Why These Things Aren’t Worth Your Money (Feat. Erin Talks Money)

24:08Made mistakes you've made mistakes. That's what I love about money is you don't have to be perfect with an extension Okay, so I'll get one Till December, but I mean I'll call them back. I think they'll move it. Just keep asking Just keep pushing that down the line. You just say, please. Do you say the statement, do you know who you're talking to? No. I did when I bought the car. I'm like, Aaron talks money. I can't buy these packages. Don't you know that finance guy now is everybody's like, hey, Aaron talks money bought this package. I don't know if you know that. She probably uses you as the marketing for this.

24:41Hey, if I know you need extra maintenance, Aaron talks money bought this. Oh, gosh. Could you imagine? All right. Let's do a couple more. How about rent to own? Is it worth it or is it a waste? We talking about furniture and TVs? Yes, sir. Come on. This is too easy. There it is. There's two thumbs down. What are you doing? He's got to think about it. He's pondering deeply. I'm just trying to think if there's anything that makes sense to rent to own. What about a home? All right. I was thinking about a home. I guess you're not technically renting it, but you kind of are, right? Like you're in it for the first 30 years.

25:13That's not the same thing, though. You don't own it outright. It's like a home is layaway. You're just doing layaway for 30 years. I get what you're saying, but this is getting too fancy. Like that's not rent to us. You're talking like Aaron's Rent-to-Own or something like that. Great name. No, I'm a hard pass on that one. All right, hard pass. Don't do it. Why not? If you think TVs are, because you can go to Costco and buy a TV for a few hundred bucks, or you can pay for a TV six times over by renting it monthly. It just ends up being more expensive, right? Isn't that what Buy Now Pay? I would rather sit on the ground, save up for a couch.

25:41Yeah. Right? Isn't Buy Now Pay Later essentially Rent-to-Own? Yeah. Isn't that kind of the same idea? I know. It's kind of the new. Well, I think they're both. When I was a kid, this was called layaway. The latest. Didn't layaway work? Layaway's a little different. But you didn't get it. Because you didn't get the item. You didn't get the item. Yes. You just basically wouldn't sell it. We were still essentially saving up for it. They'd wink at you and say, hey, we're not going to sell that. We'll let you just pay a few bucks every week. You can come by once a week. That's right. Look at it in the back.

26:06That's it. All right. Let's do two more. This one is checked luggage. Worth it or a waste? Let's go. Aaron and Bo say worth it. and Brian says it's a waste. Well, no, no. I think what y 'all are getting to is gate checking. No, no, let's start with checking. Let's just see where this conversation takes us. Point blank. You get to the airport. You check your luggage. Is it worth it? You go ahead and just put that baggage on the conveyor belt and then you have your backpack and you just walk through TSA Pre and you don't have to pull anything around. Travel is so enjoyable when you don't have baggage.

26:41And you know what? Back in the day when Southwest, when it was party seating, and I checked my backpack, I wasn't worried about when I got on the plane. I just, it was fine. I'll say the word it depends on the fact that if you're going to Europe or a long vacation where you're gone for a week, obviously checking bags are good. But I come and do a show every Tuesday at 10 a.m. live, so I don't get to go on super long vacations very often. So I pack like a ninja. We pack light, we're quick on our feet, so I want to carry my bags with me, and I want to put them up there above, because also I treat my luggage well.

27:16So I like carry-ons. So that's why I did thumbs down is because I'm light and I'm in there. It's like a go bag for me. I took a 55-minute flight to come to you guys. I checked that bag. Let me tell you, you only get one Ziploc baggie and three ounces or less. My skincare. I was about to say skincare. Way more. Way more means she needs to check the bag. I need a suitcase for the skincare. That's what she got to have. That's more than three ounces. And if they made you throw it out, you would probably cry. Oh my gosh. Getting a fight at the airport. Getting a fight at the airport. We found out health is wealth.

27:48And Erin, she is so, because we heard about cars and everything, you're tight. But you're not tight necessarily on the skincare, though. No, I've got an eye cream. I've got, like, lip creams. I've got face masks. It all has to come. It all has to come. That would be worth it for Erin. She'd be, like, big thumbs up. Yes. Skin care. In true financial mutant fashion, not only am I pro-checked bag, I'm super pro-gate-checked bag. Because then you get to check a bag, and it's free. Just throw that out there to you, brother. Love it. Your travel is so much more enjoyable when you're not carrying something.

28:19I agree. But I will say, and look, if my people are listening to this, whenever I travel in groups, they always do the thing. It's like, hey, nobody's going to check bags. I'm like, all right, I guess I'll do a carry-on. I think gate-check bags should be voluntary. They are. No. You don't have to. Until you're in the back of the plane. No, there's times where I've had my bags where they force gate-check it, and it blows my ninja theory all out of the water. Is that because you're on too small of a plane? It always starts voluntary, but nobody volunteers. It always adds. Then you're voluntold. That's right.

28:50It makes me sad. The time it's happened to me was with Delta. And I'm a Georgia boy. So I even worked for Delta for a summer on the ramps. I was almost a stewardess for Delta. I loved Delta growing up, but Delta failed me by making me gate check. Even though, because they said, hey, our overheads are full. Get to my seat. No, the overheads were completely empty. They lied to you. They lied, for sure. See, Southwest betrayed me with their, now that you have to pay to check a bag. So now my only option left is gate check. I know. I guess I could just pay for the check bag, too. It's$25, and it's$25 well spent.

29:27Yeah. No, I hear you on that. I really do. All right. That was really fun. Should be a choice. Let's go ahead and move into some financial questions from the audience. Are you guys ready? Yes, ma 'am. We've got the team out in the wings. They've been sending me some questions. We've got a list here. The first one is from DualNature5. It says, hey, Money Guy team and Erin, my wife, who's 33, and I, 38, are firmly in the messy middle with one-year-old twins. How do you decide what's actually worth it versus lifestyle creep in a season full of so many unknown variables? So good, so good, so good.

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30:48Red Bull Summer All Day Play. Red Bull gives you wings. Visit redbull.com slash bright summer ahead to learn more. See you this summer. Erin, this is a great question. I think you should start because you would define yourself as being in the messy middle, right? And for someone who's like self-proclaimed tight, how do you make the decision on when it's okay to spend money on things and when you don't spend money on things? Experience. So like we do daycare because we both have to work. So that gives us the ability to have a paycheck. We're going to splurge there. But I mean, I'll take my son on a trip.

31:25I'll take him out to dinner. We go to Cheesecake Factory every week. We have a mommy-son date and it's very expensive. Once a week at Cheesecake Factory. That's awesome. But we have a regular server that we see. It's this whole experience. I love that. It's so fun. But outside of that, we have a membership to a children's museum. We do parks. We do affordable things, but I'll slurge on an experience. As far as toys, I live on a street with a lot of kids. We get a lot of hand-me-downs, clothes, hand-me-downs. Just ask your friends. Go to Facebook Marketplace. Buy nothing groups. So kids can be as affordable or as expensive as you want to.

31:57I'm focusing on the twins aspect here because I think that's where a lot of the money is going to go. Absolutely. Brian, what say you? I think the answer is also in the question of what's actually worth it, and that's going to depend upon every person is going to be unique. It's just like earlier we were talking to Erin, and she was talking about her skin care, which I know is not cheap, but it's definitely worth it to you. You get a lot of value out of that. You know, Bo, you love coffee. Yep. So you will, you know, if you went by the latte effect, you might not get to do what you love as much.

32:27So I would say, first of all, prioritize the financial order of operations. is going to be your backbone of so you're not leaving anything on the table of doing the basics like, you know, your emergency reserves, getting your employer match, funding the Roth IRA. But then it's okay to lean into things that you get value out of, whether it's experiences, whether it's focusing on skincare, whether it's focusing on coffee, but just make sure you're not leaving the basics behind so that you can live your best life. What is the saying? Like you can have, you can't have everything but you can have what is the saying you can't have everything but you have some things that's about that's about it with some confidence bo just hit it with gas there's some kind of slogan it's really interesting one of the things i noticed is like uh since high school in my opinion so you can write this in pencil i feel like parenting is one of the most peer pressured uh environments in which you live really since like high school because you begin operating, especially if you're a one-year-old, you're like, oh, well, these other parents are doing this.

33:30And, oh, well, this family went to Disney. And, oh, this family got, well, they got this SUV because it's the same. And you find yourself making all these decisions based on what other people are doing. I think at 33 and 38, if you can slow down and ask, okay, what matters to us? What do we value? What experiences do we likely care about? you're going to save yourself a lot of heartache from trying maybe not to keep up with the Joneses but just to keep up with the other parents. I feel like I've seen all kinds of friends fall in that. Oh, well, okay, well, so-and-so is doing swim team and then they're doing piano and then they're doing softball and then they're doing soccer.

34:03And then they're, if that's what your kid wants to be doing and that's what your family wants to be doing, that's great. But be careful just doing those things because you see everyone else around you doing those things. I think that's where parents get themselves in a lot of trouble. Your kid just needs you to show up. That's right. Just be there for your kids. That's it. Yeah, that's good stuff. All right, next question. I did not make up this username. It's from Bo Hanson Spotter. Take do with that what you will. It says, hi, Money Guy team. My wife and I, 28, are finished with step four. Our mortgage payment is 30 % of our household income.

34:38Could we move on to step five if that is our only debt? We should be getting raises within the next one to two years as well. So it looks like they are a little technically outside of our 3-5-25 house buying rules. I don't know if you want to cover that. And then how should they think about moving on to step five and the debt that they have? Yeah, I think what they are assuming here is that, oh man, because we have run afoul of 3-5-25, 3-5-25 is just 3 % down on a house. You want to be in the house for longer than five years and you can't have your house payment or the housing costs exceed 25 % of your monthly gross income.

35:16Because we've run afoul of that, that must mean that we're in step three. That must count as high interest debt because instead of going, you know, we got step four done, maybe we should start paying that down. I don't think I agree with that because I think that in the environment in which we live where housing affordability is, especially for young people, it's not uncommon for people having a stretch. Certainly young people like this that are saying, man, in the next couple of years, my income is going to catch up. rather than you thinking about deploying all of your dollars to go get that mortgage payment down, to pay down the principal, to get it and then recast the mortgage or whatever the thing may be, I think I would rather see you put those dollars to work in the Roth IRA, in the HSA, and just understand you're a little bit further on the risk spectrum.

36:00So do everything you can to increase your income to get that percentage down. Yeah, beef up the emergency fund maybe a little bit. Sure. Then work on increasing your income. But I mean, at 28, these dollars are so powerful. I don't even think you're really, you know, look, you're obviously smart coming up with that witty name, Bo Hansen spotter. But you also gave a really big clue. This is our only debt. Realize when we wrote, when we've done the 25 % for housing, a lot of times we have to write rules for the general population. And what is the general population dealing with? A lot of people have student loan debt.

36:37A lot of people have car debt, which is 8 % by our own rules. So if you go ahead because that's your only debt, now your 30 % seems much more reasonable knowing you don't have student loan debt, you don't have car debt. So, yeah, and you also gave the answer that mitigates it even more by saying we're going to get pay raises over the next one to two years. because a lot of people who are in professional jobs where their income is going up large chunks, and especially in those early years, you're going to be in a good situation. So I wouldn't carry any regret with that. It sounds like you're making a lot of disciplined decisions.

37:14And so that's why you have to be careful with rules is because rules are written to give guidance, but your specific situation is going to be much more nuanced. And that's why we give these rules so you can accelerate your journey. But when you reach success, this is why financial planners like us, fee-only financial planners, we have a place is because we try to give you your best life, not just the best life for the general population. And 28 is a young homeowner. That's a young homeowner, for sure. Good thoughts there. Thank you, Poe Hinson Spotter, for joining us today. Great name. That means he's strong, too, by the way.

37:52because to spot Bo's stuff, you've got to be able to lift some weight. Got to be real serious. I think there's actually a backhanded insult right there you didn't mean to do. Because if the spotter has to lift the weight, that means I'd be failing it. You didn't even realize it was going to be a weight. The spotter helps you get it off the bar. I've been in the gym enough to know. You've got to help them get it off the bar. See, I took it as like you're lifting such heavy weights that this person has to be up to snuff. Like they better be able to catch it should they need to. Right? At the level of weight you're doing, you don't want some really out of shape person being your spotter.

38:31You want to hear a hilarious story? Do you have time for a really quick story? I guess so. The last time that I bench pressed heavy weight without a spotter was when I was in college. It was at the University of Georgia. Our weight room was called Ramsey. Are you going to tell us how much? I don't remember. But it was heavy enough that I went down for that rep and I couldn't get it back up. And I didn't have a spotter. And so literally there was a young lady working the desk and I had to like, ma 'am, I had to call her over to run over to help me get that bar off of my chest. I will never bench press without someone around again.

39:06Well, I've been trapped under the bar, too. The trick is you don't put clamps on. I know. But I had a trainer who was like, I didn't want the shame of that either. You dump one side and then it's shots. I'll take scenarios I'll never be in that I don't have to worry about. It's just like we're talking about risk you don't have to insure yourself of ever being in. These are situations I'll never have because if I'm under a bench press, there's somebody above me. All right. That was a good anecdote. Next financial question is from Seth McFoo, another good username. But then he says, hi, Aaron and Money Guy team in parentheses.

39:48Can we tell who he's excited about? Seth is excited Aaron's here. You guys got the handle, though. I mean, that's kind of permanent. I love that. It says, is it worth creating a withdrawal plan at retirement? Young 30s, I want to optimize three buckets to minimize taxes. But it seems foolish given all the changes that can happen. What do you think? I mean, I love the idea of going into retirement with Roth, with traditional, with brokerage. I like having different buckets to pull on. at 30. I mean, it's hard to plan what your life is going to look like at 60. So fund both. That's fine. Fund them all.

40:27Yeah, I think too many people get so caught up. We always say begin with the end in mind, begin with the end in mind. And that's great. You want to have an idea of the end that you're ultimately working towards. But at 30 years old, I agree, you're not going to know on a granular level exactly when you're going to retire, what sources you're going to have, where you're going to pull from, where you're going to live, what your lifestyle is going to be. and so if you get so focused on okay i need to have exactly 72 percent of my wealth in a roth ira and another 18 i think you're going to get yourself sort of wound up that's why we came up with the thing up for me that's what i was gonna do it's why we came up with the financial order of operations to take the guesswork out of it early on we want you focusing on what you're putting in what you're putting in what you're putting in what you're putting in what you're putting in and then there will come a time where it makes sense to shift to think about how you're going to pull out and we're going to pull out from, but let this be your guide early on.

41:16Well, Seth, if you're not at step seven, take the pressure off yourself and just do what we're telling you to do in the financial order of operations is because it's so right now, if you think about what the FU is doing for you, it's keeping your life out of the ditch in the beginning stages by having the emergency reserves. It's also making sure you're maximizing the amplifiers, like your free money from your employer. And then it's helping you do all the tax advantage savings so that when you get to step seven, because that's where you're kind of talking about is when you're in, if you're, maybe you're there in your thirties, but, but most people don't get here until probably your late thirties, maybe early forties.

41:52And that's when this is the place where you say, how am I going to use this money in retirement? And yes, the system will likely change, you know, because, but in a lot of ways it gets better. I mean, what I've been surprised in my career is that when the Roth accounts came on the scene in the 98, if you'd have told me, because remember back then you could put$2 ,000 a year into it, but now they've amped it up to where we have Roth 401ks. They've made it where, you know, you don't have required minimum distributions where they make it where... RMDs are later than they used to be. It's amazing the way things have actually improved.

42:27So I would say plan with the system you have, but the three buckets are going to probably still be around in some form. And it's step seven that lets you build your life, begin with the end in mind, how you're going to use that money. And I think you'll be a-okay. I think as the income changes, where you want to put these dollars change. So it's hard at 30 because what you're making at 40 and then 50 and 60, that's going to look different. Well, and also all the life stuff, the kids, the housing, all those things change the scope and the shape of the way things look in the longterm too. Like a lot of this happens organically.

43:00Yeah, but you don't have to overthink it. That's what I always tell people. Just invest. As we did kind of opening the show, you don't have to be perfect with money. If you're just doing a lot of the big things early and often, you get a lot of flexibility. You're rewarded for that early discipline. No, that's really good stuff. I like it. Next one is, I'm not making up these usernames, I promise. This one's from Beanie Weenie1059. It says, asking for some help on the food. I should have just made it up. You know what? When was the last time you had beanie weenies? Because when I was a kid, that was a staple.

43:36Were you a beanie weenie kid? Oh, yeah. But again, I've told you guys I have mild OCD. So my mom would cut up the hot dog to put in the beans. But she would always eat one of the ends of the hot dog. So whenever I got my bowl, I'd look and make sure my hot dog had two ends. Are you serious? Yes. That's wild. That's so specific. That's wild. I love it. I have to tell you, we had a big neighborhood event in my house yesterday, and my next-door neighbor, he ordered the food, and he's carnivore. Okay. So we had barbecue, but one of the sides was baked beans. Yeah. I forget how good they hit. They're so good.

44:11They are so good. But they didn't have chunks of hot dogs. No, they had barbecue in these because these were – I'm trying to think of the barbecue because it's a famous – Brisket probably? Well, it had brisket. It had all kind of stuff in it. It was glorious. But I told myself while I was eating, I was like, too bad this is not healthy. There's no way it tastes too good. That's not healthy? There is no way these baked beans. Beans are good. What are you telling me? There is no way. There's a lot of things that my parents fed me that you look back on. This was not healthy. I mean, the Kool-Aid, oh, yeah.

44:39I mean, who would have thought that my parents were like, yeah, load it up, son. Whatever you want. Pour the sugar in there. You know, we'll spin it around. There's a lot of things from my childhood that are not healthy. But beanie weenies. We haven't even gotten into the question. My kids have never had Kool-Aid or Beanie Weenies. We should do that once, right? Like they should experience it at least one time. But they won't like it. Once leads to they realize they like it. It's probably okay if you don't. My wife, if she found out I gave my kids Kool-Aid and Beanie, she would murder me. For sure.

45:08Let's get to the question. All right. The question says, I'm asking for some help on the FOO, the Financial Order of Operations. You got the experts. Yeah. Yeah, they do. The path to step eight of the FOO is very well defined. And when you get to step eight, it can feel like you are making suboptimal decisions. How do you think about step eight? Because it is true. You got all your steps and then you're like, step eight. Well, Brian, you. Prepaid future expenses. If I'm not mistaken, you wrote the book on this. You wrote the book on the financial order of operations. The New York Times bestselling book.

45:42And we get asked all the time about the transition from seven to eight. And we often talk about like the planning transition. but I do think there's a mental transition. What did you write about in the book as that changes? Well, I mean, I think, you know, what's funny is I had to create essentially a mullet title for Step 8 because of these problems. Well, I mean, because it hits. It works. Because the original title for Step 8 is prepaid future expenses. I said it in my nerdy voice on purpose. And I was like, you know what? Us financial mutants were so good at saving money, putting a professional title like that is still going to feel constrictive.

46:23It's going to feel like, hey, this is what you can and cannot do. I wanted to feel like good time Uncle Bobby was in town and said, you know what, you've been doing good things. You should be rewarded. So now we call it also abundance goals. This is free yourself to actually enjoy this money because guess what? Your kids will love spending all your money down the road and your grandkids will for sure. So you might as well get very comfortable now that you've done the hard steps of one through seven. Reward yourself, spend time on what you actually enjoy doing. And this is why I've shared, I had to give up my tightwad card in my early 40s is because I realized now that I was beyond step eight, I have to think about how I want to use this money.

47:07Now, you can also be more charitable. I mean, my charity has gone way up, but a man, oh man, we have the luxury cars, we do the nicer vacations. and I look at it as a dividend for all that hard discipline that was spent in the early years. I don't think you have to be optimal when you've checked all the boxes. I think it's more about life optimization rather than dollar optimization at that point. I think so many people get to financial independence and they get to the time in life where, okay, now I'm going to go on the trip or now I'm going to pick up the hobby. Now I'm going to experience the thing.

47:37And they've waited so long to actually do it that they can't enjoy it the way they'd always dreamed about enjoying it. You see people, I want to travel the world, and they wait until they're 70 years old, and now you can't go hike the mountain, or you can't go swim in the waterfall, or you can't whatever the thing is. If you can find ways to do those things while you're on the journey, while you're on the path, I think it's going to just be an unlock. Oh, wow, this money, not only is it a tool for my future self, it can be a tool for my current self, and that's A-OK. Yeah, agree. I want you to enjoy your 20s, your 30s, your 40s, 50s, and beyond.

48:11you need to make sure you're doing something in every decade to make sure you look back with excitement for that decade not with regret yep money is a tool it's a tool that helps you focus on what actually matters so step eight you're squarely getting to do that which is awesome all right next you beanie weenie you just wanted to throw that in there i really have the power i could just change their usernames no one would know we wouldn't know no they would will they know? How will they know? They'll know on Tumblr day. They would know. I guess, yes, the person who asked the question would know, but nobody else would.

48:46But then I wouldn't get your reactions. I think there's something I don't know. There's something in me that wants to see what you're going to say. All right. Well, this one is a pretty normal username. Just KMwith. Some initials, maybe. I like it. It says, hey, team, I am in my 30s, married with two kids. I am an ex - SpaceX employee. Let's go. The new IPO will mean that SpaceX stock will have around 75 % of my net worth. Oh, wow. Do I diversify or do I take a gamble?

49:20I'm an ex-SpaceX employee, so not currently employed with SpaceX. I'm assuming there's still going to be some equity ownership there. Let me throw a little interesting thing. So I'm assuming because, you know, the current way you can get SpaceX is by being an employee. more than likely now that you're no longer an employee this IPO is going to pop I mean there this is by the way if you didn't know that one of the things I found out you know it's going to have a valuation but SpaceX is only offering a very small percentage of the ownership pool for this IPO so it's going to be everybody wants very few we're going to get so it's going to it's it's the perfect recipe for boom.

50:05I mean, it's going to be like boom shakalaka. You know, it's probably this thing's got a huge run up. The current employees are going to have a lockout period. They're not going to be able to sell during this. A lot of the insiders are going to be locked up. And by the way, if you don't know traditionally the way IPO behavior is, stock goes IPO, you get all the huge distortions because everybody piles in at the same time. But then over time, it trickles down. And then as soon as the gates get open for the employees to get in there and the insiders to sell, watch out below is because they all just dump it.

50:39And then usually, you know, it takes a few months for it to recover from that. And then you get into the trading range of what happens with IPO stocks. You might be, KM, in the perfect place to where when the stock pops, you're going to be without restriction. you probably can just know what your price is. Know what you want to do. Know is any portion of this going to be your permanent portfolio, meaning you support SpaceX and you want to own a portion of it so you don't have regret later. But how much of this should you sell and what's a reasonable price and then be prepared? I think the fact that specifically this is SpaceX is a unique thing, and I want to zoom out from that, and I want to take the company name away from it.

51:19If someone were to talk to me and they would say, hey, 75 % of my net worth is tied up in a singular company stock, immediately my spotty sense would go off. No matter what the stock is. Now, SpaceX may do incredibly well. It may be wonderful. But before it goes IPO, I'd begin having a thought in my head. Okay, what do I ultimately want this to look like? How much risk am I ultimately willing to take? Because just the fact that I was an employee and I got in early means I've probably already got some built-in equity. Do I want to strategically, systematically, unemotionally pull some of these chips off the table?

51:53Maybe I still leave some there, some opportunity, some potential for growth, but balance that with, okay, I've already, you know, I always made the joke whenever someone was an early investor in a big company or a big stock, you've already won the lottery one time. If you won the lottery once, do you immediately take all the proceeds of winning the lottery and then go buy a lot more lottery tickets to see if you can do it again? Or do you begin to think about wealth and think about money a little bit differently? And that's the way that I would encourage KMW, I-T-H, I don't know how I spelled it, to think about that pre-IPO because likely what's going to happen is once it goes IPO, you're going to be rushed with all these emotions and you're going to be up and down and excited and like whatever happens, you're going to go with that.

52:41So I would have a plan in place before that happens to try to remove the emotion from the equation. I always have the pillow test. So if something is going to keep you up at night, then it's too risky. So it's like you said, it's not an all or nothing thing. Have a written plan. And if you want to slowly diversify or however quickly or slowly you want to do that. But I just think 75 % in one area, it would keep me up at night. So I think everyone kind of has to look at their own situation. Would you sell it all, though? No. No. I wouldn't. If it was me, I don't mind disclosing. I don't own any SpaceX currently.

53:16If it were me, I would not sell it all. I would taper. That's how I would handle it. But it is. I agree. Would you sell it all? No. I would probably keep 5 % or 10 % of my net worth in it, just permanent portfolio. but I would definitely I agree with you on the taper except for I think this is going to be a very unique thing that's why I was trying to lay out the parameters of what to kind of because you need to understand how IPOs work to know what you're working with because there are a lot of people like I said they're going to be restricted and that creates a very unique moment in time for KM with and you just got to be prepared to know what your unique skill for the moment in time is or a unique thing that you have so you can be prepared for it.

54:08Prepare now, not when it happens. That was great. Let's see. KM with, thank you for the question. Good luck as you figure out what that 75 % is going to look like in the future. Because it is interesting because they've announced, it's only in the last week, few days, they've announced who they're doing the IPO with. And they did include Schwab and Fidelity on the list. and a lot of people I've seen content out there I don't know I have not verified this but you do need to go on if you're with Schwab or Fidelity you have to go sign up for IPL alerts if you think you're going to try to get in on this I feel like that's a PSA to share for anybody who thinks they want to go dabble in this It's interesting a former employee still has I'd be curious to know what that looked like Well you know that's how We have a few clients that have SpaceX, and the way they got it is because there are pools out there where people are buying the shares.

55:07These investment companies are buying the shares from former employees and then reselling them in this secondary and bundling it all up. And so there has been ways to get access to this. It's so interesting to see how this is all going to play out. Interesting stuff. Time will tell. All right. The other hack was barren. Wasn't it barren? Well, there's a couple mutual funds that are very big holders of SpaceX stock right now. It's an interesting thing. I mean, this is the nerdy stuff. I can't help. I go down these rabbit holes and I can't help myself. Right. All right. Next question. He's 26 years old.

55:47Says, 26, getting married in a year. Trying to save or cash flow a wedding. If I need to dip into assets to help fund the wedding, should I? One, sell investments in an after-tax account, or two, dip into my emergency fund. Erin, I want to put you in the hot seat here. What do you think? My wedding was$5 ,000. Let's go. We had 14 people. Okay. And I'm not a wedding girl. Again, frugal noodle. I just kind of feel like it's one day. Now if you want that party That's fine I personally would never sell investments For a wedding For a party I want to give a compliment I went to Bo's wedding I was in Bo's wedding How many people did y 'all have at Joe's wedding?

56:43It was like 80 or 90 It was a decent amount of people Y 'all did a great job Do you mind disclosing how much y 'all spent? I want to say it was less than$12 ,000 Is what I had in my head It was something around that ballpark. I was just, the reason I shared that about Bo is because I remember thinking as an active participant in it, is that it ties into all the other things we talk about. You can create incredible memories and not go broke. It's the system that's trying to sell this consumption to you to where, truthfully, both of you, what you described, wouldn't even cover the flower budget for a lot of people.

57:21And it's the craziest thing in the world. And look, I've been married 28 years. That's almost three decades. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. It doesn't feel that long, which I think is a good thing. But my father-in-law had saved a wedding, and my wife did want the big wedding. And she didn't go crazy. It wasn't a super expensive wedding, but I think it was probably 100, 120 people. And I do think about that all the time is that I don't even really remember our wedding because it was so overwhelming. You're running around trying to make sure everybody feels like taken care of. It's really a party for everyone else.

58:02It is. It's a party for everybody else. And it is one day. That's not what the marriage is built off of. Yes, you want to create great memories and experiences, but it's the rest of your life that is actually what the marriage is. So I wouldn't go run up a bunch of debt. It amazes me. It's more of a keeping up with the Joneses that the consumption world we live in, where they have made this, this is what you're supposed to do, to your future self-detriment and just don't fall into that consumption trap. Yeah, and so you said don't run up a bunch of debt. I'd even take it a step further because your question was, okay, emergency funders sell investments.

58:39The very first thing I would do at 26 years old, I'd go to moneyguide.com slash resources. I'd go check out our wealth multiplier. and however much money you're thinking about liquidating, $5 ,000,$10 ,000, whatever it is, I want you to go put that in for the wealth multiplier of a 26 and see exactly how much that will cost, like what the real cost of doing that is. And let me give you a great example. Brent, do you remember the centerpieces we had at my wedding? Do you remember the centerpieces? Do you remember the meal we had at the wedding? Do you remember the food that we ate at the wedding?

59:09I think the only thing is that you had kegs of beer, and I think you might have had was it was a weeded beer was your fancy one. You had a Michelob Ultra and I think you had Shock Top. It was like Blue Moon. Blue Moon. That's what it was. I knew it was one of the weeded ones. That's the only thing I remember. I just don't remember the thing. That is so horrible. Isn't that horrible? And I remember the uncomfortable shoes you made me to wear. That was the only other thing. So the point that I'm making, we get so spun up on these things that we think matter a whole lot and realistically, even people who are in your life, you know, 20 years later, they weren't going to remember that.

59:43They're going to remember the experience and the party and the fun. And so I would just think about, man, if I'm going to make this$10 ,000, whatever the number is, and it's going to cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars down the line, would this have actually been worth it? And do I think that's going to be a trade-off? And I would just start and have a very sincere conversation with your significant other. Because my wife and I did this, I was like, sweetie, I love you. We're not going to go in debt for this. We're not going to start our marriage on the wrong side of the ledger. And so we just got to work inside these confines.

1:00:13And she did great. And, uh, and I think, I think if you can have that conversation and so, so then once you've arrived at that conclusion, right. So would I sell investment assets or what I dip into my emergency fund? The answer I'm gonna say is it depends. I want to know how big the, how big the money I'm going to have to pull out is, how robust my emergency fund is and how quickly I could build that back up. If it's like, okay, I got to go from six months fully funded down to four and a half months fully funded, but I can rebuild that up in the next three or four months, I may go emergency fund.

1:00:50If it's longer than that and I'm going to have an anemic emergency fund for a long period of time, then I'd likely sell investments to do that. And that's the way that I would measure those two. Yeah. It's just, yeah. I think you're all agreeing it's a big bummer if you have to do that. And this person's in good financial shape. I'm in their 20s. They have a brokerage account. They have an emergency fund. So I'm impressed. That's awesome for 26. So hopefully that gives you some food for thought and you have some levers you can pull. Let's do one more. Is that bad? Come on. Honestly, yes. We got Aaron.

1:01:20We got stuff to do with Aaron, Brian. I know. I'm always the one. I just want one more. I hate that it's going to be over. You mentioned that we have stuff to do with Aaron. Erin, if people want to know about when that stuff with Erin comes out, what's one thing they should do, Erin, if they want to know about when some new stuff that we might be doing is coming out? Subscribe to both of our channels. Subscribe to both of the channels right now. Erin Talks Money and The Money Guy Show. Love that. Love that. All right. Okay. All right. We can do one more. Let's do one more. Erin, here's the question.

1:01:51This is from Bo's Spotters Weightlifter. Do you own in your portfolio any individual stocks? I have a few. When I first started investing, that's actually how I started. I'm like, I'm going to be the next Warren Buffett. That didn't pan out. I was eight at the time, so forgive me there. But I struck gold a couple times. I got in on Facebook right when they launched. Oh, wow. And I held on to that. But I've bought, but I would say it's less than 5 % of my portfolio. And so nowadays I'm just index and chill. But, yeah, I mean, over the years I've had a few. Love that. Awesome. Do I get a Tumblr, Ruby?

1:02:36It's not a Tumblr day, so no. I can't give you one. I'm sorry. Maybe next week, Tuesday, 10 a.m. Central. We'll be back here every Tuesday answering your questions. It has been really awesome to have you, Erin. Thank you for jumping in. and remember to subscribe to both channels, Aaron Talks Money and The Money Guy Show and check out moneyguy.com slash resources for all the free stuff we talked about and more. Yeah, and you heard it. We're going to have more content with Aaron. We got to record. I woke up this morning and told my wife, I was like, you wouldn't believe how many shows we're about to record today.

1:03:06So there's more to come. As you can tell, we're having a blast. That's why we didn't want it to end. We don't ever want it to end with you guys either. So I would encourage you, please go to the website, do sign up, you know, because we have a weekly newsletter that goes out and it gives you kind of the greatest hits for the past week. We don't sell the newsletter list. We're just truly trying to love on you and know who you are because in this rapidly changing world, I feel like that's the important part is for us to stay connected so that we can keep building this great, big, beautiful tomorrow.

1:03:35Erin, you've been awesome. Thank you for coming on. Thanks for having me. We always, this is our second time doing this. We always have a great time. We'll have, I'm sure this won't be the last time. I'm your host, Brian, joined by Bo. this thing moved on me, I think. Joined by Aaron, the rest of the Money Guy team, Money Guy 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.

1:04:09Abound 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.