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Preview of what we’ll cover today:
📱 First Phones: Brick phones bring nostalgia
💬 Instant Messaging: Communication changed incredibly fast
⏰ Always Available: Technology erased some boundaries
🏈 Tough Love: Good coaching requires honesty
🎯 Better Advice: Challenge can create progress
📊 Financial Planning: Accountability still matters
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More About This Episode:
What started as a nostalgic conversation about first cell phones quickly turned into something much bigger. Ryan looks back at early mobile phones, instant messaging, and how technology gradually made all of us more available all the time. Technology may have changed how we communicate, but the value of honest guidance has not changed much at all.
Go Deeper Into The Episode:
0:00 – First Cell Phones
2:47 – Always Available
4:18 – Ryan’s Retirement & Purpose
4:45 – “Grinds My Gears” & Tough Love
7:45 – Order a Toolkit
Resources:
Retire Pilots – https://retirepilots.com
Get your FREE Retirement Toolkit – https://bit.ly/3ZmZsaX
Pilot Tax – https://pilot-tax.com/
The Pilot’s Advisor Podcast is also on video. Watch & Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3EIEBW2
Connect with Pilot-Tax: https://pilot-tax.com/
Episode Transcription:
(Note, this is an automated transcription. Please forgive any errors.)
Walter Storholt 0:05
Well, in the Pilots Advisor podcast, we always talk about financial stuff, but we’re going to take a minute here just to have some fun. And I’m curious, Ryan, when did you get your first cell phone? An element of nostalgia for you today.
Ryan Fleming 0:18
Well, actually, you’re sitting out there in Colorado. The first time I got a cell phone was when I was at the Air Force Academy. I believe I would say it was sometime during my freshman year, and of course we weren’t allowed to have them or anything. But that’s when they were first coming out, and they were a huge brick. I mean, it was like a brick, and I remember I think it was AT and T or I think it was AT and T Samsung. I don’t I don’t remember. The phones were you know brand new back then. So and I think I think the packages you know like the minutes was like 60 minutes a month. I mean it was
Walter Storholt 0:53
and five texts. You got like yeah yeah our first one you could text like five five times before it started charging you. It was like to
Ryan Fleming 1:00
think about yeah. To think about the packages now, it’s hilarious. And even then, it was like you had it wasn’t like unlimited long distance and stuff like that. I mean, it was it was very very very basic. Yeah. Did you have a flip phone
Walter Storholt 1:15
or was it one of those like solid? You know, just a the the buttons were on the front and it was just a solid brick.
Ryan Fleming 1:22
It was a solid brick with like a little opening thing like that because the battery was so huge.
Walter Storholt 1:27
Okay, just to power
Ryan Fleming 1:28
that thing, which probably only lasted like 30 minutes. I mean, who knows? Yeah, so it’s pretty wild how the technology has changed. My wife and I were having fun with each other the other night at a we’re at dinner with another couple, and she was making fun of me because I didn’t understand the whole instant messenger thing back in the day. You know, she was more technologically advanced than me, and I’d sent her an email, and she’s like, “Why are you emailing me? And all of a sudden, like you know, like the you know IM or whatever they called it, like pops up, and I’m like, “Oh yeah, who’s that? Where’d they come from? Yeah.
Walter Storholt 2:02
How are you doing
Ryan Fleming 2:03
this?
Walter Storholt 2:05
Yeah, I remember complaining about instant messenger and being like, “Why don’t you just pick up the phone and call them instead of doing all that typing?
Ryan Fleming 2:12
You know, and what spurs probably this conversation. I actually got feedback from a few clients that were like, “Hey, I loved some of the little shorts you guys did. Like, not talk about financial stuff, like just getting to know you a little bit better. So, yeah. So that’s a fun question.
Walter Storholt 2:26
Yeah, that’s a good one. I I held on to mine for a really long time. I don’t think I got my first smartphone until I had my first like real job out of college and was actually like in a position of somewhat importance where I needed to, you know, be a little bit more on call and have access to things, and I remember making that transition too. So it’s interesting to look back at that tech, isn’t it?
Ryan Fleming 2:49
Well, especially I think what it’s really changed is there’s no time off at all. Like I mean, I think that back in the day, somebody would leave you a message and you might get back to them in a week. I don’t know, you know, a couple days, and now it’s instantaneous. I mean, I feel like I get a text. I feel, especially with my clients, I I try to be very responsive. You know, like I try to be very responsive. And ultimately, what it what it creates is a situation where you’re never off. I mean, true, true. I tried to go on vacation with my family here right before my kids went back to school, and and I feel like my whole family’s on vacation, but I’m not. I mean, I’m sitting there constantly answering emails and texts, and and you know, I I I want a higher level of service for my clients, and I try to to live up to that. I mean, I feel a responsibility, a massive responsibility, not only managing their assets, but being able to be there when they need me. So, I think a lot of that pressure I probably put on myself, but I I don’t know what vacation
Walter Storholt 3:45
is. Yeah, well, one day you’ll retire and then you’ll really know. Yeah, I don’t know. I think I’ll probably die before I retire, but you know that’s a whole nother separate conversation. Actually, that leads into one of the the podcasts we were talking about doing, so that’d be good. Yeah, there you go. Well, there’s a teaser. Go check out the podcast, the full podcast channel, and you’ll you’ll find an episode where Ryan talks about dying. Maybe
Ryan Fleming 4:08
it’s going to be the one where we talk about quote unquote retirees working into their 60 s, 70s. You know, some even in their 80s. Yeah, but but I look at it that way. I want to have a sense of purpose. I want to have a a reason to get up in the morning. And unfortunately, I don’t know if I’d be very good at retirement. I mean, I know it in advance.
Walter Storholt 4:28
Yeah,
Ryan Fleming 4:29
if I woke up every morning and it was just coffee, and then all right, what’s next? You know, get to the gym, get your doctor’s appointment squared away, eat your you know get your pills squared away. Then what?
Walter Storholt 4:39
You got to have you got to have a plan. You got to have you know an agenda for the day. You strike me as that kind of person for sure.
Ryan Fleming 4:46
The other thing that I was thinking about, you know, we do some of these fun bits on the podcast like this, but I don’t know if anybody’s ever watched Family Guy. I think Family Guy is hilarious. Sometimes I just have in the background when I get sick of. Watching the market and Fox News, I’ll just throw it on just to laugh a little bit. But I was thinking about a bit where you know I don’t want to be a complainer, but you know Peter had that episode where he goes, “You know what really grinds my gears, you know, and he talks about like stuff that people do, and he was on the on the nightly news talking about all the stuff that really bugged him, and so I want to do that with like financial stuff, like stuff that clients do or don’t do that just really grinds my gears. Yeah,
Walter Storholt 5:30
we can call it the grind grind my gears segment or something like that.
Ryan Fleming 5:33
Grinds complaining again. Who knows? You know, and I like to call it tough love with my clients. Like I don’t, I actually offend some people because, and I try to tell them up front. I’m like, hey, my job is not to sit here and tell you you’re amazing and you’re do every doing everything right. But you know, I want to be a little bit hard about it, and and you know, I call it tough love, like I said, and just hey, here’s a hole in what you’re doing. You need to fix this, and we need to get a little bit more disciplined with that, and and I don’t know. I guess well, if you’re just gonna
Walter Storholt 6:04
have somebody tell you, you know, to do exactly what you’re doing, and not and and not challenge you, not change a thing, then you might as well just keep doing everything on your own, and not hire that coach or that advisor. I mean, same thing, and with with like football coaching, since you love football analogies, right? If you are a football coach and all you do is just say, “Hey, good job, good job, and clap and do nothing else, you are not going to have a successful football team. You got to push back. You got to point out where there are areas of improvement and opportunities and all those things.
Ryan Fleming 6:33
Yeah, what would be the point? I mean, you got to get out outside of your comfort zone and be pushed a little bit. Or one of the great football coaches in my in my past, Larry Fedora, who I know you know because he coached at University of North Carolina, and I just talked to him a couple days ago. I love his quote. I still use it to this day. And he just always said, “Don’t tell me about the pain. Show me the baby. Show me the baby. Don’t tell
Walter Storholt 6:56
me about the pain. Show me the baby.
Ryan Fleming 6:59
Yeah, and that dude, that dude ripped. I mean, he was all over me all day long, but it made me a better, better athlete, and and it showed me the level of work and and trying to perfect a craft. I mean, it got to a point where I thought I was doing everything perfectly. Like, man, it doesn’t get any better than that. And he would still rip my hands. So
Walter Storholt 7:20
yeah, hugely important to keep that perspective. Well, fun. This was a great conversation. I think it’s a great reminder. It started off just talking about cell phones and all those kinds of things, but I think it’s a great reminder to make sure that you’re having somebody kind of check your check your progress on things, making sure that you’re on the right track. And I don’t know, we still somehow ended up talking about finances out of all this, Ryan. So that was fun.
Ryan Fleming 7:41
Oh my gosh, I can’t get away from it.
Walter Storholt 7:44
Well, hey, if you’re new to the show, if you’ve never really thought about you know serious financial planning as a pilot and wanting to you know head in a better direction for your financial future, don’t hesitate to reach out to Ryan. One of the best ways you can connect is by ordering your retirement toolkit. This is where Ryan has packed a box full of books, reports, and more great information to help you properly prepare for your financial future, for retirement, and everything in between. You can get that by clicking the link in the description of today’s show, and lots of other great information there as well. Ryan, that was a fun one. Thanks so much. We’ll talk soon.
Ryan Fleming 8:19
Thanks a lot, Walter.
Speaker 1 8:25
This episode is for educational purposes only and is not individualized investment advice. The Pilots Advisor LLC is an SEC registered investment advisor. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Past performance is not indicative of future results, and investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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