What Makes a Financial Mutant? The Survey Results Are In!

We break down exclusive data from 25,000+ of our listeners who shared their real financial lives - from income and net worth to mindset and money habits. Discover how Financial Mutants are outpacing the average American, avoiding debt, investing early, and building wealth with discipline and optimism. Thank YOU for filling out The 2025 Financial Mutant Survey - we already can't wait to see what 2026 has in store... ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠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. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠NordVPN.com/MONEYGUY⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.

• 0:26Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.

• 0:56Brian Preston?

  We asked and boy, oh, boy, did you guys answer.

• 0:59Speaker 03

  And Brent, I am so excited about this because we asked you, the audience, to share data from your financial lives with us. And 25,000 of you were kind enough to do so and help us put this show together.

• 1:14Brian Preston?

  So today, we're going to share the findings of that survey and see just what makes a financial mutant so special. With that, let's jump right in.

• 1:23Speaker 03

  25,000.

• 1:30Speaker 03

  Brian, financial mutants are a rare breed. We already know this. They look different than the world around them, but let's talk about what they actually look like. When we say financial mutant, we talk to those of you out there listening. What and who are we talking to? And this, from a demographic standpoint, is what we found, that from an age standpoint, it is fairly diversified, but we have a lot of folks in that 30s to 40s range.

• 2:02Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I mean, it was kind of amazing to see who you guys were, or are, I don't know why I use past tense, but it was, I mean, This gets me excited 20s, you know, you guys have the world by its tail and there's 23% of our audience. That's healthy. Think about 30s messy middles, 41% of our audience in their 40s, 22% and even us a little bit older, you know, getting a little wisdom under our belts. 10% of the audience is in the 50s. So guys, this makes us excited. And then look at this for all the people who are in the comments section, you know, trolling marriage is not my financial mutants because 68% of our financial mutants are actually are married financial mutants.

• 2:43Speaker 03

  And again, this is of the 25,000 response that responded to our financial mutant survey. And another question we asked, okay, this is what they look like from an age and from a marital status standpoint, but where are they? Where are you financial mutants? And it was awesome to see that you guys are all over the country.

• 3:01Brian Preston?

  Yeah, it doesn't matter. High cost of living area, low cost of living area. This is why it is a blessing and a curse is because now we know you really are all over the country. So as we create content, we try to make sure that we are loading you up, but it is one of those things is you can't just say, hey, all of our audience is out in California. Nope. It's California. It's just as much in Texas. It's just as much in the Northeast. It is amazing. And we do not take this for granted.

• 3:27Speaker 03

  But what this also lets us recognize is that the information that we share, the concepts that we lay out on the show are broadly applicable. And one of the things that you hear us go back to over and over and over again is the financial order of operations. It is a nine step process to help you understand what you should do with your next dollar. What it shows us by where you guys are located is that this really is an all terrain vehicle, whether you are in a high cost of living area, low cost of living area, north, south, east, west, the financial order of operations can work for you. So if you don't have your free copy, make sure you go to moneyguy.com slash resources and download your free copy right now.

• 4:10Brian Preston?

  So we now know ages, we know where they live. Let's get into the meat of this thing though. How good are they with money? And this is the part that floored me because Remember, this is not our millionaire survey. This is not just what the average public, this is financial mutants. You guys proactively went out there and filled out a survey, our audience did, to tell us who you were. And by the way, this is going to create some fantastic content because we're, yes, this is the survey results show. But this content was so good, the data was so good, we're now going to lay it against what our millionaire clients look like, what the general public looks like, and we're going to compare and contrast. So that's even more content that will be coming. But here's what we want to show you, median net worth.

• 4:54Brian Preston?

  If you think about the typical American struggles to just get above zero.

• 5:00Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 5:00Brian Preston?

  And then when I see that the median net worth for our financial mutant audience is $650,000. Wowzer.

• 5:08Speaker 03

  That's only part of the story though, because $650,000 is the median. And we showed you that demographically, you guys are sort of all over the place. So we know that the median age of a financial mutant is right there at 36 years old. But when we think about breaking out net worth across the different ages, think about this. The median net worth for our 20-year-old financial mutants, $185,000. For our 30-year-old financial mutants, $650,000. Mutants in their 40s, $1.3 million median net worth. Those in their 50s, $2.3 million median net worth. And for those in their 60s, almost a $3 million median total net worth.

• 5:53Speaker 03

  Now, this is all net worth. These are assets that include home equity and all the other assets that show up on your financial statement. But we know, Brian, when we think about the average American, the average American, while they've seen their net worth increase, it's not always for the reason we'd like to see.

• 6:10Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I mean, when you think about the Fred data coming from the Federal Reserve, it's like the 30% increase has been all home equity. Financial assets still stayed practically at nothing. So imagine our surprise when we ask you, financial mutants, how much in financial assets? Because it's one thing to have net worth, how much of this is actually liquid? Financial assets, I'm talking about cash reserves, your, your 401ks, your brokerage accounts. Check these numbers out. The median number, remember the median net worth was 650,000. Imagine I was surprised when we find out median investable net worth, $405,000. And that doesn't even tell the whole story because for the 20 somethings, 120,000. Wow.

• 6:50Speaker 03

  For the 30 somethings, it goes up to $400,000 of median investable net worth. For the 40s, 880,000. For the 50s, 1.6 million. And for the 60s, $2 million. What this shows us is that financial mutants recognize that part of the way that I build up wealth is actually save some of my income, some of my shovel for tomorrow. And the way I do that is by saving and investing those dollars to compound over time. And if I can do that consistently, I get to have a net worth that's not just all show. There's actually some real dough inside this network.

• 7:27Brian Preston?

  So a lot of people are watching this because we know 40% of audiences always brand new people coming through the door. So maybe you're watching this the first time. You don't even feel like a financial mutant and you even look at this and going aspirationally, who are these people? How can they have this level of success? One of the first things you can do, if you want to get on the train, if you actually want to be part of this process, start tracking where are you? Because how are you going to know if you're ahead of the curve, behind the curve, or right where you're supposed to be? If you don't even know where you fit into this, go check out our net worth tool. Now, we have two ways we can get this for you. If you go get our free version, you can just go to moneyguy.com/resources. But you can see up on the screen, we actually have a dashboard version, which lets you use it as a tool.

• 8:08Brian Preston?

  If you go to learn.moneyguy.com, this is the exact same version of the net worth tool that we use. Bo and myself use this for tracking our own. What I like is, because like I said, I keep highlighting this dashboard, let you see the three buckets. You know, how much of this is after tax money? How much is it tax free? How much is tax deferred? How much, how has this journey changed on paying down my debts? How much of this is, you know, liquid versus comparing to my annual income? All these things are so important so you can actually compare and contrast where you're going. With your financial resources.

• 8:41Speaker 03

  So if you have not started tracking your net worth, you should, and we assure you that your future self will thank you. The absolute best time to begin tracking was last year, which means the second best time to start tracking it would be right now this year. So go to learn.moneyguy.com to download that. So we talked about the age, the median age of our financial mutants and where in the country they're located and what their net worth looks like and what their investable assets look like. Now, Brian, let's talk about, okay, how are they actually able to get to that net worth? We think about the number one way that most people are able to build wealth. It's through their incomes. When we think about incomes for financial mutants, how did that look for our guys?

• 9:22Brian Preston?

  This is one, I mean, because we just did the net worth, we did investable net worth. Now we're doing the income. And I'm like, you guys are the better versions of even myself. I mean, because I'd always daydreamed that I had goals for myself. Now, as I'm a little older, so you'd have to inflation adjust these, these goals up. But mine was I wanted to have a hundred thousand dollars by the time I was 30. I wanted to have a million dollars liquid investments by the time I was 40. And I see my typical financial mutant, you guys are actually accomplishing this. When I look at median household income, this blows the doors off of what the typical American, like I said, we're going to create content that compares and contrasts this to the typical American, plus even our millionaire clients. But to know that our 20 something listeners,

• 10:06Brian Preston?

  our financial mutants out there listening, that their median household income is a hundred and twenty thousand dollars, that just blows my mind. And then Bo, I think about the 30 something. This is you in the messy middle, hundred and eighty five thousand. And then peak earning years in the 40s, 210,000, 50s. You guys are extremely successful even at 200,000 in the 50s. And of course, you know, retirees still seem to have income coming in at six figures. That's truly amazing data.

• 10:34Speaker 03

  Yeah. And remember, this is household income across all of the different ages. And so obviously, financial mutants recognize that, man, if I can increase the size of my shovel, that allows me to be able to begin building wealth. And the earlier that I can do that, The easier the process is and the faster the wealth building happens. And so one of the questions we ask, okay, well, what, what was the way that you did it? How were you able to attack this? And one of the things that we know is a lot of you said education was part of the key to me being able to find a vocation for me being able to be in a job where I'm able to increase my income and thus increase the amount that I'm able to save. And if you've listened to our content, if you've listened to our show for any amount of time,

• 11:18Speaker 03

  you know that one of the things that we really stick hard to is that a lot of Americans right now are starting out in a tough spot. They have student loan debt lagging behind them that have to carry into their twenties, into the thirties, and sometimes even into their forties. And we think that there is a better way to do money. So one of the things we talk about all the time is what we call the first year financing rule. When you think about how much student loan debt should you take on? We don't want you to accrue any more debt in total than what you anticipate your first year salary to be. So if you're gonna follow the money guy rule, you don't want more debt than your first year salary.

• 11:59Speaker 03

  And so Brian, we just asked the question for our financial mutants, for our respondents, did you guys do this? Was this something that you practiced that got you to where you are? Or is this something that's kind of made up out of the ether and doesn't apply?

• 12:14Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I mean, then you can imagine when we came back and found out you guys are practicing what we share on the show, 85% of you in the financial mutant sphere of the world are practicing the first year financing rule, meaning you either came out of school with no debt or you at least made sure that your student loans were below what your first year salary. Guys, this is a huge win. This is why when we start tracking who's doing well, who's winning, this is amazing stuff. And it shows me, because a lot of this is, are you being an active player in your life? You know, because we all villains and victims never win. So if you look at your, your humble beginnings and you realize, oh my gosh, you know, I've got all these things working out, you have to be very deliberate how you navigate.

• 13:00Brian Preston?

  The process. So you come out the other side well, and I'm happy to report 85% of our mutants seem to not be falling in the trap that's just ensnaring so much of the general population.

• 13:10Speaker 03

  And I think a lot of mutants recognize that, okay, you know, what really matters is the education I'm receiving, not necessarily the prestige of the name that goes on the top of the diploma. What I recognize is that higher education, college is a means for me to be able to get into the next phase, next season of life. So I want to make that decision really, really well and do it more based on what I will actually get out of it, not what the rest of the world views my education pedigree to be. And so financial mutants have recognized, okay, well, I go get the education and I understand how detrimental debt can be to me building financial independence. So I'm going to avoid

• 13:51Speaker 03

  getting in debt, but I'm also going to recognize that once I do start working, once I do start getting out into the workforce, I need to actually begin letting my money work for me. And when it comes to savings, you guys are incredible.

• 14:08Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I mean, this is one when I, when I saw it now, look, we're going to highlight the fact because we always say, what's the goal for being a financial mutant is we do want you to reach saving and investing 25% of your gross income as fast as possible. And I'm here to report happily that one in three of you, meaning 33% of our audience is already doing this, but I think that that's missing a little bit because recognize we show data all the time and we'll pull this up. So you don't have to kind of go, you don't even have to go to money guy.com slash resources because we're going to just pull it up on the screen here in a second. But there is a group of you who are in the twenties and you realize maybe I don't, because why does the 25% rule exists is because a lot of people don't discover personal finance into their late 30s. And when you do the math of

• 14:52Brian Preston?

  how much you have to save to have a good replacement ratio, it is typically beyond 25%. But because you guys are financial mutants, you can, if you're in your twenties and you're saving 10%, 15%, 20%, it's still going to create tremendous opportunity and I'm happy to.

• 15:10Brian Preston?

  Report 59.2% of our financial mutants who filled out this survey actually are saving greater than investing 20% of their gross income.

• 15:20Speaker 03

  And again, I don't want, I don't want to like rob stuff from the comparison show, but we know that right now 60% of Americans, 60% of Americans could not come up with a thousand dollars for emergency and yet 60% of our financial mutants, 60% of you guys out there listening to this content save more than 20% of your gross income. You recognize how powerful compound interest can be. You recognize that sacrificing a little bit of today can yield a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. It is unbelievable. Brian, you referenced a tool that you can go check out. If you want to go to moneyguy.com/resources, we have a deliverable called how much should you save that shows based on different ages,

• 16:04Speaker 03

  how much at different, how much income could I replace at retirement based on different savings rates? So you can go say, okay, hey, if I'm someone who's 30, yeah, maybe I'm okay if I save 20% or 25%. But remember, unknown unknowns come your way. That's why we say the faster you can get to 25%, the more freedom and flexibility you'll likely give yourself down the road.

• 16:29Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration blog, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses, setup, required compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.

• 16:54Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.

• 17:23Brian Preston?

  So I love this next thing because a lot of people, I know we're going to see this content and they're going to be like, "Okay, wow, this, this group has a high net worth, high investable net worth, their income's high." They're probably, because if we lived in this consumption society that we live in here in America, these people probably live in big houses and drive fancy cars. Because everything I see on social media is everybody's highlight reel that they're living their best life. But as we know as financial mutants, what is put out there in this consumption society we live in is not tied to reality. If you want to break through the matrix of life and actually build something so your money works harder than you do, so you can actually control and own your time that much sooner.

• 18:07Brian Preston?

  The decisions you make with your cars, the decisions you make with your housing, that is the discipline that's going to yield huge results. So you have to pay attention. It's not the latte effect. A lot of times it's these car and home buying decisions that's really going to create a lot of opportunity for you.

• 18:23Speaker 03

  And what I think is so great about you guys as an audience is a lot of you are financial mutants. And maybe even though you're not a millionaire yet, you're a millionaire in the making. And one thing I think is so interesting, we get a bad rap on this, Brian, but all the time when we talk about buying cars, we always say, "We love the idea of being able to pay cash for your car." Brian, when you buy an automobile, you pay cash for it outright. You're at the stage of life where you do that. I do the same thing, but it's not always been that way. That's not always the way that it was. And so even though a number of our financial mutants have reached a level of success that that is how they purchase their cars, we ask the question, "Hey, financial mutants, when you bought your very first car,

• 19:04Speaker 03

  when you first started out, were you someone who only paid cash for a car and you never had a car loan? And it was awesome to see that 59% of you, almost 60% of our financial mutants said, "Hey, at the beginning of my journey, when I got my first car, I had to borrow money. I had to finance." So if you're someone out there right now who can't pay cash for a car just yet, that's okay. You are in good company. A lot of financial mutants have found themselves in that exact same position.

• 19:36Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I mean, it's that, that part, because we have a no hypocrisy policy. That's why we have, we understand, we want you paying cash for cars, but most as we, and it, by the way, I don't think there's a slide on this, but I was happy to see you in the data. Once again, these aren't inherited silver spoon millionaires. The majority of our audience, and you guys reflect this, and I love when we get to do the comparison show, we'll make sure this data gets in there, is that you come from also, a lot of you from humble beginnings as well, you're trying to figure this out. And a lot of times your J O B is your first wealth generating process. So it makes sense that by the first car, just like I had to do this, just like Beau had to do it, you finance it, even if our preference is to pay cash. But here's the thing about the behavior side that I love.

• 20:21Brian Preston?

  When you look at how people drive their vehicles and use their vehicles, 81% of our financial mutants drive their cars for more than seven years.

• 20:31Speaker 03

  I love that so much. And by the way, this, this does not say 81% of financial mutants drive, that drove their first car for seven years. This says that financial mutants recognize that when I buy a car, I want to make sure that I drive it for long enough that I'm capitalizing on it being a depreciable asset that I'm not going to allow to work against me in my financial journey.

• 20:54Brian Preston?

  So that's the part that I think is just so important is that it's the behavioral part. I mean, there's a thing, there's a reason we call you mutants is because you have this society where everybody's pushing you and telling you, hey, consume, be better, show the highlight reel, but yet somehow you guys are just, you're divergent in the fact that the way you see the world, you process it completely different with all this stuff that's just being pumped into your head. You're like, nope, not for me. I'm going to do this a little bit differently and I love it. And that's why when we create the rules, like 238, if you, just for those, like I said, I know 40% of audience, you're coming in and you go, is this a cult? Who are these people? Their data looks at you too can be just like this.

• 21:38Brian Preston?

  If you'll start following some of this guidance, because we want you to be able to see outside or see through the craziness that the world is trying to give you. There is a better way to do money. And for 238, because a lot of you are probably right now, starting out your journey and that J O B is the most important thing, just like it was. Was for me, just like it was for Bo, you're going to need to put down 20%. If you can't pay cash, which is the preferred, put down 20%. So that way you're at least not, you have some skin in the game on this. If you don't finance it for longer than three years, when you must leverage and use financing as a tool, don't go beyond three years because what this protects is it doesn't allow your, your eyes, your ego,

• 22:20Brian Preston?

  you thinking about what the rest of society is doing because they're putting that, pumping that into your head all the time. This will keep you grounded because that amortization is going to really keep that payment. It's going to make it hot.

• 22:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 22:30Brian Preston?

  A small sum of money is still going to have a high monthly payment. That way they don't get to play that, that crazy game they play at the auto dealership where they just say, anybody can afford anything at $200 a month.

• 22:41Speaker 03

  What do you want your car payment to be?

• 22:42Brian Preston?

  Because we'll just, yeah, what do you want your car payment? Because we'll just push the amortization out to the next 12 years. I mean, I'm joking, but we seem to be going that journey is the way we go from five to six to even beyond at this point. And then we don't want those payments to exceed 8% of your gross income. If you can follow this, it leads you so you don't end up over levered, living a lifestyle that's fake. We want you to have to live your best life so you can save, invest, but also bedazzle your basic life and live some amazing memories.

• 23:09Speaker 03

  I love that. So following 238 is a great way to make sure that you make good car and auto decisions. But we know that while an auto is a large financial decision that we make, for most people, it's not the largest. For most people, the largest financial decision you will ever make is in relation to your home. The place where you live, the shelter over your head. And so we wanted to ask, okay, when it comes to our financial mutants, what does their home consumption decision look like? Brian, you've already noted they have very high incomes and they have very high net worths and they have very high liquid net worths. They must be living in the lifestyles of the rich and famous and the cribs type homes. And we were.

• 23:53Speaker 03

  Pleased to find out that we actually asked for the total home values across all of our financial mutants, even in the midst of this recent real estate run up that we've seen, the median home value for our financial mutants was $381,000.

• 24:11Brian Preston?

  Now, look, I don't, off the top of my head, I don't know what the average is in the United States. We'll have that for that show because we are going to have a comparison show, like I said, to the general public, our financial, you know, our millionaire clients as well as our financial mutants. But I think we're going to see that this is amazing. This is very similar to where probably the median for the country is instead of these people who are making incredible decisions, disciplined decisions. They're living like the rest of us. This is truly the millionaire next door. I did think it was interesting and this is something that I know the trolls will have a field day because it does show the disparity and what is, has been an opportunity and where we are now is just separated, is that median mortgage rates for our financial mutants was 2.75,

• 24:53Brian Preston?

  which is completely separated from the reality of the world right now, post pandemic. And that's why I think it also shows in the data, we didn't put this on the slide, but 27% of our financial mutants are actually building this incredible journey and actually building all these, these great net worths with the incomes they have completely outside of owning their own home. They're actually, you know, renting or doing other things and they're still not letting that keep them from building their great, big, beautiful tomorrow.

• 25:21Speaker 03

  Well, even when you think about financial mutants, you know, mortgage rates were only at 2.75 for a moment. It's not like, I mean, we were in a low interest rate environment, but what this shows me is that financial mutants recognize when and how to capitalize on opportunities. So maybe you're someone who's buying a house now or has recently bought a house and you don't have that 2.75% mortgage, but that's not to suggest that there might not be an opportunity in the future for you to refinance and get into that 6%, that five and a half, maybe even that 5% mortgage. Financial mutants recognize opportunities and they capitalize on them. So if you are someone out there who's thinking about homeownership or you're one of the 27% who's not quite there yet.

• 26:03Speaker 03

  Yet, we have a rule that you can follow to make sure that you stay inside the lines, even in this wild world in which we live right now. And we call it the 3, 5, 25 rule. And what that means is that when it comes to your down payment, we don't subscribe to the idea that you have to put 20% down. For first time home buyers, we think it's okay if you make a down payment as low as 3% so long as you plan on being in that home for at least five years. And when you add up your total housing costs, it does not exceed 25% of your gross income. If you can follow that rule, you will likely get yourself into a home that you can actually afford.

• 26:45Brian Preston?

  Yeah, once again, we're giving you this guidance. I know it is contrary to what the, a lot of the things you're seeing out there on social media and put out there, but it's, it's the no hypocrisy hypocrite policy is so that 3% is there's so many people out there telling you in the past. Now, I think people have changed their tune. They're now coming closer to where we are because the market has forced it. But we've always said, hey, I looked at myself, I only put down 3 to 5% on my first house. I know you only put down 3 to 5%. Most of our financial advisors here at our wealth management firm had only put down 3 to 5%. Let's start sharing that with the world. So people don't have to already in a hard situation feel like they have to put down 20% just because the talking heads are saying this. We've never had to adjust our rules because we understand that we got

• 27:29Brian Preston?

  to get you on the home ownership train. But that's why the rules also that we give you these checklists and other things. So you can make sure you do this right. And that's why I would encourage you, if you are thinking about, hey, how do I know how to do homeownership? Well, I want to encourage you go to money guy.com slash resources. We actually have a calculator for you. We have checklist for you. We're trying to make sure that you get to measure twice, cut once, and these big life decisions that will, you know, kind of hang with you and you either celebrate or you'll just rue the day that you made these decisions. We want to make sure you feel like you're well taken care of and you're doing it with the right decision matrix with both the finances, the math, as well as the mindset.

• 28:09Speaker 03

  So, Rob, we had 25,000 financial

• 28:13Speaker 03

  Mutants, tell us what their financial life looked like. And we know who they are and how old they are and what their net worth looks like and what their investable assets look like and their income and we even know how they consume. But another question that we wanted to ask is we recognize that financial mutants are exactly that. They're mutants. They think and see the world a little bit differently. So we wanted to dive in to the mutant mindset. So for these 25,000 folks, we asked, okay, hey, when was it that you started taking personal finance seriously? Was it something that you figured out early on? Or is it something that you're just now stumbling on to? And what we recognize is that when it comes to financial mutants,

• 28:57Speaker 03

  they have said that they got serious about money. They got serious about understanding finances and the powerful tool that money can be around the age of 25.

• 29:09Brian Preston?

  Yeah, this is, this is talking about head start. I mean, because this is, guys, if you watch any of our content, a lot of you will say, why is the 20s always the longest break? Because like, guys, you have the world. I've said it already on this show once. I'll say it again. You have the world by its tell. Meaning, I don't care what humble background you come from. If you will just do something, don't stand still in your 20s, you will be successful. Just because the power of compounding growth is just that powerful. Now, we know, and we're going to do a comparison show. We know the typical American does, doesn't even figure out this concept till they're well into their 30s. Imagine our surprise when we find out the typical financial mutant is 25 years, 25 years of age, has a wealth multiplier of 44 times.

• 29:54Speaker 03

  Huge.

• 29:55Brian Preston?

  That's the head start, guys. That is why you can say, hey, these people are built differently. This is why the mutant fits is because they're not falling into the traps that it seems like the typical Americans do.

• 30:07Speaker 03

  But maybe you're listening to this and you're not 25. That's okay. And maybe you're not 30. That's okay. The absolute best time to have figured out money and to start taking it seriously was yesterday, which means that today is the second best time. So I'd encourage you, if you haven't done this, go to Money Guy. Dot com slash resources. You can check out our wealth multiplier deliverable, or you can even play with our tool on the website because we want you to recognize that while you may not have figured this out as early as others, it is still not too late because we believe that there's a better way to do money. We believe that you can control your financial future if you start making those decisions today. But Brian, a lot of folks

• 30:48Speaker 03

  out there, a lot of the average American doesn't do that. They don't either, either don't educate themselves. They don't take money seriously. They fall into the traps that the general consumer falls into. And one of those traps is debt. And unfortunately, in the world in which we live today, it's gotten so easy that anything I want, I can just swipe and I can have it immediately. Well, I don't have to, Brett, I don't have to swipe anymore. I can just tap it. I can just tap now and walk out. And so we asked the question, okay.

• 31:19Brian Preston?

  Or buy now, pay later.

• 31:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, we asked our financial mutants, okay, when it comes to credit cards, how do you use them? Are you, maybe financial mutants recognize how devastating and scary and deadly that they can be. And so maybe financial mutants don't even use credit cards at all. Is that what we found?

• 31:37Brian Preston?

  Well, Bo, you said something earlier because when we were looking at mortgage rates, you're like, man, it was only a moment in time that we even had rates that low. So these mutants must be great, just like Millionaire Next Door and other surveys of good mindset people are, is they maximize the moments. And so when we look at our financial mutants in our audience, over 96% said, hey, credit card use, that's A okay. Because look, there's, you know, it's, you could get into some online transactions where you're like, I don't want to use cash on this because this might be shady. It's okay with a credit card because the bank will make sure I'm whole if I get in a bad situation. There's all kinds of protections. There's warranties. There's,

• 32:17Brian Preston?

  there's rebates, there's rewards. 96% of you are saying, I want to sign up for that opportunity. But here's what I'm happy to report. This is where you once again disconnect and we'll have content that compares and contrasts this to the general public plus our millionaire clients. Financial mutants though are saying credit card use is A okay. Credit card debt, no way. Because how are you ever going to get ahead if you're paying 20 plus percent to a financial institution? When you're hoping in a good year that we make somewhere between eight to 12%. You guys get it and it makes me so happy.

• 32:52Speaker 03

  You, you recognize that avoiding risks, avoiding things like debt, avoiding things working against you can be so viable. And you also take that to your balance sheet. We asked this question, okay, for our financial mutants, you understand if you're following the financial order of operations. Brian, can you hold the thing up for me? If you're following the financial order, in the first four steps, two of them have to do with emergency reserves and cash on hand. And we said, okay, well, how seriously do our financial mutants take this? And we were so pleased to see that 85% of financial mutants have a fully funded emergency fund. They're not skipping steps, they're not staying too lean.

• 33:32Speaker 03

  They recognize that cash is a tool in your tool belt that can keep your financial life out of the ditch. They take it seriously and they have fully funded emergency reserves.

• 33:42Brian Preston?

  I keep, I mean, financial mutants is the perfect name because these people are, you're, you're just built different. And I think that that also goes towards not only your mindset, but your world outlook. You know, I, I have always been accused of just being an optimist. I always just think things are going to work out. I don't let myself, even when my own children complain about stuff, I'm like, watch how you, you, you process and, and, and think. Cause villains and victims, like I said, we all come, a lot of us have struggles. We come from humble, a lot, many of you out in the audience, you come from very humble beginnings. You have to sometimes you go, yes, that's a bad situation, but what can I do to make my situation better?

• 34:25Brian Preston?

  You're trying to figure out, is there a silver lining even in this bad opportunity? And I've, man, when I wrote millionaire mission, I tried to make sure that mindset made it in there. I'm so happy to report that, man, I guess birds of a feather flock together because it is a four to one ratio. If you look at how many of our audiences, optimists. Versus pessimists, it's a four to one ratio across all incomes.

• 34:48Speaker 03

  So it's not just the wealth, it's not just the people that have huge incomes where you say, okay, yeah, yeah. If you're making tons of money, of course you're going to be more happy. No, this is across all income thresholds. Financial mutants recognize, you know what? I'm able to find the silver lining. Brian, one of the things you taught me very, very early on in my career, you said, Bo, all of us, every single one, has a voice in your head and that voice can either be a positive influence or a negative influence and you get to choose. And what I think is awesome is when it comes to financial mutants, at a ratio of four to one, you choose to let that voice be positive and it shows them the results of what your financial situation looks like.

• 35:28Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I mean, don't we all want a cheerleader? We want somebody who's in our corner pushing it. Make sure your mindset reflects that. You know, it's kind of that song lyric, fix your face. How about fixing what your outlook is to figure out how you maximize this? And that's what, look, I was floored when the, when the results came in. First of all, the amount of you who responded to these surveys, thank you, thank you, thank you. But then to see how just bold, successful and disciplined every one of you are. I mean, I almost feel like we, we really do need to get on this merch train to, so people can actually wear loud and proud that they are financial mutants. But it also, the, the Johnny Appleseed version of myself knows because of the educator

• 36:10Brian Preston?

  heart that I have is I know we're planting seeds, we're creating the next generation. You're going to, if you do what we've shared with all of our free resources, all of our free content, enough of you are going to realize, oh my gosh, those guys, when they say, if I do this, success breeds and creates complexity. I'm there. And so we would be amiss if we didn't say, hey, now that you've reached here, let's take this relationship to the next level. If you want to now transition and graduate from just being a financial mutant survey, next year you'd like to be in the millionaire survey? Let's go ahead and take this relationship to the next level. I want to encourage you, go to moneyguy.com, look at the work with us or how to become a client and we will load you up and keep that abundance cycle going forward.

• 36:54Brian Preston?

  I'm your host, Brian Preston, Mr. Bo Hanson, Money Guy team.

• 36:59Speaker 03

  The Money Guy Show is hosted by Brian Preston and Beau Hanson. Brian and Beau 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.

• 37:34Speaker 04

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