The way you think about money is just as important as how you spend or save it.

Chad Hufford brings a fresh perspective to financial planning, showing how shifting your mindset around money can open doors to real financial freedom. It’s not just about crunching numbers or making more income—it’s about smart decisions, strategic investing, and changing the way you think about wealth.

He unpacks the habits that lead to financial independence, why patience is a game-changer, and how small, intentional choices today can create massive impact in the future. Whether you’re just starting to take control of your finances or looking to build long-term security, Chad’s insights will make you rethink the way you manage, grow, and protect your money.

Highlights:

• Shift your mindset around money to see it as a tool for creating freedom, not just a means for survival.
• Develop habits that build long-term wealth through consistency, patience, and intentional decision-making.
• Learn how financial independence isn’t about luck—it’s about strategic planning and disciplined execution.
• Explore ways to improve financial conversations within your family to create a stronger, healthier money mindset.
• Understand why small financial choices today can lead to major financial security in the future.

Connect with Chad:

Website: https://www.veritasalaska.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-hufford-066208100/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/veritas.alaska/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VeritasWealthManagement/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@veritasalaska

Book: Forging Financial Freedom

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Chad, Hello everyone, and welcome to this

week's episode of relationships rule. This week, we're going to

talk about a topic that impacts every business owner,

entrepreneur and individual, our relationship with money. My

guest is Chad Hufford, a top ranked financial planner and the

owner of Veritas wealth management. Chad is known for

helping his clients not only build wealth, but also align

their financial decisions with their values, creating a

fulfilling a fulfilling and abundant life. And I think I

have to start with, first of all, welcome. Welcome to the

show. Chad

Janice, thank you so much for having me. It's a

great opportunity to be here and honor to encourage your audience

and help them pursue a more abundant life.

Thank you appreciate that. And I guess I

have to start with what I was going to interject when I was

introducing you is, this is not a topic I'm really fond of.

Okay, money, talking about money, money. I love money. And

I love having, you know, being able to earn money and, and it's

funny, on Sunday, I was just talking offline with you about

my granddaughter. On Sunday, she went and she helped, walked into

our garage to look for something, and she came back,

and she had a jar with her that had money in it, like coins and

some paper roll, a roller, rolling things for putting money

in. And there were pennies and quarters and dimes and a few

coins from somewhere else, and an old Canadian $2 bill, which

we haven't seen for years anyway, she found this she said,

I found this money, grandma. Can I have it? And I said, Well, I

don't know. I'm not sure whose money it is tomorrow. And she

said, I said, but let's put it down, out on the floor, and

let's count it. Let's separate it, let's sort it here. I'm the

teacher in me starts right away and and so she did, and we had

this great little time with you know, the pennies are here and

the quarters are here. And I'm like, which do you think is the

most money? Which pile has the most money? And she went to the

pennies, and I said, Well, let's put, let's put the quarters in

piles of four, and then we're going to count them, and then

we'll put the pennies in piles of 10, and we're going to count

them. And we had to do, you know, I had to keep reminding

her she's only five. And anyway, whether it's sunken or not, we

had a few math lessons along the way, and so that was kind of

fun. But generally speaking, I really don't like talking about

money, because I'm not very good with it. So I'm going to say to

you, how do you see a person's relationship with money

influencing their personal and professional relationships?

Because if what I say is true, I'm probably having a bad time.

But Well,

I think what your experience is is fairly normal,

and I think a lot of us grew up in households where money was

mostly taboo. The only time it was brought up was under

stressful circumstances. Maybe somebody made a bad financial

decision, somebody lost their job. There maybe was a a health

care cost that Nobody's expecting and mom and dad aren't

sure how ends are gonna be, or mom Maybe mom and dad were

fighting about money. If you grew up in a house where money

was always a streaming match between mom and dad, like, yeah,

you're not gonna have a great relationship with it. And I

think that's where what you just did with Amara is so powerful,

is you normalized having a conversation about money under a

healthy and calm circumstance. And that's how I grew up. But I

really, I realized later in life that that wasn't normal to just

have, just have normal, basic conversations about money. So

I'll just give you a little metaphor. But I think just like

our health, it can be overwhelming, like there's all

these, all these opinions out there. Everybody on podcast has

an idea, everybody on Instagram is an expert, and we hear all

this conflicting information about money and our health, and

I think the tendency for some people is just, I'm just gonna

stick my head in the sand. This is overwhelming. I'm not gonna

deal with it. I don't have the right information. I'm just

gonna ignore it. And our physical health, just like our

financial health, the the only thing necessary for those areas

of our life to deteriorate is negligence our we will not

develop a better relationship with money. We will not develop

a healthier financial situation or a healthier body by

neglecting those areas. So whether you want it to be a part

of your life or not, it is, we don't really have a choice. So

my goal, one of one of the reasons I believe I'm here on

Earth is to help people create a better relationship with money.

Because money is a wonderful servant, it is a terrible

master. Oh, I

love that. Money is a wonderful servant. It's a

terrible master. And I get it, because a lot of what you said

really rang true with me in that I had to. Deal several years

ago, I realized that I was I had a very I had a very contentious

relationship and a lot of anger around my father after he died,

and it was all about money and and I had to deal with it, and

it took me a long time, but I did do some work around it. And

it kind of, I think I freed that, that anger, so that I

could move forward and and you're right, because money was

my dad used to say to my mom all the time, don't worry about it,

dear. I'll look after it. Don't worry about it. I've got it, you

know. And so she never knew how to write a check after my dad

died, you know. So there was that anyway, there's a whole,

you know, it should be on the couch to do with that, going

through a psych visit with somebody, but, but you do learn

as you go through life. You know what you can do and what you

there's no shoulds right? But I love what you said, that it's

about, you know, it's often about stress, or it's about

those, those, it adages that we hear when we're kids. Money

grows on doesn't grow on trees. You know, all of those things

that we grew up with. I grew up with some of those and and it

can affect a lot. So when did you, I mean, have you always had

a good relationship with money? Or when did you decide this was

your path? I'd love to know how you got there. So

I think, just like any relationship, there's

struggles, right? There's there's good times, there's bad

times. I mean, I have my own scarcity journey as well,

starting this business, and I started in 2007 and a financial

practice in 2007 as the world was starting to slowly burn

down. And then in 2008 2009 the burning down process just sped

up. It was a very, very hard time. And I remember a time when

Janice, I'll be honest, I was doubting myself, not just, not

just professionally, but even as a father, my wife came from

poverty and and we had two kids, one on the way, we were not even

getting our basic bills paid every month. And I'm just

wondering, how are we going to get out of this? What is going

to happen? And I it was very emasculating. I felt like, I

mean, one of these I chose this profession is to give my wife

stability, but it wasn't there. And we, we, we didn't know even

how to pay for basic, basic groceries. And one day, we're

coming home from from my parents house, and we pull up in the

driveway, somebody left a box of groceries on our front door.

Yeah. Door, and it was maybe, you know, 80 100 bucks worth of

groceries, but I just remember how impactful that was. It was

just like a reminder that I'm not alone in this. But it was,

it was a very dark time in my life, and I didn't realize it

then, but looking back now, is dealing. I was battling

depression, and so I think we all have scars. And to answer

your question, I think for the most part, I've had a good

relationship with money, but I still can fall back into that

scarcity mindset and and money is easy to measure, which means

money can sometimes be the goal, the objective, rather than a

means to the end. So So I want a more fulfilling life. I want to

live a life of more abundance and impact that and impact.

That's hard to measure. I can measure money. I want to have X

amount of dollars to my name by the time I'm such and such an

age. That's a lot easier to measure than the impact I'm

having. So I think it's a constant battle to make sure

that we're all viewing money as a means to an end and not the

end in itself. So I would say I am blessed to have been

introduced to good money management principles very early

on. My parents didn't just teach us that. They modeled that. But

I can't say that I've always had a great relationship with money,

and we've had our struggles. I've made my dumb decisions.

When I was 19, I had three different vehicles, you know,

just I felt like I never had money before. You know, I felt

like I was rich. I was just doing dumb things with it. But

where did it start? So, my degree is in biochemistry. I was

actually headed into medicine. Oh, wow. And but I realized the

impact that money has on people's lives. And because of

growing up in a household where my dad was in the financial

industry, we talked about money, it was normalized. As an adult,

I saw how destructive and dysfunctional poor relationships

money can money can have in people's lives and the negative

ripple effect. But I also saw the opposite growing up. I saw

that when people start controlling their money, rather

than having to control them, when they start having

confidence that that also has a ripple effect into every area of

their life. And I saw my dad taught classes in our church in

the community. He helped people become better stewards their

money, so it actually became a tool. People, rather than

something that controlled them. And I just realized this is,

this is a wonderful opportunity, not just to change somebody's

financial life, but to change their trajectory as a whole, and

that's ultimately why I chose this path.

So I think I remember that you were, you were

in the Were you an athletic trainer?

Yes, I so there's a time in my life where I was in

the middle of this pivot where I realized medicine was probably

not going to be the career for my family. It was, I still have

a passion for it, I would say, okay, but it wasn't going to

line up with my family goals, and I wasn't sure what to do, so

I started personal training, and I know it's one of your

daughters, you still own a cross, so it's a big part of

your family, too. And it was something that I could scale

very quickly, sure, but I didn't want to do it forever, right? So

I was working with professional athletes, some Olympians, and

got some contracts working with the military, did some stuff

with the local police department, and it really kind

of got me into this coaching mindset. And it was even though

it felt like a detour, or it felt like I was just biding my

time, what it did is help develop my coaching ability,

because coaching is helping somebody create a better

relationship with whatever tool that you're using to create

victory in their life, to become a better version of themselves.

So I realized my goal wasn't just to help people identify a

better financial plan and better investments, but to actually

help them become a better investor, to actually coach them

to to have a better relationship with their finances. And I think

that period in my life in between medicine and in finance

was was really a great training ground for that skill set.

Well, especially, I'm thinking when you're working

with professional athletes and military people who have such

great commitment for what they're doing that that also can

cross over into teaching people mindset and discipline around

money, right? Because, yeah, so did that feel like you know that

that went with you when you or were you, were you actually

coaching the the you know what I'm trying to say, it's not

about money, particularly, because you weren't there yet,

but you were doing the things that that taught that commitment

that could cross over.

Yes, so I think what you're asking is, I'll just

answer, I think you're asking. So the character qualities, the

the temperaments necessary for an athlete to be successful in

their sport, for a soldier to be prepared to go deploy, are the

exact same temperaments and character qualities necessary to

have a good relationship with money and to build financial

independence. I did not know that at the time, and then I saw

all these parallels. And there's actually a book that I read on

an airplane to a wedding, and I thought it's called simple

wealth, inevitable wealth, by a man named Nick Murray. And I

said, this is the message I need to take into the world, and I

have the skills to do it, because I've been doing it with

high level athletes for a long time on athletic standpoint, if

I can help people utilize the tools that are already available

to them to build better physical fitness, to build more mental

toughness, I can do the exact same thing with with investors

to build a better life, but it still requires the grit, the

mental toughness, The the the discipline, the perseverance,

the the temporary sacrifice, all those things were were very much

a part of both fields, and it really was a huge blessing to

have what felt like a little bit of a detour actually, very much

prepared me for what I'm doing now, right?

That's exactly what I was asking. Okay, so I

that does make me want to ask now, though, your take on, or

whether, I don't know if you have any or many professional

athletes or high level athletes who are clients of yours, but

there's so many you know that I'm into the basketball world.

My family's a basketball family, and you see these kids today?

Well, even you know, well, no, Kobe Bryant's an anomaly. But I

mean, he, I've just been watching his the a documentary

of about him on CNN, and they showed a picture of him

announcing after high school that he was going right into the

NBA Draft. Well, he's an anomaly, as I said anyway,

because he was so focused from when he was a kid to what his

goals were, so that I would imagine that his financial goals

would have been handled better than most. But you see these

young kids going into professional sports, and they

have no idea, and they come. From poor backgrounds, and all

they do is they've got all this, these diamonds around their

neck, and they're, you know, what would you say? What? What

do you work with any of these types of people? Or what would

you say to somebody like that? Because you don't want them to

piss it all away, to be rude, but no,

but it's so I believe wealth is like a weight.

So if you, if you have somebody who was, we'll just use this,

like CrossFit analogy, somebody who's been in the gym, they've

been taking classes with your daughter for years, you put a

weight on their back. That weight can actually make them

stronger. They're prepared for it. They know how to use it. You

take somebody that's never been inside of a gym, or hasn't

touched a gym in 20 years, you put 300 pounds on their back,

it's going to harm them. And I think whether it's a celebrity

or a college athlete or a young person coming into a lot of

money, they get this weight of wealth that might help them, had

they been more prepared. But because they're not, it, it

crushes them and it I think wealth, it just like any tool,

can be destructive if it's not wielded properly. And in our

culture, in our society, we Janice, we we believe we can fix

money management or money problems with more money, and

it'd be like fixing poor driving with more horsepower, like

giving my 16 year old daughter, who's had two accidents in the

last 30 days, giving her a faster car to deal with the fact

that she keeps running into other people's cars. It doesn't

work because it's the individual behavior, it's the relationship

between her and the car that needs to change. We can swap out

the car all day, but until she learns how to better manage the

road, the the vehicle itself and the awareness, yes, the car is

just the medium, and that's what we need to to realize. We can't

We can't just add more money to the equation. If somebody is a

poor steward of a modest amount of money. We give them millions,

it becomes even more destructive. We've given them a

bigger, more harmful, more not more harmful tool, but a more

powerful tool with which they can hurt themselves,

right? Yeah, good point. So it was a question I

had here I wanted to ask you. Okay, I have a couple. So you

emphasize I my notes here, you emphasize patience and choosing

the hard right over the easy wrong. I love that the hard

right over the easy wrong. How does that philosophy strengthen

client relationships?

Well, number one, it's it's necessary in almost

all walks of life. Usually the easy choice in the moment puts

us on a wrong path in the future. We if we choose

temporary comfort or temporary relief, there's usually a cost

we pay in the future. And I'll just, I'll just give you, we

already talked about Kobe Bryant. So if I can use the Kobe

Bryant story, he is an anomaly, but there's a lot we can learn

from him after games, when everybody else would go out

drinking, he would go hit the gym and and work on the things

that he felt needed to be polished. Even if they won the

game and he had a great game, maybe he would do dribbling

drills if he had too many turnovers, sometimes he would go

shoot 1000 free throws at the game. He would do he would go

into a dark gym where nobody saw him, and work quietly mastering

mundane tasks. Now everybody celebrates the highlight reel

dunks in the 6070, point games and all that stuff, but all that

came from those dark moments in the gym where nobody was

watching and building wealth is the same thing. People celebrate

the, you know, the fancy retirement and going on the

cruises and the nice cars and all that. But for the people who

manage money, well, those that's not what got them there. That's

what that is a byproduct of the things they did behind closed

doors for years and years and years. And here's what makes

Coby an anomaly. He did it by himself. You go, most people

need somebody by their side as an accountability partner,

somebody shoulder to shoulder along the journey with them to

get them to do that, whether it's a workout partner, whether

it's an accountability partner. In our case, we are

accountability partners for finances and for wealth, but

it's keeping people mastering the mundane, keeping them on the

difficult path when they're making sacrifices, temporary

sacrifices in the moment, for a better future. Most people need

somebody in their corner holding them accountable, but also

reminding them of what is the payoff going to be? Right? It's

only temporary. This is not forever. There's a better future

out there waiting because you're willing to do the hard thing.

Now.

It's so true. It's so true and and when I look

back at, you know, if I were to do it differently today, you

know it. There are so many things I would do differently

that I didn't know, I didn't understand, and I didn't want to

know at the time, because I was a product. Personally, me, I was

a product of that dad who said, don't worry about it. I'll look

after it. And that's what I heard all the time, right? And,

and that's just me. Then my my husband, other story, right? You

know, so I don't want to get into it, but, you know,

everyone's different, right? And they have different angles

around money, but it makes it difficult to you have to work

through it, and you have to want to work through it. Okay, so

who's your Well, let me just clarify something in your

company, Veritas, Wealth Management, do you focus on like

long term or do you have different kinds of clients that

have different risk tolerances, that you do different things

with? That would

be the we do so we tailor somebody's financial plan

to their specific goals. Okay? And their financial plan then

dictates the investment strategy. And a lot of a lot of

places do this backwards, a lot of a lot of individuals, they

kind of collect investments for 30 years and then try to throw

it together two years before retirement and make a financial

house out of it. What we tell people is, you wouldn't, you

wouldn't buy a house that was built without a blueprint. You

shouldn't build your future without one either. And the idea

is that we take long term goals. Janice, what do you want your

life to look like if you never had to work another day in your

life you didn't need to produce a paycheck? What would you be

doing? Who would you be spending time with? We We want to make it

about life goals and lifestyle goals, rather than simply money

goals. Now we have to attach some money goals to that, but

then we reverse engineer that process to where they are today.

But objectives dictate the plan. The plan dictates the

investments and the investments or the tail. We want to make

sure that the tail doesn't wag the dog. And too often, people

are changing their investments around because of what's going

on in the economy or what they think might happen. Maybe it's

an election cycle. They're changing their investments even

though their long term goals haven't changed, and that's

where that accountability is important. We want to make sure

that if, if they're in the right investments, even if it's

uncomfortable, that they stick it out, that they weather the

storms. But to answer your question, everybody's plan and

investment strategy is tailored to what their needs are, rather

than tailored to whatever people think is happening next in the

markets or things like that, because that is a fool's errand.

You should invest based on your goals, based on what is

important and meaningful to you, not what's going on in the

economy.

Does that mean also, then that, because the way

your company is structured, you have, you can choose whatever

you want to for that investment, for someone you're not tied to,

I've got to push these bonds this week, or this, yeah, okay,

oh,

it's, it's yes, and it's such, and this is what

was so hard getting started, because I got started

independently. I wasn't tied to another financial firm, because

I wanted that independence. I wanted to be able to meet with

somebody, connect with them on a personal level, find out what

was important to them, attach some goals to it, and then go

find the tools necessary to build the life that that

individual wanted. I mean, right now, what we're seeing is

everybody comes in with these target date funds. They're this

one size fits all, which means one size fits nobody. And

they're, they're not tailored to anything specifically. And never

wanted to be like that. I never wanted to have a list of

products where, Janice, I've got this little box that I'm trying

to jam you into. It's more about you tell me what you need to

build, and then we'll go out and we'll find the best tools to see

that, yeah, yeah.

I think that's I've always liked, that, that

style, or in that, that process better.

Well, can I give you a quick metaphor? Yes. Think

about this from a health perspective. You go to a doctor.

You walk in the doctor's office, you, you, you don't even fill

out a form yet. You don't know anything about you, and they

start telling you about all the most popular prescriptions that

they can write and all the benefits, all these things. And

by the way, there's some really popular procedures. Everybody's

doing this thing, and we'll schedule like, what? What is a

good day for your surgery? You're like, whoa. You don't

even know what's wrong. Like, you don't even know why I came

in here yet. Now you're laughing, no, but it's a great

analogy. But the financial industry does the exact same

thing. We're so product focused, we haven't even we haven't even

talked to the person about what they want their solution to. And

I think my industry needs to learn from that, that it's about

finding out what this person needs, not trying to sell them

what is popular. Because ultimately, we're not selling

anything. What we need is people to buy in. They're buying into a

journey with us. It's a partnership. The investments are

just the tools. It's the partnership that makes a

difference. I mean, going back to basketball, yeah, everybody

uses a basketball. Everybody, but. But the basketball, the

shoes, the court, all those things are commodities. They're

all basically the same. It's how the team functions together that

makes all the difference. It's all about relationships. It's

all about the the connectedness within that team. And I believe

finance is no different.

You know that you just reminded me of a funny

story. My mother was a was widowed. She was in her 60s, and

as I told you, she didn't know how to write a check, so she had

to learn all the basics of looking after her her finances.

And she started by having a good friend of hers, a woman who had

been a bookkeeper teacher some of the basics, right? And then

she found she got, I don't know how who, where this person came

from, but she got a financial planner, and this guy's name was

Ed. And every time we had to talk to my mom about money,

she'd say, I don't know. I have to ask Ed. And this went on for

years. I'll have to check with Ed. And it became like a joke,

right? Because I lived here, she lived I lived in Vancouver, she

lived in LA, my sister lived in LA, but we never met Ed, right?

But we knew Ed existed, and she, like she wanted to buy a new

car, so she get ed to help her and see if she could move her

money. She didn't. She didn't get left as much she as

comfortably as she should have been, but that's the whole story

about my dad. But um, so she had to be careful of her money. So

it was always ed. So my mom died many years later, and we had to

talk to Ed, because Ed was still in the picture. And so my sister

and I went to meet him, and he was the nicest guy. And you

know, he he'd done the best he could with her. I don't know. I

mean, I don't really know, you know, the details of how it all

went, but it was so silly. It was so fun, like we went to meet

Ed. And the other piece to that is my sister now uses Ed.

Oh, that's funny, which I this thought

was so funny. I don't know how old he is now,

but, but anyway, I just thought that was funny. The trust that

she had in this guy, and we didn't even know who he was,

well, and

that's just the trust, but the partnership,

where they obviously had a dialog going. She wasn't just

asking investing questions. She was no and that's and that's

what's so important about this is we realize that, because most

people did grow up where finances are taboo, we're asking

questions that their best friend, your best friends, your

family members, don't even have the answers to right? It's very,

very intimate, and it creates it requires time and a lot of

relationship capital to build that intimacy. But it sounds

like your mom and Ed developed that where they were working

together. She wasn't asking for Ed's permission or anything, but

she she trusted his guidance. Said, Hey, this is a big

decision before I make that happen. Yeah, I want to circle

ed in and make sure we do this the right way, so that that

actually warms my heart, and I'm glad you finally got a chance to

meet him,

yeah, yeah, no, it was so funny. Anyway, okay,

so I'm thinking not big bit big business things right now,

because I keep thinking about the fact that you have, is it

six kids? We have six kids. Yeah, have six kids. And I have

a question here that makes me think, because my granddaughter

as well. Okay, what advice would you have for families to build

healthier conversations around money, but also, like, as as an

example, you know, what do you teach your kids about money? Did

they have or do they have allowances? Or is that a no no?

Like, there's different takes on things like that. So I'm just

curious.

Well, I already, I already kind of praised you

earlier, and I want to do it again, because you took an

opportunity to have a conversation with your with your

granddaughter, Amara, and you, you there's a math lesson in it.

Like, there's all kinds of wonderful things that you did

totally

but, but I taught elementary school, so it was

just like, right in my element, until she loses interest, yeah,

but you normalized it. And I think that's what

people need to realize. Even if you don't know a lot about

finances, you might not feel like you have a lot of wisdom.

That's fine. Just open up the conversation. It might even be

explained to your kids, like, Hey, this is what's confusing to

me about they changed some stuff in our 401 k this week at work,

and I don't even know what it's talking about, just something

like that. You could even express your confusion around

money. You're like, Hey, here's something I don't know. We're

going to figure this out together as a family, but

normalizing those conversations, because conversations about

money will happen by design or by default. If you design

conversations around money, they can be healthy, they can even be

fun. I'm saying that as a nerd, so maybe it's not your version

of fun, but it can actually be something that draws the family

closer together. I hear you. But if money conversations happen by

default, it will usually happen under stress, and even people

who who do very, very well. Financially. And I get connected

with a lot of people that they're they're multi

millionaires, they have a lot of wealth, but they still live in a

scarcity mindset, because, like we talked about earlier, we

can't fix money issues with more money. So if you take somebody

who has traumatic money experiences, and you don't fix

that relationship, giving them more money just gives them more

money to worry about it actually makes the problem worse. So even

people who are really wealthy, we see you talk about athletes

buying all the the jewelry, which my son taught me the other

day, they call it ice, or icing, or something like that.

Ice, yeah, sure, yeah. But I mean,

I I'm not trying to psychoanalyze these people,

but some of that might be them trying to to distance themselves

from that scarcity environment, you know. And so we all do it

different ways. But I think just having those conversations,

opening up with your kids, it doesn't matter so much what

you're even talking about, to a point it just matters that

you're talking about it, and you give you open up the freedom for

them to talk about money, to ask questions about money, and even

if you aren't very savvy with your own money, maybe it's

something that you guys can learn together. Mm, hmm.

Um, yeah, I think Do you believe in allowances or

not? So

I have a funny story on that. So I have six

kids, but I'm still figuring this out. They're all so

different. And you know, as a parent, you try to pretend like

you've you've got everything lined out and figured out, and

then your teenagers start calling you out, and then you

both realize that, yeah, we don't know what we're doing. But

anyway, with six kids, I should by now, but every now and then I

have one of those aha moments where, like, something worked,

something clicked. So this is a couple years ago. My youngest

right now, they're six and four, but this they were four and two

at the time, and they walk up to me. Everybody else is gone. My

wife had the older kids, and the four year old is a spokesperson.

He comes up says, Dad, we need to talk. I thought, this is

gonna go. He goes, Dad, Barrett and I were talking, and we need

money. It's like, okay, so four and two, they had a discussion.

They go to dad, we need money. Where in the world is this

going? So the next thing out of his mouth, he said, What kind of

jobs do you have for us so we can earn it? Oh, and I thought,

You know what, I'm doing something, right? So for two

hours, we were out in the yard. We were pulling weaves and

trimming hedges and things like that. And I was so proud of

these guys and a little proud of myself. And my wife gets home

and she's like, why are my babies all scratched up and

bleeding and dirty? I was like, they were working anyways. Um,

but we do, we do try to, even if it's menial stuff, but get them

to attach production and service to money that, if, if, first of

all, if you, if you want something, let's, let's attach a

goal to it. How much is that going to cost? And maybe even

set up some parameters on how long it might take you, you

know, for younger ones, if they want to buy a $20 toy, it's

going to take them a little while to earn that but then

lining up. What is that pathway? What are the types of jobs you

can do to earn that thing? How can you serve your family? How

can you serve the people around you? My My mom lives just a mile

away. So they do. She's 77 she has a very high we'll just call

it a labor intensive property, just some land and things like

that. So they go like, how can you serve grandma to earn some

money? And really trying to attach those to that the more

you serve people around you, the bigger the impact you make in

the lives of those in your circle, the more your own needs

will be will be met. So that's what we really try to instill,

rather than just giving them a flat allowance.

Okay, so I think we need to, we need to switch

that up a little bit with Amara and and instill that a little

bit more. What we've noticed since Christmas she got, I know

she she goes to the coffee shop with mom and grandpa. Sometimes,

and mom and Grandpa might have a card, gift card with the money

on it. She said, I want my own gift card. She wanted her own to

get her own drink, right? So for Christmas, she got one. So she

got 10 hot chocolates on it, or something like that. So she got

to do that, but she goes, if she earns the right by doing

something really good, she gets to go to the dollar store,

because she loves the dollar store, and she will have her own

money that maybe was a gift for her birthday or whatever in her

piggy bank, and she gets to spend X amount of money at the

dollar store. So there's lessons there. And, no, I can't afford

that. Yes, I can whatever, and stuff like that, but I think we

need that earning piece in there as well. So yeah, well,

and even one of the things I was thinking about,

maybe my son and your your granddaughter should meet, they

might be a cute. Helpful, but, but also trade offs too. Is it

okay? You know, you saved up $6 for this toy, but you also want

this other toy. So if you buy this one, you don't get that's a

lesson a lot of adults don't get. We want it all. I know. We

want the nice vacation. We want the nice car. We also want our

weekends. We don't want to have to the overtime. There's always

trade offs. And again, it's being intentional about that,

because a lot of times people make decisions and the trade off

costs them way more in the long run than they ever anticipated,

but they don't think about it at the outset. So just talking to

our kids about, okay, that's, yeah, you've earned the money.

That's great, but if you buy that. That means you can't do

these other maybe you can't, maybe you can't buy the hot

chocolate tomorrow. Or, you know, maybe you you can't do

that thing with your friends, and we don't make them earn

everything. I mean, I get it, we'll feed our kids and stuff,

yeah, but trying to to work those lessons into everyday

life. And James, we're not perfect. We're I Bumble up all

the time, but what I want is my kids to feel like they can come

to me with those questions and when they're when they're 16, or

when they're 18, or when they're 25 and they're in a tough

financial spot that they feel comfortable saying, Dad, we know

you screwed up. You've made mistakes. I made one of my own.

Can you walk with me and help me figure this out? Yeah, yeah. And

not, and not feeling like they have to pretend to be perfect,

because that's what happens now, is we all put on it. We cover up

our financial sins with credit cards, yeah, and nobody sees

what's going on. We pretend like we got everything figured out.

And yeah, we have the nice clothes, we have a nice car, but

we're drowning in debt. We're not sleeping at night. We're

fighting with our spouse, and just to be able to admit I'm

struggling right now, I need some help. That's so freeing

when people can cross that so with my kids jams, that's what I

want, is for them to have the freedom to ask questions, to

express frustrations, and just to have a healthy dialog about

money.

Amen, amen on that in your setup. Business

wise, are you? I'm thinking this because I have a friend who I

want to listen to your podcast, because he's a in Canada here,

there are different types of financial planners like they'll

take percentages, right or commissions, front end loaded,

or back end loaded, or whatever. And then there's what he is. Is

a for he's a fee based financial planner, so you pay for his

services, but he doesn't put you in certain products, like you he

would do what was the best thing, and he's building a plan

with you, is that the way your business works still probably

similar.

There's different ways to do the fee, but we are a

fiduciary which means we have not just a regulatory

obligation, but a moral obligation to do what's in the

best interest of the individual, not to sell a particular

product. So we make the same regardless of what Fund Company

somebody uses, the types of funds and type investments, we

make the same amount, and it takes away any potential

conflict of interest, but also puts us on the same side of the

table, where in order for us to do better, that family, that

client, needs to do better. And when we're in the middle of a

financial storm, and they see their 401, K, looking like a

301, K. Or they see, you know, this big account temporarily go

down. They see it in their statement. We feel it in our

paychecks. So we're weathering it together. And I think that

there's a sense of camaraderie that comes out of that. We felt

it in 22 back during COVID In 2020 when the markets across the

globe went down together, for people to know that we were all

experiencing discomfort together, I think was actually

really empowering. That sounds weird, but it allowed people to

stay the course, because they realized, you know what, we're

all in this together. I'm not alone in my financial journey.

Okay, so last sort of financial question here

for me, it would be okay. Do nobody has those, you know,

glasses that we can see into the future. But with what's going on

in your country these days, what are you telling people? Because

surely the god people are calling you and either going one

way or the other, you know, like we're glad this is happening.

Or, Oh, my God, so what are you telling people?

It's very polarizing. You're right, and

what I'm telling people is to stay focused on your long term

goals. Don't let what's going on in the country, the economy or

in the world around us dictate your investing decisions. Do

those things have an impact? Yes. But can you control them?

No. And too often, my industry puts so much focus on all the

things we can't control, elections, interest rates, the

economy, wars, in the Middle East, Ukraine, Russia, all that

stuff matters, but we can't do anything about it. So if we're

so focused on the short term things that we can't control,

we'll miss the impact on the. Long term things that we can

control. So it's always putting people's perspective back to

their goals, their long term plan. Are my current actions

aligned with where I want to be and what I want to be doing in

the future, in looking past this crazy world that we live in

right now?

Well, when you say we can't do anything about

it, I mean, we can as little bit of it. We could all do a little

bit to make it better, one way or the other. And I'm not going

to get into red or blue, but, but I mean, right, yeah,

no, you're right. And I'm not like, yeah, don't

take that the wrong way. It's voting and being involved in

your community. And we, we being involved. You have the

opportunity to to have some but it's very like, you can't

control interest rates. You can't No, no, I know. So, yeah,

do what you can in those areas. Yeah. But the the problem Janice

is sometimes people spend hours a day focusing on that. Gosh,

yeah, you know. And it takes up not just so much of their time,

but it takes their energy. It takes their focus. It creates

myopic thinking, and in it, it destroys a long term

perspective. Because of everything we're looking at is

the here and now, we can see the future. You can't have reading

glasses on and see something two miles away, right? It brings

your focus into what's right in front of you. And it also, I

think it can actually create a state of learned helplessness.

If we are so focused on the things that we we don't have

much influence over some or very little or none at all, then the

story that we start telling ourselves is, in order for me to

to be financially independent, I have to get lucky. I'm just

going to sit here and all these things need to line up in my

favor and stop saying, you what? Maybe some I've got some things

going against me. Maybe there are some hurdles, but there's,

there's a lot I can't control, but there's a lot that I can do

to improve my my situation, and, if nothing else, my relationship

with money. And that's where this process is going to start.

That's a great place to end. I think that's

amazing. And I think we've we covered the gamut from the macro

to the micro to the macro and and I know that you, I can tell

that you're passionate about what you do and that you care

about people. And I think that ultimately is, is the, is the

the goal, right, that you're helping people lead better have

better lives and have a better understanding of the power of

money, but that it's that, what did you say money when it

masters?

Money is a wonderful servant, right? A

terrible master,

right? Love that. I gotta write that one down. I

like that one. Thank you again for being here. One last

question, can you let us know? And I'll put it in the show

notes, how my audience can get hold of you, and I didn't even

mention but I think it was maybe a couple of years ago. You have

a book called it. Wasn't that long ago.

It was. It was spring of 24 forging financial

freedom. It came out right early in 2024

which I'm guessing covers a lot of what

you talked about today. Okay,

it's very much about the mindset. It's our

perspective around money. There's a lot of of protocols

and processes that books can teach on how to build wealth and

financial independence, but there's not a lot of books on

how to think differently about money. So I wrote the book that

I wish I had read 20 years ago to help people create a better

relationship with money so they can use the already existing

tools and processes more effectively. Perfect.

Now I'm going to read it. I don't like to do that

anyway, before I interview somebody, I want to come in

cold, but that sounds like a book I could I could probably

read, because it's not all about the it's more about the mindset.

I like that. So how can my audience get hold of you? Find

your book. Find you

forging financial freedom. It's on Amazon and

available as a Kindle or hardback. Veritas alaska.com is

our website and on Instagram, never

even mentioned that you were in Alaska. Oh, my

goodness, that's right, yes. Okay,

Veritas Alaska, we work with people all over but

Veritas alaska.com is the website, and Veritas dot Alaska

on Instagram, and you can find me pretty easily on LinkedIn.

Just look up Chad Huffer Veritas and I'll pop right up. Okay,

sounds good. This was a pleasure. Thank you so

much for being here. And what have I got written here? It's

clear that true wealth isn't just about the size of your bank

account. It's about living in alignment with your values,

building strong relationships and creating a life you love.

And I know that that is a passion for you, I can tell and

thank you for sharing about your kids as well. I appreciate that.

My pleasure. Thanks for letting me come on.

You're very well. Welcome.

There we go. So remember thank you to my

audience for being here. Please let me know if you enjoyed our

conversation and reach out to Chad for further conversation

about wealth and mindset around money, and remember to stay

connected and be remembered. You.