Episode Summary
What if one of the biggest risks to your financial future isn’t the market, taxes, or your investments—but your health? In this episode of Paladin Financial Talk, Host Nikki Foley switches chairs with Investment Advisor Representative Ellie Robison to explain why healthcare planning is a key component of financial planning. Whether you’re approaching retirement, navigating Medicare, or simply planning for the future, this episode is an important reminder that building wealth is only part of the equation—you also need the health to enjoy it.
Inside the Episode
What if one of the biggest risks to your financial future isn’t the market—it’s your health?
In this episode of Paladin Financial Talk, Investment Advisor Representative Ellie Robison and I switch seats as I share why healthcare planning is an important part of financial planning.
We spend years preparing for retirement, yet healthcare often gets pushed aside until a diagnosis, unexpected bill, or insurance change demands our attention.
From navigating Medicare and insurance coverage to preparing for medical expenses, lost income, caregiving needs, and an earlier-than-expected retirement, my goal is simple: to show why planning ahead for your health can also help protect your financial future.
Insights
1
Your health is one of your greatest financial assets.
Poor health can affect far more than medical expenses—it can lead to lost income, caregiving costs, long-term care needs, or an earlier-than-planned retirement.
2
Having health insurance isn’t the same as understanding your healthcare.
Understanding your health insurance or having insurance specialist who can support you can help prevent expensive surprises and give you more confidence when a health issue arises.
3
Don’t wait for a health crisis to start planning.
Healthcare needs and costs change over time. Reviewing your insurance plans, providers, expenses, and other health-related resources annually can help ensure what works for you today is still the right fit.
Key Takeaways
- Health insurance is part of your financial plan.
- Health changes can lead to lost income, caregiving responsibilities, long-term care expenses, or an earlier-than-planned retirement, making health an important part of retirement planning at every stage.
- Preventive health can help protect your wealth. Topics such as weight loss, GLP-1 medications, diabetes, heart health, cancer screenings, mental health, and stress management aren’t just health conversations—they can also have long-term financial implications.
- Understand your Medicare and health insurance coverage before you need it.
- Review your healthcare plan every year. What works today may not be the best choice tomorrow.
Links from the episode
- How People Use Copilot for Health – https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/how-people-use-copilot-for-health/
- Most Common Healthcare Topics 2025 – https://www.mercyone.org/blog-articles/wln-most-common-health-care-topics-2025
- From Weight Loss Drugs to Raw Milk – https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/06/12/from-weight-loss-drugs-to-raw-milk-americans-hear-more-often-about-some-health-topics-than-others/
- Everesting – https://everesting.com/
- CFP Board / Certified Financial Planner – https://www.cfp.net
- Retirement Income Certified Professional designation from American College of Financial Services – https://www.theamericancollege.edu/learn/professional-designations-certifications/ricp
- Medicare.gov – Original Medicare vs. Medicare Advantage — https://www.medicare.gov/basics/get-started-with-medicare/get-more-coverage/your-coverage-options/compare-original-medicare-medicare-advantage
- Mayo Clinic – https://www.mayoclinic.org
- Microsoft Copilot – https://copilot.microsoft.com/Copilot
- GLP-1 – https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007853.htm
- The Mel Robbins Podcast – https://www.melrobbins.com/podcast
- All There Is Podcast – https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/all-there-is-with-anderson-cooper
People Mentioned in the Episode
- Mel Robbins – https://www.melrobbins.com
- Anderson Cooper – https://www.cnn.com/profiles/anderson-cooper-profile
- Nikki Foley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkibutlerfoley
- Ellie Robison: Ellie Robison – Paladin Financial LLC | LinkedIn
- Jeff Foley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/foleyj
Featured review
Reasonable Price
Mic Drop Moments
Quotes from the episode
“Wealth has limited value if you don’t have the health to enjoy it.” — Nikki Foley
“Too often, health only moves to the front of our lives—financial or otherwise—when something forces it there.” — Nikki Foley
“Health affects the people you love, not just you.” — Nikki Foley
“Health is one of your greatest financial assets.” — Nikki Foley
“Your health is so intertwined with your finances.” — Ellie Robison
“Do not assume that what you’re doing today is the right fit for tomorrow.” — Nikki Foley
Episode Transcript
Nikki Foley: Ellie, we were chatting just before we started the show and I asked, “When does health insurance or health of anything come up when you’re talking with your clients?”
Ellie Robison: It always seems to pop up when someone’s on the cusp of Medicare age because they know they’re getting all those flyers in the mail and they’re turning 65 soon. So, it comes up then and then it only ever really seems to come up after the fact of like needing a random surgery that’s unplanned and then things seem to come like happen in threes. So, oops, three things just happened in a row, and I have all these medical bills all of a sudden.
Nikki Foley: Exactly. We spend so much time planning for the financial aspects of our life and the future. But often times it is a diagnosis or it is a change or a transition in somebody’s life that health insurance comes into it. And reality is those decisions oftentimes can be thousands of dollars. And so, we—and you know this—we are big on making sure that the health conversation is also part of our financial conversation. But what I have found is I feel like people don’t want to make a decision as it relates to a health decision until they have to. Would you say that that’s fair or something that you’ve seen along the way?
Ellie Robison: No one wants to plan to be unhealthy, right?
Nikki Foley: Absolutely. So today we are going to talk about why health isn’t just a healthcare issue, but it’s a financial planning issue. So, Ellie, thanks for joining me. Welcome to Paladin Financial Talk. I’m your host today, Nikki Foley, and I’m joined by my peer and other fellow investment advisor, Ellie Robison. Thanks for being here, Ellie.
Ellie Robison: Oh, thanks for having me, Nikki.
Nikki Foley: Absolutely. So, Ellie, today we are going to kick off a new four-part series dedicated to health and health care. So, we’ll break down how the health care system works. I think people really fumble with how the health care system works sometimes, and they just go along with the flow. But the reality is maybe just a little bit of knowledge in this area could help them make some financial decisions or feel a little more comfortable with what is going on out the door as it relates to health dollars in the bigger picture of finance. And we’ll give you some practical tools to navigate with greater confidence and then we’re going to talk with some professionals over these next four to five weeks as we go through our new health and health care series.
So, like I said at the beginning, we believe health and wealth are deeply connected. And so, we’ll talk about what that looks like today. So, with that, let’s go ahead and dive in. And I’m going to let you—we’re going to flip-flop, seats if this sounds okay. All right. So, I am the featured adviser today, but I brought Ellie with me so that she could prompt some of the questions in our interview.
Ellie Robison: I’m going to interview you on all of the expertise that you know.
Nikki Foley: All right. Okay. Well, I’m looking forward to this.
Ellie Robison: You know what? Before I dive into questions here, let’s just talk a little bit about Nikki Foley and her background. She started her first job in financial services in February 2002, meaning she’s creeping up here in close to 25 years.
Nikki Foley: Just go ahead and date me.
Ellie Robison: And so, when I first met Nikki nearly 10 years ago, she was serving in the industry more on the marketing and operations side. You were COO. That was your title. I remember back in the day.
Nikki Foley: Yeah.
Ellie Robison: And so today she is now licensed as an investment adviser and licensed agent, which means she does hold her Series 65, her 6, her 63, and life and health insurance licenses. She’s also preparing for her second of three tests for her RICP designation, which you’re going to talk about later on in this episode. And on the softer side of things, I think your passion—you have a couple passions here. One is people. I think it’s very transparent when people get to know you and they meet you, Nikki, is you are just sunshine in most people’s day. You have a bachelor’s degree in sociology. So, aka the study of people in groups, it sounds like, and I don’t even really know that much about those things, but communications is something that you have also majored in, studied, and you have your master’s in organizational development with emphasis on human resources.
Nikki Foley: Yeah. When you’re going through it, you don’t realize that these things string together. You just gravitate towards what you’re interested in. But as you look back, as now I am 25 years later and I look back, it all tells the story of what my passion is and where I like to spend my time and what brings me excitement.
Ellie Robison: Yeah. And we all know too in the office, another passion of yours is just staying healthy.
Nikki Foley: I try.
Ellie Robison: Oh, you’re good at it.
Nikki Foley: I try. I try.
Ellie Robison: You played high school and then college sports. You’ve participated in marathons, duathlons—is that how you do duathlons?
Nikki Foley: Duathlons. Yeah. I don’t like swimming. So, you cut out the swimming from the triathlon, and you just do the biking and the running.
Ellie Robison: I did not know that.
Nikki Foley: Yeah. Yep. Oh my gosh. I will do every stroke possible to get through a triathlon. So, then you just cut that out and do a dual, make it a little bit better for yourself.
Ellie Robison: I like it. And you started weightlifting in high school and you set out to break school records because women didn’t lift like they do today. Which is awesome.
Nikki Foley: Yeah.
Ellie Robison: And now that your kids are older, Jeff and you are returning to endurance sports, with hiking in Idaho coming up.
Nikki Foley: So, I’ll tell you two things. So, we have a big hike coming up. Do you know this?
Ellie Robison: I don’t know that we’ve talked much about it. Not really. I know that you guys are walking a lot, but I didn’t realize you’re training for a hike.
Nikki Foley: Okay. The first thing I’ll tell you, Jeff and I did a marathon together, and that was kind of our first getting together. So, 26.2 miles. And most people wouldn’t say that Jeff is like—the athletic part of him is just not what comes across first about Jeff Foley. But he is one of the most dedicated and disciplined people I think that we would know. And so, when it comes to endurance sports, so much of it is mental. And so that was the first kind of time that Jeff and I had spent together was doing a marathon.
And now as the kids have gotten a little bit older, we’re like, let’s reintroduce some of the things that we like to do. And we love to hike. And so, we are doing an event in Sun Valley, Idaho, where we have to do the height of Mount Everest, but you do it on a mountain here in North America. And so, to get that, we have to do 15 runs up the mountain and then we take the gondola down. But the kicker here is you have to do it within 36 hours. So, we start at 6:00 a.m. on a Friday and then we have to be done by 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. So, as we average things out and we have done the math here, I think that we will sleep about three hours and then we’ll have about a buffer of one hour on each side of it. So, I don’t know. We’ll see how we do. And I might tell you, yes, it was crazy and I didn’t finish, or maybe we will finish. So, fingers crossed. So that is the second weekend in September that we are going to tackle that. But we’re getting to the point where we’re like, “Wow, we have to hike seven hours this weekend.” Like that takes a big chunk.
Ellie Robison: You train a lot for something like that. Yeah. Good for you guys. I did not know this. Okay. So that is what we are setting out to do here. Well, you know, now that we’re talking about this, is there anything else that our listeners should know about you, Nikki?
Nikki Foley: Probably if anybody has listened with any consistency, you know that I really gravitate to two things: people and the health side. And so, I want to spend a little bit of this episode talking about why we believe health should be a part of this. And kind of as a little bit more about me, I believe our bodies can do absolutely amazing things. And oftentimes I do that a lot on blind faith. I do not like the science behind this. And I can think of friend after friend after friend who listens to podcasts and they absolutely love to know more. I’d rather ask somebody. Somebody just tell me what I’m supposed to do. I need to trust them and then I’ll go about my way doing it. And so, I feel like when you think about if I know that is my mentality about learning new things in the health arena—even I love it, but I don’t want to have to do the science and the research piece of it.
Well, think about so many people on the financial side. I think you could probably say either they have no interest, but they know that it’s a part of their lives, or they just don’t want to know at that level. Somebody just tell me what to do. And so, I make that parallel and my hope is that I can be that person for many who don’t want to know all the details of the financial side. They just want to know that they have somebody they can trust and that it can be put into action, whatever the plan might be. So anyway, that’s a parallel that I make when it comes to what I love, but I don’t want to know all the details. Just tell me what to do.
Ellie Robison: What a great way of putting it. You know, at Paladin Financial, we believe that there are four core pillars related to the holistic financial plan. And so, they are financial planning, tax planning, estate planning, and like we are alluding to here, the health planning side of things. So, why have you and Jeff included health as one of Paladin Financial’s core financial pillars?
Nikki Foley: Yeah, it wasn’t something that we took lightly in that decision because I do think that it sits a little bit outside of when you hear taxes, estate, financial—like that all goes together. And so we have done, among our team members and the advisers, we have spent thousands of hours in front of our clients and we felt like it’s a key piece of those conversations, but we needed some more behind the why it should be part of our key conversations. And so, as you may know, or as you do know, and our listeners may know, Jeff is a Certified Financial Planner and Ellie, you’re working towards that certification as well, among other people on our team. But it really is the standard of excellence for financial planners. And so, the way that the CFP professional goes about looking at financial planning is their knowledge or topics of knowledge are really geared a little bit more towards the financial planning perspective and they lump health into it, but it usually falls under risk management. It falls under the insurance planning as well as income planning in general. So, the RICP is another designation that we can get within the industry and it is from the American College of Financial Services, which is again one of the standard organizations that offers designations and certifications for industry professionals. And this is the Retirement Income Certified Professional. So, it is focused on when somebody is retiring. And I would say at Paladin, our niche is retirement. And I think what sometimes people think about retirement is as you get close to retirement, that’s when we start having conversations. And we’ve talked about this before. It really starts the first time you put a dollar into a 401(k) or some type of retirement account. But as we talk about getting somebody close to retirement, it’s important for us to make sure that we’re very holistic in the conversation and that we’re creating income strategies that do include health care, long-term care cost, and some of the key components that go alongside of Social Security and estate planning and tax planning and investments and all the things that you would expect to see in the financial side. So, we took that perspective and said, well, if financial planning and the CFP is really kind of the gold standard, they lump it into things. But if our niche is retirement and retirement really does draw that out to what are some of these income strategies to pay for healthcare and the long-term care, we thought it was relevant enough to keep as one of our major pillars. And so that’s how we got there. That’s a lot. But we didn’t want to just go with our gut on it seems like it should fit in because we really do believe it fits in and is oftentimes a big component of what somebody might spend as they look towards their retirement years.
Ellie Robison: Oh yeah. So, then that gets us to the why.
Nikki Foley: Yeah. So, you asked me why originally, and I went through the how we got there, but I think the why is we’d like to frame our belief around the idea that wealth has limited value if you don’t have the health to enjoy it. And I think sometimes people forget that. And it’s not until you start to have incidents that happen in your life that you start to lose people or you have a moment where you can’t do what you thought you could do because your body won’t allow you to do it. And so, I think our three strongest reasons really on the why is that your health allows you to enjoy the life that you’ve worked so hard to build from a financial perspective. So that’s reason number one. I’d say reason number two is health is one of your greatest financial assets. And most people forget that until you start aging and you don’t have it anymore. Think how much we take for granted about what our life looks like on an everyday basis. But once you have poor health or you have something happen to you, you quickly realize what a critical component that is. And oftentimes it quickly affects your finances as well. And so that could be medical expenses, and I think that’s the first thing people go to. Oftentimes I think lost income—won’t happen to me type of conversation. And as we have conversations about filling in those gaps with risk management tools like insurance, people put them off or they say it’s not for me or I’ll take that chance. But that lost income is such a critical piece when people are still in their working years. And then caregiving needs. We talk about the sandwich generation and where you have a big population that’s going down and still raising kids while also going up and caring for parents. And I hate to say this, but that oftentimes is the response we get when our clients are talking to us, is that they are going to rely on their kids in some capacity. And the question becomes: Have you talked to them about that, and is that really a financial decision that you can make for them and for yourself at the same time? And so bringing all of this into perspective as it relates to health being a financial decision. I could keep going with examples and I’m going to give a couple examples in our show today, but just earlier-than-planned retirement as well goes into that, and that’s often a health decision. And I can use my mom as an example. She only retired when she couldn’t continue to work because of her cancer. And so, with all of that, that’s my second reason—long-winded, Ellie—but second reason. And then third one being health affects the people you love, not just you. And so I already alluded to this, that it can impact your spouse, your family members. That’s financially, that’s emotionally, that is caregiving responsibilities. And so I probably spent too much time on that one, but just staying healthy helps you remain an active participant in your family and not passing an obligation to those who matter most to you. And so with that, I would say those are kind of our three bigs of the why we really want to make sure this is a relevant conversation and a permanent place in our financial pillars that we have.
Ellie Robison: Yeah. So, then what would be, you know, what’s the number one question or concern related to health that you hear from clients?
Nikki Foley: I would say that too often health only moves to the front of our lives, financial or otherwise, when something forces it there. And that’s the theme that I think we’ve already talked about here: a medical bill that arrives that someone doesn’t understand. And I know that maybe you as a financial adviser are not taking as many calls as I am since I’m handling more of the health pillar for our organization. But the calls that I get out of the blue are: a medical bill arrived and I don’t understand why I was billed something. I thought it was going to be zero or something different. Or a medical bill arrived and it is way larger. Is this what I should have planned for? Or it takes them by surprise and they’re not exactly sure how they’re going to pay for it.
I would say another one is choosing to take a health insurance plan potentially for the first time. So, when somebody leaves their employer, they’re oftentimes navigating new terminology and a process that they’ve never really intimately been a part of. Your employer gives you three or four plans, and you choose and away you go and you spend very little time on it. And so, it’s the first time that you’re really making that decision on your own or you’re enrolling in Medicare, which looks similar but different to a health insurance plan that you may have had earlier in life or as an employee.
And then I think also a diagnosis, you know, you’re being diagnosed with something could be as simple as a surgery to treat it or some type of ongoing treatment, or it could certainly be more and something that is ongoing and something that you’re going to have to manage. And so those are typically when I get calls and it’s reactive versus proactive, which is okay.
That’s when it comes to be, and you want to know that you have a trusted person in your corner to get you through those scenarios. But I would say making sure that we have some forethought that goes along with it is a key piece. So again, that’s often when we get involved and I think that’s where you would distinguish having insurance versus knowing how your health care actually works is a key piece. And so, all these things are major decisions, but they’re also big financial decisions—major health decisions but big financial decisions as well.
There was a statistic that I looked up as we were preparing for this whole series. It’s an analysis of Copilot. Do you know what Copilot is? It’s Microsoft, you know, so they looked at how are people using it to research their health, and they found that a meaningful portion of the health questions weren’t about disease at all. It was about navigating providers, insurance, and the health care system itself. And so, people are uncomfortable. They just don’t understand the terminology either, they don’t understand how all the pieces work together. And oftentimes, like I said, you’ve been protected by an HR team or a benefits team that have been making a lot of those decisions and understanding it on your behalf. So, I thought that was interesting.
Ellie Robison: Interesting. Yeah. Very. So, can you give a real-world example?
Nikki Foley: Yeah, absolutely. So, those calls come in different shapes and forms. Just two weeks ago, I got a very simple one: “Hey, I got a bill for $40,000. Wasn’t expecting that. What do I do?” Well, the reality was that it was a child and they had given the wrong insurance card. So, it was a simple undo, and they just needed to reprocess it. But that’s a real number. $40,000. Wasn’t expecting that. Tell me more.
First one, but the real one that I want to give is I was working with a retired federal employee last year who had signed up for Original Medicare and still had their federal medical insurance. Additionally, somewhere along the way, somebody sold them a Medicare Advantage plan. And so, what most of the time wouldn’t happen and couldn’t happen is you can’t have a Medicare Advantage plan and a Medicare Supplement plan. Well, because this individual was in the federal benefit system, their medical insurance acts as if it’s a Medicare Supplement plan, but it’s not. Maybe it doesn’t have the same buffer or guardrails around it where when they got on the Medicare Advantage plan, it would have kicked them off. And so, it’s a little bit unique to a federal employee. Nonetheless, what the situation was, and most would say, “Well, what are we complaining about? More is better. You had Medicare Advantage. You had Original Medicare. You had this other plan. Sounds all great to me because sometimes you do have multiple insurance plans and the provider will bill one and then they’ll bill a second and more of it is covered. You might pay more in premiums, but more is being covered.”
Well, in this case, he was at Mayo and he was no longer going to be in network when he was getting his treatments at Mayo because his Medicare Advantage plan was no longer going to have Mayo in network. So, the first emergency was the fact that he was at Mayo receiving treatment, and he was no longer going to have insurance to cover that. Well, the second emergency came when he needed to move to another hospital to get care for his scenario and his Medicare Advantage plan wouldn’t approve that next hospital. So, he was sitting at this timeframe where he was no longer going to be able to use his insurance at Mayo. Seems like a great thing that he needed to go to another hospital, but his Medicare Advantage plan wouldn’t allow him to go to that next hospital. However, the new hospital that he was supposed to transfer to would have been accepted no problem under Original Medicare and his federal benefits plan. And so, time was an essential factor in all of this happening. This was not an easy case to untangle and there was a lot of moving parts to it. And again, time was a big piece. But to simplify it: understanding what you have and, in this scenario, he really was not set up for success because he had these competing plans together. Understanding the pros and cons of what you have. So, understanding what you have, then the pros and cons of each one of them, and then how do you navigate the rules based off of your scenario. So, it can run fairly deep with these unique situations. And so having a person that you trust that you can call in the situation to help you navigate it can really be a true benefit. And in this case, like I said, time was critical. Most insurance plans are very strict about when you come on and off. Nothing happens mid-month and oftentimes nothing happens even mid-year.
And so, I’m really excited as part of the series that we are starting. We are going to have a longtime health insurance veteran joining us on the next episode and he has spent his entire career working for insurance companies and serving in leadership roles during that tenure. And so, he is going to help us understand some of the lingo and then what are we paying for and how do we navigate the health care system and try to make this as basic for us and our listeners as possible because it is not easy to navigate all of this and yet there’s big dollars tied to all of it. And I would say the other thing that I hear our clients talk about is it seems so expensive and the rates for insurance are going up at six, nine, double-digit numbers where COLA, you know, cost of living, is not doing that. And so, is that one of the number one complaints that we hear? Absolutely. Well, hopefully giving some perspective around it is what we’ll accomplish with our guest next week.
Ellie Robison: Oh, that will be a good one.
Nikki Foley: Yeah, I’m really looking forward to him. And I’ll tell you, he’s been in my back pocket as I’ve needed things. It’s if-then type of scenario oftentimes with these complicated situations and he knows his information inside and out after being in the industry for so long that he can say, this is where you go to. This is how you know the answer. This is where it’s written. So, you have proof, and proof is oftentimes a big deal in this industry.
Ellie Robison: That’ll be so valuable to hear more about him.
Nikki Foley: Yeah, he’s going to be fantastic.
Ellie Robison: So, in preparation for this series that we’re doing this month and our upcoming client educational event in September, which is also focused on health, you did some research on what people Google most frequently related to health topics. What did you find?
Nikki Foley: Yeah, absolutely. So, first of all, I thought the last statistics that I gave about the analysis was interesting to see what people were Googling, but it is no surprise that there’s some very specific clusters of topics that go along with when people are looking for things. And so, I think one of the themes that I want to share is people aren’t wanting to know how to treat illnesses. They are wanting to know how to stay healthy when they’re looking up these topics. And so, the first one, and I don’t think that you’re going to be surprised by this, but diabetes, weight loss, and GLP-1 medications. I feel like it is everywhere.
Ellie Robison: Everywhere that we are.
Nikki Foley: Yep. And so, type 2 diabetes is growing at an alarming rate. And these weight loss and GLP-1 medications can run alongside of that. But taking preventative measures is a key piece of all of this conversation for eating right, managing stress, losing weight, and so forth. But weight loss in general becomes enormous and continues to be an enormous topic. And so, Google reported that it rose 26% between ’24 and ’25. And I am guessing if there were statistics out there right now, we would probably see that it has grown even more than that. That’s a big assumption, but 53% of U.S. adults told Pew Research that they frequently hear about GLP-1 weight loss drugs. I mean 53% is an enormous number when you think about all the things that are medically related, but that is one that comes across at such a high rate there. So, no surprise that those topics were among the top. Health in general—so that could be stroke, that could be high blood pressure, that could lower cholesterol—are frequently Googled questions. Cancer, again, I don’t think any of these are taking us by surprise, but it was identified among Google’s most prominent healthcare topics for 2025. And one of the things that it pointed out as I was doing some of this research is the cause of cancer can be many things, but it also can develop in healthy individuals. And so not forgetting the precautionary steps and the screenings are really an important piece. And so, I think I could run down a whole list of people I know right now that are of all ages that are experiencing something with cancer. And I don’t think you’re any different, and our listeners all have their own stories. And so, it is making sure that you understand how your insurance covers those precautionary steps and the screenings to help you be two steps ahead of any of the things that might be diagnosed. So mental health and stress, again, probably not surprised on that one, but just the emotional health questions have increased substantially in recent years. But here’s what’s interesting. They increased significantly in the evening and nighttime hours. So interesting. That was one of our 2026 health query studies that reported that. So, as we talk about these, and there were more that were on the list, I tried to consolidate them into major topics there, but we are going to bring on one if not two guests that really have that health perspective to offer us. The one that I know is joining us immediately after the health insurance industry veteran that I talked about, she focuses on clients that are over 40 because she believes that you’re going through a transition at that point. And so, she’s a trainer, she’s a yoga instructor, she does group training, but she also works with mental toughness and wellness coaching and is certified as a menopause coaching specialist as well. So, she’s working to take the guesswork out of what is happening to your body as you’re going through a critical chapter in your life and you’re going through a transition. So, she should be a great addition and then I’m hoping that we’ll have one more additional guest with us because I think this topic is broad and there’s a lot that plays back to the overall.
Ellie Robison: So much, Nikki. And so, to simplify really what I’ve heard today from you is, one, your health is so intertwined with your finances, like it’s almost not smart to not include the health portion into your overall financial plan. And then, you know, people want to know how to be healthy.
Nikki Foley: Yeah. And I think, you know, everybody has interests and wants to be educated at a different level, but if we can give one, two, three things that are in kind of some of the major areas like the physical, the mental, the nutrition—if we can give one or two things that they can latch on to or resources that they can continue to grow from, I think that’s critical. And like we said, this runs—and how far the scope is from a financial perspective. I said it earlier, but we are talking about potentially lost income for yourself or a key family member earning money for the household. We’re talking about caregiving responsibilities and how expensive that can be. It could be leaving the workforce earlier than you expected. It could be paying for major medical expenses. Like this touches a lot of areas of your finance and it’s critical that we’re paying attention to it.
Ellie Robison: Well, you have mentioned, you know, our upcoming client educational event. So, tell us more about that.
Nikki Foley: Yep, absolutely. So, we try to rotate through our pillars and who we are having as our guest speakers at our client education events. We do two of them a year. We do one in the spring and one in the fall. And so, as we move into the fall months here on Tuesday, September 22nd from 5 to 7, we’re hosting our client education event. It’s going to be at Vadnais Heights Commons in Vadnais Heights here in Minnesota. And so, all of our events are for our clients, but we really encourage them to bring somebody they know that they think would be interested in the topic or if somebody is listening and this is of interest to them, we absolutely want you to be a part of our community and part of what we’re sharing. And so even though it says client education, that’s the foundation, but we want to be a resource for people and help people get the information they’re looking for. So 5:00 we’ll eat and then at 6:00 we’re going to have a panel of three to five people that are in the health care realm. And so, whether we’re talking about physicians or physician assistants, the fitness side of things, the nutrition, potentially the mental health and grief side. And so, we are going to enjoy an evening with some of these local professionals that can share a handful of things with us that will hopefully, you know, one of the topics or one of the people that are speaking maybe is a right fit for the people in the audience and something that they’re going through.
Ellie Robison: I’m excited for it. I think you are lining up a lot of good professionals this month on the podcast and in our educational events. This will be good.
Nikki Foley: I’m looking forward to it, and I think we’re going to not have duplicates between the two. So, we should have a wide range.
Ellie Robison: Yeah. Okay. So, what should someone listening here today take away or do differently?
Nikki Foley: Well, I’ve been long-winded, so I’ll keep this short. So, do not assume that what you’re doing today is the right fit for tomorrow. And again, I say this a lot, but make sure you do an annual review of your health care-related cost, your plans, the providers you’re seeing, the therapists, the gym. Step back and re-evaluate if this is the right fit. And that will impact you from a lot of different financial perspectives.
Ellie Robison: And so, do you have any recommended resources for someone listening here today?
Nikki Foley: Absolutely. And so, I tried to be somewhat broad with my perspective here, but my gal Mel Robbins, you know, comes up on this podcast. I’ve tried to tame that a little bit in the last year or so, but Mel Robbins is a great resource for having top-tier guests and they are high-level information oftentimes with this realm of what we’ve talked about, the topics that we’ve covered today. And so, they give you just a little bit of a teaser of where you can go for more information. And these are some of the best in their profession. And so, I would absolutely use her as a fantastic place to start with some of these topics. Another one that I want to bring up that I do think fits into this is All There Is, a podcast hosted by Anderson Cooper. So, that’s a name that most of us know from the media and being on TV, but this one focuses on grief and loss and how learning to live with the people you’ve lost versus trying to get over grief. And I think that’s an important one for those that are listening and people don’t always know how to navigate grief. So, I’m going to put that one in there. There’s a lot of other ones out there that some are more female oriented, some play more into—there’s all kinds of realms that fall into the health segment, but I would say Mel Robbins and then Anderson Cooper. Both of those are really good.
Ellie Robison: Okay. Well, thank you for sharing, Nikki.
Nikki Foley: Yep. Absolutely. Well, and now this is where I go and I put my host hat back on and we’ll wrap things up here. So, if you want to take the next step, be sure to check out our download that we offer on a monthly basis that goes along with the series that we’re running. And so, I’ve put together an interactive checklist that is about reviewing your health and your insurance policies. And so, it’s just a great one too, as you asked me what my one piece of recommendation would be as we come into kind of the final half of the year, doing your annual review and your checks. It’s a great informative interactive checklist that would go along with the health and the insurance kind of risk management side. So, if you’re sitting there thinking, hey, let’s have additional conversations, I would recommend booking a 15-minute no-obligation conversation by visiting our website at paladinfinancial.com or our podcast website at paladinfinancialtalk.com. You can always call us at 651-842-8406 or follow us along with YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and we certainly will be continuing to deliver great information along the way. So, thank you again for joining us and listening today. We’ll see you on the next episode.