6 Life Lessons from a Financial Advisor

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Robert Mansour:
All right. I think we're recording now. Hello everybody. This is Robert Monsour. I am very excited about a special guest that I have today. Her name is Patty handy and she is a financial advisor. She should be on the screen if we're doing this right. She is the lovely lady in red, and I'm the guy wearing the blue shirt here. I'm a lawyer here in town, in the Los Angeles area. My areas of practice include estate planning, wills, living trusts powers of attorney healthcare documents, guardianship nominations for minor children, things of that nature. And because of my area of practice, I often have to intersect with other financial professionals or with financial professionals, I should say tax advisors, CPAs. And it's always nice to have people in town that I can trust that I, and I value their opinion and they are easy to work with and they really understand their stuff. And so today I have financial advisor, Patti handy with me. She is with Vance wealth and she was going to talk to us today about a variety of things, but just a little bit about her background. Patty spent many years in the mortgage industry. She's always had a foot in the financial realm one way or another. She's a published author. She's written I think, two books, right? Patty

Patti Handy:
Two when it comes to money topics.

Robert Mansour:
Yes. And I believe those are available on Amazon and, and, and other resources as well. So too much background, we want to get into the meat of the matter. I want to make sure that we can give our audience some really good information that they can sink their teeth into and that they can start using little morsels that can help guide them so enough enough talking about you and me and our, how great we are. Let's get into what we've titled six life lessons from a financial advisor. So the first thing I'd like to talk to you about is how you, how you got into the financial advice arena. How did you become a financial advisor?

Patti Handy:
Well, what what basically inspired me really is a multifaceted, but it stems really from my divorce many, many years ago. My son was 18 months old and at the time I was in corporate banking on the institutional side and I was pregnant with my son and our bank closed that was working at, and so I was unemployed and I thought, well, I'm just gonna enjoy my pregnancy and enjoy some time with my son. And when he was 18 months, like I said, we, we got divorced. So I was technically, you know, unemployed at that time. And I remember a moment in time when I was literally fetal position on the floor sobbing with just the overwhelm of the divorce overwhelm of how I was going to raise my son on my own essentially. And just juggle everything. And I had this weird, random thought that was I'm going to be okay financially because I kind of know what I'm doing.
And you know, like my parents were that they, they taught me well and how to respect money and just how to manage it well, and it brought a sense of calm as odd as that sounds and that moment of complete despair. And it wasn't until many years later that I got out of this, you know, mess you know, emotionally. But I have to say, even with that knowledge that I had, I still got myself in a little bit of a pickle. I got some credit card debt and I didn't like I did the Cardinal sin, which was, I took some money out of my retirement account.

Robert Mansour:
You know, it

Patti Handy:
Was, it was just what I wanted to be at home with him. So I didn't go get a full-time job again. And so it just was a situation where I thought I need to help women. I need to help individuals who are going through such a, such an event and, and help them become empowered and educated. And I want to bring this financial peace to others. So that's sort of how I transitioned from the mortgage world into the financial world.

Robert Mansour:
You know, it's interesting you say that because sometimes I like to tell my clients, I say, look, if you're going to go down this journey, it's really nice to have some, I, I liken it to river rafting. If you go river rafting, you don't want to be in the boat by yourself, especially if you've never been river rafting. It's nice to have somebody a guide in that river boat with you. And that guide that you bring in, maybe halfway through the journey. It's often really great to have that person there from the very beginning, because that person knows where all the dips are, where the, where the dangerous rocks are, where the, where the trees are and can guide you down that river. So I always liken it to a river rafting guide. And it sounds to me like you have, you have been down the river, you know, you know, where all the bumps are and somebody who is especially somebody who may be going through the similar journey would really benefit from having you on board and, and guiding that person through the river rafting experience. I mean, I suppose sometimes you feel like a guide don't you?

Patti Handy:
Absolutely. There's, there's a lot of coaching for lack of better words that goes along with this. We are, we are always dealing with bumps in our life and it's one thing, understanding the mechanics and the academics of the stock market and what to do with investing, but there's a lot of behavioral coach and that goes along with it, a lot of, you know, pulling back the reins when fear and panic set in. So yes, there was definitely a lot of conversations, a lot of listening I think a good financial planner is a far better listener than talker. And I think it's important for us as, as planners to get a deep understanding of what they're going through and having been through a divorce and dealt with loss and, and that you know, raising a, you know, being a single mom and raising a son and whatnot, it's, it's definitely helpful in terms of being able to relate and, and share some experiences, that idea that helped,

Robert Mansour:
You know, I don't know if this dovetails into my next question or not, but, and forgive me, I might be surprising you here, but I guess a lot of people might really be asking, what does a financial advisor do? You know, in other words, a lot of plans don't know what I do. They're like, Oh, he does estate planning, but they don't know what that is that some people think I'm selling real estate because they hear the word estate and they're like, Oh, I think he sells houses or something. No, no, no, I don't. So do you, in a very brief way, could you explain to the audience what it is that a financial advisor actually does?

Patti Handy:
Sure, sure. Different advisors, you know, can I can run their practice a little bit differently. Vance wealth is a little unique in that we don't only look at what we manage in terms of assets. So we help them take their assets and invest that for them, for, for growth and balance and, and, and just, you know, maintaining that portfolio for them. We look at things from different strategies. We look at tax strategies that we can apply that will help them keep more of their hard-earned money. If they're business owners, we look at strategies in terms of from a business perspective, how we can you know, best strategize for, for growth and income and, and, you know, tax again, tax strategies. We look at the holistic picture of an individual. So we do look at the estate planning side.
We look at the insurance side. But as I said, there's also a lot of behavioral coaching involved. There's a lot of talking off the ledge when, you know, like last year, you know, COVID hit and stock the market plummeted 35% in five weeks. And it was a lot of, okay, this is going to be all right, you know, history. And I'll have actually a, a chart a little bit later showing that, but there's a lot of, you know, we're where there, where there's their support, where their, their platform for financial

Robert Mansour:
Just peace know, it sounds to me like you are, you're kind of like doing a, a macro fly over over their life if you will. Absolutely. You're kind of seeing everything at once and examining everything and how to fit it together. So that leads me to my next question. You've mentioned, I think, or I've heard you talk about something called life planning and then there's financial planning. Can you explain the connection between life planning and financial planning?

Patti Handy:
Sure. So life planning is just, just that it's really our life, you know, yes. Financial planning is certainly one piece of that puzzle, but we are dealing with our emotional health, our mental health, our physical health, our spiritual health. So I often talk about, you know, having a check-in with yourself as to where you're at in those places. So are you in a place where you physically are feeling well, if not, what has to happen to get well, what steps all those small that you should take to get healthy? If you're not mentally or emotionally feeling well, what has to happen? It's been quite a year, obviously with COVID and there's been stress out of the, you know, it's crazy. So it's, it's checking in with yourself, reaching out for help, if you need that help emotionally or mentally you know, spiritually are you at where you want to be, you know, from a spiritual place.
So it's about checking in with yourself on all those areas and then taking little baby steps to get to where you want to be and sort of like, okay, well in a year from now, I want to be here in five years. I want to be here check in with your relationships, with your family and friends, just, you know, it's, it's, it's, again, it's a holistic view of us. We're not just our money, honestly, we are all of that. And I think this past year, we've really taken some time to reflect on our priorities. What is most important for us? What we feel is, you know, truly in our hearts. It's not just about, you know, grind, grind, grind. It's about, okay, my family and friends are, are huge. And, and so what has to happen for me to incorporate more joy with them? So it's that piece. And of course, financial planning brings you some peace to know that you have some choices and freedom with, with, you know, within that life planning piece. So it's, it's all part of the puzzle.

Robert Mansour:
Well, it's it's interesting because sometimes, I mean, I feel guilty of this. Sometimes. Sometimes I feel like I'm winging it. I think we all feel like that sometimes. And so I think what happens, at least in my practice, when clients come in and they're like, what is this mystical living trust thing you're talking about at the end of the meeting, they're like, okay, I get it. I understand what this is, how it's going to help me. And it's going to help me make those baby steps towards what I'm trying to achieve. In fact, that's one of the things that I asked my clients, why are you here? What brings you here today? And in many cases they lost a loved one. There's been a tragedy in their lives. And they're like, Oh, I gotta get my stuff together. In fact, I would wonder, you know, kind of the same question for you before I get to the next question here, and maybe it dovetails into the education component, but have you noticed any kind of incidents or a life life? What's what I'm looking for. Life events that lead people to you for financial advice. And I guess a divorce would be one of them that would be an instigating event where somebody is like, okay, I got it. I gotta take care of this.

Patti Handy:
So we've been very, very busy this last year even through, because

Patti Handy:
There is a lot of fear and panic and sort of unknown. And am I on track? Am I, what should I be doing to make sure that I'm doing the right thing with our, with our money?

Robert Mansour:
Am I on track? I love that. Am I on track? Go ahead. Sorry.

Patti Handy:
Yeah. So yes, divorce and then a loss of a spouse. We've seen that as well, where typically the men manage the money and the men pay the bills and invested in the wife. Wasn't so much, they, they just felt, you know, he was doing it. I don't really need to watch it. And then he passes and she's left with, I don't know what I'm doing. And that makes me incredibly sad. I, I want to, even in the happiest of marriages and the healthiest of marriages and the healthiest of individuals, we've learned that stuff happens and that they both need the both husband and wife need to work together, understand what they're doing together. I like to say, have a money date, you know, once a month, just check in with each other. And you know, I'm not talking about having an hour long conversation analysis of your investment portfolio, but it's about just, you know, are we spending what we should be?
Are we saving enough? Are we, you know, how are things every, you know, each spouse should know where every account is. They should have a record of all the account numbers all the debts what's being invested, where, where all the accounts and that's, it's not a trust issue. It's just a smart decision to know what, and it might be the wife that passes and the wife might be the money manager. And when that was the case, in my situation, I was the money manager, my, my marriage and my husband was not. And so I was the upper hand on to speak after the marriage, when it came to money,

Robert Mansour:
Where is the money Patty, by the way, where did you hide it?

Patti Handy:
There that's all the conversation. There was no hiding, there was no hiding. But it's important for both people to be empowered and educated and work together as a team.

Robert Mansour:
It's interesting. You mentioned the word empowerment and I have found in my practice that, and again, this is where we kind of run parallel lives to some extent, most of the time, most of the time the man is the person handling the money. The husband, there are times when I see otherwise, but I would say a good 75% of the time. And the, the, the wife comes to me after losing a spouse and they are often overwhelmed, or maybe they didn't lose a spouse. It's just a younger wife, if you will. And they just don't really, they just don't get financial planning. They don't understand it. They, and they just rather not even deal with it, but it sounds to me like you are educating and empowering women. So other than that, we just mentioned to us about how you sit down with the baby of the loss of a spouse or a divorce. Can you touch a little bit more about how you try to empower and educate, especially the women who come to see you? I know that's part of your focus is helping women with financial planning. So can you shed a bit more light on that?

Patti Handy:
Yeah, absolutely. I recently heard a, a quote by a gentleman on a podcast and said that, that men look at investing in the stock market as a challenge where women look at it as a threat. And that, that made me sad. Cause I thought there were, there was a, there's a lot of and I've heard this many times as well. There's a lot of shame around money for women. There's a lot of embarrassment. There's a lot of I don't want to say, I don't know these things and I should know these things and they feel the guilty that they don't understand, and it's not their fault if they weren't raised or born, you know, no one taught, it's not taught in schools and it's typically not taught at home. And unless you were, you know, had a class or, or, you know, learn this, th there's no way to learn it.
So you know, I always say, give yourself some grace and, and accept the fact that it's okay, that, you know, this isn't your strong suit, the academics and the mechanics of learning about the markets and money is really not that hard. It's just, they haven't seen it. They haven't been taught. So yes, education is a big part of what I do. I think I'm a teacher at heart and I feel that empowerment brings a sense of security and safety. And that's what we long for to know that we're going to be okay when we retire that we're not going to be homeless, that we're going to be able to live in our own home without having to move in with our kids or, you know, whatever else happens. So I definitely want to create confidence. I want to create clarity around, around money for, for women.
And I know that women tend to outlive their spouse. We've just talked about. So it's really important for me to make sure that these women have this empowerment. And I was recently chatting with a friend who did a lot of work with the UCLA and YMC. And they dealt with a lot of women in domestic violence situations. And a very large percentage of the women said they had to stay in these physically abusive relationships because they didn't have the financial knowledge to make that break. And that just breaks my heart. It's like, Oh my gosh, these, these women are in these horrible situations because they feel like they have no choice. And that's, that's just not okay. That is absolutely not. Okay. So

Robert Mansour:
Yeah. You know, I, I think that I think the education piece is a very important thing. And then once you, I would assume, okay, so here's what I experienced. And then you let me know if you experienced the same thing. People come to me and they, they don't understand estate planning or whatever. And I tell them, look, you're not going to walk out of here knowing everything there is to know, okay. I, even, I, as the lawyer of nearly 30 years experience, I'm always learning. So I don't expect the client know everything, but I have found that after about an hour or two of sitting down and talking, they walk out of there feeling like so much better because they, they, they have enough education. They don't need to know everything. They just need to know enough for themselves. And then they can rely on somebody like you to steer them this way or that way, but they don't need to walk out with a PhD in financial planning. You know, they just, do you find that after an hour or two, that someone who was really trepidatious to see you walks out feeling much, has as much stronger sense of themselves and where they're going, even after an hour or two.

Patti Handy:
Yeah, absolutely. I think it it's, it's really about, they feel good that they took that step. It isn't so much that they've learned so much about the markets or the academics, you know, financial planning, but it's like, okay, I'm taking control of my situation right now. Right. I'm taking steps to better position myself. Like, like you, I am learning all the time when you stop learning. I always say moving back forwards or backwards, forwards. Right? So we're always learning and things are always changing. So we have to be on our game all the time. And as long as the client is open to, to learning and growing, it's ongoing. I mean, we have clients, you know, that that advanced wealth has had clients for decades. And it's a constant, that relationship is constantly changing and evolving. And we changed the evolve, the plan with their life happening. So you cannot have a plan in place and then, and then decide, you're done. You don't want to go like this and work that way. You've got to continually monitor and change and update as life changes.

Robert Mansour:
Yeah. I tell clients, it's like a, it's like going to a doctor, you know, you got to go to a doctor every, at least every few years because your body changes, you may need to take different medications. You may need to change your lifestyle a little bit. So the same thing in the legal and the financial realm, you don't just set it and forget it. Right. You have to check in on it every so often and make sure you're doing the right thing. So speaking of the right thing, let's talk about some of the wrong things. Let's talk about common mistakes people make and maybe what they can do to correct those mistakes. What do you see as far as like some of the most common errors people make when it comes to financial planning?

Patti Handy:
There's a few, so one is having a financial plan in place. Not really getting a handle on where they are today in terms of a budget, what they spend, what they're saving, what's coming in, what's going out, what's cashflow look like, and then where they want to be in X number of years. And then looking at filling in that gap, what are the steps they have to take to fill in those gaps? Having that plan in place brings a, you know, sense of calm. I think, you know, in our lives knowing again that you're taking control and a lot of people just, I mean, I think there was a statistic recently. I read I forget the numbers, but it was the percentage of individuals. And the time they spend planning a vacation and planning the details of the vacation far surpasses their, their planning in their financial world.

Robert Mansour:
Hold on, I'm going to challenge you here.
I want to come and see you Patty. If you're going to tell me that I haven't been planning and I don't have a roadmap and have I done a budget, I'm embarrassed. I don't want to, it's like if I haven't gone to the dentist, you know, in a year or two, or, you know, I'm embarrassed. I don't want to go because I know the dentist is going to be all over my case. I should have done this one thing that I see clients come and they apologize to me. Think they spend like a minute apologizing. I know I should've done something, but I didn't. I'm like, look, relax. Most people haven't done anything. It's totally fine. So I think that what you're raising even makes me kind of nervous. I'm like, Oh, did I do a budget? Oh, did I do this? Should do you find that people are embarrassed to come and see you and say, do they apologize to you

Patti Handy:
Sometimes? But it shouldn't be a reason not to see you. No, not at all. And it's, you know, it's a judgment free zone. We do. We do not judge. We do not. We don't present in such a way where we, where we're pointing out what they've done wrong or not. It's about taking where they are today and looking at where they want to be and helping them get there. And they have to celebrate those little wins. Even if they're little wins. I think it's important to celebrate the baby steps that we all take, whether it's financial planning or otherwise. But no, absolutely. It's I mean, but, but let me say, I kinda, what I said earlier is that, especially with women, there, there is a lot of shame and there was a lot of embarrassment around money and they don't really want to talk about the fact that they don't know as much as they do, or they don't really know what they're doing or how to do it.
And that's where the education and the empowerment piece is really big for me. So, you know, it's like a teacher when you know, your classroom walks in the door, you're not telling the kids, you shouldn't be, you should know this already. You should absolutely know this already. I'm a teacher I'm only just teach. And every kid's going to be in a different place in terms of where they're at with, you know, with the other side particular subject. So you don't spoil the kid for not knowing something. And we certainly don't, don't skull, you know, clients assignment a word we use. But no it's absolutely important for, for them to feel safe.

Robert Mansour:
Well, I just want to assure the viewers who might be hesitant to pick up the phone that Patty handy is not going to be scolding anyone and neither am I, because most people, you know, I will say this. I, I, wasn't always practicing in this area of law. I used to do another area of, I used to work as a defense lawyer for many years, even I did not get into estate planning until halfway through my career. So here's Mr. Lawyer, man, who didn't have his stuff in order. And frankly, to be honest with you, I probably should update my stuff. To be honest with you. I haven't updated it in awhile. So even me, I need to take steps to improve my situation. So we should, the viewer should not be scared at all of you or me judgment free zone. But other than that mistake not having a financial plan or a compass or any kind of direction. What other errors have you seen in your practice?

Patti Handy:
Let me, let me, before I answer that, let me just make a comment, come back to a comment that I made earlier. And that was that even with the knowledge that I had about money after the divorce, I got myself in credit card debt. I pulled from my retirement account, which is life happens, life happens. And everyone has a story. Everybody has, you know, stuff that they bring to the table. So it is absolutely not a situation where, you know, we're looking back, we're looking now at forward. That's it? So yeah. Yeah. The other thing I would say just to close out by question is people who jumped in and out of the market to try and time the market is, is dangerous. People who if, if like last year when we had that 35% or so correction after COVID you know, the, the, some who, you know, were fearful put up on, jump out, well, that's the worst thing you can do, you know, jumping out when the market's down and then jumping back in when the market's doing well, you say, Oh, good. The market's doing well. Now I'm gonna go back again. It's really the opposite. You should be taking advantage of opportunities when the market corrects, knowing that it's going to come back. So it's just it's that. And then the other thing I would say is listening to well-intentioned friends or family who give you their suggestions, who don't necessarily know financial advice. And then the noise of the news I, the noise of the news makes me crazy. So, yeah.

Robert Mansour:
Well, it's interesting because when you mentioned family, I come from a very big family and everyone has 2 cents about everything. Sometimes, frankly, I don't, I don't want to share every detail because I'm going to get 17 different opinions. I just, you have to find those one or two trusted advisors and just kind of work with them and not solicit necessarily every, but there might be some people in the family who know what they're talking about, but that's okay. You don't have to get all the advice and listen to all the noise and the news media. But you mentioned something interesting. You talk about timing the market. And I don't know if everybody knows what that means exactly. And if you could talk about what that means, and also what it means, what's what should we be doing? What should we be doing during this volatile market?

Patti Handy:
We're obviously having a volatile market right now. And just about a year ago, the market hit rock bottom. I mean, we've once COVID hit everything went down, but I don't know if everybody knows what that means to time the market or volatility of the market. Can you talk about that a little bit? Sure. Well, time in the market basically means, you know, when you should come in the market and when you should get out of the market, what you should buy when you make better choice of words, Warren buffet, can't time. The market economies can time the market. Nobody can, there's no golden rule of when you should buy and when you should sell you should be invested in the stock market only with long-term money. So that means anything that you can't touch or won't touch for at least seven years, 10 years.
So if you're going to buy a house, if you're going to pay for a wedding, if you have some big expenditures coming out in the next few years, don't mind the stock market having the money is putting in fixed income, which is bonds or in cash. Although they're not returning much, it's safer for you to be there knowing you need those funds. The stock market is really again for longer term investments. So when you do see the volatility, you just kind of just turn your eye to it. And I'll show you again, some slides that will express some of that, knowing it's going to come back and knowing that it's just, you're not touching you don't need that money today. So don't worry about it. It's like, I think I just got a visual in my head when you were talking about that, like let's say I'm on a roller coaster and it's dropping like crazy.
And I get that sick feeling in my stomach. Yeah. It would probably not be a good idea for me to jump off the track at that point and try to get out of the roller coaster. I could probably cause much more damage than I will. Good. So it's probably best for me to just stay in the in the car, if you will. I don't know what they call it, the roller coaster cart and ride it and then go back up. But I do sometimes. I mean, I, especially as I get older, when I'm on a big roller coaster, sometimes I can't take it. I want to get out, but I might cause more damage than good, I suppose. But, but go ahead. And you said you had some, some information to share on the screen. What were you about to share with us? Let's talk about volatility in the market because that was something that you had mentioned. So I'm going to go ahead and share my screen. Okay. Let me one second here. Technology technology at its best.
Okay. It looks like something's happening there. Oh, now I can see that I can see your screen. You can see that I can see all the icons on your desktop and the beautiful background there of the ocean and the rocks. Oh, you don't see my I do not

Robert Mansour:
Anything beyond your desktop. Oh, I see that now. Oh, now I see it. It's taking up the entire screen now.

Patti Handy:
Great. So this is a great indication of, it's a, it's kind of a noisy image, but let me walk you through this. So this is in 1980 to 2020, so it essentially covers 40 years. The red dots on the bottom are the intra year lows. So last year we had we're down 34%,

Robert Mansour:
Even within one year where you had that huge volatility. We had that kind of volatility. Wow.

Patti Handy:
The grain bars up here are how the year ended. So, okay. We were down 34% during the year, but we ended the year up and of the last, you know, 31 of the last 41 years. We were positive.

Robert Mansour:
It's interesting. Even just looking at this visual, it looks like there was more positive than negative. Am I mistaken?

Patti Handy:
Absolutely. Yeah, there was, it was, it was positive 31 out of the 41 years. So you know, here is the Oh eight Oh nine crash. This, this is the year we were down 49% and we actually ended the year down. But we've, we've come back up. You need to watch these years. But the, the, the, the story here is that during these lows, during these red dots, this is the time where people panic and they go, Oh my gosh, I'm losing my portfolio. But if they just hung on, they would have been okay at the end of the year, with all these, with all the positives, stay on the roller coaster, stay on the roller coaster. The other side is well, the other slide I want to show, can you see this slide?

Robert Mansour:
Yes, I do. It says growth of $1 million with volatility at the top.

Patti Handy:
So this is actually one of my favorite slides. The orange line down here is a representation of taking $1 million and hypothetically putting it in a, an account earning 1% now,

Robert Mansour:
Okay, these accounts don't pay 1% today,

Patti Handy:
But we're using this just to show you if you, if you find the money market account or CD or something, that's 1%. So after 30 years, you you've, you've earned 1.3 million or you buy earned. You have 1.3 million, right? The, the blue line is a vault. It shows the volatility with an average return of about 9% a year, which is traditionally what, in fact, those last 40 years I'd prior slide, the average was a 9% return over the 40 year period, even with all the ups and downs, even with all the volatility. Absolutely. So this slide shows over 30 years market corrections of 30%. So last year we had a market correction about 34%, but on average, you know, we've seen 30%. So we see this million dollars, you know, ebb and flow, okay. Up and down and up and down. There's a, there's a, a time here where in year nine, our million dollars is now 2.2, well year 15 because of the, the correction we're back on the 1.1.
So somebody might go, Oh my gosh, what happened? I just, I didn't learn anything. You know, in these last 15 years stay the course. Don't panic here. You're 24, you're up at 7.8 million and you're 25. We had a 30, 30% market correction. You're down to 5.5. So you've, you've lost what, 2.3 million. So the point is, can people stomach it, can they, can they watch that happen? And no, I'm just going to leave it alone and let it be. And had they let it just be and stayed the course, the end of 30 years, you'd be at $14.4 million.

Robert Mansour:
Okay. Hold on to two questions about this slide. Number one, number one question is is, is this individual adding money over the 30 years? Or is this just the growth of $1 million with no additional money added to it?

Patti Handy:
Just growth of $1 million with volatility. So it's like if I took my $10 on day on, you know, year one after 30 years with the compounding of the average of 9% a year,

Robert Mansour:
Well, hold on a second. What if somebody says, listen, Patty, I don't have 30 years. I'm already 50 years old. Somebody like me, I'm in my fifties. Should I just forget about this and say, you know what all is lost because I don't have 30 years.

Patti Handy:
No, no. And some people say, well, I don't have a million dollars. That's okay. Whatever the case is, you have to, this is where we work with our clients. And we look at okay, here's how much time you have. Here's what your assets are. Here's your other cashflow. We look at again, the holistic piece. If they've got a pension that they are using for cashflow, if they're using whatever it is that they're using, if they're still gainfully employed and they can afford to put some of this stuff in the market, you will still have growth. You will still have that, but you have to notice long-term money. Like I said earlier, this is not something to do. Short term. You, you might be in a situation where, okay, I'm a year 25. I need my money. Well, that would just be very unfortunate. If, you know, you had to use that money. So this is again long long-term, but you have to know that the the volatilities is here to stay. It's not going to go away. We've lived at some seen inception of the stock market. And if, as long as you understand that this is normal and you remember this chart, let me get rid of this that, that you, you know, it sort of breeds a sense of calm knowing that this is just par for the course.

Robert Mansour:
Well, I think it's interesting you say that because sometimes, you know, I always tell my kids anyway, I tell them, look, nothing changes until something changes. So you can't just keep doing the same thing and hope for a different result. So yeah, maybe my time horizon is only 10 years, not 30. Maybe I don't have a million dollars. I have 50 grand or a hundred grand or 500 grand, but I know what inaction looks like. I know what that brings me. So let me try something different. And that's the only way that I'm going to get a different result is try something different, but you don't want to do it haphazard. You don't want to be doing it like winging it. Like sometimes to be honest with you, I'm guilty of doing sometimes myself. Can you just touch on the word correction, because you, you use the term correction and you pointed to these things on the bottom people I don't think necessarily understand. And frankly, I'm not sure if I do. What does it mean if the market is correcting itself? What does that mean?

Patti Handy:
Well, there's many reasons why the market will correct. And, or just, you know, become very bearish, which means the market is going down is retreating. I'm sorry. Retreating. Yes. Yes. so, you know, COVID obviously was a situation that affected not only, you know, individual's health and wellbeing, but it affected our financial wellbeing. You know, there was job losses. There was companies who lost, you know, posed yeah. Restaurants. I mean, it just with the gambit they airlines, but the hospitality industry, I mean, it just, it ran the gambit. So as a result of all that you know, we had S corporations obviously had huge losses. So we saw that correction, you know, whether they were overvalued or undervalued, it's, it's hard to know, but that correction was part of what happened that was outside of our control. And so we didn't expect company to happen. We unexpected, you know, we don't know what the future holds. We don't know future tragedies or, or it just, you know, we, we don't know what's going to happen in the future. So in looking at history, we see that on average, there's a correction with regards to companies who fail companies, who having, you know, a consequence as a result of a war or COVID. And this is just an example of that. This volatility just happens all the time.

Robert Mansour:
Sounds to me like the market, like the word correction could be seen as the market responding to what's going on. I mean, is that kind of a, a way to characterize it? It's a market response to what's going on in the world around us. Okay. Now we may have touched upon this a little bit, but this leads to my last question. And of course, gosh, I could talk to you all day you're so you're so delightful, Patty. What is this notion of a money story? You have mentioned that to me in the past when, not today necessarily, but somebody money story. How does that fit in? Can you elaborate on that? And you may have touched on it a little bit already.

Patti Handy:
Yeah. So it's interesting. Our money story is well first let me say, I can talk for an hour on this topic. I'll try to keep it short and sweet. We all have thoughts and beliefs and limiting beliefs usually. And it's a result of what we heard growing up. So from birth to about eight or nine years old, we were a sponge. We just, we heard our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, whatever we were surrounded by. And we would, would hear their, their thoughts and opinions and their belief systems. And we took it on as ourselves are all thoughts and beliefs. And if we grew up with parents who, you know, grew up in the great depression or, or their parents did whatever our ages their, their story was of lack and fear and, you know, hoarding because in the great depression, people lost everything.
So we, we have to be an, at that point at that age, you don't have a filter to say, you know what? That doesn't make any sense. I don't agree with that filter. I don't agree with that belief system. So as we're getting older, we still have the ability to, we have a better ability to filter out things that we don't agree with, but we're still having these, these programs in our mind. That's really also unconscious. It's sort of like this neural pathway in our brain. That's on a, you know, a loop, what does over and over, we're hearing the same thing. So if we're, if, if, if our mindset is of lack is a fear and not of abundance or opportunity, then we will make decisions in our life. And especially when it comes to our money, based on that belief system and those limited beliefs are, are oftentimes very you know, they can be very hurtful to us, especially when it comes to our, to our money.
Like I equated to having like an internal thermostat, so a thermostat on the wall, you know, if I put up 70 degrees and it's a hundred degrees outside, I will pop on it. It'll cool. The room down to 70, if it's 40 degrees outside, the heat will kick on and it'll raise the temperature to that 70. So it's comfortable. And that's another word, comfortable things that are familiar to us, which is why you see a lot of winners. You know, 70% of a lot of winners lose their money. After just a few short years, you hear about athletes or actors and actresses coming into large sums of money. There's, you know, that internal thermostat is set at a certain level. And if suddenly they have this windfall they're uncomfortable, it's not familiar. They don't know what to do.

Robert Mansour:
So their belief system shapes to a large extent what happens. It's not so much the amount of money. It's more of the belief system. Absolutely. Interesting.

Patti Handy:
And then, and then having, you know, if their, if their belief system, if they know this is not, I don't know, this is not right. This is not good. If they get the help of an advisor or a money coach or a money manager, or, you know, an outside advisor of some kind that, you know, helps them to manage those thoughts and manage that, that, that money. Obviously that's a great way to go. But they have to know to get that help. They have to know, to reach out and think, okay, I've got the sun, you know, if you're blessed enough to win $5 million in the lottery, if they go, okay, I'm going to do something with this that I know I should be doing. And we see a lot of individuals who inherit money that's from family who take a very conservative approach because they think this is money that my parents or my grandparents gave me, they've worked hard for it. I need to protect this with every ounce of my being. And so they stay able to conservative. They don't look at, you know, really the best financial. So we have that delicate balancing act between, you know, respecting and managing that piece. And also looking at from a financial perspective, you know, the best way to grow that yet, keep it safe.

Robert Mansour:
Well, I love the way you explained that. And I think you know, when I'll share a, well, I do have clients who do inherit money and they come and see me. And sometimes they are very reluctant to touch that money. There's a lot of psychological stuff happening. It's very interesting. And, and sometimes they don't have, if they weren't even prepared for it, they sometimes it's like paralysis by analysis, you know, th they just don't do anything. And also, I suppose if several siblings are receiving something that might cause other psychological issues as well, is there anything else that you wanted to add to the money story equation before we sign off today? Because I've already taken up enough of your time today.

Patti Handy:
Oh, you're sweet. Just, I would just say, be mindful of it. Just know that it's there and maybe check in with yourself and go, you know, what is my money story? What, what did I what's I grew up hearing, what, what, what do I believe to be true? You know, there's even some, and again, I could talk for an hour on this, but there's some that think, okay, do I deserve this money? Do I, you know, there there's some of that there's so much psychology, psychological stuff, and there's emotional behind it. So just checking in with yourself and it's like, you know, you don't, you don't change your thoughts by just going, okay. I want to change my thoughts. It's

Patti Handy:
You can't turn the Titanic. You know, it's a slow, it's a slow move, right? So be patient with yourself, be graceful with yourself be mindful that these things exist and just reach out for help and give herself again, some grace

Robert Mansour:
It's really amazing when you think about not just the financial planning or the legal world or the medical world, it's really psychological. I mean, 50% of it is psychological. 50% of it is maybe the how to the mechanics of it. But I think you're absolutely right when we start to really acknowledge how much of our decisions are based on our, in some cases, limiting beliefs. I mean, I know that for me too, you know, sometimes we can amaze ourselves what we can actually do once we set our mind to it. And once we get a little bit of help and we shouldn't be afraid to ask for help. So speaking of that, people who are not only happy with the information that you shared, but love your little red red jacket there how can they reach you Patty? And there's no obligation, right? If they meet with you or are they does that mean you have to be their financial advisor? Can they have an education meeting with you? What kind of things do you offer clients and how can they get in touch with you?

Patti Handy:
Absolutely. So we have, what's called a discovery meeting. There's no cost, there's no obligation. I'm not a hard, you know, salesperson. I, that's not my Mo

Robert Mansour:
You seem very you seem very aggressive and very abrasive to me. But that's just me. Yeah.

Patti Handy:
Yeah. We have, what's called a discovery meeting and basically we meet for an hour or so. And we, we gather information, we understand their situation. We gather, you know, you know, their wants, needs their, their personal story. And we then determine how we can help. And, and then we want to take it another step. We call a clarity meeting and that's, again, no obligation, no cost meeting. It's really about gathering all that information to get a really good understanding of what the client's situation looks like. But yes, happy to help. Best way to reach me would be by email. It's Patti with an I. And so it's P a T T I dot handy, H I N D [email protected].

Robert Mansour:
And you also have a lot of educational videos online, I think. I think even at the Vance wealth website, right. You have some educational videos.

Patti Handy:
Yeah. So Vince Wilton has a bunch of videos that John has done. I have a separate page called a woman as well that I, that I have launched. And I've got a training videos in there. They're usually like three or four minute long videos. And they're really geared to just be educational and short and sweet. And I have a women's group called the collective where it's not a networking group. It's just, women's serving women. And I bring in different guest speakers. We'll meet every other month virtually. And there's more to that I'll share if any woman is interested in learning more, I would love to share that with you

Robert Mansour:
And the website is

Patti Handy:
The website that advanced wealth.com. So VA wealth.com.

Robert Mansour:
Okay. Very good. Patty, I can't thank you enough for joining me today. We're going to make this available on my website, on my Facebook page and things of that nature. And I trust you will probably share it as well so that we can get these lessons out there. And just the plug for me in case people want to learn more about estate planning, wills, living, trusts, that sort of thing. They can go to Mann, sewer, law.com and man sewers on the screen. My last name right there, the word law.com or they can call my office at (661) 414-7100. Again, Patty, thank you so much for spending time with us today.

Patti Handy:
Rob, it's been a pleasure. Take care. Bye. Bye