Today on the podcast we talk with entrepreneur and Shark Tank contestant Matt Franklin about why you shouldn’t wait to start investing for the future and how you can build new habits today that will pay dividends later.

Matt Franklin is a serial entrepreneur from Portland, OR. He’s run a one-man video production company since 2006 and he’s a part-time product developer. His most successful product landed him on Shark Tank in Season 4.

Since his Shark Tank appearance, he’s spoken with hundreds of entrepreneurs of all experience levels as they try to launch new products and businesses. In doing so, one thing he discovered is that self-employed people are terrible about retirement planning and investing. Whether it’s a lack of financial education, the belief their business will end up funding their retirement, or simply procrastination, being behind on retirement preparation seems to be a universal problem among entrepreneurs.

Upon realizing that he too, was woefully unprepared for his golden years, Matt became obsessed with retirement investing, while at the same time running his businesses. He completely overhauled his investment strategy, and by getting out of the stock market and into cash-flowing investments like rental houses and apartment syndications, he was able to shave ten years off his working life. Now enjoying “pre-tirement,” Matt is hosting a retirement planning podcast called the Rogue Retirement Lounge. His mission is to help entrepreneurs and self-employed people develop retirement strategies so that they won’t have to work into their seventies.