How Much Is in Retirement Accounts (By Generation!) + Money Q&A

Join the community built to help you master your money, stay accountable, and reach financial freedom. 👉 Join Master Money Academy today! In this episode of The Personal Finance Podcast, Andrew breaks down the average retirement savings for Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers using Fidelity's data, which will cover where each generation stands today, why compounding matters most for younger savers, how to catch up if you're behind, whether to slow down student loan payments to max your Roth IRA, if you should switch brokerages for fractional shares, and practical strategies for buying your first out-of-state rental property. Listen to The Business Show here. Partner Deals Indeed: Start hiring NOW with a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to upgrade your job post at Indeed.com/personalfinance Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.com/PFP Acorns: Start investing automatically with Acorns and get a $5 bonus at Acorns.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/ DELL: Get a new Dell AI PC starting at $749.99, at Dell.com/ai-pc. Policy Genius: Go to policygenius.com to get your free life insurance quote. Shopify: Shopify makes it so easy to sell. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/pfp Wayfair: Shop outdoor furniture, grills, lawn games, and WAY more for WAY less DeleteMe: Go to https://joindeleteme.com/PFP20/ and Use Promo Code PFP for 20% off! Resources Mentioned Automate Your Money Checklist Rental Property Calculator Connect With Andrew on Social Media: Instagram TikTok Twitter Master Money Website Master Money Youtube Channel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• 0:00Andrew Giancola?

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• 0:44Andrew Giancola?

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• 1:29Andrew Giancola?

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• 2:14Andrew Giancola?

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• 2:28Andrew Giancola?

  On this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, the average retirement savings by generation.

• 2:52Andrew 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 talking about the average retirement savings by generation. 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 Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or whatever podcast player you love listening to this podcast on. 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. Now today, we're going to be diving into the average retirement savings by generation.

• 3:34Andrew Giancola?

  And then we're going to be answering some of your questions and doing a money Q and A in the second half of the show. And so I'm really excited to dive into this because we are going to be looking at data from Fidelity that shows the average retirement savings by generation. And we're going to start this one off with Gen Z. So Gen Z are folks who were born from 1997 to 2012. And so we are looking at the average retirement balance for folks who are in Gen Z. And really, if you are in Gen Z, this is the peak time for you to start saving for retirement. Why? Because these dollars are so incredibly valuable. And as you grow your wealth over time, you're going to see these seeds that you planted right now,

• 4:16Andrew Giancola?

  the seeds that you started off with are going to fund your retirement for the rest of your life. Now, one thing to note here is that most people in 2025 who are in Gen Z, their ages range from age 13 all the way up to 28. Now, the oldest members of this generation are in their late twenties and many are still in school. And so we want to make Sure that we note that as we start this off. Now, the average balance in the 401k for Gen Z who have a 401k is $13,500. And so, the employee contributions in these accounts from this fidelity data are about 7.2%. And the employer contributions are 3.7%. Now, if you're watching on YouTube or on Spotify, we're going to put this chart on the screen for you

• 5:01Andrew Giancola?

  so that you can see this as we go through this. Now, 18.2% are contributing to a Roth 401k, which is an uptick from a lot of others out there. And the average balance in their IRA is about $6,672. Now, why does this matter? Why does it matter for Gen Z? Well, Gen Z is starting earlier than any other previous generation, which is absolutely fantastic. They are actually starting to invest earlier. Now, I think this is a testament to the financial education that is out there for a lot of people. There are folks on TikTok talking about, hey, make sure you're saving for your retirement. There are folks on Instagram, YouTube, talking through this. And I think financial education is rising across the board. Now, it's still not even close to where it needs to be,

• 5:44Andrew Giancola?

  but we are at least seeing people starting saving for retirement earlier than they were before. And I think that is really, really cool. Number two, is starting in your early twenties gives you this massive compounding advantage. So, anybody who is Gen Z, who is listening to this right now, I want you to understand as we go through this, you have an opportunity to absolutely change your financial life if you start investing now. Now is the time to get your finances together. Because once you get into your 30s and 40s, you are going to regret not planting the seeds right now. Someone who starts in their twenties will massively outperform someone who starts in their 30s and who works twice as hard as someone in their twenties. And so, once you get the ball rolling,

• 6:27Andrew Giancola?

  you're going to realize that all you gotta do is just start packing up snow. And as you start to pack in snow, once you get to your 30s, you're going to be able to roll that snow downhill. And compound interest is going to start doing the work for you. But now is the time. Now, you may have come from a background that doesn't understand how to invest. You may have come from a background where every single person in your family is not well off and you're saying to yourself, well, you know, I've never seen anybody in my family actually do well. And so how would I do well? How you would do well is you could change your family tree right now. You could absolutely turn your entire family tree around just by planting the seeds, even if it's a hundred dollars a month, even if it's two, three, $400 a month, whatever extra gap that you have available, that is what I want you to start with. Now, most people, I want you to get to the point in time where you're at least

• 7:12Andrew Giancola?

  investing 20% of your income. That's where we really want you to get to at a bare minimum. But when you are just getting started, at least getting the ball rolling with 50, 100, 150, $200, it is going to make a massive difference. Now, we have something called the Wealth Builders Matrix. If you go to mastermoney.co/resources, it is going to show you how much every single dollar you invest is worth based on how old you are by the time you turn age 65. It is really, really eye opening. So someone in their early twenties and Gen Z, every single dollar they invest is going to be worth about a hundred bucks. Sometimes it's 110, depending on how old you are. For folks who are in their later twenties, every single dollar you invest is going to be worth a little less, but it is still massively impactful. So it's going to make you

• 7:54Andrew Giancola?

  rethink a lot of your spending decisions when you look at the Wealth Builders Matrix because you can see what every single dollar is worth. Now, if Gen Z keeps up with this pace with continued contributions, the cool thing about this is, is they may be the wealthiest retirement generation yet if they keep the ball rolling because they are getting started earlier than everybody else. And so because of that, we're going to see a huge, huge difference here in Gen Z from some of these other generations and what the total outcome is because folks who start early, that is where the biggest impact is going to be. Now let's get into the millennials.

• 8:28Andrew Giancola?

  The millennials are a generation that early on did not save and invest as much as they should, and it slowly has turned around as time has gone on. The millennials, I am a millennial, that is my generation, the generation that I was born into, and these are folks born between 1981 to 1996. And so in 2025, most millennials are between the ages of 29 to 44. And so this is something where the oldest millennials are entering crunch time for savings and many are dealing with these competing priorities. Now, here's the thing with millennials. As most of you are in this point in time where your earnings power is starting to increase, but you're in the middle where your time is becoming restricted because you have families and/or you're just focusing on your career.

• 9:10Andrew Giancola?

  And so a lot of your time is being reduced based on your priorities. And so because of this, we need to set up automations and we need to set up financial systems that are going to allow us to retire by the time we hit retirement age. The time to start is right now. If you're a millennial, then you need to make sure that you are investing for retirement. You guys grew up in an era where we needed better financial education. And so now we have it. Now we have that point in time where I want you to start to get these dollars working. So the average balance for millennials right now is $67,300 in a 401k. Now, the employee contributions on average is only 8.7% and the average employer contribution is 4.6%.

• 9:54Andrew Giancola?

  Now, this is in the traditional 401k. Now, how many are contributing to a Roth 401k? 18.3% of millennials are contributing to the Roth 401k. Now, the Roth 401k, for those who don't know, is a very powerful account that allows you to get in 2025, $23,500 into that Roth 401k. So you put money in, it grows tax-free and you can pull the money out tax-free. So you pay those taxes upfront from your paycheck, but then it grows tax-free and you can pull that money out tax-free. It's a really powerful account. And so also, the average IRA balance for folks who are millennials is about $25,109. And so why does this matter for millennials? And why do we need to understand where we stand as millennials?

• 10:37Andrew Giancola?

  Because most millennials, when you're between the age of 30 and 45, you are in your wealth building prime. This is where you need to lay the foundation in the building blocks in order to ensure that you are going to retire comfortably. This is where your retirement plan really starts to accelerate. And so if you don't get your act together right now, then you are going to start to fall behind and you're going to feel behind. You will regret your decision. I'm going to tell you right now, you're going to regret it if you don't get the ball rolling. So I need each and every single one of you to strap up and let's Get invested. Now, this is not something that is optional to go out and start investing. It is required to go out and start investing because inflation is going to eat away at your buying power every single year if you don't. Now, that's not some sort of theory. That is fact.

• 11:22Andrew Giancola?

  Every year inflation will eat away at your buying power. You can look at the difference in costs from 2019 to now, and you can see a massive, massive difference. And the reason for that is because inflation is going to eat away every single year at your buying power if you do not work on this stuff. So really, really important to make sure that you are investing your dollars because you are in your wealth building prime. Now is the time. Number two is if you are only investing 10% of your income, maybe it's 15% of your income, it is time to start ramping up contributions. You need to make sure that you are putting enough into these retirement accounts. So getting to 20, 25, 30% of your income is the range we want you in. And so if you're not doing that currently, then you're going to be working a much longer period of time.

• 12:05Andrew Giancola?

  Now, why does this matter? Why does it matter to make sure that you increase your contributions? One is because the math is very simple. Your retirement contributions or the amount of money that you put towards investments, it doesn't have to be in retirement accounts. It could be in a brokerage account. Maybe you invest in real estate, but your savings rate, the amount of money that you are putting away towards investments has a direct impact on how long you will have to work. And so if you don't want to work anymore, or you want to pursue financial freedom, and that is your ultimate goal, that is what you really want to get to, then we need to make sure that we are increasing our retirement contributions. So let's try to do this with the 1% rule, meaning every single time that you look at your savings rate and you say, well, it's not enough yet. I'm only saving 10% of my income. Well, let's try to increase it to 11% next month,

• 12:48Andrew Giancola?

  then 12% the next month. And so just by increasing the dial slowly over the next couple of months, that's going to allow you to really reach those retirement goals over time. Not just ripping off the Band-Aid right away. You're gradually increasing it. This is a great place to be in. And really, once you get to 20%, then you can decide, am I going to continue? Or am I going to stop here? Now, you also, as a millennial, are going to have competing priorities. A number of different things are happening. A lot of millennials have student loans. And these student loans are eating away at their ability to be able to go out and invest for their future. A lot of millennials are dealing with childcare. Now, this is one that's not talked about enough. If you have young kids and you have them in childcare, you know,

• 13:32Andrew Giancola?

  this is one of the biggest costs or the biggest line items in your budget. Each child that's in childcare is typically anywhere from 800 to, depending on where you live, it could be all the way up to $2,000 per month just to have your child in childcare. If you have a nanny, it's probably even higher than that. And so because of this, this is a huge, huge line item for a lot of millennials, because if you have one to two kids in childcare, well, you're looking at thousands of dollars every single month. And so this is another big thing. Then housing costs are rising. And if you didn't buy a house in 2020, then you're looking at a situation where you may have higher housing costs than other folks. And so you have these competing priorities. What we need to do is learn how to juggle these competing priorities and then figure out how to increase our income over time so that we can achieve our financial goals. We talk a lot about how to increase your

• 14:17Andrew Giancola?

  income here. And so if you haven't heard those episodes, make sure you're subscribed to this podcast because that is our big, big goal is to make sure that we help you increase your income.

• 14:27Andrew Giancola?

  All right. Next up is Gen X. So Gen X was born between 1965 to 1980. And so right now in 2025, Gen X is between age 45 to age 60. So Gen Xers are turning 60 this year and getting ready for retirement. This is crunch time, big time for people who are Gen X. And really, this is the time to get your stuff together. And so overall, if you are in Gen X, we are starting to really plan and ramp up for retirement right now. So the average 401k balance for someone who is in Generation X is going to be $192,300. And the average employee contribution is 10.2% to their 401k. And the average employer contribution is

• 15:10Andrew Giancola?

  5%. So that means they are putting 15% of their income into their 401k. That is a great start for a lot of folks. But their Roth 401k contributions are actually lower than Gen Z and the millennial generation at 14.5%, which I think is very, very interesting. Now, the Roth 401k is a newer product. And so The question then comes up, well, is that a reason for why this is happening? Not really sure. And so then the question comes up, is that the reason why this is happening? We'll have to dig deeper. And then the average IRA balance is higher at $103,952. So Gen X is in catch-up mode. Now, one thing that Gen X can do is they can take advantage of catch-up contributions, meaning after the age of 50, you can contribute more to your 401k and you can contribute more

• 15:54Andrew Giancola?

  to your Roth and your traditional IRA. And so they can take advantage of that after the age of 50. Now, if you are in catch-up mode, you're in the final decade before retirement. It is really imperative that you take as many of those extra dollars as you possibly can and put them towards wealth building activities. I mean, your investments, your emergency fund, making sure you pay off any high-interest debt, all those big things are very important. Now, this generation often has peak responsibilities. So they have a couple of different things to juggle. One, a lot of them are going to have kids that are either going to high school or maybe they're teenagers, and so they're having to deal with those priorities. In addition, they also have aging parents, and having aging parents becomes a responsibility of a lot of folks now. And so you have to make sure that you're budgeting and planning out for that. In addition, they have mortgages and other things that they're juggling.

• 16:39Andrew Giancola?

  And so their expenses are pretty high. And really, overall, it's a tough situation to be in and making sure you juggle all those things, but they have to figure out what to do. But as they approach retirement age, they have to make sure that they are doing the right things and taking the right steps in order to be able to retire. Now, this is a very powerful place to be, and for most people out there, if you saved early and often, then you know you're probably feeling good about your situation. If you did not save early and often, now is the time to catch up. It is never, ever too late. So anybody out there who is in Gen X who is just getting started, I want you to know right now, it is never too late. We have multiple episodes talking about why it's never too late. And so I highly encourage you to check out those episodes if you have not already. But I want you to know, you got to start now. Now is the time to start, because if you don't start now, you're going to be living

• 17:23Andrew Giancola?

  in retirement relying on social security, and that is not a good retirement to live on. That is not financial peace. That is not a place that is going to give you financial peace. Instead, I want you to get started right now. And in the last 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,

• 18:08Andrew Giancola?

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• 18:53Andrew Giancola?

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• 19:37Andrew Giancola?

  this is the job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your 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. 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.

• 20:21Andrew Giancola?

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• 21:01Andrew Giancola?

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• 21:42Andrew Giancola?

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• 22:22Andrew Giancola?

  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. This generation we're going to go through is the baby boomer generation. Now, the baby boomer generation is a generation that was born from 1946 to 1964. And a lot of them in 2025 are between the ages of 61 to 79. Now, most of them are well into their retirement or have started to draw down on their savings.

• 23:04Andrew Giancola?

  So some of the younger baby boomers may have not retired yet if they are still working on retirement. And then some of the older ones have been retired for a good amount of time. Now, the average balance in their 401K is $249,300. And the employee contributions are 11.9% and the employer contributions are right around 5%. And the amount that are contributing to a Roth 401K is even lower at 12.2%. Now, the average balance in an IRA for the baby boomer generation is $257,000. Now, even with strong retirement savings, a lot of the baby boomer generation is still relying on social security. They're heavily relying on social security. I want everybody in the younger generations watching this episode right now to do this and to think through this.

• 23:48Andrew Giancola?

  I don't want you relying heavily on social security. Why? We don't know how much is going to be there. And so this is relying on something that you cannot control. Someone can take this away from you whenever they want to. Now, is that going to happen? I don't think it's very likely for social security to go away. They've been saying it's going to go away for decades and decades and decades, but that's just my My opinion. What if it actually did? What would you do in that situation? If you're relying on social security, you are in trouble. And so I want you to make sure that instead, we are deciding to take control of our retirement ourselves. And so we are going to take control of this by investing in our future and putting more money into our retirement accounts. Now, longevity risk is real for a lot of folks out there, and these accounts must stretch for decades, especially with the baby boomer generation. And so they need to make sure

• 24:33Andrew Giancola?

  that they are preserving their retirement accounts. And so again, this is a great lesson for folks who are in the younger generations to start early. Start making sure that you are automating your contributions so that you can get ahead. So again, on the screen, we're going to put a summary of, you know, everything we just talked about here. The average 401k balance for the baby boomer generation is $249,300. For Gen X, it's $192,000. For millennials, it's $67,000. And for Gen Z, it's $13,500. So now, we're going to jump into some of your questions here, and we're going to do a money Q and A. Now, this money Q and A is brought to you by Delete Me. Let's talk about something most people don't think about, but absolutely should. And it's how much of your personal information

• 25:16Andrew Giancola?

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• 26:01Andrew Giancola?

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• 26:45Andrew Giancola?

  is to get your personal information off the internet.

• 26:49Andrew Giancola?

  All right, so the first question we're going to go through is, first, wanted to say thank you for the amazing content you put out. I was blessed enough to find it my junior year of college and began following the stairway to wealth as soon as I could. With everything you have taught, I was able to go from a negative $25,000 net worth to a $38,000 net worth within a little over a year after graduation. First of all, that is incredible. Absolutely incredible that you went for a $68,000 swing. That is just, congratulations on that. That is amazing. I recently have been thinking further on how to optimize my student loan repayment. I'm sitting with $21,000 in student loans and I already carry a lower end weighted average interest rate

• 27:30Andrew Giancola?

  on the loans at 3.97% with loans varying from 5.25% to 2.5%. Now, they are all federal loans and I am currently doing the avalanche method, shoveling an extra $600 a month into the highest interest loan. With the student loan tax deduction, my after-tax interest rate drops to 3.1%. Now, does it make sense to stop or slow down my rapid debt repayment and reallocate that money into maxing out my Roth IRA to take advantage of the tax deduction while my income level is still within that threshold? So first off, huge congratulations to you here, being out of college and making that big of a net worth swing. And so now, let's break down what the top 1% decision makers would do in this situation.

• 28:12Andrew Giancola?

  The key is, should you divert money from paying down some of these student loans towards your Roth IRA? Now, with your numbers, I would say 100% yes, and here's why. Because your true interest rate is so low. So your interest rate- Is much lower than would be for some high interest rate debt. And so for us, we always want to attempt to get our dollars invested when we have low interest rate debt first. So what are some of the reasons why we want to do this? So one is your guaranteed return from paying off debt early is 3.1%. And so that's the average of all of your different debt payments with your student loans. And so instead, what I would likely do is I would look at the long-term return in a Roth IRA. So let's say, for example, you invested in something like the S and P 500 index fund.

• 28:55Andrew Giancola?

  Now you could do your research on what you think would be the best funds based on your risk tolerance and what you are looking for. But if you invested in the S and P 500 over the course of the last 30, 40 years, you would get on average about a 10% rate of return. So that delta there is about 7%. That is the difference between what the guaranteed rate of return is that you would get paying off your student loans and what the possible rate of return is would be within your student loans. Now, one thing I want to note is that with a Roth IRA, you don't get a deduction in that given year. I think your question stated that you wanted to get the tax deduction in this given year, but you don't get a tax deduction in this given year. You get tax-free growth in a Roth IRA. And so that's a big thing just to note. And so because we're looking at this situation and if your income is within those Roth limits,

• 29:38Andrew Giancola?

  then it is a really awesome opportunity for you, especially as young as you are, to be able to grow your money over time. Because a Roth is a user-lose-it situation. You don't get those years back. And so getting some of that money in a Roth is very, very important for your long-term growth and your long-term financial growth. I think financially, this is a layup decision. So any low-interest debt, especially when it's this low, typically I want to make sure that I am getting my extra dollars into investment accounts over paying off that low-interest debt. And then over time, we're going to continue to pay that debt off. And we will, as our income rises, then have opportunities to pay it off in larger amounts as time goes on. We teach this a lot in Master Money Academy, where we have the exact order of operations in something called the Wealth Builder's Journey

• 30:21Andrew Giancola?

  that we have, which is our 25-step system that takes you through all these different situations. And so we pay off high-interest debt first, then we start to build up that emergency fund. And then we have a point in time where we are teaching people when to invest and exactly when to invest. So this is really in your situation, this is when investing is going to win by a mile. And so here's what I would do unless this debt really stresses you out and debt is one of those things that really causes you anxiety or anything like that. It is much better to get your dollars invested early and often. And then later on down the line, you could pay off this low interest debt because the Roth is so incredibly powerful and you have so much time for this money to compound that it will change your retirement drastically to make sure you get those dollars invested and get your dollars growing because your money can work so much harder than you can.

• 31:06Andrew Giancola?

  And so because of this, that's what I would do. So step one is I would make minimum payments on all the federal loans. If I were in your shoes, that's what I would do is I would look at making those minimum payments. Then step two is I would redirect your $600 per month into a Roth IRA. Now I would automate it every single month. Make sure you're making automatic contributions and that is the first stepping stone and the first starting point. Now we are going to link down in the show notes. If you don't know how to automate your money, I'll link in the show notes, my money automation checklist that you guys can access. We'll link it up up top in the show notes that you can access that checklist for free and take a look at that. And then step three is once your Roth IRA is maxed out, you can take some of the extra money and either put it towards something like your 401k or you can take some of that extra money and put it towards your loans if you really want to get those paid down faster.

• 31:52Andrew Giancola?

  But I think what's going to happen here is that once you get your money into a Roth, then it's worth looking at some of the other investment options as well, because this debt is so low interest. Now, really, really commend you for even thinking through this and thinking through the best possible option in your situation, because you are going to make some huge wins. If you have made that big of a swing in net worth thus far, just congratulations again for what you've done there, because that is absolutely incredible and is going to be so, so powerful as time goes on to see what you do with your finances. So amazing, amazing work. And again, congratulations on that net worth swing and thank you so much for the question. If you have any other additional questions, feel free to send them over.

• 32:33Andrew Giancola?

  All right, the next question is, "Hi Andrew, I'm very new to investing outside of my employer's 401k. I currently have been investing small amounts, about $50, twice a month into Merrill Edge as my brokerage portal. With Merrill Edge, I am unable to do fractional investments in bigger ETFs like the S&P 500. So I'm kind of limited to these smaller ETFs with lower cost. Would it make sense for me to change my brokerage portal to something else with fractional shares?" Here's what I would say, is that if you have a brokerage account without fractional shares, that is something where they just don't have a lot of flexibility. Now, I have had Merrill Edge in the past, and I have switched from Merrill Edge to some of the other options that I talk about all the time. So Vanguard, Fidelity, M1 Finance, Charles Schwab.

• 33:14Andrew Giancola?

  Those are all great options that are out there that will allow you to do fractional investing. And so because of this, I would consider moving to a different brokerage. Now, it's not very hard to do it. It's pretty easy to move your funds over to a different brokerage. And here's kind of what I would think about doing it, is you can call Vanguard or Fidelity. They all let you do some of this fractional stuff. Fidelity has a lot of flexibility with this stuff too. But you call the brokerage that you are moving it to, and you say, "Hey, I want to move my money from Merrill Edge to you guys. What are the steps I need to take?" And they will walk you through it. It takes about five minutes. People in Master Money Academy do this all the time, where they want to move from one of their traditional brokerages over to another one that we talk about a lot. And so when they do that, they usually will just call up Vanguard or Fidelity.

• 33:57Andrew Giancola?

  "I just did this with Merrill Edge," and they will move it over. Now, if you're familiar with Merrill Edge and you're just comfortable with them, there's nothing wrong with staying there. But for me specifically, Vanguard, Fidelity, those are my two big ones that I am always investing in. M1 Finance, I have an account with as well. And Charles Schwab, I have helped a lot of people with their Charles Schwab accounts. I have never had an account there, but I know they have some great funds over there too. And so that is definitely one to consider. Now typically, what I like to do is also just choose a brokerage that has automatic contributions that can also auto-invest. So Vanguard and Fidelity can both do this, and they have some great, easy ways for you to actually contribute directly and then auto-invest immediately once your money has hit in that account. And so I really, really like that option, because then your money just gets invested and you can get those fractional shares.

• 34:43Andrew Giancola?

  Built up over time, especially if you're doing this weekly because then you're just getting your money invested sooner. And so if you do this over time, then it's not sitting for a month or two until you can buy an index fund or an ETF. Instead, it is getting invested earlier. And so you can get that growth earlier. I think it is beneficial on all fronts. And probably if we did the math and looked at this, we'd be able to see that just getting those dollars invested even sooner because you'd be delaying a month each time would be really, really important. And so I think that overall, it'd make a big, big difference for your specific situation. So definitely move it over and let me know if you have any questions on that.

• 35:17Andrew Giancola?

  All right. So the last one is a real estate question. So I recently listened to your podcast episode, How to Achieve Financial Independence Using Real Estate with Dustin. Such a great episode, and I really enjoyed it and found it motivating. I've always been interested in real estate investing and right now have about $24,000 saved. My goal is to buy my first rental property by next year in 2026. I currently live at home with my parents in New Jersey and pay $700 in rent. I've maxed out my HSA and IRA through Fidelity, and I contribute 4% of my paycheck to my job's 403B. Since the housing market in New Jersey is quite expensive, I've been thinking about buying rental properties in Florida instead. My sister is a real estate agent in Orange County and has a good network of contractors and property managers. So I feel more comfortable investing there, knowing

• 36:01Andrew Giancola?

  I have that support system. I wanted to get your thoughts on buying a new construction home. I've been looking at a few that are still being built, and my sister mentioned that developers often offer incentives that can help reduce the down payment. I think that buying something new could help me avoid some of the repair issues that come with older properties. Any advice or guidance that could share on buying my first rental property would mean a lot. I'm hoping to make that first purchase by next year, and ideally buy another property within a year after that. Thanks so much for your time and all the great content you share. I've learned a lot from your podcast. So this is a really good question, and this question is from Anna, and I think this is awesome, awesome, awesome stuff that you're even thinking through investing in real estate and thinking through it in this way. Now, a couple of things that I would kind of think

• 36:43Andrew Giancola?

  through. For many new investors, the hardest part about out of state investing is trust. And who's on the ground? Who's screening tenants? Who's fixing things? And so if your sister is willing to kind of partner with you on this, I don't know how much work she's willing to do, but if she is willing to partner and you know, be your agent, help you with some of these out of network contractors and help find property managers that she trusts, then this eliminates the biggest risk of all, which is finding the right people because building out this team is one of the most important parts when it comes to investing in real estate out of state. So Fora can become a great option, but this is the big key right here. If the numbers work. So when it comes to real estate

• 37:25Andrew Giancola?

  investing, you make all of your money on the buy. So how you run your numbers and when you buy the property is where all of your money is made. It is not made in the middle and it is not made on the sale. It is how you run your numbers upfront. So just because you like the area and just because that area might be booming, doesn't mean that the numbers are going to work. So we have to make sure that we are running the numbers. So does the property cash flow after all expenses, including maintenance, repair, capital expenditures, vacancy. So we have a, for those who don't know, we have a rental property calculator that I think it's 19 bucks, but we will link it up down below that you guys can check out. This is just a spreadsheet that allows you to run the numbers on rental properties. If you're in Master Money Academy, you get it for free. It's in Master Money Academy

• 38:08Andrew Giancola?

  as part of your membership. But if you are not in Master Money Academy, it's 19 bucks and we'll, we'll link it up down below, but it helps you run the numbers so that you understand if a property actually cash flows or not. Now, new construction can be great if the property cash flows, if the incentives are actually real, because they do offer these incentives a lot of times that help you reduce the overall price and if the rents support the mortgage. So it's not just if the property is going to rent minus the mortgage amount. It is obviously all the other expenditures that fall into play. But with a new build, the nice thing is because everything is new, you can have a little more time before things like capital expenditures, like the roof or the AC or whatever else could break down. It would be a little more time before that actually happened. So with new builds, obviously

• 38:51Andrew Giancola?

  you're just going to have a little bit less repairs upfront than you would with older houses. And a lot of times they will give you warranties on all the different structures within some of those things. So new construction. Has the less deferred maintenance. There's no 40 year old AC. There's no roof that's going to go bad in the next five years. There's no surprise plumbing. And if there is a surprise in the plumbing, typically they will give you a warranty for 10 or 15 years on new builds, depending on what that is. And so in addition, they can also offer some other things like closing cost credits, rate buy downs, you know, appliance packages, all these different things. Now you probably on a new build will have to buy appliances and put them in unless they have those packages. And sometimes they'll even give you down payment assistance. But it does not mean that it's going

• 39:33Andrew Giancola?

  to automatically cash flow. So a couple of things I want you to note is a lot of time with new builds, your taxes could be significantly higher. Why? They do these things called CDD fees in new builds, which are the community development things that they add into some of these new developments. And so when they add in new sewage, when they add in new plumbing or electrical or they run all the, you know, electrical lines, those fees go back to you within your taxes and you have to pay these additional CDD fees and they can be really high. And so making sure you see those and run the numbers on those because that could completely kill your cash flow is one big thing. But also, you need to make sure that you're looking at the HOA. You need to make sure that property management will manage properties in that area. And then you're going to look at capital expenditures, maintenance, all the other stuff. But if it cash flows, there is nothing wrong with that.

• 40:17Andrew Giancola?

  So what I would do is first, I would start to save aggressively. So you have your $24,000 saved up. That is fantastic. And you can look at, you know, getting a conventional loan and figuring out what that loan is going to be. And then have your sister help build a deal pipeline. So if your sister is willing to partner with you, see if she can start sending you some properties and start running the numbers on properties in that area. Kind of see where you would land with some of those properties, have conversations with some of the agents in that area that can help you through that process. So don't guess, start running the numbers on some of those properties so that you can get some, some practice with it. Then I would talk to a couple of lenders, talk to two to three lenders right now, kind of see what their rates are coming back as, especially as rates have been going down over the course of the last couple of months. And then you can interview some property managers also. So I would have some conversations with property

• 41:00Andrew Giancola?

  managers and then just start doing the math, start running the numbers on your favorite rental property calculator and kind of seeing where you land. If it cash flows, then great. That's a great option to think through and see if you want to own that property. Then if it doesn't cash Then move on to the next one. See if you can find one that does cash flow. And if it's close, then see if they'll offer you enough incentives to lower the price. That's the way I would look at this. But everything comes down to running the numbers on the buy and then making sure you have the team in place, especially since you're not there. So really, really great question. Hope the numbers are going to work for you there in the Orlando area. Orlando has a lot of new builds. I'm in Tampa, so I know the Orlando area pretty well. A lot of new builds in those areas and they're in some areas, they're overbuilding. So just watch out for overbuilding too. That's another big thing.

• 41:43Andrew Giancola?

  Want to make sure that you have a property that works and that people are actually desiring to be in that location. So awesome, awesome question. And thank you guys so much for submitting your questions. If you guys have a question, you can send them over to me via email by joining the Master Money Newsletter. Once you join the newsletter, you can reply to any of those newsletters that come out every single Friday, and we will be able to answer your questions and help you through the process. Again, thank you so much for being here. I truly appreciate each and every single one of you, and we will see you on the next episode.