Episode 10

Creating Your Financial Roadmap: How Values-Based Planning Transforms Wealth Decisions

What if your financial plan started with your values instead of your money? In this insightful episode, David Murdoch reveals Paxton Bridge's unique framework for creating personalized financial roadmaps. Learn how identifying your top five values creates a foundation for meaningful financial decisions, why visual planning tools help clients gain clarity, and how to balance long-term goals with unexpected opportunities. David shares practical examples of how this values-first approach transforms traditional financial planning into a roadmap for a well-lived life. Whether you're planning your next chapter or seeking greater purpose in your financial decisions, this episode provides a fresh perspective on aligning your wealth with what truly matters to you.


You can get in contact with David Murdoch on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsmurdoch/

Or you can reach out to Paxton Bridge

https://www.linkedin.com/company/paxton-bridge/

https://paxtonbridge.com/

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This podcast has been produced by: https://podcastsdoneforyou.online

Transcript
Anthony Perl:

Creating your financial roadmap, how values-based planning

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transforms wealth decisions.

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Welcome to Activate Your Wealth.

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In this episode, David Murdoch, the

principal advisor at Paxton Bridge and

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the pioneer of Wealth activism, talks

about creating a personalized financial

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roadmap based on your core values,

you'll learn how identifying your top

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five values, guides financial decisions.

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Why visual planning tools create

clarity and how to balance long-term

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goals with unexpected opportunities.

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I'm your co-host Anthony Pearl, and

whether you're a successful business

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owner, executive, or family seeking

to align your wealth with your values,

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it's time to activate your wealth.

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David, let me ask you about.

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Creating a, uh, roadmap for your future

because how do you go about starting that

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process and getting people to think about

that whole concept in the first place?

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David Murdoch: Look, we to engage

when we start engaging with people.

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We had this process called a framework

discussion, so part of this framework

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discussion gives us this capacity

to understand the individuals and

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as a couple, their top five values.

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So we have a deck of cards that

we use of values, and we ask each

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partner to pick their top five.

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Generally, you know, there'll be

alignment between sort of two and on.

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Occasionally we've had some

with five, but usually between

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two and three, sometimes four.

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And we say, well, but we ask

the questions around this.

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It's sort of the two key questions

is why did you pick that card

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and what does that mean to you?

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Now they're articulating this to

their spouse in the same conversation.

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We are recording this discussion.

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'cause we want to use the words that

they're using and then we bring those

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top five values together to make it for

the couple, this is the foundation that

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we, we will be making some decisions on.

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So once we've got that, they're like,

okay, that's, you know, interesting.

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How do we cover that?

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Then we start to open the questions

up into a whole range of different

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other areas of, you know, what

does success look like to you?

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What does winning look like?

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What's your ideal holiday?

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If we were to sit here in three years

time, what would you like to have, have

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happened personally and professionally

for those years to be a success?

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Do you need to do

anything for your parents?

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Do you need to do anything for

your kids, for, for your community?

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Like there's a really broad range of

questions and there's no requirement from

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either side from that conversation we

put together through our life snapshot.

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But what we also do is do a

visual of a certainty pathway.

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So the certainty pathway gives us

this ability to visually represent

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two six month blocks in the next

couple of years that we look at.

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So we are wanting people to think through

this, and we do that on an annual basis.

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And what it does is it gives us

a capacity rather than it's being

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minute to the detail that says, oh,

we are gonna buy this particular

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investment or that investment.

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It's much higher level, it's sort of

development of investment portfolio.

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Develop a property portfolio,

do this for the kids.

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Go on this particular holiday,

start a new business, sell a bus

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general, and there's a whole range

of things that we fit in there.

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So that helps us and helps the

client understand visually what

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their sort of roadmap looks like.

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And sometimes we'll come to a to

intersection and we're not sure

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whether we go right or left, or should

we be actually reversing it back.

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I mean, life is a, is a one way street.

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So you, you've always gotta keep

moving forward, but you always

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come to a particular point that.

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Sometimes you'll take a couple of steps

back, other times where you get to a point

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you think, oh, actually I, I'd like to

keep going further forward on that because

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I've got to a stage that I've thought,

or I'd like to turn right or left.

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Like it's, and so having this and having

this as a document to discuss gives

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them that roadmap and a level of comfort

that we are moving them in the direction

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that, and we are here to support.

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We are here.

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We really wanna work in

alignment with the client.

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It's like that image.

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There's a photo, and I can't remember

where it's from, but it's the footprints

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on the beach and it's like, yeah, but

there's a point where we are carrying you.

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That's why there's only two sets of

footprints because we're helping you.

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But then there'll be other times that

we, we will all be walking together,

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so there'll be six sets of footprints.

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Do you know what I mean?

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And so part of it is there's times where

we will push and other times, well,

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God and other times, we're not always

gonna say yes to what they wanna do.

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We go, no, I don't agree with that Now.

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That I think is important for us to

be able to do that to people because

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sometimes there's an element of not

blindness, but you sometimes you get

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so fixated on, but I wanna do this.

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I'm like, yeah, I know.

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But you do understand the implications.

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But also that goes back to anchoring

to the values that we've discussed.

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Your five ankles, that your, the five

values that you confirm to us, we

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are aligning your decisions and your

roadmap based upon those five values.

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If you wanna swap out or don't align

to one of those values, that's okay.

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But that's what we're basing

our decisions and guidance upon.

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So it's, yeah, the roadmap is,

it's just really important.

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Rather than it just being a lot of words

on a page, I find visually it works really

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well and it's just an a four sheet of

paper and it just helps people sort of go.

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Yep.

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And even when we reflect.

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On a review on the previous year,

you can go tick, tick, tick.

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Yeah, we did that.

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We did that.

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Oh no, we didn't get to that.

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But we know why it's been, you know, we

just might kick that can down the road a

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little bit for a whole range of reasons.

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Something cropped up or we spent more time

on something that I hadn't anticipated.

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So yeah, it's just a

visual way to deal with it.

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Anthony Perl: Yeah.

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And that visual tool, I imagine is

a bit of a game changer for a lot

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of people because they'd probably

come to you initially going, well,

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where should we put our money?

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And, you know, and should we invest

in chairs or should we invest in a

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property that, that's sort of, I, I

imagine that's where the starting point

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is in terms of their thinking and, and

what you're giving them is a completely

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different way of going about it.

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Yeah.

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Because what you want,

it's not, like I said,

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David Murdoch: there's a lot

of the tasks that be said.

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It's not all about the money that

helps and it gives you choices, but

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you, there's a balance between Yeah.

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But what is it that you wanna do?

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Well, what do you mean?

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Okay, well you, you're working

and well, you've got a business

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and do you wanna keep it?

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Do you wanna sell it?

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Do you wanna grow it?

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Like what, what is it that you want to do?

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And so sometimes part of this is

to give people the permission to

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actually articulate what that might be.

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And sometimes they've been so busy

'cause, but I mean, everyone gets busy.

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And this is a point, like

again, I'm 24 hours in the dhi.

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Some people utilize that time very well.

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O other people, they

seem to just flip a flop.

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And you know, time just seems to.

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You know, sift through their fingers.

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Like for some people, money

just runs through their fingers.

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They can't say to hang onto it.

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So part of this is just we wanna be clear

on the direction that they want to go

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in and what their key objectives are.

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The investment strategy then is there

to underpin what that decision might be.

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Again, part of it might be, no, I

need to grow my capital for a reason.

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So for instance, you may wanna grow

the capital to purchase a piece of real

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estate, so, right, okay, we do that.

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Another person might go, no, no,

I'm comfortable with my asset

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pool that I have available.

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I just want to have that because I

want to spend the next five years

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traveling or, um, distributing

cash to each of my children or

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grandchildren, or I need to support

a parent, so I need more cash flow.

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That's what they've said

is important to them.

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Two different, two different

investment strategies.

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So rather than coming to us and

I wanna invest my money, can

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you help me invest my money?

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We need to understand what is

it that you want the investments

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for, when and for how long?

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And that then underpins what we would do.

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And that's why it's important to

really be clear and get people to

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talk around one, the issue around what

was money like growing up for them.

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'cause that sets a lot of their mindset.

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It's like, oh, I wasn't like that.

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And like, yeah, I know, but your

behavior is the same as what it

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was when you were growing up.

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We can change part of that,

but also we'd love to do this.

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I've never said this to anyone, but

I'd love to do, I don't know, walk the

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Camino Trail or I don't know anything.

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Like there's some event where they

just think, I've never really given

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myself the permission to do that.

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And we're like, so if it takes

us two years and not three

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years, or can we do it in a year?

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Great, so, so how do we do that?

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But again, we change the investment

strategy to support what they're looking

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to try and achieve in that time period.

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The dev given us, and sometimes their

time period, it's like, Ooh, you're asking

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us to generate something that might be

a little bit too short a time period.

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We actually need to push it out

a little bit because that will be

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detrimental again, opportunity cost.

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What?

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What is it along the way?

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Anthony Perl: And I think then, you know,

the flip side of that is, is that, so

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you plan something longer term, whatever

longer term looks like, whether it's

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five, 10 years, whatever it might be.

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Yep.

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And then you have a short term desire.

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Something comes up, there's an

opportunity that comes up for

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whatever reason that you want.

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How do you shift that?

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How do you allow, how

do you allow for that?

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Tho those kinds of opportunities

in the planning for that, say.

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In the longer term saying, well, you

know, we need to put some aside because

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you never know what might happen in

terms of you get an opportunity to

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go and, you know, be part of a, you

know, say walk a trail or do something.

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Yep.

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How do you, how do you actually

deal with that in the, you know, as

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a long term plan, but also in the

short term when it just crops up?

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David Murdoch: Look, that

depends on the individual and

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their current circumstances.

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I mean, there's a few things you

could have, you could turn around and

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say, there's always an allocation of

X amount that goes into particular.

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You've got money that goes into super,

there's money that goes into your everyday

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living expenses, and then there might

be a holiday account as an example.

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Or you might have someone that pour

most of their money into their offset

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account, and so therefore they're

getting a guaranteed return on that

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interest rate, like it just is.

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So that might be in a position

that if all of a sudden that, you

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know, opportunity to do something.

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Is can be drawn from that.

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Okay.

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You, you take your money out

on an offset account and you're

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really trying to focus it being

to repay your non-deductible debt.

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Yeah.

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But that's okay because it's an

experience for you and it was

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something that was outta left field.

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Other people will, you know, reduce

where they may be putting some other

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proceeds along the way, but there's

always those sort of short term, oh,

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these quick opportunities come about.

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They don't always come about.

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Generally it might be something that

someone's talking about and it's

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12 to one eight months in advance.

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Oh, I was at a friend's place and they

were talking about it and we've kind

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of missed the 25 season for something,

but the 26 or 27 season is up and we've

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sort of said, which way will we work?

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Great, let's book it for 2027.

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So all of a sudden it's on

their, it's on their radar, and

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therefore we can deal with it.

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It's that there's always gonna be

those last minute ones that someone

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says, Anthony, we've got the call.

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Can you jump on a plane with us?

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You know, in two weeks

time to do this trip?

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Sometimes that will be, yeah, we

can't get access to the cash for you.

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Or, you know what, we're just gonna

have to sell some of the investments

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to give you that money because this

is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

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Again, that becomes a deit.

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So some people will go,

I'm not willing to do that.

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Okay.

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But if you do that, here are

the implications of that.

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But those implications could be amazing

because that opportunity to do that trip

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or that, that circumstance that arose,

it will probably never come up again.

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So that's a once in a lifetime.

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You just gotta grab that

and go, you know what?

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I forgo something else that, that,

that becomes their, you know, that's

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a personal choice rather than.

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You know, there's no perfect

solution for some of those things.

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And I just think those circumstances

when they come up, you gotta grab it and

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you've gotta be open to taking on some

of those opportunities because they will.

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And you know, there's

too many people that do.

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I mean, I don't know whether I've got

friends where all of a sudden, and I'm

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sure you've had it as well, where they've

done something and then bang, someone

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just drops dead on them like that.

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You go, wow, that was.

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Life is way too short for some people.

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And so again, I go back to the book

that talks about Die With Zero.

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It's getting that balance of enjoying

what you've done along the way

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and treating yourself to some life

experiences and what brings you joy.

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That might be a hobby, it might

be travel, it might be whatever.

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I don't care.

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But you know, like most things,

they generally cost money, but

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some is more expensive than others.

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So pick what you wanna do.

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Just run with it.

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'cause I don't think you'll ever

regret it if that opportunity came up.

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Yeah, okay.

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You might have cost you 30 grand.

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You go, yeah, what it was the

best experience I've ever had.

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I'll do it again.

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Great.

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But now if that becomes something

regular for them, that's where we would

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build that in and say, maybe we need

to build a little bit more of a buffer

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for you somewhere to enable these

short term opportunities to come up.

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Let's allocate some that becomes your.

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Emergency fund money account.

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Great.

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Okay.

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That can still be an investment,

but there's a, might be a

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different way that we deal with it.

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Anthony Perl: Yeah.

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It's, it's that, it's that old thing

of you don't know what you don't know.

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Absolutely.

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'cause when an opportunity comes up, you

can look at it and say, well, it's an

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opportunity to do this, but you don't

really know how good it's going to be.

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I know you had that happen to me

probably about six, seven years ago

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now, and uh, I had this opportunity

to go on a particular trip.

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And you know, a couple of

people had been before me and

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said it was good, but oh yeah.

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Is it gonna be that good?

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Completely life changing.

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Do not regret a scent

that I spent on that trip.

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And the interesting thing about that

trip, you talk about, you know, because

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people might just, you don't know

where people might be in the future.

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Well, one of those people that went

on that trip with me that I didn't

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know before I went away, he went on

that trip because a couple of years

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beforehand, he'd had a motorcycle

accident, was in a coma, and they

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didn't think he would ever wake up.

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Wow.

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And here he is.

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And so what a fascinating person

to meet on a job like that.

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Oh, AMA.

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Amazing, amazing person.

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And I'm still very much

in, in contact with him.

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And you know, I, and I didn't even fully

appreciate actually, till I got back how.

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Bad.

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It was like you kind of hear the story.

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Yep, yep.

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But then I heard it from other people

who were around him when it had actually

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happened and how serious it was.

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Yeah.

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Right.

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And you know, when you meet people like

that and when you have opportunities

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like that, do I regret a, I don't

regret a single moment from that trip.

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You know, I, I do it all again if I could.

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David Murdoch: And this is again, those

conversations where we start to people

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to articulate some of these things and.

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Sometimes they do the lap once and

then they go, oh, actually, now

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that you've said that, and I've gone

on this particular trip and it was

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amazing, or I, I joined some friends

on, on, I don't know, an event or a

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charity night or whatever it might be.

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And sometimes it's that reflection upon

rather than the anticipation of the,

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the event that you realize, you go,

wow, that was like, what an amazing.

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Period of time for me to do.

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I'd love to find something else that is

in that, or I've at least opened up my

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ideas because my life hasn't dramatically

changed post-event financially.

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I'm still doing what I'm doing.

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Okay.

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My, my investment account might be a

bit down than what I thought it might've

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been, but I wouldn't trade that.

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That was priceless.

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So therefore, when people start to

experience some of those things, and it's

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no different than anyone that's traveled.

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Very rarely have I heard someone

come back from a trip and

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they go, oh, that was awful.

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I didn't really like that.

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I mean, okay, you're gonna get some

events that are not as good as others,

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but jeepers, I don't, I don't regret

any time in my life that I've traveled.

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It was just amazing.

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You get to see, smell, hear, taste,

all these experiences you can't

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do via video or out of a book.

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Like it just, you can see a movie on it.

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Sometimes it's some moments.

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Absolutely.

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Sometimes

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Anthony Perl: it's the

moment, not the whole thing.

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I mean, you know, I'd even just maybe

reflect on the fact of when you and I

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last caught up face-to-face and we'd both

attended at the conference and Yep, yep.

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Neither us particularly, were

necessarily looking forward

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up to the conference itself.

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But the best, honestly, the

best part about that conference

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was you and I went for lunch.

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And we had a great time having

a chat about camera B and that

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made it worthwhile, right?

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Because that, that those little

moments can make a huge difference.

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And I think that's important.

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But I just wanted to wrap up this part

of the discussion by just asking you

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about, you know, checking in as well

along the way, because it's all very

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well to have the roadmap, but I imagine

that there is, has to be a regular

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check-in, in order to see if that

roadmap itself needs adjusting, not just

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because of short term opportunities, but.

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Life changes.

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David Murdoch: Yeah, look,

we're always checking.

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I mean, generally most client, depending

on the extent of the engagement

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process, but predominantly it would

be quarterly throughout a year.

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That would be, generally the

teams are a face-to-face meeting.

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Sometimes it's more often

depending on what it is.

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But generally we try and do quarterly,

but also we try and encourage if

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circumstances do change to reach out.

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To us and the importance of doing

the annual renewal process is to

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reflect upon our certainty pathway

and that roadmap to say how are we

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progressing and have we done that?

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Now, there will be occasions

where clients like, yep, I know

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most of the stuff sits with me.

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I haven't provided the information to.

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You all are, we've made

really good progress.

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Looking forward to the next 12 months.

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Some people go, I'm just not getting

the return on that investment

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that I'm doing because I'm not

doing stuff, or I just don't feel

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that we're getting in the right.

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So to me it's that return every 12 months

minimum to review upon what it is that we

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need to do and have circumstances changed.

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And unfortunately, for certain people,

circumstances can change very quickly.

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And when they were least expected,

you know, they've either lost a job

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or the business has not performed

or the business has taken off.

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So they've, you know, they've

been completely under the pump.

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There's been.

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An illness or a death in the family,

there could be an inheritance

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that they hadn't anticip.

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Like there's a whole range of scenarios.

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There's a child that might

have gone off the rails.

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There's a child that might be doing

exceptionally well that are starting

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a business and want some capital.

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Do you know what I mean?

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And sometimes you just don't know

some of their stuff because they

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get under the, under the pump.

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But generally we try and

keep in contact with clients.

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It's a very personal, um, engagement and.

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You know, you do your best, but it's

pretty rare that we wouldn't talk to a

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client consistently throughout a year.

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Like it's, to me, that's just

not what we, we try and do.

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We always try and keep in contact.

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Anthony Perl: I think the message out

there to people listening in, of course,

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who is to keep in contact as well.

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I think it's a two street, isn't it?

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It's, it's one thing that you can reach

out, but it's another thing that you

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know that people have to feel comfortable

reaching out towards you as well.

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David Murdoch: Especially if

circumstances have changed, because

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that does make a difference.

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Like it's really important

for people to understand.

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Sometimes some circumstances

can be really positive.

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All of a sudden it's like, wow, if

something's happened that I hadn't,

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it's literally come outta left field.

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You know, aunt Mary's, you know,

which I wasn't expecting is actually,

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you know, I've inherited sematic.

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Great.

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What are we gonna do with it?

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Like, don't just.

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Don't be rashed with it.

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So part of it, and that's one aspect, but

also if your personal circumstances have

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changed, marriage, divorce, children, you

know, any of those things, let us help.

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Like, and if we don't have the answer,

we can hopefully try and provide some

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support to, to work out some way that

we can, because a lot of the information

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that we hold it, it has an implication

on, on a range of different decisions

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that people make, like we just do.

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It's a very personal connection.

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And you know, we've had some conversations

with people that they perhaps would not

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have had with other people and they're

quite open about it going, I haven't

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really discussed this with someone else,

but, but I need to talk to you about this.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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And that's why, again, very personal.

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It's got nothing to do with everyone else.

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And unless they choose to disclose

that to a third party, it's between the

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individuals and ourselves like that.

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And I take that a very, very

seriously in the trust component.

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What it is that we have, that we,

we receive a lot of information from

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people, and I have the privilege of

being able to have those conversations

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with people, to be honest.

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And so to me that's.

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Very, very important and that

trust component is always there.

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Anthony Perl: Thanks for tuning in

to the Activate Your Wealth Podcast.

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For more information about how to

get in contact with David Murdoch

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and the team at Paxton Bridge.

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To learn more about wealth activism,

take a look at the show notes.

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There's plenty of information there.

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Including details of the website and

all the social media channels to follow.

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David, this podcast has been

produced by podcast Done for You.

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I'm Anthony Pearl reminding you to

subscribe so you never miss an episode.

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About the Podcast

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Activate Your Wealth
with David Murdoch, the Wealth Activist®

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About your host

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David Murdoch

I am passionate about helping my clients activate their wealth. Success can’t be left to chance. At Paxton Bridge, we’ve developed Wealth Activism, a philosophy that establishes a firm foundation upon which we build personalised wealth activation plans for our clients. This foundation is under-pinned by three core pillars - money mindset, asset management and intergenerational wealth - which are critical in helping us bring people together as they transition to ‘more life, less work’.