How Much Money Can We Give Away In One Episode?

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:27Speaker 01

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• 0:58Brian Preston?

  Free money!

• 1:03Speaker 03

  I am so excited because we love free money. We love free money so much, we made it one of the early parts, the early steps in the financial order of operations. And you and I have always said, "Man, if we ever have an opportunity, ever have a chance to have more money than we currently have, we're gonna jump all over that."

• 1:25Brian Preston?

  Well, I mean, look, there's been some things recently in the news about $1,000. You know, you think about like the Trump accounts and all these other things. And then I can even, I look back to the beginnings I had. I can remember driving on my 40-minute commute into Atlanta and listening to the radio station, and they'd be paying somebody's bills, they'd be giving away $1,000. And I was at that moment in my life where I was like, "A $1,000 would literally change my life."

• 1:53Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 1:54Brian Preston?

  And then as we were having conversations about how this stuff with compounding growth, and if you're 20 years old, 25 years old, what this could become, and more to come on that, we're like, "What are we doing? We've kind of reached this stage to where, why don't we actually give away some money?" So that we can actually pay it forward to our financial mute.

• 2:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, today we want to do that. We recognize how impactful, how much it could have changed our lives. And we want to be able to be the mechanism that maybe for one of you out there, or a couple of you out there, it might change your life. And you may be thinking, okay, well, a thousand dollars just isn't that much money, or it's not that exciting. And if you're someone who is thinking that, or maybe you're saying that out loud, I'm willing to bet you've not been hanging out with the Money Guy Show for that long. Because if you've been around us for any amount of time, you know that we love talking about this idea, this concept around the wealth multiplier. It's so important. We have it on koozies,

• 2:54Speaker 03

  and we have it on different pieces of swag that you may get to see later on. Because we know that for a 20-year-old, when they are just starting out, when they're just beginning their journey, every dollar that they can defer, every dollar that they can put to work to walk away from to invest, has the potential to grow to $88 by the time that they retire. That is how powerful, I get choked up thinking about it. That is how powerful your dollars can be.

• 3:24Brian Preston?

  Well, you know, what's interesting is when I remember when I, it all kind of comes full circle. I remember Mr. Morrow and the Morrow moment where he told me a hundred dollars a month could turn into a million dollars. And that's kind of, you and I were talking about, hey, if people just understood what every dollar coming in, their army of dollars could do for them, they would spend different, they would act different. And I don't like to do public math, but I think if a dollar can turn into $88, a thousand dollars has the potential to turn into $88,000.

• 3:55Speaker 03

  Let me check that.

• 3:56Brian Preston?

  And we can even keep it going. For a 25-year-old, the same logic holds true. $44,000, 35-year-old, $23,000. You quickly start to see 45-year-old, close to $4,500. You quickly find out that, man, oh, man, there is something powerful about this, but there's also something cruel about the component of time. It can be, while you're During your twenties and thirties, you literally are a billionaire of time. But if you don't leverage that opportunity, it can get away from you. But when I was looking at these numbers, I was like, one decision can have big results. But if you can create a habit, a good habit, it does multiple things. You make the good habit as easy as possible.

• 4:41Brian Preston?

  And by setting up an automated investment plan, you also will make the bad habits that much harder because the money will already be allocated. So we actually flipped the script on this and said, what if this was a thousand dollars a year? And man, oh, man, that's a different conversation.

• 4:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, if you can make the idea, if you can wrap your head around the idea, okay, if I can walk away from a thousand dollars this year, that thousand dollars can turn into forty four thousand dollars by the time I retire, if I'm a twenty five year old. And if I can repeat that behavior, if I can do that over and over, and I can save a thousand dollars every single year from now until the time I retire, that twenty five year old could have almost half a million dollars from just making that one thousand dollar decision over and over and over. A thirty five year old doing that same behavior, starting at zero, could have over a hundred and thirty seven thousand dollars. And a forty five year old saying, you know what? I am going to walk away from a thousand dollars this year and every year until I get to retirement.

• 5:40Speaker 03

  Just that single decision, repeated through time, could turn into almost fifty thousand dollars. It does not take a lot to go a long way. But the earlier you figure it out, the sooner you recognize it, the more powerful, more valuable it can be.

• 5:56Brian Preston?

  Well, a lot of you are like, okay, thousand dollars, obviously powerful. Where can I go and find a thousand dollars? Look, I want to, we've got some, some ways we're about to share, but I, I want to tell you, nothing should be beneath you and the fact that go do a pantry audit, you know? Go, go look, make sure when you go in the grocery store, you don't end up with three mayonnaises and, and three peanut butters. These are the type of small decisions people are going to totally troll that. There's also, you can go and look at your ungrateful service providers and the fact that if you haven't shopped your property and casualty insurance on your car insurance, your homeowners, you might be Surprised that there literally could be, you did this in the past year. You found a thousand dollars savings.

• 6:34Speaker 03

  Way more than that.

• 6:35Brian Preston?

  By shopping this, but we wanted people, you know, you mentioned this and I love when we get to bring it just like, you know, Seinfeld-esque. You said the beginning, you're like, get the free money.

• 6:47Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 6:47Brian Preston?

  Well, that brings it full circle to your employer match. There's a reason we like so much free money that we put it as step two of the financial order operations. Get in there and get that free money.

• 6:58Speaker 03

  And for again, maybe you're brand new here. For those of you don't recognize, this is the idea that your employer says, hey, if you're willing to put money into your 401k, into your 403B, into your retirement account, we as the employer are going to put money in on your behalf as well. We're going to match what you do. And even though it is literally free money, it's sitting there waiting for you to take it. We know that 25% of employees with access to a 401k do not contribute enough to get that full match. That means one out of four employees that are able to go get a match, say, you know what? I don't want the free money. Don't give it to me. Pass over me. I don't want to take it. Don't let yourself be one of those statistics. If you have free employer money out there available to you, make sure you're getting it all.

• 7:43Brian Preston?

  By the way, this is just Empower is the source of 25%. I've actually, Vanguard has done a research in the past where it's been well over 30%. So this is a problem that definitely impacts between a quarter to a third of the population. Not my financial mutants though. I know you guys would never fall into these traps. The other place we want to help you uncover and find additional money is don't sleep on the fact that when you do your annual tax return, more than likely, you probably qualify for some type of refundable tax credit.

• 8:11Speaker 03

  What's the difference in a refundable tax credit, Brian, and a non-refundable?

• 8:15Brian Preston?

  Well, a lot of times like a non-refundable is you have to, you just, if you don't use it, meaning you don't have enough taxes that are going to be owed on your tax return, you just kind of forego the credit because it didn't offset it. But if you have a refundable credit, it means that even if the credit exceeds what you've withheld or what you paid in taxes, the government is going to send that money to you.

• 8:38Speaker 03

  And so with a little bit of. Of planning because a lot of these refundable credits have certain income limits and thresholds that you want to be mindful of. So if you can keep diligent records and you can do a little bit of planning ahead of time, you may qualify for the earned income tax credit, for the additional child tax credit, for the premium tax credit. If you're someone who's on, on the health player, healthcare marketplace, or if you have a student in college, maybe the American Opportunity Tax Credit. There are tax credits out there available to you that if you qualify, if you can fit into the threshold where they make sense for your situation, it is literally free money. It's a way to come up with a thousand dollars, a hundred dollars, money in your back pocket that you can

• 9:23Speaker 03

  then put to work for your financial future.

• 9:25Brian Preston?

  And then, you know, kind of expanding upon step two of the financial order of operations, don't sleep on the fact that there's actually non-retirement employee benefits too. Think about your health savings account. A lot of employers now will

• 9:36Speaker 03

  Match in there.

• 9:37Brian Preston?

  Prime the pump by throwing a little extra money in there. The employee stock purchase plan, a lot of times there's free money or discounts that you ought to pay attention to. Health reimbursement accounts, maybe you don't have the high deductible plan, maybe you have more of a, you know, Cadillac type plan where, you know, PPO or other things, but they offer a health reimbursement and they even put additional money in there. Those are great benefits and don't forget, a lot of employers will give you up, take advantage of the up to $50,000 of life insurance where it doesn't count as compensation. That is free money, but you've got to kind of opt into these things to really take advantage of it.

• 10:11Speaker 03

  And then even recently, there's been some recent legislation where there are new types of accounts and new types of things coming on the scene that you might be able to take advantage of. If you're a parent or a new parent or an expecting parent, Trump accounts might be a great way for you to go out there and get a free thousand dollars for that child. And then there are even some things that are happening next year related to the Trump IRA accounts that you may be able to get a match for if you qualify. That's probably not going to be in effect until 2027. So we'll talk more about that as we move in that direction. But if you can stay in tune with what's going out there in the financial world and where there are, where there are opportunities For free money, you can take advantage of those.

• 10:53Speaker 03

  And remember, every dollar that you can save today, every dollar that you can put away today, has the potential to turn into something meaningful for you later in life. But you have to have the discipline to start the process today.

• 11:05Brian Preston?

  Look, I'll, I'll say the, I think we don't do politics on this show, but a lot of people, because they see Trump account, Trump IRAs, they, they have a, they have a thought towards it. And look, you can go call it the subsection 530.

• 11:19Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 11:19Brian Preston?

  Or whatever you want. The big thing is.

• 11:21Speaker 03

  Is that the real subsection? Did you just pull that out?

• 11:22Brian Preston?

  I remember, because I remember, I thought it was kind of interesting. 529s are, you know, education accounts and able accounts. And this, this is 530. So it's definitely the same code section. Really nerdy stuff. But I'm just telling you, I think, I want everybody to think about what this can do for your kids. I mean, if you have kids that were born in 2025, 2026, 2027, don't sleep on that free money that these Trump accounts, because literally, when you think about the power of what you're made, don't let a political decision, because money's green. It's not red. It's not blue. It's green. This could be a huge opportunity. And then I love that a lot of these billionaires, like Michael Dell and them are jumping in. So if you have kids as old as up, ended up to 10 years of age,

• 12:04Brian Preston?

  there might be up to, you know, a few hundred dollars that even could help fund savings for those. Guys, don't sleep on that. Don't let your feeling towards politics. Nobody likes politics. It's a dirty, dirty game. But that doesn't mean you can't take advantage of creating army of dollars for your children and let that superpower of compounding growth do a magical, amazing thing.

• 12:26Speaker 03

  But look, we don't just talk the talk. We want to walk the walk. If we say that we love free money that much, we ought to put our money where our mouth is. So Rebi, you had a great idea that you wanted to share with the audience. Tell them what you came up with, Rebs.

• 12:44Speaker 04

  I like that I all of a sudden got credit for this idea. I'm just going to leave that there. But I am excited. We are about to start our live stream $1,000 giveaway. How it works? Submit a question in the chat. We're looking at all questions after 10 a.m. Central time. We'll choose approximately five to 10 questions as we normally would to feature and answer on today's show. And then at the very end of the show, we will randomly draw from those five to 10. We are going to draw three winners and you will get $1,000 if you are the three winners among those featured questions.

• 13:19Speaker 03

  So like that $1,000 spread across three different people? Is that the way we're doing it?

• 13:24Speaker 04

  Oh, no. Each person will get $1,000.

• 13:26Speaker 03

  We're gonna give $1,000 to each of the people.

• 13:28Speaker 04

  Each of the three winners.

• 13:29Speaker 03

  Got it, got it, got it.

• 13:30Speaker 04

  Yes. And now, good news. There is an added thing, too. We are doing our normal livestream stuff. It's not part of the special giveaway of those. If you are in those five to 10 questions, it is also a Tumblr.

• 13:42Brian Preston?

  What?

• 13:43Speaker 04

  You're welcome.

• 13:43Brian Preston?

  Did I agree to this?

• 13:44Speaker 03

  Giving away too much stuff. Giving away too much stuff.

• 13:47Brian Preston?

  So we're actually giving away probably like $3,300 worth of stuff.

• 13:51Speaker 03

  Here's what I think is wild.

• 13:53Brian Preston?

  Shipping.

• 13:53Speaker 04

  I don't think that is true.

• 13:55Speaker 03

  If, let's, let's suppose right now that there's a, a 20-year-old out there listening to this, and their question gets selected. You realize that $1,000 that they could potentially win has the ability to turn into 88,000. It's an $88,000 giveaway, right? I mean, that, that math, that math maths, right?

• 14:15Speaker 04

  It can math.

• 14:16Speaker 03

  What if there's someone out there who's like, I don't know, like a 12-year-old? Maybe, maybe someone, you know, we have people do this. They want their kids to watch the show.

• 14:24Brian Preston?

  You can't win, you can't win $1,000 unless you're 18 years of age.

• 14:26Speaker 03

  Well, I'm just saying, what if there was a-

• 14:28Brian Preston?

  So let's, let's make sure we stick to the actual rules.

• 14:31Speaker 04

  Absolutely true.

• 14:31Brian Preston?

  You have to be a US citizen. You have to be greater than 18 years of age. I love where you're going from a max standpoint.

• 14:37Speaker 04

  But we're very compliant here.

• 14:38Brian Preston?

  But your parents, if you are a 12-year-old watching this, get your parents to ask us the question.

• 14:43Speaker 03

  Wet blanket Preston.

• 14:44Brian Preston?

  I'm sorry.

• 14:45Speaker 03

  Did you see where I was going?

• 14:46Brian Preston?

  I've represented clients before the IRS. Anybody else represented clients before the IRS?

• 14:50Speaker 03

  What I'm saying is, is if you do have a 12-year-old, do you realize that that $1,000 invested on behalf of your 12-year-old because you're the parent, has the ability to turn into $196,000 by the time that they get to retirement? That is how powerful it can be. A little bit, it can go a long way if you give it enough time. But just thanks for just taking all the wind out of those sails.

• 15:13Brian Preston?

  Yep. That's a, by the way, 12-year-old's wealth multiplier is 195.99. Let's just go ahead and call it 196.

• 15:20Speaker 03

  That's what I said, 196,000. That's the, I did that math. I went.

• 15:25Brian Preston?

  I was so, I was seeing stars in the fact that you were trying to give away money to kids when there's so many safety protocols on how we need to keep kids out of, out of stuff, you know?

• 15:35Speaker 03

  I'm just saying.

• 15:36Brian Preston?

  I'm like, oh gosh, don't do it.

• 15:37Speaker 04

  Well, now that we've gone down that rabbit trail and clarified that rule, let's dive into the contest, shall we? I do have some questions queued up. The first question is from Jordan Lee Musics. It says, money guys, I'm only 23.

• 15:51Speaker 03

  Let's go. Hey, what's the?

• 15:53Brian Preston?

  Hey, hey, welcome to 23.

• 15:54Speaker 04

  Oh my goodness, here we go.

• 15:55Brian Preston?

  57.84, 57.84, Jordan.

• 15:58Speaker 03

  Love it.

• 15:59Brian Preston?

  You too today could win $57,840.

• 16:03Speaker 04

  How do you guys prevent yourself from being a financial miser instead of a financial mutant? And how has your relationship with money changed over time?

• 16:14Speaker 03

  I want to, I want to answer your question in reverse. I want to start with the second half of the question and then back into the first half. Cause I would argue, yes, for me personally, my relationship with money has changed over time. As I've been doing the things that I was supposed to be doing, as I've been saving, as I've been building, it's allowed me to take, uh, to, I don't say take my foot off the gas, but it's allowed me to not have to worry about small decisions financially in the same way that I had to worry about them early on. Cause early on, I did not, I don't want to say that I was a financial miser, but I recognized early on in my career, when I was very, very young, there just wasn't a ton of extra money. There wasn't a lot of margin. And so every single dollar mattered a ton.

• 16:56Speaker 03

  And I wanted to make sure that I was putting my money to work, that I had my emergency fund and that I was funding the Roth IRA, that I was doing these sorts of things. But I did give myself permission as life circumstances changed and as the family grew, I began to not be so concerned and so overwhelmed with making sure that like every single dollar was handled in the absolute most efficient, most optimal way possible. But I didn't start that way. I had to develop the muscle memory of making sound financial decisions, paying myself first, hitting a 25% savings rate. And then I was able to kinda. Take it a little bit easier later in life where I think people fall into traps.

• 17:38Speaker 03

  And Brian, I've seen you counsel so many people through this is they they never actually move along that path. The way that they were when they were 20, when they were super tight, when they counted every penny and and held on every receipt, they're doing the same exact thing at 35, 40, 45, 50. And I think that is where the financial financial miser ship miser ship shows up.

• 17:59Brian Preston?

  Jordan has given us a little little context in the fact that they're 23 years of age. I'm going to go ahead and just give you the cold water discussion on this is the fact that I think when you're 23 years of age, I don't want you to be complete miser, but I do want you to be tight. Because I think of when I look at my life, there were so many paths to success when you're 20s. I mean, you you kind of have to really stick your head in the sand and not create success. If you just can understand money concepts in your 20s, because every dollar truly just has that much potential. So I look back, like I remember when I first graduated college,

• 18:41Brian Preston?

  there was two years in a row I didn't get to go to because I had one of my dear, dear friends from college was dating a girl. Now, they've got four kids. It's turned into his wife. But his his girlfriend at the time was from the French Quarter. Parents lived right, you know, so Mardi Gras, two years in a row I didn't get to go because it coincided when I was studying for the CPA one year, the CFP, it was, it was, it was a period of time.

• 19:06Speaker 03

  Stuff going on.

• 19:06Brian Preston?

  But I I deferred it because just it was so important that I better myself so I could be on my career. I think there's decisions you can do with with money as well as if you have friends that are trying to convince you to go, you know, do something big in your 20s, when maybe you get just as much enjoyment from bedazzling your basic life and still creating memories, hanging out with friends, doing important stuff, but just don't feel like you have to be all bougie in your 20s and 30s like social media is trying to tell you is because that's not where success lies. But I do want to tell you is that just like that funnel is so big on what can create success in your 20s and 30s, as you get older and your army of dollars is now starting to catch traction.

• 19:51Brian Preston?

  It's different. It's just now you start to realize there is declining benefit in you being tight with your money. You're actually starting to work against yourself. And that's when I had that realization, probably in my late 30s, is that, man, oh, man, what am I doing? You don't have to be tight anymore. I've built up all the, all the discipline of those 20s and 30s is now being rewarded. Let's loosen up a little bit. And that's when I officially in my 40s, gave away my tightwad card because I don't feel like I live a tightwad life at all anymore. But I am very happy with myself for all those hard decisions I made in my 20s, where I was watching every dollar that came in and out. That's why we, I hate budgeting, but I think in your 20s, you've got a budget.

• 20:34Brian Preston?

  That's why you got to track it. I don't know if we're not allowed to say mobile app names anymore because we've taken ad money in the past, but it is one of those things because I

• 20:43Speaker 03

  If there's one that you really like that you think is great, go ahead and say it.

• 20:46Brian Preston?

  I think I use Monarch myself as just a track. I don't use it for budgeting, but but I do use it. But and by the way, we're not getting paid for this episode to say that for all the trolls that think, oh, my God, I only watch this show because they don't take ads, you know, but it is one of those things where you have to be deliberate when you're young, because there's so many paths to success. You don't want to screw up that opportunity. But once you start creating success, let your money do the work for you and start, you know, enjoying life because you only get one, you know, one life on this planet. I want you to kind of know what creates success, but also how to cherish success and own your time that much sooner and make as many memories as possible.

• 21:26Speaker 03

  Now, I just want to add one thing because you said, hey, I'm not a tightwad at all anymore. I want to make sure we draw a line. There's a difference in not being a tightwad and being a frivolous spender.

• 21:36Brian Preston?

  Oh, no, I'm still good with money.

• 21:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, there's still this idea that, hey, when I spend money, when I'm going to buy something, I'm going to purchase something, I'm still going to make sure I get good value and I'm not being wasteful. I'm not being frivolous. You cannot be a tightwad and still be a very good, solid, sound financial decision maker. Don't assume that those two are synonymous because they're not. It's just early on in your journey, you might have to be super, super, super tight. And then as you've done the hard work, you get to be less and less tight around still making really, really good financial decisions.

• 22:10Speaker 04

  That's great. Jordan Lee Musics, thanks for joining us. You do get a Tumblr, so you can cash in on that on [email protected]. But don't do that yet. Wait till the end of the show because we're going to be giving away that $1,000 as well to one of you who's asking a question today. All right. Next question is from Solj. It says, would you ever break 238 if you had the money to pay cash and are able to get 0% APR while getting 3% or more in a high-yield savings account?

• 22:43Speaker 04

  Brian got excited and then he didn't.

• 22:45Speaker 03

  I want to confess. Can I confess?

• 22:48Speaker 04

  I'm excited, yes.

• 22:51Speaker 03

  Not the last car, and maybe not the one before that, but maybe the one before that. My wife and I, we went and got this car. We financed it because they were offering 1.9% at the time. And we could have paid cash. We could have done that. But I was like, ah, you know what? I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do the 238 and I'm gonna, we, we actually did a little bit better. We put down more than 20 and financed it for three years. Point of the story, I hate car payments. I just don't like them. And so what ended up happening is we ended up just deciding to just pay it off early anyways. Was that the optimal financial decision? Likely not. If I have a 1.9% car loan and I've got 3%

• 23:33Speaker 03

  over here in a high yield, is there an arbitrage that I can take advantage of? Sure. Is it worth the mental calories and the headache of having the car payment? Or man, was it just a whole lot easier to pay cash and not have that car payment? I'm going to argue on that side. I'm going to say that. Now, that's different than someone saying, oh, if you had a billion-dollar loan at 0%, would you not take it? No, that's a different thing. But for a small automobile arbitrage, I just don't like having car payments. And I think that simplicity is valuable. That little delta there was not worth it for me on my last car.

• 24:11Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I was good. That's, you're kind of getting at what I was thinking is that I don't think the arbitrage opportunity here is big enough to break the rules. I do give and people wonder, why do you have the rule that pay in 12 months? I know, because I, once again, the no hypocrisy policy is that when I bought like my wife's car, the, the one that I complained about so much.

• 24:36Speaker 03

  Not, not the new one, the last one, right?

• 24:38Brian Preston?

  Realized dealerships now have become more banks than they are selling you the product because they make their money on financing. So it's not uncommon that if you, even if you have cash to pay, you should ask the question after you've done all the other negotiations, when you start talking to the finance person, what if, what if you finance this thing for, well, how long do you have to have it? Three months? How much more could you take off because of the incentives you get for the transaction? Because when I bought that car, I had to just keep the loan open for three months. And then I, I did, I sent the check right on in month, three and a half, four months, I just stroked the check, but I got an extra one or 2% off the total car. I think that's fine if you're looking for arbitrage type things, but I think

• 25:20Brian Preston?

  this is getting cute on, because the 238 is, its sole purpose is for you to get reliable transportation, think Corolla, not Land Cruiser, to your J O B. Because there's sometimes, there's points in your life where you're broke as a joke and you just want reliable transportation. If you're getting to the point where you're trying to now play games with it from an arbitrage standpoint, you've lost kind of the context of why we even gave you this rule. Cars depreciate. They suck. Nobody gets rich off of cars. I know somebody's gonna post some super exotic car.

• 25:54Speaker 03

  Marvel trades cars.

• 25:55Brian Preston?

  But he's already a millionaire and, you know, to buy those type of cars. I'm talking about the cars that the typical American is doing is a losing game, is a depreciating asset. We gave you a rule to be a lifeline to get you to your J O B. If you're sitting on piles of cash, pay cash. Because that is the way that you stay away from the depreciation. You also keep your ego in check because for some reason, cars, and I think it's because of what culture tells us in this consumption society, is that you need to look cool. There's a reason that the typical age for a Corvette buyer is like 63 years of age, but in all their ads, it's like beautiful 20 and 30 something year olds in the ads is because they're trying to put this perception on you that this is what you have to do to be

• 26:40Brian Preston?

  cool and be the best version of yourself. And the reality is, nobody cares. That dopamine hit will diminish so fast, you'll be left holding the bag with the car payment if you're not careful. So we're trying to protect you.

• 26:53Speaker 03

  Love that.

• 26:55Speaker 00

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• 27:21Speaker 01

  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.

• 27:47Speaker 04

  All right, Solj. Stick around because you get a Tumblr and you are now entered into our $1,000 giveaway.

• 27:54Brian Preston?

  We ought to, everybody who asks questions, we should ask their age as politely as possible so we can play games with the wealth multiplier.

• 28:00Speaker 03

  Um, do this. Why don't you?

• 28:03Speaker 04

  Just don't be a jerk about it.

• 28:04Speaker 03

  No, no, just so that we know.

• 28:05Brian Preston?

  Well, you know, some people get annoyed about it.

• 28:07Speaker 03

  Will you ask Solj as politely as you can about their age? Because me and Rebi want to know the blightest way to do that.

• 28:12Brian Preston?

  Well, I mean, if you feel comfortable sharing, because we love the wealth multiplier and just want to show. Because when we pull the names, we could then share. This had the potential and then add it up. And then for click clickable titles, we can say, we gave away asterisk this much money.

• 28:34Brian Preston?

  You see what I did there?

• 28:35Speaker 03

  Oh, that's awesome, dude. They'll never see it coming. That's awesome.

• 28:39Brian Preston?

  And then y'all can all go, hee hee hee hee. They gave away $3,000.

• 28:43Speaker 03

  Solj is 41, Brian. How, what's the wealth multiplier for 41?

• 28:46Speaker 04

  Do that fast math.

• 28:47Brian Preston?

  41, I must have asked politely enough. 6.62.

• 28:51Speaker 03

  Look at that. Could be $6,620. I don't, I didn't check that math.

• 28:57Brian Preston?

  Wow. Amazing we only have to carry the threes, the three zeros.

• 29:01Speaker 04

  Are you ready for the next question?

• 29:03Brian Preston?

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:03Speaker 04

  It's from Jordan Hamilton 8960.

• 29:06Brian Preston?

  We already had a Jordan.

• 29:07Speaker 04

  I know we had two Jordans.

• 29:08Speaker 03

  That's gonna be confusing.

• 29:10Brian Preston?

  Jordan, getting in that, who did?

• 29:11Speaker 04

  Their username's a pretty different.

• 29:13Brian Preston?

  Now, we also, employees are not eligible. We've told that in employee spouses.

• 29:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, I keep, I keep seeing a questions come in from not money guy Will. I don't know why that one seems awfully suspicious.

• 29:29Speaker 04

  All right.

• 29:29Brian Preston?

  Go with Jordan, Jordan number two's question.

• 29:31Speaker 04

  It says, at what net worth does optimization matter less than behavior? I know it happens at some point, but when? So, talk about optimization and the math of it all versus just good behaviors when building wealth.

• 29:44Brian Preston?

  Oh, I mean, this is, this is, we built a system for this.

• 29:47Speaker 03

  Well, I want to hear you answer this because I don't know that I fully understand the question.

• 29:51Brian Preston?

  Well, I mean, look, I, I think it's because I've had to update some things. I don't think we're ready to make big announcements yet, but you do get to a point.

• 30:01Speaker 03

  There's so many big things coming out this year. I don't even know which one that you want to.

• 30:04Brian Preston?

  Rebi does, I saw Rebi's eyes closed going, shh. You don't know, but Rebi knows. She's had cat herder. Step eight, I mean, I think is exactly when we talk about, you know, the, the, the title is prepaid future expenses, but the, you know, the, the good time rock and roll name is abundance goals. This is when you can kick it up a notch where it's not so much about optimizing because you've already put your army of dollar bills doing what they're supposed to be, going in the right categories. So now you can feel no regret if you buy a nicer car, if you let your lifestyle expand, if you start investing, you know, in, in residential real estate or commercial real estate and things like that, it happens after you've already set your financial base underneath you.

• 30:49Brian Preston?

  The problem we have is when people in the typical American expands their lifestyle because they feel like they're do it or owed it and they haven't even set up their financial foundation yet.

• 31:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, I agree with everything you said.

• 31:02Brian Preston?

  But?

• 31:03Speaker 03

  No, no, there's no but. I'm trying. At what net worth does optimization matter?

• 31:09Brian Preston?

  Well, it depends on your income, your age.

• 31:12Speaker 03

  I think that behavior always matters, likely more than optimization. And this is what I mean. Let's say that you have mathematically calculated that the portfolio that makes the most sense for you is a 90-10 portfolio or a 95-5 portfolio, very, very aggressive, far out on the risk spectrum. And that is the mathematically optimal portfolio for you. But behaviorally, every time the market goes down, you freak out, you lose sleep, you want to... I'm going to argue that rather than being mathematically optimal, whether you have $100,000 portfolio or $100 million portfolio, if behaviorally, you can't stick to the plan and you can't,

• 31:55Speaker 03

  you can't sleep at night and that plan does not match where you are behaviorally, then all the optimization in the world won't matter. Same sort of thing. You could have the most beautifully constructed portfolio. I mean, where you've got alpha figured out and beta figured out and expense ratios figured out and all this stuff. But behaviorally, if you're not living on less than you make and you're not saving for the future and you're not building, then behavior, there's no way that that optimization is going to outweigh the behavior. And then even when you get to like financial independence, again, you can have the very best portfolio in the world. You can have all the risk metrics figured out. You can have all the liquidity available. But if you can't spend inside the healthy, sustainable

• 32:40Speaker 03

  withdrawal rate for the size of the assets you've built up, I don't think you ever get to walk away from behavior. What ends up happening is the acceptable behaviors expand as your financial circumstance improves. But I don't know that there's ever a time that you can say, oh, well, behavior just, it doesn't matter anymore.

• 32:58Brian Preston?

  But we can, we can put some, some, some meat on these bones to a degree because we talk about those three stages of wealth. There's make wealth phase, there's maintain wealth, and then there's multiply wealth. When you are in the make wealth phase, you probably Should be focusing on optimization in a lot of ways.

• 33:12Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 33:13Brian Preston?

  But, and I think when you maintain wealth, now, look, we know most people cross into seven-figure status in their late 40s. And this also coincides with when we have, when should you prepay your mortgage debt? Even if it's, you know,

• 33:28Speaker 03

  Suboptimal.

• 33:29Brian Preston?

  A suboptimal to do so. It's typically 45 to 50 is when you can start, or you've already saving greater than 25% and you're in step eight, back to my full circle, back to my step eight. But that's when, because now you're thinking about the risk, the emotional, all those things. It's not to optimize. And then even when you get to, to make your point, multiply, meaning that you're no longer thinking about money as just the tool that it was for you in your 20s and 30s. When you give to charities and things like that, that's not for you. That's, that's more for you're stepping outside of money in that aspect because you want to pay it forward. Those things, I think main, if you, if you're in the make wealth phase, follow the numbers.

• 34:12Speaker 03

  Follow the numbers.

• 34:13Brian Preston?

  And that's kind of, you're, you're going to find it coincides very nicely with the steps one through seven of the financial order of operations. Once you're ahead of the curve and you can now think about de-risking, you can think about other things, then yes, I think that's probably in your 40s. You're going to, to be able to make decisions that don't have to be optimal, but are in what you've decided is best for your life and how you're using your time and your money.

• 34:39Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 34:39Speaker 03

  Love that.

• 34:40Speaker 04

  Good discussion you got there. I figured you would say there's not one net worth that all of a sudden you don't have to worry about it.

• 34:45Brian Preston?

  This is why we create these products. Like know your number. Are you ahead of the curve, behind the curve, or right where you're supposed to be? You, you've got to, to, to use these resources.

• 34:54Speaker 04

  Got to. All right. Next question is from Riverboat Rob 89.

• 35:01Speaker 03

  I just get, I get so torn up.

• 35:04Speaker 03

  Did you hear him open his drink earlier? He did it.

• 35:06Brian Preston?

  He didn't see that.

• 35:07Speaker 03

  He did it while you're reading the testimonials.

• 35:09Brian Preston?

  Look, we had a friend of the firm, you know, the client of the firm. As I'm walking in, you know, I said hello and I saw, I knew Caleb was getting all stressed out because he's standing there. I walked in, there was 17 seconds.

• 35:24Speaker 03

  17 seconds.

• 35:25Brian Preston?

  I didn't get to open my drink.

• 35:25Speaker 04

  That was a new record of lateness for Brian.

• 35:28Brian Preston?

  We're supposed to be here 10 minutes early.

• 35:30Speaker 04

  You are.

• 35:30Speaker 03

  And you made it 17 seconds early.

• 35:32Brian Preston?

  Okay, somebody was asking a question and I interrupted.

• 35:35Speaker 04

  RiverboatRob89 asks, should I take out a HELOC to purchase the lot next door to me? It has a garage and would add value to my property if I sell, but I've heard a lot of bad things regarding HELOCs.

• 35:50Speaker 03

  Okay, um, Riverboat, we do not, or Rob, we do not know, uh, your home, your lot, the unique circumstances around it, all that kind of stuff. So should you buy it? We're not gonna be able to weigh in and answer that question. I think the real crux of your question is, hey, are home equity lines of credit, HELOCs, are they appropriate tools and mechanisms to use for something? Like, so sometimes that thing might be buying the lot next door, or doing a home improvement, or doing a renovation. Uh, some people like to use HELOCs to go on vacation, to, uh, buy a new car, to go on a shopping spree. I think it'd be helpful, Brian, if we were just kinda gonna talk through, are HELOCs

• 36:35Speaker 03

  okay? Are they acceptable tools to use? And when do they make sense and when do they not make sense? And what should you use them for? What should you not use them for?

• 36:42Brian Preston?

  Well, look, we're in the time right now where this is gonna be even an easier decision for you to make because interest rates are still somewhat higher. Is, uh, you know, there has been a season where home equity lines, because they were like prime minus one, that's how crazy it got, where you could actually use these and the interest rate on them was like two and a half percent. And so people start going, well, I could use that to pay for my car. I could use that to, to use, to bolster my lifestyle. You know, there's a lot of bad decisions that went in when on home equity lines. And that's where I think a lot of your feeling towards these tools as inappropriately used has that history. What you're asking for is to buy the lot next to you and it has a garage.

• 37:26Brian Preston?

  This is probably the closest reason for why you would use, because it is tied to your home. It's, um, you know, but what I would look at this is, is this a short-term bridge? This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I need this, this, this, this land, additional land, and this garage would add tremendous value to my life. And if the answer to that is yes, then in your decision matrix, you can go to the next box and then ask yourself, okay, wow, this home equity line has a pretty high interest rate on it. Um, so I need to look at this as a temporary bridge, very short-term. Do you have the cash flow or the income or discipline to where you can pay this loan off in three to five years? If the answer is no, then man, you got a problem.

• 38:11Brian Preston?

  You got to figure out, hey, what, how can I get myself out of this in three to five years? Is that a lifestyle? Is I go find additional income? Or do I just need to say no? Go through that decision matrix to, for yourself. But if the answer is, yeah, oh yeah, I've got some bonuses coming in. I've got a, you know, I've got some really realistic things that are coming up that I could pay this off in three years and it could change my life because now I'll have more privacy. I'll have this extra storage, put more toys and tools and other things. And, you know, in the financial mutant version of things, then yeah, I think it could be a very effective tool as long as you go through that decision matrix.

• 38:48Speaker 03

  Yeah. It, it, even with that decision matrix, I'm going to say you ought to do some sort of like 3D glass sort of planning. Hey, if this goes really, really well, how's that play out? If it goes the way I expect it, how's it play out? And if this goes really, really bad, if this goes belly up.

• 39:03Brian Preston?

  When you say 3D, dream, down-to-earth, doo-doo.

• 39:07Speaker 03

  Yep. If it goes that way, uh, what, what does that practically mean for me? How will that play out? Because a lot of people, the reason they want to pay off their home so quickly, the reason why their mortgage has been gone is say, hey, if, if all goes to pot, at least I own my home, nobody can take that away from it. Whenever you take a home equity line of credit, you're now borrowing against your home. You're collateralizing that asset to go do this thing. Well, if you cannot pay that, if you cannot, if you cannot satisfy that note, well, now you have an issue where you could potentially lose your home. It's one of the reasons why we say, hey, don't, don't use home equity lines for like debt consolidation. You got a ton of credit card debt? Don't go use your home equity line consolidating because you have unsecured debt that you're now replacing with secured debt.

• 39:50Speaker 03

  You are now putting your house up on the line. So you need to recognize what you're actually doing when you take out that HELOC. You need to walk through, okay, am I comfortable with the risks? Is this going to be relatively short term in nature? And do I have a path to get through it on the other side? Far too often, I think people take out a HELOC and they treat it like a primary mortgage. I'm just going to have two mortgages forever for the next 30 years. I would argue if you're doing that, you're likely doing it wrong. If you're taking the HELOC out for the maximum period, the 10 year period, or whatever they're allowing you to do, I would caution you against doing that. I would rather see you save up, get ready for it, build for it, or use the HELOC buy and figure out, how do I get that note satisfied quickly? So that my house is not, does not continue to be at risk.

• 40:35Brian Preston?

  Well, and look, in these unique times where interest rates have run up, prices of homes have run up. A lot of people now are looking at their current home and saying, maybe I should improve it. So I don't have to go reset my loan. I don't have to go move across town. So I do think there are effective tools for that purpose. You just need to do the math exercise and treat it exactly. Bo went through the checklist very well, short term. I mean, this is because it's just too high to get yourself, because what you, you've, we've had some experience recently. Was it six or 7%? What was the, what was the home equity rates?

• 41:08Speaker 03

  Mine was a 6.8% or something like that.

• 41:11Brian Preston?

  So nobody wants to pay 6.8 for, for an extended. Now, look, I know some mortgages, but realize there's some different tax treatments and other things with home equity lines. But so go through that, that decision matrix we just laid out, and I think you'll be landing in a good place. Did Riverboat Rob tell us how old he was?

• 41:28Speaker 04

  I don't believe so.

• 41:29Speaker 03

  Riverboat Rob?

• 41:30Brian Preston?

  Hey, Riverboat Rob, look at the camera politely. Feel free to share your age so we can, just in case you win our $1,000 giveaway. We want to be able to figure out what the wealth multiplier is.

• 41:43Speaker 04

  I think he was coaching himself.

• 41:44Speaker 03

  Did you tell Riverboat Rob to look at the camera? Or were you telling yourself to look at the camera?

• 41:47Speaker 04

  Cause you said, "Look at the camera politely."

• 41:50Brian Preston?

  Technical, technical stuff. You know, I assume everybody's got cameras. Look at, look at the laptop camera. Because we can see everybody out there. We can see all of you.

• 41:59Speaker 03

  Ruby, I'm so, we gotta answer questions faster.

• 42:01Speaker 04

  You kinda do. I'm glad you said it, cause I was thinking about telling you to like, just speed up a little. Just a little bit.

• 42:06Brian Preston?

  No, last show we did, people were like, "I like the, the slow and low and do great jobs."

• 42:12Speaker 03

  We're giving away money on this one. That's what we want. More people want their chance, right?

• 42:16Speaker 04

  You don't have to go.

• 42:17Brian Preston?

  I guarantee you, the two Jordans are like, "Man, right now."

• 42:20Speaker 03

  Go as slow as you.

• 42:21Brian Preston?

  There's been, what, four questions? We've got a 50% chance we're gonna win money. No, actually, well, it's less than that. It's better than that. They're like, three out of four chance we're gonna win money right now.

• 42:31Speaker 04

  We're gonna try to get two, three more in, depending on how fast you can go.

• 42:34Brian Preston?

  If your name's George, you're feeling pretty good right now.

• 42:36Speaker 04

  Then we're gonna do our From the Wings segment. And then after the segment, we will announce the three $1,000 winners.

• 42:44Speaker 03

  I'm gonna work to, I'm gonna answer a little bit quicker. Cause I, I wanna maximize the opportunity for people out there to win. I'm gonna try to answer quickly. Not, not rapid fire quickly, but quickly.

• 42:52Speaker 04

  Yes, but maybe two, three, maybe four minute answer. Three minute answer would be really good, actually, I think.

• 42:56Speaker 03

  I'm gonna take up all that extra time.

• 42:57Speaker 04

  Try it. Okay. Next question's from God's Girl 951. It says, "Hi, how do you balance between saving for your kid's future and hitting early retirement goals? We are on track to retire at 55, but should we be putting more in a brokerage now or 529 for our kid's future?"

• 43:17Speaker 03

  This is a goal priority question. The fact that it's financial independence, retire early, the FIRE goal that you have, you have to figure out what is more important for us? Being able to retire early, exit the workforce, have a different timeline, or being able to pay for our kid's college? And the answer to that will dictate where your dollars roll. For most folks, it makes sense to prioritize financial independence over college because there's gonna be a plethora of options for your children to be able to pay for college that will not be available to you when it's time to come and pay for financial independence.

• 43:51Brian Preston?

  God's Girl. It's built into the plan already. You know, Financial Order of Operations, step seven, hyper accumulation. This is actually where you're going to get into. All the other steps were to protect you or to give you some type of tax benefit. When you get to step seven, this is the first step that's going to say, hey, how do you need to change how you structure your accounts? Or are you going to need access to your accounts early because you're retiring early? You'll very quickly realize, okay, we're going to need to have a higher savings rate. We're going to need to structure with these accounts. And that's what you'll decide. And then, once you decide, figure that part out, you'll move to step eight, which ding ding ding, you can fund kids 529s at that point. So you see how you have to protect yourself first, do the planning.

• 44:34Brian Preston?

  And then, of course, once you've, you know, measured twice, got all that stuff figured out, go load up the 529s. They're great savings tools for education. They're trade schools, future Roth IRAs, lots of opportunities now with 529s. They're not to be slept on as long as you've funded your own retirement first. Two minutes.

• 44:56Speaker 04

  Beautiful. God's Girl.

• 44:59Brian Preston?

  How old is she?

• 45:00Speaker 04

  She is, wait, I think we do have that. 28.

• 45:04Brian Preston?

  28. 28. Am I on the right side?

• 45:06Speaker 03

  Brian, what's the multiplier for a 28-year-old?

• 45:09Brian Preston?

  29.7 for God's Girl. Well done.

• 45:14Speaker 04

  That's great. All right. God's Girl 951. Stick around because we will be doing our drawing at the end of the show.

• 45:20Brian Preston?

  Do you have to be present to win?

• 45:24Speaker 04

  Ideally. Honestly, yes, because then you won't know to cash in your prize or how to do it. All right. Music and Coffee 1923 is up next. Is it possible to retire early without three buckets? I am maxing out my Roth, HSA, and on my way to maxing out my 401K. I'm 31, 240K household income, but haven't begun contributing to my taxable brokerage. What do you think?

• 45:56Speaker 03

  So for most people, when they retire, you have to wait until 59 and a half to be able to access Retirement accounts unless you are still employed in the year that you turn 55 and you can access your 401ks in the year that you turn 55 without having to pay a 10% penalty. But you say, hey, I don't have three buckets early, only have two. I've got my tax free bucket, my Roth, and I've got a pre-tax bucket. Is it possible to retire early? And the answer is, yes, it is possible to retire early, but you have to plan for it and you have to kind of think through, how am I going to access these dollars? We did a great show, bro. I say great. I hope you guys thought it was great. Titled, it was like three ways to retire early or five ways to retire

• 46:38Speaker 03

  early that you may not know about. And we walked through some of those strategies that might be available to you, like Roth conversion ladders, like 72t distributions, or like building up and creating a taxable account to pay for that. So you have to figure out for your unique and specific plan, what's that going to look like? And how should I build my three buckets? And is it necessary based on my timeline to build my three buckets to get there?

• 47:01Brian Preston?

  Well, the truth is Bo just covered it. You don't need the three buckets, but let me just tell you, let me go ahead and ruin it for you and tell you how the life plays out. You hit your peak earning years in those 40s and 50s. And you're going to find, I think that, you know, because if you're probably planning on leaving in your early or early 50s, you're going to hit some of those peak earning years, you'll get to step seven of the financial order of operations. And then you're going to say, you know what, this must be what the guys are talking about is I'll start stacking some money in this taxable brokerage account to be the bridge because all these people, it cracks me up when people talk about using their Roth money as their bridge money. This thing, your Gollum, where you're like, it's my precious, nobody wants to get rid of their Roth dollars. I mean, tax free growth. Are you kidding me?

• 47:45Speaker 03

  So good.

• 47:46Brian Preston?

  I mean, I still in Millionaire Mission, I missed out on $10,000 from my Roth IRA because I was just when I started the company and early in the part, I just didn't get all those contributions in. And I still regret that $10,000 and I just, I think that people thinking they're going to start blowing through Roth money just because that's an easy account to touch. Yes, you can technically do it. But I've just found in my practice, most people, they tend to find that they have money in other places.

• 48:15Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 48:15Brian Preston?

  They can cover it. So, you know, there's one thing, I think people like to get creative, especially you're 31 years of age right now. So you're looking at your buckets, you go, I could use this. Yes, you could use this. But when you get to be in your 50s, you're like, man, I really like that Roth bucket. It's nice that my income's high enough that I was able to set up this taxable brokerage account and that can be my bridge account.

• 48:38Speaker 03

  Love it.

• 48:39Brian Preston?

  That's my prediction. By the way, 31 years of age, 20.39 is the wealth multiplier.

• 48:44Speaker 04

  Crazy.

• 48:44Brian Preston?

  For music and coffee.

• 48:46Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 48:47Brian Preston?

  Two things I love.

• 48:47Speaker 04

  Stick around to the end for the drawing.

• 48:52Speaker 04

  Noah Turvalon 1946 is up next. It says, how do you decide if a house renovation, like redoing your kitchen, is worth it? Especially for younger people, since we have a higher wealth multiplier. I'm 24.

• 49:06Brian Preston?

  Oh, man. I was about to, man, see Noah's just screwed this whole thing up because I was going to say, what does your wife say? Because as y'all know, I've made horrible decisions because it made my wife happy. But Noah, you're 24. Holy cow. If you're already making, if you own a house at 24 and we're trying to make these decisions, you got me in a pickle now. Because that wealth multiplier for a 24-year-old, by the way, not to ruin it, is 50.42.

• 49:32Speaker 04

  It's a lot.

• 49:33Brian Preston?

  Can we just paint those cabinets?

• 49:35Speaker 03

  Well, and that's, that's kind of in like a weird roundabout way. Where I was going, that how do we decide if it's worth it? Well, you have to define the value. Like what, how am I quantifying value? Are you saying if we renovate our kitchen, is the amount that the value of our home going to increase more than what we pay? So there's going to be an ROI on those dollars? That's one way to measure and quantify value. Another way to measure and quantify value is, man, we really love having people in our home. We want to be able to host people. We want to be able to cook dinners. We want to be able to prepare. We want to have our kids. We want to do all of these things and that may be of highest importance of most value to you. And that may be worth the dollars that you spend.

• 50:19Speaker 03

  Every time you make a financial decision, you're making an opportunity cost, a scarcity decision. If I do this thing, then it's going to cost me this thing. Or if I don't do this thing, I'm going to be able to fund this thing. I think a home renovation is the same. So you have to figure out, okay, why do we want to do this? What's the purpose behind it? And where does it fall in priority amongst our other goals? If we're 24 years old and financial independence is very, very important for us and something we want to work towards. We want to be able to retire early and we, instead of saving, instead of building, we walk away from the wealth multiplier. To do this kitchen renovation, will we be okay if that means we have to work longer? Maybe that means that we can't go on trips like we wanted to, or maybe we can't fill in the blank.

• 51:01Speaker 03

  You have to define what it is that you value. And only once you've done that, can you determine, is the cost actually worth it?

• 51:10Brian Preston?

  Also, I want to give the experience share. When I was, I got in my first house when I was 24 as well. And I remember we had an issue with the kitchen. And I, I, we, my wife and I went and rented a wet saw from Home Depot. And we did back, we did our own backsplash.

• 51:29Speaker 03

  That sounds so miserable.

• 51:31Brian Preston?

  No, we got good at it. I did my kitchen backsplash. It turned out so good because it's all geometrically, it's so, it's so much easier than I thought it was going to be.

• 51:41Speaker 03

  My wife would like some in the pantry. Would you want to come do our backsplash?

• 51:44Brian Preston?

  I mean, I'm aged out of this now, but then I ended up doing it at my parents' house. I did it at my in-law's house. I mean, because renting a wet saw was just not that expensive. And then when you see how affordable tile is, I was able, and by the way, for the, the years that we lived in that house, I felt so much pride that I had done this project myself. So I tell you this, Noah, not because I'm trying to be the Scrooge that says, no, keep and hoard this money. I'm just, at 24 years of age, I'll repeat it again, your wealth multiplier, every dollar you spend is worth $50. So it's one of those things where there's a lot of power. Power in that time and the compounding growth. I'm just asking you at this early stage where you also had the biggest threshold

• 52:27Brian Preston?

  of what you can put up with and be happy with. That maybe you can look at your kitchen and first ask yourself, is this something I can improve by painting the cabinets? By putting up a new backsplash, changing the countertops in some way that that one you probably go need a contractor for, but, but you get what I'm going at is that is there some way you can spruce this thing up? And not get yourself out of whack from building your army of dollars for the future? Because it's just so much easier. Look, I share that experience share of when I did things on the ultra cheap. And then last year we updated our Tennessee home. And it was, you know, and it was nice that we didn't.

• 53:08Speaker 03

  You didn't have to go rip this off.

• 53:10Brian Preston?

  Wife go hog wild with, with what she wanted to do on it. And it was fine, but the time was right. The wealth multiplier wasn't going to get done wrong as a percentage of my total net worth. It wasn't even moving the needle. Whereas in my twenties.

• 53:24Speaker 03

  It'd have moved the needle.

• 53:25Brian Preston?

  It would have moved the needle. I mean, you go spend $50,000 or even $25,000 on a kitchen renovation. That has a huge impact when you think about it, multiply it by 50. And then you ask yourself, you know.

• 53:37Speaker 03

  Is that kitchen really worth that?

• 53:38Brian Preston?

  Think about this.

• 53:41Brian Preston?

  And I don't like being the cold water, but I'm just telling you the logic. When I look back on my life, what created the success? And it's decisions like that that can move the, move the needle towards success.

• 53:52Speaker 03

  Love it.

• 53:53Speaker 04

  All right. Fantastic. If your question was featured on this live stream, stay tuned till the end. We'll announce our $3,000 giveaway winners after our From the Wings segment. So the team is going to be.

• 54:06Brian Preston?

  Qualify too? Oh no, From the Wings is not, that's from you guys. Y'all don't qualify because you're employees. So nevermind. Keep going. Carry on. Sorry, Reeves.

• 54:14Speaker 04

  So specific.

• 54:16Speaker 04

  All right.

• 54:17Brian Preston?

  I was thinking rapid thoughts.

• 54:17Speaker 04

  From the wings is our segment where yes, the content team pulls some headlines that they want your reaction to. So you have your thumbs up, thumbs down paddles in your drawer there at your desk. I'm going to read the headline and you're going to tell me thumbs up. Yep, this is news. We should pay attention or thumbs down. This is noise. This is not going to really impact us. And then you can explain why. So the first question is, or not question. See, I'm so into questions. The first statement or headline is 75% of US homes are now unaffordable. As Dave Ramsey calls this, "The most unrealistic real estate market in 100 years." That's from Yahoo Finance.

• 55:01Speaker 04

  Ooh, we got two thumbs up. This is news. Why do you think this is news?

• 55:06Brian Preston?

  I mean, we had a show and we really tried to give you the honest truth. We didn't try to, you know, be talking heads and make you feel bad about where you are and how the system's cracked against you. We just tried to share the numbers and be like, yeah, housing is one of those places. When we talk about that the past had it easier, you have a very solid point. So you need to act accordingly and I hate it, but it's probably in a lot of markets. That's why rent until you get to a little more success in your future. And it's coming. You'll be able to do it. And also there will be adjustments there. Times in my life where I see things, I'm like, man, I would love to do that, but it's just not affordable. And then it's amazing that we go through a recession or something

• 55:50Brian Preston?

  and all of a sudden the affordability of that item becomes much more attainable. Or maybe my success rose to where it crested to the point that I could afford it. Don't force it because these, you know, realize the people you're renting homes from probably bought the houses significantly cheaper. They have much lower interest rates. They can build that into the rent. Versus you go buy it, you carry the cost of it all.

• 56:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, the reason I think that it's it's newsworthy is that we love homeownership. We love people being able to cross over that that spectrum. But it is worth noting that it's super unique right now. Prices of homes are High interest rates are somewhat unfavorable affordability relative to median income is not in a great spot. So if you're going to make the decision for homeownership, you need to make sure that you understand you're making it in a very unique market that is very different than it was 20, 30, 50, 100 years ago. Not that that means you shouldn't

• 56:46Brian Preston?

  Different than it was seven years ago.

• 56:47Speaker 03

  Not that that means you shouldn't make the decision. It just means that you ought to recognize it's unique. And there are some trade offs associated with that. It's worth paying attention to. If you want to know more about how to buy a home, what to do, we have a great resource. Go to moneyguy.com/resources. We have a home buying checklist. We have a home buying calculator. Tons of tools so that you can make sure if you're going to make this decision, you make it the best way possible.

• 57:12Speaker 04

  Love that. Next headline from CNBC, gold, silver, and bitcoin fall as traders up fed rates hike bets.

• 57:23Speaker 04

  We have two thumbs down. Why is this noise?

• 57:25Brian Preston?

  Well, I mean, I don't mind if you do any of these. If you could do gold, silver, bitcoin, but you're probably going to keep them at a portion of your total net worth of less than 5%. So at most, this is a hobbyist type thing that you're going to do. So I wouldn't, I don't want people to get emotional or stressed out by it. It's not, you know, there's nothing wrong with, with dealing with these asset classes, but it's just that it shouldn't move the needle for your long-term success.

• 57:51Speaker 03

  You know, two of these are for sure commodities. The third is, there's an argument about what, you know, what category or classification it actually falls into. But most often when we see spikes in these or movement in these, they tend to be emotionally charged, whether that emotion be excitement because of something going on or fear because of something else going on. And I try really, I try to like not let emotions drive my investment philosophy and the way that I'm making investment decisions. So when I see a headline that's like really trying to trigger an emotional response, in my mind, that's noise.

• 58:26Speaker 04

  Think twice. Yep. I like it.

• 58:27Brian Preston?

  What I find interesting, every one of those, if you watch the daily volatility of those three asset classes, they're big. So it is, I do think it is some headline harvesting from the journalists sometimes when I see them grab that is because like you could go any day on the cryptos or even the, the, you know, gold and silver, the bullion, you can see lots of volatility.

• 58:51Speaker 04

  Next headline from Forbes, SpaceX shares soar again in pre- SpaceX shares soar again in pre-market, nears 2.75 trillion market cap.

• 59:04Brian Preston?

  I mean, it's one of those things where, look.

• 59:07Speaker 04

  Oh, we got a disagreement.

• 59:09Brian Preston?

  No, but mine's not.

• 59:10Speaker 04

  Brian says thumbs up, Bo says thumbs down.

• 59:12Brian Preston?

  I can't help, just because it's part of the zeitgeist, I'll say the word, that we've covered it. And now, every day, I'm like, is it, can you believe it? Like, it just, today, it overtook Microsoft on its market cap. That's just wild to me. So I think it's just, it doesn't mean that you take action off of it, but I think it's interesting to just see the headline and just know what's going on.

• 59:34Speaker 03

  News to me suggests that a piece of information is actionable and informs the way I make my decisions.

• 59:39Brian Preston?

  Yeah, that's true. You're not gonna do anything with it.

• 59:41Speaker 03

  You know, cat videos, wildly entertaining, not news. You know what I mean? And so even what's going on with SpaceX right now, especially in the short term, what it's doing today, tomorrow, this week, next month, the next six months, I don't think from a stock price trading standpoint, is newsworthy. Now, the company, you can make arguments about that sort of thing, whatever, but short-term stock, short-term stock movements, I think is more noise. And again, it elicits an emotional response. Either, oh my gosh, I'll never buy it, it's so overvalued, or, oh my gosh, why didn't I get in on that earlier? It's going to the moon.

• 1:00:14Brian Preston?

  And, you know, I'm probably, there's some bias. Look, we all have our own things that shape us. I drove down to Georgia this weekend, and my mother-in-law, 86 years old, asked me if I got her into some SpaceX.

• 1:00:28Speaker 03

  Well, did you?

• 1:00:29Brian Preston?

  No, I mean, she's 86 years old. But then, okay, my mom, she did get in on this SpaceX. So, and we met at the restaurant, and I just told my mother-in-law, somehow it was in the same day that she asked about this. And then, the first thing my mom says is, wow, that SpaceX is doing pretty good. And I'm like, I did not ask, because I'm not allowed. You know, owning a financial firm, we felt like the, out of abundance of caution, I was not involved in any of that. But my mom, that's why, I know it was part of the zeitgeist, is that she got in. And it's one, so that's why, so maybe it is me reflecting, I have to keep up with this stuff because I'm gonna get asked by friends and relatives, what's going on with SpaceX.

• 1:01:14Brian Preston?

  Doesn't mean you should be taking action.

• 1:01:17Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 1:01:18Speaker 04

  All right. Last but not least, with great anticipation,

• 1:01:24Speaker 04

  the headline says albino buffalo named Trump goes wildly viral for its fetching blonde comb over. And in case you need a visual.

• 1:01:34Speaker 03

  I need a picture.

• 1:01:35Brian Preston?

  Yeah, please. Oh, wow. Whoa. Okay, look, I'm gonna give that green just because that is something. Can you imagine you take that to work? You can, you can, there's 10 to 15 minutes of productivity just completely zapped out of the day.

• 1:01:50Speaker 04

  That's exactly what happened to the content team last week.

• 1:01:54Brian Preston?

  That's AI. Is that AI?

• 1:01:56Speaker 03

  That's not real.

• 1:01:57Speaker 04

  I don't think it is.

• 1:01:58Brian Preston?

  Cows can grow hair like that? That's AI.

• 1:02:00Speaker 04

  Maybe it is AI.

• 1:02:01Brian Preston?

  That's AI. That's AI.

• 1:02:02Speaker 03

  Honestly, I read the headline and I was like, no way this picture could look like it. And sure enough, the picture.

• 1:02:07Brian Preston?

  Hey, make that bigger.

• 1:02:08Speaker 04

  It's perfectly clothed hair.

• 1:02:09Brian Preston?

  Y'all made it big at first and then it's now small. Teeny tiny thumbnail there.

• 1:02:15Brian Preston?

  That's AI, isn't it?

• 1:02:18Brian Preston?

  Somebody was styled at the minimum.

• 1:02:19Speaker 03

  Honestly, it's got, the cows got great hair.

• 1:02:22Speaker 04

  I think. Somebody went in there with some hair product.

• 1:02:25Brian Preston?

  President Trump will be jealous of that hair.

• 1:02:26Speaker 03

  That's something.

• 1:02:28Brian Preston?

  Look, I, I, my hair kind of resembles that a little bit, just the wrong color. I don't orange my hair up. And I kind of respect that. There's definitely some product in that.

• 1:02:38Speaker 03

  That's wild.

• 1:02:39Brian Preston?

  So we gave it thumbs up just because of the entertainment.

• 1:02:42Speaker 04

  It was very entertaining. We were entertained by it. We hope that you were entertained by it. And that has been our From the Wings segment. It is now time for the greatly anticipated winner drawing. If we featured your question on the show.

• 1:02:55Brian Preston?

  By the way, is that, am I doing this right? Is it 50% odds that you're going to win money if you had a question answered? Cause we had six questions?

• 1:03:03Speaker 04

  I think it's quite 50%.

• 1:03:03Speaker 03

  I think we had seven.

• 1:03:04Brian Preston?

  We have seven? Okay. I just didn't write somebody down.

• 1:03:06Speaker 03

  So no, 50% is not right.

• 1:03:08Speaker 04

  That is not correct.

• 1:03:08Brian Preston?

  Wow. I only wrote down six. I got Jordan, Saul, Jordan.

• 1:03:13Speaker 04

  I do want to mention, if you are one of the seven who are featured on the show, you are welcome to cash in on your Money Guy Tumblr. Just email [email protected]. But only these next three usernames I'm about to read will be our $1,000 winners. Are you ready?

• 1:03:30Speaker 03

  Do you have, can you tell us their ages when you read them also?

• 1:03:36Speaker 04

  No.

• 1:03:36Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:03:37Speaker 04

  I'm like, whoa, where I have to go find that? Maybe the team can get me that, but more on that after we read the names. The names of the winners are Music and Coffee 1923.

• 1:03:49Speaker 03

  That's a 31 year old.

• 1:03:51Speaker 04

  Noah Turvalon 1946 and God's Girl 951. Congratulations to you three. Thank you to everyone who asked a question and showed up and just had fun for us. It seemed like you guys really liked this livestream and we enjoyed it too. Congrats to our winners. Just email [email protected] for instructions on how to claim your prize. Be sure to include who you are. So we're very excited.

• 1:04:17Brian Preston?

  Not to nerd out.

• 1:04:18Speaker 03

  How old was Noah? I didn't have Noah's age.

• 1:04:20Brian Preston?

  Noah was 24. That was the 24 year old.

• 1:04:23Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:04:23Brian Preston?

  So that was 50.42. God's Girl didn't have an age for it.

• 1:04:28Speaker 03

  I got that 28.

• 1:04:31Brian Preston?

  So that's 29.7. So God, I can't even read my own handwriting. How, how bad am I?

• 1:04:38Speaker 04

  The team did this math. We were about to tell it to you.

• 1:04:41Brian Preston?

  Oh, okay. Nevermind, I'm doing public math for no reason.

• 1:04:45Speaker 04

  I was like, what are we doing?

• 1:04:48Brian Preston?

  And?

• 1:04:50Speaker 04

  Oh, I'm gonna tell it? Great, $100,000.

• 1:04:54Speaker 03

  $100,000. That's, how much can we give away in one livestream?

• 1:04:59Brian Preston?

  We're giving away the potential to become $100,000. That's a great headline.

• 1:05:05Speaker 03

  That is a great headline.

• 1:05:06Speaker 04

  The potential to become, that's really, really exciting.

• 1:05:10Brian Preston?

  Guys, thank you so much. We believe there's a better way to do money and we really appreciate you guys for all the support and we love that we can pay it forward. I'm your host, Brian, joined by Mr. Bo, Money Guy team, out.

• 1:05:23Speaker 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.

• 1:06:00Speaker 05

  What's the secret to being a great host this season? Keeping things deliciously simple. Like mixing Simply Cranberry into a festive drink as guests arrive. Or serving up a warm mug of Simply Apple on a chilly night. That means less time behind the scenes and more time in the moment with everyone. Crafted with real fruit, Simply juices and fruit drinks make any holiday drink effortless, inviting, and completely delicious. Simply. Say yes to simple.

• 1:06:29Speaker 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. Feel the play in the McDonald's app. Get your bag.

• 1:06:47Speaker 07

  No purchase necessary. 50 U.S. and D.C. Age 18+. See PlayatMcD.com for rules and PlayatMcD.com/amoe for info and playing without purchase by mail by November 2. Chance card game ends November 8. Game ends November 22, 2026. See rules for prize details. Monopoly is a registered trademark of Hasbro.