How Does Your Generation Think About Money?

Summary

Podcast Summary: Money Guy Show – "How Does Your Generation Think About Money?"

Hosts: Brian Preston & Bo Hanson
Date: December 17, 2025

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Overview

This episode explores how different generations view building wealth, especially in a rapidly changing world marked by technological advancements and economic uncertainty. Brian and Bo dive into fresh research—mainly a YouGov survey—revealing surprising optimism among Gen Z, contrast generational mindsets, break down the best ways to build generational wealth, and address practical listener questions about money management across all life stages.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Generational Perspectives on Wealth-Building

[01:09 – 06:04]

• Brian (A "proud Gen Xer") reflects on the traditional American dream: "We want our kids to be more successful than we were, want them to have a better opportunity than we had." (01:26)
• Contrast in Optimism:
  • General Population: 49% believe it's now harder to build generational wealth.
  • Gen Z: 55% say it’s as possible or more possible today.
  • Bo: "A whopping 30% of Gen Zers said it is much more possible." (03:55)
• Why the optimism?
  • Brian points to the transformative power of technology: "They feel like they're at the beginning of something... when you're on the front row seat... you feel like you might be able to turn this into a benefit." (05:36)

2. Paths to Building Generational Wealth

[06:04 – 14:37]

• Top Survey Responses:

  1. Starting your own business
  2. Investing in real estate
  3. Investing in the financial markets

• Entrepreneurship:

  • Bo: "Much smaller levels of exposure can lead to much greater success... You don't have to be Disney; you could create something." (07:49)
  • Brian: "Most businesses fail... because people just don't prepare... don't realize that it's going to take three years to likely catch traction." (14:09)

• Real Estate:

  • Brian cautions on post-inflation market: "It's harder to make money in real estate right now with interest rates and where we just came through." (08:43)
  • Bo: "Gen Z only knows super elevated real estate prices and very high interest rates." (08:51)

• Financial Markets:

  • Bo: "Investing in the stock market... is easier than ever. And... available to everyone now." (09:52)
  • Brian: "The boundaries or barriers to entry are completely diminished at this point." (10:39)

Notable Illustration: Compounding Returns Across Ages

[10:39 – 12:40]

• If you save 10% of an $84,000 median household income into a 401k at 8% annual return:
  • Start at age 40: ~$663k at retirement
  • Start at 30: ~$1.6 million
  • Start at 20: ~$3.6 million
  • Bo: "If you get to retirement and have a portfolio... that is three and a half million dollars, you certainly are now crossing into that precipice... generational wealth." (12:24)

3. Cautions—Mirages vs. Reality

[14:37 – 16:52]

• Becoming an influencer or gambling were listed as paths by some survey respondents.

  • Bo: "Those are not the ways that people build wealth... They're the exceptions, not the rules." (15:12)

• Practical Tools:

  • Brian: "Go to moneyguy.com/resources... so you don't have to be like a 22 year old version of myself... 'Now what?'" (16:02)

4. Listener Q&A – Practical Money Management

Various Segments [17:24 – 63:05]

How to Hold a Net Worth Review with Your Spouse

• Bo: Make it a celebration—brunch, hiking, show the wins, plan for the worst (insurance, documentation), and daydream together about travel and experiences.
  • "We'll sit down... start daydreaming... we kind of build out our bucket list for the year." (19:57)
• Brian: "Talking about money with your spouse can be romantic... even if you have student loans... it's kind of fun." (20:28)

Emergency Fund vs. Paying Off Car Loan

• Bo: With a $7k/month burn rate and $28k in savings, avoid using the emergency fund to pay off a $10k, 7% car loan, especially if the emergency fund doesn’t cover 6 months' expenses.
• Brian: "Come up with a creative plan as a couple to pay the car off aggressively—without raiding your reserves." (30:51)

Roth Conversion & 401k Advice

• Roth vs. IRA:

  • Bo: "Just because I can do something doesn't mean I should... incurring more of a tax liability doesn't always make sense." (38:23)
  • Brian: "If your marginal rate is below 25%, the Roth is your friend." (39:37)

• Rolling Over a Previous Employer's 401k:

  • Bo: "Where should I house my dollars? Use our flowchart for old 401ks... Roth conversions usually make more sense post-working years." (61:51)

Mortgage Payoff vs. Investing Proceeds from Home Sale

• Brian: "If you're behind on retirement savings, invest the equity; if you're ahead, pay down the mortgage. Financial planning is personal and situational." (43:54)

Maintaining a Cash Emergency Fund Despite a Large Brokerage Account

• Brian: "Cash is like the oxygen we breathe—taken for granted until you have none." (50:52)
• Bo: "Having cash available is a superpower for opportunistic investing and avoiding emotional mistakes." (51:47)

Active vs. Passive Investing in 401k Plans

• Bo: "Over 15 years, 87% of active managers underperform their indices. I think it's a fool's errand." (54:32)
• Brian: "Index funds are great—the more you try to beat the market, the more likely you are to underperform." (55:06)

Rapid Fire Q&A (Experiment)

• The hosts attempt shorter, punchier answers to cover more questions, noting the tension between brevity and delivering full value.

5. Generational & Cultural Asides

• Brian's perspective: "I am actually a proud Gen Xer... the last generation that had one foot into analog and then got to watch this transition into digital." (01:26)
• Lighthearted stories about childhood, family, and firm culture foster inclusivity and relatability.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Brian: "There's an American promise, and I think this is an American concept, is that we want our kids to be more successful than we were..." (02:03)
• Bo: "One of the things we care about is creating memories... and... in that review... we kind of build out our bucket list for the year." (19:57)
• Brian: "Cash is like the oxygen we breathe. It is taken for granted until you have none." (50:52)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:09 – Generational money mindsets
• 03:55 – Gen Z optimism about building wealth
• 06:04 – Survey: best paths to generational wealth
• 10:39 – Compound interest: Saving at different ages
• 14:37 – Caution against 'mirages' like gambling/influencer culture
• 17:24 – How to structure a family net worth review
• 29:44 – Should you use an emergency fund to pay down debt?
• 36:39 – Roth IRA vs. 401k conversions
• 43:28 – Should you invest equity from a home sale or pay down your mortgage?
• 50:52 – Why keep a cash emergency fund even with a large brokerage account?
• 54:32 – Passive vs. active investment strategies in 401ks
• 57:01 – Reflections on rapid fire Q&A versus deeper answers

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Tone & Style

Brian and Bo keep a friendly, anecdotal, and encouraging tone—peppered with generational humor, relatable family stories, and candid guidance. Both balance technical advice with big-picture thinking, ensuring listeners of any age or asset level gain actionable insight.

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Summary

This episode provides a nuanced look at how younger generations—especially Gen Z—perceive wealth-building and the actual paths that can lead to financial security (and which to avoid). The hosts emphasize the timeless power of discipline, long-term investing, and practical preparation while acknowledging that new technology and optimism can be real assets for younger savers. In the Q&A, they apply their "money guy" framework to questions spanning debt, investing, real estate, and family finance dynamics, offering both tactical and psychological advice.

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Resources Mentioned:

• moneyguy.com/resources for templates & tools
• Money Guy Net Worth Review Template
• "Millionaire Mission" book by Brian Preston
• Know Your Number tool/course
• SPIVA research on active/passive management

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For listeners of any age, this episode reaffirms: the best time to start is now, optimism is an asset, and getting the basics right—spending less than you earn, investing early and often, and communicating as a family—is the surest path to generational wealth.

Transcript

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[A]

Generational trends. Where do you stack up?

[C]

Brent I am so excited about this because we know that different generations think about money differently. It's interesting to see how those threads of what's possible and what's difficult and what's not difficult tend to change through time depending on what generation you're coming up with.

[A]

Now look, despite what the comment section tells you, I am actually a proud Gen Xer baby boomer. And we all know that as a Gen Xer, I drink out of garden hoses out in the backyard primarily because our parents made us stay outside all day. We're the last generation that had one foot into analog and then we got to watch this transition into digital and even beyond. But it is one of those things where I think there's an American promise that's been, you know, we've always kind of considered this, and I think this is an American concept, is that we want our kids to be more successful than we were, want them to have.

[C]

A better opportunity than we had when we were.

[A]

Don't you feel like that's kind of been a promise or a desire since.

[C]

The beginning of time?

[A]

And I think you could actually talk about and put that in terms of generational wealth, of what you hope for for the coming generation. But I got to tell you, I think that there's because and that's what we're going to get to today. There's been groups out there, you know, YouGov and survey results where it says maybe things aren't as rosy as they've been in for prior generations.

[C]

Yeah, YouGov did a fantastic study around general generational wealth and what different generations thought. And there were a few really interesting questions that they posed. And here was the first one you guv, said, do you think that earning generational wealth is more or less possible to Americans born after 2000 than it used to be? Meaning if you were born in 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, building generational wealth, wealth that can not only provide for your lifetime, but you can also pass on to the next generation, is it more or less difficult for folks that have been born in the last 25 years? And I think the responses were kind of interesting.

[A]

Well, it's twofold in the fact that I think general population, which you're gonna is a little bit of pessimism in there is that, man, there's not been a harder time. And it's understandable, you know, with housing and some of the other things that we've, the inflation period that we went through, it is understandable that there's this little like cloud over the generations. But here's the bright spot and that's what we're going to compare and contrast is the general population versus Gen Z. And look, that's my daughter, my oldest daughter is Gen Z and she's in her senior year of college. And I kind of, I see this even in her when I think about this optimism that is a kernel of optimism that really is a stark difference from the general population.

[C]

So when you're looking at these survey results, the dark blue is the general population and the light blue baby blue is Gen Z. And what you can see is the dark blue tends to be weighted, just like you said, towards the pessimism that 23% of general population says that it's much less possible to build generational wealth than it used to be. And, and then another 26% said that it's somewhat less possible. So half of the general population is saying, man, it's not as easy as it once was. It's getting more difficult. But the folks in your daughter's generation, the Gen Zers, they tend to skew. On the other side, you can see that 25% of Gen Zers said that it's somewhat more possible than it used to be to build generational wealth. And a whopping 30% of Gen Zers said it is much more possible. And so I'm curious and Brian, we didn't talk about this. Why, like what do you think it is that's driving that?

[A]

Well, I think that because we are in one of those, I was thinking about, we didn't talk about this in this show meeting. So I'm out here, I don't know where I'm going to wild wilderness. You'll never know what I'm going to say. But I do think we are at one of those inflection points with technology, is about to do some big changes. And I think that this generation, because I felt this, and I kind of resemble this generation in the fact that I was there when I remember it was college, that the Internet kind of took off and because I went from the period where I was literally registering for classes, where you'd go into this huge room, fill out Scantron sheets, dump them into the side of the wall, and then go wait for them to call your name and find out if they got it to. By the senior year, I was logging in through the modem. Yes, it sounded like war games where it was like, you know, all the other game, you know, sounds.

[C]

I'm sorry I missed that one. But you would, you would use some.

[A]

Dos, promote prompts and then you'd get into the, then you'd reg on that green screen for your classes right from your house, if you had a computer at the house. So it's amazing. And I think that's what's going on with the younger generation too, is that they feel that they're at the beginning of something. And you know what happens when you feel like you're on the front row seat and you're the youngest and probably have the most opportunity, the most knowledge on something, is you feel like you might be able to turn this into a benefit for yourself.

[C]

Well, I love it. One of the things that, that YouGov did with the surveys, they didn't just say like how likely or how unlikely it is. They asked the same group of people, hey, if you had to choose one, and you can only choose a single one, which of these paths would you think is the best way to achieve generational wealth? So if it's something you're going to do, how are you going to pursue that? Or if you had to go in one direction to try to create that kind of wealth, what would you do? And again, I thought this was really, really interesting. And I think that the generations were a little more aligned perhaps than I thought. But the, the two highest responses, the two that carried the most of the survey respondents, were starting your own business and investing in property, meaning like investing in real estate. So if you want to be generational, generationally wealthy, you either need to be an entrepreneur or real estate investor. Thoughts on that?

[A]

Well, I mean, it's. Those are two good places. I mean, I think that those are very positive. Look, truthfully I'm proud of all three of these. If you think about it, starting a business, we've been on that path now we'll talk a little bit. We'll give some color on that in a minute to show why that's. It's kind of scary. But I also see once again, I think they're on a threshold if they feel change is coming. And I think also this younger generation feels like we've noticed this. It's like if you want to be a creator of I'll take my daughter, she's an animator. In the past I think you hoped that you landed a job with a.

[C]

Disney, sure like something.

[A]

But that's gotten to be much harder and even there's going to be concerns in that now this younger generation because of the technology and stuff. I think you think, well can I go create my own audience and I don't need to be Disney, but I could create something. I think that's where. So I love the starting your business. We'll talk about the risk with it.

[C]

And much in that, in that vein, much smaller levels of exposure can lead to much greater success than we joked forever.

[A]

Look, now it's gotten. I love to say that we've talked it into existence, but forever. The joke Beau and I had is that we have 20,000 people that like watching this show. I'm happy to report we have millions of you this but forever we like. As long as we got 20,000 people that like our show, I think this will be okay. But it is. But I think that is the same mindset that goes into it. And investing in property, look, that is very valuable. I will tell you. I, I'm, I'm glad to see Gen Z understands. They put it high, but they're not like the general population because I think that there's, you know, you make all your money on real estate when you buy the real estate and we just came through a post inflationary period. It's harder actually to make money in real estate. I think right now with interest rates and where we just came through that post inflation, that's the only real estate.

[C]

Market Gen Z knows. The only thing they know is super elevated real estate prices and very high interest rates. They haven't seen some of the other real estate markets. The general population is seen.

[A]

And then I like the third one which is investing in the financial markets where you don't have to choose the winners or losers, just be in the market.

[C]

Yeah, I think that's the one that gets me the most excited because that's available to everyone. At the end of the day, not everyone is going to be an entrepreneur starting a business and running a business. Owning business is a wonderful thing, but it's not for everyone. And the same is true for investing in property and real estate. A lot of people don't want to be real estate investors. They don't want to be landlords, they don't want to have illiquidity. They want to have to deal with maintenance and tenants and those sorts of things. But I do think we live in a time that is so wonderful that investing in the stock market, allowing your dollars to work for you while you sleep is easier than ever. And I think it really is available to everyone now even more just in your work and career. Brian it is so much easier now for someone to go online, open an account, fund an account link a checking account and get their money working. Back in the 90s, you couldn't do it that easy.

[A]

Yeah, I hate to be the compare and contrast, but it is such I had to go find somebody. I mean, because like I said, I came out of college right as the Internet was getting started. But it wasn't like you could go open up an account [e-mail] or vanguard.com, you had to go find. So I found like an insurance salesman who sold me a B share in this specialized banking fund. I mean, now it looks back. Now look, I have no regrets because it got the little pebble rolling down the hill to turn me into who I am and go on this journey. But you're spot on, Boaz. This has gotten so much easier. The boundaries or the barriers to entry are completely diminished at this point. So there's no excuse not to take your billionaire of time resources and turn it into actual assets in the longterm.

[C]

And what I love that you said is even though you didn't do it perfectly, even though you didn't get it exactly right early on, just doing something was hugely impactful in your financial life. And we wanted to put some actual numbers to this. So let's just say that you right now earn the median household income of about $84,000 a year. No matter where you are, whether you're Gen Z, whether you're pop young or old, let's just assume that that's where you are. $84,000 of household income. And let's say that you're going to commit I'm going to save 10% of my earnings into my 401k. Now, perhaps some portion of that's employer match Perhaps it's all you, but we just know that you're going to have about $700 a month going into your 401k. And let's also assume that you can earn an 8% rate of return over the long term. You're going to put this money to work and you're going to let it work for you. And let's be real, real conservative. Let's say that your household income does not change. You just stay at $84,000 this year, next year, the years beyond and it does not move. What's so amazing about investing in the stock market, what's so incredible about letting your dollars work for you is that no matter where you are in your journey, it's pretty exciting. If you are right now a 40 year old, that is where you are and you're starting out and you just begin putting that money to work. Just that 10% has the potential to turn into $663,000 by the time that you get to retirement. If you're a 30 year old just doing that 10% has the opportunity turn into $1.6 million by the time that you retire. And if you're a 20 year old just saving that 10% because you have time on your side can turn into $3.6 million by the time that you retire. And if you get to retirement and you have a portfolio that is three and a half million dollars, you certainly are now crossing into that precipice where you are now talking about generational wealth that can last for your lifetime and also provide for the heirs that come behind.

[A]

Well, and I think this is actually probably to put the cherry on top of the Sunday of explaining between those three different ways why this is the easiest. And by the way, it doesn't have to be an either or. I know in my own journey a lot of times it's and because so I would encourage everybody to understand even if you're going to be a real estate investor, you're going to be an entrepreneur. You're going to want to and be an investor into this broad economy. So, so memorize and learn what we just talked about with that 10%. But I did want to talk about for two quick comments. I think like starting a business, the reason I think most businesses fail because you see the stats, they're dreary about how hard it is to be an entrepreneur is because people just don't prepare, they don't plan, they don't, they don't realize that it's going to take three years to likely catch traction. And if you don't have that valuable resource of cash to not only fund the new company, but also sustain you, you're not giving it a fighting chance, no matter how talented, how passionate you are. So make sure you're taking an ounce of preparation before you make the big jump into starting something. That's why we always talk about putting on your 3D glasses. Real estate. It's a little bit of an echo. I've already said it. It's all about the purchase price. And you also have to have a financial foundation underneath you. That's why I just did this, because I'm thinking about the financial order of operations. It's a step seven, eight type thing. Before you're getting into, really step around step eight, where you have the abundance of resources that you can cover if bad things and you're using leverage and debt and other things to buy real estate. So don't skip out on those steps. Get in there, start building your investment portfolio and then use this as an amplifier when you want to go become an entrepreneur, or when you use it as an amplifier when you want to get into real estate, you can do all the above.

[C]

Now, I do think there was one thing that is worth addressing that came out of the survey because again, we acknowledge, we love that starting your own business was up there. That's a great way to build wealth. Investing in property at the right time is a great way to build wealth. We love investing in the stock market and letting our dollars work for us. But there were two on here that caught my eye and I was a little surprised, even though they were small numbers to see that when asked what are the best ways to build wealth? Or what's the best way to build generational wealth? There were two on here that folks actually answered. One of them was becoming an influencer, meaning I'm going to be on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, fill in the blank and I'm going to become famous. Or the other was gambling, sports betting, lottery, casinos. Those are not the ways that people build wealth. Certainly there are people out there able to have some influence and be able to develop some sort of audience and some sort of following. But it's only if you develop that following and then you are able to monetize the following you developed and then you can put that money to work doing the investing in the stock market or turning the influence into a business. And those are the exceptions. They are not the rules. And it's important to to keep that in mind when you figure out how you're going to begin building your financial future.

[A]

If you try to figure out what's the mirage in the desert versus what's the reality. I would encourage everybody please go to moneyguide.com resources take advantage of all of our free stuff if you're at the beginning of your journey. You know, last, last week I got kind of emotional thinking about some of the reviews I see on Amazon for, for Millionaire Mission because you guys have talked about how I'm changing your life. That's exactly what we're trying to do with our resource page too. I mean, because we've added so many different hubs, tools and other things. You're crazy if you don't get in there and take advantage of some of this free stuff so that you don't have to be like a 22 year old version of myself where I was like, okay, I've got this education, I've got my first job. Now what? We are the what so that you can really maximize your billionaire of time opportunity, especially in your 20s and 30s.

[C]

I love that we get to do this. I love that we get to see what interesting research studies are out there. Break them down, put the little money guy spin money guy flavor on it. But I also love that Every Tuesday at 10am we can sit right here and we can answer your questions because we do believe that there is a better way to do money. So if you have a question for us, you want us to weigh in on it? You want to get our take on it? Make sure you get it in the chat. Right now we have the team out in the wings collecting your questions and we want to load you up. So with that creative director Ribi, I'm going to throw it over to you.

[B]

Yes, I have a question from Todd S. To kick us off. It says, hi money guy show with net worth review season upon us. Favorite time of year, guys. It says, how do you all set up your net worth review with your spouses? What does the agenda look like? And I know you guys, you like talking about this.

[A]

I feel like I, Bo go first on this because he's, I have basically, you know how nascar, they draft off of each other to really maximize on the super speedways. I have totally drafted off of Bo's brilliance on this, so I'll let you go first.

[C]

Yeah. So whenever you have any sort of like really important business meeting, one of the things that I like to do is I like to create a sandwich where I go with hey, here's a good thing and then here's a bad Thing. And then here's a good thing, and I set these meetings with my wife up the exact same way. So normally I'll start with, hey, babe, the 2025 was a fantastic year, by the way. I will skip work and we'll make a whole day out of this. So I'll take a day off and we'll make a whole day. We'll pick somewhere to go get brunch, and we'll hang out and we'll go for a hike. We'll do all those things. And while we're sitting down, I'll say, hey, 2025 was a great year. I just finished up our net worth statement. Let me show you how exciting it was. And I'll show her all the accounts and where everything's listed out and all that. But then here's where the morbid piece comes in. I says, hey, and by the way, I want you to know that if I die, here's everything you need to know. This is where all the money is. This is the insurance policies. These are the executors. These are the. This, this is everything you need to know. If something were to happen to me, since I tend to be the financial head of our household. So what you'll do is I get hit by that bus, you're going to take this document, you're going to call Brian, and you and the kids will be okay. Like, that's. That's the thing that's going to happen there. But then I say, in the event that I do not get hit by a bus, let's talk about what we want to do this year. What is all the travel, obviously we saved last year. We built, the net worth grew. It was a wonderful year. Now let's talk about how we're going to use money to be a tool to accomplish the things that we care about. One of the things we care about is creating memories, both with us together as well as with our family as well as with our friends. And so we will sit down in that review after we've gone through all the finances, after we've gone through footnotes, and we'll start daydreaming about, hey, where do we want to go this year? What trips we want to do? What experiences do we want to have? And it's so fun. And basically right there in that meeting, we kind of build out our bucket list for the year. And it's so exciting. It's a thing that we get to celebrate the wins we had through the last year and talk about the wins that we're trying to set up for the coming year.

[A]

Well, and look, like I said, I'm going to draft on top of this. This is legit. You actually need to create an agenda. I created an agenda. What I'm excited about also is that we tried to set three goals that for the coming year. I'm excited this year to go back and review what those three goals are so we can go back and look at it and make this. You know, everybody thinks. What I think is interesting. A lot of people think talking about money with your spouse is not going to be romantic. It's kind of dry, guys. This. This can be romantic. This can be really cool because you're going and breaking bread for. For breakfast. That's when we started. Well, we got coffee. Just catching up because, you know, life's busy, especially during the holidays, so you're getting to just have some coffee time. And then you start broaching, hey, let's start talking about some of this stuff. And by the time you get to lunch and stuff, this, this is a celebration. Even if you think about this, I know a lot of you don't shy away. If you're at the beginning of your relationship, beginning of your career, and you even have a negative because a lot of you have student loans and other things, that's a. Okay. Because it's kind of fun. You can still find celebration and moments of things to kind of look at and go, well done. We made it through this. And also, that can be the rocket fuel that kind of gives it the extra oomph. Because a lot of times as a couple, you have to do hard things to kind of in the beginning, when you're in that messy middle, to make it through these things. If you can come together and have a kind of a consolidated plan, it kind of gives you something. You're in this together. That's why anytime I talk to entrepreneurs or people who came from a period of poverty or something in their early life, you'll see their eyes. When you ask them, after they come out the other side, they get that glazed overlook, but they're actually reminiscing about how hard that journey and coming out the other side, there's some sweetness to that that I don't want you to miss out on. So go to it. This is. Todd asked. You're exactly right. This is the best time of year. I mean, I get so excited because I love how special the holiday seasons and Christmas time and spending time with family, making memories. But then I love that we get to kick off January and We get to say, hey, that was great. What else can we do? And what's more is coming. And choose some moments to create once again special memories even for you and your spouse. Off of that.

[C]

Love it.

[A]

Thomas, we didn't even say if you're wondering because a lot of people like this sounds great. What do I use to kind of have the dashboard? You're crazy if you don't go to learn.moneyguy.com now, look, we have a free version on moneyguy.com resources. We have a free net worth template. You can go download. But if you want to actually amp this thing up, and we've priced it very aggressively on purpose because we want this to be affordable. People say, why do you even, you know, because I know influencers or financial people. They're like, why are they always selling courses or tools? Ours is to amp you up, to kind of accelerate your journey. If you saw, look, we make money off it, but it's not, it's not paying that many bills. I mean, just being honest, but it feels like this is to give you the best version of what you're trying to do and accomplish. It's a very valuable tool. Love it. And it's the same tool that we're using every single year for our spouses, too. That's, that's not an exaggeration. We're using our own template.

[B]

Learn min guy.com. click on that net worth tool. All right. Oh, and Todd, it is Tumblr day.

[C]

Let's go.

[B]

But yes, it is Tumblr day. So Todd, since we answered your question, just email winner, money guy.com and we love to send you Money Guy Tumblr slash koozie.

[A]

Holding the beverage in here, keeping it nice and chilled because he's got just boring old water in here.

[C]

Well, I got the, I got the.

[A]

Sparkling and I got, I've got my water, but I'm, I'm keeping it chilled through the koozie function.

[C]

When you go to a fancy restaurant and the waiter comes and they ask you, would you like sparkling or still?

[A]

When they ask for the water, restaurants they go, do you want tap? They're making it like they pulled out of the commode out back. They want you to buy the fancy one.

[C]

You're not going fancy enough because I.

[B]

Don'T think that's a fancy enough restaurant.

[C]

They will say, do you want sparkle or still? And you know what the correct answer is?

[A]

Tap.

[C]

Tap is the right answer. They don't give you that because you'll think you're saying still and you think you're getting tap water and you get a nine dollar bottle of water on your bill. Very frustrating.

[B]

Good to know. Good to know.

[A]

The only place that's not true because you know we're supposed to spend in the holidays down in Florida is Florida. You want the bottled water?

[C]

Yeah, I'm not, I'm not drinking Florida water.

[A]

Florida water has that, that lovely sulfur taste which my youngest. This is another tell that she might process the world a little differently. Likes the taste of the water. No.

[C]

So weird.

[A]

So weird.

[C]

Ruby, I have a question for you. With it being the Christmas season, you have any big Christmas. Is there anything that you specifically want for Christmas? Like this is what I'm hoping to get for Christmas this year.

[B]

Not really.

[C]

Nope. Okay. Brian, you.

[A]

No, I've asked, I've asked for no gifts except for my sister in law because she lives over in Rome and last time I was. We went and visited her last summer and I bought this, I'm actually wearing it today. I have a brown belt that I bought from this artisan leather master over there. You know they sell them everywhere. You know, walk around Rome and there's. And I was like why didn't I buy a black one too? Because I bought a brown one. So I've asked her to buy me a leather belt from one of those leather masters over there in Rome. But otherwise I've told everybody, please don't buy me gifts. I would rather make memories than. I don't care about the gifts.

[B]

I'm a little bit in that zone too. That's why my answer is boring. But what about you? Oh, you have a good answer. My answer was boring.

[C]

I would never ask. Thank you so much for that.

[B]

So you have to make up for it.

[A]

What do you go say?

[C]

Let me tell you what I would love to have for Christmas this year here at the Money Guy showing a bound wealth. We are growing.

[A]

I answered this like a real question. Bo's using this as a gimmick.

[B]

I can't wait to hear he has something to share. Something was going to happen.

[C]

We are growing so, so fast. And what that means is we have a lot of opportunities, a lot of things available and we have a lot of spots that we need to fill here. So if you've not gone to aboundwealth.com careers we want to do that because specifically there's one that we're so excited about. We are looking to hire a hiring an HR manager. Someone with specific skills in hiring, recruiting, bring in candidates, training HR So if that happens to be you and you are a financial mutant or someone in your life would satisfy that, we would love to hear from you. I think it'd be wonderful if we were able to fill that position as a Christmas present to a bound.

[A]

Well, I think this is what's so cool. I called my mom this morning on the way into work, and, you know, and her husband Frank and I, we've gotten really close to. And he was like, hey. Because I said, we have four new employees starting on in the first week of January. And he's like, are y' all recruiting out of specific colleges now? And I was like, actually, we're trying to hire a new, like, human resources hiring manager. Somebody will be working directly with us, too, in the leadership team here is in. We do want to kind of start fostering better relationships with colleges because we think that we're just getting heated up. We think this thing's going to actually accelerate even more. And I get. I get excited because I think that whoever we hire in this position will be able to really go meet some programs out there, and they'll also be working directly with us, help us kind of shape the culture. Because, by the way, that's the thing. As I was doing employee reviews this year, Bo and I were giving pay raises and giving bonuses. The thing that kept coming back was the culture here. And I know y' all are like, rolling your eyes. Some of you who are in jobs. It's just not perfect. It really is. I find out because here's. I'm the boss man, so I don't get invited to anything. I just get to see the fruits of it. But when I find out that some employees are, like, doing WrestleMania pay per views together, they're playing pickleballs together, they're doing a card night, I mean, we have all kind of, like, culture, and these things are happening organically. When you find out couples are doing double dates together, Awesome. I love it. And I'm a okay. That the boss man's not getting invited to these things because I did get my tin of toffee this year.

[C]

You did get your toffee.

[A]

Very excited. From one of the mothers of one of the employees. The world is all a okay. But I think whoever this hiring. We're calling it Hiring manager hr, it would be a really cool opportunity. But that's not the only position we're actually looking for. We have other things that we're growing. I'd love if you. If you watch the show and you go, these guys can't Be like this. Come meet us. I think you'll find out that we are very much like the brochure shows and we love to keep growing the family here because that's really the way I look at it.

[C]

Aboundwealth.com careers if you want to see.

[B]

What'S available it's also [e-mail] good.

[A]

That's smart.

[C]

Moneyguy.

[B]

We get a lot more [e-mail] kind just be real.

[C]

I didn't. I should have gone there first.

[B]

That's great. I'm really glad you brought that up.

[A]

Well done. I. I feel bad for for picking on you about that now.

[C]

Well, you know I do what I can. Hey, I'm excited to answer the questions.

[B]

I got another one.

[C]

Someone in the chat said over under how many questions the guys get to so far we're this far in they've gotten. All right.

[B]

What are the guesses? Prepare for rapidly actually predict we'll see.

[C]

If anyone does ask us amazing once we can go fast.

[B]

Well here's one from Mom 23162 it says we're early. We're in our early 40s with a car loan of 10k at 6.99%. Should we use some of our emergency fund to pay it off? We have 28k in a high yield savings account, but with three young kids and one primary earner, it makes me nervous.

[C]

Here's what I read.

[B]

Why would one want to pay this off right now? Should they do it? There's a lot to talk through here.

[C]

Yeah. So there's a few additional questions mom to three that I'd really like to know. I'd like to know what the monthly burn rate is for the family.

[A]

Right.

[C]

Because at 28k with a one income household, three dependents in the household, I'm going to argue you likely should probably be around six months of living expenses in your mercy fund to be fully funded if you're going to have step four knocked out. So one of the things I want to know is is $28,000 does that appropriately and adequately cover six months of living expenses? If not, we may have a little bit of an issue. The other thing I'd want to know on the car 7 or 6.99% is a high interest rate loan. But I want to know for this automobile, did it fit inside of 23, 8 when you bought it? So when you originally acquired the automobile, is it being paid off inside the 23 8, 20% down? Don't finance for more than 36 months. And you cannot have more than 8% of your monthly payment going towards the car. I'd want to know those two pieces of information. I think before I could answer this really, really well.

[A]

Well, I love. Because of this time of year, roll it into that January net worth review that y' all are going to do is because I worry that that 28,000 is going to need to stay somewhat intact because of just three young kids, one primary earner's six months. Unless that they're living significantly less than five grand a month, they're probably going to need to keep that intact. So if that's the case, when you'll have your January meeting to go over your net worth statement, you and your spouse, I want you to think about, hey, what can we do unique this year to make this a goal to knock this $10,000 off. And maybe that means you still, when you're writing down your vacations for the year, you say, instead of going on a Royal Caribbean cruise or taking the family to Disney World, why don't we go to the national parks or go camp or do. So you figure out a way that says, hey, well, there's two grand right there that just showed up. And you start getting creative with things like that. That way you're not taking away the memory building, but you are. You're getting very aggressive with knocking this out and you're coming together as a family to figure out what unique things we're going to do to make sure that we're tackling these goals head on.

[C]

All right, I'm going to. I think this is super, super valuable because we got some additional info here. $7,000 burn rate. So seven times six months. So 42,000 ought to be a fully funded merchant. And it did not fit into 23 8. So this remaining auto loan is even outside the confines. Mom, I think that what that tells me is you've got to make some pretty difficult decisions. And I don't know that one of those decisions necessarily would be to use the emergency fund, because I think they need that emergency fund.

[A]

No, I think this is where y' all have to sit down. I love the timing. You got lucky in the fact that the timing is y' all sit down as a couple and figure out, okay, does this mean we're just not eating out as much for the first six months of this year or three months? You figure out what your timeline is and what these sacrifices are, but be united in this. And then think about if you need the power source for the sacrifice is think about how much easier it's going to be for your life when you don't have that car payment anymore.

[B]

Yeah, that was good stuff.

[C]

Gosh. Can I say one more shameless plug?

[B]

You may.

[C]

Only because we just sat down last week, two weeks ago, with this wonderful young couple and they were amazed. This was on an episode of Making a Millionaire and it was wonderful. And one of the things that they had, they had this car issue. It wasn't the exact same issue, but it was an automobile issue. I think you're going to be surprised to see what we told them. Hey, have you thought about this? And when we said it, I think both their eyes lit up. Like, oh, did not. Well, one of their eyes lit up, the other kind of look down. I did not think about that. So if you're not subscribed right now, make sure you subscribe to the channel so that when we release Making Money episodes every other Monday, you get notified that it's coming your way. Because this one was a lot of fun and I think it's going to be a good one.

[B]

Love that. All right, mom to 3162 if you would like a Money Guy Tumblr as just a thank you for being here. And since we answered your question, just email winneroneyguy.com.

[A]

All right, let's talk about the elephant in the room. We teach simple ways to build wealth like spending less than you make and investing the extra. But that can be really hard during the holiday season.

[C]

Yeah, between travel gifts and holiday events, it is easy to overspend. But money is just a tool. We want you to spend it on what matters to you when the time is right. But there is a way to do it without derailing your other financial goals.

[A]

If you want to keep your finances under control during this holiday season, you need to be using Monarch, rated Wall Street Journal's Best Budgeting App of 2025. Monarch is the all in one personal financ that brings your entire financial life together in one clean interface on your laptop or your phone. And right now, just for our listeners, monarch is offering 50% off your first year.

[C]

We have heard from tons of financial mutants that they are actively using and loving. Monarch and our money Guy family is no joke. These are very driven, smart and successful folks. Plus we love that you can easily share your Monarch dashboard with your financial advisor so you are immediately on the same page.

[A]

Don't let financial opportunities slip through the Cracks. Use code moneyguyonarch.com in your browser for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code moneyguy hey guys, I absolutely love AG1. Let me tell you. What this is doing for me is the fact that in the morning I used to stack so many different supplements and I was wondering, am I getting the right multivitamin? Am I getting the prebiotics and the probiotics and all the superfoods? It is peace of mind to know health is wealth and I get it all from AG1. But here's what I also like with the holidays. I travel a lot. I head down to Florida. What I like about AG1 is you don't have to just do the big pouches. You can actually do the travel packs. And now they come in a bunch of new flavors. My favorite is actually citrus. My wife likes tropical. I was a paid customer before they even signed up to start doing ads with us. So you can imagine I am all in on making sure that I get my best day started with AG1. So if you're interested, use our link. You'll get the newest formula at the best price available and a bunch of other awesome stuff. If you head to drinkag1.com moneyguy you'll get the welcome kit, a morning person hat, a bottle of vitamin D3K2. I take a few drops of that myself. AG1 flavor sampler. And you'll get to try their new sleep supplement AGZ for free. Which has been a game changer for my nightly routine because it doesn't look like a pharmacy's been in my bathroom anymore. That's drinkag1.com moneyguy for $126 in free gifts for brand new subscript subscribers.

[B]

Next question is from Tyler Weaver. 6860. I just found out that our company will allow us to convert all of our pre tax money to Roth IRA and just have the tax consequence. Would that be more beneficial than just opening a separate Roth ira?

[A]

No, no.

[C]

Because if you, if you, if you.

[A]

Did that you could do and technically.

[C]

You'Re saving less money if you did that. Yeah, go ahead.

[A]

But what I don't understand. Look, it's great that they allow in plan conversions essentially because this allows potential for even more planning in some other ways. But what I like assuming you're not over the earning limit for Roth IRA contributions. I like the fact that because you could just contribute, go open up a Roth ira, contribute and you didn't have to cannibalize your other retirement resources to make that happen. It's an and opportunity. That's why when you look at the financial order of operations truthfully, you should have probably landed on step five first looked at that Roth ira because you know why we love step five and a Roth IRA even more than the employer Roth accounts is because you control the custodian, you control what type of investments because a lot of times your 401k, now there's some good ones if you work for like a Fortune 500 company or you work for a very proactive employer who's gotten the best retirement plan for their employees possible. But there's a lot of 401ks. That's the Golf buddy of the owner of the company. And so they're just not as good as what you might choose for yourself with index funds, low cost providers and other things. Don't skip out on step five. You kind of you jumping over here to step six and maxing it out before you even got the Roth IRA covered up.

[C]

I think one of the things we have to be careful of, especially financial mutants, is this thought process that oh, just because I can do something means I should do it. Oh, my 401k is now allowing for me to do in service conversions of pre tax dollars. Maybe I should or ooh, I can now convert my employer match to Roth should I or ooh, I have after tax or whatever that thing may be. Just because you can do something does not mean it's what's in your best interest. Because let's think through this. If you were to convert those pre tax dollars, you are now incurring more of a tax liability than you previously had. Where if you, you could go contribute straight to a Roth IRA directly, you're using dollars that have already been taxed. So one of the things, if you're really thinking through this Tyler, is I would start back at the beginning and I'd go, okay, should I be funding a Roth IRA? Can I fund a Roth IRA? Awesome. Do that. Now when it comes to my 401k, when I'm in step six, should I be doing pre tax 401k contributions? I just switch over to Roth 401k contributions and build those Roth dollars moving forward. I don't know that generating more taxes necessarily makes a ton of sense if just because you can, especially if you have an opportunity to build Roth directly.

[A]

Otherwise and that leads to just kind of close it out, go figure out what you should be doing. That's why we're one of the content creators who actually gives you some thoughts and nuggets. To think about is if you're young and you have income that's less than 25% gross profit, your marginal rate for both federal and state is less than 25%. Probably the Roth is your friend on those contributions. If you're between 25 and 30%, you're kind of in that gray zone. That's where you'll take into account when you want to retire. You'll take into account how old you are currently and other things like that that influence. And if you're an income a marginal rate, both federal and state, that's greater than 30%. Now you want to think about, hey, maybe I do want to take advantage of traditional contributions. So I take my tax deduction now because hopefully I'm going to be able to play some tax arbitrage when I retire early before required minimum distributions and lower my taxes later and then do some Roth conversions at that point. So a lot to think about there. But I don't know that I think cannibalizing my existing retirement to do Roth is the right decision here. I think I give you the. And go add Roth IRA contributions or go back. Because that probably should have been the before you got into step six.

[C]

Love it, love it.

[B]

Tyler Weaver, I just repeated you love.

[A]

It, love it, love it.

[B]

I gotta get my responses to not be the same as yours.

[C]

I know I gotta come up with another one.

[A]

That's all right.

[C]

Well, we love it.

[A]

We can turn into a melody until y' all ever. Now look, I'm Gen X. We'll talk about bringing back to generational. I remember one of the things on youth camps, we'd have like a four or five hour bus ride and I'd say, hey, you start making a sound and somebody go do and then somebody go. And you basically create a symphony of just sounds. So if y' all were saying love it a different way, it kind of creates a.

[C]

Anybody else do that on the bus?

[A]

Okay. This is a generation.

[C]

This was a first. This is the first time I've heard of this. Okay, was that, was it pretty cool?

[A]

I mean, it was fun for like 10 minutes. I mean, when you're on a four hour, six hour bus ride in a church van where it's all, you know, pleather or vinyl and, you know, and the seats are all piled in. You do some fun things like that. You, you know, you ask the truckers, give them a little blow the horn. You know, there's all kind of fun things.

[C]

I played that one before. I know that one.

[B]

That was a good little Easter Egg.

[A]

There, Brian, like weirdo.

[B]

I never heard of it, but now I have.

[C]

Next time we're on a road trip, I was like, guys, I got a great idea.

[A]

I know we're redoing some of the pictures in the halls. One of the ones I hope that stays is that we had. Now, we only had one of these. We had an off site firm like retreat planning retreat. And Bo and I literally rented a van and drove the whole firm in a 1212-15 person van.

[C]

And you may be wondering, man, how expensive is it to pay a driver to drive your whole group down?

[A]

You know, I was a professional. Nobody ever mentioned notices the Easter egg above Ruby. Maybe the camera doesn't show it, but there's a picture of me driving my old school bus back in college. Why would you hire somebody when you.

[B]

Have that skill, you have that talent is available. Yeah. Should I put that selfie in the hallway of you in the van?

[A]

I love that selfie. That selfie was so happy for a.

[B]

Vertical photo, but I don't know what to do with. I could put the selfie. We'll think about it.

[A]

Pretty good.

[B]

All right, let's go on to the next question from Travortin. It says we need a bigger home. We can put 20% down and still have good reserves. We can net a few hundred K from selling our current home. Should we invest the proceeds or put more down to lower the mortgage?

[C]

Age old question. I've done well on my last home, and because I've done well, I've got a lot of equity in that home, I'm going to sell it? Well, what I do with equity, guys say I have to put at least 20% down, but should I put more? Is it better to put down 40%, 50%? Brian, how would someone go about deciding, well, this is.

[A]

This is that classic. We've even made fun of ourselves on this financial planner answers. It depends.

[C]

It depends.

[A]

And that's why, once again, people, why do you have tools on your website and why do you sell things is because people need the answers. Because here's what I don't know, Trav, is I don't know if you're ahead of the curve, behind the curve, or right where you're supposed to be. Because wherever you are determines. The answer to this question is because if you're a person, that the only great thing you've done financially is you bought the house at the right time and now you've built up this money, this could be a great way for you to catch up on the retirement savings and other things that you might have skipped out on because you have no investable assets outside of your, your primary residence. So that's why if you did the know your number course and you realize you're way behind on having resources for retirement when you want to retire, this might be a catch up opportunity. Now there's another group of people that are going to realize they're going to do this and they're saying no, I've, I've been pretty even killed the whole way. The guys told me when I was 22 to start saving and investing. I've done that for the last 10 years. Now I'm in my 30s, I'm way ahead of the curve. Pay that thing down. Because it's not like you're getting cheap interest rates right now on mortgages. Historically. Well, historically you're still in normal territory, but if you look at where interest rates were the last 10 years, it's not a deal right now. So I would probably, if you're way ahead of the curve, I wouldn't want to be paying interest rates at that level. So I would, I would pay down the mortgage so I could have less payment and I could, you know, since I have so much working behind me already, that's the exercise that's going to need to happen. That's the beauty of financial planning, is that every one of us are unique. We all have different needs, we have come with different resources. So we have to meet you where you are, do a kind of a financial triage and then use the tools and resources we have so you land at the point. Perfect place for your situation.

[C]

Yeah, I think it's so interesting. People I see, because I see this in like the Reddit thread all the time. People are like, hey, should I do this or this? Depending on the variables that Brian just defined, our answer would change. In one set of variables say hey, yeah, you probably should put 40% down on the house. And another set of variables say, yeah, only put down 20. And it depends. And that's what I love about financial plan, so I love about personal finance that it is so individualized and so personal for your unique needs and circumstances. There is often not a one size fits all answer for everybody.

[A]

Well, and that's, I even, I think about some of my retirees, they have the assets to like pay cash. Sometimes I want retirees to be completely debt free, but I've had situations where a client from a, the, the tax impact of getting those assets into cash was so high that we came up with Like a three to four year plan, we took a mortgage and then we had a two to three year plan to figure to because the taxes would have just eaten them alive if we'd have done it all at once. That's the beauty, is that you have the ideal, but then you take people exactly where they are and you try to figure out, hey, based upon your specific situation, how do we maximize this from a risk balance standpoint? So you land up in the best place possible. That's what a financial planner does. If they're only doing asset allocation work for you, you don't really have a financial planner. You have an asset allocation money runner.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

Yeah. No, I like that you talked through all some of those variables because there are a lot. But hopefully that gives Travortin some food for thought.

[A]

Well, I love it because I think this is one of the things I love about my career, is that I think about when people ask questions. That's why I like doing making a millionaire too, is that people come to us and I immediately, it's like I see the levers, you know, and depending upon how much you pull this lever, it's going to impact this over here. And I had dinner we Sunday night went to a neighbors and to celebrate the, you know, Hanukkah the first day, they invited us over to this dinner to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. And one of the. And I loved. We had all these neighbors there and one of the kids from college are home and one of them is. She's. She's only in her freshman year, but she's an accounting major and she had just taken like an intro to accounting class. And she was like, yeah, I'm having trouble with the debits and the credits. And I was like, look, I was the same way. When I got introduced to debits and credits, I didn't know what went where and it all was confusing. I was like, but you do this long enough and it's just going to become like second nature to you. You know, where assets go, you know where liabilities, you know where expenses and all the. It's the exact same way. When people present to me all these things about their life decisions, it is no different than the debits and credits. I immediately see the levers that they should be pulling in my head. And that's why when people ask you, how long does it take you to decide this? I'm like, it takes like five minutes and 20 years. Yeah. And 30 years of experience. I mean, it's funny how your brain and human nature can kind of learn how to navigate these things.

[B]

Yeah, that makes sense. That's why we're asking you the questions. Would you guys even want to do a rapid fire question round? That's what I want.

[A]

Yeah. People, I think people, that's what. When we've done people we really, I love just, you know, answering questions.

[B]

I mean, let's do rapid fire. So you've taken like, I don't know, a good four. We've taken four to five minutes to answer and ask these questions. Rapid fire is like, like you're asking and answering it in probably 10.

[A]

Are there any boundaries?

[B]

Right?

[A]

Like what are y' all trying to. What's the goals? Like I can't take more than 20 seconds or 30 seconds.

[C]

She asks a question and we say it depends next. It depends next. It depends next.

[A]

But we ought to have somebody because if we did something like this, could.

[B]

You answer it in one to three sentences or 10 to 15 seconds?

[A]

Okay, yeah. Okay, we can, let's try this. Let's do an experiment.

[B]

I mean, I don't have it today, but I mean we were just joking about it. I mean, I guess you could try to answer that.

[C]

You know, ask us the next question. Let's see if we could rapid fire answer.

[B]

It can do a rapid fire answer and then we can do a full fledged money. Okay, okay, that's, that's. I like it.

[A]

I like it. I'm game. I'm down.

[B]

Cuz we, I don't know, we've talked about doing it like for say it up, but I'm like, would they actually do it? Cuz sometimes I've seen interviewers give you rapid fire questions before and let's just say they were not as rapid as maybe we were thinking.

[A]

All right, they were good though.

[B]

They were great answers. Okay, okay, this one, this question is from Appstats6198.

[C]

You want to go first or second?

[A]

We ought to flip a coin.

[B]

I think Brian's going first, Bo's going second. Okay, that's what I'm going to say. All right, here's the question. Get ready for your 10 second answer. Is there a point of having a high Yield savings emergency fund if your brokerage account is large enough, even a market significant decline wouldn't reduce my emergency fund below a comfortable threshold.

[A]

Yes, because what will happen is even though you have a large enough brokerage account, if it's down 20, 30, 40%, you will hate yourself to have to sell that. And that's why cash Is like the oxygen we breathe. It is taken for granted until you have none.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

15 seconds.

[C]

That was good. Yes. You should have separate liquid cash available. I do it inside of my brokerage account. So I've got a big brokerage account inside of that. I keep liquid cash readily available.

[A]

But that's not what he's applying. He's implying that he's going to keep investment. He's going to have invested assets. And I had a neighbor, he listens to show. So I have to be careful because he knows. He's a dear friend of mine, but he used to make this. This is what we call the access to cash trap. And I covered this extensively in the millionaire mission. The access to cash trap is a big one that financial mutants fall into all the time.

[C]

I think about. Okay, cut. And then now we're going to just kind of opine.

[B]

Oh, yeah, no, you both did 15 second answers. I'm very proud. Nicely done. Carry on.

[C]

You and I, we bought another commercial property earlier this year. And I just think about. I just think about the reason we were able to move on it and the reason we were able to capitalize and jump on an opportunity. And it was a unique market opportunity. It was the cash and liquidity available that we were able to do that, had that same opportunity would come available, but we did not have cash. And let's say that the market was. Say it was 2022 and the market was down. It was in a depressed spot. We likely would not have been willing to free up the cash necessary because we would have to take losses in the portfolio to do that. So having the cash available removes you from being able to. Removes you from having to one, make emotional decisions and two, not be able to make opportunistic decisions when opportunities present themselves.

[A]

That's one of my favorite things. And once again, I don't mean to sound like a plug, but it's just. I know I put a lot of thoughts into these things. Millionaire mission is, I talked about how cash is this sleeper wealth builder that people don't realize. So many financial mutants get this wrong. And the fact that they're trying to. Now, look, I'm not saying do this. This is more of a step 8, step 9 type thing of the financial order of operations. But if you are at the point in your life where you've made it through the financial order of operations, running a little fat on cash is actually a good thing. Because when everybody else is broke as a joke, that is the deals of a century, that's the ones I mean, there's some things I've gotten to buy in downturns that I look back on and go, yes, this is why having cash, this is why Warren Buffett, everybody watches to see where his private jet has flown to when the economy goes to crap is because Uncle Warren gets in there and he turns into the JP Morgan of, you know, J Finance. Well, you know, because that's what JP Morgan bailed out the United States, you know, and he got some really sweetheart deals out of. And I think that Warren Buffett follows in that same mentality. Having cash when nobody else does is a superpower. That's right.

[B]

That's great.

[C]

Another rapid fire.

[A]

Let's do it.

[B]

Yes. Well, first I'm going to give Appstats6198 a Tumblr if they would like one. Just email winneroneyguy.com since we answered your question. All right, we'll try our 15 second answers again for fun. The Winkinator 21 asks. Hello Money guys. I get a financial advisor through work. They suggest a more active approach to my 401k instead of the passive approach I've been doing. Target date retirement and S&P 500 thoughts.

[C]

Why does this financial advisor think that active management will outperform? We know that over a 15 year time period, 87% of active managers underperform their indices. I think it's a fool's errand.

[A]

Go to spiva.com so you can load yourself up with all the research on this and then ask the why is there. Maybe there's a specific thing from an asset allocation standpoint and access to different. Because different buckets do different things and different allocations can can be part of that. But otherwise I wouldn't buy into the hype. I like index funds.

[C]

We think that you can be a very successful investor just by being the market, not trying to beat the market. And oftentimes when we try to beat the market, we actually underperform the market and we end up with subpar investment results because of that.

[A]

Is it spiva.com or is it spiva.org I couldn't remember.

[C]

I don't know the answer to that.

[A]

The last of the three.

[C]

And the more active you try to make your investment portfolio, the more you allow behavior and emotions to enter into the equation. If you can do stuff like have a well diversified portfolio across low cost, oftentimes passive holdings, it removes you from getting emotional every time you make your contribution, every time you put your money to work. And the more emotion you can remove from Investing, the more emotion you can remove from your financial life, likely the more peace you're going to have around the decisions you're making with your finances.

[A]

Now look, I want to take it from the, this isn't part of the 15 second, but I want to play devil's advocate here is that like if I had somebody who was seven figures and they had all target retirement, I would be trying to make them do better asset allocation outside of target retirement funds. So we could start maximizing tax deferred accounts after tax accounts and then tax free accounts for what they're all good at. So maybe that's going on as well.

[C]

Yeah, I guess we have to, we have to bifurcate. Do we mean active like actively managing or active like, oh, I'm just going to move from a, a generalized target retirement portfolio to a more specialized asset allocation that matches my account structure, my risk tolerance, my risk capacity, my unique goals, if that was what the question was asking. I think oftentimes it does make sense to do that. I was thinking active in terms of like active funds.

[A]

So that's why I think we covered it all angles there and we still. Well, I'll tell you what rapid fire does make us do. It turns us into two minute answers versus five minute answers.

[B]

You had to pack a lot into the beginning. I am impressed. A couple people are saying rapid fire failed because you're still doing long answers. But that's not true. No, they say we're, they have successfully taken on the challenge.

[A]

I could shut it off for 15 seconds, but I just, I always, I feel like I'm shortchanging you guys in the audience.

[C]

That's what I felt. I like I could do 15 seconds, but I feel like the answer's more valuable than 15 seconds.

[A]

But this is also, you know, doing the book tour. I did a lot of traditional media. I hated it. I'm just being honest with you because that's one I hated going on TV shows. And they would, they would cap you at 30, 30 to really 30 seconds to two minutes depending upon what the, what the show is doing. At most you might get four minutes if they were trying to feature you. But I loved, you know, my favorite thing about the book tour. And we'll probably try to figure out how I can do more of this in the future. I like going on long form podcast and you know, and other people, content creators, because then you get to have a conversation where you can talk for 45 minutes to an hour and you can actually share with people your knowledge and the Wisdom and what? You know, Whereas I find that when I do these little press junkets, what the heck are you gonna get out of me in 30 seconds to two minutes? I. I mean, I'm barely telling you my name with my southern draw. Like. Well, my name's Brian. Been doing a podcast since 2006. Yeah, I got a few designations, but. All right, thank you for your time, Mr. Preston. All right. That was good.

[C]

That's hilarious.

[B]

That is funny.

[A]

What the heck was that up there? Like that got an intelligence us anything.

[B]

You actually did very well with those. But I agree. We found. We just, we just like a longer forum piece of content, you know, longer form conversation sometimes. Nothing wrong with that. All right, we do have another question from Curtis O. It says, hello, money guys.

[A]

Not Curtis Blow. No, I'm sorry, keep going. You have to be a certain age.

[C]

No, it's Curtis Lowe.

[A]

That was a rapper.

[C]

Oh.

[A]

From back in the day.

[C]

I was thinking about the Lynyrd Skynyrd song.

[B]

I love these things. Maybe I shouldn't admit that, but man.

[C]

A bunch of song references from very different genres.

[A]

Basketball was my favorite sport. Can somebody check that was. Basketball was my favorite sport. Oh, I could go up how they dribble up and down the court. Is that Curtis Blow? Because I had to go deep in the memory ranks. I'm sorry.

[B]

It does say, yeah. Basketball is my favorite sports song by Curtis Blow.

[A]

Woo. Thank you, brain.

[B]

So 1984. That was a song from 1984.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

There you go. I learned something new.

[C]

You went basketball rap, I went Leonard Skynyrd. And we went very different directions.

[B]

Well, this is Curtis O. And it's Curtis with a C. And the question says, hello, money guys. I have 100k in my previous employer's 401k. I've been keeping it there, but recently I was told that it would be best to convert it to a Roth ira. Is that a good idea?

[C]

It depends. Look how fast I got that one in.

[A]

No, this one. Really? This is a financial planning question.

[B]

I would need to know 15 second answer.

[A]

How good is your employer's 401k? And you know, and also, what's your tax rate, you know, situation? Where are you at in your stage of life to save for retirement? There's, there's a lot that's going into this.

[C]

There's actually two separate questions happening. Question number one is, where should I house my dollars? Right. And that's okay. Is your current 401k good? Should I roll it or is my old 401k good. Is my current 401k good or should I roll it to an IRA? That's question number one. We actually have a deliverable for that. If you go to moneyguide.com resources we have a deliverable. It's a little flow chart that walks you through what to do with an old 401K and it says, okay, is this true? Then do this. Is this true? To do this just kind of flows you down through it. It's a very helpful resource. So you may decide to convert it to Roth and you may convert it to Roth inside of your current 401k or you may convert it to Roth from your old 401k into your new Roth 401k, or you could convert it from Roth from the old 401k into a Roth IRA. Any of those three scenarios, after you've decided where you want the dollars to be housed is going to be a taxable event. And whether to convert or not convert depends on your unique tax situation. Does it make sense for me to turn pre tax dollars into Roth dollars today? And for a lot of folks while they're still working, while they're in their earning years, it's likely that they're in a higher income situation than they will be when they hit retirement. So for most folks doing large Roth conversions don't make a ton of sense until you get post working years when your income drops and you can take advantage of lower income, lower tax bracket years. But only you're going to know the answer to that based on your unique income situation this year and years moving forward.

[A]

Also, you have to be kind of frothy on cash. You know, if you're going to do, if you're going to pay the income taxes on the Roth conversion, even if you're in a 12% bracket, I mean there's going to be some thing, you know, you just want to make sure you don't gut your emergency reserves. You don't cut it so close that you get yourself in a pickle of a situation. But that's why it depends is so powerful.

[C]

That's right.

[B]

No, that's good stuff too. I, I don't mind when you guys say it depends. Can I just say like that's the point. And then you like, you can expound and give variables. I like that it's personal finance. Curtis. Oh, thank you for your question. If you would like a tumblr email winneroneyguy.com and we would love to send one to you since we answered your question on the stream today. Remember, we will be back here. Even with the holidays and vacations and all the things, we're gonna be back here Every Tuesday at 10am Central with content for you. Our normal content release schedule will be happening here on YouTube and on podcast platforms. But so be sure to subscribe. And because, yeah, we're not gonna slow down, we still got all kinds of good stuff for you coming whether you are in your normal schedule or on your holiday schedule. So be sure to keep watching. And we've made all this for you, so enjoy.

[A]

Well, I get. I mean, hopefully y' all can tell I am in the best mood possible. And I think it really is a combination of during this time of year. Now, look, I'm sad that we don't get more daylight. It does stink. What being a central time zone and being as dark real far this far east on central time zone, this is the worst part of it. But I just get so thankful. Just all the things we get to do, we get to make a living creating content. We get to keep expanding the firm and growing our people. And they all seem to be very happy and fulfilled. It just feels like every morning we wake up, we get to do some little part of something good. Amen. And I don't take that for granted. I really don't. I feel like we are very blessed and we're very thankful for every one of you guys. So I hope that we tell you that enough and you feel connected to us, that we absolutely love doing this. I love that I get to enjoy working with everybody who's on the team too. We are very blessed, fortunate and thankful and you make all that happen. So I hope that you guys can see that that love goes in everything we create. And if you're not getting in there and taking advantage of our free stuff, please consider this an invitation. Go to moneyguy.com resources I mean, we just talked about on last live stream our brand new. Well, it's not brand new. It's updated. More tool, more functionality, more usefulness has gone into making this website even a better version of yourself. Get in there, maximize what we've created for you. And know it was built with love. I'm your host, Brian, joined by Bo, Reby and the rest of the content crew. Crew. I don't know what that word was. Money got team out.

[C]

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