A Better Alternative to Retirement with Eric Brotman

Today I'm visiting with Eric Brotman, the CEO of BFG Financial Advisors and the host of the 'Don't Retire, Graduate' podcast. With over 25 years of experience in the financial sector, Brotman discusses the detrimental effects of traditional retirement on one's health and wellbeing, advocating instead for continuous engagement and purpose. He emphasizes the significance of financial literacy in optimizing emotional and spiritual health, likening money to oxygen—essential yet often overlooked when abundant. Brotman articulates that retirement should be a transition to meaningful pursuits rather than mere disengagement from life’s activities. Financial wellbeing is crucial in reducing stress and improving overall life satisfaction.

Businessowners, get your free e-book to support your employees' overall wellness here: https://brotmanmedia.com/financial-wellness-programs/

Learn more about Eric and his financial literacy programs at: https://brotmanmedia.com/

Transcript

Magic Barclay: 0:42

Welcome back to a Magical Life. I'm your host, magic Barclay, and today Eric Broman joins us. Eric d Broman. CFP is the CEO of BFG Financial advisors. With over 25 years of experience as a trusted advisor, he believes financial literacy. is the key to wellbeing and is the author of multiple books on personal finance and the host of the Don't Retire, Graduate podcast. Eric's approachable and actionable financial advice has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes. com, Yahoo Finance, The Baltimore Sun, and others. You can learn more at www. bfgfa. com. Or about the Don't Retire, Graduate podcast at brotmanmedia. com. Welcome Eric.

1:44

Thanks, Maggie. I'm so glad to be here.

Magic Barclay: 1:47

I'm glad to have you here. You know, we hear a lot about finance and certainly in this podcast, we hear a lot about Ask different kinds of questions about wealth, but I really love this. Don't retire, graduate. I think that just sounds intriguing.

2:08

Well, I believe that retirement in the traditional sense is terrible for you, for your health, for your wellbeing, for your sense of self. retirement in its normal phase, the way people think about it is really, it's retreating or disappearing or giving up. and if you look online at some of the various, uh, social media sites or, or professional sites. You've got folks who used to have these beautiful vitaes, these beautiful bios, they were involved with organizations and non profits and their businesses and their communities and they were changing the world and then it just says retired. And it might as well said deceased. Because at that point, it looks like they're offering nothing. I just think that to go from a life well lived to daytime TV and shuffleboard is a horrible idea, and it makes more sense to graduate to the next phase of our lives and to do something amazing with what could be a half of our adult life or a third of our life on Earth.

Magic Barclay: 3:08

I love that. Let's get straight into my standard questions. I ask all of my guests these, and you've already alluded to the first one, and that is, what can your expertise do to accelerate health? Not just physical health, but also emotional and spiritual health.

3:27

I think money is a little bit like oxygen. And that is that if you have enough, you don't think about it. And if you don't have enough, it's all you think about. And so when it comes to money, when it comes to finance, it's not really about who has the biggest house or the nicest car or the fanciest stuff. That's not wealth. That's possessions. But to have a life well lived and to grow your wealth in lots of different ways, to me, means having enough of an abundance mindset. That you're not stressing or having anxiety or worry about money. I think if we're worried about money, we're not able to do our jobs, we're not able to pay attention to our families or our social lives or our personal lives. It eats at you. And I, I think that kind of stress will affect you both emotionally and physically, and it's just awful for you. And so to, to have the financial literacy and the wherewithal and to understand how to do it allows you to control some of that and to live without some of those fears.

Magic Barclay: 4:25

I've always seen in functional health that once you decide something, your body will find evidence to back it up. And you mentioned about retirement shouldn't be shuffleboard Daytime soaps. I think what I've seen in my clinic and you know, what I have this great theory of is if you decide and make the action of retiring in inverted commas and doing nothing, your body will follow suit. And so it will start to slow down the processes needed for optimal health. Have you seen that as you've been teaching people?

5:05

100%. There are people who retire to something, and people who retire from something. And the ones who retire from something Literally are sitting around waiting to die and they don't live very long and they don't live enriched lives And there's only so many golf courses and so many vacations You really need to stay engaged in life and the people who retire to something who have given this more thought than just the financial They've thought about I mean we ask everyone on our show What do you want to be when you grow up and people look at us funny because they haven't been asked that since they were Seven years old and wanted to be a ballerina or an astronaut or something and the reality is moving towards something allows you to have Goals that are worth celebrating things to get Enthusiastic and excited about and to share rather than to say gosh. This is what I used to be That's a sad thing. I

Magic Barclay: 6:00

I just had a little giggle as you were saying, you know, golf courses. I live near a golf course and one of my neighbors is retired in the traditional sense, and I could swear if he's not playing golf, he's on, he's Grass in his backyard watching it grow waiting to snip it down again with his mower I think he mows about five times a week

6:26

it to me. That's not that's not living. That's existing I get it people people like golf and they have hobbies and that's important It's important to have hobbies but it's also important to have adult communication and to have connections to people and to causes and to And to the environments that are important to you It, it means being a mentor or a coach or a consultant or a writer. There's so many ways to make a difference and some of them can be for profit or for income if you want them to be. And if you have enough money where you don't need the money, you can be a professional volunteer or coach. Um, you can help, you can work with students and young people. You can help other seniors do what they need to do because sometimes they're not in as good a shape as you are. And you can certainly spend time with them. Making a difference in the world and not just taking up space

Magic Barclay: 7:16

and when did our Our wisdom become irrelevant. You know, back in previous times, our seniors were looked to, to share their wisdom and their knowledge and everything they've been through in their life. And then we came up with this thing called retirement where they were no longer valuable. How did that happen?

7:42

Well, I can tell you because I have. Often shared that it used to be that the elders in any, in any group had the largest tent and they were the ones you went to with the biggest life problems. They were the ones who were most revered. In the 1840s, there was a German named Otto von Bismarck who created this retirement idea and it was a way to put older people out to pasture. And they were literally told, you must retire, we're, we're dispatching you essentially so we can get somebody in who's younger and can do a better job. And so it started then. Retirement is now, as a concept, almost 200 years old. It was a lousy idea then. It's maybe a worse idea now. Because, Magic, if you think about it, it used to be that you might work from 18 to 65, but people didn't live past 72. Today, you have folks who think they want to retire at 50 or 55 and could live to be 107. That's, that's not sustainable. It's not sustainable financially for most people. But even if it was, what are you going to do for 30 or 40 or 50 years if you don't have a passion and a purpose? That's just, that's, to me, that's just sad.

Magic Barclay: 8:53

It is. Okay. Onto our next question, which I'm guessing you're going to have some great tips because it's about wealth. What are your top three tips to creating wealth? Not just the financial, but also emotional and personal wealth.

9:10

I think there are, there are a couple of things that successful retirees, and I'm putting that in quotes to have in common. I call it the three secrets of the happiest retirees. And that to me is a perfect answer to your question. Um, number one is to be debt free. To not owe anyone anything is a, uh, an empowering thing. And that's not to suggest that all debt is bad. Sometimes debt is leverage for a home purchase or for a business or things. But consumer debt, spending more than you make and running up credit cards and everything, is, is by itself always a bad idea. And frankly, I think most student loans are too. So, to be debt free is the first way to create wealth is not to go backwards. The second thing that the happiest retirees have in common is that they have a purpose and a passion and a reason to get out of bed every morning. We've talked about that a lot already, but there's so many ways to define wealth. It's not just money, there's a wealth of experience, there's a wealth of living, there's so many ways to describe someone who is wealthy. And wealth is, wealth is such a, it's such a loaded term. What does it mean to be wealthy? Are you wealthy? Am I a wealthy? You know, I once heard, and I wrote in my book, Don't Retire, Graduate, I quoted Chris Rock, the comedian, because I just said, thought what he said was so funny and so poignant. And that is that he said, if, if Bill Gates woke up tomorrow with Oprah Winfrey's net worth, he'd want to jump out a window because he'd feel poor. And by any reasonable definition, both of those are incredibly wealthy people, but it's all relative. So I think, I think the first thing is to be debt free. The second thing is to have a, a passion, um, and a purpose and a reason to get out of bed every morning. I think that is, for the happiest retirees, that's a big deal. And the third item actually, which is going to be right up your alley, is that you've cared for your own health. Because for people who have an enormous amount of money but aren't healthy, it doesn't matter. You can't enjoy your life, your existence, if you haven't maintained your health. And I happen to think it is much easier to stay healthy than it is to get healthy. In the same way, it's easier to stay wealthy than it is to get wealthy. So, when you think about your health, it's not necessarily a great idea to wake up one day when you're 65 and say, you know what? I'd like to get healthy now. It's much better. Not that that's impossible, but it's much better to just take care of your health all the way through your life so that there are the right habits and the right mindsets. And I believe wealth is exactly the same way. With wealth, if you do the little things and you do them early, you avoid debt and you pay yourself first and you contribute to various things and you have a plan, all of those habits over the course of your lifetime will add up so that you can not only become wealthy but then stay there. And so, to, to recap the, the three secrets of the happiest retirees are, they're debt free, They've taken care of themselves and have their health and they have a passion and a purpose and a reason to get out of bed every morning.

Magic Barclay: 12:15

Some great tips there. And your final standard question is around weight. Many people battle their weight quite needlessly. We know that stress is a key influence in weight issues. So have you ever battled your weight? If so, what is it? How did you win the war? What can you offer the listeners who may be going through this? And I'm just going to add in my personal experience when I haven't had wealth, be it financial, personal or emotional, my weight has risen. So that's something I've correlated with the stress of having less,

12:55

well, some of it is the stress, but some of it's also, it's very expensive to eat healthy. I mean, there's a reason why fast food and cheap eats are, they're not good for you. And so people who are not in a position to buy the organic vegetables or fruits or to, to, to eat at a cleaner restaurant or to, or to prepare better groceries and, and better meals at home are going to eat junk a lot of the time. And so I do think it's both the stress and the financial. aspect of that. But, um, to answer your question, I, I have battled my weight. In fact, I'm battling it now. So for you to say, how did I win the war? I am very much still in the trenches. Um, and I, I work out like a fiend and when I was 20 and 30, that was enough. And now that I'm in my fifties, it's extremely difficult. I work out really, really hard at magic. I love food. Um, I, I love good food. I am a foodie. I like to dine out. and I enjoy beer and wine, all of which add to, to caloric intake. And so while I don't consider myself obese, I probably am by definition, um, but I'm, I'm strong and I'm healthy and I'm fit and I'm trying to stay that way. And I'm trying not to abuse my knees and hips and joints, uh, by carrying some extra weight around. So I would say I have dealt with weight issues and battled it all my life and it's not over. I'm still right here.

Magic Barclay: 14:16

Great. Now that's my standard three questions. Really want to explore this, don't retire, graduate that you write about, that you speak about, because I really think there is something to, you know, we've got so much life experience by the time we reach retirement age and that experience needs to be passed on, needs to be taught to other people. So tell us more about what you do and why.

14:47

Well, what we do as an organization, we do financial planning and wealth management for families, most of whom are multi generational, where we're trying to pass on the legacy from, from families from one generation to the next. And these are not necessarily high net worth wealthy families, and I put wealthy in quotes in lots of ways. We really do like to work with lots of different kinds of people. So we have a program we call financial planning for all, which is really designed to be an inexpensive way to get some solid, good financial advice. And we also publish a number of white papers and online courses and financial literacy tools, some of which are available for free to try to educate the public. I think at the end of the day, Being financially literate is almost as important as being functionally literate to read and write. Because if you can't handle some of the financial decisions, they, they are daunting and you will be hurt by them and it means you will make awful decisions, often emotionally, um, or you'll bury your head in the sand. There's lots of people who don't even open a statement or don't even contribute to something because they feel like they don't know how to do it. And it's about forming good habits. And so we work with, we work with clients all over the United States. And most are families who are, I like to, to liken them as the sandwich generation. A lot of them look like me. You know, we've got parents who are getting up in age who we have to worry about. We've got kids to educate. We're working 50 hours a week or building companies or, or, um, or enterprises and we're busy. And so people like that who don't think about money can easily, Miss some really important details. And so taking a look at this, we use a lot of medical analogies and a lot of healthcare analogies because I do think they're very similar. And so to sort of be tongue in cheek, we are the primary care physicians for people financially. We do the physical exam, we look at the, at everything, and then we determine which specialists someone might need. So in the medical world, that might be saying you need a cardiologist and a podiatrist. Or a nutritionist and a yoga instructor, or whatever your, your mode of medicine is. For us, it might mean you need a, a mortgage advisor and a different bank, or you need um, to make some changes to your retirement plan or some of your insurances. And so, at the end of the day, we really are trying to look at this holistically from 50, 000 feet, and we help families with those big decisions, and sometimes with hard conversations between generations, between family members. Money is intimate. It's as intimate as medicine. You know, we joke with people. There's no there's no disrobing No one has to wear a white gown with a with a hole in the back or anything but but you are functionally naked when you're sharing your finances and your fears and And maybe your dreams not only with your spouse or significant other or partner, but also potentially with your grown children Um, or just with your financial advisor. It's, it's not therapy, but it is emotional.

Magic Barclay: 17:48

Very true. Now some people. Listening to the podcast may have, you know, been through life journeys where they've kind of lost everything and like a Phoenix have to rise up again from the ashes. I know that happened to myself post divorce, especially with women, you know, in the 40 to 50 age group, we can find that, you know, they've, they've pretty much have to start again. They've lost it all. So at a later stage in life like this. How do you suggest that people start putting the pieces back together?

18:27

You start with inventory. And that means you start with figuring out where you really are and being completely honest with yourself and transparent with your loved ones. You start by, like building any journey, you have to have a sticker on your map that says you are here. Where are you? What is the real condition? And don't lie to yourself and don't, deceive anyone because it, I believe it's important to have that true transparency and that true conversation. You start with inventory, you figure out where you are, and then you begin to dream about where you want to go. And then there's a path that can be drawn. It may not be linear, it may be exponential. It may be something that's got figure eights in it, because we all have peaks and valleys and different times in our lives. I think starting later in life, if you're committed to it, it's not that it's impossible, it's harder, because time is not on your side in the same way. But you also have more wisdom, more life experience, and often more income. You know, people in their 40s and 50s tend to earn more than people in their 20s and 30s, most of the time. So even if you are starting a little later than you wanted to, if you haven't allowed your lifestyle to expand to the point that you're spending every dollar you make, or worse, you're spending more than you earn, If you have positive cash flow, you have the ability to build wealth, however slowly or quickly. And so, if you're 40 or 45 and you're just thinking about getting started with this, number one, it's not too late. Number two, the first step is the hardest and it begins with the inventory and then finding, I believe, finding the right navigator. You know, in the same way that I have a personal trainer to help me with working out, if I didn't have an appointment at the gym, I wouldn't go. That's just my own fallibility. I understand there's a hundred things I'd rather be doing than working out, but it's important to me, so I schedule it. And the financial piece is very similar. If you have accountability partners and people who say, did you put away that 500 extra dollars a month or did you sign up for your retirement plan and are you taking advantage of your employer's matching contribution, whatever they are, whatever the advice points are, did you get your legal and estate planning done? Did you take your ex husband's name off your beneficiary? I mean, all those kinds of things, and if, if you allow yourself to do it, um, even though the timeframe is compressed, you often have more resources and can begin, almost begin at a gallop rather than a trot.

Magic Barclay: 20:52

Great. Now we've covered a lot, Eric, before I let you go, is there any other nuggets of wisdom that we haven't covered that you feel the listeners need to hear?

21:03

I will share one resource that's, that's out there at getfinancialwellness. com, which is a white paper primarily for employers, but really it's for anyone about why financial literacy and financial wellness amongst your employees is so important to not only to them, but to your company or organization. And that's really because if your employees come to work or if your co workers even come to work and they're worried about how they're going to make rent or pay a mortgage, they're not thinking about work. It's all they can obsess and think about. And so by giving your employees some tools, some advice, some counsel, and doing it in a way where they don't have to go to a co worker, employee, or heaven forbid a manager or supervisor to do it, there's a lot of safety and comfort in those conversations and it can really make a difference to the outcome. For the organization by having employees thinking about their, their work instead of their personal finance. So I would say that's a, that's a spot that folks should check out even if you're not an employer. It is still, there are 10 steps to wealth building and reasons for, for financial wellness. And it's at get financial wellness.com and it's free. It's a free download.

Magic Barclay: 22:18

Wonderful. And we do love freebies, so thank you for that. Now, of course. Listeners, you can find Eric at brotmanmedia. com and Eric's book, Don't Retire, Graduate is available on amazon. com. Eric, thank you so much for joining us.

22:38

Magic. It's been a pleasure. It's been, it's been fun doing the show and I love the work you're doing and, uh, keeping people healthy and thinking about their health is so, so important and wealth is a piece of it, but, uh, it's great that you're doing the work you're doing.

Magic Barclay: 22:50

Thank you. And listeners, thank you for your time. Go forth and create your magical life.