Fast Break: Your Why, Your Wallet, Your Future

Matt Cranney

Welcome back to Fast Break. I’m Matt Cranney, Executive Vice President of M3 Elevate and today we’re diving into a topic that’s both timely and timeless. Financial Wellness.

It’s Wisconsin saves month, and we’re taking this opportunity to explore how individuals and organizations can take meaningful steps towards financial security.

According to the Federal Reserve’s 2025 report on the economic well-being of US households, only 63% of adults say they could cover a $400.00 emergency expense using cash or its equivalent. That’s a sobering reminder of how fragile financial stability can be.

And in Oregon’s financial Wellness Accordingly, state leaders emphasized that financial stress remains one of the top contributors to workplace disengagement and absenteeism.

So what can we do about it? How can employers support their teams and how can individuals take control of their financial futures? To help us unpack this critical topic today, I’m joined by Nick Natzke, Wealth Advisor at M3 Insurance. Nick works closely with employer groups and individuals to build strategies that promote long term financial health.

Nick, welcome to Fast Break. This is a hugely important topic as we’ve covered kind of in our outline and I’m really glad you’re here today to share your wisdom and expertise with our audience. Nick, before we sort of dive into  a lot of the questions I have for you, maybe you could start us off with just sharing a little bit about your background and what you do in the field of financial Wellness.

01:35 Nick Natske

Yeah. Thanks, Matt.  What we do here at M3 in financial planning is make sure that individuals have that plan and strategy that encompasses that short term bucket of money. Short term goals, while they’re also saving for long term goals. So retirement, we spend a lot of time with clients really understanding their goals and objectives.

While providing the oversight to say, here is what I’m looking at and this is what I would do to utter your financial picture. So we’ve worked with offensive and defensive strategies because life does happen every once in a while as well, so we want to make sure that whether you know you’re here or not, that your hope streams, goals, aspirations.

02:20 Matt Cranney

For taking care of and that you have that strategy in place. It’s such important work and so first of all, thank you for doing it. Second, I am curious why do you think this is such a big conversation for individuals, for businesses, and we’ll break that down a little bit in a minute, but why is this such an important conversation now?

02:44 Nick Natske

Yeah. So you know a few things. So you know, think about this, Matt. I’m 45 years young. When I was, you know, 10, 12, I wanted to go and buy something or spend my money. I’d hop on my bicycle and ride over to the mall. Nowadays it’s I can sit in my living room quick and have her T-shirt delivered to my house in a day.

The point of sale in this country is drastically changed from, you know, twenty years ago. But then, you know, think about this too. Matt, if you were to walk down the sidewalk tonight and you asked the first ten people what’s in their 401K, I’m pretty sure you’re going to get ten  goofy looks.

And so the, the, the biggest piece of this is what I found in my experience, a lot of people don’t know, and a lot of people may even be afraid to ask. They don’t know who to go to. They listen to a podcast webcast. You know somebody on TV and there’s a lot of conflicting information. So I’ve heard some of those individuals on TV say everyone should have an XYZ account. And that’s a very blanket statement because that may not make sense based on that individual. So the biggest part of that is knowing where to go, making sure that you find the trusted individuals in this industry.

03:57 Matt Cranney

No, I love that. It’s a really interesting take on here. What the Amazon-ification of the world has done it from a financial perspective, right. There’s significantly less friction between the world and our dollars too. And I think that’s a really interesting pointing when you think about our phones, our mobile devices and how we can spend money now at the TAP and the convenience of money. One of the unintended consequences of that is how it impacts and affects our planned fullness and our ability to be, to save and to invest and to do all those sort of long term things.

So I love your call out to that for people just to be aware of that.  I think the other thing that I want to pull on a little bit is trying to find that trusted advisor having that trusted advisor.

Be the person that can help you find the signal and all the noise. The analogy that are coming into my head, the old sort of style TV’s, the black and white TV’s we had to turn the dial to find the channel. And how would the average person be able to find the right places and spaces to be and to find the right information for them.

Nick, I want to keep going on this. Obviously one of the things from an M3 perspective that we would say it’s true is we’re seeing more employers. Not employees, but employers step into this space of financial wellness and doing it under sort of that employee benefits conversations because a lot of their employees are dealing with and affected by financial pressures and stress and even just plans as they look to retire, or pay for college or all of those things.

So I’m curious from your advantage, what are some of the most effective ways you’ve seen organizations support financial wellness for their teams, and why does it matter that as employers they play a role at all?

05:54 Nick Natske

Yeah, great question. Living with intention, right, intentionally saying we want to make sure that we are taking care of our employees to the next level to say we want to make sure that they are financially healthy because we know the studies and the stats out there that that that those individuals end up actually working better, harder or less stressed, take less sick time. All of the benefits of having a healthy individual, they’re going to be happier at work, which means that you’re going to, you’re affecting corporate culture.

What I’ve noticed with employer groups that come out that strategy, right, that intention to say, we want to make this a point because it’s and it’s not a spend, it’s actually a save.

And in doing so, coming up with that strategy, right, the employer groups that have worked with that, that have come out with that intention, they will do a quarterly lunch and learn for their employees to talk just about how does health insurance and HSA work, how does your 401K work and how do the investments inside?

And we’ve noticed that those individuals at those companies, they’re more engaged, they have, they have a trusted resource now.

07:06 Matt Cranney

Yeah. And you think about what a business and a team is. You’ve got, if it’s five employees, 50 employees, 500 employees, you likely have five, 50, 500 people at all different places and spaces in their financial wellness, knowledge, experience.

But you know when you think about your employees as a collection of those experiences, and maybe I just said say not making assumptions about where people are at. So even with a basic level thing like, you know for us, we would say oh 401K that vehicle has been around forever, and people know what a 401K is and they know why it’s important and…maybe not.

Maybe our education with our newer employees needs to be here’s what a 401K actually is, what it does, why it’s important, and why you should contribute.

07:59 Nick Natzke

Right. And how much should you contribute, right, because you everyone, so I’ll run into somebody who doesn’t put anything in and then then they don’t get the company match.

Or they’re, they’re put in, you know, 2%. But the company matches up to four. So they’re giving up to 2% free money. I don’t know. Like, right having those conversations and then figuring out, OK, like, what do we need to save to get to retirement.

And to your point, me and you are not the same. . And my maybe my plan is to retire at 70 years is 65. That would drastically change a savings strategy.

08:32 Matt Cranney

Yeah, you know, maybe the first step for employers is to just not make assumptions. Yeah, I love what you said about to see financial wellness. Work not as a spend, but a save, correct?

And I love that intentionality and that mindset for our audience listening today to take that again, regardless of the size of our organization, to live into that because it’s a critical topic. And as we’ve just talked about, people are all over the map in terms of where they’re coming to us from the width.

So obviously the first sort of call to action, is be intentional. What are some, or are there other really practical things you’ve seen great employer groups do that maybe are creative or sort of beyond the, you know, quote UN quote traditional pieces of a, you know, a 401K or maybe a webinar. Is there anything else that you’re seeing and your work out there with employers?

09:26 Nick Natske

They’re coming up with their strategy and they’re doing a multi-tiered approach. You know, making sure that that messaging is sent out and you know to be fair like having some charisma about it, being excited about it.  Hey, we’ve got this awesome thing and maybe even tying it back into, hey, if you do, you know we’ve got these 10 things. If you do five of these, we’ll give you 1/2 day of PTO or you know whatever it is. Because participation goes back to intentionality and start working to get that financial wellness maybe out of the red or yellow and into the green.

09:58 Matt Cranney

An employer listening and there’s something that you can do that we feel very confident would lead to less stressed, more engaged workforce. I think we don’t want to do it, and so this is I think in our moment in time right now, never more important as we look to server rollers, educators for our employee base in this space, because we know the save isn’t just practical save long term it’s, it’s the investment in helping our companies continue to move forward and grow and be successful.

So Nick, that’s great. Let’s pivot a little now in my house at home with my kids that we talk about choose your hard, a lot. And you know, we talk about being financially disciplined is hard. Being in a really bad spot financially is also hard, so choose. Just choose which hard you would like because you have to choose and the choice maybe for our employers and clients who are listening is this is a games financial wellness area is a game that offer great reward.

It’s for those who can engage in the right way.

You know, when we talk about purpose of organizations, I think that’s one of our purposes is to make the lives of our employees better. And ao what a great way to do that. So let’s talk about those people as individuals now, Nick. So we’ve talked about the role of the employer and what they can do. So if you’re listening as a you know CFO, Chief Human Resource officer.

So little per nerves taking, you know, thinking about adding a couple of employees, great, but now let’s talk about, everyone as an individual, regardless of role as people listening to this, it’s currently Wisconsin saves month, a month to put the spotlight on financial health.

So for someone who is just starting to think seriously about their financial health, what would you say? How would you coach that person who’s just about to begin their financial Wellness journey?

11:56 Nick Natske

I would start with understanding your balance sheet. I’m not talking about sit down for the next four hours and start pulling receipts out. You know, really going through it, but just understanding what cash flow is and understanding how your mind works. And then secondly, living with intention and coming out with your strategy to make sure that you have on the short term that three to six you know, month bucket of money on the short end for safety.

Making sure that you’re saving long term for 401K retirement and then also setting up an account that’s accessible that if life happens over you know on one side of the column where that that midterm bucket that can then go over to refill the short term and maybe it’s even getting out of debt.

You have to figure out what your finances look like, and then come up with your plan and strategy. Work to pay off those high interest credit cards and you have to come up with a strategy to do that. And there are a variety of them. Say have you thought about XY and Z to get this done? Come up with the plan and strategy. Build that savings and then you know on my end we’re helping, coaching those individuals to make sure that we’re on track and just knowing that there are so many resources out there available.

And I promise you, once you do, your stress level will go down. You will likely start sleeping better. You’ll start. Just have a completely different outlook and take on like.

13:26 Matt Cranney

Yeah, Nick, so much wisdom there. And I wanted just to reinforce for our audience a couple of things that you said. I think the first one is how can you have a plan for your dollars, a lot of the financial wellness material that I consume in my life is really around, simple is not easy.

So much of the pieces of our financial wellness are not, and look, there are definitely things that are complicated to understand, Roth, you know 401K, all of those things. There’s complicated topics, however, the concepts and the principles, maybe I’ll use that word that underpin our healthy financial wellness, feel simple.

Have a plan for your dollars, don’t spend dollars you don’t have, pay down debt. Live with as much financial freedom as your situation allows, and so how can you know we  take that and turn it practical and what you said for us was first, first step is education, which I love in terms of why you know Simon Sinek. I’m a big fan. Talks always like start with. Why?

Why do you want to have great financial Wellness start there? Is it for your kids? Is it for your family? Is it for yourself? Is it all the above? It’s starting with that. Why? And then having a plan?

And I  love that even if it’s a simple one and we know we’ll touch on this before we close, there’s so many apps now and websites and resources, if that’s what people want to use. Great. But whatever it is, having a plan and a plan could be a piece of paper that lays out. Here’s my dollars and here’s how I’m planning for them.

15:05 Nick Natske

Even for the up and coming retiree Matt, there’s a lot of things to take into context and consideration. Because when I meet with the, you know, 55-60-65 year old, they’re looking at me in the eyes and ask me a question and I retire. Am I on track?

And so we have the tools, resources to say this is this based on your unique situation, this is what we should do. Here’s why what is Social Security look like to integrate all of those questions and be able to get what you want to do.

15:37 Matt Cranney

Maybe, one of the takeaways for audience is who is your coach? Maybe it’s a really educated, smart family member. Maybe it’s somebody like you, Nick, who does this for a living? Ultimately, whatever you’re at and whatever stage you’re in financially starting out, getting ready to retire, middle of the pack, having somebody in your corner that can help you build those kind of strategies, answer your questions is A is a huge thing.

And then obviously you touched on  discipline is my word. You know, building plans are great, executing plans is harder and better, right? And so how can we stay disciplined in order to get the things that we want in the long run? So, so I love that, Nick, thank you so much for jumping on with us and sharing all of your wisdom.

I’m not gonna let you go yet. I I wanna do our fastest break set of questions, if that’s OK. We’ll go rapid fire with these. Nick, you can give a quick off the top of your head response.

And then and then we’ll wrap up, sound good?  OK, Nick, favorite book that you’ve read in the last twelve months.

16:45 Nick Natske

So I do a lot of in in in in reflection on my on myself. So favorite book is by Mel Robbins, the “Let Them Theory”

16:54 Matt Cranney

Great book. Loved it. Love that one. Complete the sentence for you leadership is.

00:16:59

It is one’s ability to guide give guidance.

17:04 Matt Cranney

Yes. I love it. The most impactful piece of professional advice that you’ve ever received.

17:08 Nick Natske

Ohh boy, we could be here all day for that one. So I had some. I had some pretty cool mentors growing up in this industry, you know, thankful for them and one that sticks out is successful people are the ones who are willing to do what the unsuccessful people are. And not and that stuck with me throughout my whole career.

17:29 Matt Cranney

I love it, mate. Your favorite podcast that you would recommend to our audience.

17:33 Nick Natske

So I listened to, I listened to Mel Robbins. I listen to Jay Shetty. I’m very curious about life, , learnings. Sorry, they’re not like a financial theme, but they’re right there, so.

17:48 Matt Cranney

I love it. You can’t live without it app on your phone.

17:51 Nick Natske

For sure my the either the telephone app or the texting app because I’m always communicating.

17:57 Matt Cranney

Love it. Last thing you did that truly scared you.

17:58 Nick Natske

So, I’m a I’m a father of a of a 7 year old. I I took him out last winter to Vail, Colorado as a six year old, strapped a pair of skis on them and helped guide him down the mountain. So that was that was probably the scariest thing for me is watching him do that. But it was, you know, rewarding feeling to watch that.

18:20 Matt Cranney

For sure. As a dad of three ski racers, I  can emphasize. OK. If you were to give a Ted talk, what would be its title?

18:28 Nick Natske

The title of my Ted talk would be do the right thing, live on intentionality, and plan for the future, but also enjoy them all.

18:36 Matt Cranney

That’s great, Nick. I’m gonna do something a little bit different here than we usually do on fast break, but I wanted to make sure the last thing that we talked about was maybe just one or two resources or things that you’ve come to rely on or trust or recommend that would help people in their financial wellness journey.

18:57  Nick Natske

Yeah. So I would say, you know, #1 find a trusted advisor and somebody who works in this industry to finding another trusted source of information. There is a lot of information out there. So we have the Financial Fitness series here at M3, which encompasses a lot of those categories, gives you the ability to really learn and understand some of those assets, and what we talked about HSAs, 401K’s investments, you know all those, Lots of things.

 And then again, just going back to the basics budget, understand what your cash flow is and working capital and then devising the strategy and you know around that.

19:31 Matt Cranney

Nick, let’s let that be our closer. Thank you so much for being with us and for having this conversation and this needed and critical conversation. Nick, for people who’ve listened and they’d love to connect with you or connect with our Financial Fitness series. Can you share with our audience where they can find out more about that and the best way to get connected?

19:53 Nick Natske

Yeah, for sure. They can reach out either on the M3 insurance website, under the financial services sector, there are links of those financial Fitness series. We also run a retirement red zone map. We do that the first Tuesday every other month.

Those are free. There’s no solicitation. It gives a high level overview on some of the more elementary and advanced planning.

20:16 Matt Cranney

Love it. So audience, you know what to do. Connect with Nick. Engage with our resources, build your plan, educate yourself, be disciplined and get a resource like a trusted coach, like someone like a nick to help you along in your journey. So Nick, thank you so much for joining us today for sharing your insights around all things financial Wellness. We truly appreciate it.

20:37 Nick Natske

Yeah. Thanks, Matt. Thanks for having me, it was a blast.

This has been Fast Break brought to you by M3 Elevate. I’m Matt Cranney, thank you for joining me. Do you want more tips to grow protect your business? Subscribe now and catch all of our episodes and we’ll see you next time.