84% of Americans Say THIS is the Key to Success (But They're Wrong!)

Summary

Money Guy Show Episode Summary Episode Title: 84% of Americans Say THIS is the Key to Success (But They're Wrong!)
Hosts: Brian Preston and Bo Hanson
Release Date: April 16, 2025

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Introduction: Challenging Common Beliefs About Financial Success

In this episode of the Money Guy Show, hosts Brian Preston and Bo Hanson delve into a compelling study conducted by Empower, which reveals that a staggering 84% of Americans attribute financial success primarily to hard work. However, Brian and Bo argue that while hard work is undeniably important, it may not be the sole or even the most critical factor in achieving long-term financial prosperity.

Survey Insights: What Americans Believe Drives Financial Success

Brian Preston [00:06]: “Wowzer. 84% of Americans think this is what creates financial success.”

Bo Hanson emphasizes the curiosity that led Empower to conduct the study, aiming to uncover the perceived secret ingredients behind financial success. The survey asked respondents to select their top three contributors to financial success, revealing the following priorities:

• 84%: Hard Work
• 65%: Talent
• 55%: Who You Know
• 51%: Luck and Circumstances
• 36%: Being a Visionary
• 35%: Putting Money Away for Retirement
• 32%: Outworking Everyone

Analyzing the Survey: Beyond Just Hard Work

Brian acknowledges the value of hard work as a foundational element for financial success:

Brian Preston [01:07]: “Hard work is the first component because we always say if you want to know the three ingredients to wealth creation, it's discipline.”

However, he challenges the notion that hard work alone is sufficient. Brian introduces the concept of turning hard work into financial resources through disciplined saving and investing. He critiques the low ranking of "putting money away for retirement," suggesting that many overlook the importance of investing early to build assets that work for them over time.

Brian Preston [02:00]: “Hard work is so valuable as a component, is definitely a facet of success. But if you're not trying to figure out how you turn that hard work, meaning your time and labor into resources, that then will let you buy your time and labor back.”

The Crucial Role of Investing and Building Assets

Bo Hanson builds on Brian's insights, highlighting the long-term benefits of strategic saving and investing:

Bo Hanson [04:01]: “The earlier you figure this out, honestly, the less hard the work has to be.”

He points out that consistent saving, even in modest amounts, can significantly contribute to wealth accumulation over a career. Despite this understanding, nearly half of Americans (47%) doubt they'll achieve their financial goals, often due to misinformation or lack of proper financial planning.

Listener Questions: Practical Financial Guidance

The episode features several listener questions, providing practical advice grounded in financial principles.

1. Roth vs. Traditional 401(k) Contributions

Listener: Todd S.
Timestamp: [07:02]

Todd inquires about allocating between a traditional and Roth 401(k) given his marginal tax rate of 27.75%. Bo and Brian discuss factors such as current and future tax rates, age, income projections, and retirement plans to advise on the optimal contribution strategy.

Bo Hanson [07:24]: “What would you tell Todd, Brad? How would you walk him through how to think?”

Brian Preston [08:19]: Emphasizes evaluating whether to take advantage of tax-free growth opportunities now or benefit from current tax deductions, depending on Todd's future income expectations.

2. Public vs. Private School: Weighing Financial and Educational Values

Listener: Be Unpredictable
Timestamp: [12:13]

A listener grapples with the decision between affording private school or allocating funds to other areas like vacations or college savings. Bo and Brian discuss the importance of aligning educational choices with long-term financial goals and evaluating the true reasons behind opting for private education.

Bo Hanson [12:33]: “Every financial decision you make has an opportunity cost.”

Brian Preston [14:35]: Shares personal anecdotes about public education and the complexities of making educational choices that balance financial reality with children's needs.

3. Preparing for the "Messy Middle": Starting a Family

Listener: Shane W.
Timestamp: [19:50]

Shane seeks advice on preparing financially for the challenges of starting a family. Bo introduces the concept of the "messy middle," likening it to navigating obstacles with a solid financial plan in place.

Bo Hanson [20:19]: “Buckle up. You just strap in and hold, metaphorically.”

Remy [27:00]: Highlights available resources, such as a new child checklist on moneyguy.com/resources, to assist in planning for the financial responsibilities of parenthood.

Personal Anecdotes and Reflections

Brian and Bo share personal stories that illustrate the interplay between financial decisions and life events. Brian reflects on his experiences as a parent balancing financial planning with familial love, emphasizing that money is merely a tool to support life's goals.

Brian Preston [17:03]: Discusses the emotional and financial complexities of supporting a child with special needs, reinforcing the importance of intentional financial planning.

Bo Hanson [25:18]: Talks about the evolving costs of raising children and the importance of adjusting budgets to accommodate new financial responsibilities.

Conclusion: Effective Strategies for Financial Success

Brian and Bo conclude by reinforcing the episode's central theme: while hard work is essential, it must be complemented by disciplined saving and strategic investing to achieve lasting financial success. They encourage listeners to utilize available resources, such as the wealth multiplier tool on moneyguy.com, to better understand and optimize their financial strategies.

Bo Hanson [06:17]: “The sooner you figure it out, the more excited you can get about building towards that actual financial goal that you're seeking.”

The hosts emphasize that financial success is a multifaceted journey that requires balancing effort with smart financial decisions, enabling listeners to build a secure and fulfilling future.

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Notable Quotes:

• Brian Preston [02:00]: “Hard work is so valuable as a component, is definitely a facet of success. But if you're not trying to figure out how you turn that hard work, meaning your time and labor into resources, that then will let you buy your time and labor back.”

• Bo Hanson [04:01]: “The earlier you figure this out, honestly, the less hard the work has to be.”

• Bo Hanson [07:24]: “What would you tell Todd, Brad? How would you walk him through how to think?”

• Bo Hanson [12:33]: “Every financial decision you make has an opportunity cost.”

• Bo Hanson [20:19]: “Buckle up. You just strap in and hold, metaphorically.”

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This episode of the Money Guy Show provides valuable insights into the misconceptions surrounding financial success and offers practical advice on optimizing financial strategies to complement hard work. By emphasizing the importance of disciplined investing and thoughtful financial planning, Brian and Bo equip listeners with the knowledge to navigate their financial journeys more effectively.

Transcript

[Bryan Preston]

Wowzer. 84% of Americans think this is what creates financial success.

[Bo Hanson]

Brian, I am so excited about this because wouldn't you love to know what is the secret ingredient and what's the trick that other folks have figured out in terms of how to build financial success. And Empower was so curious about this. They actually did a study on this. And I got to be honest, Brian, the study results were a little surprising to me.

[Bryan Preston]

Well, Bo, I'd love for us to just kind of go over what the results say and then I want to just paint some color from somebody who's been managing money for three decades and kind of tell you that I think Americans, I give you credit because the number one thing, and I'll let you go through the rest of this they said was 84% said hard work. And without a doubt your first job and getting that job is going to get you some money, that margin so you can actually start saving and building assets. But I don't know that I'm willing to say 80 hard work is the biggest driver of financial success.

[Bo Hanson]

Yeah, this is the way that Empower set this study up. They said, hey, we want you to pick. What do you think are the three largest contributors? And so all the respondents picked their top three. And 84% of folks picked hard work as the biggest impact on Future financial success. 65% said it was talent. 55% said it's who you know, it's not what you know. 51% said luck and circumstances. I'm assuming that means like you're born into wealth. 36% said being a visionary, I'm thinking that's probably like entrepreneurs and people that create and invent things. And then 35% said putting money away for retirement. And 32% said outworking everyone. Which I think that kind of ties into hard work. But I was fascinated at how much stuff was at the top of the list that I think, ah. And then the thing, the one, the nugget that was buried in there that I think really has the biggest impact on long term success.

[Bryan Preston]

Well, the compliment to everybody who answered this. Hard work is probably the first component of because we always say if you want to know the three ingredients to wealth creation, it's discipline. Money, meaning that your discipline live on less than you make, that creates the margin of money and that you give it enough time to start working because you put that money to work. It is incredible. And that's why I was shocked at almost next to the bottom of the list was putting money away for retirement. Because here's what I would encourage people to understand. Hard work is going to be a great differentiate. Something that differentiates you in the beginning because it puts you out there, it gets you saving money. But if you're not turning that hard work into margin that gets invested, you will run into limits with hard work is because, you know, all the jobs I've ever had, I think about when I did plumbing in college. I remember as I'm crawling through crawl spaces, getting scratched up by the J hooks and all these other things, I was like, man, this is going to be a tough job to do. If I was trying to do this, if I was 55 years old. And then I think about when I get into public accounting and I'm doing these, you know, 60, 70 hour weeks doing taxes, I'm like, man, this is fine. I don't have, you know, children yet, so I can give my all to this job. But I bet when I'm 50 years old, I'm not going to want to work 70 hours a week. And that's why I tell you hard work is so valuable as a component, is definitely a facet of success. But if you're not trying to figure out how you turn that hard work, meaning your time and labor into resources, that then will let you buy your time and labor back. That's why you have to invest. That's why cracks me up or drives me crazy that putting money away for retirement was at the bottom of the list because people are missing the forest for the trees.

[Bo Hanson]

What I think is fascinating is that the earlier you figure this out, honestly, the less hard the work has to be.

[Bryan Preston]

Is it trees for forests or forest for trees?

[Bo Hanson]

You missed the forest for the trees.

[Bryan Preston]

Okay. Did I get it right?

[Bo Hanson]

No, you nailed it.

[Bryan Preston]

I never get it right. I actually got a razor on the horseshoes. I threw the horseshoe out and it actually went around.

[Bo Hanson]

I didn't even slow down on that one because you nailed it. I think what's so interesting that the earlier you figure this out, the less hard the work has to be. Because if you're someone who's just coming out at the very beginning of your career and maybe you just get a job where all you're doing is, you know, you're stamping widgets and that's what you do for your entire career. And it's not incredibly hard work necessarily, but you figure out early on that if I can just save a little bit, if I can just save $100 a month, $200 a month, $300 a month, just doing that if I can do that consistently over an entire working career, even I can build wealth. Even I can do that without having to go do something miraculous. So the earlier you figure this out, the easier it becomes. And yet, even though that's a reality, and I think this is so saddening, 47% of Americans, nearly half of Americans, believe that they will never reach the level of financial success they're seeking. Hey, I've got this goal that one day I want to be here, and I just don't believe I'll ever get there. I think that is just a lot of folks that are very misinformed.

[Bryan Preston]

And not to be the old man on the front por but a stat that also was in here when I read into the details. 19% of Gen Z said, quote, fake it till you make it was part of building success too. And look, that sounds like an infomercial for consumption and consumerism is because that's exactly what everybody who's out there marketing to you is telling you. Hey, it's okay. You can have your best Life right now. $200 a month, spread it out, amateurize your life. You'll be okay. Fake it until you make it. And that's what's going lead to this 47%. Because at some point, if you're not creating that margin by using discipline, you'll never get ahead. So lean into the 84%. Hard work initially, but you ought to be thinking about as soon as you start your first job that pays a good income, how the heck do I turn some of this labor into resources? So eventually I have an army of dollar bills that will work harder than I can with my back, my brain, and even my hands.

[Bo Hanson]

And I would encourage you, if you've not done this yet, go to moneyguy.com resources and play with our wealth multiplier tool. So you can see no matter where you are, whether you're 22 years old just starting out or you're 52 years old in your journey, you ought to play with that to see just how powerful your dollars can be. And the sooner you figure it out, the more excited you can get about building towards that actual financial goal that you're seeking. I love Brian that we get to talk about this kind of stuff, that we get to write the ship and explain the true story of money. We love this so much that we show up every Tuesday morning at 10am so that we can load you up with answers to your financial questions. And that's what we love to do every single week here at The Money Guy show. So with that creative director Ribe, I'm going to throw it over to you.

[Remy]

Yep, I've got some questions queued up and we're going to start it off with a question from Todd S. He says, wife and I are on step six of the foo with a 27.75% marginal tax rate. Since we're in the middle of the 25 to 30% range, how should we allocate between a traditional and Roth 401k?

[Bo Hanson]

So this is, this is hard. And you can tell that Todd is listening to some of our content because we have sort of a rule of thumb here. We say that if you add up your marginal federal rate and your marginal state rate and it's below 25%, there's a really good chance that Roth contributions make a lot of sense because you're in a lower tax bracket and odds are in the future you'll be in a higher tax bracket. If however, you add up your marginal federal rate and your marginal state rate and it's above 30%, there's a really good chance you ought to do pre tax because you're in a pretty high tax bracket now and that current year tax savings is super, super valuable. So now Todd finds himself in a situation that says, okay, I've done the math. I've added up my marginal federal and I've added up my marginal state and I am at 27.75%. So how do I decide? Do I do Roth, do I do pre tax, do I do some mix? So what would you tell Todd, Brad? How would you walk him through how to think?

[Bryan Preston]

Well, I love, because I mean he's drawing attention and we talk about that gray zone and it's because I think it's somewhat easy. If you add your federal and your state income tax rates, that marginal tax rate added together less than 25%, you go, wow, historically that's pretty low. So we might take advantage of this tax free growth opportunity so that compounding gets to do its magical stuff. This specifically happens usually for a lot of young people. You're at the beginning of your career, so you even have more years of compounding growth coming your way. Well, if somebody who's got a marginal rate, combined marginal rate over 30%, you can go, wow, that's actually taking a third of the money is going towards taxes. Wouldn't it be nice if that third was starting to work for me in a way and maybe I can play an arbitrage some point down the road when I retire and I Can, you know, maybe do some Roth conversions or something else at that point to catch up. But somebody like Todd, who's right in between, you've got to take into account this is the key section of what we always say as financial planners. It depends. Because what Todd didn't give us was his age. Because look, I will tell you somebody who's maybe in the 27% or 20, close to 28% like he said, if he's in his early 20s or even, you know, early 30s, still might push that needle towards the raw because you just have so many years of compounding growth and you know what the liabilities sitting out there for the federal government and other things, you're like, well, that's probably a pretty good deal for me to go ahead and do it. But you also need to take into account what are your future income projections. I tell you this because Todd, if you had some great years, but now you're at the tippity top of where you're going, you think next year it's all coming back down because maybe you had some bonuses, they set it up wr, you got a 40% bonus that you're just not going to get again. Well, then you might want to change because your income is going down. If that's the case, maybe you want to take the deduction now and then when your income comes down, you go back to the Roth. But if you look at your projection, you go, wait a minute, no, I'm young and my income is going to go way up and my tax rate is going to go up. Maybe this is okay to go ahead and do the Roth now because this is as good as it's going to get because taxes are going up in the future because of my income projections as well as what's going on with the federal government.

[Bo Hanson]

Or maybe you're someone who says, you know, I think I might want to retire early, I want to have access to dollars. Maybe I look at my current account structure. Say, man, if I were to do pre tax contributions right now, every dollar I put in is going to save me 27 cents, almost 28 cents in taxes. I'm going to take that tax savings and I'm going to begin building up my after tax account. I'm going to build up that bridge money so that if I do retire early, I have a pot of money I can pull from. Those are all the things you need to look at your age, your account structure, your future plans and your assumption of future tax rates. If you can look at those four things and kind of measure each one of them. It will dictate which side you should fall on. Should I lean Roth or should I lean traditional?

[Bryan Preston]

You know, you and I share a brain.

[Bo Hanson]

Okay.

[Bryan Preston]

Because you just, you summarized those four things and I had written down age, future income goals. And I think that's kind of what you just said, so it's amazing.

[Remy]

It sounds like it was a great answer.

[Bryan Preston]

No, but here's what's cool was I gave two of them. I didn't do the golds one. And Bo, like, just like peanut butter and jelly. I mean, he just came in right with it right after. I didn't even say the last one.

[Remy]

So I thought, Brian and Bo, peanut butter and jelly.

[Bo Hanson]

I like to think we are the peanut butter and jelly of personal finance.

[Bryan Preston]

That's. That's a compliment in my eyes. I mean, I don't know, maybe. Maybe peanut butter, bananas and honey. There you go. Now, R, because that's three components. Wow. I'm signing up both the bananas. He's a minion. And then we'll give you the honey.

[Remy]

Oh, thanks. Excellent. Well, Todd S. Great question and great answer, guys.

[Bryan Preston]

A little Elvis reference there too.

[Remy]

All right, ready for the next question?

[Bo Hanson]

Yes, ma'am.

[Remy]

Be unpredictable. Asks public or private school? We could afford private school, but then everything else would be on a much tighter budget and college would be harder to save for. Can you put a price on education?

[Bryan Preston]

Somebody's trying to get us in trouble.

[Bo Hanson]

Can you put a price on how much we love our children? No, of course not. But this is a really difficult. This is a difficult thing to navigate that a lot of parents face because private school costs more than public school. It's expensive, it pulls on your finances in a different way. But whenever we're faced with this question, we always have to come back to, alright, what is our money? Our money is nothing more than a tool that allows us to accomplish the goals that we have. Well, one of the goals that you may have as a parent is, hey, I want my kids to be in a certain educational institution for a certain reason. Maybe it's a better education. Maybe it's because there are cultural things that are attractive about this school. Or maybe it's because the way the information is shared and taught. Or maybe there's some other extenuating circumstance that justifies you deciding to put your kid in private school. You may be surprised to hear this. We're not going to fault you on that. We're not going to fight you on that. But we are going to remind you that Every financial decision you make has an opportunity cost. If I deploy my dollars in this direction to do this thing, that means I'm not deploying it in this direction do this thing. And what you have to do as a parent is you have to weigh those. You have to say, okay, is the reason I'm sending my kid to private school a justifiable and pragmatic and practical reason, or do I just want to do it because it sounds cool and because it looks fancy? And then what the Joneses next door did is they sent their kid to private school. So now I'm going to send my kid to private school. If that's the case, perhaps this is not the best use of your funds. But if you say, you know what? I really want my kid to be in this school for this specific reason, and I recognize that what that means is instead of being able to go on that vacation or being able to upgrade that car, maybe even being able to fund college in 529, we're going to focus our thoughts and efforts and resources here in this place right now. I think that's okay. But that's not a financial decision. That's a life decision. You have to make sure that you're measuring them both equally.

[Bryan Preston]

I'm so conflicted on this answer. Just to give you guys full transparency, I'm both Beau and I are products of public education. I also served on. I was chairman of a school board for many years. Large school system, over 40,000 students. And so I love public education. I think it's. If you've seen me when I did the Millionaire Mission book tour, the thing I talk about is that education is the ladder up. So I have this tremendous respect for the entire institution of education. But I will tell you, I got my own wake up call with. Because my oldest daughter, she's brilliant, she's smart, she's super talented. So talented that even though she's brilliant at math, she's also very creative. She had this whole thing as she was choosing college majors, she went the creative track, even though she has this brilliant analytical mind. So she did great in the public school system. But then I got the diagnosis that my daughter was autistic. And there was a lot that came with that where I felt like after we were going to the Marcus center in Atlanta, and then when we made the decision to move up here so that she could go to a specialized school that was in this neck of the woods, at least let me know I was doing everything I could to let her become the best version of herself. Now, it was very expensive, but the why was so powerful that it made it important. Now, I will tell you, this is the other side that Bo was talking about. We live in a unique community where I have heard parents say, I want my kids to be in the class with some of these other prominent families, celebrities. And that because a lot of them are at the private schools. And I don't know how I feel about that because it's true. I mean, that's ridiculous. I mean, I think it is. I mean, maybe it's financial, but remember this. This then gets into the financial order of operations is because, yes, step eight, prepaid future expenses. Typically we're talking about college, but when people are totally throwing everything at their kids, including K through 12 education, at the expense of their own financial future. Yeah, I mean, that seems to be a problem. And there's no guarantee that your kid is going to attract those relationships.

[Bo Hanson]

Tippity tops.

[Bryan Preston]

Now I have stories where like, that's kind of crazy that, you know, like spring break on a yacht. Like, I have a neighbor who's. I was like, are you kidding me? And he's like, yeah, this guy, he tells me how he made all this money. I was like, wow, that's kind of crazy. So, I mean, it can't. But that's not. I don't think that. But that doesn't help the parents in their financial situation. And that doesn't seem probably because I'll tell you, you know, probably won't even help the kids. They just got a great spring break. You could give them a great spring break too, without all that.

[Bo Hanson]

So it sounds like what you're saying is the why matters and you want to make sure that your why behind making the decision actually makes sense. And it's not some vanity thing like dropping a paper.

[Bryan Preston]

It's kind of like the car. Once again, we share a brain is because that's the exact same thing. I had my daugh pay for half of her first car because I felt like some scarcity in her life as well as having skin in the game on the process was important. I think you have to be careful what you do, what you put your kids towards for the future as well. I mean, is it what is creating? Because that's the other thing I have found. Let me go and tell you another true fact between public and private, because this is something I've seen with a lot of my neighbors around here, public school systems. Like, if you want your kid to go to the public college in the state you live in, Especially in the SEC in the south area. Like, if you go to a Georgia public school, you have a much better chance of going to University of Georgia. If you go to a public school here in Tennessee, you have a much easier chance getting into University of Tennessee in Knoxville. That's not the case. I will tell you. A lot of kids who go to private school, the public universities only allocate so many private slots from each of those schools. So now you've got all these kids competing, and that's the one I'm like. So you paid all that money for education only to make it harder. If you know your kids want to go to Knoxville to be a Vol. What are you doing? I mean, because you probably made it harder. If you want your dogs to be dogs because, you know, you grew up in Georgia, what are you doing? You know, I mean, this is something begin with the end in mind. Because I think sometimes we get caught up in all the status and social stuff. That's not the good why part, I think, you know, so having a special needs child was valuable enough because I had some special. So I got to split. I did the public situation, but I also done the private. But you really need to hone in on that why to make sure you have that figured out. But also begin with the end in mind, because if your goal is to get the kids into that public school in the state, do some research and figure out which ones actually will give you the path, the easiest path to get there.

[Bo Hanson]

Love it.

[Remy]

Good answer. It's more about the why than just the money on that one. Good question. Be unpredictable. Thanks for asking it.

[Bryan Preston]

Yeah. Especially if the money makes you broke. I mean, that's what I'm amazed because I do feel like education sometimes is a status symbol for a lot of people.

[Remy]

All right, Shane W. Has a question. He says, how do you start to prep to enter the messy middle? Right now, my fiance and I are on step seven, but I'm nervous for the costs of kids. Any advice or thoughts for Shane?

[Bo Hanson]

How do you prep for the messy middle?

[Remy]

I bet you have some thoughts, Bo.

[Bo Hanson]

Buckle up. You just strap in and hold, metaphorically. Buckle up. We talk about the messy middle. And look, it is difficult and it's hard. You feel like you have a thousand different things pulling you in a thousand different directions, and you're exhausted and you're busy and you don't have enough time for all the commitments. You don't have enough money for all the expenses, and you just feel stretched thin. But it's also a wonderful Time. It's a great season. And so I think one of the best things you can do, Shane, is not so much financially going into it mentally. Recognize that the path and the journey is not supposed to be easy. Anyone out there has ever had a kid and said, oh, man, having kids is not easy. Not supposed to be. Anyone out there has ever built wealth. Yeah, I had to sacrifice. I had to make some hard decisions to do some things to get to where I am. Yeah, it's not supposed to be easy, and that's okay. What I think you want to do is go into with a plan. That's why we designed. Brian, will you hold the thing up for me? It's why we designed the financial order of operations so that when you feel like you're on this path and on this journey and all these different things are throwing at you. Remember American Gladiators? Oh, yeah. And you used to have to, like, run through all the gladiators and they had the pad to try to knock you over. That's the messy middle part of your financial journey. You're just like, running through, trying to hold on to the ball. And they're like giant gladiators hitting you with all kinds of different things. You understand that you have the financial order of operations. You have some guardrails to keep you on the path. So even though you get knocked left or knocked right, you know that you're staying on the right path. The best way you can prepare is make sure you've done the things you're supposed to do. Do I have my deductibles covered? Am I maxing out my employer match? Do I have a fully funded emergency reserve? Am I keeping all of my high interest debt off of the balance sheet? If you're doing those sort of things, you've prepared as well as you can financially, and then you just got to deal with, okay, well, what's this next season and next station of life have for me?

[Bryan Preston]

I have a unique perspective because, you know, my oldest is a junior in college, and like, when we were planning spring break this year, she didn't want to go with us because it's that cruel reality. The more sentimental you are because you realize your time is getting less and less the more independent they're getting. Now, through a stroke of luck, my wife threw out a city that we were considering going to that my daughter was really. And without us knowing, she had this big interest to go to. So we got lucky and she went on spring break with us. So we got to make even more memories, which Is great. But I found myself thinking, as she's. As we're in this twilight of her still being around as much as she comes home to do laundry or stuff from college, is that. Man, why didn't we start earlier? And why didn't I have a third? And I remember how hard it was. I'm not trying to minimize that messy middle period, but it is hard because I even have. What's funny is I had a client, one of my first clients, she had two daughters that probably within 18 months of each other. And I think I was. Since I didn't have many clients, it was a perfect fit, you know, and, you know, she could call and I would just give, you know, just listen to her talk about how hard life was. But now these kids, because she's been. They're still clients, by the way. They're like graduating college and out of college, and it's just hearing the life stories of, you know, and experience the happiness of that. That's why I don't think people understand is that, look, I love my wife and I put my wife before my children. But there is a love between children that it's just. It's. It's hard to explain. It really is. And that's why money is only a tool. And it's. It's one. And that's why I've. When I go around and I'm, you know, I've bullied people to buy houses around here, but also when I see, you know, people around the office that are doing well and I see they're in healthy marriages, I'm always like, what are we doing on the family side? You know, because I. Because it's just.

[Remy]

You're such an old man on the family.

[Bryan Preston]

No, but it is. But I just. I just know from my life. And also. And I don't mind sharing this either. You don't have. The window is not as big as they. Nobody tells you this is that if you. If you're. If your spouse. Your wife is 35 years old, that's a geriatric pregnancy. We go to the doctor all excited, and then they scare the heck out of you. And then sure enough, you know, there's some issues that happen with that pregnancy. So justjust measure twice, cut once, you know, that's why I love being analytical, but also sentimental is I try to tell you, like, it's straight, you know, so make sure. But by the way, don't hurry it if you don't have a good partner, you know, it's very important. That's the measure twice, cut once. Make sure you are doing this with the person that's going to be there and do it right with you. Because, like, this weekend, my wife's going out town for a girls trip. I'm a little scared, you know, because this, you know, it's not. It's not always easy. So, you know, because we're a team, you know, we tackle this thing together. And I can't imagine you're doing zone defense now that you got three instead of two. So it's.

[Bo Hanson]

Well, I think it's interesting, the different phases and stages. Obviously, like, kids for you is expensive because you got college. Kids for me is expensive because we got like a hundred different activities between all the sports and activities stuff. Remy, I'm curious for you because you got little still, like, when it went from, like, not having kids, have. Did you find that, like, from a financial perspective, it just blew everything up and the kids were so much more expensive that you just didn't know what to do yourself or like, oh, okay. There were some marginal costs, but it's okay. It works.

[Remy]

I found it more like, okay, yeah, you have to adjust your budget and tighten some things. Or like, you have to take, like, be thrifty about it or take people up if they offer to give you their old. You know, if you kind of get a little bit creative with it, it's like, it wasn't too bad. Yeah. For, like, the really little ones, it's like, it's very doable. In my experience. I know that maybe, I don't know, maybe people do it differently and feel differently, but I felt like it was pretty doable.

[Bryan Preston]

Well, I thought. And this is, like I said, I've had fresh thoughts. So I, you know, my wife and I were married five years before we had our oldest, so we had five years of marriage before. And I was. When I was thinking about this spring break, I was like, man, if we just started a little early, I'd have even more years on this planet with. With her. You know, that's something that kind of hit me. I was like, yeah, I wasn't thinking about it because I am such a financial mutant. And I was so tight when I was young. And that's why when I see. Was it. This was. Shane, Shane, you're in step seven. You're naturally doing a lot of good things. You know, go check it out and then maybe go schedule a romantic night out, check out the finances, and then you'll be all right.

[Remy]

Oh, man. No, I mean, having kids is wonderful and we do have the lights dim.

[Bo Hanson]

Music starts playing.

[Remy]

You can take Brian's advice. Go for it. But we have. We have a new child checklist actually on moneyguy.com resources. So if you want to just get, you know, it actually in writing, use it to have a conversation. You can actually look at some of the financial things to think about. Yeah. Moneyguy.com resources. It's free. Go grab that. And yeah, I would say definitely look at that. But it is a little bit more of a life decision than a financial decision, too. Even though there are some. Like, you do have to buy. Get it. Like, you have to buy diapers sometimes you got to do the formula thing. Like that. Formula can be very expensive. I will just say that. But. But even that, it's just. It's a grocery store item, so you just kind of, like, tweak and you do it, and then it's over.

[Bo Hanson]

You know what's funny about. Well, I'm gonna get there. You know, it's funny about the progression of like. Of having. Of having babies, because like we said, we have baby now, right? But, you know, our first baby was 10 years ago, so we've been babies for a decade. Like, the type of diapers you buy, like, how it progresses through time, like earlier, you know what I mean? Like, it's just. That's just funny how that happens. Thanks for coming to my time.

[Bryan Preston]

You mean. You mean diapers that fit?

[Bo Hanson]

Oh, come on.

[Bryan Preston]

We were new parents.

[Bo Hanson]

We didn't know better.

[Remy]

This is Brian's favorite story about your first child.

[Bryan Preston]

Just so y'all know, this is also tightwad esque. This probably gets cut out, but it's. He. He comes and goes. I don't know what's going on. It seems my child just has this.

[Bo Hanson]

She blows out.

[Bryan Preston]

She blows out the back every time. Every time she goes to the restroom, she's. But I was like, bo, that sounds like the diapers are too small. Let's go bigger on the diapers. I think it will fix that. And sure enough, that's exactly what the issue is. So this is Knucklehead. This is the part about now. He's a seasoned pro now.

[Remy]

There have been a couple times.

[Bryan Preston]

Just go ahead. That's a public psa. If your child is blowing it out the back, it's probably too small.

[Remy]

There have been a couple times I thought of you guys, and I've been like, time to move up, buy the new item.

[Bryan Preston]

I mean, I don't know if people are sharing that type of information. Like I said, we're financial and all kind of other things from life out the back. Too small?

[Remy]

Good question, Shane. We gave you a lot of thoughts there. I like sentimental Brian. He's coming out today. That's nice.

[Bo Hanson]

The Money Guy show is hosted by Bryan Preston and Bo Hanson. Brian and Bo are partners with Abound Wealth Management. Abound Wealth Management is a registered investment advisory firm regulated by the securities and Exchange Commission. In accordance and compliance with the securities laws and regulations, Abound Wealth Management does not render or offer to render personalized investment or tax advice through the Money Guy Show. The information provided is for informational purposes only, may not be suitable for all investors, and does not constitute financial, tax, investment or legal advice. All investments involve a degree of risk, including the risk of loss.