Unedited Transcript:

0:00:00 – Host

Welcome to the Healthy and Wealthy Retirement, where your certified retirement counselor, mark Struthers, takes a holistic approach to retirement, going beyond finances and embracing holistic well-being. This YouTube channel will address everything you need for a healthier, a wealthier and a happier retirement. Here is your host, mark Struthers. 

0:00:23 – Mark Struthers

Welcome to the Healthy and Wealthy Retirement. My name is Mark Struthers. Welcome to the Healthy and Wealthy Retirement. My name is Mark Struthers. Today we have a special guest. We have a new setting, a different setting, I guess not so new for us, but my son Will is going to help us out with a little demonstration. We are going to talk about the big rock, little rock, financial planning, retirement planning. You have probably seen this done. As far as prioritizing time, we all have very limited amount, a finite amount of time and money, whether it comes to family, work and money. And with financial planning it is even more critical. 

0:00:54 – Mark Struthers

I was reminded of this exercise. 

0:00:56 – Mark Struthers

We used to do this with employee financial well-being. It was really helpful for employees to go through this by a recent MarketWatch article where a divorced mother, I think in mid to late 40s, was feeling overwhelmed understandably, especially something as emotionally exhausting as a divorce. She said where do I start? I have kids. How do I even begin to address all the financial pressures I have on me and my suggestion was the big rock little rock. What is the big rock little rock? Well, it’s where we have rocks that are different sizes. And what do the different sizes mean Will? Importance and money, importance and money. So, for example, often the biggest rock is often retirement. That’s a big one. It could be an emergency fund as well. Now, an emergency fund usually isn’t the biggest because it usually figure three to six months, six to twelve, so it’s not as big as retirement, but it actually is a pretty big rock. So it’s not always the cost or the value, it’s how critical it is and you really do need a good emergency fund. So Will is going to demonstrate here. We have different sized rocks. He’s going to run through what all they are, what they all are, and what do these rocks symbolize Will? Small things, small things like streaming, maybe going out with your buddies to Buffalo Wild Wing UFC fights. Will is going to address the small rocks first. 

So he’s going to ignore some of the bigger things. He’s just going to focus on things that don’t really matter and he’s going to move it in with a little bit bigger rocks. The Vikings just got them playing, if you can’t tell, and they won against San Fran. Will, how did your team do? Pretty good, pretty good. Packers we are a mixed family, packers and Vikings. All right, will, what are you going to put in next, Car? A car that’s a decent-sized rock. College. College, Is that rock big enough for you, given you’re going in a couple years, I think that would be a huge rock for Will House Housing. Actually, where are you thinking about going? Will Notre Dame or Madison? Madison, Notre Dame would be an awful big rock. Madison’s a really popular school around here. 

0:03:14 – Mark Struthers

All right, keep going. 

0:03:15 – Mark Struthers

Emergency fund. 

Emergency fund, that’s a decent-sized rock, vacation, vacation, vacation for your mom. That rock would be very large. I’m not even sure it would fit inside the jar all by itself. Retire, retirement are you able to get everything in? No, no, so because we addressed the things that didn’t really matter, the smaller rocks, first. We couldn’t, we couldn’t fit them all in the jar. So now we’re going to do, we’re going to address the bigger rock first, the biggest rocks first, and see what that looks like. All right, now we are going to address our larger rocks first and see what that looks like. So retirement goes in, emergency fund goes in.The house goes in, it’s in for that house down payment, college and I, you know hopefully some good scholarships, because Notre Dame, I say, is going to be as big as my fist. I think this is more like Madison says Vacations, a car, so so far, so good. And then, once we address all those, then we can start looking at some of the stuff that maybe doesn’t mean quite as much. Doesn’t mean quite as much, and when we do that, our little rocks are bouncing all over the place, things easily fit, we’re able to address all of our needs, we’re able to close the lid, and when you do this whether it’s financial planning or how you spend your time with your family, work things are usually healthier and happier. So a wealthier, a healthier, a happier retirement or, in the case of Will, maybe a healthy, wealthier and happier college experience. 

0:04:51 – Mark Struthers

Oh yeah. 

0:04:53 – Mark Struthers

So thank you for joining us. Please give this a try. If you don’t actually do it with rocks or, in this case, little foam balls, try it with something else. It’s a good exercise with you and your spouse or family to say we have limited resources. It’s kind of a good way of budgeting. How are we going to fit everything into our jar? What are we going to address first? Thank you. 

Disclosure-

Investment advisory services are offered through Sona Financial LLC (DBA Sona Wealth Advisors, Sona Wealth, Sona Wealth Management), an investment adviser registered in the state of MN. Sona Financial only offers investment advisory services where it is appropriately registered or exempt from registration and only after clients have entered into an investment advisory agreement confirming the terms of engagement and have been provided a copy of the firm’s ADV Part 2A brochure and document. 

This video is for educational purposes only and is not exhaustive. Nothing discussed during this show/episode should be viewed as investment advice. Diversification and/or any strategy that may be discussed does not guarantee against investment losses but is intended to help manage risk and return. If applicable, historical discussions and/or opinions are not predictive of future events. The content is presented in good faith and has been drawn from sources believed to be reliable. The content is not intended to be legal, tax, or financial advice. Please consult a legal, tax, or financial professional for information specific to your individual situation.

This content has not been reviewed by FINRA