How Do I Reset My Money Mindset and Get Out of Debt? Pause Investing to Save for a House? How Does a Credit Score Actually Work? (Money Q&A)

One episode packed with everything from debt payoff psychology to investing for a special needs child. 👉 Join Andrew’s FREE Investing for Beginner’s Masterclass: ⁠https://event.webinarjam.com/q05p7/register/0o8z9io?webinar_id=21⁠ What You'll Learn in This Episode Why the debt snowball beats the debt avalanche for most people and how to use psychology to actually stick with your payoff plan How a 49-year-old with a paid-off house and $525K invested should think about paying off a car loan vs staying invested The Solo 401k strategy every self-employed freelancer needs to know about and why it blows every other account out of the water How a railroad worker with a special needs child should structure their accounts to protect benefits and leave the right legacy How to shift from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset when your finances are actually doing well The package delivery text scam costing Americans $470 million a year and exactly what to look for How credit scores actually work and the two factors that make up 65% of your entire score Start Here Join the community built to help you master your money, stay accountable, and reach financial freedom. 👉 Try Master Money Academy FREE for 7 days today! ⁠https://mastermoney.co/join/⁠ 👉 Join Andrew’s FREE Investing for Beginners Masterclass ⁠https://event.webinarjam.com/q05p7/register/0o8z9io?webinar_id=21⁠ 👉 Join The Master Money Newsletter where you will become smarter with your money in 5 minutes or less per week Here! ⁠https://expert-hustler-605.ck.page/6aa7bb9a79⁠ Partner Deals Indeed → Get a $75 sponsored job credit ⁠http://Indeed.com/personalfinance⁠ Wayfair → Up to 60% off | MEMORIAL DAY WAREHOUSE CLEAROUT ⁠http://wayfair.com⁠ Policygenius → Free life insurance quote ⁠http://policygenius.com⁠ Chime → Get more rewarding fee-free banking at ⁠https://www.chime.com/PFP⁠ Monarch Money → The all-in-one financial tool + Get 50% Off at ⁠http://www.monarch.com/PFP⁠ Scribe → Sign up for a 30-day risk-free trial ⁠⁠⁠http://www.scribe.how/pfp⁠ ⁠ DeleteMe → 20% off with code PFP ⁠https://joindeleteme.com/PFP20/⁠ Resource/s Mentioned Wallet Burst Coast FI Calculator: ⁠walletburst.com⁠ Episode/s Mentioned Why Coast FIRE May Be The Perfect Strategy for You with Andy Hill ⁠https://mastermoney.co/the-personal-finance/why-coast-fire-may-be-the-perfect-strategy-for-you-with-andy-hill/⁠ How to Run the Numbers When You Buy a House! (Total Cost of Ownership!) ⁠https://youtu.be/80_EAuZYz7Y⁠ Watch Next Are Trump Accounts Worth It? (And What's Actually Better) ⁠https://youtu.be/jJKCfTvTm0Q⁠ The Retirement Mistake 80% of Investors Make (with Vanguard's Lead Researcher) ⁠https://youtu.be/37zVUL0e2TE⁠ How Much More Expensive Has Life ACTUALLY Become Since 2020? ⁠https://youtu.be/_n8qUA3NsoI⁠ Chasing a Higher Savings Rate, Semi-Retiring in Our 40s & Rebuilding After Bankruptcy (Money Q&A) ⁠https://youtu.be/OobdeA8qYbA⁠ The Best and Worst Frugal Habits (Ranked!) ⁠https://youtu.be/_FKJfAjTi-I⁠ Connect with Andrew Instagram → https://bit.ly/Skool-Instagram TikTok → https://bit.ly/Skool-TikTok Facebook → https://bit.ly/Skool-Facebook Podcast → https://bit.ly/Skool-Podcast Youtube → bit.ly/Skool-Youtube Newsletter → https://bit.ly/Skool-Newsletter Website →⁠ https://mastermoney.co ⁠ X → ⁠https://x.com/mastermoneyco LinkedIn →⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-giancola-45027b340 ⁠ Question for you: What is the one area of your finances you feel like you finally have figured out and the one area you are still working on? Drop both in the comments below. 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?

  When I started the Personal Finance Podcast, I had no idea how big it could become. I just knew I had something I wanted to share, so I started putting it online. And looking back, I definitely wish I would have started a decade earlier. One of the horror parts about building something online, though, is making it look professional. A website used to mean hiring a developer, figuring out design, and potentially spending thousands of dollars. In fact, on my website, I spent tens of thousands of dollars. That's what impressed me when playing around with Hostinger's AI Website Builder. I told it what kind of website I wanted, and I built the first version in minutes. No coding, no designer, or developer needed. And Hostinger doesn't stop at launch.

• 0:44Andrew Giancola?

  Their AI can help with SEO, website copy, email marketing, and more. Plus, your domain, website, email, and marketing can all live in one account, with plans starting at just $3 every single month. Hostinger builds your vision step by step. Create your website today. Go to hostinger.com/pfp and use code PFP for 10% off now. Now, if you watch this podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube, you've probably noticed the wood slat walls behind us. We wanted this podcast set to look professional, but also not be a project that was overly complicated. And I found these slat walls on Wayfair, and it completely changed this space. And it's now basically the background that you see in every single podcast

• 1:29Andrew Giancola?

  or piece of content that we record. And that's one of the things that I love about Wayfair. You can shop thousands of products across different styles and budgets, use customer photos and reviews to see how things actually look in real homes, and find something that fits your space. They also have Wayfair Verified Products that are hand-vetted by product specialists using a 10-point quality inspection. And with more than 20 million verified 5-star reviews, you can feel a lot more confident about what you're ordering. I've used Wayfair for this studio and our home, and I absolutely recommend them for your space. So transform your space with pieces that hold up to real life. Join Wayfair Rewards today and get 5% back on every single purchase.

• 2:14Andrew Giancola?

  Head to wayfair.com or shop the Wayfair app for all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair: Every Style, Every Home.

• 2:29Andrew Giancola?

  On this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, we answer your questions on this Money Q and A.

• 2:41Andrew 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 answering your questions on this episode of Money Q and A. If you guys have any questions, make sure you join the Master Money newsletter by going to MasterMoney.co/newsletter. And don't forget to follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or whatever your favorite podcast player is. And if you want to help out the show, consider leaving a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Cannot thank you guys enough for leaving those five-star ratings and reviews. Now, today, we have an action-packed

• 3:25Andrew Giancola?

  episode because I have about seven of your questions that we are going to go through today. So first, we're going to be talking to someone who is stuck into debt and talking through their situation on how they can pay off their debt faster. We're going to talk to someone who has a paid-off house and has over a half a million dollars invested and trying to figure out if they should slow down their investing. We're going to talk to a self-employed freelancer on what their retirement options are, and a railroad worker with a child with special needs who is trying to figure out how to invest for their child. Plus, we're going to be talking about abundance mindset. Should you keep investing aggressively or pull back? And when those situations are going to arise? And how a credit score actually works? Plus, we have the financial scam of this month, and we're going to dive into some of the cool stuff I have been doing on

• 4:08Andrew Giancola?

  the health front into Health Corner, which is at the end of this episode. Many of you have been loving Health Corner. We're getting a lot of emails about that. So we will continue to do it at the end of this episode. So I am really, really excited. This is an action-packed episode. So without further ado, let's get into it.

• 4:26Andrew Giancola?

  All right. So the first question is from Jeremy. Jeremy says, I just found your podcast about a month ago and so far I think it's great. Well, thank you so much, Jeremy. I truly appreciate it. Right now I'm trying to get out of debt and I've been trying different systems, but can't seem to keep with it. I'm really wanting to have a mindset with money and start making better decisions around money and helping with my future goals. Well, Jeremy, the first thing that I want to say upfront is A, welcome to the podcast. So excited that you are here again. My goal with this show for everybody listening is to bring you as much value as we possibly can. And so that is my entire goal. And I think what you're doing right now, Jeremy, is you're recognizing, hey, I don't have the proper mindset thus far. And so there are some things that I can probably do in order to rewire the way that I am approaching this plan.

• 5:11Andrew Giancola?

  Now, for anybody in debt who feels as though they can't stick with their debt payoff plan, what I would recommend is looking into the debt snowball. So the debt snowball actually rewires your brain. Where if you look at this mathematically, you can look at something like the debt avalanche, which is going to allow you to mathematically pay off your debt a little bit faster. And if you kind of compare the two, it's not that much faster. But the debt snowball is going to actually be the psychological way to pay off your debt and allow you to stick with it. Now, how do these two things work? Well, the way that this works is the debt avalanche means that you are going to pay the debt off with the highest interest rate, no matter what the balance is. So let's say, for example, that you have three different debts.

• 5:53Andrew Giancola?

  Number one is you have a car loan that has $10,000 left on it at a 6% interest rate. Then you have a credit card with $5,000 on it at an 18% interest rate. And you have a personal loan that's $1,000 at a 10% interest rate. Well, the debt avalanche would say, okay, we're going to pay off the credit card first because this has the highest interest rate. And in reality, that is mathematically the fastest way to pay this off. But let's say, for example, that you have some pretty big loans with higher interest rates. For example, if you had a HELOC or something like that, that had a really high interest rate and you have $100,000 that you need to be paying off. Well, it feels like a grind. It feels like a slog when you are trying to pay that off. Again, If you have the discipline, this is the way to go because it is faster to pay that off.

• 6:38Andrew Giancola?

  But the debt snowball allows you to do the opposite. You pay off the smallest balance first, no matter what the interest rate is, and then you make minimum payments on everything else. Once you pay off that smallest balance, then those payments are directed to the next smallest balance. And so this is why it's called a snowball, because it begins to grow when you take those extra payments and put them towards the next debt. So in this example, you'd be paying off the $1,000 personal loan first, because it has the smallest balance. Then, once that personal loan is paid off, then you take all of those payments that you were directing towards the personal loan, and you put them towards the next smallest balance, which would be the credit card. The credit card gets paid off. Then you take all the money that you were throwing at the credit card,

• 7:21Andrew Giancola?

  and you roll that into the next balance, which is your car loan. Then all of a sudden, you become debt-free that way. It allows you to achieve things. It allows you to pay off debts. But in addition, it allows you to redirect those payments and start to increase the rate that you were paying off some of these debts. And many people will run the numbers and they'll say, "Okay, I can pay it off a little bit faster if I do the debt avalanche, so I'm going to go that route." But they have a really hard time sticking with it. So instead, I want you to understand that the psychology matters more than the math in most of the time of these scenarios. In fact, if you run the numbers on the difference between the debt snowball and the debt avalanche, it really is not that big of a difference. And so, in this scenario, Jeremy, what I would tell you to do is I would tell you first to look at your debts and list it from smallest to largest.

• 8:05Andrew Giancola?

  What is the smallest balance? And what is the largest balance? Make sure you have those interest rates involved as well. And then we need to start looking at these balances and seeing if we can pay these off as fast as we possibly can. Now, one of the areas that I would look at is when you look at that smallest balance, if you're having a hard time staying motivated, figure out, "Okay, how much extra payments can I make towards this? And if I'm struggling to stay motivated, how long will it be before I pay off the smallest balance first?" That's goal number one. Once that smallest balance is paid off, let's say it's going to be eight months before you pay off that smallest balance. Well, that gives you something to stay motivated towards. That gives you something to get after. And really, when it comes down to debt payoff, it comes down to tenacity. Feeling are you to stick to this goal and actually get after this goal?

• 8:49Andrew Giancola?

  And if you have tenacity, financial tenacity is one of the best things that you can have in place. And if you have this tenacity that you want to get rid of this for your future, for your family's future, for your children's children's future, so you don't have this debt anymore. What a powerful feeling that can be. And when you stay motivated by thinking through how powerful this can be to get rid of this debt, it's going to absolutely change your life. And so making sure that you have this in place is really, really important. The second thing I will say is to also make sure you have your starter emergency fund in place. Now, working towards two goals is pretty difficult at times, but having that starter emergency fund, make sure that you do not get derailed when life throw things at you. So for me, a starter emergency fund is one month of bare bones expenses.

• 9:33Andrew Giancola?

  So let's say, for example, you decide, okay, well, I'm going to make a bare bones of expenses. I spend five to $6,000 per, let's say you spend $5,000 per month on a decent month where you don't have to cut anything back. But then all of a sudden you realize, okay, I'm going to cut back to $3,000 per month. If I had to cut out all the other excess and the, the extra stuff that I buy all the time, from the eating out to the extra groceries that you really don't need, but they're just luxuries to have, to the extra, you know, Uber eats, whatever else you buy. Those things get cut out and then all of a sudden your bare bones is 3,000. That's what you need to have in place. Why? Because if life derails you, if it throws something at you like a monkey wrench, maybe something breaks down like your car, maybe you lose your job. And so at least you have something in place that's not going to derail your progress.

• 10:17Andrew Giancola?

  And then you go deeper and deeper into debt. So that starter emergency fund is very important. And then start to automate your debt payments. We want to automatically send these payments over to this debt so that we do not let our willpower get in the way and ruin this equation. Really important to do that because once you start to automate your money towards that debt, then all of a sudden you are literally building wealth on autopilot. So it's one of the best things that you can do. And then do a mindset shift, being I'm going to be tenacious with my money. I'm going to be tenacious to make sure that I get out of this debt and nothing is going to stop me until I accomplish this goal. Because once you're debt free, all of All of a sudden, you can do so many other cool things with your money.

• 10:59Andrew Giancola?

  But the reality is, if you feel as though you're in high interest debt and you need to get rid of this as fast as you possibly can, it comes down to becoming tenacious. It comes down to becoming someone who is disciplined with their mindset, which automation can remove your willpower so you stay disciplined. And then all you have to do is stick to the goal. I know it's hard sometimes where Friday rolls around and you want to just spend some money on doing some fun things. But if you can stick to this, it'll change your financial future forever. So that's what I wanted to tell you as you go through this. Again, I appreciate you listening to the show. I'm so glad that you're here and keep me updated on your progress because this is really, really important. And this is why we do some of this stuff. And for those of you out there, this is why we have Master Money Academy as well. We cheer each other on in Master Money Academy when we are working on some of these common goals.

• 11:43Andrew Giancola?

  So make sure you check it out in the show notes if you haven't already with a seven day free trial. Let's jump into the next question.

• 11:51Andrew Giancola?

  All right. So we're going to jump into the next question. The next question is from Tim. He said, Hey, Andrew, I've been listening to your podcast for over a year now, and I really appreciate all the content that you put out. Well, thank you so much, Tim. I truly appreciate you listening and I truly appreciate you being here. I have $39,000 left on a car loan at 7%, paying $792 a month, plus an extra $250 on top of that. I max my Roth, I contribute 12% to my 401k and invest $200 a month in Acorns and $10 a week into VOO. I am 49, my house is paid off, and I have $525,000 in retirement accounts. Should I back off investing to pay off the car loan faster so I can move to be debt free?

• 12:33Andrew Giancola?

  Or stay the course and wait the three plus years? Tim, you are in a fantastic spot and I tell you what, you are doing an amazing job thus far. I mean, having $525,000 invested and really moving towards investing more money every single month, I think is really, really powerful. And the fact that you have a paid off house and you have this mindset that you want to become completely debt free, I think is absolutely fantastic. Now, your car loan is right on the line. In fact, we talk about high interest debt a lot on this show and typically my fine line is about 6%. Interest rate, which it has a little bit of flexibility based on situation. A lot of times I will look at that situation and kind of see what's going on. Based on your scenario here, there's a number of different things that you can look at. Number one is looking at that 7% rate.

• 13:17Andrew Giancola?

  I think that's an interesting rate because when you look at this, right now, the national average for car loans is right around 5.5%, at least in my area. And so this is going to be something where I think you could probably refinance this loan and go to a local credit union or somewhere along those lines and get this refinanced. And if they will refinance it without any closing costs, and some credit unions will run promos or things to do that. I think that is a great option to go look into first is refinancing the car loan that allows you a 1.5% differential there. That's going to ensure that you can get this, you know, over the course of next three years where you're A-OK and you turn it in from high interest debt into low interest debt. But I know right now, a lot of car loans have this slightly higher interest debt.

• 14:00Andrew Giancola?

  But because the spot that you're in and the way that the market has been moving as of late, I'd be more interested in investing more. I think this is going to be the area where I would continue my investing plan and continue your debt payoff plan. But I would, I would keep doing what you're doing. I wouldn't pause my investing just to pay this off faster just yet. I would first try to see if I can refinance. And so when you go to some of those places to look into refinancing, you can let them, you know, know what you're, what you're looking to do. But the second part of this equation is how much do you need in retirement? Since you're 49, you know, you may be retiring at 60, you may be retiring at 65, you may want to retire even earlier than that. But when do you want to retire? Because let's say, for example, you wanted to retire at age 65 and you have this $500,000 available to you right now. Well, what's your COSSFIE number?

• 14:45Andrew Giancola?

  What's the number where you can kind of pause investing and slow down if you actually wanted to? And so one of the things that you could do to look at this too is look at your COSSFIE number. And so I put this into a simple COSSFIE calculator. The one I used here is walletburst.com. You, there's a bunch of them out there that you can use. But at age 49, if you decided that you want to retire at age 65 and you wanted to spend $40,000 per year in retirement from this portfolio specifically, obviously you have other options like social security or whatever else you have available to you. And your current investable assets are at that $500,000. And you continue with your contributions, then you would currently be coast phi right now, meaning if you wanted to spend that $40,000 per year. But if you wanted to spend more than that, then we need to continue the investing and continue to start to work towards building wealth out of this portfolio.

• 15:30Andrew Giancola?

  And so that's where I wouldn't pause it. So sometimes it just comes down to running the math on what this decision would be and how it would impact your retirement long term, especially as you approach 50. That's where I would really start to make sure I'm running these calculations before I make any financial decision, because it's very, very helpful long term. So while it burst has a great coast phi calculator that is basically a good starting point to kind of think through this, there's other great ones out there. I probably need to develop our own because there's some cool things that I would probably add to this, where you can really start to think through, okay, where do I need to be when I start to make decisions like this? And so many people think about just the debt decision. They want to get rid of that debt, but we also have to just think about the big picture. And how is this going to impact the big picture if we pause this long term?

• 16:15Andrew Giancola?

  And so here's a couple of things that I would do again. One, I would look into refinancing and I would try to refinance at a five and a half percent interest rate, if you can find that anywhere. If not, then I would just continue making the payments and looking at the impact of your investments, because two, I would run this into a coast phi calculator and I would figure out, okay, where do I need to be when it comes to coast phi? Now, for those of you out there listening who don't know what coast phi is, this is a point in time where you have been investing your money, where you can actually pause investing and your investment returns would take your portfolio to your retirement number. And so there is a point in time in every person's situation where if you figure out how much you want to spend every single year, you can figure out what your coast phi number

• 16:58Andrew Giancola?

  is based on your assumption of the rate of return of your portfolio. So a lot of times I like to be conservative with my portfolio and I will say, okay, at a 7% rate of return, if I stopped investing right now, what would this portfolio grow to by the time I turned age 60 or by the time I turned age 65? And it will show you exactly what would happen if you got those rates of returns all the way up to that number. We've done an episode in the past and it's been years since we've done it on coast phi. I'm going to do. An updated one because I think there's some really cool stuff that we could talk about in that episode and really, really excited about that. But the other thing about this, Tim, and part of this equation is what helps you sleep well at night? Because money is a tool that allows you to remove some of the stressors out of your life. And if this debt is stressing

• 17:42Andrew Giancola?

  you out, if this is causing you sleepless nights, or you're just thinking about it all the time, there's nothing wrong with paying that off whatsoever. For example, my wife and I, a couple of years ago, and we had our third child, she's one and a half now, but we decided, okay, I'm going to take on a car loan for our vehicle that we are getting because we needed to get a bigger vehicle that fit all of us into to one car when we're, you know, driving around town with three kids. And so we ended up getting a vehicle that I took on a small car loan on. I took on a car loan because I was saying to myself, okay, well, I really would rather invest these dollars. I don't really want to have this car loan on hand. And then all of a sudden, after I took on that car loan, it would probably have been more optimal for me to invest every extra dollar. But instead, I was looking at that car loan and I said, this thing's bothering me.

• 18:25Andrew Giancola?

  I really don't want to have this on hand anymore. And so I ended up just going and paying it off, even though it was the least optimal thing for me to do in that situation. It was the best thing for me in terms of just me not having to think about it anymore, removing that anxiety from the equation. It's not like a true anxiety, but it was just something I was always and constantly thinking about. And some of you listening right now may have felt this before, where you just have this lingering debt sitting there that it feels as though it doesn't go away. It's always in the back of your mind. You think about it on a daily basis, you know, you're just doing random things. And all of a sudden, you're thinking about that debt like, man, I, I really just wish I could get rid of this debt. It's just bothering me. That's normal. That's completely okay. If you want to get rid of it, it may not be the most optimal

• 19:08Andrew Giancola?

  decision. And you got to know what the repercussions of those decisions are. Like, if you decide that I'm going to pause investing, I wouldn't pause it fully whatsoever. But what I would do is just look at, should I reduce some of my investments to pay off this debt faster? That's one way to look at it as well. But for me specifically, I always, always, always, especially in your situation, because you're in such a good situation. I would say, continue on with your plan and then continue to invest your dollars over that timeframe. I never really want to pause investing. I want to make sure I'm continuously dollar cost averaging into the market as much as I possibly can. Now, if this was credit card debt, or if this was something else, I would tell you to pause investing and I would tell you to get after it. But because this is right on the fine line at 7%, I would be

• 19:50Andrew Giancola?

  okay with you based on being debt free everywhere else, not even having a mortgage and having $500,000 in your investment accounts to continue on with your plan so that you can reach your retirement age and be happy with your retirement. These are key years for you specifically as you begin to approach retirement age. And so I think that's one of the most important things, which is why personal finance is very personal for every single person. In this scenario, I think that unless the debt really stresses you out, continue your investment plan, and then you can pay off the debt over the course of the next couple of years. Really great question. I truly appreciate it. And feel free to ask me anything else beyond that. Would love to hear more about your situation.

• 20:32Andrew Giancola?

  All right. The next question is from Kendall. Kendall says, "Hey, Andrew, I've been listening for some time and love your approach. The Q and As are so informative. I was pushed into independent consulting last year and no longer have an employer 401k. I have $210,000 in a rollover IRA, $56,000 in a rollover Roth, awesome, and about $560,000 invested total at age 40." Kendall, that is absolutely amazing. "I also use the foreign earned income exclusion, which reduces my taxable income significantly. How should I be contributing to tax advantaged retirement accounts as a self-employed freelancer? Thanks for all you do." Well, Kendall, first of all, I just want to say that you have built this incredible

• 21:14Andrew Giancola?

  base. At age 40, having $560,000 invested is absolutely amazing. So first off, kudos to you. That is absolutely incredible. We need to celebrate you here because that is so, so cool. But there's one thing that I want you to look at, and I want you to make sure that you have this dialed in first, because the foreign earned income exclusion can quietly wipe out your ability to contribute to retirement accounts. And so you want to make sure that you are looking at that before we pick an account and confirm you even have contribution room. So here's the trap that I think a lot of people fall into is to put money into an IRA or something like a solo 401k. You need taxable earned income, what the IRS calls compensation.

• 21:56Andrew Giancola?

  And the foreign earned income exclusion works by excluding your foreign earned income from your taxable income. And so if you exclude all of it, you have no taxable income or compensation left that you could put into some of these retirement accounts. And so the way to look at this is that the exclusion only goes up to an annual cap of roughly $132,900 for 2026. And you can confirm the exact figure with your specific situation. But any income above the cap stays taxable in this scenario. And so one thing to look at is if the foreign earned income exclusion is zeroing out your earned income, you have something strategic that you could look deeper into or talk to your CPA about if this works even better for you that most freelancers don't know about, and it's called the foreign tax credit.

• 22:41Andrew Giancola?

  So instead of excluding your income, the foreign tax credit keeps it taxable. So it counts as compensation, which is helpful for contributing to retirement accounts while offsetting your US tax with the foreign tax you already paid. And so because of this, if you're in a country with comparable or higher tax rates, it often leaves you owing the US little or nothing while preserving your ability to fund some of these retirement accounts. So this is something I'll definitely look deeper into if you have not done so already. And talking to a CPA can really help you through your situation while you're thinking about this. But once you have confirmed that, once you have confirmed your taxable compensation, there is an account that I would definitely look into and by far my favorite account,

• 23:23Andrew Giancola?

  especially if you're a freelancer and someone who is doing this solo. By far, one of the best building, wealth building accounts out there is the solo 401k. The solo 401k is just an incredible way to build wealth, especially if you're a high earner. Cause you can put that $24,500 per year as the employee. Plus, you can put in 25% of net self employment income as the employer.

• 23:48Andrew Giancola?

  You can put contributions in as the employee and the employer for a whopping $72,000 combined in 2026. So you can literally, as long as you are profitable within your business, get up to $72,000 in the solo 401k. This is by far my favorite account and one of the best ones out there. Now, another account out there that you could look at is a SEP IRA. And a SEP IRA works by putting 25% of compensation all the way up to that $72,000 again into this account. I find though, that the SEP IRA feels a little too complicated in some scenarios. So, the solo 401k, I typically, at the end of the year, I have one. Typically, at the end of the year, will have my CPA run the numbers.

• 24:32Andrew Giancola?

  They do the math and say, hey, here's how much you can put into this solo 401k. And usually, they try to tell me, okay, you can put all the way up to the cap. Or if there are times where I couldn't, I remember back, you know, a couple of years ago, there were years where I couldn't. And so, they just tell me, you know, they come to me and tell me how much I can put in there. There's also the Roth solo 401k, which is fantastic. And that is another great account. Like if you're looking at a Roth 401k, the Roth solo 401k works exactly the same way. But you can't have employees outside of maybe, you can't have employees in your business outside of a spouse. So, once you start to have employees, if you start to go and, you know, build this business into maybe like a consultant or something like that, then it would change the way that you can do this. But if you wanted to get a really, really good amount in there,

• 25:15Andrew Giancola?

  you could layer in the Roth IRA and you could layer in some other accounts that allow you to save for retirement. You also have the HSA available to you. So, you can get contribute to a solo 401k or SEP, whatever you're looking into. You can contribute to your Roth IRA and you have the HSA available to you as well. In addition to the traditional IRA, if you wanted to go that route and you wanted to save on taxes in a specific given year. So, I think the account is the easy decision. I think figuring out your tax situation is going to be the harder portion, which is why I would look into the exclusion versus the foreign tax credit. I think those two things are going to help you really figure out where you need to land. It'll be the big difference in this equation. But solo 401k for sure, definitely look deeper into that.

• 25:58Andrew Giancola?

  I think it is my favorite account overall and one of the best wealth building tools. Thank you so much for the question and congrats on your progress thus far. I think that's absolutely amazing.

• 26:08Andrew Giancola?

  All right, the next question is from Nathan. Nathan says, "I listen to a lot of great personal finance podcasts, but yours is at the top." Well, thank you so much, Nathan. I truly appreciate you listening. "I am 51 with $750,000 in my Roth IRA, $575,000 in a traditional rollover, and $10,000 in a taxable account." Wow, that is absolutely incredible, Nathan. Congratulations. That is amazing. "I work for the railroad and plan to retire at 59 to 60, which will give me about $95,000 to $100,000 per year in railroad retirement at 67 instead of social security. I have a special needs child and want to leave my Roth for my kids. Should I contribute more to my Roth IRA or a taxable brokerage account? I may also receive $400,000 to $500,000 inheritance

• 26:53Andrew Giancola?

  and would love a flat fee advisor recommendation." So Nathan, thank you so much for the kind words, and you have done a phenomenal job. Having $1.3 million plus in your accounts with railroad retirement waiting for you is one of the strongest positions I have seen in a while. But a couple of things that I would tell you to do first is to look into this Roth versus taxable equation, and there's something else I would do instead. But if you have a special needs child and they really need to have this money on hand in order to continue their everyday living, then I would consider this. Now, this is what I would do in your shoes, okay? So just to think about this and take this with a grain of salt, but I want you to kind of see if you can go talk to someone about this. I would not name them directly as a beneficiary in my Roth

• 27:37Andrew Giancola?

  or any accounts, because that can disqualify them from any means-tested benefits like SSI or Medicaid or any of that other stuff, or the other programs that they may depend on. Now, if they're depending on some of these programs, I would definitely look into those rules. But the money is meant to help them instead of kind of remove some of the other benefits they have in place. And so the fix for this is you can actually draft up a special needs trust. You can go to an attorney. They can help you through this process to figure out how to draft up a special needs trust. And you can pair this with something like an ABLE account, if it makes sense for your scenario, where those two things can really help you as a companion for everyday expenses. So an ABLE account is great for those everyday expenses. The special needs trust is making sure that they get the money in the way

• 28:22Andrew Giancola?

  that makes sense for them, while also ensuring that they get care and help from some of these government agencies that are there to help special needs folks. And so this does require some special planning from an attorney. And if this is not a do it yourself thing, this is a more complicated thing. And I, but I would definitely have a conversation at least with someone and talk through, okay, what does this stuff look like? And how can I set this up in a way that makes more sense? Now, let me get to what you're actually asking. But that's the first thing I would do is I would just say, hey, let's get some protections in place. Let's get this legally protected so that we have that in place first. Now, this may cost you a few thousand dollars. If it does, that's just part of, you know, setting this up properly. And that's a okay in my book, like I would be okay paying that, especially in your position where you are.

• 29:06Andrew Giancola?

  I'd be okay paying that, knowing that my special needs child is getting the care that they need. And it's all going to be structured legally in the correct way. So that's the first thing I would say. But to get to what you actually asked, your instinct to leave the Roth to your kids is smart. I think it is something that most people need to know the rules around the Roth. It is a great thing to hand down to your kids. A Roth that is inherited passes down actually tax free and it keeps growing for your heirs tax free. And non spouse heirs must empty it within 10 years. So you have a 10 year window, if you inherit a Roth IRA where you must empty that out. And no income tax will be owed along the way. Now, the taxable brokerage account gets what we call the step up basis at death,

• 29:49Andrew Giancola?

  meaning your heirs are going to inherit it as if they bought it at the date of death value, wiping out all the capital gains entirely, which is a very cool benefit of something like a taxable brokerage account. And this is where I think both of these are pretty heir friendly. The step up basis is a very, very powerful thing. Now, let me explain the step up basis really quick for those who haven't heard of this before. Let's say, for example, you have a taxable brokerage account and you ended up putting a hundred thousand dollars in that taxable brokerage account and it grew over the years to $500,000. So the gain in that account is $400,000. Typically, when you pull money out of that taxable brokerage account, you're going to owe long term capital gains tax on that money.

• 30:31Andrew Giancola?

  And that's going to be 0%, 15% or 20%, depending on where your income is at that time. But when you pass away, something called a step up basis happens. Where then all of the sudden now that account moves all the way up where none of that tax is going to be owed on that money all the way up to the the point of death. And so if you died and you had $500,000 in that account and your kids inherit that money, all of a sudden the clock resets. And if they keep those dollars invested, then they would owe on the growth of that money after the date of death. This is a pretty cool benefit to a taxable brokerage account. And so that's the other thing to look at is both of those have the pros and cons of this, and it depends on your situation on which you want to look at. But there's also one other thing to look into is if you plan on retiring at 59 to 60,

• 31:15Andrew Giancola?

  your railroad benefits start at 67. What are we going to do in between there and how are we going to think about this? You may have to draw down on some of these accounts for that time being for the seven years that you have that differential there. And so that's another thing that we want to look into and and think through how we want to structure this and make this work for your retirement as well. But one thing I would say is that you are in wonderful shape thus far. And this is all about optimization. It's all about thinking through the process and exactly how you want to do this. So here's the things that I would tell you to do. One is I would make sure I talk to that trust attorney and ensure that you at least have a conversation, figure out what they could do for you. And then you can make the decision on if it is the best possible option for you. Then when you're looking at the Roth versus taxable, you want to understand, okay, well, am I going to give this entire account to them? How do I want to think about this?

• 32:00Andrew Giancola?

  Do I want them to be able to pull on this in the next couple of years? And so both of those have tremendous benefits overall when it comes to your kids inheriting that money and they can continue to allow that money to grow in the Roth for up to 10 years after the date of death, or you can give them the taxable and then you are going to have the step up basis in the taxable on the date of death. And so between those two things, both are great options. It's just going to depend on what you really want to see them do with that money. Do you want them to keep it invested? Do you want them to draw on it? How do you want to think about that? And then from there, you can make that choice. But I would first start with those two things. And again, you're in a wonderful position. Congrats to you on all the hard work you have done thus far. I think that is warranted and you're going to see this, these accounts compound pretty

• 32:45Andrew Giancola?

  quickly over the course of the next seven to nine, 10 years because of the way that you have set this up. Once you hit your first million, you really start to see it accelerate as time goes on. So I congratulate you and truly, truly appreciate you sending in the question. And let me know what you decide. I would love to hear more as you start to think about this.

• 33:05Andrew Giancola?

  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. And their licensed team helps you compare coverage, prices, and terms, answers your questions, and even handles the paperwork so you can get the right policy without the hassle. For me, having life insurance isn't about expecting something to happen. It's about knowing my family is protected

• 33:50Andrew Giancola?

  so I can actually enjoy these moments together instead of worrying about what comes next. And with PolicyGenius, you can find 20-year life insurance policies starting at just $276 a year for $1 million of coverage. Head to PolicyGenius.com to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you can save. That's PolicyGenius.com. If you've been listening to this show for a while, you know it's not just me anymore. It takes a great team behind the scenes to make everything happen. And if I had to hire someone tomorrow, I'd want someone who could jump right in and make an impact. That's why I'd use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. When workplace chaos hits, Indeed Sponsored Jobs helps you reach qualified candidates faster. Your job gets boosted in search results

• 34:35Andrew Giancola?

  so you're spending less time searching and more time interviewing the right people. Plus, you only pay for results, which I absolutely love. Sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored posts. That's a huge advantage when you're trying to grow your business. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all of your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is the job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job The premium status it deserves at indeed.com/podcast.

• 35:18Andrew 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. If you've heard any recent episode of Health Corner, you know that I have spent the last few years trying to optimize my sleep. I've tried sleep trackers, cooling my room, changing my nighttime routine, all the different things, but nothing really matters as much as having the right mattress. And that's one of the reasons I love Leesa. A great mattress is one of those things that you use every single night and you spend a third of your life sleeping and it can make a huge difference on how you feel the next day.

• 36:02Andrew Giancola?

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• 36:45Andrew Giancola?

  One thing I've learned from running multiple businesses is there's usually a gap between how you think work is getting done and how it's actually getting done. And we've had times where we thought we knew the bottleneck, only to realize later, the real issue was somewhere completely different. That's exactly what today's sponsor, Scribe, helps solve. Scribe is a workflow AI platform trusted by 94% of the Fortune 500. And Scribe Optimize turns real workflow data into decisions your AI strategy actually needs, automatically capturing how work happens across approved apps, surfacing inefficiency and opportunities with no interviews and no Manual discovery and no extra work from your team, which is the key. And the live dashboard shows where work is happening,

• 37:30Andrew Giancola?

  how much time it's taking and where the biggest opportunities are right now. It automatically discovers workflows across multiple tools, then highlights your biggest inefficiencies and gives AI-powered recommendations with estimated time-saving. You know I love saving time. It's also built with privacy in mind. It only runs across approved business applications. User-level data is anonymous by default, and sensitive information is automatically redacted and never leaves your firewall. To see optimized action, head describe.how/pfp and mention PFP for a 30-day risk-free trial. That's S C R I B E dot H O W slash P F P. Awesome. The next question is from Lindsay. Lindsay says, "Good afternoon, Andrew.

• 38:14Andrew Giancola?

  I've been listening to your podcast on and off since 2021 and 22. Your podcast helps give me momentum to keep good financial health and to go through the financial steps. My question is, how do you prioritize your value areas in life and tell yourself that you are okay financially? My husband and I went through a season of lack the last few years, but we are now in a season of abundance, and we have one times our income saved for retirement before our 30s, a six-month emergency fund and a sinking fund, but my mind still sees us struggling. How do you make that mental shift?" Lindsay, I absolutely love this question, and I am so glad that you sent this in because I think so many people out there feel this. You get to the point in time where, first of all,

• 38:58Andrew Giancola?

  you guys are doing absolutely incredible. Having one times your income saved, having that emergency fund in place, having everything set up in a way that makes sense is absolutely incredible. And I think what you are doing here is, you know, you are on top of your game. So I want you to know right now that if you're at a point in time where you feel as though you've got extra money on hand and you've got this cash on hand where you are in a position... Of strength, then let's start to work on our money mindset. And I would first tell you to look and acknowledge that you are probably having a scarcity mindset. So you want to figure out where that's coming from. And when it comes to a scarcity mindset, I had this for years and years and years. I struggled with this forever.

• 39:40Andrew Giancola?

  I came from a middle-class household and for me specifically, everything I did when I was growing up, I had to earn myself. Where even when I was going to high school, for example, I went to a private high school. Everybody around me was kind of given things. They were given things in a way where I was kind of shocked at how much stuff they were given. And I was always the type of person that I had to go and earn it. I had to go out and you know, if I wanted to go buy something, I had to go earn money in order to go buy something. My parents didn't just hand me money. My friends, we would go to the mall, for example, and I would watch their parents just hand them a bunch of $20 bills to go buy stuff at the mall. Me specifically, I had to bring my own money every single time. And so because of that, I had a similar mindset where I had to earn this.

• 40:22Andrew Giancola?

  I had this scarcity mindset and I didn't want to go back to that feeling where I always had to, you know, do certain things that created this environment in my brain of like, hey, I need to earn it every single time. And so sometimes it feels as though you still need to continue to earn it, even though you've already got to the point in time where you can start to enjoy your money a little bit more. And so what happened here is then this caused me in my twenties to have this really frugal mindset. And I've talked about this a number of times, but there was a point in time where I hit rock bottom. I was living paycheck to paycheck on my first job. I hit rock bottom. I didn't have enough money to fill up my gas tank. And at that point in time, I decided, okay, I'm going to turn this whole thing around. But that also doubled down on my scarcity mindset because I hit rock bottom

• 41:06Andrew Giancola?

  and I figured out my finances and I figured out how to budget. I figured out how to start to build wealth. I figured out how to increase my income, but I still had the scarcity mindset that I didn't want to go backwards to where I was. And so, you know, my upbringing had a huge impact on me because there were times, you know, like we, you know, my parents in a business and when the business went under, we had to go live with my grandmother for a few months. There were times where like all these different things would happen to me and I just had this scarcity mindset like. I don't ever want to feel that way. I don't ever want to do this. And so I would hoard money, or I would put money aside and feel as though I just couldn't enjoy it. And it took me throughout my entire twenties to work on this. And what I realized was that spending is a skill. It's a skill that you can work on, and there's a skill that you can earn.

• 41:49Andrew Giancola?

  And when you start to think about spending as a skill, it's going to change the way you think about money. And this is going to be something where I want you to kind of create a list of things that you actually value. Now, your values and your husband's values may be very different. Maybe you're looking at your values and you value, I don't know, fitness and you value traveling and you value doing other things and your husband values a very different set of things. But you can come together and work towards common goals that are going to help both of you achieve what you want in this life. Okay. And so you got to think through, okay, how much do I have left at the end of every single month? Well, if I'm hitting my retirement goals, if I'm hitting my investment goals, if I've got my six month emergency fund, if I've got everything in place, guess what?

• 42:33Andrew Giancola?

  You get to enjoy some of that money. You have earned the right to enjoy some of that money. And I want you to know that right now, because this is one of those things that now, once you realize, okay, I can enjoy some of this money. Now we need to identify those values and we need to spend a little bit more on those values. So I want you to create what I've talked about in the past called a blow fund. A blow fund is something where you put a set of capital inside of a little sinking fund on the side that you can spend on things that you actually want to spend money on. So set aside, maybe it's a hundred dollars to begin a month, maybe it's $200, maybe it's $300, depending on how much you have left over and start to use that fund as a place where you and your husband can enjoy that money.

• 43:15Andrew Giancola?

  And maybe you split it up. If you want to enjoy it on your own and you want to, you know, put it towards your own hobbies, do it this way, split it up where each of you get half and you just start to spend it on things that you actually enjoy. I want you to practice spending more on things on purpose. Because in my twenties, I didn't practice this enough. And then I started to practice it a little bit more in my early thirties. And now I have it down pretty much to a science. And sometimes I actually spend overspend on my values. And so I have to reel it back at times to make sure that I am on track. And so in reality, this is going to be something that you'll never fully master. Nobody ever fully masters the game of money. But what you are going to be able to do is you're going to be able to spend more on your values and spend more on things that bring you joy.

• 43:58Andrew Giancola?

  But it comes down to really talking about this and having a conversation about this and being intentional about writing out those values. I love to do this where I will actually recalibrate every couple of months and say to myself, well, am I really going in the right direction and rowing in the right direction towards my values? I've seen this happen a few times where I've started to overspend just on random stupid stuff. For example, and then I'll go back and look at my values and I'll say, well, this isn't, this isn't supporting what I really want to do. This isn't pushing towards the goals that I actually have. This isn't pursuing financial freedom, that the freedom that I want for me and my family. This isn't pursuing that long lasting legacy building wealth that I really want. And so instead, I need to make sure that I recalibrate and I reprioritize. Let me give an example of this because I just started to do this recently.

• 44:43Andrew Giancola?

  One of the things that I have said throughout my entire life is I think that a boat is a big old waste of money. I think a boat is one of those things that is an appreciating asset that goes down to zero at some point in time. But then I started to rent some boats with my kids and I saw the smiles on their faces. And my wife absolutely loves going out in the boat and how much fun and how much happiness and joy it brought my family. Where I live in Florida, we have islands all over the place that you can boat to. You can hang out on the island all day and then shoot back. It's basically like having your own private beach for the most part. And so I realized pretty quickly, this is something that is so incredibly valuable and we are creating these amazing memories. And so I started a boat fund where I am going to at some point in time, over the course

• 45:26Andrew Giancola?

  of the next five or six years, I'm going to buy one of the dumbest purchases that you can buy. I'm going to buy a boat, but I'm going to pay in cash and I am going to make sure that I do not ever go into debt for something like that. But this is a scenario where I said to myself, what are my goals and what are my values? I want my family to enjoy these experiences together. And so that is why I went out and started this boat fund. And so over the course of the next couple of years, I'll talk about this on the show. But I am going to, you know, have these dollars set aside so that I can buy this boat. Now, I, if anybody wants to know the parameters around what I'm doing here, I'm actually investing the dollars. Because I don't care if the market pulls back when I'm ready to buy the boat. I'll just wait a year or two longer if that's the case. But for me, for most people specifically, if you're saving for something short term like this,

• 46:11Andrew Giancola?

  I highly recommend you doing it in cash. I just know what the, what the rules of the game are here. And I'm pretty, pretty much ready to just allow that to grow a little bit more and take that risk. And then if it does pull back, I'm okay not having the boat. I'll just continue to rent them. But that's just going to be the way that I do it and the way that I structure it. And so I came to the conclusion that forever, I didn't want to do it because I know how much, you know, a money, how big of a money pit a boat is. But instead I decided, you know what? I'm going to build a cash plan to go out and buy a boat. So I put a little bit of money every single month in that fund. Going to see what happens here and I'm really, really excited for it. But that is me practicing spending on my values. That is me practicing exactly what I'm talking about here. I want you to start practicing it. Put it in this blow fund and start to see how you feel about this.

• 46:55Andrew Giancola?

  How do you feel about spending a little bit more on yourself? How do you feel about taking the extra classes or going out on that fishing charter? Or going out and doing an extra vacation or two a year or buying the extra stuff at the store? How do you feel about it? And then start to really just exercise that muscle. Now you don't want to take it too far, but you want to exercise that muscle a little more, little bit more frequently so that you can build the skill of spending. And I think that's going to be one of my favorite things that I, I love to unlock for people is building the skill of spending because money is there to enjoy. It is there to bring you value and that's what I want it to do for each and every single one of you. So that's the starting point is first work on the psychology. But as you're working on the psychology, put it into practice because doing those two things together

• 47:38Andrew Giancola?

  is going to allow change and that's what we want when it comes to spending.

• 47:44Andrew Giancola?

  All right, so now we are going to talk about the financial scam of the month. And I am going to be willing to guess that many of you have had this happen to you over the course of the last couple of months, or maybe over the course of the last couple of years. And if you have, I want you to comment down below on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or YouTube or wherever you're watching this podcast, because I would love to hear from each and every single one of you. And the funny thing is, is when I planned to do this episode. And plan to talk about this specific financial scam. The same evening that I set up this episode, I got the literal text message that I'm about to talk about right now, this exact scam. It was hilarious and just one of those things that made me realize I'm probably supposed to talk about this in the podcast, so I'm excited for it.

• 48:24Andrew Giancola?

  So this is the USPS or the FedEx or the DHL or Amazon Logistics. This is the scam where you're going to get a text message that you missed a package. Now, if you have seen this in the past before, many times, you'll get a text to your phone that says, hey, missed package, click the link so that you can recover your package. Well, most parts of this country right now, many people are expecting a package of some sort. And if these scammers get people and they get a lot of people, which we're going to talk about in a second, they can actually send out this text message and they are just playing a volume game, hoping that you're expecting a package and you're going to click the link. So here's the numbers behind this scam. People reported $470 million in losses to text-based scams in 2024, which was just

• 49:06Andrew Giancola?

  two, two years ago, and nearly 100 million more than the previous year with package delivery scams as the single most reported category. So the number one category where people are getting hit with scams when it comes to text messages is package delivery scams. The FBI and the United States Postal Service issued joint warnings about a dramatic search in these text-based phishing scams that are happening right now. And so here's how this works because it is a very low pickup that you won't notice, but here's the big thing, okay? A text message arrives and it looks like it's from the United States Postal Service or FedEx, or I get them from UPS all the time. It always says UPS, DHL, or Amazon Logistics.

• 49:48Andrew Giancola?

  And the message references a package that could not be delivered, or a customs hold, or an address confirmation needed, or a small redelivery fee. And it's usually like a $1.99 or $2.99. Now, what the message does is it creates mild urgency. So the one that I got, for example, says, hey, you need to respond by tomorrow or we're going to send it back to the company where you ordered this package from. And so it makes you say, okay, I'm going to try to, you know, get this information to them so that they can redeliver my package tomorrow or the next day. And it's going to say your package is either easy or delayed, or they're going to send it back. And then there's a link that almost looks legitimate. So a common pattern to look at this for would be like USPSdeliveryupdate.com

• 50:30Andrew Giancola?

  or FedExTrackingAlert.net or USPSRedelivery.com. And sometimes they use link shorteners to hide the destination entirely. But the link is going to lead to a fake website that mimics looking exactly like the carrier's branding. So if it's a USPS one, it'll look like their branding. If it's a FedEx one, it'll have the purple and orange logo and it'll have, you know, it'll look exactly like the FedEx website. And it'll ask you to confirm your address and pay the small redelivery fee. Now here's what happens because this $2 charge is a smokescreen. All it's there to do is to get your credit card number when you put in that information or your phone number or your address and it's going to start to take some of your information

• 51:14Andrew Giancola?

  and sometimes even your login credentials for these specific websites if you have one. And the data gets sold, combined with other breached data and used to open accounts in your name. And so if you ever get these text messages, what I would say is do not ever click the link and do not ever put your information in with that specific link. I got one recently, which was the funny thing, but I hadn't got one in the past before this, before I started to talk about this, but I had friends that I've talked to who get these all of the time. And I think it's really, really interesting how they do this because you are not even thinking about it. You're probably expecting a package and if they hit you at the right time, all of a sudden, they perfectly are going to hit you where you're just going to say, oh shoot, I was expecting that package today, didn't get it.

• 51:57Andrew Giancola?

  I better make sure that I put in this information. And so you may be asking yourself, well, how do they get this information and how do they find it? Well, the main way is from these data brokers that are out there. There are data brokers that sell your information and they take your information and they will sell your name or your phone number or your address, whatever information they have on you, and they will sell it to these scammers left and right. They don't care whatsoever. They have your information, they just want to sell it to these scammers. And so what you want to do is get your information removed from these websites. And so the way to do that, the way that I do that is with a service called DeleteMe. DeleteMe will go to these data brokers and they will remove Your information from these websites, which if you do not use a service like Delete Me, will take you hours and hours and hours.

• 52:42Andrew Giancola?

  And so this is a big portion of my financial protection plan online. And every single person should have a financial protection plan online in 2026, because this is the time where scams are getting better and better and better. So use Delete Me to remove your personal information. And it is one of the best services out there because they also will continuously monitor these websites to make sure that your information is removed. So if you go to joindelete.me/pfp20, you can get 20% off Delete Me with that link. So I highly recommend that you do this because again, this is something I have been doing for years. It is one of the best services that I use. They get rid of that personal information. So you do not have to worry whatsoever. They get rid of that personal information.

• 53:24Andrew Giancola?

  It would take you hours and hours to do this on your own, but Delete Me does it for you. And so I highly recommend that you look deeper into that. This is one of the most important things that you can do. So you are not subject to a lot of these different scams that are happening. And if they get a piece of your information, all they have to do is go to the data brokers and get the rest of it and they can open accounts in your names, loans in your names, all sorts of different things. I am so strict on this stuff because I had my identity stolen. I know what it feels like. I know what a pain it is. And so this is why it is so important to me to spread this message of all these different scams. So that doesn't happen to you.

• 54:01Andrew Giancola?

  All right. So the next question we have is from Cassandra. Cassandra sent in and said, should we keep investing aggressively or pull back in order to save more for a down payment on our first house? So Cassandra, this is a great question. I think a lot of people struggle through this question and it's a big, big thing that a lot of people have to think through because right now in today's day and age, unfortunately, the housing prices have risen over time. And so sometimes you have to think through, okay, well, if I'm going to make any meaningful progress towards this down payment, I may have to either reduce my investing or make a shift in my entire budget. But here's a couple of things that I would think about first is number one is I would look at your area and think through total cost of ownership because it may make more sense right now to rent than it does to buy.

• 54:44Andrew Giancola?

  And so what I would do is we have a total cost of ownership calculator that you can download for free if you go to mastermoney.co/resources. And you want to look at the difference between buying a house versus renting a house in your area. Because if you're saving for a down payment, not realizing that, you know, you may be spending way more on buying a house than you would just renting and investing the difference. That's the first thing I would look into and we have tons of episodes diving deep into that if you want to look through that. But if you're thinking through, okay, well, I am going to be buying a house over the course of the next couple of years and I don't really have a firm timeline yet, then here's how I would think about this. Once you run those numbers, then it's time to come down to, okay, well, am I hitting my retirement goals? If you're hitting your retirement goals with your investing, that's the bare minimum that

• 55:28Andrew Giancola?

  you need to invest is figure out, okay, how much do I need to retire with? And I want to hit those retirement goals first. Okay. Once you have that in place, then you can start to save for a down payment on a house because the last thing you want to do is allow a house to derail your progress towards retirement. If you stopped or slowed down investing and all of a sudden started to save for three to five years into retirement, you are losing out on not just those investment dollars, but also the opportunity cost that those investment dollars would have grown to if you would have kept them invested. Whereas if you moved the money over to your down payment, it's likely going to be sitting in cash because if you are saving for a down payment, typically we want that in a high yield savings account, sitting in cash so that you have it available when it comes time

• 56:13Andrew Giancola?

  to be able to buy the home. And so this is one of those scenarios that I think if you are looking at a five year or less time horizon, it is a big difference in what you're doing there. So some non-negotiables or things like your 401k match, making sure you're investing enough for retirement, making sure you have your emergency fund in place first, then you can go and start to save up for that home. But I wouldn't really slow down investing unless you are just above and beyond where your retirement numbers are. Outside of that, I would continue with the plan of investing and then try to increase your income to save more for those retirement goals or save more for the house goals if you can. Otherwise, there's nothing wrong with renting and I want everybody to remember this, there's nothing wrong with renting at all. Now, I want everybody listening, obviously, to own a home.

• 56:57Andrew Giancola?

  I think it's great to own a home, but it's not a financial decision. It's a lifestyle decision. And when we think about this as a lifestyle decision, it's going to change the way we actually think about money long-term. The Schiller Index, go look up the Schiller Index for home prices over the course of the last few decades and you will see homes have appreciated after inflation. And everything else, right around two to 3% every single year. And because of that, investing those dollars into the market can be a big, big difference for a lot of folks. Now, sure, if you're not investing and you are deciding to build up your wealth in your home, the big thing about the home to remember is that you can't pull money out of your home in retirement. This isn't something that you can utilize in retirement. So if you want financial freedom, if that's your number one goal, prioritizing investing first, and then everything beyond your retirement number, then you can put towards some of these other goals like buying a home.

• 57:42Andrew Giancola?

  So I think that is the way to kind of think about this. You want to make sure you run total cost of ownership, understanding the entire total cost of ownership of buying a house, because there's a lot of additional costs that most people don't factor in. And then from there, you can really make a sound and solid financial decision. So thank you so much for the question. Really great question. I truly, truly appreciate it.

• 58:05Andrew Giancola?

  All right. So the next one is from Unique. So Unique says, how does a credit score actually work? So this is a great question, Unique, and this is something where I'm going to go through the different areas of your credit score, and then I'm going to show you how to 80/20 your credit score, the areas that you should be focusing on, and the areas that you really don't have to focus on as much as some of these other areas. So here's actually what goes into your credit score, and I want you to understand each of these. So number one is payment history. So payment history is 35% of your credit score. So this is whether or not historically you have paid your bills on time, and it is the single biggest factor by far. Meaning if you make sure that you are paying your bills on time and you have a length of credit history that makes sense,

• 58:48Andrew Giancola?

  this is going to be 35% of your credit score. So the way to make sure that you're making those payments on time is to ensure that you are automatically paid. You're setting up auto pay on all of your different bills. That's the first thing that you need to be doing so that you can automatically make these payments. And if you're worried about, okay, well, I don't know if I'm going to have money in that account, you can actually move the dates of a lot of your bills to a couple of days after whenever you get paid. So if you get paid twice a month, you can move the date of those bills, let's say, to the 15th, for example, so you know when those bills are hitting. And so it makes it a lot easier. But I highly recommend that you automate your money when you're Looking at payment history. Number two is your credit utilization or the amount owed. And so this is how much of your available credit you're using.

• 59:32Andrew Giancola?

  So let's say, for example, that you have a $10,000 limit on a credit card. And you use $1,000 per month on that $10,000 limit on a credit card. That means you are utilizing 10%, okay? If you spent $5,000 on that card, you're utilizing 50%. And so this is spread across all of the different credits that you have available to you. So if you have 10 credit cards with $10,000 available, and you spend $10,000 across all those credit cards per month, then you're using 10%. So this is one of the most important factors. This is actually 30% of your credit score, and this is going to be a big, big deal. So you want to make sure that you're leaving your credit utilization below 20%. Is that is like the max that I would do.

• 1:00:15Andrew Giancola?

  But if you can even do it even lower than that, if you can make it to something like below 10%, that is what people with really high credit scores do. Is a study was done that looked at people with 850 credit scores, and most of them kept their utilization below 7%. So I want you to notice two things. Payment history and the amount owed or your credit utilization, those two alone are 65% of your credit score. Meaning that that is a huge, huge portion of what's going on. But the third one is the length of credit history. So this is going to be 15% of your credit score. So these three areas right here are the 80% I'm talking about. The 80% of your credit score that you really need to worry about is a length of credit history.

• 1:01:00Andrew Giancola?

  How long have you had credit? If you are just graduating from college and you have not had credit for very long, then all of a sudden, you're going to realize, okay, well, I don't have a length of credit history. That's really, really impactful. And so older accounts can help you with this. This is why I always want you to keep some of your oldest credit cards open. If you can, some of your oldest pieces of credit history. But this is only 15% of your score. So the first two are the two that you need to focus on dramatically. And then the next three are less. But the length of credit history is 15% of your score. So between your payment history, your credit utilization. Amounts owed and the length of credit history that is 80% of your credit score right there. Those three things and really two of them are 65 and those are the two you really need to focus on. The fourth thing is credit mix. So the mix of different types of credit.

• 1:01:45Andrew Giancola?

  Do you have a credit card? Do you have a mortgage? Do you have a car loan? Do you have that, that, that, that, that, that? All of these different pieces are going to be about 10% of your score. I would not worry about this. Like if you're saying to yourself, well, I've only ever had a credit card. Maybe I should open up some other loans. No, don't do that. Just instead, continue on the path that you need to continue on for your own personal situation, but don't open up a bunch of different loans just so you have more credit mix. It's only 10% of your score. And then the last thing is new credit. So how often are you applying for new accounts? This is also 10% of your score. Every application can trigger a hard inquiry, which can drop your score. So if you've ever opened a credit card or you've ever gotten a mortgage, you can see, okay, my credit score, boom, it dropped 5% or it dropped, you know, 7%.

• 1:02:30Andrew Giancola?

  That's why it's because new credit inquiries are going to drop your score temporarily and then it bounces back. So these are just the different things that are going to impact your credit score long-term. And these are the things that are going to make the biggest impact. If I was anybody out there who was thinking about, okay, how do I fix this? Payments, history, making sure you are always, always, always, always, always paying on time. It's the number one factor in your credit score and your credit utilization. Those two things are going to be the two biggest things that you need to focus on. Then the third thing, if you wanted to add in a third thing is the length of credit history. But if you are newer to this, just focus on the first two and not the third one. You don't have to worry as much about the third one. That's how you increase your credit score over time and it takes a little bit of time. But once you get it there, you are really cranking this out and doing, doing some great stuff.

• 1:03:15Andrew Giancola?

  It's a six-figure decision to make sure that your credit score is on top of its game. So really, really good stuff there as we start to think through this. Now we're going to jump into a quick health corner. All right. So welcome to another Health Corner. Really, really excited for this. And there has been some things that I have been doing as of late that I wanted to talk to you guys about. So I've talked about my sleep issues over the course of the last couple of years, and I have done a bunch of different things that have helped me with those sleep issues. And this is one of them. So recently, and this is not sponsored whatsoever, I'm just kind of talking about the, I'll talk about the pros and cons of this. But recently, I realized that I am really hot when I sleep. I run hot, and everything that I do, I just radiate heat off my body all the time. I

• 1:03:57Andrew Giancola?

  work out a lot, and so my body temperature is pretty high. And so because of this, when I sleep, I am waking up a lot. And I think part of the reason was because I was hot. So I invested, I bought it with my own money. This is not something that is sponsored. I invested in what is called a Chili Pad. Now, a Chili Pad is basically a mattress topper that you put underneath your sheets that cools down your bed to a specific temperature. So I actually run mine about 55 degrees on my Chili Pad, and it cools my entire body down while I'm laying down on my sheets. And it has helped me tremendously with my sleep. In fact, I'm seeing deeper sleep, and I'm seeing just a big difference in overall

• 1:04:36Andrew Giancola?

  in my HRV and in my sleep scores. So I have been getting sleep scores in the 90s on my Garmin 4Runner 970 ever since I got the Chili Pad. So this has been a huge portion of what has helped improve my sleep over that timeframe, is making sure you cool down your body. Now, I got the Chili Pad Cube, which is the cheaper version. It's about a $500 mattress topper. It runs cool water through these coils that are on that mattress topper. Now, here's the problem with it. This is the thing I don't like about it, is the coils. The coils press up against your back, and it feels a little bit uncomfortable for me. But I'm willing to make that trade off, so that I can have deeper and better sleep. So right

• 1:05:19Andrew Giancola?

  now, I'm not really that comfortable in my bed because of those coils. But you get used to it over time, and many people have reported they got used to it as well. And so I have noticed after using it for about 30 days now, I don't notice it as much anymore. It used to, like at first, the first couple of nights, I felt like I was sleeping on a bed of, you know, extension cords. But now, it feels a little bit better. And it's not as thick as an extension cord at all. Don't think that. It's a very small little coil. That runs water through it. So you can kind of feel the water running through your back and then you get used to it. It's not a big deal at all. Some people put some mattress toppers on there, but it can impact how cold it gets, but it gets very cold. I mean, it's it could, it actually makes a huge impact. It takes water. You run the water through the system. The system then goes and chills that water and then runs it through your mattress pad.

• 1:06:03Andrew Giancola?

  So it's a pretty cool system, the way that it works. And they have other competitors out there. There's Chili Pad, there's Eight Sleep. I think there's some other ones out there. And I was debating on either going with a Chili Pad or a BedJet. The way that BedJet works, if you don't want those coils, is it's a fan that you put under your comforter and it shoots air into the bed, basically. And you can make it cold air or warm air, whatever else. If you think you would like that more, that's another thing to look into is a BedJet. It's about the same price as the Chili Pad Cube. So, so that's definitely something you can also look into. So again, this is my health corner for this week. It has been very helpful for me to have that Chili Pad in place. And again, I've been sleeping, you know, seven and a half to eight and a half hours on that Chili Pad and really not having much wake up at all. Actually, a couple of times I've woken up because I've been too

• 1:06:48Andrew Giancola?

  cold. So that's been an interesting dynamic and a big shift for me as well. So again, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast. I truly appreciate each and every single one of you. And if you want to dive deeper more and you want to be able to ask me these questions live on calls, consider joining Master Money Academy. Master Money Academy is where I do these live coaching calls on a weekly basis and we have all of our courses in there and everything else. And we have a seven day free trial down below if you want to check it out. But it is our community, our personal finance community, where people are working on common goals in order to be able to build wealth. You can bounce ideas off each other in there. And there's so many other cool things that we have available. So nothing to lose. If you want to check it out, join for seven days. Link is down below in the show notes. Other than that,

• 1:07:31Andrew Giancola?

  I truly appreciate each and every single one of you being here and we will see you on the next episode.