Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Mike Milligan, Founder of 1 Oak Financial Discussing Your Retirement CHI

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Mike Milligan, a Certified Financial Planning Professional, author, podcast and radio show host, and university lecturer, brings 26 years of experience to the financial planning industry. After beginning his career in large banks and insurance companies, he founded his first firm 15 years ago with the belief that “everyone is One of a Kind; and they deserve a One of a Kind Financial Plan.”Challenging the “One Size Fits All” approach to financial advice, which he refers to as “Retirement Déjà Vu™,” Mike developed The One of a Kind Financial Plan™. This comprehensive plan addresses taxes, retirement income, investments, long-term care, and legacy, enabling clients to live a “One of a Kind Life.” Recognizing the need for a clear retirement vision, he then created Retirement CHI™ to supplement the plan. This innovative approach focuses on community, health, and impact, further reducing stress for his clients. Mike leads a team of over 20 professionals across the United States, including Hawaii.Learn more: http://www.1OakFinancial.comThe information provided is for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice. Information is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. Neither Mike Milligan nor his guests are liable for the use of information discussed. Always consult with a qualified investment, tax, or legal professional before taking any action or schedule a meeting with Mike Milligan.Annuity guarantees are based solely on the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuing company. Individuals should thoroughly review the contract for specific product features and costs. Income payments and withdrawals from deferred annuities are generally taxable as ordinary income in the year they are taken.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-mike-milligan-founder-of-1-oak-financial-discussing-your-retirement-chi

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of influential entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have back with us, Mike Milligan, who's the founder of One Oak Financial, and we'll be talking about your retirement team. Mike, welcome back to the program. So glad to be here, Mike. You know, I always love your perspectives on topics that you have spent decades perfecting and polishing and learning how to guide your clients with these methodologies. And I'm excited to learn about your retirement chi.

And I think before we dive into that, first let's just define what is retirement chi. Well, you know, retirement deja vu is having the same experience over and over again where it's all about the investments and not about you. Well, retirement chi is really about building a vision for retirement. See, Chi, CHI is a foundational concept in Far East philosophy, traditional medicine and martial arts referring to the vital life force or energy that flows through all living things in the universe itself. The term literally translates as breath, air, or vapor, but its meaning extends far beyond the physical act of breeding.

While Chi is a central concept in Eastern traditions, it does not have a direct equivalent in Western science and its existence is often interpreted metaphorically as the sum of biological, psychological, and energetic processes that sustain life. Retiring is often stressful because it represents a major life shift that disrupts familiar routines, roles and support systems even for those who are financially prepared. The most common source of this retirement stress include financial concerns because many retirees worry about whether their savings will last, how to handle unexpected expenses, market volatility, rising health care costs, and inflation. Even those with substantial assets can experience anxiety about outliving their money or making poor financial decisions under stress.

They also feel the stress because of loss of identity or purpose or fear of the unknown, loss of routine, loneliness and social isolation, health concerns, and relationship changes. Well, that psychological impact of retirement is often underestimated. And while people plan carefully for the financial aspects, especially when they come in and they tell me about the retirement, deja vu, they feel with other advisors, they often overlaugly. look the emotional and social adjustments required. This can lead to the feeling of depression, anxiety, and even grief for the loss of their previous lifestyle.

See, retirement chi is the way to build a personal retirement vision that can give peace in times of extreme stress. You know, I love how you're touching on that emotional thing, because I know that there's a lot of research even that ties into when someone retires. statistically, they feel like, wow, what am I here for? And I used to get up and go to this job and do this project. And now their lifespan can diminish because of that. But if you can know that going in, like what you're talking about here, that's going to help that out.

So with that thought in mind, how do you help your clients put together and map out that retirement vision that will actually reflect their values, not just numbers on a piece of paper? Yeah. So the retirement chi in my world stands for community, health, and impact. See, mapping out a retirement vision that reflects your values starts with digging deeper. What really matters to you beyond dollars and cents? According to a 2024 Merrill Lynch study, 72% of retirees say that having a sense of purpose and community is more important than their financial wealth alone. When financial plans incorporate personal values,

client satisfaction and engagement go up by 25%. That's why we use value assessments in creating what your community will be in retirement, how you will focus on your health, because when you don't focus on your health, it will become your focus. And then the third is what impact will you have in retirement? Because when you retire, it doesn't mean you retire from impactful conversations or imploring wisdom of your years of experience on others.

The impact goes, can continue and really can magnify in retirement. So we build a plan around your unique vision, which is your retirement chief, not. someone else's templated investment philosophy. You know, that's so huge. And I think that the feeling when kind of getting back to that word of motion, the feeling that your clients must feel when they see that blueprint laid out and feeling different than, you know, that templated cookie cutter, here you go and hoping for the best, one of the things that makes me think of is when you sit down with them and you're talking

about what it looks like for their community, their health, their impact. How do you help them define what success is? Because I would venture to say that this is one of the first times that they've been considering that in their career as it relates to their retirement. Yeah, because most people have these three elements as a focus of their job, right? When you are actively employed and engaged in a job, your community happens to be, you know, the people you spend most of the time with, or your coworkers, or your clients, if you're a small business. Your health is done because you have an annual physical. Maybe you go to the gym, you know, and it's done. It's kind of secondary because you don't have as much time to focus on it.

But it is there in your day-to-day life. And the impact is really the outcomes from your work performance. And so there's this huge transition, right? This huge transition of what is my retirement job description going to be? That's why we put, retirement chi in play for them. That's why we talk about that vision up front because your community health and impact are really defined for you when you're working. Now when you transition over to the other side, people forget to create the same retirement job description.

And retirement chi is your retirement job description. And when we focus on your community health and impact, they aren't just nice to haves. They are the foundation of a fulfilling retirement. Yeah, and I love that point that you're bringing up there because I think when you can, you know, whatever your career is, you could work for McDonald's for your career, but you still are familiar with the word job description. And if you retire and just go, okay, here comes golf for the rest of my life or here comes fill in the blank. But if you put that job description in place, that's kind of like, oh, I can relate to that. And then, okay, tell me what to do.

Oh, for this next quarter, I'm going to. So what are some of those aspects that you're helping your clients build for their retirement so that they're really clear on that role? Because I think that when you can proactively focus on these things, relationships, purpose, wellness, community health, impact, now all of a sudden here comes that holistic approach to not just numbers. But what role does that play for them and how do you help? them really articulate that really well.

Well, let's give some examples of each. So like when you really set down and defined your community health and impact in retirement, well, let me give you some examples of my 26 years of what people have defined their community to be. So a community can be literally the group that you go play to golf, play golf with. It can be a book club. It could be more time with your family. It could be more time with your spouse. And it could be I'm going to invest my community time into my grandkids. Right.

So see, the community aspect is really people centered. How am I going to mentally engage and emotionally give my time to people that I ordinarily would have been my coworkers? Right. So who am I going to engage with from a community aspect? Others, that could be their church. Others, it could be, you know, a lunch group of former co-workers who have also retired. So community is about people. Then the health is when you all of a sudden retire, every day is a Saturday, Mike.

Yeah. You know, it just, when you don't have that, I got to wake up at six. I got to, you know, be dressed by seven. I've got to be in my car by 730. They're going to be to the office by 8. When you don't have that any longer, your health. can slip quickly. You may end up sleeping more, which is not a problem when you're working.

You don't want all of a sudden to start sleeping 13 days and taking two-hour naps. That's not really good for health because you will literally decay right there in front of your loved ones. So your health, I always say you have to focus on your health and retirement or it will become your focus. And what I mean by that is, you know, a lot of people who retire can now go get 10,000. thousand steps a day. A couple of walks around the block with a dog or a loved one. They can take up

hickle ball. Instead of taking the golf cart, when they go play golf, they can now pull a bag. The health is about creating vitality and energy for daily

activities. And when we focus on our health, when we, you know, stats have proven over and over, if you build strength, even, you know, if you lift weights and build strength even in retirement, you're extending your life. You know, an hour of high intensity interval training, a workout will add three hours to your

life. So, you know, you're training one hour of work for three hours of life. And there's so many studies around health. And, you know, we are not, I always talk about financial planning and retirement. I'm not a health coach. but I know that if you don't focus on your health, you are going to have to spend more time in hospitals and doctors offices or maybe even at the end

in a nursing home. And nobody really wants that. Which then brings me to the last part. And this is, the most fun I have in building retirement chief for people is getting their eyes to light up when we talk about an impact. Because people are results driven. we all are. You know, the part of being a one of a kind person, and I don't care who you are,

everyone is unique. You know, Mark Twain says, be yourself, everybody else has taken. Yep. Right. The beautiful thing about being a one of a kind person, and when we start talking about impact, this is where passion comes into retirement. You know, for some people, it is, the passion is maybe starting and leading. a book club. For others, it's mentoring young girls in high school, right? You know, I have a

client up in Washington, D.C., who graduated from an all-girls school, and she wanted to, in retirement, mentor young high school girls in today's tough times. For others, the impact may be spending time every day with their grandkids so that their children do not have to pay for daycare. For others, impact could be leading a Bible study. It could be engaging with the next generation to help impart wisdom so they don't have the heartaches that you had. And for others, it could simply mean going to volunteer, either in an environmental calls, at a hospital where, you know, nurses are understaffed, maybe in a classroom in the public schools where our teachers can use, can use all the help they can get more hands, make the load lighter.

And so impact is one of those things that light people up about retirement. And when we build the retirement chi that focuses on your community health and impact, it then will alleviate a lot of the stress that comes with making the great jump from worker to retiree. You know, before I move to the next question I've got for you on a really unique term that you call geographic arbitrage. What you just said there makes me think of something that I feel is super important, which is when you're punching the clock and you're going to work and you get up in six and you're at the work by eight, you're doing these projects and you see those results and then

you retire, all of a sudden that job description changes like we said. But if you have that chi community health and impact in place, you still are not going to be doing as many things during the day and the week and the month and the quarter. but if you shift your mindset to that impact and go, I might have not have done 14 things today, but I made this difference in this person's life. I would venture to say that that mindset shift and you can hang your head on,

yeah, I made that impact today. Tomorrow I'm going to make that impact. I'm going to spend that time with family. I'm going to volunteer at that nonprofit. I'm going to start that Bible study. All of a sudden now you're getting that fulfillment. It's just in more impactful ways versus knocking off to-do list at the job.

It is. And I feel so powerful and so strong about retirement chi, we've trademarked the term. We're also writing a full-length book just on retirement chi, how to build a vision. So we're going to go deeper in that book, specifically on questions and exercises that you can use to build the vision for your community. We're going to put stats about your health to hopefully inspire you to get more physically active when you can in retirement. So your health span and your lifespan come closer together because health is the new wealth, Mike. We are living longer, but it doesn't mean we're living healthier. So the last part of that book is going to be like stories of impact, where you can get involved so we can inspire.

So that's going to be a full manual on how to build a retirement sheet. But I will tell you, right, this part of that this is the part that is missing when I hear the stories of retirement deja vu over and over. Because retirement deja vu is Wall Street insurance companies and financial markets getting their stories to you, no matter what you're saying. You know, they're getting their story about how they can help you in their, their own way without really listening to you and you're going to have the same deja vu retirement experience that others are having around the country. That's why we want to be retirement chief first, and then we can move on and create a unique one-of-a-kind financial plan for you. Yeah, love it. So let's get to that term that you use called geographic arbitrage.

I love the sound of that. Define that. What is geographic arbitrage? And then how do you guide your clients to understand what it is to stretch their dollars to reach their dreams to achieve that retirement sheet. So when we're building retirement chief and building their vision out, we do introduce some terms. Geographic arbitrage is one of them. And it's moving to a lower cost area while maintaining your quality of life. It can make your retirement dollars go a whole lot farther. Now, what, you know, we're already talking about retirement being the most stressful time, you know, of your end of life, right? Because there's a lot that comes along. We're talking about building peace and you're saying, now, Mike, you're going to make

us move to. We're going to leave the home that we have built all of our dreams and our hopes in. Well, retirement can be a brand new experience. It can be a renewal of yourself. yourself once you have a vision built. And so, you know, the geographic arbitrage is a fault, not for everybody, but for many, because according to a 2025 Kiplinger report, retirees who relocate to states with lower taxes and living costs can reduce their expenses by 20 to 40%. Creative planning means factoring in health care access, community ties, and tax implications. So tools like cost of living calculators around the country, a tool that we have, the health analysis and longevity optimizer to show you like end of cost, health care costs in varying states. And then tax analysis software that shows you where tax benefits are available can help you make informed decisions that aligns.

both with your lifestyle, your financial goals and ultimately your retirement chief. Yeah. You know, I am familiar with the term arbitrage in business. Like you buy something for a dollar and you sell it for $2 or, you know, whatever the case is that way. But geographic arbitrage, I've never heard of that before, never thought of it, but it makes total sense, you know, similar to what you hear some people saying, oh, good move to this country because the cost of living is so much lower and whatnot. But geographic, you might find that living in a smaller town gives you better community opportunity to make that impact that we're talking about. And I'm confident that many people, some people would say, yeah, but, you know, my grandkids live in this area and we don't want to be too far. And that's wonderful.

Like you already said, Mike, you're not going to, this is not going to be the choice for everybody. But share an example of someone that took advantage of this. And some of those relocation lifestyle costs were kind of shifted. gave him a little bit more that that freedom. Well, we have been relocating people in the United States that have been in retirement for the last 50 years. I mean, think about the hot area for people to retire to, Florida. Okay, people from the Northeast have been moving to Florida. People from the Midwest have been moving to Nevada and Arizona for decades.

And they do that for really for better climate and for no state income. tax. Okay. And so imagine living in New Jersey where the state income tax is nine or higher or living in New York City where not only you have a state income tax, but you can have a city tax. And then going now down to Florida where, you know, instead of paying state and city taxes, you now have zero. Now, the real estate taxes are higher, right?

We do know that. But geographical arbitrage is basically just about locating in a place where, where if it aligns with the community you can build, the health you want, and the impact you can have, can make your money stretch farther. And so when we're building a one-of-a-kind vision, when we're thinking about the vision for retirement,

yes, retirement chi is inwardly focused to reduce your stress, but when we then turn and start applying it to building your one-of-a-kind financial plan, we will at least explore what if there is a geographical, arbitrage available for you. To give you one more example of a geographic arbitrage, I will give you a client example. Imagine what a

4,000 square foot house cost right now in New Jersey. I mean, it can easily be, if you're close to the city, it could be one to two million dollars. Imagine what that same house costs in Greenville, South Carolina, or

Birmingham, Alabama. Yeah. Or Gulfport, Mississippi. The third of that. Right. Right. And if you can get to a point where you can take equity of a home, right, and buy something that you can live in that your family would want to visit, maybe what it allows you to do is then buy your second home, your vacation retreat. So the arbitrage there is about taking, once you build a vision, taking assets and then determining how those assets can create an arbitrage for you to live. out the rest of your life. And not that this is the solution for everyone. You've been super clear about that, but it's really a unique opportunity to consider because

in the scenario you just gave, if you sold the high price house for a lower price house, now all of a sudden you have money to even pay to send the kids of grandkids to you or travel to go see the kids of great kids. So there's so many different ways that you can say, hey, if you can allocate this amount to this new scenario, geographic scenario, there's a lot of opportunity that that might bring. If you want to explore it, great. If not, that's great. But it's just one thing that you can do. So I love that idea. It is something that the traditional financial advisor doesn't bring to the table because most traditional financial advisors have a brick and mortar office located in the town you live in.

And if you move, there's a good chance that your money will move with you. And so when we we look to build a one-of-a-kind financial plan and break retirement deja vu, we're going to look at what is best for you. Because at the center of all of our financial planning is you, the client. It's not our process. It's not our investments. It's about you. So I'm sure you've had dozens of clients that have done this successfully. Can you think of one that's a good example of geographic arbitrage? I can think of, yes, I can think of hundreds of clients. Yeah.

Pick one. One that comes to mind right now was Mike and Diane. They lived in Virginia. Their kids lived in Kentucky and about four hours away in another part of Virginia. They moved to Florida because they love the water. They wanted the state income. They loved the benefits of being in that environment. They also love to cruise.

And the best cruise ports in the United States are in Tampa, Fort Laudette. Lauderdale, Miami, Port Canaveral. They wanted to be within driving distance of being able to take, you know, four, five, seven cruises a year. So they moved down there 12 years ago. And not only are they down there now, but so is one of their daughters and one of their great kids. And yes, they've had to deal with some hurricanes along the way, right? But, you know, one, but they have been able to, they've had, they've had a paid off home now for a dozen years. they've been able to go and do what they wanted to do.

They've been able to impact their daughter and their grandkids, right? And they've been able to really live the one-of-a-kind life that's there. But again, their story is one of hundreds that we've seen of people who have taken advantage of building the vision first of what they wanted they wanted to. And then took the bold step to use some of our tools, like one of our tools being geographic arbitrage. But we also have dozens of other tools in building the retirement vision, and those will be laid out in the retirement sheet book. Love it. Let's wrap up, Mike, with this thought, what are some specific steps that someone could take to make sure their legacy is more than just numbers on a spreadsheet or just money? Well, now you're starting to get into the deep part of retirement sheet.

because building a legacy that's about more than money takes intentional planning. It's around your values, your impact, and your family education. When you build a retirement chi, when you build that vision, you start implementing things like Granny Cooking Camp. That's where the grandmother brings the grandkids on vacation and teaches the family recipes. They write them down. They eat and they build experiences together. It's about writing a book of your family genealogy.

And more important about the stories of your family, because the chi and the make an impact is really about legacy. And legacy is really about death. Because legacy is, You know, we have a physical death, Mike, where our bodies are no longer here. And those of us who are, you know, are religious or godly believe that we, our body, and our spirit goes on into heaven or hell. But on earth, there is a second death that everybody has. And that death is the last time your name is spoken on this earth.

and the difference between the physical death and the spoken name death, that is your legacy. And people who build a vision for their retirement can have a much broader legacy than those who just kind of leave it to chance. And so when we build a one-of-a-kind financial plan and we help people escape from retirement deja vu, we're going to help build a vision first before we build a financial plan. And when you have a vision, where there is vision, there is purpose. And when there is purpose, your money, there is more purpose for your money, which means there's more meaning into the lasting legacy. Yeah.

So you're really, from what you're saying there, I just love that. You're helping your clients integrate their faith and values into their legacy planning so that their future generations inherit wisdom, not just wealth. That's exactly right. And, you know, our clients, our clients have the full spectrum of what their faith is. And, you know, we have Christians and Hindus and people who practice Islam. We have atheists. And really, guys, it is about sharing in a very, in a very respectful way what we all believe.

But really being a good human is about being able to peacefully talk about what we believe, not to influence beyond relationship repair what our beliefs are, but it is about to give a vision. Because this world, our world has been built on love. And like one of the things that we want to do in our firm at One Oak Financial and what I want do in talking to people over time about retirement is build the retirement vision that is about love and it's about process. When we do that, you know, people will see it and they'll be attracted and then we'll never be alone. And that's the most important thing, right? You don't want to be alone at the end of your

life. I love it, Mike. Well, this has been real powerful on learning about retirement. What's the best way someone can reach out and connect with you. Yeah, you can go to our website, one oak financial.com. That's the number one oak financial.com. Contact us there, and a member of my team will reach out to you. You can also follow us on the socials at One Oak Financial. Love it. Mike, thank you so much for coming back on.

It's been a real pleasure talking with you. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders to learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes. Visit www. www.Influential entrepreneursradio.com.