Q&A LIVE from Texas A&M Texarkana

Summary

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Afford Anything | Make Smart Money Choices

Episode: Q&A LIVE from Texas A&M Texarkana
Date: April 17, 2026
Host: Paula Pant (A), with Joe Salsihai (B) and Jay (C)

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Episode Overview

Paula Pant hosts a special live Q&A from Texas A&M Texarkana, joined by frequent collaborator Joe Salsihai and local financial educator Jay. The episode is a candid, student-driven discussion focusing on pressing money questions from college students. Themes include making smart money choices at the start of your career, avoiding common financial mistakes, investing, managing windfalls (like a new job or raise), and building systems to set yourself up for financial independence and peace of mind.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Passion vs. Paycheck vs. Peace: Navigating Early Career Choices

(Starts ~01:19)

• Student Question (Hannah): How can a student in their early 20s decide between passion, paycheck, and peace—and avoid future regret?
• Paula Pant:
  • Skeptical of "follow your passion"; prefers "follow your curiosity" (inspired by Cal Newport).
  • Passion is often the consequence of deep engagement, not the starting point:

    "Passion is the end result of following your curiosity rather than the precursor for it." (A, 02:48)

  • Introduces the importance of mastery, autonomy, and purpose for career fulfillment.
• Joe Salsihai:
  • Notes many young people haven't discovered their "passion" and are swayed by social media.
  • Stresses marketable skills and income generation in your 20s before chasing passion.
• Jay:
  • Urges building an emergency fund early on to allow freedom to change direction later.
• Notable Quote:

  "You are able to leave when you want to leave." (C, 07:10)

  • Highlights the value of financial stability for career flexibility.
• The "F-Off" Fund Concept:
  • Having money set aside so you can leave a bad job when needed, enforcing autonomy (B&A, 07:29–08:12).

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2. Avoiding Lifestyle Creep After a Raise

(Starts ~14:18)

• Student Question (Hannah #2): How do I prevent overspending when I get a new higher-paying job?
• Paula Pant:
  • "Maintain your current spend rate as long as you possibly can."
  • Automate transfers for retirement, debt payoff, and savings on payday, tricking yourself into not noticing the raise (A, 16:12).
• Joe:
  • Warns against quick lifestyle upgrades (e.g., new car loan right after getting first job).
  • “The longer you can keep things the way they are now and funnel money into places, man, we get calls sometimes from people that are 30 years old and the cool stuff that they've done that...by 30 years old, they have so much flexibility built into their life.” (B, 18:23)
  • Introduces the Rule of 72:

    "If you take the interest rate you think you're going to get, you divide it into 72, that tells you how long it will take your money to double."
    Example: At 8% return, every $5k invested at 22 can turn into ~$160k by retirement (B, 19:20).

• Jay:
  • Suggests making the raise "invisible" for the first year: put all extra income toward savings/investments (C, 20:16).

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3. Investing: Stocks, IRAs, 401(k)s, or Gold/Silver?

(Starts ~21:26)

• Student Question (Gabriel): What's the safest investment—stocks, IRAs, 401(k)s, or gold/silver?
• Paula Pant:
  • Clarifies the difference between investment vehicles (e.g., IRAs, 401ks—"glassware") and investments (stocks, bonds, gold— "the liquid inside") (A, 22:02-23:15).
  • Points out that tax-advantaged accounts (IRAs, 401ks) are "age-restricted," not strictly "retirement" accounts (A, 24:32).
• Joe:
  • "Safe" is context-specific:
    • Over 20 years, stocks (in diversified funds) are safer against inflation than cash/gold.
    • Over short time frames, stocks are risky; savings accounts are "safe" if you need the cash soon.
• Jay:
  • Gold/silver not as safe as they seem, especially with inflation risk.
  • Emphasizes company 401k matching = always take the match, it's "free money" (C, 28:50).
• Stock-Picking Warning:

  "Statistically speaking...even professionals...get it wrong. The average person's hit rate is about one out of every three stocks." (B, 28:13)

  • Broad index funds recommended: "You're buying the economy." (A, 29:05)

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4. College & Grad School Money Mistakes to Avoid

(Starts ~31:41)

• Student Question (Stefano): What mistakes should I avoid while still in school?
• Paula Pant:
  • Don't "go to one extreme or the other"—overspending is well known, but being too cheap can also hurt:
    • "Don't cheap out on anything that will allow you to build your network and increase the odds...you'll make more money in the long run." (A, 32:00)
• Jay:
  • Don't use credit cards as "income supplements." High-interest rates are a future tax.
  • Avoid taking extra student loan money as a "refund" just to spend it—that's future debt (C, 33:11).
• Joe:
  • Discipline is overrated—systems are key:

    "Discipline fades as the day goes on...It isn't about discipline. It's about systems." (B, 34:12)

    • Automate savings, set up systems/habits for networking.
• Networking:
  • Build and maintain professional relationships, not just a strong resume:

    "In real life, what has mattered are my relationships, my professional relationships, not my resume." (A, 37:25)

• Common mistake:

  "I'll start later." Build emergency fund and budget now; don’t delay. (C, 37:08)

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5. Limiting Spending & Building Better Habits

(Starts ~41:19)

• Student Question (Valerie): Good money management tips to limit spending?
• Paula Pant:
  • Focus on reducing fixed costs (rent, car payment), not just variable/discretionary ones, for biggest impact (A, 41:29).
• Jay:
  • “Make it hard to spend money.” Remove saved payment info, use cash, add friction to transactions (C, 43:38).
• Joe:
  • Gamify budgeting. Recommends YNAB app—Texas A&M students get it free for a year (B&C, 44:29–46:04).
  • Weekly financial check-ins (keep them short/fun) help maintain control.
  • The "24-hour rule" for purchases: Add to cart, wait a day before buying (C, 47:17).
• Building systems > willpower:

  “If you have it automatically go into the account, it'll happen like clockwork.” (B, 34:12)

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6. Managing Finances & Student Loans After College

(Starts ~49:14)

• Student Question (Thomas): How do I manage my finances and student loans after college?
• Jay:
  • First: Audit your loans and set up payments with your servicer.
  • Resist the urge to splurge after graduation. Build emergency fund, budget, and treat savings as "hidden" from yourself (C, 49:45).
• Paula Pant:
  • Balance extra payments toward student loans and saving for retirement—both are critical, don't do one at the expense of the other (A, 50:23).
  • ALWAYS get the 401k match if available; otherwise, contribute to a Roth IRA/401k.
• Joe:
  • Shares the late Jonathan Clements' advice:

    "You can party in your 20s, or you can party later...for most people...working your butt off those few early years so you could party in the later years" pays off. (B, 51:25)

  • Early sacrifices for later freedom and peace.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Passion is the end result of following your curiosity rather than the precursor for it."
  — Paula Pant (A), 02:48

• "You are able to leave when you want to leave."
  — Jay (C), 07:10

• "Maintain your current spend rate as long as you possibly can."
  — Paula Pant (A), 16:12

• "The longer you can keep things the way they are now and funnel money into places...by 30 years old, they have so much flexibility built into their life."
  — Joe Salsihai (B), 18:23

• "Statistically speaking...even professionals...get it wrong. The average person's hit rate is about one out of every three stocks."
  — Joe Salsihai (B), 28:13

• "Discipline fades as the day goes on...It isn't about discipline. It's about systems."
  — Joe Salsihai (B), 34:12

• "Don't delay. Build your network and habits now; your future self will thank you."
  — Paraphrased from multiple speakers

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:19 — Passion vs. Paycheck vs. Peace; emergency funds and career pivots
• 14:18 — Avoiding lifestyle inflation, using your first raise wisely, Rule of 72
• 21:26 — Safe investing: Glassware (IRAs/401ks) vs. liquids (stocks/gold/cash), diversification
• 31:41 — Common financial mistakes for students; systematizing savings, networking
• 41:19 — Money management tips to limit spending; friction, gamifying budgeting, the 24-hour rule
• 49:14 — Managing finances and loans after college; debt vs. retirement saving, Jonathan Clements’ "party later" philosophy

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Episode Takeaways

• Early career: Prioritize financial stability and curiosity-led skill-building; passion follows depth and commitment.
• Raises/Windfalls: Keep expenses stable as long as possible and automate savings early.
• Investing: Know the difference between account types and investments; diversify, avoid stock-picking.
• Mistakes to avoid: Overreliance on credit, taking extra loans, delaying habit-building, and neglecting relationships.
• Managing spending: Focus on high-impact, fixed expenses; add friction and build systems instead of relying on willpower.
• After graduation: Balance debt repayment with retirement savings—start both as early as possible for compounding magic.
• Mindset: Play the long game for peace, security, and the ability to "party later."

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Original, energetic tone preserved. Practical systems and student-centered advice delivered with warmth and wit throughout.

Transcript

[A]

What questions do college students have when it comes to their money? We're going to find out today. Welcome to the Afford Anything podcast, the show that knows you can afford anything, not everything. This show covers five financial, psychology, increasing your income, investing, real estate, and entrepreneurship. It's double I fire. I'm your host, Paula Pant. I trained in economic reporting at Columbia. Today's episode is a very special one. We recorded this live in person at Texas A and M at their Texarkana campus in Texarkana, Texas, right at the Texas Arkansas border. I went there last week, met up with my buddy, the former financial planner Joe Salsihai, the guy who joins me on most of our Tuesday episodes. And we invited the students at Texas A and M, Texarkana to ask us whatever was on their mind. And so that's what we're going to share with you today. What you're about to hear right now is the abridged version of the episode. So if you want to hear the full version, Joe recorded it as a stacking Benjamin's episode. And his version that he's going to air on his podcast has all of the bells and whistles. He has a very unique signature style for his intro, his segments, his trivia contest. We're stripping all of that out and focusing entirely on the questions that the students asked, starting with this one.

[B]

My name is Hannah and I'm a psychology major.

[A]

My question is in regards to the passion versus paycheck versus peace trade off. How can a student in their early

[B]

20s determine which trade off is truly

[A]

worthwhile without looking back 10 years later with regrets?

[C]

Wow.

[B]

Thank you, Hannah. Thank you very much. We are told a lot of the time, guys, when you're in college, you know, follow your passion. That's what you should do. Paula, do you like that?

[A]

You know, I don't believe in follow your passion. So there's a more nuanced take on this, and it comes from a professor at Georgetown named Cal Newport. And he talks about rather than following your passion, he talks about follow your curiosity. And his hypothesis is that, you know, passion is such a loaded word, most people don't know what their passion is. Most people aren't like, oh, yeah, I'm really, really into, you know, whatever. And so when you put that kind of weight on a word, it, it's, it's just too loaded. It makes it too weighty. His passion hypothesis is that passion is the consequence rather than the precursor. And so his hypothesis is that if you have a minimum viable level of curiosity about something, then you Go deep into it, you start learning more about it. And the more you learn about it, the more you realize how little you know. Once you realize how little you know, that makes you want to learn more about it. And then as you learn more about it, you become even more aware of how little you know. So this is kind of the opposite of something that's called the Dunning Kruger effect. Dunning Kruger effect is people who don't know much about a field think they know a lot about it. The opposite of that is the more you get to know a field, the more you realize how little you know about it and the more you want to learn more. And so as that cycle continues, that's how passion develops. And so passion becomes the end result of, of following your curiosity rather than the precursor for it.

[B]

Jay it's so funny. Even here at our Target, I was walking through the aisles at Target. At the Target in Texarkana we are selling ring lights for potential influencers. Right? Even here in town. Because listen, when you're 18 and you hear follow your passion, what do you know? You know TikTok, you know, it's very difficult to follow your passion when you're 18.

[C]

Well, and I think at this age you want to be able to find a marketable job that's going to be marketable in 10 years. I think right now, with the focus of even AI, our students are really needing to understand exactly which of those job fields are going to be able to be reliable in the next 10 years. And sometimes that's changing quickly. It is changing quickly. And so when you start getting the passion, there's a lot of incredible well meaning positions out there that are not going to allow you to do the things you want to do. And so when you're in your 20s and you're in your accumulation age bracket, that's when you need to be making money. And in my opinion, you can let the passion hit you a little bit later and really find out what your passions are later in life once you've started to experience things.

[B]

I think it's a great point because I had a client back when I was a financial planner. It's been a long time since I was a financial planner. But back when I was, I had a client who was very passionate. But you know what he did? He made stop signs for a living. Like, imagine getting passionate about stops. Like, I'm sure there's nobody who goes, oh, you know what, when I'm 50, I hope I make stop signs. Like, that's not something you get Passionate about, but he got passionate about the relationships he had with cities, the way that he would work with the cities, and he would make sure that, you know, he got to be an expert in safety. But he certainly wasn't spending all day going, if I could make the perfect octagon, like, how great would this be? Wow, that octagon's way better than the last one.

[A]

Well, you know, the research shows that the three attributes that really determine how a person feels about their work are mastery, autonomy, and purpose. For example, if you make stop signs, but you have autonomy over your work, you can make decisions. You. You know, you have autonomy over how you spend your days. Do you. Do you start at 9, or do you start at 9:30? Do you check your email first thing, or do you make some calls? First thing. Right. You've got a little bit of autonomy over how you structure your day. You've got autonomy around some of the decisions that you make. Do you go with this vendor versus that vendor. You've got that autonomy. Because you've got that autonomy. You can start to improve your processes. And so that gives you mastery. So now you've got autonomy, you've got mastery. And then the third piece is purpose. You need to be sure that what you're doing, you know, like with stop signs, maybe you're creating a great work environment for your team, or maybe there are certain practices within the industry that you find to be a little bit shady and you're running your business in a way that doesn't do that. Right? And so that's how you have that purpose piece in it. And so as long as you've got those three qualities, autonomy, mastery, purpose, you're likely to enjoy what you do.

[B]

Jay, I want to go to you for the other side of this, because another thing Hannah talked about was regret. Later on, you get 10 years down the road and you regret. And. And we've all seen that before where somebody goes into a field and you get into the field, and then you realize, oh, no, this is not at all what I want to spend my life doing. When you feel that regret, how do you actually have the bravery to make the change even later in life to go do the thing that might light you up more?

[C]

Well, the very first thing that I'll talk to the students about is developing that emergency fund.

[B]

And.

[C]

And when you have the ability to leave that job after 10 years, that all of a sudden doesn't have the same purpose that you originally thought it was going to have, it's not providing you with that Fulfillment, then you've got the ability where you can leave that job and you still have some financial, you know, stability to be able to go and find that next adventure. And so for me, just establishing that emergency fund early and that's the importance of it. You are able to leave when you want to leave.

[B]

A friend of ours writes pieces for the New York and she wrote a piece that the New York Times had at the front of the finance section that was talking about not emergency fun. She called it the f off fun where you're telling your boss to, to put it nicely, take a hike.

[A]

Right. It's a powerful way to say it. But like, yes, when you have the ability to tell your boss f you, there's a certain level of freedom that comes with and you know, it's, it's just one of those cards in your back pocket that you hope you never have to play it. But when you know that you have the ability to say that, then you don't feel trapped. Even if you love your boss, it's nice to know that you have an out.

[C]

And I may use that f off in my one on one sessions, but just not in my normal workshops.

[B]

You know what's interesting, Jay, is that because I like you attaching the emergency fund to the ability to switch and not regret. But there's another thing there too, which is a lot of time when I speak to students, they ask 50 variations of how do I get into debt up to my eyeballs? How do I get my credit good? How do I afford my truck, how do I get a house, how do I do all these things? The more you stay out of debt, the easier it is also to make a mid career shift.

[C]

And I will spin it to the emergency fund and the budget every single time that they want to start coming and talking about other topics. And so the big four that we talk about is going to be of course, budget, emergency fund, and then we're going to go with debt reduction and credit management. Those are the four things that we

[B]

pivot off because credit definitely is important. Keeping it clean is a great, great way to go.

[A]

That was the first of about six questions. We're going to take a moment here to hear from the sponsors who make the show possible. When we come back, more questions from the students at Texas A and M Texarkana. Okay, so I was just at campfi, this gathering of people who are really interested in financial independence. There was a night when we were all, I'm not, I'm totally serious. I'm not joking. We were all standing around talking about how much we loved quints. See, that was like a whole conversational thread. It started because we were all taking a walk and one person was cold and I was like, oh, I've got an extra sweater. And I actually had two extra sweaters with me. And so I like gave her a choice. And they were both quints. And that's what got the conversation started. And then everybody started chiming in with like the quints that they've got. If you're looking for clothing that is high quality and durable and super affordable and just a great value, it's Quint's. Everything at Quint's is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen. So you're paying for quality and craftsmanship, but not for brand markup. If you're looking for summer stuff, they've got lightweight linen pants and dresses and tops starting at 30 bucks. They're very breathable, they're lightweight, they're. Personally, my favorite stuff is all of their cashmere. Cashmere sweaters. Cashmere pants. If you look at the vast majority of my YouTube videos, I'd say probably 99 out of 100 videos, I'm wearing Quint. I'm wearing either a silk shirt from Quint or I'm wearing a cashmere sweater from Quint or I'm wearing pants. They've got jeans. Also, like work tailored workplace pants. If you look at pretty much any YouTube video, I'm wearing at least one, if not multiple Quint items in them. Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to Quince.com Paula for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com Paula for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com Paula P A U L A I live in an apartment in Manhattan, so I don't have any outdoor space. Not even a patio or anything like that. Which is why when I visit friends in other cities that have outdoor spaces, I. I appreciate how just a few choice items can really elevate a space like furniture, string, lights, good patio lighting, even an outdoor rug. These are the things that really turn a space into something inviting. An outdoor space. And you can find an incredible selection at Wayfair. Whether your vibe is modern, coastal, farmhouse, eclectic, Wayfair has options to help you create an outdoor space that is uniquely yours. They've got everything in one place. Outdoor seating, grills, Major appliances, storage. Wayfair is your one stop shop for home. There are over 20 million verified 5 star reviews that help you make the right call. And you can shop with Wayfair Verified, which is your shortcut to good stuff. They have a team of product specialists that vets everything by hand using a 10 point quality inspection. So you know that you're getting a quality piece no matter your budget. I have many, many items from Wayfair. I've got shelving, I've got a daybed, I have chairs that I purchased for my parents new home, swivel chairs for the kitchen. And for one of my rental properties I just got exterior wall sconces from them a found a really modern looking one at a great price. Low profile, flat brushed nickel finish. So get prepped for patio season. For way less head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That's W-A-Y-F A I R.com Wayfair Every Style every home. Wayfair Every style every home in business, there's no room for guesswork. Every shipment matters. Every every deadline counts. When you're trying to keep operations running smoothly, the last thing you need is uncertainty. That's why reliability is at the core of USPS Ground Advantage. From the moment your package is first scanned in, it moves through a secure nationwide network, aiding in a timely and accurate delivery. You get near real time tracking so you can keep up with your shipments. And with affordable upfront pricing, there are no hidden fees or surprise surcharges to throw off your cost sheets. It all adds up to predictable deliveries you can depend on. Because knowing your logistics are handled lets you focus on everything else. Your customers, your team and the future you're building. Visit USPS.com groundadvantage to start shipping with confidence. USPS ground advantage. We mean business. Welcome back. Let's hear more questions that we answered live in person at Texas A and

[B]

M. We've got another brilliant question.

[A]

I'm also Hannah and I'm also a psychology major. As someone who is moving to a new job and making more, how do I prevent overspending and put the raise to good use?

[B]

Awesome. Thank you, Hannah. So here in Texarkana we just have everybody named Hannah. That's the, that's the rule. If you move here, you got to change. Which is why Paula's not moving here because she there's an already enough Hannah's.

[A]

Well, I guess I could make my middle name Hannah. Couldn't I add Hannah to my middle name? Paula Hannah Yeah, yeah. Paula H. Pant. Paula H. Pant.

[B]

That sounds great. Let's go there. All of these students, Jay, are going to graduate. I remember my best friend in college, got a great job with MetLife right out of college. He immediately went to the Pontiac dealer. Remember that old branded car, the Pontiac? Bought himself a Grand Am, got payments immediately because he had a full time job.

[C]

Yes, that may have been me. I had a black Grand Am.

[B]

Did you really?

[C]

I did, I did. And here's the deal. I actually bought that thing off the truck and didn't even test drive it. I was the water cooler discussion for the auto dealership for years because they were like that guy right there, we got him. But I've learned.

[B]

Yeah, but you see this every day. I'm sure, Jay, that you've got students in there getting ready to graduate and that is the biggest threat.

[C]

It is, of course, one of the discussions that I have. And I'll pick on our nursing cohorts. I jokingly tell them do not go and buy the sports car as soon as they're about to graduate because you don't want to set yourself up with that 700 to $1,000 car payment when you haven't even found your place to live yet. Because if you do, you know, wrap yourself around with a lot of student loan debt and a very, very high car payment, you're going to be living in an area that you may not want to be living in.

[B]

Well, and there's a big difference between renting in Texarkana and renting, Paula, where you are in Manhattan.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. What I would say, Hannah, is you're already living at a certain spend rate right now. Maintain that for as long as you possibly can. So when you get a raise, pretend that you didn't just pretend, just. And ideally you, you almost want to play a game with yourself where you are tricking yourself into forgetting that you got a raise. The best way to do that is to set up automatic transfers so that the, the same day that that paycheck hits your checking account, you have an automatic transfer that's going to a Roth ira. You've got automatic money going to a. Well prior to. Even when the paycheck hits automatic money that's getting pulled out into a 401k or a 403b. If you have any debt or student loans or anything like that, you've got automatic money, ideally on payday that is coming out of every single paycheck that is going to, to anything that will improve your net worth. So when you talk about retirement savings, when you talk about debt payoff, when you talk about an emergency fund. What do. What do those three things have in common? They all improve your net worth. And so if you can automate that on payday, what you want to do is just set up a situation where when you actually check your checking account balance, it looks exactly like the budget that you're already used to as a student. So that. That way you just trick yourself into forgetting that you ever got a raise and maintain that for as long as you can.

[B]

Yeah, I'll give you permission to maybe spend a little more money. But what I would say is this. And what I love about what Paula said is that right now, having roommates may be fun. If you have roommates, it's fun. Once you get rid of roommates, then you become a little bit bougie, and you don't want to go back. So have roommates for as long as you can, because you're used to having roommates. Later on, when you're not used to having roommates, it will stink to go back to roommates.

[A]

I disagree. So I had roommates, then stopped having roommates, and then that got really lonely. We were talking about this last night. It was fun for a few months, but then it just got lonely. So then I went back to having roommates again also.

[B]

Maybe. Unless you're Paula.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But I'll tell you, for a lot of people, they're like, I don't want to have roommates anymore. For the vast majority of people. I think that is still true, though, for a lot of people, lonely people. But there also is this feeling, which is not true, that you were a failure if you go back, you know, and you just don't want to have that feeling, feeling like, I'm doing it because I have to. And so the longer you can keep things the way they are now and funnel money into places, man, we get calls sometimes from people that are 30 years old and the cool stuff that they've done that Jay and I did not do, because by 30 years old, they have so much flexibility built into their life. And it only takes two or three years of living the same lifestyle you are living as a college student. Student to really achieve that. There's this cool rule called the rule of 72. And I think it's really, really fun to go through the rule of 72. You know, if you graduate and you're able to make one Roth IRA contribution this year, let's say you're 22 years old. The rule of 72 is this mathematical magical rule. It's just this great rule of thumb that says if you take the interest rate you think you're going to get, you divided into 72. That tells you how long it's going to take your money to double. So let's say that you think you're going to get an 8% rate of return. You make a $5,000 contribution when you're 22. That means that's going to double. Eight into 72 is every nine years. So it's going to double every nine years. So it's Going to double when you're 31, when you're 40, when you're 49, when you're 58, and again, normal retirement age 66, 67. So we'll have a double one more time. So that 5,000 you put away at 22 isn't 5,000 bucks. The first time it doubles, it's 10, then it's 20, then it's 40,000, then it's 80,000. That one contribution at 22 years old is $160,000.

[C]

Jay and at 22, you're not going to miss five grand if you're putting it back every paycheck. You're just not going to feel it. Another thing that I'll also work with our students on, and it's a lot easier to say this than do it, but if you have that invisible raise for that first year, don't even live off of it. Just go ahead and put that right back into your emergency fund or go ahead and, and max out, you know, what you can, you know, deposit into your Roth, IRA or traditional.

[B]

Yeah, it's an exciting time, but this time, this time, I think this is really an inflection point when you graduate, if you set up these systems, PAULA, right away, it's going to be great. If you don't set them up right away three months after you graduate, it's going to be really hard because then you have to backtrack. You've already been spending the money. It gets much harder if you wait three months, do it immediately when you graduate.

[A]

Right, right. And I think the key thing that he just said is set up systems, because if you have to log in and manually do it every month, you forget, you know, you just, you forget. The more that you can just set up the systems and automate it, like set it and forget it, the better.

[B]

Well, I think that's the end of the Hannah's. Let's see if everybody else can keep up with the Hannah's.

[A]

PAULA Yes.

[B]

My name is Gabriel and I'm a civil engineering major. My question is, what is the safer Investment Strategy? Stocks, IRAs, 401ks or Gold and silver? Awesome. Beautiful. Thank you, Gabriel. Thanks for the question. And engineering. I would have been an engineer if I knew what one was, by the way. I thought an engineer just drove a train, Gabriel. I was sure, but I had no idea.

[A]

So I want to put a little context around this question, because you said stocks and then you said IRAs.

[B]

It's a great question, though, because this is. Everybody.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Has questions like this.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. I hear this question a lot. And so I want to take a moment to elaborate on why these are different things. And so imagine that you're at a bar. Imagine there are all sorts.

[B]

These are students. They've never been in a bar.

[A]

You're at a house party. Imagine you're at a house party.

[B]

They don't do that either.

[A]

And there's all kinds of different glassware. So you've got a coffee mug, you've got a red solo cup, you've got a champagne flute, you've got a pint glass, you've got a shot glass, you've got a water glass. Like the. What. What are those called? Glass. Just glassware.

[B]

All the drinking implements.

[A]

Right. You have all. You have a martini glass. Right. You've got all of these things, and then you've also got the liquids that typically go into each one. So an IRA is an example of a piece of that glassware, an IRA, or a 401K or a 403B or a Roth IRA. Those are all different pieces of glassware. So that's the equivalent of a coffee mug, a martini glass, a champagne flute, a red solo cup. Then the liquids that go inside of it are stocks, bonds, gold, silver, any type of asset.

[C]

CDs.

[A]

Yeah, CDs. Just cash.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, those are all the liquids that go inside of it. And there are certain types of liquids that are generally better inside certain types of glasses. That this is something that's called asset location. Like, what's the best liquid to put inside a certain glass? So, like, generally speaking, beer is drunk from a pint glass, and champagne is drunk from a champagne flute, and coffee is drunk from a coffee mug. But there's no actual rule saying that you have to do it that way. Right. So you could put coffee in a champagne flute. Yeah, yeah. If you wanted to. Part of the reason that we chose the question is because the first piece of it was that I wanted to differentiate between an IRA versus the other components of the question, between an IRA versus stocks, gold, silver.

[B]

So when you, when you graduate, there's going to be these different classes to choose from. I can put money in a savings account. I can put money at, we should say at Red River Federal Credit Union, since they have underwrited this. We can have a savings account that's a glass. We can drink out of that glass whenever we want.

[A]

Right.

[B]

We can have a brokerage account, we could have stocks, we can have bonds, and we can drink out of that glass whenever we want. If you get a 401k glass or an IRA glass, there's rules about when you can drink out of that.

[A]

Yeah. So a 401k or an IRA is basically an agreement between, between you and the government in which the government says that they will give you a tax break if you promise not to spend that money until you're a certain age. So a lot of people think of it as a quote unquote, retirement account. And that can be a little bit misleading because retirement is in many people's minds, retirement is a job description or the lack of a job description. Like retirement is a description of your work status. And technically, a 401k or an IRA isn't a retirement account. It's an age restricted account. So basically, you're just making a deal with the government that if you don't touch that money until a particular age, they will give you a big tax break.

[B]

It is a great way to segregate money, though. I mean, if you're not going to spend it for a long time, if you want to make sure that you have some money after 59 and a half, which is the rule on most of these, put it in those accounts because you'll save money on taxes. But then inside of there. Let's answer Gabriel's real question, Jay. Which is this word safe? Right. Which one is safer? I think safe has a lot of different meanings.

[C]

Well, you could have a 401k and it still not be safe because it depends on what you chose to put your money drink inside.

[A]

Yeah. What are the drinks? What's the mix of drinks?

[C]

And so even that can be a little scary when you start using the word safe. And I think the students now understand the word inflation a little bit better than I understood it whenever I was their age. Because right now, with inflation being where it is, you start looking at your gold and silver. That's not quite as safe as it was because of inflation. For me, it's, it's a little scary. For to. To be able to just talk about what's safe and what's not. A lot of it has to do with what your comfort level is and what your risk tolerance is going to be.

[B]

Yeah, well, and I think for me, the big thing is time frame, because safe over the short run, if I need to spend the money in the next six months, putting money into the stock market is not safe. But if I am going to spend money 20 years from now, putting money in a savings account isn't safe. It feels safe, but it's going to get eaten up by Jay, what you talked about by inflation. So you're going to very safely never have any more money. You're going to. You'll actually have less money to spend based on the amount of bread you can buy than you had before. But stocks, stocks, as a rule, over long periods of time are very safe if you buy them in a diversified collection of them because of the fact that you are buying the economy. And if a company's going to make money, they have to beat inflation, right? They have to make money for their investors. And so if you're investing in Coca Cola, Coca Cola. Coca Cola is what makes inflation right. The price of sugar goes up. The people at Coca Cola don't go, well, the price of sugar went up, we're screwed. They go, no, we're going to find a way to make Gabriel pay more money for that Coca Cola. And when they do, all the investors reap the benefit of the higher price that they were able to, you know, have better advertising. So owning Coca Cola means, by definition, if Coca Cola succeeds, they're going to beat inflation. And that's a great place to be and a safe place to be long term, as long as you're diversified.

[A]

Right. But to be clear, that doesn't mean that you should necessarily pick Coca Cola or Pepsi or any individual stock. Because if you're trying to pick winners and losers, you might be right, you might be wrong. Even professionals who spend their whole lives learning how to pick winning companies or losing companies more times than not get it wrong. Statistically speaking. Yeah.

[B]

We did a show recently with a couple people that studied stock market pickers. They have a brand new book out that's great, called Stock Market Maestros. The Best of the best had a 45% hit rate, which means 45% of the stocks that they picked were winners. They lose more often than they win. And these were the best of the Best of the Best. These people have Maestro in their title and they're horrible. So they Were saying the average person's hit rate is about one out of every three stocks.

[C]

Professional gamblers, 54 or 55%.

[B]

Right. So just take it to Vegas, Jay, and we're done. That's the kind of teaching we do well.

[C]

And I do want to go ahead and share too. Your 401ks become safer when your company is going to provide a match. And so anytime that your company is going to be able to provide that match, I'm going to recommend that you're going to at least take it, take advantage of that.

[A]

Absolutely right. Right, yeah.

[B]

Free money. You were talking about diversification though, right?

[A]

Right, Exactly. So the 401k again, that's the, the, the coffee mug that you're drinking out of. But in terms of what you actually put inside of that coffee mug, you don't want to put individual stocks in there because you, more times than not, the probability is that if you're picking individual stocks, you are likely to get it wrong. No matter how smart you are, no matter even if you're doing this full time as a professional on Wall street, you're more likely to get it wrong than not. And so instead what you do is you buy what are called these broad market index funds. And, and that means that you are buying the overall market. So when you, you know, when you turn on the news and you hear like the Dow Jones rose or fell or you hear that the S&P 500 rose or fell or the NASDAQ rose or fell, that's what you're buying. You're buying the entire S&P 500. You're buying the entire Dow Jones. Right. And so you're going to do as well or as poorly as the overall index, like which is this, essentially the overall economy, no better and no worse.

[B]

And over long periods of time, your return has been around 8% doing that, versus yeah. Over the short run, a savings account is going to earn a couple percent.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Three.

[A]

Yeah. And so with an 8% return, that goes back to the rule of 72. If over the long term you're going to be earning 8%, that means your money will double on average every nine years. But the important thing to remember, and I got this wrong when I was in my 20s, is that the stock market is not a high yield savings account. We're talking about over the very, very, very long term, meaning like 20 plus years, it's likely to do well. But in the short term, in the next three years, who knows? So if you need that money in the next three to five Years don't put it in stocks.

[B]

I know a lot of people, Jay, that you brought up Las Vegas. I mean, you brought up gambling. And a lot of people think the stock market's gambling, which if you need the money tomorrow, the stock market is gambling. If you need a long time from now, Paula's index is much safer.

[C]

Well, and we had a discussion a couple of weeks ago, one of our workshops, and it just talked about the prediction markets that are even starting to hit out there. You know, Koshi and some of the others. There's still a huge risk involved when you start playing with something like that. So, you know, for me, it's going to be your 401ks. You're going to put, you know, your index funds and not play with prediction markets and Las Vegas.

[B]

Our fourth question comes from hello, I'm

[C]

Stefano, I'm a business major. And my question is what are a few common money mistakes college and grad student make that I should avoid now that I'm still in school?

[B]

Awesome. Thank you. Stefano, what are some common mistakes?

[A]

I'd say a lot of mistakes come from going to one extreme or the other. So on one side, and I think this is the mistake that you hear about more frequently, you have people who spend too much and get into debt. But on the other side, you also have people who are too cheap, to the point where it is debilitating, to the point where it holds back your life. You know, there are certain things even, even as a college student, you don't have a lot of money. You know, most college students don't have a lot of money. But if you can, to the extent that you can spend some money doing things that will allow you to build your career, you know, maybe that means that you get one nice shirt, just one that you can wear to professional events, or maybe it just means that you've got gas money to go to that professional event, right? That you've got, you can put the gas in your car to go to that networking event. Those are the things that you don't want to cheap out on anything that will allow you to build your network and increase the odds that you're going to make more money in the long run, those things are worthwhile.

[C]

Jay well, for me, there's there's two things that our students really talk about, and that's, you know, using credit cards. And sometimes they use that either as a reward or they use it as maybe a supplement to their income. That, right there is a concern when you start looking at 20 plus percent interest rates. You're basically taxing your future self whenever you get into that role. Yes.

[B]

Supplement to the income is the one that always makes me cringe. I don't have enough money, so I'll just put it on the credit card, figure it out later.

[C]

And then the second thing that our students can do is at times they're going to take out too much financial aid, so they'll actually get what financial aid calls a refund. And to me, that's not a refund at all. But they're going to end up having some extra money that they're now going to be paying interest on whenever they graduate. So, you know, not spending that money and just going ahead and turning right back around and paying that loan back off rather than using that refund to buy the latest iPhone or pizza or anything else out there.

[B]

For me, a common mistake that I see students make that they will continue to make. And this isn't just in your financial life. It's that you think that discipline is the answer. And discipline fades as the day goes on. You get hungry. Discipline gets replaced by bubbas down on the freeway. Discipline gets replaced with splurging. So it isn't about discipline. It's about systems. Whatever you think I need discipline, replace that with systems, and it's great. So how can I systematize my money? What can I do to make sure? As an example, for me, I was a guy, used a credit card all the time, and so I had to cut up my cards. I'd have no access to credit cards because if it was in my wallet, baby, I was using it like that was that was going to happen. So I set up a system to make sure that I won. We talked about with Hannah, you know, putting money away, automating money, going into savings so that you've got that emergency fund that Jay talks about, having that as a system versus telling yourself that I'm going to put some money away. If you tell yourself you're going to put some money away, you never do it. If you have it automatically go into the account, it'll happen like clockwork.

[A]

The other thing that you should systematize, and this goes back to the earning more money portion, because as a, especially as a student, the most powerful thing that you can do is to increase your earnings capability.

[B]

Oh, you stole my next one.

[A]

Oh, mind reader. Mind reader.

[B]

Yes. We don't ask for raises enough.

[A]

And even in that, there are systems that you can start to implement in your life, like if you get somebody's email address or contact Information at an event. Follow up with them immediate. Don't wait until the next day. Just do it that night. Do it in the car on the way home. Make a system for yourself. Like. Or this would really be more of a habit, but like, as I'm brushing my teeth, that's when I follow up with people. So that. That way your brain links brushing your teeth to that follow up.

[B]

That's the thing, Jay, that I think is so important that I didn't know. I don't know if you knew, but when I was in college, I. All these professors were people. I remember that they would reach out, they'd try to help. I didn't want to bother them. I saw other people that network with the professors, the great minds that were around them, some of the people that were maybe people they admired in their classes, staying close to those people. Like when you're on a college campus network as much as you possibly can.

[C]

Absolutely. And the professors that I've been able to get to know here on campus love to be able to do that for our students. Yeah. And to be able to share more than just what's on the syllabus.

[B]

I regret not doing that more.

[C]

You know, for me, it's going back to the professor, maybe the next semester or that three semesters after you've taken them, and just following back up and just saying, hey, appreciate what I learned in your class. Or, you know, hey, can we go grab a cup of coffee? I'd like for you to introduce me to some industry people that you know

[B]

here in town, and they're happy to do it. Like you said.

[C]

One more thing I wanted to jump on is we talked about a little bit earlier, but I'll start later. That is a big mistake, is I'll start later. And developing an emergency fund. I'll start later in developing my budget. I'll start later in savings. That fallacy of I'll start later is big.

[B]

Yeah. And building. Building those habits right away. So important.

[A]

Oh, and just one other thing I wanted to say on. On the topic of, like, following up with. Meeting people, following up with people, professors, whoever it might be, industry people. One thing that I did not understand when I was in college, that I only learned later in life, I thought that what mattered was my resume. And in real life, what mattered, what has mattered are my relationships, my professional relationships, not my resume. And now being on the hiring side, you know, both Joe and I have hired people in our businesses when we. Well, I don't want to speak for you, Joe, but when I go to hire. The first thing I do is I talk to the people around me and I say I'm looking for somebody to fill this type of a role. Do you know anyone? It's that word of mouth recommendation that's the starting point.

[B]

And there's two sides of that. You still have to be good at what you do, right? Because I do see some people that think it's just all schmoozing all the time and it's not.

[A]

Right? Right. Right.

[B]

Yeah. You have to have a reputation for being good at what you do.

[A]

These are fantastic questions from the students at Texas A and M Texarkana. We're going to hear more right after this final word from the sponsors who make this possible. Hiring isn't just about finding someone willing to take the job. I need the right person with the right background who can move our business forward. If I wanted candidates who match what I'm looking for, I'd trust Indeed Sponsored Jobs. In fact, I did. I used Indeed Sponsored Jobs to make two hires. One was for an executive assistant and the other was for a customer support and operations assistant. For both positions, we had the job posting up for less than 48 hours. And within that time we got so many applications we got what we needed. So if you're hiring Indeed is all you need. Give your job the best chance to be seen with Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Sponsored Jobs boosts your post for quality candidates and that makes a big difference. Sponsor Jobs posted on indeed are 90% more likely to report a hire than non Sponsored Jobs. And more than 1.6 million companies sponsor their jobs with Indeed. So our two hires have both been working for us for several months now. They're great, wonderful, part of the team, and we found them through Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Spend more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. Now with Indeed Sponsored Jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com Paula just go to Indeed.com Paula right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com Paula Terms and conditions apply. Hiring do it the right way with Indeed. What would you do if your online store converted 36% more shoppers? You could take 36% more vacation.

[B]

Another pina colada.

[A]

Yes, please open a new retail location with 36% more square feet.

[B]

Fantastic.

[A]

Hire 36% more help.

[B]

You're hired and you're hired.

[A]

Shopify has the world's best best converting checkout up to 36% better than other e commerce platforms. What you do with those extra sales is up to you. Switch to Shopify [e-mail] listen and get a $1 trial. Shopify.com listen Hallmark Cards presents Mother's Day at Walgreens. Celebrate every mother figure in your life with a Hallmark card at Walgreens. Show how much she means to you and how deeply she's loved. A Hallmark card is the perfect way to say thank you for all she does. Don't forget, Mother's day is Sunday, May 10th. Visit Walgreens today to find the perfect Hallmark Mother's Day card and make her feel truly special. Mother's Day means Hallmark cards at Walgreens. Welcome back. Let's hear more questions from the students at Texas A and M Texarkana. Valerie and I'm an accounting major. What are some good money management tips to limit spending?

[B]

Oh, good money management tips to limit spending. Man, that's so hard. So I had to learn a lot of these, Valerie, the, the hard way. So, Paula, you want to start?

[A]

Yeah. When it comes to limiting spending, there are two categories of expenses that you have. You've got your fixed expenses like your rent, your car payment. If you have a car payment, these are the things that are, they're fixed in your budget. You're locked into a lease and your rent is going to be the same amount every single month. And it's really hard until, unless your lease ends, it's really hard to get out of that same thing. If you have a car payment, it's a fixed amount every single month. And it's really hard to change that unless you refinance that loan. Those are your fixed costs. And then you also have discretionary costs or variable costs, I should say, like you've got variable costs. Some of those variable costs are truly necessary, like groceries. And some of those variable costs are discretionary. You know, that's where we talk about the iPhone and the pizza and the new sweater and all of those sorts of things. I think the mistake that a lot of people make is that a lot of people when they try to save money, the first thing that they target is, is variable discretionary spending. And the reason that people often target that is because it's the low hanging fruit and there is low friction, low, there's a low barrier to getting rid of those expenses. Like there's, there is not a lot of headache or hassle around not buying a new sweater. You simply don't buy it. And I get that there are behavioral, you Know, it's. There's the psychology of that and there's the behavior and there's the habit formation. But ultimately, at the end of the day, variable discretionary spending is the lowest friction category to eliminate. By contrast, when you talk about fixed expenses like your rent or your car payment, there's huge friction to changing that. To change your rent, you literally have to move out or get a roommate or get more roommates. But because those are so high friction, once you make that change, as difficult as it may be, it's locked in

[B]

and much higher impact.

[A]

Much, much higher impact. So if you really want to move the needle, go for the fixed expenses.

[C]

Well, Polly, you mentioned friction a few times there. And for me, it's make it hard to spend money. I can literally go a day or two or even three and not pull out my wallet anymore because I don't do have payments on my iPhone. And so I can just go scan a QR code and my groceries get paid. I can scan at the gas pump and my gas gets paid. If I want to order online, I already have my debit and credit cards already in the system. And so for me, whenever I'm talking to students that really are having an issue with spending, turn off the accounts, make it to where you have to pull out your wallet, and heaven forbid, spend cash. But even if not, you still have to pull out your debit card or you have to pull out, you know, whatever payment method rather than just rely on just walking up and placing your phone on top of something or just scanning a QR code.

[B]

Yeah, most people think of a budget and they think of a pain in the ass. Like, it's really going to be tough. So I like gamifying it, and I think turning this into a game and making it fun really changes things. There's this cool app, and you don't need that to do it, called ynab. And it's. You need a budget. And I don't want to talk about why now, but I want to talk about why it turns it into a game. So if you really want to do better with money, do it the YNAB people do. And that is before the beginning of the week, plot out how you're going to spend it. So every dollar has a purpose ahead of time. So you begin your week and you're like, okay, I want to go out to a restaurant with my friends on Thursday. So I'm setting about this much money for that, and then I've got my, my rent due. I'm setting that aside. For that. And before the week even. Even begins, you've done all your spending, and because of that, you turned it into a game, and you did it ahead of time. You're still having all the fun you had, but now you know where every dollar went versus what I did. Jay, it sounds like what you did. You know, friends are going out. I didn't expect it, and I didn't have any money in my budget for serendipity. I didn't have any money set aside. Oh, if my friends ask me to go out, I'm going to have 15 bucks sitting over here. Whatever the number would be. I didn't have any of that. I would just whip out the credit card then and get myself further in a hole.

[C]

Well, I have some phenomenal programming that I'm wanting to do in the. In the fall. And if YNAB wants to contact me, they can. But I will go ahead and plug them real quick because our A and M students with their A and M email address get one year free of ynab.

[B]

Oh, cool.

[C]

So there's no reason for them not to, but YNAB could still call me. We've got some programming that needs to be paid.

[B]

I did not know that. And I brought it up. I fed right into that. But it is a great program for that reason because it turns it into a game. Cheryl and I have a have this weekly money meeting where we talk about how did we spend money last week? What are we going to spend next week? It's a fun meeting. We cap it at 20 minutes. We have a timer. We cap it at 20 minutes and it's done. And it makes it so much more fun. And we find in the weeks that we don't miss that because we do miss it from time to time. We do really well with money just because we talked about it. Yeah. Another thing that I wanted to say, though, was this is a problem that I had with money when I was a college student. I would get really excited about this. And when you get really excited about personal finance, you decide, I'm going to live on ramen noodles every day and save every dollar. And that's awesome for like, four days. So you have to build in splurges, because otherwise splurges are going to find you. You're going to get done with three weeks of doing great, and then you're going to say the words that are death for any broke person, which is, I deserve it. I've been great for three weeks, so I deserve it. And what I deserve it. Means is I'm going to go blow up all the good stuff I did those last three weeks.

[C]

No, that's definitely a common mistake that's out there. And another, I guess, tool that you can use is have that 24 hour rule. So if you've got something in the cartoon, if you've got something in the cart, leave it there. And if you still want it 24 hours later, then maybe it could be the right decision for you. And you may even get a discount because they want you to go ahead and check out but. And have that magic number and everybody's going to be a little bit different. It could be anything over $50, anything over $100, you know, whatever that magic number is for you and your family or your household, if it's over that, think about it rather than just go and do that. That, that was probably and is the biggest thing that my wife would say I had an issue with when we were younger. I'm getting better.

[B]

That's. Well, that's me too, because I'm laughing because I have to do that with board games. And my board game buddy Angelo is hanging out with us tonight, and he knows it can be a problem. You get the new hot game, you want it. You're not even thinking about the budget. You think, ooh, this new thing came out. But putting it in the cart and waiting 24 hours, then you're. Then you're like, do I need it today? Do I need it now?

[A]

And to your point earlier about increasing friction, I know people who, you know, because there are a lot of websites where you can have your payment information saved. I know people who intentionally will not save their payment information. They won't save it in a password manager. They won't save it anywhere. So that you have to physically get out your card and type in all 16 digits in order to buy something. Even just that little bit of friction. Because, you know, right now you've got that bright purple shop pay button that makes it very easy. The more you can not save your information in that and your wallet's on the other side of the room and you're in bed and it's cold, right? And you have to actually get out of bed and walk all the way to the other side of the room and get your wallet and punch in the numbers. Creating that friction stops impulse spending.

[B]

It's a great theme. It's gone on all the way through the night. It's funny because the world is making it easier to buy, right? But they're also making easier to Save. You got to decide what team you're on. Yeah. We have one more question. How do I manage my finances and student loans after college? Awesome, Thomas. Thank you. Finances and student loans after college. And you're a senior, right? This is a little bit like Hannah's question, but Jay Thomas has his degree, he's got his new job. What does he set up first, tactically?

[C]

Well, the first thing you've got to do an inventory check and you've got to figure out exactly if you're, if you have student loans, what those balances are, what those payments are and get that set up with your service when they start. That's going to be the first thing that you're going to want to do. And then secondly, you don't want to go out there and have that deserving aspect. You know, I've made it four years so I'm now going to go and spend every pen, any that I have saved up. And we've already alluded to this, but just start, start developing the emergency fund, start saving, start developing your budget and

[B]

just start hiding that money from yourself like we were telling Hannah earlier is so important. Paula?

[A]

Yeah, I think with debt, in particular with student loans, you'll want to be thoughtful about how much of your money you want to put towards student loans versus how much of your money you want to put towards starting your retirement savings. Because going back to what we said earlier about the rule of 72, you know, every dollar that you put towards retirement savings when you're 22, assuming that you leave it there until you're 67, that's going to go through several compounding cycles.

[B]

Five doubles.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. I had some friends who were super focused on just paying off debt and wanted to be debt free as fast as possible. And that's great. Like it's coming from a good place. But don't let it come at the expense of retirement savings. And particularly, Jay, to your point, if you have a 401k match, definitely get the match. If you don't, because many jobs don't necessarily offer a match, you'll still want to put some money aside even if it's unmatched into a 401k or if you don't have access to a workplace 401k into a Roth IRA.

[B]

And this all starts with general mindset. We've had a lot of smart people that Paul and I have been able to talk to over the years that we've done our shows. There was a very brilliant guest we had on. I was very lucky to have him on twice. His name is Jonathan Clements. For a long time, he was the personal finance columnist at the Wall Street Journal. He actually passed away recently, sadly. What was really neat about Jonathan was he was so brave. He even wrote columns on about the process of dying and all the things that you need to do. But what he wrote, I think that's important for us tonight was he said, you have this choice. You're going to. Almost like Paula, you say you can afford anything, but not everything. Jonathan said, you have two choices. You can party in your 20s, or you can party later. You can work your butt off early and party later, or you can party early and work later. You get to choose which one you want to do. And he said for most people, for him especially, he was very glad that he chose that he was going to work his butt off those few early years so he could party in the later years. But we all have that. Have that choice. And I think having that mindset when you retire that this is not going to be forever, I'm just going to put my head down. I'm going to have roommates for a while. Like we told Hannah, I'm going to. I'm going to keep living the same lifestyle just for a few years so I can get that doubling going. And then things get exciting in a hurry. And then Jonathan, sadly didn't get to party as long as he wanted to. But I'll tell you, he lived a great life. And in his columns, you see that he lived a really great life.

[A]

Right. And not only that, but, like, he lived a great life. And towards the end of his life, the fact that he was still saying, I'm still glad that I.

[B]

That I did it.

[A]

That I did it right, you know, so that his final years could be more peaceful. Yeah, that kind of goes back to your question about, like, how do you balance peace and purpose and, you know, all of that, like, there's a certain degree of peace that you have when you know that your finances are solid. All right, you've just heard the live Q and A that we did with the students at Texas A and M. Thank you so much to the staff at the university, to Jay in particular, for inviting me to campus and providing both me and Joe the opportunity to talk directly with the students. Thanks to Joe Salsihai and to his spouse, Cheryl, for welcoming me to their home, letting me crash at their place for a couple of nights. Thanks to everyone in the Texarkana community who works so hard to make that small city a thriving and vibrant place. And thanks above all to the students who are enormously inspiring. You are the reason that we do this. And thanks to all of you for being afforders. If you enjoyed today's episode, please share this with the students in your life. Share this with college students that you know that is the single most important way that you spread the message of great financial health to the next generation. I am a believer that financial well being is core to who we are. There's physical well being, there's mental well being, there's spiritual well being and there's financial well being. And none of those can be ignored. So please share this with the people in your life, particularly the students, people in their 20s, people who need to hear this message. Oh, before I go, I'm hosting a live webinar on the topic of real estate in 2026. If you've got questions, if it's been on your mind, afford anything.com Real Estate Rental 2026 is where you can go to sign up. That's affordanything.com rental2026. It's free. The webinar is on Tuesday, May 12th. I'll be live answering your questions, so if you want to interact live affordanything.com rental2026 all right, thank you so much. My name is Paula Pant. This is the Afford Anything podcast and I'll meet you in the next episode.