This New Money Trend TERRIFIES Us | Ask Money Guy

26:04Brian Preston:No, there's actually no limit. So, yeah, so there's no limit. So that's what I always think about, people retiring at 50. But there's no age limit, whereas the 403B is going to have all the traditional stuff, you know, 59 and a half, 55 in service, those type of things to get access to avoid the 10 % early withdrawal penalty that you have out there. And here's the cool thing. These are two that fall into the and category, meaning that if your income is high enough as a household, y 'all can do both. That's right. So those 415 limits that you see on 401ks and other things where you can only do one contribution limit for your retirement plan, if you have a high enough income, you can double dip.

26:48That's where a lot of times you see this with doctors who work at hospitals and other things because they have these type of structures where you get a 403B and you get a 457, and it's not either or, it's and.

27:01Brian Preston:So when I think about this, if you're not someone who can fund both, you're trying to figure out which one, the flow chart I would go through is, is there an employer match? Okay, I want to get whatever the employer matches in either one. And then it's likely going to make sense to go to the 457, but not always because I do want you to verify. You want to make sure that the investment options inside of each one are comparable because you may have one plan that's really good, low-cost provider, really good custodian, robust investment options, and the other may have just been an afterthought. Oh, it's this bolt-on plan that we added, and it's not that great.

27:33Brian Preston:So you want to ask yourself a few different questions. Is there a match? What are the investment options? When do I think I'm going to use these dollars? And that will help you figure out which one should I prioritize and which one makes the most sense for my situation. Yeah, good stuff. See, no traps we're falling into there. No traps. The second rush, great question. Hopefully that helps you make your choice in a way that you feel confident. All right. Next question. Switching around your drinks there? Are you all set now? Well, you know what? Since you mentioned it. It's time to pop open that sparkling water.

28:11Brian Preston:All right. Cameron G has a question for you guys. It says, I'm on foo step three. My wife's car is 15 years old with 200K plus miles on it, but running. We have enough saved for 23.8. When she needs a new car. Should we keep attacking debt, which is step three, or pause to save for a cash car in case the current one fails? Do you, Cameron, own the current car outright? And I hope so. I hope when it says it's 15 years old, I hope that means that you guys have owned it for 15, but this may be one that you just bought a used car. I would like to assume that you own this car outright. So if that's the case, I think, let me think through this, because I want to be true to the financial order of operations, but cars is not necessarily a specific thing in the financial order of operations.

29:07Brian Preston:But if the car's running and it's operable, and I feel like there's a high likelihood it's going to continue running, I think that you have to still continue knocking out that high interest debt because it's working so desperately against you. Likely your interest rate on that credit card is somewhere 15%, 20%, 25%. So I want to see you continue knocking that down, getting rid of it, getting rid of it. And hopefully what happens is you get that to a zero balance. It then frees up your cash flow to then start socking money away in step four emergency fund, which can serve a dual purpose. It's an emergency fund, but it's also going to be that seed money if you did have to get a new car.

29:46Brian Preston:Agree, disagree, want to fight. This one's hard. Yeah, this one's tough because I'm sitting here thinking, I always put myself in the situation of the person asking me the question. and what I would do, and I don't love the idea of my wife driving a car that's got 200 ,000-plus miles. I don't know how it runs. You'd have to tell me now. Maybe this thing's just a gym. It's an Accord. You know what I mean? It's a Toyota. Maybe it's on its path to being that commercial, Toyota commercial, where you jump up and say, you know, I got 450 ,000 miles. But we don't know the details on that. So you need to put that into the triage equation of is this car going to leave your wife on the side of the road?

30:28That safety would come into play. But then if it did come into play for me, it would be how do you do this and fix this situation for as cheap as possible? And that probably means buying not a beater, but the most affordable used car. Reliable. that's reliable this isn't going to be a flex car because you still got debt so we don't want to pile on and turn a bad situation worse because the timing of a car kind of fell in this is another reason I don't like about cars is that if you run it so close to the line it can get you in a lot of trouble because we need the car to get us to the J-O-B we need car to get around in a lot of cities because a lot of cities don't have public transportation and if you're getting yourself out, this is that danger zone where you're so close to the line, and that's why if you can get yourself out of this, never, ever, ever fall in that trap again.

31:29Brian Preston:So are you saying that you think that they should pause the debt payment and build up cash for the next car, or are you saying they're just going to get rid of this car right now? If he's worried that we're on a ticking time bomb in two months, three months, this car is going to leave my wife stranded and her safety will be in jeopardy, then yeah I would take two or three months and just be ouching the entire time and use a lot of conversations with my spouse to say this is why unfortunately I'd love to one day let's daydream about the car you're going to drive but right now we're going to get you this reliable transportation that's going to be as cheap as possible it might not even be the brand that you want it to be but it's going to at least not leave you sitting on the side of the road it was not a fight but a slightly different answers there.

32:15I mean, safety, I mean, it's the same thing we talk about when we've done it on Making a Millionaire. When I find out somebody's putting their kids in a beater of a car that's, you know, got bald tires and, you know, could hydroplane on the road and is not going to crank in the morning, that stuff scares me. I don't like it. I would feel like I need to fix that situation.

32:38Brian Preston:That was a good answer, though, because I think there's some... I mean, you introduced kids into... You built a whole Hallmark movie in there. Because now I'm like, well, yeah, of course. I don't want the kids in the ball tires. I think that's for you to judge, though, and for you to decide your risk level. I'm picturing a 15-year-old 200 ,000-mile car that's rocking and rolling. Maybe it is. And that's why I don't know the situation. Like I said, I do think that's plausible, but maybe it might not be the case either. I would be curious what type of car it is and how reliable it is. Because you know, by the way, if you crank that car up and it sounds like a kid, it's purring, it's purring, then that's a different situation and then if you crank it up and then on a cold morning, it's like, wugga, wugga, wugga.

33:18Sure. And then you're like, oh, heck. And then you have to keep starting it over and over. You know that this thing, it's going to die on me anytime now.

33:29Brian Preston:Now, this is important because our people need to know this. What's the sound they need to listen for that's the bad sound? I want to make sure my star's not doing it. What's the bad? Because our people need to know this. No, when a car is running so rough that it is pretty much just cutting itself off, or you have to give it a little gas just to get it going. Or if you have plumes of smoke coming out the back. If you can't go to the grocery store without pouring a quarter of oil into it, you might have an issue. These are things that I know. And I don't have that context to know. Because that's where, I mean, I'll think about my wife's car.

34:06we had a car that was paid for and it was probably close to 10 to 12 years in but it started burning oil bad and I was like okay this car it's not even though it's one of these Japanese brands that's supposedly going to do well I think something's gone awry

34:26Brian Preston:still some good context there now Ryan has even helped you know what sounds you should look for to help you make that decision go listen to it when he cranks up. I mean, you know, when you sit, haven't y 'all ever been in a friend's car and you're sitting at the stoplight and you're like, oh man. Uh oh. Uh oh. You're like, is this going to fall apart? Or just let this car get us to where we're going. All right. Okay, this next question is not spicy, but just... She had to think about it. I don't know. You'll see. I think it's a little bit funny or interesting. Different than what we usually would ask.

35:04Brian Preston:but it's from Stevie P. It says, does 3-5-25, so our house buying rule, does it still apply if I want to buy a boat to live on full time? So this is his living expenses, guys. But it's not a house. It's a boat. No, it's a houseboat. Houseboat. So does the housing rule still apply? I'm going to be the good time fun guy answer here, and then I want you to give the real answer. is I had a pilot come. This is probably 10 years ago at this point, 12 years ago. I don't know if you remember this story. I had a pilot who was getting close to retiring, but he had inherited some money, and he was single.

35:51And his whole thing was he came in to get a financial plan, and he said his goal was to go buy a boat.

35:57Brian Preston:Oh, I still remember the guy's name. Go buy a boat, and he was going to go down, and he was going to be the captain in the Virgin Islands and do charters and all kinds of other things with this boat. And when he laid out his life and his goals, and I was like, you don't have any kids, you're single, and this is your – or your kids were – I can't remember if they were grown or whatever the situation was. But I was like, go buy the boat. But buy in cash and then have enough to be able to keep things going. And I think he was shocked by the answer. But I was like, no, this actually makes sense. So this is where you want to live your life.

36:32But now this is a little different because I don't know. I don't know. We don't know enough about Stevie P.

36:40Brian Preston:Look, let me throw this out there. We have a housing rule, right? And our housing rule is that when it comes time to acquire housing, we want you to follow 3-5-25. But that's not on RVs and boats. You put 3 % down. you plan to be in the home, the abode, for at least five to seven years, and you want the total cost of the abode to be more than 25 % of your gross income. So I'm thinking about if someone were living in New York, right, and they were going to buy an apartment. An apartment's not necessarily a home, but you can buy those in New York or a condo, a townhome, whatever. We'd say, yeah,$3,$5,$25 applies to that, right?

37:20Brian Preston:That is a home. No, I'm saying it's not like a traditional house. You're buying a thing to live. The asterisk is RVs and boats. I'm just saying, if it's a home, and that's where you're going to live, and you see yourself being in this home for the next five to seven years, and you're going to live in it full time, I think that$3 ,500,$25 ,000 applies. Now, here's what I don't know. I don't know if you can qualify for a boat loan only putting 3 % down. I've never bought boats before, so I don't know if that's even a thing. But why are you not answering the question? Can he buy a boat with finance?

37:57Brian Preston:No, no. This is his home, though. He's saying he's going to live on this boat. It's a boat. It's his home. It's where he's going to live full time. Okay, but does appreciation of the asset have nothing to do with 3-5-25 rule? I mean, sure. It's not going to be a great investment, right? But that's where I'm saying this. I think 3-5-25 applies. As long as his housing expenses are below 35%. Who would have known buying a boat was going to be what breaks Bo and Brian? Breaks the money guy show. We're assuming he has no other home. This is his only place that he lives, right? Only place he lives. He says he's going to live there full time.

38:35Brian Preston:He's buying a boat. Have you not seen some of these? I mean, boats. I could see you have this dream that you're going to live on a boat. And now, look, I'm putting on it. This is where my creative brain just goes on. I see people going to a marina. and you're like, oh man, what could be with this boat if I buy this thing? But it's going to require a lot of sweat equity, a lot of elbow juice going in to cleaning this thing up and rehabbing. I've watched all those videos on TikTok and YouTube of people rehabbing boats and then living their best dream, their best life. But I don't know. I don't like the idea of taking on debt on something that the dream might not be what you think it is.

39:17Brian Preston:I agree. It would not be my preference. It would not be my preference. I would hope if you were going to make the living on a houseboat decision, that's something you could do in cash. But it's his home. He has no other property expenses. You think about all the people during the pandemic, because we went on a catamaran charter, and I remember all the people I ran into on all those little small islands that had basically gone and bought these single cellboats. I would look at them in the ocean. They'd be rocking because they'd be an attractive young couple with a dog. Right. We're going to tell them that they can go finance this?

39:58Brian Preston:Again, I don't think that the people on the sailboats in the Caribbean are – I don't think that's like that. Those are people that sold their homes and they're living there exclusively and it's their only place. I'm at least going to say we need more information on Stevie. If the boat is recreational at all, of course it doesn't apply. but like I have some family members surprise surprise that lived on a houseboat for like 10-15 years like that was where they lived they had a houseboat pulled in the marina and that's like that was their home you know what I mean I'm not saying I like it and I'm not saying that I'm recommending it how about RVs if your RV was your if your RV was your only home like I'm gonna only have an RV and you plan to live in it for 5 years is that a piece to this?

40:43I mean, I do give Bo credit because this now applies to mobile homes, RVs, to boats. That's what I'm saying. He's consistent. Whereas I'm always, this is my problem. I'm too transparent.

40:52Brian Preston:I'm actually thinking about the vision, the life that's actually going on with this. Bo is like, no, my rule is my rule. You and Dave, they'll stick to your rules. Look, if you're asking me for life advice, who is this? Stevie? Should you go live on a boat? Ah, I want to know more about your life. I want to know more about your life. Should you go live in an RV? I still want to know more about your life. It's not what I would recommend. It depends. But I don't want to assume that for you to live in a home and live the life you want to live, I need to put my bias that a home has to be tethered to the ground with grass in front of it and a picket fence.

41:28Brian Preston:If your home is an RV or your home is a boat, I think the rules apply. If it is recreation at all, then it does not apply. That's where I'm going with it. I think that's a fair take. It's not exactly equivalent, but when it comes to money out of your pocket and how you're budgeting, I get it. I'm not recommending buying boats. That's something that you really want your friend to do. You don't want to own one. You want your friend to own one. But in this situation. Brian is just like, hmm. I think we've said enough. Stevie, I can't wait to see what you do. Stevie, send us a picture of the boat.

42:05But better yet, put a picture of the boat that you're thinking about in the live chat. I mean, we could really have some good conversations about this thing.

42:13Brian Preston:Yeah. Somebody said, I hate when mom and dad fight. That's what the chat said. I was just like, oh, man. We also did go ahead and poll our current live audience. Does a houseboat count for the 3-5-25 rule? So far, 63 % said stick to the land. 37 % said aye aye, Captain. Hey, look, stick to the land. I agree. My recommendation would be don't go the waterway. Maybe we'll check back in. We'll give that poll another minute and check back in. Here's the real Bo Hanson hack. Put a boat on some cinder blocks in a yard. He's going to have Shangri-La for it. He'd be super excited. Wait, what? Live in the houseboat that's on land.

43:01Brian Preston:Because he can't swim. Oh. we can go there too we can go there too maybe I missed some of that context for all of you out there but I was like oh he's making fun of his swimming abilities I can swim this is not my strong suit I'm a land animal but I can swim it seems like he's gotten better maybe we'll have to ask his real friends there's only one way to know if people really can swim and I've been there and seen it in person if you can go in the open ocean and you look in somebody's eyes and you can see the fear that's there, then you quickly realize they don't know how to swim. He's never going to be able to unsee that.

43:40Brian Preston:Swimming pool is completely different because you can not swim and then fall down to the bottom, push yourself up and come up and get to the side because what do you got to go, 20 feet? You got in the ocean, I saw the white of your eyes. I saw in your soul, Bo. You can't swim. I can't swim. I was trying to figure out how I was going to bring you back. I don't do open water. Oh, man. All right, let's go ahead and move on to the next question. Brian, do you remember when we decided to go all in on our YouTube channel, but we just didn't know if all the hard work was actually going to pay off? Oh, yeah.

44:13It was a little scary at first because you have all the what ifs. What if nobody watches our videos? What if this doesn't work? What if we're just talking to ourselves?

44:22Brian Preston:But thankfully, we took the leap. And honestly, it's been one of the best decisions we've ever made. And if you're thinking about starting a business or launching a side hustle, let me tell you, having the right tools makes all the difference. And that's where Shopify comes in. Shopify powers 10 % of all e-commerce in the U.S., from startups to even popular brands like Allbirds and Untuckit. And they make it simple. You can build a professional online store with ready-to-use templates, plus AI tools that help write product descriptions and even improve your photos. It's basically like having a marketing team in your pocket.

44:56Brian Preston:Email campaigns, social posts, all designed to help you find your customers. And with Shopify, you can handle everything from inventory to payments to analytics, so you don't need to manage a bunch of tools on different platforms. Everything is all in one place, making your life easier and your business run smoother. Look, you don't want to miss out on what's next because you're so worried about a bunch of what-ifs. It's time to turn those what-ifs into With Shopify Today. Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash money guy. Go to shopify.com slash money guy. That's shopify.com slash money guy.

45:38In a classroom of sodas, most stay quiet. Then there's Mr. Pibb. Sweet cherry, bold outbursts, the kind of flavor that gets attention. Bold kick of cherry.

45:49Brian Preston:Hey, yo, Mr. Pibb. Oh, this is a good one too. I'm interested to see what you say here this is from moneygal238 nice username by the way it says I need some finance therapy I'm on the path to retire by 50 but my friends and family are not in the same position how do I avoid the guilt of retiring early while my friends and family cannot why is it guilt? it ought to be like daggummit why are they not doing what I'm doing anger No, just kidding. Don't be angry. I have this conversation with my buddies all the time, and I want to give credit where credit's due because I stole this from you. I tell my buddies all the time, I'm like, guys, you need to start getting serious about this.

46:35Brian Preston:Start safe. Because, look, I'm going to be financially independent. I'm going to be able to check out. I'm never actually retiring. But if I ever did retire, I'm going to be able to. I don't want to do it alone. I want to be able to hang out with you guys and go do the fun stuff. So you better take this seriously, or you're not going to be able to do it when I'm able to do it. So I don't think it ought to be guilt money. God, I agree with Brian. It ought to be inspiration. You ought to be telling them, hey, let me tell you what I figured out. And this thing that I figured out, you two can have it.

47:04Brian Preston:And boy, is it awesome when we do it together? Yeah, I would change that guilt into inspiration of how do I go and motivate some of my friends and family to start making good decisions. You know, if you're looking for gift ideas, I can think of one called Millionaire Mission. and then also just our content. I mean, it's one of those things. I don't think it's a guilt thing because I know when I got first started and figured out this wonderful world of personal finance and I realized, hey, my money could work harder than I could, I literally did go buy books for a lot of my friends. And I think to some degree I've had some success with it.

47:40I have a few friends that have done pretty well, but it is one of those things where spread the word because I will tell you that it gets more serious. The older you get, the more sentimental you'll get about things. And I'm a collector of friends, and the fact that I still go on annual trips with my high school buddies, I go on annual trips with my former neighbors. I'm going on, it seems like every seven-year trips with some of my college buddies, we're not as organized. Believe me, it's like herding cats. I'm trying to work on one of those trips right now because I'm more and more sentimental.

48:16and I even told my high school buddies, I was like, look, we do this once a year. We've been great going to spring training. I'd like us to do this two or three times a year because I just don't see you guys enough and we're all getting a little bit older and it seems to be harder. That's where I'm starting to run into issues because it's legit. If you haven't started saving early and often, it gets harder when you get to be in your 50s and you want to take more time off, but you realize, oh my gosh, no, this is crunch time. I need to be saving because at some point I have to live off this money.

48:48So do it early and often, and it's much, much easier decision-making in the future.

48:53Brian Preston:And my advice here, I want to be very clear, is not to get different friends. Don't mishear me here. But one of the things that I have noticed as life has gone on, it is interesting that you naturally gravitate towards people that are thinking the same way that you are and doing the same things as you are. So it would not be surprising, MoneyGala, if you started to notice that even your social fiber and your social structure adjusts a little bit. That maybe the childhood friends that you spend a lot of time with or the college friends, perhaps if they were not taking these types of things seriously, moving in the same direction you are, there are going to be other people in your life you interact with that do.

49:32Brian Preston:And they kind of become this other group social network. And I think that's totally okay. I know that I have some friends or my wife and I have some friends that because they've made good decisions and they've saved well and they've lived below their means, they can travel and do experiences and have opportunities that perhaps other friends can't because they didn't. And that's okay. It's recognizing the reality. If something that is very, very important to you is retiring at 50 and being financially independent and leaving the workforce early and having people to socialize and spend time with, I do think that is something that is worth figuring out before you get to 50.

50:12Brian Preston:and you're like, well, man, all my folks are still clocking in 9 to 5 right now. And look, we've worked with enough fire people that they tell you it is so odd when you're in the Target on a Tuesday afternoon or 10 in the morning and you're there and you feel awkward. And you're listening to the Money Guy Show live stream Tuesday at 10 a.m. Central. There's things that happen when you retire early that you just realize, And that's why I think camaraderie or people, and that's why it's so good that we have channels like the Money Guy Show and other stuff where you guys can connect. And look, we're going to try to help you in the long term.

50:52We're going to create more personalized ways for our community to connect too. Because that's what I see the world is going to is that we're becoming more and more AI and artificial based to where it's going to become a premium to put people together and focus on relationships. So hopefully my being so sentimental about that stuff will actually create some dividends for the Money Guy community too. Because I have some ideas and it's been part of the surveys and other things that we'll be rolling out here in the coming months and weeks too.

51:23Brian Preston:I'm not even mad for him teasing that. I like it. I like these ideas. I'm on board. But Money Guy, I resemble and I appreciate that you're at least thinking about it. I would just tell you to re-harness that energy. Don't make it a negative. Try to figure out how you make it an inspiration. yeah no I like what you said Bo and she didn't say how old she is but you probably have some time before you're 50 so like I think it's probably good that you've noted like oh maybe there will be additional people that will be important to my life and I think that's great it's not like a either or it's not a bad thing I like y 'all's answer I mean because that's the thing that conversation can't go bad necessarily if you have young friends or friends around you and you say, hey, I love spending so much time with you.

52:09Make sure you're doing something good with your money so that we can do this more often.

52:12Brian Preston:So at 50 we can hang out more. Yeah. That's great. It's not like somebody, even if they don't do it, they're like, hey, they actually like me. Did we tell Brian what we did on Reddit while he was out for the holidays? Speaking of connections. Oh, no. Oh, no. We did this one. Mingle. We haven't had our planning session now, but this is coming up. 2026 action. We're actually rolling out a dating app. What? Mutant Mingle. It's a dating app for financial mutants. So people can connect with like-minded financial mutants. Who came up with this? No, that's the thing. The audience came up with this. We all came up with it.

52:53Brian Preston:We're still out on names. The leading contender right now is Mutants Mingle is where we're at. But we have many ideas. There were some other really good ones, though. So it's in the development stages. Did this happen in the live stream? Is that where this all came about? It did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You leave us alone for one week. Obviously, I need a few more sparrows and birds in my corner that tell me these things when I'm not around. Because y 'all dropped this on me in the middle of a live stream. So just so you know, that's coming. No, we really did have some people chatting, meeting each other on Reddit.

53:27Brian Preston:There were a number of Reddit threads that popped up of people, hey, I'm single, I've got this going on, and here's my net worth. and I'm single and I got this going to hand my net worth. We'll help them find love. This stuff is writing itself. Think how good these meetups are going to be. Think about how wonderful our first Making a Millionaire episode is going to be. Our first mutant baby from the relationship that comes from this. I love it. I love it when employees start growing their families. I already see this. Okay, I can get on board. I see how this bears fruit. Mutant mingle. Oh, man.

54:05Brian Preston:All right. Next question. Totally different from sadpackerfan1. It says... Well, if you saw the score last night, you understand that. It says, my wife and I are 60 years... No, that's the wrong question. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Rewind. Sadpackerfan actually asks, my wife and I are moving this year. They're both 34. And they have a 230K in liquid investments and 260K in the equity of their home. Should we put all equity into the next home or 20 % and the rest in liquid investment? We need more information. Tell them what information we need and why we need it. We're not just trying to skip out on the answer, but we have this happen all the time, Sad Packer, in the fact that people just, you need to figure out, are you ahead of the curve, behind the curve, or right where you're supposed to be?

54:59Because this is a great opportunity because you're about to have a windfall moment where this cash is going to come your way when you sell this house. You have to now figure out and choose your own adventure of your personal finance of, hey, maybe I need the catch-up. Because I don't know what your goals and objectives are. It sounds pretty good. I don't know. Did they say what their annual income is? No. I don't have enough context to know if you're ahead of the curve or behind the curve. But it's definitely worth going through the exercise. That's why I'd go to learn.moneyguy.com. We call it a course, but it's really a tool also.

55:33And the fact that it's a spreadsheet that you can put in your goals, tweak around with it, and then you'll quickly figure out, hey, no, I'm right where I need to be. And look, if you're way ahead of the curve, then a lot of times, especially with interest rates where they are, I'm like, yeah, go ahead and put it down, and that's fine. You're not going to hurt yourself. But then there's a lot of people that do the calculation and be like, whoa, my goal is I really need to have a lot of money in my army of dollar bills for the future. this is going to be a great way for me to kind of catch up on some things I might be behind on.

56:05Brian Preston:Yeah, I think I'd want to know the income. I'd want to know what your account structure looks like. And I want to know your long-term plans for all of the reasons you said. Sad Packer fans said that the annual salary is around$230 ,000. So right there, that doesn't – so on paper, you sounded like you're way ahead of the curve until I heard your income because he's 34. you realize 30 is where we have one times your income and by the time you get to 40 we want you to have three times your income it's kind of just the benchmark it's not even tied to your goals that's just you know generalized when we do the net worth by age by the way if you haven't checked out that we dropped that show it's crushing go out there and check it out be part of everybody else catching in on that but now just hearing that you're 34 and you make 230 000 because you have a big shovel, you might not be as far ahead as I would initially thought.

56:59Brian Preston:Yeah. And so you'd want to, I don't know the, I'd also have to consider the house that I'm selling. I've got $260 ,000 of equity and the new house that I'm buying, like, is this an upgrade? Is it a lateral move? And you actually have to play with the numbers to figure out, okay, if I'm only going to put 20 % down and I do that, does that still fall inside the three or the 20 % five year and then 25 % of expenses, I have to make sure that I'm testing all of the different guardrails to make sure that I'm not running a foul. Because you may do this and may say, man, for the hole that we're moving into, we can't just do 20%.

57:32Brian Preston:We got to do 25 % down so that we can keep the affordability there. But that still leaves us some money that we can put in the brokerage account that we can then get working for us. We can then get operating at our 34-year-old money multiplier. So you've got to kind of, there's some work to do when it comes to rolling in equity or not. It is not a one-size-fits-all decision. Yeah, this is one of those things where all of a sudden money goes from being very simple to having some levels of complexity, and this is one of those decisions. This is why I don't worry about our job is because there will be complexities where people say, hey, what are all the things I'm not thinking about?

58:08Because as we just laid out, it's not only just the initial purchase. It's what does this do to my future goals? These things are all interconnected with each other. Exactly right. sad packer fan one thank you for the question all right we've got one from curtis g up next it

58:27Brian Preston:says hey guys i'm 33 years old married single income of 450k wow wow okay net worth of 970k and 330k invested with a 200k windfall should i prioritize a 6.235 mortgage 182k of student loans at 6.2 % or invest. Much love. We got a lot of numbers here. Lots of numbers for you. 33 years old, married, but a single income,$450 ,000 income, 970 net worth, 330K in investments, 200K windfall. Should I prioritize? I'm immediately, when I look at this, I'm pushing the mortgages because that's step nine. I'm pushing that down on the list as I'm going through this mentally. The student loans intrigues me because they're in their 30s, and that's greater than 6%.

59:29So that's something that I'm probably going to want to draw, put an asterisk next to it and think about. But then I also want to know more about that income because that income is a striking number when you hear$450 ,000. So I'd want to know, is this something that's repeatable for many years to come or was this a one-off like there's a bunch of bonus income built into this it's because it's you've got good things going on but if you notice most of that investment most of that net worth is not investments it's probably real estate or something because it's 970 only 330 of it is is invested we're not even we're already over 30 we don't have one time our income you can quickly see how some of these things are definitely in conflict with each other.

1:00:12Brian Preston:Yeah. One of the things I would do is I'm willing to bet that$182 ,000 in student loans is not a single loan. So I wonder if what you've done is you've come up with an effective rate across all of your student loans. So one of the things that I might do to figure out how to really optimize and be as efficient as possible, I'd look at all the different student loans I have. And if I have different interest rates assigned to each, because perhaps that 6.2, you may have some loans at 7.2 % and some loans at 5.2%. And I think if you organize them that way, we actually did an episode of Making a Millionaire.

1:00:46Brian Preston:We did this exact thing. They had on their net worth, it just said student loans, effective rate. But we determined they had some very high interest student loans. And it was a no-brainer to knock those out. And what we're able to do is deploy some dollars to satisfying those high interest student loans and not worry about the lower interest student loans. I'd want to know that for your situation, and then I'd let the financial order of operations be your guide. Start knocking that out, looking at that. How much does it go towards future wealth building? How much does it go towards truly high interest student loans?

1:01:18Brian Preston:And that will let you know which is likely going to be the best path forward. Well, I mean, and this question was debt-focused, but I would immediately, Curtis, want to know what is your savings rate? Because when you have such a big shovel, you know,$450 ,000, dollars, I'd love to know is 25 % kind of automatic for the people being sent out? Because I don't know that it's showing up. Now, maybe this is all new to you and that, you know, in the last, you've only had this income for the last year, year and a half, but it's just that because you are pretty young still with that level of income, but it's just, I need to know more of the behavioral stuff because you asked it from a debt perspective.

1:01:53I'd want to know what's going on with your future dollars. Are you building the life as you're making housing and other decisions to let you actually save that money because with that much level of income, there's a big responsibility sitting on your shoulders. And I don't want you to just live what you think is your best life and then get a shocker when you go to retire in your 50s because that's a big income has a big responsibility for your future self.

1:02:19Brian Preston:Yeah. Just two little things to take away. With that$200 ,000, one, I'd want to reassess the financial order of operations because you said you're single income. want to make sure you have a robust emergency fund to make sure. So perhaps that 200, if you have not done that or you've skimmed on that, it fortifies that. And then if you do decide not to satisfy debt and put it to work, then the question becomes, well, how do I put it to work? We actually have a Goldilocks rule that you can go check out if you go to moneyguy.com slash resources and just, or just go to our search bar and type in Goldilocks.

1:02:48Brian Preston:It should pop right up and it will walk you through based on how much you're going to invest relative to your portfolio. How should you think about putting those dollars to work? Again, let that be your guide and try to remove some emotion from the decision-making process. That's good stuff. Thank you for your question, Curtis G. And thank you all for being here. Every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Central, we'll be live streaming and answering your money questions. So we are excited to be back next Tuesday. And in the meantime, be sure to check out moneyguy.com for all of the free resources that we mentioned on the show today from housing to car buying to investing.

1:03:25Brian Preston:We've got a lot of great stuff there for you to hopefully just help build your confidence about your next financial decision. And yeah, we made it for you, moneyguy.com. I feel like we've gone to a broad spectrum here on covering topics. We started off with me coming in hard on the gambling trends. You and I kind of got in a little dust up over somebody wanting to live on a boat. Which is kind of fun. That's why I definitely, I guess nobody ever put the picture of the boat or what they were considering buying. I'd love to have seen how big of a boat we're talking about here. And then we just, I mean, we got people meeting potentially.

1:04:04Mutant mingle. Having mutant babies. I mean, it is.

1:04:07Brian Preston:Let's not move so fast. Let's start. I mean, I just, it's been a good day. It's been a good day. I feel like our work has been done. And that's why, guys, we will leave the porch light on for you, whether you're making mutant babies or buying houseboats or thinking about trying to figure out, hey, do I go and online gamble or do I fund my 401k? We're going to leave the porch light on for you so you can make the proper financial decisions with your army of dollars. I'm your host, Brian, joined by Bo, Reby, and the rest of the Money Guy crew. Money Guy, out. The Money Guy Show is hosted by Brian Preston and Bo Hanson.

1:04:40Brian 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.

1:05:10Come on. No!

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