Dr. Matt Geddie | Building Wealth Through Intentional Choices and Financial Planning | 164

Becoming UnDone® with Dr. Toby Brooks

Dr. Matt Geddie shares his journey from being an occupational therapist and professor to achieving financial independence at age 57 with a n

Key takeaways

• Financial freedom is achievable regardless of profession or income level through deliberate, sustained actions over time.
• Living below your means and prioritizing financial planning early in life are key to building wealth.

Main topics

• Financial planning for professionals with modest incomes
• Living below means to achieve financial independence

Notable quotes

"Best time to start was yesterday. You can't do that, so the best time to start is today."

Conclusion

Dr. Matt Geddie's story proves that financial independence isn't reserved for high

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Every team, every topic, everywhere. This is Believe. Speaker 6 (0:10) This is Becoming Undone. Speaker 2 (0:15) Well, I think I was lucky. But what I mean by that really is my dad was pretty financially smart. You know, he didn't really become a millionaire, but he taught me a lot about, I'll say it in a strange way, he taught me a lot about taking care of the budget, being a little cheap, making sure you plan for everything. I think what happens there is life just gets in the way. My wife and I ended up not having children, not that we didn't want them, but so that kind of helps us. But the truth is, children are expensive, but they don't ruin a financial plan. There's a lot of evidence of that. And you don't have to make $150,000 or $200,000 a year to get to be a millionaire. Let's see if I can get this right. Best time to start was yesterday. You can't do that, so the best time to start is today. So just get a plan. Put the plan down. Start talking about it with your spouse or your loved ones. And reverse engineer it. And get it on paper. And have somebody hold you accountable. I'm Matt Getty, and I am undone. Speaker 3 (1:28) Hey friend, I'm glad you're here. Welcome to yet another episode of Becoming Undone, a proud part of the Believe Network. Becoming Undone is a podcast for those who dare bravely, risk mightily, and grow relentlessly. I'm Toby Brooks, a speaker, author, professor, and performance scientist. I spent much of the last two decades working as an athletic trainer and a strength coach in the professional, collegiate, and high school sports settings. Over the years, I've grown more and more fascinated with what sets high achievers apart, and how failures that can suck in the moment can end up being exactly the push we needed to propel us along our paths to success. Each week on Becoming Undone, I invite new guests to examine how high achievers can transform from falling apart to falling into place. I'd like to emphasize that this show is entirely separate from my role at Baylor University. Views and the conversations shared here are my own. And Becoming Undone is my attempt to apply what I've learned and what I'm learning and to share with others about the mindsets of high achievers. Speaker 3 (2:31) What if becoming a millionaire had less to do with how much you make and more to do with what you consistently do with what you have? I guess this week, Dr. Matt Getty didn't build his wealth as a tech entrepreneur or an investment banker or a Fortune 500 executive. He spent his career as an occupational therapist and as a professor. And somewhere along the way, through decades of intentional choices, steady investing, and living below his means, he built enough financial independence to retire at 57. with a net worth of roughly $1.7 million. What I love about Matt's story is that there really isn't a magic trick. Matter of fact, during my interview with Matt, I was looking for a hack or a secret to his success that might help you or me on our journeys. And what I discovered was what I probably already knew. There really isn't one. But what my conversation with Matt did show me is that it's at least possible. He didn't find the perfect stock. He didn't suddenly start making outrageous money. He made a plan early. He figured out what mattered to him. And then he kept making choices that supported that plan for years. This conversation isn't just about saving every penny and refusing to enjoy your life until the very end. Matter of fact, one of the things we wrestle with in our conversation is exactly the opposite. How do you prepare responsibly for tomorrow without missing the life that's happening today? We talk about cars and houses and kids and travel, compound interest, opportunity cost, why highly educated professionals can still be remarkably unprepared to manage money, and why financial freedom is ultimately less about wealth and more about choice. Near the end of our talk, Matt shares something I found especially interesting. Reaching retirement is only half the challenge. Once you no longer have the job, the deadlines, the title, or the routine that define much of your life, you have to decide what comes next. So whether retirement is three years away, 30 years away, or something you barely thought about at all, there's something in here for you. I hope you'll enjoy my conversation with Dr. Matt Getty in episode 164. Let's get into it. Greetings and welcome back. Becoming Undone is a podcast for those who dare bravely, risk mightily, and grow relentlessly. Join me, Toby Brooks, as I invite a new guest each week where we examine how high achievers can transform from falling apart to falling into place. This week, I'm thrilled to have Dr. Matt Getty joining us. Matt, thanks so much for hopping on the show. Of course. So Matt and I go back quite a ways. We were both professors at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. He's an occupational therapist by trade, and we used to office a couple doors down from one another. And Matt is now blissfully retired, and I know he's got some insight to share with us about financial freedom. So Matt, I'm thrilled to have this conversation with you today. Speaker 2 (5:26) I think really anybody can be financially successful if they know the right things to do and have the time to kind of build it over their life and career. Speaker 3 (5:37) Yeah. Well, I look forward to kind of peeking under the hood and talking specifics, but I always start with a little bit of a softball question. What did you want to be growing up and why? Speaker 2 (5:48) Okay. Well, I think originally. Of course, being 12 or 14 years old, I wanted to be an athlete. I was pretty good at soccer and basketball. Ended up being better at soccer, which in the U.S. is not a great profession to try to be a professional athlete in. Speaker 3 (6:09) Especially West Texas. Speaker 2 (6:10) Yeah, yeah. So I did play college soccer in Sherman, Texas in a small school, Austin College, for my first two years before I moved out to Texas Tech. I got my education there. So that's probably honestly is a bit of a silly goal now that I look back on it, but it's what I felt like would be awesome at the time. Speaker 3 (6:32) Yeah, that's great. I appreciate that. And that gives me a lot of insight into kind of what makes people tick. You had reached out to me some time ago and said, hey, you know, I'm getting ready to retire and I feel like I've got some lessons and kind of some how-to. about financial freedom that might be of benefit to my audience. And so I know, I mean, I've worked in higher ed for a good long while as an athletic trainer, also not two professions that are known for paying a tremendous amount. Most people don't associate occupational therapists and professors with becoming millionaires by that fifth decade of life. How'd you do it? Speaker 2 (7:14) Well, I think I was lucky. But what I mean by that really is, My dad was pretty financially smart. You know, he didn't really become a millionaire, but he taught me a lot about, I'll say it in a strange way. He taught me a lot about taking care of the budget, being a little cheap, making sure you plan for everything. And so he did a lot for me and we had a lot of discussions and talks. introduced me to things like bonds and stocks. I learned about them. We bought a few bonds together. And so he kind of got me started thinking about money and what it can do for you over a long period of time. From that, I read books. Millionaire Next Door is the one that probably got me really started when I was in my 20s, thinking about, oh gosh, there really are people out there. driving Toyotas and Fords and they have a million dollars. They just don't look like it. And what's that going to look like? That's probably what I'm going to look like. I'm not going to be a superstar athlete or, you know, doing my music videos or whatever. That kind of thing. Virtuoso kind of person. That's actually very rare. But what's not that rare is to be that millionaire next door. Speaker 4 (8:30) I've Speaker 2 (8:31) gone through decades of working really hard. A lot of these people own their own business. They have a set of values that are careful about the kind of money they spend, the kind of money they save. And so that got me really started. I've obviously read other books that were in that realm, but that's the one that I remember most. Speaker 3 (8:51) Yeah. You're still in Lubbock now, and I laugh. I had a past guest on the show who is a car salesman in Lubbock, and he's really carved out a niche for himself selling to a lot of the student-athletes. And so when you drive by, Jones Stadium, the student-athlete parking lot outside looks like an exotic car parking lot. And so these are people that have, you know, considerable income for this season and they're flaunting it and, you know, enjoying the benefits that come with that kind of income. Speaker 2 (9:23) You're Speaker 3 (9:23) kind of the opposite where, you know, not a massive income, relatively speaking, but living well within and under your means allowed you to do that. When did you first realize that financial freedom was something you really wanted to pursue intentionally rather than just hoping it would happen someday? Speaker 2 (9:41) Yeah, that's a good question. I think probably in my 20s, before I got married. So I was about 28. So I know even before that, I was building a bit of a fund, thinking about how am I going to buy Speaker 1 (9:58) a house someday, that kind of thing. Speaker 2 (10:01) So, yeah, I would say probably mid-20s, I was already thinking about, I was setting kind of a goal of can I get retired by 55 or so. It would be awesome at 50, I thought. I made it by 57, so I was pretty close to the original goal. And the reason I came up with that goal is you can reverse engineer it. You can think about how much money do I need to put away per year. kind of thing. The way I did it was more, what percent of my salary do I want to save every year and how will that get me to my retirement goal? And so you can reverse engineer that. And I'm going to retire with about a $1.7 million net worth, but I could have made the goal $3 million or $4 million. And so it's up to you or up to your listeners. How do I want to make this goal? So my goal was somewhere around a million and a half. That's going to be plenty with the kind of lifestyle I want to live. And so we just pulled the plug and said, I'm going to retire. And I would have probably made 55, but I needed to wait for my state benefit for health insurance. So I had a couple more years to be able to get that. So that's kind of my story. Speaker 3 (11:21) Yeah. My wife and I laugh because we started the Dave Ramsey thing and got to a point where we were debt free. And I called so that I could do the scream. Oh, Speaker 2 (11:33) OK. Speaker 3 (11:34) And they, you know, they screen it. They don't send you right to Dave. And the lady on the phone started asking some specific questions. And she said, you know, did you follow all of Dave's guidelines? And one of the things was how much you put in retirement. Well, when I was at Texas Tech, they would match at a higher percentage than Dave actually suggested. So to me, it would be foolish not to get the full match. And so I said, no, actually, we invested at a little higher clip than what Dave suggested. She said, well, congratulations on being debt-free, but you didn't follow the steps. So we can't let you on the air for your screen. And I was so mad. I was like, I think that day I opened a credit card just so that I could go out and use it. I was so pissed off that Dave Ramsey wouldn't have me on his show. And since then, I mean, we still try to kind of follow some of those guidelines and try to