Get to know your co-host Jon & Louie

This podcast was born out of love for our brothers and sisters, and we hope that this podcast can provide valuable insight into securing a positive financial future. Please listen at the end of the podcast for important disclosure information. Without further ado, let's start the first recording of the fiscal firehouse. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Fiscal Firehouse. I'm John Beattie, one of your co hosts, and with me I have Louie Barela, I'm your co host, and I'm excited to be here.

And that is Louie, the index funds Barela, and for those of you that don't know what an index fund is, you're at the right place. Stay tuned. Stay tuned, that's right. So this is what we're gonna call episode zero. We're gonna make this the soft launch of the Fiscal Firehouse. This is a podcast that is going to be curated specifically for members of local 1309, the over 400 of you guys that are currently with us. We're excited to be here.

There's, a lot of time and effort that's gone into this process. I want to talk about just the the genesis of why we're, why we're doing a podcast. Like, what is the, what is the needs? Why are Louie and I doing this? Even going down this adventure. So first and foremost, I want to highlight, why are we making this specifically just for our members? You know, why is this just for local 1309 members? So first and foremost, we want to educate and highlight that, this is a union sponsored podcast.

This is not with the affiliation with West Metro and the organization. And what I mean by that is union dues. So the dues that we pay to the union, they go for all sorts of different things, right? And one of, the ways that we're facilitating this podcast is by using some of those union dues. So some of the equipment that Louie and I are using, also the, The podcast hosts that we're using, they cost subscription fees. So we are using some of that money from the union to help support that.

So first and foremost, we want this information to be tailored, specifically to you guys. We think that's part of a fiduciary standard best bang for your buck. We talked about what this podcast is going to be and how we see it unfolding and we.

Don't know exactly what that's going to mean We know that we want to have an emphasis on financial education and literacy But we also do know that we want to have another communication channel for the union to communicate with our members All right So this potentially can be a nice little platform to do that because currently right now we have the union meetings we have the union app as well, NEP West Metro Firefighters, professional firefighters, right?

There's that communication channel and a big shout out to Ed Gaffrey, For helping support that and read Norwood and everyone else that helps support all the information on that. But really we understand, I mean, Louie and I go to most of the meetings and we just understand that, you know, for a lot of our members is a challenge to get there, right?

It's not a priority or it may be by be a priority, but you have a lot of other priorities in your life and it's just not something that you You can make. So we just want there to be an avenue in which our members can have another way to get some important union information out there. Whether it's dates or times or things that are coming up, whether it's political or just organizationally, like we wanted to have the ability to help have that conversation.

Yeah. And we as an executive board, if we just feel like this would be a good outlet to get that information across, obviously we're going to have a fiscal bend to that or a financial bend to most of our advice, but that doesn't mean that we don't have room on this podcast to have other information that we think is valuable for union members to know about.

So that might eventually be guests that we welcome into the podcast or even people from the department that might want to speak to the union members as a way to educate them on specific topics or specific issues. No, well said Louie, well said. And maybe this is a good opportunity once again for those of you that don't know the structure of the executive board. Mike Mulcahy, he's our president. Reed Norwood's our secretary treasurer. I'm the One of the, vice presidents.

All right, so we have three vice presidents, one for each shift. I am the B shift rep. Louie is the, vice president and he represents A shift. And then we also have Chintae Kim, who is a vice president and represents C shift. So for any of you guys across the shifts, if you have issues, we typically recommend going through your shift rep first. So if you're on A shift, go to Louie. If you're on B shift, you come to me. And if you're on C shift, you go to Chintae.

And obviously Mike and Reed help facilitate a lot of that as well. On top of the, that portion of the executive board, we also have political affairs, which is super important, especially in this day and age. And that's Kent Grosse. And we have, PR, which would be, Ed Gaffrey. He helps us out with communication and, PR related. Items, that's correct. We take, financial accountability and transparency really seriously here at West Metro, specifically with the union.

We have trustees that will, audit the books, louie was a trustee before becoming a VP. So if anyone ever has questions, about trustees or what they do, feel free to reach out to the executive board or Directly to the trustees. And I will speak on behalf, you know, not being the secretary treasurer, but talking a lot with Reed, and Kevin, Reichenbach before him, man, those guys do a great job. They're dialed in. They're dialed in.

Yeah. As a, as someone who's had to do a lot of financial reporting for, State Department that I worked in in the past, I can tell you that, they do a great job. The books are solid, and I know that the International Association of Firefighters really appreciates the level of detail that we spend on our books. Shout out to Reed and all the work that he does to keep the books looking good for us, making sure that we're spending our money wisely.

Yeah. A hundred percent, that kind of does dovetail a little bit into kind of the history of, I want to call it financial education and literacy here at West Metro. I think we're unique. I'll be honest. I don't know of really any other union that has any form of financial education literacy Podcast first and foremost. So we might be the first ones to take that endeavor, but really having a history of, trying to educate our members to the best of our abilities. I remember getting on.

And, having some older folks that had been here for a while, you know, not even really know who I was, but day one, day two type stuff. They're like, Hey, have you opened up your four 57? All right. Yeah. And if you have you got to throw as much money as you can at that. They didn't tell me why they just said, trust me. You know, 25, 30, 35 years down the road, you're going to be really happy that you contributed to that. And that was it. And there wasn't any more context.

There wasn't really any more education. It was just like, Hey, you have to trust me on this one. I'm trying to look out for your best interests. I want you to be successful moving forward. And I just know that this is going to put you in a better place, financially. And then just, you know, when you're thinking about retirement, it's going to be one less thing that you have to worry about because you've already been doing that. So, right.

And I've known, I've noticed just with the culture here, you know, we all know what I think that's a really important step in advancing what we do. Here's what we make, what everyone else makes at the table. And, there's a lot of openness when it comes to financial conversations. And people are willing to share their mistakes, their financial pitfalls that they had in the past.

And I think that's a cool kind of culture to have where they want the younger generation to maybe not fall into those financial traps that they've had. So they give them advice, very informal advice, like put money in a Roth IRA or put money into your 457. And so, yeah, that's how.

Financial literacy may be started at West Metro a hundred percent and I think that just speaks to the culture here at the organization and just that comfort level because you know if you read anything like Finance and money is still like the last true taboo topic in american society They'll talk about everything else, but people are still very secretive about money and having that conversation about money and it's just for some people it's very uncomfortable.

Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of shame right associated with it There's a lot of shame or like or, I don't know, disappointment, about not knowing all about finances or not knowing the best way to, to save your money or to invest your money. And that's sad, like we don't want that to be the thing that prevents people from achieving their financial goals. You hit it right up the nail on the head on that one.

Not only has it happened at the informal level and then about 10, 12 years ago I want to say it started to happen a little bit more formally and that Happens during the recruit academies and I know Louie you can speak on this this happened before I got hired I didn't have this opportunity But Don Doherty was the first person that took a step further and said I want to provide more structured Education when it comes to being a new person and new recruit just getting ready to graduate the academy

You had hr day like four months ago But you were so scared and there was just so many things going through your mind and filling out a bunch of paperwork So I think he really wanted to have an avenue in which Our members and the recruits could have more of that open dialogue about like, okay, I remember this four 57 then, but what is that? What is a four 57? I don't even know what that is and why should I do that or why shouldn't I do that?

And Don just created a conversation for a couple hours in which he had that open dialogue in which people could, have those conversations and feel a little bit less intimidated and feel a little bit more open to be like wanting to know more and having more education before they made those decisions.

So then after that, Louie came around, and really, I mean, Louie, For everyone that knows Louie has been really a godsend for this organization for a lot of different things But Louie then took it upon himself after Don's presentation just recognizing like Don had a lot of great information I got a lot of respect for Don. Don's both a public accountant.

He's also a financial planner He's got a lot of education a lot of experience but sometimes Don's delivery could be a little too high level, a little too much in the weeds. And I think you did a great job, Louie, of transitioning from where Don went and then you went more to okay, this is just basic financial education, literacy, financial independence, I think is my, you might even titled the presentation like, Hey, as a new firefighter.

These are just some really important like concepts in, topics to think about and just planting that seed. You kept it more high level and just Hey, this is what compounding interest is, and this is why it matters to you now. And really just had a nice organic conversational way of having that communication.

I think honestly, and Don was a firefighter at the time too, but I think having another fellow firefighter come in and address them and no disrespect to the chiefs or any other ranking officers around here, but sometimes it's nice to just have someone that's at your same level, having that conversation, you don't feel like this, there's this authoritative aspect to it where you're just absorbing the information and you present it in a way that was really well received and I'm sure people have

talked to you after the fact. I appreciate that. Yeah, it's been a, gotten a lot of good feedback on. That financial recruit presentation and I think that's been the foundation of financial education at West Metro as it relates to goals for people's financial future and financial independence. So I called that presentation, Financial Independence for Firefighters, got a lot of good feedback on it.

In fact, there's been a lot of recruits who've gone online that have talked to their crew members at the different fire stations that they've been at, who've wanted to see that presentation and have wanted me to give that presentation to them. So I think there's. From that desire, we've, John and I, are able to get an idea that there is a hunger for financial knowledge and financial education in our department.

So, that is where the union has gotten involved and said, okay, what can we do to help educate and give our members some better information as it relates to their finances and their benefits that they get by working at West Metro. You said it already, but I think there's a driving desire. So not only to have the education when you first get hired, but then have continuous education, just like we do in everything else, all of our other disciplines here, right?

Whether it's firefighting or EMS, like we're constantly having to evolve and learn more because things change, right? Laws change, all sorts of different things come into play. So having that up to date information and having what they call in the industry point of time information, so most people don't care about mortgages until you're getting ready to buy a house. And then you want to learn about mortgages and you care a lot about it, right?

So I think if we can have a delivery in which we can address some of our members needs based on where they're at, meet them where they're at, and then just help carry on that conversation we'll all be better for it. And hopefully it better serves them and getting the information. When they want it or need it, or when they're going to be receptive to it. And not thinking about a bunch of different things.

So with that in mind, John, the hunger that we've noticed for financial knowledge, can you share with us your financial background as well as your, desires or passions for financial knowledge? Financial literacy. I'll get a little personal on this specific topic. So it actually stems back from Getting hired here at West Metro where I first had my foray, if you will, into financial education or financial decision making. I think it was 25 at the time.

I had just gotten hired and we had our day one, our, HR day. Oh yeah. Good old HR day. And this one was a little bit more. Unique in that this was 07, so I was part of the 0702 shout out to you guys in the academy. But for those folks that have also been here around a while, you also know 07 is when we did the FPPA re entry into defined benefit. We had HR day on a Friday. And I vividly remember HR talking to us, the recruits okay, I need you to sign this paperwork.

You guys are going to have the option to elect to either be defined benefit, which is our pension, or you're going to have the option to basically have a 401, a type plan, a defined contribution plan, a money purchase plan. And on Monday. I need you to have this paperwork filled out. And by the way, it's irrevocable. You cannot change it. This is a one time election.

And I just remember being like, Wow, this is a tremendous amount of responsibility for me to think about my finances moving forward in retirement. And I have no idea. And it's Friday afternoon. I don't know who to call. I don't know where to get this information. I don't know what's going to be in my best interest. Everyone in your academy probably felt the same way, right? Like, what do I choose? What's the best option? What's the most optimal decision for my future?

For my family, for my future, there was a tremendous burden. And at the time I didn't have a family, right? It was just me, solely me. Yeah. I was single at the time, didn't have a family. I didn't have any of these other complexities that a lot of our folks have. That's a tough decision to have those, to have that decision. So I just remember from that moment on. It just resonated with me. I'm like, wow, this is, this is important. I don't know why yet, but this is important.

And then realizing being in the fire service, I don't know what it is specifically about the fire service. It might be some of our personalities. It might be because of the structure of our shift schedule. But we seem to be more active and I don't want to say worldly, but we have a lot of hobbies and passions. And for some reason, those hobbies and passions turn into what are you going to do in the second half of your life? And that part of that is just the structure of the fire service.

And, most of us are not Ron side bottom, shout out to you, Ronnie, but we are, and we can't work here, as long as the private sector will work. So our work life is cut short. So I think that just doesn't happen. I think we talk about retirement a lot more than almost anywhere else in any other industry. And I can speak on that. On the behalf of my wife who also works in financial services. And she talks about retirement for a living.

And she is amazed by the amount of conversations that have happened around the kitchen table with firefighters specifically. And it's great. It's great. I love that. And having that common, dialogue and communication. But I just, I think it's innate in our nature to want to talk about retirement and what the second half is going to bring. And we just all want to go do cool stuff. Like most of us don't have a plan on what are we going to do after our career here at West Metro?

We're always looking forward to that next chapter. So that really got me. honestly, in just finances in general. And then obviously I ended up marrying my wife, Katie shortly thereafter, and just hearing about her dialogue and what she was experiencing. And then another kind of seminal event happens. I want to say it was like 2012, 2013. That's when. We basically, as a membership, had to start contributing more to our pension plan.

FPPA had voted, our members, basically everyone that was affiliated with FPPA voted, and they voted to increase the membership. Contributions So, once again, that kind of raised this like, well, man, I'm already paying 10 percent and now they want four more. Like, why is this? And there was just a lot of uncertainty. I've always been one of those people that's been a little bit curious and just wanting a little bit more information, a little bit more detail, the why behind things.

So that also stood an interest in what is this whole pension thing? How does it work? All these other things. I just had another desire to be like, okay, this is interesting and then basically when Don Doherty left and this was before you had taken over I went to chief Lombardi with a proposal and said, Hey chief, I'm really interested in this finance stuff. I think it's super important. And this is something that I'm proud of the organization that we've been able to provide for our members.

But I quite frankly, don't have the chops. I don't have the education. I would like to go back to school and learn more about personal finance. And this is what I want to do moving forward. And chief Lombardi was very gracious and he's like, okay, cool. I think if that's what you want to do and is how you're approaching it. Proposing it like this is valuable to our members. We all know that financial strife and constraints crosses over our lives, and that affects our physical health.

It affects our mental health. It affects our relationships, and he definitely appreciated that, and it was really important for him to have someone else that could keep being the torchbearer of that. So I asked Chief Lombardi to go back and and get my master's degree. So I ended up getting my master's degree from Kansas State University in personal finance, which was a a tremendous education.

You end up taking, I think it's 36 credits, half of which is basically what you would think about someone in personal finance. So like the structure of personal finance. So investments, taxes, all kinds of the boring stuff. Right. The stuff that I was just amazed by was the psychology behind finance, why people do what they do. And there's so much in a relationship between how you're raised with money or not raised with money.

And some of those, it really is the, Peeling back the onion and looking at the human psyche and seeing why people make decisions with money and just how much it, it affects their lifestyle and their livelihoods moving forward. And it was fascinating and I've really taken a lot. Of that information. I've tried to put it into practice when chatting with people around here and trying to get more to the root cause of why people do what they do or what they want to do. That does sound really cool.

I think, finance is very personal. That's why they call it personal finance. and personal finance to look different for different people. It's cool that you have a little bit of insight into what drives those decision, the decision making process and how people establish relationships with money for better or worse. I, that's an important thing to understand and then how to change that, maybe how to change some of those bad habits or those bad beliefs about money or finances.

And. Making them into healthy habits or into good decisions that people make with money. It's cool that you have that knowledge and insight. It was. Eye opening to me, honestly, it's like I hadn't gone to therapy before. I haven't talked to a therapist, but I feel like going through that course work is very similar to what therapy would be. And there's a whole new branch of finance that's starting to populate and you can actually become a financial therapist.

So typically it's people that already have a background in counseling, and then they take some additional coursework, learn more about the finances. And then they see that intersection between finance and mental health and where that delves in, like you start going into some of this stuff and this might even be a potential for, an episode moving forward, but some of the different money scripts is what they call them. And that's basically just how you align with money. What are your values?

Why do you think about money in a certain way? It opened up some skeletons in my closet about why I am a tremendous penny pincher, right. And my wife is a spendthrift. She loves to spend money and whereas we actually make a good combination because we bounce each things off each other. But if you didn't really have that That self reflection or self awareness, like I, I think about money in a different manner after going through some of those exercises.

So, yeah, a huge, huge shout out to to the organization for helping support that in my education. And we just want to pay it forward and continue on the education with the members. So the other part of getting the master's degree is I was able to sit for the the certified financial planner that's like the. I guess the gold standard. That's really the gold standard in the industry. I guess you would say that's the gold standard. It really is.

It requires a certain amount of experience, but it also requires a certain amount of coursework. Have at a minimum a bachelor's degree. So it does raise the bar to some degree. And the biggest thing with the CFP besides the coursework and the education is they have a strong ethical standard, which when you talk about finance, it's one of those things that people I think part of why they don't feel comfortable talking about it is There's sharks out there, right? There's sharks in their waters.

And there are people that are more than happy to take some money off of you and what's not in your best interest. And we've seen that time and time again. And unfortunately we've had some circumstances here within the department where we've had some, people that were not providing sound financial advice and really looking out for our members, best interest in. That affects me personally, like I take offense to that.

It's no different than if you have a bad firefighter or is acting in a poor manner that reflects the whole industry, right? The financial services I think is becoming better, but they still got a long ways to go. But one of those things as a certified financial planner is you have to. To basically at hold to a fiduciary standard. And all that means is, and it's in, in a nutshell, you have to put your client's interest in front of your own.

Sometimes that can be tough to disprove, but really you are taking that ethical and moral oath that says, Hey, Louie, for you, everything that I'm advising you on, it's for you and not for me. Now, will I benefit for sure? But my interests have to be aligned with yours. Your interests have to be aligned with mine, that whole concept. So I was able to sit for the certified financial planner exam and was fortunate enough to pass on a first try. Yeah, that's exciting. I'll be honest.

That's that was probably the most difficult thing I'd ever done professionally. I thought paramedic school was difficult in just the rigors of it. I think the CFP was hard for me because there were still concepts that I wasn't familiar with. I'm not in the industry, so to speak. I'm not doing it every day, day in and day out. So had to take it through a different lens.

So I had to Probably put in a little bit more work than some of the other people that are actively practicing as advisors or something like that. But nonetheless, a tremendous amount of information was garnered from that. And anything like I hope, and we talked about this before, we want to be credible. Both you and I, and I think that's super important because once again, we have a lot of advice at the kitchen table to do this, to do that.

And we all have our own little niches, our own expertise. We were talking about this beforehand. If you're going to ask someone to build a house, you're not going to come to me or Louie, you're going to come to one of our contractors, right? You're going to come to Sean Lurch. You can come to Ron Sidebottom. You're going to talk to someone that's got some real world experience, has got building houses, right? Not like, well, I saw a YouTube about this or like that. Don't do it this way.

Like, so part of me wanted to have that have that background where I could have a little bit more credibility, quite frankly, when having on, when having some of these discussions. I think it's really cool that you did that. I think the biggest takeaway from that, whole background story is that you decided to go get your master's and get your certified financial planning certificate really for the members, like, for the members.

You didn't do it because you want to leave West Metro and go open up your own practice. And, you did this because you felt like there was a need, there was a lack of knowledge among the members. And that was something that you are passionate about. You have a talent for, and so you took away time from your family to, pursue this education. And it's really for the, Benefit of the members. So I think that's really cool that you did that.

Thanks for Taking one for the team My pleasure louis and and yeah well said for that fact It's you know now potentially down the road could I end up doing something with it? Maybe on an encore career potentially for sure there could be some some self interest aligned with that as well. We want what's best for our members and having folks that have some additional education and credentials to help support that will make us a better organization, a better union moving forward.

That's the background of how I got involved and at least my passion for finance. Let's flip the script and for those of you, and you've made a really good name for yourself and most people come to you with financial questions because of what you've done for their careers and just knowing that you've got a background in finance. So maybe you can speak a little bit more to what you did before your life here at West Metro. Yeah, happy to answer that. So I will just start with my education.

I have a finance degree from the University of Michigan, go blue. And I, put that degree to practice for the Colorado Department of Transportation for about 10 years. I left there as the budget manager for the entire department, which meant that I had a team of analysts that would do everything from revenue forecasting and resource allocation to the annual budget and the legislative budget, did all that for the department.

I liked it, but the truth, I guess I like finances, you know, I have a degree in it and I did that for a long time. But my, my true passion for finance lies in the budget. Personal financial. So helps people with their finances. I've always liked doing that with family, with friends, and so when I decided to become a firefighter I still always had that in the back of my mind like I want to help, I want to do something in the personal, financial realm.

And I saw my first opportunity to do that around the Firehouse table. Like we'd do. There's tons of need.

When people find out that I have some kind of financial literacy, they start flooding me with questions about retirement, about Roth accounts versus traditional accounts, about the difference between IRAs and 457s and how their pension works and Just things like that and that was something really cool that I was able to realize that I can help people understand and demystify for them So I really liked that aspect of being a firefighter that I could bring something to the table Like you said we

all have unique kind of talents or or educations or backgrounds and I was able to do that for our members and then my first kind of foray into Doing it in a more official role for the department was I took the Fire Instructor 1 and part of that have to give a presentation to the cadre or whatever to let them know that you know how to teach or instruct. And you can do it on any topic that you want that is somewhat relevant to the fire service.

And I gave mine on financial independence for firefighters. That was where that presentation first got its run and it was really well received. by not only the people in the room, but by the instructors in the room where we're teaching that class. It was after that point that I was asked to come back and give that presentation to the new recruits.

The cadre thought that it would be an awesome opportunity for the new recruits to learn some fundamental principles of finance, so to speak, as well as how their benefits here can help them achieve that financial freedom. So I was asked to give that and it's been running on ever since. You've gotten involved with it. The union has gotten involved with it too. I think our last academy you gave a really good book called the simple path to wealth to the recruits.

And so that was my first official foray into financial education for the membership. It's a way for me to have a creative outlet for my passion personal finance. And yeah, it's been great. I'm really looking forward to this podcast, really looking forward to helping demystify for the rest of the members. Some of the financial concepts that are always in the back of our mind are always running through.

I think the biggest takeaway that we can get from that is that both John and I The executive board in the union Really want to help our members Become financially secure and I think that they all have a passion for that And that's why the union is sponsoring this podcast is we want to see the people that we work with not be stressed by their finances, not be overburdened.

So if in any way, this can help those members achieve a level of financial peace as it relates to their retirement or their work life balance or their savings, then we're going to feel like we're achieving something. So that's why we're here. That's why we're doing this because we think that we can maybe potentially make a difference in, helping our membership achieve a level of financial peace or a level of financial freedom that they don't.

Yeah, that's really well said once again, and, it's not just Louie and I that have a passion for this. It's a lot of people around here speaking for the executive board specifically, but we're just happy that we have the, hopefully the knowledge to bring forth and some guidance and being able to have some good discussion. And once again, coming from as much of an unbiased Point of view as possible which is tough because we all have biases, right?

But once again, I think this is some of the challenges when you get into this is You know when you're talking about financial related stuff is who can you go to that's going to give you as much unbiased They don't have any skin in the game. They're not gonna make a commission or anything else is becoming More and more difficult and challenging and just not who can you trust? But are there goals and visions aligned with my goals and visions?

And I think that's something that you know, i'll go on record and say that will not be an issue here That's a good segue for saying that and you will hear some disclosures in the podcast but this podcast is solely meant for financial education and financial Entertainment you could call it, right? We're going to keep these conversations.

Hopefully light a conversational We're gonna try to bring in as many experts as we can with expertise But that being said this should never be construed for financial advice, because as Louie said financial advice is very personal and you cannot give personal Advice via podcast because you don't know people's circumstances and situations. So I think that's really important to highlight Not giving you specific advice. That is, we don't know everyone's situation.

We don't know where everyone is at exactly with their finances. So we can't tailor advice and we don't want to do that. We just want to provide some high level advice that is time tested. That is considered industry standards. And so we're here to share those kinds of Things with you as well as explain your benefits, your. West Metro, local 1309 benefits, health benefits, financial benefits. We want to talk about those too, which is something we're super proud of.

I'll be honest, like one of the things, and I was what you would call an absentee union member for about The first 14 years of my career, quite frankly, here I went to a couple of different meetings when I first got hired, but then I don't want to say life got in the way, but I was focused on other things. And quite frankly, I was still collecting a check. We were getting raises, like the benefits seemed good.

I just, I didn't feel a need, honestly, to participate or be actively engaged in the union. It wasn't until I actually got into training and started thinking about a little bit more and it's, it probably sounds very cliche, but I still remember it when we did the, your why meeting with chief Lombardi, I think this was back in 2016 or 2017. He goes around the rooms and says, Hey, what's your why? Why do you want to be a firefighter? What's important to you?

And I had noticed that my why had changed. And this is after I'd gotten promoted. But it became less about, It's always important to serve the citizens, and that is the oath that we take, right? But I think it's natural in your career progression to change about what's, what are you passionate about? What is your why? And my why was ultimately supporting those around me as best as I could.

And once I understood what avenue would make the most sense for me, it actually ended up being via the union. is with the way that I felt like I could best serve the people that I cared about the most. And that really is what got me interested. And then working here alongside with Kevin Reichenbach when he was in training and talking to Mike and Reed about it, it just made more sense I'm a big fan of serendipity and things happen for a reason. And I think it just happens.

Dance was like, no, I think this was what, My purpose here was meant more to be like I felt more fulfillment out of that than really anything I had done in a while So that really got me up and running on on the union stuff and really trying to be an advocate and passionate about union service and just what we're trying to do and really proud of all the benefits that the union has negotiated for so long and this dates back a long time And they're ongoing too like the influence that the union has

I think is ongoing when I got roped into union stuff by wanting to have some things change with regarding our benefits. I really wanted a Roth 457. I know you did too. That was something that we were able to get accomplished through the union kind of pushing for it. I had a big issues with fees from one of our retirement account providers and I really wanted to change that. The union was the way that I was able to help affect that change.

And so, yeah, really proud as well of what the union is able to accomplish for its membership. And, and really everything that the union does is for the benefits of the members. We really want to make sure that our members are taken care of in every aspect. I'm really proud that the union kind of has that goal in mind and that we work hard towards that in everything that we do. What Louie was referring to is the benefits SPT, right?

So Louie and I both try to get to many of those meetings as possible and just try to weigh in honestly and what we think our members want or what's going to be in the best interest of all our members and not just a specific group Class of membership, right? Like representing the whole group, which can be a challenge, and so in certain capacities to get something that's going to benefit everyone and not just a subsect is a challenge, but something that I think we all take that challenge on.

And we really try to do our best by, everyone. So you obviously got to know a little bit more about Louie and myself that was one of the goals as we just wanted to introduce ourselves, we already hit on a little bit about what our objectives and goals of the podcast are. So first and foremost, financial education, literacy, knowing your benefits, how to use those benefits kind of thing.

Secondarily is just talking more about the union in general and things that we can do information dissemination, all those other things is also going to be a focus of this podcast. We are going to try to keep the format similar, each podcast, maybe a little shorter, maybe probably going a little longer this time, cause it's our first one. It's our first one. And with all due respect, I am not an audio engineer and I am not a professional podcast editor.

We got some decent equipment here and I'm going to do my damn best to do it. But. Please have a little bit of grace, bear with us. But really we wanted the format of this to be the frequency first and foremost is going to be monthly. That's Louie and I's goal is to drop an episode a month. The duration. We'll see. It's going to be somewhere between, I think our goal is like 30 to 45 minutes, but some of that will be depending on what topics we're talking about and how in depth we go.

And the other part is we want this to be fun and conversational. We don't want this to feel like a lecture or just a PowerPoint presentation. We Do want there to be a level of engagement and feeling like as you're driving down the road or walking the dog or whenever you're listening to this, that you're just sitting in the room with Louis and I as we're discussing this. Like that's really how we want, want to bring it on.

Yeah. And then we're gonna try to incorporate as many guest speakers as we can. Once again, there's a lot of expertise throughout the organization and the membership that can speak on some of these things. And really the most important thing, and maybe Lou, you're gonna hit on this, you guys are going to be the one that dictates basically what we're going to talk about and how you want to receive The information.

Yep John and I have Some episode ideas of things that we know are important that we want to cover For example, we're not going to do a financial podcast and not discuss the pension. That's the cornerstone of Most of our membership's financial future.

We're going to talk about that There's a lot of questions about 457 and pre tax and post tax or traditional and roth stuff So we're going to cover those things But we also want to know that We want you to know that you guys can tell us what you would like us to cover. If there's some financial topics that you feel like are so important that they need to be addressed, we'd like to consider those and maybe address those on a podcast.

John set up an email address where you can actually send those questions to, and it is askfiscalfirehouseatgmail. com. Once again, that email address is askfiscalfirehouse, all one word, no under spaces or anything like that, askfiscalfirehouse at gmail. com. We'll go through those questions. Some of those we'll just address on air. Maybe we'll have to dedicate full episode to some of those questions and we're willing to do that if our membership Has that desire and that need.

So please, we want this to be interactive. And of course it doesn't have to be email. If you see one of us at the training center or at the station or whatever, just approach us and say, Hey, got something that I think you guys could address or that you guys can answer for the membership, and we'd be happy to consider that and maybe address it on air. So maybe the first question that's going to come in is where did we get the name for the podcast? Where did this concept of fiscal firehouse?

Who was the originator of that name? Who did come up with that name? I believe it was the chat gpt Oh, you could be right that actually came up with the name I think we're we're spitballing what we wanted to call what we wanted to call it I think I originally came up with some Something hokey.

I think I said I originally wanted the podcast titled 55 and out because that is my goal I think that should be everyone's goal around here to be, you know Financially stable and with the setup of the pension right now Most of the folks were getting hired or between 25 and 30, maybe even a little bit younger 25 to 30 years here and doing some other things that Louie and I will help I think it's definitely achievable and possible.

I have gotten some like, where'd you come up with the podcast name? So it actually was a little chat GPT. So we're going to tech around here. We're getting some AI involved. Heck yeah. I just want to say just once again, a big shout out to Mike and Reed for kind of entrusting Louie and I to carry forward this message. We want to do you guys proud and solid. And I, man, I'm excited about this. I'll be honest with you. This is something that I've been passionate about.

You're passionate about, and I hope it's well received out there. Me too. We're going to continue to get better. I want to give a shout out to Seth Major. podcast logo for us. So hopefully you guys will see that on your, podcast player choices. It comes up a really big shout out. He did the creative work and getting that finished for us and making it look good. So it's probably the best part of the podcast is the logo at this point. Small wins, Louie, small wins. All right.

Until next month when we'll have episode one drop, we want to wish you guys the best and be safe out there and we'll be catching up with you. Fiscal Firehouse Podcast is a podcast curated specifically for local 1309 members. This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and should not be construed as professional financial advice. Should you need professional advice, consult a licensed financial advisor or tax advisor.

The opinions of John Beatty, Louie Barela, and their castmates are solely their own, and don't reflect that of West Metro Fire Rescue.