One For The Money

Jonny West
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One For The Money Podcast

Listen to hear Jonny break down the tips, tricks, and strategies he uses to help clients retire early. This is the "easy button" when it comes to early retirement because everything you want and need to know is right here. Jonny will lay it all out in plain English so you can get the details on the actions you can do to put yourself on the best path to early retirement. He'll also interview top real estate, tax, and estate planning and other professionals to provide a comprehensive approach to your retirement planning. Nobody builds wealth by accident. Listen to find out how you can do it on purpose.

  1. 4 DAYS AGO

    How Much to Spend on Vacation - Ep #70

    Welcome to episode 70 of the One for the Money podcast. I am so very grateful you have taken the time to listen. In this episode, I answer the question “How much should one spend on vacation?” In the tips, tricks, and strategies portion, I will share some cost-saving travel tips.  In this episode... How Much Should You Spend [3:15]Why You Should Travel [6:21]Travel Saving Tips [8:56] MAIN When it comes to travel, St Augustine and Mark Twain said it best in my opinion.  St Augustine said that -The world is a book and those who do not travel only read one page.  And Mark Twain said - Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. My family and I are enamored with travel because of what we learn about the world, other cultures, and about ourselves. There are few things that create better memories than a vacation. Some have argued that life is really about collecting wonderful memories and research has shown that people tend to be happier when they have purchased experiences rather than things.  That certainly is the case with our family. When both my children and my business were young, we traveled by car around the Western United States and Western Canada. We love the outdoors and visited over 25 national parks in both the US and Canada with Banff, Jasper, Waterton, Glacier, Yosemite, and Crater Lake being some of our favorites but there were so many others that were really great as well.  As my business and kids grew we have been fortunate to be able to take a few international trips with Moorea and Cinque Terre being some of our favorites.  When our family talks about our favorite memories it almost always involves experiences we’ve had together on our trips and our favorite family photos have come from our trips as well. This is why I am a strong advocate of traveling. It doesn’t have to require an airplane, because seeing a local museum or park can also provide a memorable time.  In fact, when I was a kid our family never took an airplane on our trips. Instead, we all piled in our wood-paneled station wagon with the rear-facing seats in the back and went to the national park near our home, and a couple of times we visited family that lived in the Western States of Utah, California, and Texas. It was an incredibly long drive from Alberta, Canada but I have some cherished memories from those trips.  One question that many ask is how much should one spend on travel.  Some financial experts recommend that you spend 5-10% of your net income per year on vacations. For example, if your net income is $100k a year, and as a reminder that is your income after taxes and retirement contributions. then you could reasonably spend $5-10k a year on vacations. My family and I tend to spend more than 10% but we restrict our expenses in other areas of spending to compensate. We only eat out rarely and if we do it’s usually inn-n-out. Our kids don’t participate in club sports and just play AYSO soccer instead. With savings in those areas, we are able to do more on our vacations.  When it comes to money for vacation it should be saved in advance of the year of travel and would be in addition to what you have in your emergency savings. I recommend you tentatively plan your upcoming trips for the coming years so you can anticipate the expenses. We have already planned our travel destinations for the next 2-3 years. I’ll do research on the expected expenses and create a Google spreadsheet that forecasts potential transportation, accommodations, food, activity, and other related

    13 min

  2. 1 SEPT

    Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be - Ep #69

    Neither a Borrower Nor a Lender Be- Ep#69 Welcome to episode 69 of the One for the Money podcast. I am so very grateful you have taken the time to listen.  In this episode, I shared whether it is wise to lend money to family or friends.  In the tips, tricks, and strategies portion, I share a tip regarding loans from a 401k.  In this episode... Just Say No [1:24]If You Can’t Say No [6:06]401k Emergency Loan [9:20] MAIN Recently I re-read The Tragedy of Hamlet by William Shakespeare. There are so many great quotes from this play. Just a few of these include: Brevity is the soul of witthere is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it soand one of the more famous lines - to be or not to be, that is the question. But the quote most relevant to the subject of this podcast episode comes from Polonius’ counsel to his son Laertes.  Amongst other sage advice he provides his son, he tells him t0 “Neither a borrower nor a lender be; for loan oft loses both itself and friend.” Over the course of life, we will invariably all experience times where friends and family will ask us for money. It’s important to prepare prior to such a request as the wrong approach could ruin some of our closest relationships.   Charles Barkley shared his thoughts on giving money to family. Barkley and the rest of the Team USA basketball players were in Atlanta preparing for the 1996 Olympic Games when he heard a conversation between his teammate Grant Hill and Hill’s mother. Janet Hill told her son that she was only staying in town for a few days, because she had to return to work. Barkley wondered why she was still working, considering that her son was making tens of millions of dollars playing in the NBA.  And Grant Hill’s mom said the following: “Do not start taking care of your family and friends. They never gonna stop, and it’s gonna ruin all your relationships,” She also said. “When you start giving people money, they never gonna ask for money [just] one time. No matter what you do for them, the first time you tell them no, they hate you.” Barkley took the advice to heart and started to tell people no when they asked for money, which temporarily led to some ruined friendships. “It was a tough and painful lesson for me,” Barkley said. Some would think that professional athletes should share.  Here is why most shouldn’t: Nearly 80% of NFL players go bankrupt or are under financial stress within two years of retirement and 60% of NBA players go broke or are bankrupt within five years of retirement. Just look at the sad cases of Antoine Walker, Bernie Kosar and others. When a family or friend asks for money, there could be a variety of reasons. Investing in their startup or helping them during a financially hard time.  -The first thing I recommend is to thank them for coming to you and before you can consider helping them you will need to ask them for more details. For those wanting you to invest in their startup or small business, you have every right to ask for their business plan. How will they generate profits, what sort of experience do they have in that line of business, how many others have invested, what is their path to profitability, etc. If they can’t answer those basic business questions, they are likely doomed to failure as most...

    13 min

  3. 15 AUG

    Novel Investment Strategies - Part 2 - Ep #68

    Welcome to episode 68 of the One for the Money podcast. This is part 2 of a 2-part series on novel investment strategies. In this episode, I’ll review a novel investment strategy called factor investing. In the tips, tricks, and strategies portion, I will share a second tip regarding stock options this time regarding incentive stock options also known as ISOs.  In this episode... Investment Factors & Potential Higher Returns [1:15]Factor Investing - Passive vs Active [6:32]Incentive Stock Options [9:12] Factor investing is a strategy that chooses investments based on certain attributes or factors that historically have had higher rates of return. The assumption is that these same attributes will continue in the future.  The First one is that historically, stocks have outperformed bonds. Since 1926 stocks returned between 8% – 10% whereas the bonds returned between 4% – 6%. If you invested $1 in 1926 and earned the bond average of 5% it would be $113 by 2023, but if that dollar earned the stock average of 9% return it would be $4269. That’s why for longer-term goals we invest in stocks because historically they give you more to spend in the future when things will cost more. The second investment factor is that smaller companies tend to grow faster than larger companies. Amazon and Apple all started in a garage and look at them now. But if people only invest in the S&P500 which all of the large American companies then they will miss out on buying the Apples, Teslas, Nvidia, Microsofts when they were smaller. From 1927 through December 2023 small stocks outperformed large stocks, 55% of the time after one year, 59% of the time after 5 years, and 68% of the time after 10 years. The third factor to consider while investing is the price of the stocks you are buying. Some stocks are more expensive than others. Confusingly, this has nothing to do with the price of the stock but rather the price of the stock relative to the earnings of the company. This is known as the P/E ratio.  On average, value stocks have outperformed growth stocks by 4.4% annually in the US since 1927. From 1926 through December 2023 value stocks were higher than growth stocks, 59% of the time after one year, 70% of the time after 5 years, and 78% of the time after 10 years.  The final factor to consider is profitability. That may seem like a captain obvious type comment but factoring in companies with higher probability can make a significant difference for investors. From 1963 through December 2023 high profitability companies were higher than lower profitability companies, 67% of the time after one year, 82% of the time after 5 years, and 92% of the time after 10 years.  Successful investing really should target factors that generate higher expected returns. Looking at average annualized returns going back decades, small-cap stocks have beaten large caps, value has outperformed growth, and high-profitability stocks have outgained low-profitability stocks.  Unlike active investing or trend models, factor investing doesn’t use a crystal ball but instead is grounded in economic theory and backed by decades of empirical data. Of course, past performance is no guarantee of future results but investing based on science is way better than investing based on an active manager's hunch or predictions about the future. Tips & Tricks ISOs are usually issued by publicly traded companies or private companies planning to go public. My tip regarding ISOs is whether you should take a higher salary and fewer ISOs or a lower salary...

    12 min

  4. 1 AUG

    Novel Investment Strategies - Part 1 - Ep #67

    Welcome to episode 67 of the One for the Money podcast. I am so very grateful you have taken the time to listen. This is part 1 of a 2-part series on novel investment strategies. In this episode, I’ll go over what is sometimes referred to as the borrow, spend, die strategy. In this episode... SBLOC Defined -[1:45]SBLOC in Practice -[4:58]Stock Options - Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) -[6:30] Most people are familiar with the notion of buying and selling investments. The goal when buying an investment is that it increases in value and then you sell the investment to enjoy the proceeds. But there is a strategy where you can spend without ever having to sell. This is much less complicated than it may sound when one realizes it’s not all that different from a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, for short. With a HELOC the homeowner will borrow money against their appreciated property and aren’t required to sell their home to do so.  There is a similar option with stock market investments and it is called a security-based line of credit, or SBLOC for short. Here is how they work. An SBLOC (Securities-Based Line of Credit) is a special type of loan where you use your non-retirement investments as collateral. Just how can you use some of this newfound wealth without triggering a huge tax bill and not missing out on potential future gains? Why an SBLOC of course. These allow you to borrow against these shares using your stock  as collateral. In fact this is the exact same strategy that many uber wealthy utilize to access the wealth formed in the publicly traded companies that they founded.  The strategy is sometimes called the borrow, spend, die strategy. They borrow from their massive wealth, spend the proceeds and when they die some of their shares are sold to pay off the loans. Often this can lead to massive tax savings as when they die, there could be a step up in the basis at death and the taxes could be severely limited. Tips Tricks and Strategies  RSUs (short for Restricted Stock Units) are a type of compensation given to employees by a company. They represent company shares that an employee will receive in the future. However, there are certain conditions, such as working for the company for a certain period of time or achieving specific performance goals, which must be met before the employee actually receives the shares Once your shares are granted and taxes paid, there is no taxable benefit to staying invested in those shares. For many investors, it may make more sense to sell all of the shares and diversify their investments or use the proceeds to pay of higher interest debt. References Security Based Line of Credit Borrow, Spend and Die Strategy Restricted Stock Units Connect with Jonny Westhttps://BetterPlanningBetterLife.com Connect with Jonny on LinkedIn Subscribe to ONE FOR THE MONEY on Apple...

    10 min

  5. 15 JUL

    Financial Language of Love - Ep #66

    What is one of the best ways a husband, wife, father, and mother can show their love financially? Hint it’s not diamond rings, cars, fancy trips, or a big house. It’s WAY cheaper than that. In this episode... Financially caring for family in case of an accident [1:15]5 factors that impact the price of life insurance  [4:43]The right type of Life Insurance [7:08] If you died yesterday, how financially secure would your family be today, tomorrow, and for the years to come? This is an incredibly depressing thought no doubt, but that’s exactly why we should address this just-in-case scenario. Because if you love your family, you will want to make certain that they are taken care of financially if you are not here today. Term life insurance is the only instrument that can provide sudden wealth for your loved ones in their greatest time of need all for just a fraction of the cost of the wealth obtained.   Term life insurance can be incredibly inexpensive far too many Americans lack life insurance. Too often you see, what I refer to as the worst type of life insurance, the GoFundMe page. But with term insurance being priced like a commodity, it really shouldn’t be this way for millions of families. Some people don’t bother with Life Insurance because they don’t want to “waste” money on term life insurance premiums. I can certainly relate because that’s the reason I never purchased term life insurance for many years. For those who worry about the cost of life insurance here are the five factors that impact the price #1 - A person’s Age - all things being equal, a 35-year-olds policy will be less expensive than a 40-year-olds #2 - A person's Gender - Men are more expensive than women. Men do stupid things and have a higher probability of death at all ages. #3 A person’s health rating - Think, BMI, smoker/non-smoker, etc ones driving record is also included.  #4 The amount of the benefit - $2m of coverage will cost you more than $1m #5 How many years you have coverage - Getting coverage for 10 years will be less than 20 years of coverage.   I must note that life insurance shouldn’t just be for the working spouse. If there is a stay at home parent they need life insurance as well. We cannot underestimate their contribution to the family. If they were to pass it would be devastating for the family and sure money would never replace their absence, it would help ease the tremendous burden so the working spouse can take the requisite time and have the means to help their family heal.   Tips Tricks and Strategies I absolutely love what I do but it wasn’t until after a lot of research that I finally found my dream career.  This career has married things that I love, namely personal finance, education, and being able to have a positive impact on others and for that reason, I became a Certified Financial Planner in order to have the greatest impact on my clients.  But that’s not actually, how it started out for me.  Due to my naiveté, I joined a “financial services" firm that claimed to put financial planning at the forefront of what they did but in truth, they primarily pushed expensive insurance that the overwhelming majority of people don’t need.  But, in my defense, it wasn’t anything like what I was promised during the interviews with the firm. I had interviewed a few actual CFP®s from the firm who spoke of the merits of being fiduciaries, a fiduciary is a professional that puts the interests of clients above their own, (apparently, this was in name only) and they in fact did not do comprehensive planning nor were they fiduciaries but the main efforts was to sell really expensive life insurance. What sort of expensive Life Insurance am I talking about; namely Index Universal Life (IUL), Whole life, and similar permanent life...

    17 min

  6. 1 JUL

    The Two Biggest Risks in Retirement - Ep#65

    Welcome to episode 65 of the One for the Money podcast. There are two huge risks when it comes to retirement, and they are contradictory to one another. In this episode, I’ll share those risks as well as a strategy to address them.  In this episode... Retirement is a Miracle [1:13]The first biggest risk in retirement  [2:25]The second biggest risk in retirement [2:44]Enjoying more in retirement through planning [11:29] Before we talk about these risks, it’s helpful to first appreciate the absolute miracle that is retirement.  A hundred years ago, three-quarters of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. Today, it’s less than 10%.  Interestingly, the two biggest risks retirees will face are contradictory to one another. The first is the most obvious one, running out of money. That’s really everyone’s biggest fear. But since people are so focused on the fear of running out of money they ignore the second biggest risk in retirement which is dying with WAY too much money. But, with the right retirement income strategy, you can spend WAY more money WITH your loved ones all while having a much more fulfilling retirement, and still leave your loved ones with a generous inheritance.  Sadly way too many people go into retirement without a plan and just wing it instead. In episode 62 of this podcast, I shared the regrets of retired Americans and how more than 6 in 10 retirees say they change their retirement if they had the opportunity.  I believe it is helpful to think of your approaching retirement as summiting your financial Mount Everest. Taking withdraws from your investments in retirement is like climbing down which requires even more guidance because the financial mistakes in retirement are WAY more costly, because when you are still working, you have the time and income to overcome most financial mistakes, but not in retirement.  For these reasons, you need a plan that is designed to address your specific retirement needs. But not any plan will do because having the RIGHT plan is JUST as important as having a plan at all. Way too many people think they have a retirement plan when all they have is an expensive product sold to them by some salesman. Others may have a very “light” plan by following a certain rule of thumb believing that a one-size-fits-all all plan will fit their specific situation. Examples would include the  60/40 rule (having 60% invested in stocks 40% invested in bonds, and selling which is up for the year to provide the income. Or there is the 4% distribution rule. Neither of which accounts for how your account is invested or when is the best time to take social security or how to mitigate taxes. What people need instead is a tailor-made income model to provide an inflation-adjusted income throughout their retirement. For this reason, I create and implement a retirement income distribution plan for clients that accounts for all their income sources, pensions, social security, and rental income, and consequently we are able to maximize their income spending so that they can achieve wonderful goals throughout their retirement. With the properly structured retirement income models, we are able to help clients spend (i.e. enjoy) more in retirement. Having a dynamic retirement Income model puts clients at ease and helps them enjoy retirement. They don’t have to fear running out of money or dying with too much. aspects of the strategy include investing...

    14 min

  7. 15 JUN

    Aligning Your Financial Plan with Happiness - Ep #64

    Welcome to episode 64 of the One for the Money podcast. I am so very grateful you have taken the time to listen.While investments, taxes, estate plans, risk management and cash flow are critical aspects of a financial plan, they won’t mean anything if they aren’t aligned with what matters most. In this episode I’ll share how one can align their financial plan with exactly that. In this episode... Where does Happiness come from [1:13]Financial success and relationships [5:41]Experiences or things, what will you remember most? [12:15] A better life is a result of actions you have taken via better planning and when it comes to financial planning it’s imperative that the focus is on what is absolutely essential for happiness. The pursuit of happiness has been a recurring theme on this podcast and I have encouraged clients and listeners to pursue the things that ultimately lead to happiness. The Harvard Study of Adult Development started in 1938 has been investigating what makes people flourish. The study was launched as a result of the generosity of WT Grant and as a result is sometimes called the Grant study. and his goal for the study, using his words, was to “help people live more contentedly and peacefully and well in body and mind through a better knowledge of how to use and enjoy all the good things that the world has to offer them.”   It’s the longest in-depth longitudinal study on human life ever done, and it’s brought the researchers to a simple and profound conclusion: Good relationships lead to both health and happiness. it’s not career achievement, money, exercise, or even a healthy diet that brings happiness. Rather the most consistent finding they found through 85 years of study is that Positive relationships keep a person happier, healthier, and help a person live longer. Those who scored highest on measurements of "warm relationships" earned an average of $141,000 a year more at their peak salaries. If relationships are the most important criteria for a long and happy life, than surely the most meaningful relationships have the most importance, for example, one’s marriage or one’s relationship with their children.  Whether it’s right or wrong, good or bad, money has a significant impact on these relationships. I talk with many clients and most say that they would rather spend more time with their family then have a bigger inheritance. For this reason, I encourage my clients to spend their money having family get togethers, because this is what will help them the most. But it’s more than just having good memories, people that have better relationships do better in many facets of life, including money.  The Harvard Study of Adult Development noted that the warmth of childhood relationship with mothers matters long into adulthood: Men who had "warm" childhood relationships with their mothers earned an average of $87,000 more a year than men whose mothers were uncaring. Interestingly, while the poorer participants had shorter lifespans than the Harvard men (attributed to more dangerous work conditions, and poorer access to health care) when it came to happiness, the inner-city men were just as happy as the Harvard men, and their families were just as happy and in some cases, happier. Tips Tricks and Strategies I will answer the question on whether one should spend money on experiences or should they spend it on things, and provide a strategy to help you decide. Most of the research shows that experiences can provide more joy and actual things. For instance, while a vacation might only last a week, a new car can be driven for many years. However, a 'thing' might last longer physically, the enjoyment of it and the memories it creates can wane over time. On the other hand, experiences act more like appreciating assets, in that the initial experience might be short, but the value of it...

    18 min

  8. 1 JUN

    The Case for Optimism - Part 3 - - Ep #63

    The Case of Optimism - Part 3 Each year I record one episode of this podcast that makes the case for why we should be optimistic. This is part 3. (Click here for part 1 and here for part 2) There are a lot of disturbing events and trends that are happening in the world at present and yet despite all of these concerns I’ll argue the case for why we should remain optimistic about our future. In this episode... The climate is actually great [6:18]How Happy Are Americans? [14:17]How Americans are missing out on billions [16:23] This episode is airing in June of 2024 and we are starting to see some market volatility of late. That can create a lot of fear in the hearts of investors. Add to that a war that continues to rage in Europe, Add to that a war that continues to rage in Europe, and finally add to that a presidential election this November where a solid majority of people overwhelmingly don’t want either candidate to be president. There is a lot we can worry about but yet despite all of these concerns we really should remain optimistic. Let’s look at some of the evidence as to what’s so great: The first is to consider the state of democracy. We are in an election year where we are told that our democracy is at stake, and you get that from leaders and followers of both political parties. For this reason the upcoming presidential election is one of investors chief concerns. there certainly has been more challenges to the pillars of democracy in the USA and also in other countries around the world but it’s much wiser to step back and take a longer view of the state of democracy. In 1976 just 23% of countries were legitimate electoral democracies but it’s 51% now. That is remarkable progress.  The brutal terrorist attacks perpetuated by Hamas on October 7th, were absolutely sickening. Iran fired 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles but due to the marvels of technology and the help of allies 99% of them were intercepted or eliminated. I recently read the book “Unsettled” by Steven E Kooning, The subtitle of the books is this “What climate science tells us, what it doesn’t, and why it matters”. Dr. Kooning notes that heat waves in the US are now no more common than they were in 1900 and that the warmest temperatures in the US have not risen in the past 50 years. Weather-fixated television news would make us all think that disasters are getting worse. They’re not. Around 1900, 4.5 percent of the land area of the world would burn every year. Over the last century, this declined to 3.2 percent. In the previous two decades, satellites have shown further decline — in 2021, just 2.5 percent burned. Here’s additional details on how far we have come:  Global poverty rates have been reduced by 50% in the past 20 years.  A hundred years ago, three-quarters of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. Today, it’s less than 10%. Human life expectancy has doubled over the past century, from 36 years in 1920 to more than 72 years today.  Americans fell to 23rd place in happiness, down from 15th a year ago, according to data collected in the Gallup World Poll for the World Happiness Report 2024. In the U.S., self-reported happiness has fallen in all age groups, but especially among young adults. Americans 30 and younger ranked 62nd globally in well-being. If you want to know how great you have it, you should really travel more to third world countries. What we have here in America, especially the freedoms provided by the inspired constitution...

    20 min
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About

Listen to hear Jonny break down the tips, tricks, and strategies he uses to help clients retire early. This is the "easy button" when it comes to early retirement because everything you want and need to know is right here. Jonny will lay it all out in plain English so you can get the details on the actions you can do to put yourself on the best path to early retirement. He'll also interview top real estate, tax, and estate planning and other professionals to provide a comprehensive approach to your retirement planning. Nobody builds wealth by accident. Listen to find out how you can do it on purpose.

Information

  • Creator
    Jonny West
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2024
  • Episodes
    71
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2024 Jonny West
  • Show Website
    One For The Money

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