The Median Net Worth In America Is…

The median net worth in America is surprising, but what does that really mean for your financial future? We break down what this number reveals about how Americans save, invest, and build wealth (and preview Friday's show which will dive deeper into these numbers). Then we answer your questions and get a shocking reveal from Brian on his new car. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jump start your journey with our FREE financial resources⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Reach your goals faster with our products⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Take the relationship to the next level: become a client⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube for early access and go beyond the podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Connect with us on social media for more content⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bring confidence to your wealth building with simplified strategies from The Money Guy. Learn how to apply financial tactics that go beyond common sense and help you reach your money goals faster. Make your assets do the heavy lifting so you can quit worrying and start living a more fulfilled life. ⁠⁠⁠DRINKAG1.com/MONEYGUY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 01

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• 1:06Brian Preston?

  Have you ever wanted to know what the median net worth was for Americans? We got that and much more today.

• 1:11Speaker 03

  Brian, I am so excited about this because one, I love sharing where the average or the median American is. And then what I love doing is I love acknowledging, okay, is that good? Is that where we should be? Or is that a big in I needs improvement? So I'm excited we get to share that today.

• 1:30Brian Preston?

  Well, if it was good, there'd be no need for financial mutants.

• 1:33Speaker 03

  Well, that's right.

• 1:34Brian Preston?

  We're going to quickly learn today. And that's what, let's go ahead and just, I'd love to just share the number. Because if you pull this up, because I want to then build some bones or put some meat on the bones about the context of what does this number even mean? So the median net worth for the average American is right under $193,000.

• 1:53Speaker 03

  So you might be thinking initially like, holy cow, that sounds pretty good. I mean, it seems like you guys say all the time that 60% of Americans couldn't come up with $1,000 for an emergency without having to go into debt. And you're saying the median is 193, that must be a good news positive thing.

• 2:08Brian Preston?

  Well, as we've, if it's We've shared when we, because this is, this data is coming from the US Census Bureau, but we know that the, from the Fred, the Federal Reserve, when they've come out and shared also, it's kind of the, you call it just the sibling data on where, how does this data break out on where the assets are. It's usually in home equity, which scares me because we all know you can't eat your house, really. So I want to give some context because there's, I think there's three big takeaways when I see this number is the first thing is Americans are not saving enough. And hear me out. Here's what I mean by this. Now, I know this is the median for all Americans and 20 somethings, 60 year olds, but if you just took this to into account and said, if you were a 60

• 2:51Brian Preston?

  something year old and you had to live off of this money, what does $192,000 provide for you using the 4% rule? It's, it's right around, it's actually less than $8,000 a year.

• 3:02Speaker 03

  It's not great.

• 3:03Brian Preston?

  So you can quickly see, this is not enough to actually provide for your family and in your household in retirement.

• 3:12Speaker 03

  And so then the second thing that we would likely discern from this information is okay, if the median net worth is around $192,000, it seems like a number of Americans are starting late. They're not taking their financial life seriously because you would think if we have a lot of retirees, a lot of folks in their 50s, 60s and so on, it would draw the median, it would draw the average up. And yet, that's not the case. And we know from tons of research that we've done, that the average American does not saving and investing and seriously consider building for their future until like age 33. So there's almost a decade early on in the career that a lot of people don't even start thinking about. And I think the numbers are reflected here in the median.

• 3:53Brian Preston?

  I remember when, when I was meeting with our publicist when I did the book, book tour, and they said, what's y'all's contrarian advice? What makes you different? And the thing I, I remember telling her was, we think anybody can be wealthy. And what drives me crazy is when I see this data, and once again, I'm going, I'm going to make some assumptions because we, as we've already shared, this is total net worth. So, and a lot of this is home equity, but let's just assume that this was actually Usable financial assets that you could use. If you were somebody who was trying to just have a goal of $193,000 by the time you were 65, I want to give context of somebody finding out at age 25 that they needed that amount of money. That's only saving $35 a month.

• 4:37Speaker 03

  That's like.

• 4:38Brian Preston?

  That's coffee.

• 4:39Speaker 03

  Stopping getting coffee weekly, maybe not going out to a restaurant.

• 4:42Brian Preston?

  That's the latte decision for like once a week.

• 4:44Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 4:44Brian Preston?

  You know, so, and then I said, okay, for a 35 year old, maybe you're like the typical American. You don't discover financial assets until you're in your 30s. It's $116 a month. Now we're just talking about, hey, if you just don't go out to eat.

• 4:56Speaker 03

  Few meals out.

• 4:57Brian Preston?

  Once or twice a month, you know, you've got enough to actually have what the, the median net worth is for Americans. And then for a 45 year old, it's $347 a month. And, and, and so now we're talking about half of a car payment. And then these are the type of decisions that I want you to know is that this shows that Americans are procrastinators. It's, it's not an income issue. It's not an ability to build this. A lot of times I think it's just people don't prioritize building assets. And that leads to the next point. They just don't have a plan.

• 5:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, they don't recognize that having a plan in place, having some sort of strategy around what they're doing with their money can have a huge impact. And by not having a plan, they don't recognize that, man, my dollars can be powerful. And one day, if I do this right, I start this early enough, I can actually build up an army of dollar bills that works harder than I can. It can literally do more for me than I can do for myself. But a lot of Americans just kind of bury their heads in the sand and don't pay attention to that fact. And the longer you wait, the longer it takes for that information to really take hold, the harder the journey becomes. And I think a lot of Americans get later on in life and they just end up throwing up their hands and oh, well, it's too late. I can't do anything now.

• 6:10Brian Preston?

  But look, this is, this is why I love that you guys are here. As we know, not anybody out here tuning into a live stream on a personal finance show. You're not average. You're, you're much better than average. And that actually shows up. We have a, a show that was, that's actually getting released.

• 6:27Speaker 03

  This Friday.

• 6:29Brian Preston?

  Are you richer? Then Your Friends 2025 Edition. And what I love is, is we have taken the average American, we've taken the Financial Mutant Survey Show, and then we've taken the Abound Wealth Client Data, and we've kind of created our own little mashup. So you guys can get it, you know, inspired and motivated to know you doing things differently, taking an active role in your personal finance, is actually generating tremendous fruit that will just provide for you, provide for your family, and create a tremendous legacy.

• 6:58Speaker 03

  This show was so much fun to do because it allowed us to compile all three of those surveys together into a singular show. So if you are not subscribed, make sure right now, as you're hearing my voice this moment, subscribe to the channel. So that way you know when this show comes out this Friday. And if you want to get a little backstory, a little back information before the show comes out, we also have two other shows that we've recently released. One, walking through our Financial Mutant Survey, and one, walking through the client survey. The deep dive show coming out this Friday is going to be a survey comparing all three, and it's super, super fun, super, super exciting. So make sure you check that out this Friday.

• 7:37Brian Preston?

  And look, I like the fact that gets me so excited about this. And it's, once again, we were deliberate, but it also is funny how things just happen in this, I mean, divine way. And what I mean by that is, the book that inspired me, there were two books, y'all know, I've heard me say this a gazillion times, The Wealthy Barber and The Millionaire Next Door. And one of the things I loved about The Millionaire Next Door is it kind of dispelled all these different counter rules that of what the typical millionaire looks like. And I remember being so motivated by how good that data was, because it kind of nourished me when I needed motivation to stay the course. What I love, Bo, is that

• 8:17Brian Preston?

  somehow, we've been able to kind of take that mantle and share the data, because we have such a unique opportunity with all of our Financial Mutants out there in the audience. We have the unique opportunity of, we have millionaire clients that we can kind of reach out to every year and find out what they've got going on, and then create incredible content through your generosity, through your involvement. I do not Take that for granted and I think it's just so cool that our community steps up so that we can hopefully pay it forward and let people be a little bit better with money.

• 8:47Speaker 03

  And our goal is to continue to pay it forward, continue to help you do money better. That's why every single Tuesday at 10 a.m. Central, we show up right here to do this, to show up for you guys. And one of our favorite things we get to do is we get to answer your questions. We get to speak into the things that you care about. So if you have a question, you want to get our take, you want to get our read on it, make sure that you get it in the chat right now. We have the team out in the wings collecting these questions so that we can load you up. With that, Creative Director Rebe, I'm gonna throw it over to you.

• 9:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, I've got a question queued up from Jonathan V. And it says, with recent high market returns, should you reduce long-term perspectives on returns? I normally project about an 8% returns. Do past returns affect future projections? How do you guys think about rate of return projections?

• 9:43Brian Preston?

  This is a great question.

• 9:44Speaker 03

  This is a really, really good question because what Jonathan essentially is saying is hey, we've come through this market where returns have been really, really good. I mean, even if you've been invested in a diversified portfolio over the last three to five years, you've likely, if you have a moderate to moderately aggressive portfolio, you've likely annualized some double-digit returns, very likely in the mid-teens, which is absolutely incredible. And so given that context, if that is what has happened, should we begin to forecast? Should we begin to think about lower annualized returns moving forward? And my answer to you Jonathan would be, well, it depends on your timeline. It depends on your timeframe. If you are someone who is near retirement and you are entering into that phase to where you're going to have to start

• 10:27Speaker 03

  living off of these dollars, you're going to have to start drawing down your portfolio. I think what should naturally happen inside your portfolio is it should become more conservative. You should squeeze the balloon to where you have less risk on assets and more risk off, risk-reduced assets. Well, as you do that, the return that you're going to recognize would likely be lower. But if you're someone early on in your journey, If you're someone at the very beginning of the accumulation phase, even if over the next five years, the next 10 years, the markets only annualized 5% because we've had this long time where we've annualized 15%. Should that affect your strategy? Should that change the way you invest? May it never be because we know that over a long time period,

• 11:10Speaker 03

  reversion to the mean is a real thing. And if we look at the S and P 500, the broad market in this country since like the 1950s or even earlier, we know that on average it's annualized somewhere between like nine to 11% depending on the timeframe. So if you are planning on being invested and being in the market for a long time period, four, five, 10, 15, 20, 30 years, I don't think you have to worry about, okay, are we in a a really healthy, exciting bull market right now? Or are we in a scary, volatile, uncertain bear market? I think you should always be buying and not have to worry about that inside of your investment strategy.

• 11:49Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I've, you know, this, this question was one of those questions that had so many different ways I could go that I had like it all flash before my eyes because I can, I get sentimental. I think about some of those crazy exercises you and I have done, Bo, where you like to show off with your Excel skills.

• 12:04Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 12:05Brian Preston?

  And we've used them on a show. The content team's not going to be able to pull this up, but we actually compiled all the data. I can't remember if it went back to the 50s or even the 20s. But it was, you had done this beautiful spreadsheet where we had compiled all this data on, on, and we even did some asset allocation in there, but then we just did the straight index fund, the S and P 500. And that's why I think it might've just been to the mid 50s. But it was, you showed it on an annual basis. You showed it on a three-year basis, a five-year basis, 10-year basis and a 15-year basis. And guys, what's amazing is that in the short term, the one to three-year, it looks like a scatter plot. I mean, you basically could throw darts and you're going to hit, you know, points all over the place when you look at annualized performance of even the S and P 500.

• 12:48Brian Preston?

  But as you start going to a five-year, definitely a 10-year, you see a trend line that just, it's almost, instead of this ebb and a flow or scatter plot, it kind of, it turns into This wavelength that goes within a very narrow margin. It was truly amazing. And that's why, and Bozick's spot on is that if you are somebody who's retiring in the next few years, that's why you do need to pay attention to that, what type of investor? Are you a short term? Are you a long term? It makes a lot of sense if you're getting close to actually using these assets, you need to start diversifying and think about that. However, if you're somebody who's decades from retirement, that's why it's noise. You don't even have to answer the question of should I do this? Because of the current valuation, it doesn't matter because you're always going to be buying.

• 13:34Brian Preston?

  And in long term, even the bad dollars turn out to be pretty good. And that leads to the next point I was going to make. Cause I see a lot of people and look, we pick on Vanguard every year. Vanguard comes out with an annual study of what their predictions for the markets. And, and I can't believe people fall for it. I think truthfully, it's a pact they have with the, the financial media that they're going to cover this thing. It's because they'll come out and they'll say, we predict because markets have been so good, stock markets only go make three and a half percent for the next decade. And everybody freaks out and they do all these stories. But the thing is they say it every year because what happens is, and I'm just going to go ahead and ruin it for you. It's like the Wizard of Oz and you realize, okay, the wizard's not that

• 14:13Brian Preston?

  powerful. And the fact that there is 15, around 14, 15% intra-year volatility that just happens naturally. There's a lot of ebb and flows. I mean, just think about in April of this year, the market was down 19%. Nobody remembers that, how short our memories are to the, to how much things have changed. But I see this ebb and flow. And the thing is, is that the reversion to the mean happens. So you get your teeth kicked in, but then always things, the V-shaped recovery, because things are so efficient and how fast things recover. It typically, we get back to, yes, in the short term, good performance will probably squeeze the returns in the coming year, two years, three years. But in the long term, it all works out to

• 14:55Brian Preston?

  that eight to 11% band that I was just that wavelength that I was talking about. And here, let me put another little nugget in your head to think about. I keep seeing a lot of people, you know, I think like Elon Musk was just on Joe Rogan, talking about that AI is going to take a lot of jobs. If you're nervous about that stuff, this is when I always, and I even wrote about it in the book, the law of accelerating returns. Guys, Things are moving faster than they ever have.

• 15:22Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 15:22Brian Preston?

  It's the, it's not the, the economic pie is getting bigger and bigger. Until we blow this thing completely up, you know, because they, the robots take over the world. There's ways to make money off of this. I mean, and it's, it's, it's actually going faster and faster. I, I used the Epcot rod, um, Spaceship Earth for, for a slide for years. If you think about just going up inside Spaceship Earth and you know, they're talking about when man discovers fire and then papyrus and they keep getting faster. We're moving at a speed right now that I, I'm just confident we're going to keep making money off of this thing unless something catastrophic happens. And if you want to protect yourself, you know, from maybe your labor impact being, you know,

• 16:04Brian Preston?

  how, how you make your wages, get your money working for you because there's going to be ways to make money off of this that can hopefully pay forward in the future to, to work with. Maybe your job doesn't exist. I mean, these are the things I think about. So Jonathan, don't let that keep you from saving and investing. This is actually an opportunity currently, not a detriment.

• 16:27Speaker 03

  On a real practical level, Jonathan, because your question was, hey, I've been, I generally use like eight percent in my projection. Should I, given the market's performance, do something lower? I'm going to give you a little trade secret. This is a little trick that we do as financial advisors. We always use really conservative return assumptions. So even if you think that maybe you might, might make eight to 10% on your portfolio over the long term, there's nothing wrong with when you do your projection, use something like seven percent, seven and a half percent. Go lower than what you think you'll actually recognize. And what happens is when you do that and you track your annual net worth and you track your trajectory towards financial independence, what you're going to recognize is holy cow, market performed better than I thought. I'm actually further ahead than I thought I'd be. I'm actually out ahead of the curve.

• 17:12Speaker 03

  That's a much better strategy than saying, you know, I'm going to go with 12% rates of return. And then if we do go through a period, maybe we only analyze eight percent, you're like, uh-oh, I gotta work longer. I gotta save more. I gotta make up time because my assumptions were too aggressive. There's nothing wrong with conservative assumptions because what that sets you up to do is under promise, but over perform when you actually look at how your wealth is building.

• 17:37Speaker 04

  Fantastic. Jonathan V., uh, thank you for your question and it is your lucky day because today-

• 17:42Brian Preston?

  Oh, it's a tomboy day. Let's go. Congratulations, Jonathan.

• 17:49Brian Preston?

  Okay, you don't even use, oh no, you are. So we got it, here it is as a Tumblr. Here it is as a koozie, so you can see how it is a transformer and can serve all your life needs.

• 18:02Speaker 04

  So in case you didn't know, that was a transformer sound, not a duck.

• 18:05Brian Preston?

  Why do you have to, you have to clarify that?

• 18:07Speaker 04

  I just, you know, in case.

• 18:08Speaker 03

  I think a lot of people think it was a duck. But only because it sounds exactly like a duck. That's the only reason why.

• 18:16Brian Preston?

  I mean, how many times in the world have you watched a duck turn from a Tumblr into a robot?

• 18:22Speaker 03

  That's a great point.

• 18:22Speaker 04

  I have not seen it that way.

• 18:24Brian Preston?

  I don't think you have.

• 18:25Speaker 03

  When you put it that way.

• 18:26Speaker 04

  Can you do it again, the sound?

• 18:27Brian Preston?

  No, no, it's like asking, that is, that is like asking Adele to, to sing after she just gave you a performance and then you're like, hey, I didn't, I don't know if I caught it.

• 18:37Speaker 04

  He just compared himself to Adele.

• 18:38Speaker 03

  He did say he has the voice of Adele when it comes to transformer sounds.

• 18:41Brian Preston?

  Only on transformer sounds.

• 18:42Speaker 03

  Love it.

• 18:42Speaker 04

  Good to know, good to know. But Jonathan V, if you would like one of these transformer koozie slash tumblers, just email winner at moneyguy.com. We would love to send one to you.

• 18:53Brian Preston?

  Chicken dinner. Nice.

• 18:56Speaker 04

  All right, we've got another question up next from lavender M8. It says, I am a first time mom, baby girl is sleeping in my arms. I love that. Thanks for watching us while you're snuggling your sweet baby. It says, me and my husband are trying to figure out how much to start saving in her 529 account. How do we predict college tuition in 18 years? Can you help her out?

• 19:25Speaker 03

  I'm gonna try not to get in the soapbox on this one, but I have some thoughts. You want to go first? You want me to go first?

• 19:31Brian Preston?

  Well, I mean, guys, there is this all terrain vehicle here called the Financial Order of Operations. And now, this is the thing, because you're holding that baby, and it's a girl or a boy?

• 19:44Speaker 04

  It's a little girl.

• 19:44Speaker 03

  Baby girl.

• 19:44Brian Preston?

  Little girl, sweet princess, you're thinking, man, I love this child so much. You can love her so much, but don't put her college savings before your own retirement savings. This is no different than when you get on the airplane and they say, put on your oxygen mask. Even watch the flight attendants will walk around looking for children so that they can then tell the parents. This is how important this is. Hey, just in case, um, you know, so it's the same way. So that's the first thing is respect the food. This is a step eight of the financial order of operations. Now that we've gotten that basic level, Bo, what's the next consideration?

• 20:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, this is the one where, uh, I want you to apply a little bit of, of logic and rationale to this. Now this may be a hot take and you guys may disagree with this, but I'm going to tell you the way that I feel about this. Uh, we know that college costs have run wild over the past couple of decades. If you look at the cost of education from when Brian came through and got his college degree to the cost when I came through and got mine, to what the cost is now, it's increased exponentially and it's out of this world. It's astronomical.

• 20:51Brian Preston?

  Do you remember the numbers? Cause we did that. This was years ago. We did it. It was, it was me, you and Dangil. Because what was funny was I think that there was a, oh, a 12 year spread between each of us.

• 21:01Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 21:02Brian Preston?

  Um, and for me, it was, it was lap. Now we were on a quarter system, not semesters, but it was $3,000 a quarter.

• 21:10Speaker 03

  It was like, it was like three, 12, 20 or the numbers or something like that. It was wild. It really blown up. And so this is my thought on this. Something is going to have to happen in higher education. Something, some sort of correction will have to take place in terms of the way that college education increases in price, or else no one will be able to afford it. Meaning if prices keep rising at the rate at which they are, eventually it's going to get to the point where you're like, okay, if my kid wants to go to school, it's going to cost $700,000 to go to college. Well, that is not going to be economically viable for the vast majority of people. And so supply and demand will likely have to take hold where if there is no more demand for it, they'll have to decrease supply.

• 21:54Speaker 03

  They have to drop down prices. That's the way that's going to have to work. So how do you reasonably and realistically think about projecting at the college cost for your daughter? I would pick some sort of reasonable assumption around growth rate. I don't think I would do a 13% annual tuition growth. Rate or a 15% annual growth, uh, growth tuition rate. What I would do is I think about, okay, in the state in which I live right now, what's it cost to go to a public university? Okay, I'm gonna go get the price today for tuition, room, board fees, all that kind of stuff. And I'm gonna say, hey, realistically, what would this look like if it increased at 3% per year for the next 18 years? Or what would it look if it increased at 5% per year for the next 18 years? And then as parents, what is our goal?

• 22:36Speaker 03

  Do we want to fund 100% of our kids' education? Do we want to fund 75%? Do we want to fund 50% of their education? And I think you pick that number and you kind of shoot for that trajectory with your brand new newborn. And then you reevaluate and check it on the way. Cause if you start that now, by the time your kid gets to seven to eight, you kind of do an after action. Okay, where am I today? Where tuition prices? How does that align with what I thought was gonna happen? Are we trending in the right direction? How's my student doing? What kind of student are they gonna be? And you can arrive at sort of your best guess, best case scenario of what that's going to look like. But that's the way to project, only assuming you are in the correct place of the financial order of operations.

• 23:19Brian Preston?

  Um, I was gonna give some, some specialized things that I've seen work well. Um, and look, I have a daughter who's a senior in college. She will, we've already paid for, she's on a semester system, so we've paid for half of her senior year. We got one more payment and then box checked.

• 23:36Speaker 03

  Done.

• 23:36Brian Preston?

  And, um, what's amazing to me, let me tell you the two things that I thought was interesting. The state of Georgia, um, offered, it was $2,000 a year when she was born. Um, a tax deduction if you did the 529. So that's kind of where I started off. And then at some point I increased it up to $4,000 a year because the tax deduction increased.

• 23:57Brian Preston?

  That's all I did for my daughter. And I gotta tell you guys, I wrote the, stroked the last check. That account is completely cleaned out. I even had the, the moral dilemma. I was like, Bo, is this okay that I'm about to clean this account completely out? And you know, like, that's what it was for.

• 24:10Speaker 03

  That's what it's for.

• 24:10Brian Preston?

  Um, was writing that last check for, I mean, no, I wrote the last check of her junior year was that check. And then here's another little tip I was gonna give you. Was I encouraged grandparents. I was like, hey, instead of loading up all these gifts, why don't you throw, if you just save minimize because one, you know, babies don't care what they get for Christmas or on birthdays for a while. So, and you guys also qualify for these state tax benefits on your own taxes. Why don't y'all, instead of buying Christmas gifts, if you could put a thousand dollars into a 529 or $300, whatever the number is for your family, encourage your, the grandparents to do that. My mom, I think, I'm trying to get the number

• 24:52Brian Preston?

  right. It was like in that first two years that my oldest was alive, I think my mom got like three grand into a 529. I'm happy to report that that paid my daughter's first semester. It's huge. We didn't even touch it. Just that one contribution. That one contribution because it's had time to compound for 18 years or, you know, 17 years, whatever. Well, now she's 22. So it's 20 years. It's amazing how those little tiny decisions actually had big results. And my mom loved that I got to say, hey, you realize you guys paid for the majority of that semester. That's a, that's a huge legacy paying it forward. And then also don't get scared because I think, you know, you're sitting there holding that baby

• 25:36Brian Preston?

  girl and you're panicked. And I want you to know, what I didn't realize that I think gets left out a lot is how often these colleges are giving incentives to students like, you know, and that's why I would encourage something I didn't know as a, as a kid, not having somebody who knew how the system worked. I should have been taking SAT prep courses, ACT prep courses, because I didn't realize how much those standardized tests drove scholarships. We did that for our daughter. We sent her through ACT prep and it boosted up her ACT scores to the point that the colleges started all of a sudden start throwing money. I mean, and I think you guys heard, I had a, she got an offer of 60% off college because she goes to a private school.

• 26:18Brian Preston?

  They, based upon our ACT scores, they, they send a letter saying, hey, we want your daughter and we're going to give her 60% off tuition through this scholarship that we offer. That made it much more affordable. And I know the state universities do that stuff too. So do a little bit of prep. I mean, don't just let life happen. And I think you'll find out that college is much more affordable. And also don't sleep on. Community colleges for your first two years.

• 26:44Speaker 03

  Joint enrollment, AP.

• 26:46Brian Preston?

  Joint enrollment while your kid's in high school. There's, there are hacks. College doesn't have to be backbreaking. And also, don't sleep on the fact that, I mean, I think it's close to 70% of CEOs of corporations come from state universities. You don't have to go to Yale, Harvard, or the Ivy Leagues. You can, you can do really well with a good education, but you have to be deliberate about what you're going to use that education for, begin with the end in mind. You know, and that, that comes into play. Now, you got a baby girl, so you don't have to think about that yet. I don't want to, you know, overwhelm the system, but it, but it, there's definitely a better way to do money, and we got you the whole way through.

• 27:23Speaker 03

  Love it.

• 27:25Speaker 04

  Very good and thorough answer. Lavender M8, congrats on your new baby, and I hope that helps you think through her 529 and the future. And we'd love to send you a Money Guy Tumblr, since we answered your question. Just email [email protected] and we will send one out to you.

• 27:41Speaker 03

  Did you know that one of, I read this in a book, one of the best things that you can do for early childhood development is listen to a financial podcast or YouTube channel while the baby's nearby?

• 27:52Speaker 04

  Specifically called The Money Guy Show.

• 27:54Speaker 03

  The Money Guy Show. If you do that, your baby will be turned into a financial mutant, almost automatically.

• 28:00Brian Preston?

  We have, we have primary advisors that were listening to The Money Guy Show in middle school on road trips.

• 28:07Speaker 03

  On family road trips.

• 28:08Brian Preston?

  That's how long, you know, I will say.

• 28:10Speaker 04

  Proof that Brian is the OG.

• 28:12Brian Preston?

  Here's, here's something that humbles you. You realize it is 2025. January of 2026, I will be a 20-year broadcaster.

• 28:21Speaker 03

  Wild.

• 28:22Speaker 04

  Cool.

• 28:23Brian Preston?

  That's insane. I mean, that's why, so it doesn't, you're like, well, gosh, how young are y'all's primary? No, we've been doing it that long that you can be in middle school, discover this content, now be so well into your career. It's just like, a lot of you guys found me yourself in high school. You've let me know your clients now. Talking about those financial mutants that turn into the abundance cycle and become abound wealth clients is that. I mean, a lot of you have found us, we were your first source of motivation about money. And now you're multimillionaires. That's humble.

• 28:55Speaker 03

  It's wild.

• 28:55Brian Preston?

  I mean, it is that we planted, planting Johnny Appleseed of money all over the place. Planting those ideas of knowledge so that hopefully you guys can be a better version of yourself.

• 29:04Speaker 03

  I don't know about you. I still feel like we're just getting started too.

• 29:07Brian Preston?

  Oh, no, we haven't even hit our biggest hit yet.

• 29:09Speaker 03

  I think we're still at the beginning.

• 29:10Speaker 04

  So far to go. I love it.

• 29:12Speaker 03

  I'm stoked about that.

• 29:12Brian Preston?

  We're gonna be, it's still an overnight sensation. Coming, coming anytime now.

• 29:15Speaker 03

  That's right. The next, next 10 or 15 years, we're gonna be overnight.

• 29:19Speaker 04

  Overnight success. Oh, man. All right. Ready to do another question?

• 29:23Speaker 03

  Yes, ma'am. You see us in the chat right now?

• 29:26Speaker 04

  I did. I've been chatting, we've been chatting with Humphrey Yang.

• 29:28Speaker 03

  Humphrey hanging out.

• 29:29Brian Preston?

  Oh, Humphrey in there.

• 29:30Speaker 04

  I love seeing him pop in the chat. And we did throw a link to our most recent collab video with him.

• 29:35Speaker 03

  Let's go.

• 29:36Brian Preston?

  I say this for Humphreys, cause he's, he's out there. So he's listening is that we, what's funny is content creators. We were joking about how we all benchmark off each other. And Humphrey, we told him an idea we had. And he goes, I like that so much. In two weeks, you're gonna see something on my channel.

• 29:51Speaker 03

  It released this week.

• 29:52Brian Preston?

  I saw it released this week and internally I sent out a Slack and then one of our video editors sent out the actual, cause I guess we were on a hot mic or whatever. And we had the audio and we just were laughing about it internally. When Humphrey goes, two weeks I'll be on, I'm like, what I'm not going to do is I'm not gonna tell the concept because I don't want you guys to compare and contrast on who wore it better or who produced the better content.

• 30:13Speaker 04

  Listen, it's a true collaboration.

• 30:14Brian Preston?

  I don't feel comfortable, secure enough in myself to, to say, um, who did it better.

• 30:19Speaker 03

  That's hilarious.

• 30:19Speaker 04

  I think they were all great, honestly. All good advice.

• 30:23Brian Preston?

  Humphrey, welcome, welcome to the room. Always a pleasure.

• 30:25Speaker 04

  He said, I'm sorry, in all caps. No, I think it like.

• 30:28Brian Preston?

  No, we don't, I didn't, that wasn't, that wasn't, there's nothing new under the sun on that aspect.

• 30:32Speaker 04

  Like honestly, like we're all, people like Humphrey, Monday Guy, we're trying to get the good advice out there, right? So of course we're gonna say, like, agree on a lot of advice. So I love it.

• 30:43Brian Preston?

  People liked the dynamic between the three of us on Spank.

• 30:46Speaker 04

  They did.

• 30:47Brian Preston?

  It was kind of, um.

• 30:48Speaker 03

  I'd run it back.

• 30:49Speaker 04

  I'd run it back too.

• 30:51Brian Preston?

  I think that people thought it was gonna be because, you know, Humphrey's from San Francisco. We're two southern boys. I mean, I see in the comments like, how is this gonna? I don't know.

• 31:00Speaker 03

  Worked out.

• 31:01Brian Preston?

  We're financial nerds.

• 31:02Speaker 04

  You find the funniest comments. Like you pull like the one and I'm like, I saw like a hundred that were like, "Yes, this is the best collab ever."

• 31:11Brian Preston?

  Fortunately, it doesn't make me sadder, but I definitely do tune into the trolls.

• 31:16Speaker 04

  They stick with you a little bit more. I understand that. But anyway, our collab with Humphrey was really fun.

• 31:22Speaker 03

  No, no, it's great.

• 31:22Speaker 04

  Cause yeah, we had one come out yesterday and believe it or not, we have another one. The last video we recorded with Humphrey is coming later this month. So be sure you're subscribed and then be sure to go check out our video on Humphrey's channel. So just so much good stuff.

• 31:35Speaker 00

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• 32:34Speaker 04

  All right. Um, question up next from Devo6912.

• 32:41Speaker 04

  It says mutants will always invest, but can the Money Guy team give context when people can take their foot off the gas when investing?

• 32:53Brian Preston?

  For sure.

• 32:54Speaker 04

  Because you use that phrase a lot, like, okay, we're doing all this work. So eventually you can take your foot off the gas. So like, what does that actually look like?

• 33:01Brian Preston?

  Well, I mean, this, this is actually the motivation when we came up with the Know Your Number course. A lot of this was because I have realized our financial mutants, and you see it in our survey shows as well. You guys are, I mean, it's amazing what y'all built. I mean, to the point, I worry, remember, there's a fine line between miser and financial mutant. And I worry for some of you, you're so good at creating money and wealth that you, you, you sometimes need somebody to say, hey, how about enjoying this? You know, you only get one time on this rotating planet. Let's make sure that we're bedazzling the basic life, but also as our, you know, this is why Bo and I had to give up our tightwad cards is because I think as you start building up and you reach,

• 33:43Brian Preston?

  you know, the bowling point and you start getting more and more assets, you realize I need to be living life a little bit better. And I remember, I'll never forget, we had, oh, man, you guys crack me up. I'll never forget, I get to see the animation on the screen in front of me. But I'll never forget that I had a gentleman write me, he was in his 40s. And he was talking about that his family didn't like doing vacations because they were all sharing a hotel room. They were doing 12 hour road trips instead of flying. And I'm like, and I'm like, what are you doing? I mean, this is, when you get to multiple seven figures and you're still doing this like you're an 18 year old that can barely afford a peanut butter and jelly? Why are you subjecting your family to, to this? Let's, let's start making some, some blossoming memories.

• 34:27Brian Preston?

  So yes, without a doubt, we, we have some context we can give people so you can take your foot off the gas.

• 34:33Speaker 03

  Yeah. So the, the question is, is the when, and a lot of this, even that, even the language you use, take the foot off the gas, a lot of what we share with you guys are things that we have lived in personal experiences we've had. And this is something, Brian coined this a number of years ago, that when you and your wife first started saving and investing, you said, baby, if we just. If we go at this hard, if we really commit to building for our financial future in our mid 40s, we will be in the position where we can quote unquote, "take our foot off the gas." We can kind of coast. And so that's kind of where the idea came from. And now what we've done is we've recognized a lot of people need some sort of method or methodology to recognize when that is. I've done the same thing with my wife. I've said, babe, look, if we can just put it away, put it away, put it away, put it away,

• 35:16Speaker 03

  put it away, and do that for long enough, eventually you'll reach the point to where you do something like the Know Your Number course. And if you're not familiar, you can go to learn.moneyguy.com and you can go do our Know Your Number course. But basically, you have to understand what the finish line is. Are you far enough along in your journey that you know, "What is the life that I ultimately want to live? What's the lifestyle that I want to have in financial independence?" Well, once you can then define the finish line, and once you know where you are today, that's doing your annual net worth statement. Okay, if I know where I am today, and I know where the finish line is, and I know the behavior that I've been executing, am I ahead of the curve? Am I behind the curve? Or am I on the curve? And what we find for financial mutants, especially those who start saving 25% really,

• 36:01Speaker 03

  really early on, what they begin to recognize, "Holy cow, things turned out a little better than I thought. Things are moving a little bit more quickly than I thought. Man, I am further along than I thought I would be based on where I need to be for financial independence. And based on where I am today, maybe I don't have to keep saving that 25%. Maybe I can back down my savings to 20% or 15% or whatever that number is for you. I can now take my foot off the gas." So the context for when to do that is when you've actually done the homework of knowing, "Okay, what direction am I moving in? What destination am I moving towards? And where am I on that trajectory?" And if you find that you are ahead of the curve, or maybe you're right on the curve with what you've been doing,

• 36:45Speaker 03

  then you can make the assessment, "All right, maybe now, all the hard work I've done previously, now I can allow that to let me move in the same trajectory, move in the same direction I'm moving." But ease up just a little bit. I have to go as hard as I was going. Once you've done that, I think that's when you can have that relief. And then a lot of people, what they recognize is, man, I had this intent, this desire to take my foot off the pedal. But then income kept increasing or life circumstances changed or whatever. And I didn't really have to start, stop saving as much or lower my savings percentage. But I was able to live more life. I was able to go on the vacation. I was able to do the home renovation.

• 37:30Speaker 03

  I was able to upgrade the car, whatever that thing is for you. And because you know, you've done the stuff you're supposed to do when you were supposed to do it. You can make those decisions completely guilt free.

• 37:40Brian Preston?

  Well, it's, it's always a delicate balance. I, I mean, we've, there's books out there like Die With Zero and other things that will tell you, hey, don't worry so much about your twenties, you know, maximize life.

• 37:49Speaker 03

  By the way, that drives me nuts.

• 37:50Brian Preston?

  Well, no, but I understand what, I understand the concept. And that's why I try to be the delicate balance between is because I want you to maximize your youthful years. But you do have to do some work. You do have to make sure you're, you're, you're leaning into deferred gratification and the discipline. Because you're not guaranteed that you're going to be successful if you just don't start doing something. And by the way, too many Americans are much too good. And hey, just deferring, not doing anything instead of saving a little bit of today for a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. So we're always trying to help you walk that delicate balance of, you know, give a little bit of today. Just a small little sacrifice is while you're in your twenties and thirties.

• 38:32Brian Preston?

  And if you do it right, you're going to be taking a constant pulse. So you can start expanding your lifestyle. So you, there's no regrets on any decade. You look back on every decade and go, well done. I didn't, I didn't, I sacrificed just enough to make sure that I was in a good place. You took an active role in the process. And that's a great segue. I was nervous when it would get released and it's come out and fortunately the comments haven't roasted me too much. One of my walking tangents. I confess.

• 39:04Speaker 03

  Brian, what's tangent time and how can somebody find that?

• 39:06Brian Preston?

  Well, now it's everywhere because we're now even putting them on YouTube. It's true.

• 39:09Speaker 03

  I like that. It's everywhere. Don't worry, it'll find you.

• 39:12Brian Preston?

  So I just walk. I mean, I did one. I was, what's funny is now when I record them, I'm like, was that even worthy of uploading? And I will sit on it for a day or two. What the heck? And let's just send it on up to the, to the, to the drop box and let the edit team do what they're gonna do with it. But it's, I've enjoyed it. I mean, we've, keep putting more and more ideas out there. But I had a confessional video because I have never, ever, ever leased a car.

• 39:40Speaker 03

  There was a question in here earlier that I was gonna add. I was gonna frontline it, but I didn't.

• 39:44Brian Preston?

  Cause I've always driven, we drive cars forever. The wheels fall off and I, you know, it's just like somebody even in the comments. I read your comments. It's not a lease, it's a fleece. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. It's, but, but here, I want, I want to tell people. So I love that I got to that video.

• 40:00Speaker 03

  This is confession for him. That's what this is.

• 40:01Brian Preston?

  No, I mean, I was nervous about recording that video because I felt kind of, because I, you know, I have a no hypocrite policy, but then I'm not a hypocrite because I was just like I was telling, now, like I said, in my video, while I was looking at this new car for my wife, there was this couple that had, because they had two little kids. They had to have been in their 30s. They were, I think, younger than you, Bo. And I, and they're out there looking at the exact same vehicle we bought for my wife. And I'm like, they do not need to be buying that vehicle. They do, get your kids out of the backseat of that car. Go down the street to the Honda or Toyota dealership.

• 40:35Speaker 03

  There we go, let's go.

• 40:35Brian Preston?

  And let's, let's put them in the appropriate car. Cause there's no way they were loading up their 401K, their, their Roth and all. But then I think about myself. I mean, look, my wife's last car. I think it's okay to now tell you the details. Cause I've never really talked about what vehicle it was. And is this okay if I should confessional share some of this stuff?

• 40:54Speaker 03

  I'm all ears. I'm, it's story time for Brian and I'm here for it.

• 40:57Brian Preston?

  My wife's last car was an Audi Q7. And that car, here's what. I knew that we bought that thing brand new and I'll never forget now. Part of this is my fault because I'm a 16 year old at heart and I bought the mag wheels, the big upsize wheels on it. But I remember the first 10,000 miles, we owned this car, the light comes on that it needs more oil. And I'm like, what? Why does a car need more oil? So I take it immediately, drive it over to the service department. Oh, no, no, that's, that's normal. You know, first is synthetics, first oil change is not until 10,000 miles. It's going to start burning through the oil and you'll need to add a, you know, a quarter of a, you know, a little quarter of was a quart or whatever, or half a quart.

• 41:40Brian Preston?

  I'm like, that's the craziest thing because the Hondas and Toyotas and the Acuras and the Lexus. They don't need that. Burnt oil, that's, that's the silly thing. So, so right from jumpstart, I'm like, this thing's burning oil. That's what type of car burns oil in the first 10,000 miles? Well, Audis do, I guess. And I'm like, I have friends that are huge Audi people in German engineering, but I'm just telling you, this is my experience. And then next thing that happened was the tires need to be replaced at less than 20,000 miles. I'm like, what? Who has, and this is my fault because I bought those oversized rims specialized. So it is what it is. Soft tires, performance tires, or whatever they are. Unforced errors is what I'm hearing. The next thing was the, the, the brakes needed to be replaced when it had less than 30,000 miles.

• 42:24Brian Preston?

  And I was like, this is the dagum darnest thing I've ever seen. You shouldn't even be thinking about brakes for the first 30,000 miles. So I was like, but you know what? Audi's not going to get me anymore. I'm going to go to my third party, guy down the street who works on European cars. And so I go in there so he can do the brakes and he calls me up, Mr. Preston. Yes, we're going to need to put new brake pads on here, but um, we can only buy those brake pads through Audi. And they cost, and it was like an arm in the leg. I mean, it was like thousands of, and I'm like, how does, there's commercials for $99 brake pads, but somehow with this Audi, this thing is like, Only from Audi. You can only buy them from Audi and it's like, it's somehow a four figure decision. And I'm like, this is once again, another got me again. Well done. And I remember at one of the service visits, I asked the guy in the service department at Audi.

• 43:08Brian Preston?

  I was like, do you sleep well at night? I really did ask him that. I was like, because this is, I mean, if you look at what y'all charge. For oil changes and you know. I was like, is this, you feel good about this?

• 43:18Speaker 04

  He's too genuine.

• 43:19Brian Preston?

  I really did ask the guy that because I couldn't, I was just like, what this is so fast forward. This brake change, this brakes, the, I was right, by the way, cars should not have brake changes less than 30,000 miles. There's a class action lawsuit and this is where the salt just gets poured in the wound. If I had to replace the brake pads through Audi, it was a hundred percent reimbursement. But because I went to a third party repair shop, it was like 50%. I was like, you son of a guns got me again at Audi. So, I mean, in this thing, but then the air started going out, we just, the repair. And every time you do a repair on these European cars, they're not cheap. It's like thousands of dollars. Like, I feel like every Honda, Toyota, or Lexus, or Acura, it's like Mr. Press, it's gonna be $450 or, you know, it's gonna be this.

• 44:03Brian Preston?

  But, but these cars, it's like thousands of dollars. So you can imagine when we get to time to buy another car, I was like, we'll finally go look at the Lexus.

• 44:15Speaker 03

  Let's, let's go, let's do the Lexus, let's do that one.

• 44:18Brian Preston?

  No, I kind of had my eye on this and I was like, you know what? They got me. These cars are, they are for people who wannabes or people who truly have enough that they just can set money on fire. And I was like, Brian, what are you? I'm not a wannabe anymore because I'm, I'm beyond step nine of the financial order of operations. I am just at that stage of life that I can set money on fire, I guess. And so I'm going to rent this bad decision because I, because instead of, you know, yes, I will lease this car. Make my wife happy because you can't take it with you and money is only a tool. And that's where I ended up and I don't love it and she, but she is tickle pink about this car. I mean, it is literally, she tells me on a weekly basis.

• 45:00Speaker 03

  It's very pretty.

• 45:01Brian Preston?

  How much she likes this new car. I think she's surprised that like, when it's like, go out to dinner at night, she's like, do you want, do you want to drive my car? And I'm like, no, we can take mine. That's still, I like my car better, you know, but.

• 45:13Speaker 03

  I love that.

• 45:14Brian Preston?

  But it, it is what it is.

• 45:15Speaker 03

  I love that.

• 45:16Brian Preston?

  But that's the confession.

• 45:17Speaker 04

  I think it's a good confession because when you first let the cat out of the bag that you were thinking about leasing, I was like, Brian, what are you doing?

• 45:24Brian Preston?

  The model car.

• 45:25Speaker 04

  Explained the math, you explained how much money you had put in and we all know you followed the food. You've gotten to the point where you get to spend.

• 45:33Brian Preston?

  Mathematically, I think I'm paying less than depreciation on these horrible cars.

• 45:36Speaker 03

  Oh, for sure.

• 45:37Brian Preston?

  I mean, I did the math. I was like, oh, my gosh, is this the racket these companies? This is why you can go buy these cars used for practically free. It's because nobody wants the $7,000 repair on their air suspension and all the other stuff that they that they have on them, that these things are disposable cars, which is just crazy for the price point that they are. But I think this is what this is what people do. I don't I don't get it. But I'm now part of this revolving door of my guess. My wife gets a new car every three to four years.

• 46:08Speaker 03

  So if you want to know more about this, right? Obviously, Brian does some tangent time. So if you're not subscribed here, you want to subscribe here because we do YouTube shorts. But you can also go find us on all of our socials at the Money Guy Show, at Money Guy Show. And that's where we put it out on Tik Tok, out on Instagram, and you get to go on a walk with Brian, which is just honestly a fantastic thing.

• 46:30Brian Preston?

  Here's a question I have, and I think I know the answer, but it's just it makes me wonder. We know we live in the same neck of the woods as Dave. Dave's a car person.

• 46:39Speaker 03

  Oh, Dave, yeah.

• 46:40Brian Preston?

  Personally, seen, we've seen Dave in Maseratis. We've seen Dave. I guess he's buying these cars and they're just depreciating like a rock. And then he's paying the $7,000 repairs and maintenance. I mean, not that it he definitely has the money to set it on fire. It's just that I know how much it burns me to take these things in for service because I that's where you got me again. I mean, it is, it just gets under gets under my skin a little bit.

• 47:04Speaker 03

  I do happen to know that when Dave buys one of his very nice cars, he does keep it for a long time. So he probably just says, all right, well, I'm going to buy this. And I don't think he rotates through them. He just kind of keeps it and then adds to his collection, I think is what happens.

• 47:16Brian Preston?

  But the service on these things is not cheap. That's the thing I know.

• 47:20Speaker 03

  I'm with you.

• 47:21Speaker 04

  That's why we say luxury cars do not fall into 238. You need to pay cash.

• 47:26Speaker 03

  That's or or, you know, lease them if you have money to burn. I'm kidding. A lot of people are dying to know what the car is. Now, you said some pretty awful things about people that buy these cars. I don't know if you should say what car it is, but there's just tons of I and you know what? Maybe you guys should guess. Maybe you should all guess what car it is.

• 47:43Brian Preston?

  Until we got rid of the Audi before I get. I, I would, I am too embarrassed to say what the car is.

• 47:48Speaker 04

  That's so funny to me.

• 47:50Brian Preston?

  Because it is a car. I will just tell you guys, I told Bo forever, we would never, ever, ever.

• 47:56Speaker 03

  Ever.

• 47:57Brian Preston?

  Ever.

• 47:57Speaker 03

  Ever.

• 47:58Brian Preston?

  Ever, ever.

• 47:59Speaker 04

  Bo is just doing a little internal happy dance right now.

• 48:01Brian Preston?

  Vehicle because I just, uh, what I knew Consumer Reports said about them and everything else. And then here we are.

• 48:09Speaker 03

  And, and what's wild is, uh, my wife declares herself a car person. Like she, she's a car person. You know, when people says I'm a car person? She's a car person. You even told me, Bo, no, no, I'll never be in one of, Jenna's gonna be in one of those long before. And oh, how the turntables.

• 48:26Brian Preston?

  Oh no, this is a definitely accelerated her getting this car. Cause now I just, I'm the gateway drug. I've opened it up.

• 48:33Speaker 03

  No, no, I'm gonna be like, babe, we can't get that one. I mean, Brian's got that one. We can't do that one.

• 48:37Brian Preston?

  Uh, that's not the way it's gonna work.

• 48:39Speaker 04

  There's some big guesses in there, but I will let him guess. It's up to Brian when he's ready to say what it is.

• 48:44Brian Preston?

  It's not a G-Wagon. I'll tell you that.

• 48:46Speaker 03

  You should have, you should have left that one out there just in case.

• 48:48Brian Preston?

  What, what's funny is.

• 48:49Speaker 03

  You should let that one out.

• 48:50Brian Preston?

  But here's the thing, I was at dinner last night with another couple and the gentleman, he's done incredibly well for himself. He's sold three businesses and, and it's so funny. His wife had the exact same Audi as my wife. And it's having the same problems. I mean, this thing is, and he's cussing it.

• 49:07Speaker 03

  Well, I've seen this movie before.

• 49:08Brian Preston?

  He tried to convince his wife and I know, and I kinda know a little enough to know it. He tried to convince her they were getting a Hyundai Genesis. Because you know, he's, it's like, that's the person who's good with money. This is, you get a lot for a little. And his wife is thinking like G-Wagons and other things. It just cracked me. I could see his pain and he can, he can set money on fire too. But it just, it's, it cracked me up to see the, the plight of trying to make your wife happy while not setting money on fire.

• 49:35Speaker 04

  This is why you follow the food. Then you too can set money on fire if you want to.

• 49:39Speaker 03

  Somebody, um, somebody just threw out DeLorean, which I think is hilarious.

• 49:44Brian Preston?

  Oh yeah. Eighty-eight times over.

• 49:46Speaker 03

  Here's what, uh, I don't know if you know this.

• 49:48Brian Preston?

  You have a story on this.

• 49:49Speaker 03

  Did you, so we went, I took my kids to go see that recently. Did you know it's not super like kid appropriate?

• 49:56Speaker 04

  You know what? You told me that and then I thought that later that night.

• 49:59Speaker 03

  I look like.

• 50:00Speaker 04

  His kids are a little young.

• 50:01Speaker 03

  I grew up watching the TBS version. Well, the TBS version.

• 50:04Brian Preston?

  Ruined everything.

• 50:05Speaker 03

  Has very different language.

• 50:07Speaker 04

  Funny that you say that.

• 50:07Speaker 03

  And so like the entire time I'm like, ah.

• 50:12Speaker 04

  Maybe not for your eight year old.

• 50:13Speaker 03

  You know, it was, it was aggressive.

• 50:15Brian Preston?

  Two, two, two thoughts I'll add on that is that don't go watch Teen Wolf again because holy cow. That one is a lot spicier than I remember too. Cause I, I watched it as a kid and you know.

• 50:26Speaker 04

  Most movies that you two remember are like not as appropriate for children.

• 50:31Brian Preston?

  That's a Michael, that's staying on the Michael J. Fox.

• 50:33Speaker 03

  It's turning out that way.

• 50:34Brian Preston?

  The, the other one, this is one. My wife and I, I'll never forget because we, we host a lot of Christmases at our house. And if you've watched TBS, you know, Love Actually is a great Christmas movie.

• 50:44Speaker 04

  Oh.

• 50:45Brian Preston?

  And so we've all, I've always just watched it on TV. So, you know, and you wa, and Walmart one day they have like this bin of DVDs. It's like $4.99 or whatever. So we buy Love Actually and we put it on for the family Christmas movie. Not realizing there is like a really inappropriate storyline that is completely cut out of the TV version of that. I mean, it, it, it turns that movie dirty. And I'm just like, how is this even in? Where in the writing department do they go, this is what we ought to put as a, a storyline in, in this Christmas movie?

• 51:17Speaker 04

  For families.

• 51:18Speaker 03

  And that's what like me and, me and Jenna, we're so much like, hey, let's go back to like the old movie. Let's, you know, cause some of the new stuff is just too much for our kid. We're like, hey, let's go back to some, let's go back to some of the good wholesome stuff. You know, that just has tons of cursing. I'm like, oh my gosh.

• 51:31Brian Preston?

  It is fun. TBS, that's what you and I, because we're both Atlanta boys. TBS is man, man, oh man. There's filters. They just, they ought to put TBS version.

• 51:40Speaker 03

  That's seriously, they really should.

• 51:41Brian Preston?

  Superstation. If you grew up watching this on Superstation, you'll love this.

• 51:44Speaker 03

  Talking to my kid, I'm like, girl, girls, you're gonna love me. Hey, remember when daddy did that episode a number of years ago, Mr. Brian? And remember daddy wore the big vest and Mr. Brian wore the, and it was, yeah.

• 51:56Brian Preston?

  Okay. We're going to have to answer another question.

• 51:57Speaker 04

  I think you need to.

• 51:58Brian Preston?

  I do, I do want to say one more tangent thing though.

• 52:01Speaker 04

  We just did two really intense tangents.

• 52:03Brian Preston?

  Hey, if you have any pull, let's get Del Murphy into the Hall of Fame.

• 52:07Speaker 04

  One was financial related though, so I'll give it to you.

• 52:10Brian Preston?

  Okay, I even got Caleb on that one. He's like, the wheels are coming off.

• 52:15Speaker 03

  Let's do a question.

• 52:16Speaker 04

  Are you sure?

• 52:17Speaker 03

  Let's do a question.

• 52:17Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 52:18Speaker 03

  Question?

• 52:18Speaker 04

  I do have a question.

• 52:19Brian Preston?

  Of course, I'm here for questions.

• 52:22Speaker 04

  Um, it's from Juan Young Kang. It says, hey, Money Guy team, unique situation. I'm 24 and on step four of the foo. Sadly, I will be laid off on June, in June of 2026 due to a plant closure. I have about four months of emergency fund built up currently. Six was the original goal. What else should I consider? This is unique because he does have this lead time to kind of prepare for a really unfortunate thing. So what would you have to say to him?

• 52:55Speaker 03

  So I want to give you sort of the immediate first thought that came to my mind. Whenever you go through any sort of significant transition, right? Uh, job change, loss of job, moving, significant life transition. Uh, cash is your friend. And this is relatively short timeframe. We're talking about between now and June. So even like opportunity cost that you might be missing between January of 26 and June of 2026, not all that great. So one of the things I'd be thinking about Juan is, okay, how can I start stacking cash to give myself the maximum amount of flexibility so that I'm not in a situation where I have to make dire and desperate decisions? So that's the first thing. But the second thing, Brian, I'd be so curious to hear about, and you talk to people all the time.

• 53:38Speaker 03

  If you know that a job change is coming, or maybe even you just recognize that the job that you're in or the place that you're at is not perfect, what are things that you can begin doing now to prepare for that? To hopefully make that transition a little more seamless and maybe even potentially a little more quick?

• 53:55Brian Preston?

  Yeah, the first two, two components to this, I'm with you is if I'm triaging this situation, I'm immediately saying, okay, full stop going to cash with all my future investment. You know, if I got monthly savings and other things set up, I'm immediately thinking in terms of, let's get cash built up because this is going to give me flexibility, opportunities. And then here's the good news. Maybe you land, because I'm going to go into the second part of your question. And now, but if you land on your feet quicker than you thought, you then have this, your cash reserves are probably too fat at that point. You can go ahead and fully fund your Roth IRA and do other things. This thing, that's why it's a moment in time and it's so short. I'd rather you have access to the cash, get you through it. And then if you come out the other side

• 54:37Brian Preston?

  and you're better, you can then ask yourself with the financial order of operations, where should my next dollar? And more than likely, if you got too much emergency reserves because you made it out the other side, you can load up the Roth IRA, the health savings account, whatever, the retirement plan at the new employment, but it at least gives you options. So you're not making desperate decisions. Now, here's what Bo's alluding to. Whenever I've had big life things, it's just kind of like, um, I'll bring this back in terms of when I found out my daughter was, you know, on the spectrum and we needed to go do schools in a different way, I immediately was like, okay, well, what schools in the area can do this? And it was City of Atlanta had some, some stuff and it's North Atlanta, but then it led to all

• 55:20Brian Preston?

  these other life decisions. I was like, well, no, I need to be thinking bigger than just what the short-term solution is. And that's what I want. I would tell you, think big for a second and say, do I need to move? Do I need to go back to school? Do I need to, you start really looking at all the variables that you have to play with and then put on your 3D glasses and actually put, now you don't have a ton of time because you know, you really only have eight to nine months to kind of stick the landing on this.

• 55:46Speaker 03

  And if the plan is shutting down, the closer you get that timeframe, the more competition, like there's a bunch of things that happen.

• 55:51Brian Preston?

  But you still can, even with only eight to nine months of runway, you can still model this out into with your 3D glasses on the dream plan, the down-to-earth of what you think will happen. Then don't skip out on the do-do plan, meaning that what happens if you can't land a job for, for much longer than you anticipated, what are you going to do? And that will hopefully be the motivation that lets you kind of beef up the cash, really think about this with clear eyes and, and, and level set the mind so that you can actually come out the other end, being the best, best version and best opportunities for yourself.

• 56:25Speaker 03

  And I wonder if even now, if you know that this is happening, I wonder like, are there Are there opportunities for you to potentially transition more quickly than June? Now, maybe you're in some pivotal role where you have to be there until the close, or there's some sort of contractual obligation.

• 56:41Brian Preston?

  Well, I know the incentives packages too. If they're offering like severance packages or something.

• 56:45Speaker 03

  But I think I would go ahead and begin brushing up that resume and recognize if you are, I think you said this was a plant, if you are a worker and there are a lot of other workers at the same level or that that look a lot like you from a skill set wise, I would begin thinking, how can I peacock myself? How can I have a skill set, have something on my resume, have some sort of connection that's going to make me stand out from all the other people that are also looking for a job at the same time? And the earlier you can figure out what that thing is and the more you can kind of hone and refine that thing, the higher probability you're going to give yourself to be able to find another job, find another transition between now and that June timeline.

• 57:30Speaker 04

  Fantastic. Juan Yang Kang, thank you for asking the question. We're sorry that this is on the horizon for you and we hope that helps you think through what your next steps are. In the meantime, we'd love to send you a Money Guy Tumblr. Just email [email protected].

• 57:45Speaker 04

  All right. Next question is from Lance X22. It says, how can I overcome the fear of spending money outside of bills? For example, vacations that are less than 4K. We are in the messy middle. We make 115K but only invest 15 to 18% and started late at 34. We're 39 now with 200K invested. Taking my family on small trips gives me anxiety, but my kids and wife are only young once. How can I get over anxiety if I feel behind?

• 58:22Speaker 03

  You've got to project it out to determine if you are behind. Cause one of the things you said is a lot, man, we didn't start until late and we're not saving 25. We're only saving 15. Well, what is your plan Lance? Are you planning for like a normal retirement at age 65? Is something in your life going to change? You know, potentially your kid's young right now and one of you stays home with the kids and the others works. And eventually when the kids go off to school, you'll be a two income house. Like, are there variables that are going to change between now and the time that you get to financial independence? And if the answer to that is yes, have you now projected? Okay, what trajectory are we on based on the decisions that we're making?

• 59:05Speaker 03

  Because if you are behind and if you have been saving less than you would like to be saving and you've accumulated less than you should have accumulated. I think it's okay for you to feel a little bit of anxiety around the spending. I mean, that the messy middle is messy because it's not easy and it's not super comfortable. And it's okay to feel that tension. So long as you recognize, hey, just because I feel this tension, just because I want to be saving and just because I have some anxiety around spending, doesn't mean that I have to spend money to do the things that are necessary to create memories with my family. I mean, you have to go spend a ton on a weekend vacation to go have an incredible memorable vacation with your family.

• 59:50Speaker 03

  And you should assess that, okay, where are we from a spending standpoint? Where are we from a saving standpoint? What trajectory are we on? Is there any margin in the system? And if there's no margin in the system, that's where you have to get really, really creative. That's where you have to start really bedazzling your basic life. But with young kids in the house, bedazzling is not a super difficult thing to do. At least that's been my experience.

• 1:00:14Brian Preston?

  Yeah, what causes anxiety is really the uncertainty of, you know,

• 1:00:19Brian Preston?

  Overthinking things from the past, overthinking things that could come and yours sounds like it's for, you're worried about the future. I always, there's, there's a way that you can kind of check the box on this is actually do the work, you know, because if, it doesn't have to be an uncertain thing that you just keep coming back over and over again, getting yourself worked up and stressed about, actually put pen to paper, do an Excel spreadsheet, use our tool to know your number to figure out if you're ahead of the curve, behind the curve, or right where you're supposed to be, because then it will answer the question. And then, once you know the answer of how far behind are you, you can then look at that $4,000 number and go, no, it's just right. Or maybe I can only, maybe we only have $2,500 for our annual vacation budget, and that

• 1:01:03Brian Preston?

  means more road trips. There, there is amazing, I, I think about some of my childhood road trip vacations that were just so foundational to, to memories, good memories I have. I talked about I'm a millionaire mission, even going on timeshare tours, but, um, and for my kids, I mean, I think that they would love, I mean, one of my things, like, we were watching America's Funniest Home Video last night, and Emery was just losing her mind over those drive-through zoos or whatever, where the camels stick their heads in while you're trying to feed. And I've done those, you know, you probably don't have those in your hometown, but you can go drive down the street and there's all kind of fun little memories that you

• 1:01:43Brian Preston?

  can, you can do that don't have to be expensive. But the part that, what I don't like is money issues causing anxiety. There's a solution on that, on you taking an active role in this, because that's what, if you go talk to anybody about anxiety, one of the things they're going to tell you to do is write down what it is. So if you can take the uncertainty out of it, I think you'll, you'll, you'll free yourself to not be overthinking or over worried about it, because you'll kind of know where you are and you'll have, instead of just going off the You know, thumb and finger in the air and how's the wind blowing right now? You actually will know where the numbers are and you'll actually know how to navigate it.

• 1:02:18Speaker 03

  Quick little messy middle hack. I don't know what state you live in, but state parks are an incredible thing. You know, a couple of years ago, we took our kids to Disney and spent a fortune. You know what their favorite part of the Disney trip was? I've told you this.

• 1:02:31Brian Preston?

  The pool?

• 1:02:31Speaker 03

  The pool at the resort. And I'm like, oh my goodness, we have, we could, it's a much easier way to get you in a pool.

• 1:02:38Speaker 03

  Then it take you to Disney to do it. But then, you know, a couple of years later, my wife found this like local state park that was only like an hour or two drive away. And the nightly rate, it was like this little lodge and it was super, super cheap. It was not expensive. And we literally just drove out to this, just us, no schedule, no agenda, and just walked around on the trails and explored and picked up sticks and threw pine cone. And they loved it. They thought that was amazing and it was not expensive. So make sure you're looking at the resources around you, like local state parks, local splash pads, local, whatever that thing may be for you. And lean into those things because they do not cost a lot of money. And those are the things I found that little kids, assuming your kids are little, absolutely love.

• 1:03:18Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I can, I can think about, we went, this is earlier in our marriage. We went and visited one of my wife's relatives who was living in Prescott, Arizona at the time. And I remember we went and did this, this lava tube that went like a mile into the ground. And it was fascinating. Now we had all the heads, headgear and stuff that we had to go buy at Walmart to do, the flashlights and stuff. But there was like, I was like, if this was in Tennessee, we'd be collecting, you know, $50 a head to go in this thing. In Arizona, I guess these things are normal as that you just pull up and just go down into it. So it costs absolutely nothing other than the battery, the extra batteries and other things that we bought for the, the flashlights. But it's all kind of cool stuff out there. Get out there and explore.

• 1:04:03Brian Preston?

  It doesn't have to be expensive to make blossoming memories.

• 1:04:07Speaker 04

  Very good stuff. Lance, thank you for asking the question. Good luck as you parse through all of this and hopefully make some really wonderful memories with your family. We'd love to send you a Money Guy Tumblr. Just email [email protected] and we will work on getting that sent out to you. Thank you as always for joining us every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Central where we talk about personal finance and answer some of your questions from the chat. We'll be back next Tuesday at 10 a.m. Central and remember to subscribe because Friday, the combined survey show comes out. That's our shorthand for a really cool show where we're going to use more of the Financial Mutants survey data and compare it to average Americans, abound clients, and just really lay out all of our findings.

• 1:04:50Speaker 04

  I think you're really going to enjoy it. So be sure to subscribe.

• 1:04:53Brian Preston?

  Guys, it's been a blast. We'll try to get a few more questions answered on the next live stream. I'm sorry for all the tangent time bled into Q and A show today, but we'll do better. I'm your host, Brian, Mr. Bo, Rebe and the rest of the Money Crew, Money Guy team, out.

• 1:05:10Speaker 03

  The Money Guy Show is hosted by Brian Preston and Bo Hanson. Brian and Bo are partners with Abound Wealth Management. Abound Wealth Management is a registered investment advisory firm regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance and compliance with the securities laws and regulations. Abound Wealth Management does not render or offer to render personalized investment or tax advice through the Money Guy Show. The information provided is for informational purposes only, may not be suitable for all investors, and does not constitute financial, tax, investment, or legal advice. All investments involve an degree of risk, including the risk of loss.

• 1:05:42Speaker 06

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