Average Salary By Age (How Do You Stack Up?)

Summary

Money Guy Show: "Average Salary By Age (How Do You Stack Up?)"

Hosts: Brian Preston & Bo Hanson
Date: May 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of the Money Guy Show tackles a perennial question: "How do my earnings compare to others my age?" Brian and Bo break down current U.S. salary data by age group, dispel widespread money myths (especially about high earnings), and provide actionable strategies for boosting your wealth—regardless of your starting income. The conversation offers a reality check on earnings, debunks social media-fueled misconceptions, and explores the most potent levers of wealth creation. The hosts also field listener questions on HSAs, flexible savings rates during big life changes, insurance choices, car loans, real estate co-ownership, and more.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Thinking About Salary Comparisons Matters

• Comparison is Inevitable: Bo admits it’s natural to wonder how your income stacks up, but warns against unhealthy comparisons ([00:37]).
• Mythbusting: Brian points out that public perception of peer incomes is often inflated—leading to unnecessary financial stress ([01:00]).

  “Everybody always says comparison is the thief of joy. …The public perception of what your peers make is actually exaggerated. We overestimate.”
  — Brian Preston ([01:00])

• Lifestyle ≠ Wealth: Bo notes that flashy cars and houses are often signs of spending, not income or net worth ([01:34]).

2. Median Salary by Age in America

Source: Federal Reserve (Median, not average, to avoid skewed data) ([02:17])

• 16–24: ~$40,000
• 25–34: ~$60,000
• 35–44: ~$72,000
• 45–54: ~$72,000
• 55–64: ~$69,000
• 65+: ~$62,000
• Peak Earning Years: Ages 35–54 ([03:05])
• Key Reality: “The myth that everybody around you is making $100,000 is just not true.” — Brian ([03:05])
• Social Media Distortion: Stories of young 22-year-olds making hundreds of thousands are the (rare) exception ([03:29]).

3. Perception vs. Reality: High Earners

• Wild Overestimates: A YouGov survey showed 19% of people believe their peers make over $500,000/yr—when in reality, it’s only about 1% ([04:09]).

  “One in five are making half a million dollars a year, even though that number is actually 1% of earners.”
  — Brian ([04:09]) “So far outside of reality.”
  — Bo ([04:41])

4. The Two Wealth Levers: Make More or Spend Less ([04:57])

Maximizing Income:

• Increase skills.
• Advance career.
• Bigger income(s) can help—but isn’t strictly necessary to build wealth ([05:22]).

Three Ingredients to Wealth:

• 1. Live on less than you make (Discipline)
• 2. Create margin (Save/invest the difference)
• 3. Give it time (Let compound growth work)

  “All of you who are in your 20s … you are a billionaire of time.”
  — Brian ([06:09])

5. Case Study: The Impact of Savings Rate

Two examples, same earning trajectory, different savings behavior:

• Average Allen:
  • Median salary, saves 10% from ages 20 to 65
  • Ends with ~$2.7 million at retirement ([06:53])
• Manny the Mutant:
  • Starts at 10% but increases savings 1% each year up to 25%, holds there
  • Retires with ~$5.2 million—almost double Allen’s, with no additional income ([08:34])

    “These are not two individuals with huge shovels. They both earned the median salary… but their behavior was different. …The most impactful thing you can change is your savings rate.”
    — Bo ([08:34])

6. Resources for Listeners

• Savings Rate Calculator: Available at moneyguy.com/resources to personalize your financial targets ([09:25]).
• Ultimate Guides & Tools: On topics like homebuying, insurance, and more. Regular updates in their newsletter ([28:13]).

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Listener Q&A Highlights

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) Documentation ([10:55]–[15:32])

• What You Need:
  • Not required to send in receipts at time of reimbursement; must retain them in case the IRS audits ([11:17]).
  • Keep a digital record (scan, spreadsheet by year).
  • IRS form: 5498-SA ([13:07])
• Practical Tip:

  “If the IRS ever were to ask… you better be able to reproduce it.”
  — Bo ([11:17])

Savings Rate “Guilt” During Life Changes ([16:27]–[21:20])

• The Messy Middle: It's normal for savings rates to fluctuate with major life events (kids, house, career changes).

  “It’s not uncommon for financial mutants to have to take a step back in their savings rate. …The path to financial independence is NOT a smooth line.”
  — Bo ([16:42])

• Don’t Let Perfection Be the Enemy: Early discipline often provides future flexibility ([17:50]).

  “All of the things you are so panicked about in these early years… you’re going to look back and realize much of it’s much ado about nothing.”
  — Brian ([20:42])

When is Whole/Permanent Life Insurance Appropriate? ([22:09]–[26:00])

• Answer:
  • Rare situations—e.g., high-net-worth, illiquid estates, business owners needing liquidity for taxes or succession ([23:19]).
  • Most people: Term life is simpler, cheaper, and designed to protect your family as you build up your net worth.

    “Term insurance lets you just buy the actual coverage, the protection, none of the extra cash value. …20 years in the future, you’re self-insured.”
    — Brian ([24:22])

Car Loan Rule of Thumb: “23/8 Rule” ([32:41])

• Why 36 Months?
  • Vehicles depreciate rapidly, especially new ones ([32:55]).
  • Shorter loan terms reduce risk of being “underwater” (owe more than it’s worth) ([33:46]).

    “If you expand how long you pay for a car, you can afford anything at a monthly amount… puts as much pressure on what you can afford.”
    — Brian ([33:46])

• Favorable Option: Pay cash if possible; otherwise, follow "23/8": 20% down, 3 years or less, no more than 8% of income.

Buying a House with a Friend ([51:13])

• House Hacking (Renting Rooms) is very different from co-ownership ([52:10]).
• Risks of Co-Purchasing: Life changes (e.g., marriage, job changes) can turn ownership messy; tax complexities (reporting mortgage interest) are common ([53:22]).

  “Buying a home together, you’re forming a partnership—a little bit like a marriage.”
  — Bo ([52:25])

• Safer Alternative: Rent together to save, then buy individually; if co-owning, form a proper partnership with legal agreements ([56:06]).

Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) Opportunities ([57:53])

• If Offered a 15% Discount Off the 26-Week Low: Take full advantage (step 2 of their “Financial Order of Operations”) ([58:13]).

  “When your employer is loading you up with free money, you say thank you, thank you, thank you.”
  — Brian ([58:34])

• But: Don’t let too much of your wealth concentrate in your employer; sell and diversify proceeds regularly ([60:11]).

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Perception vs. Reality:

  “The typical millionaire—I mean, the typical American, not the millionaire—just has no discipline…”
  — Brian ([07:39])

• On Saving Early:

  “You are a billionaire of time.”
  — Brian ([06:09])

• On Enjoying Life Stages Despite Financial Chaos:

  “Make sure you don’t miss out on this stuff. …Bedazzle your basic life because I want you to make sure that you’re enjoying every decade.”
  — Brian ([20:42])

• On Free Money from Employer Benefits:

  “Maximize that free money!”
  — Brian ([58:34])

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Segments & Timestamps

| Topic | Time | |-----------------------------------------------------|------------| | Introduction & Salary Comparison Discussion | 00:34–04:57| | Median Salary by Age, Mythbusting | 02:17–04:57| | Wealth Building—Income & Spending | 04:57–06:53| | Allen vs. Manny Case Study | 06:53–09:25| | Listener Q&A: HSA Documentation | 10:55–15:32| | Listener Q&A: Adjusting Savings in “Messy Middle” | 16:27–21:20| | Listener Q&A: When to Use Whole Life Insurance | 22:09–26:00| | Listener Q&A: Car Loan Length, “23/8” Rule | 32:41–36:23| | “From the Wings”—News or Noise (Headlines Game) | 36:53–49:19| | Listener Q&A: Buying House with a Friend | 51:13–56:38| | Listener Q&A: ESPPs and Free Money | 57:53–61:03|

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Original Tone & Style

Brian and Bo maintain a friendly, casual, and empowering tone, frequently using analogies (“big shovel,” “billionaire of time”) and relatable stories. They balance actionable advice with humor and empathy, aiming to demystify personal finance for everyday people and encourage smart, intentional decisions for building lasting wealth.

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For More Resources

• Money Guy Resources
• Free calculators, checklists, and guides on topics discussed
• Weekly newsletter for new tools and updates

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Bottom Line:
Most Americans overestimate others' incomes and underestimate the impact of steady, disciplined savings. The surest path to wealth? Start early, save consistently, live below your means, and take advantage of free money and compounding—no need to be the highest earner to build a financially secure and joy-filled life.

Transcript

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[Ribe]

Foreign.

[Brian Preston]

You ever wondered how you stack up with your peers? No.

[Bo Hansen]

BR I am so excited to talk about this because I think it's just innate in human nature whenever we start working or whenever we start hanging out with folks and maybe you're not this way, but this question always comes up. I'm always like, I wonder what they have going on. I wonder where they are from an income standpoint. And it's more out of general curiosity, not for some of like the more toxic reasons why people now come on, you know.

[Brian Preston]

And everybody always says comparison is the thief of joy. So why even create this type of content? And I want to be, I want to be straight with you. A lot of times it's because I think the public perception of what your peers make is actually exaggerated on the other side, meaning we overestimate what everybody around us is doing. So it's actually good for you to find out the truth so you don't have to fall into the consumption traps that are sat out there because it is so much. You're much more profitable profitable if you're trying to keep up with the Joneses versus if you know what makes you tick.

[Bo Hansen]

And Brent, I get asked this question all the time by, by my kids or by peers. They'll be like, oh look, look at so and so. They've got the nice car or the nice house or the fancy boat or the whatever thing. And I'm like, hey, you recognize that's not those things are not necessarily a sign of how much money someone has or even how much money someone makes. They're more an indication of how much someone spe. And I think a lot of people live a life that is beyond their means. And I think when we level set on where average or median incomes, median salaries are, I think it'll be a breath of fresh air to most folks out there recognizing, okay, maybe my perception is not actually accurate of what everyone else has going on.

[Brian Preston]

So without you know, beating around this too much more. Let's see actually see the numbers.

[Bo Hansen]

So there was a study done. This is from the Federal Reserve. And this is the median salary by age I know it says average, but this is actually the median because we wanted to not have the big outlier skew it. So this is an accurate representation by age of where folks in this country are right now. And what you can see is if you think about the early folks starting out, coming out of college, college age to young adults, the median salary is about $40,000. That's age 16 to 24. Then as you get from 25 to 34, it goes to about $60,000. From 35 to 44, about 72, 45 to 54. Also about 72, 55 to 64, about 69,000. And then once you get over 65, the median salary is about $62,000.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah. So we highlight that those peak earning years, you really need to be paying attention to that 35 through 54. But I also like people focusing on, I know those early years where money is tight. Those are also the years that your money can do the most work because you have the most time compounding growth can do a lot more. But do you notice that myth that everybody around you is making $100,000? It's just not true.

[Bo Hansen]

That's right. That's exactly right. When you look at this, there are not people on the median making the hundred thousand dollars. Though it's really interesting too, is it's not the young people, again, on the median that are making the highest incomes. You can actually see that the peak earning years actually happens somewhere around the mid-30s to mid-40s. So this idea that someone comes out and all of a sudden they're making hundreds of thousands of dollars and they're 22 years old, and they have the house and the beach house and the fancy car that is not grounded in reality. That's stuff that you see on social media that does not accurately reflect what the real world looks like.

[Brian Preston]

And I just, you know, I just mentioned people aren't making the hundred thousand that you thought. And there's even. I thought it was interesting that I remember. And I had the content team go pull this up. There was a YouGov survey that came out where they asked the population, how many of your peers make half a million dollars a year? And somehow 19% of, you know, people said, hey, 19% of people, you know, one in five are making half a million dollars a year, even though that number is actually 1% of earners.

[Bo Hansen]

It's wild if you think about 1 in 5 people making $530,000 a year is so far outside of reality, so far away from what the real Thing is that it's actually less than 1 in 100 people making that much money.

[Brian Preston]

So let's focus on what you can control, because you try. You're not trying to keep up with the Joneses. You're not worried about these people you perceive as making the half a million dollars. Let's talk about how do you maximize that lever of income? Because, remember, there's really only two ways you can boost what you have on your net worth statements. You can either make more income or you can spend less money. We want to talk about how you focus on that.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah. And so what we want you to do is recognize, okay, what are the ways that I can maximize my income? Are there things I can be doing at my job, at my vocation, with my skill set to increase my skills, to further my career, to build what my shovel is? Because the bigger my shovel is, the more I can save, the more impactful it can be. But, and we know this from both the lives that we've lived as well as from work with clients, A big shovel is not absolutely necessary to build wealth. It's helpful, and it can be an asset. But if you don't have a big shovel, if you don't have a ton of money, if you don't have a ton of margin, then you can actually tap into the other two ingredients of wealth creation, and they can be wildly powerful for you.

[Brian Preston]

Well, that's what Bo talked about, maximizing the income. But the second part of that is, and we always say this is, you know, you got to live on less than you make. And that's when we talk about those three ingredients to wealth. Three ingredients to wealth. Living on less than you make is the first key component. That's discipline. It's exactly what Bo was talking about with creating that margin or the money that gets invested. And then if you give it enough time, that's why all of you who are in your 20s watching this, don't worry, I know you're not in your peak earning years, but you are a billionaire of time. And when you see how small incremental decisions can actually create huge results, I think it will change the way you look at money. And we actually have a great case study to show you how powerful just a little bit of change can be.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, you can take two individuals with the exact same earning capacity, the exact same earning potential, but if you adjust their behavior, the results, the outcome is wildly different. So let's think about average Allen, and let's say that average Allen starts out making the median income at age 20. And he makes the median income from age 20 all the way out till age 65. And he's going to have a 10% savings rate, which is still much higher than the national average. Not quite 25, but much higher. Alan, over the course of his entire working career, goes from 20 years old to 65 years old, just saving 10%. His retirement portfolio, his financial independence portfolio, would be worth almost $2.7 million, full stop.

[Brian Preston]

This is the thing that always gets me when I see the actual data for the typical American. This shows we often say, look, all of us have the potential to build wealth because here's somebody just doing 10%. Remember, a lot of you have employers that are doing close to 5% just off the cuff. So if you were just consistently and not touching the money from your 20s on, you would be worth close to $3 million of retirement. But the typical millionaire, I mean, typical American, not the millionaire, just has no discipline.

[Bo Hansen]

That's right.

[Brian Preston]

And actually touches the money. We show you how leaky retirement accounts are. They just don't stay consistent to doing this. So we wanted to go a step further. We said, okay, this was as if you just did 10%. What if you're a financial mutant and you took the 10% in your 20s, but then you added every time you got a pay raise or every year you got a little bit better and added just 1% until you capped out at 25%. What would that 1% difference do for you?

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, what you can see is starting at 10% at 20, going 1%, increased up until you get to 25% and then saving 25% for the remainder of your career, rather than being like average Alan, who ended up with $2.7 million, which is wonderful. You could look like Manny the mutant who actually retired with $5.2 million, double the amount that Alan had with the same earning trajectory. These are not two individuals with huge shovels. These are not two individuals with huge incomes. They both earned the median salary relative to. Relative to their age range, but their behavior was different. So we want you to control the things that you can control and influence the things that you can influence. One of the most powerful, most impactful things you can change is your savings rate.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah. And don't, don't let, don't let a case study just be the only thing you use to fill your head up with. We want you to actually go to moneyguy.com resources, please go take advantage of our resource on where you actually can take where your current age is when you Want to retire and we'll fill in the void and actually tell you what your savings rate needs to be. Please go look at this powerful resource. You'll be able to see specifically what you need to be doing in your situation. We're really proud of this and that's why I want you to go take advantage of these resources we're trying to load you up with so that you can go ahead and start planting the seeds today that are going to build that huge live oak tree that you're going to get shade under because your money will work harder than you can with your back, your brains and even your hands.

[Bo Hansen]

You don't need a huge income to build wealth, but you do need the three ingredients. You do need discipline. You do need to be able to create margin. And you need to apply that over time. And if you can do that, wealth is attainable to anyone. And we believe that so much that Every Tuesday at 10am Central, we like to sit right here and load you guys up. We want to answer questions and speak to the things that you are curious about. It's why we have the team out in the wings right now collecting your questions. So if you have a question for us, make sure you get it in the chat. That's thing number one. Thing number two, if you are not subscribed, make sure you subscribe right now so we know that you are out there. Don't just rent your seat. We want you to own your seat here at the Money Guy show with that creative director Ribe. I'm going to throw it over to you.

[Ribe]

Yeah, let's go. We're going to kick it off with a question from TCMR 4250. It says for an HSA, what documentation is needed to reimburse yourself for a past medical expense? For example, would an ER receipt along with the corresponding credit card statement be sufficient? You guys are big HSA fans, so give them some thoughts.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, I think a lot of people are have a misguided understanding. They think that, okay, every time I want to reimburse myself from my hsa, I'm going to have to, like when I file my tax return, I'm going to have to attach those receipts and attach those bills and do that. That's not actually the way that it works. You're not required every time you take a reimbursement from your HSA to show justification. However, if the IRS ever were to ask and they ever were to come and request that information, you better make sure you have it. So don't get over it. Don't think, oh, man. I don't want to pull this money out because I don't want, like the logistical nightmare. But if they ask for it and if you have to reproduce it, you better be able to do that or else it's going to be a taxable event to you. So go ahead.

[Brian Preston]

Oh, no, no.

[Bo Hansen]

Oh, you took a deep breath like you had a big thing to say.

[Brian Preston]

Just getting ready. I thought you were giving me the handoff.

[Bo Hansen]

Oh, okay. Well, you do yours and I'll tell you what I do.

[Brian Preston]

You fake punished. Now I guess we're going for the long route, so I just kept running. But it's what I always tell people. I always go break down the first thing. With health savings accounts, you got to have the high deductible health insurance. That's the first thing to make sure you're on the right side of the law. The second thing is I was just going to kind of go a little deeper on what the process looks like when you file the tax return is because a lot of people, I think if you understood the process, you'll know how you ought to approach this is that what happens is, is when you have a high deductible health plan and then you're funding a health savings account every year, you're going to get a form, I think it's called a. It's a 5498. It's the form that you'll get from the HSA provider that will tell you how much you either contributed or how much you've, you know, if you've taken any distributions from the plan and if you get, if you're actually using the plan in the year that you actually take distributions for the qualified medical expenses, that's when they'll send you this. 5498. Did I get it right?

[Bo Hansen]

5498. Sa.

[Brian Preston]

Sa yeah.

[Bo Hansen]

Dude, that's unbelievable.

[Brian Preston]

I'll pull that out of the arc. A little nerdy on the taxes. It's like a car. So all you're going to do is when you go and input in the TurboTax or use a professional tax preparer, they're going to want to know, hey, what are the qualified expenses that you could show that match or exceed this number that we're showing on here? And that's when you will have your spreadsheet, you'll have your folder you scanned in with your receipts, and you're just going to tell your tax preparer, you're going to tell the tax Preparation software. No, this is how much I spent. And then that's it. And then after three years, you can throw the receipts away. But the receipts are there just in case. The IRS says, hey, we saw that on this date and in this tax year you filed, you know, on your tax return that you had these qualified medical expenses. Can you show me the proof? You're gonna say, yeah, I sure can. And that's when you'll pull it out. But that's the cool thing. More than likely you will do this tracking. You will keep these receipts, but then you'll file it at some point in the future. And then after three years, you can just basically throw them away. They're there just to keep you safe and protected to. The big advantage is you're trying to build your health savings account. We want it where you're investing that money and it's growing upon itself. You're activating the compounding growth so that you can maximize what those dollars can be where you not only got the tax deduction on the contribution, not only did you get the tax deferred growth, but you're getting tax free distribution. So you triple tax advantage. That's how you maximize the health savings account.

[Bo Hansen]

I'm just going to throw in there. Here's what I specifically do. I keep. We have a digital record system. So I'm not like keeping physical receipts. I don't have like manila folders in the filing cabinet. I have them broken out by year. So 20, 22, 23, 24. Every time I get a bill, I scan it in, I put the bill in. Every time I go to pay the bill, I have a spreadsheet where I keep a running total. You might be. Well, why do you have the spreadsheet? That seems like redundancy? No, I want to know at any point in time if I wanted to reimburse myself and say I wanted to go pull $20,000 out of my HSA. I could just go look at any given year. Okay, 20, 22, I need to go find these seven expenses. Okay, I got those. I can reimburse myself or I take a picture of my phone, drop it to the digital vault, and it's that easy. I don't have to have a ton of paper, I don't have to have a ton of complication. But it is easy to get to, easy to replicate, easy to have a running total by year of what I have access to tax free. You do the same, you do something different?

[Brian Preston]

No, I'm pretty, I'm pretty close. I have I have a spreadsheet and then. But I'll be honest sometimes in some years because remember I'm running because my youngest daughter, her private school is qualified, you know, is going to count as qualified medical expenses. So I haven't, I probably haven't been as diligent as adding up those folders every year. I should do what you're doing every year. I just haven't. So, I mean, at some point I will need to go do that exercise. I think it's smarter the way you're doing it because it's, it's sitting there on go.

[Bo Hansen]

That's right.

[Brian Preston]

And you're ready. You know what you've, you have in contributions and you know, so that you can go figure, you know what you have, I should say, and what you have in expenses. So you can go know what your qualified amount is.

[Bo Hansen]

Love it.

[Ribe]

Well, great. TCMR4250. Thank you for the question. That was a great breakdown, guys. Thank you for that. Robert S. Is up next. It says I am in the messy middle.

[Brian Preston]

Welcome.

[Ribe]

I've been maxing out my 403 and contributing to other investments.

[Brian Preston]

Pretty impressive.

[Ribe]

Second child is on the way and we may have to adjust our savings rate. How do you deal with the guilt of adjusting savings?

[Bo Hansen]

Here's what you do. You take a deep breath and you go, I'm not alone in this. I mean, there are messy middle folks all over the country who decide, man, okay, I got to change homes or I got to go buy the house or I'm going to have the kid. I got to change the car. And it's not uncommon for financial mutants to have, have to take a step back in their savings rate. So often we think that the path to financial independence is this straight line of the foo. It's step one and step two, then step three, then step four, then step five. And it's this constant trajectory from bottom left to top right and it's nice and smooth. But in reality, that's not the case. Both you and I, Brian, in our financial lives building towards wealth, we've had fits and starts. We've had years where we had higher saving years and years where we had lower saving years. Sometimes it was because of life circumstances that presented themselves. Sometimes it was because of other opportunities that we chose to pursue. That's okay. I think the guilt that you're feeling is an appropriate feeling. Not something that you should be ashamed of, but it's something ought to keep in check. You ought to let the guilt be motivated. Guilt, not like Crippling. Oh, no, what am I doing? Is this okay, I'm a horrible person type thing?

[Brian Preston]

Well, look, first, if you want to make yourself feel better, go watch some of our Making a Millionaires where we actually at the end when Beau and I meet back with our guest or go back over our guest to kind of do the after action reports, we always usually will show what their savings rate in the future will be because a lot of these people are in the messy middle and have a lot of life going on. And it's not uncommon that we see people who are saving very aggressively when they're much younger, but then they have these big life events happen, and then maybe their savings rate can only be 10% or 12% with the employer match. And all of a sudden they're like, wow, it still works. And I love that we get to create that dynamic. And that's why I would encourage you. You need context before you start beating yourself up, Robert. You got to figure out, are you ahead of the curve, behind the curve, or right where you're supposed to be? Because you said something pretty key there. You have your second child on the way, but you've been maxing out your 403B, which is huge, plus some. So anybody who's maxing out the 403, these are above average behaviors that I bet you're ahead of the curve. So you might get some goodwill, because that's what I love about anybody who starts, who hits it heavy and often in the early years is because it gives you flexibility down the road. You might find that you have a huge dividend coming your way from your early discipline that's now going to let you, while life gets complicated, pull your foot off the accelerator of savings and investing. And you're still not behind because you did such a good job on the front end. But you won't know that unless you go through the exercise. That's why currently we want you to go to learn.moneyguy.com and look at our, you know, what's your number? And I think you'll find out that you'll answer that question if you're ahead of the curve. And that's going to give you a lot of peace of mind.

[Bo Hansen]

Can I just share one? Can I share one thing?

[Ribe]

You absolutely can, Brian.

[Bo Hansen]

You've known me for a long time, decades at this point. I used to be, like, super, like, buttoned up and everything had to be perfect. My desk had to be, like, perfectly neat and the savings rate had to be perfectly this and all These things had to be just absolutely wonderful.

[Brian Preston]

A lot of those things are still true.

[Bo Hansen]

And then the Lord was incredibly kind to me and gave me some kids and boy, did I learn the beauty of imperfection. Once kids burst onto the scene, I think a lot of financial mutants, when they go from like pre family thing to like the post family thing, it's a wonderful exercise and understanding. Hey, not everything has to be perfect in terms of like, cleanliness of the house, in terms of obedience, which is what I'm dealing with right now. In terms of your financial situation, it's okay if it's not perfect, because if you're just moving in the right direction, putting one foot in front of the other, taking those steps, there's a really good chance that things are going to work out so long as you avoid making the really, really bad, really, really derailing decisions. I just feel like that's something to be spoken out into the ether. That man, we get so like, ah, you were, you, you were this way, you were that you had.

[Brian Preston]

I mean, you know, I've gotten old and sentimental in the fact that I, I think the things you are so panicked about when you're in these early years, you're going to look back on and, and realize much of it's much to do about nothing, but still do the key strokes of, you know, savings rate, taking temperatures of where you are in your journey. But then make sure you don't miss out on this stuff. That's why we always talk about bedazzling your basic life is because I want you to make sure that you're enjoying every decade that you're on this planet. Because sometimes as financial mutants, we get so caught up in accomplish, accomplish, accomplish that we miss some of the sweetness of each decade, even though it's chaotic.

[Bo Hansen]

That's right.

[Ribe]

Yeah. No, well said. Yeah. Something that struck me, we don't know, Robert, your specific situation. Like Brian said there's some homework you could go do to really make sure where you are. But he didn't say, hey, I'm going to stop all saving and investing. He said, I need to adjust it. I need to pull it back a little bit. Like that still could be really good for you, you know, that's why we provide all of our resources and benchmarks so you can kind of see where you are so you can live the life you want to and have the experiences you want to and have a second kid, which is so exciting. Congrats on that too. All right, ready for the next question? Marinjock says, I Know, for the majority of people, term life is the best option. But you guys also say it depends. And for a small portion of people, whole life is better. What are some examples of when that's true?

[Bo Hansen]

I want you to answer this one, but I want to. I want to clarify one little thing in that sentence.

[Brian Preston]

I'm not saying it doesn't have to be whole life.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah. And we're not suggesting that whole life is better than term insurance in that circumstance. What you've heard us say in the past is that there are times when whole. When permanent life insurance is an acceptable solution to a problem that exists that is not pitting them against each other. Because we still think even in those situations, someone likely needs term life insurance. But there are areas and times when permanent insurance.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah, I mean, that's really. It's not term versus whole life, it's term versus permanent insurance, because whole life is a form of permanent insurance. But there's a lot of other versions of permanent insurance, too, that might even be a little more cost effective and take a little of the pressure off of the annual premium. What I've actually experienced is I had a gentleman who was an entrepreneur who came to me and he had tons of net worth, meaning because he had made some really key real estate investments. He had a really valuable business.

[Bo Hansen]

Tens of millions.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah, it was a lot of money, but his liquidity was nothing. And this was a time back with now. Realize the exemption now on estates is a little over 30 million. Yeah, I mean, it's a. It's. It's a lot. You know, we. We've really indexed it, but back in the day, it was between 675 to a million dollars on your estate. So we had a gentleman here who on paper was worth, you know, deca millionaire plus, who had zero liquidity. If he died tomorrow, his family would be screwed because you'd have to liquidate the businesses, you'd have to liquidate the real estate, all this stuff to come up with the estate taxes and all these things are illiquid investments. So I looked at his situation, and I was like, we're gonna have to immediately go buy you some type of life insurance so that you could at least extinguish this issue, you know, if you died prematurely. And I remember, I mean, it was a very expensive premium for the $5 million that we were able to go buy the insurance.

[Bo Hansen]

But it was a necessary thing.

[Brian Preston]

But it was a necessary thing. So that's when I have said, look, there are times when permanent insurance makes sense because you wouldn't, it wouldn't have made sense to do that with term at that moment in time. Now the problem I have with the way insurance is sold in the industry is that most people who are coming and watching and consuming our content, you're the typical American that first, yes, you need to protect your family because if you died prematurely, it would leave your family members in a horrible situation. But you also need to be saving and building wealth in the background. So at some point you're self insured. Because that's the whole purpose. If you can save and build enough assets, you don't need to go buy life insurance from an insurance company because you will be able to pay for all of your expenses out of the big nest egg that you've built up. So these things, they can be happening at the exact same time. And that's why I love term insurance is because term insurance lets you just buy the actual coverage, the protection, none of the extra cash value or the other things. You're just on a yearly basis paying for insurance. In the meantime, you're building up assets in the background so that 20 years in the future, 30 years in the future, you're self insured. Because what happens during that 20 or 30 year period? Your kids grow up and move out of the house. They don't need your income anymore. Hopefully you've built up enough money that you can now self insured from your retirement assets. Do you see how this all works? This doesn't have to be us versus the insurance agent. This is the understand the way the financial components work in the insurance industry so you can maximize it and use as a tool in your wealth building journey.

[Bo Hansen]

I love that. Marin. I hope that helps. I hope that was helpful.

[Ribe]

I think it was. Thank you for the answer. Hey remember, if you are listening to these questions and you want to dive deeper or refresh, just go to moneyguy.com because we actually have an ultimate guide that's all about different types of insurances and how to think about it. So I just wanted to throw that out there. If we're talking about it on the show, we probably have a free resource, a calculator or an ultimate guide that's kind of consolidating that information for you as well. Of course you get a lot more nuance and it depends here on the show, which I love.

[Brian Preston]

So I know we didn't talk about but I mean like we, we have a lot of our military families are always asking us. I know it's not ready for prime time yet, but I know behind the scenes we're about to have, we're about to have a resource for our military families to go check [e-mail] resources as well. So I don't want to put you on the spot of how many, how long, how close to release it is, but you know, it's probably something in the next few weeks.

[Ribe]

Like we are actively in the home stretch of that one. I could.

[Brian Preston]

Because that's, that's the thing. Like when we did the special needs release, you know, we have a free ebook out there for that. We're always trying to think about what are areas that we would love to just love on you guys and give away free resources. Because I know, I mean, if you remember, the origin of the Money Guy show is, is that back in 2006, I looked around and I was like, holy cow. If you just. If I was my 22 year old or 25 year old version of myself and I'm just trying to figure out what to do with money to not waste time, not waste this resource so that I can actually live my best life. I was like, man, most people are out there selling commission products or they're trying to get in my back pocket. Wouldn't it be nice if somebody created an education platform where I could just learn how this worked and that's what drove it. And that's why we've tried to keep giving away free resources to make that, you know, the platform even stronger.

[Bo Hansen]

And if you're sitting there thinking, man, I really want to know, like I wish there was some way for me to know. When you guys release these free resources, whenever we have a new one come out, we always mention it in our weekend newsletter. So if you're not subscribed to our newsletter, I would highly encourage it. It's pretty ballin. Like, it's a good. I actually find myself reading it. I read it every week, every single week.

[Brian Preston]

That's not a fib. I really do read it. I even look for it if I've, if I don't, if I haven't seen it for that Saturday morning release.

[Bo Hansen]

And here's what we don't do. We're not going to like sell these email addresses. We don't spam you with all kinds of content. We just want to make sure that if you want really valuable, really helpful, sound financial advice, we can get it in your inbox team in the wings, if you wouldn't mind, somebody drop in a link to how to, like where to go to subscribe.

[Ribe]

You can go to Money Gum and subscribe there. If you actually click on the very top, it says follow, it'll let you put your. Put in your email address and get on our newsletter. Money Guy Email Universe.

[Brian Preston]

That's also where they typically like when we go on vacation and they drop pictures behind the scenes and other things,

[Ribe]

it's usually very useless fun. The team is in the wings making that really fun every week.

[Bo Hansen]

I've also noticed it's where the team likes to make jabs at the. In. Like, I read it now, and I see that they're making jokes at my expense. It's offensive. I don't like it. I don't like it at all.

[Brian Preston]

That's. Guys, have y' all seen anybody who's looked at the Iced Coffee Hour release that we had come out on Sunday?

[Bo Hansen]

It's doing well. It's doing really well.

[Brian Preston]

And I feel a little offended because I'm a victim of the forced perspective. You know, I'm a huge Disney fan. And, you know, you go look at Cinderella's castle, you're like, that thing is huge. And then you realize, oh, they tricked me with forced perspective. And then you find out. Bo Hansen, we. The way we set up those biceps, they are big. They are big. But I'm telling you, mine look much smaller because we put Bo closer to the. It's like if you ever, you know, Buddy the Elf, if you ever watch and you're like, man, those are some really cool tricks. It's all forced perspective. When they made Buddy look so much bigger than everybody else, who would have known that we did the exact same thing when we designed our sets?

[Bo Hansen]

That was production team. I really appreciate it. I love the little boost. Thank you.

[Brian Preston]

So Cinderella's castle. Bows biceps. I even. My favorite comment. Few things, few comments that came out is the guy wrote, I'm a bodybuilder. I like how this guy is popping his pecs.

[Bo Hansen]

Which was not true. That's. That's.

[Brian Preston]

And then the other one. Here's the one. Picking on me is like when Brian gets his canker sore fixed, he can come back, I guess, because, look, my tongue is very active. I don't mean it. I chew on my tongue. I do it. It's just. I don't know what's wrong. I see it too, guys, and I am so embarrassed. But I don't know what to do to control it.

[Ribe]

It's not that big of a deal.

[Bo Hansen]

That's hilarious.

[Brian Preston]

But people, you guys, the Internet is undefeated. Finding if you have any insecurity from high school or in life. Just go and get yourself on social media and there will be somebody who unearths and figures out something.

[Ribe]

We won't mention Beau's eyebrows in the comments.

[Brian Preston]

Oh, that's cruel.

[Bo Hansen]

Why would you say that? It's because who's giving you a lot of flowers.

[Brian Preston]

I asked Bo this morning because he only works out at like 2:30 in the morning. He wakes up so he can, you know, nurture and nourish these biceps with his other gym rat buddies. And I asked him, I said this morning, did y' all actually work out or did you just sit there and hold court and read the comments from the most recent shows because they have to feel a part of your success.

[Bo Hansen]

I do want them to know that the. The third Bay Boys, they're part of the.

[Brian Preston]

They're part of the. Y'. All. Y' all have like. Do you have decals on the back of your cars?

[Bo Hansen]

We have. We have. We have T shirts and hoodies and tank tops. You've seen them? I've worn them before.

[Brian Preston]

I just didn't know what it was.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it, man.

[Brian Preston]

Y' all really. Do y' all designed a logo and everything?

[Bo Hansen]

Oh, yeah.

[Brian Preston]

Was that like a chat GPT or did y' all actually bring somebody? I don't know.

[Bo Hansen]

We've had logo for a couple years, so I think we probably. The logo pre chat GPT. It's good. No, we got a whole. We got a whole brand.

[Brian Preston]

Haven't you ever ridden down the interstate? And like, I saw I was behind a car. I was trying to remember which type of car it was, and I was like, I 65 boys. You know, like, you know, so somebody really enjoyed their friends so much that they came up with a logo and then put a decal on the back. That's best bonus gym buds.

[Bo Hansen]

You know, we don't. I want to always want to wear one of the shirts like on. On the show, but it does have a call. They're like T shirts, you know, it wouldn't be. It wouldn't be like Money Guy Tuesday.

[Ribe]

A little strange.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah, that's a little.

[Ribe]

Just so used to seeing you guys in your collars.

[Brian Preston]

It's not only for just living unless you make. It's also knowing not to wear your gym rat shirts on. On a. On a natural.

[Ribe]

All right, let's get back to a question because I do have what?

[Bo Hansen]

Quick issue change.

[Ribe]

We gotta get back. I got a lot of questions.

[Brian Preston]

We've only done three questions and I

[Ribe]

do have a fun segment for us to do. We'll probably do another question or two and then move on to our from the wings segment. So stick around for that. We're gonna get Brian and Bose better

[Brian Preston]

than the other one.

[Bo Hansen]

What's the other one?

[Brian Preston]

You know, the. It depends.

[Ribe]

Rapid fire.

[Brian Preston]

Rapid fire.

[Bo Hansen]

I thought you're trying not to say it on purpose.

[Ribe]

All right, next question is from Luis. Can you explain the reason for 36 months being the limit for car loans? Why should I push to get rid of a super low interest car loan so quickly?

[Bo Hansen]

Well, it's kind of, it's sort of mathematical based on the way that, that cars operate. Cars are one of these unique assets that we buy. We spend a whole lot of money on them and they become less valuable through time. Right. And depending on how new the car you're buying is, the brand of the car that you're buying and the cost of the car you're buying, oftentimes in the first couple of years of ownership, especially buying a new one, that's when you see the most rapid decline in value. You see this huge thing where depreciation could wipe out anywhere from 40 to 60% of the car's value in the first three to four years. And so the reason why we like the three years or 36 months is so that we can create an environment where hopefully, ideally, you won't be underwater in your vehicle. You won't end up owing more on the vehicle than the vehicle's actually worth.

[Brian Preston]

Can I be meaner? I'm going to be. Because look, the trap that you fall in with car purchases is if you expand out how long you can pay for the car, you can afford anything at a monthly amount and that's what the car dealerships take advantage of you. That's why you see every year it seems like the average length that cars are financed keeps going further and further out. I think we're getting close to seven years at this point. So on purpose we tell you 36 months so that it puts as much pressure on what can you afford. That way there's not separation from what your income, what you're hopefully building in the background is and your ego on the car you should drive it, keeps it in check, is because if you have to pay this thing off in 36 months, first of all, you're not going to get crushed by depreciation. And it's also going to keep you honest with what you really can afford. So that way you take your income with the 8%, you take the down payment that you have to put down. And then you put the three years, you're going to end up with something that's going to be reliable and it's going to be something that's also going to be reasonable versus if you go out to 84 months. All of a sudden now you're thinking, hey, I can afford a 75, $80,000 car because the monthly payment gets digestible. That's the opposite. We want your money working for you, not depreciating in something that's sitting in your driveway.

[Bo Hansen]

And I think you said this. We always prefer if you can pay cash. Of course, we get some flack on that. We love 23eight. 23eight is amazing. It's a great tool. But if you can pay cash, cash is ideal when it comes to purchasing automobiles. I just want to throw a little disclaimer out there. Another thing I want to throw out there, if you want to understand how detrimental this can be. We have an episode of Making a Millionaire coming out and I'm not going to give you the details, but do you remember how much the car payment was? It was $1,000 a month for a

[Brian Preston]

car payment and it was 84 months.

[Bo Hansen]

And I was about to say, you won't believe how long this loan was for. Make sure you subscribe right now. Maybe they didn't believe it when it comes that almost beautiful. That was.

[Brian Preston]

I'm sorry. That is great. This is why, this is what, that's why I'm like, fortunately, my wife is designed to not like surprises because I can't keep a secret. I was literally can't keep a secret.

[Bo Hansen]

I was setting up the knock knock and he said, interrupting Cal, you know what I mean? Like, he just, he didn't let me build it. That was, you know what that. So make sure you subscribe. Check it out. It's a. And. And you won't believe what this couple did. 84 month car loan, thousand dollar a month car payment. You will not believe what they did next.

[Ribe]

Don't say anything, Brian. Leave it a surprise.

[Brian Preston]

They're a lovely couple, too.

[Bo Hansen]

Lovely couple.

[Ribe]

Subscribe here. Watch Making a Millionaire when it comes out every other Monday. All right, we are going to do our segment. Are you ready? This segment is called from the Wings where the content team gathers some recent headlines and we are going to get Brian and Bo's reaction to them. So Brian and Beau, in your drawer at your desk, you have thumbs up and thumbs down powers.

[Brian Preston]

Oh, look, we got props.

[Bo Hansen]

All the hiding stuff in our props.

[Ribe]

No, did you kidding me? We have props for this one today we have thumbs up and thumbs down. So how this is going to work is I'm going to read one of the headlines and you guys will tell me, thumbs up. This is news. We should pay attention. Here's why. Or thumbs down. This is noise. This is not going to have a big impact on our financial lives. All right, got it. You ready?

[Bo Hansen]

Yep.

[Ribe]

First headline is inflation soared to 3.8% in April driven by gasoline prices from the Wall Street Journal.

[Bo Hansen]

And the question is, is this news?

[Ribe]

Oh, we got one vote. Both say it's noise. Why do you say so?

[Brian Preston]

Well, I mean, you can't control, I mean, inflation. Look, I want you to do the things we always tell you. I want you to look at your emergency reserves. Look at the things you can control. But this is a bigger game that's going on is that there's geopolitical stuff going on. There's the Federal Reserve meeting and there's inflation concerns, but you can't control any of that. So focus on what you can control. Because I don't want these things creating you to freeze because you get analysis paralysis from too many data points.

[Bo Hansen]

I don't want people. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. I don't need to tell you that the prices of things has increased. Like if you filled up your gas tank, if you've gone to the grocery, like you've seen that man, this is the erosion of purchasing power is a real thing that takes place. So I don't think this is like newsworth newsworthy as in, oh, I need to be actionable right now. I think inflation always exists now there it varies, right? A couple years ago it got as high as 9.3% and then we've seen it as low as 2% year over year change in recent memory. I think in the way that we build our wealth and think about the future, we ought to recognize that's why we should be investing, that's why we should be owning things. But I don't think knowing that it hit a certain number in a certain month should dictate any of our short term to intermediate term behavior.

[Ribe]

There you go. All right, this next one, this is an interesting 1. Google SpaceX in talks to explore data centers in orbit. I knew he was gonna say that. Bo says it's news.

[Brian Preston]

Well, I mean it's news, but I mean it's not actionable for you. But I mean is that a. Oh, interesting filter. I mean it's entertainment. It's reading for entertainment.

[Ribe]

Oh, but Brian is flipping his paddle back and forth.

[Brian Preston]

So I think it's.

[Ribe]

Do not even say it depends. Yeah, I think it depends the segment for that.

[Brian Preston]

Okay, go ahead.

[Ribe]

Why do you think?

[Bo Hansen]

I just think it's fascinating, right? Like, I think it's fascinating when you think about infrastructural. I made that word up. That's a real word though, that I made up. Change, right? Like how things change. We are now getting to the point, I was reading this thing the other day, that it might be more cost effective or if it hasn't happened now it's moving in that direction. More cost effective to like put servers or whatever on a satellite, shoot it into space, have it orbit, have solar panels up there because it's outside the yellow zone. So it's getting all the power, yada, yada, yada, more cost effective that they need to develop and build it down here. I just think that's a really interesting way that technology is advancing. And you think about even as like, this is where my mind sort of wanders to. Does that mean that like one day even real estate vesting is going to be like, like space real estate? Like that's going to be a thing that you have to think about.

[Ribe]

That is crazy. Like it's not out of the realm of possibilities.

[Bo Hansen]

Like right now we think about investing.

[Brian Preston]

You don't know. But you know, what I do know law of accelerating returns is that innovation and things like this are changing constantly. And if you want to invest something you can control, buy the market. Don't try to beat the market, Buy the market. Because guess what? One of the largest holdings in Total Market Index or The S&P 500 is Google Alphabet. Guess what? SpaceX is probably going to go. I mean it is going public. When it launches into the public world of us being able to invest in it, it's going to become an S and P or Total Market Index investment. You're going to own it. So you don't have to waste your mental horsepower or time trying to figure these things out. You can just, instead of beating the market, be the market and then focus on how you live your best life on that.

[Bo Hansen]

I completely agree.

[Ribe]

So yeah, I think Brian turned his answer around. I think you said, well, no, I think it's power.

[Brian Preston]

These are important things.

[Ribe]

But in the context, education, moment of

[Brian Preston]

lens of what, what we're doing here with the money guy show, it's read this stuff if it fascinates you, but don't feel like it's something you have to hype.

[Bo Hansen]

It's to change your behavior for. Yeah, agree with that.

[Ribe]

This is just kind of like a. Yeah. It's supporting the idea of law of accelerating returns and buying the market. Right. I love that.

[Brian Preston]

And by the way, if you don't know what the law of accelerating returns, I talk about it in Millionaire Mission. It's something I remember when intern Daniel, y' all know, we love Daniel. Me and him were, we were talking about this concept and then he was the one that said, hey, you know, there's actually a term for that called law of accelerating returns. It's where the, the pace of, of innovation actually speeds up. And that's why the change that will happen over the next 10 years will make the last 50 seem like it's standing still. And that stuff, it's crazy when you think about how fast things are moving. And I feel it all the time. I feel it actually is a little, I mean it creates a little anxiety to a degree is just because everything is moving so fast these days.

[Bo Hansen]

But it's so interesting. You think about like it was five years ago, we as like general consumers, we're not using artificial intelligence in the way that we are today. We weren't like playing with agentic type stuff like that wasn't even 25 years ago. Is my math checking. The iPhone wasn't even.

[Brian Preston]

It was 2008.

[Bo Hansen]

Right.

[Brian Preston]

And 2008 is when the iPhone was.

[Bo Hansen]

You have like multi billion dollar businesses that could be operated singularly from a handheld. It's just what will the world look like 10, 20, 30, 40 years from now? I just, it's fascinating.

[Brian Preston]

It's back to the point that Apollo 11, you know, your phone has more processing than what landed on the moon.

[Ribe]

Crazy. So crazy. All right, we got a couple more. Next headline from Business Insider, the market has jumped the shark. Michael Burry says stocks may finally be at the precipice of a major reversal.

[Bo Hansen]

Michael Burry has called a hundred of the last one recessions back pre 2008. Right. Like that's the thing, like he keeps saying, and I'm not picking on Michael Burry. That's. I don't want to like single him out specifically, but oftentimes someone who has credibility for making a singular call or being able to say, hey, I saw this thing coming and I rightly predicted it, they fall into the trap oftentimes in my experience where they begin doing that over and over and over and over again, over and over and over again.

[Brian Preston]

We're supposed to vote. We didn't do it. We didn't hold up anything.

[Ribe]

Oh, that's true. What are you doing?

[Bo Hansen]

You're sorry. Breaking the game.

[Brian Preston]

We're not very good at games.

[Ribe]

You both said it's noise.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah. And so nobody knows. Nobody knows what the market's going to do in the next six months, nine months, 12 months, 24 months, 36 months. And anyone who tells you that they do know, in my opinion is guessing.

[Brian Preston]

One of my greatest achievements that nobody knows of is that back in 2002 when I was trying to. This is before podcasting, I was like, how in the world am I go get clients. I just want to be an educator and show people how finance works. So I started writing a column in the local newspaper, Henry Harold. Too bad that probably hundreds of people read the Henry Herald instead of the millions that we get exposure to now. Because I actually wrote a piece in 2002 that was. It was actually the day before we reached the bottom most point of the stock market of 2002 on why everybody in the world should start investing. Because if you invest when things are so bleak and horrible, you can average and expect these type of returns in the first 30 days to 12 months after a market v shape recovers. And I was spot. Actually we nailed it. In the article I said markets typically make 26.2% when they hit the dead bottom of a market. Fast forward to a year in the future from when I wrote that article. It was like a 45% if you would have invested on the day that I wrote that article. The problem is I didn't have a national publication for people to go.

[Bo Hansen]

He was a genius.

[Brian Preston]

He spotted. And by the way, did I have a crystal ball? Did I have it? No, I just kind of was. I saw what was going on. I see how markets recover. That's what I was trying to share. That's what I was trying to educate. Michael did a great job of predicting something in the past, but it's. But it's exactly what Bo said. He's predicted it over and over. But because he got it right, once he gets to make a career off of that, just be careful. That's why without a doubt this is noise because previous thing I was just talking about law of accelerating returns. There are going to be more and more all time highs. There's also going to be scary, scary bear markets that will come our way. But if you'll just always be buying and buying and just hold your nose through it behaviorally, you're going to come out in a better place in the long term.

[Bo Hansen]

Love that.

[Ribe]

All right. Good stuff. Last one. Very interested to get your take on this. Is this news or noise? Male coyote swam two miles to Alcatraz Island. Twice as far as biologists had expected.

[Brian Preston]

Who found this one?

[Ribe]

For context, this coyote also escaped from Alcatraz. Quote, there is no evidence the coyote is still on the island, so.

[Brian Preston]

But you said he escaped to it this. Cause it says he swam there and

[Ribe]

skate to it, Swam there and swam back.

[Brian Preston]

So he got. So he went from, like San Francisco to alcatraz.

[Ribe]

There is 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes from Alcatraz. Nearly all were caught or did not survive the cold, swift current. But this coyote did. What does it mean, news or noise?

[Bo Hansen]

Are coyotes good swimmers?

[Brian Preston]

Yeah, they got four legs.

[Bo Hansen]

Look, I'm gonna go out on a limb. I don't think I'd make that swim. I'm gonna be honest. I know there's a lot. A lot of people been asking about my swimming proficiency. It's not good enough to go from the coast to Alcatraz and back and back. I mean, even if I made it there, the way back would probably get me.

[Brian Preston]

Have you ever toured Alcatraz?

[Bo Hansen]

No, I want to. Is it awesome?

[Brian Preston]

Yeah, it's pretty cool. Because, you know, that's what. It's got a lot of history to it. That's where, you know, because we've made the joke, don't cheat on your taxes. Because taxes is how they got Al Capone. And Al Capone was out Alcatraz. So they show you all that stuff. And then there have been some escapes. Now, I thought. I thought in the asterisk on Alcatraz, they have like one or two people that they. Not quite sure if they made it

[Bo Hansen]

because they never found them.

[Brian Preston]

Well, here's the thing. You don't. When you're. When you're on Alcatraz, you can see the. The land to where you'd have to swim to. And it looks like you could do it. And so that's why I think it's probably noise. This is noise. But it is. If you've ever toured Alcatraz, it's interesting. Like, oh, it took a coyote, but coyote is not a human. And that's what I. I don't know if I. I don't think I could do it either.

[Bo Hansen]

Was it Sean Connery? What? Or wasn't there about the rock? The rock, yeah. That was Nicholas Cage, wasn't it?

[Brian Preston]

Well, he's Sean Connery. Nicholas Cage. I think that's.

[Bo Hansen]

They made it out, right.

[Brian Preston]

Was it Alcatraz, though?

[Bo Hansen]

I think so wasn't that somewhat okay?

[Brian Preston]

It's a great movie.

[Ribe]

We've aged out of anyone from the way.

[Brian Preston]

If y' all ain't caught on. Bo actually. Actually is not old enough to watch any of these movies, too. But because Bo's babysitter was the superstation, you know, which is channel 17, which is appropriate because Ted Turner just recently passed away and he definitely shaped my life. He shaped. Because anybody from the Atlanta area, the superstation was legit. I mean, between pro wrestling and all the movies that are edited down so that you now show them the real version to somebody. If you're trying to show them historic things like you tell your kids, these are the greatest movies. Let me show you from my childhood in the.

[Bo Hansen]

Turn it off in 10 minutes.

[Brian Preston]

You cut it off. You're like, oh, my God. Superstation. They didn't cuss that much on the Superstation. They didn't have nudity like that. You know, it's. So Ted was. Who would have known? Ted was protecting us from so much.

[Bo Hansen]

They what?

[Ribe]

Who would have known?

[Brian Preston]

And then also the stadium. I mean, a lot of my. You know, I remember when the olympics opened in 96. The TED. Yeah, they called it the TED because of that stadium.

[Bo Hansen]

That was Atlanta, Fulton County Stadium. And then it was the TED right after that. Right. That was at the Olympics. Is that when that started?

[Brian Preston]

Yep. Look at that.

[Ribe]

Well, wow, that was a great conversation starter. And what I'm hearing is the coyote story is news.

[Brian Preston]

I still want to know what. What content member was like, this is the closer.

[Ribe]

It was just from the wings.

[Bo Hansen]

How long you think it takes a. Because they don't. They got four legs, but they can't. Like, that's.

[Brian Preston]

Oh, if you never. You don't have a dog.

[Bo Hansen]

Is it Dog. I mean, it's all you've had.

[Brian Preston]

We have a little Chihuahua. And every now and then, you know, we'll put the. We'll put the Chihuahua in the. She can swim like a ferret. I mean, or swim like. Not a ferret, but. What's the. What's the. What's the dog? The. The animals that you put in the water. You see them. They're so entertaining at the zoo.

[Bo Hansen]

Ducks.

[Brian Preston]

No, they always. Because they're really fun to watch in a zoo.

[Bo Hansen]

Skills.

[Brian Preston]

No, gosh.

[Ribe]

You don't go to zoo.

[Brian Preston]

Otters. Not a little Chihuahua who looks like an otter in the water from the wings.

[Ribe]

They were tracking with you, Brian. They were tracking that little.

[Brian Preston]

That little dog. She's a Chihuahua terrier, I should say. It's probably the terrier that makes it such a good swimmer. It's not the Chihuahua.

[Ribe]

I think she can make it to Al Capa.

[Brian Preston]

Just makes her mean.

[Bo Hansen]

That's unbelievable.

[Brian Preston]

Except for my wife Lily is not

[Bo Hansen]

making it to Alcatraz.

[Brian Preston]

Raise your hand if you've been bitten by a Chihuahua Lily the last week. Honestly, I mean, whenever I take that dog out at night, there's a. There's about a 50% chance I'm getting bitten. Her feet, her teeth are so just in a bad place that it doesn't hurt.

[Bo Hansen]

Lily is going to get eaten by a fish. And it would not be even that big of a fish. It would just be like a medium sized fish would eat Lily.

[Ribe]

Okay.

[Bo Hansen]

100%.

[Ribe]

I'm glad we covered that. This has been from the wings. Thank you for joining us. We do have some more financial questions to get to if you guys are up for it.

[Brian Preston]

Let's do it.

[Ribe]

All right. We've got a little bit of a spicy one. I don't know. Interesting one.

[Brian Preston]

The coyote wasn't spicy.

[Ribe]

How about a say from Amber? It says, as a single person buying a house seems out of reach. Is it a bad idea to buy with a friend? What should I consider?

[Brian Preston]

I mean, this is where a friend or roommate, unfortunately this is. It depends. Doesn't cut us off at the knees here. See, I think about one of our associates, his college buddy. Think about this hack. He bought a house. I bought a camera. Was a town. It was a townhouse. That's what it was. And then he got his two college buddies to move in. Now, he was the only one, but that's how the mortgage. That's what I mean. So this could be Amber, could be house hacking too. Because that's basically getting roommates other people's money to help you pay for the house as long. Amber, I think this is great to have OPM to help you do this house hacking. As long as your emergency reserves and your bench of financial resources deep enough that if the roommates move out, it doesn't deep six your financial life.

[Ribe]

Here's the thing. I don't think she's talking about house hacking. I think she's talking about like names are on.

[Brian Preston]

Hey, I'm not putting the friend on the settlements.

[Ribe]

Like they're going to pull their money to get the.

[Brian Preston]

Oh, be careful.

[Ribe]

Okay.

[Bo Hansen]

I was like, man, how's he a good.

[Ribe]

I know.

[Brian Preston]

I like house hacking.

[Ribe]

I think, I think that's a good different, like differentiator.

[Bo Hansen]

I love the idea. If you have a person who you know, who you know is going to be a roommate and you want to try charge them rent. That's. That's wonderful.

[Ribe]

Yeah. But let's talk about why. Because she's right. It's hard to come up with a down payment.

[Bo Hansen]

But when you. When you go to buy something together, you're forming a partnership. I want to buy this thing. And it's. It's a little bit like a marriage. Like, you got to really understand and know what's going on with the counterparty. Brian, you and I have bought a number of commercial buildings together that you and I own. But we kind of knew going into it, we had, like, a history, we had a backstory. And I think what changes it is neither one of us live in those buildings. Because if you buy a house together, and then what if one of you decides to go get married? Well, okay, does the spouse move in there, or do. Then they have to move out or do they buy you out? And what, like, what do they pay for?

[Ribe]

And what if they can't find it? Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

And let me nerd out as the CPA here, who's done tax returns. One of the things, because I've seen people buy, like, lake homes and beach homes where they don't form a partnership, they just go buy it together like this. And it's a tax mess, because what happens is whoever's name is first is the Social Security number that you're going to get the 1098 or whatever the mortgage interest is on, and then everybody else when forever. As long as you own this property, you all list. You have to list the full amount of the 1098, and then you have to put a note on the tax return of the other people who are claiming the interest deduction on their taxes. So then when they put it on their taxes, by the way, you're still likely gonna get a notice every year because of this, because it's just not clean from a perspective. That's why I like when we, yes, we have bought property together, but we formed partnerships to. To go do it. So there's only one tax ID associated with this. It works when, like when you and a spouse bought. Since y' all are filing a tax return together, it doesn't matter that it's only on the first person Social Security that's reported to the irs. This just creates an administrative nightmare for your taxes every year. But it also creates a life mess in a lot of ways, because at the end of the day, who's responsible for the house and the decisions that go on, that's why I like when one person is, if you're using this as a house hack, you know, you get to kick out, like, you get, you get a spouse, get to kick out your roommates. You say, hey, yeah, you know what, it was a great time. But when we go in a year from now, when we renew the lease, you know, I've got a spouse now, I don't need you as a roommate anymore. And you, you, you in a nice way, you, you come to an agreement to separate ways. If you both own it, how do you have that conversation? It's just weird.

[Bo Hansen]

And so what I would do is I would rewind a little bit. Okay, you're a single person, but buying homes is. I would, I would go through the exercise of, okay, why do I want to be a homeowner? What is it that I'm looking for? Like, what's the, the problem I'm solving? And can you answer in the affirmative the questions we'd want you to answer to be able to buy a home? Do I see myself being in this location for the next five to seven years? Do I see my life circumstance staying the same, meaning I'm likely not going to get married or I'm likely not going to have kids or whatever that thing may be? Is homeownership the right thing at this point in time? If you arrive at the conclusion that yes, it is, I think you would likely be better served continuing to. Maybe you go rent a place with this friend of yours so that y' all can split the rent, you can save a lot of money, build up so that ultimately one day you can buy. But I think there are more risks than there are rewards. If you try to go buy a home with a non spousal partner just

[Brian Preston]

to get on the whole or finish the drill. And like, if you, if you say, hey, we're going to live in this for the next two years and then turn it into a rental property, y' all go form a partnership, write out an operating agreement or a partnership agreement that lays out all these different things. Because begin with the end in mind and maybe then it works because. But just throwing it against the wall and hoping it all works out and life's not going to make this messy, that's a disaster. That's why I always begin with the end in mind and think through all the life changes and everything that's going to happen.

[Bo Hansen]

That's right.

[Ribe]

That was a good and well rounded answer, Amber. Thank you for the question.

[Bo Hansen]

We have a home buying hub. She should Go check out too.

[Ribe]

Oh, I love that. Go to moneyguy.com look at our ultimate guides for home buying. Also, we have two free resources. A home buying calculator and a home buying checklist that you can [e-mail] resources. I'm telling you, moneyguy.com man, we just keep putting all kinds of stuff up there and then it is there for you.

[Brian Preston]

Learn everything is the goal. Learn, apply, grow, rinse and repeat. And then we create this abundance I all over again.

[Ribe]

Yep. So, yeah, whether you're ready to dive deeper, watch some old episodes, get some free resources, or take it to the next level and become a client, moneyguy.com is your place to go. Even though we'll turn the cameras off today, we will be back at Tuesday, every Tuesday at 10am Central. What?

[Brian Preston]

I thought we were gonna do one more.

[Ribe]

No. Oh, do you want to.

[Bo Hansen]

Brian wants to answer more questions. Let's do one more. Let's go. He said let's. He said let's give the people came here for answers. I'm silly for going into my new

[Brian Preston]

employees are in the wings watching too. So let's give them one more. One more for the folks.

[Ribe]

I just wasn't sure if you'd be able to do this one quick enough, but we'll go over. Let's go. Let's give the people what they want. Let's give Brian what he wants.

[Bo Hansen]

Do it.

[Ribe]

All right. This one's from Unbev Lievable. It says, my company offers an employee stock purchase plan purchase program. Twice a year, employees can invest up to 10% of their base in company stock. The price of the stock is set at 15% below the 26 week low.

[Brian Preston]

Wow.

[Bo Hansen]

20.

[Brian Preston]

Great.

[Ribe]

So he says help. So I think he's asking how to handle this.

[Brian Preston]

Well, see, by the way, this is help in a good way because you're like drowning in opportunity. Because let me just everybody who doesn't know because can you believe we made it through a whole show and have not popped this thing around?

[Ribe]

This is why we just did this question.

[Red Bull Announcer]

Goodness.

[Brian Preston]

The financial order of operations. The reason that unbelievable is having so much issue is that step number two is you got to get that free money. When your employer is opening up the checkbook to load you up with free money, you say thank you, thank you, thank you. And you try to maximize. So if you can't do 10% right off the get go try to figure out how over the next year, two years, you get pay raises, you can maximize that free money.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, I would say do everything in your power. This would be a step two thing in my mind to try to get to that 10%. And what's interesting is the way that I imagine your plan works based on the familiarity we have with the spps, is every pay cycle you defer money into like this holding account and then twice a year it reviews. Okay, you've built up all this money 26 week. What was a low 50% discount you buy, I would imagine with your plan because it's structured that way, there's not like a minimum holding period. So even if you were to then go liquidate that stock after it was acquired, after you purchased it, yeah, you're going to pay ordinary income, but it's still free money. You're paying ordinary income tax when the stock is likely higher than it was in the 26 low plus 15%. Even after you net out the ordinary income taxes, you're still going to have substantial free money that then you can go back to the financial order. Brian, you hold the thing up for me. Back to the financial order of operation. Okay, well now do I need to beef up my emergency fund even more? Don't need to do a Roth, I need to do hsa. If that money is there and it's available, I would try to do everything in my power to be able to take advantage of it and then figure out how I invest and then how I divest and then redeploy.

[Brian Preston]

Okay, so now that we got you all hopped up and excited about how good of an opportunity this is, let's give you the other side. Is remember there is the risk that you already have your human capital, meaning your wages and your time tied into this company. You want to be very mindful not to build too much of your liquid investments into the same company. So that's why you do need to follow the shampoo bottle lead, is that rinse and repeat, meaning that after you take advantage of the situation, come up with a plan where every year you're kind of cleaning out, you're selling it, taking advantage of the money, putting it in, diversifying, exactly what Bo was talking about through the financial order of operations, and then repeat the process over and over again because you just don't want to have too much of your money all tied up into your pour. But yes, please take advantage of that free money because this stuff will amplify that wealth building journey.

[Ribe]

Don't worry, don't worry. I'm not going to give my whole spiel again. Just go to moneyguy. Dot com. You'll love it. That's what I'm going to say. Thank you for being here for our Ask Money Guy show. We'll be back Every Tuesday at 10am answering your personal finance questions and having a little fun.

[Bo Hansen]

I want to throw one thing out there, can I? Because we're at the very. This is the very end of the show. So it's probably not very many people out there. We have a lot of exciting stuff coming out. I'm not gonna tell them what it is, but I just think that you're not doing a good enough job telling people.

[Brian Preston]

Oh, my gosh.

[Bo Hansen]

She just cut how much exciting stuff. Get the shank through the end of this year. You know the things I'm talking about.

[Ribe]

It's coming up in my review.

[Bo Hansen]

Remember the thing that I talked about that we're gonna do? This is my review that people don't know about, man. If you are not subscribed to the channel, if you're not our email newsletter, you're not going to know about some of the stuff we have coming and some of it. Brian already let the cat out of the bag. We've got some new ebooks coming out, but we have things even bigger and better than ebooks that are happening later on this. I think it's this year. It's going to be this year. I just want you guys to be as excited as we are because we cannot wait to get it out into the light of the day.

[Brian Preston]

So what happened was you made the eyebrow comment.

[Bo Hansen]

I know.

[Brian Preston]

That was the moment that Bo took his toothbrush and started forming a shank out of it right then. And that way he could get it through security and just do the attack right there undercover of the show. But in all seriousness, I know that Ribey's already done the closeout, but I will say, look, learn, apply, grow. That is the abundance cycle. You know, I love that our system lets you create the results before we ask anything of you. And that's why we'll leave the porch light on for you. If you figured out, hey, your simple life has created this level of success that now this thing is, man, it's just straight up complex. Consider working with us. I'm your host, Brian, joined by Mr. Bo Reby and the rest of the crack content team. Money Guy out.

[Ribe]

The Money Guy show is hosted by Brian Preston and Bo Hansen. Brian and Beau 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.