As a financial advisor, my primary goal is to help clients navigate through uncertain times like this by making investment recommendations, provide budgeting advice, and planning for more of the unexpected.

Paying for something that you can do yourself might bring about the question: “Do I really need this?”. In today’s world where you can “YouTube” just about anything, someone who is looking to save money might cut out the personal trainer or gym membership and opt to throw Richard Simmons on the Smart TV to get a quick workout in before work.

Over the past few months, every time I turn on the TV it seems the stock market is in the red for the day. A lot has been written about how to tread water in “volatile” market conditions, including what trade orders to use, which charts to read and what stocks to buy, but none of it tells me how to continue to build wealth in such an environment. As a financial planner at All-Pro Advisors, it is important that I continue to provide value to my clients during times when their investment portfolio isn’t generating a positive return. Here are a few of those ideas:

“Defense wins championships” is a common phrase used in the sports world. While high-powered offenses are “flashy” and can certainly carry teams to success, oftentimes the teams with the most stout, consistent, and opportunistic defenses reach championship levels. As I was reading the book, The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas J. Stanley, I found a lot of parallels to this sports truism and the world of personal finance.

After the financial foundation has been set in the first five years after residency, there may be lifestyle adjustments to make for some. Now that your loans are paid off, you are saving adequately for retirement and you are properly insured, you might find yourself with some extra income and looking for answers as to what to do with it.

Doctors in today’s society face more financial hurdles than one may think. To start, most of these young professionals do not start earning a living wage until their 30s. After four years of undergrad, four years of medical school, and three to five years of residency, that’s over a decade of higher education to be completed before they start their first real job.

Now that the holidays are over, the gyms are packed, the New Year’s diet begins, and budgeting apps are plentiful to try and start the year off on the right foot. I took about 10 days off from the gym to give my body a rest and enjoy the holidays, which was filled with travel, poor but delicious eating, and a bunch of unnecessary spending on presents, beer exchanges, you name it. Like many others, I set a bunch of goals, got back on my routine, and hit the gym full force on January 1.

As a professional athlete, I am beyond blessed to be able to play a game and get paid for it. It is almost every kid’s dream to play in the pros, and, when you make it there, it doesn’t get old. Sure, there are days where it is tough to hobble down the stairs and get to your 7 am workout, but, all in all, the lifestyle is everything you think it would be.

During my past few off-seasons, I have made a point to add some educational value in my life by researching personal finance, taking masters courses, reading leadership books, and seeking ways to be more productive, valuable, and self fulfilling. Through all the books I have read, the most notable being “Linchpin”, “The 4 hour Work Week”, and “The Compound Effect”, I have come up with three themes that have helped reduce my stress levels, become more productive, and motivate me to wake up on most days with a positive outlook.

More and more "millennials" are beginning to buck the trend of the 9-5 (really 8-6) and starting to realize what it takes to "retire", a term also known as financial independence. Financial independence is when you no longer have to work to earn income to cover your living expenses. You might be asking, then how do you pay for your living expenses? The top three ways that come to my mind are: savings, passive income, and eliminating debt.