Alina Shcherbina: Ins and Outs of Setting Your Family Up for Financial Security After Your Death/Talking About the Hard Things

 SPEAKERS Brandy Von Holten, Alina Shcherbina, transcribed by Rhiannon Niemeier

 Brandy Von Holten  00:10

Welcome back to Big Boss Mare with Brandy Von Holten. Today I have someone by the name of Alina Shcherbina, and that is actually her name, it rhymes a little bit. So, Elena, do you ever have anybody say anything about your name rhyming all the time? [Alina: Oh, I get it all the time.] I was always worried about marrying a man with the last name of dandy or something, because then I would be Brandy Dandy. I used to do full contact fighting. One time it was Brandy versus Candy. That was our first names, but the last names were Von Holten versus Esparza. We sounded so much cooler by our last name, instead of our first names. We sounded like we were going to do mud wrestling or something. Okay. Alright, so I brought Alina on here because she's going to be talking about some insurances and investments. I know that doesn't sound like something that's like, “Oh, heck, yeah,” but this podcast is about planning. It's about a sisterhood that we are trying to make. My husband and I, with our business, we have to have so many insurances. Not just insurance for our facility, but then we have to have medical insurance and life insurance. I'm wanting to get a long-term disability insurance. Right now, if something happened and I died, sure David would be living a good life, but what if I don't die? So, I have to get long term disability. Also, Alina is going to be talking about investments. So, a lot of people might not be ready for investments, but there's always room for those. I know that one of my goals is to make money while I'm asleep. I want to make money while I'm asleep, instead of it just being an hourly wage. The American Dream that people think about, just work all of these hours, it doesn't leave you with enough money at the end of your life to be able to do things and take care of things. She's going to be talking to us about investments, because I want to be a Big Boss Mare. I want to have a second home. I want to have a home that is in Playa Del Carmen, or Costa Rica. We want to be able to have nice things in our life. I know that I cannot keep working at the rate that I am. That's not sustainable for forever. I need to get smarter. Having your money work for you is pretty cool. I brought her in here because she has all kinds of business insight. I like to tell people like the backstory. So, this podcast will be aired for years. But, right now, we're post COVID and I'm running for the Pettis County Health Board. That election will be in a few days. By the time you guys hear this, you'll either know if I made it on, or I didn't. There are a lot of concerned people about how things were handled.  I was looking for people that I could come and talk to at their business. We have a rough road in front of us, and there are a lot of people that are concerned. She reached out to me first. Whenever I was there, I was like, “Oh, what do you do?” We then got to talking about life insurances. It turns out there were some issues with mine and David’s life insurance. It was not working for us as well as what we thought it was. Whenever we called to get a copy of it, we were told no and that it would be $50. We could ask questions, but they wouldn't give us a copy of the actual policy. I was thinking, oh, oh, what'd you do? What are you doing? That has red flags all over it. Transparency means honesty. As soon as something or someone is not transparent and it seems like they're trying to hide something, it's because they are. When that happens, you need to put your running shoes on, pull your hair back in a ponytail, and you need to get the heck out of there. That was the feeling that I got with our life insurance. My husband was like, “Oh my gosh, I had no idea.” I'm over here wondering where the life insurance policies are. David and I have a very open relationship about when, not if. we die. With our business, something can happen. It's called accidents. I was like, we need to have a copy of our life insurance right here in a folder that's close. He had it in a box upstairs, behind some trophies, in a box from 2014, and he could only find one of our two policies. I was like, we need to live our life better. You know. David is 47, I'm 41 right now. Some of the people I went to high school with are dropping off, their time is done, and that's scary. I feel like we're just now finally getting a grasp on things, getting our feet underneath us. And it’s not a happy moment to be like, “Oh, let's go pick out headstones. And let's get life insurance ready.” But I do want to be prepared. With Von Holten Ranch, my husband is almost done building everything. Now this is going to make me sound like an evil woman. So, pay attention, especially if you're one of my haters that's listening to try to get some dirt. Listen up, girl, then go live your life better. But anyways, the job that I do, for example yesterday. Yesterday, I partnered with a business and I now have over 200 custom made brats coming for this event on Saturday. I made all the marketing material. I'm in these Facebook groups and shared it, I answered questions, I booked this massive kite event where these kites are larger than a semi. Oh my god. I've decided I'm going to sell the ability to come watch this circus in the sky to nine different businesses, and they can bring 100 people each. The only reason I'm doing that is because then those people know we exist. It's going to be affordable for them because I'm going to charge them $500, but they get to bring 100 people. Then I ordered 28 cases of custom ice cream. I'm also working with a photographer to be able to get her logo put on to a color change spoon. Then, I don't have to pay for spoons, but she does marketing and I do marketing.

08:06

That's awesome, great partnership.

Brandy Von Holten  08:08

Yeah. So, that's the stuff I did yesterday, My husband welded on a gate, but it took him all day long because it's a massive gate. With life insurance, if something happened to me, my job is going to be a lot harder to replace than my husband's job. I know that I can hire people to do welding and the maintenance on our place. So here we go, here's the evil statement: for our business purposes, I could live without him easier than what he could live without me. The business would continue without David. It would be horrible, and I would hate that, it would be awful. But for David, if he didn't have Brandy doing crazy stuff with kites, ice cream and brats, and making these events, it would be different. He doesn't even know our passwords to a lot of our Facebook accounts and stuff. So, I need to make sure that if something happens to me, if I'm on one of our crazy mules and I check out, I need to know that some things are going to get paid off. Then, he would be able to handle the ranch while he figures out how to do that on his own. I'm going to be devastated, David and I are like Dan and Ann from Where the Red Fern Grows. If one of us goes, I'm sure the other one will go not very long afterwards because we're so connected, but then I want to strangle him sometimes too. I think that's just normal marriage. But, life insurance, you need to know your stuff. You need to know where your policy is at, and you need to ensure you have a good policy. Something that Alina told me about was some life insurance policies have it to where, if you're in a car wreck, and it takes you more than 10 days to die, that they do not have to pay out then.

10:15

No, that'd be something like an accidental policy. It's no longer an accident if something happened in the hospital.

Brandy Von Holten  10:22

If I'm in a wreck, I know I'm going to be holding on. I'm so headstrong is going to take everything in the world for me to check out. I'm going to be fighting it. It might take me 11 or 12 days, but I'm going to be fighting it the whole way. The fact that if it takes more than 10 days it's no longer considered accidental, that's a big no.

10:46

The list of what they actually cover is so limited, they hardly ever pay out. That's why the policies are so cheap, you can get a ton of coverage for really cheap, and people think they're set. They think they have a great deal, but what's that great deal going to cover for you? What is it going to do for your family?

Brandy Von Holten  11:08

Right? My husband is the fourth generation to own this family farm, and it would just be catastrophic if we pay for this stuff every year, then find out that we aren’t really covered. It would be like two deaths, he would have to deal with my death, and then he would have to deal with the death of our family farm. That's like, dun-dun-dun.

11:40

I've seen it happen before. I've talked to people that depended on something like an accidental policy. What happened was, it was a heart attack, and heart attacks are not an accident. It was not covered. They got nothing out of it. She was losing the home. It was just devastating. She was like, “I don't know where I'm going to go. I don't know what I'm going to do.” It was it was a very sad experience, truly.

Brandy Von Holten  12:09

Before this year, before I ever decided to run for an elected position, I always thought that politicians were icky. I always thought that they had a hidden agenda. I also don't trust insurance salesman.

12:29

That's common in the industry, and there's a good reason for it. That's what I want to share with you, because I have a personal story of why I do what I do. Why did I even get into this? I didn't grow up, thinking, “hey, when I grow up, I'm going to be an insurance sales girl!”

Brandy Von Holten  12:47

That does not go along with like astronaut or a horse jockey, saying, “I'm going to sell insurance!” But it's changing people's lives. It really is.

12:55

The awesome thing is I don’t just handle insurance. I truly feel that I make a million-dollar difference in people's lives. I'll share with you what I mean by that.

Brandy Von Holten  13:12

I want them to know you first though. You are Russian right, or Ukrainian? [Alina: Yep.] Okay.

13:23

My mom's Ukrainian. My dad's from Belarus. That's kind of part of my story. I grew up here, I came here when I was four. I grew up in the US, but my parents came here, and their English was extremely limited. I come from a large family. So, my mom stayed home and took care of the kids all the time. She never worked outside of the home. My dad just basically took whatever jobs he was able to in order to support the family. Nothing that even offered a 401k or any retirement, not that he'd be able to understand that terminology anyway. That kind of stuff did not exist in the country where we came from, at least not for people on our financial level. We weren't wealthy people living in that country.

Brandy Von Holten  14:13

My family, we were in a single wide trailer for almost all of my life until we moved to Arkansas. When we moved, we were in a home that, after my parents sold it not too long ago, it had to be demoed. It had to be taken completely down. So, girl, “started from the bottom now we're here,” that's my jam right there. Yeah. So, you were talking about how your parents had limited English. I was born in South Texas, but then raised in Arkansas, and there are so many differences in language already. Now, my husband makes fun of me. I don't know why, maybe because I call a shopping cart a buggy. I’ll say, “Go give me a buggy,” and he's like, “What's wrong with you? Can you not talk?” Right? Or, growing up a stocking cap, the little cloth ones., my parents always call it a toboggan. Well, a toboggan is a sled. My whole family, whenever I go visit them, they're like, “Hey, give me a toboggan.” Apparently, there must have been a small something or another sold of those called a toboggan, and they locked in on that. My husband's just like, “Don't say those words in public.” So, even though I was speaking English, I wasn't speaking the English everybody else knew. [Alina: Your own kind.] Now I've lived in Missouri for a while, and you just moved to Missouri also. Didn't you live in Georgia?

16:01

I did live in Georgia. I started out in California, that's where my family came to when we moved.

Brandy Von Holten  16:08

We won't hold that against you.

16:12

Thank you. I look back now, I grew up in California, moved to Georgia. and when I go back to visit, I'm like, “How did I live here?” I love the southern hospitality. It's so true. I love living in Georgia. I love living here in Missouri now too, definitely, but that was that was something that, I go visit, but I don't want to move back to California. I'll go visit.

Brandy Von Holten  16:44

I've always wanted to go there, but I've never been there. I was supposed to. The closest I ever got was when I had a fight in Austin, Texas. Three days later, I was supposed to fight in San Jose, but I broke my hand. I even had it scheduled. I don't know, the world's keeping me away from California. Maybe I need to try to listen. So, tell me what got you into this. What made you get into insurance?

17:12

Okay, so I'll share that story with you. To help relate that. I want to start off with why you're running for your election right now, for Pettis County Health Board. So, like you said, you were in politics, you kind of thought like, oh, I don’t know, they're kind of dirty. You were always there, but the reason why you decided to step out, do something about it, and run for that office was really because you saw something that was wrong, that needed to be corrected. You saw people needed to hear the truth and know  what they can do about it. That's very relatable to why I got started in this industry. Like I had mentioned, I didn't always think I'd do this. When I was in my early 20s, I was already married, pregnant with my first child, and knew nothing about money. I was alright, we had some debt from the wedding and everything. Because my parents English was limited, and also because a lot of the financial things that we have here in this country did not exist there, financials were not something they could teach me about.

Brandy Von Holten  18:31

Like management of money and taxes?

18:36

Yeah. Which, they were good about not getting into debt. They didn't know how to get a credit card, they believe that they need to pay cash for everything to stay out of debt. They were great about that. But you know how it is here, the first thing you get out of high school, you start into college, and here's all these credit cards. Everywhere you go, you're bombarded with it. It's fun when you don't know what you're getting into.

Brandy Von Holten  19:03

I had that bug bite me whenever I was in college, I moved out from my parents’ house and within the first three years, I had 13 credit cards. I was like, ching, ching, ching, this is so much fun. I've gotten out of that, but I had to raise my credit score after that. I know credit scores now go up to 850. It took me years to fix that. Not that I didn't make the payment, it's just that I had so much open debt and then I had to pay some of them off. It was awful, it didn't feel real. So, I had all this debt so then I was having to make money to pay that. It felt like I was working for free. I had fun earlier, but boy, it didn't feel fun when it was time. It felt like robbing Peter to pay Paul. I didn't want to pay Paul, I wanted Paul to go away.

20:09

Right. That was my situation. I had a friend at church that asked me at one point, “Do you have any insurance? I see you guys are about to have a baby soon. Do you guys have any life insurance?” I looked at him and laughed at the question. I'm in my early 20s. I'm not planning to die anytime soon, what are you talking about? Looking back at it now, I realize how ignorant my answer was.  I didn't know the need for it then, like what's the point of it.

Brandy Von Holten  20:49

You don't want to leave those babies. You're already leaving them without a mama, you don't want to leave them with that gap.

20:59

Right. I have a lot of friends that I've made over the years that had lived through that situation. One of my friends out in California had a story of when his dad passed away with no insurance, his mom couldn't afford the kids. The court took them away and they were scattered and bounced around consistently. I think back, and it's emotional hearing his story. But I would never want my kids to lose either myself or their dad, and then not be able to be with them because of the money situation. At that point, I didn't know the need. But I knew that my parents had something. I told him, “You know, I know my mom and dad have some kind of insurance. I don't know what they have. I don't even understand how that stuff works. But if you want to come look at it and tell us about it, sure.” So, he came out and he's licensed in the area, he's looking at it. He says, “So you've never read this?” I'm like, no. Obviously, with my parents English, if they tried to read, they wouldn't understand what they're reading. Essentially, they were sold by an agent who speaks Russian and sold a product that my parents had no idea how it worked. I'm going to tell you a little bit what was in their mind, what they thought they had, then what they really had. That's what really sparked, “I'm going to do this, I'm going to get a license, and I'm going to learn this stuff.” So, what they thought they had. They applied for $25,000 in life insurance, they couldn't really afford much. So, they're like, if something happens to us, one of us is going to get $25,000 so we can do a funeral.

Brandy Von Holten  22:50

Cover the burial expenses, and then have just a little bit to get you going again.

22:54

Yeah. So, they had that $25,000 coverage. They also had a policy that is known as a cash value policy, something that's supposed to last them their entire life. that had a little cash savings account attached, that was supposed to grow at a decent rate. So, if they needed that money beforehand, they could use it. That's the way it's sold. What we had come to find out in reading the contract is, they're actually paying for two things, but they're really only ever going to get one.

Brandy Von Holten  23:27

So what does that mean? They were paying for two things. Okay, say it again.

23:33

So the type of policy they have, it comes in different names, but it works pretty much the same. It could be called universal, variable, indexed, flexible life, they have all these different names for it, but it's really your insurance and a little savings account bundled together. You're paying for two because some of your premium goes to covering your insurance and some goes into that savings account.

Brandy Von Holten  24:00

Just like in my mortgage, when I make one payment part of it goes towards the principle and part of it goes towards the interest. Okay, so it's one payment, but it's really two things.

24:10

They thought that, the way it's sold, if you need that if you ever run into like a financial rut and you need some money, then you can use that cash value for that reason. Sometimes it's sold as like, “Hey, you could supplement your retirement,” or, “Hey, you can send your kid to college on that kind of money.” It sounds like a good thing. If you're paying a little higher of a premium, it doesn't sound too bad because you're paying for two things. It's not just insurance you're paying.

Brandy Von Holten  24:44

It sounds logical.

24:48

But, if you really think about it, would you get a car insurance policy and attach a savings account to it?

Brandy Von Holten  24:55

No, no. That goes in to the other category of things I don't fully trust.

24:59

So, this is what they were sold. What happened is, as we were going through the contract, we realized that their cost of insurance was going up every single year. Now, mind you, they're paying the same amount of dollar. They're paying 50 bucks a month for the past seven years of this contract, right? But the cost is going up every year. And since the cost is going up every year, and they're paying the same dollar amount, at one point, what they're paying for the premium is not enough. When it's not enough, the company starts taking the difference out of that savings account to cover the cost of insurance.

Brandy Von Holten  25:36

Okay, you're saying that the amount that they were paying… How did it become not enough?

25:47

Well, because in the contract, there's a schedule that says, “Every year that you have this contract, your cost of insurance goes up because you're at higher risk.”

Brandy Von Holten  25:55

Okay. So instead of being $50, it's really going to be $56?

26:01

Yes, and in the beginning, it's not a significant number. But as you start climbing in age, it jumps crazy expensive. So the policy they thought would last them their whole life, like their kids would never have to worry about how they're going to bury their parents, was going to run out by their early 70s. It’s because the cost of insurance was eating their cash value, which would eat their policy completely. When the cash value is zero, the whole thing terminates. You can't have a policy with no cash value in it.

Brandy Von Holten  26:33

If you had a zero balance on that little bitty side savings account, then it was null and voided? [Alina: yes.] Ooh, see, this right here makes me want to fight because that ticks me off. There are so many people that don't realize all sorts of stuff. Do you know what it takes to learn? It takes some evil, evil things to happen to other people. So, you figured this out?

27:05

Yeah. The crazy thing is, what is often never told by the agent, is the cash value isn’t your money until you turn 100. Now it's until 120. That's when it's really your money. Before that, if you ever touch that money, it's going to be a loan, and particularly for my parents, it would be an 8% loan.

Brandy Von Holten  27:26

Okay, 8% seems nice, if but it's not

27:32

If you're not paying it back, you get interest on interest. Let’s say, they did borrow some money out of that, and there's interest on it now. Then, let’s say Mom or Dad passes. They’re going to say, “Well, you owe us this much plus interest, we're going to take that out of your death benefit, and whatever's left over, you get to keep.”

Brandy Von Holten  27:52

This story right here is why people don't trust insurance. So, how do people get rid of that loophole?

28:05

To me, that was a legal scam. I was upset that they did that to them, and honestly, most of the life insurance in the industry is that kind of insurance. It does everything for the company, it does everything for the agent who sells it, and nothing for the client. There is another product out there that is great for the client. The agent won't make as much money on it, but it's the right thing for people. That day, I learned about a concept that literally changed my life. They taught me about buying term and investing the difference. So, buy a term policy, because you can get a lot more coverage for a lot less cost, and invest in a real investment, in an IRA and a 401k, where you can get great growth. Don’t invest in a policy where you get maybe 3% or 4% that gets eaten up by all the fees involved in that concept.

Brandy Von Holten  29:02

A term policy means that you set the age at which you no longer have life insurance. So, my husband and I bought into this because at a certain age he's not going to have that big gap. Hopefully our business will get paid off and he won't need that surplus of money. Right now the reason he would need a surplus of money is just to get his feet underneath him because he wouldn't be able to do the marketing and the strategy things that I do to create events. So that's why he would need a bulk amount of money right now. But when we get older, he doesn't need that. It's just going to be burial expense.

29:48

And what you're talking about is also something that I had learned about, it's called the theory of decreasing responsibility over time. It may be the debt or liabilities. For my husband and I, in 35 years, my kids are going to be grown and hopefully out of the house. My house will be paid off, my business has paid off everything, and like you said, all I'll need money for is burial expense. Which, if I'm going to be investing correctly, I should have way over several million dollars in my investment account. If something happens to me or him, that's enough to do a funeral, and the rest of us, whichever one of us is still alive to continue to live. Insurance companies, a lot of them want you to think that you need insurance for the rest of your life, forever.

Brandy Von Holten  30:38

When I'm 70 I don't need a massive policy. I don't need that massive policy.

30:48

Right. You don't, and if we do our finances, right, we don't need that. The fact is that if you don't plan, and you end up still having a lot of those liabilities and stuff, then yeah, you will need some rhino insurance then as well. But that day, I also learned about what financial independence means and that everybody can achieve it. If you don't have a plan, you're never going to get there.

Brandy Von Holten  31:17

Okay, so you said the term financial independence. Boy, that sounds like, “Sign me up. I'll take two, please.”

31:27

Those were terms that I never heard from my parents. I was in my early 20s. Who in their early 20s talks about financial independence? At least not in my circle of people.

Brandy Von Holten  31:40

I think a 20-year-old is just like, “I want to go to Cancun this year,” or they're like, “I'm going to rule the world,” or, “I'm trying to get out of college,” or, “I’m having kids.” I don't see them saying, “I want to have financial independence.”

32:00

Yeah. And, what I had learned about that term is it just means that one day, I'm going to retire and never have to worry about going back to work because I need the money. I'm going to set aside enough to where I can enjoy my life and not have to worry about when my next check is coming in because I need to pay certain things off. I don't owe anything to anyone. I have money coming in, like you said, while I’m asleep. That is financial independence. I had never heard about that before, that was my first time I came across that,

Brandy Von Holten  32:38

 I'm wanting to have the books that I've written be able to be sold all the time. I'm also wanting my money that I invest to be able to be making me money while I'm asleep. That's what I mean by that, is whenever I'm asleep, I want to be able to make money. Struggling is overrated. I hate struggle, like today. I did a video about waste not want. I did a video of my boots of what it takes for me to replace a pair of boots. A lot of people love shopping, but I hate shopping. I hate spending money. But boy, it would be a nicer life if I didn't have to worry. You know what I mean? It would be nice if I had two or three pairs of boots but right now, I'm so frugal. It's exhausting. I wish I could be like, “It doesn't matter.” Tell us how to get to that it doesn't matter stage in our life.

33:46

There's a saying that goes, “No one plans to fail, most just fail to have a plan.”

Brandy Von Holten  33:54

Whoa, girl, okay, so hold on. Hold on. That's a good one. All right, say it again. [Alina: Okay, so no one plans to fail.] No, nobody ever plans to fail. [Alina: We don't wake up thinking, Oh, you're gonna fail today.]  I don’t wake up saying, “I'm going to start this diet, then tonight, I'm going to eat everything.” That would be so much fun, right?

34:14

But see, there's no game plan for the most part. That's why you can't get to where you want to get. Think about it, a lot of times we plan for our birthdays, or we plan for a wedding. A whole year is spent planning for one day that lasts a couple hours.

Brandy Von Holten  34:31

And it's beautiful, but it's a lot of planning. So here we go. What was this?

34:36

The point about this was that we spend all this time planning for one day, or one hour, or maybe a vacation. a one-week event. Then our retirement is like a 20 year plus event that most people don't take the time to plan.

Brandy Von Holten  34:53

I think our society, including myself, is just hard to plan for the long game. But not planning for that long, long game is so much fear. Whenever my husband and I used to go on vacations we didn't do all inclusive. Whenever we did start going to an all-inclusive, so all our meals are paid for, we didn't realize how much more relaxed we were when we knew that it was taken care of. The other day, whenever we switched our life insurance policies over with Alina, the fact that I knew that I'd be able to call and get a copy of my policy, the fact that I understood the policy better, it gave me a lot of security. It's crazy how stressed certain things make you; you didn't even realize that stress was there. At the end of the year, we used to have to pay almost $10,000 in commercial property taxes. Now, I have us on a monthly payment. So, this last year, whenever it came time for that big payment, it was already done. It was a big deal. It was horrible all year long, though. But then it was winter, and we were like, “Oh my gosh, we don't have to cut down walnut logs. We don't have to sell, we don't have to try to get people to do something and to send so much money right now.” That preparation makes you feel like this burden has been lifted off you. It's the same thing with meal prep. Right now I have a lady that I'm buying some meals from. I never realized how stressed I was about something until it was gone. It sounds so dumb, but the fact that people are not preparing, and they think that they're going to start it later. But if they start later, they're not going to be able to have that big compounding.

37:05

it's really time in the market, time in. That's a common misconception. People are like, “Well, I have to time it to get in and get out.” No, it's time in. The sooner you start, the better off you will be because you have more doubling periods in your lifetime. It’s really sad to see people in their later 60s and 70s still having to work because they need to make ends meet. I saw the way my parents were in their retirement. I love my parents, but I don't want to live like they did. I want to do better for myself, and they brought me to this country so I can do that. So why not, if I have the ability to get the knowledge, get the licenses, understand what I'm doing. I'm going to do it. I'm going to teach my kids to do that since now I can do it.

Brandy Von Holten  38:02

I want to do better than what my parents did. My parents work so hard. Now they're in their 60s. Everybody thinks if you work hard during your life that it's going to magically take care of itself. It's not, my parents are struggling. My mom is working right now, and then my father, his health is either great or it's failing. They're not set up for long term, they're not set up for living. That's some scary things to say. But I want to do better. I know that you were talking about your dad, he had to work to make ends meet. My dad has worked so hard that he's trashed his body basically. His knees are just messed up. He's had shoulder problems. Their bodies are ran ragged, and now they don't get to stop using those ragdoll bodies. They can't enjoy and just relax. There's no enjoy. They must keep going. So no, I don't want that. My husband, he's had seven knee surgeries. He's ragging that body out. He's had to risk surgeries. Everything that we do, like even the way that we put up our hay, is evolving. I don't know if you know anything about hay Alina, but you have to have hay for winter. If you don't prepare correctly then your animals are hungry. We used to have to cut the hay and then bale it. Then when it's in bales, we would have to stack those bales and go around, load them onto a trailer, move that trailer somewhere so we could keep it dry, unload it, and stack it into the barn. Whenever we go to feed it, we'd pick it up to feed. So, we're touching this hay like, five, six times, right? We're touching this hay. But now we know that we're getting older, and we have what I think is called an accumulator, that can grab the hay and stack it onto the trailer. Then we can grab it with that machine, and stack it into our barn. Now we only have to pick it up once; we only pick it up when it's time to feed. That preparation, that took us a long time to get to that point in our life to be able to do that. I don't know why people aren't like, ”Hey, I need to put back a little bit so I can get prepared for retirement. Why do you think that is? Why do you think people put it off, are they just not into reality?

40:55

I think the biggest issue is that we don't have very good financial education in this country. They don't teach you stay out of debt. There's something called a banker’s rule. It talks about how to make sure that the interest you're getting is going to double your money for you. When I learned about that, that blew me away. I thought, okay, when I start my investment, I'm going to have plenty of years ahead of me. I'm going to start off with understanding why the rate of return is so important, because that's going to be a million-dollar difference.

Brandy Von Holten  41:36

And everybody thinks a million dollars is a lot. It's not. Imagine saying that to someone right now that, let’s say, makes $35,000. Here we are saying a million's not enough. That seems really hard to choke down.

41:55

Yeah. But see, people don't realize that. Let's say I want to retire in 30 years and have want to have $30,000 a year coming in 30 years from now. I'm going to need about $70,000 to live that $30,000 type of lifestyle today. In order for me to pull that for about 20 years of retirement, I need to have a million sitting in that IRA by the time I hit my retirement time. It's not that we're trying to be excessive, it's you do need a million at least. If you start sooner, that's very doable,

Brandy Von Holten  42:29

I think you knew that I used to be a science teacher, I used to put this big picture of this elephant on the wall. I would have everything I had to teach put on another little piece of paper. It said, “How do you eat an elephant?” And the answer is, “One bite at a time.” So, after we would complete a unit, I would put a fork on that little piece of paper. By the end of the year, they were like, wow, we achieved this. There were nearly 120 things I had to teach them in a school year. There were more things I had to teach them than there were days of actual school when we can actually teach things. People don't understand that these little bitty steps are what matter. Consistency is going to make it where they can have this financial independence. I want to lose 100 pounds. I can’t say, “I will lose 100 pounds,” and boom. No, it's going to have to be me making choices at every meal, every hour. It's going to take this consistency. We know that the tortoise beat the hare, and you're talking about the biggest tortoise of all, that people need to get started into the race, which is investments for their retirement, paying off debt, making sure you have life insurance? If you do not have life insurance, and you don't think you can afford it, you cannot not afford. If you have children, if you have a significant other, you need to have life insurance, and it's not that much per month?

44:37

No, it's really affordable. In most cases, it's less than a cellphone bill. I always tell people it's the one and only bill that you will pay that will step in and take care of the rest of your bills. None of the others will do that for you.

Brandy Von Holten  44:51

Oh, see, that's smart. Because if something happened, that money would pay everything, the rest of the bills/

44:57

Yep. People will say “ I have my phone bill, my TV bill, I've got all these different things I'm trying to pay off.” I'm like, “I see what you're saying. But if your income is gone, what pays for all that? How's that all going to get paid? Is it just going to get passed on to your spouse or kids or whatever?”

Brandy Von Holten  45:15

What I have found is that people make money and time for things that they want to make money and time for. I wanted to go to the Olympics, I literally moved to this state to train with a person so I could try to go to the Olympics. I could have said, “Oh, my gosh, it's too big of a goal. I don't have enough time. I don't have enough money, I'm not good enough.” Or I could just shut up and do it. I ended up not making it to the Olympics, but I did some amazing things. You don't have to be perfect on stuff. But you need to sit down and talk to someone and find out what it's actually going to cost you and what it actually does. You can buy a smaller policy. Alina, if they wanted to talk to you, how do they find you? This last name, Shchberina. Underneath her name, I have share-bean-a. Shcherbina. It is not spelled that way at all.

46:28

No, has a crazy spelling.

Brandy Von Holten  46:29

So it's S H, C, H, E R. So that has to be the share. And then the Bina is B I N A. So, S H c H E R B I N A. So how do they find you?

46:52

I have a local branch location in Sedalia, I'm going to tell you my address and phone numbers. The best way to reach out is just either pop by our office or give me a call. I understand you have a lot of listeners out of state. I am licensed in eight states for investments and five states for insurance. I've been doing a lot of zooms because a lot of states are watching.

Brandy Von Holten  47:14

Wait, hold on. You said eight states for investments and five states for insurance. [Alina: Yes.] Okay. So eight and five. I see all of you in Ohio that have been listening to me, and I see all of you in Washington State. Florida is a huge listener to me, and Texas, and then Maryland. Hey, Maryland, I see you. It's really hard for me to like, color in your state. I have a state map for every podcast that I do. So do you have your states?

47:53

I do. I have Missouri, Georgia, California, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington.

Brandy Von Holten  48:02

You have Washington.

48:03

I do have Washington. I family in Washington.

Brandy Von Holten  48:07

Hey there Spokane. I saw you the other day. I saw you listening to my stuff. Then South Carolina, I hardly have any listeners in South Carolina, but North Carolina they listen up. Well, I think they must like my twang

48:20

I’ll be sharing this podcast with all my South Carolina people. And then for the insurance. I'm in Missouri, California, Georgia, Kentucky, and Washington as well.

Brandy Von Holten  48:34

Okay. Say those again for the insurance?

48:37

Missouri, California, Georgia, Kentucky and Washington.

Brandy Von Holten  48:41

It's like the weirdest combo in the world.

48:43

I know. It's where my family is, that's why. To me, if I can help people that are most important to me I mean I love everybody, but my family they has to know this stuff. You know.

Brandy Von Holten  48:56

So for my Big Boss Mare’s, I'm going to talk about the day that I went in to meet with them and shared my mission with being on the health board and stuff. I want you to realize that she's just a regular mom just messing up every day, requiring forgiveness. So her daughter had smashed the living bejesus out of her finger. While we were there, she got a phone call because her son forgot his lunch. So she was like, can you share your lunch with your friend? We have a term around here called a mama-preneur. So here's like a high achieving female, rocking and rolling. We just fail forward, right? We don't ever fail. We just fail forward. You just keep on going. But I was just like, look at you, girl, you’re struggling today?

49:58

Yes, that it was one of those days. I'm like Johnny, I'm sorry, baby. Uh, can you share with your cousin who goes to the same school? Like, I'll pack extra next time.

Brandy Von Holten  50:11

You just have to laugh about that stuff, though, because we're all human here. We're all just trying to look out for our families. As females, that's what we're designed to do is to look out for people. If you don't get some life insurance, you're not going to be able to look out for people. Do you sell long term disability or just focus on life?

50:35

No, that's one thing that we do not cover.

Brandy Von Holten  50:39

Which is fine. I had someone look through my stuff and that was the only hole that we had was long term disability.

50:52

I can look into connecting you to somebody that does, because I know we used to be able to offer that. Then the company that we worked with, we just lost the connection and decided to go with someone else. But I know some people that I can connect you with to get information on that for sure.

Brandy Von Holten  51:17

So the people that I bring on to this podcast, I want people to realize like, it's Big Boss Mare with Brandy Von Holten. I put my name out there. I'm not going to connect you with somebody that's scamming you. I've done business with them and I'm not going to be scammed. You need to know your person. That's just like my bankers. I bank at three different banks. I know them, they know me, they look out for products that would help me. I know my bankers. I did not realize there was such a hole in the life insurance. But now, I feel so much more secure. It's going to happen one of these days. If it happens, then it gives me a lot of a lot of security, knowing that things will be taken care of. It’s nice to know she forgot her son's lunch and he had to share, because it's just human. You know what I mean? She's not going to mess up on your insurance. I'm just telling you that because I want you to relate to her. My husband's a good ole boy, he's a country boy. He's fourth generation German, but he's all country, welding, all that stuff. When I told him I was inviting Elena over to look at our stuff, y old bear was growling, right? Oh, I didn't call him old. I meant “ole.” Whenever she was here, and was able to talk to him, he was like, “Okay, we're going to do this.”  The fact that he found value in it whenever he was like “we already have life insurance. You already paid it. You already did all this.” But, there were holes. My man, my husband, is a man of few words. Whenever he says that he likes something or dislikes something, it means a lot. Girl, you should hear him talk about his garage doors that he bought in Sedalia, he's like all these move up and down so well, and look how good it locks. Whenever that man puts his stamp of approval on something, it means something. Whenever he tells me I look good, I'm like, oh, I must look really good because usually he doesn’t say anything. So anyways, okay, so how do they get in touch with you?

54:06

I'm going to give you the address to my local office and also give you my phone number. Like I was saying, I've been doing a lot of zooms with people because you know, they're not able to get out. So, I'm going to give you that information. My office number is 660-851-0801 again 660-851-0801 and we're located at 1313 West 16th Street, Suite 100 Sedalia, Missouri. 65301.

Brandy Von Holten  54:48

If one of my listeners is like, “how do you get in touch with that life insurance girl?” I'll be able to give them your phone number. I have several, like artists and things like that, that just remember a topic. If you weren't able to get that wrote down, make sure and just reach out to me.

55:16

I want to end with this, finances don't have to be complicated. I know, the industry likes to make it sound like, oh, you need all this, and that, and this degree in whatever to be able to understand this. To me, the most important thing is that my clients understand exactly what they've got and that it is going to get them to their goals and dreams. I like to simplify it and use examples that I use with my kids. I teach them about investing now, too. I can't say these hypothetical crazy words, I have to use stuff that they could understand. A lot of the industry likes to use these jargons just to look smart and make it complicated, but it's not.

Brandy Von Holten  56:00

If they can't get you to understand it, then it feels like they're trying to pull something over you, they're trying to push something way too fast and make you feel like you're a little bit less so you should agree with them because there's so much smarter than you. I'll be the first person in the world, even on this podcast, I'm like, “Hey, say it again.” With our mortgage, I was like I need you to say it in a different way. Don't say the same words, but say it in a different way, and they were able to do that. That's the same thing with horseback riding lessons. If you don't understand what I mean, you're on an animal that weighs 1000 pounds. If you don't understand, they're a bunch of ding dongs, they're so goofy. But if you don't understand something, and somebody answers you and you still don't understand, you have to speak up and ask them to please say it differently. Please give me an example. Do that again. And if they can't, then stop, because there's a problem. Okay, so her name is Alina Shcherbina.

57:10

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me on. I appreciate it.

Brandy Von Holten  57:13

All right. Y'all have a Big Boss Mare day. I'll see you next time and thanks for tuning in.