WEBVTT 1 00:00:22.830 --> 00:00:26.310 Countless times I run into people and they tell me about their investing and 2 00:00:26.310 --> 00:00:28.680 they tell me what they're investing in and this and that, 3 00:00:28.680 --> 00:00:30.810 and they got this great plan and I think it's wonderful. 4 00:00:31.200 --> 00:00:35.430 And one of the things that always kind of comes back to mind is things that have 5 00:00:35.430 --> 00:00:38.460 actually tricked people to look at what they want to hear, 6 00:00:38.520 --> 00:00:42.600 not what they should actually hear. When you go back to the basics of investing, 7 00:00:42.780 --> 00:00:45.810 there's so many different things. For example, commercials, 8 00:00:45.930 --> 00:00:47.100 how much your number, 9 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:50.520 how much should you have people thinking about how much should they invest to, 10 00:00:50.610 --> 00:00:54.780 and they work with people about how much to save into their investments and 11 00:00:54.810 --> 00:00:58.950 they're missing the most important thing, which is what do I really need? 12 00:00:59.100 --> 00:01:01.800 What do I really need? What do I need to spend? What do I do? 13 00:01:01.800 --> 00:01:05.460 How do I do that? And there's a reason to this and I like to explain that to 14 00:01:05.460 --> 00:01:08.490 people and show you what we here at Siracusano Sleezer Group, 15 00:01:08.790 --> 00:01:11.790 do to a) differentiate our services for our clients, 16 00:01:12.300 --> 00:01:17.280 and b) help you get to a goal and a strategy and a plan that makes sense 17 00:01:17.460 --> 00:01:20.250 and stays with your family. So let's think about this a little bit. 18 00:01:21.180 --> 00:01:23.520 If you go back about 25 years, 19 00:01:24.570 --> 00:01:27.840 the American public started taking their income 20 00:01:29.700 --> 00:01:33.120 and we created something magnificent. It was called direct deposit. 21 00:01:33.450 --> 00:01:38.160 And this direct deposit would actually go directly into your checking 22 00:01:38.160 --> 00:01:41.940 account. It was a great tool. 23 00:01:42.120 --> 00:01:43.830 No longer do you have to wait for your check to clear, 24 00:01:43.830 --> 00:01:46.890 it automatically hit there. It was phenomenal. Now, 25 00:01:46.890 --> 00:01:51.240 what people didn't realize is this usually went into an account that allowed you 26 00:01:51.240 --> 00:01:52.320 to spend from it. 27 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:56.640 So all of a sudden your income would go in there and you'd start to spend, 28 00:01:58.950 --> 00:02:02.610 many people would then meet with people like myself or even do it on their own 29 00:02:02.610 --> 00:02:04.800 and come up with a strategy on what to save. 30 00:02:05.100 --> 00:02:07.950 And all of a sudden they would then set up a savings account 31 00:02:09.780 --> 00:02:13.560 maybe through their employer or on their own or whatever they were doing, 32 00:02:14.190 --> 00:02:16.560 and they would start to save every single month. 33 00:02:17.610 --> 00:02:21.330 But what's fascinating to me is this number 34 00:02:23.490 --> 00:02:26.820 became a fixed variable. Interesting. 35 00:02:27.270 --> 00:02:30.210 People would set up their money where all of a sudden money would go right into 36 00:02:30.210 --> 00:02:33.540 their savings account on a regular basis and they'd feel like everything is 37 00:02:33.540 --> 00:02:37.860 done. One of the examples I often use is I'm old enough to remember how you 38 00:02:37.860 --> 00:02:41.580 would drive with maps. And all of a sudden you get off the highway one time, 39 00:02:41.580 --> 00:02:44.700 you get back on the highway and you figure out what's going on and you realize 40 00:02:44.700 --> 00:02:47.220 you're off the map and you got to turn all the way around, 41 00:02:47.790 --> 00:02:50.460 and maybe it was only 10 or 15 miles, which is no big deal. 42 00:02:50.460 --> 00:02:54.150 But if you're doing this for 10 or 15 years, 43 00:02:54.810 --> 00:02:59.290 you basically designed a strategy based on your income from 10 or 15 years 44 00:02:59.290 --> 00:03:01.930 ago and not where it is today, and you've been tricked. 45 00:03:02.590 --> 00:03:05.560 You're also in a position where in order to save money, 46 00:03:06.130 --> 00:03:10.120 it's a personal decision. And when dealing with your own money, 47 00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:12.610 it can be hard to completely remove emotion. 48 00:03:12.850 --> 00:03:14.920 That's where this strategy may fail people, 49 00:03:14.920 --> 00:03:18.610 and I believe this is a roadblock to meeting one's financial goals. 50 00:03:19.390 --> 00:03:23.050 So let's keep this in mind about what a lot of people are doing these days and 51 00:03:23.050 --> 00:03:24.100 as we move forward, 52 00:03:24.100 --> 00:03:27.190 we're going to talk to you about what we do to help clients not have to worry 53 00:03:27.190 --> 00:03:31.720 about this instead of taking your income and having it go directly to your 54 00:03:31.720 --> 00:03:35.740 spending account. Because remember in this scenario, 55 00:03:36.010 --> 00:03:37.450 if your income goes up, 56 00:03:37.690 --> 00:03:41.140 spending may go up and your savings has stayed the same. 57 00:03:41.590 --> 00:03:44.740 What we teach people to do is to take all of your income 58 00:03:46.720 --> 00:03:47.553 and save it. 59 00:03:50.470 --> 00:03:54.760 Now your income becomes a portion of your 60 00:03:54.760 --> 00:03:58.180 long-term wealth management plan. If you get a better job, 61 00:03:58.180 --> 00:04:00.160 it doesn't mean you should spend more right away. 62 00:04:00.760 --> 00:04:03.940 It means it should help your family. That's what it was all for. 63 00:04:04.870 --> 00:04:08.500 We then take a look at how much does your lifestyle cost. 64 00:04:09.790 --> 00:04:12.670 So when you are looking at your spending account out, 65 00:04:13.930 --> 00:04:18.160 if we together are dictating what you want to spend, 66 00:04:18.820 --> 00:04:23.260 now you are in control of your investment plan. This is fascinating, 67 00:04:23.260 --> 00:04:25.240 this little tiny, simple move. 68 00:04:25.390 --> 00:04:28.990 I always like to use the example of the beginning of the Wizard of Oz when 69 00:04:28.990 --> 00:04:31.780 Dorothy is getting on the yellow brick road and it makes that nice little 70 00:04:31.780 --> 00:04:34.330 circle, envision that in your mind. 71 00:04:35.530 --> 00:04:40.090 What people don't realize is surrounded by that yellow brick road is a red brick 72 00:04:40.090 --> 00:04:43.840 road. Now the book tells us it goes in an entirely different direction, 73 00:04:43.840 --> 00:04:46.150 but if you imagine if she got on the wrong road, 74 00:04:46.690 --> 00:04:51.610 to me that's this. So many Americans these days are 75 00:04:51.610 --> 00:04:56.170 taking their income, putting in their checking account, spending what they make, 76 00:04:56.170 --> 00:04:59.710 and if you have a job change, a life change or anything occurs, 77 00:05:01.390 --> 00:05:04.780 you don't know how to spend, the anxiety level may increase substantially. 78 00:05:04.780 --> 00:05:07.720 Potentially making short-term investment decisions challenging. 79 00:05:08.860 --> 00:05:11.560 If you're in a position where you have extra money and you want to save it, 80 00:05:11.560 --> 00:05:16.480 it has to be a conscious decision to do it. Nobody does that. And let's face it, 81 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:19.270 if the economy is bad, you're not going to want to save as much. 82 00:05:19.270 --> 00:05:21.250 And if the economy is good, you want to save more, 83 00:05:21.640 --> 00:05:25.420 which is the opposite of what you want to do. In our scenario. 84 00:05:26.380 --> 00:05:30.850 If your income increases, your savings increases, 85 00:05:32.860 --> 00:05:37.690 and your ability to achieve your financial security has just gotten 86 00:05:37.690 --> 00:05:40.630 sooner, not later. In this scenario, 87 00:05:40.810 --> 00:05:43.690 we don't know when it's going to be. I see people all the time, 88 00:05:44.020 --> 00:05:47.740 I want to retire. Oh, I've got all this money. That's good to know, 89 00:05:47.740 --> 00:05:48.820 but what do you spend? 90 00:05:49.420 --> 00:05:53.140 What we do for our clients here at Siracusano Sleezer Group Wealth Management is 91 00:05:53.410 --> 00:05:55.540 we help you figure this number out, 92 00:05:56.320 --> 00:05:58.730 not with an ugly four letter word like budget, 93 00:05:59.060 --> 00:06:02.990 but with a way that we can regulate your spending. And over time as we really, 94 00:06:02.990 --> 00:06:04.670 really, really understand this, 95 00:06:05.510 --> 00:06:08.150 now we know exactly what it's going to take for you to retire. 96 00:06:08.930 --> 00:06:12.110 Retirement is really simple. If you know what you need to spend, 97 00:06:12.500 --> 00:06:14.990 it's not simple. If you're entire career, 98 00:06:14.990 --> 00:06:19.250 your spending has changed with your income. Now the question becomes, 99 00:06:19.250 --> 00:06:24.170 what do we do with this? If you've got all my money and I'm not doing this now, 100 00:06:24.170 --> 00:06:29.090 the very first thing that I look at is if your income represents Y and 101 00:06:29.090 --> 00:06:33.680 your spending represents X lesson number one, Y, 102 00:06:33.890 --> 00:06:36.470 better be greater than X. Obviously, 103 00:06:37.190 --> 00:06:39.710 spend less than what you make makes perfect sense, 104 00:06:40.130 --> 00:06:42.440 which means now we have extra money to start saving. 105 00:06:43.160 --> 00:06:47.720 We've created a strategy and I want you to envision in your mind kind of like a 106 00:06:47.720 --> 00:06:50.750 stack of champagne glasses, how you fill up the top one, the next one, 107 00:06:50.750 --> 00:06:52.820 the next one, the next one, how they all kind of flow through. 108 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:56.780 And if you can imagine in your mind that these are buckets that can potentially 109 00:06:56.780 --> 00:07:00.200 preserve your money and allow you to have layers of money. Well, 110 00:07:00.980 --> 00:07:03.980 traditionally, going back to our parents and our grandparents, 111 00:07:03.980 --> 00:07:05.960 people had a checking account and a savings account. 112 00:07:06.980 --> 00:07:11.720 If we have a layer of cash that 113 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:13.490 meets your family's needs, 114 00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:17.900 one idea is to look into cash alternatives and other short-term investments that 115 00:07:17.900 --> 00:07:21.890 offer interest on your money with potentially little to no downside risk. 116 00:07:22.700 --> 00:07:26.390 So if once you've decided how much you need to spend every month, 117 00:07:27.200 --> 00:07:31.610 you have a little bit of money here, enough to cover probably a month, 118 00:07:32.300 --> 00:07:34.700 you have the money going in there every single month, 119 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:38.780 and then you have a little bit of money here, probably enough to cover one, two, 120 00:07:38.810 --> 00:07:42.680 maybe three months depending on your risk tolerance. But really now we're done. 121 00:07:43.340 --> 00:07:47.390 We have enough in short-term needs making the least amount of money. 122 00:07:47.480 --> 00:07:51.620 That's what a checking account does. So once that bucket is full, 123 00:07:52.910 --> 00:07:57.140 we go to the next one. Your next bucket is an emergency money. 124 00:08:00.170 --> 00:08:04.910 Now every family is different. You may have different emergency needs, 125 00:08:04.910 --> 00:08:05.990 you may have healthcare needs, 126 00:08:05.990 --> 00:08:08.810 you may have multiple properties or homes or businesses or whatever. 127 00:08:09.200 --> 00:08:13.850 We help you to work on satisfying that concern of what your emergency needs 128 00:08:13.850 --> 00:08:16.520 could be. We set that up, 129 00:08:16.700 --> 00:08:21.560 fill up that bucket so it's there just in case. Now we go to the next one. 130 00:08:23.990 --> 00:08:26.720 I like to call this, what if, 131 00:08:29.150 --> 00:08:31.520 what are you saving for? Do you want a second home? 132 00:08:32.090 --> 00:08:33.800 Do you have a child that's getting married? 133 00:08:34.100 --> 00:08:35.990 Do you have that 50th wedding anniversary? 134 00:08:35.990 --> 00:08:37.940 Do you have retirement or that boat you want to buy? 135 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:41.180 Some people are saving for things. In my opinion, 136 00:08:41.330 --> 00:08:44.600 one of the most devastating things that can happen to families is they save for 137 00:08:44.600 --> 00:08:48.350 something for a long time and then all of a sudden the stock market was down and 138 00:08:48.350 --> 00:08:50.570 they can't buy what they were saving for. Well, 139 00:08:50.570 --> 00:08:53.840 all they really did was they had the money. It was just in the wrong place. 140 00:08:54.230 --> 00:08:58.710 We help people the difference. So once these things are taken care of, 141 00:08:59.220 --> 00:09:03.300 all of a sudden we've taken care of your short-term needs. 142 00:09:03.990 --> 00:09:04.823 Because let's face it, 143 00:09:05.190 --> 00:09:08.850 no money should be invested long-term that you may or may not need short-term 144 00:09:10.560 --> 00:09:14.490 and you're investing. Maybe a lot of things might be college planning, 145 00:09:14.580 --> 00:09:17.880 might be retirement planning, might be just saving just to save, 146 00:09:17.880 --> 00:09:19.260 might be investing. It doesn't matter. 147 00:09:19.290 --> 00:09:23.610 But the beauty of this model is when your income goes up 148 00:09:24.150 --> 00:09:27.180 or down, we know what you need to live off of. 149 00:09:27.900 --> 00:09:29.460 As long as you have extra money, 150 00:09:29.460 --> 00:09:33.810 it flows through and we have an investment strategy that 151 00:09:33.810 --> 00:09:38.550 now it knows what it needs to accomplish. Very simple. 152 00:09:39.180 --> 00:09:42.510 It needs to replace this. So eventually, 153 00:09:42.690 --> 00:09:46.740 now you're full circle if you do retire or anything like that where it produces 154 00:09:46.740 --> 00:09:51.570 income. But we have a clear direction the way 155 00:09:51.570 --> 00:09:52.920 most Americans do. 156 00:09:53.250 --> 00:09:57.390 Their planning is to just save as much as possible with no real knowledge as to 157 00:09:57.390 --> 00:09:59.130 why. Well, 158 00:09:59.580 --> 00:10:03.240 this is the why they're spending here at Siracusano Sleezer Group, 159 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:07.950 one of the fundamental core practices we do with most of our clients is help 160 00:10:07.950 --> 00:10:10.290 them understand what they're spending. This is the very, 161 00:10:10.410 --> 00:10:13.530 very first thing that comes to everything, I'm sorry, 162 00:10:13.590 --> 00:10:14.700 comes to all into your planning. 163 00:10:15.570 --> 00:10:19.260 The number one thing that this does for most situations also 164 00:10:20.310 --> 00:10:24.750 is no matter what the economy is doing, whether it's good, 165 00:10:24.750 --> 00:10:29.490 whether it's bad, if you call me up one day and say, Hey, 166 00:10:29.490 --> 00:10:31.560 I'm buying a new car and I need some extra money. 167 00:10:31.560 --> 00:10:35.610 The very first thing is we look at the economy. If the economy is bad, well, 168 00:10:35.610 --> 00:10:37.620 we already planned for it. It's over here. 169 00:10:38.370 --> 00:10:42.390 Now. We take it from there and we let the income refill one of the buckets. 170 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:48.120 So suddenly you took a plan that you hope will work when you really don't know 171 00:10:48.120 --> 00:10:50.910 what you're spending, that you hope will work. 172 00:10:50.910 --> 00:10:53.370 When you're really not measuring your income to your spending, 173 00:10:54.090 --> 00:10:58.410 you've made a plan now that you know you're spending, and more importantly, 174 00:10:59.040 --> 00:11:03.270 have a strategy for every single market condition, 175 00:11:04.380 --> 00:11:06.840 for almost all things that are going to affect your family. 176 00:11:07.890 --> 00:11:11.460 So this is one of our basic strategies that I love to put families in front of 177 00:11:11.460 --> 00:11:15.660 all the time, because number one, it's simple, it's easy, 178 00:11:15.660 --> 00:11:16.710 it's manageable. 179 00:11:16.740 --> 00:11:21.480 It also gives you a clear direction of saving non emotionally 180 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:25.350 and spending within the control that you set up. 181 00:11:25.800 --> 00:11:30.240 You are in control of your spending, not your job, not your income, 182 00:11:30.390 --> 00:11:33.660 not whether or not you're going to get a bonus or you're going to lose your job, 183 00:11:33.870 --> 00:11:37.530 but based on a decision you've made that works within the numbers. 184 00:11:38.010 --> 00:11:39.660 Thank you for listening. We really appreciate it. 185 00:11:39.660 --> 00:11:42.270 Hope you like this and more strategies. If you have any questions, 186 00:11:42.270 --> 00:11:43.710 please don't hesitate to give us a call. 187 00:11:43.980 --> 00:11:47.160 Love to be of service to you and anyone on our team can help you out with things 188 00:11:47.160 --> 00:11:48.360 just like this. Every day.