Personal Training and Financial Planning

Welcome in to Mr. Stillman's Opus, another episode coming your way. We got a great one for you today, I believe. It's about staying in shape financially and physically. John, are you a guy that has a great workout plan that sticks to it, that tries to keep yourself as healthy as possible?

I go through different stages. I've always gone to the gym very consistently, but I have different phases that I've gone through in terms of how strict my actual plan is. There will be times where I have a very specific lifting and strength workout that I'll do twice a week. I'll do cardio once a week. I'll do core, abs once a week. So there's four good days right there. There are other times where it's all I can do to just show up and do something three or four days a week, and it's not quite as regimented.

So it varies. I know that that's the case, but wellness is important to you, though, right? I mean, that's something that you find, especially for people you work with and your family, that that's important to living a good life. Well, mainly it's just I'm too vain to be out of shape, I think is pretty much what it boils down to.

Vanity, huh? OK, fair enough. I thought you wanted me to be healthy, but OK, that's fine.

I don't care if you're healthy. Well, listen, the reason I ask is because today's topic is personal training and financial planning. You know, there's a lot of principles that we can take from personal training in the fitness world that we can apply to retirement planning. Today on the show with John Stillman, who is the president and founder of Rosewood Wealth Management, we are going to take the similarities between the two and learn how we can increase our level of financial fitness, much like we try to do with our personal fitness as well. So first things first is there's a lot of information out there.

Right. When it comes to personal training, you probably, you know, pick up some things, but you can't just read a book and find out everything you need to know. So several months ago, we were at Barnes and Noble and I grabbed a book from their clearance section that was six dollars or something, but it was like the Navy SEAL workout plan. And it was a lot of the stuff that they do in SEAL training, which I thought, all right, well, for six dollars, I can probably get some nuggets from this book. And I read through it and it was interesting, but I haven't actually designed a workout for myself based on what was in that book. It's in my nightstand now. Every time I open that drawer, I say, oh, that book, I should get that book out and design a workout.

Have not yet actually done that. So just because it's in the book doesn't mean it translates to me actually applying it to my life. And so often that's what I see with people who want to constantly learn all they can about the financial realm is, yeah, you can get all the magazines and the books and listen to the podcasts and whatever articles you want to read. But at the end of the day, you have to implement something. And just because you've taken in a lot of information doesn't mean that you're able to implement it so often. You know, I see this with business owners to business owners constantly get advice or are paying for advice for like coaches and idea people like think tank sort of folks. You might join a mastermind group for your industry. Well, most of the time, what small business owners need is not more ideas. They need people that can help them implement the ideas they already have and help them execute.

And that's really what you need in your financial life, too, is the ability to implement and execute, not just more theories and ideas. I think about that book that you have in your nightstand. And, you know, I worry that you might look through it, you might thumb through it and see some workout plan that you want to put together and then you might try it yourself. And you're in great shape, John, but you're no Navy SEAL and trying to do it yourself might cause you a little more harm than good. Well, that's that's a matter of opinion.

I'm not a Navy SEAL. So you can you can try to do stuff on your own. It's not always a good idea. Right.

To your point. You know, let's say you're doing lap pulls at the gym. You get the bar up and you're kind of simulating pull ups.

Right. But you're pulling the bar down with the weights instead of actually doing pull ups. Well, if you're doing that, you want to be pulling the bar down in front of your face, not behind your head. If you do it behind your head, that's bad for your neck. You can damage your neck doing that.

You know, if you're doing squats, don't go down too low or you're going to mess your knees up. And so if you've just maybe watched other people do these exercises and you say, all right, well, I'm going to do that myself. You can cause yourself some damage if your form isn't right. And so in a lot of cases, if you're not familiar with things like that at the gym, you want to start out by working with somebody who can show you how to do things properly.

And again, that's no different with your financial life. So often people say, yeah, well, I'm going to do I'm going to take advantage of this particular strategy or I'm going to invest in this particular fund. And if you don't do it right, you can cause yourself more damage than if you just hadn't done it at all. So you want to be really careful that any time you're diving into something new, even if you think it seems intuitive, well, maybe it's not as intuitive as you think. You want to be sure you have a coach or a trainer to keep you from messing up your financial knees or whatever.

Your financial back. Yeah, for sure. But no matter what you do with planning, just like personal training, you have to have goals in mind. You can't just say, I'm going to start working out. I'm going to lose weight. I'm going to be in great shape later this year.

You got to have specific goals in mind because that helps you put a plan in place to get there. Let's suppose you just walked up to a trainer at the gym and said, all right, I just signed up for a personal training package. I want you to draw up a training plan for me.

Well, they can't draw a plan because they don't know what you want. Are you trying to lose weight? Are you trying to get huge? I mean, there's a very big difference between, yeah, I'd like to add some several inches to my biceps and I'd like my chest to get bigger, my waist to get smaller.

I want to have really big thighs. That's a very different workout plan from, you know what, I just want to lose the love handles. So depending on what you want, that's going to dictate what the training plan looks like. So a good trainer is going to use their knowledge and experience to help you figure out what you want.

Because a lot of people don't know. A lot of people just say, well, I want to be in better shape. OK, well, what does that mean?

What does that look like? Let's quantify what you mean by being in better shape. So that trainer is going to ask probing questions and help you uncover goals that are important to you that you may not even be consciously aware of and maybe you haven't even thought about yourself. Again, same thing in the financial realm. A lot of people say, well, you know, I just need to get organized financially or I don't really know what I'm doing, so I want some help. OK, well, we have to figure out what you want out of life. Are you 60 years old and you're trying to retire in five years? Are you 50 years old and trying to retire at 55? Or are you 68 and saying, you know what, well, I'll just work forever.

I like what I do. I just want to be sure that, you know, if I have to go to the nursing home someday, I'm going to be OK. What is it that you're trying to address? You know, for most people, there are going to be multiple goals.

It's not just one thing, but we want to take all those goals into account and then have a financial workout plan that actually addresses all those goals. And, you know, a lot of this is just the first step is you sitting around thinking, what is it I do that I do want in retirement? Where do I want to live? How much do I want to travel? Who am I going to hang out with when I'm not going to work every day?

How often am I going to eat out? Things like that that I can't answer for you. But you need to sit around and spend some time thinking about that. And if you're married, try to get both spouses roughly on the same page with that lifestyle. Understanding yourself is important.

That's the first step, I mean, to really building your plan. And I don't understand myself, John, whenever I'm into personal training and fitness, is that I know if I have a good workout, I end up saying, you know what? I burned a lot of calories today. I want to go out and eat. I can have some pizza tonight because it's a good week.

I deserve these cheese fries. And much like finance, too, like sometimes you'll say, OK, I had a really good month. I saved, you know, didn't go out to eat a whole lot. So I might splurge a little bit this month, but it's important that you always stay on track and you don't give in to these bad habits. Yep.

Well, you nail it. There was a famous trainer who said great abs are not made in the gym. They're made in the kitchen, which means you don't do crunches at the gym.

You go home and you do your crunches in the kitchen. No, it means you eat well to get good abs. So obviously, a great fitness plan can change your body. But if your nutrition isn't right along with it, then you're canceling out everything you did at the gym. I mean, there was a time in my life when I was younger where if I said, oh, you know, I need to lose a little bit of belly fat, I could either eat really well for a few days or I could go run every night for a few days and be fine. Well, then there was a time where I had to do it for a longer period, but I could still do one or the other, either eat well or exercise well. Well, now I have to do both constantly or it's going to get out of control.

Thank you, Age. Yeah, so you have to have the right habits. And again, when it comes to your financial life, let's suppose that you do something that's good for you from a financial standpoint like get a better job and you have a substantially increased income from what you had before. But then you celebrate by spending too much, your lifestyle increases. We talked in a past episode about lifestyle creep. You know, your lifestyle just keeps up with your income and you're never really making any progress just because, yeah, you're fueling the economy. We all appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you. But you're not really improving your own financial situation any. So, you know, it could be that you're doing a better job of being more disciplined about putting money in your 401k every month. But then you're canceling that out with bad habits with what you invest in in the 401k. And you're trying to time the market and get in and out at the wrong time and you're shifting money around within the account and you're cutting off your nose to spite your face in the 401k.

Even though you've done a better job putting money in, you're eating badly or, in this case, investing badly. So very important that all of your habits line up together so you're not canceling out your progress. You know, one thing that my mom always tried to instill in me was, you know, when you get a raise at work, when you start making more money, continue to live the same lifestyle. But it's so much easier said than done. You want to go out and buy that new TV or new car or whatever it is when you get that pay raise, but those bad habits can hurt you. The last thing to this comparison between training, personal training and financial planning is to understand that's a journey. You know, you can't just like when you go to the gym that first night and you step on the scale the next morning, you're not going to see any difference. Much like if you check your bank account every day, you're not going to see anything. But if you stick to the process, that's going to get you to your destination. Yeah, so I think it's important for a lot of people to understand some things just take time.

I mean, I actually see this with myself. I was talking to a financial advisor who's 25 years older than me. I mean, he's in his 60s, has a very successful business. I mean, he has, I think, 25 employees. He's not necessarily in the office that much himself.

He kind of oversees everything, but he has five or six advisors under him meeting with clients, a huge support staff. And he was talking about how so many advisors are coming to him trying to get the keys to the mint. Like, how do I have this same business that you have? And he'd say, look, you just have to understand like some things just take time.

I didn't build this overnight. He says, I've been in the business for 40 years, and it took me a long time to build up to where I am now. So sometimes you have to just grow slowly and be patient in building a business.

And same thing in personal fitness, same thing in personal finance. Sometimes you just can't experience those overnight changes. I've seen people who get started on a personal training thing, and they'll go for their first 30-day weigh-in and find out that they weigh more than they weighed when they started. Well, the reality is you're replacing fat with muscle, so, yeah, muscle weighs more than fat. You probably have gained weight, but that's not really a true indication of your progress.

Or it could be that, you know what, your body just is going to take longer to respond to what you're doing, and it might be three or four months before you actually have any positive progress. And, you know, same thing with your contributions to your retirement account. I mean, you're not going to fund your entire retirement this year. It's something that you do over the course of many decades, and you have to understand there's going to be a lot of ups and downs along the way, and your account balance is going to take a big hit when we have a market crash. But if you keep plugging away and keep putting the money in over a long enough period of time, you'll be just fine. So don't get too short-sighted and try to fix all of your problems. Like, if you've made some bad financial decisions in the past, well, more than likely, that's not something we can fix overnight.

It's probably going to take time to help you recover from those. So it's just important to keep that perspective. Yeah, in an era of social media, you know, for every picture you see on Facebook and Instagram, that end result that you see, you know that there was a long process behind it. It's not all about this, that instant gratification. And that's the same way with fitness and finance. It's about putting in the work over a long time and following the steps to getting there. And you can do that by working with an advisor or professional that can help lay that out and you follow that plan.

And by the time you get there, you can look like those pictures of the lovely couple on the beach holding hands at the sunset, right? Yep. Enjoying it however you want to do. So if you need help ever, reach out to John and his team at Rosewood Wealth Management. They'll be happy to do so.

So let's wrap up this episode of Mr. Stillman's Opus. John, enjoy the time. I hope your workout plan with the Navy SEALs starts pretty soon. Hopefully I don't drown. I'll let you know. Let me know. That'll do it for us. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Mr. Stillman's Opus.