8 Secrets Learned Retiring Thousands

DANO WEIR: You're a financial advisor, yeah?

DANO WEIR: It's what you do, right?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: I think so.

DANO WEIR: Retirement?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Yeah, I think so.

DANO WEIR: Oh, it's great. Hey, I got something to show you. I got a financial plan. You want to see my retirement plan?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Yeah, I do, Dan.

DANO WEIR: I do on a Post-it. You want to see a retirement plan on a Post-it?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Let's go.

DANO WEIR: Four letters.

DANO WEIR: I have a retirement plan. You ready?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Golf.

DANO WEIR: Golf.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Wow.

DANO WEIR: That's a retirement plan, right?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: That could be one.

DANO WEIR: Financial confidence for your hip pocket.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Money is really just energy.

DANO WEIR: If you're checking out, It's All Money.

DANO WEIR: Welcome to It's All Money inside the Sonoma Wealth Conference Room.

DANO WEIR: In the city of Sonoma, my name is Dano Weir. I'm the marketing director for Sonoma Wealth and I'm joined by our managing principal, our founder, Daren Blonski, CFP.

DANO WEIR: If this is your first time checking out the show, please subscribe and like where you are. That really helps our show. And today we're going to learn about eight lessons learned retiring thousands of people and that person who's done that is you.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Well, these aren't just the lessons you get reading the book. These are like these. You remember that guy, Paul Harvey, I think we've talked about on this show. I like love that guy, right? And there's used to be this guy on the radio here. I think it was KGO I listened to as a kid.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And Paul Harvey used to always come on during lunchtime and he would have this whole 30 second split that was like the rest of the story. And it was these things about life you didn't really know about that you thought you knew, but there was really what was going on underneath the hood.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And there's a lot of things that you might read in books or hear about or, or think about when it comes to retirement planning. But these are the things that like, People don't talk about that much. That actually turned out being really, really important. Probably more important than how your money's invested, actually.

DANO WEIR: It's the glue. It's kind of the in-between stuff. It's really how it actually plays out, rather than just Roths and non-Roths and life insurance and etc., etc., etc.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Stocks or bonds or whatever. It's what really matters when it comes to the experience of retirement.

DANO WEIR: Where the rubber meets the road. That's right. Your very first... In working on this episode, you and I came up with this list and the first one you have listed I absolutely love, which is don't retire away, retire to something. What does that mean?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Yeah, so we've seen this a lot and this is particularly important if there's potentially degenerative disease risk in your family because when you retire and do nothing, your brain literally starts to shut down and you're asking yourself not to live very long.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: When you retire to something, you're retiring to a hobby, you're retiring to a part-time job, you're retiring to non-profit work, a purpose, a cause, something that really drives you and is meaningful to you. I often see people retire and do nothing and literally, quite literally, they waste away. And that's problematic if you want to live a good life in retirement.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Secondly, I've often seen people who retire get bored after a few months. And they go back to another job that they like less and get paid less for. So if you're retiring away from something, it's usually a good indication that I would step back and really pause and think about, okay, if I'm trying to just not work anymore, that's not really a good retirement strategy.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So what are you going to do after that? How are you going to fill your days? Because the first six months is great, but then you start to get bored.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: I've also heard a lot of people say, and I think it has to do with personality type. Those busy body types out there that retire and they're like, I don't know how I ever worked. I'm so busy. That happens too, right? And the busy bodies tend to do better with that retirement transition than the people who are not as busy naturally.

DANO WEIR: And we should clarify too, your lessons here are if your goal is to live a longer life, if your goal is to what we presume to be quality of life, things that you have seen working in this job.

DANO WEIR: For someone who retires and feels like they deserve a significant amount of time off of doing nothing, you know, that might be your goal. And if that is your goal, great. It's your life. But that has maybe a hidden downside to it that is not seen until you're perhaps too far into it, I think is what you're saying.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Yeah, well, I think it's too far into it, but also, like, there's real physiological impacts of retiring. That I think are misunderstood often. Like our bodies are actually machines and they they need to be engaged every day and when they're not engaged they literally shut down. And this idea that we're going to stop working but then not do anything, you're asking to be on a quick course out of this world.

DANO WEIR: I used to work in radio, speaking of radio, and we got a new president a few years into my tenure at the station. And when he came in, he was already in the Texas Radio Hall Of Fame.

DANO WEIR: He actually gave Glenn Beck his first job, if you know who that is.

DANO WEIR: He very accomplished.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Some people would be pretty disappointed that they said.

DANO WEIR: Why did he not do that? But he's, he's done a lot in radio and now he's here. He is in Santa Rosa. And so he's doing, I'm sitting down with him and I'm talking with him and he's 75 when he's taking this job.

DANO WEIR: And I said, I said, he said, well, do you have any questions for me? And I said, yeah, I do. Why are you here? You sounds like you've done everything. What are you, what are you doing? Which may be not the brightest question to ask your new boss.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Dan clearly didn't like his job.

DANO WEIR: I said, you know, what, what, why, why, why do you, you know, 75, what are you, what are you looking for? He said, well, I've had friends who've retired and they all died, so I don't want to die. So that was basically his answer. And I'd never thought of it that way, but that's exactly what you're talking about.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: That's it. And if you, if you don't engage your body and mind, it's going to shut down. Things are going to come in.

DANO WEIR: All right, second lesson.

DANO WEIR: And for this one, I'm going to take a picture off the wall, because I don't know if we don't have to spin the camera around, but we have these pictures in the conference room. Grab me the one in the center top row. We have these beautiful drawings that were very simply done, but they communicate important lessons. And you have one on the wall that says, stages of retirement. Go-go, slow-go, and no-go.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Well, so we like to make things simple around here. And so these are what we call the stages of retirement. If I was ever to design a retirement planning software, I would design it this way. Because this is actually after helping thousands of people get and stay retired, we see how they spend money. We see the truth of things.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And what happens in the first stage of retirement, the first couple of years, when your body feels good and everything's exciting, these are your go-go years. And if this line represents our spending, all the financial planning software sort of says, oh, well, your spending will slightly go up over time because of inflation, etc. That's not really true. We see this excess spending in the early years of retirement.

DANO WEIR: Those are the trips to Europe you always wanted to take. Those are the RV you always wanted to buy, right? The go, go, go. Yes. Those things that you, you know, you kind of getting it all out of the system, those hallmark moments of retirement that you always wanted to do.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: That's yes. And, but actually what's more impactful in spending. If you think about this and Dan, you have young kids, I have young kids. You get most of your things around the house done on what day every week? Saturday. Saturday, right? So I always tell clients that when you retire, every day becomes a Saturday.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And so that thing staring at you in the wall that you haven't fixed in 20 years because it just keeps staring at the wall and you never have time. Well, guess what you're going to start doing? Right. Fixing that thing on the wall. And then you're going to Home Depot or wherever you buy your home goods or whatever at, and you're fixing it like- Freedman's.

DANO WEIR: Freedman's Home Improvement.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Freedman's locally, if you're a local person. Or you might say, well, man, this couch drives me nuts. I need a new couch. Because now you have to sit on the couch every day. You're not just walking by the couch every day.

DANO WEIR: Right.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And so that really puts this go-go years where you're spending and investing in your home, you're traveling, you're doing things with the grandkids. Your body generally feels pretty good, right? And you feel pretty healthy at that point. And then we hit this area where we call slow going. It's a little bit different for everybody, right?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And it really depends how you took care of yourself in your 30s and 40s and 50s and how fast that slow go hits you. The slow go period is like, you know, I've done the golf. I've done the travel. I've seen Europe. My couch is just fine. And I fixed that hole in my wall that I never fixed while I was raising my kids.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And your body kind of slows down so maybe you're doing more gardening maybe you're doing more reading magazines or books or whatever nowadays training your own AI and you know avatar those kind of things but anyway so you're slow as you're doing your slow go years you're just not spending as much money maybe you write the kids a ten dollar check at christmas and you know that kind of thing but there's not a lot of money going out so We actually see that clients spend less than any of the predictive software predicts during that period of time.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And then something happens and it's a stroke, it's a health issue, it's dementia, it's Alzheimer's, it's Parkinson's, it's an accident, you fall in the bathroom. This is another tip I always tell clients. Install the bars in your bathroom before you fall. Which is wild, right, to think about that. But so many of my clients over the years didn't do that, and they fell in the bathroom.

DANO WEIR: And that's when you end up in the no-go.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: In the no-go. You're not moving anymore. But if you put the bars in before you slip, guess what? You don't slip, and you catch yourself. But nobody wants to admit that stage has come upon them. Right. And it comes way faster than you think it does. So I always tell clients, put the bars in now.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Then you don't have the fall. And then one of the things I see. And this is totally anecdotal. I'm not a doctor at all, but just anecdotally, if you break a hip, it's downhill. Like it is remarkable if you break something significant, how fast the body just starts shutting it down.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: It's really, really hard to recover from those instances. So set it up in a way that it doesn't happen to you, knowing that these are the things in your spending. So your spending is going to go through the roof at the end stage because, well. You have a lot of medical issues in our medical world is set up to extract wealth.

DANO WEIR: All right, here's your stages of retirement. Think about that. Be prepared for that mentally. Thank you. We'll put this back on the wall.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Well, let me just say one thing before I get rid of this. I want to make sure I don't even remember where I got this from. I did not invent this. It's somebody somewhere out there thought of it and it's been overused in a lot of different places. I just want to be really clear about that.

DANO WEIR: Okay. Okay. We like it.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: We do, and it makes a lot of sense.

DANO WEIR: Beautiful art with a Sharpie.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Yes, sir. Simple is better, right? If we can be simple.

DANO WEIR: Maybe I drew it. Who knows?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Maybe you did, Dan. You should copyright it, trademark it, whatever.

DANO WEIR: Okay.

DANO WEIR: This is some facts. The third fact to consider, the third lesson is a fact, which is people are living longer. I've got some slides for this. People are living longer. We've got life expectancy. Here's the first slide. Life expectancy worldwide in 1800 versus 1950. This is coming from ourworldanddata.org, which pulled from the United Nations, the World Bank, and a few other sources from a big study.

DANO WEIR: Basically, in 1800, you were looking at about living to your 20s or maybe your 30s, depending on what continent you're living in. By just 1950, 150 years later. We're getting into our 40s, 50s, and in the United States, 68 years old is the life expectancy. 68. So Darren, for you, you would be two-thirds of the way through your life already if this was 1950.

DANO WEIR: If we look at 1950 versus now, life expectancy in 2015, so this is even 10 years ago, we've gone from 68 years in the United States to 79 years. So among many other changes, all of that has resulted in a higher life expectancy worldwide and specifically here in the United States.

DANO WEIR: So retirement planning and retirement thinking has to change as well because statistically you're living longer and you want to make sure that those times, those extra 10 years or whatever it is, that you're prepared for it and that you have a portfolio to support it because statistically you're going to.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So I was at a conference recently, it was the AICPA conference in Las Vegas. And so this is where all the CPAs and tax people get together and talk shop with financial planners every year. And there was this booth I walked up to, and it was a booth by a big insurance company that had spun out an AI company. And I was there looking specifically at how AI is going to impact our business.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And I walked up to this booth and I realized like, they're telling me they can predict within. Pretty significant degree of accuracy when my death is going to happen. So one of the big things we don't know how to calculate as a financial planner is, Dan, when are you going to die?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Because if you can tell me the day you die, I can calculate out to the very last penny how you're going to spend your money and how long it will last you. But when you walk into my office and I start building a financial plan for you, I have no idea how long you're going to live. I go, hey, did your parents live long, give longevities? We start asking questions like that and making an assumption.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Most people, when we build a plan for them, you It's 90 years is what we planned for. But this insurance company showed me my probability of life using all their insurance data that they've collected over the years, taking that, aggregating it using AI, and then creating a predictive index that, based upon these percentages, here's how likely you are to live. And it was really fascinating to see it.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And I've been wrestling with this, like, we could use this tool for our clients, but do people really want to know what their probabilities of living to? X, Y, or Z are. Right. I don't know. But generally speaking, people are living longer. Now, I've seen some newer data than this where it's actually starting to reverse, they think, a little bit in the United States.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So that's interesting. But at least this estimate says the future is not.

DANO WEIR: Yeah, so this graph, just since you're talking about it, this is United States specifically. It's coming from Statista.com. And the estimate is right around. For today, it's right under. 80 and their estimate is going higher but then again you do see a dip by the way during Covid so there are clearly world events which can obviously affect what the life expectancy is but it's certainly a lot higher than it was you know.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: 20 30 40 years ago so you have to plan for that you do have to plan and so that makes it change how we give advice right because When I first started my career, there was this, I worked for the California Department Of Corrections doing a lot of consulting work.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And there was this big thing among correctional officers that within three to five years, they were going to die after retirement, right? So that calculus is very different for a financial planner to say, okay, I got to keep this person intact for three to five years. Now, when people come into our offices, we're planning for 30 years.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So the idea that it used to be as soon as you retire, you go really conservative, so you don't lose your money. And the idea that you do that now is just not the case because inflation is going to push that up over 30 years. And so if you go really conservative at retirement, that's problematic for your calculus down the road and outliving your money.

DANO WEIR: Okay, so let's not breeze past that. So that's a key point here.

DANO WEIR: Really, really generally speaking. Correct. Really generally speaking. Going conservative would be like CDs and bonds. And staying aggressive would be stocks and... And specific ETFs and mutual funds?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Yeah, using just more aggressive, more volatile. Maybe not crypto.

DANO WEIR: But, okay, that would be really aggressive. But so you're saying the thought used to be, hey, I just retired. I've got a million bucks. I need to make this last. So I'm going to go conservative.

DANO WEIR: And what you're saying is based on extended life expectancies and what you're seeing in the market, That shift is maybe not a good idea because if you're really going to be, if you're going to retire at 60 and you're going to live to 80 over a 20 year time frame, you might still want some of those risk assets, those stocks and those mutual funds because you're going to need it, especially with what's happening with inflation.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Yeah. Well, with inflation, most importantly, there's something called the sequence of return risks, right? So if you, and this is another rabbit hole for another day.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: If you take a a big downturn in your portfolio when you're right at retirement, it can be really detrimental to figuring out how to not outlive your money. So the thought has always been the closer you get to retirement, the more conservative you get so that the risk is lower that you're going to lose a lot of money.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: That somewhat is changing because people are living longer.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So we have to say well if we don't have assets that tend to appreciate when there is inflation in the system in your portfolio upon retirement you're not going to make it to 80 or 90 because you're going to run out of money you won't be able to grow the portfolio and that's been a an issue where i could certainly say when i first started in the career was people would retire and they put all bonds but if you put all your money in bonds last three years you were sucking wind it was rough for you another interesting point on this though.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: We talk with a lot of clients about, hey, should I wait to take my Social Security? And it was probably one of the most common questions I get. Should I wait to take?

DANO WEIR: That's lesson number four.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Oh, I'm jumping already. Look at that. How did I just...

DANO WEIR: Social Security isn't designed for retirement. That's your fourth lesson.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: That's right. So I'm going to make one point about that. And then I'm actually make a point about the point I was going to make. But so the... And then I'll make a point about the point of the...

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Point if you got what i'm saying the guy behind the guy if you look at this graph here right right now the projected life expectancy i don't know if this is for a male because it's different from a male to female but let's just say this is for the average person is 80 generally people say should i take my Social Security at 62 the earliest point available for you to take it and the question is maybe and i always say how long are you going to live And then they go, well, I don't know.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And I'm like, I don't know either. That's why I can't answer this question in black and white for you. But if you're going to live to 83, 84, it usually makes sense. Usually makes sense to wait till 70 to take your Social Security.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: But if you think you're going to die before 83, 84, then you probably want to start as soon as possible. That's the general advice for general consumption. Again, everybody's different. We run really cool analysis for people to... Dial that in even further. Okay. But going back to this point here, because I got to make the point about the point of the point.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Social Security is designed for retirement. If we think about geopolitically what Social Security is, fundamentally, Social Security is designed so that we don't revolt and overthrow the government. Okay, so think about that. Social Security is designed so that you have food in your belly.

DANO WEIR: This is a financial advisor podcast? This is. Okay.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: It's not geopolitics.

DANO WEIR: Okay. Not conspiracy podcast?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Not conspiracy. But that is how, I mean, if you think about how government, right, and going back to government 101.

DANO WEIR: Do you own tinfoil hats?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Just the ones with holes in them.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So, but you, government. I get you. Government builds Social Security to keep the populace at bay, fundamentally, right? If everybody is fed and well supplied for. We're going to let things just happen the way they are. That's just general principles of governance, right? So Social Security is designed to keep us at poverty level.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So if your retirement strategy is, oh, I'm just going to go use Social Security when I retire. Well, then you're going to be at poverty level. And Social Security doesn't give us an adjustment for where we live, right? You get the same dollar amount and 10 buck to wherever. That you get in Sonoma, California, where it's very expensive to live.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So you don't get that adjustment. Secondly, they adjust Social Security for, it's called chain to CPI, but that number is a little squishy in how that moves up and down. So it's not a good strategy to say, oh, my Social Security is my retirement plan. Now, unfortunately, lots and lots and lots of people, that's it.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: That's all I get. That's all I got. Secondly, and we've talked about this in one of our previous episodes, Social Security, the trust fund is going to run out in 2033 or something like that. 2035. 35. We've adjusted it. It's not generally a good practice or principle to say, hey, I'm going to retire my Social Security.

DANO WEIR: Okay. So it'll be part of your plan even after that trust fund expires and whatever year it expires in.

DANO WEIR: Looks like you'll get a portion of that payment. It's not zero. But relying on the government for just about anything is maybe not. The conspiracy both sides of my mouth all right lesson number five family dynamics family dynamics everyone gets along until you die Dan.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: The number of times i've had people sit in my office i've had mom and dad or mom and kids sit in my office literally just have one of these things happen everybody's like we get along this is so wonderful this is great Mom dies, no one gets along. And there's always that one brother or one sister that's going to throw a wrench in the thing, right?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: That's just felt like their whole life they got screwed by mom or dad and now we're going to take it to them in death. Right. So it typically is the case in family dynamics that people get along until the person passes who's giving them money. So I never recommend that people leave it loosey-goosey or...

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: People leave it a mess or if people leave it not documented about who's going to get what because people tend not to get along when money's involved and to add complexity to that it's not just the kids it's the kids partners too because then the kids partners throw a wrench in things and then not even that but what about the kids kids that then say well dad you're getting the short end of the stick.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And all those conversations happen, and then that creates strife in the family and it breaks the family up. So moms and dads, if you can make it really clear, and guess what? If you think it's clear, it's not clear enough.

DANO WEIR: Estate plan.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Estate planning, who gets what, when, how they get it when, all of that stuff needs to be dialed in to the closest period and the closest dotted I.

DANO WEIR: If someone doesn't have that, someone who's watching this, what do they do? What can you do?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Well, the first thing you want to do is determine what the assets are, right? Like if there's not a lot of assets there, and again, this, you have to go talk to a legal attorney that can tell you what you can and can't do. So this is just general ideas, but not advice.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: You know, see if the assets are there and what's there. And then make sure like your beneficiaries on your accounts are exactly the way you want them. If maybe you might need to put your house in trust. And people say, I don't want to talk to a lawyer, it costs so much money. Say, well, guess what? They're going to get it in the front end or the back end.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Because if you don't do it on the back end, they're going to get it through probate. So you might as well pay them in the front end and be very clear about what you want. And then when you pass, you don't have to go through probate. But again, it's very individualistic based upon what various individual situations are.

DANO WEIR: Lesson number six, buy memories, not things. What does that mean?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: You know, I was just sitting with a client today. His wife passed recently. And she loved jewelry. And now this guy has a mass amount of jewelry that he has to figure out what to do with. And she loved turquoise jewelry in particular. So now he has to deal with turquoise jewelry.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: He's like, I kid you not, I've got like 30 turquoise rings. Like, what do I do with this stuff? Right? Cool. She loved the turquoise rings. That was something she did in her life. But things go away. Things fall apart. Things break. Things disappear. Memories don't. Unless, well, sometimes they do. But that's another story.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So generally, you want to create memories with your money. Money, right? So when you're thinking about retiring and how you're going to spend your money, I would be thinking about what are the memories I want to create in retirement? And how can I utilize my resources and assets to create those memories?

DANO WEIR: Can you give an example of either in your own life or someone you know who created a memory?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: One of our clients just took her entire family to Europe on a cruise, right? Now, She spent about 30 grand doing it. A lot of money. But think about all that family is going to have that memory for the rest of their lives. When she passes, had she not spent that 30, we got split five different ways. Right. And, you know, what's 2,500 bucks in a pile of 100,000 versus that memory? It's a lot.

DANO WEIR: I was just at a friend of the family recently passed away, and I went to their service. And three different people.

DANO WEIR: Different three different times all mentioned disneyland and it's disneyland for some people it's tahoe for other people whatever it is you know they didn't mention the car that he bought or they didn't mention you know the property that he owned they mentioned that trip that they took together they mentioned you know watching 49Ers games together whatever it is those things that that do eventually outlive you because the the physical stuff does not yeah it doesn't.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: You know it's interesting living where I live. I live kind of out in the country and I spend so much time and effort beating nature back on the property because it's constantly trying to consume me.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And I love like when I'll be out hiking and I'll come across this random apple tree in the middle of the forest and I'll be like there's an apple tree there. Why is it that means there was a house there at one point and there's no house to be found because nature has taken it back.

DANO WEIR: That's right.

DANO WEIR: Lesson number seven. Checks and balances. What does that mean?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Well, most people, the first thing to go when they start to experience some sort of decline mentally is their ability to properly manage their finances. It's the first thing to go usually, but it's one of the last things people want to let go of.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: We have seen more abuse, financial abuse, happen because people have been...

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Not capable of letting go control of their finances. So in an era of AI and robots and technology and all those things, people are less inclined to use professional financial advisors.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: But I would say one of the biggest values we provide for our client base is that we are a check and a balance. I can't tell you the number of times I've had literally clients come to my office with their caregiver and say, we're running out of money.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And I'd be like, you're running out of money. That's interesting. Why? Let's talk about that. What's going up? What's not? And I'll say things like, hey, can you create a budget for me? And I always know if they round up that there's a lot of cushion there.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And I've seen something called skimming happen many, many times where, you know, the caretaker buys a steak for the person they're caring for, but buys five for the rest of their family. And we see skimming all the time happen.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Not a lot you can do about it because it's really hard to put your finger on it, but just knowing that there's a point of accountability, that someone other than that person who is starting to experience decline is really, really important.

DANO WEIR: So working with a professional, having people, having a team of financial professionals to help ensure that, you know, if we, correct me if I'm wrong, we have a client, suddenly there's a $200,000 trade happening on their account.

DANO WEIR: That's out of the normal. I mean, we're going to give them a call. We're going to get an alert and Clay's going to call me and go, hey, man, what are you doing? Yes or no?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Yes. Well, so for example, a client came in with me last week. Wife, husband, she, the wife is starting to notice things like forgetting, like she'll walk into a pantry and forget what she's looking for. Like she's starting to see things. Well, it's kind of an issue because that account, she could call me up and say, give me all my money.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: I want to do blah, And I technically have to take her orders on that. But if I suspect something, I can raise my hand and at least start asking questions. If there's nobody to notice those changes in behavior that could be problematic, someone could burn right through all their wealth.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And you unfortunately see a lot of that in a small town like Sonoma, where you've got a lot of caretakers, a lot of aging people. There's a lot of abuse. And it's just helpful to have professionals that can say, no, this is off this person's behavior, and I'm not comfortable with this. And if... If needed, we can escalate it to an authority that can do something about it.

DANO WEIR: Here's our eighth lesson. This one's coming from me. And we're going to look at some photos. This is the actor Ernie Hudson. On the left? Yes, on the left. You may recognize him from the film Ghostbusters.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Oh, yeah?

DANO WEIR: How old do you think he is? Just based on that. I mean, I'm asking you. I think he's in his 60s. He's 78 when that photo's taken.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Wow.

DANO WEIR: The next slide. This is a guy I look up to. He's a fitness trainer. You might remember him from the P90X workout series. His name is Tony Horton. If you had to guess, honestly, how old do you think he is in that photo?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Mid-50s?

DANO WEIR: He's 66 when this photo was taken.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: That's crazy.

DANO WEIR: So my eighth lesson, and this is just two examples that I picked at random. It doesn't have to be everybody from Hollywood. In my opinion, do something physical, anything physical. Those two in particular, I know they lift weights. Now, Tony's obviously dedicated his entire life to that, right?

DANO WEIR: So that he would be the extreme example. You don't have to be that. But there are two examples to me of, you know, lift some weights, do some, go for a walk, do something physical and do it with consistency.

DANO WEIR: And I think that there is such a stigma in this country about, well, if you're going to try to do anything. It's wrapped up in your look and hotness and age and youth and all that stuff. There's just a lot of interference there. But at a very base level, just physically doing something can have a huge impact.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: I always say, Dan, it doesn't matter how you move, just move. If you get too deep into the fitness community, the CrossFitters are like, oh, this is the best way to move. The running community is, oh, it's all about running. And then the weightlifters are like, oh, I got to lift more weights. And the reality doesn't matter. Like, and everybody's different and responds totally different to different things.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And you can't do the same thing for everybody if you want to respond optimally. But you have to move. And right, so here we're a financial advising firm. I'm sitting across you, Dan, And you're saying, hey, I'm ready to retire. The question I'm not asking is, Dan, how do you plan to move in retirement? Like, I'm not saying that to their face because that's awkward and uncomfortable and kind of none of my business.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: But if I was offered that opportunity and someone said, what are the top five things that you need to do? Moving is high up there because I can't tell you how many times we've seen it where people just, they don't move. They don't exercise. They don't have a regimented routine and the body declines. So if you want to have a great retirement, you have to include some type of movement in there. That's just reality.

DANO WEIR: And it seems like not financial advice, and yet it ultimately affects, you know, this is the mechanic telling you to take better care of the car so that you can drive it a little bit further.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: But it is actually financial advice, right? Because think about that, the go-go, slow-go, no-go. How fast do you want to go in and stay in the no-go and the slow-go? Because if you're doing things to move, that go-go year period, is longer. And if I have a more physically fit client, I'm literally in my mind calculating, okay, I've got a longer, a higher probability this person lives longer.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: That's a different set of calculus than the person I say, wow, this person is not healthy. They aren't going to make it. And sadly, after watching literally hundreds of thousands of people, it feels like not hundreds of thousands, but hundreds and thousands of people go to retirement, work through retirement, you can start seeing the patterns and you kind of know. What's going on? It's pretty sad.

DANO WEIR: This is the moment in the show where I turn to the camera and I leap out of the show right to you. And I say, if you haven't done anything physical in a very long time, it's okay.

DANO WEIR: I'm just one person to another. It's okay. Do something. I'm giving you permission. Whatever you're cool with, I think you'll see dividends. I've seen it in my own life, as have you. Physical activity will extend and maybe save your life.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So I, one last point aside as a proof that it doesn't matter. We have one client who literally bought one of those boards where you stand on it and it just shakes you.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And it's supposed to improve bone density, right, for women. And so it's really important. But look, just move. It doesn't matter how.

DANO WEIR: Right, right, right. Those are our eight lessons that Darren has learned retiring thousands of people. You can learn more from us by taking our free wealth analysis at SonomaWealth. Com. If you're liking our approach to retirement, if you're one of our clients, thanks so much for checking out this episode. We love having you. Learn from us. And these are always a lot of fun to send out.

DANO WEIR: SonomaWealth. Com. Thanks so much for checking out today's episode. Thanks for watching and listening to It's All Money. We hope today's episode shared information to increase your financial confidence. Now is the time in the show for the voiceover with a bunch of words at the end. Listen close though, you might find out something you didn't know. It's All Money is powered by Sonoma Wealth Advisors.

DANO WEIR: Sonoma Wealth Advisors helps individuals and families in Northern California and across the country with building, managing, and sustaining wealth. Sonoma Wealth is a comprehensive, holistic finance solution offering financial planning, asset management, tax planning, 401k solutions, and appropriate insurance. Take our free wealth analysis now at sonomowealth.com.

DANO WEIR: If you haven't already, Like and subscribe to It's All Money on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. It's All Money features human hosts, musicians, editors, video crew, and voiceover talent. Video production by Forz Media in Roanoke Park, California. Online at forzmedia.com. Music by Neon Beach, Sparkle Rising on Soundstripe. Voiceover by me, Dano. Thank you for listening to the very end. We appreciate you.

DANO WEIR: Diligent viewers and listeners. Fermata Advisors LLC is registered as an investment advisor with the SEC and only transacts business in states where it is properly registered or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. This content was produced by Fermata Advisors LLC, DBA Sonoma Wealth Advisors, DBA Fermata 401K, DBA Fermata Tax. The opinions expressed by Fermata Advisors LLC on this show are their own.

DANO WEIR: Information presented on this program is believed to be factual and up-to-date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy, and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. Discussions and answers to questions do not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice, but are limited to the dissemination of general information.

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