Why Most Retirement Plans Get It Backwards

 High-stakes retirement planning is more than just Roth conversions and withdrawal rates. George Jameson, CFP®, RICP®, discusses the "One Page Financial Plan" philosophy and how to audit your spending to find your true priorities. 

 Welcome to "The Retirement Guide" Podcast! I'm your host George Jameson, owner of Capital Wealth Group, a Fee Only Advisory firm. Whether you’re nearing retirement or already retired, Join me each week as we explore the world of retirement planning and equip you with the knowledge and tools you need for a successful retirement.

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The Retirement Guide. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe & leave a review. If you'd like a free 30-minute retirement review, visit our website at www.capitalwealthplan.com to schedule.

This is for education only.It is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Before  acting on any information consult your tax, legal, or investment advisor.

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Capital Wealth Group is a Fee-Only Advisory Firm located in Columbia, SC , serving clients locally in South Carolina and North Carolina and virtually nationwide. 

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Transcript

1. Welcome to your retirement guide.
2. I'm George Jameson, a CFP, and founder of Capital Wealth Group in Columbia, South Carolina.
3. Thank you for joining me.
4. If you're getting ready to build a retirement plan, there's one question you must answer before you do anything else.
5. You need to ask yourself this.
6. Why is money important to me?
7. When most folks decide it's time to get serious about retirement, their minds immediately jump to the mechanics.
8. They want to know things like should we pay off the mortgage first?
9. Or do we have enough to finally retire?
10. They want to figure out how do we create a tax efficient paycheck in retirement.
11. Let me be clear, those are fantastic questions.
12. Figuring out those complex nuts and bolts strategies is exactly what I do for a living.
13. But those are tactical questions, and they should never be the very first step in the financial planning process.
14. Answering why is money important to me is the first question you should ask.
15. The reason is simple.
16. Answering this question gives you a crystal clear understanding of your core values.
17. And understanding your values is the only way you can make true great financial decisions for you and your family.
18. I recently listened to financial expert Carl Richards speak in Columbia.
19. He wrote a fantastic book called The One Page Financial Plan, and he talks extensively about this exact concept.
20. He points out that the financial industry often gets this backwards.
21. Think about it like going to the doctor.
22. Imagine walking to a clinic, and before you even get a chance to explain your symptoms, the doctor just hands you a prescription.
23. You obviously will go and find a new doctor, right?
24. Your financial life is no different.
25. A planner cannot prescribe a financial solution without first diagnosing your real underlying goals.
26. Yes, optimizing your investments, executing Roth conversions, and building withdrawal strategies are absolutely critical.
27. That is the heavy lifting that ensures your money lasts through your 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond.
28. But the most brilliant tax strategy in the world is completely useless if it's pointing you toward a life you don't actually want to live.
29. When you have accumulated one, two, or even five million dollars, the stakes are higher and the complexity is greater.
30. So, if your answer to the why question is leaving a legacy for your grandchildren, your tax strategy and risk tolerance may look completely different than if your why is traveling the globe for 15 or 20 years.
31. The math always has to serve the meaning.
32. So you have to define the target first.
33. To help you hone in on your answer, I want you to ask yourself a few follow-up questions.
34. First, why do I invest so much of my money and time on this specific thing?
35. And then why do I spend so little on this other thing when I claim it's so important to me?
36. Why do I save as much or as little as I do?
37. What am I actually hoping to achieve with this wealth I've built?
38. When you first try to answer these, your initial thoughts might be a bit vague.
39. You might just say, I want to be comfortable. I want to be independent.
40. I want you to push past that and strive for specifics.
41. A specific answer sounds like I want my children to have more opportunities than I did.
42. Or I want to have the freedom and time to volunteer in my community.
43. Or maybe it's simply I don't want to ever have to worry about money the way my parents did.
44. Those specific answers give your money a true purpose.
45. If you try this exercise and you hit a dead end, don't get frustrated.
46. Just look at two things: how you spend your time and how you spend your money.
47. You may want to pull the last three months of your credit card statements and take a hard look at your calendar.
48. Those two things never lie. They show your true priorities in black and white.
49. The best financial plan isn't just about what the stock market happens to be doing today or tomorrow.
50. It's about being brutally honest about where you want to go in life.
51. Then we use those rigorous financial planning tools to narrow the gap between where you are right now and where you want to be.
52. When you align your capital with your true purpose, you buy yourself the one thing everyone wants more of, and that's time.
53. So step one is getting clear on that purpose.
54. So start today by asking yourself: why is money important to me?
55. That's it for today.
56. Thanks for joining me on your retirement guide.
57. Again, I'm George Jameson.
58. And I'm the founder of a fee-only firm called Capital Wealth Group.
59. We offer ongoing planning and investment management, as well as one-time financial plans for DIYers.
60. If you'd like to take the next step, schedule a free consultation at our website, capitalwealthgroupsc.com.
61. If you found this helpful, please subscribe and share your thoughts in the comments.
62. Have a great day.