The 5 Secrets We’ve Learned in 50 Years of Financial Planning

After nearly 50 years of combined experience managing people's finances through market highs, lows, triumphs, and tragedies, we are pulling back the curtain on the five most powerful secrets we've discovered about building wealth. These aren't complicated investment strategies or get-rich-quick schemes. These are fundamental truths that separate those who build lasting wealth from those who remain stuck, regardless of income level. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠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. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DRINKAG1.com/MONEYGUY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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

• 0:30Speaker 01

  Visible puts the ultimate wireless hack in the palm of your hand. With unlimited 5G wireless data and hotspot designed to keep you connected. Powered by Verizon's 5G network. And no contract holding you back. Plans start at $25 a month or get the premium Visible Plus Pro plan and save $10 on your first month when you use promo code HACK. Make the switch at visible.com. Terms apply. See visible.com for details.

• 1:00Brian Preston?

  We've been managing people's money for a long time and we like to think we've learned a thing or two.

• 1:06Speaker 03

  Brent, I am so excited because over the years, we've had the opportunity to get to look under the hood at people's finances, to dig deep on the habits and behaviors that have helped them accumulate significant wealth. And now we get to share those secrets with you, our audience.

• 1:23Brian Preston?

  That's right. Today, we're going to reveal the five secrets that we believe could make all the difference on your wealth building journey. With that, let's dive right in.

• 1:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, Brent, if you think about just the numbers, between you and I, we have been managing people's finances for collectively over 50 years now.

• 1:48Brian Preston?

  No, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let's get this right. Close to 50 years. Are you trying not to?

• 1:52Speaker 03

  No, no, no, no.

• 1:53Brian Preston?

  I'm not trying to add more years.

• 1:55Speaker 03

  Over, over 50 years.

• 1:56Brian Preston?

  It is definitely close. Don't do the bow thing where you blow this thing up.

• 2:00Speaker 03

  Well, here's what we've done. We've helped people navigate all time highs, all time lows. We've helped people deal with triumphs and with tragedies. And through that, there are some key lessons that we've learned. We thought, okay, why don't we try to distill these lessons down into some tangible soundbites that might be valuable for you, our financial mutants. And this is the first one is one that you have heard a lot. If you've listened to us for any amount of time at all, but it's maybe one of the biggest secrets that when you figure this out, it unlocks opportunity for you. And it is this, that money is just a tool.

• 2:39Brian Preston?

  Now, when I see this saying, I think a lot of people, because there's a lot of people, if you don't have money and you start to realize your discipline, they think, guys, it's more than that. If I can get a million dollars or I can get $2 million, that's actually what's going to do it for me. But I'm here to tell you, we think that you need to put a little why, a little oomph on understanding how this magical tool of money works and can help you.

• 3:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, too many people, they just want to accumulate wealth for the sake of accumulating wealth, not recognizing that when you accumulate wealth, that when you build up these tools in your toolbox, it provides opportunity and it gives you a lot of benefits that you might not have otherwise. It's really about stacking tools to focus on, just like you said, Brian, the why, the things that truly matter, whatever that may mean to you. For some people, it may mean nicer homes and nicer cars. But for other, it may be freedom of time and flexibility. You have to decide what it is that you want money to do for you. And then you need to use money to do that thing and not get distracted.

• 3:48Brian Preston?

  Well, I think if you don't understand the why, it actually can lead to you becoming a financial miser, where you just get addicted to stacking money up in the background. And without, that's just not going to make you a happy person. It's not going to make you a- Happy person to be around either. And that's why with goal of why of accumulating, when I, when I find out people are part of the fire movement or any of these things where they really are accumulating large sums of money very quickly, I'm always going to try to get you to focus on, well, what if you had an abundance level of money, meaning more than you ever do? What are you going to do more of? Because maybe instead of financial independence, retire early more, you, maybe you're thinking about financial independence, next endeavor so that you really are spending a lot of time on the why and what actually brings you joy with this tool of money.

• 4:33Speaker 03

  So at the end of the day, it is just a tool and it's a tool that if wielded responsibly can do some pretty amazing things. When you build wealth, when you accumulate money, it can provide security. It can give you that foundation that perhaps you did not have earlier on in life, or maybe it can provide you with freedom. Now you get to make decisions because you want to make decisions, not because you have to make decisions. You get to do what you want to do, the way you want to do it on your terms, or maybe money is just that thing that provides you with opportunity. It allows you to do things that you've always dreamed of, that you were not able to do previously.

• 5:12Speaker 03

  But it only does that if you steward it well. If you recognize that it's a tool to be wielded for use, it's not a goal in and of itself.

• 5:21Brian Preston?

  Well, it's a powerful tool. If you manage it and do it well, and you actually implement and start using it early enough. And that's why we always talk about this concept of wealth multiplier. Is because we talk about the three ingredients to wealth building and definitely time is one of those most valuable resources. But here's the thing, you think about somebody, we always talk about like debt can be chainsaw dangers. You think about all these financial concepts that these are complex.

• 5:49Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 5:50Brian Preston?

  And I think about it, all the things that we in our lives that are complex. Nobody is actually getting into these things unless they had some type of instruction manual or guide to tell you how to do it well. Otherwise, I mean, can you imagine if you get into, uh, you know, I've, I've often thought like semi trucks or cranes you see on construction sites, these are things that you like. It's magical what these things can do, but I don't think I could get in there without somebody telling me how to do it and even crank this thing up. That's exactly what we've tried to create with the Financial Order of Operations is you don't have to go on the all by yourself. If you're 22 years old and you you don't come from money and you don't know how money works, we got you covered with the financial resources.

• 6:32Brian Preston?

  If you're 40 years old and you just finally caught on, we got you covered. This is an all terrain vehicle that's going to help you no matter where you are in your financial journey.

• 6:41Speaker 03

  So if money is a tool, then we want to give you the instruction manual so that you can use that tool as efficiently and effectively as possible. If you want your free copy, you can go to moneyguide.com/resources. Or if you just want to do a deep dive on what the Financial Order of Operations is all about, you can go to learn.moneyguide.com. And that brings us to our second. So, once we recognize that it's a tool and once we recognize it's a tool that can be used efficiently and effectively, there's another reality we have to recognize, and that's secret number two, Brian, that money in and of itself does not buy happiness.

• 7:16Brian Preston?

  Now, I know there's going to be a lot of trolls that crawl out from under the bridge and say, yeah, but it could buy me a boat. Cause I've heard there's a song out there that says that. And I'm going to give you some thoughts on that in a minute, but I think that first, before we give you that additional context, we ought to give you some some stats that we know so that we're not just throwing out headlines and you go, how is this connected to this reality that money doesn't buy happiness? Well, check this out. 71% of Americans say that having more money would solve most of their problems. That's the perceptions, but Bo, what's the reality?

• 7:48Speaker 03

  Well, we're not even just talking about it would solve a little of their problems. Look at this. 26% of Americans say that they would need $150,000 of annual income to feel comfortable. It's not like, oh, I just need a little bit more money to solve more of my problems. No, no. Most people think that they need a lot more money. 63% of folks said that they would need an income greater than $150,000 in order for them to either feel rich or even attain.

• 8:20Speaker 03

  Financial freedom. So there's this perception that, okay, yeah, money doesn't buy happiness. But man, if I made more money, if I had more income, boy, would it solve my problems? And boy, would I be a lot happier. But Brian, we know in reality, that's not the case.

• 8:36Brian Preston?

  Well, yeah, I mean, that's what's funny is this is the perception. Once again, look, I've been there, done that. When I graduated college, I was making under $30,000 a year with my first job. And if somebody had told me, hey, what do you think you need? I would have said 100,000, 150,000. You just choose the number that people, it's more than what you currently have. But here's the reality, when you actually go open up the curtain and see what people who've now reached that mountaintop of $150,000 of income and more, it's not as golden as you think it is. Because 20% of households with over $150,000 of income are living paycheck to paycheck.

• 9:13Speaker 03

  So clearly it didn't solve the cash flow problem, more money, and they're still trying to make ends meet from one pay cycle to the next.

• 9:19Brian Preston?

  29% of those earning over $150,000 can't come up with $1,000 and 6% have nothing saved at all.

• 9:28Speaker 03

  So more income did not solve the problem of discipline. It didn't create an environment where these high income earners are living on less than they make and stacking up money for the future. They're in no different of a position they were before they made $150,000.

• 9:41Brian Preston?

  And then for all of you who are making like, you're just starting out, this next stat's gonna blow your mind too. Is that a quarter of people making $175,000 or more, so we went even higher, say they feel very poor, poor, or things are really tight.

• 9:56Speaker 03

  So it seems that just earning a high income doesn't necessarily change your life circumstances. So the question becomes why? Why is this true? Well, the reality is, is money does not change who you are. Rather, it amplifies it. There's a great quote from Henry Ford that says, "Money doesn't change men, it merely unmasks them." If a man is naturally selfish, or arrogant, or greedy, all the money does is bring that out. And we see this all the time with financial mutants. Those folks that are able to be good stewards, that are able to be disciplined, that are able to create margin at lower income levels are often able to continue to do that same thing at higher income levels.

• 10:40Speaker 03

  But those folks who are unable to have discipline, unable to create margin, unable to live on less than they make when they have lower incomes, even as their income increases, so too does their lifestyle and they find themselves in the exact same position.

• 10:56Brian Preston?

  Well, I think it comes back to the Chris Janson song is that it can buy me a boat. When I see this, when people think that money can buy them happiness, look, I will give you an agreement that money can cover the basics.

• 11:11Speaker 03

  Sure, it can pay some bills.

• 11:12Brian Preston?

  That's why it can pay the bills, it can cover the basics. But even on that Chris Janson song, even if you had the boat, it's gotta be some friends that are going on that boat to drink the Coors Light with you. It's gotta be the memory making, the blossoming memories that come from that. Money is all back to that, that first secret that we've already shared. Money is just a tool. If you don't have all the other elements of the blossoming memories, this is not going to be the magical end all thing. It really is just, is exactly what Henry Ford had figured out and everybody else. I wish, when you get on the other side like Bo and I have, and you get up to the mountain top and you realize, no, money is nothing more than a tool to help you amplify who you are.

• 11:56Brian Preston?

  And kind of so that way, yes, you can use this to create better memories with your family. Yes, you can help make things, but if you don't have the why and if you don't have the purpose behind it, it's going to feel really empty and that's where all this unhappiness actually comes from.

• 12:10Speaker 03

  But here's the good news, when you recognize that, when you begin to understand that, you get to understand and realize, secret number three, that when it comes to money, a little bit can go a long way. The secret to building wealth is not making a million dollars a year. If you're someone who makes a million dollars a year, but you spend one million and one dollars a year, you are still going to be broke. But if you're someone who only makes a hundred thousand dollars a year, but you only spend seventy five thousand dollars a year, you have the ability, you have the propensity to build wealth. And the earlier you figure this out, the longer your timeline, the easier it is and the further that money can go.

• 12:54Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I mean, it is, it's the margin that allows you to actually create the secret sauce. This is, that's why when we talk about ingredients to wealth building, discipline and deferred gratification is step number one, because how do you ever have the money to create margin and then use that powerful tool of time to actually build something? But we wanted to go a little bit deeper in that. We wanted to show you why, yes, this margin, it doesn't take a lot, because I think a lot of you probably resemble Bo and myself. We come from humble beginnings and we don't have a lot. And you look at, you look at the people in front of you and you go, how am I supposed to have a million dollars? How am I supposed to have two or three million dollars when I don't have two nickels to rub together? Well, that's what we want people to know.

• 13:36Brian Preston?

  A little can go a long way in the fact that if you'll just do something, you can build this. This is, I think about, because we all know my Mr. Morrow moment, where I said, I had an economics teacher in high school who shared with us, it wasn't even part of the curriculum. He just threw out there a comment, I think out of his own regrets. He said, if you could save a hundred dollars a month, you guys would all be millionaires. And I was working fast food at the time, thinking, holy cow, what seemed impossible now seemed right here in front of me. We have an illustration and we didn't even take the 20 year old. We didn't take the 18 year old. We said, let's be a little more realistic and say, let's get somebody out there in their work career. And they're 25 years old, so that way had a few years to kind of get their feet under them before they realize this wonderful world of personal finance.

• 14:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, for a 25 year old, if you could just save a hundred and fifty nine dollars a month. This assumes no increased savings, no pay raises, no change in circumstance. But at 25, you just start saving a hundred and fifty nine dollars a month. And over the course of your 40 year working career, let's say that you can average an annualized rate of return of 10%. Just saving that hundred and fifty nine dollars would lead to a portfolio value of over one million dollars by the time you retire. It did not take a million dollars to get to a million dollars. It just took a little bit of discipline. It just took a little bit of margin. It just took a long enough timeline to be able to build that.

• 15:04Speaker 03

  Talk all the time about how money can multiply and it can stack. But let's think about this in a slightly different manner. Let's say that, okay, instead of thinking about what money can turn into, let's think about what money can do for us. Cause one of the things that money unlocks is freedom. And we talk all the time about, hey, if you can start saving 25% of your income, the earlier and the sooner you do that, the more powerful and impactful it can be. And so we looked at the math, it's okay, if you're a 30 year old, do you recognize? If you can start saving 25% of your gross income, and let's say that on average, you can make nine and a half percent per year, starting at 35, but it decreases by a 10th of a percent, a 10th of a percent every single year.

• 15:48Speaker 03

  So nine and a half at 25, going down by one 10th of a percent every year. A 30 year old that can save 25% of their gross income, that single year of savings, that one year of deferred gratification, can buy them two and a half years in retirement. I'm gonna say that again, one year of saving 25% can buy you two and a half years of retirement living expenses.

• 16:14Brian Preston?

  This is the value of, we've always tried to come up with creative ways to show people why you need to start early and do it often with saving and investing is because if you think about it, do you imagine what a superpower it is? When you realize every week you save in your twenties and thirties is buying years in the future. I mean, you quickly realize, holy cow, this is something that ought to be on mountain tops, rooftops and just yelling it on loud. We ought to, it ought to be morning announcements, just like you had in grade school, but for the general population, every morning at 8:30, we have loud broadcasts of, hey, do you know what a week can buy in years if you'll just save a little bit?

• 16:58Brian Preston?

  But, but here's where it's kind of cruel. We did this for a 30 year old, can just taking a quarter of their, their earnings, can buy years, two and a half years in the future. Look at what happens when you're 40. The same thing, you save 25%. Now, it's still pretty exciting because you're basically, you know, you're quadrupling it and then some. You're, you're, you can turn this into over a year, but watch what happens when you get in your 50s. Now it's 0.57 and then in your 60, you're a parody. I mean, it is, there's no benefit because you're now at the retirement age. Do you quickly see how you need to get busy saving and investing early and often? So you can take advantage of this powerful tool of time?

• 17:40Speaker 03

  And the earlier you figure it out, the easier the path is. If we're going to think about this concept of buying time, I want to conceptualize this for you. Let's assume that you need a hundred dollars in retirement to be able to live the life that you want to live. Well, do you recognize that for a 25 year old, you would only have to defer $2 today to have that hundred dollars later on in retirement? If you wait until you're 40 now and you still need to have a hundred dollars to be able to spend in retirement, you can't do the $2 at the 25 year old. Now you need to save $14 at age 40 to be able to replace a hundred dollars in retirement.

• 18:23Speaker 03

  And then if you wait out until age 55, well, now it's almost 50 50. If you need a hundred dollars in retirement and you're starting at 55, you gotta put $50 at work today. And Brian, you already said this, by the time you get to retirement, by the time you get to age 60, it's one for one. So if you're going to use money and think about money as a mechanism and a method to buy your time back, the earlier you can start making deposits into that future, the bigger the discount you're going to get in that time, the bigger the sale you're going to get, the more impactful your dollars are going to be. It's why I always say all the time, Brian, the absolute best time to start saving and investing was yesterday, which means by default, the second best time is right now today.

• 19:07Brian Preston?

  And that's why I want to close out this point and then this will set up the secret number four. Is that a lot of you guys, you're young and I get it with this post inflationary period. Housing's expensive. You feel like a lot of opportunities are being pushed away from you. This is what you need to understand is your superpower is don't, don't get mad. Power, you know, power up. What your true opportunity is, is that if you're in your twenties, if you're in your thirties, yes, I know there's some difficulties facing you, but you are a billionaire of time, which your 40-year-old, your 50, your 60-year-old, your boomers that you know, out there, you feel like blowing things up, you have something they don't have anymore.

• 19:50Brian Preston?

  And that's just that you have your billionaire of time, turn it into something, use this as an opportunity. And I think you'll see a little goes a long way. And that's what's going to change your journey. And that leads to secret number four.

• 20:04Speaker 00

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

• 20:33Speaker 01

  Visible puts the ultimate wireless hack in the palm of your hand with unlimited 5G wireless data and hotspot designed to keep you connected powered by Verizon's 5G network and no contract holding you back. Plans start at $25 a month or get the premium Visible Plus Pro plan and save $10 on your first month when you use promo code hack. Make the switch at visible.com. Terms apply. See visible.com for details.

• 21:03Speaker 03

  Yes. Secret number four is a reality we've recognized, not just in the lives of our clients, but we've also recognized that Brian, in each of our lives individually, that how your journey starts does not define how it ends. What's beautiful about money being a tool is that it's a tool that's available for everyone. And if you figure out how to wield it, how to use it, and you do that early on, it can literally change your trajectory. We already talked about this once, Brown. This idea of the wealth multiplier is so powerful that we know for a 20-year-old, every dollar that they can invest for the future has the ability to turn into $88. So you may be someone who starts out, and you may be someone who comes from humble beginnings

• 21:47Speaker 03

  and is a crew chief at Hardee's. But that crew chief at Hardee's can recognize, man, if I can just walk away from $1, $10, $100 today, what I'm going to allow my future self to do is live a life that I never thought possible. Money is literally a tool that can change your entire life trajectory.

• 22:09Brian Preston?

  Well, and I think a lot of people, they think that, you know, look, I have to make, I have to make, we heard it in an earlier stat, I need to make $150,000. I'm here to tell you, that is just not the truth. Now, look, there's a lot of negativity being preached out there to young people right now, but I'm here to tell you, you can take an average income, but you just need to have above-average discipline, and you will be A-OK if you really harness this power of time. And then look at what we're talking about here. When you're 20, 88 times over. For a 30-year-old, it drops down to 23. For a 40-year-old, 7. For a 50-year-old, it's 2, close to 3. You see how quickly, this thing is a cliff. It falls, it literally falls off a cliff.

• 22:51Brian Preston?

  So use every second of your billionaire of time to create opportunity for your future.

• 22:57Speaker 03

  But here's another thing that's beautiful, is you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to get it exactly right, right at the beginning of your journey. Because a lot of folks are going to say, guys, I'm early on, and yeah, that $1 turning into $88. All I've got is a dollar. Well, that's okay. If you just start somewhere, and you get better through time, and you stay consistent, it can be mind-blowing. Look at this case that we've put together. Let's assume that someone starts saving and investing at 25 years old. And even though they listen to the Money Guy Show, and they hear us talk all the time about, save 25%, 25%. 25%, 25% say, guys, I can't do it. I'm just starting out. Life is expensive. Life is hard. I came from humble beginnings. All I can do is save 5%.

• 23:42Speaker 03

  But here's what I'm gonna do. Every single year, I'm gonna increase my savings by 1%. So I'm gonna save 5% this year, 6% the next, 7% the next, so on. And what we've said is, okay, what if they start at 25, making $50,000 a year? And let's assume that on average, they get a 2% annual wage increase. So even as they are saving more, as they're increasing their savings rate, their lifestyle is also increasing. They have more take-home pay every year. And let's just say that they have, let's assume they have a 9% rate of return over the long term. So 25, saving 5% a year, getting better 1% at a time, up until they reach 25%.

• 24:25Speaker 03

  Do you realize that this person, who starts relatively unremarkably, by the time that they get to retirement, they could have over 3.5 million dollars saved up?

• 24:39Brian Preston?

  And that's real money. I mean, that's the thing. I know a lot of people will say a million dollars isn't what a million used to be, you know, 10, 15 years ago. This is 3.5 million dollars.

• 24:47Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 24:48Brian Preston?

  So that's an amazing thing. And that's what, so let's talk about what they didn't do. They didn't start saving straight out of college.

• 24:54Speaker 03

  They're just not a 20-year-old.

• 24:55Brian Preston?

  They didn't have a high savings rate. Cause look, we know when we say 25%, that's aspirational for anybody in their 20s. We know that life is hard. That's coming at you fast. But you can do 5%, maybe you can do 10%. Maybe if you do 5%, your employer's gonna do another 5 or 6%. You can do this. Just start doing something today.

• 25:14Speaker 03

  They also didn't have an above-average salary. They started at $50,000. It's not someone who started out their career at $150,000. So again, this is, what I would say is an average case study, incredibly unremarkable. But there are some things that they did do that were so, so powerful. They did stay consistent for 40 years. They said, you know what? I believe that if I can just defer a little bit of today, I can have an amazing tomorrow. So I'm going to start with a little bit today, and I'm going to gradually increase that margin every year. Okay, I'm going to save 5% this year, and then 6% the next, and then 7% the next, and then 8% the next. And by doing that, over the course of an entire working career, do you recognize that by the time they got to 65,

• 25:58Speaker 03

  by the time that they built up a three and a half million dollar portfolio, if we just assumed a 4% sustainable withdrawal rate, they would have been able to replace 130% of their pre-retirement income? They could have literally retired at age 65 and got a pay raise.

• 26:16Brian Preston?

  That's crazy.

• 26:16Speaker 03

  You know what that means? It means that somewhere along that journey, they might have said, hey, maybe I want to leave at 60, or maybe I want to back down my savings rate, or maybe I want to cut back my hours. By figuring it out early on, staying consistent and getting better, they gave themselves tons of flexibility later in life.

• 26:34Brian Preston?

  Right now, somebody is listening to this and going, man, that's great, but I wish I knew how this pertains specifically to me. And we got you hooked up, because all you gotta do is go to moneyguy.com/resources. We have a deliverable titled, "What 1% More Can Do For You", and you literally can go, look at your age, and look at if you just saved 1% more, what would that become by the time you retired? And I think you owe it to yourself to go out there and see what your time is worth, so you can get yourself energized. I get it, when I say save 25%, you're like, man, that seems like just too much for this moment in time, but you can give me 1%. I guarantee your future self will thank you many times over, because that's just pushing that pebble down the hill,

• 27:18Brian Preston?

  and letting it catch traction, and turning it into a boulder, which eventually turns into a landslide of wealth. You can do this by just doing 1% more. Moneyguy.com/resources.

• 27:28Speaker 03

  So Brian, I know that there are a lot of financial mutants out there, listen to this, and they're saying, you know, okay, guys, I get this. I learned these four secrets, and I've been applying this. I am that financial mutant, and I've figured out those basics. I know that money's a tool, and I know that if I start early, it can be super powerful, and I know that it's not going to bring me happiness. I have figured a lot of stuff out. And yet, secret number five is something I think that's so interesting that a lot of financial mutants come to recognize, and that's that even those folks that are good with money, even those folks who figure out these secrets, at some point, at some stage, along your financial journey, it's okay to ask for help.

• 28:12Brian Preston?

  Well, look, I know something that stacks this all in our favor, and I love this, is that I know, because if you just look at this stat here, three in four Americans report feeling overwhelmed by their finances.

• 28:26Speaker 03

  Seventy-five percent of Americans.

• 28:28Brian Preston?

  And here's, it doesn't, and here's the thing, if you do everything we tell you to do, I want you to do it yourself, do it till your heart wears you out, but the thing is, is that even though these concepts that we share are so simple, if you do this long enough and consistently, that simple is going to turn into complexity. Because it doesn't matter, the three in four could be somebody who's just overwhelmed because they'd never saved and invested, so they feel like life is coming at them hard. But the three in four also can be somebody who actually listens to everything we share, and all of a sudden, they realize, man, my tax return looks completely different. I mean, now I have this, why is our tax code so complicated? What are my blind spots? And then as you get close to retirement, you hear people talk about, well, what about

• 29:13Brian Preston?

  your tax strategy? Are you doing Roth conversions? Are you paying attention to how much of your social security is going to be taxable? What about Medicare and the IRMA surcharges? Do you see how all of a sudden, then estate planning, retirement planning, college planning, you throw all these things, and you realize what really seems so simple when you start to listen to the Money Guy Show? We've been doing this going on 20 years. That's another stat that blows my mind, is that, starting in, you know, January of this year was 20 year anniversary, where did the time go? And, but I just know in my heart of hearts, that no matter how simple, or how much, how good at being a do it yourselfer you are, if you do this right, there will be a moment where this gets so complex that you go say, I just don't know what I don't know.

• 29:57Brian Preston?

  And that's when we're going to leave the porch light on for you and we're going to say, you don't have to do this alone. You know, this is, you've only managed, you've, you've had so much success. You've created this seven-figure enterprise that you're now the CEO out of. You don't have to just go at this blindly and try to figure out, just like we created a system to know what to do with your next dollar. We've helped thousands of people out on how to manage their money well so that we can help you do this better as well. So that's why I love the heart of an educator. We did this with a pure mind of just paying it forward so people could be better with money. But what we really did is we laid out the foundation to give people free advice, to go out there and just see that it works before we ask for the next thing.

• 30:41Brian Preston?

  And that's when, once again, we'll leave the porch light on and you can consider taking your relationship to the next level. Guys, I'm your host, Brian, joined by Mr. Bo, Money Guy team, out.

• 30:53Speaker 03

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

• 31:27Speaker 04

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