Welcome to the Rise, Shine and Redefine podcast! In this exciting episode, host Caryn sits down with Percy Avetrani, a seasoned wealth management expert and her personal Wealth Advisor. Percy shares his journey from a back-office role to becoming a top financial advisor and founding WealthX Advisors.

Join us as we dive into essential topics such as:

• Starting your investment journey
• Creating generational wealth
• Cultivating a strong money mindset
• The importance of life insurance
• Budgeting and financial planning for entrepreneurs
• Setting financial goals for you and your family

Percy offers invaluable advice for those feeling uncertain about their financial future, emphasizing the significance of defining your relationship with money and understanding its purpose in your life. He also discusses practical steps to take, whether you're just starting out or looking to invest more strategically.

If you're ready to take control of your financial future and learn how to make your money work for you, this episode is a must-listen!

Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more insightful episodes!

Connect with Percy Avitrani:

• Website: Percy Avitrani https://www.northwesternmutual.com/financial/advisor/percy-avetrani/
• Phone: 305-351-3389

Thank you for tuning in! Let's redefine our relationship with money together!

[00:02:56] Building a successful team.

[00:06:09] Investing in personal growth.

[00:08:34] Defining your relationship with money.

[00:12:15] Investing in life insurance.

[00:15:53] Money date and budgeting.

[00:19:15] Wealth vs. Money Distinction.

[00:23:37] Give your money a job.

[00:27:58] Investment job description guidance.

[00:33:08] 529 plans for children's education.

[00:34:01] Life insurance for children.

[00:39:11] Goals reflection of personal values.

[00:42:29] Writing a vision for life.

How you can work with me: Click here

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Disclaimer: This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or any other qualified professional. We shall in no event be held liable to any party for any reason arising directly or indirectly for the use or interpretation of the information presented in this video.

• Copyright 2024, Caryn Meininger - All rights reserved

Caryn:

Percy: Yeah, no, thank you, Karen. I'm super excited to kind of share some of my thoughts, you know, about financial planning and wealth management here today. look, um, you know, when I was at college, you know, I, I really didn't know what to do out. And the reality is I sat down with my dad on a, on a kitchen table and asked, and he, we're talking about some of my strength as a person. And we started listing some of the things out and what I enjoyed to do. And he's like, listen, I think financial planning and wealth management is going to be the right thing for you. And he, and he kind of pushed me very hard into this direction, even though my background was computer science finance, you know, he kind of pushed me into this direction. So And thank God he did because today it's a passion. And like many people, we started off, it was me by myself. I was the secretary. I was the one creating financial plans. I was the one doing everything. Then I got one team member and then they quit. And then I got another team member and I had to learn how to not only be a good financial planner, but also be a good business owner and a good leader. Today we're a team of 12. And, you know, we have a team of certified financial planners and charged financial analysts on staff here. And, and we've had a huge journey, you know, not only myself, but the firm and growing with the value proposition for the community and the people we serve.

Caryn: That's amazing. And it's like, even though you're in this huge corporate company, you also are an entrepreneur within because I know you built this team of 12. And a lot of us are on this entrepreneur journey. And so before we go into all the money, all the goodness, what What kind of advice do you have for somebody who's maybe starting to build their own team and their own journey of entrepreneurship and feeling in the doubt and feeling in the dips of it and not knowing if they're good enough to do it? What was kind of your little life hack to continue the momentum and keep that boulder moving?

Percy: Yeah, it's extremely difficult. You know, I think creating a business is one of the hardest things you can possibly do. I'd say the first thing I had to do was work really hard versus working smart. Because I think what happened at first is my inclination was to work smart and that didn't really work for me. Eventually I figured out, hey, let me work really, really hard and then I'll get smarter along the way. So that was a big thing that I had to figure out from a habit standpoint. And then for me, I started refining some of my skills and different aspects of the business that I needed to get good at. And then I started to really help leverage, you know, I think hiring my first person was like the biggest challenge, because or one of my biggest challenges because, you know, obviously, look, I barely making any money. And now I have to in turn and pay somebody else to do this stuff, right to help out and And my dad always told me, it's a three month bet. It's not a six month, it's not a year long commitment. Because you're thinking about, I got to pay this guy 50 grand or whatever, X, Y, Z, 80 grand, whatever the number was. Obviously, that first number is a little bit smaller. And it's only a three month bet. If that person is not making impact on your company in three months, then they probably wasn't the right person. So I think that was a key thing, is to invest back in the business really, really early. If I could give anybody advice, that would be a key thing. I think the first advice I would give is create a very clear vision of where you want to be 10 years from now, three years from now, and one year. We call that the 10-year vision, the three-year goals with the one-year plan kind of thing. And obviously, the closer you are to that, the one year is going to be very detailed on what you want to accomplish, right? Versus a 10-year, it's really, really broad. But creating that vision allows you to kind of helps you make decision and write it out. You know, there's a good article I could send to anybody who's interested. It's called step into your future. And that's a good article to read before you actually write your vision, because it helps you get in the right mindset to write that vision. And then once you got that down, right, um, you know, I think investing back into whatever you're doing, whether that be in personnel or you know, in other different ways. Or maybe it's just investing back into yourself in education. I think it's key early on.

Caryn: Yeah. And we're going to talk all about investing and not only investing in your business, investing in yourself, learning how to invest in stocks and bonds. I don't know all the terminology, but Yeah, there's so many different areas we can invest in ourselves, investing in our growth, in our business, in our friendships, in our family, in our money and how money can actually work for you. And it's really exciting and I'm really proud of you because I've known you for a very long time and I have just seen you pivot in such a beautiful, strong man and able to have a team that totally loves you and supports you. And I love your team so much. They're always so helpful and so nice. And it is just such a, I think money can be really intimidating for people sometimes, and investing can be really scary. And so I wanted to start talking about I think before you can invest in anything, there needs, in my biased opinion, there needs to be a strong money mindset. And when you're coming from scarcity, or lack, or there's not enough money, Because money is energy. Money needs to constantly be in motion. So think of like a bath, right? Like the bath needs to drain and then you need to refill the bath. Otherwise, if you leave the water in there, it's going to get stagnant. It's kind of the same with money. It needs to be in motion. So working with your clients, give us some feedback on some limiting beliefs that might be coming up for them that's making them a little nervous about investing or putting their money where it's not just in their bank account.

Percy: Yeah. I mean, look, so I think your relationship with money needs to be defined. you know, early on, and what money means to you, I think is important. Like, for example, like, if I think about what money means to me, I think of the word freedom, right? A freedom to be present at my kids' soccer games, right? Freedom to take the vacations I want to take. freedom to not worry about money, right? The purpose of having money is not to worry about money, right? And I think everybody has a different definition. And if you can decide why you actually want money and build wealth first, and determine your why, I think that's a good mental mindset to get into, if that makes sense. Right? I think that's kind of like the first step in all that. And then when it comes to like limiting beliefs, I mean, that's a really good question. Um, you know, I, I feel like, look, everyone has different issues that they're dealing with. I mean, they're sometimes dealing with, um, Hey, I, I don't have control over where my money's going. Cause I don't have a really good budget or, Hey, um, I'm dealing with, uh, credit card debt. Like which one do I pay first? Do I save money first? Or I paid my credit card first. Um, they're there. Um, Hey, I, I don't have any money left over after every paycheck. I'm like up to here. And I think first you got to figure out, hey, what's your goal that you're trying to accomplish? Hey, I want to retire one day. I want to get a bigger house. I want to buy a vacation home. I want to do X, Y, Z, and everybody's different. Once you have those goals in place, then you can create a system and a process to help you get there. And like, and there's very clear orders of things you should be doing, right? So first thing you should be doing is a getting the right amount of insurance for your family, right? You know, if you have kids and whatever, get the right of my life insurance and disability insurance, that type of stuff. That's okay.

Caryn: Okay. So I, I, okay. Yes. Life insurance. Let's talk about that. I, I think there's a lot of people who maybe are unsure about the advantages of having life insurance. Yes, we understand somebody dies, they will get paid, but let's dive deeper a little bit more on the importance of having life insurance and where to even start with life insurance because I feel a lot of people might think like, oh, that's like a luxury, that's like a luxury add-on, that's not a need now. So let's, let's unpack that a little bit.

Percy: Yeah, let's unpack that. So look, it's very simple. Like, um, let's say you have a couple kids, and you make 100 grand a year, I'm just throwing a number out there. And God forbid, something happens to you, right? Your family's going to suffer, meaning they will not have the same quality of life, right? And it's a mathematical equation. It's, hey, something happened to me, my wife would probably want us to pay off the mortgage that we have, They would want us me to pay, give them a certain amount of income, at least till the kids are like 25 years old. And you want the kids education paid. Right. And you add those numbers together. Right. And that determines the amount of insurance that you should get. So and the reason why I'm bringing this up is because the life insurance piece, what it is, is is it's a backstop to an emergency. Right. I've seen so many families that don't have life insurance and something happens and their their families destroyed. right? So getting that correct coverage first and foremost is key. And the good news is it's really, really inexpensive, right? I mean, life insurance is basically free, you know, um, you can get as pretty much as much as you want, you know, depending on your income level and all that. But so, so getting the right amount is, is fairly simple and easy, you know, um, and that's, and that's important foundational thing to get when you're starting a family.

Caryn: Yeah, and I love that. And it starts creating this habit of investing in yourself and investing in your family. Because maybe it's like, oh, investing in the stock market, that sounds really scary. But if you can invest $10, $20, $30 a month or whatever, whatever feels aligned for you, it's like, okay, okay, that wasn't that bad. Now I can commit to myself and show I can invest in myself. And it's not that hard and it's doable. And you start trusting yourself more. And it's such a beautiful way. That's how I started. That's how I started with you. I started with life insurance. And as we built our relationship, you know, more investments, more investment opportunities came up that really feels good. And now now it's like, oh, I get to make money work for me. And we'll go deeper into that later. But it is a really good start. If you are listening and you're not investing any of your money, a really good starting point would be to start with life insurance. It just gets you in this habit of knowing you're doing something for you and your family that feels really good. And I love that. I think it's such really solid advice. And I hope our listeners really take that in. Because money needs to move. We need to move it. Because then what happens? It gets stagnant and smelly and gross. And we want to keep it in the cycle. So this is one way that we can continue to keep it in the cycle. So, okay. So what about people who are, they want to invest, but they, you know, they're a little past paycheck to paycheck. They're making means work. Is there something they can do in order to, besides life insurance, to start trying to get the money to work for them, even if they're kind of in a lower income bracket at the moment?

Percy: Yeah, I think every good financial plan starts off with a good budget, right? Sit down, and write down what you pay for your mortgage or for your rent, what you pay for your phone, what you pay for your electricity, what you pay for, and put everything in there, like your projections for your vacations. Everything that comes out of your accounts, you wanna just get a better grasp of what you're spending, right? So you have money coming in, money coming out, and God willing, you have some money left over. And if you don't, we gotta look through your budget and say, hey, what part of my budget am I spending money on that's not making me happy? Right? If it's making me happy, fine, spend money on it. If it's not making you happy, kind of either lower it or get rid of it. Right? So I think the budget is a good thing. And then you start to look at, well, am I on credit card debt? Because it is difficult to invest when you're in credit card debt. And typically, if you're in credit card debt, what you want to do is pick the largest credit card and tackle that one first and then pay the minimums on the rest. Right. And then you go card by card by card until you eliminate it. Right. But then once you've done that, God willing, then you have no credit card debts. You have that extra payments that you can add to the bottom level of what you can save every year, every month. And then and then you create that that structure in that system where you pay yourself first, right, where you get your money every month, you pay your investments first and you spend what's left over. Versus the other way around where you get your money, you spend first and you save what's left over. So that is the key is to pay yourself first.

Caryn: Yeah. And I love the idea of just like sitting down and budgeting. I like to call this a money date and it's like, okay, like light some candles. I have a lot of women followers. I mean, men can light candles too, but, um, light candles, like, like dress nice, like really sit down and have that relationship with your money and be like, okay. Did I spend money from my hired highest self, or did I spend money from my ego? And that's where you can start, like you said, eliminating the things that maybe was not smart spending. And I'm not saying don't buy the nice bag if you really want the bag, and that's going to make you feel good and light you up. But there are things sometimes we might be having a bad day when we go shopping, like I do. Right? And we start spending and we're spending money on things that don't serve us. And so if you really are wanting to invest, and this is something you're really interested in, it's like, okay, where is my higher self being like, yes, this was a good purchase versus no, this was not a good purchase. That's money that could have gone into investing in something, whether it's with management, whether it's So, whether it's something that's, you want to invest in something that's going to have some kind of return on investment for you, investing in your business instead of just buying, you know, thousands of dollars on Amazon because you had a bad day, right? So, I really love, like, really going on this money date, sitting with your budget, Okay. Where, what is leftover? And I never heard that before. Invest first and then spend. That is much good advice. I absolutely love that. I think it's, ah, I need to start doing that more too.

Percy: Okay. Yeah. I mean, I love what you said, just so you, to allude to what you said a little bit, because I think, I love what you're saying that you can invest in yourself in different ways, right? It's like, Yeah, listen, all of us go do some retail therapy every now and then when I have a good day, we go buy something, it gives us like an immediate rush. But what sucks about it, it probably only lasts for a couple hours. And the next day, you're like your mind adjusts. And it's not very good. Retail therapy is not a good long term solution. You know, you're definitely not. But like investing in a cooking class or investing in something maybe to help your family, bring them closer together. you know, investing is not just for your retirement or for something you want, right? It could be into something else that is of value in your life. So I think that I love that you said that. And I think that's important.

Caryn: Amazing. Yeah. And it's like how we want to be lit up, right? Like, like you said, it's not money. Money is just energy. It's what we think money is going to give us. So for you and I, it's money gives us freedom. freedom to be present with our family, freedom to go on that trip if we want to, freedom to stay home if we want to. So there is this deeper desire of what money gives us. And the other piece is, is there's people who want money, and they just want money, and then there's people who want wealth, right? And wealth is legacy, fulfillment, freedom, abundance. and it's having that discernment of, oh, is it money? Is it money that we want? Is it wealth? Is it freedom? And once you go under the hood and you get to that root of, oh, I want freedom. I want freedom. And I'm here to tell you, if you want freedom, you get to insource that right now. And I'm going to give everyone listening some homework, I want you to think of three times that you have felt completely free in your life, whether with your family, whether it's when you wake up in the morning, whether when it was on a trip, it doesn't matter, whatever's coming up, you got to insource freedom right now. And when you start insourcing freedom right now, your body, your body is like your subconscious mind. So your body is going to start to feel that freedom, and then it's going to project that kind of reality into the 3D world. So you're, you're gonna catch up. Like, when you start feeling the way you want to feel as if you've already received what it is you want to receive, aka money, It's going to happen because your subconscious mind is a projection of your mood, is a movie of your life. And so it's like, oh, OK, we get to feel free right now. That freedom is going to come, whether it's from money, wealth, something else, but you're going to start being able to, quote unquote, manifest all of the things and joy and fulfillment that you've been chasing after once you start feeling that. now. Okay. That was my little tangent on that, but I love that. That's great. Okay. Beautiful. So, okay. So I'm running a business. It's starting to make some money and you know, I I'm, I'm learning, okay, I'm going to invest instead of spend. I want to start investing in the market and the bonds and all the things that can make me money, but I'm scared. I'm scared because, oh my God, I'm not going to see my money in my bank account anymore. It's going to be in like some other energetic space. What is something we can do to start putting money into investments like that, like in actual money investments?

Percy: Yeah, you said perfectly right. So one thing that's important is is, again, when you're an entrepreneur, right, there's no better rate of return that you're going to get by putting money back into your business, like always investing yourself, education back to your business, always gonna have a better return than anything else you can do in life, right? So that so but at some point, you're going to want to have your business is doing good enough that you want to start to carve some money out, you know, every month and every year to help save help save money for your future or something else you want, right? So first you've got to define what you're saving money for, right? I'm saving for retirement. I'm saving for my kid's education. I'm saving for X, Y, Z reason. And so, and there's kind of a place to put money in depending on where you're putting it for, right? So for example, like if you're going to put it towards retirement, right, a classic first thing to do, again, depending on income levels, and there's some obviously restrictions on this, but a Roth IRA might be a good idea, right? That might be a good place to put money.

Caryn: Okay, what's a Roth IRA?

Percy: Yeah, so a Roth IRA is a specific individual retirement account that lets you save money for your retirement, and has a lot of tax benefits. So that's a good place for you to start putting money into that. And that's something that has to happen consistently, right? every month, pay yourself first, put your money in there. Understand that that money's not disappearing. We all get an emotional connection from our money. Meaning you open your phone and you see your money at Wells Fargo, TD Bank, whatever bank you use, and you look at it and you're like, oh, my precious. I'm feeling very happy with my money because it's there. You feel a sense of security. Understand that when you're investing money, you just basically have to open up another app, right? And you can get, you still get your emotional connection from it. You just got to open up another app. The money's not gone. You're just moving your money from one pocket to the other. Um, and that's the key, right? Is understanding that that money is still there. Now, the one thing is what you're doing is you're, you're, you're giving the money job description that I'm saving this money to give me retirement income. So hence it's supposed to go here. I'm saving money for my kids education. And it's going here. The better you can give the money that you're saving and investing a job description, the more effective and efficient it will be.

Caryn: I love that. That is genius. Oh my god. Can can we repeat that? Because that was so good. Give your give your money a job title. Give where you're putting your money a job title. Because then it's going to make more sense in your brain, too. It's like, Oh, okay. Okay, this, this is how my money is working for me. This is a job of the money here. And what what solid advice. I absolutely love that. And I hope you do that for me when we have our next call. So good. This is so smart. And so if you're going to set up an IRA, how do you do that? Where do you even go to do that?

Percy: Yeah. There's different worlds to set up these types of accounts. You can go to discount brokerages. There's online brokerages, whether it be Robinhood or Schwab or one of those, Fidelity. You can go online and just open up an account and start putting money in a Roth IRA. Look, I'm more inclined to tell you that every person needs a financial advisor. Right? Because a financial advisor does a lot more than just manage your money. It helps you with the behavior. It helps you with the goals and the conversation around goals and objectives. It helps align your money with those goals and objectives. And so I think that you should strongly consider, you can either do it yourself, which again is good. And if you're the type of person that is disciplined and can be on top of your stuff and has some knowledge in that space, that's a valid way to do it. But for most people, we're talking about 95% of people, you know, it's better to hire a financial advisor. Obviously, locally, you can look for a financial advisor. At the end of this call, if you're interested in maybe working with me and my firm, you can kind of give us a call and kind of talk a little bit about that. But ultimately, what a great financial advisor is supposed to do and plan are supposed to do for you is help you realize your, your truest goals, and align your money with that. And that's how and essentially, that's, that's the important part.

Caryn: Yeah, beautiful. It's so good. So yeah, so you can set up a Roth IRA. That's a really good start to investing. Now, let's go one step up. Okay. You're starting to really make money. You don't really know what to do with it. You have this extra money, and you want to invest, let's say, in your company, or with your company, excuse me. How is somebody going to know this is a good fit for them to to start making that next step? Because maybe they're not really used to investing, but they're like, Oh, I have, you know, I have like 50 grand in my account. You know, I'm just making up a number. And it's just sitting there. What do I do with this money?

Percy: Well, first of all, you never invest your emergency fund. Right? That's number one. So anything above and beyond like from Let's say most people, if you're a W-2 income person, like work for a company, you should have three months of your budget in a savings account. It's not to invest. If you're more of an entrepreneur, right, where you own your own business, it should be six months. Some businesses should even be 12. So don't invest that money. We're not talking about that money. We're talking about this money, right? So that's that. Then What you want to do is you want to ultimately give that money a job description. And it doesn't have to be all one job description. This amounts for this much, this amounts for that much. And again, a financial advisor can help you do that. From there, you got to think about tax treatment of the money, and you got to think about risk of the money. Let's explain that. Yeah. So tax treatment is like, okay, a Roth IRA, You can't touch that money to your 59. It's a retirement vehicle, or you get a 10% penalty. So it gives you all these tax benefits, but it allows you to save for the future without taxes. Right? So, so that's why it's important to give the money job description because you know, you're not going to put in, you're not going to put in short term money into a Roth IRA because that's not the intention. It's longterm. You're right. Typically, depending on your age, of course. Now, if you're going to invest money for a down payment for a house, that's three years from now, you're going to invest that in a regular investment account, but you're going to be very conservative. Right. Whereas maybe your Roth IRA, if you're 40 years old, you're going to be much more aggressive because we have 20 years. Right. So aggressive in our world means more invest like in stocks where like more conservative means invest more in bonds. Okay. Um, you know, so your, your rough IRA maybe is a lot more stock heavy, whereas your, maybe your bucket money that's for three years from now is it's all bumps, right? So that's essentially, you know, how you do that. You align your money with its job description and then invest that in vehicles that are appropriate for that time horizon, right? Because the problem with stocks is they go, they all go up and down. They may give you better, good rate of return. But they kind of have that ups and downs, right? And you got to be able to stomach that emotionally. And there's no way to get those superior rates of return.

Caryn: And that's where I come in. I help you regulate your, your dysregulation when the market's going up and down and all around and giving you a, putting you on a roller coaster ride where your stomach drops.

Percy: Absolutely. And so, so again, just to kind of wrap up on this, uh, this, this point is that, look, Think of it this way. The longer you invest, the more you want the money to go up and down because you're going to get the better returns. And you actually want that. Sounds weird, but you actually want that. The closer you're going to invest, like three years, you want that to be easy going, right? Because nobody knows where the stock market's going tomorrow or next year, but we know where the stock market's probably going in 10, 15 years from now. So that's the whole idea. The longer investments, more aggressive. Shorter investments, more conservative.

Caryn: Yeah, and the longer investments, there's trends, right? And the trends tend to repeat themselves. So there becomes more confidence and, oh, there's a 7% return after seven years. I don't know what the data is, but it's like, oh, okay. So if I know this is long-term, like you said, job description of your money, you're like, okay, it's doing what it's supposed to be doing, you know? And then 10 years from now, it's like, oh, bam, look at my bank account. I remember when I first invested with you with life insurance, I never looked at it again. And you're like, oh, there's 20 grand in there. And I'm like, what? Like, how is there 20 grand in there? What are you talking about? So it's like, once you're just like, oh, that job description is a way for the future, then it doesn't affect you. Like, you can take the emotion out of it, knowing like, Nope, that's there. That's for that purpose. It's like when you, when you start a new job, same thing, right? It's like, you know, you're in it for the longterm. It's going, you're going to have good days and bad days, but overall you're going to end up making more money the longer you're there. Ideally. I mean, I know corporate can be different sometimes, but for the most part, yeah, the longer you're there, the more money you're going to make with that company. So it's such a, it's such a beautiful analogy and I love it. Okay. So let's talk about, okay, we've invested this money. We're starting to feel good. We have the job description, but Percy, man, I got kids. I want to set my kids up. I want to make sure they're okay. Like I know we got the life insurance, but when they're 30 and they want money from me to get married and I don't want to spend that money for them, what's something that they What's something you can do as a parent to help set your kids up for those big purchases and lifestyle goals and all of those things?

Percy: Yeah, absolutely. And understand this conversation can get very complex, right? So it's hard to kind of condense it to something that's in this format.

Caryn: Into third grade language? You can't do it?

Percy: I'm just kidding. Look, there's different buckets, right? So if you're going to put money away for college education, a natural vehicle is something called a 529 plan, right? And again, it goes to the idea that 529 plans are government vehicles, right? Where, you know, 529 plan is a tax code, right? Which you don't have to pay money on the taxes, right? Just like kind of Roth IRAs are government vehicles so that you don't have to pay taxes on. 529, the government's giving us certain vehicles that we can put money into that we don't have to pay taxes that are helping us out towards these specific goals or these specific intentions, right? So one is, I want to say for my kids' education, a 529 plan's a good option for that. Now, if you're going to save for a different type of thing, whether it be for the down payment for a house or to give them money for their wedding or to give them a little leg up in life, then you have things like you know, regular investment account, you can do that. You got to pay taxes along the way, but you can open up a regular investment account. Some people choose to use special types of life insurance, right? What it does is it guarantees their insurability, right? So when they have a family, they already have their insurance when they're young. It also allows them to accumulate equity and cash in their policies to help supplement their college education or helps with a down payment for a house or can help to start a business of theirs later on. Right? So again, you have options of 529 plans for college. You have the options of maybe a brokerage account to set up if you want to invest in equities. You have the option of setting up life insurance contracts for them. These are the different basic options. There's much more, by the way, that you can start to learn about if you wanted to specifically put away money for your children's benefit.

Caryn: When should you start? Is it when they're born? It's when they're born?

Percy: Yeah, the second they have a social security number.

Caryn: Okay. Is there a point where it's too late? to start investing for that?

Percy: It's never too late to start investing, depending on the intention, right? But like, look, for example, I'm looking in here in South Florida, right? Um, you know, my kids, um, you know, go to private school here. And, um, and I wanted to put money in a 529 plan for my tuition next year. Right. And they'll actually allow you to take out $10,000 a year from a 529 plan for the height, uh, you know, for, for education, uh, for, for private school education here. And, um, so I, I put that money in my account, but I didn't invest it very aggressively. I invested extremely conservatively at around 5%. Um, but I didn't have to pay taxes on that 5%. So it's not really 5%. It's really like, you know, six or seven, right. Cause there's no taxes. So ultimately it's never the wrong time to invest. It's never too late to invest. You just gotta make sure you invest. in the correct vehicles and with the right risk tolerance, given the time period that you have since when you want to take the money out, right? The worst thing I could have done is put that money in the account, invested aggressively because again, no one knows where the market's going tomorrow. So you just got to match the risk tolerance or how aggressive or conservative you're going to actually invest the money to the amount of time you're going to invest the money.

Caryn: Yeah. Yeah. that seems really challenging and to figure out if you don't know this much that much about this like this is where you come in right this is where as a financial advisor or wealth advisor you can really help somebody really figure out like okay where do I be aggressive where do I not be aggressive I don't I don't know that much about this I just want to do what you think is the smartest way is that something that you're able to help guide your clients with

Percy: Yeah. I mean, so what ends up happening is people have different goals in their life. Intentions, right? I want to reach financial independence. I want to educate my kids. I want to buy a bigger house. I want to buy a boat. I want to make sure I can help my parents, you know, as they get older. Everybody has different goals and intentions, right? And what ends up really happening is that, hey, When you do your budget, God willing, you have some money left over, right, which we talked about earlier. And then you start looking at, well, I have $1,000, $2,000, $20,000, $100,000 a month. Again, I'm just making numbers up, right? Everybody's financial difference, but these principles are applicable to everybody. Then what you do is you create that system where automatically that money, let's call it three grand. You get three grand every month. That money goes into a pot. And then it gets cut to your kid's education, gets cut to your retirement, gets cut to your vacation home in North Carolina, gets cut to, you know, money for your, for your parents, right? Again, I'm making this up, but the idea is that you're taking the cash flow that you have every month. And then you're filling up buckets of some of the goals you have intentionally. And then you're growing that money to achieve that, that eventual goal.

Caryn: And so how do you help somebody if they don't know what their goals are? They're like, I want more money, but they don't have goals or they don't know.

Percy: Nobody really has goals. I mean, that's funny you say that. So no one really wakes up and says, I have a goal. I mean, there's certain parts of the population, let's say 5%, wake up and are very clear on things. But most of those people are kind of worked on this stuff and had a lot of self-learning and all that stuff. But I think you start off what people care about, right? And once you find out what people care about and what you find out what you're most passionate about, then you start to figure out what their goals are, right? So I think you start with what they care about and what's important to them, and then that kind of leads into the goals, right? To me, goals are a reflection of what people care about with a numerical value. For example, like, Hey, I want to have financial independence. I want to not, I want to go to work because I want to, not because I have to. Okay, cool. And okay. The goal attached to that is at age 60, I want to make sure I have 20 grand a month coming in and I want to make sure that, um, and that's a mathematical equation. Meaning if I want to hit that target. given social security, I need to save this much to get to there. And it becomes a mathematical equation. And if you can save that much every month, then you create a system and a process to invest that money to eventually hit that end goal result because of the feeling that I want. Am I making sense?

Caryn: Yeah. Because it all comes down to the deeper desire, right? It's like, what do we think money is going to give us? Oh, we think it's going to give us freedom or control or safety or whatever it is that's really underlying the whole thing. And then It's kind of reverse engineering. It's like, okay, when I retire, when I, when I'm not working anymore, how do I want to live up? How do I want to live my life? And how do I want to show up? And I think that's a really good way of also figuring out goals too. It's like, okay, I don't have to work anymore. What does your day look like? And then you get to put the financial value. Okay. In order for me to live in this way every single day without working, this is how much money would feel good and in alignment for me to make monthly to live out the rest of my life with that dream. And I think it's so valuable. And it is important to have goals because it keeps the momentum going. I heard, I love this analogy. It's like a boulder and you can't move the boulder and you can't move the boulder. But once you keep pushing and you keep pushing and you keep pushing, that boulder is eventually going to move and it's going to get the momentum and it's going to go faster and faster. And then it's like, oh, wait, retirement. Now we need maintenance. We need that boulder to just kind of slow its roll and be there. And that's really, really important. And it does, I'm sure you learn a lot about people's values and are people living in their value, right? You might value growth, but you're not investing in yourself to grow. So are those values even aligning? And it's, it's really powerful. And so like, sit down, what are your values? How are you showing up in your values in your life? And then yes, putting the financial number on it, it helps you create that financial goal in such a powerful way. And, and I, I love all of this. I love everything that we've talked about today. If, if we were to leave this conversation today, what is one tip that our listeners could take away that they could start implementing right now in the next 24 hours?

Percy: One tip in the next 24 hours that could really help you inspire you for change. Look, I think every person should sit down and write a vision for their life. Right. And whether it be a part of their vision for money, for material things, for their faith, for their relationships in their life, right? Just sit down and write, right? And do a 10-year, three-year, and one-year. And I think by doing that and that whole process of doing that, that will help clarify your mind of what you really want. And hopefully, then, you can use some of the tools we talked about today with your money and start to make that alignment, right? So if I had one thing is that, is create your vision. write your vision, you and a piece of paper, and I think that would be impactful for you.

Caryn: Beautiful. And just to add on to the vision, I love visioning, is when you're writing the vision, where do you feel it? What do you feel in your body? Like, where are you feeling the type and the power in it? Because that's the feeling, like we talked about before, is like really embodying that feeling, because then the subconscious mind is going to catch up. to your actual reality of that vision, and then you're able to take inspired and aligned action. Whether it's investing, whether it's growing, learning, educating, showing up for your kids, being present, whatever it is for you, you're able to then have that momentum to keep it moving and building that trust and safety in yourself. Such an amazing conversation. Thank you so much. Where, if people want to work with you, where can they find you?

Percy: Yeah. I mean, the easiest thing to do is just kind of like Google me. I mean, honestly, it's my name is Percy, like Percy Jackson, the movie. And then last name is Avitrani, A as in Apple, V as in Victor, E as in Edward, T-R-A-N-I. So Percy Avitrani. Then you'll find my website real quick. And then my phone numbers will be right there. That's going to be the easiest thing to do.

Caryn: And I'll put all of that in the show notes. So it'll be really easy for you guys to find it. Yeah.

Percy: So, but I really thank you the opportunity to give back to our community and, and hopefully, you know, impact one person that's listening for change. And thank you for that opportunity, Karen.

Caryn: Yeah, of course. It's been my pleasure. I am so excited to share this podcast with the world.

Percy: Have a good one.