In this episode of The Tactical Empire, Jeff Smith and Shawn Rider break down why relying solely on a pension or traditional retirement plans might be holding you back. They share a real-life client example to show the power of taking control of your money by creating cash flow, using savings strategically, and breaking free from outdated financial systems. If you're serious about building wealth and not just hoping it works out in 30 years, this episode is your wake-up call. It’s time to act boldly, use your funds intentionally, and create freedom on your terms.
In this episode of The Tactical Empire, hosts Jeff Smith and Shawn Rider dive into the flaws and limitations of traditional financial planning, particularly focusing on pensions and 401(k)s. They discuss real-life examples, including a new client who is a longtime teacher facing retirement concerns. Jeff and Sean emphasize the importance of controlling one's own finances, investing in cash flow-generating assets, and the potential benefits of building a business. They also highlight the misconceptions of risk and the necessity of taking proactive steps to achieve financial freedom and abundance.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:34 Celebrating Podcast Milestones
02:10 Listener Engagement and Questions
02:42 Client Case Study: Financial Strategies
05:56 Rethinking Traditional Financial Advice
14:14 The Importance of Cash Flow
24:15 Concluding Thoughts and Next Episode Preview
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[00:00:00] How do you find the will to fight back against the world that wants to keep you sedated? S stuck plates? Join us for the tools and strategies you need to create a life of abundance, discipline, and high achievement. This, this is the tactical implied with Jeff Smith.
Jeff Smith: Welcome to another episode of The Tactical Empire. Today I am joined by Sean Rider. How are you man?
Shawn Rider: I'm good. Another episode of many, I think we are over 225 episodes or something like that. So little pat on our back, but we'll just keep showing up every week, won't we?
Jeff Smith: Yeah, I don't know why. If you go out on some of the sites, it looks, it's like, it says it's only like 1 94, but it's wrong.
We're, we're well over 200. So I don't, I don't know what that thing is. We might have to have our producer look into [00:01:00] that. I want credit for all 225.
Yeah. I gotta figure out how many, I don't know how many, uh, what the show is saying on, I mean, uh, apple Podcast has see all 2 25. Exactly. I.
Jeff Smith: Boom, look at us.
Shawn Rider: Yes. 42 5 star reviews. Let's go. We're crushing it, Jeff.
Jeff Smith: Well, I hope so. I hope that we're adding some value. 'cause we spend a lot of time on this shit.
Shawn Rider: We try. We try. It is, it is tough to, like I said before, is, uh, you know, we, we have our main things that we like to teach people, so trying to. Come at certain things from different angles in different contextual situations without like acting like you're changing what you believe in.
Um, can be like, the hardest part about podcasting is, uh, let's talk about the same main things, but in different scenarios or details. So I, [00:02:00] I, I think we're keeping it fresh for the people. We have quite a few active listeners every single week, so that keeps us motivated and going,
Jeff Smith: hell yeah.
Shawn Rider: Alright.
Jeff Smith: Oh yeah.
I'd like if you guys would send more questions. So
Shawn Rider: I actually had, um, I actually had a Facebook post typed up for today, uh, asking people for I. Business and investor related questions. I didn't post it because I wanted to post pictures from the past weekend festival, local festival with my family. So I'm, I'm either, I'm gonna do that publicly and I'll probably do it privately in the group and get some, some topics for us.
Uh, so we'll maybe have some fresh stuff coming. But outside of that, we do have. We do have, uh, something that comes up with a lot of new clients, and this one came from our intro call yesterday with a brand new 90 day accelerator client. Um mm-hmm. He's been a teacher for 25 years, something along those lines.
Uh, a steward of [00:03:00] money. He's done a good job saving. Um, the people in his family seemed to have done a good job saving and investing, but he also, you know, fell down the rabbit hole and trap of. Typical personal finance. You know, get this job for 45 years, you're gonna have a pension at the end, and, and so on, so forth.
And you're gonna live on 80% of your salary that you made because you're gonna be 60 and you don't need to earn that much in retirement. And, uh, you know, the closer he gets to quote retirement, uh, and he is only what, late forties, something like that. Yeah. The closer he to retirement, the more they're changing the rules on this pension thing that they promised him at the beginning, 25 years ago.
So we talked different strategies and, and our job is to present options to people. We're not financial advisors, we're not wealth managers. We don't tell people what to do. We're gonna educate them. Then they can make their own big boy decisions. But the, the basic statement was, should he let those things ride for the next 10 years so he can make.
[00:04:00] 50 to 80% in 10 years, every single month. Or should he liquidate these things and get 20 to 50% now and put that money to work towards other things that can benefit him now LA and later and you know, the short statement was a, a dollar today is, is better and stronger and more valuable than. Dollars 10 years from now.
So what are our general thoughts on that? When people say have, you know, 4 0 1 ks from previous employers, maybe 4 0 3 bs, maybe some brokerage accounts that they put money into, and then life happened, they stopped doing it and they're, they're seeing 'em go up over time. Um, maybe they had a Roth IRA, traditional IRA, all these types of.
Products that they have put money into that come with certain strings attached where you, you in essence in your mind, can't or shouldn't touch that money. But then here you are, like trying to grow financial freedom or, or wealth or [00:05:00] actually just increase your income today using your money. What do we think about that?
Jeff Smith: Yeah, I mean I a a dollar today is definitely more valuable than the promise of what it will be worth in 15 years, that's for sure. Um. And that guy, I mean, his situation was a little bit like, I wanted to wrap him over the head and be like, dude, you're, you're arguing about 12 years and 7%, 7% of like an increase of what he would've received from a pension for 12 years of his life.
And like, ooh. I mean, if you're talking 7% of a billion dollars, maybe that's something, but we're talking 7% of one year salary as a teacher, not like. Something earth shattering. And so I, I think he really got his eyes open to like what he could do and the possibilities. But like, uh, the, the fact is, I mean, that's so typical though, right?
I, I believe that the stock market's a scam that is [00:06:00] designed to keep people stressed out and pour too. Like if, if you look at it and if you ship all your money away from you during your working life, and it does not. Give you or bear fruit for you to make your life easier and more fulfilled on a regular basis during that span of your life, that season of your life.
Like I, I don't know how that is beneficial to you, like I. So like, okay, you, you send off 30% of your income after taxes to the s and p 500 and you've got all these millions of dollars in the bank for your kids, but you like, that doesn't put food on the table. Like I, I mean, at the end of the day, it doesn't enrich your life.
It doesn't add to the experiences you had with your kids. It doesn't give you shit except like. This finish line of an end date and like, okay, well I've been a great saver and I've got $8 million 'cause I set this money in here and I let it sit for 50 years, earning [00:07:00] 8% and paying all these fees. And like, you guys will get that when I die.
Great dad. But like, you were stressed out. You were gone Monday through Saturday every week you work 10 hours a day. Like I, I, I don't know. The whole, the whole thing is just crazy. And if you really think about it from a more like. Open-minded perspective on, on the way these things are designed and how much of our money actually gets swept away that doesn't get returned to us on a regular basis and or that we have access to.
It's, it's really crazy when you think about it and you start to learn these things and you go down the rabbit hole and like, you're like, holy shit man. Like, yeah. I mean, Roth IRAs are great and all because you don't ever pay taxes on 'em again, supposedly, but like. You also can't get that money ever. And so like, I mean, you can, you can cash it out at a onerous
Shawn Rider: on the hands
Jeff Smith: interest rate and, and tax rate.
And so like [00:08:00] they, there's just, the system is not set up for guys like us to win. On a regular basis. That's why I think that the education that we teach and what we encourage the guys to look into and broaden their scope on is, is like very important because that's how you change your life in two to seven years.
It's not through these type of things. Mm-hmm. Like, I, I don't know. I, I wouldn't wanna slog away on a $80,000 salary for 45 years raising a family of six, like. It no matter how much money was at the end, the pot of gold at at 65 72, like I, to me, like that would be hard. And I think as men like truly, you get in that mindset of where you're just trying to earn and survive and save, and you've got this idea that you're.
Dedicating yourself to like providing, and like, eventually it'll be [00:09:00] enough, right? And like, that'll be good, good enough for them. But like at the end of the day, you could have it all. You could have the cash flow now and spend time with the people that you want to and continue. Uh. Working towards a mission as opposed to like, I, I think, I think that's the biggest thing that we're missing out on as men generally is, is like, are you sacrificing all of these?
Like, are you doing all of this golden handcuffs activity? Meaning like going to the corporate job to do that and, and, and what you're doing subconsciously is brushing aside your overall mission in life. And so to trade it for a small amount of money. And so it's, it's pretty crazy when you think about it and you get down that rabbit hole with that.
Shawn Rider: Well, that was a, uh, a, a big bite at it. And the, the interesting and. I would say funny, but it's really sad is like, you use [00:10:00] examples where it's like, Hey, you're gonna work for 40 years, you're gonna stock this away and you're gonna have $8 million that was earning 8% and you're, you're gonna live off 4% of it.
The, the, the fact is that the majority, the, well I shouldn't say majority, the average, okay. The average person that is in their fifties and sixties has less than half a million dollars in a retirement account anyways. So like. People aren't actually like saving and earning a shit ton of money, um, in these types of accounts.
So like the, the, the, the fact that, and with inflation, like you're not, you're not gonna live the life of your dreams in retirement. Barely on two to 4% of your earnings. And they're not, they're not liquidating these accounts at all. So you've worked all this time to set this money here to live on a small, small fraction of these things, and I think that's a very risky thing to do.
And that's, that's really the big thing that people need to switch is, well, these were the safe pathways. I've always been told to pay yourself [00:11:00] first set 10% aside in savings, set 10% aside in investment and diversify. Own all of it at one time, and by own all of it. I mean, putting it in retirement date funds and, and, and index funds, and you own the whole stock market.
It's like, well, well, my question is who the hell's making, who is that good for? Who's making money off that for the next 20, 30, 40 years? Okay. And I, my full transparency, like. I don't really struggle with this, but my wife still owns her, has her 401k. We rolled it over to a traditional IRA. We do have other capital that we're putting to work elsewhere, but we do know that if we had opportunities to accelerate this even faster right now, that's where we would go and, and pull from the well there.
Uh, we're not talking $20,000, we're talking more than that. So it's, it's, it's a substantial amount of money that we have to make a real hard decision about, not hard decision, but we have to make a decision, uh, consciously. And together as a family at some point. Um, but that's not, we know [00:12:00] that that's not the golden pathway to our future.
Our golden pathway mm-hmm. Is what we've been doing, which is building businesses and putting, protecting money and life insurance, and then leveraging the life insurance to buy a cashflow, real estate to put money in our pockets. The interesting thing about this guy yesterday was like, he did build, he actually realized that teaching wasn't enough and, and so he, he did build a little solo.
Mold remediation business on the side and it does 50 to a hundred thousand dollars a year. Just him. Right? And it's like, it's like, could you imagine what that would be if you didn't have to go teach kids for seven and a half hours a day for half of the year? Um, I get it. I made my comment to him like, I do believe.
I'm a former teacher, so like I do believe that if you're starting a business on the side, being a teacher is the best job to have when you do it. 'cause you do only work half of the year and you have holidays off, summers off and weekends off. So it's definitely a good job to have while you're hustling a side [00:13:00] gig.
But at some point, all those people that position have to look at the facts of what they've built, only dedicated a fraction of their time to it. And what can you do in the next 24 to 36 months if you walked away from the quote, secure thing and took the risky, as other people define it, risky path of building your own thing.
I want people to flip that, right? The secure path is the risky path because you're not, you're losing opportunity costs. And so the potential upside of his business is al compared to that of teaching. And so this is something that we want to drill to the guys, like, get control of your money, bring it back into your own system, not some system that some other company is delegating, some advisor's controlling or the stock market, whatever.
And it may be get it back in your system and then take control of your job, which is leave your job and potentially build your own business. And uh, again. Context of his situation. He wanted to move south [00:14:00] too, so it's like he'd be leaving, are we gonna bring that business with us? Are we gonna start a franchise from scratch?
Those are the things that we're gonna figure out with this guy, uh, as we dive deeper into this situation. Any, any thoughts on that, Jeff?
Jeff Smith: Yeah, I mean, as you're, as you're talking, I just, I, I really think that I, I wish more people understood cash flow and how to generate it, um, with their time or with, without their time, because I, I, I think there's gonna be people listening to this and they're like, yeah, but Sean, I, I'm not a business owner.
I can't run a business. Um, and, and this guy is. Kind of experiencing some of that, right? Like he's like, I don't know how to scale. That's why I never scaled. That's why I did everything myself. And which you don't have to be a business owner. I, I think the most powerful thing that we teach people is how you can take your money and make your money go to work for you in a way that pays you.
On a regular basis, either monthly or quarterly. And, and like, I think that that's the most powerful thing people [00:15:00] don't understand and, and can't conceptualize in their mind on their own. Because for me, like they think the way I live is risky or the what you're doing is risky, right? But the bottom line is if you have cash flow coming in, you are never at risk for anything.
So like, if you can build up your assets to generate, let's say, an. Like, if we can show you how to make $5,000 a month, like with your savings, why? Why would that be risky? When that only goes up like I own real estate and I don't like to use that as the only example of what we do, but like we buy a bunch of fucking real estate and we rent it out.
We make a net profit off of that real estate that pays us and. It will forever. Like I could die tomorrow and my wife would get all of that stuff right, making the same amount of money and only go up over time. [00:16:00] And so for me, I. That's not there. There's almost no risk in that. And, and then once you figure out how to take your first, whatever, $10,000 and turn it into a hundred dollars a month today, like that's what I'm teaching my kids right now.
I'm showing them how to save a thousand bucks a month. That will give them, not, not a month, sorry, a thousand dollars that will give them. $50 a month now from the time that they're 12 to the time that they're whatever. And, and when you can teach people that, you have so many more options. 'cause, 'cause when you go in and you're like, well, I make so much money, I make 90 grand or 60 grand a year.
Okay, whatever, that's fine. But like, what if we could show you how to make an extra thousand dollars a month by doing this little thing? Then over time that $1,000 will turn into $2,000 a month [00:17:00] or $3,000 a month like that. Then that person that makes 60 K, that's making an additional $36,000, by not putting any more time into anything, their life has completely changed at that point in time.
'cause now, like they have options, right? And, and so I, I just think that's the most powerful piece of it, that where people get it confused about riskiness. Like if you wanna talk big numbers, if I can show you how to make 50 grand a month off of your assets, like what do you have to worry about if you're pulling in a half million bucks a year?
Like through being a great steward of your money and bought buying the right things. Because like as inflation goes, as all this other stuff goes, all you're gonna do is get raises throughout. So when it's, when you talk about it being risky, like things can happen, but there's like systems [00:18:00] for it all.
It's, it's very structured. It's not as nearly as risky as people. Perceive it to be and then you are in control of your entire financial house.
Shawn Rider: Yeah. I mean, I don't, I don't have too much more to add to it. I, I, I know why people struggle with it so much. 'cause they're, they're, they're doing it out of the goodness of what the people they love have taught them. And yeah. Champion Card, I get all the cliche quotes about it. Um, but that's why we're, I think, we're huge components about education supplemented with action.
How many times have you heard the guys that have been concerned about making changes actually take the change and within 90 days, they're like, I don't know why I didn't do this sooner. So you, you won't feel bad bringing your financials. Back in house, so to speak and be in control of them if, if the only thing that you have working for you is a number on a computer screen, and you can't do anything to [00:19:00] dictate the direction at which that's going on any given day.
You seriously have to consider what we discuss on this podcast and bringing those things in-house. And I think some people are so afraid of like short-term discomfort and pain that they just want the status quo of, I know it's there. I know that over the past few years it's just gone up. I can ride the bumps out.
It's per, you know, just the same old bullshit that other people have said. Uh, but I think if you, if you can wrap your mind around the, the concept of. Hey, it will be a little uncomfortable as you learn. What we're doing and what you can do. The, the other side of the fence will be a, a lot better views and you'll be feeling a lot better about the actions that you're taking because you'll feel the direct impact of these things.
Um, and maybe that's why people don't do it 'cause they don't want to feel, uh, negative or positive impacts. They just wanna stock their money away and, and yo set it and forget it. Right. Put your money here and don't even look at [00:20:00] it. I just, I just watched some sort of video the other day on social media about, um, a a a a, A wealth guy, and he's like, greatest advice I ever got.
Put your money in the stock market and don't even look at it till you retire. And it just made, it made me want to throw up in my mouth. I was like, oh, oh no. I'm sure coming from the guy who probably built a huge business. Managing other people's money and made a lot of money off other people's money.
And I'm sure he just stocked his money away. No, he built a business. He built something that was in his control. So whether or not you're a business builder or not, the wealthiest people have money in their control. The people who have access to the most money usually win most often.
Jeff Smith: Yep. Yep.
Yeah, I mean, you, you nailed it, dude. That, that's so true. And I, I wish more people would understand that [00:21:00] about the, the susceptibility of what they, what they're putting themselves into. I mean, there's a cost to be paid no matter what, like it, is it investing in education? Is it investing in mistakes that are gonna happen inevitably?
Um, 'cause I, I think fear of the unknown is where most people get off track, right? They're like, what could possibly happen? Okay, I'm, I've got a million dollars in this 401k, I'm gonna go cash it out. 'cause I think that $500,000 today could be put to better use than a million dollars later, right? And. And we have to pay the taxes and the fees on it.
And then, but, but I know I'm gonna have issues. Right? And that's where like you have to invest your time in learning things. You have to invest your money in coaches or whatever. If you want to compress the time, speed it up, make less mistakes. Um, that that's a way to do it and or you're gonna pay the, the tuition on making mistakes.
I mean, [00:22:00] Sean and I have both been sued. We've both been through lawsuits. We both had a, a variety of different educational tuition payments to be put out, and, and there's no avoiding that stuff. So the price you're gonna pay on this side of things, or you're gonna learn lessons like that. You're gonna have to surround your pe yourself with people that have been through stuff like that so that you can kind of manage the, the mental storm of it all.
'cause that will rattle you from time to time if you're new to it. And, but, but the, the alternative is stay in your job. And the price you're gonna pay is, I don't know, 30 years of your life, um, the, the understanding or the, the person on your shoulder chirping in your ear letting you know that you're, you're only, you could be doing something else or you're meant for more.
Or like, I mean, a lot of it is like regulation of self-control. I mean, [00:23:00] when I worked in the corporate world, I watched people, I. On a regular basis that couldn't help themselves to go out and upgrade their car every raise they got, and it kept them slaves to that job because now they had a new lease payment on the newest car and they, they couldn't delay gratification for five years and, and get themselves out of that position forever.
Shawn Rider: Sure.
Jeff Smith: And so. I mean, I think, I think that's the most important thing people need to understand is that like the price is gonna have to be paid and you can pay it over a short period of time and completely change your direction in your life and, and, and then start choosing more of your direction. Or you can pay it over a long period of time and, and feel like you're in the majority control of, of what your decision making process is.
I mean. It's, it's just an interesting dichotomy that you've gotta, you've gotta deal [00:24:00] with and are, are you striving for your potential? Are you expanding your, your edges in, in every area of life or not? And so there's, there's a lot of people that are okay with not, and that's okay. Those are probably not my people though.
Shawn Rider: Alright. There was something that you said there that actually plays into what I have planned for the next episode about, uh, uh, fear and mistakes and, and education and how that plays into it. So, I think we're gonna tidy this one up and look forward to the next episode. If you want to find out, uh, if Jeff and I could rewind time and go back into our early to mid twenties, what would we do different from the outset?
So Jeff, thank you for educating the people. Send them out.
Jeff Smith: Alright guys, have a kick ass week. Hit us up on. Any of the social platforms we're the tactical empire, obviously. Um, we have a tactical Empire community on Facebook. It's free Facebook group. If you have any questions or want to run any of [00:25:00] this stuff back by us or get a direct response from us, you can post it there for the good of the people, or you can send us a DM on Instagram.
That's a great way to start a chat with us as well. So thanks for listening. Hope this added value to your life, and like I said, go kick ass this week and make the world a better place.