They Want to Cut Their Income By 50%… Is It Possible?

Summary

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Money Guy Show: "They Want to Cut Their Income By 50%… Is It Possible?"

Date: June 8, 2026
Hosts: Brian Preston & Bo Hanson
Guests: Corey & Luis

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Episode Overview

In this engaging and practical episode, Brian and Bo welcome Corey and Luis, a 28-year-old married couple from Arizona, who are expecting twins and navigating big financial transitions. With a combined household income of just over $200,000 and a net worth of the same, their central question is whether it's feasible for one of them to step away from work—to cut their household income by half—while still staying on track for long-term financial independence.

Brian and Bo guide them through a comprehensive review of their finances, priorities, and future plans, creating a multi-stage strategy to manage everything from maternity leave to paying off a car loan and building an emergency fund—all while planning for possible lifestyle and career adjustments in their 30s.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Corey & Luis’ Background and Financial Mindset

[00:54 – 06:39]

• Ages and location: Both 28, living in Arizona, newly expecting twins (their first children).
• Dynamic: Corey is more into financial content, pulling Luis in as they plan for the family’s future.
• Financial backgrounds:
  • Luis grew up in a one-income household; his father worked and his mother managed the home. He emphasizes it’s not about “how much you’re making, but how you’re saving it” (Luis, 04:00).
  • Corey’s family spent more freely, prioritizing experiences and togetherness over savings, though she aspires to more security.

“I always knew that I wanted to have a little bit more security once I got older.”
– Corey, 04:51

• Current financial stats:
  • Household income: just over $200,000
  • Net worth: ~$200,000 (with $20k in cash and $151k in investments)
  • Assets: Home and car
  • Debts: Car loan, student loans, mortgage

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2. Career Details and Income Structure

[06:39 – 08:14]

• Corey: Senior tax analyst (indirect tax); aiming to become a CPA.
• Luis: Aerospace project manager (business sustainability background, not aerospace).
• Income split: Both earn similarly.
• Career trajectories: Both see potential for further growth, albeit in slightly different directions and paces.

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3. Big Upcoming Changes: Twins & Car Purchase

[08:14 – 16:51]

• Twins’ arrival is prompting serious financial reflection and planning.
• Recent car purchase:
  • Bought a 2023 Toyota RAV4 for ~$40,000
  • Down payment: $11,000 (cash plus trade-in)
  • Added a $5,200 maintenance plan to the loan (regretted by hosts)
  • Financed for 72 months ($548/mo payment), which is outside Money Guy’s 23/8 Rule (20% down, finance no more than 3 years, payment <8% of gross income).

"You bought a Toyota, didn’t you? So it was a really good salesman, wasn’t it?"
– Bo Hanson, 09:57

• Corey and Luis committed to aggressively paying off the car in three years.
• Hosts stress the risk: Young couples’ biggest wealth-building Achilles heel is often cars.

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4. Current Budgeting, Cash Flow, and Savings

[15:19 – 19:55]

• Monthly spending: About $8,500/month (incl. “guilt-free” discretionary spending of $2,400 – $2,500/mo).
• Emergency fund: $20,000 (a bit lean given upcoming changes; need to target $36,000).
• Investments:
  • Both invest ~14% in 401(k)
  • Max out Roth IRAs weekly
  • Both have HSAs (not fully maxed)
  • Employer matches: 3% for Corey, 4% for Luis
• Health insurance: Neither has analyzed if combining plans is optimal, a gap noticed by the hosts.

"I would argue maybe pre-kids, maybe y’all get away with like a three-month emergency fund."
– Brian Preston, 16:16

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5. Family Leave, Income Gap, and Short-Term Priorities

[16:51 – 21:57]

• Maternity leave: Corey can get three months off (with partial and then unpaid time).
  • Will need an emergency fund big enough to cover three months of lost income and any out-of-pocket delivery/hospital costs (maximum $7,000).
• Immediate focus:
  • Build emergency fund to $36,000 before October
  • Aggressively pay down car loan (aim for 36 months instead of 72 by doubling up monthly payments)
  • Reassess budget, especially “guilt-free” spending bucket

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6. Long-Term Goals & Values: Coast FIRE, Family Planning, and Career Flexibility

[21:57 – 36:34]

• Goal misunderstanding:
  • Originally thought of coast FIRE (saving heavily now, scaling back later), but the deeper desire is flexibility: having one parent potentially stay home, using increased earnings to create space.
• Career visions:
  • Corey enjoys her job, sees herself pursuing advancement to manager-level in the same company.
  • Luis enjoys his work but is driven by the desire for more family time and eventually becoming a stay-at-home dad.

"If it means I have to work a little bit more, if she can take a back seat, you know, so I can provide more, then, you know, I'll be willing to make that sacrifice as well."
– Luis, 28:42

• Strategic planning needed: Plan for transition to a one-income household, possibly by Corey earning ~$125,000/yr as a manager.

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7. Addressing Future Home Needs & Lack of Estate Planning

[40:41 – 46:21]

• Home: Bought without much planning; in a good area for family but will need to revisit school districts in ~6 years.
• Estate planning: No will or life insurance yet. Both recognize the need, especially with twins on the way.
  • Will need to decide on guardianship for the children.

"Once those babies get here, it becomes really difficult. You have to answer the question, hey, if something were to happen to us, who do we want to be the person that would step in to provide for our children?"
– Brian Preston, 44:13

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8. Travel, Values, and the Structure of Guilt-Free Spending

[47:53 – 48:45]

• Travel: Important—visits to family in Mexico will be prioritized in the budget even during tighter periods.
• Emotional acknowledgment: The hosts stress the importance of continuing to make memories with family and not letting financial discipline crowd out fulfillment.

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The Money Guy Plan: Multi-Stage Financial Road Map

[50:06 – 60:46]

Stage 1: Now – October (Twins’ Arrival)

• Minimize investments (just 401k to match) and focus all extra cash flow on:
  • Emergency fund (build to ~$36k)
  • Accelerated car repayment ($1,000/mo—redirect extra mortgage payments and a portion of guilt-free spending)

Stage 2: October – Early 30s

• Resume investing after emergency fund & car are taken care of
  • 15% of income into 401k each
  • Max Roth IRAs and HSAs
  • Continue guilt-free spending within budget

Stage 3: Early 30s – Mid-30s

• Projected dual-income household income of ~$250,000/yr
• Continue high savings rate (~24.5%+)

Stage 4: Mid-30s Onward (Transition to One Income)

• Plan and stress-test living on $125,000/yr (manager salary)
• Savings rate will necessarily drop (to around 10%), but compounding from earlier high saving years provides enough future cushion
• By age 55–65, portfolio projections:
  • At 55: ~$5.7 million
  • At 60: ~$9.2 million
  • At 65: ~$15 million (pre-inflation adjustment)
• Retirement income goal ($100,000/year) well within reach if the plan is maintained ("stick to the plan!")

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“You have a lot of different options available to you... how do we know which ones we should be doing and where it should be going?”
– Brian Preston, 21:20

“You gotta measure twice, cut once, and make sure those numbers are right.”
– Brian Preston, 24:42

“If you’re already trying to figure out how you can get out the escape hatch in your 20s, I just want to confirm... do you love your job?”
– Bo Hansen, 30:46

“Impulse control... Even the car purchase, they knew that that was not the right decision. They have all the factors that should create success and they've done it.”
– Bo Hansen, 60:23

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Key Timestamps

• [00:54] – Corey & Luis introduce their financial background and twins news
• [05:38] – Hosts review Corey & Luis’ financial statement and net worth
• [06:54] – Career details and income split
• [08:32] – Anxiety about new debt (car purchase and future expenses)
• [13:45] – Deep dive into car loan structure and how to fix it
• [16:51] – Maternity leave, health insurance, and short-term budget tweaks
• [21:57] – Luis voices big questions: Should we keep investing or focus elsewhere?
• [26:11] – Deep discussion on Coast FIRE, family planning, and career goals
• [40:41] – Housing situation, unplanned purchase, and future home needs
• [44:13] – Estate planning and the importance of setting up life insurance and wills
• [47:07] – Reallocating mortgage overpayment to car loan
• [48:06] – Travel as a value in the family budget
• [50:06] – Recap and mapping out the phased financial plan through 65

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Final Thoughts

Corey and Luis exemplify young ‘financial mutants’: high earners, ambitious savers, and eager to get ahead. By working through real-life numbers—warts and all—the Money Guy hosts show how even big dreams (and big transitions like cutting household income by 50%) can be achieved with discipline, structure, and clear priorities. Mistakes like the 72-month car loan don’t derail their future, as long as they’re acknowledged and addressed.

The essence of the advice: Stick to the plan, avoid lifestyle creep, reallocate excess spending to critical financial goals, and leverage your high-earning years now for flexibility and security later. With intentionality—not impulse—your assets can indeed do the heavy lifting.

“Let the success of your army of dollar bills and the compounding growth do its magic.”
– Bo Hansen, 60:46

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(This summary excludes ads, generic intros/outros, and focuses on the entire core financial coaching session and relevant analysis.)

Transcript

[Brian Preston]

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[Corey]

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[Brian Preston]

on the career trajectories that you guys are on. Is there a reality for, like, backing down the hours you're working when you get into your 30s, is it 30s,

[Bo Hansen]

the time to back it down?

[Brian Preston]

It sounds a lot less to me like your goal is coast fire, but more of the goal is, hey, can we get to a position where we can be a one income household? Is that more the goal than like, actual coast fire?

[Corey]

Oh, we're both 28.

[Luis]

Yeah, we're both 28. Court Cory just turned 28 in April, and then. Yeah, I mean, Corey just watches a lot of shows.

[Brian Preston]

Okay, so she's the one who watched the show.

[Bo Hansen]

Financially minded, the financial mutant here.

[Luis]

Pretty much the household. Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

So how's the conversation go? She goes, hey, I watched these guys and I submitted my thing and guess what? We're gonna go be on TV now.

[Corey]

Well, yeah, I honestly, I would never plan to be on a YouTube show or anything like that, but I. Once we found out we were pregnant, I was like, you're giving us even more.

[Brian Preston]

Yes, I guess. Let's go.

[Corey]

Yeah, we're having twins.

[Brian Preston]

Is this the first first baby?

[Corey]

First, first baby.

[Brian Preston]

If you're gonna go, go big, Right? Holy.

[Bo Hansen]

I guess so full on grizzly here. Let's go ahead and messy middle on pronto speed here.

[Corey]

Exactly.

[Brian Preston]

Do y' all have twins in your family? Did y' all know this was gonna be like a potential?

[Corey]

I didn't think it was gonna be potential for me, but it does run into my mom's side of the family. Awesome. That's great.

[Brian Preston]

Let's go twins. All right, so. Okay. All right, we gotta slow down now. That one threw me off. Okay, so 28 years old, live in Arizona, got twins on the way awesome. All right. So she watches financial content. You don't. You're not your thing.

[Luis]

Well, I watch it because Corey works from home and I work from home some days.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay.

[Luis]

And while she's working, she always has a video playing or something. So I'm hearing, as you know, we're both working. And I kind of look over, I'm like, oh, okay.

[Brian Preston]

This is actually pretty interesting when she's watching our show. Right? That's when you say that, right? Not through the other stuff. Cool, cool, cool, cool.

[Luis]

She's like, oh, you should check it out. And then we just watch more. When we were done working, we just watched more of the show, you know, just in the living room. And I was like, okay, this is actually pretty cool. And then once we found out that Cory was pregnant, then we were like, oh, man, are we in the spot we want to be? Are we doing the right thing? So that's when the really questions really started to come for us and we're like, okay, we gotta really hone down and, you know, look more into this.

[Brian Preston]

How long have y' all been. How long have you been married?

[Luis]

Four years.

[Brian Preston]

Four years, awesome. And when y' all first got married, like, from a financial standpoint, did y' all have similar financial backgrounds? Were y' all on the same page or have y' all, like, had to, like, work on that as you've moved to this point?

[Luis]

I think we were on the same page. We both wanted to make sure we were saving and investing because it's something at least that I didn't see a lot of growing up.

[Brian Preston]

What'd you see growing up?

[Luis]

So I come from a one income household. My dad's always, was always working, so super hard worker. And my mom was always stay at home, making sure she would cook really amazing food for us.

[Brian Preston]

So shout out, mom.

[Luis]

Yeah, so can't complain about that. And, you know, didn't make a lot of money. So early on I. I learned that it's not about how much you. You're making, it's really how you're saving it as well.

[Brian Preston]

I love that.

[Luis]

So the discipline was really, you know, put put to us at an early age from, from my, from my family. So that's what I grew up with. But I knew that I didn't see much investing. And that's something I always really wanted to get into once I started making my own money. So what about you?

[Corey]

A little different. I mean, my family, we were like kind of middle class, I'd say, and my mom was stay at home. Well, she always had a work from home job, so she was mostly home with us. And my dad was always working, but

[Brian Preston]

also a good cook.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Brian Preston]

Good shout out to both moms. Awesome.

[Corey]

My family definitely didn't see much saving. It was more, you know, spend what you have, enjoy it while you're alive, and, you know, spend it with family and, like, having experiences and stuff like that. But I always knew that I wanted to have a little bit more security once I got older. But I don't know, I think Luis is definitely more of the saver compared to me because I do have those tendencies from my family to just, I don't know, sometimes I just want to spend it because I'm earning it. But, yeah, I think we're now for sure on the same page. We want to save, invest, and make sure we have our future planned out a little bit more.

[Brian Preston]

Well, you must have done something right because you were kind of sharing that worth statement with us. And we look at where you guys are right now. 28 years old, household income of just a little over $200,000, and total net worth of right there at $200,000. You've got about $20,000 in cash, about $151,000 in investments that we can chat about. You have a home that you own. You have an automobile. Then you have a little bit of debt. Looks like you have a car loan, some student loans, and some mortgage debt. But I think there are a lot of 28 year olds that would, like, look at this situation, say, holy cow, you. You guys are doing okay. Do you feel that way or do you feel like, oh, we don't know what we're doing?

[Corey]

I feel like we. I feel like I felt comfortable with just us. Very comfortable with what we did until. Until. Yeah, until I'm like, oh, now we're having kids. We have a family coming, too. At the same time, I'm scared that we're not very conscious with where our money's going, as much as I would like it to be, but I felt good.

[Bo Hansen]

Well, y' all are unique in the fact that both of y' all seem to be interested in financial skills. What do y' all do for a living? Cause also, I see a very strong income. So I'd love to know what y' all do for a living and then also how that income is broken out so we can figure out all options that are available for you guys.

[Corey]

Yeah, so I'm a senior tax analyst. Nice indirect tax, though.

[Brian Preston]

What is indirect tax?

[Corey]

So I do sales and use tax, and Then also, like, excise taxes for a corporation for.

[Brian Preston]

But yeah, I mean, are you a cpa?

[Corey]

I'm not a CPA yet, but it's definitely a goal of mine. I got my master's in tax with the goal to become a cpa, but now I definitely feel the pressure. Like, I wish I would have got

[Bo Hansen]

it, get the certifications before the kids. It's gonna be a little bit harder now, but I think we'll still get you through it. You'll be all right.

[Brian Preston]

And Luis, what about you?

[Luis]

And then I am an aerospace project manager.

[Brian Preston]

Okay, that sounds fancy. What is it?

[Bo Hansen]

Does that mean like a rocket scientist?

[Brian Preston]

I was thinking the same thing.

[Luis]

So some more customer facing. Whatever repairs need to be done. Aircraft, run them on the commercial side.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay.

[Luis]

They just send it in valves or engines, whatever we're building for them. And, you know, we quote them and get a repair so we can get their engines back and running.

[Bo Hansen]

So what was your degree in?

[Luis]

Business sustainability. So nothing to do with aerospace, but, yeah, it's just one of those. I finished college. I wanted to look for, you know, my career and my big boy job. And I just started applying everywhere, and, you know, they called back and been with them four years now.

[Corey]

Okay, awesome.

[Brian Preston]

So as you guys are thinking about. So you said, hey, we feel like we're in a great spot so far, but now life's about to change. We got twins on the way. If we were to ask you, hey, what are the things that you're concerned about from a financial perspective, or what are the questions that you guys have that you would love to get some answers to? What would those things be right now?

[Corey]

I mean, we look at our debt. We just bought a car because his first car.

[Brian Preston]

All right, hold on. Tell me. Hold on.

[Bo Hansen]

How am I still put down on that car?

[Brian Preston]

Wait, wait, wait. I got a problem. It says that the debt on the car is more than the value of the car. It's not supposed to be that way. To walk us through, what type of

[Bo Hansen]

car do we buy here?

[Corey]

We bought a 20, 23 Toyota RAV4 premium.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay. Hey, this car does sound bad, but did y' all not put a down payment on it?

[Corey]

We put. We put five down. We did a trade in for the car that, yeah, didn't last very long.

[Bo Hansen]

Like 5 of cash or 5 was the trade in?

[Corey]

5, 5 cash. 6 was the trade in.

[Bo Hansen]

So the car's only worth a thousand dollars?

[Corey]

It was. The car was worth 40.

[Luis]

Another one that we traded in.

[Corey]

Oh, the one we traded. Yeah, the one we traded in, sorry.

[Brian Preston]

6,000 for the car. They traded in. They put 5,000. So 11,000 total is a down payment.

[Corey]

Yes. Yeah.

[Bo Hansen]

Something ain't math in there.

[Brian Preston]

I know, I'm trying to get it.

[Corey]

We got the maintenance plan on the vehicle as well. We did.

[Brian Preston]

Rolled that into the loan.

[Corey]

Yes.

[Brian Preston]

Okay, so how much was the RAV4? How much did y' all pay for it?

[Luis]

We paid 28, I think is what it said. And then plus the maintenance plan.

[Corey]

Oh, yeah. Plus, yeah.

[Brian Preston]

And how much was the maintenance plan?

[Corey]

It was like 55,200.

[Brian Preston]

What's that? What's that?

[Bo Hansen]

You know. You bought a Toyota, didn't you?

[Corey]

Yes.

[Bo Hansen]

So it was a really good salesman, wasn't it? Very effective salesman.

[Corey]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

What do you get with that maintenance plan? Like what, what's it cover? The first 15 years of maintenance?

[Corey]

10 years? Yeah, it's 10 years maintenance. You get to like. If there's anything wrong with the system controls. Like, is this like a fancy. I mean, it's the.

[Brian Preston]

They cover all the oil changes and

[Corey]

all that kind of stuff. Covers all the oil changes. Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

So in theory, the only thing you should have to do is replace tires, brakes, and put gas in it. That should be the only thing.

[Bo Hansen]

In theory, right?

[Corey]

Yeah, I would definitely jump the gun on here.

[Bo Hansen]

I wouldn't have bought that. I'm just being honest with you. I don't think that that's one you're look back on, especially after the car is reliable, doesn't give you issues and be like, yeah, I paid for somebody's trip to Cancun, but I want to

[Brian Preston]

make sure I have the math right. The sales price of the RAV4 was like 40,000.

[Bo Hansen]

Yes.

[Brian Preston]

Okay, and so you put 11,000 down, 5,000 on cash, 6,000 trading. So you finance 28,000, and then you added to that 2850. 200 for the maintenance plan. So 3,200. On here you have it valued at $31,000. When did you all buy this car?

[Corey]

Like a month ago.

[Brian Preston]

Okay, so if you paid 40 for it, but you have a valued at 31. Let me. Help me understand that.

[Corey]

We. Yeah, we. He just put it in Kelly blue book, what the VIN was, what the VIN value was. But I mean, it had 15,000 miles on it.

[Bo Hansen]

How long did you finance it for?

[Corey]

60. 60 months.

[Bo Hansen]

How long? How's it. How fast you gonna pay it off?

[Corey]

We want to pay it off in three years. I want to pay.

[Brian Preston]

She's been studying. She, you know, she knew what's coming.

[Bo Hansen]

Cuz if it was $40,000.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah.

[Bo Hansen]

I mean you'll put down 11. Effectively.

[Brian Preston]

They put down, they put down a good down payment on it.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay.

[Brian Preston]

Financing term is a little bit longer than we would like. And what's, what's the minimum, the car payment on it?

[Corey]

548.

[Bo Hansen]

Is that. That's the minimum.

[Corey]

That's the minimum.

[Bo Hansen]

And what have y' all been paying or have you had to make?

[Brian Preston]

This was last month, which is good though it being last month means we have some plan, we can do some stuff. Louisa, she told you what we think about car buying. Has she mentioned this to you? No, no, she. Okay, let me tell you what we think about it. Obviously, if you can pay cash for car, that's great. But a lot of, lot of folks, young folks who are old folks, they're not in the place to pay cash. And I would argue that for you guys right now, looking at situation paying cash for this car probably didn't make the most sense. But when it is time to buy a car, we think there's a better way to do it. We want you to follow. We call 23 8. We want you to put 20% down check. You did that. We don't want you to finance for any more than three years or 36 months. You did not get a check on that one. You find us for 60 months, but that's okay. And we want the total car payments to not exceed 8% of your monthly gross income. Right. And so imagine that Brian over here is cranking through the math, but I don't think the 548 is going to be up to 8% of your gross income if you guys are making $200,000 a year. So one of the things. And we'll kind of craft this as part of our plan, we might potentially want to calculate what would it take to get this car paid off inside of 36 months. So even though your payment might be 548, we might make a recommendation to you guys to pay more on the car than that on a monthly basis.

[Bo Hansen]

Something isn't mathing now because I just did and I. Because I did 60 months, I did 5.99% because originally the math I couldn't figure out. So I did 60 months. If I just did a present value, that's 28,352. But I know you guys said that you end up your actual outstanding.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah, they financed about 32,000 because of that extended maintenance.

[Bo Hansen]

If I Change it to 32,697 on the present value, the Payment that jacks the payment up to 632. So I'm just saying, because I'm coming up with a calculation to pay off 30 2006. 97 in 36 months, you guys need to be paying $995 a month.

[Brian Preston]

1,000amonth on that.

[Corey]

We might have. Did we do 72?

[Brian Preston]

I was about to say

[Bo Hansen]

that's the math that I'm thinking that when I'm saying the math is not mathing, I think that they actually chose longer than five years, I think, because if I go to 72, they were going to

[Brian Preston]

call me on it. They called me, actually.

[Bo Hansen]

We want the receipts around here.

[Brian Preston]

Math guys did the best.

[Bo Hansen]

So this is 548. Watch this. Yeah, $33,075. So y' all financed it for six years. We're. We're going to gush that in half. So it makes sense that the payments almost double. So you guys should be paying about $1,000 a month.

[Brian Preston]

When we tell you that, does that give you, like, anxiety, nervous? Do you feel like, oh, if we had to make an extra $500 car payment, we could do that? Or do things feel pretty tight?

[Corey]

No, I think that would be definitely comfortable. I mean, you'll see with our budget, we have some wiggle room with our.

[Bo Hansen]

Did you do this before or after you knew about the pregnancy? I.

[Corey]

We did it after we knew about the pregnancy because we had bought a car cash a year before and the. Yeah, the vehicle didn't.

[Luis]

Yeah, the engine just was shut, pretty much saying it needed to be replaced.

[Brian Preston]

Was it like a clunker that you bought or did you think it was going to be like a car that was going to last?

[Luis]

We thought it was going to last

[Bo Hansen]

longer than, longer than 12 months, for sure. I mean, if we're flipping cars every year, that's because y' all got so much going for you. I'm seeing Achilles heel of vehicles, which is the typical American does struggle. It is napalm for your wealth building journey. So we got to get this, this rectified.

[Brian Preston]

So before we look at your budget, talk to us a little about your savings. Based on where you guys are at now. When you guys are thinking about saving for the future, what pots are your money going to? How much is going in those pots?

[Corey]

Well, I think right now, our emergency fund, we honestly, we've kind of been comfortable with where it's at.

[Brian Preston]

How much, what's it cost you guys to operate the household on a monthly basis?

[Corey]

On a monthly basis with our, with our guilt Free spending, it's about 8. But I think is that counting a

[Bo Hansen]

thousand dollar car payment too?

[Corey]

I mean, I guess.

[Bo Hansen]

Or should we go ahead and go 8, 500?

[Corey]

Yeah, maybe. Yeah, maybe go 8,500. But I think our investing, we do like about, I don't know, like.

[Brian Preston]

Hold on. Before we get down to investing, since you started cash, we're going to go, let's go there for a moment. 8,500amonth income disparity between you guys earn about the same. Is there a big income? About the same. Okay. And you said that you're. I think I saw on your budget, your discretionary spending, I think you called it, guilt free spending was a decent chunk. It was like 25, 24, $2,500 a month. So I would argue that maybe pre kids, maybe I'll get away with like a three month emergency fund. Right. So if I just take 8,500 times three, that's going to be.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, 8,500 times three. I had it and then I got distracted. 25,500.

[Brian Preston]

So you're a little bit lean on where your cash is. You guys have about 20,000, but you do have some kids coming on the scene. And so when the kids get here, are we going to be you both going to continue working? Is one of you going to stay home? How have you guys thought or talked about that conversation?

[Corey]

Yeah, I think for me, I would like to stay home for like six months.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay, but what's the natural maternity policy?

[Corey]

It's three months maternity leave, like 60% for six weeks of my income and then 100% for the other six weeks and then the next three months would be unpaid.

[Brian Preston]

Okay, okay.

[Bo Hansen]

Do they give you an option though if you wanted it? Because it sounds like your job. Y' all have already had some conversations.

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah, they seem pretty, pretty flexible with that.

[Bo Hansen]

That's great.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

So we need to account for maybe three months of unpaid. So that would be one of those things where we'd say, okay, when we think about emergency fund, where normally you guys would probably stick to three months or we may want to be closer to six months or likely somewhere in between. Maybe it's four and a half months. But either way, I would argue it looks like right now you're a little low on your emergency fund, especially considering like the changes that are coming your way.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

What's the due date? What's sort of our timeline before the income change?

[Corey]

October 25th.

[Brian Preston]

October. All right, now walk us through currently how you guys are saving, what kind of Buckets you're saving into when it comes to like retirement.

[Corey]

Right now we have our 401k that we do. I don't know, like 14, 13% like

[Brian Preston]

each of you do. 14%?

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

How'd y' all come up with that number?

[Corey]

We just slowly increased it over the years, honestly. And then we max out our Roth and then we have our HSAs, both of us, individual HSAs.

[Brian Preston]

You max out your Roth, like on a monthly basis?

[Corey]

Yeah, well, we do weekly. Yeah, but yeah, monthly.

[Bo Hansen]

Look at you guys trying to get gold stars over here.

[Brian Preston]

And then for HSAs, do you each have individuals HSAs? So you're both doing the individual max on those.

[Corey]

We're not maxing that out.

[Brian Preston]

Okay.

[Corey]

But we definitely need to.

[Brian Preston]

I guess you did the analysis on your health, on your benefits and said, okay, we looked at it. Does it make sense for all of us to be on yours or for all of us to be on yours or for us to be split? And we kind of went through that analysis.

[Corey]

We have not.

[Luis]

I'm not going through the analysis.

[Corey]

Yes, we just, once we, once we got married. Well, we had our individual insurances and we just never.

[Bo Hansen]

And they're both probably subsidized though, right? Because your employees. So your employees probably paying at least half of your premiums for you, correct?

[Luis]

Yes.

[Bo Hansen]

The only thing that. Now the twins. Was this a, you know, we'll, we, we won't make them watch this in, you know, 15. Was this like, surprise or was this like, okay, double surprise, double surprise. Double surprise. Because, because, you know, I was just asking because health, we love HSAs, but sometimes the exception is on years that you have big family moves going on, sometimes you go with the Cadillac plan so that you get that all inclusive treatment at the hospital versus when you're on the high deductible, you know, you're bearing a little bit more of that deductible cost with bringing babies into the world. So. But you know what, it was, you know, well intentioned. But then, you know, you have plans. We'll work through it. Do you have y' all calculated what your out of pocket? Because that's also going to impact what the emergency reserves. Because it might be. Was it going to be like six grand?

[Corey]

What's the out of pocket at 3,000 out of pocket for? To hit my deductible.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay, and then after that, what's the share?

[Corey]

Oh, it's 70. 30.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay.

[Corey]

So 30. Yeah, they, they. I would have to cover 30 of the costs and I think that would be another Three.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

Okay.

[Bo Hansen]

So about six grand probably is a

[Brian Preston]

max out of pocket. Yeah.

[Bo Hansen]

And do you know you're out of pocket maximum? Is it like 6, 500 7,000?

[Corey]

7. 7. Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

How much are you all putting in your HSAs currently, do you know?

[Luis]

I think I do $75 a paycheck.

[Brian Preston]

Okay.

[Corey]

Yeah. And I.

[Brian Preston]

And that's weekly or bi weekly?

[Luis]

Bi weekly.

[Corey]

I mean, I think mine is like $60 a month.

[Brian Preston]

So you guys are saving. Do you know off the top of your head what percent you're saving? I mean, we'll calculate it for you.

[Corey]

Yeah, I think it's like, maybe around 32%, maybe. Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

And then what about employer matches for each one of you, you'll have employer match contributions going in.

[Corey]

Yeah, 3% for mine and 4% for mine. And then I did. We were. I was investing in an employee stock purchase plan. I did stop that, though.

[Bo Hansen]

Just getting ready.

[Corey]

Yeah, just getting ready.

[Brian Preston]

How does that employee stock purchase plan at your company work?

[Corey]

It's just a discount. I don't know. What the.

[Brian Preston]

15%?

[Corey]

Yeah, maybe. I'm not sure. Most of them around 15%, but I do, like, 118. A paycheck or was doing.

[Brian Preston]

And what was your pay cycle?

[Corey]

Bi weekly.

[Brian Preston]

A lot of levers to pull for you guys, which is awesome. You have a lot of different options available to you, and I imagine one of the things you're trying to figure out is, well, how do we know which ones we should be doing and where it should be going? I asked you this question to kind of. To kind of set us off. What questions do you have for, like, what are the things so obviously said, hey, we got these twins coming in October. We want to make sure we're well positioned for them. We want to make sure that if potentially there's like, some sort of gap in employment, it sounds like you want to take six months off, but three of those will be unpaid and then likely go back in the workforce. What are the other financial concerns that you guys have? Or what are you nervous about as you shift into this new stage of life?

[Luis]

Should we keep investing the way we're doing? Should we pull back? Where should we put our money now that the twins are going to be coming? Should we focus on paying off the car quicker? Should we increase our emergency fund? Kind of. What steps should we do first, you know, to take some stress, I would say, down the line for us?

[Corey]

Yeah, definitely. Like. Yeah. What's the first thing we should tackle in, like, these next five months we have left?

[Bo Hansen]

Well, answer this for me on a month to month cycle because life's about to change a little bit with bringing these babies into the, into the world. What does it feel pretty easy? I mean, life feel pretty easy right now? I mean it's. Where's the. Any stress points on the cash flow whatsoever? Because on paper it looks like y' all should be swimming in some extra money, but are you feeling like it's because you're allocating to the 401k, you're allocating to HSA, you're allocating to the Roth. You have a huge kind of sinking fund for just discretionary spending. Is all that building or are you finding that those cash accounts are kind of overflowing over time or is that give me a feel for a month to month basis?

[Corey]

Yeah, I think it depends for sure on the month. But our guilt free spending, I feel like is kind of where we struggle the most with, is like we kind of just don't really have a plan for it. We just kind of go and go out to eat or go on trips, little short trips together. But I really want us to hone in more on like how, what we should do with our extra money. Sometimes with Dedico, you know, just go back into our checking account. But I feel like most of the time when we see our checking account like over the, like the 5,000 mark, we're like, okay, we can, we need

[Brian Preston]

to get rid of that money. We need to find some way to empty that out.

[Corey]

Exactly, exactly. So yeah, I really want us to be more disciplined with our guilt free, especially now.

[Brian Preston]

I love how you labeled it because ultimately when you have a cash flow management plan in place, you should have guilt free spending. If you're expecting us to be like, oh, we got to tighten that down, maybe not. We want to make sure it's the right number.

[Bo Hansen]

Exactly.

[Brian Preston]

Sure that you're funding the right places, but the idea that you have this bucket that is like guilt free spending. If we're going to travel or we're going to go out or we're going to do it, that's wonderful. That's what we love to see people do. And if you can set up your system to pay yourself first and know the money is going where it's supposed to be going, then you don't have to have any guilt at all. There are some things we have to tweak though, like you know, 72 month car payment and that kind of thing and the, you know, slightly lower merchant reserve. So we might not be able to be completely Guilt free initially, but I definitely think that's something we can work towards so that then you don't have to worry. Are we doing what's right? You can know, yeah, we're doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing. Our dollars are going where they're supposed to be going.

[Bo Hansen]

The structure is right, but the fake it till you make it is wrong. And the fact that when you underfund your emergency reserves, you underfund what your car payment is, it can make you feel like you're being responsible when you might be over consuming. So that's why I love what the way Bo put it. We if we can make sure your numbers are right, I like you having the comfort to go out there and just make the best of your 20s and then early 30s as they come, as these babies come with you guys, that's awesome. But we just, you gotta measure twice, cut once, and make sure those numbers are right. Otherwise you might be short, changing yourself a little bit in the long term while you have so much time on your side.

[Brian Preston]

Now, one of the interesting things, things about financial planning is generally the goals that we have live on different timelines. Like obviously we have a goal that by October we want to feel pretty good. A giant tornado is going to hit in October and it's the most wonderful, amazing, incredible tornado ever. But life is just going to be different and wonderful and amazing and maybe even messy is what we would call it. But I imagine there are goals that exist even past that point, right? Like financial independence and retirement. Have you guys had conversations even at this stage about like what you. The ultimate financial independence goals you want to work towards are?

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I really want.

[Brian Preston]

He goes, we've done that, right?

[Bo Hansen]

She's doing the homework. She's doing the homework.

[Corey]

I really wanted to pursue like coast fire for a while.

[Brian Preston]

Why?

[Bo Hansen]

And what's the vision for there?

[Corey]

That was just so like. I mean, I really want to see to focus on investing while we're in our 20s and then like 30s we can like. I wouldn't want to do like just completely stop investing. I would want to still invest, but I would like, want to take a little bit of more of a backseat on it and, you know, really focus on traveling and enjoying our free time and having flexibility with our lives. And so I think my goal was for us to, you know, retire with like 2 to 3 million was always like, I felt like a comfortable range for me in retirement and.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah, why 2 to 3 million?

[Corey]

I think for what we spent. What I think we'll be spending when we retire, like somewhere around like 80,000 a year, I felt like, would be comfortable. Retirement. 100,000 would be 80,000.

[Bo Hansen]

And when I think I call it

[Corey]

age, I think, I think probably like 60. I wouldn't want to retire like super early. Okay. But yeah, 60s. Yeah, would be.

[Brian Preston]

When you think about coastfar, the way you described it was not so much like a financial thing, like, hey, we want to save less, we can spend more. You were describing more like time freedom. Is that. Am I understanding that correctly?

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

So it's less about like, oh, we're going to save, save, save, save. And then we're going to start spending, spending, spending. You're trying to figure out how you structure your life so that you have time to do the things that you want to be able to do. Do either of your jobs, allow that, like on the career trajectories that you guys are on, is there a reality for like backing down the hours you're working when you get into your 30s? Is that like a path that's available in your vocations?

[Corey]

Yeah, I think for me, specifically where I'm working now, like, we have a couple women on our team that are like part time or have like flexible schedules, and I'm like, oh, I could see myself doing that.

[Luis]

I would say for me, not so much.

[Brian Preston]

But do you have the same. Do you have the same vision? Like, do you. Would you want to be able to back down your hours and the time? Okay, yes.

[Bo Hansen]

Is it 30s? The time to back it down is that I just want to make sure we're on a joined vision here.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Bo Hansen]

Or is that something you guys said?

[Brian Preston]

You are 28.

[Bo Hansen]

We're about to cross that threshold really quick. And that's still in the grand scheme of life, especially with a retirement age of 60. That's pretty early. So I just want to make sure that we've really fine tuned that before we start throwing, you know, spaghetti at the wall to make sure the numbers work. I mean, is that the number? Is that. Is that where you're feeling? You want to back down your work as well?

[Luis]

Yeah, yeah, I would like to back it down as well. But if it means I have to work a little bit more, if she can take a back seat, you know, so I can provide more, then, you know, I'll be willing to make that sacrifice as well.

[Bo Hansen]

So, like now or Even in your 30s, you're willing to work more, study

[Brian Preston]

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[Luis]

I would be willing to work more.

[Brian Preston]

Okay, yeah, but round about 35. He's thinking, now I want to back down.

[Corey]

Okay, well, we had. We had plans to wait to have kids till we were like, 30, 30s. We wanted to wait till like, mid-30s to.

[Bo Hansen]

Well, as the old guy at the table who just. My oldest just graduated college, I think you're gonna be happy. I'm gonna tell you, the next few years, you're gonna be in the weeds. Yeah, it's gonna be rough, especially with two, because that's what I have. I have a niece and a nephew, twins. And we kept them for a few weekends when they're. Now they're all like 24 years old, so they're all, like, full grown. I get the. The good part of hang out, but they're tough when I only had them for a weekend or two. So, I mean, it's. It's gonna be in the weeds for you guys, but I think you'll look back and you're like, man, this is all right. Even if you want to pull the lever again and see if we have, you know, another set of twins, you know, because as you get to be my age, you kind of get sad that they start leaving the house. And you'll be very happy that you. That you started this, because then you even get to build more memories on it. The thing I'm trying to figure out, though, is because I always want everybody to live their best life. And if you're already trying to figure out how you can get out the escape hatch in your 20s, I just want to confirm now I kind of understand on your side, it's more of a family planning type thing, but I want to make sure. Do you love your job?

[Luis]

I like it. I don't love it.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay.

[Luis]

If another company calls and it's a better opportunity, I would definitely, you know, seek it.

[Brian Preston]

Okay, what. What would. What would define a better opportunity? Like, if you're like, hey, I could. This is what a better opportunity means.

[Luis]

In my mind, I would say more money, the same hours I'm working currently.

[Brian Preston]

Okay, so it's not that you dislike your job. You dislike how much money you Make?

[Luis]

Yes.

[Brian Preston]

Okay. So you like the work that you do?

[Luis]

There's a lot of opportunity for me to move around and kind of do different jobs within the company. So currently, I wouldn't say I absolutely love what I'm doing, but the paths to other areas, how I have worked previously.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

Do you know either a department or a job that you would love doing?

[Luis]

Oh, yes.

[Brian Preston]

What would that be?

[Luis]

I would be like director of planning.

[Brian Preston]

Okay.

[Luis]

That would be where I would really enjoy that.

[Brian Preston]

So you could do now, could you be the director?

[Bo Hansen]

What steps can you do at the office right now to. To let them know this is what you want to do?

[Luis]

The office is aware of kind of where I want to head towards. So, you know, and then my next step is go to a different department in June, July.

[Brian Preston]

Okay.

[Luis]

And then do that for about a year to 18 months. And then, you know, just keep going up that way through planning.

[Brian Preston]

So you're already on the path to, I'm going to call it this like director of planning role. When you land in that role and you're doing work that you love doing and you're making the money that you feel. You feel good about making, do you still want to back down your hours and, and start doing less in your mid-30s or if you're doing the job you love and making the money that you love, is that something you'd be comfortable, continue to do or you still want to kind of exit that?

[Luis]

I think I would like to exit that. Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

Okay. You just want to, you want to get there and then get out.

[Luis]

Yeah, get there.

[Corey]

Yeah. I feel like he's way more. He. He would be a great stay at home dad. Like, he, he kind of already. Yeah, those. You kind of already do the things that I think would be a good stay at home parent, like you cook, you clean, really take care of a lot of the household. And like he's. Yeah, I feel like he could see himself.

[Bo Hansen]

Let's play the other side of this. Yeah. So you love your job?

[Corey]

I do, actually. I do. I think I could see myself. I don't know about like director role, but I think my next step would be like a manager role there. And I mean, in industry it's a little bit harder to move up in accounting just because you have to wait till someone retires or leaves. So I don't know what the timeline for me would be for that, but that would be my next goal. So like maybe in the next three or four years be a manager at the company I'm at.

[Brian Preston]

And is that A path. Like, is that a path or program that you're already on and in.

[Corey]

Yeah, right now. Yeah, I'm working with my, my current, my senior manager now and he's like, yeah, I could see you being a manager if there's like a spot that they can open. If there is like a. Yeah. If there's enough work to go around to make that spot warranted to create it or right now we don't currently have a manager role in my company for indirect tax. So there could be an opportunity. There's another senior on the team that's probably going to be vying for that spot. And I do get worried now that we're, you know, having. I'm having kids. I don't know what that will be like, if I will be able to get that spot before, you know, he, the other senior does. But yeah, I like my job. I think I could see myself working there for 20 years. A lot of, Yeah, a lot of people on my team are, have been there for like 25, 20, 20 years.

[Brian Preston]

So let's, let's say that, okay, you, you get through the kids and you kind of get to the point where you're comfortable going back to work and you continue like on this trajectory and you get in the manager role and you're in your early 30s, mid-30s, working in that role, doing that. And if that's taking place, is that something that you then want to pull back on and want to exit or would you be like, no, I'm okay, like continuing on this path, on this trajectory?

[Corey]

Yeah, yeah, I think I'd be okay with continue on the path.

[Brian Preston]

Okay.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

So.

[Bo Hansen]

So all right, y' all might have a hybrid type approach here.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Bo Hansen]

Where y', all, you know, because there's nothing wrong with that. That's why everybody you have to meet and that's what I love about family planning. But also couples lean into where the skill sets. Now y' all are unique that both of you are analytical and good with money. But if y', all, if you're the one that's passionate about it, I think that's, that's spectacular. You know, take the time, especially with an employer that has such a really good benefits for the family side of things. And I'd be curious, are any of those part time positions that you were talking about are flexible, where they're maybe even beyond part time? Are those mothers as well.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Bo Hansen]

That are in the management position type stuff?

[Corey]

None of them are in management roles. That's the only concern I have about moving up they're all in my role or below.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay.

[Corey]

So I would have to be in office as well. And right now I'm not in. I'm remote, fully remote. And managers and above, you have to be in office four days a day.

[Bo Hansen]

I can kind of understand that. Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

As I'm hearing you guys talk and communicate to us, it sounds a lot less to me like your goal is coast fire. Right. Like, but more the goal is, hey, can we get to a position where we could be a one income household where one of us could work and one of us could stay home and that provides flexibility to still be able to do the things we want to do and have that sort of freedom? Is that more the goal than like actual coast fire?

[Corey]

Yeah, I would think. Yeah. Yeah, because we're not. Yeah, we're really not looking to like really fully slow down, I guess. Yeah, we're just looking for that flexibility for if one of us wants to stay home, then we have that ability to do so.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah, let's say that you get in the manager role and you're kind of rocking and rolling in that. From a household income standpoint, what kind of income do you think that position we'll be able to generate for the household?

[Corey]

I think at least another 20 and then I'll be eligible for the bonus.

[Brian Preston]

So would the total comp be there?

[Corey]

Maybe about 125.

[Brian Preston]

Okay.

[Corey]

Yeah, 125.

[Brian Preston]

Realistically, we could be in a position where if we, if it were you decided to stop working or to really back down, you could make 125. And as if we're planning, we'd be planning towards a goal of can we make the household operate and work on that income? Is that fair? Yeah, for the immediate future. So what we're going to do is we're probably going to plan this in stages. Okay. What are we to do immediately between now and October? Between October and early to mid-30s and then what's early to mid-30s all the way out to 60 look like? Does it seem likely both of your incomes are going to kind of stay where they are right now for the next four or five years, or are the income trajectory significantly different than they are right now?

[Luis]

I think for me it will significantly change.

[Brian Preston]

Okay.

[Luis]

Yeah. So being in the company, I usually got in a 10 to 12k raise every year, just switching positions and seeking promotional opportunities. So that's something I would like to keep pursuing.

[Brian Preston]

So if we're at a household income of $200,000 now, it seems feasible that by the time we get to our, like, early 30s, we'd be at a $250,000 household income, which is some simple math there. But that seems like a reasonable trajectory that we're moving towards.

[Bo Hansen]

Yes, it does feel that y' all have got a moment in time here to where and it might time out, time out in the perfect way. And the fact that when you have littles, you know, for the first two years, you're kind of trapped at the house anyway. I mean, that's what.

[Brian Preston]

It's gloriously trapped.

[Bo Hansen]

But you are trapped. I mean, because you. It's just hard. And kids are not as expensive as everybody scares you that they are. So I would what I'm seeing develop based upon Yalls conversation. Y' all need to hit this big life change, especially with some velocity, meaning that while y' all are stuck at the house and while y' all want to have this big change Sometime in your 30s, we ought to really boost up that savings rate substantially so that you get. Because what that does is saving early and often is going to give you maximum flexibility in the future where it's not full coast fire, but it at least allows you to know where your options are and have the tolerance while you're making big changes financially, that it doesn't feel stressful because that's what you don't want to do is run it so lean that then you'll choose make these choices for happiness and fulfillment's sake. But you feel like you're shortchanging yourself because there's lots of conflict and there's stress that comes from it. There's a better way for us to do this, but we have to. To really maximize these. These next few years and try to save at a hyper pace so that you feel really good about the future.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Bo Hansen]

I mean, do y' all feel that a little bit. Does that scare you?

[Corey]

Oh, yeah.

[Bo Hansen]

It's a little scary because I know. I know one of the things when I was reading kind of the planning files, y' all want to be y' all like this. And you can see it's. It's. It's spontaneity through non spontaneity, meaning you have a sinking fund for spontaneity. And I think that's very noble and it's good that y' all get. But it is one of those things where I'm gonna. I'm. I'm just saying that embrace the hardness of the next few years of the messy middle to maybe build you some spontaneity a few years in the future if that makes sense.

[Brian Preston]

That's right.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

Because when I think about this, I think we're gonna be able to put together a plan, and the plan is gonna be, how do we get from now until October? And then how do we get from October back to two incomes? And then how do we work at two incomes to get down to one income? And then once we're onto one income, how do we get a one income back to financial independence? And that's going to be the stages we're going to build to. Does that sound kind of like what you guys are looking for?

[Corey]

It definitely does.

[Luis]

Awesome.

[Corey]

Yeah. Yeah. I do want to add. We've talked about it. We do have a house, and we, like. We love our house. I think it's, like, perfect for the family size that we're going to have very soon.

[Brian Preston]

But.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, you knew the but was coming. What's the butt here?

[Corey]

Live, like, in a great, like, school district area.

[Bo Hansen]

Like, when did y' all buy this house?

[Corey]

He bought it three years. We got. Bought it a year after we got married. We did not plan for it very well. We kind of figured out the numbers afterwards and, like, started living near that area after we signed on the house. But we bought it three years ago. Or. Sorry. Yeah, we signed for it three years ago. It was built two years ago. Yeah, we've been there for about two years.

[Bo Hansen]

So, you know, did y' all even. Did you use our homeowners checklist when you bought the house?

[Corey]

We did not. I swear. After we signed for it, we were like, okay, we need to figure out how we're going to make this happen.

[Bo Hansen]

Begin with the end in mind. I mean, this is one of those things. Look, y' all are, without a doubt, very analytical in your skill set, but you also have some impulsive tendencies on big purchases.

[Corey]

Very.

[Bo Hansen]

And I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you that's not a success recipe. Typically expensive, I mean, because it also. It also plays on the psychology of. That salesman can recognize when they have somebody who. Who falls into that trap of I'm filled. The. The scarcity of the moment to make a decision. You should go into big decisions scared to death. And that's why I say measure twice, cut once. All things in the future for car purchases, home purchases, anything that really gets into multiple thousands of dollars, take more deep breaths and just slow down the whole process, because you have the natural skill set. But somehow there's some impulsiveness that is overriding your analytical nature, and it's not for the best. For the long Term. And you're probably feeling that right now. Now, the good news, you're gonna be able to recover from these missteps, but you got to start course correcting on falling in those behavioral traps.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

Well, to put your mind at ease, kids don't start school until kindergarten. So you start, like six years. Right. So we got from now until October, plus about six years to get there. So we have a plan up here. There's a lot that can change in real estate, a lot that can change in your personal circumstance, with an eye towards, hey, at some point, we might need to be in a different home. Well, the great news is six years in the future, five years in the future, it'll have been in this home for eight to 10 years. Right. Which is great. I don't think you have to have that completely figured out. But it is good for us to know that, because in terms of the buckets that you'll begin funding as you save, that may change things a little bit. If we do begin to think, okay, we're gonna need to have some sort of capital to be able to potentially move into our next home. But I wouldn't freak out too much about that. Okay, you've got time to freak out about that. This is the appropriate time to be thinking through it.

[Corey]

Yeah, I just wanted to bring it up. Cause I was like, when we got our first house, I was like, we did not plan for this. Like, we should have. We should have ran the numbers.

[Luis]

I'm like, okay, now we're not planning starts.

[Brian Preston]

Well, another. Another thing that just as new parents, right. And we have tons of resources out there on the [e-mail] resource, we have, like, a whole new parent guide. What should be thinking about, what should be looking at, what should be considering. Obviously, there can be some things that change in your life. Like even your need for life insurance. Like, that's going to be something you're going to want to think about and analyze and figure out. Estate documents. You guys currently have estate documents in place.

[Corey]

We don't.

[Brian Preston]

Once those babies get here, it becomes really difficult. You have to answer the question, hey, if something were to happen to us, who do we want to be the person that would step in to provide for our children?

[Bo Hansen]

Do y' all know the answer to that?

[Corey]

No, we don't.

[Bo Hansen]

So would y' all fight about that? I mean, is that something y' all would have two different opinions on? Who should raise the kids if something should happen to both of you?

[Corey]

I don't think so. I mean, probably Be like your brother. One of you?

[Luis]

Yeah, probably.

[Brian Preston]

He said, yeah, probably. So again, the good news.

[Bo Hansen]

Do you have multiple brothers?

[Luis]

I do.

[Bo Hansen]

Is one, like, really good with kids and the others aren't? Or is that. Do y' all know who the. Y' all know which brother? Which multiple brothers? I want to make sure we know which. You can't raise children by committee. You kind of need to know specifics on where things are going to happen.

[Corey]

Yeah, definitely. Your second oldest friend.

[Luis]

Yeah.

[Bo Hansen]

All right. See, I want to know who to give the compliment to. So Thanksgiving this year, I got you. You wink at them a little bit differently.

[Brian Preston]

So again, these are. These are. Again, you have time. You have to have this stuff figured out just yet. It's still early. The babies aren't even here yet. But once the babies do show up, you do want to have those conversations and run. Okay. Have we. Our risks change when there are other. Other lives that depend on us. So we want to make sure that we've got the appropriate documents in place, got the appropriate life insurance in place, those sorts of things. So it is something you want to be thinking about that's probably likely not a 2026 item, but certainly probably going to be a 2027 item for you guys.

[Bo Hansen]

Well, it could be 2026. Like estate documents and stuff. Yeah, I mean, I like. I like, you know, hitting the ground running on that stuff that way that just. You never know. You can't be assured that tomorrow's coming, so you need to plan accordingly. We've seen enough. And life insurance is dirt cheap. Estate documents are dirt, you know, not that expensive at this age. So I don't disagree with Bo, but it needs to happen. I would put yourself in a. In a homework category of you got to have it done within the first three to six months that the kids are here, if not done beforehand.

[Luis]

Well, you think I'm being too hard? I don't.

[Bo Hansen]

I mean, because how often is. This is a serious issue.

[Brian Preston]

I'm not fighting. I just made a. I'm not fighting you. I'm on the same page. Same page. What other questions do you guys have for us?

[Luis]

We were doing an extra payment on the house, so that's something we should continue to be doing. Should we focus on other areas first

[Bo Hansen]

when y' all are talking about staying home with babies and changing jobs? No.

[Brian Preston]

Or when you have a 72 month car loan?

[Bo Hansen]

There's some better uses for that money right now for sure.

[Brian Preston]

To help us understand, when we look at how much you have going to your mortgage right now, in the budget, it says 29, 25. Is that the actual mortgage payment or does that include the extra?

[Corey]

Includes the extra.

[Brian Preston]

Okay, if, if we were to. What's your required mortgage payment?

[Corey]

26. Is it 25, 25, 49.

[Brian Preston]

So there's about 400, about 3 or $400 extra that's going in towards a mortgage every month.

[Corey]

Yeah, Yeah, I think 26. Yeah, 26, 25.

[Brian Preston]

So that gives us $300. We could do something. You realize, if all we did was take that $300 and put it with the car payment. We've. We've kind of started right at that ship and we haven't really changed cash flow a ton. So that's great. I do not believe at your age, even though your mortgage rate's not like super low, I don't know that being a huge hurry to really prepay that mortgage interest. Same thing with your student loans. Your student loans are not at a crazy interest rate. And I just think there are other areas where your dollars can likely be better used, like knocking out that car payment, getting the, getting the emergency fund fully funded. But don't you worry, we'll put together a plan and give you some step by steps, which would be awesome.

[Corey]

Okay. Yeah, that would be really great. And I think the only other thing is like travel, we know we were probably gonna have to take a backseat on, but Luis is family and he's from Mexico, so we go to Mexico like at least once a year.

[Brian Preston]

Love that.

[Corey]

And yeah, his grandparents are definitely getting older, so we definitely want to make plans to be able to visit them.

[Brian Preston]

But that's normally encompassed inside the guilt free spending bucket, right?

[Corey]

For sure.

[Brian Preston]

I imagine, so long as there's still some. You guys have a small enough footprint and a large enough income that all of these things should be possible. So it's going to require a little bit more discipline for guys. But nothing you're saying is freaking us out. It's not like this is like a dumpster fire. We have to. This is all tweaking around the edges to make sure that starting at this early phase, you don't get yourselves out ahead of your skis and find yourselves in a bad spot in your early 30s.

[Bo Hansen]

You know, all the research on happiness and fulfillment, after you get through basic kind of pay the bills, that's one element. But when you get into really more of the fulfillment side of things, it's kind of, you know, your, your spiritual faith as well as the friends that you keep the family that's in your life. So Traveling to go visit family, to make the memories that you're going to get to keep forever, I think is pretty foundational. So it's okay to build that into the budget and be. And say, hey, every year we're going to go back to Mexico so we can make memories with especially some parents who are getting older, grandparents. But just build it in and then be disciplined that you actually don't have to feel like you're cutting away from something else. Beau laid it out perfectly and you guys have the income, so don't feel like that's where you're shortchanging yourself. It's some of these other things. It's the spot, it's the. The more of the compulsion on some of these big purchases that's squeezing you. It's not going to go make memories with family members.

[Brian Preston]

I'm excited we're going to be able to put something together. Pretty exciting. You guys are going to be awesome. You guys are going to be in a great spot. What a great conversation we had with Larisse and Corey and how exciting that here they are with twins on the way.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, they're look overachievers in a lot of ways. I think that they're going to get a lot of dividends off of how much they've done at such an early age.

[Brian Preston]

But life's about to change, let's face it.

[Bo Hansen]

It is about to get really messy for them because, you know, just having a baby in general makes things hard, but throwing in twins is going to definitely, you know, rock the boat.

[Brian Preston]

And so what we wanted them to recognize is that as they make a plan and put it together, you don't have to have a plan in place today. Exact same plan you have in place 20 years from now, 30 years from now. It's okay to think about in stages. And I think for them, that's exactly how we ought to approach it. We ought to think about, okay, there's this timeline between now and the time when the twins arrive in October. There's going to be this time when they're a single income, very briefly, and then Corey's going to go back to work and there'll be a dual income. And then it sounds like in the future they even want to go down to one income where one spouse stays home and one works. And then ultimately, hopefully this can still work towards financial independence. So I think they ought to think about it in those sort of compartmentalized buckets as they think about planning.

[Bo Hansen]

Well, I know that we've even put together these numbers and what was really fascinating to me is as we got to talk to them as the couple and seeing that the dynamics of it all. Corey is the one that really, you can tell she loves her job.

[Brian Preston]

Oh yeah.

[Bo Hansen]

It was kind of fun to, to walk them through to figure out what does that plan go look like. So but what happens when we actually put numbers to the plan?

[Brian Preston]

Yes, we said, okay, if we're going to plan these sort of, these different phases, let's think about what that means for income for the household. And what you can see is obviously right now they're going to have a dual income and then Corey's going to have the babies go on a brief maternity leave. So there'll be a small period where they're down to one income or 60% of her income, and then three months without any income. But then they're going to go back to two incomes. And the idea is for planning purposes, we said, what does it look like if they have a dual income household out until the age of about 35? So we're going to do this for the next six, seven years. And then at 35, let's get them to the place where they make the decision to go down to one income, live at the same standard of living, same lifestyle, but hopefully they can do enough work up to that point that they can still save appropriately to be able to reach their long term financial goals as well.

[Bo Hansen]

This was powerful for kind of setting up the long term. But I know before we get too far out over our skis on this, there's some current things they need to do. I mean, I remember when we were talking with them, it seems like with all these big life changes, we had to at least look at is the emergency fund even going to be where it needs to be?

[Brian Preston]

Well, it wasn't quite where it needed to be. And they have some other stuff coming down the pipe. They have two babies that are naturally going to show up, be more expensive, and their income is going to go down. So we said that if we expect the medical expenses in the next three months to be around six to seven thousand dollars and we're going to have the additional responsibility of children, we ought to think about, they should shoot for probably four and a half months of living expenses in liquid cash. So if we assume that they have an $8,000 monthly burn rate, four and a half months of that would be a $36,000 emergency reserve target. And right now they have about $20,500, they, they're going to have to do some work it's going to be the main work they do between now and October to build up their emergency fund.

[Bo Hansen]

So. So you're kind of recommending we shut it all down, like all the funding for everything else. Focus, except for employer match, but then focus that on these emergency reserves and we think that we're going to have them in a pretty good place within that six month time.

[Corey]

Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

When we back all of that down, I think they're going to be able to save about $2,740 a month towards that emergency fund goal. If they the next six months, that's going to get them to just a touch under $37,000. So right about the time the babies are showing up on the scene, boom, they have emergency fund fully funded, ready to roll.

[Bo Hansen]

I, I want to put them on notice though, they need to take this serious and make this time work because it bothers me. It kind of makes the hair on my arm stand up that they're not going to have Roth IRA going.

[Brian Preston]

Sure.

[Bo Hansen]

The health savings account's not getting heavily funded and they're only doing the 401k up to the match. So. So if I was them, yes, do this in this moment in time, but let's not get crazy with it and let's focus on what needs to be done.

[Brian Preston]

And I don't disagree with you, but they also had another thing going on that I think requires because I want them to be building and I want them to be saving, but they have another thing. You know, they bought this new car and it wasn't like it was crazy, it wasn't like they went all out, but they did sort of break the money guy rules. They bought this car.

[Bo Hansen]

I love how we captured that. It's kind of like we, we caught them.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah.

[Bo Hansen]

Is it because I was like the math ain't mathing.

[Brian Preston]

That's right.

[Bo Hansen]

And we found out that it wasn't because I think they originally said no, it was only five, it was six. You know, we found out that this thing was definitely extended out to 72 months, six year term. And we, we got to get it under 23. 8, which, and those who, who aren't familiar, 23. 8 means you need to at least put down 20% down on your car. Don't finance it for longer than three years and it can't exceed 8% of your payment. Now look, obviously cash is always ideal, but sometimes when you're early in your career or your journey towards building wealth, you don't have the money to pay cash for cars. So that's why we've tried to do 23 8. But they've kind of taken some liberties with that. 72 months, that's doubled the length of term.

[Brian Preston]

So right now their required car payment is about $549 a month. We did the math to determine, okay, well what would we need to be able to pay on the car to get it inside a 36 month. 36 months and it's almost double. It's about $1,000 a month monthly car payment. But there are some places where we're going to be able to pull and squeeze from this. So we know that right now they're paying an extra $300 a month into their mortgage. If they just stopped paying the extra on the mortgage, instead diverted that to the car payment. They go from 55549 up to 849. Well now we only have a $150 shortfall. And our recommendation would be figure out they had this bucket, it was like 24 $2700 somewhere around there, guilt free spending. They need to be a little bit guilty. And our recommendation would be to take $150 out of that monthly allocation, add it to the 850 they just found and they'll have $1,000 a month going towards the car and they can get this thing paid off inside of thermostat.

[Bo Hansen]

So short term wise, we have the car. We have boosting up the emergency reserves. Let's get back to what does it look like on the long term planning with especially the setup you had with the dual income dropping down to one and then what is this going to look like in the long term?

[Brian Preston]

Yeah. So if we assume they go, the babies get here and then she goes back to work and now they're a dual income household. We think about their financial order of operations, this is what it would look like. Like we're going to want them both maxing or not maxing out, but putting 15% in each of their 401ks. Luis is entitled to a 4% match. Corey is going to get a 3% match. We want them both to max out their Roth IRAs at $7,500 each. And then they're both on individual high deductible plans. They both have individual HSA maxes. They can max, if they do all of that at their level of income, they're going to be saving over $70,000 a year. Even with having the new babies, even with being able to pay off the car quickly, that's pretty amazing. That's a 24 and a half percent savings rate, which is going to put them exactly where they want to be. But we want them to do that. But they've already shared, hey, once our kids get a little bit older, once they get to school age, we might want us to have one of us stay home. And it sounded like it, it may actually be Luis that stays home. So we said, okay, if we go from having a household income for them around 250, which they said was like, like very reasonable, very practical for them, but then it goes down and we go down to one income. What does it look like if they're only making about $125,000 a year? Well, obviously they would not be able to save at the same clip that they have been saving. They're going to be able to. They're going to have to decrease their savings rate from 24.5% likely to somewhere more like the 10% range. That's just going to be what's going to be necessary based on the living expenses they have. So, so what's the plan look like? If they start today and they save 25% until they get to 35 and they drop to 10%, does it actually get them to financial independence? And this is what we found. They have $150,000 saved up. If they can follow that trajectory, by the time they get to 55, they will still be able to even drop into one income. Even dropping their savings from 25 down to 10, build up a portfolio of almost $5.7 million. At 60, it could be worth almost 9.2 million. And by the time they get to full retirement age at 65, it could be almost $15 million. And remember, they said their goal, what they needed to be able to live the life they want to live is about 8,000amonth or about $100,000 a year. They would still be on the path on trajectory to be able to accomplish that standard of living at somewhere between 55 and 60 years old.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, I think a lot of people see these big numbers and they say, wow, that ought to just should have no trouble. But remember, when you bring it back for inflation, these numbers get much more reasonable. I am happy to see that they're going to have a lot of opportunity. But here's what actually made this all possible. They're in their 20s.

[Brian Preston]

That's right.

[Bo Hansen]

So they started early and they started doing it often with the saving and investing. And that's why that head start of making having already $151,000 and then the Fact that we've already got a plan that's going to get them to close to 25% while they're in peak earning years, it's going to pay huge dividends. So it really is showing that guys, if you can be a financial mutant and add and save this money early, while the money's there, you get flexibility, you get to make choices that not others are getting to do in your peer group. And this one is going to be them living off of one salary and even dropping the saving investment rate to 10%. Pretty amazing.

[Brian Preston]

I think what we laid out is that all the things they want to accomplish are possible, but they're possible if they stick to the plan. One of the things they said is they kind of love this spontaneity and oh, we're going to buy this house and oh, we're going to buy the car. I do think if they really want to do this because they have some pretty lofty goals and age and youth is on their side to allow them to accomplish those things. They have to recognize that they need to stick to the plan. They need to have some stick to it. Now we still left in there this guilt free spending budget they're going to have available. So it's not like they're having to do without. But they're gonna have to be careful not to let their lifestyle creep, let their savings fall by the wayside, let themselves get too comfortable too soon. Because even though the path looks great in the long term, they still gotta take the next step and the next step and the next step to actually moving well.

[Bo Hansen]

And watch the impulse control because think about it, even the like the car purchase, they knew that that was not the right decision. So they have all the factors that should create success and they've done it. I mean we're, we're pretty please. I remember right after we finished the recording, like, wow, what a couple. They're in a really good situation. Just do the plan. Let the success of your army of dollar bills and the compounding growth do its magic.

[Brian Preston]

Louise, Corey, you guys are wonderful. Thank you so much for letting us be a part of your financial journey. Congratulations on growing the family. It's going to be an exciting and maybe messy next chapter.

[Bo Hansen]

Bo, if others want to come on Making a Millionaire, what's the way you, you apply.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah. If you want to be a guest on Making a Millionaire, you can go to moneyguy.com applau or if you want to check out any of our free resources and tools, you can go to moneyguy.com resources guys, we love creating this

[Bo Hansen]

content because we really do believe that money is nothing but a tool and we want to help you own your time so you can live your great big beautiful tomorrow. I'm your host, Brian joined by Mr. Bo Money Guy team out the Money

[Corey]

Guy show is hosted by Brian Preston and Bo Hansen. Brian and Beau are partners with Abound Wealth Management. Abound Wealth Management is a registered investment advisory firm regulated by by the securities and Exchange Commission. In accordance and compliance with the securities laws and regulations, a Bound Wealth Management does not render or offer to render personalized investment or tax advice through Making A Millionaire. 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. The guests featured on Making a Millionaire are not clients of Abound Wealth Management at the time of recording. Their participation should not be considered a tested testimonial or endorsement of a Bound Wealth Management.