About That Wallet

Anthony Weaver [00:00:00]:
Do you work at 9 to 5 while you’re trying to do this too, or it just kinda just went all in?

Eric Brotman [00:00:04]:
No. No. This was not this was not about that. This was, you know, this was I was all in. This was full time. I did not take a salary. I paid myself nothing. I qualified for assistance with the gas and electric company and all kinds of things because I, you know I’m not too weak.

Eric Brotman [00:00:18]:
And that’s what it’s there for. Yeah. It’s there for when you’re struggling. I I I did not pay myself for the 1st year. And, and that was horrifying too. But I made sure that I paid my debt and I made sure that we grew the company. I made sure my employees could eat, you know, they got and then when I finally did start taking a small salary for myself, the employees had direct deposit and I didn’t because sometimes I couldn’t cash my own check. Oh.

Anthony Weaver [00:00:50]:
Welcome everybody back to another exciting show of the About That Water podcast. I have the awesome opportunity to bring on the show a person who is native to my home city, Baltimore, Maryland. You cannot take away the ambition that’s going on there. So much stuff is happening there, and I really am looking forward to helping out the community. And by doing that, I I have to say that, this episode is gonna be very entertaining and necessary because estate planning is not just for the rich, it’s for everybody. And so let’s go down and jump right into it. How are you doing today, Derek?

Eric Brotman [00:01:28]:
I’m doing great. I’m so glad to be here. We’re gonna have some fun and and hopefully we’ll we’ll spread the message that you’re exactly right. This isn’t only for rich people. It’s for everybody.

Anthony Weaver [00:01:37]:
We gotta get this done. Yes. And so you’ve been doing such great things since, I would say, what, the early,

Eric Brotman [00:01:45]:
what, nineties. Nineties. 1994. I’m 30 years at this. Don’t tell anybody because I don’t think I look that old, but apparently I am that old, so it’s been 30 years, yeah.

Anthony Weaver [00:01:55]:
Yeah, you don’t look to be over 40.

Eric Brotman [00:01:57]:
I appreciate you Right.

Anthony Weaver [00:01:58]:
Checking the math. Because it’s one of the things about, you know, that’s scary. First off, people can’t even get $1,000 inside their savings account, but get a loan. They are talked about, you know, retirement, or even estate planning. And so why is it that this is a topic that’s not really talked about?

Eric Brotman [00:02:21]:
Well, nobody likes to talk about their own mortality, so let’s start with that. And money carries so much baggage around it. People have shame about money. They have guilt about money. They have all kinds of behavioral, emotional things about money. It’s taboo. It’s like one of the things it’s like, it’s like, what don’t you talk about at a party? You, you, you don’t talk about politics, religion, and money. Like it’s become like the trifecta.

Eric Brotman [00:02:45]:
And so unfortunately, I think a lot of folks, first of all, we’re not taught anything about personal finance in most schools. So as young people, we grow up watching our parents or parent talk about money or deal with money, or sometimes stress about money, sometimes fight about money. And no one wants to talk about, well, what’s going to happen when I die. And people think estate planning is only for that. There’s more to it. And there are lots of things that we need to plan for once we’re adult humans that we have to plan for while we’re alive, that people don’t think about. Like if you’re in a car accident and you can’t speak for yourself or, or make decisions for yourself, who’s going to make them, who’s going to talk to a doctor for you? Who’s going to talk to a bank for you or a landlord or a boss or anybody else that you need to talk to? You need to appoint people to speak in your stead when you can’t, because unfortunately it happens. It happens every day.

Anthony Weaver [00:03:39]:
Yeah. And, but we see it on the news all the time too. So it’s like, especially in Baltimore, I mean, usually you’re lucky I mean, I would just say for me, I was even surprised that I was able to live beyond 25. So I do a big party when I turned 25.

Eric Brotman [00:03:53]:
Did you? Wow.

Anthony Weaver [00:03:54]:
Yeah. Wow. And because of that, like I’ve seen, like, you know, being, I guess, say black in the city, it was just always rough. So, you know, seeing a lot of the gun violence and drugs and stuff like that that’s happening, to even think that far. And

Eric Brotman [00:04:12]:
Yeah.

Anthony Weaver [00:04:13]:
Because it wasn’t taught, it it’s now that I’m like super excited. And that’s one of the reasons, like, my passion behind starting this podcast is because it’s like, I wasn’t taught this and I really wish that we have more conversations about it. So how did you even start thinking about or even come up with a conversation to to get it started?

Eric Brotman [00:04:33]:
Well, you know, I I came across, I came into this business in a very nontraditional way. I actually did go to college and I studied English and psychology, not finance. Because I actually think more, more financial decisions that get made and more of these kinds of conversations happen that are qualitative rather than quantitative. I think getting people to be able to speak freely and speak openly about things is really, really important. And it’s less about the math. We can figure the math out later, you know? And to your point, if folks are struggling, if they’re paycheck to paycheck or if they’re, you know, you say robbing Peter to pay Paul, that kind of thing, then most of this feels esoteric. It feels like right now I gotta worry about today. I gotta worry about this Friday.

Eric Brotman [00:05:14]:
I got to worry about this month. And for people in that situation, there are things that, that, and they’re hard. There are things that need to happen to try and pull you out of that cycle because that cycle is not going to solve itself. Yeah. And there’s only 2 ways to improve your, your finances. You can either make more money or you can spend less money and life is not getting cheaper. Groceries are more expensive. Gas is more expensive.

Eric Brotman [00:05:41]:
Life is more expensive. So it’s really important to figure out ways to make additional money. And the millennials and the gen Z’s figured out the side hustle before it was a thing. It became a thing. I take no responsibility. I’m a proud gen Xer. We’re small but mighty, and we’re usually upset about everything. But nonetheless, nonetheless, the millennials and gen z’s figured out the side hustle and figured out other ways to make money.

Eric Brotman [00:06:07]:
And that is hands down the best way to pull yourself out of a cycle is to improve what the inputs are and not to spend them, not to blow them on stupid stuff. I mean, you have bills you gotta pay. We all do, but there are things people do, consumerism, things people shop for they do not need. And some of them feel like status symbols. And you said something very telling, which was you didn’t think you’d see 25. Yeah. You know, and I, I, I cannot, I can tell you that that was never something that I had to think about and not to go down a totally different path on a totally different conversation, but that’s not something I gave a lot of thought to. But if your listeners, if, if your audience, and if, if that’s something people are thinking about, the sooner you can improve your own financial status, the sooner you can improve your own social economic status.

Eric Brotman [00:07:00]:
That’s it’s half of it. Half of it is the money. The other half is then making good decisions. And I, you know, I’m the one to preach about it. That is a hard, hard thing. And I, and I, I, I empathize, but I can’t I, I, putting myself in those shoes is almost impossible. Yeah. Try as I may.

Eric Brotman [00:07:18]:
It’s almost impossible. So rather than fake it, what I can say is I am not in that situation. I’m blessed not to be in that situation, but I’ve seen folks come out of that situation, black or white, frankly. I’ve seen folks come out of that situation. 1 of the most successful human beings I know grew up on welfare and is now a multimillion dollar attorney. It does work. It can happen, but so much of it is around decision making and some of it’s luck. Some of it’s not being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Eric Brotman [00:07:46]:
And you and I both know some of, some of this is random.

Anthony Weaver [00:07:48]:
Yeah. Right. Right.

Eric Brotman [00:07:50]:
It’s random. I mean, you can make good decisions and try and stay out of trouble and still be in the wrong place at the wrong time, sadly.

Anthony Weaver [00:07:57]:
Yeah. And they can easily drain your account, drain your emotions, and really have a huge impact inside your environment, to the point where you start looking at your friends sideways when it’s really like they there to help you.

Eric Brotman [00:08:09]:
Hopefully, if they’re the right friends.

Anthony Weaver [00:08:12]:
If they were to tell you if you’re wrong. You know? Like, you need those people.

Eric Brotman [00:08:16]:
Yes. You do. You need friends who are gonna be honest with you and say, knock that off. You know? That that’s part of it.

Anthony Weaver [00:08:23]:
Yeah. And so having those discussions, and that’s one of the reasons why I wanted to bring you on, is because, like, these are almost like the lost concepts Mhmm. That that we don’t have. And I like that the fact that you actually started your own podcast as well. Mhmm. Can you talk a little bit about it? It’s, don’t retire, graduate?

Eric Brotman [00:08:44]:
Yeah. I I I’ve written 3 books, and the the most recent one was called Don’t Retire, Graduate, and I actually recorded 5 seasons of the podcast. We’re taking a year off now from the podcast cause we’re launching another, edition of the book. And so I’m sort of focusing on one thing at a time. But, the concept is that retirement in its, in its normal form is not particularly good for you and no one should do it. And that’s counter to everything you hear every time you open the, the, the news or a website, or you see the, you see ads on TV, it’s all about retirement, retirement. But you gotta have some reason to get out of bed every morning. You gotta have something to do purpose and vision and values.

Eric Brotman [00:09:20]:
And, and so I’ve discovered, if you can call it that I’ve discovered the 3 secrets to the happiest retirees. Oh, there’s 3. There’s 3. This is, this is, anecdotal, not scientific, but but the three secrets that I have to the happiest retirees, number 1 is that they’re debt free. They don’t owe anybody anything. It is really, really tough to feel comfortable when you’re trying to meet that, that obligation of debt. The second one is they’ve taken care of themselves physically healthy. You know, that it’s, you can’t, it’s so much easier to stay healthy than to get healthy.

Eric Brotman [00:10:00]:
And I would argue it’s easier to stay wealthy than to get wealthy too. Once you have it, the right decisions come easier and it’s easier to keep when you don’t have it. It’s very tough to get. And I say health and wealth are very similar that way. So the second secret is to take care of yourself physically, nutrition and exercise and mental and staying out of the wrong situations. And, and then third is you have to have purpose. You have to have something that you look forward to every day so that you can get out of bed and make a difference, whether it’s in your community, in your family, in your, in your education, in your financial life, something, anything that’s positive that you can get excited about because people who don’t have purpose don’t live very long.

Anthony Weaver [00:10:47]:
That’s true. So true. So what keeps your purpose? What’s your purpose?

Eric Brotman [00:10:53]:
My purpose right now is to try and spread financial literacy everywhere. Financial literacy is not taught in schools. It is not it’s not taught by parents because parents don’t know it. You know, and half the time the parents who are working 2 3 jobs just to make ends meet aren’t home to teach it anyway. Even if they do know it, they’re not there. And so making sure that people at an early age understand some of the basics, the basic ways to start to build wealth, whatever wealth is, you know, and I quote some, some philosophers in my book and one of my favorites is Chris Rock. And what Chris Rock said, Chris Rock once said that there the difference between wealth and rich. Right?

Anthony Weaver [00:11:36]:
And

Eric Brotman [00:11:36]:
he said if Bill Gates woke up tomorrow with Oprah’s net worth, he’d wanna jump out a window. Right. So wealth is relative. So professor Rock gave me that and I quoted him in my book, but, but it’s, it’s true. And, and understanding ways to build whatever wealth that is, even if it starts with having a positive account balance and no debt or having debt half what it was a year ago. So I spent a lot of time in the book. The first full section of the book is really about how to avoid or get out debt because unfortunately, so many people are struggling with it. You know, you can get a visa card when you’re 18.

Eric Brotman [00:12:14]:
You can get a student loan when you’re 18, and it could be huge, but no bank will lend you money to start a business until you have 2 years of tax returns. Like, I started a company. I had to borrow from everywhere, and no bank would talk to me. But they would lend me money to go get a philosophy degree at some liberal arts school. They’d lend me 6 figures. Mhmm. But I could put together a business plan, and they’d say, sorry. We’re not talking to you, and that’s insane to me.

Anthony Weaver [00:12:42]:
They end up I’m not even sure what what what to start with that because it’s very upsetting. Like, the banks want you to do all this cool stuff. They have the ability to kinda I mean, I know it’s like, you know, to borrow the money, but what? You have a business plan to make the money. But yet for education and also the education RRI is not the same.

Eric Brotman [00:13:07]:
No, it’s not.

Anthony Weaver [00:13:08]:
Because I have an elementary education degree as my undergrad. Okay. And same person that’s sitting right next to me has like an engineering degree.

Eric Brotman [00:13:17]:
Uh-huh.

Anthony Weaver [00:13:17]:
And it’s like, we’re paying the same thing.

Eric Brotman [00:13:19]:
Mhmm.

Anthony Weaver [00:13:20]:
But yet teachers, I was because I was I was doing my teaching program. I think they were trying to say, like, oh, yeah. We can hire you as a as a long term sub, Just kinda coming out or whatever for, like, a $100 a day. And I was like, would rather volunteer. Yeah. Because I was like, I make more than this as an intern when I was working for NASA. Mhmm. So it’s like this this doesn’t match.

Eric Brotman [00:13:43]:
Right. You can’t live on it.

Anthony Weaver [00:13:44]:
Yeah. So how do they I’m sorry. That’s a whole another rant, but

Eric Brotman [00:13:49]:
Well, have at it. It’s your show. Rant all you want. That’s right. I’ll try not to rant, but you rant all you want, it’s your show. If it’s my show, I get to rant. That’s the deal. Yeah.

Anthony Weaver [00:13:57]:
Well, I I just hate that is really guards my gaze is is the the the way how the the federal government is actually putting out the money to kind of fund, private institutions to kinda get people into colleges. Yes. We were supposed to have the rat race or whatever to get to the moon and all that fun stuff. The reason why we got the education process now. But to subsidize education to the point where you actually can give, like you said, like up to 6 figures just for an education, the hope to get a job Right. And not to con trying to, further the economy by creating your own business. But yet the people who are the business owners are the ones that get shafted all the time because talking about pulling yourself up out of bootstraps. Mhmm.

Anthony Weaver [00:14:41]:
Literally, in order for you to actually make this happen.

Eric Brotman [00:14:45]:
Alright. Let me let you know on a little secret. Okay. Don’t tell anybody. It’s just between us. Alright?

Anthony Weaver [00:14:49]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just us.

Eric Brotman [00:14:52]:
Anything government’s involved in will be very poorly run. It doesn’t matter what level. It doesn’t matter who. It’s not from poor intentions. It’s just that it, particularly federally, the government is so massive. It collapses under its own weight. There is no incentive to have a balanced budget. There is no incentive to have programs be efficient.

Eric Brotman [00:15:13]:
In fact, there’s incentive for each department, each agency, each office to spend every penny of their budget every year for fear of losing their budget the next year that they literally spend to the last nickel. And sometimes then some. And it’s the only organization in the United States that can legally print money. So if it runs short, it just makes more money, which just makes your gas $5 a gallon instead of 4 or 3. So, again, don’t tell anybody, but government could louse up a bake sale.

Anthony Weaver [00:15:41]:
Right.

Eric Brotman [00:15:41]:
All right. And that’s not a political statement and it’s not a rant. I reserve my rant for later, but if, but you need to rely on private sources and private industry and you’re, you’re, you’re a 100% right. The ROI on education no longer makes sense. The, the cost to attend in so many cases doesn’t make sense. And if you come out with an education degree, you’re right. It’s totally different than coming out with as an electrical engineer.

Anthony Weaver [00:16:06]:
Yeah.

Eric Brotman [00:16:06]:
You know? Or if you’re going to med school or law school or or even business school, there’s there’s ways to improve the possibility of a higher income. You know, in Maryland, we boast that we have the highest per capita income in the United States. Are you feeling rich?

Anthony Weaver [00:16:24]:
Nope.

Eric Brotman [00:16:25]:
Okay. Well but we have the highest per capita income in the United States. We also have the highest percentage of PhDs in the United States. But you know who our biggest employer is? Federal government.

Anthony Weaver [00:16:38]:
Yeah. They are.

Eric Brotman [00:16:42]:
So, you know, if there’s a there’s a, definitely a dichotomy here and we could break it down, but I won’t do that to your show.

Anthony Weaver [00:16:49]:
What I will say is there’s some practical things that people can

Eric Brotman [00:16:49]:
do to better their situation from couple suggestions if that would be helpful to you. Things that just about everyone can grab ahold of and, and make a difference with in a, in a matter of a month or 2 or 5. And it’s not perfect. It’s not a panacea and none of this is neuroscience. This is all stuff we can do ourselves.

Anthony Weaver [00:17:13]:
Yeah. Let’s go for it.

Eric Brotman [00:17:14]:
Alright. If there was one thing that I could get people to do, it would be to pay themselves first. In other words, the first bill you pay every month is to your own financial bottom line, whether it’s contributing to a retirement plan at work, whether it’s putting money into an IRA or other savings vehicle, whether it’s paying excess debt down. If you’re in debt, the best thing you can do is get out of that. But if you collect your paychecks and then you spend money and you hope there’s something left over at the end of the month, that is a treadmill you’re not getting anywhere, you must figure out a way to take 5 or 10 or 15 or 20 or whatever percent of every dollar you make and put it to something that’s going to grow for you. It could be a simple savings account. It could be a CD. It could be an investment account.

Eric Brotman [00:18:07]:
It could be retirement. It could be debt reduction, but something that’s going to make your financial life better longer term. And the people who do that, who learn to live, and it’s hard, it’s hard for people to live on a 100% of what they make. In fact, there’s folks who could say I could make 130% of what I’m making. It would still be hard to live. And so some of that’s where the side hustle comes in. But if you can get to the point where you can live on less than a 100% of what you make, pay yourself first and start putting money aside every check, even if it’s just direct deposit into 2 different accounts so that one of them is not attached to your ATM card. Seriously, hide it from yourself.

Eric Brotman [00:18:48]:
None of us can be trusted. It’s like going into the pantry and finding the junk food. None of us reach for an apple if there’s a Snickers bar. We’re just not gonna do

Anthony Weaver [00:18:54]:
it. True.

Eric Brotman [00:18:56]:
So hide it from yourself. I mean, not for real, but, and, and make sure that it’s something that is designed for either longer term or wealth building or emergencies. Let’s face it. If you suddenly need a washer and dryer or 4 tires for your car or your kid gets sick or something’s going on, you’re gonna spend money. Mhmm. And if you have to go to Mastercard to do it, you are, you’re literally going backwards. That, that would be, if, if I had one thing to get people to do, it would be that. And I’ve got 50 things people should do, but if I had one, that would be the first one.

Anthony Weaver [00:19:36]:
I will I will add on to that, Mhmm. Just the education piece. Mhmm. Because I know you said investing itself, but even if it’s like a $2 or $3 just going to the thrift store to buy a financial book. Mhmm. May I pick up a personal finance, literacy, like course book?

Eric Brotman [00:19:53]:
Mhmm. I was

Anthony Weaver [00:19:53]:
like, oh, that’s only $3 but they’re giving you from soup to nuts of everything about finance. Like,

Eric Brotman [00:20:00]:
I’ll do you one better. We’ve got one online that’s free.

Anthony Weaver [00:20:04]:
Oh, that’s

Eric Brotman [00:20:04]:
beautiful. If you go to bfguniversity.com, you will find a basic financial literacy course. It’s 8 lessons and it’s free. You download it anytime you want. It’s, it’s, it’s relatively easy to understand. And it talks about everything from budgeting to savings, to employee benefits, to things you need to know when you’re first getting started and free. Anybody who wants it can have it.

Anthony Weaver [00:20:28]:
Yeah. Let’s let’s make that out there. I’m gonna definitely, add that to the show notes. So Right. If they can just jump right into that.

Eric Brotman [00:20:35]:
Yeah. No. It’s it’s it’s when you ask me what my why is, what my purpose is, I want to teach people how to do this and not everyone can afford a financial advisor. Frankly, not everyone needs a financial advisor. So I’m delighted to work with the people who need and can afford to work with us. But I also would like to make a difference to folks who need and can’t afford to work with us. And these are the kinds of ways we can do it, whether it’s a book, whether it’s an online course. You know, the, the book has a workbook with it.

Eric Brotman [00:21:04]:
It’s on Amazon. It is not free, but it is not expensive. And it’s, it’s 21 exercises that will build your own financial plan. And it’s in a workbook and it’s called Don’t Retire, Graduate. And it, you know, we’ve seen this really help a lot of people and that’s, that’s why I did it. And I’m not making any money on the books At the end of the day, I’m I’m trying to break even on some books, but but I’m I’m trying to put something out there that will help people.

Anthony Weaver [00:21:29]:
Yeah. And because you’re helping people, like, what was your journey like? Like, why why do you go so hard inside the financial realm?

Eric Brotman [00:21:40]:
Well, I will tell you. I I grew up, I I grew up in a fortunate way and that I was not in a dangerous environment or one where I didn’t expect to thrive physically, but I didn’t grow up with money. I didn’t grow up around money. I didn’t learn about money. You know, and, and when I was, when I was 28 years old, I was divorced. I was working for a company. I had a small condominium, but otherwise no money at all. And so I wound up starting this company in 2003.

Eric Brotman [00:22:14]:
I was 31. My net worth was negative. I had to borrow from everywhere because no bank would lend to me. I had no money at all. I had a business plan and a dream and an idea. And 20 years later, we employ 20 people. We have clients all over the country and it’s been, we’re blessed in every conceivable way. And a lot of it came from working darn hard.

Eric Brotman [00:22:35]:
But I borrowed from everywhere. I borrowed against my home. I borrowed against credit cards. I borrowed against my life insurance. I borrowed from my mom. Let me tell you something. When you borrow money from your mother, you do not want that loan shark coming after you. That is the first one I paid back.

Eric Brotman [00:22:52]:
That’s true. So I borrowed money from everywhere, and hired 2 people and took on a little bit of office space and said, I think we can do this. I have a plan. Let’s make it work. And, you know, fast forward a couple of years and all the banks that said thank you, but no thank you are tripping over themselves to work with us now. They can’t wait. Here, have some money. Yeah.

Eric Brotman [00:23:13]:
Well, where were you when I had none?

Anthony Weaver [00:23:17]:
You you

Eric Brotman [00:23:17]:
know what I mean? So so my journey was one that financially, I I I understood I was, I was fortunate to get a college degree without loans in and of itself, not being negative at that point was a huge, huge blessing. So whether that’s done through the GI bill, whether it’s done through community college, whether it’s done through scholarships or grants or, or other things, if it can be done without loans, that is a huge leg up. But the second thing is to just, to just have a plan and work hard and, and believe in yourself. Yeah. I mean, I I’m, I don’t think there’s nothing I do every day. Like I said, it’s not neuroscience. I’m not, you know, I’m not doing brain surgery. What I am doing is I’m helping people who either don’t have the time or don’t have the ability or just don’t feel like dealing with some of these things that frankly all of us can do for ourselves.

Eric Brotman [00:24:14]:
Yeah. You know, and, and, and creating jobs has been, has been fun. And, you know, I feel responsible for the 20 families who we employ and who rely on us and the hundreds of families who rely on us from a planning perspective, and for my community and for family and everything else. And, so my journey was, my journey’s, it’s been great. It’s been, I’m blessed, truly. But it started it started kinda ugly. You know, it it started at a very for me anyway, a very threatening like, it was gonna this was either gonna work or not. It was sink or swim.

Anthony Weaver [00:24:50]:
Oh, wow.

Eric Brotman [00:24:51]:
I jumped in the deep end and said I’m gonna figure this out or not. Do

Anthony Weaver [00:24:55]:
you work at 905 while you’re trying to do this too or just kinda just went all in?

Eric Brotman [00:24:59]:
No. No. This was not this was not about that. This was, you know, this was I was all in. This was full time. I did not take a salary. I paid myself nothing. I qualified for assistance with the gas and electric company and all kinds of things because, you know, and that’s what it’s there for.

Eric Brotman [00:25:15]:
It’s there for when you’re struggling. I I I did not pay myself for the 1st year And, and that was horrifying too, but I made sure that I paid my debt and I made sure that we grew the company. I made sure my employees could eat, you know, they got, and then when I finally did start taking a small salary for myself, the employees had direct deposit and I didn’t because sometimes I couldn’t cash my own check. Oh. So my check would sit in the drawer until until I could cash it. But this was not it wasn’t pretty. And so people see me now and they’re like, oh, man. He’s got it good.

Eric Brotman [00:25:50]:
He’s dude, man. What a lucky guy. Some of it’s luck, but a lot of it was I I crushed myself to try and make this happen. And now, yes, I’m enjoying fruits of that labor, but it took 20 years to get here.

Anthony Weaver [00:26:04]:
Yeah. And and a lot of people don’t like to dive, like, think about those hard times, but I think the hard times is when you really find yourself. When nobody is out there, when you actually screaming for help, in that darkness, and you just get that one beacon of light, but like, you know, you gotta reach it no matter what. So what was that beacon of light for you?

Eric Brotman [00:26:27]:
I I was very fortunate to have, to have mentors in my life, and I learned how to do this from another advisory about 10 years older than me, who brought me into his organization that he was growing when I was a young person. And I spent 4 years watching someone, almost like like if you were a karate student and you’d watch the master, you just sort of watch them, man, I can do that. It’s gonna take a while, but I can do that. And so I consider myself fortunate, not only to have had employment, but to have had somebody who took a vested interest in my development. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve built careers for people here that are so atypical. They don’t exist a lot of places. You know, we’re hiring young people. Most of them right out of school.

Eric Brotman [00:27:17]:
We hire a lot of Stevenson students, because they come out of school hungry, ready to work, enthusiastic, positive. There’s no silver spoons. They’re like, let’s let’s do this. Let’s roll up our sleeves and make a difference, and we’ll teach them the right way and we’ll make sure that they have a competitive, compelling wage along the way, but we will teach them the right way to do this And they never have to sell anything to anyone. You know, the problem with financial services is most people get the job and then it’s, oh, you’re on straight commission. You have to sell something to eat. None of our folks are paid for anything like that. They don’t have to sell anything to anyone.

Eric Brotman [00:27:55]:
What they have to do is learn the business, get their licenses, become great at what they do, support the organization, and then help families. And I’ve had people in interviews say, what am I missing? This job doesn’t exist. And you know, at the end of the day, we have a lot of people who want to come work with us and, and that’s a, that’s a wonderful thing. And we’re not growing so fast that we’re hiring a lot, you know, a ton of folks. We’re only 20 people, but, but for the folks who come on board, it’s a it’s a unicorn.

Anthony Weaver [00:28:26]:
Yeah. And it sounds like a great place to work. I don’t make if I didn’t have my job, I’ll like, where’s the application at that time?

Eric Brotman [00:28:33]:
Yeah, yeah. Well, I think it’s a great place to work, but you have to ask everybody here because, you know, we all have good days in bed. We work hard. We work hard and there’s a lot of stress. I mean, this is a stressful environment. You’re dealing with people’s nest eggs. You’re dealing with people’s money. It’s, it is almost as intimate as medicine.

Eric Brotman [00:28:51]:
I mean, sometimes you have to deliver bad news and it’s, it’s especially difficult. But, but that said, it’s incredibly rewarding too.

Anthony Weaver [00:29:00]:
You know,

Eric Brotman [00:29:00]:
we’ve we’ve celebrated a lot of successes with a lot of people.

Anthony Weaver [00:29:04]:
So, bring us back to the beginning, which is the estate planning piece. So let’s go on and do like a quick rapid fire of like Yeah. The things that they would need in their estate plan. Mhmm. So people can go down to start today. Once they’ve done this show, like, some action items for them.

Eric Brotman [00:29:21]:
Sure. Most most adult people need a total of 4 documents. The documents can be drafted by a lawyer or they can be done There are online services and other things. If you work for a company that has prepaid legal, there’s ways to access this. If, if your, if your net worth starts to grow and you’re becoming wealthy people, then you need a much more sophisticated estate plan. But some of the basics are available for people who need them. And the four documents that every adult person and by adult, I mean 18. So if you have kids who are 18, some of these things they should have.

Eric Brotman [00:29:54]:
The first one is an advanced medical directive. The second is a living will. These are 2 things that some sometimes are one document and sometimes are 2. I separate them, but essentially they’re the things that will name the person who can make medical decisions for you while you’re alive, but can’t make them. You’re in that car accident, you’re in a coma, you’re in, for whatever reason, you can’t make decisions. It could be cognitive impairment. It could be anything. And the second one is to give your wishes.

Eric Brotman [00:30:23]:
It’s really important to not only say this is the person who’s gonna make decisions for me and this is what I’d like them to do because some people want to be kept alive by machines for their, you know, for as long as it is. And some people wanna be left to die comfortably and don’t want, you know, some people wanna leave organs to other people and to try and save other lives when it’s their turn, all those things. And they’re morbid. Nobody loves talking about this stuff, but we’re we’re all here for a short time, you know? So So those are the first two, the advanced directive, and the living will. The next is a durable financial power of attorney. The financial power of attorney is a document that names the person who can essentially sign your name if you’re unable to, and handle things like, like your mortgage or your bills or your banking or your investments or your insurances or, or other things. And they can step into your shoes for financial decisions. And you can decide if you want to name that person to be able to do that today, or if you only want to name that person in the event you are incapacitated.

Eric Brotman [00:31:25]:
And there’s there’s different strategies. If you’re married and you’re in a good healthy relationship with a spouse, you name it today. If you’re naming your next door neighbor, don’t do it today. You know what I mean? Like there’s a difference. And then the last thing is people should have a will and the will is a very misunderstood document because people believe that it, it is only about your stuff and it’s not, your will talks about who’s going to take care of your kids. If you have children, who’s going to take care of your kids if you’re gone? Who would you like them to live with? And if you’re leaving money behind, whether it’s life insurance or other assets, who would you like to manage that for your kids? Because if you leave a 5 year old, that 5 year old can’t manage their money. They can barely manage their sock drawer. So, so what we ought to do at that point is name somebody to take care of the money that you’re leaving behind and name somebody they can live with who’s going to make sure they get school and get clothes and have a, as good a life as they can without you because unfortunately that’s a tragedy.

Eric Brotman [00:32:26]:
The will also will name who handles your final affairs, who spends 9 months of their lives making sure that all of your t’s are crossed, your i’s are dotted, your accounts are closed, they’ve closed down your Facebook account, they’ve closed your gas electric bill, They’ve paid final debts. They’ve, they’ve paid for whatever funeral arrangements you want, all the fun stuff to talk about. And the will does not necessarily handle all of your property because of course it’s still gonna say who gets what. But most of your accounts, a lot of your accounts should have beneficiaries on them. If you have a 401 ks at work, your 401 ks has a beneficiary. If that beneficiary says, I name this person, it doesn’t matter what the will says. The beneficiary comes first. Your life insurance, whether it’s through work or on your own has a beneficiary.

Eric Brotman [00:33:13]:
IRAs have beneficiaries. Health savings accounts have beneficiaries. You can put beneficiaries on almost any kind of account you can think of. You can put them on bank accounts, you can put them on investment accounts, You can put them on your car. The motor vehicle administration allows you to name a beneficiary for your car. Truly.

Anthony Weaver [00:33:32]:
I don’t know. Truly.

Eric Brotman [00:33:32]:
It’s called TODI. It’s transfer on death individual, and it allows you to name a beneficiary so that if you don’t have a will or you have a will, but you want to be able to change something easily, you can put a beneficiary designation on almost anything.

Anthony Weaver [00:33:47]:
Okay. Now that was new. I heard about the rest of them. I didn’t know about the car.

Eric Brotman [00:33:51]:
Yeah. Well and it’s state by state. Maryland allows it. Some states don’t. Maryland allows it. And of course it’s not free because the DMV has to charge you a fee for something. I think it’s $35 or something, but whatever it is, if you, you know, we encourage married couples not to own cars jointly because it creates liability for them. So if you’re in a 2 income household, you have a car in your name, your spouse has a car in in your spouse’s name, and then, you wanna make life easy when one of you is widowed.

Eric Brotman [00:34:21]:
You just put a beneficiary and name each other on

Anthony Weaver [00:34:23]:
it. Did not know that. Alright. I’m at the Well, I’m glad

Eric Brotman [00:34:28]:
I could teach you something. We’ve been at this 40 minutes. Let’s learn something.

Anthony Weaver [00:34:31]:
That’s right.

Eric Brotman [00:34:33]:
And you thought you knew everything.

Anthony Weaver [00:34:35]:
Well I don’t know everything, that’s the reason why I have guests on the show. And that would be a 1 man show.

Eric Brotman [00:34:42]:
Yeah, I understand. I don’t know everything either, by the way. Not even close.

Anthony Weaver [00:34:46]:
Yeah. Well, this is well, this is the reason why I have, guests like you on the show because it’s like we we go through our lives and we try to figure out, like, what is the best option for us. And personal finance is personal, but some of the times we think that we are doing the right thing Mhmm. Because we heard somebody else say that’s the way to do it. Yeah. But not knowing the intricacies behind it and also the limitations, about it. Because like everybody will say, like, go ahead on and buy a house. But what if home ownership isn’t really for you? Like, you know,

Eric Brotman [00:35:21]:
it’s definitely not for everyone. Yeah. House is a horrendous investment. It’s a horrendous invest. If you’re going to live in it, it’s different if you’re buying rental properties and you can make money on the property. But if you’re buying a house to live in, it’s a money pit. And I own a home and I’m not telling folks not to, but don’t do it because you think it’s going to make you money. It is gonna cost you money every day.

Anthony Weaver [00:35:46]:
Every day. Because right now I gotta put new shutters up because Right. It’s gonna shut out because of the wind. Right.

Eric Brotman [00:35:52]:
And and you’ll put the shutters up and then you’ll realize something has to get painted or you got a hole in your foundation or you need a driveway or a roof or whatever it is. You need to bushes in the front yard. Whatever it is, there will always be something. It will always cost you money. You will not get most of that back when you sell the place. A house is a horrendous investment. That’s not to say there aren’t periods of history where people will sell real estate for a lot more than they bought it for. But buying real estate as an investment is completely different than buying a house to live in.

Anthony Weaver [00:36:22]:
I look at it more so like your vehicle. Like, could you own it? It’s there. You don’t plan to get rid of it. You know, you don’t make money on it. It’s helps you I mean, obviously, it keeps the roof over your head. It could makes you comfortable, it makes life a little comfortable. Mhmm. And that’s ultimately, what I look at as not like a financial Right.

Anthony Weaver [00:36:43]:
Thing. You know?

Eric Brotman [00:36:44]:
It’s psychology. It’s your nest. Yeah. I’m not saying don’t own a home. I’m saying don’t look at the mortgage payment on the house and a rent payment and assume that it’s the same number. Therefore it’s the same. It is not the same. And most people deduct their mortgage interest and their real estate taxes and so forth.

Eric Brotman [00:37:05]:
And right now with the standard deduction being so high, and we haven’t talked about taxes, but most people don’t even itemize on their taxes anymore, which means they’re not using schedule a, which means they’re not even deducting some of the things that are deductible because they don’t have enough deductions. 90% of the United States does not itemize anymore, which means things that you’re being taught are have some tax savings to them might not. Right. So, you know, be aware of that. I mean, I would sooner I would sooner do my own root canal than do my own tax return. I know people do it. And if it, if your world is simple enough that TurboTax or Jackson Hewitt or H and R Block can solve it, that’s great. But when your world starts to get complicated, you need a CPA.

Eric Brotman [00:37:47]:
And when your world starts to get complicated, that’s when you look at a financial advisor or other folks, when you’ve reached a certain level where it’s now complicated beyond what you want to do by yourself.

Anthony Weaver [00:37:57]:
Yeah. Oh, man. Alright. Let’s let’s go on and go to the 30 seconds because we can I can sit here just we can bring it all day?

Eric Brotman [00:38:06]:
Well, like like I said, I’m very expensive. I’m billing you for this.

Anthony Weaver [00:38:09]:
Alright. I’ll make sure we get all the free resources. Make sure it’s yours, but I got more.

Eric Brotman [00:38:15]:
I got I got plenty of free resource we do. We have plenty of free resources out there. I can point you to a number of them. And you know, BFG, we have a university, which is the online course, and one of them is free. We have a library of resources that has 5 or 6 different white papers that are free about taxes or buying your first home or other things. There are resources everywhere. If you go to our website and you look up BFG library, and the website is bfgfa.com, and then you can find all these resources, podcast episodes, articles, and and the vast majority of it is free.

Anthony Weaver [00:38:50]:
Yeah. And that’s one thing I I really like about your program that you keeping low cost entry. And as at this point, I feel like if you have to older than 30 and you’re listening to this, there’s no excuse to to not get yourself in the financial, mindset, I will say, because you gotta start somewhere, and then you start changing your environment around it.

Eric Brotman [00:39:12]:
Yeah. And and you can be a good example for your kids. Yeah. You know, kids kids are watching everything we do. Everything. So I don’t know if you’re a father or not, but but if you have kids, you’re not then you have no idea.

Anthony Weaver [00:39:26]:
We didn’t plan on having kids. There’s a reason why I did a podcast to kind of this is my baby.

Eric Brotman [00:39:31]:
Oh, this is your baby? Well, this this baby doesn’t keep you up at night and spit up in your lap, but, and it doesn’t need to go to college or anything else. But but when you have kids, kids watch what we do and they learn from it, even if we don’t mean to be teaching. And so we have to sort of check ourselves a little bit and make sure that we’re, we’re handling things the right way.

Anthony Weaver [00:39:53]:
Yep. And with that being said Mhmm. On to the 3rd segment, which is the features. Mhmm. And, you know, so what skills or habits that you feel that will take you to the next level, in your journey?

Eric Brotman [00:40:07]:
You know, it’s interesting. I’m I’m actually still in school. I’ve been in school my entire life, so I I’m always in a different programs. I’m taking a, a course in philanthropy right now because I’m trying to to learn at a much higher level ways in which nonprofits can can do fundraising and benefit from the generosity of donors and some of the strategies that work that can help not only from a tax perspective, but, but from a charitable perspective. So I’m having fun with that. I’m also looking at courses, on facilitation and doing some group, group meetings. I started a consulting practice. My retirement plan, which is to never retire, obviously I’m going to graduate, but my retirement plan is instead of doing day to day financial advising, it’s to do more consulting and coaching and mentoring and teaching and volunteering and to continue to grow the company.

Eric Brotman [00:40:57]:
We’ve got incredible people here doing great work. And I, I’m trying to do more of a one to many than a one to one. Like where can I make an impact and reach as many people as possible? And that’s one of the reasons why I enjoy these podcasts because you’re reaching an audience I might not otherwise reach. And I hope I’ve made a difference. If it’s in in one person’s life, it’s been a good morning.

Anthony Weaver [00:41:19]:
That’s all we need. Good morning. Right. I like that.

Eric Brotman [00:41:23]:
You know, make one person’s day better and it’s been a good day. Yeah. It’d be nice if somebody did that for me today too if you’re if you’d like.

Anthony Weaver [00:41:30]:
Well well, good morning to you too. Yeah. I appreciate you. Appreciate you. Is there anything else you wanna say before we dive into the final four questions?

Eric Brotman [00:41:39]:
No, let’s let’s do it. Let’s do the final 4. I’m ready. I like the final 4.

Anthony Weaver [00:41:43]:
Alright. Number 1, what does wealth mean to you?

Eric Brotman [00:41:52]:
Freedom. Mhmm. Wealth means the independence and the freedom to be able to to choose, and not to have so many have to’s.

Anthony Weaver [00:42:04]:
I like that. That actually might be the title of the show.

Eric Brotman [00:42:07]:
Oh, well. Well, there you go.

Anthony Weaver [00:42:09]:
Right. Number 2. Yeah. What was your worst money mistake?

Eric Brotman [00:42:16]:
My god. How much time do you have? Actually, I I will tell you that my probably my worst money mistake was, getting caught up in the late nineties in some of the dotcom in excitement and enthusiasm and thinking I was going to buy individual securities and individual stocks and that that was going to be part of my plan. And I had some financial education and still messed that up royally. And I learned, I learned an expensive but important lesson, which was not to do that, not to try and time anything, not to try and guess. You know, now it’s about owning everything and not trying to time or guess at anything. So I, I learned a lesson. I learned it in the grand scheme of things pretty cheaply. Thank you.

Eric Brotman [00:43:02]:
Thankfully, cause I was young and dumb. But, for people who, who are trying to do that and, and I, I watched the, the nonsense with Reddit and GameStop and all this craziness and I would stay out of that fray and, and, and, and, crypto and all, I stay out of the fray. It is, it is a loser’s game.

Anthony Weaver [00:43:23]:
Alright. Well, that’s a whole another show now.

Eric Brotman [00:43:26]:
Yeah. No. I know. I know.

Anthony Weaver [00:43:28]:
Number 3.

Eric Brotman [00:43:29]:
Yeah. Number 3.

Anthony Weaver [00:43:30]:
Which is, what is your favorite financial or non financial book?

Eric Brotman [00:43:36]:
Oh, that’s a great question. And I will tell you that my favorite, I I have 2. They’re both nonfinancial, but they both border on who I am and what I do.

Anthony Weaver [00:43:46]:
Okay.

Eric Brotman [00:43:47]:
The first is what I still consider to be the greatest book ever written, which is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. That book, while it’s a heavy read, it’s a lot of economics. It’s a lot of philosophy. It’s a narrative, and it’s an incredibly powerful and, and you can agree or disagree with some of the sentiments in it, but it’s a very powerful book. And so it’s the kind of thing I can read over and over again. And the second is one that a lot of us read in middle school and not since, which is the catcher in the rye. Catcher in the Rye, if you’ll recall, is, about, a young man, a troubled young student who’s trying to to figure out what he’s going to do. And one of the things is about him trying to protect people who are falling, trying to catch him, like literally standing on the edge of a cliff to protect people then feeling like that person.

Eric Brotman [00:44:36]:
And there’s a quote in that book by the kid’s teacher, Holden Caulfield’s teacher, Mr. Antonelli. And I’ve used this quote on all of my social media stuff because I think it’s the most powerful thing ever. And the quote is this, the mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause. The mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for 1.

Anthony Weaver [00:45:05]:
That one is a good one. That’s really good.

Eric Brotman [00:45:10]:
That’s that’s that’s why I would say there’s plenty of finance books out there, but give me philosophy

Anthony Weaver [00:45:17]:
first

Eric Brotman [00:45:17]:
because mindset and philosophy will, will beat up. It’s it’s kinda like when, when you think about athletics or performance or other things, hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work. Yep. It’s mindset. And so I I think from a financial standpoint, it’s it’s mostly mental.

Anthony Weaver [00:45:37]:
Yeah. Because I was looking at another podcast and they were actually talking about like justifying themselves to to take a vacation, and I’m like, depends on how you feel. I mean, it’s like you could use somebody for other things if you want to.

Eric Brotman [00:45:53]:
Well and what’s important to you? Yeah. You know, my mother-in-law always says the wolf that grows is the wolf you feed. And what she means by that for better or for worse is that where you expend your energy and where you spend your, whether it’s positive or negative, where you spend your energy, that is what grows. That is what, what expands in you. And whether it expands for good or expands for not good, that depends what you’ve chosen.

Anthony Weaver [00:46:19]:
We need to have like philosophy talk to you after this.

Eric Brotman [00:46:24]:
Okay. But it’s over a single malt scotch.

Anthony Weaver [00:46:26]:
Got you. Alright. Since you’re local we can make it happen.

Eric Brotman [00:46:28]:
Yeah. Alright. I’m in.

Anthony Weaver [00:46:31]:
Number 4. Yep. What is your favorite dish to make?

Eric Brotman [00:46:35]:
My favorite dish to make? Yeah. I mean reservations. I’m a breakfast expert so I if if it involves breakfast food, if it involves an omelet, I can crush it. If it involves, you know, making blackened chicken at night, I usually set off the fire alarm and I’m thrown out of my own kitchen by my wife. I’m not a

Anthony Weaver [00:46:58]:
blackened chicken though.

Eric Brotman [00:46:59]:
I can’t do it. Well, it’s blackened. It’s blackened. You could break a window with it, but it’s blackened. So no, I am not a good cook. I’m not a good cook. I I can make breakfast food, and I can grill because I have my man card. I can grill.

Eric Brotman [00:47:13]:
Mhmm. But outside of that, you don’t want me in the kitchen.

Anthony Weaver [00:47:18]:
Sounds good. Yeah. It’s funny that most of the guys on the show, they always say breakfast. I’m a breakfast guy myself. It’s like, you know, with some eggs up, pancakes, some bacon or sausage, whatever, and it’d be good. Throw a bowl of cereal?

Eric Brotman [00:47:31]:
Yeah. And and and maybe some fruit so that we’re, you know

Anthony Weaver [00:47:34]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Eric Brotman [00:47:34]:
So we can live longer and healthier. But yeah, other than that, if it’s breakfast, I can do it. If it’s, I mean, I literally have set off the fire alarm in the house. It’s horrendous. So I’ve I’ve given up. And my favorite thing to make for dinner is definitely reservations.

Anthony Weaver [00:47:50]:
There you go. I like that.

Eric Brotman [00:47:52]:
Yeah.

Anthony Weaver [00:47:53]:
Awesome. Hey, Eric, this was an amazing time. I cannot thank you enough for everything that you’ve been doing, definitely for the community and definitely for the whole town of Baltimore. You know, and I think that this conversation can resonate for a lot of people. And I think this will be one that people can actually have, you know, just as they cooking breakfast or Mhmm. You know, lunch and dinner and and have that open discussion. So, if you could just let people know where they can find out more about you and how they can get in touch with you.

Eric Brotman [00:48:26]:
Sure. I mentioned the website which is bfgfa.com. And I’m also we’re all over social media. If you go to Brotman Media or Brotman Consulting Group, I mean, you’ll, you’ll find us. We’re thanks to my, my marketing guru, Sarah, who we talked about offline, we’re every place. But, but I would start there and there are resources, and you can get some, some free courses, some free materials. And then of course, you know, if if the book appeals to you, it’s on Amazon or any place else you buy books, and that’s the book and the workbook combo too.

Anthony Weaver [00:49:01]:
Awesome. Yeah. Well, thank you, again. So if you’re listening to this, make sure you go ahead on and, on YouTube, go ahead on like and subscribe. If you’re listening to this on podcast, make sure you share this with somebody and leave a comment. I like the rebuilds And definitely the 5 star comments, I like seeing those things get popped up everywhere and get a shout out. So those are pretty cool. Alright, everybody.

Anthony Weaver [00:49:26]:
Peace.