Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders, MBA - Interview with Patrick Cotter, Founder of Cotter Financial Group Discussing Emotional Well-being in Retirement

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

Cotter Financial Group, LLC. is a community-based concierge-level retirement planning firm helping pre-retirees and retirees in the most critical phase of retirement known as the Retirement Red Zone. 10 years before and after retirement. They are a lifestyle-based planning firm. They do incorporate the numbers aspect while helping families and individuals plan for maximum enjoyment in retirement, while keeping in mind your values, relationships, and, more importantly, how people wish to spend their precious time. So whether they are in retirement, on the verge of or just starting to prepare, they will help get you ready for what matters most and take action with more confidence. Focus areas are:Retirement Income Planning – safe, predictable, and guaranteedLegacy Planning – maximize to whom and what is left to heirsWealth Transfer – tax-efficient transfer strategiesEstate Planning – Wills, Trusts, and Asset ProtectionSocial Security Optimization – claiming strategy guidanceWealth Management – safe and tax-efficient strategies for inflation riskLearn More: www.cotterfinancialgroup.comCotter Financial Group, LLC and Kinetic Investment Management, Inc. are two separate entities. Insurance products and services are offered and sold through individually licensed and appointed agents in all appropriate jurisdictions under Cotter Financial Group, LLC. Investment Advisory Services are offered through Kinetic Investment Management, Inc., a registered investment adviser. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-patrick-cotter-founder-of-cotter-financial-group-discussing-emotional-well-being-in-retirement

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 Patrick Cotter, who's the founder of Cotter Financial Group, and we'll be talking about emotional well-being in retirement beyond. just the numbers. Patrick, welcome back to the program. Thanks, Mike. Thanks for having me again. Hey, you're welcome. And I think that one of the topics that if you were to say, you know, hey, what are the most important things to consider in retirement? Probably emotions is not one of them

that people would think right off the bat, but it has such a huge underlying current in dealing with your retirement. So I'm excited to hear what your thoughts are on that way. So let's get started with what how does financial planning impact the emotional side of retirement it's a I'm glad you asked me that because I said I said on the first podcast I retired from corporate world at age 60 I'm now currently 62 and a lot of my friends and people that I associate with and and and they said man I go they go I want to be just like you when I retire. And I tell them, well, you can.

I go, you know, I'm a specialist in helping people get down from the top of the mountain that you're climbing up, you know, while you're working. And so that mountain is a pile of money. And as you're accumulating that pile of money, you know, yeah, you can get upset if the market goes down. But you always know the market's going to go up. And then, but as you're coming to. down the mountain, that's when the tricky part comes because you can't make any mistakes. And that's what we do here at Cotter Financial Group is we help you get down that mountain and get down it safely.

And I like that I always, I'm big in the storytelling and these stories are always stuff that has either happened to me or to my family. And so many, many years ago, I was probably somewhere between 8 to 10 years old. And when I was my father, my mother and father used to take my brother and I, we would go on a vacation for about three weeks every single summer. So this particular summer, we drove out west. And Mike, back then we had that old Chrysler station wagon. You know, I think it was lime green with the wood paneling on the side. Brady Bunch, yeah.

Yeah, exactly. I didn't even think of the, yeah, exactly. And in order to get the windows down, you had to crank the window. And so I remember we were in Arizona. And we were leaving Sedona. We had just been to the Grand Canyon because it was my parents' goal, dream to make sure that we hit while my, you know, while my brother and I were young, we could, we would hit all the national parks in the, United States, not obviously all on one trip, but over years. And we did that. And so this particular trip, we're leaving Sedona and we were ending up on our way to the, I don't know if you've heard of the petrified forest. I've never been there. The painted desert slash petrified forest or two national parks sort of intertwined into one. And there's 150 miles from Sedona, which. which is just outside the Grand Canyon, to the petrified forest.

And so we jump in the station wagon and we're driving down the road, and all of a sudden we see a sign. It says, last gas station until I forget the name of the town, you know, on the other side of the petrified forest. So my mother looks at my dad and she said, my father's name was Norm. She says, Norm, this is the last gas station. You better stop and get gas.

gas. He goes, oh, no, no, I've done all my calculations. My father was an engineer, very, very bright. He said, I've done all the calculations. You've got to realize the gas tank back then, you know, it was a needle, you know, went from F to the E. And he goes, no, we have more, we have over a quarter of a tank of gas. And I, and, you know, when we saw that, we saw that sign, we were probably, you know, 30, 40 miles into the trip. He goes, I know we can go another 120 miles and the next gas station is in a hundred miles so guess what happened while we're on the trip driving from sidona once we pass that gas station through the petrified force by the time we hit that other gas station my brother and i were leaning on the seat staring at the the gas gauge

my mother sitting there yelling at my father why don't you get gas why don't you get gas staring at the gas gauge my dad he told everybody they were talking about turning the AC off because it was 110 degrees, cranked the windows down and my dad's staring at the gas gauge. We finally go through the petrified force, go through the painted desert, stop at a gas station. My dad says, see, I told you we make it. So we go into the, he goes in to fill up the tank.

And my mother goes in. We wanted to go in and get some snacks and some cold drinks. and the girl that was behind the cash register behind a desk, she goes, oh my God, did you just drive here from Sedona? She goes, wasn't that the most beautiful drive you've ever seen in your life? My mother looks at my father and she goes, I don't know, we spent the whole 150 miles staring at the gas gauge. So how do I, what is the meaning of this story is it does apply to retirement income planning

because there's so many people, Mike, that I see it, I talk to, they spend their whole retirement looking at their portfolio and wondering, is it going to, am I going to have enough money? Am I going to run out of money? Is the market going to go down? Can I still take 5% out or 4% out? And what if I'm withdrawing money and the market goes down? When am I going to run out of money?

So the bottom line here is you have to have a plan that is takes that risk completely off the table and I like to visualize that for people to say hey don't let my get don't let my gas gauge go to empty because that's your money so when I when I tell these stories in my workshops and I and a lot of people will have that aha moment because because now it becomes human it becomes real because there's a lot of people that that that they have said yeah that's happened to me before I've been out fishing and it's like, oh my God, I think we're going to run out of gas. It's like, no, this is your money.

You cannot afford to run out of gas. And the whole part about missing the most beautiful national park maybe in the country is you're focused on, you're focused on looking at your money and you're not focusing on what's important to you and the most important thing to you in life, which is living the first. fullest, the happiest retirement you can. You cannot do that if you're glued to the journal. And, you know, it makes me think, too, like that emotional well-being side of things. If you don't have the right plan in place, you then are all bunched up inside literally your blood pressure rising and stress levels rising. And that doesn't help for longevity. So talk a little bit about

how you're helping your clients handle that and what they feel as an emotional release. to make, to know that they have made sure that the numbers, you know, as long as everything falls into place and you never said it, forget it. You always check it out. But I would think that that piece of mind is a really powerful gift that you're providing. It's huge. And that's why when I had made a reference, when people say, when I retire on it, I want to be just like you. Well, I'm giving back to my community now with my knowledge and helping them retire.

But people say, why are you always so happy? Well, that's easy because I have guaranteed income. I have a laddered guaranteed income portfolio that I have created for myself. When I went on this journey to open up my concierge's boutique practice, I said, I have to be my first client. And I can't expect somebody to do something that I'm not doing myself. So there's actually there's a new. there's actually a new field out. It's called psychonomics.

And it's sort of like the cross between psychology and economics. And this study has shown that the happiest people in the world, especially in retirement, are people that have a guaranteed, reliable, repeatable, sustainable income source, guaranteed never to fluctuate. So when my dad was alive, my dad worked for a large, you know, corporation as a lot of people did. And they all got pensions. Well, guess what? A pension was a guaranteed income for the rest of his life. And he took a survivor benefit. And when my father passed away, my mother got to continue his pension, but had a reduced amount because he took a survivor benefit. And he got Social Security. So, but the other thing.

that I also did is, well, actually, several years ago, the Wall Street Journal did a report on the secret to a happy retirement. And in this Wall Street, anybody can Google it, the Wall Street Journal report on retirement. It said that the secret to a happy retirement is, number one is friends, number two, family, and number three, a fixed income annuity. So it comes to no surprise to anybody when I've been talking about a sustainable, repeatable, guaranteed income for the rest of your life, I am talking about a fixed income annuity. And these annuities, these are no fee products. There are no fees in an income annuity. So there's only three sources of guaranteed income that anybody can get. Number one is Social Security. We touched

on that in a previous interview on how there's a gap. That's not going to, cover most people's needs entirely, then there's a pension. Well, companies did away with that a long time ago and just went back to the 401K plans and put all the onus on the individual to take all the market risk. And then there's a guaranteed income for life plan, which can only be offered through a annuity. So I am a big proponent on annuities having their place and somebody retirement portfolio to cover that income piece. I love it. And I think that too many times people think, oh, well, I've heard the annuities are this,

that, or the other. Well, there's a lot of, you know, any restaurant can have a bad review, but then they fix it and move on. So I think in recent decades, the black eye of annuities from way back in the day has been changed and fixed. And it could be a wonderful, yeah, you know, it could be a wonderful. alternative. Now, do you put every dime you have into that? Of course not. You have to have a smart plan, but it can be a wonderful way to have that guaranteed income. And I think that so many times

people hear that we're guarantee and go, that is what I want. I want that guarantee, that peace of mind. And I think that that really ties into then that emotional well-being because they don't need to look at the news or open up their portfolio statement quarterly and have that pit in their stomach going, oh my goodness, the market's dropped. And so I think that really, really is important. I currently own, I have an annuity. I can turn on income now at the age of 62. I have another annuity, income annuity. I'm going to turn on at age 65. I have another annuity. I'm going to turn on at, right now I own six annuities. And by the time I'm done with this interview, I might own seven because I'm in the process of getting another one right now

because my full retirement age is 67. Now, in the previous interview, I mentioned I'm a specialist in Social Security claiming strategies. Well, I'm going to delay claiming my Social Security to I'm age 70. So I'm going to have another annuity turn on. And why am I going to do that? because the difference between turning on in 62 and 70 is 77% increase in income to me. Yeah. 77%. It's an 8% step up per year guaranteed. So I'm going to cover that bridge, that gap with an annuity.

So at age 67, I'll turn on more income. The other annuities I turned on, they're continuing also. I'm just, that's my ladder. Every two or three years, I'm turning. on more income and now I'm going to have another annuity I'm going to turn on at age 70 and then the other one I'm thinking about getting which I'll probably get this week before the end of the year is I'm going to have another annuity that can turn on at age 72 or 73 so I am always going to have increasing income into retirement why do I need to do that I need to keep pace

with inflation. The other thing, I want to get in before we run out of time, is there's a rule of thumb. This is so easy that everybody out there listening can do this simple, simple math. It's the rule of 100. Take your age, subtract it from 100. Whatever that number is, if you're 60 years old, that number is 40, 40 percent of your money should be invested in the market, somehow safely invested in the markets, whether it's in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, I particularly like ETFs, they're more tax-efficient.

40% should be invested in the market. Why? You've got to keep pace with inflation. The only way you can do that is the best way to do that. Not the only way. The best way to do that is invest in the market. The other 60% you should have in vehicles that are going to produce income producing vehicles. Because when you're working, what good is it to retire?

And you mind if I tell another little story, Mike? Oh, yeah, that's great. Awesome. Thank you. So I have a friend, a good friend of mine, and all he's concerned about is buying shares of Apple stock. and I'm good friends with he and his wife. And his wife still works. They're my age, still works.

And I saw them about a month ago. And I said, hey, how are you? I don't want to mention their names. But I said, how are you? And she goes, oh, I'm miserable. I hate my job. I can't stand going to work every day. I just hate it, hated, hated, hated, hated, hate it, hate it.

Does that sound healthy? Does that sound like hypertension building up just a little bit, you know? And I said, well, what about your husband, almost said his name. I said, what about your, let's just call him Jim. It's not Jim, but let's call him Jim. I said, well, what about Jim? He goes, oh, all he does is he trade stocks all day and he just buying Apple, you know, more shares of Apple.

And I said, well, what's he doing with him? I go, I go, what is the point of having all this Apple stock if it doesn't produce income? So when somebody comes to see me in my office, and if there's any ever, if there's any of my clients that are listening, they know this is factual. I said in the initial interview, I ask right off the get-go. We take a look at what their holdings are. This usually happens on the second interview. The first interview, we just sit down and talk, find out what their goals and their dreams are. They bring in their statements.

And the first question I ask is, why did you buy them? that and a lot of times you'd be amazed at the answer the most common answer is i don't know guy at the bank my broker told me i need to have it oh okay who is it for that's question number two probably the most important question who is it for um i don't know like me i guess i guess i don't know i said if you can't give me a great reason on why you bought that and who's a four i follow it up with the third question well why do you still own it yeah and it's like uh I don't know. I don't want to hurt my broker's feeling by selling it.

I said, oh, okay. It's like, so he doesn't really care about your feelings and doing the right job for him, but you're worried about hurting his feelings? I said, there's a big disconnect here. Yep. And that's sort of the same thing that happened when I was going through my parents' portfolios. It's like, Dad, why, you know, why did you buy this? You know, what was the purpose?

Who is it for? You know, so I redid my entire parents' portfolios while I was still working in corporate America and, you know, I guided them on what to do. And my father ended up living, you know, to age 96. So longevity runs in my family. My mother recently passed away last year at the age of 95. So, but she had more money at when she passed away at 95 than when, when, when my father passed away, you know, six years prior. Because why?

Because all the necessary steps were put in a place to make sure that she never ran out of money and everything was safeguarded. You know, it's so important. You've mentioned couples and husband and wife. And it makes me think of a question when you're working with couples, how are you helping them align their goals not only to enhance their relationship, but also I've seen some research out there that women tend to live longer than men. So a retirement plan cannot be the same for both sides of that equation. So talk a little bit about that as we wrap up. Yeah, that's another fantastic question because when I do my workshops and my seminars, most of my time, is addressing the women in the audience because a lot of women do not know where their finances are.

They don't know what they don't, they don't, so it, unfortunately, the men do die, you know, historically, you know, actuarially, we do die first. And that's, there's a lot more widows out there than widowers. enough so that that one of the leading or the largest wealth management firm in the world, which is Black Rock, everybody knows Black Rock, they put out an article called Women and the Triple Whammy. And basically they're talking about the longevity quandary, which is what we're talking about right now,

and also about the caregiver's curse is because I want to pivot a little bit into talking about the importance of having a plan in place for long-term care. And because the caregiver's curse is when the women are alive and the husband's sick and needs help, who's the one that's responsible for taking care? The wife is taking care of the husband. So one of the things that I do in my workshops or even in front of the, of a husband and wife is and a lot of times I don't want to pick on the husband so I will lay down on the floor I'll find a couple and you know we'll have some pleasant banter back and forth

and I say okay I said I'm going to lay down on the floor right here and and I'll get her to say her name is Luis so say Louise can you stand up for a minute say can you can you pick me up off the floor some you know six foot two about roughly 200 pounds could you just pick me up and do you think you could pick me up and put me back in bed or put me put me in this chair she goes there's no way i said well exactly i said that's why everybody out there has to have a plan in place you have to be proactive about planning for health concerns long-term care concerns you cannot be reactive because the reactive approach always has an unhappy ending

and that is and if I have a couple that comes to see me and they say well we don't we don't you know the long-term care oh that happens to some that happens to other people it won't happen to us

you know and I said that's fine if that's your belief but but tell me which of your assets that we need to liquidate first to help you pay for in-home care or home health care or or nursing home because unfortunately it's going to happen to three out of four people in this room today so just another very expensive it's extremely expensive because uh i have

written checks out when my mother was still alive and um and it's a long story but she was in a place a rehab place. Medicare does not cover it. That's another misconception. Oh, Medicare covers that. No, it does not. To the tune that I had to write out a check for $10,200 a month until my mother went and ended up having to go into hospice, once they go into hospice, then Medicare will cover it. And again, Mike, this is why people who are listening, you need to work with a specialist that specializes in helping to mitigate all.

of these risks that you are going to face when you go into retirement. You can't avoid it. You're hiding under the desk. You can't avoid it. I just got a phone call yesterday that a family member was just diagnosed at the age of 70 with the beginning stages of Alzheimer's at 70 years old. Now, the statistics are, and anybody, you go to chat GPT, Jim, you can look this one up. When you hit age 65, your chances of getting Alzheimer's doubles every single year.

Wow. So on my block, I live in Coral Springs, Florida. On my block, there are three individuals that are between the age of 65 and 70 that have all been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. So these are people that happen. and it's expensive and boy you've got to have a plan in place you know it really just it makes people you know it well you can think it won't happen to you until it does and like you said that powerful question if it does let's just assume for a second which account do you want to pull out pretty large chunks of money from and the answer probably would come back none of them because we

need that to close the gap well you need to have the plan in place and guess what if you don't ever need it wonderful. You had a plan in place, but it didn't cost you anything just to know what would happen if. And if you didn't use it, the money is still there. So Patrick, if someone is wondering how they would apply some of these things into their retirement plan or even get a second opinion, second look about what they've done, what's the best way they can learn more and reach out and connect with you? Yeah, thank you, Mike. Yeah, the best way for somebody, and I love that to get a second opinion. Is there anything I can do be doing? better. Please reach out to me at

www. Cotter Financial Group.com and that's Cotter C-O-T-T-E-R, Cotter Financial Group.com. And I would love to, I'm very passionate about what I do. I hope it's coming across on this interview. If I don't know the answer, I will certainly get the answer for you. And it's just been an honor, Mike, and a pleasure of you giving me this platform to express my concerns that people like myself are going to be running into as we age.

I'm fighting it, Mike. I don't want to get older. I go to the gym. I eat right. I don't smoke. I don't drink. But guess what? I'm going to wake up tomorrow.

I'm going to be one day older. Yep. And you're out there teaching people what you're finding out on your own. So it's like, come on, follow me. You're not speaking at a turn. So I think that's a really, really neat perspective. Well, Patrick, once again, you just bring some great clarity and stories and examples. So thank you so much for coming back on today.

It's been a real pleasure. The pleasure has been all mine. Thank you very much for having me, Mike. 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.