What Gen Z Gets Wrong About Money

Our latest Q&A livestream from our NEW and IMPROVED Money Guy Show Studio! We start with a segment on what Gen Z (and other generations) are getting wrong about money. Spoiler: you don't need $10M to be wealthy. After that, we dive into answering your financial questions! Jump start your journey with our FREE financial resources⁠ ⁠Reach your goals faster with our products⁠ ⁠Take the relationship to the next level: become a client⁠ ⁠Subscribe on YouTube for early access and go beyond the podcast⁠ ⁠Connect with us on social media for more content⁠ Bring confidence to your wealth building with simplified strategies from The Money Guy. Learn how to apply financial tactics that go beyond common sense and help you reach your money goals faster. Make your assets do the heavy lifting so you can quit worrying and start living a more fulfilled life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  As wish lists grow, you know where to go. Head to Ulta Beauty. We have gifts they'll love from brands like Tato One and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. Shop beauty faves to give or keep from Shark Beauty, Sol de Janeiro and more. Not sure what they want? You can't go wrong with Balmain, Clinique or Redken. And don't forget to put yourself on the list. Book a salon moment or add a little more sparkle to your season. Shop holiday in store or at Ulta.com. Ulta Beauty.

• 0:27Speaker 01

  LinkedIn is pretty amazing at helping you grow your small business. We cannot stop your new clients from emailing you at 3 a.m.

• 0:36Speaker 01

  We can help you sell, market and hire in one place. We cannot help you be in three places at once. And while we can't help you organize your calendar, LinkedIn can help you land more clients so you have a calendar to organize. Grow your small business on LinkedIn. Learn more at LinkedIn.com/smallbusiness.

• 1:04Brian Preston?

  Man, oh man, do Americans have a perception problem, especially Gen Z with what is financial success?

• 1:12Speaker 03

  Brent, I am so excited to talk about this because oftentimes I think that it's not uncommon for one generation to suggest that the generation coming behind them just, they haven't got it figured out yet, or maybe they get something wrong, or maybe they don't know what real life is. And I think that when it comes to finances, it is no different. Now worry that there is a skewed perception of reality out there.

• 1:36Brian Preston?

  Well, let's face it, we live in a social media world where you have people out there putting their highlight reel only, not actually expressing what real life looks like. And they're showing you their latest and greatest cars, their new big houses. It doesn't surprise me at all that, because we actually did content a few years ago. YouGov had a survey and people just think everybody's rich. And that's why I would tell you. When in doubt, just understand you are richer likely than you realize because social media is skewing your perception.

• 2:07Speaker 03

  And so what's great is Fidelity had this wonderful study that came out and they said, hey, what do you perceive as wealthy? What, what net worth would you say defines someone being financially successful? And what I love about how this survey broke it out is the respondents were broken out by the generation to which they belong. That way you could see how it's changed through time. And I thought the numbers were really, really interesting.

• 2:31Brian Preston?

  Well, look at this. I mean, by the way, I mean, we pick on boomers, but boomers are actually the ones living in retirement and yet they perceive what is financial success from a net worth standpoint is basically the, the old school million dollars.

• 2:46Speaker 03

  Million bucks would mean you're financially successful.

• 2:48Brian Preston?

  If you're my generation, despite what everybody says that I'm a boomer too, no, I'm Gen X, the forgotten generation, we're a little over five million. I was actually shocked by this. When I saw the content from, and the research from Empower is I was like, wait a minute, that's much, much higher than what I perceive. Cause I kinda, if you ask me, what is financial success where you can probably let your money do all the work for you, two to three million dollars is a decent chunk of money. Millennials is close to six million, but Bo, I'll let you do the big unveil. Cause this was, this is why we did the show title, what it is. Gen Z definitely is skewing differently than everybody else.

• 3:22Speaker 03

  It was wild. Again, the question was, and this is what Empower asked, how would you define financial success? What net worth would you have to attain to become financially successful? And when it came to the Gen Z respondents, they said nine and a half million dollars, almost deck of millionaire status in order to be financially successful. That is far different from millennials, far different than Gen X and far outside the stratosphere of what you and I get to see on our day to day lives.

• 3:51Brian Preston?

  So I think I always like to, to, to bring things back to reality. So we actually researched, what is the top 10%? If you're in the top 10% of Americans, what would your net worth be? And the research shows us it's actually two million dollars.

• 4:07Speaker 03

  Two million, so two million bucks to be in the Top decile of Americans and yet Gen Z thinks in order to just be able to call yourself successful, you have to have almost five times that.

• 4:18Brian Preston?

  Now, what I, what I don't like about this is that if you have a perception that your number is so high on what you'll need, I just don't want you not getting out of the starting gates because you're like, well, if it's this overwhelming, why even start? Don't let social media, don't let the media make you feel like you're poorer than you actually are. Any little activity or just process of starting your financial journey will yield tremendous results in the future. So just do something today.

• 4:46Speaker 03

  Now, Empower did not stop here. They didn't just stop at net worth. Said, okay, well, let's step away from net worth. What income level would be required for you to say someone is financially successful? And again, the respondents were broken out by the generation to which they belong. And I thought that this was kind of fascinating. The boomers, that class of respondent said that, you know, if you're right there at six figure status, if you're right at $99,000 of household income or individual income, that would make you financially successful.

• 5:15Brian Preston?

  Yeah. Boomers, under grand, they're living it, they're in it. Gen X, here's my generation, once again, $212,000.

• 5:23Speaker 03

  Right. Great living. Then you get to millennials, you get to my generation. They said, okay, if you're someone who makes $180,000, you are financially successful.

• 5:32Brian Preston?

  But once again, Gen Z, holy cow.

• 5:36Speaker 03

  Almost $600,000 of income in order to be considered financially successful.

• 5:42Brian Preston?

  I'm starting to realize why everybody wants to have a YouTube channel.

• 5:43Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 5:44Brian Preston?

  There's this false perception that everything out there, this is the way you have to have success. But do you see the disconnect? So like I said, I worry for Gen Z, the youngest generation. They think they don't make as much as their peers. They're worried that they have to have a huge net worth. Guys, don't fall into these lies. You have so much opportunity. This is still, I believe, the best time to start your financial journey. Don't let somebody else pull you in the wrong direction and you miss out on the greatest opportunity because you're a billionaire of time. And if you're a billionaire of time, that's going to make it so much easier to harness that power of compounding. Growth and put your army of dollar bills to work.

• 6:21Speaker 03

  And remember, at the end of the day, personal finance is indeed personal. So what defines financial success for you is very much dependent upon your circumstances. Brian, we have clients who have large, multiple seven-figure portfolios and they would argue that they're not quite at financial independence yet. And we have clients who actually live in the realm below seven-figure status and they are financially independent. They are financially successful. So it is very much dependent upon you and your unique needs and circumstances. So when it comes to defining what financial success is and whether you're there or not, it matters a lot less what your neighbor has going on. It matters a lot more what's happening inside your bank account.

• 7:01Brian Preston?

  By the way, just to give the, the rest of the story, the actual top 10% of US income, $150,000.

• 7:09Speaker 03

  Very different than $600,000.

• 7:11Brian Preston?

  I mean, the only ones that got it right were those boomers that we all make fun of. So, um, pretty, pretty impressive. So, hey, uh, you probably have realized, I don't know if it's Bo got a haircut.

• 7:22Speaker 03

  Oh, is that what you think?

• 7:23Brian Preston?

  Is this the first time Bo's worn this shirt?

• 7:25Speaker 03

  That was different?

• 7:25Brian Preston?

  No, this is, there's something that has changed and I just can't put my finger on it. Has anybody else, have we been getting any feedback on this?

• 7:32Speaker 03

  It's weird. In the chat, nobody said anything. So it's super weird. I haven't seen anything. No, of course, we, uh, this is Money Guy Studio. I don't know if this is 4.0, 5.0, but the newest

• 7:43Brian Preston?

  Depends if you count the conference room.

• 7:45Speaker 03

  If you count the conference room with the debate stands. Uh, we are so, so, so excited. We get to share this with you guys. Uh, the team has been hard at work over the past couple of weeks preparing this studio, trying to bring it up to speed with where we feel like the Money Guy Enterprise is now. And I'm, I love it.

• 8:05Brian Preston?

  Yeah.

• 8:05Speaker 03

  I love it. What, if you, I know you don't have favorites. You can't pick favorites. But if you had to pick like, hey, this is my favorite thing about the new set. This is the one that gets me the most excited. Is there something, is there something that sticks out to you? Like, I kinda love this.

• 8:17Brian Preston?

  I mean, we got a lot. They put a lot of Easter eggs on here. I mean,

• 8:20Speaker 03

  The guy sitting next to him, I think, was his answer. Is that what he's, that was, that's the answer.

• 8:24Brian Preston?

  There's a lot of Easter eggs on the set here. Um, I don't know. I mean, we've, we've got enough Disney Star Wars stuff that that box is checked. I've got all my old books from when I started podcasting. That, that box is checked.

• 8:36Speaker 03

  I see a new book up there that came out last year, Millionaire Mission. By the way, if you haven't gotten your copy of Millionaire Mission, you should totally do that.

• 8:43Brian Preston?

  Coming up on the one year anniversary, May 28th, Rebe's like, oh my gosh, that year went quick.

• 8:48Speaker 04

  I know.

• 8:48Brian Preston?

  Oh, it exceeded all of our expectations. Publisher dropped by yesterday. Still excited trying to get us to do another book.

• 8:55Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 8:56Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I was like.

• 8:56Speaker 04

  Hey, that's a great compliment.

• 8:57Brian Preston?

  Yeah.

• 8:58Speaker 03

  It is a great compliment.

• 8:59Brian Preston?

  It has been awesome. And by the way, still read the reviews if you're curious. So, so keep them coming because you guys have been generous, but also I'm hoping that it changes the next generation because that's what I wanted to write was the book that I don't care if you're 22, just starting out, kind of like what I was when I first was like, hey, I want to do money better to maybe the 30, 40, you know, five-year-old who's a little behind and says, hey, how can I catch up? We, we got you covered with, with Millionaire Mission.

• 9:24Speaker 03

  Well, one of the goals was with Millionaire Mission, you wanted to change people's financial lives. And that's what we like to do here at The Money Guy Show. It's why every single Tuesday at 10 a.m. we want to load you up. We want to answer the questions and speak to the things that you are curious about. So if you have a question or you want us to weigh in on something you are curious about, you can get it in the chat right now. We have the team out in the wings collecting your questions because we really do believe that there is a better way to do money.

• 9:54Brian Preston?

  And I hear a rumor.

• 9:57Brian Preston?

  It might be a Tumblr day.

• 9:58Speaker 03

  I thought that was going to make a better sound than it did.

• 10:02Brian Preston?

  Maybe if I put it down.

• 10:02Speaker 04

  You know, it was worth a shot, worth a shot, but it is a Tumblr day. So if we answer your question on the live stream today, we would love to send you a Tumblr.

• 10:09Brian Preston?

  Quack, quack, quack, quack.

• 10:10Speaker 04

  And to kick it off, we actually have a question from Jake.

• 10:14Brian Preston?

  Nope.

• 10:14Speaker 04

  So we're going to kick it off with Jake's question.

• 10:16Speaker 03

  D-Jake or A-Jake?

• 10:18Speaker 04

  This is D-Jake.

• 10:18Speaker 03

  D-Jake.

• 10:19Brian Preston?

  D-Jake.

• 10:19Speaker 04

  Our friend Jake. He says, I work from home, so I drive very little. I would like to dip my toes into the electric vehicle market. With that market changing so fast, should I lease? Do leases ever make sense? Hmm. What do you think?

• 10:37Brian Preston?

  Oh, man, Jake, why are you pulling us into the deep end?

• 10:39Speaker 04

  I said, let's go. Car question.

• 10:41Speaker 03

  So let's start, let's start the beginning. Jake, fantastic question. Let's start kind of at the beginning. Because I want, Brian, I want you to talk a little bit about electric vehicles and the shift and the change. But generally speaking, one of the things that we've always said is that most often, when it comes to buying a car, if you're going to do it the right way, well, and we want you to follow 238. So that means you, when you buy the car, you want you to put 20% down. We don't want you to finance it for any more than three years or 36 months. We don't ever want your payment to exceed 8% of your gross income. So assuming you've done that, most people come out ahead if they can buy a car and own it for a nice, long period of time. Think five, seven, maybe even 10 years. But some people don't have that behavior. Some people don't exhibit that.

• 11:23Speaker 03

  They say, I'd really like to be in new cars and I want to make sure that every car I'm driving is no more than three years old. And so I'm constantly in this, this habit of changing out and exchanging cars. And we have some clients who fall into that category. And what we said is if you are someone who is not a long-term car driver, because of the way automobiles often depreciate in the early years of their life cycle, if you're someone who's going to have the behavior of changing your cars out regularly, there is a mathematical substantiation to the fact that leasing may be more advantageous than owning in that scenario. Now, is that the, is that the best financial decision? I'm not going to sign off on that. But if you're going to exhibit that behavior, oftentimes leasing can make sense over buying.

• 12:08Brian Preston?

  If, but you have to negotiate it just like you do in car transaction. It's so, so frustrating is because even leasing is a negotiation opportunity. And you have to kind of know, not to add homework, but you have to know kind of where the market is. And then back into, you see their lease payments and try to figure out how much of the depreciation are you absorbing? How much of the depreciation are they absorbing? You can back into that and then don't, don't sleep on the mileage. But here's.

• 12:38Brian Preston?

  My perception, I've always hated leases. Because my behavior has been buy a car because cars should get you from point A to point B, and then drive them for a long time, eight plus years if possible. Because I mean, it's just, there's nothing but good that comes out of driving good, reliable transportation without car payments.

• 12:58Speaker 03

  It gets better through time.

• 12:59Brian Preston?

  But I will say, there's been some things come out recently that were kind of just like, wow, I was like, that's, that's a deal. And it's probably a unique market. Because remember, sometimes like all markets, you get disconnected from value. I mean, that's why when we invest, we tell you to be consistent. Don't let your emotions, because markets will go up, markets will go down. You've heard Warren, Uncle Warren Buffett share with us, he's made analogies, whether it's a farm, or but he's talked about all kind of other, whether, when you read Berkshire Hathaway, other assets where if you have any irrational neighbor or friend or somebody who's offering prices every day, some days it's really high, some days it's really low, and some days it's all the same, you quickly start realizing that you ought to pay attention to what people are offering you.

• 13:43Brian Preston?

  So I, I mentioned on the show briefly, you know, a few weeks, maybe even a month back, I got a notice for a lease for like a Model 3 Tesla that was like $200, $250 a month.

• 13:55Speaker 03

  Very affordable.

• 13:56Brian Preston?

  So but, so Jake, I, I do think you have to do your research, know thyself, to know your behavior, because there is an element with the technology and the batteries and other things that I can understand why somebody would want that. So make sure it's just not disconnected from your net worth and your journey. And then also understand the limitations of electric, electric vehicles. I love driving an electric vehicle for day to day. I dislike it for road trips.

• 14:22Speaker 03

  Road trips make it a little bit interesting.

• 14:24Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I mean, when we went to Murray State to talk to that athletic program and then, and then.

• 14:31Speaker 03

  They all got a firsthand education on the woes of electric vehicle ownership.

• 14:35Brian Preston?

  But I will tell you, we got nervous because in Kentucky, that supercharger network is not quite built out as much as I thought it was. So there are still some limitations to doing electric on road trips.

• 14:47Speaker 03

  Love it.

• 14:48Speaker 04

  There you go. Well, Jake, if you do not already have a Tumblr, which I don't know if you do or not, I feel like you must. But hey, if I'm wrong.

• 14:55Brian Preston?

  Our latest version, he can get the new.

• 14:57Speaker 04

  Yes, if you don't have this Tumblr, we would love to send you one, just a winner at moneyguy.com.

• 15:02Brian Preston?

  And make him come do a studio tour.

• 15:03Speaker 03

  There we go.

• 15:04Speaker 04

  Yes, come for a studio tour, the new studio tour.

• 15:06Brian Preston?

  Based upon meeting his wife in Dallas, she would have loved that.

• 15:10Speaker 04

  She was so nice.

• 15:11Brian Preston?

  She was very nice, but you can tell she's like, what are we doing? What are we doing?

• 15:15Speaker 04

  She was there for him, yeah, absolutely.

• 15:18Speaker 05

  Bonjour, compadre. It's the

• 15:22Speaker 05

  How do I negotiate so many great travel deals? My greatest gadget, the Priceline app. It's got hotel deals, flight deals, rental car deals, all of those deals in a bundle. Deals, game day deals, concert trip deals. No one deals more deals than Priceline. Hold your horses, there's more. The app lets you filter hotels by neighborhood, vibe, star level, and amenities like pools and spas and beachfronts. And wait, I'm not done. Stop cutting me off.

• 15:48Speaker 00

  As wish lists grow, you know where to go. Head to Ulta Beauty. We have gifts they'll love from brands like Tato One and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. Shop beauty faves to give or keep from Shark Beauty, Sol de Janeiro, and more. Not sure what they want? You can't go wrong with Baumann, Clinique, or Redken. And don't forget to put yourself on the list. Book a salon moment or add a little more sparkle to your season. Shop holiday in store or at Ulta.com. Ulta Beauty.

• 16:16Speaker 04

  All right, Leandra Joe has a question next. She says, hey, money guys, I love the Making a Millionaire show. Thank you. We're loving Making.

• 16:25Speaker 03

  Hey, for those that don't know, Making a Millionaire is a new show that we've rolled out. It airs every other Monday. So if you have not subscribed to the channel, you're not going to want to know when episodes come out. And we just had a banger drop this past week, yesterday, actually. Was it yesterday?

• 16:40Speaker 04

  Yesterday.

• 16:41Speaker 03

  Yesterday.

• 16:41Speaker 04

  So you can see them sit down with real people and talk through their actual financial situations. So go check that out, Making a Millionaire. Thanks for the compliment, Leander Joe. Her question is, where does tithing fit into the foo? Is it a step nine behavior? And I mean, I know that generosity is really a heartbeat of our show, right? So can you speak to that?

• 17:03Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I mean, I'll start it off and then let Bo kind of.

• 17:06Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 17:06Brian Preston?

  Generosity is rewarding. And so that's why if you've read Millionaire Mission, if you've subscribed to the channel, you know that this doesn't fit into steps one through nine. We actually think that this is a ground rule. That's why I covered it in the beginning chapter is that I think, you know, in the beginning, if you don't have money, be generous with your time. But as you start bearing fruit and start, you know, having money, I think it because money is only an ample, you know, the more money you get, it's kind of an amplifier of who you are. So if you can understand and ground yourself, I think by being generous and it will help you in the beginning, it will help you in the middle, and it'll help you even as you become very abundant in your success.

• 17:51Speaker 03

  Yeah, I would just echo that generosity is indeed a ground zero thing. It's something that I encourage folks to start at the very, very beginning of their financial journey before they're thinking about, you know, IRAs and financial independence. It is one of those things that I think makes a lot of sense to take place early on in your journey because it's just like any other habit. I want to build really good habits early on. I want to build the habit of saving early on. I want to build the habit of investing early on. I want to build the habit of being generous early on. That's why with my kids, whenever money comes into their possession, I always tell them there are three things that we get to do with our money. We get to give it, we get to save it, we get to spend it. And I try to walk them through why all three of those matter and all three of those are important. And I love what you said because this is a wonderful exclamation point.

• 18:35Speaker 03

  Oftentimes, when it comes to generosity, it's not, you know, we say all the time that wealth is more than just money. I would say that generosity is more than just money, too. Maybe you're in the situation where you can't write big checks or you can't make large donations, but maybe. Maybe you can volunteer your time, your, uh, your talents, the other things that you can do to be generous to others. It may just be sitting down with that brand new person at work and say, hey, let me tell you how this job goes. Let me tell you what I've learned in my years here. Let me walk you through, let me bring you under my wing. Even doing things like that and exercising and practicing generosity, our belief is that there is a ripple that you cannot quantify that happens when you do that, when you allow yourself to help others around you.

• 19:18Speaker 03

  And if we can all help the people around us, it's amazing how we are all better because of that. So I don't think it's a step in the food. I don't think there's like a, a check mark or, or a checklist you go through before you can start being generous. I think we ought to all start from that position and be amazed at how it impacts the way we make our financial decisions.

• 19:38Brian Preston?

  Well said, and abundant cycle fulfilled.

• 19:41Speaker 03

  Love it.

• 19:41Speaker 04

  Love it. Leandra Joe, thank you for your question. If you would like a Money Guy Tumblr, we'd love to send you one. Just email [email protected]. Next we have Chris K's question. It says, I'm receiving early inheritance of 100K. Shall, shall I use this to increase a down payment for a house or dollar cost average into a tax-free bucket? I'm 32, I'm a full-time single dad, saving 25% of a 50K salary, and I have a 30K in pension. What do you think? This is a big sum of money for him. Like, how should he think about this?

• 20:19Speaker 03

  Well, can I speak to something first that I think is really interesting?

• 20:21Brian Preston?

  Yeah.

• 20:22Speaker 03

  Uh, this, this has nothing to do with this question. Well, it has a little bit to do with this question. He said, I'm receiving an early inheritance. I assume that what this means is that his parents, whoever this person in his life is that decided to leave them some money, said, hey, rather than waiting until we pass, rather than like giving this wealth, passing this along posthumously, we're going to do it now while we're living. That's just a really interesting thing. I see a lot of people do it. I see that becoming a lot more common. Folks saying, hey, rather than just leaving all this money to my kids when I leave, I'd rather get to see them use it and use it for like meaningful things now while I'm still here on this earth and, and able to like see them enjoy it.

• 21:02Speaker 03

  I just think that that's a really, really interesting thing. Now, when we get down to his question, hey, how should I use it? This won't be super surprising. I think that our answer is going to be.

• 21:12Brian Preston?

  It depends.

• 21:13Speaker 03

  It depends. It depends.

• 21:14Brian Preston?

  But we can give you some, some details and context on that is because, first of all, you said you're a single dad, 32. Um, I mean, I think with kids, you're probably thinking education, you know, so setting roots, um, for the kids to have friends, neighbors and schoolmates that they grow up with is an important thing. So I can understand why looking at a house would be important, but remember, we, we try to give grace in the financial order of operations and the fact that on your first house, you only need to put down three to 5%. Now, there is another thing sitting under the current with your housing is that we love for housing to be under 25% of your income. And you also shared another component is that your income, um, you know, is, is right around the, the

• 21:59Brian Preston?

  national median. I mean, it's right around, because I think the national median income is around 54,000.

• 22:03Speaker 03

  I think so, right around there.

• 22:04Brian Preston?

  So, so yours is right there with it. A little bit extra of that gift could go towards the down payment to help offset that 25%. So that's one way to squeeze the balloon is you could minimize the down payment. That would leave more to invest or for emergency reserves and other things, or you could put down a little bit extra to push the payment down, but more than likely, you're still going to be able to have extra money to run into the financial order of operations to consider funding the Roth IRA, to, to get into your retirement accounts. That, all of this should work together, but it is going to be a matter of sitting down, writing out your goals, writing out your objectives, and then figuring out where the

• 22:45Brian Preston?

  intersection points for your, you know, all these different profile points where they intersect. That's the answer to the, it depends.

• 22:53Speaker 03

  I, I think another thing that, that I'd want to know is what's your timeline for this home purchase? So it, it may actually be that you may, you may be doing both. These dollars may be used for a future home down payment, but if that home down payment is five, seven, 10 years in the future, well, there might not be anything wrong with dollar cost averaging those into a low cost index fund after tax portfolio right now. And then being able to use those dollars for a down payment down the road, I think your timeline will likely dictate which one makes the most sense.

• 23:28Speaker 03

  Awesome question.

• 23:29Speaker 04

  That's great. Chris, we would love to send you a Tumblr as a thank you for asking your question today. Just email winner at moneyguy.com.

• 23:36Speaker 03

  I'd like to apologize to our production team.

• 23:38Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 23:39Speaker 03

  I'm a flailer. When I talk, I flail.

• 23:41Brian Preston?

  Oh, you keep hitting the boom?

• 23:42Speaker 03

  I like, I'm pretty sure I just stuck my arm underneath the microphone cord and just like, so.

• 23:47Brian Preston?

  Chig on it?

• 23:48Speaker 03

  I'm still, do you feel like you're still getting your bearings about you right now?

• 23:52Brian Preston?

  Um, it actually feels, I mean, I think Rebi probably, because now I think I'm just directly staring at Rebi all the time.

• 23:58Speaker 04

  I know. It is true, like the shift of the angle is different.

• 24:02Brian Preston?

  I'm gonna be able to quickly tell if I'm flailing over here. But no, I mean, it's cool. I mean, I'll, what's interesting is because we've now added some additional walls in the studio. So I don't see the entire content team. They're all over there lurking and hiding behind the wall as Nick leans forward. But, um, so it's interesting. I mean, when you come and see, do studio tours, you'll be able to see.

• 24:23Speaker 03

  I like that you said that.

• 24:24Brian Preston?

  You'll get to see some of the additional stuff, but I love it. I think it, um, the lighting looks great. I love the additional textures.

• 24:31Speaker 03

  That's one of my favorite parts. Uh, for those of you who have come to the studio tour, you know, me and Brian, we're not like super short dudes. So it would not be uncommon. We'd be walking people around from the studio and one of us undoubtedly would just nail the light every time. Like this big giant light. Well, now the guys have got them all pulled up and stuff. And so no one, unless you're like seven and a half feet tall, should run into our lights anymore.

• 24:53Brian Preston?

  Oh, that one might be 6'8".

• 24:55Speaker 04

  This one you may still hit, but it's much smaller.

• 24:59Speaker 03

  You gotta try.

• 25:00Speaker 04

  Yeah, you gotta really try for that one.

• 25:01Speaker 03

  If you want to know what we're talking about, we'd love for you to come do a studio tour.

• 25:05Speaker 04

  All right. I have another question queued up. Ready for it?

• 25:07Speaker 03

  Yes, ma'am.

• 25:08Speaker 04

  Daniel and Clara say, hello, we are thinking of buying our first home. We do have the cash for a 20% down payment, but with the current situation, is it better to just put 20% down for the down payment? Or put less and save the remaining for investments? What do you think?

• 25:28Speaker 03

  Well, bitch, you're never gonna guess the answer to this one.

• 25:32Speaker 03

  Daniel and Claire, the answer is it kinda depends. It kinda depends on where you are in your financial journey. You didn't tell us how old you guys were. You just said, hey, we've got 20% for a down payment on a house. You also didn't tell us, is this our first house or is this an upgrade? Cause one of the things that we do kinda hold true to is on your first home, we're okay if you don't put down 20%. We're okay if you do 3%, 5%, some number less. But when it comes to upgrading, when it comes to improving, when it comes to increasing your lifestyle, we do say that you do have to put 20% down on your second home and any subsequent homes that you buy after that. So we don't know how old you are. We don't know which home this is. And we also don't know what the rest of your financial life looks like.

• 26:17Speaker 03

  I mean, one of the immediate questions I'd ask Brian is have they been, do you have the thing? Can you hold the thing up? Have they been following the financial order of operations? Where are they on their financial journey through the nine, not through the nine steps, through the nine steps of what to do with your next dollar? I'd love to know where they are. I'd love to know.

• 26:39Speaker 04

  I will say, they did say their first home. So we know that much. I know there's still some other details to talk around.

• 26:44Speaker 03

  So then I would wanna know where they are in their financial journey and where they are with building their assets. Would those dollars in fact be better used going towards a down payment? Or would they be better used?

• 26:53Brian Preston?

  Well, people are gonna media, I'll go ahead and add it cause they'll say, well, it's high interest debt. Because if they're paying, you know, 6% or 6.5%.

• 27:00Speaker 03

  Maybe even 7% right now.

• 27:02Brian Preston?

  You know, is that high interest debt? And our take is without a doubt, take into account the interest rate. But also know that there's probably gonna be future opportunities with refinancing. So you just don't wanna, I think it's a balancing act. Cause we all know Bo is the, the, the crew, he's not a crusader cause debt crusaders is a thing. He's more of a wild, wild man, you know, cowboy out there. He's like, don't pay down any debt.

• 27:27Speaker 03

  I just understand math. I'm good at math.

• 27:29Brian Preston?

  Well, you know, once you get over 45, you start realizing, hey, maybe, maybe I need to balance out some of the risk profile of this thing a little bit more too. So I, I like paying down high interest or debt that has a higher interest rate to it. But it is one of those things where I would highly encourage you, and I know Bo alluded to it, you really do need to look at the financial order of operations. And when I even cross reference that with, we do shows like net worth by age, 401k by age. We even have know your number. And what I'm asking is because I don't know if you're behind the curve, on the curve, or ahead of the curve, because that's also going to play into this answer. Because if you've done no saving for the future, and you're really putting yourself

• 28:11Brian Preston?

  in a pickle of a situation, you're going to be house-rich, life-poor, and you'll be like, great, but I have a low payment on this. But if you never have an army of dollar bills working in the background, you've missed out. So I always like that balanced approach that gives you the best of all worlds, where we try to really find that perfect Goldilocks, where you put down enough to where you recognize the 25% of your gross income towards housing, and the down payment feels like you made an impact on, you know, getting it in there and having some equity and ownership in this house. But then you left enough, you know, in your savings and investments, so you have an emergency reserves, so you don't make desperate decisions. But you also have enough money to start working for the future, so you can leverage the power of compounded growth.

• 28:56Speaker 03

  Love that.

• 28:57Speaker 04

  Fantastic. Daniel and Clara, congrats on thinking about taking this first step of your first home. It's a big deal. And we thank you for asking your question today on the live stream. We'd love to send you a Money Guy Tumblr, if you would like one. Just email [email protected].

• 29:11Speaker 03

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

• 29:44Speaker 00

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• 30:11Speaker 01

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• 30:21Speaker 01

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