The Long Game: What Golf Teaches Us About Retirement Money

Episode 5 You're listening to the Retirement Life Podcast, a place where we help you cast a vision for your retirement and take the next steps to live it. I'm Tony Hall here with my co-host Rc Arseneau. And each episode, we'll bring you real stories, honest conversations, and practical ideas to help you build a retirement that's meaningful and life-giving. Let's jump in. Welcome to the Retirement Life Podcast. I'm Tony Hall here with my co-host Rc Arseneau. And over the next three episodes, we're diving into a topic that touches every single one of us, finances. And so whether you are feeling confident, cautious, or even uncertain uh about the financial side of retirement, this series is here to offer clarity, encouragement, and practical next steps so you can approach the future with greater peace of mind. Uh RC, I'm looking forward to these discussions. We've had a lot of feedback uh comments on our posts that highlight just how important this discussion is for people. Yeah, no question. The financial aspect of retirement is clearly what most people think of when they think of retirement and really for good reason. Uh because the quality and the outcome of your financial plan will have a direct ripple effect into all of these other areas of retirement. So super important that we address this. Yeah. And although we're certainly going to be discussing finances throughout several podcasts in and out of podcasts, we want to take today and and the next two episodes to really focus in on the discussion. Uh RC, this is your area of expertise. So to start us off, uh we know that there's a lot of voices online speaking to us about finances and about retirement. Can you tell us what makes you a financial expert on the topic? Yeah, sure. There are so many voices out there talking about what you should do with your money. And in fact, there's so many voices. There's so much information and and really uh some misinformation that can leave a lot of people just feeling overwhelmed and confused and just unsure like what's actionable? What what's something I can actually do something with next? And where I'm coming from today and what I'm going to be sharing from is a perspective of a professional certified financial planner who's been working with people just like our listeners um for now nearly 30 years and helping them dream about retirement and and put together actionable plans and actually achieving their version of their ideal retirement life. That's great. Well, I have been a pastor since I was in my early 20s. Uh, and honestly, finances is not something that I know much about. And I share that because I think that's probably the case with a lot of our listeners. Um, but I want to share some some posts on retirement sites from others with questions that they have. Um, questions like this. Should I take Social Security at 62 or 67 and why? Should I use a financial advisor? Um, how are you covering medical expenses if you retire early? How do you know if you have enough money? Um, one of the things, RC, that I really appreciate about you is you have a way of taking a complex topic and making it simple. And so, I'm excited about this conversation uh and and where we're going with it. Um, and how you're going to take this financial topic that can be really complex and make it simple for us. Yeah, we definitely are going to do that. And today we're going to be talking about and comparing two of my favorite topics, money and golf. And and don't worry, regardless of what your feelings are about golf, we're going to have some fun just talking about the game of golf and how we can apply it to our finances in retirement. I love that. Um looking forward to just what this analogy means. So, how is retirement um similar to or like planning or retirement planning like golf? Yeah, sure. So, if you don't know much about golf, you might just think that golf is just one game. It's the game of golf, right? But a golfer, you might be surprised to find to learn from a golfer that golfers think of many games within the game. And uh it's everything from the mindset game to their long game, their short game. all of these different games within the game. And retirement planning is exactly the same. If you really don't know much about it, you might think that there's just one game, one set of rules to get you all the way from the beginning to the end. But in fact, there really are many games within the game of retirement. And today, we're going to break that down into three games. We're going to talk about the long game, the short game, and then getting on the green. And here's the thing, each game has its own set of tools, the mindset, hazards, kind of the rules of the game. And so many people, they they feel so much stress around finances. And oftentimes, it's not because they're doing anything wrong, per se. They're just playing the wrong game. Wow. Well, I'm curious. I I don't know if you've watched any of the RDER Cup um this year. Um if if any of our listeners don't know, the Ryder Cup is a golf tournament where representatives from the United States um are playing against European golfers. But in this last RDER Cup, um there was something unique uh unusual that happened. Uh most people if if you think of golf, you think of quiet and uh you think of the crowd being calm until there's some big moment and then they're allowed to kind of burst into noise. But in this tournament, things got um rowdy. I mean, a lot of people were booing uh as the golfers approached the green or or even when they were there. It was honestly like I didn't know is this a Ryder Cup or is this Happy Gilmore? and and and so I'm I bet that that's not the kind of hazards that you're referring to here. I hope not, but um point us in the right direction. Help us understand these three games within the game. Yeah. Yeah. I love that you bring up the RDER Cup because I, you know, honestly um that environment of golf is probably even more uh comparable to the retirement u investing world because u the difference though is that there's there's not necessarily voices that are yelling at you from the outside. It's it's our own voices that are telling us you didn't get started early enough, you're not doing enough, you know. So, so it is it's a volatile sport. This is, you know, not for the the the the weak of heart, so to speak. So, so let's hop in. Let's start with the long game. And the long game is so important because this is really how you set up the rest of your financial journey. And just like golf, you're going to spend most of your time from the beginning to just getting up to the green. In fact, it's it's more than 50% of your life is going to be spent in the long game. So, if you think of teeing off as using your driver, right? And the goal with that driver is just to get that ball as far as you can right from the beginning. And think about how a a driver is made. It's that that's a tool that's made for distance. It's got the longest shaft of any of the clubs. It's got a great big head on it that's designed to give you a sweet spot to really just crush the ball. That's what this part of the game is about. It's about going the distance, but it's less about precision. And this is a shot where honestly I end up in the trees a lot, right? I think I'm going to do great, but I just I shank it off into the trees. And that's okay because in the long game, you've still got some time to get the ball back onto the fairway. So when you think about men in retirement, this is when you're just starting to invest in your retirement account or these are like growth investments or you're maybe you're starting a new business or taking some chances with your um career trying to to get ahead in your career. Any of these types of higher risk wealth buildinging tools. But here's the most important thing about the long game. Time is your greatest asset. in the long game. And time is the equivalent of of yards when you're hitting your ball in the long game. The more time that you spend in the long game, the more wealth you're going to build, period. You want to get started as early as possible. And time gives you really two key advantages for your nest egg. It's it's going to create some space for you to move the ball back onto the fairway when you have some off shots. And it's going to set the table for you to benefit from really what Albert Einstein called the the um the most powerful force in the universe. It's this magic of compound interest. And I think most people don't truly understand how how powerful that concept is. Yeah. if I I I think it would be good to let our listeners kind of see or hear um what what does that look like? Yeah. So, first let me describe it real quickly. The the magic of compound interest, this idea is if you if you take a $100 and you invest it and you make some money on it, first you make money on that $100, but then the next year you make money not just on the $100, but on the interest you made last year. And then that just keeps going year after year. And the way that this works is it starts out slowly, but it ramps up over time until a few years later it just kind of explodes. So let me give you just a quick example. Consider this. Um if you invested $100 a month at 11% return, at the end of 10 years, your account value is $21,700. But only $12,000 of that is your money. Okay, that's that's more than 55% of that account value at that point is your money. Now, after 20 years, that account balance grows to 86,600. Now, at this point, 72% of that value is growth, not your money. That time's working for you. push that forward to 30 years, 87% of the account values is is growth getting you to over $280,000. And so you can see how this builds on itself, right? That's the magic of compound interest. I I know ideally someone would start investing as soon as they, you know, start working, right? You get out of high school or college, you get a job and and you start investing at that point. as you're saying to use the magic of compound interest, but what about those who are listening who feel behind? Because those numbers you just gave are encouraging. Um but what about those who would say, "Well, I didn't start 40 years ago or 50 years ago." Um is all hope lost for them? If if you know, if they were to come to you and say, "Now what?" Um what would you say to them? Yeah. Yeah. No, not at all. I mean, it's not uncommon for people to feel behind in the long game. In fact, I think most of us at some point when we're in the long game, we feel that way because here's the thing. I think we feel that way because we find ourselves in a hazard. We feel like we're behind. Maybe we had to take on a little debt. Uh you David, we had a medical bill. There's something that went wrong. And the problem is, I think we have an expectation that that was never going to happen. But here's the truth. That's part of the game. You're going to find yourself in a hazard. It's just part of the game. So, we all experience it. So, in life, your ball is going to fly into the water. You're going to find yourself in the weeds or a sand bunker. And what separates you uh from success or frustration in your retirement plan is not that you're there. It's what you do next. What is your next shot? And you know, one of one of the TV shows that I love is Tad Lasso. Mhm. You know, I don't know if you're familiar with it, but if you are, there's there's a great scene in Ted Lasso where one of the players kind of makes a mistake and and Ted Lasso says um to the player, "Hey, you know what the happiest animal on the planet is?" He says, "No, I I don't know." He says, "It's it's a goldfish." Because a goldfish has like a one second memory. So, look, what happened happened, but forget about it and move on. Be a goldfish. And that's what I would say is is evaluate where you are today. You can't do anything about that, but evaluate what your next best shot is to try to get yourself back onto the fairway, whatever that looks like. Maybe it's paying down debt, you know, adjusting your saving goals, whatever that is. And an amazing way to do that is to automate things. You know, if you want to save a little more money, automate that. You want to pay down some debt, automate that. That's that's some ways that you can do that. That's great. Um I love the the idea of just do something like hit the next shot. You you are where you are, but let's just take the next step and do something. You know, when I think of a financial advisor, um I think of someone who works with wealthy people. And that might feel intimidating to meet with someone if you're a person who feels insecure about finances or insecure about your own finances. What would you say to that? Yeah, there are that's that's a fair point. There are a lot of different adviserss out there and and it's true that many adviserss do have minimums to work with them. Um and and that is true, but there are a lot of different options out there. There are some adviserss that really are are designed, they've built their practices to work with people to help them get out of debt or to work with them on education planning for their kids. So, there's different specialties out there and there are even coaches, financial coaches out there that really their heart is just to help people, you know, help put together a budget or that kind of thing. And so I think the hardest part for many of us is if we're feeling behind, we're feeling some guilt, we're feeling some shame, it is tough to share that with anyone else, right? Um but the truth is um it can really help to have someone on your side walking shouldertoshoulder with you, giving you ideas, giving you encouragement, um maybe some accountability so that you don't find yourself just stuck there. So reach out, find someone, maybe interview two or three, find someone that feels good. Um, these they work in different ways from a cost perspective. You'll if you do the work, you'll be able to find someone that you can work with that can help you take that next swing. Yeah. And I would encourage our listeners, if you feel like you're in that position, there is someone out there who cares about you and who will care about you as a person and and moving you forward. Uh this is has been a great discussion. We're almost out of time today, but can you give us a glimpse because here we are, you know, we've we've got the long game and um if you're like me in golf, that can be a really long game. Uh it could be a long part of the game, but where are we headed? So give us a glimpse of what we're going to cover on our next episode and and then as we continue through this discussion. Yeah. So, as we move from the long game, this next episode we're going to talk about the short game. And in our analogy, this short game is this space that's that's right at the end of the long game, but we haven't yet quite made it to retirement. Uh it's it's this area where the closer you get to retirement, you need to move from these shots that are just distance but volatile and you need to get more refined, more precise and and this is what we're going to be talking about and this is probably the most important part of your game and it's completely ignored by so many people. So I'm excited. You're going to definitely want to pay attention and tune in on our on our next episode to learn about the short game. This is the part of the game that can make or break some of your retirement dreams and this is where many of the questions and concerns actually live. So to summarize where we've been so far, I I think what you're saying is, you know, when you're playing golf, you're in the T- box, the the green looks so far. It is so far away. And so when you hit, often it'll go to the right, to the left. you're not nailing it down the center, but as you're getting closer and closer to the target, you're going to want to refine and narrow some things and and and make some decisions based on that. You got it. That's great. Well, that wraps up the first part of our three-part series on finances in retirement. Um, we know that money can feel overwhelming. Uh, but our hope is that these conversations um make it more hopeful for you. And and so uh if today's episode has encouraged you in any way, make sure you subscribe and follow along so you catch the next two episodes and also share it with a friend who may be also struggling or or someone that you can have conversations with about these topics. Uh as always, come join us on Facebook at the retirement life. And until next time, keep imagining the life you've dreamed of and take one small step toward it this week. Thanks so much. This podcast is intended for general information, educational, entertainment purposes, and is not intended to provide financial, legal, medical, health, or lifestyle advice. Individuals should seek their own advice from a qualified professional. It is not an endorsement of any particular product, service, or organization. The opinions and views expressed in this podcast are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the retirement life. The Retirement Life and Arseneau Financial are separate entities. This podcast is not to be considered a solicitation for investment or financial planning services through Arseneau Financial LLC.