Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Pri Cosentino Founder & Financial Advisor at Fern Prosperity Discussing Overcoming Retirement Fears and Achieving Peace of

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

Priscila “Pri” Cosentino is the Founder and Financial Advisor at Fern Prosperity, an advisory firm dedicated to helping individuals pursue their financial goals through integrated planning strategies and personal development. With over a decade of professional experience in finance, advertising, events, and retail across Brazil and the United States, Pri brings a holistic perspective to financial planning and personal growth.Pri was mentored for more than ten years by an experienced financial advisor, during which time she developed the WISE Method™—a planning framework based on Wisdom, Insight, Strategy, and Enjoyment. This approach is designed to help clients consider how to align their financial decisions with their values and long-term vision.Pri holds a degree from the University of Central Florida (UCF) and an MBA in Neuroscience and Human Behavior from UniF. Her education combines financial planning with behavioral science, which supports her work in helping clients make informed decisions about money, life, and legacy.As an Advisor, Pri applies the W.I.S.E. Planning™ methodology when building personalized strategies that may address areas such as income planning, tax considerations, estate and legacy planning, and personal development. She works with a diverse and global clientele, offering services in English, Portuguese, German, and Spanish.Pri is also an author and speaker who shares insights on financial planning and personal development. Her professional philosophy emphasizes clarity, a client-first focus, and values-based planning.Outside of her professional work, Pri is a committed learner, traveler, and cultural enthusiast. She enjoys fitness, thoughtful conversations about business and purpose, and is the proud dog mom of Tish, Weiße, Pkna, and Traya.Learn More: https://pricosentino.com/Fern Prosperity, LLC and Pri Cosentino are not affiliated with the Social Security Administration or any government agency. This content is intended strictly for educational purposes and should not be construed as individualized investment advice. Any decisions related to Social Security, retirement, or financial planning should be made in the context of a comprehensive plan and in consultation with a qualified advisor.Investment advisory services are offered through Virtue Capital Management, LLC (VCM), a registered investment advisor. Fern Prosperity, LLC and VCM are independent entities. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results, and no investment strategy can guarantee a profit or protect against loss during periods of market decline.None of the information presented shall constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or insurance product. References to protection benefits or reliable income streams relate exclusively to fixed insurance products and not to securities or investment advisory services. Annuity guarantees are subject to the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Annuities are insurance products and may be subject to fees, surrender charges, and holding periods, which vary by insurance carrier. Annuities are not FDIC-insured.Information and opinions provided by third parties have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but Fern Prosperity, LLC makes no representation as to their accuracy or completeness. Content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be the sole basis for any financial decision, nor should it be interpreted as advice tailored to the specific needs of an individual’s situation.Third-party ratings, awards, or recognitions are not guarantees of future investment success and should not be construed as endorsements of Pri Cosentino or Fern Prosperity, LLC. They do not ensure that a client or prospective client will achieve a higher level of performance or results. Such ratings are not indicative of any one client’s experience and should not be considered a testimonial.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-pri-cosentino-founder-financial-advisor-at-fern-prosperity-discussing-overcoming-retirement-fears-and-achieving-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 with us Precocentino, who's the founder and financial advisor at Fern Prosperity, and we'll be talking about overcoming retirement fears and achieving peace of mind. Pri, welcome to the program.

The pleasure to be here, Mike, is always great to be able to talk about something that's so important to most of us, something that really make us stop and freeze. Yeah, you know, I think that you really worded that well because I think statistically research has proven. people are really worried about retirement, even more so these days with all the news and just different things that come up that they cannot control, but will I have enough money? Will my, so security be enough? Will my, and all of those questions. So I think when you're talking about here retirement fears, that's really a huge point.

So let's start off with what are some of those common fears that people face. As you mentioned, I think one of the two big things is. running out of money, and the other one, for sure, is becoming a burden to their family. We have those two fears. We really start debating about, can I do it? Can I not do it? Am I spending too much? Do I need to start saving? If there's something that I can do, do I need to go back to work? And that can completely destroy us when we are in our retirement. Because we work, most of our lives and we are looking to enjoy the best part of it that's retirement so when we start planning when we start understanding the solution is clarity then everything's makes sense when we need

to understand when we have the possibilities to map out small concrete steps then we can put everything in action in the fear is replaced because now I know. You know, that's an interesting point because I think from even the perspective of personal development and coaching, once you address any fear, whatever it is, and kind of look at it and go, well, what's the worst that could happen? Or let's put, you know, a name to this fear. All of a sudden, you feel like, that's not that big of a deal.

So in retirement, once some of those fears that you're mentioning are addressed and maybe here's a plan of action, it really lessens the fear. Now, does it mean there is no more fear ever? It'll never crop back up. Of course not. But at least you have a plan now that you could be moving forward with. What I do is help translate that fear into the step by step. So exactly what you mentioned, Mike, is to be able to say, okay, my fear is still here. But I know the plan and I understand what are the steps and the actions necessary to be done. Yep. Yes, that's a really, really, really good point.

So let's think about what are, you know, you mentioned a couple of the fears. Are there any others that are pretty common that you run across? I think a lot of people also are scared about the possibility of enjoying and how long they will be able to enjoy. And that's a tough concern that I have to tell you, like, the only thing that we truly know is that we will die one day. Yeah. But we don't know when. So we need to make the best to enjoy every single day.

And that's the goal when we are talking about retirement planning is to enjoy every single day. So you can be with what matters the most to you and have the money be the tool for you to enjoy the best part of our lives. So that makes me think of a question where, yes, a lot of people fear having enough money to get to and through retirement. But then what do you say to someone about, well, now we're at retirement age and here's the plan. You should have enough money because here's these numbers.

And how do you help them kind of live a little? meaning sometimes I would think that a retired person or couple would go, oh, we can't take that trip this year because what if taxes go up or what if inflation goes up and we need to make sure we have enough money for retirement? How do you help them still have that healthy fear? Like, okay, we need to be careful, but go live a little too. Great question. When we are talking about retirement planning is showing the possibilities and

what is going to work or not. So a great way that I like to use with my clients is testing the possibilities that they are looking for. Are they going to be okay with that trip? And we tested how much will be that trip, how much cost that house they are looking for, how much costs helping their kids through college. And when they test and starts seeing the possibility and that everything still stays secure, then that gives them the feeling of, okay, now.

I can see it. Actually, if I just can share one of the stories that I had with a client this week, and she's closer to retirement age, and her position in the company is being closed, so they are not going to hold anymore that position. And she was saying, now what? Can I still retire? Do I need to start going back to research for a job? Should I consider myself unemployed? And what we worked together was testing everything that she wanted herself and her husband for retirement. And we were able to see that if they do everything that they wanted to do, they are still going to be okay. Being conservatives, being saying that if the market doesn't run as well as is right now, testing things like happened with 2001, how all of that is looking like. And she started seeing, oh, okay, I'm not maybe be able to do seven trips to Europe,

but I don't need to be concerned. Yeah. Go back and start. About one. About one. Exactly. I was like, I can do one. I can do one per year.

But do I need to be crazy about the job right now? Oh, no. I can still go ahead. What she wanted the most is joint time with her grandson. And she said, freaking, I can do that. I didn't realize that I can enjoy my family. I'm like, yes, we can do that. It's possible.

So what we do is truly work towards what's important the most. So it's having the clear understanding what matters to you. You know, on the flip side of retirement fears, once those are addressed and a plan of action put into place like what you're saying. And then, of course, the plan of action needs to be reviewed every six months, 12, months, whatever time frame and make sure everything's, of course, that. But the flip side of retirement fears is that peace of mind that you talk about. Because what a gift you were able to give that client and many others, I'm sure, when they are worried about, ooh, what if my job and this and now I can't. And you said what you just said. And they probably hung up the phone or left your office,

just walking on cloud nine feeling like all is good again. So talk a little bit about the benefit of that peace of mind aspect? The peace of mind is completely changing in our lives, right? When we get to the best part that's enjoying, neuroscience already proved to us the fact that that help us truly be able to feel secure. So we remove that excess fear that we have in ourselves and we start going back to see the color about everything that's surrounding. And that's what happened to this client that I just shared the story. She was right there and almost starting to see all black and white. And with the security in checking her plan so often, like you mentioned, every six months, every one year, she started being able to check and say, oh, look at that.

Everything has a color. I can be with my grandson. So when we bring that understanding of what that means, when we start creating the right planning, when you start balancing and having joy. Yeah. Then we have the best part of our lives. And I have to tell you, what are we looking for is retirement, aren't we? Because we work so hard to be able to enjoy and we deserve to be enjoying. You know, that makes me think of yet another point, which is this.

And I know you and I are not medical doctors, but I think we have both heard research out there that says, when you're more relaxed, when you have less stress in your life, when you, you know, have overcome your retirement fears, you live a little bit longer statistically. So yes, peace of mind is wonderful. That gives you more joy, but it also helps extend life. And I think that's another huge piece that you're bringing to the table, right? That's correct, Mike. When we think about that, just think about us working too much or who is still in the working industry, right? When we are talking about too much stress, we start lacking confidence, we start questioning ourselves, we start doubting, we start sleeping less, we start not being able to eat properly.

When we reduce all of that and we are able to create peace, we are able to create enjoyment, our brain knows the right place. It starts seeing the plan. And you can restore your confidence. You can restore your security and enjoyment. That's huge. And I think that too many times people don't put enough focus on that. So let's kind of get back to a couple of the other points you were bringing up,

like how to address or lessen the fear of unexpected medical cost. Because I think that sometimes we look at our, you know, retirement savings as a bucket and there's water in it. And all of a sudden we're stopping pouring money in because we've stopped working. We've retired. So now we have to make sure there's no holes in the bucket or at least the holes that are there are not as big as possible. Well, medical costs are an unknown.

And many times you cannot plan for that. So how do you educate your clients on how to deal with unexpected medical cost? I think unplane health expenses are like a storm. You can stop them, but you can carry an umbrella. So for clients, that umbrella is building with insurance, with saving buffers and realistic projections, what can help them with healthcare? We need to be aware that, in general,

our health with time is not going to be as good as used to be. From us for a child to young adults and so on. So what we can do is put in place a plan that will help us with the confidence in a way that's taking care of that storm. We will be able to avoid that storm? Unfortunately, no, because we cannot know what's going to be. I'm here from Central Florida. We have a hurricane coming.

Can we avoid the hurricane? The answer is no. But we can put in place. We can protect our windows. We can have the right food. We can put gas in our car. the same things can be done to mitigate the unexpected medical costs. And that's what we need to address when we are talking about retirement planning.

Because healthcare, it's something that needs to be a concern. Yeah, because in a real way, healthcare is something that brings up those unexpected expenses that can really, really drain retirement savings. So again, like we've said before, put a plan in place, monitor that plan and make sure that it's working the way that it should work. So that kind of brings me to like a final question I've got for you. How can people and families be assured that they won't become a financial burden to their family during retirement? That's one of the fears you mentioned. But, you know, that kind of is a big fear.

It's like I don't want people to worry about me and be a burden. So how do you address that? The fear of burden is more emotional than really financial. When we are talking about that, that families feel reassure when they see that a plan on paper can help them. We understand the stress and the cost of helping our kids when they are sick. And we don't want to be that stress when it's our kids with us. Yeah. When we put in.

plan, a map, a determination of permissions, of funding on what is important to happen with clarity. It creates the greatest gift that you can give for yourself and your families. When your family see that everything is prepared in place, when they are aware of what can happen, where they can get the money from, who can, they call to help with those directions, when they can be sure about the best steps to do, all of that give them more peace. So that's the important thing is to truly have a visual proof of active steps. Create a roadmap. So they can understand if that happen, what's the best scenario for you.

There is no great way if you don't stop to talk about that. We can only address something that's happening, even that's a hard one, when we stop and talk about it. And I would also wonder, too, in that conversation about not being a financial burden during retirement, maybe it's the retiree as well as their family or certain members of their family that would, but be in that meeting. Not just Mr. and Mrs. retiree. Maybe their kids and grandkids could be in that meeting too just to kind of see what that plan is. Is that something that can be helpful as well?

Yes, that's for sure. After the retirees understand what the best works for them, it's important for them to share with all the family members that will be, they wanted to be involved in that scenario. So if they have one specific kid, that's going to be the one taking care of them, if it's going to be that all of them, those are important conversations, even though they are hard to create a plan that they are aware of it.

Because even the kids might have some concerns and they might not even understand what is the planning place and what I have seen, unfortunately, more than I wish, Mike, is seeing kids calling and saying, I have no idea. My dog had done this and these in

another place. Pre, can you help? Can you explain what this letter means? I don't know what's going on. And all of that could have been solved with one or two meetings where they are aware of the whole plan. Yes, 100%. Well, it's been so helpful to talk through some of these things, Pri, about identifying retirement fears and then also how to overcome them. And the result is you get a little bit more of that peace of mind because you, you know you've got that plan in place. So if someone is interested in learning a little more and reaching out and connecting with you, what's the best way that they can do that? The best way is just go to my website, pre-Cocentino.com, P-R-I-Costentino.com,

and you find my phone number, my email address, you can book directly a phone call with me, and I'll be there to help you understand the best way that you can mitigate and take care of your fear so you are in control. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you today. 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.com.com. Radio.com.