Plan Smart, Retire Well with Mark Fried, Episode 15
Paul:
Welcome to plan smart retire. Well, I’m your host, Paul Gebhardt today. I’m with my guest Mark freed and Lisa [inaudible] of TFG management. Welcome you guys. How are you doing today? Doing great. It’s great to be. Yeah. Fantastic. Now I understand that in your office, there’s a bit of a family, the TFT family. Tell me a little bit about that. Would you mind?
Mark:
So when I started the firm 11 years ago, Lisa joined 10 years ago and became a partner five years ago in the firm. And so when we started in and it was evolving, we really wanted to treat people like family. You know, we both have had experiences with our parents and dealing with financial issues and we’ve seen how the financial world really is pretty cold and uncaring that those big box stores and folks, you know, they just want your money. Thank you very much. And then they never talk to you again. Sorry. That was just not what we wanted to do. And so when we talk about the TFG family, you know, it’s an attitude, it’s an approach. And it’s also what we do every day. When we talk with other folks and when families who, who are with us talk to other families, they say, you know, does your advisor do all these things for you? I mean, one of our favorite events is the PI of that, right?
Lisa:
The pie event. It’s a wonderful event.
Paul:
Hold on minute, did you say pie? Like as in pie?
Speaker 5:
Okay. You got to tell me all about this.
Lisa:
Absolutely. And I’ll let you know if our families, if they don’t get an invitation by Halloween, our phones are ringing. Are you giving out pies?
Paul:
That’s really fun. That sounds fun.
Lisa:
It is fun. It’s a real, it’s a fun event and it is wrapped around a given and people do give toys for tots. Oh, I love it. It’s wonderful.
Mark:
Yeah. And we, we, where do we have, like even with the COVID pandemic where we had to, you know, adjust and all of that we get somewhere between 350 and 400 toys that get donated to toys for tots. It’s one, every year that our families we serve, they bring, and we give them a pie from a local bakery, you know, and they get their choice, but they only get one, you know,
Speaker 5:
Everybody wants an [inaudible]
Mark:
And you know, usually we have a big party. People come in, they hang out Lisa, her special sangria,
Speaker 5:
We just all relax. Yeah. And, and your, and your meatballs. Yeah. Right. And
Mark:
And we have fun and we do, we do the the baseball game.
Lisa:
Yes. The baseball game is always a good time. We actually outgrew the box. So at our local as a triple a double a, okay. We outgrew the box. We had to go to the picnic areas. So many families just love, they bring their grandkids and it’s just such a nice, lovely time. And to get out and just, I bring migraine children and just to catch up with all the families, it’s wonderful.
Mark:
And it’s just, you know, beyond the basics of just, you know, enjoying time. And we do many of these during the year. It’s a way for us to really get to know even deeper, the, the F our families and what’s going on in their lives, because now in the financial services business, in the, in the planning business and the way we believe to do it, it’s, it’s gotta be about, you know, making sure that we are thinking ahead that we are planning for what might happen. Then you never know what you might learn in a casual conversation at one of these events, so that, you know, and we can go back and say, you know, I was, I was speaking to Mary Jane, or I was speaking to, you know, Fred, and they said this and now, and what about their plan? And how are we doing? And so we really try and stay on top of that because your financial advisor, if, if, if you’re doing it right, and we think the right way to do it is you should be a part of the family. Yes. You
Paul:
Know, you’re talking about getting involved, getting involved, getting involved and being invested and people. Yes. Cause that’s important. It is. It reminds me of one of my favorite things in the world that people don’t care how much, you know, till they know how much you care. And I’m a big believer in that. If, if I can share a quick little story you shared your story about your dad. Didn’t really touched me. I why I got into this, why I’m doing this today is my mother passed away on my 15th birthday. She had no life insurance. And in those days stay at home moms. You know, they didn’t put values on that. The life insurance was all on the dads, the ones earning an income yet when my mother passed away, my dad couldn’t even write a check. Right, right. Right. And being the youngest of five people or five children, I learned at that point, the importance of money, I mean, it was prominent. It was in your face. You know, here, our family is trained to spend the time emotionally dealing with the loss of the heart of our family. My mom was the heart of my family. Right. As most mothers are to be worried about financial, that should never happen. Correct. so just hearing you guys talk about how important it is and how invested in your clients is, it’s definitely heartwarming.
Lisa:
And I really enjoy meeting the families of our clients, of our, you know, so their, their children, their grandchildren. Yeah. We’ve grown through the years together together. Oh. Which is so nice. You know, these little kids are starting school. Yeah.
Paul:
That’s gotta be incredible. Right? Yep. I see them when they get their first driver’s license saving for a car. Our,
Mark:
Our oldest Mary Jane, who I mentioned, she is our oldest client. She is 96 years old. Oh wow. And the way she came to us is she was living in an assisted living facility with our husband. He wasn’t well, and he, he passed away and she came into the office. She said, I’m living at this place. There are a bunch of old
Speaker 5:
People I want to get out. I’ll look it for emancipation. And this was very
Mark:
Early on. It was, you know, at least over 10 years ago and and, and came in and just like we do our retirement readiness review. And as I often say, we are about solutions. We figured out how to do what she moved out of that facility. She got an apartment of her own. And even, you know, later on when she couldn’t come to the PI event, Lisa would run the PI over out. Someone would drop that cause she had to have her PI. And now what cells are family grown well? Oh,
Lisa:
Well she has two great grandchildren and she celebrated her 90th birthday with her family at our baseball game. Oh, fantastic. That
Mark:
Was wonderful. That was a nice night. Probably very memorable
Paul:
For her. I’m sure she’d loved it. So one of the things you mentioned, every retirement readiness review, and can you touch on that? What
Mark:
Is that about? So the retirement readiness review as a part of the show, we offer 10 appointments for folks to call in and go through our retirement readiness review. And our refire retirement readiness review is that first step to really taking control of your financial future, your retirement and understanding where you’re at. Have you saved enough money to retire? How much money will your investments generate for you? Did you make the right decisions around social security or what’s the best strategy for using it? Are you going to pay too much in taxes because of the way that you saved your money? And then what about healthcare legacy? And you know, a big part of retirement readiness review is spousal transition from one spouse to another. So, you know, very important. Yes. So we have, we have 10 slots and if folks call eight, eight, eight, five, six, eight one seven five five, right now they can get one of those slots to come in and visit with us.
Mark:
And we will take them through the retirement readiness review. The thing is you got to call. Yeah. If you don’t call, you’re never going to know if you’re on the right track. So if you call eight, eight, eight, five, six eight one seven five five, right now you can get one of those 10 appointments. Come in, sit down with us. We’ll take you through. Now, let me tell you going to happen. First meeting, we’re going to get to know you and you’re going to get to know us because that’s how we start everything. Then we’ll dig into your situation. We will give you a basic plan. You’re going to walk out of the end of this process. You’re going to walk out with a basic plan. So you know exactly where you are now, if we can help in any way. Terrific. But what we want to do is we want to make sure that folks come in to visit with us, know where they are and are making good decisions about their money. Now, is there a charge for that Mark? There is no charge.
Paul:
It is complimentary complimentary. So the first 10 callers today, I hope you heard that and write this number down, right? The first 10 callers complimentary review, fantastic. Eight eight, eight five six eight one seven five five. We have to take a short break, but I’m looking forward to the next segment. And I know you will to stay with us. Won’t you?
Speaker 6:
How confident are you in your current financial plan? Do you know with certainty, how the recent market volatility will affect your future hopes and dreams? How much are you paying in taxes and how much are you losing to unnecessary high fees? You didn’t work to save this money so that you could spend your time worried in retirement. Now is the time to take charge of your finances. So you can feel confident about your future call in during the next 30 minutes of today’s show only to set up an absolutely complimentary, no obligation full-blown financial review that will result in your own customized written plan. This is a $999 value that we’re giving away complimentary to the first 10 people who respond. We’ll start with a full-blown analysis of what you already have by running a report to untangle how much you’re currently paying in fees, how you’re allocated for risk and what it’s costing to work with your current advisor. Next we’ll identify your goals. Where do you see yourself in the next five years? Where do you want to go? And who do you hope to go there with is your current financial plan set up to get you there without mishap, let’s design a roadmap to create a financial plan. You can follow with confidence, get the piece that so many people are missing from their retirement. Find out how having a written plan can make a difference to your retirement dreams. Call now to schedule your complimentary no obligation full-blown financial review today. Hello and welcome back
Paul:
To plan smart retire. Well, I’m your host, Paul Gephardt again with my guest Mark freed and Lisa dusky of TFG management. Thank you guys for the information at first segment, there was just a feeling like getting to know you. It feels a little bit like your family already, you know, I wish I was in the market for a financial planner, right? So
Mark:
Listen, it’s never too late to get a second to pay. See,
Speaker 5:
I like Martin way to read my mind. So what, yeah. What do you say to the
Paul:
Person out there who maybe there’s a certain of comfortability, which we all know sometimes you can be too comfortable,
Mark:
Right? Sometimes you can be too comfortable and we get a lot of calls for second opinions, and that is not a knock on someone’s current advisor, because there are different stages of life, right? You start out in life and you’re just saving. You’re just trying to get money, put away at a certain point, you get into what we call the accumulation phase, right? And that’s 401k, maybe a brokerage account. And there’s a certain level of advice that you need. We call that investment consulting because basically you just need some idea of the best way to put your money to work. Right. Right. And then you get within five years of retirement. And now what you’re looking at is the distribution phase. And as you know, Lisa and I specialize in preparing for and helping families through retirement. Yes. We understand accumulation very well. But our, our love, our passion is helping people to retire and to live the life that they want
Paul:
The dream, the preservation phase. Right.
Mark:
So there’s so much more to it. There’s so much more to it. And that’s what the retirement readiness review does is it helps say, Hey, you’re in the accumulation phase, here’s the distribution phase. And you know, think about it this way. When you are young, you go to a pediatrician, right? Yeah. You get older, you find a GP. Right. We get
Speaker 5:
A little bit older. Right.
Mark:
Lisa goes to some doctors that I don’t go to. I go to some doctors that she doesn’t go to. Right. And then, you know, if something pretty bad happens, right. Then maybe you have to go to a specialist. Right. Well, let me tell you when you’re ready to retire, this is a very serious time of life and it’s time for a specialist. Yes, absolutely. So it’s has nothing to do with the advisor you have right now. And that’s why the retirement readiness review is that second opinion where you can come in and we can go through it and we can explain to them. And I mean, I’ll give you a perfect example. We have a woman’s program that Lisa runs, she heads up specifically to help women understand financial matters, financial issues, teaching and all of that. And I think you should, you’ll probably, I love
Paul:
Lisa sheriffs. Yeah. Well it’s so it’s so important
Lisa:
That women become involved. Whether you’re married, single, whatever, the situation you need to be in involved, we hear so often Mark that, Oh, the words are too big. I don’t, I don’t want to, you know, it’s not my thing. How often do we hear that? It’s not my thing. And just make it your thing. Just, I do some wonderful programs with our ladies and we have such a time and they just feel so empowered. Yes. Yeah. And that’s, what’s really important
Mark:
And you’re not going to get that in the accumulation phase. You’re not going to hear that it’s going to be mutual fund ETF option. Right. And it’s really important to
Lisa:
The right advisor because how many times do we hear the advisor looks right past me and talks to my husband. Boy, isn’t
Paul:
That true? That’s true. That’s very, very true. Because they assume maybe that the woman is not interested. Yeah. Right. And it’s interesting what you were saying, because you guys had mentioned something about retirement that I rarely hear it’s it’s about so much more than money. Oh yeah. Elaborate on that. What’d you
Mark:
Mean? Yeah. Yeah. So you want to find, okay. Sure. All right. So we have, we have client comes in, I’m putting a plan together and you know, we want to know about all your income and everything is like, you know, I, I make an extra, a couple of hundred bucks a week, you know? Okay. So when I say, where do you get this couple extra, a hundred bucks a week? I mean, I’m just kind of curious about it. Well, well, I AB sit, I say, Oh, do you babysit for your your neighbors? Friends? No, I babysit for my kids. I’m like, what do you mean? She said, well, I’m in retirement. And nine to five is my time bright. Her, her and her husband. They want to go out. They want to have fun. They want to do hobbies. So if my kids want me to babysit during nine to five, they’re going to pay
Speaker 5:
Me because it would have paid somebody else now. Good for her after five o’clock she’s grandma. Oh. And you know, and grandma
Mark:
Wants to make sure that in her plan, the grandchildren are going to be taking, taken care of, not the kids,
Speaker 5:
The grandkids, you know, she makes
Mark:
Sure there’s money for their education or whatever it is. And you know, that’s important. But, and we hear about this all the time. What about the fellow who you do? You talk to? You know,
Lisa:
A lot of times people there, they want to retire and they don’t know what that’s going to look like. And we hear so often that it takes some months to really get used to that retirement. We had a gentleman who’s still got up every day, set his alarm. One first coffee, went back home and sat. Right. He didn’t have an idea of what to do. It took a good six months. Now my husband recently retired. He doesn’t seem to have that problem as a hobby. So I haven’t seen him on the board yet, but I’ll wait for that.
Paul:
Such a powerful statement. I mean, it’s a concept. I think bears repeating really, you know, look the point to asset accumulation preservation. We talked about honeymoon and money, but it’s about the precious value of time. Right. Most and how we spend it and what we want to do. And it’s so much better when it’s something we can choose where you have that to do that. Right. And isn’t that the real
Mark:
Or in planning and it, and if you know that your money’s okay. If no, that a plan is in place, even if something bad happens in the world, could we have predicted what happened over the last 14, 18 months? Nobody saw it coming. No. Right. No. But if you have a plan in place where in case something bad happens, we know what we’re going to do. Right. Right. Well, nobody’s scrambling around running around it. One of the things we do is we like to really communicate Lisa puts together a newsletter that goes out. We kind of every other weeks, pretty much. So Lisa does a newsletter and I do a little six minute video. And, you know, we want to share with the families that we serve in. And also other families who were on our list you know, what’s going on in the world? How do we see it? How do they know that they’re protected? Right? And since they’ve gone through the, everybody goes through the retirement readiness review and there were [inaudible] readiness, review planning process. They have that plan plan is updated. It’s reviewed with them every year. They know exactly where they
Paul:
Are. And then every two weeks
Mark:
They’re hearing from me or never two weeks, they’re hearing from Lisa about, Oh, by the way, we know that taxes just went up. Interest rates, not here’s the world, everything. No, here’s how it’s going to affect you. Here’s what we’re doing for you. I love it. Working every day. You know, for folks who want to enjoy life, don’t want to watch the market every day. Yes. You know, they need to call us. They need a retirement readiness review.
Paul:
How wonderful. Yeah. It, you set an alarm on your phone, but in this case you don’t really need an alarm. They have you guys reaching out to them and keeping them current. Right. You have that annual review and those newsletters, it’s powerful. It’s powerful.
Mark:
We have to reach out. You know, I can’t tell you how many times people come in and they’ll say, Emma laughs. When’s the last time you heard from your advisor?
Speaker 5:
I don’t know.
Paul:
Let me think about that a while ago. Yeah. That’s not a good sign, right? No, no. Listen, we’re going to have to take a break here in a minute. Okay. I understand you still have an offering available [inaudible]
Speaker 5:
So I’m looking
Mark:
Over here and there they’re waving. Yes. There’s still a couple slots up eight, eight, eight, five six eight one seven five five retirement readiness review. Come in and sit down with us. Let us help you. Let us clarify things. Let us give you peace of mind. Eight, eight, eight five six eight one seven five five for a complimentary retirement readiness review. It’s never too late to get a second opinion. The more you know about your financial situation, the better you’ll be (888) 568-1755 call right now though, because they’re filling up fast.
Paul:
Lisa, Mark, thank you for that. We’re going to have to take a quick break, but we’ve got one final segment and more questions. So stay with us. We’ll be back after these short messages
Speaker 7:
As a good saver, you’ve been putting away money during your working years. Studies find that the biggest fear of retirees is running out of money market volatility. Isn’t just the downward movement of stock prices. It’s the size and frequency of change. The more dramatic the ups and downs, the higher, the volatility. This can put sabers who are newly retired or a few years away from being retired at greater risk. Today’s generation of retirees is not receiving traditional pensions as our parents or grandparents did. Instead. We have retirement accounts such as 401ks or four Oh three BS. These accounts typically exposure, money to market risk. The last thing you want right before retirement is to lose a portion of the money you need for income. But how do you turn these accounts into a retirement income? Is it safe to keep all your retirement money sitting in the stock market?
Speaker 7:
The last thing you want is to lose a portion of the money you need for income due to market loss, by working with a financial professional, you can learn how to turn a portion of your savings into an income stream for life and income for the life of your spouse. If you’re married, we all have moments in our lives. When we wish we had taken action sooner, don’t let procrastination rain on your retirement parade act. Now before it’s too late, please call our office to set up your no cost, no obligation retirement income review today.
Paul:
Hello and welcome back to plan smart retire. Well, I’m your host Paul gap. Hard with our good friends here. Mark freed and Lisa Odeski of T F G management. Listen, guys, we shared a lot of good stuff. I love the stories about how much you’re involved in the lives of your families. And I think that that’s really prominent, but I think everybody after might want to know, how did you guys kind of get together? How did that happen? Gosh,
Mark:
It’s been 10 years. Wow. so I started the firm and we were growing and I needed someone who I could trust, who I could rely on. You know, I had some folks working for me, but I didn’t have that person, you know, that you knew no matter what always had your back was always there. Someone that felt like a part of you. Yes. And so I literally, I
Speaker 5:
Remember newspapers, you know, those things. Yeah, I do. Well, you know, I just put this to the lab, the paper, right. I don’t know, you know, that’s all I need. Yeah. And I was at a big box. Oh.
Lisa:
And really was passionate about the woman’s issues. And they back then, they weren’t really embracing that. So I was having my morning coffee, reading the newspaper and I said, well, this could be interesting.
Speaker 5:
Fantastic.
Paul:
You answered the call. Yeah. Yeah. I guess so. Yeah.
Lisa:
Mark’s Pat, you know, had the same feelings about how the women’s issues were growing. So that was a nice refreshing break from the big box. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
Mark:
I grew up in a family of strong women, strong men and strong women, you know, my grandmom, Ruth, she ran everything, you know, my grandfather, Sam, you know, I thought he was in charge.
Speaker 5:
He thought he was in charge. Eerily familiar sounds like my mother Rose. Yeah.
Mark:
And you know, and my mom taught first grade for 37 years. Wow. My grandmother taught fourth grade in the Philadelphia school system for ever. So, you know, working women, you know, to two income households you know, very involved in the community and the financial services business, like Lisa mentioned seem to just look right past. Yeah. That brings up some Lisa, I mean, speak to our ladies out there.
Paul:
What’s the one thing you really want them to know why it’s so important for them to be involved?
Lisa:
Well, there’s a lot of reasons why we have a saying a man is not your plan. [inaudible]
Speaker 5:
So
Lisa:
It’s important to be, like you said, it’s important to be involved. You need to know what your outcome is going to look like. You need to know when you make a choice to care for a parent or take time off to watch your grandchildren, you need to know how that’s gonna affect your future, your future self,
Paul:
Right. And where you are financially is a big, big part of that secure.
Lisa:
Don’t be scared. You know what? We’re scared of the unknown and a lot of women that, you know, we don’t want to look
Paul:
Right. Why be afraid when you have someone to reach out to that can help them. And they don’t find a process. Yes. They find a lot of comfort in that. I love that. And
Mark:
You know, with, with, with the founders that we serve, it says lots of families, Lisa and I work together, but you know, someone will come in and they’ll say, you know, I would just rather work with Lisa or I just rather work with Mark. We co whatever we hit it off or, or there’s, and that’s a wonderful thing to offer. You know, a lot of advisor firms out there, you might be going to a big box, but what you’re really doing is it’s that guy. And if that guy is gone, you are just moved on to whomever. Right. And that’s not our approach. Our approach as a family is every family we serve is served by everyone in the company. Yeah. It isn’t like that’s just mine or yours now. And if someone needs help and the phone is answered, then they’re taking care of, there
Lisa:
Is a funny story though. I don’t know if you remember, years ago a woman, well, woman came in and the tissues came out shortly after and she had quite this story about her husband, you know left her for someone else. And little by little Mark got out of that room.
Speaker 5:
That was not my conversation. And that was okay. Yeah, it was okay.
Lisa:
It was nice that we had time to, to grow together. And there’s a lot to be said for
Mark:
That. And so Lisa took them through the retirement readiness review and she went step-by-step and help them to understand where they were at, because I mean, think about it. Your world has just fallen apart and what are you going to do? And that’s where, you know, we can play a part of it. And so again, eight, eight, eight, five, six, eight one seven five five. It’s complimentary. Wow. It’s always the right time. It’s never too late for a second opinion. And we’re just here to help, but we can’t help you if you don’t help us by picking up the phone and calling eight eight, eight five six eight one seven five, five. So important to help me help you. That’s good stuff.
Paul:
Well, listen, I tell you it’s been informative today and I’ve really enjoyed my time with you both. Thank you so much for being with us. Well, listen, I guess all of this comes down to one simple question.
Speaker 1:
What do you want your tomorrow to look like? Find out today, give Lisa a call, give Mark a call. Let them be a part of your family. (888) 568-1755.
Paul:
Thank you so much. Be well, take care.
