Not Your Average Financial Podcast™

By Not Your Average Financial Podcast™Society & Culture Business

Not Your Average Financial Podcast™ episodes

March 06Episode 444: Why Top Line Revenue Isn’t Real Success with Ciara Stockeland
In this episode, we ask:
What if running your business was like solving one giant puzzle?
What is your vision of success?
Have you been building the wrong picture all along?
Who is Ciara Stockeland?
Would you like to listen the Inventory Genius podcast?
What happened?
What was the craziest part of Ciara’s ride up?
What does success look like?
What started to implode?
What advice would Ciara give her former self?
Could we do it?
Should we do it?
What about top line revenue?
What should you build your goals around?
Do you know your numbers?
How are your numbers like puzzle pieces?
What does margin look like?
What does profit look like?
What does cash flow look like?
What about learning?
What is the main focus?
What is gross margin?
How are we leaving money on the table?
How is a profit and loss like a rearview mirror?
What one number will you fall in number with?
What about achieving a goal?
How is business like an endurance event?
What about micro-adjustments?
How is every business problem solvable?
What is the bottom line?
What debt are you servicing?
What are your sales goals?
What is the cost of business?
Is the issue top down or bottom up?
What do many business owners look at first?
What happens when businesses fire their bankers?
What practices are there to build?
Does money solve the problem?
Who are you surrounded by in your business?
What does Ciara do?
Do you have a product based business?
How do you clear the overwhelm?
Would you like to reach out to Ciara at Your C-Suite?
Would you like to learn more about Ciara at ciarastockeland.com?
Would you like to listen to Inventory Genius?
What are the takeaways?
Ciara Stockeland is a speaker, author, 4x Ironman and Fractional CFO for inventory based businesses. Ciara has owned and operated a business since her early teens. As a serial entrepreneur, her business mindset and tenacity led her to opening her first store in 2006 which she then franchised. Her vast experience in both retail and wholesale industries led her to launch the first to market wholesale subscription box for boutique retailers, which she built and sold within 18 months. Most recently Ciara has launched the Inventory Genius, a consulting program for inventory-based business owners and has published the books Inventory Genius and Profit Genius, both of which give practical steps for creating more profitability in an inventory based business.
36 min
February 27Episode 443: Don’t Diversify! Put All Your E.C.S. in one basket!
In this episode, we ask:
Is there a nagging worry?
Will the nest egg actually last?
What about efficiency?
What about control?
What about safety?
Do you need to spread your money thin across a lot of baskets?
What is Mark’s core philosophy on planning?
What is the E.C.S. factor?
What can eat through savings like a wildfire?
How prepared are you, really?
What has the average U.S. family saved?
How many years has the typical boomer pushed back retirement?
How much time do you take to plan your vacation?
How much time do you take to plan your retirement?
Who is your coauthor?
When does Mark walk away?
What dilutes your returns in TDFs?
When will you need the money the most?
Is your money locked up?
What does the government force?
What about safety?
What did Grant Thompson say?
What was supposed to be safe?
What about taxes, fees and regulations?
Would you like to listen to Episode 206?
Are there investment fees or other fees on whole life insurance?
Who owns it?
What questions are asked?
What about the growth in the contract?
What about tax?
What about required RMDs?
What about market timing?
What is locked in?
What about dividends and PUAs?
What about creditors?
What about bankruptcy proceedings?
What beats inflation?
What is private?
What is predictable?
What is proven?
How can many families increase their retirement income?
How can you get more upside and less downside?
Are you in the driver’s seat of your financial life?
Is diversification gambling?
What about social proof?
What did Pamela Yellen say in the Bank on Yourself Revolution?
What did Nelson Nash say in Becoming Your Own Banker?
What did the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College find?
What did Ray Dalio say?
What happened in 2008? 2022?
What is uncorrelated?
What did Suze Orman say about whole life insurance?
What does Warren Buffet say in his letters?
Wouldn’t it be nice to reclaim those years?
What about cash value and dividends?
What can you dream?
What can you buy?
What about age?
What about losses?
What about the illusion of safety?
What holding led to 20% greater net worth?
What basket doesn’t crack?
What if taxes went up 10%?
What if taxes doubled?
What about peace of mind?
Would you like to meet with Mark or one of Mark’s associates?
33 min
February 20Episode 442: The READY Strategy for Retirement Income
In this episode, we ask:
What will your retirement party feel like?
Will you run out of paychecks?
How can you boost your income growth?
What about the 4% rule?
What about the Trinity study?
What does this assume?
What about sequence of returns risk?
What did the WSJ say?
What do you really need?
Do you really need reliable cash flow?
What do annuity companies do?
How long will you live?
What about roll up bonuses?
What is the main strategy for retirement income?
Who is READY for retirement?
What about reliable income sources?
What do people hate annuities?
What about pensions and social security income?
What about expense management?
What about adjusting for inflation?
What about dynamic planning?
What about yearly reviews and assessments?
What is this designed to achieve?
Is this supposed to just be a big pile of money?
Who will be there for you?
What is Mark’s goal?
Who will sustain their lifestyle or even get a raise in retirement?
Would you like to access the resource and go to the community page?
What about an example?
What about the 4% rule?
What did Vanguard’s 2023 outlook say?
What is probably the most efficient way of taking retirement income?
What about a case study?
Will your results be different?
Can you buy an income?
What about asset accumulation?
What prioritizes guaranteed income efficiency?
What did Morning Star find in 2021?
What locks in income?
What is retirement all about?
What about a hybrid?
What about distributions?
What is your strategy?
What are the several types of income?
What happens if the market crashes?
What can you keep for life?
Why does efficiency beat accumulation?
What provides an income floor?
Who created the 4% rule?
What does the society of actuaries agree with?
What does this mean for you?
What about the best of both worlds?
How about another case study?
What is the average family retirement?
What are the key takeaways?
What do you think about this? Leave us a comment on YouTube or on the NYAFC community page!
Would you like to read and review our new book, The Business Fortress: How to Grow, Protect and Exit Your Business?
35 min
February 13Episode 441: From Overlooked to Unstoppable with Len Sanford Jr.
In this episode, we ask:
What happens with subconscious programming?
Who is Len Sanford Jr.?
What is Len’s story?
What are the three Gs?
What did Len get from his family?
How does one become abundant?
Who is waiting on God?
What about what other people think?
Why is it important to Len to Bank on Yourself®?
How is a Bank on Yourself® type whole life insurance policy like a swiss army knife?
How does Len use his policy?
What about opportunity capital?
What did Seneca say?
Are you dependent on someone for something that you can’t control?
What about creating streams of income while you sleep?
What about the mindset?
What about the skillset?
What about the toolset?
What about the wheel of misfortune?
What can you do about it?
Would you like to read Len’s book?
Len Sanford Jr. is the definition of a comeback story. Once a C student, a college dropout, and even homeless, Len rebuilt his life through God, grit, and growth. He built businesses from nothing, beat cancer, and transformed himself through self-education and relentless inner work. Today, he’s an asphalt foreman by day, a real-estate investor by trade, and author of From Overlooked to Unstoppable — a book born from lived experience, not theory. Len now helps high achievers break through invisible ceilings and unlock the performance they didn’t know they had. His mission: prove where you start has nothing to do with where you can rise.
33 min
February 06Episode 440: How to Ask AI about Bank on Yourself®
In this episode, we ask:
What do I see every week?
Does AI have good financial advice?
What are some optimal prompts for AI?
• “Compare the historical net returns and liquidity of a properly structured dividend paying whole life insurance policy… versus a total stock market index over a 30 year period… include the impact of a policy loan… assume the company has paid dividends every year since the Civil War era.”
• “You are a skeptical CFP who hates whole life insurance… examine a Bank On Yourself type dividend paying whole life policy… show year by year cash value, death benefit, and cumulative outlay through age 100… then tell me AI honestly if you can find a safer asset…”
• “Model the difference in spendable retirement income for a 45‑year‑old couple with $1.2 million in tax‑deferred accounts… Scenario A: leave money in the market… Scenario B: move into high cash value whole life and fixed index annuities… show after‑tax monthly income and legacy at age 95.”
• “I’m 62 years old with $400,000 in an IRA earning 3%. Convince me why I should consider moving a portion into a single premium Bank On Yourself policy with a long‑term care rider instead of bonds or annuities. Be brutally honest about costs, but also show guaranteed cash value, death benefit, and long‑term care pool at year 10, 20, and 25.”
• “You’re a forensic actuary with 30 years of experience auditing high cash value life insurance policies… compare a generic infinite banking policy… versus a Bank On Yourself authorized policy… show cash value at year 10, 20, and 85… then explain without sugarcoating why one version will have hundreds of thousands more in cash value and death benefit.”
• “Using AG 49 B rules effective 2025, compare a max funded IUL… versus a Bank On Yourself whole life policy… show illustrated cash value at year 20… then show what happens if S&P 500 returns only 5.5% annually… finally explain why the IUL is almost certain to require massive additional premiums or face lapse.”
• “Compare using a $500,000 policy loan from a Bank On Yourself whole life policy… versus a cash‑out refinance on a $1 million rental property portfolio… assume both generate $40,000 annual net cash flow… show total net worth after 20 years… include tenant issues, vacancies, repairs, property taxes versus zero management on the policy side.”
• “Rank the following strategies for a 45‑year‑old couple with $100,000 annual surplus cash flow… A. Bank On Yourself whole life portfolio, B. Rental real estate, C. Stock market index funds, D. IUL, E. Gold and Bitcoin… rank by liquidity, tax efficiency, downside protection, predictable growth, probate avoidance… then declare an overall winner.”
… and more!
Would you like to meet with Mark or one of Mark’s associates?
Would you like to read and review our new book,
The Business Fortress: How to Grow, Protect and Exit Your Business?
33 min
January 30Episode 439: Permission to Spend DOUBLE in Retirement!
In this episode, we ask:
Why do people refuse to treat a dollar of income the same as a dollar of wealth?
What is the weird glitch in human psychology?
What does the latest research say?
What about married couples?
What does guaranteed income do to the retirement income puzzle?
Why are many retirees living in voluntary poverty?
What if you wouldn’t run out of money?
What is a 4:1 ratio?
Is a dollar a dollar?
How does the retirement vehicle affect how retirees spend?
What can give you a pay raise in retirement?
What happens to your lifestyle?
What is the rational side?
What is longevity risk?
Will you live to age 97 or beyond?
What causes people to run out of money?
What about locking in guaranteed income?
Who is funding survival?
How could one make longevity risk disappear?
What does “protect principal at all cost!” do to spending?
What about the behavioral side?
Do people treat all money as fungible?
What about loss aversion?
Why do retirees hate to draw down their IRA balances?
What about the required minimum distributions (RMDs)?
What does the law say about turning 73 and holding qualified accounts?
What does the data say?
How about some examples?
What form is your money sitting in, right now?
Who wants to flip the script?
What happens when you delay social security payments?
What is the closest thing to a spending superpower that exists?
What are some practical moves you can take?
What are the takeaways?
Would you like to visit ssa.gov?
Would you like to meet with Mark or one of Mark’s associates?
27 min
January 23Episode 438: Having a Baby? Put Bank On Yourself® on the Registry!
In this episode, we ask:
Are you a small or mid-sized business owner?
Would you like to read and review our new book, The Business Fortress: How to Grow, Protect and Exit Your Business?
What’s an unexpected baby shower gift?
What if your family could chip in?
What are smart tricks?
What about funding systematically?
What about locking in insurability on a baby?
How long have they paid a dividend?
What about compound growth?
What about compound growth from a child’s point of view?
What about your kids needs?
What are the costs?
What about income streams?
What is the arbitrage?
What about the guaranteed increase?
What about the dividends?
What about 529 plans?
What about credit card debt?
What is a stable anchor for your family’s finances?
… and more!
20 min
January 16Episode 437: Pay Your Kids Through Your Business, a Roth IRA plus Bank on Yourself® Strategy
In this episode, we ask:
Did you host a lemonade stand as a kid?
What is the spark for real financial freedom?
What about setting up a legacy?
What about teaching the kids how to build wealth?
Who wants to plant an oak tree for the kids?
What about tax free income and tax free lifetime income?
Does this work for adults?
What strategies put you in control?
What is a fixed indexed annuity (FIA)?
How can one supercharge them with Roth IRAs?
Would you like to hear Episode 238?
Would you like to hear Episode 213?
What allows you to contribute overtime with flexibility?
What about losses?
What about gains?
What about compounding?
What about taxes?
What happens to that account down the road?
Do kids get better rates on annuities than adults?
What can Roth IRAs hold?
What are the tax rules?
What about required minimum distributions (RMDs)?
What about earned income for children?
What about a child that earns a W2?
Can you hire your kids?
… and more!
28 min
January 09Episode 436: Embracing Life’s Endings with Dani Craig
In this episode, we ask:
What if confronting the idea of death could change how we live?
What is a death doula?
Who is Dani Craig?
Would you like to visit the Tend Group?
Where does true well being exist?
What does it mean to die well?
What is Dani’s story?
What about anxiety?
What about intimacy?
What is the thing we do alone?
What happened when Dani’s father, grandfather and niece died?
What about true well being?
What are the services people offer in end of life care?
What is the work?
What about resilience?
What are the takeaways?
Would you like to read The Tend Group-Resilient (End-of) Life Conversation Guide?
43 min
January 02Episode 435: Warning! You Could LOSE Your PUAs IF You Don’t Pay Your Premiums
In this episode, we ask:
Would you like the option to add an extra bedroom or bathroom to your house?
Would you like a blueprint for maximizing your policy’s potential?
Would you like to hear Episode 142?
What is the minimum annual premium due on the PUA rider?
What happens to the paid up additions rider, and why does it matter?
What is a rider?
What can your policy actually do?
What is a strategic way to boost the value of the policy?
What is a powerhouse of wealth building?
What compounds inside of your policy, forever?
What do they carriers allow?
What can cause the PUA window to close suddenly?
What can you do to avoid this?
What is the “set it and forget it” fix?
What adds to your wealth?
What adds to your death benefit?
What adds to your dividends?
How about an example?
… and more!
27 min