Discover the Secrets to Financial Success with Chris Key

Jonathan Breeden: [00:00:00] What are some of the. biggest mistakes that you see people make, that you wish they would not make?

Chris Key: Yeah. The biggest one is not starting early enough. I’ve never had a client come into the office again, man, I wish I had started later. You know, It just doesn’t happen that way. Uh, So starting early, there’s always a reason not to. right.

You graduated from college, you get that first job and you got a crappy car and you want to save up, buy a new one. And then save up to buy that first house. Then you have kids and you know, when daycare is over, I’ll start saving more and there’s always something going on that when it’s over, you’ll start saving and then you wake up one day and you’re, 50 and we’re retiring 15 years and you don’t have enough money.

Narrator: Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it’s a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County [00:01:00] presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello, and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. This is your host, Jonathan Breeden. And my guest today is a long time friend of mine, Cleveland resident, financial advisor extraordinaire, community service person who does a ton for this county, Chris key.

Welcome, Chris.

Chris Key: I’m sure there may be a push.

Jonathan Breeden: But I don’t know if it’s a push or not. So anyway introduce yourself, tell the court. I’m used to being in court, a lawyer, right? I’m sitting here. I’m not in court. I’m actually recording a podcast in my office. Your name and where are you from?

A little bit about yourself.

Chris Key: Sure. Chris Key originally from Sanford, North Carolina. So not too far from here. Went to NC State, die hard fan, go pack after that moved out to Johnston County area and opened my, or started my business here financial planning investments. Company’s firm, company name is Sarah Wealth Management.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Yeah. And I guess when you [00:02:00] first came here, you were with Edward Jones?

Chris Key: Yep. Started with Edward Jones in Smithfield and did that for six years and then made the transition to my own firm in 2010.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. All right. So when did you move to Johnson County?

Chris Key: Moved to Johnson County in 1998.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. I got you.

And why did you move to Johnson County?

Chris Key: So no grand reason. I had a, buddy of mine from NC State who had a place out in Clayton that he was renting. He needed a roommate. I needed a cheap place to stay. So I moved out to Clayton. I had no intention of staying here at the time, but I just kind of fell in love with the county as I stayed here for a few years and decided to stay.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. So, let’s talk a little bit about what your office does and you have several advisors who work for you. So what are some of the services y’all provide to the citizens?

Chris Key: Yes, we have seven offices across North Carolina and Georgia now. The Smithfield office is kind of the headquarters of all that.

And my individual clients all work out of Smithfield [00:03:00] office. So we work with individual clients, business owners, nonprofits. To invest their funds, financial planning. I tell clients, especially the families, allow me to be your family CFO. Let us take care of all the financial things that your family thinks about or doesn’t think about because they don’t have time or don’t make the time.

Let us take those off your plate so you can be a parent, husband, you know a great employee, whatever it is you want to be out there in the world and let us handle this for you. So that’s kind of what we do.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay, yeah, and I rent space. The Breedon Law Smithfield office is there in your building on South 3rd Street about two blocks from the Courthouse. So very convenient for us and right across from a travel Odyssey. The travel agents that I use all the time and do a great job barbecuing and Renee there as well. So, let’s talk about some of the things you’ve got a lot of young families and that listen to this podcast.

What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see people make [00:04:00] that you wish they would not make.

Chris Key: Yeah. The biggest one is not starting early enough. I’ve never had a client come into the office again, man, I wish I had started later. It just doesn’t happen that way. So starting early, there’s always a reason not to, right.

You graduated from college, you get that first job and you got a crappy car and you want to save up, buy a new one. And then save up to buy that first house. Then you have kids and you’re, when daycare is over, I’ll start saving more and there’s always something going on that when it’s over, you’ll start saving and then you wake up one day and you’re 50 and we’re retiring 15 years and you don’t have enough money.

So saving early is number one. And then emotional investing is number two, which is probably my biggest job. You might can look at investments and look at how they do. And there’s a lot of online platforms today, but. Individual Americans investors tend to make emotional investment decisions, which costs them a lot of performance.

The average 401Kover the last 20 years has earned 4 when the market is earned closer to 10. That’s because those employees are making choices that are emotional instead of. Logical with what’s going on in the market. [00:05:00]

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, I didn’t know that. I thought you were going to say the opposite. So anyway,

They see the market go down and so they pull out and then they don’t put in that’s where, and instead of just sort of set it and forget it, that’s sort of been my mantra in what investments I do. I don’t even get up paper statement anymore. And I hardly ever, unless I need the tax documents, I don’t really sign in to look, I’ve got a plan.

I’m trying to stick to it and I’m not looking at whether it’s going up and down every day or every month because I don’t need it. Now.

Chris Key: Well, another big common mistake is they look at, they get their yearly statement or whatever, they look at it, look at the investment options they have in the performance and they go, wow, that mutual fund did really great last year.

I’m going to move half my money into that. Well, traditionally something that performed so well last year, historically might not do quite so well this year. They’re again, they’re making emotional choices off of information that it’s just information and their emotional choices.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, and we [00:06:00] here in the office, you know, we were doing divorces and stuff we work with a lot.

Of finances and financial affidavits. And we look at what people spend money on. And one of the things I see people making a mistake on is they’re not saving correctly for retirement or saving at all, but they have an 800 car payment. And that money could be going into a 401k or an IRA. A lot of people are giving up the match.

The employer would give them if they would just do it because they’re paying for this car, that’s a depreciating asset that ultimately is going to be worth zero and I try to convince them otherwise, but I don’t often have a lot of success.

Chris Key: It’s a tough call. And you work with employees for companies. We do 401k plans as well.

And you got about a 30 percent participation rate, 33 to 35 on average in those retirement plans that are matching. And the employers want you to try to push that and get those numbers up. And we do as well, but it’s kind of hard because a lot of those people live paycheck to paycheck, and they put that money in, they get the matching.

And then they take it out in a few months because they have [00:07:00] emergency and they pay a 10 percent penalty and taxes and all that. So without some kind of basic foundation, a little bit of savings on the side, it’s difficult for them to start even contributing, getting the match when they’re just going to try and take it out a few months later.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So is one of the things that you, your office and your advisors do. Work with people on budgeting. You said, let me be your family’s CFO. Is that one of the things you do is help them develop a budget and maybe point out where they could cut?

Chris Key: Yeah. I mean, we help in every area of a client’s financial lives that affects their finances and that’s something, you know, that we get into.

And there’s areas like estate planning that we have conversations about. And then refer them to an Attorney and send it back to their Attorney, but, business succession, planning, budgeting, investments, insurance pretty much any area you can think of. The budgeting we get into, we actually provide that it’s for a lot of our your class again, especially just married or just had a kid, the big changes they have, it changes the budget and they just don’t realize the [00:08:00] changes that are being made.

I mean, if they’re. Okay. You got a couple who’s living, they have an apartment or a house and they don’t dual income and then they’re making things work. And then they have a baby and they’re excited as well. They should be, you know, but they don’t look at the financial ramifications that they don’t notice until it’s too late that the credit cards all of a sudden have grown to $4, 000 when they didn’t carry a balance before.

They just don’t look at. Changes to the budget when life changes happen.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and I’ve been there and I remember that my wife and I had a baby and then we bought the house we live in now and that house and that baby were. Expensive and it was tough for a little while.

Chris Key: It’s also, which is more expensive, right?

Jonathan Breeden: Right! Yeah. And it was, I know how that goes and it’s tough. I saw the vice president the other day was citing a study where she said that 54 percent of Americans could not pay an unexpected $400 car repair bill [00:09:00] without going to a credit card.

Chris Key: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And I have been there before. I’m very fortunate that I’m not there now, but I have been there before. So I knew what she was talking about and hopefully Americans will go back to saving more. I read the other day that savings are now down. They went up during COVID and now they’re.

Down kind of far and that’s a little scary.

Chris Key: Yeah, we’re back down to at least 10 year lows and the credit card debt is going back up. So we’re definitely going in the wrong direction. I hate to see that, but it’s a chronic problem in our country, you know, I don’t know the root of it.

People aren’t making enough or they’re not, they’re spending too much or whatever the reason is we got to get better, but I have clients we’re people talk about, you’ve got to make a lot of money to save money and to invest in all that, but I have clients who were School Bus drivers or School Bus mechanics and teachers.

And, you know, that they live frugally when they needed to, they save money, they started saving early and when they retired, they had, million, [00:10:00] two one case, even 3 million. So I know it’s not what people are making today, and I know it’s tougher today than it was 3 or 4 years ago and all that, but people can still make it happen.

And it’s hard, right? You want to be frugal, you want to save money, but your neighbors get the new car or the bigger house or the kids get the new clothes or whatever, and it’s hard not to make those choices.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, and I don’t know, I read a quote the other day, and I don’t even know who it’s from, and I don’t even think I’m going to get it right, but the gist of it was, you can

suffer the pain of discipline or suffer the pain of disappointment.

Chris Key: Yes!

Jonathan Breeden: And saving and investing for the long term requires discipline because it is easy to go out to eat. It is easy to buy the new car It is easy to go to that concert when you probably should be saving for the long term if you don’t have extra money.

Chris Key: Yeah, and the thing is that i’ve told a number of younger people, we work with [00:11:00] this, you know, that discipline that the pain of caught the pain of trying to save.

If you start early, that only lasts 10, 12 years or so, which may seem like a long time, but in the lifespan, it’s really not. And then all of a sudden you’ve got a foundation of saving. You’ve got money there, it’s growing it’s doing well. And then when you start getting those raises, you don’t have to save those raises anymore.

You start spending those and enjoying life and by the time you’re in your. 20 or whatever, after college or after high school you can go out and enjoy the things you want to without having to worry about that financially. Whereas those people who don’t start early, they have that worry the rest of their lives.

So, if you can do the right thing for 12, 15 years. You can enjoy spending money the rest of your life. Whereas a lot of people can’t enjoy, truly enjoy spending that money.

Jonathan Breeden: Right and it’s never too late to start. So if you’re listening to this podcast and you’re 50 years old and you’re not where you want to be and you haven’t gotten going it’s not too late to start.

You might not get where you could have gotten if you started at 25. But [00:12:00] you got to do something because Social Security is not a lot and, it will be there, but the amount that’s going to be there at with the social security trust fund headed towards insolvency and the next 20 years. If you

listen to what they say, they could make some changes and fix it. They just have it. It may not be what it’s projecting now, and it’s really not enough to live. I mean, not like that. You’re used to living as a working adult.

Chris Key: Right it’s not, and you’re right. You can start at any time. I tell clients whenever you get in and develop that Retirement Plan or whatever that plan is, it’s the best time for you to get in.

if you come in at 50, you might not, we run the numbers. It might not be the retirement that you want. But let’s look at what the realistic retirement looks like. Let’s see what we can do to alter that in the next 10 or 15 years. And people who are kept on retirement or even pensions, there’s a lot of people still getting the pension out there or planning on that retirement.

You know, you run those numbers and you retire at 65 and you’ve got Social Security and your pension and everything looks great. That’s fine and dandy, but 10 years down the road. We know from [00:13:00] the last three years, what inflation does to our spending. That pension is not going to go with inflation.

Social Security is not going to go as much as inflation.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Chris Key: It might be enough when you first retire, but is it going to be enough 10 years later. And if you don’t have some private assets there on the side to start drawing off of in the future. You might find yourself in a hole.

Jonathan Breeden: No doubt, and the main thing is it’s not too late to start. And if you don’t have a plan and you don’t have a goal and you’ve not worked with somebody like Chris Key and his advisors or anybody else. You need to do it, it’s worth a call. They’ll all do give you a consult for free won’t charge you. And you need a plan because you know, just going along is not a plan and you need a plan and we live longer now with medical technology and investments.

You know, the odds are if you live, and this is another thing I saw, and this may be wrong. If you live to 60, you have a better chance of living to 90 than you do. something like if you’re alive at 60, there’s a high percentage chance [00:14:00] you will still be alive at night and it keeps going up with medical improvements, and I don’t know exactly what it was.

It’s anyway, I got too much stuff in my head.

Chris Key: Somewhere in there.

Jonathan Breeden: But just don’t assume you’re going to be dead at 70.

Chris Key: You will live a long time after 60 probably that’s a, it’s a long time to fund life without a job.

Jonathan Breeden: Correct.

Have family law questions? Need guidance to navigate legal challenges? The compassionate team at Breeden Law Office is here to help. Visit us at www. breedenfirm. com for practical advice, resources, or to book a consultation. Remember, when life gets messy, you don’t have to face it alone.

Jonathan Breeden: So anyway, let’s talk a little bit about some of the community service you’ve done.

I know you were extremely involved in bringing the Miracle League Park to Smithfield and tell the listeners like how you got involved in that, how that sort of evolved, because that really is an amazing story and you did a ton of work on that and this community owes you and the people on [00:15:00] that board with you a tremendous debt of gratitude because that’s a tremendous part.

It’s at the Smithfield Community Park right next to the Smithfield Aquatic Center. If you’ve not been there, it’s a Miracle League Park. It’s a baseball field for children with disabilities and it’s for all children, regardless of their disability. And it’s a tremendous asset for the County and if you’ve not been out there to watch the kids play.

You should do that, they have games in the fall on Saturdays. I think spring and fall in September and October. And then I think they also do it in March and April on Saturday mornings approximately. So tell the listeners a little bit about that.

Chris Key: So I was with a partnership for children in Johnston County, which is a program that works with pre K education in the County.

And we were looking to build a park. For special needs kids, a play space that was the closest 1 was carrying Raleigh. We have a lot of kids here who don’t play the same way as other kids did. And then they have somewhere to go. So we’re looking for a space and we want to do a capital campaign to [00:16:00] build that.

And we came across another organization. The Miracle League, which is headed by Monty McClam, fantastic gentleman, does a lot of work for that group who were looking to raise money and build the special needs Baseball field. So we said, why we’re serving the same group of people, why have 2 capital campaigns?

We kind of merge the 2 and then a six year capital campaign to raise at first about a million and a half, $4 . 6 million. We’ve raised another two or three thousand dollars since then ongoing to build the park and the Baseball field, which are right there together on the same piece of property, which is the only place in the East coast that has them both in the same place.

So it’s a really cool facility. A lot of therapists will use the park to take kids through there and work with them. In different, there’s a whole lot of different areas that they can go through and work with different types of abilities. Of course the Miracle League is there. They have games in the spring and fall.

They could always use volunteers. Each of those players has someone to their buddy for the game [00:17:00] that helps them bat, helps them go around the basis, helps them in the outfield and protects them from the ball. And it’s a very special experience if there’s any families, individual ball teams or Boy Scout units, but my unit goes out there every year and volunteers that wants to gather and volunteer.

It is a really special experience. I highly recommend people to

look that up.

Jonathan Breeden: Right, and I’m hoping I can get up with Monty McLean and have him on here to talk about the Miracle League. I met him at the Johnson County awards dinner that’s done by the Johnson Now Magazine. He was recognized as a citizen of the year and he is a fascinating individual of a ton of energy. And I just left smiling after meeting him and they had several of the Miracle League athletes there at that award ceremony. And it was really a lot of fun. And I’m hoping that we can have him on this podcast and talk some more about that. And so when did the, when did it get built?

Chris Key: Oh man, that’s just about 5 years. It was [00:18:00] pre COVID. Everything’s pre COVID, right?

Jonathan Breeden: Right, no doubt.

Chris Key: I want to say 5, it’s probably been 7 years ago now. We thought we completed construction. And so that was a great day, big relief off of the Capital Campaign Committee. Very exciting.

Everything looks great. I mean, the park is really growing into its own. The ball field is being used. It’s still one to a concession stand out there. So there’s some stuff we took out because we’re lower budget that we’re trying to put in as we go along, but the facilities are fantastic.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s awesome. And the kids are, having a great time and the league is growing and it seems to have more kids every year and adults. It’s not just children there’s a lot of adults out there playing.

Chris Key: There are. It’s a great, I think that we all have, a lot of us have our kids or grandkids and ball leagues around the area.

Here’s the question at Cleveland School area. And you go to the games and they get intent sometimes, right? I mean, it’s. It’s just the way ball is. I think everybody should go and just watch one of those games because it’s the exact opposite. Those kids are just happy to have somewhere that lets them on the field.[00:19:00]

They’re happy to be able to make contact with the ball, even if it’s with help. They’re happy to be able to get around and touch four bases and have their names called out. Everybody gets cheered for by everybody there. And it’s just special. People should just go and watch one of

those games.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah, no doubt. And I would encourage anybody to go out there and do it. It’s a lot of great people and a great time and you will not go there and not leave a smile on your face. It’s impossible. It’s impossible to go out there and see that and not leave a smile on your face. So, I guess, as we start to wrap up this episode of best of Johnson County.

What do you love most about Johnston County? You’ve been here for 25 years. You’ve raised a family here. You’ve started a business here. What do you love the most about Johnston County?

Chris Key: So, well, first of all, it’s close to NC state, so I can make all the games.

Jonathan Breeden: I love the Wolfpack too.

But,

Chris Key: I mean, really, probably number one is, the people of Johnston County. Again, I moved out here because I had a buddy who needed a roommate. I need a cheap [00:20:00] place to stay. But as I lived here and began to work here, there’s just great people here in Johnson County. There’s a lot of opportunity in Johnson County for, you know, jobs, careers, business interests, real estate, you name it. There’s opportunity here. We’re close to Raleigh. We’ve got 40 and 95, not far from the coast, not far from the mountains. You know, but we’re not a big city. Yes, there’s just, there’s. Whatever area you’re looking at, there’s an opportunity to grow it here. And I think that’s fantastic. But there’s part of the two biggest things that I’m excited about for the county.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. And if people want to get up with you and your office and some of the advisors that work with you, what’s the best way to do that?

Chris Key: So you can look us up at, aWMAdvisor.com that’s our, website. Call the office in Smithfield. The website also lists all other offices across the state and in Georgia. So depending geographically where you’re at, we probably have some pretty close to you, but look up a W M. Day wmadvisor. com checks out.

Jonathan Breeden: All right. No problem. No problem. And we’ll have try to have that in the show notes down below. And [00:21:00] we want to thank Chris key from coming on and being our guest today on the best of Johnson County podcast.

If you would do us a favor of liking or following or subscribing this podcast, wherever you’re seeing it, that would be great. So that you don’t miss another episode of the best of Johnson County podcast. New episodes are posted every Monday, and are going to be coming out. And if you not listened before, we’d Go back and listen to some of the previous episodes that we’ve had with Adrian O’Neill, the Johnson County Parks and Rec director, Patrick Harris, one of the Johnson County commissioners, and some of the commissioner candidates that we’ve had on, who are running for office this year about what their vision for the future of Johnson County will be. So that you’ll know kind of what some of your leaders believe is going on and why they also love Johnson County. If you also do us a favor of leaving us a five star review. Now at the bottom, it will help for our visibility. So other people will see this podcast and we’ll know about the best of Johnson County podcasts why I love Johnson County as much as I do, why the guests who come on here and love Johnson [00:22:00] County as much as they do, and why you are listening, love Johnson County as well. Johnson County is a great place to live, work and play. And that’s what we’re trying to do is promote that on this podcast. So until next time, I’m your host, Jonathan Breeden. Thanks a lot.

That’s the end of today’s episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County.

If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.