RPF0295-You_Dont_Know_What_You_Want
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00:00:29.000 | - Are you facing a difficult decision in your life?
00:00:34.000 | Or maybe it's not just one decision.
00:00:37.000 | Are you going through just a sense of uncertainty,
00:00:40.000 | maybe a malaise in your life,
00:00:43.000 | feeling like something's not quite right?
00:00:46.000 | Well, if you're in that situation,
00:00:50.000 | nothing wrong with that.
00:00:52.000 | I've been there and frankly am there a little bit myself right now.
00:00:55.000 | But if you're in that situation,
00:00:57.000 | here's a question I want you to consider.
00:00:59.000 | Is it possible that you don't know what to do
00:01:03.000 | simply because you don't yet know exactly what you want?
00:01:08.000 | (upbeat music)
00:01:11.000 | Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance Podcast.
00:01:26.000 | My name is Joshua Sheets and I'm your host.
00:01:28.000 | Thank you for being with me today.
00:01:30.000 | This is the show where we work together
00:01:34.000 | to build a rich life now
00:01:37.000 | and enjoy that life today
00:01:40.000 | while also building and executing
00:01:43.000 | on a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.
00:01:48.000 | (upbeat music)
00:01:51.000 | (upbeat music)
00:01:54.000 | The reason that I emphasize that word together
00:01:58.000 | is because we really are on a road together.
00:02:01.000 | Yes, I'm the host of this show.
00:02:03.000 | Yes, I consider myself a teacher
00:02:05.000 | and I'm here to share with you thoughts and ideas
00:02:07.000 | and insights and things that I have learned.
00:02:09.000 | But guess what? We're on exactly the same path.
00:02:12.000 | That's why I do this show.
00:02:14.000 | I'm working each and every day to live a rich life now
00:02:18.000 | and I'm also working each and every day
00:02:20.000 | to build a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.
00:02:23.000 | I'm several years into that plan and things are on track,
00:02:26.000 | but I haven't yet fully arrived
00:02:30.000 | at my own definition of financial freedom,
00:02:32.000 | but I'm on the way.
00:02:33.000 | And the reason I say together also is because
00:02:35.000 | today I'm going to share a little bit of my experience.
00:02:37.000 | Now, I am doing this simply as an example.
00:02:41.000 | This is not a therapy session for me today.
00:02:44.000 | I'm not going to just be talking on and on about me,
00:02:46.000 | but I do want to just share a little bit from my own experience
00:02:49.000 | because what I've learned is many of you are in similar situations
00:02:53.000 | and sometimes it's helpful when somebody can share,
00:02:56.000 | "Here's what I'm going through and here's what I'm facing,"
00:02:59.000 | and then you can see the correlations in your own life.
00:03:03.000 | I really believe this concept is one that it seems very simple.
00:03:07.000 | Frankly, when I'm sitting here looking at my notes,
00:03:10.000 | I'm just thinking, "This is pretty obvious,"
00:03:12.000 | but I've learned not to second-guess the things that seem obvious
00:03:16.000 | because it was meaningful to me.
00:03:19.000 | In short, I want to talk about decision-making.
00:03:23.000 | I want to talk about whether we really need to spend most of our time
00:03:28.000 | working through the decision-making process
00:03:32.000 | or whether that time is better spent
00:03:36.000 | on simply getting clear about the outcome that we want.
00:03:40.000 | I'm realizing more and more that I have spent and spend too much time
00:03:45.000 | in the former, focusing on the process and trying to weigh decisions,
00:03:49.000 | and not enough time just simply getting very clear on the latter, the vision.
00:03:53.000 | Here's where this came from.
00:03:55.000 | On Friday, I did a Q&A show, and as a component of that Q&A show,
00:03:58.000 | the last two Q&A shows, I've been asked about
00:04:02.000 | what is the appropriate amount of money to put into retirement plans
00:04:07.000 | versus non-retirement plans.
00:04:09.000 | Now, this is a difficult question for me to answer,
00:04:12.000 | not just because, well, the only answer is a specific personal answer.
00:04:16.000 | Of course, you know that.
00:04:18.000 | Yes, the only real answer is a personal, calculated answer.
00:04:22.000 | Run a financial plan and dig into the goals.
00:04:24.000 | You know that.
00:04:26.000 | But it's a difficult answer for me to give
00:04:28.000 | because it cuts very much across the orthodoxy of common opinion.
00:04:36.000 | As a trained, formal financial planner,
00:04:39.000 | I have to be careful to give the ideal answer to questions.
00:04:45.000 | I have to be careful to talk about the tax advantages
00:04:48.000 | of things like 401(k) plans and IRAs and Roth IRAs.
00:04:53.000 | That's important.
00:04:55.000 | If I were still practicing with individual clients,
00:04:59.000 | there could very realistically be a breach of professional responsibility
00:05:05.000 | if I were to give advice that's not the optimal financial advice.
00:05:10.000 | And while I'm sensitive to those who are opposed to the use of tax-deferred accounts,
00:05:18.000 | for example, I'm sensitive and understand the ideas and fears that the rules will change.
00:05:24.000 | I believe the rules will change myself.
00:05:26.000 | I'm sensitive to the ideas and the fears of the invasion of privacy.
00:05:31.000 | One of the possible motivations behind the establishment of tax-qualified accounts
00:05:37.000 | is that that money becomes very, very public.
00:05:40.000 | It's formally reported to the United States government every year,
00:05:44.000 | and most of you who are in other countries have similar systems.
00:05:46.000 | I'm sensitive to those concerns, but I'm not – personally, I'm not overly worried about it for various reasons.
00:05:54.000 | I haven't decided I'm just going to go cash out all my IRAs
00:05:57.000 | and be done with it because of the invasion of privacy.
00:06:00.000 | Some people get there and I get it.
00:06:02.000 | I'm not there myself.
00:06:03.000 | Who knows?
00:06:04.000 | Maybe in a few years I will, but I don't particularly intend to go there.
00:06:08.000 | And so the question often puts me in a difficult position.
00:06:13.000 | And if you listened to the Friday Q&A show, you would have heard me even just talking about it again,
00:06:17.000 | trying to figure out what's the right solution.
00:06:20.000 | And I know for me the decision I've made is that putting tax-qualified accounts,
00:06:28.000 | such as my Roth IRAs and my traditional IRAs and that type of investment program at the forefront –
00:06:36.000 | putting it at the forefront of my investment plan is no longer the correct course of action for me.
00:06:41.000 | But I know I have had a lot of listeners who have written me emails and reviews and said,
00:06:46.000 | "Because of you, I'm fully funding my 401(k) plans."
00:06:50.000 | And I feel a little guilty because I look and say, "Well, if it's not right for me,
00:06:53.000 | then this listener is taking action based upon what I've said.
00:06:57.000 | Am I really giving the best advice?
00:06:59.000 | Should I be telling them not to do it?"
00:07:01.000 | I don't believe the answer is that hardline answer.
00:07:04.000 | So I was struggling with how do I reconcile this unsettled feeling?
00:07:10.000 | Because I want to give good advice and I don't know how to do it.
00:07:15.000 | So over the weekend, I was reading, finishing up a book.
00:07:19.000 | I had a slow leak in my tire.
00:07:22.000 | I had a screw in the tire and took it to the tire place to get it patched real quick next to my house.
00:07:26.000 | And I was finishing up on Saturday afternoon, sitting there reading a book called Unworking.
00:07:31.000 | And this is a book by a guy named Clark Van Deventer.
00:07:35.000 | I interviewed him for the show and he sent me a copy of his book and I read it.
00:07:39.000 | And I really have been enjoying it.
00:07:42.000 | It's a good book.
00:07:43.000 | It's not a great book, but it really resonated.
00:07:46.000 | Great book in the sense that it's got some – it's not smoothly put together,
00:07:52.000 | but it just is a book that resonated with me personally.
00:07:55.000 | And so it was a great book for me.
00:07:57.000 | And the subtitle of the book is called Unworking, Exit the Rat Race, Live Like a Millionaire, and Be Happy Now.
00:08:04.000 | Well, in that book, Saturday afternoon, I'm sitting there reading it, and he wrote a note.
00:08:09.000 | He was talking about the lifestyle that he and his family have chosen.
00:08:13.000 | And the chapter was entitled Family is Greater than Career.
00:08:17.000 | That was what is important to him.
00:08:20.000 | And he wrote this paragraph in there in describing their lifestyle.
00:08:23.000 | And he was describing – talking about the lifestyle of the kids and how many toys he gives them.
00:08:29.000 | And that was the context for this.
00:08:31.000 | But he – after describing this lifestyle – and I'll go ahead and read the preceding paragraphs because I think it will help set up the quote that really stood out to me.
00:08:39.000 | He said, "Our kids probably have fewer toys than most American kids their age.
00:08:43.000 | I think that fewer toys helps develop their creativity.
00:08:46.000 | And because we did not spend our money on toys, they got to go to the rainforest.
00:08:50.000 | For his birthday when he turned five, our son rode a horse to the top of a volcano and roasted marshmallows on cooling lava.
00:08:57.000 | How many kids get to do that?
00:08:59.000 | We ski with our kids all winter long.
00:09:01.000 | We're at the beach with them all summer.
00:09:03.000 | We go on hikes and bike rides and spend months on the road together, camping and crashing in hotels and doing cannonballs in the pool.
00:09:10.000 | There's trips to the aquarium and the zoo and the museum, not occasionally but all the time.
00:09:15.000 | There's trips to Central America and Thailand and lots of other amazing places.
00:09:19.000 | How many kids get to celebrate their fifth birthday roasting marshmallows over cooling lava?
00:09:25.000 | Our kids have ridden elephants, fed pink dolphins and snorkeled the Andaman Sea.
00:09:30.000 | They've learned to count to ten in Thai from a barkeep in Koh Samui.
00:09:35.000 | Their worldview and mine have been stretched by these amazing experiences."
00:09:40.000 | Here's the quote.
00:09:42.000 | "This is possible for our family because of the way my wife and I have designed our life.
00:09:47.000 | We didn't get lucky.
00:09:49.000 | We did not win the lottery.
00:09:51.000 | We don't have a rich uncle.
00:09:53.000 | We just know what we want."
00:09:56.000 | When I read that quote sitting there at the car dealership on Saturday afternoon, I circled it.
00:10:01.000 | If you want to see the actual picture, I circled it and I wrote next to it in my notes,
00:10:05.000 | I put the magic key to a rich life, knowing what you want.
00:10:11.000 | I put a picture of it on Instagram.
00:10:13.000 | I'll link that in the notes for today or just go to Instagram.com/JoshuaSheets and you'll find it.
00:10:19.000 | But it stood out to me that if you know what you want, the path is simple.
00:10:28.000 | I realized that is what the answer to the 401(k) versus non-401(k) question is.
00:10:35.000 | Now in that Friday Q&A call, a listener said, "Should I put more money into the 401(k)?
00:10:39.000 | I have a million bucks in there."
00:10:41.000 | I thought, "Well, what do you want?"
00:10:44.000 | My answer was, "What do you want?"
00:10:46.000 | But I hadn't really identified that what do you want?
00:10:48.000 | That's the way that you answer that question of how much money should I put in a Roth IRA.
00:10:52.000 | Over those last two shows, there's been some discussion in the private Facebook irregulars group.
00:10:57.000 | Several members of the group said, "Since that show, I went and I reduced my 401(k) contributions
00:11:03.000 | because I realized that putting a ton of money into the 401(k) was not right for me."
00:11:08.000 | Again, when I saw those posts, I said, "Great," but I also felt a little guilty like, "Am I doing the right thing?"
00:11:15.000 | But the key of what is the right solution, how much money to put is simply based upon what do you want.
00:11:20.000 | Do you want to have the money set aside for the long-term traditional age 65 retirement
00:11:29.000 | while allowing you just simply to live a lifestyle and not worry too much about the investments
00:11:33.000 | because they're invested in fairly mainstream things?
00:11:36.000 | Or do you want a lifestyle that gives you something different?
00:11:43.000 | It's a big question.
00:11:45.000 | I realized that for me, the paragraphs I just read about the children celebrating my son's fifth birthday
00:11:55.000 | by riding a horse to the top of a volcano and roasting marshmallows on cooling lava, that's the life I want.
00:12:03.000 | That's why prioritizing putting money into a 401(k) is no longer right for me.
00:12:11.000 | It may have been right for me at some point in the past, but it's no longer right for me.
00:12:17.000 | It may be right for you or it may not be right for you, but it's based upon what you want.
00:12:27.000 | That message has been resonating and resonating with me just consistently for the last few days.
00:12:32.000 | I thought I got it before, but now I really get it.
00:12:37.000 | I really get it because I've been applying that to all the different areas of my life.
00:12:42.000 | I've been in a bit of a funk the last few weeks trying to figure out what to do.
00:12:46.000 | I've reached an inflection point in radical personal finance.
00:12:53.000 | Just today, a few minutes before I am recording this show, I just posted a picture of the stats for the show,
00:12:58.000 | and we just hit two million downloads for radical personal finance, which is an amazing milestone in the history of the show.
00:13:05.000 | Just for the sake of context, that puts radical personal finance in about the top 4% to 5% of all podcasts of any genre in terms of listener size.
00:13:17.000 | That's a really cool milestone for the show, and I thank each one of you who's listening to me right now.
00:13:24.000 | But I've struggled the last few weeks even recognizing that, yes, the audience is growing and things are working,
00:13:31.000 | but I haven't known how to deal with it. I haven't known how to make the decisions.
00:13:36.000 | The show's not so small that I can just do it all myself, but then I think, "Should I do this? Should I do that?
00:13:41.000 | Should I get bigger in this way? Should I move in this other direction?"
00:13:45.000 | I've gone around and around and around and around and around and around, and it's been difficult.
00:13:51.000 | But the problem isn't because I don't know which decision to make.
00:13:56.000 | The problem is I'm not clear enough on exactly what I want because depending on what I want, that's what's going to drive the decision.
00:14:07.000 | And so I've been putting the cart before the horse.
00:14:11.000 | I've been putting the thinking and the pursuing different paths ahead of figuring out and getting clear on what are you trying to do.
00:14:23.000 | My own problems in being able to execute on my business plan or being able to execute on my task list are not based upon any problem with me
00:14:36.000 | in the terms of, "Well, I'm just not good at this," or, "I don't know what to do."
00:14:41.000 | The problems of execution are being caused by my lack of a clear vision.
00:14:49.000 | Could that be the same with you in a decision that you're facing right now?
00:14:54.000 | Are your problems of execution being caused simply by the lack of a clear vision?
00:15:01.000 | I'm so grateful for my wife. She's the one who's been helping me diagnose this and this kind of spinning circle I've been in for a few months.
00:15:10.000 | I was seriously pursuing expanding Radical Personal Finance into an AM radio show.
00:15:18.000 | Then I'm thinking, "Well, I need to do a YouTube show."
00:15:20.000 | Then I'm thinking, "Well, no, I need to focus on my writing."
00:15:23.000 | And meanwhile, nothing – I feel like nothing has been getting pressed forward.
00:15:27.000 | And she constantly asks me, "What are you actually doing and why are you trying to do it?
00:15:31.000 | Why are you going to this and why are you going to that?"
00:15:33.000 | And I haven't known the answer. It's because I haven't had the clear vision.
00:15:40.000 | The vision that we have of the outcome that we want will drive the correct decision.
00:15:50.000 | And since that epiphany on Saturday afternoon, I've been just seeing how clearly this applies to most of the problems I'm currently facing in my life
00:16:01.000 | and most of the problems that other people are facing in their lives.
00:16:05.000 | If you know that what you want is to go and travel the world, then the decisions you'll make are simple.
00:16:16.000 | If you know that you want to travel the world and you want to go now and you want to go on a backpacking trip,
00:16:21.000 | well, then you just simply prioritize that and you make it happen.
00:16:25.000 | If you know that you want to travel the world like – what was the guy?
00:16:29.000 | Jim Rogers did years ago in a custom-built – he took a Mercedes convertible and put it onto a Mercedes 4x4 G-Wagon chassis,
00:16:41.000 | made a custom trailer, and drove that thing around the world.
00:16:44.000 | If you want to travel the world like that, staying with kings and princes and sultans and driving the world in a custom luxury automobile,
00:16:54.000 | well, then your path is going to be different.
00:16:57.000 | The backpacking trip just requires 15,000, 20,000 bucks, sell some stuff, sell some car, grab a backpack and go.
00:17:04.000 | The other trip requires you to build a massive business.
00:17:09.000 | So if you want to be a billionaire, you got to put in place a certain financial plan.
00:17:13.000 | If you want to be a lifestyle entrepreneur, you've got to put in place a certain financial plan.
00:17:18.000 | It's all based upon the vision.
00:17:20.000 | Now, when that vision gets cloudy, as it has been for me, that's where I thought when I started this show that I wanted to be a lifestyle entrepreneur.
00:17:28.000 | Then I thought, "Well, maybe that's not what I should be doing.
00:17:33.000 | Maybe I should be expanding and becoming more mainstream."
00:17:36.000 | Then I thought about becoming mainstream and I said, "I'm not a mainstream guy.
00:17:39.000 | It doesn't work for me, so maybe I should be adjusting in this direction.
00:17:42.000 | I don't want to go on and on about all the different business decisions I faced."
00:17:46.000 | But as I've been struggling with these things, the problem has been I'm not clear enough on what I want.
00:17:56.000 | That's really all I got for you as far as a show today.
00:18:01.000 | If you are facing a decision in your life or if you're facing a sense of questions, if you're asking yourself a financial question,
00:18:10.000 | the answer to it is most likely going to be found in getting clearer on what you want.
00:18:17.000 | When you're asking advice, whether that's from me or some other professional, the good advisor, yes, they have a little bit of information.
00:18:25.000 | I have some technical information that is more in-depth in personal finance and financial planning than other people do.
00:18:33.000 | You'll be working with technical advisors your whole life.
00:18:36.000 | If you hire an attorney, you're hiring them because of their technical knowledge and their ability to create an outcome for you.
00:18:41.000 | If you're hiring a consultant or advisor, you're hiring a nutritionist or a personal trainer.
00:18:51.000 | If you're hiring a personal trainer, you're hiring them to some degree based upon what they know.
00:18:58.000 | But the skillful advisor that's really going to help you, the primary service and work that they're doing is to be helping you get clear on what you want.
00:19:08.000 | If it's personal training, if you want to win a fitness model contest, the training for that is going to be very different than winning a bodybuilding contest.
00:19:19.000 | That's going to be different than winning a Spartan Games or winning a marathon.
00:19:24.000 | All of those are going to require a different training solution.
00:19:28.000 | And so you've got to first know what you're trying to accomplish.
00:19:31.000 | I'm sharing those physical examples because they're helpful to me.
00:19:37.000 | I've been struggling with the same thing, like what am I trying to do with how healthy I am?
00:19:42.000 | What's the outcome?
00:19:43.000 | I'm not really sure, which just means just wandering around in circles.
00:19:46.000 | Sometimes I think it's one thing and then it adjusts in a different direction.
00:19:49.000 | So the truly skilled professional is going to spend more time working with you, helping you to adjust your vision.
00:20:01.000 | Because once you get clear on the vision of what you're trying to create, the solutions are really pretty simple.
00:20:07.000 | Applies in every part of life.
00:20:10.000 | Applies in everything.
00:20:16.000 | Some of the ways I've been doing it, journaling is useful.
00:20:19.000 | Speaking to yourself.
00:20:21.000 | I get the benefit of creating a podcast.
00:20:23.000 | But you can do the same thing for yourself.
00:20:25.000 | Pull out your phone.
00:20:26.000 | Dictate for yourself a voice memo.
00:20:29.000 | And as we go today, my challenge to you is to do exactly that.
00:20:32.000 | Just think about what you want.
00:20:34.000 | One other useful thing, I had it in my outline here but I skipped it and I'll just do it as the music winds down.
00:20:40.000 | The major benefit, if you don't know what you want, don't take any action.
00:20:46.000 | So the major benefit of a show like mine is to talk about what's available.
00:20:51.000 | What are the options that are available?
00:20:53.000 | So this book on working, I'll review it soon, I intend to review it soon.
00:20:57.000 | But this book on working is useful because it talks to me about what's available.
00:21:01.000 | It talks to me about the options that other people have chosen.
00:21:06.000 | I can also read Rob Report and see the options that those people have chosen.
00:21:10.000 | I can compare those and see what do I want.
00:21:12.000 | So if we don't know what we want, we need to gather possibilities of what's available.
00:21:18.000 | And then that data will help us to decide.
00:21:24.000 | Thank you all so much for listening to today's show.
00:21:26.000 | I know it's short.
00:21:27.000 | Hopefully, it's focused and useful to you.
00:21:29.000 | Just sharing a little bit of my personal experience and personal epiphany.
00:21:32.000 | But I hope that it will be useful to you.
00:21:34.000 | If this content has been useful to you, I would appreciate your supporting the show.
00:21:38.000 | I forgot to do the sponsor in the beginning.
00:21:40.000 | Just support the show on Patreon. That's helpful.
00:21:42.000 | RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron.
00:21:45.000 | RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron.
00:21:47.000 | You can sign up to support the show there financially.
00:21:49.000 | And thank you to the couple hundred of you who do that.
00:21:51.000 | I appreciate each and every one of you.
00:21:54.000 | Until next time, keep thinking about what you want.
00:21:56.000 | Get clear on it.
00:21:58.000 | Live a rich life now.
00:22:00.000 | And get clear on what financial freedom means to you so that we can build your plan.
00:22:04.000 | [music]
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