Debunking Retirement Myths: Real Strategies for Financial Security | Chad Hufford

#030: Think you know everything about retirement planning? Let's bust some myths. Myth 1: You have to play it safe with your investments as you get older. Myth 2: Retirement is all about keeping what you have. Myth 3: Fixed income investments will guarantee your retirement. But wait, there's more! Get ready for the truth about securing your retirement income for the long haul.

Meet Chad Hufford:
Join us as we chat with Chad Hufford, a seasoned financial expert. Chad's mission? Helping folks like you secure their income and purpose in retirement. With years of experience in coaching and managing investments, Chad's got the knowledge you need. Plus, his journey from biochemistry student to founding an investment firm during a financial crisis is downright inspiring. Chad's here to change the way you think about money and give you the tools for lasting wealth. Don't miss his expert advice on planning your retirement and living your best financial life.

00:00:00 - Managing Half a Billion Dollars 
00:02:19 - Starting an Investment Firm 
00:05:15 - The Importance of Financial Planning 
00:08:29 - Income-Oriented Investments 
00:11:15 - Creating a Growing Income 
00:13:17 - Inflation and Growth-Oriented Investments 
00:14:33 - Outdated Retirement Tools 
00:17:30 - Investment Categories and Rebalancing 
00:20:52 - Investments as Tools for Freedom 
00:24:52 - The Importance of Income in Investing 
00:27:16 - The Importance of Conserving Purchasing Power 
00:28:23 - Importance of Using Tools Consistently 

Chad Hufford's Link:
IG: veritas.alaska

Dylan's Links:

• 🎙️Podcast: BusinessConfessionsPod
• 📽️YouTube: @BizConfessions
• 📷Instagram: DylanWillx
• Linked-In: /dylan-williams

Other Episodes you might like:

• 7-Figure Blueprint for Any Business | Chandler Saine
• Building a Unique Online Fitness Empire | Lee Maasen
• Land Investing & Building Multiple Streams of Income Daniel Martinez
• Hiring Top Talent Overseas | Stratton Brown

Past Guests: Chandler Saine, Daniel Martinez, Stratton Brown, Lee Maasen, Nico Lagan, Daniel Roman,Tim Branyan, David Van Beekum, Nick Hutchison, Deirdre Tshein, Sanchez Zehcnas, Christina Lopez, Keigan Carthy, Hemant Varshney, Taniela Fiefia, Jennifer Blake, Nicki Sciberras, John Chan

Transcript

Track 1: 0:00

How much money do you manage?

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 0:02

Right now it's just under 500 million. Of course, bounces around with this crazy stock market per

Track 1: 0:07

Half a billion.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 0:09

billion dollars.

Track 1: 0:10

Chad, what do you do, man?

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 0:12

we help people make sure that, they don't run out of money or purpose in retirement. That's really the nuts and bolts of it. beyond that, it's the financial planning, it's investment coaching, it's investment advising, investment management, but really that's the bottom line is making sure people don't run out of money or purpose in retirement.

Track 1: 0:30

So you've got this investment firm. Let's go back a little bit. I want to know the story on how. What's the story behind starting an investment firm?

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 0:38

Okay. So the story is, I'm 23, 24 years old. I am finishing up a biochemistry degree. I have a fantastic resume for medical school. I've got professors in medical schools, writing me letters of recommendation to other medical schools and everything's lined up perfectly. And then I meet this woman. is now my wife and the mother of my six children. And I realized that she did not want a hotshot surgeon as a husband. She wanted a family. She wanted She wanted somebody to raise them with and she wanted a stable family life. And I thought, medicine might not be that. and I, because I didn't care until I met her. so I started pursuing other options. And I read a book called Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth by a guy named Nick Murray, who's now become a mentor of mine and a huge blessing in my life. but it's the best book I've ever read about building long term sustainable wealth and. I read that on a plane to a wedding back in, I think, 2004, and realized that this was a message I need to get out into the world because people have such a, unhealthy view towards money and finances. We've normalized so much poor behavior that, not just helping people find better investments. Cause that's what a lot of investment firms promise to do, but actually making people better investors, fundamentally changing their relationship with money and their future. That's what I wanted to do and a career out of it. started in the 2007, right before the financial crash. I had a baby on the way we were entering the worst economic conditions we've seen since the great depression. It was impeccable timing. went through some really rough times, but, it's been a huge blessing and I'm just, I'm thrilled to be here today to talk to you a little bit about that and it's to run the practice. We have got amazing team around me and love coming to work every day.

Track 1: 2:40

So what goes into actually starting an investment firm? I know like you hear this big number that you're managing now, what goes into starting one up, it's, Hey, let me manage your money. I've never done this before. Like at the beginning, how did this get up and going? How does that start?

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 2:54

That's about how it started, is I don't have any clients. I've never managed money before. We're in the middle of the biggest market crash since the great depression. How would you like to trust a complete stranger and hand over your life savings to me? that's basically what I was asking people and it didn't work very well. Heard a lot of no, a lot of rejection. I didn't realize this at the time, but most people don't start from scratch. Usually you build up. a book of business with another investment firm, maybe a Merrill Lynch, Edward Jones or a bank or something like that. And then you try to, you build up a reputation, but you have a little safety net there and you've got a firm providing you leads and clients and things like that. and then you start your own and you try to move those folks over and there's always an attrition rate and you're now you're competing with that old firm. In the short term, the way I did it was probably the hardest, most difficult, most painful way of starting an investment practice. But in the longterm, I think it saved me from having to pull up those roots along the way, which a lot of people end up doing as they grow, as they have a larger practice, they keep leveling up, but then they're They're pulling up the relationships with that firm that they have to try to start or join something a little bit bigger. So starting out independent, saved me from a lot of heartache down the road, but it was a, it was a rough process.

Track 1: 4:14

What were those conversations like? At the beginning to get, like you said, what were those, how do you stumble? You have to build up something, how did that go?

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 4:22

It was a lot of just putting myself out there and explaining people, this is what I do. This is what I have to offer. I think it can make a huge impact in your life. And can we have this conversation? And a lot of times it would start around the language. be like saying, Dylan, do you know about how much money you would need to live comfortably without a paycheck and to be able to retire and stay retired for a long time? Because what I realized is most people don't have a target. They're saving money. They're investing, but they really didn't have a specific target. Target for the amount of money that they'll eventually need to walk away from their job, do they have a strategy for getting there. So a lot of people weren't really investing. They were just collecting investments. They weren't strategically building. we talk about real estate. offline before we started the call. You wouldn't want to live in a house that was built without a blueprint. You wouldn't buy an investment property that was built with no plan, but a lot of people's financial futures don't have a blueprint. There's no strategy. And I realized that very early on. And especially during 2008, 2009 meltdown, most people were not acting on any type of plan. They're just reacting to the economic mess around them.

Track 1: 5:40

You mentioned something too. You've got to have a plan. You got to have a blueprint. And I think I understand this a little bit. So somebody coming to you in their, late fifties, early sixties that really, you know, that not that they've missed it, but they're just now starting to invest. Their investments are going to be more protected or more risk averse than somebody who's coming in. To you in their twenties, and says, Hey, I just, this is, I want to start and go from there. and then I'll write to that context.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 6:08

That's a lot of times that people are asking for. But a lot of times what they're asking for is not what they need. And I guess Dylan depends on what you mean by risk. But when a lot of people come to us, they say, I'm getting close to retiring. want to have less risk. asking for is less volatility. What they're asking for is more fixed income. But as you and I both know, we live in a rising cost world. If there's anything we've learned from the last couple of years is that inflation Is a beast that we've got to deal with. So the last thing people need as they get closer to retirement is loading up on fixed income as they enter an increasing cost world. So a lot of people come to us thinking that they want more fixed income, but in reality, People, even if you're 60 years old, 65, 70 years old, you still have probably a 2025 year trajectory for that investment. You're living off of that for the next couple of decades. You still have a long time horizon. Retirement is not the finish line. It's a beginning of a whole new chapter in your life. So we try to do is encourage people to still stay growth oriented. A lot of people don't realize this or think about it, but financial dependence is not about. It's not about the principal value of your investments. The amount all your investments are worth if you liquidate them today, but when it comes to 401ks IRAs. That's what everybody focuses on. But with real estate, people are more income focused, right? They're like, they don't know how much their fourplex is worth. They have a guess, but they know how much their rent is. healthy way to look at all retirement investments, whether it's real estate or whether it is mutual funds or 401k financial independence is an income issue. It's not a principle problem. It's not about how much your net worth is today. It's about how much income your investments can produce over a lifetime. And a lot of people don't realize that, or at least consider it.

Track 1: 8:02

So you're looking into more, so correct me if I'm wrong here. dividends, I guess I would say in some assets, cause the cashflow, I guess in, stock market.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 8:11

whether it's rain sleet or snow, it's all water at the end of the day. So we don't really care so much if it's capital gain distributions, if it's dividends, at the end of the day, all income, but you don't take your 401k statement to the grocery store. You don't take your 401k statement to take your family out to eat. You take your income. So regardless of what's produced in that income, that's, what's the most important. So that's what we try to do is focus on creating a, an increasing income. A rising income that increases at least the rate at which inflation eats away at our purchasing power in a manner that people don't have to liquidate their principle. to give you an analogy, it's like looking at this, like somebody planting an orchard. I'm not so concerned about how much the trees are worth. What I'm concerned about is how much fruit those trees can produce. And if I never have to sell them, I don't really care how much they're worth. Just if you've got an apartment complex. If you, if your plan is to never sell that apartment complex, your focus is not the day to day price of all of the units. It's gradually increasing that income to keep up with inflation over time. And that's what we do with our financial planning is create a steadily increasing income that lasts at least as long as the lives of both spouses. And hopefully is something that perpetuity becomes a legacy for their family charities. whomever they want to leave that money to, but it's not necessarily leave a legacy is to protect them. Because if you're living off of an asset class or a group of assets, this gradually increasing in value, doesn't matter whether you live 20 years or 40 years past retirement, your income is still growing. your net worth is still increasing and your security gets stronger every day, not weaker. A lot of people as they retire, Even if they have millions and millions of dollars every single day, they're getting closer and closer to poverty because they're gradually eating away as inflation gradually eats away at the value. The longterm value of their income and their net worth. And there's this whole idea. You've probably heard it too, Dylan, this accumulation phase and decumulation phase. I just don't agree with that because once you start decumulating, you start the clock. Now that clock might be 50 years, might be a hundred years, but you start a clock where you have to die. In order for your financial plan to work. And for a lot of people, that clock is actually much shorter. It might be 15 years, it might be 20 years. And it's, that's really way to experience abundance and experience independence when you know you have to die by a certain age in order for your financial plan to work.

Track 1: 10:51

Yeah. So on that, what I'll. What all would go into increasing the income, that somebody has and I know this is very general, somebody comes to you, they're looking to retire or they don't actively. Let's just say they don't actively work. Currently, they have some investments that they've had. What would you classify as the income and how would you increase that income if they don't have an active income coming in?

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 11:21

obviously somebody has got to have investments to work with. 60 years old and you have no investments, there's not a lot we can do. But if you are, This goes back to your question about risk averse. And again, a lot of people aren't risk averse as much as their volatility averse. They don't like to see those temporary price fluctuations, but that's, For most people, that's a necessary evil. The biggest risk in retirement is running out of money. So we need to create a growing income, a rising income. So a lot of times when people are coming to us, they're in target date funds or something like that, which a lot of your audience is probably aware. The closer you get to whatever date this is a target, they just say, okay, you're going to retire in 2030. So the closer we get to 2030, The more of that money gets shifted away from owning companies lending to them. Instead of owning stocks, you're buying bonds, you're buying companies debt or government debt. So you become a lender instead of an owner. what happens then is might stabilize your current principle, but yet the cost of future income, we have to reverse that and say, we have, we need to be able to create a rising income where you can live off of just a portion of that growth every year, because we need to ratchet up your income every single year. to deal with inflation. And we use 3 percent as an estimate. So our assumption is if you retire Dylan, if you retire in 2030, we're going to take an income target, the amount of income that you need to give up your paycheck and live comfortably, we're going to turn it into a strategic capital amount, then. Figure out a pathway between where you are to where you need to be in 2030, but then use a growth oriented investment strategy to make sure those investments keep growing. Even after you're living off of them, even after you're drawing the income every year. So again, some of that, sometimes it's dividends, sometimes it's capital gains, but the most important thing is that you stay growth oriented. So 4 percent a year or so off of your income or off of your assets, let's just use that as an example. If inflation is at 3%, let's just use that as an example. we've got an average at least 7 percent a year over the rest of your life, just to break even 4 percent withdrawals, 3 percent inflation. and you're going to need a fairly growth oriented investment to do that. Fixed income is not going to do the job.

Track 1: 13:41

like you said, I thought it would be backwards. you want to be lending, to have more that income versus the ownership. How in, in trying to tie this together here, the ownership is where you're going to be getting the, the draws or the dividends, on that end. And then you get your percentage whenever you're lending out.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 14:02

And the problem with lending when you're buying bonds again is fixed income and taking fixed income into a rising cost retirement is a recipe for disaster. And that is what most people are doing. But the problem is we are using old tools and tactics. Now, back in the eighties, when people retired with a, 10, 15 year, life expectancy. Now, granted, a lot of those people lived a lot longer than that, but that's what they're. is what you're expecting. maybe I'll retire at 65 and maybe I'll live to be 75 or 80. A lot of those people outlive that, but bond rates back in the eighties were double digits. They're not anymore. even as they've increased recently, there's still nothing close to what they were in life. Expecting life expectancies continue to increase. So the risk isn't losing our money as much as it is outliving it for many people. So people also need to learn, to look at temporary principle fluctuations as just that this temporary volatility, there's a huge difference between temporary volatility and permanent loss. So while my industry is largely. Pushing people towards fixed income is they get ready for retirement. think it's fighting the wrong battle. We're trying to preserve principle instead of preserving income. That's the wrong fight. So we need a growing, we need a growth oriented investment in order to preserve. Long term income. And most people in the financial profession, as people get closer to retirement are focused way too much on preserving temporary principle, not preserving long term income.

Track 1: 15:37

I see that now. What's, some of your favorite investments that you have going right now? Based on where you're at and

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 15:45

so I'll just give you the five categories that we really look at that I think everybody should have at least a piece into, large U S growth companies. And these are the companies that everybody knows, that you're Tesla, you're Amazon, you're Apple, you're. Facebook or meta, whatever they call themselves today. and they're all tech companies. like Costco and Home Depot would be in there too, but these are exciting companies that we're really pretty familiar with. A lot of the S and P 500 companies would fall into this. Then you also have large value companies. These are companies that are, They're still very large, but they have a lot of assets, but a lower stock price. They're usually out of favor or maybe even out of season a little bit. Here in Alaska, we joke about, it's like buying your snow tires in June, which by the looks of things, we might need them this June, but you're maybe here's a more universal way to look at it. It's like buying a Christmas decorations in January. You're buying them out of their season of popularity. not, they're not nearly as exciting. But you might be getting a better deal and then also small companies. And these aren't small like startups. These are like small cap stocks that are two to 3 billion companies. They're just not national brand names. And then we also want all four of those categories. In international markets as well. So international companies that fit those four. Now we don't do any individual stocks. We do it all through mutual funds, those are the categories that help create different income streams, even within one account. Because the idea is going back to that orchard metaphor, Dylan, you have all these different of companies. It's like having different species of trees that are coming in and out of seasons At different times and reacting to economic weather differently. They're not all flying in formation together.

Track 1: 17:32

are you taking out and moving around, money at that point for an individual like, selling at a high point and then reinvesting, on let's just say a lower point on that end of bloodier day or something.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 17:45

we, we do rebalancing constantly. And what that does is that's exactly what you're saying is, let's just simplify. We have that portfolio. Let's just say, cookie cutter. Let's just say, wait, 20 percent in each of those categories. And let's say, International stocks do really well this quarter and small us value stocks, go down a lot. So what used to be 20 percent in cap growth, large cap value, 20 percent each small cap growth, small cap value 20 percent each, and then 20 percent in international. And again, I'm just using those cookie cutter numbers. That wouldn't be. That's not, to anybody, but let's say at the end of that international is 23 percent and small value is at 17. We'd shave down some of that 23 back down to 20 and buy some of that 17, which is the exact opposite of what most investors do. when you have a category in your portfolio, shooting the lights out and something else bleeding quietly into the carpet, usually you want to sell what is bleeding quietly in the carpet to buy more of what's shooting the lights out. Which we all know as investors, number one rule of investing is to buy low, sell high, but most people buy high, sell low. They buy something when it's hot and then dump it when it cools off. When you rebalance strategically, And we had this set automatic. So it takes the human error out of it. Isn't Hey, Dylan, I'm feeling really good about this. Let's rebalance today. No, it should happen automatically. Otherwise it's just closet market timing. if you're rebalancing based off of feeling or, Hey, this looks like a good time to rebalance. So we set it up quarterly and automatically shaves down what's relatively high. To buy what's relatively cheap. And what that does is not only does it keep somebody's portfolio in tune, but it maximizes those price inefficiencies, and the price discrepancies as these things move in at different rates, it automatically allows us to buy more of what's relatively cheapest.

19:50

Guys, real clear. Think about this. Share this episode with someone. It could create an ideal and you'd be responsible for that. You never know what opportunities that could create. All right, guys, I'll let y'all get back to it. Thank you.

Track 1: 20:05

Man, I didn't think of it like that, but that's really good though. Cause not.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 20:08

go ahead. Sorry.

Track 1: 20:09

I was just going to say, not all companies are going to be down, at certain times, some are going to be up, some are going to be down. So there's some asset classes.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 20:16

And it's also relative to each other too, because we're not trying to get these to compete. not about, Hey, we're going to have a few different mutual funds. That's a horse race between them all. It's getting them to compliment each other. and sometimes we have people with other assets, maybe a business, maybe real estate, we're trying to build mutual funds, allow for amazing liquidity and flexibility. We can build that around the other pieces in their portfolio. But the idea of being rebalanced and being diversified is never to have so much money in any one thing that you can make a killing. also means you never have so much money in any one thing to get killed by it. If that thing cools off for a long period of time. So it's a really, it's a little bit more boring. And that's why I tell people all the time is investments themselves shouldn't be super exciting. the freedom. It's the life that investments allow you to build. That's what excites me. That's what wakes me up. The investments themselves are just a tool. So we need to make sure that we have the right tool where you utilize them correctly. But a lot of what we're doing is actually helping people protect themselves against their natural proclivity, but against what they want to do. Cause. you have those price discrepancies, people naturally want to buy done recently, what is super hot and popular in the marketplace, which also means it's super expensive. You talked about people wanting less volatilities. They get closer to retirement. That's often what people want. That's not necessarily what they need. So it's it's like personal training for wealth. We're, you go into a gym and the trainer is going to make you do hard things you probably don't want to do. everybody wants to go into the gym and work biceps and abs. Nobody wants to do legs, but if you have a good trainer, he's going to make you squat and deadlift. It's not pretty, it's not fun, but it gets the job done. And it builds the foundation for a better body. So a lot of these things that we're doing, sorry for the metaphor, but is we're helping people do the hard things that they wouldn't otherwise do on their own. Because most people do take the path of least resistance even when it comes to their best thing and rarely is what is comfortable in the short term going to give you security in the longterm. And that goes across. Finance, health, business relationships, anything. The easy choice in the moment is usually going to make your life harder in the longterm.

Track 1: 22:30

that's so true. I couldn't agree more to that. What type of returns are you guys seeing?

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 22:36

over the last few months, we've got double digit returns on a lot of our portfolios, just, In but of course, 2022 is, was down a lot. but we've been trying to change how people look at that because when you buy anything and it's discounted in price, we call it a sale, unless it's the best companies, the world, then we call it a crash. We call it a bear market. So back in 2022, we were encouraging our clients that we're still adding their investments. Hey, can you add any more? is there. can you sell some stuff, maybe a kidney, maybe a kid, like whatever, free up some cash to add more to your investments because literally the best companies in the world are on sale. and now, of course it was really difficult. 2022 was hard. 2023 was super bumpy, came up towards the end, but it's, We're not looking so much about short term returns cause they're all over the map and you can get almost no useful information from looking at short term returns, even three to five year returns because these things go on longterm cycles. But what is important is looking at income. And if people looked at their dividend income, on a quarterly basis, instead of looking at their daily principle value, people would make much better decisions with their investments. And let me just give you one example of this. So back in 2022, the S and P 500 ended the year down about minus 20 percent on a nominal basis. it actually hit minus 27 at one point, but nobody ever talks about is the income. The dividends on the S and P 500 during 2022 went up over 11%. I'm guessing you've never heard that.

Track 1: 24:17

No.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 24:18

No, nobody talks about, so not only could you buy the biggest, best companies in the United States at 20 percent off the income that they were paying out increased by double digits in that same year. Now, that is rare to have such a discrepancy between those two, but dividends are much more consistent. is much more consistent than price because you're buying based on the long term value in the earnings rather than a lot of the short term speculation. So what a lot of people did not realize in 2022 is income was increasing even as the prices were discounted, which for a long term investor is like a, just a straight up blessing. It's a gift. But nobody talked about it because and gloom sells. If it bleeds, it leads. So the financial media and even my industry, we're trying to push fixed annuities and cash and the sky is falling chicken little. But again, it's those types of, that type of encouragement is short term comfort. Versus longterm security. So we've got to be willing to do the hard things in the moment to make our lives better in the long run, to create a better relationship with our future selves. And too often people choose to serve their current self at the cost of future you

Track 1: 25:38

Yeah. People just need to take emotion out of investing. All together.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 25:43

accept that there's one guy that can do it. His name's Warren Buffett and we aren't him.

Track 1: 25:47

Yeah.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 25:47

think for the, you're right. I'm not, I'm teasing a little bit, but you're absolutely, we need to take emotion out, but it's impossible. It's impossible to take emotion on investment. So we need to do is be mindful that we are emotional beings. It just like being mindful of our own biases. We can't eliminate our biases necessarily, but being mindful so we can be careful when we're making investment decisions to, account for that bias or those emotions and not freak out. And again, you said the importance of having a longterm plan. You're absolutely right. Having a plan allows you to logically think about the next 20 years. So you're less likely to emotionally react to the next 20 minutes.

Track 1: 26:27

Where are you seeing, most investors get things wrong or make mistakes?

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 26:32

I think paying too much attention. To what's going on around them is a huge part of it. focusing on again, the next 20 minutes, not the next 20 years. And I think another big thing is not really understanding what money is in the middle of pack that for you. But a lot of people, they think of money as currency. I have a hundred thousand dollars. That's a hundred thousand units of currency. to protect that. But the problem is if I have a hundred thousand units of currency and I put it in a safe and I pull that out in 10 years, I still have 100, 000 units of currency, but is it going to buy what 100, 000 did today in 2034? It won't. So I didn't actually protect my money. All I did is I conserved my currency. So we need to think of money and purchasing power, the amount of goods and services that I can purchase, or I can acquire with my money. So if we look at money as purchasing power, then when we talk about being conservative, what I want to conserve is not my units of currency temporarily, but conserving my purchasing power. the rest of my life. And that's where we talked about at the beginning of this focusing on longterm income, not short term principle, but a lot of people don't think about money in terms of purchasing power over a long period of time. They think about the units of currency only in the moment.

Track 1: 28:02

Yeah. Yeah. And it's a lot easier said than done for a lot of people.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 28:05

It's a reeducation process. And that's what I, that's what I said. we're not just trying to help people find better investments. We're actually trying to help them become better investors. And those are two completely different things. Just sorry, one more gym analogy. you can't give somebody a faster treadmill and think that gets them in better shape. If they're using that treadmill as a glorified clothes hanger, their house, them a better treadmill isn't going to help. they're not appropriately using what they already have. So the problem with gyms in this country is not that the treadmills don't go fast enough is that people don't get on them and use them consistently. So our job is to actually get people to use the tools that they have available to them consistently and appropriately. That's what builds longterm sustainable wealth.

Track 1: 28:48

Yeah, a lot of people, they're not educated like you are clearly, on this kind of stuff. And they think that they can just, we're not taught that honestly, when it goes back to, it's not taught, we don't understand that, and what we don't understand, we don't trust. So it's, I got into investing luckily early on and it's just, it's consumed me now. And that's all I do. I will not, I'm probably way too risk tolerant at this point, right now with Anytime I'm holding money, it's got to be in an investment. I don't even want any kind of money. I don't keep any kind of money, other than like the six months safety net, but I am very risk tolerant. I would say at that end, I love to see my money grow. And what just, I figured that out, it's like, it's not going to grow in this bank account. Once I figured out, oh, this can compound, what did they say? The eighth wonder of the world is compound.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 29:41

on interest yet.

Track 1: 29:42

Yeah. After that, it was game over. I was just looking for any opportunity I could to grow that money.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 29:47

what you have is not just a tolerance for, you call it risk. You have a tolerance for ambiguity. you are willing to embrace what you don't know to move forward. And a lot of people, whether it's in money or in life in general, the devil that they know is better than the devil that they don't. And they will sit in a circumstance because they know it rather than stepping into ambiguity. And again, that goes across all walks of life. But as an investors or as investors, we need to be willing to tolerate temporary ambiguity, not knowing what our investments are going to be worth. Tomorrow, next week or next month to have more long term security, because security, long term security and temporary certainty are almost always at odds with each other. The more temporary certainty you have, typically the less long term security. And again, that goes in the job. It goes into our investing. the stability that we have come to chase in this culture is actually hurting us because stability In the short term is often not safe in a, in an ever changing world. And it's certainly when it comes to investing stable and a rising cost world is actually extremely risky.

Track 1: 30:58

Yeah. People don't realize that they're, they think saving that money or protecting that money is what's the safest part, but you're actually wasting that money.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 31:06

and again, you just said it protecting the money. They're not, they're protecting their currency. They're protecting units of currency because they're not thinking of money and purchasing power. They're thinking it in units Of dollars denominated with dead presidents on them and not all presidents. Ben Franklin's on there too. He's got a nice one, again, it's looking at money as purchasing power over your lifetime rather than temporary units of currency. And we've got to reframe that concept for people because if you're always thinking of money and currency, you're going to be protecting the wrong thing.

Track 1: 31:36

So true. Chad, I know we're coming up on a hard stop here. where can people go to find more out about this and work with you if they want to?

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 31:43

Veritas Alaska. com is our website and we're founded here in Alaska. We've got clients and families we work with all over the country. down in Tennessee, all the way down to Florida, which sounds really nice right now. It's 24 degrees here in Anchorage today. and you can find us veritas. alaska on, on Instagram. I'm also on, on, LinkedIn and Facebook. You want to look for us there, but people have questions, just have them shoot an email to ask at veritasalaska. com.

Track 1: 32:11

Okay. And we'll link all that stuff to Chad, man. I appreciate you coming on today. This is a good one.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 32:15

Dylan, I appreciate it. I know we got off on some tangents and, we, we got started off. Off the recording and I had to cut this short, but it's been a pleasure. It's been a fun conversation. and enjoyed hearing a little bit more about you too. and you're doing some really cool things and, maybe one day we'll link up down in Nashville.

Track 1: 32:32

Absolutely. We need to. Yeah.

chad-hufford_1_04-03-2024_092426: 32:34

All right. Thank you.

32:36

Hey, if you're still listening, hopefully you got some value out of this or amusement. Either way, I really appreciate you for listening. My goal with this podcast is to build something of value while also showing others that it's possible to do the same. And what I mean by that is, I'm not perfect at this. I fumble, I stutter, and I just want to show that it's okay. If you've been putting something off, This is me telling you to go for it. So I need your help in growing this and there's two main ways a podcast grows. One is through ratings and reviews and two is through word of mouth. So I can only do it with your help. If you can leave me a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify as well as post this to your social and it doesn't grow without you. Thank you. Talk to you all next week.