What Percentage of Net Worth Should be in Stocks, Old 401(k), Books for Buying Businesses and More! - Money Q&A

In this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast Money Q&A, we're going to talk about what percentage of your net worth should be in stocks, what to do with an old 401k, books for buying businesses and so much more. Today we are going to answer these questions! Question 1: Should I pay off my 7.72% Car Loan? Question 2: What to do with my Old 401(K)? Question 3: What taxes are associated with international index funds? Question 4: Books For Buying a Business Question 5: Stock Lending and Investment Services Question 6: Back Door Roth & % of Net worth in stocks? 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/ Monarch Money: Get an extended 30 day free trial at monarchmoney.com/pfp Thanks to Fundrise for Sponsoring the show! Invest in real estate going to fundrise.com/pfp Indeed: Start hiring NOW with a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to upgrade your job post at Indeed.com/personalfinance Thanks to Policy Genius for Sponsoring the show! Go to policygenius.com to get your free life insurance quote. Right now, my listeners can get a free 2-week trial at 1password.com/PERSONALFINANCE to help secure their growing business. The Rundown by Public.com—your daily financial news podcast. Listen now: The Rundown Podcast Go to joindeleteme.com/pfp20 for 20% off! Links Mentioned in This Episode: How to Get Rich Buying Boring Businesses With Codie Sanchez Cody Sanchez’s Book A Masterclass on Investing in Individual Stocks with Brian Feroldi 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?

  Longtime listeners know, one of the best ways to build wealth is to increase your income. And one way to do that is by starting a side hustle. And that's one reason why I absolutely love Whatnot. Now, my son and I, we love collecting sports cards. And we've used Whatnot to buy and sell cards. It's been a really fun way to enjoy something we love together. Now, Whatnot is a live shopping platform where people sell everything from sports cards to clothing, electronics, and collectibles. And what's really cool about it is you can turn something you're passionate about into a business. And you could do it right from your phone. You don't even need a storefront or a website. So whether you're looking to make some extra money or find great deals on your next shopping trip, check out Whatnot.

• 0:44Andrew Giancola?

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• 1:27Andrew Giancola?

  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. 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. On this episode of Money Q and A, what percentage of your net worth should be in stocks? What to do with an old 401K? Books for buying businesses, and so much more.

• 2:28Andrew 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 have another episode of Money Q and A. And today, we're going to be answering a bunch of your questions. Now, if you have any questions, make sure you join the Master Money Newsletter by going to MasterMoney.co/newsletter. And you can join the newsletter and anytime we send our newsletter issues out, respond, and I'll see those questions. You may get your question answered on the show. That's where we pulled all these questions today. And don't forget to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or whatever your favorite podcast player is. And don't forget to leave a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

• 3:13Andrew Giancola?

  or your favorite podcast player. If you're getting value out of this show, can I thank you guys enough for leaving those five-star ratings and reviews? And if there is ways that we can bring you even more value, please, please let me know. Our entire goal of this podcast is to bring you as much value as we possibly can. And again, don't forget to check us out on YouTube as well. If you just search my name, Andrew Giancola, you will see the YouTube channel pop up. Now, today, we're going to be diving into six of your questions. The first question is, should I pay off my car loan at a 7.72% interest rate? The second question is, what to do with my old 401k? Question three is asking, what are the taxes associated with international index funds? And do you have to pay international taxes?

• 3:58Andrew Giancola?

  Question four, is books and resources for buying businesses? Question five, we're going to be talking through stock lending and investment services? And then question six, backdoor Roths? And what percentage of your net worth should be in stocks? So, this is an action-packed episode. Excited to dive in. So, without further ado, let's get into it.

• 4:21Andrew Giancola?

  First question is, hey Andrew, first of all, I love the podcast and I've learned so much from you and I'm super grateful for all you do. I have a quick question on whether or not to pay off my car loan. I bought a used 2018 Honda Civic with 55,000 miles on it about 10 months ago for $17,000. I put $10,000 in cash down and financed the rest with a five-year loan at 7.62%. With the interest rate being higher than 6%, I would normally think to pay it off. However, with the stock market doing so well, does it make sense to delay paying off the loan until the stock market cools? The money I'd used to pay off the loan is currently invested into five different index ETFs with a liquid Robinhood account that has returned 11% over the past year. I'd

• 5:05Andrew Giancola?

  love to hear your thoughts. Thanks again. So first of all, thank you so much for the kind words. I'm so glad to have you, you know, taking action on a lot of this stuff. And I think this is a fantastic question. And a lot of people struggle with this exact concept. But let me tell you something, okay? I actually faced this same situation. So since we are having a third kid, we decided to upgrade our vehicle this year. And when we upgraded our vehicle this year, initially, I was going to pay for that vehicle in cash, but I saw that interest rates were pretty low. And so I went ahead and I financed the vehicle. When I got done financing the vehicle, I was having an issue at closing where this was during the time period when all of the

• 5:45Andrew Giancola?

  computers went down in all the car dealerships. So pretty much every car dealership had to do their financing by hand. And so they were having issues utilizing external financing and the financing that I was pre-approved for. So what I ended up having to do was either I had two options. I could pay cash or I could finance a car and then have a little bit of a higher interest rate and then go out and refinance that car later on. And so I have over 800 credit score, but because I had to get the financing through the dealership because of this computer issue without having to kind of go back into a bunch of different steps where I already spent hours at this dealership, I just did not want to go through the work honestly to go back and start all over again. And so what I ended up doing, because we traveled a couple hours for this car because it was a good deal. So what I ended up doing was taking their financing and it was

• 6:30Andrew Giancola?

  Around this interest rate was like seven and a half percent. And so what I did was then I went home and I looked at other interest rates that were out there and they were right around six percent, five percent, even with my credit score locally. So what I ended up doing was I ended up just taking it and just wiping the rest out. And the reason I made this decision is because it was still over a six percent interest rate and interest rates are high. And this is on a depreciating asset. Now, I myself just did this, and I tell this story just so you know that I literally just did this myself. And the reason is you really don't know what the stock market is going to do in the future. Sure, it may have that 10, 11, 12% return that it has had over the course of the last year. And it very well is a high possibility that that could happen. But at the same time, I want to make sure that I get this debt wiped out,

• 7:12Andrew Giancola?

  especially on something like a depreciating asset when the interest rate is that high. And it's not guaranteed that the stock market is going to return that. And so because of that, I decided to make sure to get rid of that payment. Now typically, if there were lower interest rates, I would actually take on the debt and leave the debt as is and just automatically pay the car every single month. Because of that lower interest rate, I'm pretty certain that my money invested would be much better off than actually paying off that note. So I have no issues with low interest debt. But when the debt is this high, for me specifically, if I was in your shoes, just like I actually just did, I would actually pay off the debt in that scenario. Now, awesome job with buying a used Honda Civic. I think that's absolutely fantastic.

• 7:53Andrew Giancola?

  And really, that's what most people should be doing is finding a car within their means like this and then going about and making sure you take care of it. It looks like you did a pretty good job here. I would have the loan term a little less than five years. I'd probably go four years or less. But still, I like that you put 10,000 down. I think you did a great job and found a great purchase here. So congratulations on the vehicle. If I were in your shoes, I would probably pay it off or just increase the amount that I'm paying on this debt over the course of the next couple of months and you could pay it off in, you know, six, 12 months, whatever else you want to do there. So really appreciate the question. Congratulations on your car and looking forward to see what you do here in the future. Thank you so much.

• 8:31Andrew Giancola?

  The second question is, "Hey Andrew, I have a question about the company 401k and compound interest. I find myself changing jobs about every three to five years and I just remembered you saying not to interrupt compound interest. So, should I take the company minimum match and when I switch jobs, I transfer everything to my Roth IRA? Or should I transfer that to my next company's retirement plan? I have a Roth 401k, Roth IRA, taxable brokerage account, and a tiny crypto portfolio. I appreciate your time and dedication in helping people like myself reach their financial goals. Keep up the good work." So, this is a great question, and for a lot of people out there who find themselves moving to a new job, this is going to be something that you definitely want to consider.

• 9:14Andrew Giancola?

  Now, number one is there is a service out there that is absolutely free. I'm not associated with them, but it's completely free, which is why I recommend them a lot, called Capitalize. And Capitalize actually helps you in this scenario, find the best option for what you're looking at. So, that's the first thing that you can look at. What I like to do typically is if you have a traditional 401k and you're listening to this episode, then you can roll it into a rollover IRA. Now, in this scenario, we have a Roth 401k, so if it's a Roth 401k, you can roll it into a Roth IRA. And I prefer typically to roll it into my own Roth IRA or IRA, depending on what kind of account that you have. In this scenario, it would

• 9:55Andrew Giancola?

  be the Roth IRA because I like to control my investment options. And so, what I like to do is I'll go to somewhere like Vanguard. And if you don't already have a Roth IRA, open a Roth IRA there, or Fidelity, wherever you want. And then, once you do that, then you can do a direct rollover to your Roth IRA. And this ensures the funds will go directly from your Roth 401k to your Roth IRA, maintaining that tax-free growth benefit and avoid that mandatory withholding. Now, because you're doing this from a Roth to a Roth, I would not consider this as interrupting compound interest, or just moving it from one location to the other, so that you can control the funds in your Roth IRA. So, it's not messing anything up if you start to do this. What you're probably going to have to do, though, is you're going to have to either liquidate those shares if it doesn't allow you to do

• 10:40Andrew Giancola?

  An in-kind transfer, you're probably going to have to liquidate those shares and just move the cash over and then just reinvest it in whatever you had it invested in in your Roth 401k. And so that's kind of the easiest option is just making sure, hey, I get that money moved over and then invest those dollars immediately after. And so that's going to be the easiest way from a Roth 401k to a Roth IRA. But just check that eligibility. And if you want to do it at somewhere like Vanguard or Fidelity, the easiest way is I like to just call them up and say, hey, here's what I'm looking to do. Can you help me through this process? And how can I do that directly? And if you want, Capitalize can also help you for free. So both of those are pretty great options. But every three to five years, if you're moving jobs, I would just roll it over into a Roth IRA so that you can control what you're investing in. That is the best way, I

• 11:23Andrew Giancola?

  think, to do it. And that's what I would do personally. All right. The next question is regarding taxes on international index funds. So, hi, Andrew. I often listen to your podcast on Spotify and find it very valuable and insightful. Thank you so much for sharing your financial knowledge. Well, thank you so much for the compliment. I truly appreciate you listening and thank you so much for asking your question. So I have a quick question I wanted to ask. I have considered buying an international index fund for my Fidelity portfolio. I am referring to the Fidelity Total International Index Fund, great fund. But I am worried that I will have to file multiple tax returns in countries other than the US, since a lot of the holdings from this fund are from various countries. Is that

• 12:03Andrew Giancola?

  true? Will I need to file tax returns in multiple countries if I own FTIХ? So, great question. And no, you will not have to file tax returns in multiple countries if you own FTIХ. And here's why, because I want people to understand, you know, the reasoning behind this is. So, first of all, we got to look at things like dividends. So, the international index funds do have holdings in multiple countries, but any foreign tax obligations, such as withholding taxes on dividends, are typically handled by the fund itself. So, these taxes are paid before dividends are distributed to you. So you don't need to worry about individual foreign filings. And then there's also the foreign tax credit. So,

• 12:43Andrew Giancola?

  if there is a foreign tax withheld, you'll see it reported on your 1099Div form, which you usually will get From your brokerage at the end of every single year, you know, your brokerage will say, "Hey, your tax forms are ready," and they'll send you an email and then you just download that form. And you'll usually claim a foreign tax credit on your US tax return, which can reduce your tax liability by the amount of foreign taxes paid. But by investing in a fund like FTIHX, Fidelity handles all the international tax requirements for you. You'll just need to consider the foreign tax credit when filing your US taxes, which is always just on your form. So there's nothing you really have to worry about. You just make sure you get the forms from Fidelity, give it to your CPA and/or put it in your tax filing service and they'll take care of it for you. But this is not something that you need to worry about whatsoever.

• 13:27Andrew Giancola?

  It's not like you have to file a separate return or anything else like that. It'll just go on your normal tax return and not a big deal at all. So this is just something Fidelity will handle it, but you don't have to worry about that whatsoever. So I hope that helps and congratulations on continuing to invest and thank you so much for listening to the show. So this next question is brought to you by DeleteMe. And if you guys haven't heard about DeleteMe before, you know, this is one of my favorite services that I have utilized over the course of the last couple of years. What DeleteMe does is they go to data brokers who have your personal information and they get your personal information removed. Now, if you Google your name or you Google your address or your phone number in quotations, you're going to see your information popping up on a bunch of different websites that

• 14:12Andrew Giancola?

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• 14:56Andrew Giancola?

  We talk about it all the time in this show. We talk about it on our newsletter. We talk about it on Social media. Why? Because I love Delete Me. It is one of those services that I think can save you hours and hours and hours of time. And because it's such an amazing service, we've developed such a long, great partnership with them because it is something you can truly help protect yourself. So check it out again. Join delete me.com/pfp20 and you can get 20% off of Delete Me. All right. The next question is, good morning. I've been a listener for a few months now, and I love the show. I wanted to ask if you have done or plan to do any podcast episodes on your firsthand experience with buying a business or businesses. Where did you start? What books did you read or podcasts that you're listening to? And what lessons did you

• 15:38Andrew Giancola?

  learn? And what would you do differently in the future? I have invested in real estate and looking to invest in other areas and purchasing business is intriguing. And I know that you have recently gone down that path. So I would love to hear your experience and/or knowledge gained over that process. So first of all, this is a great question. No, I have not talked a ton about my personal experience on this yet. It is something that is coming down the line for sure. I will definitely have an episode talking through the process, because I think it's going to be really valuable and insightful. And I'm actually in the process now of negotiating a couple of other businesses. So this is something that I'm actively doing aggressively, to be honest, and it is something that I'm learning every single day. And so because I'm going through this process multiple times, I am going to probably have some sort of series of episodes talking through

• 16:23Andrew Giancola?

  exactly what's happened. So some of the ones that I'm negotiating now, if they actually go through, I will start talking about the process of what I bought, why I bought it, reasoning behind it, all that kind of stuff, and how I actually thought through the process. So that'll be something coming down the pipeline. Now, why I got into it, or what got me interested in it? There was a number of different things, and one of which is I started to read the data regarding how many baby boomers are going to be retiring over the course of the next 10 to 15 years. And I saw they owned over 50% of small businesses in America, and most of them had no idea that you could sell your business to someone else. And so this is something where I thought, hey, we could actually spread the word that you can actually sell your business, A. B, we can start to get into this

• 17:06Andrew Giancola?

  because I'm super interested in entrepreneurship. And I always thought, even as, you know, when I was younger, that I wanted to own multiple different businesses. And because of that, Ever since I started doing this, it has been one of the most fun and exciting experiences for me. Now, it may not be for everybody else because it takes a lot of work. It is a ton of work to own a business. It's way more than real estate. I came from real estate investing and investing in real estate is a lot easier, but at the same time, you're building something that could be extremely valuable. Now, one of the biggest things, obviously, is the due diligence process. That's where I would focus the majority of my time in understanding and almost building out your due diligence process before you even start to make some of these offers. And then also, what I would do is start to have conversations

• 17:49Andrew Giancola?

  with brokers and folks in the area, just to see what businesses and what niches you're actually interested in. Now, the books I read were really only one. It was Buy Then Build, which is by Walker Dible. Now, Walker came on this podcast. We did an interview with Walker. It's all about buying businesses. If you're interested in that, you just search the personal finance podcast and Walker Dible and it'll come up. Another big influence for me was Cody Sanchez, and she came on the show talking through some of the businesses that she purchased as well about two years ago now. And so with those two influences, after having some of those conversations that I had with Walker and Cody, both of those were really good lightbulb moments for me where I was like, I want to do this and I want to at least try this. And so that's kind of how I got interested and started in that. And I will kind of go through my experience and it's going to take more than

• 18:34Andrew Giancola?

  a full episode. So I will go through my experience with some of that in a future episode, but I definitely highly recommend Buy Then Build. I think that's the good starting point. If you've never thought through this process, it is a great, pretty much all encompassing book of at least how to think about this, how to get funding, how to think about your due diligence process, and it gives you a bunch of good red flags to look out for, things like that. So really enjoyed that book and definitely would recommend it. Now Cody is now starting a new website called, what is it called? Bizscout.com, which is also going to help you find and buy businesses. So that's going to be an interesting project that she's launching coming up here shortly. And she also has a book coming out, as Cody Sanchez does. So that might be one that'll be great to check out as well. So stay tuned. That

• 19:19Andrew Giancola?

  episode will come out. I'll probably talk a lot more about it because I'm getting a lot of questions about it. And thank you so much for listening to the show and I will keep you guys updated on all these businesses that we are looking at right now. 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. When you know exactly where your money is going and whether you're on track, you make better decisions. That's one of the reasons I love Monarch. It's the personal finance app that tracks everything, from your accounts and investments to your savings, goals, and spending, so you can see your entire financial picture in one place. One habit that's made a huge difference for me is my five-minute drill every single morning.

• 20:01Andrew Giancola?

  I open Monarch, check my spending, investments, cash flow, and net worth, and I'm done in just a few minutes. It gives me confidence that nothing is slipping through the cracks. I also love the AI weekly recap, because it'll flag spending changes, upcoming expenses, or shifts in my net worth before they become a problem. Instead of reacting after the fact, I can make adjustments early. It really feels like having a financial advisor in your pocket. Write your own money story with Monarch. Use code PFP at monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code PFP. If you've been listening to this show for a while, you know it's not just me anymore.

• 20:46Andrew Giancola?

  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, 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.

• 21:29Andrew Giancola?

  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, We'll get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at indeed.com/podcast. 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

• 22:10Andrew Giancola?

  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 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

• 22:55Andrew Giancola?

  $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.

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• 23:38Andrew Giancola?

  The next one is a two-part question. So the first one is, is stock lending a good idea for the average investor? And the second one is, I know you like index investing, but maybe an episode that covers stock picking services such as Motley Fool, and are they worth the memberships? Most of these services try to sell that it takes the research out of your hands and that they do it for you. Figured that could be a great topic and would love to get your take on it. So sure, we can absolutely do something on both these and do a full episode on that second one, but I'll talk through a little bit of my thoughts here now. So stock lending is not something that I would probably ever do. Now, it can obviously offer extra income by lending shares to other investors, but it's not something that I'm typically interested in because your risk level when it comes to stock investing goes up higher. There are much better ways to spend your dollars than stock lending.

• 24:23Andrew Giancola?

  I just don't like it because of the potential risks, the administrative aspects that come with it. I don't love the dynamics of it. And so for me specifically, I think it increases your risk dramatically as a stock market investor by doing stock lending. Now, if they make it easier or they make it in a way where it is secured and backed by something, that's a different story. But right now, I don't think it is something that I'm really interested in whatsoever. Now, stock picking services like Motley Fool. Motley Fool is an interesting company because Motley Fool is one that I would listen to their podcasts every single day when I was in the corporate world. So in the corporate world, even when I was just starting out, I was in my entry-level job. Motley Fool had a bunch of different podcasts out there,

• 25:08Andrew Giancola?

  from Market Foolery to Motley Fool Money, and they had some daily ones that I would always listen to. And I just loved listening to them because A, you get your business news from them, and B, they talk about different investing strategies that they had within individual stocks. Now, because I'm not an individual stock investor, I don't subscribe to those services, but I do think they can be valuable because they can give you insights on what they are doing when it comes to specific stock services. Now, I do not believe that you can subscribe to these services and then not do your research. It is very important to make sure you are doing your own research on stocks when you are a stock market investor. If you've listened to our episodes with Brian Feroldi, who I'm going to get back on- The show here soon and maybe I'll bring this up with him too.

• 25:50Andrew Giancola?

  He has some association with Motley Fool, but when I have Brian Feroldi back on, we can start to have a little bit of a conversation about this because overall, you still have to do your research. You have to understand the balance sheet. You have to understand management. You have to understand the economic moat. You have to understand all these different things before you really invest in a stock. And it's very important to understand quarterly reports and all those different things, reading the 10K. So as an individual stock investor, it takes a lot of work. It takes a ton of work. Now, if you want to invest in some stocks for fun as a small portion of your portfolio, say, for example, you love to drive your Tesla and you love Tesla and you, you love the new robots that are coming out and all the things that they're doing, and you want to invest a little in Tesla, more power to you. There's nothing wrong with that whatsoever.

• 26:32Andrew Giancola?

  Or if you're in the healthcare space and you're like, man, Johnson & Johnson's just been kicking our butts forever. I'm going to invest in a little Johnson & Johnson. That's completely, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that whatsoever. And many people have gotten very wealthy by investing in big blue chip stocks. But if you're going to go out there and try to find value stocks and gems, it's just not a good idea to not do your own research and to just rely on somebody else's research. It's very important. The Motley Fool would tell you this too, but it's very important to do your own research and make sure that you are, you know, crossing your Ts and dotting your Is before you listen to anybody else. It's a dangerous game to play to invest in stocks without doing your own research. So that's just my thoughts on this, but I do think Motley Fool is a great service. And in some of those services out there, Motley Fool is the only one I've had experience with.

• 27:15Andrew Giancola?

  But I do think there's other great newsletters out there, but they're more informal to spark ideas for you to do more research. That's the way I would look at them is it's sparking the idea so that you can do your own research and figure out if it's actually something that fits your risk tolerance, your asset allocation and your portfolio. That's the key when it comes to those services. I hope that helps and let me know if you have any other questions.

• 27:38Andrew Giancola?

  All right. The next one is a two parter. So, hey, Andrew, thank you so much for being a great resource. I discovered your podcast a little over a year ago and I have listened religiously. In fact, doing parts to the great service you provided, I recently surpassed $1 million in net worth, just a few months shy of my 40th birthday. So first of all, we are clapping here in this. Congratulations, a $1 million net worth is absolutely amazing. So congratulations to you. That is so incredibly cool and I cannot commend you enough for doing that, especially you know, right around your 40th birthday. That is absolutely amazing and I'm writing you with a couple of questions. What percentage of your total investments do you recommend putting into the stock market?

• 28:20Andrew Giancola?

  About 50% of my net worth is invested across a mix of mutual funds, stocks, bonds, ETFs, etc. Does that balance sound correct? I have cash to invest still and I'm wondering if dumping more in the market is a sound choice. So I'm going to answer that first part of the question first and we'll get to your second question. And it depends on your risk tolerance. I'm going to say this over and over again, and this is what a good person in finance will say, as they always say, it depends. But your risk tolerance is going to be the number one determining factor of what your asset allocation is going to be. Now, what do I mean by that? What I mean by that is a large portion of my portfolio does go towards stocks and it goes towards businesses. And I think that for me, if I was not interested in investing in businesses,

• 29:05Andrew Giancola?

  I would probably have the majority of my asset allocation in things like real estate and stocks. And if I was not interested in real estate, then a majority of it would be in stocks. Take someone like J.L. Collins, for example. So J.L. Collins wrote the book, The Simple Path to Wealth. He has all of his net worth and he was able to retire early in one index fund, which is VTSAX, which is the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. And if you're someone who doesn't want the headaches of real estate or you don't want to worry about small business, having all your dollars into VTSAX into that index fund, because it owns a piece of every stock inside the stock market, I don't see anything wrong with that. You can absolutely do that and have a large portion of your net worth in just VTSAX because it is in and of itself very diversified. It is extremely diversified.

• 29:50Andrew Giancola?

  At the same time, if you're just not comfortable with having that much money in stocks, it's going to keep you up at night, it's going to stress you out, then diversifying your portfolio is a fantastic option. You can look into real estate and investing there. You can look at investing in business or putting your dollars in bonds or something along those lines. So there's absolutely nothing- Nothing wrong with having a larger portion of your portfolio or your net worth in stocks. In fact, if stocks were 99% of my net worth, I would not even lose an ounce of sleep with that. That is just one thing that for my personal risk tolerance would not bother me whatsoever. But if being 50/50, if you want to make sure that 50% of your portfolio is in stocks and another 50% is diversified somewhere else, that's great. If you want to go 75/25, that's

• 30:35Andrew Giancola?

  also great. It depends really on your risk tolerance and what's going to keep you up at night. So you have to ask yourself a couple of questions. Does it stress me out to be 75% stocks? At what level does it stress you out and make you uncomfortable? That's when you need to dial it back and reassess your asset allocation and decide, hey, do I need to take more of these dollars and put them somewhere else? Do I need to put them in cash so I'm more comfortable? What do I need to be doing in order to make myself more comfortable? And really, that is a personal preference. So really, really important to think through that process. But there is nothing wrong with having it at 50/50. If you have cash on the sidelines, that is not earmarked for your emergency fund, or if it's not earmarked for anything else, and you want to make sure you're growing that cash, I would definitely put that cash to work

• 31:18Andrew Giancola?

  outside of making sure you have, obviously, the emergency fund and everything else. But I would definitely put that cash to work if you can. The second question is, my accountant is hesitant to perform a backdoor IRA for me, claiming that oversight is tightening up and they're frowned upon. Are there risks involved with the backdoor IRAs, or is he just being lazy? All right, so I could tell you what the backdoor Roth IRA is the first thing I do every single year. So there has been discussion in recent years about potential IRS scrutiny on backdoor Roth IRAs, particularly for high earners. However, backdoor Roth IRAs remain legal and widely used. There are so many people out there that I know that utilize the backdoor Roth IRA. So it's not something I'm personally worried about right now, but the process can be tricky if you have other pre-tax IRAs, which could obviously trigger the prorata rule and complicate

• 32:03Andrew Giancola?

  taxes and conversions. So my CPA, for example, encourages me to do the backdoor Roth IRA, and it is something I definitely try to go after. The main risk, though, is if tax legislation changes, it could limit or disallow the strategy for high earners in the future. So it's really just a future Problem. It's not something that I would worry about now and it's something I love doing. If you listen to people who come on this podcast or most people in the finance space, they all are doing the backdoor Roth IRA because it helps you get dollars as a high earner into the Roth IRA. So I absolutely love it. I am not concerned whatsoever, but obviously your CPA is the professional. So I would just kind of ask a few questions on to why they are stating that. But for me, it is not a risk whatsoever and my CPA tells me to do it. They are actually encouraging me to do the backdoor Roth IRA.

• 32:45Andrew Giancola?

  So definitely just kind of get some more answers on that and try to get some clarification for sure. So thank you so much for these questions and congratulations on your progress. It is so amazing that you reached your million dollar net worth before the age of 40. That is absolutely incredible. Cannot thank you enough for listening to the show. I'm so glad the show is bringing you value and for everybody listening, thank you so much for being here and investing in yourself because that's exactly what you're doing when you listen to this show is you are investing in yourself. I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your week. Thank you so much and we will see you on the next episode.

• 33:34Speaker 01

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