Most money problems aren't math problems. Chad Hufford explains why a plan beats a portfolio, and how business owners can build real financial security.
GROWTH PILLAR: Real Estate & Wealth Building
WHO THIS IS FOR: SMB owners and solopreneurs who work hard but aren't sure their financial future is secure.
WHAT THEY'LL GAIN: A simple way to start financial planning, plus clear lessons on investing, debt, gold, savings rate, and margin.
Most people think their money problem is a math problem. It isn't. Until you fix the habit behind it, no portfolio will save your future.
Chad Hufford helps business owners who work hard but aren't sure their financial future is secure.
Chad Hufford is the founder of Veritas Wealth Management in Anchorage, Alaska, a financial planning firm that serves several hundred families across the US. In this Knack 4 Business conversation, Chad explains why most money problems are behavior problems, not math problems. He shares why a plan matters more than a portfolio, why gold is a price bet and not an investing strategy, and why debt works like an accelerant. He also covers retirement planning, including why a strong savings rate beats a strong return rate. Chad talks about his book, Forging Financial Freedom, and his Blue Collar Millionaire show. This episode is for business owners and working families who want clarity, margin, and a real plan.
Key topics covered
Guest links
Supporting persons: Thanks to Noémi Beres of Podcast Connections for introducing Chad. Chad also talks about Dave Ramsey and his Smart Investor Pro program.
— PARTNERS ON THIS EPISODE —
Next Steps
Bernie (00:18)
Question to the audience: Why are you working harder than ever? But still not sure your financial future is actually secure? Well, that feeling is more common than you think. And it's not about effort. Today we're sitting down with someone who has spent his entire career helping business owners trade confusion for clarity and build financial lives that actually match what they're working towards.
Chad Hufford is the founder of Veritas Wealth Management, a boutique financial planning firm based in Anchorage Alaska that manages over a half a billion dollars in assets for several hundred families across the US. Chad is a Dave Ramsey Smart Investor Pro.
And he brings a coach's mindset and a teacher's heart to everything he does. Instead of pushing products or confusing strategies, he helps people build real financial clarity so their money actually lines up with their life. He also speaks and writes on the intersection of money, fitness, and faith because he believes those three things are deeply connected. His book is called Forging Financial Freedom. You can find Chad at Veritas Alaska.com, and Veritas is spelled V E.
R I T A S Alaska.com. Good sir. Absolute pleasure having you here today. Thank you so much for joining us.
You grew up in Anchorage around finance. What pulled you deeper? first off, usually when you think finance, you don't think Alaska, not that you not that people don't financial in Alaska, but like in New York you think or Los Angeles, those big cities. What brought you into that space to make the fortunes happen?
Chad (01:45)
Well, I didn't choose Alaska. Alaska chose me. my dad came up here in the late nineteen sixties on his way to Vietnam and Anchorage, Alaska was as close as he got. my mom came up here as a public health nurse in the mid seventies. Neither intended to stay here, but they met in the late seventies and I showed up in the early eighties and been here ever since. and I would say finance kind of found me too. I it's actually a huge blessing that
I am not in one of those financial hubs. And Alaska is a very different state. I think it attracts more unique personalities that might value things differently than than people in some of those those larger metropolitan areas. but one of the things my dad told me growing up is the way the world does finance and the way it's supposed to be done are two very, very different things. If everybody did it the right way, we wouldn't have the issues that we have. And
And that's really, I think, a part of what drew me into this is I my dad was in the financial world, started started with some insurance business back in the the mid 70s and really started getting to financial planning before it was a thing. And what I saw, Bernie, is when people have their financial house in order, when they are managing their finances instead of having their money control them.
Not only does their financial life get healthier, they usually are more intentional and purposeful in their health, in their marriage, in their business. When when people start being more purposeful about their finances, that has a ripple effect into every area of their life. But I also saw that the reverse is true. When people are stressed out about finances, when they don't have a plan, when they don't have clarity, they have just confusion and frustration.
That also has a ripple effect into other areas. It's hard to run a business successfully when you're always worried about money. It's hard to run a household when you're always worried about money. It takes a toll on your physical health, your relational health. So I saw money as something that is a very powerful tool and it can work for you and against you. money is a great servant, but it's a terrible master. And I just realized growing up that by helping people, by coaching people,
to be a better steward of their finances. It wouldn't just change their financial trajectory. I would literally get a chance to change somebody's life. And been doing that for twenty years. And I even though I was excited going into it for that potential, I underestimated how big of an impact that my team and I could have and it's been a phenomenal journey.
Bernie (04:10)
It almost sounds like there's a bit of athletics involved in this whole story. what what was your sport of choice? 'Cause I think this is also part of a driving factor. Nope.
Chad (04:20)
No, it absolutely is. So I I even mentioned a couple minutes ago the idea of coaching. And we we tell people we're kind of like personal trainers for money. it we get people to do the hard things that they don't want to do, but they need to do to align with the person that they want to become in the future. And coaching being well, first of all, being involved in sports growing up. And I play basketball, football, baseball, probably have the most natural talent for baseball. And
Basketball was what I really loved the most. I stopped growing when I was eleven. So that didn't work out super well. But I I got into walked on a track team in college, got into mixed martial arts after that. So I've always been athletically minded and I've always had coaches. And I think that's really important because so often, especially in business and especially men, but not just men,
The tendency is to ignore the help that others can provide. And the good the way I look at it is, you if if Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky all had coaches, who am I to say, I don't need a coach to be better? And I very much saw how a coach doesn't just help you with your sport. If it's a good coach, they'll help you become a better person. So I took that mindset.
But I also had the opportunity to coach other high-level athletes. And that's what kind of got me into the world of performance psychology. but dealing with Olympic athletes, I had some military contracts helping airborne infantry prepare for for combat deployments. I would usually get them three to six months before deployment and work with them, work with several mixed martial arts athletes, some some UFC fighters, and and
Really, the the psychology is all the same. It's it's dealing with stress and difficulty and perseverance and things like that, tolerating ambiguity. I had no idea how important that that training would be for me dealing with investors going through some of those same things. The the details are different, but the psychology is the same.
Bernie (06:10)
something really interesting. Dealing with ambiguity. I I I I I know if you're in the military and you're going to engage somebody, the best laid plans of mice and till you you meet the opponent and then yeah you find out that plan wasn't so good. But flipping it around from a financial perspective, you'd almost think money's like physics, it's this happens, that happens, this happens. But there's a there there's that's not always the case. And so what is the ambiguity people can
experience in finance and how do you coach them around that so that you you mitigate that risk.
Chad (06:42)
Well, first of all, most money problems are not math problems. They're behavioral issues. human beings don't do the things that they know. And we often blame things on education and and and obviously financial education helps. Like if we if we taught more economics in high school, that there would be fewer problems. I I've Dave Ramsey has a high school course that's phenomenal. And you look at those students ten years later.
They're in less debt. They're making healthier decisions inside and outside finance. So education's important, but a lot of people b engage in behaviors that they know are harmful, but they do it anyways, because human beings have a tendency to sacrifice the future for the present. And Bernie, and not to not to pick on any particular restaurants, but let's just say their initials are McDonald's. there's a there's a restaurant right next door and
the line often wraps around our parking lot. And nobody is going in there thinking, I'm about to make a great life decision. Nobody wakes up in the morning saying, I'm going to ruin my health today with a double Big Mac and a and a chocolate shake. But people are in there all day long, not because of a lack of knowledge, but because of behavioral dissonance. Their actions don't line up with the person that they say they want to be. So that's that's where the the coaching comes in.
And when it comes to tolerating ambiguity, well, first of all, you you mentioned the military metaphor, mice and men, but Dwight Eisenhower, when he was a general, he is still today in the military, he's one of the great strategists, a phenomenal planner. But he said no plan survives first contact with the enemy. But he also believed planning was essential. And the reason why is planning makes you purposeful.
It it creates a stance where you are acting on a strategy, not reacting to the crazy world around you. So there's a lot of ambiguity in war, there's a lot of ambiguity in running a business, there's a lot of ambiguity in just waking up in the morning and going about your day. And certainty has a tremendous cost. And that's why I love your audience because they're willing to trade away certainty for freedom. And the more certainty you have, the less freedom that you enjoy.
But when it comes to finance, certainty can get people in trouble. If if somebody is saving for the future and let's say let's just say they're afraid of volatility, they don't want they don't want to see their 401k go up and go down and the stocks that they own going crazy. And let's face it, the stock market is a writhing, hissing bag of snakes. It's like a hormonal teenager. You never know what it's going to do in the short run. But in the long run, you have the opportunity to own other businesses outside of your own.
And not have to deal with payroll and personnel problems and HR and lawyers. You just you own some of the best businesses in the world. It's phenomenal. But it's a bumpy ride. And that uncertainty gets people in trouble because they don't know how much their net worth is going to be at any given moment. They're they might have a hundred thousand dollars invested. Six months from now, it could be 120. It might be 75. And that type of certainty, or uncertainty, I should say.
really messes with people. And what ends up happening is people try to purchase stability by moving into assets like CDs and bonds and cash that are more stable in the short term. But let me just put it this way: fixed income or stable assets in a rising cost world are a recipe for disaster. So that's just one example of people trading away long-term security for short-term certainty. Certainty always has an extreme cost.
So part of our job is not helping people reduce the ambiguity, but have clarity in the midst of it and weather those storms of uncertainty.
Bernie (10:18)
So when you talk about the the the sure bet is what you were talk speaking to just earlier. It sounds like a it's a cash flow versus long term wealth building. are you always looking for the stipend coming back and then flipping it over and doing like exponential growth? Or are you are you gonna engage in a bit of risk? 'Cause at the end of the day, nothing's absolute, right?
I'm sure in the year nineteen hundred everybody thought, carriages and horses were the thing and that that's gonna be, a stable industry. And it's sorry, bad not bad pun, but it but in the long term, right, it's shifted, right? We're now into cars and now we're looking at electric cars, maybe gas cars, who knows or or propane or hydrogen fuel cars. there's there's a lot of, things moving the market around that
You couldn't have predicted maybe ten years ago or twenty years ago. So are you looking for the risk and but is is is it really risk or is it an educated risk?
Chad (11:13)
There's no such thing as no risk. And the issue, Bernie, is really helping people manage the threats and not the feeling of dread. And human beings typically react more to dread than they do to actual threats. And there's I'm give you a lot of examples of that, but one one just quick one. back in nineteen seventy two, there's an Easter airline Eastern Airlines flight from New York to Miami. And as they were approaching
their runway, their indicator light on the landing gear didn't go on. And they were struggling to get that light turned on. They want to make sure the landing gear was working properly, which is obviously important. But that got so much of their attention that the pilots weren't paying attention to their altitude. And what ended up happening is while they were trying to get this indicator light turned on, and tragically what it turned out, Bernie, was
The landing gear was fine, just the indicator bulb had burnt out. But while they were trying to mess with the indicator, they were losing altitude and weren't paying attention to that because they were so fixated on this light, they ended up crashing into the Everglades. And I believe almost everybody on that plane died. And maybe that's an extreme example, but it's that's human nature, is we get so fixated on one potential issue that we might lose sight of a much greater risk, a much greater threat.
So when it comes to investing, you said there's, the sure bet. The only sure bet in my world is that prices continue to rise. So if I put money into fixed income, like let me just give you a metaphor. A sure bet might be you take $100,000, you put it in the Bellagio vault, and you have 24-7 armed guards watching that for the next 24 or the next 20 years. And
There's no Oceans 11 going on, nobody's stealing and sneaking it. You go back 20 years from now, you pull out your hundred thousand dollars, and I might say, Look, here, Bernie, you have all of your money. And you would look at me and say, But I've lost half my purchasing power. So really, all I've done is delivered your currency units to you, but I've lost half of your money in the process, your real money, because money is about purchasing power, not units of currency.
And when we're focused on stabilizing units of currency, we end up losing our money. So the sure bet is when we preserve units units of currency, we actually sacrifice long term purchasing power. So that's the variable that we try to solve for. And traditional instruments like bonds and CDs and annuities just do a terrible job in the long run. Now they make you feel safe and secure in the short term, just like the Big Mac and the French fries do.
Next door. It doesn't help your future, but it makes you comfortable in the moment. And the hard thing for people to do is to flip that and say, I'm going to experience more temporary uncertainty for more long-term security. But this is where business owners have an edge, Bernie, because they don't rely on a paycheck. There's a lot of ambiguity already in their financial lives. So they usually have, if trained properly, a much greater
capacity to tolerate ambiguity, it just takes the right perspective. And we need to stop thinking about money and units of currency and start thinking about money as a tool and purchasing power.
Bernie (14:22)
Several things are coming as you're describing this, I'm going, huh. Yep. I've I've had people I had one person that wanted to be a guest on the show, and he says, what? I deal with precious metals. Mm-hmm. And I am involved with an NFT, and they're going, mm-hmm, okay. And he says, I'm dealing with the Canadian mint, mm-hmm, but you're not in Canada. Mm-hmm. Okay, and so like the the the flags are going up. Is precious metals?
Are assets a form of investment? And I'm not saying all in in one box, but because the other rule of of thumb is that you you you you move over different over different platforms or over different different areas, right, depending on your risk tolerance or what you're willing to go for, or ambiguity wise. Is is like is precious metals a path to look at, or is it maybe part of the answer?
Chad (15:10)
That is a very nuanced question. So let me kind of give you my definition of an investment. An investment is something that you can hold indefinitely and produces an income. So precious metals don't produce anything, which means the only value they have is based on the vagaries of human perception. If I own an apartment building or if I own
Through mutual funds, own thousands of businesses across the globe. Doesn't matter if you like those businesses. Those businesses keep producing a profit. You might those might not be popular businesses, but I'm still gonna benefit from the earnings of those companies, regardless of what the temporary stock price does. I don't have to sell the thing in order to make money. With gold and silver and precious metals, the only way to make money is to buy at one price and sell at a higher price, which, yes, we want all our other investments to increase in value too.
But the beautiful thing about true investments is they don't have to. They produce cash flow. And gold and silver, precious metals, do not produce cash flow unless you're selling it. So it it what it does is it makes you a price speculator, not an investor. So the other part of this, too, is so we talked about bonds and cash and how fixed income and a rising cost world is a recipe for disaster. But they still produce something. If I own a bond and it 5% a year.
Now at 3% inflation and an another percent or two going to taxes, it eats up on my growth, but at least it is producing something. I can hold that bond contract and it produces something. It may not be ideal for a long-term investment, but there's still a potential purpose for it. And it's relatively stable. Gold is the worst of both worlds, and silver is the worst of both worlds. It is incredibly volatile in the short term, and the long-term returns simply aren't there. So,
If we go back 45 years, an ounce of gold was roughly about $800. And today, time of recording, it's roughly $5,000. So people would look at that and say, $800 to $5,000, that's a great return. Yeah, but it took $45 years. It takes about $3,200 today to buy what $800 did 45 years ago. So really the true math is $3,200 to $45 or $5,000, not $800 to $5,000. Here's the flip side.
If you would have put that same $800 in a mix of good gross stock mutual funds, you would have ridden through about six different recessions, two catastrophic market declines that plunge the world markets by 50%. You would have almost every single year decline of at least 10 to 15%. But that $800 today be worth roughly 60 or 70,000.
Bernie (17:42)
That's good return.
Chad (17:44)
But there was a lot of volatility to get there. But my point being, so just to sum this up, because I got a little long-winded for you, Bernie. Sorry about that, but I want to be thorough. precious metals have all the volatility of owning companies, but without the return. So it is truly the worst of both worlds. So is gold bad? No, it makes great jewelry. And there's certainly a place for it, but it is not an investment, and we have to be really clear about that.
And we have we have a few clients that that own gold. And I'll tell you what, if if owning twenty thousand bucks in gold buried in your backyard gives you the security to keep two million dollars invested where it should be, I'm okay with that deal. But you have to be really honest with yourself that at that point gold is not an investment. It's a really expensive anti-anxiety pill.
Bernie (18:28)
Like that. No, I'm fine with that. I have no need for bling. I'm a a pretty blingless type of soul. That said though, so if you have an asset, do you also work leverage into it? 'cause I know from the real estate side of the fence, sometimes you own an asset and at a certain point you're looking at another asset. So you're looking to to acquire more and is that something that you would also
put into the mix? Or is that is that getting into another area?
Chad (18:53)
No, it's I mean it's a good question. I think people have to be very careful with leverage. Leverage is an accelerant. So let me just give you a little bit of a metaphor. Let's say that you have eight hours to make a 250, 300 mile drive, and there's interstate, there's nice roads. That's plenty of time. You can take a steady, deliberate pace, maybe even take some breaks.
There's enough buffer where things can go wrong. You might be able to you can change a flat tire. You, if you're tired, you can stop for some coffee, whatever. now and you can obey all posted traffic signs. But let's say that you want to go 120 miles an hour. Now you may get there much faster, but you run the risk of never getting there at all. Because maybe you wrap that car around a telephone pole or
Maybe you get pulled over, maybe you fall asleep. And as my daughter can attest, cars and guardrails don't get along very well. So that's true story. We might get to that later. But anyways, it is an accelerant. So when everything is going great, debt helps you go faster. But the minute things start going poorly, whether your real estate declines, you lose your job, your tenants move out, the economy is in crisis, all these things that that happen to people all the time.
Debt just gets you into trouble faster. So I can't say that debt never has a place, but people need to treat it like pouring gasoline on a fire. You better be really good about controlling that fire before you start adding any accelerants. And I'm switching metaphors a little bit. But I think debt gets people leverage gets people in trouble much more than it helps people as a general rule.
Bernie (20:27)
So a business owner is coming along and and goes, I'm I'm profits are good. I'm generating some revenue. When should they go? what? I should talk to this Chad fellow here, and and his and his crew. When should they start thinking that through? Is is it like the cash is now piling up in front of them? the the revenues are good, life's good, everybody's paid, low debt, potential for scaling. Do they reach out to you?
And say what do I do, or should they even start that conversation? I'm starting a business and what do I need to establish first?
Chad (20:58)
So there's a Chinese proverb, Bernie, that says the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is today. And there is never a time that's too early to start planning for your future. And doesn't matter how profitable your business is or how much of a mess it's in. And and I've been through both seasons. I mean, I I remember one time very, very clearly, Bernie, there's a gas station here near the airport. And I was I was coming from an appointment.
And I was filling up my car and I remember watching the the meter go up on that and it cost twenty dollars and I was like, please stop. I just I wanted it to hit full as soon as possible because I honestly didn't know how I was gonna pay for that tank of gas. And of course that dates the conversation because now people like what c I mean, what kind of car can you fill up for for 30 bucks, but it was a while ago and but it was just it
It was I was starving literally and and figuratively. It was a very, very difficult time. But even in the midst of that, pulling somebody out of that to look at where do you want to be 20, 30 years down the road is always a helpful thing. If things are going great, it helps you make better decisions with everything that's going well to align it with your future. If things are going poorly, it pulls you out of the moment and gives you a chance to catch your breath and say, okay, let's calm down.
Take a deep breath. What can we change? So the the metaphor that I've used before and you mentioned in the introduction this idea of having a blueprint. Nobody would buy a house knowingly that was built without a blueprint, but we plan our futures, we plan our lives without one all the time. And all a blueprint does is creates a framework for what you want this house to look like or this building to look like. In our case, it's our life. What do we want our business or our life?
or finances to look like 10, 20, 30 years down the road, in a blueprint, reverse engineers that finished product to where I am today and says, here's what I need to do next. I don't need to worry about the next 20 years. I need to worry about what can I do today to align my choices, my behavior, and my decisions with the person I want to become 10, 20, 30 years from now.
Bernie (23:03)
Dave Ramsey Smart Vestor Pro. What does the designation mean? Who is who is Dave Ramsey? Grant me the boon of knowledge.
Chad (23:11)
So Dave Ramsey started about 30 something years ago in Nashville, Tennessee, doing a radio show about it basically started out with budgeting and getting out of debt. Now it's expanded beyond that. I mean, he was he's he's a brilliant real estate investor. he's built a tremendous business. so it is it's blossomed to much, much more than it started with. But he's been helping people manage their finances and make better decisions with money for.
over three decades now. And I will tell you, Bernie, just from seeing those principles. So my my parents were following these principles before Dave Ramsey was. And they're not Dave's principles. they're biblical principles. So they've been working for 3,000 years since Solomon wrote them. And I've seen those principles change lives. So when I heard Dave Ramsay talking about them, I was just thinking, gosh, I mean this is this is everything I've seen work ever since I was a kid.
Is it the only way to build lasting sustainable wealth? It is not. But is is it a proven and sustainable way that can be duplicated? Absolutely. And that's the differentiator, Bernie. There's a lot of plans and pathways out there that worked for one person, but that might have been due to that person's uniqueness, their skill, maybe even some luck, which people don't want to admit that luck is a part of their path. But
The principles that Dave Ramsey lays out are repeatable across the board. They they will work for anybody if you execute them long enough. So our job is to take Dave's principles and help people apply those broad principles to their specific financial path.
Bernie (24:46)
You have clients that have over half a billion dollars in assets. What's the mo what's the common thread amongst those? Because all different walks of life live in Alaska, you're all different types of perspectives, but they must have there must be a common thread or threads amongst them. What are we Other than you, other than you.
Chad (25:05)
Well, and I'll tell you what, I I am much better at steering than I am at pushing. Here's what I mean by that. the folks we work with, we're very picky. And it's not an asset size, it's more of a personality thing. We we filter for character. And we work with phenomenal people all over the US. And their success
is really more about their character. We just help add intentionality and planning into their already high character and I think bolster some of their their character as well. But we already talked about some of the the elements. One is a tolerance for uncertainty. The ability to trade away comfort and certainty in the moment for long-term security. that is that is huge. humility is a is a big piece.
Not not to say people that overspend aren't humble, but it's really hard to live within your means when you're trying to keep up with everybody else around you. And being humble enough to ignore what other people are doing and to use your money to what makes you tick, to what's use your money for what is most important to you rather than to impress other people. it that takes a certain amount of humility, patience, and I would really even say resilience, because
Patience when things are going great is is hard enough as it is. But resilience, which is the ability to, to bend under pressure, but still come back to to your your original place. And I my w my thought is our clients usually go through trials and come back even stronger. there's an anti-fragility to it. And our clients, they are resilient. They are they are patient.
under stress. So those are and again, those are all character qualities. You don't have to be a financial genius. You don't have to have a bunch of letters after your name. You don't even have to have a big income. If you are patient, you are humble, you are you are gritty and you're resilient, those are the building blocks for an investor. Now if you don't have those things, it almost doesn't matter how smart you are. I mean, you could be you could be a brilliant heart doctor
and a brilliant cardiologist and still have high blood pressure, be 100 pounds overweight, and not follow any of your own advice. so it's just it's not about what it's about what you do. And I'm just if any of my clients are listening to this, they know who they are and they are phenomenal human beings. It's just a pleasure to be able to work with them.
Bernie (27:22)
When you're helping someone generate the wealth, this kind of I'm kind of backing up a larger or larger view of all things. Is it for the business? Is it for the person, or is it for a trust? Do you are you in those sectors or do you touch those sectors at all? Or is it just like Bernie rolls up and says, I got a million dollars in cash, I need to park it so it goes and grows and I'm gonna do my my thing, but I at the same time want it to grow.
Or is it I wanna have a legacy that, that's help support the family when I'm long gone.
Chad (27:54)
So you mentioned something about parking money. And I think that's a a mindset for a lot of people where that's what they want to they want to just park money and invest it. And at that point, you're really not investing. You're just, you're just collecting investments because there's not a strategy. You're just you're just buying investments. And so we we tell we tell our folks that there's no portfolio without a plan. And when we meet with somebody for the first time.
We're we're usually not even talking about investments. What we're trying to do is figure out what it is they're trying to build. Where are they now? Where do they want to be in the future? What does that blueprint in between need to look like? Going back to the blueprint metaphor. So to answer your question, is it for trusts? Is it for businesses? Is it for individuals? Sometimes it's all three. But we start on the individual basis. So
Bernie, where do you and your family want to be 10, 20, 30 years from now? How much income would it take showing up in your checking account? And don't worry about where it comes from, whether it comes from your business, whether it comes from a trust, whether it comes from a pension. But how much money do you need showing up in your checking account every single month to sustain your lifestyle? That's a that's a a good place to start because it again, we're solving for lifetime income and purchasing power. There's a lot of ways to get there.
But just like if you were sitting down with a home builder and they started talking about all the different tools and tactics they used, and they didn't even ask you, well, how many people in your family, how many bedrooms do you want? Where do you want this house to be built? Like that would be you're laughing, but that would be an immediate red flag. Like, quit talking about you. You don't even know what I'm trying to build yet. But in the financial industry, we do that all the time. You think about from a medical standpoint, it's it's like prescribing before you diagnose. You step into your doctor's office.
You haven't even filled out your little questionnaire yet. And they're writing you prescriptions and getting you scheduled for surgery. You're like, wait a minute, like you don't even know why I'm here. But we my industry does that constantly. We're so quick to prescribe an investment strategy or build a portfolio, but we don't take the time to plan to know what really makes you tick. What it what are your goals in life? Cause the way I see money is is money is just a tool to help build a more abundant life. But
Abundance means different things to different people and they have to be willing to go through the process of making a plan, not just collecting investments.
Bernie (30:11)
So you have the book Forging Financial Freedom. What can you tell me about that? Where do you get it? what's this and who who is the target audience for that?
Chad (30:21)
Target audience is people who are willing to do the hard things today to have a better future tomorrow. And we interviewed several hundred Alaska oil field workers, actually not just Alaska oil field, but oil field in general. A lot of them were from Alaska, but actually all across the US and some in Canada. Because I've noticed that the oil industry, because of some of the uncertainty, the volatility of that industry, it's very, very fickle. it
It amplifies a lot of the problems that everybody faces, the challenges anybody faces in planning for the future. So we used the oil field as kind of our case study and developed seven wealth-building lessons, tried and true lessons, that we extracted from the Alaska oil field and they apply to anybody who's willing to use them. But I will warn you, this is not this is not the easy button. if if
Some people come to us, Bernie, like they'll ask, what but what is the least amount of money that I I can invest and still be wildly wealthy? And they'll ask it in that way, but essentially what that's what they're asking is what what is the most convenient way to build financial security? And it's just the wrong question. So people have to be willing to do something different. That's that's one of the the themes throughout the book. And in fact, it's the opening chapter is dare to be different.
You can't live like everybody else unless you're willing to accept the results everybody else is getting. And in order to build something different, to to have true financial security, which is way more than just a math problem. Because I've met very wealthy people that experience no financial security. yes, I mean I people that are multimillionaires that that still worry about finances. So people who truly want financial security have to be willing to do something different. So
This book is not for everybody, but for those that are interested, they can they can get it through Amazon is probably the easiest place to get it.
Bernie (32:11)
Also host a show called the Blue Collar Millionaire Show.
Chad (32:14)
Yes, sir.
Bernie (32:15)
What's a scoop there? I I I figured out the blue collar part and it's not because you're wearing a a a a bluish colored shirt today, but what what's that all about?
Chad (32:23)
Well, so a lot of our a lot of the families we work with are blue-collar background. Not and it's not exclusive. we work with we work with a lot of executives, we work with attorneys and doctors, a lot of business owners, but even in the business owners, a lot of them are in blue-collar industries, a lot of construction workers, a lot of oil field in oil field support services, plumbing companies, electricians. A lot of our people come from a blue-collar background.
we work a lot of law enforcement, a lot of first responders, a lot of former military. But it's more the mindset that I'm the blue collar mindset is I'm willing to do relatively mundane things and do the mundane with mastery to execute basic stuff. It's not flashy, it's not exciting, it's not sexy, but do the little things behind closed doors that make a huge difference in the long run.
And the ability to do difficult things, to ability to to take on a hard job and to make sacrifices and to get a little bit sweaty and and muddy at times in the process. So that's just it's a it's a good kind of mascot for the types of folks we work with. Again, people come to us all shapes and sizes, but it's the that blue collar mindset that I think is a uniting factor.
Bernie (33:35)
If if someone's listening to this show and they're gonna say, Listen, what's the one principle that they should on about finance that that they should stay focused on? keep into that keep that fight going, so to speak.
Chad (33:48)
You're not gonna like this.
Bernie (33:49)
You never know.
Chad (33:51)
Sound too
simple. It's gonna to sound too simple. It's living beneath your means, leaving margin in your life. And when I say margin, and I say living beneath your means, please don't think I'm talking just about finances. Here in Western society, in the Canada and US, in most developed nations, people are maxing out their credit cards, their calendars, their waistlines.
We max out everything. We have no margin left and we wonder why life isn't going the way that it should. And people have to live with margin. And especially in finances, and I shouldn't even say especially, because it's so important all of those areas in your health, in your family. Margin helps you recover. Margin helps you have buffer when things don't go the way that they should. Cause it doesn't matter how much certainty you want. Life will always throw you curveballs. But just think of it.
purely from a financial standpoint. It doesn't matter how good your investments are if there's never enough money at the end of the month to feed them. And people focus way too much on return rate and they ignore savings rate, the rate at which I put money in my investments to feed them and help them grow. So your investments might perform outperform all your neighbors,
But if you have a neighbor that's diligently investing out of every paycheck, 10, 15, 20%, his personal performance will probably better than everybody else around him. Not because of his investment being better, but because his savings rate was better. Now you still have to match that with a good investment, but that's not the issue that most people are struggling with. Most people are spending money that they don't have on things they don't need to impress people they don't even like. And they're keeping up with the Joneses who
now aren't just the people down the street, it's people all over the world where you're through social media, you're comparing your average life with somebody else's best moment. And what it does is it creates a a terrible lack of contentment that makes it so hard for people to live beneath their means. So without margin, you you it is almost impossible to build a successful future. Now I can't guarantee you that if you have margin in your life, you will have a successful future.
But I can almost guarantee you that if you don't have margin, failure is almost inevitable.
Bernie (36:01)
I can understand that. It's almost like planting a crop. You gotta you gotta water it and you gotta tend or a garden, right?
Chad (36:08)
Well, people say again that that it's so simple. So yeah, yeah, live within your means, obviously. you gotta be able to s but like, well, everybody knows it, but nobody does it. So it's still the most important thing. And just like you people want to know, like, well, how do I lose weight? Well, you eat less and you move more. That's really simple. And there's four hundred different diets out there that would probably work and be fine for most people if they actually stuck to But we're always we're always looking for the easy button. And
Living beneath your means, having marginal life is difficult. And so rather than looking for the quick fix or the the miracle cure, yeah. Yeah, we need to be okay, let's let's do the tried and true, the stuff that's always worked, be different than our neighbors, make some sacrifices, produce some margin.
Bernie (36:51)
these are these are strong points to make and and val extremely valid. So someone listening to this podcast and they want to connect with you, what's that first conversation gonna look like? Is it like a 30-minute chat? Is it a 60-minute chat? are are they gonna do a lot of reflection or is it like what does that look like?
Chad (37:09)
So, what I would recommend for your listeners is to start with the end in mind. Think about kind of what I already mentioned. How much money would they need to sustain their lifestyle? And just think about it in today's dollars. Don't worry about inflation. We can help you figure all that out. How much money would you need showing up your checking account every single month to live comfortably? And then they can connect this. They go to Veritasalaska.com and
That is our website. We work with folks all over the US and we're happy to help. but if they if they schedule a retirement plan checkup and they can do that right from the website, we'll also send them a free book of Forging Financial Freedom to help encourage them along their journey. But if they have at least a target for what they want in income, and that target can move, that's fine, but but that's the starting place is coming up with at least.
an estimate for that number. And then we'll send them a link to one of our financial planning tools that's called the asset map. And that'll help them create a kind of a snapshot of where they are today. So we can talk about where they are, where they want to be, and start creating that course in between.
Bernie (38:13)
You survived carbon monoxide poisoning and lived to build a wealth management firm. So what does risks mean now? What does financial risk mean to you now?
Chad (38:23)
Man, so you're bringing this up just pretty deep in the interview to be bringing up that one. no, I'm I appreciate you mentioning that. That was yeah, I I was exposed to fatal levels of carbon monoxide that should have been fatal after 30 minutes, and I was exposed to it for 10 hours. And but I it is only by the grace of God that I'm alive. There's no medical or physiological reason for me to have survived that. So
Life is different for me. And I believe everybody says, every day is a gift. But when when you have an experience where you have been on the threshold of death, I think it it changes that a little bit. And and how it changed it for me is my life up to that point, Bernie, had been very selfish. I wasn't doing out go gone out and doing horrible things, but I was living it for Chad Hufford. I wasn't serving others around me. And to be honest, it scared the
Scared the crud out of me thinking about standing before my creator, giving an account for my life and all the opportunities that I had and not doing anything with them. So to me, risk is being held accountable for the opportunities and blessings and and provisions in your life and not being a good steward of those things. So I believe everybody.
Is here for a reason. And you are alive at this time in your community, in your circumstances, and an opportunity to serve others and make an impact and a dent in the world. And that is the biggest risk to me in life is living without that realization and just waking up every day like it's an accident. We need to live with purpose and intentionality. Money is just a tool that I use to help people do that, but it's so much bigger than that.
Bernie (40:00)
Chad, what? I the one thing I enjoy about doing these podcasts, even though some subjects I I know something about them, I always come away learning more. So I'm gonna say thank you right now. So I I just just so that. to to our audience, there's the book resource that Chad mentioned, Forging Financial Freedom. And so that's available. And of course he's also got his his podcast.
which is you out there called the blue collar millionaire show so listen to that get some tips there and you can email the team at veratis or dm them on instagram at Veritas.alaska mention the knack for business and they get a copy of the book out to you there might be a fee attached to it as and what just even go to veratis and i'm i'm probably saying it three different ways but it's spelled v e r I T A S.
than the word alaska.com. So all one word dot com. All right. to learn more about Chad and to find out about how you can actually build your wealth and maybe even be healthier out of the whole deal. And also like to send out a big thank you to Naomi Beres of Podcast Connections for introducing Chad to us. we really appreciate having her make these connections for us. So
Chad solves problems and most business owners don't talk about it aloud, right? Working and working hard, but still not knowing what the financial future is going to look like. So that's that's the path. And we've we've kind of touched on your personal finance, whether you're going to do a trust, you're gonna do it for your business. It all, it's all in that one package. All right. And Chad has a focus right now. He's he's he's realized the
Carbon monoxide poisoning. I'm going to suspect also with his daughter finding a guardrail. these things help bring that focus in even tighter, right? So money is not the end all be all, it's a tool. And that's that's kind of the key, right? It's it's about how you're managing things. So and it having that peace inside you. I want to say thank you to Chad. I want to thank you to the Knack 4 Business listeners. And check out our website, Knack 4 Business, K-N-A-C-K, the number 4 business dot com to reach us.
Use our chat bot on the bottom right hand corner. You'll see a question mark. And you can check out other podcasts and or book a call with us.