Local author shares tips for how to achieve financial peace of mind
Achieving financial freedom involves strategic planning, disciplined saving, and investing wisely. Making work optional allows individuals to design their lives on their terms, pursuing passions and meaningful activities without the constraint of traditional employment. It’s about creating a financial foundation that empowers personal choices and a fulfilling lifestyle. Philip Palumbo, CEO and chief investment officer of Palumbo Wealth Management in Great Neck, has recently published a book titled, Make Work Optional: Live Well and Never Worry About Money Again, to assist families on properly planning and investing their money. We had a chance to speak with Palumbo about the inspiration and goals of this book. Here is what he had to share.
Q Why the need for this book?
A What I do for a living is to get people away from using that word and thinking like about that word, retirement. It’s so archaic, it’s overused in the financial community, people being sold and marketed that term of retirement. People are saying to themselves, “Oh, I want to retire from (some) arbitrary age of 60 to 65.” I’m more of the believer of saying to yourself, get to the point where work is optional, as quickly as possible. That could be for someone who is 45, 50, 55 and so on. Everyone is different. Financial peace of mind, that’s the goal and objective for all of us in life. You do not have to be worth billions to make work optional.
Q Who will benefit from reading this book?
A It’s literally for everyone, no matter if you are 16 or 60. This book is not about teaching you how to stop working. It is about having the option to make work optional. The concept is easy to grasp, even at a young age. The focus of my practice is helping people who are preparing to make work optional, or were already at the point where working is optional.
Q Do you think that this concept is more common now than when our parents and grandparents were working and trying to figure out how to manage their finances through retirement, or in some cases, work until they died?
A This book teaches how to build up enough assets so that you can generate enough cash flow to stop working, if you wanted to. Most people who are at a work optional point in their lives continuing to work, because they enjoy their work. The point of financial freedom isn’t necessarily stop working. In fact, I would argue that that’s not a smart idea. I would argue that it’s very good to continue to work.
Q What inspired you to write this book?
A A great business book called Who Moved My Cheese. It’s a very short read, but it really gets to the point. It is simple, easy to read and understand. The goal of my book was exactly to keep it simple and concise so anybody can understand the content. My hope is that when people read it, it’s an eye-opening experience for them. That gets them excited to push hard to get to this point where work is optional, to have the financial freedom to do whatever it is they want to do in life.
Q Talk about your own passion in finance.
A I’ve been doing this for 23 years. I have been at my own first now for four years. The thought of getting people to make work optional has been something I’ve thought about from day one. A lot of my financial memories and ideas comes from my father who was a Local 3 electrician. My mom stayed home and took care of me, my older brother and my younger sister, and oftentimes my dad struggled financially. To see him struggle was an eye-opening experience for for me. I started working at the age of 13, hustling to make my own money and to build up my net worth was completely self-taught. My goal now is to make sure my clients don’t feel the way my dad did. Peace of mind, I’m so big into that. The three-legged stool in life is number one, your health. If you have your health, you can enjoy number two, your family. And number three is having enough money to enjoy your health and your family. If you’re missing and mismanage one leg of the stool, the stool falls over.
