Average Salary By Age (How Do You Stack Up?)

19:43Brian Preston:In terms of like cleanliness of the house, in terms of obedience, which is what I'm dealing with right now, in terms of your financial situation, it's okay if it's not perfect. Because if you're just moving in the right direction, putting one foot in front of the other, taking those steps, there's a really good chance that things are going to work out. so long as you avoid making the really, really bad, really, really derailing decisions. I just feel like that's something that needs to be spoken out into the ether, that, man, we get so like, ah, you were this way. You had to be this way. I've gotten old and sentimental in the fact that I think the things you are so panicked about when you're in these early years, you're going to look back on and realize much of it's much to do about nothing, but still do the key strokes of savings rate, taking temperatures of where you are in your journey, but then make sure you don't miss out on this stuff.

20:35That's why we always talk about bedazzling your basic life is because I want you to make sure that you're enjoying every decade that you're on this planet because sometimes us financial mutants, we get so caught up in accomplish, accomplish, accomplish that we miss some of the sweetness of each decade, even though it's chaotic.

20:52Brian Preston:That's right. Yeah. No, well said. Yeah, something that struck me, we don't know, Robert, your specific situation. Like Brian said, there's some homework you could go do to really make sure where you are, but he didn't say, hey, I'm going to stop all saving and investing. He said, I need to adjust it. I need to pull it back a little bit. That still could be really good for you. That's why we provide all of our resources and benchmarks so you can kind of see where you are so you can live the life you want to and have the experiences you want to and have a second kid, which is so exciting. Congrats on that too.

21:24Brian Preston:All right, ready for the next question. Marenjok says, I know for the majority of people, term life is the best option, but you guys also say it depends. And for a small portion of people, whole life is better. What are some examples of when that's true? I want you to answer this one, but I want to clarify one little thing in that sentence. I'm not saying it doesn't have to be whole life. Yeah, and we're not suggesting that whole life is better than term insurance in that circumstance. What you've heard us say in the past is that there are times when permanent life insurance is an acceptable solution to a problem that exists.

22:05Brian Preston:That is not pitting them against each other because we still think even in those situations, someone likely needs term life insurance. But there are areas and times when permanent insurance is needed. Yeah, I mean, that's really – it's not term versus whole life. It's term versus permanent insurance because whole life is a form of permanent insurance. But there's a lot of other versions of permanent insurance, too, that might even be a little more cost effective and take a little pressure off of the annual premium. What I've actually experienced is I had a gentleman who was an entrepreneur who came to me and he had tons of net worth, meaning because he had made some really key real estate investments.

22:48He had a really valuable business.

22:51Brian Preston:Tens of millions. It was a lot of money. But his liquidity was nothing. And this was a time back when, now realize, the exemption now on estates is 13. I mean, it's a lot. You know, we've really indexed it. But back in the day, it was between$675 to$1 million on your estate. So we had a gentleman here who on paper was worth, you know, decamillionaire plus, who had zero liquidity. If he died tomorrow, his family would be screwed because you'd have to liquidate the businesses. You'd have to liquidate the real estate, all this stuff to come up with the estate taxes. And all these things are illiquid investments.

23:33So I looked at his situation and I was like, we're going to have to immediately go buy you some type of life insurance so that you could at least extinguish this issue if you died prematurely. And I remember, I mean, it was a very expensive premium for the$5 million that we were able to go buy the insurance.

23:54Brian Preston:But it was a necessary problem. But it was a necessary thing. So that's when I have said, look, there are times when permanent insurance makes sense because it wouldn't have made sense to do that with term at that moment in time. Now, the problem I have with the way insurance is sold in the industry is that most people who are coming and watching and consuming our content, you're the typical American that first, yes, you need to protect your family because if you died prematurely, it would leave your family members in a horrible situation. But you also need to be saving and building wealth in the background so at some point you're self-insured because that's the whole purpose.

24:31if you can save and build enough assets, you don't need to go buy life insurance from an insurance company because you will be able to pay for all of your expenses out of the big nest egg that you built up. So these things, they can be happening at the exact same time. And that's why I love term insurance is because term insurance lets you just buy the actual coverage, the protection, none of the extra cash value or the other things. You're just on a yearly basis paying for the insurance. In the meantime, you're building up assets in the background so that 20 years in the future, 30 years in the future, you're self-insured.

25:06Because what happens during that 20 or 30 year period? Your kids grow up and move out of the house. They don't need your income anymore. Hopefully you've built up enough money that you're now self-insured from your retirement assets. Do you see how this all works? This doesn't have to be us versus the insurance agent. This is the understand the way the financial components work in the insurance industry so you can maximize it and use as a tool in your wealth building journey. I love that.

25:35Brian Preston:Maren, I hope that helps. I hope that was helpful. I think it was. Thank you for the answer. Hey, remember, if you are listening to these questions and you want to dive deeper or refresh, just go to moneyguide.com because we actually have an ultimate guide that's all about different types of insurances and how to think about it. So I just wanted to throw that out there. If we're talking about it on the show, we probably have a free resource, a calculator, or an ultimate guide that's kind of consolidating that information for you as well. Of course, you get a lot more nuance, and it depends here on the show, which I love.

26:06I know we didn't talk about it, but I mean, like, we have a lot of our military families are always asking us. I know it's not ready for primetime yet, but I know behind the scenes, we're about to have a resource for our military families to go check out at moneyguy.com. slash resources as well. So I don't want to put you on the spot of how close to release it is, but it's probably something in the next few weeks.

26:30Brian Preston:we are actively in the homestretch of that one. I can say that. That's the thing. When we did the special needs release, we have a free e-book out there for that. We're always trying to think about what are areas that we would love to just love on you guys and give away free resources. Because I know, I mean, if you remember, the origin of the Money Guy show is that back in 2006, I looked around and I was like, holy cow, if I was my 22-year-old or 25-year-old version of myself and I'm just trying to figure out what to do with money to not waste time, not waste this resource so that I can actually live my best life, I was like, man, most people are out there selling commission products or they're trying to get in my back pocket.

27:11Wouldn't it be nice if somebody created an education platform where I could just learn how this worked? and that's what drove it and that's why we've tried to keep giving away free resources to make that you know the platform even stronger and if you're sitting there thinking man i really

27:26Brian Preston:want to know like i wish there was some way for me to know when you guys release these free resources whenever we have a new one come out we always mention it in our weekend newsletter so if you're not subscribed to our newsletter i would highly encourage it it's pretty balling like it's a good but I actually find myself reading it every single week. That's not a fib. I really do read it. I even look for it if I haven't seen it for that Saturday morning release. And here's what we don't do. We're not going to sell these email addresses. We don't spam you with all kinds of content. We just want to make sure that if you want really valuable, really helpful, sound financial advice, we can get it in your inbox.

28:02Brian Preston:Team, in the wings, if you wouldn't mind, somebody drop in a link to where to go to subscribe. Yeah, you can go to moneyguy.com and subscribe there. If you actually click on the very top, it says follow. it'll let you put in your email address and get on our newsletter Money Guy email universe. That's also where they typically, like when we go on vacation and they drop pictures behind the scenes and other things, it's usually in the newsletter. Saturday newsletter is fun. The team is in the wings making that really fun every week. I've also noticed it's where the team likes to make jabs at me.

28:31Brian Preston:I read it now and I see that they're making jokes at my expense. It's offensive. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. Guys, have y 'all seen anybody who's looked at the Ice Coffee Hour release that we had come out on Sunday? It's doing well. It's doing really well. And I feel a little offended because I'm a victim of the forced perspective. You know, I'm a huge Disney fan. And, you know, you go look at Cinderella's Castle. You're like, that thing is huge. And then you realize, oh, they tricked me with forced perspective. And then you find out Bo Hansen, the way we sat up, those biceps, they are big.

29:06He's in front. They are big. but I'm telling you mine looked much smaller because we put Bo closer to the it's like if you ever you know Buddy the Elf if you ever watch and you're like man those are some really cool tricks it's all forced perspective when they made Buddy look so much bigger than everybody else who would have known that we did the exact same thing when we designed ourselves that was

29:26Brian Preston:production team I really appreciate it I love the little boost thank you so Cinderella's castle Bo's biceps I have my favorite comment few comments that came out is the guy wrote, I'm a bodybuilder. I like how this guy is popping his pecs. Which was not true. And then the other one, here's the one picking on me, is like when Brian gets his canker sore fixed, he can come back. I guess because, look, my tongue is very active. I don't mean it. I chew on my tongue. My tongue is very active. I don't know what's wrong. I see it too, guys, and I am so embarrassed, but I don't know what to do to control it.

30:02Brian Preston:My tongue is very active. It's not that big of a deal. That's hilarious. But people, you guys, the internet is undefeated on finding. If you have any insecurity from high school or in life, just go and get yourself on social media, and there will be somebody who unearths and figures out something. We won't mention Bo's eyebrows in the comments. Oh, that's cool. Man, why would you say that? It's because who? It's because. I was giving you a lot of flowers. I asked Bo this morning because he works out at like 2.30 in the morning. He wakes up so he can nurture and nourish these biceps with his other gym rat buddies.

30:36And I asked him, I said, this morning, did y 'all actually work out, or did you just sit there and hold court and read the comments from the most recent shows? Because they have to feel a part of your success.

30:45Brian Preston:I do want them to know that the Third Bay boys, they're part of the process. Third Bay boys. Y 'all have like, do you have decals on the back of your cars? We have T-shirts and hoodies and tank tops. You've seen them. I've worn them before. I just didn't know what it was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just didn't know. That's it, man. Y 'all really do? Y 'all designed a logo and everything? Oh, yeah. Was that like a chat GPT or did y 'all actually bring somebody in on this? We've had the logo for a couple years, so I think we probably had the logo pre-chat GPT. It's good. No, we got a whole brand thing here, brother.

31:15Haven't y 'all ever ridden down the interstate? I was behind a car. I was trying to remember which type of car it was. And I was like, I-65 boys. Somebody really enjoyed their friends so much that they came up with a logo and then put a decal on the back. That's Bo and his gym buddies.

31:30Brian Preston:You know, I always want to wear one of the shirts on the show, but it does have a collar. They're like T-shirts. It wouldn't be like Money Guy Tuesday ready. It would be a little strange, yeah. It's a little different. I'm just so used to seeing you guys in your collars. It's not only for just living on less you make, it's also knowing not to wear your gym rat shirts on a national show. All right, let's get back to a question because I do have what? How quick does she change? I know. We've got to get back. I've got a lot of questions. We've only done three questions. And I do have a fun segment for us to do.

31:59Brian Preston:We'll probably do another question or two and then move on to our From the Wings segment. So stick around for that. We're going to get Brian and Bo's reactions to some things. What's the other one? You know, it depends. Rapid fire. I thought you were trying not to say it on purpose. All right. Next question is from Luis. Can you explain the reason for 36 months being the limit for car loans, why should I push to get rid of a super low-interest car loan so quickly? well it's kind of it's sort of mathematical based on the way that that cars operate uh cars are one of these unique assets that we buy we spend a whole lot of money on them and they become less valuable through time right and depending on how new the car you're buying is the brand of the car that you're buying and the cost of the car you're buying oftentimes in the first couple of years of ownership especially buying a new one that's when you see the most rapid decline in value you see this huge thing where depreciation could wipe out anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of the car's value in the first three to four years.

33:03Brian Preston:And so the reason why we like the three years or 36 months is so that we can create an environment where hopefully, ideally, you won't be underwater in your vehicle. You won't end up owing more on the vehicle than the vehicle is actually worth. I'm going to be meaner. I'm going to be because, look, the trap that you fall in with car purchases is if you expand out how long you can pay for the car, you can afford anything at a monthly amount. And that's what the car dealerships take advantage of you. That's why you see every year, it seems like, the average length that cars are financed keeps going further and further out.

33:42I think we're getting close to seven years at this point. So on purpose, we tell you 36 months so that it puts as much pressure on what can you afford. That way there's not separation from what your income, what you're hopefully building in the background is, and your ego on the car you should drive. It keeps it in check. It's because if you have to pay this thing off in 36 months, first of all, you're not going to get crushed by depreciation. And it's also going to keep you honest with what you really can afford. So that way you take your income with the 8%, you take the down payment that you have to put down, and then you put the three years.

34:19You're going to end up with something that's going to be reliable, and it's going to be something that's also going to be reasonable. Versus if you go out to 84 months, all of a sudden now you're thinking, hey, I can afford a$75 ,000,$80 ,000 car because the monthly payment gets digestible. That's the opposite. We want your money working for you, not depreciating in something that's sitting in your driveway.

34:43Brian Preston:And I think you said this. We always prefer if you can pay cash. Yeah, of course. We get some flack on that. We love 23.8. 23.8 is amazing. It's a great tool. Cash is king. But if you can pay cash, cash is ideal when it comes to purchasing automobiles. I just want to throw a little disclaimer out there. Another thing I want to throw out there, if you want to understand how detrimental this can be, we have an episode of Making a Millionaire coming out. And I'm not going to give you the details, but do you remember how much the car payment was? It was$1 ,000 a month for a car payment. And it was 84 months.

35:15Brian Preston:I was about to say, you won't believe how long this loan was for. Make sure you subscribe right now to see it when it comes out. 84 months is a long time. That almost was beautiful. I'm sorry. That's great. This is why, fortunately, my wife is designed to not like surprises because I can't keep a secret. I just can't keep a secret. I was setting up the knock-knock, and he said, interrupting Cal. You know what I mean? He didn't even let me build it. That was, you know what? So make sure you subscribe. Check it out. And you won't believe what this couple did. 84-month car loan,$1 ,000-a-month car payment.

35:53Brian Preston:You will not believe what they did next. Don't say anything, Brian. Leave it a surprise. No, it's not. They were a lovely couple, too. Lovely couple. Subscribe here. Watch Making a Millionaire when it comes out. Every other Monday. All right. we are going to do our segment. Are you ready? This segment is called From the Wings where the content team gathers some recent headlines and we are going to get Brian and Bo's reaction to them. So Brian and Bo, in your drawer at your desk you have thumbs up and thumbs down pouts. Oh, look at that. We got props. All the hotties stuff in our props. No, did you?

36:30Brian Preston:You're kidding me. We have props for this one today. We have thumbs up and thumbs down. So how this is going to be going to work is I'm going to read one of the headlines and you guys will tell me, thumbs up, this is news. We should pay attention. Here's why. Or thumbs down. This is noise. This is not going to have a big impact on our financial lives. All right. Got it. You ready? Yep. First headline is inflation soared to 3.8 % in April driven by gasoline prices from the Wall Street Journal. and and and the question is is this news noise this noise

37:09Brian Preston:oh we got one vote both say it's noise why do you say so well i mean you can't control i mean inflation look i want you to do the things we always tell you i want you to look at your emergency reserves look at the things you can control but this is a bigger game that's going on is that there's geopolitical stuff going on there's the you know the federal reserve meeting and there's inflation concerns, but you can't control any of that. So focus on what you can control because I don't want these things creating you to freeze because you get analysis paralysis from too many data points. I don't want people – I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt.

37:49Brian Preston:I don't need to tell you that the prices of things has increased. If you've filled up your gas tank, if you've gone to the grocery – you've seen that, man, this is – the erosion of purchasing power is a real thing that takes place. So I don't think this is like newsworthy as in, oh, I need to be actionable right now. I think inflation always exists. Now, it varies, right? A couple of years ago, it got as high as 9.3%, and then we've seen it as low as 2 % year over year change in recent memory. I think in the way that we build our wealth and think about the future, we ought to recognize that's why we should be investing.

38:23Brian Preston:That's why we should be owning things. But I don't think knowing that it hit a certain number in a certain month should dictate any of our short-term to intermediate-term behavior. There you go. All right, this next one, this is an interesting one. Google SpaceX in talks to explore data centers in orbit. I knew he was going to say that. Bo says it's news. Well, I mean, it's news, but, I mean, it's not actionable for you, but, I mean. Oh, interesting filter. I mean, it's entertainment. It's reading for entertainment. Oh, but Brian is flipping his paddle back and forth. Do not even say it depends.

39:04Brian Preston:This is not the segment for that. Okay, go ahead, Brian. I just think it's fascinating. It's fascinating. I think it's fascinating when you think about infrastructural... I made that word up. That's a real word, though, that I made up. Change, right? Like how things change. We are now getting to the point. I was reading this thing the other day that it might be more cost-effective, or if it hasn't happened now, it's moving in that direction, more cost-effective to put servers or whatever on a satellite, shoot it into space, have it orbit, have solar panels up there because it's outside the yellow zone, so it's getting all the power, yada, yada, yada.

39:38Brian Preston:More cost-effective than that, and then you need to develop and build it down here. I just think that's a really interesting way that technology is advancing. And you think about even as like, this is where my mind sort of wanders to. Does that mean that one day, even real estate investing is going to be like space real estate. That's going to be a thing that you have to think about. That is crazy. It's not out of the realm of possibility. Right now, we think about investors. You don't know, but you know what I do know? Law of Accelerating Returns is that innovation and things like this are changing constantly, and if you want to invest something you can control, buy the market.

40:15Don't try to beat the market. Buy the market because guess what? One of the largest holdings in total market index or the S &P 500 is Google slash Alphabet. Guess what? SpaceX is probably going to go, I mean, it is going public. When it launches into the public world of us being able to invest in it, it's going to become an S &P or total market index investment. You're going to own it. So you don't have to waste your mental horsepower or time trying to figure these things out. You can just, instead of beating the market, be the market and then focus on how you live your best life.

40:49Brian Preston:On that, I completely agree. So, yeah, I think Brian turned his answer around. I think you said, well, no, I think it's power. These are important things, but in the education moment of lens of what we're doing here with the Money Guy show, it's read this stuff. If it fascinates you, but don't feel like it's something you have to change your behavior for. I think this is just kind of like a, yeah, it's supporting the idea of law of accelerating returns and buying the market, right? I love that. And by the way, if you don't know what the law of accelerating returns, I talk about it in Millionaire Mission.

41:20It's something I remember, you know, when intern Daniel, y 'all know we love Daniel. Me and him, we were talking about this concept, and then he was the one that said, hey, you know there's actually a term for that called law of accelerating returns. It's where the pace of innovation actually speeds up. and that's why the change that will happen over the next 10 years will make the last 50 seem like it's standing still and that stuff it's crazy when you think about how fast things are moving and i feel it all the time i feel it actually is a little i mean it creates a little anxiety to a degree is just because everything is moving so fast but it's so interesting you think about like

41:58Brian Preston:it was five years ago we as like general consumers we're not using artificial intelligence in the way that we are today. We weren't like playing with agentic type stuff. That wasn't even 25 years ago. Is my math checking on? The iPhone wasn't even a thing. It was 2008. Right. And now you have like multi-billion dollar businesses that can be operated singularly from a handheld. It's just what will the world look like 10, 20, 30, 40 years from now? I just, it's fascinating. It's back to the point that Apollo 11, you know, Your phone has more processing than what landed on the moon. Crazy. So crazy.

42:39Brian Preston:All right, we got a couple more. Next headline. From Business Insider, the market has jumped the shark. Michael Burry says stocks may finally be at the precipice of a major reversal. Michael Burry has called 100 of the last one recessions back pre-2008. That's the thing. He keeps saying, and I'm not picking on Michael Burry. I don't want to single him out specifically. But oftentimes, someone who has credibility for making a singular call or being able to say, hey, I saw this thing coming and I rightly predicted it, they fall into the trap oftentimes, in my experience, where they begin doing that over and over and over and over again, over and over and over again.

43:25We didn't hold up anything.

43:28Brian Preston:Oh, that's true. What are you doing? Sorry. I'm breaking the game. I didn't even notice. We're not very good at games. You both said it's noise. And so nobody knows. Nobody knows what the market's going to do in the next six months, nine months, 12 months, 24 months, 36 months. And anyone who tells you that they do know, in my opinion, is guessing. One of my greatest achievements that nobody knows of is that back in 2002, when I was trying to, this is before podcasting, I was like, how in the world am I going to get clients? I just want to be an educator and show people how finance works. So I started writing a column for the local newspaper.

44:06Brian Preston:Henry Herald. Too bad that probably hundreds of people read the Henry Herald instead of the millions that we get exposure to now. Because I actually wrote a piece in 2002 that was actually the day before we reached the bottom most point of the stock market of 2002 on why everybody in the world should start investing. because if you invest when things are so bleak and horrible, you can average and expect these type of returns in the first 30 days to 12 months after a market V-shape recovers. And I was spotting. In the article, I said markets typically make 26.2 % when they hit the dead bottom of a market.

44:51Fast forward to a year in the future from when I wrote that article. It was like a 45 % if you would have invested on the day that I wrote that article. The problem is I didn't have a national publication for people to go, he was a genius. He spotted. And by the way, did I have a crystal ball? Did I have it fixed? No. I just kind of was, I saw what was going on. I see how markets recover. That's what I was trying to share. That's what I was trying to educate. Michael did a great job of predicting something in the past. But it's exactly what Bo said. He's predicted it over and over. But because he got it right once, he gets to make a career off of that.

45:28Just be careful. That's why, without a doubt, this is noise. Because the previous thing I was just talking about, the law of accelerating returns, there are going to be more and more all-time highs. There's also going to be scary, scary bear markets that will come our way. But if you'll just always be buying and just hold your nose through it behaviorally, you're going to come out in a better place in the long term. Love that.

45:53Brian Preston:All right, good stuff. last one very interested to get your take on this is this news or noise male coyote swam two miles to Alcatraz Island twice as far as biologists had expected who found this one for context this coyote also escaped from Alcatraz quote there is no evidence the coyote is still on the island you said he escaped to it This because it says he swam there and swam back. So he went from San Francisco to Alcatraz. 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes from Alcatraz. Nearly all were caught or did not survive the cold, swift current. But this coyote did. What does it mean? News or noise?

46:39Brian Preston:Are coyotes good swimmers? Yeah, they got four legs. Look, I'm going to go out on a limb. I don't think I'd make that swim. I'm going to be honest. I know there's a lot of people asking about my swimming proficiency. It's not good enough to go from the coast to Alcatraz. And back. And back. Even if I made it there, the way back would probably get me. Have you ever toured Alcatraz? No, I want to. Is it awesome? Yeah, it's pretty cool. Because, you know, that's what, it's got a lot of history to it. That's where, you know, because we've made the joke, don't cheat on your taxes because taxes is how they got Al Capone.

47:13And Al Capone was at Alcatraz, so they show you all that stuff. And then there have been some escapes. Now, I thought I thought in the asterisks on Alcatraz, they have like one or two people that they're not quite sure if they made it. They never found them, right? Well, here's the thing. When you're on Alcatraz, you can see the land to where you'd have to swim to. And it looks like you could do it. So that's why I think it's probably noise. This is noise. But it is if you've ever toured Alcatraz. It's interesting. Like, oh, it took a coyote. But a coyote is not a human. And that's what I don't know.

47:49I don't think I could do it either.

47:51Brian Preston:Was it Sean Connery? Wasn't there a... Talking about The Rock? The Rock, yeah. That was Nicolas Cage, wasn't it? Well, Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage. I think that's that. They made it out, right? Was it Alcatraz? I think so. Wasn't that somewhat... Okay. It's a great movie. We've aged out of... Anyone from the wings have any cuts? I don't know that one. If y 'all ain't caught on, Bo actually is not old enough to watch any of these movies too, but because Bo's babysitter was the Superstation, which is Channel 17, which is appropriate because Ted Turner just recently passed away and he definitely shaped my life he shaped Bo's life because anybody from the Atlanta area the Superstation was legit between pro wrestling and all the movies that are edited down so that you now show them the real version to somebody if you're trying to show them historic things like you tell your kids, these are the greatest movies let me show you from my childhood you cut it off on the Superstation they didn't cuss that much on the Super Station, they didn't have nudity like that.

48:49So Ted was, who would have known Ted was protecting us from so much?

48:52Brian Preston:Who would have known? And then also the stadium. I mean, a lot of my, you know, I remember when the Olympics opened in 96, the Ted. Yeah, buddy. I mean, forever they called it the Ted because of that stadium that was built. Because it was Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, and then it was the Ted right after that, right? Was that the Olympics? Is that when that started? Yep. Look at that. Well, wow, that was a great conversation starter. And what I'm hearing is the Coyote story is news. I still wonder what content member was like, this is the closer. It was just from the wings. How long do you think it takes a – because they got four legs, but they can't – No, you don't have a dog.

49:26Is it doggy?

49:26Brian Preston:It's doggy paddling, right? We have a little chihuahua, and every now and then we'll put the chihuahua in the – she can swim like a ferret. I mean, swim like a – Ferret? Not a ferret, but what's the animals that you put in the water? You see them. They're so entertaining at the zoo. Ducks. No. No. They always, because they're really fun to watch in a zoo. No. Oh, otters? Otters. My little chihuahua looks like an otter in the water. From the wings. They were tracking with you, Brian. They were tracking. Some people were. That little dog. She's a chihuahua terrier. I should say it's probably the terrier that makes it just a good swimmer.

50:02It's not the chihuahua. Do you think she can make it to Alcatraz? Chihuahua just makes her mean.

50:05Brian Preston:That's unbelievable. Except for my wife. I think she could be good. Lily is not making it to Alcatraz. Raise your hand if you've been bitten by a chihuahua in the last week. Honestly, whenever I take that dog out at night, there's about a 50 % chance I'm getting bitten. Literally, her feet, her teeth are so just in a bad place that it doesn't hurt that bad. Look, Lily is going to get eaten by a fish, and it would not be even that big of a fish. It would just be like a medium-sized fish would eat Lily. Okay. 100%. I'm glad we covered that. This has been From the Wings. Thank you for joining us.

50:35Brian Preston:We do have some more financial questions to get to if you guys are up for it. Let's do it. All right. We've got a little bit of a spicy one. I don't know. Interesting one. From Amber. The coyote wasn't spicy. How about I say? From Amber, it says, as a single person, buying a house seems out of reach. Is it a bad idea to buy with a friend? What should I consider?

51:00I mean, this is where. Is a friend a roommate? Fortunately, this is. It depends doesn't cut us off at the knees here. See, I think about one of our associates. His college buddy, think about this hack. He bought a house. I can't remember if it was a townhouse. That's what it was. And then he got his two college buddies to move in. Now, he was the only one on the mortgage. That's house hacking. Yeah, that's what I mean. So this could be, Amber could be house hacking too because that's basically getting roommates, other people's money to help you pay for the house. As long, Amber, I think this is great to have OPM to help you do this, house hacking, as long as your emergency reserves and your bench of financial resources deep enough that if the roommates move out, it doesn't deep six your financial life.

51:43Brian Preston:Here's the thing. I don't think she's talking about house hacking. I think she's talking about like both names are on. Hey, I'm not putting the friend on the settlement statement too. They're going to pull the money to get the, oh, she's spicy. I knew this was going to be spicy. I was like, man, how's he agreeing? I know. I like house hacking. I think that's a good differentiator to cover. I love the idea. if you have a person who you know is going to be a roommate and you want to charge them rent, that's wonderful. Yeah, but let's talk about why. Because she's right. It's hard to come up with a down payment.

52:13Brian Preston:But when you go to buy something together, you're forming a partnership. I want to buy this thing. And it's a little bit like a marriage. You've got to really understand and know what's going on with the counterparty. Brian, you and I have bought a number of commercial buildings together that you and I own, but we kind of knew going into it, we had like a history we had a backstory and i think what changes it is neither one of us live in those buildings because if you buy a house together and then what if one of you decides to go get married well okay does the spouse move in there or do then they have to move out or do they buy you out and what like what do they pay what if they can't pay you out and then yeah and let me nerd out as the cpa here who's done tax returns one of the things because i've seen people buy like lake homes and beach homes where they don't form a partnership.

53:04They just go buy it together like this. And it's a tax mess because what happens is whoever's name is first is the social security number that you're going to get the 1098 or whatever the mortgage interest is on. And then everybody else, forever, as long as you own this property, you all list, you have to list the full amount of the 1098. And then you have to put a note on the tax return of the other people who are claiming the interest deduction on their taxes.

53:30Brian Preston:So then when they put it on their taxes, by the way, you're still likely to get a notice every year because of this, because it's just not clean from a perspective. That's why I like when we, yes, we have bought property together, but we formed partnerships to go do it. So there's only one tax ID associated with this. It works when you and a spouse bought, since y 'all are filing a tax return together, it doesn't matter that it's only on the first person Social Security that's reported to the IRS. This just creates an administrative nightmare for your taxes every year, but it also creates a life mess in a lot of ways because at the end of the day, who's responsible for the house and the decisions that go on?

54:10That's why when one person is, if you're using this as a house hack, you get to kick out, you get a spouse, you get to kick out your roommates. You say, hey, you know what? It was a great time. But when we go in a year from now, when we renew the lease, you know, I've got a spouse now. I don't need you as a roommate anymore. And you, in a nice way, you come to an agreement to separate ways. If you both own it, how do you have that conversation? It's just weird.

54:35Brian Preston:And so what I would do is I would rewind a little bit. Okay, you're a single person, but buying homes, I would go through the exercise of, okay, why do I want to be a homeowner? What is it that I'm looking for? Like, what's the problem I'm solving? And can you answer in the affirmative the questions we'd want you to answer to be able to buy a home? Do I see myself being in this location for the next five to seven years? Do I see my life circumstance staying the same, meaning I'm likely not going to get married or I'm likely not going to have kids or whatever that thing may be. Is home ownership the right thing at this point in time?

55:12Brian Preston:If you arrive at the conclusion that yes, it is, I think you would likely be better served. Maybe you go rent a place with this friend of yours so that y 'all can split the rent, you can save a lot of money, build up so that ultimately one day you can buy. But I think there are more risks than And there are rewards if you try to go buy a home with a non-spousal partner just to get on the home. Or finish the drill. If you say, hey, we're going to live in this for the next two years and then turn it into a rental property, y 'all go form a partnership and write out an operating agreement or a partnership agreement that lays out all these different things.

55:54Because begin with the end in mind. And maybe then it works. But just throwing it against the wall and hoping it all works out and life's not going to make this messy, that's a disaster. That's why I always begin with the end in mind and think through all the life changes and everything that's going to happen. That's right. That was a good and well-rounded answer.

56:14Brian Preston:Amber, thank you for the question. We have a home buying hub she should go check out too. Oh, I love that. Go to moneyguy.com. Look at our ultimate guides for home buying. Also, we have two free resources, a home buying calculator and a home buying checklist that you can download at moneyguy.com slash resources. I'm telling you, moneyguy.com, man, we just keep putting all kinds of stuff up there. And then it is there for you just whenever you need it. That's the goal. Learn, apply, grow, rinse and repeat. And then we create this abundance cycle all over again. Yep. So, yeah, whether you're ready to dive deeper, watch some old episodes, get some free resources, or take it to the next level and become a client.

56:51Brian Preston:Moneyguy.com is your place to go. Even though we'll turn the cameras off today, we will be back at Tuesday, every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Central. What? I thought we were going to do one more. Oh, do you want to? Brian wants to answer more questions. Let's do one more. Let's go. He said let's give the people came here for answers. Now I feel silly for going into my whole spiel. New employees are in the wings watching too, so let's give them one more. All right, let's do one more. One more for the folks. I just wasn't sure if you'd be able to do this one quick enough, but we'll go over. Let's go. Let's give the people what they want.

57:24Brian Preston:Let's give Brian what he wants. Do it. All right. This one's from Unbev-lievable. It says, my company offers an employee stock purchase plan, purchase program. Twice a year, employees can invest up to 10 % of their base in company stock. The price of the stock is set at 15 % below the 26-week low. Wow. That's great. So he says help. So I think he's asking how to handle this. well see by the way this is help in a good way because you're like drowning an opportunity because and let me just everybody who doesn't know because we can't believe we made through a whole show and have not popped this thing around this is why we did this question goodness the financial order of operations the reason that unbelievable is having so much issue is step number two is you got to get that free money when your employer is opening up the checkbook to load you up with free money.

58:20You say, thank you, thank you, thank you. And you try to maximize. So if you can't do 10 % right off the get go, try to figure out how over the next year, two years you get pay raises, you can maximize that free money.

58:34Brian Preston:Yeah. I would say do everything in your power. This would be a step two thing in my mind to try to get to that 10%. And what's interesting is the way that I imagine your plan works based on the familiarity we have with the SPPs is every pay cycle, you defer money into like this holding account. And then twice a year, it reviews, okay, you've built up all this money, 26 week, what was a low 50 % discount you buy. I would imagine with your plan, because it's structured that way, there's not like a minimum holding period. So even if you were to think of liquidate that stock after it was acquired, after you purchased it, yeah, you're going to pay ordinary income, but it's still free money.

59:11Brian Preston:You're paying ordinary income tax when the stock is likely higher than it was in the 26 low, plus 15%. Even after you net out the ordinary income taxes, you're still going to have substantial free money that then you can go back to the financial order. Brian, you hold the thing up for me? Back to the financial order of operation. Okay, well now do I need to beef up my emergency fund even more? I don't need to do the Roth, I don't need to do HSA. If that money is there and it's available, I would try to do everything in my power to be able to take advantage of it and then figure out how I invest and then how I divest and then redeploy.

59:44Okay, so now that we've got you all hopped up and excited about how good of an opportunity this is, let's give you the other side. Remember, there is the risk that you already have your human capital, meaning your wages and your time tied into this company. You want to be very mindful not to build too much of your liquid investments into the same company. So that's why you do need to follow the shampoo bottle lead is that rents and repeat, meaning that after you take advantage of the situation, come up with a plan where every year you're kind of cleaning out, you're selling it, taking advantage of the money, putting it in, diversifying exactly what Bo was talking about through the financial order of operations, and then repeat the process over and over again.

1:00:24Because you just don't want to have too much of your money all tied up into your employer. But yes, please take advantage of that free money because this stuff will amplify that wealth health-building journey.

1:00:36Brian Preston:Don't worry, don't worry. I'm not going to give my whole spiel again. Just go to moneyguy.com. You'll love it. That's what I'm going to say. Thank you for being here for our Ask Money Guy show. We'll be back every Tuesday at 10 a.m. answering your personal finance questions and having a little fun. I want to throw one thing out there, can I? Because we're at the very, this is the very end of the show, so it's probably not very many people out there. We have a lot of exciting stuff coming out. I'm not going to tell them what it is, but I just think that you're not doing a good enough job telling people.

1:01:03Brian Preston:Oh my gosh, you just how much exciting stuff is coming at the end of this year. You know the things I'm talking about. This is coming up in my review. Remember the thing that I talked about that we're going to do that people don't know about? Man, if you are not subscribed to the channel, if you're not on our email newsletter, you're not going to know about some of the stuff we have coming. And some of it, Brian already let the cat out of the bag. We've got some new e-books coming out. But we have things even bigger and better than e-books that are happening later on. I think it's this year. It's going to be this year.

1:01:38Brian Preston:I just want you guys to be as excited as we are because we cannot wait to get it out into the light of the day. So what happened was you made the eyebrow comment. I know. That was the moment that Bo took his toothbrush and started forming a shank out of it right then. And that way he could get it through security and just do the attack right there undercover of the show. But in all seriousness, I know that Rebe's already done the closeout, but I will say, look, learn, apply, grow. That is the abundance cycle. I love that our system lets you create the results before we ask anything of you, and that's why we'll leave the porch light on for you.

1:02:19If you figured out, hey, your simple life has created this level of success that now this thing is, man, it's just straight-up complex, consider working with us. I'm your host, Brian. Join me by Mr. Bo, Reby, and the rest of the crack content team. Money Guy, out.

1:02:36Brian Preston: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.

1:03:08Brian Preston:All investments involve a degree of risk, including the risk of the risk of risk.