The Median Net Worth In America Is…

25:02I'm happy to report that that paid my daughter's first semester. We didn't even touch it until the senior year. That one contribution, because it's had time to compound for 18 years or 17 years, whatever. Well, now she's 22, so it's 20 years. It's amazing how those little tiny decisions actually had big results. And my mom loved that I got to say, hey, you realize you guys paid for the majority of that semester. That's a huge legacy paying it forward. And then also don't get scared because I think you're sitting there holding that baby girl and you're panicked. And I want you to know, what I didn't realize that I think gets left out a lot is how often these colleges are giving incentives to students.

25:47And that's why I would encourage something I didn't know as a kid not having somebody who knew how the system worked. I should have been taking SAT prep courses, ACT prep courses, because I didn't realize how much those standardized tests drove scholarships. We did that for our daughter. We sent her through ACT prep, and it boosted up her ACT scores to the point that the colleges started all of a sudden to start throwing money. I think you guys heard, she got an offer of 60 % off college because she goes to a private school. based upon our ACT scores they send a letter saying hey we want your daughter and we're going to give her 60 % off tuition through this scholarship that we offer that made it much more affordable I know the state universities do that stuff too so do a little bit of prep don't just let life happen and I think you'll find out that college is much more affordable and also don't sleep on community colleges for your first two years joint enrollment while your kid's in high school There are hacks.

26:50College doesn't have to be backbreaking. And also, don't sleep on the fact that, I mean, I think it's close to 70 % of CEOs of corporations come from state universities. You don't have to go to Yale, Harvard, or the Ivy Leagues. You can do really well with a good education, but you have to be deliberate about what you're going to use that education for. Begin with the end in mind, and that comes into play. Now, you've got a baby girl, so you don't have to think about that yet. I don't want to overwhelm the system, but there's definitely a better way to do money, and we got you the whole way through.

27:24Love it. Very good and thorough answer. Lavender M8, congrats on your new baby, and I hope that helps you think through her 529 and the future. And we'd love to send you a Money Guy Tumblr since we answered your question. Just email winner at moneyguy.com, and we will send one out to you. Did you know that one of – I read this in a book. one of the best things that you can do for early childhood development is listen to a financial podcast or YouTube channel while the baby's nearby. Specifically called The Money Guy Show. The Money Guy Show. If you do that, your baby will be turned into a financial mutant almost automatically.

28:00We have primary advisors that were listening to The Money Guy Show in middle school on road trips. On family road trips. That's how long. I will say. Proof that Brian is the OG. Here's something that humbles you. You realize it is 2025. January of 2026, I will be a 20-year broadcaster. Wild. That's insane. I mean, that's why. So it doesn't, you're like, well, gosh, how young are y 'all's primary? No, we've been doing it that long that you can be in middle school, discover this content, and now be so well into your career. A lot of you guys found me yourself in high school. You've let me know. Your clients now, talking about those financial mutants that turn into the abundance cycle and become abound wealth clients, is that, I mean, a lot of you have found us.

28:50We were your first source of motivation about money, and now you're multimillionaires. That's humble. It's wild. I mean, it is. We're planting Johnny Appleseed of money all over the place, planting those ideas of knowledge so that hopefully you guys can be a better version of yourself. I don't know about you. I still feel like we're just getting started. We haven't even hit our biggest hit yet. I think we're still at the beginning. So far to go. I love it. I'm stoked about that. We're going to be, it's still an overnight sensation coming anytime now. That's right. In the next 10 or 15 years, we're going to be overnight.

29:19Overnight success. Oh, man. All right. Ready to do another question? Yes, ma 'am. You see us in the chat right now? I did. I've been chatting. We've been chatting with Humphrey Yang. Humphrey hanging out. Oh, Humphrey Yang. I love seeing him pop in the chat. And we did throw a link to our most recent collab video with him. Let's go. If anybody's interested. We reacted to some things with Humphrey. I'll say this for Humphreys because he's out there, so he's listening, is that what's funny is content creators, we were joking about how we all benchmark off each other. And Humphrey, we told him an idea we had, and he goes, I like that so much.

29:50In two weeks, you're going to see something on my channel. It released this week. I saw it released this week, and internally I sent out a Slack, and then one of our video editors sent out the actual, because I guess we were on a hot mic or whatever, and we had the audio, and we just were laughing about it internally when Humphrey goes, two weeks, I'll be on it. He told you it was coming. What I'm not going to do is I'm not going to tell the concept because I don't want you guys to compare and contrast on who wore it better or who produced the better content. It's a true collaboration. I don't feel comfortable, secure enough in myself to say who did it better.

30:19That's hilarious. I think they were all great, honestly. All good advice. But Humphrey, welcome to the room. Always a pleasure. He said, I'm sorry in all caps. No, I think it like. No, we don't. I didn't. That wasn't. There's nothing new under the sun on that aspect. Honestly, we're all people like Humphrey, We're trying to get the good advice out there, right? So, of course, we're going to say, like, agree on a lot of good advice. I thought people liked the dynamic between the three of us on Spain. It was kind of... I'd run it back. I'd run it back, too. I think that people thought it was going to be because, you know, Humphrey's from San Francisco.

30:56We're two Southern boys. I mean, I see in the comments, like, how is this going? I don't know. We're financial nerds. You find the funniest comments. like you pull like the one and i'm like i saw like a hundred that were like it's true i shouldn't fortunately it doesn't make me sadder but i definitely do tune in to the the trolls a little bit more yeah i understand that but anyway our collab was really fun no no that's great because yeah we had one come out yesterday and believe it or not we have another one the last video we recorded with humphrey is coming later this month so be sure you're subscribed and then be sure to go check out our video on Humphrey's channel.

31:33So just so much good stuff. So good, so good, so good. New summer arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Get ready to save big with up to 60 % off brands like Rag & Bone, Levi's, Adidas, and Free People. Join the Nordy Club to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. This episode is brought to you by Palmolive. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners, sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palmolive Ultra.

32:15Palmolive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9 % of grease, leaving your dishes sparkling clean. And the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier, so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at palmolive.com. All right. Question up next from Devo 6912. It says mutants will always invest, but can the MoneyGuy team give context when people can take their foot off the gas when investing? For sure. Because you use that phrase a lot like, OK, we're doing all this work. So eventually you can take your foot off the gas. So like, what does that actually look like?

32:59Well, I mean, this is actually the motivation. When we came up with the Know Your Number course, a lot of this was because I have realized our financial mutants, and you see it in our survey shows as well, you guys are, I mean, it's amazing what y 'all build. I mean, to the point, I worry, remember, there's a fine line between miser and financial mutant, and I worry for some of you, you're so good at creating money and wealth that you sometimes need somebody to say, hey, how about enjoying this? You only get one time on this rotating planet. Let's make sure that we're bedazzling the basic life, but also as our, you know, this is why Bo and I had to give up our tight wide cards is because I think as you start building up and you reach, you know, the boiling point and you start getting more and more assets, you realize I need to be living life a little bit better.

33:46And I remember, I'll never forget we had, oh man, you guys cracked me up. I'll never forget. I get to see the animation on the screen in front of me, but I'll never forget that I I had a gentleman write me. He was in his 40s, and he was talking about that his family didn't like doing vacations because they were all sharing a hotel room. They were doing 12-hour road trips instead of flying. And I'm like, what are you doing? I mean, when you get to multiple seven figures and you're still doing this like you're an 18-year-old that can barely afford a peanut butter and jelly, why are you subjecting your family to this?

34:22Let's start making some blossoming memories. So yes, without a doubt, we have some context we can give people so you can take your foot off the gas. Yeah. So the question is the when. And a lot of this, even the language you use, take the foot off the gas, a lot of what we share with you guys are things that we have lived and personal experiences we've had. And this is something, Brian coined this a number of years ago, that when you and your wife first started saving and investing, you said, baby, if we go with this hard, if we really commit to building for our financial future, in our mid-40s, we will be in the position where we can, quote-unquote, take our foot off the gas.

35:00We can kind of coast. And so that's kind of where the idea came from. And now what we've done is we've recognized a lot of people need some sort of method or methodology to recognize when that is. I've done the same thing with my wife. I've said, babe, look, if we can just put it away, put it away, put it away, put it away, put it away, and do that for long enough, eventually you'll reach the point to where you do something like the Know Your Number course. And if you're not familiar, you can go to learn.moneyguy.com and you can go do our Know Your Number course. But basically, you have to understand what the finish line is.

35:28Are you far enough along in your journey that you know, what is the life that I ultimately want to live? What's the lifestyle that I want to have in financial independence? Well, once you can then define the finish line, and once you know where you are today, that's doing your annual net worth statement. Okay, if I know where I am today, and I know where the finish line is, and I know the behavior that I've been executing, am I ahead of the curve? Am I behind the curve? Or am I on the curve? And what we find for financial mutants, especially those who start saving 25 % really, really early on, what they begin to recognize, holy cow, things turn out a little better than I thought.

36:04Things are moving a little bit more quickly than I thought. Man, I am further along than I thought I would be based on where I need to be for financial independence. And based on where I am today, maybe I don't have to keep saving that 25%. Maybe I can back down my savings to 20 % or 15 % or whatever that number is for you. I can now take my foot off the gas. So the context for when to do that is when you've actually done the homework of knowing, okay, what direction I'm moving in? What destination am I moving towards? And where am I on that trajectory? And if you find that you are ahead of the curve, or maybe you're right on the curve with what you've been doing, then you can make the assessment.

36:45All right, Maybe now all the hard work I've done previously, now I can allow that to let me move in the same trajectory, move in the same direction I'm moving, but ease up just a little bit. I have to go as hard as I was going. Once you've done that, I think that's when you can have that relief. And then a lot of people, what they recognize is, man, I had this intent, this desire to take my foot off the pedal, but then income kept increasing or life circumstances changed or whatever. And I didn't really have to start, stop saving as much or lower my savings percentage, but I was able to live more life.

37:23I was able to go on the vacation. I was able to do the home renovation. I was able to upgrade the car, whatever that thing is for you. And because you know, you've done the stuff you're supposed to do when you were supposed to do it, you can make those decisions completely guilt-free. Well, it's always a delicate balance. I mean, there's books out there like Die With Zero and other things that will tell you, hey, don't worry so much about your 20s, maximize life. Which, by the way, that drives me nuts. I understand the concept. That's why I try to be the delicate balance between is because I want you to maximize your youthful years but you do have to do some work.

38:01You do have to make sure you're leaning into deferred gratification and the discipline because you're not guaranteed that you're going to be successful if you just don't start doing something. And by the way, too many Americans are much too good at, hey, just deferring, not doing anything instead of saving a little bit of today for a great big beautiful tomorrow. So we're always trying to help you walk that delicate balance of, you know, give a little bit of today, just a small little sacrifice is while you're in your 20s and 30s. And if you do it right, you're going to be taking a constant pulse so that you can start expanding your lifestyle so there's no regrets on any decade.

38:38You look back on every decade and go, well done. I didn't, I didn't, I sacrificed just enough to make sure that I was in a good place. You took an active role in the process. That's a great segue. I was nervous when it would get released and it's come out. And unfortunately the comments haven't roasted me too much. One of my walking tangents. Tangent time. I confess. Bro, what's tangent time and how can somebody find that? Well, now it's everywhere because we're now even putting them on YouTube. It's true. I like that. It's everywhere. Don't you worry. It'll find you. So I just walk. I mean, I did one.

39:12What's funny is now when I record them, I'm like, was that even worthy of uploading? And I'll sit on it for a day or two. I'm like, what the heck? Let's just send it on up to the Dropbox and let the edit team do what they're going to do with it. But I've enjoyed it. I mean, we keep putting more and more ideas out there. But I had a confessional video because I have never, ever, ever leased a car. there was a question in here earlier that i was gonna add i was gonna frontline it but i did because i've always driven we drive cars forever the wheels fall off and i you know it's just like somebody even in the comments i read your comments um it's not a lease it's a fleece and i'm like yeah yeah it's um but but here i want i want to tell people so i love that i got this is confession for him that's what this is no i mean i was nervous about recording that video because I felt kind of, because you know I have a no hypocrite policy, but then I'm not a hypocrite because I was just like I was telling.

40:08Now, like I said, in my video, while I was looking at this new car for my wife, there was this couple that had, because they had two little kids. They had to have been in their 30s. They were, I think, younger than you, Bo. And they're out there looking at the exact same vehicle we bought for my wife. And I'm like, they do not need to be buying that vehicle. Get your kids out of the backseat of that car. go down the street to the Honda or Toyota dealership and let's put them in the appropriate car because there's no way they were loading up their 401k, their Roth. But then I think about myself.

40:41I mean, look, my wife's last car, I think it's okay to now tell you the details because I've never really talked about what vehicle it was. Is this okay if I should confessionally share some of this stuff? I'm all ears. This is up to you. It's story time, LeBron, and I'm here for it. My wife's last car was an Audi Q7. And that car, here's when I knew that we bought that thing brand new. And I'll never forget. Now, part of this is my fault because I'm a 16-year-old at heart and I bought the mag wheels, the big upsized wheels on it. But I remember the first 10 ,000 miles we owned this car, the light comes on that it needs more oil.

41:17And I'm like, what? Why does a car need more oil? So I take it, immediately drive it over to the service department. Oh, no, no, no. That's normal. You know, first is synthetics. First oil change, not until 10 ,000 miles. it's going to start burning through the oil, and you'll need to add a quarter of a little quarter of a quart or whatever, or half a quart. I'm like, that's the craziest thing, because the Hondas and Toyotas and the Acheras and the Lexus, they never burned oil. That's a silly thing. So right from the jump story, I'm like, this thing's burning oil. What type of car burns oil in the first 10 ,000 miles?

41:51Well, Audis do, I guess. And I have friends that are huge Audi people in German engineering, but I'm just telling you, this is my experience. And then next thing that happened was the tires need to be replaced at less than 20 ,000 miles. I was like, what? Who has – and this is my fault because I bought those oversized rims, specialized. So it is what it is. Soft tires, performance tires, or whatever they are. Unforced airs is what I'm hearing. The next thing was the brakes needed to be replaced when it had less than 30 ,000 miles. And I was like, this is the daggum darnest thing I've ever seen.

42:24You shouldn't even be thinking about brakes for the first 30 ,000 miles. So I was like, but you know what? Audi's not going to get me anymore. I'm going to go to my third party guy down the street who works on European cars. And so I go in there so he can do the brakes. And he calls me up, Mr. Preston. Yes, we're going to need to put new brake pads on here. But we can only buy those brake pads through Audi. And they cost, and it was like an arm and a leg. I mean, it was like thousands. And I'm like, how does, there's commercials for$99 brake pads. But somehow with this Audi, this thing is like.

42:55Only from Audi. You can only buy them from Audi. and it's like it's somehow a four-figure decision and i'm like this is once again another got me again well done and i remember at one of the service visits i asked the guy in the service department at audi i was like do you sleep well at night i really did ask him that i was like because this is i mean if you look at what y 'all charge for old changes and you know i was like is this you feel good about this i really did ask the guy that because i couldn't i was just like what this is so fast forward this brake chain this breaks that i was right by the way cars should not have brake changes less than 30 000 miles there's a class action lawsuit and this is where the salt just gets poured in the wound if i had to replace the brake pads through audi it was 100 percent reimbursement but because i went to a third party repair shop it was like 50 i was like you son of a guns got me again at audi so i mean in this thing but then the air started going out We just, the repair, and every time you do a repair on these European cars, they're not cheap.

43:53It's like thousands of dollars. Like, I feel like every Honda, Toyota, or Lexus, or Acura, it's like, Mr. Preston, it's going to be$450, or, you know, it's going to be this. But these cars, it's like thousands of dollars. So you can imagine when we get to time to buy another car, I was like, are we going to finally go look at the Lexus? Let's go. Let's do the Lexus. Let's do that one. no, I kind of had my eye on this. And I was like, you know what? They got me. These cars are, they are for people who are wannabes or people who truly have enough that they just can set money on fire. And I was like, Brian, what are you?

44:32I'm not a wannabe anymore because I'm beyond step nine of the financial order of operations. I am just at that stage of life that I can set money on fire, I guess. And so I'm going to rent this bad decision because instead of, you know, yes, I will lease this car. make my wife happy because you can't take it with you and money is only a tool. And that's where I ended up. And I don't love it, but she is tickled pink about this car. I mean, it is literally, she tells me on a weekly basis. It's very pretty. How much she likes this new car. I think she's surprised that when it's like go out to dinner at night, she's like, do you want to drive my car?

45:06And I'm like, no, we can take mine. I like my car better. I love that. But it is what it is. I love that. But that's the confession. I think it's a good confession because when you first let the cat out of the bag that you were thinking about leasing, I was like, Brian, what are you doing? But then you explained the math. You explained how much money you had put in. And we all know you followed the foo. You've gotten to the point where you get to spend. Mathematically, I think I'm paying less than appreciation on these horrible cars. Oh, for sure. I mean, I did the math. I was like, oh, my gosh, is this the racket these companies?

45:39This is why you can go buy these cars used for practically free. is because nobody wants the$7 ,000 repair on their air suspension and all the other stuff that they have on them, that these things are disposable cars, which is just crazy for the price point that they are. But I think this is what people do. I don't get it, but I'm now part of this revolving door of, I guess my wife gets a new car every three to four years. So if you want to know more about this, right, obviously, Brian, we've done some tangent time. So if you're not subscribed here, or you want to subscribe here because we do YouTube shorts.

46:15But you can also go find us on all of our socials, at the Money Guy Show, at Money Guy Show. And that's where we put it, out on TikTok, out on Instagram. And you get to go on a walk with Brian, which is just honestly a fantastic thing. Here's a question I have. I think I know the answer, but it's just it makes me wonder. We know we live in the same neck of the woods as Dave. Dave's a car person. Oh, Dave, yeah. I've personally seen – we've seen Dave in Maseratis. We've seen Dave – In his truck. I guess he's buying these cars, and they're just depreciating like a rock, and then he's paying the$7 ,000 repairs and maintenance.

46:48I mean, not that it – he definitely has the money to set it on fire. It's just that I know how much it burns me to take these things in for service because that's where you got me again. I mean, it just gets under my skin a little bit. I do happen to know that when Dave buys one of his very nice cars, he does keep it for a long time. So he probably just says, all right, well, I'm going to buy this. And I don't think he rotates through them. He just kind of keeps it and then adds to his collection, I think, is what happens. But the service on these things is not cheap. That's the thing I know. I'm with you.

47:19That's why we say luxury cars do not fall into 23.8. You need to pay cash. Or lease them if you have money to earn. I'm kidding. A lot of people are dying to know what the car is. Now, you said some pretty awful things about people that buy these cars. I don't know if you should say what car it is. But there's just tons of – and you know what? Maybe you guys should guess. Maybe you should all guess. Just like I waited until we got rid of the Audi before I get hit. I am too embarrassed to say what the car is. That's so funny to me. Because it is a car, I will just tell you guys, I told Bo forever we would never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever own this brand of vehicle.

48:00Because what I knew Consumer Reports said about them and everything else. And then here we are. And what's wild is my wife declares herself a car person. She's a car person. You know, when the people say I'm a car person, she's a car person. You even told me, oh, no, no, I'll never be in one of them. Jenna's going to be in one of those long before. And oh, how the turntables. Oh, no, this has definitely accelerated her getting this car. Because now I'm the gateway drug. I've opened it up. No, no, no. I'm going to be like, hey, we can't get that one. Brian's got that one. We can't do that one. That's not the way it's going to work.

48:37There's some good guesses in there. But I will let him guess. It's up to Brian when he's ready to say what it is. It's not a G-Wagon, I'll tell you that. You should have left that one out there just in case. What's funny is, you should have left that one out there just in case. But here's the thing. I was at dinner last night with another couple, and the gentleman, he's done incredibly well for himself. He's sold three businesses, and it's so funny. His wife had the exact same Audi as my wife, and it's having the same problems. I mean, this thing is, and he's cussing it. I've seen this movie before.

49:06He tried to convince his wife, and I kind of know enough to know it. He tried to convince her they were getting a Hyundai Genesis because, you know, it's like that's the person who's good with money. This is, you get a lot for a little. And his wife is thinking, like, G-Wagons and other things. It just cracked me. I could see his pain. And he can set money on fire, too, but it just cracked me up to see the plight of trying to make your wife happy while not setting money on fire. This is why you follow the food. Then you too can set money on fire if you want to. Somebody just threw out DeLorean, which I think is hilarious.

49:42Oh, yeah. 88 times over. Here's what – I don't know if you know this. You have a story on this. Did you – so we went – I took my kids to go see that recently. Did you know it's not super, like, kid-appropriate? You know what? You told me that, and then I thought that later that night. Like, his kids are a little young. I grew up watching the TBS version. Well, the TBS version has very different language. That's so funny that you say that. And so, like, the entire time I'm like, ah! Maybe not for your eight-year-old. You know, it was aggressive. Two thoughts I'll add on that is that don't go watch Teen Wolf again.

50:18Because holy cow, that one is a lot spicier than I remember, too. Because I watched that as a kid. I think most movies that you two remember are, like, not as appropriate for children. That's staying on the Michael J. Fox. Turning out that way. The other one, this is one my wife and I, I'll never forget, because we host a lot of Christmases at our house. And if you've watched TBS, you know, Love Actually is a great Christmas movie. And so I've always just watched it on TV. So, you know, in Walmart one day they have like this bin of DVDs. It's like$4.99 or whatever. So we buy Love Actually and we put it on for the family Christmas movie.

50:57not realizing there is like a really inappropriate storyline that is completely cut out of the tv version of that i mean it turns that movie dirty and i'm just like how is this even in where in the writing department did they go this is what we ought to put as a storyline in this and see that's not for families and that's what like me and me and jenna were so much like hey let's go back to like the old movie let's you know because some of the new stuff is just too much for our kid we're like hey let's go back to some let's go back some of the good wholesome stuff, you know, that just has tons of cursing.

51:27Oh my gosh. It is fun. TBS, that's what you and I because we're both Atlanta boys, TBS is, man, oh man. It's filters. They ought to put TBS version. Seriously, they really should. Superstation. If you grew up watching this on Superstation, you'll love this. I was talking about my kids. I was like, girls, you're going to love me. Remember when Daddy did that episode a number of years ago with Mr. Brian? Remember Daddy wore the big vest and Mr. Brian wore the... It was, yeah. Okay, we're going to have to answer another question. I think you need to. I do want to say one more tangent thing, though.

51:58We just did two really intense tangents. Hey, if you have any pull, let's get Del Murphy into the Hall of Fame. One was financial related, though, so I'll give it to you. Okay, I even got Caleb on that one. He's like, the wheels are coming. Let's do a question. Are you sure? Let's do a question. Okay. Question? I do have a question. Of course. I'm here for questions. um it's from Wan Young Kang it says hey money guy team unique situation I'm 24 and on step 4 of the foo sadly I will be laid off on June in June of 2026 due to a plant closure I have about 4 months of emergency fund built up currently 6 was the original goal what else should I consider this is unique because he does have this lead time to kind of prepare for a really unfortunate thing.

52:52So what would you have to say to him? So I want to give you sort of the immediate first thought that came to my mind. Whenever you go through any sort of significant transition, right? Job change, loss of job, moving, significant life transition. Cash is your friend. And this is a relatively short time frame. We're talking about between now and June. So even like opportunity cost that you might be missing between January of 26 and June of 2026, not all that great. So one of the things I'd be thinking about, Juan, is okay, how can I start stacking cash to give myself the maximum amount of flexibility so that I'm not in a situation where I have to make dire and desperate decisions?

53:31So that's the first thing. But the second thing, Brian, I'd be so curious to hear about, and you talk to people all the time, if you know that a job change is coming, or maybe even you just recognize that the job that you're in or the place that you're at is not perfect, what are things that you can begin doing now to prepare for that to hopefully make that transition a little more seamless and maybe even potentially a little more quick? Yeah, the first two components to this, I'm with you. If I'm triaging this situation, I'm immediately saying, okay, full stop going to cash with all my future investment.

54:04If I got monthly savings and other things set up, I'm immediately thinking in terms of let's get cash built up because this is going to give me flexibility opportunities. And then here's the good news. Maybe you land, because I'm going to go into the second part of your question now, but if you land on your feet quicker than you thought, you then have this, your cash reserves are probably too fat at that point. You can go ahead and fully fund your Roth IRA and do other things. This thing, that's why it's a moment in time and it's so short. I'd rather you have access to the cash, get you through it, and then if you come out the other side and you're better, You can then ask yourself with the financial order of operations, where should my next dollar?

54:41And more than likely, if you got too much emergency reserves because you made it out the other side, you can load up the Roth IRA, the health savings account, whatever, the retirement plan at the new employment. But it at least gives you options so you're not making desperate decisions. Now, here's what Bo's alluding to. Whenever I've had big life things, it's just kind of like I'll bring this back in terms of when I found out my daughter was on the spectrum. and we needed to go do schools in a different way, I immediately was like, okay, what schools in the area can do this? And the city of Atlanta had some stuff, and it's North Atlanta, but it led to all these other life decisions.

55:18I was like, no, I need to be thinking bigger than just what the short-term solution is. And that's what I would tell you. Think big for a second and say, do I need to move? Do I need to go back to school? Do I need to start really looking at all the variables that you have to play with and then put on your 3D glasses. Now, you don't have a ton of time because you really only have eight to nine months to kind of stick the landing on this. And if the plan is shutting down, the closer you get that time frame, the more competition. There's a bunch of things that happen. But you still can, even with only eight to nine months of runway, you can still model this out with your 3D glasses on the dream plan, the down-to-earth of what you think will happen, and don't skip out on the doo-doo plan, meaning that what happens if you can't land a job for much longer than you anticipated, what are you going to do?

56:10And that will hopefully be the motivation that lets you kind of beef up the cash, really think about this with clear eyes, and level set the mind so that you can actually come out the other end being the best version and best opportunities for yourself. And I wonder if even now, if you know that this is happening, I wonder, are there opportunities for you to potentially transition more quickly than June. Now, maybe you're in some pivotal role where you have to be there until the close or there's some sort of contractual obligation. Well, know the incentives packages too. If they're offering like severance packages or something.

56:43But I think I would go ahead and begin brushing up that resume and recognize if you are, I think you said this was a plant, if you are a worker and there are a lot of other workers at the same level or that look a lot like you from a skill set wise, I would begin thinking, how can I peacock myself? How can I have a skill set, have something on my resume, have some sort of connection that's going to make me stand out from all the other people that are also looking for a job at the same time? And the earlier you can figure out what that thing is and the more you can kind of hone and refine that thing, the higher probability you're going to give yourself to be able to find another job, find another transition between now and that June timeline.

57:28Fantastic. Won Young Kang, thank you for asking the question. We're sorry that this is on the horizon for you, and we hope that helps you think through what your next steps are. In the meantime, we'd love to send you a MoneyGuy Tumblr. Just email winner at moneyguy.com. All right. Next question is from LanceX22. It says, how can I overcome the fear of spending money outside of bills? For example, vacations that are less than 4K. We are in the messy middle. We make 115K but only invest 15 to 18 % and started late at 34. We're 39 now with 200K invested. Taking my family on small trips gives me anxiety, but my kids and wife are only young once.

58:14How can I get over anxiety if I feel behind? You've got to project it out to determine if you are behind. Because one of the things you said is, man, we didn't start until late. We're not saving 25. We're only saving 15. Well, what is your plan, Lance? Are you planning for a normal retirement at age 65? Is something in your life going to change? potentially your kid's young right now and one of you stays home with the kids and the other's works and eventually when the kids go off to school, you'll be a two-income house. Are there variables that are going to change between now and the time that you get to financial independence?

58:54And if the answer to that is yes, have you now projected, okay, what trajectory are we on based on the decisions that we're making? Because if you are behind and if you have been saving less than you would like to be saving and you've accumulated less than you should have accumulated, I think it's okay for you to feel a little bit of anxiety around the spending. I mean, the messy middle is messy because it's not easy and it's not super comfortable and it's okay to feel that tension. So long as you recognize, hey, just because I feel this tension, just because I want to be saving and just because I have some anxiety around spending doesn't mean that I have to spend money to do the things that are necessary to create memories with my family.

59:39I mean, you'd have to go spend a ton on a weekend vacation to go have an incredible, memorable vacation with your family. And you should assess that. Okay, where are we from a spending standpoint? Where are we from a savings standpoint? What trajectory are we on? Is there any margin in the system? And if there's no margin in the system, that's where you have to get really, really creative. and that's where I have to start really bedazzling your basic life. But with young kids in the house, bedazzling is not a super difficult thing to do. At least that's been my experience. Yeah. What causes anxiety is really the uncertainty of overthinking things from the past, overthinking things that could come.

1:00:20And yours sounds like you're worried about the future. There's a way that you can kind of check the box on this is actually do the work. You know, because if it doesn't have to be an uncertain thing that you just keep coming back over and over again, getting yourself worked up and stressed about actually put pen to paper, do an Excel spreadsheet, use our tool to know your number to figure out if you're ahead of the curve behind the curve or right where you're supposed to be, because then it will answer the question. And then once you know the answer of how far behind are you, you can then look at that$4 ,000 number and go, no, it's just right.

1:00:56Or maybe I can only, maybe we only have$2 ,500 for our annual vacation budget. And that means more road trips. There is amazing. I think about some of my childhood road trip vacations that were just so foundational to memories, good memories I have. I talked about a millionaire mission, even going on timeshare tours. But, um, and for my kids, I mean, I think that they would love, I mean, one of my things like we were watching America's funniest home video last night and Emory was just losing her mind over those drive through zoos or whatever, where the camels stick their heads in while you're trying to feed.

1:01:31And I've done those, you know, you probably don't have those in your hometown, but you can go drive down the street and there's all kinds of fun little memories that you can, you can do that don't have to be expensive. but the part that what I don't like is money issues causing anxiety. There's a solution on that on you taking an active role in this because that's what if you go talk to anybody about anxiety, one of the things they're going to tell you do is write down what it is. So if you can take the uncertainty out of it, I think you'll free yourself to not be overthinking or over worried about it because you'll kind of know where you are and you'll have, instead of just going off the, you know, thumb and finger in the air and how's the wind blowing right now, you actually will know where the numbers are and you'll actually know how to navigate it.

1:02:16Quick little messy middle hack. I don't know what state you live in, but state parks are an incredible thing. You know, a couple of years ago, we took our kids to Disney and spent a fortune. You know what their favorite part of the Disney trip was? I've told you this. The pool? The pool at the resort. And I'm like, oh my goodness, we have, we could, it's a much easier way to get you in a pool than to take you to Disney to do it. But then, you know, a couple years later, my wife found this like local state park that was only like an hour or two drive away. And the nightly rate, it was like this little lodge and it was super, super cheap.

1:02:47It was not expensive. And we literally just drove out to this, just us, no schedule, no agenda, and just walked around on the trails and explored and picked up sticks and threw pine cones. And they loved it. They thought that was amazing. And it was not expensive. So make sure you're looking at the resources around you, like local state parks, local splash paths, local, whatever that thing may be for you and lean into those things because they do not cost a lot of money. And those are the things I found that little kids, assuming your kids are little, absolutely love. Yeah, I can think about we went, this is earlier in our marriage, we went and visited one of my wife's relatives who was living in Prescott, Arizona at the time.

1:03:25And I remember we went and did this lava tube that went like a mile into the ground. And it was fascinating. Now, we had all the headgear and stuff that we had to go buy at Walmart to do the flashlights and stuff. But I was like, if this was in Tennessee, we'd be collecting$50 a head to go in this thing. In Arizona, I guess these things are normal-wise that you just pull up and just go down into it. So it costs absolutely nothing other than the extra batteries and other things that we bought for the flashlights. But there's all kind of cool stuff out there. Get out there and explore. It doesn't have to be expensive to make blossoming memories.

1:04:05Very good stuff. Lance, thank you for asking the question. Good luck as you parse through all of this and hopefully make some really wonderful memories with your family. We'd love to send you a MoneyGuy Tumblr. Just email winner at moneyguy.com, and we will work on getting that sent out to you. Thank you, as always, for joining us every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Central where we talk about personal finance and answer some of your questions from the chat. We'll be back next Tuesday at 10 a.m. Central. And remember to subscribe because Friday, the Combined Survey Show comes out. That's our shorthand for a really cool show where we're going to use more of the Financial Mutant Survey data and compare it to average Americans, abound clients, and just really lay out all of our findings.

1:04:48I think you're really going to enjoy it. So be sure to subscribe. Guys, it's been a blast. Try to get a few more questions answered on the next live stream. I'm sorry for all the tangent time bled into Q &A show today, but we'll do better. I'm your host, Brian. Mr. Bo. So, Reby and the rest of the Money Crew, Money Guy team, out. The Money Guy Show is hosted by Brian Preston and Bo Hanson. Brian and Bo are partners with Abound Wealth Management. Abound Wealth Management is a registered investment advisory firm regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance and compliance with the securities laws and regulations.

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