← Rich Habits Podcast
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- [00:04]
WhatsApp Narrator
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- [00:27]
Indeed Narrator
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- [00:59]
Austin Hankwitz
Public.com presents the rich Habits Radar A new Friday episode of the Rich Habits Podcast where every Friday morning we're coming at you with the biggest headlines impacting you and your money. My name is Austin Hankwitz and I'm joined by my co host Robert Kroke. And the three things sitting at the top of our Rich Habits Radar this week include Amazon replacing 600,000 jobs with robots, Tesla hitting an inflection point with their self driving technology and rear ramping up their robo taxi production, and the Trump administration taking an equity stake in Quantum computing stocks that'll be fun to talk about and be sure to stick around to the end to learn more about OpenAI's new web browser that reportedly isn't competing with Google Chrome. We'll see about that. Now Robert, before we kick off with the first story, we have a pretty cool announcement to make.
- [01:48]
Robert Kroke
Definitely. I would say that is an understatement. We finally did it, Austin. We're officially partnered with Republic and the Cashmere Fund and are excited to announce the launch of the first first of its kind investment opportunity that includes stock in SpaceX, Perplexity, and Xai. After months of work behind the scenes, we've finally been able to get this opportunity across the finish line. So Austin, tell everyone what we've done.
- [02:13]
Austin Hankwitz
Right, so there are publicly traded companies on the stock exchange and there are privately held companies that are not traded on the stock exchange. Anyone can go buy and sell stock of the publicly traded ones, but only those with deep connections and specific networks are able to be invited to invest into the private ones. For example, Robert, you were invited a couple of years ago to invest in Elon Musk Co. Xai at a $5 billion valuation because of your deep connections and relationships. And now they're rumored to be a $200 billion company which was a 40x return in just two years. So after months of hard work behind the scenes, we are thrilled to announce that you all are now invited to invest alongside of us in SpaceX, perplexity, X, AI and honestly, a lot of other cool companies inside the Cashmere fund. That includes Mr. Beast's Beast Industries, you gu of Feastables, Katy Perry's Desoi Graza, the olive oil company, Acorns, the Fintech company. They're all part of this investment.
- [03:11]
Robert Kroke
You nailed it, Austin. A $7,500 commitment gets you invested into SpaceX, Perplexity and Xai, as well as 38 other companies inside of the Cashmere Fund. This has been something we've been working on behind the scenes now since August, and we're thrilled to be able to unlock this asset class of pre seed to pre IPO privately held companies to to the world.
- [03:34]
Austin Hankwitz
So if you want to invest alongside of us, I've already committed my $7,500. Robert has done the same. The whole team is excited about this. If you want to invest alongside of us, as little as 7,500 bucks get you in the door. So be sure to click the link in the show notes below or the description of this YouTube episode or literally go to our link in bios. It'll be in there too. We are making sure everyone knows about this awesome new opportunity that we've been able to unlock for our listeners.
- [04:00]
Robert Kroke
Think about that. For $7,500 minimum investment, people can own a piece of SpaceX Perplexity and Xai, plus all these other companies. Graza is incredible. We love Acorns, so this is one of the coolest things we've ever built and ever done. And I'm so excited for everyone that follows us, all of our listeners, to take a look at this investment and see if it's a good fit for them. Because I'm super excited for myself, that's for sure.
- [04:27]
Austin Hankwitz
All right, Robert, with that being said, let's dig into our first story.
- [04:30]
Robert Kroke
Yes, Amazon just quiet admitted what we all knew was coming. They're raising wages for warehouse workers and doubling down on robots, which means about 600,000 jobs could be shifted to machines over the next few years. This isn't fear mongering, it's the biggest workforce transformation in modern business.
- [04:51]
Austin Hankwitz
Now, Amazon's average warehouse wage just jumped to about 20 bucks an hour, up from 18 last year, which on the surface, sounds great. But at the same time, Amazon Robotics now runs over 750,000 active robots in these fulfillment centers, which is up 30% year over year. These are real machines that move shelves, scan inventory and can pack orders faster than any humans ever could.
- [05:15]
Robert Kroke
And the math is simple. A $30,000 robot that lasts five years is cheaper than paying $40,000 a year to a human worker. And it never calls in sick. And Amazon isn't alone. Walmart, Target and even FedEx are building robot first logistics networks. The US economy has 9 million open jobs and most of them are physical labor. And robots fill the gap, not just because they're cheaper, but because there just aren't enough humans to fulfill these jobs.
- [05:43]
Austin Hankwitz
So what does it mean for you and your money? It means that the automation boom isn't just a headline story here that's catching attention. It could also be an investment story, Right? So according to Morgan Stanley, the switch to Robots, right, these 600,000 jobs replaced could save Amazon over $4 billion a year in direct labor costs. That goes straight to their operating income, straigh to their bottom line. Now this bet on robotics is not about trying to cut costs this specific quarter or even this year, but over the coming years and decade. Companies like Symbotic, Nvidia, Rockwell Automation and UiPath are the ones that are reportedly selling the picks and shovels in this gold rush. So we'll have to see what happens.
- [06:24]
Robert Kroke
So if you're in the rich habits network, you know we've been investing in Humanoids for over a year now via our private investments into Apptronic and Figure. And if you understand where the world is heading, fewer humans, more machines, you can position your portfol portfolio to ride the automation wave and not get run over by it. I know for sure for me, having a warehouse and having all these workers, it will be nice to not have to deal with sick days and vacations and all these things and be able to really just be more profitable and more organized and streamlined. So this is a good time to maybe consider owning Amazon stock.
- [07:00]
Austin Hankwitz
Now let's talk about Tesla's inflection point when it comes to full self driving and rolling out these robo taxis. So Tesla's management says that they're at a critical inflection point thanks to AI full self driving and robo taxis. They're targeting an annual production rate of 3 million vehicles a year within the next 24 months and doubling down on their robotaxi expansion. And that full self driving that we've.
- [07:25]
Robert Kroke
Been talking about Tesla's playbook is no longer selling a hunk of metal for a one time fee, according to their earnings call that took place earlier this week. Elon wants to generate recurring high margin revenue for the business through software. And he stated, we're just at the beginning of scaling quite massively to full self driving in robo taxi and fundamentally changing the nature of transport. Take this all with a grain of salt as Elon loves to give unrealistic timelines on his ideas. Scaling to 3 million cars in production in the next 24 months seems very aggressive to me, but we'll have to wait and see. Having legislature passed by lawmakers giving the thumbs up on robo taxis all around the country is also an aggressive prediction.
- [08:09]
Austin Hankwitz
Yeah, I think, I think Elon's very well known at this point for giving some lofty predictions that don't come true in the timelines that he likes to say. So yes, take this all with a grain of salt, but what does it mean for you and your money, Robert? It means that Tesla isn't just going to sell you another car, they're trying to sell you mobility as a service with their robo taxis. Right. If Elon actually can hit 3 million vehicles and roll out full self driving and this robo taxi service, Tesla now shifts from a car company, quote unquote, trading at six times revenue and maybe into a software company which could justify 10, 15, 20 times earnings multiples like an AI or a cloud stock.
- [08:51]
Robert Kroke
Every Tesla on the road becomes a cash flowing robo taxi node. Every software update increases margins and every full self driving subscription adds recurring revenue. Despite the lofty expectations and timelines, though we own the stock, we've been bullish for a long time. So not to mention during their earnings call this week, Elon called their Optimus humanoid robot an infinite money glitch. I'm sure that's going to get turned into a lot of memes in the coming months. Elon was also quoted saying, that's why I call Optimus the path to true sustainable abundance. Where work becomes optional.
- [09:27]
Austin Hankwitz
Where work becomes optional. How crazy is that to think of, right? I mean we all saw, I think it was the figure three robot. They had a hype video that came out recently and I think it's optimist that they're having an event here just in the next couple weeks in November. It's insane, dude. It is absolutely insane. Like there's going to be a time in the next five to ten years where millions of these robots are working jobs and I don't know what the answer is from when it comes to like turning their labor into, you know, distributed because it's going to displace so many people. Right. We have to tax the labor somehow. Some like something's going to have to happen here. So who knows. But we're not as far away as you might think we are. I would say single digit years away.
- [10:07]
Robert Kroke
Yeah. Our dystopian future is right in front of us. There's going to be just a ton of disruption the next five to 10 years and I am here for it and ready to be ahead of it all. So all of our listeners and followers and rich Habits network members know what to do with their money and how to invest in this new future. And that leads us to our next point. Today, the Trump administration is in talks to take equity stakes in quantum computing firms. Companies including IonQ, Rigetti Computing and D Wave Quantum are in discussions to have the government become a shareholder as part of agreements to get future funding earmarked. Quantum computers are seen as a critical next generation technology because they can quickly perform computations that would take today's computers billions of years, literally.
- [10:56]
Austin Hankwitz
Experts say that this type of cutting edge technology could make it easier to create new drugs, discover new materials, create new chemicals, while making every segment of the economy even more efficient. Alison Schwartz, the head of government relations for D Wave Quantum, said the company wants to sell systems that can solve the government's hardest problems and get a return on their investment.
- [11:16]
Robert Kroke
Yeah, I think this is a really smart play. We've seen it recently in the AI space with the government taking a position in intel and other companies. So I think it's a really smart move if we're going to really bolster the future of technology and manufacturing in the United States. And Google revealed a new algorithm called Quantum Echoes, which runs on its quantum chip, codenamed Willow, and reportedly executes tasks around 13,000 times faster than the best classical supercomputers. Now the kicker is, according to Google, the algorithm is claimed to be verifiable, meaning other quantum or classical systems can check its results. That's important because quantum results often have trust verification issues.
- [11:59]
Austin Hankwitz
Now, despite this breakthrough, Google does cautions that they're not yet at some large scale commercial quantum machine type business. Yet the achievement is still narrow and the highly specialized. So Robert, what does this mean for you and your money?
- [12:12]
Robert Kroke
Yeah, I think the rise of quantum computing was one of the three major predictions we made for this year and it's certainly coming true. It's obvious that unlike the Oklows of the world. Quantum computing could become a very successful business sooner than we think. With that being said, we're still years away from quantum computing being useful in a traditional business environment. We have some exposure in our portfolios, but certainly not betting the farm on them just yet because as we stated earlier in the year, it's still a long ways off.
- [12:42]
Austin Hankwitz
Oh, I think that's a great takeaway. Right, so it's, it's so fun though because we've talked about Amazon replacing all these jobs and Tesla doing some, what's like the big underlying theme of the three things kind of we just talked about. Well, one, it's AI, but also two, it's just like the future of work, the future of business, the future of where all of this is going. And it's, it's so funny because I think it's a quote from Bill Gates that, that is you overestimate what you can achieve in one year, but you underestimate what you can achieve 10. And I feel like we're beginning to really conceptualize now as chat, GPT and open AI and all of this AI stuff has really become so important over the last handful of years just how much we can achieve in the next 10 years. Right. You asked me three years ago, were people building humanoid robots? I mean, I'm sure they were like some places, but I'd never heard of it. No one ever really, I mean sci fi movies I guess, you know, was full self driving a thing three years ago? Yeah, kind of. But like not like it is now. You've got the Waymos, you got the, you know, Uber's doing stuff now, Tesla's doing the Robotax axis. Was quantum computing a thing that Google was working on three years ago? Maybe it was, but I guess I'm saying is like we're making some crazy strides, Robert, in the last couple years when it comes to the future of business, the future of work. And it's never been more important to have equity stakes in this technology. Right. If it's directly by investing into the stocks and the companies like the Amazons and the Teslas and the Googles of the world, or if it's just being a net buyer of assets and having exposure to American capitalism through the NASDAQ and the S&P 500.
- [14:11]
Robert Kroke
Well, and I think it's important for everyone watching and following along on this episode to understand that there are going to be pivots, there's going to be a ton of displacement of jobs, but there's also going to be a ton of new jobs. There's going to need to be massive workforces of people that work on the robots because in the beginning the robots aren't going to be able to service and fix themselves. I'm sure down the road there'll be a world where they do, but there's just going to be other things to do. And we really have to beg this dystopian question. Is quality of life going to get better down the road? As Elon says, when work is optional and these are the things where we could go, really, we could spend hours talking about, you know, universal basic income is probably going to have to happen. What are all these people going to do? Is obesity rates going to go way down? Because people are going to have more time to eat better and and work out and have more free time. So who knows what the future holds. I just want to be ahead of it and guide our listeners as good as we can to make sure we get them on the right path financially and in their business and workforce.
- [15:13]
Austin Hankwitz
With that being said, Robert, let's now jump to our WR Rapid Fire section of the episode. Every episode I bring three headlines that caught my attention. Robert brings three of his own and we unpack them. So I'll kick it off. The three things that are at the top of my Rapid fire list include OpenAI's new AI browser chat GPT Atlas, getting released this week, Elon's recent comments about his potential 1 trillion dollar compensation package, and an AI first movie studio raising $12 million in funding. So that'll be fun to talk about today. All right, Robert, let me break this down for you. So OpenAI just unveiled their AI browser, Chat GPT Atlas. Now, the launch is super notable because ChatGPT itself has 800 million weekly active users. So if they can just immediately plug this browser into their user base, it's lights out for Google. For the company, the browser is much more of a way of keeping ChatGPT central than it is making a web browser better. Sam Altman is quoted saying, we think AI represents a once in a decade opportunity to rethink what a browser can be, how to use one, and how to most productively use the web. Tabs were great, but they haven't had a lot of innovation since they were invented. We've seen the CEOs of Google and Microsoft talk about AI as a platform shift. However, for consumers, phones and desktop operating systems are still the primary way that we use AI tools. But now OpenAI wants to own the entire distribution of ChatGPT. Now let's talk about Elon's recent comments of this $1 trillion compensation plan. So Tesla's board of directors proposed a compensation plan for the co founder and leader of company Elon that would add an additional 12% to his already substantial stake in the company, carrying a value of a little more than 1 trillion. Assuming the company hits specific milestones outlined in the plan. One of those milestones is for the stock to go up by 5x from here, creating a market cap of $8.5 trillion, or twice the current value of Nvidia, which seems insane to me. Very much an ambitious goal. Now, what a lot of people are saying is transferring that kind of we to a man who's already worth half a trillion dollars does seem like overkill. But Elon insisted on Wednesday during his earnings call that it's not about the money. I think I even saw him tweet, I can't even spend that kind of money. What am I going to do with it?
- [17:33]
Robert Kroke
Right?
- [17:33]
Austin Hankwitz
He says, quite literally. There's a quote. He goes, I don't feel comfortable building a robot army talking about Optimus if I don't at least have a strong influence over those robots, he said. He added later that he worries about building one of these robot armies than getting ousted because of some asinine recommendations from SS or Glass Lewis, which are two of those, I think they're like lawyer firms or whatever that got him screwed up last time with this compensation. Right. It's just they're always trying to go after him apparently. But I don't blame them. Right. I feel like at that point it's not even about the money. It's like, hey, this is my company. I just spent the last however many decades of my life building this. If it's robo taxis, if it's Optimus, if it's whatever. And now I don't have even have a say into like what happened to them. So I don't know. It's interesting. I understand both sides of the equation. I mean it's like, why don't just give them voting power of 12% more versus like the actual like stock? Like does he need another trillion? No. Right. But given the voting power of it, that could be cool. Could be a nice little, little something there. Now the last thing I want to talk about is this AI first movie studio raising $12 million. It's called Wonder Studios. They're an artificial intelligence creative studio backed by OpenAI and Google DeepMind. And they raised a 12 million dollar seed round to expand their production amid a growing trend toward the use of AI in the entertainment industry. Now the funding will double the company's engineering team and accelerate a push into intellectual property ownership and original content production. The investment in Wonder Studios is the latest move toward the use of AI in entertainment. Last year we saw Andreessen Horowitz make some big investments into Promise, which was another gen AI movie studio. Seeing Wonder was founded by Collins and Justin Hackney and they use AI across three strands of their business commercial work, IP partnerships and production of original entertainment content. The studio plans to release a number of commercials and original productions next year. Robert if the AI slop video commercial that Coca Cola made last year taught us anything, I don't think anyone wants AI generated movies yet. I I don't think anyone's ready for that.
- [19:41]
Robert Kroke
I think it's going to be tough luck because we're going to be stuck with it. It's going to keep getting bigger and bigger and more realistic. You know, I think we see every day there's a new AI technology that we have to have, so it's getting to be a little cumbersome to figure out what actually works and what is the most cost effective for all of us. But more to come on that. But that was an incredible rapid fire section. Just so many great things happening, but it is a little bit scary. So it's fun to follow along and really understand where the world and where technology is going. So I want to get into my three rapid fire selections today. Number one, SpaceX executed an internal transfer of approximately 2495 Bitcoin valued at around $288 million, and it was interpreted as a strategic reorganization rather than a sale, reinforcing institutional confidence in Bitcoin as a Treasury asset. BlackRock also purchased a reported $200 million worth of Bitcoin for their Ibit ETF this week as well. Number two for me is Mortgage giant Fannie Mae has issued new projections forecasting that their mortgage rates will finally fall below 6% percent by the end of 2026, a level that has not been reached in three years. Fannie Mae's latest monthly economic and housing outlook predicts mortgage rates will average 6.4% at the end of the year and 5.9% at the end of 2026. And number three for me today our gold and silver are seeing a long overdue correction, but they are still under owned in portfolios and the structural drivers behind the rally remaining intense attacked Saxo Bank's head of commodity strategy, Ole Hansen said in a note. And you know everyone was kind of having that panic moment. There were a lot of crazy headlines this week around gold and silver. I remain bullish. I think gold and silver have a long way to go in the coming years and I do believe that silver will outperform gold coming up. But I am steadfast and going to keep dollar costs averaging along the way.
- [21:43]
Austin Hankwitz
Man, I hope mortgage rates come down. That'd be great. I want to buy a house and not have a mortgage rate of like 7% on it.
- [21:50]
Robert Kroke
Definitely.
- [21:51]
Austin Hankwitz
All right, Robert, let's jump into our Q and A section of this episode. As a reminder for everyone tuning in right now, these sections of the episode, these questions are specifically focused on small business owners, entrepreneurs, side hustlers, anyone out here making money. Right? You can ask any question as it relates to trying to generate money, anything to do with entrepreneurship, because Robert and I are entrepreneurs and we're happy to give you our advice. Now, our first question comes from Alan S. Remember, if you have a question to ask, you can DM us on Instagram at Rich Habits Podcast or email us@rich habitspodcastmail.com Allen S. Says my small lawn care company doubled this year, but I'm the bottleneck. Every quote, schedule and payment runs through me. I want to grow, but I am burning out. How do you actually step back and delegate when you're afraid quality will drop? What's the first role most small business owners should hire for to reclaim their time? Rob Robert, I'll let you kick this.
- [22:45]
Robert Kroke
One off for me. It is always important to hire to your weaknesses. So if you're really good at the work and you're really good with the customers, hire someone that's really good with the quotes and the books and the back end, the administrative stuff. If you're really good with the administrative stuff, then hire a front end manager that can go meet with the clients, do the quotes, make sure that the crews are doing the work and getting things done. But you are struggling with with what every small business owner struggles with in the beginning and that is growth without having a plan. So I would first and foremost figure out what you're weak at. I would look at how you can fix that bottleneck with either technology. We have a ton of really great technology out there to help small business owners. Or I would look at hiring that front of house person that's gonna take over that role for you. Because I think that is the number one most important thing is allowing yourself a real opportunity to succeed through growth. Growth by making that first important hire. So choose wisely.
- [23:45]
Austin Hankwitz
My Favorite piece of advice that I got as it relates to being a small business owner and hiring and things of that nature is you can choose time or you can choose profit. Right? You've been choosing profit for the last however long now, and you're getting burnt out. You want your time back, which means you need to take some of your profit and use it to go hire somebody. Now, I'm not saying go jump on, you know, LinkedIn or go text your buddies or whatever real quick and say, hey, come work for me. Be very slow and methodical about it. And to Robert's point, yeah, get out a yellow pad and write down a very clear description of what you're hiring for, things that you enjoy doing. Maybe you love going out and giving the quotes. Maybe you love building the schedule, or maybe you love, you know, talking with clients and collecting payments. I don't love that, but I don't think anyone does either. But maybe you love specific parts of your business. Make sure you identify those parts so you keep doing those parts. The things you don't love and the things you're not good at. That's what you write down on the piece of paper that Robert's alluding to and say, okay, I want someone that is going to build the schedule. I want someone that's going to reach out and collect payments. I just want to be, you know, I'm Alan. All I want to do is be out there on the grass or be out there with the lawn care and just get it done. That's all I care about. I want everyone else to do something else. Right? So that, to me is the first step. Understanding what you want to do, understanding what you want to delegate and then figure out how much you can afford as it relates to that delegation. Say, okay, if I'm able to hire somebody that is going to be able to take, you know, let's call it, I don't know, 15 to 20 hours a week off my schedule. That's 15 or 20 hours a week. I can go out and cut grass. I can go out and do the lawn care stuff. How much can. How much more revenue can I generate now knowing that I've got an extra 15, 20 hours a week? So nine times out of 10, if you play your cards right, yes, you are going to have to, like, pay somebody, of course, to work for you. But if you're able to do this the right way, you're going to make more money on the back end. So it could even offset what you're paying them and you're still making what you were making before. It all comes down to making sure that you're doing an analysis on the front end so you're not reacting to decisions on the back end.
- [25:51]
Robert Kroke
That is a great take. I really, really enjoyed that.
- [25:54]
Austin Hankwitz
So our next question comes from Lewis K. Lewis says. Hey guys, just wanted to say I love the podcast. I've been gaining so much knowledge and I wish I were taught this in school. I'm a recent mechanical engineer graduate specializing in designs. I recently started working and now I have more time on my hands without the need to study all the time. But I'm trying to brainstorm more lucrative ways I can use my skills in my free time. Your opinions would be greatly appreciated. All right, Robert, so we got Lewis here. Lewis is a mechanical engineer graduate specializing in design. How can he spend his time designing things for people that's going to allow him to make more money in his spare time?
- [26:31]
Robert Kroke
Love this question and congrats on the engineering degree. I think first and foremost, and this might sound a little off for mechanical engineering. I would build up your social media. I would get a website about your services. You can do all of this for a hundred dollars or less right now. Get the social media up and running. Maybe get a YouTube channel up and running so you can show people how you do things and get the website up and running. Here's why. Because once you build this audience, even if it's a small audience of a few hundred followers or a few thousand followers, you will have endless access to people like me, me that always need work done. You might be a specialist in cad. You might be really good with product design. There are so many small businesses out there that need an individual with your skill set that would love to hire you. They just have to be able to find you. And then also you can look at some of these sites like Fiverr and other sites that hire people, these gig economy people, and that would be another way for you to get business. But I would focus first and foremost on the structure and getting the eyeballs and all of that laid out so you can build your business around it. I had a friend years ago that just had such a great reputation online through Facebook back then and everything else, he was so busy, he went on to build a really big engineering and product design firm, all because he was known and trusted. So get out there, get the eyeballs, get the website, and hopefully that helps.
- [27:58]
Austin Hankwitz
I think it's a great breakdown, Robert. Like tactically speaking, go get on Instagram, TikTok and all these other different types of social media platforms. And here's your strategy. You go and you start making videos saying, I just bought this product and I think it sucks. Here's what I would have done instead if I was designing it right? And now it's like, you know, here's, here's this thing, right? It's new, new look, See, I bought on Amazon. I use it to hold my phone, right? That's all. It's like 10 bucks. Okay? You can go buy something on Amazon that looks cool and say, hey, I bought this and here's why it sucks. Here's what I would have done instead. And then redesign something like that. Make a video and then be like, cool. That's what I would have done. Like, I've seen people do that. Like designers that are, they do logo design, right? So I've seen logo designers be like, if I was the CMO of Coca Cola, here's what I would do instead. Or if. Or if I was remaking the McDonald's logo, here's what I would do. And like, they're actually cool looking logos. And like, that's how they market their business, is redesigning existing businesses. Yeah. So if I was in your shoes, I would absolutely just start making content about redesigning things that already exist. One video is going to pop off like crazy. I know. There's a guy, I forget his name. Robert. He's so funny though. He's like, hey, hey, here's a problem I had. And so what I've done is I made this to solve it. Like 3D prints it. It's like it's a whole thing. So maybe you can do stuff like that. But, but Louis, that's what it's all about is like getting your name out there, becoming the guy that can really, you know, be known for making cool designs. And it's, it's, it's gonna be a passion project in the beginning, right? You're not gonna make any money off these videos. But it's, it's part of the game. It's a long term game and it's something that seems like you really enjoy doing. So our last question comes from an anonymous L listener. Our anonymous listener says, good morning, gentlemen. Thank you for all you do. I look up to you both and I am really happy that I found your podcast. I'm 22 years old. I've recently been married and I work for my dad's construction company. I'll keep it short and say this. The company is not doing well at all. There are five employees, including myself, and we Evolve in paid late continuously this entire year. What started as getting paid late with bi weekly pay turned into once a month month turned into once a month in two weeks turns into I now haven't been paid over the last two months. He always pays eventually and I trust my dad again because it's my dad. But it's starting to eat into my desire to even work there anymore. My problem is not only getting paid late, but also I don't really enjoy the industry. I've also have a bad case of analysis paralysis and I really want to start a business of my own. But I feel terrible leaving my dad and his failing business behind. I would love to be able to help him and his business get back on own its feet while also accomplishing my own goals and dreams. I've tried to help him with some marketing and business strategies, but he always shoots them down and wants to remain in his old ways. I'm really struggling on how to handle this. Any advice would be appreciated. Well, anonymous listener, thank you so much for the kind words. I'm so sorry to hear that you're going through this. The nicest way I think I can put this is your dad is living his life and you are living your life and you can love your dad from the bottom of your heart and you can be be his biggest cheerleader and you can always offer to help him if he needs it, but I don't think that you need to sacrifice on your own career and your dreams to make your dad's ego of having a business that is successful versus failing, like stay intact. Right? I'd much rather see you say, hey Dad, I love you very much. I'm so proud of the business you've built. I'm so glad I was able to work here for the last several years. This has been time that I'll really cherish. But my reality is, is I don't enjoy the work anymore. I mean, blame it on yourself, right? Don't blame it on him for not paying. You'd be like, listen. And you just said that, right? I don't enjoy this industry. I don't enjoy this work. My dream is to go be a magician. My dream is to go, do you know, chef culinary school? My dream is to go whatever this thing is, that's not construction. And I'm gonna go pursue my dream. And I hope you love me enough as your son to be proud of me and excited for me to go do that. That's how I'd approach it. I don't think it's you Leaving your dad's failing business behind or giving him like that. That's not what I'm thinking. And I don't think he would see that either. Especially if you sort of broach the conversation in a way that's like we're two men having a conversation about my dreams and my reality. My reality is I don't want to work construction anymore. I want to go be a chef. I want to go own a restaurant. I want to go do nascar. I don't know what you want to do, but something cool. Whatever your dreams are is always cool, right? So that's how I'd approach it. And when it comes to your dad's situation, seems to me like he needs to be a little bit more stern as it relates to his receivables. Something I learned very early on is the whole, like. Like net 30, 60, 90, whatever. When it comes to sending out a invoice, if it's more than net 45 and they don't pay, like, I do the work, and I don't get paid for a month and a half. Like, I'm very clear with that customer and saying, I'm not your bank. Right. This isn't you trying to loan against services that are trying. Like, I'm not your bank, dude. So if you want a bank, I can introduce you to my bank, but I'm not your bank. You are my customer. Here is the services. I need my money. Money. And we are doing that net 30 or that net 45, like, whatever that thing is, but we're not doing 60 or 90 or whatever the heck else people are trying to do these days. And, oh, that's the only way we do it. That's fine. We're just not. We're just not compatible. I don't need the business. That's okay. So that's what I would encourage you to do. Follow your dreams, double down on you. You're 22 years old. This is the time to be the craziest, riskiest ideas that could possibly come about. Go do it.
- [33:13]
Robert Kroke
So I want to click back up on that. I really like that answer, and I agree with it wholeheartedly. You can't delay your dreams and put off your financial future because your father can't get it together and run this business in a profitable manner. So I think Austin's breakdown is fantastic. There is one other option. You go have the real hard conversation with your father. Maybe put it in writing in advance and say, say, dad, love you. This isn't working. I can't live without Getting paid regularly and not being able to count on this money, and it's really bad for Billy, Tommy, and any everybody else that works for you, they're struggling as well. There has to be a solution. And I would go to him with a hard line and say, how about this? You've shot everything down. I've offered before. Obviously it's not working how you're doing it. How about you give me a shot shot and give me a chance to earn some sweat equity in the business, since you're not able to pay me regularly and be able to then integrate your ideas, whether it's how to build better, how to quote better, how to collect better, or how to market better. But you could also take the approach of the hard line with him and if he says, no, you're too young, you don't know what you're doing, then you say, dad, it's been wonderful. Appreciate everything you do for me. I love you, but I've got to go do my own thing thing because I need to build my own financial future and I can't do it if I can't get consistently paid. Two options. Both are good and you can blend both of them. But I love Austin's takeaway, but it might be time to have the hard conversation with him and see if that works as well.
- [34:48]
Austin Hankwitz
And if at the end of that conversation he goes, fine, you're going to leave me like, wow, what a son you are. It's like, well, now, you just learned a lot about your dad.
- [34:57]
Robert Kroke
That's right.
- [34:57]
Austin Hankwitz
So I'm sorry that you're going through this. Anonymous Listen, listener, at the end of the day, you have to look out for yourself. Love family, love my family, love everything about that. And I love that you love your dad, but your dad's dreams are not your dreams. Your dad's ego is not your ego. Your dad's business is not your business. I love that he's been able to take you under his wing and teach you all about this, but it seems like it hasn't been working. And if he's genuinely not interested at all in any change, you know, doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. If he's just going to do the same thing and expect his business to turn around, then that's not going to work either. So you have to go figure some stuff out for yourself, everybody. Thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of the Rich Habits Radar, a new Friday episode of the Rich Habits podcast where we talk about the biggest headlines and happenings impacting you and your money. Be sure to follow us on Instagram. Hit the subscribe button here on Spotify. Leave us a comment about this episode. We're like, I think, what, Robert, two months in, something like that. Two and a half months in, we're still learning, right? You guys like, we talk about things. You guys don't like something, leave us feedback. We're always trying to improve these shows, deliver, deliver as much value as we possibly can to you all in these new Friday episodes and we're thrilled that you're along for the ride.
- [36:09]
Robert Kroke
Yeah, these Friday episodes are a blast because we get to keep you guys abreast of everything that's happening in real time or as close to it as possible. So I really enjoy it because I feel like it keeps all of our listeners ahead of the curve from what is happening in the markets, but also from our perspective of how we release information to everyone that follows along in our ecosystem. So I'm really, really proud of these new episodes and excited about everything we're working on.
- [36:36]
Austin Hankwitz
Thanks, everyone. Have a wonderful weekend and we will see you on. And Doug, here we have the Limu.
- [37:08]
Robert Kroke
Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.
- [37:21]
Indeed Narrator
Limu is that guy with the binoculars.
- [37:22]
Robert Kroke
What, watching us? Cut the camera. They see us.
- [37:25]
Austin Hankwitz
Only pay for what you need@libertymutual.com Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Savings Very unwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Affiliates. Excludes Massachusetts.