Stress Free Money

Welcome to another episode of the Richer Geek. We're happy to have Chad Willardson. He is the President and Founder of Pacific Capital and is a Certified Financial Fiduciary®, Accredited Wealth Management Advisor, and Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor. Before founding Pacific Capital, he spent 9 years at Merrill Lynch, where he ranked in the top 2% of over 16,000 Financial Advisors nationally. Chad is the author of the Best Selling Book: Stress-Free Money: Overcome These Seven Obstacles to Find Financial Freedom.

Chad is passionate about financial education and believes that with the right tools and resources, people can be empowered to make smart money decisions. He loves to help people organize their financial life, clarify their goals, and make decisions that lead them to a successful and fulfilling life. A native of Orange County, CA, Chad and his wife of 17 years live in Corona with their five children.

 

In this episode, we’re discussing…

  •        [3:17] Why is important kids learn about money and learn to be a little smarter and a little bit less spoiled

  •        [5:06] What really means financial freedom

  •        [7:23] The mindset change you need to get into that freedom sooner if possible

  •        [9:21] How he teaches people what is a concentration that builds wealth, investment, and diversification

  •        [10:57] Advice on how to spread the risk and have a variety of investments

  •        [12:23] Some of the top mistakes that people make

  •        [18:06] The advantage of a fiduciary as an advisor and being aware of fake fiduciaries

  •        [25:55] Warnings about investing

  •        [29:39] About his second book, “Smart, not spoiled” The seven money skills kids must master before leaving the nest.


Chad Top Tip’s

  •        “The school system doesn't teach kids frankly, most of us parents aren't very good at it either. So, what I really tried to do with smart, not spoiled was give basically like a resource guide of insights, stories, and activities, both from my own life and from clients and friends of like, here's some ideas of ways you can really help your kids learn about money and learn to be a little smarter and a little less spoiled”

  •        “Financial freedom, to me, means the absence of worry and stress about money. It's not really a number, I think people get too caught up in how much do I have, then they say I want to have $1 million by this age, or 5 million, or 10 million, or whatever the number is. But really, it's more about the absence of stress, and anxiety about your financial life. That's freedom”

  •        “I think the factors I would look at is what's going to change in my spending habits in my lifestyle, you got to account for inflation. Inflation is a big deal. Not to get political. But our government's rate of borrowing and spending is unsustainable for the last 15 to 20 years, but especially the last 10 years. So inflation is a big deal, you've got to plan for everything to get a lot more expensive”.

  •        “I look at each individual client differently based on what their needs are. And so, some of them are in the building phase, and some of them are in the distribution phase. And ideally, we can create seven different sources of income for them before they fully retire. Then some of that might be in their investment portfolio. Some of it might be with a rental property or multiple”.

  •        “I'm not the financial guy that's going to tell you to put all of your money and financial stuff with the financial advisor, because I think that's a very biased opinion, biased advice”.

  •        “We've invested in personal real estate, where it's homes with families renting, we have investments in some apartment buildings, we have investments in some medical complexes actually out in Tennessee, and Georgia, Ohio, places not even close to us. But, it's a way to spread the risk and have a variety of investments. So, you shouldn't only be in the stock market and insurance investments”.

  •        “So, no clear goals mean you really don't know what you want, you're just kind of making investment choices or financial decisions as you go along. But you don't really have a specific goal in mind. To me is the biggest mistake, because it's that famous quote that says, you can't hit a target you can't see, and you can't see a target you don't have”

  •        “I like really mapping out a plan and seeing someone get better. I'm the kind of person that loves those before and after pictures of the people who like to lose a ton of weight and get fit. I love seeing that it gets me excited. So, I want that same result for the financial lives of the clients, I help, and when I felt like the banks were pushing too much for their own good, I had to leave. And that's why I left in 2011 and became a fiduciary”

  •        “On the flip side, I see people with significant amounts of money just sitting in cash at the bank. They're not taking enough risks. And what I will say is, in this day, when our government is printing and spending, you cannot be saved, you cannot be sitting with money on the sidelines. So, inflation is breaking 10 15 years records right now”.

 

Resources from Chad

Pacific Capital | Twitter | LinkedIn | Stress Free Money book




ABOUT CHAD WILLARDSON

Founder and President of PACIFIC CAPITAL, a fiduciary wealth advisory firm in California

Elected City Treasurer, managing a $350 million investment portfolio for the taxpayers

Co-Owner of the Draft Sports Complex Married, Father of five kids

Featured in: The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., U.S. News & World Report, Entrepreneur

Magazine, NBC News, Yahoo News, Financial Advisor Magazine, CA Business Journal

Author of Amazon #1 Best-Seller "Stress Free Money": Overcome These 7 Obstacles to Find Financial

Nichole Stohler