Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Owen Edwards, with Edwards Investments-Overcoming Fears and Achieving Financial Peace of Mind

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

Owen Edwards was born and raised in Northeastern Pennsylvania, where he continues to live and serve his community through his financial advisory practice. With nearly 30 years of experience, he is dedicated to empowering individuals and families to achieve financial freedom through education—bringing clarity to complex choices and guiding them toward confident, informed decisions. Owen is a Certified Financial Fiduciary® and holds a Certificate in Financial Planning from Boston University.Ready for clarity and confidence in your retirement plan? Schedule a complimentary consultation today.Learn more: https://edwardsinvestments.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-owen-edwards-with-edwards-investments-overcoming-fears-and-achieving-financial-peace-of-mind

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 Owen Edwards with Edwards investments, and we'll be talking about overcoming fears and achieving peace. of mind in retirement. Oh, and welcome back to the program. Hello, Mike. Thanks for having me back.

You know, I think that that word fears is such a massive hurdle to overcome in any aspect of life, personal, professional as relates to retirement here. You know, do we have a fear of outliving our money? Do you have a fear of not having enough? All of those things. And, you know, many times, you know, fear, the fear acronym is false expectations appearing real, but in money and retirement, some of those fears actually can come true. So what are some of those common fears that retirees face? Oh, the top fears I see, the number one's running out of money. And then to go down the list, making a mistake they can't undo, market downturns or panics, rising taxes that they weren't ready for and health care costs.

And these fears are very real, as you said, but they come from uncertainty. And so a well-crafted plan alleviates them by replacing uncertainty with clarity. And when someone sees on paper that their income is sustainable and they have strategies for taxes and health care and their plan is stress tested for those big things that happen in life, those fears begin to fade. And fear lives in the unknown confidence comes from knowing that, you're not. you're covered. You know, sometimes when people think about fears, it's like, that is, you know, you don't want to say it to someone into their face, but it's like, that is just unfounded, you know, but in, in these cases, the ones you just mentioned, those are real occurrences. Now, can we address them ahead of time to mitigate them? Yes. Maybe they won't happen as harshly as you think,

yes. But many times people have already seen some of their friends or relatives impacted by some of these fears. And like you've said previously, when you take the approach of teaching and educating, that builds trust because people are understanding. So what is your approach to help educate them with that plan, well-crafted plan, so that their fears are, you know, alleviated? Well, we do the planning together. And I talk to them and get a sense of their situation and a very good sense. of their fears, whether founded or unfounded, and most of them are because they have either a family member or a close friend experience, something like that. And that really is a pain point for them and to talk to them and get to know them. And that's how you make a tailored plan

approach for their specific situation and alleviate the fears that they have. And sometimes you will point towards something and they'll say, oh yeah, that fear was. Thank you for clearing that up. And it's just dismissed. And then there are other fears that, you know, really resonate with them. And that is a gap in their plan. And they need closure for that. And they're very thankful when they see it.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think that that's a big piece that people don't really fully understand is that together thing you mentioned. Because when I think of creating a financial plan and you just getting shoved this 48-page PDF document with charts and graphs. I'm only assuming that that can make your heart start beating a little bit faster. But if you've sat down and done it together, you've understood the process.

And it's like, okay, I'll get that. And now I couldn't have done it on my own. I couldn't have come up with it. But the way you explained it, yeah, I see that. I could see that. Oh, that contingency here. Yeah, I get that. And we stop along the way of doing the planning together.

And they will have a question and we'll button that up right then and there. And we go through it step by step. and some things are simple and understandable. And some things they need for their explanation for their clarity and their comfort. And we do that. Huge. So let's think about one of those things you mentioned, which is probably one of the biggest fears, you know, probably next to dying or public speaking, but outliving your money.

You know, hey, I'm going to retire at this age. What if I don't have enough money to retire? And then worse, what if I keep living longer and longer and longer? and outlive my money, what can they do to start recognizing that well ahead of time to put some protections in place? That is the number one retirement fear. And it's very valid. And protection comes from blending guaranteed income sources with flexible investments. And on the guaranteed side, that's Social Security. That's pensions, but pensions are going the way of the Dodo Bird, the traditional pension, the defined benefit plan or annuities that provide lifetime income,

guaranteed stuff. And then there's investment strategies like systematic withdrawals, the bucket planning that we talked about in the last interview. They can supplement and adapt over time. That's so you keep up with inflation and the growth portion. And then there's the tax-efficient withdrawals, the order of operations as we learned in school, that help stretch income even further. The key is to coordinate these pieces into one strategy.

And that way retirees, they just don't hope they're saving less. know that a plan is in place and it's designed to last. Yes. Hope is not a strategy. I've heard it said, and I'm sure you agree with that as well. Yeah. Hope is wonderful,

but it is not a strategy. Yeah, for sure. So then you had mentioned some of those buckets. How can retirees balance income with growth, with protection? Yeah. Because I think that,

you know, we just get so used to in our career in 20s and 30s and 40s and 40s and 50s, grow, grow, grow. Let's get that money to grow. But at some point, you need to start going, okay, now let's circle the wagons and get some protection. You got it. I mean, there's the accumulation phase. That's when you're working and save it. And you're putting money in your 401k or your 403B or 457 or whatever it is. Every week or two weeks you get paid. And as the market fluctuates, you're kind of averaging in. And it smooths out the bumps. You're earning a paycheck at work. You're contributing to your 401k or your plan at work.

and maybe plans outside of work. But once you retire, the paycheck stop. Yeah. And the contributions to the plan stop. So the bumps in the road, if you're not prepared, they can be very jarring. So you need to be prepared for that and plan into and through retirement because the working phase is the accumulation phase. The retirement phase is what's called the distribution phase. And that's when you're no longer earning a paycheck and you're no longer contributing to the plan.

And you may be taking money from the plan. So that's a whole different bottle of wax moving from the accumulation phase to the distribution phase. And if it's not done right, you could be in real trouble. Yeah, for sure. And I'm sure that there's all kinds of nuances within that that need to be thought about. But one of the things that you talked about as far as fears, you know, taxes, health care costs, Talk a little bit about how you address some of the things that can be controlled. Because when I think of the word taxes, I can't control whether taxes go up or down or my tax bracket, you know, the way that that is structured.

But maybe some healthcare decisions that I make, I could take ownership of that and make some decisions. So where do you start in addressing those two factors? As far as the protection to achieve financial peace of mind in retirement? Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, we discussed before in a previous interview, the retirement's like a three-legged stool. There's the income leg that provides stability for day-to-day expenses. We want that to be locked in. Then there's a growth element that keeps up with inflation and maintains purchasing power

because a gallon of milk in 20 years is going to cost more than a gallon of milk today. We don't know where taxes are going to go, but we can sort of anticipate they're going to go up by the, again, politics aside, it's the government debt and spending, and their income is taxes. So then the third leg of the stool is the protection. The shields against market losses are unexpected shocks and too much weight on any one leg, as you know, is a three-legged stool. One leg is off, it throws off the balance of the whole stool. So when it comes to income growth and protection, when they're in harmony, retirees can feel both secure and optimally. And that balance is what creates true financial peace of mind for my clients. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. Let's talk a little bit, a little about a couple specifics in the sense of, you know, you mentioned healthcare costs. So there's all kinds of decisions within Medicare. But one of the things that we touched on, and we could do, you know, four whole episodes on Medicare alone, but controlling health care costs, that ties into the other fear that people have is outliving their money. And one of the things that tie into health care is long-term care. What are the statistics of probability that someone may need to have some type of long-term care?

Oh, it's two-thirds or three-quarters of people, say about 70% of people are going to need some sort of long-term care, whether it's in a facility or whether it's at home, the daily activities of life, someone coming into their home and helping them with those, it's a high probability. I mean, well more than half, almost three-quarters of people are going to need some sort of care in that regard at some point in their life. Wow. That's a pretty big percentage. Yeah.

And I think that a lot of times people may think, um, probably won't happen to me until it does, right? So I've had many conversations with the clients. I'm not, ended up in a nursing home. And I said, well, listen, God bless you, but the nursing home was full of people that said that. Yeah. Wow.

And the problem is if you don't plan for that probability, let's not even say possibility. But how are you going to pay for it? Because without getting into specific details, I hear it's pretty costly. So if you're not prepared for it and you have to self-insure and just pay out of your retirement funds, it just will deplete that really quick. I could derail your retirement quick and derail the legacy you want to leave to your spouse or your children or grandchildren very quickly.

So to be prepared for it is it's important. And like you mentioned about some of your clients say, well, I don't want to be in a nursing home. These days, there are some solutions that allow you to, you know, get that care at your home to make you feel comfortable or you choose the provider. You know, you're not going to get stuck with XYZ provider in this place and now you feel out of control. So what are some of those options that people have as far as choosing their provider and being able to get the care at home if needed? Yeah, the flexibility and the choice gives the client power and peace of mind. And there are certain products out there that offer those solutions.

it might be an annuity rider that has a terminal illness or a life insurance, whether it's cash value or term, that there are riders that can give them the peace of mind that they have access to X amount of dollars for X amount of years. If they need to go into a facility or if they need just care in their home, that's going to cost thousands and thousands of dollars a month that could deplete a retirement savings really quick and leave them. Nobody wants to be a burden. And to know that they won't be to, their children and grandchildren. And not only that, that they're going to leave a legacy is very important to a lot of people. And when you mention writers, clarify that a little bit because it makes me think it's like an add-on to one of those financial products that if it's needed,

you can access it and get your long-term care of, but if you don't need long-term care, that you never needed it, the writer, and all the funds of the money just keeps working the way that he needed to be worked. Correct. It's insurance for not a pleasant situation. You pay homeowners insurance. And at the end of the year, you know, if you didn't file a claim, are you upset? In this case, it's sort of like that.

But also, you can still keep working for you, whether you use it or not, it could still dollars can keep working for you. And if you don't need it, that's even better. Yeah, because like in the homeowners insurance example, if you didn't have a claim you can't call up your agent and say, give me my premium back. That's right. You know, but yet in those standalone type of long-term care policies, you're paying a premium.

And if you didn't use it, same thing as the homeowners. They could be very expensive. And if it's like a use it or lose it kind of thing. And, you know, that may be the right path for some people, but I mean, everyone needs to look at their options. But the standalone policies, they use it or lose it. They're pretty expensive. And, you know, I tend to integrate into current investment strategies that they have.

And maybe at a rider here or there that covers the same expense, but still gives them the peace of mind and control. And when you have that, that sure does accomplish the topic we're talking about here, overcoming fears. You know, because if you, if so many times I'm sure that you've read books or heard people that are psychologists say, look, once you identify that fear of whatever the case is and we put a plan in place, it's not. not as big of a fear as you thought. So once you've addressed those taxes and health care and RMDs and inflation and all of those things that you've mentioned, and it's not like you have the perfect plan and place that'll eliminate it, but you know if and when it happens, you know the moves you're going to make. Boy, that sure does mitigate or lessen those fears a whole lot. So I think that is super important. Yes. Taxes and health care, they're the two most

important risks in retirement and ignoring them creates anxiety and people feel exposed. So there's different strategies you could address both of those. But when these retirees, just like you said, they see the what ifs accounted for in their plan. They feel a powerful sense of control. And it's no longer about dreading what might happen. It's about knowing. It's about knowing we've prepared for this. And that's real peace of mind. Yeah. Love it. Well, Owen, thank you so much for coming back on. And if someone is interested in addressing and identifying some of those fears, what's the best way they can learn a little bit more and reach out and connect with you? Well, my two simple ways. I have a website and my website is EdwardsInvestments.com.

That's one word, edwardsinvestments.com. They could contact me through that, through email or phone. Or they could email me directly. And my email address is my first name, Owen, O-W-E-N, and that's at Edwardsinvestments.com. Excellent. Owen, thank you so much for coming back on.

It's been a real pleasure chatting with you. You too. Thanks for having me back. Anytime. Thank 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 entrepreneurs radio.com.