Financial Advisors Correct the Internet (Part 2)

Summary

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Money Guy Show — "Financial Advisors Correct the Internet (Part 2)"

Released: July 27, 2026 | Hosts: Brian Preston & Bo Hanson

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Brian and Bo tackle widely shared financial advice circulating on the internet, offering corrections, clarifications, and professional insight. They break down common misconceptions around legislative insider trading, index fund performance, real estate strategies, the value of financial advisors, and so-called "wealth hacks" like whole life insurance. The format is engaging and conversational, with the hosts blending humor, skepticism, and encouragement throughout.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Congressional Stock Trading & "Pelosi Fund" Hype

• Timestamps: [01:01]–[03:01]
• Brian and Bo discuss the popularity of funds tracking politicians’ stock trades, skepticism around congressional "insider trading," and the allure of quick gains.
• Notable Quote:
  • Brian: “It is amazing that there's not more restrictions on these elected officials with essentially profiting from knowledge.” [01:40]
  • Bo: “Time will expose all fools. … Maybe that strategy… that magic bullet is going to go make me all this money wasn’t quite as good as I thought. … What I ought to be doing with my dollars is slow, consistent, low cost index investing.” [02:09]
• Insight: While high returns from these mimic funds may look appealing, they stress that over time, disciplined index investing remains a proven, less risky road to wealth.

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2. "Savers Are Losers" and Misunderstood Inflation Math

• Timestamps: [03:12]–[04:59]
• Hosts address financial influencer advice warning against saving cash due to inflation and "money debasement," critiquing the use of exaggerated numbers.
• Notable Quote:
  • Bo: “They are outsized opportunity, low probability success. But you know what has a high probability of success and also a lot of opportunity? Investing in low cost index funds like the S&P 500.” [04:59]
• Insight: While inflation does erode purchasing power, average long-term S&P 500 returns outpace it. Riskier alternatives like entrepreneurship or leveraged real estate aren’t for everyone.

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3. Should You Pay a Financial Advisor for Simple Investing?

• Timestamps: [06:06]–[08:53]
• Reviewing a viral claim that all advisors do is invest in a Roth IRA split between three funds for a 1% fee, the hosts explain when paying an advisor adds value.
• Notable Quote:
  • Bo: “If you’re hiring a financial advisor and all that advisor is doing is opening a Roth IRA … yeah, you shouldn’t pay an advisor. That’s not the thing that a financial advisor should be helping you with.” [07:26]
  • Brian: “That industry has already been commoditized. You do financial planning when your life gets complicated.” [07:52]
• Insight: Investment-only advice is cheap (or free), but true advisors add value through planning, tax optimization, and complexity management. Fees drop with higher net worth, much like buying in bulk.

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4. Three Things Young Adults Waste Money On (and House Hacking)

• Timestamps: [09:50]–[11:27]
• Discussion of influencer advice: avoid luxury lifestyles, delay home buying, and resist expensive cars; Brian and Bo promote “house hacking” as a compromise.
• Notable Quote:
  • Brian: “House hacking is a great alternative… try to find a duplex, a quadplex, or something in your area. … You’re using other people’s money to pay your own mortgage.” [10:28]
• Insight: Recommend buying a primary residence with rental potential rather than waiting or buying a full investment property too early.

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5. Leverage in Real Estate: Risk & Reality Checks

• Timestamps: [11:27]–[13:42]
• Hosts critique stories of massive wealth built with highly leveraged real estate portfolios, drawing lessons from the ’80s real estate bust and recent history.
• Notable Quote:
  • Bo: “If you are highly levered and you have no financial foundation to fall back on… it can cause you to go belly up.” [12:38]
  • Brian: “There’s a big difference between … debt pre-2022 … vs. right now.” [13:02]
• Insight: Real estate can work, but over-leveraging is dangerous, especially in today’s higher interest rate environment; few start with millions in equity.

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6. "Be Your Own Bank" with Whole Life Insurance?

• Timestamps: [14:10]–[16:13]
• The hosts debunk the “infinite banking” concept peddled on social media, in which whole life insurance is used as a personal bank.
• Notable Quote:
  • Bo: “It is not a free lunch like these infinite banking people try to lay out. It does not work the way that [he] described.” [16:06]
  • Brian: “Anybody who says they’ve created a better mousetrap, but it’s got a lot of fees and commissions, you have to scratch your head and go, something’s just not mathing here.” [16:06]
• Insight: Actual returns are exaggerated, fees are hidden, and policyholder risks are downplayed; keep insurance and investing separate.

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7. Children: Financial Hurdle or Fulfilling Choice?

• Timestamps: [16:13]–[17:38]
• Responding to an influencer who credits childlessness for their financial freedom, Brian and Bo reflect personally on fulfillment versus financial optimization.
• Notable Quote:
  • Bo: “Are [kids] a burden sometimes? Absolutely. … Would I trade that for all of the money in the world? Not a chance.” [17:02]
  • Brian: "There is something really amazing… when you have your own children, it is a love that you just can’t fathom." [17:38]
• Insight: Financial independence isn’t the only definition of happiness; family decisions are personal but shouldn't be reduced to math alone.

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8. Rage-Bait Investing ("$300M Debt = Wealth")

• Timestamps: [18:51]–[19:29]
• Addressing viral rants that dismiss traditional investing as “for peasants,” the hosts underscore the real path to banking trust and wealth building.
• Notable Quote:
  • Bo: “It’s just not true that you cannot build wealth that way. … More millionaires have built wealth that way than by going $300 million in debt.” [19:08]
  • Brian: “You had to have enough success and enough financial foundation underneath you that you were a good bet for the bank underwriters.” [19:18]
• Insight: Most people build wealth slowly through consistent, boring investing rather than outsized bets or privilege-based financing.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Time will expose all fools.” — Bo [02:16]
• “That’s like buying toilet paper at Costco.” — Brian, on investment fees dropping with more assets [07:52]
• “It is not a free lunch like these infinite banking people try to lay out.” — Bo [16:06]
• “Would I trade that for all of the money in the world? Not a chance.” — Bo, about fatherhood [17:02]
• “You had to have enough success and enough financial foundation … to be a good bet for the bank underwriters.” — Brian [19:18]

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Major Takeaways

• Skepticism is vital: Not all financial advice online is sound, especially when it seems sensational or outrageously simple.
• Index investing works: It’s consistently the tried-and-true path for ordinary people to become millionaires—ignore the hype.
• Complexity requires help: Pay for real financial planning when your finances become complicated, not just for basic investing.
• Avoid over-leverage: Leveraged investments and “get rich quick” strategies are risky and often end badly for most people.
• Personal fulfillment > just money: Family and life choices shouldn’t be boiled down solely to their financial implications.

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Transcript

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[Brian]

if you're worried the Internet's lying to you, never fear. We're here to correct the Internet.

[Bo]

Brent I am so excited to correct the Internet today. Here we go. I bought into the Pelosi fund.

[Brian]

Yeah, it's doing really well.

[Guest or Co-host]

I bet it is.

Yeah.

[Brian]

I only put a thousand dollars in there, but it's beating my own money guys.

[Guest or Co-host]

It's crazy that you could know, oh, we're gonna do this big deal with AI chips. Nvidia makes AI chips. I'm just gonna buy a ton of of Nvidia stock and then boom, we pass this thing. Hey, look at that 500% increase. Nancy Pelosi is the scapegoat. But if you look, it's red, blue, across the line, they're all trading, making tons of money. They all go into congress broke, they all come out rich as and they get $100,000 a year.

[Brian]

It is amazing that there's not more restrictions on these elected officials with essentially profiting from knowledge. Because the insider trading all through what we do has a lot more restrictions than what our elected have to deal with.

[Bo]

Yeah, insider trading is illegal, but folks getting called on it and actually being able to like track down insider trading is not clear cut black and white. And that is a little bit frustrating for everyday investors. Now what I think is the better learning thing here is oftentimes you can come up with an idea and you're like, oh, I'm going to go buy this fund. Maybe it's some fund that tracks a politician or maybe it's some other fund, some high flyer, some growth, some tech thing. And all of a sudden you do it and you get a 20%, 30%. 40% rate of. Maybe. Maybe you participate in an IPO of a stock that comes out and all of a sudden it shoots through the roof at ipo. Holy cow, I'm a genius. I've got to double down. I figured this out and lo and behold, if you give it enough time, time will expose all fools. And if you give it enough time, you'll recognize that man. Maybe that strategy I figured out, maybe that thing I thought that was this magic bullet is going to go make me all this money wasn't quite as good as I thought. And maybe the thing I ought to be doing my dollars is slow, consistent, low cost index investing. That's proven to build millionaire after millionaire after millionaire after millionaire through time.

[Brian]

Well, and even if you wanted to use this strategy, Nancy's retiring. So just stick with the S&P 500. That's an applause line.

[Guest or Co-host]

I don't think people truly understand what Robert Kiyosaki means by savers or losers. If you're getting your feelings, you probably

[Bo]

need to listen up.

[Guest or Co-host]

Yeah, because the advice you're listening to right now, that was given to you before the iPhone even came out. You saved $10,000. It's sitting in your account. Inflation. Let's call it 3% money debasement. Let's call it 10%. The hurdle rate is 13% for you to break even. Last time I checked, high yield savings accounts aren't paying 14%. So. So you think you're getting a good deal, but you're already getting taxed on that interest anyway, so rug pull. Oh, yeah, The S&P 500 is pretty decent. It does just around 13%. All seriousness, though, look into assets that grow over 13% in a year or find a way to exponentially increase your income over 13% in a year. Or you can start a business and you can exponentially increase your income.

[Bo]

What was the 10% money debasement thing?

[Brian]

I don't know. He was. He threw so much in that cookie jar that I don't even know what the point. I have so many questions. Look, I thought he was going down the solid path. Whereas basically, you can't just let your money sit in cash because inflation's going to eat it alive over the long term. But then when he started throwing tomatoes at The S&P 500, I mean, we have shown over and over and we've even. We survey our millionaire clients being consistent and starting early, even with things like The S&P 500 is going to make you fabulously wealthy and successful over the long term. So to hear somebody poo poo, it really kind of disappoints me because that's because what can you, yeah, maybe you can do a one off and make greater than 13% in a year. But consistency, no, get out of here.

[Bo]

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. It's not untrue that entrepreneurship and investing in small business, that's where they can have outsized returns, but they are outsized opportunity, low probability success. But you know, it has a high probability success and also a lot of opportunity investing in low cost index funds like the S&P 500. Yes, inflation will erode your money. But if you can earn 8 to 11%, which is what the S and P makes on average over the long term, then I'm going to argue your dollars are not just going to keep up and keep pace with inflation. They will actually grow through time increasing your purchasing power greater than the rate of inflation, which is what you want to do as you build towards financial independence.

[Brian]

And if he was kind of implying on real estate because Kiyosaki's real real estate with levered debt. You know guys, if you do that too early, all you got to do is play the wonderful game of big banks taking from little pockets when the market goes bad and you don't have other people's money to pay the rent. So make sure if you're going to do real estate, we love real estate. We do real estate. Just have deep enough pockets that you can survive those bad moments because they will come your way while you're doing real estate.

[Guest or Co-host]

Here is what a financial advisor would likely do with your money. If you gave them $200 a month to invest, the first thing that they would do is they would just open up a Roth IRA for you. This would just be the investment account. Now that $200 would go into that account, but it would actually get split into three different buckets. The first bucket would be $120. The second bucket would be $50 and the last bucket would be $30. Then they would take this $120, the bulk of it, and they would basically put it into S&P 500 index funds. Things like Voo, for example, they would take the $50 and they would invest it likely into international index funds. VX US as an example, last $30 they would probably put into something more aggressive, something with higher risk. As an example, qqqm they would just automate this entire process by connecting your bank account, setting up an automatic withdrawal of $200 and then automatic purchases of all these index funds in these exact amounts. Like, if you did this from the age 30 to 65, at the end, you'd end up with about $360,000. Not bad. Here's the thing. If you did this yourself, you'd actually have closer to $458,000 just because you would have to pay them about a 1% fee every single year.

[Bo]

I agree with everything, and I mean literally everything that this guy said. If you're hiring a financial advisor and all that financial advisor is doing for you is opening up a Roth IRA with having you deposit $200 and auto investing that $200 across three different funds, yeah, you shouldn't pay an advisor. That's not the thing that a financial advisor should be helping you with. And if you're paying 1% for that type of service, you are likely overpaying.

[Brian]

You're only getting investment advice from your advisor. That industry has already been commoditized. You do financial planning when your life gets complicated, when you actually get to a situation to where you don't know what to do with your taxes, you don't know what to do with your retirement plan, you don't know what to do with your investments anymore because you know there's some efficiencies that you can pick up. And also, don't forget, everybody always loves to quote the 1% rule. But when you're worth 2 million, 3 million, 5 million, everything gets cheaper and cheaper. This is like buying toilet paper at Costco.

[Bo]

That's the most frustrating part to me. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. Every time you see one of these people line up what a financial advisor does, they assume that the financial advisor adds no additional value. Well, the argument would be if you can do it all on your own the exact same way, and you get no value from what a financial advisor would provide, then don't hire a financial advisor. An advisor ought to be able to add enough value to your financial life that not only does it justify the fee, but you are in a better place because of it. Price is what you pay. Value is what you receive.

[Brian]

Every one of our clients can vote with their feet by that, what I mean by that is that we don't do any proprietary products. We're using index funds, we're using ETFs, no lockup, period. That's exactly what he covered. So you have to ask yourself, why in the world are all these millionaires not leaving when we let them? We even lead with in the initial, when they're signing up. Look, if you don't like this after a year, if I can't do these three things that I told you I can do, leave. And they don't. You'll never get when you need to

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[Guest or Co-host]

jobs reaching your 20s if you keep wasting money on these three things. First is your lifestyle. Most people make it, spend it, make it, spend it and have nothing to show for it. Second, a house. Most people in their 20s aren't married so need to buy a family home instead. Buy rental properties and make some passive income. Third is a car. Most people finance a luxury vehicle with money they don't have to impress people they don't even like. Instead, buy a cheap secondhand car and you'll have the last laugh.

[Bo]

I love one, I love three. I don't not love two.

[Brian]

I would just put a note on it. I would house hack it.

[Bo]

Yeah, I love that. That's a great example.

[Brian]

Yeah, house hacking is is a great alternative to telling people to jump right into what in our system, it's step eight of the financial order of operations to get into doing real estate investing. I think what I'd rather you do is probably around step four when you're trying to buy your own primary residence, why not try to find a duplex, a quadplex, or something in your area? Because not only are you going to use other people's money to pay your own mortgage, but the banks, because you're living in that house, give you more favorable underwriting. They're also getting more favorable on the interest rate. It's just a better deal all around. Don't just jump in to deep dive into the deep end of real estate when there's other ways in between.

[Bo]

When you think about 1 and 3. Buying or letting your lifestyle increase or also buying luxury vehicles are often things that you do to impress people whose opinions do not matter. Don't waste your money doing those things. Only spend money on things that you truly value. Don't worry about what the world around you thinks.

[Guest or Co-host]

We are in $30 million worth of which means we owe banks, $145,000 every single month in mortgage payments. Now let me explain to you why that's a good thing and why it creates massive achievable wealth for me. So that $30 million worth of debt allows me to own $50 million worth of real estate. So that's $20 million worth of equity that I would not have if I was not in that $30 million worth worth of debt. But on top of that, that debt owns real estate assets. And those real estate assets bring in over $350,000 in rent every single month. Which of course is more than my $145,000 in mortgage payments, plus all owning expenses, plus positive tax free cash flow. And if you want to learn how

[Bo]

to do this, for this is exactly

[Guest or Co-host]

how Dave Ramsey went bankrupt back in the 80s. He was way over leveraged. And all it takes is, is another Covid to wipe this guy out completely. Where the government's like, you can't evict anybody and they're not going to pay rent and you're going to like it. Meanwhile the mortgage companies and lenders don't care. They're going to collect. And so this guy is not taking into account risk whatsoever. And it drives me crazy.

[Bo]

You know what, I don't disagree with what George is saying there. Because if you are highly levered and you have no financial foundation to pull back on or to fall back on when Covid happens, or when the Great Recession happens, or when one of those things happens, it can cause you to go belly up. That's why if you are going to invest in real estate and you are going to take on debt, you better make sure that you are deep pocketed enough that you can weather those financial storms.

[Brian]

Well, the team has taken my financial sidearm away. If I had it, I would, you know, flip it around and then start doing the math. There's a big difference between if you took down this debt pre2022 or even 2021, when you could get interest rates in the 3% or less even on some commercial property versus right now, you're probably going to be at 6% or greater. So for you to think that you're going to get the exact same return as somebody who might have done this five to six years ago, might be putting yourself in a box or in a bad situation because the other people's money, not only with what George said from a risk perspective, but you just might have a bad deal from what is even this property worth?

[Bo]

Yeah, and let's, let's not sleep with the fact that he said he had $50 million of assets with $30 million a day, that's $20 million of equity that he has in those assets. Most people who want to get into real estate who want to start on this path don't get to start with $20 million of equity. They want to start, okay, I'm going to borrow as much as I can and put as little down as possible. If you're playing that game, there's a very good chance you're going to get yourself into a very scary and very, very dangerous situation.

[Guest or Co-host]

Here's a secret I learned from rich people that took me forever to understand, but I'm going to explain. Explain it to you like you're a fifth grader.

[Brian]

Oh, I can't wait.

[Guest or Co-host]

This is gonna blow your mind. So this is using a whole life insurance policy as your own bank, essentially. So if you had $30,000 saved and you put it in a bank, you'd earn 1% interest over 10 years of $33,000. It's like nothing, right?

[Brian]

Three and a half.

[Guest or Co-host]

Well, if you wanted to buy a car for $30,000, you take that money out of the bank and then your 1% would go to zero. This is why banks are rich and we're not. Now, a whole life insurance policy. When you put that $30,000 into a policy, it earns regular market return. So 10% interest. Power of compound interest. You've probably heard this before, right? 10% interest for 10 years turns your 30k into 81k. The kicker, when you want to buy that car, where's the disclaimer out of the policy? And it still gains this interest while you're paying it back to yourself.

[Bo]

There's just a lot.

[Brian]

Where's the cost of the insurance?

[Bo]

There's just a lot of stuff wrong.

[Brian]

There's a lot of hands in the cookie jar when you're buying insurance products. There's the cost of the insurance, there's the agents that are selling you the insurance, and 10%. When's the last time you reviewed a policy that consistently made 10%?

[Bo]

Let's. Let's go down this path and say that you did do the $30,000 in the policy and you did earn 10%. Let's say that it turned into $100,000. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to go buy a $100,000 car or $100,000 beach house, or $100,000 flat. Fill in the blank. If you pull all the cash value out of that policy, you know what you have to do? You have to then make sure that every single year you are putting enough back into that policy to cover the cost of insurance so that the policy does not lapse and create a taxable event for you. If you don't have the cash value in there to sustain that, then you have to put the money in. You know what happens every year? You get older and older and older. The life insurance gets more and more and more and more expensive. It is not a free lunch like these infinite banking people try to lay out. It does not work the way that

[Brian]

he described anybody who says they've created a better mousetrap. But it's got a lot of fees and commissions. You have to scratch your head and go, something's just not math in here.

[Guest or Co-host]

Children are a lifestyle choice as much as they are a financial choice. I always have people telling me it's easier for me to retire because I don't have kids. And yeah, it's six months, so much easier.

[Bo]

She just puts a cat in the bag.

[Guest or Co-host]

Entire evenings working on my business. I don't have to wait in the school pickup and drop off line. I don't have to feed anyone except myself. I get to sleep in every single weekend. I don't have to pay for daycare. I don't have to save for someone else's education. I get to focus on my financial independence and my happiness first every single day. That was an intentional choice I made because I want to live a certain life and children would quite frankly ruin the life that I want to live. Does that mean I don't like kids? No. I love kids. If life wasn't such a capitalist hellscape, I would consider adoption. But I just refuse to be trapped working forever, raising the next generation of workers for this system. I want to get.

[Brian]

It makes me sad.

[Guest or Co-host]

Get out.

[Bo]

That's all right. So that's a choice, that's an opinion. And I certainly don't want to like fault her for her opinion and her feelings around that. But I agree with you. It's kind of sad. I have kids and I love my kids. And are they a burden sometimes? Absolutely. Are they expensive sometimes? Absolutely. Just sometimes I just want to grab. Absolutely. Would I trade that for all of the money in the world? Not a chance. I worry that there will be some fulfillment that does not happen. If she thinks that just having money and having wealth and having freedom is that all this life is about.

[Brian]

The thing that troubles me and I want to share this and maybe this is too much Sharing. Because y' all know I'm at this stage of life now where I kind of wish we'd had more kids, because mine are starting to leave the house. And here's the thing. I can go back in time and remember who I was back when got married. I don't. I didn't really like kids. I can still remember a moment where I was in public accounting. We were at a team outing, and I was talking to some other of the male associates there, and a kid fell over and, like, hurt their knee. And everybody was making fun of us because we all just stared. We didn't know what to do. And I was like, I'm not a kid person. I don't. We don't know what to do to fix this kid. And then I have my own children, and holy cow. I was like, okay, I'm not a kid person, but I love my kids. There is something really amazing that is in us that when you have your own children, it is a love that you just can't fathom what. What it is. I mean, it is. It is just the. It's the strangest thing, because I've never considered. I don't. I don't feel like I need to smell babies and. And do all this other stuff. As soon as I had my own kids, I was like, oh, I'm in on this. I hate to hear so much pessimism drowning out what could be a lot of joy in this person's Life. I borrowed $300 million.

[Bo]

You borrowed 300 million.

[Brian]

And I bought the best real estate in the world for pennies on a dollar. That's how you get rich. Not by working hard and putting in a stupid 401k full of stocks. It is a way to get rid of ETFs. Those are for the peasants. I don't touch that garbage. It's rage baiting.

[Bo]

It's just not true that you cannot build wealth that way. And I would argue more millionaires have built wealth that way than by going $300 million in debt.

[Brian]

Do you know how you get to the point where a bank will give you $300 million? You had to have enough success and enough financial foundation underneath you that you were a good bet for the bank underwriters.

[Bo]

Here's the thing. The Internet does not have your best interest at heart. But we believe that there is a better way to do money. It's why we have all of our resources [e-mail] resources or all of our free tools, all of our calculators. Free because we want you to be able to do money better. Yeah.

[Brian]

I mean, our system is easy. We go take all of our free stuff, create success. We don't ask anything of you until you reach a level of success that it's gotten complicated. Your simple life gets really complicated with success. And then I want you to remember who planted all the seeds, who gave you the knowledge. That's how the abundance cycle works. We love to work with you. We work with people all across the country. I'm your host, Brian, joined by Mr. Bo Money got team out.