Q&A: $10MM Net Worth, Recasting a Mortgage & Expense Ratios

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0:57Hey everyone and welcome back to the Rich Habits Podcast, a top 10 business podcast on Spotify. This episode is our question and answer edition, which means you ask us questions via Instagram at richhabitspodcast, via email at richhabitspodcast at gmail.com or inside of the Rich Habits Network. Now, the vast majority of the questions we're answering today actually came in via email. So if you want to get in front of our eyeballs, send us an email at richhabitspodcast at gmail.com. Robert, this week has been pretty turbulent. The Chinese AI startup DeepSeek caused NVIDIA stock to sell off 17 % on Monday before rebounding some 7, 8, 9 % on Tuesday.

1:38We're filming this Tuesday afternoon, so it's been pretty crazy. Yeah, I had a inbox full and a DM box full of people that were rattled by this. Should we get out of our NVIDIA and Palantir and Micron and Google and Microsoft and all these things? And all it was was telling everybody to woosah, relax and let it go and things will work itself out. And then it didn't even take one day. There was a hack and all these things happened and we're right back to normal. And I think NVIDIA made up most of its losses yesterday, today. So pretty crazy. And it just really reinforces us always trying to get everyone to, when in doubt, zoom out and don't have those knee-jerk reactions and panic when the markets have turmoil.

2:23Well, I think what's really important, too, is to reflect upon how right we are about some of our market predictions for 2025. The first one was volatility. But more importantly, the second one was we think that AI 2.0 is here, which means we are transitioning away from just the AI hardware stocks like Nvidia, Broadcom, things like that. And instead, investors are now focused on the AI software names like Snowflake, Cloudflare, MongoDB, and GitLab. All those stocks are up double digit percentages just today. So I think there's going to be a big re-rating of these names in the markets. And we normally don't give you guys like news updates like this, but it's just been a pretty hectic week so far.

3:03And it's fun to give you guys some quick insights as to what we're thinking the markets are doing. Yeah, definitely. And like you said, we were ahead of it. And I really like that, that we're seeing the markets pretty clearly right now. And the volatility is definitely there, like we called. And I believe that we're spot on for where we think things are going to go in 2025. And I'm excited to see how it all plays out. So if you're also serious about investing in 2025, it's time you start using public.com. On public.com, you can invest in everything, Stocks, options, bonds, crypto, they even offer some of the highest yields in the industry, like a bond account that pays 7 % or higher yield that remains locked, even if the Fed continues to cut interest rates.

3:45Now, what sets Publica apart is how they give you the tools you need to make informed investment decisions. Their built-in AI tool called Alpha doesn't just tell you if an asset is moving, it tells you why an asset is moving. So you can actually understand what's driving your portfolio's performance. I looked at it earlier today and it said NVIDIA stock is up 7, 8, 9 percent, whatever it was, because investors are beginning to have a better feel about these Chinese AI startups. It knows day by day why stocks are moving. You have to try it out. Yes, definitely. Public is a FINRA registered, SIPC insured, U.S.-based company with a customer support team that actually cares.

4:25So the bottom line, your investments deserve a platform that takes them as seriously as you do. Fund your account in five minutes or less at public.com front slash rich habits and get up to$10 ,000 when you transfer your old portfolio. That's public.com front slash rich habits paid for by public investing. Full disclosures in the podcast description. All right, Robert, let's now jump into our first question coming from Heather M. Again, Heather sent this to us via email at rich habits podcast at gmail.com. Heather says, I want to dollar cost average into an index fund such as VOO. but at current prices, I can only buy one share every few months because my brokerage doesn't do fractional shares.

5:05NEOS funds are much cheaper but come with hefty fees. How do I decide which to buy and how much? Should I only buy VOO or should I do a little bit of NEOS as well? How are these funds and taxes actually handled? If I only have a couple shares of VOO, do I even bother reinvesting the dividend or do I wait until I have several shares before I begin thinking about a difference? This is a really great question, Robert. I'll start with this dividend reinvestment strategy just really quick, because that I think is the most forgotten about part of investing. Just so we're on the same page, DRIP is one of our favorite acronyms.

5:39It stands for Dividend Reinvestment Plan. Essentially, what that means is you are reinvesting the dividends paid to you by these stocks and ETFs every single quarter. And fun fact, Robert, over the last, I think it was 80 years or so now with the S &P 500, 78 % of the total return of the S &P 500 was due to dividends being reinvested back into the index. Dividend reinvestment is the smartest thing to do with your dividends, especially if it's an ETF like VOO or VTI or some larger index fund that's going to continue to grow over time. So Robert, why don't you now address the fractional shares. Yeah, I think it's important to understand if you're with a brokerage and currently you're looking to invest smaller amounts and they don't do fractional shares, just find a different brokerage.

6:27There are many, many platforms out there like public.com where you can buy the fractional shares and that'll just make it easier for you until you build up to a place where you can buy larger amounts at a time. And it's really important to understand that because we always talk about investing early and often and many times people when they're first getting started might only have a couple hundred bucks a month and we don't want you to sit on the sidelines just because a platform you're currently using does not allow this fractional share purchase so find one you love because that way you can buy what you want based on your budget and keep investing monthly and be consistent it's so important so to address the fees basically when you look at that expense ratio it's not an extra fee you're paying out of pocket or you have to write a check or anything like that it is just deducted from the overall gains of the money you have in the account in that investment so for instance with VOO the expense ratio is 0.03 and that is just deducted continuously every single day throughout the performance and lifetime you own the investment.

7:35And so you don't have to worry about it as being this big fee overall, when it's going to come out, how much it costs, because it's really just blended in, and you won't even notice the difference of it being deducted on a daily basis. It's a great breakdown, Robert. The biggest thing I think people need to understand is that one, paying a fee for an ETF isn't actually money coming out of your brokerage account or swiping your credit card or some weird subscription. It comes out automatically and reflected in the price performance and the total return of that ETF. And then two, to this idea of NEOS funds, you're right, NEOS funds are a little bit more expensive.

8:11But again, it's an actively managed data driven strategy that is really, really effective at generating high monthly income for their investors. So it's really a little bit of a trade off there. But it works for a lot of people, including myself. Now, again, cannot emphasize enough how important it is to switch to a broker that offers fractional shares, you should not be sitting in a savings account trying going to save up a couple hundred dollars every month before you can go buy a whole share of VOO or things of that nature. Use fractional shares. We promise it is so much easier. Now, our next question comes from Daryl B.

8:44Daryl says, Hey guys, I'm not a finance guy, but this is now my favorite podcast. Many thanks for all the wonderful information you've shared. Long may it continue. I've spent the last 12 months diversifying my portfolio, largely from your advice. I now own property, stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrency, artwork, and even whiskey with plans to diversify further over time. What advice can you give to help me track the progress of my portfolio? I would like to be able to see the overall progression plus how each individual asset is tracking. I've not yet been able to find any good websites or apps that do this, so I've built a comprehensive spreadsheet on Google myself, but I hope there's a better way?

9:24Thanks for your time. Great question, And Daryl, I also use a spreadsheet. I also use an app called Wealth 2 Plus Tracker or something like that. I can like input my own, you know, month to month kind of net worth stuff there. But the best app to be tracking your net worth on automatically, you can like connect your accounts at like live feeds, crypto wallets, all these other different things is called ROI. The website is get ROI.app. This is not a paid endorsement. I just have a ton of friends that use it and it's really worth the squeeze here. I think it's like 10 or 20 bucks a month to use it as like a subscription, but it is totally worth it if you've got a ton of different assets like whiskey, artwork, single stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, and you want a single, you know, one dashboard to track all those different things.

10:11But also public.com allows you to buy all those different things on their platform and they show you in real time, too. So it really just depends where you hold those assets, if it's across a bunch of different brokers or however you're invested into those things. Yeah, I, too, use spreadsheets. It's just what I've done for the last 25 years. It's a lot easier for me, I feel like, being the elder statesman here to really kind of dig in and track everything because, you know, it's a treasure map in itself trying to keep track of everything. But definitely the app that Austin is speaking of, I've heard good things and I have friends that use it.

10:43But I'm old school when it comes to this. I love my spreadsheets and I'm with Austin on this one. So our next question comes from Mario R. Mario says, Hi, Austin and Robert. My name is Mario and I have a great question regarding my retirement plan. The company I work for offers a 3 % match for the 6 % I contribute to my 401k. I built it up to over$150 ,000. Recently, my employer started offering a Roth 401k with the same 3 % match. I know you guys always recommend a Roth variant to the 401k or the IRA or anything else. So now my question is, do I switch out of my traditional 401k into a Roth 401k and pay the taxes?

11:23Do I build a new Roth 401k account from scratch? I'm 39 years old. I plan to be working for another 20 years. Hope you guys can give me some insight as to what you would do. Robert, you want to take this one? Yeah, this is a great question. And I think what I would do personally is I would leave the 401k where it's at. I would pause the contributions. I would get as much money as I could put into the Roth 401k. And for 2025, you could max that out at$23 ,500 and then go right back to the Roth. But as of it stands right now, I think it's great that you have this opportunity to have the Roth 401k.

12:00And it'd be really great to have that variant maxed out as well and have those tax-free gains for life. So that's what I would do. Yeah, I think what's really important here, Mario, to consider is before you max it out, out, it's to consider the autonomy. Because if you're maxing out a Roth 401k, and it's parked in target date funds or international stocks or penny stocks or whatever else people make the mistake of buying, that's not a good use of funds. So I agree with maxing out the Roth 401k. But before you do that, obviously up to the match, get the free money, max out the Roth IRA, which is your individual retirement account, you can do that on public or Robin Hood or Schwab or whatever you want to do there, VOO, VTI, all the ETFs we love.

12:45And then once that is maxed out at 7 ,000 a year, go back to the Roth 401k, assuming you have autonomy and the money to do it and max that out. You said you're working for another 20 plus years. You're$150 ,000 at 39 years old. That's a wonderful place to be. You've done a great job building wealth throughout your life so far. And I am super confident that this 150 ,000 in your 401k, assuming it's invested properly, will grow into millions over the next 20 years. But also, the new money that you are investing into this Roth 401k will also grow into millions of dollars, assuming it's invested aggressively and correctly.

13:23Yeah, and I love the fact that they're offering this 3 % match on the Roth variant, and there's no income limit. So as Mario earns more and more money over the years, he doesn't have to worry about being blocked out of it because of a higher income. So that is another really great benefit to the Roth 401k. So our next question comes from Susan W. Susan says, good morning, Austin and Robert. I really enjoy listening to your podcast. I'm just going to jump into my question. I need to recast my mortgage and I'm trying to figure out how much I should put in. For every$100 ,000 I put into this recasting of my mortgage, I will save$700 per month on my payment.

14:02So$100 ,000 means$700 ,000, $200 ,000 means$1 ,400, so on and so forth. My current rate is 7%. What do you all suggest that I do. Robert, you want to take this one? Yeah, this one's a tricky one because I get the$700 a month in savings, but I also look at it that if that money were in the markets working and making money, it's a big difference between saving$700 and having compound interest work for you because even at 10 % on$100 ,000, you'd be making$850 a month. And so with that math plus the compound interest over time. I just think it's better to have that money working in the markets rather than lowering the monthly payment.

14:42But you can go both ways on this because you have to take into consideration with the recast, you're going to have the lower payment. You might have the reduction in the interest rate because obviously that's the goal, one of the goals. So there's just a lot of math variables and it really just comes down to the person's type of investment strategy, how they feel about these payments, and do they feel better and sleep better at night knowing they're paying$700 less a month on the mortgage? So there's a lot of variables here, but that's what I would do. I would rather see the money invested, keep the mortgage the same, and then see what happens in a few years and then reconsider.

15:19So one of my favorite things about this podcast is we get to dig into the variables. So let's dig into these variables. $700 a month at every$100 ,000 saved, right? is$8 ,400 a year. $8 ,400 a year of cash on cash returns, savings every single year against your $100 ,000 investment is 8.4%. $8 ,400 is 8.4 % of$100 ,000. So by recasting this mortgage and putting in an extra$100 ,000, you are getting a cash on cash return of 8.4%, which I think is pretty good. Now, Robert's correct. Compound interest is our friends, but I think what's really important to consider here when you're making this decision is what you're going to be doing with that$700 a month.

16:04If this$700 a month extra fee frees up the ability to invest more, to invest more aggressively, maybe you're able to max out your Roth IRA now, or maybe you're able to reinvest in your business or do things of that nature. I think it's a great idea. But if you're just doing it to try and lower your payment, and you're not going to be reinvesting the$700 savings every single month, then maybe it's better to just take that$100 ,000, park it in VOO, and close your eyes and see what happens. Yeah, I love that breakdown. What a great question. And I think because there's so many variables, it's good to really be able to do these live and kind of let our brains do their thing and work from experience and the understanding of the numbers.

16:45Everyone has a different way to build the mousetrap. And so I love breaking down these kind of questions for people. So before we jump into our next question, a quick word from Public, our episode sponsor. Time could be running out to lock in a 6 % or higher yield at Public.com. You can lock in a 6 % or higher yield with a bond account, but remember your yield isn't locked in until the time of purchase, so you might want to act fast. Lock in a 6 % or higher yield with a diversified portfolio of high yield and investment grade corporate bonds only at Public.com front slash rich habits. All right, let's now jump into that next question.

17:23So our next question comes from Hannah B. Hannah says, A quick breakdown of my finances includes$118 ,000 of investments. I originally opened an Edward Jones account at 18 with the goal of saving for a rental property. I'm also involved in a family business that my brother and I will eventually buy out. I'm earning about$4 ,500 a month after taxes and my monthly expenses come to about$3 ,000, which means I can invest very aggressively every single month. Now here's my question. I've always had an entrepreneurial mindset and I want to keep growing, but I feel a bit stuck and like I'm playing too safe.

17:54I feel like at my age of 23, I should be taking more risks. Is this the wrong mindset to have? Should I keep playing it safe and focus on investing more like I've done so well, or should I be taking other steps to move forward? I really like this question, Hannah. You've done incredibly well. $118 ,000 of investments is unbelievable to have at the age of 23. Oh my gosh, I can only imagine like, golly, that's so much money. I mean, you're in this situation where you've given yourself the opportunity to take risks if you want to. You mentioned you have this family business that you and your brother are eventually gonna buy out.

18:27Maybe that is the risk. Maybe you're able to take on a risk of saying, hey, uncle, aunt, mom, dad, whoever owns this family business, I wanna take on the risk of more responsibility. I want to take on the risk of beginning to hire people myself, or I want to own a subsection of this business for myself and build it from scratch and see just how much of an impact I can make on the business. Or maybe there's a world where you can take a two or three year pause from the family business, knowing they'll hire you back in a couple of years and go out on your own and try something. Maybe that means doubling down on a side hustle you're really passionate about, starting a small business, selling a product or service, something that you are inherently really curious about.

19:06maybe that could be a cool way to go about this. I think the most important thing to consider here though is you've done such a great job investing thus far that if you take a couple years off because you're earning a little bit less money by chasing a side hustle or chasing a dream that you're curious about and starting a business and you're not earning as much money, you're gonna be just fine in retirement because of all the money you've already invested. This$120 ,000 is gonna turn into millions of dollars in your lifetime. So don't worry about having to make the most money and optimize all of these perfect investing strategies right now.

19:40Go figure out what you're super passionate about. Go start that business and grow it into something important. Hannah B, you crushed it. Austin, you crushed it. You are the prototypical person we want to see that's taking notes and taking action. At 23 years old, you have almost the equivalent of the average 55 and up household of net worth. And here's the deal. Take the risk. Do it now. You're 23 years old. You have all the freedom in the world. You have the entrepreneurial spirit. Go for it. Trust me, because at the end of the day, you're not losing your learning. And even if you fail 10 times in a row, it doesn't matter because you're going to figure out what works for you and you're really going to get to itch that entrepreneurial spirit.

20:29So I say you go for it now while you can, because far too many people get the job, get the marriage, get the kids, get the picket fence and get the dog. And then they can't chase their dreams because they're living beyond their means and they don't even know it. And they are stuck and they can't take the risk because they can't miss a paycheck. They can't take a quarter off to build a new business. They can't do that. Do it while you can, because then you will have the freedom later on and you'll know exactly what works for you and be able to find your passion and hopefully build something magical.

21:03I couldn't agree more, Robert. I was in her situation. I think I quit when I was 24 years old, quit my full-time job. I had a little bit of savings, but I was in a position to say, hey, I'm going to try this for 12 months, give it my all. And if it doesn't work, I can always go back to working my old job. I can always work any job in finance, right? It's just like, I can always make 60, 70, 80 ,000 a year. So let me go try and build something for myself and see how it goes. Hannah, go try it. You have more than enough money set aside to give yourself a financial buffer, you're going to be just fine.

21:33I love it. Yeah, I quit my finance job at the car dealership at 23 as well. So it's pretty ironic and very much aligns with what I've done for the last 35 years. And that is just keep crushing and keep learning and keep building. So our next question comes from Kirk H. Kirk says, Robert Nostin, I love your podcast. My wife and I have lived below our means for 43 years and invested the difference in stocks. Our adult children are 28, 35, and 37 years old, and they also know that we've done quite well, but I suspect they'd be shocked to learn our net worth is approaching$10 million. We've never cracked the top income tax bracket and still maintain a modest lifestyle with a budget of about$120 ,000 to$140 ,000 a year.

22:17We have no interest in the lifestyles of the rich and famous. We're in our mid-60s, we're both nearing retirement, but we still love what we do. So here's my question. At what point, if ever, do you consider disclosing any financial details to your adult children? Our estate attorney gave us a verbal template of a talk we can have with them, giving them the permission to be very straightforward and firm with their decision making as it relates to us driving as we get older, maybe having a safe place to live when we're older, and then what to do about our estate as a whole. I played the needed role of financial gatekeeper and overseer for both my parents and my in-laws during their declining years.

22:54And I think my daughter is probably going to do the same for us eventually. We've not yet executed a durable power of attorney naming any of our kids. They each are earning six figures and have demonstrated wonderful financial habits. At their ages, I don't see any of them ever operating with an entitlement mentality. What are your thoughts on this? How do we approach having this conversation with our kids? Robert, you want to kick this off? Yeah, I love this. And I'm just going to assume that you have everything in order. Otherwise, hopefully you have any property, you know, through a holding company and a revocable trust.

23:25Hopefully you have proper wills in place because you want to make sure you're not going through probate on any of your estate. But assuming all of that is done, I think in my opinion and through my experience, I would be very cautious just coming out and having a meeting with the three of them and saying, hey, we have this net worth of over$10 million. Here's where we're at. Because what you don't want to have happen is start the infighting early. I see it all the time where there's two, three children and someone is always angling earlier than others and trying to figure out how they can get the lion's share of the net worth of the parents as they get older.

24:06And I would just be very cautious with that or get your paperwork all in order. So it clearly spells everything out and then try to have that conversation with them and really point out and say, here's where we're at. we wanted you to know earlier. And then that way they can have some planning along the way, because I will say that I've seen people. I had a dear friend who basically through his 30s and 40s just really took his foot off the gas, didn't care about his bills, didn't care about his debt because he had an elderly father who he thought was very wealthy, only to find out when his father passed that he died penniless.

24:45And then this gentleman got nothing and then had to basically start over at 47 years old. So I think it's good either way to really not share the information until you have all your ducks in a row and paperwork or share it all with them as long as everything is spelled out properly. So you don't cause any infighting with what appears to be a very happy and thriving family. That would be my opinion. I think I'm going to take the other side of that. I think that the earlier you have these conversations, the better. You mentioned that your adult children are all earning six figures. They've got wonderful financial habits.

25:20They are not operating with a sense of entitlement. I mean, you didn't say any red flags here that makes me think that these adult children are going to do something bad or live their lives differently with this information. I'm also a really big believer in having those conversations early with your children. I remember growing up, my dad had conversations with me when I was in middle school and high school saying, hey, here's what we have set aside for college. If you go through this, like you're on your own for student loans. I went through it. I had to go get student loans, but I was prepared for that because I had that information already, you know, kind of given to me.

25:55I also think that there's something to be said about blessing your children when you're still alive and they can still benefit from the money. I guess what I'm saying is I can understand it being really frustrating for you to live to your 80s or 90s and then your children are like in their 50s or 60s before they get any of your estate. Like how cool would it be if instead of that you could help your 28 year old maybe buy their first house or help your 37 year old get the 529 plans in order for their children assuming they have children or maybe help the 35 year old you know build their brokerage account up to their first hundred thousand.