The Retirement Crisis Nobody Wants to Talk About
Wade Borth - Sage Wealth Strategy
Release Date: 01/21/2026
The Richest Man in Babylon Part 2: How to Take Control of Your Money and Build Financial Freedom
Wade Borth - Sage Wealth Strategy
Wade wraps up his review of The Richest Man in Babylon, covering chapters eight through the end. He pulls out lessons on taking responsibility for your circumstances, choosing a simple framework over more information or another product, and doing the work now so you're prepared when opportunity shows up. He closes with a reminder that you'll end up exactly where you're headed unless you change course. Key Takeaways Your circumstances don't decide who you become. Awareness, education, and action start with taking responsibility for your own choices. A product won't solve a mindset problem....
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The Richest Man in Babylon Part 1: Why Timeless Wealth Principles Still Work Today
Wade Borth - Sage Wealth Strategy
Wade opens a book study on The Richest Man in Babylon, a nearly hundred-year-old book his agency is reading together, and walks through the first half's core lessons on saving, protecting capital, and controlling your own banking function. He explains why high income rarely equals real financial control, why guarding against loss matters more than chasing returns, and how the ancient walls of Babylon still describe what it takes to build wealth that lasts. Key Takeaways Most people retain only about 5% of what they've earned over the last ten years, proof that high income alone doesn't build...
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This is a why I do what I do: The Farm Auction That Built My Mission
Wade Borth - Sage Wealth Strategy
Wade opens up about the real reason he's in the life insurance business: providing liquidity at the time of death, and every day before it. He traces that mission back to 1981, when his father died suddenly and a banker's advice to drop an "expensive" life insurance policy left the family with no death benefit and no liquidity. A farm auction, a sale bill a family friend recently rediscovered, and a mother who never had time to grieve are the backdrop for a conversation about why every family needs a real answer to one question: do I have enough death benefit? Key Takeaways A banker...
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200 Episodes In: The Money Lessons, Growth, and What Comes Next (With Mike Brevik
Wade Borth - Sage Wealth Strategy
Wade Borth marks the 200th episode of the podcast by bringing on Mike Brevik of Cyberdogz Marketing, the guest who first pushed him to hit record. Together they look back at what actually changed since episode one and look ahead to the next 100 episodes, where liquidity, preparedness, and adapting fast take center stage. Key Takeaways Stop waiting for the perfect version of anything. The episodes, and the decisions, you're most tempted to redo are often the ones that connect the most. Build consistency before you build an audience. Showing up week after week is what earns people's...
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The 4% Rule Is a Guess: Withdrawal Rates, the 401(k), and Becoming Your Own Fiduciary
Wade Borth - Sage Wealth Strategy
Executive Summary An article pitting Bill Bengen's revised 4.7% withdrawal rate against Suze Orman's 3% rule sent Wade Borth down a different road this episode. Rather than picking a side, he asks why anyone would build a retirement plan on a rule that only claims a 90% chance of success. His answer starts with rejecting scarcity thinking and becoming your own fiduciary. Key Takeaways Bill Bengen's updated 4.7% rule and Suze Orman's 3% rule are both opinions, not guarantees, and neither promises a 100% positive outcome. Withdrawal rate rules ask how little you can spend without running out...
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Replace the Banker With Yourself: Rethinking Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrant
Wade Borth - Sage Wealth Strategy
Executive Summary Wade Borth revisits Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrants and picks up a thread the book never finishes: every quadrant, employee, self-employed, business owner, or investor, still depends on a bank. Wade argues the real shift isn't earning more new money, it's taking permanent control of the old money already flowing through your life. He lays out how a properly structured whole life policy lets you step into the banking function yourself. Key Takeaways Every side of Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrant, employee, self-employed, business owner, or investor, still runs...
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Why You Need a Destination Before You Can Build Generational Wealth
Wade Borth - Sage Wealth Strategy
Summary Recorded from the lake, Wade Borth uses a fishing analogy to talk about goal-setting and purpose: you won't catch fish by dropping the boat in the water and drifting, you have to start the motor and steer toward a specific spot. The same is true for financial and professional success. Wade explains why so many agents and clients have never been asked to define success, encourages listeners to set specific, time-bound goals, and reminds them the path will shift along the way. He frames his own role as a "problem identifier" who empowers people once they know what they're aiming for, and...
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Is Your Money Sheltered or Exposed to the Weather?
Wade Borth - Sage Wealth Strategy
Summary Wade Borth is recording from the lake this week, and it gets him thinking about purpose, patience, and where people store their money. He shares a story about fishing with his son Josh and compares the pressure to fish once you’ve made the trip to the pressure people feel to invest cash the moment it’s sitting in a bank account. Wade introduces the “boat lift” analogy: money in a properly funded whole life policy is sheltered, growing, and protected, so you’re never forced to deploy it before the timing is right. He walks through the guaranteed death benefit, tax advantages,...
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The Fifth Quadrant: How Providing Liquidity Puts You in Control of the Money Game
Wade Borth - Sage Wealth Strategy
SUMMARY Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrant maps out four types of people in the money game: employees, self-employed workers, business owners, and investors. It's a powerful framework, but Wade Borth argues it's missing one critical player: the banker. In this episode, Wade breaks down who actually controls the money game. No matter which quadrant someone occupies, they all need access to liquidity. The person providing that liquidity, whether it's Wells Fargo or a private individual with a pool of capital, holds the real power. Wade explains how anyone can begin building their own banking...
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Inaction Has a Price: The Sequence and Habits Separating Wealth Builders from Everyone Else
Wade Borth - Sage Wealth Strategy
Summary Wade Borth takes listeners inside a recent Tough Money live event, using real data to show what financial life actually looks like for a top 10% household earning $150,000 per year. The numbers may surprise you, starting with the size of the average family's liquidity bucket. The episode builds to a direct challenge: if you are already aware of the problem, if you have been educated on solutions, what is holding you back from taking action? Wade argues that inaction is not neutral. It carries a real cost, one that your family, your business, and your legacy will ultimately pay. Key...
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In this episode, Wade breaks down the numbers behind America’s growing retirement crisis and why so many families struggle to build meaningful retirement accounts. Instead of simply blaming market volatility or lack of discipline, he explores deeper causes—from generational inheritance expectations to the hesitation younger savers have about locking money away for 30+ years in traditional tax-qualified plans. Wade also challenges the conventional definition of “retirement,” arguing that true financial freedom comes from passive income, control, and liquidity—not hitting a magic age. He outlines alternative strategies for building long-term certainty, including using properly structured whole life insurance as a savings environment, a legacy transfer tool, and a way to maintain financial privacy and control. If you’re rethinking what retirement should actually look like, this episode offers a refreshing framework and a more strategic path forward.
Episode Highlights
00:00:25 - Retirement crisis: Americans' shocking savings.
00:01:09 - Passive income vs. traditional retirement.
00:02:07 - Running towards fulfillment, not away from work.
00:03:35 - Strategic planning for inheritance and wealth transfer.
00:05:05 - Conversation on financial legacy with life insurance.
00:06:11 - Hesitation of younger generations to lock money away.
00:08:04 - Alternatives to traditional retirement savings vehicles.
00:09:05 - Scary statistics on Americans' retirement savings.
00:10:08 - Saving 10-30%: Importance and alternatives.
00:11:14 - Whole life insurance as a strategic financial tool.
Episode Resources
Keywords
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