In this episode, we discuss that, in most cases, it is best to start something as soon as possible instead of later in life.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons on how to grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so you can have better careers, better relationships, and better personal finances.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
In today’s episode, we’re are going to talk about when the best time to plant a tree is. The best answer is 20 years ago but the next best time is today. If you think about it, if you want shade or fruit from a tree, you’re going to get the most shade and fruit from that has fully matured. That tree will have all the fruit and shade you can handle and if you have two trees even better.
If you don’t plant your tree, then you won’t have shade or fruit. This is a metaphor for life. Whatever you want in life, you have to put in the sweat equity to get that good life. Unless you can rely on someone else to give you food, shade, and firewood, then you probably want to start thinking about planting different trees in your life.
If you plant your tree today though, don’t expect to get very much from that tree for a while. This is why you need to have different trees in your life. The first tree that is planted is in your childhood, then you need to plant a tree in your teenage years, and then you need to be continuously be planting different trees in your adult life. If you’re listening to this podcast and are starting to get anxious that you didn’t start planting a different tree in your life, don’t worry about it. You still have time.
I always tell people that you don’t have to be great to get started, you just have to get started to become great. There are so many people in history who were able to turn their life around in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. The key thing is that they started planting their trees at some point in their life.
That’s why the second-best time to plant a tree is today. This is something I tell my clients who didn’t start saving for retirement until later in life. I just tell them, hey things happen and there is no one really out there that tells people how to save money. I took a personal finance class in high school and it taught me something but it didn’t really tell me how to get started or what direction I should go in. I just knew that when I got a job, I wanted to start a Roth IRA and I started one, but the mutual fund that I was invested in, wasn’t really suited for me. It had way too many bonds in it for a 20-year-old but I didn’t know better. It was good that I started invested but I could have done better. Luckily for me, I was able to switch out of that fund into something that was suitable for me and my retirement goals.
It was good that I started investing in my 20s because a dollar saved at age 20 can be like saving 40 dollars at age 65. I also apply this concept to me and my health. I know I don’t want to be in my golden years and not be able to move around, and this is why I workout so much. I could wait until later but it’s just going to be a lot more work to get back to healthy. And that’s the point of planting a tree as early as possible so you have less work to do and you will have more certainty with your future. Nothing is guaranteed but I know the odds me reaching retirement are pretty good, so I need to make sure I’m planting the right trees now in my 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, to help me out in my 70s.
What helps me focus on planting my trees is an awareness of a future that is coming. This then causes me to focus on planting trees today. I know that I need to have a certain of money saved up by the time I reach retirement. To help you figure out your retirement dollar amount, what you need to do is take the amount of money you want to have in retirement and times it by 300. This will give you a conservative number that is needed for retirement. For example, if you want to have $5000 a month in retirement for the rest of your life, you would need $1.5 million dollars by the time you retire. This number is going to need to be higher because it doesn’t account for inflation but it’s a good start. It’s 1.5 million because $5000 times 300 is that number. This then assumes that you’re withdrawing four percent a year off of that 1.5 million which is $60,000 a year and divided by 12 is $5000/mo. This is a conservative number because you’re really never withdrawing off of 1.5 million dollars, you’re only living off of the interest.
And that’s what a tree gives interest that you can live off of. If you can live off of interest and not principle, then you will live a good life. If you plant the right trees with your health, wealth, education, and social life, you can have a lot of interest to live off that will protect you when times are bad and give you the abundance in life that you’re seeking. So ask yourself, what are some tree that you need to be planting today, so you can have the fruit you need and want in the future?
That’s it for today’s episode, and to summarize it, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the second-best time is today. Things don’t happen overnight and usually take years to develop. This is why it’s important to plant different trees at various times in your life. And if you haven’t started plant the tree yet, don’t worry about it because you can do it today and you will eventually get your fruit. Just don’t wait until you need something and realize that you don’t have any fruit grab because there isn’t any fruit. Something like retirement is in the future and it’s a while away but one day it will show up to your front door and the key this is, are you going to be ready for it or not. Hopefully, after listening to the podcast, you’re going to be more prepared for those things that will happen in the future.
Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and just pay for shipping and handling.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
*Music outro
