Pod Insights Money Guy Show The Stark Reality of What a $1.5M Retirement Looks Like in 2026 About this episode Is $1.5 million enough to retire in 2026? A recent article called the outlook for a $1.5 million nest egg a "stark reality," but Brian and Bo break down the numbers, retirement income potential, Social Security benefits, safe withdrawal rates, taxes, inflation, and what really determines retirement success. If you're planning for retirement, wondering how much you need to retire comfortably, or trying to calculate your retirement number, this analysis will help you understand whether $1.5 million is enough for your unique situation.
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
Transcript 12,837 words · 8 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:01 Speaker 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 set up required. Compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.
0:27 Speaker 01 Born from the intensity of a night in the eternal city. Introducing Born in Roma fragrances by Valentino.
0:36 Speaker 01 Feminine perfume Donna Born in Roma features juicy black currant, central jasmine, soft cashmerin and warm vanilla. Masculine leaning but unisex Womo has notes of fresh violet leaf, aromatic sage, green vetiver and mineral salt. Shop holiday gifts at Macy's.com.
1:02 Brian Preston? There's an article from MSN talking about, what does one and a half million dollars do for your retirement? We're going to tell you the real scoop.
1:11 Speaker 03 Brent, I am so excited to talk about this because I don't think you did it justice. The article, it kind of poo-pooed it a little bit. It kind of said, okay, a million and a half dollars, maybe it's not enough. Maybe it's not even worth writing home about. And I just refuse to believe that. I disagree with that premise.
1:29 Brian Preston? So let's, okay, let's, let's, let's be balanced with this because we want to talk about what do we like about the article? What do we have some issues with? And then what should you do? So you actually live your best life as you plan for your retirement?
1:44 Speaker 03 Well, first, here was the actual headline. It was the stark reality of what a one and a half million dollar retirement looks like in 2026. So when I see stark reality, I'm already thinking, okay, this is negative. I'm set up for bad news. But you said, let's go through the things we liked, the things we didn't like. So what were the positive traits? What were the things we did like about this one? And it did say, on the surface, one and a half million dollars may be enough for some people.
2:11 Brian Preston? For some.
2:11 Speaker 03 For some, like it may be an appropriate and okay amount for some people. But not enough for others. And I would argue that that's true, right? There are people that one and a half million dollars would not be enough for. So on the surface, I agree with that statement.
2:26 Brian Preston? But look, I'll go ahead and rent. I think for a lot of you, it's gonna be a decent sum of money.
2:30 Speaker 03 It's a decent sum of money. All right. What else do we like about it? It did acknowledge that both inflation and taxes are things that we need to think about. They can be headwinds, even if you have a big pot of money. If inflation is going to eat away and erode at that, and if taxes are going to eat away and erode at that, that big pot of money may not be as much as it seems. And I agree with that premise, too. That also is true.
2:51 Brian Preston? Well, inflation is real. And look, we still have some issues with it. But there's an ebb and flow to inflation as well. So I think you just to assume it's always going to be at this level or higher, might be a little recency bias.
3:05 Speaker 03 And for a little bit of context, the CPI rose 4.2% year over year in May of 2026. So we still are, if we think about average inflation since 1980, has been somewhere around 3%. So we are still elevated a touch from where we were coming post pandemic. So inflation, definitely a thing, definitely something that we ought to be aware of. And then this is the other, the last piece that we really agreed with. The article does advocate for being proactive. It says, hey, don't just, don't just wait, don't just rush. There are some things that you ought to do if you want to be able to have a successful retirement. And we would agree with that when it comes to retiring or living the financial life that you want to live. It makes sense to be proactive.
3:50 Brian Preston? Yeah. Quote, "Set a withdrawal rate and forget it logic." You probably going to need to go bigger than that. We agree with that.
3:57 Speaker 03 All right. So those are all the things we agree with. Now, can we shift gears and talk about maybe the things that we don't agree with or that we didn't think aligned so much?
4:05 Brian Preston? Well, the first one, I mean, this is somebody with a million and a half dollars. Their first suggestion, I mean, they literally, I'd like to know how old Austin is because his recommendation was, you know, for a year or two, after you get your full working age social security, which is by the way, age 67. Go work a part-time job. Is that what, you want to retire into a part-time job at 67?
4:28 Speaker 03 Literally, this is what the article said. Working part-time for two to three years after claiming social security at 67. So retire and then work from 67 to 69 or 70 can meaningfully reduce sequence of return risk. And while that can be true, and that's okay if you want to, I don't know that I want to tell people, hey, you've worked your entire career so that now you can finally retire, finally reach financial independence. And the number one thing you need to do is go back to work so that you can make it work.
4:58 Brian Preston? And by the way, he, he has the answer within the actual statement there. Where is social security and all these assumptions that he put in? Well, more to come on that.
5:07 Speaker 03 All right. The next thing that we did not like in here was the withdrawal rate assumption. This one was a little frustrating because the thought process of going back to work in your late 60s was they wanted you to be able to, in the analysis that they ran, drop your withdrawal rate at your late 60s from 4% down to 3% so that you would have a $15,000 cushion in those early years.
5:33 Brian Preston? Yeah, I'm, I'm here to advocate that. I even think the 4% was to, was to withdraw. If you actually look at, you know, if you look at the Trinity study, some of the research has come out, it's led us to the point where we've actually created our adjusted 4% rule. Because look, somebody who's trying to retire at 45 is somebody completely different than somebody who's trying to retire at 70. So you ought to act accordingly and create a plan. If you're doing napkin planning. Now, look, we think that you ought to do greater financial planning. That's where we'll talk about that in a little bit. But if you are trying to do napkin planning to know where you're going to and what you should save and invest for, these, this is going to be better for you. So for somebody at 67, there's nothing wrong with having a, an adjusted four and a half percent safe withdrawal rate, not 4%.
6:16 Speaker 03 Yeah, I think you have to be, and you have to recognize that when it comes to retirement, it's not one size fits all. What might work for one person who has one unique set of variables is different from another person. That's kind of, that dovetails into the last thing that we really did not like about the article. Was the whole framing. The idea that a million and a half dollars as a portfolio at retirement is stark, is something to be concerned about, is something to look at negatively. When we know that right now, if we think about the average 401k balances of folks in their 50s, it's like $190,000. At 55, $240,000. 60, $265,000. 65, $271,000.
7:01 Speaker 03 Average 401k balance. So if you're someone who's accumulated and amassed a million and a half dollar portfolio, you are well ahead of the average American out there.
7:10 Brian Preston? Well, to me, it came off as a very Eeyore-esque outlook. It's like, oh no, I only have a million and a half dollars for retirement. Oh no, how am I going to do this? And the reality is that it's actually pretty successful in a lot of ways. Let us show you some math on this. Is if you think about somebody, if you, like I said, we've adjusted the safe withdrawal rate up to 4.5%. That within itself is going to create a safe withdrawal rate of around 67, close to $68,000 a year. Add in social security. For a lot of people, it's going to be even higher than this. We just did average social security to keep it conservative. That's right around $25,000.
7:52 Brian Preston? Your annual money coming in, in retirement would be close to $93,000. If you do the math on that, guys, that's getting close to $8,000 a month. This is for somebody who likely doesn't have much debt, or completely debt-free potentially, doesn't have to save for retirement anymore. These are, that's a pretty good life.
8:14 Speaker 03 That's a great, for, for most people, for the average American, that's a, that's a fantastic standard of living. And if you've structured your assets well, you're likely going to be in a lower tax situation. I do not think that a million and a half dollars is stark. But again, personal finance is personal. So what should you do? How should you think about this? What should you take away from this? Well, number one, we want you to assess your own personal and individual situation. Some article out there. Is not going to tell you exactly what you need to retire with to be able to live the life that you want to live on your terms. So there are some questions you should answer like, hey, what are my expenses going to be in retirement? Not what are the average expenses?
8:56 Speaker 03 What do people estimate their expenses to be? But what are my expenses going to be based on the life that I want to live? What other income sources might be coming my way? Do I have a pension? When am I going to take social security? Do I have rental property? What other things are going to be there? And then how much would you need if you want to be able to provide that lifestyle based on your expenses, factoring in your income at a safe withdrawal rate that's appropriate to your age? If you're retiring at 70, your safe withdrawal rate will likely look different than someone who is retiring at 50. So have you actually crunched the numbers and run the math on your own unique, specific situation?
9:38 Brian Preston? Well, and that's why I think it leads to this umbrella statement that I'm going to say is that understand that your retirement number can change. Somebody who's, if you're five years from retiring, you need to get really serious and hone in the, all these things we just covered, the expenses, there were, you know, what promises of social security or pensions you have coming in. So that way you can make a customized stress test retirement plan. But if you're somebody who's 25 years, you know, away from retirement, there is nothing wrong with doing, you know, kind of napkin planning with safe withdrawal rates and kind of just making sure that your savings and investment rate match and intersect with kind of what you think your, your future retirement is going to look like. You just need to take and bring this all together to have a
10:23 Brian Preston? plan that's specific to your financial life.
10:27 Speaker 03 And if you're sitting there, no matter what stage you're in, thinking, okay, well, I want to plan. I hear you guys say that one of the things Article said is that being proactive helps have a successful retirement. We've actually done a lot of the heavy lifting for you. Brian, will you hold that thing up for me? We actually have the Financial Order of Operations, which is a nine-step process to help you understand exactly what you should do with your next dollar as you're building towards retirement, as you're building towards financial independence. So we can remove the guesswork from it. So if you want to get your free copy, you can go to moneyguide.com/resources, download your free copy, or if you want to do a deep dive on the food, you can go to learn.moneyguide.com and check out the Financial Order of Operations course.
11:07 Brian Preston? So the overarching question, is a million and a half dollars enough?
11:14 Brian Preston? Probably, but also it depends.
11:16 Speaker 03 It depends. It depends. But you know what does not depend? Whether you should subscribe right now to this channel so that you are updated every time we put out brand new information. Cause every Tuesday at 10 a.m. we show up here. We put together some stuff to share with you guys and then we want to load you up because we care about what you care about. We believe there is a better way to do money. So right now, we have the team out in the wings collecting your questions. If you have a question for us, if you want to get our take on something, if you want us to weigh in on something in your financial life, make sure you get your question in the chat right now. So with that, Creative Director Rebi, I'm gonna throw it over to you.
11:55 Speaker 04 Yeah, we've got a lot of questions queued up. Let's start with Steph's numbers. It says, "My company removed our 401k match and there are talks of salary cuts. We are a one income family. Should I continue to put money in a 401k or do I stack cash? We have no debt outside of our mortgage. What would you do in this situation?"
12:18 Brian Preston? Well, look, this is when you have to put on your Encyclopedia Brown context clues of life. I know that ages out of most of the population, but look, when you pull up, you know, the Financial Order of Operations, we love step two, which is employers free money. But if you all of a sudden take away the free money, you know, that changes the list. Now your 401k is more of a step six operation. What's more important is now let's make sure we keep your life out of the financial ditch with your high interest debt as well as emergency reserves. And if I had an employer that man oh man,
13:01 Brian Preston? the first sign is they cut off all, they start trimming down the benefits. This is not the A okay sign that man, things are really good at this company. And then the fact that you know, you hear that there might be layoffs and other things coming down the pipe. I would start planning accordingly because I'd rather you have a frothy emergency reserves than to have a very lean emergency reserves if there is a layoff event in potentially in your future. So I'd start planning accordingly, maybe boost up those emergency reserves. And then worst case, you come out of the other end and you say, oh, that was just more of a fear or a scare, but I can always redeploy that money by dollar cost averaging or you
13:44 Brian Preston? know, increasing future savings, but you at least will not be caught in a bad financial situation if you lose your job.
13:51 Speaker 03 Yeah. In, in, uh, in, in the face of uncertainty, liquidity and building up a buffer is going to be your best friend. And the worst thing that happens is you know, with more cash than you thought you needed. But let's assume that that doesn't happen. That doesn't go that way. A lot of people think that the only benefit, the only reason why we save them to 401k is to get free money, to get free money. There are really other great benefits to 401k, even if there's not an employer match. So it's still, if you are funding your Roth IRA and you are funding your HSA, there are still tax incentivized savings opportunities through a 401k, whether you're doing pre-tax 401k contributions, save money on taxes today, or Roth 401k contributions to save tax dollars in the future.
14:34 Speaker 03 And your 401k might have really good, low cost investment options. It may provide a mechanism where you could roll assets out of IRAs into the 401k and able to, in order to do backdoor Ross. So just because the match is not there does not mean you should automatically disqualify and skip the 401k step. Follow the financial order of operation. Will you hold the thing up for me? Follow the financial order of operations. Make sure that you are in the right step and it will be your guide to make sure you're making the right decisions.
15:02 Brian Preston? But you do agree for, for Steph's situations specifically, employer is giving all kind of indications that there might be taking on water financially. And he's asking, and he's a single family home. You probably want to go ahead and do that analysis three to six months on emergency reserves, or maybe even beyond six months. If you're sitting on, if you're asking this question and you're right at three months, and or, and you're like, holy cow, they, they're going, they're talking about layoffs, you probably ought to stack some cash.
15:33 Speaker 03 Yeah, I said that to start with. I agree. I said that. Did you not think I said that?
15:37 Brian Preston? Yeah, I just want to make sure we put an exclamation point on it, because I, I just don't want people caught in a bad situation.
15:42 Speaker 03 Agreed. And I would do more than six months. If I thought layoffs were coming, I would have a more frothy emergency reserve.
15:47 Speaker 04 So it's a little bit of a both and?
15:49 Speaker 03 Yeah, right. Absolutely. Do that, and then take advantage of it.
15:52 Speaker 04 Well, Steph's numbers, I hope that helps you make a decision that is right for you. We really appreciate you being here and asking a question.
15:59 Brian Preston? You said it. You just didn't put the emphasis on it.
16:00 Speaker 03 Well, because you emphasized it. I was going with the other thing. Like, you emphasized A, so then I spoke to B.
16:06 Speaker 04 That's all right, though. You brought it back around.
16:07 Brian Preston? I like it. We're gonna get spicy today.
16:10 Speaker 04 Okay. Well, we are actually gonna get spicy today with a new segment later in the show. This segment is called Moneyverse Meme of the Week. We ran a contest on the Moneyverse, our Discord channel, and they have rounded up some quality memes for you to react to.
16:27 Brian Preston? So we're gonna be like the overlords to determine what's the actual meme of the week?
16:31 Speaker 04 Sure. Yeah, we've got several for you to look at.
16:34 Brian Preston? Who gets to vote?
16:35 Speaker 04 You guys. Well, the Moneyverse all voted, so you're going to see some of the most voted memes. But anyway, that's coming later in the show. We are going to answer more questions right now. All right. Next question's from Abra622. It says, "Question: How does one maintain the foo when others around them have a YOLO personality, and they are the ones who view us as a miser?"
17:04 Speaker 03 You just grin from ear to ear, and you think, man, I'm so happy I got YOLO friends. Because YOLO friends are always down for a good time, right? They're the ones that are gonna, hey, let's, let's rent the boat, let's do the thing, let's go have the experience. And they're the ones that want to go ham on doing all the stuff that you probably are wiser and think, man, I should not do that. So I would... Allow yourself to take advantage of their generosity of wanting you to be part of these experiences and part of these things, but know deep down that you by following the financial order of operations, making those sound financial decisions, you're actually building for a great, big, beautiful tomorrow, not just focusing on living today and today only.
17:48 Brian Preston? Look, I like having YOLO friends because they do kind of make sure those of us who are live such orderly lives, that we're kind of at least getting out of our uncomfortable zone and making memories and doing things. So it's good to have YOLO friends. Even, you know, go watch that episode where we've done financial mistakes you hope your friends make, you know, because maybe they'll go buy a boat or a jet ski and you'll get to YOLO it up without having to pay the monthly payments. But there is something, and look, you keep yourself honest, is that I want you, we give you enough resources on our website, moneygot.com/resources, and even some of the courses and tools that we've offered, to where you can figure out if you're ahead of the curve, behind the curve, or right where you're supposed to be.
18:33 Brian Preston? As long as you're measuring twice to ensure that you're right on the curve or ahead of the curve where you're supposed to be, and that you're not being a miser, then I would just go do that exercise to give you kind of the peace of mind that I'm doing exactly what I need to. And then also, but be honest, if you are kind of ahead of the curve and you're being cheap for the sake of cheap, you know, because there will come a transition in your life, because it's just like earlier in my career and my life, I was the person probably ordering, you know, when people are ordering mixed drinks and beers, I was, you know, pre-gaming and doing water at the restaurants, or doing not, you know, we're splitting a salad, but we're not, we're not loading up the menu. But then there comes
19:16 Brian Preston? a point where you realize, hey, I think because of our level of success, you just have to be prepared to chop the pot, you know, when you go out to eat with, with your friends. No, you just have to know, you're just gonna throw your credit card out and you're not keeping up with that this person ordered three drinks, this person ordered fancy wine, even though I've complained about friends that do fancy wine.
19:35 Speaker 03 I'm gonna say, you do keep track of that. You just don't get a, you like you've mentally accounted for that.
19:39 Brian Preston? I follow it internally, but it is one of those things, you know, there are going to be progressions in your life. And that's the thing I would, to keep it healthy, you have to know. Are you, you know, are you progressing where you're supposed to be not at the detriment of your financial success? It's just, but there will come a transition with your success that you won't keep score as much on some of the consumption items.
20:01 Speaker 03 And look, I want to, somebody made a joke, I think it was Vinyl, made a joke in the chat, like, I'll find new friends. And that's not exactly going to be prescriptive advice here. It is something to take note of, that, what is it? We are the sum of the five or 10 people that we spend the most time with. If you do find yourself in constant circles with irresponsible financial decision makers or people who buy the latest, greatest car, or go on the latest, greatest trip, and run up the credit card debt, and do those sorts of things, it may be worth just doing a self-assessment, saying, man, am I being negatively influenced because of the people I surround myself with? Or should I make sure that I'm also surrounding myself with sound financial decision makers that are doing the things that I'm doing, and making the decisions that I'm making, and value the things that I value?
20:44 Speaker 03 Because you want to be careful that you don't slip into that behavior just because of proximity.
20:50 Brian Preston? Well, and also, be the salt or the light that says, hey, I plan on retiring at 58 years of age. I would like to have friends there with me. So can you guys at least do a little bit, maybe fund that Roth IRA, so that I'm not doing, living my best life in retirement while you guys are still working for the man? I mean, you can play it on the other side, too, and be like, hey, yeah, I know y'all think I'm cheap, but I'm building something here. What are y'all doing? And make, make fun of that. You know, that's one of those things where I think that it's, it's okay to, to, to present the contrast, and maybe help them be better versions of themselves as well.
21:25 Speaker 03 Love that.
21:27 Speaker 04 Love it. All right. I just smile a lot has a question for you. It says, hi, I'm 31, a high school counselor with a 75K salary on step four of the FUE. My pension is 11% of my income. My 401, my 403B is no, has no match, but I currently contribute 2%. Should I stop contributions to the 403B and just do pension and Roth? What do you think?
21:58 Speaker 03 So whenever I get a question like this, smile a lot, I resort to the food. Brown, hold the thing up for me. Financial order of operations, nine step process to help you figure out what to do with your next dollar. Your pension's automatically happening, which I love. You've got a $75,000 salary. 11% of that is already going into your pension, which is wonderful. So now, all right, I'm doing that automatically. You said you're in step four, so you're building up your emergency fund. Once you get your emergency fund fully funded, so three months or six months of living expenses, then I do think you go to step five, right? Now, in our opinion, Roth IRA likely is going to make the most sense because you get to choose the provider, you get to choose the investment options, it's going to be lower cost, it's going to be portable.
22:40 Speaker 03 I think that likely is where you would land, but some people would say, well, but what if I want to do the Roth 403B? Isn't that the same thing? I'm not going to fight you on that. I do think that the Roth IRA edges it out a touch for the reasons I just mentioned, but if you're still going to take advantage of it and you're going to have that money going to the Roth 403B, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, although the Roth IRA is going to give you more flexibility, more options, more release valve access if you had to have it than that 403B will do. But I think so long as you're doing one or the other and thinking about it the Roth fashion, I think that that makes a lot of sense.
23:17 Brian Preston? Yeah, I mean, I do agree with Bo that I think the Roth IRA primarily because you get to choose the provider, the low cost index options, whereas now I think a lot of this has been fixed, but earlier in my career, teachers were getting hosed in a lot of bad ways with, you know, they-
23:35 Speaker 03 With the providers-
23:35 Brian Preston? Yeah, with the providers. I mean, and I'm not going to name names, but they were primarily putting people in stable reserves. They were insurance companies, putting primarily the 403Bs were in stable reserve funds, offered zero index options, and they were very heavy on the, on the commissions and internal expense, operating expenses of the investment options. So if you are going to go 403B, do a little due diligence to see what your options are. Now, the fiduciary rule really blew up the world for a lot of these insurance companies where they actually had to start doing decent work for the teachers. So I think a lot of that's been fixed, but it still doesn't get you out of the homework that you need to go do that due diligence. Go look at the internal operating expenses,
24:18 Brian Preston? ask or look in the plan to see, are there index options that truly have the benefits of index funds, meaning that they they're practically free. If you have an index fund that has an internal operating expense greater than half a percent, that's not really an index fund. That's a that's a that's a management fee pretending to be an index fund. So so just pay attention to those things. But I think the the foo is going to be your friend. Bo is exactly right. You sound like you're clearly need to get the the emergency reserves. Be thankful that because I bet a lot of that 11% is also your employer funding that. And then but let's get the cash reserves right. And then let's jump right into maxing out that Roth IRA. And then step six, we can, we can start piling some more money into that 403B as well.
25:04 Speaker 04 That was great. Well, thank you. I just smile a lot for the question. I hope that helps you think through your account types and what you're going to do next. Zach W. is up next. He says, "There are a couple, 34 and 36, with about 1 million invested and living in a low cost of living area." I know, looking really good. "We are easily coast fire and don't enjoy our jobs. Any advice," or it says, "but don't enjoy our jobs. Any advice on pushing for financial independence by 42 versus spending more on enjoying today?"
25:42 Speaker 03 What? Hi. If we were sitting across from each other, the question is, which, what do you want more? Right? I never want someone to be miserable. And I never want someone to have like a really rough time, rough go at it today. But there are times and seasons in our life where, okay, I'm willing to take a little bit of pain, a little bit of discomfort, a little bit of extra discipline in order to have something greater in the future, something better. And so at 42, financial independence is like something that you and your spouse are thinking, man, okay, we're going to do this. We're going to hit this number. We're going to be able to truly exit, be very Early retired and live the life that we want to live on our terms. And we recognize that the trade off, the cost of that is going to be able, is going to be
26:27 Speaker 03 walking away from some, not all of the experiences and things that we could do today. But we're okay with that, then that's fine. Or you may arrive at the conclusion, yeah, I just, we only get to be in our mid 30s once. We don't want to wait all the way till 42 to start enjoying stuff because who knows what could happen? Who knows what the future could hold? We want to have a more balanced approach. Neither of those are wrong, but you guys have to decide for yourselves, which one do we desire the most and which one are we the most willing to commit to?
26:57 Brian Preston? Zach, I'm going to tell you, I think that your hatred of your job is creating extreme options that you're choosing is that you dislike your job enough. Now, look, it sounds like it's highly compensated because for you and your spouse to have a million dollars in your mid 30s, that's way ahead of the curve. You're doing great, but at what expense?
27:18 Speaker 03 It doesn't say hate, it just says.
27:19 Brian Preston? Well, no, I'm putting the word hate in there because I mean, we don't enjoy our jobs and because, and you know how I know they don't like their jobs though, is because they're saying, hey, I want to retire at 40, I want to be financially independent at 42. So that's, I think it's creating extremes because they're looking at their job, they're thinking about, I don't, but I could do this for another five to six years and then I'll be financially independent. I would rather you maybe really take a life inventory and say, is there something that I can take my being ahead of the curve and pivot to something else that I really would enjoy? And maybe you have a career change. I mean, there's, let's look at this and really, you know, measure twice before you cut, obviously,
28:04 Brian Preston? but it is one of those things where you can say, is there something else I should be doing that I would enjoy that would change from 42? Because the problem I have, I worry about being, calling yourself financially independent at 42 is that there's still so much life. I mean, where are you at with kids, raising kids at that point? If you have kids, where are you at with where you're going to live and retire? There's just so many people I've seen that think that they're financially independent at 45 or younger, when there's just so many curveballs that life's going to throw at you with health, with children, with family, with where you're going to live, that I just want you to make sure that you have all that figured out and not just.
28:46 Brian Preston? Building where you go just live this miserly life in a job you don't like. And then you go wake up in your mid 40s and now is when you think you're going to live your best life. I think there's some steps in between that you need to figure out how you can live and enjoy your life right now. Life should be happiness and it shouldn't be, how do I put this? There's going to be struggle in life, but you shouldn't wake up dreading going to work and chewing on your fingernails. I've been there, done that, and I think there's a better way.
29:15 Speaker 03 Well, and I just think this is like, this is like a public service announcement, but we've just lived through too many folks who had these amazing plans for the future. I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm going to save, I'm going to save, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this. And then all of a sudden, something they were not expecting, an accident, a bad diagnosis, an illness or whatever. And then that thing that they were so looking forward to, that thing they were so looking at being able to experience, never comes to fruition because the time had passed or their health goes or their age. If there are ways you can figure out exactly what you said, how to enjoy today with a balance, like I'm still saving for tomorrow, still exercising discipline, still wanting to have something great tomorrow,
29:58 Speaker 03 but not sacrificing all of today because tomorrow is not guaranteed. None of us know if we're going to breathe our next breath or wake up tomorrow morning. And so we ought to put time and effort and attention into making sure that we enjoy all the seasons and all the phases of life as much as we can without reasonably sacrificing the future seasons and future stages because it's just not worth it to get to the end, reach the goal and then not be able to enjoy the fruits of that labor.
30:24 Brian Preston? Money is nothing but a tool and you have, you're frothy enough with how much you have that you ought to at least do a thought exercise to see if there's a way you could start living your better life now versus just sucking it up and being miserable for the next six years. And maybe I'm over editorializing your happiness, but it's just to say you want to be financially independent at 42 is an indicator that something is not right that you're daydreaming about just being done at such an early age.
30:55 Speaker 04 Yeah, those good thoughts. Thank you, Zach W. for the question.
31:02 Speaker 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.
31:29 Speaker 01 Born from the intensity of a night in the Eternal City. Introducing Born in Roma Fragrances by Valentino. Feminine perfume Donna Born in Roma features juicy black currant, central jasmine, soft cashmerin, and warm vanilla. Masculine-leaning but unisex Womo has notes of fresh violet leaf, aromatic sage, green vetiver, and mineral salt. Shop holiday gifts at Macy's.com.
31:58 Speaker 04 Andrew's question is up next, and then we're going to get to some money verse memes. So stick around. Andrew says, "Hi, money guys. My retired parents still use CDs for their savings. Do CDs still have a place in modern personal finance?"
32:14 Speaker 03 Have you ever heard of this before? Parents saving in CDs?
32:17 Speaker 04 I thought you might have a thing or two to say about that.
32:19 Brian Preston? I definitely, you know, recognize parents that use CDs. And I even have, I've had clients that have done laddered CDs. There's a portion. And I've, now I've done a good job of when I have clients or prospects that come in with these type of situations, I try to let them still use this tool because it's an appropriate, you know, risk-adjusted. Because you have more success, you are going to want to put a decent chunk of your assets in what we consider risk-off or very safe assets. CDs can play a part in that.
32:56 Brian Preston? But I don't know enough here because this is where the it depends. I don't know how old your parents are. I don't know how financially savvy or successful they are. But more than likely, they're going to want to have, you know, somewhere between 40 to 60% of their assets in something that can continue to grow in the background. And CDs, they don't even keep pace with inflation over the long term. So it's just one of those things where it's not a great wealth building opportunity, or even a protector of long-term purchasing power. So I would try to work to get your parents to have a more full understanding of how money works so that they can use it appropriately, but also not get undermined in the long term.
33:40 Speaker 03 Yeah. The question I would ask is what goal or what objective do you want the CDs to accomplish? If the question is, does it, is cash or cash and equivalents, liquid investments still part, have a place in modern personal finance? Absolutely. And depending on the business cycle we're in, or the economic cycle, or where were the interest rates? You may hold your cash in a number of different places. You may hold it in a high-yield savings account, online. You may hold it in your brick and mortar bank account, saves account. You may hold it in a certificate of deposit, or a CD, or you may hold it in a, what was the one I didn't mention? High-yield savings account, or in like a money market mutual fund. And depending on what's going on with cash and cash equivalents and interest rates,
34:22 Speaker 03 one of those four could very well be an option, but it's not always the same. There have been times and seasons where locking in a CD at a really high rate made a ton of sense. We haven't been in that season in a while now because high-yield savings accounts and money market mutual funds have been more attractive from a return standpoint without having any lack of liquidity. But there might become a time, if interest rates rise and you can start locking in CDs at higher rates for longer terms, that that could make sense. I don't think it's a, does it have a modern, a place in modern personal finance because it's still a tool that can be used, but is it the tool that makes the most sense to accomplish that today? Maybe, maybe not. And that depends very much on your parents and their, their personal preferences.
35:04 Brian Preston? Look, I don't mind sharing. I don't have any CDs in my portfolio and my mother, who y'all know my father's passed away and it was my mom and dad that had all the CDs. When I was a kid, that was their idea of investing. And I helped mom out with now her investments and we don't have any CDs in that either. But that doesn't mean that they don't have a place if that's your preference because I always try to, when clients come to me, I always want to know what their thoughts on money are and I will build a successful plan around what they are comfortable with. And if you love CDs and that's the way you've done things, I'm going to figure out a way to make that work with a portion of the assets, not all of the assets.
35:46 Speaker 03 Now, one thing just because we've seen this, if you have parents who like, or elderly people in your life that really like CDs, we've seen this happen where they'll go around to all the banks and all the credit unions in town and open up certificates of deposit each one of them. Not to say there's anything necessarily wrong with that, but man, does it create a logistical difficulty when it's time to like-
36:07 Brian Preston? Well, there's a better way.
36:07 Speaker 03 Yeah, when it's time to transition, or even when it's time to file their taxes and now all of a sudden you have all of these different tax forms coming from like 12 or 13 different institutions. It doesn't have to be done that way. You can still get CD exposure without having to play that.
36:20 Brian Preston? Yeah, I realize if you have a brokerage account with the Fidelities, the Charles Schwabs, you can go buy CDs all over the country, all in one account. I mean, we've modernized you having, your parents or grandparents don't have to drive all across town, putting the money in different banks.
36:40 Speaker 04 That was a very fair, well-rounded answer. Thank you for that. Andrew A., thank you for the question as well. We love that you were here on the live stream and asked the question and that we got to answer it. All right, it is time to show you guys some personal finance memes, straight from the Moneyverse. The Moneyverse-
36:58 Speaker 03 Are we answering questions about these? Are we just reacting to them?
37:02 Speaker 04 Just reacting to them.
37:02 Speaker 03 Just reacting, all right.
37:03 Speaker 04 They're all personal finance related. They were submissions from a real money guy, financial mutants in the Moneyverse. If you want to join the Moneyverse, just go to moneyguy.com/moneyverse. It's free. It's our Discord server. We've got all kinds of conversation going on there about the show, about personal finance. And this week, we also talked about memes. One note-
37:25 Speaker 04 A bonus points were given if it was a Star Wars meme. And so we did get a lot of Star Wars submissions. So I just need, I needed to say that so that Bo
37:36 Speaker 03 Doctor Spock, cool.
37:37 Speaker 04 Would be prepared if he doesn't understand something, maybe we'll explain. Maybe we won't, maybe we'll just let him live. We'll have to find out, but these are all finance related and Star Wars related. So Brian, I'm looking at you.
37:49 Speaker 03 They're all Star Wars related?
37:50 Speaker 04 They're all Star Wars related.
37:53 Speaker 04 I think people wanted to see you react to Star Wars stuff too, because they know it's not your
37:57 Speaker 03 Awesome. Can't wait to not get all these.
37:59 Speaker 04 First, uh, your skill set, we'll say that. All right, let's pull up the first one.
38:06 Speaker 04 It says, I'm investing now. And then Padme says, in low cost index funds, right?
38:14 Speaker 04 In low cost index funds, right? Brian giggled, Brian giggled, yes. This is a very popular meme format. Have you not seen this, Bo?
38:22 Brian Preston? It's a background.
38:23 Speaker 03 I get the joke. I don't know who these people are.
38:26 Speaker 04 Have you seen them before?
38:27 Speaker 03 No.
38:28 Speaker 04 Okay. Wow, you haven't even seen them in this format?
38:31 Speaker 03 Is that Keira Knightley?
38:32 Brian Preston? No.
38:34 Speaker 03 That's who, that's who that looks like to me.
38:35 Speaker 04 Are you just doing that for comedy's sake?
38:37 Speaker 03 That's who that looks like to me.
38:39 Speaker 04 All right.
38:39 Speaker 03 Is that not who that is?
38:40 Speaker 04 Okay. Well, that was the first one. I like that one.
38:43 Brian Preston? That is the future Darth Vader.
38:44 Speaker 04 That is the future Darth Vader. That's Anakin Skywalker.
38:48 Speaker 03 He looks so nice.
38:51 Brian Preston? And that is, that is, let me go ahead and blow your mind.
38:55 Brian Preston? Luke and Princess Leia.
38:58 Speaker 04 Their parents.
38:59 Speaker 03 Oh, well, that seems sweet.
39:01 Speaker 04 All right, next one. Another common meme format. Have you seen this format, Bo?
39:06 Speaker 03 I've seen this format.
39:06 Brian Preston? I've never seen the Star Wars format like this, though.
39:09 Speaker 04 So we have a Padawan after one investing thread, holding hands with boring index funds and tax advantage accounts, and looking a little flirtatiously at tax-free passive income through a 19-step real estate strategy with nine refinances.
39:25 Speaker 03 So the meme I get, and I think it's hilarious, are these actual characters from the movie?
39:28 Brian Preston? No, this is, this is probably AI-esque.
39:31 Speaker 04 Yeah, I think, I think AI was used, utilized in a very fun way. Thank you for doing it.
39:35 Speaker 03 That's funny.
39:36 Speaker 04 That's fun. Okay, good.
39:37 Brian Preston? I like this one.
39:38 Speaker 04 I thought both would at least have seen this format.
39:40 Speaker 03 I get, I get the meme.
39:41 Speaker 04 And it's funny, right? Cause boring index funds.
39:43 Brian Preston? Well done. I mean, that, that, that looks very Star Wars-esque. And I love how, cause if you, you've seen this meme where they're not, they're just on a city street.
39:52 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
39:53 Brian Preston? Normal street clothes. So.
39:54 Speaker 04 We gave it a Star Wars flair.
39:56 Brian Preston? He's even got a lightsaber on his holster there.
39:58 Speaker 04 All right. Um, I'm not announcing who's winning these. I just realized.
40:02 Brian Preston? So I think this one is better than the first one.
40:05 Speaker 04 Well, we'll, we'll, we'll make awards in the money verse. You know who you are. Okay. Third one, we got two more. This one's a good one. We got a picture of Yoda. It says, foo or foo not, there is no try.
40:18 Speaker 03 I get that joke. I get that joke.
40:21 Speaker 04 Foo or foo not, there is no try.
40:26 Speaker 03 Hold on, is that too impersonate? We got Eeyore at the beginning and now we got Yoda?
40:31 Speaker 04 Who else might show up?
40:32 Speaker 03 What a treat.
40:34 Brian Preston? What a treat.
40:35 Speaker 04 That one's cute, right? They did a good job. All right. And last but not least, we've got from the new Star Wars.
40:41 Speaker 03 I don't know who that is.
40:42 Speaker 04 Um, oh, I'm blanking on his name. What is his name?
40:44 Brian Preston? Kylo Ren.
40:45 Speaker 04 Kylo Ren. I know. Okay. It says, when an emergency fund happens and I need to refill my emergency fund. And then we have the Kylo Ren quote, I know what I have to do, but I don't know if I have the strength to do it.
40:59 Speaker 04 You both look confused about that. That's funny.
41:01 Speaker 03 No.
41:02 Brian Preston? I mean, I, I, I think, look, Kylo Ren, when he puts the helmet on is the coolest voice, you know, I even, you know, when I do Rise of the Resistance, when I'm at Hollywood Studios, I still love how that, that, that voice is. But I feel like this is a little, little force to get a cool character into a meme.
41:21 Speaker 04 Okay.
41:22 Speaker 03 I have, I don't know the, I don't know the line. I don't know the character. I have no context there. But I'm a big.
41:27 Brian Preston? Adam Driver.
41:28 Speaker 03 I'm a big.
41:29 Speaker 04 It is Adam Driver as the actor.
41:30 Brian Preston? That's the actor.
41:31 Speaker 03 I'm a big fan of emergency funds though. And I like, I like those.
41:35 Speaker 04 Would you have the strength to refill your emergency fund?
41:37 Speaker 03 I think you have, I think you have to.
41:38 Speaker 04 You have to. All right. Well, that's all we got. If you want to see the rest of the meme submissions, what?
41:46 Brian Preston? What I want to know is the content thing. Look, Bo and I are not involved in this stuff whatsoever. And I would love to know on a scale of how this was pitched. Like, this is gonna be great. I can't wait to see it. And this is probably one step above the arm wrestling that Bo requested.
42:03 Speaker 04 Wow, noted. They did not like this.
42:05 Brian Preston? No, I did not. Please don't mishear us. Don't mishear us. I appreciate the creative efforts that went in from the Moneyverse.
42:12 Speaker 04 Wow, that was, okay.
42:13 Brian Preston? I feel bad for Bo. I guess this is my empathy towards Bo is that I felt bad that he was just like, I felt like the fish was like, please put me back in water. Please put me back in water.
42:25 Speaker 04 He got two out of four.
42:26 Speaker 03 I did. I knew 50% of them. I knew half of them.
42:29 Speaker 04 Considering that he was at a disadvantage.
42:31 Brian Preston? You can breathe on land as a fish.
42:34 Speaker 04 Go to moneygod.com/moneyverse to join our free Discord server if you haven't already.
42:38 Brian Preston? Thank y'all for y'all's effort. And thank you for being part of the Moneyverse, too.
42:41 Speaker 04 Yeah, it was really fun to see all of your submissions. I enjoyed it immensely.
42:45 Speaker 03 Somebody just said, I want to see fitness memes next. Now we're talking. I like that.
42:49 Speaker 04 Maybe next time, maybe next time.
42:51 Brian Preston? And there are so many correlations between fitness and health and wealth. I mean, that could actually be pretty good.
42:57 Speaker 03 Love that.
42:57 Speaker 04 Health as wealth.
42:58 Speaker 03 Love that.
43:00 Speaker 04 All right, let's get back to some questions.
43:01 Speaker 03 So there was a win. Of those four, there was a winner, and that winner will be announced in the Moneyverse. And what do they get?
43:07 Brian Preston? It's probably gonna be in the newsletter.
43:09 Speaker 04 Am I allowed to say what they get?
43:12 Speaker 04 Okay, I'm getting yes. There's going to be a special role given in the Discord for meme challenge winners, and it will be those four folks?
43:20 Speaker 03 I love that.
43:21 Speaker 04 Do you think one is more of a winner? Which one was the best? I guess I didn't ask you.
43:26 Brian Preston? I like the one where almost being distracted into investing into some real estate or other type of that.
43:34 Speaker 03 That one.
43:35 Brian Preston? That one was probably my favorite.
43:36 Speaker 03 That's a good one.
43:37 Speaker 04 The boring index funds and tax advantaged accounts. That one was good. Solid.
43:42 Speaker 03 Love that.
43:43 Brian Preston? And Bo actually recognized that one.
43:44 Speaker 03 I got that one.
43:46 Speaker 04 All right.
43:47 Speaker 03 Didn't have real characters in it.
43:53 Speaker 04 All right. Next question's from PJ Dadla. Do you want to keep talking?
43:56 Speaker 03 On the first one, was that from like one of the old movies or is that like a new movie? Where like that's Darth Vader and the mom?
44:01 Brian Preston? That's from the prequel.
44:04 Speaker 03 That, okay, you're not, okay.
44:05 Speaker 04 So not the original ones?
44:06 Speaker 03 When I say old movies, I mean like the ones that came out in like 80s and 90s or those like modern day?
44:10 Brian Preston? No, that's the ones from the early 2000s.
44:14 Brian Preston? Bo, there is the late 70s, early 80s.
44:18 Speaker 03 Those are the ones, I know.
44:19 Speaker 04 That's the original three. I think you've seen some of them, right?
44:22 Brian Preston? Lucas came back and he brought one, two and three, the prequels in.
44:26 Speaker 03 Got it.
44:26 Brian Preston? And then after Disney bought, started the franchise, they added stuff on the back end. And they even threw in some one offs.
44:35 Speaker 04 They've just done all kinds of things now. It's confusing now.
44:38 Brian Preston? Yeah. And they killed Boba Fett. Or made him not as cool.
44:44 Speaker 04 I was gonna say, I don't think they killed him. But you just didn't.
44:47 Brian Preston? Brand wise.
44:48 Speaker 04 You didn't love the, brand wise, gotcha, gotcha. You didn't love the character arc.
44:51 Brian Preston? My favorite character in the world. I mean, and I, look, I'm not, y'all know I love Disney, but I, I have been disappointed with some of the, the character arcs on some beloved properties. Do you agree?
45:04 Speaker 04 I actually, I'm, I'm.
45:06 Speaker 03 Let's get back into, let's get back into fitness.
45:08 Speaker 04 I agree horribly.
45:09 Speaker 03 Finance, not fitness. Let's get back into finance.
45:12 Brian Preston? Let's just say, all of my, all of my figurines that I kept from my childhood that I was like, man, these things could be worth a fortune when I'm like an old man. You know, cause if, if Pokemon can be worth as much, Star Wars is gonna be worth a gazillion dollars. Little did I know. Be careful guys with Pokemon. Someday they might just completely change some of these things that have tremendous value and then you realize it's not worth as much.
45:37 Speaker 04 You got, you heard it here first, warning from Collector Brian.
45:40 Speaker 03 That's the reason you shouldn't invest all your money in Pokemon. That's the one right there.
45:44 Brian Preston? Well, I did think, we had somebody, um, we did a collab. It was, was it Austin and Robert? And we were talking about trading cards and stuff like that. I, cause I keep threatening, I'm gonna bring in my card collection. And he says, I don't think that they're gonna be worth it.
46:00 Speaker 03 That's not gonna be worth anything.
46:04 Speaker 04 All right, are you ready to do some personal finance questions? He's not.
46:07 Brian Preston? No, no, no, that is, I misremembered.
46:09 Speaker 03 It was a different context.
46:10 Brian Preston? Who gave you the 1990s cards that were just given to you? Oh, it was, it was our doctor.
46:15 Speaker 03 Yeah.
46:16 Brian Preston? It was our dentist. Oh my gosh. That's what it was. They're not worth anything. The dentist.
46:24 Speaker 04 Great. Next question.
46:27 Brian Preston? Our favorite Clemson dentist.
46:28 Speaker 04 Is from.
46:29 Brian Preston? I'm not gonna say his name because now it's embarrassing.
46:32 Speaker 04 And it says, Money Guy team, loved your Making a Millionaire episode yesterday. You talked briefly about ESPP. How much of your investable portfolio as a percentage is too much to have concentrated in your employer's stock?
46:49 Brian Preston? What's your take?
46:49 Speaker 03 Well, before we answer the too much, let me, let me rewind to the bidding, to the beginning. What is an ESPP? It's an employer's stock purchase plan where as an employee of the company, you are given the option to buy into the stock of your company. Oftentimes, if it's a publicly traded company at a discounted rate. So I can get a 15% discount. And then oftentimes, even at a favorable price, so in a trading window, across six months or three months, I get a 15% discount off the lowest trading price in that window. It's a really, really good thing because if something is worth $20 today, but I can then go buy it for $15, I immediately have $5 of embedded value based on the discount.
47:33 Speaker 03 So employee stock purchase plans are wonderful tools. We think of them, Brian, hold the thing up for me. We think of them like step two of the financial order of operations. Now, you can see if you are someone, especially if you work for a publicly traded company and you have the ability to participate in ESPP, but also some of your compensation comes in the form of restricted stock units or performance stock units, or maybe even some sort of options, then very, very quickly, a lot of your capital, a lot of your financial wealth, can become tied up in your employer's stock. And so the question that PJ is asking is, all right, how much is too much? And I'm even going to add a tail end to that. How should I think about having a strategy for that moving forward?
48:18 Brian Preston? Yeah, I think, you know, it's always back to you have your human capital, meaning the hours you put in at work, there's your investment capital. You don't want to have everything tied into the exact same thing, because then you literally have all of your eggs in one basket. But you also have this frothy opportunity where if they're giving you pretty much a guaranteed rate of return with the way they discount, it's pretty good to take advantage of this. So always, you know, look, I think it's somewhere between five to 10%. I think 10%, you get over 10%, it gets really scary. We've had young clients who've gone well into 50%, but they were in their twenties and they probably had a lot of chances of recovery.
49:00 Brian Preston? Because this also, this is where the it depends comes in. If you're somebody who's in your twenties and you don't have a lot of people counting on your income and your money, yeah, you can probably swing for the fences a little differently. But if you come to me and ask this question when you're in your 40s and you've got, you know, a house full of a spouse and kids, it's a different answer and it's going to put it somewhere in that five to 10% territory.
49:22 Speaker 03 If you can get there, a lot of times though, and we see this, even though your desire might be to only have five to 10% exposure, you may be in this place where the RSUs that come in for you, just blow that up. And five and 10% is not realistic. So what do you do in that circumstance? I would think strategically about how I maintain my exposure as the treadmill of incentives keeps flowing. So like, if I have RSUs that are vesting today, I know that if I sell them today, it's going to be my lowest tax cost point to sell. Because when they vest, that's when I'm taxed on those, when it comes to RSUs and PSUs. So I'm going to sell immediately, incur no additional tax, tax burden, and then I can redeploy, re-diversify. If I have ESPP shares and I'm not worried about
50:07 Speaker 03 paying ordinary income tax and I just want to purchase it at the purchase window and then immediately sell, immediately liquidate, I can wash that ESPP dollars. Most ESPP plans limit you to $25,000 a year that you can participate. I can sell those periodically as I acquire the shares, assuming there's no holding period. So there are things, there are strategies you can do. That as the stock becomes available to you, you can slowly start taking some off the treadmill as more gets put on the treadmill to where you might not be able to get down to five or 10%, but you're at least chiseling some off on the side to begin building up wealth outside of your incentives. Cause some people, especially if you work in like high tech or something like that, it's hard to get to that five or 10% number, just the way the compensation is structured.
50:51 Brian Preston? Yeah. Matter of fact, there's probably some people at SpaceX right now.
50:54 Speaker 03 Literally the one I was thinking about.
50:57 Brian Preston? You know, a hundred percent of their net worth is, or pretty close to a hundred percent is going to be in their SpaceX.
51:05 Speaker 04 Thank you PJ Dad Life for that question and thanks for the answer, Ryan and Bo.
51:09 Speaker 03 Do you think PJ Dad Life was private jet or pajamas? That's what I'll stay him out for the first 20 seconds of that question.
51:17 Speaker 03 You were thinking the same thing?
51:19 Brian Preston? I didn't even have a thought on that.
51:20 Speaker 03 Or was his name PJ? That would have been.
51:22 Speaker 04 Honestly, that's what I thought. Maybe his name was just PJ. Like it stood for.
51:26 Speaker 03 Cause think about how different the context is between private jet dad life and pajama dad life. These are two very different individuals.
51:35 Brian Preston? Or he's just a Patrick.
51:36 Speaker 04 Yeah, maybe he's just like Patrick James or, yeah.
51:41 Speaker 04 Probably more likely. All right. Next one's from Captain Morgan 7352.
51:51 Brian Preston? Okay. Got to laugh on the entire riding crew. I don't know what type of.
51:54 Speaker 04 This.
51:56 Brian Preston? What does that say about our team?
51:58 Speaker 03 That's hilarious.
51:59 Brian Preston? Got a little captain in you.
52:01 Speaker 03 Pirate fans.
52:01 Speaker 04 All right. The question says, the wife and I are both 40. We have three times our incomes in state, in savings. Are we behind if we have no other net worth? Because I feel behind living in employer subsidized housing compared to others who own their home. What do you have to say to Captain Morgan?
52:22 Speaker 03 Well, so you know, we've done a number of studies, a number of shows where we will look at the fidelity study. We've also like added our own numbers in terms of milestones that you should a that you should shoot to achieve at certain ages. And we say about the time you get to 30, we want you to have one times your annual income saved up in liquid net worth in your portfolio. Well, by the time you get to 40, we do target, we want you to have three times your annual income in a liquid portfolio. What's a little bit unclear about the vocabulary you used is you said we have three times our income in savings. Are you going to interpret that as like investments, not like a savings account, not like cash? Like I have three times in between my Roth IRAs and 401Ks?
53:03 Brian Preston? I think that's probably liquid, liquid portfolio. We were given benefit of the doubt that that's liquid portfolio, because this is really about a housing question. And I think that, you know, begin with the end in mind, Captain, is that where do you plan on retiring? You know, because based upon the way you said that there's employer subsidized housing, it makes me think you might be in technology or something like that, because some of those high cost of living areas, you do see campuses where there's even housing potentially provided. If that's the case, we know a lot of people who work in these areas, but then they plan on retiring somewhere completely different. So what does that look like? Because maybe this is just the way it is, and still you should be as productive
53:47 Brian Preston? and efficient at building your wealth in the background, but maybe have a plan for when you do finish or retire, you know, maybe in your 50s that you're going to go and retire in a lower cost of living area.
54:00 Speaker 03 Yeah, I don't, when I read this off the cuff, not knowing anything about your unique circumstances or your personal like goals, three times your annual income in investments at 40?
54:10 Brian Preston? It could be military too, though. There's just so many different ways you have employer subsidized housing, because then you have a pension. We just don't have, I don't have enough context on the captain.
54:18 Speaker 03 I don't feel like, based on this, they're
54:21 Brian Preston? Maybe, what if this is actually a captain in the military?
54:25 Speaker 03 Oh, my gosh.
54:26 Brian Preston? And his last name is Morgan. And we're just, we think, here we are all making alcohol drinks. We are horrible people. Y'all are bad people.
54:34 Speaker 03 This is the guy serving our country, and y'all are joking about booze.
54:37 Brian Preston? Thank you for your service, Captain.
54:38 Speaker 03 Thank you, Captain.
54:39 Brian Preston? You're not, you're not a pirate.
54:42 Speaker 03 I don't think captain's behind. It doesn't seem to me that housing, no housing, take that out of the equation. Our, our little like rule of thumb milestone, three times annual income and liquid portfolio. If you've already got that, I'd argue that it seems like you're certainly on track. And if you are military, you got that going on, plus you got a pension building in the background, there's a chance you're actually out ahead of the curve, Captain.
55:05 Brian Preston? Hey, when was the last time you actually drank Captain Morgan?
55:08 Speaker 03 College.
55:09 Brian Preston? I mean, it's probably, it's probably been
55:11 Speaker 03 College.
55:11 Brian Preston? Seven to 10 years for me, too.
55:14 Speaker 03 But not a big Diet Coke fan. That's the one thing that I like, uh, liked with Diet Coke.
55:21 Speaker 03 If you were curious about that.
55:23 Speaker 04 Thanks for telling us. Learning so much today.
55:26 Brian Preston? I don't like Diet Coke at all.
55:27 Speaker 03 Me either. There's some people like are gaga over it. I don't.
55:31 Brian Preston? Anything with the fake sweeteners has a bad taste to it. That's why you drink those energy drinks. I'm not gonna give them a free plug, but it's, um, I think they all have an artificial taste to them. I don't like.
55:41 Speaker 04 Yeah, I'm kinda with you on that.
55:43 Speaker 03 Well, you're wrong on that.
55:46 Speaker 04 All right, next one. Firefighter725.
55:51 Speaker 04 It says, I'm about to purchase land adjacent to my property on a home equity loan at 6.5%. Should I accelerate my payoff or continue to put money in my brokerage and invest?
56:03 Speaker 03 How old are you firefighter?
56:05 Speaker 04 Firefighter, if you're in the chat, let us know how old you are.
56:07 Speaker 03 What's the rest of your portfolio look like firefighter?
56:13 Brian Preston? Yeah, I mean, there's nothing wrong potentially with using a home equity. I mean, that's probably a good use of a home equity line if you're trying to, you're, cause it is improving your land or making it, your property more valuable. It's just, is it the right thing to do in your station in life and where, what you're building? So, because the thing, six and a half percent, you just wanna have a plan to how you can extinguish that debt. See what I did there? Um, as soon as possible.
56:41 Speaker 04 That got a laugh out of the team too, in the wings.
56:44 Speaker 03 Yeah, I think it, I think it depends on your, all the questions that I sort of asked. If you're, if you're in an income situation where you could pay it off quickly and you have a healthy financial foundation underneath you and perhaps you're a little bit, a little bit further out on the like experience spectrum, I think accelerating the debt payoff makes a lot of sense. If you are younger, maybe you don't have as big of a financial foundation and you have debt under control, I don't think it's crazy to think about building the brokerage assets because of how valuable the money multiplier can be.
57:15 Brian Preston? Yeah, and if you, if you want to be part of the fire movement and set your, your portfolio ablaze, you're probably going to need to have money working for you in the background. So you, you're definitely going to have investments out there working as well.
57:30 Speaker 04 Anymore? Anything else?
57:33 Brian Preston? Be a floor, floor alarm.
57:36 Speaker 03 He's gonna work, he's gonna work in CD ladder. He's gonna.
57:39 Speaker 04 I thought he was gonna make some connection with working hard with your back, your brain and your hands and your money's working harder than you do. I don't know.
57:45 Brian Preston? Now, what does that have to do with the fire station?
57:47 Speaker 04 Well, firefighter is like really strong and works harder with his back.
57:51 Brian Preston? There.
57:51 Speaker 03 All right, there you go.
57:52 Speaker 04 Well, okay, I'm just gonna be quiet.
57:57 Speaker 04 I was just trying to think of what else you were gonna say, but clearly he wouldn't.
58:01 Brian Preston? We all know firefighters are strong. Like, this sounds like every romantic novel out there.
58:07 Speaker 04 But that sounds like a factual. Are you saying firefighters do not have to be strong?
58:13 Brian Preston? No, I'm just saying, my brain did not even go anywhere near that, man, maybe at some point, this guy's gonna take his shirt off.
58:20 Speaker 04 Oh my gosh.
58:24 Speaker 04 The way that I.
58:26 Brian Preston? You stepped into that one.
58:27 Speaker 04 So far from what I meant, but I'm glad that, you know what?
58:30 Brian Preston? No, you just said, but works harder and stronger than, you know, than your money can work.
58:34 Speaker 04 Cause he's a firefighter, Brian. I sit at my desk and type. He has to like.
58:39 Speaker 03 Fight fires.
58:40 Speaker 04 Yeah, fight fires and rescue people.
58:42 Brian Preston? With his strong back.
58:43 Speaker 04 Oh my gosh.
58:46 Speaker 04 I'm so sorry, guys.
58:49 Speaker 04 All right.
58:50 Speaker 03 I, uh, a lot of people in here guess it. I'm gonna say it because you put it out there. A lot of people trying to guess what energy drink he was referencing.
58:58 Speaker 04 I know.
58:59 Speaker 03 It's none of the ones you guys have said. It's a performance.
59:01 Speaker 04 I knew you would be offended by a few of these guesses. I knew you would.
59:04 Speaker 03 Uh, I don't do this often. I don't do it often, but I'm a C4 guy.
59:08 Brian Preston? Why would you give the brand?
59:10 Speaker 03 Because, look, I don't want, some of these, I'm like, no, no, no, no. I don't, uh-uh. I don't do this.
59:15 Brian Preston? Now, what, I don't want you to say the brand, but there is one. I always think these things already have way too mu- because you love coffee too. And these energy drinks have so much caffeine already in them. We have, one of our editors, I love this guy, but he buys one that is like double. Like, these are already too much and they, but they advertise. It's kind of like, if you remember, I'm of a certain age that, you know, when everybody realized cola was kind of not great for you, there was one, I can't remember if it was, there was definitely Surge.
59:46 Speaker 03 Surge is what it had in high school.
59:47 Brian Preston? And then there was another one that was even worse. It was like, you know what? We're gonna embrace that we're unhealthy, but we're gonna give you just more of it. And, you know, that's our whole marketing gimmick. I mean, I don't know. I don't, I, I'm not into, I don't do the, the energy drinks. I'm just not into that.
1:00:02 Speaker 03 Look, I don't do them regularly, but every now and then if I need some sort of pre-workout or something like that, that's.
1:00:08 Brian Preston? Coffee. I do coffee. And I even cap that.
1:00:11 Speaker 03 But coffee for a pre-workout, it's just a different vibe. Like, hot beverage pre-workout, not great. Not a fan.
1:00:19 Brian Preston? This just ought to be a high on life.
1:00:20 Speaker 03 Well, that's, yep. I am.
1:00:23 Speaker 04 Well, now you know.
1:00:24 Speaker 03 Not so much at 4 a.m.
1:00:24 Speaker 04 You know, you guys said that this was gonna be a spicy livestream. I think it was. I think it went everywhere, every which way. I had not expected. I hope you all had as much fun as we did.
1:00:36 Brian Preston? But, I, I, I don't mind sharing, um, just because anybody who watches this show, y'all know, I had this insecurity because I had a, a mole cut off my face yesterday.
1:00:47 Speaker 03 Why would you bring it up? Why would you bring it up? Go ahead.
1:00:51 Brian Preston? Cause I was insecure about it.
1:00:53 Speaker 03 No, go ahead.
1:00:53 Brian Preston? Well, because I can bring this back around to the money verse is that, you know, cause I pull it. It was funny. I was sharing that we're not famous, but we are nerd famous. Meaning you never know where our people are because they show up in the strangest places sometimes. And yesterday, when I was at the dermatologist, the P A comes in and she goes, I was so excited to, cause I, you know, I, and I figure, I don't know if it's, but, but she knew who we were.
1:01:24 Speaker 03 Yeah.
1:01:25 Brian Preston? And I'm sitting there in just my skivvies, you know, cause it's one of those, you know, where they're going to, you know, in a thing. So it was just an interesting experience, but I was still very thankful that, that she followed our content.
1:01:38 Speaker 03 So if you're.
1:01:38 Speaker 04 That is very nice.
1:01:39 Speaker 03 P A, if you're out there listening, thanks so much for listening to, supporting the Money Guy Show and
1:01:44 Speaker 04 In more ways than one.
1:01:45 Speaker 03 For keeping Brian healthy for all of us.
1:01:47 Brian Preston? But what's funny is Bo said that he had a similar experience that he wasn't recognized, but he's, he had them rolling. He had them laughing because he does uncomfortable situations. He tries to make people laugh.
1:01:56 Speaker 03 If I'm ever, yeah, if I'm ever in like a medical situation where I have to be in my underwear, I'm cracking jokes.
1:02:01 Brian Preston? I probably would have done the same thing, but I was just, I didn't know, I, I'm already, you know, when you're, when you're sitting there half naked, it's not, you know, you're just, I don't know. I'm not the best, I'm not the funniest version of myself when I'm, I'm half naked.
1:02:17 Speaker 04 You guys can watch this back and decide whose mind is actually in the gutter today, okay?
1:02:25 Speaker 04 I'm just saying, I meant that purely factually. You guys are the ones that are taking it places.
1:02:30 Brian Preston? No, you were the ones said, you know, because firefighters are strong and they work hard, you know, in the.
1:02:36 Speaker 04 I said they were strong. Oh my God. I can't. All right. Well, we do need to wrap things up and thankfully we did answer a lot of really good personal finance questions today. And had a lot of good conversations. Those conversations always continue at moneyguy.com. That's where you can join the money verse. That's where you can get free resources and calculators that help you on your financial journey. Hopefully so. So go check that out and we'll be back every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Central. Sometimes more off the rails than others, but thanks for joining us today.
1:03:07 Brian Preston? I had, I had one more thing I was gonna say too.
1:03:11 Brian Preston? We had a collab go out and you guys, if you haven't seen, we did with, it was Austin and Robert. There's a collab, but they AI'd us. I would love for you guys, go check it out if you want to be entertained.
1:03:26 Speaker 04 This episode and Austin and Robert are actually amazing. You should go watch it.
1:03:29 Brian Preston? It was.
1:03:30 Speaker 04 It's on the Rich Habits Podcast.
1:03:31 Brian Preston? Rich Habits Podcast, but they did, I mean, they made Bo look like he was my age in his 50s. And then they, me, they were like, hey, I bet Brian's insecure about the bags under his eyes. So let's go ahead and give him twice as many. And so you go check it out if you want to be entertained. And it's just, it's interesting. You never know.
1:03:50 Speaker 04 They did a fantasy football like draft.
1:03:53 Brian Preston? It was great.
1:03:54 Speaker 04 Super fun. Like wealth builders.
1:03:55 Brian Preston? We obviously did so well that they were like, man, those guys showed us how smart they are. Let's see if we can humble them with these AI thumbnails.
1:04:03 Speaker 04 You're funny.
1:04:04 Brian Preston? Love you guys. I'm your host, Brian, joined by Mr. Bo, Money Guy team, out.
1:04:11 Speaker 04 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.
1:04:47 Speaker 05 When everyone's finally together, what makes mornings even brighter? Keeping things deliciously simple. Whether you're pouring up a glass of morning refreshment or topping off festive drinks for a family brunch, Simply Orange brings that 100% fresh squeezed taste to every moment. Deliciously bright and delightfully easy, Simply Orange is made for all your seasonal gatherings. Simply Orange, say yes to simple.
1:05:17 Speaker 06 Mr. Monopoly here. Miss me? Monopoly is back at McDonald's. With millions of prizes. A 2027 Jeep Cherokee. A Carnival Cruise vacation. Gift cards from DoorDash. And Best Buy. You can play in the McDonald's app. Get your bag.
1:05:35 Speaker 07 No purchase necessary. 50 U.S. and D.C. Age 18 plus. See playatmcd.com for rules and playatmcd.com/amoe for info and playing without purchase by mail by November 2nd. Chance card game ends November 8th. Game ends November 22nd, 2026. See rules for prize details. Monopoly is a registered trademark of Hasbro.
Previous How They Escaped $92,000 of Debt Before It Was Too Late Next How To Win Financially Based On Your Income Page updated October 30, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated