The Purpose Rules: Build the Safety Net | Dwight Heck

Dwight Heck on protection planning and the savings rule, Give A Heck Podcast

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What happens if you do not come home one day? In the final part of The Purpose Rules, Dwight Heck covers the two steps most people skip, protection planning and the savings rule, and finishes the real story of clients John and Sally, 14 years later.

🎤 Give A Heck Podcast

Real conversations and solo episodes about purpose, financial stewardship, mindset, leadership, and intentional living.

🔍 Episode Overview

Part 1 of The Purpose Rules named the problem: money is a tool, not a boss, and most people were never taught the rules of the money game. Part 2 built the foundation: goals, budget, and net worth. In this final instalment, Dwight Heck covers Steps 4 and 5, protect what you are building and the savings rule, the two steps that keep everything already built from disappearing overnight.

Dwight shares one of the most personal stories he has told on the show: a three-year period during his divorce when he had no life insurance at all, after an advisor more concerned with his own commission talked him out of options that would have kept coverage in place at a fraction of the cost. That experience shaped his promise to always put a client’s needs first.

The episode walks through what protection actually means beyond just life insurance, including living benefits and disability coverage, then covers the savings rule: save 20% if possible, at minimum 10%, and build from there. The amount matters less than the habit.

Finally, Dwight finishes John and Sally’s story. Insurance went on first, before the budget and before the net worth, because it was Sally’s number one goal to know she would be okay. Fourteen years later, John passed away, and the policy they put in place did exactly what it was designed to do.

📚 What You Will Learn in This Episode

  • Why protection is the step that turns a setback into a catastrophe if it is skipped
  • Dwight’s own story of going three years without life insurance during his divorce
  • What protection actually means beyond life insurance: living benefits and disability coverage
  • Why some of the 91% who struggle at retirement did everything right until one bad day
  • The savings rule: save 20% if possible, at minimum 10%, and why the habit matters more than the amount
  • Where savings should go first: emergency fund, then retirement, then your specific goals
  • How John and Sally’s story ends, 14 years after they put their plan in place

📵 Chapter Summaries

[01:32] Intro and Series Recap

Dwight recaps Parts 1 and 2 and introduces today’s focus: Steps 4 and 5 of The Purpose Rules.

[03:40] Step 4: Protect What You’re Building

The conversation nobody wants to have: what happens when something goes terribly wrong.

[05:15] Dwight’s Own Story

Three years with no life insurance during his divorce, after an advisor prioritized his own commission over Dwight’s family.

[09:20] What Protection Actually Means

Beyond life insurance: living benefits, critical illness coverage, and disability coverage.

[12:26] John and Sally: Insurance Came First

Why insurance went on before the budget and before the net worth.

[14:10] The 91 Percent Reframe: One Bad Day

Some of the 91% did not fail from bad budgeting. One bad day erased what they had built.

[15:05] Step 5: The Savings Rule

Save 20% if possible, at minimum 10%, and live off the rest. That is the rule.

[17:50] Start With Something

What to do if 20%, or even 10%, feels impossible right now.

[19:37] John and Sally’s Story, Complete

Insurance first, then goals, budget, and a net worth that finally started climbing.

[21:43] John’s Passing and the Insurance Payout

Fourteen years later, the policy did exactly what it was designed to do.

[24:43] Series Wrap-Up

Five steps, three episodes, and why your past does not deserve eternal loyalty.

🎯 Key Takeaway

A goal, a budget, and a net worth statement only hold up if what you have built is actually protected. Protection and the savings rule are not the exciting steps, they are the ones that determine whether a setback stays a setback or becomes a catastrophe. Start with what you can afford, save something even if it is not 20% yet, and put the pieces in place before you need them, not after.

💬 Continue the Conversation

If this episode resonated with you, here are related episodes to explore:

Part 2 of this series, where John and Sally’s goals, budget, and net worth were built.

Part 1 of this series, where the three foundational money rules were named.

Directly referenced in this episode as the retirement math protection is designed to prevent.

Dwight’s own reflection on what 24 years of client conversations taught him.

On unlearning the beliefs that keep people from protecting what they have built.

📰 Pertinent Articles

The framework this series lives inside — Pillar 1, Financial Alignment.

The written companion to the retirement statistics referenced across this series.

Dwight’s own story behind the goals and budget work referenced throughout the series.

On the learned beliefs and limiting patterns this series was built to break.

🔑 Key Themes Discussed

  • Protection as the step that determines setback versus catastrophe
  • Advocating for clients versus advisors who prioritize their own commission
  • What protection means beyond life insurance
  • The savings rule and why habit matters more than amount
  • A complete story arc: John and Sally, from $40,000 in debt to a protected retirement

👤 About Dwight Heck

Dwight Heck is a financial and life coach licensed in Alberta and British Columbia, operating as Give A Heck Financial through Hub Financial Inc. He has been in financial services since September 2001, after pivoting from a career in IT consulting. Over 24 years, Dwight has developed The Purpose Rules, a five-step coaching process, and the 7 Pillars of Intentional Living framework. He is the host of the Give A Heck Podcast, a globally ranked show with listeners in over 85 countries, and the Amazon bestselling author of Give A Heck: How to Live Life on Purpose and Not by Accident. Dwight is based in the Edmonton, Alberta area and is a single dad of five.

🤝 Connect with Dwight Heck

🎧 Listen and Watch This Episode

💭 Final Thoughts

Five steps: goals, budget, net worth, protection, and the savings rule. That is the whole framework, built across three episodes to give you the rules nobody else gave you. Whether you are ready to act on all of it today or need to sit with it for a while, the information is here and it is not going anywhere. Your past does not deserve eternal loyalty. The learned behaviours, the habits, the money mistakes, the shame, none of it gets to define your future unless you let it.

📣 Call to Action

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📝 Full Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker: What happens if you get injured and you cannot work for six months? What happens if you get a diagnosis that changes everything? What happens if you do not come home one day? These are not comfortable questions, but they are the most important questions I will ever ask you because the answer to every one of them determines whether your family survives or whether your family falls apart.

[00:00:36] Welcome to Give a Heck. I am your host, Dwight Heck, and for much of my life, lived my life in quiet, desperation wondering how I was going to pay the bills, take vacations, save for retirement, and one day wondering if I would get off the hamster wheel of life and have purpose, a life that most of society lives, which takes us to work, then home, then repeat, and pays us hopefully enough.

[00:01:01] Just to survive the harsh truth that most live with more months than money and have no idea how to live life on purpose, not by accident. This ensures the mass majority are living not just financially broke, however, emotionally and mentally as well. Due to financial pressures and each episode, I will introduce you to thoughts, ideas, and guests that can help you to learn how you too can live life on purpose, not by accident.

[00:01:32] Speaker: Welcome back to the Give a Heck podcast. I’m your host, Dwight Heck. I’m here to help you live a life on purpose and not by accident. Each week we dive into real stories, raw truth and powerful conversations that challenge you to give a heck about your life and the lives of others. This is the purpose Rules, no fluff, just what you need to know.

[00:02:02] This is part three, the final instalment of our three parts series, the Purpose Rules. If you have not listened to Part one and two, I strongly encourage you to go back and start from the beginning. The links are in the show notes. Part one covered the three rules of the money game that nobody taught you.

[00:02:29] Part two walked you through the first three steps of the purpose rules, setting your goals, building your budget, and knowing your net worth. We met John and Sally a couple in their forties with $40,000 in debt and no plan, and we watched what happened when they finally put their numbers on paper. Today we finish it steps four and five, protection planning and the savings rule.

[00:03:07] These are the two steps that keep everything you have built from disappearing overnight, and I am going to be honest with you, this is the episode that matters most to me personally because what we are about to talk about is the difference between a setback and a catastrophe, and I have seen too many families learn that lesson the hard way.

[00:03:40] Let us get into it. Step four of the purpose rules is protect what you are building, and this is the conversation that probably nobody wants to have. I know that in 24 years of doing this work, this is the part where people shift in their seats, they look at the floor, they change the subject because what we are really talking about is what happens when something goes terribly wrong.

[00:04:13] What happens if you get injured and you cannot work for six months? What happens if you get a diagnosis that changes everything? What happens if you do not come home one day? These are not comfortable questions, but they are the most important questions I will ever ask you because the answer to every one of them determines whether your family survives or whether your family falls apart.

[00:04:50] The foundation of all good financial planning is planning for the possibility that your income disappears, whether that is through injury, illness, or death. Nobody wants to think about it, but not thinking about it does not make it go away. It just means you are not ready when it happens.

[00:05:15] I know this personally, not from a textbook from my life as a single dad who paid all the bills for the household and the family to survive, not prosper, that burden would’ve been impossible for anyone to take on easily if something had happened to me. I knew that, and once I got into this industry and understood why insurance is number one in all financial planning, I put coverage on myself enough that whoever needed to could upgrade their home to provide for my kids and their own family’s needs enough that my kids would not go without, because emotionally they would already be dealing with a tremendous loss.

[00:06:12] Their other parent never had the financial ability to support them to the level I was providing, and that was not going to change with me being gone. And here’s what most people do not know about my story. I went through a period of about three years where I had no life insurance at all during my divorce.

[00:06:35] I had permanent life insurance policy. The premiums were expensive, and my advisor at the time, instead of telling me how to keep that coverage at a more affordable rate, instead of explaining that I could drop to the net cost of pure insurance, or that I had been paying in, that I had been paying in for years and could put the policy on a premium holiday and use the cash value inside of it to cover the cost, instead of doing any of that, he begged me to keep paying the full premium for a few more months.

[00:07:20] So he would not get a commission chargeback before I cancelled. I was borrowing money just to survive at that time of my life, and he knew it, however, did not care. It was not about my family. It was not about what we were going through. It was about him and his income, and I let the policy go because I could not afford it, not knowing there were options that would’ve kept my family protected at a fraction of the cost.

[00:07:58] When I got into this industry and understood what he had done, what he had failed to do for me, it changed me. I promised myself that I would always put the client’s needs first. Always. That promise is the foundation of everything I do, and it is why I am so passionate about what we were talking about right now because for three years my kids had no safety net and that should have never happened.

[00:08:36] Since I got into this industry, I have always insured proper coverage on myself, and I have increased it over the years so that now even as adults, my kids will have a nest egg that makes their financial lives better in a world that is getting harder every year. That experience shaped everything about how I practise, and it is why I will never let a client leave an appointment without understanding their options because what happened to me should never happen to anyone else.

[00:09:20] Let me talk about what protection actually means because most people think it is just life insurance. It is more than that. Life insurance is the foundation. If you are single life insurance, makes sure your family does not go into debt just to hold your funeral and make sure your parents or your siblings can take time off work to grieve without spiralling financially.

[00:09:52] And here’s the thing most single people do not think about when you get married or start a common law relationship. When you have a family, you change the beneficiary. That is it. The coverage is already in place. You are not starting from scratch. You are adapting what you already built. The key word is choice.

[00:10:21] You are giving yourself and your family the choice to grieve, to recover, to not lose the house, to not have their lives turned upside down on top of already losing someone they love. But life insurance is only part of the picture. There are also living benefits, critical illness coverage, disability coverage.

[00:10:50] What happens if you cannot work for six months a year? Does your budget survive? We just spent all of episode two building a budget, but that budget assumes your income is there, take it away, and the whole thing collapses. Living benefits exists so that if you get sick or hurt, you still have income, your mortgage still gets paid, your family still eats, your life still functions.

[00:11:22] Not everyone can afford every product right away, and that is okay. You start what you can afford and you build from there. The important thing is that you start. In my career, I have seen both sides of this. I have seen families devastated because they did not have insurance when they needed it, and I have seen families bless beyond measure because they did.

[00:11:56] I want to focus on the positive because this topic is already heavy, and I do not want you to leave this episode afraid. I want you to leave it motivated. Insurance is not about fear. It is about being prepared. It is a need, not a want, and if you do not have it, making it a priority is one of the most important things you will ever do for the people you love.

[00:12:26] Now, let me tell you what this looked like for John and Sally. John and Sally were friends of mine. First, they became clients after, and I tell you that because it matters Many times, friends and family do not want someone they are close to, to know their life circumstances. John and Sally trusted me enough to open up about where they were and that trust is why this worked.

[00:13:01] Remember John and Sally came to me with $40,000 in debt and no life insurance. Sally’s number one goal was to know that if something happened to one of them, the other would be okay. So insurance was the first thing we did before the budget, before the net worth, because Sally needed that piece of mind before she could focus on anything else.

[00:13:33] We put term life insurance in place for both of them. That was what they could afford and that was what they needed. I did not try to sell them every product under the sun. I did what was right for their situation and their budget term insurance protection. Done in my December, 2025 solo episode on the 91% retirement crisis, I talked about how only nine to 12 out of every hundred people retire comfortably.

[00:14:10] But here’s what I did not spend enough time on in that episode. Some of those people in the 91% did not end up there because of bad budgeting or bad savings. They ended up there because one bad day erased everything they had built. A spouse died without insurance, A breadwinner got sick without coverage.

[00:14:37] A family that was doing everything right, got hit by something they never planned for. Protection is the step that prevents that. And John and Sally’s story is proof of exactly that, but I’ll come back to them in a moment. Step five of the purpose rules is the savings rule, and it is the simplest step in the entire framework.

[00:15:05] Save 20% of your income if possible. At minimum, save 10% and budget and live off the rest. That is it. That is the rule. And I know what some of you are thinking. Dwight, I cannot save 20%. I can barely get through the month. And I hear you, and here’s what I want you to consider. If you have been following along through this series, you have already done the hard work.

[00:15:42] You set your goals, you built your budget, you found the holes in your boat, you know your net worth. And if you are anything like John and Sally, you found hundreds of dollars a month that were going to things that did not serve your goals. The savings rule is what you do with that money once you find it.

[00:16:10] It does not come from thin air. It comes from clarity that the first four steps create. Now, where does the savings go in this order? First, your emergency fund, three to six months of essential expenses set aside in a place you can access quickly. This is not an investment. This is a safety net. It is the thing that keeps you from reaching for the credit card.

[00:16:42] When the furnace breaks or the car needs repairs without an emergency fund, every unexpected expense becomes more debt. With one, it becomes an inconvenience you can handle. Second retirement. And this is where I want to bring back what I talked about in my 91% episode. The reason 91 out of a hundred people end up broke or barely surviving at 65 is not because they did not earn enough.

[00:17:19] Most of them earned plenty over the course of their careers. It is because they never had a system to keep some of what they earned. The savings rule is that system 10 to 20% set aside consistently over time, builds something that cannot be built any other way. There is no shortcut. There is no hack.

[00:17:50] There is just discipline in time. Third, whatever goals came out of your goal sheet, and that is where John and Sally’s story picks back up. Now, some of you are listening to this and thinking, okay, Dwight. But what if I truly cannot do 20%? Then start with 10. And if you cannot do 10, start with five. And if you cannot do five, start with something $50 a month, $25 a month.

[00:18:25] The amount is less important than the habit because once that habit is built, the amount grows. I have watched it happen hundreds of times. Someone starts at $50 a month and within a year they’re at 200 because they get used to living without it, and they found more room as they went. The hardest part is starting.

[00:18:56] Once you start, momentum takes over. I promised you I would finish John and Sally’s story, and this is why it matters to me more than any other story I could tell you. John and Sally were my friends before they were my clients. When they first sat down with me, they were carrying $40,000 in debt, no life insurance, no real holidays in over a decade, and they believed their situation was hopeless through the purpose rules.

[00:19:37] Here’s what changed. Insurance went on first because that was Sally’s number one, need term life insurance for both of them, what they could afford and what they needed. Then we set their goals. We built their budget. Sally found over $400 a month. They did not know they had, we did their net worth and they started saving 10% to start, not 20, ten, because that was what the budget could handle, and that was where they needed to begin.

[00:20:20] Sally took over their budget and she controlled it. From that point forward, every penny accounted for every dollar directed on purpose. Within two years, John achieved his number one goal. He took Sally on a real vacation, their first real holiday in over a decade, and from that trip, they bought into a timeshare that saw them going away every year.

[00:20:53] After that, the cost was covered by their budget because Sally had built it to make room for it. That is what a plan does. It does not just fix what is broken. It creates what was never possible before. For 14 years, John and Sally lived by the Purpose Rules. Their debt was paid down, their savings were growing.

[00:21:22] They were taking holidays every year. They had protection in place, and Sally was budgeting every single penny because she said from day one it made the difference in her life and she never saw a reason to stop.

[00:21:43] John passed away 14 years after we put that term insurance in place. Sally needed it and it was there. The insurance paid out tax free. We used it to pay off remaining debt and invest in Sally’s retirement. Because of that insurance, Sally was able to retire comfortably. Without it, she would’ve lost so much.

[00:22:09] She would’ve not been able to keep the home long term. She would’ve not been able to retire with dignity. One decision made 14 years earlier on the day Sally told me her number one goal was to know she would be okay, change the entire trajectory of her life. That is what insurance does. It provides peace of mind while you have it and when it is required.

[00:22:43] It is a person’s lifeline if the value is put in place correctly, but the story does not end there. Sally has now been remarried for eight years and she does the same thing with her husband that she did with John. She budgets every penny. She’s now taught him how to get out of debt. He is my client now as well.

[00:23:10] Full circle. The purpose rules changed Sally’s life and now they are changing his. When a plan comes together and works for an individual, a couple or a business client, I feel an extreme sense of gratefulness that my circumstances led me to a profession where I can truly change people’s lives if they let me, and they are committed to the process.

[00:23:43] John and Sally being friends first. Then clients made this personal in a way that goes beyond the work. Watching their lives climb, watching their happiness grow, seeing fewer bad days than the decade before they had a spring in their step and a joyfulness I had not seen in them in 10 years that I knew them before we started working together.

[00:24:14] That is why I do this. That is what the purpose rules is for. This three part series has been about one thing, giving you the rules that nobody else gave you. The rules of the money game that were never taught in school were never modelled at home for most of us, and were certainly never explained by the company selling us credit products.

[00:24:43] In part one, we named the problem. Money is a tool, not a boss. Know your inflows and outflows and budgeting is the key. Nobody handed you. In part two, we built the foundation goals, budget and net worth. And today in part three, we put the safety net in place and locked in the habit that makes the whole thing work.

[00:25:12] Five steps, goals, budget, net worth protection, savings rule. That is the purpose rules, and lives inside pillar one, financial alignment something larger. I have been building called The Seven Pillars of Intentional Living. This was the Financial Foundation. There’s more to come. Maybe you listen to all three parts and you are ready to take action right now.

[00:25:41] Maybe you listened and you need to sit with it for a while before you are ready. Either way is okay. What matters is that the information is here, the rules are on the table, and when you are ready, you know where to find them. Your past does not deserve eternal loyalty. I said that in part one, and I will say it again because it is.

[00:26:10] It is the truest thing I know. The learned behaviours, the habits, the money, mistakes, the shame. They do not get to define your future unless you let them. And starting today, you do not have to let them. If this series resonated with you, share it. Send part one to somebody who needs to hear it. A friend, a family member, your partner.

[00:26:40] This series was built to change lives, but it can only do that if people hear it. If you want to learn more about my story and the philosophy behind everything I teach, pick up my book. Give a Heck, how to Live Life on Purpose and Not By Accident. You can get it at giveaheck.com forward slash book or search the title on Amazon directly.

[00:27:10] And if you are sitting here thinking, I need someone to sit down with me and build this, go to giveaheck.com/work-with-me. If you are in Alberta or British Columbia, I can help you with financial and insurance products, coaching and mentorship, all under one roof. If you were anywhere else in Canada or anywhere in the world, I offer financial coaching and mentorship to help you build your own purpose rules plan.

[00:27:48] Either way, we start the same place, goals, budget, and net worth, and we build from there. Thank you for listening to this entire series. Thank you for giving a heck about your financial future and the future of the people you love. It means more than you know and remember, it is never too late to give a heck.

[00:28:16] Thank you for taking time outta your day and listening to Give a Heck if you find value. I’d appreciate you sharing with your friends and family so they too can learn how to live life on purpose, not by accident. So you do not miss the next episode. Please subscribe on your favourite podcast platform and please also post a review.

[00:28:37] I look forward to reading your comments. This has been Dwight Heck. If you want to check out other podcast episodes or today’s show notes, please check out my website. giveaheck.com, and until next time together, let us all strive to give a heck.