Do People Make Better Money Decisions With Logic or Emotion?

The best financial decisions happen when emotion opens the door and logic helps shape the plan.

Bill Comfort and Maxwell Schmitz joined Tony Steuer on this episode of Get Ready Before Life Happens for a lively debate about whether people make better insurance and financial decisions through numbers and probabilities, or through a clear understanding of the real-life impact on the people they love?

This conversation explores where emotion, logic, and lived experience intersect, and why the best planning conversations need all three. 

Key Takeaways

• Emotion often helps clients engage with difficult financial decisions.
• Logic and data help quantify how much a risk truly matters.
• Insurance decisions are often driven by responsibility and love.
• Statistics should inform design, not drive fear.
• Lived experience often makes risk feel more real than probabilities alone.
• Risk protection must be part of every financial plan.
• The strongest decisions combine heart and numbers. 

🧠 Tony’s Take: What stood out in this conversation is that this is not an either-or question. Emotion helps people connect with why a decision matters. Logic helps them understand what action to take. Financial readiness lives at the intersection of both.

Connect with Bill Comfort:

• Comfort Long Term Care Website: (here)
• LinkedIn: (here)

Connect with Maxwell Schmitz:

• LinkedIn:  (here)
• Dingo Technologies website: (here)
• Yetworth website: (here)

Resources mentioned:

• Why Disability Insurance Is the Foundation of a Real Financial Plan with Maxwell Schmitz and Tony Steuer on the Get Ready Before Life Happens Podcast (watch or listen) 

Bios: 

Bill Comfort is an independent LTC specialist agent with Comfort Long Term Care. Bill hosts the broadcast & podcast show: “Aging America Radio” with a focus on a wide range of topics supporting "successful aging".

Maxwell Schmitz, MSFS, CLTC is a third-generation DI specialist.  He is co-founder of Dingo Technologies, Inc. and President of Yetworth Insurance Solutions, a disability-focused insurance agency.  He also currently serves as President of the International DI Society, an association of the nation's top DI minds. Max also serves as the chair of his town's Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. He is a sitting member on the board of The Plus Group, America's Premier Disability Insurance Marketing Organization. In his spare time he is also the father/coach of three energetic/athletic kids (ages 7, 5, and 3), husband to an amazing wife, and is a thru-hiking junkie.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:17

What drives better financial and insurance decisions? Numbers or real life impact? Welcome to Get Ready Before Life Happens, helping you build clarity and confidence so you can make better decisions when it matters most. Today's episode is a little bit different. We're going to be unpacking a recent LinkedIn post from Maxwitz that sparked a debate around a core question in financial planning. Do people make better decisions through logic and numbers or through emotional understanding of real life outcomes? I'm joined today by Maxwitz and Bill Comfort to explore both of these perspectives to push back a little bit and most importantly help you think about how you make decisions when it really counts. Max and Bill, welcome to Get Ready Before Life Happens.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

Yeah, thanks, Tony. Glad to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Yeah, glad to have you both back. So, you know, let's jump in. Max, give us a short version. What was the idea behind your post and what were you reacting to?

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Yeah, so Bill and I, we've become acquainted through our LinkedIn interactions, and I saw he uh was coming to uh within an hour's drive of where I live. And so I went over to go say hi and heard his presentation. It was phenomenal. And it had this really um, you know, astute observation, which he's which he's mentioned um throughout a lot of his content, which is around this this um idea that insurance is really sold or people are moved to purchase insurance based off of emotion. And I wanted to have some fun with that because I I don't necessarily disagree with that, but I thought it would be fun to play the heel a little bit and highlight more around the logic side of things as well. And and Bill, I'll I'll say it straight to you, buddy. It was one of those things where I was like, man, he sounds like he's really attacking logic and statistics from the stage. But, you know, I know kind of I know how Bill operates. So it would really, I knew it wasn't like that, but I wanted to, I thought it would be fun to explore kind of the other side of that equation and why I still rely a lot on the logic principles, the numbers. Um, we like to get into the analysis. And so I just thought it would be fun to sort of have this fake feud on LinkedIn between the logic and the emotion. And you know, Bill could ride with the emotion, I play the heel a little bit and push the logic side of the equation some more.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

So here we are. And in my the the the presentation that that Max is referring to and that I uh have as kind of a theme of a lot of my posts, the education that I do, I'm also a bit of a contrarian, the same way um you know, the the challenge is laid out here. And my contrarian view is what do we need to do better in financial services, whether it's you know, broad-based financial planning, wealth management, fee-based, or it's insurance sales focused, either way, we're numbers people. We come to the numbers and the calculations and the data very naturally, easily. It's our go-to, it's our comfort uh zone, if you like. Um, what we're not good at doing at times, and I think can do better, which is the reason I highlight it, and I think sometimes it comes off as I'm anti logic, numbers, and facts, is we we need to we need to touch the heart first. And we need to do a better job of that. So I tend to come off as kind of a contrarian only to drive the point home of what we need to focus on. And I think one of the great things um is people in my life professionally, particularly um guys like Max and especially you uh and and our relationship is is the challenge the other way as well, right? I need the contrarian speaking back to me. Hey, let's not leave, let's not leave things off the table that ought to be there as well. So that's kind of the uh Tony, the the foundation for for how we got to where we are right right now in this conversation.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Yeah, well, it what's interesting, and I think that they both play a role, and something we've overlooked in financial services quite often is that clients are looking usually to solve a problem when it comes to insurance. And Bill, you said it so well that numbers, numbers and products are our comfort zone when we're advising clients. And so we often default to that instead of looking to see, I think that a client is trying to solve a problem. So that's part emotion and part numbers. So I'm I'm splitting the difference between both of you. But you know, I've never had a client come back to me and say, you know, I need to have an LTC policy, a long-term care insurance policy that is structurally this and that is, you know, they're like, okay, I need to make sure I'm covered if I get in-home care. That's what I'm interested in. I'm not interested in the five different kinds of inflation protection that I can purchase. So, you know, I'm splitting the middle. So, Max, you know, back to you is because, you know, obviously numbers play a huge role. What do you think is missing when emotion leads the conversation?

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Well, I mean, I don't want to accuse anybody of anything, but it to me it kind of comes across as feeling kind of manipulated or manipulative. Um, and so we're using emotion. That's the that's the part that I really have contention with is that the fact that we're using emotion to stir something in people. I mean, maybe it's just my idealistic, idealistic millennialism that that kind of comes with this, but I like the idea instead that you know people are given a set of facts and um you know outcomes, perhaps even results. So you can play that stuff out, and there's inherently some emotion tied to these figures and and and different um possibilities or probabilities. And so I just I feel like with if we lead with the emotion side of things, it can get kind of um manipulative and misleading pretty quickly. And so, you know, I I think you know, it's a little bit more, there's a little more substance with the numbers. I think just generally, you know, it people typically have a bad time intuiting risk, right? They they ignore these high probability, like slow risks. Uh, they overreact to these vivid emotional ones. And so it's not so much that these probabilities are being showed as a scare tactic, which is because let's be honest, I mean, stats can do the same thing. We're essentially using emotion from the statistics to do something. I'm not for that. I would more advocate for illuminating the situation and giving shape to this unknown, if that makes sense. So, you know, all of this is very uncertain. Risk inherently is just uncertain. Um, but what we can do is look at probabilities, look at direct impact in their own individual planning, and they can draw a straight line to the actual interpersonal things that come with that, you know, numerical value changing. You know, we're just looking at the numbers, but they know deep inside, oh, that means we have to sell the family lake house, we have to, you know, restructure uh, you know, our investment strategy. But there's so much more tied to that that's going to affect their lifestyle at the end of the day that I think they can they can make their own conclusions on that front. And it it feels a little a little overboard to um to try to push them into this like this mindset of fear.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Interesting uh uh perspective. And you know, I think we're I think we're more in agreement than than than maybe just sort of the broad strokes or or a LinkedIn post um might show. And and you're you're absolutely right that we need to be careful with and respectful of clients' emotions, that it and not making it uh fear-based, certainly not having it become manipulative. And and I agree a hundred percent that a focus on you know the scary stats, you know, what's the potential risk that I'm gonna need care, especially if that's that itself is an over-emphasized part of the of the lead or the the conversation, that is seeking to manipulate a fear reaction as well. What I advocate for is starting with the personal uh connection and responsibility and providing for others. All of our financial lives, whether we're earning an income, paying the bills for, with a spouse or partner, for our children, you know, what whatever, whatever that life and lifestyle is along the way, we're we're we're doing that for life. We're doing that for ourselves and the other people that we love. We buy life insurance for that reason. You know, that we talk about in the industry, and it's kind of become a cliche, but it's true. The driving emotion for buying life insurance is not the fear of dying. Nobody uses statistics, right? Because the odds are you are going to die at some point in your life. But we don't use statistics to sell life insurance as an analogy. We buy it out of love. We buy it because we care for other people. And if we're not here to continue our provision, the life insurance is there to continue that provision. And the numbers have to come into it, not just you need X, Y, or Z amount. What's the income? What's the lifestyle? How much life insurance supports that? That's the connection. But I think in long-term care, what I advocate for, and and maybe to put it as simply as possible, and it doesn't need to go much beyond this. But a plan for extended care is not only to make sure you, the person who needs care, is taken care of, but the other people who you love in your life are also taken care of, or said another way in this context, protected from the personal consequences of caregiving. And what does it take to do that? It takes money. It takes money to do that. If you don't want your spouse, your kids to be your primary caregivers or have a hundred percent of the responsibility, you have to pay for professional care. What does that take? Money. How much money? Now we're right back in this realm of where financial services are comfortable operating. Now we can put numbers on things. And and just to sort of tie up my sort of thesis here, one of the things, and this is a newer kind of phrase, when we buy long-term care insurance or we recommend a client buys long-term care insurance, it pays for their care, but it protects those they love, both from the responsibility of caregiving or being sole caregivers, and the financial consequences from an estate, a portfolio taking the big hits that we can identify in terms of cost of care.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Yeah, that's really interesting. And what comes to me is when I think about estate planning, where you know, we do estate planning because we know it's for those that we leave behind. Um, so we get our affairs in order. And Bill, as you said, when we buy LTC, it's not just for us, it's for, you know, our spouse is going to be doing the caregiving. We don't want to run down the assets. So it does go beyond that. And the thing that really for me has always been challenging is to think about the difference between property and casualty lines of coverage like auto insurance and homeowners insurance and disability and life insurance and just how different. They're all protecting against the risk of something happening.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

But yet they're sold so differently, people think in them so differently. Nobody think, you know, everybody knows if I own a house, you know, putting aside the fact that most mortgage companies require you to have homeowners' insurance, is most people know, boy, I'm going to be in trouble if my house burns down. Everybody knows that. I would say most homeowners, even if their uh mortgage companies didn't require it, would go out and get homeowners insurance. And, you know, and they buy auto insurance when, you know, our cars are really a small percentage. You know, now the average car is maybe 50,000, 40,000. I don't know. I'm just pulling those numbers out. But our our income or our long-term care costs, you know, are hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars that we're protecting against. And yet people put those off. So it's like, okay, for me, it's like, okay, why do people decide to protect those inanimate objects and they fail to protect the ones they love, including themselves with their income. So for me, I'm throwing that out there. What do you both think about that?

SPEAKER_00 14:42

I I love it. I think the bringing the P and C conversation, that's kind of something I was thinking about too. And I'm trying to stop myself from going full WWE, you know, heel type of like, look at this guy. Um, but the no, the I just think it's funny because if you use that same logic where you're you're buying long-term care to protect your loved ones from becoming the caregivers, you could, if you use that same logic in the homeowner's conversation, you're technically buying that homeowner's policy to protect you and your loved loved ones from getting out a hammer and nails and rebuilding the house. I mean, it's it's almost a little more contrived on the homeowner side, obviously, because most people don't have the skill set to do that. And you could make the the same claim that most people do not have the skill set to become caregivers as well, uh, just due to, I mean, quite, you know, I think that it gets overlooked, just the physical aspect that's required on the caregiving side. Um, but there's a both real elements and I think overstated elements to to that to that um emotional tie-in, because we don't do that in the auto and the homeowners and the others. And maybe that's you know, that's why the property and casualty is a different subset than life and health. It's just intrinsically more um more um human, human connected and emotional and and um just higher values connected to the life and health side of the business. Um but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

And I gotta, I gotta, I gotta jump in with the emotion again. And Tony, because we can't just dismiss the fact that the bank requires if you have a mortgage of any shape, size, or amount, you have to have homeowners insurance. The bank makes you buy it. The state makes you buy a basic amount of liability insurance. Now everybody buys collision. By the way, if you have a lease or a loan on your car, the bank makes you buy collision too. And and we're also protecting tangible objects. People look at their car and they can visually viscerally see what would happen if there were an accident. By the way, if you're wealthier, whatever that means, the real value of auto insurance isn't replacing the $50,000 car. It's the million-dollar liability hit if you cause an accident and kill or hurt somebody terribly. Um, you know, the homeowner's insurance. I I the way I look at it is not, you know, oh, everybody buys homeowner insurance. Yeah, because they kind of have to. The better question is: if you have truly paid off your mortgage, are you dropping your homeowners? Nobody ever advises that, nobody ever does that, because it's a big enough number, but it's also tangible. Here's where I lived, here's where I raised my kids, here's where we had this dinner party. There's memories connected to it. And and and so it it's it's easier in that regard, but it's completely different. Nobody makes you buy life insurance, nobody makes you buy long-term care, nobody makes you buy disability insurance. You have to step up and do it yourself. And I I think so. I'm gonna, Max, I'm gonna throw a question to you that I want you to answer from the logic standpoint, because I think the number one objection, maybe the only objection to not only not buying long-term care, even disability insurance, because I think there's a lot of analogies, that the number one objection to not buying, number one reason for not buying, and the number one excuse for not engaging in a meaningful planning conversation is the belief, which is an emotional belief, in many ways irrational, that it's never going to happen to me. So why would I buy this insurance? So, how does how do logic and facts and numbers get us past that?

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Yeah, so the the logic's I I think the to touch on the stats really quick. I mean, obviously, if you report a stat that, you know, 25% of people just entering the workforce today are going to experience a long-term disability at some point in their career. Right. Um, that's the social security stat I always kind of put out there. Not always, but you know, when we're having these logic-based conversations and people ask about the statistics, how does this even? I don't know anybody who's been disabled, that kind of thing. It's a little more, again, trying to help them understand the unknown through a quanta, quantif, um, you know, quantified way. Um, but I always thought that the reason people didn't purchase was because no one's ever asked them. Nobody's ever brought it up with them. And at least on the disability insurance side, and probably long-term care as well. I don't know so much about life insurance, but that's that's always been kind of the the spirit of you know these discussions that we have behind closed doors in the industry and things like that. It's people just aren't having these conversations. And so, you know, I think a lot of it, not to call anybody out, but a little bit, is around these wealth managers and uh financial advisors who are not managing wealth or advising financially. Uh at least the risk component, of course, the investments are all sewn up, taken care of. Maybe they've even done the POAs and the wills and trusts. But most of the time, you know, as you've you've referenced in the past, I think you know, you'll find that a lot of these people are allergic to the word insurance. So it's uh it's a little, it's a there's a little bit more than just the it won't happen to me. I think it, you know, they haven't they haven't heard it from an authoritative source in many cases. In a lot of situations, that is going to be their wealth manager or financial advisor. Um, and so they need to hear that from people who see finances, who have seen you know the the situations where people were left unprotected and there were fallouts with the family. We can't run away from those conversations. It feels like we want to keep things a little too sanitized. So here I am kind of going on the other side now. But you know, we want to sanitize the conversation, just stick to the numbers. But um, you know, it it's important to to kind of discuss what's going on with their peer group and and you know, here's why people purchased it, here's how it would impact you, looking again at the numbers, but also understanding like you know, there's there's true consequences for how this stuff works uh when it's not dealt with.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

And that's the that's the again, respecting and caring for professionally the line where an emotional personal question is asked or issue is pressed by an advisor on an emotional level. And and and respecting that line where it doesn't become manipulation, uh, my view is there are a lot of I I I think it's Interesting. We we talk about facts and numbers and figures, and people just need to be asked to buy it. I think we're giving people too much credit. They know the problem. They know that everyone knows if you're successful financially, if you're smart in business or life or whatever your skill set is, you know it's there. You know it's there. Nobody's really in denial about the fact that they could become disabled or die during working years or need care when they live to 90, if not longer. I I think most people realize that risk is out there. What they what they're looking at emotionally is, yeah, but it's not going to happen to me because I don't want to think about it, which by the way is actually really healthy and normal. We can't go through life fearing the worst. So we do have to raise the subject, right? But how do we raise a subject that jumps that mental emotional barrier that says, I don't want to believe this is going to happen to me, so I don't want to even address the subject. And I think we got to touch people's hearts. To get past that, to have access to the logic brain. That's that's kind of that's why I lead with emotion. Not to manipulate the sale, but to get access to the logical part of the brain that can then solve the financial problem.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

That's fair. I like I like how you parlay it together. I think that's, I mean, obviously we're we're on the same page with that. Um, it is interesting to note, though, that I think a lot of these conversations that we have in the life insurance space and the disability space, and particularly in the long-term care space, we're working with people who have already felt that lived experience of not of working with somebody or knowing somebody or you know, maybe becoming the caregiver in the LTC situation. They have that lived experience that kind of backs up the numbers. So there's a congruence there that we're trying to reinforce uh with some statistics, with some numbers. And again, it's not like we're just throwing out the 70% statistic of which is the off-sided um, you know, errant statistic that 70% of people will need long-term care insurance at some point in their life. We can talk about that in a second. I know you have.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Let me and I'll just I'll just do it because it's reflexive. And and and I know 70% will not need long-term care insurance. The footnote is set the so the 70% statistic is actually true. 70% will need some form of care. And to be in the 70%, you only have to need help with things like transportation, housekeeping, cooking, laundry. That puts you in the 70%. The long-term care statistic, which actually comes from the same source, HHS and the Urban Institute, um, 56% will need care at the level where long-term care insurance will pay. Which, by the way, I mean, Max, we're on the same page here. That's still an incredibly heavy, if not scary, statistic. It's more than one in two. And and and I don't know how to do the math, but for couples, one of the two in a couple needing care, right? That's just playing playing the math out that way. I I kind of like the idea. And it goes back to I I want to touch the heart to get access, to have the client almost give permission logically to begin working on all these these numbers, which are important. It's kind of the way we're wired as human beings. We we tend to make decisions emotionally supported by logic versus the opposite. And and it's true for a lot of things, especially intangible kind of purchases. Um and anyway, I just that that what's the pathway that's there. Um you know, it sometimes it's sometimes you don't have to do anything more, and and this is what you mentioned, Max. You don't have to do anything more than what's your experience with long-term care? Have you known anyone? Have you been a caregiver? And if the answer is yes, you just say, tell me what happened. How did it work? Is that what you would want for yourself and your family? And they say no. And then we say, okay, how do you prevent that from happening? And now we're talking about where's the money going to come from to pay for the professional care to mitigate those other things they don't want to have happen, whether it's loss of finances or you know, burden to family or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 27:07

No, and I think the you know, where where I was kind of going with this, uh it was it's not so much about that one statistic, right? What's the probability of this occurring? To me, the logic and the numbers really reside in showing the impact, right? So emotion will tell you that something matters. The numbers will tell you how much it matters in many cases. And so that's where you know, we want to underscore this, you know, maybe 20% of long-term care claims extend beyond five years. I mean, that's a number that can tell you how much this matters. That's a significant portion of people who are essentially going bankrupt and losing their life savings due to a long-term care need. Um, and yet it's not uh it's not part of the general ethos out there in society for whatever reason. And I think it helps to kind of reinforce that because it might support their lived experience, like, oh, that makes sense. I I've seen that in my life. Um, or it might be shocking to them, and that's where kind of the fear comes into play, which we try to avoid and not use as a manipulative tool. But again, to help help shape their worldview a little bit and understanding that you know that the probability is not there to predict your future. It's just it's used to uh avoid being surprised by it more than anything. So so that's really the same.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

And it can and it can it can then inform design and premium decisions. Do I buy a three or four-year policy, or do I buy a six or eight-year policy? Or, you know, there's still lifetime contracts in the marketplace if somebody really, you know, wants to protect that that tail risk. And the question is, well, what are the chances that my care might be go going beyond X, Y, or Z? That's now using, and your example's a great one for with that number. That's where now the data can help us say, listen, it's about 20% of people who need this care are going to need it past five years. If you did, what would that impact be? And and particularly financially, and and it's interesting, that's where insurance is best deployed. The very small risk, but the very large cost. You know, I I I talked about auto insurance and the real value in auto insurance is is having a substantial liability limit. That's where you can, that's where the numbers are are break someone. And then if we look at homeowners as well, you know, why does adding another million dollars of liability to your homeowners or policy cost 80 bucks a month? Because there's almost no risk that you're gonna get sued for one or two or three million dollars that your homeowners has to protect from. But if somebody slips and falls on your front walk and hits their head and they're permanently paralyzed, the consequences, the financial consequences of that are dramatic. So, Max, I I love that idea of having data now inform design. Data should inform design in that step. I think we just came up with a great new uh alliteration here. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Yeah, yeah, I I love this. This is a great conversation, and we could probably go for hours on this conversation. Um, a couple notes for people listening is I'll have stats um for countries around the world on caregiving because these stats run very close around the world of people who need care. Now, of course, based on your culture and your country, you know, sometimes it's family members who are taking care of you, but there's still an impact because if you're caregiving, you're taking time off from work. And the other thing I want to throw in before we wrap up is that we need to make sure that when we're holding our financial education programs, our financial literacy summits, our financial wellness, creating financial wellness apps, you know, whatever, wherever you are on the spectrum of educating or selling or advising or whatever, insurance needs to be part of the conversation, not just part of the conversation for wealth managers, who of course should be including risk protection as part of their work, but it needs to be part of the conversation. It's just as important as budgeting or saving or investing or paying off loans, because if you don't have insurance and risk protection, you're not going to be able to do any of those other parts. And Max and I did an episode on this why a financial plan is not a financial plan without disability insurance. So you can tune into that uh conversation. So to wrap up, um, you know, real quickly, can you both tell me has this conversation changed the way you were thinking going into the conversation? Um, Max, you want to stack on that one?

SPEAKER_00 32:22

Yeah, I I think I have been afraid of using emotion a little bit in my discovery and analysis and things like that. So, you know, sort of engaging with uh the LinkedIn hive mind on this is has helped me understand that no, this is a proper and professional way to have these conversations. Um, you know, I've I've been quick to sanitize them. And I think it's it's helpful to acknowledge that this is part of the deal. Like this is what clients are actually asking for. It's like, what are the consequences beyond just the numbers? And it's important to touch on that. Um, and I think I would I would venture to say uh more people are not doing that than are uh out in the field. And certainly, you know, if they have a CFP behind their name where it tends to be a little bit more crystallized and sanitized, but especially also with insurance agents, too, who I think are, you know, from my experience and who we've worked with in the past as kind of a broker's broker or you know, what have you, is um, you know, a lot of this is kind of an addendum to a lot of people's block of business, right? It's not a primary source of revenue for their firm or agency. And so they're sort of they're being approached by people in many cases now. Fortunately, this is happening more and more with long-term care. When I first started, and probably even worse, when you first started, Bill, people were not asking about long-term care. We've now hit that inflection point where you know, people are seeing this with their own eyes, they're finally understanding the cost and things like that. Um, with DI, it's it's it's similar in in certain ways, but um, you know, people are are starting to address this, we're wanting to address this with their financial advisors, with their you know, property and casualty agents. And so when we're getting pulled into these conversations through those advisors um and and insurance producers, you know, they are not equipped to having the conversation on an emotional level. Um, to whatever uh failing I was you know encountering, I think it's magnified and and uh leverage leveraged a little bit more even on their side. So it's uh it's something we we shouldn't be afraid of, um, that we can that we can handle with tact and with um I think a high degree of sensitivity to the client's feelings and understanding you know where those boundaries are. And just always, you know, if you're gonna have that conversation emotionally, you have to have a high EQ to before you walk into that conversation, I think, with with the right tact. So that's just something I'm hyper aware of and and I think um you know it should be it shouldn't be something that stops you from venturing into these into these conversations as well.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

I think I think my takeaway, yeah, my takeaway from the conversation and and really ongoing conversations with colleagues who I have so much respect for their business. Max, you're in that category, especially on this subject, in a significant way. Um, kind of my two takeaways from this conversation today. Uh, number one, being aware of my advocacy, where I'm I'm sort of contrarian, so I'm pushing an extreme example to try to get, you know, folks who are doing no kind of or are afraid of the emotional connection for whatever reason. Um, getting them to do more of that, I tend to be a little bit of extreme to bring people to the moderate place. But one of my takeaways is to make sure that everybody hears that the data has to follow. You know, data drives design, data informs design. I'm probably going to be speaking a lot more about the goal here, is you're touching the heart, not to manipulate the heart. You're touching the heart for the emotion to give the individual's logic side of their brain permission to engage and permission to listen to that data. And the other takeaway, and this is another subject that maybe we could we we need to explore, but you mentioned, Max, that your millennial sort of brain has always been a little nervous about, you know, overplaying the emotion. And I think there's something generational here too that needs to be respected. How do millennials, exes, you know, what whatever these generations, how are they approaching these subjects? And I'm seeing younger prospects coming to this subject on their own, even before care is needed. So I think this generational um aspect needs to be understood and respected as well. And so those are my takeaways from today. Love it.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

Yeah, those are great takeaways. So Bill, Max, to wrap up, um, where can people get in touch with you and find out about what you're up to? Bill.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Yeah, I probably the best way is via my website. There's a contact form that's there, so you can connect with me personally. That comes straight into my email inbox. And it's pretty simple. It's my name, Bill at comfort, like it sounds, L T C C O M F O R T L T C dot com. Uh that's the email, excuse me. Um, but then the website, comfortltc.com as well.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

Fantastic. How about you, Max?

SPEAKER_00 38:03

Yeah, so you can learn more about my agency at YetWorth Y-E-T-W-O-R-T-H dot com. We didn't really talk about that, but the rationale behind the name change was about it's been about five years to the day, actually, we that we rebranded was because you know, we focused so much on the future net worth, that which we call yet worth in sort of a cheeky way, was uh to um you know really help them establish the impact of what the future looks like without these types of tools in their in their financial plan. So um it's yetworth.com, but for engagement and conversation, I'd say you know, LinkedIn is a great spot to join up uh the conversation, you know, where all three of us are super active on there. So um if you're connected to Tony, um would love to connect with you too. And uh you can find me at just slash Maxwell Schmidt's.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

Fantastic. And for everybody watching and listening, there'll be links uh to Max and Bill's websites and to their social media profiles so you can go to the show notes and find those links. Bill Max, uh, thanks for joining me today on Get Ready Before Life Happens. Super fun. Thanks, Tony. Thank you. Yeah, appreciate your insights and thank you, everyone, as always, for tuning in to this episode of Get Ready Before Life Happens. If you learned something today to change the way you think about money, please be sure to like and subscribe. You can also join the Get Ready Movement at Tony Stewart.com to receive my newsletter and free resources. And if you want to support the Get Ready Movement, you can now do so at buymeacoffee.com/slash Tony Stewart. Because when life happens, the way you think about money matters.