There are three levels to your retirement. And we're going to go through each of those in today's

episode. Now, number one, I want to just start by saying, thank you guys. It's been an amazing

year. We're going to explore some fun stuff in today's episode, but I really could not do all of this without you. So thank you. Now, what I'm going to do from here is I'm going to hop right in. as you guys know, I like to do so.

And I'm going to start with some thoughts.

And these thoughts are not just thoughts I made up.

These are thoughts that have come from you guys.

And so I'm going to start with some thoughts. And these thoughts are not just thoughts I made up. These are thoughts that have come from you guys. And so I'm going to make these assumptions in addition to these thoughts. So tell me what you think. Okay. I know obviously you're not replying because you're just listening. But I want you to really think through what I'm going to say here. So let's make an assumption that at some point you've thought, yeah, I want to retire. I just don't know,

is it next year? Is it three years from now? Is it five years from now? Are you going, you know what? I think I'm in a good spot, but if markets don't perform well, that I'm not really not sure. Are you thinking, you know what? I do feel I've got a good amount in that 401k or that IRA or that Roth IRA, but how am I going to bridge that gap? If I want to retire early, where is income

going to come from? And my plan looks good on paper. Maybe I've done some Excel stuff, but you know what? I don't know because the timing of these things is really confusing me. Social security is going to come on at some point. I don't really know when I should take it. But in addition to that, there's that brokerage account you talk about. How much should I put

in there? How much is too much? Right now I'm saving. Should it all go to my 401? Should it go elsewhere? I could go on and on and on. But the reason I'm doing it this way to start out today's episode is because I do not want you to get paralysis analysis. Okay. A big phrase that I'll talk about here at the firm is called head trash. I don't want you to have head trash. Part of my job as an

advisor is to say here are things I'm going to advise you on

Please invest this way because here's how you can see it'll benefit you here's why we want to use this tax strategy

Sometimes people get so lost in quantifying things it can actually be to your detriment where you don't take action and And I do not want that to be the case. And I talk about that a lot on the show because there's amazing episodes out there and podcasts and all these things that I also listen to. And it sounds great. Then I go, hey, there's a lot to this. And I'm just going to try to keep it simple, because oftentimes simple is the best way to do it. And then I go, actually,

I understand this philosophy. So maybe there's something better out there, but I don't understand it. So I'm not going to do it. And I know I personally do that. If I go to a doctor or any other, you know, my physical therapist, a lot of you know I play soccer, if they're telling me I should do all these fancy exercises, but I don't understand it.

I'm just not going to do it.

Even though I know it could be better, I need to understand it. So my goal today is to keep it really simple, where you understand exactly what I'm talking about in a way that is going to resonate, hopefully a whole lot different than any other episode I've done before. So please do let me know if this is helpful.

Now, I'm going to tell you all, not all, but I'm going to give you all three levels right now, and then we're going to explore them in more detail. Because I know some of you are very busy people, you're listening to right now, and you've got things to do. And I want you to go do those things. So here's what I'm going to start with. The level one, okay, is can I retire? And am I in a good spot to retire? Whether it's in one year, three years or five years, that's level one. Now, if you know that answer, then great. Some people go, I'm going to go retire. Now, I'm not giving anyone the green flag or the green light in my eyes off level one. Level one is can I retire? Am I in a good spot? maybe you've done some basic projections on your end and you go, yeah, looks pretty good if I want to spend 6,000 a month and

inflation assumption is this and yeah, maybe I could do better, but it looks pretty good. So level

one is like pretty, am I in a pretty good spot to retire? Now we're going to explore these in

more detail. That's level one. Okay. Level two is saying, okay, I now know I'm in a pretty good spot to retire, but what should I do so I understand how much I can spend? People go, wait a second, what did you just say? What should I do to understand how much I can spend? Because I do not want you retiring going, yeah, I did pretty good. And I think I can spend $6,000 a month.

And then here you are, 20 years later in your 80s and 90s. And you're going, why didn't I spend 8,000 a month? Why didn't I spend 10,000 a month? Because I just didn't know what spot I was in. Most people don't know what spot they're in. They're in the I don't know phase. And a lot of you know this example, but I'm a soccer player. I love playing soccer. I'm not fun to be around when I get

hurt, but what I do is I get an MRI. And I understand how bad is the injury? Then I get my physical therapy. And I go, got it. Here's what I need to do to get back on the field. Here's my action plan. And most people I find don't have an action plan. Or they do, but it's in their head, so they don't really stick to the plan. So level one is,

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