Emergency Fund to Retirement: The Three Ducks Every Family Needs in a Row

Are you ready to take control of your family’s financial future?

Many single-income families and business owners struggle to prioritize their financial goals, leaving them feeling unprepared for life’s uncertainties.

What if there were a simple way to ensure peace of mind while building a secure future?

In this episode, Mark Hansen breaks down the essential steps to getting your financial “ducks in a row,” starting with building a fully funded emergency fund, prioritizing retirement savings, and planning for future expenses like college or weddings.

Discover why these foundational steps matter, how to avoid common financial mistakes, and why aligning with your spouse is critical to achieving long-term success.

Through relatable stories and actionable advice, Mark shares the quiet part of financial planning—balancing emotions with practical strategies to protect your family and secure your future.

Learn how time and compound interest can work in your favor, why prioritizing retirement over college savings is crucial, and how business owners can safeguard their income with a larger emergency fund.

Don’t let financial missteps create unnecessary stress—listen now to start making intentional choices today!

Be sure to download Mark’s free eBook, “What the Hack Are You Thinking?” (linked in the show notes), and subscribe to the podcast for more insights that will transform your family’s financial journey.

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Resources:

• eBook: What The Hack Are You Thinking?

Connect with Mark Hansen: 

• LinkedIn: Mark Hansen
• Website: SecondComma.com
• Email: contact@second-comma.com
• Apply to work with Second Comma

About Second Comma
This podcast is hosted by Mark Hansen, founder of Second Comma, a financial planner specializing in helping six-figure single-income families with children. Mark holds the Series 66 – Uniform Combined State Law Exam and the Series 7 – General Securities Representative Exam, demonstrating his commitment to providing informed and reliable financial guidance.

Our Commitment to Trust
At Second Comma, we prioritize transparency, accuracy, and honesty. Every topic discussed in this podcast is grounded in reliable financial principles, with the goal of empowering families to make informed decisions with confidence, free from conflicts of interest.

Disclaimer
This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Each family's financial situation is unique—consult with a qualified financial professional for advice specific to your needs. Topics discussed on this podcast are not a substitute for comprehensive, holistic financial planning.

Learn More
To discover how Second Comma can support your family’s financial goals, visit our website or contact us directly at contact@second-comma.com. We welcome your questions and feedback to help ensure our content meets your expectations.

Transcript

ProudMouth (00:02)

Hey there, welcome to the quiet part hosted by Mark Hansen, a financial advisor at second comma. That's me, by the way, this podcast explores our often unspoken priorities and dreams. You know, the things that shape our lives, even if we aren't conscious of how it plays out, the reasons why we sometimes struggle to do what we know we should do and even continue to do the things that we know we shouldn't join me as we go through the everyday gaining a deeper understanding of ourselves, our decisions.

and how we spend our time, our money, and ultimately, our lives.

Wendy (00:37)

Hello and welcome to the Quiet Part podcast hosted by Mark Hansen, where he explores the unspoken stories hidden in the quiet hours we spend at home. I'm Wendy McConnell. Hi, Mark.

Mark Hansen (00:50)

Hey Wendy, how's it going?

Wendy (00:51)

I'm good, how are you?

Mark Hansen (00:53)

I'm doing pretty good. I'm still on this really amazing high. I took the kids to a park yesterday that my buddy told me about and it was an indoor park. And that's really helpful for me because, you know, when it's, when there's something happening outside and the kids can't go outside to burn off their energy, the energy doesn't just like magically dissipate. And so having an indoor park where we could go and still play with the kids had a great time. I had a great time and I'm excited to go back. And it's strange that as a dad, those are the things that get me really jazzed, but.

I mean, here I am, it's the next day and I'm still really excited about an indoor park that I found.

Wendy (01:26)

Well, and it's true. It's like, you know, when you walk your dog, you do it to, so they can burn off energy. And if it's raining, the dog's not like going to be like, it's raining. Okay. I'll just take a nap instead. No, they still need an outlet for all of that energy.

Mark Hansen (01:32)

Yeah.

Yeah, okay, we can't go outside. I'll just I'll just throw all this energy away. That's what I'll do. Yeah.

Wendy (01:44)

Exactly. Okay, so what are we gonna be talking about today, Mark?

Mark Hansen (01:49)

Well, I was sitting back, I was thinking about what's the overall story we've been telling in the podcast and episodes one and two, we talked about who am I, what do I do? What is second comma? What happens at second comma? Who do we help? And then episodes three and five, we started talking about the actual quiet part, the things that are not specifically money related, but they do affect our money. Episode four, we talked about how do we handle our household cashflow? And I thought today we'd make an extension of that and actually dive into.

financial priorities that really lay a solid foundation of financial knowledge that we could step on top of as we make our educated decisions.

Wendy (02:25)

Okay, sounds good. Let's wade in.

Mark Hansen (02:28)

Okay. So today's episode, I wanted to talk about how do we get the ducks in a row, right? We all have financial ducks. We probably know that they need to be in a row, but how do we get them in a row in which duck goes first? And I wanted to talk about how the first duck that people sometimes forget, right? People come in, they're ready to be clients and they say, Mark, I need you to help me buy a car or buy a house. We've got to start saving for college. We need to save for my little girl's wedding. We need to move this money over here. They want to make all these maneuvers.

And I feel like they skipped step one and step one for me is going to be having a fully funded emergency fund. And Wendy, when I say fully funded emergency fund, what comes to mind?

Wendy (03:05)

All right.

Well, I mean, I know the theory is it's, and it depends on who you talk to, but I think generally it's three to six months of salary of how covering life living needs.

Mark Hansen (03:24)

Now, Wendy, that's right. The emergency fund is going to be some number of months of your household expenses, right? The emergency fund is your first line of defense. It's the money that you spend. If money stops coming in or if expenses are larger, this is the first thing that you focus on because it's your first line of defense. And if you go, I'm sorry, go, sorry, go ahead. I want to hear.

Wendy (03:43)

And just in case, just in case something goes wrong, like your air conditioner stops working on Memorial Day weekend. So I have just yesterday and I have no idea how much it's going to cost. I have no idea how long it's going to take for somebody to get out of here, but it's going to be expensive.

Mark Hansen (03:55)

Did that just happen to you?

man.

It the same thing. It wasn't, it was not a Memorial day weekend in the U S we have, July 4th, ours went out July 4th weekend while my wife was very pregnant. It was not a great time for an air conditioner to go out and you would talk about it. It's like a double emergency, at that point. And yes, that, that bill does come in. It's not specifically fun, but, air conditioner, very important piece of living.

Wendy (04:22)

Yeah.

Yeah, so you want to make sure you have the money to get that fixed.

Mark Hansen (04:33)

Exactly. And if you didn't have the backstop of an emergency fund, now you're diving into personal loans, you're diving into credit cards, you're going negative to continue living your life on Tuesday that you were living on Monday. And that's not a great setup for us to try to continue. And if you have more questions about where does an emergency fund come from? How do I even free up the funds to move them into my emergency fund? I'd say go back to episode four and learn about understanding your household.

Wendy (04:45)

Right.

Mark Hansen (05:00)

expenses. That's where you can go and learn more. We've already covered that topic, but and it's going to be important. We're going to talk about a lot on future episodes too. But you're going to need some kind of numbers to start crunching and you can learn a lot about those numbers in that episode. Now the guidelines, you're going to hear a lot if you go online, three to six months of expenses. And I think that is the correct answer for some people, but it's only for some people. So let me give my my guidelines that I try to give people if you are a dual W -2 income household.

Wendy (05:12)

Okay, great.

Mark Hansen (05:28)

then three to six months of expenses saved up is totally fine. Right. But if you are a single W2 or 1099 income household, then I'm going to be saying something like six to nine months. Single W2, that's going to be higher risk. Single 1099, that's a little higher risk. And I'm going to want you to have even more money saved up. And then there's even a third tier beyond this where I'm saying my business owners, I want you nine to 12 months of expenses saved up, if not more. And for the business owners, we're talking

business expenses, right? Because just because your revenue drops out doesn't mean you can't stop paying payroll. When I look at my real estate investors, your emergency fund now covers your rental properties. You need to make them mortgage or they will take it away from you. The more complicated your life gets, you'll see your emergency fund expands out very quickly, but it's because you're trying to protect the investment life that you've already created. And sometimes that means having a lot of money that sits on the sidelines.

Wendy (06:02)

Right.

Mark Hansen (06:24)

But the sidelines doesn't have to mean it doesn't participate. You could put it into a high yields savings account or something like that. The money can still be earning interest, but we do want to have it. We are specifically talking about money that's separate from your investment accounts.

Wendy (06:39)

Okay, so...

Mark Hansen (06:41)

Now, Wendy, sorry, go ahead.

Wendy (06:43)

No, you go ahead, Mark.

Mark Hansen (06:44)

Okay, Wendy, one other question I had for you is I say three to six, six to nine, or nine to 12. Why do you think there's a range inside of each of these categories?

Wendy (06:55)

I don't really know. I would imagine just because people's expenses are all different.

Mark Hansen (07:00)

Yeah. If people's expenses are different and their emotions are different, you know, I've got some people who are in very systematic jobs. They've been in that job for a long time. They're going to stay in that job for a long time. They're not trying to climb the ladder or move side to side or anything like that. And they know that their job stability is very high. And if that person has a certain risk profile, they might be okay with only having three months of savings. Now the exact same person who is still worried about certain things might vote to have six months.

But I have that flexibility and they're just to have a kind of a lower and an upper limit because that helps people make decisions. Just because you feel okay having no emergency fund doesn't mean I'm going to tell you it's a great idea. And just because you feel like you want to have 39 months of emergency fund doesn't mean I'm going to say, Hey, that's a great idea. At some point we need to limit the emotions and we need to limit the math. So that's why I give a range for each of these areas.

Wendy (07:56)

so that when people are feeling, like people that just are a little more risk averse compared to people who would just wanna keep playing it more safe, right?

Mark Hansen (08:07)

Exactly. Exactly. And what makes this even more complicated is that this is something you have to be on the same page with, with your spouse, right? If you are married and somebody wants three and somebody wants six, well, you can't say for three and six, right? And what we really need is a conversation to get to one number that everybody agrees on. Because if we just say, okay, fine, we'll just default to the higher number. Well, now somebody's probably going to feel like we're not using our money the most efficient way. And that can cause strife.

in a marriage where you really want to be, let's say a husband and a wife, someone's at three, someone's at six. Maybe they talk and they agree on five months. Okay. But they agree on five months. Now, when we get to a point where something happens and we have to start using the emergency fund, using the emergency fund, I mean, emergency is right there in the name, right? You want to be on the same page. And so when you can talk to your spouse and get to the same number, that's going to be really helpful. That's a key thing is for people to come together and get one answer.

Wendy (09:05)

Absolutely.

Mark Hansen (09:06)

Yeah. And I actually have a client, right? Dual income, but both variable income. And this was a real conundrum from them. They couldn't quite wrap their heads around. How do we make a plan against unknown income amounts? You know, January is higher than February. June was a wash. August blew it out of the water and your budgeting software doesn't really like it when your income fluctuates like that. and what solved it for them, an emergency fund.

They get a nest egg. They have a backstop. They have money on hand for when June is a wash or when February isn't as strong as January. And then I said, guys, when it's, when the emergency fund starts getting depleted, then you fill it back up. When August has a blowout, you fill it back up. When January is strong, you fill it back up, but you still have the emergency fund as your backstop. And this gave them so much peace of mind day by day. And now they're not trying to plan the unplanned. Right. Having the emergency fund, having money on hand.

allowed them to free up their minds. And in case you missed that whole discussion, let's say this, your emergency fund is very important. How much goes into your emergency fund is a mixture of your lifestyle expenses, your type of income, your ability to sleep at night. Okay. Some people sleep better with a larger number in their bank account and that's okay. That's just a conversation we need to have. All that makes sense.

Wendy (10:25)

yeah, but I'm curious about something and it might be off topic. How many people actually have an emergency fund? That's what I wonder.

Mark Hansen (10:35)

The statistics on this are going to be not very many not very many people right if you go on to If you go on to the Accessible data right looking at average household savings the the US savings rate etc. Most people can't handle Expenses most people have to dip into personal loans or debt situations most people have to go to credit cards And I just don't think that's sustainable

Wendy (10:41)

I'm not alone!

Mark Hansen (11:04)

for people. And so I am putting this information out there. I'm, I'm just giving somebody else something to think about because when you, when you don't have to turn to debt, when you don't have to turn to credit cards, you get to, you just, you're just not setting. I'm losing my track thought when you don't have to go to debt and when you don't have to go to credit cards, you have that backstop, you stop moving backwards. And that's, that's what we're trying to teach here.

Wendy (11:30)

And that's the most important thing is to stop going backwards. So, yeah. All right.

Mark Hansen (11:34)

Exactly. Yes. And if we can, if we can stop going backwards, then we can start talking about going forwards and going forwards is going to be saving for retirement, which I'll categorize as working to secure your future first. So the steps that I want people to do emergency fund, get that built up. Once we get the emergency fund, we start looking forward at your future first. And at Wendy, why do you think we prioritize saving for retirement over other things that we might want to save for like college, future weddings, et cetera?

Wendy (12:04)

Because you're going to be on a fixed income when you retire and you're not going to have the ability to make more money.

Mark Hansen (12:12)

Yes, yes, your ability to get more money in the future is very different when you're not working. And this is really strange for a lot of people to wrap their mind around. When you are throwing a wedding or you are going to college, those things can be financed because you can get more money. You secure more money because you have an income. Okay. If we take away the income, which means we step into retirement, it's really difficult to go to the bank and get a loan.

Wendy (12:33)

Right.

Mark Hansen (12:41)

for money, to pay back with money that you're not earning anymore. And so that's, that's really the breakdown here. When people come in and they say, I've got ABC, I want to accomplish something. We need to make sure that retirement is on track because you can finance a lot of things. You cannot finance your own retirement. That's a foundational difference. The wedding, going to college, they can be financed. You can't call the bank and take out a loan to fund your retirement.

Wendy (13:05)

Could you imagine? Wouldn't that be awesome though?

Mark Hansen (13:07)

It sounds so simple. I'm going to go to the bank. I'm going to ask for a loan. What are you going to ask for a loan for? Funding retirement.

Wendy (13:15)

Right. Yeah. The first 12 months are interest free.

Mark Hansen (13:18)

Exactly. Yeah. Not only that, what we give up by delaying, we give something up by delaying for retirement and you give up one of your biggest levers. When did you know what the biggest lever is that we give up when we delay saving for retirement?

Wendy (13:36)

compounding interest.

Mark Hansen (13:38)

my gosh, you just I had like three answers to lead to compounding interest. You just jumped straight to the answer. But yes, yes. When you when you delay saving for retirement, all you're giving up is time. And what needs time compound interest compound growth, your money to have a chance to make money for you doing the heavy lifting while you sleep while you play with kids while you eat your chick filet, right? We got to have a chick filet reference every episode. So that was this. That was this episode chick filet reference.

Wendy (14:03)

Yeah.

Well, speaking of restaurants, I worked at a restaurant for many, many years when I was young, still going through college and all that. And I actually got a pension through them and I cashed it out when I was 27, 28, it came out to a mere probably $1 ,700, which was an enormous amount of money to me at the time. But do you know how much money that would be right now if I had not taken that money out? And I just wish we could really convince the younger people.

to leave it alone.

Mark Hansen (14:38)

Yes. Yes. Yes. That's, there's a study that essentially found out that the best investors were dead people because they never touch their accounts. And I tell that, I tell that all the time where it's, Hey, you know who the best investor is? The people who don't touch their accounts ever. It just leave it and forget it. Right. Yeah. I was, I was working with somebody one time and they didn't really understand this message of prioritizing retirement first, right? It didn't land with them.

Wendy (14:47)

Ugh.

Right.

Mark Hansen (15:06)

And so I told them a story about the Walgreens around the corner from my house. And there's a woman that works there. And let me start off. I'm not saying that this lady made a bunch of mistakes and she did things quote unquote wrong, right? I'm not, I'm not going to lay those assumptions here, but there is a woman that works at the Walgreens by my house and she's elderly. And whenever, whatever number pops into your head as retirement age, she is older than that. Okay. And she is tired and you can see that she's tired.

And she's not great with technology, but the entire checkout system is technology and touchscreens and scanners. And she is always having to thank people for being patient with her because she moves at a slower than average checkout rate because she's tired and because she's not good with technology. And there's a number of reasons why somebody could or would continue to work, right? Retirement doesn't mean you never work again a day in your life. And that's why I'm not saying this lady specifically doing something wrong.

Wendy (15:52)

Right.

Mark Hansen (16:04)

People want to work into their quote unquote retirement all the time. But the main thing is that I want that to be your choice. Okay. And when, when, when you aren't able to retire because you miss prioritized saving for retirement, especially when I'm talking to people that are in their thirties, just squander the next 30 years of not saving for retirement. That's not, that's not what we want to do when we're trying to make educated financial decisions. I want people when they're ready to stop working.

Wendy (16:30)

Exactly.

Mark Hansen (16:32)

to be able to stop working. And you will be able to do that if your investment account can supplement your income and your lifestyle.

Wendy (16:42)

Yeah, you have to make sure that's what it's going to do and there's enough money in there to do that. And it's really important. And I really just wish that I would have gotten that at a younger age because now I'm older and I'm getting a lot closer to retirement and I'm just kicking myself for some of the things that I have misprioritized and all of that kind of stuff. So yeah, it's serious.

Mark Hansen (16:49)

Yes.

Yeah. And it's not that the, it's not that it's impossible, right? The math is just different. Okay. If you need, let's pick up, make up a, make up a number. If you need a million dollars, if you invest early, then you have more time for compound interest to do the heavy lifting for you. The closer you get to retirement, the shorter your time horizon, the less compound interest that there can be. And that just puts the burden on you, the earner to get that $1 million saved up. If that's your goal.

It's not that it's impossible, right? So then that's something I like to tell people too, is it's not that you have, 10 years to figure this out. And if you don't do it, the train has left the station and you'll never catch it because the train moves faster than you could ever run or hope to catch up. That's not how it works. It just means that instead of being able to utilize something like compound interest as much as somebody else, it's more a burden on you to actually take your dollars and save them into your retirement. And I, I, I get it people. I hear you. Right. College is closer than retirement.

The wedding is closer than retirement. I get it. But from a time horizon, that makes sense on an emotional level. I'm not fighting you right there, but if we get this backwards, what could it look like if we get this backwards? If we miss prioritize, it could look like a college degree that was fully funded, a beautiful wedding that everybody loved and parents turning into a financial burden on their children. Just as their children are trying to set up their own families, their own lives, parents that have to get jobs, doing things that they don't really enjoy.

And the jobs that are stopping them from doing the things that they do want to enjoy. If you miss prioritize this, you can become a burden on your children. And if I say that to somebody, right? If I said, do you want to be a burden on your children? Everybody says, no, that's not what anybody wants. But then we go and we miss prioritize what we're trying to do, not knowing that that's the path that we're walking down.

Wendy (18:37)

All right.

and we end up working at Walgreens when we're way above retirement age.

Mark Hansen (19:01)

Yes, yes. I just at least want to wake people up. If somebody is going to be working at Walgreens when they're 80, I want them to do it because that's what they want to do. I don't want people backed into the Walgreens corner, so to speak. Now the key takeaway for what we just said, you need to know how much you need to save up for retirement. But that number is kind of complicated because it's based on your age, your current balances and your retirement accounts.

Wendy (19:11)

Right.

Mm -hmm.

Mark Hansen (19:28)

The length of time between now and when you'd like to retire, right? How much longer is your runway? what types of accounts have your, has your money been put into as in some, some accounts have age requirements. You can't take the money out without paying a penalty until you get to a certain age. All of that is, is going to have to go into account when you're trying to figure it out. How many dollars do I need saved up in which accounts? It's not as simple as a pick a number that's nice and round.

And then hopefully we get to that target. You might need to reach out to professional to help you get to an actual number there.

Wendy (20:00)

Okay.

Mark Hansen (20:01)

Okay. And the last thing I wanted to talk about, okay. So if we get to where we have our emergency fund fully funded and we have our retirement set up, then we can start talking about saving for upcoming expenses. Things like college, things like higher education, things like, the wedding that, that everybody wants to be, to give it perfect for that little girl. Right. And this is working to enhance somebody else's future. So we need the emergency fund for your backstop.

Wendy (20:24)

Yeah.

Mark Hansen (20:30)

Well, then we need to work to secure your financial future and then we can work to enhance somebody else's financial future. Okay. And we now get to look. Okay.

Wendy (20:37)

Where does buying a boat fall in? Is that working to secure someone else's future or my own?

Mark Hansen (20:43)

A boat. Let's see the boat. If you had, unless this is, this is the secret. Let me give you a little tip. If the boat is your retirement, then it can jump, right? It can jump the priority, but then you have to literally live on the boat. Okay. People do it all the time. It's called cruising or whatever it is where you like live on a boat and just cruise around the world on your boat. Absolutely.

Wendy (20:57)

well, okay, I'll think about that.

Get a house note. Yeah. All right.

Mark Hansen (21:08)

Houseboat. Yeah. There are lots of different kinds of boats that you can live on, but yeah, that's, you know, if you, if you really, really want the boat, then just make it your retirement. If you want the RV, then make it your retirement. Yeah. So now we get into saving for these other things and this kicks the can down the road, but it kicks the can down the road in the sense that the can needed to be kicked down the road. Right. So the ducks are being put in a row. We're finally to the duck that says I've taken care of myself.

Wendy (21:17)

All right. I like that. I like it a lot.

Mark Hansen (21:38)

I've taken care of myself. Those first two are really about taking care of yourself. The third one, the third duck can finally be, I want to take care of somebody else. And this is very simple. This is just looking at when is the expense, how much do we think it's going to be and laying out the time horizon to figure out how much do we need to save up each month to get to the grand total dollar amount that we're trying to look that we're never trying to have to pay for the future expense. Okay. And. Wendy, what do you think is different as in.

What's the difference in the approach? Okay. We've got a big savings opportunity that's coming up, but now, okay. Picture now you have the emergency fund and you know, you are saving appropriately for retirement. What do you think's the difference there?

Wendy (22:22)

What's the difference in the savings method?

Mark Hansen (22:25)

What's the difference in the two scenarios? In both scenarios, you're saving for a wedding. In one, you don't have an emergency fund and you're not saving appropriately for retirement. In the other one, you have a fully funded emergency fund and you are saving for retirement. But in both scenarios, you're trying to pay for a wedding or college in the future. What do you think is the difference between those two scenarios?

Wendy (22:47)

Peace of mind.

Mark Hansen (22:49)

Absolutely. There you go. There you go. You got to quit reading my notes. I want you. That is exactly what this is the discussion about.

Wendy (22:57)

This is my job, Mark. I know a little bit about financial advice.

Mark Hansen (23:02)

That's exactly what we're talking about. We're talking about peace of mind and we say that it's something that you can't buy, but at the same time, I do believe that if you can get an emergency fund and you can save appropriately for retirement, I do believe you will, you're not buying it directly, right? You're not going to the store, going to local Walgreens and picking it off the shelf, but you can get it by using dollars appropriately. You can get peace of mind. And now.

Just imagine you have the backstop of the emergency fund. You have the retirement plan figured out. Peace of mind. How much more are you going to enjoy sending your kid off to college or, you know, actually enjoying the wedding? Imagine being at the wedding thinking. This is a paid for wedding. I can be here right now in this moment with my little girl or my little boy as he, as he gets married versus.

Okay, everybody quit going back to the food line because every time you go, it cost me seven more dollars because you pick up another chicken parmesan or whatever. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And really, this is a long version of just saying, I'm trying to give some logic and some reasoning because when people come in driven by their emotions, the first thing that they want to save for is going to be college, wedding, something like that.

Wendy (24:05)

Right, yeah, that's not going to be enjoyable at all.

Mark Hansen (24:25)

But we have to take that back. There is a mathematical answer to this and the mathematical answer also gives you the emotional answer that you desire. And that's what's interesting about this. you know, quick recap, right? We're going to set up our defenses. That's the emergency fund. Priority two is to work, work to, get your future secured, right? Get the target amount headed into your retirement accounts. Figure out what kind of accounts that need to be used when you're saving for retirement.

And then we get to priority three, which is then you can work on somebody else's future, creating a savings plan for those big upcoming expenses. And this is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to making educated financial decisions. If you find yourself interested in, in this process, if you have more questions, I think you should go grab my ebook. It's free. It's going to be in the show notes. You can get it off the website. It follows you. you follow the story of a fictional couple as they navigate through situations just like this.

ebook is called What the Hack Are You Thinking? And that's, it's really kind of like, what the heck are you thinking? Because sometimes that's what I want to ask people.

Wendy (25:29)

Yeah, absolutely. So where do we get that book?

Mark Hansen (25:31)

Yeah. And I've got a little bit of, you can get the ebook, on the website, right? and your homework after listening to this episode, figure out the number that you need in your emergency fund and start working towards that number, figure out the number. And then go back to episode four, figure out how much money you can put towards it and get that timeline laid out. And if you need some help, you can always reach out to me. Okay. Then I want you to figure out the number you need for retirement and get yourself on track saving there too. And again, if this is something you need help with.

A lot of people need help from a professional. My contact information is going to be listed down in the show notes. and that's it.

Wendy (26:09)

Well, I think you give too much homework, Mark. I'm just gonna go ahead and say it, all right? You're not the only class I'm taking.

Mark Hansen (26:17)

Hey, you don't have to do it, but you might have to repeat it next semester. How about that?

Wendy (26:21)

there he goes. Okay, brilliant. So what is the website and how do people get in touch with you?

Mark Hansen (26:28)

The website's going to be second hyphen comma .com. So sec, O and D hyphen C O A .com. All the information is going to be listed there that we talked about today. You can even get into the blog, learn a little more in depth on some of the topics I've covered. And if you want to reach out directly to me, the best way to do that is going to be via email, mark at second hyphen comma .com.

Wendy (26:47)

Great, well, thank you, Mark, and thank you for listening today. Please like, follow, and share this podcast with your friends. Until next time, I'm Wendy McConnell.

ProudMouth (26:58)

Thank you for joining us on The Quiet Part. If you found value in our journey today, please subscribe and stay updated on future episodes. Check the links in the show notes to learn more about Second Comma or discuss working together. Remember, The Quiet Part is more than a podcast. It's a journey towards understanding the deeper aspects of our lives. It's about saying the quiet part out loud. Click the follow button and be part of the conversation about uncovering the unspoken. Lastly, here's some important information for our listening audience to know.

The opinions voiced in this episode are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations to any individual or entity. Any depictions made in this podcast are hypothetical only. For a comprehensive review of your personal situation consult with your financial or tax advisor before investing. Satara does not provide any tax or legal advice. Securities and advisory services are offered through Satara Advisor Networks LLC, member FINRA SIPC, a broker dealer and registered investment advisor.

Satara is under separate ownership from any other named entity. Neither the co -host nor its guests are affiliated with Satara Advisor Networks LLC. Any information they provide is unrelated to Satara Advisor Networks LLC or its registered representative. Mark Hansen, Financial Planner, 275 Wood, Teakwood Lane, Plano, Texas, 75075.