190. Make Your Money Matter with Brad Barrett

Average Joe Finances: 0:02

Hey, welcome back to the average Joe Finances podcast. I'm your host, Mike Cavaggioni, and today's guest is Brad Barrett. So Brad, super excited. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Brad Barrett: 0:12

Oh, thank you for having me. I appreciate the time.

Average Joe Finances: 0:14

Yeah, absolutely. Hey, I wanna start this off the same way I start every podcast episode. And if you listen to my podcast episodes, often that phrase probably sounds like a broken record, but this is how we do it, right? So we wanna know more about you. So if you could share a little bit about yourself, share your story. Who is Brad Barrett?

Brad Barrett: 0:32

Yeah, appreciate it. First and foremost Husband, father of two, got kids seven and five. Originally from California spent a lot of time in Hawaii. I think you never were just talking about that. My dad was born and raised in Oahu, so my wife and I, we moved to actually the island of Maui for a couple years and moved back and so yeah, it's been an interesting couple years. From a career standpoint I'm a financial advisor and I think for a lot of times, When I talk about that and bring that up, Mike is around private wealth advisory versus financial advisory and some differences there. But I'm 36 and I've been doing this since I was 16, believe it or not. And there's a whole story behind that. My, my dad had worked for a company for like nearly 20 years and when I was 16, they had two younger sisters. His company went bankrupt. The thousands of employees all affected. It was the second largest corporate bankruptcy in US history behind Enron. It was a big deal. Needless to say, my my world was turned upside down. It was quite an experience and I remember right then and there, Which led me to why I'm even talking to you today was, there was two things I wanted to do. I wanted to learn everything I could about money and diversifying yourself, and then ultimately I found my purpose in that same environment where, I wanted to make sure I help people with it. And that was it. So nearly 20 years later I actually somehow, some way at my high school at the time, I was able to get an internship with a bank, Washington Mutual, God rested soul. I was a high school intern there from sophomore year to senior year. Worked there at partly college and then started a broker, dealer Securities America, and that's where I started my advisory practice. And since moved out of there and joined up at my firm, now won Capital Management. At the time I joined in 2011, there was probably about seven employees or so, and we had about. I don't know, half a billion or so in management. And today we're sitting at about 85 employees and about 5 billion in management. So it's been a really great ride. And it's all been through the client lenses of making sure that we're sitting kneecap to kneecap with them. And it's something that we focus very heavily on here at our firm. And we have offices here in our head offices in Westlake Village, California, which is about 45 minutes north of la. We have an office in Newport Beach, Santa Barbara, San Francisco. In Kansas City. So it's been a fun growing period, like anyone out there watching, listening in terms of business owners, and it's had its trials and tribulations and I became partner in 2013 and we just instituted a lot of really great client-centric notions when it comes to managing the wealth that Know, our clients have and have come to us for, and that wealth includes a lot of different asset classes. Real estate, stocks, bonds, different types of accounts. And so we, what you would consider a holistic manager. So we kinda look at the entirety of it. So yeah, it's kinda little on my background and how I got here today.

Average Joe Finances: 3:02

All right, Brad. Yeah. That's awesome. And what a background too, especially, almost being forced into it at the age of 16, to learn about these things after, with what happened with your father's company, right? Yeah. So that's definitely huge. I'm pretty sure that had a huge impact on your decision to go down this road. Would you say that it did?

Brad Barrett: 3:18

Oh, a hundred percent. It's one of those things where God just touches my heart right then and says that's what you're gonna do with your life. And you gotta remember right, out there when you're 16 years old, especially from a guy's perspective, for me, at that time I was probably a pissed off teenager, I'm just like, what's going on? Confused and mad and angry and just all this stuff and my dad who I look up to, and I'm just like how did this happen to a guy who's worked so hard? This happens. And it definitely shaped my idea. And philosophies around money, and I share this with clients and I, I know, probably in your world you talk about this a lot too. We carry two things with us at all times when it comes to like our emotional biases towards money. There's like the God-given d n a, right? No difference in the color of our eyes. And then there's the circumstantial, like the stuff we live through. Good and bad. And I think as we're all honest with ourselves, both of those at different times in our lives and different seasons, shape us and shape who we are as we grow, but also shapes our thought process and really outlook towards, in my world, things like money. So a lot of my clients that come in, we do our first meeting, discovery meeting, they're bringing in a lot of, we'll call it baggage. You know what I mean? There's a lot of stuff going on there that I have to dig into and I relate to them very heavily. Cuz in our world everyone's worried about, Their assets, sustaining them for their life, not losing money and when it's the right time, I share with them, like I've seen the worst side of it. That's, in fact why I'm sitting in front of you today is potentially your advisor. I've seen the side that you're fearful of and I'm made a career and a life out of diversifying and managing that risk, inherently.

Average Joe Finances: 4:45

Yeah. From the get go. So you started, it's at 16 years old here, you are interning at a bank, right? Now when you finish that up and you just went right into being a broker dealer, right? So what made you wanna do that instead of, joining a firm and being taken under someone else's wing.

Brad Barrett: 5:01

I think that was just my individual entrepreneurship spirit. It was just how I was wired. I think anyone out there, like you probably talked about, there's just a wiring, although to be fair at the bank, I was able to, the good thing about a retail, like brick and mortar bank, sometimes you get to see like different sides of the business. You saw the mortgage side, you saw the client services side, you saw ops, you saw, there was a financial advisor in the branch. And I realized then that for me, One thing I share today, and one thing I'm very proud of is that I've always done it where I didn't want to have bosses telling me what I had to provide to the clients. That was a big deal for me. That was a sticking point, and that's one of the reasons why, from a pragmatic standpoint, if you will, I didn't want to really have wholesalers and overhead and people like telling me, okay, do this fund or do, do these alternative investments. Like that kind of stuff. I didn't want that. I wanted to it to come up organically. As the right fit for the client. Not that I had this like pressuring coming through. And I hooked up with a really great advisory practice when I was about 19. So this was probably sophomore year of college at Securities America at the broker dealer. A guy who was my mentor for a long time. And it was, in those kind of, in the environments like a lot of us have in life, right? You almost equally learn as much as what you don't wanna do, as, as much as you do wanna do. So I took the good with the bad and that's what kind of shaped me into coming over here and, building a great practice with some great people.

Average Joe Finances: 6:15

Awesome. Right on. Yeah. Moving along there you wind up joining this company that obviously grew and excelled tremendously, right?

Brad Barrett: 6:23

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 6:23

And you said, was it in 2013, you became a partner?

Brad Barrett: 6:26

Yeah, so I joined in 2011 and became partner in 2013.

Average Joe Finances: 6:30

Wow, okay. Just two years later, obviously.

Brad Barrett: 6:32

Yeah, it was.

Average Joe Finances: 6:32

You were doing some pretty impactful stuff.

Brad Barrett: 6:34

I like to think so. We have a great team here. This whole thing here is we have individual advisors at One Capital that focus on Certain niches, right? So we have a whole sports and entertainment chassis. So we have really great guys that focus on athletes and entertainers, and we have really a big name brand and a lot of a couple of the big four sports. We have our own family office structure that focuses on what you would consider. Ultra high net worth to ultra high net worth. I happen to oversee a couple things within the firm that kind of led me to that partner route was I instituted our corporate services platform here. So I had a big background in instituting and bridging the gap, if you will, between business owners and or executives that either own or represent a company. So doing retirement plans, both qualified and non-qualified and just all that comes with it. We also put a insurance arm in there cause a lot of our clients needed certain. Insurance needs for that regard, and instead of subbing it out to someone who's just gonna sell 'em a product, we wanted to do it right. So we did a couple of those things and one of my big passion projects has been for many years is first responders. So one of my largest clients and largest relationships is out here in Los Angeles, fire and police Department. So we we have a whole niche and a whole platform on our business segments page that focuses solely on them. I think I shared with you before my family's mostly military. My brother's a was a seal in the Navy like you were. And so that's always been a big part of my give back, but also just really helping them focus on things just in general, like that they don't, they're not really accustomed to you're not going into basic training. They're talking to you how to fund an IRA, so it's just, you know your 10 and 20 year pension numbers potentially, and you go through some admin stuff, but that's about it. So it's been really cool to, to focus on different niches and that's how we've grown and we've brought on partners and we've brought on offices and strategic relationships to, to get us to the client. Family, household and size and assets under management that we're at today.

Average Joe Finances: 8:20

Brad I'll say that. What I really like about the way that you do this is it seems like you really focus on making sure your clients are educated, right? Yeah. So they understand some of these things. You pointed out something great about, folks in the military, right? So you go through basic training and you finish up. Nobody tells you how to fund an IRA or you know how to set up your retirement, post right military career, right? They say, Hey, yeah, you do this amount of time, you'll get a pension. And, oh, look, here's this thrift savings plan thing. Contribute to it.

Brad Barrett: 8:49

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 8:49

But they don't tell you what to do.

Brad Barrett: 8:50

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 8:51

For 13 years while I was in the Navy, all of my thrift savings plan was going to something called the G Fund. Which was the government

Brad Barrett: 8:58

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 8:58

Bonds and everything.

Brad Barrett: 8:59

And you have all these other funds, right?

Average Joe Finances: 9:00

Lowest yeah. The lowest possible return you can get. Yeah. That's where all my money was going, cuz nobody told me any better and I didn't know any better. Yeah. It wasn't until I actually took a class on it and realized, wow, okay, this, the amount that I have in there could have been worth so much more if I would've only known. To diversify it and put into these different funds. So that's that's huge. I, so I really respect that Brad, that you know you really focus on making sure your clients are educated on the different programs that are out there available to them. So that's, yeah, I think that's huge. Cause I think we lose a lot of that in today's society. We lose a lot of those financial education. And that's one of the things I want to ask you about too. So speaking of understanding and learning about money and what you can do with it, What would you say that most people actually get wrong about money?

Brad Barrett: 9:51

They actually, typically, what I've seen in 18 years now being an advisor is they'll attach themselves to a number. And they'll provide themselves in their brain. Like their mind will tell them that some numerical number out there, that they'll, somehow, they'll equate it to something they'll get it wrong. Because money's really more about time, not about a number. And I always share this, like the way I, my one parlor trick as a totally nerdy finance guy is this if I were to ask you, Mike, if a 95 year old came to you today and said, Hey, I'll give you, make up a number, 10 billion, but you gotta trade places with me permanently, would you do it? Likely not, cuz you're gonna give up 50, 60 years of your life.

Average Joe Finances: 10:29

Definitely not.

Brad Barrett: 10:30

I always share with people like money means less to you than you think. And it like baffles 'em because they're like, that's what they get wrong about it. They think it's some number and they and it's a utility. Money is neither good nor bad. It's what you do with it that matters. And I always share with people too I guess some questions sometimes Okay, Brad, you're a private wealth manager. You manage, X amount of money, like you're obviously successful. Is there a minimum? Is there something you do? And I said, not necessarily a number. Minimum. There's a minimum of intent. Are you there to really dive in and focus on. Helping yourself. Cuz I can't, I can the old joke, right? I can lead you to water and heck, I can feed you some salt and make you thirsty, but I can't make you drink, so you gotta be there. So it's really the intent around it. And you're right I do take a big focus and it's something I've done for my entire career because, I started in this whole endeavor, in this whole financial services. Remember, my dad was in telecommunications. Most of my family was in military. My mom was a teacher. No one was in the financial world in my, in the Barrett household. Like it wasn't a thing, so I'm first gen on this whole thing and to me, I started with education, I started learning myself. So it was like a natural like flow for me to sit with someone that says, Hey, I had to go through this path and learn this. I'm gonna share this with you. And I've talked to my brothers about this with their TSP, A lot of, all of our government workers and those kind of things. Obviously with my first responders with fire and police, they have deferred compensation plans, which are 457 plans. They act a little bit differently and there's rules that are different and it's amazing. I talk to these guys all the time, it's you've been on 15 years on the job. I just had a, said, a discovery meeting this morning, in fact, and we're talking about this I've been on 15 years. I had a good captain one time that told me, just put in the retirement plan and I put it into the aggressive fund and I haven't changed it since. And now he's he's almost, he's turning 50 here real soon. And I'm you're, this ultra aggressive approach might not be based on your plan, the best approach. He says, that's why I'm coming to you. Because I was never educated. I was never, and. The resources are out there. But one of the things we've done, and lately, the past couple years is how we got hooked up was the education kind of pouring outta me, came into our radio show, which we now have a radio show here in the local LA area, came into our YouTube show, the Make Your Money Matter Show and our podcast that was born purely organically out of education stuff we're doing every day. And we wanted to do it in a medium like this and get hooked up with great guys like you, and share the word and share the conversation about. And I told my partners this. I came to him a couple years ago and in full disclosure, I was like, I was tired of seeing out there being the unknown expert. You got all these guys, it's like my wife and I joke, right? It's like you see some workout guy telling you what to do and he's 25 years old with no kids. I'm like, bro, call me when you're 40. You know what I mean?

Average Joe Finances: 13:31

Yeah. And you have a family at home, right?

Brad Barrett: 13:33

Yeah. When you have family and you gotta wake up and feed kids and you're running around job and those kind of things. I could have a washboard ads at, at 25 too if I, it's the same thing with finance. You've got a bunch of these, like whatever you wanna call them out there talking about. Until you're in it in the real world and live through some seasons, you gotta really attach that. So a part of us was like making sure people knew there was also sound advice. Sound counsel. Backed up education with credibility, accountability all that stuff. That was the other reason why kind of the emulation of our education came from that too, to our show.

Average Joe Finances: 14:01

A hundred percent. Yeah. This is why I bring on experts like you right to talk about these things cuz I'll never consider myself an expert in certain fields, right? But what I do like to do, what I really enjoy doing is asking questions. And learning as I go. So the way I looked at it when I started this podcast was, I'm not gonna make myself a finance expert, but I'm going to talk to the experts. Yeah. I'm gonna pick their brains and I'm gonna create this platform that helps educate other people that's gonna help other people. And I think that's one of the biggest things. So like you said, there's a lot of people out there that are unknown. Untapped experts that are doing really amazing things, but their information's not getting out there. And then people will go on YouTube and they'll watch somebody saying, oh yeah, I bought, this much, Dogecoin or crypto. Exactly. And now I've got $3 million, do what I do. And it's By the time you get into it, something that they've already did, did that trend is over. And that's one of the big things too, is a lot of these financial gurus or things like that you see out there, it's very trend oriented, right? It's the Wall Street bets thing. I had so many people when that was going down, like coming up to, Hey, are you investing in GameStop and Nvidia? And I'm like, no. Like I'm not.

Brad Barrett: 15:07

Yeah,

Average Joe Finances: 15:07

I'm not going any anywhere near any of that because that is all like, This looks like a huge pump and dump scam, which exactly, that's exactly what it was, right? Yeah. But it gained so much popularity because so many people just flocked to that because they're not. Properly educated on finances.

Brad Barrett: 15:24

And I would even argue that they're almost improperly educated in the areas that are seeking the education. So like they're, the thing is, and you and I both know this now in this, these platforms that we're on, that's why I take a very hard stance on this, and I'm very calculated in what we're putting on our show like you are and who we talked to. Because, 20 years ago when I started in this business, like we didn't have. Really Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and YouTube where it's at today. In fact, most of those weren't even around then. And you think about the fast-paced 140 characters of you getting some, Hey, this Reddit form is talking about X, Y, and Z stock, or whatever. That wasn't even a possibility 20 years ago. You had to wait till Sunday in the paper or five o'clock at the news or something to get that information. It's just moving so fast now, which is. Good in ways, but can be, poorly used in other ways. And so.

Average Joe Finances: 16:11

It could be dangerous.

Brad Barrett: 16:12

Totally. Could be.

Average Joe Finances: 16:12

Yeah.

Brad Barrett: 16:13

Especially when it comes to something as important as your money and it's one of the things that I relate to clients on, sometimes I tell them like, when's the last time you got into your car and just drove around aimlessly. Think about it, anytime you get in a car nowadays, you know where you're going. There's a destination you're going to, right?

Average Joe Finances: 16:29

Sometimes, I live in Hawaii, sometimes I'll just get in the car. You drive around cuz it's beautiful.

Brad Barrett: 16:33

That's true. I definitely, that is true for us. On the west side there, our Costco and Walmart was like 45 minutes away. So I was always telling I'll go do that drive, cuz it's a beautiful drive. Yeah, I mean you have the casual Sunday drives and things like that, but we're driving somewhere, and it's as something as negligible as going to whatever, like I took my kids to get ice cream last night, we knew where we were going. We left the house, got ice cream and that's where we were going. And it's funny and I'm like we, something as important as our money, we don't know where we're going with it half the time. Like most of the time I tell people like, do you have a goal and objectives where you're going with it? And again, the thing they get wrong about money is they'll attach that. To a number. Now, Don, don't get me wrong, the quantitative data in that is important, but it's always gonna be like 50% of the story. The other 50% is the values, the interest, like what do you wanna be doing with that? And I think that's also a healthy way, I think, cuz money nowadays, man, you go on anything nowadays, it's like more is better. If you don't have this, then you're doing it wrong. And it's just that's a narrative that is. Sad and it's causing, look at the CDC results. It's causing a bunch of stuff with depression, anxiety, and all these things that are out there, man. And a lot of it has to do with the have not, they think they don't have anything. And the reality is if you shut your phone off or shut certain things off, you probably look around you and be like, I'm okay. Yeah. And so it's about what's important to you. Yeah. And finding out what's important to you and making sure one of my sayings all the time is little, it's a little it, but I say money's okay to have in your bank and in your wallet and your checking account, but make sure it's not in your heart. You gotta check your heart sometimes and be like, are you coveting? Are you, what are you doing for money? And what is money doing for you? Like for me, for my family, and I always tell my clients this, I'm very open about it. Like money to me is simply a tool to buy freedom. That's there.

Average Joe Finances: 18:09

I was just gonna say the same thing.

Brad Barrett: 18:10

Plain and simple.

Average Joe Finances: 18:10

Read it as a tool because that's what it is.

Brad Barrett: 18:13

Don't attach your worth to it. Don't attach your identity to it. Those are all where you get into problems. And this is by the way, easier said than done. I'm well aware, but it starts with kind of mapping it out for me. I've always believed this and I'll go to my grave saying this. It's just I think, I do believe that. Accountability, advocacy and advisor really does help. And I know there's a narrative out there saying the DIY, do it yourself. And I'm fine with that. If you're a robot out there listening and watching do that, you're fine. But if you're a human listening and you have emotions, You're gonna need someone to make sure or find some sort of counsel, someone to follow, someone to glean into that kind of lean on. The times we're hard. Last year in 2022 is a great example. You got volatile years and let's be honest, the past 15 years, we've all been spoiled. Low interest rates, decent markets. We've had our stuff, government shutdowns in 13 Brexit. We've had obviously a pandemic, tumultuous elections. It right now, this last year was a gut check. It was all right. That's some series that's bear market territory. Large volatility, interest rates cranking back up, and, so there's a lot going on there. And it. It messes with those, I think, that don't necessarily have a plan and an objective. Back to my comment about the car, like if you're able to get in the car and just drive around, you'll veer around as much as you want based on what's going on. But if you have a clear goal in mind, you'll make some turns, but you know where you're headed and so that's the idea with money.

Average Joe Finances: 19:28

Yeah. Another thing to add into that car analogy too is, the more you drive, the more gas you waste, and eventually you're gonna run outta gas and you're gonna be in the middle of nowhere with nothing.

Brad Barrett: 19:38

Great.

Average Joe Finances: 19:38

That's like going through life without having a plan, and then you wind up at the end of life and you're like how did I get here?

Brad Barrett: 19:44

Totally. Yeah. You could say all the cliche things, yeah. No one plans to fail, they failed a plan, yada yada. But it's funny, I've noticed, and I do this too, I'm totally guilty of this Veronica. My wife and I will, we will plan more for a family vacation than likely we'll set time and plan for our financial future. And that's just a fact. Now I'm a big believer in what we, what I do here. So me and my wife do this constantly, even own our own house. But we do this a lot. We plan for things that we know we want, but I'm saying To your point, the gas that's gonna get you there is the money, the tool that's gonna allow those things, and then you get into the whole sacrificing and the whole live for now versus tomorrow and what all you gotta, and that's that to me, like in our discovery process here at One Capital, we go through the quantitative and the qualitative and we we're able to marry those for the client and help them with the direction that they're going. And that's through education and really meeting them where they're at. That's important, right? If you immediately feel like you're a cookie cutter model where, oh, you're 40 years old and you should be in this model, or we do it this way and there's no lot of deviation. Our job, what we feel like we've been really successful at and why we've grown is we meet them where they're at and speak with them directly. Not about our client from an hour ago, but with them and. Understanding back to my notion a couple minutes ago, is who they are and what baggage they're bringing in and where they come from when it comes to money. Like a great example the other day I had someone whose whose dad worked for 35 years in a government organization. A year after he retired came down with a brain tumor and passed away. And he was a guy that basically was the good old, put money away, live for tomorrow save. So this child, this 45 year old guy who's coming as my client has this notion of now I wanna spend, because I don't wanna be like my dad. And I literally, no joke. The next day had a client who's, we were talking about life expectancy and just duration. They're like, oh, both my parents live to 102. So like I'm worried about more of the sustainability of my money. So they wanted to not spend much. So you have these. All the time, these polar opposites. And so this is a good example of meeting them where they're at and really helping them through some of that qual, some of the circumstantial evidence in their life that has led them to the way they feel about their money and those kind of things.

Average Joe Finances: 21:55

Yeah. No, that's fantastic. And great way to to view how people make their decisions, right? That decision making process. What are the factors? What are the human factors that come into this? So I really like that you explore that with your clients because not everyone's story is the same, right?

Brad Barrett: 22:12

No.

Average Joe Finances: 22:13

Not everyone's destination is the same, but the thing is, you need to have a destination. You need to know where you're going. Yeah. And I think, by you helping them, basically stay on the road, stay on track to get to their destination with where they're trying to head to in life. I think that's super important. And again this goes into, for every individual has a different story, a different journey, right? And at least for me, I always feel like there's always emotion. Tied in money, right? Whether you wanna say that, it's just money, this and that, whatever every purchase you make, there's some emotion attached to it, right?

Brad Barrett: 22:48

Yep.

Average Joe Finances: 22:48

Every investment you make, there's some emotion attached to that. So how would you say that, money, especially with the clients that you've dealt with, right? So you've got plenty of experience with this. How would you say that Money actually plays on our emotions when we make these significant or even minor financial decisions?

Brad Barrett: 23:06

Oh it's massive. I probably see every day for 18 years, the biggest struggle we have is within ourselves, within it comes to a topic like money, because you're right it. Right or wrong, there's three things I always say that people keep close to their chest, right? Money, politics, and religion. For different reasons, for different areas of life, right? And so it's interesting to me that, I've always said that when clients come in, to me, it's almost like, and they've, some clients have shared this with me. It's almost like a financial, physical, like a financial undressing and not it's uncomfortable and it's interesting cause I'm like, why is money such a taboo topic? And a lot of it has to surround around emotions. And there was a stat probably, gosh, this was in college when I was getting my economics degree. And there was a guy who was talking about this and he was going the brain, our brain remembers the 1% loss more than the 10% gain. And you think about that, like you talk about a guy in the water cooler conversation talking about something from five years ago around an investment. Yeah, I lost on this one. So he focuses, our brains tend to focus emotionally, like on the one loss and neglecting the. The gains, and this happens, we get really myopic. And this is not anyone's fault, this is a, remember God designed our brain to protect us, not necessarily enhance our life. The idea with the brain, if you look at psychology, is really to protect us, right? We have two brains going on at all times. We've got our logical, rational brain, and we have what my kids call their tumtum, right? Their feelings, their emotions. And I think, I always tell people like when you're having a decision around money or thinking about a topic around money, figure out which. Which mind is winning, if it's emotionally tied, you wanna be careful with that. When's the last time you made a really great decision in life based on emotions only, typically some combination or you wanna put some logic or some rationale to it? It's it's a heavy thing and to that end, Speaking earlier, I saw someone, this was probably a year ago. I don't even know. It must have been on social media or something like that. And he was, it was a quick video guy, got a bunch of following, talking about, Hey, like you don't need an advisor, you don't need to do anything like that. You can do it yourself. No big deal. All good. But literally before he got into what he was gonna say, he said, as long as you don't bring emotions into it, dot. And I remember thinking, I'm like, stop right there. You're talking to human beings. They all have emotions like it won't work. So no matter what you say after that is irrelevant in my mind. Because unless you're ChatGPT or something like that ain't gonna work.

Average Joe Finances: 25:24

Yeah. Absolutely.

Brad Barrett: 25:26

That's just.

Average Joe Finances: 25:26

You always hear people talk about, you don't ever go grocery shopping when you're hungry. . Again, because it's the mentality, right? It's the emotion. It's what's in the back of your head I'm starving right now. Hey, while I'm here, let me get some quick things that I could whip up because I'm hungry.

Brad Barrett: 25:40

They'll probably stand buy to get and you shouldn't be buying if I went there hungry, I'd buy a rack of Oreos and not even think twice, cuz you know.

Average Joe Finances: 25:46

Bag of chips or something, instead of buying, the vegetables that you were, that you went there for.

Brad Barrett: 25:50

Yeah. Yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 25:50

And then you leave and you're like, you realize, oh, I didn't get what I was supposed to get. Yeah.

Brad Barrett: 25:54

No, now you're stacking.

Average Joe Finances: 25:55

On a pack of oreos in your car.

Brad Barrett: 25:57

Yeah, I know. And I'm like there goes my dinner, and it is so true. We do that with money all the time. And I always check people, like when they, especially you start seeing that and as an advisor, I see this and this is where I come in to help them with, walk through it. And the really great clients who see that want to at least get that advice is. They're looking at an investment or they heard a stock or something like that and they're going out over their skis on some things, and I'm like, check your why. That always comes back to why emotions or emotional investing or anything comes back to why you do what you do with your money matters a lot. Like probably more than anything else. And why you do anything, has a big relationship to your logic, your rationale, as well as your emotions.

Average Joe Finances: 26:34

Absolutely. I guess I'm not gonna ask you that question now, what is your why? Because you're out here crushing it and showing us what your why is. I do wanna ask you one more question before we jump into this segment. Yeah. Called the Final Round. And, the name of your show is Make Your Money Matter, right? And obviously, What you're doing is you're building an education platform to show people how to make their money matter. So I wanna ask you, Brad, besides what we, everything we've talked about, how does somebody make their money matter?

Brad Barrett: 27:02

Oh First and foremost, I think that question, which is a great one, is more of an art than a science. It's really more about each individual person. No doubt. But I'll be honest with you, a couple years ago when I was going through, when you probably did the same thing with your podcast and your show. It's what do you name a show? How do you, it's an interesting, it's an interesting work through workshop for yourself.

Average Joe Finances: 27:19

Oh it was easy for me, man. It was, The domain name was available and I jumped off. Yeah. And it started off as a blog. The podcast came later.

Brad Barrett: 27:27

Oh yeah. So yeah. For me it was a process cause it was coming off of a brand of a firm and that, I wanted to make sure and I wrote down a bunch of things of what our core ethos is, basically, of what we're doing. And that's how I got to this make your money matter. Because for us, It's less, back to my point, it's less about the amount, it's more about what you do with it. So making money matter has a relative term to each individual client, and we wanna make sure that we're attaining those. Because, if you looked at my schedule, come Monday morning with three or four different clients, each one of those have different orientations for their money, their values, their interests, their goals, objectives, all of it. So making the money matter to each one of those is a specific and tailored. Design that we do our something called our black book that we forecast out for them and help them with it. And I'll just share with anyone watching or listening too, when it comes to making your money matter. You don't need to have a billion dollars to make it matter. You can have a hundred dollars is what you do with it that matters. It's making it matter for what your goals and interests are. Plain and simple. Like you don't have, it's not like you need this bunch of money to do it, that's one of the things I think back to the question you asked earlier, what people get wrong about their money is they're gonna wait till it gets to a certain threshold that they feel the world will accept them at that point for having a certain amount of net worth. And I'm like who said that, you can make money matter along the way very clearly. And it's something we preach often and we try to make it very specific to each with the clients.

Average Joe Finances: 28:48

Yeah, absolutely. Love that. Absolutely love that answer, man. That's, and that's what it is. It's what is the, what does the money mean to you? What are you gonna use it for? And that's what matters, right? It's not about how much it's what you are gonna use it for.

Brad Barrett: 29:02

And and don't look over. I don't look over the fence, don't, comparison's the thief of joy, man. It's like she's gonna say that, like you look over and it's oh, okay, John's got this. And I'm like, so what? John's on his own path. Like my wife and I always joke when people say something, whatever, her and I just internally be like, one place they can stay for free. They're lane, and it's just stay in your lane, man. And I think for all of us, it's something that's check around stuff. Like just stay in your lane, work with the gifts you've been given. Partner to your weaknesses. No different than what you said earlier. It's having good counsel around you and the people that you will never be an expert in. Likewise for me and I do the same thing and it's partner to your weaknesses and work with your strengths. You do that, you're gonna have a pretty happy life. And the grass is always greener thing, grass always greener where you mow it, right? It's, my grandfather always used to tell me. So it's get busy doing your own, work on your own stuff and it'll, and your money will matter more to you at that point.

Average Joe Finances: 29:48

That's awesome, man. Great analogies to, to put this all together. Really appreciate that. Yeah. All right, Brad I do wanna transition this now into something that we call the final round. It's where I'm gonna ask you the same four questions that I ask everybody that comes on this show. Yeah. And it's gonna help us get into your brain and see how you react under pressure, which I'm pretty sure we we already know how that's gonna go. Cause you're gonna crush it.

Brad Barrett: 30:07

Let's go.

Average Joe Finances: 30:08

Ready to go? All right. Let's do it. Yeah. All right. Brent, what's the biggest mistake you've ever made in your finances?

Brad Barrett: 30:16

Not adhering to the rules of money that I know now. Something as simple as the 70 20 10 rule, right? Living on 70%, save 20% for short term, 10% for long term. Had I known that more so and literally lived it and breathed it when I was 16 or 18, you know that's something that hindsight's 2020, right? But yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 30:36

Okay. Absolutely. So Brad, this next question kind of ties into the last one, and these kind of all tie into each other. But what is something that you've learned that you wish you knew when you first got started?

Brad Barrett: 30:50

Empathy is key, I think when you're a younger advisor in particular, or just younger human in general. You haven't walked in the shoes of many people or seen it from their side of things. This is a good thing. I think I would share for anybody in life. Empathy is key. It means so much, especially when you're working with people and you can sit with them and relate with them. Either you've gone through it or you've seen other clients go through it, or you just are more aware of things. That's something that I've learned that I've really cherish now as a senior advisor at this point.

Average Joe Finances: 31:19

Yeah, I think it's, it adds that human element, right? That, that you realize everyone's human. Everyone has their, again, they have their own path.

Brad Barrett: 31:27

Yep.

Average Joe Finances: 31:27

And empathizing with that is what gets you on their level.

Brad Barrett: 31:31

Totally.

Average Joe Finances: 31:31

And by getting on their level, you can give them the best advice to, to move forward, to help them stay in their lane. Th this whole episode's been about, th that's, that actually might be the name of this episode is Stay in Your Lane. Because here we are we're talking about driving around and standing in your lane. Yeah. It's just but it's so fitting. For what we're talking about with, your financial health.

Brad Barrett: 31:50

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 31:51

And, staying on that path to get to that destination. So this is all fantastic, man. I appreciate that.

Brad Barrett: 31:56

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 31:57

All right, Brad. The next question is, do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to someone that is just getting started out today? So let's say somebody just graduated college or high school, right? They're getting into the corporate world and they want to figure out what their financial path should look like. What kind of tips or tricks would you recommend to someone like that?

Brad Barrett: 32:19

Oh man, I got a couple. Okay. So first and foremost the broad spectrum of this is live on less than you make. I know how simple that sounds, but just start there. From that, I think the rule I just mentioned that I wish I had known or leaned into more was the 70 20 10 rule. You can break that up in different ways. 80, 10, 10, but live on 70% of your income, save 20% for short term, 10% for long term. I think those are key. I think I also like the rule of the third, a third. So anytime you get. Increases in pay bonuses. New job with a higher pay, take a third of that, put it to savings, a third of that, pay down debt and a third of it go have fun. And you start bringing it up. You have no more debt than bring it to 50 50, right? Those are really good, like simple rules that, believe it or not, may sound really like elementary, are actually very profound when you compound that with time. Those are key things that I would say. And when it comes to investing in general staying, the two Ds I always share on our show is discipline and discernment. So whatever strategy you're gonna go with, seek that out with counsel and advice, but stay disciplined to it and be discerning of anything that comes in or you want to add to it, or just, be cognizant of what you potentially change it to. So when it comes to investing, it's less about what you're investing in, it's more about how you're investing in it and with the mindset as well as with who you're doing it with.

Average Joe Finances: 33:34

Awesome. Awesome. Definitely appreciate that. That's fantastic advice for someone just getting started out right.

Brad Barrett: 33:39

I wish I was listening to this, honestly, 20 years ago. And I know how some, again, like I said, it sounds elementary, but man it works. I've seen it work. I've seen it work, so.

Average Joe Finances: 33:47

Yeah. Again, a lot of times, you get to this point in life where you're sharing what works because you've seen it in action.

Brad Barrett: 33:55

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 33:56

And you've missed out on it yourself. Because, hey, if I can go back, 20 years and talk to my younger self, my 18 year old self, like I know exactly what I would tell 'em. You know exactly what you're saying here. And by the time I'm where I'm at right now, forget it, it would be a whole different world, Everything happens for a reason. I believe it.

Brad Barrett: 34:11

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 34:11

And I'm on my own journey. I have my own destination and my own path. So it's just a matter of staying focused on that and staying in my lane. Totally. A hundred percent. Love it, man. Okay. Now final question of the final round, and I will preface this with, besides your own, do you have a favorite business investing or real estate related book or podcast, or both?

Brad Barrett: 34:32

Oh yes. The psychology of Money. Oh, Morgan Housel. I have it back. I think it's Morgan Housel. Man, that book's amazing. I re highly recommend it to anybody listening or watching. It's something I've talked about for years in my practice and he summed it up so eloquently with different anecdotes and stories. It's amazing. So psychology of Money. I might be messing up on the author's name, but I think it's Morgan Housel. And then obviously mine Retire. Go for it. No.

Average Joe Finances: 34:56

Great, Awesome.

Brad Barrett: 34:58

Psychology of Money. That was that was a big one for sure.

Average Joe Finances: 35:01

Okay. No, definitely appreciate that. I will make sure I get that one added on my list. That is not one I have read yet Okay.

Brad Barrett: 35:06

Oh, you'll like that one. Yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 35:07

So Brad, this has been absolutely a treat and awesome. Now I do have one more question. The final round is over, but this question is the most important question of the entire podcast, right? Yeah. Because there are people listening right now that are saying, man, this is really great information. I'm learning a lot from what Brad's talking about, and I wanna know more about Brad and what he's doing. So if you could share a little bit with us. Can you tell us where people can find you? You have a website, social media. I know you have a podcast and a radio show, so where can we find all that stuff?

Brad Barrett: 35:37

Yeah, no, appreciate it. Our website the company's name's One Capital Management our website, it's onecapital.com, spelled out o n e capital.com. And our show is on YouTube airs every Wednesday. We have clips every every day, pretty much for the most part, with shorts and things like that. The handles at Make Your Money Matter. On social media. And then obviously they Make your Money Matter show with Brad Barrett on YouTube. So those are definitely places you can follow along. Go through what I talk about weekly and anything of the yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 36:05

All right. Awesome. Brad, thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I'm gonna make sure I have all those links in the show notes to make it easy for the listeners to find it and follow. They can copy and paste, click away. Just please if you're listening, don't do it while you're driving. But Brad, this has been a real treat. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Brad Barrett: 36:23

Oh, Mike, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Average Joe Finances: 36:25

Absolutely. And hey, to my listeners, thank you all so much for joining me and our special guest, Brad Barrett on the average Joe Finances Podcast. Make sure you go leave us a five star review and tell us what you liked about today's episode with Brad. Aloha from Hawaii and have a great rest of your day.