Jennifer Killilea, Financial Advisor with Johnson Brunetti

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W four cy Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helenan believes that certainly applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and now your host, Kevin helen N.

0:52 Thanks everybody for joining in again today. I'm Kevin Hallanan and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on W four cy dot com. And of course we're streaming live on Talk for TV. That's the number four tv dot com. And we're streaming live on Facebook and that's at Winning Business Radio. And of course we're available in podcast form after the live show on any platform where you get your podcast content, YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, and the list goes on the mission of winning business radio and TV. As regular viewers and listeners know, is to offer insights and advice to help people avoid the mistakes of others, right to learn best practices. Those are the how tos, the what to's, the what not tos, and well hold on a second, and to get advice and to get encouragement from others. But you know, as you hear me say every week, virtually every successful person that I've ever talked to has had some form of failure in their lives and careers. So I always say, we all have to get our knee skin once in a while.

2:00 I driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from history so we don't repeat it. I've spent the better part of my career equipping businesses to grow from solopreneurs to small and medium sized companies all the way up to the fortune fifty. I've seen some of those companies win and thrive and to varyingnguries. I've seen some fail as well, and I've had the opportunity to rub elbows with some of the highest performing people around and with some people who probably should have found other proficient professions. Wow, challenging to speak today, Jen. In my own businesses, I've had lots of success, but some failures too. I like to think I've learned a lot from those experiences. So yeah, you're going to hear a little for me, but mostly you're going to hear from guests. Today's guest is an expert. She's a financial consultant.

2:43 Her name is Jennifer Kilia of Johnson Brunetti and she has a focus on the unique needs of women with regard to their finance. Here is her bio. Jennifer Killia is a financial advisor with more than twenty years in the industry, specializing in retire planning. Jen is dedicated to deliver to delivering personalized and comprehensive financial advice to clients. Holding the Series sixty five license, She takes pride in understanding each individual's unique needs and creating customized retirement plans to help them achieve their goals. Jen presents at the firm's women only workshops, where she creates a space specifically for women's financial education. She holds a bachelor's degree from Andsel College in Manchester, New Hampshire, sharing her husband, Frank, reside in North Andover, mass and her parents to three daughters, and they enjoy family ski trips together. She's an active board member of one hundred Women who Care Boston North as well as life goes on after TBI, Jen, Welcome to Winning Business Radio.

3:44 Thanks for having me, Kevin, appreciate the opportunity to be here. Well, it's all my pleasure. I know how busy you are, so let's jump right in. Tell us about Frank and your three daughters, and then I'll ask you about skiing. Yeah. Well, Frank and I have been married thirty years. We just celebrated our thirty year wedding anniversary. I have three daughters. My oldest is twenty seven and she's a medical school third year, trying to decide what she wants to focus on in rotation. My middle daughter, twenty five, is just moved back from Chicago, so she's been on home for a while. But it's really difficult for these kids to want independently. We had the hard conversation and she made the decision to come home and save her money and try to buy something. So we'll see how that works out for her. And my youngest just graduated from USF out in California and moved to New York City and so she's just starting her career month two actual.

4:44 See, Yeah, so where do you like to ski? Well, partial to sugar Bush just because we go there, but we've had the opportunity to ski quite a bit all over New England. At one part of my career, I represented the largest owner of ski resorts. So at one point in my career we were doing the equity raiser at work for an investment company that raised equity for our ski resort. So it was super fun when the kids were younger to get to visit those fees and work with investors, et cetera. So that was that was sort of a fun point. But sugar Bush Sunday River is another favorite, and Luna Course is super close.

5:24 So yeah, that's where I go most of the time. Is lun screwed up there a couple hours from me. I'm in Rosindale, so uh another half hour from you. You know. Yeah, they've done a great opened up that whole second half of the mountain and so it's pretty impressive and that industry has evolved over time as well to you know, they really figured out how to make it profitable. And I love the Quad eighty just moves people along. It's awesome. I understand you grew up in Westwood. I grew up in Midfield. As a matter of fact, so were the listeners and viewers who aren't familiar with Massachusetts. Tell us about west Wood and what it was like to grow up there.

6:04 Well, Westwood it continues to be, i'd say, a very desirable suburb, and the real estate values have continued to do terrific. It's not far from Boston, maybe a half hour, as you know, from Medfield getting on did you say Millister Medfield, Midfield, Medfield, Yeah, right off one O nine. It's just a tough commute on that side road. Once you get to the highway, you're all set. But Grant community about thirty I would say, about thirty thousand people or so. I went to public education, in public high school. Have five I went to five kids, and yeah, great memories. And some of my best friends who I actually just saw this weekend are from the road. I grew up on strong, strong friendships.

6:51 Yeah, so we like to get kind of a flavor of somebody's background, So did both your parents work? What did they do if they did? Yeah? So in my background, I talk about it in my women's workshops. Is my mother file for divorce when I was in second grade? Oh? She had five kids in six and a half years. And my father was nine years older than my mother, and he was an acoustic engineer with Raytheon, so he was further along in his career. And as most divorces go, at least back then, it was stretched out. And it just worked out that my mom was married over ten years, which is a big deal as you start to think about social Security and spousal benefits. But she was an only child younger obviously, and I didn't even really appreciate what it was like to raise five kids till I had three of my own, perfectly spaced out twenty twenty eight months apart, not plan, I guess, but if they were, and I think to myself, Wow, five kids six and a half years, that's a lot.

7:56 I mean, I have four and they're spaced out almost twenty four months apart. So it's I've a thirty five, thirty three, thirty one in twenty nine. Okay, yeah, so big difference, right, Yeah, so that's good. Congratulations on That is fun, It's super fun. I can share the struggles of you know, getting out. We have wanted that went into the Marine Corps is now Boston firefighter, figured out that was the way to go. One that went to well as on as way to his bachelor's, got an associates in business and decided he didn't want to be in an office and got a certificate a year in HVAC schools. Doing a really great married with I mean I especially he's one of my favorites because he gave me two grandkids so far. No, they they know that's not true, but it's it's fun to say. And then our twenty nine, thirty one year old lives in Tennessee, just moves from Florida with her husband and they're they're doing fine, probably looking to start a family soon.

8:57 And the twenty nine year old is still here. Oh, you know, great job at BC, but you know she wants to she's saving, you know, for something better too, so recognizing that she needs that financial support. All right, So Saint Ansel st Ansel great school. Why did you choose that school? And to major? What was your major? Well, Saint Anselom is a liberal arts school. So I went in there initially with the intention that I thought, well, gee, maybe it'd be interesting to have a criminal justice degree. I just was leaning more towards law criminal justice. After one semester, I felt depressed. I was like, there's no answer here. I'm a person where the glasses half full, and it was tough stuff. I felt overwhelmed, and I'm like, wow, I don't think I'm cut out. I mean, I look back and my interviewed to that school. It's just the funniest thing because I said I wanted to be a prison warden. And the reason for that was in high school, we went and visited Walpole Prison and that was one of our high school trips. And at the time, we met a really nice guy that came and talked to the kids, and he talked about how he was reformed, but yet he's in here for his entire life. He seemed like really great guy that deserved a second chance, and here, you know, being super naive. And then we get back on the bus and the teacher says, who's going to let him out? Who thinks he served his time and deserves a second chance, And of course hands

10:27 goes up. Well, it turns out that he had this horrible violent crime, just horrible. He killed this woman. And it was once you hear the crime, you're like, I can't judge that. And so initially I was leaning toward that because I was that was just such an interesting experience. So the philter in high school, those it kind of shapes a young mind on what you think you might want to do, and it's just exposure. But then I realized after one semester, I'm like, peace out. He can't do it. It's too hard, you know it just I just felt like overwhelmed by that. I knew that wasn't this fot for me. So liberal arts school, liberal arts major. I ended up having a concentration in business. I always was really good with math. I did well. When I had success with statistics, I said, I guess I could focus on this. So that's how I ended up sort of in business as to fault, But that wasn't my you asked the question that was I did.

11:21 Yeah. Yeah, Well, there's always a different journey. Everybody has a different type of journey. Right now, as it turns out, you went right into financial services, you're on the wholesale side. So tell the audiences, both the viewers and listening audiences, what it is to be on the financial excuse me on the wholesale side. Yeah. So, initially from college one of those college fairs, I was recruited to John Hancock, So I did retail. When we talk about wholesale and retail, i'll break it down. Yeah. So I had a couple of years with retail John Hancock talking about retirement planning. They have lots of great products. You work for a company, and it's not a surprise if I sat down and talked about retirement planning with you that it might include a John Hancock product, whether it be long term care insurance, whether it be life insurance.

12:06 They have mutual funds, great local Boston company, and over time that was great. You know, my personal network is where they have you start, and as a recent college graduate, that's quite difficult to go to your friends' parents and start talking about planning and retirement planning there. And so remember me, missus, whatever I'm going, I got in trouble with your daughter, remember. So you know so so, but it was a really nice introduction to that industry, and what I realized is I liked working with older people and I that industry. When you work for an insurance company, they give you leads.

12:47 They call them orphans, people that no longer have an advisor. There was a lot of nighttime work and you drive in the middle of nowhere, and I was working right in New Hampshire. Has recruited off the campus. When I worked out of the Manchester office and I was driving all over Manchester into trailer parks, I'm like, who are these people like? These leads? And I realized I'd rather focus on daytime work. Number one and number two they had a really great long term care product. So I just worked that demographic and enjoyed it and it was fun and I really felt like I was helping people because it was in need. It was the generation their parents at the time who I was speaking with. The family would take care of them. That's pretty common. A couple of generations have had of us. It was typically family would take care of family. That was my mother's situation.

13:37 She got divorced and my grandmother had a rhumatory arthritis, and back in those days the drugs weren't as strong, so she was crippled in a wheelchair. My mom goes off to work and Nana's in charge, and she took care of her mom. And my mom wanted a lot of kids so someone would be there to take care of her, and so I was drawn to this long term care. So I'm like, I got to break the pattern. Here. There's this great product that you can get and you don't have to rely on your kids. So I just gravitated to that and I enjoyed it and so over time, so it was doing that, and then I got an opportunity to work in the wholesale. When I decided insurance was okay, and where is another opportunity? I ended up, through connections and so forth, getting an opportunity to interview for a position for an investment company, which was quite different.

14:35 It was out of Boston. It was called the American Finance Group. And what they did is they raised money through private investments to buy airplanes. They had all sorts of equipment, large equipment, and I thought that was interesting. It was the first position you would be hired at is what they call an internal position, and then you work with somebody that goes around extern only to raise the money. So that's when we talk wholesaling. That's that's that's what it is. So you're raising equity. You're still within the financial services industry, but they're private placements for the most parts. So it was private placements is the way we raised mine. And for me, it was interesting how that came about because the interview process is you started with the president of the company and they were pretty well established and at the time, you know, I'm in my mid twenties and he says, no, don't get offence to this. I ask every single person the same question.

15:31 I had no idea what he was going to say. He said, let's pretend you're going on a fly fishing trip and you work at the store. So you're the person that works at the store. I'm coming in because I'm I'm on vacation, I'm fly fishing, and we're going to have a conversation. Okay, go, And it was like a role play. I knew nothing about fly I didn't even know what fly fishing was. I was like, what is fly fishing? I didn't understand it. So we role played, and that was the interview and he stood up and he said, you're hired, and I'm thinking to myself, I am like, I was really surprised, but because you ask a lot of questions, because I didn't know what it was, So I just asked lots of questions to understand fly fishing. How often it's just you know, how you would normally have a conversation. And anyway, that was the start of my career. As silly as that question was.

16:20 It's good. He gauged your listening and communicating skills right. And that's what it was. The breaks in life come at really interesting points. So to answer your question, what's the difference between resale and. Well, do me a favor. Hold that question. We're going to take our first commercial. We'll come back and just about one minute, everybody will be back with Jen Kilole of Johnson Brunetti in one minute. Okay, you're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenett on W four CY Radio. That's W four C. Why dot Com don't go away? More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio.

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17:55 Welcome back with Jen Kilola, Financial advisor with Johnson Brunetti okay o versus now Wholesale. Yeah, wholesale role is working with very established financial advisors in working with their high net worth clients. And I would represent an investment company and I would work with the financial advisor mainly education, helping them understand how this would potentially fit in their client's portfolio of this particular type of investment, and maybe sitting down and working with the financial advisor getting them up to speed and understanding typical questions how the investment worked, because sometimes there's some nuance that's a little bit different with k ones in tax consequences, etc. So that's the wholesale side of the business.

18:43 Retail is what I do. Right now, retail is working directly with the clients. So I've always been in the financial services industry working with financial advisors or being a financial advisor working with retirees. What're you doing? One last question about American find and that side. What was a key lesson you learned during that time? Well, read the perspectus. I read the perspectives. I am the type of person that knows everything and I but most people don't read perspectuses. But I think it's important to understand what you're buying. And we had some fantastic, fantastic full cycle opportunities. But I would say for me personally, the lesson is I was always the only woman in that industry, which just kind of worked out to be how it worked out for me. And so for me personally, I would say, really understand the character of the people you worked with. And I was super fortunate to work with great people and that was really key. I think it's relationships at the end of the day matter.

19:49 That's really good. All right, then a couple others TCC securities want to tell us just a minute about that. Yeah, this is text tainer, That's what it stood for. So if you're ever on the high way and you see those big boxes on the back of cars. They has tex in the corner. They're container shipping, so they'll go back with a container ship to a truck to a railroad car. And before the industry went to institutional money like pension funds, we would raise money. As that company, tex Stainer, based out of San Francisco, is getting started, they raised money through private placements. And so here I am about to do a luncheon in New York City with a client, and I get a phone call and then come back to Boston, you know, because that's where I lived, and you don't need to go do that lunch, and I'm like, we're all set. And what they ended up it was really a great opportunity for the company because they because it's a little bit cheaper financing to go direct through you just can have access to bigger dollars quicker. But they didn't need their retail arm of the business, which was so I was unemployed right at that point. You know, I don't have a job anymore.

20:58 The entire syndicate arm was. But the most important part was you missed launch. You didn't have a job and lunch. Yeah, I know. But but the good news was for the investors it worked out fabulous. It just was a good opportunity and it just was a sustainable business. And as you know, because I've seen the kind of content you have on the show, when you get when you're starting off, there's lots of different ways you can go to get equity to raise money, and that just happened to be one one arm. It's a difficult arm to get to get launched in. But if you can get successful in that arm of raising equity to get to the business model where okay, other people are taking notice, you scale it to a point where it's successful. You have continuity, you have track records, so you know. So that position ended. The two positions I did both ended in the same fashion, with it with it getting launched to institutional money versus retail. So at that point I said, okay, time to go to retail. And so that's how I decided to go. I initially went back to Putnam. So I went to Putnam and got some great experience on mutual funds and then made the transition to an advisor.

22:14 So a lot of people in New England would know the name Putnam because they advertised a lot or they're a big, big sponsor slash advertiser with the Patriots, so you know, you see their name at the stadium. So tell us about that company and your role there. Well a little bit about the company, but yeah. Mutual Funds, and again it was back in a wholesale capacity talking with advisors. So it's still wholesale, but the product was different. Wasn't like Putnam was going to say, hey, we're going institutional. It's different. So it gave me the expertise and experience to really understand the retail side of the business. So here we go wholesale retail. It really is an advisor.

22:55 You would bring in a wholesale product if you felt it benefited your client. You can learn about it because because as financial advisors you have you're constantly polishing your craft, you're learning, you're trying to educate yourself not only on the product, but on the business. And that's that was my role. Oh you're also you're also a fiduciary, So tell people what that means. Yeah. So at Johnson BRENETI I love, love love this role here because I can focus on what I'm really good at. I don't have. My role is not managing the money piece here. We have excellent resources that do that.

23:36 I work one on one with either pre retirees or retirees. So you ask what a fiduciary is, It's just our licensing holds us to a higher industry standard where we must give advice in clients' best interests. That's what the licensing requires. It's a whole separate conversation. I think the whole industry should be fiduciaries. But it doesn't mean if you work with a fiduciary you're not getting good advice. It just means you should know that because there's excellent people out there that might not be fiduciaries. That doesn't mean they're not doing a good job for you. But we just happen to be fraduciaries here at Johnson Brenetti, and we we're specialists. All we do is talk to people leading up to retirement or in retirement.

24:17 All right, you mentioned licensure. You have the series sixty three, so tell us what that is. Sixty five sixty excuse me. Yeah, that just allows us to give advice, that's what that is. It's a little yeah, So it's not a transactional commission type roles. You know you paid for advice. Yeah, so as we sit down with people were agnostic to whatever the recommendations. That's what I want to get as. Yeah, there's no incentive one way or another based on our recommendations. We're making recommendations in our clients. Festive, there you go, perfect, perfect now. Johnson Brenetti is a regional firm from what from Atlanta to Boston to Hampshire.

24:58 Boss. We have an office in a we're also Connecticut and Massachusetts, correct, and for I'm located in Massachusetts, so we toggle between we're need them is our hub here for bass but we're also in Wouburn, Franklin, Norwell, so we kind of do metro Boston and we're looking at Danvers as our next location for twenty six and it's important because of the demographic of our client. We're not putting them on what twenty eight or the mass Pike, so they don't have to get on highways to find us, so we'll come to them in those locations, which is somewhat unique. Of course, we do zoom. We're licensed in fifty states.

25:38 But yeah, yeah, that was a question too good. You've decided to focus on women's needs. Tell us what got you there, and then kind of flush out what some of those specific unique needs are. Yeah, well, as it relates to women, I just gravitated there because we decided to do a workshop and see if there's an interest, and the amount of interest was a bit overwhelming. And there's no sort of stereotype of the typical person that would show up in this workshop. It's what's surprising, and I shouldn't be so surprised, but it about it. We have very high level executives that just like the opportunity to sit with women. We have people thinking about divorced or people that have been divorced and have done a much better job, as I was joking about my mom starting out after her divorce. But it tends to be a safe space and people. I've never seen anything like it before, where people change phone numbers, become friends. Women just like the support of other women, And it's just organically. I noticed there's a need for it.

26:54 They like the idea of working with women, and so I just tapped into that and I enjoy it. What drew you to Johnson Brunetti. Again, we talk about relationships, so I've known this firm for a very long time, and I had they called me when they opened up the Wubern office, so you know, I've known the people here and it is the continuity and I take that philosophy to what I do here with clients, because at the end of the day, you could go anywhere for advice. And I think what makes the Johnson Bernetti model unique is it is a relationship business and it's also a team approach. Everything we do is team driven. So we have CPA specialists, we have accounting well I should say accounting CPA, our CFOs, CPA, medicare planning expertise, so collective group. Yes, there's over eighty people at the firm, so we're a large type firm.

27:58 But we do an excellent job and we keep things simple. No one has ever said, Jennifer, can you please make this more complicated? You don't ask for that. So we try to take complex topics and make it understandable to some degree, and we talk about a balanced approach to retirement planning. The number one mistake we see is people think the strategy that got them there is the same strategy that's going to get them into retirement. And if they're willing to consider something different, because we don't believe everybody's money should be in the market, and the market's been super generous. There's no other group of folks that have had a better launch to retirement than the people that are starting to enter retirement. Now. We've had back to back decades of fantastic returns in the market, a couple of down years, certainly some volatility, but it's been terrific.

29:00 And that's the message. It's hard to, you know, get people to think about things differently, and when you say it, people understand it, and and they get it. They get nervous, They come in nervous. So I saw a quote in your press kit. I'll give you one question. We'll go to the second break, and then I wait to answer that. Then we'll go to the second break. Okay, I saw a quote in your press kit. I got to kick out of it. Said women will inherit the earth and all its assets. And I think it speaks to longevity. Correct, Correct, women live longer than men and they and they tend to be more disciplined as investors as well. Interesting, Yeah, yeah, so just statistically they live longer and women tend to be the caregivers, and their assets tend to be less comparatively because they take time out of their careers to maybe have child care or maybe there's a health issue with a parent, so they have more responsibilities that they try to toggle the balance of work life and for different reasons, and they were let's start with the basics, they earn less. You know, today it's eighty six cents on the dollar, but back in the nineteen nineties it was sixty cents on the dollars, so it's not even equal from a pay I think this generation of younger why generation, they're starting to see much more equality as it relates to pay. But for those reasons less, you know,

30:33 less to begin with, and career interruptions get them off the track. You know, we talk about the mommy track career wise, where in your kids cafeteria, people are with their MBAs, are volunteering, and that's reality, and it's it's hard to get back on the career track. So for those different reasons, they need more money, yet they have less. All right, we're going to come back to that. We'll be back in one more minute with Jenkillery. Best in wealth management is family owned for two generations. They take pride in thoughtful financial planning and wealth management with a family feel for your closely held family business. Best in Wealth Management focuses on deep planning, integrating your business planning with personal They will help put your money to work and your mind at ease. Go to Best Inwealthmanagement dot com for more information.

31:29 Advisory services offered through. Commonwealth Financial Network a registered investment advisor. Join the best in Family and let our family advise your family. That's Best Inwealthmanagement dot com for your complementary initial consultation. All right, is it also true? I think I saw something that women have a completely different investment profile than men do. Talk about that. Well, in terms of a different profile. If I was going to paint with a wide brush, they tend to be a little bit more conservative. They tend to be a little bit more but also more disciplined. And so what I mean by that is if they were managing the money themselves before we met them, they tend to stay the course and not be as reactive to the market.

32:26 And again this is with a broad brush, but they're not looking for excess returns above the market. They just want to keep pace with inflation, and that would probably be the biggest observation, not everybody, but just in general. So you really have to it's important to listen. I can't emphasize that enough. Our role is not to have them take more risks they're not comfortable with that. It's to really listen to what their goals are and come up with a plan to let them know if they're going to meet their goals, and if they're not, then you have a little bit harder a conversation. How what do we need to do? Do we revamp the goal?

33:10 Do you take more risk understanding what that means? But a balanced approach where all your money is not in the market works. Some of your money's in income driven whether it's dividend producing stocks, some of your money's in safety. Our def definition of safety is you can't lose money. It's pretty good definition, and that just gives you the breathing space to invest long term inequities which will perform over time and keep pace with inflation. So it's not a one or not. You know, if we need folks that never want anything to do with equities again and they have more than enough saved, and it's not our role to put them into into equities. We want our clients to sleep. But it's understanding because most people don't understand what inflation does over time to what their savings look like.

34:00 You do a number of workshops again, particularly for women. Can you talk about maybe some of the titles. Well, tariffs seem to be a big conversation lately. Well, people are worried. The election was a big, big. Area like what's going to happen. At the end of the day. Regardless of what our topic is, it all boils down to am I going to be okay? Because at the end of the day they can listen to the news and know what's going on. And the news is been to scare people, you know, to get adspace and and they do a good job with that. And so whatever the title is, and that's what the title, because they're concerned about that. But we try to educate folks if they just have a balanced approach to their retirement planning and have a plan, not got my plan isn't I'm going to retire next year.

34:58 My plan is written down and in a good plan is reviewed at a minimum a couple of times a year. Are we on track? What does that look like has anything come up because the plan, a financial plan always has room for improvement because oh we've needed a new roof, Well that's going to adjust things a little bit. Any big money coming out, but that's factored in that we build that into the plan. We have healthcare expenses built into the plan, whether or not insurance is going to be the answer to that, just because the cost of insurance, like I talked about that long term care policy, those aren't out there anymore, and so most of our clients self ensure that risk, but they need a plan to make that happen. It's not necessary insurance.

35:40 What are some of the building blocks or rudiments of a good plan? And I know we're not giving financial advice. These are general statements, right, but you know what should people be thinking about? Well, as we start to meet folks, we take a look at what they have, and for some people they forget, meaning it might be an old four to oh one case. The first step is really consolidate and simplify. Just identify what you have because just because you have eight different accounts all over the place, they might all be doing the same thing. So that's not diversification. Just because you have different custodians. So initially we talk about consolidating and simplifying and really understand and the other key component is understanding how much you need. And that's different for everybody.

36:31 And I have girlfriends that come up to me all the time and say, Chen, how much money do I need to retire? And my next question to them always is how much do you spend? And those two questions go hand in hand because for us to build a good plan, it starts with a budget, knowing how much you're spending. Yeah, what lifestyle do you want? Right? Yeah, and we'll assume initially it's going to be the same lifestyle you have. That's always our starting point. The idea of retiring isn't to go on a budget ideally, right, And we start with what you're spending, and we put inflation on that over time, and we take a look at what your income looks like. Of course, social Security is a piece of it. Maybe you're lucky enough to have a pension, but whatever that gap is between what you're getting for income, we look to your portfolio, We look to your investments and how are we going to how are we going to fill that gap? And we do that through a tax lens, because I talked about the number. Probably the biggest mistake people make, as I talked about earlier, is too much risk thinking that they're all in the market as they because they just can't withhold withstand a big dip. Because when you're pulling from these accounts that are down in value because you need to because you're no longer working, you know, that's the worst thing to do. So we like a balanced approach.

37:52 But after we get past all that, it becomes a tax strategy. There's nobody that doesn't want to save money in taxes, and we see very common mistakes where people start to pull from wrong accounts and in knowing the goal of the money is huge, which the. Goli meaning some of those are going to be taxable and some of them were already for yeah, and. Most people like to spend from their taxable accounts till they don't have anything left and they just you know, just close their eyes on what they have over here in this tax deferred world, which is fine, but at some point was that the best was that the best plan for you? Usually if somebody retires at age sixty five and they don't have to take their required minimum distribution until seventy five or maybe seventy three or seventy five, depending on when they were born. There's a window of planning that can be done that may work really lovely for them, and they might want to convert some of that money in their tax deferred world like their iras or four oh one case over to their WROTH accounts, and that's that's the window to do it before they're forced to take money out of those accounts.

39:00 Are you still seeing sixty fives at younger? Is it older in terms of retirement age? It's funny you asked that. I have clients that love, love, love what they do, and they're forced to take their r and ds and they're still contributing to their plans. And so is that the majority of people? Maybe not, maybe that's just our demographic, but certainly a good amount enjoy working or maybe work part time. What I see more now is people giving up the stressful jobs and trying to build that gap until seven when they they're fully retired. That's what I see more. Whatever that gap is, they might not need to earn the six figure job anymore, but they can't afford to retire either. So we talk about well, what do you enjoy doing and you know, can you make a living fill that gap in your income till you get there?

40:01 That's common, that's good. I like that if we had a. Review climb on a call here. Yes, yeah, And he's wanting to figure out what he wants to do. He's like, they just got new software. I don't want to learn the software. Uh. He he does mortgage underwriting, and he's like, and they have good income, they have good savings, but he's just bored. He wants something different. And he's handy. He's like, my dream was always working at home. He doesn't need benefits. Most people struggle because they need health insurance. But his wife has great benefits. She retired from the state and so it works for them. But he's still trying to figure that. And it's it's a fun convation because this next chapter is different for everybody.

40:54 All Right, is there a typical and this is kind of an unfair question, but I'll ask it anyway. Is there a typical client? It like, what does what does a typical? Again? And maybe unfair for this tell me. Well, we try to do a really good job of weeding out the clients that would not be a good fit for us. So that's the beauty of what I do is we can decide who's a good fit for our model, and if we're if we're sitting down talking to somebody that wants to talk about cryptocurrency and having you know, returns much greater and beating the market, we're going to say, hey, we're not the right fit for you, because we look for clients that are looking for a reasonable that are looking if most people that we meet with their goal, because they're good savers, is to keep what they have and have some growth. They don't want to lose what they have because they know they are not going to be contributing anymore, and they tend to be good savers and they're not greedy. So we all and for us here at Johnson Brenetti of People's Life Savings, that's a huge responsibility. So we're not taking that added risk to beat the market. And where we shine, although we don't see it that often is when the market drops because they don't drop as far. And that's really where the beauty. It doesn't matter when the market drops and you're working, because it's called dolo cost averaging. You're putting money in on those low points. But when you're no longer working and the market drops, you're not adding

42:25 money to those accounts, so you don't want to drop as far. And I think that's where we shine is sort of a balanced approach, and we have the flexibility of still giving them income from other buckets. And we gave the equities alone. All right, So there's tax planning. What about enough state plan. Huge, huge, huge part. I'm not an attorney. I always say I'm not an attorney, but we start off with the conversation of how important it is, and we joke because we say, all right, who you know. People think just because they have a will, they're all set in their house will go to their kids, and it will, but there's a probate. You still go through probate, and it is public information. Some people are super private. Just simple trust planning helps with that. It protects. In Massachusetts, everybody has a two million dollar exemption. And so that just means simply when you add up all your savings, all your investable assets, in addition to everything you own, including your real estate. With how fortunate everybody's been with real estate, it's not that hard to get over that two million dollar hurdle. Everything above that is taxed, and if it's a married couple, it can go to each other.

43:42 But without proper planning on the front end, what dies with that first spouse? Is there two million dollar exemption? I know Connecticut has different rules, much more generous to where the federal limit is at around fourteen thousand or so, but it'll over fourteen. But for mass ju says we're the third worst state to die in according to Forbes magazine. So get to New Hampshire. Yeah, yeah, so, but you know what, the other key point is here we have strongest school systems, which helps our real estate, and we also have one of the strongest states for. Medical Yeah, you know. So there's reasons why people love and people want to live with their within their communities and their families where that is very few. People might talk a big game about moving out of state, but at the end of the day, if they can afford to be here, they want to be here.

44:35 Yeah. Yeah, it's family for sure, that's what That's what another show for another time. I was going to get into a rabbit hole, but yeah, I look, I just looked at the clock. I know that giving back is an important part of the Johnson Bernetti culture, and it seems that you've done some of that too. What's your pitch to people that should be doing more, not even financially, but talk us, talk about what Johnson Bernetti does, what you do well. I think Johnson Brenetti doesn't make this part of their client story, but we just so. Joel Johnson, who's our founder, his parents were missionaries and it's just built into his culture to give back. And he has said to us number one, we talk to everybody that wants a conversation because regardless of what you have for assets, he says to all the advisors, we can give advice to help anybody.

45:30 So it's worth it to have a conversation with us to see if we can add value to anybody's situation. But as it relates to five oh one, C three's and different organizations, all employees once a quarter will take an afternoon and go volunteer and there's different charities. Yeah, and the one Wish Project is one that we've adopted here at Johnson Brenetti. I actually brought it to the firm. It was in It's kind of a cool story. They help celebrate birthdays in shelters and all the leads come from social workers. So as a representative of volunteering for that, you would bake a cake if you're a baker. That's how I got involved. My daughter was into baking, so I found that, Oh, here's something cool, and you deliver birthday presents. Oftentimes you do it behind the scene and you drop it off at a shelter, or if the mom's still in the picture or the parents, you give it to the parents and let them celebrate the birthday with the toys for the kids. And it's just so beautiful.

46:38 We take that for granted, we do it with our own family, but it's just a really nice, nice way to get back and our clients are getting more involved with it too. I love it all right. Last question, who in the viewing and listening audiences should reach out to you and why? And we've got your how right. People have seen the craws here if they're listening on radio, we'll give a shout out to that information too, But who should reach out and why? Yeah, I think it's important as you start thinking about retirement. Within ten years of retirement, that's about the window we want to start talking with you. Because there's things you can do on the front end you don't. You can call.

47:23 We certainly get a lot of people that say I'm retiring next week or I just retired. But the more planning you can get in advance, the better off you are. Even within your four to roh one case, as long as you're fifty nine and a half, you can take the bulk of your assets and move it into an IRA to start getting some good planning advice around that. So I'd say within ten years at a minimum, or you know that's the long window. Five to ten years is the window leading up to retirement or if you're in retirement. That's the demographic of the folks we help. You've got maybe one or two times you're making these decisions. Why not consult with an expert that helps with pension decisions or tax planning and have a conversation with us and get a sense of how we tackle that. So what we provide everybody a money map, which we're known for our one page plan, and we provide an income plan for anyone that we speak with, and if you decide to hire us, great, we'll help you implement that plan.

48:27 But how do you decide when you don't don't understand our approach. So we actually take a look at what folks are doing, ask them all the right questions and put an income plan together. And that's really a tool for us as advisors just to make sure they do have enough. But that that that's a really good opportunity I think, to get to sit down for an hour or so to talk to the or somebody on the team here good good usage. So the website is Johnson Brunetti which is Johnson b R U N E T t I dot com. They can text the word retire to eight hundred seven five seven zero four three six. Jen, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it.

49:09 Thanks Kevin, appreciate the opportunity. You bet, and thanks everybody for watching and listening. As you know, this is a show about business and business challenges. Often, if you've got concerns, perhaps about well your finances, retault to Jen. If you've got concerns about the sales effectiveness of your company effectiveness, whether your sales team is you or small or large, feel free to reach out to me on Facebook or LinkedIn at Winning Business Radio, or drop me a note kevinat Winning Businessradio dot com. We are Winning Incorporated, part of Sandler Training. We develop sales teams into high achievers and sales leaders into truoe coaches and mentors. Listen. We're not right for everybody, but maybe we should have a conversation if you've got some of those challenges.

49:51 Thank you again to one. Every week I say thank you one for producer and engineer for another job well done. Be sure to join us again next Monday, December first, we'll do it all over again. Until then, this is Kevin Haleanan. You have been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host, Kevin Helenan. If you missed any part of this episode, the podcast is available on Talk for Podcasting and iHeartRadio. For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio dot com or check us out on social media. Tune in again next week and every Monday at four pm Eastern Time to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W four CY Radio W four cy dot com. Until then, let's succeed where others have failed and win in business with Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio