How Couples Actually Talk About Money | Making a Millionaire

Nathyn (29) and Indie (29) might have a positive net worth, but their fears leave them feeling negative about their money conversations. Indie worries about the now, while Nathyn focuses on the future. We sit down to find the balance between both perspectives. From emergency fund to retirement savings to auto loans, we talk through their full financial picture. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠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

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• 0:31Speaker 01

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• 0:59Speaker 02

  I am stuck in a conflict because I agree with him. Everything he tells me, I completely agree. We need to be saving for a future and we have been and we've been doing well. And he just wants more and that's completely understandable. But I'm stuck in that internal conflict of knowing what life is going to be like for us after our kids are grown and gone, but also me living for my children and wanting to give our family as much as we can today.

• 1:29Speaker 03

  So 29, military, seven-year-old, five-year-old.

• 1:34Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 1:35Speaker 03

  What brings you guys in today?

• 1:36Speaker 04

  I have a strong focus and a lot of stress about whether or not we're putting enough and investing into our future. And I think Indy is on the other side where she's trying to make sure that we're investing enough in our now and the experiences in our children and our upbringing and our growth. Coming from today, hopefully we get this idea on how we might be able to better balance those two ideas.

• 2:01Speaker 03

  So you're obviously focused on the future and saving for the future and that sort of thing, but you feel like you're missing out on stuff today? Give us some flavor and context for why you feel that way.

• 2:10Speaker 02

  So I live for my children. I do. And I've been a stay at home mom for five years. I want to give them all of the opportunities that I possibly can. Going on trips and having experiences that way, or them doing extracurricular activities. Anything like that, I want to be able to give that to them. He's very into like, what is gonna, what is our life gonna be like when we're 50? And I'm like, I don't know what next week's gonna be like. I don't know what you're talking about. That's where that stress kind of falls because I'm like, are we investing enough in our time together now? Like, are we doing the right thing with groceries? Are we, are we spending the bill, like the money for bills on the right things and stuff like that?

• 2:53Speaker 02

  And he's like, let's invest as much into this TSP and things like that. And I'm like, is that gonna really take away from what our month to month is going to look like? The conflict lies there.

• 3:06Brian Preston?

  You use the word conflict, but it actually can become a feature. That you all yin and yang in a, in a positive way. Sometimes there is a balance between mutant and miser. So it's good to have Indy here who's, who's trying to make sure. But it's also our job to kind of give a plan. So then Indy gets the, the, the realization, hey, that we can live for today, but also have some that's automatically set up for the future. And then both of you are, it's kind of like that puzzle piece coming together. And then now all pieces are working together and it doesn't have to be this mystery that turns into conflict.

• 3:43Speaker 02

  I am stuck in a conflict because I agree with him. Everything he tells me, I completely agree. We need to be saving for a future and we have been and we've been doing well. And he just wants more and that's completely understandable. But I'm stuck in that internal conflict of knowing what life is gonna be like for us after our kids are grown and gone. But also me living for my children and wanting to give our family as much as we can today.

• 4:09Brian Preston?

  You said he's asking for more when he's thinking about for the future. Is there anything in the current? What are y'all missing out currently?

• 4:18Speaker 02

  Well, we can't go on any trips.

• 4:20Brian Preston?

  Okay.

• 4:20Speaker 02

  Without stress, I should say. We can, but it would be stressful and not fun. Extracurriculars.

• 4:30Brian Preston?

  Okay.

• 4:31Speaker 02

  Our kids.

• 4:31Brian Preston?

  Kids activities, things and stuff?

• 4:32Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 4:33Brian Preston?

  Okay, so what do they want to do?

• 4:35Speaker 02

  Um, our oldest loves gymnastics.

• 4:37Brian Preston?

  Okay.

• 4:37Speaker 02

  That is his.

• 4:38Speaker 04

  He's a big ninja warrior gymnastics.

• 4:41Brian Preston?

  Oh, I got one of those.

• 4:42Speaker 04

  Let's go.

• 4:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:43Speaker 04

  Hanging on the, hanging upside down, flips all the time.

• 4:46Brian Preston?

  Yeah.

• 4:47Speaker 02

  And our, and our youngest, uh, wants to do wrestling.

• 4:51Speaker 04

  Hmm. Wrestling, football, anything.

• 4:54Speaker 02

  And we want to be able to do those things without being like, how, what can we move to make this work?

• 5:00Speaker 04

  Something that I do want to mention and kind of just throw in there to, to give a bigger context is I also have all of those feelings where I want to invest into the now. I want to give the children in the time period that they have. I mean, their youth is, is now and it is, uh, fleeting and it is, it is going away from them. And I recognize it's super important to do those things now, but also the reason why the future is so important to me is because when I was younger, uh, my Nana, she lived in an RV with her, her boyfriend at the time and she was older. She was an old woman, uh, to the point where physical labor wasn't a, a real option for her. She's very old.

• 5:42Speaker 04

  Um, she lived in an RV in the Walmart parking lot where she worked as the Walmart door greeter, where her partner also worked at the Walmart. And so in my eyes, I see kind of something that I really don't want to be in a position of where I might not have the ability to make income with my physical labor. And if I don't specialize and get some sort of skill, uh, with mental labor, or even get to a point where I'm just so old, like I just don't have that income anymore to be able to supply for the now. And I, I feel like it really requires you to make strategic, strategic investment choices now while you have it.

• 6:22Speaker 04

  While I have a lot of opportunity right now to float that time period where I might not be able to do that. So I think that's where the struggle comes from is like it's it's gonna be difficult in the future also.

• 6:34Speaker 03

  Well, I'm curious to know, you guys are so kind, you showed sort of a net worth statement. Let's sort of level set, look at where you guys are right now from a net worth standpoint. And I want each of you to answer individually. Are you ahead of the curve, behind the curve, like where you say, because you've already said you guys are 29 years old, right? You've got a total net worth of about $115,000. When you look at how that's broken out, you have about 16,000 in cash, about 92,000 across investment assets. You have two automobiles and it looks like you have two automobile loans, right? So as 29 year olds with a $100,000 almost income, $115,000 net worth. Andy, I'll ask you first, are you ahead of the curve? Are you behind the curve? Are you right on the curve? Are you where you should be? Should you be further?

• 7:19Speaker 03

  What's your general feeling when you look at this financial snapshot?

• 7:25Speaker 02

  When I look at it, I feel there's a part of me that feels like we're behind or right on it, but I'm not, I have no idea.

• 7:38Brian Preston?

  Can I give you one piece of feedback right now?

• 7:39Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 7:40Brian Preston?

  Because I mean, it's amazing when I look at this and I'm like, holy cow, that's already a win. We say by the time you're 30 years of age, the wealth multiplier we're always talking about in our content, for a 30 year old, it's 23 times over. Y'all are 29. I mean, I have to go pull one, actually, I've got it right here, so we'll cheat. A 29 year old, 26 times, 26.1 times.

• 8:02Speaker 03

  So every dollar you save can turn into $26 by the time you're 29. That's how powerful your dollars still are at 29.

• 8:08Brian Preston?

  We go even further and we say, we want you, the aspirational goal is by the time you reach age 30, we want you to, we'd love for you to have one times your income working. And what do we see here? Your income is right around $99,000 currently. And what do we see on just your investment assets? We see close to $92,000. I mean, you guys, for somebody who feels like you're really behind, I'm seeing a lot of evidence that y'all are doing incredible things and this doesn't even take into account. You work for the, you're with the military.

• 8:37Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 8:39Brian Preston?

  What is the thing I think everybody knows about the military? What happens after you give them 20 years of your service?

• 8:45Speaker 04

  The pension.

• 8:46Brian Preston?

  When you're in your 40s with 20 years of service, what do you think that's worth? No, you don't even have to give me a full number, but do you think it's worth six figures or seven figures?

• 8:55Speaker 04

  Seven figures for sure. I mean, it depends on how long I'll live. I'm a very Excel spreadsheet kind of guy. I look at the numbers. The numbers actually, like they put us where it's at.

• 9:03Brian Preston?

  It's not even on how long you'll live because, I mean, the way you structure it, it's your family.

• 9:09Speaker 03

  What's the pension benefit gonna be? Do you already have an estimate of what that'll be?

• 9:11Speaker 04

  It's a rough estimate. I'm in a weird spot right now. Uh, like I said, I'm in the military, but I'm also, I'm a full-time college student right now. So being, I've been active duty for the past eight years and I applied for the MISA program and I was accepted for that. And so my job right now is to be a college student.

• 9:29Brian Preston?

  Are you getting paid to go to college?

• 9:30Speaker 04

  Yes. Yes. Uh, I'm using my GI bill right now to pay for the college. So I'm kind of using the benefits that the military has offered me for this, but I'm, they call it a golden ticket.

• 9:42Brian Preston?

  Do you, do you have to hit pause on like pension years and stuff? Or is this counted towards the pension years?

• 9:47Speaker 04

  This counts towards it. I am attached. My unit is the NRO TC. So I participate in all of the, uh, the things that the NRO TC does to prepare the, um, midshipmen for their military career in the future. So we're doing, like, we're doing a field exercise here in a little while. Like, we have an obligation, um, and we're pretty productive in the military world, but it is not, it's not the same for sure.

• 10:14Speaker 03

  So give me an estimate of what, what do you think your pension be? I know you said in a weird spot, but just throw it, throw in, just kind of what, because you're a spreadsheet guy. I know you've thought of this. I know you've got a number.

• 10:22Speaker 04

  It's about 50 grand a year for pension in today's dollars. I think it does, uh, shift throughout time.

• 10:30Brian Preston?

  What age for you?

• 10:31Speaker 04

  It'll be, I joined at 21, so 41, maybe 42, the age of 42. I know. I see you guys scratching your head like it's an amazing, amazing opportunity. And so you asked a question, how do we feel about this? I am extremely proud of where we've gotten. I mean, if I were to go back in time and ask my younger self where I thought I'd be in the future, it would not be here by any means. I mean, there would not be a comma. I don't think in my in my savings account, I think there's a generally accepted idea where if you're given an opportunity that nobody else gets, then you're going to make something pretty useful out of it and do something that nobody else does. I think largely we do. We have, we have two young, healthy, amazing children that get experiences that I never

• 11:15Speaker 04

  thought that I would have. But I almost feel like we should be farther with, with how much opportunity we are afforded.

• 11:23Speaker 03

  I want to reconcile what you just said. You said our kids have experiences that I would have never had. But one of your concerns is your kids are not having experiences.

• 11:31Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 11:31Speaker 03

  So it seems like you're coming from two different, two different places on that. Help, help us understand that. Help us reconcile. Cause you said they are, they are getting the experiences and it's unique because of what you guys have going on, but we're still missing out on stuff. Help us understand where the chasm is.

• 11:45Speaker 02

  That's a great question.

• 11:46Speaker 04

  That's kind of why we're here.

• 11:47Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, cause we, we have, don't get me wrong, like money is a big struggle in, in marriage and we have a lot of hard conversations. Things have gotten better, like we're, we're both like finally starting to fuse with each other a little bit better and things are starting to get a little bit more easy flowing. But when we first got married, we were having tough conversations because he was very worried that we were behind, that we were struggling and, and I'm over here like, I don't, I don't know where we're struggling. I'm not, I'm not understanding your mindset. And you know, like he said, he's a spreadsheet guy. He'd show me the numbers and he's like, look at this.

• 12:30Speaker 02

  And like he said too, we're given all these opportunities. Why are we not further along? And I feel terrible because I feel like I'm the reason why we're not further along. Cause I'm like, slow down, like let's do this. And then he'll give in to me and be like, okay, like we'll take our kids to Disney and then. In the middle of our Disney trip, he's like, this is so expensive and we're freaking out about money and it makes the trip, it makes

• 12:56Speaker 03

  Takes away some enjoyment.

• 12:57Speaker 02

  It makes the experience not where we want to be. So finding a way where he can look at where we're at. He sees it with you guys and he's like, wow, okay, this is good. I'm proud of where we are. And, and I'm like, but we just had a couple of conversations a few months ago and we were like, oh gosh, we're, we're behind, we're, we're not where we need to be. So it's like,

• 13:19Brian Preston?

  I love relationships, but they're, they're always a work in process.

• 13:22Speaker 02

  Sure, absolutely.

• 13:24Brian Preston?

  Nathan, you, you are dealing with the shadows of your childhood. I mean, of if you saw your Nana with this RV, this is something that's ingrained in you and it's all, it's, it makes you who you are. What I see is I see a lot of successful things here going on. So you can use the energy of the motivation of seeing your Nana struggle to power, but it, it can't take away from the happiness of today and in the future. Because if it does, you have turned that motivation, that shadow from the past into something that's stealing from the moment. Cause we're going to give you the variables. We're also going to draw attention to what probably is motivating you. What's the engine of all this? So that

• 14:05Brian Preston?

  you can then be more self-aware of it. So that when it pops up, you have a, a counterweight that says, no, that's just that voice of insecurity because of what I come from. I can now counterbalance it with the numbers that those guys gave me and the motivation. So that for Indy and my, my, my son and daughter, I can be here, give them the best version. So we come out of this in the after action report and go, that was worth it. We spent the money. Yeah. I had to grin and bear it because I paid, you know, $6 for an ice cream bar at Disney World. But man, oh man, it was a cool thing in that moment. And you know, and there's, we probably won't do this for years on end. So this, this ought to be worth it. We're going to get you through that.

• 14:48Speaker 03

  Money can be emotional. Finding, I mean, obviously you guys are both kind of emotional having this conversation. And so whenever emotions enter the equation, if we can add some like logic and pragmatism, it, it helps. So when I look at your total investable assets at $92,000, hey man, I just feel like it should be more. If it was a hundred thousand, would you feel better? What would it feel the same?

• 15:07Speaker 04

  It would feel the same.

• 15:08Speaker 03

  What about 120,000?

• 15:09Speaker 04

  That'd be a little, yeah.

• 15:10Speaker 03

  What about 150?

• 15:12Speaker 04

  That would be a lot better.

• 15:12Speaker 03

  What about 200? Like, and why? What's different for you if that's 200,000 versus 93,000?

• 15:18Speaker 04

  Yeah, so first off, I'll say the reason why I love your guys' show is because you guys have been broadcasting that idea of like, hey, there's a lot of value in enjoying the world that you're living in and the experiences that you've had. And I've been leaning into that a lot recently. And I think where the worry starts to come out of the shadows, just like Indy's mentioned, where one day I'll be great and then, I don't know, maybe a little bit wild later, worry creeps where I'm like, I don't know if this is enough. Is because I don't know. I mean, I guess what the future holds and what that money will be worth in the future and what it equates to. I don't care about the dollar sign.

• 16:00Speaker 04

  I really don't because I fully recognize that money is just a tool. It is for life experiences. It is the thing that allows you to facilitate the things that you have in your life. So I don't care what that dollar amount is. But I wonder, how many Disney trips are we gonna go to? How many zoos are we gonna go to? How many extracurriculars are we gonna put the kids in? And I want to facilitate that. And the more of that we have, I feel like the more we also need invested to perpetuate that in the future. And I think if I were able to hone in on what is acceptable, what is an acceptable rate of savings that will allow a sustainable thing in the future.

• 16:43Speaker 04

  Anything in excess of that, I can, for lack of a better way to put it, burn it. I don't care where it goes. It can go to Disney, it can go to ice cream.

• 16:51Brian Preston?

  Exactly. I feel like we're in therapy where they always say therapists never really give you the answer. They let you come to the answer. I'm kind of, this is exactly what I want to build is you knowing what you need to be doing and then whatever above and beyond buys as much life as you and the kids want to, as Indy and the kids want to do.

• 17:12Speaker 03

  You guys are super kind. You shared sort of a loose budget with us. Can you just kind of walk us through this? Walk us through how you guys have approached these spending decisions? And how you guys think about how you allocate your dollars?

• 17:22Brian Preston?

  I'm trying to figure out what's going on with that car. I mean, that car is, you know, 1850, that was. On the

• 17:29Speaker 03

  Do you want to explain?

• 17:30Brian Preston?

  Yeah, what's going on with the cars?

• 17:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, sure. So on our travel from North Carolina when we moved to Texas, his truck gave out. So that was something that was automatically, he needed a vehicle to drive back and forth to college. I had a van that had 250,000 miles on it and it was going out as well. We unfortunately had to get, yeah, we had to get new cars.

• 17:56Speaker 04

  Well, we got a new and then a new to me car.

• 17:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:00Speaker 04

  Mine's a 2021 Mazda CX5, little compact SUV. We got Indy A Buick Enclave 2025.

• 18:11Speaker 02

  The reason we came to that decision was because my car is the family car. It is the car that we go everywhere in and we bought it new, hopefully for it to last us for 10 plus years.

• 18:22Speaker 03

  And when was, when did you guys make these car decisions?

• 18:23Speaker 02

  Like August, July, August.

• 18:26Speaker 03

  Both of them at the same time?

• 18:27Brian Preston?

  Both of them were bought in August?

• 18:28Speaker 03

  Yeah. So these are both brand new, this car thing is sort of a brand new thing.

• 18:32Speaker 02

  Brand new thing going through, yeah.

• 18:33Speaker 03

  That you got, so you went from like, I'm assuming was your truck paid for?

• 18:37Brian Preston?

  Yeah.

• 18:37Speaker 03

  Truck was paid for, van was paid for.

• 18:39Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah.

• 18:40Brian Preston?

  It just got paid for.

• 18:41Speaker 03

  So I just want to make sure this, on this psyche, there's already this like tension around how we're spending money and are we doing the right thing? And then all of a sudden, this life thing happens and we don't just have to replace one car, we have to replace two cars.

• 18:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:54Speaker 03

  And now $1,850 that was not flying out the door for automobiles is now flying out the door for automobiles across the registration, maintenance, gas, all that kind of stuff.

• 19:03Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 19:04Speaker 03

  I can understand why, if this just happened in August, which was a few months ago, this is still a pretty fresh wound. This is still something that feels kinda, ah, not great, right?

• 19:14Brian Preston?

  Yeah. I did $1,850 times 12 months, that's $22,200. $22,200, your income was roughly right around $100,000. So I don't, I can do public math on that. That's around 22%. That's, that's almost like a house payment. So, and I know that that's probably not all car payment because Bo even said it was maintenance and insurance and other things.

• 19:38Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 19:38Brian Preston?

  But yeah, when y'all were making the decision, because it's already a tough life thing that life happens, you now have to figure out how you're going to get quality transportation for both of you. What went into that decision making? Cause 22% is a big deal.

• 19:53Speaker 04

  I think what it was is probably something that a lot of people experienced. Something had to change. We needed, we needed different vehicles. Maybe that's not even entirely correct, but something did need to change. Whether my truck had been in and out of the shop and at that point it was hemorrhaging oil right when we got to our house. So, I mean, we made it. It's been paid off for quite a while. I, I definitely needed something different and being in Austin, a smaller car was nice. And it's the nicest car that I've had and it's a 2021 Mazda. So I think for both of us, we, we had a new

• 20:28Brian Preston?

  What did that car cost? What did the Mazda cost?

• 20:30Speaker 04

  Mazda, I think it was 21 total. Uh, I got five grand for my truck.

• 20:38Speaker 03

  This guy says 20% check. We've got 20% down on it. Awesome.

• 20:41Speaker 04

  And then I put 10 grand down. So a total of 15 down into the car.

• 20:48Brian Preston?

  So we owed six, you only owe $6,000 on this car?

• 20:51Speaker 03

  Let's look at the net worth statement again. Net worth right now, it says on the Mazda, we owe about 12,000, right?

• 20:56Speaker 04

  Um, yeah, that 12,000 seems a lot better.

• 21:00Speaker 03

  Did you perhaps put 10,000 down on the car? 5,000 for trade in plus another 5,000? Put 10,000 on a 21,000 dollar car?

• 21:06Speaker 04

  I think that's what it was.

• 21:07Speaker 03

  Okay. So we put $10,000 down on the, on the Mazda. So we owe about $12,000 there. So we have some really good equity. I mean, we have a 6% interest rate. How long is that loan for?

• 21:17Speaker 04

  It's a while. I think it's, uh, five or six years.

• 21:20Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 21:21Speaker 04

  Okay. Yeah, it's longer. I think so.

• 21:23Brian Preston?

  Now, how'd you choose five or six years?

• 21:24Speaker 04

  To put the monthly payments to right around 250.

• 21:28Speaker 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.

• 21:58Speaker 06

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• 22:27Brian Preston?

  Okay.

• 22:28Speaker 03

  And then what about the enclave? Walk us through the thought process there.

• 22:32Speaker 04

  Um, we didn't have a huge, like, solid future plan in this. We kind of went to the extent of what we could afford with it, or what we thought we could afford.

• 22:42Brian Preston?

  Well, walk us through it, because you did a good job on the Mazda. I want to hear, kind of, because it helps me with the thought process. $50,000 enclave, what did you put down?

• 22:50Speaker 03

  Did you get a trade-in for the van?

• 22:51Speaker 04

  I think it was about, it was two grand for the van. Two grand for the van. I think we put 17 or 15 down.

• 22:58Brian Preston?

  Wow, yo, these are legit down payments.

• 23:01Speaker 04

  We sold our house. We sold our house. So, six months ago, when we were living in New Bern, North Carolina, we had about 30 grand in debt, which was credit cards and our van. I had my truck paid off, but we also had the house. And luckily, we've made some good choices. The market's gone up and we got quite a bit back into our pocket from our house. So, we had roughly 70 grand in our pocket. And we put 30 grand onto our credit cards and the van, so we paid that off. And then, we had a chunk of money that pretty much went into three things: her vehicle, my vehicle, and savings.

• 23:41Speaker 03

  Do you know how long the loan on the enclave is?

• 23:43Speaker 04

  It's about five or six years as well. Probably more like six years.

• 23:46Speaker 03

  You did an awesome thing. You know, these significant down payments are great. You know, you hear us talk about all the time. We love being able to, you know, pay cash for cars, if you can. But if you can't, then we think there's a better way to buy cars. And one of the ways is, is we follow 238. You put 20% down. You got smoked doing 20% down on the cars. But, what we would have preferred to see is, okay... When we structure how long we finance it, rather than going to like five or six years, what's it look like if we only finance for thirty six months, three years? Because what that's gonna allow you to do is get you back into that place where you have that car paid off a whole lot sooner, right? Yeah. And then we don't want your total car payments to exceed eight percent. So it sounds like what you guys did is you kind of reverse engineered. Here's what we want to be able to afford a month. Let's go find that payment. Not, here's what we can afford in the cars.

• 24:31Speaker 03

  Let's go figure out how to structure that. Does that make, does that make sense? I want to give you some grace here. These do, these are not, I would not say these are egregious automobile decisions. Like we've seen.

• 24:40Brian Preston?

  Well, I'm trying to back into, because we, on the previous page on the budget, there's a disconnect here, because we had eighteen hundred dollars a month. You just told me your car payment's two fifty. If you'd have done twenty three eight, it'd have probably been three seventy five. So I mean, there's a little slight delta difference there. But what, what's the payment on the, on the Buick?

• 24:59Speaker 04

  Five fifty.

• 24:59Speaker 03

  So it looks like we have eight hundred dollars in payments, two hundred and sixty dollars a month in insurance, and then another about eight hundred dollars for maintenance and gas. That's how the automobile's breaking, how long it's breaking down.

• 25:10Brian Preston?

  The maintenance and gas seems rather large.

• 25:13Speaker 03

  But again, it sounds like some of this is going into like a sinking fund, and you guys are estimating costs, or perhaps the costs are not quite this.

• 25:20Speaker 04

  Hopefully, they're overinflating.

• 25:22Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 25:22Speaker 04

  And then we just get a chunk of change at the end of the year.

• 25:25Speaker 03

  If we look at the total burn rate right now, you guys have about six thousand dollars a month. It costs you to live the life that you guys want to live. Are you zero-based budget? Like what comes in every month from pay? Is it six thousand coming in, or you got more than that coming in?

• 25:38Speaker 04

  Uh, it's about thirty four hundred twice a month. First and a fifteen. And then a five fifty per month for child support.

• 25:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, so we have seventy three fifty coming in. We have about six thousand going out, right? Based on our budget. That should leave about thirteen hundred bucks somewhere?

• 25:56Speaker 04

  It sounds about right, yeah.

• 25:58Speaker 03

  Where's the thirty hundred bucks going?

• 25:59Speaker 04

  I don't know, but maybe some insight on to how we're operating. We kind of use our credit card throughout the month for whatever it is. I mean. Like, we went out to a nice dinner last night, arguably should or shouldn't have, whatever. It was a great experience.

• 26:15Brian Preston?

  Well, let me ask this, because I want to, I want to ask Indy the question. Are y'all actually coming up short on like activity fees or stuff? Or is it just because he's complaining about things and it feels like you're short?

• 26:26Speaker 02

  I want to, I, I'm.

• 26:27Brian Preston?

  No, and I'm not, and that's not a cut on him. I'm, I'm, I'm not, I'm just trying to make sure.

• 26:31Speaker 03

  Like, are you trying to show up with money that's not there?

• 26:33Brian Preston?

  Nathan, I'm not trying to get on to you.

• 26:34Speaker 03

  Or are you just?

• 26:35Brian Preston?

  I'm trying to make sure, but I, I just want to know where, how Indy feels.

• 26:39Speaker 03

  Are you trying to show to things and there's not money to pay for it? Or are you just meeting opposition when you say, hey, I want to do this? He's like, no, no, we can't, we can't do that. We need to be.

• 26:47Speaker 02

  I don't sit down with him often enough and, and, and do finances like I should.

• 26:51Brian Preston?

  Do y'all do an annual net worth statement? I mean, I know we just showed you one. Do y'all do one?

• 26:55Speaker 04

  I do. I actually do it like pretty much every month.

• 26:57Brian Preston?

  Do you sit down once a year at least and go over the state of how you guys are doing financially?

• 27:03Speaker 04

  We're changing throughout time, right? We're getting a lot better at it.

• 27:05Brian Preston?

  Do y'all have a sit down at once a year?

• 27:06Speaker 04

  Generally, I, I pull her in and I trap her into financial conversations.

• 27:12Brian Preston?

  Oh, no, this doesn't sound good. This is supposed to be romantic. This is supposed to be a fun thing, not a, let me, an accountability meeting, an intervention.

• 27:20Speaker 02

  It is getting better. Our, our conversations are much more fun.

• 27:25Brian Preston?

  Are they fun or is it more like an intervention?

• 27:27Speaker 02

  They were more like an intervention, for sure. Um, I felt.

• 27:31Brian Preston?

  Come sit over here. Let me tell you what we did last month.

• 27:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. It's one of those like, you're in a good mood? And I'm like, oh, God. Um, they were definitely more like an intervention for sure. And that's where that conflict, I felt trapped. I immediately got defensive and that's where we started going at it. Now I have a better understanding and I can sit down with him, because I'm not good at math anyway. So I'm like, you can do it and tell me. So I know now that I can't do that. I need to sit down with him and we need to work on it. So now they're a little bit better. But we do have financial conversations often, more than once a year, probably a couple of times a week. We're very communicative, like we, we talk a lot about it, but the question still stands. Like where, where do we come at it with, you know?

• 28:15Speaker 02

  Whenever I bring up, I want to do this, I want to, it, it, it does come with worry on, on his part.

• 28:21Brian Preston?

  Is it actually not happening? Like, is there any activity fees that haven't happened for the, for the kids yet?

• 28:27Speaker 02

  Uh, for, for a long time, yeah. Uh, we did have some extra money here recently and I was able to, to like right before we came here, actually. Uh, we were able to put them, sign them up for a gymnastics class and a, and an art class. So they are able to do those now, but the question is like, are we going to be able to do it continuously?

• 28:45Brian Preston?

  With my own spouse, I have on purpose structured it, not, not because of a mean or trying to keep things away from, from my wife. I mean, I'll do anything in the world, but no, it's, believe me, I'm not the boss in the house. But I'm just being the budgeter and the planner.

• 28:59Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 29:00Brian Preston?

  Is that if there's extra money, I will tend to auto allocate money so that essentially there's less money left over. So it creates, like I said, forced scarcity. I'm, I'm trying to keep.

• 29:10Speaker 03

  Might be what we're doing with the cars.

• 29:11Brian Preston?

  And I think that's exactly, I, I, I, I essentially saw, I was like, oh, we are over.

• 29:16Speaker 03

  Game, recognize game.

• 29:17Brian Preston?

  We're putting in our number, our budget, bigger numbers so that it creates a smaller end. And then you're using that as a tool of, for communication that sometimes, and it's fine as long as that, that tool for communication is a positive thing. But if it's creating it where it creates this scarcity that now creates some emotional reaction within Indy. It, it, I can, you can see how this, this turns negative. And that's why I just, that's why I asked the question, are we actually doing without? Or is it just because there's a tone or negativity to the communications that it, it's, it's working against what you're trying to build?

• 29:52Speaker 03

  When you guys sit down and have your financial conversation, and this comes from my experience with my wife. When we first started out, I was a spreadsheet guy.

• 29:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 29:59Speaker 03

  And I'd walk her through the spreadsheet and I'd walk her through all the money that was spent last month. And I'd say, hey, did you, did you do that? It was always these questions. Hey, did you spend this here? Hey, did you spend this here? Hey, did you spend this? And like, I wasn't, I wasn't, you know, I knew the answer to the question because obviously I saw the credit card statement, right? And it kind of went that way. Hey, why did you, why did you, why did you, why did you? Our entire relationship shifted where we started having conversations around, before we look at what we spent last month, I said, hey, this next month, what are the things that are important to you? This next six months, what are the things that are important to you? This next year, what are the things that are important to you? Because when you as a couple can come together and list out your goals, and you may say, hey, my goal is, we want to go on one big trip a year. We're going on one big trip a year.

• 30:43Speaker 03

  Or maybe it's, hey, we want to travel every two months, and we want to go to a different place. If you guys can arrive at what the actual plan is, because what I'm hearing is a little bit of nebulous, well, I just want to do, I want to travel, I want to do more, I want to do more. What I'm not hearing is like, a goal isn't actually a goal unless you apply some metrics to it that would be somewhat measurable, right? If I were to ask you, alright, right now, if you could just choose, you know how much income you guys have, how much would you want to spend traveling a year?

• 31:15Speaker 02

  Ooh.

• 31:15Speaker 03

  Not how much would he want, because I'm going to ask him in a second too, how much would you want to spend? I just want to see how far off the numbers are.

• 31:22Speaker 02

  I would say roughly around like $5,000.

• 31:24Speaker 03

  $5,000 a year.

• 31:24Speaker 02

  Traveling is expensive, I think $5,000 is roughly about a good spot.

• 31:28Speaker 04

  My answer is $2,500.

• 31:30Speaker 03

  $2,500. So what I'm...

• 31:32Speaker 04

  Do you like to camp? I love camping.

• 31:34Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 31:35Speaker 04

  I absolutely like to camp.

• 31:36Speaker 02

  I haven't been camping before.

• 31:37Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 31:38Speaker 03

  Do you know which one of you is right?

• 31:39Speaker 04

  Yes, and it's both of us.

• 31:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, neither of you are right. That's what you have to, that's what you have to kind of arrive at the conclusion of is, okay, there is a world in which we could spend $5,000 a year traveling. Is that what we both want to do collectively? There's also an answer, we spend $2,500, is that what we both want? And you have to list out all the other goals. Well, we also want to like, not be paying on these cars for the next five to six years. Hey, we also want to be financially independent. You have to arrange those goals, but what it sounds like is you kind of guys have sort of these like abstract, oh, I want to, hey, one of our goals, we want our kids to do gymnastics. Okay, great, we know exactly what gymnastics season is and when that starts. Like, we can, that's the thing. And so my wife and I, we used to live in this like nebulous travel thing.

• 32:25Speaker 03

  And so last year, we started this great exercise. Very beginning of the year, in January, right after we do our net worth meeting, I say, "Hey, what travel do you want to do this year? What do you want to do with the kids? Want to do it just me and you? What do you want to do with friends?" And we go ahead and list all that out. And the decisions we make from a financial standpoint for the rest of the year are working towards those goals. And I think you guys can do the exact same thing, but what you've not done is listed all the goals in order of priority. Because all I've heard from you right now is, "I want future and I want present." Right. But if I were to ask you, "Hey, do you not want future?" You'd be like, "No, no, I do. I do want..." And I say, "Hey, do you want present?" "Oh, yeah, yeah, no." So you guys want the same things, but you're not on the same page about how much to allocate and what timeline to allocate those dollars on. And that's what's missing from the financial conversation.

• 33:10Brian Preston?

  There is something outside of y'all's two goals that needs to be kind of respected. And that's, we talk about the financial order of operations. We know your burn rate is about $5,900 a month.

• 33:21Speaker 03

  Right at $6,000.

• 33:22Brian Preston?

  Your emergency, you currently have about right under $16,000. I was trying to figure out now, your job, you told you got the golden ticket. What's the likelihood you could lose your job?

• 33:33Speaker 03

  Completely lose it and severed? It's pretty low.

• 33:36Brian Preston?

  Because you're going to work for the military. And you even got this golden ticket. So now, look, I will tell you something that works against you is that there's only one income in your household. So typically, that leans itself more to the six months, but the security leads it more towards the three months. So it's very personalized when you're trying to figure out, "What is my emergency reserves?" But if we were just trying to figure out lean for the conversation tool of how do we move forward? Three months could be in the conversation. Three months of $6,000 is $18,000. We're only $2,000 off from a fully funded emergency fund.

• 34:10Speaker 03

  That's close.

• 34:10Brian Preston?

  Now, we get to balance out future goal, present goal, and how those two come together. And it's fun because we get to put numbers to these things, too. And that's what I like, is that y'all are on the cusp of these things could work together. They really could. I mean, I don't know, y'all are so close to doing the hard work. It's just more of communication tools and getting on the same page. And using the tool of the power, if you're the planner and you're the one that's running the household. Those are two both important things. They just need to kind of learn to respect and mutually coexist with each other. This golden ticket while you're in college, this is only a short term thing. What happens to your career after you graduate college?

• 34:54Speaker 04

  I will become a commission officer and the pay increases.

• 34:57Brian Preston?

  And your pay bumps.

• 34:58Speaker 04

  Pay's going up.

• 34:59Brian Preston?

  So we need to kind of, now we even, and I hate to add complexity, but this is, y'all need to kind of, when you're doing your, your planning as a couple, you look at these next few years while you're in college as one intermittent goals. And then you need to, to look beyond that and have a plan for what happens after that. And then y'all figure out, okay, while we're in this season, because three, four years will go so quick. Maybe our travel goals are a little bit less, but we also use this as a carrot that, hey, when we get over here, because me and my wife, I told my wife, if we could save like I wanted to, when we hit 40, it was going to be a different world. And that kind of was the motivation. Now, we didn't, I didn't make us live miser lifestyles. There was about, but it was understanding that things would change when we reached this goal certain.

• 35:43Brian Preston?

  And that was motivation that was used as a communication tool.

• 35:46Speaker 04

  And now you travel differently at this age than you did when you were in your twenties?

• 35:49Brian Preston?

  Y'all could do the same thing. So maybe you don't do, maybe you go celebrate with a Disney trip or the five, a five, $6,000 trip upon graduation. But maybe while we're in this lower income, but awesome life, because it sounds like y'all get to spend a lot of time together. You get a premium on the time. We treat that premium of time as something where we don't have to spend as much on the vacations because we're making so many memories.

• 36:13Speaker 04

  So I think the question that I have is, is, is it enough? Because I, there is an amount that I'm saving. And so I don't know how. What's that number? Do you know the number off the top of your head? How much are you saving? Yeah. So it's six, 60 per month going into TSP. There was some funds into a Roth IRA that wasn't scheduled. It wasn't repetitive. We had a little bit of extra money and it's something that I kind of. Stowed away just in the moment while we had some extra change. So that's not necessarily consistent. So that's what I'm putting away right now.

• 36:47Speaker 03

  Right now, we got $92,000 that you guys currently have saved and invested, right? So that's going to be a present value. We're going to save $660 every month. This assumes no pay raises, no increases, no bumps in pay, no changes in income, no new employment, no additional savings, just do what you're doing. Rate of return, you want to do 8%?

• 37:06Brian Preston?

  Yeah, we can do 8%. I mean, we could get really crazy and we could have done like 9.1% if we were doing our age-based type of stuff, but we'll do it. We can do 8%.

• 37:15Speaker 03

  And when does your pension start, 41, 42?

• 37:18Speaker 04

  At the age of 41.

• 37:19Speaker 03

  So we're just going to say for our number of periods, let's do 41 minus 29. That's 12 years times 12, that's 144 months. So if we just look at what you're on track to have in terms of an investment portfolio, when the pension starts, $400,000. All right, so here's my question for you. $400,000, what you're on track for, when you get to pension age, right? Your pension's going to be like $50,000 a year.

• 37:45Speaker 04

  Correct.

• 37:46Speaker 03

  If I just take $50,000 a year of a pension, and I'm just going to use a 4% withdrawal rate, because it's a real easy, simple way to do math. And I take 50,000 divided by .04, that's $1.25 million.

• 38:00Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 38:00Speaker 03

  Okay?

• 38:01Brian Preston?

  By the way, do you realize typically, like when you do a 4%, that's like a 30-year withdrawal period? Your pension's worth more than that.

• 38:09Speaker 04

  Worth way more than that.

• 38:11Brian Preston?

  You're getting this in your 40s. The likelihood of how much this pension's worth, this is the most conservative assumption we can use is it's 1.2. It's probably worth a lot more than that because we're beyond 30 years on your life expectancy.

• 38:25Speaker 04

  But in a context of what life is going to be like, and I'm assuming that's in today's dollars, right?

• 38:30Speaker 03

  Sure, yeah, assuming today's dollars.

• 38:31Speaker 04

  Um, is like, is, I think my question is what sort of lifestyle adjustments are there going to be when I come to?

• 38:40Brian Preston?

  Do you really think you're gonna retire? You're either gonna stay in the military or you go do something else.

• 38:44Speaker 03

  And you're taking, you're actually even taking a step even further than I even want you to go just yet thinking about lifestyle. What I just want to draw your attention to is that 41 years old, you're gonna have a pension that's the equivalent conservatively of 1.2 million dollars. Then across your TSP and your other investment assets, assuming no additional savings outside of what you're doing right now, you have another 400. That's 1.65 million dollars theoretically of assets at 41.

• 39:13Brian Preston?

  And what's our guardrails in it three times?

• 39:15Speaker 03

  Three times.

• 39:16Brian Preston?

  So if you took 1.6 divided by three?

• 39:19Speaker 03

  533,000.

• 39:21Brian Preston?

  Are you gonna be making 533,000 dollars a year? No, you're gonna be making, you're gonna be.

• 39:25Speaker 03

  That just shows how far out ahead of the curve.

• 39:29Brian Preston?

  You know, when we asked, are you behind the curve, ahead of the curve, or right where you need to be? You're gonna be way out ahead of the curve. This is, this hopefully is taking pressure off of, let's not feel so much pressure against the present.

• 39:40Speaker 03

  Does that mean that I could lower the, the amount that I'm putting into?

• 39:45Brian Preston?

  Look, I don't want you, cause here's, here's, we all, you know, our aspirational goal is to get you to 25% savings rate. You don't need to do 25% because your government, I guarantee you, the government is putting probably over 10% of your pay into this pension. Do you agree, disagree?

• 40:02Speaker 03

  It's 5% I think. Oh, pension. Okay, sure.

• 40:05Brian Preston?

  They're putting, no, that's just what they're putting in the TSP.

• 40:07Speaker 03

  Right.

• 40:08Brian Preston?

  The pension they're funding, cause I, I, I worked in government for a little bit for most, most governments with pensions. Pensions that were with people retiring in their 60s. We usually had funding formulas where you put in 6% and your employer puts in 8 to 11%. So for the government to fund this, for you getting in the 40s, in your 40s, they're putting in more than 10% of your pay.

• 40:28Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 40:28Brian Preston?

  So there's 10% right off of the 25% already. You just said something to the fact of, they're also giving you a TSP matching, right? A 5%. Truthfully, calculation wise, you're already funding 25%. Even with 10%. I do like if there's any extra money, cause your favorite savings account is gonna be your Roth account.

• 40:48Speaker 03

  Right.

• 40:49Brian Preston?

  I would love for both of y'all to have Roth accounts, but they don't have to be fully maxed out every year.

• 40:53Speaker 03

  But the key thing that he said there is if there's extra money.

• 40:56Brian Preston?

  If there's extra.

• 40:57Speaker 03

  And what you have to do is. You have to have the goal conversation first to then discern if there's extra money. Because what we just showed is based on what you're doing right now, without changing anything, you're on a fantastic path. At age 40, if you have a $400,000 portfolio, we know that a wealth multiplier for a four-year-old is seven. So just that $400,000 you've built up is well on its way to be worth almost 3 million by the time that you retire, assuming that you don't add anything to it, don't take anything away from it, just let that sit there and grow.

• 41:24Brian Preston?

  So there's no van by the river.

• 41:27Speaker 03

  There's no RV at Walmart.

• 41:28Brian Preston?

  That you're worried about, like, Nana, that you're worried about. I mean, because, I mean, seriously, that you're not, that's not you. That's the shadow that's hanging with you, but you're not doing any of those things.

• 41:38Speaker 03

  Having anxiety around, oh my goodness, we're spending too much, and oh my goodness, we don't have any money to do the things we should care about, is not fun. No. And what you can do, you can overcome that by actually having a plan of action, knowing what goals you're going to fund and what you're going to save, and knowing that, hey, when saving is enough, that's okay, and when spending is enough, that's okay. You guys have to arrive at what makes the most sense for the family, and then once you do that, you put the plan in place, and then you can breathe easy. Because you have the resources and the ability to do all the things that you guys are laying out. What you have to do is make sure that you both are equally believing that, hey, we're doing the things we're supposed to be doing, both from a future standpoint, as well as

• 42:23Speaker 03

  from a present standpoint. Okay. You guys are wonderful. Thanks so much for coming down with us today. Thank you guys so much. Yes, we appreciate it. Awesome opportunity.

• 42:30Brian Preston?

  But how awesome was that?

• 42:32Speaker 03

  Man, it was wonderful. Nathan and India, what a lovely couple, and I love how, one of the things that they did is even though they weren't completely aligned when they started the conversation, you could tell that they loved each other, and they wanted to be aligned, and they were very open and reassuring to each other, and I think that's a great step in the right direction, even just to start the process.

• 42:52Brian Preston?

  Well, you can see, I mean, we've been around a lot of healthy relationships, and it's, you can see what was being represented by each of them. When you think about Indy, she was really trying to maximize the moment. Are we doing the right activities for the kids? Are we building memories? And then you got Nathan over here, who's feeling the pressure, and he even had... Carried some baggage with him worried about his Nana who essentially was living in a van in a Walmart parking lot. I mean, I can see how this baggage makes him feel like he has to produce, create and save. I love that we kind of got to build a bridge to kind of bring them together to see how these things that seem disconnected could actually be a united plan for the future.

• 43:30Speaker 03

  And I think one of the things that maybe he was a little misguided in where he felt like they were. And so I love that we had the opportunity, we could actually look at the numbers. Because if you think about the way that they're saving right now, we know he's putting money into his TSPs, putting a little over $400 a month into his TSP. He's getting a little over $200 of a match and they're putting a little bit into the Roth IRA. So they have about $700 a month going into their investment portfolio. Right now, if you look at their investments, they have $92,000. Well, if you just take $92,000 today, saving about $700 a month. By the time he gets to his first retirement, by the time he gets to military pension eligible, he's gonna have a portfolio of like $414,000.

• 44:14Speaker 03

  So for a couple right there at 40 years old, that's pretty incredible.

• 44:19Brian Preston?

  To them, they're gonna be like, yeah, but it could be better, but they're not taking into account the value of that pension.

• 44:24Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 44:25Brian Preston?

  I mean, because that's the thing, if you take into account at age 41, they're not only gonna have $400,000 plus, they're going to have a pension that's going to generate a large portion of income. And more than likely, that's the beginning of Act 2.0 for Nathan as well.

• 44:40Speaker 03

  You think about it, he's gonna have pension income of around $50,000. Even that portfolio at a 4% withdrawal rate could generate about $12,000 a year. So you're talking about $62,000 of income if they needed to live off that income, but I don't think they're gonna live off of it. That's just gonna give them the head start as they do start this second chapter.

• 44:59Brian Preston?

  So even though they're gonna be A-OK, what's the homework? What's the things they need to be working on? Because I'm already excited they're gonna get to see us have this after-action report. But what do they need to be working on?

• 45:09Speaker 03

  Well, the first thing is a little bit of blocking and tackling. They do not yet have a fully funded emergency funds. They need to figure out, is it three months of living expenses, is it six months? Where is that? And they need to work. Towards funding that so they can make sure nothing throws them off kilter on this great plan that they're on.

• 45:25Brian Preston?

  I agree with that.

• 45:26Speaker 03

  The other thing that I thought was interesting is they were talking about how that income of about $7,300 a month coming in, the burn rate was about $6,000. So in my mind, there's like this $1,300 gap that was unaccounted for. I'd love for them to figure out, how do we account for that?

• 45:40Brian Preston?

  Yeah, tighten it up a little bit so we don't have money just slipping out the back.

• 45:43Speaker 03

  And maybe that's a budgeting app, maybe it's some sort of tracker, something like that to help them figure out where that money's going. And then, once they know where their money's going, I want them to set a specific and distinct time to have a money date.

• 45:55Brian Preston?

  Uh, here's the thing, it doesn't need to feel like an intervention, like it's felt like. Because it sounds like in the past, Nathan has really made this intense. This needs to feel like a celebration or something they're doing together.

• 46:05Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 46:05Brian Preston?

  So it is fun, not something where you're holding somebody to account.

• 46:09Speaker 03

  Well, and that way where they both have a voice. Hey, here's what I want for the future. Here's what I want for the present. They can arrive at, okay, well, how do we attack both these goals? And then what I want them to do is I want them to automate that fun stuff. Those goals they have for the right now, whether it be travel, or kids' activities, or sports, or whatever that thing is, they can do sinking funds, they can do automatic savings, and they can go and check the box, knowing that money is going to those things, so they can be satisfied. And okay, we're saving for the future, we're building for the future, but we're also accounting for today. And if they can get on the same page, I think it'll remove a lot of that anxiety.

• 46:42Brian Preston?

  I absolutely can't wait for them to see this homework list, and as well as just to see how this all comes together with including the projections. Because look, I know for both Nathan and Indy, to be vulnerable and share this type of information is not the easiest thing. I'm just so happy they're united. If we wanted to bring on other guests, and people come and they see what we do, but where do people go if they want to be on Making a Millionaire?

• 47:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, if you'd like to be a guest on Making a Millionaire, go to moneyguy.com/apply. Or, if you want to take advantage of any of our free tools and resources, you can go to moneyguy.com/resources.

• 47:15Brian Preston?

  Guys, there is absolutely a better way to do money, and we are here day in, day out, trying to share that type of wealth and knowledge. I'm your host, Brian, joined by Mr. Bo, Money Guy Team, out.

• 47:28Speaker 03

  Making a Millionaire is hosted by Brian Preston and Beau Hanson. Brian and Beau are partners at 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 Making a Millionaire. 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. The guests featured on Making a Millionaire are not clients of Abound Wealth Management at the time of recording. Their participation should not be considered a testimonial or endorsement of Abound Wealth Management.