Does Getting Married Help You Earn More Money? Earn Your Leisure's Troy and Rashad on the Marital Minimum Wage, Tariffs, Financial Trauma and "F U Numbers"

Summary

Podcast Summary: Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Episode: Does Getting Married Help You Earn More Money? Earn Your Leisure's Troy and Rashad on the Marital Minimum Wage, Tariffs, Financial Trauma and "F U Numbers"
Release Date: May 30, 2025

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Introduction

In this highly anticipated crossover episode of Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin, the host welcomes Troy Millings and Rashad Bilal, the dynamic duo behind the influential financial literacy podcast, Earn Your Leisure. Nicole expresses her excitement about the collaboration, highlighting Troy and Rashad's expertise in building wealth and educating their audience through actionable financial advice.

Notable Quote:

Nicole Lapin [00:02]: "This is the crossover episode we have all been waiting for."

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Navigating the US-China Trade War and Market Uncertainty

The conversation kicks off with Troy and Rashad sharing their insights on the ongoing US-China trade war and its implications for individual investment portfolios. They emphasize the importance of staying calm during market volatility, drawing parallels to experiences from the pandemic where their audience witnessed various market conditions.

Key Points:

• Preparation for Uncertainty: The audience's prior exposure to market fluctuations during the pandemic positioned them to better handle the uncertainties of the trade war.
• Investment Discipline: Emphasizing buying the dip rather than succumbing to panic selling, Troy notes how disciplined investing has led to significant portfolio gains.

Notable Quotes:

Rashad Bilal [03:07]: "There's some uncertainty, which has always been the number one thing in the market that we can't control."

Troy Millings [04:13]: "Retail investors tend to do 4 to 5% worse than the S&P 500 because they get so scared during these times."

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Insider Trading and Political Influence in Financial Markets

Delving into the murky waters of insider trading, Troy raises concerns about high-profile figures like Nancy Pelosi leveraging non-public information for personal gain. Rashad expands on this by explaining the mechanics of options trading and how deep in-the-money options indicate a certain level of insider confidence in a company's growth.

Key Points:

• Legality and Ethics: The discussion highlights how current regulations allow members of Congress to trade stocks based on privileged information, raising questions about fairness and integrity.
• Market Impact: The duo debates whether the marketplace can ever truly be democratized given the inherent advantages held by political elites.

Notable Quotes:

Troy Millings [20:17]: "How can finance be democratized when there's such an unfair advantage?"

Rashad Bilal [20:36]: "If you're Elon Musk, you're not the same as a schoolteacher in Nebraska. You can literally put $200 million into an election."

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Personal Financial Traumas and Their Impact on Financial Literacy

Rashad shares a poignant personal story about his parents losing their home due to an adjustable-rate mortgage, highlighting the profound impact of financial education (or the lack thereof) on family stability. This experience fueled his passion for financial literacy, leading him to educate himself and others to prevent similar financial downfalls.

Key Points:

• Adjustable vs. Fixed-Rate Mortgages: Rashad explains how his parents' lack of understanding about mortgage terms led to financial ruin.
• Resilience and Discipline: Despite losing their home, the tight-knit family dynamic fostered a sense of financial discipline in Rashad.
• Self-Education: Without formal education in economics or business, Rashad became self-taught, leveraging resources like Business Week and CNBC to build his financial knowledge.

Notable Quotes:

Rashad Bilal [06:38]: "Financial discipline became the thing. I was going to school in Westchester, but living in the Bronx and figuring out how to manage bus money and lunch money every day shaped my future."

Unknown [35:11]: "Because you don't want to lose it. Nobody wants to have money and then go broke."

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The Financial Benefits and Considerations of Marriage

A substantial portion of the episode explores the financial advantages of marriage, often referred to as the marital minimum wage—the phenomenon where married individuals tend to earn more than their single counterparts. Troy and Rashad discuss how marriage can provide financial stability through dual incomes, compound investment strategies, and shared financial goals.

Key Points:

• Dual Incomes: Combining finances can lead to greater investment power and wealth accumulation.
• Compound Interest: Marrying often results in the merging of investment portfolios, effectively doubling investment potential.
• Prenuptial Agreements: Emphasizing the importance of having a prenup to protect financial interests and ensure transparency.
• Emotional Stability: A happy marriage fosters a supportive environment for financial growth and decision-making.

Notable Quotes:

Rashad Bilal [14:44]: "Two incomes are better than one. It's been proven that married couples have a better financial trajectory than single individuals."

Troy Millings [16:05]: "The first hundred k is the hardest. The initial accumulation phase can be the most frustrating."

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Building Wealth: Goals, Compound Interest, and Financial Milestones

The guests delve into the journey of accumulating wealth, discussing pivotal milestones such as saving the first $100,000 and eventually reaching $1 million. They emphasize the importance of compound interest and disciplined investing, while also addressing the psychological challenges that come with increased wealth.

Key Points:

• First $100k: Seen as an attainable and crucial threshold for initiating substantial investments.
• Reaching $1 Million: Highlighted as a significant but challenging milestone, often accompanied by lifestyle creep and increased financial anxiety.
• Long-Term Goals: Discussing ambitions beyond a million, setting targets like $10 million or even $100 million to achieve complete financial independence.
• Changing Metrics: Continuously setting higher financial goals to maintain motivation and growth.

Notable Quotes:

Unknown [51:21]: "The biggest money tip that I could ever give somebody is to live below your means. Increase your income, decrease your spending, invest the difference."

Rashad Bilal [31:16]: "100,000 is very attainable. A million is almost impossible, but once you get there, you just need to keep going."

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Challenges in Democratizing Financial Literacy

Troy and Rashad address the inherent challenges in achieving true financial democracy, given the existing advantages held by the wealthy and politically connected. They discuss how, despite the best efforts to educate the masses, systemic imbalances persist.

Key Points:

• Unequal Playing Field: Wealthy individuals and institutions have disproportionate access to information and resources.
• Participation Over Perfection: Encouraging everyone to engage in the financial game, even within an imperfect system, to narrow the wealth gap.
• Leveraging Technology: Utilizing apps and tools to track insider trading and empower regular investors with information.

Notable Quotes:

Rashad Bilal [25:15]: "You can participate in an imperfect system. The key to democratization is participation."

Unknown [25:21]: "If we don't participate, that imbalance just widens."

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Final Money Tips and Audience Engagement

As the episode nears its conclusion, the guests share actionable money tips for listeners to implement immediately. They also engage in light-hearted financial games, making the content both informative and entertaining.

Key Points:

• Live Below Your Means: Consistently spending less than you earn to save and invest the surplus.
• Invest Regularly: Committing to regular investments regardless of market conditions to harness compound interest.
• Educate Yourself: Continuously seeking financial knowledge to make informed investment decisions.
• Positive Financial Mindset: Developing a mindset centered around abundance rather than scarcity to foster better financial habits.

Notable Quotes:

Unknown [51:21]: "If you can learn to live below your means and invest the difference, you'll be okay."

Rashad Bilal [52:08]: "Start now. Today is as good a day as any."

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Conclusion

The episode wraps up with a playful segment of "Never Have I Ever", reinforcing the camaraderie between Nicole, Troy, and Rashad. They humorously touch upon financial missteps, personal anecdotes, and the importance of maintaining financial discipline. Nicole highlights the critical role of continuous financial education, inviting listeners to engage further by submitting their money questions.

Notable Quote:

Nicole Lapin [55:16]: "Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make."

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This episode of Money Rehab offers a comprehensive exploration of the intricate relationship between personal relationships and financial success, the challenges of navigating market uncertainties, and the persistent quest for financial freedom. By intertwining personal stories with expert advice, Nicole, Troy, and Rashad provide valuable insights aimed at empowering listeners to take control of their financial destinies.

Transcript

[Nicole Lapin]

I'm Nicole Lapin, the only financial expert. You don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some Money Rehab. Well, well, well. This is the crossover episode we have all been waiting for. Today I'm joined by the trailblazers behind Earn your Leisure, Troy Millings and Rashad Bilal. It if you don't already know, earn your leisure isn't just a financial literacy podcast. It is a full on empire. Troy and Rashad have been hosting their show for years and bringing on guests to share advice on building wealth. And so when their team reached out to us and asked if they could be guests on money rehab, it was a fast hell yes. And the conversation was just awesome, nerdy and actionable as I knew it would be. We dig into a lot, so get ready. We talk about their predictions on the US China trade war and what it means for your portfolio. We also talk about the insider trading mess in Washington and whether finance can really be democratized. Also, we go pretty deep talking about financial trauma, money dysmorphia, and the push pull of relationships and money and what it actually means to feel like you have enough. Oh, and if you have a crush on Rashad, you will get the answer on whether or not he is single.

[Troy Millings]

Kind of. Welcome to Money Rehab.

[Rashad Bilal]

Thank you for having us, Nicole. It's a pleasure to be here.

[Troy Millings]

So I've been such a fan for such a long time. Gotta throw some financial flowers your way since the beginning. Appreciate that. I'm such a big fan of what you do. We're all in the financial literacy party. I think what really struck me is you're so calm. I love your voice in a crisis even makes me calm.

[Rashad Bilal]

Everyone relax.

[Unknown]

Appreciate it. Thank you.

[Troy Millings]

Have you always been chill?

[Unknown]

Nah, nah. You gotta keep your composure. I think that we've always had like a calm demeanor. He's a little bit more outgoing than I am. Like, I'm very like chill, laid back, reserved person. But I feel like in the day and age where everybody's trying to be somebody that they're not and like, I feel like a lot of times when you get online or get on social media, it's almost like wrestling. You have to adapt to a personality. So you have to like change your name and you gotta change the way that you dress and change the way that you talk. So I think it's refreshing for people to just really feel like it's an organic vibe. And that's what we did. We haven't changed our Personas or changed our name or changed too much about ourselves. We're just the same people that we were before. So even if people don't know us or haven't knew us for 20, 30 years, they can feel like it's an authentic person that they actually grew up with, as opposed to a celebrity or a talking head that they're listening to.

[Troy Millings]

Maybe with some fancier stuff, a couple of trinkets with the tariffs going on. Not necessarily on my bingo card, although it probably should have been because with Trump, he tells us what he's going to do. It just wasn't on the bingo card with how aggressive it was. So everybody is freaking out. Your audience is freaking out. How do you tell people to stay calm?

[Rashad Bilal]

The beautiful thing about our audience is that they grew with us through the pandemic. And so they've seen crisis before and they've seen a bull market and they've seen a bear market and they've seen Catalyst events that have the market appreciate and they've seen Catalyst events have the market depreciate. So when this happened, it was kind of that preparation of there's some uncertainty, which has always been the number one thing in the market that we can't control. And you can reference 2020 March of what uncertainty looked like and we can reference circuit breakers.

[Troy Millings]

It was crazy.

[Rashad Bilal]

Exactly. Right? This is the end. How far can this thing fall? And so when you see something like the tariff announcement happen in early April, it was like, oh, okay, we've seen something like this before. There's a lot of uncertainty. But. But this is an opportunity, right. Every time there's a crisis, we always tell people there's an opportunity for people to really take advantage of it. And so our audience was prepared. It wasn't like, I'm selling everything. It was like, we know what to do. Right. When these prices get to points that we like inside of good companies, we're investing. And so they did that and they're going to slowly but surely they're starting to see the benefits of that discipline when it comes to investing.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. Because with that opportunity we saw 1500 point gains, three of them, I think, record breaking highs. And you can only participate in that if you don't sell. I mean, retail investors, I think studies have shown, and you'll know this, tend to do 4 to 5% worse than the S&P 500 because they get so scared during these times. And Google shows that sell stocks, that search rises anytime we see a short term dip. But that opportunity means that your investment portfolio is up. Do you guys know how much Yours is up right now.

[Unknown]

Well, I'll say this. We're still down from the highs that we were at in February. We haven't recovered fully yet. But we spoke with the head of brokerage at Robinhood, and he says they had a record inflow of money that flew in over the last month and a half. So now I think that people are starting to go away from what they used to do as far as panic and sell. There's still some panic selling that happens, but now people are really buying the dip. And that's become a term in urban vernacular is buy the dip. Right. So I think that more and more people are looking at these downturns as an opportunity as opposed to being scared. And that goes to the work that everybody, like yourself, has been doing and championing as far as financial literacy, teaching people about investing, teaching people about index funds, teaching people about dollar cost averaging. So they used to call retail investors dumb money because they were not educated. So they were liquidity. They were opportunities for smart money, which is whales and institutions and hedge funds to make money off of. But now I think they're starting to change. I think more and more regular people that might have $5,000 or $10,000 or $1,000 invested, they're still educated, and they're not getting taken advantage of at the same level that it might have been at previous times in history. So I think that current is starting to change a little bit.

[Rashad Bilal]

He said something important. The title sophisticated investor really doesn't have a monetary amount attached to it anymore. You could have $10,000 and be a sophisticated investor because you have the education. Whereas in the past, a sophisticated investor was somebody that had over 250,000 in their brokerage because they had the capital and people giving them information, then they were making better decisions. But now with the wealth of resources, obviously shows and books, people can make their own decisions and become sophisticated with the amount of money that they had and can grow portfolios.

[Troy Millings]

I mean, the best emotion to have when you're investing is no emotion, which is really, really hard. And that's where a lot of the financial demons come into play. And you guys talk about in the book, you deserve to be rich, some of your financial trauma. So, Troy, can you talk to me about when your parents lost your house and how that impacted you and how that still impacts you today?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, it's interesting. I still live in the neighborhood where that house is, which is pretty interesting. So when we were writing the book, I drove past it just as a moment to see how far We've come, but, yeah, my parents from Jamaica, they moved to the Bronx and we were living in the South Bronx in the 80s and they bought a house in Greenberg, New York. And at the time, I remember them trying to get as much money as they could for the down payment, borrowing money from family members. And we finally got the house and it was great. Felt like, yeah, we moving on up. And within three short years, everything turned around. We lost the house and ended up moving twice and ended up in somebody's basement, one of my dad's friends, his basement. And it was humbling, the embarrassment of it. You have a house in the neighborhood and everybody's looking at you like, yo, you guys, you're doing well. And then you're in somebody's basements. Roach infested, rat infested. And just like, how did this happen? As time goes on, you realize that the financial education wasn't there. What happened to them was they signed an adjustable rate mortgage in 1988, and they didn't know what a fixed rate mortgage was. And so when they could afford it in 1988, they, it was great. But by 1990, 91, that interest rate almost doubled. And so now it wasn't something that they could afford anymore and it was moving on down. But what it did do is it showed me what coming together looks like, because even in the midst of that, we never felt like we didn't have. I grew tight relationships with my parents, I grew tight relationships with my brother because we were experiencing that in the same time. And so financial discipline became the thing. I was going to school in Westchester, but living in the Bronx and getting bus money and trying to figure out, how am I going to have the bus money and lunch money to get home every day. And these are the things I'm thinking about, like, how am I going to do this? I didn't have a TV at the time. I remember I used to just listen to the radio and read the newspaper, but inside that. That's why I got a love for reading. Especially like, I was reading the sports section, but then I go to the business section and then I would read the news in front. So I always read the daily news back to front. I love sports. And I was like, all right, I'll get a little business in the middle and then I'll get to whatever's happening in the world. And so that discipline helped me. Later in life, when it was time to learn about finance, I didn't go to school for economics. I didn't go to school for Business. It was self taught. And so that reading came back into it. It was Business Week, it was cnbc. It was anything I can get my hands on that would help increase my knowledge base around the world that I wasn't familiar with because my parents didn't come for it. A lot of my family didn't come for it. I did have some friends who had some financial knowledge, but I wanted to be part of their conversations. Like I was around and they would have financial conversations. I was like, man, I can't really contribute. I don't know what they're talking about. And so I took on the liberty to say, all right, I gotta go educate myself. So the next time they have a conversation about money and finance and real estate. Yeah, I'm well in depth. In fact, I'm gonna add to this conversation. So it was like a challenge for me from that point on. But that all happened because of losing a house and figuring out how you're gonna move on as a teen and how you're gonna correct those mistakes in the future for your family.

[Troy Millings]

And you own a house now?

[Rashad Bilal]

I own a house. I own two homes. Yeah. So I own my parents. We live in a home now. And that's interesting. During the pandemic when interest rates were really low and I remember like, hey, we got to refinance this house. And my parents were like, we can't do it. We co own it. And they were like, psychologically, Psychologically just going through the process of interest rates. That. That trigger word again. They couldn't do it. I'm like, look, it's 2.75. We may not get to this point again. Right now we're at four and a half. That's two points on your interest. And, and just the fear and the process of them going through something like that again, they didn't do it. And so we stayed at that four and a quarter, four and a half. And now you see interest rates up at 7%. So we missed a moment where they could have saved money on a mortgage. But that fear kicked in again. So I owned that home with them. And then I just completed a home that I just built with my wife. So that was a process too.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. I remember my family's house being foreclosed on when I was little. And no matter what, I know still about finances, it's always going to be an emotional conversation. And I think a house is a home. It's not actually a great investment over time compared to the stock market, but I think it's hard to divorce Yourself from those early emotions and that early trauma. Rashad, do you have an early story that has affected the way you look at money?

[Unknown]

For me, it's just a matter of understanding entrepreneurship at a high level. Because my dad was an entrepreneur. My mom was a schoolteacher. She's always from a standpoint of, like, security, and he was on a standpoint of making risk. As an entrepreneur, you take risks. You know, when you're a kid, you're not really privy to a lot of conversations, but if you're an observing person, you can pick up things. You don't have to actually have a conversation with somebody to know what's actually happening. It's like a puzzle. You can put pieces together. There's a lot of times where as an entrepreneur, you might not get paid for a week or a month or whatever, right? And that is an inflow of cash that's not always stable. So that can cause a lot of issues. When one person has a stable income, the other person doesn't have a stable income. That causes problems. You know what I'm saying? Like, that causes problems. So you see things like that and you understand, like, okay, like, this is the dynamics of a family, that when you're dealing with finances and it could lead to issues, and that's something that you pick up early on. So you gotta figure out, like, is this something that I want for myself, or do I wanna subject somebody else to that? Or you start to think about those type of things. Because a lot of issues in relationships come down to finances. I think that's one of the major cause for divorces actually in America. There's a lot of different things that you just pick up on as a child that shapes who you are as an adult. But for me personally, I always wanted to be entrepreneur. So you see the ups and downs and know that it's not easy. But that's giving you some level of foresight of what you need to avoid and different mistakes that you could potentially stay away from. Keep your overhead low. Don't over expend yourself when times are good. Make sure you hoard money as opposed to spending money when times is good. Then you don't have money when times are not good. So these are all things that you pick up if you're around people that actually are in business. And you can learn from their mistakes just by observing. And you can learn from things that they're doing good by observing. Like, sometimes you don't always have to actually get mentored to learn. Like I said, if you're an observing person. You can actually learn just by being in close proximity.

[Troy Millings]

So you wanted to be an entrepreneur, but you also want to be married, huh?

[Unknown]

You said I wanted to be married.

[Troy Millings]

You want to be married, is that right?

[Unknown]

Marriage? If it happens, it happens.

[Troy Millings]

Haven't you recently said that the best thing you can do in this economy is get married?

[Unknown]

For sure.

[Troy Millings]

Tell me more.

[Unknown]

Two incomes are better than one. So it's been proven that married couple financial trajectory is better than a single person. That's been proven. So I think that it's beneficial if you find somebody that you know, you really connect with to have a family unit, even if any taxes. And like there's so many different things that you get benefits for from being married. But it's also a thing that can actually really hurt somebody financially also if you find the wrong person, that's for sure. So it's not something that you enter into ill advised prematurely. So you have to find the right person and you have to have proper guidance and an education before you enter that union.

[Troy Millings]

Wow, that's very professoric.

[Rashad Bilal]

This is a message sponsored by the married men of America.

[Unknown]

If you could find love, I congratulate you.

[Troy Millings]

But have you found love?

[Unknown]

Me? I'm not married.

[Troy Millings]

Are you dating?

[Rashad Bilal]

That wasn't the question, man.

[Unknown]

I'm just day by day, I'm just living, taking it one day at a time.

[Troy Millings]

So that's a no?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes, Nicole, I am married and I am in love. We recently celebrated 13 years.

[Troy Millings]

Congratulations.

[Rashad Bilal]

And what he's saying is true. And before I was married, he was my financial advisor. And so that was some of the advice. It was like two incomes are better than one. But there's a certain level of stability that you have when you're in a marriage. If you look at the wealthiest people in the world, they have something in common. They either are married or they were married or they've been divorced and got remarried. Because there is a sense of stability there and there's a sense of ordinance in your life. Right. There's a certain level of discipline when it comes to being in a marriage. So there are benefits for it. Which is what prompted that statement that you read. Because being outside and being around a lot of my friends who are single, I'm listening to the stories and I'm hearing the feedback and I'm watching the relationships that they're having. And there's a common theme and it's imbalance, right? There's a lack of stability, There's a lack of knowing what I want and what I'm looking for. And so that led to the prompting of, like, you know what? The best thing to be in this space right now is find somebody that you can really rely on, count on, and build with.

[Unknown]

How do you feel about it? What's your thoughts on that?

[Troy Millings]

Well, I actually learned from you guys about the marital minimum wage that basically is that married men make, on average, more than single men. I just wonder if what's the chicken and what's the egg? Do married men become more successful or do more successful men get married?

[Unknown]

Well, what's your personal experience?

[Troy Millings]

My personal experience is having a happy marriage, which I have. And there's a difference, I think, between being married and being happily married. You're absolutely a partnership and a team. And the day we mushed our brokerages together, that was such a great experience. Because you talk about compound interest. That was a compounding effect of two investment portfolios becoming one, and that number doubled.

[Unknown]

Do you think that you being married has helped you not just from a brokerage standpoint? Do you feel like you're more successful because you're married?

[Troy Millings]

I think that I have more time to focus on it because we actually met on Raya.

[Unknown]

On what?

[Troy Millings]

On a dating app.

[Unknown]

Okay. Okay.

[Troy Millings]

Are you on dating apps?

[Unknown]

No, I'm not on dating apps.

[Troy Millings]

I had more time because I wasn't on the dating app anymore. Now we talk about the app being like Zillow.

[Unknown]

Social media is a dating app. Instagram's a dating app now. Like every. Every.

[Troy Millings]

Is that how you're starting to date?

[Unknown]

No, I. I'm not going to let you go.

[Troy Millings]

Don't know about what's going on with you?

[Unknown]

We don't know. We never really got the answer on that.

[Troy Millings]

You're such a politician. So most. I'll get us back to financial news, but the people want to know, what are you looking for?

[Unknown]

Good energy is extremely important. That's the number one key in life. You got to have good energy, good financial hygiene.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

You know, I'm not really a person that really checks somebody. I'm not one of those people that's like, on the first date, what's your credit score?

[Troy Millings]

That's not cool or sexy.

[Unknown]

But some people, like, in, like, some people in the financial literacy community, like, that's the first question you should know.

[Troy Millings]

No, but you know, to pick up on cues for how responsible somebody is.

[Unknown]

For sure, definitely that's important. I think positive cash flow is. Is important. You don't want to be with somebody that's a liability. Do you need assets? More assets Than liabilities, for sure.

[Rashad Bilal]

She's 10 for 10 right now. Nicole, you are on fire. I'm loving this. You're amazing. She's a Pisces, by the way.

[Unknown]

Are you?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

When's your birthday?

[Rashad Bilal]

March 7th. Wow. You thought I was.

[Troy Millings]

You did some due diligence.

[Rashad Bilal]

I know who you are.

[Troy Millings]

Oh, my God. I know your birthday. I know your Social Security number.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's next. Well, later on.

[Troy Millings]

Okay, Rashad, we're just trying to get you married here.

[Unknown]

Appreciate it.

[Troy Millings]

We're trying to do money rehab and I appreciate it.

[Rashad Bilal]

You ask him. What?

[Unknown]

Should I get a prenup.

[Troy Millings]

You want a prenup?

[Unknown]

Mandatory.

[Rashad Bilal]

Amanda. Oh, man.

[Unknown]

It's money.

[Rashad Bilal]

Really zoom in on.

[Unknown]

We gotta make sure we give responsible. We gotta make sure we give responsible financial advice.

[Troy Millings]

So you're ready with your prenup and you want good energy.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Troy Millings]

That's the criteria.

[Unknown]

You know. You know what I saw on social media? People with a prenup are less likely to get divorced than people without a prenup.

[Rashad Bilal]

Is that true?

[Unknown]

That's what I saw. A divorce lawyer, he said he's done thousands of prenups and only have five divorces.

[Troy Millings]

Because I think it's about good communication, right? Like, you're gonna have a prenup regardless. The state's gonna decide what if, God forbid, you get divorced. But it's having that hard, adult conversation. I'm going to let you go on this one for today.

[Rashad Bilal]

Communication? No, communication is key.

[Troy Millings]

It's 100% key. But he's answering questions now like a politician. And so I'm curious, with all of the chaos happening in Washington, would you ever run for office?

[Unknown]

I put on my Instagram last year that I was thinking about running for governor of New York. And so I have political friends. So one of my friends was actually a congressperson. And they're like, are you serious about this? I'm like, look, nah, I'm not serious about it. Don't worry. But I do think that I'm 50. 50 on the politics thing. Half of me would be very interested in being in office. The other half of me just feels like it's so fake and you gotta make everybody happy and you can't be who you really are. Which now I guess that's not.

[Rashad Bilal]

Maybe you could be right.

[Unknown]

Maybe you can.

[Troy Millings]

The floodgates have opened.

[Unknown]

The floodgates have opened. Kick down the doors for sure. So I don't know. Politics is interesting, man. It's just. It's a dirty game, politics.

[Rashad Bilal]

Do we like his chances? If he does.

[Troy Millings]

I love those chances. I vote for you. What I'm worried about in Washington is all of this insider trading. When we were checking our portfolios, there was a report that Nancy Pelosi made like 5 million bucks, which is 26 times her salary by. In the market. It's on both sides of the aisle. The only thing they can agree on is the trading side or trading.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. I actually did a study on Nancy Pelosi's trading. It was interesting how she was doing options. And so a lot of her options were deep in the money. And so that, that was even a strategy.

[Troy Millings]

Explain what deep in the money.

[Rashad Bilal]

So deep in the money. So options are. You're predicting the appreciation of an equity. Right. So there's a strike price which is where you want to reach. But if you've passed that on the way up, then you're out the money. Right. Because it hasn't gotten to that point. But let's give a number like 150. Right. When you're deep in the money, you're going below 150. Right. So you might be at 100. Meaning the equity has already passed by far where the current equity is trading.

[Troy Millings]

In other words, you're not buying it unless you know something.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's a. Yeah, you know something. And you know that there's potential for growth inside of that equity. And so I looked at the companies he was invested in. A lot of them had to do with technology, which was interesting. I'm like, all right, we know technology runs the economy. But where she was buying these calls at was really interesting. So if a company like Nvidia was trading at 120, she was buying like $60 calls. Right. Meaning it's far surpassed $60. But there's potential growth for it to go up and the depreciation, the percentage going down is a lot less. Because for Nvidia, a company like that trillion dollar company from, to go from 120 back down to 60 is highly unlikely. So there's a little bit of certainty there. So it was interesting. I was watching that Marjorie Green is another one and I actually listened to your episode about it when you were Talking about the ETFs that track both Democratic and Republican moves. And it was like, it's funny that none of it's illegal, but it feels very, allegedly, it feels like there, there gotta be some legalities that not being checked.

[Troy Millings]

We had Senator Jill Brown on the show just saying.

[Rashad Bilal]

From New York.

[Troy Millings]

From New York and senators. Actually, I think it's all Congress beats The s and P500 by 17%. That's unless somebody is like Warren Buffett in disguise in Washington. It has to be knowledge.

[Unknown]

It's like Covid. They all sold their stocks two weeks before the official lockdown happened because they got briefed that we was going to get a lockdown. It's human nature. If you know something, you're going to act on it. And it's not illegal.

[Troy Millings]

It's not. SEC Chair Gary Gensler came out and said it's not illegal to act on non public information if you're in Congress.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

So maybe when you're a senator, they know who.

[Unknown]

They know who's getting contracts, they know who's about to get under investigation, they know when they know everything. They get briefed on things that we're not privy to. So of course, if they're smart, they're going to use that information to make money. And now we've seen it even go a step further with meme coins. President has a meme coin. Right. So now you actually have political people that's actually endorsing their own coin investment to push to the public marketed from the bully pulpit that they've been provided from being elected officials. That's unprecedented. Pretty much, yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

And incentivizing it too.

[Troy Millings]

You think about Trump coin? Because I think it was like 58 people made a ton of money.

[Unknown]

10 million.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

And then everybody else lost everything. Yeah. It's a scam. Any of those coins are scams. They're not tied to anything. The whole point of that is just to pump it up real quick, get a few people rich and then it's going to fall apart. So that's happened with anybody that's done that with celebrities when they've endorsed the coin. We just never seen a president do that before. But there's a lot of things that we've never seen happen.

[Rashad Bilal]

Or first lady, she got a coin.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, everybody gets a coin. Granddaughter is going to get a coin next. I don't know. I think what worries me, and you guys do such great work on democratizing financial literacy and I try to do the same work. But when you have this going on in Washington, can it ever actually be democratized when there's such an unfair advantage? When you see, you know, I think it came out that 100 members of Congress are trading stocks that they have bills on with this playing field, can it ever be leveled?

[Unknown]

No, it's never gonna be level. The idea of there's no democracy, like democracy is everybody's equal. That's not true. We know that if you're Elon Musk, you're not the same as a schoolteacher in Nebraska. You can literally put $200 million into an election. How are you equal? Right. If that was the case, then it would be so many different laws and rules that would be put in place to make every single person equal. So I think that it's never an equal playing field in life, but the most you can do is actually just get into the game. That's it.

[Troy Millings]

Right?

[Unknown]

You can get into the game. You're not gonna be Lebron James, but at least you're in the game. You can participate.

[Troy Millings]

You can participate in an imperfect system.

[Rashad Bilal]

I think that's the key to democratized part is the participation. So, yes, we know that they're doing it. Can we track what they're doing? Oh, yeah. There's actually apps that you can use to track it. So if we can track it, that means we, we can use information too. We can participate at the level we're at because, yeah, like you said, it's always going to be imbalance. But if we don't participate, that imbalances. That gap just widens. So far.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. You can't say, well, I'm not going to do it because it's not fair. Well, then get left behind.

[Rashad Bilal]

You got to be in the game to win.

[Unknown]

You either participate or sit on the sidelines or start a revolution and try to erase the whole entire system and bring a new system in. But that's extremely difficult to do. So as long as we're going to.

[Troy Millings]

Do it, we're waiting for you, Rashad. You're going to run for office with your wife.

[Rashad Bilal]

First lady. Yeah. See it now.

[Unknown]

There you have it.

[Rashad Bilal]

I'll be the campaign manager. I got political strategist right here.

[Unknown]

I like that. I like that.

[Troy Millings]

We're on the case.

[Unknown]

You're hired.

[Nicole Lapin]

Hold onto your wallets. Money rehab will be right back. And now for some more money rehab.

[Troy Millings]

How often do you check your brokerage?

[Unknown]

I mean, you gotta check every day.

[Rashad Bilal]

Every day?

[Troy Millings]

I check twice a day. So how much are you up?

[Rashad Bilal]

Let me check.

[Troy Millings]

Can we check?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, I'm gonna check right now.

[Troy Millings]

Should we all check?

[Rashad Bilal]

My e is up 79.

[Troy Millings]

79.

[Rashad Bilal]

We got down to 11 earlier in April, so, yeah, since April. So we're up about 60% since the Terraform where primarily. So I have. That's my options trading account.

[Unknown]

But it's all relative. I think sometimes people get discouraged when numbers. Numbers is an infinite language. There's no ending or Beginning in mathematics. So we have to look at, okay, where are you up since we started the year where are you up since you started your brokerage account? Let's say I'm up 500% since I started my brokerage account, but I'm down from the start of February when this. I think sometimes this can be misleading and it can have some level of discouragement for the average person. I just tell people, just invest. If you invest in quality companies, ETFs, index funds, you're going to make money over the course of time. But in pockets, you might have a good season where you're up, you might have a bad season when you're down. But if you look at it, if you look at it too much, then that's going to cause you either a comparison analogy where you're actually comparing yourself to other people, then you start to gamble, then you start to make bad decisions, or you get discouraged because you're like, why am I doing this? I'm only up 5%. I might as well just gamble online. Right now. There's more money putting online gambling than the stocks. That's a problem. So we really have to be cautious about how we're curating these messages, because the reason why people are putting more money into online gambling is because they think that they can have a quicker opportunity to make more money.

[Troy Millings]

I like it boring. Like, so boring. I like my returns.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Most people are not entertained by something that's boring. They're entertained by flash and numbers. And if that's the mentality, then you're gonna go to Las Vegas.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. And you're starting to see it now over the past six or seven years, where people are appreciating the number. So where it was, hey, we can get you a return of 7%. People are sneezing at that. That's a good return.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. But 7 to 10%, when you're not.

[Rashad Bilal]

Educated in the space, it feels like, oh, that's not a lot. Especially if I tell you, hey, I had this equity that I invested in, Nvidia would be a company that's up 400%. The 7 doesn't feel as good. And so there's a level of expectations that we have to put, but a level of knowledge we have to put behind that. If you have compounded interest of 7% return every year, you're in a good position.

[Unknown]

It's also based on how much money you have. Because if you have 7% on a thousand dollars, you can't do anything with that. If you have 7% on a million, that's somebody's salary. So it's all relative. And that goes back to the education as well. So the numbers that we're looking at is important, but it's also how much money you're putting in. That's why you got to put as much money as possible. Saying like the amount doesn't matter is a lie. Amount always matters.

[Troy Millings]

I agree.

[Unknown]

But that's why investing in business go hand in hand. So like with our platform, we teach entrepreneurship and we teach investing because you gotta have money to invest. What happens is that if you don't have money to invest now, you start with very short, small bots of money, then you start to gamble with that because you want outstretched returns to make it make sense. $1,000, 7%'s not gonna move the needle. So now I need 10,000% return on my thousand dollars to actually get somewhere in life. But if you have positive cash flow coming in, invest $1,000 a month now that compound interest makes sense. So it, it's a double edged sword. You have to find ways to make money, whether that's through a high earning occupation and you have to be skilled in today's high earning occupations, that's actually going to make money in the next 20 years. Or you have to be an entrepreneur. So you can't go about it one way or another. You can't just earn a lot of money and do nothing with it. That's a recipe for disaster. And then you can't be a just Warren Buffett when it comes to stocks, but then have no money to invest. You're going to get frustrated and you're going to go against your discipline either way. So it's all interconnected.

[Troy Millings]

I think the first hundred k is the hardest. I think that's when people get really frustrated because they're not seeing the power of compound interest. But once you get up there, I was looking at my portfolio, I thought it was good for 4% up yesterday when the market spiked again. But at a certain point that 4% or 1% makes a big difference. So if you're at a million, 1% gain doesn't seem like a lot in the market, but that's 10 grand. If you're at 2 million, you got 20 grand. And so I think the initial accumulation phase can be the most frustrating.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's interesting you said that because I agree it's the first a hundred thousand even trying to save up to that amount. And a lot of people like, hey, I'm saving money because that's how you've been taught as you're a young adult is save, save, save. And trying to get to a hundred thousand to invest is. It's like the mountaintop. If you can get to that, then it's like, all right, I have income now. To see substantial growth, that was kind of my story. It was like, get to the a hundred thousand, do all the research, put in some good investments and watch the return. And I did that in 2020, and then the returns were great. And so we're just going to replicate in that. But that a hundred thousand, that is the threshold.

[Troy Millings]

When did you get there?

[Rashad Bilal]

Early 2020.

[Troy Millings]

What about you, Rashad?

[Unknown]

100,000. I'm not 100% sure, to be completely honest with you. I remember when I made my first million dollars. 100,000 to me was not a goal. I'm not discouraging people from $100,000, but I feel like 100,000 is very attainable. I know a lot of people that have $100,000 saved, like in their 401k. That's a realistic number that if you're doing the right things, you're going to get to $100,000. A million is where it gets tricky, because to have a million dollars, liquidity, that's when I think it's. That's the hardest to me personally, the million, your first million is the hardest to me. I feel like the hundred thousand is inevitable. A million dollars is almost damn near impossible. Liquid. But once you get a million now you just gotta.

[Rashad Bilal]

It changes, rinse and repeat.

[Troy Millings]

So when was that for you?

[Unknown]

I think it was 20. 21.

[Rashad Bilal]

21, yeah.

[Troy Millings]

And you guys shared it and celebrated, or did we?

[Rashad Bilal]

We didn't share it. We both made it.

[Unknown]

Share it.

[Rashad Bilal]

But the 100, definitely.

[Troy Millings]

Like, do you say like, oh, yeah. On your phone?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, definitely, definitely. And we were like, I remember putting metrics in. If I get to a million, I'm gonna buy this watch. And then you got to the million. If I buy that, that's really like 50,000. I don't know. I gotta. I changed the metric. I'm like, we gotta make 1.5. We gotta make 2. And so you just keep changing the metrics. But yeah, I agree with what he's saying. Like, the million was the goal. Hundred thousand saved to invest was like, I gotta get there. Because that hundred thousand turned into the million.

[Troy Millings]

Would you buy at a million?

[Unknown]

What did I buy? I bought a watch. Yeah, that's the first thing.

[Troy Millings]

I mean, I think the thing is we keep changing the goal on Ourselves. So once you get to a million, it's like, I'll definitely celebrate when it's 1.5 or when it's 2 or when it's 3 or whatever it is.

[Unknown]

I think you skipped steps. So it's a million, then it's 10 million. That's the next goal. Like, 10 million is a goal. Then after that, it's like maybe 50 or 100 million.

[Troy Millings]

You just add a zero.

[Unknown]

You leapfrog.

[Rashad Bilal]

What was your. What was your route? Was it like 1 and then 1.5?

[Troy Millings]

I think for me, every time I set a goal and I hit it, I automatically think of the next goal. And I think that comes back to a lot of the financial trauma that you guys talk about, because it feels like it's never enough when you're like, oh, when I get a million dollars, like, then I'm set, and it doesn't totally change. Like, what's in your bank account doesn't equate to how you feel about something being enough. Do you guys feel like you have enough?

[Rashad Bilal]

I always used to say my mindset was that of a millionaire. My bank account just didn't say it. So even when I was teaching in school, I had that mindset of, I'm gonna be financially disciplined. Because if I was making $100,000 a year and managing a family of two and a wife, I'm like, if I get a million, there's not much that's gonna change. So it was the mindset. The money just came because obviously the value we were adding, but the discipline remained as well. It wasn't like, all right, now I'm going to be an overspender now. I'm going to be frivolous with money now. I'm going to do things that are out of character for me. Like you said in the beginning, we get to show up as ourselves every day. This is. We haven't really changed since we were, like, 12 and 13 years old. And so we've gotten knowledge and resources and obviously relationships that have helped us guide it. But that just added to the tool belt of who we were already, especially when it comes to money.

[Unknown]

But I feel like when you get your first million dollars, you're going to feel pressure. You're going to have a lot of anxiety.

[Troy Millings]

Why?

[Unknown]

Because you don't want to lose it. That's the first thing. Nobody wants to have money and then go broke. When you're broke, there's no fear of going broke because you're already broke. But it is a lot of pressure to make sure. That you do the right things with your money because there's no guarantee that you can make that money again. So that's one level of pressure. And then most of the time you're going to change where you live. You're going to have different things. Your kid might start going to private school so your expenses are going to go up. That puts more pressure on you to keep making money.

[Troy Millings]

Lifestyle creep.

[Unknown]

Right? That's a real thing. It's more pressure, more money, more problems. More money, more problems. That's a fact.

[Troy Millings]

Do you guys have a number? Like an fu?

[Rashad Bilal]

FU number.

[Troy Millings]

It sounds like your next number or have you hit it yet is 10 million.

[Unknown]

I think the fu number is 100.

[Troy Millings]

100 million.

[Unknown]

That's when you can just ride off, live off your interest at that point in time. I feel like it's almost impossible to go back to zero if you have a hundred.

[Troy Millings]

But you want 100 million liquid or you want 100 million of net worth liquid.

[Rashad Bilal]

100 million liquid, liquid.

[Unknown]

Because you could have 100 million net worth and then 95% of that is tied up into a company's valuation.

[Troy Millings]

Exactly.

[Unknown]

And then that company, they're not mark.

[Troy Millings]

To market and you don't know. Right.

[Unknown]

You can't actually get. We met a broke billionaire before. It was an interesting story. He told us a story of how he's one of the youngest people to become a self made billionaire in America.

[Troy Millings]

Who was it?

[Unknown]

Ryan Boslow. He was like in his 20s and Forbes listed him as a billionaire. He wasn't broke as far as no money at all but he had probably less than $100,000 and of cash. Cuz all of his valuation was tied up in his company. And then he had a board and then he had a fight with the board. So he couldn't really do too much with the company. It was a lot of infighting that was happening. He didn't have too much control of the company at the time. The company really wasn't even at a position where he could take money from the company. So he had a valuation of being a billionaire and he was broke and living in Los Angeles like he wasn't.

[Troy Millings]

You can't go to the supermarket with your valuation, right?

[Rashad Bilal]

No.

[Troy Millings]

But what rich people do and I love that you guys educate on this is borrow against, say leverage that value.

[Unknown]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

So I grew up in an immigrant family too. A lot of immigrant families are the same. They just use cash. If you don't have something.

[Rashad Bilal]

We'Re not getting it.

[Unknown]

See the cash or nothing.

[Troy Millings]

And you Also put all your plastic bags in the dishwasher and never use the dishwasher. I don't know if that was the case.

[Unknown]

Plastic bags in the dishwasher.

[Rashad Bilal]

Plastic bags in the dishwasher.

[Troy Millings]

That was the storage area for really the.

[Unknown]

Oh, it was like a shelf, like a drawer.

[Troy Millings]

Because everybody washed their hand.

[Unknown]

Wash it.

[Troy Millings]

Exactly.

[Unknown]

My mom, she washes dishes with her hands, but she uses the dishwasher as the dryer.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

So you wash this stuff and then you put it in the dishwasher so it could air dry.

[Rashad Bilal]

I feel like that's common.

[Troy Millings]

My family didn't speak English. Coming here, I needed to figure all this out the hard way. All I knew about money growing up is that debt was a four letter word and it was bad. And you don't use credit cards and you don't get mortgages and you don't take out debt. But what rich people do, I find out much later, is that they leverage against those assets. Didn't this guy take out a loan against. It was a private company.

[Unknown]

I guess he couldn't because it was happening with the board and all this stuff that I'm fighting. So it was a unique situation. His situation is probably not common, but I'm just saying that's an example of the net worth sometimes a little bit misleading. Right? Like it's, what do you have?

[Rashad Bilal]

What can you touch?

[Unknown]

What can you touch?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, 100's a lot.

[Troy Millings]

Okay, well, what's your number?

[Rashad Bilal]

He told me this when I was 24. He was like, look, you just got to get to 10 million. Because if you get to 10 million and you can live off 3% interest, he was like, you make $60,000 a year right now, can you live off 300,000? I was like, yeah. He's like, so get to 10 million.

[Troy Millings]

That's what I was gonna say. Yeah. Living off your interest, you don't need a hundred.

[Rashad Bilal]

I think 50 would. I think 50 is a number for me to say F you. The things that I've. I want in life, I have those things. And so, yes, you want to make sure that you can create sustainable wealth for generations. But the liquid cash of having it, I think 50 would be good. Because even that 5% interest, I think.

[Unknown]

It'S relative, still millionaire. So 10 million to me is considered wealthy. But I don't think 10 million is enough to say F you. I don't think so. I think you still got to be cautious. You still got to be careful.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Depending on your lifestyle, of course. But like you living in New York City, you living in Miami, you living in la, you're going to travel, you're going to do different things. I don't think 10 million is a number where you can just ride off into the sunset and just say, f the world.

[Rashad Bilal]

Can I preface that real quick? Because I was a teacher when he told me that this is 20 years.

[Unknown]

Ago, but 10 numbers is 10 numbers. That's a number that's important for sure. But I just feel like once you have nine digits, it doesn't have to be like 100% liquid, but it got to be a large portion liquid. Six digits is what you always look for as far as growing up that you have to try to make $100,000 a year. Seven digits is a dream. As far as everybody wants to become a millionaire, but that's still a workable. You're still working eight digits as far as 10 million. To me, now you are wealthy, right? But you still have to maintain that. You still got to stay in pocket and manage different things. Nine digits is when you're uber rich. And when I'm saying like fu, I'm thinking like uber rich. So you don't have to have 100% of the nine digits liquid, but I do think that is a large portion, has to have some level of liquidity. But to me, nine digits is when you can literally just say f you. F you.

[Rashad Bilal]

Do you have a number now?

[Troy Millings]

I feel like my number was too low. Now I have to.

[Rashad Bilal]

What was it prior to this conversation?

[Troy Millings]

It was 20.

[Rashad Bilal]

Okay.

[Troy Millings]

But now I feel like I need to add another digit, add a zero to it. I don't know.

[Rashad Bilal]

We can be at 50 and you can come over.

[Troy Millings]

I know I can because I don't know, God forbid, if you get divorced, it's half of that.

[Unknown]

Exactly. Safety first.

[Rashad Bilal]

Happily married.

[Troy Millings]

Happily married is the key, which is.

[Rashad Bilal]

Why you need the prenup. See, there you go.

[Troy Millings]

It's all coming full circle. Because at that point, this idea of leisure changes. So if you had that money, would you still do what you're doing or what is earning your leisure at that.

[Unknown]

Point look like for 100 million? No. I feel like if you got 100.

[Troy Millings]

Million, you're not doing the show, you're not doing anything.

[Rashad Bilal]

At that point, leisure's been earned.

[Unknown]

It's over.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Game over. What about other people that need your advice?

[Unknown]

We have curated over seven years of content right now and wrote a book and done a variety of different things. So at some point in time, it's over. I'm not trying to do this too much longer. Like, I feel like the more you do, the less you appreciate it.

[Troy Millings]

Why?

[Unknown]

Because familiarity doesn't really breed appreciation. It breeds contempt. So the more you see something, the more you just. All you do is just think about what they could have done better or criticize or it just leads to. Because it's human nature. Right? Like you're used to seeing your mom every single day, but if you don't see your uncle or your aunt that you only see once every two years, it's like Christmas every time you see them because you don't see them. So they get.

[Troy Millings]

What if you don't like them?

[Unknown]

No, I'm just saying that you have a relationship if you like them. Right. Everybody has a favorite uncle that they only see every couple of years. So sometimes it's better for people to appreciate your absence as opposed to you being too familiar and too comfortable. We're not at that point yet, but we've given a lot of information and we got a lot more information to give. But at some point in time, it's gonna be up to the people to carry on that legacy.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. The level of appreciation always deteriorates over time. Right. Because you've seen consistency at a certain level. Right. Every time you show up, whether it's every Monday or every Thursday, we're putting out an episode, you expect it to happen. The minute it doesn't happen, it's like something got thrown off in your life's algorithm. Why didn't they do it? You don't remember 10 years ago when none of it existed. You just remember that this is what is part of my life now. And it's added value. And they're supposed to add value because I need them to add value until it's not there. So, yeah, he's right about that.

[Troy Millings]

When you guys don't show up on Monday, we'll just know that Rashad is on a yacht.

[Unknown]

Nah. But we'll have a thing, Final call. It'll be like the last episode, and it'll be probably four hours. And we'll actually talk about the exit. We'll talk about our exit. And we'll say, and now you'll actually. You'll see from start to exit, literally, that'll be a whole documentary within itself. And we'll say, okay, this is it. This is how we've got the $100 million. We'll walk you through the process. That's what we did. And this is our gift to you guys. And this is a send off.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's going to Be titled leisure's been earned.

[Unknown]

See you in Mykonos. Been real.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. The reality is that it's very unique to watch something like that happen in real time. Right. They watched him as a financial advisor, they watched me as a teacher. They watched us in my dining room. To having 100 million. They've literally watched that step by step. Whereas you've never seen that really like, you've never seen somebody start something, get a valuation for $100 million valuation to potentially be a billion dollar company. And you got to see the day one, right. Like by the time Facebook had happened, it was like already going right. By the time it was publicly traded, it was like, all right, we're 2012. What was he like when he was in those dorm rooms in Harvard? What was that? That's what we've built with Earn your leisure. Like you've watched from day one as we've created not only just the show, but created a network, created live events, created the book, created curriculum. People have been with us through this entire journey, which makes it super unique.

[Troy Millings]

I've loved watching your journey. Thank you for taking the time to share more of it with us.

[Unknown]

Having us.

[Troy Millings]

I could talk to you guys forever, but I'd love to play a couple quick finance games before we go.

[Nicole Lapin]

Hold onto your wallets. Money rehab will be right back. And now for some more money rehab.

[Troy Millings]

Okay. It's a game of bullish or bearish.

[Rashad Bilal]

Cool. Yep.

[Troy Millings]

Real estate bullish.

[Unknown]

But you gotta be careful. Gotta be careful with real estate.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

Residential.

[Unknown]

Residential, yeah, for sure.

[Rashad Bilal]

Bullish.

[Troy Millings]

Commercial real estate.

[Rashad Bilal]

Bearish.

[Troy Millings]

Crypto.

[Rashad Bilal]

Bullish.

[Unknown]

Bullish gold. Bullish.

[Rashad Bilal]

Bullish.

[Troy Millings]

Short term treasury bonds.

[Unknown]

Short term treasury bonds. Long term bullish.

[Troy Millings]

T bills.

[Unknown]

Bullish still.

[Troy Millings]

Troy's like, meh, it's choppy waters.

[Unknown]

It's choppy waters right now, but it's still important.

[Troy Millings]

Long term treasury bonds.

[Unknown]

Bullish still. We had a good guest on Steve Eisman, who actually we had him on.

[Troy Millings]

He said he's not scared.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. His confidence was pretty impressive.

[Unknown]

He brought up a lot of valid.

[Rashad Bilal]

Points and yeah, he backed it up.

[Unknown]

There's no alternative as of right now.

[Rashad Bilal]

Exactly. Yeah, he's a great guest for sure. Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

But you're not buying any treasuries. You're doing options and some other crazy. Okay. Index funds.

[Rashad Bilal]

Bullish.

[Troy Millings]

Bullish index funds and chill. Anything that I didn't mention that you're bullish on foreign investments.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes, bullish.

[Troy Millings]

Funds that track outside the US ETFs. I agree. Haven't gotten as much love, but they should. Our next game is Never have I ever. Do you guys drink?

[Unknown]

A little bit.

[Troy Millings]

You know, it's early. We were gonna bring something. I thought you would be down.

[Rashad Bilal]

I'm down.

[Troy Millings]

I thought we could do, like, beer or champagne or something, but we didn't bring it.

[Unknown]

Champagne.

[Troy Millings]

We could use that.

[Unknown]

I only drink champagne in the morning. Rose, to be exact.

[Rashad Bilal]

Please. Preferably.

[Troy Millings]

We'll just pretend like we're in the south of France. Okay. So we've all played Never have I ever.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yes.

[Troy Millings]

All right. Never have I ever. Maxed out a credit card.

[Rashad Bilal]

Definitely. Do you drink? You drink? Of course.

[Troy Millings]

Pretend that's like class day.

[Unknown]

The good stuff.

[Rashad Bilal]

Oh, it's good. What region of France is this from?

[Troy Millings]

Never have I ever split the check on a first date.

[Unknown]

Oh, no, I haven't split check.

[Rashad Bilal]

I was gonna do that.

[Unknown]

That's crazy.

[Rashad Bilal]

We grew up in a different era.

[Unknown]

Splitting the check is crazy.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, that's.

[Troy Millings]

I agree with you.

[Rashad Bilal]

You're from the same era. Yeah, I know.

[Troy Millings]

I didn't drink. We know. Nobody.

[Rashad Bilal]

I know the year.

[Troy Millings]

You know everything.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's true. March Pisces. I'm on March Pisces, too.

[Troy Millings]

You're sensitive.

[Rashad Bilal]

I think that may be the female trait. Okay, I'm sensitive. Yes. Okay. I will take it.

[Troy Millings]

Never have I ever bought a lottery ticket.

[Unknown]

I bought a lottery ticket before, for sure.

[Troy Millings]

Never have I ever signed a prenup.

[Unknown]

I have not signed a prenup.

[Rashad Bilal]

Neither have I. I did not.

[Troy Millings]

Never have I ever been in debt.

[Unknown]

Oh, yeah. Definitely been in debt.

[Troy Millings]

Never have I ever bought myself a six figure gift.

[Unknown]

A six figure gift. Sheesh. You got expensive. What was your gift?

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, Now I'm interested.

[Troy Millings]

It's a car.

[Rashad Bilal]

A car?

[Troy Millings]

A car.

[Unknown]

Does that count?

[Rashad Bilal]

What company?

[Troy Millings]

Range Rover.

[Rashad Bilal]

Love. That's one of my favorites.

[Unknown]

Okay.

[Rashad Bilal]

Love it.

[Unknown]

I don't think a car really counts, though. Well, you bought it in cash.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

You bought a car in cash.

[Rashad Bilal]

That counts.

[Troy Millings]

Thanks, guys.

[Rashad Bilal]

Who counts?

[Troy Millings]

Thanks.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, I love it.

[Troy Millings]

Never have I ever disputed a charge on a credit card.

[Unknown]

Definitely.

[Rashad Bilal]

Definitely doing it right now.

[Unknown]

Amex.

[Rashad Bilal]

It's the American way. You kidding me?

[Troy Millings]

I agree. You haven't disputed a charge. You really haven't lived.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, exactly.

[Troy Millings]

Never have I ever fought with a friend about money.

[Unknown]

Fought with a friend about money.

[Troy Millings]

You guys fight about money?

[Rashad Bilal]

Never. Not once?

[Unknown]

No, I don't think so.

[Troy Millings]

Never.

[Rashad Bilal]

I've had friends ask for money. That was irrational. And then we stopped speaking.

[Troy Millings]

Huh.

[Rashad Bilal]

That's not a fight, though.

[Troy Millings]

Because you started making money, so they thought.

[Rashad Bilal]

They asked.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah. Can I. Can you loan me this?

[Troy Millings]

And you didn't feel like it was appropriate for them to ask, or you didn't feel like the amount.

[Rashad Bilal]

I didn't feel the amount was appropriate. Like, I'm all helping people out, but when the amount is outrageous and you're.

[Troy Millings]

Like, how much are we talking?

[Rashad Bilal]

Like six figures? Yeah.

[Troy Millings]

As a loan or as a loan? I mean, do you think you should lend your friends money?

[Rashad Bilal]

I give my friends money in anticipation that I'm not going to get it back. So alone. It was like, I'm going to give you 3% over the next two years. I'm like, all right, you know what? I'm calling you back. Wow.

[Troy Millings]

And you never did. They're still waiting for the call. All right. Never have I ever become a New York Times bestseller.

[Rashad Bilal]

Let's finish this.

[Troy Millings]

Cheers.

[Rashad Bilal]

Cheers to you.

[Troy Millings]

Cheers to you, Boss bitch. You guys should do the male version.

[Rashad Bilal]

What will we call it?

[Troy Millings]

I don't know. You tell me. Boss.

[Unknown]

Bro, what is a boss bitch? What does that mean?

[Troy Millings]

A boss bitch?

[Rashad Bilal]

The cup just got put down, ladies and gentlemen, for all the listeners. The cup was just put down. All right, let me turn to her. Let's hear this. Okay.

[Troy Millings]

A boss bitch doesn't have to be either to be both. So I was called a bitch in a derogatory way early in my career when I was ambitious and try to do something with my life from where I was born, somewhere in the bleachers, in the alleyway, I don't know. But if what I was doing made me a bitch, then I own it as a badge of honor.

[Rashad Bilal]

Got it. That's it.

[Troy Millings]

Now it's an. It's in Cardi songs and stuff like that.

[Unknown]

It's a popular slogan.

[Rashad Bilal]

Took it from you for sure.

[Troy Millings]

It was 10 years ago.

[Unknown]

Oh, so you started that?

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, I did.

[Unknown]

Oh, well, congratulations. Okay, this is interesting. Being that you started this, do you think that it has gone away from its original? Because now that's used all the time. So a lot of people have said that that's taken away, like, feminine aspect of. So there's another term that's feminine CEO, I think it's called, where it's like, you could still be soft, still be feminine, but when you created that term, did you have that in mind that you could not be feminine or the feminality?

[Troy Millings]

I also have never split the track. Like, I really like being in my feminine energy. I think it's super, super powerful. It's not about being a man, being masculine. It's about really Owning whatever power you have and using it as a badge of honor, we end our episodes. You know this. Rashad might not know this, but you know that we end our episodes by asking all of our guests for one final money tip. You can take straight to the bank. What's yours?

[Unknown]

That you can take straight to the bank. Not literally, but just maybe literally. The biggest money tip that I could ever give somebody is to live below your means. You know, increase your income, decrease your spending, invest the difference.

[Troy Millings]

I think that's interesting because it's not within your means, it's below your means.

[Unknown]

Below your means.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah. And that's important.

[Unknown]

That's important. Most people haven't really, nobody ever really thought that through below your means. So invest the difference. If you can do that, you'll be fine. If you don't remember anything else in life, if you can learn to live below your means and invest a different thing, you'll be okay.

[Rashad Bilal]

I've been going on six years with this advice and it's still the most important advice plan for your future, because you're going to be older a lot longer than you're going to be younger. When you talk to people, especially in our space, two things they say, I wish I would have known that when I was younger and I wish I would have started when I was younger.

[Troy Millings]

I'm so glad I didn't invest earlier. Said no one ever, ever start now.

[Nicole Lapin]

It's true.

[Troy Millings]

Yeah, you're never as young as you are today. Today is as good a day as any.

[Rashad Bilal]

How long are you really young?

[Troy Millings]

What do you think?

[Rashad Bilal]

It's interesting. Like I remember the kid who graduates college feels like he's a man or a woman now because they've passed the phase of their scholastic education in a certain sense, and so are they no longer young. And I'm like, to me, they're young, right? 43, the 24 year old is pretty young. But they're going into now adulthood. They're in part of the real world. They've got to get real jobs and make real money to live on their own, presumably. And it's wait, you're an adult right there.

[Troy Millings]

I'll tell you, for a woman, it's when you hit 35, because that's when you have a geriatric pregnancy or it's 35.

[Unknown]

But I also think it's the expiration date too. So I don't use terms like young and old because it's all relative. If you're 16, but you're going to live to 18, you're old at 16. But if you're 40 and you're going to live to 95, you're young.

[Rashad Bilal]

How do you know that?

[Unknown]

Exactly. That's why we gotta be careful with these words because you manifest things upon yourself. That's why I don't use those type of words. Young and old, you're just living. We're just passing through this. But when you start to put that on yourself right now, you're starting to actually manifest certain things that you have no control over. So I don't really like those terms. Young, old, I feel like we're all just passing through. We don't know our destiny, call each other home, but we just. You gotta just live in that moment.

[Rashad Bilal]

Start now.

[Troy Millings]

I think that's really important, especially now. I have a four month old daughter and I think a lot about how I talk about money because when you hear I can't afford that or we can't afford that, that really impacts you later in life. Yeah, maybe it's. That's not a priority right now. But we don't stop to necessarily think about how we talk to ourselves and to others.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, there's compounded interest on that mentality, that language that sits inside of you for a while. I'm asking for money as a kid and my mom would jokingly say, if you was $20, I'd spend you. And I'm like, she don't really want to spend me or she just don't want to give me the money. But like that, it weighs on you. We can't afford this. Don't even look at it. Don't touch it. We can't afford. If you break that for sure.

[Troy Millings]

I'll never forget growing up that I had to turn off the light to save money on the electricity bill and then only flush the toilet when I was number two. And I think at some point my leisure didn't equate to a number in a bank account. It was like, I want to leave all the lights on all the time. Because you remember that stuff.

[Rashad Bilal]

Yeah, that's the trauma.

[Troy Millings]

You guys are the best. Thank you.

[Rashad Bilal]

Thank you and congrats on the show.

[Troy Millings]

Thank you.

[Rashad Bilal]

Number one. I saw it was number one. It's a big deal.

[Unknown]

Making history.

[Troy Millings]

Thank you.

[Rashad Bilal]

Thank you for having us.

[Unknown]

Appreciate it.

[Nicole Lapin]

Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lapin. Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan Lavoy. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some money Rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your money questions moneyrehaboneynewsnetwork.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one on one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagramoneynews and TikTokoneyNewsnetwork.

[Troy Millings]

For exclusive video content.

[Nicole Lapin]

And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.