A Self-starting motivated individual who believes the Bible is the inspired Word of God, Don Galade is President of a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) firm called GFS Financial Advisors, LLC. and a faith-based advisory company called: Kingdom Financial Ministries, an (RIA) firm located in The Poconos Mountains in PA.
Don is a home-schooling dad who blends his passion for others with his professional skills to help clients define and meet their financial goals using biblical principles.
Listen to this informative Publish. Promote. Profit. episode with Don Galade about using biblical references to meet financial goals.
Here are some of the beneficial topics covered on this week’s show:
- What blue collar millionaires need to watch for when planning their financial futures.
- Why it’s important to get advice from the right people.
- What biblical responsible investing is and how to make your investments align with your faith.
- Why you should define your dreams and goals when deciding how to invest your money.
- How writing a book will deliver opportunities and success to you and your business.
Connect with Don:
Links Mentioned:
gfs-advisors.com
inthedollarweworship.com
dongalade.com
Guest Contact Info:
Twitter
@Dgalade
Facebook.com/groups/778634882275090
Rob Kosberg:
All right. Hey, welcome, everybody, Rob Kosberg here. Super happy to be with you again for another episode of the Publish Promote Profit Podcast. Happy to be with you with a great guest. Don Galade is the best-selling author of, In God We Trust, and, The Dollar We Worship. Very, very interesting title. Don is a 30-year veteran financial advisor and Christian movie producer and media producer. He works with blue-collar millionaires. I actually like that. I think that’s cool, giving them simple, clean advice to help them to make the investments that they need to live the kind of life that they desire. So, Don, really glad to have you with us today. Excited to talk about your expertise.
Don Galade:
Well, I’m humbled, but I thank you for having me on. What your organization has done for my practice with this book is just mind-blowing.
Rob Kosberg:
Well, we’re going to want to talk about how you’ve used your book. That’s certainly part of it, but let’s talk more about your expertise first, and your magic. I love the term blue-collar millionaire. I love that. I want you to define that for me, and then talk about how you help that individual, because obviously they can make some wrong decisions. I even want to share with you a couple of situations from my own family that turned a blue-collar millionaire into blue-collar broke. Define that for me, and let’s start there.
Don Galade:
I don’t even know if I made it up or if I heard it from somebody even. It’s a term that I’ve used because there’s people out there that have tons of money, and they’ve got a team of investing people and teams of CPAs and accountants but you get a guy that’s had a decent job his whole life or several decent jobs if he had to change, and he’s got close to six, maybe sometimes even more digits in his 401k plan, and it’s really his only investment. He doesn’t have this big, elaborate portfolio. He’s just got 800,000 or 900,000 in his 401k plan. Now, here’s the guy ready to retire, and he’s like, “Okay. I’m going to turn on Social Security, and I’m going to pull money out of my 401k.” They never actually had the opportunity to sit down with somebody who’s qualified. First of all, who really cares about how they’re about to take this next giant step in life and talk about income, taxes, estate planning, and they still need some of this money to continue to grow, even though they’re spending it, and wrapping that all around this one investment that they’ve had their entire life that nobody’s ever really given them any guidance on other than the human resource person saying, “Well, most people just do this.” I love the ability to help somebody that I can relate to. I’m a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, so to speak. I grew up in a middle-class family, a fourth-generation musician. Musicians didn’t make a lot of bread, as they say. So, it’s just neat to be able to give back with the gifts God has showed me how to help.
Rob Kosberg:
I referenced a story myself. My father-in-law got out of the military, served during war time in Vietnam, and a high school diploma, but no college, but a great engineering mind. He was hired by Motorola and worked for Motorola for over 30 years and ended up being a vice president at Motorola as an engineer. He built large Motorola plants. He retired, 30 years ago now. When he retired, all of his money was in Motorola stock, which did exceptionally well up until the time it did not. He met with a financial advisor when he was retiring, and he was advised to leave his money in Motorola stock. Motorola stock plummeted. It’s still a company now, but nothing like what Motorola was. Fortunately, he had a pension. In those days, you still had a pension. You had a pension and high six figures, low seven figures in cash. Fortunately, Social Security and his pensions, his and his wife’s, carried them through. I watched them go from having seven figures to having nothing, and it was a complete shocker to me. I know that this kind of stuff still happens. What are the big mistakes that people make? Like, somebody is 50 or 55, and they’re thinking about retiring in 10 years, or maybe they’re close to retirement age. What are the mistakes they make, and what are the steps they should take?
Don Galade:
I hear that story or facets of that story three to four times a day as I’m sitting across the desk from somebody. It’s all about advice, and who you get it from. Who do you trust with it, and what are their qualifications? More importantly, what are they trying to sell you? I could go into the licensing and all this other stuff, but the bottom line is this: Everybody’s got an Aunt Millie, and Aunt Millie knows everything. Now, Aunt Millie may be your wife. Aunt Millie may be somebody you work with. Aunt Millie may be your next-door neighbor, but it’s like they always listen to family and friends rather than they listen to the advice of somebody who is a professional. If I had a problem with my sinuses, I would not go to a chiropractor. You match the need with the specialist you need to their particular education. You’re supposed to buy low and sell high. Nobody sells ever. So, if nobody sells, why? Because the advice they’re getting is don’t sell. Well, why? Probably because somebody is making some coin off of the investments that they’re choosing them not to sell, because if somebody would have said to your dad, “I think you should take this portfolio I think they should take this portfolio, and we need to have a conversation about your risks, your goals, your dreams, your desires. We need to talk about long-term, middle term, mid goals of five years or less, and then short term, which is I’ve got to pay the rent tomorrow. “ Then you take that big chunk of that million dollars, that millionaire, million-dollar, blue-collar guy’s money, and we take it and put it into buckets. We’ve got a red bucket, a yellow bucket, and a green bucket. The red bucket is stuff that you’re willing to have at risk. And then there’s the intermediate buckets. And then there’s long-term buckets. So, the long story to that answer is you need to first meet with somebody who is going to have a conversation with you that’s going to be a lengthy conversation. I want to talk about your goals, your dreams, your desires. From that, we put your money in things that are suitable. Suitable is very, very, very important, because if that money is all in one stock, that’s not suitable for anybody at any age. It’s sad. It breaks my heart when I hear the horror stories of how people lost everything. Also, there’s just as many people that don’t want to hear it when you try to give them the advice. That’s what I’ve been able to do with my book, is take these stories, real-life stories, and the names are changed to protect the innocent, and create scenarios in the book that says, “Here’s what happened to these people. Here’s what happened to those people.” Ironically, it happens to talk about the scriptures that are involved that they could turn to for advice. It’s mind-blowing when you meld all that together.
Rob Kosberg:
Yeah, I love that. Now obviously, you’re a Christian and probably serve a great deal of Christians as well. Especially someone that would buy your book would have a desire for what God’s thoughts are, or what does the Bible say about money, about finances, et cetera. In that regard, what have you seen? What kind of benefit have you seen from the book serving that community, both in the way of people just reading your book and saying, “Wow, this helped me a ton,” as well as the actual new customers, new clients, et cetera, that are coming into your company because of the book?
Don Galade:
Well, it’s funny. The book started as a hobby, okay? I didn’t really expect it to go anywhere. We homeschooled. My wife homeschooled three children. I just bought the books. When she was on a mission trip one time in Africa, I was playing Mr. Mom, and God said, “I want you to write a book.” I was like, “Yeah, I’ve never read a book. You want me to write a book?” I’m kidding. So, I did, almost just kind of going through the motions. Then something happened, I learned that there are companies, companies that everybody has in their portfolio, that when you give them money to invest, they’re taking their profits, and they’re investing in things that you would think are not aligned with Christian values; abortion, human trafficking, some horrible, horrible things. When I found out that here, I am making a pro-life film and doing Christian music and doing all this great stuff, and then I found out I’m giving people advice on XYZ stock and XYZ mutual fund and that company is funding Planned Parenthood, it blew my mind. I thought, “Well, there’s got to be a way.” Well, then I found out that there’s actually a concept called Biblical Responsible Investing. If they go to my website or any of the websites from the great companies that I represent that do this type of stuff, there’s a little quiz. You could type in what you’ve got, and it’ll tell you on a scale from zero to a hundred what this company’s about. So, you can find out what your portfolio invests in with their money. Legislation literally just passed minutes ago that blew my mind with abortion, and people are going to be up in arms, and it’s going to be the talking points of all of the news tonight. Yet we can eliminate, we can defund some of these groups with our own 401ks, and people aren’t aware of it.
Rob Kosberg:
If I’m understanding correctly, on your website, somebody can type in a mutual fund that they are holding or investing in, and it will show on some type of scale if this is maybe aligned with their values. Is that accurate?
Don Galade:
That is accurate. One of the organizations I do work with is called Inspire, and Inspire has this really, really neat tool. Let’s just say company XYZ, and a zero is neutral, and it goes from zero to negative 100 and zero to positive 100. Let’s just say that there is a fast-food restaurant, a very popular fast-food restaurant that has a negative score. There’s another fast-food restaurant that has a positive score. The difference is what they choose to do with their funds, what their mission statement is. It’s pretty interesting. So, you could say, “Hey, I can get a similar return off of this stock as I did on that stock. Why would I want to not just maybe change that?” Now, of course, it is not investment advice and all of the disclosures involved, that we’re just having a conversation about what ifs, but when people would sit across the table, some people are very, very, very concerned about that, and some people aren’t. For that, we can talk about the book you’re going to help me with next that I’ve already written called, Five Steps. That’s the secular version of what I do.
Rob Kosberg:
People that are listening to this podcast or watching this YouTube video have their own beliefs and convictions. However, if you have a Christian belief or a Christian belief system, it would seem to me that it would behoove you to figure out what you’re actually investing in. Obviously, having those kinds of tools at your fingertips so you know, “Okay, I prefer to invest my money and get a return on investment, but to invest my money for a return in things that are aligned with my values,” of course, that makes perfect sense. I love that. It’s funny. I’ve never heard anybody talk about that before, so that’s really good.
Don Galade:
The bottom line is, at the end of the day, people just want to be with somebody they trust. People just want to talk to somebody who’s not going to give them this big, long lecture of why they need to do. It’s like, “Make me money. Do your best to keep me from losing money, and along the way, let’s talk about estate planning and taxes and life insurance and wills and how to title my house and all that other stuff and tie it all together.” Sometimes when you get into that Christian line of thinking, sometimes there’s some, “Hey, man, I got this problem,” and they just want somebody to vent to, and that’s cool.
Rob Kosberg:
Let’s shift gears a little. I love what you’ve shared. I know you’ve used your book to grow your business and that your book has done some interesting things. Maybe you could share a little bit about that. You obviously wrote your book to help people, but your book also helps you grow your business, grow your authority, et cetera. Talk to me a little bit about how your book has helped you to do those things.
Don Galade:
First of all, I wrote it 10 years ago. The first one I wrote 10 years, and I’ve tried some other organizations. I got your email, and then I was like, “Okay, here we go. This guy is different. There’s something different about this guy.” I figured, “All right, let me give it a shot.” Long story short is, you’ve got people that just really, really held my hand through this process. I didn’t become a best-selling author; I became an international best-selling author in one day. There was like nine different countries and more than just one category within each one. It was just crazy. So, I’m like, “All right, I’ve got to market this right away.” I’m doing the YouTubes, and the podcasts, and all of that stuff. People, existing clients said, “Hey, man, this is awesome.” I had some existing clients that didn’t know about the whole God part of the business saying, “Well, I didn’t know you did that.” By the grace of God, the phone rings. After this story broke, the next day, I had a TV show where they called me. They re-ran the program 70 times over the next three weeks in different spots, different times, in three different markets. A newspaper did an article, and I did a radio show on a Christian radio program.
Rob Kosberg:
All from the launch of your book?
Don Galade:
Me telling the story of what happened in one day. I did all three of those events in one day, and then that all happened the next day, where all three of those things hitting simultaneously. I cannot make this up. Obviously, when you tell people that you want to help them do stuff with their money in a Christian way, they are like, “Yeah, okay, here we go.” It was awesome, the referrals, the phone ringing, the emails. I’ve ordered books a couple of times to send out, and I’m just directing people to the Amazon links, and I’ve put the Amazon links right onto the website, and it’s just great. It just totally changed everything. Well, I thank you, but your folks did it. Your secret sauce works, man. It’s just really awesome.
Rob Kosberg:
Thank you, Don. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. I mean, you’re the one that wrote the book. These are your ideas, and you’re the one that has to do the media, and so congratulations. I mean, so happy to hear that things are booming because of it. Maybe a suggestion as well. You have a lot of clients, and you even mentioned that some of your clients don’t know the full story. Something that I would highly recommend, and we recommend to our clients is set up a referral strategy using your books. Like, get every one of your clients two to three copies of your book and send them a nice letter, letting them know that this is a gift and what happened with the book. Tell your story in the letter and say, “Maybe you know, we’ve had a number of clients who have requested books and for others. So, we thought we would just get this out to you because maybe you know somebody that this would be helpful for.” To do something like that will make a huge impact. Now, look, it’ll cost a little bit of money, but to print the book is only about $3, and then to mail it a couple of dollars more. So even if you sent three books out, you’re only talking about 10, 11, 12 bucks per person. And yes, if you did that with a thousand people, that’s $12,000, but if you did it with just 400 or 500 people, you’re going to put your book in 1,500 people’s hands. The phone is going to ring off the hook. It’s going to make a big difference. Anyway, just a thought. I don’t normally do that on podcasts, but you had mentioned about the things that are coming in. One thing we always want to do is have a proactive response. Reactive is like this is coming to me, but that eventually stops.
Don Galade:
I actually started the third book. It’s basically called, Nonprofit, but profit is spelled differently, and the subtitle is, Who Woke the Church.
Rob Kosberg:
That’s awesome. Well, Don, let’s do this. Let’s give them some links. I’d like to give them a link. Obviously, they can search your book based on the title in Amazon, but let’s give them a link to check that Inspire group and any other links that you think would be helpful.
Don Galade:
Well, if they go to my main website, gfsadvisors.com, that gives them everything. In there, there’ll be a tag across the top that says BRI, Biblically Responsible Investing, and that leads them all down this path. The book itself, if they go into InTheDollarWeWorship.com, that has the bio of the book, and it shoots them right to the Amazon links. I developed a speaker’s page because people are asking me to come speak. That’s just simply DonGalade.com. And some people say, “Hey, tell me about this Christian movie you made and these Christian songs.” And well, that’s under DonnyGalade.
Rob Kosberg:
Nice. Nice. Don, again, thanks for being on the podcast. Congratulations on all the cool things that are happening with your book, my friend.
Don Galade:
Great. Thank you so much for your help.
Rob Kosberg:
Thank you.
Don Galade:
I appreciate your help. All right, man.
