Eric Asbeck is a Retirement Strategist who uses the hard won lessons from his own experience, along with models that have helped his business clients find success, to create a solid planning structure that lead his clients to create their own retirement strategy.

With an objective perspective from his Retirement Calculator, his clients are able to go “from confusion and fear to clarity and a workable plan.”

In this episode, we discuss

• How consulting with entrepreneurs helped Eric develop the skills to help people design their ideal retirement
• The importance of a framework for objective evaluation
• Why it’s important to be your own advocate for a secure future
• How to feel comfortable with change as you look forward to a new chapter
• Three key questions everyone wants to know about retirement
• Why kids have retirement all figured out

Eric has 2 great tools to share, including his free report,” Retire With Power™ – Create a Better Strategy to Retire Comfortably,” http://ExploringRetirement.club/get-free-report/

along with the quiz, “Which Retirement Type are You?” http://ExploringRetirement.club/quiz

https://ExploringRetirement.club/quiz/

Susi Vine: I am so happy that you are with me this week. As I introduce you to Eric Asbeck, we had a terrific conversation about the importance of paying attention early to. The shape and nature of the retirement that you are building towards as a person, who’s had a number of different careers in my life and not having the continuity of a single career to build the foundation for an easier path to retirement.

This conversation is particularly valuable to myself and I know many others. In my generation are facing the same kind of future. So there’s a lot of value in this conversation, whether it be for yourself, for friends, for family who might be further along this path, but wondering what a secure and comfortable retirement that allows them to live, all of their dreams really looks like and how to get there from here.

I know you’re going to get a lot out of this conversation, just like I did. I’m so glad you’re here with us this week.

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Welcome back. I am so happy to have you with us this week. As I bring to our conversation, Eric, as Beck, who is a problem solver of the highest order and on a mission to help us all have an easier path to the retirement that we dream. Eric aspect went through some lean times himself when he was younger.

So he understands the value of financial independence and security. He enjoyed a good corporate job as an intrepreneur leading teams to create new businesses, services and products that won over 120 million in new business. And even with all of that, following that success and a respected career, he later found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and had to start over creating his own business.

And then others working towards the point again, where he could reach. Using the hard one lessons from his own experience and successful models, he used to help clients grow their own businesses. Eric has developed a very solid planning structure and a process that restored his own retirement plan and is able to apply this system to help his clients now create retirement strategies so they can enjoy their own great risks.

So, this is definitely in line with living life with less stress. As I reached 45 this year, it is something that is front of mind. And I’ve worked with a lot of people who are really insecure in feeling confident that they even have a retirement picture in their future. So, Eric, I’m so glad that you are here with us today to join me.

Thanks for making the time. 

Eric Asbeck: Oh, you know, I’m, so it’s such a, so fun to be here. I can’t tell you how much fun I’m having. 

Susi Vine: I can’t 

wait to bring a little fun to this topic, which is usually a little dry and a little overwhelming, maybe a lot overwhelming. It 

Eric Asbeck: can be I’ve. Yeah. I’ve run into people. Yes.

That’s part of why I’m doing what I’m doing because people don’t people are. They have a handle on things, but, you know, I kept, I keep running into people who are like worried or, I mean, one story of, one, couple of downright terrified about what was going to become, or like you might have to work forever or like when can I stop or whatever.

And. I’m happily retired and uncomfortable. And so it’s not like I’m doing this because this is my way to make a million bucks. But I really, I, I, I, my heart goes out to people that are in that situation. It just, it really just pulls at me and I’m, I keep, you know, I’m thinking. There’s something I can do.

And I’ve helped a number of people where, I mean, I could say every single person that I’ve helped. It’s sorry. So I’m not, I don’t brag, but I, I can say it transformed their lives. I mean, I literally, so I transformed their lives because they were, they were stuck and now they’re unskilled. And they see a way and they’re often running and it’s, it’s so fun to check in with them and just, you know, like how you doing and to have them come back and, you know, just telling me like bits and pieces of where they are and their path and how things have kind of fallen into place and what’s next.

And, but yeah, the conversation was all around. The future and what’s possible as opposed to care and survival and fear. And we’re, you know, I mean, you know where that is. 

Susi Vine: I think a lot of people can really connect to that feeling easily when it comes to the financial situation, we feel like we’re on a roller coaster that we didn’t want to get on.

Eric Asbeck: Yes. Well, I didn’t know where I was and I was worried about. Where things were going to go. I’ll tell you just personal, like the involvement quite vulnerable here back in 2005 found that I couldn’t stand. And I was crawling around on the floor and I I was incorrectly diagnosed with fractured ribs.

It turns out I had a tumor in my spine and I literally couldn’t walk and unfortunately it was in the middle of my rib cage. So I wasn’t parallel. We’re dead. I mean, I mean, really it was anyway, it was, it was severe, but height. So I guess I’m getting lost in the story here, but but it, it, it really left me with, where am I gonna go?

What am I going to do? And so you know, that’s, that was something I had to pull myself out. And I kind of lost track here about where we were in the conversation, what keyed that thought. But I guess, because you know why it’s so exorbitant and we still it was such a, such a tough experience, but you know, since then, you know, I’ve been, I’ve been living with that.

It’s not an incurable cancer and I’m living with it for a bunch of years. Like, what is it? 15, 16 years now. And so in the meantime, I was able to continue working for a while. And then I had my businesses and and, and I was in this point where I, how I was thinking after I, I was ready to pivot yet. I activity a couple of times.

Well pivoting one first thing, like in my, in work, when I was. In corporate, you know, intentionally moving different things, but then there was this sort of involuntary pivot with the cancer, whereas on disability and they are out for awhile, but then a business. And then realizing that that business could be expanded to pivot to something else.

I was helping. I was helping people that wanted to start a business, figuring out what the. Create the business they would love to do with is right for them. And I found that there are entrepreneurs that were, that were successful with the head businesses of their own, that they were miserable with because they’re, they, they missed, they missed something that was like critical.

It turns out to, you know, that had to be in the mix and, and the same things I was using for the first group, I was able to apply to those. So then I kept pivoted and started helping those folks. And. I was ready to pivot again. And my so a couple of things came together at once. You know, I was kind of in that moment of trying to figure things out and I, I went back and I said, well, I’ve got to do my own work because I asked one of the guys I had made one of the entrepreneurs who was a great coach, but I had helped him to show.

To create, you know, to get out of the, you know, he had quit as an entrepreneur cause he was cause he is missing some things. We figured out what those were and he put those back in and you know, he was, you know, he was back in the in the roll on things and he was perfect guy to help guide me sort of that, you know, you’ve heard that phrase, physician heal.

It’s like, it’s really hard for me to coach myself in that. So I thought, great. I’ll have Sean help me with this. But I said, well, I got to do my own work. When I went back and did that, I realized one of the things that I wanted to do with my business was to be able to retire comfortably. And so a couple of the things came together.

I was, I was with my sons and I was got together with them for a long weekend and I was, I wanted to let them know what was going on because. They’re going to get everything I get anyway. Sorry there. And they’re they’re adults now. So I shared my situation, my younger son’s like a finance major.

He’s got this real good. He’s got the real quick with the numbers thing. It’s just, I think you’re doing better than you think. And a, he asked me to check out I was. Management fee to an advisor and some other things. I checked this type check things out, and I was actually doing better than I thought.

And the third thing came together. I’d been, I’ve been a member of the American association of independent investors since they started back in the, in the. Early eighties. And so it’s just like a hobby dabbling and I haven’t, I’m not investing expert, but you know, it’s, it’s helped me with things to some degree, but there was a method that came out with the guy who founded AII who was in the process of retiring.

We wrote a great book and there was. He talked about a method of handling investments that was in line with what I wanted to do anyway. And I took a look at that. I look what my son had to say, and I was like, oh, I put together a framework. Let me evaluate things in a way that made sense to me. And I realized I could retire.

So I did 

Susi Vine: and, and cut some of that that management costs, right? Because I think there’s a lot, there’s so much that ends up on our plate and it’s easy to feel like we’re not qualified. We don’t know enough to manage this or to foresee this. And then the things that we’re afraid of. Tend to want to hide from, unfortunately.

So maybe if I don’t pay attention to this problem, that’s brewing over here or this, these retirement funds that are not accruing over here. Something will come along when I need it. And, and in my work, when I was helping our senior clients move and relocate, when I was working as a senior move manager.

Yeah. Became aware of some of the numbers. It’s really shocking. How many people do not have retirement resources available to them as they reached that point, who truly their plan is to work until they can’t and then hope that something is there to care for them. Right. And, and as a, as an entrepreneur, as, as we were talking, before we hop the line, I.

Labeled myself. Multi-passionate, I’ve gone down so many different paths that, that continuity is something that’s missing for me. So it really felt important and relevant when we met. And we’re talking about how you can help people, because there’s so much on our plate when we’re building our own business, or if you.

Working for someone else, but maybe you’ve changed jobs a couple of times to understand that we have to be our own advocates. We have to take a look at the strategy and understand that something is going to come together and be there when we need it. Because so many of us are just working until a finish line.

And that’s when we get permission to relax and have fun. I’m trying to 

Eric Asbeck: out everybody, everybody ends up in the same place. And I took a, I took a course one time where they used to joke. They said, you know they, they all get, they all stand around, they throw dirt in your face and they go up to. And I’m like, oh, that’s kinda morbid, but, but it’s like, I mean you don’t want to rush to the finish.

Nope, 

Susi Vine: Nope, Nope. And I say, I say something pretty similar to, I mean, none of us are getting out of this alive, you know, we’re all moving towards the same destination. We should be enjoying every minute that we can and protecting that future that we are creating for ourselves. 

Eric Asbeck: Yes. I have to say by the way kind of to the point that you were saying about.

Hoping it’s going to come together. Right? Well, then I was like that too. I, I, I mean, I had a 401k, I had some assets, you know, I had stuff, but I really didn’t know if it was going to do the job or not. And I couldn’t really Highland all the stuff that I found. Like all the different online tool, all that stuff.

I tried to put together spreadsheets and it’s like, I wasn’t able to figure it out hand. And one of the revelations that happened as part of that, you know, real, you know, realizing I wanted to, you know, I want to retire comfortably my son saying, check things out and you know, the sort of AI kind of stuff.

And some other things came together. What I ended up putting together was what I call a retirement cashflow framework. It’s just, you know, it’s, it’s a tool to that. So the, so what ha what did, what it did for me was. Hi, what happens if you have like a speedometer in your car and you can see how fast you’re going, or, you know, some, you know, or like that, or like you’re in a plane, right.

And you want to know what the altimeter, you know, you want, you don’t know how high you are and whether you’re, you know, what’s going on. And when you get closer to the ground, you want to know where the ground is and how you’re going to land and all those sorts of things. But you can’t do that without.

Measurement tools, I call them and actually wrote an article that’s just gotten published about that sort of thing. Kind of go on about some of that stuff anyway, but, but the, my, my employed is that without some way of giving you some relative comparative measurement of where you are, it’s hard to know.

And, and that was the thing that was going on with me. And when I put this together, I was able to see that. The amount of money I had and what was going on for the investments that are income and social security offsets and this and that. And I was going to spend a certain amount and I had room for like, not just my essentials, but like room to play.

I call it a play bucket. Cause it’s like, I just put together a big bucket, like one big bucket and it’s like, whatever, I want to take a vacation or whatever. I was like, oh, I’ve got a room. You know, the bucket gets old, smaller, but, but you know, I know I on annual basis I have. That I can do fun stuff with, but it wasn’t until I had that framework that I was able to look and say in my kind of engineering and MBA kind of mind.

Yeah. It’s like, it’s not just a wish. It’s actually a plan and it’s not exact. I mean, it’s not like, I mean, cause there’s always uncertainty, but, but it’s like, I have a way of a measurement tool that shows me if I’m on and off track and co you know, I can see, you know, can visualize, you know, it has a little curves.

You can see how. Yeah. You know, is this going to have, is my money gonna last me until I’m over a hundred? Or is it going to poop out when I’m like 72 and oops, I’m not done yet, but that, but that’s been the power of what, what, you know, the people I’ve helped. It’s the same sort of thing they can see. Oh Gail who who I worked with.

It is an MD and she has a weight loss clinic, but. She’s a very solid medical background. And her husband was a brilliant entrepreneur, but age has gotten the best of him. And so she’s the primary breadwinner and she has a successful business, but she didn’t know whether she, you know, she just didn’t know whether she could ever retire and take.

She, you know, we started talking and she’s, she was confused. He said, I’m confused and afraid. And I just don’t know like what to do. And, and so we went through this process that we went through, we took a snapshot, a retirement financial snapshot, where she was, where they were, but she was the one running the show, you know, like doing the she’s, the one that was the responsible party.

And so we did a snapshot and then. I worked with them to come up with better shared agreement between them, about where their goals, what their goals and objectives collectively work, because sometimes there are other, they were, they were pretty closely aligned. There. Other cases I’ve worked with people where it was tougher, but, but then, you know, we, we took the framework, but their snapshot in there took a look and it wasn’t where they wanted to be.

So they had to get. It’s like a great, so what do you do? And so then we, you know, we, they were able to compare better solutions and come up with things. And, and for Gail, she realized that she, because she was a medical professional, she could find work in where she, you know, in her area for three years, she said, if I earn X number of dollars for three years, I’m ready.

And it was very clear. Cause it was like, yeah, because she could put it very clearly into the frame. And see that she had the cushion that you needed to make it work. And all of a sudden she started to see these opera. I’m getting goosebumps thinking about it because you know how if you’re going to buy a, a car and you say I’m going to buy a Mazda Miata and all of a sudden you’re driving around there everywhere you hadn’t noticed them before.

So it was the same with her. All of a sudden she started offers for employment, possibilities were coming in and she was seeing. And was able to take advantage of that and they’re off and running. It was like, and she said, so she had this great. She gave me the spree quote, which is, I went from fear and confusion to confidence and a workable plan.

And I was like, yeah, but it moves. I mean, she, she was able to move steadily. I can’t tell you how, how. How great that makes, that just gives me these goosebumps of, of, of satisfaction, because there’s like for that one, I made a difference. You know what I mean? 

Susi Vine: Absolutely. Absolutely. And then the ripple effect of that too, she’s not stressed, she’s more present in her work and these collaborations give her the opportunity to actually serve so many more people.

And, you know, one of the things that, that keeps coming up in research in, you know, it just plays out in like, If we’re clear on where we are going, solutions make themselves known to us. But so many of us don’t take that time to get the clarity. We just figure we’re working hard. Something will be there when we get there.

And maybe we’re working towards a picture that wasn’t even our own design, you know, family or society, these pictures land in our

Eric Asbeck: Yeah, 

Susi Vine: right? 

Eric Asbeck: Yeah. So here’s the story. Here’s the story. Alice is walking through the woods and the path suddenly splits at a bunch of different directions and she’s like looking around and she hears this noise in the tree and there’s the Cheshire cat. And she says, well, excuse me, Mr. Cat, but which direction should I go?

And he says, well, my dear, where do you want to end up? And she says, I really don’t know. He says, well, any path will be. Yeah. I tell that story only because it’s like the very first thing you want, understand the situation and you want to stabilize the situation and then you want to say, great. So what direction am I going?

And then, all right, now I can take action. But without that, Without any of, if you miss any of those pre or prior steps, then you’re swirling. Because if you don’t understand the situation, you’re solving the wrong problem, right. If, if you haven’t stabilized it, then you’re still trying to fight fires.

Right. And if you don’t have a clear direction, then you’re taking action, but it’s just like, you can end up spending on certain. And, and certainly, you know, dissipating your energies. And, but, but if, you know, like Gail she’s like, I know her need to do boom. And she was offering. 

Susi Vine: Yeah, it’s so powerful. And, and you’ve mentioned too, we might’ve covered some of these to this point, as you’re, as you’re talking about your process and the way that you work with people what are the core questions that people have about the retirement that they are not getting answers to?

What are these unknowns that we kind of carry around with us? 

Eric Asbeck: Yes. Well, I’ll say after I retired, I. I was happy, but I kept bumping into people that were saying Friday things. I mean, some of them were just like, I’m this being around people I’m stuck in the house all the time or, you know, like that kind of stuff.

And then there were people like Gail and there are other people, you know, like various levels of. So some people had a knocked, they’re all good, but then there’s those others. And so I served. I did a big survey and it was interesting that it boiled down to three essential questions that like kept popping up.

The very first one was, do I have enough money to retire comfortably? Right. And then the second one was, how do I balance my mom’s? Goals and objectives. And you know what I want to do with those commitments and obligations that are pulling on me or, you know, or like the distractions. And then the final one is, you know, what do I do with my time?

How do I stay focused on the stuff? That’s most important, that kind of stuff. Right. And so I, and actually those all came together as part of, of. That aha. That realized I could retire. And I thought, and you know, sort of after that, I realized, you know, that the work that I was doing with entrepreneurs, helping them figure out what businesses right.

For them and all that was really. Perfect. Lee suited to answer that second question about goals and objectives and how to stay focused on things. And that’s what my Mo was. Sean, who helped coach me, ended up doing to realize things for him. There’s a great story, but anyway, I could get totally distracted.

And then as a corporate executive executive, and then as an entrepreneur later I. How to structure your time and stay focused in a way that doesn’t take forever. Like it’s like, you’re not obsessing with that, but that it works for you. That that I could answer the third question and I’ll say by the way there was a world of difference for me.

I was a successful executive and I was like I say, an entrepreneur. So I was like in this very fluid environment and there’s a lot of, you know, like you had the really. Roll and adapt, but the environment was quite structured in a lot of different ways. But then when I was in an entrepreneur, it’s all up to you.

I mean, there’s just no rules. There’s no structure at all. And I had, and I, I learned from some of the best about how to manage like bigger project things, like, you know, first like put together an annual calendar and put in the stuff. That’s most important, like vacations time with family, that kind of stuff.

And then like one of my big things that I’m going to do to go out and. Promote my product launches and courses and stuff like that. And then there’s like, what else can I fill in from that? But once you kind of know that bigger picture, then you can use that as the sort of guiding thing and look for opportunities to fit stuff.

Well, you can do that as, as a, as a retiree to, without the complexities of it. But it’s like, where, when do I take vacations? When you know, like, what are those important kinds of things like that? And then you can look and say, oh, well, look, I’ve got, I’ve got a big block of time between. March and the end of July and.

There’s gotta be a vacation in there somewhere, you know? So it’s like, but the point is so answering the third question, sorry, it’s easy to get lost in, you know, like to tell you I’ve got each one of those things. I got a lot to say, but then finally, the first question about, do I, you know, kind of retire comfortably, I realized I can use the same methods that I used as I described and help other people.

And I started helping some folks and realized Dale was one of them that I worked with. And I’ve worked with some others too, that it’s like, Hey, this stuff works. 

Susi Vine: Yeah. It’s a template that, that can be applied to any one situation and bring clarity, bring things into focus. And, and I love, 

Eric Asbeck: well, just like, just to summarize the answer to the question, three questions, do I have enough money to retire comfortably?

How do I stay focused on the goals and objectives that are important to me? And how do I structure my time and stay focused? 

Susi Vine: Exactly. Yeah. And, and that’s enough with those questions on answered. We might think that we’re ignoring them, but we’ll lose a little bit of sleep. There’s a little extra stress load when those remain unanswered.

And when I was working with well, most of my clients when I was a move manager were retired. They were in their eighties and nineties. But when I, their kids would say, or friends of mine would say, well, I don’t know what I would do when I’m retired. What would I do with myself? Like I might as well work.

I tend to come from the opposite school. There is so much we could be doing who has time for work. 

Eric Asbeck: And there are some people there, so people are in different places. Right. So I actually was mostly. I originally was most interested in answering the second and third questions, particularly the second question, and like, how can we have more fun?

But the thing that’s happened is, especially as I’ve talked with people in the entrepreneurial circles, as I would talk about that, every it was reliable every single time somebody say, but, but I’ve got to have the money first. 

Susi Vine: I cannot share it if I don’t know how. 

Eric Asbeck: Right. And so, and so I was sort of, I was totally impassioned with the idea of doing those second and third questions.

And although I got a lot of grad gratification from helping people solve the first one, it’s like, my first love is let’s go have fun. So there was sort of, I can’t quite say, oh, drat, but it was sort of like, okay, I need to step back and answer that first, first things first back to. Think we were talking about a while ago, right?

Oh, so that’s why I’m, I’m focusing now just on that, because I’m figuring that’s the place where people are really worried, you know, for those, for some people it’s not a problem. But then for those that it is, if it’s not just a little thing, it’s a big thing. And so let’s, let’s do something to help. 

Susi Vine: It can feel insurmountable.

So once we’ve got some resolution there, the rest of it, finding purpose with your time and the way that we can have structure that all comes together, that doesn’t feel so overwhelming or such a big unanswerable question, 

Eric Asbeck: right. It surprisingly turned out to be answering. Yes, but it starts with, so every single one of my programs starts with let’s get the facts, let’s get grounded.

Let’s figure out where we are because I’m an intuitive person. I mean, left to my own devices. I would just try to Intuit my way through things and wish and hope. But, but my dad said, get your engineering degree and I did kind of resisting, but got it. And it’s proven to be really helpful because it taught me the discipline of saying.

Like, what’s the situation? Where are you? Like, what are the facts, all those, those stupid fact things. I don’t want it to deal with that, but just like, yeah, you do have to deal with that, you know, but, and you may not like it, but here’s, here’s, here’s what’s so right here. And yeah. And that’s the only place you can start.

I mean, you can’t wish that you were somewhere else. Like I wish I was over there and I’ll start from there cause that’s a great place to start. Well, I, me too, but it doesn’t work that. So, 

Susi Vine: do you find that that’s something that that your clients or people that you’ve talked with, tend to do when they’re feeling scared?

Is that the reflex, they’ll try to move out of the situation or how do you, how do you help people kind of dig in and get centered and face that scary stuff? 

Eric Asbeck: Well, so I’ll tell you a story about Jazelle and Kurt. I’d worked with , I’d coached her in some personal. Programs in the past. And I was writing articles after I’d kind of had this revelation about, you know, like, okay, I’m going to start to help people with this retirement stuff.

And she saw one of my articles about the whole, you know, five steps helped me retire comfortably kind of a thing. And, and, and I had a freaking. To, you know, do the snapshot. And she sent me a note saying, Hey, can we talk? I’m like, sure, I’m happy to ask, you know, like onto your questions. And so we got on the phone and our, and it turns out.

It wasn’t, they didn’t have questions. They were terrified because they had a business of their own for 20 years. It was highly successful for many years as an educational, the delivery platform. But, and they put all their money into it. They’d never saved anything cause they were going to sell that and that’s going to be their business that, you know, their retirement and the market shifted and they weren’t able to sell it at.

And the had to close the doors and when they looked, they had, and I’m not kidding you six months of cash that they, and they were like, I can’t even begin to say how terrified. And it was like a very anxious time for them. And so I I’m getting goosebumps again because just like I, so I was like, I got this thing and they’re like, they would have accepted anything.

They try, you know, Gale digital, I’m sorry. No median trusted me, but it’s like anything just help us. And so, you know, the first thing we did was do that snapshot and it was that they didn’t know what to do. They were pointing fingers at each other and like each one had their own ideas about what directions and things like that.

And, and it was just, it was a snob. And it was very emotionally intense and it was affecting their relationship. But but so we, we spent time, the snapshot was pretty easy because Kurt wasn’t organized. He was like the back office guy and Giselle’s the front office, you know, kind of out there in the world, sort of a person.

But he had the, he had the data. So they’re able to take that, put that together pretty quickly and it was abysmal, but. The conversation about what to do and not do. And trade-offs they had this, it turns out fortunately they had a property in Florida that they were in the process of settling and had this beautiful home in the middle of downtown new Orleans that And she was my, she was the one that brought me in, she was the one that was saying, this is great, Eric, you know, and, and Kurt was the one that sorta had his pragmatic, like show me. Right. But, but when we got to that house, she literally snapped like, So, like, I can’t say, I can’t tell you, I’m not going to do it in the intensity, but we’re not selling this so-and-so house.

And they’re, you know, like over my dead body. And I mean, it was like just no way. And so how we ended up resolving things, we started the. You put your scenarios in and you take a look, I encourage them to do scenario planning. So like, okay, let’s what if you do this? What’s that going to look like sort of financially, you know, you could, you know, you, you know how that fits together.

Let’s what about you do this and so forth. And as they started to plug things in and look at it, she realized that selling that house and move into a place that was closer to their kids nearby, but album town. Shifted things plus selling their their second property, radically shifted things and, and goosebumps, because it was so profound because she was absolutely no like dug in and, and incredibly emotionally intensely involved in that, you know, like that was sticking with that.

But. They saw the pragmatic results, the impact of their choices that carried the day, because it’s, it’s, it’s not disputable. The framework’s not precise down to the penny or any of that kind of stuff, but you, you understand very clearly directionally where it’s going to go and you know, like, oh, I can do this.

It’s like, Things are going to go way into the future. And if I do this, it’s like augering into, into zero, like when you’re way too young, you know, like that kind of stuff. And so when I, so the process, so, so people don’t, some people it’s tough getting the financial snapshot, some people it’s tough with reconciling a direction.

And some people it’s, it’s like, they just, they want to know if it’s gonna, you know, they have a plan, but they just don’t know whether it’s going to really work for them. I worked with Alison and she was in that mode. She didn’t want to put any money in investments just had been burned, but she had this idea about, she had some money and inheritance.

She had you know she planned on working for a certain number of years and that kind of stuff. And she wanted to know if it would, it would work and we put everything in there and we took a look and it worked and she’s like, thank you. Now I know I can run with it because I, I know. And it was as simple as that.

So people can end up coming in from a lot of different places and there’s different sticking points, but, but it all kind of boils down to, you know, do your run-up from retirement, financial snapshot, get better shared agreements have a the lifetime plan, cash flow framework, or some sort of framework to measure things and then compare solutions.

You know, find ones that are better. And then finally, you know make clear, confident choices about where, because once you know where you’re going off you go. But, but some there’s typically a sticking point somewhere.

That was because my phone, can you hear me? 

Susi Vine: Yes, I got 

Eric Asbeck: you back. Cause my phone was ringing. Sorry. There’s typically a sticking point. Yes. There’s typically a sticking point somewhere along the, that, those, that set of steps at least one. And so it just, we work our way through. And and that shared agreement that better shared agreement kind of shakes itself out in the course of the conversation and realizing that maybe they’re going to have to look at different alternatives.

Like when, when Rozelle was like in the moment of that conversation, which conversation or reacting, which I knew that I had to bring up, I said, as delicately as I could. I mean, I didn’t try to press the point with them or anything. It’s their choice. But, you know, we, we opened the conversation and I was like, okay, great.

So we had this car, you know, take a look here, put some things together, put them in the framework, take a look, we’ll have another conversation. And when we came back, she’d had a chance to work her weight, fight her own. Way through some of these things, but it, so my point is that this, this, this different sticking points.

Yeah. And it’s 

Susi Vine: so empowering to have something, this template and. A neutral third party. Let me come back to that in a minute. Bookmark, 

Eric Asbeck: Gail called a third set, third set of ears. Right? 

Susi Vine: Right. It’s everything because it’s so easy to be subjective, you know, and everything is through our own lens and emotion definitely runs high.

And if we can. Make it a more objective assessment and you can plug in the numbers and I like to call it a, choose your own adventure, right? Like here are the paths you have to choose from and you can 

Eric Asbeck: make, I’m not telling you what to do. You got to live with whatever it is. Right. So here’s how, here’s the, here’s the tools.

Here’s the guidance. Because, especially when I work with entrepreneurs, it’s like, you know, the drill, I mean, you do, you’ve had to figure a bunch of that stuff out and how to make it work. And, you know, you know, what the gazintas and goes out does are, you know, that, you know, you’re making some money and you’re spending some money and it’s gotta be that the making is, is higher than the spending.

And you know, you, you know, all that stuff, but how do you take that and apply it to retirement is where. That was the big revelation for me too. Having that framework was where I said, oh, I can make it work. And that’s repeatedly what happens with other people too. And there are lots of different ways you could do that.

I know that the one, this for me was the thing that made it come with. 

Susi Vine: Right. Right. And having that third set of ears, I called it the neutral third party when I was moving our senior clients, because I would do the space plan. I would look at where they’re going and what they love the non-negotiables right.

Air quotes on that. What they felt was non-negotiable the kids might be saying, you can’t take that so far. It’ll never fit in what they’re hearing is. You know, they’re hearing the kids say you can’t take that sofa. And they say it’s because the kids always hated that so far, they think we should buy new furniture who can afford that right now.

Right. It comes through all this emotional filters when I have a space plan and I present it to them. And I say, you can take that sofa, or you can take the two recliners that you actually sit in every day and you have a safe margin to move around your apartment, which do you choose? It’s night and day, right?

It’s an easy conversation, but it sometimes having that neutral third party, they can remove that emotional lens. And so that’s why I’m really an advocate of having a coach, someone who can come in and just help come back to that objective perspective when we’re really down in the thick of it. And you know, the emotions that have got the wheel, 

Eric Asbeck: right.

I’ll say so selfishly, what I want. Is to end up in the end, having those goosebumps that I have each time I’ve told you to those stories, that

the people I work with have moved from wherever they are. That’s no fun to this place where there, they know where they’re going and they’re putting things in place and they. They’re there living for a future that they’re interested in, not trying to survive. The situation that is terrifying or confusing them.

I mean, 

Susi Vine: right. It’s so true. I mean, it’s just, everything is different when we can have hope and be looking forward to what we’re moving ourselves into rather than avoiding 

Eric Asbeck: oh, well spoken for someone who is a move planner. 

Susi Vine: Yes, 

Eric Asbeck: exactly. It is literally the perfect analogy. Mm. 

Susi Vine: Yeah. 

Eric Asbeck: You’re, you’ve been living in this environment, in this situation, and now you’re moving to this other thing.

That’s a new thing. And maybe it doesn’t make as much sense to have this huge environment anymore. Like, I mean, if you’ve, if you’ve got, if you, if you’re planning and you’re going to, I’ve got a family and I’ve got five kids or whatever it is, you know, like, and, and everybody is coming to visit, you know, like there’s this thing.

Like I need this, but, but when you retire,

your circumstances have changed and hopefully in a way that has, it’s an environment that you were looking forward to, and that works for you. But, but it’s not, it’s typically not going to be. As big and some of that stuff that you have there isn’t necessarily going to fit in this new space. So there’s a series of, I mean, I call it like in, in, in, in entrepreneur terms, it’s another pivot here.

Thanks 

Susi Vine: for coming back to that. Yeah, I want it. Okay. 

Eric Asbeck: And yes. And so, so it’s like, you’re, you’re going this one direction and you’re, you’ve got this way of living and making money and not, you know, all that sort of stuff then saving and, and then you shift to toward retirement and it’s a pivot because all of a sudden, first of all, psychological you’re spending, when you’ve been, I mean, it’s like you have to spend when all the time before that, it’s like, you’ve got to say.

And certainly you don’t, you, you need to maintain. You know, like a certain level of propriety, or I don’t want to say necessarily frugality, but you know, you’ve gotta be sensible about your expenses, but you’re, but you know that if you’re retiring, you’re not earning, you’re drawing down and that can drive people.

And its own. Right. But then there’s other series of decisions that you make, you know, about where you’re going to live and what’s most important to you and you know, what gives you satisfaction and you know, how are you going to spend your time? And, you know, a bunch of, much of those choice, it’s like a bunch of choices, decisions that all create each, each pivot is that is like these series of decisions.

Create this new thing for you, but this is a big one. There’s just a lot that goes into it and it’s, it can be loaded to 

Susi Vine: yeah. Naturally right. With everything that we go through in life. And I want to while we still have time, you’ve said that kids have retirement figured out. So what do you mean by that?

Yeah, 

Eric Asbeck: so actually the reason. Came up with that is I was out walking at a park close to where, where I live and there’s a there’s this place. That’s got a bunch of water fountains that come out of the ground. You’ve seen that kind of thing before they spurred up. And the kids were just tearing around there and just having the best old time.

And the adults are sitting around and watching them and, and, and, and I’m just thinking those kids. They’re the ones that know how to have fun. It’s like, there’s no holds barred. You know, they’re just going out there and just very spontaneous and energetic and, and they just they’re filled with enthusiasm and joy and they can’t wait for the next thing.

And like, they’re just, I’m thinking, that’s the way I want to live my retired. I want it. So I, I actually, I spent time watching them and like, how can I put that into practice? I recommend you go do that, go look at, watch kids play and to see, you know, how, how they’re doing it and soak it up and learn from it and then go out and practice that for yourself, you know, like go for it.

That’s and, and then, and then remember that playbook where you talked about. Then you can be like, oh yeah, I do want to go to Crete. We always wanted to go to the Greek islands or I wanted to see Antarctica or whatever. I’m just using the vacation example, but it’s like, yeah, I can do that. I’ll figure it out.

Or, you know what I want, I want to expand the the, the, you know, my back to be an enclosed Lanaya. Like I have, that’s a huge, great room with. Panorama screens. It looks out over the the lake and the preserve behind my place. And it’s just a great place to sit and hang out. And yeah, I can do that.

I’ve got room in my play bucket. And so I’m going to do that on an apply it, I’m going to use that as part of that kind of. Putting into practice, what I’ve learned from the kids. So 

Susi Vine: true. I think, you know, a lot of us were frustrated over, over what has happened or hasn’t happened, or we’re worried about what is coming.

And kids are the perfect models of being, this is the moment where we have the most power, you know, so let’s be here right now instead of giving that away 

Eric Asbeck: through. And if you’re not worried about, and, and if you can go into it, not worried. What are you going to make it work or not? So here’s an example.

Several years ago, I my, my sister-in-law’s brother as an Ohio state university and he was a professor in the history department. Now he’s a Dean, but he and a couple other professors for many years ran a a history tour to to Normandy. So they go to London and they’d go see Churchill.

Kind of thing and they’d go to different beaches in Normandy and then they’d go up to to Amsterdam we’re in San Frank’s thing and stuff like that. And my brother and sister-in-law and a couple other family members and some friends of ours were like, this is the last time he’s doing this. We’re all going to go.

And I’m like, well, I want to go to, and it was only like six weeks away, but I here’s the thing I, I pulled out my play bucket and I said, I can do. And I signed up without a thought. I mean, it was like, I knew I wanted to do it. I had plenty of room and one experience. I mean, Just the pubs of Frank pubs of London and, and the beautiful scenery and stuff in Normandy and the French countryside.

And then, you know, when we’re in Amsterdam, not only was he Frank and Frank’s house, but we saw museums and we toured the canals and all this sort of stuff, it was like a beautiful, and, and I was with, you know, but to family and friends, I, I can do it. And I’m not saying it to brag, but to say, Hey, you can do it too.

I mean, you just, if you know where you are and, and, and, and you can see that you’ve got the, the room and you can give yourself the psychological space, the permission to just go do the stuff you want to do. Life’s good. When, when that happened. And then COVID comes.

Susi Vine: We’ve been able to save up our fund buckets are well-stocked for next year, but truly, you know, when we can carp. And savor the moments instead of worrying and looking forward to the future and being unclear. And that’s why I love what you’re doing, what you’re putting together and what you’re making available to people who have these questions.

So I want to let folks know we will have links in the show. So you can connect with Eric, find these articles that you are always sharing and posting on LinkedIn and on medium and on your website, people can take a look at a quiz and find out what their retirement type is and learn a little bit more and get a fairly customized report and an opportunity to connect with you further there.

Eric Asbeck: So I’ll just say, did you know that there are four different retirement types? And the question is which retirement type for you? It quizzes. 

Susi Vine: And we all want to know what we are. Don’t wait. And this is a pretty big question. So, so it’s a perfect thing to, to start taking action to, to move forward and get this clarity, because it only serves us to be informed.

We’ll sleep better. We’ll start taking advantage of that fund bucket and feeling like we could only better ever be saving and really be enjoying and making 

Eric Asbeck: just to put this in context. I do this work with people and stuff like that. And, and it’s really gratifying and it makes a difference, but

the steps are pretty straightforward. And so if you’ve got somebody you trust that you can work with to do that, go for it. Just, the idea is to see that you, you can make it come together and give yourself the comfort to be able to do that stuff. And then go. I mean one way or the other, I incur that that’s the main thing go out and like just grapple with this thing, resolve it, and then you can move on from the, do I have enough money to retire comfortably to, Hey, I’ve got all these things I want to do.

And now I’ve got these obligations commitments. How do I, how do I stay focused on that? I mean, you can start playing those games, which are much more interesting. 

Susi Vine: Exactly, exactly. Fill in those big, scary blanks. So we can really dig into the fun stuff, you know, and get into what we want to be doing once we know that we’re on track to do like that 

Eric Asbeck: first objection that people say, but first I got to have the money.

So just solve it. I mean, I don’t say that trivially. It’s like, yeah, you need to deal with this. And once you get. Then you can proceed and you know, not have that knowing in the back of it. Right. There’s no fun in that, in my opinion. And I love, 

Susi Vine: I love my fellow advocates of fun, so I’m so grateful that we have been connected and we’ll be connected and look for ways to collaborate moving forward.

We’ll probably have you back on the show to dig into this a little further and give folks updates and, and do you take advantage of the information in the show notes? Eric’s website is exploring retirement dot. So you can find new information they’re events that are forthcoming and stay plugged in on everything that’s that’s coming together.

So you can enjoy the beautiful, juicy retirement that we all deserve to enjoy after we’ve been working so hard. 

Eric Asbeck: Yes. 

Susi Vine: Thank you so much. I’m so grateful you joined me today. I appreciate it. Yeah. What fun? 

Eric Asbeck: Like I knew before, even when we started, I knew I was going to have fun and I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had.

It’s been great. 

Susi Vine: Thank you. Take good care of 

Eric Asbeck: yourself.