Plan Wisely with Erik Garcia, Episode #54

In this episode of The Power Producers Podcast, David Carothers and co-host Kyle Houck interview Erik Garcia, CFP®, President of Garcia Financial Group and Owner of Garcia Insurance Services. Erik talks about managing investments, financial decisions, and budgeting. He also shares about his podcast shows, Building Us Podcast and the Plan Wisely Podcast.

Episode Highlights:

• David introduces Erik Garcia. (1:30)
• Erik shares that when he was in college at Tulane University, he began focusing on more of the financial side of things (7:01)
• Erik mentions that he completely left the insurance business in 2008 and went to the investment side. (7:45)
• Erik shares that when his brother moved back to New Orleans in 2010, that is when they started an independent agent agency. He worked on the business end and put the contacts in place, while his brother and current business partner Giovanni, were writing a lot of insurance. (8:16)
• Erik mentions that the heart and soul of what he does, are dedicated to investment management and financial planning. (9:27)
• Erik shares that the burden for him is on the property and casualty side, due to the high maintenance and high volume. (16:59)
• Erik explains that their agency is traditionally on personal lines. However, his business partner Giovanni has been grinding on the commercial lines lately. (17:21)
• Erik shares that a typical business owner is comfortable with what they know about their businesses. Therefore, they tend to have a high concentration investment in one business. (23:21)
• Erik mentions that most financial advisors are not getting involved in budgeting. (36:34)
• Erik shares that he did a podcast episode with Sarah Stanley Fallaw, daughter of Thomas Stanley, and the author of the book called The Next Millionaire Next Door: Enduring Strategies for Building Wealth. (37:47)
• Erik mentions the reason why people should do budgeting is because it is going to free them up, to do what they want to do. (42:02)
• Erik shares that he is a big believer in physically separating money for separate purposes. (43:31)
• Erik talks about his podcast entitled, Building Us Podcast. (50:57)

Tweetable Quotes:

• “I own an independent insurance agency because there was an opportunity, I’m really good at networking, I’m really good at building relationships, I’m really good at vision and strategy. And this was an opportunity that I knew I could have success in.” – Erik Garcia
• “I’m the type of person that if you put something on my plate to do then I have to make sure it gets done. Like, I can’t rest even if I delegate it to someone else because I feel responsible for it.” – Erik Garcia
• “Everyone’s level of comfort with risk is different, and that what makes someone comfortable with one risk, and someone less comfortable with another risk typically has to do with how much they know and understand about that risk. Right? You bet on yourself because you understand what you do better than anybody.” – Erik Garcia
• “Well, the reality is you don’t have to be big to be profitable. Be big if you like running an organization, be big if you like managing operations. But if all that stresses you out, it creates anxiety, you can be profitable and be small.” – Erik Garcia

Resources Mentioned:

• David Carothers LinkedIn
• Kyle Houck LinkedIn
• Florida Risk Partners
• The Extra 2 Minutes
• Erik Garcia LinkedIn
• Garcia Financial Group
• 5 Pillars of Financial Security
• Building Us Podcast
• The Plan Wisely Podcast Episode 10: Do you want to be the Next Millionaire Next Door? with Sarah Stanley Fallaw