Special Honeymoon Episode & Early Retirement Workshop Announcement

Reserve Your Spot: https://grow.rootfinancial.com/early-retirement-workshop-friday-october-9th (use code OPTIMIZE2026)

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Ari Taublieb, CFP ®, MBA  is the Chief Growth Officer of Root Financial Partners and a Fiduciary Financial Planner specializing in helping clients retire early with confidence.

Transcript

Honeymoon Update And The Heat

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, we're back with a special honeymoon episode. I just got back from Paris, France. So I'm about to tell you guys all about it. And if you're wondering if we're still alive, the answer is yes, because you're here in this podcast. But if you're wondering if we were close to dying, I wouldn't say close to dying, but I would say not comfortable because it was so hot, literally record temperatures. And I want to tell you guys all about it. And you guys have been very kind to ask how has it been? So I want to tell you in this episode, I also want to make sure you all know this is a podcast-only episode that is not going on YouTube, so you won't hear this anywhere else. This is because I know I've changed the format of the podcast from more of just sometimes I used to do five, 10-minute deep dives on Roth conversion analysis. Then I started to do the interviews. You guys have shared you really resonate with them. And depending on what you're looking for, just send me an email, ari at rootfinancial.com. I probably, because I've now done over 2,000 YouTube videos and 500 podcasts, I've probably already done something close to what you're looking for. So if you're right now thinking, yeah, I just I don't know still about healthcare. How do I tackle that before 65? Should I let that be the one thing that's pushing back my retirement? Or I just got laid off, what do other people consider when they just received, you know, a letter that they've been laid off? And how do I make sure I prepare for this next stage of life? Do I work part-time? If you're listening going, look, I have $10 million. Are there people like me out there that are really still worried? And does it feel right that I'm worried? Because I have 10 million and I know I'm I should be grateful and I am grateful, but I also still worry because I have more than I ever thought I would know. Like those are very normal thoughts, and I've done episodes on all of those things. So uh one other thing I want to mention before I go through

Podcast Format And Email Help

SPEAKER_00 1:35

the real honeymoon, the juicy details.

Early Retirement Workshop Details

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Now, I have actually sent an email, so many of you would have seen this, but there's something I'm doing called an early retirement workshop. Now, who is this really for? This is for people who have watched my content for a while, they're not sick of my bad jokes yet, and they want to hang out with me for a day. Now, I sent out an email and I intentionally only had 50 spots available because there's gonna be a QA section. You're basically hanging out with me for a day. I joked to my wife, I said this is like retirement coachella, where you get to hang out with me for a day. There's gonna be a ton of fun stuff that I have planned. So really hope you guys can come. And there's only 50 seats, and so when we released this, it sold out within two days. And I was grateful because I want to be able to do this with all of you. And that was for September 18th. So that is sold out. So we added a new workshop for October 9th, of which there are 12 seats left. Now, if you're listening to this going, hey, I didn't even know about this, like, why didn't you tell me earlier? Get on my email list. This is how I'm able to send all of this to you. Now, if you're a member of my Early Retirement Academy, if you downloaded any of my free guides, I'm all about helping as many people as I can. So if you're listening, going, look, I already have an advisor, they're my best friend, I don't want to leave them. I love the content, but or even if you like the content, or even if you think it's just okay, but you know, I resonate with a lot of the messaging, awesome. Like this is a spot for you here. I by no means do I want any of you to feel forced. Hey, you've got to be able to, you know, pay for this thing. Or like if you want to listen to all my stuff for free, you can learn everything. This is an expedited way of learning everything, this workshop, because right now, if you look up healthcare video, you'll see I have a video on that. And then you look up conversions, then withdrawal strategy. And now you're trying to connect it all on your own. But if you just want to come one day, hang out with me, I'm gonna put a link in the description. So if you're listening to this on Apple or Spotify or Google or wherever you're listening, there's gonna be a link in the description where you can click in and book that workshop. And you will see that's, I hope, one of literally the best days of your life when it comes to retirement clarity because you're gonna leave going, hey, I know what I need to do to retire with confidence. I know when I can retire. And for most people, it's a similar, hey, thought process. How do I make sure I don't retire and get unlucky? How do I make sure I don't retire too early? How do I make sure I don't pass away with $10 million at the end? How do I make sure I don't overpay in taxes? Like we're going through all of that. And I send you a custom video. I go inside your academy. If you have already enrolled in the academy, if you have not, we make sure to get you all set up. There's so much that comes with this workshop. And it's just a one-day event. I don't know when we're gonna do it next, but because of the amount of interest we added an October 9th date. So if you want to book that, definitely do that

Paris Trip Begins And Expectations

SPEAKER_00 4:15

in the description. Okay, so I just want to tell you guys about France. And if you're expecting to get more details regarding conversions or healthcare, withdrawal or purpose or what have you, you I'll just save you the time. You can tune out, go watch great content on Apple TV. That's recently where I'm watching all my content. We actually binged uh your friends and neighbors, I think that's what it's called, on Apple TV. If you guys have seen that, send me an email as well and let me know what you think because it's just fun to get to talk to all of you guys. Or also I'm just talking to you know, outer space here. So, what did I want to start with? Because I had a few notes here, but right now, literally, I'm just was thinking I've got to tell all of you about the workshop who are unaware, and I gotta tell you about the honeymoon because many of you have emailed me. So the first thing is just obviously the heat.

Heat Stress And Dining Without AC

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Yeah, it was brutal. It was beyond brutal. Now, the the thing that honestly might surprise you is the worst part was going to the restaurant because there's no ACs there, you're eating and you're like kind of sweating. Now I know that's a super gross thought, but it's just it makes the whole experience so much worse when it comes to actually dining. So both my wife and I are like, why didn't we love the food? And we're like, it wasn't that good. I'm sure that's not it. I'm sure the food was good, but we're in a state of discomfort, and we would like go minutes without talking, and we're like, why are we not talking? And of course, we don't want to be the tourists that are taking out, you know, five fans and making that restaurant so loud that you can't even hear the music anymore because you're just hearing our fans. So we're trying to make sure we're being respectful, and at the same time, we're just in agony. I'm being honest. Like, it was we did a really short honeymoon for three days in Hawaii last year. So when we booked that, my wife Alice spent time in France when she was in college, and she now teaches right near UCLA, and so we live right near UCLA, and she has decided, like, hey, we've got to go back to Paris. I was like, Great, this is the trip we're gonna go. So we

Hotel Highlights And Business Class

SPEAKER_00 6:06

go, and not so it was hot. We stayed at a beautiful hotel. I will say, if you ever fly to Paris, like the only thing I can say is this is the hotel. The little details upon check-in, the little I'm a big infused water guy. So not just the variations of infused water, but when you check into this hotel, you really feel it is special. It was my first time ever flying business class. I've never done it. I've always been the person that's like, you know what? I just I can't sit with myself if I land and I just spent $3,000 knowing I'm in the same spot as the person next to me, and I was asleep the whole time, anyways. But my wife and I were like, it's our honeymoon, let's do it. Once, of course, we did it and was like, wow, this was so great. Like we got there, we were so much more refreshed. The jet lag wasn't the same. Are we gonna continue to do it? Probably not. Depends on the length of the flights. We're also not giant travelers, which I know is a big shocker because everyone travels, it feels like, but we just love our life at home so much. Like, I love playing soccer, I love doing everything early retirement related. My wife enjoys being a teacher, and at the same time, she really loves reading. So we're just fortunate that the things we love we can do at home

Food Wins And Tourist Moments

SPEAKER_00 7:13

easily. So, going back to Paris, we had one great meal at a local spot called Naruga, so N-A-Space-R-U-G-A. For those of you who are wondering, it was just one of those spots that you're like, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm in a movie. So that was beautiful, and we had like an amazing bolognese there, and my wife said she had the best tiramisu of her life. I don't like tiramisu, it's just a texture thing for me, but I know that puts me in in the weird category, which you all are probably very well aware of at this point. And what else do we do? Okay, so we we did the general, a few of the tourist things, but nothing crazy. I did a run to the Eiffel Tower. I w I just wasn't sleeping, so I woke up at five, ran to Eiffel Tower by like 6.30, because it's about an hour and a half from my actually what time? I think about six, it was about an hour, and I got there and no one was there at all. And I couldn't believe it because I just assumed the Eiffel Tower is the Eiffel Tower, everyone's gonna be there at all hours, but it was empty, and I was like, wow, what a wild feeling to be at the Eiffel Tower with no one else nearby. I am glad to be done eating croissants. I know this is gonna sound bad, but I miss the American breakfast. Like I'm such just like a basic eggs and potatoes guy, and they they you know have the croissants and all the fancy food. And so my wife liked that, but I'm glad to be back home where I have my easy to access uh water. I've got my tea, I don't drink coffee. Many of you are like, How do you have the energy you have without drinking coffee? I don't know what to tell you. Some of you leave very funny comments on YouTube or you'll email me and you're just like, hey, uh, what supplements are you on? I'm like, what are you talking about? They're like, Yeah, what supplements are you on to like have the energy you have to talk about this stuff? I'm like, oh, I just love it to like an unhealthy degree. That's just the truth. So pretty funny

Croissants Fatigue And Home Comforts

SPEAKER_00 8:56

that I'm in Paris. I'm thinking, of course, of like, oh my gosh, I'm traveling here. This is something you guys gotta know. I obviously couldn't help myself, so I asked a lot of people that look like they were retired, and I just said, hey, you know, are you currently retired? And some of the stories I heard were were very interesting just because it's not what I expected. A lot there's a big culture here in America of like, save as much as you can, make sure to put everything into your 401k that you can while you're working, high earning years, tax deductions. They just don't think the same way. It's not wrong, it's not better, but they just don't think the same way. They are about, okay, I want to make sure I can go out to eat with my friends, and that to them means if they're working longer, they're okay with that. So they're and obviously that's a generalization, but it was fun talking to locals there. What else did we do? Honestly, it was so hot. Like our schedule was wake up 5, 6 a.m., go for a long walk while it was cool, get breakfast, come back, take a nap during the day, read,

Retirement Mindsets In France

SPEAKER_00 9:56

like very basic, not like full of adventures. We didn't travel um anywhere outside of Paris. And then at night we'd go to a nice restaurant and walk around. It was still 90, 95. And then for those who are unaware, I'm a big soccer fan. So I Arsenal is my team, and so I wake up at 4:30, 5:30 in the morning most Saturdays when we're in season, which is August to May, and obviously the World Cup is going on right now. So we did get to go to a movie theater actually to watch Paris plays uh France play Senegal, and it was about 70% Senegal fans in Paris, and it was awesome. So that was a highlight of mine, on top of just quality time with my wife, of course. So I don't know what your love language is. Who's listening to this? I'm naturally a gift giver, that is my love language. My wife is all

World Cup Night In Paris

SPEAKER_00 10:48

well, she's all of them, to be honest, which is good. But the number one thing is acts of service, and then number two is quality time. So, for example, I bring tea every morning to her, and then quality time is just phones off and you know, strictly just talking tax strategy. No, I'm just kidding. But phones off, just hanging out and no distractions. So we find going on long walks is awesome at home, and we're like, oh, we're gonna do it all the time when we go to Paris, then we're in Paris and we're like, yeah, it's so hot. So we think the weather definitely altered, of course, how we viewed the trip as a whole, because we didn't give it 10 out of 10 vibes or anything like that. But if you want some more recommendations on where we went, experiences as a whole, let me know. If there's a spot that, or I'll let you know, excuse me, you can email me. Once again,

Love Languages And Quality Time

SPEAKER_00 11:33

ari at rootfinancial.com. I love getting to hear from you guys. So there were a few other spots. I won't go through all of them on this quick episode. And then if there's something that you're like, hey, there's one spot that I'm just telling you, like me and my family went to, and like I know you might not be big travelers, but this like changed my perspective on life. Like, let me know. I went to Indonesia uh two years ago with my dad, and that was eye-opening in the best way. I've never seen this amount of generosity, I've never seen this amount of humility. The way that they approach life, I just thought was so fascinating. So I currently use a lot of what I learned there

Indonesia Lesson And Being The Initiator

SPEAKER_00 12:11

in my day-to-day life when it comes to activation energy of just like how do you set up your life knowing what you want, how do you set it up? Not in like a woo-woo way, but an example of that is my nickname and my family is the initiator. So, for example, I like spending time with my family. I'm very close to them. My parents are about 40 minutes away, my brother is literally two minutes away, and then my other brother lives at home currently. So, what I am is the initiator in the sense that I pay for the family vacations or they do not occur. Now I get paid back, but if I don't initially book it, it just is not going to happen. And if you were to ask my family, do you all enjoy vacations? They would all say yes, but no one wants to make that initiation. So I really started being an initiator talking to someone in Indonesia who was like, Why don't you people in America like enjoy spending time with family? And I'm like, I think we do. They're like, okay, well then like get any weird selfishness or ego or validation or whatever it is that's holding you back from booking things with friends and family. And it doesn't have to be like going somewhere. It can be dinner, it does it can be whatever it is, just like initiate it. So with all my friends, I've found there's a lot of people that I want to hang out with. I believe they're thinking they want to hang out with me, I hope. And no one's initiating it, no one's starting it because lives get busy. So going and booking is my new thing is I just go book the restaurant. If I have to cancel, I can cancel the reservation. But like I've seen so many more friends just with this little shift to life. So I imagine right now there's a friend or someone in your life who you would like to talk to. But it's weird to be like, hey, you want to just like talk at 12 next Sunday? Like, yes, you could. And most of the time people go, Oh my god, that was so good. Right after you see them, you're like, that was so great. I love catching up. We should do this again soon. When does that soon happen again? Now, maybe you're like, it was great, but I don't need it to be that frequent. Okay, like my best friend now, I'll I'll tell him, hey, let's go get lunch, let's go play soccer, let's do these things. And he's like, Yeah, that sounds great, but if I don't book it, it's just never going to occur. And I know that. And I used to have the mindset of, okay, maybe he doesn't want to hang out, but that's not it. It's just he doesn't want to initiate. So I used to think, okay, if I initiate this time, maybe he will next time. Nope, he's just not an initiator, and that's totally fine because I love hanging out with him either way. So if there's something, I know that's not honeymoon related, but a little bit, I guess, with my wife, where when we went to Venice, um, when was that? Maybe a year and a half ago. When we went to Venice in Italy, it was also hot, so we've just not been lucky with weather or poor planning on our front. Ironic from a financial planner. But we got there and we didn't have anything booked other than a few reservations. We were like, we'll just walk around and find local spots. Oh my gosh, we were so wrong. And I can hear all of you like you literally didn't book reservations of what were you thinking? But no, that's true. Like, we didn't. We just thought, you know what, we'll get there and we're gonna find some spots and talk to locals. And I'm a very outgoing guy, so I enjoy getting to hear from people, and I don't want to book a spot that isn't what we think could be really fun or special. We want it to be very much a local experience, so we didn't, and that backfired because there'd be nights where it's like, yeah, most places are booked, and we didn't have great options. So, with that being said, for this trip, I was the one that took the initiative to go, you know what, I'm gonna book certain restaurants, and I had backups, and I was always making sure that we had a loose agenda that we could, you know, shift as we see fit. So that was really helpful. So, all that to say, if there's something to take away from this, I guess it would be try being the initiator, letting me know if you're like, wow, that felt weird, or you're like, no, that was actually really helpful. And the reason, obviously, I cannot not connect this back to retirement planning because it's just what I love to talk about, is you're not going to have the same schedule at

Initiating Friend Time Before Retirement

SPEAKER_00 15:55

work, which I'm sure excites you. But there's probably another part of you that maybe you haven't explored yet because you're not retired, or if you are retired listening to this, you can attest and go, yep, that is the case. Where you have it takes more effort to go hang out with people. Now I know you're not hanging out only with people at work, but for those of you who are going, well, I'm excited for this new life, I'm just gonna hang out with my wife, we're gonna travel, awesome. But it still takes more work, and I'm sure you're like, Yeah, I would rather take the work of setting up my retirement than working a job I don't want to do or whatever it may be. So I totally get that perspective. It's I guess me just saying there's a lot of people I talk to who do retire and they feel a little bit lost at the beginning, and it's because nothing due financial, it's purely, hey, I just don't really I've never had to kind of ask to a friend who I worked with, do you want to go hang out? Because it's already been set up for us. It's always, excuse me, been set up for us in a way that makes it natural. And so I imagine there's someone at work who maybe you're like, you know what, we do get along well, but we've never really hung out outside of work because that just isn't our relationship. And I'm saying if you really like them, make it your relationship and go tell those people who are most important to you. It could be family, friends, whoever, like, hey, I would like to see you more. Here's what I've planned for us. I booked a reservation for this date, or I've decided I'm gonna come over to your house at this time, confirm if you're available. I'm bringing X board game, I'm going to bring food. Um, do you mind having X, whatever it is that how you like to hang out with your friends? Because I just have found that to be a big shift in my personal life. So, with that being said, quick honeymoon episode, just going through the heat. Oh my god, I can still feel the heat as I'm recording this episode, even though I'm back in America. Of course, World Cup was fun and America is doing awesome, so that's

Workshop Purpose And Advisor Analogy

SPEAKER_00 17:48

been very fun. And then want to tell you about the workshop just because this is something I'm excited for. So October 9th, it's going to be a blast. I've been joking once again with my wife, retirement Coachella. The real kind of reason I'm doing it is because all of the advice online is siloed. It you have to look it up, it doesn't connect to your plan. And if you're in the I don't know phase of, yeah, I don't really know when I can retire. I know I want to, I just don't know really. What if I miss something? If you're expecting anyone, even a financial advisor, to go, you can retire on this date, then quite honestly, your your expectations are just they're off for what to expect from an advisor. Think about it like this. If you are, and I've hurt myself plenty of times, so I can very much um attest to this. Speak to this, should I say, if you're going to a doctor hoping they go you have to have surgery, I bet if a doctor told you, hey, you have to have surgery, you would go, No, I don't. I get to do what I want to do. But if you had an advisor say, you have to retire, you might go, Wow, I don't know if I want to retire, but that would feel good, that I could retire. So my point here is similar to a doctor, a doctor's job is to give you all the information so you can make the best informed decision. Hey, it's very clear I'm gonna have surgery because if not, I'm gonna be an exposition, or you know what, I have this thing coming up in the short term, so I'm gonna have surgery in three months, or I'm gonna try to do this non-invasive thing or less invasive thing before surgery. But they're giving you all the information. And you can say, hey, if you're me, what would you do? And that's a question I advise people to ask their advisor of if you're me right now, what would you do? Would you retire based on what you know of me? And there are certain advisors that are awesome that would say, Absolutely, I know you, you've been pushed back retirement for a year, the last five years, you're in a great spot. Consider this. And there's other people that I have spoken to who are advisors who I would say give a little bit less than optimal advice. That's me being nice here, who would say, hey, just, you know, uh, you're fine. I can tell you to retire, or just keep saving, like whatever you want. It's like, okay, well, that's not that helpful. So my point here is I'm not gonna be able to tell any of you, yes, go retire. No, you shouldn't retire. That's not my job. My job is to give you an understanding of all the trade-offs, all the levers so you can make the most informed decision. And if you come to this workshop, you will walk away going, I know when I can retire if I want to. I know I'm working because I want to, and I know I'm working because I have to. And I want all of you to know that when's the earliest time you're working because you want to. It doesn't mean you walk away. Many people think when I say, hey, you can retire early, that they do, but most people actually go, Wow, that's just comforting to know. It turns out I thought I hated my job, but knowing that I can walk away when I want, it makes me approach life differently. So come learn about healthcare, tax planning, withdrawal strategy, portfolio, everything

How To Join The Workshop Waitlist

SPEAKER_00 20:27

regarding what you need to retire with confidence. Tons of fun stuff is gonna happen on this date. And by the way, if it's sold out by the time you click on this or purchase or whatever, you see if it's sold out, I'm gonna host another one. I don't know when, but you can get on my wait list and you can just, if you want to make sure you're on the wait list, email me, ari at rootfinancial.com, put in the subject line wait list workshop. My team will know exactly what that's referencing, and we'll add you to the queue there. So when we do a bigger announcement, you are the first to

Wrap Up And Listener Feedback

SPEAKER_00 20:56

know. So that's it for this episode. And thank you guys as always for tuning in. And if there's anything regarding the content, the interviews, what you've seen, what you've liked, disliked, guys, this is your content, it's not mine. I just want to help you retire early with confidence. And so you can always email me, aria rootfinancial.com, and see you guys next time.