Opening your Financial Closet with Zach Sheets

Coach April Ballestero: 00:00:00

Just making sure that, uh, well, there we go.

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We are recording to another episode of addressing the elephant in the

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room and we created this podcast for those of you who have been listening

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to us regularly, we thank you.

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Those of us that are just joining you and joining us, we are, uh, building

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this community, this platform to take on the difficult subjects to take

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on the subjects are showing up, but people are uncomfortable talking about.

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And we're getting deeper and deeper into these subjects.

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And everybody gets to choose the, our guests are wise and they get

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to choose our elephant of the day.

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And let me just give you a couple of introductions and a heads

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up of how our process works.

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We record, we upload, and then we have a private platform for all the extras

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that we'll be sharing in the future.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:00:48

So my name is coach . I am the owner and founder of one light ahead.

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I am a strategic leadership coach.

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I help people own their leadership.

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Determine how to defeat destructive mindsets and align their habits so

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that they're walking their talk a whole nother conversation there.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:01:07

Right.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:01:07

But ultimately to love what you do again.

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And we love to attract powerful leaders like my guests today, Mr.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:01:15

Zach sheets, he is a 10 year veteran with Edward Jones and

Coach April Ballestero: 00:01:20

gets to choose the elephant today.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:01:22

So Zach, what's your relevant?

Zach Sheets: 00:01:25

Well, as a financial advisor, we encounter several different elephants.

Zach Sheets: 00:01:29

If you will, uh, whether it's coming into the office itself, how much it

Zach Sheets: 00:01:34

costs, uh, am I able to get started?

Zach Sheets: 00:01:37

But one of the biggest is the, the fear of disclosing your whole

Zach Sheets: 00:01:41

financial history to someone who you may not even know until that day.

Zach Sheets: 00:01:47

You might not know anything about me.

Zach Sheets: 00:01:49

You've walked in the door and now you've got to tell me everything

Zach Sheets: 00:01:52

you've got hidden in your closet.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:01:54

And so it sounds to me like we are going to be discussing

Coach April Ballestero: 00:01:58

opening the door to your financial closet.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:02:00

Is that what I'm hearing you say?

Zach Sheets: 00:02:03

Yes.

Zach Sheets: 00:02:03

That's exactly it.

Zach Sheets: 00:02:04

Being able to tell someone in this case, your financial advisor, everything you've

Zach Sheets: 00:02:10

got going on and be honest about it,

Coach April Ballestero: 00:02:12

you know, there's so many different

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opportunities we could go here.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:02:15

So let's start, let's contemplate.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:02:18

First of all, you know, What have you discovered, and as you have been obviously

Coach April Ballestero: 00:02:23

10 years at nevermind your own personal journey, what, what's the resistance?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:02:28

How do you see the elephant show up in the room?

Zach Sheets: 00:02:31

Well, you know, at first it's just a reluctance

Zach Sheets: 00:02:33

to, um, tell anything about what you've got going on financially.

Zach Sheets: 00:02:38

Um, Maybe the person's finally made that decision to walk in

Zach Sheets: 00:02:42

the door, which was hard enough.

Zach Sheets: 00:02:44

A lot of people just, you know, knowing the step in is, is tough enough, but then

Zach Sheets: 00:02:49

to get that person to be able to say, you know, here's where I am, or maybe I've got

Zach Sheets: 00:02:55

all this debt that I really never wanted to tell anyone about, uh, or I made these

Zach Sheets: 00:02:59

bad decisions that I'm now stuck with.

Zach Sheets: 00:03:02

Those sorts of things, make it so hard for them to open up from the very start.

Zach Sheets: 00:03:06

So.

Zach Sheets: 00:03:07

Uh, part of the difficulty for me is initially just getting enough

Zach Sheets: 00:03:10

trust with them, that they'll start talking about what their situation is.

Zach Sheets: 00:03:15

And then hopefully as I'm working along with it with them, they realize that

Zach Sheets: 00:03:21

it's not a matter of being judged.

Zach Sheets: 00:03:23

It's not a confrontational sort of thing.

Zach Sheets: 00:03:26

It's just the fact that if I'm going to create an actual plan for them, then

Zach Sheets: 00:03:30

I have to know what the real story is.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:03:34

There's so many things you said there, because

Coach April Ballestero: 00:03:36

I mean, there's a conversation yeah.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:03:37

About when's the right time.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:03:39

When you know, what, how much does a financial advisor need to know?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:03:43

What is a financial closet?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:03:44

What, what, what is comprised and all that.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:03:47

And as you chose the career and you obviously have been in this

Coach April Ballestero: 00:03:51

arena for awhile, what for you personally, what's been the journey.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:03:55

And then what have you watched as you build the clientele to

Coach April Ballestero: 00:03:59

start having those conversations?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:04:01

And I've got a couple of other questions behind that.

Zach Sheets: 00:04:03

Sure.

Zach Sheets: 00:04:03

Well, the biggest thing about those conversations is establishing that

Zach Sheets: 00:04:06

trust that whatever they tell me is never going to go beyond us, then I'm

Zach Sheets: 00:04:12

not making any judgements about them.

Zach Sheets: 00:04:14

You know, quite often someone will, you know, right at the start.

Zach Sheets: 00:04:17

I feel bad that I don't know anything about investing or I've never been in

Zach Sheets: 00:04:20

here or I've never talked to anyone and I let them know that that's not uncommon.

Zach Sheets: 00:04:25

The majority of the American population.

Zach Sheets: 00:04:28

Schools don't teach, uh, there's no education on investments.

Zach Sheets: 00:04:31

There's no education on retirement and you know, maybe that's getting better now, but

Zach Sheets: 00:04:35

for the longest time there was nothing.

Zach Sheets: 00:04:37

So part of the whole thing is to make them comfortable enough to feel like,

Zach Sheets: 00:04:42

okay, I can actually say something without feeling like, Oh man, he's over there

Zach Sheets: 00:04:48

thinking that I am just the biggest loser.

Zach Sheets: 00:04:50

And because people get that feeling automatically when

Zach Sheets: 00:04:53

they have to admit that.

Zach Sheets: 00:04:55

Maybe they didn't do as good as they wanted to do, or maybe they made mistakes

Zach Sheets: 00:04:59

that they don't want to admit to.

Zach Sheets: 00:05:01

But you know, until that trust is there a lot of times people don't tell me

Zach Sheets: 00:05:06

everything and, and sometimes in all honesty, I can be honest and tell you

Zach Sheets: 00:05:10

I've got clients I've had for five, six years, but finally say, Oh yeah,

Zach Sheets: 00:05:13

I've got this other thing over here that I never told you about, you know?

Zach Sheets: 00:05:17

So it does happen.

Zach Sheets: 00:05:18

And sometimes it takes a while.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:05:21

Trex is a process.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:05:22

Right.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:05:22

And, uh, and what made you choose to go down this road to be a financial advisor?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:05:28

What about it, uh, is helps you give people permission to

Coach April Ballestero: 00:05:32

open their financial positive?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:05:33

What have you seen so important about the journey of

Zach Sheets: 00:05:36

that?

Zach Sheets: 00:05:37

Well, the biggest reason why I went this path is, you know, I had been in

Zach Sheets: 00:05:41

the corporate world, uh, I've done that side of things and really wanted to do

Zach Sheets: 00:05:45

something where I actually help people.

Zach Sheets: 00:05:48

And this was an opportunity to do something where my success is

Zach Sheets: 00:05:51

tied to the success of my clients.

Zach Sheets: 00:05:54

If I do a good job for them, they're going to tell their friends, they're

Zach Sheets: 00:05:57

going to tell their family and they're going to want to come to me.

Zach Sheets: 00:06:01

If by the other hand of that, if I do a horrible job, the opposite is true.

Zach Sheets: 00:06:04

So it's imperative on me to be as good as I can doing what I can for them.

Zach Sheets: 00:06:10

And.

Zach Sheets: 00:06:11

You know, the connection that I found once I started doing it, I, you

Zach Sheets: 00:06:14

know, it's fantastic to be invited to weddings, family things, uh, have your

Zach Sheets: 00:06:19

clients show up and bring you things.

Zach Sheets: 00:06:21

And by that same token, being there for them whenever they need you, you know,

Zach Sheets: 00:06:25

and even that means going to funerals and the like, but you know, there is like,

Zach Sheets: 00:06:30

you're almost family with most of them.

Zach Sheets: 00:06:32

Uh, you know, we have a lot of households, but I can tell you that between myself

Zach Sheets: 00:06:36

and my administrator, uh, we can tell you a whole list of things about

Zach Sheets: 00:06:40

every client we have and that personal connection, uh, also makes the trust

Zach Sheets: 00:06:46

that much easier, but it also makes the job that much more rewarding.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:06:50

There's so many things that what I also heard

Coach April Ballestero: 00:06:53

you say is that person is just not a number to, you know, is not a

Coach April Ballestero: 00:06:58

set of, uh, financial, uh, revenue.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:07:00

It is a person that truly you get to watch blossom from the education,

Coach April Ballestero: 00:07:05

from the opportunity, from the growth process and a journey that

Coach April Ballestero: 00:07:09

you've helped create with them.

Zach Sheets: 00:07:11

And absolutely, and one key point of that, that I would tell

Zach Sheets: 00:07:14

anyone, and I tell clients all the time that, you know, whether it's.

Zach Sheets: 00:07:19

20,000 for the person that they only have 20,000 or whether it's 7 million

Zach Sheets: 00:07:25

and they've got another 10 million, it makes no difference because it's

Zach Sheets: 00:07:29

equally important to that person.

Zach Sheets: 00:07:31

Uh, in fact, the 20,000 is more important to that person than the 7 million

Zach Sheets: 00:07:36

that this guy might have with me.

Zach Sheets: 00:07:38

And because of that, it never take any of it lightly.

Zach Sheets: 00:07:43

The smallest account is just as important as the biggest and never

Zach Sheets: 00:07:46

give anyone short shrift to the point.

Zach Sheets: 00:07:49

That they feel like they're not that important because you know,

Zach Sheets: 00:07:52

like I said, you know, for the people who have a smaller amount,

Zach Sheets: 00:07:56

quite often, that's all they have.

Zach Sheets: 00:07:58

So they, they can't afford you to take that lightly.

Zach Sheets: 00:08:01

That's so important to them.

Zach Sheets: 00:08:03

That might be the only thing that saves them from, you know,

Zach Sheets: 00:08:06

living on the street someday.

Coach April Ballestero:

: 00:08:08

There's so many pieces of that.

Coach April Ballestero:

: 00:08:09

And so to go back to that financial posit and, you know, the, as you talked

Coach April Ballestero:

: 00:08:14

about that ability that some of it only gets timely, you know, a little jar

Coach April Ballestero:

: 00:08:18

and there's sometimes open a pathway or the open it up a full, here you go.

Coach April Ballestero:

: 00:08:23

Right.

Coach April Ballestero:

: 00:08:24

Uh, what have you seen is the, uh, the most resistance, um, conversation and,

Coach April Ballestero:

: 00:08:31

uh, and, and, and how do you see it?

Coach April Ballestero:

: 00:08:35

Be observed.

Coach April Ballestero:

: 00:08:36

We've heard about that.

Zach Sheets: 00:08:38

Probably the two most common would be on the one side, not wanting to

Zach Sheets: 00:08:44

disclose all the other money they have, um, or other accounts they have or other

Zach Sheets: 00:08:49

retirement savings, or maybe they think I'm going to be offended because they've

Zach Sheets: 00:08:53

got a retirement account somewhere else.

Zach Sheets: 00:08:55

And they're working with someone else too.

Zach Sheets: 00:08:57

Um, a lot of times.

Zach Sheets: 00:08:59

That extra wealth is what's not told, uh, you know, I don't, I, you know,

Zach Sheets: 00:09:03

I hate to say this, but it's been so many times that someone and, you

Zach Sheets: 00:09:07

know, it gives me a net worth figure.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:09

That's probably less than half of what they actually have,

Zach Sheets: 00:09:12

or maybe even less than that.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:14

Uh, and then as we go along, you know, we find out about more and

Zach Sheets: 00:09:17

eventually find out the whole story.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:19

The other side of it is the person who just doesn't want to talk about.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:23

The mistakes they've made.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:25

Uh, you know, they won't be honest about the debt they have.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:28

Uh, maybe they've got IRS issues.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:30

Maybe they've got credit cards, maybe they've got other

Zach Sheets: 00:09:34

things and the bad part for me.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:36

And something like that is I can't really create a plan.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:39

That's the right plan for them, unless they tell me the truth.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:42

Uh, I.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:44

Fully believed that do the right thing for any client who walks in the store.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:47

And sometimes the right thing is to send them back out the door and tell

Zach Sheets: 00:09:51

them to pay off credit card debt.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:52

You know, we don't have investments that I can say are gonna all the time

Zach Sheets: 00:09:56

do 25%, quite frankly, not that often.

Zach Sheets: 00:09:59

So if they've got all this credit card debt, the best thing they can do for

Zach Sheets: 00:10:02

their financial future is pay it off.

Zach Sheets: 00:10:04

If they're not contributing to their 401k plan and their employers matching.

Zach Sheets: 00:10:09

They're turning away a hundred percent return on their investment.

Zach Sheets: 00:10:12

So again, you know, if that's all the money they have, then do that.

Zach Sheets: 00:10:16

So a lot of it is that, and then the ones who will, who will just right off

Zach Sheets: 00:10:20

the bat say, you know, I want to invest, but I can't, I don't have any money.

Zach Sheets: 00:10:25

And then it's a matter of getting them to open up and honestly, write out a

Zach Sheets: 00:10:29

budget and even journal their expenses to prove to me that is that the truth.

Zach Sheets: 00:10:34

And sometimes it is, but most of the time.

Zach Sheets: 00:10:38

You know, it's a matter of not opening up and saying, yeah, I admitted,

Zach Sheets: 00:10:41

I'm spending $15 a day on lunch.

Zach Sheets: 00:10:44

Cause we go out every day at work and maybe I've got a $10 a day Starbucks habit

Zach Sheets: 00:10:49

and you know, and all these different things that they didn't want to admit to.

Zach Sheets: 00:10:53

But once they're forced to, then it comes out.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:10:57

There's so many things you said there.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:10:59

And what came up for me right away is I taught high school for a year.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:04

For real estate.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:04

Cause I got my designated subject Prudential for real estate and I had

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:08

my students for three hours and I would walk them through playing games as well

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:12

as, um, uh, creating their own business, creating their own balance sheet, doing

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:16

all kinds of fun stuff, stuff like that.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:18

And it, some of the feedback I got from all of those high school

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:21

students is they didn't teach me this.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:23

They didn't teach me how to pay attention to these details, uh, the cashflow

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:28

game and, uh, what a balance sheet is.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:30

I mean, just there's so many pieces.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:32

Uh, what you just said, um, how much opportunity there is to be aware and to

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:37

be conscientious of, I love the awareness of, you know, I've got people that are

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:42

quite wealthy and they're, they don't want to dispose how well who they are.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:46

Right.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:47

And that's a whole nother conversation, uh, and that's a protective mode.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:50

Right.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:51

And then you've got people that are so concerned.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:53

Well, Gosh, can I even find, you know, $5 or $10 or a hundred dollars and does

Coach April Ballestero: 00:11:59

it belong on my credit card balance instead of a retirement account?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:02

If it's a hundred percent match, it absolutely belongs

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:05

to my retirement account.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:06

Right.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:06

And I love that's what the journey is.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:10

If you're willing to open up that financial closet and say,

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:13

this is what's really happening.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:15

But one of the things that I wanted to clarify on that is.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:20

A lot of times you said people, uh, you asked people to journal

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:24

what's really happening.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:25

And that is one of the most difficult things for anybody to do in any aspect,

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:29

not just financially is to journal and to assess and to review like one of

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:34

the things I love to assign as a time study, how do you spend your time?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:38

And that is a huge wall of resistance in my world.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:42

And yet it's, uh, I'm curious how much walls or resistance you get

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:46

with that journaling exercise?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:12:48

And what have you discovered to help people through that process?

Zach Sheets: 00:12:52

Well, seeing, you know, the journaling thing has been a huge

Zach Sheets: 00:12:56

success when it comes to the person who's told me that they can't invest, they

Zach Sheets: 00:13:01

don't have any money, they live paycheck to paycheck, all their money's gone.

Zach Sheets: 00:13:05

Uh, it's also something, you know, in my role as.

Zach Sheets: 00:13:08

Uh, chairman of our local habitat, we do that with our new partners

Zach Sheets: 00:13:12

to put them through that, just so they know what their real number is.

Zach Sheets: 00:13:16

But like I said, all too often, when you tell someone, Hey, you're going

Zach Sheets: 00:13:20

to have to write down everything you spend, and then you're going to have

Zach Sheets: 00:13:23

to explain it to me when we review it.

Zach Sheets: 00:13:25

And.

Zach Sheets: 00:13:27

It's amazing when they come back because they're like, and I was about to buy

Zach Sheets: 00:13:30

that, but then I thought, you know, I'm going to have to tell him about that.

Zach Sheets: 00:13:33

And I don't think I really want to tell him about that.

Zach Sheets: 00:13:36

And, uh, it's a great experience.

Zach Sheets: 00:13:39

Now there is resistance and some people are like, well, that's not going to help

Zach Sheets: 00:13:44

because they don't really want to do it.

Zach Sheets: 00:13:46

But what I found is most of the people who end up doing it, find that

Zach Sheets: 00:13:50

there is a whole lot of money that they're throwing out the door either.

Zach Sheets: 00:13:53

They don't spend it because they had the right it down.

Zach Sheets: 00:13:56

Or after they look at it later, they're just like, Oh, what

Zach Sheets: 00:13:58

in the world was I thinking?

Zach Sheets: 00:14:00

And it's such a huge benefit to them.

Zach Sheets: 00:14:04

I mean, it's great to me because I can show them that, you know, no,

Zach Sheets: 00:14:08

there was actually money there that you can invest if you want, but

Zach Sheets: 00:14:11

more so the importance is for them.

Zach Sheets: 00:14:13

And the fact that now they actually have some idea of what

Zach Sheets: 00:14:16

they're doing and they realize how impulsive some of the wives are.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:14:21

Impulsive is such a powerful word word

Coach April Ballestero: 00:14:24

in so many different aspects.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:14:25

Right.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:14:26

And yet, uh, there's also, I mean, for the, on the other side of the equation

Coach April Ballestero: 00:14:30

of the wealthy individuals, uh, they can also be very protective and guarded

Coach April Ballestero: 00:14:35

and, uh, very conscientious, almost too conscientious at times, right?

Zach Sheets: 00:14:40

Oh yeah.

Zach Sheets: 00:14:42

It runs the gamut.

Zach Sheets: 00:14:43

Whether someone has money or not.

Zach Sheets: 00:14:45

I mean, I can talk to you about, you know, a client with $3 million who.

Zach Sheets: 00:14:50

Just won't spend anything unless they have to.

Zach Sheets: 00:14:52

And, and when we talk on a regular basis, am I going to run out of money?

Zach Sheets: 00:14:57

And the reality is that I don't think there's, you know, Ben, but

Zach Sheets: 00:15:01

a couple months in the last few years that the account balance

Zach Sheets: 00:15:04

went down, it goes up every month.

Zach Sheets: 00:15:06

Uh, so, you know, there's a fear that's attached to money and

Zach Sheets: 00:15:10

it's always going to be there.

Zach Sheets: 00:15:12

Uh, you know, and I, and that's, I guess that's natural, but that's also

Zach Sheets: 00:15:17

why you come to a financial advisor.

Zach Sheets: 00:15:18

So you have a second set of eyes.

Zach Sheets: 00:15:20

Someone will watch over things for you.

Zach Sheets: 00:15:22

You know, I, I get the people who want to do it on their own.

Zach Sheets: 00:15:25

And then, and I tell people all the time, if you want to do it on your own,

Zach Sheets: 00:15:28

we'll make sure you're looking at it.

Zach Sheets: 00:15:30

But most people get so busy in their day to day that they don't look.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:15:34

There's so much truth that how often

Coach April Ballestero: 00:15:36

would you recommend looking at it?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:15:37

And then I really want to dig into the final part of that closet that you brought

Coach April Ballestero: 00:15:42

up and, uh, before we start wrapping up.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:15:45

So, uh, how often, if they are, I mean, besides taking the time to write it

Coach April Ballestero: 00:15:49

down, Ruby, your bank statements review all that madness on a regular basis.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:15:54

Uh, what would you recommend if they just to get,

Zach Sheets: 00:15:58

well, you know, if you're not going to come to a financial advisor, Then

Zach Sheets: 00:16:03

you probably need to find a way to review your stuff at least every three months to

Zach Sheets: 00:16:07

make sure, make sure nothing's happened.

Zach Sheets: 00:16:10

Make sure that the world hasn't changed and you've been so busy.

Zach Sheets: 00:16:13

Um, if you come to one of us and certainly, you know, I'm

Zach Sheets: 00:16:17

not everyone's cup of tea.

Zach Sheets: 00:16:19

So find that financial advisor who you connect with, but when

Zach Sheets: 00:16:23

you get in that door, you know, establish how often you want to meet.

Zach Sheets: 00:16:26

I know that every financial advisor is going to want to talk to you at least.

Zach Sheets: 00:16:30

Once a year and more often, especially depending on what you're investing in.

Zach Sheets: 00:16:35

If you have a lot of stocks and individual things like that, you need to look more

Zach Sheets: 00:16:39

often because changes can happen quick.

Zach Sheets: 00:16:42

If you're more like the 401k investor in mutual funds, you need to look at it, but

Zach Sheets: 00:16:48

you're probably not going to make changes nearly as often, but you should rebalance

Zach Sheets: 00:16:52

things and make sure you're still on that track that you set yourself on.

Zach Sheets: 00:16:57

And it doesn't hurt to look.

Zach Sheets: 00:16:58

I mean, You know, set yourself a reminder, pull up the website, look and see, uh,

Zach Sheets: 00:17:05

make sure nothing weird has happened.

Zach Sheets: 00:17:06

You know, a lot of people don't even check their checking accounts and

Zach Sheets: 00:17:10

you know, or credit cards and they could have all kinds of charges and

Zach Sheets: 00:17:14

it might be months before they notice.

Zach Sheets: 00:17:16

So it doesn't hurt to take a couple minutes to look, uh, you know, set

Zach Sheets: 00:17:20

yourself some time while you're at home watching TV log on the computer

Zach Sheets: 00:17:23

and look, you know, uh, what, you know, It's going to be a lot better

Zach Sheets: 00:17:28

than what you don't know, what

Coach April Ballestero: 00:17:30

we measure has ability to add improvement.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:17:33

Right?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:17:34

The more often we measure, the more often we can improve.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:17:37

And

Zach Sheets: 00:17:38

within reason as we tell stock investors, too, if you check

Zach Sheets: 00:17:43

the price on a daily basis, you'll drive yourself crazy because the

Zach Sheets: 00:17:46

market goes up and down all the time.

Zach Sheets: 00:17:48

Now, uh, you're looking for.

Zach Sheets: 00:17:51

Something that is a sign of a bigger move or something that's wrong

Zach Sheets: 00:17:55

with the company or great about the company, not that day to day bouncing

Coach April Ballestero: 00:17:59

and, and there's so many pieces there.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:18:01

So the final part of that elephant of the financial closet, you

Coach April Ballestero: 00:18:04

said the fear behind the money.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:18:08

What have you discovered?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:18:10

How does it come up in conversation?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:18:12

How do you help overcome the resistance?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:18:14

Is there anything that you wanted to address in that particular elephant?

Zach Sheets: 00:18:19

Honestly the truth.

Zach Sheets: 00:18:20

There is, uh, the only way you get past a lot of that fear is knowledge.

Zach Sheets: 00:18:24

Um, as with many of the clients who walk in one of the first things

Zach Sheets: 00:18:28

they're going to say to me is that I know nothing about this.

Zach Sheets: 00:18:31

I don't have one little tiny bit of knowledge, or they'll say, you just do

Zach Sheets: 00:18:37

what you want to do because I trust you.

Zach Sheets: 00:18:39

And of course, I'm still going to explain everything to them and get their approval.

Zach Sheets: 00:18:42

But.

Zach Sheets: 00:18:43

There's so much of that lack of knowledge, which makes fear even worse.

Zach Sheets: 00:18:48

And, you know, you kind of have a couple of different tax.

Zach Sheets: 00:18:51

You have the ones who worry so much about it, that they make themselves miserable.

Zach Sheets: 00:18:56

Uh, they're worried if they're going to have money for their retirement,

Zach Sheets: 00:18:59

they're worried that they're going to be able to do the things they

Zach Sheets: 00:19:00

want to do, worried if they can help with their kids' college education.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:05

Uh, All those worries that come day to day.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:08

And that's probably more so now after what we've seen this last year with,

Zach Sheets: 00:19:11

with COVID and the impacts, how quickly people lost jobs that they thought

Zach Sheets: 00:19:15

were safe, uh, how people lost family members, who weren't sick at all.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:21

Uh, all of that just adds to that fear.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:25

Uh, and that's the fear of the unknown.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:26

You don't know what's coming.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:28

The other side of this group.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:30

Often takes the tack that well, you know, I'll just kind of bury it under

Zach Sheets: 00:19:33

the mattress and forget about it.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:34

Don't want to talk about it.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:36

And you know, their method of dealing with it is avoided.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:40

Now the problem with avoidance is of course, if you're not doing

Zach Sheets: 00:19:42

anything to make it better, it ain't going to get better on itself.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:46

Um, you could hope, uh, but it's not gonna really fix itself.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:50

And if you don't have a plan, well, we all know planning or failure

Zach Sheets: 00:19:55

to plan is planning to fail.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:57

And that's the truth of a retirement plan.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:58

Yeah.

Zach Sheets: 00:19:59

If you're not doing anything, then you're going to be living on social security

Zach Sheets: 00:20:02

and that's all you're going to have.

Zach Sheets: 00:20:04

And, you know, while I'm not going to be that fearmonger and tell anyone

Zach Sheets: 00:20:09

that I think social security is going away, the amount that they pay is not

Zach Sheets: 00:20:13

a great life to live on in retirement.

Zach Sheets: 00:20:15

And, you know, you've got to make sure that you take a proactive

Zach Sheets: 00:20:19

approach to what you want to do in order to be successful in that.

Zach Sheets: 00:20:23

And if you choose that method of, you know, I just don't want to talk about it.

Zach Sheets: 00:20:27

I don't want to deal with it.

Zach Sheets: 00:20:29

Well, yeah, you're going to get what you get and it's not great, you know, and

Zach Sheets: 00:20:35

I kind of like, you know, we run into the same with even, even conversations

Zach Sheets: 00:20:39

about estate planning and the like, some people don't want to talk about death.

Zach Sheets: 00:20:44

They're afraid if they talk about it, it's going to bring it on so

Zach Sheets: 00:20:47

they don't want to talk about it.

Zach Sheets: 00:20:48

But then when something happens, there was no plan and things

Zach Sheets: 00:20:52

are so much harder for everyone.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:20:55

There's so many discussions there.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:20:56

We could just address a few elephants if you were to wrap up Zach.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:21:01

And how would you say what's the first step besides obviously reviewing if

Coach April Ballestero: 00:21:07

they were to consider having support, how would they decide what would be the

Coach April Ballestero: 00:21:11

step they could do today to move forward on addressing their financial closet?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:21:15

Maybe even if it's just opening the door, uh, yet share with us.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:21:20

Uh,

Zach Sheets: 00:21:20

well, simplest and honest is take an honest approach and look

Zach Sheets: 00:21:25

at what you have and make your own assessment of what you're doing.

Zach Sheets: 00:21:30

If you think that that's getting you to where you're going to want to be.

Zach Sheets: 00:21:33

Uh, the other thing, and I honestly believe this, pick up the phone, find a

Zach Sheets: 00:21:37

financial advisor, go in and talk to them.

Zach Sheets: 00:21:39

Even if you decide not to work with them.

Zach Sheets: 00:21:42

At least get that Frank discussion about where you are.

Zach Sheets: 00:21:45

Uh, it doesn't take very long to pull up a picture for us to create

Zach Sheets: 00:21:49

something for you to say, yeah, it looks like you're on the right track.

Zach Sheets: 00:21:53

And it doesn't mean that you're going to sign up with them.

Zach Sheets: 00:21:55

It doesn't mean you're committing to anything, but having that conversation

Zach Sheets: 00:21:59

with someone else to look at what you have gives you that second set of eyes,

Zach Sheets: 00:22:03

it also gives you an honest opinion.

Zach Sheets: 00:22:05

That's unbiased.

Zach Sheets: 00:22:06

Sometimes it's hard for us as individuals to look at our own finances.

Zach Sheets: 00:22:11

And say, what in the world are you doing?

Zach Sheets: 00:22:14

Um, you know, you may be doing a great job, but you may be making

Zach Sheets: 00:22:18

some terrible decisions and you won't call yourself on it.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:22:22

There's so many pieces there and I love the word

Coach April Ballestero: 00:22:25

you used bias because we do have a lot more biases than we recognize.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:22:30

And until we give somebody else permission to see and observe and challenge some of

Coach April Ballestero: 00:22:36

those perceptions, some of those belief systems to verify they're accurate or

Coach April Ballestero: 00:22:40

what the longterm results look like and what other options are available.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:22:45

Because sometimes we get very narrow.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:22:47

Focused and we miss some major opportunities.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:22:51

Right.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:22:51

And we don't know about them again, lack of knowledge.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:22:54

Yeah.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:22:54

Every

Zach Sheets: 00:22:55

individual's different.

Zach Sheets: 00:22:56

Uh, you can have the person who comes in here, who's much harder

Zach Sheets: 00:23:00

on themselves than I would ever be.

Zach Sheets: 00:23:03

The reality is that they're doing a great job, but they think that they're not.

Zach Sheets: 00:23:07

And then we have the other person who, you know, is chosen the, I guess you

Zach Sheets: 00:23:11

want to say the turtle method and they're just hiding from it all and pretending

Zach Sheets: 00:23:15

like the Shell's going to protect them.

Zach Sheets: 00:23:17

And you know, that person might come in here.

Zach Sheets: 00:23:20

And at age 55 and tell me they want to retire in seven years

Zach Sheets: 00:23:24

and they haven't done anything.

Zach Sheets: 00:23:26

And you know, that's no fun for me.

Zach Sheets: 00:23:28

I don't want to ever burst someone's dream, but you know, it's like,

Zach Sheets: 00:23:32

well, the reality is if this is what you want to achieve in seven

Zach Sheets: 00:23:36

years, it's I can't do that for you.

Zach Sheets: 00:23:38

It's not possible.

Zach Sheets: 00:23:40

And that's no fun to tell anyone.

Zach Sheets: 00:23:43

It's no fun to tell someone that the retirement of their dreams

Zach Sheets: 00:23:45

probably isn't going to happen.

Zach Sheets: 00:23:47

By that same token.

Zach Sheets: 00:23:48

I wish I could get to everyone and tell them that, you know, if they start

Zach Sheets: 00:23:52

early, it's the easiest thing in the world that doesn't take much because

Zach Sheets: 00:23:55

time is the ultimate multiplier.

Zach Sheets: 00:23:58

So if someone walks in here at 25 and starts even putting the way a

Zach Sheets: 00:24:02

little chances are, they're going to be in great shape by retirement.

Zach Sheets: 00:24:06

But if they walk in here at 55 and they haven't done anything, it it's hard.

Zach Sheets: 00:24:10

It's really hard.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:24:12

Well, and there's so many pieces of awareness.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:24:14

It doesn't mean that it's not possible.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:24:16

It just means that it may take longer and maybe more aggressive.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:24:19

There's all kinds of pieces of that.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:24:21

So, uh, the exciting thing about that is what I also heard you say is

Coach April Ballestero: 00:24:25

I'm going to be straight out and say that based on what we have, this may

Coach April Ballestero: 00:24:29

not be possible at this timeframe.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:24:31

It doesn't mean that there aren't other options.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:24:32

It means that this is, we need to be realistic as well as conscientious.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:24:38

And that's what I hear throughout our whole conversation today

Coach April Ballestero: 00:24:41

is the willingness to say it's okay to open the closet.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:24:45

It's okay to find somebody that you trust to share that closet with, because

Coach April Ballestero: 00:24:49

keeping it shut is not helping you.

Zach Sheets: 00:24:52

Exactly.

Zach Sheets: 00:24:53

You know, and, and not to put any light on it, but there was a great cartoon

Zach Sheets: 00:24:57

that I once saw, uh, the financial advisers in front of this older, married

Zach Sheets: 00:25:01

couple, and he's going well, you know, it's about time that we face the facts.

Zach Sheets: 00:25:06

The only way we're going to achieve that retirement that you're hoping

Zach Sheets: 00:25:08

for since you're starting now.

Zach Sheets: 00:25:10

Is which one of you is going to be the DRI driver and which one of you is

Zach Sheets: 00:25:13

going to go into the bank with the gun?

Zach Sheets: 00:25:14

Oh, wow.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:25:16

Of course that's the comedy side of it.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:25:19

Right.

Zach Sheets: 00:25:21

But sometimes it is the question and it's just no fun to tell

Zach Sheets: 00:25:24

someone, uh, that you know, that that dream you had is not probably going to

Zach Sheets: 00:25:30

happen unless you want to postpone it.

Zach Sheets: 00:25:32

For quite a while and you're right.

Zach Sheets: 00:25:34

You can always, you know, wait longer.

Zach Sheets: 00:25:36

Maybe you're maybe you thought 62 was that year, but in reality you

Zach Sheets: 00:25:41

might have to wait until 70 now.

Zach Sheets: 00:25:43

Uh, and if that's the case, then it's better.

Zach Sheets: 00:25:46

They hear it from me then, you know, go ahead and retire at 62 and they run

Zach Sheets: 00:25:50

out a movie, I run out of their money by 68 and then what are they gonna do?

Zach Sheets: 00:25:54

Um, you know, and not everyone has any backup plan, you know,

Zach Sheets: 00:25:58

they may not have family.

Zach Sheets: 00:25:59

They may not have kids.

Zach Sheets: 00:26:00

They may not have any of that.

Zach Sheets: 00:26:02

So if the money is gone, then there's no one to help them anymore.

Zach Sheets: 00:26:06

And you certainly don't want, just because you don't want to give someone

Zach Sheets: 00:26:10

bad news, give them the wrong news.

Zach Sheets: 00:26:14

It's no fun to tell someone you can't tell them that I much prefer the guy

Zach Sheets: 00:26:17

who comes in and says, I want to, I want to see if I can retire at 60 and you

Zach Sheets: 00:26:21

run the numbers and you certainly can.

Zach Sheets: 00:26:28

That's much more fun than giving anyone bad news.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:26:31

Oh, there are many of those that are retired much younger

Coach April Ballestero: 00:26:34

and still run multiple revenue streams.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:26:36

Right?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:26:38

So there's all kinds of opportunity.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:26:40

That's just the willingness to be open and transparent and vulnerable with

Coach April Ballestero: 00:26:44

somebody you trust to be allowing that financial closet to have cleaning space.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:26:51

If you will.

Zach Sheets: 00:26:53

Even from what you just said, uh, opening it to yourself to

Zach Sheets: 00:26:57

some people blocked it up and they don't want to mention it to themselves either.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:27:02

So powerful is that, and thank you for the time

Coach April Ballestero: 00:27:05

today to go over the, this amazing elephant in the room, that's real

Coach April Ballestero: 00:27:10

and tangible and opportunity.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:27:12

Everybody needs to address.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:27:13

And Zach, how do people get ahold of you?

Coach April Ballestero: 00:27:16

If they do decide they want to consider a financial advisor.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:27:20

Sure.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:27:20

I'm happy to talk to anybody.

Zach Sheets: 00:27:23

Uh, happy to talk to anybody that can answer questions.

Zach Sheets: 00:27:25

Um, my office phone is (423) 566-4010.

Zach Sheets: 00:27:33

Or you can reach me by email at Zach dot sheets, Z a C H

Zach Sheets: 00:27:36

dot S H E T s@edwardjones.com.

Zach Sheets: 00:27:41

And I'd be happy to at least give you some answers to preliminary questions.

Zach Sheets: 00:27:44

And then, you know, we can see if a meeting's in place or something.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:27:49

And I absolutely love the willingness to answer questions

Coach April Ballestero: 00:27:53

tends to be a resource, to be a vessel.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:27:55

That is absolutely what we do as well.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:27:57

You can go to one letter, head.com.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:27:59

You can reach out to coach april@oneletterhead.com.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:28:01

Those are usually the best ways to reach me and we can, or you can schedule a call

Coach April Ballestero: 00:28:05

right on our website at head.com as well.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:28:08

Thank you everyone.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:28:09

Joining us, we always are appreciate that people are willing to,

Coach April Ballestero: 00:28:12

to take on the tough subjects.

Coach April Ballestero: 00:28:14

Have an amazing day, everyone.