Looking Back and Looking Forward: Lessons, Framework Shifts, and Dad Jokes From Two Years of Podcasting

Arsenal Financial advisors Doug Orifice and Jeremy Vaille are trying really, really hard to make a listenable podcast about money and finance. In this episode, they look back on two years of making the Arsenal Money Clip Podcast. Listen in as they:

• Chat with producer Matt Hanna to reflect on some fun stats, plus the benefits of recording the podcast
• Revisit a handful of favorite episodes to see which quotes still ring true and how certain podcast conversations reshaped their views and language on specific topics
• Look ahead to what topics they'd like to tackle for listeners in future episodes
• Turn the tables on Jeremy as he tries to answer some of the best dad jokes in the podcast's history

Find Doug, Jeremy, and Arsenal Financial at arsenalfinancial.com or call (781) 335-9100.

Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC. The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener’s personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a final decision.

Transcript

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Doug 0:03

All right, everybody, thank you so much. And once again, here we are for another episode of the Arsenal Money Clip Podcast, where we are trying really, really hard to make a listenable podcast about money, finance, and investments. Today is a special day, I think. Kind of celebrating two years of the Arsenal Money Clip Podcast. With me, as always, my pal and partner, Jeremy Vaille. JV, good morning. How you doing, pal? You hanging in?

Jeremy 0:32

To answer your question, I had a colleague at Fidelity one day. He was kind of a like a very stoic type of guy, in compliance nonetheless, right. And I was like, hey, how are you today? He's like, about average. I thought that was the best response to that question that I had ever heard.

Doug 0:51

I love it. I love it. I was talking earlier this week about answering that question with the word fine, but like fine goes anywhere from fine to fine to fine.

Jeremy 1:04

Uncle Russell asked me how my weekend was. And I think I said something along the lines of, it didn't blow me away. And he thought that was the best thing, best response to that question.

Doug 1:16

Um, well, we're gonna see if we can make our two-year anniversary of the Arsenal Money Clip podcast more than fine, better than average. Maybe we'll even blow somebody away out in whatever cornfields, Iowa, which we were just talking about. Here to juice things up, Matt Hanna. What's up, buddy? How are you?

Matt 1:34

Hello, hello. I've had better days, I've had worse days.

Doug 1:40

First of all, before we go anywhere, Matt, we just want to thank you for encouraging us to do this podcast. And I think to go back in time, Jeremy and I would hang out in the office. We'd start talking about our week. We'd start talking about the markets, we'd be talking about client conversations. And, you know, 45 minutes later, over a coffee, we were like, why the hell aren't we recording this? Now, over the last two years, what did you say before we started this, JV? The Arsie diaries. So we kind of have a diary of the last two years worth of topics and conversations. And so, anyways, Matt, without you, we would not do this. So thanks so much. Appreciate it. Thanks for encouraging, facilitating, making it happen, making us sound good, all those things. And today we get to kind of just look back, reflect, talk about topics that hit us, see how we're thinking about the world, all that stuff. Talk about podcasting a little bit too. So let's have some fun on the product.

Jeremy 2:34

Yeah, is podcasting still a thing? People are still doing that, huh? 

Doug 2:37

Matt, that's your question to answer.

Matt 2:39

Oh, oh yes. Podcasts are still, I mean, it's at that saturation point where all ages know it now. I feel like when I did my first podcast in 2016. It was still a thing like the grandmas wouldn't know. But now, like grandmas have podcasts. But the kids still do podcasts too. So it's still, it’s at maximum saturation now. So it's still in a good place. It hasn't disappeared to the part where just the grandmas and the older folks are doing it and the kids don't do it anymore, you know. So yeah, so I don't know. Should we read this full quote from you to start and see how this still vibes for you?

Doug 3:11

Yeah, feel free to read full quote, paraphrase quote, whatever.

Matt 3:15

Yeah. So at one of the first episodes we did, you were explaining to people on the episode why you were doing this. You said, this kind of gets into why we do this, right? So again, our Money Clip podcast, this is our chance to just take our conversations that we have day to day, whether it's on the phone or when we're lucky enough to be in the office together, bring these conversations a little bit closer to not only our clients, but our community too. Jeremy works all day and is usually meeting with and talking with clients. Most of my time is one-on-one with clients as well. And we don't really get to cross-pollinate that. You don't really share meetings a whole lot, which we could share all our meetings, but divide and conquer, it is. So this podcast is our opportunity to take some of our conversations that we're having individually and then, even better, are conversations that we get to have when we're not in meetings, whether it's a Tuesday morning with our Starbucks or Dark Magic, and just catching up and talking about what's going on that week and the week ahead. So do you feel like that's still the case for you guys?

Jeremy 4:05

I don't think I'm drinking dark magic anymore.

Doug 4:07

Yeah, yeah. I, you know, it's ice coffee season here in the late summer. And when I first saw dark magic, I'm just like, whoa, is witchcraft part of this? Uh, but that's right. Dark magic, one of my favorite hot coffees. Matt, yeah, I think that absolutely holds true. And when we're into this and we're being proactive about this and thinking about this, and actually like bringing a lot of outside people on, which I've really enjoyed the last couple of years, having friends of ours on from the community who play different roles, having other professionals on. Yeah, I still believe in all of this. And the difference is now there's like a two-year body of work, which we were just looking back at. We're looking back at all these podcasts, and it's just like sandwich generation, yeah, I talk about that minimum half a dozen times a week. Retiring is hard. Oh my God. We're talking about that all the time. It's all fine until the basement floods. That topic comes up too. 

Doug 4:58

So a lot of these things not only are relevant, but I feel like in some ways they have altered the ways I communicate with clients because as we're talking together, JV, you, me, sometimes we invent a lingo, we invent a language, and then, oh, cool. We have a podcast that we can send a client back to if we're talking about retirement is hard. We can have them listen to our episode with Carol Perlman. We have blogs that hit back to this. So I'm pretty proud of the fact that we've just accidentally slash intentionally developed a whole bunch of resources. And at least for me, it's helped me reframe my thoughts completely around financial planning and around our clients and around our clients' journey and around our role in their world. So I don't know. Is that a long-winded yeah? Validated. I think this is meeting its mark and doing what it was intended to do.

Jeremy 5:50

Yeah, and I think you're right about the lingo and the creation of the language, because that's really when we start developing what we're talking about in a more formalized sense, right? Because when we're talking together and we're just chit-chatting, we're coming up with a lot of the topics, a lot of the content. And then that percolates into the discussions with clients and the community and whatnot. So I think that's been helpful for me for sure.

Doug 6:14

Matty, take us through this too. So you actually compiled a little bit of data, and then it'd be cool to kind of reflect back on some of these topics, especially. And I'd love to talk a little bit about how a lot of what we've accidentally workshopped in these podcasts really has again, it's made me think differently about financial planning. It's made me think differently about our role with clients. But first, some stats. Go for it.

Matt 6:38

All right, so I'll run down my little list here. So, first episode was on June 27th, 2024. So we are over the two-year mark now. We have 20 episodes. We have had seven guests on. The podcast has been listened to in 261 different cities. 

Doug 6:55

Wild. 

Jeremy 6:56

That's pretty amazing, yeah.

Matt 6:58

We've had 11 mythbusters. And most importantly, the most important number is that we've had 41 dad jokes, only five of which have been answered correctly. 

Doug 7:07

That’s a terrible batting average. 

Matt 7:09

What is that like somewhere like 12%-ish, you know.

Doug 7:12

Yeah. But Matt, who actually has hits at the plate?

Matt 7:16

All right. So going through, looks like I have a couple, you have a couple, and then you and guest Sara Keary tag teamed for another one.

Doug 7:24

Shout out to you, Sara Keary. Thanks for being on our podcast once and congratulations on answering a dad joke.

Matt 7:32

Jeremy, do you even? I'm gonna throw three out at you and see if Jeremy, if you remember any of these dad jokes.

Jeremy 7:37

There's a hundred percent chance I don't.

Matt 7:39

Yeah, let's see. Let's go through. What happens if someone slaps you at a high frequency?

Jeremy 7:49

I remember telling the joke.

Matt 7:53

This is what it’s like being on the other side.

Jeremy 7:55

I know. What happens when somebody slaps you at a high frequency? It's embarrassing. I don't know.

Matt 8:02

It megahertz.

Jeremy 8:06

Did you remember it, Douglas? 

Doug 8:08

It came back to me now. It megahertz. 

Jeremy 8:12

That's a good one. I like that.

Matt 8:14

I'll give you one more here that I think got some good laughs at the time, too. After an unsuccessful harvest, why did the farmer decide to try a career in music?

Doug 8:27

Not because he was too corny.

Jeremy 8:29

Um, wow, this is pathetic. 

Doug 8:35

I got nothing.

Jeremy 8:35

I don't know. 

Matt 8:36

Nothing. Because he had a ton of sick beets. So we had about 41 on this level. So people who want to go back and listen to all those gems.

Jeremy 8:49

That's pretty good. That's pretty good. And the fact that we don't remember them and they hit just as hard the second time around.

Matt 8:57

All right. So why don't we go back through some of the favorite episodes, ones that you think have been the biggest ones for you guys in terms of your language and ones that I've hit with people. One of the favorite ones that you guys mentioned was the elements episode. Went through and mentioned the five elements of successful financial planning. Jeremy got the geek out a little bit, and Doug enjoyed the geekery just as much. So you guys want to go through those elements and see. 

Doug 9:23

Yeah. Can you still run through the elements real quick?

Matt 9:25

Yeah. So element one was goals, goals as gold. Element two, potassium, knowledge and awareness. K, for potassium.

Jeremy 9:35

Because of the K, yeah.

Matt 9:36

Yeah. Element three, iron, FE, filtering. Element four is carbon, C, consistency. And number five was platinum, staying engaged. So engagement ring, platinum. How do those elements still land with you guys? Anyone stick out for you as one that you guys still hammer on a bunch? 

Jeremy 9:58

Consistency.

Doug 9:59

Yeah. 

Jeremy 10:00

Consistency, always for me. And that was my favorite one at the time, too. I love the concept.

Matt 10:06

I'll read your quote from the time, ready? Jeremy, you said carbon's in the air we breathe, carbon's in everything around us, all matter, right? And consistency really is what really matters in the long run. And it's staying that course. So we talked about putting things on autopilot. We're making it systematic. We're doing that upfront planning, and then we're making it as easy as possible to stick with the plan in a lot of cases. And then you went on to talk about the great example of 401k. And Doug was like, just because I have a salad once is not helpful. I have to eat consistently. Same thing with the 401k. So that's how you guys kind of talk about that.

Jeremy 10:36

Yeah, you can't make one contribution. You gotta, you can’t eat one salad.

Doug 10:40

All true. All true. Having had some clients for over 20 years and watching them go through the whole process where maybe I met them late career, work with them pre-retirement, they’ve eased into retirement, now they're retiring. What's cool is I've seen some clients do the consistency thing on both ends of the spectrum. On a consistent basis, they're doing the right things, chipping away at debt, saving into different buckets, being disciplined about buckets. By the way, if Jeremy and I are doing our job, we're making it easy for them to be consistent, right? Systematizing savings, making sure that we're paying attention to things that might not be on our screens, be out of our purview, like our clients 401k. Then when they retire, distributions that are consistent too and in line with their plan and meeting their needs and all of that and reviewing everything on a consistent basis. So yeah, I think that is the gold star of the five.

Jeremy 11:36

In your 20-year history, has it worked 100% of the time?

Doug 11:41

No, of course not. And the only reason I say that is because life happens, right? So I've watched people go from fully employed to not employed to employed again. And then you have to sometimes get really creative or try and figure out what to do during these outages. There's been health things that have come up which have interrupted consistency. So no, it's not a perfect formula. It doesn't always work. But when I'm sitting with somebody who's 70 something and they're doing all the things, and I've known them for 20 years, and I'm pretty happy to hear about like what's going on with the grandkids and some of their travel and the fact that they're healthy. A lot of times their ability to do those things is born out of being consistent more often than not, and sometimes overcoming those blips that come up along the way. And not for nothing, just with where we are with the rise of artificial intelligence, the shifting labor market. We're starting to see some interruptions.

Jeremy 12:40

But it's the striving, right? Because you eat a salad 80% of the time, you're gonna be pretty good, right? You're gonna be pretty far down the path. 

Doug 12:49

Yep. And it's okay to have a burger or two and some ice cream along the way.

Jeremy 12:52

A little setback here and there is not gonna disrupt your whole program, right? 

Doug 12:56

And in fact, maybe that's another element is how do you overcome some of the setbacks? That's absolutely something that I've seen. We all experience that.

Jeremy 13:04

Well, that's your plan, right? That goes back to your plan. You're back to your roadmap. Your roadmap or your trail map takes you to the peak. You get off course, but you always have that to come back to after you have that setback along the way.

Doug 13:16

The other element, I like our cute one about platinum with engagement, the engagement ring. I think that relates right back to the consistency thing because for those who are disengaged with their finances, sometimes it's hard to establish that consistency. Sometimes it's harder to turn things around when you may hit that rut. It just helped somebody recently who had a personal retirement rut that they had been through because they were the family glue. And in being the family glue, but being retired and no longer being fully employed, this person kind of went beyond their means with helping people out and ran up some debt here, ran up some debt there, ran up some debt there. I didn't even know the depths of it. This person didn't want to disclose the depths of it because it was embarrassing, right? But once she opened up, I'm like, oh yeah, like I understand why this is super stressful, but you have also done this, this, and this, and you have this resource. And ultimately we cleaned up a pile of debt in a pretty orderly way. And okay, cool. Now we can get back to consistency. 

Doug 14:23

A reminder that being fully engaged, platinum, being engaged in your finances is much better than just putting your head in the sand. But man, over like whatever, 27, 28, 29 years, whatever my measurement is now, I've had so many cool stories about people who have addressed it, got back on track. They actually established consistency for the first time in years because they were able to clean the slate.

Jeremy 14:45

Yeah, I mean, we've talked about that. Avoidance is not a strategy. Didn't we talk about ostrich at one point? I see Matt shaking his head, yes. Like an ostrich puts a head in the sand to look after the young, right? Not because they're scared. Was that kind of the gist of it? 

Doug 15:01

You remember that, but not the dad jokes. So, like, I guess you're remembering what's important, you know? Ornithology, A plus. Dad jokes, fine.

Jeremy 15:11

F. Not fine. Less than fine.

Matt 15:17

Yeah, and that also goes back to we didn't put it in our top highlights here, but one of your episodes was your hero's journey. And you talked about all the stories you had learned from the decades of clients that you've had overcoming these. So that was another good episode, too, where you talked about people, yeah, they can do this no matter where they're starting from. So yeah.

Matt 15:34

Next on our list, why don't we move on to kind of the retirement block here? So we had a couple episodes. You guys just talking about retiring is hard, which is the phrase you used. And then we had an episode with Dr. Carol Perlman, which was a good one too.

Doug 15:47

Yeah.

Matt 15:48

So maybe talking about what you guys have learned through those episodes, particularly with Carol Perlman, you know, the psychological side of it, right?

Doug 15:55

I loved having her on. It's hard to explain how my approach has changed in the last year or two, but it really has. I think I've doubled down on the fact that preparing for retirement is less about the numbers.

Jeremy 16:11

Yeah.

Doug 16:12

It's less about the numbers and it's about the adjustments and about the believing you can do it. You know, I just had a pre-retirement conversation with a newer client a couple weeks ago. And man, like I had so much fun in that meeting because I was able to show somebody that if they really wanted to, they could pull the ripcord in a couple of years versus like work until 65. And then even though that was a money-oriented thing, we got off the money topic and just started to talk about like, hey, what would it be like if you retired early? Like, is that scary? We started talking about the lifestyle, the change, all of that stuff, even more than the money. 

Doug 16:58

So, yeah, again, it's, we have this as a diary. We do take notes during our meetings. We don't do great data aggregation of like, man, how did I talk to my clients on average in the last 12 months? But if I could measure that, I know I've had this shift towards talking even less about the dollars and cents and more so about understanding where my clients are at and being as helpful as I can be to help them accommodate a change, right? And getting them to believe, hey, like you've done enough. You have saved so well and where we're positioned, you can do the thing.

Matt 17:32

Yeah, you want a few quotes from here to see that?

Doug 17:35

Yeah, please. Thanks.

Matt 17:35

Let's see. So we have, what got you here may not get you there, was one you guys throw around a lot in your episode. You don't win with the biggest number at the end, you win by actually doing the thing. And it's not always about the money, it's about empowering yourself to actually do the thing. And some from Carol was, she gets a lot from clients is, it's Monday morning, now what?

Doug 17:57

Yeah.

Matt 17:58

The story you have in your head about how retirement happens is going to be really important. And your thoughts dictate your feelings, your behaviors, and your outcomes. So those were some key quotes.

Jeremy 18:10

Is it the most listened to episode yet?

Matt 18:13

No. Let's see, the most listened to one. Well, I will say there was a uh there was one week where bots got all the podcasts in the world. So it kind of threw off the numbers a little bit. So, but it's number two. So it might actually be the number one.

Doug 18:29

Yeah.

Matt 18:29

The number one one was actually another one we're not actually talking about today, but top five rule changes that could affect your investments in 2025 was the number one.

Jeremy 18:38

Is that right? I’m surprised.

Matt 18:39

But that got a lot of the AI bot ones, but it's still up there.

Jeremy 18:41

I thought it was college planning. That's got to be up there too.

Matt 18:45

Yeah, that's in the top five, too. Yeah.

Doug 18:47

Back to the retiring is hard piece for a minute, too. I think one area where I'll credit this podcast that we've been doing as a change in my outlook is this, if any clients are listening, they probably heard me say this. You guys have heard me say this a million times. We have maybe inaccurately described our job as getting somebody from point A, fully employed, to point B, no longer fully employed, to point C, don't run out of money. And I'm realizing how oversimplified and, you know, maybe not on the money that is, because the majority of my clients at this point are, if not retired, have retirement on deck. And I focus so much more about that B to C journey, which is not just about don't run out of money and do as much as you can. It's really about the impact. 

Doug 19:34

So, like, how can you be impactful and have this other chapter in a way that makes you happy and is fulfilling? And that could be a hundred percent about family. That could be about starting to be philanthropic or charitable, that could be about volunteerism, it could be about a whole bunch of things. And what's neat is because I feel like that's been present a little bit more in conversations, we've been able to help clients think through gifting and the fact that their finances have the wherewithal to support gifting to their family or helping somebody buy a house, or maybe being philanthropic through a donor-advised fund or something like that. So I do think, again, workshopping this stuff out, having these conversations, taking a deep dive and thinking about it, talking to somebody like Carol Perlman, really doubling down on like the impact that you want to have with your money during B to C is the story more than no longer fully employed, don't run out of money, and have some left over to do things. Have some money left over to give to the next generation or whatever it is.

Jeremy 20:39

I forget which episode it was, but we talked about the pyramid. 

Doug 20:43

Right. 

Jeremy 20:44

And how we're kind of helping them up the pyramid. And at the base, yeah, it is make sure they don't run out of money. And then as you move up the pyramid, you can start talking about the things that we're talking about right now. Having that impact in the later years or sooner, hopefully.

Matt 20:59

All right. We have three more things here. Out of these last three, which one speaks to you guys more? We got busting gen X money myths. It's not urgent until the basement floods, or the sandwich generation. Which one of those three would you like to look back at?

Doug 21:13

I mean, if we spent so much time with the sandwich generation, and I feel like that is the most relevant one, but I feel like the other two are overlooked. We have to hit on the sandwich generation, but can you pull out a nugget from the Gen X money myths?

Matt 21:29

Yeah. So let's do some quick hits here. So Gen X money myths. So you had, this had lots of sound effects in this episode because there are lots of myths being busted, lots of pew-pews going on for Jeremy there. So you guys did five money myths, Gen X money myths. So I'll just run down the five that you did. Should I invest when the market is at an all-time high? Do I need 10 times my salary in order to retire? That was your spicy segment, Doug. Will Medicare cover all my healthcare costs? I have a will, do I really need an estate plan too? And am I too old to make Roth contributions? Was the ones you threw out there.

Doug 22:05

Goodness gracious. Stuff we're talking about almost every single week. I think a lot of that stuff hits hard because we're a four-person organization who are all Gen Xers. We have a lot of Gen X clients. The amount that we talk about that stuff has not changed. It's maybe only increased.

Jeremy 22:22

I agree. And crazy enough, we're at all-time market highs again. 

Doug 22:27

Yeah, that's the one that resonated the most, right? 

Jeremy 22:29 

It keeps repeating itself, believe it or not. Despite what you might think. 

Doug 22:33

As a little bit of foreshadowing, we've talked about our next podcast maybe just refocusing on investing. Here we are mid-August 2026. This week we're bumping around all-time highs on the S&P 500. You know, it's a strange one-of-a-kind market, but it's also not because this kind of thing has repeated itself throughout history. We had some great data during that one about how many times the stock market had hit an all-time high just, I think it was in 2025 we did that episode, right? So I think just in 2025 alone, how many all-time highs there were.

Jeremy 23:08

39 all-time highs in 25 and another 27 so far this year. So let's just say you didn't invest in that first all-time high in 25, you would have missed what, another 65 all-time highs. Isn't that crazy?

Doug 23:23

It's wild, but not unexpected to hear that. Maybe in our next podcast we can revisit that, but also talk about the fact that here we are, just about 20-year highs for interest rates, and a lot of our portfolios for clients are really a three-legged stool, of which only one leg of the stool is stocks. So a little foreshadowing for our conversation for next time, but that one certainly resonates. Should I invest during market all-time highs?

Matt 23:52

Looking back, the number you threw out in that episode was there were 57 all-time highs in 2024.

Doug 23:58

Wow. Good data capture, man. 

Jeremy 24:00

2023, I think, even had more.

Matt 24:03

So okay, let's move on to the next one, which was it's not urgent until the basement floods. Some of your quotes were, it's fine until it's not.

Doug 24:11

Yeah. People like this one. There were a few clients of mine I talked to, and they're like, I kind of like that one. They're like, oh yeah, that's me. 

Jeremy 24:18

That keeps coming back.

Matt 24:21

Set it and forget it, but don't forget about it. 

Doug 24:24

Yeah. 

Matt 24:25

And open the box every once in a while, re-sort if need be.

Doug 24:28

I think this gets right back to some of that storytelling that I was doing, where sometimes it's like I may have accounts or assets that I just completely forget about, get disengaged with, and you don't know what's there. But it also happens on the other side of the balance sheet, too, where it's maybe you have multiple credit cards or whatever it is, and you're just busy and you're potentially just disengaged for a little while and boom. It's all fine until the basement floods, and you realize that X amount of your cash flow is going to pay back debt, or that your credit cards, oh geez, look at that, are at 22, 23%, and the balance is a little out of control. So yeah, it's interesting. It's all fine until the basement floods relates a lot back to the elements podcast. Sandwich time?

Matt 25:14

Then of course, yeah, the sandwich generation, spent three episodes on it this year. So that was a big one. I mean, the big idea that I pulled out of those three episodes is really just don't go with this alone.

Doug 25:25

Yeah.

Matt 25:26

You know, there's a lot going on. Don't go it alone, is what you said throughout all the episodes.

Doug 25:31

Yeah. To boomerang back to that, I feel like again, because we spent some time thinking through that, doing some podcasts on that, having some guests centered around that. It's been more at the forefront of our minds. And I think other topics have come up too. I remember when we had Dr. Sara Keary on, she talked about how financial fraud was a big issue. And it's either A, there is more and more of that, or B, it's, you know, your friend buys a blue Ford Mustang, and all you see is blue Ford Mustangs because somebody brought it to your attention. You know what I mean? But I have definitely seen more and more fraud, especially for our clients that are a little bit older. Big case that I was dealing with just last week. That's a real thing. And that really does take teamwork and multiple eyes to surveil your money and make sure things are okay. And we're watching more and more of our clients starting to pilot their elderly parents' finances. And it's hard to keep track of this. 

Doug 26:30

So yeah, having a team surrounding folks, whether you are in the middle of the sandwich and you're the family glue and you're the caretaker, making sure that you have some help. And, you know, that important top slice of bread, which might be our older clients or our Gen X clients' parents, making sure that they have some trusted sources around them to keep an eye on things and make sure that they have some consistency and they have what they need. So there's so much to it. And I just think about this every single day. It's a tough battle right now for a lot of folks.

Matt 27:02

Yeah. And that team analogy, because you guys did make that team analogy during the episode with Sara. You talked about it as the quarterback. The caregiver is the quarterback. And to give the quarterback the best chance of success, you need an offensive line and special teams to build a supportive network of family friends and paid help, a playbook to practice, planning for different possibilities, and a solid defense to tackle the financial security and fraud.

Doug 27:26

We sounded pretty organized for that one, huh? I feel like we got to bring those topics back. Those are topics I have not brought into client conversations. I feel like that could be its own webpage for clients. You know, I'm constantly thinking about how can we bring more resources to bear, again, for these non-dollars and cents type things that our clients are facing that are directly related to their money, directly related to their investments, directly related to just getting from point A to point B and making it happen.

Matt 27:57

Yeah, I feel like we kind of hit some of those main episodes there. Do you guys want to talk about what you guys want to talk about coming up going forward with this, where it's going?

Doug 28:07

So what are topics that we should think about between here and the end of the year? Definitely a reminder at this point in time that investing does not just mean investing in the stock market. Going back to the basics, diversification absolutely works. Even if some certain stocks are the best performing asset out there, it doesn't mean that diversification doesn't make sense. We have had three, now working on our fourth year in a row, where we've really had a tailwind for equity investors, which might not always be here. And there are just an oodle of tools in the toolkit right now for investors that you can use of all different risk parameters that you should be considering. So I think that's something that we should definitely dig into. We're talking about that every single day. 

Doug 28:56

But I think that's pretty important to talk about right now, given that we are in and around market all-time highs here in August 2026. A lot of people are thinking about artificial intelligence. The B-word bubble happens to be coming up more and more. But you can't forget where we are in terms of interest rates and the fact that that lends towards a whole host of other tools in the toolkit, especially for our clients who might be over 45, over 55, over 65. JV, what's on your list? 

Jeremy 29:25

We can keep talking about the non-financial investments. Education, health, social relationship, personal inner growth, those kinds of things that we've already done a lot of content on, but also equally as important because retirement is hard.

Doug 29:40

Yeah.

Jeremy 29:41

And investing in those things, and we should take our own advice sometimes, is harder than it seems or it may seem.

Doug 29:48

I would love to have Carol Perlman back on.

Jeremy 29:51

Yeah.

Doug 29:52

I think we could have a part two of that. That would be fantastic. One episode that we didn't talk about is college planning with Tom O'Hare. Two quick notes there. I'm definitely watching clients talking, thinking through college planning differently than 10 years ago. Tom had this quote called, you are purchasing an education. That has now ingrained itself in my brain permanently. The other thing is a year and a half ago, he was talking about how one-third of the colleges and universities here in the U.S. will either close or be merged away. He said that a year and a half ago in early 2025. We've seen countless numbers of schools close or be merged away. And I just saw an article on this about a month ago. And it was almost like the Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg, wherever I was reading it, quoted Tom O'Hare. So really interesting as you're thinking about school, there's these things that you didn't have to think about before. Like if I'm going to go to this four-year school, will that four-year school even be here in 10 years?

Jeremy 30:53

Right. And now you've got limitations on what you can borrow. So there's all different elements that are there that maybe didn't even exist when we were talking with him about it. Back to the Carol episode. I don't know if you got a chance to see that video, the MIT age lab that I had sent you. 

Doug 31:09

I did not. 

Jeremy 31:10

Okay, but that could be a good, you know, it was Mel Robbins and the, I forget it was the director or whoever created the MIT age lab, and it was all about like the eight dimensions of aging, and it's kind of taking it into that later years. And they had developed this like, so like an age suit. Put on the suit that makes it feel like you are 85 years old trying to walk through space, right? It's really interesting. Gives you a different perspective.

Doug 31:36

Yeah, I've seen some of their presentations before. That would actually be something great to bring on. Put a pin in that one, Matt.

Jeremy 31:43

And then we also got a listener request of how to keep things simple and how to keep retirement simple, how to keep planning simple. We brought up the KISS concept, right? Keeping it simple, silly?

Doug 31:56

Keep it simple, silly. Sounds like we got another six months of topics right there. Well, Matt, once again, thank you. Appreciate all your help and all your support along the way. And let's keep doing this for a little while. And just again, kudos to what you do in the community and Little Local Conversations. Bringing to light all the neat stories in Watertown, Massachusetts. We appreciate that. It's really cool stuff. JV, do we happen to have any dad jokes for our two-year anniversary pod? 

Jeremy 32:23

No.

Doug 32:24

Wow. 

Jeremy 32:26

Although the old is new. The old ones that we didn't get feel new again.

Matt 32:30

I'll throw one more back at you that got us some good groans the first time.

Doug 32:34

I love Matt doing the dad jokes. This is great. 

Jeremy 32:36

I do too.

Matt 32:37

All right. Let's see if you remember this one, Jeremy. Where do criminal rainbows go?

Jeremy 32:44

I don't even remember asking that one.

Matt 32:47

This is, this was one of the first, early ones. Yeah.

Doug 32:50

Criminal rainbows. Douglas? 

Doug 32:55

I got nothing. Zero. Give it to us, Matt. 

Jeremy 32:59

The prism?

Matt 33:00

Good. But there's a second part. Prism, but it's a light sentence.

Doug 33:07

Oh, wow. That’s amazing.

Jeremy 33:09

Do I get half-credit for that?

Matt 33:11

By your standards, I think that would, I think we would give credit for that. Yeah.

Jeremy 33:14

Give full credit. All right.

Matt 33:17

There you go. Jeremy's on the scoreboard. 

Jeremy 33:20

Thank you. 

Doug 33:21

Got a hit. 

Jeremy 33:22

It's about time. 

Doug 33:24

Well, Matt, thank you. Appreciate it. This has been a super helpful journey over the last couple of years. Let's keep it rolling. For anybody listening, if you want to get in contact with us, you can reach at info at arsenalfinancial.com or www.arsenalfinancial.com. Feel free to call the office at 781-335-9100. JV, thanks for jumping in and jumping out of your comfort zone. Like I'm jumping out of my comfort zone and doing this. I think this has been great. Like to continue doing this, even though it's sometimes scary to get this thing rolling. But then we have these great conversations and it really is helpful for the week to week and to kind of reframe what's important, what's top of mind. 

Jeremy 34:00

Agree.

Doug 34:02

And Matt, thank you.

Matt 34:03

Thanks for letting me be part of your journey, guys.

Doug 34:06

All right, everybody. We'll see you next time on the Arsenal Money Clip Podcast. See ya.

Matt 34:12

Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor, member of FINRA SIPC. The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature. It does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized financial, legal, or tax advice. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a final decision.