Episode 140: Making Better Money Decisions with Brad Barrett – Transcript

Episode 140: Making Better Money Decisions with Brad Barrett

Rennie Gabriel  00:10
Hi folks, welcome to Episode 140 of the Wealth On Any Income Podcast. This is where we talk about money tips, techniques, attitudes, information and provide inspiration around your business and your money. I'm your host, Rennie Gabriel. In past episodes, we spoke about how to understand the numbers from your business, how to measure the level of pleasure based on where you spend your money, how to track your money in 5 to 10 seconds, what determines how close you are to Complete Financial Choice®, and how to run your business without being in your business. Last week, we had Lisa Rodino, who helps business owners get the funding they need from alternative sources. And today we have as our guest, Brad Barrett. Brad is a managing director of One Capital Management, advising private individuals and families on their personal investment and advanced planning needs. In addition, he oversees the firm's retirement and Corporate Services practice. His firm manages nearly $5 billion for thousands of families across the United States and abroad. Brad is the author of, Retire Right: Secure the Right Path to Your Retirement. He is also the host of two podcasts, Make Your Money Matter and Pension Attention. So, Brad, welcome to the Wealth On Any Income Podcast.

Brad Barrett  01:38
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Rennie Gabriel  01:41
Oh, you're absolutely welcome. So I get an idea, well, because I'm in the industry, I got an idea of what you do, but tell me why you're doing what you do.

Brad Barrett  01:52
Great question. I just kind of love when you start with that. I think for anyone out there watching and listening to financial advisors or podcasts or shows around investing, it's kind of good to know why someone's doing it. And for me, honestly, Rennie, it's a little bit unique. I'm 36 years old, I've been doing this, believe it or not, almost 20 years. Now, if you do the math on that, that puts me into my teenage years, right? So, when I was 16, my dad had worked for a company, a very large telecommunications company for about 18 years at that time, he was a sales guy. It went bankrupt. It was the largest corporate bankruptcy in America. Largely, you probably heard about it, Worldcom, it was right behind Enron. I share that simply to say this, I was 16 years old at the time, I had two younger sisters, we lost everything. We moved houses, cars, I mean, obviously, for anyone out there who's gone through something like this, which I talk about heavily in our practice, and on our show, it's shaped my, "Why?" Right, which is directly to your question. And you know, to be completely frank and candid, I didn't know what I didn't know, right? I'm 16 I'm kind of mad. I'm figuring out . . . I love my dad. I revered him. I was, How could this happen to such a man, I looked up to? And it wasn't his fault by any means. It was just something that happens in corporate America. And I made it my mission right then and there, and I, you know, got in touch with my heart and basically said, I want to do two things; I want to learn everything I possibly could about money for myself, and just make sure like in my head, right? I'm not going to let that happen to me. And then, two, that became my purpose. I said, if I do that, I want to be able to help people and diversify themselves. Again, this is like the 16-year-old trying to learn the word diversify, right? Because that was his main problem, right? We didn't diversify, you know. And so anyways, I... to this day, and not sure what I said, but I walked down to a local bank at the time, it was Washington Mutual, which then also went under, you know, that time six years later, ironic. I'm the youngest, one of the youngest tellers there in firm history through their program called High School Intern Programs, it was the HIP program. When I was 18, went to university, went to college and started studying economics. And that's when I started a broker/dealer working you know, as a client service associate, and started my practice right then and there. So been in the financial service industry 20 years, my "why" was simply shaped by a family disruption, like I'd sit kneecap to kneecap and now virtually, obviously, with clients nowadays, and walk them through what many people deem as the worst case scenario, and I share with them like, I'm a financial advisor, working with thousands of clients simply because I've been where you don't want to be. And I share that pretty openly. Our shows were born off of, you know, the whole premise and purpose of, you know, designing plans that gets you to your goals and objectives without necessarily losing sight of, you know, all the other stuff that comes in life, the values, the interests, you know, all that good stuff. So, longer winded answer a little bit, but that's a little bit about my why I'm doing what I'm doing still 20 years later.

Rennie Gabriel  04:40
Yeah, and, and I appreciate that, Brad, because, and I can understand it and relate to it. Because the reason I'm doing what I am doing is because by the time I was 50, I had gone through two divorces and a business failure. And had to start all over from zero at age 50. 

Brad Barrett  04:58
Yeah. 

Rennie Gabriel  04:58
And you're right. Other people do not have to go through this if they learned the lessons you learned, if they learned the, if they learned the lessons that I learned.

Brad Barrett  05:08
And we learn them, I think for all of us out there, right, we learn, we learn lessons in life at different ages and stages, as I call it, right? Mine was at 16. I'm going yo learn plenty of other lessons in my life. I have no doubt. But we all learn things differently. And it's actually interesting, Rennie, that's large. I like. I talk with clients. I mean, like I've heard on your show, and I know you talk with people about around the psychology of money and how you perceive it. And you know, there's a lot of studies on this, but behavioral financial traits, like we all have, and it's really kind of in two forms, right? One is like the God-given like the no different than the color of our eyes, right, like who we are. The other side is circumstantial, like to your point, going through two divorces, going through a business failure, things like that. And for me, those are called circumstantial. It's like what we live through good and bad, it shapes not only who we are, but also shapes how we perceive important topics in our life, like money. Money, say what you will, but money is one of those, it's a powerful drug, you know, and it's emotional, it's illogical. We try to make it logical and make it practical. But that's the goal of a good plan. That's the goal of a good relationship with an advisor is to help bring, you know the emotions of your world of what you dealt with, without even realizing it. A lot of people will come to my office, and we're talking about things and I'm doing a discovery meeting with them trying to get to know them. They don't realize it, but I'm almost interviewing them, not from a interview standpoint, but trying to get to understand, for lack of a better term, what kind of baggage they're bringing in that they don't even know they have. Right? You know, and I asked certain questions like, Where have you been with money? Like give me some background of how you were raised in it. And, you know, behavioral psychology as it relates to money is a powerful thing. And we learn these lessons at different times. It's why I love what you're doing with Wealth On Any Income and where my passion came from on our show with Make Your Money Matter, was simply deemed for that reason. It doesn't matter how much you have, but make it matter, and make it matter for the purposes you want to have happen in your life and for your family. So I appreciate you sharing that. Yeah, I mean, it's shapes us, you know. Whether we like it or not, it happens.

Rennie Gabriel  07:08
And that's a perfect lead in, by the way to the next question, which has to do with, you know, what's the cause that you support? What's your, I want to say philanthropic or give-back approach? 

Brad Barrett  07:21
Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, in general, we have a lot of charities and philanthropies that we focus on. One of the biggest ones, I mean, in different charities that we support, but for us, you know, a lot of it's being out in the community with around this topic, right? And it sounds terrible, but it's like one of those things where I don't want, I guess, when I met with my partners, four or five years ago now about bringing us into the media world was, I was tired of us being the unknown expert, in a sense. It felt like what we do for clients is the right thing, the right way to do it. And what we see out there as people, whether you're on social media, and many people watching or listening right now, whether on YouTube, or Spotify or other channels, you're hearing from people that they may not have gone through the things like you have gone through, Rennie, or I may have seen and we solely dedicate our lives to it. So in a sense, that's a focus we have, whether it's philanthropic or for profit, has to do with first meeting the needs of the people that we're able to serve. That's number one. One area I focus on, particularly, especially over the past 15 years was with our first responders. That's a heart I have very heavily, that's actually where my other podcast was born off of. It's called Pension Attention. It focuses solely, specifically in our area here in Los Angeles, for the Los Angeles Fire and Police Department. My stepdad, for many years was a battalion chief for LA City. And he'd asked me to come in and talk with the guys. And so I work with hundreds of active and retired service members for LFD and LAPD. We are very active in their widows and orphans fund along with their great find Magazines and just different things that we do within the department. And so that's an area where we're not only we're able to, you know, provide our expertise and what we focus on and what we're experienced in, but we're also able to do it in a channel that I just have a heavy heart in terms of like those that are serving us, you know, the whole tagline being, let us serve those who serve kind of deal. Exactly. 

Rennie Gabriel  09:11
And that makes so much sense that we end up working with the people that we most relate to. I mean, 100% of my profits are going to charities that support animals, rescue animals, support veterans because of my experiences. And I had an interview recently with a lady who funnels a lot of money into cancer research, and I later found out it's because her husband has cancer, and he passed away just a few weeks ago. 

Brad Barrett  09:39
Oh, wow. 

Rennie Gabriel  09:40
And she's left with two young children. 

Brad Barrett  09:43
Oh, man. 

Rennie Gabriel  09:44
So you know, we all end up wanting to care for the things that are important to us personally. And so I get it. 

Brad Barrett  09:53
We're put on this earth to do the work. You got to think about it sometimes. call it divine intervention, however you believe it's not so much that around, but we're around the people in the community for a reason. We're brought into certain areas of life for a reason. I personally believe that. So if you're around somebody, and you have an experience, and you can help them, that's not for naught, there's a reason why you're there to help them. There's a reason why you have to go through things and the whole terminology, testimony are like, Hey, I've gone through this so I can actually provide some insight to you. You know, and a lot of people like, unfortunately, in my practice for 20 years, as you can probably imagine, I had to deal with a lot of estate cases that are some very, you know, we get really knee deep with a lot of very passionate and sad items within family members, whether it's diseases, divorces, debt, deaths, I mean, it can be any and all those things. But something cathartic like that allows us to lean back on our relationships and those people we have in our community that we trust. That's why I'm a huge advocate for advice. And I share my show in particular, like, it doesn't have to be me or us. But I'm a huge advocate for finding counsel and realizing that you want to have someone in the foxhole with you, right, when push comes to shove. Whether it's something, sadly, in a death or disease situation or something else, you want to have that relationship, because the last thing you want to do at that time is then go scramble to find somebody. Right? So it's kind of the whole proactive versus reactive connection there.

Rennie Gabriel  11:21
And yeah, and it's similar to a quote that I created, which is, and it doesn't matter if it's the creation of wealth or growing a business or interpersonal relationships, my comment is wealth creation is a team sport, not a solo sport. 

Brad Barrett  11:37
Ah, well said.

Rennie Gabriel  11:39
You can apply that to almost anything.

Brad Barrett  11:41
Well said. I mean, in nearly two decades now and working with thousands of clients with the 5 billion or so we're managing for clients, I can spend hours probably on one or two just case studies with just one client that most some people would think or remember, it's also how we define success, right? This world nowadays, right or wrong, we define it with a certain dollar amount. And I always show people like money should not be your worth or your identity. That really is the, you got to be careful there. Especially males. I talk about this a lot with, with male counterparts. We have a tendency to get wrapped up in the identity, and the worth of that. But what I was getting at there is understanding that wealth, well said, it's a team... no person I've seen be successful in the world's eyes, or in just their family lives, have done it alone. Like, I've just haven't seen it. Yeah, and it's important to say, because I think especially nowadays, and like mediums like what you're doing, and I know what we're trying to be out there on as well is, you know, with the technology we have, we can almost become a little more soloed, right. You can go in a room and just research whatever you want to research and follow who you want to follow and do it yourself, this whole DIY thing. And, again, I share this a lot, I talk about this a lot, even on our radio show here in the LA area. It's particularly, because this DIY notion, especially in our industry, I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying, I'm just saying ask yourself, is it right for you? Because you really have to take stock and say, Do I want to do this? Do I want to put the time and research into it? Is this how I want to live my retirement or would live, you know, my money out and then ultimately do trust your decisions? Because that's back to that whole emotional, rational, deal. Like I talk about it a lot. There's, you know, we don't realize it, but every day when we're out in the world, there's like there's two wars going on within ourselves at all time. It's the emotions we carry and then the rationale. You know, and if you look at psychology, like I'm a nerd about this, I like reading and studying it, it's like the brain was designed to protect us not enhance our life. I think the more we start realizing that, you'll realize that if you really think about it, you have two voices going on. The one that's saying, Oh, you know, let's do this, let's have some fun. And like that's not the brain because the brain's rationale is trying to protect you from what - previous experiences. It only goes off what it knows, that's back to the circumstantial. So if you lived through something with money, or in your case that guest you had on with cancer, they're going to be kind of, the stuff we live through. They're more keen to it. They're aware of it. They're not naive to it. And that can be good and bad, depending on how you use it, I guess. That's what I'm trying to say.

Rennie Gabriel  14:07
You're absolutely right. And one of the things you said is, you know, someone, do they choose to want to do it that way by themselves. And I'm going to say it's not whether or not they choose it but whether or not it's effective, efficient. Because a lot of people do things by themselves, but that's not the most efficient thing. As you know, I could spend all my time learning about how to repair an air conditioner, but it's a complete waste of my time when I can just hire someone who can do it in 10% of the amount of time it will take me to learn one facet of it.

Brad Barrett  14:42
Yep. And that's, I love that analogy I've seen around where it's talking about the plumber that came over and fixed a toilet for 20 minutes and charged $200. And the person asked, Why $200 for 20 minutes? Like you're not paying for my time, you're paying for my experience. 

Rennie Gabriel  14:54
Exactly. 

Brad Barrett  14:55
And it's an interesting concept in the retail and in the marketplace right now, especially in our world where I've realized, especially in the past 10 years, I mean, I've been doing this long enough just to say this, that the past 10 years, it's largely been a race to the bottom, and everyone's trying to, you know, go low fees, and like, you're paying too much. And again, I'm not here to say whether that's right or wrong, to your point, it's more around, make sure you're finding value. Like in anything you do, or whoever you're partnering with to build your wealth, like you're saying, with a team, which I totally agree with, you know, find value in those people and relate that value to what you're willing to pay. Yes, there's markers, you can look out in the, you know, in the space of relative to other advisors. Sure, that's good research. But ultimately, it comes down to value. I mean, on a team approach that we deal with, it's us as the advisor, you got estate planning attorneys, you got potentially insurance providers in there, you got tax planners, I mean, you got a host of a team, you know that if you're looking for that Swiss Army knife of an investment vehicle or an advisor, you may be, you know, barking up the wrong tree. And again, like you said, not that you can't do it, it's just is it efficient for you?

Rennie Gabriel  15:59
Exactly. And one of the questions I would have asked, but I think it was answered, which has to do with what failure did you experience and what insight did you gain from it? Well, I would, if I were to answer that question for you, it would be well, when you were 16, this is what happened. And what you learned from it is you need to know what's going on. And now that you know, you're helping other people with it. So I would, you know, answer this...

Brad Barrett  16:26
That's well said. That's how I'd answer that. I mean, you know, sometimes the mistakes we make sometimes aren't even our fault. Like, in my case, it wasn't my dad's fault. It wasn't mine. I was an innocent bystander. And sometimes in this world, you are an innocent bystander, but it's what you do with it, you know, and you know, how you choose to impact others with it is really what matters and especially as it relates to your money.

Rennie Gabriel  16:47
Well, let me have a way for people to get a hold of you who want to know more, or want to connect with you. What would be a valuable resource they could check out so that they could be connected to you. 

Brad Barrett  17:00
Yeah, you know, we have a weekly show, Let's Make Your Money Matter show. It's on YouTube. So if you just put make your Money Matter with Brad Barrett, you'll be able to find it there. You can subscribe there. It's a great place to follow along what we're doing. Inside there has all of our information as well. Our website is also a good one to look at is, onecapital.com. That's a great place to reach out to us and find out what we're doing out there and yeah, find out more about myself.

Rennie Gabriel  17:24
I will put that in the show notes so people can just click on it and get to you. Brad, I want to thank you for being on the Wealth On Any Income show. 

Brad Barrett  17:34
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. 

Rennie Gabriel  17:35
You're welcome. And for all of you who are listening, if you'd like to know how books, movies and Society programs you to be poor, and what the cure is, then log on to wealthonanyincome.com/TEDx. You'll hear my TED Talk and can request the free 9-Step Roadmap to Complete Financial Choice® and Philanthropy, and receive a weekly email with tips, techniques, or inspiration around your business, or your money. And if you'd like to see how you can increase your wealth and donate to the causes that touch your heart, please check out our affordable program, Wealth with Purpose. To my listeners, thank you for tuning in. You can listen to the Wealth On Any Income Podcast on your favorite platform, and please rate, review and subscribe. Until next week. be prosperous. Bye bye for now.


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