Confronting Humphrey Yang About ‘Diary of a CEO’ | Financial Advisors React

Summary

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Money Guy Show — Episode Summary

Episode Overview

Title: Confronting Humphrey Yang About ‘Diary of a CEO’ | Financial Advisors React
Date: November 3, 2025
Hosts: Brian Preston & Bo Hansen
Guest: Humphrey Yang

In this insightful episode, Brian and Bo are joined by finance influencer Humphrey Yang to react to and unpack Humphrey’s recent appearance on The Diary of a CEO podcast hosted by Stephen Bartlett. The trio discuss perspectives on investing strategy, the realities of building wealth in today’s environment, the risks of speculative assets, generational financial challenges, and some behind-the-scenes of podcasting. The conversation is both practical and candid, aiming to empower listeners with grounded wealth-building strategies while sharing real-life experiences and industry anecdotes.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Active vs. Passive Investing

• Premise: Should the average person actively invest or stick to passive methods like S&P 500 funds?
  • Quote: “I say 98% of America should not be active investors, just be a passive investor. Because if you don't want to put in the work... you're probably going to lose.” — Unidentified Guest 2, [02:11]
  • Humphrey’s Angle: Most people are better off with passive investing, as the liquidity of stocks can create emotional reactions and bad decisions.
  • Bo’s Addendum: Even diligent research rarely results in market-beating success. Passive investing statistically offers a higher probability of wealth accumulation. [04:38]

2. Generational Financial Realities

• Stephen Bartlett’s Contrarian Take: Points out the stark drop in homeownership and marriage rates for 30-year-olds compared to previous generations.
  • Quote: “People are so screwed... Nobody can afford anything.” — Stephen Bartlett, [06:08]
  • Humphrey’s Clarification: The stat combines mortgage and marriage, but people marry later now, skewing the data lower. [06:35]
  • Money Guy Response: Costs are undeniably higher, but that shouldn't push people away from the principles of saving and investing; setbacks happen but taking control is critical. [07:35]
  • Motivation: “I put it in the book: villains and victims never win. Don’t look at yourself as a victim.” — Brian Preston, [08:28]

3. Crypto Hype and Speculation

• Is Bitcoin the Answer?
  • Stephen’s Argument: Despite harsh drawdowns, BTC offers high returns for the committed.
    • Quote: "In bitcoin, the average drawdown... will be about 70% but you're getting 150% return." — Stephen Bartlett, [10:12]
  • Humphrey’s Caution: “People aren't going to hold through a 70% drawdown... If I can't hold Apple stock through 10%...” [10:32]
  • Bo’s Analysis: Wider swings (volatility) make selling at the wrong time likely; S&P gives a smoother, more reliable path for average investors. [11:07]
  • Brian’s Warning: “The only way you make money is for somebody to pay more than you paid on it... Be careful with that framing.” [12:10]
  • Prudent Portfolios: Speculative assets like crypto can be fine as a small part (3-5%) of a diversified portfolio, but “all in” is risky. [15:01]

4. Real Estate vs. Crypto and Other Asset Classes

• Misconception Debunking:
  • Stephen: Housing is endlessly creatable; there’s a demographic mismatch now. [13:17]
  • Bo’s Rebuttal: “Well, that doesn't pass the sniff test. I don't think we can create infinite housing... Housing is a use asset, different from an investment asset... comparing those is flawed.” [14:29]
  • Consensus: Diversification matters; concentrated bets on speculative alternatives or real estate can expose investors to large risks.

5. “Passive Income” Myths

• Stephen’s Rant: “There is a passive income industrialization complex... every millennial's dream is passive income, and it doesn’t exist.” [21:35]
  • Property, for example, is far from passive.
• Humphrey and Brian’s Take: Dividend investing is the closest thing to truly passive income, but even that requires effort and capital.
  • “The closest thing is probably just being an index investor.” — Brian Preston, [23:06]

6. The Power of Consistency and Compounding

• Focusing on the First $100K:
  • Humphrey: “90% index funds, 10% speculative... get to $100,000 as quickly as possible—then you'll have options.” [18:11]
  • Compounding accelerates wealth after initial milestones are reached.
  • Bo: “The best time to start investing was yesterday. That makes today the second best time to start.” [19:23]

7. Saving vs. Investing—Finish the Job!

• Real Story: Stephen’s friend keeps a million dollars in the bank out of fear.
  • Bo: “They did 90% of the hard work, but just didn't quite finish the drill. The hard part is the saving. The easier part is putting your money to work.” [24:21]

8. Behind the Scenes: Diary of a CEO

• Inside Info: Stephen Bartlett uses ChatGPT live during interviews—a modern research approach. [04:11]
• Podcast Perks: Guest receives a personalized, photo-quote book as a memento. There’s even pumped oxygen for guests’ comfort! [25:33, 26:24]
• Humphrey’s Anecdote: Accidentally buying two $10,000 cups of coffee with Bitcoin in early days—memorable, if expensive. [17:12]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• “I say 98% of America should not be active investors...just be a passive investor.” — Unidentified Guest 2, [02:11]
• “There are always going to be hard things coming your way, you can only control what you can control.” — Brian Preston, [08:28]
• “In bitcoin, the average drawdown... will be about 70% but you're getting 150% return.” — Stephen Bartlett, [10:12]
• “Well, that doesn't pass the sniff test.” — Bo Hansen, [14:29]
• “Be careful of listening to people on the Internet say that the only way to generate wealth is through a speculative asset.” — Humphrey Yang, [15:17]
• “The hardest part is the saving... but then they just leave out the next step.” — Bo Hansen, [24:21]
• “I spent $20,000 on a cup of coffee.” — Humphrey Yang, [17:12]
• “The best time to start investing was yesterday. That makes today the second best time to start.” — Bo Hansen, [19:23]
• “The only way you make money [with crypto] is for somebody to pay more than you paid on it.” — Brian Preston, [12:10]
• “Podcast gift: photo book with your own quotes, signed!” — Humphrey Yang, [25:33]

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:11] — Active vs. passive investing debate
• [06:08] — Generational struggles and shifting milestones
• [10:12] — Bitcoin vs. S&P risk and reward
• [14:29] — Real estate, housing, and infinite supply debate
• [18:11] — Building first $100k; Humphrey’s approach
• [21:35] — “Passive income” myths debunked
• [24:21] — The importance of investing your savings
• [25:33] — Behind the scenes at Diary of a CEO

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Final Thoughts & Tone

The conversation is honest, occasionally humorous, and driven by a passion for financial education. The hosts and guest stress the importance of realistic wealth-building—a combination of disciplined saving, passive investing, and skepticism towards get-rich-quick promises. While speculative investments like crypto can play a small role, the vast majority benefit from a patient, diversified approach.

The episode wraps up with lighthearted behind-the-scenes stories and gratitude for open, educational discussions within the finance community.

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Transcript

[Brian Preston]

Bo, a few years ago when you and I were involved in a big negotiation, I kind of mandated that you go sign up for Masterclass with me so we could listen to Chris Voss's Never Split the Difference Masterclass.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah. And it was super helpful. And that's just the start. Masterclass gives you unlimited access to over 200 classes from the best of the best, leaders, writers, chefs, you name it. Starting at just $10 a month, you can watch how former FBI agent Chris Voss taught negotiation. And you can see a PA of CIA agents show you how to spot red flags and make smarter decisions both at work and in your day to day life. That stuff is fascinating to me.

[Brian Preston]

Three out of four members say they feel inspired every time they watch Masterclass. And I love that you can stream anytime and on any device. You're hearing wisdom from people like Gordon Ramsay, Marques Brownlee, Simone Biles and so many more. I can't wait to check out Bob Igers. And I gotta tell you, I was really surprised and even entertained by deadmau5 series.

[Bo Hansen]

Plus every new membership comes with a 30 day money money back guarantee. So there's no risk. Right now our listeners get an additional 15% off any annual [e-mail] MoneyGuy that's 15% [e-mail] MoneyGuy behind the scenes, Stephen.

[Humphrey Yang]

Bartlett has a tablet in front of him, but he's also just on chatgpt. Maybe I shouldn't have said that the.

[Brian Preston]

Only way you make money is for somebody to pay more than you paid.

[Humphrey Yang]

I would be careful of listening to people on the Internet say that the only way to generate wealth is through a speculative asset.

[Stephen Bartlett]

Housing's different because you can endlessly create more housing.

[Bo Hansen]

Well, that doesn't pass the sniff test.

[Brian Preston]

There's always going to be hard stuff. You have to figure out how you can pull yourself out. Content team's been busy, had a great opportunity. We already have Humphrey Yang on the show but better yet, Humphrey was just on the Diary of a CEO. We were like let's do a react to see what we think.

[Bo Hansen]

Brent, I am so excited about this. Humphrey, thank you for being with us today. I can't wait to hear a little bit behind the scenes and I can't wait to see what clips the team has pulled for us today.

[Humphrey Yang]

I can't wait either.

[Unidentified Guest 1]

Should people be actively investing or should they just put the money in AN S&P 500 and be patient?

[Unidentified Guest 2]

I say most people should not be active investors. In fact, I say 98% of America should not be active investors, just be a passive investor. Because if you don't want to put in the work, if you're not willing to put in the time and the effort to research, you're probably going to lose. And many people do.

[Unidentified Guest 1]

So why do people want to be active investors if the probability is stacked against them?

[Unidentified Guest 2]

Well, if you get a little bit better returns, if you're willing to put in the work, you can get better returns. And it is possible. We do see people that are doing it consistently.

[Unidentified Guest 1]

Is there an element of fun and entertainment?

[Unidentified Guest 2]

Absolutely.

[Unidentified Guest 1]

People like sports betting, and that's the.

[Unidentified Guest 2]

Problem, because the fun is I like researching versus oh, I want to see my money go up tomorrow. If I buy a house tomorrow morning, am I going to go into Zillow in the afternoon, check, what is my house price? Am I checking in the evening? What's my house price? No, because you know that this is something I want to own for the long term. Well, when I go into the stock market, because it's so liquid, I buy a stock in the morning, I'm checking it 15 minutes later, I'm checking at lunch, I'm checking it in the bathroom, I'm checking in the evening, and I'm getting anxiety because if it's going up or down, I'm very emotional. And that's that emotional control as an investor, which is just as important as the research that you're putting in.

[Stephen Bartlett]

See, I fundamentally differ in all of this stuff.

[Bo Hansen]

What a cliffhanger. I fundamentally differ because I was kind of right along with him. I loved everything that he was saying, and I agree with 98% of everything that he just said.

[Brian Preston]

We've heard minority mindset, right?

[Humphrey Yang]

Yeah. I can't remember his guest Preach.

[Brian Preston]

I would be like, preach. You know, man, I wish I'd have gotten to go first. You know, these are the things I'd be saying because a lot of that stuff is spot on. The markets are so efficient. You know, just be passive.

[Humphrey Yang]

I really loved what he said. I mean, it's really true. You know, you buy a house, you're not checking the value of it on Zillow basically ever. Maybe you check it once a year or, you know, whatever, once every five years. But with a stock, you know, since it's so liquid, that's a pros and con, right? You could. You could buy and sell it at any time. So liquidity is nice. But then you're checking it all the time. I'll give you a little bit of color on that scene and behind the scenes Stephen Bartlett has a tablet in front of him.

[Brian Preston]

Okay.

[Humphrey Yang]

And he's going over show notes, like all the questions that he wants to ask. But he's also just on ChatGPT a lot. Sorry, Steven. Oh, interesting. Yeah, but ChatGPT helps him. Maybe I shouldn't have said that, but ChatGPT helps inform. I know. You know what, Steven? Steven does use ChatGPT a lot and he has it in his behind the Diary video channel. So I know that I can probably say that. And so he's usually researching stuff on ChatGPT while guessing.

[Bo Hansen]

It's pretty impressive that he can do that in an interview format while. While he's doing that.

[Humphrey Yang]

That's.

[Bo Hansen]

That's an impressive skill set. I'll tell you the one thing that Jaspreet said that I would just. That just maybe tinge a little bit. He said that, hey, unless you're willing to put in the time, you shouldn't be an active investor. Well, he almost laid it next to if you're willing to put in the time to be an active investor, you could be successful. I would argue even that's not the case. Even if you're willing to put in the time, I'm going to spend 40, 50, 60 hours every single week trying to go out and beat the market. I would still argue there is a low probability that you'll actually be able to do it. And so if you want to set yourself up on the side of probabilities, where will I likely have the most success? Being a passive investor. Not trying to beat the market, but just trying to be the market will likely set you up for more success, whether you're willing to put the time in on research or not.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah, just go check out the SPIVA data.

[Humphrey Yang]

Yeah, I made a video on the SPIVA data. The SPIVA data is great. Spiva, that's another acronym. Guys.

[Stephen Bartlett]

See how fundamentally different all of this stuff is? People are so screwed. They are coming out of university with massive debts. We looked at the stat earlier. Percentage of 30 year olds who have a mortgage and are married has gone from 52% in 1950 to 12%. Nobody can afford anything. So if you look at the average millennial in the US and a Gen Z, they generally have a 401k if they've got a job. Right. They have some sort of savings, but they're taking massive amounts of risk. A lot of us would look at them and say this is ridiculous.

[Unidentified Guest 1]

Why are they taking risk for anyone that doesn't?

[Stephen Bartlett]

Because there is no way of closing the gap between buying, getting the deposit on the house, getting into a house, realizing that future vision of themselves, however reasonable. That is why it's so far away. Because the cost of assets has gone up so much versus their incomes don't go.

[Unidentified Guest 1]

You mean the cost of buying like a house, for example?

[Stephen Bartlett]

Yes. Or even however much percentage share of the stock market, the average salary does. You know, stuff like that. You're getting less for your money.

[Humphrey Yang]

Yeah. I do want to point out one thing about the statistic that he led with there, which was like the people that the percentage of people that were mortgaged and married from 1970 till now. I think that data set in particular had both of those variables combined together. We already know that people aren't getting married as early as they once were, much later. Yeah. So that that number is already kind of pulled down. It's exaggeratedly skewed to the downside, I would say. So that is the one note I want to say about that.

[Bo Hansen]

And I don't want to disagree with his. With his premise that things are getting more expensive. Student loans are higher now than they have been historically. The cost of housing is higher now than it has been historically. What I cannot reconcile is the way he started the clip was I fundamentally disagree with everything Jaspreet said. Here are some truths that exist in this world. What he didn't say is why. What Jaspreet said does not actually align with why you need to be taking being an investor and passively invested seriously. Because the cost of things have been increasing and are likely going to continue to increase for the next 20, 30, 40 years. So you better be doing something to combat that.

[Brian Preston]

Look, historically, if you go look at the Fred data, the Federal Reserve, the typical American, even in those periods he's talking about, we're not investing hardly anything. You can't use just history because only people, people only had really assets from their home equity, not From S&P 500 investing and all the other type of things. I worry when somebody uses the shock and awe stats that he used that it's going to turn off an entire generation. This will probably create some comments and some dust from it, but I put it in the book villains and victims never win. And I don't want you to look at yourself as a victim. Yes, there are some hard things that are coming your way, but I just know there's always going to be hard things that are coming your way that doesn't. You can't control that. You can only take what you can control and try to make the Best of the situation. The best you can make a situation is we have a growing economy with law of accelerating returns, where things are getting faster and faster with innovation, that you can actually buy a small portion of that success, actually own assets that are going to appreciate faster than inflation, and you can pull yourself out. I did it. Bo did it. Humphrey did it. We can all do this. Just don't let somebody lock you into a mindset of behavior that you're not going to ever get out of this. Because I can tell you statistically, there's going to be always going to be a bell curve. You get to choose where you want to be in that bell curve of success because everybody else in your generation is facing the exact same thing. Figure out how you're going to pull yourself out of this. And I know a lot of you, you're going to say, brian, you don't understand. I'm just telling you there's always going to be hard stuff. You have to figure out how you can pull yourself out.

[Humphrey Yang]

Yeah, I like that. I think that, you know, his main premise is like, you're never going to close the gaps. You might as well take a really big swing. And I just don't. I fundamentally disagree with that. Yeah, he's setting you up a little.

[Brian Preston]

Bit to go one hard way. You have to set up an extreme over here. I get it. I mean, people do that stuff in negotiations all the time. Go way over here. So you can go over here with the next premise he's going to present to us.

[Unidentified Guest 2]

If we look at the crashes from, you know, recent history, 2020 stocks fell by 30%. Bitcoin fell by 50%. 2022 stocks fell by, the S and P fell by about 20%. Bitcoin fell by 60%. So in those times, people who are in the S and P are freaking out, selling.

[Stephen Bartlett]

Yep. But here's the thing. This is the risk reward that people don't understand. If you've got a time horizon, let's say the average drawdown in the S and P during a. A bear market is 25%.

[Unidentified Guest 1]

A drawdown being a drop a lot.

[Stephen Bartlett]

Yeah, a drop. A drop in prices. You're getting compensated 15% a year returns for that at best. In bitcoin, the average drawdown over the same period will be about 70%, but you're getting 150% return.

[Unidentified Guest 2]

If you're on the winning side, though, if I buy it and I can sell it for a higher price, just hold it.

[Humphrey Yang]

I know you guys have a lot of takes on cryptocurrency but you know, his main premise is like bitcoin since its inception has returned about 150% per year. But I think my argument on the, on the podcast itself was like, people aren't going to hold through a 70% drawdown. They're, they're out, you know, pretty quickly. You know, if I can't hold Apple stock through a 10% drawdown, you know, and I'm a reasonably, you know, I have the knowledge about investing and I, and I get scared at 10%, I don't know if I could hold it. I mean, I would probably hold it 70% because it's like I can't lose that much more. But could I hold it for 15 years? Or if it was up double, would I just, wouldn't I just sell it at that point?

[Bo Hansen]

If you think about the undulations they described in the stock market, a 25% drawdown and they didn't talk about an upside, but let's say it's a 30, 40, 50% upside potential right on that same sort of undulation scale. And then you have bitcoin, that's a 70% drawdown. 150. When you lengthen the distance between the trough and the peak, you have more opportunity to make a bad decision along that. So what you're doing with the SP 500, you're actually like banding down both of those. That's going to be a much more consistent, much more stable ride for most investors. Because I agree with you, most investors are likely to freak out on one side or the other. I'm either going to lose 50% and I can't handle any more. I'm going to make 100%. I'm going to get out while I can. At least when you buy the stock market, when you're buying the s and P500, you recognize, yeah, that yo yo is going up and down, but it's going up and down steadily up the mountain. Higher, higher, higher, higher. And we have hundred years of data to substantiate that claim, that it is building, it is expanding, companies are becoming more valuable, there is innovation happening. Those things are not necessarily true about cryptocurrency.

[Brian Preston]

Just last week I was responding to an X post where somebody had said they used the rate of return assumption that said that bitcoin was better than 401ks. But when you looked at the data, it's because they were using a 30% annual year over year growth rate versus the S&P, which was around 10 to 12%. They were saying, look, even with the free money from your employer, it's not going to keep up with 30%. I was like, man, that 30% assumption is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Because bitcoin, look, I'm not trying to get into is it good or bad? Because I just don't think. But there is. It is one of those things. It's just like gold and the fact that the only way you make money is for somebody to pay more than you paid on it. It's not like it generates dividends that generate income. It doesn't innovate. It's only going to be if somebody pays more. Be careful with that framing.

[Stephen Bartlett]

Just hold it.

[Unidentified Guest 2]

That's the key.

[Stephen Bartlett]

All of these are in a nice trend channel. They go up. Anybody can buy something and hold it long enough, it'll go up.

[Unidentified Guest 2]

Well, what about. Let's look at housing. We could say the same thing about housing. 2008, housing crashed. Just hold it. I have too much debt. I'm underwater. My bank's taking it from me. People are buying bitcoin with debt.

[Stephen Bartlett]

Yeah, that would.

[Unidentified Guest 2]

2020.

[Stephen Bartlett]

I would not recommend that. But housing's different because you can endlessly create more housing. And we have a demographic problem in housing that makes it more complicated. Demographic problem is, A, everyone's leaving the cities now, B, the generational gap. Nobody can afford the boomer houses. We don't have enough cheap housing for young people. People are relocating, moving around. So we've got a very interesting mismatch in real estate now that makes it more complicated than it used to be.

[Unidentified Guest 2]

Absolutely. And I do want to say, I think the part that we fundamentally differ is not that there's value in crypto. I own crypto. But the difference between you and I is you are all in crypto. For me, it's a speculative piece of my portfolio.

[Bo Hansen]

I have a lot of friends and a lot of people interact with that. They own crypto, they have positions in crypto. And I'm not going to fight them on that. No differently than I would fight someone who wanted to have an allocation to gold or to silver or whatever.

[Humphrey Yang]

But collectibles or wine.

[Bo Hansen]

Exactly. But to go all in on it, I would have the same reaction as someone else who is all in on collectibles or wine or gold. I just don't know that's the prudent way to build for a financial future.

[Humphrey Yang]

What do you think about what he said about the housing and how there's no. There's no more housing or we can create infinite housing or something like that.

[Bo Hansen]

Well, that doesn't pass the sniff test. I don't think we can create infinite housing. And I think a lot of areas that's not something that is possible to do. And I don't think that what housing does and comparing housing as an asset class relative to Bitcoin as a holder of value is necessarily the same thing because one is a use asset, one is theoretically an investment asset. So I think you're mixing. Compare those. It was interesting. The conversation started on real estate and then went to housing, which housing does not represent all of real estate. Those are even two separate things that I'd want to bifurcate before we had the conversation.

[Brian Preston]

I'm not against bitcoin or any of these cryptos. It's just that I think that there's a. It comes off as way too speculative for me to take it completely serious to Jaspreet's standpoint is I think it's more of a speculative play that I wouldn't want to be more than 3 to 5% of my total portfolio. Portfolio.

[Humphrey Yang]

I would be careful of listening to people on the Internet say that the only way to generate wealth is through a speculative asset because you don't know what their financial position is either. I don't know what Raul's financial position is like. It could be that he built his wealth. Yeah, he could have built his wealth off crypto or he could have been already wealthy and then now is saying to younger people, hey, you should invest in this because it's the only way out of, you know, poverty, as he says. But I don't know Raul that well, but he was very cordial in the conversation. So I do want to at least give him respect for that. Bitcoin does produce 145% returns in 2012. But in 2012, no one knew how to buy it. I bought it on some random sketchy website. I got this like, you know, this, this string of characters for my wallet. And I try to buy, you know, I try to buy a coffee at a cafe in Palo Alto. And I didn't know that bitcoin transactions took 30 minutes to go through. So I sent bitcoin twice for a $5 coffee. Now, keep in mind, this is 0.1 bitcoins, right? This is 10k worth of bitcoin.

[Unidentified Guest 1]

Yes, it's.

[Bo Hansen]

I sent it twice and then didn't get it. And guess what? I still had to pay for the.

[Unidentified Guest 2]

Copy of my debit card.

[Humphrey Yang]

So where did my next one go?

[Unidentified Guest 1]

Spend what, 20k on I spent 20k.

[Humphrey Yang]

Yeah, that could be the title of this video.

[Unidentified Guest 2]

I do that.

[Humphrey Yang]

I do that a lot. I. I try to break the fourth wall here. This could be the title of this video. But. But that is a true story. Actually. I was actually looking at my email this morning to see when that was. It was actually 2013, December 2013. I bought a hundred dollars worth of. Actually, what I did was I bought $100 worth of ripple Labs, if you've heard of Ripple, the cryptocurrency, about $100 worth. And I was trying to convert it to bitcoin. I was able to convert it to Bitcoin. And at that point, I think Coinbase was just getting started. So I was able to. I have the receipts sent. I sent 0.124 bitcoins to this random wallet address, which is the cafe in Palo Alto. And the person on the other end of the register had no idea what was going on. They're like, oh, I didn't even know we could accept this because nobody was paying with it. I was. I was kind of like, savvy. I was like, oh, Look, I got 100 bucks.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, I am $20,000 cup of coffee.

[Humphrey Yang]

Yeah, but that's the other thing is that in 10 years, it could be a $50,000 cup of coffee or it could be a $1 cup. We don't know. And then the other thing is that the 145% annual return that, you know, one of the gentlemen is talking about is contingent on the fact that I held it since 2012 and that I knew how to buy it in 2012 or 2011 or whatever it was.

[Brian Preston]

Well, and humans are so good at not being emotional and just holding stuff. Yeah, just like just hold it. I mean, that's so much easier said than actually done because we're very emotional creatures. That's not the relations have with money.

[Humphrey Yang]

Yeah. And I also want to say if somebody, you know, if you put $10,000 into something and the next week it said 20,000 or 30,000, you would be dumb to keep holding it. Right. A lot of people would be like, well, I just doubled my money. I would have taken this way before I put $10,000 into it. So sometimes you just sell it. And so hindsight is 20 20, but you can't. You can't really forecast that hindsight is.

[Bo Hansen]

$20,000 cup of coffee.

[Unidentified Guest 1]

What about you, Humphrey? If $10,000, does your strategy change?

[Humphrey Yang]

My strategy is a bit little. Probably more conservative or traditional. It's probably 90% index funds. So tracking the S&P 500 and then 10% speculative. And my whole goal for that 25 year old would probably be to get to $100,000 as quickly as possible. Because at that point I think they have more options and flexibility and they're able to kind of use that capital to maybe take more risk after, let's.

[Stephen Bartlett]

Say that's still 10 years with the S&P. Well, eight years of the S&P.

[Humphrey Yang]

7.84 years. Yeah. But that also assumes that they're only doing the 10,000 bucks a year. Maybe they, they can save and invest a little bit more. That'd be nice. But I think for a lot of people in America, if they can get a guaranteed $100,000 in 7.84 years, I, I think a lot of people might opt for that. I just filmed a video about how 100K would take, you know, 7.84 years to, to compound. But I did come off a little bit of a smart in that clip.

[Brian Preston]

Right. I kind of loved it.

[Humphrey Yang]

That was great.

[Bo Hansen]

7.84 years to get there.

[Humphrey Yang]

And also my hair looked really great. I think I had a growing up.

[Bo Hansen]

It was a great hair.

[Brian Preston]

I did have to do it double check, make sure you wear it because it was a black.

[Humphrey Yang]

I made sure to not wear the same thing.

[Brian Preston]

So I'm glad to see it was a little different.

[Humphrey Yang]

So that clip was about how to invest $10,000. So you know, that's what I said. 90% index funds, 10% spec. 10% is quite a lot still. But I think we were talking about someone who was young, so 20 or 25 years old. So what would you guys do?

[Bo Hansen]

I actually love what you said. A $10,000. I'm going to buy some broad based, low cost index fund. ETF S&P 500 is a great option. And odds are if I do that this year and then I do that again next year, and then I do that again next year, I'm gonna get to 100,000 very, very quickly. Likely even faster than 7.84 years. And what's amazing is once you hit that first hundred thousand, then it just starts spilling over. You reach this kind of boiling point where now the money begins growing on itself so fast that how long it took you to get to the first hundred is way longer than it takes you get to the next hundred. And then once you get to the 500, it's way less to get to a million. And then once you get to a million and it just continues to compound and compound and compound. Which Gets really, really exciting. But the earlier you figured out, the easier it is. We say this all the time. The absolute best time in the world to start investing was yesterday. That makes today the second best time to start.

[Brian Preston]

Ro, I think he just gave up the ghost of what. Because he was talking about how his path is so much faster. I always tell people, be careful when somebody's promising you or trying to sell you something that's outside the reality of what we've ever experienced. And I know from my own research, and you've seen this from anybody who's ever talked about money. Typical millionaire is 49 years of age. It typically takes 27 years of building assets to reach that. Anybody who's telling you that they've got the path that's going to break those norms, my Spidey senses be like, what are they trying to sell me?

[Humphrey Yang]

I will say to his defense, he doesn't have much to sell besides telling you to buy cryptocurrencies.

[Brian Preston]

Well, he does, but the fact that if you are. If you're a concentrated holder of crypto.

[Humphrey Yang]

Oh, sure, sure.

[Bo Hansen]

How do you make.

[Brian Preston]

How do you make more money in cryptocurrency? You have to convince people to pay more than you paid. So he has a conflict just in that we all. Anybody in. Anybody in finance has a conflict of interest when they start talking to you about products. We do too. Look, we're fee only financial advisors. We have to share with people what our conflicts are, because anybody working in personal finance is. Got a conflict. So if you're a holder, a large concentrated holder of Bitcoin, you have a conflict of interest because you only can make more money if more people pay more than you paid.

[Humphrey Yang]

Okay, fair point. I take it back.

[Unidentified Guest 1]

This word passive income, I know, it drives me nuts. Why does it drive you nuts?

[Stephen Bartlett]

It is a. There's like a passive income industrialization complex that is. I mean, it is literally every millennial's dream is, I'm going to get passive income, and it doesn't exist. We talked about property. Property is the least passive income you can imagine. It is awful. Every time I've tried to rent out property, there are so many costs. Everything goes wrong. It's just endless. You're paying fees and people think there's a magic passive income. Everything comes with effort. There is no such thing as returns without effort. That's even robbery comes with effort. You know, there's no way of making money without effort or risking something.

[Humphrey Yang]

Yeah, I think I said in the podcast that dividends are pretty low effort.

[Unidentified Guest 1]

Right.

[Humphrey Yang]

If you can get past. That's pretty passive. If you. But. But you need the money to start, so that's. I.

[Bo Hansen]

Then you got to pick the what to buy. Right. Like there's some effort that goes into it, but certainly different than trying to go out and manage a rental property, manage a commercial piece of real estate.

[Brian Preston]

Or something like that. I mean, when I see that clip it. Because it is a pet peeve of mine. How many content creators are out there talking about passive income and they always real estate, by the way, we own a lot of real estate. It is so not passive. If you're doing it right, it's not passive. All the people who are talking about content creation is passive.

[Bo Hansen]

You create content.

[Brian Preston]

I mean, does this feel like a passive.

[Humphrey Yang]

It's slightly easier than running the marathon, but it is still hard. It is still hard.

[Brian Preston]

So, I mean, when we've done content on passive income, because it is way overdone out there in social media, the closest thing is probably just being an index investor.

[Humphrey Yang]

Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

Because then you are just point it, set it, and then it's amazing what the portfolio can do because it's back to don't try to beat the market, just be the market. And we do live in a pretty fascinating, incredible time to be alive, where the pizza pie is getting bigger, the economy keeps growing, innovation keeps rolling, and it's kind of cool if you can just go buy a sliver of that and watch it grow.

[Unidentified Guest 1]

I've got a friend who's steadily compounded his bank balance over time. And I remember asking him, how much money do you now have in your bank account? He's taken a really slow approach over time. He runs his business. Business as a freelancer. And he goes, I think probably about a million dollars. I was like, it's just sat in your bank account. He was like, yeah. And because he's scared. He's scared. He doesn't know what to do with it. So he thinks just putting it in the bank account is the safest possible thing to do.

[Unidentified Guest 2]

Well, it's a guaranteed loss. The average bank accountant in the United States today, not the high yield accounts, but the average accountant is paying 0.1%, 0.5%. I don't know, something super low. If we just say inflation is 3%, meaning the cost you have to spend out of the bank account to buy something is going up by 3%, and that's the reported number. It's not the real inflation that many people feel. Well, that means there's a net loss of two and A half percent on that. So if I have a million dollars there, that's $25,000 of lost buying power.

[Bo Hansen]

What makes me so sad about Stephen's friend is that the hardest part is the saving. Having the discipline to be able to live on less than you make and be able to sock money away and put it. That's the hard part. And yet so many people are able to do the hard part, but then they just leave out the next step. That what I'm going to say, the easier part of actually putting your money to work, because it's amazing. If he was able to build up an accumulated bank balance of $1 million, it would be wild to see, had he been investing that in low cost index funds, low cost investments, what that could have turned into or how much more quickly it could have gotten to a million. They did 90% of the hard work, but just didn't quite finish the drill.

[Brian Preston]

Right.

[Humphrey Yang]

So you have to do the full hundred.

[Brian Preston]

Humphrey, we have loved having you on the show today. If people want to know more about your content, where can they go find you?

[Humphrey Yang]

Yeah, you look me up on YouTube. It's Humphryang. Or just go to the description below. Hopefully I'll be linked there. And perhaps this is a collab post as well, so you can click on my channel there. And also, fun fact, we filmed for four hours for that.

[Brian Preston]

Holy cow.

[Humphrey Yang]

And it was cut down to two. So you missed a lot of back and forth between the two other gentlemen. And I was struggling to get some words in there. But hopefully you got a lot of my words in today.

[Brian Preston]

Any other kind of behind the scenes?

[Unidentified Guest 2]

Yeah.

[Humphrey Yang]

So, like, while you're shooting the podcast, what's really cool is they have a photographer come and take photos of you while you're shooting it. And then at the end of the podcast, they print out a book, a bound book of all the photos of you on the show with the quotes that you said on the show. And then the bound book gets passed to Steven, the host, and he signs it and gives it to you as a parting gift. And that's a really great parting gift. Makes me feel really good about coming on the show. So I will see you guys after this show and I will expect this book from you.

[Bo Hansen]

It's so funny you mentioned that, Humphrey. We have a gift for.

[Humphrey Yang]

I'm kidding.

[Bo Hansen]

We don't. It'd be awesome if we did that.

[Brian Preston]

Let me get you a signed copy of Billionaire Mission right now.

[Humphrey Yang]

Oh, I. I would like that. But we were talking about this at lunch, so that's why I just wanted to bring up the story again.

[Brian Preston]

You said something, though, when we were sharing, and I don't mean to pull more behind the scenes. Maybe where they. You said pumping air, so I immediately got a visual. Are they like cold air or laughing gas? What. What type of air are they pumping on you?

[Bo Hansen]

I think it's just oxygen so that you can happen more.

[Humphrey Yang]

Yeah. So I guess you feel it or you.

[Brian Preston]

You smell it. Is it. Is it. That's kind of unique.

[Humphrey Yang]

You kind of hear it because you can kind of. Because the vents are at the bottom of your feet, and you kind of feel it on your feet. You know, it's something I. You kind of notice because I. I remember I was filming. It was a little hot in there, and then all of a sudden, the air turned on. I was like, oh, this is nice. And then I got a little bit more cognitively alert.

[Bo Hansen]

So funny. You said laughing.

[Humphrey Yang]

It.

[Unidentified Guest 1]

He.

[Bo Hansen]

They pump an O2 in the. @ the diverse. We pump in laughing gas here at the money.

[Humphrey Yang]

Guys, look, he's laughing already.

[Brian Preston]

Humphrey, thank you for coming on today.

[Humphrey Yang]

Thank you for having me.

[Brian Preston]

Absolute blast. I love collaborating. I love when we meet other people. You can tell you have the heart of an educator.

[Humphrey Yang]

Thank you.

[Brian Preston]

And I think we are helping the world become a better place. I'm your host, Brian Preston, joined by Bo Hansen, of course. Humphrey Money out.