Interview: Phillip Ramsey with Uncommon Wealth Partners

Show open from the Pathway Studios

The produced intro plays ("Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper") and a host opens the show live, welcoming listeners to the third show of the year.

Boova's absence and opening banter

The hosts joke that Boova is not coming because he is a working man, trade tax jokes, and riff on being under-assessed before turning to the night's guest.

Guest introduction: Philip Ramsey of Uncommon Wealth Partners

A host introduces guest Philip Ramsey of Uncommon Wealth Partners, framing the episode around start-of-the-year financial goals. He gives the listener line (515) 517-0085 and runs the running joke that the show is sponsored, unbeknownst to himself, by Bob Eisenlauer of the Eisenlauer real estate team.

Social media: the cesspool question

• If social media is a cesspool but the people are swimming in it, is it okay for Christians to stay out of it?

Sparked by a Christianity Today article about people no longer answering text messages, the hosts debate whether Christians should stay off social media. A host poses the framing question: if social media is a cesspool but the people are swimming in it, is it okay to stay out of it? They discuss ghosting, communication overload, the limits of real relationship capacity, and the idea of the internet as the bar where people actually gather.

Philip's path from pharma rep to financial advisor

Guest Philip Ramsey tells how he got into the industry: as a pharmaceutical rep he realized the big-company sales model was not really helping people, lived through Abbott Laboratories layoffs, and concluded the standard retirement picture is unsustainable, which led him to co-found Uncommon Wealth Partners.

Goals, passions, and unique gifts

• What are your goals, and what has God uniquely gifted you to do?

Philip explains that his process starts with goals, passions, and how God uniquely gifted each person, not rate of return. He uses a singing example and tells the story of a client couple who cashed out their $11,000 Roth IRA to fund the husband's side business as a psychiatrist; six months later it was generating $1,000 a month doing work he loves.

Redefining retirement: stop plotting a way out

• Should retirement mean plotting a way out of work at 65?

Philip argues the conventional retirement script (school, work, bail out at 65) breeds complacency, quoting Vince Lombardi that you are either going up or going down. The group discusses time-locked accounts you cannot touch until 59 and a half, sizing life to monthly expenses relative to what you make and owe, and Philip's critique of Dave Ramsey: Ramsey is good at budgets and getting out of debt but, in Philip's view, weak on building wealth and on investing in the kingdom.

Pastors, pensions, and the wedding venue dream

Philip says 95 percent of people he would advise not to retire, with pastors as the exception since they pour out heart and soul daily. A host riffs on his own post-preaching future: helping a rural church that cannot afford a young pastor, and building a wedding venue, plus a joking aside about a puppy mill.

Wedding-venue coaching and the heifer investment

Philip coaches the wedding-venue dream with talk of buying land and doing due diligence in Des Moines. Then he tells the heifer story: a client wanted to invest in heifers, the advisors pushed back, let him try it with eyes open, and he killed it, which became a lesson in risk, reward, and learning from real investments.

The phases: budget, emergency fund, invest in your why

Philip lays out the firm's process as phases: buy into the philosophy, know your budget, build an emergency fund (a nod to Dave Ramsey, since the uncommon path needs cash to fall back on), then invest in what excites you. Once financially free, clients loop back to run the business better and eventually mentor others. He also plugs the book he and his partner are writing on the philosophy.

How the advisor gets paid, and wild dreams

• How does Uncommon Wealth Partners get paid?

Asked how he gets paid, Philip says it is really accountability, more like a life coach, with tiered meeting fees up to $2,500 for all-hands-on-deck planning. The hosts riff on terrible client ideas, a host's wife who will not pick up a hobby, a joke about calming Dan down, and the claim that the philosophy fits co-host Ben's life motto of doing a thing better than the worst person getting paid for it. The segment closes with a plug for Derek Lewis and Thelma's ice cream sandwiches and Philip's podcast.

The pope is in town

A host tells a story about looking for land near Indianola: he followed a man hauling cattle who said the pope was in town, and found a crowd gathered with a herd of cattle for some kind of blessing. The story pivots the show toward prayer.

Prayer as two-way communication

The hosts reflect on prayer as an open communication line, not a wish list. One host describes the active Holy Spirit interceding with groans when we do not know how to pray, met by Christ mediating before God, and wishes he began prayers asking what God has been talking about instead of listing wants. They contrast a transactional view of the cross with a relational one, discuss emptying time versus repeating God's words back, mention a coming 24/7 prayer room, and walk through Daniel's persistent prayer and repentance.

Dear LFTP: a mother's daughters and bad marriages

• Should a mother give her adult daughters relationship advice, or just listen?

A host reads a Dear LFTP letter from a mother whose own example of a good marriage was awful because of how her father treated her mother; now two of her daughters reach out when their relationships go badly and she does not know whether to give advice or just listen. The hosts advise asking what it would have taken for her to listen at their age, recommend professional counseling for patterns advice cannot fix, and say to ask 'how can I support you.' Secular's answer wonders if the advice falls on deaf ears and suggests offering the National Domestic Violence hotline number if their experiences mirror her own.

Dear LFTP: the uninvited Lady Nachos

• What do you do when a sibling's uninvited lady friend keeps crashing family gatherings?

The second Dear LFTP letter comes from one of five siblings, all over 60, whose brother's lady friend keeps showing up uninvited to family gatherings, sulking and killing the mood; the hosts dub her Lady Nachos for the vegan nachos she brings. The advice: it is a communication problem between the brother (John) and Lady Nachos, so talk to John directly. Secular's answer: 'What gall? Your brother's girlfriend does not have the right to judge your family,' calling her behavior a red flag.

Sign-off and plugs

The hosts close the show, note they skipped Secular vs. Solomon this week, thank Philip Ramsey of Uncommon Wealth Partners, and plug his podcast Dig On That and the book coming out this year.