The Money Script

Between Two Advisors - A Conversation with Ben Beck

• Yohance Harrison • Season 5 • Episode 24

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On this episode of The Money Script Podcast, host Yohance Harrison welcomes Ben Beck, financial advisor and host of The No Bonds Podcast. Together, they explore timeless strategies for managing client behavior, the importance of financial planning as the cornerstone of investments, and lessons learned from legendary mentor Nick Murray. Ben shares his journey from professional baseball to financial advising and reveals his first memory of money. Tune in for actionable insights on building resilient client relationships, avoiding emotional investing pitfalls, and thriving as a trusted financial advisor.

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Ben Beck 0:00

The way that we or I operate is that everything is dictated by the financial plan. So, you know, someone that I consider a client is not somebody that comes to me requesting certain investments or denying other types of investments. That's something that they. When we paint the picture during the discovery process, before they even become a client,

Ben Beck 0:30

we find out, you know, if they have the ability to take advice. And that's one of the things that's the biggest part of someone being defined as an ideal client for us is do they have the ability to take our advice?

Seth Harrison 0:53

You are tuned in to the Money Script podcast. Today we will share strategies to help you grow your financial literacy and improve your Money Script. I'll be back with some important announcements. Until then, enjoy the show.

Yohance Harrison 1:18

Welcome to the Money Square podcast. It's your host, Johans Harrison. So happy to be with each and every one of you today. I am back for another edition of Between Two Advisors. And I have with me today someone who has become one of my mentors. He doesn't even know that I've already put him in the mentor category, but one of my mentors. Great. Also someone that has had a kind of had a similar relationship with the financial services industry as I did because of the time that we got into it and some of the things that we had to go through. So for those of you that are here with us on YouTube, you see he's already here. For those listening in, Ben Beck, welcome to the Money Script podcast. How are you, sir?

Ben Beck 1:57

I am awesome. It's great to be here, man. Great to see you.

Yohance Harrison 2:01

You as well. You as well. So we just saw each other a few weeks ago and now I'm going to date this podcast because I have to. And you mentioned that you did not have a pony in the show and the show I'm referring to is the World Series. Well, I guess it was the playoffs at that point.

Yohance Harrison 2:17

So now that the, the, the landscape has changed since we last saw each other, do you now have a pony in the show?

Ben Beck 2:26

I'm embarrassed to tell you and share with everybody that I don't exactly know who is in the World Series right now. Is it the.

Yohance Harrison 2:35

So you're. So you don't have a pony in the show? So. Yeah.

Yohance Harrison 2:40

No. Okay. All right. So I, I thought maybe you'd make a. Some sort of allegiance or alliance at this stage. You know, I, I can only tell you that I know the Dodgers are still in and Yankees are still in. I believe the Dodgers are playing the Mets. Yankee. I don't know who the Yankees Are playing. So my, my mother in law is a huge Dodgers fan. So she. Makes sure that I'm all the way up to date on everything happening in Los Angeles. So yeah, no, I was, I was.

Ben Beck 3:03

Yeah.

Ben Beck 3:10

Casually watched, I was casually paying attention because my son, my 11 year old son is a big Xander Bogarts fan who used to play in Boston where I am and now he's with the Padres. Padres I know got knocked out and.

Yohance Harrison 3:26

So he stopped talking. Okay. Oh, so your news, your news has ceased. Okay, got it. So there's no, there's no. No recent updates at this point.

Ben Beck 3:28

Yeah. So.

Ben Beck 3:33

Yeah, exactly.

Ben Beck 3:36

Right.

Yohance Harrison 3:38

Oh, I, I see how, how you educate your clients, how not to pay attention to the market. See, just like you don't pay any attention to, to baseball.

Ben Beck 3:48

Crazy.

Yohance Harrison 3:49

I, I like to, to, to poke Ben a little bit about baseball because Ben played a lot of baseball in his younger career. So if you would, do you mind just sharing a little bit with our audience kind of your, your baseball experience, I thought was a very compelling story.

Ben Beck 4:06

Sure, yeah. Yeah. I, I mean I grew up like a, like a lot of us, you know, that are athletes just, just falling in love with sports. It's, it's what makes me, me, you know, when it, when it comes down to it, you know, it's competitive and such. And ended up going to Northeastern University to play baseball and then had an opportunity to play professional baseball for a few years after college, which was just, you know, just a great experience. Ended up playing in the independent leagues for about three years and

Ben Beck 4:42

saw the writing on the wall after like three years. Wasn't, wasn't getting the opportunities and to move further and was starting to think about, you know, how long can you hang on, you know, and make something of this. And luckily I got the opportunity through my wife, actually a contact of hers to get into the financial world. So it was a great three years of playing ball.

Yohance Harrison 5:09

Yeah. No, that's awesome. I, I never got the chance to play at any level other than high school. That was it. And it wasn't baseball. Baseball stopped it. Little league for me. Yeah, it's just, it just, they're just. I wasn't good enough. Let's just put it that way. I wasn't, I wasn't, I could run and that's about it. So.

Ben Beck 5:30

Yeah. So what, what did you, did you play basketball or track or what?

Yohance Harrison 5:34

Basketball, football, track, cross country, swimming and did everything else and everything. So I, I got, I was injured in the 10th grade playing football and that's what led to swimming and then across country. But then after 10th grade, that, that was it for me. I didn't do any more sports. I switched schools and I went to a much more competitive school for 11th and 12th grade. And I, I had nowhere near the skill. I mean, a lot of those kids went to. I shouldn't say kids are all adults now, but a lot of them went to college on football, baseball, soccer, all on scholarships coming out of West Charlotte High School. For those of you that are listening, you know who you are. So. Yeah, it was very. We were one of the largest schools. Had many state championship flags hanging in our gymnasium. So I, I wasn't. I wasn't on that level by the time I transferred. So. Yeah, so, yeah, that was it for me after that. Recreational only. That's it.

Ben Beck 6:32

Yeah. Well, you're, you're. I mean, you're taller than I am. What are you, six, five, six, six, six, five. Six, five big dude.

Yohance Harrison 6:37

Yes, indeed.

Yohance Harrison 6:41

So I get to use the intimidation factor. It still works. And, and usually that's it. I usually play the mind game or anything else. Make people think I'm better than I am. And then they're not willing to try something like. All right, yeah, just keep it on the outside. Don't come inside. Don't. They don't.

Ben Beck 6:56

All right. Don't bring it.

Yohance Harrison 6:59

Yep. Somebody else can check them. Yeah, I'm. Stay right here in the paint.

Ben Beck 7:01

I love it. Love it.

Yohance Harrison 7:04

So one of the things, Ben, that, that, that drew me to you as you shared your story on the Altruist stage. So we met at one of the Altruist conferences probably at least a year, maybe more ago. Is you were sharing about one of your favorite human beings on the planet. Non related. And that also helped you along in your career as a financial advisor. And so I brought a little something here. I wanted to see if you are able to recognize it. I'm going to seriously date myself here. Let's see.

Ben Beck 7:20

Yeah.

Ben Beck 7:41

Yeah. Oh, there we go. Oh, yeah, yeah. Nick Murray. Oh, you gotta. You've got a. You've got an actual old school.

Yohance Harrison 7:51

The old school CDs.

Ben Beck 7:54

I don't remember.

Yohance Harrison 7:55

Master class of 2007.

Ben Beck 8:00

Wow. All right. That's incredible. I'm gonna have to talk to you offline about getting a little copy of those or something.

Yohance Harrison 8:02

Yeah, that's.

Yohance Harrison 8:12

A little particular about that. Nick. You didn't hear that? Yeah, we won't tell you for him, Nick. I'll just play it for him. One of the, one of the best things I ever did early in my career when after I, I did this course,

Yohance Harrison 8:28

I took those CDs and downloaded them and put them on my ipod. And so that's what I walked around listening to for years. And mind you, how classic is it that this was 2007,

Yohance Harrison 8:46

so 0809, that's all. I would just put that in and I would just repeat whatever Nick just said. It's. That is what I did for those entire two years. I just repeat what he shared and it was some sage advice. So, so tell us a little. Well, first let me start with this. Listeners that don't know Nick Murray is probably, if you've been listening to my show a while, you've heard me mention it before. But he is probably

Yohance Harrison 9:14

someone who is known as the Financial Advisors advisor. He's, he's been in the industry since what, the 70s, I think, or early 80s. Seen a lot. Yeah, started counseling advisors. I got to meet him my second year as an advisor. So in 2002 he was brought out to Dallas where I was living at the time. We went to the Los Colinas racetrack and he was our guest speaker. And I, I promise you, I wrote down every word he said. It was. I had never met anyone so amazing and never met anyone that was also able to help me understand what I had gotten myself into. Because like Ben, like, like you, sir, I also had come from, well, no career essentially for me, but just kind of jumped into finance and it's like, okay, this is it, this is what I'm doing. And came in right as 911 happened and I said, well, this isn't what we were talking about for the last two years. What is this? And everyone gave me the. Oh no, figure it out. So being able to hear from Nick Murray shortly after that really opened my eyes to things like understanding inflation, understanding having a long term plan, finding my voice, having knowing what I'm going to say and saying it with conviction.

Ben Beck 10:32

Oh yeah.

Yohance Harrison 10:33

And just, just, just really changed. I will say it. If it weren't for Nick Murray, I would not be sitting in this seat right now. As a matter of fact, I've brought one other little prop here. So you recognize that. Oh, you see it's all torn up and stuff. Can't even see what the title is.

Yohance Harrison 10:52

Oh, that is the new Financial Advisor.

Ben Beck 10:55

That's right, yeah.

Yohance Harrison 10:56

All with the bind all torn up. There's so many highlights and underlines and man, every now and then I'll go back and read it and I'm like, oh, that's why I say that to this day. Okay. Because I picked it up from his book many, many years ago.

Ben Beck 11:12

I, I mean, I love that background because it is, it, it, it's truly incredible. And, and maybe certainly folks that are not, that are listening, that aren't in our world, the financial advisory world, while they may not know who Nick Murray is, perhaps they've had an influence or a mentor in other areas of their life where that type of impact has happened. Because I'm right there with you. I mean, I agree with you. And same for me. I found Nick Murray a little bit later in my career. I had a, I had another mentor who I still have today that, that coached me through those times early on.

Ben Beck 12:02

But I, I, I came across Nick Murray about five or six years ago, and even though it's further along my career, I'm going to repeat the same thing you did. I wouldn't be in this seat that I'm sitting in today where I am if it wasn't for him. And it's so funny, I don't think we talked about this in person before, but even today I, when I put my, I had four kids, my youngest is six years old. To get him to sleep at night, I still have to go in his bed and I read him stories and we do prayers and, and, and then as I'm getting him to sleep, I have the iPad open and I'm reading Nick Murray's newsletters. And some of the newsletters go back. I think he started that in 2001. 2000. 2001. And the funny thing or the amazing thing to me is no matter what we're going through today,

Ben Beck 12:54

you know, even going 2001 was over 20 years ago. His writings from back then, you know, are so prudent and current for what's going on today. And the message doesn't change. He said it a little bit differently along the way, but the true message hasn't changed. So it's been so impactful for me.

Yohance Harrison 13:20

Indeed. Yeah. No, Nick, Nick's. Nick does know how to

Yohance Harrison 13:28

repeat himself,

Yohance Harrison 13:31

especially in those newsletters. And sometimes I look at the newsletter, I'm like, Nick, you, you wrote this already? Yeah. All you did is you went back to a similar time and you just swapped out a few words and you just put this out again. But it is, he does give very time. I guess timeless is the word. Advice that. Or evergreen. Evergreen advice, yeah. Now he did go back. So he wrote the, the Excellent Financial Advisor.

Yohance Harrison 14:03

Yeah, he wrote the Excellent Financial Advisor. And then he came back and wrote. I don't know if you picked this one up yet, the behavioral investment counseling.

Ben Beck 14:12

Oh yeah, yeah.

Yohance Harrison 14:14

So it was interesting because he, in this one he actually said out loud, yeah, I may have gotten a few things he didn't say wrong, but he said his perspective has changed on a few things. And, and that really, that's because the dynamics of how we engage with clients change. You know, when he started his letter, A shares, B shares and C share and you know, totally different industry, totally different industry, you know, and today we have,

Yohance Harrison 14:41

you know, wrap accounts and, and asset based accounts and structured products. And there's. So it's changed, it's changed dramatically. And so he's, he's discussed how those, those changes has changed the way he looks at not only running a practice but building a business and being a client himself, an investor himself. One of the funny things about Nick Murray, and this is for the audience, is this. Will, you may find this amusing. Nick Murray doesn't believe in bonds.

Yohance Harrison 15:13

He believes in equity portfolios. He doesn't. He, he believes that your portfolio should be in all equities, no matter your risk tolerance, which is just, it's a hard pill to swallow. I still haven't swallowed it. I'm just, I'm like, ah, you know, I'm gonna, I'm going to put a few bonds in this portfolio. And it's really because of how I was, how I was, I was trained in the business and going through CrPC and asset allocate, learning how to asset allocate, etc. But if you're a client of Nick Murray's, you will not own any bonds. You will be in an all equity portfolio, which means you're going to, sure, you're going to experience risk

Yohance Harrison 15:53

in a different way, but that's his conviction and it's worked. I mean the thing is, if you go back and look at it, he's been right so far. So that's, I find that.

Ben Beck 16:06

Yeah, yeah, it is, it is interesting. We're a, we're an entirely equity based practice. So we build portfolios of individual equities and we don't own any bonds. Actually the name of our podcast is called the no Bonds Cap. So that tells you enough about what we believe in, or don't believe in for that matter. But you make, you bring up an interesting point about, I'll use a different word. You, you live and learn over your career. Right? And, and you know, I think that it's natural to somewhat pivot with your beliefs, you know, in terms of, because, you know, back in 2000, late 2004, when I got in the business, I didn't. I didn't really know much difference between a stock, a bond, a mutual fund. And so right from day, day one, you're developing a perspective, right? And then have a stimulus along the way that happens, and you learn some other things. And so you kind of quantify or

Ben Beck 17:17

you figure out that perspective. And that perspective changes a little bit over time as you experience new things. But Nick Murray has been one person, even though he's not necessarily a direct mentor of mine, I consider, you know, his work an incredible mentorship for my practice because it just clears. And I know you're a big proponent of behavioral finance and behavioral counseling, and I think that's why

Ben Beck 17:47

you and I hit it off right off the bat, because we both feel that while investments are really important, our biggest value to our clients is to help modify their behavior over time as it applies to decisions that they're making financially and particularly decisions that will often derail their financial plan, which is. Which is, of course, what we want to avoid. But, you know, every. You know, we're all human beings, so we're prone to making emotional decisions. So you and I, you know, our work has a lot to do with helping. I'll take a step back. Empathizing with folks, right? We're not going to be able to change their behavior on the spot, but if we can empathize with folks and allow them, you know, some room to see the bigger picture, and maybe we can build a level of resilience in them for when the next market downturn comes or they're faced with another stimuli. Stimulus, stimuli. Which one's singular? I don't know. I don't know. But any event, when they're faced with a challenge, perhaps they can, you know, they'll be more resilient with our help.

Yohance Harrison 19:05

I'd like to ask you your opinion on a question I received from a client just this week. New client relationship.

Yohance Harrison 19:16

And

Yohance Harrison 19:18

I'll repeat their. How they describe their investment risk tolerance. They said that they don't like taking a lot of risk. They'd rather take risk inside of real estate. But they made these large deposits. So let's say $100,000 to their retirement accounts, right? For the last day, they could do it for tax day. And they don't want individual stocks. They just want to be in index funds. And then their question was,

Yohance Harrison 19:57

instead of investing all of this now, shouldn't we wait to the next downturn?

Yohance Harrison 20:03

So I'm curious if you. Or if that question came to you from a Client, how would you respond? And let's assume that, you know, it's long term money, it's in their retirement account. So it's, it's going to need to do something with it at some point. But I'm curious, Ben, how you would respond to that client's request?

Ben Beck 20:24

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, the first stands out to me is that

Ben Beck 20:33

this is preferably in area that we

Ben Beck 20:41

really unearth prior to them becoming a client. What I mean by that is some of the things that I heard you say was they don't want this, they want this. They have a feeling towards this. The way that we or I operate is that everything is dictated by the financial plan. So, you know, someone that I consider a client is not somebody that comes to me requesting certain investments or denying other types of investments. That's something that they, when we paint the picture during the discovery process, before they even become a client,

Ben Beck 21:23

we find out, you know, if they have the ability to take advice. And that's one of the things that's the biggest part of someone being defined as an ideal client for us is do they have the ability to take our advice? You know, are they coachable? And I'll steal something from Nick Murray here too, is that I liken this scenario to walking into the doctor's office. Do you walk into the doctor's office and say, I want this medication for this. I think it's this that's wrong with me. And therefore, and the doctor makes a diagnosis and a recommendation. I don't think you say you think you'll think about it. You know, I think you go to the doctor's office saying, look, this is how I feel. Please tell me how I can recover and get better. And the doctor's responsibility.

Ben Beck 22:16

Yeah, you know, well, I'm sure. So, you know, to answer your question more directly, if, which would, which, which wouldn't necessarily, I would expect the case. But you know, sometimes people go through things where they hear something and they said they want to invest in it. So I would back up and say, you know, ask them some more questions about, you know, what, what's driving that decision and how do you think this will impact your financial plan? To which they'll probably say, well, I don't necessarily know, and say, well, let's, let's, you know, let's, let's talk about that a little further. Because what we have in place right now is well designed to achieve what we set out to achieve from day one. And if we're going to,

Ben Beck 23:04

if we're going to depart from that plan, then we're, we're, we're going to go into territory that I'm not going to be comfortable with perhaps. And therefore from a professional standpoint, I don't want to be involved professionally in a scenario where I'm not able to do my best for someone. So a little bit long winded an answer, but I think it's always good when you get these things out of the blue. You know, this example, this scenario, it's important that we're not swayed by a particular client request. And you know, I don't know how you're, you're, you know, I'm sure not knowing exactly, but I'm sure your interactions are very similar to mine. You know, folks come back from the holidays and their brother in law might have said that, oh, you got to be in these alternative investments or you're crazy to be in the equity markets right now. You know, don't, you know, election is going on, we're going to see a tremendous amount of volatility and you know, it's our job to kind of reel that back in with our clients and make sure that they just, you know, don't make decisions that are going to derail, you know, the beautiful thing that we put together for them and with them.

Yohance Harrison 24:17

And so when you were, thank you for that. When you were going through the 0809

Yohance Harrison 24:25

crisis, that was before then. Nick Murray was in your life. How, how did you, how did you handle that? I mean, what was your experience as an advisor during that time? I mean, you probably, what, four or five years in the business that had nothing but bull markets and then all of a sudden get smacked with what we then call the greatest recession since the Great Depression. Yeah. How was that for you?

Ben Beck 24:53

It was terrible. And at the same time, it's gonna sound weird. It was terrible, was amazing in terms of the enlightenment and the education that I received. So this was to your, to your point? This was pre Nick Murray, but I had another very similar Nick Murray like character, albeit maybe not so terse

Ben Beck 25:16

with his communication methods. A guy by the name of David Malik, who is by far my most important mentor and he actually created the investment strategies, the philosophy behind how we invest. A lot of similarities with Nick Mary in terms of 100% equity portfolios, no bonds, but an understanding of. Best way I can put this is, you know, if you're going to be successful as an advisor or an investor, you're going out there on that boat and you better not ever think or have a feeling that you can control the ocean. You better understand what you can. Can control, which is what? Your own actions. There you go. Your own actions. And so his mentorship. David's mentorship to me, he introduced me to strategies. I met him for the first time in, I think it was early 2006. And so, yeah, you're right. I got in the business in late four, had a couple of years, really, during the training program, building my client base up.

Ben Beck 26:26

You really didn't know. Right. If you think back to that time, you really didn't know in late 07 that we were in something bad. You know, 08 comes along and some things start happening. And, of course, we hit the bottom eventually. Even though it was a terrible.08, we hit the bottom in March of 2009.

Ben Beck 26:46

So, you know, and you're surrounded. At the time, I was surrounded at Merrill lynch with a hundred and, I don't know, 100 and some odd other financial advisors, some very successful brokers and groups. And more often than not, you know, you would talk to them and they, oh, yeah, I put all my clients in cash. You know, we're not. You know, this is the worst thing we've ever seen and we've ever. This time, it's different and all these different things. And. And, you know, at the same time, talk to David Malick, he said, look, you know, you've got to block that noise out, because I don't know how far this type of thing will fall and for how long that it will go on, but I do know that it will recover at some point. And your responsibility to clients is not their portfolio for nine months. Your responsibility to your clients is essentially perpetual. It's 10 years. It's 30 years. It's. This is. This money is for the next generation. So, you know, you believe that things will recover as they always have, and you just have to block out the noise. And so I say that was terrible because it was a tremendously uncomfortable time working with folks and, you know, understanding their emotions and not really having any answers myself. Nobody had answers.

Yohance Harrison 28:05

Nobody other than, yeah, who's. Who's going bankrupt today? I don't know. Let's check the paper and see. Yep.

Ben Beck 28:11

Yeah. But I say enlightening is because I am so fortunate to have something so bad like that happen so early in my career, because it was such a great teaching moment for me. And it's educational. It's. It's an invaluable education, as I'm sure you agree. I mean, you got in the business a little bit earlier but you got in the dot com 911 time period, right?

Yohance Harrison 28:36

9 11. So I, my first day to see clients was supposed to be 9-12-2001.

Yohance Harrison 28:42

I was supposed to be my client ready date. So I was fully licensed by September 1st. They told me licenses were clear in about a week and I could start on September 12th.

Ben Beck 28:52

Yep.

Yohance Harrison 28:53

But September 11th happened and I was, I was just happy to have a job. I was like wait, I still have a job. Okay, cool, thanks. But it was we. They wind up pushing out our start dates by month. So I didn't start till October 11th, but my son was born on October 10th. So I just, I was just full of false starts.

Yohance Harrison 29:12

But, but yeah, so that was on the back end of the dot com. I mean the September 11th was, was the event. But the dot com was continuing to unwind well into 2002. So 2002 was actually the year that most people were losing the most money if they were still holding on to a lot of those tech stocks at that point. But then it was, you know, it was off to the races. 03.04,05,06,07 it's like, oh this, this is what it's supposed to be like. And then here comes. 08 and oh, and 09. Like you said. 09 more than anything else. And, and then a little, you know, was it 11 or 13? 11 or 13. We got reminded like. Yeah, got reminded. Look, volatility is still here. But then we went on this Incredible run until 2020. Mind you, if you were looking at the numbers, they were starting to deteriorate in 18 and 19. When you look at some of the PEs, when you get into the weeds and stuff. So it was, it was one of those bubbles kind of waiting to pop in 2020. But then that was short lived. 22 we had it down. We were in a, I guess a bear market you could say in 22 we're pretty close to it. But since then, 23, 24, I mean election be damned, the market's like so what do you want me to do about it? You know.

Ben Beck 29:34

Yeah.

Ben Beck 30:11

Sure.

Ben Beck 30:34

So the only lesson I can take from that. Right. I mean, I mean and you, you have you in particular entering the business when you did in a decade where you had two peak to trough declines, at least in The S&P 500 of 1 was very close I think to 50%. 08 and 09 was at, I think that the, it was around 57 or 58% peak to trough decline. That is a priceless education as you were just going through, you know, walking through the next decade and everything about how incredibly difficult these shorter time periods are. But they're looking back and we're seeing all these incredible recoveries. And if you would have invested money at the top of the market prior to the tech collapse back in early 2000, so you could argue the very worst time in the last 25 years to invest money. I don't know what your annual average is exactly, but it's somewhere around 10% a year over the last 25 years or so or somewhere close to that. So. And we've had. How many did you just, how many bear markets did you just count there?

Yohance Harrison 31:49

You got, oh, two in that first decade.

Ben Beck 31:52

Yeah, something like that. And, and not to mention just numerous 10% plus corrections along the way. That tells me that it's behavior, investor behavior, that is job number one for us, given this incredible experience that God has put in front of us early in our careers, to say, you know, to show that this is going to be, hopefully 57 point declines are not reality going forward. You know, I don't think that's going to be the case, but the standard bear market absolutely has been in history. And, you know, I just feel incredibly lucky, as I know you do as well, to have gone through those just incredibly difficult times because it taught us that things recover and you just have to, you have to empathize with clients and build resiliency in them so that they can have confidence in the plan and continue working the plan so that they benefit from that in the long term. And if they do, you know what, what an incredible amount of financial independence they have as they, as they move on their lives.

Yohance Harrison 33:07

Indeed. Agreed.

Ben Beck 33:09

Yeah. Yeah.

Yohance Harrison 33:11

One of the things we like to ask all of our guests, Ben and I hope you will share with us. I know you will. You're open to it. We like to ask all of our guests to share with the audience your first memory of money. So, Ben, what is your first or was or is your first memory of money?

Ben Beck 33:31

My first memory of money. Will, will I get 2? 2 here, but I'll make it quick. My first memory of money I can remember is. This is so funny because it, it's a stamp on the times that we're in, watching my mom balance the checkbook with this little like bill full type of thing. And you know, she had written a check at Shop and Save in South Portland, Maine. And we're at home and she's, she's writing down, you know, the amount and balancing it, you know, okay, I had $2,000 in my account. She probably didn't have that much. And, and now I've got X and I. And that was the first memory that I can call up of like, really what, you know, what money was all about. And it's incredible right now. Everything now is electronic. Right. It's like balancing the checkbook. I mean, I just, you just log in and see where you're at. You know, today. But a close second, really, where it really solidified with me. When I was 10 or 11 years old, my father, who was a longtime school teacher in the summertime, started a landscaping business. And he literally just decided one day that, hey, I want to make some extra money. I'm going to go buy lawnmower, weed, whacker equipment and I'm going to put an ad in the local

Yohance Harrison 34:30

Yeah.

Ben Beck 34:59

magazine, local teacher mowing lawns and put the phone number and I started to help him. My older brother started to help. And within a couple weeks, literally a couple weeks, we had 25 accounts. People that had called said, yes, of course I wanted to. And I got paid $5 a lawn. All right. At 10 years old. Now you look back at that, you're like, you know, one thing I learned there, it's good to be the owner. You charge $25, you pay.

Yohance Harrison 35:27

I was thinking, I was like, I was getting more than that. It was like $5, like we're the same age, like what lawn? But I forgot you weren't the owner. So I was the owner of my lawn service.

Ben Beck 35:35

Oh, you were the owner. Oh, okay, gotcha. Yeah, I was the 10 year old son that, you know. But as a, you know, you do seven lawns in a day at 10 years old. Talk that that was the second good. That, that's like my, my, my recollection of like learning about what money was all about was how independent I felt as a 10 or 11 year old, having $35 in my pocket on a Saturday. And I'm like, wow. And what it also taught me was to be an entrepreneur and the, the idea that you can do whatever the hell you want to do if, if you, you know, a lot of people have the ability and you hear that a lot. Do you have to say, you know what, I'm gonna go out and invest. I don't know how much a lawnmower was back then, but he got a good one as a push lawnmower. But I don't know, a couple hundred dollars to buy a lawnmower. And I'm going to take that risk. And I'm going to go work because I am willing to do that. And if you're willing to put the work in. And I looked at that and said, oh, so I can build my financial independence. You know, I didn't know anything about lawnmowers or anything, but I knew how to mow lawn and build some financial independence by taking a risk and doing something. That's what my dad taught me then. And I think it's really impacted where my life has gone. And it's really, at this point, no longer a surprise. I found my way into a field where I can help folks build their own financial independence. I just don't think that's a mistake. Somehow destiny, you know, pushed me in this direction.

Yohance Harrison 35:46

Money, you know, good money.

Yohance Harrison 37:14

I love it. I love it. Well, Ben, thank you so much for nerding out with me a bit on about Nick Murray client behaviors. Of course, not just client. People behaviors, investor behaviors overall. And just giving me some insight on being a little bit more,

Yohance Harrison 37:33

I guess not the firm's not the word, but I would say devoted to my mission as a financial advisor, reminding me that I am, as Nick Murray said, Dr. Noah. And I'm not going to ask my doctor. When I had surgery, I didn't ask any questions to the doctor other than, are you qualified to do this? Great. Okay. You've done it a few times. Hundreds. Hundreds this year. Cool. All right, where do I go to sleep? I didn't tell him where to cut or how much blood I wanted or. But I did find out after the surgery that I had fentanyl. I was like, what? Y'all gave me fentanyl. I was like, yeah, that's common in surgery. So I was like, oh, addicted now? They're like, oh, how you feel? Oh, gosh. But. But, yeah, I didn't tell him not to give me fentanyl. He asked if I was allergic to anything. And I said, not that know of. I mean, they'd find out on the table. But I didn't do that to my doctor. I didn't do that to my surgeon. I just went to the doctor yesterday for a checkup, and he told me some things that I needed to be doing. It's like, thank you. Walked out. Yeah, I didn't. So I encourage those of you general public that are listening here that have financial advisors remember that you went to your financial advisor as a professional. You did the research, you looked at their credentials. You maybe you got referred from someone else, and they said that this is a trusted resource, and you came to them with a problem and they offered you a solution. You can question for education, but don't question the method because they're giving that to you because they know it's right for you. Okay. That's my opinion anyways. So, yeah, with that.

Ben Beck 39:12

Yeah. The best financial advisors are not order takers. Right. They are purveyors of priceless advice. And. But you gotta let. You gotta let that advice happen. No, we're really. Well said, man.

Yohance Harrison 39:15

Exactly.

Yohance Harrison 39:25

Indeed. Well, we thank you for joining us on the Money Script podcast. We will put links to how you can learn more about Ben and his firm, especially if you're up in that area and are looking to interview a new advisor. And of course, we will see you next week. Well, you'll see me. Actually. No, I am doing another podcast today, but we're not. We're gonna save that one to next year. So I'll see you next week with the new guest. Until then, do yourself a favor and do a favor for someone else and share this podcast one person. Until then, take care.

Seth Harrison 40:08

I'm back. Wasn't that a great show? I hope you learned something. I know I did. Now, before you go trying anything you heard today, remember, it is not intended to be specific tax or legal advice. If you need that, go see a CPA or an attorney. If you would like any complimentary consultation with a knowledgeable advisor, visit moneyscript.com and schedule a 15 minute consultation. Want Johans to come speak at your next event? Go to the MoneyScript website for that too. Of course, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure to like, comment, comment, subscribe and click the bell for notifications. MoneyScript Wealth Management is a registered financial advisory service in multiple states. Want to learn more? Get the full disclosure on our website moneyscript.com.