Latest / Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson / From Jamaica to Georgia with Lorraine Martin: Empowering Future Generations Through Financial Literacy and Planning

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From Jamaica to Georgia with Lorraine Martin: Empowering Future Generations Through Financial Literacy and Planning · Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Ready Set Collaborate podcast with Rhonda Pearson, where we will dive deep into the world of networking, collaboration and partnership, unlocking the secrets to a successful team working within innovation.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Whether you're an entrepreneur, a creative professional or just someone eager to understand the power of networking and collaboration, this podcast is your go-to resource.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Join us as we explore the stories, strategies and insights from experts, entrepreneurs and thought leaders who have experienced the magic of networking and collaboration to achieve successful results.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Tune in to Ready.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Set Collaborate podcast on a journey towards achieving your goals with host Wanda Pearson.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Welcome, welcome to the Ready Set Collaborate podcast with Wanda Pearson.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: I am so excited.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: This is a new year for goals, changes and making sure you got your stuff together.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: So I'm excited to have my guest on Lorraine Martin, who's going to sure you got your stuff together.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: So I'm excited to have my guest on Lorraine Martin, who's going to tell you about your finances and how you can have financial, get your stuff together, which is very important because in these days, you got to make sure you have your legacy protected and have your finance protected.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: Lorraine, say hello to the audience.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Lorraine, hello everybody.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: How are you?
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: Yes, I'm so glad that we finally got to get a chance to do this and make sure that we connect people with you and also make sure that they get their stuff together.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Let me tell you a little bit about Lorraine.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: I'm going to read her bio here.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: Lorraine is a financial advisor with over 15 years of experience in financial services industry.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: She specializes in helping individuals, families and business owners achieve their financial goals through personalized financial planning and investment management.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Throughout her career, lorraine has been dedicated to providing clients with comprehensive financial advice, covering areas such as retirement planning, which is very important tax strategies, estate planning and risk management.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: Her client-centric approach ensures that each financial plan is tailored to meet the unique needs and objectives of her clients.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: Lorraine is passionate about financial education and frequently conducts workshops and seminars to help individuals better understand and manage their finances.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: Lorraine, I appreciate that and this is great.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: I appreciate it.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: We were just talking about how we're going to do a seminar to help people get educated, because I know my goal is to educate and empower people.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: You don't know what you don't know, so what you teach.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: As far as the financial advice and how they can get that, make sure they are protected because you never know when them maybe a single mom and maybe a married couple and maybe a grandparent anybody needs that advice, even like teenagers, right?
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Yes, they're never too young and you're certainly never too old.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and that sweet spot are those in the middle, absolutely.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Absolutely You're certainly never too old.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: And then that sweet spot are those in the middle Absolutely.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Who's the most Absolutely, absolutely.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: So tell us a little bit more about yourself, lorraine, that I didn't mention here.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Then we're going to get into some questions I'm going to ask you.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: Okay, so some personal stuff.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Originally from Jamaica, lived in New York for a few years, have been in Georgia now for way longer than I've lived anywhere else, mother of four, three adult daughters who, between them, have seven children, so I have seven grandchildren.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: I love this space.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: I love the space that I'm in, where I'm able to learn about money and finances, something that I did not always know about.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: I'm able to teach it to my close family, meaning my daughters, my kids, my grandkids, my other family members, and then take it out to the broader scope of people.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: So that's my passion to bring that information to everybody and help them to implement that knowledge for themselves personally.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: And we need to do that because you have six.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: I have six grandchildren.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: See, I beat you to one and I'm like thank God they're done.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: I can't say the same but hey, no, they're done.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the husband said that's enough, I'm done.
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's funny.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: But yeah, but there's having them.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: The good thing about it is being able to be their grandparent to them, yeah, and being able to send them home.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: Okay, bye-bye.
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: Talk to your mom and dad.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: I totally agree, totally agree.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, well, they call me Nana, so I'm like a young Nana Okay, take them to places and do things with them.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: And I'm like the one.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: I'm not the one to sit in the chair rocking.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: No, I'm rocker, not a different nana.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: So, but it told me.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: Well, actually, my mother told me, you know, my first grandson, he's 19.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: He should call your grandmother.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: I am not no grandmother, 19.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: No, he can call me nana, and that's what they call me.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: I'm not.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: We can love them, but also we can love them from afar.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: All right, let me ask you some questions here.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: Sure, what inspired you to become a wealth and money coach?
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: I previewed some of that because I grew up not knowing anything about money and financial concepts.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: Right, had different little businesses.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: But as far as corporate is concerned, I started out as a claims adjuster with some big insurance companies and then made I would see people whose claims would come across with like really bad coverage.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: I'm like I can do better than that.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: So I went and got my license and became a sales agent with one of the big insurance companies again and doing their life insurance, I started seeing wait, there's more to this.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: What about their investments, what about debt?
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: What about all of that?
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: And so I mentioned it to a family member that I wanted to leave where I was to go explore more of this.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: And we were at my great-nephew's christening, I think, or something like that, and she had just met this lady who was with my current company and she said that lady over there does what you've been talking about, who was with my current company, and she's that lady over there does what you've been talking about.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: And so I went and spoke with her.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: That was almost 14 years ago that I went and spoke with her and realized that I can impact not just my life but the lives of the people close to me and the lives of the greater community, because I started to realize, if I didn't know these things, the people like me don't know these things either, and so that really was the impetus for me to get started here, and what's kept me here doing what I've been doing for the last 14, 15 years.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: I was going to ask you how long have you been doing that?
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah 14, 15 years.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: With this company 14 years, but I was with an insurance company actually more than that now because I was there for almost three years, so a total of about 17 years I've been in this space.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Okay, that's great, and you may have already said this, but I wanted to ask you this what's the most significant lesson you've learned about money through your career?
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Oh, wow, the most significant lesson I've learned, it's not what you make, it's what you do with what you make.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: I would use as an example the fact that if somebody makes a million dollars but their lifestyle has them spending a million, point two, they'll always be broke, right.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: But if you make $50,000 and you figured out how to live on 40, which means you can set aside $10,000 every year you can become wealthy.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: So that lesson being don't worry about yes, you want to worry about what you make, you want to maximize what you make, right.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: But getting wealthy is not so much about what you make, but what you do with it.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: That is so true.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: So how do your personal experiences shape the way you coach others?
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Ah, knowing that, uh, every financial mistake that you could probably ever make, I made it.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: I did it right, and so my approach to people is that take the shame out of it.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: That's my approach to take the shame out of it, because I want them to realize that you are not the only one who has done this.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: You're not the only one who is doing it.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: I've probably done it and many other people like you have already done it as well.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: So that just helps to remove that stigma, remove that shame.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: And I use the analogy of pulling off the band-aid, pulling off the bandage.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: It's going to hurt, you're going to say ouch, but then the healing can start from there.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: So that's one of the bigots that I always talk about.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I love that because I know, working at my company, I retired from 2008.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: You know what happened in 2008?
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: Yes, I didn't know nothing about investment, but I know I had my money in there and I lost $55,000.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Ouch, that was a big ouch.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: A big ouch, I was about to cry.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: Oh, my God, how am I going to get this back?
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: I waited and they said never pull it out, just come back.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: And it came back, thank God.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: But I got my financial advisor.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: He actually helped me.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: But I told him.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: I said, whatever you do, I don't care, I don't want to lose no money, so put it in a secure fund that I know I'm not going to lose any money.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: So he did that and, thank God, I've been actually living off of that as far as a monthly, but also still have money in there, so it makes a difference.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: And definitely yeah, definitely talk to Lorraine about that, because you got to make the right plans.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: It is such a big deal.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: I'm so glad you say that because you'll hear and I know you didn't ask me this question, but I'm going to volunteer this piece of information so many times you'll hear people say that they lost money with their investments and not to say you can't lose money.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: But more often than not, what happened is when the market went down, they pulled their money out, and that is the one surefire way to lose money.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Right, because you hear the analogy all the time buy high and sell low.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: But when the market goes down and you sell, you've done the opposite of what you've always heard you have sold low.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: So what they should do is what you did and, thankfully, your financial advisor.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: You trusted him or her enough to have them walk you through what the right thing is to do.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: Him or her enough to have them walk you through what the right thing is to do, because you can make money on your own.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: But a lot of times, what you pay for the value of a financial advisor is to talk it on off the ledge to not do the crazy stuff that you would do to cause you to lose money, which is what your financial advisor did for you.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: He earned his keep.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: Yes, he did.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: He did.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: He did because I threatened him Do not lose any of my money.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: But no, it's all good, but yeah, but you got to know what you're doing.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: You got to be able to take that risk.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: It is you know what you do there.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: And this is actually when the housing market in 2008.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's when it failed the most.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: So let me ask you some information about your background.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: So what inspired you to become a wealth and money coach?
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: So, as I said, it's more so what I thought that I could do for me and what I could do for the people around me.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: One of the reasons why I love meeting with people one-on-one now, don't get me wrong, but one of the reasons I love to do seminars is it's what you collapse timeframes.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: You get to talk to a whole lot more people all at once and share that information.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Now, anybody who is in sales or any aspect of sales you don't necessarily close the sale on that first meeting, right?
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: And so sometimes the people that I'm talking to, whether one-on-one or in a group, so they may be hearing this for the first time and they may take action this first time, but more people need to hear it a few more times.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: And so that's what pushes me.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: People will apologize sometimes if you're holding a seminar and only five or 10 people show up and they expected 50 or a hundred, right, and they would apologize.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: But I'm like, no, I am here for the long game.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: I'm here for the long game to educate people.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: So that's the big thing.
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: For me, education is a big deal.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you remember the store many years ago here in Georgia.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Their tagline was an educated consumer is our best customer and I embody that.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: I embody that when I've educated my clients or prospective clients, they become the best consumer, the best client for me, because they know that they can trust what I've told them and they can take action on it.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: So those are the biggies that got me into wealth and money coaching.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: And I love that because I do coaching as well, but with our business.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: But I actually went to networking events, yes, and what I did?
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: I educated people.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: And when I educated people, you go back and like we say it's not on the first try, but you go back.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: But they remember, yes, oh yeah, and they refer me oh yeah, I have wonders, and even some of the ones that's already been in the business.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: They say how can I come out of that one and go with you?
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: Because I've taught them a lot of things that the other person who signed them up did not tell.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: So education is key to know what you're getting.
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: And I tell people I give out.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: My husband said you're giving away too many papers.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: I said, well, look, I like to look at what I buy too.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: My clients or prospects are looking at the same thing.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: So that is so true though no, I love that.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: How do your personal experiences shape the way you coach others?
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, knowing that I've been there, knowing that I've been there, I've done that, and I expect that the other people that I'm encountering have done some of the stuff that I've done, for example, that I'm encountering have done some of the stuff that I've done, for example, blowing your 401k when you change jobs.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Right, I know I'm not the only one, because I know at least twice I blew thousands of dollars in my 401k that I should have rolled over to an IRA or should have moved to the new jobs 401k, and I didn't.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: And I know I'm not the only one who did that, right.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: So that kind of stuff is what why I know people need what I do, because I did all those things that I now know I should not have done, and so sometimes I'm talking to folks after they've already done that, but I'm like next time, you're not, you're going to call me next time and, believe it or not, they are calling Okay, I'm changing jobs, okay, so yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: You learn from experience and from your mistakes.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: You can help others make sure they don't make those mistakes.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: You're right, because I didn't realize.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: In fact, I'm going to tell you we're 5M and I didn't know nothing about 401k and one of my friends at IBM, he said do?
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: He said, do you have a 401k?
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: I said no, what's that?
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: This is my 20s.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: I didn't know what a 401k was, so I want to just take a percentage and just let them take it out of your check.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: And I said that was the best thing I could have done Because, having that old pension plan with IBM, I was able to have my 401k Plus.
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: I had the pension plan and that's not even a problem anymore.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: Exactly and then my financial advisor rolled it over to IRA and that's how I can actually do my monthly payments that come out of there.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, but I'm still earning money because of the interest that you get from that.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, it's still your number, but I just want to tell you about it?
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: No, but you know what.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: It's one thing coming from me who is just spitting words?
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: It's coming from you, from your lived experience.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's you.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: It's coming from you, from your lived experience.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, that's valuable, that somebody can hear it and know that is they have that in their possibility as well.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: So I'm just spitting words out.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: You're speaking your truth, your lived experience.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: So that's a big deal.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it was a lived experience and I'm so happy by losing that $55,000,.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: I stayed with it and it brought my 401k back up even more Absolutely.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: So, that's what, but I mean, I didn't deal just with real estate.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: You've, and I'm probably jumping ahead.
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: I'm not quite sure what question you have, but throughout our lifetime, our relationship with money and investments change.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: So when we're younger, you talk about your 20s, when you started your 401k.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: That's your accumulation phase.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: When your money went down in 2008, you were in your preservation phase, and so your advisor saw fit to do whatever you did, so you didn't lose anymore.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: And now you're in your distribution phase, where you're living off your paycheck.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: So we all there are different phases of our lives.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: When we're younger, we're accumulating.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: When we're in that mid-range about to retire but not yet retired, you want to preserve what you accumulated.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: And then, when you get old and you've stopped working, now you're providing your own paycheck with your distribution.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: So you've gone.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: You've.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: In just a few words, wanda, you've described the three phases that I talk to people about the life of their investments, yeah, their retirement planning.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: So thank you for that.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: And that's so true because a lot of times people take their 401k and borrow from their 401k.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: They borrow from their 401k and it's going down, like my husband he did that.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: He borrowed from a 401k.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: By the time he retired, you have very little left in your 401k.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: You robbed yourself.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: What are you doing?
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I say it's better to pay yourself back than pay someone else back.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: So that was a good thing about.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: Even like with the loans that I had, I paid myself back.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: It went back into my 401k, so that made a big difference there.
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: So I'm sorry we're winding down here because there's so much that we can talk about.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: That's why we're doing a seminar.
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: We're going to do a seminar y'all, so stay tuned for the seminar.
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: So what's one myth about wealth building that you wish more people understood?
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh, there are so many.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Let me think the one myth that you have to make a lot of money to have financial security.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: You don't, like I alluded to before, you don't have to make a whole lot of money.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Don't, like I alluded to before.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: You don't have to make a whole lot of money, you just have to be disciplined.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: You can't live beyond your means.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: You have to be disciplined, you have to stay the course, you have to be patient.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all well and good to win the lotto, but you can plot away If you start putting aside a hundred dollars a month, say at age 25, if you did that, you absolutely can right.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, you're probably not going to do $100 for the rest of your life, because as your paycheck increases, you can increase that too.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: But you don't have to make a lot of money to retire with dignity and with a million dollars.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: That's a myth I want people to know.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: Scratch it right now did that when I was in my 20s.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: I did the 401k in my 20s.
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: At least I started somewhere right.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, especially if I had did that $100 a month saving, but you got to pay your bills and then you forget to put that $100 up.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: If I didn't, then my 20s you mean, I would have been a millionaire you could have been.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, I'm telling you.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: So.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: I know we're winding now, but let me just say this when I talk about retirement planning, it's not the only thing I do, but it's the piece that everybody loves to talk about, that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: But there's so much that goes into being ready for that.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: One of them is having a budget, because when you have a budget, then you can determine how much of it you're going to pay yourself and how much of what you're paying yourself is going towards your retirement, towards other things, because paying yourself also includes having an emergency savings.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: You talk about going into your 401k, taking money out and all that stuff, and I know sometimes we have to do that.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: It may be for paying down on a house, it may be for some really big things that you really needed to get done, or it was a matter of eating versus keeping that money in the 401k.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: I get it.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: But the other thing you want to talk about is having an emergency savings, so you're less likely to do that if you have emergency savings.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: The other thing is to make sure that you have life insurance, because if you have two people putting their monies together planning for retirement, god forbid something happens to one of them.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: You want to make sure money continues to come in so the family can continue their lifestyle and the surviving spouse can go to retirement the way they want to, right, and so the retirement is not going to be affected as much and the kids can still go to college and you can still eat and pay the mortgage if you have life insurance taking care of that.
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: The other thing you want to make sure, like Wanda talks about having a will or a trust to make sure that stuff that you've accumulated over all those years that the government doesn't get it if you die without a will and without a plan in place to what you want to happen to your assets.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: And then debt is the biggie.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Debt kills more financial dreams than anything else, and so getting rid of debt as quickly as possible is also a biggie.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: And what I offer is the opportunity to put all those pieces together, create a plan so you can maximize your retirement by taking care of all these other things pieces together.
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: Create a plan so you can maximize your retirement by taking care of all these other things, absolutely, absolutely.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: And I love that because when I retired, I took a portion of my, what I got from my the lump sum from my being with my pension and I still get a monthly pension.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: I took a portion and paid off my car.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: So my financial advisor said I wanted to buy a new car If I was going to retire.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: Get the highest interest rate, it doesn't matter.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: Oh, okay, to get the lowest payment, especially while I'm still working.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: Okay, and when I did, I paid off the car and I paid off my bills.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, I'm trying to redo that again.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: I need to pay off my bills again.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Okay, and I can help you with that.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: I have a free plan that I offer to folks to help them pay down their debt.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: It costs me nothing, costs you nothing and literally can help you get that done ASAP.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we need that now, especially now with the new year of January, absolutely Started off the right way, yep, to make sure that everyone contacts you to help you with that, because a lot of people don't know how they're going to pay Peter to pay Paul, it's a free consultation?
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, anybody.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: They're going to pay to you to pay for it's a free consultation.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, anybody, you're not obligated to do business with me once we're done either, but I just want to set people up for success, right, and anything I can do to cause that to happen, to help that to happen.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: I'm here for it.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: I'm absolutely for it.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: Yes, We've been having so much fun here, but I'm going to wind it down because I got said I got a lot more questions to ask you.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: So what are some of the financial habits every business owner should adopt today?
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Pay themselves.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: You're talking about me.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: I need to pay myself.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: No, because I have so many clients and I will not get, because I don't know enough about this as to how you're structured.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: If you're taking a draw, if you're taking a paycheck, if you're double it to 1099, there's so many different ways, that's a conversation to have with your CPA or your accountant.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: But so many business owners are not consistently paying themselves and therefore they are unable to create a plan like I'm suggesting, because you need a paycheck to be able to do that.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: You can't just.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: And then they talk about mingling.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Again, that's a legal or accounting thing.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: You don't want to be doing that because you expose yourself to all kinds of stuff when you do that as well.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: But a lot of business owners do not have a structure or a process in place to pay themselves, because when you're paying yourself is when I can create that plan for you, because that paycheck, no matter what it is.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: I have guys whose business are doing hundreds of thousand dollars a year and they pay themselves $2,500 a month and that's fine because a lot of the other stuff are taken care of inside of the business.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: But just being able to pay yourself and being able to see something for it that you can set aside, because they're not planning for the future.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: They're not doing that planning to say how and when they're going to sell the business, how and when they're going to get out what they're going to have in place for retirement, how and when they're going to sell the business, how and when they're going to get out what they're going to have in place for retirement.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Because that's one of the biggest with business owners, they minimize their income to minimize their taxes, thereby minimizing their social security, and, at the same time, they're not investing for retirement.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: So they get to age 50, 60, 70.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: And, yes, they had a good life while they had the business, but have basically nothing to show for it.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: At this point, they plan to sell the business.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Sometimes they get sick before they get to sell the business, the business declines, there's nothing to sell and there's nothing to show for all those years.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: So pay yourself and, out of it, set yourself up for retirement.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: I love that because that is so true.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: So how do you help clients overcome fear or shame about money?
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: the only one right, I'm singing that song in my head.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: Really.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: You think that, yeah, yeah, I'm singing it in my head, but I'm not going to sing it to you here.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: So it's not just about you, my dear.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: It's not just about you, sir.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: Most people have done what you're doing and have done and, yeah, it was just a matter of recognizing it and getting up and moving on from there.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: I don't want to say it's not that big a deal, but it really is not that big a deal because so many people have done it and are doing it you know, basically, then get over it.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: So we're winding down and I want to make sure we can call the action here.
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: What's the most important, what's the most impactful success story from one of your clients?
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: I actually have two right, two different age ranges.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: So one and I'm gonna make it real quick young couple that I met with there were a referral from a family member and I love to talk about the fact that they were my most coachable clients.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: They did all the things that I suggested for them to do.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: They got the life insurance, they started the investment, they had a business.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: I'm actually now talking to them about getting a 401k for their employees and we did the college savings for the kids and all of that stuff Right.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: So I love their story.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: I love their story, 401k right.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: So that's the young couple.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: An older couple.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: They were one of my first clients when I got started as well and I went and did their life insurance policy and as I'm delivering and I'm brand new at this I'm delivering their policy and the things they're saying to me.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: I'm like I know we talk about those things.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: I know I can help them with this stuff, the stuff you're saying to me.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: I know you need more.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Can I come back with my trainer and man?
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: We sat down and we did their plan.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: He basically had said that he wants his wife to retire at six to seven but he's going to work for the rest of his life because he didn't see how he could get out from his debt and have enough safe for retirement.
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: The plan I created for them they would be debt-free in 12 years, which would have them retiring at 69, debt-free with over $500,000 of debt that they were in.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: They had student loans from the kids, they had a relatively new house, they had loans and car notes and all that stuff, and so they would be debt-free and, as a matter of fact, she retired already and he's on the verge to go retire the next year or two.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: So those are two of my biggies the young couple in their twenties who are now in their thirties, and my older couple who started out with me in their late fifties and are now late sixties, going into 70, about to retire debt-free.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: So I love those two.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: Those are some great stories, I tell you.
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: So audience, do you see who you need to contact?
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: This lady knows her stuff, so where can listeners learn more about you or work with you?
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Give, us, your information there.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so my cell phone number best way to reach me 678-637-4219.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: Again, 678-637-4219.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: You can text me, you can call me.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: I respond to text messages like that.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: I do have a website.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: I have Instagram and Facebook.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: I will send those to Wanda and she can add them in as she sees fit.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, just call or text me to start with, and we can go from there.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: My signature reply signature usually has my email address in there as well too, so that's the best way to reach me right now.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: That's awesome.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: So that's going to be in the show notes for people to get in contact with you.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: But, lorraine, thank you so much for being on the Ready Set Collaborate podcast.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: I have learned well.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: We had a conversation because I share my experience this week.
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: Yes, for sure, what I've been through and how I actually got through it and I retired at 60.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I wasn't even I didn't have the age.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: But I said, okay, thank God, I was able to retire at 60 because of my old pension plan and having that 401k and the financial stability to do this, because I asked my financial advisor can I leave now?
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: I had 36 years, 36 years of IBM, and then I had to lump some medical, so I had to medical as well.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: We actually ended this past year December 31st, but they put money into a pocket where I just deducted and I got my Medicare costs.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: I haven't access to that and I tell you that was one of the best.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: God has just blessed me with that.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: And then I said okay, lord, can I retire now?
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: And I did, and now this is what I'm doing, right.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: So if you have enough money at 60, like Rhonda does, you can, rhonda does, you can retire.
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: But if you don't have enough money at 80, can you really retire?
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: That's the question.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, you should be able to enjoy your life not at an older age, because then a lot of people that retire might be older.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: They retire and they die, so this is where you need to make sure you have your stuff in order.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, and I can definitely help you do that.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Just get that plan done.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: Lorraine, thank you so much for being on my podcast, and we're going to have to do this again and we're going to definitely do a seminar.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: You definitely do that To help you understand it more, but this is great to start off the new year.
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: Yes, 2025.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: And she gave so many people.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: Their goals include money, and that's my biggie.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: If your goal includes money, let's talk.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: It's free.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Why wouldn't you take advantage of a free service?
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: It's free, yes.
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: Yes, Thank you so much for being on the show.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: So, audience, make sure you listen to Ready Set, Collaborate podcast with Wanda Pearson.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: I'm on all podcast platforms and reach out to Lorraine where she can help you get your finances together your life insurance, your financial.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: She's a financial advisor so she can help you with all of that.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: So thank you, Lorraine, for once again being on my podcast.
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: Thank you, Take care.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: Bye.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning into this episode of Ready Set Collaborate.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: For more information about the host, head to WDPearsonAssociatescom.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: And that's stay tuned for the next episode of Ready Set Collaborating.