117: Financial Freedom by Fall — This Summer’s Rich Habits

Summary

Rich Habits Podcast - Episode 117: Financial Freedom by Fall — This Summer’s Rich Habits

Release Date: May 12, 2025

Hosts Austin Hankwitz and Robert Croak delve into actionable strategies to achieve financial freedom by the fall by adopting five key summer habits. Balancing Robert's extensive business experience with Austin's fresh entrepreneurial perspective, this episode offers a comprehensive blueprint for listeners aiming to strengthen their financial standing.

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1. Introduction to the Episode

Austin and Robert kick off the episode by emphasizing the importance of adopting "rich habits" during the summer months to set the stage for financial success in the upcoming seasons. They highlight that while wealth isn't built in a single summer, mastering specific habits over a few months can create a foundation for long-term prosperity.

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2. Five Summer Rich Habits for Financial Freedom

a. Track Your Summer Spending

Robert Croak [03:12]:
"Every time you attend one of these events, no matter how small it might be, you need to track how much money you spend."

Summer often brings spontaneous events—festivals, barbecues, beach trips—that can strain budgets. Robert advises listeners to meticulously record every expenditure, regardless of size, to maintain control over their finances and prevent overspending. Austin complements this by recommending budgeting tools like YNAB and Copilot Money to facilitate effective tracking.

b. Set Specific Savings Goals

Austin Hankwitz [05:27]:
"Setting specific saving goals, AKA implementing a strategy, you'll be prepared for the inevitable fall and winter time expenses."

Establishing clear savings objectives using a sinking fund allows for systematic saving towards future expenses, such as weddings or holiday travel. Austin suggests allocating a fixed amount each month to ensure funds are available when needed. He also recommends leveraging high-yield cash accounts on platforms like public.com to earn interest while saving.

c. Plan Fun on a Budget

Robert Croak [09:05]:
"You can't kick the proverbial can down the road forever and overspend every single year... You have to be creative."

Instead of opting for expensive vacations, Robert and Austin advocate for cost-effective alternatives like staycations, road trips, and local activities. They highlight various free or low-cost options, such as public library programs, picnics, and outdoor activities like tubing and kayaking, which offer enjoyment without breaking the bank.

Notable Quote - Austin Hankwitz [09:05]:
"So many people feel that they need to do this crazy thing for vacation in the summer to have fun. And I disagree."

d. Monetize Your Side Hustle for the Summer

Robert Croak [15:47]:
"Monetizing your side hustle can significantly boost your income, providing financial flexibility and growth opportunities."

Increasing income through side hustles is a pivotal habit for summer. Robert suggests various side jobs such as dog walking, junk removal, and car headlight cleaning. Austin adds that leveraging AI automations and digital platforms like TikTok Shops can create scalable income streams. Both hosts emphasize that increasing income helps address spending habits and accelerates financial goals.

Notable Quote - Austin Hankwitz [16:50]:
"You need to build an automated email product for a local tire shop, an automated text message campaign for a local restaurant... It's never been easier to monetize your skills."

e. Review and Adjust Before Fall

Austin Hankwitz [17:38]:
"Reviewing and adjusting your financial strategies before fall ensures continued momentum and sets you up for sustained success."

As summer concludes, it's essential to assess the financial progress made and make necessary adjustments. Austin outlines steps such as eliminating high-interest debt, maximizing Roth IRA contributions, and considering investments like house hacking for property ownership. This reflection ensures that the habits developed over the summer are maintained and built upon for future financial stability.

Robert Croak [19:20]:
"Give them the hacks, give them the insight and give them the strategies to be able to make real changes in their financial futures."

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3. Q&A Segment

The hosts address listener questions, offering tailored advice on topics like optimizing credit card points, property decisions, and handling significant tax debts. Their responses blend practical solutions with personal insights, reinforcing the episode's core themes of proactive financial management and strategic planning.

Notable Interaction:

• Listener Lany R [22:00]:
  “I'm looking up how to spend my American Express points effectively using Grok. How should I prompt it for detailed responses?”

  Austin Hankwitz [22:30]:
  “Be explicit with specific parameters you want to share, like travel dates, destinations, and preferences. It’s straightforward and efficient.”

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4. Conclusion and Takeaways

Austin and Robert summarize the five rich habits:

1. Track Summer Spending: Maintain detailed records of all expenditures to stay within budget.
2. Set Specific Savings Goals: Use sinking funds to prepare for future expenses.
3. Plan Fun on a Budget: Engage in cost-effective activities to enjoy summer without overspending.
4. Monetize Your Side Hustle: Increase income through side jobs and entrepreneurial ventures.
5. Review and Adjust Before Fall: Assess financial progress and make necessary adjustments to ensure ongoing success.

They encourage listeners to adopt these habits not just for the summer but as lifelong practices to achieve and maintain financial freedom.

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Final Thoughts

This episode of the Rich Habits Podcast provides a structured approach to enhancing financial health through intentional summer activities. By combining disciplined spending, strategic saving, creative leisure planning, income augmentation, and periodic review, Austin and Robert offer a comprehensive roadmap for listeners aspiring to achieve financial freedom by fall and beyond.

Inspirational Quote:

Austin Hankwitz [20:02]:
"We're tracking our summer spending, setting specific savings goals, planning fun without breaking the bank, monetizing our summer with a side hustle, and reviewing everything before fall to keep the momentum going."

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For more insights and actionable financial strategies, subscribe to the Rich Habits Podcast on Spotify and join the Rich Habits Network for exclusive content and community support.

Transcript

[Robert Croak]

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[Austin Hankwitz]

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[Robert Croak]

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[Austin Hankwitz]

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[Robert Croak]

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[Austin Hankwitz]

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[Robert Croak]

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[Austin Hankwitz]

So you can be on yours. Uber on Our Way hey everyone and welcome back to the Rich Habits podcast, a top 10 business podcast on Spotify brought to you by public.com my name is Austin Hankwitz and I'm joined by my co host Robert Croak. Robert is a seasoned entrepreneur in his late 50s with revenues of over 300 million under his belt. And I'm an entrepreneur in my late 20s with a background in finance and economics. Since quitting my full time job in corporate finance a few years ago, I've built a seven figure media business and actively advise some of the most well known fin tech companies around the world. As the show name might suggest, every episode we talk about Rich Habits as they relate to business, finance and mindset. However, we try and bring you two unique perspectives. One from an industry veteran which is Robert, and the other myself, someone who's still in the process of building wealth and figuring it all out. So Robert, what are we going to be talking about in today's episode?

[Robert Croak]

In this episode of the Rich Habits podcast, we're going to share our five favorite lifestyle changes to make this summer so you can reach your financial freedom by fall. In other words, these are our five favorite summer rich habits. By the end of this episode, you'll be armed with the necessary strategies to set yourself up for short term and long term financial success. So no worrying about overspending during the fall and winter holidays or stressing of how to pay for wedding season or that family vacation.

[Austin Hankwitz]

So our five favorite lifestyle changes to make this summer so you can reach financial freedom in the fall. I love that it's a important to remember people that wealth isn't built in one summer. But the rich habits that are going to get you there can be mastered in a few short months and then multiplied over a lifetime of summers. This episode is going to help you all master those summer rich habits that are going to set you up for financial success in the fall and in the winter time and in the springtime and the next summer. And now your whole life is a complete 180. So by implementing these strategies, we hope that you're able to have a clear vision as to where you're going and really begin to experience financial freedom in the future. We actually came up with this podcast episode idea about a month or two ago, but we couldn't release it or record it because it wasn't summertime. But now that we're halfway through the month of May, we think it's time to share them. So, Robert, kick us off with our first rich habit for the summer.

[Robert Croak]

Yes, number one is Track your summer. Spending summertime brings so many spontaneous events and invites that we all have to go to. You know, they're sneaky. You're there on a Wednesday at work and all of a sudden you've got plans for the weekend you didn't know about. It could be a downtown festival, it could be barbecue with your the lake day, the beach trip, or anything unplanned. It's usually going to happen during the summer. It happens to all of us. But we're here to help you fix this by being more intentional with your time and money. Because there's not a week that goes by during the wonderful summer months that there isn't something enticing that just pops up on your schedule. So here's the rich habit you need to know to implement this summer. Every time you attend one of these events, no matter how small it might be, you need to track how much money you spend. I don't care if it's 50 or $100, you need to track it. Sure, you might have a monthly budget and you're budgeting for fun times with your Fun Money column. But we all know that with the spontaneous nature of these events, tracking the spending for these types of events falls through the cracks and you find yourself over budget and in credit card debt. And we're going to stop that right now.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And if you have no idea how to start tracking your spending, you can actually use our free budgeting tool in the show notes below. But we also recommend ynab, which is an acronym for you need a budget. We also recommend Copilot Money on the Apple App Store. I've Got a bunch of friends that use that. It doesn't matter what platform you use to track your spending. What matters is that you're actually tracking your spending and staying ahead of the unexpected spending that certainly happens during the months of the summer. By tracking this, we're going to know exactly how much we're spending, no matter how big or how small. And we'll be able to add it to the budget to ensure that we're not overspending on a monthly basis, falling into credit card debt as a result.

[Robert Croak]

This is so important because I just think of how my weeks go in the summer and all the invites just come out of the blue. It's wedding season, it's lake season, everything is going on. And for people that need to really watch their budget and prevent overspending, I think this is a critical point. That if they can pick up on this rich habit and really integrate it into their lives, it'll prevent them from getting into trouble and wrecking their fall and winter season by spending way too much money during the summer months.

[Austin Hankwitz]

I couldn't agree more, Robert. Tracking your spending, especially when it it comes to these one off events that you don't find yourself in a lot, they're very spontaneous. It's very, very important if you want to stay out of this overspending habit that we find ourselves in during the summer months. Now, the second rich habit for the summertime is setting specific savings goals. So this rich habit will actually help you prepare for the inevitable fall and winter time expenses by setting a specific savings goal and beginning to use something called a sinking fund to actually achieve that goal. We've talked about sinking funds in the past, and in case this term is new to you, it's pretty simple. A sink fund is simply setting aside X amount of dollars every single month so you can achieve a savings goal by a future date. So, for example, I've got a wedding coming up in August. Let's pretend that it's going to cost me $1200 to attend that wedding. I have three months to save that $1200. Therefore, every month for the next three months, I need to save $400 a month. So by August time, I have $1200 sitting in this sinking fund. So by setting specific saving goals, AKA implementing a strategy, you'll be prepared for the inevitable fall and winter time expenses. It's the same deal with football games, as well as that holiday travel around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Set a specific savings goal and stick to your plan. And here's actually a Quick pro tip for you. You can open a High Yield cash account on public.com to earn interest on your money while you're saving for your goal. Right now I think it's paying about four, four and a half percent or so on that High Yield Cash account, so definitely go check that out as well. But earning a little bit of money on your money while you're saving for a specific goal is defin a rich habit.

[Robert Croak]

Having your money earning while it's sitting for this specified use is fantastic. But let's think ahead now more towards Christmas if you're like me and you aren't sure how much to set aside One of my favorite hacks for Christmas and don't call me Scrooge is to list out everyone that I'm going to be buying Christmas presents for and set a dollar amount and stick to it. I know that sounds like, you know, Mr. Scrooge or something like that, but I promise you it is too easy when you're out Christmas shopping to think, wow, this is really cute. This is really cool. This is really trendy and you just spend, spend, spend. And you don't do it on a budget. So that is why I think it's so important make the Christmas list stick with it because now you know how much you need to save and you have eight months to prepare for it. So no more running up your credit cards in the fall and winter for travel and holiday shopping. That ends today with this episode that leads us to our third summer rich hack habit. Plan your fun on a budget. So instead of looking at all these exotic vacations that could cost you thousands of dollars, setting your family back financially for who knows how long, I'd consider staycations or road trips that would allow you to have just as much fun but for a fraction of the cost. I've seen so many cool videos on Instagram and TikTok of these glamping sites, these lakefront tiny home communities and all of these. And it just looks so much fun to me. And I believe you could that have just as much of a blast with your significant other or your family for a fraction of the cost. And it's just so much fun to dig in. I screenshot them all, I save them and put them on my list and look them up later on. And I think you could do the same because so many people feel that they need to do this crazy thing for vacation in the summer to have fun. And I disagree. I love road trips. I like going to museums and all of that and doing it for A fraction of the cost.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Now, another hack for families out there with some kiddos. Your public library summer programs, y' all are sleeping on these programs here in Nashville. We've got obviously a public library and they've got some really cool summer events. I pulled up their website here to give you some inspiration. There's aquarium thing going on on June 7th. They're opening up a new branch on June 24th, and they're celebrating that with like food trucks, fun, you know, music festivities. They've got a puppet show happening at the Country Music hall of Fame that's free. They've got a book giveaway going on, ballet story times. I mean, they've really cool stuff here, right? And so if you've got children who are excited by this stuff, maybe you've got some 3, some 6, some 7, some 10 year olds and you're looking for ways to keep them entertained on the weekends during the summertime or maybe throughout the week. Check out your local public library and see what summer programs they've got going on. Because maybe all this stuff isn't perfectly free, but they're not going to charge you $70 or $120 or something like it is to go to Disney World, right? We're talking about some local fun in your neighborhood. Meet some friends, invite the fam. It'll be a good time. Now, if you're thinking, wait, guys, I don't have children. I'm not a family person. We're in our 20s, 30s, or 40s, and we're trying to have some fun on the weekend or have a reasonably priced date. Something that my girlfriend and I do is we like to go do some picnics, right? We're talking about going to the park here in Nashville. They got something called the Parthenon. Actually, Robert has hung out with me at that park a couple times. It's pretty cool. We bring some wine, we've got our little speaker and we've got some Jersey mic subs and we're hanging out, we're listening to music. We're enjoying the. The time outside for a couple hours that way, right? There's tons of ways to get creative during summertime to still have some fun without spending thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of dollars every single time. A great example of this over the weekend too, if you can still tell. I'm still sick, unfortunately, But I had to go hang out with my friends and we went to a bar. I had like a Coke and I spent not that much money, but I still played cornhole and I Still had some tater tots and it was a lot of fun and I didn't have to spend the, you know, hundreds of dollars that they spent on their drinks and the bottles and all that other stuff. Right? So don't forget, there's still the happy hours. There's the fun things you can still do around if you're alcohol into the mix. Gets pretty expensive that way. And finally, something my friends and I love to do is float down the river, right? There's a river here by my neighborhood. I got some of these inflatable tubes two summers ago on Amazon. I think they were like 50 or 60 bucks for about a half dozen of them. We can like string them all together, we got some music going and we all just float down the river for two hours and hang out. Like there's so many things to do that are a lot of fun that don't involve these thousand dollar two thousand, three thousand dollar vacations or these, you know, crazy big Airbnbs like have some fun with, do the things around you and just spend time with people you really care about. That is where the fun derives from.

[Robert Croak]

I 100% agree and I'm really enjoying this episode because I think back like when we used to go tubing, but even recently going snorkeling in the ocean was a blast. Going kayaking is super inexpensive. You don't have to go out and spend $1,000 on kayaks. So many parks that have rivers and lakes rent them. They're a blast. You can do that for a few hours, but it's just all about getting creative because at the end of the day, you can't kick the proverbial can down the road forever and overspend every single year because it's very seasonal. We have the summer season gets expensive, holidays get expensive, wedding season gets expensive. And you can't just be in this cycle over and over again and expect to ever achieve financial freedom. So I'm really enjoying kind of going through memory lane here. Of all the cool hacks I've done over the years where it seems like it's, it's romantic and it's fun, but it's not super expensive. So I'm really, really loving this episode.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Before we go to this next one, I'm still looking on this website. They've got on June 28th they've got a yoga time story filled yoga time for your kids aged three to seven at one of their branches. Here they have a free foam party happening on July 19th for ages 0 to 7. I mean I might just show up to some if you these events, man, this looks like fun. Why did I just now discover how cool the summertime public library events are?

[Robert Croak]

What's going on, like Austin just said is do the research, find the cool things. I was talking to one of my business partners even yesterday and I was like, are you around this weekend? And he's like, no. He's like, I'm using some airline points. We're going to see these museums in Columbus, Ohio and we're going to stay at this cool little inexpensive Airbnb. Just be creative and find ways because I'm sure your family and significant other will appreciate it and really just have just as much fun. That leads us to our fourth rich habit monetizing your side hustle for the summer. It was brought to my attention that I made a snafu and I believe last week's episode where I said that you were going to make $1,000 a week for your side hustle that was meant to be $1,000 a month. So that is my mistake. I apologize to anyone that thought that was a little egregious and really difficult. I just meant when I was talking about it that if you can make that extra 2, $250 a week, that adds up to a thousand dollars a month and can really set you up financially and I think it's really achievable. So let's get into our fourth rich habit for the summer and that is getting your money right via side hustles. Some of my favorite summertime side hustles right now include dog walking, junk removal if you have an access to a truck. If you don't, you can rent a truck. You could rent a most vehicles nowadays you could tow a small trailer with. So I love that one. Also car headlight cleaning. This is one of my favorites that Austin did during college and he did really well with it, but also probably the easiest. Every small business and restaurant near you right now, I guarantee you as short staff go pick up a shift. I don't care if it's one or two shifts a week because it will speak volumes and really help you get ahead by getting that extra money every single week through a side hustle. Or if you really like TikTok and want to do some research, TikTok shops are great right now. You can find a trending product, find something that is not oversaturated, go out and buy that product, sell it on TikTok shops and make a ton of extra money. And one of the things that really comes to mind for me in this section of the podcast is that people usually have an income problem, a spending problem or both. So by adding a summer side hustle to the mix on the income side, assuming the rest of this episode can help you solve the spending side puts you in a much better place.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, some summer side hustles that I think people should consider are the AI automations. We've talked about it for months now on the show. I've said it so many times. It's really cool though to see some people in the rich Habits network have actually started doing this stuff, which is exciting. You can literally build an automated email product for a local tire shop, an automated text message campaign for local restaurant, and then sell it to these small businesses for hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a month, depending on how robust it is. A good example is my dentist. He has a text message automation thing and I'm sure he didn't build it. I'm sure someone had sold that to him or came up with the idea and got him on board. It's never been easier to monetize your skills if it's hard labor, if it's AI, if it's TikTok shop, or if it's just like working at a business on a weekend because you enjoy it and it's earning you an extra 100, $200 on a Saturday. Right to that point. Spec Robert I swear, if you are just on time and you've got a good personality that is 90% of the way there, like you're going to make it 90% of the way just having those two characteristics in small business right now.

[Robert Croak]

And I can speak from experience because I have employees all over the country. I had one that didn't show up at this job site I'm filming in right now today. Said he had a stomachache. If you have a pulse, you show up on time. You will probably get hired anywhere you go because everyone is short staffed. And that leads us into our final rich habit for the summer. Let's envision summer's wrapping up. You've integrated these four rich habits over the last few months and through them you've not only been able to make a few extra thousand dollars, but you've also saved a few thousand dollars. Now the question is what do we do with this money and how can we help keep this momentum as we head into the back half of the year? This is exciting. You've done the work and you've really set yourself up up. Now what do you do next?

[Austin Hankwitz]

What you do Next is the fifth rich habit of the summer, which means reviewing and adjusting before fall. It's going to be different for everyone, but here's what I would do. So if you are someone who was able to actually earn an extra couple thousand via a side hustle and then save a couple thousand because of some of these spending hacks, now you've got, call it 4, 5, 6,000 dollars of extra money that you could put to work for yourself. The first consideration is getting out of high interest debt. We say this phrase all the time. You can't out invest high interest debt, which means if you've got credit card debt hanging around, it's time to pay it off. We're talking to you people who still might have last year's Christmas credit card debt still hanging around now as we enter the summertime. But assuming you don't have any credit card debt, maybe you can use some of this money to contribute and max out your Roth IRA for the year. Right? $7,000 a year is the contribution for that. So if you're not on track to hit that contribution because it's a lot of money for a lot of people, this is a wonderful way to use this couple thousand dollars that's now in your bank account. And if that's also taken care of because you've been listening to the show for a while and you incredible with your money, maybe you can use this 4, 5 or $6,000 to kickstart a down payment on a property. Robert and I are huge believers in house hacking. And with a 5% down Fannie Mae mortgage, you can actually own cash flowing triplexes and quad plexes much easier than you might have originally thought. We're not talking hundreds of thousands, we're talking tens of thousands to put down on some of these properties. And actually Robert, we gave an example a couple episodes ago of a quadplex in Knoxville that would bring your monthly living expense down to about $1,000 a month eventually cash flow. Assuming you raise rents by a couple hundred bucks and then even appreciate by hundreds of thousands of dollars over the coming decade, these are the not so.

[Robert Croak]

Subtle reminders to kind of nudge people in the right direction. Give them the hacks, give them the insight and give them the strategies to be able to make real changes in their financial futures. And it really can start with these simple tips that we've put together in this episode. So I hope a lot of people just take notes and take action here and make headway way so they can get out of that cycle, that summer cycle. Of overspending and over partying and setting themselves up for credit card debt and just get on the right track for the future. Because you're right, Austin, this is something they can learn this summer. But just keep practicing these tactics for every summer for the rest of their lives and really get ahead financially.

[Austin Hankwitz]

So in summary, we're tracking our summer spending, especially to those spontaneous events. We are setting specific savings goals via a sinking fund and we are going to achieve them. We are going to plan on having some fun without breaking the bank. There's a ton of free things I'm sure around your town. We're going to monetize our summer with a side hustle. Robert gave you a couple ideas and so did I. And then finally we're going to review and adjust on all of this before fall time so we can keep this momentum throughout the rest of the year and then hopefully now into 2026 and beyond.

[Robert Croak]

I love it. Let's jump into the Q and A.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Well, Robert, before we jump into this episode's question and answer segment, we have to take a moment to hear from our sponsor, public.com if you're looking for an online brokerage platform that was actually buil built during the century, you need to give public.com a try. Because on public you can invest in almost anything. There's stocks, bonds, crypto options and more all on this one platform. And if you're like us and you like to keep an emergency fund, we mentioned this on the episode, you need to take advantage of their 4.1% APY that's offered right now by their High Yield Cash account.

[Robert Croak]

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[Austin Hankwitz]

All right, Robert, so our first question is coming on Instagram. Again, if you have a question for us, DM it to us on Instagram at Rich Habits Podcast on Instagram. Very simple. And we read all the DMS you all send us. So this one's coming from Lany R on Instagram. Laney says, I have a question in your episode about credit cards, which was. I'm looking it up right here, Robert. Episode 114. You mentioned Grok.com helps you plan how to spend your points. What prompts are you asking for it to give you the most detailed responses? So let me just like lay the groundwork here. If you all are not yet using Grok or Chat, GPT or Perplexity or whatever, these AI prompt search tools that are out there, you are living your life under a rock. I am telling you, like in real time. As we were recording this episode, I looked up other free activities to do in Nashville and I told it to give me specific dates and locations. This is on Grok. And Grok said everything. I mean, all of these different ideas, how to register for these events. Like, I didn't have to do any of this research. Using these types of AI tools, Rob, is so simple and fun and easy and it just unlocks our ability to be efficient. So to your specific point though, yes, I asked Grok, hey, I've got a quarter million American Express points or miles or whatever it's called, how do I spend them most effectively? And that's pretty much all I say. Grok will tell me specifically if it's going to be an airline or if it's going to be a hotel or if it's going to be, you know, what dates to use to have the best, like, rates on stuff. But that's really the whole prompt I use. It just comes down to like, making sure that you are explicit with maybe specific parameters that you want to share. If it's when you're traveling, how many of you are traveling, where you want to end up, you know, how long you want to be away for, things like that. But it's pretty straightforward and I think it's like that for a lot of different questions as well.

[Robert Croak]

Yeah, I love GROK and chatgpt and I think people should really get over the fear of using them and just try it out. If you've never done it before, figure out some things you're interested in researching. Maybe it's your travel points, maybe it's something to do with how to be better with car insurance or your credit card stuff, whatever it is, and just practice, get those at bats because it is here to stay. AI is incredible and I think using it. I was blown away by your results, Austin, for your trip that you put together using grok. I thought it was really, really in depth and cool. So just get out there and practice with it, you guys, and you will find it is a wonderful tool to try out for all different, different reasons.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Here's what I'll tell you. If you are looking for a simple way to actually use chat, GPT or grok. Just right now, tell it what you have in your pantry or what food you have in your refrigerator and to come up with dinner or breakfast or lunch ideas. I do that all the time. I will say, hey, I've got this sausage, I've got this cheese, like whatever, like come up with different breakfast ideas for me and it tells me it's like, oh, this is what you want to try. Or like put, you know, here, here's the ingredients, the instructions, what you got to do that as well as just asking it for different types of recipes for sheet pan meals and of that nature. But that's the easiest way I think anyone can start getting familiar with these types of AI chat bots is just asking it about recipes and things of that nature. So our next question is also on Instagram. Coming from Art. Art says hello. Austin and Robert just want to start off with the fact that I love your podcast. My name is art. I'm 23 years old and I'm a father of a 9 month old baby boy trying to make the right decision to build generational wealth. I need some advice on a property I have. I need to know whether or not I should keep, keep it or sell it. For some background on my financial situation, I've got 30,000 in my Roth IRA, 11,000 in my Bridge account and $8,000 in cryptocurrency. So here's the deal. I own a condo that is worth $400,000. I bought as a fixer upper with my father. Collectively we owe $230,000 still on the mortgage. However, if we were to sell it for 400,000, I personally would only profit about $100,000. So the question is, do I keep this condo? Do I sell, sell it? Do I move into it? I right now pay a little bit of rent to my parents because I'm a part time student, but I'm not really too sure what to do. My mom actually wants me to keep it. I want to sell it and then put the money in my high yield savings, add some to my bridge account and then wait for another opportunity to invest in another fixer upper. But I could really use some advice because I've been back and forth with myself on this for weeks. Robert, what's your perspective on Art's situation?

[Robert Croak]

Yeah, I think I'd probably keep it. I'm normally of the ilk to sell it and rent. In this situation with having a nine month old and living with, you know, your Parents and all of the situation. I think it's great that you have all this equity, you have this property, you fixed it up. It seems that it's still appreciating and you're in school. I don't know that I would break up that formula and go rent your own place, do all of that. Because I think it's a lot of movement to get that hundred thousand dollars out of it when you're already doing well with your roth. You've got 11k in your Charles Schwab account, you're really crushing it for 23 years of gold. So I don't know that I would sell it right now. But if you did, obviously you have to consider all of the expenses for everyone involved if you did sell it. Because obviously you have the most to gain from this. But you have to look at the totality of the situation of what is best overall for your family and your parents.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, I'm going to be on the other side. I think he should sell it. And it's because his father is also in on this deal with him. And I feel like if he keeps it, his father might feel as if he's owed money from his son. Right. So it's like his son moves into the condo, he's using it, it's great, like whatever. But his father's over here like, dude, like I need my 100k back as well, right? Like, where's my money? So I feel like if he sells it, has his hundred thousand dollars dropped into his checking account, he'll be able to beef up that high yield savings account emergency fund a little bit more. Right. I think he'll also be able to make sure his Roth IRA is maxed out. He's got this nine month old, which means he should open up a 529 account. He mentioned the generational wealth. So maybe he could take some 10, 20, 30,000, put that in there, allow it to grow over time, and then once the kid hits 18, start moving over 7,000 a year into the kid's Roth IRA. So generational wealth is built that way. I really think that by selling this condo, Art is going to have a major financial unlock for his future if he's smart with divvying up the money. Whereas where he keeps it, I agree if he's living in it, it could be cheaper and better because he's a student. Not too much friction in the near term. But I think by selling it, it might unlock a lot more future opportunity. But that's just my perspective. Do you have any op though on his father? Not yet getting out his return on investment, assuming that Art ends up staying inside of the condo.

[Robert Croak]

It's a good situation, but it's a tough one because there are so many variables. But the other part of it is if you think about it from a 23 year old father of a small child, I look at it by having family right there with you during this time when you're really considering building wealth and how to get ahead in life. Having that built in infrastructure of babysitting and helping with the child and helping with groceries and food and everything else is also something you don't get by selling and everyone goes their separate ways. So there's just a lot of variables here and I just want to make sure that Art has that difficult conversation with his father and really flushes out what is the best overall for himself. But how to not dislodge everyone else in a situation because we have limited information. We don't know if his father is in a good financial situation. Maybe he's not. We don't have all the of of that. But I just want to make sure that we illustrate to consider all aspects of the deal before selling it.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Now before we jump into our final question coming from Rebecca G. I want to just take a moment to shout out Neos Investments and show them some love because these people, Troy and Garrett and Zach have achieved the impossible. Q. Q. Q. I. Their NASDAQ 100 covered call ETF was just awarded by etf.com the best new active ETF award for 2024. I mean they were vanguard, they were up against Fidelity, they were up against State street, they were up against Global X. Like there were so many ETFs across the gambit, any type of sector, like it didn't matter. They were up against some crazy big institutions and some like industry veterans. And they still won this award because it's such an incredible product. And so I just want to give them a shout out one because Robert and I know how to spot the goodies before they're actually recognized for being good. I think we should deserve some of that. But no, I want to give them a shout out because they actually achieved this incredible feat of like earning an incredible award. Billion plus in assets under management now. And here's the kicker. Q. Q. Q. I as of time of recording this has outperformed the NASDAQ year to date because of the income that's come in every single month. So major shout out to Neos funds. You guys are crushing it.

[Robert Croak]

I love it. And really enjoy investing with and working with them. It's so cool because if I remember correctly, we broke QQQI to our audience first. So like we were talking about it and all excited like the day it was launching or maybe before it launched and just like what is this Q. Q. Q. I? What is going on? And now here we are. They're the number one ETF of 2024. So it's very cool to have that sauce and you know, a little bit of shout out to us like you said, getting it out there to our audience before the rest of the world knew about it. So very, very cool and just so proud of Neos funds.

[Austin Hankwitz]

They do just such a great job, 100%. So if you want to go check out all their ETFs, go to neosfunds.com you can learn more about spyi qqqi btci I y r I B N D I I mean they've built out a suite of ETFs at this point. It is, it's really awesome. So go check out Neos funds. They deserve some love. All right, let's take our last question from Rebecca G. On Instagram. Rebecca says, hey guys, I love your podcast and I've been promoting it to everyone I know. I feel smarter with every word I listen to. Thank you so much for everything you both do. I'm embarrassed to admit, but I let some back taxes, fees and interest build up to about $23,000. I'm trying to find a solution to pay it off over time. I'm currently on a payment plan with the which I'm not comfortable with. I'm looking to take out a new credit card with a zero interest rate for the first 15 months to pay off within that period of time. I have a great credit score of 800 and above and I just want to get your perspective if you think this is a smart move or if there's something else that I should consider. I have this much money in my retirement accounts, but I do not want to cash those out to pay it off. Do you have any ideas? Thank you. Robert. What advice do you have for Rebecca.

[Robert Croak]

G. This is a tough situation. I'm okay with having an IRS payment plan, but for people that are nervous about having that connectivity and debt to the irs, I'm not against having this zero interest credit card for that 18 month period, 15 month period. But I know that's risky as well because if someone has back taxes and back fees and all of this interest built up, I would assume that they probably won't get this credit card paid off in time and they'll be right back in a worse boat because it won't be debt to the irs, but it'll be high interest debt. I don't know if there is a great solution here other than taking the money from the 401k, getting it paid off, starting over, getting yourself back on track, and just making sure that your habits are better in the future and you don't allow this to happen again. We've all been there. I've been there in the past. And it's just one of those situations where it's scary and filled with anxiety. So you'd probably be better, better off to find a way immediately to pay it off. Or if you're going to use a zero interest credit card, go get a side hustle and make as much money as you can to make sure you make those payments and get that paid off in time to be able to take advantage of the zero interest.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Yeah, not just a side hustle. You need a second job. This is level seven Mayday. Red alert. Red alert. Right? This is like you do not want to owe the IRS money. $23,000. That's Bad News Bears, because not only can the IRS come in and take it out of your checking account, but it can garnish your wa. They can put liens on your property. They've got power to do a lot of stuff. And I do not like that. So to Robert's point. Yeah, if you did want to just like wipe this out, I think this might be the only time I would, I guess not get so upset to cash out some retirement funds. I don't want to do that. My first choice, though, would be to go to a credit union and get a signature loan. You have an 800 plus credit score. Right. They'll, they'll lend you $23,000. I would go get a signature loan, a personal loan, not a payday loan. Very different. Right. Do that, a signature loan or something like this. These are interest rates of 10, 12, 14%. It's still high interest, but it's not IRS money. Right. So like you're, you're in debt. Don't get me wrong, you're going to go work the second job and pay it off as fast as you freaking can. But I just don't like the idea, to Robert's point, of taking out this credit card. And because of the, you know, I'm embarrassed to admit I let some back taxes and fees build up to 23 grand. Right. It's like okay, well what else are we not doing here with our money correctly? And is that now going to be to a point where you've got 23,000 of credit card debt because you never actually made payments on it. It's just this rolling debt to another debt to another debt. Time to get rid of it. Go get the signature loan, the personal loan, put it on that monthly payment plan. Oh, you know, three or four or six hundred dollars a month to this credit union and rock and roll that way. But get the IRS out of the picture as soon as you can. I do not like to see that. I think it is a very, very bad thing. They are very unforgiving and they will put you in a bind very, very quickly. I've heard absolute horror stories by talking with other small business owners. It is just not a good place to be.

[Robert Croak]

I love this episode five Rich Habits to set yourself up by the End of Summer is just a great overview for us to really help people understand how to make these changes, how to be better and how to set themselves up and get out of the cycle of overspending for summer, wedding season, holidays, whatever it is. So I'm really glad we did this episode and I think it's fantastic.

[Austin Hankwitz]

Same here, Robert. I'm super excited. And to all of our new listeners, do not forget we are still running a seven day free trial for the Rich Habits Network which is a way for you to connect with Robert and I directly via dms, a weekly live stream, as well as eight hours of video coursework. And you get to invest alongside of us into privately held companies, real estate deals and everything in between. And then of course we still have the Rich Habits newsletter that comes out every Thursday morning. If you're not yet subscribed to that, you are missing out. There's about 60,000 people who are subscribed and it's sent every Thursday morning to your inbox. It breaks down the biggest market moving news for the prior week that we know you guys need to keep on top of your radar.

[Robert Croak]

So thank you all for stopping by each and every week supporting us. And always remember, the podcast is free. The seven day free trial to the Rich Habits Network is free. The newsletter is free. So if you have friends, family members or co workers, share the podcast with them. And we appreciate all of you for stopping by. And please, please remember to give us that five star review as well. And we'll see you soon.

[Austin Hankwitz]

And leave a comment on Spotify of your favorite Summer side Hustle how have you earned thousands of dollars in the past leave a comment on Spotify. We'll be reviewing them at our next week's episode. Thanks everyone and have a great start to your week.