Beyond Pie Charts

Hopefully your famous last words in life won’t be “Hey y’all, watch this!” And in the financial world, there’s quite a few phrases that you don’t want to be your famous last words either...Find out more information about Brian Butler and Beyond The Pie Charts here: https://www.wealthstandardfinancial.com/Full transcript below...----more----Transcript:Marc Killian: Hey, everybody, welcome in to Beyond Pie Charts. Thanks for tuning in to our podcast with Brian Butler, President and Wealth Management Advisor at Wealth Standard Financial, serving you here in the greater Houston area.Marc Killian: I am Marc Killian, the cohost, as we talk about investing, finance and retirement with Brian. If you've got some questions or concerns, he's been helping families for over 20 years in the financial services industry, and you can reach out to him any time by calling 713-955-6007. That's 713-955-6007.Marc Killian: If you've got an immediate question or concern, we always urge you to reach out and contact Brian, try to contact a professional before you take action. Sometimes you may hear something on a show like ours or other podcasts or radio programs and you think that sounds interesting and you want to pursue more information, well, always check with your advisor before you do so, and if you don't have one, Brian's here to help. But give him a call, 713-955-6007.Marc Killian: Go online to the website at wealthstandardfinancial.com. That's wealthstandardfinancial.com and while you're there you can check out the team, a lot of good tools, tips and resources, and also you'll see a post for podcast and right there you can listen to past episodes or you can subscribe to future episodes, you can check out the blog as well, so, lots of ways to get Beyond The Pie Charts with us here on the program.Marc Killian: And Brian, buddy, welcome and how are you?Brian Butler: I'm good, man, how are you?Marc Killian: I am hanging in there, hope that you are doing fantastic. You're always so energetic, I look forward to talking to you each week. Everything going well?Brian Butler: Everything is great, man. You know, the business is growing, the podcast is growing, and I'm excited that I've done this.Marc Killian: Well, very cool, very cool. Well, listen, we're both from the South, okay. As we've talked about here on the podcast and we are going to our sixth episode here. Obviously you're in the Houston area, I'm in North Carolina, so we don't always have to be together when we do this. We're letting people in on the inside secrets of the podcasting world.Brian Butler: Right.Marc Killian: Sh-sh. Don't tell anybody. Just the people listening share that with each other. Don't tell anybody else. But anyway, in all seriousness, but the South has lots of funny little quirks, just like any place does, and as Southerners I thought this might be kind of funny for us to relate to.Marc Killian: Famous last words is what I want to go with here as this week's topic, and, here in the South you might hear something like, "Hey, y'all, watch this," right?Brian Butler: Right.Marc Killian: And that's usually preceded by some sort of goof or some sort of funny video, or maybe it's "Hold my beer," I think that's like a common one now, that's been pretty popular. But anyway, usually, that's something that winds up preceding an event that you probably don't want to be your last words or your last statement. So I thought we could have a little fun with that and parlay that over to the financial side, and hopefully these would not be your famous financial last words. So I've got a couple of statements here that I've kind of thrown together, and you tell me what you think if this was... what your reaction would be if someone said this to you. Okay?Brian Butler: Okay.Marc Killian: Here we go. So, you might hear someone say, "I told myself, Brian, a few years ago, that I was going to get out of the market if I ever got back what I lost in 2008, but now I think I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing because I want to squeeze out as much as I possibly can." Is that setting yourself up for potential problems, if you're not being smart and setting yourself up to repeat 2008?Brian Butler: Well, you know, people go through this emotion that nothing can go wrong when the market's doing well, and if the market tends to do well for five, six, seven years, everybody jumps on that bandwagon, and right at the peak of everybody jumping in, the market is ripe when the market decides to go down.Marc Killian: Right.Brian Butler: And so people ride that roller coaster down, halfway down they're like, "Okay, I'm going to get out of the market." And then when it hits the bottom, everybody's, "I'm never going to invest again." I've had so many people tell me that, and right when it hits the bottom is the perfect time to get back in the market. Now, of course, no one can time the-Marc Killian: Exactly.Brian Butler: ... bottom of the market-Marc Killian: Or the top.Brian Butler: ... but it could be somewhere in the general vicinity, you can do well, but nobody does it. You get out of the market but you ask a client, "Okay, when would you get back in?" They don't know. And so, because of that, they miss out on a lot of opportunity, and usually over a 20 year period, individual clients that manage their own money have shown to not make as much money as any other asset class. So, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, gold, real estate, they tend to underperform not because they're picking the wrong investments, it's just because they're trying to time the market, and no one can time the market. Even the best money managers on earth can't. Warren Buffett can't. And so, if he can't do it, what makes you think you can?Marc Killian: Yeah, especially with the data that a lot of those folks have, they get access to, right?Brian Butler: Exactly. And you're at work during market hours and when are you doing this research? And if you spend most of your time watching investment news, it's going to drive you nuts. There was a study done by, I think, Yale University, and they tracked people for 10 years, and the people that watched and studied investment news underperformed by 15 to 20% to people that never watched any investment news or paid attention to their account.Marc Killian: Oh, wow. That's interesting.Brian Butler: So, more information is not always good.Marc Killian: Okay. All right. So, we're talking about some famous financial last words that you don't want them to be your famous financial last words, for example. So, let's talk about this way of looking at it. Someone who might be like, "Well, I like the security of keeping my money in cash because I know I won't lose it." Well, that could be some famous last words because all you're doing is losing your money safely.Brian Butler: Right. You're losing your money safely and people always ignore inflation, and people hear it all the time but they ignore what it really means. It means everything that you're buying is going to cost more later on, and health care inflates at about 7%. Then you have interest rate risk. Are we in a rising interest rate environment or are we in a declining interest rate environment? That's going to affect how much money you make on your cash, your tax rate.Brian Butler: So, our country owes 22 trillion dollars in debt, and so, where is that money going to come from? It's going to come from people with money in the form of taxation. Now, because of that, if you just have money in a cash account, you have all these obstacles that you have to overcome. Cash could not keep pace of 5, and 6, 7% levels of inflation, and so, true, that money will be there in its current form, $100,000 will be $100,000 ten years from now, but it just won't buy you as much as it has today. [crosstalk 00:06:37]Marc Killian: Yeah, exactly. You know, it's funny that you say that. I don't know if you saw the story or not. It's a little bit older now, I think, maybe it was last year or a year-and-a-half ago, and I don't even know how this happens, but a gentleman was using one of the... You remember the really old big TV sets, the big console sets that-Brian Butler: Oh, yeah.Marc Killian: ... we used to have in the '70s and the early '80s? It was massive and it sat on the floor and it had its own legs and the whole nine yards, big wooden things, and apparently this gentleman had an old one that had burned up a long time ago but he used it as his safe. And so he was storing money in the back of this TV set, and, don't know, 30 years went by and he forgot about it. And the chest was given away or whatever, and it went to the dump, and, kindly enough, amazingly enough in the world today, people found it, found the money that he had in there and returned it to the gentleman, which was great.Marc Killian: But he had forgotten that he had it and he said he was saving it and he was going to give it to his grandkids so that they can use it to buy, like put down a payment on a home or something like that. And his comment was, "$100,000..." It was $100,000 by the way, it was in the back of his TV set, which is crazy. And he said, "$100,000 sure doesn't buy what it used to." And it was like, that was perfect, right?Brian Butler: That's exactly what it means. If that money gets lost, then you come back, think of what a million dollars was 20 years ago and what a million dollars is today. It's still a lot of money-Marc Killian: Sure, sure.Brian Butler: ... but it's nowhere near as much as it was 20 years-Marc Killian: Yeah. So you're losing money safely, basically, if you're not worried about at least keeping up with inflation, and you're losing purchasing power. That's really what it comes down to.Marc Killian: So, okay, how about another one? Now, I'm going to toss myself under the bus for this one, Brian. I like to do this on the podcast because it's easy to let people get a frame of reference when someone else is in that same... can relate to, or can actually be in that same situation. So for me, all the males in my family have passed away quite early, and I've already had heart surgery, I think I may have mentioned that here on the show, and I'm only 48, but I am one of those people that I am pretty sure that I'm going to pass away probably somewhere around 70. Somewhere between 68 and 72 or so, but I'm not planning to die early. I'm planning to live much longer.Marc Killian: But a lot of people will do that. They'll say, "Well, nobody in my family lives past 70, so I'm not planning on it either, so I'm not going to worry about planning for longevity." And that's a huge famous last word mistake because what if you're wrong and you wind up being 85 and now you have no money?Brian Butler: Right. One of my clients, we had this exact conversation last week, and I told him, I said, "When you look back at your parents when they were your age, did they look a lot older than you do?" And he said, "Well, yeah, they did." I said, "Were they as active as you are, currently?" "Well, no." "Did they work out? Did they watch what they ate? Did they have all the health care advances that we have today?" And the answers were, "No." This is the best age to live in in human history for health care.Marc Killian: Right.Brian Butler: And the things they weren't able to do can definitely extend that life. And I'll give an example. My father had a stroke at 51-years-old, so he was really young, and he passed away and had complications along that when he was 57. But at the same token, his grandfather, so my great-great-grandfather, passed away at 106.Marc Killian: Right. There you go.Brian Butler: So, how you take care of yourself, your diet, medical advances, have something to do with it but genetics has some, but what we found are... When I look at my lifestyle and I look at my father at the same age, I'm in much better shape. I'm much more active, and so that gives me comfort to know, if I keep doing these things there's a good chance that I'm going to live well past 75. So, the biggest way that I can tell clients to lower some of your health care cost are exercise and watch what you eat. That's going to initially save you so much money in retirement and it doesn't cost you hardly anything.Marc Killian: Yeah. And if you are a pessimist, like me, then that's fine but at least plan. And plan for your partner as well, right? By planning to live to 85, if that's the case, then great. Then everything's taken care of. But if I happen to do pass away early, that money is still there and will then go to help support your spouse's lifestyle and retirement as well. So, even if you want to take that stance and say, "I'm not planning to live long based on genetics in my family," fine, you can think that but at least plan to live longer, because no one wants to be 85 and have to go to work. That would be no-Brian Butler: No.Marc Killian: That would be no fun at all, right? Definitely don't want to go that route. Okay, and I'm going to stay with the same theme here as we're talking about this, and reference my mom.Marc Killian: Now, like your father, mine passed away at 63, pretty early as well. My mom, now, she's 78, so she's cruising along pretty good, but she's one of these that's like, "I'm not going to a nursing home. You can just take me out in the woods and put me out of my misery," which first and foremost is pretty silly, because, I'm not going to do that to my mother, and secondly I'm not going to jail.Brian Butler: Right.Marc Killian: But a lot of people will do that. They'll say, "I don't care, I'm not going to the nursing home." They'll find all sorts of crazy things to say, and it's not necessarily that the nursing home is the end result that you may have to be in, but if you're not at least addressing and talking about some form of long-term care, that could potentially be in your future.Brian Butler: Yes. 70% of Americans will need long-term care at some point in their life.Marc Killian: That's a big number. That's a big number.Brian Butler: It's a huge number, and going into a nursing home does scare many people because they've seen on television some of the nightmares there can be in certain nursing homes and that's not what they want. They want to stay in the comfort of their own houses or have people around them that they know.Marc Killian: Right.Brian Butler: And what a lot of those people don't realize is, long-term care does not necessarily mean going into a nursing home.Marc Killian: Exactly.Brian Butler: Many times you can get help in the house, whether that be a family member or a home health care service, and so the days of you just going to a black hole and people forgetting about you are the nightmares that people have, and it's not necessarily the reality of today. Many nursing homes are high-end apartments, essentially, where you have some medical help just in case you need it, and that sense of community that many people think that they're going to lose by going into a nursing home is a little bit different than what they perceived once they do some more research. And so, it's not as bad as people can think.Marc Killian: Well, and I think to your point though, there, is pretty solid when you're talking about the fact that it's changed so much and that assisted living really is where the majority of things are at nowadays. There's so many... We'll just take nursing homes in the cliché sense of the word off the table. A lot of assisted living complexes now where you have... She's actually in assisted living. She's in a senior community right now. Now they don't have any medical help, but it's only seniors that are allowed to live there. They have like the emergency pull cord thing where something happens, they pull that and it dispatches fire and all that kind of stuff, and EMS.Marc Killian: But the costs are lower so that they can, if they're on a budget, that kind of thing, there's all little... People that come by from time to time and they come by and see if they... when one wants to go for a walk or do some gardening in the community garden, things of that nature, so a lot of those places are becoming more and more popular. So, yeah, to your point, the traditional thought of a nursing home is not what it used to be where you're put in a bed in a cold hospitaly type room and just left alone.Marc Killian: So, yeah, I think that's a good point where a lot of people get wrapped up in. So don't let that be your famous last words by thinking silly things like that that may or may not happen, but, really, what it comes down to is, don't put yourself in that situation by not talking and having communication about the possibility of any of these things happening because as we age, and as we all know, Murphy's Law, Murphy likes to strike at any time, and if you've taken the time to plan and talk to someone about building a plan, then hopefully you can stave off a lot of these worries because you'll have a plan in place. Right, Brian?Brian Butler: Absolutely.Marc Killian: And so, that's why working with an advisor is so important, and that's a lot of what you guys do day in and day out at Wealth Standard Financial.Brian Butler: We enjoy, and it's the best part of my day, is when I get to meet new clients and then my current clients and then just be part of their story as they retire, as they plan for grandkids, college, whatever they're planning for, it's what I enjoy most.Marc Killian: Well, there you go. All right, folks, well, that's our bit for this week here on the podcast. Don't utter some of those silly famous last words. Make sure you're doing yourself a favor, having a conversation with your financial advisor, and not just one. This is an ongoing thing. Your financial plan should be a living document, just like you're alive and you're going through life and things are going to change through your years in retirement, or your financial plan's going to change with you. It needs to change with you because it's not going to be a set-it-and-forget-it kind of deal.Marc Killian: If you have questions, you have concerns, you need some help, you're not exactly sure how your plan is set up to do, if it's going to help you get to and through, give Brian a call at Wealth Standard Financial, at 713-955-6007. That's 713-955-6007. Have that conversation, maybe do a little checkup, follow in, whatever the case might be. We get checkups on our health, we should also get them on our wealth as well.Marc Killian: And share the podcast with folks who you think might enjoy it. Have them go to wealthstandardfinancial.com. That's wealthstandardfinancial.com and you'll see the link for the podcast page. You can subscribe to it that way and I'm sure you'll be seeing things from Brian and the team on Facebook and social media and whatnot as well.Marc Killian: So, Brian, thanks for your time, buddy, I hope you had a good time and I will see you here the next time.Brian Butler: Great time as usual, man.Marc Killian: All right. We'll talk to you on Beyond Pie Charts here with Brian Butler. We'll catch you next time. Bye-bye.

For some people, the biggest problem with their financial planning isn’t that they make the wrong decisions. It’s that they often fail to make decisions at all. But sometimes you just have to fish or cut bait. Poop or get off the pot. Decide and move forward. Let’s discuss some of the things that can cause the decision-making process to stall and how you can get unstuck.Find out more information about Brian Butler and Beyond The Pie Charts here: https://www.wealthstandardfinancial.com/Full transcript below...----more----Transcript:Marc Killian: Hey, everybody. Welcome back into another exciting edition of Beyond Pie Charts. Thanks for tuning into our podcast here with Brian Butler, president and wealth management advisor at Wealth Standard Financial, serving you here in the greater Houston area from the office in Houston. Make sure that you find Brian and the team online at wealthstandardfinancial.com. That's wealthstandardfinancial.com. While you're there, you'll see a little link at the top, says podcast. You can click on that and check out some past episodes as well as the blog that goes along with it, and of course we'd always appreciate you liking, sharing, and all that good kind of stuff. You'll also see on the right hand side where you can subscribe to it on various platforms. If you have not done so yet, we would certainly appreciate it. This is, I believe, episode number five, and so, Brian, welcome in. How are you?Brian Butler: Good, man. How are you?Marc Killian: I'm doing fantastic. Good to talk with you. We were chatting just briefly before we got this thing rolling. You've got some fun stuff coming up, sort of, I guess. You said you'd call it kind of sort of not a vacation but maybe. You get to go to a wedding for the family.Brian Butler: Yep. My little brother is getting married.Marc Killian: Very cool.Brian Butler: He's my 30 year old brother, which still sounds crazy to me, because I changed his diapers.Marc Killian: Oh, okay.Brian Butler: But he's getting married in Mexico, and so the reason why I say that it's somewhat of a vacation is, number one, at least we'll be on the beach.Marc Killian: Exactly.Brian Butler: But number two, we'll have a crazy three year old running around with it. And I'm the best man in the wedding, so-Marc Killian: That's a lot of responsibility.Brian Butler: Right. So it's somewhat of a vacation, but a little bit of work for me too.Marc Killian: That's all right.Brian Butler: But I would do it all day every day.Marc Killian: There you go. Well that's cool. Congratulations to the new couple and I hope everything goes wonderful and you guys have a fantastic time down there. Where are you going in Mexico?Brian Butler: Playa Mujeres.Marc Killian: Yeah, I know exactly where that's at. No, I'm kidding.Brian Butler: Yeah. It's about a 40 minute drive from the airport in Cancun.Marc Killian: Oh, okay. All right. All right. Very cool. Very cool. Well, I'll tell you what. Now so you're in the Houston area, and we talked about this a little bit before. You're born and raised, right?Brian Butler: Yep, born and raised.Marc Killian: Okay. So did you ever go fishing? Did you ever go with a grandparent or anything like that? Did you like to go fishing at all?Brian Butler: You know, growing up, that wasn't one of the things that we did.Marc Killian: Okay.Brian Butler: But it became one of the things I've done as an adult more and more.Marc Killian: Gotcha. Okay. So are you familiar with the term "fish or cut bait?"Brian Butler: Absolutely. The brother I'm going to see is on his way to being a professional bass fisherman, if that tells you anything.Marc Killian: Oh, wow. Okay. Well, I did not... See, look, this is, happy coincidences. So this is the topic of conversation I wanted to go with today. I did not know about the brother or the professional fisherman, so that's pretty awesome. Okay, so this'll be even more fun. So what I wanted to do was kind of use that term, Brian, and people familiar with it should realize what it means. It basically means either fish or cut the bait loose and move on, right? Make a decision, basically. Right?Brian Butler: Absolutely.Marc Killian: So same kind of thing, you know, with financial decisions, we can kind of get into this situation where we just freeze, we just don't do anything. Sometimes you have to, as the saying goes, blank or get off the pot, right? You got to do something. So let's talk a little bit about how we can get stuck and maybe ways to get unstuck, if you will, when it comes to making financial decisions. So, for example, clearly there's, a lot of times there's just so many to make that people do get overwhelmed. There's just, you'll have people come in and see you, and I'm sure they say, "Brian, there's so many decisions to make." How do you get started?Brian Butler: Well, think about all the different issues that come to play in our retirement planning. When to take social security. Whether or not to take the spousal benefit on your pension, if you have one. Whether or not you should have life insurance. Where to invest for income. Where to invest for growth. Where to factor in tax planning. Et cetera. And it just paralyzes some people, and they don't know where to start, so they just put it off for as long as possible, which it becomes a major issue when they get ready to retire.Marc Killian: Well where's a baby step to start? If someone was saying, "Yes, this is where I'm stuck, how could they get themselves unstuck? Is there a baby step or two that kind of maybe helps along that path?Brian Butler: Well, one step is to know where your money is. So if you use an app like mint.com where you consolidate all your credit cards, your bank statements, investment accounts, so you can see where you stand right now, that gives you an initial picture where you need to be, but if decision making is really difficult for you, get some help. Find a financial planner. Find a financial advisor. Ask a friend that you've seen be successful with their money. Get some help and some guidance to just get organized. I would say that's the number one thing that you should do is get organized, know where you stand, and then from there it makes the decision making process a little bit easier. It's going to help when you see all these things and you can prioritize what you want to accomplish first. By having a list and a written plan, it always allows you to come back and revisit.Marc Killian: Okay. So now some people might say, "Well let's do a little research as a place to start." And that's probably a good idea, except for the fact that this little thing called Google can sometimes overload you with a little too much research. So if you're kind of finding yourself Google slapped, for lack of a better term, where if you type in "annuity," for example, you're going to get like four billion pages that come up. So how should we caution ourselves when it comes to the research factor?Brian Butler: Well, what I found, most people research too much, and then paralysis by analysis. People say that all the time, but it's 100% true. Anytime you're doing research, you're going to find the extremes of one topic to another. Give you an example. If you Google "are apples good for me," you're going to see half the searches say apples aren't good for you because apple seeds have arsenic, and then the other half is going to say apples are good for you. I would have to say most know that apples are good for them, but just doing a Google search will give you some crazy options out there, just the opposite of what you would think.Marc Killian: Okay. So would it be a situation where sometimes if there's a particular item or something that you're most curious about, to do a little research but take some of that with a grain of salt, just arm yourself with some basic information so that when you do go sit down with a financial professional in your area, they're not necessarily speaking Greek and going over your head?Brian Butler: I would give you another example.Marc Killian: Okay.Brian Butler: Just know the motivation of the writer.Marc Killian: Okay, all right, true.Brian Butler: So if it's an insurance product, was it written by an insurance agent? If it's an investment product, is it just written by an investment company? Just know where their motivation is. Not saying that they're giving you wrong information, but just understand, okay, if an insurance company is telling you never to buy insurance, well, something's wrong with that picture. Just understand where the information's coming from.Marc Killian: The motivation. Yeah. Okay. Very cool, very cool. I like that. All right, so then let's talk about, if we're talking about getting stuck on financial decisions, just the general confusion that sometimes hits people when it comes to... I'll use myself. I'll throw myself under the bus. Math was not my strong suit. So like if we go out and I'm going to quickly figure up a tip or something like that, my wife will figure it out and say something before I even have a chance to get to it. And so sometimes it can be off-putting for people who say, "Well, math isn't my thing," or, "Finances aren't my thing."Brian Butler: Well, for some people finances, or anything related to math, are just generally confusing.Marc Killian: Right.Brian Butler: And many of these people just end up burying their heads in the sand and ignoring everything about their finances as long as they can, because that seems easier than getting frustrated as they try to learn it. And so, again, it all goes back to help, finding a trusted provider that knows what they're talking about that can help teach you the process. You need a teacher in those situations. So if your advisor is not really trying to teach you all the steps and things that you need to know, you have to question that, because we're teachers in general and we want people to be educated so in turn they know why they own certain investments. And so we want to arm clients with the ability to tell a friend at a cocktail party why they own this particular portfolio and what their advisor does for them. And if I can do that, my job is totally successful.Marc Killian: Okay. So I was thinking about it this way. So for some people, they don't want to know all the nuts and bolts. That's why they're hiring an advisor, right? They're like, "I don't understand it, I don't really want to know everything," but a good working knowledge just so that you're familiar and comfortable and can talk about the things that you do own and why you have them, that makes sense. So that's what you're saying, right?Brian Butler: Yeah. Generally, people that hire us are outsourcers. They want to outsource that part of their lives so that they can go on and enjoy what they do for a living or what they do in retirement and their grandkids and just let us worry about the day to day.Marc Killian: Okay. Very cool, very cool. So let me ask you, when you're sitting down with potential new clients, do you have people come in who say things... I've talked to advisors all across the country, I host a lot of shows, and you'll get people that come in and say, "I need help with my retirement accounts, my investments, but I don't like to talk about money." And so then pulling the information out of them is kind of like pulling a tooth. So do you have people like that where it's just a struggle to get them to open up?Brian Butler: Well, you know, many people don't like talking about money. It was a taboo subject for a lot of people, and they grew up with it being a source of frustration, and the last thing they want to do is talk about it with a stranger. And the way I try to frame that is let's talk about your goals, rather than just talk about money. We can back into the money piece by you telling me what you want to accomplish, what some of your fears are, and how we can help mitigate some of those circumstances. And if we can do that, it makes the conversation about them and about their lives rather than the nuts and bolts and dollars and cents, and it really helps bring people's anxiety down, and I can see it as they sit on our couch in our office, that once we start talking about what they truly want to accomplish and what's important to them and what they value most, it makes it a lot easier conversation when you're talking about money.Marc Killian: Well, you're listening to us here on the podcast with Brian Butler. We're talking about fish or cut bait, if you will, basically getting stuck on financial decisions, maybe how to get unstuck a little bit, and our final one here on the podcast would be obviously the traumatic life events that are going to happen. In what you do for a living, it's inevitable that some big life moments do come up, and they're not always the most pleasant. There are some negative ones, clearly, and that can cause people to have a hard time making a decision.Brian Butler: No, absolutely.Marc Killian: And so how do you address that, if it's the unfortunate, like the death of a spouse or something like that?Brian Butler: Well, we had recently a former client come in and we were catching up. We had been trying to get him in the office for a couple of years, and he finally decided to come in, and he said he'd had a rough time and that his stocks and everything were doing well, but when I asked what was the rough time, he told us that his wife passed away a couple years ago. And anytime you have a client and they go through that death of a spouse, when you've been married 50 plus years, that's a traumatic event.Marc Killian: Sure, yeah.Brian Butler: His trauma was not financial, because he's a multi-millionaire.Marc Killian: Oh, okay, well.Brian Butler: But it's very emotional. And so anytime you go through those situations, the emotion can cause you to make bad decisions depending on who you are. What you want to do anytime a traumatic event like that happens is have a good support network and people to talk to, whether that be a financial advisor, whether that be a friend, church members, whoever, so that that way you can have someone to talk to and bounce different things off of, ask opinions about financial matters, and many times people are going through the same thing, or know someone that's going through the same thing as you are, and if you can get that information and get that support network going, it's going to make life a lot easier.Marc Killian: Yeah, and traumatic life events, when you're talking about in the pre-retirement or retirement stage, you know, could be the loss of a job, if it's right before you plan to retire. That could definitely throw a monkey in the wrench, if you will. Divorce, obviously. A major illness. Death of a spouse, as we covered. And it does take those emotional tolls, but it also can cause us to freeze up on the financial matters. You don't have to necessarily rush into a decision after something like the death of a spouse, but you do need to, at some point, put some focus on it, and you can't just turn a blind eye to that because you still have to go on and figure out what's the best steps from a financial standpoint. And a lot of times, especially with the death of a spouse, that may mean, now, obviously the loss of a significant portion of the income. That's going to change the taxes. That one gets overlooked a lot, Brian, when the death of a spouse does happen is how the tax rates change, because you're so used to married, filing jointly, type of situation, and now you're in a different tax bracket.Brian Butler: Yeah, absolutely. Taxes, we've seen, most people don't plan well enough for the taxes that are coming. So traditionally everyone puts their money in tax-deferred accounts, and anytime a spouse dies, you still get some tax benefit, but the next generation, in estate planning, everything changes. So anytime something like that happens, your estate plan and the legacy that you're able to lose is definitely going to change, not to mention just the emotional toll. So there are a lot of factors that go into planning anytime somebody's going through that type of transition, whether it be the job, divorce, illness, death, and it's one of the things that we spend most of the time talking about with clients are the things they value most and the things that they want to protect, and that's why our tagline for Wealth Standard Financial is "When special care is needed." And so we want to help people go through these hard situations so that they can be happy on the other side.Marc Killian: Well, there you go folks. Well, that's our podcast for this week, so when special care is needed, you got questions, reach out to Brian and the team at Wealth Standard Financial. Our topic this week was getting stuck on financial decisions, and sometimes you got to fish and/or cut bait. So reach out to him, (713)955-6007. That's your number to call if you have some immediate questions you want to get addressed. That's (713)955-6007. Brian Butler is the president and wealth management advisor at Wealth Standard Financial, serving you here in the Houston area. And don't forget, check us out online at wealthstandardfinancial.com, subscribe to the podcast, share with friends and family, people that you think might benefit from us, and check out the blog while you're there as well. And Brian, thanks for your time, buddy. I'll see you again here pretty soon, and good luck on the upcoming trip to Mexico.Brian Butler: All right, man, see you next week.Marc Killian: All right, take care now.

There are plenty of proverbs and axioms that aren’t meant to be about money, but we can easily learn a financial lesson from them anyway. We’ll show you the hidden money meanings behind some of these popular sayings...Find out more information about Brian Butler and Beyond The Pie Charts here: https://www.wealthstandardfinancial.com/Full transcript below...----more----Transcript:Marc Killian: Well it is week four here on Beyond Pie Charts, the podcast with Brian Butler. We are into our fourth episode, and we thank you so much for checking us out. Brian is President and Wealth Management Advisor at Wealth Standard Financial; serving you in the Greater Houston area. You can find him and the team online at wealthstandardfinancial.com, that's wealthstandardfinancial.com.Marc Killian: Brian's been serving families in the financial services realm for more than 20 years, and a great resource for you to tap into. If you need a little help, you got a few questions, or you know someone does, share this information with them, share this podcast with them and tell them to give Brian a call at 713-955-6007, that's 713-955-6007; that's your number to call.Marc Killian: Brian, buddy, welcome in. How are you this week?Brian Butler: I'm good, man, how are you?Marc Killian: I'm doing fantastic. I always look forward to talking you on this podcast, you're just so upbeat and happy. You're such a fun guy to talk to; I'm so glad to talk to you. Things been well in your world this past week?Brian Butler: No, they've been awesome man, I can't complain, the business is growing, the podcast is growing; so I'm really happy about that.Marc Killian: Very, very cool. Yeah, and if you did complain, who would listen? That's what I always tell my wife.Brian Butler: Yeah.Marc Killian: Yeah.Brian Butler: How does that go over?Marc Killian: Yeah, she's usually just laughs at me. But yeah, pretty good stuff. No, she's a sweetheart, but anyway, hey listen, I got a fun little show for us. So I want to change this up a little week, instead of maybe getting into some nitty gritty specifics, let's go with some saying, some proverbs, some classic stuff that we've all heard growing up.Marc Killian: Whether it's from a pastor, or grandparent, or an uncle, or whatever; we kind of all just heard these things. I got a couple of fun ones here for you, and I thought maybe we could see if we could test your brain a little bit, Brian, and see if you can extract a money lesson, if you will, from some of these things. Okay, you feel up to the challenge?Brian Butler: I'm down, man, let's do it.Marc Killian: All right, let's do it. So everybody's heard stuff like, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." Break it down for us, what can we do from a financial side on that?Brian Butler: Well, the idea of this proverb is sometimes it's best to focus on what you already have, instead of worrying about trying to get more.Marc Killian: Mm-hmm (affirmative).Brian Butler: And at some point in your financial life, you should be more focused on not losing your savings instead of trying to maximize the return on your investments. And what we've seen in our business, the wealthier the client, the more conservative they are.Brian Butler: They know that they've saved a lot of money and invested well over time, so during their accumulation years in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and even their 50s, they were going gangbusters trying to make as much money as they could, because they knew they had time on their side to grow. And as they get closer to retirement, they want to start making sure that that income stream that they worked so hard for doesn't get blown up in a market downturn.Brian Butler: And being conservative and understanding what you have in that risk reward, are you more happy to keep what you have versus grow it a little bit more? Or just maintain the lifestyle that you have, protect your family with your estate planning, and not have to think about it in retirement? And so a lot of people, once they get enough money to have a great lifestyle, they're not really worried about growing as much.Marc Killian: Yeah, you know I did a different analogy with this one time, and I love how you did that. I kind of do the same thing if you're thinking about a football. We've talked about the fact that we're both football fans, and it's kind of like the victory formation. Sometimes you just got to take a knee, you don't have to gain any more yards; you got the game won, right?Brian Butler: You've seen it go wrong, it's your fault it may [inaudible 00:03:29].Marc Killian: You have, right? So, I mean you can think back to the Super Bowl a few years ago with the Seahawks when everybody in the world knew they were going to run the ball, and they threw it, they took a chance; and look what happened, they lost it so-Brian Butler: Absolutely.Marc Killian: So sometimes you got to be smart, don't try to outfox yourself.Brian Butler: Exactly.Marc Killian: So a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. All right, good job with that proverb. How about this one? "A rising tide lifts all boats."Brian Butler: Well, if the market's going to go up, and you're invested in the market, then you're going to make money.Marc Killian: Mm-hmm (affirmative).Brian Butler: The same principle is if the market goes down, you're going to lose money.Marc Killian: Right.Brian Butler: So, no matter what you think, you're probably not going to outsmart the system and make money when everybody else is losing.Marc Killian: Unless you're Warren Buffett or something, I mean, I don't know, right?Brian Butler: Well and even Warren-Marc Killian: Even Warren, that's true, that's true.Brian Butler: Sometimes when the market's down, Warren's negative.Marc Killian: That's true.Brian Butler: But the difference with Warren is he knows everything's on sale, and he has enough money-Marc Killian: Yeah.Brian Butler: To just go out and buy more things. So when the market bounces back, he makes more than everybody else.Marc Killian: Yeah.Brian Butler: And so he doesn't panic when the market tanks. And so being able to be invested in the market and understanding that it will fluctuate, no matter what, and you just have to make sure you manage to your risk tolerance. And the risk tolerance sometimes is mathematical, most times it's emotional.Brian Butler: And so how are your emotions going to be if your account drops 20%? If you don't bat an eye, well that's probably a good risk tolerance. If you're staying up all night having heart palpitations, that's definitely the wrong risk tolerance for you.Marc Killian: Yeah.Brian Butler: And age has something to do with it, but not everything. I have some clients that are 60 plus, they're very aggressive, and they understand the risk that they're taking. And I have some 20 year old clients that are very conservative, so it's been interesting to see the difference between the two generations.Marc Killian: No, I think that's a good way of looking at it. And to kind of expound on that for just a second, when we see the market go down, even for retirees, sometimes it's not the worst idea to think about buying something when it's on sale. Because you're still going to be in retirement for 20, maybe 25, maybe 30, or even 35 years, and you still got to have growth, some growth in retirement.Marc Killian: So sometimes people get into this place where they hit retirement and they want to take all risk off the table, but you still have to outpace inflation and make a little bit, depending on how long you're retired.Brian Butler: Absolutely-Marc Killian: Yeah-Brian Butler: That's true.Marc Killian: And you've got no clue how long you're going to be retired. And if you do, it makes making a plan a whole lot easier. We joke a lot of times saying, "If you can tell your advisor when you're going to pass away, they can craft you the perfect plan."Brian Butler: Yeah, absolutely.Marc Killian: But that's a little hard to figure out, and kind of morbid; so we're going to move on. How about this one? Now I am a victim of this one, the classic line my grandmother had to say to me one time, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." Because, of course, I did and I tripped, and I broke all my eggs at Easter and I was bummed. But yeah, this one's pretty classic.Brian Butler: No, it definitely is. This can apply to almost anything in life, but it's especially valuable when it comes to diversification in the financial world. Now many people in Houston, for example ... We're the energy capital of the world. We have the largest medical center in the world. So what do people here invest in? Oil and medicine. And if you go to California, what do you think they invest in?Marc Killian: Well I couldn't begin to tell you. You got me on that one. Tech, yeah-Brian Butler: Technology.Marc Killian: Yeah.Brian Butler: And now a little bit of weed.Marc Killian: Oh, yeah.Brian Butler: So, you got to watch out for them. So you invest in what you know. If you go east coast, they're financials; Wall Street.Marc Killian: Mm-hmm (affirmative), right, right.Brian Butler: That's what they know. In Houston, for example, if I own Exxon, Chevron, and Anadarko I'm diversified. No.Marc Killian: No.Brian Butler: You're all in the energy. Even though those are great companies-Marc Killian: Right.Brian Butler: All your money is tied up into one sector of a broader market.Marc Killian: Right, right.Brian Butler: And the more people understand how markets work, and the importance of diversification, we definitely know here when Enron went down, Enron affected so many other businesses here in Houston from catering to car services. It greatly affected the economy, and that was one company in energy, and the reverberations were felt all across the country. And so if you don't have something that's not related or correlated to the overall market, the importance of diversification is paramount-Marc Killian: Yeah.Brian Butler: As you grow your portfolio.Marc Killian: No, I definitely agree. And there's a lot of asset classes, folks, so there's more than just large cap, right?Brian Butler: Right, yeah.Marc Killian: So there's a lot out there, so don't put all your eggs in one basket; a classic proverb that you can easily take a financial lesson from. Last one for this podcast and that is, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." Now this could be a Warren Buffett kind of thing too.Brian Butler: Absolutely. So some investments might make no sense at all for you to own and, on the other hand, that same investment could be a perfect fit for someone else. Be careful that you don't make broad generalizations about certain investments being good or bad.Brian Butler: Now this is something that we see all the time. One investment for this particular client; they love it. And the same investment for another client, they're calling me asking me, "Why do I own this?" And one is looking from a totally different perspective.Brian Butler: So if the market drops ... I have a client that when technology dipped a little bit in October, November, December, they immediately transferred in another $200,000 to their account. Now, I didn't know that money existed-Marc Killian: Oh, wow.Brian Butler: And so it came out of nowhere. And they were like, "We want to put more into this particular managed account, because we think that it's going to turn as soon as the market does." And they were right; it definitely did work out. I told them the pros and cons, but on the front end they enjoyed looking at that particular account.Brian Butler: Now I showed the same type managed account to another client, and they were just terrified that the market was going to come to a crashing halt, that Facebook was going to go out of business, and Apple was no longer going to exist. And so that particular product is the exact wrong product for that client.Brian Butler: And so, the great thing about what we do is, I don't have to product push. We're independent advisors, and I don't care what you buy, so I'm going to get the right thing for the right situation.Brian Butler: And so once clients realize that and understand that your neighbor bought this particular stock, it's totally not appropriate for you. And being able to explain that to people, it makes their minds at ease a lot of times.Marc Killian: Yeah, and you're not doing the chasing the Joneses, keeping up with the Joneses kind of thing; every situation is different. We're going to say a lot on this podcast that we talk in generalities, because we're talking to a wide audience out there.Marc Killian: And while as investors, and pre-retirees, retirees different parts of our financial life, while we share a lot of commonality, every situation truly is different. So you always want to make sure that you're having it looked at for your unique situation. Even if it's close to your neighbor, it's not going to be exactly the same, it's always going to be different, so you want to make sure you have those conversations.Marc Killian: And that's our podcast this week, another good episode here with Brian Butler, President and Wealth Management Advisor at Wealth Standard Financial. Give him a call at 713-955-6007, that's 713-955-6007; serving you here in the Greater Houston area. Brian, buddy, thanks for your time this week; I appreciate you as always.Brian Butler: Hey see you next week, man.Marc Killian: I'll talk to you next time. And folks don't forget, check us out online at wealthstandardfinancial.com. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and whatnot. Again, that wealthstandardfinancial.com. If you're on iTunes or something, just search out 'Beyond Pie Charts', you can always find it that way, as well. And we'll talk to you next time here on the podcast. Thanks for tuning in.

Sometimes things get pushed or catch a lot of buzz in the financial landscape and they just aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Let’s explore some of the things that might be sold to you as the greatest thing since sliced bread, but in reality it’s probably way too much focus and attention being paid to them.Find out more information about Brian Butler and Beyond The Pie Charts here: https://www.wealthstandardfinancial.com/Full transcript below...----more----Transcript:Marc Killian: Hello, and welcome back to another edition of Beyond Pie Charts. Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast with Brian Butler, president and wealth management advisor at Wealth Standard Financial, serving you in the greater Houston area. You'll find Brian and the team online at WealthStandardFinancial.com. That's WealthStandardFinancial.com. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Google Play, or your platform of choice while you're there, and share us also, and give us maybe a like or review. We always appreciate that. Give Brian a jingle if you've got questions or concerns, and you need a little help before you take action. It's 713-955-6007. That's 713-955-6007. Brian, welcome in this week. How are you, bud?Brian Butler: Hey, man. I'm good. How are you?Marc Killian: I'm doing pretty good. Are you still sweating to death down there? Is things going okay?Brian Butler: Yes, it's better.Marc Killian: It's better. All right, that's good to hear. Summertime is upon us, and it is going to be a hot one. I think it's going to be an actually really hot summer versus maybe even the past couple, so I'm curious to see how it's going to shake out. I'm in North Carolina. For our listeners, Brian is, of course, in the Texas area. I think we're in for a hot one.Brian Butler: Yeah, I think so too. I'm preparing.Marc Killian: I'm glad I got my pool up and running early this year. I was into it in May, so early May I was like, "This is pretty sweet." Now I'm thinking maybe it wasn't so sweet because it's just going to be a hot year, so we'll see how it goes. Hey listen, if you caught our podcast last week we talked about some financial things that are underrated. This week, we're going to talk about some financial things that are overrated, big surprise, right? We're going to go the opposite way. If you haven't checked out our prior podcast, please do. We've just gotten started. This is number three, but we're so happy to have you folks here that are listening to us. Again, make sure you share it with folks who might find it useful and interesting.Marc Killian: What we've been doing is we've been kicking it off with kind of a getting to know you moment, just kind of getting to know Brian a little better. It's been really financially based thus far, these two that I've asked him, but I'm going to ask him a random one this time and get his-Brian Butler: Uh oh.Marc Killian: Yeah, I'm going to give him a random thought. Now I know this is going to go against your better judgment because you are a Texas boy, born and raised, but I'm going to ask it. If you had to live in another state, what state would it be?Brian Butler: I believe that state would probably be Colorado.Marc Killian: Interesting. Do you like to ski, just a difference in temperature? What makes you say that?Brian Butler: I'm all about the weather, man, and scenery.Marc Killian: Got you, it's beautiful there.Brian Butler: I got mountains, lakes, rivers. You can hunt there. It's just beautiful.Marc Killian: You can hunt in Texas too.Brian Butler: It'll be hot sometimes.Marc Killian: It'll be hot, yeah.Brian Butler: I went hunting in December, and it was 85 degrees one year.Marc Killian: Yeah.Brian Butler: It can be hot or super cold, so you never know.Marc Killian: I hear you. My wife's family is actually from Casper, Wyoming. When we go out you have to fly into Denver, and then you have to drive up from there. Yeah, it's absolutely gorgeous out there, that's for sure. In some ways, it's kind of like Texas. There's long stretches of nothing but brown.Brian Butler: Yeah, that's true.Marc Killian: You definitely see that from time to time, but cool. Again, I didn't want to upset your Texas listeners. I didn't want to upset the Texas in you and say, "If you had to live someplace else." You went with Colorado, so that's a pretty cool choice. I like that. Let's turn our attention to our main topic, which is, of course, like I mentioned earlier, it's things that are overrated, some financial things that are overrated. Now this might sound a little weird, but we're going to just stick with this. This should make sense for you. Some things get pushed, Brian, as you know. They get pushed a lot whether it's in the financial landscape, whether it's a catch phrase or a buzz word, or whatever. It may be just fine, but in some cases it may not be the right fit, or maybe it's just being overblown for the purposes of ratings, or to sell something, or whatever the case is. Let's just talk about a couple of three items here or so that maybe are overrated. Tax advantages is the first one. Now people are probably going to go, "Wait, what? Tax advantage is overrated?" Where could I be going with this?Brian Butler: Of course, saving money on taxes is important. Taking advantage of opportunities to defer taxes, avoid taxes or create deductions is a good thing, but anytime those tax advantages are being pitched as the primary advantage of the investment is probably a sales pitch, to be honest with you.Marc Killian: See, we're already lined up, man. You knew exactly what I was thinking. Good job, keep going.Brian Butler: Right. Hey, man, you wouldn't buy a municipal bond just because the interest is tax-free, and you wouldn't buy a fixed annuity solely for the tax deferral. You wouldn't get a mortgage for the tax deduction. You're buying those things for a specific reason. Are you trying to guarantee income? Are you trying to augment your current income and not going to another tax bracket? Those are important things to look at, but you wouldn't buy a house just so you could get a deduction even though you're paying interest on that house in taxes and maintenance. You're buying those things for a specific reason, and do you know why you're buying them? That's one of the things that people get caught up. Most people don't know why they own anything.Marc Killian: A lot of things, yeah. No, I agree. We're going to definitely dive into that because there's a lot of times we do have a ... Look, especially if we're talking about maybe being a pre-retiree, or retiree, as we get to that age we've collected an assortment of things through life, and sometimes we just have a lot of stuff, we don't really know why we have that stuff.Brian Butler: Right.Marc Killian: I think that's a really good point, so yeah. In these cases, the tax advantage part of it is really just the ancillary benefit to Brian's point, so that's where we say it could be overrated. I think that's a great way of looking at it, as simple as looking at the mortgage. You would just say, "I'm taking a mortgage just for the tax deduction," and of course, especially now that we're into this new tax program. It may not even benefit you anyway, so the same kind of idea to consider. All right, so number two, Brian, rates of return. Now again, people are probably listening and going, "This guy is nuts." I want to get as much as I possibly can get, but let's talk about why a rate of return may be a little overrated.Brian Butler: Nobody is denying the power of compound interest over time. It's one of the greatest wonders that we've ever seen on earth.Marc Killian: Einstein said it was the eight wonder, right?Brian Butler: Absolutely.Marc Killian: Yeah.Brian Butler: Placing too much emphasis on the rate of return can be dangerous. At different points in your life, it's going to be more important to reduce volatility and avoid losses, so you can be sure not to get too focused on the wrong metrics. I've seen people retire and just try to hit the ball out of the park of returns, and think of 2007.Marc Killian: Right, okay.Brian Butler: The market was at an all-time high. People were spoiled, to be honest with you. It had been 10 years of a good run, and people didn't see an end in sight. Immediately, that end came quickly, and many people that retired in 2007, it took them 10, 11 years to break even because you have to remember when the market is going down, and you're retired, what are you doing? You're still taking income.Marc Killian: Yeah.Brian Butler: Many of those people were afraid of the market, and so they went from a moderately aggressive or moderate risk tolerance all the way down to conservative, which drug out that break even point. If you're not invested the same way you were when the market fell, you're not going to recover as fast when the market rises. If you went from a more aggressive risk tolerance, and you're a conservative, you're going to get conservative returns when the market bounces. If people underestimate how much of rate of return and sequence of returns has an effect on how much money you can take out of your retirement.Marc Killian: Brian, correct me if I'm wrong, but also too, people kind of forget. When you go down you have to make more to get back just to where you were. If you lose 20%, if you gain 20%, you're not exactly back where you were.Brian Butler: No, absolutely not.Marc Killian: Right. You really need 40%, right? Is that correct?Brian Butler: You need 100% more to break even.Marc Killian: 100% more, that's right. Okay, yeah, exactly. Okay.Brian Butler: People underestimate that because they're just looking at the rate of return that their investments gave them. 2008, your account is down, let's say, 24%, and 2009, you're up 24%, you're not even.Marc Killian: You're still down, technically.Brian Butler: You're still down. It took you a couple years to break even, assuming that you weren't taking money out.Marc Killian: Right. That's a good point too, yeah. Interesting. Yeah, so then you can kind of see, folks, where we're coming from with this. We're saying rates of return can be overrated because it can't be the only emphasis you place is on the rate of return you're getting. Yes, we would all love to make 20% forever in the market, but you have to be realistic and keep these things in focus. All right, Brian, so really great, great answers here on this, really informative information here on the podcast. What about this one? Commission-based investment accounts.Brian Butler: A lot of people think it's great when their advisor only makes money when they sell or when they buy something, but the reality is that it creates a conflict of interest with the investment recommendations that they might be making, and in many cases ends up costing them more than a fee-based account would. Now there's a place for both. You can have commission-based investments as long as you understand, again, why you own that and what the advisor is trying to accomplish with that. Then the fee-based accounts, we tend to like those the most. While we do some commission-based accounts, we like the fee-based accounts because there's transparency. The more transparency I can give clients, the better. If they win, I win. If they lose, I lose. I can do as many trades as I want in that account, and the client ends up paying the same exact fee as if I made one or two. That transparency and predictability of cost, clients tend to like that. The commission-based investment accounts used to be you have to wonder, is that advisor trying to make his boat payment?Marc Killian: Right. If you only hear from your advisor once in a blue moon, we hear that a lot of times. I host shows across the country, and people say, "I only hear from my advisor when he wants me to move something." There's a reason for that.Brian Butler: Absolutely. The more transparency you can give a client that you're calling them to really check on them and give them an update on their account and not necessarily trying to sell them something, clients appreciate that. People see through frauds.Marc Killian: Very true.Brian Butler: Yeah.Marc Killian: We'll talk about this on an upcoming podcast as well. We do different segments on like, how do I know this advisor is the right one for me, and things of that nature? I don't think it's understated, Brian, to say, "Trust your gut." If you get the warm fuzzies from somebody, usually that goes a long way than if you don't.Brian Butler: Absolutely. Trust your gut is probably the best advice that you can give people. It's there for a reason. I've followed it, and when I haven't followed it I always regret it.Marc Killian: You can do the diligence, right. There's ways to check. There's FINRA. There's some of places where you can go check some things out for the credential side, but don't undervalue, and I know this is our overrated podcast, but don't undervalue your gut reaction to some things, but yeah, that's the show for this week. A couple items that may be you hadn't thought about them in this light to say these could be a little overrated depending on you're using them whether it's tax advantages, rates of returns, or commission-based investment accounts. Bear that in mind.Marc Killian: Again, if you've got questions, you've got concerns, you feel like you need a little help, a little tweaking, a little adjustment to what you're trying to do, or you haven't done anything yet, and you're like, "I just don't know even where to start, I need some help," reach out to Brian and the team at Wealth Standard Financial. 713-955-6007. Your number to call, 713-955-6007. This has been Beyond Pie Charts with Brian Butler. He's the president and wealth management advisor, and you can check him out online at WealthStandardFinancial.com. That's WealthStandardFinancial.com, and don't forget to subscribe and like the podcast. Brian has been helping families for more than 20 years, and a fun guy to talk to. Brian, buddy, thanks for your time this week.Brian Butler: Hey, thanks, man. See you next week.Marc Killian: I'll see you next time here on Beyond Pie Charts with Brian Butler.

This topic is simple. Things related to your money, finances, and retirement that should get way more attention and excitement. Let’s give them the love they deserve on this episode.Find out more information about Brian Butler and Beyond The Pie Charts here: https://www.wealthstandardfinancial.com/Full transcript below...----more----Transcript:Marc Killian:                        Hey, everybody. Welcome in to another edition of Beyond Pie Charts. Thank you for tuning in to our podcast. I'm Marc Killian, your cohost, alongside Brian Butler. He is the president and wealth management advisor at Wealth Standard Financial, serving you in the greater Houston area, with an office in Houston, but he services a lot of clients in a lot of other places, but we'll get into all that at another time.Marc Killian:                        If you got questions or concerns, and you want to get yourself onto the calendar, or maybe you just want to check some information that you've gotten, or you hear something even on this podcast that piques your interest, before you take any action, always talk with a qualified professional like Brian. You can reach out to him at 713-955-6007. That's 713-955-6007, and you can check us out online at WealthStandardFinancial.com. That's WealthStandardFinancial.com, and click on the link for the podcasts, subscribe to it. Hopefully, that'll be up pretty soon. This is our second podcast, so it may already be up and running.Marc Killian:                        And I always say you can check us out online, even though I have nothing to do with Wealth Standard Financial. I'm the radio host and the podcast host, but I just feel like as I get to know my clients here and I get to have a good time talking with them and I get to know people like Brian and it's just enjoyable to me.Marc Killian:                        So, Brian, welcome in, buddy. How are you this week?Brian Butler:                       Good, man. How are you?Marc Killian:                        I'm doing fantastic. Good to talk with you again. Looking forward to talking to you on our show, on our podcast, and getting into more of this financial stuff and hopefully helping people out along the way.Marc Killian:                        As I did last week, I wanted to start the show off with just a little getting to know you as we're kicking this thing off and getting folks into our podcast. Now, you've been doing this for over 20 years as we talked about before in the financial services industry. Shared that interesting story how you thought about being a plastic surgeon, went financial advisor. If you missed that podcast, go back and listen to it, folks. Pretty interesting.Marc Killian:                        So, this week's question is going to be, who's really had the biggest impact on you, maybe personally, maybe from a family standpoint, as you were growing up that really taught you a lot about money and finance?Brian Butler:                       Now, there have been a few people that have taught me a lot, but I would say my grandmother, one of my grandmothers, my dad's mother. She grew up on a farm in Louisiana, lived in California for a little while, and eventually became a nutritionist at Texas Childrens Hospital here in Houston.Marc Killian:                        Oh. Very cool.Brian Butler:                       She did that for 20 plus years, and she always used to tell me, "Any time you have a job or do something, work as hard as you can, number one, but put a small amount away that you just don't touch." Because she said, "That small amount will turn into a lot of money over time."Brian Butler:                       And you know, as a eight, nine, 10-year-old and even-Marc Killian:                        That's right.Brian Butler:                       ... when I became a teenager and going to college, the message was always the same.Marc Killian:                        You're like, "Yeah, right." You're like, "I don't want to do that. There's no fun in that, Grandma."Brian Butler:                       Right. Absolutely. And if I would have listened to her earlier, I would have a lot more money than I do now.Marc Killian:                        I hear you there.Brian Butler:                       But hindsight is always 20/20. But she taught me a lot about money, a lot about hard work and work ethic, and that was passed down to my father and to my aunts, who were all successful. She's retired, and the reason why she ... She didn't make a lot of money, but she was able to retire and be totally comfortable. House is paid off, cars, all of that, no debt. And so, she told me, "A conservative way to live will give you a lot of time freedom," and that's what I really value the most is time freedom.Marc Killian:                        Well, that's awesome. That's a cool story, and yeah, sometimes I think we tend to do that. We tend to kind of get obsessed with saying, "We got to make as much as we can," but sometimes, looking at the long game early enough can really set you up for success down the road too. So, very cool to hear that story from your grandmother.Marc Killian:                        Well, let's turn our attention and get into our main topic for the podcast this week. Again, we're going to do these little getting to know yous each week as we get things going and get to know Brian just a little bit better. And I thought we would talk about some financial items, some financial things, Brian, that are maybe underrated. The topic is pretty simple. These things relate to our money and our finance, and maybe they don't get the attention that they should, or we just kind of gloss over them because we think they're too simple. So, we'll spend a few minutes on some these and get your take on it.Marc Killian:                        Liquidity, okay? We're going to hearken back to Grandmom here a little bit and kind of go with these nice, simple, underrated things that I think maybe she would even be proud of for us talking about. Liquidity. Let's talk a little bit about it. What is it, and how can it be underrated?Brian Butler:                       Now, liquidity is basically how fast can you get to money? How long will it take for it to be in your hand and for you to be able to use it?Marc Killian:                        Right.Brian Butler:                       Traditionally, your 401ks, IRAs, annuities, cash value life insurance, they all have a place in your financial plan. But they all come with liquidity challenges, either because of the nature of the investment or the tax consequences of withdrawing that money. So, no matter what your investment account looks like, it's always important to have enough money that's easily accessible at a moment's notice without tax penalties.Brian Butler:                       I can tell you that from experience. Today, you might not know it, the A/C in our building went out, and I'm sweating right now doing this podcast, but it's okay. Now, my wife, on the other hand, a couple years ago we had a hurricane hit Houston, and our power went out for a week. When I tell you, my wife was miserable. So, if you've never been to Houston, Houston is humid, and we get 100 plus degree summers. With no A/C, that's probably the single scariest thing that someone in Houston would want, so we'll take a break-in at our house over our A/C going out.Marc Killian:                        Wow. Okay. All right. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty rough. It's like being in New Orleans, right? It's just humid all the time.Brian Butler:                       All the time.Marc Killian:                        Yeah. I'm in the Raleigh area of North Carolina, and we've actually, to start this year, we're now into June as we're taping this podcast here, but in May, we were already ... We hit 100 degrees in May, which was unusual to kick off the year. So, I agree with you there. And Brian is toughing it out, folks. He is sitting with the fan turned off so that it doesn't bleed onto the mike too much. He is being a heck of a trooper here for us on the podcast.Marc Killian:                        But that's liquidity, and it definitely can be underrated. We're going to talk more about things like having your emergency fund, things like that, things you can get to. Real estate is not a good liquid investment, just to kind of frame that up for you. It's got to be money you can get to quickly. 401k, IRAs, annuities, they all have their place, but you want to make sure that you do have some monies that you can get to quickly.Brian Butler:                       Absolutely.Marc Killian:                        Yeah. Okay, so another place that might be overlooked is predictability. Now, a lot of people might say, "Well, no, I definitely want predictability." But I think it goes under the radar sometimes because it's not as exciting, Brian. It's not as exciting as big returns and market growth and all of that kind of stuff, but man, predictability is awful nice whenever you got to have that monthly check.Brian Butler:                       Absolutely. This is something that people do undervalue. Investments that behave in a predictable manner, they're not exciting.Marc Killian:                        Right.Brian Butler:                       But if you're relying on that paycheck, like you said, these investments are very exciting for those people.Brian Butler:                       Now, predictability is good for a portion of your money, so the portion that you need guaranteed, so your expenses, your medical care, that monthly paycheck that you want, all of those things, you want to be very predictable. Then you have another bucket of money where you can have more risk and all those sexy things that you see on television, like the IPOs that everybody wants to be a part of, and I try to talk them out of it all the time, because most IPOs are significantly lower six months after their initial buy-in. And so, predictability is boring, but as you retire, you want less things to think about. And the more time you have on your hands when you retire, guess what you're doing most of the time? Watching investment news.Marc Killian:                        Yeah. Yeah.Brian Butler:                       So, you want to be a mover and shaker because you have that extra time. When you were working, you didn't have time to look at your 401k every day, and that's why it grew. If we can get you some more predictable streams of income, more predictable investments, so that way when the market does go down, you're not overly concerned.Marc Killian:                        No, I think that's a great way of looking at it. My wife and I, I'll use this as an example. I'm a self-employed. I own my own business. My wife is what she refers to as the steady Eddie. She works at a company. She has her paycheck. She has the 401ks, all those kind of things. And so, if you're thinking about your money in terms of risk, that kind of situation, my wife and I, she is kind of that good predictable income stream, whereas mine can vary because I'm self-employed. So, mine can be higher or lower month to month, versus a consistent like you might see with a paycheck.Marc Killian:                        So, the same kind of thing when you're thinking about your retirement plans. You want to make sure that in retirement, especially when you're really going to need those checks, that you have that predictable stream of income coming in, but also that you're in a situation where it's covering your base needs. We're going to talk about the B word, budget, I'm sure, on a future podcast. And don't fret. Budgets can be a good thing. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to live on a tight budget and you can't have any fun. It just means understanding what's coming in and what's going out type of thing, and we'll talk more about that another time.Marc Killian:                        Our final piece here on this week's podcast for things that are financially maybe underrated, a term and a thought, or a concept, if you will, and that's simplicity, Brian. You know, it doesn't have to be War and Peace to be a good financial plan.Brian Butler:                       Absolutely. The more simple your plan, the better you can execute it. I run into people all the time and I ask them, "Why do you own this particular investment?" They have no idea. And so, if you have no idea why you own it, or what it does, I mean, you got to really think about your most important assets are in these particular products, and you don't understand them.Brian Butler:                       A lot of times, the more complicated the product, the more fees there are, and the more it's going to bleed out of your retirement. So, understanding what you own and why you own it is going to be a major factor in the retirement, because the closer you get to retirement, the more sexy you look to other advisors, and they're like, "How can I separate you from your money, and make more money off of you?" So, it's something that you have to pay attention to, and if you have a good advisor that explains why you own something, and explains how they get compensated, and explains the charges that you're going to see, that's going to simplify your life and make you more money in the long term.Marc Killian:                        No, I think simplicity cannot be overstated, and it definitely is underrated. Sometimes, again ... Brian, we're going to talk about a lot of these things, but I'm sure you're quite familiar with a lot of financial rules of thumb, like the 4% rule, the rule of 100, things of that nature. But just for giggles, have you ever heard of the rule of 11?Brian Butler:                       The rule of 11? No.Marc Killian:                        Okay. I heard this one from a financial advisor who's been doing this many years. I thought this one was pretty cute, so I'm going to share it with you. He said, "The rule of 11 is, if you can't explain it to an 11 year old, it's too complicated."Brian Butler:                       Right. I like it. I like it.Marc Killian:                        There you go. So, that's our podcast this week, folks. Thanks for listening to Beyond Pie Charts with Brian Butler. We're going to be back next week with another podcast to continue talking about these things, investing, finance, and retirement.Marc Killian:                        You got questions or concerns, reach out to him at 713-955-6007. That's 713-955-6007. He's the president and wealth management advisor at Wealth Standard Financial, serving you in the greater Houston area. Go check us out online at WealthStandardFinancial.com. That's WealthStandardFinancial.com. Subscribe to us on iTunes if Apple's your thing, or Google Play if that's your thing. Stitcher, iHeartRadio, various different ways, you'll see that on the website. We'll be able to get you subscribed up. Give us a like, give us a share, and all that good kind of stuff. If you know somebody who needs a good, entertaining financial podcast, hopefully, this'll be the one for you.Marc Killian:                        Thanks so much, Brian, for your time this week, my friend. I will talk to you soon.Brian Butler:                       Hey, man. See you soon.Marc Killian:                        This has been Beyond Pie Charts with Brian Butler. We'll catch you next time.

The term “fake news” has become synonymous with the political climate of the past few years. But the phenomenon has spread to other parts of our culture as well. What about fake news in the financial space? In this inaugural episode, we’ll look at some recent news headlines to see if they qualify to be labeled as “fake news”.Want more info about Brian Butler and how he might be able to help you better plan for your financial future? Check out https://www.wealthstandardfinancial.com/team/brian-butlerFull transcript below...----more----Transcript:Marc Killian:                        Hello, and welcome to Beyond Pie Charts the podcast with Brian Butler, President and Wealth Management Advisor with Wealth Standard Financial, serving you and the Greater Houston area from an office in Houston. Welcome to our initial podcast.Marc Killian:                        We're going to get to know Brian a little bit better over the next couple of weeks, and we're going to be talking about investing, finance, and retirement with Brian and hopefully offering you a useful nugget or two of information to help you out along your path to and through retirement.Marc Killian:                        At any time, when you have questions or concerns, we're always going to stress the point that, before you take any action, you should always talk with a qualified professional. So if you hear something on the podcast that piques your interest, make sure you jot down this number and give Brian a call or share it with someone who might need the number as well. If you're already a client of Brian's, perhaps, and you're listening to the podcast, make sure you let others know as well.Marc Killian:                        713-9556-007, that's the number to call - 713-9556-007 - and you can check him out online at wealthstandardfinancial.com. That's wealthstandardfinancial.com, and, coming soon, you'll be able to click on the podcast through there, listen to past episodes ...Marc Killian:                        Of course, this is our first one, so there's no past. But as we continue to grow, you'll be able to subscribe and follow along with the podcast, and you can do that on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, various different podcast platforms will be available to you. But, for now, Brian, welcome in, and thanks for having me on your podcast.Brian Butler:                       Hey. Thanks a lot, Marc. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be a fun ride.Marc Killian:                        I hope so. So you're kind of new to this whole podcasting thing. I'm an old hat at doing radio, but you've got the financial angle. I've got the radio podcast-y angle. So I think, together, we're going to be just fine.Brian Butler:                       Hey. Match made in heaven.Marc Killian:                        There you go. Exactly, and I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan. You're a Houston fan. But we can make that work.Brian Butler:                       Maybe. I'm married to one.Marc Killian:                        Oh, see? All right. Good. So I'm not dead in the water right off the bat.Brian Butler:                       No, I've had some practice [crosstalk 00:01:55].Marc Killian:                        I got you. Fantastic. Well, we'll have to get the missus ... I'll have to talk with her, then. We'll have to compare notes. But if you are not a Cowboy fan, please don't turn off the podcast, because there's still going to be some good stuff to come forward here on the show.Marc Killian:                        But Brian's been doing this ... He's been serving families for more than 20 years in the financial services industry, and I'm going to kick off our show right there with a little getting to know you. It's something we'll do from time to time on here. I'll ask you random and off-the-wall questions, just to give folks a chance to know you a little bit better, Brian.Marc Killian:                        But I'm going to start this one pretty easy, since you're a novice to the whole podcasting thing, and just say what got you into this type of work? I know you've been doing it 20 years now. What got you started?Brian Butler:                       Well, the thing that got me started, in high school, I went to a business magnet high school here in Houston ...Marc Killian:                        Okay.Brian Butler:                       ... and what we did is your senior year, you're able to intern at different companies. Some of my friends interned at Exxon and some of the large oil companies here in town, some of the hospitals, and I was torn between two things, believe it or not. I was torn between being a plastic surgeon and ...Marc Killian:                        Wow.Brian Butler:                       ... being a financial advisor. So I was really good at science, and we ... I remember looking at a video in one of my science classes, and it talked about careers as a doctor.Marc Killian:                        Uh-huh.Brian Butler:                       They said the majority of the doctors are either divorced once or twice, have significant debt - 500,000 plus in debt ...Marc Killian:                        Oh, wow.Brian Butler:                       ... and are continuously having to retrain and relearn, and people sue them all the time. Then, my senior year, I had my internship, and it was with Raymond James when I was 18 years old.Marc Killian:                        Okay.Brian Butler:                       So I interned with them. I got to see the advisor there. He made just as much money as a surgeon.Marc Killian:                        Wow.Brian Butler:                       He had time freedom. So he was able to get off of work at 3:30, pick his kid up from school, sponsored all the athletic events for the teams, and he really got to become friends with his clients. So that lifestyle appealed to me, more than the doctor lifestyle, and the rest is history.Marc Killian:                        The rest is ... Well, I've got to say, I did not see that one coming. We talked for a few minutes before we got this thing up and running, and I did not see plastic surgeon coming. Very interesting.Brian Butler:                       That would be why we enjoy targeting plastic surgeons here in town ...Marc Killian:                        Oh. Oh.Brian Butler:                       ... is because I have an interest in that, still, but ...Marc Killian:                        Got you.Brian Butler:                       So I live through them.Marc Killian:                        So you can kind of help them along their path, but also, a little vicariously, keep your toe in the water, so to speak.Brian Butler:                       Absolutely.Marc Killian:                        I got you. Okay. Wow. That was a really interesting getting to know you for the first podcast here. So you got into doing ... You went to the internship. Now, I guess, to be fair, depending on the plastic surgeon and depending on the financial advisor, I guess the types of income could be vastly different.Brian Butler:                       Absolutely.Marc Killian:                        But if you're a plastic surgeon to the rich and famous in Hollywood, I imagine that might be a little different, too. But who knows? But, anyway, okay, well, cool. Very cool. So we're going to do these little getting to know yous as we launch this podcast over the next few weeks. We'll do quite often. We're going to probably do one of these just about every week or so. So there will be plenty of content for you out there.Marc Killian:                        So now we're going to turn our attention to the things that most of our listeners will come back for - not to say they don't want to hear from you, Brian, because they definitely do, but they probably want to hear about the financial stuff.Brian Butler:                       Absolutely.Marc Killian:                        So we're going to talk about that a little bit. So today's big topic is fake news.Brian Butler:                       Uh-oh. Hey, everybody knows that.Marc Killian:                        Everybody knows that term, right? It's become synonymous with our political landscape, but I thought we would not do that, clearly, and stay away from that kind of thing, that hotbed issue of politics, and just talk fake news in the financial realm and how it can maybe impact what you're thinking about doing, from a retirement standpoint or a financial planning standpoint, that type of thing.Marc Killian:                        So we're going to kind of give it its own fake news in the financial space, if you will.Brian Butler:                       Okay. Absolutely.Marc Killian:                        All right. So I'm going to give you a couple of, I guess, topics or headlines that we have probably heard and that you probably have definitely heard, and you just tell us if you think it's fake news or if there's some credibility to it or things we should maybe be on the lookout for.Marc Killian:                        I'm going to go with the biggie right out the gate, and that is the quote-unquote headline of, "Social Security is going broke." What's your thoughts on that?Brian Butler:                       Well, Social Security definitely is going broke.Marc Killian:                        Okay.Brian Butler:                       But ...Marc Killian:                        But hasn't it been for a long time, according to politicians?Brian Butler:                       It definitely has, and so there's actually no money in the Social Security trust. It's a pay as you go program.Marc Killian:                        Right.Brian Butler:                       So, before, there used to be three to one - so meaning three people for every one person taking Social Security were paying into the pot.Marc Killian:                        Right.Brian Butler:                       Now, it's closer to two to one. So we have fewer people paying into the pot, but more Baby Boomers taking all the money.Marc Killian:                        Sure.Brian Butler:                       So it's one of these things that ...Marc Killian:                        That's only going to get worse, too, to be honest.Brian Butler:                       Absolutely. That's why I don't really plan on it. Hopefully I have it, but if not, it probably won't be in the same incarnation Baby Boomers got.Marc Killian:                        Okay. So let me deviate for a second. So Brian's 42. Is that correct?Brian Butler:                       Yep.Marc Killian:                        Okay. I'm 48. So I kind of agree with you. I think that, for folks ... and you tell me your opinion. I think for folks over 50, definitely 55, I don't think there'll be a big change.Brian Butler:                       Right.Marc Killian:                        But I think that people under 50, we're going to see changes.Brian Butler:                       I definitely agree with that.Marc Killian:                        Okay.Brian Butler:                       So I think you're pretty good to go if you've hit those 50's. So you should be happy.Marc Killian:                        Right. Okay.Brian Butler:                       But if you're less than that, you should definitely plan on not having it, so that way you're safe if there is something that you're getting from it.Marc Killian:                        If you've got it, it's gravy.Brian Butler:                       Right, right. Absolutely.Marc Killian:                        Yeah.Brian Butler:                       Absolutely.Marc Killian:                        Well, and Social Security, obviously, is going to be a big topic we touch on numerous times on the podcast. But, for right now, we're going to kind of keep things short and sweet, if you will, as far as whether or not it's fake news or potentially real news. I know that Social Security has kind of put that thing out there. I forget the exact year, but I think it's what, 2034, I think they're saying ...Brian Butler:                       Yeah.Marc Killian:                        ... that 75% reduction in payout or whatever? So many places we can go and talk about this. Like I said, we'll save it for later. They could change the age from 62 to 64 before you get started and probably fund it for another hundred years. Something like that could happen, but that remains to be seen. Yeah.Brian Butler:                       I do think that's probably what's going to happen. The amount of benefit that you get will be reduced, and it'll still be there, because which party is going to get rid of it?Marc Killian:                        Right. No matter who you are, no one wants to stand there and say, "It's gone, and it was my fault," right? Exactly.Brian Butler:                       Right.Marc Killian:                        Yeah. So okay. So that's leaning towards more real news. Okay. How about this one: "The crash of the dollar is imminent, Brian. You should buy gold now."Brian Butler:                       I hear this one all the time, probably every ten years.Marc Killian:                        Okay.Brian Butler:                       If you remember back, in 2007, everything on television was flip this house ...Marc Killian:                        Right.Brian Butler:                       ... and every store on the corner was, "Buy gold here. Sell your gold here."Marc Killian:                        Yep.Brian Butler:                       Gold can be an inflation hedge, but it's not necessarily a good inflation hedge. You could buy Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS, that will give you a better long-term inflation hedge. The reason why a lot of people love gold is it's historic. The Romans used gold, and many ...Marc Killian:                        Right. You hear the end of the world scenarios, too, right? If everything goes to pot, you can trade gold. But it's like, "Really? Are you going to shave off a chunk of gold for some bread?" I don't see that working, either.Brian Butler:                       Exactly. You're better off learning how to farm than you are hoarding gold.Marc Killian:                        My dad used to say, "Bullets are butter will get you farther than a chunk of gold."Brian Butler:                       They absolutely will, man. They absolutely will. So you must be from the South, yes?Marc Killian:                        Oh, of course. I'm in North Carolina. Yeah.Brian Butler:                       Yeah, yeah. Definitely, definitely.Marc Killian:                        Yep, yep. So, okay, so the gold ... Yeah, I would agree with you there. I think ... What about just the side of the crash of the dollar? I think, with everything going on with the trade ... At the time of this podcast, obviously, we're firmly entrenched in the trade war with China. Their dollar ... Well, whatever their currency is there, it's not doing as well as it used to. It's definitely not as strong, either.Brian Butler:                       No, no. The global economy and the dollar, of course, being the major store of wealth is why I don't see the dollar plummeting to where inflation gets out of control.Marc Killian:                        Right.Brian Butler:                       Everyone is dependent on the US dollar around the country, because they believe in our system, and so that's the good thing. The good thing about a two-party system is that not one party can just derail the country without some checks and balances.Marc Killian:                        You're floating over into the political side again. So we'll ...Brian Butler:                       Well, you have to. You have to.Marc Killian:                        You might have somebody that disagrees with you on that. But, yeah, I would agree. I think so. I think that's a good, solid foundation to have.Brian Butler:                       Right, and the good thing about the dollar is 54% of the global market cap invested is the United ...Marc Killian:                        Yeah, exactly. Yeah.Brian Butler:                       It's just ... So it's ... Everybody's dependent on us.Marc Killian:                        Yeah, yeah. So I think ... So this one, to me, feels a little more like fake news.Brian Butler:                       Yeah.Marc Killian:                        Yeah. Okay. So it feels a little sensationalistic, if you will. Okay. So I've got two more we're going to try to squeeze in. We're going to try to keep these podcasts, folks, at around the 15, 15 or so minutes, try to give you some byte-sized nuggets of information to think about.Marc Killian:                        How about this one? "Nursing home costs are poised to bankrupt millions of Americans." What do you think on this one?Brian Butler:                       Now, the nursing home ...Marc Killian:                        Or long-term care, whatever you want to use.Brian Butler:                       Yeah. It's definitely something that is a concern. I don't really see it bankrupting millions of Americans. Now, I see it putting a lot of financial stress on a lot of people.Marc Killian:                        Yes, sir. Yes, sir.Brian Butler:                       If your healthcare costs, on average, are going to be 280,000 in retirement, and just giving an example, here in Houston, for a private room for long-term care, it's going to cost you about $98,000 a year. I tell people, "If you don't want to live in Houston anymore and you want something cheaper, you can drive down the freeway and go to San Antonio. It'll be about $66,000."Marc Killian:                        Interesting. Okay.Brian Butler:                       But it is a cost that I'm seeing more and more people not paying enough attention to, and husbands and wives, the wife will say, "Well, I'll just take care of him." I said, "Can you pick him up off the floor by yourself?"Marc Killian:                        My wife ... Yeah, my wife and I just had this conversation like a week ago. She's like, "There's no way I'm lifting you up, dude."Brian Butler:                       Exactly.Marc Killian:                        Yeah.Brian Butler:                       The older you get, the worse, the less likely that is.Marc Killian:                        Yeah.Brian Butler:                       So it's definitely something that people need to pay attention to, but I don't see it bankrupting people ...Marc Killian:                        Okay.Brian Butler:                       ... assuming that you plan.Marc Killian:                        Right.Brian Butler:                       The poorest Americans are going to be affected the most, unfortunately, and so it's something that we make top of mind to our clients.Marc Killian:                        Yeah, and we'll get into some more ... All of these topics, we're going to, obviously, touch on in greater detail from time to time. But, for this week, like I said, we're just kind of doing a little fake news headlines, if you will, that may or may not be fake news that could definitely impact your finances.Marc Killian:                        When it comes to the long-term care in nursing home costs, some people say, "Well, eventually, nursing home costs, I'll just ... If I don't have anything left, I can go in the nursing home." But that's really how you have to do it. You have to almost be ... Basically, your net worth is going to be gone ...Brian Butler:                       Right.Marc Killian:                        ... before it takes the cost. Yeah, and that's no way to leave your spouse behind. So that's definitely not something you want to consider. You want to have a plan, and, to much of Brian's point, you don't want the plan to be, "Well, we're going to take care of each other," because that's sweet, but that's not being realistic, so ...Brian Butler:                       Right.Marc Killian:                        Make sure you're having those conversations, folks. All right. Last one before we wrap up this week's inaugural podcast, if I can say the word right - inaugural. That's a big word.Marc Killian:                        Okay. This one definitely will stay on people's minds a little more, pretty much from week to week, depending on how much you watch the online stuff, and that is, "Market crash coming soon." What do you think?Brian Butler:                       Well, and this is one that I've been talking about for ten years, plus.Marc Killian:                        Right.Brian Butler:                       At some point, it's going to happen, and we all know it's going to happen, because it's happened historically, but ...Marc Killian:                        It can't go up forever, as much as we would love it to.Brian Butler:                       Exactly. You're going to look at the news, and there'll be a guy that'll be a permabear - so permanently negative. At some point, he's going to be right.Marc Killian:                        Yeah. Yeah.Brian Butler:                       You just have to evaluate the market. Are earnings good for companies? If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. Stop trying to catch the next greatest IPO. A diversified portfolio that has investments that aren't necessarily 100% correlated with one another ...Marc Killian:                        Right.Brian Butler:                       ... will give you winnings every time, over the long haul. People like investing, because it gives them that gambling feeling.Marc Killian:                        True.Brian Butler:                       That's why I have friends that are, "Oh, the next IPO, and the next" ... and I just laugh. "Stop."Marc Killian:                        Right. Stop. Well, Brian, but if you know ... Okay, if you can identify that in yourself and that's your kind of mentality, wouldn't a smart move be, when you're working with your advisor, to say, "Look. This is how I am. I would like to set aside some for that speculative fund, that speculative money that I can do some of that with. But let's take and put a strategy together that's going to allow me to protect and grow for the future."Brian Butler:                       I totally understand that, and I tell clients, "Take 5 or 10% of your money" ...Marc Killian:                        Yeah, okay. Yep.Brian Butler:                       ... "and play with it."Marc Killian:                        Yeah, if you want to chase Bitcoin with that, go for it.Brian Butler:                       Absolutely.Marc Killian:                        Right.Brian Butler:                       But the core of your money, diversify. There's so many things that we can do when you say diversification. Everyone hears that term all the time.Marc Killian:                        Right.Brian Butler:                       But diversification is mutual funds, stocks, ETFs, alternative investments, bonds. You have a lot of different options that you can invest in to give you some diversification and give you that upside that you're looking for.Marc Killian:                        Yeah, yeah. Well, great points here, Brian, for sure, and diversification, folks ... We're going to dive into all of these things more in-depth. I keep saying that, I know, but this is our first podcast. Diversification is more than just having a collection of large cap stocks.Brian Butler:                       Right.Marc Killian:                        So we're going to talk about that as well. So lots to come in the future here on the podcast. You've been listening to Beyond Pie Charts. Good news is you're listening to us on audio, so we can't actually show you a pie chart.Brian Butler:                       Yeah.Marc Killian:                        So we won't be able to bore you with a pie chart, but we're going to talk with you about how you can hopefully find some things that can ... ways to hopefully improve your financial plan, your retirement plan.Marc Killian:                        As always, if you have questions or concerns, you need some help before you take action, folks, make sure you reach out and give Brian a call at 713-955-6007. That's 713-955-6007, and check him out online at wealthstandardfinancial.com. That's wealthstandardfinancial.com, and, as we grow this podcast, you'll soon, here on the website, see a place where you can click on that and subscribe to us, whether it's iTunes, Google Play, so on and so forth.Marc Killian:                        We hope that you'll give us a like and you'll give us a share as we continue to go and share with friends or family that could benefit from Brian, who is a President and Wealth Management Advisor at Wealth Standard Financial.Marc Killian:                        Brian, my friend, so great to talk to you. Looking forward to doing more of these with you. Thank you for your time.Brian Butler:                       Great talking to you, man. See you next ...Marc Killian:                        I guess, yeah, next week or so, we'll talk ...Brian Butler:                       Yeah, next week.Marc Killian:                        See you next podcast. Exactly. All right. We'll get used to this as we go along. This has been the ...Brian Butler:                       [crosstalk 00:16:59].Marc Killian:                        Yes. Yes, sir. This has been Beyond Pie Charts with Brian Butler. We'll catch you next time, right here on the podcast.