Chris Kline on Crypto, Retirement, and America’s Financial Wake-Up Call

what's the first thing you're gonna cut? Well, I guess I won't put my $300 this month into my retirement plan or my retirement account. And it's the only thing the government gives us, right? It's the only time they give us a, they take, take, take, take, take, and it's the one tool they give us to build generational wealth. And I think generationally, there's a lack of education. You know, I never, I don't know about you, but I never learned about retirement at all. And grade school, high school, even college. It was something I had to learn outside in my career. And so I think you have those happening and we're getting older and older. And it's not just this generation either. So I was born, my birthday's next month, I'll be 41. The generation before me, my parents aren't prepared and some of the generation before them are worried that they're not gonna outlive their money. Their money's gonna run dry before they pass away. Which is a serious concern and a valid one. Because you can't go back to work at 85, right? And so this, I think it's not just a generation thing. I think it's an American thing right now that we just, we just don't take retirement seriously. And we feel like it's this giant mountain that's just impossible to climb so we don't climb it. So you mentioned some of the reasons. So obviously lack of savings is a concern. Many Americans live paycheck to paycheck. So how do you go about it? How do you fix it? Oh man, that's, if I had that answer, I'd be in the White House, right? You know, we have, we've had social security and pensions for years. And then there was this shift to the 401k, four, three beef, IRA, those types of tools. You just have to get people to understand, every bank in America is trying to get people to save more. They're giving them the ability to do a couple of hundred dollars a month or a hundred dollars a month, just anything to get your max contribution. We're coming up on tax season, right? So April 15th is the last day that you can do last year's contribution. So that's a great time to say, okay, here's my, I guess it's Chinese new year plus New Year's resolution, right? Like this is my chance to start my financial freedom and start my financial health off in a good step and make a goal, you know, if there's 10 months left in the year, you want to hit a certain amount each month to get to that max contribution of 75 to 8,000. Definitely. I think most people are not aware of it. They are missing out on that bonus, so to say, you know? So you believe in diversifying the portfolio. What is your strategy? Well, you said it best, it's not my father's, I always say it's not my grandfather's economy or my grandfather's retirement. So my strategy is modern portfolio theory has about 25 to 30% that's towards alternatives. So 75% you stay with your index funds, your fixed incomes, treasury bills, some conservative stocks, you know, everybody says Home Depot, the ones that are recession proof, those types, and then bonds and mutual funds. That's a safety zone. But you need about 25 to 30% put inside of retirement alternatives, and those alternatives can be anything from obviously I'm a crypto guy, so Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but folks use it for real tangible real estate, land, venture capital, private equity. These are the things you're not gonna find at an Edward Jones or a Vanguard, but if you don't have them in your portfolio, you're gonna be left behind at the end of the day. These are the ones that, you're more risky, more volatile assets, but they're the ones that, if you think about it, we've got 30, 40 years before we're gonna tap into these retirement accounts. You have a lot of time for those to grow and mature over time. Hmm. Question about wrong assumptions. Obviously, there are many that people have with regards to retirement and financial planning. If you could identify the single greatest wrong assumption. The greatest wrong assumption for Americans today is that we're gonna live forever and we're gonna work forever. I think that's the, I think we have this immortality complex. I'm getting older and my daughter's 12 now, so I'm starting to feel a little older in life and seeing, you know, you get over 40 and you're like, okay, we're about halfway there, you know? But for so many years, we were like, oh, that's something I'll worry about 20, 30, 40 years from now. And Warren Buffett would probably give me a nice little tap on the back, a pat on the back for this one, is that starting early is your best tool. So not waiting until you're in your 30s or 40s and you're earning years, but find a way to start putting, even if it's, you know, you can do up to $8,000 a year in a retirement IRA. If, say it's a thousand or 500 bucks, you do that now in a decade from now, it will build just with basic compounding interest, right? So I think that the fact that it's something to worry about later in life is the biggest misnomer from the American public. It's you gotta kind of just face it, face the music and address it and start solving it now. And you're not gonna solve it in a year or even five years or even a decade. It's something you have to slowly build up for your later years of your life because it's getting more expensive. Healthcare is getting more expensive. All the moving parts of life are getting more expensive. So the earlier you start, the better tools you have to compete in that older age when you're just trying to relax and enjoy your life. So much valuable advice. Thank you so much, Chris. I hope you come back soon. And we're gonna follow your journey and your company's journey, Bitcoin, IRA. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me.