Why These Things Aren’t Worth Your Money (Feat. Erin Talks Money)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Money Guy Show

Episode: Why These Things Aren’t Worth Your Money (Feat. Erin Talks Money)
Date: May 27, 2026
Hosts: Brian Preston, Bo Hanson
Special Guest: Erin Talks Money

---

Episode Overview

This lively episode brings Erin (“Erin Talks Money”) into the Money Guy studio for a candid discussion about common things people waste money on. Brian, Bo, and Erin share their expertise and personal takes on misused dollars, generational spending habits, and drawing the line between convenience and real value. They wrap up with a rapid-fire “Worth It or Waste” game and answer in-depth listener questions about navigating financial priorities, risk management, and planning for windfalls. Throughout, the tone is friendly, approachable, and peppered with personal anecdotes and community engagement.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Generational Money-Wasters: Where Dollars Go Wrong

Food Delivery Services

• [01:00] The hosts kick off with the exploding cost of food delivery apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash, especially among young people.
• Brian: "Delivery now costs 80% more than just picking up the same food item." ([02:14])
• Erin admits she rarely uses food delivery for herself: "I always say I'm frugal noodle... if I'm going to go out, I'm going out." ([01:58], [02:43])
• Bo underscores the math: “I would much rather you go through the difficulty of putting the kid in the car seat and loading them up and going to get the $30 Chick Fil A for the family as opposed to the $90 delivery to the door.” ([02:56])

Grocery Delivery

• Hosts collectively agree grocery delivery (e.g., for parents with small children) can be worth it due to minimal markups and saved time ([03:55]).
• Brian: "The markup is just not there... might be even an element that you’re getting a little bit more of your time, which we all know how valuable that is." ([04:30])

---

Sports Betting

• [05:12] Hard “no” from all three: Sports betting is entertainment, not investing.
• Brian: "65% of bettors participate to make extra money... you are the mark." ([05:38])
• Bo: "For every $100 that is bet in 2024, the expected loss was $9.30." ([06:25])
• Erin: “A gamble is not a way to make money.” ([06:09])
• They caution against the growing integration of betting platforms into financial apps, making bad habits more accessible, especially for younger investors.

---

Whole Life Insurance as an Investment

• [08:16] The panel makes a strong case for term life insurance over whole life as an investment.
• Bo: "You're going to pay a whole lot more to get a whole lot less of something. That does not sound like a favorable financial trade off to me." ([09:17])
• Brian: “For the majority... you can buy a term and invest the difference.” ([09:57])
• Erin shares her preference for self-insurance now that her finances are stable, emphasizing the temporary nature of insurance needs ([09:04]).

---

Luxury Cars

• [11:07] Buying luxury vehicles is deemed a suboptimal decision for most people—timing and context are key.
• Erin: “Toyota Camry. See, that is a wonderful financial mutant choice.” ([11:13])
• Brian: “84% of our clients drive cars for seven-plus years.” ([11:41])
• “If you’re going to buy a luxury car, you better make sure you’re doing it at the right time and you truly understand the opportunity cost.” — Bo ([13:06])
• The Money Guy “step eight” is when it’s appropriate to treat yourself, but only after rigorous foundational savings ([13:45]–[14:54]).

---

2. Worth It or Waste? Rapid Fire Segment

At [15:27], Ruby joins for a lighthearted “Worth It or Waste” paddle game, sparking debate and quick takes on several notorious money-pits:

Recreational Vehicles (RVs, Boats, Jet Skis)

• Erin gives a thumbs up IF used often for making memories; Bo and Brian joke they’re only worth it if your friends buy them and you get to tag along ([16:46]-[18:30]).

Extended Warranties

• Unanimous “waste” except for AppleCare, which Bo and Brian have actually benefited from ([19:05]-[21:44]).
• Brian: “Let me give you my personal experience. I bought the extended warranty… It showed me this whole thing’s a scam.” ([21:12])

Rent to Own (Furniture/TVs)

• Hard pass from all: Buying retail outright or saving up is vastly cheaper. Rent-to-own is “paying for a TV six times over.” — Brian ([25:06])
• Erin: “I would rather sit on the ground, save up for a couch.” ([25:08])

Checked Luggage

• Mixed! Erin and Bo are pro-checked bags for easier travel, especially with more skincare items; Brian usually prefers to travel light and carry-on only ([25:49]–[27:13]).

---

3. Listener Questions (Selected Highlights)

Avoiding Lifestyle Creep in the “Messy Middle”

• [29:24] With twins and career growth, how do you balance spending and saving?
• Erin: “I’ll splurge on experience… But toys and clothes, hand-me-downs, Facebook marketplace.” ([29:48])
• Brian: “Prioritize... It’s okay to lean into things that you get value out of... Just make sure you’re not leaving the basics behind.” ([30:57])
• Bo warns of “parent peer pressure” and chasing what other families are doing over what actually matters to your own ([31:46]).

Mortgage Exceeding 25% of Income

• [32:54] If mortgage is 30% of income and it’s your only debt (age 28), can you proceed past Step 4?
• Consensus: Don’t stress minor violations of rules like “3-5-25” if you have no other debts and pay raises are imminent.
• Brian: “Just know your specific situation is going to be much more nuanced.” ([34:43]–[36:16])

IPO Windfall – SpaceX Example

• [47:42] What to do if about to have 75% of net worth in a single company stock (SpaceX IPO)?
• Brian: “Know what your price is. Know what you want to do... Be prepared.” ([48:02]–[49:47])
• Bo: “If you’ve already ‘won the lottery,’ do you really take all the proceeds and go buy more lottery tickets? Or do you... pull some chips off the table?” ([50:45])
• Erin: “I would taper. That’s how I would handle it.” ([51:57])

Funding a Wedding – Investments or Emergency Fund?

• [54:42] Dilemma: Sell after-tax investments or dip into emergency fund?
• Erin: “I... would never sell investments for a wedding, for a party.” ([54:53])
• Bo: “Start and have a very sincere conversation with your significant other. We’re not going to go in debt for this.” ([57:58])
• Brian: “Both of you, what you described wouldn’t even cover the flower budget for a lot of people.” ([55:33])

---

4. Philosophy for Step 8: When You’ve Checked All the Boxes

• [44:06] How to think about spending once you reach “abundance goals”?
• Brian: “Now we call it also ‘abundance goals.’ This is: Free yourself to actually enjoy this money... Spend time on what you actually enjoy doing.” ([44:29])
• Erin: “I don’t think you have to be optimal when you’ve checked all the boxes. I think it’s more about life optimization rather than dollar optimization at that point.” ([45:55])
• Bo: “If you can find ways to do those things while you’re on the journey... [money] can be a tool for my current self.” ([46:04])

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Every single dollar in our army of dollar bills can be so powerful. When people waste them, they are literally wasting their valuable soldiers.” — Bo Hansen ([00:14])
• “Delivery now costs 80% more than just picking up the same food item.” — Brian Preston ([02:14])
• “If you’re doing this to make money, you gotta get a side hustle... cause a gamble is not a way to make money.” — Erin ([06:09])
• “You’re going to pay a whole lot more to get a whole lot less of something.” — Bo, on whole life insurance ([09:17])
• “The better boat doesn’t buy a better experience.” — Erin ([18:30])
• “You can create incredible memories and not go broke. It’s the system that’s trying to sell this consumption to you.” — Brian ([55:33])
• “I just think 75% [of net worth] in one area, it would keep me up at night. So I think everyone kind of has to look at their own situation.” — Erin ([51:44])

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:00] – Food delivery vs. groceries
• [05:12] – Sports betting
• [08:16] – Whole life vs term insurance
• [11:07] – Luxury cars and smart car buying
• [15:27] – Worth It or Waste game (RVs, warranties, rent to own, checked luggage)
• [29:24] – The messy middle & kids: fighting lifestyle creep
• [32:54] – Home affordability & moving forward when spending exceeds the “rules”
• [47:42] – SpaceX/IPO windfall management
• [54:42] – How to (and NOT to) fund a wedding
• [44:06] – What to do at “Step 8” (Abundance Goals)

---

Closing Reminders

• Core Philosophy:
  Value, not convenience, should drive spending. Use rules as guides but personalize to your circumstances, keep foundational savings strong, and don’t delay using money to make memories when it truly counts.

• Actionable Takeaway:
  Listeners were encouraged to check out MoneyGuy.com’s resources, subscribe for more, and always measure financial decisions not by what’s possible, but what’s meaningful.

---

For More

• Subscribe to The Money Guy Show and Erin Talks Money on YouTube for future collaborations and resources.
• Visit moneyguy.com/resources for free tools and calculators.

---

Summary by PodcastSummarizerAI — all timestamps in MM:SS format, all quotes attributed as spoken.

Transcript

[Brian Preston]

Why these things aren't worth your money. With special guest Aaron talks money.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Hey guys.

[Bo Hansen]

I am so excited because we know just how powerful every single dollar in our army of dollar bills can be. And when people waste them, they are literally wasting their valuable soldiers. So we thought today we'd walk through some things that right now we see people spending money on. We're curious, Aaron, if you see these same things and why they are bad uses of money and what you should potentially be doing instead.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Absolutely. I'm excited for it now by the way.

[Brian Preston]

You can disagree with us, Aaron, if you want to, if you got any hot takes. But you know what, we're so on point.

[Bo Hansen]

Do you think, do you think that, so we're going to go through some stuff that people like spend and waste money on. Do you think Aaron is going to be like a victim or like a perpetrator of some of these bad ones?

[Brian Preston]

I don't know, like, can only hope for good content.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I always say I'm frugal noodle, so.

[Bo Hansen]

All right, well, let's see because this one, this one is a generational one, right? I think if, if we have a high likelihood of her falling into one of these potentially is this one. But this is one that we see so often specifically I think amongst young people and it's food delivery services.

[Brian Preston]

This is one, I feel like I'm the old man on the front porch is because when I, I found out how expensive this makes the food that's going to be delivered, I was, I tapped out pretty quick. How about you, Aaron? Do you do food delivery?

[Aaron Talks Money]

I don't, but I had a one week stay in Washington that a company paid for.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay.

[Aaron Talks Money]

And they gave me a food budget. It was pretty much unlimited breakfast, lunch and dinner.

[Bo Hansen]

I did just had them all delivered,

[Aaron Talks Money]

Uber eats, I had ice cream delivered.

[Bo Hansen]

I abused it because it was somebody else's dime. But you recognize if you're spending your

[Aaron Talks Money]

money, that's not, I never used it.

[Bo Hansen]

What's interesting, a lot of our clients say the same exact thing. We do an annual wealth survey where we say, okay, how do you use money? What are the things that you spend on? What are the things you consume? We found that 68% of our clients don't actually use food delivery service. They don't door dash, they don't Uber. Even though it's convenient, even though it might technically save you time. They have discerned. It's just not worth.

[Brian Preston]

Well, and there's good reason for that. I mean, let's face it, according to the research. And yes, we're nerdy enough. We looked this up. According to LendingTree, delivery now costs 80% more than just picking up the same food item. So, I mean, I've seen people literally to get Chick Fil A that, you know, what is a Chick Fil A? Now it's already expensive enough $10. So you're gonna pay $18 for the same Chick Fil A meal. That's the part where I kind of tap out when I hear it's that expensive.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Well, I mean, I just feel like part of the experience is going out. It's going and seeing people at the restaurant or going with your friend. I don't want to have it delivered and then eat alone at home anyway. So if I'm going to go out, I'm going to go out now.

[Bo Hansen]

I don't want to say any names. My wife, I know that, like young folks, young parents will say, oh, but it's just so hard. I got to load the kids up and da da, da, da, da, da, da, da da. I even think that that's a poor excuse because even now it's not that hard. Even if you're going to go get the Chick Fil A, for example, I would much rather you go through the difficulty of putting the kid in the car seat and loading them up and going to get the $30 chick fil a for the family as opposed to the $90 delivery to the door. I'm not saying that's ever happened, but if it did happen, I would be very much.

[Brian Preston]

I think we hit pretty close to home with that. With that. It sounds like there's an issue at the Hanson household now.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay, I do have a question though. Can I. Can I put. Can I go. Can I go off script here? And that's food delivery. Uber Eats, doordash. That kind of stuff is something that I rail against. There are other types of food delivery, though, like groceries and that sort of thing. I don't hate those so much. Are y' all super against, like, grocery delivery?

[Aaron Talks Money]

All groceries delivered? I do not set foot in a grocery store. I have a two and a half year old.

[Bo Hansen]

Yep.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I'm not doing it because you probably

[Bo Hansen]

remember if you have a two and a half year old, that's when just stuff gets thrown in the buggy. Like as you're pushing it through.

[Brian Preston]

I do. And look, they've made it so easy. I think if you think about, I mean, now when I could do an Amazon purchase at the end, it's like, hey, would you like some fresh organic bananas for $1.50. Sure. Do you know, would you like some new milk delivered by 4am at your house? Sure, let's throw it in there. And then I also know Walmart, if you're part of their Is it Walmart plus or whatever it is.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I'm proud member here you can get

[Brian Preston]

about anything delivered a few hours in the future. So I do think that's not what we're talking about because the markup is just not there. And it might be even an element that you're getting a little bit more of your time, which we all know how valuable that is.

[Bo Hansen]

Well, and I think that you're more, at least in my experience, you're more dialed into what you're ordering. You're able to follow the groceries. But when I'm, when I'm walking through the Oreo aisle, I just, I just gotta put those Oreos in my cart. That's a thing that actually happens.

[Brian Preston]

And don't forget a lot of your. Even if you just want to drive to locations, people. I mean, like, I know the Chipotle down the street from me has a window.

[Bo Hansen]

Yep.

[Brian Preston]

That I can now just sign up for the Chipotle. They call that Chipotle. And I ride by. I barely have to be moving. They'll throw it in the window these days.

[Bo Hansen]

I love it. All right, so food delivery is one that we don't love. It's not. But grocery delivery, we're kind of okay with this next one. I'm going to draw like a hard line and we're going to get some hate in the comments because I know again, this is super popular right now, specifically amongst the young folks. Sports betting.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Do you sports bet people throw balls

[Bo Hansen]

in some of the sports? Some of the sports they throw balls, others they don't throw the balls.

[Brian Preston]

Okay, I do think. Let's put some context this though. 65% of bettors participate to make extra money. First of all, if you don't realize you're the fish sitting at the table, you're the mark. I mean, that's. You are the mark when it comes to this online sports betting. The other one that I thought was interesting, 31% of sports bettors view it as an investment.

[Bo Hansen]

Not a chance.

[Brian Preston]

I'm doing the rabbit ears on purpose and that's what I'm telling you. I think a lot of people have lost the plot a lot when they, when they think about sports betting.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I just feel like if it's an investment, I'm going into the market. And if this is money I don't need. So if you're doing this to make money, you gotta get a side hustle, you gotta grow your skillset, you gotta do something that's gonna bring more income in. Cause a gamble is not a way to make money.

[Bo Hansen]

It's exactly what it is. It's a gamble. It's literally hoping that you get lucky. I don't care how much sports you watch, I don't care how in tune with it you are, it's gambling. And we know that right now for every hundred dollars that is bet in 2024, for every $100 the expected loss was $9.30. You're taking a 10% haircut right off like right from jump street when you participate in these. I don't think it's an investment. I don't think it's a way to make more money.

[Brian Preston]

Did you see the source of that though? It's the American Gaming Association. This is just what they're telling us is $9.30. I know a lot of people is actually you probably amped that up even more. I just think, look, there's nothing wrong with. It's a hobby. But don't let this be something that's replacing you. Doing your Roth ira.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Yeah, it's money that you're okay with losing. So if you want have fun. Have you seen there's now apps like you can bet on anything. It's sports.

[Bo Hansen]

That's right.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Betting itself is becoming the sport.

[Bo Hansen]

It's and, and again I think and what's really dangerous is there are now providers like I'm going to say legitimate but like investment provider platforms where when you log in to look at your account you can look at your Roth IRA and your traditional and your. And you see your investments and then right there next to it it says hey, participate in this prediction market. Hey, go do this gambling thing. I think that's dangerous especially for like young folks who can easily be pulled away and take their eye off without actually be doing.

[Aaron Talks Money]

It's hard in the beginning because you're doing the legwork. So if you think oh I can turn this hundred into 200, there's a lure there.

[Brian Preston]

Well there's also this sports arbitrage betting. You know where you people. But even they are smart. The gaming sites are so good at that. Don't even. Because I know a financial mutants think that they can find a better way to do things. The gaming sites are so smart that even if you work that arbitrage angle they will start limiting your bets very Quickly. So don't even. I don't even think it's worth going down those Reindeer Games.

[Bo Hansen]

All right, so we've talked about to. And I said specifically that they sort of target younger folks. Right. This next one that I think is likely not worth the money that people are spending on it does not discriminate age wise because we see young people making this poor decision. We see people that are even farther along in their careers making this decision. And it's buying or using whole life insurance as an investment vehicle.

[Brian Preston]

Aaron, you have any whole life.

[Aaron Talks Money]

No.

[Brian Preston]

You got term insurance?

[Aaron Talks Money]

No.

[Brian Preston]

Oh my gosh, we just broke something here.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I do not.

[Brian Preston]

But you have insurance, I'm sure through your husband's thing, you know, through military.

[Aaron Talks Money]

The smallest amount. Imaginary.

[Bo Hansen]

All right, Just taking some notes.

[Brian Preston]

Write some notes down. So we're gonna give you some homework to take home with you today.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I feel like there gets to. To be a point where you can self insure. So like I'm not going to spend the money. I have weighed the pros and cons and with a paid off home with my son's college paid for, I don't see the point.

[Bo Hansen]

We do agree that when it comes to life insurance, what we're hoping is it's a temporary solution to a temporary problem. And then ideally, as your life progresses, you do eventually reach the point where insurance is no longer something that you need. But whole life insurance does the exact opposite thing. Or permanent life insurance. Exact. It says, hey, we're going to make sure that this is a solution that's in place forever. I think Investopedia said it great. It says whole life insurance is more expensive than term life and you'll receive a lower death benefit than you could get with the same amount of money in term policy. So you're going to pay a whole lot more to get a whole lot less of something. That does not sound like a favorable financial trade off to me.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah, I mean, look, there are specifics. There is a small segment that benefits from getting the underwriting done while you're young and healthy. But for the majority of people out there, you can buy a term and invest the difference. I will encourage Aaron to go check because I think you're shooting yourself short in the fact that if you left the planet tomorrow, your, your spouse and your child would probably be like, hey, we, we might need some additional resources because Aaron does a lot. We know just from Army. Aaron does a lot.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Yes.

[Brian Preston]

So we need to plan accordingly.

[Bo Hansen]

All right, so we're talking about things that are likely not Worth the money. Now, this one, I think this one might be the one we're going to get the most pushback, Right? So we've said there are things that young people do. There are things that people further along the crew do. But this one is specifically for a certain type of person. And the type of person that this one for is for the car person. Because people say all the time, hey, I, it's okay. I buy a luxury car. The reason I do it is I'm just a car guy. I'm just a car gal. It's part of who I am. Oftentimes, I think that is a suboptimal financial decision.

[Brian Preston]

Aaron, what's your take?

[Aaron Talks Money]

I bought my first car last year.

[Bo Hansen]

Was it a luxury car? Did you go mercedes, BMW, Bugatti? What did you.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Aston Martin? Toyota camry.

[Bo Hansen]

Toyota camry. See, that is a wonderful financial mutant choice. Why was it? What made you decide not to go get the fancy, expensive German. Fill in your brain. Fill in the blank.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I live downtown. I walk. I don't want to drive anywhere. I hate driving. I'm good for about 20 minutes in the car. Then I become a pro napper. So I don't want to go anywhere. I would rather have a driver.

[Bo Hansen]

I love that.

[Brian Preston]

Well, look, you're in good company because we actually survey our clients and we found that 84% of our clients drive cars for seven plus years.

[Aaron Talks Money]

My first car, which was a gift from my grandma, I drove for 18 years. So that's why. That's why I bought my first one last year.

[Brian Preston]

Wow. And look, there's a good reason for this Because y' all have heard me. I've got some of my biggest rants I've ever historically done on this show is that my wife had a european luxury suv and I complained about the maintenance costs. You know, how even when they get you, when you get there's a class action lawsuit, says, yeah, hey, this is a problem. That they had to replace the brakes at less than 20,000 miles. They still find a way to hose you Even on that bad thing. The extra costs on the premium fuel, the higher insurance, they depreciate really fast because these are all bad decisions. So we don't love luxury cars for people. I will say also, if you think about 65% of Americans, if you're comparing and contrasting, drive their cars for less than five years, that's shocking to me. Millionaire clients doing one thing. Seven plus years. Typical American. Less than five years on highly appreciate depreciating assets. You can see there's a disconnect.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I feel like the typical American is just getting their car paid off at five years.

[Bo Hansen]

Well, hopefully, unless there's negative equity in

[Brian Preston]

majority of transactions, too.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, I think. I think what's wild is the reason that I think a lot of people drive luxury cars is because they want to look cool. It's a fancy car, and it looks nice, has all the trappings. But then a few years go by, and then, well, I got to do it again. I got to rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. And that's why so many folks are doing it so often. Now, look, don't mishear us, right? So we are not saying that luxury cars are bad. We are not even saying that you shouldn't buy a luxury car. What we are saying is that if you're going to buy a luxury car, you better make sure that you're doing it at the right time and you truly understand the opportunity cost of making that financial decision.

[Brian Preston]

Y' all know I have a no hypocrisy policy, and I would be a hypocrite if I didn't say we don't. We drive luxury cars. But it's a step eight if you're not in. Because, look, I traded. I even shared with Aaron in our content meeting. I feel like in my 40s, I went from somewhere in the early 40s, I went from full, tight, wide, where I was doing things so cheap. And then once I realized, oh, my gosh, you know, some of these decisions are having an impact on my relationships. I'm not going to die broke. I probably should loosen it up. And I was well into step eight of the financial order of operations, and I think that's when you can give yourself permission to do the bigger cars, the nicer cars even. My big confession that I've made in the last few months is we're now leasing our first car because. And look, leasing is not the greatest idea.

[Bo Hansen]

All right, Notes for Aaron. Notes.

[Brian Preston]

But I mean, when you look at how bad the decision is on these luxury cars, I was like, I'd rather rent this bad decision than to own it. And that's what. Well beyond. It's now more. It's not moving the needle. It's not impacting anything financially. It's more of a what keeps the household happy.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I think that's fair. It's kind of like the Dave Ramsey principle. If you would put this money on the table or in the middle of the living room, light it on fire, and it doesn't affect your life.

[Bo Hansen]

It's okay, then it's okay.

[Brian Preston]

It does feel like that in some ways, the financially responsible one in the house. But. But like I said that my spouse loves that car she's riding around in right now. So, you know, if it makes her happy, it makes me happy.

[Bo Hansen]

I love that. Now, Ruby, we were talking a little bit about these are some things that we think that people spend money on and are likely not worth it. But you said, hey, we have a few more. Isn't that what you're in the context. We do.

[Ruby]

We're gonna play a game. It's called worth it or waste. So you guys have your thumbs up and thumbs down signs or paddles. So go ahead and grab those. I am going to name off a few more items, and I want you guys to tell us from your personal opinion or your opinion as a financial professional expert, you guys get to say, is it worth it or is it just a waste?

[Brian Preston]

You didn't tell us. This is all so. Because I want to preface this, because last time we did a segment like this, it was on cars, and I offended some of my clients and I did not mean to. So I just want everybody to know we don't see this stuff beforehand. So the content team just kind of has their way with us. So I'm putting that disclaimer so in case any of my clients write me after the show. I didn't mean to offend you, but

[Aaron Talks Money]

if you're on step eight, if it's not worth it to us, it could

[Ruby]

be worth it to you. So this is a little for fun. I do want to throw that out there also. If you three disagree, let's talk about it. That's kind of the fun of it. Let's discuss it. Let's discuss the pros and cons and see where we land. All right, we're going to dive right in. The first one is recreational vehicles. RVs, boats, jet skis. Worth it or waste it.

[Brian Preston]

I mean, well, this one.

[Bo Hansen]

Oh, I got to. I want to hear Aaron's first. Cause I got a different.

[Ruby]

Aaron says worth it.

[Brian Preston]

Bo went on a boat this weekend, so he's probably got some reasons to

[Ruby]

be biased, has a thumbs down. All right, Aaron, you start.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Discuss. I grew up on a lake, so I mean, every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, sometimes after work, we would be out on a boat on a jet Ski. And I mean, as long as you use it, as long as it's an experience, I think it's okay. If you don't use it, you don't need it.

[Bo Hansen]

Love that.

[Brian Preston]

Go ahead. I want to.

[Bo Hansen]

For all my friends out there listening, I think it is incredibly worth it for you to buy a boat, for you to buy a jet ski, for you to buy the lake house, for you to have maybe the mountain house, maybe the beach. I would love for all of my friends to make those decisions because then I get to benefit from said decision. So is it worth it? Yes. Recreational vehicles are 100% worth it if your friends are spending the money on it and you get to use it for free. That's what I did this weekend.

[Brian Preston]

That's exactly why I did the thumbs down. I was gonna say the exact same thing. Cause we did a show a few years ago called financial mistakes you hope your friends make, and this is definitely one of them. But look, I do. I agree with. I kind of agree with both of. Because if you're at a successful place, you're going to find out that money is nothing more than a tool. So if you can make the biggest and best memories with your loved ones and even prime the pump to keep them coming back around, there's nothing wrong with using some of these things as long as they're getting used and also as long as they're done at the right time in your financial journey, because I don't want you. The thing I hate is that everything in this world is structured off of. You can afford it for a few hundred dollars a month at a time and you finance it. That is not what's going to help you build the memories it needs to be. Build your financial foundation, have some success, and then go reward yourself by buying some of these things.

[Aaron Talks Money]

You can have a modest version. It's the better boat. Doesn't buy a better experience.

[Bo Hansen]

That's great. And once you do that, become friends with me.

[Ruby]

Next one. Is it worth it or is it a waste? Extended warranties. Oh, Bo says, oh. Everybody said waste. Why is that?

[Bo Hansen]

Except for one. Oh, there's one extended warranty that I am for, which is AppleCare.

[Brian Preston]

Okay. I'm not gonna fight him on it. AppleCare, I've actually benefited from it.

[Bo Hansen]

I turn down every single other extended warranty. But on any of my products, I put AppleCare on them.

[Aaron Talks Money]

What about if you buy it on the credit card? And the credit card would cover it anyway.

[Brian Preston]

It covers it for like a year

[Bo Hansen]

for a shorter time period.

[Brian Preston]

But AppleCare has gotten where it's almost like, hey, since we're making this thing, yeah, we can. We'll just let you keep protection forever. They've even added, like these watches. Yeah, they've Because I lost one. It's somewhere in my house. I have no idea where it is. And I went. And he's like, you realize with the new Apple Care now if you lose it, we'll even replace it.

[Bo Hansen]

A hundred bucks. Okay, that's it. Yeah. Or so whatever the thing is.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah. So I mean, so I.

[Ruby]

But I will say AppleCare.

[Brian Preston]

We do, we do quite a few studio tours and we had a gentleman who worked on the wholesale side. But then for a season of his life, he was like the finance guy. You know the last part, when you're buying a car, they throw you in the room. And that's the shark you ought to be aware of if you don't know that you're the mark when you get into the finance room. Because by the way, it's not even if you're paying cash for the car. This is where they're gonna send you the maintenance, the extended warranties. It's. It's the shark of the operation. And I, they don't. You shouldn't buy this stuff is because even like my. Let me give you my personal experience. I bought the extended warranty. You can put. Make fun of me. I'll make fun of myself too. For the rims. Because I'm a 16 year old. If they sold subwoofers, I would buy like 12 inch subwoofers for my cars. That's where they could get me for the rims.

[Bo Hansen]

You bought these?

[Brian Preston]

But my wife's car, that European expensive luxury car that I've ran it at my own mistake was I bought the bigger rims. And the guy gets in there, he goes, you realize each one of these rims is $4,000. Each one of them for. Is for this price right here, we will protect your rims. And I was like, okay, you know, that's not that much money. And you're right, my wife is going to definitely curb the heck out of these rims. So let's do it. And I'll never forget my wife took the car in for. Because we have to replace these tires. It felt like for every 10,000 miles. I'm being facetious, but not really. They tell me, sir, you've bent the rims. We're gonna need to replace this rim. And I was like, good news, I bought the extended warranty. You know what they do when you pull out the extended warranty?

[Bo Hansen]

What's that?

[Aaron Talks Money]

You don't need to replace it anymore.

[Brian Preston]

They say, wait a minute, you. Because they gave me the quote for the $3,500 rim or whatever. But for them, because I had the warranty, once I pulled the warranty, they sent out a guy with a trailer who bends the rim back into shape and just fixes and then fixes the rim.

[Bo Hansen]

So without the warranty, you'd have had to.

[Brian Preston]

So it may. It showed me this whole thing's a scam.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah.

[Brian Preston]

And now I got a great guy. For $125 a rim, he can make any rim, no matter how distorted it is. Look, brand new, curb rash, everything he fixes, Teslas, everything. I now have the guy. So.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Okay, so Apple Care and rims.

[Brian Preston]

Well, no, don't do the rims because they're going to send you to the guy for 100,000 bucks. You just need the guy because I have referred him to at least 12 people because he really can make any rim look brand new again. So don't buy the extended warranties. I think it's a complete scam.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay, what about. So you bought your new car last year. Did you do all the extended warranties and all that kind of stuff?

[Aaron Talks Money]

I got like this extra package on.

[Brian Preston]

See, these guys are sharks. But like the leave and sold it to Eric talks money.

[Bo Hansen]

Hey, no, I've done. Now I have done a maintenance thing before where like it'll come with six or eight oil changes and like, whatever.

[Brian Preston]

Did that work out for you, Erin?

[Aaron Talks Money]

No, I don't drive that much. Hence why I had a car for 18 years. I think it had 70,000 miles on it in 18 years.

[Brian Preston]

Holy cow.

[Bo Hansen]

And it was a gift from your grandma.

[Brian Preston]

You might just need Uber.

[Bo Hansen]

Seriously? Bicycle.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I have one. Of course it got to the point for my 18 year old car, I would be dropping my son off at daycare. And I walked in one day and I'm like, you know, I think there's something wrong with my muffler. They're like, you think we know when you're here. So I finally got the new car and they're like, yeah, we can give you six oil changes if you just pay X amount. And I'm like, okay, I'll do that. That's fine. I haven't even had one oil change yet.

[Brian Preston]

That's what I was.

[Bo Hansen]

Bought the car last year.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Last January.

[Brian Preston]

Wait a minute. So they have an expiration date on them?

[Aaron Talks Money]

Yeah, they do. So they're expiring this June. So next month I got a phone call. They're like, we should probably get one

[Bo Hansen]

oil changed five times.

[Brian Preston]

So they really sell you six oil changes. Because if you think about cars, go at least 5,000 miles?

[Bo Hansen]

Sure.

[Brian Preston]

You know, a lot of them, if they're putting synthetics, they even say 10,000. So let's just go 5,000 miles. 5 times 6 is 30,000 miles that you'd have to drive in defense in one year. And you drove three.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Yeah, so I took it in in November. They rotated my tires and they gave me a car wash. So two grand, well spent. Great.

[Brian Preston]

Look, I'm having fun. I've made mistakes. You've made mistakes. That's what I love about money, is you don't have to be perfect with it.

[Aaron Talks Money]

But they did give me an extension.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay, good.

[Aaron Talks Money]

So I'll get one oil change.

[Brian Preston]

So how long are they extending these?

[Aaron Talks Money]

Till December. But, I mean, I'll call them back. I think they'll move in.

[Bo Hansen]

Just keep asking. Just keep pushing that down the line.

[Aaron Talks Money]

You just say please do.

[Brian Preston]

You say the statement. Do you know who you're talking to?

[Aaron Talks Money]

No. I did when I bought the car. I'm like, aaron talks money. I can't buy these packages.

[Brian Preston]

Don't you know that finance guy now is. Everybody's like, hey, Erin talks money, bought this package.

[Bo Hansen]

I don't know if you know that she was here.

[Brian Preston]

She probably uses you as the marketing for this. Hey, if I know you need extra maintenance. Aaron talks money, bought this.

[Ruby]

Oh, gosh, could you imagine? All right, let's do a couple more. How about Rent to Own? Is it worth it or is it a waste?

[Brian Preston]

We talking about, like, furniture and TVs?

[Ruby]

Yes, sir.

[Brian Preston]

Come on. This. This is too easy.

[Ruby]

There's two thumbs down.

[Brian Preston]

What are you doing?

[Aaron Talks Money]

He's got to think about it.

[Ruby]

Pondering things.

[Bo Hansen]

Anything that makes sense to Rent to Own. What about a home? All right, I was thinking PlayStation 5. I was thinking about a home. I guess you're not technically renting it, but you're kind of are, right? Like, you're in it for the first 30 years.

[Ruby]

Same thing, though.

[Bo Hansen]

You don't own it out. It's like a home is layaway. You're just doing layaway for 30 years.

[Ruby]

I get what you're saying, but this is getting too fancy. Like, that's not rent.

[Brian Preston]

Well, you're talking like, rent, Aaron's Rent to Own, or something like that.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Yeah, yeah, great name.

[Bo Hansen]

No, I'm a hard pass on that one.

[Aaron Talks Money]

All right, Hard pass.

[Brian Preston]

Why not? If you think TVs are. Because you can go to Costco and buy a TV for a few hundred bucks, or you can pay for a TV six times over by renting.

[Ruby]

It just ends up being more Expensive.

[Bo Hansen]

Isn't that what buy now.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I would rather sit on the ground, save up for a couch.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, right. Is it buy now, pay later, essentially rent to own. Isn't that kind of the same idea?

[Ruby]

Kind of. It's kind of the new.

[Brian Preston]

Well, I think they're both.

[Bo Hansen]

When I was called layaway, the latest in layaway.

[Brian Preston]

Layaway is a little different. You didn't get the item. You just basically they'd wink at you and say, hey, we're not going to sell that one. We'll let you just pay a few hundred. A few bucks every week.

[Aaron Talks Money]

You could come by once a week.

[Bo Hansen]

That's right. That's it.

[Ruby]

All right, let's do two more. This one is checked luggage worth it or a waste? Let's go. Aaron and Bo say worth it and Brian says it's a waste.

[Brian Preston]

Well, no, now I think what y' all are getting to is gate checking.

[Bo Hansen]

No, no, let's start with checking. Let's just see where this conversation takes

[Ruby]

us just point blank.

[Bo Hansen]

You know what's wonderful?

[Ruby]

You get to the airport, you check your luggage, you show that airport, you

[Bo Hansen]

go ahead and just put that baggage on the conveyor belt and then you have your backpack and you just walk through TSA pre and you don't have to pull anything around.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Travel is so enjoyable when you don't have baggage.

[Bo Hansen]

And you know what? Back in the day when Southwest when there was party se and I checked my bag, I wasn't worried about when I got on the plane. I just.

[Brian Preston]

It was fine. I'll say the word. It depends on the fact that if you're going to Europe or a long vacation where you're gone for a week. Obviously checking bags are good. But I come into a show Every Tuesday at 10am Live. So I don't get to go on super long vacations very often. So I pack like a ninja. You know, we pack light, we quick on our feet. So I want to carry my bags with me and I want to put them up there above because also I treat my luggage well. So I like carry ons. So that's why I did thumbs down is because I'm light and I'm in there. It's like a go bag for me.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I took a 55 minute flight to come to you guys. I packed that bag. Let me tell you, you only get one Ziploc baggie and 3 ounces or less my skincare.

[Bo Hansen]

How about I say skincare?

[Aaron Talks Money]

Way more. Way more.

[Ruby]

That means she needs to check the bag.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I need a suitcase for the Skin care.

[Bo Hansen]

That's it. She got to have. That's more than 3 ounces.

[Brian Preston]

And if they made you throw it out, you would prob.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Oh, my gosh.

[Brian Preston]

You found out health is wealth. And Aaron, she is so. Because we heard about cars and everything. You're tight, but you're not tight necessarily. On the skin care, though.

[Aaron Talks Money]

No. I've got an eye cream. I've got, like, lip creams. I've got face mask. It all has to come. It all has to come.

[Bo Hansen]

Love it.

[Ruby]

That would be worth it for aaron. She big thumbs up.

[Bo Hansen]

And so now, in true financial mutant fashion, not only am I pro checked bag, I'm super pro gate checked bag. Cause then you get to check a bag, and it's free. Just throw that out there to you, brother.

[Ruby]

Love it.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Your travel is so much more enjoyable when you're not carrying something.

[Ruby]

I agree.

[Bo Hansen]

But I will say, and look, if my people are listening to this. Whenever I travel in groups, they always do the thing. It's like, hey, nobody's gonna check bags. I'm like, all right. I guess I'll do a carry on.

[Brian Preston]

I think gate check bags should be voluntary. They are, because no.

[Bo Hansen]

Unless you're on the back of the plane.

[Brian Preston]

No. There's times where I've had my bags where they force gate check it, and it blows my ninja sh Theory all out of the water.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Is that because you're on too small

[Bo Hansen]

of a plane, it always starts voluntary, but nobody volunteers. They always add, then you're voluntold.

[Brian Preston]

It makes me sad. The time it's happened to me was with delta, you know, And I'm a georgia boy, you know, So I even worked for delta for a summer, you know, on the. On the ramps.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I was almost a stewardess for delta. And that would.

[Brian Preston]

So I love delta growing up, but delta failed me by making me gate check, Even though. Because they said, hey, our overheads are full. Get to my seat. No, the overheads were completely empty.

[Bo Hansen]

They lied to you.

[Brian Preston]

They lied for sure.

[Ruby]

See, southwest betrayed me with their now that you have to pay to check a bag. So now my only option left is gate check.

[Bo Hansen]

I know.

[Ruby]

I guess I could just pay for

[Aaron Talks Money]

the check back, too. That's 25 bucks. And it's 25 bucks well spent.

[Ruby]

Yeah, no, I hear you on that. I really do. All right.

[Bo Hansen]

That was my choice.

[Ruby]

Let's go ahead and move into some financial questions from the audience. Are you guys ready?

[Bo Hansen]

Yes, ma'. Am.

[Ruby]

We've got the team out in the wings. They've been sending me Some questions. We've got a list here. The first one is from Dual Nature 5. It says, hey Moneyguy team. And Erin, my wife who's 33 and I 38, are firmly in the messy middle with one year old twins.

[Bo Hansen]

Welcome.

[Ruby]

How do you decide what's actually worth it verse lifestyle creep in a season full of so many unknown variables.

[Bo Hansen]

Aaron, this is a great question. I think you should start because you would define yourself as being in the messy middle. Right. And for someone who's like self proclaimed tight, how do you make the decision on when it's okay to spend money on things and when you don't spend money on things?

[Aaron Talks Money]

Experience. So like we do daycare because we both have to work, so that gives us the ability to have a paycheck. We're gonna splurge there. But I mean, I'll take my son on a trip, I'll take him out to dinner. We go to Cheesecake Factory every week. We have a mommy son date and

[Bo Hansen]

it's very expensive once a week at Cheesecake Factory. That's awesome.

[Aaron Talks Money]

But we have a regular server that we see. It's this whole experience.

[Bo Hansen]

I love that.

[Ruby]

So fun.

[Aaron Talks Money]

But outside of that, we have a membership to a children's museum. We do parks, we do affordable things. But I'll splurge on an experience. As far as toys, I live on a street with a lot of kids. We get a lot of hand me downs clothes. Hand me downs. Just, just ask your friends, go to Facebook marketplace, buy nothing groups. So kids can be as affordable or as expensive as you want. I'm focusing on the twins aspect here because I think that's where a lot of the money's gonna go.

[Bo Hansen]

Absolutely. Brian, what say you?

[Brian Preston]

I think the answer is also in the question of what's actually worth it. And that's gonna depend on every person is going to be unique. She's like, earlier we were talking to Erin and she was talking about her skincare, which I know is not cheap, but it's definitely worth it to you. You get a lot of value out of that. You know, Bo, you love coffee.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Yep.

[Brian Preston]

So you will, you know, if, if you went by the latte effect, you might not get to do what you love as much. So I would say first of all, prioritize. The financial order of operations is going to be your backbone of. So you're not leaving anything on the table of doing the basics like, you know, your emergency reserves, getting your employer match, funding the Roth ira. But then it's okay to lean into things that you get value out of, whether it's experiences, whether it's focusing on skincare, whether it's on coffee. But just make sure you're not leaving the basics behind so that you can live your best life.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Was the saying, like, you can have. You can't have everything, but you can have what? What is the saying?

[Bo Hansen]

You can't have everything, but you have some things. That's. That's.

[Brian Preston]

Just hit it with some confidence, Bo. Just hit it with gas.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Oh, there's some kind of slogan.

[Bo Hansen]

It's really interesting. One of the things I noticed is like, since high school, in my opinion. So you can write this in pencil. I feel like parenting is one of the most peer pressured environments in which you live really since like high school, because you begin operating, especially if one year old, you're like, oh, well, these other parents are doing this. And oh, well, this family went to Disney and oh, this family got. Well, they got this SUV because it's the same. And you find yourself making all these decisions based on what other people are doing. I think at 33 and 38, if you can slow down and ask yourself, okay, what matters to us? What do we value? What experiences do we likely care about? You're going to save yourself a lot of heartache from trying maybe not to keep up with the Joneses, but to just to keep up with the other parents. I feel like I've seen all kinds of friends fall in that tr. Oh, well, okay. Well, so. And so is doing swim team, and then they're doing piano, and then they're doing softball, and then they're doing soccer, and then they're. If that's what your kid wants to be doing and that's what your family wants me, that's great. But be careful just doing those things because you see everyone else around you doing those things. I think that's where parents get themselves in a lot of trouble.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Your kid just needs you to show up.

[Bo Hansen]

That's right.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Just be there for you.

[Bo Hansen]

That's it.

[Ruby]

Yeah. That's good stuff. All right, next question. I did not make up this username. It's from Bo Hanson Spotter. Do with that what you will. Hi, Moneyguy team. My wife and I, 28, are finished with step four. Our mortgage payment is 30% of our household income. Could we move on to step five? If that is our only debt, we should be getting raises within the next one to two years as well. So it looks like they are a little technically outside of our 3, 5, 25 house buying rules. I don't know if you want to cover that. And then how should they think about moving on to step five and the debt that they have?

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, I think. I think what they are assuming here is that, oh, man, because we have run a foul of 3, 5, 25, and 3, 5, 2, 5 is just 3% down on a house. You want to be in the house for longer than five years, and you can't have your house payment or the housing costs exceed 25% of your monthly gross income. Because we've run afoul of that. That must mean that we're in step three. That must count as high interest debt. Because instead of going, you know, we got step four done, maybe we should start paying that down. I don't think I agree with that because I think that in the environment in which we live, where housing affordability is, especially for young people, it's not uncommon for people having a stretch. Certainly young people like this that are saying, man, in the next couple of years, my income is going to catch up. Rather than you thinking about deploying all of your dollars to go get that mortgage payment down, to pay down the principal to get it, and then recast the mortgage or whatever the thing may be, I think I would rather see you put those dollars to work in the Roth ira, in the HSA and just understand you're a little bit further down the risk spectrum. So do everything you can to increase your income to get that percentage down.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Yeah. Beef up the emergency fund maybe a little bit.

[Brian Preston]

Sure.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Then work on increasing your income. But I mean, at 28, these dollars

[Brian Preston]

are so powerful, I don't even think you're really, you know, look, you're obviously smart coming up with that, that witty name, Bo Hansen Spotter. But you also gave a really big clue. This is our only debt realize when we wrote that, when we've done the 25% for housing, a lot of times we have to write rules for the general population. And what is the general population dealing with? A lot of people have student loan debt. A lot of people have car debt, which is 8% by our own rules. So if you're. Go ahead, because that's your only debt. Now, your 30% seems much more reasonable knowing you don't have student loan debt, you don't have car debt. So. Yeah, and you also gave the answer that mitigates it even more by saying, we're going to get pay raises over the next one to two years. Because a lot of people who are in, you know, professional jobs where their income is going up large Chunks. And especially in those early years, you're going to be in a good situation. So I, I wouldn't. I wouldn't carry any regret with that. It sounds like you're making a lot of disciplined decisions. And so that's why you have to be careful with rules, is because rules are written to give guidance. But your specific situation is going to be much more nuanced. And that's why we give these rules, so you can accelerate your journey. But when you reach success, this is why financial planners like us fee only financial planners we have a place, is because we try to give you your best life, not just the best life for the general population.

[Aaron Talks Money]

And 28 is a young homeowner.

[Bo Hansen]

That's a young homeowner for sure.

[Ruby]

Good thoughts there. Thank you, Pohanson Spotter, for joining us today.

[Brian Preston]

Great name. That means he's strong too, by the way, because the spot bo stuff, you gotta be able to lift some weight.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Gotta be real serious.

[Bo Hansen]

I think that's actually a backhanded. A backhanded insult right there. You didn't mean to do. Because if the spotter has to lift the weight, that means I'd be failing it.

[Brian Preston]

You didn't even realize the spotter helps you get it off the bar. I've been in the gym enough to know, so. No, you gotta get it. Help them get off the bar.

[Ruby]

See, I took it as like, you're lifting such heavy weights that this person has to be up to snuff. Like, they better be able to catch it should they need to look at

[Brian Preston]

the level of weight that you're doing. You don't want some really, you know, out of shape person. You want to hear your spotter?

[Bo Hansen]

You want to hear a hilarious story? Do I have time for like a really.

[Ruby]

I guess so.

[Bo Hansen]

The last time that I bench pressed heavy weight without a spotter was when I was in college. It was at the University of Georgia. Our weight room was called Ramsey.

[Brian Preston]

Are you gonna tell us how much?

[Bo Hansen]

I don't remember, but it was heavy enough that I went down for that rep and I couldn't get it back up. And I didn't have a spotter. And so literally, there was a young lady working the desk and I had to like, ma', am, miss. I had to call her over to run over to help me get that bar off my chest. I will never bench press without someone around again.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Well, I've been trapped under the bar too. The trick is you don't put clamps on the end.

[Bo Hansen]

You try to, but I had a

[Aaron Talks Money]

Trainer who was like, I didn't want

[Bo Hansen]

the shame of that either. You could dump one side and then snapshots and dump the other side.

[Brian Preston]

I'll take scenarios I'll never be in, you know, that I don't have to worry about. These are, you know, it's just like we're talking about risk. You don't have to insure yourself of ever being in. These are, these are situations I'll never have because if I'm under a bench press, there's somebody above me.

[Ruby]

All right, that was a good anecdote. Next financial question is from Seth McFoo, another good username. But then he says, HI, Aaron and MoneyGuide team in parentheses.

[Brian Preston]

Can we tell who he's excited about? Seth is excited. Aaron's here.

[Aaron Talks Money]

You guys got the handle, though. I mean, that's kind of permanent.

[Ruby]

I love that it says, is it worth creating a withdrawal plan at retirement? Young, 30s. I want to optimize three buckets to max, minimize taxes. But if it seem, but it seems foolish, given all the changes that can happen. What do you think?

[Aaron Talks Money]

I mean, I love the idea of going into retirement with Roth, with traditional, with brokerage, I like having different buckets to pull on at 30. I mean, it's hard to plan what your life is going to look like at 60. So fund both. That's fine. Fund somewhat. Fund them all.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, that's. I think, I think too many people get so caught up. We always say, begin with the end in mind, begin with in mind. And that's great. You want to have an idea of the end that you're ultimately working towards. But at 30 years old, I agree. You're not going to know on a granular level exactly when you're going to retire, what sources you're going to have, where you're going to pull from, where you're going to live, what your lifestyle is going to be. And so if you get so focused on, okay, I need to have exactly 72% of my wealth in a Roth IRA and another 18%. I think you're going to get yourself sort of wound up. That's why we came up with the fund. Another thing up for me, that's what

[Brian Preston]

I was going to do.

[Bo Hansen]

It's why we came up with the financial order of operations, to take the guesswork out of it early on. We want you focusing on what you're putting in, what you're putting in, what you're putting in, what you're putting in. And then there will come a time where it makes sense to shift to think about how you're going to pull out and we're going to pull out from. But let this be your guide early on.

[Brian Preston]

Well, Seth, if you're not at step seven, take the pressure off yourself and just do what we're telling you to do in the financial order of operations is because it's so right now, if you think about what the FOO is doing for you, it's keeping your life out of the ditch in the beginning stages by having the emergency reserves. It's also making sure you're maximizing the amplifiers like your free money from your employer. And then it's helping you do all the tax advantage savings so that when you get to step seven, because that's where you're kind of talking about is when you're. And if you're maybe you're there in your 30s, but. But most people don't get here until probably your late 30s, maybe early 40s. And that's when this is the place where you say how am I going to use this money in retirement? And yes, the system will likely change, you know, because. But in a lot of ways it gets better. I mean, what I've been surprised in my career is that when the Roth accounts came on the scene in 98, if you'd have told me, because remember back then you could put $2,000 a year into it, but now they've amped it up to where we have Roth 401ks, they've made it where, you know, you don't have required minimum distributions, where they make it where RMDs are later

[Bo Hansen]

than they used to be.

[Brian Preston]

It's amazing the way things have improved. So I would say plan with the system you have, but you can. The three buckets are going to probably still be around in some form. And it's step seven that lets you build your life. Begin with the end in mind, how you're going to use that money. And I think you'll be a. Okay.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I think as the income changes, where you want to put these dollars change. So it's hard at 30 because what you're making at 40 and then 50 and 60, that's going to look different.

[Brian Preston]

Well, and also all the life stuff, the kids, the housing, all those things change the scope and the shape of the way things look in the long term too.

[Aaron Talks Money]

A lot of this happens organically, but

[Brian Preston]

you don't have to overthink it. That's what I always tell people. Just invest as we did kind of opening the show. You don't have to be perfect with money. If you're just doing a lot of the big things early, and often you get a lot of flexibility. You're rewarded for that early discipline.

[Ruby]

No, it's really good stuff. I like it. Next one is. I'm not making up these usernames, I promise. This one's From Beanie Weenie 1059. It says, asking for some poop.

[Bo Hansen]

When was the last time.

[Ruby]

I should have just made it up.

[Brian Preston]

Oh, you know what we had.

[Bo Hansen]

When was the last time you had Beanie Weenies? Because when I was a kid, that was a change tip. Were you a Beanie Weenie kid?

[Aaron Talks Money]

Oh, yeah. But again, I've told you guys, I have mild ocd. So my mom would, like, cut up the hot dog to put in the beans, but she would always eat one of the ends of the hot dog. So whenever I got my bowl, I'd look and make sure my hot dog had two ends.

[Bo Hansen]

Are you serious?

[Aaron Talks Money]

Yes.

[Bo Hansen]

That's wild.

[Ruby]

That's so specific.

[Brian Preston]

I have to tell you, we had a big neighborhood event in my house yesterday, and my next door neighbor, he ordered the food and he's carnivore.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay?

[Brian Preston]

So we had barbecue, but one of the sides was baked beans. Yeah, I forget how good.

[Aaron Talks Money]

They're so good.

[Brian Preston]

They are. So now I don't. I don't know.

[Bo Hansen]

They don't have chunks of hot dog?

[Brian Preston]

No, no. They had barbecue in these because these were. I'm trying to think of the barbecue because it's a famous brisket. Well, it had brisket. It had all kind of stuff in it. It was. It was glorious. But I told myself while I was eating, I was like, too bad. This is not healthy. There's no way it tastes good healthy.

[Bo Hansen]

There is no way these bacon beans are good. What are you telling me?

[Brian Preston]

That's no way. I mean, there's a lot of things that my parents fed me that you look back on. This was not healthy. I mean, the Kool Aid. Oh, yeah. I mean, who would have thought that my parents, like, yeah, load it up, son. Whatever you want. Pour the sugar in there. You know, we'll spin it around. There's a lot of things from my childhood that are not healthy, but Beanie Weenies, I don't. But we haven't gotten into the question.

[Bo Hansen]

My kids have never had Koolaid or Beanie Weenies. I. We should do that once, right? Like, they should experience it at least. They won't like it once.

[Brian Preston]

Leads to they realize they like it. It's probably okay if you don't My

[Bo Hansen]

wife, if she found out I gave my kids Kool Aid and Beanie, she would murder me for sure.

[Brian Preston]

Let's get to the question.

[Ruby]

All right. The question says, I'm asking for some help on the foo, the financial order of operations.

[Brian Preston]

You got the experts.

[Ruby]

Yeah, yeah, they do. The path to step eight of the FOO is very well defined. And when you get to step eight, it can feel like you are making suboptimal decisions. How do you think about step eight?

[Aaron Talks Money]

Because it is true.

[Ruby]

You got all your steps and then you're like, step eight. Well, Brian, you prepaid future expenses.

[Bo Hansen]

If I'm not mistaken, you wrote the book on this. You wrote the book on the financial

[Ruby]

order of New York order of operations selling book.

[Bo Hansen]

And we get asked all the time about the transition from 7 to 8, and we often talk about, like, the planning transition, but I do think there's a mental transition. What did you write about in the book as that changes?

[Brian Preston]

Well, I mean, I think. You know what's funny is I had to create essentially a mullet title for step eight because of these problems. Well, I mean, because it hits. It works because the original title for Step 8 is Prepaid Future expenses. I said it in my nerdy voice on purpose, and I was like, you know what? Us financial mutants were so good at saving money. Putting a professional title like that is still going to feel constrictive. It's going to feel like, hey, this is what you can and cannot do. I wanted to feel like good time. Uncle Bobby was in town and said, you know what? You've been doing good things. You should be rewarded. So now we call it also abundance goals. This is free yourself to actually enjoy this money. Because guess what? Your kids will love spending all your money down the road, and your grandkids will for sure. So you might as well get very comfortable now that you've done the hard steps of 1 through 7. Reward yourself. Spend time on what you actually enjoy doing. And this is why I've shared. I had to give up my tightwad card in my early 40s is because I realized now that I was beyond step eight, I have to think about how I want to use this money now. You can also be more charitable. I mean, my charity has gone way up, but a man, oh, man. We have the luxury cars, we do the nicer vacations, and I look at it as a dividend for all that hard discipline that was spent in the early years.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I don't think you have to be optimal when you've checked all the boxes I think it's more about life optimization rather than dollar optimization at that point.

[Bo Hansen]

I think so many people get to financial independence and they get to the time in life where, okay, now I'm going to go on the trip, and now I'm going to pick up the hobby. Now I'm going to experience the thing. And they've waited so long to actually do it that they can't enjoy it the way they'd always dreamed about enjoying it. You see, people, I want to travel the world, and they wait until they're 70 years old, and now you can't go hike the mountain, or you can't go swim in the waterfall, or you can't. Whatever. The thing is, if you can find ways to do those things while you're on the journey, while you're on the path, I think it's going to just be an unlocked. Oh, wow. This money, not only is it a tool for my future self, it can be a tool for my current self. And that's a. Okay, yeah, agree.

[Brian Preston]

I want you to enjoy your 20s, your 30s, your 40s, 50s and beyond. You need to make sure you're doing something in every decade to make sure you look back with excitement for that decade, not with regret. Yep.

[Ruby]

Money's a tool. It's a tool that helps you focus on what actually matters. So step eight, you're squarely getting to do that, which is awesome. All right, next.

[Bo Hansen]

You, Beanie Winnie, you just wanted to

[Ruby]

throw that in there. I really have the power. I could just change their usernames. No one would know.

[Bo Hansen]

We wouldn't know.

[Aaron Talks Money]

They would.

[Ruby]

Will they know? How will they know?

[Brian Preston]

They'll know on Tumblr day.

[Ruby]

They wouldn't, I guess. Yes, the person who asked the question would know, but nobody else would. But then I wouldn't get your reactions. I think there's something. I don't know. There's something in me that wants to see what you're gonna say. All right, well, this one is a pretty normal username. Just KM with some initials, maybe. I like it. It says, hey, team, I am in my 30s, married with two kids. I am an ex SpaceX employee.

[Bo Hansen]

Let's go.

[Ruby]

The new IPO will mean that SpaceX stock will have around 75% of my net worth.

[Brian Preston]

Oh, wow.

[Ruby]

Do I diversify or do I take a gamble?

[Bo Hansen]

I'm an ex SpaceX employee, so not currently employed with SpaceX. I'm assuming there's still going to be some equity.

[Brian Preston]

Let me throw a little interesting thing. So I'm assuming because the Current way you can get SpaceX is by being an employee. More than likely now that you're no longer an employee, this IPO is going to pop. By the way, if you didn't know, one of the things I found, you know it's going to have a valuation but SpaceX is only offering a very small percentage of the ownership pool for this ipo. So it's going to be everybody wants very few are going to get. So it's going to. It's the perfect recipe for boom. I mean it's going to be like boom shakalaka. Probably this thing's going to have a huge run up. The current employees are going to have a lockout period. They're not going to be able to sell during this. A lot of the insiders are going to be locked up. And by the way, if you don't know traditionally way IPO behavior is stock goes ipo, you get all the huge distortions because everybody piles in at the same time. But then over time it trickles down and then as soon as the gates get open for the employees to get in there and the insiders to sell, watch out below is because they all just dump it. And then usually it takes a few months for it to recover from that. And then you get into the trading range of what happens with IPO stocks. You might be KM in the perfect place to where when the stock pops you're going to be without restriction. You, you probably can you just know what your price is, know what you want to do know is, is any portion of this could be your permanent portfolio. Meaning you want to you support SpaceX and you want to own a portion of it so you don't have regret later. But how much of this should you sell and what's a reasonable price and then be prepared.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah, I think the fact that Specifically this is SpaceX is a unique thing and I want to zoom out from that and I want to take the company name away from it. If someone were to talk to me and they'll say hey, 75 of my net worth is tied up in a singular company stock, immediately my spidey sense would go off no matter what the stock is. Now SpaceX may do incredibly well. It may be wonderful, but before it goes ipo, I'd begin having a thought in my head, okay, what do I ultimately want this to look like? How much risk am I ultimately willing to take? Because just the fact that I was an employee and I got in early means I've probably already got some built in equity. Do I want to strategically, systematically, unemotionally pull some of these chips off the table. Maybe I still leave some there, some opportunity, some. Some potential for growth. But balance that with. Okay, I've already. You know, I always made the joke whenever someone was an early investor in a big company or a big stock, you've already won the lottery one time.

[Brian Preston]

Time.

[Bo Hansen]

If you won the lottery once, do you really take all the proceeds of winning the lottery and then go buy a lot more lottery tickets to see if you can do it again? Or do you begin to think about wealth and think about money a little bit differently? And that's the way that I would encourage KM with kmw. It. I don't know why I spelled it to think about that. To think about that pre ipo. Because likely what's going to happen is once it goes ipo, you're going to be rushed with all these emotions and you're gonna be up and down and excited and like, whatever happens, you're gonna go with that. So I would have a plan in place before that happens to try to remove the emotion from the equation.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I always have the pillow test. So if something is gonna keep you up at night, then it's too risky. So it's like you said, it's not an all or nothing thing. Have a written plan. And if you want to slowly diversify or however quickly or slowly you want to do that. But I just think 75% in one area, it would keep me up at night. So I think everyone kind of has to look at their own situation.

[Brian Preston]

But would you sell it all, though?

[Aaron Talks Money]

No. No, I wouldn't.

[Bo Hansen]

If it was me, I don't mind disclosing. I don't own any SpaceX currently. If it were me, I would not sell it all.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I would taper. That's how I would handle it.

[Brian Preston]

But. But it is. I agree.

[Bo Hansen]

Would you sell it all?

[Brian Preston]

No, I would probably keep. I'd keep 5% or 10% of my net worth in it. Just permanent portfolio. But I would definitely. I agree with you on the taper, except for I think this is going to be a very unique thing. That's why I was trying to lay out the parameters of what to kind of. Because you need to understand how IPOs work to know what you're working with. Because there are a lot of people, like I said, they're going to be. They're going to be restricted. And that creates a very unique moment in time for KM with. And you just got to be prepared, you know, to know what your unique Skill for the moment in time is. Or a unique thing that you have so you can be prepared for it. Prepare now, not when it happens.

[Ruby]

That was great. Let's see. KM with. Thank you for the question. Good luck as you figure out what that 74 y' all is going to look like in the future.

[Brian Preston]

Interesting, because they've. They've announced. Announced. It's only in the last week, few days, they've announced who they're doing the IPO with. And they did include Schwab and Fidelity on the list. And a lot of people I've seen content out there. I don't know. I have not verified this. But you, you do need to go on. If you're with Schwab or Fidelity, you have to go sign up for IPO alerts if you think you're going to try to get in on this to. I feel like that's a PSA to share for anybody who thinks they want to go dabble in this.

[Bo Hansen]

It's interesting. A former employee still has equity. I just. I'd be curious to know what that looked like.

[Brian Preston]

Well, you know, that's how we have a few clients that have SpaceX. And the way they got it is because there are pools out there where people are buying the shares. These investment companies are buying the shares from former employees and then reselling them in this secondary and bundling it all up. And so there has been ways to get access to this. It's. It's so interesting to see how this is all gonna play out.

[Ruby]

Interesting stuff. Time will tell.

[Brian Preston]

All right, the other hack was Baron, wasn't it?

[Bo Hansen]

Baron. Well, there's a couple. Yeah, there's a couple mutual funds that are very big holders of SpaceX stock right now. It's an interesting thing.

[Brian Preston]

I mean, this is the nerdy stuff. I mean, I can't help. I go down these rabbit holes and I can't help myself.

[Ruby]

Right. All right, next question. He's 26 years old. Says 26. Getting married in a year, trying to save or cash flow a wedding. If I need to dip into assets to help fund the wedding, should I one, sell investments in an after tax account or two, dip into my emergency fund?

[Brian Preston]

Erin, I want to put you on the hot seat here. What do you think?

[Aaron Talks Money]

My wedding was $5,000.

[Bo Hansen]

Let's go.

[Aaron Talks Money]

We had 14 people.

[Brian Preston]

Okay.

[Aaron Talks Money]

And I'm not a wedding girl. Again, Frugal noodle. I just kind of feel like it's one day now. If you want that party, that's fine. I personally would never sell investments For a wedding, for a party.

[Brian Preston]

I want to give a compliment. I went to Beau's wedding. I was in Beau's wedding. You were in my wedding. I was in Beau's wedding. Beau had a. I mean, how many people did y' all have at y' all's wedding?

[Bo Hansen]

It was like 80 or 90 or something like that.

[Brian Preston]

It was a decent, decent amount of people. Y' all did it. I mean, y' all did a great job. And do you mind disclosing how much y' all spent?

[Bo Hansen]

I want to say it was less than $12,000 is what I had in my head. It was something around that ballpark.

[Brian Preston]

I was just. The reason I shared that about Bo is because I remember thinking, as an active participant in it, is that it ties into all the other things we talk about. You can create incredible memories and not go broke. It's the system that's trying to sell this consumption to you. To where? Truthfully, both of you, what you described wouldn't even cover the flower budget for a lot of people. And it's the craziest thing in the world. And look, I'm also. I've been married 28 years. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. It doesn't feel that long, but it's. Which is, I think is a good thing. But we, you know, because my father in law had saved a wedding and my, you know, my wife did want the big wedding and I look and she didn't go crazy. It wasn't a super expensive wedding, but I think it was probably 100, 120 people.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay.

[Brian Preston]

And I do think about that all the time. Is that I don't even really remember our wedding because it was so overwhelming. The you're running around trying to make sure everybody feels like taken care of.

[Bo Hansen]

It's really a party for everyone else.

[Brian Preston]

It is. It's a party for everybody else. And it is one day. That's not what the marriage is built off of. Yes, you want to create great memories and experiences, but it's the rest of your life that is actually what the marriage is. So I wouldn't go run up a bunch of debt. It amazes me. It's more of a keeping up with the Joneses that the consumption world we live in where they have made this. This is what you're supposed to do to your future self detriment. And just don't fall into that consumption trap.

[Bo Hansen]

Yeah. And so you said don't run up a bunch of debt. I'd even take it a step further because your question was, okay, Emergency fund or sell investments. The very first thing I would do at 26 years old, I go to moneyguide.com resources, I go check out our wealth multiplier. And however much money you're thinking about liquidating, 5,000, 10,000, whatever it is, I want you to go put that in for the wealth multiplier for 26. You want to see exactly how much that will cost, like what the real cost of doing that is. And let me give you a great example. Do you remember the centerpieces we had at my wedding? Do you remember the centerpieces?

[Brian Preston]

Oh, gosh.

[Bo Hansen]

Do you remember the meal? Do you remember the food that we ate at the wedding?

[Brian Preston]

I think the, the only things that you had kegs of beer and I think you might have had was it was a weeded beer, was your fancy one. You had a, like Michelob Ultra. And I think you had Shock Top.

[Bo Hansen]

It was like Blue Moon.

[Brian Preston]

Blue Moon. That's what it was. I knew it was one of the weeded ones. That's the only thing I remember that is so horrible. Isn't that horrible? And I remember the uncomfortable shoes you made me to wear. That was the only other thing.

[Bo Hansen]

So the point that I'm making, we get so spun up on these things that we think matter a whole lot. And realistically, even people who are in your life, you know, 20 years later, they weren't going to remember that. They're going over the experience and the party and the fun. And so I would just think about, man, if I'm going to make this $10,000, 50, whatever the number is, and it's going to cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars down the line, would this have actually been worth it? And do I think that's going to be a trade off? And I would just start and have a very sincere conversation with your significant other. Because my wife and I did this, I was like, sweetie, I love you. We're not going to go in debt for this. We're not going to start our marriage on the wrong side of the ledger. And so we just got to work inside these confines and she did great. And, and I think, I think if you can have that conversation. And so, so then once you've arrived at that conclusion, right? So would I sell investment assets or what I dip into my emergency fund? The answer, I'm going to say is it depends. I want to know how big the, how big the money I'm going to have to pull out is how robust my emergency fund is and how quickly I could build that back Up. If it's like, okay, I got to go from six months fully funded down to four and a half months fully funded. But I can rebuild that up in the next three or four months. I may go emergency fund. If it's longer than that and I'm going to have an anemic emergency fund for a long period of time, then I'd likely sell investments to do that, and that's the way that I would measure those two.

[Ruby]

Yeah, it's just. Yeah. I think you're all agreeing. It's a big bummer if you have to do that and this is in

[Aaron Talks Money]

good financial shape, I will assume you're in their 20s. They have a brokerage account. They have an emergency fund. So I'm impressed.

[Ruby]

Yeah, that's awesome.

[Aaron Talks Money]

For 20 years.

[Ruby]

Hopefully that gives you some food for thought and you have some levers you can pull.

[Brian Preston]

Let's do one more. Is that bad?

[Ruby]

Come on. Honestly, yes.

[Brian Preston]

Aaron.

[Ruby]

We got stuff to do with Aaron, Brian.

[Brian Preston]

I know it.

[Ruby]

I know.

[Brian Preston]

I'm always. I just want one more. I hate that it's gonna be.

[Bo Hansen]

You mentioned that we have stuff to do with Aaron. If people want to know about, like, when that stuff with Aaron comes out. What? I know. What's one thing they should do, Aaron, if they want to know about when some new stuff that we might be doing is coming out.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Subscribe to both of our channels.

[Bo Hansen]

Both of the channels. Right now.

[Ruby]

Aaron talks money and the Money Guy show.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Yes.

[Bo Hansen]

Love that. Love that.

[Brian Preston]

All right. Okay.

[Bo Hansen]

All right.

[Aaron Talks Money]

We can do one more.

[Bo Hansen]

Here's one more question. Aaron, here's the question. This is from Bo's Spotters Weightlifter. Do you own in your portfolio, any individual stocks?

[Brian Preston]

Ooh, good one.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I have a few. When I first started investing, that's actually how I started. I'm like, I'm gonna be the next Warren Buffett. That didn't pan out. I was 8 at the time, so forgive me there, but I struck gold a couple times.

[Bo Hansen]

Okay.

[Aaron Talks Money]

I got in on Facebook right when they launched.

[Bo Hansen]

Oh, wow.

[Aaron Talks Money]

And I held onto that. I've bought, but I would say it's less than 5% of my portfolio. And so nowadays I'm just index and chill. But yeah, I mean, over the years, I've had a few.

[Bo Hansen]

Love that. Awesome. How do I get a Tumblr Ruby?

[Ruby]

It's not a Tumblr day, so, no,

[Bo Hansen]

I can't give you one.

[Ruby]

I'm sorry. Maybe next week, Tuesday, 10am Central. We'll be back here every Tuesday answering your questions. It has been really awesome to have you, Aaron. Thank you for jumping in. And remember to subscribe to both channels. Aaron Talks Money and the Money Guy show. And check out moneyguy.com resources for all the free stuff we talked about and more.

[Brian Preston]

Yeah, and you heard it. We're gonna have more content with Aaron. We gotta record. I woke up this morning and told my wife. I was like, you wouldn't believe how many shows we're about to record today. So there's more to come. As you can tell, we're having a blast. That's why we didn't want it to end. We don't ever want it to end with you guys either. So I would encourage you, please go to the website. Do sign up. You know, because we get a. We have a weekly newsletter that goes out and gives you kind of the greatest hits for the past week. We don't sell the newsletter list. We're just truly trying to love on you and know who you are. Because in this rapidly changing world, I feel like that's the important part is for us to stay connected so that we can, you know, keep building this great big beautiful tomorrow. Aaron, you've been awesome. Thank you for coming on.

[Aaron Talks Money]

Thanks for having me.

[Brian Preston]

We always. This is our second time doing this. We always have a great time. We'll have. I'm sure this won't be the last time. I'm your host, Brian. Joined by Bo. This thing moved on me, I think. Joined by Aaron. The rest of the money got team Money got out.

[Ruby]

The Money Guy show is hosted by Brian Preston and Bo Hansen. 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.