A Mindful Approach to Financial Planning & Multi-Generational Wealth

Getting your financial world in shape isn't only about numbers. It's also about discovering your lifelong goals, the milestones you need to get there, and what you are doing right now to support that journey. Our guest today says that many people stumble around when it comes to their financial future because they haven't really figured out what they are trying to accomplish, over the long term. As an example, a college education may groom a student to be a good employee, and not someone who might go beyond employee status to start their own business.

Jonathan Satovsky is the CEO and Chief Behavioral Coach of Satovsky Asset Management, or SAM. He takes a mindful approach to financial planning by helping clients figure out what they really want and the investment strategies they'll need to accomplish their goals. In this podcast, he shares some of his thoughts on how to get in touch with your financial muse in order to map out a plan for financial freedom and flexibility.

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Transcript:

[00:00:00] [music]

Announcer: You're listening to the Real Wealth Show with Kathy Fettke, the real estate investor's resource.

Kathy Fettke: Getting your financial world in shape isn't only about numbers. It's also about discovering your lifelong goals, the milestones you need to get there, and what you're doing right now to support that journey. I'm Kathy Fettke and welcome to the Real Wealth Show. Our guest today says that many people stumble around when it comes to their financial future because they haven't really figured out what they're trying to accomplish over the long term. As an example, a college education may groom a student to be a good employee but not someone who might go beyond that employee status to start their own business.

Jonathan Satovsky is the CEO and Chief Behavioral Coach at Satovsky Asset Management or SAM. He takes a mindful approach to financial planning by helping clients figure out what they really want and the investment strategies they'll need to accomplish their goal. In this podcast, he shares some of his thoughts on how to get in touch with your financial muse in order to map out a plan for financial freedom and flexibility.

Jonathan, welcome to the Real Wealth Show. You specialize in some of the topics that we don't mention very much and that is financial intelligence and really emotional intelligence. Let's talk a little bit more about that. What does it mean to have emotional intelligence and specifically financial intelligence?

Jonathan Satovsky: I think I stumbled into the field of financial planning and wealth management as a by-product to the fact that they don't teach it formally in high school and college. Most people learn by rumbling, bumbling, and stumbling. At a young age, most people aren't thinking about the lifespan of their financial journey. It takes a tremendous amount of emotional intelligence to not only know what you want, but to start mapping out a game plan of how to execute and make decisions that are going to give you [00:02:00] the financial freedom and flexibility throughout the course of your life. Whether you're investing in real estate or the stock market or whatever it is that your plans are, to give yourself that autonomy and freedom, everyone ultimately is going to reach at some stage of their life intentionally or unintentionally.

Kathy: That's interesting. My daughter just graduated from San Diego State and she said, "You know, I feel like I've been really well trained to work for someone else." Even though she had a degree in business, but I think they would still think it should be in business administration or marketing for someone else. Very interesting. We're really not taught to think about the future, where we want to be, and get clear on what's most important, and then what are the financial steps to get there?

Jonathan: Well, it's no different than your daughter that's graduating. People are asked at 17 years of age, "What do you want to do the rest of your life? Pick a major, pick a career, pick a path." People can idealize what it is to pick any profession. Law, medicine, being in real estate, being in finance.

Kathy: I believe you said you're in Italy right now. Is that right?

Jonathan: I am in Milan. Yes.

Kathy: Okay. Somehow you found a parking spot. That's wonderful. Thanks for taking the time for us here. Now, you specialize in behavioral coaching and specifically behavioral finance. What does that mean?

Jonathan: Trying to help people align their idea of how they want to live and their goals and dreams with what they're actually doing, like a financial doctor, where we try to help people, hold them accountable to what it is they say is most important, and aligning their actions to what it is that are their priorities to keep them on track. Behavioral finances, as my friend says, "You can be Einstein for others but Mr. Magoo for yourself and everyone needs a coach to be able to help keep them in line when people fall off track.

Kathy: Okay. Would you say that people even have a track [00:04:00] when it comes to their finances? Like I had said earlier, my daughter just graduated from San Diego State. She said, "Wow mom, now I have a degree where they really taught me to be a very good employee," and to work for somebody else even though she has a business degree. Are we taught happiness and how to create a life of happiness and a career that surrounds that or not so much?

Jonathan: Not so much. There's a famous book by Thomas Campbell, Hero of a Thousand Faces, if you've ever heard of it. The concept of every hero's journey is the pursuit of self-discovery and pursuit of joy or bliss. It's easy to say to a 21-year old graduate in college, "Go pursue your bliss." Then they're just like, "Wait a second. I need a job to be able to pay the bills." They're not thinking on a deeper level of understanding to know what brings them joy.

It is not something taught, it's something that is learned through experimentation and degree of self-awareness of trying to balance competing priorities in life.

Kathy: Sure. I mean, I never--

Jonathan: I think that having someone to pull it out of you, having a financial coach or therapist or just observing life and experiences to feel through what works, what doesn't work, what feels right, what doesn't feel right, ideally, people would start foundationally with some financial literacy in good habits, to be able to give themselves the flexibility to take risks, to experiment with things that are going to light them up and unlock their unique abilities and talents to shine in the world, whatever that means.

Kathy: When you're working with a client, what are the powerful questions that you ask them to dive into that part of themselves that, maybe, they haven't paid any attention to?

Jonathan: First, where can we help? Then you just probe with open-ended questions. People become [unintelligible 00:05:48], "Well, I'm thinking about doing this, this and this and this. How can you help?" You just take it one step at a time. There isn't a silver bullet. The answer always is, it depends. One question leads to the next [00:06:00] to really dig deeper and I think a lot of it has to do with what they witnessed from their parents' or grandparents' experience, friends, community.

There's a book called The Excellent Sheep that was written by a Yale student who became a Yale professor that said a third of the kids go to school with a creative ambition, and by the time they're juniors and seniors, because of peer pressure from their teachers, parents, friends, they end up going into what is the safe route of management consulting or doctor, lawyer and they give up on their passions or creative pursuits because they figure, "I'll make money and then I'll pursue the creative pursuits." We try to find a way to challenge people in a carefrontational way, in a provocative way to say, "What is it deep down that really is going to bring you joy? Let's pursue it. Let's not waste any time in your life."

Kathy: Let's say it's music. Let's take that. I'm here in the Los Angeles area and there's lots of people pursuing their joy of music and not really making money from it. We just hired some young 24-year-old musicians for a private party and they were so talented. There's no reason why they weren't mega superstars, but they're not. What do you say for people who really are pursuing what they love but not getting anywhere financially?

Jonathan: How do you apply that skillset to option B, C, D? Everything is about optionality. People want to go all in and say, "Okay, I'm going to be the next queen, or [unintelligible 00:07:32] or whatever. I'm going to be a megastar robust." From what I understand, the little background I understand in doing a little digging, I think Will Ferrell was living in his mom's home working at Target for eight years or something like that while he was pursuing his acting career.

You got to make some sacrifices and challenge yourself to bring that creative spirit into some practical day job that [00:08:00] can bridge the gap between the dream and some other alternative reality so that you have some in-between that you aren't boom-bust. Some people like to live with boom-bust but they have some in-between that is sustainable and practical.

Kathy: How do you know if somebody is financially healthy?

Jonathan: Your daughter just graduated from school. Most people are used to the vernacular of getting a report card. People go for an annual checkup with a doctor and they get blood work and they see how their personal health is. We apply the same concept in finance is where if you take a look at someone's balance sheet and someone's cash flow, you can ascertain the equivalent of a report card for someone's financial health and wellness. That's the gauge of someone's financial health and progress that takes time. It's a building block.

You start at one place. Rome wasn't built in a day. It takes time but it's a starting point to be able to show the progress. It's not uncommon. It's hard to imagine but it's not uncommon to see tenfold growth of someone's balance sheet in a 10-year period of time if they get into good habits, particularly starting through from the beginning. You can see exponential change in someone's financial health and wellness, if they have that mindset in place.

Kathy: What are those basic habits?

Jonathan: Well, give you a simple idea of pay yourself first. I met a woman who was 50 years old that had accumulated millions of dollars with a simple concept of paying yourself first. She had a paper route at 15 and she was taught to save a dime of every dollar that she made and by saving a dime of every dollar and investing at a very young age and thinking about a lifetime of investing, she didn't sweat the short-term, she didn't get caught up in the minutia day-to-day, week-to-week, quarter-to-quarter. She was thinking about a lifespan of investing habits.

By carving out a dime of every dollar for her future self, you accidentally create [00:10:00] financial independence.

Kathy: That's great. If you do more it goes even faster. If you did 20% you just doubled it.

Jonathan: I guess there's other vices that people can get addicted to. Drugs, alcohol, sex whatever it is. I think the addiction of seeing your money accumulate is pretty good. It's pretty fun.

Kathy: It's a good one. Some women have addictions to buying fancy Italian bags like where you are now, but I would prefer to buy a little rundown house somewhere or it fixed up one.

Jonathan: Exactly.

Kathy: Very good. Number one, basic step is to save that 10%. Again when we first started, we were doing as much as 30%. It was like 10% for investment, 10% for savings, and 10% for emergencies. If we didn't have an emergency that got to go into the long term, so you do have to have great discipline and just stay within that budget, but still, find great ways to live even within that budget. We did a lot of vacations. They were camping at free campsites and we had a blast. I would beg to say that our kids probably liked those little lakefront camping trips more than well, I don't know about more than that oceanfront Hawaii place, but when they were young they loved it and it was free.

Jonathan: Those trade-offs though at a young age and even at different stages of life, it's a sacrifice of prioritizing your values in a way that ultimately has given you the freedom to be at the Hawaii beachfront place that you wouldn't have had if you weren't establishing those habits young and doing it without any guilt. You're able to do it with a lot of pleasure now.

Kathy: Yes, especially if that income is being generated from assets that you own and that you're going to spend that money this month but there's going to be more coming next month. Yes it's a completely different mindset [00:12:00]

I am going to look at this list to make sure I did not miss anything. First of all, what are you doing in Italy? Are you on vacation or do you live there?

Jonathan: In the realm of COVID and Zoom, I have managed to experiment for now what's coming about a month of designing a life that I can-- initially what was intended to be a vacation. I've visited some clients here in Italy and ended up meeting prospective clients, being referred several people still staying on the New York timezone of actually working 3:00 to midnight and vacationing from 6:00 AM to 3:00 AM and then 12:00 PM after. The only thing that's gotten changed in this last month is sleep, but other than that it's been fantastic.

Kathy: Sleep when you die. That's what they say. All right. It has been truly a pleasure to have you here. I would consider that living real wealth. That's what we teach here, is find out what brings you bliss and work towards that, and find out how much that will cost. It may not cost as much as you think, and then create the passive income that will support that. What are your investments of choice? Where do you put your money?

Jonathan: I know you teach a lot about real estate investing and direct real estate investing. Philosophically the ideas that you share the principles are universal. In order for me to travel, in order for me to unplug and turn off my phone for 24 hours or even a week theoretically, the way that we approach it is by investing in the cheapest most profitable businesses in the world, predominantly on the equity market. In the real estate market, the same principles apply.

We can invest in the most profitable real estate in the world. It's not for me to judge in the last year or two for example it happened to be warehouses and cell towers. Other times it might be shopping centers [00:14:00] or multifamily houses. What we do is use technology and computers to be able to curate that portfolio in a tax-efficient way so that people can relax and enjoy their lives without stress and benefit by the labor and efforts by others.

Kathy: Indeed. Very good. Okay, Jonathan. Well, I'm sure you've got plenty to do and to sight-see while you're in Europe. I do thank you so much for being here and sharing your wisdom with us here on the Real Wealth Show.

Jonathan: Thank you for having me.

Kathy: Thank you for joining me here on the Real Wealth Show. Join Real Wealth Network today to find out how to build wealth with new and renovated single-family rentals. Membership is free and we'll give you access to our investor portal where you can view sample property proformas, and then connect with our network of resources nationwide, including experienced investment counselors, property teams, lenders 1031 exchange facilitators, attorneys, CPAs, and more. These professionals come highly recommended by our over 56,000 members. To join, go to realwealthshow.com.

Announcer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action. For more information, go to realwealthshow.com.

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