I didn't do this when I started on X...so I think it's time. Here is my story: I am a husband to a beautiful wife, a father to two amazing daughters. I own Oliver Investments LLC, where I am a Financial Adviser. I love helping people on their financial journey 👇

And if you can't afford a million dollar house, stop looking at them on Zillow. The amount of people that want me to show them houses 350k over their pre-approved lender amount is crazy. It doesn't have to be your forever home.. upgrade in 10 yrs.. or maybe buy small and add on.

It's my highest budget line item. And it's not even close.

My anniversary is coming up.. I told my wife I wanted to take her for an expensive night on the town. First up, grocery store... and if we are feeling extra rich, we might even fill up her Tahoe with gas on the way home.

Pet peeve of something I do to myself: Put a name (just a name) in my calendar with no follow up information. Why on earth did I do this? Then I spend all my meeting prep time searching the internet for background info in that person and wonder if they are going to login to a zoom or show up in person... It makes my mind spin... and yet every once in a while, I do this to myself.

Tired of winging it yet? The natural progression: 20s = single... wing every $ decision.. somehow it works. 30s = settle down, get married.... winging it starts to become a little harder but we both work & make $ so it works... Mid 30s = we have our first kid and find out that we dont want to leave them with daycare... we now have one income & "winging it" isn't cutting it... lets just put everything that we don't have $ for on a credit card. 40s = winging it has fully caught up with you... you are ready to get a divorce because every fight has to do with money & blaming the other one for spending too much on crap they didn't need. Any of this sound familiar? You ARE allowed to skip all the steps and just get intentional and make a plan. Monitor the income and the out-go, plan expenses, and find ways to live the dream together. When I started tracking my spending, made an official financial plan, and became intentional w/money... The funniest thing happened. The fights with my wife literally stopped. When we started communicating and planning for our future.. conversations became uplifting and amazing! You got this! Let's go!!!

If you inherited a Traditional Qualified IRA recently from someone that was NOT your spouse, You could be making massive mistakes! You need to take RMDs (Required minimum distributions) if the person who passed was old enough to be taking RMDs at their death. These RMDs are calculated using several factors: 1) Your (the one who inherited the IRA) Date of Birth 2) The original IRA holders Date of Birth 3) The original IRA holders Date of Death 4) If you are a "Eligible Designated Beneficiary (EDB)"....most people are NOT. Not to mention, you have 10 years from the time you inherit this account until all the funds must be removed. Doesn't sound too bad right? You get $... but wait, this money is TAXED at your tax rate. Take it all at once, you could have just priced yourself into a higher Health care premium if you are getting health insurance through the marketplace. You could have also just accidently pushed yourself over a a critical threshold like Long Term Capital gains tax rate if you have a brokerage account and you sold any positions this year. A very detailed plan is needed here... please do not wing an inherited IRA. Please do not put it on the back burner either, you could have an RMD due by the end of the year that you are unaware of... I have run into several custodians that do not see the RMDs as their job to make clients aware of. I have a feeling way to many people will start getting Inherited IRAs messed up, assuming they are just like a traditional IRA.. they are not. The government has given the original IRA holder tax free growth long enough and they want their tax $$. I have a feeling penalties and tax $ on these will increase in the near future. We are only a few years into the new "ten year rule"... we are about to see a lot more of these hit. If you want more info, read the post I made about them below in the comments. Have a great day everyone! 😃

Did everyone survive the "big" crash? This is year to date s&p 500 BTW.

Anyone can sell the family farm. I refuse. I pick the hard path. Once it's gone.. it's gone forever.

Do you plan on leaving generational wealth?

I worked on my house build all day... well, most of the day. Building a house yourself is not for the faint of heart... but totally worth it. For all the people that constantly say "I wish I had the time to do that" or "I wish I knew how to do that"... A couple things: 1) I didn't play golf today ( I'm not mad at you if you did, I ised to play.. but haven't touch a club in years) 2) I don't play video games (I think they are fun, but last played over 15 yrs ago).. 3) I don't watch college football, or any sports on tv for that matter (I played sports in high school and college... not against playing or watching sports... I usually watch highlights the next day on Youtube of my favorite teams) I DID plane lumber today, sanded lumber today, installed boards on my build... did a little rough in electrical work and cut up some firewood. For those that would say, "When do have fun?" I was still able to eat all meals with my entire family today... play a game after dinner with the family, and watch a movie as a family... Time isn't the issue for most... what you do with your time is. And as far as being knowledgeable about building. Some of that comes with time, some comes from learning from others, some comes from watching a lot of Youtube. The American dream of building your own home on a piece of land is very attainable...you just have to want it more than you want other things.

I got to get coffee one day with this cool dude while he was in my backyard! So much fun getting to meet my made-up twitter friends in REAL life! Matt is doing such cool things! He was (I think) the 18th financial adviser I got to meet first hand in my home state of Maine this summer! (CFD emerging adviser trip was most of them all at once)... but still That's what happens when you live in VACATIONLAND. And the power of social media made most of it possible. Fun times!

Making a financial plan is great... But execution is key.

So funny to me that everyone is freaking out over Apple's foldable phone.. Samsung has had foldable phones for like 7 years now 😂 And just like I saw massive issues with a phone like that then... I still see massive issues with a phone like that now. I love the idea... but I just don't see it being logical. Plus... the cost is crazy. Still think one the best phones I ever owned was the Nokia 3310 in college. Also the first phone I owned so maybe that is factoring into the nostalgia of it all. But man! That was an awesome phone.

The reality of the "I want to die having spent everything" statement is usually not what the person saying it intends. The reason: we don't know your exact date of death. You either will spend everything by a certain age because you set your "death age" earlier than reality of what happened, or You pass away earlier than you planned, therefore you died with money left, which your beneficaries get... The whole "I'm spending every last dime, my kids can fend for themselves" statement... means in fact, You might be living in that kid's house depending on their money to get by, should you live past the date you thought you would die, or in a government paid nursing home.

Gotta love the posts "I'm RETIRED...just posting about this class you should take where I show you how to get rich and also you need to buy my book I just wrote... It's required reading for the class.. and BTW download my budget app, and subscribe to my newsletter". Ah... dude... you aren't retired.. you're self employed. There's a difference. I'm not mad at you for hussling.. respect it actually.. you just aren't retired... no reason to try convince people you are.

Post something you made

Our new porch that I built on the back side of our house addition has been amazing! It is the place we drink coffee in the morning, where my wife & kids spend most of their days homeschooling, where we eat most meals when the weather is nice... And it even makes a great place for me to work on my projects like painting the new vanity I built for the bathroom. Happy Labor Day!

Every family I work with gets a legacy binder. It is a place for wills, trusts, deeds, car titles, budgets, retirement account statments, budgets, etc go to live. I tell all my clients.. this is not a gift for you.. it is a gift for your loved ones. They have one place to see it all when you pass. One place that gives them the whole picture. I have been here personally and had to deal with trying to hunt down things after a loved one passed. It felt like a "not so fun" Easter egg hunt. The kind where you find a plastic egg 8 months later behind a book on the bookshelf with old candy in it. Not fun. Also... one of the first things I do for clients when they on board, is work on tidying up accounts.. no reason to have 8 different traditional IRAs with 8 different RIAs... that's just brutal.

Fun fact about me: I consume enough for Matt and I combined. 😂 4 double shots of espresso/day minimum.

Reverse budgeting is great. But read his entire post.. just don't cherry pick the "no budget" part out. Thomas says that it ia necessary to start with a standard budget in the beginning, until you understand your monthly spending. Then you move onto this. Too many people telling me they "reverse budget" in client meetings because they read about it online.. To only find out they have ZERO idea how much they spend monthly.. I personally reverse budget... but it was after years of budgeting diligently and understand CASH FLOW. It starts with understanding where your money is going.. please just don't say you are reverse budgeting because you dont want to budget... and then have no idea where your money has gone. Understand the flow. Then, yes, by all means, streamline the activity.