Eric Roberge — Designing a Financial Life You Actually Want to Live

[00:00:00] Eric Roberge: The simplest way is just say like, all these things that you’re asking about are outside of our control. We can observe and identify the things that potentially could happen, but it’s a circular conversation that never has a result because it’s tomorrow we’re talking about, and who knows, what can we focus on today?

[00:00:18] Eric Roberge: That will help move the needle regardless of what happens out there. And I think that’s where it’s like, all right, bringing their few from here to here and now giving them the actual controls and giving them a reason to move forward it’s a lot that goes into, especially with this, the volatility in everything that is discussed on the news.

[00:00:36] Intro: Do you think money takes up more life space than it should? On this show, we discuss with and share stories from artists, authors, entrepreneurs, and advisors about how they mindfully minimize the time and energies. Spent thinking about money. Join your host, Jonathan DeYoe, and learn how to [00:01:00] put money in its place and get more out of life.

[00:01:10] Jonathan DeYoe: Hey, welcome back. On this episode of the Mindful Money Podcast,

[00:01:13] Jonathan DeYoe: I’m chatting with Eric Roberge. Eric has over two decades as a financial advisor and is the founder of Beyond Your Hammock, a wealth management firm. Based in Boston, helping professionals in their thirties and forties use money as a tool to design a life they love.

[00:01:27] Jonathan DeYoe: He’s been featured in all kinds of media. , he’s been named to Investment News 40 under 40, as well as a list of Investopedia Top 100 most influential advisors. I was on that list. , I wanna, I wanna have him on the podcast to talk about his firm, the financial advice business, and serving folks in their thirties and forties who presumably don’t have as much wealth to manage, even though they could have enormous incomes and be well on their way.

[00:01:51] Jonathan DeYoe: Eric, welcome to the Mindful Money Podcast.

[00:01:53] Eric Roberge: Hey Jonathan, thanks for having me. Looking forward to this conversation.

[00:01:56] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah, me too. Me too. So, first I know you call Boston Home. Where [00:02:00] are you connecting from?

[00:02:01] Eric Roberge: Cambridge, Massachusetts right now

[00:02:03] Jonathan DeYoe: Okay. Okay. Did you grow up there or did you grow up someplace else?

[00:02:06] Eric Roberge: in Massachusetts. I grew up, but not in the city proper.

[00:02:10] Jonathan DeYoe: Okay. So this question is pretty normal for me to ask. You know, I’m wondering what you learned about money and entrepreneurship growing up.

[00:02:17] Eric Roberge: not much. Don’t have debt, don’t have credit card debt. Was the biggest thing that I learned from my parents, who I would say were not financially savvy people. You know, they were blue collar workers, , just trying to. Make enough money to live a life that they enjoyed living. so being able to spend money wisely.

[00:02:34] Eric Roberge: I think I learned that from them as well. But as far as like growing wealth or entrepreneurship of any sort, that didn’t happen until I got into college. Went to Babson College where entrepreneurship is, is king.

[00:02:48] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah. is there any stories, , do you remember any, you know, around the dinner table conversations or you know, out with mom shopping for groceries, an experience with money that adds to your money story?

[00:02:59] Eric Roberge: [00:03:00] Yeah. Yeah. There’s two things that come to mind, and they’re pretty short. So the, the first one is, I don’t even remember, I’ve talked to my mother about this before, but we were in her old sedan. This was back in, I. The mid eighties, maybe call it early to mid eighties. And we broke down on, , a major road that had a bunch of, you know, strip malls on the sides.

[00:03:20] Eric Roberge: And we were right in the middle of the road and we had to get out of the car with all the people honking at us. And we went to this, I don’t know, a bank or something to use the phone because no one had cell phones back then to call a tow truck. And somehow that stuck with me. I was probably four years old.

[00:03:37] Eric Roberge: I don’t know what about that stuck with me, but it made me say I never want to not have enough money to provide for myself.

[00:03:48] Jonathan DeYoe: Hmm. it’s like the, the car breaking down was evidence of not enough money. I mean, sometimes cars just

[00:03:55] Eric Roberge: Yeah.

[00:03:55] Jonathan DeYoe: break down. I have a, this last weekend I was camping with a friend of mine who’s got a, you [00:04:00] know, very nice BMW, and it just locked up for a voltage reason. And we had to call a tow truck in the middle of a campsite.

[00:04:06] Jonathan DeYoe: Three hours away, it’s costing ’em thousands. You know, so sometimes cars just break down. It’s not a, issue of not enough money.

[00:04:12] Eric Roberge: Yeah, no, I’ve racked my brain for why it stuck with me. And I, and I agree with you. And it just, it has, right? And the other one was, it was 1989, bad economy. I was obviously not working at that point yet, but my father was laid off and I remember being at dinner and finishing dinner and going to the sink and turning the water on to rinse my plate off before putting it in the, , dishwasher.

[00:04:34] Eric Roberge: And he said, let’s not waste water I was like, oh, okay. I guess, you know, I was 11 years old, 12 years old. and that really stuck with me too. He doesn’t remember saying it,

[00:04:45] Jonathan DeYoe: yeah. Don’t use. Three seconds of water. That’s, that’s a scarcity thing right there. Do you think you carry outta that kind of a scarcity issue for yourself?

[00:04:54] Eric Roberge: There might be, I mean, there’s some scarcity. I don’t know if anybody can say that they don’t have scarcity in their mind, but there’s certainly [00:05:00] a scarcity mindset, which I mean, I, I try to use and transform to drive me forward versus trying to run away from it. there’s a little bit of that.

[00:05:08] Jonathan DeYoe: Before we talk about beyond your hammock, can you sketch kind of your career path? Tell people how you got into financial, advice to begin with, and then you started your own company. What led to that?

[00:05:15] Eric Roberge: Well, it probably starts with just. The college thing. ’cause initially I was gonna go to school for biology and the Babson College soccer coach kept calling me saying You should come here and play soccer. And I kind of wanted to play soccer, so it was nice to have an avenue to go there. So I, I went to end up switching gears, going to Babson College, all business.

[00:05:38] Eric Roberge: And found the Wall Street Journal in my dorm that was free on the shelf and started to read it and was good at math to begin with, and then liked the idea of investments and just naturally started to take courses on investing and accounting and entrepreneurship. 2002, I graduated college, so it was a bad, it’s a bad economy.

[00:05:58] Eric Roberge: , and State Street [00:06:00] Bank was saying, Hey, we don’t usually get people from Babson, but. Here we are thought that was an interesting pitch on joining. But my aunt had worked at State Street and I said, you know what? It’s a good training program. Let me get my feet wet. I don’t trust myself in the sales role, so let me just go there and get trained.

[00:06:16] Eric Roberge: Got into mutual fund accounting, switched over to JP Morgan and mutual fund taxes, , both back office, right? Not front client facing. And that to me was not as exciting as it could have been. 2007 came around and I said, listen, I gotta get outta here. November, 2007, my friend said, why don’t you just jump out of that career a well paying job at the peak of the market who no one knew this at the time, and become a financial advisor, which I knew nothing about.

[00:06:45] Jonathan DeYoe: Hmm.

[00:06:46] Eric Roberge: here we are.

[00:06:48] Jonathan DeYoe: So you launched your own firm in 2007.

[00:06:50] Eric Roberge: Well, no, I, I was joining another firm at that point.

[00:06:54] Jonathan DeYoe: Got it. Got

[00:06:54] Eric Roberge: I had no income and I had to create my own income and I didn’t know what I was doing, which was a [00:07:00] disaster. cause I didn’t make any money.

[00:07:01] Eric Roberge: Like people weren’t trusting their advisors for the last 20 years.

[00:07:04] Eric Roberge: Nevermind this new guy that was two out of 27 years old saying, Hey, give me your life savings please.

[00:07:11] Jonathan DeYoe: so I’m curious, when did you leave that firm and start to set up your own shop?

[00:07:16] Eric Roberge: Well, I bounced around a couple times, so five years of sorting through things, becoming a junior advisor at a firm, realizing that I wasn’t gonna go anywhere there or become part of that business officially, just always just employee status. 2012, I realized, you know what I. It’s just as much of a risk for me to stay at this firm and have the owner decide he’s going in a different direction or selling off to somebody else as it would be for me just to jump out and do it again and restart.

[00:07:43] Eric Roberge: But doing it on my terms with my own business. So 2013 is when I launched my firm.

[00:07:49] Jonathan DeYoe: Wow, great. you’ve been doing it for 12 years and you’ve sort of carved out this, maybe it’s different in Boston, in the Bay Area, there’s not many people that are focused on income, that are focused on, you know, [00:08:00] assets and, in terms of advisors. so how did you carve out that specific idea?

[00:08:04] Jonathan DeYoe: 30, 40 high income

[00:08:06] Eric Roberge: Yeah.

[00:08:06] Jonathan DeYoe: as a client base.

[00:08:07] Eric Roberge: was, well, it all came back to the book. well, one, I wanted to find something that I really was passionate about and that I could feel good about ’cause I knew about it, right? So my age group was that versus retirees, which a lot of advisors focus on. But then I read the book Blue Ocean Strategy.

[00:08:25] Jonathan DeYoe: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:26] Eric Roberge: the idea is Blue Ocean, no competition, red Ocean, all competition. It’s a bloodbath of competition, if you will. And I just thought that was brilliant. And realized back in 2012 that no one’s focusing on millennials. No one’s focusing on younger people ’cause they didn’t have assets and I wasn’t selling a commissionable product like life insurance.

[00:08:44] Eric Roberge: So how do you actually work with them and make a business where you can make money? So the idea of paying a subscription to be involved with a financial coach of sorts. It was a cash flow coach, let’s be honest. At that point, it was a cash flow coach, [00:09:00] budgeting coach, trying to help people start to save and grow, was what I did, and nobody’s really doing it.

[00:09:06] Eric Roberge: So it was kind of a blue ocean for myself.

[00:09:09] Jonathan DeYoe: so it subscription, it wasn’t hourly, it wasn’t project, it wasn’t like a project, you know, planning project. It was, it was a subscription based fee. at that point, what did you give them? Was it, a monthly conversation?

[00:09:18] Jonathan DeYoe: Was it a workbook? so what did people get? And what did people get today? How has that changed over time?

[00:09:24] Eric Roberge: significant change. So back then I was, I think my first client, I was charging $50 a month, But, you know, gradually I was, I was starting to build a business and getting confidence in my conversations. So we were definitely building a budget.

[00:09:35] Eric Roberge: we were looking at someone’s balance sheet. A lot of times there was debt on the balance sheet. We were trying to make a, a cashflow plan to knock down debt and, or save up money, get their employer match. Just, you know, really basic, but really important foundational pieces to your financial life.

[00:09:51] Eric Roberge: And if you were in your twenties and thirties, you’re kind of, that’s where you’re getting to. To know this stuff. and over the years, the people that I started talking to, getting more and [00:10:00] more sophisticated, higher and higher income paying jobs, at this stage, I mean, people are typically in their forties, they work for a tech or biotech companies, so they have equity compensation.

[00:10:11] Eric Roberge: They’re making upwards of a million dollars a year and there’s a lot more happening for them. They have kids, they’re married, You know, their priorities are stretched thin, and You gotta sort through it on the fly while your emotions are high, and we try to set the stage for.

[00:10:27] Jonathan DeYoe: Calm, right? Calm. hope you don’t mind me asking this question. I assume you still have some clients that come in of that nature that don’t just have, you know, a AUM outta the gate. as a, like a percentage of your business, how much is like the a AUM style versus the subscription style versus anything else you might do?

[00:10:45] Eric Roberge: Well, I mean, I blended it together. I used to have separate, services, but now it’s, it’s one service. It’s a wealth management service. It’s a combined. Fee. So I have a financial planning plus assets under management combined. Depending on the level of assets, [00:11:00] we’ll charge a certain rate.

[00:11:01] Jonathan DeYoe: So you talk about big decision consulting based on core values. Can you kind of explain that?

[00:11:07] Eric Roberge: Yeah. I mean, a lot of times people are coming through and in this area as we, we talked about before the podcast, you know, you and San Fran and and me in Boston, real estate is not cheap. And to go from even a condo that you own in the city to a suburban house that fits 1, 2, 3 kids. You’re talking a lot of money, And without guidance, people will go all emotion and say, well, my family needs this. I need to do this, purchase of a house. And they buy into the house and then they realize they’re stuck in the house and they can’t do the things that they really are passionate about.

[00:11:44] Eric Roberge: The ones that they value the most that they’ve been doing beforehand, like traveling and providing for their children outside of the house. So the big decision consulting one would be something like that. How do we [00:12:00] choose the house that fits in the area that we value with the people in the community that we love and still not break the bank to allow us?

[00:12:10] Eric Roberge: ’cause a lot of people want this freedom of choice to live fully now and still save for the future.

[00:12:17] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah, I, I know that I, I had a client who came, this is probably 15, 18 years ago, who had just, just done what you just said. You just purchased way too much house and they were just, you know, tight. Everything was tight. They were not happy. And I, I just made the little subtle, you know. You don’t have to keep that house I know you just bought it. I know there’s gonna be some costs in this whole process of transact, but you know, you can live the way you wanna live. You can do the things you wanna do. So I’m curious, how do you get to core values with clients? do you have a a specific set of questions you go through?

[00:12:48] Jonathan DeYoe: how do you do it? How do you get to core values? What are core values?

[00:12:50] Eric Roberge: it’s not a direct, like here’s the conversation, here’s the core values. Because what I’ve found is that people don’t often scratch that, the [00:13:00] surface of, the question at all. People aren’t asking themselves, what are my core values? So when you ask them, they say. I don’t know. Family, community, like, yes.

[00:13:09] Eric Roberge: But actionable core values, not so much. So I think it’s, it’s more of a series of conversations where we’re starting to look at finances, what they want to do, what they show that they spend money on, and then bring it back around to say, all right, well, you say you want, Freedom to retire at 50 so that you can live this life that you’re passionate about, yet you’re spending so much money that you can’t actually save enough money to retire at 50.

[00:13:38] Eric Roberge: So what’s happening here? Where’s your money going? Well, we’re, we’re traveling. We love to travel. The family’s only gonna be here for 18 years, so we need to travel and explore the world. What value is that for you?

[00:13:49] Eric Roberge: So that kind of conversation to really draw it out naturally and help them identify what it is before they know what it’s.

[00:13:56] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah. Have you seen any of these tools? values-based selling. [00:14:00] There’s a bunch of tools out there that help people, kind of, people like us help people get to those values. And I’ve gone through like four or five different seminars on the topic. I. I think it’s really important to start with those, with those core values for sure.

[00:14:11] Jonathan DeYoe: you also mentioned something, and I’ve never heard this phrase before, called optionality focused financial planning. can you explain that? How is that different?

[00:14:20] Eric Roberge: I dunno if it’s different, right? I think it’s identifying what people are dealing with in an ever-changing environment, which is mid-career, People say like, oh, there’s nothing to nothing to plan for when, until you get to retirement. But there’s so much, I mean, people are changing careers in tech and biotech.

[00:14:37] Eric Roberge: It’s every three years you’re changing to the next firm. So you have your old, equity compensation back at the old firm, and you have got this new set of benefits, a new compensation structure, maybe a new area to live while you’re trying to maintain your child’s education on a consistency basis.

[00:14:52] Eric Roberge: Like maybe they want their own friends. and so like There is just so much going on at once and when, so when something comes up, we want [00:15:00] people to be able to have options. When they’re presented with three good choices, we want them to be able to choose the one that fits them, instead of saying, well, I can’t do that one or that one.

[00:15:09] Eric Roberge: So I guess I’m forced to do this one.

[00:15:11] Jonathan DeYoe: creating options.

[00:15:13] Eric Roberge: creating the ability to choose. When you’re presented with options, which you undoubtedly will be doing every year, I mean, for example, like us personally right now, this year on January 1st, none of this was, was in the works. Now we decided that our child should go to a, a new Montessori school that isn’t in Cambridge, but is in a suburb outside of, Cambridge because it’s going to go through eighth grade versus just through pre-K.

[00:15:40] Eric Roberge: At the same time, we were refinancing our, our mortgage to try to get a lower rate. We decided we should rent that place out and go to the suburbs and live in this place near school. So we had a lower commute. So now we, we brought in, , renters to, you know, lease our condo in the city.

[00:15:58] Eric Roberge: and at the same time we were saying, you know, what should we do with [00:16:00] the business? should we optimize the internal workings of the business and look at the operations? Yes, we should. So let’s get a, a consultant So the ability to have the time and space to be able to choose these.

[00:16:11] Eric Roberge: Things that you may not otherwise be able to do if you are not planning for optionality. ‘ I work via Zoom so I can be anywhere, right? So there is there’s, certain things you build in your life to make you flexible. And then as long as you have the financial wherewithal to be able to make these choices, you can do what fits your family best.

[00:16:29] Eric Roberge: And I think that’s what I’m talking about when we say planning for optionality.

[00:16:33] Jonathan DeYoe: Just sort of using the prior example, it sounds like, buying too much house. Reduces your options. Like you can’t then do these other things. So it’s, it’s like right sizing every decision so that it leaves your options open. and also obviously you’re probably working towards how much you’re supposed to be saving for miscellaneous stuff that comes up.

[00:16:48] Jonathan DeYoe: Right. So it’s, it’s all that stuff. what are some of the core issues that face the 30 to 40-year-old demographic today? I mean, I can rattle off a few, like early money issues for couples and, you [00:17:00] know. High price of real estate, college debt, these kinds of things, but what are some of those things that you bring together in addition to the ones that we all read about in the paper?

[00:17:07] Eric Roberge: Yeah, I mean, so it’s typically we’re meeting people when they are getting married or are already married with kids. So there’s that whole conversation about if they’re getting married, right? Joining finances is a key factor, and everybody’s got their own money mindset. So there could be a clash of the titans coming together.

[00:17:23] Eric Roberge: And sometimes people wanna separate their money forever. Sometimes people want to join it all right at the, at the get go. Which is the simplest way to go, but not always the best way to go for people. sometimes people have really different financial circumstances, so there’s prenuptial agreements that are discussed.

[00:17:41] Eric Roberge: A lot of complexity just there. Then you bring in kids to the mix and there’s this decision on, all right, well now we’re both working people and we have no time. But we wanna raise children. So either someone has to back off their hours and maybe it’s not easy to identify who that person is ’cause it’s not always the woman.

[00:17:58] Eric Roberge: Right? That’s, that doesn’t make any sense. [00:18:00] It’s what would make the most sense for this family.

[00:18:02] Eric Roberge: which is hard. And sometimes they don’t wanna do that. then it’s a nanny or a daycare, which costs like 60, $70,000 for full-time nanny And so On top of private school potentially for people, you have like $125,000 a year cashflow need for private school and a nanny while you’re still working.

[00:18:24] Eric Roberge: Are you spending enough time with your kids? Is this actually what you want to be doing? And so it’s a whole shift of of conversation to realize like, you have the money to do what you want to do. Let’s figure out how to do it right. You only have one chance at this.

[00:18:37] Jonathan DeYoe: Do you have like a, I don’t know, like family planning therapist on staff? I mean, it sounds like you’d need something like that.

[00:18:44] Eric Roberge: We should, we should. No, we, we don’t, we don’t have that.

[00:18:47] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah, I don’t think any advisories do. That’s not a, that’s not a slight, so this is my, my favorite question or my favorite topic to get into with advisors is an issue of circle of competence. [00:19:00] So I have theories. I’m sure you’ve got an opinion on this as well, but what is it that we’re really good at that makes us worth the cost?

[00:19:07] Jonathan DeYoe: Like I think we’re kind of a luxury good. so what is it that we’re good at? What is it that people should be looking for when they’re looking for an advisor?

[00:19:16] Eric Roberge: I think so think of going into the gym and not being prepared for what you find in the gym. You don’t have a regiment. You don’t know what machines to do. You don’t even know where to focus on your body. Or maybe you have identified your goals. Are you losing weight? Are you building muscle? Do you have a nutrition program?

[00:19:33] Eric Roberge: So you walk into the gym and you’re like, all right, great. You run around trying to do all the machines and, and lift all the weights, and then you hurt yourself or you don’t come back because you’re like, this is stupid. I’m not gaining anything. It’s providing the structure. For your financial life. So you, you build the structure so that within which you can make good financial decisions that are aligned with your values and allow you to achieve your goals faster and more directly than you would if you were just floundering around your [00:20:00] own.

[00:20:00] Eric Roberge: Not because you’re not smart enough, but because your mind is going in so many directions and your emotions are coming in that you can’t see clearly what you need to do next, and you don’t do it.

[00:20:10] Jonathan DeYoe: it sounds like planning, like financial planning. That’s the, maybe identifying values, planning, so once you have a written plan, what’s the value after that?

[00:20:19] Eric Roberge: I think it’s, it’s accountability. like we have planned spring and fall meetings along with, you know, the one-off timely thing because someone’s buying a car and they don’t know what to do about it.

[00:20:29] Jonathan DeYoe: Yep.

[00:20:30] Eric Roberge: And instead of saying, wow, it’s been three years since we talked about money, we should probably talk about money.

[00:20:35] Eric Roberge: We’re saying, Hey, we’re here. Let’s have a conversation about money and.

[00:20:39] Jonathan DeYoe: do you think that’s the reason people hire us you know, when people come to you, what, what are they? Trying to solve for outta the gate because I don’t think people go, Hey, I need a financial plan now I think they go, you know, I inherited money or I just got married, or I have this thing happened so what does it people come to you looking for and how do you guide them to Yeah. Planning and accountability. That’s what matters.

[00:20:59] Eric Roberge: [00:21:00] I think a lot of our clients come to us because They have this optimization mindset. One, I wanna optimize and make the best decisions along the way. And two I am afraid of making the wrong decision.

[00:21:13] Eric Roberge: And if you’re afraid of making the wrong decision, you want to make sure that your eyes are wide open.

[00:21:18] Eric Roberge: You understand what the pros and cons of these choices are before you make them. So having that discussion when it’s just a playground of sorts, because you’re just projecting and talking and think like, oh, I didn’t even think of that pitfall before you make that decision and commit to something you can’t turn around on.

[00:21:35] Eric Roberge: That’s really the value that I think we provide a lot of people and then again, they can put all their energy into what they’re good at and outsource the things that they could do if they had time, but they just don’t have the time and bandwidth to.

[00:21:46] Eric Roberge: do

[00:21:47] Jonathan DeYoe: Right. I mean, I, I don’t change my own oil. That’s the, I always say I don’t, there’s some things I’ve chosen not to do and so that’s why I hire the people to do those things. And, and this is one of those things where people, there’s a lot of emotion in it. People are afraid, as you said, of making the wrong [00:22:00] decision, but they’re just afraid of thinking about money.

[00:22:02] Jonathan DeYoe: so very often. So I, I totally agree. Those are, those are. Great reasons. I’m wondering if you have a. a pithy way or some way of communicating that to clients For me, when somebody comes in, they always ask about, you know, how do the portfolios perform? They always ask about, you know, what do you think about?

[00:22:20] Jonathan DeYoe: You know, the current president or what do you think about the current economy? And they want commentary on markets and they want, and I constantly try to guide around. I don’t know. I don’t know what’s gonna happen next. Like, I, I, I can’t predict. No one else can either. I’m just gonna be honest about it.

[00:22:33] Jonathan DeYoe: No, no one else can predict. Here’s what I can do. I’m wondering if you have a way to talk about that and contextualize for people. So they go, ah, yes, I get that.

[00:22:42] Eric Roberge: Well, The simplest way is just to say like, all these things that you’re asking about are outside of our control. We can observe and identify the things that potentially could happen, but it’s a circular conversation that never has a result because it’s tomorrow we’re talking about, and who knows, what can we focus on [00:23:00] today?

[00:23:00] Eric Roberge: That will help move the needle regardless of what happens out there. And I think that’s where it’s like, all right, bringing their few from here to here and now giving them the actual controls and giving them a reason to move forward it’s a lot that goes into, especially with this, in this day and age with, with politics and, the volatility in everything that is discussed on the news.

[00:23:22] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah. Do you give people, I, this is a coach told me to do this a long time ago. He said, Jonathan, you have to give people permission to turn off the news. Like tell them it’s okay. Like, shut it off. Like it’s not helping you. Do you do that?

[00:23:37] Eric Roberge: Yeah. I tell my dad that, why is the news on right now? This is like death and destruction. It’s not even how you gonna start your day positively when you listen to the news.

[00:23:45] Jonathan DeYoe: yeah, that’s just horrible. Horrible. So I want you to simplify this for us. I do this with every guest that I have on. Just pretend for a second. You have a new potential client coming in. What is one thing, like the first thing you would have them do right outta the gate that would [00:24:00] absolutely without question lead them to better financial outcomes?

[00:24:04] Eric Roberge: that’s a really tough question. right out the gate, like when I talk to somebody, I say, what’s on your mind? And I just shut up. And they spend five minutes just talking and they’re, and then they say, sorry, that went longer than I thought. I’m like, it’s exactly what I want you to do, because you just said what is right there, front and center for you without me asking a specific question about what was there for you.

[00:24:26] Jonathan DeYoe: So let’s, let’s change the context then. Uh, let’s not put it as somebody coming into the, into the office and talking to you the first time, and you’re asking ’em that question. You’re sitting on a plane with somebody you know you got. 45 minute flight. It’s not long. They sit down, they’re happy, they’re cheery.

[00:24:39] Jonathan DeYoe: What do you do? Oh, I do this. And, and they go, oh, what’s one tip? Like, what’s one thing that I can do that would make things better for me? you don’t have time for the whole story or anything like that.

[00:24:48] Eric Roberge: so the person says, what is one tip, financially speaking, that I could implement now and be better off because I do it?

[00:24:55] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah. What’s one thing I can do today?

[00:24:58] Eric Roberge: I mean, it’s just [00:25:00] identify the goal. when is it, how much does it cost and how much do you want it?

[00:25:05] Jonathan DeYoe: Excellent. Identify the goal. There’s a flip side of the question and that’s, that’s what’s one thing that people, this person might be doing that they should stop doing that would improve their outcomes as well.

[00:25:16] Eric Roberge: Yeah, I mean, I, I would just talk about like, what, what is one thing that you continually find yourself spending on, that you regret spending on?

[00:25:24] Jonathan DeYoe: Oh, good. Good answer. I like to ask, uh, at the, as we come toward the end, I like to ask a couple more personal questions. of the things outta this conversation that I got was you played soccer in college.

[00:25:33] Eric Roberge: That you played too.

[00:25:35] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah. I, I, I still play. I I do you still play?

[00:25:38] Eric Roberge: I’ve decided not to play resort to golf, so I don’t hurt my.

[00:25:43] Jonathan DeYoe: Oh, that’s, that’s totally different. That’s not nowhere near as fun. Nowhere near as fun as soccer. I love the sport. Anyway. what position did you play?

[00:25:52] Eric Roberge: Stryker.

[00:25:53] Jonathan DeYoe: Stryker. Okay. And you played for Babson.

[00:25:56] Eric Roberge: Yep.

[00:25:57] Jonathan DeYoe: Babson is what? D two

[00:25:59] Eric Roberge: Three.[00:26:00]

[00:26:00] Jonathan DeYoe: ai. D three.

[00:26:01] Jonathan DeYoe: D three. Okay. Do you work with, do you work with athletes?

[00:26:05] Eric Roberge: I mean, I enjoy working with people who have played sports in the past. I would not say that we work with athletes. I.

[00:26:12] Jonathan DeYoe: Okay. Okay, cool. Is there anything that people don’t know about you or don’t remember about you that you really want ’em to know?

[00:26:19] Eric Roberge: people know that I’m passionate about what I do.

[00:26:22] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah.

[00:26:23] Eric Roberge: I’m, I’m talking about it online all the time,

[00:26:26] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah.

[00:26:26] Eric Roberge: so that’s what I want people to know though. I want people to know that I, like I really care about my job because of the impact that I have on the people that I work with, and also because it’s a direct reflection on me and who I am as a person.

[00:26:41] Eric Roberge: And if someone perceives me as not being honest, trustworthy, or just. Caring in a way that I would give my time to help them. Whether it’s this little question like, you know, lease or buy a car, or it’s a major life decision, I want them to think of me. And so

[00:26:59] Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah.[00:27:00]

[00:27:00] Eric Roberge: that’s it.

[00:27:01] Jonathan DeYoe: I think I started my career and spent the first 30 years of my career doing that same kind of thing. I wanna be the hub. You need something done. I wanna be the hub. Absolutely. this isn’t Amanda zinger. Oftentimes people feel this, feel this way. what is the last thing you change your mind about?

[00:27:15] Eric Roberge: Living in Cambridge.

[00:27:17] Jonathan DeYoe: Hey, you kind of described that story and you’re going toward, towards the school for the, for the kiddo.

[00:27:22] Eric Roberge: Yeah, like city living versus not, we’re like, yeah, we wanna live in the city. We want access, we wanna walk everywhere. Which we still like the idea of that, but there are certain things that are more valuable to us now as a family that have changed our decision. I mean, we bought our condo in 23.

[00:27:39] Eric Roberge: We’re already deciding to shift gears and go somewhere different, which is something that I tell people, if you’re gonna buy a place, stay there five to seven years minimum. Right? and we had that idea, but things change.

[00:27:51] Jonathan DeYoe: Things change. and kudos for the decision. ’cause I, I just wanted, just brought up this memory of my own, my dad worked in computer science in San Francisco Bay [00:28:00] Area. I. I don’t know, before the.com boom, like 20, 30 years before the.com boom. So like Hewlett Packard is just starting, you know, all these companies are brand new, right?

[00:28:08] Jonathan DeYoe: he moved the family to South Dakota for safety, security, leave the doors unlocked, community, all those kinds of things. You’d get in kind of a small town in the middle of the country. And, it was a fantastic decision for the kids. Did that for the kids. And so it’s, you know, doing the things that sort of support the right environment for the kids, I think is.

[00:28:25] Jonathan DeYoe: Frankly, that’s the last thing we have to do is raise great kids. Like that’s once we get to a place in our careers, the last thing we have to do is take care of the kids. I, I, you know, kudos to the decision. I know it’s not easy to make those decisions, but I think it’s probably the right one. so finally, tell people how they can connect with you.

[00:28:38] Jonathan DeYoe: Where do they find you?

[00:28:40] Eric Roberge: Two things, one beyond your hammock.com. That really is the driving force behind everything. It’s got the blog, it’s got the podcast that is coming back online soon. And in all content, whether you wanna engage with us as as a client or just read and learn. It’s all there. And then on LinkedIn.

[00:28:55] Eric Roberge: LinkedIn, we are very active on LinkedIn.

[00:28:58] Jonathan DeYoe: As an aside, [00:29:00] how are you active on LinkedIn? What does that even mean?

[00:29:02] Eric Roberge: the posts that we, we create, we create consistent content on LinkedIn almost daily.

[00:29:08] Jonathan DeYoe: Wow. And you guys do that or do you have a, do you have a service that does it?

[00:29:12] Eric Roberge: Kali, my wife, works full-time with the business and she is our chief content officer along with COO of the business. She does

[00:29:19] Jonathan DeYoe: Wow. Okay. That explains the Investopedia, you know, most influential. That’s how that, that’s how you get there. When I was on the list 25 years ago, it’s because I was you know, posting constantly on Twitter at that time and, is just, yeah, good job. you’re gonna go far doing that.

[00:29:35] Jonathan DeYoe: and your wife’s gonna drive it, which is awesome. So thanks very much for coming on the podcast.

[00:29:39] Jonathan DeYoe: Is there anything else you wanna share with folks?

[00:29:41] Eric Roberge: No, I mean, I just, I really appreciate this conversation with Advi and another advisor who knows what it takes to be good at what you do, and it’s the people, right? So I just, I just want people to know that if you want an advisor, there’s plenty of them out there. And there’s plenty that focus on your specific type of [00:30:00] situation, whether you have, make a lot of money, make a little money, have a lot of money, have a little money, specifically on debt versus, Wealth management, like it’s all there. So if you find, if you go online, you will find someone that fits exactly what you need because they work with people just like you.

[00:30:15] Jonathan DeYoe: Yep. And those expertises are nichey. They really, really are. If you do something 30, 40 year olds with high incomes and you’re building something and family stuff, and that’s the dynamic, and you work with 50 of those, that’s great. If you work with one. You are not gonna be great at it, right? that’s something you guys do and so kudos to you and, and enjoy Boston.

[00:30:30] Jonathan DeYoe: Thanks so much for coming on the program. Much appreciated.

[00:30:32] Eric Roberge: I appreciate it too.

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