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EP243: Scott Gannon - Why Men Need To Plan Financially · The Sovereign Man Podcast

0:00
Scott Gannon: What would happen if you just decided to take a sabbatical for a year?
0:03
Scott Gannon: What would that do to your long-term wealth?
0:05
Scott Gannon: Most people have no idea what it would do,
0:07
Scott Gannon: and most people actually have no idea if they could do it,
0:10
Scott Gannon: if they wanted to, or if they just needed to, right?
0:13
Scott Gannon: What does that do to your overall position?
0:15
Scott Gannon: It can be calculators.
0:18
Speaker 2: You're a man living in the modern world
0:20
Speaker 2: in a time when men and manhood are not what they once were.
0:25
Speaker 2: You live life on your own terms.
0:28
Speaker 2: You're self-sufficient.
0:29
Speaker 2: You think for yourself, and you march to the beat of your own drum.
0:33
Speaker 2: When life knocks you down, you get back up, because in your gut, you know that's what men do.
0:39
Speaker 2: You're a badass and a warrior, and on the days when you forget, we are here to remind you who you really are.
0:48
Nicky Billou: Welcome to Sovereign Man Podcast, where we aim to make men masculine again.
0:52
Nicky Billou: I'm your man, Nicky Ballou, and we've got a very special guest for you here today.
0:58
Nicky Billou: my good friend, Scott Cannon. Welcome, Scott. Good to be on again. Good to have you here,
1:04
Nicky Billou: my man. So Scott, you and I were talking off camera that this is a day and age where one out
1:10
Nicky Billou: of every two marriages ends up in divorce, right? That's a fact. These are actual statistics.
1:14
Nicky Billou: That's factual, yeah. And 70% of those divorces are initiated by women. And given the way the
1:22
Nicky Billou: court system is set up, the man usually loses. He gets, and I hate to use this phrase, but it's
1:28
Nicky Billou: truth. He gets divorce raped, right? So the divorce basically has him lose half as that worth,
1:37
Nicky Billou: most of the custody to any kids in the marriage, and leaves quite a few men feeling bitter,
1:44
Nicky Billou: depressed, and angry and resentful. But it doesn't always have to go this way.
1:51
Nicky Billou: And there's a story that you shared with me another time that really captured my imagination.
1:57
Nicky Billou: I asked you to come here to share that story with us.
1:59
Nicky Billou: So maybe briefly, and I know you're in the financial business, you're in the insurance
2:04
Nicky Billou: business, you help high net worth and very high net worth individuals, business owners
2:09
Nicky Billou: take care of themselves financially.
2:13
Nicky Billou: And this story is about one of your clients.
2:16
Nicky Billou: So why don't you go ahead and just get right into this story and what happened.
2:21
Scott Gannon: Absolutely. So I had a client, this was back in 20, so it was before COVID. I want to say it was back 2017, I believe it was.
2:36
Scott Gannon: And my client, Sean, he was living common law with a woman for, I want to say, probably closing in on 10 years.
2:50
Scott Gannon: And in that time, they had had a daughter.
2:53
Scott Gannon: Okay.
2:53
Scott Gannon: And she was, at this time, she was about seven.
2:57
Scott Gannon: So she would have been born around 2010.
3:00
Scott Gannon: And at about the, yeah, so in 2017, they had split up.
3:05
Scott Gannon: They were living apart in Nova Scotia, where I'm from, and sharing custody.
3:13
Scott Gannon: And it became very toxic, the relationship, from his perspective.
3:22
Scott Gannon: I've never really heard her side of this story, but I guess the end result of this,
3:27
Scott Gannon: I think he was probably pretty accurate, is she was a little crazy.
3:35
Nicky Billou: She'd say, surprise, surprise.
3:39
Nicky Billou: Shocker, shocker.
3:41
Scott Gannon: Maybe a lot crazy.
3:42
Scott Gannon: Or at least she got a lot crazier.
3:45
Scott Gannon: So in 2017, they had been split up for, I don't know.
3:50
Scott Gannon: At this time, I can't remember.
3:51
Scott Gannon: I don't even know if he even told them.
3:52
Scott Gannon: Probably eight, nine months, I guess, at the time.
3:56
Scott Gannon: And he goes to call her and arrange for drop-off or pick-up.
4:02
Scott Gannon: I think it was, yeah, so I think he was going to go pick up his daughter.
4:06
Scott Gannon: No answer.
4:07
Scott Gannon: Couldn't find her.
4:08
Scott Gannon: Kept calling, texting.
4:09
Scott Gannon: No answer.
4:11
Scott Gannon: What's going on?
4:12
Scott Gannon: Goes over to the house.
4:14
Scott Gannon: Nobody there.
4:15
Scott Gannon: House is all locked up.
4:17
Scott Gannon: So he's freaking out.
4:19
Scott Gannon: What's going on?
4:20
Nicky Billou: That's a technical term, right?
4:22
Nicky Billou: Freaking out?
4:23
Nicky Billou: Freaking out.
4:24
Scott Gannon: It's a technical term?
4:25
Scott Gannon: That's right.
4:26
Scott Gannon: That's right.
4:27
Scott Gannon: You find it in a lot of legal and medicine journals.
4:32
Scott Gannon: Oh, my God.
4:33
Scott Gannon: The health journals.
4:35
Scott Gannon: Yeah.
4:35
Scott Gannon: So he starts freaking out.
4:36
Scott Gannon: Where's my daughter?
4:37
Scott Gannon: What's going on?
4:38
Scott Gannon: What happened?
4:39
Scott Gannon: Are they in the hospital?
4:40
Scott Gannon: So he's freaking out, right?
4:42
Scott Gannon: And come to find out, she left.
4:46
Scott Gannon: She took off.
4:48
Scott Gannon: Took off.
4:48
Scott Gannon: Left with his daughter, moved back where she is from, West.
4:54
Scott Gannon: Wow.
4:54
Scott Gannon: And it took him a few days to figure this out.
4:58
Scott Gannon: And finally got confirmation.
5:02
Scott Gannon: Like, he was constantly sending texts.
5:04
Scott Gannon: He was like, okay, something's going on.
5:07
Scott Gannon: You've done something.
5:08
Scott Gannon: You need to—this is not legal, whatever you're doing.
5:12
Scott Gannon: you need to at least tell me where you're at so she finally answered not by phone by text
5:17
Scott Gannon: or email i can't remember but um yeah i've i've decided to move and uh and um um i've i've taken
5:28
Scott Gannon: i'll give her i'll give her a name i'll uh i've taken um darlene i don't call her i don't know
5:37
Nicky Billou: darlene darlene is a good name i know i know a very wonderful darlene but there's some darlings
5:42
Nicky Billou: Pretty crazy, too.
5:43
Scott Gannon: So I've taken, yeah, I'm giving her, trying to give her her name.
5:47
Scott Gannon: I probably should have this in the story already so I don't trip over it.
5:51
Scott Gannon: It's just giving her a name that's not her name, right?
5:53
Scott Gannon: So, and yeah, we're going to live out here in eastern BC.
5:59
Scott Gannon: And you're like, you can't do that.
6:03
Scott Gannon: And we are in the middle of settling this.
6:06
Scott Gannon: And we currently have, by court order, 50% custody each.
6:11
Scott Gannon: Well, I moved, so we can't solve that this way.
6:16
Scott Gannon: Well, that's not for you to decide.
6:18
Scott Gannon: So this started a journey that took about two years of legal battles.
6:26
Scott Gannon: And again, this has everything to do with our whole system.
6:31
Scott Gannon: Our system basically sides with mom before they do anything else.
6:37
Scott Gannon: So it took him—
6:39
Nicky Billou: him the law, right? By like doing something. Yeah, she pretty much, well, I mean, you know,
6:44
Scott Gannon: for lack of a better word, I mean, they do call it kidnapping when a parent steals a kid.
6:49
Nicky Billou: And that's really what happened here. Violated a court order, right? She violated a court order.
6:54
Scott Gannon: Yeah, exactly. And it took him two years and a continuously rolling legal bill to finally get
7:03
Scott Gannon: her back when he got when he finally got she finally relented and came back uh in i think it
7:10
Scott Gannon: was mid-2019 so you know not not quite a year before covid started and not that covid has
7:17
Scott Gannon: anything to do with this but but um during that time by the way yes so he now has uh he his
7:25
Scott Gannon: daughter's back and he has legally has full custody and and that's why I say like I've only heard one
7:34
Scott Gannon: side of the story but I think it's probably pretty accurate and he does like you know she does see her
7:40
Scott Gannon: but uh you know full custody for him he's letting her see her but for the most part I don't think
7:46
Scott Gannon: his daughter even really necessarily cares to see her either but um so but the other story behind
7:52
Scott Gannon: this is how did he do this? Like, you know, like he, he basically almost had to shut down his life
7:57
Scott Gannon: because this, this consumed his life. Yeah. He tried, he was working, you know, working or,
8:03
Scott Gannon: but you know, he's, he got the, he has the ability to earn, you know, at other times,
8:08
Scott Gannon: but he didn't like, he was, he was so consumed by this. He actually missed a lot of work.
8:12
Scott Gannon: So what was going on while he was running up these legal bills. And, uh, what I do going back,
8:19
Scott Gannon: what you just introduced there is I am a specialist on the life insurance side of things in the
8:25
Scott Gannon: financial business.
8:27
Scott Gannon: And what I do is I help incorporated, wealthy incorporated businesses or business owners
8:34
Scott Gannon: create a cash reserve inside of insurance policy.
8:38
Scott Gannon: So we just basically take advantage of the tax system here.
8:42
Scott Gannon: We max out what can be held tax free.
8:45
Scott Gannon: So he had been doing that.
8:46
Scott Gannon: He was one of my early adopters, if you will, when I first discovered this myself and started pumping money into this thing.
8:55
Scott Gannon: And thankfully, he did because of the fact that he wasn't working regularly or he was, you know, he was so consumed by his obvious near-term needs being that trying to get his daughter back.
9:08
Scott Gannon: So he was using the mechanism that is available to you in these insurance policies is that
9:17
Scott Gannon: you have a contractual ability to basically order money against the policy.
9:22
Scott Gannon: So you borrow it against the policy.
9:24
Scott Gannon: So the policy stays intact and the money keeps growing there, but you borrow against it and
9:29
Scott Gannon: the insurance company lends you money.
9:30
Scott Gannon: But that's by contract.
9:32
Scott Gannon: They are, you can get up to 90% of the equity in it.
9:37
Scott Gannon: at any point in time, no payments required and no due date. There is an interest rate,
9:42
Scott Gannon: but no payments or due date. And that was important to him because, frankly, he was using it because
9:47
Scott Gannon: he wasn't making enough to cover those bills. And he didn't need another one. So he was letting that
9:56
Scott Gannon: run up, let it run up, letting it run up. But so he would get billed every two or three months
10:02
Scott Gannon: from his legal, and he would pay it down, pay it off, pay it down, pay it off.
10:07
Scott Gannon: And by the end of the two years, he was at $46,000 owed to the law firm
10:17
Scott Gannon: when they finally got things settled out.
10:21
Scott Gannon: And I can't remember exactly where he was for the, I think it was over 50,
10:27
Scott Gannon: against the insurance policy.
10:29
Scott Gannon: So he was a little over six figures dealing with this.
10:34
Scott Gannon: And at 46, though, so he still had the room in the insurance policy to look after that.
10:42
Scott Gannon: So he made a deal with them to pay them off over a couple of years, a couple of grand a month, and pay them off over a couple of years.
10:49
Scott Gannon: I'm like, well, what if you could save some money?
10:53
Scott Gannon: And he's like, well, what do you mean?
10:54
Scott Gannon: I said, I think that they're probably pretty happy to put money in their hands now.
10:59
Scott Gannon: He says, yeah, probably.
11:01
Scott Gannon: I said, go offer them $35,000.
11:04
Scott Gannon: He still had around $50,000 left in his equity that he could access up to the 90%.
11:12
Scott Gannon: And I said, why don't you offer them $35,000?
11:14
Scott Gannon: Pay it off now.
11:15
Scott Gannon: Put it against the insurance as well.
11:17
Scott Gannon: I said, that'll save you $11,000.
11:18
Scott Gannon: I said, the use of making those payments, number one, is pain in the butt.
11:23
Scott Gannon: but number two is or having it required and them calling you when if you miss one or you have to
11:28
Scott Gannon: delay one so just take all that out and save 11 grand he's like me he said he said you think that'll
11:35
Scott Gannon: work i'm like don't ask you don't get right so yeah so he he took exactly what i said i gave it to him
11:42
Scott Gannon: i i put it all in an email form i said i said word it like this and and the wording is like i've got
11:49
Scott Gannon: this much available to me now. I don't know if I can do the, you know, if I, the 2,000 is probably,
11:56
Scott Gannon: a month is probably manageable. But if it's not, I need to be able to make stops. I need to be able
12:01
Scott Gannon: to, you know, start and stop this if I run into hiccups. However, what I can do is I have, and I
12:09
Scott Gannon: told him, I said, make sure you tell them, you're not going to tell them you got 50 available.
12:12
Scott Gannon: You're going to tell them that you got $36,000 available and that you're, and you need the extra
12:17
Scott Gannon: thousand so you're going to offer them 35 000 don't offer them anymore he and i as i explained
12:24
Scott Gannon: it to him i worded all the email flipped him the email he copied and pasted it sent it off
12:28
Scott Gannon: they got back to him same day done wow so he was able to get that uh paid out so basically save
12:35
Scott Gannon: some money but more importantly is you got to start a rack and and he would have been yeah i
12:41
Scott Gannon: well i don't know if he didn't already have it in place even if the money was somewhere else who
12:46
Scott Gannon: knows where, you know, how accessible was it?
12:49
Scott Gannon: Or even if it's, you know, is it, you know, is it down in value?
12:53
Scott Gannon: Is it liquid, available?
12:56
Scott Gannon: Does it cost money?
12:57
Scott Gannon: You know, all these things come up.
13:00
Scott Gannon: And I run into it all the time.
13:02
Scott Gannon: And doing it this way, using what we call leverage, like most people that are probably
13:09
Scott Gannon: listening to this understand the value of leverage and how it can help you, is, you
13:14
Scott Gannon: know, his equity kept growing.
13:17
Scott Gannon: So he was at a point where, like, in the policy, as he started to, as he's borrowing against
13:25
Scott Gannon: this thing, paying some back, borrowing, paying some back, and so on.
13:29
Scott Gannon: Or not paying, sorry, not paying back, paying off the, borrowing to pay off the legal, or
13:35
Scott Gannon: pay it down, pay it off, and just keeping them at bay as well, keep them working for
13:38
Scott Gannon: him.
13:39
Scott Gannon: He was gaining equity that whole time.
13:43
Scott Gannon: And then even when he paid that last $35,000, the next day, that thing was even higher.
13:49
Scott Gannon: His $50,000 was, say, $51,000 or whatever it was.
13:51
Scott Gannon: It just keeps growing.
13:54
Scott Gannon: And yeah, so here we are.
13:56
Scott Gannon: I don't know, we're in 2026.
13:58
Scott Gannon: I mean, it's paid off now.
13:59
Scott Gannon: It did take him a few years to pay it off.
14:01
Scott Gannon: But he wasn't in a big rush either because, well, it was, you know, the things to take care of because he had to kind of pick up the pieces of the three, basically pretty much three years of hell he went through.
14:12
Nicky Billou: There's a lot to unpack here, but I'll say this, right?
14:15
Nicky Billou: For a man who was not able to access financial resources when something like this happens to him, he's screwed.
14:25
Nicky Billou: He's screwed because I went through a breakup and a divorce.
14:30
Nicky Billou: And there was a period of about a year where I earned no money, no money.
14:36
Nicky Billou: And I didn't have this kind of insurance policy in place, but I had family members who took me in.
14:41
Nicky Billou: I was able to sleep in their spare bedroom, and they fed me.
14:49
Nicky Billou: And without that, I would be screwed.
14:53
Nicky Billou: And not everybody has that kind of option.
14:55
Nicky Billou: So being able to build a financial fortress for yourself is just smart.
15:01
Nicky Billou: Because otherwise, this man would have not just been devastated by the breakup of his relationship,
15:07
Nicky Billou: but he wouldn't have had a chance to get his daughter back.
15:09
Nicky Billou: and then he'd be good and truly fucked excuse my my language here but he would be right she would
15:17
Nicky Billou: and the most important thing is he got his daughter back i don't know if you remember
15:21
Nicky Billou: there was years ago there was a book written that was turned into a uh tv movie of the week it was
15:27
Nicky Billou: called not without my daughter do you ever remember that so it's called yeah yeah so anyways it was in
15:35
Nicky Billou: the 80s it was a while ago but you know in this case way too young for that yeah absolutely right
15:42
Nicky Billou: but it was yeah so but in that case it was a man who um took his daughter away from this woman and
15:52
Nicky Billou: took her back to iran my country and she was an american and you know she went back and got her
15:58
Nicky Billou: daughter not without my daughter i'm not going to bag her back but in this case this is the not
16:02
Nicky Billou: without my daughter, the men's edition, where I would put the man's daughter away from him.
16:09
Nicky Billou: And as a result, you know, threw his whole life into turmoil and turned it upside down. So he lost
16:16
Nicky Billou: a good two years of earning capacity, but he was involved in what we call an honorable battle.
16:22
Nicky Billou: And that honorable battle was for custody of his daughter. And it must, for you, it must feel really
16:29
Nicky Billou: good that you helped a man do that, right?
16:32
Scott Gannon: No, I mean, yeah, that kind of feeling isn't measurable.
16:37
Scott Gannon: It really isn't.
16:39
Scott Gannon: I've heard lots of instances of delivering death claims.
16:44
Scott Gannon: I mean, what I do, people don't understand.
16:48
Scott Gannon: A lot of people shun my industry or just can't function in it or don't understand because
16:53
Scott Gannon: of the, you know, well, I mean, insurance in general has a negative slant on it.
17:00
Scott Gannon: But literally, if you design like, you know, permanent life insurance is the only insurance
17:05
Scott Gannon: that's guaranteed to pay out.
17:07
Scott Gannon: So it's, but yeah, I've done what, I think 31, yeah, 31 death claims since I've been
17:14
Scott Gannon: in business as well.
17:16
Scott Gannon: So delivering those are a rewarding experience as well.
17:21
Scott Gannon: But yeah, just being able to kind of do whatever it takes for people when it happens.
17:27
Scott Gannon: When something, when basically when shit hits the fan, like if they can call me and I can help.
17:33
Scott Gannon: Yeah, there's no better feeling, really.
17:36
Scott Gannon: Yeah.
17:37
Nicky Billou: I think there's a lot of men listening to this who ought to be thinking to themselves, not like my marriage is going to break up.
17:45
Nicky Billou: Oh, my God, this is going to happen.
17:48
Nicky Billou: And I should go buy, you know, life insurance or I should go build a financial fortress.
17:54
Nicky Billou: Now, that's exactly that's a that's a crazy way to think.
17:58
Nicky Billou: But as a man, you need to take counsel of your intellect, not your emotions.
18:06
Nicky Billou: Right.
18:06
Nicky Billou: And in this day and age, too many men take counsel of their emotions and not their intellect.
18:12
Nicky Billou: And if you take counsel of your intellect, then you need to plan.
18:15
Nicky Billou: You need to have a financial plan.
18:17
Nicky Billou: You need to be thinking about how you've grown your net worth and you need to be thinking
18:21
Nicky Billou: about, well, what would happen if I didn't work for a year?
18:25
Nicky Billou: And like, I've thought about that and I've got some assets I can liquidate and I'd be
18:32
Nicky Billou: fine for, I think I'd be fine for up to two years, just like your friend, but boy, it
18:39
Nicky Billou: would not be what I would want to do, you know?
18:42
Nicky Billou: Yeah.
18:42
Nicky Billou: And it would be way better if I didn't have to do that.
18:48
Nicky Billou: And I think any man listening to this right now, who's going through some ups and downs
18:53
Nicky Billou: in his marriage, in this relationship, ought to sit up and take notice.
18:59
Nicky Billou: What if it does go down the road of divorce?
19:02
Nicky Billou: What if your ex ends up being batshit crazy?
19:07
Nicky Billou: And what if she decides to ignore some court orders that give you access to your kids?
19:13
Nicky Billou: What would you do?
19:14
Nicky Billou: How would you handle this?
19:16
Nicky Billou: Do you have a financial reserve?
19:20
Nicky Billou: I mean, these are good questions to ask yourself, don't you think, Scott?
19:23
Scott Gannon: Absolutely.
19:27
Scott Gannon: The reserves are really that.
19:31
Scott Gannon: It's, well, it's your lifeline.
19:33
Scott Gannon: It is your lifeline.
19:37
Scott Gannon: Because, I mean, let's face it.
19:39
Scott Gannon: You can lay all the best plans you want.
19:41
Scott Gannon: Something's going to screw up.
19:43
Scott Gannon: Yep.
19:44
Scott Gannon: Right?
19:45
Scott Gannon: There's always hiccups in the road.
19:47
Scott Gannon: And if you don't, if you're not ready for those, you can survive them, but they set you back.
19:53
Scott Gannon: Right?
19:54
Scott Gannon: I've had this conversation so many times with people.
19:57
Scott Gannon: If you look at life, you know, or if you look at your, like, I don't know, I'm going to draw this on the screen.
20:02
Scott Gannon: it's going to come up in the right direction but you know if you're building building building
20:05
Scott Gannon: building building eventually you know at certain times along the way that you're going to hit that
20:10
Scott Gannon: wow okay and it might be a that could be as easy as a stock market correction but really it's
20:15
Scott Gannon: something that's likely you know you know what we're talking about here is life happens you can't
20:21
Scott Gannon: like you you know like one of the questions it's funny you mentioned about being not working for a
20:25
Scott Gannon: year because that's one of the questions i asked a lot of people i said what would happen to your
20:31
Scott Gannon: position if you just decided to take a sabbatical for a year? What would that do to your long-term
20:38
Scott Gannon: wealth? Most people have no idea what it would do. And most people actually have no idea if they
20:43
Scott Gannon: could do it. If they could truly take and have the liquidity available to take a year off,
20:50
Scott Gannon: if they wanted to, or if they just needed to, right? If you just need to just do that kind of
20:55
Scott Gannon: deep thinking, even if it's three months or six months, what does that do to your, what does that
21:00
Scott Gannon: do to your overall position it can be calculated i do it all the time if you if you have the right
21:09
Scott Gannon: system strategy in place it won't affect you at all and that's kind of where i basically where i
21:17
Nicky Billou: come in well the truth is scott for most people they can't do that they can't even take a month
21:23
Nicky Billou: off absolutely never mind a year and the reason i wanted you to come and tell this story is as a
21:32
Nicky Billou: as a father who went through a divorce with a custody battle children involved this story hit
21:40
Nicky Billou: home for me and i believe it hits home for many fathers that are going through exactly this
21:47
Scott Gannon: yeah it was a um yeah it was it was kind of a crazy time for him but he um but yeah he's thankful
21:56
Scott Gannon: he's thankful that he's that he's uh coming to the other side of it amen brother amen um scott
22:03
Nicky Billou: man god bless you for the work that you do thank you and thank you so much for um sharing the story
22:12
Nicky Billou: with me and with people listening to this podcast.
22:17
Scott Gannon: Pleasure.
22:18
Scott Gannon: Yeah.
22:18
Nicky Billou: God bless you, man.
22:19
Nicky Billou: Thanks again.
22:20
Nicky Billou: And keep doing what you do.
22:23
Nicky Billou: Keep doing what you do.
22:24
Nicky Billou: It's really important work.
22:26
Nicky Billou: And keep helping out the people you help out.
22:29
Nicky Billou: But in particular, keep helping out men who are fathers, who are dealing with life.
22:35
Nicky Billou: Because they have no idea that if they go through a relationship, a family breakup, they're about
22:41
Nicky Billou: to be hit by a freight train.
22:42
Nicky Billou: and nobody wants to think about that.
22:44
Nicky Billou: And I understand that
22:45
Nicky Billou: because I sure as heck didn't think about it
22:47
Nicky Billou: before it happened to me.
22:48
Nicky Billou: But everybody ought to think about it.
22:50
Nicky Billou: How to take steps to protect yourself
22:55
Nicky Billou: and protect themselves.
22:56
Nicky Billou: I agree.
22:58
Nicky Billou: Yeah.
22:58
Nicky Billou: Good stuff, man.
23:00
Nicky Billou: Catch you on the flip side, my brother.
23:03
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the Sovereign Man Podcast.
23:06
Speaker 2: If you're ready to take charge of your life
23:08
Speaker 2: and become the man you've always wanted to be,
23:11
Speaker 4: We invite you to join the movement at sovereignman.ca.