The Influential Advisor Podcast

114: John Pavelka on The Power of WHY — Aligning Your Wealth with What Actually Matters

• Paul G. McManus and Gabe McManus

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0:00 | 32:42

A client came in with statements from more than ten different financial institutions. Her parents had passed away within six months of each other. The paperwork took nearly a year to sort through — and she later told John she never had the proper time to grieve because she was so buried in the chaos they left behind.

That story drives everything about how John Pavelka runs his practice. After nearly 30 years in financial services, John has built a model around one question most advisors never ask deeply enough: What's important to you — and why? In this episode, John shares the frameworks, client stories, and hard-won lessons behind his book The Power of WHY: Transforming Your Life and Your Wealth.

Gabe and John cover the difference between building wealth and giving it purpose, the emotional traps that derail even sophisticated investors, and why the flip from saver to spender is one of the hardest transitions a client makes — and how John helps them make it.

About John Pavelka

John Pavelka, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU®, CEPA®, is the Managing Partner of The Cities Private Wealth Group, a private wealth advisory practice affiliated with Raymond James Financial Services in Bettendorf, Iowa. With nearly 30 years of experience in financial services, John leads a 15-person team that manages close to $700 million in assets. His team has been recognized on the Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Management Teams list from 2023 through 2025. He is the author of The Power of WHY: Transforming Your Life and Your Wealth.

What We Cover

  • Why the firm's guiding question — "What's important to you?" — goes far deeper than it sounds, and how John keeps peeling back the layers until he reaches the why behind the what
  • The four-bucket strategy John uses to give every dollar a specific role — and the story of a client who walked into a meeting worried about a roof, a wedding, and a 20% market drop, and walked out hugging him
  • Why successful people so often feel disconnected from their wealth — and what John calls the "brother-in-law syndrome" that quietly derails even savvy investors
  • The emotional wall between saving and spending in retirement, and why some clients need literal permission to book the trip or fly first class
  • Why John calls estate planning "an act of love" — and the statistic that 34% of millionaires don't have a will
  • How proactive tax planning (not just annual returns) saved one client over a million dollars in taxes his daughter would otherwise have inherited

Resources Mentioned

Connect with John Pavelka




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Meet John Pavelka

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the Influential Advisor Podcast. Today we're sitting down with John Pavelka, a CFP and managing partner of the city's private wealth group in Bettendorf, Iowa. John leads a 15-person team approaching $700 million in assets under management. And his firm has been named a Forbes Best in State Wealth Management Team three years running. He recently wrote a book called The Power of Why Transforming Your Life and Your Wealth. In this conversation, we're going to talk about why even the most successful clients can feel disconnected from their money, the bucket strategy John uses to give every dollar a purpose, and what it actually looks like when wealth and values finally align.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

From Math Teacher To Advisor

SPEAKER_02

John, first, could you tell us a little bit about your background and what led you to the work that you're doing today?

SPEAKER_01

The funny thing is, I never really planned to be in the business. When I was graduating from college, I was planning on being a math teacher. So one of my friends' father was in the business, and he told me I'd be really good at it. And I thought, I'll give it a shot. And if it doesn't work out, I'll go back and teach math. Fast forward 29 years, and we're sitting here, I helped manage a team. We have 15 people on the team today. By the end of the year, we'll be managing north of 700 million. It's been a long journey when I got started. I started like most people in the business, I started knocking on doors and making cold calls. And I think the biggest change that I've seen over the last 28 years is really how I think about wealth. Early on, it was about survival and gathering assets and really just helping people invest. But over time, what I realized was the fact that wealth can feel empty if it doesn't have purpose behind it. So our team today focuses on something much bigger. And it's our guiding principle really in our office is empowering individuals to live a more meaningful life. And that is not something that's just a slogan or something we put on the wall. It's something that we truly live every day in the office. It's been very rewarding to me to find this purpose in my life. And the reality is I truly believe that everybody needs that accountability partner when it comes to their wealth, that trusted person that they can collaborate with to make sure that their wealth aligns with their purpose and their priorities.

SPEAKER_02

I love that that's something that's so central to you and your team in the office. And now recently you've also put that into a book. Could

Why Wealth Can Feel Empty

SPEAKER_02

you tell us about your book, what it's called, and the central idea? And who did you write this book for, John?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, very excited. And my high school English teacher told you I wrote a book. She would be laughing right now. I'm positive of that. So I never really thought of myself as an author, but I felt compelled to share the message. The title of the book is The Power of Life: Transforming Your Wealth and Your Life Through Value Aligned Planning. I wrote this book because I just I felt like successful people out there, there's so many times that they look at their balance sheet and everything looks great, but there was something missing. There was a bit of emptiness that I see sometimes with clients. And I work with a lot of business owners and a lot of successful families that they've done a fabulous job of building their balance sheet, haven't spent the time to give much thought really to what they really wanted their wealth to do for them. And being in this business and just attending, like I mentioned, I've been doing this for a few years. And unfortunately, you do lose clients when they pass away. And the fact is, their accounts stay here. They don't take the money with them. It doesn't go to the funeral home with them. And the real question is that we ask often is what do you want to leave behind besides a large balance sheet? Maybe it's the fact that I'm getting older. I find myself in the same boat, but it's not just about leaving money behind. I think as you talk to successful people, they want to leave something else behind. They want to leave some wisdom behind. They want to leave lessons that they've learned, maybe causes that they care about that they want to continue to support. And wealth, if used correctly, it can be a very powerful tool if it has purpose behind it. And that was the purpose of my book, is really to help clients discover that aha moment where they can use their wealth as a tool to really align with what it is they want their purpose to be.

SPEAKER_02

I'm curious when you ask that question, do you find that they have those things already in mind? Or is it the fact that you've asked them the question what helps them to discover what they really want the purpose to be?

SPEAKER_01

Thanks for asking, David. I think one of the things that I mentioned before, it's about the collaboration and truly having a partner there. We're not here to sell them anything. We're just here to really get to know them at a deep level. I think that human connection allows us all to go deeper. I learn a lot from my client conversations. I feel so blessed to be in this industry and learn so much from people that share their stories with me. Really, it just gives me so much. I feel blessed that I just get so much insight to you know some of life's bigger questions. Because the fact of the matter is, we're not all going to be here forever. I think the older we get, the more we start to realize that. For me personally, I didn't think about that much in my 20s. I was 10 feet ball and bulletproof. But as I've gotten older, you start to think about those things that we're not going to be here forever. So what do we want to leave behind besides just a balance sheet?

SPEAKER_02

Now, I wanted to ask you about another question.

The Question Advisors Skip

SPEAKER_02

And this is something that you ask in the beginning. And this is something that you also said a lot of advisors skip right past this question. So could you tell us about what it is and why this matters so much?

SPEAKER_01

It's the foundation of our practice. And it's we call it witty in the office. The first question that we ask clients is what's important to you? And the interesting thing is obviously people don't walk into our office being vulnerable individuals. We all a little bit protected. And a lot of the times it's a lot of surface level conversations. And we appreciate those, but we're always trying to peel the onion back. Usually when we ask the question, it's about, I want to retire, I want to make sure I have enough money in retirement, or I want to make sure that I want to help the grandkids with education, all very important things. But we continue to peel that onion back. And it's pretty simple stuff. It's just about asking, tell me more. Eventually, we want to get to not only what's important to you, but why is that important to you? The point of the book, the power of why. Continuing to challenge our clients and ourselves of that question. And just remembering that money can truly have a lot of power if it's used for that purposeful, if it aligns with what your purpose is. And it just kind of reminds me of a quick story is I had a business owner incredibly well. She had plenty of money, succession plan in order. We helped her with a lot of these things, everything on paper, really looked purpose. I had a very close personal relationship with her that we developed over the years. And through some deeper conversation, it was clear that she was not feeling quite as fulfilled as she originally did when she started in her business. We started to peel the onion back, if you will, a little bit to really figure out where was the passion, what were some of the things that she really enjoyed doing. And she was involved with mentoring some women entrepreneurs in a program. And she just started to lean into that more. And when she found out that she could spend less time into the inner business to really give that more of her attention, it just brought her more joy. And she shared that with me. It just brought her more joy than the business ever did. And she loved her business, but she really found her calling, I think, towards that second chapter of her life. I think that's the question is as we get older, what do you want that second chapter really look like? It wasn't about money, but it was about purpose for her. That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_02

And I wonder, I think it's probably clear that this isn't something that people just arrive at on their own, but having that person to help them think through and the intentionality of looking for the why probably leads to some pretty incredible discoveries.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we try hard. We try just to be really that collaborative partner with our clients. We just have a passion about it. So it does come a little bit more naturally because it is our centralized focus. But it's something that we're always making sure that we're asking more than just surface level questions with our clients.

Why Success Still Feels Disconnected

SPEAKER_02

John, you work with people who are they're clearly successful. So why do so many of them still feel disconnected from their wealth?

SPEAKER_01

I do think about that a lot. And me personally too, I can relate to a lot of this. Is I just think it's the industry itself. When you turn on the TV, it's always about more money, it's always about more growth, it's always about different types of returns that you should be getting. It's always about more and more. And really what we want to ask is what do you actually want? What do you actually want? Back to me personally, a little bit. I think if I were lucky enough to hit the Powerball or unfortunate enough to hit the Powerball in my early 20s, I probably wouldn't have spent that money very wisely. I would probably would have bought a lot of nice, shiny, expensive cars or whatever would have caught my eye. And I'm not sure I would have felt much purpose behind any of that. That would still have that empty feeling. Probably would have had a lot of fun. Still, we want our clients to enjoy their wealth. And we have a lot of clients that like their shiny cars. And that's absolutely okay. I don't want to come off as like we're denying enjoyment. That's not the point. But we also want to go deeper. I just found that successful people, the older they get, they're still driven individuals. That purpose changes from just like maybe growing the balance sheet to more about what impact it can make in the people that are close to them, relationships, family, maybe causes that they care about. Another quick story is I had a client and we were sitting down looking at their balance sheet, and it became very clear that their kids were not only going to be okay, but their grandkids were going to be okay. Like they were, they have done very well for themselves. Self-made, multimillionaires. Their story was awesome. But really, what we wanted to find out is what was next? What was the next chapter going to look like? What brings them joy? And they pondered it a lot. And he was getting more involved with his alumander, the college that he graduated from. As he was reflecting back, he was starting to see the impact that time in his life really had in his. So he was always giving back to the university, but he thought about maybe taking that to the next level. And they started an endowment scholarship fund through the school, and him and his wife select students that receive a scholarship. It's grown to the point that now his adult children are involved in that process. And it becomes this multi-generational legacy of giving back. And it just, I think those are the types of purpose that wealth can create, but you have to have those right conversations for people to maybe get that little bit of nudge to know that they can do these types of very impactful, whether it be a scholarship or whatever the case may be, they can have huge impacts in their community.

SPEAKER_02

When he arrived at that conclusion that he wanted to help in that way, what did that mean to him?

SPEAKER_01

I think in the moment he was just so excited about the opportunity, probably once his kids started to get involved in it, that he really felt the sense of, I don't know, pride's the right word, but he just felt a sense that he was doing the right thing with the wealth that he created. Really good that he wasn't just leaving a bunch of money behind.

SPEAKER_02

And especially getting the kids involved, that must have been a wonderful feeling.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. And he's still leaving a bunch of money behind. That was like the kids and grandkids are still absolutely fine.

SPEAKER_02

Didn't just all go to the university.

SPEAKER_01

No, his kids and grandkids are still very important to him, but the university was important to him and just the community aspect of that too.

SPEAKER_02

So that's great. John,

Helping Savers Spend With Confidence

SPEAKER_02

a lot of people that you work with like that example. They're great savers. What makes it so hard for them to flip the switch when it comes to retirement and then actually begin to use that wealth?

SPEAKER_01

When they have those aha moments where their wealth actually has purpose, it's about getting there to those deeper questions that I think just many advisors maybe skip over, right? The fact is, being in this business for as many years as I have been, I get to know a lot of advisors. The fact, maybe behind the curtain, that maybe a lot of investors don't realize that it advisors are asked to wear a lot of hats. They're asked to do a lot of things. And sometimes, depending on that situation, they don't have the time or energy to have those deeper conversations with their clients. And we structured our practice so that's never an issue. Happen to look up our practice. We have five advisors on the team and we have eight, what most people would call support staff. We call them specialists on our team because they're much more than just support. And that's rare. If you look at the industry average, most advisors have one advisor, two advisors, three advisors, one support person. So the time and hats that the advisor has to wear to go deeper, it just doesn't happen in those circumstances. They just don't have it. The truth is that people just have accumulated wealth over decades. And I just don't think though those people that have those strong balance sheets, they're just not worried about running out of money. They know they're okay. Yeah, we try to help them define what okay means detailed. It's just different. They think more about running out of time. I'm on that journey too. I'm a client in our sense that I feel a great deal of these conversations that I learned so much in how I view money. And sometimes people just need they need to have the permission to dream big and to actually they work so hard to build this wealth, but to actually dream big. And a couple of a couple that comes to mind, they're just they were so frugal. They've always bought used cars and would never buy a new car. And they had plenty of money, plenty of money to pay cash for any car that they wanted. But they would always buy a used car. And we started to talk, and they really didn't like the winners much. So I nudged them enough to spend some time renting a place. Now, mind you, this was a double wide trailer in Florida, but they did upgrade double wide. After a few times going down there, they really enjoyed it. And it got them to the point of thinking of possibly even buying a home down there. And it took some lots of meetings, I wouldn't say convincing, but just adding some perspective to their wealth to let them know that they could actually afford a place down there and their family could come to visit down there. Once they started to think about the family coming in to visit, that emotional piece of that really motivated them to write the check for the place down in Florida. And it's them creating those memories, it's just fantastic. One of the things we like to remind our clients, the ones that are in a great situation, is just dream a little bigger. They spent so much of their lives saving some of this money that clients can struggle sometimes to spend some of it. And we remind them and just adding perspective to that. Sometimes it's just little things like if you don't fly first class, your kids are going to. And sometimes it can add some perspective to it to like, why aren't I flying first class right now? Because my kids are going to be fine. I've always walked past those people sitting in the front of the plane. I deserve to do that at least once, at least to experience it.

SPEAKER_02

To experience it, sure. But it sounds like that permission is necessary sometimes because they've been so diligent about getting to the point where they can afford these things. But then it's hard to just turn it over and just say, okay, now I get to use this.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, to flip the switch from saver to spender is very difficult. And I think planning with that is a very powerful tool when you can be able to plan to make sure that you're not running out of money. I think that's the first step. But I think also just challenging them to dream a little bigger and some of the tools that we use in running different scenarios. If you did spend this kind of money, then they have that realization that they're in a really good spot.

The Four Bucket Strategy

SPEAKER_02

John, would you tell me about the bucket strategy that you use with your clients and walk me through how it works and why it changes the way that people think about their money?

SPEAKER_01

I love this strategy, first and foremost, because it's simple. And second, it just gives every dollar a real purpose. We divide in our practice, we divide it up our dollars into four buckets, if you will. A cash bucket, obviously that's for emergency or short-term needs. Income bucket, these are typically more conservative investments that are producing income. We have the growth bucket, those are typically equities, but anything that's going to be a long-term investment that we're not planning on needing anytime soon. And that last bucket is the outcome bucket. That's where we're allocating some dollars that we know is going to be legacy money to families or maybe a charity that we're supporting. Every dollar has a kind of a different role and it's structured around the client's life. So it's not just about diversification, it's about structuring around the client's life. I think from a client perspective, the simplicity of it, client's love. But I think the other piece of this is when it's actually put into action. I had a client, it was actually a long-term client, very good saver. I shared the bucket strategy with her every, probably every single meeting we got together. She had a perfect storm hit. And literally, it was a perfect storm. There was a storm. She had damage to her roof, and her daughter's wedding was coming up. And on top of that, we were in the middle of one of those quarters where the market was down 20%. From that standpoint, she was a little anxious, maybe even a little nervous. And she called us and said, Hey, can we get together? I want to know if I'm still okay to do these things. We scheduled a meeting, we reviewed the buckets, and through some planning, we actually had more than twice what she actually needed sitting in those more conservative investments. And the stress really, it almost disappeared immediately with her because she knew that she was okay because of the recent perfect storm had no impact on what her priorities were. And I think that's why communication matters is the fact that we have to know what planned life events are coming with our clients. And that's why we need to stay in touch with them, whether it be a wit wedding trips, helping kids, because we know that life is always going to throw us a curveball, whether it be a storm or a kid needing some extra dollars or whatever the case may be. Or all three things at the same time. It's all three things at the same time.

SPEAKER_02

They have to be ready.

SPEAKER_01

They have to be ready. So we really the point of this, we never want to be forced to sell investments at the wrong time. And our bucket strategy ensures that we never have to do that. So if equities are down, we have plenty of money in the other buckets to make sure that we're never jeopardizing our short-term priorities.

SPEAKER_02

I can just picture the peace of mind and the relief that she must have felt when in a downturn in the market, when you say it's okay, and she can go back to her daughter and say everything's fine for the wedding and for fixing the house. And so what was her reaction just when she got that news?

SPEAKER_01

A lot of times it's not just about telling, because a lot of advisors they'll get in the habit of just telling the client that they're okay. But I think using that bucket strategy and actually showing her where her dollars are allocated, it's not just me telling her she's okay. It's actually showing her where her cash is at. The relief that was, and I remember I will never forget, I hope I never forget that day is just she's hugging me when she's walking out the door. You could just see this complete sense of thank you. She was still okay without the conversation, but it doesn't matter if I'm confident, she has to be confident. And that bucket strategy allows the clients to have that confidence to weather those perfect storms, if you will.

SPEAKER_02

It's a great story. John,

Emotional Traps That Derail Investors

SPEAKER_02

I wanted to ask you about this is something that I think comes up for a lot of us. But could you tell us about the emotional traps and the biases that tend to derail even smart, successful investors and get in the way of big plans?

SPEAKER_01

It's a topic that I address in the book as well. But one of the things that I realized through my career is that people aren't irrational. They're humans. We're all humans. We all act irrational or emotional at certain times. We make decisions emotionally because we're human beings. We want to put a sense of logic to it, but there's an emotional aspect to that. And I think the world we live in today, the media makes it even worse. The media is louder than it's ever been. It's very hard to sort through what's the noise and what's facts. And facts are this markets go up and down. You turn on the TV, they're going to tell you they soar and they crash. Explaining this to clients sometimes, if elevators had buttons on them that said soar and crash, nobody would get on them. The fact is markets go up and they go down. And so we try to add some perspective to that particular piece. I think the other thing that often comes to mind is I like to call it the brother-in-law syndrome. It's where the brother-in-law or maybe it's the neighbor, cocktail hour, or whatever the case may be, and everybody has that hot stock tip. And I think that could be an emotional trap for investors because the fact of the matter is, once the brother-in-law has heard about it, that's old news. That's baked into the price, whatever might be out there. And what can make it actually worse is they take that tip and they throw some money at it, and it actually works because that means and what we call that in the office gate is luck. That's luck, right? But what makes it scary is they might make a bigger decision next time, first time. So you've got the hot hand at that point. Super scary. Yeah. And that's why the boring diversification really works, right? There's a reason why Harvard in their endowment they diversify the funds. It's a boring story. It's not going to be on CNBC about diversification, right? I had a client one time, and an investment was a sound investment. It wasn't like anything that was, I would say with a little high risk, but nothing that was crazy. And they wanted to put about a half a million dollars into it when he came to me. And we sat down and we dove into the plan. And it wasn't just about telling him that it's a bad idea, it was about does this fit into your Your overall plan. The investment turned out fine. After taking a step back and looking at it, he made the decision to only put $100,000 into that investment. And it turned out fine. But the point is that we want to make sound decisions based off of your priorities, your life plan. We don't want to get into the fact of that fear of missing out, that follow is a real thing. And I think that's one emotional trap investors can easily fall into, but it can get you into big trouble.

SPEAKER_02

And I think it's interesting in that example that you just shared that it wasn't that you were saying no, it was you were saying, let's look at how this fits into the plan that you had already worked on. And so that it was still possible, but it was just at a different level than maybe he was going to rush into after talking to the brother-in-law or getting that hot tip.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. And the simple fact is we just we looked at different scenarios in that situation. And if he put the $500,000 in there and it didn't turn out well, it was going to have an impact in his life. Let's not make an emotional decision, let's make a logical decision.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Sounds like the right way to go. Now

Estate Planning As An Act Of Love

SPEAKER_02

I was thinking about, okay, so tax and estate planning, these aren't necessarily the topics that most people get excited about. But you've seen what happens when they get neglected. And so what should people be thinking about when it comes to those?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and it's a topic that I actually do get excited about is the estate planning side of things. And I think it's how we frame it sometimes, is we all know that we're not going to be here, but it's truly estate planning, it's an act of love because it removes the chaos from the people you love most. And if you neglect your estate plan, you're actually leaving a lot of chaos behind. And for what? For what? I do think the collaboration piece is important because nobody wakes up in the morning and says, Whoa, what am I going to do today? I'm going to make sure I call an attorney and get my estate plan set up, right? We don't act that way because it's always puts on the back burner. And unfortunately, tomorrow is promised to nobody. It's promised to no one. It's important to get that. I like sharing stories with clients because I think it does add perspective. And I work with a client and she lost both of her parents pretty close together. One passed, and it was about six months later the other one passed. And she was never really involved in the finances of her parents. So when she got thrown into that, she made an appointment and asked for some help. And she came in and her parents had statements from it was well over 10 financial institutions. And I just remember everything was on our conference and it's scattered out. We're trying to make sense of it all. It took us about a year to sort through everything, sending forms and death certificates all over the place. When it was said and done, she said something to me that why we're so motivated is experiences like this. She told me that she never really had the proper time to grieve because she's been dealing with this. That so resonated with me. And that's why estate planning matters is and the fact is, 34% of Americans, millionaires, balance sheets of a million dollars or more, don't even have a will. So I'm not talking about people who don't have some significant wealth. I'm talking about people who have wealth but no estate plan. I think they need an accountability partner to share stories like this. It adds perspective to estate planning. And at the end of the day, just reminding them that estate planning is really an act of love. And once they make that connection, I think they're feel they feel a little more motivated to take some action behind that.

SPEAKER_02

I like that you characterize it as an act of love. And that's a shocking statistic of how many people with that much money don't have a will. It's not just the entire plan, but not even having a will in place. Why do you think that is? That without somebody, like you said, we're not waking up thinking I've got to take care of this today, and then you just put it off and off until you if something happens that your kids are left with a mess.

SPEAKER_01

I think they either have to personally go through something like what this client went through, or have somebody close to them that goes through that, or somebody share that experience or story with them so they understand what will really happen if they don't have anything in place. John,

Tax Planning To Avoid A Tax Bomb

SPEAKER_01

what about the tax side of things? Not many of our clients care for paying taxes. Some people want to pay as little as possible, and some of our clients absolutely hate taxes. About anybody that really enjoys paying taxes. But the fact is, and we work with a lot of great CPAs, but I think that industry is they're overwhelmed too a lot of times. And they're focusing on this year's tax returns, and they're not really focused on true tax planning. When I talk about two tax planning, that's what is this going to look like 10 and 20 years from now for a particular client, and really thinking about what tax planning should we be doing today. Real simple story. We run across this often as this particular client, theirs was a little bit extreme because they had the vast majority of their wealth in an old 401k plan. And like most Americans, 401ks, that's where a lot of people, especially baby boomers, that's where they've socked away the majority of their wealth. And we ran some predicts, some projections, and he had one, only one daughter, and we ran some projections of what the tax liability be would be for his daughter if he left it just doing tax-deferred and taking the small required minimum distributions down the road. It was massive. It was a massive tax burden to his daughter. And when we shared that with him, he wanted to leave a legacy behind for his daughter, not a tax burden. So we implemented some very uh in our eyes, it's simple, but we do get into the nitty-gritty of how much Roth conversion should we be doing. We run a lot of projections on that. This particular client was also charitably inclined, so he was doing a little bit of qualified charitable distributions as well. The result when we ran the projections for him was over a million dollars he was gonna save in taxes. And if it just sat in that back burner, this CPA, nice, but he wasn't taking the time to look at this tax bomb that he had sitting out there just ticking away. Not to mention his daughter now was going to get some dollars that were gonna be in a Roth IRA that is gonna be tax-free to her. So it wasn't about we're gonna end up paying taxes on that money unless they want to leave it all to charity, which wasn't something that he was inclined to do, but he wanted to take sure his daughter was taken care of and some just proactive planning, helping clients do that, can make all the difference in the world. I hadn't thought of that.

SPEAKER_02

I know I definitely don't want to pay more than one cent more of taxes than I have to, but protecting my children and the legacy that I can leave for them from the taxes that they would incur, I think that's something that a lot of people aren't thinking, and that the accountability partner that's helping them look way down the road can really make a big difference.

SPEAKER_01

It's a big deal, but you really have to you have to crunch those numbers and you have to really know the client situation and understanding we're gonna pay some taxes on this dollar. How do we minimize it as much as possible? And doing it over several years, starting early enough, it makes a big difference. And in this guy, in this gentleman's case, it was over a million dollars in tax savings.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's fantastic.

What Clarity And Joy Look Like

SPEAKER_02

When somebody goes through your process, John, and everything clicks, can you tell me what does that actually look like for them?

SPEAKER_01

I think they get clarity, a ton of clarity, they get a ton of confidence, and they worry significantly less about money because it has purpose behind it. I shared that bucket strategy. I think that all helps with that. A couple that I work with for many years, it was a second marriage for both of them. This is pretty common, more common than maybe people think is when people they enter into these second marriages, we see that it is pretty common that assets stay separate for a while. They don't actually come together and look at everything from a holistic approach now that they're married, because they might have different beneficiaries and things like that. But I think it's very important to look at everything holistically, especially if you really want to enjoy the dollars together. So we sat down and looked at everything, took a hard look at everything, and they did want to travel, but when we sat down and looked at everything holistically, it became very clear that they could travel way more than what they originally thought that they could do. And so they started doing it. They took some big trips. They went to Europe a couple of times, they did the U.S. national parks, they spent some time down south. Unfortunately, the story doesn't have the storybook ending. The husband had a, they were on a trip and he actually had a massive heart attack on one of their trips. And he ended up passing away. And it was devastating. Very close people to me. She later told me something that was very powerful. She told me that she was just so grateful for those trips that they took together and that she'll remember those times forever. And that's the stuff that what does success look like? I don't think it gets much better than that. She's going to remember those trips forever. And like I mentioned before, the fact is tomorrow's not promised to any of us. So the sooner that we can get some purpose behind dollars, I think the quicker they go to the point where you can enjoy it. And that's the stuff that, you know, why our work matters. When people find purpose behind their wealth, they get the clarity, they get the conviction, and they worry less about money, they start to use their wealth as a tool to support them in their priorities and their purpose. But joy, that real joy, that's the stuff that I get excited to get out of bed in the morning and just be part of that. They're doing the hard work, they're saving the money. That's the hard piece, but getting purpose behind that, I think, really does make a difference.

SPEAKER_02

John,

How To Find John And His Book

SPEAKER_02

for listeners who are hearing themselves in the stories that you're telling and in this conversation and want to learn more or get a copy of your book, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_01

First, I just appreciate you having me. I really do. And if anything I did talk about today resonates with anybody out there that may hear this, I just welcome the chance to continue our conversation. And again, my name's John Pavelka. It's the city's private wealth group. You can always Google us, right? That's an easy way to find me. The book is called The Power of Why. And you can find it pretty easy. It's thepowerofwybook.com. Again, thepowerofybook.com. You can contact me through that website there, or you can reach me at our team email, which is team at tcpwg.com. Again, tcpwg.com. The city's private wealth group is what that initials are for. And if you reach out, just know that first meeting is never about selling anything. I just want to be clear about that. And simply one thing, is there really a fit? Is there an opportunity to collaborate? But do that in a meaningful way. Because I believe that when your wealth aligns with your purpose, everything changes. I know for me personally, that's the fact. So I just appreciate you having me on. And if it does resonate with somebody out there, please reach out. John, I got a lot from our conversation. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.