Nick Jarvis: 0:00

You know, they don't know what the real world looks like. They've been in the military for 10, 15, 20 years. And it's like, what is the what does the civilian world actually look like coming out? The way I like to describe it is I'm like a financial GPS. I can't tell you where to go, but if you want to go somewhere, I can tell you how to get there.

Tom Faust: 0:47

And today we have with us Nick Jarvis. And he is a financial professional, but uh not really what we're going to talk about today. He's quietly become the guy to call, apparently, when a service member is staring down medical retirement, severance, disability, and the question like, what now? Um, so rather than talk about his products, we will go ahead and just kind of get to know Nicholas here. Um, and so why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about uh who you are, how you got started uh in in dealing with veterans and all that.

Nick Jarvis: 1:23

Yeah, um, well, I is your Jarvis originally. So we live in I live in Idaho now, but originally I'm from Southern California, and that's kind of where my journey starts. So after going to school, I got my finance and economics degree from Grand Canyon University and I got my MBA there as well. I ended up going back to San Diego and getting a job at the Navy. So I actually worked at North Island for several years. Um I actually I actually ended up working there because my dad has worked there. Well, he just recently just retired this year, but he worked there for about 35 years. Um, he was one of the head engineers on the F-18 program. So he helped me get get in, you know, in no certain terms, but he helped he helped me get in to get a job. Um I got on as a contractor, and then they liked me so much they brought me on as a full-time civilian. And as I worked through that, I was a management analyst. So I was more in the tech world at that time. In my previous life, I was all tech. So I was an analyst. Um, I worked in landing gear half the time while I was there, so landing gear department. And I had some very similar benefits to anybody that would actually normally be fully in the service. So I, you know, I had a TSP, I had um some of the same benefits as far as health and everything. And I went through that world and I kind of grew to under understand it. I've always been kind of in the finance world as far as like, you know, I've been kind of savvy with like you know, investments and things like that. I don't do investments yet, but that's coming down the pipeline. Um, but with that being said, I was exposed to a lot of it. And I was exposed to a lot of service members dealing with some of the problems that they would have to deal with, with some of these benefits that they were that they were given, right? After that, uh my wife and I, my now wife and I, this is my girlfriend at the time, we decided to move to Idaho because her family was starting a real estate development business up here, and I didn't want to stay in California because California is terrible for a myriad of reasons. And that was my one non-negotiable third, so we ended up moving up here. I worked in aviation for a little while after that, but then as I was going through the tech space, I actually ended up getting laid off from an awesome job, and it was mainly because of loss of work on the company side. And what ended up happening was I had built up several years of experience being in the tech world, being an analyst, and I could not find a like job within that time frame. And a lot of it was because of the tariffs, a lot of it was because of AI disruption. Um, and at that point I had to do a lot of self-reflection, and I kind of just didn't want to continue in the tech world because if it was gonna still be this way, I didn't want to, I don't want anything to do with it, right? Because if you're gonna work a salary job, you get it because of the the income security. You have a certain amount of money coming every month, you can rely on it and you can plan with it, right? But if a normal job in the in the tech sector, which is where my my experience was, isn't gonna give me that, then I figured it's time to just go out on my own. Because working in that space, the best part of my job was helping people. That's all I've ever wanted to do, was just help people. And I just decided it's time for me to go out on my own. And I have a wonderful wife that encouraged me to do it, and this is me doing it. And the people I can speak, I can speak the language of veterans, I understand what they're and partially, not fully, but I understand as far as what's available to them. I understand what they're going through. And a lot of the a lot of the veterans I try to reach to out to are the people who are they've been in for a while, or maybe they're about to get to their 20 years, and they don't know whether they want to leave right now or they want to stay in and get their full 20, right? Because that's when you get your first. Um those that's in a very that's a very specific scenario. But for the main part, it's just anybody that's kind of split, doesn't understand, like doesn't know what they're gonna do, right? That's where I step in. And that's where I can help them to kind of decide, okay, based on what you've told me and what the options we have, these are the two paths you could take, right? And this is kind of what it's gonna look like. Because since I I've been in both worlds, I know what both worlds look like, and I know what both of those rows are gonna lead you to partially. I can't tell the future, but I can kind of give someone an idea, maybe make it a little bit of an easier decision. But that's a little about me. It's kind of how I got here, is just I've always just wanted to be someone that could help people, and the people who really need help are a lot of our veterans, right? They don't understand what the, you know, they don't know what the real world looks like. They've been in the military for 10, 15, 20 years, right? And it's like, what is the what does the civilian world actually look like coming out? Right. And this is mainly for uh, you know, jobs, what their career future looks like, what their financial future looks like, things like that. So that's why I'm here.

Chris Faust: 6:01

All right, well, we are glad to have you here. Appreciate you taking some time to chat with us on this. Um, so in the uh in the planning session, um, you mentioned you know people needing someone to talk to. Um, what are they really asking you for when they say that? Like, is it advice, permission, validation, translator? What do you hear underneath those words?

Nick Jarvis: 6:24

It's a little bit of all of it, really. Um, a lot of it is I don't even know what job I'm supposed to be looking for, right? I was a supply sergeant for 15 years. What does that even look like? How did what what job, what type of job title should I be looking for, right? It isn't a total part of my job, but it is part of it, right? And I can kind of steer them in the right direction is to say, hey, if you're if you want to stay in the same line of what you've been doing and leverage your current skills, these are the type of jobs you should probably look for. And through that interview process, through that application process, this is what it's gonna look like in the current job market, right? And you know, it's not even just veterans that need that help, it's just regular people, right? Because I've been through it. I've I've had I've had several years of experience in a specific niche industry that you know paid very well, and I saw what it looked like going into it. I mean, I I had I put thousands of applications out there and didn't get a single response, right? And I really wish someone was there to tell me, hey, this is what this is gonna look like now, versus me having to find it out on my own and having to just get pushed out and then oh wow, it's just it's terrible, right? Um, but as far as validation, yeah, a little bit of validation as well. Um mainly because during my discovery process, we just discussed what are your options? What do you have at your disposal, right? Because a lot of veterans, when they get disability, you know, you get paid every month, depending on what your level of disability is, right? That is untapped funds that you can use to be able to build yourself a better future, right? And that's kind of what we talk through. What what do you what kind of tools do you have to be able to make a better future for yourself, right? Outside of the crutches of working for the federal government, right? Because there's a lot of benefits to working with the federal government. And when you leave those, because and uh you know, you go up to the service and they'll try to convince you to stay and they want you to re-up and they'll bring up like, hey, you're gonna have to pay for your own housing, you're gonna have to pay for your own this, you're gonna have to pay for your own that. I'm there to tell them you can do it, everything's gonna be okay, and just to give them a clearer view. Because I'll never convince someone to leave the military if they don't want to. If they're about that life, I would say absolutely, if that's like what you want to do, do it. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that just you should leave because it's just gonna be you're gonna hit you're gonna love it way more. No, that's not what I'm here to do, right? I'm here to say, hey, I want to give you clarity on what the future might look like. So I think I think that answers your question.

Tom Faust: 8:47

I know there's uh a lot of distrust about you know with financial professionals uh in the veteran community. Uh they've you know they're worried about things like fraud and predatory practices because that does go around. Um, so how do you earn the right to speak uh to into someone's life to to help them through these vulnerable points and you know helping get them into a new career or whatever it may be?

Nick Jarvis: 9:10

Yeah, I think uh for me, and you'll hear any financial professional representative, whatever they want to call themselves, everyone will say it, I'm education first, right? I don't, I want some, I will never ask someone to sign or do anything that they're not comfortable with. That is my baseline. And my motto for my my personal line of business is always do the most good, right? I always try to do the most good. And as far as building trust, a lot of that just comes from you know, meeting someone where they're at. Where are they at in their life? How can I meet them where they're at and be able to show them and show them, show off my knowledge, but also educate them to the point where they can get to a point where they're comfortable and they know just as much as I do about what we are, what it is that we're talking about, right? And once we get to that point, then we can be on level footing and then we can discuss options and strategy, right? And that's kind of where I come to. I want to earn people's trust based on my knowledge and based on that I have their best interest at heart. I really just come at the I come to them wanting to help. I come with a servant's heart, right? That's what I want to do. And it, you know, I went to GCU and they're all about servant leadership. I was educated for several years in a servant leadership type of role, right? That is where I come from with my education and my background, is I'm a servant leader. So I want to serve people. And again, I am I am also a Christian, so I'm I'm very strong Christian, and I believe that you know helping our fellow man is extremely important. So I gain trust based on education, knowledge, and just from a servant heart. Like I just want to show people that that's what I have, right? Um, I think that should answer your question. I think I those are there's kind of a three-pronged approach with that.

Chris Faust: 10:49

Yeah, that definitely uh answers uh what we were you know going for with that one. Um also you mentioned um a veteran providing equine therapy as a kind of starting point for you. Um, so who is this veteran and how are they using horses to improve veterans' lives?

Nick Jarvis: 11:05

Yeah, actually, so her name's Amber, and she is in the National Guard. So she's in Pennsylvania, the National Guard. She hasn't started her business yet, but she has aspirations to do that. Um, one of the things I'm trying to do for her, I actually have a meeting with her coming up this week uh just to go over uh some of the people I've met that can actually help her. There's actually some people um here locally in North Idaho that do that, um, as far as just you know they just do an equine therapy type of business. That is her aspirations to do that, right? And when she met with me, she was my first veteran client ever. And this, she's the one who kind of really kicked me off to hey, there's a lot of people that need help with this, right? Because she had a lot of aspirations of, you know, this is what I want to do, how do I get there? And we were able to kind of sit down and kind of just discuss what what during my our discovery process, what does she have at her disposal, right? And she was on the cusp of leaving, right? She's she's out now officially, you know, she's filled, she's using the rest of her leave, and then she's she's done, right? Um, I was able to kind of give her a clarity on what kind of job should she be looking for, what is she interested in doing, right? Does you know she wants to start her own business, she also wants to work in the meantime, and we kind of planned that all out as far as what that would look like. And one of the things I'm doing for her is I'm gonna connect her with some uh two two organized well, and they do a bunch of um nonprofit uh you know funds basically. And he kind of pushed me in that direction said, Hey, we have this gal who does this and she's part of her board. We loved her if Amber wants to come on and just listen to how she does her business and maybe meet with her one-on-one, then they would we would be open to that. And that's kind of what I do. I connect people as well.

Tom Faust: 12:48

And what what did you see in that experience that made you think that uh this maybe is more than a one-off favor? It's something that you could actually do as you know in your practice.

Nick Jarvis: 12:59

Yeah, um, the biggest part was her referrals. So I I work as far as you know, growing my book of business of how I can help more people is I go, I'm very much a referral-based business. I'm you know everyone that comes to me is usually based off word of mouth, right? And the referrals she gave me were multiple people that she had worked with in the past. And it was very, they they were all kind of in a very similar circumstance. And that's kind of what really illuminated to me that this was a market that needed to be addressed, right? And you know, I'm coming at it from a business sense, I'm saying it's a market. I'm coming at it from the capitalist angle, like, hey, this is a market that needs to be served, and I have the ability to serve it, right? But on the opposite side of that coin, I'm also here saying, hey, if I want to help more people, this is how I help more people, right? And she had just a slew of referrals of people that, hey, this uh this guy is going through the same thing as me. He's she he's my supply sergeant, he's also considering leaving, and we don't know, he doesn't know what that looks like, right? And it's usually how those conversations go is hey, I went I went through this situation, I know three or four other people that are also going through that same situation. Can you reach out to them? And that's kind of how it all just kind of cascaded. It was more of a domino effect, and I've just been able to help, you know, several veterans doing doing that.

Chris Faust: 14:15

Um, so that kind of segues uh nicely um kind of going forward, you know, from the you know, you know, the whole amber of the ecoin therapy thing. Yeah, how your work you know evolved or evolving into something very specific around transition and retirement. Um you said that you want to aim a veteran towards a civilian job based on their MOS. How do you actually help someone translate their MOS into a real job description of the civilian?

Nick Jarvis: 14:40

It really depends on what the MOS is, but for the most part, a lot of MOS jobs do have uh overlapping capabilities with jobs that are in the civilian market, right? And you know, we have businesses that will hire veterans specifically, there's plenty of that. But going to just a normal business that maybe doesn't shouldn't necessarily have a focus on that, sometimes leveraging what you have will be able to get you into a job that you actually, you know, that you're looking for, right? And but and the way we do that is we just go over what their duties were. What did you actually do? Like, I like to use a supply sergeant example because that's the one I work with a lot. I apparently a lot of supply sergeants come to me. But specifically, we go down, like, hey, what did you do over the last 10, 15, 20 years, however long you were doing this particular MOS. Tell me specifically what you did, right? And we'll go through all of that. And I'll go, okay, based on these, I'll find like skills in the civilian market. And then based on that, I say, okay, based on these criteria, these are the these are the uh um job titles you should probably look for because they're very similar to what a supply sergeant was doing in service, right? And I guess to answer your question, it's really just mainly we go over every minor detail of what they actually did and how that translates into what's like I translate into what a civilian world like job would actually do, right? Um yeah, I can't I can't really pull the specific example off the top of my head, but there is definitely overlapping type of skills and then responsibilities that you had that will translate into a civilian job.

Tom Faust: 16:05

So when someone is getting out voluntarily or not, um what might be the first three questions that you would uh want them to answer about their future to kind of set the stage?

Nick Jarvis: 16:16

Usually uh in my discovery process, it's mainly financial. So I'll mainly ask them, you know, what are you making right now as per your current role? Right. Again, I need to get a baseline of where they're at before I make recommendations, appropriate ones at that. So I usually ask them a series of questions like, how much do you make um right now? What's your current status on, you know, are you gonna get disability? Um, how many uh years have you served that count towards your first? Um, what is your what does your TSP look like? Right? That's all part of my discovery process, right? And I am the way I like to describe it is I'm like a financial GPS, right? I can't tell you where to go, but if you want to go somewhere, I can tell you how to get there, right? I can tell you, hey, take this left turn, or you can take this right turn, it'll take a little longer, but we'll still get there, right? And all of that comes into those financial questions. Those are the first things I usually ask. On top of that, you know, I'll ask them uh, you know, where you live, how many kids do you have, what are your hobbies. I try to get to know someone, right? I got I want I want them to have a relationship with me because again, it's this goes back to building trust. I want them to know that I'm there for their best interest. And the way to do that is obviously I want to talk to them. I want to, I want to, I want them to be friendly with me because I know that I want them to know that I care about them and their family and their future. So those are my first couple of questions. I guess the first three questions were mainly just be what's your financial outlook look like? What did you do in the service? And what do you want to do? Right. Those are the first three top questions I usually ask.

Chris Faust: 17:45

And how early do you think a service member should start thinking about this roadmap? Like, you know, are you seeing people way too late? Um, or some actually come to you on time, you know, what do you think?

Nick Jarvis: 17:57

Um, I have a little bit of a mix. So it's kind of all over the board, but I think I'm gonna answer the first part of that question is when should you start thinking about it? I think you should start thinking about it the second you get in. Even if you're 18 and you just joined out of high school, you should be thinking about it right then, right? Because the biggest knowledge gap that I see is that a lot of the education that comes inside of the service isn't necessarily all-encompassing, right? It's very basic, right? It's good advice, like it's you know, it's good stuff, right? Like it's good education, but there's more to it, right? And the the economic landscape is changing rapidly in this current economy. I mean, we I mean, inflation is such a concern. Um, you know, that's usually the biggest conversation I have with anybody is understand that when you get out and you work a salary position, you will be losing money every year, right? By just on pure buying power because of inflation, right? And you know, there's like cost of living adjustments sometimes depending on your job, but you can't really bank on it, right? This is the number one conversation I have with anybody, and it's that you have to understand that in order to get above inflation, you need to own something, right? Whether it's property, whether it's equities, whether it's whatever, right? You need to own something, right? And a lot of this comes from I I want to change their mentality on what money looks like, right? Like this is what it looks like. It's not just a pension check, it's not just a paycheck you get when you're in the service, it's it's more than that, right? Coming out of it. And you want to build something sustainable and long-lasting, right? But yeah, so the first product question, right when you get in, you should be thinking about it. And you should be thinking about it your whole career, right? Because the sooner you start, the better your future is gonna look. And this goes for anything, retirement, anything, you know, you want to be future oriented, right? Um, a lot of people come into me because they're also just right at the cusp of man, like, I don't know what to do, and I'm like two, three years away, and I don't really understand what this is gonna look like. Like, I'm I might be able to make a decision based on all of these briefings I'm going to and what they're Telling me I might be able to make a decision. So there's some people that do that. Like come at me that I would say is like maybe the right time. It's like you're two, three years out. It's starting to become real. And your future is starting to come at a really fast pace. I haven't got anybody that's like, you know, too late, I guess. I guess too late would be like more like you're already out and like I don't know what to do. I haven't got anybody yet that has been in that position yet. I can absolutely work with those people, but I haven't got anybody to do that. So most of the people that I talk to are either right at the right time or maybe a little early. Maybe they're like mid-career and they're like, maybe I should start thinking about what the future looks like, right? So yeah, it's kind of a little bit of I got I've got a little bit of a mix game.

Tom Faust: 20:45

All right. So you mentioned uh TSP. Uh that's like the military's version of the 401k uh savings plan, and and that you watch their retirement as they're they're coming up, depending how long they've been serving. Um, so what what does it actually look like in practice when you sit down with a service member and talk about the TSP and what they should do with it? And and you know, maybe they don't really understand how that relates to civilian life after they get out.

Nick Jarvis: 21:13

Well, a lot of times I see people that will get a TSP and they don't touch it for 20 years or 15, 17 years, and they think it's like this is great. It's actually not that great because they don't touch it, right? They don't actively manage it, right? Um, and there is, you know, we have two TSPs now, we have the traditional and the Roth. Um, both are very similar. They all have different types of funds in it, they're more like package deals, and you can do some individual stuff in there. Um, but the main part is I want veterans to understand they need to take a more active role in managing their retirement, right? Like they need to be in there and they need to understand what's inside of those funds and what's inside of their TSP, but also be disciplined and contribute to it regularly, right? And that goes for any retirement account, whether you're military or not. That goes for anybody. I mean, I'll tell the same thing to anybody who wasn't in the search before. You need to be consistent, whatever amount you can put in, make sure that you are consistent and you're disciplined about what you put into it, right? Um, that's kind of the main thing that I see with most veterans is you know, I started a TSP because in basic they sat me in a room and said, You're not leaving this room until you open one, right? And then that's it. And then they don't do anything else with it, right? Um, so that's the main out of as far as the TSP is concerned, that's the that is the number one thing that I see with everybody coming to house that they've they've done, they've got it, but they think that's it, and they're good, right? I'm here to tell them, hey, you need to be a little more actively managed than that, right? You need a little more intentional. So that's the main thing I see with TSPs mostly.

Tom Faust: 22:44

So in our planning session, you you mentioned, I think, that the TSP is not so good to keep after they separate from the military. Uh, should they be transferring that to like an IRA or something else?

Nick Jarvis: 22:57

The short answer, yeah. Um, mainly because you can't really contribute to it after you get out, you're gonna want to move it over into a private account, depending, and it depends on the situation. If they're working a job that offers a 401k with the match, I say, yeah, you should always take the match every time. I mean, it's free money, right? Um, so really it's a it's based on a situation by situation basis or case-by-case basis, I guess is a better way to say that. Um, but for the main part, yeah, it's definitely something you need to do uh when you get out, is that you need to transfer it into another private account, whoever you want, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, whatever, doesn't matter, but you you need to move it into a different vehicle, right? And I'm very pro-Roth anything, mainly because of the taxable benefits that when you pull it out. Um, but for the most part, yes, you do need to do that. And it's something that we always talk about, that I always talk about any of my planning meetings with anybody.

Chris Faust: 23:47

On something else here, when somebody's offered a severant, you know, whatever the number might be, um, like, you know, what are the biggest mistakes that they're tempted to make with uh you know with that money?

Nick Jarvis: 23:58

Typically, they'll want to pay off something like their house, right? And again, this is all done on a case-by-case basis. It depends on what someone's financial situation is. But for the main part, they usually look at paying off debt, right? Which is good. Debt debt can be bad, debt can also be used as a tool, right? Um, but for the main part of that, I usually most of the people who get the severance, they're facing a situation where they're not gonna get their first, right? They're like, hey, the military's giving you a severance, but in exchange, they're not gonna pay you your furs, right? I'm here to tell them that there is a way to still get a pension if you have your furs, if you still want something like that, right? And it just depends on your situation. But for the main part, I had I uh I when I met when I met with Tom the first time, I actually mentioned a specific situation um with a guy I'm helping right now in Pennsylvania. He's facing that same situation, and for him, he wanted he still wants a pension, right? He's like, Well, I would like to still have one. And he's like, but they're not giving it to me. And I was here to tell them or tell him, you you actually still have it, they're just giving it to you in a lump sum cash, right? The way you're gonna get yourself a private pension is by using an annuity, right? That's if you're in the private world and you want a pension and you don't have a job that offers it, the way to do that is with an annuity, right? You can defer it, you can do it immediately depending on the amount and what you want it, what you want what you want to receive per month. But there is still a way to be able to get a pension when you get out, right? Because annuity is really that's really all it is, is just a private pension. You're purchasing a pension for yourself, right? Um, and as far as annuities are concerned, you also, you know, you have to understand is what when you get an annuity and you get paid out per month, it's a flat rate per month, it's not gonna increase with inflation, right? And this is the kind of stuff I talk about with veterans like, hey, if you're gonna receive a severance, you know, which is actually not a super common occurrence, it does happen sometimes. But if you're gonna receive that, an annuity is the way to still get a pension, but still also, you know, you have to they have to understand, like I come from education for standpoint, so you have to know you're gonna get a flat rate per month, but 20 years from now, let's say it's $2,000 a month, that's gonna look way different 20 years from now than it is today, right? But if you want to lean on that and that's the kind of uh setup you want, then that's what's that's what's gonna get you there. And that's what I'm here to tell people is like, hey, there are ways you can still leverage there, there's still a way to get what you want, right? So that's usually what I do with severances. You know, there's there's multiple other ways to do that. You could use permanent life insurance to do something very similar, but there is options out there as far in the private market to be able to do that.

Tom Faust: 26:33

And and if they're um looking at collecting disability income, um, you know, how does that conversation go? Uh, you know, if they're facing the reality that they may never really be able to work the way they had planned to.

Nick Jarvis: 26:49

Well, it's mainly just going through how much are you getting paid for disability? What's your level of disability? Because that's usually that usually translates to how much you actually receive per month, um, as well as you know, they're gonna go to the VA and actually get approved for whichever level they're gonna be at. Usually I I I cannot talk to the VA for them. So that is something they have to do. But once we kind of understand, okay, this is what we're going to receive per month, that is cash flow per month that you get to receive, right, based on your disability, right? And depending on what you're gonna be doing in the future, as far as like, are you gonna be working part-time? Are you going to be working? Maybe you are gonna be working, but in a different role. We talked about all of that and what that actually looks like. But we also talked about how can we leverage this disability income to protect your family, but also be able to build something for the future, right? And you can use that disability income per month to fund a lot of things, permanent life insurance, annuities, you can do that. And there's a lot of options there for service members if they if they can get if they can utilize their disability income, not just to pay for groceries every month, right? Not just, you know, throw onto a mortgage or anything like that, which don't get me wrong, and when I go through all of you know my plan my planning sessions and everything, if that needs, if that is a need that needs to be addressed and they need the income for that, absolutely they need to do that. But as far as being able to leverage it, if they're in a position where they can leverage that money, they absolutely should, right? And I'm there to show them how they can do that.

Chris Faust: 28:14

So if a if a listener only remembers one financial principle from this episode for their transition, what what do you want that one thing to be?

Nick Jarvis: 28:24

The one thing I would want anyone to remember is you have options and leverage them, use them, right? Use the use the benefits that you got in the service and the ones that you will be getting coming out. Use them, utilize them. You've earned it, you have worked a long time to keep our country safe, and a hard job. I mean, this is not easy work to do what veterans do every day, right? Utilize it and talk to somebody, whether it's me or somebody else, talk to somebody that will help you leverage it to the greatest of your ability, right? Because one, you deserve it, and two, you earned it, right? And a lot of times, yeah, I've I've talked to veterans who think that they shouldn't utilize it because I don't feel good about you know just taking this money and you know doing X with it, right? I'm like, no, no, no. You should totally do that, right? This is something you earned, take it and run with it and leverage it and grow it to something that will be sustainable for you and your family. And that's what I'm here to say. And that's the one thing I'd want anybody who is who would ever listen to this is talk to somebody, whether it's me or somebody else, and leverage it. Utilize it, utilize it for you and your family, utilize it to protect your family, utilize it to grow your family. And that would be it. That would be the one thing.

Tom Faust: 29:43

Good advice, sir. In our planning session, you talked about people should not just survive, they should thrive. And uh when you look at veterans who serve, and what what does just surviving typically look like?

Nick Jarvis: 29:56

It really looks like taking that money and maybe just paying bills off per month, using it like using your disability to, oh, well, you know, I have this credit card bill, I need to pay, right? I'll use my disability income to do that. Don't do that. That is an income stream that you can utilize to thrive and not just survive, right? Because when you're in the military, they teach you how to survive, they teach you how to have grit, how to how to survive, right? And that mentality carries over, right? But I'm here to tell veterans that you can thrive with this. You don't have to just survive, you can do better than that, right? And I want better for them, I want them to be better than that. And I see I have seen too many homeless veterans and too many veterans who are just down their luck. That I'm like, how can I help these people? Right? It's like they haven't because this even just even goes outside of veterans too. Most people do not get the right financial education when they're in even in school, right? We no one teaches that anymore, right? And for me, it's like it's so important for me to focus on, you know, I work with regular people too. I don't just work with veterans, I work with anybody. But specifically for veterans, I've seen so many tools that you can use and no one uses them, right? And I'm like, you it's right there, like the answer is right there. Like, let's use it, right? Um, so for the for the most part, I just want them to know that you can you can leverage this and you can actually thrive outside the military by utilizing what you've earned, right? And I want to I want to make make that very clear. You have earned it, you can use it, and you should. And that's that's the main mindset that I try to you know move veterans into. Utilize what you have, thrive.

Chris Faust: 31:39

So can you kind of tell us about someone you've worked with who was clearly in survival mode? Like, you know, like what were the signs? You know, how did that show up in their decisions?

Nick Jarvis: 31:47

I'll use Amber as an example. Amber was a was a good example of this because she was in a position where you know she was just thinking about paying the bills, right? Using disability, pay the bills, oh my bills are paid for. Now I can just kind of coast and just ride it. I was there to kind of change your mentality on what that, excuse me, on what that looks like. Take that in because most people who are high incomers have multiple streams of income, right? Coming out of the military and especially coming out with disability, you already have one. Right? And I I, you know, and whenever we when I go through a planning session, one of the questions I talk about is, you know, I'll ask somebody, anybody, what do you think is your most important asset? Right? Very simple question. And I'll even bring it to you guys, Tom and Chris. What do you guys think is your most important asset right now?

Tom Faust: 32:34

I'd probably say my ability to actually work.

Nick Jarvis: 32:38

And you would be correct. You would be correct. You probably you've heard this before. It is you, right? Most people will say their house, their car, their snowmobile, their, I don't know, classic car, they'll they'll say some like physical thing, right? It's not. You are absolutely right, Tom. It is you. You are the one keeping your family in the black, you're the one bringing money in, you're the one working, right? It's important to protect that, right? Whether it's live life insurance, disability, anything like that. And with veterans coming out of the service, they already have one of the keys, disability, right? They have that income stream, right? And they're gonna get it for the rest of the life, right? Once they once they attain that level, they're gonna get it. You already have one, utilize it, build on it, add more protection layers to your family, and even grow it, right? And for Amber, that's what I had to do with her mentality was I had to shape it. I had to shape it, say, okay, you have you already have this income coming in, utilize it to expand it, protect your family, and then you and then thrive going forward, right? Because you you have to protect what you have before you grow it, right? There's like the financial planning pyramid. You have you have to protect everything at the bottom, the base of your pyramid, and the middle is growing it, and then at the top of the pyramid, you distribute it, right? And that's the thriving part. That's what we're trying to get to, is the peak of that pyramid. But everything else will fall apart if you don't have a good base, right? And veterans already have one of the key aspects of it, which is the disability, usually, right? You know, some people come out of the military without disability, but for the most part, a lot of them have it already. That's what I had to do with Amber is I had to just reshape her mentality and her mind on this is what this looks like, and this is what it looks like going forward. And for her, it just changed her mentality on what money looks like, right? And her and I are, you know, we have multiple meetings going forward, and I check in with her regularly. Um, and for her, it's it's it's a transformational process for her currently in force or currently building at this current moment.

Tom Faust: 34:40

And and what do uh like families, uh the spouses, parents, even kids, um what do they miss about the transition? Um, about what the transition does to the veteran internally, is there something that they don't see that maybe these uh loved ones of the veteran need to understand?

Nick Jarvis: 34:59

You know, moving into the civilian world from the federal world is scary and different, right? Which is what makes it scary. Um I guess if I were to say for any of the families, you know, any of the dependents and the spouses of anybody who's in the service going out, you know, it's it's a difficult step to take, right? It takes a lot of bravery and a lot of courage, right? Because it's it's just different, it's just change. And people are scared of change, right? My goal with my the work that I do is to make that transition possible and to make it less scary. I can't say it's I'm not gonna remove all the fear. I I never will. No one ever will, right? It's just it's a fear of the unknown, right? And for me, I would say for anybody who's uh family and as a service member, you know, maybe it's their husband or their father, I would say what they're doing is really courageous and it's really difficult to do that, and just to be patient, be patient and talk to somebody who can help help them with that transition, right? Whether it's you know, there's all there's multiple things that you know service members deal with as well, like whether it's met like it's something physically healthy or anything like that, but a lot of a lot of financial stuff is looked over, right? Because that's part of your well-being, right? Is your financial well-being, right? And taking that step is just it's just it's difficult, it's courageous, right? Um, so I would say just have this be patient, have some understanding, and talk to somebody.

Chris Faust: 36:31

Obviously, you've been in a point where you know you go to talk with somebody and then you realize, okay, you know, they shouldn't be talking about this right now. You know, they might be you know dealing with some emotional stuff they need to um that they need to deal with first because you know, obviously you need to kind of fix yourself before you can fix other things. Um that's gonna be the number one thing. So thinking about that too, how do you personally like carry all of that? You know, you you're hearing people's fear, you're hearing the trauma, worst case scenarios. Does that, you know, does that take a toll on you?

Nick Jarvis: 37:01

You know, it it it hasn't, yeah, it's a great question. Um, I see it as my duty to be able to help these people. I'm in a position to be able to help them. So for me, yes, I hear about all kinds of really sad stories. Um, you know, I sit at New Beginnings every Tuesday. I don't know if you guys know what New Beginnings is, but New Beginnings is here in post falls. They do, you know, they're a veterans benefit. And I I get people that come up to my table in the lobby all the time that just want to tell me about their story. And a lot of times I will do what's called like a pro bono, I call it a pro bono case where it's like someone just needs my help for some clarity financially. Um, I had a gal, Lisa, that I recently helped. She lives in the Silver Valley. Her husband just recently had cancer, is now in remission, but they're unable to keep their house, right? And she's like, hey, can I just talk to you? I have this like this insurance plan that was supposed to be mortgage protection. I don't know what it is. I was like, okay, that's kind of weird. I've never heard of any product that's specifically mortgage protection. That's kind of weird. Well, when her and I sat down and talked about it, it ended up not being what it was supposed to be. So I was able to help her kind of navigate what we're gonna do with this because they were still paying for it. And I was able to kind of say, hey, based on everything you're telling me, this is what you should do. This is what, you know, this is what this actually looks like, right? And you know, like we can at least talk about it. So one of the things that I will do with those people who do content and just genuinely need help, maybe that maybe there isn't something that I can necessarily help them with as far as product-wise, but maybe they just need to talk to somebody. I'm there to do that. I'm there to do that, I'm there to help their family. If they have somebody that I can help with them on their family as well, I'm open to that as well. Um, but as far as for me, I do hear a lot of really sad stories. For me, the way I handle it is I'm mainly just I stay focused on the mission, right? For me, right? I'm here to help people. So if I can stay focused on, hey, I need to help them and get them to a better position, it really helps me handle all of this just emotional load that can really get lumped onto me later on. Um, because again, there's gonna be more of these cases. And the way I do that is just stay focused.

Tom Faust: 39:05

Have you ever had someone come to you because of uh, you know, like a referral or whatever, but they came in like really skeptical, like maybe even defensive. Um, how would you handle a situation like that?

Nick Jarvis: 39:17

You know, being in the industry I'm in, which is you know, I do insurance as well. Um, there's a lot of skepticism in the world of insurance. So for me, I over-communicate like uh information, right? So a lot of times, if I'm talking about, let's just let's just talk about insurance specifically, right? Because a lot of that protecting your assets isn't, you know, insurance is involved with that. That's how you do that, right? With insurance, I always come again, I come from the motto of I want to do the most good, right? And these products do do good. I don't know if that's the correct way to say that, but they do good, right? And for me, it's that I think in the industry and over time, a lot of people have been misled and uneducated. About what insurance will do for you and how it works, right? So this goes back to my education first standpoint. I want whoever I'm talking to to be as educated about what this does for you than I am. And when I encounter somebody who might be a little bit skeptical, you know, they did agree to meet with me in this in this theoretical scenario. What I do is I show them, hey, this is what it is. Here's all the fine print. Where I'm going to print it out and we're going to go over it line by line. And where I'm going to explain and translate to you what each line means. Because I don't want anybody to sign anything that they're not comfortable with. I want someone to be really comfortable with whatever it is that they're exploring as an option. Right. And I think once you go over all the options and all the fine print, people are more comfortable about it. Because they go, okay, this is what it will do, and this is the scenarios it protects me from, right? And I would never encourage anybody to get anything from me that they don't actually need. I would never do that. That is something I would I despise. I've never liked that about any salesman or anything like that, right? I hate to use the word sales, but it is a business I'm in. But with that being said, I I if someone genuinely does not need something and say they're skeptical when they come to meet me, they just want to kind of like maybe see what I'm all about. If they have something that they honestly don't need, I will tell them, like in the immediately in the meeting. Hey, like we're not even gonna talk about this because you don't need it. Based on your situation, your scenario, you just don't need it. And I am not afraid to do that. I am okay with that. I would just rather make less money than sell somebody something they don't need. Again, I cart up that comes from trust building and relationship building as well. So if someone comes to me that's skeptical, I just try to build a relationship with them. And that's how I do that.

Chris Faust: 41:40

Okay. And then kind of going off that too, like, you know, during this conversation, is there like a certain moment that you can tell when you know you you you feel the guard drop and you know they decided, you know, okay, yeah, I can actually talk with this guy.

Nick Jarvis: 41:51

Yeah, usually it's when they start disclosing more information than they needed to, right? And they start telling me about something that I didn't even necessarily ask about, but they just start talking about it. That's the moment I know when, okay, they're open to it. Now, now we're making progress, we're gaining traction, right? Once somebody can just relax and just start saying, you know, you know, like I'm in this financial situation because of X, right? That's when like, okay, they've let their guard down. Now we can start talking about what that actually looks like and why they made the decisions they made that have got them here. And once I see that moment, I can always feel it when someone just lets their guard down and starts relaxing, you know, their shoulders get a little more relaxed and a little more swamped over, you know. That's when I know that we can start talking about the deeper meaning of what these decisions were that they made. Because a lot of times, you know, the someone will come to me and they've made a few different decisions, and I just ask questions. I want to know, I want to understand their mentality and why they made that decision, right? So I'll ask, like, hey, why did you do that in that moment? Like, what made what led you to do this? And once that someone can start well, you know, providing more information than what I asked for, that's when I know that we can start making a lot of traction. And that's the moment that I know that we can start moving moving forward in a meaningful way.

Tom Faust: 43:05

What happens when you come across someone with a situation where it's like, okay, this is bigger than me. I need to bring in another expert, you know, an expert on this. Uh, what might be some red flags that you listen for? Are there any clues that you'll see that's like, okay, what they're dealing with something else that's really not my territory, and I need to bring in another expert. How would you notice that?

Nick Jarvis: 43:28

I would notice that when there are key parts, like key pieces of information that they don't want to share with me. When someone, when someone agrees to meet with me, I always try to tell them, like, hey, when we get into a meeting, you know, I'll be going over a lot of personal information. We're gonna do this privately, outside of, you know, no one's gonna overhear us or anything. Anything you tell me does not leave this room, right? It's between you and I. And typically a red flag for me was will be if we're in that setting and I've set everything up right to where we're in a private setting and they still won't share that information with me. That is a little bit of a red flag to me because I'm like, okay, clearly there's something else going on that they need to figure out that I can't necessarily help them with because I can't make good recommendations and they aren't completely transparent with me, right? And if they're not ready to do that, and that's okay. That's okay. That's totally fine. I'm not gonna, you know, rake them over the coals for it. There's obviously something else going on. At that point, I would just say, hey, whatever you whatever's going on, like I'll try to make a recommendation based on the information you gave me. But in order for me to give you solid recommendations, I need to know this information, right? And whatever it's gonna take for you to share with me, maybe we need to have a few more meetings, maybe you need to get to know me a little more, or maybe there's something else going on that you need to address. Typically, I would just encourage them to go see someone about that, right? Whether it's like maybe it's relationship problems, maybe it's something else, whatever that is, that's usually my red flag. Is that they they aren't willing to open up and share everything with me, right? Because I need to know this information in order to do my job appropriately.

Chris Faust: 45:02

So you have a situation where you know, uh a veteran's listening right now, they live in a small town, you know, they they don't have any obvious programs, you know. What is something that you would tell them, you know, to start looking for? You know, are there you know clues that they can use or look into that, you know, an organization is the real deal versus just you know logo brochure?

Nick Jarvis: 45:23

I would say if you're gonna look into any sort of help, whether it's outside, you know, outside organization, the first thing they should look for is an individual, a person that they can talk to. Someone, I know it's gonna sound like you know, I'm pretty biased, like someone like me, right? Like someone that is an individual who was really passionate about this, they're gonna want to help you, right? And they can at least point you in the right direction, whether you live rurally or in a place where maybe there is a lot of options for you. But within the digital age, there's a way to reach anybody, right? I do, I can meet people on the phone, teams, like a video call like this, or I can meet them in person, depending on where they live. I can do any of that, right? There's also a lot of other people in the industry that can do that too, right? I would say for someone like that, it's probably better to talk to an individual first who's in their corner, they have a relationship with. A relational type of person that they can talk to is gonna be better than trying to search online and just trying to like query and throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks, right? Talk to an individual who can focus your energy on finding something that can help them specifically in their specific situation. That is what I would tell anybody in that situation that you wind out is find a person, find an individual who can help you and talk to you one-on-one. Because what I've also seen is for people who meet somebody like me one-on-one, it's really easy for them to break down the walls and start actually talking about it. And that's how you can make true progress, right? Is by actually being transparent and open. And the way to do that is to have a relationship with somebody who you know use like one-on-one, you know, less of a classroom style, more like, hey, let me talk to this individual, let me explain what's going on in my life, right? And how can I make make it better? So that's what I would say to anybody in that current situation.

Tom Faust: 47:07

Um, let's shift a little bit to uh like building a roadmap here, sort of. So let's say someone is uh a year or two from getting out of the military and they plan on staying that whole time, they're gonna retire or whatever. But if they sit down with you today, what's the first step that they would take?

Nick Jarvis: 47:25

The first step they would take is let's view all of your options, right? What is being offered to you when you get out? That's where we start. Because we can't make any other plans until we understand where's the money coming from, what's your future career gonna look like, what's the estimated like a month annual income you can maybe expect from a job from whatever career you're gonna you're gonna choose? Um, do you have a disability? Do you have a severance? What do you have SGLI? Are you gonna are you gonna move to a VGLI, which I would recommend that you don't? What kind of life insurance options are there for you? What kind of disability options are there for you? So that's really the first thing to talk about is what are your what do we have at our disposal, right? Because once we know, once we know what tools we have, then we can start crafting your future. I just made that up right now. We need to have all the tools ready before we can actually start a project, right? It's like anything you do with like um woodworking, anything. You need to have you need to understand what tools you have, and you need to have the appropriate tool to be able to accomplish the job in the right way. So that's the first thing I always talk about.

Chris Faust: 48:36

You know, there's I you you kind of mentioned like you know, there's a couple of different steps here. Doesn't you know there's not like a doesn't seem like there's a like you know, step one, step two, step three. It's kind of you know what's needed first. Let's go through all the options here. So what if there's a situation, say if somebody's already in a crisis, you know, they're being pushed into a medical retirement faster than they expected. Uh, you know, it's what's kind of like an emergency triage version that you would think of uh for like you know, kind of a roadmap?

Nick Jarvis: 49:04

Yeah, so like if somebody comes to me and they're like, hey, I'm leaving like next month. What am I? I don't know what to do. Is that kind of and do I have that right?

Chris Faust: 49:12

Yeah, whether it's yeah, I mean, and it could be you know, medical reasons, like you know, they they they can't continue like they're saying, okay, I can't serve anymore because of injuries or whatnot. And it's like, oh, I was not expecting this.

Nick Jarvis: 49:24

It would be kind of the same, it would be a similar situation. We need to see, okay, because this is happening and it's happening at a fast pace, whatever we're going to be doing, and whatever whatever options or tools you have, we need to determine, okay, based on the brevity of the situation, we need to do this quickly, right? So, whatever we can do, we need to get all of these all of these tools in place to get it within a good time frame, right? So, with that being said, you know, it just means that time is of the essence. And for that, I would say more we need to meet more frequently up until that point. I need to be kept appraised about like what's going on. Like, okay, so right now you're going through all your briefings, okay, or you're being separated right now. What can we do in the meantime that we can get you protected? Right. And we can at least start figuring out a plan, right? So, as far as like a trio situation, I would want like at least an like a an extended meeting with them and say, hey, like let's do an hour, maybe two hours, and we can just discuss, okay, here's what this is gonna look like. This is the situation I'm in, these are the tools that I have right now, right? Because if it's something that's happening that fast, you're still gonna have some options, you know, when you're leaving. I would want to start getting those, you know, race cars on the racetrack as soon as possible, right? And at that point from that meeting, we can just start doing it right then and there. So I would say with the trio situation just means we need to go a little bit quicker, right? Which is totally okay. We can totally do that. But yeah, it's really kind of the same kind of outline, but just faster. Like we need to get this timeline moved up so that we can actually get this going.

Tom Faust: 50:58

And and how do you help people balance that emotional desire to just, you know, I just want to get this over with versus the long-term reality that, you know, these are decisions that are going to affect the rest of their life.

Nick Jarvis: 51:09

I would say it's just it really comes again from the education side, right? Like, hey, because this is happening so fast doesn't mean you have to make a rash decision. Let's take the emotion out of it, let's use logic instead, right? Like, let's let's remove the emotion out of out of the equation. And however long that takes to do that, that's fine. Um, I I am not an emotional counselor, but I can at least educate them on let's use logic instead. I'm the I'm the second opinion for what's happening to them, right? I can say, okay, I know it's very emotional right now. I know you don't want to leave where we're faced with the situation right now. Let's look at let's look at the facts because that's all I want to talk about. Let's talk about the facts. The fact is you're getting a disability, the fact is you're getting X, the fact is you need X. Let's let's figure out a game plan and a step that a step-by-step plan that gets us to that point to where you can transition smoothly, we can look for another or another job for you, and we can get your family protected, right? So, in a situation like that, it's really just more focusing on the facts and just say these are the these are the facts of the situation, let's focus on that. Let's try to focus on not you, you know, outside of the emotional aspect of this is happening to me. And that's I'm the lightning rod for that. I'm the lightning rod for there's a lot of emotion with this situation, dump it all on me, but let's talk about what the facts are, right? And someone can totally vent to me if you know something happens to them, and you know, maybe it wasn't fair, maybe maybe they don't think that this should have happened. Totally fine. Lay it all, lay it all on me, and I will find the facts in between everything, and we can talk about what the facts are of your situation and what we can do going forward.

Chris Faust: 52:48

That's all been yeah, really good, helpful information. Um, kind of as we're kind of uh uh uh approaching this here, um, you've chosen to you know now you know spend your life in this space, walking with people through some of their hardest decisions, helping them uh navigate uh this road map of everything. When you think about you know your your own legacy, uh what do you hope veterans will say what uh say you did for them?

Nick Jarvis: 53:14

Wow, I love that question. Um, mainly because I hope that anybody that works with me in like 10, 15, 20 years can look back and say, Nick helped me achieve what I did not think was possible. And Nick helped me protect my family. Those are the two things that I would want any anyone, any veteran that worked with me could say. And I work towards that goal every day is that I want I want that type of reputation, is that Nick helps me and can help other people make sense of the world outside of the military? Yeah, I work, I work towards that every day. I want to make sure every veteran's family is protected, I want to make sure every legacy is protected. That is what I work towards. And I hope that anybody worked with me able to say that 10, 15, 20 years from now.

Tom Faust: 53:59

So uh for those who are hearing this right now and thinking, you know, I I I maybe I really do need somebody like this in my corner. What's the best way for them to find you, you know, for someone to uh to get a hold of you, whether it's through I I know we met through alignable um and or some other network. How can people find you? What's the best way?

Nick Jarvis: 54:20

There's two ways. Right now I have nicholasjarvis.com. You can make a direct meeting with me via that web link and just find a time, put it on my calendar, and we can meet. Um, and the second way to get me is just give me a call, which should be at 208-755-9288. That's the best number to reach me at. Um, I always pick up the phone. If I don't, just leave me a voicemail or even just send me a text. I'm very relaxed on this. You can text me, call me. Heck, you could even send me a letter if you want. You know, I mean, any way you can reach me, but those are the two best ways.

Tom Faust: 54:53

I think I know the answer, but I'll ask anyway just to make sure. Um, this, you know, if they call you or set up a meeting with you, uh, there's no obligation, no charge for this. Absolutely not.

Chris Faust: 55:04

And so um, yeah, and just you know, for for our listeners, people that are watching listening here. You know, if if you're facing, you know, a life-altering choice, you know, about you know, retirement, disability, or getting out, you know, just remember you don't have to do it alone. You don't just survive this transition. Reach out, get help, and you know, build a future that you can live with.

Tom Faust: 55:25

And yeah, for our listeners, we want to thank you for listening. Thank uh Nick for being here with us and giving us all this great information uh how we can help veterans transition and make a better financial transition from military to civilian life. Because this is always something, you know, transition is always difficult. Like you said, change is hard, people fear change, and uh having someone to talk to really can make a difference.

Chris Faust: 55:49

And yeah, for everyone listening, we appreciate you uh hanging out with us, listening, watching. Um if you think this information uh can help somebody, if it'll help you, um think somebody might need it. You know, make sure to like, subscribe, share, um, do whatever you can, help get this information out there to let anybody know hey, there is help out there. Um lots of different ways you can do it, go about it, and just you know, get get that help. That's the first step. It's it's there.

Tom Faust: 56:18

Yeah, and we will include Nick's links and phone number since he shared that with this uh podcast. And appreciate everybody being here. And so until next time, we will see you then.