What if everything you've been told about retirement planning is wrong? After 39 years on Wall Street, investor coach Ira Work is debunking the scary "$1-2 million retirement myth" and revealing why most people are approaching their financial future completely backwards.

In this eye-opening episode, Ira challenges the generic retirement targets that keep people up at night. Using the 4% rule as his foundation - where $1 million generates about $40,000 annually - he shows how to build retirement goals from your actual income needs, not arbitrary numbers. His approach? Start with purpose, understand why you work, then design a personalised portfolio and timeline.

In this episode, Ira outlines the behavioural traps that destroy investor returns, including how people consistently buy high and sell low due to recency and confirmation bias. He reveals why the average investor underperforms the S&P 500 by 3-4% annually and shares his shift from commission-driven product pushing to academic, risk-measured portfolio construction.

The conversation covers everything from proper diversification across asset classes to the importance of working with financial advisors who have your best interests at heart – not their own.

Ready to revolutionise your retirement planning? Listen to discover the truth about building sustainable wealth.

Key takeouts:

• The “you need $1–2M” headline is misleading — retirement is better framed around income needs and safe-withdrawal rules (e.g., 4%), not an arbitrary lump sum
• You can materially protect retirement goals by designing risk‑measured, diversified portfolios, rebalancing regularly, and dialling back equities as you near retirement, not by chasing returns
• Many advisors push commission‑driven products and market timing that hurt outcomes; fee‑based financial planning is a surprisingly more reliable path

What if the biggest obstacle to your success isn't your circumstances, but your mindset about them?

This week I speak with Jason Yarusi, who is a private fund manager of $283m of multifamily real estate, as he reveals the game-changing shift from external blame to internal accountability. Instead of using poor upbringing, bankruptcy, or job situations as excuses, Yarusi advocates for focusing on what you can control and influence.

Key takeaways:

- Transform your mornings to create a "day before your day" filled with meditation, exercise, and self-care

- Work strategically, not just hard - redirect your established work ethic toward activities that serve your vision

- Purpose isn't discovered through searching but through taking action and learning from each step

Jason's journey from chaotic lifestyle to intentional living and radical internal accountability demonstrates how, with the right mindset, people can realise their ambitions and live with purpose.

Ready to transform your mindset and take strategic action toward your goals? Listen to this powerful episode now.

Stuart Morris shares his wild entrepreneurial journey, which spans building a startup in Moldova that eventually went public on the NYSE, navigating near-bankruptcy during the 2008 crisis, avoiding homelessness, and some interesting encounters with the mafia in Eastern Europe.

Later, a side gig in funerals and weddings accidentally became the world's largest celebrant training program, which enabled Stuart to buy an 18th-century, 21-bedroom retreat in the Yorkshire Dales during lockdown, giving him the freedom he so desired.

Stuart challenges the Instagram-fueled "promised land" of entrepreneurship, advocating for building tangible businesses as stepping stones to the life you want, demonstrating that purpose trumps profit.