This is step number one. In this episode, I am going to address five
critical steps to take before retiring. This is the first of the five steps.
Get ready, you're going to see something that you're probably not expecting.
So, my name's Doug Andrew and I've been a financial strategist and retirement planning
specialist now for more than four and a half decades and I've helped many people prepare
for retirement by optimizing their assets and minimizing taxes. But a lot of times
people get confused when I start talking about the most important assets on the family balance sheet.
So, what I did for years is I conducted a five and a half hour course called retire by
design and we had thousands of people attend this course and then I recorded it online
and I'm going to show you how you can have access to the online version or how you can learn this by
reading listening or watching. But I'm going to give you a few snippets a few of the most
critical points in this five and a half hour course retire by design and then you can decide
if you would like to engage and learn more. So, here we go, get ready. When you are about to go on a trip
somewhere for the very first time. What's the most important piece of information you need to know?
Most people blurt out well where you're going or how to get there. Nope, when using a GPS it uses
triangulation and it does that by honing in on three out of about 32 satellites that orbit this
earth for that very purpose. Once it has clarity on where you are at within two square feet on this
globe then you program in where you're wanting to go and it will show you all kinds of ways
to get to your desired destination. The freeway, the scenic way, the byway, and also where to refuel
your car or yourself in route. Now, when people ask me, "Doug, what is it that you like to do?",
I enthusiastically respond. I like to be the onstar button on people's dashboard of life. You see, I
like to help people get extremely clear on where they are at in every area or dimension of their
life and then get clarity on where they're wanting to go. Then the path to get to their desired
destination can be easily mapped out. Sort of how to live the life they want to lead. Now, a very
good friend of mine strategic coach Dan Sullivan told me one day, "All progress begins by telling the
truth", and I would add to yourself. Sometimes the hardest person to tell the truth to is yourself.
As a financial strategist and retirement planning specialist now for more than four and a half
decades. I can usually look at somebody's tax return or six numbers on a financial statement and
within two minutes I can tell where they are at financially. How much of a fortune they're missing
out on. What they know and what they obviously don't know, how long their money is going to last?
The fact of the matter is you don't know what you don't know because you can't be aware of something
you're not aware of. Now, you can also tell where somebody's at by where they're at physically.
We make choices in our life regarding exercise or lack of exercise, nutrition or
lack of nutrition that puts our bodies not at ease what we call dis-ease. That all too often results
in what my good friend Tony Escobar calls death by lethal ingestion. Maybe because of weapons of mass
consumption, okay. But you can also tell where somebody's at by where they're at emotionally,
intellectually, spiritually. But all progress begins by telling the truth. Once you have clarity on
where you are at in all dimensions of your life and then get clearly on where you wanted to go
then the path to get to your desired destination can be easily mapped out. Usually in these
retire by design events I pass out a card on a 11 by 17 sheet of paper and the first five areas or
principles that I teach in five and a half hours have to do with money, liquidity, safety, rate of
return, tax advantages, cash generator but this is spelled k-a-s-h. I'll show you what that
means here in a moment but then these five talk about the other two dimensions of what I call
authentic wealth. Abundance versus scarcity mindset a three-dimensional approach like a three-legged
stool. A responsibility and accountability equal opportunity instead of equal distribution
and a values and vision document. This is what I would call an ethical will. So, let me share with
you what I mean by three dimensions. There are three dimensions of what I call authentic wealth.
When we say the word assets, what kinds of things do most people think of first when we say the word
assets? Most people think of such things as your house, other real estates, your cash, your stocks, your
bonds and so forth. But those are just material possessions aren't they, they're just things.
When I ask people what are the most important assets that you value, that you cherish, that you
possess on this earth. Now, people say family it's usually their family, their relationships,
their health, these are human assets they involve people. I would also call these
the foundational assets for abundant living. It would also include such things as your heritage,
your charitable foundations, your talents, your unique abilities, and so forth. Now, there's a third
dimension of authentic wealth that involves the wisdom that we gain throughout our life. Now, wisdom
is a product of knowledge times what experiences. Just the good ones? I've actually learned more
from my bad experiences in life. It would also include your formal education, your reputation,
method systems, traditions, alliances, ideas and skills. These are the three dimensions of authentic
wealth like a three-legged stool. Now, whenever I ask anybody, if you had to let go of one of these
three categories of assets financial, foundational, or intellectual, but you could keep the other two.
Not only could you keep the other two but you could transfer them into future generations.
But you had to let go of one start over you had to bankrupt one of these three categories of assets
and start all over. Which one would you let go of? Now, abundant-minded people immediately say
well, the money. Why would you let go of the money? Because you can rebuild that category using the
other two. Most religions on earth believe we come to this life possessing these assets to
one degree or another. If you believe in a life after this one these are the ones you return to
your maker and report on. Have you ever figured out how to take the money with you when you die?
Yeah, there's no luggage racks on hearses as the song says. In fact, two affluent guys died and went
to the pearly gates. One turned to the other and said, "Man, how much did you leave behind?", the other
one said, "All of it", yeah you don't take it with you. Isn't it interesting that traditional estate and
financial planning in this country seems to focus on the least important category on the family
balance sheet, the money. See, at three dimensional wealth we focus on all three dimensions. It's a
three-legged stool and I find that too many people are wobbling on one leg money... and they
accumulate their wealth at expense of their health. Later in life, they're spending all their all
their wealth trying to regain their health that's sort of stupid or they accumulate their financial
wealth at the expense of relationships with their spouse their kids their grandkids or their God.
This is why at three-dimensional wealth we believe it's more important that values are
understood before the assets are valued. So in this retire by design course we actually talk
about all three dimensions these legacy dimensions, intellectual and foundational. I show you how to
leave behind the knowledge, attitude, skills and habits that spells the acronym KASH. That's more
important than leaving behind a bunch of money and so you want to make sure you're empowering
your kids. If you're going to be playing in a golf tournament and you had the choice of using a
professional golfer like Phil Mickelson's swing or you could use his clubs. What would you choose?
Well, I'd rather have his swing not the clubs. Well I've noticed that most financial advisors focus on
the golf clubs or the commodity. It's not in a commodity it's in the strategy. They say, oh by this
stalker bond or mutual fund or gold or silver. It'snot in the commodity, it's in the strategy. I've
noticed that many estate planning attorneys seem to focus on dividing up the golf clubs and the
trophies among the your kids and grandkids when you die. I'd rather leave behind how to fish to my
kids and grandkids than dumping a bunch of fish in their lap. I want them to be self-reliant to never
be unemployed because unemployment is a mental condition not a physical condition. Security is
in the individual not in somebody giving you a job. So that's why at three-dimensional wealth
we focus on all three dimensions. So, in this course we will show you that equal distribution
is not the fairest way to treat those you care about because that's a false belief pattern. You
go to most estate planning attorneys and the first question they ask you is well how many kids have
you got? Because what are they going to start doing with your trust. When you die they're going to...
and sometimes they kill the goose laying the golden eggs your business or whatever because the
trust says you got to divide it up and dump it in your kids laps and it ruins half of the kids in
this country. That's what fosters entitlement mentality, when do I get my share? No equal
opportunities are better than equal distribution. Sometimes people go away. See, because I say
most estate planning it's focused on four d's they divide it up they defer thinking they're
saving tax it gets distributed and dumped on ill-prepared areas and then it dissipates.
Wealth is transferred without a system that fosters responsibility and accountability. We focus
on four ps that I'll show you because Abraham Lincoln said, "The worst thing you can do for those
you love is the things they can do for themselves", Robert Frost said, "Every affluent father wishes he
knew how to give his sons the hardships that made him rich", but we don't want to see our kids suffer
and we think we're helping them. You cannot believe how many successful people would come and visit me
and they would tell me their story and how they went from rags to riches and I grew up after the
great depression my kids will never have to work as hard as I did. 10, 20, 30, years later they come
back in and aft this is after their adult children moved back home several times and I say, "How's
it going?", they go, "Doug, I don't know what's going on. My kids don't even know how to work", and I would
say, "Well, maybe you stole that from them. Maybe in your effort to take that off of them what made
a man out of you you stole that from them", and so we want to have equal opportunities not equal
distribution because there's nothing more unequal than the equal distribution to unequals people
go what? Let me just say this way our creator does not give equal distribution of health to all of us
regardless of how some of us may choose to abuse our bodies. Our creator gives us equal
opportunities not equal distribution. It's based upon being responsible and accountable. Does that
make sense? So, you live by the governing principle of equal opportunities not equal distribution.
If this is resonating with you feel free to share this video with other people who you can
tell or maybe trapped in this entitlement cycle that I'm talking about and this is the first of
five critical steps that I think everybody ought to take before retiring. So, subscribe
to this channel and stay with me here and I'll show you how to get a copy of my most recent book
about this topic called entitlement abolition. So folks, I think it's more important you leave
behind the knowledge attitude skills and habits this cache because this is the swing instead of
dumping a bunch of golf clubs on your kids and grandkids. This will help you free those you
care about from being trapped in this entitlement when all this abundance is right here within reach
and you can free them from that trap and everybody starts experience abundance and abundance breeds
abundance and you will learn how and why as you read the book or if you attend or you take the
online course five and a half hours and I can show you how to get it for free. So folks, you
can get a copy of entitlement abolition by going to entitlementabolitionbook.com.
You contribute a nominal amount towards the shipping and handling I'll cover the rest of that.
This is a 200-page book that talks about these very issues and I want to gift you a copy of that.
But also if you would like this 38-page workbook on retire by design when you go in and do
that you'll be able to go through what is called an eight-step transformation process when you
engage with three-dimensional wealth and when you do that then you'll be able to understand how to
diversify your money in these rules of governance. So that you can have money in all four of these
buckets that i talk about in other episodes and you can do that by having this 38-page workbook
and you can claim this and get the video and take the class online for retire by design.
This is the first step of five. I would encourage you to watch the next episode step number two.