← Rich Habits Podcast
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- [00:01]
Nick Elledge
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- [00:31]
Austin
This episode is brought to you by Diet Coke.
- [00:33]
Robert
You know that moment when you just.
- [00:35]
Nick Elledge
Need to hit pause and refresh?
- [00:37]
Robert
An ice cold Diet Coke isn't just.
- [00:38]
Nick Elledge
A break, it's your chance to catch your breath and savor a moment that's all about you. Always refreshing. Still the same great taste Diet Coke.
- [00:46]
Robert
Make time for you time.
- [00:49]
Austin
Hey everyone and welcome back to the Rich Habits Podcast brought to you by Public.com, a top 10 business podcast on Spotify. Today is going to be a very fun conversation, especially especially if you are interested in this new frontier that is stablecoins. We're joined by Nick Elledge. Nick is the co founder and COO of StableCore, the platform enabling community and regional banks and credit unions to offer stablecoins, tokenized deposits and digital asset trading. With the Genius act being signed into law by Donald Trump on July 18 becoming the first major federal legislation in the US to regulate these stablecoins, we thought it would be a really good idea to have a stablecoin expert in successful repeat entrepreneur on the show to share his insights in this evolving industry. Prior to stablecore, Nick was the co founder of Data Fleets, an encrypted data handling startup. The company was founded at Stanford University to unlock AI in financial services and other regulated industries. Data Fleets was backed by leading Silicon Valley investors including Lightspeed Ventures, Jerry Yang and Mark Cuban and was acquired for more than $100 million in 2021. Before data fleets, Nick served as the CIO for New York City and London based family office with multi generational wealth from financial services. He also worked on the a16z fintech deal team in Emerging markets private equity and started his career at McKinsey. He's been on the board of six companies and has worked on five continents, which is crazy. He has his MBA from Stanford GSB and MPA ID from Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a BA and a BS from Southern Methodist University. The guy is very well accomplished, very very smart fella and we're excited to have Nick here on the show.
- [02:33]
Nick Elledge
Oh it's great to be here. This is a pivotal in US Finance. A perfect time to be Talking about this, Nick.
- [02:39]
Robert
We're excited to have an industry expert on the show to help us all understand exactly what's happening behind the scenes with stablecoins and why it's so important to keep them on our radar. Let's start with the Genius Act. Give us the quick and dirty as to what just signed into law, what you're building with stablecore, and how this new law impacts the crypto industry and your company as a whole.
- [03:02]
Nick Elledge
Absolutely. So let's start with the first question you asked about the Genius Act. It was the first major, major crypto legislation in the United States ever. The simple way to think about it is for years the industry has been the Wild west, but finally, crypto is putting on a suit and tie and it established the framework for payment stablecoins, which is a digital layer of money that exists on top of our normal fiat currency and enables financial services around the world. 24.
- [03:33]
Austin
7.
- [03:33]
Nick Elledge
The goal of the Genius act and the legislation was to eliminate the fear of another meltdown or depegging of stablecoins, like the kind that happened in 2022 when Terra Luna collapsed alongside the collapse of FTX also in 2022. This was essentially crypto's Lehman Brothers financial crisis moment. The goal was to avoid something like that happening in the future. Now with this law, you're actually going to see banks themselves becoming the providers of these services. Let's break down the Genius Act. There are five things really to know from the Genius Act. So number one is that this law defines a payment stablecoin as a digital asset designed to be used for payment or settlement. And it can be redeemed for a fixed monetary value by an issuer, and those can be redeemed back for A$1 to 1 for that stable amount at any time. Number two, there has to be a one to one backing of safe assets, mostly cash or Treasuries, for every single stablecoin. So this outlaws risky algorithmic style stablecoins, like the kind that Terra Luna was, and it gives consumers and business more confidence that there should be one for every single stablecoin out there. And it can always be redeemed one to one. Number three, this is an exclusive club in terms of who can actually issue a stablecoin. You and I cannot go out and issue a stablecoin. It's largely going to be banks and financial institutions. And even financial institutions have to meet a number of rules and create a separate entity in order to issue a stablecoin. This creates a large hurdle remote for the stablecoin issuers if you will, against primarily non financial firms. So you can think of Google, Apple, Meta, Walmart, Amazon companies that probably would be in this space if it weren't for this provision to issue stablecoins. So we're mostly going to see the existing stablecoin issuers and potentially banks and others as the ones who are issuing these number four payment stablecoins are not bank deposits. They do not have FDIC insurance. Also, payment stablecoins cannot collect interest. Now there are some workarounds that Coinbase and others are doing in order to pay some incentives to hold stablecoins with them, but they are not meant to be yield bearing instruments. The fifth thing is that payment stablecoins are not securities. We're going to see banks offering stablecoins and stablecoin payments even within 2025.
- [05:55]
Austin
Okay, so what I'm hearing is we've got this legislature that has kind of laid out the law right beforehand. There was no law, which is why we had the FTX collapse and this sort of Lehman Brothers type feeling back in 2022, Terra Luna style. All that fun stuff actually wasn't fun for anyone, including myself. I did lose some money then, but now the genius act is essentially saying, hey, here's what a stablecoin is. Here's who can make stable coins. Here's you know, what these stable coins can be used for, here's the backing that goes into them, right? So very much like it sounds like we're kind of laying the groundwork for what is and is not considered a stablecoin and their utility as it relates to what these things can actually be used for.
- [06:36]
Nick Elledge
That's exactly right. So this is setting the rules of the road for stablecoins which already have trillions of dollars in payments. The total supply of stablecoins currently is about $250 billion. And that's forecasted to go up into the multi trillions in the coming years now that there's regulatory clarity. So there are going to be more and more of these things out there. And with something that important to payments, to commerce, to the economy, obviously it's going to have to have some rules of the road and be regulated for consumer protection and to make sure everything goes smoothly.
- [07:08]
Austin
So for all of you guys listening right now, that's like, okay, why do I care about stablecoins? Literally this doesn't make sense at all to me. Why is this pertinent stripe, which is this payment processing titan that pretty much processes all of online payments that, you know, if it's anything you're buying online, shopify, whatever. Like whenever you as a customer swipe your card online, 90% chance you're doing it through the payment rails of stripe. They processed $1.4 trillion of commerce on the Internet in 2024. Let's assume that that 1.4 trillion wasn't processed by Stripe, who by the way charges a 3% processing fee and instead it's paid on stablecoins. All of these businesses now are getting 3% back that they were, you know, spending when it comes to their payment processor. Maybe that allows them to hire more people, invest more in marketing. Right? 3% doesn't sound like a lot, but 3% of 1.54 trillion is tens of billions of dollars added back to the economy because you now have this new technology called stablecoins that allows us to send money back and forth without paying a payment processor a percentage of it.
- [08:12]
Nick Elledge
That's right. And we'll have to see where it goes. I mean, Stripe is one of the most forward thinking. They've made a series of acquisitions in the stablecoin space. So your stablecoin may be going through Stripe at some point if they had anything to say about it. Vsan MasterCard also very advanced on stablecoins and leaning into it. But it's because they have these large existing businesses within payments. They see where the puck is going, they see how important this is going to be and they are very much investing to try to get ahead of this trend.
- [08:40]
Austin
Now, before we ask Nick our next question, let's take a moment to give a quick shout out to public.com. public is an investing platform for those who take it seriously. No gambling, no day trading. If you're serious about investing toward your financial future, it's time you learn more about public.com on public. You can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and more. And that's not all. Public's artificial intelligence isn't just a feature built into the platform. It's woven into the entire experience. From portfolio insights to earnings call recaps. Public gives you smarter context at every touch point of your investing journey.
- [09:15]
Robert
And for a limited time, you can earn a 1% match on all IRA deposits, IRA transfers and 401k rollovers. Let me say that again. 1% match on all IRA deposits or transfers and 401k rollovers. Fund your account in 5 minutes or less only at public.com rich habits paid for by Public Investing. Full disclosure in the podcast description.
- [09:37]
Austin
Let's now jump back to our interview with Nick.
- [09:39]
Robert
Yeah, this is a great conversation and very informational. And I want to make sure that for the everyday person, like Austin alluded to, that we give them two or three nuggets of why stablecoins are so important, whether it's liquidity. But just from your opinion, why should people be holding stablecoins and what is their importance in today's market from an adoption perspective as we move forward with.
- [10:04]
Nick Elledge
Crypto, It's a great question. And unlike other forms of crypto with have a lot of volatility, a lot of ups and downs, the point of stablecoins is to be as in the name stable. So it shouldn't be going up and down. It should be one to one. $1 stablecoin equals $1 out. So it's not a speculation tool. It is largely a way to store value and to process payments. And so the use gaining fastest adoption if you happen to be an American in the United States, you may not have an immediate use case for this, but the first use case that's really gaining a lot of adoption is a store of value outside of the United States. We like to say that the US dollar has some of the strongest product market fit in the entire world. And there are a lot of countries where they want to hold dollars and they're not able to. And this is kind of the first time maybe their country has a high inflation rate or they had a currency depreciation. Their currency isn't worth as much against the dollar. They want to be able to hold these along with that. A lot of international payments cross border rep replacing swift international wires which can take many many days in order to settle. Now you have a way to move money cross border that's instant and relatively inexpensive.
- [11:09]
Austin
So that actually brings me to my next question. Your website says that you can integrate stablecoins into these payment products and you gave examples like the ACH and the wire transfers. So do you actually think like in the next 18, 24, 36 months that the world is going to be sending money from one business to another on stablecoin blockchain type vibes or you know, USDC Tesla stuff like that or am I still going to be have to typing in account numbers and routing numbers in my bank of Tennessee website here?
- [11:38]
Nick Elledge
Definitely already happening and especially for those international transfers. So there are two ways that it can happen. One is that you actually understand that you're using crypto, that you understand you're using a stablecoin in order to send that, so you're sending it wallet to wallet and that Requires some sophistication on your part. But a lot of banks are beginning to do what's called a stablecoin sandwich, where it's going bank to bank. But it happens that in between the sandwich bread are the stablecoin and that is what's enabling it to be same day wire transfer. Suddenly something that used to take days can happen instantly and consumers may not even know about it. What's happening behind the scenes. So we're in the early innings of it, but just rational businesses that are trying to move money cross border are going to be adopting this more and more.
- [12:24]
Robert
So my next question, Nick, is the Federal Housing Finance Agency issued a directive on June 25, 2025 ordering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to develop proposals for recognizing cryptocurrencies as reserve assets in single family mortgage loan risk assessments. And borrowers can potentially use Bitcoin and other approved cryptocurrencies as reserve assets without converting them to cash, avoiding capital gains. So as someone who has hundreds of thousands of dollars across Bitcoin Ethereum chainlink, how would stablecorp positively impact my ability to qualify for a mortgage or borrow for a large purchase?
- [13:02]
Nick Elledge
Right now if you walked into a bank branch and you had $100,000 in Bitcoin and you asked for a mortgage, they would have no idea what to do with it. They know it's valuable, they know it's worth something, but they don't know how to do a mortgage or how to hold that asset. And so they tell you, we'll go sell that, get some cash and bring it back. This is one of the problems that stablecorp solves for banks. And the truth is that your bank doesn't actually care about your crypto or your Bitcoin. They want your business, they want your relationship. And so to keep your business, they're going to build out these tools to make sure that they can handle all of your net worth and handle all of your assets. And so stablecore is working with a number of banks. It's a way for them to recognize the value to be able to hold your asset at the bank so they will actually hold it on your behalf as collateral against that loan. They're not just going to look at screenshots and you saying, hey, this is the net worth that I have. You're actually going to be able to transfer it over to your bank and get actual USD mortgages and loans on top of that in order to get liquidity for everyday life.
- [14:03]
Robert
Can you unpack that a little bit more? Because I think it's a little bit confusing. So are you saying I walk in with $500,000 worth of Bitcoin, I then give them access to my wallet and transfer my bitcoin over to them for this mortgage? Do they then own the bitcoin or is it collateralized through my wallet where I still retain ownership but they have access to it in case I default or something?
- [14:27]
Nick Elledge
Yeah, they would only have access to it in case you default, but you won't be able to take it somewhere else or use it in that case they're going to lock it down and that just like anything else is going to be used as collateral. And we've had bankers that have told us because a lot of folks think, oh, that sounds risky. It's a very volatile asset. Not sure. But compared to other things that banks lend against, actually it has some really nice properties like it's mark to market it every minute so you always know what it's worth. They can liquidate it anytime, even on a weekend or if they had to. And a lot of folks have this as part of their portfolio and they don't necessarily want to sell it and they want to be able to do other business activities.
- [15:05]
Robert
Before we jump into our next question with Nick investors, have you been itching for some in person events? Well, you're in luck. Our awesome partners over at Blossom Social are hosting their third annual Investor Social tour where hundreds of DIY investors across North America meet up in person for an evening of food, drinks, networking, education and fun.
- [15:26]
Austin
And they're hitting seven different cities on this tour. Los Angeles, Vancouver, Calgary, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, New York City at the NASDAQ Center. I mean they've got a ton of really cool things taking place on this tour.
- [15:39]
Robert
You guys know how much we love Blossom as an online social network and they're all about connecting investors online. Well, now's your chance to see what the community is all about in real life.
- [15:50]
Austin
And they've even hooked up our listeners with 15 off coupon code. So if you use Rich Habits 15 at checkout, you will get 15% off the price of the ticket, which is only 45. Link in the show notes below or visit blossomsocial.com 2025 InvestorTour all right, Robert, let's now jump back to our conversation with Nick. So Nick, I actually spoke with Brian Armstrong a few weeks ago, CEO of Coinbase, about the recent earnings results and something that they're very excited about are toke securities. So stocks and ETFs that are traded on the blockchain. Considering this is where the future is headed. This is where they're investing, this is what they are focused on as a company. How is StableCore positioning for a blockchain first finance world?
- [16:34]
Nick Elledge
Well, Brian Armstrong has a front row seat to the future, I would always believe when he says he's seeing something coming down the pike. Tokenization of those assets is growing as fast, if not even faster than stablecoins, which are getting a lot of the headlines right now. So why is that? Well, the future of markets is 247 global and instant. And blockchains are one way, probably the best way to give traditional assets like stocks and bonds and real estate some of those characteristics. There's this question and this is actually what a lot of banks are asking themselves right now. You know what happens when someone sells a tokenized Apple stock at 2am on a Sunday? Where does that money go? And that's where banks are now beginning to invest in tokenized deposits because the cash leg of that journey has to settle as fast as the asset leg. So in the future you're going to see banks having tokenized deposits, having some of your deposits, whether as a business or retail consumer on chain, so that your deposits can interact with the collateral and the assets that are on blockchains.
- [17:40]
Robert
Yeah, I think tokenized assets is the most exciting part of the crypto space moving forward. And I think it's going to be the one that really kind of levels the playing field for the everyday person that wants to get further involved in cryptocurrency but be able to invest in other assets that might be out of their reach from their financial perspective. Looking ahead, what is the next major feature or development for stablecore in your roadmap that you are the most excited about? Because I have my things and I know you have your things. So share with our listeners what's the cool stuff you guys are working on and how does it all affect the crypto markets and their wallets in the future?
- [18:21]
Nick Elledge
The future roadmap, which I think is very exciting, is exactly what you alluded to, the tokenization of assets and specifically of tokenized deposits. Because stablecoins, like we said earlier, are not deposits. They don't count as deposits for the bank, they can't lend against them and there's no FDIC insurance for it. So essentially, tokenized deposits is taking the best of stablecoins 24 7. It's global, it's instant, it's audible, it's on a shared ledger. And you give it these great qualities of a deposit like the fact that it has FDIC insurance. It can generate interest and yield for you. And so it's still a deposit, fully insured from a trusted bank, but now it's a token. So it gets to ride on blockchain rails with all this other stuff. And it's really exciting when you get into the smart contracts where it can settle instantly 24 7. There's a lot of very interesting programmable stuff that's going to come out of having deposits be tokenized in the future. And you may not know right away that it's a tokenized deposit necessarily, but suddenly, just like cloud computing or other tech trends, you know, it's just working behind the scenes and enabling you to have experiences at your bank that you were never able to have before.
- [19:29]
Austin
I like that breakdown. Nick, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of the Rich Habits podcast. I learned a lot. I feel like stablecoins have to be at the top of everyone's mind because that's where the future's headed, right? We talked about the tokenized equities, we're talking about how the Fed, all these different payment rails like, like this is where the future's headed. It is now signed into law. Like we' trying to bring experts into this equation to you all to learn in real time. So if you've not yet learned about stablecoins, the genius act and like how it's going to impact you, maybe your business, your portfolio, whatever going forward, please do that research and we are excited to be a resource for you in that journey.
- [20:05]
Robert
And Nick, thanks for joining. We had a blast. It was very, very informative and we look forward to talking to you soon.
- [20:11]
Nick Elledge
Austin. Robert, this has been a blast. Thanks so much.
- [20:14]
Austin
What an awesome walkthrough with Nick. I mean, obviously this guy is an absolute genius, right? He's been building with crypt and encryption and all this stuff for his whole career. Sold his previous company for over 100 million. He's backed by Coinbase Ventures. Right. Coinbase invested into his current company, stablecore. So like this guy is headed in the right direction when it comes to stablecoins and I feel like he did a really great job of breaking down the importance when it comes to the genius act. Right. Talked about how the law defines what a stablecoin is. It mandates that one to one backing of safe assets. It makes there's like this exclusive club for who can create stable coins and who cannot as well as understanding that it it's not FDIC insured. So you're not really going to like be getting any of that when it comes to holding your your stable coins and that you're not really earning interest on them either. So really leveling the playing field as it relates to how we think about stablecoins in the future. And again, little bit of a nerdy conversation, we get that. But that's what we do here at the Rich Habits Podcast. We find the industry experts, the people who are doing this in the trenches, working in these new technologies and bringing them to you all and saying hey, here's a person who's built sold a business backed by Coinbase. Like what do they think about the genius act and what are they doing with that information and how's it going to impact you?
- [21:28]
Robert
I feel that he nerded out just to the right amount without getting too granular that people get lost in the information because the goal for us, like Austin said, is always bring the experts in so we can break down the hard subjects from a perspective where people can execute. So I love the episode. I think he did a great job. We should probably have him back in the future just because these are things that people just, just don't quite understand. And we want to break down everything we can to help you guys build wealth now and in the future, but also understand what is happening in the crypto markets, especially stablecoins, because they're getting more and more important as we get higher adoption rate and more people involved in the crypto space.
- [22:10]
Austin
Now before we jump into the Q and A section of this episode, got to give a major shout out to NEOS investments. NEOs offers ETFs that seek high levels of monthly income with a keen focus on tax efficiency while providing core portfolio exposure across equities, fixed income, real estate, cryptocurrency and cash alternatives like t bills. Their ETFs may be especially interesting for investors looking to generate tax efficient monthly income inside of their investment portfolios. Their funds may serve as a compelling income focused alternative or complement to many of the investments already in your portfolio.
- [22:44]
Robert
If you're looking to add passive income focused ETFs to your portfolio, consider learning more about NEOs ETFs@neosfunds.com and as with all investments, investors should carefully consider their investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of NIOS exchange traded funds before investing. To obtain a prospectus containing this and other important information, please visit neosfunds.com Please read the prospectus carefully before you invest. An Investment in NEOs ETFs involves risk and possible loss of capital. There is no guarantee the NEOs ETFs will make monthly distributions, and the amounts may fluctuate from month to month. Crypto currency is relatively new to the market and has its own specific risks. NEOs ETFs are distributed by 4 Side Fund Services LLC.
- [23:31]
Austin
All right, Robert, now that we've talked about the episode, we've heard from some of our sponsors, we gotta jump in and answer some questions, with the first one coming from Frank N on Instagram. Frank says, I love the show. My question is if I and my wife should consider to contribute into our 401ks via Roth contributions. Despite being in the highest tax bracket of 37%, I'm a high earner, great saver, saving roughly $500,000 a year. But my thought is I want to maximize my Roth contributions over my life since I'm only 37 years old. So I'm sort of like paying my future self. But on the same token, because of my high tax bracket, I could save $20,000 per year on taxes if I did a traditional 401k instead of a Roth 401k. So what are you guys thoughts on this situation? Yeah, so we had a similar question like this in the past. And in my brain I'm thinking, okay, okay, you could save $20,000 a year on your taxes. That's great. You're already saving half a million dollars a year. Cool. Is an extra 20,000 going to change your life? I would rather pay that 20,000 a year knowing that you're only 37, 30 years into the future. My money is my money, right? Back in the 1940s, the highest tax bracket was like 92%. Trump just signed into the law, I think, on July 4th, the big beautiful bill bill which change tax brackets for people, right? So it's like if Trump can just sign something and my tax bracket changes because of that, that means some other president in 20, 30 years can also just sign something. And my tax bracket also changes. And so I like knowing that my taxes are this fortress of my nest egg. No taxes are coming out of this, right? So if I've got 1, 2, 3, 4, $5 million in these Roth retirement accounts, that's how much money I have. There's no, you have 5 million, but you got to pay 72% tax or 32% or whatever it might be in the future. I like knowing that my money is safe. I've already paid my taxes and it's good to go. But Robert, you might have a different take.
- [25:26]
Robert
No, I'm 100% with you. I think you knocked it out of the park because we talk about this all the time since the day I met you. We don't know what the tax man's going to do down the road. Five years, 10 years, 20, 30 years down the road. So that is why we like to see people set themselves up now.
- [25:42]
Austin
How?
- [25:43]
Robert
Because if you kick the tax can down the road forever, you don't know what you're getting yourself into. And I like to know where I stand with my taxes and know what money is actually mine. So I think you killed it.
- [25:54]
Austin
So our next question comes from Lance on Instagram. Lance says what's up Austin? And Robert, I've built my base and I want to buy a multi family unit to house hack next. The problem is there's been very few multifamily homes for sale where I live in Texas. So I want to get Yalls thoughts on building one instead of buying one that's already exists. Could this work out for me? Could I still get that Fannie Mae mortgage for a bundle loan with some construction? How do I think about this? Thank you in advance. Robert. This one is all you.
- [26:22]
Robert
Yes Lance, I think you're on the right track. You're going to have more profit over time because you're going to have built in equity by building on your own. And yes, the FHA loan, the 203k loan might be a perfect fit for you. But depending on where you build, you could also look at the USDA construction loan in rural areas is a great one because it's zeroed down and really, really wonderful terms. But you could also look to the construction to permanent loan which bundles the land and the construction together with one closing. So it saves you a lot of hassle on paperwork and a lot of time and money. So you have a lot of options out there. And if you can find the right piece of land, I think this is a great idea to be able to get you started get that multifamily property in your portfolio while making more money than if you bought at the top from someone else having the property.
- [27:15]
Austin
I think that's a great breakdown. I think here's the deal Lance, you said you've already got your base built so you're rocking and rolling that way you're ready to start diversifying your portfolio. And Robert and I really think that everyone should have some sort of real estate exposure into their well diversified portfolio. For some people it's a single family home. For others it might be some multi family action. Maybe it's REITs or something else. But in Your instance, it makes sense to house hack, right? You want to go do those things. And so in my humble opinion, you're now setting yourself up to go out and say, okay, let me run some numbers. Let me say, what could this down payment be, what could the interest rate be? How much am I going to be able to have that built in equity when I end up building this? What does that translate into? Rents and am I going to cash flow? Like this is a math equation. All you need to do is figure out does the math check out. And if it does, hopefully with interest rates being lower in the next nine to 12 months especially, it could be a really great opportunity for you to build something in an up and coming area of, of Texas. And you are now able to have some built in equity, some cash flow, some house hacking, right? So your, your expenses are going to be a little bit lower. Like this whole thing could shake out very well. The things that I would look out for. What does Robert always say here? It always takes twice as long and costs twice as much. So whenever you are thinking about construction or anything like that, when it comes to building this, always over budget, always overthink, like how long this might take. Like really, really, really be conservative with how you are analyzing this, this construction opportunity. And then finally, the hardest part about house hacking is that your neighbor is your tenant. So be very specific in particular with who you want to house hack with. Sometimes you might get the wrong tenant and they could be crazy and they just come knocking on your door every day like that's no way to live. On the flip side, maybe you could have an amazing tenant and they're just a great relationship. You guys become friends. So a couple things to keep in mind, Lance, as you navigate this next part of your wealth building journey. All right, so our last question is coming from Danielle C. Danielle says hi. Just want to start off by saying I love the podcast. I've been listening every day on my commute to work. Thank you Danielle. That's amazing to hear. Danielle says, my question is I have $20,000 in a one year CD that matures on August 25th of this year the rate was at four and a half percent APY. What should I do with this money come August 25th? I'm thinking about either t bills, maybe some stocks and ETFs or I just renew the CD. Although the rates have dropped. Any help is much appreciated. So Danielle, we don't know more about your specific situation, so it's hard for us to give you you that perfect advice. But let's assume a couple things. Let's assume you're earning a great amount of money. You're already investing that 15 to 20% of take home pay that Robert and I talk about. You're investing up to the match with your 401k. You're maxing out the Roth IRA and maybe you're starting to build your bridge accounts. Like let's say that you are not struggling. If I were in your shoes and I had an extra $20,000 I would look around and say maybe it's time that I beef up my index funds and ETFs. Maybe I diversify into some spyi or qqqi or maybe some aiq, some chat or some I s these AI related ETFs out there which could be very aggressive. Or maybe you're the opposite. Maybe you might just starting to get by. You're trying to figure out this wealth building stuff and you've got this really cool opportunity to come into $20,000. I would use that to go beef up the emergency fund. If you've not yet had that three to six months of expenses. Pay off any high interest debt that you've got laying around like a credit card or a HELOC or a personal loan or medical loans and bills and things like that. Can't out invest high interest debt debt. Or maybe you are just way past all of this and you can be incredibly risky and this is maybe an opportunity now for you to say this was money that I just didn't know what to do with. Now you want to get uber aggressive and invest in pre IPO startups, right? Maybe this could be your 1 to 3% of portfolio that goes into some of those high risk buckets. So it really depends where you are in your wealth building journey and how well diversified your portfolio already is. But I think I've given you a little bit of direction here to of kind consider.
- [31:07]
Robert
Yeah, I love this takeaway. We don't know her age and so we also don't know the current situation. So I think you covered it well. The only thing I'll add to this is exactly what Austin said. Maybe it's time to add some diversity. Maybe you're looking to get into some cryptocurrency up your stocks where maybe you have some stocks in your portfolio get a little more aggressive. But it all depends on everything else in your financial journey that is going on. But I definitely think it's time to move it out of a CT because they just underperform. The rates are going down. And there's much better places to put your money to make a higher return over time than a cd.
- [31:44]
Austin
Everyone, thank you so much for joining us on this week's episode of the Rich Habits Podcast. We were super excited to bring to you these industry experts as it relates to stablecoins, the genius act, and of course answer some of your questions along the way. If you've not yet tuned in to our new Friday episodes titled the Rich Habits Radar Radar, please please go check those out. We were having so much fun over there talking about all the biggest headlines and happenings that impact you and your money as well as answering questions from small business owners to I mean we just had a question of a guy that's doing 10 million a year. So we're having some fun over there as it relates to entrepreneurship. If you're a side hustler trying to go make some money outside of your job, go listen to those episodes. And as always, thank you so much for coming back. If you learned something, please consider leaving us a five star review on Spotify, checking out the Rich Habits Network and subscribing to the Rich Hab, its newsletter. All of that is in the show notes below.
- [32:36]
Robert
And always remember DM us on Instagram, give us your ideas, throw us your questions, check out the network. We have a seven day free trial going on right now so you can get in, kick the tire, see what's happening for $0. But just stay engaged with us because we are here to bring as much value as possible to help all of you in your financial journeys.
- [32:56]
Austin
Thanks everyone and have a great start to your week.
- [33:22]
Robert
Months Years when was the last time you saw Dr. Too Long.
- [33:26]
Austin
Join the club.
- [33:27]
Robert
But here's the great the time is now. No matter. Our reasons for delaying visits cost time, even fear.
- [33:34]
Austin
Our doctors are there to help us. Let's talk to them.
- [33:37]
Robert
Building a relationship with the doctor is.
- [33:39]
Austin
Great for our mental health and well being. So no more waiting.
- [33:43]
Robert
We can make the appointment today for.
- [33:45]
Austin
Ourselves and to be there for our loved ones.
- [33:48]
Robert
Dr. It's been too long, but it's not too late.