Ask HTM – Money Gears Mixup, Stewarding an Inheritance, & Turning to Gold! #1096

Summary

How to Money – Episode #1096

“Ask HTM – Money Gears Mixup, Stewarding an Inheritance, & Turning to Gold!”

Hosts: Joel and Matt – iHeartPodcasts
Date: February 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Joel and Matt tackle a fresh batch of listener questions ranging from the right order of personal finance money moves (“money gears”), prudent handling of an inheritance, the real value (or risk) of turning savings into gold amid global headlines, and choosing between Roth and traditional 403(b) retirement accounts. Throughout, the hosts keep the advice accessible and practical with their hallmark humor and relatability, focusing on actionable guidance for everyday listeners.

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1. Listener Mailbag: Questioning the Money Gears (Start at 08:29)

Main Theme:

Jonathan from Lincoln, NE questions the recommended order of operations in the hosts’ “money gears”—specifically, why they advise contributing to a 401(k) employer match before aggressively paying off high-interest debt.

Key Discussion Points:

• Employer match first, then credit card payoff:

  • “It’s our belief that if you are offered a match from your employer, funding your 401(k)—and up to the match, but not beyond that—takes precedence over paying down your credit cards.” – Matt (09:29)
  • “A 50% to 100% return, that’s typically what a match is, which is better than a 20% return which you’re getting on credit cards.” – Joel (10:50)

• Why not just attack the high-interest debt?

  • Employer match offers instant, significant returns—better than even the highest credit card rates.
  • True, carrying credit card debt is undesirable, but skipping the employer match leaves “free money” on the table that can’t be recaptured later.

• Nuances and Emotional Considerations:

  • “Personal finance is emotional, and there are not... purely rational decisions. If it was just all about the numbers, you wouldn’t have gotten into credit card debt in the first place.” – Matt (15:20)
  • For those under extreme debt stress, paying off cards first might make sense for peace of mind—as long as you do so with eyes wide open and you realize the match opportunity is gone once you pass the calendar year.

• Exceptions: Vesting periods

  • If a 401(k) match won’t be vested before leaving a job, skip the match and pay debt instead.

Notable Quotes:

• “The ultimate goal is to stop the biggest personal finance leaks that happen in your life.” – Joel (17:17)
• “Once you get past that match, essentially what you’re banking on only at that point are the returns that you’re expecting to see in the market... That’s when you want to focus on knocking out that credit card debt.” – Matt (12:31, 13:03)

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2. Stewarding an Inheritance: Practical Steps for Artists (Start at 22:01)

Main Theme:

Jay, an actor and return caller, asks how to best manage his inheritance – now down to $30,000 from $60,000 – and whether he should keep using a brick-and-mortar bank or move his funds to CIT Bank.

Key Discussion Points:

• Ditch brick-and-mortar banks for online banks:

  • “The most important piece of advice I think we can offer is... take all your money out of Bank of America and put it into CIT.” – Joel (27:22)
  • “They [online banks] are fantastic. The online banks with essentially no fees, they are the best place to put your savings.” – Matt (24:59)

• Danger of Draining an Inheritance Slowly:

  • The hosts caution against “the leaky faucet” approach—slowly withdrawing from inherited money to cover monthly shortfalls and eventually seeing it disappear.
  • Referenced Justin from Price of Avocado Toast (Ep. 1040) as a cautionary tale of inheritance misspent.

• Building Sustainable Habits:

  • “What we didn’t really address [last time] were the boring, unsexy habits and the discipline that allow you to be able to achieve those goals... Essentially what we’re talking about here is putting together a plan, what it is that you should be doing with your money.” – Matt (32:01)
  • Emphasis on tracking spending, creating a budget, and avoiding gratification leaks.

• Income Diversification and Reality of Artistic Careers:

  • “A very small percentage of people who work in the industry are making tons of money. Most... live kind of a ‘give me my daily bread’ sort of existence, hoping for the next gig.” – Joel (26:01)

Actionable Advice:

• Move funds out of fee-heavy institutions and into high-yield/no-fee online savings.
• Set a firm budget, use tools like Monarch or YNAB if necessary, especially crucial for those with variable incomes.
• Prioritize sustainable, regular investing over one-time “big win” actions like dumping all funds into an IRA once.

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3. Should You Choose Roth or Traditional 403(b)? (Start at 35:24)

Main Theme:

Nina from South Carolina asks about the new Roth after-tax 403(b) option at her nonprofit job—should she use it in addition to her current pre-tax 403(b) contributions?

Key Discussion Points:

• Who should choose Roth?

  • “If you find yourself in that 12% tax bracket, I think it’s just a no-brainer to choose the Roth 403(b) option over the traditional.” – Matt (38:13)
  • Nonprofit workers often benefit from Roth accounts due to typically lower salaries.

• Tax diversification:

  • Splitting between traditional and Roth can help optimize taxes now and in retirement.
  • “Marginal tax rate targeting” is an advanced optimization strategy to maximize tax bracket efficiency (41:09).

• Roth IRA Pros:

  • If she’s not already funding a Roth IRA, “I would be looking to prioritize that, like maybe keeping the traditional 403B but then prioritizing the Roth IRA ... you are going to have more options, more flexibility available to you.” – Matt (42:04)

• Cost Differences:

  • Be mindful of expense ratios and fund options—some workplace plans are costlier than Roth IRAs held directly with a brokerage.

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4. Is Now the Time to Buy Gold? (Start at 46:32)

Main Theme:

A listener from the Facebook group asks if they should pull all their savings and buy gold in light of “all the news about Greenland” and global uncertainty, noting gold’s all-time highs.

Key Discussion Points:

• Don’t react to headlines:

  • “Don’t let the headlines drive your investing. Which is something we have said for many, many years on the show.” – Joel (48:01)
  • Past geopolitical scares, like Y2K, serve as a reminder to resist knee-jerk investment changes.

• Gold is not a replacement for cash savings:

  • Gold is illiquid and not appropriate for emergency funds.
  • If one wants some gold, keep it to a small percentage (≤5%) of portfolio via a low-cost ETF, not via bars or coins.

• US/global events are rarely good reasons for radical moves:

  • “There would need to be changes that take place over the course of years... for me to change the way that I'm investing, which is currently 100% in US equities.” – Matt (50:33)
  • The spectacle of political posturing (“Trump taco moments”) rarely translates to meaningful, long-term shifts in investment strategy.

Notable Moment:

• Brian’s Facebook comment: “I would do what your parents did during Y2K. Nothing.” (48:02)
• Greg’s advice: “Turn off the news.”

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5. Quick Hit: How to Get Your Free Credit Report (Start at 54:33)

Main Theme:

Bill asks about legally obtaining a free credit report.

Key Discussion Points:

• Federal Right:
  • Consumers are entitled to one free report per year from each credit bureau; since COVID, you can actually get weekly reports.
• The only official site:
  • “The federally mandated place to turn for your free credit report is annualcreditreport.com.” – Matt (54:56)
  • Ignore attempts by bureaus to steer you to their for-profit services.
• No need to get reports more than 1–2 times per year unless you’re correcting errors.

Notable Quote:

• “[The annual credit report website] looks like it’s from MS-DOS 1992... but it’s the legit place.” – Joel (55:12)

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6. Beer Break: Incendiary Brewing – Coconut Maple Macaroon Wee Heavy (57:38)

Comments:

• Sweet, coconut/maple-forward, big “January/February” beer, best for sharing; reminiscent of a Girl Scout cookie.
• “Pour some waffles, baby.” – Joel (58:18)
• “Any more than [8oz], I don’t think I would’ve been able to finish.” – Matt (58:50)

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Important Timestamps & Segments

• [08:29] – Jonathan asks about money gears mixup.
• [22:01] – Jay the actor returns for inheritance handling advice.
• [35:24] – Nina seeks guidance on Roth vs. traditional 403(b).
• [46:32] – Facebook question: Should I buy gold?
• [54:33] – Bill: How to get a free credit report.
• [57:38] – Beer review and listener fun wrap-up.

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Memorable Quotes

• “Personal finance is emotional, and there are not... purely rational decisions. If it was just all about the numbers, you wouldn’t have gotten into credit card debt in the first place.” – Matt (15:20)
• “The ultimate goal is to stop the biggest personal finance leaks that happen in your life.” – Joel (17:17)
• “Don’t let the headlines drive your investing.” – Joel (48:01)
• “The bare minimum thing, I think Jay, would be to take all of your money out of Bank of America and to put it into CIT.” – Joel (27:22)

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Tone & Takeaways

Joel and Matt keep their trademark balance between actionable financial advice and empathetic, human understanding. The episode repeats an essential mantra: Focus on sustainable habits, ignore the panic-inducing headlines, optimize for long-term gains—and don’t overthink sweet, barrel-aged beers!

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For more info and resources: Visit howtomoney.com and check the episode’s show notes for links (including the official free credit report site: annualcreditreport.com).

Transcript

[Joel]

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[Matt]

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[Joel]

Hire right the first time, post your first job and get $100 off towards your job [e-mail] help that's LinkedIn.com howtomoney terms and conditions apply. Travel is such a life changing pursuit and my trip to Australia was one of the best investments I've ever made. I got to enjoy the bustling metropolis of Melbourne and some of the best coffee of my life while also driving the great ocean road and taking in spectacular views. I even hopped on a plane to the island of Tasmania. That was my favorite stop. I loved it all. A trip to Australia doesn't just offer a getaway, it's an investment in experiences that stay with you. Explore more destinations in Australia and start planning your memorable [e-mail] Friday kick off.

[Announcer]

The Winter Olympics in style with the opening ceremony from Italy. Featuring a special performance by Mariah Carey. Celebrate the greatest athletes from around the globe as they come together to go for gold. Lipsy for sensational the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

[Matt]

Ilia Malinu redefining the sport at 8.

[Announcer]

Eastern, 7 Central on NBC. And Peacock.

[Joel]

Welcome to how to Money. I'm Joel.

[Matt]

I'm Matt.

[Joel]

Today we're answering your listener questions.

[Matt]

That's right buddy. Listener question. Monday we're going to hear from a listene who is questioning our money gears. The order of operations that we prescribe.

[Joel]

Question is at your own peril.

[Matt]

Yeah, because we said so. Yeah, that's why.

[Joel]

That's right. That channeling mother from childhood.

[Matt]

That won't be the only answer that we give. There we'll explain why another listener is looking for ways to not squander an inheritance. This is actually a return caller or a return voice memo sender. Perhaps another listener is wondering if he should be turning to gold with all the uncertainty that we've seen with Gold hitting all time highs, whether or not we would suggest doing that, we'll get to those listener questions plus more during our episode today. And I will say too, I think it's so good for us to hear directly from listeners because I don't know about you, Joel, sometimes it's easy for me to forget that we're talking to people.

[Joel]

Yeah.

[Matt]

And I'm always reminded of that, honestly, it's when listeners. Well, first of all, emails and sometimes folks will send us their story and share with us.

[Joel]

Facebook group too. Right.

[Matt]

We always. Well, that's the thing. I don't.

[Joel]

You're not in there.

[Matt]

I'm never on Facebook. Maybe. Does that go on in the group?

[Joel]

Someone dropped a suggestion for you this week too.

[Matt]

To me specifically.

[Joel]

I guess there's something that automatically shuts off the bathroom ceiling fan. So. Because you'd mentioned that as a problem recently.

[Matt]

Oh, I remember. I remember that conversation. Oh, maybe I'll get in there for that. But specifically, I mean, we read all the emails that folks send our way, but also listener questions, man hit right at the heart of a. Literally being able to get to hear from listeners and oftentimes they're able to share what they've got going on and how some of the things we've talked about have move the needle when it comes to their personal finances.

[Joel]

For sure. Okay. One quick thing I wanted to mention, something that seems insignificant, seems trivial, but can make a real difference is changing your furnace filters and I guess more.

[Matt]

Home talk with Joel. This old house.

[Joel]

This is not my typical beat.

[Matt]

How to money Joel.

[Joel]

This is usually your beat, Matt, but.

[Matt]

Oh, I love house stuff.

[Joel]

Taking care of stuff around the house. But it's, it's shocking. Like I was looking kind of into the statistics of what a clogged filter, how much harder it makes your furnace work, which just means it's running less efficiently and therefore it's running longer, sucking up more energy. Whatever kind of, you know, energy yours uses, whether it's natural gas or draining the motor. That's right, that too. And so you're, you're not only paying more for your heating bill in the here and now by not replacing your filters regularly, but it's also you're going to be straining your unit more and it's probably going to go out years sooner than it would have otherwise. And this is one of those things that like 25 year old Joel would have been like, whatever, old man. Like, I don't know what you're Talking about. But middle aged Joel. Middle aged Joel is down. This is his beat. Yeah. And I also realized just how simple. Even idiots like me, like, replacing an air filter takes about 30 seconds. And the cost of an air filter is insignificant. I've actually got the furnace that has the 4 inch air filters. Have you seen those?

[Matt]

Oh, yeah, the really thick ones. Yeah.

[Joel]

And so my air filters cost more, but I have to replace them less often. But I suppose to replace them every six months instead of every three months. And so that's on my to do list. I buy them at Costco. I keep them in the box right next to the furnace.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Joel]

And then I put it on the calendar. It's basically like July and January when I do mine.

[Matt]

Yeah. So one of the advantages of having the 4 inch filter is that there, there is more material essentially that the air is going through. So it actually strains your H Vac less. I think sometimes folks might think, oh, well, no, that's actually probably the opposite of what I want.

[Joel]

Right.

[Matt]

But if you actually look at the filter, they're like, instead of tiny little V's that span one inch, they're like giant V's, Right. That go the entire depth of the four inch filter, which increases the surface area. So that basically like hair and whatever other junk lands on the filter doesn't immediately back up the flow of air as it's passing through the filter. So that's pretty nice.

[Joel]

I love how you give the scientific explanation for it. And I'm just trying to convince people to save money.

[Matt]

I looked it up one time because I'm like, well, how come some of them have like the 4 inch filter? In the past I had an H vac that required the 4 inch and I thought, can I get away with 1 inch? Because the 4 inch are certainly more expensive.

[Joel]

But again, you have to replace them less often. So really you probably kind of breaking even more time.

[Matt]

And what you said is so clutch, which is keeping it right there next to the. Because you're thinking, oh, where am I going to? This is big, bulky or whatever. And specifically, where's your furnace? Is it in like the. Do you have one in the crawl space?

[Joel]

Crawl space.

[Matt]

Okay, so here, here's the thing. Sometimes I have been less excited about leaving my air filters down there because it's. Sometimes it can be musty down there. And you're thinking, wait a minute, am I just allowing this air filter to mold and get all dank?

[Joel]

Keep it wrapped in the plastic in the box.

[Matt]

Well, as soon as you open it, it's you've cracked the seal because a lot of times they're wrapped in the plastic wrap or whatever. So I put all that to say. I also put mine in a trash bag right next to the so I open it and then it's exposed. But I mean, moisture can get through cardboard. So you stick it in a trash bag. So if you're paranoid like me, that's what I do. Specifically to the air filters that are in my crawl space, the ones up in the attic, I don't worry about those because it stays pretty, you know, pretty dry up there.

[Joel]

One of these days on the podcast.

[Matt]

We'Ll discuss all the weird things I.

[Joel]

Do, all the other ways paranoia runs your life. But for now, let's mention the beer that we're having on this episode. This is Coconut Maple Macaroon Barrel aged Scotch ale from Incendiary Brewing. Sounds I thought it was just called.

[Matt]

We Heavy, but I liked all your.

[Joel]

It's got a lot going on. It's got a lot going on.

[Matt]

Oh, it does say that on the side.

[Joel]

Yeah, yeah. No, this is a big one. We'll give our thoughts later on. Stick with us. And by the way, if you have a money question we want to hear from you, go to howtomoney.com ask for instructions, or record your question on the voice memo app on your phone and email it over to [e-mail] we always say, and this is true, this always remains the weirder, the better. The more funky your money question, the more likely we'll take it here on the show, hopefully next week.

[Matt]

The more interpersonal, the better too. Like I like diving into that interpersonal relationship sort of drama and how money impacts your life in that way.

[Joel]

Matt loves the drama. He does. Okay, let's get to a question, Matt, specifically about our money gears and whether or not we screwed up.

[Jonathan]

Hi Matt and Joel. I'm Jonathan from Lincoln, Nebraska. I was recently listening to your episode where you restated the money gears and I just kept thinking to myself, why is Gear two before Gear three? I would think paying off high interest debt would be more important than investing in a 401k with some match from employers. Am I just thinking of it wrong? Can you guys explain? Thanks for all. You guys do love the show.

[Matt]

Oh, so Jonathan gets right at the heart of it and he said isn't that better than some match? And that's we'll kind of. We'll stretch it out here instead of just giving you a one word response.

[Joel]

You sure you don't Want to just go with the mom tactic and be like, because I said so, because we said so. No, no, it feels reasonable at this point, Matt. Just. Well, to shame him into submission.

[Matt]

That's not what we try to do here. We try to lift people up, Joel. But Jonathan, like, I totally get it. Like, I understand why paying off credit card debt, especially when we're seeing interest rates in the 20% range or more like why that sounds like the smarter thing to do before you start investing at all. But that's not the case. It's our belief that if you are offered a match from your employer, funding your 401k, and I will say up to that point and not investing beyond that, that takes precedence over paying down your credit cards. Certainly the goal is to do both. But man, the getting that match specifically from your 401k, that is money. Your number two.

[Joel]

Yeah, we're actually seeing this play out in policy too, Matt, which is interesting, right, that more people are starting off when they get a new job with money being kind of forced from their paycheck into their 401k. What do they chose to auto enroll? Not. Yeah, the auto enroll. And then they can go back in there and say, wait a second, no, I don't want that. But it's just interesting to see how, and you know, to see how much that's helping people in the real world who otherwise likely would not have invested a dime just because of inertia and a lack of interest. But kind of what you're getting here too, Matt, you highlighted 20% interest rates on credit cards. And yeah, that's, that's a problem. And anybody who is in sustained credit card debt, that's something we want to help you out with. You know, we want, we want to do our best to give you advice.

[Matt]

Joel's going to help you out personally.

[Joel]

Hit him [e-mail] send a few hundreds in unmarked envelope directly to your home. But, you know, it's just that a 50% to 100% return, that's typically what a match is, which is better than a 20% return which you're getting on credit cards.

[Matt]

Yep. It's not just some match. It is a significant amount, a significant percentage higher than what it is you are likely paying on your credit cards.

[Joel]

Like, I've never heard of an employer giving a 10% match. Right. Oh, if you put in 6%, we'll put in 0.6%. I've never heard of that. Like, it doesn't lame. It doesn't exist. And if you, if you have an employer like that, let me know because I'd be curious. Get out of there. But it's almost always 100% or 50%, right? You put in six, you get six, you put in six, you get three. Something along those lines. And that is just a better straight up return than paying down your credit card debt, which of course we still loathe. We hate credit card debt. We'd love to see no Americans know how to money listeners with credit card debt at all. And of course this means that credit card debt paying it off remains an incredibly high priority in the grand scheme of things. Because when you think of it as like that, the basic E fund than the match, then it's credit card debt. I mean that is, that is the next thing on the list.

[Matt]

But three comes after two. Yes, we'll get to that later.

[Joel]

It just doesn't quite rise above accepting and making sure you're taking full advantage of the generous match. Because there's just no other place in life where you get a return that high on your money. Of course though, after you get the match, every single spare dollar should be going to eradicate the credit card debt as quickly as possible. Whether you're choosing the snowball, the avalanche method, that's up to you. Pick whichever one's going to motivate you, allow you to pay it off most quickly. But the match is still key here.

[Matt]

Once you get past that match, essentially what you're banking on only at that point are the returns that you're expecting to see in the market. Right. And that's when you would say, no, I'll take the guaranteed 23% return on my money because that's my credit card interest rate over a fingers crossed 10% return that you might historically see in the market.

[Joel]

The S and P had a great year last year. Still, credit card debt, if you had it was, was worse, was more detrimental than the, than investing in the S and P was beneficial.

[Matt]

Exactly. And another reason too that you want to prioritize the 401k match is because of the fact that this is an instant return on your money. This isn't just something like when you look at credit card debt, you're looking at an annualized 23% interest that you're making, which means that you're not experiencing that in one fell swoop as opposed to the match. And so there's a difference there between being able to get that match. Let's say it doesn't quite work this way. But like earlier in the year, as opposed to whittling down the amount of interest that you're paying towards your credit cards as well. So that's something to keep in mind. We certainly don't want you to take on additional credit card debt. Keep that at a minimum. Right. And hopefully that's the trajectory you're on. Because if you've gone from money year number one, where you've got that basic emergency fund, and now you're like, all right, now, now it's time to invest. Now I've got a little bit more margin, I've got more coming in, then I'm spending. Great. Stabilize, maintain those minimum payments on that credit card, get that match. But then after that, like you said, Joel, that's when you want to focus on knocking out that credit card debt.

[Joel]

I think for some people who feel like they're living on the financial precipice, they're living on the edge, they feel like they can't do both at the same time. Like, I can't. I can barely even get the full match. And if I do get the full match, I'm just paying minimums on all the credit cards. And that's a. That's a tough spot to be in, I think, especially can be demoralizing from just a personal finance goal standpoint. And I think if you find yourself in that category, right, where you're like, I can't invest and pay down credit card debt at the same time, then then maybe for that person, even if the fully most optimized thing to do is to get the match, I could see a scenario in which somebody might opt to make a different decision. And to say, I'm going to. I had, like, the debt, it's causing me stress, it's causing me to lose sleep at night. And yeah, I hear your optimization, your call for optimization, guys, but I feel the need in my own personal life for peace of mind to pay down the credit card debt more quickly. And I just. I do think for some people, that might be the right move. That's not the most optimized move. So that's not why we call it out in the money gears. But for some people, pivoting and choosing a different tactic, as long as you do it with eyes wide open, realizing what you're missing out on, you can never go back and get that match from previous years that you didn't get. You. As long as you know that up front, I understand why some people might make a different decision.

[Matt]

Yeah. What you're speaking to is the fact that personal finance is Emotional and that there are not. Like if it was just all about the numbers and returns and which number is bigger, let's go with that. Then you would not have ever gotten yourself into credit card debt in the first place. Yeah, but it goes far beyond just looking at the numbers and making a purely rational decision. And what you're saying, though, like, you're talking about a window of time. That is a great argument for getting the match. Because you got to realize, man, I would hate for somebody to be in a situation where they're saying, okay, no, this is weighing on me. I'm just gonna go full bore, whole hog, whatever. I'm gonna attack this, this credit card debt, you work on it for the entire year. You find your way into 2027, it's January, end of January, and you're like, yes, I've eliminated all my credit card debt. Okay, let me get that 401k match. Well, dang it. You just missed the cutoff by one month to contribute to your 401k. Where your employer would have made that match. That, like you said, Joel, was a window of time that was closing. So that's something that you do need to be aware of. I just don't want someone to find themselves in that kind of a situation where they're only pacifying the sort of emotional needs that they have and the sort of weight that that debt is essentially weighing them down. But speaking of windows of time, that's, that's a reason to maybe not invest in your 401k because if your employer has a longer vesting period, well, that's something else you need to be aware of too. And if you're not expecting to be at that employer for all that much longer, well, shoot, no, go ahead and focus on the credit card debt because you're not going to get the 401k match anyway.

[Joel]

So the vesting period is five years and they're like, yeah, we're giving you 100% match on your 6% contribution. You're like, that's awesome. But if, if I'm only planning on being at that employer for two to three years, not even close to that five year deadline. Well, that's match money I'm never going to see. Even if it looks like I, looks like it's coming my way, it's not.

[Matt]

In that, in that sense, you'd be better off just, yeah. Attacking the 20 something percent credit card debt.

[Joel]

Yeah, yeah. So know those details as well that matters as to which choice you make. And the ultimate goal is to Stop the biggest personal finance leaks that happen in your life. Right. Recurring credit card debt being a nefarious form of that. That half of Americans essentially who use credit cards subscribe to. They. They don't use their credit cards. Well, they're. They're using them like clockwork and they can't pay off their bills every month. And because of that, they're finding they're digging themselves into a bigger hole. And. But if you can stop that leak and pay off credit card debt while simul simultaneously taking advantage of this helping hand in the match, that's going to supercharge your ability to build wealth. Do both and just make sure this is like, we make that clear in the money gears as well. Don't invest beyond the match until credit card debt is fully gone from your life. But I think this is a great question from Jonathan. I think this is confusing to a lot of people, and hopefully we addressed not just the. Some of the numbers. 50%, 100% is better than 20%, but also the kind of behavioral realities that people face behind that conundrum.

[Matt]

That's right, man. All right, we've got more to get to. We're going to hear from a listener who is trying to figure out which 403B to go with. We're going to talk about gold later on. All of that and more right after this. I love all of the extra time that I was able to spend around friends and family over the holidays. In particular, I love the extra points of connection with my kids. They are. They're getting older, and so it's enriching to introduce them to, like, new ideas. That's a ton of fun. It's like play some challenging games together. That's. That's awesome, too. But honestly, just to have a silly, fun time. And as much as it's my duty to provide for them with the time spent together, it's also a parent's responsibility to provide for them financially as well. Which is why more folks need to check out policygenius. They help to ease the gravity a bit by protecting what matters most. Policygenius is an online insurance marketplace that allows for you to compare quotes from some of America's top insurers side by side for free.

[Joel]

Start the new year with clarity and security. Lock in your life insurance today. Policygenius helps you find your most affordable policy that meets your needs. You can easily find coverage, amounts, prices, terms with no guesswork, just clarity.

[Matt]

That's right. Plan the year knowing that you've protected what you've built with Policygenius, you can see if you can find 20 year life insurance policies starting at just $276 a year for $1 million in coverage. Head to policygenius.com to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you could save. That's policygenius.com for small businesses.

[Joel]

Every hire matters, but the time and resources required to hire right are Limited. Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full time job.

[Matt]

Yeah, posting a job, that's not always the hard part. It's the finding, connecting with and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to shortlisting candidates and conducting AI powered interviews for initial screenings, all through a conversational interface that lets you describe what you need in plain language. Nearly 60% of hires find a candidate to interview within a week. With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent.

[Joel]

Hire right the first time, post your first job and get $100 off towards your job. [e-mail] how to money that's LinkedIn.com howtomoney terms and conditions apply.

[Matt]

Joel Single function Tools out there, they just don't cut it in today's fast paced work environment. It's time consuming to context switch between sites, apps and tools just for one project. Well, luckily for our listeners, Grammarly has features that are tailor made for working professionals so you can get all your writing done from start to finish all in one place. Bring more polish and impact to your emails, your presentations and proposals without switching between tabs and windows, all while amplifying your voice and moving your ideas forward.

[Joel]

Yeah, Grammarly is designed to help professionals with real time writing support on any project email and more. And 90% of professionals say Grammarly has saved them time writing and editing their work. Grammarly leads to less hassle and more focus no matter what you're writing.

[Matt]

So sign up for Grammarly Free and get your professional writing from draft to done. Visit Grammarly.com that's Grammarly.com.

[Joel]

All right Matt, we're back. We've got more money questions to get to. Let's get to one right now. Let's get to a question specifically about how to handle inheritance money.

[Jay]

Hello Matt and Joel, this is Jay the actor. If you recall, I left a message to you about my inheritance that I've got and that I'm what to do with the money that's me. Quick question. So I know you don't like banks. I do have cit, thank you. And I'm wondering what to do with my inheritance money. So I'm down to 30,000. I got 60,000 and I spent most of that on rent and other things. But let me say, I've got clarity. I've got so much clarity. And you know that I decided to diversify my acting and go into voice acting also. I love Hollywood, love movies, but you know, not everyone's working. You know, I mean there's so much money being pumped into ads, tv, podcasts and radio and so many places, gasoline stations. So they need actors to sell products and I can do that. So anyway, I'm diversifying to that but and I'm also going back to work full time right now while I'm trying to build my voiceover business. So yeah, I just wanted to touch base on that. So, yeah. What do I do with, you know, should I take it all out of bank of America and put it into cit, which I do have my emergency fund there. I mean, I do need to occasionally pull money from my inheritance just because, you know, my rent is expensive. But I did pay off my credit card debt. I have my Roth IRA of 8000 something I will open. I do plan on opening a solo 401k. But how should I transfer that money and what do I do if I need some while I'm working? You know, as you know, I mean, I've been working in acting but boy, is it slow. It's really slow, you know, and it's highly subjective. So should I just put it all into cit? Should I just have a checking account at bank of America? Should I just abolish bank of America for my banking needs in general? Stuff like that. Alright, let me know. By the way, I do love the show and I do my best to learn as much as I can as an artist. Thank you so much.

[Matt]

All right, Joel, this is Jay, who we heard from last fall. Jay, thank you for sending us a follow up voice memo. Jay the actor.

[Joel]

Love the update. And the truth is, Matt, I love updates. These are the, these are the kind of questions that like persist, right? Someone's starting, they get a big lump sum, they're trying to make decisions and then they're, you know, halfway through the process and.

[Matt]

What now?

[Joel]

Which direction is my rudder pointed in?

[Matt]

Yeah. By the way, Jay, you said that we hate banks. I don't hate banks. Joel hates banks.

[Joel]

No, I don't. That's not true.

[Matt]

No, specifically it's the really big banks that we're not fans of. You said that you're with cit. We love them. They are fantastic. The online banks with essentially no fees, they are the best place to put your savings and so just want to provide a little bit of clarity there. Also on the note of clarity, he said he's got that now and he's diversifying his income, which I really appreciate.

[Joel]

Right.

[Matt]

Doing some of the voiceover work in addition to acting. I think he said too that he is. He picked up another like a full time while he's trying to launch the movie business voice acting career as well, or the voiceover career, which I think is a super clutch move.

[Joel]

Yeah.

[Matt]

Especially being that you are in an industry that's incredibly erratic as far as the amount of money that you might be able to generate from that. It's always nice to pursue something else like that while also having something that's going to be able to pay the bills. But yeah, maybe we'll actually hear your voice on one of the generic ads that run, that run on our podcast. Maybe off on the side we'll be like, wait a minute, how fun would that be?

[Joel]

I was talking to my oldest daughter about this randomly on the way to school the other day. She was voiceover stuff. Well, no, just about being about actresses, how much money they make and stuff like that. She was just curious. And it's really easy to think as a consumer of media that a lot of people in the industry are making tons of money. And the truth is, a very small percentage of people who work in the industry are making tons of money. And then there is a whole slew of people who work in support roles and have played bit parts in a bunch of the productions that we see, whose names and faces you would not recognize, who, you know, they live kind of like a give me my daily bread sort of existence, hoping for the next gig. And just, I guess just puts it in perspective that most people, the vast majority of people in Hollywood, pursuing the passion that they love, the artistic commitment they have, actually outweighs the monetary benefit that they receive lots of times.

[Matt]

As is the path with artists, Most artists, honestly, like it's the very few who are like able to get pretty wealthy off of their art.

[Joel]

Yeah, it's just easy to have that assumption that, like, everybody's crushing it in Hollywood. And the truth is. No, no, no. Like most people have two, three, multiple jobs. Right. Trying to make ends meet.

[Matt]

And okay, not everybody hits it like Flo from Progressive.

[Joel]

Well, yeah, that's actually a really good gig. Right. To have the insurance spokesperson which lasts for many, many years. And once you're entrenched, you get paid a lot of money. But the bare minimum thing, I think Jay, would be to take all of your money out of bank of America and to put it into cit. He said, should I abolish bank of America? Yes, yes. The answer is you should. We think all how to money listeners and even people who don't listen, but who will never know, we said this should abolish the big banks from their lives. And I think that's just the most. That's a crucial move that you can make really quickly that will eliminate leakage fees coming from the bank of America account and crummy interest rates that you're getting on. Not insubstantial amount of money.

[Matt]

Yeah. Actually, just listening to him, I wonder if one of his concerns was the fact that he's thinking, I'm gathering that Jay is a little bit older based on the fact that he said his Roth contributions he said 8,000 something. That means he's over 50.

[Joel]

That's right.

[Matt]

Which means. I think he's just. He's a little bit older.

[Joel]

Otherwise the max contribution would be 7,500 this year.

[Matt]

Exactly. Yeah. So he's a little bit older, which tells me that I think he's thinking through, well, how do I get cash out of there if I need some. Some cash and if that's the case, I mean, there's so many ways you can get around that if you are the ability to transfer money to the different accounts, different bills that you need to pay to Even a credit card. He didn't mention that. But I mean, I don't use cash at all and I don't know, very few folks do. But I was wondering if that was a part of what he was asking as. As like, oh, but how do I. How do I actually get some. Some cash out of the account?

[Joel]

But I think. I don't know. Matt, listening to Jay's question, the most important piece of advice I think we can offer is to. To not allow this inheritance to be a leaky faucet, to not let it go out in dribs and drabs in small bits and pieces from your life finding, looking up 6, 8, 12 months from now and then seeing that the inheritance that could have set you up for financial success and more financial independence and less need to take gigs that you don't want to is gone. Right. You've just spent it all here and there trying to Cover things like the rent you mentioned, Jay. Rent being expensive. Well, the thing. It's not. That's not untrue, right? Of course it is, especially being out there in Hollywood. But the thing we want to avoid is slowly tapping the inheritance until it runs out. Because it feels like a warm security blanket right now. But it can quickly be gone if you don't come up with a plan. And I think like a warning. Just a person that I've talked to that's experienced something like this that could be a warning to you. If you listen to episode 1040, we talked to Justin from the price of avocado toast. He had a much, much bigger inheritance.

[Matt]

That's right.

[Joel]

And he talks about how he didn't do all stupid stuff with it, but he did a lot of stupid stuff with it and how it could have completely changed his life and set him up for. If he knew then what he knows now, it would have been a game changer. Like he could have been financially independent. And I think the same thing is true here, Jay. Not to the same extent because it's not the same overall dollar amount, but there's just so much good you can do with it. Like the Roth ira. As long as you're not petering it away little bit by little bit, month after month, you really can change your life.

[Matt]

Yeah, totally. The fact that he paid off his credit card debt is great. Stuck some money in his Roth is great. But these are like one time actions that he has done. Right. So like, I think last time when we took his question, we talked about the money gears and specifically, I mean, essentially we laid them out as like goals for him to achieve. But what we didn't really address were the boring, unsexy habits and the discipline that allow you to be able to achieve those goals. Like, it makes me think about running, Joel, and like somebody who hasn't run before is like, oh, I want to be able to run a 5k or 10k. Well, great. Like that's awesome. And it's great to know that like you can achieve these things. But I think what we're talking about now is how can you actually get to the point to where you can move on to the next Money Gear and not just to do the money gear once. Right. Like he funded his Roth IRA last year or maybe beginning of this year, but to do it next year and the year after that. Yeah, and the year after that. What I don't like hearing is that it sounds like he's on this trajectory of. Oh, like he mentioned his Rent like you gave yourself away, admitting that your cost of living is high, especially when it comes to how much you're paying in rent. But there need to be some of these underlying changes to make sure that you are essentially on a good path for not just next year, but for years, decades on down the road. And essentially what we're talking about here is putting together a plan, what it is that you should be doing with your money. Right. Like these are the going back to the running analogy. That's the like make sure you get enough sleep, make sure you're eating well, make sure like you've got a decent training plan. And a big part of that that we don't hear you discussing is essentially a budget where you are able to look ahead and say, yeah, I see that I'm going to have this much money to set aside, not just for rent, but for these other financial goals that I might have. That I think is sort of the next step for you, which doesn't exist within the money gear framework.

[Joel]

Right.

[Matt]

But it's something that you should have essentially like sprinkled all throughout all the money gears. You are tracking your spending, you're looking at how it is that you are essentially whipping your money into shape.

[Joel]

Well, it makes me think of, well, we're going to go with this analogy because you mentioned it, but one of my middle aged dad friends was like I want to run a sub 20 minute 5k and he hadn't really been running at all. And one day, I know you're talking about he rips off like a 25 mile run and he's dead at the end of it. Not literally, but pretty close. And, and like he, I think he just thought like I'm going to do whatever it takes to get there. And I think that short term mentality, like I'm going to run 25 miles in one day so I can, because I want to get to this goal can actually sometimes be a defeatist way of going about it. Instead of creating a sustainable plan that's going to allow you to get where you want to go.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Joel]

And you also have to realize that it's, it's not easy. Like that goal of especially in your 40s, a sub 20 minute 5k. Yeah, you can do it, but it's going to take like a lot of time and a lot of consistency. And that was the thing I think he hadn't really planned on. And I think the same thing is true for Jay. It's going to take time and consistency and the small things to achieve the goals that he wants. Not just like, blam, I'm going to stick money into my Roth IRA last year and that'll get it done this.

[Matt]

One time because he got this unexpected windfall that's like, that's like getting a Lance Armstrong blood infusion where you're like one counting on that. But all of a sudden my performance is through the roof. It's just like, yeah, that's not really sustainable. You're going to get caught for doping.

[Joel]

I don't know. I guess you can keep getting those blood infusions, but then, yeah, at some point you get caugh. Yeah, good analogy. But I think what you're getting at, we want you to dig into your budget, dig into your spending, come up with a sustainable approach to what's coming in and what's going out. And that can be harder, right, when you have a regular income like Jay does. But it's a really important thing to know what's a typical month look like? So you can plan for reality and know what your budget allows. Right. And what it doesn't. So maybe you should sign up for a service, I don't know, Monarch or you need a budget, one of those two. They're both fantastic. Unless you're super into spreadsheets, it might be worth it to pay for a service like that so you can stare your numbers directly in the face. We want you to track your money and your spending and know where everything is flowing, especially because of that variable income. Come up with a bare bones budget too, and then be willing to cut back maybe in leaner months, leaner times, to be able to preserve that financial margin in your life. I think that flexibility, instead of being totally desensitized to how much you spend and, you know, turning to the inheritance money here and there to maybe alleviate some of that pain that can, I think, allow you to make small, intentional pivots in a given month so that you can keep it intact and invested for your future.

[Matt]

That's right, man. All right, let's hear from a listener who's been listening to the show for a while. She's made some positive, some changes in the right direction. Now she's trying to figure out what to do next.

[Nina]

Hey, Matt and Joel, this is Nina from South Carolina. Love listening to your podcast and don't think I would be where I'm at now financially if it wasn't for listening to you guys for so long. So thank you so much. Quick question for you guys. My nonprofit employer is now offering in addition to our 403B retirement plan. The option for a Roth after tax contribution, Should I contribute to both? Is that an option? What are the benefits, the pros, the cons? I'm currently contributing to the 403B. Should I do this option as well? Thanks, guys.

[Matt]

All right, let's dig into this. This Roth versus traditional account question that Nina's got.

[Joel]

Joel.

[Matt]

First off, Nina, I love that your nonprofit is making a Roth 403B even available to you. This has become far more common in all types of workplace retirement accounts. More than 9 in 10 401ks actually now have a Roth option. 8 in 10 employers with a 403B have a Roth option as well, which is awesome. I just like, anytime there's more choices available to folks, Joel. Where they can make their own decisions, I'm a fan of that.

[Joel]

Oh, man. I look back to my early days and I'm like, if I had a Roth 401k option available in so many of those early years, when my income.

[Matt]

That's when they really shine. Right?

[Joel]

That's when they shine. That's exactly right. Yeah. If, if, if when I was making little money, like, think about, yeah, I'd be happy to pay the 10 12% tax rate essentially on those dollars going into a Roth 401K versus a traditional. Because I was 401K, she's 403B. I would have been happy to. I would have been so happy to, but I just didn't have that ability. And the Roth 401K, Roth 403B options were just so much more limited 10, 12, 15 years ago. So you're right. Increased choice is. Is nice. And so, yeah. I mean, so much of what you choose to do depends on your current tax rate and also where your career and earnings are headed. And this takes a little bit of, like, looking into the crystal ball or just kind of making some assumptions. And that's not. You can't do that perfectly. Right. Nobody knows.

[Matt]

But simultaneously, I'm sure you working as an entry level radio producer, you could probably, like, crystal ball enough to be like, I think I might make more or, like, 10 years from now.

[Joel]

Actually, if I don't make more in the next three, four, five years, I'm gonna be doing something else.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Joel]

And so I at least knew that much that, like, I was willing to work a job for less pay that I love. But I also knew that at some point I wanted to start a family and my income was going to have to go up. Yeah. In one way or another. And so, yeah, if, if you find yourself in that boat, Nina, I think that at least can add some, can shine some light on which, which routes best for you and yeah, yeah, I.

[Matt]

Think for other how to money listeners who might find themselves in that boat right where they are hoping or, or they are just able to sort of.

[Joel]

Look at the career track that they're.

[Matt]

On and they know, hey, my income is going to rise significantly. Well, yeah, taking advantage of that low tax bracket, taking advantage of that, contributing to a Roth 401K or a Roth 403B in those early years can be a really nice move. And so if you find yourself in that 12% tax bracket in particular, I think it's just a no brainer to choose the Roth 403B option over the traditional. Like a lot of times when folks are trying to weigh some of the options between, like, okay, well, I'm thinking about that versus doing my own thing. Like, we would tell you to look at expense ratios, but most likely you've got the same brokerage that's servicing both the traditional and the Roth. It's just essentially two different buckets within the same retirement plan that you've got available there to you. So it's not about that. It's just more about what does the future hold? Like, where does my income line up to what I expect it to be off in the future.

[Joel]

Yeah, Matt. And of course that 12% tax bracket, that's essentially up to the $100,000 earning mark and it's half that for single filers. So. Yeah. So think about, well, what's my income? Like, what's my, if married, what's my, my joint income with, with my spouse are adjusted gross income in particular. And so you said that you work at a nonprofit. My wife does as well. And I, I know this from personal experience in our family that nonprofit salaries, they're not always mind blowing. They're not always like, that's, that's not the reason most people choose to work at a nonprofit is because they're going to just make a ridiculously sick income.

[Matt]

That's right.

[Joel]

Which means nonprofit workers are even more likely to benefit from the Roth option because, you know, I'm guessing they are closer to that or below potentially that $100,000 earning threshold. And you know, we take that back. If you're married, filing jointly and your partner makes a ton of money, if that's the case, or if you're one of those rare nonprofit employees that make an incredibly great salary, then you might want to lean more traditional kind of stay as is. But I would let that kind of be the guiding line. If you find yourself in that 12% bracket, and that's the tax you're going to pay on money you contribute to your Roth ira. And you don't need the tax break right now, pay the tax because in all likelihood I think you're making a smart gamble. Whereas if you're in a higher tax bracket, it's just harder to make a compelling case that Roth is inevitably the best choice.

[Matt]

Yeah, yeah. Unless you are one of those nonprofit C suite level employees, which in that, I guess that should be an oxymoron.

[Joel]

Some of us exist, right. There's some people who head nonprofits that make good money. But if you are just an employee of a nonprofit, there's a good chance.

[Matt]

That it's not likely that she's raking in cash, that she's making bank. Nina also mentioned doing both, and that's certainly a possibility as well. And it might be the best way to go from a tax diversification perspective, also contributing some to that traditional 403. It could also allow you, again, this is depending on your income, but it could allow you to get your taxable income down enough to where then those Roth contributions would then be taxed at a lower effective tax rate, which is a cool little strategy. This is called marginal tax rate targeting. And basically, if you're close to that tax bracket threshold, that jump, right. Like the line between two states, if that jump takes you from 12 to 22%, well, it's going to be worth running the numbers of how much traditional contributions it would take in order to bring your AGI down enough so that those Roth contributions are only taxed there at that, at that 12%.

[Joel]

So that's.

[Matt]

Yeah. Something certainly something worth considering. I just thought of to the fact that I mentioned or she didn't say anything about a Roth ira. Right. And so we are certainly bigger Fans of Roth IRAs. And if you are not already contributing to your own Roth ira, I think I would actually, if it was me, I would be looking to prioritize that like maybe keeping the traditional 403B but then prioritizing the Roth IRA. Of course, you get the tax diversification standpoint advantage there. In addition to that, then you've got more retirement dollars for future you down the road. Right. Because you are filling more of your retirement buckets. But in addition to that, you are going to have more options, more flexibility available to you with those Roth IRA contributions as opposed to Roth 4.3B contributions. And we don't like this is like a benefit that we don't like talking about a whole lot because like for the most part we don't want you touching your retirement dollars. But if you are ever in a situation down the road where you might need to draw on those Roth contributions, it's much easier to get those dollars out tax and penalty free as opposed to the 4.3B, the Roth 4.3B which has more pro rata rule stipulations in regards to how it is that you can handle those contributions.

[Joel]

You mentioned the choice like part of the choice. The benefit of that choice is you can prioritize a ridiculously low cost brokerage. Depending on what plan your workplace offers, you might find that your 403 has fees that are higher than you'd see. Maybe you're 403s through fidelity and that's awesome and you have access to the same low cost funds that you would going through Fidelity directly for a Roth ira. But if not, you might find that you have better choices and lower costs by opening up that Roth IRA on your own.

[Matt]

I love it.

[Joel]

All right Matt, we got more questions to get to, including with all the news about Greenland, should that impact how you invest? We'll talk about that and more right after this. For small businesses, every hire matters, but the time and resources required to hire right are Limited. Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full time job.

[Matt]

Yeah, posting a job, that's not always the hard part. It's the finding, connecting with and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to shortlisting candidates and conducting AI powered interviews for initial screenings, all through a conversational interface that lets you describe what you need in plain language. Nearly 60% of hires find a candidate to interview within a week. With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent.

[Joel]

Hire right the first time, post your first job and get $100 off towards your job. [e-mail] how to money that's LinkedIn.com howtomoney terms and conditions apply.

[Announcer]

Friday Kick off the Winter Olympics in style with the opening ceremony from Italy featuring a special performance by Mariah Carey. Celebrate the greatest athletes from around the globe as they come together to go for gold.

[Jay]

Litzy born sensational.

[Announcer]

The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

[Nina]

Redefining this Sport.

[Announcer]

Friday at 8 Eastern, 7 Central on NBC and Peacock running A business is.

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[Matt]

All right, we are back from the break and it is now time for the Facebook question of the week, which is from Anonymous, who wrote. With all the news about Greenland, I'm starting to seriously wonder if I should pull all my savings from the bank and buy gold. Do you have any advice?

[Joel]

This is what's happening in Greenland. I hadn't heard it.

[Matt]

This question is so 15 days ago.

[Joel]

Well, no, well, yeah, you're right. I mean, in some sense, and from the Greenland standpoint, that's last week in the. In the Facebook group. So it was probably asked at a point of greater tension than currently exists. Sure.

[Matt]

And, well, in addition to the tension, it's also because of the fact that we've seen gold. Was it last week that it hit all time? It hit, you know, broke $5,000 an ounce for the first time ever. So, yeah, more. Folks, it's not surprising that when you see the value of something, the price of something shoot up like that, it attracts all the eyeballs and you start to wonder, oh, dang it, maybe I should have been investing in that. Guess what? Folks aren't saying that about bitcoin right now. When the prices of bitcoin are low, no one's talking about it, they're looking elsewhere. But then when it shoots up, everyone's like, oh man, should maybe I gotta get it.

[Joel]

Now's the time. Yeah, yeah.

[Matt]

Which is like, I mean, quite literally the exact opposite of what you want to do.

[Joel]

I will say I was encouraged by the comments to this Question in the Facebook section. Some were really funny, but some were essentially speaking to the reality that don't let the headlines drive your investing. Which is something we have said for many, many years on the show.

[Matt]

100%.

[Joel]

Brian's advice, he said, I would do what your parents did during Y2K. Nothing. And if you remember, you remember Y2K. Oh, your parents did something during Y2K. Did it work out to their benefit?

[Matt]

Was it earlier in this episode? We're talking about paranoia driving your decisions.

[Joel]

Yeah, yeah. Tell us more.

[Matt]

No, no, no. We'll save that for some other episodes.

[Joel]

Okay, okay.

[Matt]

Save that for a How to prep on the Cheap Deep Dive episode.

[Joel]

I have some preppers in my family, so I can understand. And then Greg's advice was to turn off the news. Both of those are great suggestions. I think it's just understandable that all the talk, the geopolitical tension is disconcerting. And putting all your savings dollars into gold though, because of it. It's just a very, very radical choice to make. But even though there are real things at stake here like we talked about, that could have a long lasting impact for investors, making knee jerk decisions based on headlines is almost always in your own worst interest. And as long term investors, Matt, we're kind of stay the course kind of people or reticent to tell people to make quick moves. Usually even if you want to make moves and if you feel like things have changed, we're talking about short strides over a long period of time in a different direction, not some sort of big knee jerk move.

[Matt]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't, I mean my opinion hasn't changed. When we talked, we talked about this basically like a couple weeks ago, I guess on a Friday flight. But the like the headline news cycle coming out of the current administration, it's not looking at decades at a time or even years at a time or months or even weeks. It's like on a daily, hourly sort of basis. And guess how? I don't want to invest on a daily or hourly basis. And so there would need to be changes that take place over the course of years. Like I'm talking about a multi year timeline that would be significant enough for me to change the way that I'm investing, which is currently 100% in US equities. So we start to see changes two years from now that indicates the US is no longer where there is going to be growth and innovation and businesses that are able to operate in a way that leads to not only the success of those companies, but Just the general betterment of individuals. Okay, that's something we'll have a discussion. Like 18 months from now is when we'll start being like, all right, what do you think now? And maybe at that point I'll say, yeah, okay, it's time to go full international. But we are nowhere near that. This is literally a two week cycle that we're currently on.

[Joel]

It wouldn't be a pivot that strong either, right? It would be.

[Matt]

It could be. But that would also likely mean that like, hey, okay, let's start talking about possibly offshoring my physical body as well, because it might mean that things have seriously taken a turn for the worse here in the States. So, yeah, I'm not ruling out the possibility of something like that happen. Do I actually think that's going to happen? Absolutely not. I think our constitution, I think our form of government, I think the way that we govern here in the US is bigger and more durable than what it is that a single individual can tweet or truth out and completely change the course of the global economy.

[Joel]

I think part of this question too gets down to the fact not just that gold is seen as a safe haven asset, but also gold of price has gone up. There is that fundamental reality that people are like, everybody's going to gold. The price is skyrocketing, similar to the way people view Bitcoin, as you mentioned. And it's like, maybe that's where my money should be. If you have money in cash in the bank, in savings and putting it in gold, those are two very different things. If gold stagnates or drops in value, your savings suffer. So if this is money you need liquid, putting it in gold doesn't really make much sense, especially if you're buying physical gold and you're talking about the reality that it's expensive to buy, expensive to sell, not easy to transact with. Gold is just not liquid in the way cash is. So it's just hard to use a gold bar in case of emergency. Not that gold can't make a good investment with a small percentage of your portfolio. But be very careful when you're talking about taking savings and turning it into gold because of, you know, political events happening. It you have to take in a lot more calculation than just the fact that gold is outperforming your, your cash and you're nervous.

[Matt]

Yeah, you could take a portion of your portfolio if you really wanted to buy a gold ETF instead, which would be a better way of approaching it. The fees are going to be less Egregious. It's going to be much easier to buy and sell than selling nuggets of gold bullion or bars or coins.

[Joel]

Facebook Marketplace. I mean, come on, that's gotta be. I know there are ways to do.

[Matt]

This, but if you can buy bars of gold at Costco, then you should be able to sell a bar of gold on Facebook Marketplace. Yeah, one of the same. But really it's same customer, same client.

[Joel]

Right. Gold has that same friction problem that real estate has. Right. Where the buyer and seller have to match up and it's just, it takes a little bit of effort and it costs money.

[Matt]

Yeah. What I'm getting at though, if you want a little bit of gold exposure, I think that's fine. If you want to do that, so be it. I'm not personally doing that. Just keep it to 5% or less of your overall portfolio and ultimately to the sort of core of this listener's question. It looks like we saw another Trump sort of taco moment on Greenland, right. Which actually bodes well for not making any hard knee jerk pivots based on whatever it is that seems to be whatever deal making that might be happening out in public.

[Joel]

And taco is what people refer to. I'm sure most people realize that. But. But Trump always chickens out. And so there are these threats that are made, those threats get rolled back. He's hoping to get a little bit of a deal. But all of the talk, the bluster is never followed through on. And so the worries that people have similar like Liberation Day and tariffs and stuff like that, everything gets rolled back, at least in large part. And because of that, investors who were nervous that all the threats were going to play out as said, well, it doesn't even come close to that in the end. So I think yeah, we should also realize that is a part of the current moment. And so maybe don't believe everything you hear. All right, Matt, let's get to another listener email. This one came from Bill. He says, what does it take for someone to get a credit report? The law says it has to be free. I don't think the law is clear about how easy it is for a person to get their own report. I'd love to hear you guys talk about the details of how to get your credit report.

[Matt]

Happy to. The credit bureau's bill are legally required to give you access to your credit report once a year. Even still, they have been for. And this is something that they've been doing forever now, been attempting to sell you access to your credit information. Via their own sites and via their own products. But the federally mandated place to turn for your free credit report is annualcreditreport.com.

[Joel]

It'S a very.

[Matt]

Ugly, not very boring, government looking kind of website.

[Joel]

I was just gonna say that. It's amazing how that when they had a profit motive behind it, the websites were slick, the jingles were incredibly enticing and people.

[Matt]

This thing's free.

[Joel]

Yes.

[Matt]

Why fancy it up?

[Joel]

Why? There's no, there's no incentive, no good marketing around it. And it looks like, you know, from Ms. DOS 1992 or it's like, I wonder. Honestly, it's pathetic website.

[Matt]

That's, that's a part of the reason why it looks the way it does because like, I'm sure they want people to go there and be like, oh, there's no way this is legit.

[Joel]

Right?

[Matt]

It's like, it's like you look up a restaurant while you're on vacation or something and you're like, oh, this can't be the right place.

[Joel]

Yes. It's got like the clip art imagery on there and then you turn away.

[Matt]

And you like go to some other place that is a tourist trap. But like that's actually the place that's going to overcharge you, underserve you. But in reality you want to go to the terrible hole in the wall place that the local told you about. That's actually the legit place. That's the equivalent of this. AnnualCreditReport.com, the credit bureaus could literally pay.

[Joel]

One individual on fiber 1000 bucks and have a much better website like next week than they're currently giving out. But of course the goal is to comply with federal law, not to steer.

[Matt]

All everybody to the actual slick, nice looking products that they are selling their website.

[Joel]

No, no, no. You want the credit lock guys, that's what you want. No, you don't want the credit lock. Despite what the credit bureau say, and I will say to the credit bureau's credit, Matt, maybe we should, maybe we should say a little something nice about them. Since COVID the toss my bone, yeah. The reports have actually become free on a weekly basis. The federal requirement is to have your credit reports available to you for free once a year. And for the time being at least, you get it 52 times a year. Well, how long is that going to last? I have no idea. I'm actually surprised it's lasted this long. And for most people there's no need to look that often. Really. Once, maybe twice a year is a Good kind of rhythm to get into for checking your credit report just to make sure everything's accurate. Because I think when you look at the number, something between 20 and 25% of credit reports have some sort of inaccuracy on them. But if you find that that's the case for yours, you can dispute anything you find on your credit report that isn't correct directly with the credit bureaus themselves. So, Bill, hope that helps. It's actually fairly easy to get your own credit report and to monitor kind of the changes that happen there, despite the shadiness, the crumminess of that website.

[Matt]

That's right. Bunny, let's get back to the beer that you and I enjoyed during this episode, which was a wee heavy by Incendiary Brewing Company. And specifically, like you mentioned, it is a coconut maple macaroon barrel aged scotch style ale that was aged in Blanton's bourbon barrels. That's a mouthful. What'd you think about this beer?

[Joel]

I'm gonna say I love scotch ales and barrel aged scotch ales. Normally right up my alley. And I really like this beer. But I will also say sweet to the max. It was very sweet.

[Matt]

Yeah, I agree.

[Joel]

Maple and macaroon in the same coconut. Yeah, like that's a lot going on. It.

[Matt]

Yeah. Whole, whole lot of flavor, like right out. Right. Like that's the first thing I wrote down to was sweet, but like that maple aroma, I was just like, oh, this is. It immediately translated into that maple flavor. It's almost. Maybe it translated more directly into like maple syrup sort of flavor.

[Joel]

Pour some waffles, baby.

[Matt]

But like the coconut macaroon, like it reminded me of Girl Scout. What's the Girl Scout cookie that's got the coconut flavor? Is that it? I don't think so. I don't know. Reminded me of that. But it's also just real. It was a really big beer. I think I felt like I was drinking more bourbon than actual scotch ale, which I'm fine with. Blaine's. This is a fantastic bourbon. But yeah, this was actually a perfect beer for United Split. This was a 16 ounce can. We each only had 8 ounces of that, which was honestly the perfect quantity. That's right. Like, any more than that, I don't think I would have been able to finish.

[Joel]

But no, I agree.

[Matt]

This is perfect.

[Joel]

Yeah, I agree. It was delicious.

[Matt]

It's a nice like one of those winter warmer kind of style beers.

[Joel]

It's a January beer. January February beer.

[Matt]

Yeah.

[Joel]

So perfect timing as well. Even though it was incredibly sweet. I still, I still dug it. I could have used maybe some roastier tones to balance it out, but still still enjoyed it a lot. That's right.

[Matt]

Yeah. And thanks again to Brandon for donating this one to the show. But buddy, that's going to be it for this episode. We'll link to any resources we may have mentioned during this recording up on.

[Joel]

The website, including the real site where you can get your credit report.

[Matt]

Oh yeah, we'll link to that annualcreditreport.com but yeah, head over to our show notes and there'll be other resources there for you as well. But buddy, that's going to be it for this one. So until next time, Best friends out. Best friends Out.

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