Uncommon Wealth Podcast

You’ve planned for retirement in a general way. You have some money stashed away in IRAs and other accounts. Now you can just coast into retirement and forget about money, right? Nope, that’s not how retirement works for most of us. But the important thing is that you do have options.

In this episode, we want to help you explore your options. There are many different approaches to take as you head into and plan for retirement–or as we like to call it “time freedom” mode.

Don’t get pushed into a path you are not comfortable with, because when it comes to retirement income one size definitely does not fit all. Some people want a lot of guarantees, some people are okay with risks. In this episode, we want to educate you about your choices. If you are getting ready to “clock out” of the regular work schedule you’ve been on before retirement, we want you to know what your options are so you can make the best choices possible.

what you will learn in this episode:

• Why Retirement Income is not one-size-fits-all
• Understanding guaranteed and non-guaranteed income
• How to define financial freedom for yourself and build a plan that works for you
• The options you have for retirement income
• What to expect from pensions and social security income
• How to make sure you have enough liquid assets to manage during retirement

It is an ongoing theme in our work; we love what we do and we want to help others find what they love to do and create a sustainable life from doing just that.

That’s why we were so glad to get a chance to interview our podcast guest Brie King. It wasn’t long ago that Brie was living through some challenging times as her marriage ended. But that was far from the end of her story. After realizing she had an interest in real estate, she decided to take the plunge and use her newly purchased property to become an Airbnb super host.

We say it all the time: when you’re doing what you love, you will never want to quit. That’s why we love hearing about people who are upending the standard “retirement” equation, not waiting for that end of the rainbow moment, but going out and living their dreams today. That’s Brie’s story, and we’re eager to share it.

Brie worked in corporate health healthcare for six years. She’s a proud mom who owns and operates 3 cottages through Airbnb, and is in the beginning stages of a canoe and kayak rental service called Elk River Outfitters, along with her existing marketing company, Elk River Media in Fayetteville, Tennessee.

what you will learn in this episode:

• How to find opportunity in challenges
• How to leverage things you already do and enjoy and create income from them
• Ways to peel back the “entrepreneurial onion”
• Moving from a retirement mindset to building time freedom, by loving what you do so much you never want to quit
• Turning travel into R&D for your Airbnb
• How to create opportunities for your kids to explore the uncommon life

Are you curious about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general? Want to understand more about it?

Well, Bryan is the man you want to talk to! This episode is a duocast, but mainly it is Phillip interviewing Bryan about the promise and potential pitfalls of cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin.

Some background is necessary to understand this episode better: Bitcoin is banking. Bitcoin can bank without intermediaries. That’s what makes it so powerful. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority. Managing transactions and the issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively by the network. Transactions are verified and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain.

Bitcoin was invented in 2008 by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto.

This is some serious geekery, but we are convinced Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not going anywhere. You will do well to understand it and potentially dip a toe into cryptocurrency to see if it is an investment that makes sense for you.

what you will learn in this episode:

• What Bitcoin is and is not
• The history of Bitcoin and why it was developed
• How blockchain creates triple-ledger accounting
• Understanding Bitcoin mining
• How to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
• How cryptocurrency stacks up against the current banking system
• What to consider when thinking about investing in Bitcoin
• How “stable coins” fit into the cryptocurrency universe

resources:

• The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking
• Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain
• The Internet of Money
• Try Coinbase: https://www.coinbase.com/join/dewhur_t

For us, financial planning has three essential components: flexibility, the ability to customize for your specific needs, and the ability for you to control how your money grows.

In our most recent episode, we unpack one of our favorite financial tools—whole life insurance—in a way that carries through on those values of flexibility, custom-fit, and control. We’re talking with guest Michael Rothman about premium financing; a system where you can borrow the life insurance premium to pay for that policy and then you pay interest on the money that you just borrowed. Now especially, high net worth people can leverage these low-interest rates environments and gain the death benefit that they need, the cash value that can grow for them, while paying a small interest rate to do it.

Michael has an in-depth understanding of advanced tax and estate planning techniques as well as sophisticated leveraging and wealth preservation strategies. He works with Succession Capital out of California. The firm was formed in 2004 to address a void in the market: understanding and communicating about life insurance with advisors and high net worth individuals and business owners.

Michael joined Succession Capital in 2008 and is responsible for business development on a national level. He oversees all major initiatives at SCA. He’s an accomplished speaker throughout the financial industry and has his CFP designation. Michael is responsible for case design, presentation, and implementation of these advanced planning concepts.

what you will learn in this episode:

• What premium financing is
• Who premium financing is for
• New ways to use life insurance to accomplish your goals
• The many ways the cash value of your life insurance is protected
• How to use long term loans just like big corporations do
• How to finance life insurance premiums the same way you would for property
• The tax and gift planning ramifications of premium financing for life insurance
• Why premium financing makes sense even when interest rates rise

Why don’t more kids learn about financial literacy and entrepreneurship in school? Why are these not part of the core curriculum from kindergarten through 12th grade? Some states (like Iowa!) and local school districts do have these requirements, but way too many do not. The result is adults who don’t know how to save and don’t understand basic financial principles. Stop the madness!

In our most recent episode, we are blowing the lid off this challenge, and bringing on the solutions! We discovered Junior Achievement last year and are in awe of how it answers so many of our concerns about financial literacy in the classroom. Our guest, Collin Lane tells us all about how JA brings experiential learning about financial principles—from finance, jobs, business, and entrepreneurship —to classrooms across the country, and how they’ve been doing it for over 100 years.

Collin is in his second year as the director of programs for Junior Achievement of Central Iowa. Before his time with JA, he spent nearly 14 years in public education for Des Moines public schools. He taught fifth grade for seven years and was an elementary tech teacher. He served as Instructional Technology Coordinator as a member of the district-wide curriculum team. Collin has his BA in Elementary Education from Moorpark College and his Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Northern Iowa.

what you will learn in this episode:

• Why we need to prepare our kids with financial literacy
• How Junior Achievement has been helping young entrepreneurs for 100+ years
• The kinds of financial literacy and entrepreneurship programs JA provides
• How kids can gain an immersive experience in business that they will remember the rest of their lives
• Teaching kids beyond basics to get at deeper principles of financial well-being
• Why school districts should include financial literacy as part of the core curriculum from K-12
• How to take financial literacy to the next level with college-age young people
• Why mentorship is the cheat code of life

Passive income sounds so nice. You make a pile of money while sitting on a beach somewhere. But does it really work like that? Not really. In fact, we don’t like the term ‘passive income’ and much prefer terms like ‘passionate income’ or even ‘active income.’ But why?

This episode is all about the goal we all have, which is financial and time freedom. Even if that means sitting on a beach somewhere, how do you get there? It’s like any “overnight success.” It takes time and effort. It starts with identifying your passion and discovering ways to create residual income and cash flow from that passion.

Because the truth is, passive income isn’t truly passive if you do it right. It’s passionate income. It is a lifestyle, it is a movement. It’s aligning your God-given gifts with a path to that time and financial freedom. That’s the path we love helping our clients with, and it’s what we want for you.

what you will learn in this episode:

• The hard work that is usually behind what people call passive income
• How a growth mindset is a key element to generating cashflow
• Why chasing rate of return is not always the best policy
• The biblical principles behind where your money and attention go
• How to keep the main thing the main thing
• How your financial accounts tell a story about what you value
• Aligning your investments with your interests and passions
• How to create multiple exit strategies through your investments and cash flow
• Why a value ladder is a great strategic business tool to build residual income

Some people dream of a life that is a constant vacation on a beach. That is their travel dream. Others want to wander the globe trying to make connections and build understanding between themselves and the people they meet along the way.

Our guest on the podcast in our most recent episode is all about the latter approach. She has become a life lesson in following the Uncommon Path. She understood her ‘why,’ designed a plan, and made it all happen. It is a spectacular story that exemplifies how we try to guide all of our clients: follow your passion, find ways to monetize it, and live your dream.

Samantha Burmeister is the woman behind 9 to 5 Nomad, a resource for people looking to make the transition from location-based work to world travel. She has been an avid traveler since high school, catching the travel bug from her grandparents.

She found every study abroad opportunity possible in college. To pay off loans and start her next adventure as soon as possible, she did join the regular 9-5 life for a while. She took the plunge into full-time travel this past year and is not looking back.

Nomad Courses: https://9to5nomad.teachable.com/

what you will learn in this episode:

• How to pay attention to your passion, and plan your life around that
• Understanding your priorities so you can make better decisions in life
• How to monetize a passion for travel
• The art and brass tacks of traveling solo
• Why living your dream might cost less than the way you are living right now
• How to listen to your friends when they call you out for making excuses
• The phases you need to go through with your finances to follow your Uncommon Path
• What it means to live as a nomad/expatriate/slow traveler
• How to be a financially savvy traveler

Our guest on the podcast in our most recent episode is all about the latter approach. She has become a life lesson in following the Uncommon Path. She understood her ‘why,’ designed a plan, and made it all happen. It is a spectacular story that exemplifies how we try to guide all of our clients: follow your passion, find ways to monetize it, and live your dream.

We are all about following that Jumanji drumbeat—that passion you have that just won’t stay quiet—but that doesn’t mean throwing everything away to do it. So how do you turn your dreams into a source of income without upending your life and your current livelihood? Great question!

That’s why, in our most recent episode, we are thrilled to be speaking with someone who has walked this very walk. Keesia Wirt is pursuing her dreams while keeping her feet on the ground. She is growing a business based on her passion while remaining a key contributor at her day job.

Another wrinkle you may face is that your dreams and passions may seem a little bit strange. Keesia realized she had a passion for writing obituaries. Strange, right? She understands that. But she also realized what was underneath that passion; that the stories of the people we love too often go unheard. Keesia experienced the regret of missing those stories first-hand when she realized her grandmothers had “graduated” to heaven without her sitting down and learning from them.

That’s how Circa Legacy was born. Now Keesia (in addition to her day job!) owns and operates a company dedicated to collecting and sharing the stories that make up our loved one’s legacy. The story of this unique startup is one you do not want to miss.

what you will learn in this episode:

• Getting comfortable with niching down
• Why it is important to celebrate loved ones while we’re all here to celebrate
• How to become a storyteller about the life of someone you love
• The importance of securing a URL in the process of naming your business
• The importance of passing down values and not just money to future generations
• How to create a “value ladder” from entry-level to gold-standard products or services
• Developing a product you can create once and profit from indefinitely
• Challenges and opportunities in fulfilling your passion while keeping a day job
• How to have honest conversations with employers about what you want
• Using cash flow from your day job to be smart about investing in your passion

To understand how to create a value ladder the right way, along with other key startup tips, download our ebook: https://www.uncommonwealth.com/resources/e-books/

When challenging times come, opportunity comes right along with them. We see this play out over and over throughout history. The entire world is in an unprecedented holding pattern because of COVID-19. How should you respond?

Things are uncertain and scary right now, so we wanted to create an episode to talk about that. Jobs are being lost and business paradigms are being disrupted. But in the midst of this, there are touchstones to hold on to. How can you spend this time with your family? Who should you reach out to? What should you start doing that you were not making time for a month or two ago?

What we are living through represents a huge reset button on many levels. How we respond is up to us. We just want you to know you are not alone, and that opportunities do await in the midst of this crisis.

what you will learn in this episode:

• The amazing, intentional ways your family can connect during a crisis
• How to help kids focus beyond themselves and reach out to friends and family
• Avoiding the “Cam Newton Effect” of blaming others for challenges you face
• How business paradigms might shift more rapidly in the wake of this pandemic
• Why grace needs to be more abundant than ever
• How this crisis might impact commercial real estate
• The potential of acceleration toward more self-employment