What is real? What is not? What is reality? What is make believe? How much time do you spend spent thinking about that kind of thing? None some little bit. I remember learning couple years ago, the outsized impact that surprise has on us at the thing reality is that when you’re surprised by something, it heightens our senses. And so you think back to the last time you were scrolling through, so earlier today, and there was some headline that was just shocking. It was startling. And it surprised you like, what that’s happening? How is that happening? So the reason that people craft their headlines, the way that they do is because they’re trying to surprise you, because that gets this outsized, visual, visceral reaction, which will then cause you to click and scroll down and try to make heads and tails and get to the bottom of is this really happening? or is this some BS, clickbait title, so what’s real? What’s not? So much that sort of goes into this conversation. Because so much of what we are looking at is unreal, it’s uncertain. And I think that we human beings really crave certainty, I think that we crave understanding. It’s not that we crave the status quo, it’s just comfortable. It’s like, anytime we try and deviate from our current, modus operandi, our current routines and habits, our body sort of pulls us back to that, because our body wants to keep us alive. It wants to keep good going, everything’s going fine, to be better. Sure, but everything’s good. So why is George acting this way? Why is he waking up earlier? And why is he moving his body? Well, the answer is because I want to lose a little bit of weight. I’m not saying that. That’s what I want to do. I’m just giving you an example. Why is why is the behavior different? We need to stop that because we want to keep this person safe. So we crave certainty. Therefore, when we see something surprising, it has this profound impact on us, which causes us to dig into it a little bit more. So what is real? Do you remember the real world? Do you remember the real world? I thought that I did? I thought that the first season of the real world was the one with Puck. And Pedro. Is that what you think, too? Or do you know how dumb I am? Turns out first season in real world was in 1919 92, the end of last century? It’s kind of fun to say that the end of the last century is when the real world debuted. And of course, their tagline was, find out what happens when people stop being polite. Start getting real, that usher in is that the first reality television did that screw everything up? Go for the record. The consensus is that Candid Camera? It’s actually the first reality TV show and that’s been around for a really long time. I don’t know if it’s still on or not. But that started in 1948. So you remember Candid Camera? I think I sort of do that was clever. So real world. Season three of the real world was what I perceive to be the first season in the real world. Ondra Puck is doing what’s the over under on that deal? I don’t want to be morbid optic. Look that up. Then there was Dave Chappelle tells the Chappelle Show the Mad real world, you remember that? Oh my gosh, that has to be one of the funniest skits on the funniest show. Funniest sketch comedy show, maybe just funny show ever mad real world if you’ve not seen that one? Do yourself a favor. And and check that out. So what’s real, what’s not real? There’s a lot going on here. The context here, what I wanted to talk about was, I got targeted as we all get targeted 24/7 These days, but I got an ad served up to me on probably Instagram, because that’s where I spend most of my social media time. And it was a UBS ad financial company UBS and it was some guy like, sort of cameras pulled back and it was a guy sort of surveying his his vineyard. There was a guy on top of a hill and this epic view of rows and rows of of grapes. And I thought to my Self. I thought to myself, I honestly I was like, motherfucker, just because I like to drink wine. And I think about money I talk about money. Does it mean that I’ve any designs on owning a winery? Funny though, right? It’s like, oh, look at George he is talking about and thinking about and certainly about money stuff and and wine, we’re gonna go ahead and marry these two and serve him up a clear path to winery ownership and retirement. Oh, okay. All right. That made me think, okay, maybe? Probably not. How much? How much is a winery cost? If I were if I did have designs, which I do not have owning a winery, how much would that cost? I like I also I really enjoy sitting at a bar and chopping it up and having a drink. But I am. Maybe when I was 25 years old, the idea of owning a bar sounded pretty cool. But at 45 It sounds like the dumbest idea, the worst idea that I could imagine. And I’d love drinking wine is great. I’m good at it. It’s awesome. But the thought of owning a winery? Oh my goodness, I can’t even imagine. But maybe wonder what is a winery cost? What would I have to do? How much would I need to buy it? And then to keep it moving? But then my brain went to what’s the average 401k balance? Like who are they? Who are they targeting here? Is that Is this a? Is this an ad that’s going to everybody? Is everybody getting this winery ad? Or? Or? Or am I just extra fortunate? Like what is? What is the average 401k balance and why would they? Why would they be serving this up? So I don’t know. That got me thinking. took a step back. Like okay, let’s slow down here. Slow down, George. You like wine? You like the outdoors? You’d like standing outside and looking at stuff? I like California weather? Maybe winery is perfect for me. Maybe this is it? Luck, maybe? Maybe it’s my calling can retire from financial stuff from being a financial professional, and move into seamlessly move into being a proprietor of a winery. So I dug in, because I don’t want to miss my Colin. sod. Okay. All right. So what’s what’s the play here, maybe I start from scratch, maybe that’s the play. And when you search, you go ahead and plug into your favorite search engine. Starting a winery from scratch, you will get lots of cool reports. And anybody realize that it doesn’t make any sense to do that. It is wildly expensive, wildly expensive to start in winery from scratch, there are so many different costs. And it’s like they break it down, I’ll put the link to the piece that I was reading. It’s an academic piece, of course from one of the local Northern California colleges, and they broke down all the different costs and fees and expenses that go into actually starting a winery from scratch. So it didn’t make any sense for me my personal financial situation that’s not in the cards for me. So okay, that’s not it, but I still want to pursue my dream, you know, still want to pursue my newfound dream and calling passion, my purpose to make wonderful wine. So why don’t I just buy an operational winery, you know, I’ll step into a going concern and keep it moving, you know,

by an already successful operation. And again, with the internet, there are lots of listings on the internet for wineries Inc, scoop went up on the low end for about 1.5 million. Not bad, not bad. But probably means that a lot of those startup costs that I was talking about earlier, are still in existence, they still you’re still going to need to plow in a bunch of cash to get this thing up and running. Because there happened to be, or at one point there were grapes on this land and this that and the other thing doesn’t mean that this is fully functional course. From 1.5 million all the way up to your imagination. Let your imagination one wild 20 3040 $50 million. Now we’re talking now we’re talking now I’m stepping into something and I can just sit back and swirl wine and drink it and do the whole survey in the land thing that I was talking about earlier. That dude from the UBS commercial was done. So sales price, and there’s a lot of ongoing costs. So you know, that’s just not in the cards either. Unless things dramatically change. I don’t I don’t see that path as being the right one for me, but my dream is still alive. I’m not ready to give up on it yet. Maybe Maybe I’ll head to Italy. I heard stories about Italians. happens where you can buy a house for $1. And you need to put a certain amount of money into that house within a certain amount of time and then it becomes yours. So okay, similar type deal. Italy, that’s like Italian wine. That’s some of the best, right? So Italian food, amazing, beautiful there, this could be perfect for me. But however, same problems exist from the domestic wineries be it from scratch or mine the going concern, those same challenges financially that I have also exist in Italy, similar type deal. So long story short, I’m probably just going to keep doing what I’m doing. Going to enjoy wine, whether it’s out of a bottle or comes out of a box. And I’ll do that with a big smile on my face. Because there is no shame in my game. I need to proud to drink wine out of most any container. What’s that saw? It’s green eggs and ham. You know, I will drink one out of a box. I will drink it out of a glass. I’ll drink it right out of the bottle. I will drink wine most anywhere. No shame in my game again. All right, so. So so so so so all funding games aside, the real world, the Mad real world, real world versus pretend world. Back to my dreams back to what I really want. That kind of does come down to that. Like, what do I really want? What do I really want to I want to do these things? Do I want to own a bar restaurant at winery? What do I want to do when I retire? And then as news keeps always doing, which is more Moore’s there’s always more news being created. Notice that there’s always more news, more stuff to read about new numbers. New magic numbers for retirement, the Wall Street Journal told me a couple of weeks ago, the new number for retirement is drums please. $1.46 million dollars 1.46. How deliciously are annoyingly specific? What do you think about that? 1.46? Assuming that’s true? Are you on track to get there? assume that’s true. Is that a daunting number? assume that’s true? Is that no big deal? Oh, that’s it? So there you go. The new magic number is $1.46 million. How often do you think about money? Probably more than the average person because you are right now consuming a financial a personal finance, video or podcast? How often do you think about it? Do you want to think about it something that you enjoy? Just something that feels like you have to do it’s entertaining? Maybe you’re working in money? So I wonder, I wonder, I think understanding and appreciating how different our brains work, and easy to sort of fall into the assumption or trap that we’re out with the world thinking the same way. I heard a read an article a couple of weeks back about how there’s a good percentage of people that in their brain, they don’t have any kind of internal dialogue. That that’s fascinating, because I have a constant internal dialogue, but more evidence that our brains just are different. So what do you think? Does it make sense to you to just shoot for a sum of money? To say, okay, you know, hey, if that’s the number 1.4 6 million, maybe rounded up to 1.5, and you shoot for two? I don’t know. What do you think? Would it make more sense to think about contentment and happiness? What is it that brings me contentment? I’ve already thought about that. What is it makes me happy? And what would bring me contentment, peace of mind. IceCube more towards that. I’m more artistic than I am analytical. So whatever side of my brain that is, I guess I’m more right brain than I am left brain left brain. But I don’t want you to get me wrong, because the number is really important. But is it too arbitrary? That’s, that’s the question. Where do we arrive at this number? I mean, I spent a lot of time thinking about and talking about how it’s important for us to make up our own mind and think our own thoughts about everything in life. But certainly when it comes to our finances. How concerned Am I or how much input and influence am I allowing others outside of myself to make these up to make these sorts of decisions? So have we thought it all the way through? Have you thought about your retirement number or your retirement desires all the way through? I don’t know. Do you know? Do you know? Do you know? Do you know do you know? What is retirement to you? What is it? Stop working step away from full time work. never work again. When wind rain, when you think about retirement, what would be the same? Would everything be the same in your life? Would you wake up at the same time? Just start your day the same way? What would you like to be different? Everything? I never want to think about work ever again. Or I want to keep doing my work just with different perhaps deadlines, or for less time every day. I don’t know. Do you want to own a winery? Or do you simply want to drink wine? Step number one, step number 1111. I think figure out what you want your life to look like in retirement. So we’ve taken conversation about the real world all the way to what do you want your retirement life to look like? But I think that that’s just the simplest way to think about it. Like, what do you want to do? What do you want your life to look like? Where will you be? Will you be in Ely? Italy? Will you be in California? Will you be in? Whatever? Where will you be? Where do you want to be? Next? Who do you want to be with? Who are you going to be with? Do you want to live close to your kids close to your grandkids? Does not matter? That’s certainly if that’s going to be if that’s a priority for you, you might need to relocate because my goodness, we move around an awful lot, don’t we? So who will you be with? Where will you be? What are you going to be doing? The one of the big dangers of retirement, and more. So the cause of unhappy retirement is that we have not figured out we do not figure out how we’re going to replace what work gives to us. Because work gives us a lot gives us an enormous amount, aside from simply in income, but it gives us a place to go. It gives us something to do. Oftentimes it does give us meaning and or purpose. It gives us community gives us friends gives us coworkers, it gives us focus does all these things. That’s a lot. That’s a lot. So where are you going to replace that with? Because to not consider that to not think about where you’re going to get the things that work currently provides you is a major folly, it’s an F up, it’s a huge mistake. Because you’re going to be looking around trying to figure out what in the world that you’re going to do. And like everything in life, it’s way better to spend a little bit of time on the front end than it is trying to scramble around and figure it out while you know as you’re sort of doing it. Okay, so figure out all that stuff. What do you want to do? Where are you going to be? Who are you going to be with all that stuff? What are you going to do with your time, then figure out how much all that stuff’s going to cost? Okay, so we back into it here and figure out how much Social Security that you’re going to have. I sure do hope that Social Security’s gonna be around for as long as we need it to. And I have my guess I certainly could choose to completely avoid it. And that’s going to change the math substantially. So if you decide that you think it’s going to be around and you’re going to plan on it, well then plan on it. If on the other hand, you do not think it’s going to be rushed, you’re not comfortable planning on it, well, then don’t. So if you are comfortable thinking it’s going to be there, figure out what the shortfall is the number in between your Social Security benefit and the amount that your life your new life and retirement is going to cost you. And then you could simply back right into how much you’ll need to accumulate

no security. Fair enough. How much is your new life you retired life gonna cost? How much you need to be saving now? Okay, so that’s pretty straightforward. You know, when you rate really break down what a financial plan is, it’s not at all rocket surgery or brain science or whatever. It’s how much do I need? When do I need it? What kind of interest rate am I going to get? How much do I need to save today? There, we just did a really good financial plan. We just did your retirement plan. It’s kind of what we did right here. What do you want to do? How much is gonna cost? Are we going to get that much? All right, easy peasy. You’re welcome. One last thing, though. One last thing as you are asking yourself these questions is big questions. What do I want? Where do I want to be who don’t want to do it with it’s best to do that kind of thinking with a glass of wine. Take my word for it. For the reminder, never gonna be anybody more interested in your financial success than you are. So act accordingly.