Wildland Firefighter Personal Finance, Windfall Events, And Not Making Dumb Decisions With John Cullen
It’s not easy to NOT make that rash decision to go out and blow your hard earned back pay, and future pay supplements, on that new "overland rig", 6 bottles of high grade bourbon, a new rifle, optic, and god knows whatever vice you have...
And yea... Before you ask, I know it’s hard... 'Cause I've been there - And also, this pay supplement may not be permanent...
So, if you didn't blow all of your money already, listen in to this episode - It may save your ass (from a financial standpoint) in the future. John and I talk about a wide variety of subjects in this episode including: TSP, 401k's, investments, the long game of being able to retire, emergency funds, and much more...
John is a financial advisor who served in the United States Military. He is also an avid rugby player, former medic, and D1 rugby trainer. John specializes in working with first responders and veterans. Being a service member himself, he knows that it is a grossly unserviced sector of society, and he's made it a personal mission to help those who have chosen to help others.
To find out more about John, or to contact him about financial advice - Check out the following links:
LinkedIn: John Cullen
Instagram: "Johnny Utah"
Email: John.cullen@nm.com
Hope this episode helps guide you in the right direction - And don't decide to "YOLO" your life savings on GME, SPY, or Crypto!!!
You know the drill...
Stay safe, stay savage...
Enjoy!
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And, as always, please consider supporting this great nonprofit organization - The Wildland Firefighter Foundation!
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Wildland Firefighter Personal Finance, Windfall Events, And Not Making Dumb Decisions With John Cullen
This episode is going to be brought to you by Mystery Ranch, Built for the Mission. If you aren't rocking a wildland fire pack built by Mystery Ranch, you're doing it wrong. Lock it up, get it together, and get the right gear. Your back, your knees, and everything else are going to thank you later. They make arguably the most comfortable, well-built, and hands down, probably the best warranty in the game. Let's be honest with ourselves, but other than that, they make a ton of other load-bearing essentials. Say you want to go peel a trophy elk off the hill, they got you covered. If you want to go trekking across the PCT, they got you covered. They make about every load-bearing essential that you can imagine.
More specifically, they've got the Assault 21 and the Three-Way Briefcase. The reason why I'm mentioning these is that a portion of the proceeds from the sales of these packs is going to go back to the Backbone Series. The Backbone Series tells the story of wildland fire, and it's helping those boots on the ground that are going above and beyond to push their careers to new heights. I know that training is rather expensive but lucky for you. If you put your name in the hat for these Mystery Ranch Backbone Series scholarships, you have an opportunity to get a $1,000 grant to help further your career. If you want to go find out more, go over to www.MysteryRanch.com and check out all they have to offer.
This show is always going to be brought to you by our premier coffee sponsor. That's going to be none other than Hotshot Brewing. It's kick-ass coffee for a kick-ass cause. A portion of the proceeds will always go back to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation. In addition, they make a ton of other stuff, like all the tools of the trade to get your mornings started right and a ton of other Wildland Firefighter-themed apparel.
Go over to HotshotBrewing.com and check out their full line of everything they make. While you're at it, go over to the little section of the store and get some exclusive merch. If you want me to be looking at one of those Dorad stuff posters, one of the fire field shirts, or one of the bands of Brothers Tees, you can find it all at www.HotshotBrewing.com. It's kick-ass coffee for a kick-ass cause. Go check it out.
We like to give a quick little shout-out to our buddy Booze over at the ASS Movement. Why am I bringing this up? They are a hilarious little organization and they are serious about stewardship. It stands for the Anti-Surface Shitting Movement. Everybody out there hates someone that goes up on public land and takes a dump right on top of it. It doesn't even take the effort to bury it, cover their toilet paper, or anything. It's easy.
ASS Movement was an educational platform that gives back to wildland firefighters but it's also a great way to spread the word about burying your turds. If you want the finest in poo-bearing propaganda, go over to www.TheFireWild.com and check out the ASS movement, where the readers can get 10% off their entire order over there at the ASS Movement by using code, AnchorPointS10, at checkout.
We like to give a quick little shout-out to our friends over at the AWE, also known as the American Wildfire Experience, also known as the Smokey Generation, which is an AWE project. If you don't know what it is, it is a catalog of digital storytelling dating back to the 1940s about wildland fire. Check this out. It's not even just relegated to North America anymore. It is a global affair. If you want the latest and greatest from projects or storytelling projects in the field, even in a global context from across the world, go to Wildfire-Experience.org and check it all out.
They announced the 2022 winners of the Smokey Generation Awards, storytelling awards, the grant winners, and it's pretty cool. They're giving back to the wildland fire community in a big way. They helped fund some of those projects for wildland fire storytelling projects. If you happen to be a writer, blogger, photographer, videographer, or anybody who's telling the story of wildland fire, your opportunity's going to be coming up for one of these $500 Smokey Generation grants. If you have a badass organization over there, keep it up.
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On the show, we are going to have a little bit of financial advice, and it's probably much needed considering the pay supplements are starting to come through. They have come through in a ginormous lump sum for some of you. There's going to be more to that. I believe that the overtime component is going to be paid out in a lump sum separate from that, but this is going to continue. Do you want some financial advice? This is going to be the episode to read. Not necessarily financial advice but some tips and tricks of not getting your ass into a crack.
With that being said, on the show, we have an actual financial advisor, and he's in the military. He speaks the language. He's done a little bit of everything. He works with a lot of Fed employees and a lot of military and first responders. He speaks the language of you folks out there, which is important because once some Joe Blow in its suit and tie starts talking to you about finances, you're probably going to tune out but this guy's legit and he's funny. He knows his thing. Without further ado, I'd like to introduce my good friend, Mr. John Cullen. Welcome to the show.
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On the show, I've got my good friend and financial advisor, Mr. John Cullen. What's going on?
How's it going? Thanks for having me. I’m happy to do this.
Tell us about yourself.
I've transitioned into what I call my post-playing career, and in the near future, possibly a post-service career. I dabbled back and forth. If you get done playing professional sports and get to a certain point, you’re like, “What am I going to do now?” I was interviewing all over the place and talking to a lot of people. I'd always had an interest in it. I'd always wanted to be smarter with my money. I didn't come from a lot of money. I didn't know all these tips, tricks, and things I work with and tell people no. I didn't know a lot of this stuff growing up.
I had a friend reach out and went in for an interview. I dove right in from there into the profession. It's been great with a marginally unique background. I have a background in sports, military, civilian EMS, and things like that. It's a unique opportunity to have that connection with people in that background because generally speaking, a lot of those people didn't come from scenarios of extraordinary wealth or great mentorship from parents or family with finances and things like that. That's how we all ended up wearing some uniform. We pick one. Most people's stories are pretty similar. They decide to put on a uniform for some portion of their life.
There may not be a lot of trust. We'll probably dive into this a little shorter. There's also a stigma. It's always weird, depending on your background, where you go sit down. I say this all the time because I make fun of people in my office with a bunch of nerds, khaki shirts and polos. They're talking to you about a Roth IRA and putting it in your savings account. You're like, “I jumped out of planes, put out fires, and stopped people from killing people for a living. What are you talking about?”
A funny thing is being a broke crap. That's the folly of a civil servant. We all typically don't come from money unless you go straight into West Point but even then, it's not like you have gratuitous amounts of money. The xenophobia is very real. The military doesn't want to talk to Joe Blow, the financial advisor and neither does fire, EMS, police, any Federal servant, or anybody. They want to stay in their lane. That's where you are unique. You have that experience and background. You jumped out of planes. You save people making saves. You're a medic. That's a very unique position to be in, especially for a financial advisor, because you speak the language of these folks.
There are times I get mistrustful. I see people being skeptical. People think of the financial world as crooked, sideways, or things like that. I'm like, “There are parts that are. It's money.” It's going to pull out the worst and the greediest sides of all human beings. I can also say and make the joke. I was like, “There are sides of the military, a fire department, police department, and every hospital that's as crooked, dirty, and corrupt and treats people like crap.” If we can get past that, we can work together.
People think of the financial world as crooked or sideways. If we can get past the idea that other areas like the military, healthcare, and police also have their own corrupt sides, everyone can work together.
There is an old saying, “Eating can make a turd sandwich. You can only do it one bite at a time.” We're all in this together. I'm pretty sure you've got some pretty useful advice because you've eaten that turd sandwich like everybody else has. The military jargon, from what I understand, it's very similar to specifically wildland fire but it's foreign to me.
I've got probably one of my best friends growing up. My entire friend group is all California firefighters. I have my half a foot in the door of jargon and nonsense that fire talks about being civilian EMS and you work with paramedics and firefighter-paramedics. Everyone's crap-talking and sense of humor are pretty much the same. Everyone has their little inside jokes.
The dark humor overshadows everything.
It's so bad. I catch myself at work all the time, and I was like, “Everyone hears a normal person. No one thought that was funny.”
You’ve got to catch yourself
You cannot make those jokes.
What do you mean? Mom-and-pop is getting off the floor.
It was like half my job was insurance. It's like talking about people dying all the time and half-time. I want to make a funny joke and I'm like, “We're doing kid policies. This is not appropriate.”
You're a financial advisor. You specialize in TSP and particularly in Federal service. I'm sure you are well aware of wildlife firefighters. They pretty much had like a windfall financial event. They get this up to a $20,000-a-year bonus or 50% of your base pay. That's a ton of money in a short amount of time because this is all back paid from the fiscal year of the government. The fiscal year starts on October 1.
All this money was paid back to these wildlife firefighters in 2021. These folks are getting $8,000, $9,000, $12,000 or $15,000 bonuses. A lot of people are going out there and buying Tacomas with the racks and the Baja. This is like, “You've been blessed with a gift. Don't squander it.” Let's go into some advice about what we can do to coach these folks not to make crappy financial decisions.
If all your friends went and bought the Tacoma, go buy Toyota stock instead. Maybe fill me in a little more. Is that nationwide?
It’s nationwide with Federal wildland firefighting, USDA, Forest Service, and the Department of the Interior. That encompasses the BLM, the National Park Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. All these folks are getting a grip on money. I'm pretty sure they're chomping at the bit to go blow it on cocaine and hookers. Hopefully not.
Is this continuing or is this going to be a one-time thing?
There are still more questions to be found out the answers to. A lot of people are going to get screwed, especially the dispatchers. They're getting f***** over and supply cash managers. Do you know how wars are fought? Communications and logistics. We know that stuff or else we can't do our job as a firefighter in an operational context. Those people should be included but we're trying to figure that out, especially with the grassroots nonprofit that's out there advocating for these folks. It's going to be 2022, the fiscal year of the government. It is set to expire in 2024.
The lump-sum stuff like that is a tough one. Especially, big scale and things like that, when you look at it, you'll see some people where it's like, “$10,000, $15,000 or even $20,000. If you build it up or you don't touch it, maybe by 2024, you'd be looking at $60,000.” That's when you could be like, “I can make a big move into an investment.” None of this is personal, official financial advising. If you would like that, send me an email. Those are tough because it's so easy to go out and make a big purchase.
What I would say is this is a baseline, like a cookie-cutter answer. Any amount of money that you receive, whether it's your income, lump sum, a side job, social media, or anything else you're doing, you treat it the same way. This might hurt some feelings and might not like $10,000 or $15,000 into the market. Even if you're not going to continually build on that, it's not going to do much for you.
It's going to stagnate pretty much.
It's a very common misconception like, “I can throw $10,000 in the stock market. It'll grow.” I'm like, “No. That's not how the map works out. You’ve got to continually contribute, be smart, and reallocate whatever you're invested in if it's mutual funds or ETFs. If you did one solo stock, then you've got to live with that for however long until you use it.” Treat it exactly like you got your income. However you piece that up like 50% living expenses and 30% life expenses, going out to eat food and grocery, how to enjoy your actual life. We're in the realm where that 15% to 20% needs to stay for long-term goals or retirement. I'd say 10% goes to the long-term and 10% goes to the short-term. We want to buy a house or a car if you need a car.
You want to start a business and things like that. Put that into your short-term bucket and put 10% into your long-term bucket. Most people have retirement options through work as well if they’re going to stick it out somewhere. That helps offset. There's no one brilliant answer. Sending it into an asset that gives you no return is a poor decision that we saw and all made for a long time. We didn't know any better and thought we were cool because Tacomas are badass. Everyone wants their rack and their little tent on top. Go get their AR 15 and get ready for hunting season or put a new sweet scope on your hunting rack. Those are awesome. Maybe there's a little return on the hunting rifles if you're an avid hunter.
You're putting me in the freezer. The cars are tough, whatever the easy ones to pick on but buy a watch or anything that you may throw the cash that’s not going to bring you back. In any returns, you could always say on paper is a bad investment and maybe it doesn't feel good to pay off the credit card debt or make a big student loan payment because it feels like the money's gone but it'll probably do a lot better going forward in the future to pay off some debt, throw it into your home or do something like that. Do a home renovation that you've been asking about. Don't go buy a car or a motorcycle. Don't buy toys.
I don't know if a lot of people out there that are reading this carry a lot of credit card debt but previously to this windfall event, I know that we were some broke people. I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that we probably carried a lot of revolving debt in the form of credit cards or something that's high interest as far as taking lots of that off. You're pretty much investing in your financial health because that is only going to be gaining more debt at an astronomical interest rate.
You take off $5,000 on something that's got a 23% plus, if not more, interest rate attached to it. That's going to go a lot more potential into financial freedom or financial stability, probably than even buying $5,000 of mutual funds. Honestly, a decent mutual fund or ETF can have a friendly 10% to 12% return.
Show those to me because I would love to get 12% on a mutual fund.
Over the lifetime of the investment, you're probably looking at it as an 11% or 12% return. We're talking 30 or 40 years, but not paying on the 27% on your XYZ credit card is going to hurt you a lot more than what that growth would've been.
Financial Decisions: Over the lifetime of the investment, you're probably looking at it as an 11% or 12% return. But not paying on the 27% on your credit card will hurt you a lot more than what that growth would've been.
I'm sure you've seen that too with bad financial decisions as well. Not necessarily bad but misinformed financial decisions. You're in the military. I've seen this same thing with the rookie hotshot firefighter whom we call hotshot rich. They come off the season and they're loaded with cash. That cash needs to be allocated for your off-season. You've seen it. As soon as someone gets out of basic or before their first deployment, they go and get that charger or challenger at a 26% interest rate. For f*** sake, don't do this.
Stop doing that. 1) Nobody cares what kind of car you have. That girl's still not going to talk to you. You have to go have a conversation. The car's not going to talk for you because once you get in the car and you're still a dweeb, it doesn't change anything. You can't pay for dinner because you have a 19% interest rate on a $750-a-month payment making $18 an hour. The Taco Bell charger is still Taco Bell, but I'm not hating on Taco Bell. I love Taco Bell. You're not winning any awards. You could tell people that until you're blue in the face. There's not a lot that you can say or do. Unfortunately, 19 to 23-year-old dudes are going to be 19 to 23-year-old dudes.
I made those mistakes. I'm as guilty.
I work with a small amount of collegiate athletes with this NIL stuff going on. I tell them the same thing. I was like, “I want you to get paid, make money and spend the money. Enjoy it.” If I was able to make $10,000 as a college football player or the umpteenth grand, I would've done the same thing but if we could do baby steps to build some good habits, you're not even going to see this money be gone. It'll set you up for when you care.
The baby steps there that you're mentioning and trying to make it like that money isn't even there. There's another trick that people can use to say, “Invest wisely.” They can up their TSP. We already have this windfall of the back pay because a lot of people are getting all this money. They're still getting that until they hit their cap. For whatever is not paid back throughout this fire season and the next fire season, you're still going to get that extra pay bonus whenever the money runs out. The bipartisan infrastructure law expires. It's got an expiration date on it. If you're already doing well and you are making ends meet, which is probably pretty hard, what would you do with this money moving forward, past the windfall event?
It's hard to give those broad brush advice from a personal standpoint and technically from a compliance standpoint. It depends on the person. This would be a thing like, “Know thy self depending on what steps you want to do. Are you a lump sum person or a payment structure commitment person? Are you non-commitment or a commitment type of person?” I get different answers from different people.
If you're non-commitment, find something solid. You could talk about any investment in mutual funds, real estate, and life insurance. Anything like that, you can throw a lump sum into it. Be happy, get the job done, and do well. You should probably add to continue to contribute to that. That can do well. I don't like monthly payments, but I also know I'm a very bad spender. I need to know it's attached to something and gone, or it's out on an automatic payment and I don't even see it. I don't need the opportunity to spend it. I don't get to do anything dumb.
Financial Decisions: If you know yourself as a bad spender, make sure your monthly payments are out on an automatic payment. This way, you don’t even have the opportunity to spend it on anything dumb.
I tell my clients all the time, “If I have money in my bank account, I want to spend it too because it's there. I work my ass off for it. I want to enjoy my life.” This one thing too, where I can resonate with a lot of first responders, firefighters, military cops and all that. I was like, “I get it. I understand what we went through, go through, and continue to do daily,” or things like that. You get that little voice in the back of your head like, “Any day. Probably, enjoy this money while we got it.” I'm like, “I fully get it but there are better ways to go about it. You don't have to buy all the stupid things out.”
I was like, “More of us come out than don't. Set yourself up for the future to be happy for your family and all those things.” Find a professional. Work with someone you trust. Find someone you like working with. If you need to set yourself up for automatic monthly payments and deductions coming out, you can't even touch it, you're locked into that routine and that keeps you on point, do it. If you have the discipline to be self-directed, I'm always a little hesitant but find someone that can give you good advice, some tips, and ideas to bounce some stuff off of. Try to be smart and be disciplined. If you're a lump-sum person, please find a professional. Cover your bases. Talk to people. Do research because that's a heartbreaking story.”
If you have the discipline to be self-directed, find someone who can give you good financial advice.
You hear it with the military with bonuses and things like that. “I threw $20,000 into this deal and it's gone.” That's something I never want to see for people. Do your research, talk, and ask a million questions. If you put it into a mutual fund, ETF, or anything stock market related and you're okay with it being, that'll be fine. If you want to dabble into real estate, start a business or a podcast, dive into social media, or have landscaping. I watch all these crazy TikTok pressure washers.
I'm on some weird algorithm for cleanings, probably because I use it to zone out. You want to start a business. You need some capital. Do things like that. I tell people all the time, “I'm here as an advisor. I'm here to advise you. Nothing I do.” I don't think a lot of financial advisors will admit this because this is some guys that claim. Nothing I do is going to make you wealthy. It's not my job to make you wealthy. It's my job to advise you on your finances and your wealth and put you in a position for the most success.
Nothing is going to make more than your current income. You could tell Bitcoin, WallStreetBets, and GameStop, that's a one-in-a-million crazy story. I don't know if you get a bunch of comments on yours but maybe someone will comment talking crap, but I'm like, “Don't give the one-in-a-million crazy story. That's gambling.” That guy invested in GameStop or went to Vegas. That's not what I'm talking about. If you do stuff like that or stock market things, that's going to build your wealth. You are creating passive income through your investments or real estate.
We all want to get to the dream that tips with our passive income. The sexy term is passive income, where something that we don't even touch or talk about or do is sending us checks. I'm like, “Do you know what percentage of people?” All these social media gurus who tell you that are full of crap. To be fair, outside of a certain type of social media famous person, if they're famous on social media or YouTube, usually, they're working their ass off. They are working hard to do that.
If you didn't come from money and you slowly built up a real estate portfolio that you wake up every day with a certain amount of money, that's not passive income. That's a decade of working your ass off, finding deals, closing deals, finding the right one, losing your ass on one, and dealing with contractors. I don't like the term. That dude who worked is Grant Cardone. He says it all the time. I was like, “You're one of the guys. You worked your ass off for decades building a real estate empire. You don't make passive income.”
There's no such thing as passive income. That's one of the things. You mentioned starting a business there. In the off-season, if you're a seasonal employee and you only work eight months out of the year, crap it. Turn your hobby into like something that's going to make you money. Did I do that with mine? I guess you could say that. My podcast is business. It's an LLC. However, is it making me a paycheck? It's not because it takes the work to build that up. You have to have a single paycheck out of this whole thing. It's at a point where it's solvent and fun. It's my hobby. It's awesome.
Nothing's going to make you more than your income or your business. Nothing is going to build your wealth more than your business. If those two are tied together, you'll probably make the most. Business owners, small business owners, and things like that generally are always going to make more scalable potentially than an employee will. If you have a W-2 income, you may be limited.
Nothing will build your wealth more than your business. If those two are tied together, you can generally make more pot scalable potentially than an employee will.
As a Federal employee or a state employee, you're limited because you fall into the only brackets that they can pay you based on whatever your GS level, best level, or rank. You're locked into that, which is fine. That's where budgeting comes in. I'm not saying everyone has to be entrepreneurial or go do crazy stuff to live a happy, healthy, financially healthy lifestyle.
It takes a lot of work to do that. No s*** dude, owning a business is a f****** work. It's not passive.
I'm speaking to a certain type of audience. Unless you were born into a trust fund, you won the lottery or you won a crapload of money in Vegas gambling, I'm like, “You still had to take the risk.” If you took enough risk to bet enough money to win enough that would change your life and throw you into an annuity, it pays you a salary for the rest of your life, I guess that's your passive income because you bet on black one time. Outside of that, I never understood the sentence. If you've built something up so much that you don't have to do much to receive income, the built part still has to happen. It's not passive.
That foundation still had to be there in the first place.
I don't think there are any other species in the world that are absolute victims where it's like, “I haven't sat at my desk or taken a phone call in seven years. I received passive income.” I'm like, “What'd you do for $20,000? “I made $100 a day and got told no $10,000 times and finally got the right deal.” I was like, “You don't have passive income. You built a business.”
All these little parts add up to something bigger and that's your financial future. That's the ultimate end goal. We want the two-and-a-half kids, a white picket fence, and the house. You’re setting yourself up for your future, especially when you retire. That's the tricky part because we tend to think about what's in front of us.
Nobody wants to think about that. Every once in a while, I get on calls. We call them under 25. You talk to an under-25-year-old male, and it's not something about some crazy real estate deal or getting rich immediately. They have no interest in it because we were both at some point under 25 and males. We're both idiots and thought we were better than the world and nothing could defeat us. You're like, “One of them has retirement accounts. They are kids.”
“They’ve got to go to school. They’ve got to go to college.”
“They need food all the time.” It's hard to see that 1,000-year target or 40, 50, or 60 years down the road for some people potentially.
Everyone wants diamond hands right away.
You're like, “I get some people too. I won't live past 70.” “Yes, you are.” I was like, “I get it.” I interact with the door kicking these pipe-hitting badass that walks the Earth in all facets. I was like, “I got special ops dudes, firefighters, and SWAT guys.” Every type of dude, I've got dudes that I work with. They all say the same thing and it's not going to happen. They're going to live long. Human beings are living longer than we ever have. It's only going to get better. Don't plan that you're going to kick the bucket at 70. You're probably going to live until you're 90 years old, comfortably, if not beyond that. I was like, “You have to plan for that until 80.” I was like, “Live until 87.” That's not a wild number.
My grandpa ate steaks and rib steaks every day. He lived at 88. I was like, “It's not the norm,” but you've got to build. I relate it a lot to military things, medical training, and probably a ton to fire. Fire would be super applicable. If you're not doing all the small little things like getting the job done, the guys that know and the guys that are in it will. It's not like the dude's pouring buckets or some crazy hotshot crew like they parachute it in and put out a fire. I was like, “They got their order, prepped their gear, rigged up correctly, got into where they needed to be, landed to their spot, and executed through all these tiny little drills and things.” You don't just jump in and put out a fire.
I was like, “I know how to jump out of planes. I don't know how to put out a fire in the middle of a forest.” If I don't know that side of it, I jump my ass into a fire. That was fun. I tell people, “I guess this is the best way to relate it, especially the wildland. You don't just put out a fire.” That's kind of thinking, “I'll worry about retirement when I get there.” I was like, “You probably should start training, prep your gear, check your gear and train with your gear before you have to use it. Go through a little more simulated and then that first call comes and you go put out a fire.”
You’ve got to build that in. You’ve got to think of it like your finances are another part of your life, job, and training. You’ve got to be as disciplined with that as you are showing up to work and working out every day, staying fit, eating right, staying on top of your training, staying on top of your certs and all your stuff. It's the same thing. Nobody wants to think of it like that because our jobs are stressful enough. Who wants to add stress to money? Let’s sprinkle that right on top.
Financial Decisions: Be disciplined enough to work out every day, stay fit, eat right, and stay on top of your training.
It’s like, “I’m jumping in and trying not to burn to death in the middle of a forest. Can you make sure my Roth IRA is okay?” I understand that but you've got to build those little things into it. You're not going to save for retirement in 1 or 10 years. You're going to save for it over 25 or 35 years of working, slowly but surely. Throw it in. Depending on what you're invested in, you're probably going to feel like you have to eat crap at whatever 33% loss that the market is at.
Especially if you're in the aggressive TSP, don't look at your statement. It's not going to feel good. This is a caveat. As long as you are not retired, you're fine. Buyer, you make your monthly contributions, your dollar cost averaging into investments, which 98% of investment people, that's all we do to burst the bubble on that one. We're going to dollar cost average you into a very aggressive fund. The one caveat you get extra is you get professional management and re-asset allocation when something bad happens or something good is happening.
We can catch you on the up. Your cost is that you get a group that it's their job to look for that stuff. Not just, “It's late at night. I got done with work. I'm going to check some stuff and maybe I made the right decision for my phone.” That's about the only difference. If I'm going to be very candid, which is a good thing for most people, you got to build that in. People joke all the time, “Buy low and sell high.” It's super low and people freak out about buying. It's such a silly thing that is like, “The stock market is down. I don't want to buy any of that.”
People are trying to time the dip. They talk themselves out of it. That’s the whole dollar cost averaging thing. If it's down, it's down. Buy it. If it goes down more, buy some more.
Do you have income? This is a different conversation. I didn't say, “Sell your house. Sell your car. Sell a kidney and put everything you have. It dips for another three months.” I was like, “Put the $500 in there. Don't go buy a new gun. You have plenty of ammo. You don't need another snowboard. You don't need a new pair of skis. Throw it back in there.”
I tell people all the time that there's no metric ever in the history of the stock market that over a fifteen-year period, there are negative returns. It never happened ever in history since it opened. This is a long game. If you have people reading or anything like that, if you are retired, these are tough spots. I would do the shameless plug of these are the reasons and the moments that you would work with a professional. You would have an advisor and someone you trust because built into your entire plan, 50% of what we do for planning is for downturns in the market and keeping people from permanent loss of capital.
Financial Decisions: There is no metric in the history of the stock market that over a fifteen-year period is their negative returns since it has opened now.
As their plan builds, they'll see these little weird charts and they're like, “What's this?” “Every seven years when the stock market dips, this is what we're going to do.” You don't sell your 401(k), IRA, and TSPs, which are all market-based retirement accounts. You don't have to get your $20,000 at a 20% loss and never make up for that.
It's like having an escape plan, like a safety zone escape route.
We always use the term buckets. You have your aggressive buckets, mid-level buckets and safe buckets. You can't be all aggressive because you’d be hurting. You don't want to be all middle and safe because you miss out on potential and opportunities for you, me and a lot of people reading. You're in the seat. You don't want to miss out on great returns in the market and the economy because you can survive the losses. You don't want to be just safe because you missed out on a lot of potential.
In some people, you talk to them a lot and you work with clients. The anxiety, pain, and uncomfortableness of potential losses for them are more than they even care to handle on gains. “I have a good salary and retirement. I'm a good spender. I got a good budget.” They fall into all those categories and they're like, “I don't care if it grows by $1. I don't ever want to see it go backward.” “I'm not going to add stress to your life. We've got some stuff.” In any advisor, there is going to be stuff they can do. Some people fall into that category. They're like, “I don't care what it does. I don't want to see you negative.”
No one wants to see a negative return, even if it's 2 or 3 years. We've seen that in the past. It's going down. There's that inverse and it's going back up.
A great friend of mine is super into real estate. He sent me this article and it was like, “The most self-made millionaires in the United States of America came about from 2009 to 2013,” right after the crash, which is sad to say. It's not like all these guys are doing any of the shady stuff that was going on that caused that but you saw an opportunity and you took it. I tell people that all the time. I was like, “These dips and crashes are opportunities to take three steps instead of taking our baby steps. That's not going to make us run the whole lap, mile, or race but you take three quick steps.” That's a nice feeling.
Market dips and economic crashes are opportunities to take three steps instead of taking baby steps. That will not make you run the whole mile, but you take three quick steps.
You can get a lead on something, at least.
I'm not going to be the guy. If it’s something about getting rich overnight or quickly, I'd probably hang up the phone. I've got friends and stuff that are clients. I told them, “When starting a career, you’re never going to get the Wall Street phone call for me like, ‘Freaking ABC Tech Unlimited, sign this. You’ve got to buy it now. You're going to be rich in six months.’”
“Do it before the market closes on Friday and then it opens up on Monday. We'll do all this and compound it with some calls and all this other crap.”
You're never going to get that phone call from me.
Plus, insider trading is the whole thing.
That's a wild world.
There's the dirty part about investing.
It's inevitable. You're going to have people with lots of money, influence and capabilities to make themselves and close friends a lot of money. I joke all the time. I was like, “I didn't come for money. I don't have money. Maybe I have decent morals. I grew up a certain way or was raised a certain way. Maybe sitting here, I wouldn't do it.” I have no idea what I would do sitting in that chair with that decision to be made with that many zeros on the line for myself and my family. I don't know what I could do.
Anyone could sit on the pedal. I would never do that. I'm sure your audience has a great sense of humor but I was like, “Do you know how many what-if scenarios are thrown around in a military field environment or a hotshot environment sitting back at the camp? How much money would it take to do XYZ conversations to have? You’re telling me you're not going to tell someone something that's going to make you billions but you chug a bottle of ranch for $50. Get out of here.”
Don't get me wrong but $1,000 is a life-changing amount of money for myself included. Not only myself but a majority of the Wildland community. That is a ton of money for a lot of us. When you start adding multiple commas onto that and you're going to say you're not going to step up to the plate and do it, I guarantee you, there will be enough commas to what you're considering it.
Some of those people make some decisions that affect people's lives. I make the joke all the time. I get friends to ask me stupid questions. They were like, “Those are the tables, the conversations, and the decisions that I never want to be a part of or see. I'll live my life in ignorance of that.” I was like, “They happen. If I'm making a decision that makes me a lot of money and someone loses a lot of money, it doesn't affect someone's life or send us to war.” I can't sit here and say, “I would never do that.” I have no idea. I got two kids. You caught on a bad day. You know how to mess with that guy. I could say, “Yes, I can buy an island.”
Aside from insider trading, let's talk about TSP a little bit more. We have TSP out there for permanent employees in the Forest Service and the Department of Interior. Unfortunately, you have to be permanent to be a part of this. You're automatically invested at 3%. That's what your entry level is. You defaulted to G Fund. There are multiple funds. TSP can be confusing at times but let's talk TSP. Let's give the sparks notes/spell it out for a five-year-old demo for TSP.
I look at these constantly and I still butcher them. I was pulling up the funds to reassess. When you opt-in, as most Federal employees get the TSP, there are some caveats. For those with TSP, you're always going to get thrown in the G Fund. It is a money market fund. It is very safe. It is the category we were joking about. You don't ever want to see anything going backward. If you're invested in a G Fund, you're around losing 1% or 2%.
Don't quote me on that one. It might be a little more at the steepest but nothing insane. On the flip side, you're maybe getting a 5% or 6% return on your investment. It is not much. It’s a money market bond level of investment return. It's very safe. I don't say it in a negative way. It's a government-built investment fund and plan. They have to be safe. The broad brush all people.
How can we help the most people and hurt the least? You got to find safe investment options. You have the FCS and iFunds. I'm an open book. I'm in the S Fund. It is super aggressive, US large cap, midcap and a couple of other things. GE, Apple, Google, GM, Ford and some of the big banks are in there. They’re holding companies. It is S&P 500. Of the rest of them, iFund is the only one I'm not familiar with.
I never messed with that one. It is international markets or emerging markets.
This is my problem with the TSP. Having five funds is limited. Those are separate. I don't like that those are separate. When we talk about diversification, you want to be in all those things. You want to be in an international emerging market. Sometimes they do well. The F and the C Fund are moderate and slightly aggressive but they're all good options. Some people will play the game. They will sit, watch, trade, and switch from fund to fund. I heard the story that guys were walking out of the military with $1 million to $1.5 million sitting in their TSP.
They were office job supply, logistics, and human resource jobs. They had the time and ability. They could sit there and think. They did well. It is cool that's an option. I will formally say, “I will never advise that any service member, law enforcement, fire, and EMS people participate in day trading.” There are rules that I can confidently say you do not have the time, resources, or insider information to do it well and successfully because 90% of people lose in day trading. I would always suggest not doing that. There is one good ending story that hopefully doesn't give people to me.
TSP is a great resource. I tell people all the time, “When you are young and depending on your job, do the Roth contribution, pay the tax now, and don't pay it later.” I make a joke, except for California and Boston firefighters who make $250,000. For most service members and people as first responders, you're not ever going to get yourself into a tax bracket or an income level that doesn't allow you to contribute to Roth.
Contribute now. It builds the habit. You see the money leave. It's after-tax money. It sits there. It grows. You pull it out tax-free. It’s great. Once you see that statement at retirement, you know that's how much money you have. If you have $1 million in there, you know from age 60 until whatever, “I got $1 million to live off.” Do you guys get a match?
We do. The cap is 7%. I forgot how it works. It's been a long time since I messed with TSP. We have special rules like the military does. If you have special contributions, you can go up to X amount or they'll match this.
The military wants ten. I get matched five. Ten percent of my saving goes there. If you don't have a lot of expenses, you are young, single and you don't have a lot of locked-in expenses with kids, a wife, a mortgage and not taking care of a family member, you are solo living on your own. I get the most match that. Get them to give you 7% back. Max that baby out. Don't think about it. Just do it. That stuff is nice. It helps build those habits. Set it and forget it. Throw money into a Roth 401(k). It is what the TSP is. It is a nice little bucket of money that’s going to be there for you.
There is another cool benefit of the TSP. Let’s say you come across a financial hardship or you want to take a loan out against your TSP. A lot of people don't know this but you could take a loan out against your TSP for those reasons but you are paying yourself the interest back into your TSP fund. When you pay the interest, you are not paying Uncle Sam. You're paying yourself that interest.
You borrowed the money from yourself. They had that little clause caveat. The interest goes back into it. It is a great tool and resource. I had someone do that with their life insurance. You can do the same thing. Some people do their 401(k) loans. It is a nice tool but the interest is going to whatever financial institution owns a 401(k). It's a phenomenal resource for that one, especially with the financial hardships. Sometimes you can take the money out without paying a 10% penalty, depending on the situation.
When I left government service, I cashed out my TSP. I was at 1% on top of the 3% that is already matched to you since I was paying 4%. It was a lot more money I could ever realize than if I was stuck at 3% because I was a perm for 6 years. Over that time, I had a good chunk of change. I separated from service. I said, “I will take the tax hit.” It was probably not the smartest idea. I could have done that better. I used that for a down payment on my house. It adds up quickly.
There is a conversation. You break those numbers down. You took a 10% hit. Usually, It’s a 10% penalty plus whatever your income tax is at the time. You probably lost 20%. It is only state income tax. Maybe it is 17%, depending on where you live.
A cool thing about Nevada is we don't have a state income tax here.
You only took a 10% hit off of that. You throw that into a home. Where are you in Nevada?
Reno is sky-high.
You are getting more than a 10% return on that money through your home. If you break the numbers down, the numbers make sense. I tell a lot of people all the time, “You are going to take a hit.” Uncle Sam, the government, and some licensing or servicing, someone somewhere is getting their cut. You're going to make more than what you take the hit for.
Financial Decisions: You are getting more than a 10% return on that money through your home. You will take a hit through the government, as well as licensing or servicing. You have to make more than what you take the hit for.
That was one of the best financial decisions I've ever made. It felt like getting kicked in the nuts when that tax bill came out but it panned out. The housing market doesn't take a crap on us. I'll be stuck in this thing because you can't go anywhere. If it's stable, we're doing good.
I live in Iowa. I'm shocked at what the housing prices are out here. I'm coming from Salt Lake City, Utah, which was economically ridiculous. I look at something and I'm like, “That's not $450,000 of value. You can't ask people for that. That's ridiculous.”
We have a meme circulating in the Reno forums or Reno Lights. It's a picture of a beat-up mobile home with the doors ripped off and all the windows broken up. It's like, “It is an excellent starter home with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and no garage.” The starting price is $600,000, cash only. TSP is a great little program. For the perms out there that are reading this, it is a good opportunity, especially if you have additional income. You're to dial it into where you don't even notice that. It's not even a loss. You're reinvesting in your future. You're making your money work for you. If you could dial it in up to 4% or 5% and still get by and make ends meet, do it.
I tell people, “Whatever they are going to match you, contribute that because it is free money.” Don't go over because that is where you can put that money to better use. Whenever they are going to give you free money, take it, especially from the government. As a government employee, I encourage you to take money from the government.
There are some other little funds in there too. In 2016, they did the lifecycle funds.
It is the target date funds. They still have those. It is still an option. It is hard for me to encourage that with a lot of current service members or honing in on service members because it is 50/50. I could do 20 to 25 years of active service. Everyone says that. I'm like, “Call me when you are in year 7 or 8. If you still have that same energy, maybe we'll talk about a target date fund.”
Federal employees are a little more plausible but for a Wildland guy, sometimes it is about the same lifespan. For the first two years, you are like, “I'm doing this forever. This is great.” In the year 7 or 8, you're like, “Have I had enough of the BS?” Maybe you get to year twelve and you are in a different role. That lifespan is fairly similar.
I lasted for eleven years. What I was saying out there is, “Every third year, the firefighter is a lifer until they get to year eight.”
Army is the same way. In your second and third years, you are like, “I'll do this forever.” You have no responsibilities. You have no clue. You show up and do things. You think like, “That is the Army.” Sometimes you get in trouble or yelled at. You're like, “Show up. This is awesome.” I was like, “Get a little rank on your chest. Get a little responsibility and start seeing behind a couple of doors.”
TSP is not your only option. We pay into an annuity. We got a three-tiered system. I don't know if the military is the same way. Is it similar? There is a special retirement bracket. I believe it is an annuity. This is why I'm talking to you. You are a financial advisor and you are in the military. Fire is going to be a little bit different. We have a special retirement rate.
I've dipped my toe into a bit of fur. I say the same thing about anything to do with the government. I was like, “It's probably good. It's fine but it's not great. There are going to be a lot of paperwork and a bunch of stupid rules.” I have to dive into it all the time because I've got clients all over the country from where I've lived or referrals through the military and stuff. You've got guys all over the place. It's like you dive into certain state benefits and people with fur. It's an endless thing. It all depends on what you want. It's super hard to give that advice or answers without knowing the person like, “What are they looking for?”
You’ve got to get a snapshot of their financial health. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution either.
How much money do you need? What are your living expenses? What's your health like? What does your health insurance look like? What was your life insurance? Did someone talk you into buying long-term care when you were young? What are all those things built in? Can you guys lump-sum it?
I'd have to talk to a couple of people that I went into retirement, and I know they're getting.
Ninety percent of the time, they roll it into an annuity so it can make you steady monthly payments. You can send that over to a private brokerage firm. You could probably send it to a Federally authorized bank or financial institution that babysits it for you. I'm sure there are those options. You can take direct contributions from the TSP.
It all depends on what you want, especially with an annuity or a variable annuity which is an annuity tied to the stock market. They're all options. For the right person, they're all the right options. I'll fall back on this too. If you know someone, you have a weird family friend, your cousin, or your uncle that was the finance, insurance, or investor guy that you knew, at least give them a call. Do your research. Call me, reach out to me, send me a social media or email. I'm happy to help as well.
In those scenarios, that's the one where it's like, “Go talk to someone. Talk to a professional. I promise you not everyone's trying to take your money. They don't want to rob you.” I was trying to figure out a way to make this joke to be funny. I was like, “If you call the right person and the right successful financial advisor, they're doing all right. They don't need to rip you off.” They're living quite comfortably. They don't need to take advantage of you. Don't get me wrong. Nobody's perfect. I'm sure there are some freaking horrible, shady, and crappy people in this business.
There are ambulance chasers in the financial world.
It exists. I'd never deny it. Call someone, take a meeting, reach out, and find what option is best for you. If you're self-directed, lock into the right type of research because the research probably makes your head spin or be a little overwhelming if you Google search options.
WallStreetBets is not research.
WallStreetBets or whatever crazy other Reddit, Twitter, or TikTok guru that you think you're going to listen to. Dave Ramsey is not the answer to all your prayers. Jim Cramer is not going to tell you everything you need to know about your specific financial plan and retirement future. Please talk to a professional.
That comes with something like the self-directed thing. There are plenty of apps out there. There’s TD Ameritrade or Robinhood. There are a bunch of trading apps out there or you can do self-directed stock trading. That should come with some warnings.
I used to have a Robinhood. I can't have one anymore because it is outside of the company that I work for. I remember when I got the notification that they were allowing people to trade options off Robinhood, I was floored. If you have a Social Security number and you have to have proof of income, you can open up a Robin account, throw money in there and then trade options. I'm like, “That made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.” You can't just let people trade options with no education. That's insane. You can lose all your money. You owe thousands of dollars.
Even worse than that, you could trade on margin with Social Security.
You are trading someone else's money. Those people that let people trade their money are going to get their money back. They don't take risks and not cover their ass. They're going to get their money back from you if you can't pay it.
You're going to forfeit all your assets, repossess your car and take your firstborn. They will get that money out of you.
This is not official financial advice. Do not trade naked options on Robinhood and don't day trade in your TSP. Call a professional.
Financial Decisions: Do not trade naked options on Robinhood and don't day trade in your TSP. Call a professional.
Don't get me wrong. I f*** around with some options every once in a while but I don't do naked shorts, calls or anything like that. I don't do anything that's dumb because I know I can't afford it. I don't trade on margin. I don't do anything. Furthermore, I know that it's gambling and that's exactly what it is.
If you want your gambling account, set your gambling account that you're okay to lose and maybe you get lucky but you have to know that, “Here's my $500 a month. I know this could be gone.”
You seriously got to know what you're doing when you're trading options.
I'm technically a licensed professional and I wouldn't touch options with a 10-feet pole.
I don't blame you. It's risky. Let's talk about the importance of emergency funds. That's one thing that probably hasn't been touched on in this episode but it's one of those things that we should all be very well aware of that sometimes crap hits the fan. Sometimes you'll get smoke checked by some dickhead around the corner if you're in the military, you'll have a tree fall on you or you won't be able to work. Maybe you won't necessarily pass away but you're going to be seriously injured and your livelihood is taken away from you because we are very much dependent on our bodies for our means of living. Let's talk about emergency funds as a final talking point here.
I'll split this into two. If you can, you're healthy and young and before you potentially enter a dangerous job, go get some disability coverage and life insurance. Get it while you're young. Get it while you're cheap. Get it while it's healthy and get it before you start dangerous jobs. If you don't, you should still go and get it anyways because you're probably going to need it more than anyone else. It might be a little more expensive but go do that because that is your hedge and the planning portion of your emergency fund. Everyone's got some disability coverage but it's mostly short-term.
Get some insurance, disability coverage, and life insurance while you’re healthy or before entering a potentially dangerous job.
If it's long-term, it's technically 50% because everyone says 60% but you still pay income tax on that. If you are seriously hurt enough, which is the level that would affect your emergency fund, if you were out for more than 90 days and you switch into your long-term coverage in most places, the broad brush is usually 60% of your income but with income taxes that are 50%. You take a 50% pay cut. You're not working. Your medical expenses are up. The other little caveat, you cannot contribute to your 401(K) or TSP if you're on long-term disability. That's one thing people don't know.
If you are on long-term disability, in almost 98% of all companies, you cannot contribute to your retirement fund because you're not contributing to the company anymore. Do that side. That's the planning side. Knock it out. Insurance is annoying and it's lame. It's not sexy but do it. That's the big part of the planning side that hedges against because everyone says 3 or 6 months.
I would say three more because it gives you an attainable target like a six-month emergency fund. You break down your expenses and you try to keep six months of that in a savings account at all times. It's going to take forever for you to build that. That's generally a pretty decent chunk of change that's sitting in cash in a savings account, getting eaten alive by inflation and no return on most savings accounts and financial institutions. That's a lot of money not doing anything for you.
Even if it's relatively not a lot of money to someone else, it's still a lot of money to that person. I usually say three months, sit down, knock out a budget, get rid of tertiary expenses, grabbing some of the gas stations involved in that nonsense. Break down true blue expenses, “This is what keeps the roof over my head and keeps me alive. It keeps me going from A to B or to work.” If you can keep three months of that in a savings account, you're usually ready. 87% of American households would not be able to handle an unplanned $500 expense. An unplanned $500 throw-off for the next 2 months of expenses.
A caveat story on that one. That did happen to me. I was cruising down home from work one day and some dickhead in a company vehicle decided that they didn't want to put the trailer pinned like the cotter pin in their trailer hitch. This thing comes hawking down the road at me at like mock 10. I can't go anywhere. I have to take the hit. The car is to the right of my concrete wall to the left. This thing blows out one of my tires. Here's what they don't tell you. You go down the gate with that one tire replaced that's f***** up. You're waiting three months for an extra wheel and they will not replace one tire if it's worn.
You're all four.
I have to work. I had to go out to USA Parkway, get some new wheels, go to Les Schwab, and get four new tires. It hurts. It was $3,500 worth of damage and I was not prepared for it. It sucks.
Unfortunately, that's the norm. Not the story but the inability to handle that expense. I've been through it many times in life. Pick a scenario. I have no way of, “I can't pay for this, that and the other.” What happens? I swipe a credit card or do this. It's that perpetuating cycle. I'm not saying you're not going to plan for everything.
To say you're going to be able to do that is a lie. You're lying to yourself.
It's impossible. Three months gives you an attainable goal and amount. It's another way to build that discipline toward your finances. I tell people all the time, the hardest thing I ever did in my financial plan was have my emergency fund. I hate seeing that amount of money sitting in my savings account. I can't use it. With my profession, I don't put it towards anything. I was like, “I hate saving it. I don't like it at all.”
It was one of the best things I ever did to do it because you throw it in the savings account, $150 a month or whatever you could. I tried to do whatever I had extra at the end of the month. We didn't buy anything dumb. I throw it in there. We got to the number 0.01% that I'm getting on the savings account and is sitting there was brutal.
The 9 months it took me to save that 3-month buffer emergency fund was 9 months that I've built a little more discipline and good habits into my finances. It's the best and worst thing I did because there's nothing sexy about it. There's nothing fun. I don't get to open up my phone and be like, “I run up a little bit.” I’m like, “Transfer $50 to savings.”
It's not sexy but unfortunately, when there is an emergency or there's crap hitting the fan in a personal context, you need that liquidity. If it's tied up somewhere, you don't have access to it. You need that liquidity.
I'd much rather have you get good discipline and feel the pain of that than swipe a credit card.
These are all pretty good tips. You can't go and I pretty much have no financial advisor unless you're a client of them or whatever you want to call it. You have to have a contractual agreement with them to get official financial advice. A lot of this stuff is surface-level but that's because of legalities.
Practically, there are so many things out there that are not appropriate for certain people's situations. There are certain investment tools, insurance products, and ways of investing that aren't appropriate for a certain person. Mostly 90% of my job is getting to know my clients personally. What suits them? Can they handle aggressive investments and downturns in the market? Can they afford this or that product? What suits them? Dollar-cost average into a mutual funder or an ETF, I was like, “You can google that.” Anyone can download Robinhood in dollar cost average into the Vanguard S&P 500 Index Fund.
I have to be careful how I say that technically but that's not financial advice. Everyone can do that. There are not many negatives to that besides nothing. I don't know. Anyone could do that. It builds good habits. Go get some permanent life insurance and disability coverage. Save an emergency fund and a home run fund if you want to start a business or invest in real estate. Check all those boxes. That's the super easy broad brush of all the advice I can give.
Get a permanent life insurance and disability coverage if you want to start a business or invest in real estate.
The reason we have this profession exists and these jobs exist is, 1) These companies need people to sell their crap for them and, 2) You’ve got to get to know everyone personally because some people could hate the idea. Even if it fits them but it doesn't fit their personality, that's as bad as selling someone the wrong thing.
It's like going to a dealership and you want a Tacoma since we're stuck on Tacoma and you end up walking out of there with something else.
You go for a Tacoma and come home with an F-150. You’ve got a truck but you don't like it. It’s got four wheels and a bed. You can take it and get it dirty, but you don't like it. You’ve got to get to know the person.
It's not a one-size-fits-all solution for everybody. There are common steps. You can be like, “You probably shouldn't do that thing that you're doing. It's probably a bad idea.” At the end of the day, that's where you come in. That's where people got to go out, reach out to folks like you or somebody in their local area that's dialed in. Furthermore, speaking the language is important as well.
I got clients and worked with people from very affluent backgrounds and made a ton of money. They make more money than I do. They will continue to do so for a very long time.
Their kids' kids will start differently.
They're cool, interesting, and fun. Those cases are always nice. I've had meetings with people and people have tears in their eyes because they never thought that they could do this and that this information was available to them or they were worth it. A lot of us depend on your background and the things that you do. If you're in a blue-collar life or a first responder lifestyle, a lot of people sometimes feel like that like, “This is not where I come from. I don't know if this information is for me. It's too much.”
Being able to connect with those people has been great. It does help. I make the joke usually like, “I'm not the nerd in khakis and a polo shirt that you usually meet. I'm a pretty big dude covered in tattoos talking about finances.” It’s like a cardiac case. Rushing people to ambulances or jumping out of planes, getting dirty, and rocking around in the mountains, which most Wildland guys can feel. You can share stories. It makes it a lot easier to help people from those backgrounds because sometimes they don't like to be helped.
Pros are stubborn.
You're stubborn. All of you and us. I don't care about egos and stubbornness.
I'm not even in fire anymore but I'm still stubborn.
It's ingrained.
Coming on to the end of the show, I always like to give our guests the opportunity to give some shout-outs to some homies, heroes, or mentors. Whom do you get for us?
I've got Jack Francis, Matt Rush, and Matt Anderson. Those three guys are all California firefighters between Los Angeles and Orange County. They’re great friends. We've been that super weird friend group that's been friends since we were eight years old. We stayed connected and still go to weddings. I give them a hard time. All those nerds decided to turn out to be firefighters, and a couple of us went to join the military.
We had to share funny, good stories. Shout out to those guys. I love them. I don't know if this will circulate to their circles but that'd be awesome. Thank you to any person or family member who's helped me along the way and got me to where I'm at. Nobody does this crap alone, no matter how badass you think you are.
Thank you for being on the show. Where can we find you?
I'm more than happy if anyone reading this and wants to reach out. If you find me on social media, it's @JohnnyUtah456. Send me a message. Reach out. That's fine. I can give you contact information or something to post or anything like that. My email is John.Cullen@NM.com. Feel free to reach out. If anyone messages you or anything like that, feel free to shoot me a message as well. Of all people from this background, I have a huge soft spot. I’m happy to help out in any way I can.
Thank you for coming on the show and giving some tips and tricks. It's a complicated thing. These tips and tricks help out a lot of people. The message at the end of the day would be to go find professional advice and don't do dumb crap. Don't stick your fingers in a light socket. That qualifies as dumb crap. John, thank you much for being on the show. We'll catch you on the next one.
Thank you. I appreciate it.
See you.
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There we go, another episode with my good friend, John Cullen. John, thank you so much for coming on the show and speaking your wisdom to these hotshot rich folks out there, especially those that have had those ginormous lump sum payments of back pay dating back to October 1, 2021. John, your advice is much appreciated. If anybody is out there and wants to seek professional advice, John's the dude to hit up. He is licensed to practice this whole financial advising thing and not just give you some topical advice. If you want to hit him up and dial in your finances, seek him out.
With that being said, please save your money. Don't yellow it all on crypto or GME. Stop pulling your head out of your asses. Don't be trolling around WallStreetBets looking for the next option, start day trading, or any of that crap. Be wise with your money. It has an expiration date. It's not going to last forever and it may not continue.
It's going to be crappy if they don't continue it down the road. However, we’ve got a plan for the worst and hope for the best. With that being said, I hope you guys spend wisely. You do not need the new Tacoma with all the lifts, racks, and over-landing crap bolted to the side of it. You don't need it. Come on. Think about it. Take care of your finances. Tell a friend. Hit up my buddy, John, here. He'll take care of you. He'll get you sorted. I hope everybody's doing well. Stay safe. Stay savage. Peace.
