Paul Winkler: And we’re back here on “The Investor Coaching Show.” Paul Winkler, along with Jim Wood, wishing you and yours, a very Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, combination holidays.
Hope you’re having a great time talking about today … 2022 planning ahead.
Did a little thing last week where I talked about how most people plan ahead either one day, one week, one month, maybe one year ahead of time.
Most people do not plan very far ahead. Surely not decades … years.
There is a decent number of people, not the majority. That’s where it started to fall off.
When you get into weeks, that’s where the majority of most people—I guess that’s redundant, majority of most people—most people actually, they plan weeks ahead, but never years … decades … forget about it. Generations never.
But I like to think about specific goals, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-sensitive, but goals in what?
Okay, so let’s talk about the areas that you think about.
Bar Graph of Personal Goals
I will often draw on a sheet of paper. I’ll draw a line down the bottom from left to right. Then I’ll draw a series of bars, and I won’t fill them in until I’m finished with this.
So I just draw the outline of the sides of what would be a bar graph, and then inside of each bar, and there might be six or seven of them. Just think of it that way.
So I have six or seven of these bars going from left to right. I’m not filling in the height of the bar at this point, but I will put the name in there.
So what I do is I think, “On a scale of one to 10, how is my financial life?”
Number one. How are things going there? Do I feel like I’ve got a good handle on debt? Do I have a good handle on savings? Do I have a good handle on my emergency fund?
Do I really know what I’m doing with my 401(k)? Do I know how much money I’m going to need for the future? Do I have a goal there?
Do I know … let’s say it’s Social Security, how much it’s likely to pay?
What other things come to your mind regarding financial?
Jim Wood: I’m just saying that’s a lot of questions for just one bar.
PW: It is.
JW: And just joking, I’m saying you could almost do a separate graph or separate thing just for, hey, this is all my financial stuff and then “other.”
PW: Oh, that’s a really good point. I’ve never really thought about doing it that way, but you’re right. You could have eight bars just for that one thing.
JW: Right. But the topics are so varied. I mean, insurance, savings—
PW: Goodness, that’s really … you’ve given me an idea.
JW: Stuff for your kids. I mean 529 plans, savings stuff like that. Long-term care—
PW: That could be because it is a big part of people’s lives. I never really thought about it that way, Jim. That’s a really good point.
So you might have several bars right there on your graph. You’re going to have to get a longer piece of paper. Thanks, Jim.
Jim owns stock in a paper factory so hence—
JW: Dunder Mifflin.
PW: This segment of “The Investor Coaching Show,” brought to you by a warehouse.
So we can look at that and say, “Let’s break it up.” Maybe we can break it up into savings, emergency fund, how I’m dealing with my 401(k).
How much of an understanding about investing do I have? How much in debt understanding? College education, those types of things. So bars—bar or bars— however, you want to do it. That’s the first one.
Second one is relationships. How are your relations? Do you have friendships?
Now if you’re a guy, the answer may be no. Isn’t it something that a lot of guys? That we just aren’t great at developing really strong friendships? I was thinking about this the other day.
Who would you call up on a whim? Who would you call up to go see the new Spider-Man movie? You may not go see that. I’m just talking about any movie that you might want to go see.
JW: I was going to say the Spider-Man movie. If I didn’t call my daughter Gianna, then you know.
PW: You’d be in trouble.
JW: I’d be in trouble.
PW: No, but seriously, if you didn’t have kids, who would you call? Well, even if you do have kids, I mean, the reality is the kids want to go out and do their own thing anyway, but who would you pick up the phone and call up another guy friend to just go do something like that and go bowling, or I don’t know, whatever?
Some guys are going to have people that they would call, but if you don’t … maybe that’s going to be relationships. That’s going to be friendships right there.
And it’s really good for couples, especially as their kids get older, to start to develop relationships with other couples.
Now what you’re going to do—and I failed to mention this when we talked about finances—is on a scale of one to 10, where are you with that?
I feel like I’ve got a great handle on this—unbelievably great handle on it. I’m a nine and a half.
Draw that bar so that it’s tall enough on your scale, and make it maybe four inches tall or something like that, and that’s going to be where a 10 is (that four inches high).
Let’s just use that as a number. Now let’s use five inches because then we’ll be able to divide it up in twos. So each inch is two points on our 10-point scale.
So relationships, I don’t have any. You give yourself a two on there. So maybe it’s a one-inch tall bar right there.
How about marriage, on a scale of one to 10, where’s that? You know what? My wife and I don’t talk, or you know what? We’re doing great. Just give yourself a measurement right there.
Another thing that you might think about is hobbies. That would be the fourth bar.
So we got finance, we’ve got relationships like friendships, and then we’ve got marriage, if you’re married, it’s going to be the next one. Next one after that’s hobbies.
What Will You Do While Retired?
Do you have any hobbies? A lot of people don’t retire, because they’ve got nothing to retire to. What are you going to do when you have a lot of time on you?
And if you say that I’m going to golf all the time, I know very few people that can do that literally year-round. Number one, because of weather, but number two, because of sheer boredom.
JW: It’s funny that question. I have asked clients in meetings, “Well, you’re going to have all this free time. Now you’re retiring on June 1, or whatever the date is, how are you going to spend your time?”
And sometimes the look on their face is amazing in that it’s really the first time they’ve even thought about that or at least somebody’s asked them that question. And that’s something you have to give some thought.
I mean, you have all that free time in the world, and you got to come up with some way to fill that, or it’s not going to be the dream retirement that you thought.
Some people can, “Oh, I’m going to be so busy,” and some people are busier than they ever were when they were working.
But I always use my dad as an example, as he retired as a sheet metal worker after 20 years, and he was home for six months and just was going stir crazy trying to find stuff to do. Even though he had all kinds of plans: “I’m going to restore this classic car, and I’m going to do this, and I’m going to have these hobbies and stuff.”
Six months later, he went back and got another job that he held for another 20 years because he was that guy.
But the point with all that is give it some thought. You got to know where you’re going.
PW: It may be that you say, “I’m going to restore this classic car.” So let’s use that as an example because I think that’s a really cool example.
So he has a classic car. “I want to restore the thing.” Well, maybe that’s what you like doing. Why do you like doing it?
I like doing it because I want to have a nice classic car. Okay, maybe that’s not going to be a really long-term type of thing because once it’s fixed and it’s restored, you’re done.
But maybe you like it for the joy and the creativity of it. Now you can do it not only for yourself but for others, and maybe it’s part of a business or something. Maybe there’s a second business there.
Maybe photography’s been a hobby forever, and you go, “Wow, you know who needs photography? I love photography. Who needs that type of service that can’t afford to do it? What charities maybe need a photographer to come in and help out and document things that they do, or what cities … maybe they’re trying to do tourism and they need good photos of the local community or something like that.”
Anything like that. So think about why you’re going to do it, and who you’re going to do it for. And maybe a service aspect of the hobby as well will make it a lot more meaningful. So that would be one thing to think about.
So hobbies, having something that you love to do. Something that’s time-consuming, maybe something that takes a lot of effort to become really, really good at is a good thing to think about.
So anything else on that, Jim?
JW: On that particular topic?
PW: Not that particular. You had this look on your face.
So the next thing you’re going to look at is maybe leisure-type things. Maybe you’re going to look at places that you want to go visit, or how are you at leisure in general?
It might be something you think about; it might be one of your items. It may be super, super important to have.
Maybe you don’t ever spend any time off. Maybe you’re like me and the idea of a beach is just torture.
Some people are like, “No, the beach is anything but torture.” That’s awesome. And that just depends on you, how you’re going to rate that and how you spend your time kind of unwinding.
Do you take time?
JW: Well, so many people come in when we’re talking about retirement, it’s just like, “Oh, we want to travel.”
And so if that’s part of it, where do you stand on your planning with that? Where do you want to go? What’s that going to cost?
Because you have this big picture-goal that, “Hey, I want to travel, but getting down to it, then where’s that money going to come from? Where am I going to go?”
That type of stuff, and so start moving toward those details.
PW: That was one of my favorite shows of the year when a client came in and said, “Hey, Paul, I just got back from Tokyo.”
And I was like, “What?” Then I knew that people weren’t traveling to Tokyo at the time.
And then they said, “And then a week before that I went to Israel or something.” I forgot.
They had gone to all these places virtually, and they had these tour guides and these apps out there.
You can find these apps where these tour guides are short on the tours. They’re not doing tours like they used to, but they used to do a tour of the Sistine Chapel.
I mean, that was what they did, and they were great at explaining what was in there, and how it was done, and the history behind it, and all of those things.
These people, tour guides, don’t have the work so what they were doing was on these apps, you just sign up, and you are on a live tour.
You might be there at one o’clock in the morning, and that’s what she did. She was on this tour at one o’clock in the morning.
She signed up for it and didn’t have to pay anything other than it’s just good courtesy to give a tip.
That’s what these guys do this for. These people, these tour guides, they do this for … just for tips.
JW: Well, just think of the potential for that in virtual reality. When that becomes … the technology’s getting better.
You’re just immersed in … maybe get your goggles on or something, but all of a sudden you’re on the top of Half Dome in Yosemite or you’re at the Great Wall of China or something like that. And it’s not a computer screen, but it’s like, you’re looking around and you’re really there.
PW: And for some people that’s just not, that ain’t going to cut it. But for people like me, they’re like, “I’m good with that.”
JW: I think I’m good at supplementing with that. That wouldn’t be how I want to do everything, but, boy, what a cool thing for, “Hey, if I can’t or don’t want to fly to China, but I’d love to experience the Great Wall.”
PW: There are certain things. Exactly. So that would be another thing that you would have on your list.
Rating Your Bar Graph of Personal Goals
Maybe something that would be a career would be another one of your bars. Maybe career is a bar that you go, “How are you doing in your career?”
Are you advancing to where you want to be? Are you doing what you want to be doing on a scale of one to 10?
So remember each one of these bars. Number one, we talked about having a financial one. Relationships was another.
Let me see if I can remember how I did this. Marriage was another one that we had.
Another one was hobbies. Another one was your pastimes that you had, maybe the things that you did to relax or recreational types of things.
Another one would be that: your career.
So you rate all of these things. Then what you do is you look at them. You say, “Well, one is a nine and a half. Another one is a two. Another one is a five.”
And you have these various ratings, and you look at it and go, “This is your road of life.”
And you’re driving down your road of life at five miles per hour. This is a road you could probably get by on. It’s got a lot of potholes.
One is a five, one’s a 10, one’s a two, and one’s a 10. So you got a lot of potholes.
You could probably make it, but if you’re trying to run life at a hundred miles per hour, this thing’s going to crash, and your vehicle’s going to fall apart.
So what you want to do is use this as a method to determine, “What do I need to work on? What are the areas that I should focus my attention this year to set smart goals, specific, measurable?”
If it’s relationship-type things, it may be I go to a counselor. I don’t know.
If it’s financial, and it is not looking so hot, that’s where you hire somebody like us.
If it happens to be hobbies, you go, “Well, what have I always wanted to do? And maybe I hire a coach, maybe I hire somebody that’s a teacher. If I’ve always wanted to play golf …”
Well, go hire a golf coach.
I always wanted to learn how to play an instrument. Go hire somebody that teaches.
People would love to have somebody like that, and you can do this online, but I’m just not the same. I find it’s not the same going online and getting education on an instrument or having somebody sit there and work with you.
I find that the built-in discipline is a whole different deal.
Humans Are Relational
JW: Yeah. I think there are areas of life where that probably works online, but there’s very little that can substitute for in-person, face-to-face, back-and-forth instruction like that.
PW: We’re a relationship human. Humans are relationship-driven.
So I think that’s a big thing, but you look at all of these areas and maybe you don’t have any friends. Well, good grief. Time to start reaching out; time to start making plans.
Somebody was just telling me recently that they set up something that they’ve got certain friends that they meet every single Monday.
And I said, “That’s brilliant. Good for you for setting a specific date that you meet, rather than sitting on your phone, just talking all day on your phone, back and forth and texting.”
Set a specific time that you physically meet and something that you physically do.
JW: I’ve always admired these guys that’ll come in, and they talk about, “Yeah, we get together every Friday morning, and we go and have breakfast and coffee at just a little dive shop or something, but it’s the same guys. It’s the same group all the time.”
That just sounds so awesome. I want that someday.
PW: I love it. So that’s a really good thing.
So that is what I want you to think about. That thing that it is that you need to do to take it to the next level, and just do it.
Just get out there and do it, set the time, get with somebody, and go, “Hey, I’ve been thinking about this, and everybody’s thinking about new stuff to do in the next year. Say, this is something I really want to do, and I want you to be part of it.”
Oh my goodness. If somebody told me that, I’d be like, “That is cool.”
JW: Absolutely.
PW: I think that’s certainly something I would respond to.
JW: There were a couple of categories that maybe you were getting into this or something, but a couple of categories I thought about that we haven’t discussed yet.
And, everybody, your own categories are your own thing. It’s whatever is important to you.
PW: Well, hang on. Let’s do this for the sake of time. Let’s take a break, and then we’ll come back with your next categories. How about that?
JW: Can do.
PW: All right. Hold that thought. All right.
Let’s change gears now.
Spiritual Goals
And we’re back here on “The Investor Coaching Show,” Paul Winkler talking about 2022 planning, just talking about the various areas that I like to just set what I want life to look like.
Hobbies, marriage, friendships, financial, career, all those fun things. Then scaling them on a scale of one to 10 and putting a bar graph on each one of them, and deciding, “Which area is lacking? That’s the area we’re going to focus on this year.”
Spiritual, be another one.
JW: That was one of the ones actually—
PW: I can’t believe that I forgot to say it.
JW: Yeah. Well, even the next one I’m going to say is again, probably one that you go, oh yeah. Yeah. Which is—
PW: So, let’s talk about spiritual first.
JW: Okay.
PW: Okay. So setting goals there, what might that look like?
JW: Well, I think that’s kind of different for everybody.
I think in terms of where you stand and where you want to be and what you have to do to get there in terms of, whether it’s education, whether it’s becoming more involved in your church, whether it’s just having conversations with somebody important in your church, or your family regarding that.
PW: It’s interesting because I was thinking that friendships with pastors is something that I’ve had over the years.
JW: There’s so much education out there in books and the internet and stuff. I think it’s just a matter of deciding where you want to go, and then back to establishing that process to start working toward that, to take that next step.
PW: And where are you? You may be the person who needs mentoring right now.
You might be the person who is the mentor, and it might be that aspect of a thing. You might have a lot of knowledge over the years, a lot of wisdom. It’s time to start sharing some of that.
JW: Well, and I’ll segue into that because that was another category that I was going to throw out there in terms of thinking about that, which is just impact.
What is the impact that I want to make in terms of outside of my career, my family, or something, but in the world? Especially as people get in retirement, they start thinking about, “Well, what’s the rest of my life going to look like, and then how do I leave a legacy?”
Whether it’s knowledge to people, whether it’s financial, whatever that is, what’s that impact that you want to make?
And it might just be, I want to make an impact with my grandchildren. I want to mentor them. I want to spend time with them. I want to make their lives better.
It could be very much more vast. But again, I think that’s an area worth considering.
PW: And for me it was always, I want to broaden my knowledge.
So books … I remember one guy—tremendous—Charlie Jones, and I think it was Tracey, his daughter, friends with her on LinkedIn.
But it was funny because I was introduced to her through another friend of mine who works at one of the financial planning colleges.
And I was like, “Oh my goodness, your dad had such an impact on me because he had this thing that he would say: ‘You’re going to be the same person a year from now, except for two things, the people you meet and the books you read.’ And I always thought what a great line that is.”
And the thing that I do every single year daily out of the Bible, it’s literally Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, Proverbs, go through, and there’s commentary on everything, change the versions that they teach from every single year.
I find that to be of tremendous value, 12 years, 13 years running now. I think I’m on year number 13, and to me, that’s a huge thing.
So whatever your area of growth that you want to have there, spiritual is another one. What’s another one?
Weight-Loss Goals
JW: Well, one that I think that’s obvious and it’s probably the most common New Year’s resolution that people make.
PW: Lose weight.
JW: Fitness, right? Health.
PW: Oh, there you go.
JW: And how are you going to take care of your health? Whether it’s, “I want to lower my blood pressure. I want to lose weight. I want to eat better. I want to X, Y, Z.”
Where are you? Where do you want to be? And then what’s your plan to start getting there?
PW: So yeah. How do you set that plan?
JW: Well, I just think in terms of the idea of a New Year’s resolution is, “I’m not going to eat ice cream anymore.” Then two weeks later, you just down tons of ice cream.
So I think it’s having a much more well-thought-out, step-by-step plan. With me, it’s just—
PW: You want mine? That’s an area of mine.
JW: Go for it.
PW: You ready?
JW: Yeah.
PW: Only have ice cream outside the house. I’m not buying it and bringing it back into the house.
I am only going to have it if I have to physically go someplace, and typically the place I have to go is a good five, six miles from my house.
I’ve even gotten to the point where I go, “Nope.” The only time I do is one place, and it’s literally a 30-minute drive.
It’s just, I am funny that way. I will set goals in that manner like nobody’s business, and it’s not even conscious that I don’t think that I do that. I just do it.
JW: But paying little mental tricks on yourself like that is genius, and it works. It absolutely … that type of stuff works and—
PW: Don’t tell my wife you think I’m a genius. She’ll knock that one out of the park.
JW: Well, I did say the idea was—
PW: Oh, the idea was. No, I think that’s a good one.
Fitness, don’t go overboard is a big thing. Have a certain time of day that is just your time of day.
Everybody knows—well, probably most people know who listen to the show—that music is a hobby of mine.
So what happened is I was doing this thing years ago, and it was a camp I was going to, and in order to get ready for the camp, I set up a discipline of practicing one hour every night.
It was literally from eight to nine every night. It was my hour, and everybody in the family knew it was my hour.
The funny thing is it became a thing that I never stopped. I never stopped.
And the dividends it has paid is just off the charts. The dividends that it has paid, but it is just having a specific time of day that is convenient.
Not something where it’s a pain. “Oh, I got to get up at five o’clock in the morning and go.” No, if it’s a pain, don’t do it.
JW: Well, that’s the thing. So many people will start, “I’m going to go to the gym.”
And they go to the gym, and they work out, and they feel great after that first workout, and then the next day they get the delayed onset muscle soreness and can barely walk. And then that’s out the window.
So rather than do that, if you haven’t worked out, go for a walk. Go for a walk the next day, every morning get up—that it’s not raining.
You go up, you walk around the block. I do that here and around the circle by our office. I try to do that most days that I can.
But it’s just, again, just those little steps, moving toward your goal. Then once you’re doing that walk and that feels good, and you want to make more progress, then you walk a little further or then maybe you join the gym and try that type of step.
But rather than trying to eat the elephant all at once again, just take that bite. Move in that right direction.
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