1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:05,559 You're listening to Carrie Lets's Financial Survival Network, where you get valuable information you 2 00:00:05,599 --> 00:00:10,880 just can't find anywhere else to thrive in today's trying times. You need the 3 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:17,359 Financial Survival Network now more than ever. Go to Financial Survival Network dot com 4 00:00:17,359 --> 00:00:24,039 and get your free newsletter in gift Financial Survival Network now more than ever. 5 00:00:27,519 --> 00:00:32,240 And welcome you are listening to watching the Financial Survival Network. I'm your host, 6 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:36,960 Carrie Lets. Financial Health. Well, that's like you should be concerned 7 00:00:37,039 --> 00:00:41,240 about your physical health. You need to be concerned about your financial health. 8 00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:50,000 But whereas eating can fix your personal health, your maximize optimize your physical health, 9 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:54,600 well, you've got to do something more for financial health. And with 10 00:00:54,719 --> 00:00:58,479 us. Now we've got a new guest that I know you're going to really 11 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:03,519 get into her message. Esther has nets and Esther, it's great to have 12 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:07,920 you on the show. So how do you define of financial health? Because 13 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:12,359 physical health it's like what's your blood sugar, your A one C, your 14 00:01:12,439 --> 00:01:19,159 cholesterol, your triglycerides. What's the equivalent measure for your financial health? Well, 15 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:23,159 first of all, thank you Carrie for having me. I really appreciate 16 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:30,319 being on the show. So financial health basically is when you really you don't 17 00:01:30,359 --> 00:01:33,879 have to worry so much about how you're going to pay the bills. You 18 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:37,480 know, if you if you want to go to a nine stander, you 19 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:41,319 can afford to do that. You're not borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. 20 00:01:41,879 --> 00:01:45,319 That's financial health the way I see it. You have money in the bank 21 00:01:46,599 --> 00:01:51,040 if if something were to happen, you could afford to take care of it. 22 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:53,840 Should you lose your job, you've got money to live on for a 23 00:01:53,879 --> 00:01:57,480 few months. You've got if you're not retired yet, you've got a good 24 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:00,480 start on it, so that at some point you're not going to have to 25 00:02:00,519 --> 00:02:06,560 worry. To me, that's truly what financial health is. Okay, I'll 26 00:02:06,560 --> 00:02:12,159 buy it. So you know, physical health is easier to measure than financial 27 00:02:12,159 --> 00:02:15,879 health. What you're describing this kind of like, all right, so you 28 00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:21,719 got six months of emergency expenses in the bank. All right, you're not 29 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:23,680 you want to buy something? You could buy it, like you said, 30 00:02:23,719 --> 00:02:30,840 go out to dinner. You know that's getting more and more expensive every day. 31 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:34,319 But it's harder to measure, though. Is there an objective measure for 32 00:02:34,400 --> 00:02:38,360 it? I think it's how you're sleeping at night. That's how I measure 33 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:43,000 it with my clients. You know, how are you sleeping? Are you 34 00:02:43,120 --> 00:02:46,120 up all I worrying about paying the bills? Are you concerned that you know, 35 00:02:46,199 --> 00:02:49,800 you got a kid in college and he might have to leave because you 36 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:53,479 can't cover it and he's not covering it? Financial health? Are you worried 37 00:02:53,479 --> 00:02:57,800 about your debt because that's a huge one, you know, is your debt 38 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:00,360 in order or are you really over ended and you don't know how to get 39 00:03:00,439 --> 00:03:05,400 rid of some of that? And that's even growing, especially this year and 40 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:07,759 last year with the interest rates going up, and it's gotten way out at 41 00:03:07,759 --> 00:03:12,479 hand. So you know, maybe maybe it's easier to know. I fear 42 00:03:12,520 --> 00:03:17,159 financially unhealth because you're freaking out all the time. But it is so important. 43 00:03:17,199 --> 00:03:22,000 Of course, if you are up all the time and you are nervous 44 00:03:22,039 --> 00:03:24,479 and freaking out, as I would say, that is going to affect your 45 00:03:24,479 --> 00:03:31,199 physical health and big ways for sure, for sure. So I mean, 46 00:03:31,280 --> 00:03:38,080 I guess your advisory company, you help people build their financial health, build 47 00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:45,120 your financial health. When you're evaluating a prospective client, what do you what 48 00:03:45,159 --> 00:03:50,159 do you look for? Well, first of all, what's the debt and 49 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:53,520 how much you got how much are you bringing in? You know, money 50 00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:58,199 and money out is obviously huge. And then once we take care of money 51 00:03:58,199 --> 00:04:01,280 and money out, how much do you have for retirement based on how old 52 00:04:01,319 --> 00:04:04,960 you are and when you want to retire, do you have other money that 53 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:10,719 might not be in a retirement account that you can get to is maybe you 54 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:14,159 need when you need a new car, or if your air conditioner goes out 55 00:04:14,199 --> 00:04:16,720 in the middle of August. Those types of things we work on. And 56 00:04:16,759 --> 00:04:19,759 then you know, of course, the next step is, well, we 57 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:23,439 got to grow your assets. How much risk are you're going to take, 58 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:27,920 and how we're going to invest it. But the first thing we look at 59 00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:32,439 is the whole picture of who this person is, where they are financially, 60 00:04:33,199 --> 00:04:38,000 what are the problems out, and what are the pluses, you know, 61 00:04:38,079 --> 00:04:41,720 what are they ahead of the curve on? And then from there it's a 62 00:04:41,759 --> 00:04:46,720 lot easier to move forward. Okay, And so just give us an example 63 00:04:46,759 --> 00:04:53,240 of somebody who came in who is financially near rigor Mortis and you help, 64 00:04:53,839 --> 00:04:58,519 you help, they're turn it all around. Um okay, So I've actually 65 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:03,439 had the talk up with the clients that were over seventy and I even had 66 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:06,319 one over eighty and I actually had to tell him, you got to get 67 00:05:06,319 --> 00:05:10,639 a job. You are what you're gonna You're gonna run out of money, 68 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:15,199 and you need to get some kind of a side hustle somewhere. I don't 69 00:05:15,199 --> 00:05:18,319 care if it's part time. Find something you like to do, but we 70 00:05:18,439 --> 00:05:23,079 need to get you set, and we need to really you need to bring 71 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:27,160 in way more money. Not only that, but how many times are you 72 00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:30,519 going out to eat? That's got to stop. You know, you need 73 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:34,759 to really be careful how you're doing this. How much time are you spending 74 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:40,560 on Amazon? That's a huge one. So it's it's tightening the belt, 75 00:05:41,079 --> 00:05:45,560 it's bringing him more sometimes, and that's a really really hard conversation. And 76 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:48,519 I have I've had people commit with ten thousand dollars to their name that they 77 00:05:48,519 --> 00:05:53,360 wanted to invest with me, yet they were over fifty five thousand dollars in 78 00:05:53,439 --> 00:05:57,000 debt and they'd known anything. So it's like, you know, you can't 79 00:05:57,040 --> 00:05:59,639 do this. You got to take a real hard look at yourself. It's 80 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:03,079 a you know out I understand you don't want to work, but at sixty 81 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:05,839 five years old, you're going to have to do something because this is not 82 00:06:05,879 --> 00:06:11,360 going to sustain you. That's a that's a harsh financial wake up call, 83 00:06:11,439 --> 00:06:15,240 isn't he Yes, it is. It's horrible, all right. So did 84 00:06:15,279 --> 00:06:18,519 they listen to you? I don't know, and I haven't heard from him 85 00:06:18,519 --> 00:06:23,759 again, you know. And sometimes as they were leaving, I said, 86 00:06:24,279 --> 00:06:27,560 you didn't know about this, right, and they said, yeah, I 87 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:29,959 guess we just had to hear it. But we didn't want to hear it. 88 00:06:30,079 --> 00:06:32,199 You know, we were hoping that you'd have a better idea, So 89 00:06:32,319 --> 00:06:36,480 well, what are you supposed to do? But you know what, my 90 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:41,639 crystal ball doesn't always work and my magic wand is lost, so you know, 91 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:45,000 this is on view at this point. So in other words, the 92 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:48,959 thing to tell that person is the lottery is not a business plan or a 93 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:54,839 financial plan for success. Right, that's that's not your retirement. That is 94 00:06:54,920 --> 00:07:00,879 not the lottery exactly. Think yet people are into not huh a lot and 95 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:03,920 you know, and then you get those that have plenty and they're afraid to 96 00:07:03,959 --> 00:07:06,879 spend it. You know, you have the other side where they have all 97 00:07:06,959 --> 00:07:12,600 kinds of body and you know they're still going to consignment shops or there are 98 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:15,319 shoes are roll you know, forty eecres. So it's like, do yourself 99 00:07:15,319 --> 00:07:17,920 a favor. You could do this, you know you can afford this, 100 00:07:18,079 --> 00:07:23,920 and they're they're afraid to spend anything, so and they are financially healthy, 101 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:29,199 and then so yeah, well they're like financially anorexic, feric you will. 102 00:07:30,439 --> 00:07:33,480 You know, they're living in a scarcity mindset, which you know, living 103 00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:39,639 beneath your means is really the best way that I've seen. They're really build 104 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:45,759 wealth and really have a great retirement. Unfortunately, I is never one of 105 00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:49,160 those who could do it. I tried that, and then it's like, 106 00:07:49,199 --> 00:07:54,279 what I try to help my clients with living beneath your means rather than living 107 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:58,879 outside your means. And you know they'll lease the car you can't afford it, 108 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:01,240 get something news do you know that kind of thing, and you know, 109 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:05,319 put money aside. Let's take x amount out of your checking account every 110 00:08:05,319 --> 00:08:09,759 single month and start a plan that way so that you know you can grow 111 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:13,680 something to get started on. I don't care how old you are, it's 112 00:08:13,759 --> 00:08:20,360 never too late to start your financial health and start digging yourself out and so 113 00:08:20,519 --> 00:08:24,360 you could be more comfortable in the future. Yeah, Hey, it just 114 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:28,519 makes so much sense. So emotional maturity is a lot like financial maturity. 115 00:08:30,079 --> 00:08:37,360 That is, you put off pleasure today or a return and get better tomorrow. 116 00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:43,159 Exactly, exactly. Yeah, But getting people to see the wisdom of 117 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:48,639 this not easy. Sometimes they've already seen it again. They just need to 118 00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:50,960 be get, you know, smacked in the face with its. Somebody else 119 00:08:52,039 --> 00:08:54,159 has to tell them, you know, you need to get out and do 120 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:58,759 something. This is not working. It's not going to work. And you 121 00:08:58,799 --> 00:09:01,840 know, if you're only bringing in twenty thousand a year and you are spending 122 00:09:01,879 --> 00:09:05,159 forty thousand a year, you gotta know it's it's not gonna lie and you 123 00:09:05,240 --> 00:09:09,720 got nothing in the bank. You know, you can't keep living off of 124 00:09:09,759 --> 00:09:15,639 debt. And the big problem that I saw as the real estate was going 125 00:09:15,679 --> 00:09:20,639 up is people were taking home equity lines on a value of their house, 126 00:09:20,639 --> 00:09:24,120 which I believe was a false value. And now those home equity lines, 127 00:09:24,159 --> 00:09:28,320 the interest rates have shot up, the houses are worth a little bit less, 128 00:09:28,399 --> 00:09:31,639 and they got to pay off this debt, and they still aren't making 129 00:09:31,799 --> 00:09:33,480 enough. You know, they'd making what they were making before when they were 130 00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:37,200 living off the home equity. So it's a huge problem and it's out there 131 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:41,080 and it's going to it's catching up to a lot of people. Yeah, 132 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:45,879 and you went in debt to keep maintain your lifestyle and then you wind up 133 00:09:45,919 --> 00:09:50,240 housing prices go down and you could be underwater. Correct, And it's your 134 00:09:50,279 --> 00:09:52,960 lifestyle that's really underwater and you don't want to see it, and you need 135 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:58,039 to change your lifestyle. You need to save more, do less. If 136 00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:01,240 you're going to restaurants f times a week and they're costing you one hundred and 137 00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:07,799 fifty dollars a time, maybe I ought to stop doing that and seeing what 138 00:10:07,600 --> 00:10:13,320 makes more sense, like eating home or at least going to lower price restaurants 139 00:10:13,360 --> 00:10:16,919 once or twice, and that's it. Yeah, okay, all right, 140 00:10:16,039 --> 00:10:20,799 well I'm not going to listen to you. But then again, probably not 141 00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:26,039 the person you want is applying anyway. You know, it's certainly them living 142 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:31,960 beneath my means. Now, took me decades to get there, but one 143 00:10:33,039 --> 00:10:37,399 day I just woke up. And sometimes though, does it pay to go 144 00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:41,000 a little bit more than your means to get something that you think is going 145 00:10:41,080 --> 00:10:46,559 to have a payoff in the future. Sometimes it might, but you really 146 00:10:46,759 --> 00:10:50,200 need to think long and hard about it. I mean, if it's going 147 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:52,759 to break you, No, because you're never going to get there. But 148 00:10:52,960 --> 00:10:56,200 if you see a possibility and you don't do it all the time, the 149 00:10:56,240 --> 00:11:00,919 problem is once somebody does it, once I see them doing it, you 150 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:05,200 know, it becomes an abbot. Just like people that take money out of 151 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:09,000 their FO one case because they're not financially healthy, and so they take money 152 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:13,240 out of their for one case and they look at it like a piggy bank 153 00:11:13,240 --> 00:11:16,799 and then it's gone. If you never take that first amount out, it 154 00:11:16,879 --> 00:11:20,120 will be there until you retire. But once that first withdrawal happens, what 155 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:24,360 I see is it's gone, and it just becomes a piggybank. So the 156 00:11:24,399 --> 00:11:28,399 whole thing of it is if you want to do something because you see it's 157 00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:33,200 a it's an investment or whatever it is, one time is five, But 158 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:35,279 once it gets to be a habit then you're gonna put yourself right back under 159 00:11:35,279 --> 00:11:39,080 water again. You got to be really, really careful. Yeah, So 160 00:11:39,200 --> 00:11:43,600 you want to learn from your past mistakes, not to keep repeating them over 161 00:11:43,639 --> 00:11:48,080 and over again, which so many of you out there do. Yeah. 162 00:11:48,159 --> 00:11:50,919 So now you save this money, where are you putting it? Esther? 163 00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:54,960 Well, since I'm a financial advisor, I generally put it in the stock 164 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:01,679 market hit by and then at this point, with a recession possibly on the 165 00:12:01,679 --> 00:12:05,360 way, probably on the way, I've tightened the belt there and not getting 166 00:12:05,399 --> 00:12:11,440 too aggressive and portfolios, but you know, again at this point, not 167 00:12:11,879 --> 00:12:16,399 reaching for the trees and wanting to grow assets as much as maybe a couple 168 00:12:16,399 --> 00:12:20,279 of years ago, but mostly locking it in, keeping it in the borings, 169 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:24,720 you know, big dividend paying stocks. And I'm adding to my bond 170 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:28,720 portfolio. Even though the interest rates are going to go up, I believe 171 00:12:28,759 --> 00:12:31,559 it's only going to happen once or twice more, not that much. And 172 00:12:31,639 --> 00:12:33,799 once recession its will drop them again. It'll be nice to have them in 173 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:39,159 there. So that's basically, you know, I keep it easy and mostly 174 00:12:39,360 --> 00:12:43,159 you know, the regular liquid assets, and if things go worse than I 175 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:46,840 expect, I can just go right to cash. Okay, And where do 176 00:12:46,879 --> 00:12:50,879 you keep your cash? Now? With the banking racists in full swing, 177 00:12:52,399 --> 00:12:56,480 there are still very good banks and you know, I mean the clearing firms 178 00:12:56,720 --> 00:13:01,720 are safe in liquid and it's not all it's a few banks. And I 179 00:13:01,720 --> 00:13:03,639 mean I was in the industry back in O eight. You know, we 180 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:07,480 had some big ones go. And I think we learned a lot from that. 181 00:13:07,559 --> 00:13:11,519 Where the government comes in just like they just did over the weekend and 182 00:13:11,639 --> 00:13:16,320 find some big conglomerate be to come take it over and make everything sound again. 183 00:13:16,879 --> 00:13:20,919 And no, I don't see that changing, and I don't see that 184 00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:24,159 really being a huge problem this time. All right, for your mouth, 185 00:13:26,519 --> 00:13:30,120 the one thing you should learn is that if Barney Frank is on your bank's 186 00:13:30,159 --> 00:13:35,240 board, don't put money there. You be careful well, and again, 187 00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:37,720 you know, the larger banks, you never you're not going to have a 188 00:13:37,799 --> 00:13:43,320 problem with because they're you know, they're financially sound at this point. And 189 00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:46,799 I don't see anything going on there, although not to say it can't happen. 190 00:13:46,879 --> 00:13:50,200 I use Bear Stearns once upon a time, a long time ago, 191 00:13:50,279 --> 00:13:54,879 so I get it buying company that no longer exists. Yeah, yeah, 192 00:13:54,960 --> 00:14:01,279 But in all seriousness, well, Dodd Frank is dead, which is a 193 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:07,960 good thing because Dodd Frank embraced the whole concept that legislatively embraced the bailing concept. 194 00:14:09,639 --> 00:14:16,240 And when you've got a system that's fraction or reserved, you can't you 195 00:14:16,320 --> 00:14:22,679 can't ask the depositors to bail out the entity that they had no control over 196 00:14:22,759 --> 00:14:28,799 whatsoever other than to deposit money into it. Right, that will destroy the 197 00:14:28,840 --> 00:14:33,879 confidence whatever measure is left in the system and lead to a major financial collapse. 198 00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:41,960 So I don't see that now. Um, I see, yeah, 199 00:14:41,080 --> 00:14:46,279 I see big problems still with real estate to you know, and and the 200 00:14:46,399 --> 00:14:48,279 loans. You know, these loans are the interest rates going up and the 201 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:54,120 people can't afford to pay that off. I see problems with you know, 202 00:14:54,720 --> 00:15:00,080 other stuff. But as far as these banks go, Um, the one 203 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:03,840 bank that had all these treasuries, I thought that was brilliant. The government 204 00:15:03,919 --> 00:15:07,879 buy the treasuries off of them, give them the cash they need, and 205 00:15:07,919 --> 00:15:13,039 then they'll just hold on to them and keep the interest and actually make money 206 00:15:13,039 --> 00:15:16,279 on the deal to bank stays, you know, solve it and everything works 207 00:15:16,279 --> 00:15:22,720 in the end. There's different answers for different problems, but I think so 208 00:15:22,759 --> 00:15:28,399 far they've been able to keep things pretty much moving forward, which is financially 209 00:15:28,399 --> 00:15:33,000 healthy for all of us. Well, it's a mandatory because once there's a 210 00:15:33,039 --> 00:15:35,320 loss of faith in the banking industry, that it's all over. Well, 211 00:15:35,399 --> 00:15:43,639 yeah, you know, they should have dealt with sv SVB Silicon Valley Bank. 212 00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:46,720 They should have dealt with it much faster. Shouldn't have been allowed to 213 00:15:46,759 --> 00:15:52,559 collapse and on them, and that's a failure to learn from history. Hopefully 214 00:15:52,919 --> 00:16:00,000 you're right. And the banking crisis, you know, it's always people are 215 00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:03,600 is fighting less battle, so Ryan see, Hey, Esther, we want 216 00:16:03,639 --> 00:16:07,720 to find out more about you, connect with you on the web. Tell 217 00:16:07,799 --> 00:16:15,000 us the best place to find you www. Star financial Solutions dot com is 218 00:16:15,120 --> 00:16:21,039 my website. Esther kus nuts est h e r k u z n e 219 00:16:21,279 --> 00:16:26,759 t Z. My email is Esther eest h R at Star financial Solutions dot 220 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:30,440 com. CU right, all right, well, thank you Esther. We 221 00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:34,240 appreciate you coming on. I've got a question for Esther and myself. Email 222 00:16:34,240 --> 00:16:38,960 address is k l at Krelutz dot com and there'll be a link to esther 223 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:42,919 site in the show notes to this interview. Just go click the link and 224 00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:48,360 you'll get her right there. And Esther really appreciate you coming on. We'll 225 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:51,840 talk to you again. Thank you for having me. It's been wonderful being 226 00:16:51,879 --> 00:16:55,360 here with you and getting to meet you and all your listeners. Thanks for 227 00:16:55,440 --> 00:17:02,240 listening to carry Lutz's Financial Survival Network, your solution today's trying times for the 228 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:08,160 latest go to Financial Survival Network dot com. Financial Survival Network now more than ever