Episode 67: The 5 Secrets of a Happy Retirement
Segment 1:
HELLO Lower Alabama! Hello Gulf Coast! Welcome in. Welcome to Coasting in Retirement! That’s. Right. Thanks for joining us today, Josh Null here, I am flying solo today, I’m locked and loaded, I think I’ve got a great topic, coming to you from Coastal College’s recording studio, beautiful downtown Fairhope, ready to put together another great show for those of you tuning in!
Listeners: I am here to discuss financial topics relevant to those of you in or near retirement, living your best life along our part of the Gulf Coast. Here’s what we’ve got in store for you today: First segment – deep dive on our topic of the day. 2nd segment - at about 30 minutes past the hour – for you regular listeners, this is typically our “Headlines of the Week” segment. But since I’m solo today, and it’s my show, I decided to mix it up this week. Instead of news headlines, I’m going to give listeners 4 essential books about investing and finance that they need read, and one they need to throw in the trash. Then we’ll get back to our regular schedule, at roughly 50 minutes past the hour, our 3rd segment, fan favorite ” Josh’s Crystal Ball and Big Mouth”. So buckle up, we’ve got a lot to get to!
Quick background on me for those new to the show. Again, my name is Josh Null, I am a fee-based financial advisor, I hold my FINRA Series 65 securities license, and I am the owner of Gulf Coast Financial Advisors, that’s a 100% locally owned, 100% independent investment management and financial planning firm with offices in Fairhope, Orange Beach, and Mobile! You can find more information on me and the team at Gulf Coast Financial Advisors by visiting our website gulfcoastfa.com, or feel free to give us a call at 251-327-2124. If you missed that contact info, get a pen and pad ready because we will repeat our contact info several times throughout the show!
Let’s get on with the show. I’m calling our topic today “The 5 Secrets of a Happy Retirement”. Let me provide some context before we get to our list. I promise you all that this won’t be some boring list that contains overly broad advice such as “maintain a sense of purpose” or “get out and exercise more”. Thanks but no thanks ChatGPT search. No, this will be specific action items derived from paying attention to my happiest retired clients combined with my own personal opinions on choices I’ve made that have made me happier. No, I’m not retired, not by a long shot, but I’ve lived a broad and expansive life, I’ve made a ton of mistakes and I’ve learned incredibly valuable lessons from them. I also want to give you all a warning: some of you are not going to like some of the advice I give. It will make you uncomfortable. Especially the last item on the list, and in my opinion, the most important choice you can make right now to improve your happiness in retirement. And it has nothing to do with money. Curious? Good. Let’s get at it:
1. Form your financial team. Pick local people carefully, do your due diligence on who you can truly trust. Know the different types of advisors, whether it’s brokers, or agents, or dually registered, fee-based, fee-only, etc. It has a HUGE impact on the chances of your financial success in retirement. Couple that choice of financial advisor with forming the right team: CPA / Accountant, Estate Planning attorney, and risk management consultant.
2. Don’t get involved in pointless arguments on social media. Roll around in the slop with the pigs; the pigs get happy and you get covered in pig…
3. Don’t let fear dictate your investment choices. This comes in many flavors and I’m going to break them down. First, fear of investing in the stock market. Go over the history of the indexes and touch on some of the hedging you do with Aptus. Second, fear of missing out – discuss crypto here. Lastly, fear selling – you need to know the different types of annuities because they annuity sales army is coming for you, baby boomers. SPIA, DIA, MYGA, FIA, VA. Explain dinner seminars and IMOs,
4. I can say a broad statement like “volunteering in retirement will make you happier” and that’s all well and good advice, but I want to be more specific. First, if you are listening to this show and you are in your 50s, 60s or even 70s and beyond, you are going to live longer than you think. Which means your current life plan is probably too shortsighted. This matters a lot in my line of work because one of my main jobs is to make sure you don’t outlive your money, but it matters even more to you because you don’t want to outlive your purpose.
I know this seems counterintuitive from a guy that helps people retire, sometimes even early, but don’t be afraid of working longer. Don’t be afraid of committing to various educational, church or volunteer groups, unless you’re my Mom, who needs to stop saying yes. But here’s why staying plugged into our current times matters to both you and to the bigger picture of humanity: our younger generations are in trouble. And it’s our fault. Especially young men. I am very, very blessed that I have 2 young sons and a daughter that by all appearances seem to be happy and well-adjusted, despite my best intentions. But there are so many people in their 20’s and 30’s that are lost. That feel that there is no hope of a truly successful life. We – you listening and me – grew up where we reasonably expected to have more economic success than our parents. The younger generations don’t have this expectation across the board. And again, it’s our fault. But you have time to do something about it.
5. Turn off the cable news. All of it. Both sides. It’s not there to educate or enlighten you. At best, it’s there to entertain you, at worst, it’s there to enrage you. Don’t fall into the grievance culture. One of the best pieces of advice I got years ago from a mentor named Eric Lucy went something like this: I was a road warrior that worked for Eric’s company, and I was constantly stressed by events in the world. I spent a lot of time on the road and often had the dial turned to talk radio. Rush, Savage, Hannity, etc. Eric got tired of my belly aching and challenged me to turn it off for 6 months then let me know if anything has changed or been solved.
Read the news. This is the order of trust you must have with the news: first, what you read, because it’s harder to say crazy things in print. Second, what you hear because there’s a ton of great radio shows and podcasts, like this one, that shoot people straight. Third, and the least trustworthy, is what you watch. Not just cable news but these idiots on YouTube. When nutjobs speak off the cuff on a video, they can sound so compelling, but if you were to read a transcript of what they just said, you would start to see the utter pointlessness of their constant diatribe. If you are waiting on a TV star or YouTube celebrity or even a politician to save you, to make your life better, you will be left wanting the rest of your life. Shut the noise off. Make your own life better. Anything important will get to you, you won’t miss a thing. Trust me - I haven’t watched cable news in nearly 15 years yet I have a respected weekly radio show on one of the Gulf Coast’s largest talk radio stations. That should tell you something.
If you would like to start the conversation with us, we encourage you to reach out. You can call us at 251-327-2124, or find us on our website gulfcoastfa.com. One our site, click on the blue button in the upper right-hand corner to set up a meeting on my calendar. We have several meeting choices for your convenience – it can be as simple as a 15-minute introductory phone call, a 30 minute zoom, or my preference, an in-person meeting at any of our 3 office locations: Downtwon Fairhope, Orange Beach just down the road from the Wharf, or in Mobile off Dauphin St and I-65. Reach out to us - we would love to meet you!
Alright folks, coming up next – I’m calling an audible and instead of doing our normal headlines of the week segment, I’m going to give you the 4 to 5 financial books you must read, and the one you must throw in the trash. Stay tuned!
Segment 2 - News of the Week:
Welcome back to Coasting in Retirement, your host Josh Null here! As we discussed before the break, every week we scour what Michelle calls the Interwebs for financial articles related to our topic of the day, especially articles that pertain to those of you in or near retirement. Our job, or at least we tell ourselves it is, is to help you all understand how these headlines impact you, especially when it comes to your money! Note – if you want to read our referenced articles yourself, we also include the links in our show transcript, which you can find on our website gulfcoastfa.com under the podcast tab. Now without further adieu, here’s Michelle with the Headlines of the Week!
1. I’m starting with the single most important book on investing and savings ever produced. The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Debt snowball.
2. This next book is so much fun and such an accurate description of many of my clients: The Millionaire Next Door
3. I’m giving you a two-fer, both by the same author. Liar’s Poker and The Big Short by Michael Lewis. Regular listeners know that I try to give you all a peek behind the curtain as to how my industry actually works. These books rip these entire curtain down. Liar’s Poker is Michael Lewis’s first book, and will be a little dated, but man does it give you an accurate description of the greed and aggressiveness of the broker world, a world I argue is losing out to the advisor world. And The Big Short is not only an excellent book but one of the best financial movies ever made.
4. Here’s a new one for you that I haven’t even finished yet, but it seems so applicable to our current situation. It’s titled “1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History” by Andrew Ross Sorkin.
5. And here’s the one you throw in the trash, after you burn it: “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyoski. In my opinion, this is the single most damaging financial book ever written. At least it was to my life. God help me if I had never learned about “OPM”, that is Other People’s Money, and applied that incredibly stupid theory to my real estate career when I was very young.
If you want to revisit this list, then check out the podcast tab on our website and find the transcript for this show. Then, f you want to discuss your own personal retirement dreams and goals, then us a call at 251-327-2124, or find us through our website gulfcoastfa.com. One our site, click on the blue button in the upper right-hand corner to set up a meeting on my calendar. We have several meeting choices for your convenience – it can be as simple as a 15-minute introductory phone call, all the way to an in-person meeting at any of our 3 office locations: Downtown Fairhope, Orange Beach, or Mobile, near the intersection of Dauphin St and I-65. Reach out to us - we would love to meet you!
Alright folks, coming up next: Josh’s Crystal Ball and Big Mouth. What have been some of my predictions? Have I been right? Was I ever wrong? How wrong? What do I think is going to affect investors in the near future, or maybe the distant future? We talk about all of these things and poke a little fun at my big mouth. Stay tuned!
Segment 3 – Josh’s Crystal Ball and Big Mouth:
Welcome back! Your host Josh Null here. So, I am opinionated, I have strong opinions at times, I would say a radio show host that isn’t probably wouldn’t be very interesting to listen to. And I am paid in my profession to offer professional guidance and opinions to my clients, otherwise what use am I? Just replace me with AI. I like making predictions, and while I usually proved right, there are times I swing and I miss. Want to hear me eat a little crow? Then let’s get at with Josh’s Crystal Ball and Big Mouth.
Of all of the predictions I’ve made over the years, including the incredibly dumb one back in 2022 about inflation not lasting much longer, there is one topic that is probably the most important to date in my career, and it’s this: how big is the AI bubble, and when will it pop? Because we are undoubtedly in an AI bubble. Remember, bubbles are typically short and medium term, never long term unless you argue that the entire stock market has been in a 100 year bubble, and you have an argument, but what good does it do? Bulls have always won in the long run. I say we are in an AI bubble for a couple of reasons.
First, nearly all of the stock market and GDP gains over the past 2 years can be traced back to AI investment and enthusiasm. That’s not a good balance. Second, the numbers are starting to not add up. Let’s take probably the most well known AI company as example, ChatGPT. My numbers will be a little off but ChatGPT is on pace for $13B in revenue in 2025. They recently signed a cloud computing deal with Oracle that is reportedly $300B over 5 years. Let me break that down for you. A company making $13B per year is on the hook to pay one company $60B, per year, for 5 years straight. And that’s just one contract.
Bubbles are usually called too early. Economists have accurately predicted 22 of the last 3 recessions. We won’t know the bubble is about to pop until the massive firehouse of money being invested is cut significantly. But here’s what you can do about it:
Well, listeners, I hope you enjoyed a little peek into how we form our opinions and make predictions. We invite you one last time, if you would like to have a no-pressure, no-obligation conversation about your investing goals and retirement dreams, you can call us at 251-327-2124, or find us through our website gulfcoastfa.com. One our site, click on the blue button in the upper right-hand corner to set up a meeting on my calendar. We have several meeting choices for your convenience – it can be as simple as a 15-minute introductory phone call, all the way to an in-person meeting at any of our 3 office locations. You can find GCFA offices in downtown Fairhope, or Orange Beach off Canal Road, or in Mobile off Dauphin St and I-65. Reach out to us - we would love to meet you!
That’s our show for this week! I want to give a huge thank you our show sponsor, Providence Partners and Jay Stubbs, thank you to our two awesome radio station, FM Talk 106.5 out of Mobile, many thanks to the provider of our show music, local band Sloth Racer, huge thank to the show producer, my son Payton Null, and as always my sincere appreciation for all of your out there that have been listening and joining us on this journey. We would love to be a part of your journey as well! Until we talk again, have a wonderful and productive week. This has been Coasting in Retirement with Josh Null!
GCFA Disclosure:
Gulf Coast Financial Advisors, LLC ("GCFA”) is a registered investment adviser offering advisory services in the State of Alabama and in such other jurisdictions where it is registered, filed the required notices, or is otherwise excluded or exempted from such registration and/or notice filing requirements. Registration does not indicate or imply that GCFA has attained a particular level of skill or ability, nor does it constitute an endorsement of the firm by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or any state securities regulator.
The Coasting in Retirement radio program serves mainly to disseminate general information including those pertaining to GCFA’s advisory services, together with access to additional investment-related information, publications, materials and links. The publication of this radio show should not be construed by any client and/or prospective client as GCFA’s solicitation to effect, or attempt to effect transactions in securities, nor should it be interpreted as GCFA providing personalized investment advice, or any type of professional advice, for compensation, wherever this program is broadcast. Any subsequent, direct communication by GCFA with a prospective client will be conducted by a representative that is either registered or qualifies for an exemption or exclusion from registration in the state where the prospective client resides.
Certain information, news stories, headlines, data, charts, graphs, figures or statistics presented on this radio program may have been obtained from third-party sources that are believed to be generally reliable but which GCFA may not have independently verified. GCFA does not and cannot guarantee the timeliness, accuracy, or reliability of any such third-party information and undertakes no obligation to update or correct any information that may become obsolete, unreliable, or inaccurate. The radio program also contains the opinions, views, and perspectives expressed by Josh Null and any other GCFA representatives which are solely their own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, or perspectives of GCFA as a firm. Such personal views and opinions should not be construed as endorsements or professional advice from GCFA. GCFA makes no representation or warranty regarding the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information on this radio program, and disclaims any liability for any direct or indirect loss or damage incurred from using or relying on such information.
GCFA, Aptus, Providence Benefits and Providence Partners are not affiliated, nor are any of their respective representatives.