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Best Investing Accounts for Kids (New Trump Accounts?)
01:03:39
Ask Money Guy | March 11th, 2026
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- [00:07]
A
We know that compound interest is amazing. Some would even call it, I think Benjamin Franklin said, I don't know if he really said it, that compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. And we see how powerful it can be in our lives. Because when it comes to building wealth, there are these three ingredients we talk about, we talk about discipline, we talk about margin or money. And then that third component is time. Well, the one thing that children have more than all of the rest of us on average is time. And we're able to take that time, component, component, component, and apply it to finance and apply it to savings. It's amazing what can happen.
- [00:46]
B
It's really cool. And we're going to get to that math. We also recognize we've gotten a ton of questions about the new Trump accounts. We also get a lot of questions about how, how and where to invest for your kids. So we're going to break down four of the most common investment vehicles for kids today. Five 29s, UGMAs, Nutmas, Custodial Roths, and the Trump Trump accounts. And we're going to give you a little high level compare and contrast so you can see which one might be right for you. And then we're going to talk about the math behind what's going to go on inside those accounts.
- [01:16]
A
Yeah, I think parents ask this all the time, hey, guys, I want to start saving for my kid. I want to build for their financial future, but I don't know where to start now. I don't know how to discern the differences between the accounts that are available. So we thought we'd just kind of walk through that. So Ruby already mentioned we're gonna look at four different types. We're gonna talk about Trump's five 29s, custodial accounts and then custodial Roth accounts. Uh, and we thought first, okay, who, who is this built for? When can a child open these? If we just think about sort of the age, um, now, Trump accounts don't have to be opened at birth. They can be opened after birth. But because this is a brand new type of account, one of the benefits is, is there's going to be some free money that flows into it. We'll talk about that in a second. So Trump accounts are generally thought of as like, hey, I'm going to open this when my baby is born. That's kind of the going idea right now. Five 29s can be opened at any age. Now we see this a couple of times when making a millionaire guests, they'll be like, hey, we Want to have kids one day. Should we go ahead and start saving in a 529 for our unborn, unnamed, uncreated children?
- [02:17]
B
Financial mutant.
- [02:18]
A
It's such a mutant thing. I would say no. Comes to 529s. You really want to save for a child that's likely already been born so that there's a designated beneficiary. So we're going to say any age between now and college age. Custodial accounts can also be set up at any age. Now, this one, the person, the child does have to be born because they are going to be listed as a beneficiary account and then custodial Roth IRAs. Again, this has to be for an individual that's been born. But the unique caveat is this, that person, that minor, that child has to have earned income. So those are kind of the ages at which you would set these up. Now let's talk about the money that goes into each. So we already alluded one of the beautiful things about the Trump accounts is that if you have a child that was born in 2025 or 2026, the government said, hey, we're going to front end load this. We're going to make a deposit on your behalf, 1,000 bucks. That is free money for your kids. And really, how do we feel about free money?
- [03:13]
B
Amazing. It's step two of the financial order of operations for a reason, right? We love free money. And this is really why people are asking questions about these accounts, right? Like, okay, there's free money in here. What is this? Like, is this good? What's going on?
- [03:27]
A
Exactly. And so if you have a child that was born in those two years, you're going to get this thousand dollar seed fund from the government. But there's also going to be a contribution limit where parents, grandparents, others can put money in there up to $5,000 per year. Now, one small caveat, there was a special grant done by Michael Dell where if your student was born, if your child was born, I want to say in the last 10 years, I think it might be January 1st of 25, maybe I'm going off memory here. And you can apply for this and It'll be a $250amount that you could be eligible for. I think it's only for the first 25 million people that sign up. So there it's going to, that's going to be limited, whereas the Trump accounts are not going to be limited in the same way. Just a little caveat to know about.529 contribution limits, they can vary by state in terms of the lifetime contribution. So there's like this big six figure number that you can put in there. But for most states where five to nine limits exist are in the annual gift limit. So if you can give $15,000 per year, most 529 are going to limit the contributions you can make in there to avoid gift tax at 15,000. But there is a mechanism with 529s where you can do what's called super funding them, where you can bunch up to five years of those gifts together and put in a 529. But for most people from, in most circumstances it's going to be the annual gifting limit. For custodial accounts, UGMAs and UTMAs, there are no contribution limits. So you can put as much money into these accounts for the benefit of your child as you like. But once the accounts reach a certain size and begin to create a certain amount of income, there are some different tax rules that apply. Obviously there's going to be no tax at a certain level and then at the next level it's going to be taxed at your kids tax rate. But then once it cross over that, then it's going to be taxed at your parents tax rates, at the adults tax rate. So don't just assume I'm going to shovel all this money, this custodial account, I'm going to have it skirt taxes. It does not work that way. And then with custodial Roth IRAs, you can put the lower of the child's income or the annual Roth limit, which this year in 2026 is $7,500. So if your kid makes two, three, $4,000, you can put two or they can put two, three, $4,001 into a custodial Roth, but that income does indeed have to show up on a tax return.
- [05:42]
B
Right?
- [05:43]
A
All right, next question. Who owns the accounts and when does the ownership shift? Because one of the things we want to do for our kids is we want to set them up. But ultimately we want this money to become their money one day or be used for their benefit one day.
- [05:56]
B
And this does get interesting because like the Trump accounts for instance, they are cheaper child owned and the child gets access to them at 18.
- [06:03]
A
That's exactly right.
- [06:04]
B
Which is, you know, great, they're adults. But obviously as a parent you're kind of thinking ahead, okay, are they going to be ready to take that on at 18? So like this is another consideration for sure. And then whereas 529 is different than this because the parent owns that and distributes that money for education or for, you know, whatever you decide to do with that money. And for your child. The ugmas and utmas are also an irrevocable gift. Controlled at the age of majority. That's usually the age of 18. It varies by state though, so go look that up, depending on your state. And then custodial Roth IRAs are also child owned since that is part of their earned income. Right. That they're adding to that. And they are also accessed at the age of majority. So definitely something to keep in mind because honestly, like, I'm hoping that by the time my child is 18, they're smart enough, or at least a little bit smart enough, but you don't really know that. So you need to think through that. How are you thinking through that?
- [06:56]
A
No. Yeah. One thing I'll just add on the 529s, it doesn't have to be a parent. Grandparents can open them as well, but there has to be someone who owns the account. And then the child is.
- [07:06]
B
The adult is owned the account. Right.
- [07:08]
A
You know, it's really, really interesting because we want to build for our kids, but at least at my kids ages, you know, my kids are almost 11, almost 9 and 3 years old and. Okay, I don't think they're watching. Well, they're probably not watching. My oldest, you know, at 18, likely she's gonna, she's making responsible decisions. She's doing like this doesn't frighten me. We've already, you know, she's running this little side business we've already started, you know, putting money in a bank account, saving for her. My middle kid, though, I don't know at 18.
- [07:41]
B
Personality, right.
- [07:42]
A
It's different. Even though they had the, you know, same recipe, same upbringing, they have turned out differently. So one of the things you want to be careful when you're funding, when you're funding accounts for the benefits of your kids is recognizing, okay, when do they actually get the keys to the kingdom? Because what will happen is, let's say that you open up a custodial account and you open up at a Fidelity or a Vanguard or a, you know, fill in the blank. They're tracking the kid's age. And when your kid hits the age of majority at age 18 or at age 21, you might just say, oh, well, my kid knows nothing about this account. They're not, they don't know about it. I'm not going to do it. You'll actually get a letter in the mail from Fidelity saying, hey, we've noticed that the beneficial. This account has now reached the age of majority. We're going to lock down this account until that child opens up an individual account and you transfer the asset. So they kind of force your hand on that. So as you're funding these, as you're growing these assets, you just want to make sure that you understand what's going to happen with them and that you feel comfortable. And if you don't feel comfortable with that, then there are some things you can change along the way. But again, this is one of those where you want to begin with the end in mind. Even with a Trump account. Okay. You might think government's going to put in a thousand, and it's just easy as one. I'm going to put in 5,000 every year. Well, if you do that every year for 18 years and they're growing, it'll
- [08:55]
B
be a lot of money.
- [08:56]
A
It's going to be a lot of money. So you just want to make sure that you're setting your kid up for success. Yeah, we think about the benefits of the different accounts. You know, I think the big benefit for the Trump account, in my estimation, is the free money.
- [09:11]
B
It's the free money.
- [09:12]
A
It's that free money.
- [09:13]
B
There's a lot unknown that remains to be seen. Right. The big win there is obviously the free money. Like you could at least take that. Right, Exactly.
- [09:21]
A
And so I think Jake asked any. I saw the question, hey, where does the, where does Trump account fit in the financial order of operation? It will one financial order of operation. What to do with your next dollar. Trump accounts are kind of easy because it's not your money, it's government's money. So you should. If you got a kid, if you had a baby last year, if you're having a baby this year, open up a Trump account, get that free money.
- [09:39]
B
Yeah.
- [09:40]
A
529s are also amazing tools, but they have a specified purpose. Those dollars are specifically for education. It used to just be for post primary education, so for college and that sort of thing, but now it can actually be used for K through 12 private schools. If you're someone who's thinking about sending your kids private or you want to save for college specifically, 529s are probably the best vehicle to do that. Now they're sponsored by every state. So your state likely has a 529 plan that you should take advantage or that you could take advantage of. Now, if your state doesn't have a tax incentive, there's not a reason you don't have to have a 529 in your state like my kids, you know, here in Tennessee there are no state tax benefits from that. So I have Utah529 set up for my kids. It was a really when they were born, really good plan, really low cost options, really good provider for UGMAs and UTMAs. These are unconstrained funds. These dollars can be used for education. They can also be used for weddings. They can be used for first time car purchases. They can be used for first time home purchases. It's free and clear money. So if you'd have sort of, you know, you just want to seed money for your kids to kind of start out life, these are a great solution. And then custodial Roths are for retirement specific because remember once they turn to age 18, once they hit age of majority, custodial Roths just become Roths.
- [10:59]
B
And now they're old Roth IRA.
- [11:01]
A
Their money built for age 59 and a half plus and so free growth. That's right. As you're thinking about which ones of these accounts to use again, you want to begin with the end in mind, thinking through what's the ultimate purpose of these dollars and how am I going to use them.
- [11:15]
B
So last but not sorry, did you have something else to say about benefits? Because we do have one more thing we got to consider and they are the drawbacks.
- [11:22]
A
That's right.
- [11:23]
B
So the Trump account, like we said, some things still remain unseen because they're so new. And what we do know, and we have heard so far, is that there are limited investment options. So if there's something specific you're looking for, it may or may not be there. And so you just need to keep that in mind. For 529s, you can only use these funds for education expenses. There is the caveat that up to $35,000 of unused 529s can be rolled over to a Roth IRA for the beneficiary, which is great. Do you have any caveats to that caveat? I feel like you've given it, you've doven into this a lot.
- [11:56]
A
Yeah, it's not, I think a lot of people think, ooh, this is going to be sounds really, really a planning opportunity. I'm going to overfund the five. I do not think that it's a planning opportunity. I think it's a release valve for over planning or for circumstances that changed. I'm not telling any of my clients, hey, here's a strategy. Let's get as much money in the 529 as possible. So we can do that. Yeah, but it is a great thing for kids who went off to college and got scholarships or maybe didn't go as too expensive a college. Or maybe the 529s performed better than you anticipated. It's a little bit of a relief valve to provide some relief. Now, remember, it's not like you can just take $35,000 in year one and dump it into a Roth. What it does is every year, whatever the limit is, if it's 7,500 right now, it'll take a good four or five years to get those funds into that Roth. And it does take away your beneficiary's ability to make Roth contributions. So just recognize that if you have leftover 529s, it's a great out. But I would not think of it as a planning opportunity.
- [12:53]
B
No, that's good. So moving on to the last two drawbacks. UGMA and UTMA accounts, There's no control over the distribution on those like we were discuss. And then Also custodial Roth IRA. Roth IRAs require earned income, so that's not something you're probably doing for your newborn baby. It has to be probably a teenager getting their first job. So that is obviously limited to when you can start that.
- [13:16]
A
Can I throw. Can I throw a quick thing out there? We've had so many questions about Trump accounts. Right after the legislation was, like, finally pinned, we actually sent out a blog post and it came out. Gosh, I wish I could remember when it came out, but it was fantastic. We kind of wrote through here. Here's everything you need to know about Trump accounts. Here's what you need to know. Here's how they're going to operate. Here's where we are in our current understanding. If you're not subscribed, if you go to moneyguy.com you can just subscribe to be in our email list. That's where we send out the beyond the Basics sort of newsletter. Call it what you want to call it. Where when these things happen, we want you to be loaded up so that you can be prepared. So if you're not subscribed to beyond the Basics, make sure that you do that so you can stay up to date whenever this kind of stuff comes out.
- [13:59]
B
For sure. Moneyguy.com and even if you just sear like Trump accounts, that article and the place to sign up for the Beyond Basics newsletter will be right there. And BO is exactly right. That is a great resource to keep up with this kind of thing. We do want to get to the math because we've gone through all of these investment accounts, the pros, the cons, the considerations. Because at the end of the day personal finance is personal. And so like we were saying, when it comes to these new Trump accounts that are getting a lot of press, there is free money on the table there. So we love that. You should definitely look into that and then you should take in all of the considerations that we just said to make the next decision after you get that free money. But let's do the math.
- [14:39]
A
All right.
- [14:39]
B
Are you ready to dive into the math?
- [14:40]
A
Yep.
- [14:40]
B
The power of compounding in in interest for a child is insane. If a child at the age of 15 invests $1 it will become $145 in retirement. So a 145 times wealth multiplier.
- [14:56]
A
I think it's while you know we talk about all the time we have these little, these little koozies that say this $1 koozie cost me $88.
- [15:02]
B
It's the idea that which is already incredible.
- [15:05]
A
It's insane for a 20 year old. $1 invested by the time they get to retirement can turn into $88. But for your kids it gets even more excited for a 15 year old. They get their first job. Maybe you're like Brian's daughter, you get your first job, you start working at Chick Fil A. You get that first paycheck, you save that first dollar. Every dollar that you save can turn into $145. And if you do it inside like a custodial Roth ira, it's one forty five tax free dollars. Insane.
- [15:30]
B
Insane. And then it gets even better. If you go back to age 10, say you start investing for them at age 10, their wealth multiplier is 239. Yep. And then a dollar invested on the day your child is born. 608. Oh, we had more. I'm sorry.
- [15:46]
A
$647.
- [15:47]
B
47 is for the newborn. And for a five year old there is 394 times. I'm sorry for almost skipp. But you can see like a 647 times $1 turning into $647. Insane. So that is why we give you all of this information about these accounts so that you can take advantage of this power.
- [16:05]
A
What that means is if you say hey I'm about to have a, you know, I heard a little thing. We are almost here to bound wealth in the next in a 12 month period. I think we're going to have close to double digits babies born. I think that's the number. I think there's going to be like 12 month period. We will have hit like 10 new babies. Love that. Which is amazing and incredible and what I think is awesome is a lot of these brand new parents are thinking about, hey, I want to make sure I set up my kids. Do you recognize that, assuming that you're at the right place, we'll talk about in a moment that just saving less than $13 a month for a newborn, if I can just save $13 per month and over the course of their life, that can annualize a 10% rate of return. That's all that it would take for them to be a millionaire. If you want to think about the lump sum, if you could just on the day that your kid was born, you could put $1,544 into an account and let that money grow until they get to retirement. You have put them on the track to a million. Now before you say, oh, a million is not, it's not going to be that much, you're right. When they get 65, a million won't be that much. But you know what? You can't get to 2 million unless you get to 1 million. You can't get to 3 million unless you get 2 million. That's the way that it works. So if you can start them out early and set them up, it's amazing what can happen. But there's a caveat. You have to make sure that you're doing this at the right time. Because far too often we see parents get this twisted. We see them get it sort of jacked around where they, instead of doing what they're supposed to be doing, giving their self on solid financial footing, they decide, hey, I'm gonna start saving for my kid. I'm gonna do the 529, I'm gonna do the upma. And I haven't even made it to step four, I haven't even finished step five. When it comes to saving for your kids, when it comes to helping them build for their financial future, that is a step eight thing. So you should right now go to moneyguy.com resources, download your free Ruby. Can you hold the thing up for me?
- [17:56]
B
I have the copy. Thinking of you, Brian.
- [17:59]
A
There you go. If you are not in step eight and you are saving for your kid, you've likely gotten it out of order. So I would encourage you to recalibrate, reassess your situation to make sure you're Doing this at the right time in the right order. But if you are there, it's amazing what can happen for your kids. And if you have kids that are old enough to begin kind of understand these concepts, I would say grab your phone, grab your iPad, grab your computer, have them sit next to you and say, hey, Junior. Hey, Sally. Sit down. Let's go to moneyguy.com resource. Let's check out the wealth multiplier tool. Let me just show you how powerful your dollars can. We've had parents actually tell us, hey, this is how I educate my kids on how compounding interest works. You would be amazed when those light bulbs start going off. And if you can, if you can get your financial, your kids turned into financial mutants early on. Chef's kiss, that's the goal.
- [18:54]
B
That was really good stuff. And now, now that we've talked about all of the kids and the investing covered that, we're almost ready to get to your financial questions. So be sure to drop those in the chat. I may be at the big desk today, but the team is still out in the wings and gathering your questions and getting ready for a great Q and A. And I love these live streams, guys. There is really something special about our live stream community. I love, like, being in the chat with you. Honestly, like today, like, I'm doing more things than I usually do during the live stream, so I'm not getting to be part of the chat. And I miss it because it's so fun. I love joking with you, I love hearing what you're thinking, all of those things. And so, I mean, it's kind of a bummer, right, when we have to stop the live stream, send the chat into the abyss. We've also heard directly from you that you would love to connect with more like minded people when it comes to finance other financial mutants. Because sometimes not everybody thinks about it the way that we think about it. Right. And the way that you think about it. So all of that is. I'm saying this because we've been cooking something up that solves both of those problems. And I'm really excited to announce it to you today. You are formally invited to join the Money Verse.
- [20:04]
A
Oh.
- [20:04]
B
The Money Verse is our official Discord server for all financial mutants. And this space is built for people who want, who believe that there's a better way to do money. It lets you connect with other people, have a place to go celebrate your milestones. We talk about milestones and goals all the time so you can actually like share them and talk about them. In a place where everyone's going to get it and celebrate with you. You can get feedback, you can ask questions, you can talk to each other. And we are really, really excited to make this available for you. I'm going to be popping in and out of there. I'm excited to talk to you. So please join in. We're going to be posting content every week to start discussions, surveys to get your feedback. I'm really excited about this. So go to moneyguy.com moneyverse and join. It's totally free to join. It's a Discord server. Uh, if you're. If you don't know Discord, that is okay. I didn't know too much about it until we used it for Brian's book club back when we launched the book. Um, so it's. And it was really, really fun. So I'm excited to crack this server open to everybody and have some really fun conversations in there. So moneyguide.com moneyverse I can't wait to chat with you in there. I can't wait to see what you think and honestly, even just get your opinion on the, the channels in the chat and just have new ideas of how we can post more content in there, better serve you and foster even more conversations.
- [21:27]
A
I love this. If you, when you go to moneyguy.com money I'm looking at it right now. There's some, like, FAQs on there to kind of walk through. Hey, what is this? How's this work? What's it for? This is going to be the first line, right? Oh, is that. Is that our logo right there?
- [21:41]
B
That's the Discord logo.
- [21:42]
A
Look at that little thing. I like that. We are super excited that this is going to be community where we can connect. It's. It's not. It's so funny. As soon as soon as you started talking, do you know what everyone's guess was? You're like, hey, you guys have said you want more interaction and more connection. Everyone's like, ah, Mutant Mingle.
- [21:59]
B
So it's not quite Mutant Mingle.
- [22:00]
A
Not quite.
- [22:01]
B
Listen, if we want a Mutant Mingle channel, there's enough interest. Maybe we'll do it.
- [22:05]
A
That's a thing.
- [22:05]
B
Maybe we'll do it.
- [22:06]
A
So if you. We would love for you to go check that out. This is going to be where we're going to be able to communicate with you guys. We're going to be able to connect with you guys and hear the things that you have going on. You matter. So basically our hope is it's the Live chat at all times. 24 7. Super, super fun. Awesome. All right, you want to answer some? Do you want to ask some? I mean, you can answer them if you want, but you want to.
- [22:27]
B
I might answer some, but I do have some queued up to ask you. All right, so are you ready?
- [22:31]
A
Yes, ma'.
- [22:31]
B
Am. That's really the question. Jonathan's question is up first and it says, what is the best way to stay motivated financially when your short term goals are met and you just have long term goals you're working towards?
- [22:44]
A
Oh, my gosh. Is that good one? We just did. We just made the show, didn't we? This is a show that we just talked about. Yeah, this, this.
- [22:51]
B
Can I be honest? I've seen. We were on our Reddit community actually, and there was a lot of people talking about this. Like, I've kind of done this now. What now?
- [23:04]
A
Right?
- [23:04]
B
How so? Yeah, I mean, it was a little precursor.
- [23:06]
A
So it's, it's so funny. We, we often talk about the messy middle as this, like, stage where you get married and you have obligations and you have kids and you feel like you're being pulled in a thousand different directions and you have no discretionary time and no discretionary money. That's the messy middle where it's hectic and crazy and chaotic. But what Jonathan's talking about is this other season that a lot of people hit, and I think the best name we came up with for best name we came up for that season is the boring middle. It's this idea of, okay, when I first started out, man, I was on fire and I budgeted for the first time and I did my net worth for the first time. I got my savings set up for the first time. I did all these things. And man, year one, year two, year three, it was so, so, so exciting. But, man, I've kind of developed that muscle memory and I'm kind of at that place where I know what I'm doing and I'm kind of doing the right stuff, but I'm not at retirement, I'm not at fire. I'm not at that season. I'm in the boring middle. And I think a lot of financial mutants find themselves in that. Like, it's very easy to get super, super excited right there at the very beginning of the journey, and then it kind of falls off because wealth building, frankly, is a slow process. Right. It's not something that happens overnight. It's not something that is necessarily super exciting when look at the short term. So his question is, how do I Stay motivated. How do I do that? All right, so he said short term goals are met. I'm assuming that means like, hey, I got my debt paid off. Hey, I got my emergency fund. Hey, I'm saving 25%. Those are the short term goals. What? Oh, Mundane Middle is a great name. We gotta go rerecord that show. Mundane Middle is the name of that next time. So I think once those short term goals are met, the thing you have to do is you have to figure out. And I'm kind of giving you. I'm sort of cannibalizing some content that's coming. I think if you can find a way to establish what I would call mini milestones or mini markers. Hey, this isn't like necessarily the big financial milestone. It's not the big. It's not the financial independence. It's not hitting the number. It's not where my money is making more than I make. But there are small little wins that you can have along the way. And I'll throw some out there. Hey, what about when I max out my Roth IRA for the first time? Hey, what about when I actually hit 25%? What about when I actually hit the 24,500, my 401k? If you can set up those small. I'm going to call them little mini goals, micro goals, those might be the fuel. It's not changing path and it's really on the way to the big goal, but it's a mile marker along the way. And don't forget to celebrate it. So often we talk about discipline being that ingredient where it's like, defer, defer, defer, defer, don't, don't do, don't do, don't do. It's okay when you hit a goal. Hey, man, I maxed out my Roth IRA. Boom. Go celebrate.
- [25:55]
B
Hey, in the money verse, moneyguy.com moneyverse we have a whole channel for celebrating milestones for this very reason.
- [26:02]
A
Or how about this? Like, hey, I just paid off my debt. Awesome. Go celebrate. Hey, I just had this hard conversation. I just got this promotion. I just had this figure out ways to set up many goals and many celebrations along the way. And I think if you do that enough, what begins to happen is it doesn't become so mundane. It more becomes. It more just becomes muscle memory, right? It becomes not boring. It becomes status quo. I would liken it to working out. You know, it's really, really exciting. Of course. Of course I'd liken it to working out. It's really, really exciting. When you first start on your fitness journey because you see a bunch of changes, and maybe you get stronger, you get leaner, you lose weight, you get fitter, whatever your goal is. But then you kind of settle in and you plateau. Well, what you have to do is you have to fight through that plateau that then the status quo, your normal state of being, becomes the level that you want to live at. Whereas I'll give you, like, a really example. Traveling and vacation is a little bit hard for me because I'll get out of my routine. And what I notice when I get out of my routine, I'm not doing the same sort of like, cadence of exercise or whatever. My body actually hurts more. I feel worse when I'm not exercising. While I am exercising in the financial realm, the same thing happens. You will get so used to making sound, wise, good, solid financial decisions that it's actually harder for you to make the bad decisions than it is to make the easy decisions. So I think setting up those many mile markers and celebrating along the way, Jonathan, is a great way to kind of keep yourself on that path.
- [27:37]
B
That's great, Jonathan. Thank you for your question. If you would like to submit a special rapid fire question for Mr. Bo Hansen, now would be the time you can add.
- [27:50]
A
We're doing rapid fire today.
- [27:51]
B
We're going to do rapid fire. We're going to do it a little bit differently. But if you want to add a question for the rapid fire segment, just add RF at the beginning of your question in the chat. And what we're going to do, 60 seconds, honestly, is too easy for you and Brian, so more to come on that, but it's definitely too easy for you alone. So we're gonna see how many questions Beau can answer in 60 seconds, and of course, we'll give him his kind of debrief at the end where he gets to go. It depends and expound. But we're going to do an experiment on Bo and see if he can answer how many. I mean, what's your. Do you have a goal? I won't ask you that. We're gonna just see how many you can get in 60 seconds. Okay, so get your rapid fire questions in the chat while we do a couple more questions. Long form question.
- [28:35]
A
Does the 60 seconds include you reading the question? No.
- [28:41]
B
I was gonna be like, yes.
- [28:42]
A
All right.
- [28:42]
B
But they said no. Love to see it. Like it throwing you a bone there. All right, Kelly's question's up next. It says, when is it acceptable to finance a large discretionary purchase like a pool? I'm 42 in the messy middle in step eight of the financial order of operations, on the curve with 1.5 million in retirement.
- [29:03]
A
All right, so Kelly, she's doing great. Kelly said some awesome stuff there, that one. To be 42 with a million million half bucks in retirement is awesome. Like, I don't know what your number is. I don't know. I don't know where you are on the curve. But you've assessed for yourself, hey, I know that I'm on the curve, meaning I know where I'm at today, I know where I want to be in the future, and I am appropriately on the curve. I'm neither ahead nor behind. I love that. And so if you're in step eight, that also tells me a few other things. It tells me that you have a fully funded emergency fund. It tells me that you don't have any high interest debt. It tells me that you're saving 25% of your gross income. Well, if you're doing those things and you are in step eight, I would argue that's a wonderful time to be able to do some of these what I'm going to call lifestyle improvement decisions. Right. So, hey, I want to finance a large purchase, like a swimming pool. Now, do I think it's okay to put in a swimming pool? Sure, absolutely. In your situation, that sounds fine. Should I finance it becomes a little more nuanced. Because even though you can make the decision to have the improvement, one of the things you'll need to do now that you've triaged, I'm on the. I'm on the curve. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, and I can afford this. Now becomes the question, what's the best way to afford this? Do I save up and try to pay cash for it? Do I finance it with some sort of privatized loan? Do I take out a home equity line? Do I refinance my house to do this? Any one of those answers might be correct, depending on the other variables. What I would say for you, Kelly, is you've done the hard work of, of, of getting to a place where now you can afford to make those decisions. But you also have to recognize that any financial decisions you make, especially big ones like home improvements and discretionary home improvements like a pool, are going to have an opportunity cost. My wife and I did the same thing. I said, hey, look, we're going to, we're going to do this. We're going to proceed forth with this thing. Just so you know. Here's the Price tag. And based on our age, if we spend this money on this, doing this to our home, this is how much that would have been in retirement. Are we comfortable with that? Are we comfortable with that trade off? Is that something that's acceptable to us? And so, Kelly, you will have to decide that for yourself. Is the opportunity cost of what I'm going to miss out on worth the benefits or rewards I'm going to receive? Whether it be like, you know, having a place to lay out or having a place to wind down or having a place for kids or inviting people over, whatever those things may be. It's a, it's a T chart, pros, cons where you have to make that decision. Personal finance is personal. But I love hearing where you are in your financial journey. I don't think it's crazy to think about and if financing is a way to do it, think about doing that kind of improvement.
- [31:58]
B
Kelly, hope that helped you think through that. Thank you for the question. We're going to do one more before our rapid fire segment. This one's from Mr. Eric. I think his username is says question for bo. Given my combined marginal income tax rate, I contribute to roth over traditional 401k. If I want bigger arms, should I focus on biceps or triceps?
- [32:23]
A
Oh, that's hilarious. That's a great question. The answer, if you want bigger arms, I would focus on triceps because it's the thing that actually makes your arm bigger. But if you want them to look cooler then you probably focus on biceps. So depends on if you're going for size or substance.
- [32:42]
B
He even said it depends on workout question. It's a disease.
- [32:47]
A
Oh, that's hilarious.
- [32:48]
B
That's lovely. Okay, we are gonna do one more. That was a quick1. Lorena Matzik5752 has a question that says I know you recommend having 1 times your annual income by the age of 30 and 3 times your annual income by the age Of 40. What happens when you keep getting salary increases? And it's a moving target, a great problem to have.
- [33:11]
A
I love it. And we get this question all the time. You know where else we get this question? Lorraine, if, if you, if you're using our, our net worth tool, you go to learn.money guy.com you can go download our net worth tool that walks you through this. One of the things we track is where are you in your wealth building journey? Are you an average accumulator of wealth which is just, you know, your age times your income divided by 10 assuming you're over 40 if you' we have a little, a little adjustment to that. Are you an under accumulator of wealth or are you a prodigious accumulator of wealth? Well, if part of that is your age, which you can't manipulate, but the other part of that is your income, which can vary widely. You can imagine I could be doing everything right and be doing all the stuff I'm supposed to be doing, but because this pay raise, it makes it like I'm behind. That's not uncommon amongst financial mutants and even our mile markers. One time by 33 times by 40. I want to say it's, I think, six and a half times by 50. One of the things that you can do to smooth that out is rather than using a point in time, income, if your income has been changing, I think you can average it out. Now you'll have to decide when the big changes happen. So maybe for you it's looking at an income on average for the last five years, or maybe it's your income on average for the last three years. I think doing any one of those to give you sort of a litmus test of am I where I'm supposed to be? Will be helpful, but only so long as you're doing this. Let's say that you're making $100,000 and all of a sudden you get this big pay raise. Now you get a 120,000. Don't, don't smooth out your income to see where you are if you're on track and then leave your savings the same. Whenever we get pay raises, whenever we get bonuses, we want to make sure that we're not just saving 25% of the old income, we're saving 25% of the new income. And so as those things happen, if I'm not at that 25% number just yet, we like a 60, 40 split. Whenever that pay raise comes, whenever that bonus comes, I'm going to take 60% of whatever that number is. I'm going to put that towards my savings goal so I can get to 25%. But that other 40, I'm going to let that go to lifestyle. Far too often, people let all of the raise, all of the bonus, all of the increase go to lifestyle and they leave their savings behind. If you're doing that, you're not doing it right. So that you didn't ask that part of the question, but it's something to stay mindful of. In terms of your question, how do I assess my mile marker, my milestone? I Think you can smooth out your income and that's totally acceptable.
- [35:38]
B
I like that. Thanks for the question. All right, it is time to move into our It Does Not Depend rapid Fire segment, special edition. Since Beau is flying solo today, he will be answering as many questions as he can within a 60 second timeframe without saying the words it depends. And then at the end of that 60 seconds, we will have the maybe it does depend segment where he can debrief and say anything he didn't get to say. Are you ready to dive in?
- [36:06]
A
I'm ready.
- [36:07]
B
I did hear from the team we cannot start and stop the timer.
- [36:10]
A
All right. So you better read fast.
- [36:11]
B
The timer will start after I read the first question and we'll see how many you can get. Are you ready?
- [36:16]
A
I'm ready.
- [36:17]
B
Okay, first question. What individual stock did you actually consider and did not buy that you wish you could go back and buy? Wow.
- [36:30]
A
I don't invest. I don't invest in a ton of individual stocks. I actually only have two individual stocks in my portfolio and they're both reminders of a thing in the past. So I don't have a ton of regret. Like, yeah, would it been great to have Nvidia? Would have been great to have Amazon. Would have been great to fill in the blank. Sure. But I like buying the indices.
- [36:50]
B
Is it better to invest money in retirement or save for a house? We're 34 and 35 years old. It
- [36:57]
A
you need to assess what your goals are. You should save in the priority of your goals.
- [37:05]
B
In what situation would you recommend a whole life or universal life policy?
- [37:11]
A
You have a very large, like, estate tax large. 30 million plus illiquid estate, privately owned businesses, privately owned real estate. Stuff that's not going to be liquid when you pass away. And it's more than 30 million.
- [37:23]
B
Ketchup or mustard on a hot dog?
- [37:24]
A
Ketchup.
- [37:26]
B
There we go.
- [37:27]
A
Was that really a question?
- [37:28]
B
That was really a question.
- [37:29]
A
Love that.
- [37:30]
B
Well, he got four questions.
- [37:32]
A
Hot take here. I do not like mustard, though, is my preferred condiment on pretzels. You know, a lot of people like to dip their pretzels. Oh, like a soft pretzel in cheese. I'm a mustard pretzel guy.
- [37:42]
B
All right. Like a grainy mustard.
- [37:44]
A
Yeah, that's fine. I'm not. I'm equal opportunity.
- [37:47]
B
Interesting. All right. There was some doozies in there. You almost said it depends. So is there anything you need to do?
- [37:53]
A
The one that really got me was, should I save for a house? Should I save for retirement?
- [37:57]
B
Brutal.
- [37:58]
A
And a lot of times you have to change, like early on if you're a 22 year old, you know, like, man, I want to be a homeowner one day, but I'm not married. I don't know if I'm going to be here. I'd say, hey, prioritize retirement, get your Roth, go and get your 401k and do that stuff. But now, okay, you turn 25, you're 26, you meet that special someone, you're thinking about getting married, thinking about setting rouge. They must start in a family. Or maybe you're single, you're going to stay single, you're going to be single, but you just want to have an established place that's yours. Okay, then it's okay to shift. Okay, I was saving a ton for retirement, but I'm gonna pause that for a bit. Save a little bit less retirement, save more for the house. Personal finance is personal and money is nothing more than a tool that allows you to accomplish the goals that you have, that allows you to do the things that you care about. And so you have to decide, is saving for a home and being in a home a higher priority than financial independence, than retirement at this moment in time? And if I prioritize that, what's the opportunity cost? Because every financial decision we have has a trade off. If I do this, then I cannot do this, or if I don't do this and I can do this, you have to make that assessment. Being 32 and 34, I think were the ages you said right now the average first time, the age of a first time homebuyer right now is 35. Is that right? Team 35. It may even be a touch higher.
- [39:17]
B
Higher.
- [39:17]
A
It may even be a touch higher than that right now. So I would say you probably are at that stage where, yeah, prioritizing saving for a home might make sense. But do it quickly, do it aggressively and then get back on that savings path. Because by the time you hit 40, every dollar you save can only turn over seven times. By the time you hit 50, it's a little under three times. So you want to be able to maximize what you're able to do from a savings standpoint while you're still young and your money has a lot of in your, your wealth multiplier has a lot of juice in it.
- [39:50]
B
Yes, I quickly googled because I remembered this stat in 2025, it hit an all time high of age. 40, 40 average first time home buyer. Right. Anybody wanna I. That was a quick Google based off
- [40:01]
A
my memory, all the content Team just
- [40:03]
B
because I remember being kind of shocked, like, oh, gosh. Like, we're. That's crazy. And it was 38 the previous year, so I'm not, you know, we'll see what it is for 20, 26, but it is. It is high. I just. Since you threw out the number, wanted to go back to that. Other thoughts?
- [40:19]
A
I think everything else was pretty straightforward. I answered the whole life one really, really good. I like that laugh I got from you guys. Yeah, I feel pretty good. I feel pretty good about this.
- [40:30]
B
Great.
- [40:31]
A
You know what? Since I'm in. Since I'm in the hot seat, you know what I want to do, team you want to do? Can I make up a segment? I don't know if you guys are in for this, but since she made me do a rapid fire, I want to ask you guys a question. I think we should do a rapid fire for you because in the seat that Ruby sits in, she has all kinds of insight into the money guy universe. Some people even call it the money guy verse. Are there questions that you have that only Ribi can answer? We'll give her 60 seconds and see if she can answer some questions.
- [41:00]
B
Do it if you have the questions.
- [41:02]
A
So if you have questions for Ruby, I don't know what you're going to ask her, but if you have questions, just put rf are in front of your question. Right. Well, rapid fire, really. We'll put that. Put that for the question 1. While you're doing that, and y' all got to tell me where I can find these questions. And while we're doing that, I'll answer another. Another normal question.
- [41:23]
B
All right, well, that'll be exciting and interesting. Let's move on to M. Rudz's question. It says, I'm saving 30% for retirement in an HSA, Roth IRA and 401K.
- [41:35]
A
Love that.
- [41:35]
B
Life's giving me some financial pressures, but I'm hesitant to hit the brakes. Any advice? Early 30s here.
- [41:42]
A
I love, love, love hearing that you're hesitant to hit the brakes because what that tells me is that you're a financial mutants. Financial mutants feel discomfort when we have to make suboptimal financial decisions. But production team, I want to see if you can pull this up for me. We have this idea of the way the financial order of operations is supposed to go, and we think that it goes from step one to step two and step two to step three and step it for. But in reality, in real life, what actually happens is there are fits and starts along the way, and sometimes there Are financial pressures that come our way. It might be the car breaks down. It might be I want to buy the first home. It might be we have kids. It might be all these wonderful things. But these wonderful things cause us to have to slow down. Cause I have to slow down. Especially for my folks. In your 20s and 30s, I just want you to take a deep breath. It's okay. It happens to everybody. The goal Is to save 25%. The goal is to be on a straight line. The goal is to be able to do everything exactly perfect 100% of the time. But that's not reality. And I would encourage you, if you don't have an older person in your life, and I think. I think everyone should do this. I think if you're in your 20s, if you're in your 30s, even if in your 40s, I would encourage you, go find an older person. If you're in your 20s, find someone in their 40s. If you're in your 30s, find someone in their 50s. If you're in your 40s, go find someone in their 60s as someone that you know has done well, right? Like there's. There they are, the wealthy barber in your mind, they've made good decision. They're in a good spot. And I would just ask them the question, hey, is the reason you got to where you're at? Because you made every single decision just right. And I bet you what they tell you is going to blow your mind. Because if someone came and asked if one of my young associates came here today, one of my, like, you know, early 20s. Hey, Bo, are you sitting on the spot you're sitting in? Because you've made every right decision financially, May it never be. Let me walk you through all the mistakes that I've made. But you know what? I made more good decisions than bad decisions. And I didn't make any giant bad decisions that derailed my finite. My entire financial life. It's. It's not about hitting home runs, and it's not about never striking out. It's about consistently making contact. Consistently making contact. If you can do that over a decade, over a career, over a lifetime, you can build towards financial independence. You can build toward financial success. So m. As life is giving you these pressures and as this stuff is coming, that's okay. Figure out what you need to do. How do you need to assess the situation? How do you need to adjust? Adjust. Drive through it, as Brian would say. He always quotes. He always quotes Days of Thunder, you know, or they're trying to figure out, like, when there's a wreck, what do you do? And you just got to drive through it. If you don't. If you're under 45, you don't get that reference.
- [44:37]
B
I only get it because of Brian.
- [44:38]
A
Right. Sometimes you just got to drive through it, figure out how you can drive through it, get to the other side and then recalibrate, get. Get in the right spot.
- [44:46]
B
That's great. Well, thank you, M. Rudzy, for your question. You want to do one more?
- [44:51]
A
Let's do one more. Well, one more before rapid fire Ruby.
- [44:55]
B
One more before rapid fire Ruby. All right, Jack G. Asks, in an effort to free up some cash, is there a net worth that if reached by a certain age, a younger family could take its foot off the gas a little bit? Same question. But front loading one year, one year of college, One year of college in
- [45:17]
A
an effort to free some cash is not worth that. If raised by age, a younger family could take its foot off the gas a little bit. Sure. Is my answer right? Like, if you're. It depends if you're. Yeah. If you're. If you're a 26 year old and you got a million bucks saved up, could you take your foot off the gas Maybe. Right. It depends on what your goal is.
- [45:37]
B
Right.
- [45:38]
A
If you're a 26 year old with 1 million bucks, but you've done the math and based on the life you want to live and the things you want to do, you got to get to 30 million bucks. Maybe you can't take your foot off the gas. You're going to have to assess that. Where I see people make this mistake is they project out based on current behavior, whether it be. And we did this for a Making Millionaire episode. This is coming up. I don't want to give too much of it away, but it was a young couple crushing it, just doing awesome. And based on their trajectory, they were going to be like mega eight figure wealthy. Like, I'm not talking about like 10 million. I'm talking about like tens of millions. And so you might see that projection, think, oh, okay, well, obviously they're fine. They're set. And I had to remind my. Look, just so you know, you're not there yet. Even though the numbers show that based on your income and based on your savings, that's where you could be right now. You're at this number and this number, even though you're ahead of the curve for your age, is not enough. And it doesn't set you up just yet. So you got to continue plowing forward. So Jack the way I answer your question is yes, there will be a season where you can take your foot off of the gas if you get an early enough head start, and if you get that, like, net worth under you. But you better make sure you know what you're doing, because what you never can go back and get is you can never go back and get lost. Time you decide, hey, at 25, I'm crushing it. I'm gonna take my foot off the gas. And then you get to 35, and you're like, oh, life changed, expenses increased, job change, whatever that thing may be. You don't go to go back and get that decade that you missed. You don't need to go back and, like, recoup the saves you could have been doing. And so I think that there's a balance there. I don't want you sacrificing all of today for tomorrow, but I also don't want you sacrificing all of tomorrow for a day today. And you have to figure out where that balance lies and where you are in your financial journey, where you are in your path towards that. There's nothing wrong with taking your. Your foot off the gas. You know, we have this. This deliverable called how much should you save? You go to moneyguard.com resources. We're actually reworking this a little bit. It's not live yet, is it? We have another deliverable coming out. I'm giving away too much stuff here. And it's pretty awesome. And it's going to show different savings rates at different ages, right? This shows what 25% can do. We're going to show, hey, based on your age, what you should save and what that's going to put you if you start early enough. There's nothing wrong with taking your foot off. You just better measure twice, cut once before you do it because it's really hard to go back in time and fix it.
- [48:15]
B
That was a really great answer.
- [48:16]
A
Oh, thanks, Reese.
- [48:18]
B
Nicely done.
- [48:18]
A
Hey, speaking of great answers, it sounds like we have some questions for you.
- [48:23]
B
I didn't look at him on purpose. You're trying to. You're not supposed to keep this above board. I have created the most advanced AI soldier.
- [48:33]
A
The wait is over. Tron Aries now streaming on Disney plus. We are looking for something, something you've discovered. And some of us will stop at nothing to get it ready. The countdown is complete.
- [48:51]
B
There's no going back.
- [48:53]
A
Dark Directive is clear.
- [48:55]
B
Hang on.
- [48:56]
A
Tron Ares now streaming on Disney Plus. Rated PG 13. Okay. Okay. Here. Oh, no.
- [49:04]
B
That was not encouraging. That was not encouraging.
- [49:08]
A
We're gonna ask some easy ones and we're. Are we giving her a time or we just give her.
- [49:13]
B
You made this up. You tell her.
- [49:15]
A
I'm just gonna ask until. I don't like the questions anymore. And there's a bunch of questions in here.
- [49:18]
B
Goodness. Okay.
- [49:20]
A
Okay, first question. Did you know a lot about personal finance before joining the team?
- [49:25]
B
So this is not rapid fire or. It is. Oh, the question's up. Okay. I knew enough to not have debt. I did not know a lot about wealth building and investing. And when I met them, it was like, love it. So I'm a financial meeting right there with you.
- [49:41]
A
Has your job at the money guy show changed your financial life?
- [49:45]
B
Life, yeah. Because I didn't know how to invest before. Are you kidding?
- [49:49]
A
So finding the money guy show was a mechanism to lead you towards a different financial future? Yes, that was a leading question. I love that.
- [49:57]
B
100%.
- [49:58]
A
Do you know what Brian is going to say when he opens a show? It always looks like a surprise.
- [50:05]
B
For live streams? No. For some of the other content. Yes, sometimes. But sometimes he changes it actually. So no.
- [50:12]
A
Sometimes he changes it in the moment.
- [50:13]
B
Sometimes we think we know.
- [50:15]
A
Ketchup or mustard on a hot dog?
- [50:17]
B
Neither.
- [50:18]
A
Neither. Wow. What's the greatest nugget? I'm gonna keep going here. What's the greatest nugget of knowledge? You just passively learn from being around the money Guy show. Most valuable nugget that you've taken away from the money guy show?
- [50:36]
B
Personal finances. Personal.
- [50:38]
A
Personal finances. Personal. Not one size fits all. Love that. There's two questions. I'm not going to ask either one of them, but I want you to hear them. I want you to hear them. The number one is.
- [50:51]
B
So he is asking him.
- [50:52]
A
No, I'm not. I'm asking them so you can hear them, but I'm not. I don't want you to answer them. What's the most embarrassing that Brian has ever said live on air?
- [51:00]
B
We got some, but I do have some. And you could go find them if you wanted to.
- [51:04]
A
And then who's harder to manage? Brian or Bo? We're not answering one of those.
- [51:08]
B
Depends on the day.
- [51:09]
A
Say, oh, ouch. Burn. Sam's or Costco?
- [51:14]
B
Costco.
- [51:15]
A
Okay, good. Right answer by last one. If you didn't work on the show, what would your second choice be? If you weren't doing this, what would you be doing?
- [51:27]
B
I'd be working on a different show.
- [51:30]
A
I just love that.
- [51:31]
B
I love doing this for all of you.
- [51:32]
A
Content Creators out there don't get any ideas.
- [51:34]
B
No. I love this show now.
- [51:36]
A
Awesome. I thought you did pretty good.
- [51:38]
B
Those were easy.
- [51:39]
A
I was like three and a half minutes. But you know what? You crushed it. I love that. And there were some burning questions on here that I wasn't gonna ask.
- [51:47]
B
Okay.
- [51:48]
A
Wasn't gonna ask.
- [51:49]
B
Exciting. All right, you want to do another long form question?
- [51:53]
A
Let's do it.
- [51:53]
B
Thanks for including me in the rapid fire, everybody. That was different and fun. All right, JPHN 2593 has question. My husband and I, 37 and 32 have a 12K 6 1/2% student loan, but will qualify for forgiveness in 10 payments. We have the cash to pay off the balance, but should we wait for forgiveness
- [52:22]
A
in 10 payments?
- [52:24]
B
I stumped him.
- [52:25]
A
No, I just, I want to think about, like, I want to think about a wise and sincere way to answer this. And I'm assuming the 10 payments is in. In 10 months, right? Let's go on a limb and assume that's the case, I'd say, because a lot of times we get answers or a lot of times we get questions and people assume that there is like an underlying thought process or philosophy or bit. Because like, some people super, super pro loan forgiveness, Some people anti anti loan forgiveness. Same thing with like even I saw some stuff at the beginning of this chat. Hey, some people super pro Trump accounts, free government money. Some people super anti for. So one of the things you have to do, jp is you have to assess for yourself, okay, where do I fall? What do I support? What do I not support? What do I believe? What do I not believe? Like, you have to answer those kinds of questions from purely a mathematical sense, from purely personal finance sense. If you've done all the things necessary to where you follow the rules, you've done this, you've done that, you've done this, you've done that. And you are 10 payments away. That means by the end of this year, there's going to be $12,000 that's just completely wiped off. That just completely goes away. I would argue that's a bit like free money. Now, you can fight me on that, right? You can say, oh, no, no, loan forgiveness is a horrible thing. No way. You should pay the debts that you owe. You should. And I'm. Look, I am not going to argue or contest that against you if that's your point of view. And if you decide that, hey, from a moral, ethical, whatever standpoint, I'm going to pay it off. I'm not going to fight you because Personal finance is personal. But from the dollars and cents standpoint alone, if the opportunity is there for you to take advantage of some loan forgiveness program because you work in a field or because you've satisfied some requirements and that goes away, at 37 and 32 years old, a $12,000amount of money has the opportunity to turn into a lot of money for you later on in your financial journey, later on in the process. And so the fact that you have this, because it's not like you made the rules or made the laws or the one who enacted this student loan forgiveness, you're merely a bystander who has an opportunity to take advantage of it. And so if that's the case, I would think that strictly from mathematical sense, it would probably make sense to wait, have that loan forgiven, and then deploy those dollars elsewhere. But if that doesn't jive well with you, that doesn't sit right with you, because you feel like, hey, I have a debt, and I'm going to honor the debt and I'm going to pay it off. I'm not going to fight you on that either. A lot of times we make financial decisions. It's not about making the most optimal financial decision, about making the right financial decision for me and my circumstance. So I just want to throw that out there because this is one that's a little nuanced and maybe a little bit charged.
- [55:23]
B
Yep.
- [55:24]
A
I want to remove the charge from it and just say, you know, there's a mathematical answer. And then you have to answer the personal answer. Man, I wonder how that. I don't know how that one's gonna be received. I hope that does good. Was that okay answer that?
- [55:36]
B
I thought it was.
- [55:37]
A
All right.
- [55:38]
B
The people wanted to know. All right, I actually have. I want to expound on my answers since I was trying to do rapid fire.
- [55:47]
A
All right, let's go.
- [55:47]
B
Because they said, has it changed your financial life? And I just want to, like, I really am a mutant with you guys. Here's what I was familiar with the baby steps. I didn't have debt, so I was, like, fine with money. But I remember I was trying to save for a house, and my husband and I had credit cards and was, like, fine with that.
- [56:09]
A
Right.
- [56:09]
B
And then I saw you guys.
- [56:11]
A
Credit cards or credit card debt?
- [56:13]
B
Credit cards.
- [56:13]
A
Credit cards, no debt.
- [56:14]
B
That was the thing. Like, we were fine with credit cards, if that makes sense. Like, we weren't falling into the traps that plenty of people do. And I understand why. But we were trying to save 20% down for a house. And that just felt, in this market, insane. We were never gonna get there. We were pretty newly married. We live in a fairly high cost of living area, and we were just kind of like, like saving towards it, and it was just chipping away at almost. It kind of felt like for no reason. And so when I saw you guys talk about a more nuanced take on credit cards and like, hey, there can actually be benefits if you can use them properly. It was like, oh, that's refreshing. And then I got. I heard about your home buying rules, and I think, honestly, I think I was in the building when you, like, were really solidified, solidifying the 3 5, 25 rule, because you already were teaching it. But, like, you know, we were kind of talking about in a more succinct way, and Brian kind of bullied me into buying a house. He likes to say, in the best way possible, best bullying ever. I followed 35 25, put between 3 and 5% down. And it was like, such a good decision. And it was like. I don't know if we would have. I think it would have taken us a lot longer to come to that conclusion without the money. I show. So there's been a lot of things like that that I've learned from you guys that are just. You guys are built different. You're given, like, important nuances and life. Life experience shares and all of those things, and you kind of understand what it's like to be in the messy middle, which is just so refreshing.
- [57:46]
A
Well, and it's so interesting in your case, specifically, had you waited, right, like, had you continued to work, what you would have found, I think a lot of young Americans are finding this to be true, is that you keep saving for this goal, but then the goal keeps running away from you. And the goal is, because we said all the time, hey, if you would have what. Because we saw what happened with home prices here, and you kind of got into the perfect time. You got into the perfect time, perfect price, perfect interest rate. You know, a year later, two years later, that would have been different. And so I love knowing that we try to apply real life nuance to personal finance. It's not just a book of rules, and it's not just dogmatic and it's not just static. There has to be some reality to it. There has to be some. Some. I don't want to say the word nuance again. There has to be a personality to it. And so we try to apply that. And we hope that we do. We hope that we do a decent job. We hope that we're able to provide tools and resources and those sorts of things that are valid. That's why, that's why we love the live chat. That's why we love answering. It's why we're even doing this whole discord, right? Like, it's the whole purpose behind us making that available. So that. And look, me and Brian talk about this. People ask all the time, hey, what's your, you know, what are you guys. Long term, you've had this, you've done whatever, man. Our goal is as long as people are going to listen, we're going to keep talking because it is so silly. We do feel like in a small way, in like this very small little way, we're changing the financial world. Specifically in this country, we're changing it a little bit. You know, we joke about the HSA stat went from only 4% of HSA users make it triple tax. Now it's 13. That was us.
- [59:26]
B
We did it, probably contributed to it.
- [59:29]
A
I don't know if we did or not, but I do like to think when you guys stop by the studio, when you send us the emails, when you comment on Reddit, when you comment on the socials and you talk about how this stuff that we share was able to like, actually impact and improve your life, dude, there's nothing, no amount of money in the world is worth that. That's the most gratifying, most amazing thing. And so as long as we can keep coming up with ways to add value to your lives, we're going to keep doing it and we could not do it without you guys. So thank you, thank you, thank you for that.
- [59:59]
B
Yeah, I said personal finance is personal, is something I learned from you guys. I think a broader and better one is anyone can be wealthy, anybody can take advantage of what you're teaching and better their financial life. And I think that's really powerful stuff.
- [60:13]
A
So I love it.
- [60:14]
B
On that note, thank you for joining us for the live stream today. Be sure to go to moneyguy.com moneyverse so that when we cut off this live stream chat, we'll just keep talking over on Discord. I can't wait to see you there. Thanks to everybody who has already checked that out and I'm really excited to keep talking.
- [60:31]
A
We genuinely believe here at the Money Guy show that there is a better way to do money. And we're going to keep trying to figure out how to talk about it, how to share it, how to hopefully impact and make the lives of our financial means of you guys better. Thank you so much for showing up. Thank you for letting us be part of your journey. Of your journey. Of your journey. Thank you for letting us be part of your journey.
- [60:54]
B
Best closer ever.
- [60:55]
A
I am today's host, Bo Hanson, here with Rebi, the rest of the content team, MoneyGuy team out. The MoneyGuy 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.