What to Do With $100K: Invest or Keep It Safe?

In this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, we're going to talk about what to do with $100k invest or keep it safe. How Andrew Can Help You: Don't let another year pass by without making significant strides toward your dreams. "Master Your Money Goals" is your pathway to a future where your aspirations are not just wishes but realities. Enroll now and make this year count! Join The Master Money Newsletter where you will become smarter with your money in 5 minutes or less per week Here! Learn to invest by joining Index Fund Pro! This is Andrew’s course teaching you how to invest! Watch The Master Money Youtube Channel! , Ask Andrew a question on Instagram or TikTok. Learn how to get out of Debt by joining our Free Course Leave Feedback or Episode Requests here. Thanks to Our Amazing Sponsors for supporting The Personal Finance Podcast. Shopify: Shopify makes it so easy to sell. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/pfp Chime: Start your credit journey with Chime. Sign-up takes only two minutes and doesn’t affect your credit score. Get started at chime.com/ Thanks to Fundrise for Sponsoring the show! Invest in real estate going to fundrise.com/pfp Thanks to Policy Genius for Sponsoring the show! Go to policygenius.com to get your free life insurance quote. Go to joindeleteme.com/pfp20 for 20% off! Indeed: Start hiring NOW with a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to upgrade your job post at Indeed.com/personalfinance Go to Acorns.com/pfp and start automating your investments and get a $5 bonus today! Links Mentioned in This Episode: How to Invest More Outside of Retirement Accounts, 529 Strategies, & Dividend Growth - Money Q&A The Pros and Cons of The 529 With Sean Mullaney Which is Better a 529 or Roth IRA for Your Kids? Money Q&A Connect With Andrew on Social Media: Instagram TikTok Twitter Master Money Website Master Money Youtube Channel Free Guides: The Stairway to Wealth: The Order of Operations for your Money How to Negotiate Your Salary The 75 Day Money Challenge Get out Of Debt Fast Take the Money Personality Quiz 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.

• 0:00Andrew Giancola?

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• 0:44Andrew Giancola?

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• 1:27Andrew Giancola?

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• 2:24Andrew Giancola?

  What's up everybody and welcome to the Personal Finance Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew, founder of MasterMoney.co. And today on the Personal Finance Podcast, we're going to be diving into a bunch of your questions on this money Q and A. If you guys have any questions, you want to send in your questions, please join the Master Money Newsletter by going to MasterMoney.co/newsletter. And any issue that we send out every single week, you can send your question in from there. Now, don't forget to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or whatever your favorite podcast player is. And if you're getting value out of the show, consider leaving a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Now, today, we're going to be diving into a bunch of your questions

• 3:09Andrew Giancola?

  that are really, really great questions that have been sent in via email. The first one is going to be talking through opening a taxable brokerage account for a child. So, we have a bunch of content that comes out talking about how I open a taxable brokerage account for my kids, and this question dives deeper into that. Another one, we're going to talk about paying off a mortgage versus investing. So, this person has a 3.25% interest rate on their mortgage, and they're trying to decide if they want to pay off that mortgage and/or invest the money instead. The third question is where to keep $100,000 in savings. We're going to dive into that question and what we need to be doing. Then, we have a new scam alert. So, there is a scam going around where packages are randomly being sent to different houses, and we're going to talk through why people are trying to steal your information on that. The next question we're

• 3:54Andrew Giancola?

  going to be answering is how to find a fee-only advisor and how you can actually go through that process. Robo-advisors versus DIY investing. And then, we're going to look specifically, someone has a question about Edward Jones fees versus robo-advisors. So, we have an action-packed episode in this one. Really pumped to dive into it. So, without further ado, let's get into it.

• 4:15Andrew Giancola?

  All right. So the first one is a quick question. How can a kid open a taxable brokerage account at birth? And where can the money from that be invested? I thought only earned money can be used for an investment. Okay, so this is a great question. I'm glad you asked. This is a big clarification that a lot of people want to ask when we talk through some of our Investing For Kids material. So if you haven't heard our taxable brokerage account system, what we talk about is you open up a taxable brokerage account and this taxable brokerage account is set aside for your kids. Now, this is not a UGMA or UTMA. This is a regular, good old fashioned taxable brokerage account. And I do this for all of my kids. So I open up a thousand dollars in this account the day they're born. If you know you're going to have kids in the next nine months,

• 4:59Andrew Giancola?

  maybe you and your spouse are pregnant and you know the baby's coming, you could do this earlier. But the way that you do this is you open a taxable brokerage account in your name. So this is always going to be in your name. And then you make the child the beneficiary. So that if you pass away, the child is going to inherit that taxable brokerage account. And so what I do for each of these is I have three separate ones for my three kids that I open up with a thousand dollars there. Then you can put money in every single month. Now, I put a hundred dollars a month. You could put in less. You could put in ten dollars a month if that's all you can afford. But really, these dollars are going to compound and grow over time. So it's really powerful, no matter what amount you put in this brokerage account. And then every birthday and every Christmas, I put in two hundred and fifty dollars at minimum. Now, a lot of times when they're young especially,

• 5:44Andrew Giancola?

  they'll start to get money around their birthday from grandparents or aunts or uncles or whatever else. And so I'll take those dollars and put it in this taxable brokerage account. And the same thing happens at Christmas time where family members will give them money. And so I put it in this taxable brokerage account instead of just giving them to spend on random toys. My kids have so many toys already that it is something, I don't want more clutter in the house, to be honest. So a lot of times they'll be gifted toys. And then outside of that, I'll take these dollars and actually invest it for them for their future. And so this is the system that I utilize a lot. And a lot of people get confused because they're like, is this a Roth IRA? Is this a UTMA or UGMA? No, this is just a regular taxable brokerage account. It's in my name. And the reason why I do this, and let's get real for a second. The real reason why I do this- This is I don't know if my kids will be able to handle money properly.

• 6:28Andrew Giancola?

  I've started training my kids. Usually I start when they can communicate. So at two years old is usually when I will start to train them. Sure, they can start to say words at one, but they're just not going to understand what you're talking about. And I will start to communicate with them and talk to them about money. First, we just kind of talk about what money is and they can look at the numbers on each bill and they can identify how much money that is. And then we'll start to go through and really have conversations about money and how money is used as they start to get older. And now my six year old, for example, is really interested in just various ways that money is utilized. And so as we do this, that is the preparation that we are giving them to be able to handle this money. But the beauty about the taxable brokerage account is that you can hold it for as long as you possibly want because it's in your name. So I like that side of it.

• 7:11Andrew Giancola?

  I like the flexibility because if you have a child who may not be the best steward of money as they get older, if you put this into a UGMA or UTMA, by the time they turn either age 18 or 21, depending on what state you live in, that money is theirs. And so I like to have the flexibility to hold on to that money a little longer if I want to. I may hold on to this money and I may not even tell them about it until they are way, way older. I may not tell them about it until I pass away and it just magically appears. But that is my plan and how I hold these dollars. So it's in my name. Now you did mention thought only earned money can be used for investment. That's only for the custodial Roth IRA. So with a custodial Roth IRA, which is another great account, I will open one when my kids have earned income.

• 7:54Andrew Giancola?

  But in the custodial Roth IRA, you can only contribute what your kids earn that year. So say, for example, your kids mow lawns or they go out and they start to, you know, earn a little money, you know, pressure washing houses or whatever else it is. Then as long as you track that earned income, they can contribute however much they earn throughout that year. So let's say you have a kid who works all summer long and they earn 1,500 bucks throughout the summer. Well, if they earn that $1,500, then you can contribute $1,500 to a Roth IRA. It doesn't have to be the money they earned, obviously, you can contribute it on their behalf. But that's the max they can contribute into a custodial Roth IRA, all the way up to $7,000 is the cap. So that's the difference between. I use a taxable brokerage account for that flexibility.

• 8:37Andrew Giancola?

  Love the flexibility of the taxable brokerage account for this kind of stuff. But if you like the UGMA or the UTMA because you like the tax advantages or some of those things, that's great, but I like extra flexibility for me specifically. And we can have another argument and debate about the tax situation. But for me specifically, that's how I like to do it. And then they also will have, uh, when they start to have an earned income, they also will have a Roth IRA in their name as well. So that's my big plan. And then we use 529s for college savings. So a lot of people, when I bring this up, they'll say, what about the 529? Yes, I have a 529 for each of them. We have episodes on that, but I use that exclusively for college savings. Now there is a new rule that you can roll $35,000 that is unused from the 529 plan into a custodial Roth IRA in their name.

• 9:21Andrew Giancola?

  And that's a great, great backup plan. So the 529 has gotten an increase in contribution from me just to take advantage of that if need be. So that is another thing that you can do with those. So we'll do a whole episode. We've already done them on, you know, the taxable brokerage plan. We've done them on a 529, but I will do a whole episode on all the ways you can make your kids a millionaire. We've got some really great content coming out on that and really, really excited about it. So if you guys have any questions on that, please let me know.

• 9:50Andrew Giancola?

  All right, the next question is a great one. So, simple question. In addition to my emergency account, I have enough now through a death of kin in the family to pay off a balance of my mortgage with an interest rate of 3.25%. Do I do it all at once, but deplete most of my savings? Or do I pay it off over time and hold on to the savings for other investments? Great podcast, by the way. So this is an awesome question and thank you for the kind words on the podcast. And I am so sorry for your loss, but I'm glad you're reaching out to kind of think through how to think about this. There are a couple of perspectives to kind of consider when you're deciding on this. Number one is, does your mortgage bother you? Cause at a 3.25% mortgage, that is a really, really low interest rate. So if it was me specifically, I would like to hold on to that mortgage

• 10:34Andrew Giancola?

  and I would like to invest the extra dollars instead. The S and P 500 has returned very, very conservatively, 7% to investors. Really historically, it's been about 10%, but people get mad when I say 10%. So let's just be real conservative. Seven percent to investors over the course of the last 20 to 30 years. And really, it's been over the last 50 to 70 years. And so if you look at the difference between that, this is the simple answer. Is you could pay off a 3.25% interest mortgage, or you can invest those dollars and grow them over time. But there are different reasons why you may want to consider each one. So if paying off the mortgage would leave you with very little liquidity, meaning that you would deplete that cash from emergencies or opportunities, then I would not consider paying off the house, because you've got to have that emergency fund in place

• 11:19Andrew Giancola?

  so you do not interrupt your wealth building activities as time goes on. But if the mortgage is really, really bothering you psychologically, you don't like to have debt, and there are people out there who absolutely hate to have debt, then there's nothing wrong with paying off your mortgage if you want to. Money is a tool to reduce your stress and anxiety. And so if you want to pay off that debt early, you absolutely can. It doesn't always have to be optimized. What has to happen, though, is it has to bring you the most value. So if you're trying to consider, hey, I just want to have a paid off house. I don't want to have to worry about this anymore. I just want to pay the taxes every single year, and I want to pay my insurance every year, but I don't want to have to worry about the mortgage every single month, then that is great. If you're also considering retiring soon,

• 12:01Andrew Giancola?

  having a paid off mortgage is another huge benefit for folks who are retiring. I would love for every single person as they approach retirement age to pay off their mortgage, so you don't have that additional debt hanging over your head. When you're in retirement, you don't have to worry about it. You just pay the taxes, and then you pay whatever other costs are associated with it. So you'll never, ever have zero costs when it comes to housing expenses, but you can reduce those by paying off your mortgage. So I'll tell you, if I was in this situation, personally, I would not pay off the mortgage. Instead, I would invest those dollars and let them grow over time and put together an investment plan for that money so that it can grow over time, because I believe that it would grow much, much faster over the long run. But it depends on your time horizon. It depends on your financial situation and where you are.

• 12:45Andrew Giancola?

  And then you can assess what you're comfortable doing. You can always do half and half. There's a bunch of different options that you have available to you. But really, the optimized version is to invest those dollars. But optimization is not always the right answer for each specific situation. So that's how I would think through this is one, am I considering retiring soon? If I am, then maybe I want to be mortgage free. Two, if I'm not considering retiring soon and I have a longer term time horizon, I would rather probably grow that money over time in something like investments, index funds, ETFs, or whatever else you want to invest in and have that consideration. But three, if debt stresses me out, if having a mortgage stresses me out, and I think I would be relieved of that stress and it'd be a significant weight off my shoulders, then more power to you if you want to pay that off.

• 13:30Andrew Giancola?

  There's nothing wrong with doing that. And so that's where I would kind of look at all three of those. And then I would talk to, you know, the tax considerations on this as well. You can talk to someone like a CPA who will be able to help you with the tax considerations when it comes to this for your personal situation. But it is a great question, and I know a lot of people try to juggle this when they get some sort of inheritance and they're really trying to figure out what is the best move for this. But it's either investing those dollars typically and/or paying off a mortgage is what a lot of people try to do early on. So you have two great options in front of you and really, really appreciate the question. So let me know if you have any additional questions based on that, but that's how I would think through that. My relationship with money has changed a lot over the years. Early on, I thought building wealth was about making more money. Now I know it's really about having clarity.

• 14:14Andrew Giancola?

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• 14:59Andrew Giancola?

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• 15:43Andrew Giancola?

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• 16:24Andrew Giancola?

  Just go to indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It's kind of amazing how much can change in just a single year. Every summer, the kids are a little bigger, a little more independent, and life looks a little different than it did the year before. And it reminds me that while we can't predict the future, we can prepare for it. That's one of the reasons I like PolicyGenius. See, PolicyGenius isn't an insurance company. They're an online marketplace that lets you compare life insurance quotes from some of America's top insurers, side by side, for free.

• 17:06Andrew Giancola?

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• 18:00Andrew Giancola?

  All right, the next one is, "Hey, Andrew, love the podcast and newsletter. I'm finding a lot of value in both. I have a question about where to keep some savings that we have set aside but aren't exactly sure when will be needed. For little context, I currently work internationally for a US-based company. We don't own a house or a car now, but we have worked to save up around $100,000 over the past year to set aside for when and if we move back to America, and if we need to make a down payment on a house or buy a car." We don't have any definitive plans to relocate back to the States, but do think it will probably be at some point. "If you were in my position, where would you keep the savings bucket?" I think five years is the conventional tipping point that moves from a high-yield

• 18:41Andrew Giancola?

  savings to more stock market investing. It is currently in a money market savings account, but I'm wondering if I should move some into a taxable brokerage account. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. So, first of all, great, great question. I absolutely love this question when it comes across. This is a tougher one because you don't know how long the time horizon is going to be. So typically, the way that I would think about this is first, I would think through how much of this is going to be used for a down payment and how much is going to possibly be used for a car. Are you going to buy a $500,000 house? It kind of depends on the location you're living in. And if that is the case, then most likely you're going to use the majority of these funds for the house and the car. And so, I would probably keep that aside in something like where you have it.

• 19:24Andrew Giancola?

  Money market account or a high yield savings account because in the short run, you may need those funds for something like that. Now, if you're saying to yourself, no, I'm going to buy, you know, something like a condo. It's going to be $200,000 and I just want to put 20% down. And that's exactly what I'm going to do there, then you can invest a portion of this over the long run since it's bookmarked for that. And then you can calculate the rest of it. Now, for me specifically, because this money is bookmarked for something very specific, I would most likely still keep it in cash in something like a high yield savings account. At the time of recording this, rates are going down somewhat and they will probably continue to go down as rates decline. But at the same time, the last thing we need is for this entire amount to be invested and then go down in recession.

• 20:08Andrew Giancola?

  So you got to figure out, hey, how much of this money am I comfortable investing and possibly, you know, it getting cut in half? Maybe it's 25% of it. And if it's 25% of it, you can take a small chunk or a small portion, invest those dollars so they grow over time. I mean, over the course of the last couple of years, I get it. The S and P 500 has returned to us 20 to 30%. Now, is that inevitably going to happen every single year? No, because we know recessions come, you know, every 10 or so years. And so we may have some down years and we may have some up years. But that could still be a consideration. So you could take a portion of this. Let's say, for example, you wanted to save 75,000 in cash and you want to keep that upfront and you want to invest 25,000. You can absolutely do this and ladder it in a way that would be beneficial for you and your family. Now, the bright side to this is you don't really have to save much towards this anymore.

• 20:53Andrew Giancola?

  You can take extra dollars and start investing them over time. And then if you don't utilize this money, you just have a big old emergency fund. Now, I really like this also as a backup emergency fund plan where you have this in place and then you have this cash on hand earmarked as additional funds for your emergency fund. So you really have a great, awesome safety net. Congratulations on saving up 100 grand. That's not easy to do. And you really have an awesome safety net here that's going to allow you to really consider this. So for me specifically, if I thought there was any way, shape or form that I would move back in the next five years, I'd probably keep it all in cash in something like the money market account that you have or a high yield savings account. If I thought, eh, there's probably a high likelihood that it won't be for another seven to 10 years, then I would probably. Probably take 25,000 or 25%, maybe 35%,

• 21:39Andrew Giancola?

  put that into investments and let that grow over time and then see where it lands every single year. So that's something you could do. You could take smaller chunks. You could take 10 grand every single year and start moving it over. So if you think it's going to be longer than five years, and I know you don't know yet, but if you do think there's a high chance that it could be longer than five years, then you could take small chunks and invest those and grow them over time. But like I said, if you think there's any chance it's going to be less than five years, I would most likely keep it in cash, keep those dollars safe because they're earmarked for something specific. And that's the key here is for most people, if you earmark dollars for something specific, it's really important to make sure that you keep that cash safe because a lot of people can get in trouble. You can look at 2009, for example, during the great recession, a lot of people were investing their emergency funds.

• 22:21Andrew Giancola?

  And I've studied that extensively and looked back at personal financial situations back in those days. People were buying mortgages, obviously, left and right. That's one thing. They were overly leveraged. But also, a lot of people were investing their emergency funds and their emergency funds got cut in half. So job layoffs were happening, their emergency funds were cut in half, and then they could not maintain their lifestyle for a very long period of time. It was like a couple of months because their emergency funds were cut in half. And so I don't want that to happen to anybody else. And that's the risk that you do take if you invest those dollars. Now, last thing I'll say here is if you are okay, short term, renting, if the market gets cut in half, like say, for example, you get five years down the line, you invested these dollars and all of a sudden we have a big recession.

• 23:03Andrew Giancola?

  And the recession happens, it cuts your $100,000 to $50,000 in the short run. Maybe you're okay with renting for a couple of years when you move back and you're okay with buying a car that is not that nice. Maybe you're okay with, you know, paying cash for a $15,000 used vehicle. Well, then more power to you if you want to invest those dollars. So it's really situational how you want to think through this. But in your specific situation, that's the way I would go through this. If I think it's going to be less than five years or there's a chance it's going to be less than five years and it's a pretty high probability, I'd probably just keep it in the high yield savings account. But if I want to grow this money and I think there's a high chance that it could be even longer than five years, I would take a portion of it and invest a portion of that. Or if I'm okay, number three.

• 23:44Andrew Giancola?

  With not buying a house and I'm okay with these funds getting cut in half and I'll rent for a couple of years until the market recovers. That is your third option that you could entertain, depending on how you want to think about this. So option A is the one I always would go with just because it's the safest option. But you know, your boy is a little bit risk averse when it comes to managing cash. And the reason for that is I just have studied so many different time periods. When it comes to people losing their dollars and that money in a drastic scenario can get cut in half. And so that's where I try to avoid that as much as possible. And I try to learn from other people's mistakes. And so that's why typically we'll keep that in cash. But let me know if you have any other questions on that. I truly appreciate the question and congrats on saving that a hundred grand. That's absolutely amazing.

• 24:27Andrew Giancola?

  Sounds like you're doing some really cool stuff, so I think that is absolutely awesome. So feel free to ask me any other questions that you have and thank you for sending this one in. All right, so the next one is a brand new scam that's going around that I want everybody to know about because this is crazy. And I've heard of a couple of people already having this happen to them. And now it's going around across the country and it is something I want you to kind of be aware of. So this is how this scam works is the scammer will actually send you an unexpected package. And it comes from an unknown sender and arrives in your name. So you get a package at your front door and someone's going to send it over without a return address. And it kind of looks either like an Amazon package or it comes in a brown box. You're like, oh, someone sent me a package, maybe it's a gift or something like that. And when you open the package, it's going to have some sort of item inside.

• 25:12Andrew Giancola?

  So I've heard of people getting things like small speakers, for example, or cheap electronics, things like that, maybe some cheap headphones. And it's going to have a QR code inside and the note is going to say, if you want to see who sent you this gift, just scan the QR code. But what happens is when you scan that QR code, they can actually have access to a bunch of your data and your information just by you scanning that QR code. And so this is a new scam that is going around in a lot of different areas that I think most people would not be aware and they'd probably scan that QR code. If I didn't know about this, I think I would probably scan that QR code. Honestly, these scammers are getting really good and I could see how many people this would dupe. And so you got to make sure that you are aware of this happening. Tell your friends, tell your family about. This because I think it's really important.

• 25:55Andrew Giancola?

  Now, how would somebody get your information to even send you that package in the first place? Well, there's a lot of data brokers out there and there's going to be people that you don't want getting your information that can buy your information from these data brokers. Now, there's one really easy way to get them removed and my favorite way is using a service called Delete Me. So I started using Delete Me a couple of years ago. And what they do is they go to these data brokers and get your information removed from these personal data brokers. And at first I was trying to get my information removed by just, you know, sending in letters and you have to send them emails and jump through all these different hoops, but it was taking hours and hours. And then a friend recommended Delete Me to me, started using them and I got this information removed really, really quickly. So Delete Me is my favorite service by far because it saves you so much time.

• 26:40Andrew Giancola?

  So if you go to joindelete.me/pfp20, you can get 20% off of Delete Me and it is one of my favorite services by far. So if you want to protect your financial information online, you're serious about that, Delete Me is a great option. And so making sure you let people know about this scam and then getting your information removed are the two steps that I would take and the action steps I would take because this is happening more and more. And I have heard that they are increasing the amount of packages that are going out. So make sure you're aware of this. We do a lot on these Q and As, we kind of report on a lot of different scams that are going out there just so people understand. I don't want anybody out there getting scammed. I think it's really important to make sure that you are protecting yourself as time goes on. Let's jump into the next couple of questions.

• 27:19Andrew Giancola?

  All right, and then the last questions we have are actually from one listener, but he sent in three great questions that I want to kind of go through here. So the first one is, "You often say that we should find someone to pay by the hour to give us investment advice. That sounds great in theory, however, I have found it difficult to find someone who can give me tax advice and financial advice on an hourly basis. Is it much more common where you have to have those assets under management? In a perfect world, I would hire a CPA/financial consultant to go through all of my investments, including work 401K, 529s, HSA, Betterment, and more on this below. To let me know his or her thoughts on this and where I might be leaving money on the table. If you have a list of referrals or advice on how to find these hourly set of folks, I'd be all ears." So this is a great question. Now, there are

• 28:04Andrew Giancola?

  Companies out there that are popping up that are going to help you find hourly advisors a lot easier. So I think one is Nectarine, which is by my friend Jeremy Schneider. Another one is JoinFacet. Those are going to help you find hourly advisors really, really quickly to answer a couple of quick questions. I think they're like $150 an hour, maybe a little more. Secondly, though, is you can go and find CFPs who will put together a financial plan for you. So those plans are going to end up being somewhere around, you know, $3,000 to $5,000, maybe $6,000 to put that plan together, but you don't have a high AUM that you have to worry about, that 1% to 2% assets under management. Because if you find an advisor and you can find an advisor who can do it for like 0.40, you know,

• 28:45Andrew Giancola?

  40 basis points or 0.40% to manage your portfolio, that's really not that bad of an investment. But if you're looking for something like an advisor who is going to end up taking a huge amount of assets under management, that is not something I would definitely consider. So the first option is all these companies that are popping up. You could talk to someone on an hourly basis if you have some quick questions. The second option is to find a CFP who does those plans. And a lot of them I know will do that. But the third option is getting tax advice is what you're talking about here. So to get tax advice, I have a CPA who is separate. And my CPA is actually what is called a tax strategist. Now, there's not a ton of these across the country, but they help tremendously if you can find a CPA who is also a tax strategist with your tax situation. It is incredibly valuable if you find a good one.

• 29:30Andrew Giancola?

  And so I actually separate the two. There are some great advisors out there who can also give you tax advice. And that is the double whammy that you definitely want to find, and that's the holy grail. But most likely, you're going to have to separate the two in a lot of different scenarios unless you find a really, really good one who can do both. But some of the best ones who are also advisors typically need to have, you know, multimillion dollar portfolios and all these different things that come into play. So really, really important to kind of think through this and possibly separate out the two. Now, there are advisors who have been on this podcast, someone like Rachel Camp, for example. She helps small business owners. She has packages, if you go to campwealth.com, I've seen where she puts together stuff on an hourly basis. And so that's another place that you could start is someone like that who can kind of help you through this.

• 30:14Andrew Giancola?

  Process. Now I have some stuff coming down the line. We're probably a year out on it. That's going to help you all with some of this stuff. In fact, I'm actually getting my advisor license to even be able to do this. But we'll be able to do that in the next year or so. There'll be more announcements coming out on that. That should be helpful for a lot of folks. Now, your second question is, I started investing about 12 to 18 months ago, and I did so on the platform Betterment. I have put everything into stocks and they have their set portfolio, which is 50% to US large cap stocks, 5% to US small cap, 7% to US mid cap, 10% to international emerging markets, and 28% to international developed market stocks. Generally, I'm wondering your take on robo-investment platforms and how they work as opposed to, say, investing in the S and P 500 through Vanguard. So this is another great question.

• 30:59Andrew Giancola?

  And here's where robo-advisors are good, is robo-advisors help you with things like tax loss harvesting? They help you with rebalancing your portfolio. So if those two things are really, really important to you, those are the top two benefits, in my opinion, is tax loss harvesting and automated rebalancing. Now, they have you in a really, really diversified portfolio, the one that you're in right there. And so that could be one that is beneficial to you. I am more so a person who simplifies the amounts of funds that I'm in. I want people to have five or less funds typically in their portfolio. Now, for me specifically, I usually have three or less because I like to simplify this. There's a lot of overlap in a lot of these different funds, and so I try to reduce that overlap as much as I possibly can. But also, if you want the convenience, it's also great to have a robo-advisor.

• 31:44Andrew Giancola?

  Typically, something like Betterment has a 0.25% management fee. And so you've just got to make sure that the pros outweigh the cons on that because $100,000 portfolio at Betterment, it's going to cost you about 250 bucks per year, not a huge, huge deal. But as time goes on, that could add up and you lose out on the opportunity costs and all those different things. So just making sure you kind of have that understanding is really, really important. Now, the last question you have is, my wife and I are holding a rolled over 401k at Edward Jones, as well as 529s for the children. Are we just giving money away by paying an advisor, who is presumably just investing the funds very similarly to what the Autobots may be doing? I have a friend at Edward Jones and obviously supportive of him. But I fear being nice is actually giving away money that needs to not be given away with all due

• 32:29Andrew Giancola?

  respect to him. Once again, thanks for all you do. So another great question and a lot of people struggle with this. Maybe you have an advisor friend that you know, and they are out there investing your dollars and you just gotta look at the fees. So if they are investing your money, and again, like I said, if it's like a half a percent or less, you just gotta weigh out, is that worth it for you? Is that something you want to be doing? Do you want somebody else just to handle it and manage that for you? But if it is something like 1 to 2%, the only reason to take 1 to 2% assets under management is if you really just want to be handheld and you want an advisor to just tell you everything to do. Now, knowing a 1% fee is going to reduce the value of your portfolio over time by up to 25% of your portfolio's value. So if you had $4 million by the time you retired, it's really going to be $3 million. So it's a big, big difference.

• 33:12Andrew Giancola?

  And so those high AUMs for a lot of people are just not worth it unless you really want to be handheld. This is why we talk about just understanding fees all the time, because if you understand the fees, you can say, hey, is the cost worth the service that I'm actually getting? So if they have them invested in, say, index funds or ETFs, your robo advisor most likely would probably do the same thing. You have to kind of look at what they're invested in. And then secondly, you have to look at the fees. The fee's the most important thing. And understanding, A, what the AUM fee is, or the assets under management fee is, and then B, understanding what the fees are associated with the funds they have you in, because funds can also have fees. So there could be layers of fees they have you in. So they can be, you know, 1% assets under management, and they could have you in another mutual fund that has another 1% fee.

• 33:55Andrew Giancola?

  Now, that scenario would not be a good scenario, because now you're paying 2% in fees, which is a 40% hit to your portfolio over the long run. And so you gotta make sure that you just are looking at what those fees are and assessing it. But if your friend is charging you way less, you know, there are advisors out there who will charge, you know, much less than 1%, and you are okay with the returns that you are getting. You just gotta weigh out the costs of those. But if you're okay with the returns that you're getting, there's nothing wrong with staying there. Whereas I think in the past, a lot of people think, I hate if you use advisor at all. I don't. I think there are a lot of useful cases for advisors, but they have to have low enough fees for it to make sense. And that's the big difference there. Once you get closer to that 1% Number maybe 8.9 to 1% to 1 and 1/2%. That's where it's really going to be taken away from your portfolio's value.

• 34:41Andrew Giancola?

  So you got to monitor those fees and make sure that you understand what those fees are. So just take a look at the fees, have a conversation possibly with your friends. Say, hey, I want to understand how much the fees are that you are charging. And then I want to understand how much the fees are with the mutual funds or the index funds, or whatever else you have me invested in, just so I can understand the entire expense ratio. Now here's the rule of thumb, the last thing I'll say is the less personalized the advice is that you're receiving, the harder it is to justify those fees. So you just got to make sure that you understand where that that kind of lands. But it is so good that you are even looking into this and diving deeper into this. I think that's really, really important because it is a huge, huge impact. Most people don't realize how big an impact fees are.

• 35:21Andrew Giancola?

  You want to reduce fees as much as you possibly can when it comes to investing in your portfolio, as long as you understand, you know, how to DIY invest. And so that's really, really important as well, just making sure that you have an understanding of what you're doing there. So great job here. Love that you started investing about 12 to 18 months ago. That is huge and taking that first step. Looks like you are really, really diving all the way in. So I absolutely love that and you can definitely go from there. So if you have any other questions, please let me know. Listen, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. I truly appreciate each and every single one of you being here. If you want to ask your question again, join the master money newsletter by going to mastermoney.co/newsletter. If you want to learn how to invest, we have a course called index fund pro that teaches you exactly how to invest step by step.

• 36:06Andrew Giancola?

  You can go to mastermoney.co/indexfundpro or mastermoney.co/courses and you'll be able to see it there as well. A lot of people have been loving going through that as well. Listen, thank you guys so much for being here. We will see you on the next episode.

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