How Much Money Can We Give Away In One Episode?

21:18one life on this planet, I want you to kind of know what creates success, but also how to cherish success and own your time that much sooner and make as many memories as possible.

21:28Brian Preston:Now, I just want to add one thing, because you said, hey, I'm not a tightwad at all anymore. I want to make sure we draw a line. There's a difference in not being a tightwad and being a frivolous spender. Oh, no, I'm still good with money. Yeah, there's still this idea that, hey, when I spend money, when I'm going to buy something, I'm going to purchase something, I'm still going to make sure I get good value and I'm not being wasteful. I'm not being frivolous. You cannot be a tightwad and still be a very good, solid, sound financial decision maker. Don't assume that those two are synonymous because they're not.

21:59Brian Preston:It's just early on in your journey. You might have to be super, super, super tight. And then as you've done the hard work, you get to be less and less tight around still making really, really good financial decisions. that's great Jordan Lee Musics thanks for joining us you do get a tumblr uh so you can cash in on that on maybe more dot com but don't do that yet wait till the end of the show because we're going to be giving away that thousand dollars as well to one of you who is asking a question today all right next question is from Solge it says would you ever break 23.8 if you had the money to pay cash and are able to get 0 % APR while getting 3 % or more in a high-yield savings account.

22:44Brian Preston:Brian got excited and then he didn't. I want to confess. Can I confess? I'm excited, yes. This is confessional, right? Not the last car and maybe not the one before that, but maybe the one before that. My wife and I, we went and got this car. and we financed it because they were offering 1.9 % at the time. And we could have paid cash. We could have done that, but I was like, oh, you know what? I'm going to do it. I'm going to do the 23.8 and I'm going to, we actually did a little bit better. We put down more than 20 and financed it for three years. Point of the story, I hate car payments. I just don't like them.

23:24Brian Preston:And so what ended up happening is we ended up just deciding to just pay it off early anyways. Was that the optimal financial decision? Likely not. If I have a 1.9 % car loan and I've got 3 % over here and a high yield, is there an arbitrage that I can take advantage of? Sure. Is it worth the mental calories and the headache of having the car payment? Or man, was it just a whole lot easier to pay cash and not have that car payment? I'm going to argue on that side. I'm going to say that. Now, that's different than someone saying, oh, if you had a billion-dollar loan at 0%, Would you not take it?

23:59Brian Preston:No, that's a different thing. But for a small automobile arbitrage, I just don't like having car payments. And I think that simplicity is valuable. That little delta there was not worth it for me on my last car. Yeah, I was good. You're kind of getting at what I was thinking, is that I don't think the arbitrage opportunity here is big enough to break the rules. I do give, and people wonder, why do you have the rule that pays in 12 months? I know because I have once again the no hypocrisy policy is that when I bought like my wife's car the the one that I complained about so much um not the new one the last yeah realize dealerships now have become more banks than they are selling you the product because they make their money on financing so it's not uncommon that if you even if you have cash to pay you should ask the question after you've done all the other negotiations when you start talking to the finance person And what if you finance this thing for how long do you have to have it?

24:58Three months? How much more could you take off because of the incentives you get for the transaction? Because when I bought that car, I'd just keep the loan open for three months. And then I did. I sent the check in month three and a half, four months. I just stroked the check, but I got an extra 1 % or 2 % off the total car. I think that's fine if you're looking for arbitrage type things. But I think this is getting cute because the 23-8, its sole purpose is for you to get reliable transportation. Think Corolla, not Land Cruiser, to your J-O-B. Because there's points in your life where you're broke as a joke and you just want reliable transportation.

25:39If you're getting to the point where you're trying to now play games with it from an arbitrage standpoint, you've lost kind of the context of why we even gave you this rule. Cars depreciate. They suck. Nobody gets rich off of cars. I know somebody's going to post some super exotic car. Bob trades cars. It makes money. But he's already a millionaire to buy those type of cars. I'm talking about the cars that the typical American is doing is a losing game, is a depreciating asset. We gave you a rule to be a lifeline to get you to your J-O-B. If you're sitting on piles of cash, pay cash because that is the way that you stay away from the depreciation.

26:17You also keep your ego in check because for some reason cars, and I think it's because of what culture tells us in this consumption society, is that you need to look cool. There's a reason that the typical age for a Corvette buyer is like 63 years of age. But in all their ads, it's like beautiful 20 and 30 something year olds in the ads. It's because they're trying to put this perception on you that this is what you have to do to be cool and be the best version of yourself. And the reality is nobody cares. That dopamine hit will diminish so fast you'll be left holding the bag with the car payment if you're not careful.

26:53So we're trying to protect you. Love that.

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27:34Brian Preston:So what's next? I've been liberated. I'm going to take this city back. Over-Medicated. In an all new season now streaming only on Disney+. They're hunting us. It's time we started hunting them. I can work with them. This should be tons of fun. Marvel Television's Daredevil Born Again now streaming only on Disney+. All right, Soulj. Stick around because you get a Tumblr and you are now entered into our$1 ,000 giveaway. We ought to everybody who asks questions we should ask their age as politely as possible so we can play games with the wealth multiplier. Do this. Just don't be a jerk about it. No, no, just so that we know.

28:14Brian Preston:Well, you know, some people get annoyed by it. Will you ask Sol just politely as you can about their age? Because me and Reby want to know the politest way to do that. Well, I mean, if you feel comfortable sharing, because we love the wealth multiplier and just want to show, because when we pull the names, we could then share. This had the potential and then add it up. And then for clickable titles, we can say, we gave away, asterisk, this much money. You see what I did there? Oh, I saw it, dude. They'll never see it coming. That's awesome. And then y 'all can all go, hee, hee, hee, hee. They gave away$3 ,000.

28:52Brian Preston:Hee, hee, hee, hee. Sold just 41, Brian. What's the wealth block for 41? 41. I must have asked politely enough. 6.62. Look at that. Could be$6 ,620. I didn't check that math. Wow. Wow. Amazing we only have to carry the threes, the three zeros. Are you ready for the next question? It's from Jordan Hamilton, eight, nine, six, zero. We already had a Jordan. I know we had two Jordans. That's going to be confusing. Jordan, a thousand bucks. Now we also, employees are not eligible. We've told that in employee spouses. Yeah, I keep seeing questions come in from not money guy Will. I don't know why that one seems awfully suspicious.

29:38All right. Go with Jordan. Jordan number two's question.

29:41Brian Preston:It says that what net worth does optimization matter less than behavior? I know it happens at some point, but when? So talk about optimization and the math of it all versus just good behaviors when building wealth. Oh, I mean, this is we built a system for this. Well, I want to hear you answer this because I don't know that I fully understand the question. Well, I mean, look, I think it's because I've had to update some things. I don't think we're ready to make big announcements yet, but you do get to a point. There's so many big things coming out this year. I don't even know which one that you want.

30:13Brian Preston:Ruby does. I saw Ruby's eyes closed going, shh. You don't know, but Ruby knows. She's had Cat Herder. Step eight, I mean, I think is exactly when we talk about, you know, the title is prepaid future expenses, but the good time rock and roll name is Abundance Goals. This is when you can kick it up a notch where it's not so much about optimizing because you've already put your army of dollar bills doing what they're supposed to be, going in the right categories. So now you can feel no regret if you buy a nicer car, if you let your lifestyle expand, if you start investing in residential real estate or commercial real estate and things like that, it happens after you've already set your financial base underneath you.

30:58The problem we have is when people in the typical American expands their lifestyle because they feel like they're due it or owed it, and they haven't even set up their financial foundation yet.

31:10Brian Preston:I agree with everything you said. But. No, no, there's no but. I'm trying. And what net worth does optimization matter? Well, it depends on your income, your age. I think that behavior always matters, likely more than optimization. And this is what I mean. Let's say that you have mathematically calculated that the portfolio that makes the most sense for you is a 90-10 portfolio or a 95-5 portfolio. Very, very aggressive, far out on the risk spectrum. And that is the mathematically optimal portfolio for you. But behaviorally, every time the market goes down, you freak out, you lose sleep, you want to...

31:52Brian Preston:I'm going to argue that rather than being mathematically optimal, whether you have a$100 ,000 portfolio or a$100 million portfolio, if behaviorally you can't stick to the plan and you can't sleep at night and that plan does not match where you are behaviorally, then all the optimization in the world won't matter. Same sort of thing. you could have the most beautifully constructed portfolio. I mean, where you've got alpha figured out and beta figured out and expense ratios figured out and all this stuff. But behaviorally, if you're not living on less than you make, and you're not saving for the future and you're not building, then behavior, there's no way that that optimization is going to outweigh the behavior.

32:35Brian Preston:And then even when you get to like financial independence, again, you can have the very best portfolio in the world. You can have all the risk metrics figured out. You can have all the liquidity available. But if you can't spend inside the healthy, sustainable withdrawal rate for the size of the assets you've built up, I don't think you ever get to walk away from behavior. What ends up happening is the acceptable behaviors expand as your financial circumstance improves. But I don't know that there's ever a time that you can say, oh, well, behavior just, it doesn't matter anymore. But we can put some meat on these bones to a degree, because we've talked about these three stages of wealth.

33:13There's make wealth phase, there's maintain wealth, and then there's multiply wealth. When you are in the make wealth phase, you probably should be focusing on optimization in a lot of ways. And I think when you maintain wealth, now look, we know most people cross into seven-figure status in their late 40s. And this also coincides with when we have, when should you prepay your mortgage debt, even if it's, you know, suboptimal to do so. So it's typically 45 to 50 is when you can start, or you're already saving greater than 25 % and you're in step eight, back to my full circle, back to my step eight.

33:50But that's when, because now you're thinking about the risk, the emotional, all those things. It's not to optimize. And then even when you get to, to make your point, multiply, meaning that you're no longer thinking about money as just the tool that it was for you in your 20s and 30s. When you give to charities and things like that, that's not for you. That's more for you're stepping outside of money in that aspect because you want to pay it forward. Those things, I think if you're in the make wealth phase, follow the numbers. Follow the numbers. And that's kind of, you're going to find, it coincides very nicely with the steps one through seven of the financial order of operations.

34:30Once you're ahead of the curve and you can now think about de-risking, you can think about other things, then yes, I think that's probably in your 40s. you're going to be able to make decisions that don't have to be optimal, but are in what you've decided is best for your life and how you're using your time and your money. Love that.

34:49Brian Preston:Good discussion you got there. I figured you would say there's not one net worth that all of a sudden you don't have to worry about it. This is why we create these products. Know your number. Are you ahead of the curve, behind the curve, or right where you're supposed to be? You've got to use these resources. Got to. All right. Next question is from RiverboatRob89. I just get so torn up. Did you hear him open his drink earlier? He did it. He didn't see that. He did it while you were reading the test rules. Look, we had a friend of the firm, you know, a client of the firm. As I'm walking in, you know, I said hello.

35:27And I knew Caleb was getting all stressed out because he's standing in there. I walked in. There was 17 seconds. 17 seconds before my life. That was a new record of lateness for Ryan.

35:37Brian Preston:17 seconds was pretty wild. We're supposed to be here 10 minutes early. You are. And you made it 17 seconds early. Woo! Okay. Somebody was asking a question, and I interrupted. RiverboatRob89 asks, Should I take out a HELOC to purchase the lot next door to me? It has a garage and would add value to my property if I sell, but I've heard a lot of bad things regarding HELOCs. Okay. Riverboat, we do not— Rob, we do not know your home, your lot, the unique circumstances around it, all that kind of stuff. So should you buy it? We're not going to be able to weigh in and answer that question. I think the real crux of your question is, hey, are home equity lines of credit, HELOCs, are they appropriate tools and mechanisms to use for something?

36:23Brian Preston:So sometimes that thing might be buying the lot next door or doing a home improvement or doing a renovation. Some people like to use HELOCs to go on vacation, to buy a new car, to go on a shopping spree. I think it'd be helpful, Brian, if we were just kind of going to talk through, are HELOCs okay? Are they acceptable tools to use? And when do they make sense and when do they not make sense? And what should you use them for? What should you not use them for? Well, look, we're in the time right now where this is going to be even an easier decision for you to make because interest rates are still somewhat higher.

36:59is there has been a season where home equity lines, because they were like prime minus one, that's how crazy it got, where you could actually use these and the interest rate on them was like 2.5%. And so people start going, well, I could use that to pay for my car. I could use that to bolster my lifestyle. There's a lot of bad decisions that went in on home equity lines. And that's where I think a lot of your feeling towards these tools as inappropriately used has that history. What you're asking for is to buy the lot next to you and it has a garage. This is probably the closest reason for why you would use because it is tied to your home.

37:42But I would look at this as, is this a short-term bridge? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I need this. This land, additional land, and this garage would add tremendous value to my life? And if the answer to that is yes, then in your decision matrix, you can go to the next box and then ask yourself, okay, wow, this home equity line has a pretty high interest rate on it. So I need to look at this as a temporary bridge, very short term. Do you have the cash flow or the income or discipline to where you can pay this loan off in three to five years? If the answer is no, then man, you got a problem.

38:21You got to figure out, hey, how can I get myself out of this in three to five years? Is that a lifestyle? Is I go find additional income? Or do I just need to say no? Go through that decision matrix for yourself. But if the answer is, yeah, oh yeah, I've got some bonuses coming in. I've got some really realistic things that are coming up that I could pay this off in three years and it could change my life because now I'll have more privacy. I'll have this extra storage, put more toys and tools and other things, and, you know, in the Financial Mutant version of things, then, yeah, I think it could be a very effective tool as long as you go through that decision matrix.

38:58Brian Preston:Yeah, even with that decision matrix, I'm going to say you ought to do some sort of like 3D glass sort of planning. Hey, if this goes really, really well, how does that play out? If it goes the way I expect it, how does it play out? And if this goes really, really bad, if this goes belly up. When you say 3D, dream, down to earth, doo-doo. Yep. If it goes that way, what does that practically mean for me? How will that play out? Because a lot of people, the reason they want to pay off their home so quickly, the reason why their mortgage would be gone is, hey, if all goes to pot, at least I own my home.

39:31Brian Preston:Nobody can take that away from it. Whenever you take a home equity line of credit, you're now borrowing against your home. You're collateralizing that asset to go do this thing. Well, if you cannot pay that, if you cannot satisfy that note, well, now you have an issue where you could potentially lose your home. It's one of the reasons why we say, hey, don't use home equity lines for debt consolidation. You got a ton of credit card debt? Don't go use your home equity line to consolidate that because you have unsecured debt that you're now replacing with secured debt. You are now putting your house up on the line.

40:02Brian Preston:So you need to recognize what you're actually doing when you take out that HELOC. You need to walk through, okay, am I comfortable with the risks? Is this going to be relatively short-term in nature? And do I have a path to get through it on the other side? Far too often, I think people take out a HELOC and they treat it like a primary mortgage. I'm just going to have two mortgages forever for the next 30 years. I would argue if you're doing that, you're likely doing it wrong. If you're taking the HELOC out for the maximum period, the 10-year period or whatever they're allowing you to do, I would caution you against doing that.

40:33Brian Preston:I would rather see you save up, get ready for it, build for it, or use the HELOC buy and figure out how do I get that note satisfied quickly so that my house does not continue to be at risk. Well, and look, in these unique times where interest rates have run up, prices of homes have run up, a lot of people now are looking at their current home and saying, maybe I should improve it so I don't have to go reset my loan. I don't have to go move across town. So I do think there are effective tools for that purpose. You just need to do the math exercise and treat it exact. Bo went through the checklist very well short term.

41:08I mean, because it's just too high to get yourself. Because we've had some experience recently. Was it 6 % or 7 %? What was the home equity rates?

41:17Brian Preston:Yeah, I think mine was 6.8 % or something like that. So nobody wants to pay 6.8 % for an extended. Now, look, I know some mortgages, but realize there's some different tax treatments and other things with home equity lines. So go through that decision matrix we just laid out, and I think you'll be laying in a good place. Did Riverboat Rob tell us how old he was? I don't believe so. Riverboat Rob, look at the camera politely. Feel free to share your age so we can, just in case you win our$1 ,000 giveaway, we want to be able to figure out what the wealth multiplier is. Did you tell Riverboat Rob to look at the camera or were you telling yourself to look at the camera?

41:57Brian Preston:Because you said look at the camera politely. Technical stuff. I assume everybody's got cameras. Look at the laptop camera. Because we can see everybody out there. We can see all of you. Ruby, we've got to answer questions faster. You kind of do. I'm glad you said it because I was thinking about telling you to just speed up a little. Just a little bit. No, last show we did, people were like, I like the slow and low and do great jobs. We're giving away money on this one. More people want their chance, right? You don't have to go. The two Jordans are like, man, right now? Go as slow as you can. We've been, what, four questions?

42:32We've got a 50 % chance we're going to win money. No, actually, it's less than that. It's better than that. They're like three out of four chance we're going to win money right now.

42:40Brian Preston:We are going to try to get two, three more in, depending on how fast you can go. If your name's Jordan, you're feeling pretty good right now. Then we're going to do our From the Wings segment, and then after the segment, we will announce the three$1 ,000 winners. I'm going to answer a little bit quicker because I want to maximize the opportunity for people out there to win. I'm going to try to answer quickly. Not rapid fire quickly, but quickly. Yes, but maybe two, three, maybe four-minute answer. Three-minute answer would be really good, actually. I'm going to take up all that extra time. Try it.

43:07Brian Preston:Okay. Next question is from God's Girl 951. It says, hi, how do you balance between saving for your kid's future and hitting early retirement goals? We are on track to retire at 55, but should we be putting more in a brokerage now or 529 for our kid's future? This is a goal priority question. The fact that it's financial independence, retire early, the FIRE goal that you have, you have to figure out what is more important for us, being able to retire early, exit the workforce, have a different timeline, or being able to pay for our kids' college. And the answer to that will dictate where your dollars roll.

43:45Brian Preston:For most folks, it makes sense to prioritize financial independence over college because there's going to be a plethora of options for your children to be able to pay for college that will not be available to you when it's time to come and pay for financial independence. God's girl, it's built into the plan already. You know, financial order of operation, step seven, hyperaccumulation. This is actually where you're going to get into. All the other steps were to protect you or to give you some type of tax benefit. When you get to step seven, this is the first step that's going to say, hey, how do you need to change how you structure your accounts?

44:22Are you going to need access to your accounts early because you're retiring early, you'll very quickly realize, okay, we're going to need to have a higher savings rate. We're going to need to structure with these accounts. And that's what you'll decide. And then once you decide, figure that part out, you'll move to step eight, which ding, ding, ding, you can fund kids 529s at that point. So you see how you have to protect yourself first, do the planning. And then of course, once you've done, you know, measure twice, got all that stuff figured out, go load up the 529s. They're great savings tools for education.

44:52trade schools future Roth IRAs lots of opportunities now with 529s they're not to be slept on as long as you've funded your own retirement first two minutes

45:05Brian Preston:beautiful God's girl how old is she she is 28 am I on the right side what's the wealth multiplier for a 28 year old 29.7 for God's girl Well done. That's great. All right. God's Girl 951, stick around because we will be doing our drawing at the end of the show. Do you have to be present to win? Ideally. Honestly, yes, because then you won't know to cash in your prize or how to do it. All right. Music and Coffee 1923 is up next. Is it possible to retire early without three buckets? I am maxing out my Roth HSA and on my way to maxing out my 401k. I'm 31, 240k household income, but haven't begun contributing to my taxable brokerage.

46:04Brian Preston:What do you think? So for most people, when they retire, you have to wait until 59 and a half to be able to access your retirement accounts, unless you are still employed in the year that you turn 55 and you can access your 401ks in the year that you turn 55 without having to pay a 10 % penalty. But you say, hey, I don't have three buckets. I really only have two. I've got my tax-free bucket, my Roth, and I've got a pre-tax bucket. Is it possible to retire early? And the answer is yes, it is possible to retire early, but you have to plan for it and you have to kind of think through, how am I going to access these dollars?

46:39Brian Preston:We did a great show, bro. I say great. I hope you guys to retire early or five ways to retire early that you may not know about. And we walk through some of those strategies that might be available to you, like Roth conversion ladders, like 72T distributions, or like building up and creating a taxable account to pay for that. So you have to figure out for your unique and specific plan, what's that going to look like and how should I build my three buckets? And is it necessary based on my timeline to build my three buckets to get there. The truth is, Bo just covered it. You don't need the three buckets, but let me just tell you, let me go ahead and ruin it for you and tell you how the life plays out.

47:19You hit your peak earning years in those 40s and 50s, and you're going to find, I think that, you know, because if you're probably planning on leaving in your early 50s, you're going to hit some of those peak earning years. You'll get to step seven of the financial order of operations, and then you're going to say, you know what, this must be what the guys are talking about as I'll start stacking some money in this taxable brokerage account to be the bridge because all these people, it cracks me up when people talk about using their Roth money as their bridge money. This thing, you're Gollum, where you're like, it's my precious.

47:51Nobody wants to get rid of their Roth dollars. I mean, tax-free growth? Are you kidding me? I mean, I still, in Millionaire Mission, I missed out on$10 ,000 from my Roth IRA because I was just, when I started the company and early in the part, I just didn't get all those contributions in, and I still regret that$10 ,000. and I just, I think that people thinking they're going to start blowing through Roth money just because that's an easy account to touch. Yes, you can technically do it, but I've just found in my practice, most people, they tend to find that they have money in other places that they can cover it.

48:26So, you know, there's one thing I think people like to get creative, especially you're 31 years of age right now, so you're looking at your buckets, you go, I could use this. Yes, you could use this, but when you get to be in your 50s, You're like, man, I really like that Roth bucket. It's nice that my income's high enough that I was able to set up this taxable brokerage account, and that can be my bridge account. Love it. That's my prediction. By the way, 31 years of age, 20.39 is the wealth multiplier. Crazy. For music and coffee.

48:55Brian Preston:That's right. Two things I love. Stick around to the end for the drawing. Noah Turvalon 1946 is up next. It says, how do you decide if a house renovation, like redoing your kitchen, is worth it? Especially for younger people, since we have a higher wealth multiplier. I'm 24. Oh, man. I was about to, man. See, Noah just screwed this whole thing up because I was going to say, what does your wife say? Because as y 'all know, I've made horrible decisions because it made my wife happy. But Noah, you're 24. Holy cow. Now, if you own a house at 24 and we're trying to make these decisions, you got me in a pickle now because that wealth multiplier for a 24-year-old, by the way, not to ruin it, is 50.42.

49:41That's a lot. Can we just paint those cabinets?

49:44Brian Preston:Well, that's kind of like a weird roundabout way. Where I was going with that, how do we decide if it's worth it? Well, you have to define the value. How am I quantifying value? Are you saying if we renovate our kitchen, is the amount that the value of our home going to increase more than what we pay? So there's going to be an ROI on those dollars. That's one way to measure and quantify value. Another way to measure and quantify value is, man, we really love having people in our home. We want to be able to host people. We want to be able to cook dinners. We want to be able to prepare. We want to have our kids.

50:19Brian Preston:We want to do all of these things. And that may be of highest importance, of most value to you. and that may be worth the dollars that you spend. Every time you make a financial decision, you're making an opportunity cost, a scarcity decision. If I do this thing, then it's going to cost me this thing. Or if I don't do this thing, I'm going to be able to fund this thing. I think a home renovation is the same. So you have to figure out, okay, why do we want to do this? What's the purpose behind it? And where does it fall in priority amongst our other goals? If we're 24 years old and financial independence is very, very important for us and something we want to work towards, we want to be able to retire early, and we, instead of saving, instead of building, we walk away from the wealth multiplier to do this kitchen renovation.

51:02Brian Preston:Will we be okay if that means we have to work longer? Maybe that means that we can't go on trips like we wanted to, or maybe we can't fill in the blank. You have to define what it is that you value. And only once you've done that, can you determine is the cost actually worth it? Also, I want to give the experience here. When I was, I got in my first house when I was 24 as well. And I remember we had an issue with the kitchen. And my wife and I went and rented a wet saw from Home Depot. And we did our own backsplash. That sounds so miserable. No, we got good at it. I did my kitchen backsplash. It turned out so good.

51:46Because it's all geometrically. It's so much easier than I thought it was going to be.

51:50Brian Preston:My wife would like some in the pantry. would you want to come do our backsplash? I mean, I'm aged out of this now, but then I ended up doing it at my parents' house. I did it at my in-laws' house. I mean, because renting a wet saw was just not that expensive. And then when you see how affordable tile is, I was able, and by the way, for the years that we lived in that house, I felt so much pride that I had done this project myself. So I tell you this, Noah, not because I'm trying to be the screw that says no, keep and hoard this money. I'm just at 24 years of age, I'll repeat it again. Your wealth multiplier, every dollar you spend is worth$50.

52:27So it's one of those things where there's a lot of power in that time and the compounding growth. I'm just asking you at this early stage where you also had the biggest threshold of what you can put up with and be happy with, that maybe you can look at your kitchen and first ask yourself, is this something I can improve by painting the cabinets, by putting up a new backsplash, changing the countertops in some way that that one you're probably going to need a contractor for. But you get what I'm going at is that is there some way you can spruce this thing up and not get yourself out of whack from building your army of dollars for the future?

53:05Because it's just so much easier. Look, I still share that experience share of when I did things on the ultra cheap. And then last year we updated our Tennessee home, and it was nice that we didn't. You didn't have to go rip the saw. I let my wife go hog wild with what she wanted to do on it, and it was fine, but the time was right. The wealth multiplier wasn't going to get done wrong. As a percentage of my total net worth, it wasn't even moving the needle, whereas in my 20s, it would have moved the needle. I mean, you go spend$50 ,000 or even$25 ,000 on a kitchen renovation, that has a huge impact when you think about multiply by 50.

53:45And then ask yourself, you know, maybe we ought to think about this. And I don't like being in the cold water, but I'm just telling you the logic. When I look back on my life, what created the success and it's decisions like that that can move the needle towards success. Love it.

54:02Brian Preston:All right, fantastic. If your question was featured on this live stream, stay tuned till the end. will announce our$3 ,000 giveaway winners after our From the Wings segment. So the team is going to be - Now, do these people qualify too? Oh, no, From the Wings is not. That's from you guys. Y 'all don't qualify because you're employees. So nevermind. Keep going. Carry on. Sorry, Reeves. So specific. All right. From the Wings is our segment where, yes, the content team pulls some headlines that they want your reaction to. So you have your thumbs up, thumbs down paddles in your drawer there at your desk.

54:36Brian Preston:I'm going to read the headline and you're going to tell me, thumbs up, yep, this is news, we should pay attention, or thumbs down, this is noise, this is not going to really impact us. And then you can explain why. So, the first question is, or not question, see I'm so into questions. The first statement or headline is 75 % of U.S. homes are now unaffordable, as Dave Ramsey calls this, the most unrealistic real estate market in 100 years. That's from Yahoo Finance. Ooh, we got two thumbs up. This is news. Why do you think this is news? I mean, we had a show, and we really tried to give you the honest truth.

55:19We didn't try to be talking heads and make you feel bad about where you are and how the systems cracked against you. We just tried to share the numbers and be like, yeah, housing is one of those places. When we talk about that the past had it easier, you have a very solid point. So you need to act accordingly. And I hate it, but it's probably in a lot of markets. That's why rent until you get to a little more success in your future. And it's coming. You'll be able to do it. And also, there will be adjustments. There are times in my life where I see things, I'm like, man, I would love to do that, but it's just not affordable.

55:55And then it's amazing that we go through a recession or something, and all of a sudden, the affordability of that item becomes much more attainable. Or maybe my success rose to where it crested to the point that I could afford it. Don't force it because these, you know, realize the people you're renting homes from probably bought the houses significantly cheaper. They have much lower interest rates so they can build that into the rent versus you go buy it, you carry the cost of it all.

56:23Brian Preston:Yeah, the reason I think that it's newsworthy is that we love homeownership. We love people being able to cross over that spectrum. But it is worth noting that it's super unique right now. Prices of homes are high. Interest rates are somewhat unfavorable. Affordability relative to median income is not in a great spot. So if you're going to make the decision for home ownership, you need to make sure that you understand you're making it in a very unique market that is very different than it was 20, 30, 50, 100 years ago. Not that that means you shouldn't make the decision. It just means that you ought to recognize it's unique.

57:01Brian Preston:And there are some tradeoffs associated with that. It's worth paying attention to. If you want to know more about how to buy a home, what to do, we have a great resource. Go to moneyguy.com slash resources. So we have a home buying checklist. We have a home buying calculator. Tons of tools so that you can make sure if you're going to make this decision, you make it the best way possible. Love that. Next headline from CNBC. Gold, silver, and Bitcoin fall as traders up Fed rates hike bets. We have two thumbs down. Why is this noise? Well, I mean, I don't mind if you do any of these. You could do gold, silver, Bitcoin, but you're probably going to keep them at a portion of your total net worth of less than 5%.

57:44So at most, this is a hobbyist type thing that you're going to do. So I don't want people to get emotional or stressed out by it. There's nothing wrong with dealing with these asset classes, but it should move the needle for your long-term success.

58:01Brian Preston:Two of these are for sure commodities. The third is there's an argument about what category or classification it actually falls into. But most often when we see spikes in these or movement in these, they tend to be emotionally charged, whether that emotion be excitement because of something going on or fear because of something else going on. And I try to not let emotions drive my investment philosophy and the way that I'm making investment decisions. So when I see a headline that's like really trying to trigger an emotional response, in my mind, that's noise. Think twice. Yep. I like it. What I find interesting, every one of those, if you watch the daily volatility of those three asset classes, they're big.

58:43So it is, I do think it is some headline harvesting from the journalists sometimes when I see them grab those. Because you could go any day on the cryptos or even the gold and silver, the bullion, you can see lots of volatility.

59:00Brian Preston:Next headline from Forbes, SpaceX shares soar again in pre-market, nears 2.75 trillion market cap. I mean, it's one of those things where, look. Oh, we got a disagreement. Ryan says thumbs up, Bo says thumbs down. I can't help just because it's part of the zeitgeist, I'll say the word, that we covered it. And now every day I'm like, can you believe it? Today it overtook Microsoft on its market cap. That's just wild to me. So I think it's just, it doesn't mean that you take action off of it, but I think it's interesting to just see the headline and just know what's going on. News to me suggests that a piece of information is actionable and informs the way I make my decisions.

59:49Brian Preston:Yeah, that's true. You're not going to do anything with it. You know, cat videos, wildly entertaining, not news. You know what I mean? And so even what's going on with SpaceX right now, Now, especially in the short term, what it's doing today, tomorrow, this week, next month, the next six months, I don't think from a stock price trading standpoint is newsworthy. Now, the company, you can make arguments about that sort of thing, whatever. But short-term stock movements, I think, is more noise. And again, it elicits an emotional response. Either, oh my gosh, I'll never buy it. It's so reviled. Or, oh my gosh, why didn't I get in on that earlier?

1:00:23Brian Preston:It's going to the moon. You know, I'm probably there's some bias. Look, we all have our own things that shape us. I drove down to Georgia this weekend, and my mother-in-law, 86 years old, asked me if I got her into some SpaceX. Well, did you? No. I mean, she's 86 years old. But then, okay, my mom, she did get in on the SpaceX. And we met at the restaurant, and I just told my mother-in-law, somehow it was in the same day that she asked about this, And then the first thing my mom says is, wow, that SpaceX is doing pretty good. And I'm like, I did not ask. She goes, I'm not allowed. You know, owning a financial firm, we felt like out of abundance of caution, I was not involved in any of that.

1:01:10But my mom, that's why I know it was part of the zeitgeist, is that she got in. And so that's why. So maybe it is me reflecting, I have to keep up with this stuff because I'm going to get asked by friends and relatives what's going on with SpaceX. doesn't mean you should be taking action. That's right.

1:01:27Brian Preston:All right. Last but not least, with great anticipation, the headline says, I don't know. Albino buffalo named Trump goes wildly viral for its fetching blonde comb over. And in case you need a visual. I need a picture. Yeah, please. Oh, wow. Whoa. Okay, look, I'm going to give that green just because that is something. Can you imagine you take that to work? There's 10 to 15 minutes of productivity just completely zapped out of the day. That's exactly what happened to the content team last week. That's AI. Is that AI? That's gotta be AI. Is that a real picture? Cows can grow hair like that? That's AI.

1:02:09Brian Preston:Maybe it is AI. That's AI. Honestly, I read the headline and I was like, no way this picture doesn't look like it. And sure enough, the picture... Hey, make that bigger. It's perfectly clothed hair. Can y 'all make that bigger? Y 'all made it big at first and then it's now small. Teeny tiny thumbnail there. That's a, isn't it? It's styled at the minimum. Honestly, it's got, the cow's got great hair. I think. Somebody went in there with some hair product. President Trump would be jealous of that hair. That's something. My hair kind of resembles that a little bit. Just the wrong color. I don't orange my hair up.

1:02:44And I kind of respect that. There's definitely some product in that.

1:02:47Brian Preston:That's wild. Pretty cute. We gave a thumbs up just because of the entertainment. It was very entertaining. We were entertained by it. We hope that you were entertained by it. And that has been our From the Wings segment. It is now time for the greatly anticipated winner drawing. If we featured your question on the show. Am I doing this right? Is it 50 % odds that you're going to win money if you had a question answered? I don't think it's quite 50%. I think we had seven. We had seven. We had seven? I just didn't write somebody down. So no, 50 % is not right. That is not correct. I only wrote down six.

1:03:20I got Jordan.

1:03:22Brian Preston:I do want to mention, if you are one of the seven who are featured on the show, you are welcome to cash in on your MoneyGuy Tumblr. Just email winner at moneyguy.com. But only these next three usernames that I'm about to read will be our$1 ,000 winners. Are you ready? Can you tell us their ages when you read them also? No. Okay, that's fine. I'm like, well, where do I have to go find that? Maybe the team can get me that. But more on that after we read the names. The names of the winners are Music and Coffee, 1923. That's a 31-year-old. Noah Turvalon, 1946. And God's Girl, 951. Congratulations to you three.

1:04:08Brian Preston:Thank you to everyone who asked a question and showed up and just had fun for us. It seemed like you guys really liked this live stream and we enjoyed it too. Congrats to our winners. Just email winner at moneyguy.com for instructions on how to claim your prize. Be sure to include who you are. So we're very excited. Not to nerd out. How old was Noah? I didn't have Noah's age. Noah was 24. That was the 24-year-old. So that was 50.42. God's girl didn't have an age for it. No, I got that, 28. So that's 29.7. So, God, I can't even read my own handwriting. How bad am I? The team did this math. We were about to tell it to you.

1:04:50Brian Preston:Oh, okay. Never mind. I'm doing public math for no reason. I was like, what are we doing? And? Oh, I'm going to tell it? Great. $100 ,000. $100 ,000. That's how much can we give away in one live stream? We're giving away the potential to become$100 ,000. That's a great headline. That is a great headline. The potential to become. That's really, really exciting. Guys, thank you so much. We believe there's a better way to do money. And we really appreciate you guys for all the support. And we love that we can pay it forward. I'm your host, Brian, joined by Mr. Bo. Money Guy team, out. The Money Guy Show is hosted by Brian Preston and Bo Hanson.

1:05:36Brian Preston: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.