Q&A: Finances For A Growing Family, Quantum Computing, & Post-Grad Jobs

0:00When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at GoodToKnowFacts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit GoodToKnowFacts.org. You're about to make a trade. Which you do you listen to? Is it get optioning those options? Or let's do a little research. Learn more at finra.org slash trade smart.

0:44Hey everyone and welcome back to the Rich Habits Podcast question and answer edition brought to you by public.com. These are our Thursday episodes where we answer your questions. And Robert, I should have like a maraca or like some like party favors. This is our hundredth Q &A episode. Like how crazy is that? 100 Q &A episodes have been published now. This is our episode 100 of Q &A. I mean, think about it like this. We answer seven to eight questions every episode, which means we've publicly answered now on this show between 700 and 800 questions from our hundreds of thousands of subscriber, listener base here that we have on Spotify, YouTube, Apple, Instagram.

1:27I'm so grateful that one, we have so many people that hang out with us every week, But two, we get to provide value directly back to them through these Q &A episodes. So sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for coming back every week and supporting the show so we could get to 100 episodes of Q &A. It's so crazy, too, to think back two and a half years ago, I think it was when we started this, that, you know, we did our first few episodes. We had a couple hundred listeners here, a couple hundred there, and we're building this thing. And it really is a testament to just being consistent, sticking with it, finding our audience.

2:03And now we have one of the biggest podcasts in America on Spotify for business and finance. It's just been an incredible journey. I feel so blessed and we're still growing. That's the coolest part every single week that gets me exciting, gives me goosebumps that we do directly help thousands, tens of thousands of people with their personal finance questions. and I love it because everyone wins and the podcast is free and we get to do it every single week. I'm so grateful that we've been able to do these Q &A episodes. And again, if you have a question for our Q &A episodes, hit us up at richhabitspodcast at gmail.com or DM us on Instagram at richhabitspodcast or some other way that you get ahold of us.

2:44If it's in the Spotify comments, maybe you're in the Rich Habits Network or maybe just drop us a comment on our Instagram. Who knows where you ask us questions, but we gather them from all the different sources and we answer them on these episodes. These are so fun to do because we never really know what we're going to get. We got someone that sources some cool questions for us and they just throw them at us and we do our best to answer them. We don't even really like come together and think about it, Robert. We're just kind of going off the dome here and having a good time. Yeah, I had a first for myself this weekend in New York City.

3:14Gentleman walked up and he looked weirdly familiar and he goes, Hey, Robert, remember me from the street the other day? And I'm like, are you the guy that pulled over in the middle of the road to take a picture with me? He goes, yeah, dude. He goes, it was so cool. And then he bought a ticket and came to the event and flew all the way to New York. So however you have to get a hold of us, get a hold of us, submit the questions, because we love these episodes, taking it from the dome and just really backing up what we preach. And that is personal finances, personal. And we love giving our opinions on your situations.

3:45And just to be clear, Robert was speaking at an event. we didn't host a Rich Habits event. If we ever do host a Rich Habits event, promise we will tell all of you exactly what's going to happen and all the fun stuff. We thought about a Rich Habits event in Nashville this summer, calling it a Rich Habits rodeo. That would have been pretty fun. My dad unfortunately passed away. So that kind of derailed our plans. Maybe next summer, Robert, we have a Rich Habits rodeo in Nashville. That'd be fun. Well, we're definitely going to have a Rich Habits network event long before next summer because people are losing their minds telling me why won't you guys do an event?

4:17But maybe we'll do something somewhere else and save the rodeo for Nashville because I think it would be a blast, especially if I have the new farmhouse and we can do it all right on the farm. That would be dope. So before we jump into our first question here coming from John K, got to give a major shout out to public.com. It's really important that you guys understand that the only way that you're ever going to be able to stop trading time for money is to have a nest egg that's growing for you. Something that's going to enable you to actually retire. And the easiest way to do that is on public.com.

4:49They make it incredibly simple to build a multi-asset portfolio, including ETFs, stocks, bonds, crypto options, and more. And they also offer an industry-leading yields of up to 3.8 % APY for your emergency fund. And for a limited time, you can earn a 1 % match on all IRA deposits, IRA transfers, and 401k rollovers. That's$1 ,000 in free money for every$100 ,000 that you roll over into their platform. So that old 401k you haven't touched, the IRA sitting on a boring broker, roll it over into Public and get your 1 % match. Yes, fund your account in five minutes or less. Head to public.com forward slash rich habits to claim your 1 % match today.

5:32You know Austin and I love giving you guys the hookups and get that free money. And this is paid for by Public Investing. Full disclosures are in the podcast description. So with that being said, Robert, let's jump into our 100th Q &A episode. All right, Robert, let's jump into our first question here. Coming from John K. John K. emailed us at richhabitspodcast.gmail.com. And John K. said, hi, Austin and Robert. Thank you for all you do. I appreciate the simple and steady approach to investing that you two give in your guidance. I'm reaching out because several months ago at the beginning of the year, you talked about the potential growth opportunity that could take place in the quantum computing space.

6:09He's right. It was one of our major predictions for 2025 was the rise of quantum computing. And as you're soon going to figure out here, Robert, we were right. So John says, after doing some research, I decided to put some of my asymmetric risk high reward money into Regetti, IonQ, qubits, and QUBT back in March. And I've already seen some gains of up to 400 100%. Jeez Louise, John, that is insane. John says, I still believe most of the movement has only come from positive news cycles and hype with real profitability still several years away, which we would agree with. John says, I know Robert has mentioned in the past his 50 % off the top philosophy, but how do you balance being a long-term believer in a sector versus amazing short-term gains along the way for these asymmetric plays?

6:59Also, do you have any updated long-term views on quantum computing. Wow. Well, first off, John, super excited for you, man. We had our predictions episode back in January. I think it was like January 7 or 8. It was like the first week of January. We had three major predictions. The first one was volatility, which we absolutely saw in April when we had the Trump tariff tantrum. Our second big prediction was the reinvigoration of the IPO market. And we've seen some major IPOs this year. And our third major prediction was the rise of quantum computing and how that's going to be a big new sector here to keep an eye on.

7:33And I would argue that we batted three for three on that one, Robert, now that we're in October. But what's your perspective here? If you were up 400%, Robert, on some very asymmetric risk money, right? High risk, high reward. This isn't retirement money. This is play money. How would you take profits, reallocate? What would your strategy be? It's an incredibly great question and very difficult to ask because on one hand, when you believe in a sector like quantum, like we have for AI for years, it's really hard to think, man, this just keeps going up and up and up. I don't want to take profits.

8:05I just want to keep adding to my position and keep going. But the number one statement you hear in every casino across the world is, I was up. When they walk away from the table after having a big run in blackjack, they didn't take any off the top. They didn't listen to any of the strategies and they didn't walk away. So as much as it's a difficult question, I think you still have to take money off the top. It doesn't mean you can't dollar cost average back in on the dips. But along the way, I think everyone, even in the NVIDIAs of the world, in the Palantirs of the world, in the Qtums, in the Rigettis, in all of these really high-flying stocks we talk about, you still have to take profits.

8:41What do you do with it? You redirect it into something a little less volatile, a little more long-term, and then you can always get back in on the dips. Because when asking the other part of the question, where do I see quantum long-term, Obviously, I think it's going to continue to grow, grow, grow. But I do believe we're very much in a hype cycle in quantum computing right now. We will see volatility. We will see some major retractions. But in the long term, I believe quantum is going to be great. And some of the stocks we called out earlier in the year, I think, are still the leaders and are really, really good stock picks.

9:17So that's what I would do. Take some along the way. Take some profits. Get back in on these dips. see and wait out the volatility because I believe we will see it? Because you have to think of it this way. Jensen Wong said that he felt that quantum was 15 years off still. And then he kind of retracted that statement. But I do believe real quantum interface and use is three to five years away before it's really heavily used on a daily basis throughout big companies. So I think you have some time and we will see volatility, but I would keep dollar cost averaging on the dips. I like that answer, Robert.

9:52I think the same thing, right? I was up. John, if I were in your shoes, I would probably take like, let's say that you had invested$1 ,000 and now you're up 400 % on that$1 ,000. So it's now 5X in value to$5 ,000, right? 100 % returns a 2X, 400 % returns a 5X. So now you have$5 ,000. dollars. If I were in your shoes, I would take half off the table. So 2 ,500 bucks, I'd set aside money for taxes. Maybe if you wanted to wait until next year, depending on, you know, your tax situation, you know, you could wait until next March if you wanted to. I personally wouldn't. I don't, I don't believe in that.

10:28I would just take my profits and go. I would take 2 ,500 bucks off the table. You still have a little bit, you know, rocking and rolling here, but it's only equivalent to$500 of original capital, right? It's only equivalent to half of your original investment and you've now made so much more back on the back end. Now, what would you do with the other 2 ,500? In my opinion, if I were in your shoes, John, I would think about adjacent industries that are going to benefit from the rise of that underlying industry, right? So what has to be true for quantum computing to be a viable solution 5, 10, 15 years from now?

11:02Well, I'm sure artificial intelligence has to do well. I'm sure we need some cool infrastructure stuff. You know, like, Like what are adjacent plays that are going to also do well as quantum computing does well? And so maybe that's, maybe you just put in some money in AMD and NVIDIA and ARM holdings, or maybe it's putting some money into Taiwan Semi and ASML holdings. It's staying adjacent without being so risk on into an unprofitable sector. Wow. That is an incredible breakdown. We always say take notes and take action. So I hope all of you are taking notes because I love that takeaway. Adjacent sectors.

11:36I really, really appreciate that take. And I think that is just really sound advice. So I hope that helps everyone listening. You have to take profits along the way. Otherwise, it's all unrealized internet gains. And we want to see you guys diversifying and staying steady and keep it in order. So you don't get in a situation where you're up 400 % and then it comes back down 350 % because you didn't take profits. So our next question comes from Rich O. Rich says, hey guys, I've been listening to the podcast for a little while. and I really love the show. I wish I would have found it 20 years ago.

12:08I'm early retiring from the government and I'm starting a new job with a large company and I wanted to know what I should do with my funds that I have with the government for retirement. I'm 54. I have half a million in my TSP account with the government. I just started a little Roth IRA and a little bridge account because of you all. So my question is, what do I do with that half a million in my TSP? Do I roll it over into the new company's 401k plan? Should I leave it where it is? because I know TSPs typically have low fees. Should I do something else with it? Thanks again, Rich O. All right, Robert.

12:40So if I was in Rich O's shoes, I would probably just roll over all of the funds that are in this TSP into a traditional IRA. You mentioned it as the Roth IRA. That's cool. You can have a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA at the same time, but I'd move it over, roll it over directly into the traditional IRA, and here's why. Number one, you have full autonomy over how this money is invested. I'm sure that your TSP has low fees and they're real nice to you. They massage your shoulders like it's all great, but nothing beats having complete autonomy over your money, right? Choosing the ETFs, choosing the stocks, choosing everything you want inside of your retirement account.

13:19So I would roll it over into a traditional IRA. If you want to go open one up at public.com and get a 1 % match when you roll it over, right? That's$5 ,000 of free money by rolling your TSP over into this traditional IRA, rich O, I would definitely consider doing that, and then get it invested correctly. You're 54 years old, you've got 20 more good years of solid investing ahead of you, right? So I think that you can still be aggressive with this. The majority of it, call that 80, 85, 90%, should be invested into the index funds and ETFs we talk about, like the S &P 500, the NASDAQ 100, your VTIs, your VUGs, things of that nature.

13:59the ETFs, they're going to help you build wealth over the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years as you gear up for a very, very wealthy retirement. Remember, if this money is invested in the S &P 500 and the S &P averages about 10 % per year, your money will double every seven years. So this half a million can turn into a million in seven years from now when you're 61 years old, and then 2 million when you're 68 years old, right? So like being aggressive here while you're still quote unquote quote, Young, could be a good idea. So I love this take. And I think the most important part of it for me is autonomy.

14:34If you roll this over into the traditional account, you have full access to do whatever you want. You can be more aggressive, less aggressive, diversified along the way. But I really like that because TSPs do have low fees. And I think this is a really sound strategy at 54 years old to really set yourself up well for retirement. So our next question comes via Instagram DMs from James. James says, what a wonderful podcast. I'm so glad I found your wisdom six months ago. I'm 40 years old, married with kids, and we now have a teenager in the house. Reality is hitting us that we've got maybe five or six years left with them before he goes out and is on his own.

15:10I enjoy my work in the media space, but I'm also not opposed to pressing pause on some work goals in order to soak in more family time. We have no debt. Our house is paid off. Here's the twist. We will be receiving$1.2 million from a car crash settlement in early 2026. Thankfully, everyone is okay. We're a little overwhelmed with this sum of money and are not sure how to use it to our benefit. Do you both have any investment ideas or advice for allowing my wife and myself to work less for the next five years, invest this money, let it grow in compound, but also receive some dividend income? Thank you for your tips and ideas.

15:47Robert, I'll let you answer James' question first. I love this mindset. This is an incredible question. My first take is most Americans will never sniff$1 million all at once. It's just the math. And for you to be getting$1.2 million, the first thing I would do is look at what we just covered in the last question. Take the million dollars, get it diversified in a nice portfolio, and let it ride. Because if you can turn at 40 years old, 1.2, let's say you invest 1 million, you turn it into 2 million by the time you're 47 and then 4 million by the time you're 54, you are set. You guys are killing it and you did what you wanted to do.

16:28You lived life your way by spending time with your kids. So many people chase the American dream. They chase financial freedom and they never stop along the way to smell the roses. So I love this mindset and this question. And it's really easy math. As long as you put that away, get it invested in all the things we talk about on a daily basis, you guys are going to crush it and get to spend a ton of time with the kids. Yeah. So tactically speaking, here's what you're doing, right? You're going to have 1.2 million of cash deposited to your checking account. You're going to open up an account on public.com, a normal taxable brokerage account.

17:05We dub this the bridge account. And you're going to deposit this 1.2 million from a car crash settlement into this brokerage account. I'm 99 % sure people do not owe taxes on settlements. Robert, correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm like 99 % sure that this 1.2 million is not taxed, which means you should just deposit all 1.2 million of it into your brokerage account. Now you have a decision to make. How much of this do you want to be focused on generating income to supplement your lifestyle So you can press pause for the next handful of years, half a dozen years and spend more time at home and with your teenager.

17:39And how much do you want this to be invested so it can compound over a long period of time? In my humble opinion, I think there's a world where you could split it 50-50. So here's what that means for me. That means 600 ,000 of this gets invested into VOO, QQQ, VGT, VUG, VTI, and other index funds and ETFs that are going to compound by 8%, 10%, 12%, 15 % over a long period of time. Okay, so that's going to double every seven years. The other$600 ,000 of this should be invested in the NEOS funds. SPYI, QQQI, IWMI, IYRI, and maybe some BTCI if you want some Bitcoin exposure there. But long story short is by putting this$600 ,000 into those funds that I had just mentioned, let's say that half of it is in SPYI.

18:32So let's call it, let's give you numbers here. Let's say$300 ,000 goes into SPYI. Let's say$150 ,000 is in QQQI. And then the other$150 ,000 is 50-50-50 in IYRI, IWMI, and BTCI. So now you have all$600 ,000 accounted for. That should yield just about 18 % annualized, which will be a hair over$100 ,000 a year in annual distributions from their cover call strategy, which comes out to about$8 ,500 to$9 ,000 a month deposited to your brokerage account that you can now live off of. Now here's the kicker. This$9 ,000 is not taxed in the same calendar year it is received. You will be taxed on this money when you sell the shares of the ETFs because every month that they are paying you this$9 ,000, the cost basis on that$600 ,000 total investment goes down by 9 ,000, right?

19:34So that's when you realize the profits. And if you hold it for over a year, essentially what you're doing is turning short-term income, which is normally short-term capital gains, to a long-term capital gain, which is a much more favorable tax treatment. So if I were in your shoes, I'd break it up that way. I'd make eight or 9 ,000 with NEOS funds. I'd have 600 ,000 doubling for me every seven years. So hopefully by the time that, you know, your teenager's out of the house and five, six, seven years from now, you have a million, a million, two, whatever, something like that sitting over here. And then you also have got now the same 600 ,000 after getting paid out, you know, a hundred thousand a year from it as well.

20:06So now you've got, I don't know, let's call it one and a half to$2 million because you invested this 1.2 million correctly. And you now have so much more time that you got to spend with your teenager. That's the most important part. I think a lot of people, Rob, I don't know if you've seen those, those videos on Tik TOK or Instagram, but it's a, you know, it's a video of a family and maybe it's a wife or a husband and they get to spend, you know, all this time with their family and they get to hang out and do these things. And everyone in the comments is like, oh, that's a rich man. That's a rich woman.

20:34They get to hang out with people they love. And that's how you define wealth, in my opinion. And you're definitely doing that. And I'm really excited for you, James. Yeah, that is a great breakdown. And you're right. When I see someone having coffee at 10 a.m. at a really nice cafe, that's a rich life. When I see people that are at the gym at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday or doing whatever they really, really enjoy, that is a rich life because so many people spend their entire careers, 30, 40, 45 years, 50 years, and they're at a nine to five job and just don't ever have that freedom. I've built a life for many, many decades now.

21:09I don't have to grocery shop on Saturday or Sunday. I don't have to stand in the lines. I don't have to wait in lines for gas because I get gas every Tuesday if the cars need gas because no one's at the gas station on a Tuesday. And I think that is really an important thing to talk about, but also to click back on the tax side, you're absolutely right. From everything I've ever learned, if it's personal injury or anything related to an injury or getting hurt or some type of loss of work, those are non-taxable funds. Always check with your lawyer or your CPA, but I think you're spot on, Austin, with that breakdown.

21:43So our next question comes from an anonymous follower on Instagram. They say, hello, Robert and Austin, please keep me anonymous. I'm a big fan of the show and it has been a huge help. I'm 21 and will graduate in 2026 with an engineering degree and a 90 ,000 per year job lined up at General Motors in my state. However, I don't see this as my long-term career. I grew up working on cars and my real passion is to own a shop in the future. I average between two and a half to 3 ,000 a month only from working 15 to 20 hours a week as a mobile mechanic. That's currently a sole proprietorship in the state of Tennessee.

22:18So my question is, as I start my engineering career, should I formalize my business by creating a real LLC or just keeping it a side gig? My finances are the following. I'm 21. I have$3 ,500 in my Roth IRA,$6 ,400 in other investments. I have$120 ,000 mortgage on some land that I had bought. It's$1 ,100 a month payment. Thank you all for your advice. Robert, what advice do you have for our anonymous listener here about their LLC? see you. First and foremost, congrats. You're crushing it. I saw a headline last week that the U.S. automakers are currently 600 ,000 mechanics short of their needs in the United States.

23:00I thought it was an incredible, incredible number. Correct me if I'm wrong, Austin, but I believe that was the number that was the headline. It was the Ford Motor Company CEO was talking about it. We've been talking about this for a year now. We're going to see a big flip-flop from everyone becoming programmers and all that, because so many of those jobs are going to go by the wayside because of AI, to getting back to the things that are going to take much longer to be replaced from humanoid robotics and robotics in general. But to get to the LLC part, I don't think that's necessary for now. I would just keep, because it's going to roll into your wages anyway.

23:36So if you're getting an engineering job and it's going to be a W-2, it's going to be in your name, I think it's totally fine. I would memorialize the side hustle though, and put that in an LLC because that's all going to be income that's coming in sporadically from random people. And then you could use the side hustle LLC to enjoy a lot of the tax credits that come with being a business owner. That's the strategy I would do. Robert, I'm right there with you. I think it's called TNTAP.com. That's what I use. The thing weird about Tennessee is they have a six and a half percent tax on business profits.

24:09So just be weary of that whenever you set it up. But I couldn't agree more. I think that there's a lot of expenses, business-specific expenses that you can take advantage of. If it's a vehicle, if it's gas, if it's different type of equipment that you're using, or maybe marketing things that you're doing there. Like, just work with a good CPA to help you identify those things. And congratulations on making an extra$30 ,000 a year being a mobile mechanic. I mean, geez louise, that's so cool. Yeah, I love that story and great takeaway. and just anyone that's listening, remember, if you have a side hustle, you don't even have to be profitable.