Pod Insights Money Guy Show How to Master Your Money in 9 Steps About this episode Building wealth is simple when you know what to do - and when. We walk through the Financial Order of Operations, our nine-step, next-dollar plan that takes you from covering your highest deductible to capturing the employer match, killing high-interest debt, maximizing tax-free growth, and even deciding when to pay off low-interest debt. Follow the steps, bedazzle your basic life, and move confidently toward your great big beautiful tomorrow.
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.
NordVPN.com/MONEYGUY
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 LinkedIn is pretty amazing at helping you grow your small business. We cannot stop your new clients from emailing you at 3 a.m. We can help you sell, market, and hire in one place. We cannot help you be in three places at once. And while we can't help you organize your calendar, LinkedIn can help you land more clients so you have a calendar to organize. Grow your small business on LinkedIn. Learn more at LinkedIn.com/smallbusiness.
0:30 Speaker 01 The best part of waking up? A full cup of Folgers coffee and music on full blast.
0:56 Speaker 01 Shop Folgers instant coffee and more at your nearest retailer.
1:00 Brian Preston? Building wealth can be so simple when you know what to do and when.
1:05 Speaker 03 Brian, I am so excited about this because while, yes, personal finance is personal, we know that there are some reliable ways to build wealth, no matter who you are, and we want to share those with all of you today.
1:17 Brian Preston? So we're going to go over what to do with your next dollar in nine simple steps. How to make progress and how to build your great, big, beautiful tomorrow.
1:34 Speaker 03 All right, Brian, let's talk about this system that we have come up with that we affectionately call the Financial Order of Operations. It's a nine-step process to help you figure out what you should do with your very next dollar because we think that wealth building does not have to be complicated and we want to make it as simple for you as possible.
1:54 Brian Preston? Yeah, please go out there, moneyguy.com/resources. You too can download. It won't be laminated.
2:02 Brian Preston? But still, you can download our nine steps to the financial order of operations.
2:06 Speaker 03 Now, I think it's important, Brian, before we jump into these nine steps and kind of go through each one of them, there are some base layers that we ought to uncover. We just affectionately call these the ground rules. These are not necessarily distinct steps in the financial order of operations, but they are foundational to the financial order of operations being able to work for you.
2:26 Brian Preston? Yeah, let's kind of jump into some of these. The first one is kind of know thyself. Know your why is because if you, if you realize very early on, as you start on this journey of building wealth, money is only a tool. So you have to kind of have some reflection to figure out how you're actually going to harness the power of this tool to know what makes you happy, what it can and cannot do for you. So that's why we say spend some time understanding, know your why.
2:50 Speaker 03 The other thing that we believe is we believe that generosity is rewarding. We don't think that you have to reach some specific level of financial success to be able to begin being generous. So whether you have $1 or $1 million, we want you to be generous all throughout the process. It's not a specific step in the order because really money only only adds an exclamation mark to who you currently are. So if you can be generous with a little, there's a good chance that you're going to be able to be generous with a lot.
3:20 Brian Preston? Yeah. And then the last thing is, is bedazzle your basic life. What in the world does that even mean? Well, here's what it means is that I don't want you to be such a financial miser through your twenties, thirties and forties that what you wake up and you think, oh, now I'm going to live my best life in my fifties because I've done all this sacrifice. No, you need to actually live a life that lets you maximize each decade of your life. Now, that doesn't mean that you go run up the credit card or get yourself in a lot of financial trouble. It just means every decade of your life, bedazzle your basic life, meaning there's ways that you can still go on vacation without breaking the bank. There's ways that you can make sure that you're still getting all the memories, the experiences and everything else without really shortchanging your future self.
4:04 Speaker 03 Now, it's important for us to recognize that while the financial order of operations is these nine steps and they kind of move sequentially in order. The foo is not a straight line. Often people think that I'm going to go from step one to step two to step three, but as life unhappens, as it actually unfolds, our financial order of operations for us personally is a little bit different. We might be in step three for a while and go back to step four and then jump up to step six, then have to go back down to step three again. And that's okay. It's okay if the financial order of operations is not linear. We want it to be a tool that will equip you to know what to do with your next dollar, no matter where you find yourself at today.
4:47 Brian Preston? So with that, let's jump right in. Step number one, this is to protect you from making those desperate decisions, is we got to have your highest insurance deductible covered.
4:58 Speaker 03 What I think is so interesting, Brian, is this is, this is before investing. This is before saving. This is before putting your money to work, because we believe when it comes to your finances, the things you want to make sure you do right out of the gate is keep your life from falling in the ditch.
5:13 Brian Preston? Well, it's not a matter of if, it's just a matter of when life is going to take a left turn on you. And sadly, we know the stat out there is every year you can set a clock to it is approximately 59 to 60% of Americans can't even come up with a thousand dollars. So you can already see, it doesn't take much for the typical American to get in a situation where they are making desperate decisions because they don't have enough cash in the bank to even get them out of those emergencies.
5:39 Speaker 03 So what a lot of people don't realize, Brian, is that, okay, they're going to say, all right, I don't want my money sitting idly by. I don't, I don't want to have my highest deductible, my, my auto insurance deductible, my health deductible, my homeowners deductible. I want my money to be working for me. So don't mishear us. We're not saying, you know, bury this highest deductible inside your mattress. What we are saying is, hey, put that money aside, even if you hold it inside like a high yield savings account, earning three and a half, 4% interest, you can have it there. But once you do that, once you set it aside, then you can start thinking about the exciting part of wealth building.
6:15 Brian Preston? Yeah. I mean, I think the biggest thing is it keeps you from making those desperate decisions. It could be way more expensive than even the opportunity. What this could be earning and that leads to let's talk about what do you need to do to complete step number one?
6:27 Speaker 03 Yeah, if you want to be able to move on in the financial order of operations. Number one, you need to determine where to save. Okay, where am I going to put this high deductible? But we love high yield savings accounts, high yield money market mutual funds somewhere that's purely liquid, purely cash that can be there for you. And you got to figure how much you go look at all your deductibles and figure out, okay, which one's the highest one? How much am I going to save? And then you got to figure out what's the behavior that I'm going to implement in order to create that margin so that I can actually put that money aside and check the box on step one.
7:00 Brian Preston? All right, that's step one. Let's get into something a lot more exciting. Go get that free money from your employer match. That's step number two.
7:09 Speaker 03 That's right. A lot of us, we work for companies and it says, okay, if you have a 401k or a 403B or some type of account like that, if you're willing to put some of your hard earned money into that account, your employer is willing to match that, put money in for it. It's literally free money. All you got to do is show up.
7:26 Brian Preston? And a lot of people realize your employer is offering you like 50%, 100% guaranteed rate of return. How do you pass this up? This is why this is step number two of our system is because it is that valuable to you. But here's the thing that blows my mind. And by the way, we saw this stat is that it says one in four Americans are not getting their full employer match. I've done 401k presentations where different sources have shown this data. Sometimes this point gets as high as 30% of Americans are missing out on employer money. Guys, what are we doing? If I left out free money for you, every one of you would walk by, pick that money up.
8:06 Brian Preston? But somehow we leave thousands of dollars alone that our employer is offering us and that's just a disaster for the long term.
8:14 Speaker 03 So you may be asking the question, wait, guys, what if I have debt? What if I have credit cards? What if I have this sort of stuff going on? There's a reason that step to employer matches before we even talk about any of your debt payments, because a 50% or 100% imputed rate of return is even better than the predatory.
8:31 Speaker 03 Rates that credit card companies are charging. That's why we have it so far up in the financial order of operations. So if you want to be able to complete step two, there are a few things you need to do. Number one, you need to understand the details of your plan. How does my company calculate my contribution? Is it dollar for dollar? Is it 50 cents on the dollar? Is it some sort of tiered structure? And how does it actually work? If I put money in today, is that money that my employer puts in my money today? Or is there some sort of vesting schedule? There's some sort of time period I have to wait before it becomes my money. Once you understand the details, then you can decide, okay, well, how much should
9:12 Speaker 03 I contribute? And our answer is as much as it takes to get all of that employer match.
9:18 Brian Preston? And then set it and forget it. I mean, that's the thing is this is one of those things where I want your long-term behavior to be rewarded by being consistent, because it doesn't do you any good to do this one year and then cut it off. No, I want you to set it, forget it, let your money be working silently in the background, building up that stealth wealth.
9:35 Speaker 03 All right, Brown, we talked about how employer match can be like a 50%, 100% imputed rate of return. And that's the reason why we prioritize it over other things. But then, as we get to step three, we kind of move down the rung. And this is one that we really want people to focus on. We really want them to knock out after the employer match. And that's any sort of high interest debt you have there working against.
9:57 Brian Preston? Yeah, I mean, think about this, because a lot of people will be like, wait a minute, high interest debt, what about, what about filling up that emergency fund? I'm like, wait a minute, when you are paying banks 20% plus, we don't make, when we talk about doing financial planning or investment planning for clients, we're not putting 20% in any of our assumptions. But somehow it is completely expected that banks are going to charge us this much. You'll never, ever, ever get ahead if you are paying banks high interest debt, thinking that you're going to build wealth. No way it would. It just doesn't work.
10:28 Speaker 03 Now, as a quick aside, I want you to recognize, we're not saying here, okay, you can't use credit cards, because credit cards are a type of high interest debt. We're talking about you cannot carry a credit card balance. If you use credit cards, that's fine. If you do not treat debt with the respect it deserves, because it can be a very useful tool, but if used inappropriately, it can be very, very dangerous. And if you don't believe us, just think about this mathematic here. If you had $5,000 in credit card debt, and you had a 20% interest rate over the course of a year, that's going to cost you $1,000. Now, on the flip side of that, you had $5,000 in investments, and it made a
11:08 Speaker 03 very healthy 8% rate of return, which is great. You made $400. You can see that it takes a lot of $400 to replace that $1,000 you would have lost with that egregious predatory interest rate. It's why you have to get high interest debt knocked out.
11:25 Brian Preston? Well, this is what I hate about debt. And this is why we call it chainsaw dangerous, is because it just seems so simple. It seems like it is a bridge to all of your answers, all of your problems you have. Because right now, you don't make a lot of money, but you have all these life needs. You're like, well, you know what? I'll use this debt bridge of credit card debt to protect me and get me there, because I'll make more money down the road. I'll just pay myself back. I'll pay it back. And even the money that I missed out on investing, I'll make that up, too. But guys, I'm telling you, this is a bridge to nowhere. Because, yes, that $1,000 was already expensive. But guys, anybody who's listened to our content knows, we don't only talk about just how much was lost. We talk about what that would be worth, because you are a billionaire of time. All of my young
12:10 Brian Preston? people watching this, your most valuable resource is that time. This, for a 20-year-old, $1,000 lost in that year just through consumption, could have potentially become $88,000 at retirement. That is what the opportunity cost was on this. So it's not only stealing from you through cost of interest that you're paying to these banks, it's costing what that money could be for you in the future in your financial independence journey.
12:38 Speaker 03 And here's what's devastating. We know that right now, according to a LendingTree survey, one half of all Americans, 50%, carry a credit card balance month to month. 50% of Americans are Are paying these high interest rates for absolutely no reason. So if you're in this situation, if you're, if you're one of these 50%, what we want you to do is figure out, how do I get out of this? How do I get out of this high interest debt? And there are two very common methods when it comes to paying off debt. The first is a debt snowball. You may have heard of this where you pay off all of your balance, the smallest to largest. And this helps build behavior. You get small wins early on and then it compounds and compounds and compounds.
13:21 Speaker 03 If that is the way that you want to pay off your debt, that's great. The other alternative is what we like. It's called the debt avalanche, where you list all of your debts, starting with the high interest, highest interest rate, and you begin knocking out that highest interest rate. This is the most effective and optimal way to pay the least amount of interest. But whether you do the avalanche or the snowball does not matter so long as you're doing something to begin getting out of this high interest debt.
13:47 Brian Preston? So let's actually start figuring out, how do we get traction? How do we get out of this debt? To complete step number three, here's the first thing. Let's write down, actually create a list of all of your debts. List your debts, list what the interest rates are on these debts, figure out how much you have to wrangle to get control of your financial life. Cause look, we're not anti-debt people. Now, I will tell you, I use credit cards. Credit card use is A-OK, but credit card debt, no way, because there's no way I am going to pay the bank 20-plus percent. So determine which of your debts, after you list them all out, are what we consider high interest debt, and then create a plan on how you're going to pay it off as fast as possible.
14:29 Speaker 00 LinkedIn is pretty amazing at helping you grow your small business. We cannot make your email response time faster. We can help you sell, market, and hire in one place. We cannot help you find space for your three desk drinks. Why do you have three? And while we can't help you find the perfect volume for your presentation video, LinkedIn can help you find the perfect audience for your business. Grow your small business on LinkedIn. Learn more at LinkedIn.com/smallbusiness.
14:58 Speaker 01 The best part of waking up? A full cup of Folgers coffee and music on full blast.
15:25 Speaker 01 Shop Folgers Instant Coffee and more at your nearest retailer.
15:28 Brian Preston? Possible.
15:29 Speaker 03 And then, once you get all those high interest debts knocked out, then you get to move on. You get to move on to step four in the financial order of operations, building a fully funded emergency fund.
15:42 Brian Preston? Yeah, I think it's so interesting. In our financial order of operations, nine steps. But yet, out of nine steps, two of those steps are specifically to having cash on hand for emergencies or bad things. This is back to the point, guys. It's not a matter of if an emergency or bad thing is coming your way. It's a matter of when will this bad situation come? So you can imagine our shock and awe perspective when we find out 72% of Americans do not have a fully funded emergency fund. What are these people going to do when life comes and creates an emergency that they need to have resources for?
16:18 Speaker 03 So if you are one of those 72% of Americans that does not have a fully funded emergency fund, here's what I want you to do. Step number one, we want you to determine what is your actual cash reserve need? Do I need three months of living expenses? Do I need six months of living expenses? Am I nearing or in retirement and I might need 12 to 18 months of living expenses in liquid cash? Once I've defined that number, once I know what that is, once I've looked at my variables to determine which one is right for me, then I want to begin building on step one. I already had my highest deductible. I already have that put aside. I want to start adding to that until I get that fully funded emergency fund. Once I've done that, I can check off the box for step four and I can move to step five.
17:01 Brian Preston? All right. Let's talk about step five. What I like, this is where we actually end the wealth building journey, maximizing that beautiful element of tax-free growth.
17:14 Speaker 03 And when we think about tax-free growth, there are generally two types of accounts that allow us to have that. The first is a Roth IRA or also potentially a Roth 401K. And the other is a health savings account, which is a special Type of account available to folks who have access to it because they're covered under a high deductible insurance plan. These are two of our favorite accounts because of exactly what Brian said. They allow your dollars to grow completely tax free.
17:44 Brian Preston? Yeah, I mean, think about it. The government is going to restrict how much and who can put money in these. Why? Because the getting is so good that that's why they're kind of limiting this once in a year opportunity for you. So don't sleep on this. Now, I want to take some credit for something that I think is pretty powerful. For years, I was talking about how health savings accounts are great stealth wealth builders. Meaning this is something you can start building on your net worth statement every year. And for a year, the stat was 4% of Americans are using health savings accounts for investments, not just as clearing accounts for their healthcare costs for the year. I'm happy to report that number has been increased to 13% of Americans are now actually investing
18:25 Brian Preston? the money that they put into these health savings accounts into these long-term investments. I like to think this is what we call a money guy echo.
18:34 Speaker 03 I love it. And if you are someone who is able to do this and you are able to take advantage of this, health savings accounts give you tons of flexibility over how you're able to access and use those dollars in the future. Just so that you know, right now, this year, the health savings accounts limit is $4,300 for single individuals or $8,550 for families. On the Roth IRA side, assuming you're eligible to contribute directly to a Roth IRA, you can do up to $7,000 per year, per individual, or 8,000 if you're over the age of 50. Now, as much as we love both of these accounts, there are some caveats you need to be aware of. Not everyone can contribute to an HSA account. You have to be covered under a high deductible plan.
19:17 Speaker 03 And not everyone can contribute to a Roth IRA. You have to be under the income level to be able to do that. So if you want to complete step five, if you want to be able to move along in the financial order of operations, you need to be able to contribute enough to the Roth IRA. So $7,000 directly, or if you're over the income threshold. You make too much to contribute directly, you need to determine if you can do backdoor Roth contributions where you fund a nondeductible IRA and have the ability to convert that to a Roth IRA.
19:47 Brian Preston? Yeah, like I said, they restrict these things. It's also earned income is required as well. So that's why, guys, don't sleep on this. You know, one of the first things is that Roth IRA, as you start funding that, you go and you start seeing the power of that compounding growth. I've shared when I wrote Millionaire Mission, I have my own regrets that I did not maximize the Roth every year that it was available to me. Don't have those regrets for yourself. Maximize these unique tax-free growth opportunities.
20:13 Speaker 03 And so not only the Roth, but then if you are eligible, max out your HSA. Once you satisfied both of those tax-free savings opportunities, then you get to go to step six of the Financial Order of Operations, which is max out your employer-sponsored retirement account.
20:28 Brian Preston? So think about this. When we talk about this, when we're talking about most of your employers, we've already talked about that free matching money. That was step number two. But a lot of these will allow you to do way more than that. You know, if you're talking about tax-favored savings vehicles, $23,500 per year, your 401Ks, your 403Bs, your 457s, your TSPs, these are all opportunities for you in a tax-favored way to save for the future. Don't sleep on this.
20:54 Speaker 03 And what's amazing is that for most millionaires, there've been studies that show most millionaires reach seven-figure status because of their employer-sponsored retirement account. So when you have one of these accounts, not only can you do salary deferrals where you can go up to $23,500, but you also allow your employer to put money in, whether that be through some sort of safe harbor contribution, a matching contribution, or a profit-sharing contribution. And even some plans will allow you to go even above that where you can do after-tax contributions. So these accounts, these 401Ks, 403Bs, 457s, they could potentially be funded all the way up to $70,000 per year. So it is a huge savings opportunity for most Americans
21:38 Speaker 03 who have the ability to contribute to these types of accounts.
21:40 Brian Preston? So to complete step six, we got a quick checklist for you. Just make sure you determine how much can you max out. Now, we covered, you know, The 401ks and other things, but maybe some of you are part of simple IRAs and other things. Your numbers might be different. So go do the homework and figure out how much you can put in. And then now you have to figure out, once you decide how much, are you going to do Roth? Which we've already shared, those grow completely tax-free, but you don't get a current deduction when you fund those accounts. If you're in a higher income tax situation, you might want to do a traditional contribution, which allows you to take a current deduction off of your taxes right now. But realize when you pull that money out in the future, you're likely going to have to pay ordinary income tax rates on it. So you have a decision to make on whether you're taking the tax benefits now versus over the long-term.
22:25 Brian Preston? Measure twice, cut once on that big decision.
22:28 Speaker 03 So Brian, so far we've been talking about the financial order of operations. Steps one through six have been about what to do, what to do, what to do, what to do. Well, now we move into step seven, hyper accumulation. This is where we get to focus not only just on what do we do? But now we get to really start thinking about why are we making the decisions we're making?
22:46 Brian Preston? Well, that term, hyper accumulation, what does that even mean? For, for us, it means people who are saving 25% and greater. Because this is a unique thing, because it's actually shows that you, you understood that first component of wealth building, which was the discipline component of living on less than you make. So much so that you actually even hit the 25%. Well, you might be asking yourself, why did you guys even come up with 25%?
23:13 Speaker 03 We actually have a great tool, a great resource you can go use. If you go to moneyguy.com/resources, that shows for different ages, whether you're 20, 30, 40, 50, at what savings rates are you able to replace certain degrees of your pre-retirement income? And what you'll see when you go look at this deliverable is that most folks don't end up saving and investing until they get into their early to mid 30s. Well, if that is you, and if that describes you, and you're able to save 25%, you are still starting early enough that you're going to give yourself a huge leg up and you're likely going to be able to live the life that you want to live on your terms. Or maybe you're someone who's finding this a little bit earlier. Maybe you're finding this in your twenties and you recognize, okay, well, maybe I don't need to save 25%.
23:57 Speaker 03 5%. Well, I would argue you also don't know what life has to hold for you. So the earlier you can get to that 25% savings rate, the earlier you're going to get those dollars working for you. And the earlier you get those dollars working for you, the more flexibility, the more options you're going to give yourself later in life.
24:14 Brian Preston? Yeah. So let's talk about, kind of close this out to kind of complete step seven. Hit 25% savings rates. And then also, I want to encourage people, if you, if you have unique savings goals, because this step seven is also about how you're going to use this money in retirement. Maybe you're part of the fire slash fine movement and you think you want to leave the workforce much earlier, your savings rate might need to be higher, much higher than 25%. We're just saying, don't just sleep on this. Make sure you understand the why behind what your savings rate should be.
24:44 Speaker 03 And so one of the reasons why we came up with a number, why we developed and determined 25% was the number that you should be saving and investing is so that we could free you up. We wanted there to be some place where you could say, okay, if I've done this, if I've satisfied this, if I've hit this number, I know that I've taken care of my future self. I know that I've taken care of my future financial independence. Well, once I've done that, now I get to start focusing on other things. And that's where the next step in the financial order of operations comes in, and that's step eight, prepaid future expenses.
25:17 Brian Preston? Yeah, this one's exciting because it not, it's, a lot of this was just paint by the numbers. How do we keep our, our life from making desperate decisions? How do we maximize the tax code? A lot of mathematics and other things went into it. And when we get to step eight, guys, this is more about now. We know a lot of financial decisions are outside the math. They're outside of just, you're doing this because it's the best value. I like step eight because it has another name. Good time, rock and roll, side nickname for it is abundance goals is because this is when you get to do the fun stuff. If you want to increase your lifestyle for a purpose, like better travel, better lifestyle, nicer car, step eight is your, your, your friend for doing this. Home renovations, real estate investing. If you
26:00 Brian Preston? finally want to go start building, you know, single family, real estate empire that you, you've always heard people talk about, step Eight is perfect because you have the financial foundation underneath you to probably support any of those bad things that might happen from this investment endeavor. Also, we get a lot of flack on this because we love our children, you know, but we still want you, just like when you get on that airplane, they tell you to put on your oxygen mask before you put it on the kids. It's the same way with your financial goals and your independence. Step eight is the first one that lets you start saving and investing for the kids' college. And then this is also the one, if you're, if you really are thinking you're going to be leaving the workforce early, you know, you're probably going to be loading it up and figuring out how much more do we need to be saving and investing to invest in that goal in step eight.
26:45 Speaker 03 So if you find yourself in step eight, one of the things we want you to begin thinking through is, okay, what was my why? What was the reason I started on this journey so many years ago? And now that I'm on the journey, now that I'm here, what's the reason behind the decisions that I'm making? Is it because I want to create memories? Is it because I want to change my circumstances? Because I want to buy back my time? Once you've answered the why behind the money decisions, then you can figure out what's the best way for me to allocate those? How do I want to allocate across the abundance goals? Man, I'm at a place right now where I'm going to be able to provide for mine and my spouse's future financial independence. Wouldn't it be great if we could help the kids with college? Wouldn't it be great if we could have that second home? Wouldn't it be great if we could move into that area that we've always wanted to live in?
27:30 Speaker 03 And then you got to figure out, okay, based on these goals that we have, what are the best and most efficient ways for us to attack those goals? And what are the best accounts for us to use to do that? If I want to save for my kids, is it a 529 or is it an up? There's a custodial Roth. In step eight, you get to answer all of those questions where you get to focus outside of yourself and focus on the other things that you want to be impacting in your financial life.
27:55 Brian Preston? And that leads to the final step of the financial order of operations. Step number nine, paying off that low interest debt.
28:04 Speaker 03 If you remember in step three, one of the things that we did is we listed out all of our debts. We listed out every debt we had and we specifically prioritized the high interest ones. Well, now, since we still have that list, we're able to go back and now begin looking at some of Those other types of low interest debt.
28:18 Brian Preston? Well, and it's important because we know that building wealth is a journey. And so in the beginning, it's about making the wealth. But there will come an offset standpoint when you actually reach the level of success that you want to maintain the wealth. And part of maintaining wealth is let's de-risk, let's even pay off some of these low interest debts. Because that's the part, I just get nervous when people do it way too soon. Sure. You know, it's one thing to be a debt crusader and try to pay off debt really fast. But we want to make sure you give it enough time to make the wealth. And then of course, there does come a time and a point to where now in step nine, let's pay off some of this low interest debt. So we don't have any obligations to anyone out there.
28:57 Speaker 03 Well, it does a few things for you. It might provide peace of mind. It just gives you a calm and a peace knowing that I don't owe anybody anything. Or maybe it frees up cash flow. Hey, I've got this mortgage payment. I've had it for the last 20 years. And if I pay off that debt, I'm no longer going to have that. It's going to free me up. Now, don't mishear us. Just because you're in step nine and just because you have the choice to pay off low interest debt, does not mean that there's a requirement to pay off low interest debt. We have a saying around here, when I say we, I mean absolutely, I have a saying around here. But you know what's just as good as being debt free? Having the ability to be debt free. But in step nine, we want you working towards that goal. Or even if you don't pay off the mortgage, before you actually get to financial independence,
29:42 Speaker 03 before you actually plant your flag saying, I have solved the money problem. We want you to have the ability to write a check to be able to knock out all of those low interest debts.
29:52 Brian Preston? Well, you know, we've often shared that there does come a time and a place, and I resemble this now. I've gotten to the age where I just got tired of having this mortgage debt hanging over me and I paid it off. So I'm completely mortgage free now. And there is some peace of mind that comes from that. And that's why I think that I love the delicate balance we've created here with the Money Guy Show. Is that we have given you the maximization of a lot of the mathematics, but we've also tried to give you the emotional components. So you can try to figure out how to live your best life with it. Because that's, that's the biggest thing. It's okay if you've already done all. All these other steps and saved and invest. If you now are at a point where you're already saving and investing 25%. It's automatic for the people and it's already happening.
30:36 Brian Preston? We're not going to pick on you if you want to go pay off that low interest debt. Go knock it out, live your best life. It's completely okay.
30:42 Speaker 03 And Brian, you've kind of, you've sort of layered this all throughout, but the financial order of operations is supposed to be tactical. What do I do with my next dollar? How do I decide the best way to allocate? Well, what's actually happening is as you move through the financial order of operations and as your financial life and your financial circumstances change. What's really going on is you're actually moving through the three different stages of wealth.
31:08 Brian Preston? Yeah, it's one of those things where so many of us take for granted, we will be wealthy. And what's unfortunately, that's not the journey for most Americans. So we want to make sure you spend enough time and discipline on the make wealth phase. So that you then get to do some of these abundance things in the maintain wealth of maybe paying off low interest debt or doing other endeavors. But ultimately what I like is this is where it all comes together is that that third phase, which is the multiply wealth where you get to live your great big beautiful tomorrow. And hopefully pay it forward by you waking up every morning, knowing something you're doing is making the world a better place. And your resources are aligned with that as well.
31:50 Speaker 03 Building wealth is incredibly simple and we tried to implement the financial order of operations so that we can make it even simpler. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that it's easy, but with these tools, with the resource we've made available, we hope that you will feel equipped and empowered that you can actually move towards your great big beautiful tomorrow.
32:11 Brian Preston? So here's the thing that I think is interesting is that we have just given you the nine steps to the financial order of operations. But we all know that there's going to be some complications. You may guys, this system worked great to a point, but now my life has sure gotten complicated. Yes, because I got to step eight, I've added up all those residential rental properties. You know, I have worked for a Fortune 500 company. I got restricted stock units. Oh my gosh, guys, my estate documents now I need to, I need to do something. Somebody needs to tell me, how do I get my income taxes, my estate documents, all my beneficiaries? Life is complicated and that's where we will leave the front porch light on for you. We get it. The journey to building wealth is somewhat simple. Doesn't mean it's easy, but it is simple. But naturally, success is going to
32:56 Brian Preston? create those complications. And that's where the abundance cycle is fulfilled. And if you get to that point and you resemble this, we'd love for you to give us a chance to help become your kind of outsourced CFO to help you make those great financial mutant decisions. I'm your host, Brian, Mr. Bo Hanson, Money Guy team, out.
33:16 Speaker 03 The Money Guy Show is hosted by Brian Preston and Bo Hanson. Brian and Bo are partners with Abound Wealth Management. Abound Wealth Management is a registered investment advisory firm regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance and compliance with the securities laws and regulations. Abound Wealth Management does not render or offer to render personalized investment or tax advice through the Money Guy Show. The information provided is for informational purposes only, may not be suitable for all investors, and does not constitute financial, tax, investment, or legal advice. All investments involve a degree of risk, including the risk of loss.
33:49 Speaker 00 LinkedIn is pretty amazing at helping you grow your small business. We cannot stop your new clients from emailing you at 3 a.m.
33:58 Speaker 00 We can help you sell, market, and hire in one place. We cannot help you be in three places at once. And while we can't help you organize your calendar, LinkedIn can help you land more clients so you have a calendar to organize. Grow your small business on LinkedIn. Learn more at LinkedIn.com slash small business.
34:20 Speaker 04 When everyone's finally together, what makes mornings even brighter? Keeping things deliciously simple. Whether you're pouring up a glass of morning refreshment, or topping off festive drinks for a family brunch, Simply Orange brings that 100% fresh squeezed taste to every moment. Deliciously bright and delightfully easy, Simply Orange is made for all your seasonal gatherings. Simply Orange, say yes to simple.
Previous This One Expense Is Breaking People’s Retirement Next Financial Advisors React To INSANE Dave Ramsey Calls! Page updated November 1, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated