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Black Belt Mentality

In this episode we reflect on Michael's 10 year journey to becoming a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. We also discuss how retirement planning, investing, and financial services has changed over the last decade. Take a listen!

Blackbelt Mentality

Rough Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, black belt, years, thinking, retirement, belt, money, purple belt, plan, buy, journey, spending, started, clients, paychecks, agree, fed, employment, millennials, decade

SPEAKERS

Michael Baker, Ross Marynell

 

Michael Baker  00:00

And he was like, do you guys want to continue? And at this point, we've been on the phone for like, 45 minutes. I was like, No, we might as well see it through. So we just kept rolling. So anyway, I finished that. And I was like, I need a coffee likes dad. So I'm ready to rock and roll man. You want to get going?

 

00:17

Welcome to the money huddle, a podcast that discusses financial topics for families, retirees, and small business owners, hosted by Michael Baker and rosemary now, all opinions expressed by Michael and Ross or any podcast guests are solely their own opinions and may not reflect the opinions of advisory alpha. The podcast recording is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for investment decisions. Clients of advisory alpha may maintain positions in securities discussed on the program.

 

Michael Baker  00:49

Welcome back to the money huddle. My name is Michael Baker, and I'm here with my business partner, Ross marinelle. Ross, how you doing bud?

 

Ross Marynell  00:56

Hey, Michael doing wonderful today, we are so close to kids. Yes, back to school. I don't know how you feel about that. in your household. It's always a little bittersweet. But with them heading back to school face to face again. I think it's a day we have.

 

Michael Baker  01:14

I am in, we're pumped. I'm excited about it for a number of reasons. One, we have a really great school that our kids are going to Providence classical school down in Rock Hill. And I love that school. Our kids love it. And number two, probably more importantly, I think it's just time for the little ones to get socialization with the little ones. It's like, we've enjoyed our family time this summer, we've we've tried to make the most of it the best that we can, but it's time for them to like, you know, be around people that can talk with them on their level that they can get stimulated on their level. And you know, I brother and sister need a little time apart during the day. So you know, it's just, it's just that taco that time, you know if I understand,

 

Ross Marynell  02:02

well, hey, so a lot, a lot is happening. But we've got some news that we need to discuss or put out there today. And that is that my business partner Michael, who started a 10 year journey to master Brazilian jujitsu has achieved as a black belt. In Brazilian jujitsu, this, congratulations, it

 

Michael Baker  02:27

finally happened. It finally happened. And you know, it's like anything else is one of those things where you have a goal, like you look forward to it for so long that when you finally get there, it feels somewhat surreal. Like, it hasn't really happened. But yeah, it's that time and time for a black belt.

 

Ross Marynell  02:52

So So we've been working together long enough that I remember when you started. And how many times you'd show up to the office. I had a couple of guy some.

 

Michael Baker  03:03

So I told somebody the other day when they were like, oh, man, what's that? Like? And I said that is a lot of beatings. It's a lot of beatings over the years, but it's been wonderful man. Definitely a great outlet for me and not without not without it's it's trying times, of course, anything over a decade. I mean, you know, 10 years, that black belt journey is older than both of my children right now. So, you know, it's kind of what's happened since I started jujitsu, you know, got married, started our company together. had both my kids, you've had kids, I've had kids, I mean, it's been it's been a minute,

 

Ross Marynell  03:47

I just jot it down. that's a that's a long term achievement. This interspersed with short term pain, that that journey is, it's physical, it's emotional. It's it just takes dedication, just walk me through that journey from the first time you walked in there with your white belt on, you know,

 

Michael Baker  04:08

it's half as the think, because it has been a while. But you know, one of the things about our schools specifically, I mean, we started out, we didn't have unlike a lot of the guys that you know, and girls that come and train today, we have multiple black belts that are Academy, all different, you know, brown belts, blue belt, purple belts, but when I started, it was mostly white belts. So we were like this group of beginners, like all trying to like strangle each other. And if you if you are, if you've trained in Jiu Jitsu long enough, one of the most dangerous training partners to have is a beginner that doesn't know what they're doing, because they could spaz out and just kind I hurt you. And it's kind of human instinct, right? Like we've, the beginner thinks, Oh, this, you know, upper belt, trained martial artists is going to try to just destroy me. And so they attack. And it's it's nothing like that and so that some of the most dangerous training partners can sometimes be the beginners, because you don't know what you don't know. And so you overcompensate by being very aggressive. And so that was the school that I started and it was a lot of like, white belt on white white belt, a white belt crime.

 

Ross Marynell  05:40

Wall Street. That's right,

 

Michael Baker  05:41

yeah, that's right. You know, but I mean, it was like, you know, in a park man, if a purple belt came in, it was like, Oh, my gosh, a purple belt. But, you know, the great news is, is like, so several of the guys that I started with, have stuck it through with me, and have either already, you know, some attain their black belt, some are like, right on the doorstep of getting their black belt. And, and that'll be really cool. To see. You know, it was it was cool to join, you know, join the guys that have already been promoted to that level. But it'll be really cool to see some of my friends that are right behind me coming up and getting it as well. So that's cool.

 

Ross Marynell  06:23

That's cool. It's, you know, one of those things that your that journey for you started about the time we started working together. And so as we were sitting here, just thinking about how many just corollaries there are between the progression through that, you know, that field of expertise to what we kind of lift over the last 10 years with our clients. You know, there are there are so many things that just kind of layer right on top of each other. And I think one of the cool things about any kind of martial arts training is, and we talk about this all the time, when we focus on long term planning for financial for retirement, or just investment management and you know, kind of growth and accumulation is, you've got to celebrate those milestones along the way. Because to think that you're going to do something for 10 years and not have moments of success, appreciation, just reflection, you won't make it. And I feel the same way about someone who may be on that, let's say that last 10 years of working it just yet so far. And you've got to build in those intermittent, but very important milestones. And I think the martial arts training has really perfected that by the progression of the belts. Because each step along the way, you get that opportunity to just kind of celebrate in your achievement. And you may have made your full extended long term goal. But you're got one notch,

 

Michael Baker  07:44

yeah, it gives you it definitely gives you a visual, you know, marker to say, Okay, this is like where I'm at. But, you know, one of the one of the most challenging things I will tell you about Brazilian jujitsu, specifically, is it's an individual journey. But you're taking up, there's a lot of people on that road with you. And so it's extremely tempting to look around at everybody else, and start judging yourself against other people. So there's like, you might be a blue belt, but maybe you're one of the more competitive blue belts in the school and the Academy. So you start thinking, you know, what, I really should be a purple belt, I shouldn't be a blue belt, I should be a purple belt. And the truth is, is that you're a really good blue belt. But you don't know what it's like to be a purple belt yet, because you're not. And so you compare yourself to other people and your peers. And, you know, just like anything else, I mean, there are people with different skill sets, different physical talents are people that pick it up faster than other people, you know, people that get discouraged. And so sometimes what happens is, is somebody that's having a lot of success early, they get very discouraged when it starts to get hard, you know, when you start to go against better training partners, or you start to go against people that are just flat out, you know, way more experienced than you.

 

Ross Marynell  09:21

Hey, I feel for our new stock investors who just started about six months ago, because that road to return.

 

Michael Baker  09:31

No, absolutely. Exactly. You know, a great corollary but I mean, you know, because I tell people that all the time is, you know, you think about is like you You can't compare yourself to other people, which is our natural human tendency, you know, and, and the thing about jujitsu specifically is, you know, there really, there's some additional belts but for the core practitioners, there's really like five belts, there's white belt, blue belt, purple belt, brown belt, and then Black Belt. And then of course, if you have some people that have been practicing for a very long time and are like Master Master Level, there's coral belts and red belts, but those are, you know, people that have probably been alive and training Jiu Jitsu, longer than I've been alive, you know. So for the most part, you know, there's five belts, and, you know, but you could be a purple belt for a couple years, you know, I mean, so somebody who's a brand new purple belt, goes in and sees other purple belts, and then compares himself like, well, they might be brand new, and they might be comparing themselves with somebody who's got two or three years more experience. And you don't know that if you're just looking for the visual cues. And so it's only when you get in there, and you start actually doing the training that you realize, like, oh, wow, this person's, this person's not, we're not we're not the same. And, you know, that's the thing that I try to tell people all the time is that, in fact, I had this conversation earlier today with someone. And I was saying, you know, the thing, if you talk to a black belt, one of the things that I think most black belts would share with you is that by the time you reach that level, yes, you've mastered enough that you have a blackbelt skill set, but you also are humble and aware enough to know, there's so much that you still don't know, there's so much that you could still learn. And it has a way of like beating the ego out of you. And, you know, I think that the investing in the stock market can do can do the same thing. You know, a lot of novice investors can come in, and maybe they have some early success, and that's fantastic. But it scares me when people get really overconfident, because of maybe what just ended up being a lucky time period to be investing in equities. You know, it's not necessarily skill that you decided to invest when the market was down. 30%. You know, good for you if you did that. But now it's you know, that's the that's the real lesson that I would say is there are a lot of people that feel like, Oh, you know, what? My trailing year over year returns are phenomenal. I'm a black belt investor. And they've been doing it one year. And I'm like, No, let's, let's try decade, let's try decade plus, unless and then. And then let's talk. Yeah,

 

Ross Marynell  12:26

so I. So that's a great insight. And certainly congratulations in order and I. So again, we've sort of been on this retirement planning journey for that length of time. And so I wanted to pivot and just kind of share, like, what have we learned over a decade plus of retirement planning and working with clients of all skill levels, because let's let's, let's be respectful, we have some clients that are black belt Savers, that are at the top of their financial planning game. And they come to us for that little guidance and a little extra motivation to just stay on track. And then we have some people who are just getting started on their own financial journey. And so I thought it might be fun just to look back over a decade, like a few things that have just transpired. And what's changed. I mean, first, I'll kick this off. And then we'll kind of kind of go into like, a few things that we learned just a few big ideas, I think are always ever present. Just Just as a side note, so I look back at the largest company in 2010. It was Exxon Mobil at a market cap of $343 billion. So we've talked about this probably been a little while. So today, if you fast forward to two now, our largest company is Apple with a market cap. 2.4

 

Michael Baker  13:48

billion. Yes.

 

Ross Marynell  13:52

We now have five companies that are over a trillion.

 

Michael Baker  13:55

I wonder, I wonder what

 

Ross Marynell  13:57

as Facebook's?

 

Michael Baker  13:58

Yeah, I wonder what companies like not just the largest companies now but like what companies have have a market cap that's bigger than Exxon did even back then.

 

Ross Marynell  14:11

Yeah. Okay. Funny, you should ask. So I ran the so I was using my charts and just run into market cap Overlay and there are now 29 companies. Wow, over 343 billion that I

 

Michael Baker  14:27

that I and not to mention, you got to throw in Bitcoin in there too. And some of these crypto currencies.

 

Ross Marynell  14:35

So a lot of things have changed. So I was going to almost go throw this at you. Okay, okay, you and I want you to jump in here and throw some in. So, the decade of retirement planning what what did we learn? The first thing that came to mind was, there's always the next crisis. So rolling back to the beginning of the 2000 10s, we had grexit Greece He's self combusting. What does that mean? This is the end of the year out there. This was this was a massive play. And then of course, with that goes to the first debt ceiling issue I had where the government's running out of money, are they going to refund each other? Then we've had federal spending that's always been in the news for the last 10 years. Whether its quantitative easing bond, sustainable

 

Michael Baker  15:23

debt, unsustainable balance sheet,

 

Ross Marynell  15:26

it's unsustainable. We've been saying that for

 

Michael Baker  15:29

12 years, eventually, there'll be right, right, then it's eventually be right. And then they'll be like,

 

Ross Marynell  15:34

we call this right time? Well, you know, at this point, we've had three presidents under under the last since we started. So Obama presidency, Trump, to Biden, and at some point along the way, that becomes an issue. What what one political side of the other is concerned. So you fire away, tell me something that you kind of

 

Michael Baker  15:57

say you're right, I agree, first of all, wholeheartedly that there's always another crisis. That is, that is gospel, when it comes to investing, there's always going to be another crisis, there's always going to be something where they're pounding the drums and saying this is this is it, this is going to be what takes us all out. Because that that, I would say that sells newspapers, but we don't have newspapers anymore. It's almost all digital. So that drives clicks and traffic to the website, I would say one thing that has stayed the same, and I still feel this way, is that having a good plan that you implement is better than a great plan that you do nothing with. And on sidebar, it's like planning is superior than products. A lot of people buy products or invest in certain things, thinking that that's the fix. And I think the fix is like having a real plan that you can work and stick to through good times and bad times. Yes, you make adjustments. Yes, you make core course corrections is life those twists and turns. But you having you having a unified, like planning strategy that you are working towards, at all times is better than just going out there and just doing yourself doing it yourself. Because as you just said, there's always something coming up to change. And I couldn't imagine like being on that type of roller coaster ride with no blueprint.

 

Ross Marynell  17:25

I will add to that. So the note I jotted down was financial planning is, in my view, it's basically good decision making compounds over time. So that each phase, wherever we start to engage with somebody and come alongside is can we start to help make good decisions with them. And just compound that year over year over year over year. So maybe it starts with a debt reduction strategy to get rid of credit card debt, or a high expense auto loan or something along those lines. And then it blends into building retirement savings plans through IRA accounts or Roth or something through their employer. And it's just this combination of extra life experiences, and good decisions that you try to make year over year over year. But I also thought too, that good decision making needs to come in an environment of patience and positivity. There's sometimes it takes time for the best answer to emerge. This not just what's on our mind today. But letting that simmer and thinking through over time. What the best man like trying to

 

Michael Baker  18:33

be positive and in this environment where it like the overall energy for so many folks, it's just negative, you know, negative about the government negative about the economy and negative about the stock market. Negative about schools, it's just like, Man, you know, trying to stay positive. It's that that's a full time job now, right? We need a positive positive officer, what was it chief positivity officer CPO? I bet there it is, that's gonna be a position you white chief positivity officer, there it is. Some company's gonna pick that up. And they're gonna create an amazing culture.

 

Ross Marynell  19:10

So here. So here's something just having come alongside so many people that we've had the great opportunity to work with over time seeing people transition from their employment, paychecks to retirement. So the idea I wrote down was that we want stocks for growth, cash flow for happiness. Because once that last employment check comes in, if you have a pre determined way to distribute money, whether that's through just the combination of Social Security pension, a safe withdraw for your portfolio, some type of income pre determined income plan, where you know, where you're going to tap for income first.

 

Michael Baker  19:58

It's just takes no I agree. And I think that that's the one thing that if I would stress to anybody who is planning their retirement exit, or starting their retirement journey, or has even started their retirement journey, and not done this is you need to have an actual retirement income plan laid out for you doesn't mean that it's etched in stone, and you can't change things. But the retirement years in the math for retirement is much different than when you're trying to just grow and accumulate wealth, and is a different mindset that goes in with retirement, you need to think about that. And what I would tell you is, the reason one of the reasons I think is more important, or extremely important is one of the things that's been talked about over the last decade so far again, for the last 10 years, we went into this zero interest rate policy, back during the financial crisis, under a president was President Bush, but then, you know, President Obama, President Obama, and you know, where the federal funds rate was slashed to zero. And it took years for the Fed to, to begin, you know, raising the interest rates back up. And we had, we had had just started to, you know, see what I would call the low range of normal interest rate policy with the Fed when the big 20% drop happened in 2018. Because the 10 year hit 3%. And there were people thought that the Fed was tightening too fast. And then they kind of backed off a little bit. 2019 ended up being a really strong year, going into 2020, boom, COVID. And we're here we are back again, what's going on? Again, zero interest rate policy, Feds making bond purchases, and we're talking about, again, when is the Fed gonna taper which is what, you know, they were talking about six, seven years ago, you know, when is the Fed gonna stop, you know, stop the QE? And what I would say, I would say that to share that people need to understand, you know, a lot of people are sitting around thinking, well, I'll do something when interest rates get normalized. I know, what's the normal environment, you know, we're going on a decade of this, and we, our deficits have gotten larger, they haven't gotten smaller. The current administration is really is really leaning into this modern monetary theory where deficits don't seem to matter. You know, they, they're loading up another, at least a trillion dollar infrastructure bill that they want to pass, but that's not really the one they want the one they wants, like 3 trillion. So you know, this idea that we're going to have this interest rates returning to quote normal, you gotta have to you have to define for me what normal is because I think we're gonna be in this low, low interest rate environment for a really long time. And people need to be thinking about that when they're putting their plans together.

 

Ross Marynell  23:09

Yeah, taper tantrum is starting to come back into the news. As we see gains in employment, gains in employment wages, which I would think is really important, we want people to be able to make a living wage. So we're starting to see employment wages rise, we're seeing more people coming back to the workforce as the unemployment benefits are a little less rich and so it'll be curious to see when and if the Fed does taper that would fall back into there's always another crisis. Yeah. So a quick hit as we as I just think back over the people we've had the great opportunity to work with how many just live below their means that had secure income or or or good well paying jobs but but didn't really spin themselves to the max of what they could and they just focused a lot more on savings and and living below your means is a wonderful way to get started into higher income jobs as you start to escalate and grow from your entry level position at a college to you know, a manager regional manager however you develop and grow into your into your job is to not let that lifestyle creep pick up I saw a hilarious tweet the other day. This gentleman said do not buy a BMW three series or Mercedes C class. Like you're not right, it's not worth it. You want to you want to drive a Mercedes but you don't want to drive the C class go buy a Corolla for now wait till you really have the means and then go buy your S Class Mercedes that that's what No,

 

Michael Baker  24:51

would say okay, Boomer, because then they're not buying beamers anymore. They're buying Tesla's that's what they want. They want a Tesla. Yeah, okay. But I know I totally see your point. And I think what you're what you mentioned is the term that you said was lifestyle creep. And I think that that's super important. But you know, for younger listeners, and people that are, you know, still growing and accumulating wealth, you know, there's a huge tendency to adjust your lifestyle upward, every time you you know, get a pay raise, or you you're moving to a different career path or a different position with your company, and you're going to be making more money. It's, it's natural to, you know, upgrade that lifestyle a little bit. And, you know, we believe in enjoying your money and fruits of your labor and experiences. But, again, going back to the plan and saying, okay, like, what do I need, what adjustments Do I need to make, because when you go to retirement, you know, the idea is, for large part can, can you live on some range of fixed income, you know, and this is what it's going to be without, you know, overstressing your portfolio, or, you know, really having to take a cut in lifestyle, which is translated as pain for a lot of people. So that's just like you said, that's a habit that's built over time, just like, like saving somebody who saves over time and is become like a champion saver. Those people, you know, we have to coach them to spend some of their money in retirement, listen, he's going to be alright, this, the paychecks gonna keep coming. You know, it's okay to spend and enjoy and do what you want. But the same rule applies for people that are really struggling to live within a budget, it's like, it's going to be always difficult, unless you figure that out.

 

Ross Marynell  26:41

It's a good point, because we do form those habits, they're hard to break. It's so saving, saving your money every month, when it comes to retirement. And now it's time to start spending Yes, it's a hard habit to break. Because we're so accustomed to saving, we're so proud of what we're able to save that the day we start to have to spend that it becomes a little painful that the habit of people who are accustomed to having a significant employment income, that we're used to spending a little bit, maybe more generously, then they couldn't in retirement. So it's a very hard habit to break as well. Because now there's a potentially the wall

 

Michael Baker  27:20

you have, to me, you have people that gets in that they get used to, like you said, living on a paycheck, and then they are watching their portfolio balance, and they're used to seeing this number on a piece of paper. And that number, whatever it may be, may represent security to them. So if they start pulling away from that, that's like, you know, oh, man, I'm spending my savings. And that's why it's like, Look, there's there's plenty there's many different ways to create, you know, retirement income plans that are sound, and that can work. The key is doing it is actually creating it, you know, I am, I am astounded that people would go into this phase of their life, their retirement years. Without without an income plan, without here's how I'm gonna try to do this. that would that would scare me more than, you know, a lot of things, I think, but I'm biased. Of course, I work in this business. But I mean, you know, that was that would really scare me, I think, not having a thought through plan. Hey, what about this? What about that? What if something happens to me? Is my spouse gonna be okay? I mean, all of these things, these questions, we know people have them, because we deal with folks. But there's so many. There's so much information out there now. And so actually, I'll put this out there to you. I'm reading a book right now. It's called the seven deadly economic sense or seven economic sins. And I picked it up it was Nick Murray wreck recommendation. So I started reading it. And one of the things that it talks about in there, there's this whole chapter on different fallacies that people have, and one is the local knowledge fallacy. And high level real high level, it's basically like, some bureaucrat or policymaker in DC, or some all knowing decision maker, couldn't possibly prescribe a solution that works is the best solution for everyone. Because we all you know, when you drill down into the details of individuals, we all have different stories. We all have different lives, we all have different values, different things are important to us, we, you know, we make and choose and want different things. So it's impossible to say one thing, one way of doing things is the best for everyone. And so that's what I worry about because the Internet has given everyone so much access to information. You can just do a Google search and do like retirement planning. And I mean, the world's your oyster, you're gonna see millions upon millions of results. And I worry that there are a lot Oh, they just take them they think oh, This is all I need.

 

Ross Marynell  30:01

Yeah. And just going back to our first conversation, which is I'm sure I could go and find some YouTube videos to get started in Brazilian jujitsu, but you need to have a combat to really put it to work. And so yeah, there's generic planning ideas that are so Neil, very, very general in nature and broad, that might help trigger an idea. But at some point, you've got to flush that through with somebody who knows your story a little bit. Okay, so the last thing I had on this sort of a decade of retirement planning is what a lot can change in 10 years, it's hard to wrap our heads around where our economy is 10 years from now. It's very easy to kind of look at where we are and project that continuing on in the future. It's just our human nature, right? That's the certainty that we need to be able to operate and live a daily life. And we just know it's going to change us think this think back over over the last 10 years. Would you ever imagine that a fake dog currency, cryptocurrency would have just sprouted up and attracted hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars? You're just like, some of the stuff that's happened is, is quite rewarding. Yes,

 

Michael Baker  31:13

I agree with that. And I think it's some of the economic principles that have been somewhat timeless, we're we're watching you test cases for them. Like, what is a currency? Well, if enough people agree that something has value, it by default can have value, even if it's, you're sitting there thinking to yourself, what are we doing? This is insanity. You know, but there there are people online paying millions of dollars for non fungible token NFT NF T's like something that just exists like on the internet, and, you know, I understand the principles behind it. But still, I'm like, wow, like, Okay, so we're not spending that money to buy like, you know, real estate, like a rental property, or we're spending it on this digital cyberpunk or something, Hey, no hate, I'm just saying I don't get it.

 

Ross Marynell  32:14

So much change over the last 10 years from the rise of social media to how we're receiving and sharing information to the the adjusting to changes in the trading platforms. And so we go from 1295 of stock trade to 895 to 395. to zero, you could just go down, go down the list of things that have happened over the last decade that would be hard to predict and see coming to fruition that. Sure enough, did. And so I think it's just I was talking to a gentleman who does massage therapy. And he was talking about the two things that really will cause people to come in is, is a lack of flexibility, and a lack of patience to let the dog even work. And it's just true. You think about it. Like I was joking the other day, I was like if I asked my your eight year old daughter to touch your toes, right, you didn't have second, you ask people our age to do that we just become inflexible over time. And so I think one of the things going forward is let's just be be, remain mentally flexible to the things that could happen, and the opportunities that might arise.

 

Michael Baker  33:30

No, I agree with you. And so on that note, let's let's let's think about like, so. It's impossible. So hear me now, anyone listening? This is not us giving investment advice. But where do you think over the next 10 years? What do you think people are going to want to invest? More or the resources? Any Any thoughts?

 

Ross Marynell  33:56

Oh, you so questions to me Who? That's it's a great question, because it's going to be continued advancements in technology, whether that is in pharmaceuticals, healthcare treatment, to environmental advantages in problems that they may solve over the next decade this think what kind of solutions might arise over the next 10 years? And yeah, I think those areas alone. I was another topic I had kind of queued up for today, which is the shift in just the way businesses are priced. Given their involvement or their ability to claim sort of an AI or just pure, let's say non human business like did just don't need human capital. The way that some legacy businesses do Just the change in their market caps and the willingness that the market is giving them to grow like the capital, they're giving them to try and grow to outpace these more human capital driven businesses. And I'm happy to go through those, you know, when we have time, because I do think it's an interesting test case. But I don't think that will stop. And I, I still think it's gonna be business innovation and development here in the United States.

 

Michael Baker  35:27

I think. I think I definitely agree with that. But one thing that popped in my head, and it won't be money, but I think it'd be interesting, like, I think anything to do with health and wellness. Because, and the reason I say that is because, you know, until we figure out how we can get health insurance, where it's actually affordable. You know, I think we got, you know, people more people are going to be thinking about, like, the wake of this pandemic, who was really affected? Who was hit the hardest? Why were they you know, these are not questions that we can all talk about and keep our heads right now. But, you know, when we get this thing eventually in the rearview, you know, and people can start thinking about this critically, and logically, I think there's going to be some, some trends that come up, and one of them, I think, is just going to be like, you people, we got to take care of our health. And what are the best ways to do that? And, you know, if that's, you know, nutrition. Great. I think so if it's exercise, great. I think so. I mean, health, wellness, and then, you know, maybe a dose of the, what the millennials have is experiencing, you know, because life is short, you know, I so those are the those are the kinds of things I'm looking at.

 

Ross Marynell  36:53

See, I think it's gonna flip. I think the millennials are gonna start wanting to have some possessions. Because Hey, listen, it's cool, traveling around for 10 years. But at some point, you look back and go, I have all these great memories, but I don't have like a house. It's great that you mentioned that, because settle down, and then all of us. Sure. Isn't it funny.

 

Michael Baker  37:13

So this, this tweet came out today by Michael antenatally. He's at bull and Baird, on Twitter. And he says estimates he goes earnings estimates are rising. Corporate profits are almost at the all time highs across every sector. Interest rates are low. Consumer balance sheets are strong, housing prices are strong. And he says a giant demographic bulge is coming into their prime. Gee, I wonder why stock prices are up. And I'll say like, that's one thing that is not spoken about, I think enough is how large the millennial cohort is. And the oldest Millennials are turning 40. Like right now. And as that generation comes in, and if they're able to obviously be productive, in start getting rid of some of their consumer debt, but start buying houses and doing other things, man, what you remember how, what a game changer, the baby boomer generation was for the economy. And so I'm hopeful that we'll see that type of boom, you know, economic boom, come from the millennials, you know, as they start to have, you know, have kids have families, move maybe out of the cities into the suburbs, maybe move from some of the larger cities to smaller cities, but start to you know, revitalize or grow some smaller cities, it could be really neat to watch. So,

 

Ross Marynell  38:36

in the next great business idea will be somebody figuring out what to do with all this corporate space. It'll be it'll be

 

Michael Baker  38:44

it'll be gyms, it'll be gyms everywhere. Like I said, everyone wants to work out, you know,

 

Ross Marynell  38:47

come to the gym. We need we work in their AI platform. That's that if I found out that everyone likes to drink coffee in the morning to deal with these offers good, great. Well, man, congratulations on a great accomplishment. And, you know, to all of our clients that listen, people that we've had a chance to work with, it's been a wonderful journey, seeing how your lives have all changed and developed and grown over that same timeframe. I remember people meeting me for the first time when when mine is writing it with Eliza. And she's eight and a half now. And to see how much you know, every time we get to experience alongside one of our clients retiring, what that process is like for them. We learn a little bit from it. And there's things that have happened in the last 10 years that we get to share with them and say, Well, hey, there's a similar situation to this and that kind of growing with our clients through their lives. It just fuels our fire. And it just teaches us along the way. And we learned so much from the people we get a great chance to an opportunity to work with and it's kind of absolutely

 

Michael Baker  39:54

so here's to Here's to the next decade. Let's see what let's see what's on tap So, for you guys, thank you for listening. If you want us to talk about something or if there's a guest you want us to have on the show somebody that you would like us to interview, please don't hesitate to reach out. You can email us at money huddle at VC planning calm. Thank you for listening and as always, we will talk to you next time.