Ep 249: 25 reflections on 2025

This is the first episode of 2026.

I hope that you enjoy learning about my 25 lessons from the year 2025.

Welcome to the weekly wealth podcast.

I am certified financial planner David Chudick.

I spend most of my days talking with business owners, the mass affluent and the high net worth about their money.

We talk about their financial dreams, we talk about their financial worries, and we talk about the decisions that they know they need to make.

That is what this show is about.

2026 is here.

Christmas has come and gone, New Year's has come and gone.

And over the last couple years, I've made it a practice to give some lessons on the first episode of the year that I learned during the previous year.

And as you know, the weekly wealth podcast is really a marketing tool for my financial planning practice.

And, and as a marketing tool, I want to provide valuable information to listeners, but I also want for the listeners to get to know me, to get to know my philosophies, and to get to know how I think and how I help my clients.

So hopefully you'll listen to some of these 25 lessons of 2025 and think, you know what, that's pretty smart.

This might be the guy that I want to partner with to help me to make my financial decisions.

Okay, so our first group of lessons are going apply to the business owners of the world.

Now, I say it in many episodes.

I love the business owners.

I'm one of them.

I love entrepreneurialism.

I love taking risks.

I love the potential rewards of business ownership.

But I also know it can be a very lonely journey and it also can be a very expensive journey if it's not done properly.

So here are eight lessons that I learned about being a business owner in 20.

The first one is profit.

Profit is a great word.

Don't be ashamed of it.

You are in business for the purpose of making a profit.

It may not be the only reason that you're in business, but profit is one of them.

So don't be ashamed of profit.

Talk about profit.

And you need to make sure you're making decisions that will bring you profit.

Number two, ask yourself how your business could run if you were gone for a month.

And if you think that it couldn't run very well, then you need to make some changes.

You need to put some systems into place.

You need maybe to hire different people or to hire more people.

And you need to make sure that expectations are clear.

Don't be that business owner that is overly stressed because they are responsible for too much.

Number three, lesson of 2025, and that's complexity is the enemy of scale and the enemy of growth.

So almost everything in your business can be done faster, can be done easier, can be done cheaper, and can be done.

And this is very important, better.

So ask yourself, how can we simplify this?

Number four, as an entrepreneur, if you're not getting uncomfortable on an almost daily basis, you're not going to grow.

My business coach, coach Joe Lucas, he talks about getting uncomfortable.

He talks about not pressing the easy button.

If you want it easy, if you want it comfortable, then business ownership, not for you.

Number five, lesson of 2025, and that's many businesses underprice their products and they underprice their services.

So remember, number one is that profit is a great word.

Well, you need to be pricing your services, you need to be pricing your products at a way that allows you to make a profit.

Now, pricing includes a lot of different considerations, but let's also not forget perceived value.

Sometimes it can be much, much, much higher.

If the price is higher.

Think about Porsche, think about Rolex, think about some of the luxury brands of the world.

Yes, these are great products, but sometimes just putting a higher price tag on something makes it appear to be better.

So don't make it a race to the bottom.

Make sure you're getting paid what you're worth.

Number six, you can't be everything to every client.

So find your niche.

My organization, we actually are putting some standards in place on January 1st of this year to make sure that we're helping the people that we are uniquely qualified to help.

And no, we're not uniquely qualified to help everybody.

So determine.

Maybe there's an industry, maybe there's a niche, maybe there's some type of client that you and your organization can serve really well and go after that.

There's nothing wrong with turning away business.

Now, number seven, if you haven't put your core values on paper, consider doing so.

Share it with your team, maybe consider sharing it with your clients and absolutely make it part of your culture.

Your core values need to drive your business decisions and it needs to drive the behavior of your team.

And number eight, this is a hard one for a lot of business owners, but it's okay to say that is not my job now.

It's not.

I'm too good to do that thing.

It's that I can't do everything.

So I need to make sure that I, as the owner, I as the leader, am handling the things that only I can do.

And almost everything else can be delegated for sure.

Now that's not to say that when there are times when they're short staffed that you don't pitch in because obviously you need to do that.

But I've seen a lot of business owners spend a lot of time of their day doing things that really are not the owner's type of work.

So what do you think about these?

What do you think about profit?

What do you think about making yourself fairly replaceable in your business?

What do you think about simplifying and getting rid of as much complexity as you can?

What do you think about growing and getting uncomfortable on a daily basis?

How about pricing your products and services?

Are you doing a good job with that?

Are you trying to be everything to every client?

I'll tell you one thing, it's sometimes feels pretty good and freeing when you turn away a client if they're not a good fit.

What about your core values?

We've been working really hard at nailing down our core values towards the end of 2025 and now we're going to take them and run with them in 2026.

And also it's not my job as the leader.

It's not your job to do everything.

Let me know what you think about these.

Email me David at parallelfinancial.

Com.

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Now I want to move into some personal financial lessons.

Now these of course do apply to business owners on the personal side of their financial decisions.

And if you're not a business owner, these would also apply to you.

So number nine is that I have some personal clients who on the surface they look like they don't have much money, they don't have super nice cars.

I can think of one guy that doesn't have a really nice house.

But I have several clients that have, they have two commas in their net worth, which means, yeah, that's more than a million dollars.

And what these people have done is they've done the boring Things over the course of their careers, they worked at an organization, they put Money in their 401k, they lived on less than they earned, and now they are at a place in their 60s and 70s to where money's really not that much of an issue.

They would have to actually try to spend all their money.

So remember, don't spend everything that's come in over the course of your lifetime.

Try to live off less than what you earn.

Now, my number 10 lesson is don't assume that the people who look flashy don't assume that they have money.

Or they may have high incomes, but they good chance they have a lot of debt.

They may have very little financial margin.

And as you know, margin is one of my favorite words in finance.

Because if you don't have margin, what that means is almost all of your money that's coming in is already allocated to go out before you hold onto it.

So make sure that you have margin.

And don't buy the most expensive house that a bank will lend you the money for.

Don't buy the most expensive car that the bank will lend you the money to have.

Now, number 11 is that financial health or lack of financial health, doesn't really happen from one good decision or one bad decision.

It comes from what seems to be boring over time.

It comes from maybe sticking with a spending plan.

It comes from systematic saving.

It comes from boring risk management.

Almost nobody goes broke from one bad decision, and almost nobody gets rich from one good decision.

Number 12 is that concentration and we're talking about in your investments.

Concentration can make you wealthy, but diversification can keep you wealthy.

Now, there are times where we own one investment position and that does really well and it has amazing returns.

Now, if you have a great investment process, you need to know when the time is to take some of the money off of the table from that one position and put it in a more diversified holding.

Because not every stock, not every investment position continues to go up.

So we need to have a system to know when we're going to take profits and spread those out over safer holdings.

Now, number 13, this is another one regarding investments is do you know what you own?

Do you know why you own it?

And do you know when you might sell it?

Okay, so remember an IRA, a 401k, that's not really an investment.

That's a container that holds investments.

So what's inside of that container?

Is it appropriate for you, Maybe it was appropriate for you when you opened your 401k when you were 25 years younger?

But maybe it's too aggressive now.

So know what you own, know why you own it, and even know when you might sell it or rebalance it.

Now here's number 14, and this is, while investments can be sexy, risk management can be boring.

But ask yourself, what are two or three things that if they happened to, or maybe if they didn't happen, could cripple you financially?

So those could be all of the things, even from car accidents to my house burning down to maybe risk management within your investment management.

Right.

Are your investments managed in a way that there's not a huge chance that they could have a 50%, a 60% decrease?

What about your business partnerships?

What about prenuptial agreements?

What about all of those things?

So I don't know what the two or three things in your life might be, but ask yourself what are two or three things that if they happen, could cripple you financially?

Now number 15 is that sometimes a tax break up front is not as good as the tax break on the back end.

And I'm really talking about Roth type IRAs.

So if you have a pre tax IRA or you're using a pre tax contribution method to your 401k, yes, you get a tax break today.

But as you're taking those monies out, you'll have to pay taxes on the way out.

So ask yourself, ask your cpa, ask your financial advisor, should I be contributing to my investment accounts, to my retirement accounts with the Roth method as opposed to a pre tax method?

Now number 16, I see this one a lot.

Tax preparation is not tax planning.

Many of the tax prep people of the world, your CPAs, your EAs, your tax preparers, they're really, really good at looking at your papers in 2026 and looking at your QuickBooks account and saying, here's what you owe for 2025, but almost never is there any proactive tax planning in 25 for 2025.

So make sure you're doing your tax planning while you still can.

A good financial advisor can often help with that.

And number 17, this one is scary, but we're all one heartbeat away from not being able to make some of those estate planning decisions that we've been putting off that we've been procrastinating about.

So life is short, none of us are promised tomorrow.

So make sure that we're making the decisions that we need to with regard to our estate planning documents.

So what do you think about these personal financial lessons?

A lot of times there are people who have a lot of money, they don't look like they do because they're living within their means.

There are a lot of people who look like they have a lot of money, but they also have a lot of debt and very little margin.

Financial health doesn't come from one good decision.

It comes from a string of really good habits.

Concentration doesn't make you wealthy, so don't have all of your eggs in one basket with regard to your investments.

Do you know what you own and why you own it and when you might sell it?

And then also risk management.

Where are the areas in your life where you could lose a lot of money and how can you plug those holes?

Tax breaks.

Should you be considering Roth type investments versus pre tax?

What about tax preparation not being the same as tax planning?

And then finally we are all one heartbeat away from not being able to make estate planning decisions.

So don't procrastinate on the estate planning.

So our first 17 lessons were really kind of money strategy leadership type lessons.

And now I want to talk about just some general life lessons, some things that hit me this year and maybe you'll enjoy them, maybe you all agree with them, maybe you won't.

But these are some things that I've just been thinking about and that I've seen.

So number 18 is just try to be a decent person.

I mean, at the end of the day when we are on our proverbial deathbed, don't we want to look back and say, you know what?

I tried to do the right things.

I failed a lot.

We all fail.

I fail all the time.

But try to be a decent person.

Try to put others interests at least equals with your own.

Number 19, try not to worry about things over which you have no control.

Life is short.

There are a lot of people that worry about a lot of things that they just can't really affect.

Think about all the things in your life where you do have control over.

Maybe your finances, right?

You have a lot of control over your behaviors, maybe your family.

There are some things that you can do or maybe not do that'll help you have a good marriage.

There are some things that you can do for your health that you have control over.

But there are a lot of things maybe politically or things that you see on social media that might infuriate you.

But let's not worry about them.

Let's try to worry about things where we have control and put the other things to the back burner.

Number 20 is that calories add up.

So your bites, your snacks, all these things over time.

The sugary Calories, the drinks, they add up, and they make it really easy to put weight on.

I know that it's tough for me in December.

There's always a couple Christmas parties, and it's easy to eat a lot of extra calories and not realize it.

So just remember, calories add up and make sure that you're managing those, because it's much easier to take to keep weight from coming on than it is to take weight off.

Now, number 21 of my 25 lessons of 2025 is that you should find an exercise program that works for you and that you can stick with.

So I personally last couple years, I'm not even sure how I got in on it, but I have some kettlebells at home, and I love kettlebell workouts.

I can get a great workout in 20 to 35 minutes.

It's weight bearing, it's resistance training, but it's also cardio.

It's something that I enjoy.

I.

My shirts are a little tighter where I want them to be tighter and a little bit looser where I don't want them to be tight.

So find an exercise program that works for you and stick with it.

Now, number 22 is surround yourself with good people, actually with great people.

Find friends, find family, and be good to these people, and they'll be good to you.

And that can be priceless.

The people around you should help you to be the best version of yourself.

I have some amazing, amazing people in my life.

I'm a member of a men's Bible study group, and I know that I can call any one of those dudes and they would go to battle for me.

We have some friends.

We went on a weekend getaway with some friends a few weeks ago.

We just had an amazing time, and it's great to share life with people.

So make sure that you're surrounding yourself with great people.

And if there are some people that are dragging you down, maybe make some decisions to spend less time with them or no time at all.

Now, number 23, and I think this one was pretty important for me to hear.

I have a friend, a really good friend, and he runs an organization that ministers to homeless people.

And people have a lot of challenges.

And he said, and this wasn't judging, but he said, if you can avoid these three things, there's a really good chance that you'll never end up homeless or really kind of at the bottom of the barrel where you need a lot of help.

So number one was to avoid drug addiction.

And again, I'm not judging if you're someone who struggles.

Get help.

You can beat this.

There are ways out.

But many, many homeless people, they tend to have issues with substance abuse.

Again, no judging.

And we need to provide more resources to people to help them once they have addiction issues.

Number two is having children out of wedlock makes things very, very complicated.

It doesn't mean that you can't get out of it, but it gets expensive.

And quite frankly, you're tied to a parent for, really, for your whole life.

And if it's not the right person, that can make things very, very difficult.

And the number three thing that he said is, don't blame your problems on other people.

The people in this world that are always blaming others, they just tend to not rise to the top.

I just thought it was really good, really wise.

And this was a pattern that he noticed with the population that he serves.

There tends to be addiction problems, there tends to be children out of wedlock, and there tends to be blaming others for problems.

Now, number 24, this is a hard one for me.

I don't know if it's a hard one for you, but do your best not to judge others and because you just never know what somebody else might be going through.

So have you ever maybe just been fighting a battle with someone all day and you're mad at them because of maybe something, something simple, and then you find out that they have an illness in the family?

I have a client, and this person is not overly friendly.

He tends to be a little bit rude.

But then I found out that his wife had brain cancer and she had passed away.

So you never know what anybody else is going through.

So I know it's hard, but let's do our best to not judge others.

And my final lesson of 2025 is I know that I serve and I don't serve well.

I've served very imperfectly, but I serve an amazing Lord and savior.

So if you ever want to know what that means, hey, email me.

I'd love to talk to you about it.

Davidarallelfinancial.com But God has been really, really good to me.

So what do you think about my 25 lessons of 2025?

Let me know.

I wish you an incredible 2026, and I wish you many blessings.

I wish you financial blessings, I wish you relationship blessings, I wish you health blessings, and I wish you spiritual blessings.

So until next episode, I wish everybody a blessed week.

Thanks, everybody.

The information contained herein included, but not limited to research, market valuations, calculations, estimates, and other materials obtained from parallel financial and other sources are believed to be reliable.

However, Parallel Financial does not warrant its accuracy or completeness.

These materials are provided for informational purposes only and should not be used for or construed as an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security.

Past performance is not indicative of any future results.

And here's your bonus content for this episode.

If you're thinking about New Year's resolution, what about thinking about the activity, not the result?

So maybe don't make a resolution to lose 10 pounds, lose 20 pounds, maybe make a resolution to exercise four days a week, or to not eat, or to get X amount of sleep.

So just a thought.

Think about making the activity as a resolution, not the goal.

We can control the activity, we can't control the result.

All right, everybody have a great 2026.