Here’s Where Wealthy People Put Their Money

Where do wealthy people put their money, and what money habits can you copy to build wealth yourself? Brian and Bo break down what the top 10% and millionaires actually own—from stocks, 401(k)s, real estate, businesses, and homes to the surprising ways wealthy people spend on time, health, and cars. You’ll learn how consistent investing, low-cost index funds, tax-advantaged retirement accounts, HSAs, smart homeownership, and responsible spending fit into long-term wealth building. If you’ve wondered how rich people invest, what millionaires do with their money, or how to build wealth without looking rich, this episode breaks down the data. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Jump start your journey with our FREE financial resources⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Reach your goals faster with our products⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Take the relationship to the next level: become a client⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube for early access and go beyond the podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Connect with us on social media for more content⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bring confidence to your wealth building with simplified strategies from The Money Guy. Learn how to apply financial tactics that go beyond common sense and help you reach your money goals faster. Make your assets do the heavy lifting so you can quit worrying and start living a more fulfilled life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:02Speaker 00

  The action's on the court and as the official beer sponsor of the NBA, Michelob Ultra is getting fans closer to the game with a chance to win courtside seats, merch and more. Visit michelobultra.com/courtside to enter. Michelob Ultra Courtside 26 to 27. No purchase necessary. Open to US residents 21+ Begins on October 1st, 2026 and ends on June 30th, 2027. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at michelobultra.com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes and details.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  Flowing ad budget on metrics that look great till the CFO sees them? That's bull spend and marketers are calling it out in Dashboard Confessions.

• 0:39Speaker 02

  I remember telling my boss, "It'll be good for the brand" when leads were slow. Yeah, it, it wasn't.

• 0:47Speaker 01

  Cut the bull spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 1:00Brian Preston?

  If you want to be wealthy, do what wealthy people do, right? But where do they put their money and what assets do they actually own? And what investments do they have?

• 1:08Speaker 04

  Brian, I am so excited because today we're going to reveal where wealthy people put their money to help them not only preserve, but also grow their wealth. And we're going to talk about the strategies that you can copy to apply to your own financial life.

• 1:22Brian Preston?

  So I'm Brian, he's Bo and this is the Money Guy Show where two financial advisors show you there's a better way to do money. And with that, let's jump right in.

• 1:36Speaker 04

  Yeah, Brian, according to the Federal Reserve, if you want to be in the top 10% of wealth in this country, you need to have a total net worth of about $1.9 million. And obviously you may be asking, okay, if, if folks have that kind of money, what is it that they spend their money on or where do they actually put their assets? And it might not be what you think.

• 1:56Brian Preston?

  Come on, Bo. I've seen enough episodes of Cribs.

• 1:59Speaker 04

  Uh huh.

• 2:00Brian Preston?

  I mean, we're, we're probably talking yachts, Rolexes, supercars. I've seen enough on my social media feed to have this figured out.

• 2:08Speaker 04

  Yeah. Well, when you actually look at the numbers, what's great is the Federal Reserve actually tracks this data. They look at, okay, well, where do wealthy people put their money? It's not in the places that you would think. And while you may not be in the top 10%, you may not be at that $1.9 million net worth stage yet. I would argue there are a lot of things that wealthy people do that you can copy even today to start putting yourself on that path.

• 2:35Brian Preston?

  So before we get into the yachts and supercars that I was talking about, you're probably going to start me off with number one, which is they buy back their time.

• 2:43Speaker 04

  That's exactly right. Wealthy people, they figure out that there is a way to actually exchange their dollars to buy back their time. This doesn't always mean luxury things. Sometimes it's outsourcing, low value tasks they just don't want to do. So they can focus on using their time for the things they actually care about.

• 3:04Brian Preston?

  Now, it looks like the content team had to dig deep on this one, but they did find research that shows that millionaires were nearly three times as likely as the general population to outsource many of the tasks that they don't enjoy.

• 3:16Speaker 04

  That's right. This can be things like cutting their lawn or cleaning their house. And so when you're at this level of wealth, you recognize that your time becomes more valuable as your financial circumstances change, as your income increases, as your responsibilities increase and as your complexity increases, your ability to buy back your time as those things happen become more and more and more important.

• 3:42Brian Preston?

  Now, I, I think it is important to put an asterisk on this and say, this is not actually what they did to become wealthy. It's just something to note that once they have actually built up a base level of assets, that they do outsource so they can use their time as they please. And in a sense, they are actually turning their money into time saved.

• 3:59Speaker 04

  That's exactly right. They recognize that time is money and money is time. So what's the strategy that you can copy? How can you begin to emulate that today? Recognize that right now you are going to trade your time for money until ultimately you get to the point and you build up assets to then where you can start trading your money for time.

• 4:22Brian Preston?

  Okay. Surely the next one is Rolexes, right?

• 4:24Speaker 04

  Sure. Obviously we've got to have fancy watches. No. Wealthy people, when it comes to where they put their money, they actually put their money in the stock market.

• 4:35Brian Preston?

  So if we compare and contrast typical Americans to wealthy Americans, it is interesting to note that 58% of all Americans own equities. And I think a lot of that's probably in retirement plans, like their 401K. But if you actually compare that to the top 10%, 96% in that top 10% of Americans do own equities.

• 4:54Speaker 04

  Yeah. And what's interesting is when we say own equities, I don't think that has to mean individual stocks. Exactly what you said, they're participating in their employer sponsored retirement accounts. They're, they're owning low cost index funds. They're owning mutual funds. And this is actually true because we know that research studies have found that when you look at how millionaires actually built their wealth, most millionaires say this is the way they did it. It was consistent, long-term saving and investing via the equity markets.

• 5:23Brian Preston?

  Kind of set it and forget it. Start early and often. And that's why I love that the stats show 80% of these millionaires attributed to investing in their 401K. 75% of the millionaires said regular, consistent investing over a long period of time was a big part of their success.

• 5:38Speaker 04

  Now, there's two specific things to point out here. Number one, they invested consistently. They weren't trying to go out there and figure out, okay, well, how do I put my money to work today? But then pull it out tomorrow and trying to time the market. And if you've listened to our content for any amount of time at all, you know, we believe that time in the market is way more viable than time in the market. And the numbers would suggest this. If you think about a $10,000 investment that was put into the S and P 500 in 1987, and it was left undisturbed until 2025, that $10,000 investment would have turned into $616,000.

• 6:19Speaker 04

  But if you missed just the one best year, you said, "I'm worried about the market. I'm nervous." And you just missed the one best year of performance in that timeline, your total would have dropped to 448,000. If you missed the best three years, it drops to 273,000. If you would have missed the best five consecutive years from 1987 all the way until 2025, instead of letting your $10,000 turn into 616,000, that $10,000 would have only turned into $175,000.

• 6:50Brian Preston?

  Now, a lot of you are probably looking at this slide and go, "Wait, man, I've seen other people who create content use these miss the days." We, we actually took a little different spin on this because a lot of times when you see this same period of time from like the eighties all the way to, to present day, people will say, "What if you miss the best days?" Like the best, you know, 10 days, 30 days, six months or whatever. But we were like, in our experience, we don't see that. We don't see people missing days. We see people when markets, you know, get their teeth kicked in, they, they jump out and they jump out for like years because they, because they start seeing it go back and they're like, "Well, it has to come back down." Or you see it the other way where they, they take a little money and they said, "Hey, I'm going to take a little profit,

• 7:31Brian Preston?

  put it in my back pocket or in the account and just wait this out because surely the market is overheated." Once again, they don't miss like 30 days at a time. They typically miss years. So we wanted to update this research to show, what does it look like when you actually miss the years? And I think you can see very dramatically, it is hard to get this right is because a lot of people, yes, even if the market's overvaluing, you get out, you're more than likely, you don't know when to get back in. And even if you time the market and get out before the next crash, when do you get back in there? That's the problem is nobody has the time machine. So you don't know when to get in, you don't know when to get out. So the best thing to do is just stay consistent and always be buying.

• 8:13Speaker 04

  That's exactly right. That's why we say always be buying. And a way that you can actually do that is to just automate your finances. Set it up so that it happens automatically without you having to think of it. And what's interesting is when you think about the idea of automating, the second thing that the millionaire study showed is that a vast majority of millionaires invested in their employer sponsored retirement accounts. It's one of the very best and easiest ways to set it and forget it. You let your dollars come out of every single paycheck and begin going into tax incentivized accounts, going into your 401K, going into your 403B, going into your 457. And if you can do that, it creates a natural mechanism where not only are you taking advantage

• 8:57Speaker 04

  of tax savings either today or tomorrow, but you're also setting a system that can automate and stay consistent no matter what's going on in the world around you.

• 9:05Brian Preston?

  And that's why, because you just laid out a bunch of stuff. I mean, different accounts act in different ways. You've got tax-free growth. You've got employer accounts where they even, you know, prompting or, or, if you think about they're, they're pouring gasoline in the carburetor by giving you free matching money from your employer. So you have to think about when's, when and how do, should I invest? And just like there's a better way to do math, you have to do PEMDAS to get the right order of operations for math, there's a better way to do money. And that's where the financial order of operations comes in. You don't have to come up with what the best way is. We've already figured it out for you. This is your all-terrain, all-weather vehicle that will get you through success.

• 9:42Speaker 04

  Now, now notice what the millionaires or wealthy people didn't do. They weren't investing in complicated life insurance products. They weren't out there trying to day trade or do some sort of algorithmic solution. They weren't speculating and they weren't participating in get rich quick schemes. They were staying. Steady and consistent. So what's the strategy that you can copy if you want to even employ that type of discipline in your life? Invest consistently in low-cost index funds within tax advantaged retirement accounts, following the financial order of operations, 401ks, Roth IRAs, HSAs. If you can do that, you will be emulating the same things that got millionaires to millionaire status.

• 10:27Brian Preston?

  So it's worth repeating, instead of trying to beat the market, just be the market. And if you're curious how much you should save and invest, we'd encourage you to go to moneyguy.com/resources, download our How Much You Should Save. And all you've got to do is look at the intersection points. How old am I currently? When do I want to retire? Voila. It's going to tell you how much you need to save and invest as a percentage of your gross income.

• 10:50Speaker 04

  All right, Brian. So we're talking about it. The top 10% of wealth in this country is like 1.9 million dollars. And the question we're asking is, what is it that wealthy people invest in? And are there strategies that we can copy where we are today to emulate that? And this next one, I don't think is going to be incredibly surprising, but it's a little bit different than one of the things that you hear us say all the time. And when you actually look at the data and actually look at the numbers, it is true that wealthy people do invest in real estate.

• 11:18Brian Preston?

  This one, this one's interesting because yes, we are, you know, fee-only financial planners. And a lot of people, when they hear we're fee-only financial planners, they're like, hey, you're never going to tell us about real estate because you don't make money off of doing the real estate. Well, I think you can tell very quickly, this is the thing about fiduciary advisors, is that we try to help our clients in all facets of their life. Yes, we love helping clients get into index funds and know how to be part of the market, but we also help clients constantly work through strategies, whether it's working through a cost segregation on some commercial property they're doing, or we're looking at residential rental property that they're doing. We do actually help clients kind of navigate this, especially the tax consequences, the cash flow analysis.

• 12:02Brian Preston?

  There's a lot that goes into it. So we love real estate. It's just a matter of doing it at the right time and the right place. You don't get yourself in a bad situation.

• 12:10Speaker 04

  Yeah. And when you actually look at the data, according to the Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, 69%, so seven out of 10 of the wealthiest 10% of Americans own some form of real estate outside of their primary residence. So this might be vacation homes, or rental properties, or commercial buildings, or condos. So investing in real estate is something that wealthy people do. Now, don't mishear us. We're not suggesting that real estate is required for you to be wealthy, required for you to be able to build wealth. But if you are at that stage, it can be a fantastic tool to help you do that.

• 12:47Brian Preston?

  Well, think about it. You get, it's an appreciating asset is because you think there's not more land being created. I mean, it's so it's great in that aspect. It's also a great income source. You know, a lot of times in retirement, you are looking for new streams of income. So it does check the box on that. Also, like, it's an inflation hedge. If you're worried about how the government is spending money, or how we're printing money, this is a way by owning assets like real estate, you can definitely work against that.

• 13:16Speaker 04

  But if you do it the wrong way, or what we see more often is if you actually, if you do it too soon, real estate is one of those things by nature of the fact that it's often very expensive, and it's often done with some form of leverage, it can lead to absolute disaster and financial ruin if you do it wrong.

• 13:36Brian Preston?

  So let's talk about do's and don'ts. And I think we came up with a short list here. Let's first go through the do's. You know, make sure you're actually putting down, down payments and not, and using leverage, meaning debt, in a reasonable manner. And that's, you know, a big part, if you want to know the reasonable, look at the cash flow. Especially, you know, I think a lot of times, we look at deals all the time, and the math just doesn't math. And you have to be honest, especially with what's happened with appreciation of real estate, and with interest rates in this current environment. If the math doesn't math, and the cash flow doesn't work, don't force the decision. So you have to have reserves, repairs, for maintenance. And then here's a big one, Bo, is you also have to plan for all the other stuff, because real estate is far from passive. You've got to plan for the taxes, the insurance, the repairs, the vacancies.

• 14:21Brian Preston?

  There's a lot of stuff that can happen in real estate, and you need to act accordingly.

• 14:25Speaker 04

  So what should you not do? Well, number one, don't begin investing in real estate or moving that direction. If you don't have a solid financial foundation, this is a step seven, step eight type activity, not a step three, four activity. If this is the first thing you're doing out of the gate when it comes to building your wealth, you're likely doing it wrong. Another thing we don't want you to do, don't take on too much debt. Just because the bank or some lending institution says that they'll let you borrow money, does not mean that you should borrow that money. You already alluded to this. Don't, sorry, don't assume that real estate is passive. It is not passive. If you don't believe us, go ask anyone out there that owns a piece of real estate,

• 15:05Speaker 04

  and they'll let you know. And don't forget that concentration risk is a real thing. You're all going to go buy a bunch of real estate. But if you buy a bunch of single-family rental properties inside of one community, inside of one geography, and something changes in that community, or changes in that geography, you are highly concentrated. So if all of your wealth is tied up in that thing, you put yourself at a lot of risk. Real estate's a fantastic tool. It's a fantastic opportunity, but it needs to be mixed in with a well-diversified and well-thought-out, total investment strategy.

• 15:38Brian Preston?

  So here's the strategy to copy, is invest in real estate if you're prepared to handle the risk. Don't get caught up in just the brochure. Yes, there are great tax incentives with depreciation and other things with real estate. Yes, you get leverage debt that can, you know, cause a multiple on your appreciation factor. But if you don't have the depth of pockets to handle the downturns, when you don't have other people's money coming in, you could be taking yourself out too far on the risk spectrum, and actually create failure that ruins your entire financial system. So we love real estate, but make sure you're at the right time and right place in your financial journey to handle what real estate brings.

• 16:22Speaker 04

  In that same breath, Brian, I feel like we're kind of stacking these ideas that kind of build upon each other. Because this next one is not incredibly different. When we look at the data, and we look at the study, when you think about the top 10% of wealthy folks in this country, a number of wealthy people either own a business, or they have some sort of equity in a business for which they work. Matter of fact, 48% of the 10% of the top 10% of Americans have some sort of equity. So it's really one and two. So businesses and business ownership is a common thread among wealthy people in this country.

• 16:58Brian Preston?

  Yeah, but let's be crystal clear on this. And look, we're pro-business. I mean, obviously, we're entrepreneurs as well. But this is the type of thing that it's boom, or it's bust, like literally bankruptcy. So that's the thing. I think you have to always throw a little cold water into situations so that people don't get too frothy. And that's why it's important to understand, two out of three businesses are no longer even in operation 10 years in the future. That is not a stat that people celebrate that, or even really disclose when they're putting out the brochure of why it's great to be in entrepreneurship.

• 17:31Speaker 04

  Yeah, if you think about it, when you start a business, when you move into entrepreneurship, you're naturally introducing in concentration risk, you're introducing in oftentimes liquidity risk, you're introducing a new stress that may not exist previously. So when we think about, and we love entrepreneurship, but if you are someone who's wired for it, and you're thinking, okay, maybe this is something I want to do, or I've got this idea, and I want to see if it's going to work, we would always encourage you, is there a way, and sometimes there's not, but is there a way for me to start small and build? Can I come up with some sort of MVP, some sort of minimum viable product, or minimum viable service, to prove that there's a market out

• 18:12Speaker 04

  there that desires this thing or this service that I can do? And is there a way for me to implement that at a low cost and low risk? If you have to go borrow tons of money, create some speculative product, speculative service, and hope that there are people out there to buy it, and you're betting the entire farm on that thing succeeding, I would argue that you're probably not doing it in the best manner possible.

• 18:35Brian Preston?

  So we'll give you the strategy to copy. And this is going to sound very similar to the real estate one is, only start a small business if you're financially ready, meaning you have that base underneath you and prepared to handle the risk. And I'd go a step further, is, you know, we always talk about, for especially people who are starting big changes in their life, put on your 3D glasses, meaning run a business plan that's going to chart out what the next five to seven years ago look like, both from the dream, this is the one that's easy, how I'm going to be so wealthy because everything's going to work out just swimmingly well. That's never going to happen, by the way. You could do the down-to-earth plan. That's the second D, down-to-earth for what you think will happen, some good stuff, some bad stuff, some struggles, but you're going to probably be okay. And then do not skip out on the doo-doo plan, meaning

• 19:17Brian Preston?

  that you've got to go ahead and look it in the eyes. What does it look like if this business fails? How am I going to pick up the pieces and not let this ruin my entire journey?

• 19:26Speaker 04

  Yeah, again, in terms of even how you think about the down-to-earth, the dream, and the doo-doo, is this business, or is this idea, is there some way it could even start as a fledgling side hustle? Is there some way that you can do it in conjunction with the thing that you're already doing, until you prove that it actually has long-term viability? And there's a lot of great businesses that started as side hustles. Nike, Spanx, Mailchimp, none of these were like out of the gate businesses that started. They all started on the side, and they gave themselves time to actually be able to be successful. So if this is something you're interested in, or something that you're curious about, we actually have a fantastic ultimate guide that

• 20:07Speaker 04

  you can use. Go to moneyguy.com/ultimateguide. And we have one for entrepreneurs, for people who think they want to move in this direction, to make sure that you can do it as wisely as possible, to give yourself the highest probability of success moving into this new endeavor.

• 20:24Brian Preston?

  All right, Bo, before we move on, let's do a shameless plug for Abound Wealth.

• 20:29Speaker 04

  I have no shame, because I'm mighty proud of the work that we get to do for our clients every single day.

• 20:35Brian Preston?

  Here at Abound Wealth, we're fee-only. We're fiduciary advisors. That means we're legally required to work in your best interest. And we love helping our clients optimize their army of dollar bills, so they can live their best life.

• 20:48Speaker 04

  And before you leave a mean comment about us self-promoting, keep in mind, Abound Wealth helps us keep this entire thing going, creating free content, growing the team, and changing the financial landscape.

• 21:00Brian Preston?

  We're honored you're watching and listening. And we hope you use this content to help you learn, apply, and grow your army of dollar bills. And when your financial life gets complicated, it'll happen. We'd love for you to come back to where it all started. That's The Money Guy Show and Abound Wealth.

• 21:16Speaker 04

  If you're ready to take the relationship to the next level, check us out at aboundwealth.com, or click the link below.

• 21:22Brian Preston?

  This next one's going to sound hot just because of how controversial this whole asset class is right now is, but we'll go ahead and share it. Wealthy people.

• 21:32Speaker 00

  The action's on the court and as the official beer sponsor of the NBA, Michelob Ultra is getting fans closer to the game with a chance to win courtside seats, merch and more. Visit michelobultra.com/courtside to enter. Michelob Ultra Courtside 26 to 27. No purchase necessary. Open to U.S. residents 21+. Begins on October 1st, 2026 and ends on June 30th, 2027. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at michelobultra.com/courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes and details.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  Blowing ad budget on metrics that look great till the CFO sees them. That's bull spend and marketers are calling it out in dashboard confessions.

• 22:10Speaker 02

  I remember telling my boss, it'll be good for the brand when leads were slow. Yeah, it, it wasn't.

• 22:17Speaker 01

  Cut the bull spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 22:30Brian Preston?

  They actually own their home.

• 22:32Speaker 04

  Yeah. Again, we're looking at the numbers and the data. This data is according to the Federal Reserve Surveying Consumer Finances and they did find that 95% of those top 10% of wealthy Americans do actually own their primary residence. In this instance, they're not renters.

• 22:50Brian Preston?

  Yeah, but look, there's also some bias in this stat from the recency of, you know, because we know wealth creation is something that typically takes 27 to 29 years. You know, most people cross into that two comma club, the seven figures when they're in their late 40s. So it makes a lot of sense to me that a lot of people who've already had that success that, you know, they were able to buy a house much easier. So if you're younger, I wouldn't let this discourage you. I think it's just something to have context. So you can figure out, what do I need to know in my own wealth building journey?

• 23:20Speaker 04

  And look, there is a reality. While 95% of the top 10% of wealth individuals do own a home, we genuinely believe that homeownership is not absolutely required to build wealth. Being a homeowner today is very different and looks very different than it did 10, 20, 30 years ago. And that's not saying that one is better, worse, easier, harder. It's just a reality. And if you don't believe us, we actually did a show titled, Things Have Changed. Should You Buy or Rent in 2026? And if you're someone who's trying to figure out, does homeownership make sense for me? Should I be a renter? How do I still build wealth, given where I fall in that spectrum? Go check out that show because we do not

• 24:01Speaker 04

  believe that it's one size fits all. We do not believe that you have to be a homeowner in order to be wealthy and to live a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.

• 24:09Brian Preston?

  But I am here to tell you, we want to give you the, the tools so that if the market changes and it becomes much better to buy your, your principal residence, here's some things that are benefits to home and owning your own home is that you are building equity, you know, while you're paying for the house you live in. You also, this counts towards your net worth. Now it's hard to use this in retirement because it is your shelter, but I do like the fact that real estate naturally is kind of an inflation hedge. It appreciates over time, but also I like that you just, when you're in retirement and going across that threshold, it's nice if you have your housing expenses locked in.

• 24:46Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 24:47Brian Preston?

  Homeownership does allow you to go through that experience, knowing what your annual expenses are going to be out on homeownership.

• 24:53Speaker 04

  But keep in mind, housing is a very personal decision. So even with these benefits and even with how amazing it sounds, and even with how many other people would say, oh, do it, do it, do it. You have to make sure that it aligns with your goals. So what's the strategy for you to copy? Buy a home if it aligns with your goals and lifestyle, but don't feel like it's something you must do in order to build wealth. And if you are someone who's going to buy a home or you are someone who's interested in doing that, we would argue there's a better way to do it. The conventional wisdom has changed a little bit. We subscribe to the idea of 3525. When it comes time to buy your first home, we don't think you have to put down 20%. We're perfectly okay if you put down 3% on your first home. You want to make sure that you can see yourself being in that home for at

• 25:37Speaker 04

  least five years and you want to make sure that your total housing costs do not exceed 25% of your monthly gross income. If you can do that, if you can make sure you fall inside of those thresholds, you're going to likely put yourself in a situation where you don't become house rich and life poor.

• 25:54Brian Preston?

  Well, and I think we can close out this, this tip with, once again, I'm going to just give you the website. You guys are probably starting to notice a trend. Go to moneyguy.com/resources. You're like, is there really that much free stuff sitting out there with all these calculators, these buying gods? Yes. Get in there and get that. We've designed this entire abundance cycle where you take as much free stuff as you possibly can to learn, apply, accelerate your journey. And then we're hopeful one day you go have so much success that it creates complexity. That's when you'll probably need us. But I love that I get to give this next transition because if you look at my business partner here, he might know a little bit of something about this next point. And as we're talking about wealth, things that wealthy

• 26:36Brian Preston?

  people invest in, without a doubt, they invest in their health.

• 26:40Speaker 04

  Yeah. I, I would even argue, you know, even some of these other ones, you can fight us on, oh, I don't need to, I don't need to own a home or I don't need to own a business or I don't own real estate. And look, we're not going to fight you on that. But I would argue if you're someone who's neglecting your health, no matter what age you are, whether you're the 22 year old or the 72 year old, if you're neglecting your health, you're likely not setting yourself up for a great future. And the numbers would suggest this. According to UBS, 92% of wealthy investors said that their wealth or that their health is actually a thing, or their wealth is a thing that allowed them to live a healthier life, meaning because they made the decisions to defer some of today for tomorrow, to build

• 27:22Speaker 04

  up their resources, they were actually in a position where health could become a priority. And 90% said that investing in their health was more important than growing their wealth. So I don't think that those two are mutually exclusive. I think they have to actually work together. If you really don't want, if you really want to live your best future.

• 27:42Brian Preston?

  Well, I mean, look, some of this is self proving is because once you start having a little success, I mean, it does, you're past the survival side of, of what money can and cannot do for you. So you start thinking more about your mortality and you know, and that's when you will start, you do the concierge doctor. That's when you do the gym memberships. That's when you maybe talked about a nutritionist or do a meal plan. So you can do macros. All this stuff's kind of goes on that trend that I think you do see people that are spending a lot of time working on longevity because they realize that there, this is something they can invest in and they see the results in their, their quality of life.

• 28:20Speaker 04

  Yeah. And so, okay. Well, what does it mean? What does it mean to actually invest in your health? And I want to be clear, this is not for just once you get wealthy. This is not for later on in life. I would argue this is for every stage, no matter where you're at, no matter where this is reaching you. Uh, Brian, we have a really good friend, a doctor buddy of ours. And he said, if you want to change your life, there are really three pillars to health that you ought to focus on. It's how you move your body, how you feed your body, and then how you recover your body, how you let it restore itself. So how do you sleep? What are you eating and how are you moving? If you're not focusing on those three areas and putting some, some priority around those three areas, it will

• 29:02Speaker 04

  catch up to you. It's just a matter of when. You cannot bad diet, bad sleep, bad exercise yourself into a better future. So you might as well start investing in those things now.

• 29:13Brian Preston?

  Well, I, I think this goes into the preventative care side of things. There's so much, if you've read all the books I have on, you know, trying to really extrapolate this health is wealth, you know, a lot of times you'll find is that yes, most Americans live to be their late seventies, but the functional part of that lifespan can be severely limited, meaning that if you lose your mobility or you're cognitively not the same because some influences coming in there caused dementia or some other issues that come your way, you can quickly realize, hey, if I can just be preventative on this, I might get more of the usable part of my health. So I can make all those blossoming memories. I can live my best life and not have regret. So that's why I think it is a healthy thing.

• 29:57Brian Preston?

  Invest like a millionaire and make sure your health is a priority.

• 30:00Speaker 04

  And if it is a priority, it will show even in terms of how you handle risk management. Are you doing things like having appropriate health insurance? Not just going out and buying the lowest cost, most catastrophic coverage and never using it. Are you actually making wise decisions? Do you have things like disability insurance in place? If some unknown, unknown thing were to happen to you, have you made sure that both you and your loved ones are going to be okay and going to be taken care of in that instance? Part of managing your health is managing the things that you can control, but also having an active role in trying to mitigate the risk that comes from the things that you cannot control.

• 30:36Brian Preston?

  Okay. A lot of you are probably watching this go, I'm sold. I want to start investing in my health. What's, is there a better way to do it? Man, no, man, do we have you loaded up. There's a reason. Step number five of the financial order of operations on tax-free growth opportunities is your health savings account. We love health savings accounts because these things and more to come on this are triple, if not even quattro tax advantage. But Bo, what is a health savings account?

• 31:00Speaker 04

  Yeah, literally is the type of tax advantage savings account that for folks that are enrolled in a high deductible health plan, you're eligible to contribute to it. And the money that you put in can be there and that money can ultimately be used to pay for qualified medical expenses. But there is a reason that these accounts are different than other types.

• 31:22Speaker 04

  Of accounts like a regular brokerage account or like your 401k because they have some very unique and distinct tax advantages. Number one, when you participate or when you contribute to an HSA, no matter what your income is, no matter how high your income is, you get a tax deduction on the contributions on the front end when you put the money into the account.

• 31:42Brian Preston?

  And if you put the money to actual work, meaning you got your deductibles covered and now you're actually starting to invest that money, the money that you've invested within your health savings account can actually grow tax deferred.

• 31:53Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 31:53Brian Preston?

  And then if you use this on qualified medical expenses, tax-free distributions, very few things give you a deduction on the front end and then give you tax-free distribution after they grown. That's what makes these things, even in a lot of ways, even more powerful than a Roth IRA, and that pains me to say that out loud. But then we like to put, that's the three for the triple tax advantage. There is an honorable mention, quattro, which is if your employer offers this health savings account along with the high deductible health insurance, because that is required, you might even be able to exempt yourself out of the FICA and Medicare taxes on your salary deferrals into these health savings accounts.

• 32:31Speaker 04

  And so what's really interesting is so these accounts have gotten more popular, even though people recognize that HSAs are a thing and they have these sort of like three or four distinct tax advantages, only about 13% of the adult population uses them taking advantage of these distinct benefits. So if you want to be in that 13%, if you want to be one of the folks who actually optimizes their HSA, this is what it looks like. Every year, you have to make sure that you participate in a high deductible health plan. That's what is going to allow you to put money into your HSA. And then you want to contribute the maximum amount, depending on if you are covered under individual coverage or family coverage. You're then going to invest that money inside the HSA, let it grow, oftentimes in like low-cost index

• 33:15Speaker 04

  funds. Whenever you have a medical expense, you're going to pay for those medical expenses with money out of your pocket. You're not going to use the HS dollars. You're going to pay for it and you're going to save that receipt, either in a digital repository or somehow in a spreadsheet. So you're keeping track of expenses that you've incurred. And then at some point in the future, after your dollars have grown tax-deferred, after those dollars have turned into bigger and bigger numbers because of compounding interest, you can actually go and reimburse yourself. So you may be in a situation 10 years from now where you get to reimburse yourself for medical expenses that were incurred a decade ago, and you're getting to do it with earnings that have never, ever been taxed. It is a totally tax-free exchange.

• 33:56Brian Preston?

  So to kind of close this out, you know, a lot of what we talk about in personal finances, small decisions you make that have huge results for the future. So the strategy to copy when it comes to your health, to think like a millionaire or a very successful person does, once again, make small decisions. Use a small portion of what you have coming in today to invest in your long-term health. And I'm telling you, your future older self will thank you with sloppy tears, happy tears in the future, because you're going to have more usable time and build your great, big, beautiful tomorrow.

• 34:29Speaker 04

  All right, Brian, here it is. This is the one that you've been waiting on. We've been talking about, you've alluded to it.

• 34:33Brian Preston?

  This is the supercars, right?

• 34:35Speaker 04

  This is the one.

• 34:35Brian Preston?

  Supercars, Rolexes and yachts. I keep waiting for those to show up.

• 34:38Speaker 04

  That's right. When we think about where wealthy people spend their money, it is true, it is in fact accurate, wealthy people spend their money on vehicles.

• 34:48Brian Preston?

  All right, we're finally here. So go ahead and lay it down for me where Lambo, Ferrari, where, I mean, I'm kind of excited to see where my peers are loading up so that we can show it off.

• 34:59Speaker 04

  So according to Experian, when we think about wealthy people and how they spend, 61% of households making over $250,000, so these are high-earning households, don't drive luxury brands. Instead, even these households that are very high-earning, they drive cars like Hondas, like Toyotas and Fords. They buy cars and they spend money on cars, but they are not buying expensive luxury brands.

• 35:26Brian Preston?

  Now, look, there's a lot of, lot of flex in this because yes, more than half, 61%, drive your millionaire next door Toyotas and Hondas and Fords that we've all been taught. But that does leave 39% that are probably, they're doing something else. But I do think it is worth noting, let's, let's talk about why vehicles, I think for people who know how to use resources well, why they don't love vehicles. For most vehicles out there, they depreciate like a rock. And I think that's what wealthy people know. Are there other things people should know about vehicles?

• 36:01Speaker 04

  Well, yeah, so they depreciate like a rock. And I think a lot of wealthy people recognize, hey, I just don't want my money to disappear that way. However, in reality, when we're thinking about the top 10% of net worth across Americans, realistically, at that level, vehicles are usually a very small percentage of a wealthy person's net worth. And Brian, you already alluded to that, oh, the 39%. If you are someone who's in the top 10% of net worth, and you have a net worth of $1.9 million, say, you know what, I've deferred gratification, I'm at this stage now, and I want to drive a luxury brand, and I want to go out and buy a 2026 BMW X5. I want to go buy a nice luxury automobile, and that automobile is going to cost over $70,000.

• 36:46Speaker 04

  And that's a lot of money to pay for a car. In reality, that represents about 3.7% of your total net worth. I think we have to ground ourselves and recognize that if you are the median American who has a median net worth right now of $191,000, in purely percentage terms, that would be the equivalent of that median American going to buy a 2016 10-year-old Nissan Altima for $7,100. At the end of the day, even though it's an expensive car, even though it's an expensive purchase, it is a small fraction of a wealthy person's net worth, and that's okay. They have now earned their right to spend that money, spend their money if that's the way they choose to.

• 37:28Brian Preston?

  So I think this more, more or less, and this is something we've always shared, is where you are in your journey.

• 37:34Speaker 04

  It matters.

• 37:35Brian Preston?

  You know, because that is the big part. If you are like step eight and beyond in the financial order of operations, you're probably not faking it anymore. And you can, because it's back to your point. So I think that's why we can get to strategies to copy, is don't let a large percentage of your net worth go into depreciating vehicles. There's a reason, what I love about this, is this is why we've created rules like 238 to have you, help you have kind of boundaries or know where the guardrails are, is because this is things go protect you in several ways. First of all, large down payment, 20%, so you can go ahead and get ahead of any depreciation that's out there. You're going to have to pay it off within three years. So, so just so the fact that you can make sure the depreciation is not eating you

• 38:18Brian Preston?

  alive, and it also make sure your cash flow and your budget, you know, so that your car compared to what you have coming in, doesn't get cattywampus. And then I love that we've made this where it's 8% of your gross monthly income. Now, we do have some notes. These are key distinctions. Notice this says luxury cars, same as cash.

• 38:38Speaker 04

  That's right, one year.

• 38:39Brian Preston?

  Yeah, one year, same as cash, because we never know how your cash flow is coming in and out. We want to give you some, some grace or flexibility on that. But we're not talking about Ferraris, Lambos, Mercedes, BMWs. With this 238 is to get you reliable transportation to and from your job, so you can slowly turn time, you know, that you're investing to make money, so that eventually you own more and more assets. And then the other thing that's key is make sure that your investments, what you have going in every month, is exceeding what's going into the car. I think the big takeaway for me is people driving around, hopefully in the luxury cars, I'm hoping that they're actually rich, not just trying to look rich.

• 39:17Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's much better to actually be rich than to look rich. And if you're someone who's in the car market, you're trying to figure out how much car can I afford? Again, we have a fantastic calculator. Go to moneyguide.com/resources and play with our car buying calculator. You can put in your income, you can put in the interest rate available to you, you can put in what your current monthly car payment is, or what you want your current monthly car payment to be, and it'll adjust and show you, okay, what is the amount of car that I could afford? Again, if you can do this, if you can work through this exercise, it's going to prevent you from getting out ahead of your skis and buying too expensive of a car too early in your financial journey.

• 39:56Brian Preston?

  I think a good way to kind of put a bow on all this is that a lot of us, when we think of millionaire and beyond, we're kind of doing that, that to borrow from Morgan Housel. He talks about most people who aspire to be millionaires, like be lottery winners or big windfalls, that you're daydreaming about how you would spend a million dollars, not actually how you live like a millionaire. And what we've seen by, by doing today's show is, is I want you to live like a true millionaire. That's where you actually know the value of your time. You know that you should buy assets. So no matter what's going on, you don't have to work so hard with your back, your brain, your hands, because your assets start generating just as much, if not even more than what you do. There are better ways to do money. And a lot of

• 40:40Brian Preston?

  you, if you could check the box on every one of these things we went through, and you realize, hey, these guys seem like they have an understanding of what people with wealth have done. I love what they've done, but I've realized, I'm kind of at the point, I went through the journey that they talked about, but now my simple life and all the good things I did, man, oh, man, has the success become very complex. And not only has it become complex, I just don't have the time in the day to do this. And our, my spouse, she just doesn't have the interest to understand this as well as I would like. And what happens when I'm no longer here? That's when we're going to leave the porch light on for you. We work with clients all across the country. We'd love for you to remember the abundance cycle. Who planted the seeds with

• 41:21Brian Preston?

  all those great free resources that were on moneyguide.com/resources? If your life's not complicated enough that you don't need us, that's a-okay. Get in there and get some of that free stuff, accelerate your journey. But when it does get to that point, and it will, I promise, no matter how successful you feel like you are on the journey, one day you will wake up with this complexity, we'll leave the porch light on for you. I'm your host, Brian, joined by Mr. Bo, Money Guy team, out.

• 41:47Speaker 05

  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.

• 42:27Speaker 06

  Hey, Bo's here. When your next track starts, listen for the decisions that the artist makes. The vocal pushed right up front, the bass that waits half a beat, that sample from a 70s underground gem, every choice deliberate. With Bo's, you'll hear it all. Your music deserves Bo's.

• 42:53Speaker 07

  When you shop pickup at Kroger, you can expect the savings you love and fresh groceries selected just for you. Our associates are committed to getting every detail right, carefully handpicking your items, checking for quality and freshness, and packing your order with care. Because bringing you fresh, quality groceries is what we do best. And right now, enjoy $20 off your first online order of $75 or more. Restrictions apply. See site for details. Kroger, fresh for everyone.