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♪ Got to sort of tell 'em ♪ Two destinations, one loyalty card. Visit yamava.com/palms to discover more. - Are you facing a difficult decision in your life? Or maybe it's not just one decision. Are you going through just a sense of uncertainty, maybe a malaise in your life, feeling like something's not quite right?

Well, if you're in that situation, nothing wrong with that. I've been there and frankly am there a little bit myself right now. But if you're in that situation, here's a question I want you to consider. Is it possible that you don't know what to do simply because you don't yet know exactly what you want?

(upbeat music) Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance Podcast. My name is Joshua Sheets and I'm your host. Thank you for being with me today. This is the show where we work together to build a rich life now and enjoy that life today while also building and executing on a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) The reason that I emphasize that word together is because we really are on a road together. Yes, I'm the host of this show. Yes, I consider myself a teacher and I'm here to share with you thoughts and ideas and insights and things that I have learned.

But guess what? We're on exactly the same path. That's why I do this show. I'm working each and every day to live a rich life now and I'm also working each and every day to build a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less. I'm several years into that plan and things are on track, but I haven't yet fully arrived at my own definition of financial freedom, but I'm on the way.

And the reason I say together also is because today I'm going to share a little bit of my experience. Now, I am doing this simply as an example. This is not a therapy session for me today. I'm not going to just be talking on and on about me, but I do want to just share a little bit from my own experience because what I've learned is many of you are in similar situations and sometimes it's helpful when somebody can share, "Here's what I'm going through and here's what I'm facing," and then you can see the correlations in your own life.

I really believe this concept is one that it seems very simple. Frankly, when I'm sitting here looking at my notes, I'm just thinking, "This is pretty obvious," but I've learned not to second-guess the things that seem obvious because it was meaningful to me. In short, I want to talk about decision-making.

I want to talk about whether we really need to spend most of our time working through the decision-making process or whether that time is better spent on simply getting clear about the outcome that we want. I'm realizing more and more that I have spent and spend too much time in the former, focusing on the process and trying to weigh decisions, and not enough time just simply getting very clear on the latter, the vision.

Here's where this came from. On Friday, I did a Q&A show, and as a component of that Q&A show, the last two Q&A shows, I've been asked about what is the appropriate amount of money to put into retirement plans versus non-retirement plans. Now, this is a difficult question for me to answer, not just because, well, the only answer is a specific personal answer.

Of course, you know that. Yes, the only real answer is a personal, calculated answer. Run a financial plan and dig into the goals. You know that. But it's a difficult answer for me to give because it cuts very much across the orthodoxy of common opinion. As a trained, formal financial planner, I have to be careful to give the ideal answer to questions.

I have to be careful to talk about the tax advantages of things like 401(k) plans and IRAs and Roth IRAs. That's important. If I were still practicing with individual clients, there could very realistically be a breach of professional responsibility if I were to give advice that's not the optimal financial advice.

And while I'm sensitive to those who are opposed to the use of tax-deferred accounts, for example, I'm sensitive and understand the ideas and fears that the rules will change. I believe the rules will change myself. I'm sensitive to the ideas and the fears of the invasion of privacy. One of the possible motivations behind the establishment of tax-qualified accounts is that that money becomes very, very public.

It's formally reported to the United States government every year, and most of you who are in other countries have similar systems. I'm sensitive to those concerns, but I'm not – personally, I'm not overly worried about it for various reasons. I haven't decided I'm just going to go cash out all my IRAs and be done with it because of the invasion of privacy.

Some people get there and I get it. I'm not there myself. Who knows? Maybe in a few years I will, but I don't particularly intend to go there. And so the question often puts me in a difficult position. And if you listened to the Friday Q&A show, you would have heard me even just talking about it again, trying to figure out what's the right solution.

And I know for me the decision I've made is that putting tax-qualified accounts, such as my Roth IRAs and my traditional IRAs and that type of investment program at the forefront – putting it at the forefront of my investment plan is no longer the correct course of action for me.

But I know I have had a lot of listeners who have written me emails and reviews and said, "Because of you, I'm fully funding my 401(k) plans." And I feel a little guilty because I look and say, "Well, if it's not right for me, then this listener is taking action based upon what I've said.

Am I really giving the best advice? Should I be telling them not to do it?" I don't believe the answer is that hardline answer. So I was struggling with how do I reconcile this unsettled feeling? Because I want to give good advice and I don't know how to do it.

So over the weekend, I was reading, finishing up a book. I had a slow leak in my tire. I had a screw in the tire and took it to the tire place to get it patched real quick next to my house. And I was finishing up on Saturday afternoon, sitting there reading a book called Unworking.

And this is a book by a guy named Clark Van Deventer. I interviewed him for the show and he sent me a copy of his book and I read it. And I really have been enjoying it. It's a good book. It's not a great book, but it really resonated.

Great book in the sense that it's got some – it's not smoothly put together, but it just is a book that resonated with me personally. And so it was a great book for me. And the subtitle of the book is called Unworking, Exit the Rat Race, Live Like a Millionaire, and Be Happy Now.

Well, in that book, Saturday afternoon, I'm sitting there reading it, and he wrote a note. He was talking about the lifestyle that he and his family have chosen. And the chapter was entitled Family is Greater than Career. That was what is important to him. And he wrote this paragraph in there in describing their lifestyle.

And he was describing – talking about the lifestyle of the kids and how many toys he gives them. And that was the context for this. 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.

He said, "Our kids probably have fewer toys than most American kids their age. I think that fewer toys helps develop their creativity. And because we did not spend our money on toys, they got to go to the rainforest. For his birthday when he turned five, our son rode a horse to the top of a volcano and roasted marshmallows on cooling lava.

How many kids get to do that? We ski with our kids all winter long. We're at the beach with them all summer. 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. There's trips to the aquarium and the zoo and the museum, not occasionally but all the time.

There's trips to Central America and Thailand and lots of other amazing places. How many kids get to celebrate their fifth birthday roasting marshmallows over cooling lava? Our kids have ridden elephants, fed pink dolphins and snorkeled the Andaman Sea. They've learned to count to ten in Thai from a barkeep in Koh Samui.

Their worldview and mine have been stretched by these amazing experiences." Here's the quote. "This is possible for our family because of the way my wife and I have designed our life. We didn't get lucky. We did not win the lottery. We don't have a rich uncle. We just know what we want." When I read that quote sitting there at the car dealership on Saturday afternoon, I circled it.

If you want to see the actual picture, I circled it and I wrote next to it in my notes, I put the magic key to a rich life, knowing what you want. I put a picture of it on Instagram. I'll link that in the notes for today or just go to Instagram.com/JoshuaSheets and you'll find it.

But it stood out to me that if you know what you want, the path is simple. I realized that is what the answer to the 401(k) versus non-401(k) question is. Now in that Friday Q&A call, a listener said, "Should I put more money into the 401(k)? I have a million bucks in there." I thought, "Well, what do you want?" My answer was, "What do you want?" But I hadn't really identified that what do you want?

That's the way that you answer that question of how much money should I put in a Roth IRA. Over those last two shows, there's been some discussion in the private Facebook irregulars group. Several members of the group said, "Since that show, I went and I reduced my 401(k) contributions because I realized that putting a ton of money into the 401(k) was not right for me." Again, when I saw those posts, I said, "Great," but I also felt a little guilty like, "Am I doing the right thing?" But the key of what is the right solution, how much money to put is simply based upon what do you want.

Do you want to have the money set aside for the long-term traditional age 65 retirement while allowing you just simply to live a lifestyle and not worry too much about the investments because they're invested in fairly mainstream things? Or do you want a lifestyle that gives you something different?

It's a big question. I realized that for me, the paragraphs I just read about the children celebrating my son's fifth birthday by riding a horse to the top of a volcano and roasting marshmallows on cooling lava, that's the life I want. That's why prioritizing putting money into a 401(k) is no longer right for me.

It may have been right for me at some point in the past, but it's no longer right for me. It may be right for you or it may not be right for you, but it's based upon what you want. That message has been resonating and resonating with me just consistently for the last few days.

I thought I got it before, but now I really get it. I really get it because I've been applying that to all the different areas of my life. I've been in a bit of a funk the last few weeks trying to figure out what to do. I've reached an inflection point in radical personal finance.

Just today, a few minutes before I am recording this show, I just posted a picture of the stats for the show, and we just hit two million downloads for radical personal finance, which is an amazing milestone in the history of the show. 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.

That's a really cool milestone for the show, and I thank each one of you who's listening to me right now. But I've struggled the last few weeks even recognizing that, yes, the audience is growing and things are working, but I haven't known how to deal with it. I haven't known how to make the decisions.

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? Should I get bigger in this way? Should I move in this other direction?" I've gone around and around and around and around and around and around, and it's been difficult.

But the problem isn't because I don't know which decision to make. 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. And so I've been putting the cart before the horse. 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.

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 in the terms of, "Well, I'm just not good at this," or, "I don't know what to do." The problems of execution are being caused by my lack of a clear vision.

Could that be the same with you in a decision that you're facing right now? Are your problems of execution being caused simply by the lack of a clear vision? 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.

I was seriously pursuing expanding Radical Personal Finance into an AM radio show. Then I'm thinking, "Well, I need to do a YouTube show." Then I'm thinking, "Well, no, I need to focus on my writing." And meanwhile, nothing – I feel like nothing has been getting pressed forward. And she constantly asks me, "What are you actually doing and why are you trying to do it?

Why are you going to this and why are you going to that?" And I haven't known the answer. It's because I haven't had the clear vision. The vision that we have of the outcome that we want will drive the correct decision. 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 and most of the problems that other people are facing in their lives.

If you know that what you want is to go and travel the world, then the decisions you'll make are simple. 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, well, then you just simply prioritize that and you make it happen.

If you know that you want to travel the world like – what was the guy? Jim Rogers did years ago in a custom-built – he took a Mercedes convertible and put it onto a Mercedes 4x4 G-Wagon chassis, made a custom trailer, and drove that thing around the world. 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, well, then your path is going to be different.

The backpacking trip just requires 15,000, 20,000 bucks, sell some stuff, sell some car, grab a backpack and go. The other trip requires you to build a massive business. So if you want to be a billionaire, you got to put in place a certain financial plan. If you want to be a lifestyle entrepreneur, you've got to put in place a certain financial plan.

It's all based upon the vision. 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. Then I thought, "Well, maybe that's not what I should be doing. Maybe I should be expanding and becoming more mainstream." Then I thought about becoming mainstream and I said, "I'm not a mainstream guy.

It doesn't work for me, so maybe I should be adjusting in this direction. I don't want to go on and on about all the different business decisions I faced." But as I've been struggling with these things, the problem has been I'm not clear enough on what I want. That's really all I got for you as far as a show today.

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, the answer to it is most likely going to be found in getting clearer on what you want. 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.

I have some technical information that is more in-depth in personal finance and financial planning than other people do. You'll be working with technical advisors your whole life. If you hire an attorney, you're hiring them because of their technical knowledge and their ability to create an outcome for you. If you're hiring a consultant or advisor, you're hiring a nutritionist or a personal trainer.

If you're hiring a personal trainer, you're hiring them to some degree based upon what they know. 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. 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.

That's going to be different than winning a Spartan Games or winning a marathon. All of those are going to require a different training solution. And so you've got to first know what you're trying to accomplish. I'm sharing those physical examples because they're helpful to me. I've been struggling with the same thing, like what am I trying to do with how healthy I am?

What's the outcome? I'm not really sure, which just means just wandering around in circles. Sometimes I think it's one thing and then it adjusts in a different direction. So the truly skilled professional is going to spend more time working with you, helping you to adjust your vision. Because once you get clear on the vision of what you're trying to create, the solutions are really pretty simple.

Applies in every part of life. Applies in everything. Some of the ways I've been doing it, journaling is useful. Speaking to yourself. I get the benefit of creating a podcast. But you can do the same thing for yourself. Pull out your phone. Dictate for yourself a voice memo. And as we go today, my challenge to you is to do exactly that.

Just think about what you want. 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. The major benefit, if you don't know what you want, don't take any action. So the major benefit of a show like mine is to talk about what's available.

What are the options that are available? So this book on working, I'll review it soon, I intend to review it soon. But this book on working is useful because it talks to me about what's available. It talks to me about the options that other people have chosen. I can also read Rob Report and see the options that those people have chosen.

I can compare those and see what do I want. So if we don't know what we want, we need to gather possibilities of what's available. And then that data will help us to decide. Thank you all so much for listening to today's show. I know it's short. Hopefully, it's focused and useful to you.

Just sharing a little bit of my personal experience and personal epiphany. But I hope that it will be useful to you. If this content has been useful to you, I would appreciate your supporting the show. I forgot to do the sponsor in the beginning. Just support the show on Patreon.

That's helpful. RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron. RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron. You can sign up to support the show there financially. And thank you to the couple hundred of you who do that. I appreciate each and every one of you. Until next time, keep thinking about what you want. Get clear on it. Live a rich life now.

And get clear on what financial freedom means to you so that we can build your plan. Hey, Cricket customers. Max with Ads is included with your Cricket $60 unlimited plan at no additional cost. Max is the streaming platform where you can watch Scoob, Meg 2 The Trench, The Nightmare on Elm Street Collection, and so much more.

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