The Most Important Retirement Number

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]I met with the CEO of a publicly traded company last week and he was talking about money and returns and investing, but he said something that I've never heard from someone like him before and I haven't been able to to stop thinking about it since. His name is Kyle Brown and he runs an investment company called Trinity Capital and his whole career has been built on the question of where do you put your money to get the best return? But when he spoke of investing money, he didn't mention the markets or he didn't run the numbers. It was about the other returns, the ones that never show up on the spreadsheet. So, if you're within 10 years of retirement or you're already there, what he said next might change how you think about every financial decision you make from here on out. And if I haven't met you yet, I'm Dave Zer and we've been helping people build their ideal retirement at Streamline Financial for the last 17 years. So, if you're getting close to retirement, then be sure to subscribe because this channel is made just for you. Now, let me tell you what Kyle said next. So, we were sitting there talking and he mentioned that he decided to invest more than he had originally planned on uh on something and and he told us why. Uh and when he did, he didn't pull out a calculator and he didn't talk about market trends or asset allocation. He said something about the other returns, the returns that people don't put on the spreadsheet, but they probably should. And he was talking about the things like the enjoyment or the memories or the people that it involves or the meaning that it would create. And the word that he used to describe this factor in this calculation was oodles. It's a silly word, but here's what struck me. This isn't a guy who ignores the numbers. This is someone who spent decades making, you know, high stakes financial decisions for a living.

[00:01:45]And even he was saying that there's a return on your money that nobody talks about and not many people plan for. And for a lot of people heading into retirement, that missing column in the spreadsheet, that might be the most expensive mistake that they make. So today, I want to talk about oodles and then how to actually calculate them and then make sure that this helps your retirement and makes it uh makes your retirement even better. And what Kyle was pointing at, it's something that I've seen play out over the last 17 years with clients. And we know that most retirement plans, they track everything, everything numbers related, right? Portfolio returns, uh, withdrawal rate, the tax exposure, social security timing, but they don't always track if it's actually giving you a good life.

[00:02:29]And when Kyle was talking about this, he he said something even a little bit deeper. He referenced a parable of a rich man who spends his whole life building these bigger barns so he could store more and accumulate more. And then at the end, God calls him a fool. And Kyle's takeaway was simple. He said, "There's diminishing return in storing and investing. Life is short. Love God, serve others, and enjoy the ride." So, let's get into what this means in practical terms for your retirement plan. First, I've got a question for you, and then I'll show you how to calculate this. question is, when was the last time you evaluated a spending decision, whether it was a trip or an experience or a gift for somebody else, and then you asked not just what the cost is, but what is the actual return of this spending decision? Most of us never do this. I don't do it frequently because we're not really given a tool for it. Uh, but that's the gap that I think oodles can fill. Every spending decision you make has two returns. uh return number one is the financial ROI.

[00:03:33]That's the one we normally calculate, right? That's the return on investment.

[00:03:37]And then number two is that oodles. What does this do uh for my joy or for my relationships or possible memories or sense of meaning? Then here's the other interesting thing about this is those experiences or the oodles, they actually appreciate much like our financial investments do. We're used to seeing our investments go up over time, but these memories too from the moment that we make them. Uh well, often we don't think a vacation is is really an investment.

[00:04:06]It's more of like we're spending money and that's money out the door that we're not going to get back. But what if that was wrong? Because here's an example.

[00:04:14]Imagine you take your family, your your whole family. Let's just make something up. You take them to Italy and it costs 10,000 bucks. Again, just making up numbers. The financial return on that trip is probably zero because you spent the money and it's gone. But what actually happened? Well, you probably came home with some stories that you can tell for the rest of your life. Uh you might have some photos that pop up 5 years from now on on your uh skylight or digital frame at home and your kids or your adult kids. They might bring that trip up at the uh at the dinner table, you know, years from now and it becomes a part of of who your family is. That's not depreciation, that's appreciation.

[00:04:56]And the UDO's return on that trip, it didn't peak when you were there. It really keeps paying you back uh from the moment it happens for really hopefully the rest of your life. I'd actually like to hear from you. Have Have you ever had an experience like that? Whether a trip or a moment or a celebration, it's something that you feel it's it's paying you back in memories, in meaning even long after it's it's happened. If if that's you, please share it in the in the uh comments below or hit the like button just so I know and then I'll get into how we can actually use this or a framework we can use. So here it is.

[00:05:32]It's the the oodles scorecard. Now this is before a significant spending decision that that you're going to have.

[00:05:40]I would say rate it on a scale of 1 to 10 on these five things. Number one would be joy. How much immediate enjoyment could this create? That's one.

[00:05:50]Number two is memory. Will this become a lasting story or something that we can talk about for years? Number three is connection. Does it deepen relationships or does it have the chance to? Does it involve people who matter most? And number four is meaning. Does it align with who I am and what I actually value?

[00:06:08]And then number five is longevity. How long will I continue to benefit from this? There's that book, the the five regrets of the dying, that Bronny Wear book, The Hospice Nurse, and a lot of them, people who were on their deathbed, they remembered the moments, the trips, um all of those special things with with family and not so much um investing return, the return they got on their their in their IRA or something like that. But those those oodles and and that oodles score um it adds up. And then when when you do add it up, ask one more question and it is what am I paying per oodle? So that $300 dinner that might have a a low financial ROI, but if it creates a core family memory or it it deepens a relationship or maybe it becomes a story, then the oodles per dollar could be pretty high. Um, and then take a $15,000 purchase on uh say it was uh a new a watch. I always use the watch example just because it's easy. Um, that might score low on all those categories except for a status category, which which wasn't even included, but status, as it turns out, that depreciates faster than almost anything else. Now, I want to be clear, this is kind of a a funny word, uh, a funny way to think of it, but um, it's not exact math. It's it's not a formula that I'm going to publish in a journal.

[00:07:32]It's really just a a tool to make the invisible visible because many retirees that I talk to, they track every dollar.

[00:07:39]They know their expenses, they know the withdrawal rate and all the things, but they haven't stopped to ask, "What is all this money actually buying me in terms of a good life or a fulfilling life?" And then here's the final test. I call it the future reflection test. 10 years from now, will you be glad that you did this? If the answer is an immediate yes, that might be a high oodles decision. So then lean into that.

[00:08:04]If the answer is I'll probably forget about this by next week, well that's a different kind of decision. But I'd love to hear in the comments, did you ever spend money on something that paid you back in joy, in memory, in meaning beyond what you expected? If you're still here and you found this kind of silly video interesting, please click the like button so that I know. And then check out this video on advice from 70 year olds that they're giving to new retirees. I'll see you over there.