Hiyeee! Josh Bretl, founder of FSR Wealth Strategies, and his Retirement Equals Freedom sidekick, Dave Schmidt, are back to regale you with everything from a Fleetwood Mac cover to eating Cheerios off the floor to some great news: You’re probably under-dreaming when it comes to what you can afford to enjoy in retirement. Even Dave might have a shot at paying for that basement penny arcade and unlimited supply of Puddin' Cakes and Cometeer Coffee.

How do you get there? By looking at all three tiers of the multi-pronged financial planning approach that Josh is sharing. You’ll find out the difference between Tools, Strategies and (most fun of all) Dreams. Once you’ve got your snapshot and go-forward framework in place, the world opens up.

For Josh it’s the best part of his job: Helping people realize that they’ve got the retirement savings a) not to be fearful and b) to go out and follow their bliss, whether through first-class travel, paying for grandkids’ educations or stocking up the freezer with an infinite amount of favorite snack treats! And, finally, please always remember: “Thunder only happens when it’s rainin’. Players only love you when they’re playin’.” Tune in and it’ll all make sense! Sort of.

If you haven’t tried it already, click here to get $25 off your first order of Cometeer Coffee. It’s the greatest!

Click here to learn more about or listen to previous episodes of The Retirement Equals Freedom Podcast. And don’t forget to sign up for the show’s new weekly email at this link or join the conversation at our new private Facebook group, which you can find here.

Click here to explore the services that FSR Wealth Strategies offers and schedule a discovery call with one of the team’s CPAs. When it comes to living your best life, it’s never too early to get started!

Tools, then strategies, then dreams.

Strategies and tools are not unique.

You have access to the same tools everybody else has.

Strategies, they're there.

They're not unique to you.

The dreams are unique to you.

We are here with some great news.

You are probably under dreaming when it comes

to what you can afford to enjoy in your retirement.

Wait, huh?!

Yeah, there are three tiers to Josh's hierarchy of financial

thinking - tools, strategies, and the most fun of all, dreams.

But how do each of those contribute to your retirement?

Which of those should you focus on?

And which should you let an advisor help with?

Well, keep on listening friend, cuz Josh and I

talk all about it today.

This is the Retirement Equals Freedom Podcast.

Your host, Josh Bretl, is the owner of FSR Wealth Strategies.

For the last two decades, he's been helping fine folks like

you thrive in their retirement.

And me?

I'm Dave.

Josh's longtime friend, co-host, and general fan of free food.

I'm here to keep the show lighthearted and fun.

So now, let me let you let me, end this introduction so

you can enjoy the show and maybe even some of my singing.

FSR Wealth Management is a registered investment advisor

located in Elmhurst, Illinois.

Information and opinions contained in this audio

have been arrived at by FSR Wealth advisors.

All information herein is for informational purposes

and should not be construed as investment advice.

It does not constitute an offer, a solicitation or recommendation

to purchase any security.

FSR is not providing legal, tax, accounting, or financial

planning advice in this audio.

These views are as of the date of this publication

and are subject to change.

... so dreams.

Thunder only happens when it's raining.

Do you sing at home?

Players only love you when they're playing.

Do you know what song?

I mean, you are majestic.

Thank you.

And it's hard to tell the difference

between you and-

Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac.

Oh, man.

I know.

To answer your question, do I sing at home?

To the point where I'm in the shower and I can hear Landon

screaming, "Dada, stop singing."

So, I'm always singing.

Not only that, but I will just take random chunks of

conversations and turn it into a song or a jingle.

You can take random chunks of a song and just kind

of turn them into whatever?

To whatever I want.

Man, that art degree really paid off.

It's a skill and I'm teaching Landon, too.

Did I tell you I now have Landon listening to soundtracks from

movies, but movies that I like?

So, Sleepy Hollow?

He loves the Sleepy Hollow soundtrack.

He loves the ParaNorman, and the Coraline, and all those

creepy movie soundtracks.

He knows composers' names now.

Like, "Does Danny Elfman have any new music, dada?"

I'm like, "In fact, he does.

He has a new movie coming out."

It just makes my heart happy.

He is adorable.

Yeah man, kids rule.

Dave, we are doing two podcasts in a day here.

I know.

So, this is our second one.

We recorded the one on fees just before this.

I'm exhausted!

You and I get really into talking to each

other, which I find funny.

This is our third day this week we've been together.

But we can't cut to the chase on a podcast because we put

this microphone in front of us and headphones on, and we have

to talk about random stuff.

It's so true.

Let's be fair, though.

When I am here doing work stuff with you, it's really

hard to pin you down for more than like 10 minutes, because

you're wearing 17 hats.

Yeah.

That is true.

So, when we actually have doors closed,

no distractions except for coffee and food, we got

stuff to talk about, man.

Well, speaking of food...

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

On our last podcast, we didn't do, "What did Josh

and Dave eat for lunch today?"

And I want to thank you because I was busy all morning long, and

you showed up at twelve o'clock.

My meeting ended at twelve thirty.

And you had waiting for me the crepe of the month from

Nu Crepes, which by the time this comes out, recorded.

It won't be the crepe of the month anymore.

Yeah.

But it's unbelievable.

The oui, oui.

The oui, oui.

Oui, oui.

Niall, you were on the phone when I came to pick up our

lunch today, but I wanted to beg of you, consider

making this a permanent item.

I think it fits in really nice with your savory other items.

It's out of this world.

But my sister-in-law, Amanda, texted me a few weeks ago and

said, "Did Nu Crepes buy time on your podcast for as much

as you guys talk about them?"

So.

If you guys go to Nu Crepes, tell them you heard

about them from Josh and Dave on the Retirement

Equals Freedom Podcast.

Trust me, he knows Josh and Dave.

Dave, I have a question for you.

Yeah.

Let's hear it.

I'd like you to tell me about

something you did recently.

I got a text message, a text string that we're on with all

of our high school friends.

Yeah.

And it's a picture of you, or a

video of you in the car.

Yeah.

You were about to go play basketball for the

first time in like 15 years.

I remember this video.

Tell me about this.

I sent you all a before and after video.

I didn't see the after.

No?

Yeah, there was an after one.

It's pretty funny.

It made Chris laugh.

My neighbor of mine has been asking me since I moved in to

join him for a men's basketball, like a recreational, middle

of the day, basketball pickup game at our local rec center

in Glen Ellyn, and I've blown him off for five years.

I finally stopped blowing him off and I took him up

on it, and it's been about eight years since I've

picked up a basketball.

So according to my friend, Joe.

Joe, I'm going to make you listen to this.

You told me that it would be a bunch of old guys just

getting some exercise in.

It was anything but that, Josh.

Have you ever seen super obese seals get out of the water and

climb up onto the sand to try to get a snack from a human?

Actually, yeah.

I have.

Yeah.

You have.

That was me by the third time going down the court.

I couldn't breathe.

I was tempted to fake an injury just so I could leave the court.

I mean, it was awful.

And I've been running for three, four weeks, eating better.

No.

Nothing like basketball shape.

So, first game, not awful.

Second game is when the morbid obesity really kicked in.

Oh, man.

I mean, to the point where I could

not run back on offense.

The few times I did, one of the times I made a really nice cut.

My mind is still there.

I know how to get open and play the game.

My body will just not allow me to.

I made a cut, got a pass, wide open layup, missed it.

Oh, I know how that feels.

Got the rebound, still wide open,

air balled the next attempt.

Which at that point, I threw my hands up and said, "Yep.

This is how it's going to be."

At any point, did you look to see if they had

a defibrillator in the gym?

I was promised they'd have one nearby.

So, it took a few days to recover, Josh.

I'm so glad I did it because it's one of my loves of life.

I'm really proud of you for doing that.

Appreciate it.

It's really cool.

You love basketball.

I do.

And at one point, you were decent.

It's one of the few things I was good at.

Not defense, though.

I don't play defense.

I remember afterwards, you said,

"I even played defense."

I did.

I dove and had a steal and the guys were like, "Wow.

Great play, Dave."

I'm like, "I actually tripped and just happened

to hit the ball, but I'll take credit for it."

This podcast is everything.

It's even a sports podcast.

Well, as we've learned on the prior few podcasts,

we've got a new segment, "Get to know Josh and Dave."

And I thought, let's kind of see what they have to say here.

It's pretty good.

I appreciate it.

The new version's shorter, and I think it sounds better.

We'll see who can judge that one.

Oh, I like it.

So, I picked the question today.

The question comes from the card for...

and these are funny.

People can't come up with questions, but

it is a random thing.

Like, "Why would you ask that?"

Yeah.

And this is a simple one.

Okay.

Have you ever eaten food from the floor?

Oh!

This morning I did.

Yeah, right here.

Right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Oh, the floor thing doesn't bother me.

The whole three second rule, it's more like

three minutes to me.

And you have a sanitation license.

Well, I did.

That probably expired 24 years ago.

Okay.

I did pass that test.

Yeah, food on the floor doesn't bother me.

Okay, unless it's a wet, slimier food.

Yeah.

But, how about you?

I have no problem with it, but I do have a

food on the floor story.

Okay.

I don't know if I've told you this before,

but when my twins were young, when the boys were young,

they were like a year old.

They were crawling around the house everywhere, and

they were eating cheerios.

And we used to take these cheerios and we'd

put them in a bowl.

And they would do what ever kid would do, is they

took the bowl and they'd spill it on the floor.

And after the nine millionth time, you got tired of

picking the cheerios up and putting them back in the

bowl so they could eat them.

We left them on the floor.

Yeah.

It got to the point where we'd stop putting the

bowl out, and we'd just put cheerios on the floor for them.

Like a dog.

It was just me, my wife, and the boys in the house.

What did it matter?So my wife's cousin, Tricia, came over.

Trisha is awesome.

Trisha has one of the cleanest houses you've ever

been to in your entire life.

You literally could eat off her floor, it's probably so clean.

And she came over, and the boys, to see the

house and see the boys.

And the boys had cheerios on the floor, and Tricia sees them.

And I don't know if it was Alex or Zach pick one up

and put it in their mouth.

And she goes running over, she's like, "No, boys.

You can't eat that."

And she grabs the cheerios off the floor, picks them

up, and she hands them to my wife and I and goes, "They

were about to eat these."

And my wife and I were to embarrassed to say...

We were like, "Oh, thank you for picking them up."

Oh, my gosh.

"Ah, we're so embarrassed.

They never do that."

They never do that.

And the boys looked at her like, "You took our food!

Give me my cheerios!"

Devil Woman!

So whenever I think about eating off the

floor, I think of Tricia stealing cheerios from my boys.

Oh, well, today's podcast.

When I told you what I want to talk about, I don't

think I told you this is one of my favorite things

to talk about with clients.

Food?

Well, no.

Oh, Okay.

Other than food, it's one of my favorite

things to talk about.

I'm going to step back here, and this is what I refer to as the

Hierarchy of Financial Thinking.

Most people never get off the lowest wrung of

thinking about things.

I call this Dreams, Strategies, and Tools.

All right?

So let's start at the lowest level.

The lowest level is Tools.

And Tools are all the things you need, from a financial

perspective, to retire.

Okay?

All the things that you could possibly have.

So, social security is a tool.

Cash in the bank is a tool.

Your IRA is a tool.

Mutual funds are a tool.

401ks are tools.

Stocks, bonds, you name it.

Tools are out there.

And we can go through the list of tools.

Now, most people stop right there.

They think, "Do I have the best tools?

Can I get a better tool?

Do I need a different tool?"

I mean, it's kind of like you and I with this podcast.

Do I have the best microphone?

Can I get a better microphone?

Yeah.

Should I need nine microphones!

For sure.

For sure.

But they think, "Do I have the best mutual fund?

Should I get a bigger mutual fund?

Should I get a different mutual fund?"

And, most advisors, they'll even compete.

"Well, I have better tools.

And this tool is what you really need."

Tools are important you have to have tools.

But they're the least important of the hierarchy.

Does that make sense?

It does.

I need tools to build things for clients, but the tool

itself is not important.

It's the strategies.

It's the planning.

That's far more important.

Correct.

So that takes us one level up, it's the strategies.

There's over 60 different strategies that we

utilize for a client.

But not every client needs all 60.

In fact, at most, we're usually implementing 10 to 12 of

them, but there's different strategies that get to be used.

And there's strategies for maximizing income.

Where's income coming from?

There's strategies to help with asset location.

How do you minimize risk?

How do you minimize volatility?

There's things to do along those lines.

There's strategies for taxes.

How do you minimize income taxes?

Estate taxes?

Capital gains?

There's all these strategies, and they work together.

Are these strategies that you...

These are like FSR strategies.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

They're not unique to us.

Sure.

We just tend to know a lot of them

and how to use them.

But there's strategies that are there.

So, I always compare this, we talk about basketball,

I'm going to switch sports here and go to golf.

I'm a terrible golfer.

You and I have golfed together a long time ago.

You may actually be worse than me, but I'm a terrible golfer.

If I were to compare this to golf, tools are the clubs, Okay?

Right.

You could buy me the most expensive

clubs in the world.

They could be custom fit to my size and bleh,

beh, bleh, beh, bleh.

I'm still not going to break 100.

But I could play with my 15 year old set of golf clubs,

if you magically overnight gave me the swing of the best

PGA player in the world, and I'd be breaking 80 every day.

My clubs almost mean nothing at that point in time.

So-

So, sorry I just yawned.

You did!

I mean, you've been drinking Cometeer coffee all afternoon-

ah, that's embarrassing.

and you just yawned at one of my favorite stories.

My bad.

Ah, that's all right.

Two podcasts, that's going to wear you out.

You're giving the introduction tonight to the seminar.

We're all in trouble.

But the strategies , the swing

there, is far more important.

But one level up from that, we call dreams.

So tools, then strategies, and

the top level is dreams.

Tools, then strategies, then dreams.

Okay.

Strategies and tools are not unique.

You have access to the same tools everybody else has.

Yeah.

Strategies, they're there.

They're not unique to you.

The dreams are unique to you.

To you, the retiree.

To you, the retiree.

And as a retiree, every comes from a different background,

a different perspective.

There's different things that you want to do.

Some people have goals.

They want to travel around the world by 70 years old.

Some people want to pay for their grandkids college.

Some people want to...

You name it.

Dreams are there and-

Anybody want to open up an arcade?

No, but that's yours.

That's mine.

That's yours.

There are people that want to start second businesses.

There are people that want to open up a restaurant.

People come up with all sorts of dreams.

And when we sit down with people the first time, we

call it our Vision Visit.

And that Vision Visit is trying to see what their dreams are

because the dreams are what shape what strategies you use.

Because if your dream is to fund an endowment for your grankids'

grandkids' grandkids' college, it's going to be different

than if you tell me, "I want to spend every last penny and

have my last check bounce."

There's different dreams that come into play.

Sure.

So, back to our golf analogy, we have the clubs.

We have the swing, and then the dreams are knowing which

direction you're going to go.

Ooo.

So they're knowing where the hole is at.

Okay.

Does that makes sense?

I like it.

Do you account for slices and..?

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

You kind of have to.

I mean, if you think about it.

We can really dive deep into this.

Yeah, into the metaphors of

golf and retirement.

When we talk about this hierarchy here,

where most people focus, like I said, is the tools.

And there's even advisors, that they only have two or

three tools available to them.

So that's all they focus on.

If you're building a house and the only thing

you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

That's the old saying that they have here.

Focusing on those strategies is infinitely more important, but

the last thing that you have to be concerned about is those

strategies fit to your dreams.

Now, what I always say about dreams is your dreams

today are different than they were ten years ago.

For most retirees, ten years ago you were probably thinking about

when I was going to retire.

If I was going to retire.

The dreams change-

Sure.

that's there.

Ten years from now, your dreams could change again.

And that's okay that you have those strategies that are

fundamental, that you can adapt with you that's out there.

Does that make sense, David?

Yes.

Dreams.

It makes total sense.

And sometimes it's very simplistic.

But it's something that, if it's so simple, why

aren't you doing it?

Why aren't you executing on it?

And why aren't we thinking about this?

Let's stop focusing som much on the tools.

The tools are important.

You have to have the tools, but let's focus instead on

the strategies that have to be there for your dreams.

So, is this something that you talk about

with everybody that comes in for that vision visit?

Yeah.

I always tell them.

The vision visit has two goals.

The first is to understand what your dreams are

and try and grasp that.

And part of every dream is having how much

you're going to spend.

Everybody has that idea.

"I'm going to spend $2,000 a month.

I'm going to spend $5,000 a month.

I'm going to spend $10,000 a month."

Whatever it might be, right?

But, once we understand what your dreams are,

then we take a snapshot of where you are right now.

And that's where our advisor brains work.

"Okay.

Here's where you are now.

Here's the dreams you want to achieve.

What strategies are going to be needed in order to get there."

It doesn't really matter how much

money you have then, in that case when you retire then.

You have to figure out what you want to do and

how much you need to do it.

Correct.

And for some people, I mean, this goes back to

A couple episodes ago when we talked about "Do

I have enough to retire?"

Oh, yeah.

Well, if you're dream is you want to take

a round the world vacation first-class every year for the

next ten years, and you've got $100,000 to your name, well,

your dreams unattainable.

Yeah.

But most people don't have that problem.

Most people are very realistic, and they're

actually underdreaming.

Oh, wow.

One of my favorite-

Oh I like that.

Yeah.

Most people that we talk to, they don't think

that they can do enough.

They don't think big enough.

Wow.

And that's fear.

Fear happens a lot.

One of my favorites things as an advisor, and this happens

as the relationship deepens, is when someone comes back and they

realize that the fear is gone.

They no longer worry about survival.

And when you start talking about, what are

their bigger dreams?

What else can you do?

So once you've been retired for a couple years, and

you see, "Hey, my accounts aren't going down as much

as I thought they were."

Or "They're still going up."

You're thinking, "Well, what else am I going to do?"

That is one of my favorite things.

It takes time to get to know them, but once you know them,

there's all these things that they don't even think about.

It can be as simple as someone's taking their

dream vacation to Europe.

And they've been thinking about this for years

and years and years.

And you know they're never going to spend their pile

of money and you suggest, " Maybe you should upgrade to

business class on the airfare?"

And their eyes get really big, and they're like,

"Can we really do that?

We don't want to spend that much money."

Yeah.

And that goes back to our last episode, are

you getting what it's worth.

If you have the ability...

Some people say, "No.

I'm never going to do that."

Right.

But it's still something that they don't even

think the possibility is there.

Right.

They're just afraid to spoil themselves.

Yeah, and it's not even they spoil themselves.

It could be, "I never thought I could ever do this

for my kids or grandkids."

Or "I never thought I could take this extra vacation."

There's all sorts of things.

Yeah.

How about splurge?

They're afraid of splurge.

Is that better than spoil?

Yeah.

Or live.

Dave...

Yes.

Title of this podcast.

Okay.

Retirement Equals Freedom.

Yeah.

That's our podcast?

That's our podcast.

Can you believe that?

Okay.

I've been looking for a good name for it.

Well, now we're 18, 17 episodes

in, we'd better find one.

But, that freedom comes from all the things you think about

over your life of what you're going to do when you retire.

And those are you dreams.

And if all of a sudden, you've been thinking over

20, 30, 40, 50 years of your life and now you're too

afraid to execute on them.

That's a problem.

Yeah.

If I can help someone execute on those

dreams with the strategies that come into place.

Man, what a good feeling it is.

Great feeling.

You'd be sleeping good that night.

I will.

Hit that button for me.

Oh, man.

Dave relates to retirees.

Yeah.

I'm a simple man, Josh.

You know this, right?

But I have a dream...

He's giving a silent laugh right now.

I have a dream that when I retire my freezer

will be full of Cometeer coffee and Puddin' Cakes.

And that, I'll have a full-blown arcade in my basement.

Josh, what strategies and tools do I need to

accomplish my dream?

What?

I mean, I am channeling my inner MLK, Jr., but.

It was kind of like your inner...

The "I have a dream" was the MLK, but it was kind

of like a parody of someone doing a parody of Barack too.

I'm like, "Wow.

I just kind of sounded like Barack a little bit with the

way I was pacing my words."

So, I have a dream to play basketball without dying.

Is that better?

It is.

But...

How about this?

I have a dream of having an indoor basketball court,

with a built-in arcade with a freezer full of Puddin'

cakes and Cometeer coffee.

Mr.

Advisor, let's get there.

I'm going to make an assumption here-

That you're paying for it all?

That you're in a different spot in your

life than you are right now.

Yeah, let's say six months from now.

Six months from now?

You know how I said most people don't come in here

with unobtainable dreams?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I'm worried that that may have been one.

But the freezer full of coffee we could do.

So here's how you of this.

Well, Puddin' cakes and coffee.

And Puddin' cakes.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

And here's why I probably say that, is

it comes from the second part of that, is taking a

snapshot of where you are now.

So you have this dream.

You have this desire.

You have this want.

And, we have to put some sort of financial perspective to it.

So, what is that going to cost?

What's it going to cost to fill our freezer

with Cometeer coffee?

To build you and arcade?

The Puddin' cakes.

I mean, I'll bring the Puddin' cakes.

Okay.

So don't worry about that.

Thank you.

But what's that going to cost?

And where do you sit now?

So, you have your wife, her salary, you have your savings,

you have whatever pension.

So, we look at the tools that you have.

And we say, "Okay, what can we do, strategically,

to make that come true.

I like how you say that word by the way.

Strategically?

Yeah.

It's so cool.

And, it's a process that, knowing

where you want to go.

If you say, "Hey, that's really important."

And your wife, Carla, says, "Oh, yeah.

I want as much arcade games in my house."

Well, of course she does.

I'm going sit there and go, "Okay,

here's what you got.

Here's where you are now, and here's how

we're going to do it."

For you now...

Yeah?

We're going to have to do a lot more podcasts.

Well, what if you and our friend,

Q, go in on it with me?

And you pay 95%, and I'll pay 5%.

Together.

Does that work?

Yeah, get Q to sign off on that.

I will.

Matthew.

But, no, that is a dream.

It is.

Dave relates to retirees.

Yeah.

I don't know if I've ever had a retiree tell me that

their dream is to have an arcade room and a basketball court.

You need to find clients that align

themselves more like me.

Just saying.

I warned you that this was going to be a little

bit of a fluffy topic, but it is one of my favorite topics.

Because it sets the tone for a thought process.

The last episode, we talked about how a

therapist makes you think.

I think this is something that we as we're talking to

clients, makes people think about how they're going to

do what they're going to do.

Yeah.

I have a dream.

My friend over here, who's now doing impersonations,

what would we like our podcast audience to do this time, is I'd

really like people to go to our website FSRwealth.com/podcast.

And there, you can see all of our old episodes, but most

importantly, you can sign up for our Podcast Club email.

Which, I like you named it the Podcast Club last time...

Yeah.

We will send you all of the show as

they come out, or...

Dave, you're the one in charge of that.

How does that work?

Yeah.

So our episodes release every Thursday, early morning.

And I like to send these emails out on Fridays, just to give

us a little more time to add extra fun stuff to the emails.

And as we start doing, we're going to figure out more fun

things to put in these emails.

I don't know what they are quite yet, but we'll figure them out.

FSRwealth.com/podcast.

Pop in your name and email address, and you, my friend,

will receive the next...

Retirement Equals Freedom Podcast Club email.

Ding, ding, ding.

Do you want me to end it by singing Stevie Nicks again?

I mean, if you want me to, I will but if not I understand.

Did you get me recording it at the beginning?

Oh, yeah.

So, I'll just play it again then.

Just reiterate it here.

Yeah.

I do like me some Stevie Nicks.

Yeah.

How can you not?

All right, Josh.

Hey man, thanks for putting up with my mayhem again

and we'll see how tonight goes with my introduction.

I look forward to it.

All right, Josh.

Deb?

Bye.

Bye.

Thunder only happens when it's raining.