:27):
whatever it may be. If you keep your focus, if
you get your mind right and have a priority, everything
else is going to fall in line. Chris Stephanick did
a bit on this several months ago, and he's talking
about sea turtles in Florida and how sea turtles when
(01:55):
they hatch, they are guided by the light of the
moon on the water. They go to the water, and
that's what they're supposed to do. And it is part
of a problem that they have down here in Florida
where these sea turtles hatch, is that people have, you know,
lights on their houses, lights elsewhere, and the sea turtles
(02:18):
they lose focus and they go in the wrong direction. Actually,
you know, they shootin areas you're not allowed to have
lights on at your house you live on the beach
certain times a year because it's bad for the sea turtles.
The sea turtles have got to go to the water.
That's what happens to us as human beings. We've got lights,
things flashing here there everywhere. I've got to be, you
(02:41):
know this, and it takes us takes us off our
true path, It takes us away from what really should
guide us our priority. Same castles. I was thinking about
this a column I wrote about twenty years ago, twenty
four years ago. Actually let's see a little bit less
(03:03):
in it, and I was talking about my son, my
son at the beach and was watching him build sand
castle time. I think he was maybe four years old.
And you know when you watch a little kid when
they get into something, and you know you're wondering what's
going on in their mind. Where they got that determined
look on their face and their you know, buckets of
(03:25):
sand and water and carving tunnels the plastic shovel and
they got the little action figures there. Uh, you know,
build a moat to keep the bad guys out. All
that stuff, priceless stuff that I'll never ever forget. But
there's a lesson behind that. And it's a project that
my son was working hard on. But he knew it
(03:46):
was going to get you know, it's gonna bitch that
the sea is gonna come, it's going to be gone.
He didn't care. He was enjoying what he was doing,
enjoying the process, enjoying the process, every minute of what
he was doing. And this is where I get into
(04:08):
and I've talked about this a lot over the years
here on the program and how much I am not
a big fan. And you have to use it because
it's the you know, it's the terminology in the industry.
I don't even like how it's used. You've got you know,
in my opinion, anybody that is working at a big
(04:30):
investment house, technically they're not a fiduciary because they have
shareholders beholding to so they can't put their clients interests
above their own. But anyway, the difference between financial planning
and financial preparation, I don't like the word financial planning.
I don't the idea that you are going to have
(04:53):
some sort of control. This is a fallacy. You control
your life, h and what's going to happen next, You're
not You're not. You know again, it's difficult for a
lot of people. Out of men. You can control what
(05:13):
you have control over. You are a hard worker, you
have control over that. You can bust your butt, But
you don't know what's going to come your way. You
don't know what pitfall you may run into. You may
not know what great I get, great fortune, great opportunity
(05:36):
may present itself to you. It's different for all of us.
We don't have control over that. We control what we
have controllver, work hard, bust your butt, do the right thing,
live you know the right way, all of that stuff
and that's quite frankly, the difference in what we do
that this idea is financial planning idea. And listen, it's cute,
(05:59):
it's qua and it's it's easy to sell. It's easy
to sell. I got my software and we're going to
punch in some dates here and what are you planning
on around tiring? And this is just and this is
how much you can spend at this point in time.
And then people they programmed their lives around these dates.
(06:28):
Why why would you do that? Why would you do that? Yeah,
I'm the same people. You know, they go on vacations.
Is something I never really understood. And sorry if I
have offending anybody who likes to do this stuff. Going
on vacations and you're going on a cruise and then
you're going with some tour and you've got some sort
(06:51):
of schedule and you've got to be back here at
a certain point in time, and you're following somebody around
with a flag. I'm like, that's only vacation. I was like, work,
So that's not vacation to me. You have vacation. Yeah,
you know you're in venice. Get yourself up early, you know,
go get yourself lost, Go have a good time. Okay,
(07:13):
figure out that's what makes it fun and that's how
you should treat life. Okay, don't have this false sense
that you have any sort of control, because you don't.
You don't. What you can do is you do the
(07:33):
right thing. And again this is obviously on a moral
level than by the rules, you know, living that way,
but also when it comes to what we do is again, yeah,
you're putting money away on a regular basis, you're doing
the right thing. But you know what you're also you're
not doing You're not missing out on the here and now.
(07:56):
This is this thing about retirement, thing about retirement. I
don't like that word, the finality of it. I am retired.
I'm retired. You know you think about that just you know,
you look at like a professional athlete, how long they
(08:18):
hold on. They never want to retire. It's because they
love what they do and they know it's the end
of something. What is the point throwing this ount? I
let'n throw some question. What is the point for grinding
for three to four decades? Okay, I'm gonna work all
(08:38):
these extra hours, gonna miss my kids ball game's gonna
do all this stuff, not gonna you know, not gonna
you know, do the things, take care of my health
the way I should. Then you know, up then, oh
don't worry. When I hit that finish line thirty forty
years on to roll up, then I can start enjoying life.
What are you kidding me? Did you understand? This was
(09:04):
almost like a George Carlin bit back when he's talking
about the Big Club and it was also talking about
education in America. And you know, you know, they want
you to just smart enough to follow the rules, do
what they tell you to do. You're gonna you know,
(09:25):
basically forfeit your younger years. When again we're all gonna
get older, things are gonna start breaking and that's inevitable. Okay,
happens to all of us, trust me. Well, so you
can make a couple extra bucks. I again, I'm all
(09:47):
for work hard, doing the right thing, But why are
you gonna work yourself silly? And I like, listen, Well,
you work, I listen. I work my butt off, Okay,
but I also spend a much time as I possibly
can with my family, still going on family vacase, doing
(10:09):
things together on a regular basis. You don't want to
miss that. Yeah, this is put together. This is actually
some real smart statement was given to me. When you
push off joy, purpose, relationships, health, adventure and meaning until
(10:34):
the final chapter of your life, you often don't get
the chapter you were promised. You promised anything. Okay, that's
Madison Avenue promising you crap. So I don't like the
concept of retirement in the first place. Okay, that's a
that's those stupid commercials that the brokerage. Well, I can replire.
(10:54):
I'm a school teacher. Oh save my money, and now
I got a I got a vineyard in Napolo. Shut up,
now you don't now you know, wouldn't it be better
to enjoy your younger g whizz maybe work a few
days a week. I'm just saying, when you get a
little bit older, maybe not check out completely. You know,
(11:19):
we all have again I talk about, you know, the
purpose that we have. We all have talent ability. It's
all different. It's all different, you know what, everybody's different.
You know when I was I was younger, Yeah, I
wanted to play for professional baseball for the Yankees. Guess what.
I didn't have the ability. Okay, didn't have it. It
didn't matter how hard I worked, and we busted our
(11:41):
butser a, kid good not good enough? Not good? That's okay,
that's all right. That wasn't for me. Okay, it wasn't
what I was destined to do. But what I'm getting at,
you're wired for a per purpose. You're wired for contributing,
(12:04):
for creativity. You're you're wired to have a mission. Don't
miss things, don't grind yourself into dust. Okay, never, never,
I'm telling you right now, don't give up on work. Okay,
you can give them work. It's gonna be in your
own terms. I did talk about this. I'll probably believe
(12:25):
you know, do a headplant in front of a microphone.
That's okay, not wrong with that. I've enjoyed the ride,
and you need to as well. This is the problem
and this is this, you know again, this pot of gold,
this retirement that they sell you. Oh yeah, don't participate
(12:51):
in that. People. There's better ways of doing things. Watch
Dog on Wall Street dot com
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