Financial Advisors React to YouTuber Financial Advice

0:00Hey, hey, hey, it's Brian and Bo, and guess what? What? We're reacting to other financial YouTubers. Brian, I am so excited to see what the internet has in store for us today. Every single American can save$10 ,000 a year if you listen to what I'm about to tell you. Okay, I'm listening. File yourself an LLC, which you can do through any online platform. As long as you show reasonable effort to starting a business, you can expense your Wi-Fi, your cell phones, your gas, certain meals, And then you can take that off of your taxable income as an expense for business that you were trying to create.

0:31And so you take that as a loss in the business against your regular income. Anyone can do that. You can do it for a while. He is right. You can try to start a business. You can deduct expense. That doesn't work. But if a business, if all it ever does is lose money, lose money, lose money, lose money, and there's actually never any profit, never any revenue, never any income generated, then it's likely that thing that you're doing is not actually a business. It's a hobby. It's a hobby. By the way, Bo loves him some Alex. If you want to know what I get videos sent to me, it's usually Alex Hormozzi that Bo has sent me, nasal strips and all.

1:02Oh, my God. What is that? What is that? But the thing, and Alex is not wrong. Bo's already covered that. But I would tell you, before you start any business, don't let the tax tail wag the dog. Come up with actually the business idea. What's the value proposition that people willingly will give you their money over and over again? That's probably the most important thing, not just trying to figure out how you make your home internet deductible. Yeah, people who so often they want, I want expenses and losses, expenses and losses. It's actually much more fun to create income and revenue and generate profit.

1:34I would focus on that, not solely on the expense side. 21 % of homebuyers use this strategy, but a lot more people would use it if they knew how it worked. A lot of you might be holding off on buying a home because you don't have a down payment, but you could leverage the money in your 401k without messing up your retirement. The way you do this is not by withdrawing the money from your account, but taking out a loan against your 401k. That way your 401k stays invested and growing over time. And the loan gets paid back through payroll deductions, each paycheck over a long period. And here's the best part.

2:02That small amount of interest that you pay on the loan goes back into your 401k. So other than a little setup fee, a 401k loan really costs you nothing. There's no taxes, no penalties, and it doesn't even show up on your credit report. I liked him a lot to start because he looks to me like a young Mark Rick. That's all I could But then he said to borrow from your 401k. And I just think that is tragic, awful financial advice. Well, he said, look, there's no taxes due now. If you lose your job while you still have that 401k loan, not only will you have to pay the taxes or you decide, yeah, you just want to go to a better opportunity.

2:41Not only will you have to immediately pay the loan back. And if you can't, you have to pay the taxes plus a 10 % early withdrawal penalty. There's a lot of risk. And then also you have to go look at how your employer structured their 401k. Because a lot of times while you have a 401k loan, you might be forfeiting a portion of the matching or other type of benefits within the 401k until the loan is completely paid back. So you're borrowing from your future for this moment. What I would prefer somebody to do is we have a lot of flexibility on that first home purchase. That's why if you go follow the Money Guy rules on home purchasing and go to moneyguy.com slash resources, we let you get a pass and say, hey, how about just coming up with three to 5 % for that first home down payment.

3:22So that way that barrier to entry is as low as possible to still get you in the threshold of home ownership without leveraging off of your future retirement. Another thing I want you to do is I want you to go to moneyguide.com slash resources and play with our wealth multiplier tool. And what I want you to see is based on your age, if you were to go take a$10 ,000 loan out of your 401k, what you're doing is you're taking 10 ,000 soldiers in your army of dollar bills off of the battlefield. I want you to put that into the wealth multiplier to see what that$10 ,000 could turn into by the time that you get to retirement.

3:55You're going to recognize that it is not just$10 ,000 that you are borrowing. The opportunity cost of not having those dollars working for you for the future is huge. You don't want to do it. There are other better ways to access capital, especially to buy a first home. I've got a 529 that I started for my daughter years ago, and now my daughter is older and has pretty much disowned me. What should I do with that 529 since I don't see any future reconnection with my daughter? I'm sorry, Bull. How old is she? She's 16. How much is in there? 16 grand. The legal technical answer is the money is hers.

4:33it's in her name, and you put yourself in the seat of the manager of her money, and you have a legal responsibility to manage her money for her, the setup doesn't account for relationship one way or the other. I assume you've got this with a financial advisor, right? No, not yet. It's through our state. It's not through a financial advisor. Okay. You might contact them and ask them if you can transfer the custodianship to her mom. In other words, take your name off of the responsibility line, and then her mom is in charge of the money for her until she's 21, and that would get you out of the loop.

5:10That's probably the cleanest thing you can do. Can I change hats? Sure. I'm just going to be dad. I wouldn't do anything. I would just let her mother know, and I would write her some letters. They may or may not get through to her, just telling her how much you love her and that you're here, and that when she gets ready to go to college, there's a college fund, and all she's got to do is get in contact with you and you'll be happy to help her with that. I mean, I think, Dave, I was wondering if he was going to put on the dad hat because in such a painful situation, oh man, I just, I don't know that disowning or trying to make use of this money is the best play for a 16-year-old.

5:45I want you to speak to the dad part. I'm going to speak to the logistics part because one thing that Dave, I think, missed just a touch is that when you open up a 529, you have a beneficiary of the account. But one of the things that you can do with 529 balance is you can, as the owner, transfer it to different beneficiaries. So if you have other children, it's not like that money has to stay captive in that account for that beneficiary. You do actually have the ability to roll it down to other siblings or roll it into other plans with a different beneficiary. But I agree with you. I think the sadder thing about this was the dad hat, right?

6:16At 16 years old, I would argue, it doesn't seem like that's the point that's beyond all repair. Well, yeah, I mean, 16, there's so much at flux. And obviously you can tell the undercurrent here is that he's not with her mother anymore. So there's all kind of baggage that's blown up in this thing. And that's just us reading the tea leaves of a very short video. But I wouldn't be making decisions right now that could somehow ripple, cause a ripple effect of long-term irreconcilable differences. Can you imagine the story your daughter will tell forever is that my dad took my college funds because I wouldn't talk to him and he did something else with it.

6:58That just, that breaks my heart. I would try to be the bigger person on it to just say, no matter what chaos we have in this moment, you're always going to be my daughter and I'm always going to love you. Just save more money. I'm going to give that a form. I think a lot of people do need to increase their savings rate, but savings alone will never make you financially free. Follow the 4 % rule. Oh man, that is the worst possible advice you can get. That is where savers or losers comes from. I'm going to give that a one. Work until 65. I'm going to give that a one as well. When you believe that 65 is your retirement age, you lose all our...

7:28He's going to do something with leverage. I'm going to give that a three. There's a lot of math behind owning a house, but there's a lot of money that goes towards owning a house as well that could otherwise be put to investing. Max retirement accounts. He's going to like apartment complexes or something. It's basically a default saying, I'm never going to retire. Hold on. Okay. You know what? If this was ranked where one is the best and 10 is the worst, he actually did pretty good, right? Like I agree, all the things that he said were ones that are like the best things you should do, like save more money, adhere to the 4 % rules, plan for retirement many years in the future.

8:01I think that's all great advice. I think he just didn't understand the ranking system. Yeah, I mean, the thing that kind of was a stick of dynamite when I was 17 years old was I had an economics teacher told me$100 a month would make me a millionaire. And I mean, I was like, what? I mean, because I was like, how am I ever gonna become a millionaire? And then little did I know that, man, that holds up. You know, he's actually, it works even for somebody who's 20 years of age. So you imagine what happens if you start saving as soon as you get your first job in your 20s, $100 a month,$200 a month, $400 a month, just maxing out your Roth IRA.

8:36It will literally, those small decisions will change your life. So to hear somebody say that's not what's going to do it. Now, if I had to guess what his future recommendation, he was going to probably, it was either going to be Real estate? It was going to be real estate, life insurance. There's going to be some product that's either going to use levered debt or it's going to use cash value life insurance. You know, there's going to be some pitch that somehow we cut that part out. Brian, real quick, I want you to name something you love so much that you would recommend it to anybody. That's easy.

9:09Smokey and the Bandit. You know, come on. Eastbound down. Okay, that is very on brand for you. But for me, it'd be something that's been a big part of my money story lately, and that's Monarch. Oh yeah. You know, I'm willing to change my answer to Monarch. And it's not just because they're a sponsor of the show, but because it's probably a better idea to recommend a tool that can help people reach their money goals than a movie about an outlaw who volunteers to transport beer across state lines. Yeah. And here's what I love about Monarch. It gives my wife and I a clear picture of our finances because everything is in one place, our accounts, our investments, our spending, and it can help us stay on track with all of our savings goals.

9:49And Monarch's AI Weekly Recap shows you spending trends so you can use that data to make better decisions. Yeah, when Monarch shows Brian he's rented Smoking the Bandit three times in one month, it becomes painfully clear he probably ought to make better financial decisions. So write your own money story with Monarch. Use code MONEYGUY at monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just$50. That's 50 % off your first year at Monarch.com with code MONEYGUY. Why don't I just buy the movie?

10:42but if you pay it off in full at the end of every month, you'll never pay any interest. And by the way, it will lower your property in casualty insurance. This is the thing, credit card use is A-OK, credit card debt, no way. And what I mean by that is you gotta pay it off every month. There's nothing wrong with the convenience because think about it, anytime you go on the internet, there's a lot of times that I like using a credit card on sites. It's just because whether it's travel sites, I know I'm getting additional insurance. And then sometimes you're just on a deal website, you're like, man, it's a good thing.

11:12And just in case this is not the greatest place and they're just harvesting my information so they can go use the credit card info, I'd rather use a credit card than my debit card, which is direct access to my savings. And I think for most folks, becoming a good credit card user is a process. I would not say start today and put everything on your credit card right now. I like what he said. Hey, maybe start every time you fill up gas, put in your credit card, or maybe one meal a month, put in a credit card. And that way you build the muscle memory of actually using it, paying it off, using it, paying it off till eventually you get to the point where all of your consumption can happen on the credit card because you have an automated process to get it paid off, but you don't have to start there.

11:49It's okay to ease your way in, but if you're someone who's young, maybe you're a college student, maybe you're a young adult, the earlier you start figuring out how to do that, the better your credit score will be long-term and the more useful and helpful that'll be for you down the road. Now, there is one big asterisk statement. If, you know, over half of Americans, and it's a little over 50 plus percent, carry a balance on their credit card every month. If you're one of those people, don't use a credit card. Because I mean, it really is a privilege to use a credit card because you have to earn that privilege by showing that you have the discipline to pay off that balance every month.

12:25Every time I see Mark, all I can think about is Alfred. And I felt like right there, I was the Dark Knight. I was Batman and he was showing me one of my tools that I get to use. That's all I could think about. You got about 75 % right. I think if we're going to Mickey Malfred, I would be Batman and you'd be Robin. You would be Robin. Five ways you can be a financial superhero.

12:51And I love that we have that in our past, that we've already clarified those roles so that she could play the part. Not Robin? It looks great, though. If you have 100 shares of a stock, then you are eligible at that point to sell covered calls on your stock. But when you sell a covered call, what you're doing is you are telling your broker, I am willing to give up my shares as long as it gets to the strike price that I specify on the date that I specify. And the best part about the strategy is if your shares are called away in profit, so you got them at one point and you're selling them at a higher point through the covered call, You cannot lose money.

13:32So that's what's so great about this strategy. Now, when you see it in your broker, you can select a strike price that is too low and it can go much higher and you can leave money on the table, but you can't lose money. You can just see in your broker, it'll show a negative next to your position if it's pushing higher than your strike price. But we have a dear friend. I'll let you decide if we're gonna share his name. But he loves him. covered calls. And what's so funny is that last time we were hanging out with Jack, he came up and he says, hey, I'm going to do this strategy with you guys. And I feel like this is one of those moments where the good Lord of the universe has a sense of humor.

14:14It's because Jack has took a stock that on its own made 40 % in the time that we started talking about this. And I think Jack made 10%. This is the problem nobody ever tells you about covered calls. It's exactly, you won't lose money with these things on the transaction as long as they trade within this narrow range here. But when they have the run-up and we all, when you buy equities, you're hoping, you know what? I want my shakalaka moment where I put a little bit here and this thing goes up 40 % and I don't have to use my back, my brain, my hands to make all this money. But if you price your covered call, you know, 10%, that stock goes away.

14:55Yes, you made the money you made off of selling the call, but now you lost the holding before it had the big run-up. So if you want to go reset your position, guess what? You have to pay more for the stock that you already owned. Because by the way, and the reason we know this and the reason we can chuckle, because a lot of people, when you figure out investing, you figure out how you can do covered call it looks like free money but beau and i dabbled with options ourselves and they are very humbling because you can be exactly right with a lot of your assumptions but they have timing issues that if your timing's not perfect or maybe even the timing of the stock running up gets away from you there's just a lot of things that also it's the hassle factor that i don't know that i think the squeeze of the fruit is as much work that it takes to actually do this well yeah i do not think that the juice is worth the squeeze.

15:46Most people would be far better off if they just bought a stock, bought an index, bought a mutual fund, bought an ETF, held that long-term and did not overcomplicate it. Focus on the things that actually matter in your financial life. Like how can I increase my savings rate? What kind of accounts am I putting my money into? Am I following the financial order of operations? Spending mental calories on answering those kinds of questions is likely gonna be a lot more valuable for you than going and trying to sell covered calls. The most valuable resource you have is your time. Use it accordingly.

16:16One of my pet peeves is people who are very, very wealthy, and then they move to a place that they don't actually want to live in just so they can save a little bit of money on taxes. What's the point of being rich? And it's because they have fixated on this idea that they need to reduce the amount they pay in taxes. I'm very happy to pay my taxes. I know that it goes to helping poor people and middle-class people. It's a never-ending game of trying to minimize or avoid taxes. Like, that's not the point. The point is to live a rich life. I don't disagree with that. I think we always want to factor in taxes, and we don't want to pay more taxes than we necessarily have to, but we never want to let the tax tail wag the investment dog or wag the life dog.

16:59Meaning, if I don't want to go live in some specific low-cost or no-tax state because I really like the area in which I live, I should probably be okay living in the area that I live, recognizing there's going to be a higher tax burden. I'm going to have to have a larger portfolio to be able to save to provide the lifestyle that I want. But I would never just make a decision solely on the tax impact. I think if you do that, you're not actually allowing your money to be a tool to help you accomplish the goals that you have. Hey, I'll tell you the other side of this. We live in the state of Tennessee and there sure are a lot of people that have moved to the state of Tennessee, the state of Florida, and pretty much all over the Southeast over the last few years.

17:35I don't know if it's taxes or other things, but I think Ramit is spot on and we are full. Nobody else needs to come. Consider, you heard it from Ramit first. Don't move to Tennessee for the lower tax state or to Florida. They're not hiring you to be the hospitality community. Well, I'm just, I mean, you know, we're full. Hey Viv, what should I be investing in on Kalshi or Polymarket? Babe, that's not investing. That's insider trading and you're on the outside. When I worked on Wall Street, if I used the information that I learned at work to then make money in my personal portfolio, I would have been thrown in jail because the stock market and securities are regulated.

18:12But all of a sudden, government officials can now place trades on policy announcements, tea producers can place trades on which couples will win dating shows, and the Super Bowl streaker can bet on someone streaking? Yeah, brother, it was you! 60 Minutes even did a report on Polymarket that found that there were nine accounts that had placed$2.4 million worth of bets almost exclusively on military operations, and they had a 98 % win rate. 98 % is the exact score I would aim for on an exam so that a teacher wouldn't think I was cheating, even though I definitely was. These companies want you to believe that dropping$5 on who's going to win Love Island this season is the same as buying a stock.

18:52It's not. You are not investing. You own nothing. There is no underlying asset that can gain or lose value. You are just betting. You are frolicking in a digital casino. And don't we all know that the house always wins? I have no notes. I agree with everything you just said. Mic drop. I mean, I thought it was spot on. I mean, it is this new phenomenon. I've had even advisors here who've shown me that they've found these inefficiencies in the different betting sites. And you can play this. By the way, the sites are really brilliant and they catch these arbitrage situations very quickly. I don't love how accessible.

19:25It used to be that gambling was something that you had to go to do. It feels like gambling has come to everyone. And there's a huge difference between gambling and speculating versus investing. So make sure you just know the difference so you can have the right mindset that, is there a way to treat this as a hobby and have a healthy relationship with it? Or is this something I should just avoid because it's not part of healthy habits? One thing I think is great is she says that when it comes to gambling, The house always has the edge, and that's true. And if you're gambling against the house and the house has the edge over a long enough timeline, you will lose.

20:00So what do you do? You try to put yourself on the side of the house because if you can be the house, then you're likely over the long term going to be on the winning side of the equation. Well, that's exactly what investing is. When you go buy the S &P 500, when you go buy a low-cost index fund, you are now betting with the house. You're not only trying to beat the market. You get to be the market and you get to have success over the long term. Is this your Rolls Royce? Yeah. I have the biggest business media channel in the entire world called The School of Hard Knocks. Where I interview guys like Shaq, Mark Cuban.

20:29What did you do to get a Rolls Royce? I invented gel nails, 1981. That's 40 years ago. 40 years of business. 44 years ago. What's the most amount of money you made in a single year? Biggest year you ever had? I made over 100 million. How did you scale out to do over nine figures in sales? What was your secret to scaling? I started with$200 on Venice Beach. Here's a picture the first day on Venice Beach. $200. As a$100 million entrepreneur, what's the best financial advice you've been given? The best financial advice in the world is save your money and don't waste it on stupid. This car was$520 ,000.

20:59I bought it at an auction for$175 ,000. I could buy 100 of them brand new. I wouldn't spend$500 ,000 on a car. I love it. Save your money. Don't waste it. Don't waste money, buying things you don't need to impress people whose opinions don't matter. If you can figure that out early on in life, you will save yourself a lot of heartache. By the way, I stand corrected. I said earlier that Alex Formozzi is who Bo sends me. Alex, unfortunately, is now the second place because the first place, the first seat is definitely School of Hard Knocks. I've been getting a ton of these videos from Bo. I loved that advice from that gentleman.

21:39By the way, Also, what's funny is just yesterday, my wife was arranging a nail session with my daughter and her and our next door neighbor and their daughter. And I got to listen to her call and make the reservation. And I kid you not, when they got to the manicure, she was like, I'll have two that are regular, one that's gel and one that's dipped. I have no idea what even dipped means or whatever. But I was like, there's the gel. So this gentleman is still making money even off of like my wife and my neighbors. What's funny is, and don't fall for, just like you saw this gentleman, I think he was in a Rolls Royce.

22:16What people don't realize is there's a time and a place for purchases like that. And that's always step number eight of the financial order of operation. What I don't want is for some 20 something to see that who's making out there in their first job making$50 ,000,$60 ,000. No, is a percentage that would, that car would overwhelm what you have going on. But this gentleman here who's got to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, if he wants to go spend$175 ,000 on a car, it is a literal drop in the bucket. It doesn't move the needle, but it sets the wrong impression for anybody who tries to fake it until you make it.

22:52Go make the money and start saving it as soon as you possibly can and don't waste it on stupid stuff. We believe that there is a better way to do money. If you want to know more about it, go to moneyguy.com. Check out all of our resources, all of our free tools, all of the videos we have out there so that you can do money better. We love reacting. We love giving away free advice. And that's why please take us up. Moneyguy.com slash resources. We will hook you up with tons of free advice. I'm your host, Brian. Joined by Mr. Bo. Money Guy. Out.