More Than Money: Real Life Stories of Financial Planning

Taylor Schulte: Welcome to the Stay Wealthy podcast! I’m your host Taylor Schulte and I’m excited to share that as of yesterday, March 21st, I’m officially a published author.

The book, More Than Money, is a collection of inspiring true stories that reveal how real clients applied financial planning to achieve tangible results that changed their lives. And it is officially in bookstores near you, as well as Amazon and most online retailers.

What I’m most proud of is that every contributor to the book agreed to donate all net proceeds to non-profit organizations dedicated to improving financial literacy, making financial advice more accessible, and improving diversity within the planning profession.

On behalf of the organizations we’re donating the proceeds to and everyone involved in bringing this book to the finish line, I want to thank all of our listeners who supported this special project over the last few months and pre-ordered their copy. If your book isn’t on your doorstep yet, it should be there any day.

And if you haven’t ordered your copy yet, just head over to morethanmoneybook.com and grab your copy.

By the way, one of the things I love about our publisher, Harriman House, is that they provide a free Kindle version of the book to anyone who buys a physical copy. So, if like me, you prefer reading on a Kindle, go ahead and grab the physical book, flip to the first page to get the details on downloading your kindle version, and then give the hard copy to someone in your life who might enjoy it.

Ok, in light of the book finally hitting shelves, today I’m sharing my recent conversation with Joe Saul-Sehy from everyone's favorite finance podcast, Stacking Benjamins. Together, Joe and I break down two of the true stories from More Than Money and cover everything from:

-Making work optional in retirement
-How to have constructive money conversations
-Overcoming the challenge of managing the household finances after losing a spouse

Once again, to grab a copy of the book, head over to morethanmoneybook.com.

And to grab the links and resources from today’s episode, just go to youstaywealthy.com/183.

Joe Saul-Sehy: But speaking of nice guys, man, nice job on this project. Taylor, why you, why you and why this project? Like, tell me about how this all came together.

Taylor Schulte: Yeah, well, my co-founder with the AGC, it's a private community for financial advisors, Justin Castelli, Justin Castelli, and I kind of came up with this idea with the community together to write a book.

You know, we've got amazing financial advisors, about 170 advisors across the world actually. We all, you know, collaborate and help each other out and we often talk about how there's kind of this misconception about what financial planners do. You know, a lot of people think financial planners just, you know, trade stocks and bonds. And so there's a lot of misunderstandings and misconceptions, and we thought, how cool would it be for us all to come together as a community to write a book?

And so we have 30 authors that came together and each contributed a true story, an inspiring true story to this book to show people the value and the power of real financial planning. So it's been a really fun project.

On top of it all, we all agreed not to make any money from this project whatsoever. All net proceeds are being donated back to the profession, back to making access to financial advice easier to pro bono financial advice, to improving diversity within the profession. So it's just been a really, really rewarding project that started within the community and has just kind of grown from there.

Joe Saul-Sehy: Let's dive into some of these stories. Well, and actually even before we do that, you begin your introduction to the book with a quote, and I wanna ask you about this. You say “there's a textbook answer, and then there is your answer.” What does that mean?

Taylor Schulte: You know, so often we talk about these textbook answers. Somebody has a question, you know, should I buy mutual fund A or mutual fund B? Or should I do a Roth conversion this year? Or what types of accounts should I be contributing to? And I think it's important to address the textbook answer first, let's talk about what the textbook answer is, and then let's have a real conversation with that client or potential client about what the impact of pursuing that recommendation is.

And I always like to say that there is this textbook answer, and then there is your answer. And as long as your answer doesn't put your financial plan in jeopardy, I'm here to support that. And so it really kind of helps to drop the guard and start to have a real conversation about money and what the purpose of pursuing these different strategies are.

There's a lot of different ways you can say it, but that's typically what I say, especially, you know, on my podcast when I talk a lot about these kind of nerdy financial planning topics, people start to think like, well, if I'm not doing it exactly the right way, I'm failing. And that's not necessarily true.

And there's some great stories in the book, you know, one by Rita Chang talking about social security, and you know, this textbook answer is to delay social security at age 70. And she shares a really cool story about her client who took Social Security right away at 62 and had real reasons to do that and the positive impacts of doing that.

Joe Saul-Sehy: It is so exciting to hear that, because I feel like for most of us, half the reason we listen to shows like yours or like stacking Benjamins is because of the fact that they feel like the temperature's so high, right? I gotta get this right. And I think it's reaffirming to hear a guy like you say, it's okay to have a different answer, it's fine to it, it's even fine, Taylor, I think in most cases, to mess this up a little bit.

Taylor Schulte: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we are gonna make mistakes along the way. I find that making mistakes is important. They're learning lessons in there. So yeah, I think it's okay to give people permission.

Now, it is important to highlight that this is not an excuse not to do the hard work, right? Right. I followed up by saying, as long as it doesn't put your plan in jeopardy, I can support it. But there are situations where the textbook answer, you know, whether it's making more money or saving more money or fixing your investment allocation, sometimes that is the answer that you have to follow.

Joe Saul-Sehy: Well, there's so many stories here, but I wanna dive into just two of them. You open with a story from financial Planner, Michael Kelly. First of all, let's talk a little bit about Michael. Tell me a little bit about Michael Kelly.

Taylor Schulte: Yeah, I mean, Michael's one of our fantastic financial advisor members in the AGC. All of us in the AGC are collaborators. We want to help each other. Michael is definitely one of those guys. And yeah, he wrote an amazing chapter that that really resonated with me.

He talks about his clients, Josh and Christina, and I think this is really, really common, I think with your listeners as well, where, “Hey, look, I'm doing well. I'm making money. I'm saving money. In fact, I think I have more money than I need, but I feel like I'm maybe missing out on opportunities. Like I don't know what I don't know.”

And so that's one thing that really resonated with me in his story. In addition, talking about he doesn't use the word, but I use making work optional. It's like, I don't want to know that I have to work. I wanna know that I have the ability to stop working or pursue something that's really important to me, and then I can make an informed decision once I know that. So making work optional kind of comes out in his story as well, which I really appreciated.

Joe Saul-Sehy: So Josh, Christina work in the tech industry, they are highly compensated people, and what immediately I think about is that these people have a lot of responsibilities. They have lots of stock that they're given every year. Clearly things are going in their favor, they work their butt off all the time.

What was resounding to me, Taylor, at the beginning of this, is that when I hear people in the online community, when I moved over from being a financial planner to just doing financial media, the thing that I hear all the time now is, “you're smart enough to do this yourself.”

And I look at Josh and Christina in this story, and immediately I'm like, these are two tech executives. Of course, they're smart enough to do this themself. Like they could easily do all this, this themself. It is frustrating because I think that's the wrong question, and I feel like Josh and Christina kind of get it right by saying, I need to have some people in my corner. Like even though I'm a smart person, I gotta have some VPs in my, you know, but like vice presidents of financial planning in my corner.

Taylor Schulte: Yeah, yeah. You know, I equate it to a lot of different things in life. It's like, you know, I could mow my own lawn, I could do my own taxes, but it's not necessarily where I wanna spend my time. You know, I'd rather watch a movie with my kids on the weekend or take them golfing than do yard work.

And so I hire somebody to go ahead and, and do that for me. It's not that I can't do it, it's just that, you know, I wanna spend my time differently. And then to your point, there's also, well, I'm sure that a professional landscaper is gonna do a much better job taking care of my yard than I will, or a professional CPA.

So there are ways to optimize, and again, to Josh and Christina's point, they're like, I don't, we don't know what we don't know. We know we're, we're doing well and we're saving money, but what more can we be doing to optimize what we're currently doing and, and put in the best possible position?

Which I think brings up a good point. There are a lot of unknowns in life, and we talk about this textbook answer and we run all these projections and a Monte Carlo analysis. But, you know, between now and end of life, there's gonna be a lot of things that happen that we cannot plan for, that we cannot predict. And by optimizing our current plan and putting ourselves in an even better position, it protects us a little bit more against those giant unknowns that are in the future.

Joe Saul-Sehy: Yeah. It's funny because you say, Michael says in his story that a lot of people feel trapped. And Josh and Christina clearly feel trapped because, well, and before I even get to there, I wanna, I wanna make a this point.

Michael writes that they have three choices. They're doing fine, and they can let it go and be not optimized. And they'll probably be okay. They have this general feeling they're gonna be okay, and Michael agrees they probably will be okay.

Second is they get educated, they dive in themself, it becomes their second career. Taylor, they spend all day doing this, trying to be the professional landscaper with their finances. And maybe it's greater. Maybe they, it isn’t, and then they find a partner.

I would suggest though, that I disagree only partially here with Michael, because I felt like when I was a financial planner, Taylor, there were people that wanted to delegate responsibilities for me, attaining my goal to somebody else. And that's what I hated about financial planning. And I had to continually push it back on my client, go, no, no, these aren't my goals, these are your goals, this is your stuff.

So meeting with somebody a few times a year and then coming into their office and going, why the hell's the stock market down and we didn't do anything? Versus setting up a plan that you understand yourself and delegating some of the tasks to somebody. I mean, that's, do you see the difference between those? I think that, I think in this, Josh and Christina still need to be in charge of their financial plan.

Taylor Schulte: I think you bring up an excellent point. I almost think about financial advisors, financial planners as accountability partners, right? You know, having that person in your life to make sure that you actually take action and do these things. So I think you're absolutely right, that just having somebody in your life to hold you accountable to taking action is really important.

But it also highlights the importance of you being involved in the process. To your point, you can't just hire somebody and walk away and, you know, come back to them in 10 years and hope everything's in a good place. You have to be a part of that process. Second to that, your spouse needs to be a part of the process. Sometimes we hear at our firm that I take care of the finances. You only need to to work with me. And that, that's not true. Both spouses need to be involved in the process in order for both of you to have success long term.

Joe Saul-Sehy: Well, you've got that later in the book, right? Spouses pass away. And if you'd never met your financial planner, I mean, how horrible is that? You're meeting this person that knows all about your money, and then you've, and you've never met them before. I'm laughing becausee it truly is not funny.

Michael makes a big point of he doesn't start with the investments. Like most people, when they're, when they're bringing on these VPs, they're bringing on a financial planner, a team, people to help them out.

They think, okay, we're going to talk about investments, we're gonna talk about insurances, we're gonna talk. Michael doesn't start with any of that. He said, we're gonna start with the why. Can you explain to me and actually do all of our stackers, why we're starting there versus starting with all the things.

Taylor Schulte: Yeah, I say it a little bit differently to my clients. So I look at things like your investments, insurance, estate planning, you know, where to save money, what types of accounts. I look at all those things as prescriptions. And as we all know, if we think about the medical world we need a diagnosis first in order to understand what prescriptions we should be taking.

Like, it would be really weird for me to be at a party and see a doctor and say, Hey doc, like I'm taking prescription A, what do you think? Like, should I change it to prescription B or prescription C? He or she would be like, I don't know, like, come into my office, let's do some, some blood work. Let me do a diagnosis and then I'll tell you if what you're taking makes sense or if you should change your prescription.

And financial planning is the exact same way, but a lot of times we just kind of forget that and we want to talk about those prescriptions, we wanna talk about Apple stock or you know, mutual fund, abc, whatever it is. We wanna know if we should buy life insurance, but we have to have that diagnosis first in order to understand what prescriptions we should be taking.

So that kind of plays into Michael's, why, why are we doing things this way? Why are we taking the, this prescription? Why are we allocating our investments this way? So going through that diagnosis, not just once, but on a regular basis to ensure that, you know, what we're doing truly makes sense for us and our goals and everything is aligned.

We want our retirement plan, our financial plan to drive all of those decisions. Those things should be going hand in hand. And what I see with clients often joining our firm is the retirement plan says one thing and the investments are doing another, and we need to get those things back on the same track.

Joe Saul-Sehy: Well, and it is interesting you say that because I just used the CEO analogy, and as I'm listening to you talk Taylor, it also goes hand in hand with that analogy, right? If I'm the CEO and my, my VP just comes in with all these things that I don't think are broken, like the plan doesn't make sense unless we start with where the hell's the company going.

Yeah. And, and that is the big key here for Josh and Christina, Michael writes, that like, man, so many people, their goals are going one way. They really wanna make an impact around them. They wanna be present with their family, and yet the way they spend their hours doesn't reflect that at all.

And I'm wondering just from all your years in practice, Taylor, how often do you find that happen where the hours we spend here on earth are way different than what people tell you they seriously wanna do?

Taylor Schulte: Yeah, I think it happens all the time. And I think it's, it's hard to think clearly about how you wanna spend your time and the things that you want to do without really understanding where you're at, where you're headed and, and if you're on track.

And what I really enjoyed about Michael's chapter was as soon as they, they had that information, as soon as they clearly understood where their finances stood and how on track they were to reach their goals, then they could take a deep breath and make a really informed decision about how they wanna spend the rest of their life. Ironically, you know, as much as Josh Christina talked about doing something different professionally, once they had that answer, they actually just stayed doing what they were doing.

We find that all the time, again, once you give somebody permission to say, “Hey look, you can retire if you wanna retire, you don't have to work. You have made work optional.” Then you see us like sigh of relief and they're like, oh, well I actually love my job and I want to actually continue doing it, but it's only when they know it's on their terms and not somebody else's.

Joe Saul-Sehy: It was so exciting to read. Christina wants to work maybe with startups instead of this big company she works with. She feels handcuffed because they're constantly giving her more and more stock. So she's watching these handcuffs. Josh surprises everybody by saying, I don't know, maybe I want to go into fitness, I'm so tired of being in this leadership role. Maybe I want to go do something totally different. Which Michael says he was jesting a little bit, but there's some truth there that he's just kind of tired of the grind.

So Michael goes through, he goes through their strengths, which I also like, because I feel like sometimes people are afraid that they're gonna go work with a professional and the professional's gonna immediately go after all the crap I'm doing wrong. Right?

I remember some people saying to me that they thought this could be like the dentist. It was gonna be just, oh, you got cavities, your life is rotten. But he talks about their savings rate is fantastic, that they have it automated, their budget's under control, their investments are right on, they're not managing in a professional manager. I thought that probably kind of spoke to, they needed a investment policy statement, a way to think critically, you know, and systematically about their investments so it can be on a better autopilot.

They discussed a better tax strategy for Christina's stock options, reducing risk by not buying insurance through work and then refinancing their mortgage. Putting a debt strategy in place sounds like a great financial plan, Taylor. Which is why I just monologue there and didn't ask you a question.

The place where I move forward was when he goes, but that's table stakes. That's not really, I mean that, that's all fine and that's what we think a financial planner is. And I literally, I was so excited when I read that. This is a well-rounded financial plan, Taylor, but it has nothing to do yet with Josh, Christina.

Taylor Schulte: It's absolutely right. I took note of that as well. I love that he said that. And again, I think it falls into the misunderstanding and misconception of financial planning. You know, when most people have exposure, when people have exposure to real financial planning, they realize that, yeah, we should have done all of this stuff, you know, 20 years ago.

It is table stakes. These are all things, you know, going to a doctor and getting your blood drawn and having a physical once a year. Those are table stakes. But too often in the wealth management world, and this is changing, you know, rapidly, but you know, historically it was just about, you know, buying stocks and bonds and, you know, talking about the markets and making predictions.

But real financial planning is, is table stakes for those that really want to achieve their goals. And one thing that I took note of in his chapter is what he said. He said, money is a tool, not the goal. So many people are, are chasing money and saving more money, and how much money do I have? But money is just a tool to achieve those goals. Money is not the goal.

Joe Saul-Sehy: And the goal then, back to your original point was they wanna feel like they're not trapped and he showed them that they could make 25% less money and they're not trapped.

You already gave this away as well, Taylor, they both, they stayed at their job, but they don't feel trapped anymore. They can make this move whenever they want and it'll be fine. And it, so it wasn't so much about making the move as it was to know that they had the ability to make the move and know that they're running things optimally. It was so good.

Taylor Schulte: Yeah, knowledge is power. I think of the same way too with like budgeting. Everybody hates budgeting and I say, you don't have to go on a budget, just understand where your money is going. You know, once you know where your money is going, then you can make informed decisions about how you spend your money.

And I think it's the same thing with their situations. Like once you understand where you're currently at, you can take a deep breath and take a sigh of relief and then make an informed decision about how you want to spend your time.

Joe Saul-Sehy: It's so funny because I was thinking as you were talking about the budget analogy, I use lots of tools. I experiment all the time, you know, because of the podcast. I'm always having fun. I like cube money, I like Tiller. I like all these different things. But you know, our best budget for Cheryl and I, Taylor, is just the weekly meeting we have and which is just purely a discussion about how we spent money last week, how we're gonna spend money next week. How do you guys, how do you and your spouse budget?

Taylor Schulte: Yeah, funny enough, you know, me being the financial planner in the household, my wife would always look to me, its like, you know, how much money do we have? How much money are we spending? Are we doing okay? And I just got kind of tired of that conversation with my wife and that dynamic.

So I hired a professional bookkeeper and she sits in between me and my wife and she categorizes all of our expenses and she puts reports together for us every single month that then allows my wife and I to sit down and have a knowledgeable conversation about where our money is going.

Not only that, but my wife raised her hand and volunteered. She wanted to be a part of that process. So she works directly with the bookkeeper to categorize things and, you know, make sure everything looks good. And then we sit down and have a conversation around it.

And, you know, now my wife just has full transparency around money, where money is and how it's being spent. We can sit and ask ourselves like, “Hey Taylor, you spent a thousand dollars last month playing golf. Like, you know, is that something you value? Do you wanna continue doing that?” I'm like, yes, please. But it does allow us to have much more effective conversations and it's kind of just like removed a lot of the friction and, you know, maybe some animosity there.

Joe Saul-Sehy: Oh, absolutely. No, very much so. That's so interesting. That's really cool. I wanna skip to later in the book financial planner and a woman who's been on the show a couple times as well. Stephanie McCullough, we'll get into this person in a second, but tell us a little bit about Stephanie, if you don't mind.

Taylor Schulte: Yeah, Stephanie's just a great person all around. She's a financial planner out in Pennsylvania. She primarily, you know, specializes in working with women or people going through these major life transitions, which is what she writes about in the book. But yeah, Stephanie's somebody who believes in just collaborating and helping people and doesn't view other advisors as competitors and just an all-around great person. So I really enjoyed her chapter.

Joe Saul-Sehy: We'll do a case study next then Taylor on Cassandra and Stephen, tell us about Cassandra and Steven, set this story up for us.

Taylor Schulte: Yeah, you know, it's hard to remember every detail in the book, but I know, you know, Cassandra, unfortunately, became a widow. Her husband predeceased her, and now she's in a situation where she's like, you know, do I have enough? Am I gonna be okay? Do I have to go back to work now because of this? And, you know, who do I talk to about money and finances?

And it kind of goes back to your other point, which is, you know, sure there might be one person in the household that's taking care of the money and the finances and has a good grasp on everything, but what if that person gets hit by a bus and what if something happens, now the other person's left in the dark and left in this situation where they're, they're worried. And you know, I know there, there's shame around money and feeling isolated and not, you know, knowing who to talk to.

So I think a lot of people will maybe not be able to relate exactly to Cassandra, but maybe get their wheels turning a little bit and realize like, hey, I need to think about this stuff because it is possible.

Joe Saul-Sehy: Definitely. So, I mean, I just think that this is for a lot of us a look into the possible future. Well, at some point the people around us are going to pass away, right? And, and we need to be ready for that.

She goes to three different financial planners, well, wealth managers, let's put it that way because I think they were much more focused on the stuff that the prescriptions, to use a Taylor Schulte term. Yeah. I'm just throwing out prescriptions versus really what a financial plan is.

It makes me think of our mutual friend Roger Whitney, and a phrase I first heard him say, Taylor, he probably got it from you though, I'm sure Roger's out there. He steals everything up, stealing all our stuff. I know what a loser that guy. Roger said, “whenever somebody leads with product and not process, you should run.”

And Cassandra's frustrated because she's gotten product not processed three times in a row and she's kinda let it go. But then she gets hooked up with Stephanie and she's got a few problems in her life. First one is she has this son Daniel that has a learning disability and everybody thinks that Daniel's just leeching off of her Taylor.

And I know we all have these situations that we're not gonna talk to our friends about. I'm not gonna tell people what, you know, my son's diagnosis for X, Y, Z. And so her friends are giving her this advice and really don't know exactly what's going on.

She wants to tithe to her church. She, she's dual citizenship UK and us. She doesn't know, you know, do I have enough money? Should I move back to the UK? Where for her it might be cheaper, but all of her friends are here.

Like her situation, Taylor is really complicated to go through three advisors before she finds somebody who's empathetic is really difficult. How would you, Stephanie doesn't really go into this. How does somebody shorten this process so they don't get Cassandra finally reaching Stephanie on try number four?

Taylor Schulte: You know, there's a beautiful trend happening in this profession right now, which is financial planners recognizing the power of becoming specialists, right? Historically. And when I got into the industry, you kind of just worked with anyone and every one and you were more of a generalist.

More and more advisors like Stephanie are becoming specialists and learning how to have these types of conversations with people like Cassandra and having the expertise to solve her very specific problems. Again, we can draw the analogy to the medical world or even the legal world. Like, you're not gonna go to a personal injury attorney if you need an estate plan done.

So I think part of it is working with a specialist that has an expertise in helping people just like you and knowing how to have those types of conversations. So I think that's a really big part of it.

I also think, and I really wanna drill this home because it is important that leading with the products you know, sometimes it's really hard to evaluate financial advisors and know if they're truly the right person you should be working with. And I think you should think about that. If the, if the first conversation is about products or prescriptions, you're probably not in the right place.

Again, if you met a doctor for the first time and they started to tell you what to take, you'd be scratching your head saying, how does this person know what I should be taking? They haven't asked me any questions. They haven't, you know, done a diagnosis.

So in just about every profession, every industry in your line of work, whatever line of work you do, you're probably the same way. You're probably not handing out prescriptions or leading with products. So I think the fact that advisors like Stephanie are getting more and more specialized and, and they know how to, how these conversations productively is just make it a huge impact on people. And I love watching this trend develop right now.

Joe Saul-Sehy: What surprised me with the first three advisors that she has, they talk condescendingly to her. They constantly encourage her not to spend her money. And the first thing Stephanie does is helps her with her son and helps her son get, not even her Taylor, she's working on her son's financial plan with Cassandra. Which really takes a huge weight off of Cassandra's back.

And then when it comes to the UK, which is problem number two, she has Cassandra and a friend go visit the town she might wanna live in and actually start to get some prices. I was talking to a listener of the show recently and they were talking about whether they remodel or whether they go buy a new house.

And I encourage them to go talk to, let's talk to a builder and let's go meet with a realtor and see what the difference is between those money-wise and let's, you know, get out there and actually look. I feel like this financial plan she has now is truly much more of a partnership than what she got from these first three people. In fact, during Stephanie's whole time, does she actually talk about wealth management?

Taylor Schulte: Yeah, I mean, I think it comes up naturally and it highlights the importance of what real financial planning looks like. You know, Cassandra needed a decision-making partner, somebody to kind of think through these problems with her.

You know, having somebody kinda hold her accountable to doing these things. You know, maybe she thought about on her own going to UK to visit this town, but having Stephanie say like, no, like go and do it. You know, empowering her to make these informed decisions.

So, you know, naturally I think having those conversations and, and taking that, that role in a relationship, it allows for those financial conversations just happened more fluidly and naturally, you know, although she probably didn't say it directly in her story, I know those conversations are happening. They're just much easier once you have that space to have those real conversations.

Joe Saul-Sehy: Yeah. And the cool thing here is, to your point, they are happening, but it's all background cuz it's not about the money like you opened up with and it's not a textbook thing working with your son's financial plan is not the textbook answer but it certainly is Cassandra's answer.

I have one more thing, which was really cool. There's a little bit of know yourself here too, Taylor. And working with your advisor to set things up specifically for you. I love this, Cassandra didn't want to call anybody about getting your money. She didn’t want to be ashamed about her money. She didn't want to ask permission to go after her own money, but she also didn't want to have it all available.

So Stephanie sets this up where she's gonna get a distribution, like automatically money's gonna hit her checking account. And then she has this checkbook, kind of this hidden checkbook where there's something big. She just has the ability to write a check. I feel like sharing that stuff with your advisor is something we also gloss over when we just talk about wealth management.

Hey Taylor, I'm a spender. Like I need to hide money for, and by the way, this is totally me talking to you. I am totally a spender. If I have any money on me, Taylor, at any time, I will blow the hell out of it. So we need to set up a plan that's based on that versus somebody else who you might work with might be completely frugal.

Taylor Schulte: I'm so glad you brought that up and I'm so glad that you highlighted that it works on both ends. You know, the types of clients that we work with, they have more money than they can spend, and the type of person it takes to amass great wealth is not the same type of person that's great at spending money.

So a big part of our job with our clients is helping give them confidence to go and spend that money and enjoy life. And then, like you said on the other end of that, acknowledging that, hey, I'm a bit of a spender and you know, I don't know if I'd categorize myself as a spender, but my example of hiring a bookkeeper is putting somebody in between us and our money, right? Just having that person in between us and our money so that we have that information and that knowledge and we can make informed decisions about it.

But I think the hardest part here for financial planners in Stephanie's position is to create this space to allow somebody like Cassandra to feel comfortable enough to say that, right? Like that not easy to come out and say like, I'm a spender, I need your help.

So creating the space to have that vulnerable conversation and be able to trust somebody like Stephanie to say that to, and then that that's not easy. That, takes a real skill for Stephanie to be able to create that space for somebody to share that.

Joe Saul-Sehy: One of my favorite books ever is a book called Stock Market Wizards. That it's about doing something that Taylor, I don't think does on a daily basis, which is about just trading stocks heavily all day long. But it's these different people who have done it really well for a long time.

And the breadth of this book shows you how many different ways there are to trade markets, how many different ways there are, how many strategies there are for these traders. Something that 99% of our audience, Taylor and your audience isn't gonna do.

I felt like this book More Than Money is the same thing for financial planning. These are a ton of different stories, case studies on all these different ways that you can get there. And every single one is a different piece of the Rose. It was, I don't know, it was really fun to read. I can't wait to finish it. The book is called More Than Money, real Life Stories of Financial Planning Edited by Shanna, how do you pronounce her name? Shanna?

Taylor Schulte: Yep. Shanna Due, yeah. She's absolutely amazing. This project, I don't know if it would've gotten to the finish line without her. So, you know, a huge thank you to Shanna.

Joe Saul-Sehy: That's what I was just about to say. I can't imagine the workload Shanna had doing this, but also you and Justin and all the collaborators. Job well done, man. Thank you. Where can people get the book?

Taylor Schulte: Yeah, I really appreciate that. Yeah, you can get the book anywhere. it comes out on March 21st. You can pre-order it now on Amazon. Really simple URL, morethanmoneybook.com will go ahead and reroute you to the Amazon page and pre-order.

Like I said earlier, all net proceeds are being donated back to the profession, to organizations like the Foundation for Financial Planning that is working to make financial advice more accessible for pro bono financial planning. So all proceeds are going to better our profession and make advice more accessible.

So I'll make a deal with your audience. I made the same deal to my audience, which is if you pre-order a copy of the book, go to morethanmoneybook.com or search for it on Amazon. If you pre-order a copy of the book, take a screenshot of your pre-order, send it to me at book@youstaywealthy.com and I will send you personally, I will purchase a second copy. I will gift you a second copy that you can then give to somebody else in your, in your life who you think you can benefit from it.

So I don't care how many of your listeners take me up on it pre-order the book, send me a screenshot book@youstaywealthy.com. I will personally buy a second copy. I'll send it to you, you can give it to whoever you want, whoever you think will benefit from it. And together we can, you know, help make this profession better, improve diversity, make access to financial advice better, all those things.

So thank you very much for having me, Joe, and hopefully your audience can help support our mission here.

Joe Saul-Sehy: Oh my God, Taylor, thank you so much for doing that. And by the way, guys, the 21st is tomorrow. So I love the, let's not procrastinate, let's get out there, let's get this done. Right. You heard the interview, you know, you wanna see the case studies, so get it done.

All right. Last question. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you what's going on in the Stay Wealthy Show? What do you got coming up man? What's some secret that you can't share with anybody that is just you and me and a couple other people maybe?

Taylor Schulte: Oh, man. Well, yeah, we’re having a lot of fun on the Stay Wealthy Retirement Show. We talk a lot about, you know, those nerdy tax fund opportunities. Oh, what I can't share. Well, I, you know, I gotta say something, Joe.

The last time I was on the show we talked about my real estate nightmare. I'm sure you remember the story. I do. It's horrible. I have to acknowledge that we've had another real estate nightmare and no, I won't go into the whole story, but there was a bit of a learning lesson in there that I feel like, I mean, I'm the real estate nightmare guy on your show, so I feel like I have to get this out there. We have a new home now, that home I spoke about on your show years ago that's gone.

My wife and I were at a staycation here locally. The woman watching our house and our dog while we were gone, she called and she says, “Hey there's water coming up through your floors.” Long story short, we had what's called a slab leak. So all of our plumbing is buried in the foundation and those pipes have been there for 25, 30 years.

And you know, one of them broke and warm hot water starts coming up through the floors. We got everything fixed. But what I learned through this situation is a lot of insurance companies now, like big ones that you know by name, they're no longer covering slab leaks.

So if you have your plumbing buried in your foundation like we did, it might be worth checking with your insurance company to ask them, do you cover slab leaks? Because a lot of them, like we learned, don't, thankfully ours did. They covered our six-figure insurance claim.

We were out of our house for 10 weeks with three kids and a dog. It was a nightmare, but we had a lot of fun and, thankfully insurance covered it. So if your plumbing's buried in the foundation, please check with your insurance company.

Joe Saul-Sehy: Man, it's horrible.

Taylor Schulte: Homeownership is the best

Joe Saul-Sehy: Taylor, man. Great seeing you again. Sorry about that. But great work on the book. I really appreciate you coming and spending some time with our stackers.

Taylor Schulte: Yeah, thanks so much, Joe. I really appreciate it.

Once again, to grab the links and resources mentioned in today’s episode, just head over to youstaywealthy.com/183.

Thank you, as always, for listening and I will see you back here next week.

Episode Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. This podcast is not engaged in rendering legal, financial, or other professional services.