If You’re Between 32 and 48, Don’t Screw This Up

0:00You might think your 20s are the most important decade for building wealth, but in your early 30s, a wealth window opens up that's uniquely powerful, and we've never really talked about it before.

0:11Brian Preston:Brian, I am so excited because today we're going to show you for the first time ever why between the ages of 32 and 48, it may be the highest ROI window of your entire financial life, and we're going to show you how to take full advantage of it. I'm Brian, he's Beau, and this is The Money Guy Show, where two financial advisors help you maximize your money in the messy middle. And with that, let's jump right in.

0:42Brian Preston:All right, Brian, to set the stage, let's start by reviewing the wealth multiplier. And you know, if you've listened to this for any amount of time, the wealth multiplier is this idea that our money can multiply through time. And we talk all the time about how a 20-year-old that's willing to sacrifice and defer$1 today can watch that$1 turn into$88 by the time that they retire. Yeah, this is one of those things. Look, if you're in your 20s watching this, God bless you. You have the world by its tail. But I just know if we're all being honest and I look at the stats, most 20-somethings are broke as a joke and they're just not saving and investing So I wanted to create a show that allowed us to really focus in on the people that are between ages 32 to 48.

1:31Because this is a magical period. We're going to show you the analytics on why if you miss this window, your future self is just going to be so disappointed because there's so much just true opportunity. And, Bo, we actually have some numbers on this. Now, look, for a 20-year-old, it's 88 times over. That's seven times what a 35-year-old is. But I don't think we can sleep on the fact that even for somebody in their mid-30s, their multiplier is still close to 13. If you take it out to somebody who's in their 50s, we have to round it up and be generous to get it to three. So there's already up a three times better for somebody in their 30s versus somebody in their 50s.

2:13You can quickly see time is your enemy and your friend. It's time to harness that for your future good.

2:19Brian Preston:And so while we see that the wealth multiplier, it does deteriorate through time, there's still a window right there that even if you're not in your 20s, your dollars can be so, so, so powerful. We call this the wealth window. Brian, you've already alluded to this. This is that stage of life, that area under the curve when you're between the ages of 32 years old and 48 years old. And what we're going to show you today is why, when it comes to wealth building, when it comes to building for the future, in our opinion, this is the highest ROI window in your entire financial life. And you do not want to miss out on it.

2:57The whole purpose of this show is to get you motivated. If I don't get people to take action on this show, I have failed as a creator. Because that's what the educator, the heart that I want people to know is that you've got to do something. I want to give you some context so we can go ahead and frame this conversation, Beau. I want to show the average contribution rate by generation. And if you look at this, look at Gen Z. This is the youngsters, 7.5%. Now, look, we've already said when you're in your 20s, your broker's a joke. Millennials, 9%. Gen Xers, that's my generation, 10.5%. Baby boomers, 12.2%.

3:32Why do you think all of a sudden as people get older, their savings rate all of a sudden starts going up? They catch retirement religion because I think that they realize, holy cow, I am actually going to need money in the future to save. But here, let me go ahead and tell you some sad facts. We all play around with the artificial intelligence. I was playing around with mine, and I said, hey, for the median U.S. American, what do they have at 65 in retirement assets? And it said it's just under$200 ,000. I said, okay, let's go a little further. for the, when do you cross$100 ,000 as an American?

4:11And what I found was, is according to my artificial agent that was giving me, pulling data out there, it said in the late 40s is when most Americans cross into$100 ,000.

4:24Brian Preston:So the median American doesn't actually hit$100 ,000 in liquid assets until they're in their late 40s. And I just told you that the wealth window that we're going to be talking about today is 32 to 48. Because let me go ahead and tell you the cold, harsh reality is also, when do most millionaires cross into seven-figure status? It's 48 years of age. Do you see the compare and contrast difference? You have one path where the average American, the typical American, doesn't even cross into six figures, $100 ,000 until they're like 48 years of age. Meanwhile, the financial mutant that actually started doing something while they were in their 30s, because we know that's when the typical person figures this out is in their early 30s, they will have a million dollars.

5:08And it's all because of this wealth window that we're going to be covering today.

5:11Brian Preston:So let's talk about why this window is so unique. What makes it so powerful when it comes to wealth building? Well, the very obvious one is that in this window, your earnings are likely rising. For most of us, when we're fresh out of college, fresh out of high school, anywhere between the ages of 18 and 23 years old, we're likely not earning a huge salary. We're likely broke as a joke for most people. But as we move through our 20s and as we move through our 30s, we actually begin to see our income increase from age 22 to age 32. This is according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Median earnings rise about 71%.

5:50Brian Preston:And we talk about all the time on this show, the bigger your shovel is, the more margin you can create, the more margin you create, the more money you can deploy. So if you just think about this in common sense mathematical terms, if you're a 22-year-old and you're earning the median average annual salary of$35 ,000 and you are saving 25%, you're saving about$8 ,750 a year, which is great. It's nothing to scoff at. But by the time you get to 32, if we see that 71 % increase in earnings. Now the median earnings for a 32-year-old is$60 ,000. 25 % of that number is$15 ,000 a year. That's almost double what you were able to save at 22.

6:34Brian Preston:And then by the time you get to the end of this decade that your income starts to rise at 42, the median 42-year-old makes$70 ,000. 25 % of that is about$17 ,500. As you progress through the wealth window, you're saving more and more and more if you're doing it the right way, because now you have the earnings that will allow you to behave that way. Well, the earnings rising gave you the margin to actually put the money to work. Look, without a doubt, I want you saving, investing in your 20s, but I get it. I mean, you're coming out of school making, you know,$30 ,000 to$40 ,000 a year. Life is going to consume the majority of that.

7:13So that's why it's not until you've got a little traction under And the reality, and welcome to Realville, this is when you actually have an opportunity to make the choice that I'm going to start saving something for the future. In this window from 32 to 48, we're going to change your life. And the second part of this is because this window is unique, is because you have still decades, literally like three decades of compounding growth. This is a magical thing. And this is what I think is the money got difference. We're actually going to share with you how valuable this window is. And I'm hoping this will change your life because every one of you who's watching this, I want you to do something because this is so important.

7:57You just have to do it. And with that, Bo, show them how powerful those early dollars are when they're putting things to work.

8:05Brian Preston:Yeah, if you think about it, if you're a 32-year-old in the workforce, you have 33 years for your dollars to compound. if you want to plan on retiring at a normal retirement age of 65. So those dollars in your 30s, while they may not be the same 88 times over dollars as a 20-year-old, they still have huge potential or a huge portion of your final portfolio. Look at this. Let's assume that you invest$340 per month every month from the age 30 all the way out to the age 65. And let's assume that you can earn a 9 % annualized rate of return. So you never increase or change your savings rate. Well, in each one of those decades, in your 30s, in your 40s, in your 50s, you save just a hair under$41 ,000.

8:51Brian Preston:Exact same amount of money saved. But when you look at the age 65 values, those dollars that you saved in your 30s, that$41 ,000 you put away is now worth$619 ,000. That$41 ,000 you saved in your 40s is now worth over a quarter of a million dollars. That$41 ,000 you saved in your 50s is worth over$100 ,000. If you think about the percentage of your entire retirement portfolio, the money that you saved in your 30s in that decade accounted for 62 % of your entire portfolio, of your entire retirement portfolio in one decade. Now, if we squeeze it down and we think about where the wealth window actually exists, age 32 to age 48, the work that you do and the money that you put away and the savings that you're able to accumulate there can represent almost two-thirds, 66 % of your entire financial independence investment portfolio.

9:57Brian Preston:This is an unbelievably important time for to be putting those dollars to work. I want to put, because earlier I had the percentage of asset or of income going into 401ks. And I want you to kind of lay those numbers next to what we have here, because we have the Gen Xers and then the baby boomers. They both were doing much higher rates than what the Gen Z was doing. But look at that. Even if you're loading it up in your 50s and 60s, if it's only for somebody who's in their 50s, that's only 10 % of your total retirement is impacted because you just don't have enough time for compounding growth.

10:34Same thing for the people in the sixties and your forties. That is your future self. That's 25 % of your retirement is your forties. It's the thirties that is 62 % or as, as Bo has already shared 32 to 48, this wealth window that we're talking about today, the, the do something action window is 66 % of your retirement. Guys, I don't know of anybody else out there that's just out there literally shaking you to wake up and realize this is the time. Make something happen. Small decisions can have huge results if you can respect the wealth window.

11:11Brian Preston:I think there's so much press out there and so much curriculum around start early, start early, start early. Do it in your 20s, do it in your 20s, do it in your 20s. And we want to give you that voice of reason saying, yes, if you can start in your 20s, if you can do it early, absolutely. But if you live in this window, If you are in the wealth window, you still have time and opportunity on your side. We already said it's because likely your earnings are rising. You still have decades of compound growth. But this is also most likely the age and stage where your career flexibility is at its highest point.

11:45Brian Preston:And there are a few ways you can think about this. And likely, by the age of 32, you're not just in a job anymore. You're likely in your career. And now, as you begin thinking about how you're going to progress from age 32 to 48, how are you moving forward in your career? Are you climbing the corporate ladder? Are you taking on more responsibility? Are you moving into managerial roles? If you are, that's likely going to allow you to pursue promotions, pay raises, bonuses, or maybe you've decided that the field or vocation you're in right now is not the direction that you want to be going. You actually have a resume now that's likely highly attractive.

12:20Brian Preston:So now you can go find a higher paying job or potentially even switch careers altogether. Well, I love, and look, Bo is good because we found some stats that said for people who are going to start a business that actually has employees. Another great example. That's good. The typical age, a lot of people think that's a young man's game. No, the reality, it's around somebody who's in 42 years of age, clearly in that 32 to 48 window. But I'm here to tell you, I want to give you the glass half full, which is unusual for me because I'm an optimist. I usually try to rose color everything I share with you.

12:52Brian Preston:You mean the glass half empty? You normally do the glass half empty. I'm very optimistic on everything, but I want to tell you, I'm in my 50s myself. And I've almost on a weekly basis now, I have conversations with clients that are unfortunately finding out that the reason I'm focusing on this wealth window between 32 to 48 is that you are in control in this phase. 32 to 48, you kind of have all the things that Bo said, the flexibility and so forth. But once you cross into that 50s and beyond, it kind of changes. And I hate to be that gloomy about it. This is why I'm trying to, like I said, motivate the younger people to think about what it looks like when you get to be my age.

13:31It's because 1.7 million Americans that are 55 plus are displaced from their jobs. From 2023 to 2025. And it's even worse, and this is part of these conversations, 22 % of workers who are 50 plus say they feel like they were pushed out of their job because of their age. So if you're somebody who's watching this and you're in your 30s or 40s and you just assume you have next decade I can catch up. You know, it's okay that I'm focusing on the messy middle and the kids and the family, but I'm not saving for the future because I'll have time in the future. It is not guaranteed. I'm here to tell you this window of 32 to 48 will change your life if you take it serious, but you need the context to know that pushing it off until next year or next decade is not ensured that it's going to be successful.

14:23Brian Preston:So Brian, as we were talking about in pre-show, like, okay, this window, we've looked at the math. We know that it's so valuable. So if someone's in this window, what are the priorities we could give them? What are the things that we could say, hey, these are the goals, these are the milestones, These are the things that you need to do in this window. And the first one, we went back and forth on this, but we really do think in this window, this is probably the very most important thing you can do from a financial and wealth building standpoint. And it's get to your first$100 ,000 of invested assets as fast as you can.

14:57Brian Preston:Try to get to that tipping point. Try to get to that critical mass as quickly as humanly possible. I'm gonna try to channel my biggest inner Shia LaBeouf moment is you just, you just do it, do it. Cause I just, I want something. Cause look, I'm telling you guys, hopefully, I mean the educator, the heart that I have is that when I showed this to the writing team, I was like something, it just troubles me when I find out how many people are delaying. And when I see what the median household has at retirement, I was like, somebody needs to really wake up America and say, just go do something. And you ought to try to get to your first hundred thousand dollars like your life depend upon.

15:37Because I'm here to tell you, it will depend upon this.

15:40Brian Preston:Brian, if I told you that you had the next week off, we have it covered here, where are you going? You know the answer. That's easy. I'm headed to Florida. I knew it. The man cannot stay away from theme parks and$50 churros. Look, this is just part of my money story. Everybody's got something they're willing to spend on. Mine just happens to be roller coasters and ice cream bars shaped like a mouse. And you know what? I actually love that. It's okay to spend money on things that you enjoy when you know that you can afford it. And that's where Monarch comes in. I love how Monarch puts my accounts, my investments in spending, and savings all in one place so I can plan for things that matter to me.

16:17Brian Preston:Yeah, things like waiting in line for an hour to sit in a teacup. I can also ask Monarch's AI assistant anything about my finances. Like, hey, how much did I spend on food at theme parks last month? Or did this vacation cost me more than four years of college? I kind of feel like you're being mean at this point. With Monarch, you can easily track your savings goals so you can enjoy your money without derailing your whole financial plan. Or in Brian's case, enjoy your money while literally riding something that goes off the rails. Why are you being so mean? They've got all the lap bars. I'll be safe.

16:54Brian Preston: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 money guy. If you're someone who's investing$833 a month, that's$10 ,000 a year with an 8 % annual rate of interest. It'll take you about seven and a half years to build up$100 ,000. And we already know that most Americans are not doing that. We just said that most Americans don't actually hit$100 ,000 in liquid investment assets and still well under their 40s. But if you can start saving just that$10 ,000 a year, it'll take you about seven and a half years to get to that first$100 ,000.

17:38Brian Preston:What's amazing is that the bigger the numbers get, the bigger the numbers get. The more exciting the picture gets, the more exciting. Do you recognize in that same amount of time, again, if you're just saving$10 ,000 a year, what took you seven and a half years at the beginning of your journey to go from zero to$100 ,000? If you can continue that on, by the time that you get to$500 ,000, in the same period of time, seven and a half years, you can go from$500 ,000 to a million dollars without saving more, without increasing your savings rate, without going out there and picking individual stocks and figuring out how to beat the market just by staying consistent.

18:20Brian Preston:If you can let your dollars do the heavy lifting for you, and you get to that critical mass of$100 ,000, that snowball gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger to now where what used to take you seven and a half years now, you can do five times over in that same amount of time. Well, it goes slow, slow, fast, faster, faster. And then, you know, that's why when people tell me that a million dollars is not anything anymore. I'm like, guys, you realize as soon as you cross a hundred thousand, you're on the path to get to that first million. And then if you don't think a million's enough, you want to get to 3 million.

18:58Wait until you see how fast, because look at what the spread is between 900 ,000 to a million dollars. It's like a year. Because remember the thing that took you close to eight years, now this thing is happening on a yearly basis. The law of numbers, the bigger the number, the bigger this all goes. That's the whole power of compounding growth. And that's why a lot of you are just like me. You might have big intentions, big desires, but you just don't know what to do with your next dollar. We've solved it for you guys. And I know we talk about it a lot, so much so that you're like, all y 'all talk about is, guys, it's the better way to do money.

19:31If you need to know what to do with your next dollar, I would ask you, please follow the food. We've got not only the free download at moneyguy.com slash resources, but you can also go buy my book, millionaire mission. This thing will tell you what to do, how to cut the corner off so you don't get distracted and you actually let your army of dollar bills do all the heavy lifting.

19:52Brian Preston:What I love about the financial order of operations is it's very prescriptive on what to do with your dollars. What things should I be doing? Where should I be deploying them? What are the affirmative things I ought to be doing? But sometimes that's not enough. Sometimes we need to know, okay, well, I hear that and I see that. What are the things that I should avoid? If I'm in this window, if I'm in the wealth window from age 32 to 48, what are the things that ought to be aware of? Because maybe if I can remove the things that I should avoid, it will allow me to better focus on the things I should do, like following the financial order of operations.

20:26Brian Preston:And the first one will come as no surprise because again, this gets tons of press, tons of publicity. So often in this window, this is the age and stage of life where lifestyle inflation and keeping up with the Joneses and trying to live a bigger, better life today happens. And look, that's not inherently a bad thing. Lifestyle inflation gets such a bad rap that, oh, it's, no, you don't want your lifestyle to inflate. You don't want it to inflate. That's not true. All of us, we want our 40s to be better than our 30s and our 30s to be better than our 20s and our 20s to be better than our teens.

20:59Brian Preston:And that's okay. What you can't do is let the pace of your lifestyle outpace the pace of your portfolio. If you're doing it that way, you're doing it the wrong way. Well, and also I think about like the people who graduate college and then immediately go buy a brand new car because like I earned this. Yep. I mean, how many doctors do we see fall into these type of spending traps when they got student loan debt and other things? And a lot of times it's because they've just been in school so long and they're like, I've earned this and they want to reward themselves. No, guys, there's a time and a place.

21:32Make sure you do something for your future self before you start rewarding the current self. And that leads right into the next thing. The things that I see people fall into is when they get bonuses, restricted stock units, or raises, they don't actually put any of that to work for the future. Once again, it's like pigs at the trough. They're like, let's just give you more for lifestyle than ever putting money for the future. And you see this over and over again.

22:00Brian Preston:Yeah, what you don't want to do is allow those types of incomes to be nothing but lifestyle increasers. If you can figure out, if you're someone who has a variable comp plan and you have big bonuses at the end of the year, you have RSUs or other type of equity compensation, if you can learn how to live on the base and build your life around the base and then allow that extra additional variable comp to be the supercharger on your wealth building journey, you're going to give yourself so much freedom and so much flexibility in the future. But far too often, what actually happens is someone starts with the same savings.