Today's episode is story time. I'm going to tell you the not so obvious reason that people retire early or should at least be planning on retiring early. And it's not the traditional, yeah, I want to spend time with family or I want to travel. Now, why on earth am I recording this episode? Well, I was watching The Amazing Race this weekend. And it's the first time I've ever seen it. I promise I'm going to connect the dots from the Amazing Race to retirement planning, because

many of you are probably very confused right now, especially if this is your first time

tuning into the program.

Now, I have all of my episodes on YouTube in addition to the podcast.

If you're listening, today's episode will be equally effective. Sometimes I will have a case study where I'm going to great detail, and I want to show you. Here's exactly how this couple is going to save on health care and how exactly they're going to spend and how they're going to shift that when markets do X, Y, or Z. I think you should watch this on YouTube so you can actually see me do it versus listen on the podcast.

Today's episode, whether you're watching on YouTube right now and can see me or you're listening

on the podcast, it will be equally effective. Now, here's the story and why we're going about this.

So right now we have about 53 employees that work here at Root. They are amazing team members

that make all the magic happen.

I make a lot of different videos and podcasts, so people like yourself who are listening or watching,

reach out and go, wow, this sounds different. It sounds like if I work with Root, I'll have my finances

optimized and doing everything I want to do, which is awesome. But there's a large majority of you

who like managing your own money or who find that an advisor might be helpful, but just not right now.

It just might be a matter of timing. I'm the weird advisor that says everyone doesn't need one.

It just depends on when it makes sense for you. So here's how the amazing race connects to this.

I will talk to a lot of people who will say,

Ari, I'm finally retiring. I'm really excited. I'm going to spend time doing slow travel because traditionally I would take a week off work. That's fun, but it's not the same. If I'm in Portugal and I love it, I want to be able to stay a week. And I can't do that until I'm officially retired. All of other people who say, look, I just want to redate my spouse. It's been a long time.

I've been working the last 30 years. and I can't do that until I'm officially retired. All of other people who say, look, I just want to

redate my spouse. It's been a long time. I've been working the last 30 years. We have kids. I feel

like we haven't really connected, and it's more us time. I'll go awesome. But then there's a whole

batch of other people. And these other people are retiring, but it's not due to choice. Technically,

there is their choice to some extent, but it's not due to choice. Technically, there is their choice to some extent,

...