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- [00:00]
A
Hey everyone and welcome back to the Rich Habits Podcast Question and Answer edition brought to you by public.com these are our Thursday episodes where every Thursday we sit down and we answer your questions as if we were in your shoes going through whatever you're going through. You can ask us questions via email at rich habits podcastmail.com Instagram dms@rich habits Podcast or just join the Rich Habits Network. Link in the show notes to learn more about that seven day free trial. And always get your questions answered because we host those two hour weekly live streams every Tuesday night. Robert I'm excited for this episode. We've got a ton of cool questions to answer and man, we are getting really close to Thanksgiving and the holidays. It's, it's snowing here in Nashville. I feel like this this year just like flew by us.
- [00:45]
B
It has definitely been an amazing year for us in the Rich Habits Network and our entire ecosystem. And I just love seeing all the cool new things that we have going into 2026. And yeah, these episodes have really grown and grown and I just really enjoy.
- [01:00]
A
Making them now before we get started. Robert it's always important to people that the only way they're ever going to be able to retire is if they have a nest egg that's growing for them over time so they don't have to always trade time for money. That nest egg supports their lifestyle via that portfolio income.
- [01:18]
B
And the easiest way anyone can begin investing towards their Future is on public.com they make it incredibly simple to build a multi asset portfolio including ETFs, stocks, bonds, crypto options and more. They also offer industry leading yields of up to 3.8% APY for that emergency fund.
- [01:36]
A
And for a limited time you can earn a 1% match on all IRA deposits, IRA transfers and 401k rollovers. It's $1,000 of free money for every hundred thousand you roll over into their platform. I know you guys have a couple hundred thousand from that old 401k, that old financial advisor you haven't talked to in 18 months. Roll that money over and get your.
- [01:55]
B
Free match and fund your account in 5 minutes or less by heading to public.com or front/rich habits to claim your 1% match today. Paid for by Public Investing. Full disclosure in the podcast description.
- [02:08]
A
So our first question comes from Aaron C. Via email. Again, rich habits podcast gmail.com if you have a question. Aaron says, hey Austin and Robert, I'm a big fan and longtime listener of the show. Thank you for everything you're doing to make finance approachable and empowering for all your listeners. I have a question about how much my family should spend on a car. We're expecting our second child and need a bigger car. Well, first off, second child, bigger car. I think a lot of these cars come with four seats, so we'll see. But just maybe pump the brakes, literally and figuratively as it relates to that. But let's assume you do need a car, so let's keep rolling. Aaron says, My husband's 38. I'm 30. We bring home about 120,000 a year so I can stay home with our son. Combined, we have a net worth of about $450,000, roughly broken out to a quarter million in savings and investments, 65,000 in our retirement account, 10,000 in home equity, and 17,000 in cars bought with cash. We also have 5K and our 529 for our son. We're looking at a 2024 SUV to last us until the wheels fall off. We have set aside 35,000 for the car purchase. However, I feel guilty spending this amount of money on a vehicle because I've always bought the cheapest thing that would fit our needs. Is it too much of our overall net worth to have tied up in a depreciating asset? Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. To answer your question, I do not think it is too much to have tied up in depreciating asset. You have about a half a million dollars of a net worth. You're making 120,000 a year, which means you guys are probably investing anywhere between maybe 15 to 25,000 of your income on an annualized basis. Let's even say the $35,000 car purchase will depreciate by 50% in the next call it three, four, five years. Your current investments with your current net worth and what you're going to invest over that period of time will more than offset that 35,000. I think the 35,000 is a very fair purchase. I wouldn't feel bad about spe that much money on a depreciating asset in your specific circumstance, but just make sure you actually do need a car. I don't know what you're driving right now, but two seats in the back, two seats in the front, family of four. That could work. Now, if you have family of five, six and seven, obviously you would need the van or upgrade to a larger vehicle. You mentioned some sort of SUV here, so that does make sense. But to answer your question, 35,000 seems pretty appropriate.
- [04:27]
B
Yeah, I agree And I think Austin's breakdown is really important to understand that it's in line with where your net worth is. And the only thing that I'll add to this, my general rule of thumb when it comes to purchasing a vehicle is if you're going to get a new vehicle, I prefer leasing. If you're going to get a used vehicle like in this instance, then I think it's totally great to just go ahead and buy it. Seems like you want to pay cash for it versus financing it, which is great as well because you know, rates are pretty high right now. But I think it's totally in line with your net worth and how much you guys are making. And I totally respect and appreciate the fact that you're already looking at used cars because so many people just want to go in and get the shiny new car, not taking into consideration all of the depreciation that happens over a few years. So that's my take. I think you guys are spot on. Get the used car, get rid of that first year depreciation, try to find one that fits the safety and all the elements and aspects that you want for your family and your growing family. But I think it's a great idea.
- [05:24]
A
There's a lot of different ways that you can go about purchasing this car. But I think to answer your question, the 35,000, I think it's a perfect amount. Even if you said maybe closer to 40,000. 45,000 maybe. Robert, do you have like a general framework as it relates to like how much car someone can afford?
- [05:41]
B
Yeah, I don't really have framework as far as exact amount versus their net worth. But I would say this, they're already considering in this instance looking at a one year old car. I would do the math and really look at a two or three year old car because I feel like most new vehicles right now that are in that two, three year old range depreciate the most in the first two or three years and therefore you're getting the better part of the deal. And a lot of times you can find two or three year old cars that already have depreciated 40%, that have low miles and are just incredible vehicles. There's a lot of them out there. But as far as a framework for the amount, that's a good question. I just feel that when we looked it up recently in an episode, I think the average car payment in America right now is $740 a month. That seems crazy to me because generally you need two of them and I think fifteen hundred dollars A month just for car payments for a family is a lot of money considering. After that you have to take into fact insurance, upkeep, maintenance, gas and all of that. So I think it's important for people to really understand the total ownership cost of the vehicle they want to buy and then that way they can better figure out if it fits within their budget. As a general rule of thumb though, the way I would look at it is take your net monthly income and whatever 10% of that is, that is the gross amount you should be spending on your car payment. I think that'll keep people in a good spot. I see far too many people that have these $900 1200amonth car payments, but they're only making 4800 or $5000 a month. That is just not a good idea.
- [07:16]
A
Now what about if in this situation where they're paying cash and there won't be a monthly payment? Just like rock and roll in this.
- [07:22]
B
Situation, I think it's fine because they have a solid net worth and really good income. So I don't think spending that 30 or $35,000 is going to hurt them. I would just like to see them go with a little bit older car, maybe two or three years old, so they get more car for the money and less depreciation for them to absorb down the line.
- [07:40]
A
I think it makes a lot of sense. Good question, Aaron. And wishing you the best of luck growing your new family. That's so incredible. So our next question comes from Joseph P. Joseph says good afternoon. Robert Nassen. I hope all is well. Once again I come with a question. For the past three years I've been paying for custom whole life insurance. I pay 300amonth for a $300,000 death benefit. I don't know who I should talk to, but I feel like if put the 300 in the market instead, specifically into the ETFs you guys talk about and then just surrender the life insurance policy, I would be better off in the long term. What should I do? Thank you in advance and keep up the awesome work that you guys do. This is a really good question, Joseph. So as you guys know, we are big believers in term life insurance. As just another definition reminder here, the only reason that you have life insurance is if you pass away, the beneficiary that will receive that lump sum payment can then invest that money to offset your income now that you are gone. Right? So let's say you're married and your husband's over here making $100 $200,000 a year, they have a life insurance policy of $2 million. They unfortunately pass away. The wife receives a $2 million lump sum payment. She is able to invest that into the markets and she can safely take out 4, 5, 6, 7% whatever she needs to then supplement his 200,000 a year income. Right? So like, that is what life insurance is specifically for. And if you have that much in investments, technically speaking, you don't need the life because you can just take it and invest it anyway. But if you're like me and you're just like building your wealth and doing all that stuff, it's a good idea to always have that term life insurance. So in this instance, you're saying, hey, I've got this whole life insurance policy which has like a cash value and a investment portion. And like all these are the different little things. For perspective, I have a $2 million life insurance policy. Term life insurance policy. I think it's like 15 or 20 years. I got it through Prudential. It's about 100 bucks a month, $2 million, 100 bucks a month. 15, 20 year term, you've got a 300,000 at $300 a month. Do you see the difference there? Right? Two million for a hundred or 300,000 for 300. Right. It's like there's a lot of fees and weird assumptions that are baked into this whole life insurance policy. And the only way you can get your money out before you die, if you're going to borrow it, all this weird stuff, right? So, yes, you should surrender the policy, take the cash value or whatever you have left here, go invest it in the markets, earn your 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, take that same $300 a month that you were paying toward this life insurance policy, add it right to that same brokerage account, same ETFs we talk about, and in the long term, you'll be better off 100%.
- [10:18]
B
Yeah, I agree totally. In my experience, when I think of whole life, I think of higher fees, the opportunity cost lost because you're not investing that money in the things we talk about every single week. You have high surrender charges, let's say down the road, like we're talking about right now, you want to surrender this policy. The fees are really, really difficult. And one of the worst parts about the whole life policies that I've learned over the years is that the slow cash value growth is just not going to be very beneficial for you long term. And that's why I'd rather see you take this money and invest it in the S&P 500 through Voo or maybe throw some QQQ in there AIQ because I think long term you're going to be in a much better situation overall financially unless you went with the term life policy. So it might make sense to do both. Get rid of the whole life, get the term policy and then invest the rest. Because the term policy is going to be a lot more affordable, lower fees and just better long term.
- [11:17]
A
And if you're looking for term life insurance, there's a link in our show notes below. Go to shariance.com rich habits they're who I use to find my prudential term life insurance policy for millions of dollars. And it was just they were a broker. They're not going to underwrite you, they just help you find it. It's awesome. 10 out of 10 experience shuriance.com Rich Habits Our next question comes from Julian D. Julian says hello gentlemen. I caught on to your podcast a couple months ago and I've been hooked ever since. Thanks for what you two are doing. As it is life changing information. I'm 38. I make 175000 a year as an electrical engineer in Texas. I have 300000 in a traditional IRA, 30, 000 in a bridge account, and six months of expenses in my emergency fund. I just landed a new job and they're offering a Roth 401K. Do you recommend that I enroll in that or do I continue to contribute to my traditional 401k as a high income earner? Some of the language around tax benefits for a Roth account are confusing. I appreciate your feedback. Thanks in advance. This is such a great question. Let's jump into it. Robert so just so we're on the same page, there are two variants to your retirement accounts. There's the Roth variant and the traditional variant. The traditional variant is pre tax. The Roth variant is after tax. So let's walk through what that means. Pre tax means any dollar that you contribute to the traditional 401k you are able to offset that against your taxable income whenever you're filing for your taxes where the Roth 401k you are not able to do that. So then if I'm not able to save on taxes on my contributions, why invest in a Roth 401K at all? Good question. Every dollar you take out of the Roth 401K you in your retirement years. So after the age of 59 and a half years old is tax free compared to every dollar you take out of your traditional 401k in your retirement years is taxed as ordinary income. So either you get the tax benefits now with the traditional 401k or the tax benefits later with the Roth 401k. Robert and I are always telling people to do the Roth variant of any retirement account. If that is a solo 401k, a normal 401k, an individual retire account, whatever your retirement account is. We always think the Roth variant is the best way to do it because we cannot predict what the tax brackets will be in 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now. Right. You, you rewind the clock and you can see that peak tax brackets back. And I think it was like the 40s, Robert, were up to like 80 or 90%. Then they were up in the 20, 30, 40, 50% and they're coming back down. Like there's a bunch of different variables here. I have absolutely no idea who's going to be president, who's going to be in control, what's going to happen to tax rates in 20, 30, 40, 50 years. So if I can just say, you know what, I'm going to pay my taxes now and I'm going to make sure that that money in the future is going to be earmarked as tax free income for my retirement. Rock and roll. So that's my answer here. And just to give you a little bit of perspective, if you did decide to stick with that traditional 401k, because you mentioned as a high income earner, some of the language around the tax benefits are a bit confusing. And you that traditional 401k at $23,500 in 2025, at a blended 24% effective tax rate, you'd be saving about $5,000 per year. At your income level of 175,000. That's 5,000 saved today. But you still have to pay ordinary income taxes on this money as you take it out in your retirement years. I like to do the opposite. I like to pay my taxes now and not have to worry about it in 30, 40 years.
- [15:01]
B
I agree with Austin and I think we should pause the Internet for a moment after that mast because so many people get confused. And Austin, you always break that down so well for our listeners. So before we get into our next question, listen up folks. You can lock in a 6% or higher yield with a bond account on public, but remember, your yield isn't locked in until the time of purchase, so you might want to act fast. Lock in a 6% or higher yield with a diversified portfolio of high yield and investment grade corporate bonds only at public.com forward/rich habits.
- [15:34]
A
All right, Robert, our next question comes via Instagram. DMS from Shelley B. Shelley says. Hey guys, my name is Shelley and I recently started listening to your podcast. I love it and it's Super Educational. I'm 34. I have about 120,000 invested across all of my retirement accounts. I felt as if I was doing a pretty good job, but now I kind of feel behind for my age. Most of my accounts have been in mutual funds and I've never touched them or even really looked at them over the last 10 years. But after listening to your show, I began rebalancing investing into some of the ETFs in single stocks you guys talk about. I started looking at my IRA and I realized that I'm in five different mutual funds that a financial advisor recommended years back. My main question is, do I need to be in all of these mutual funds? Robert, what do you think about Shelley's situation? Specifically with an ira? Does someone need to have mutual funds? Could they stick to ETFs? What's your take?
- [16:26]
B
My take is always, I want my money growing as inexpensively as it can be. And mutual funds generally underperform and have higher expense ratios and fees associated associated with them. So for me, it's always going to be These low cost ETFs and index funds we talk about, and especially in this situation, because Shelley, you know, she's younger and she's got a long investing horizon ahead. And so for me, I would migrate out of those mutual funds, get myself a diversification of four or five of these ETFs and index funds, and call it a day. But the big thing for me, the big takeaway here is I am so glad that Shelley is following along and actively watching her money. So many people, I see it every single day, they just have all these funds, they don't know why, they don't know what they do, and they're trusting some random advisor to tell them what to do with their wealth and they're not even paying attention. I've asked people multiple times every single month, what do you have invested? What's it invested in? What is your weighting? What are the expense ratios? They don't know any of this. And then that just means they're not keeping their eye on the prize. So in this instance, I would definitely migrate away from these mutual funds, get into those ETFs and call it a day, because she'll make way more money, have less fees going out and she'll have her eye on her money because we want to make sure everyone is actively managing their wealth.
- [17:48]
A
Yeah. Shelley, I'm going to log into my Roth IRA right now on my phone here, and I'm going to shoot you straight. I'm going to tell you exactly what is inside of mine. And I can tell you without even logging in, I don't have any of these, these, these mutual funds that you're talking about inside my Roth IRA. 60% of my Roth IRA is in Voo, the S&P, 530% is in QQQ, the Nasdaq 110 is in Bitcoin via NEOs, BTCI, ETF. Right. So those are the three holdings I have in my Roth IRA. Got a little bit of Bitcoin, got some Nasdaq, got some S and P, and we're off to the races. You don't need these mutual funds. You don't need be paying 60, 75, 85 basis points per year just to underperform the markets. So I'm so glad that you are taking a look at your money here. At 34 years old, you're not behind at all, Shelley. You're doing a wonderful job. 120,000 invested. You've got your base built. It's, it's incredible. So we're rooting for you, Shelley, and you're doing a really, really good job. So our next question comes from Julie. Julie says hi, Austin and Robert. I'm Julie. I'm 25 years old and I live in California. I started listening to your podcast a few months ago. It's been incredibly helpful. Thank you for breaking down personal finance in such an approachable way. Right Now I make $28 an hour and my main expenses are rent and a brand new car payment. I recently opened a Roth IRA and an individual brokerage account. After finally starting to learn about Investing, I have 20,000 in my high yield savings. And my question here is, should I focus on putting more toward retirement so my money works harder for me or something else? This is a great question, Robert. What's your take?
- [19:25]
B
My take, and my first red flag is new car payment. You're 25 years old. We just talked about this. You don't need to have this brand new car payment. It's going to eat away at your chances for saving money and building towards wealth. And the answer for me is yes, yes, yes. You should be focusing on living lean and mean at 25 years old, not having the brand new car, not having all the finer things in life. Because the goal here is to get that base built, that 100k base, and get you saving and investing for your future. And it starts right now by not living beyond your means with the new car payment. Because we'd love to see you have this Roth IRA set up having as much as you can, 15, 20% of your net monthly income going away to this Roth IRA every single month and getting yourself diversified and built for your future. And it doesn't start by having a brand new car payment on a depreciating asset.
- [20:19]
A
Yeah. So not working any overtime. Right. You're making about 58,000 a year. Assuming you do pick up a little bit of overtime or you listen to Monday's episode which was all about frictionless, effective, low cost side hustles. Maybe you could make an extra 2, 4, 800amonth. That would really move the needle for you. But Julie, if I were in your situation, I'd do a couple things. The first one is I would stop contributing to this high yield savings account. You've already got that emergency fund saved, no need to like add more to it. The other thing I would do is make sure I'm doing everything I can to prioritize maxing out that Roth IRA. $7,000 a year, 580 something dollars a month. Right. That is the priority. And if you're saying, wait a second, I can't afford to max out my Roth ira, then what I need you to do is have a hard look in the mirror and look at that honest budget and figure out what needs to go. I had the exact same situation when I was, I think I was like 23, 24. I was just around your age. I was making $62,500 a year. So just about the same you were making. But I had a monthly car payment of $440 and I had a monthly car insur of $275. Right. So all in, that was $715 a month I was putting toward owning a depreciating asset. Why was I owning this asset? Because I thought it was cool. Because I thought it'd make me feel good. I thought, I thought that was the thing to do when you get a job. Turns out it was a terrible mistake. I sold the car, I bought a 15 year old beater. My car insurance went down like $150 a month or something from like 275 to like 130 or something. So I was saving a bunch of money now. And that margin that, that difference there is what I started to Use to begin to make sure that I was maxing out my Roth ira. I made that decision. I swallowed my pride. I said I don't need this, I'm 24, 25 years old. Julie, if you can't afford to max out your Roth ira, I would argue that maybe you should also get rid of your new car payment. Probably the best way to move forward there, right? But Julie, at the end of the day, personal finance is personal. We can only tell you what to do, we can only give you the math, we can only lead you in the right direction. It's you that has to look in the mirror and say, say why am I doing this? Why do I drive a new car? Why do I, I don't need this. I can go buy a seven thousand dollar clunker like Austin did and drive that. It was a, it was a 2000, I think it was a, it was. So I bought it in 2019, 2020, something like that. 2019, I think it was like right before the pandemic happened. Robert, Here we go. Was a 2004 Lexus ES330. And the thing about it was I was able to buy it from a very old person who bought a brand new by the way, they were in their late 70s and decided they couldn' anymore. And so I got a screaming deal on it about 65, $7,000 what I paid. But here we go, ready? The back seats didn't seem like they were ever sat in and it only had 65,000 miles on it despite being, you know, a 15 year old car. But again, like listen, there's, you can find that stuff, you just have to put in the work to go and find it. Julie, you're doing a great job but really consider like finding those things in your budget that you don't need. Car payment could be one of them. Prioritize that Roth ira, build your base and then make a decision as to hey, what's my next move? Do I want to start saving for a down payment on a house? Do I want to, what is that next thing?
- [23:34]
B
I could talk about this all day, every day. And that is lifestyle creep in this instance is getting in the way of your future dreams. So many people just continually upgrade their lifestyle as they make more and more money and they never get off the hamster wheel to allow themselves to set aside that money for the future. So I love this breakdown Austin. And yes, all of you consider your budget before you go out and buy that new car because it is a depreciating asset and we don't want to see you get buried and deep debt.
- [24:02]
A
Robert. It's so funny. I'm on Carfax right now looking at the the same car and there's a bunch of them still for sale in my area. And they're all like, there's a ton of these that are under 100,000 miles. Like, for example, this one's got 59,000 miles on it. It's for sale for eight grand. This one's got 82,000 miles on it for sale for nine grand. These, I'm telling maybe this, this, this is the clunker y' all need to be driving like I did if you're trying to find an affordable old reliable used car. All right, Robert. So our next question comes from Isaiah. Isaiah says, hey, Robert N. I love the show than for the hard work you guys do to get such valuable information out to the public. I do residential repair and remodel. I'm a 1099 worker. And back in 2024, I bought a 2009 Tacoma as a work truck. But it recently blew a head gasket. It's going to be an expensive fix and I don't think it's worth repairing since it's a pretty old truck. But I've heard about this 100% write off and bonus depreciation thing going on right now. I've been considering buying either a new truck or a used truck that is a lot newer and more reliable. Can you guys explain these new tax laws and is it actually a good opportun to buy a truck that I could potentially have for 10 to 15 years? It seems in the trades everyone has something to say about finances, but they're also all just drowning in debt. So I want to make sure I'm not steering the wrong direction. Wanted to ask you guys first. All right, Robert, Walk through both section 179 and bonus depreciation because they're two separate things that Isaiah should be considering as it relates to buying a work truck that's used specifically for business purposes that will be titled to the business.
- [25:32]
B
Yeah, I love this question. And Isaiah, I am so happy that you're thinking like this because I see so many people in the construction trades that they go out and buy that brand new Sierra, that $80,000 F150, and they just have all this expense. And like you alluded to a lot of debt in this instance, I think you should consider buying a used truck that's maybe two, three years old. Avoid some of that massive depreciation in the first couple years and then look to do. Maybe the bonus depreciation is probably more your friend. And just make sure you read, meet up, talk to somebody, you know, if you have an accountant or a lawyer or whatever to make sure you're doing it right. But the bonus depreciation is really cool because you can write off 100% of the vehicle in year one as long as it is qualifying. What does that mean? You have to use it for business. You have to prove you use it for business. And it has to be in the business name. So make sure you understand that if you have this business, this LLC or an S Corp Corp, you need to make sure it is titled in that company to be able to get this depreciation. Now, secondarily you can look at section 179. That one also is a very friendly in the big beautiful bill and it allows you to deduct other business expenses or any qualifying vehicle over £6,000. The difference here, and one of the things that Austin alluded to, and I'm going to have him break it down a little bit better, is that with section 179, and I don't know why people aren't talking about this, this, you can only write off the amount of what your business makes per year. So if, let's say your business profits $60,000 a year, but you're looking at an $80,000 truck, you can't get the entire write off because it's based on the profits of the company.
- [27:15]
A
That's right. With the section 179, you can't create a loss for your business by buying equipment or whatever and writing it off that way. But you can when you bonus depreciate. And what's cool about bonus depreciation as well is it's about the purchase price. It's not about the cash outlet outlay. Right? So let's say, for example, you bought a used truck that was $30,000 and you put, I don't know, $3,000 down on the loan, and now you have a monthly payment of like 500 bucks. Let's say you do this in 2026. So total cash outlay for the year of 2026 is $9,000, right? 6,000 for the monthly payment plus the $3,000 down, 9,000. But it's about the purchase price, not the cash outlay. So you're actually able to write off off $30,000 against your taxable income, not just the 9,000 that left your bank account. So it's kind of cool, right? It's like, it's a cool way that you can like keep money in your bank account while also writing off more. It's, it's very interesting, definitely something to explore. But please remember, we are not certified public accountants. We are not CPAs. Go talk to a CPA. Go talk to a professional. Get the right people in your corner to help guide you through this. With that being said, I've done this, Robert's done this, we've all done this. It's a great way to offset some taxable income in the future. So our last question comes from Brett on Instagram. Brett says, hey guys, I love the podcast. What are your thoughts on the talk of a possible AI bubble and how would you hedge against it? Thank you so much for your great podcast. We've talked about the, like rumblings of an AI bubble on the Rich Habits radar and I even think podcast episodes here of the the Rich Habits podcast are Monday episodes before. But like here's, here's the quick and dirty. We are, in my humble opinion, experiencing this AI productivity boom. We're seeing GDP tick higher despite this government shutdown, which I think is just going to come and go. But we're seeing GDP tick higher. We're seeing a lot of corporate profits move in the right direction. The Magnificent Seven, their earnings per share are expected to grow by double digits in 2026. The S&P 493, they're expected to grow by high single digits, mid to high single digits in 2026. There's a lot of things happening behind the scenes that are saying, yeah, corporate profits are ticking up into the right because of artificial intell intelligence. It's making us more efficient, more productive. We don't have to have so many employees. We just saw the Amazon layoffs. We saw ups. Like a lot of companies are slimming down because of the productivity that comes with artificial intelligence. And a lot of companies are experiencing so much hundreds of billions if not north of a trillion dollars of capital expenditures will be made by these Magnificent Seven companies trying to build out their AI infrastructure. If it's data centers, if it's employees, if it's manufacturing, there's a lot of things being built out right now and as you go spend hundreds, billions if not north of a trillion dollars of expenses across, you know, seven, eight, nine, ten companies. They'll talk. The ten largest companies right now in the S and P, that, let's call it trillion dollars of capex capital expenditures is revenue for other companies. So that's a trillion dollars essentially of revenue that's now being spread out all across the country and the world. But that, that's revenue that's going to float to the bottom line of a, of a 493 company. Right. It's like that's how I like to think about it. But at the end of the day, yes, there are bubbles happening that are AI driven in sectors of the market. We're seeing this a lot with the pre revenue companies like space exploration, quantum computing, nuclear energy. Right. There's a lot of names that have AI relationships, right. AI related names that are in bubbles because people got way too excited too quick. It's really hard to tell the difference sometimes between a company that's like, whoa, is it in a bubble? Is it not? What's the like, oh, how's that going to look out? So now you're asking yourself, okay, well what do I invest in as it relates to AI so I can have exposure. We think AIQ is a great ETF. Q. Q. Q. Is another one. I V E s The Dan Ives AI30 ETF is pretty good as well. Or just the NASDAQ. Right? Just VGT, things like that. But now you're saying, okay, well how do I hedge against this? What if there is a big AI pop and a big bubble? In a big bubble, I think healthcare right now is really beaten down. So if you're looking to add some diversification to your portfolio to get away from the AI stuff. One real estate and this is not in any order. One real estate 2. Healthcare 3. Berkshire Hathaway stock. Right. Just not tech. Right. What are things that are untech related that you can add exposure to your portfolio so that if things do start to come and get a little wonky in 26 or 27 or whenever, this bubble will eventually pop. How do I have not so much exposure to it? You could also perhaps do some precious metals, but we've seen gold go vertical with silver, so I'd argue those are also in a bubble. But who knows? So I would really just move away from things that have experienced these crazy run ups. Which means Berkshire Hathaway, healthcare, some real estate. Right. Things that are historically undervalued right now.
- [32:09]
B
I love that takeaway. And I would say this, and I've been doing this for 40 years almost. And that is in all of these secular growth trends like Austin alluded to. This is such a massive, massive uptick for this emerging tech called AI. And as that happens, there's always going to be bubbles within the sector. Doesn't mean that the entire sector is in A bubble. It means that there are a lot of companies that are riding the hype, riding the AI wave. They're pivoting their business model to say they're an AI company so they can get a piece of the pie. But it doesn't mean that the entire AI sector is in a bubble. I don't believe it's in a bubble. Austin doesn't believe it's in a bubble. There are bubbly companies within it that are built on hype cycle and not on revenue and profit profits. So keep that in mind, diversify properly and I think you'll be fine. Because in my opinion, I believe the AI sector has a long way to go. It always comes back for me to that. You have to think of it as, you know, bears sound smart, bulls make money. We have printed and printed and printed so much in gains over the last three years riding this AI wave. And I will continue to do so because I believe if you're investing in the best of breed, in these secular growth trends, you're always going to win. That's my take. Takeaway.
- [33:28]
A
Well, I want to like also unpack this a little bit more. I think it was Mark Andreessen who was talking about and comparing some sectors of this AI market right now to like pets.com back in the dot com bubble back then, pets.com and again, I wasn't like, this is me just like kind of reflecting on it. Maybe Robert knows more about the company before they went under. But you know, pets.com wasn't making a profit. They were just like, yeah, like we're just going to be Internet pets and delivery and all this other fun stuff, like whatever, right? So pets.com very much ended up going under because it was just too early. But now, and this is what Marc Andreessen was talking about, you look around, every year about $10 billion is spent on pet care, e commerce, right? So think food, medication, supplies, treats, stuff like that. $10 billion a year on this, like online pet stuff. So, so if pets.com had to go under for 10 billion now a year to be spent 20 years later, 25 years later, like, what companies are going to go under now because of this AI bubble? And people get excited. But then we fast forward 10, 15, 25 years into the future and like a better iteration of that is still going to exist. So it's like, it's so weird because we're forced to bet on specific names and bet on specific companies versus having the opportunity to just bet on a secular growth trend. Right. Online pet Delivery, e commerce, marketplace, whatever is like a secular growth trend that has grown to $10 billion a year over the last 25 years. Like, what is that happening right now with AI that despite pets.com going under. Right. That trend still went up into the right and is now what it is today with billions of dollars. So like there's probably things that are going to go under with this, like AI pre revenue, no revenue whatever. Like, I don't know if it's nuclear reactors, I don't know if it's data something, I don't, you know, whatever. But like there are things in this AI bubble that we're experiencing that likely will go under and a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money. But it doesn't mean that the technology is wrong and that they're operating in a wrong segment. It just means they might have been too early, they didn't execute properly or whatever. It's really interesting, Robert, to compare, right. The early pets.com to like, hey, they had a good idea, right? If they only fast forward themselves 25 years into the future, they might be doing billions of dollars a year in profits.
- [35:48]
B
Yeah, I think that is an incredible takeaway of just getting people to understand better because we do live in a hype cycle. Like if you think about like right now with the personal aircraft and the Archer Aviations and all of these and you also look at the nuclear reactors, we don't know if this is going to scale the way we believe it is, but there are going to be some bubbles in these sectors like pets.com so I totally, really enjoyed that takeaway because I think it's important for people to understand that yes, there's a lot of hype, but you want to try and invest in the best of breed and the companies that are actually, you know, getting the contracts, building the revenue, building the profits, so you can have these really good opportunities for investing down the road.
- [36:32]
A
If you like it when we talk about the markets and different things like this, you're going to love our Friday episodes of the Rich Habits Radar where we talk about the stuff all the time. So be sure to come back tomorrow and listen to that Friday episode. And thank you all so much for your patience. Last Friday we were in New York City. We got invited by Google Finance to learn more about their cool new product. So definitely go check them out when they're ready. Tell a loss, launch that. But long story short, we're grateful and look forward to hanging out with you guys again tomorrow for our Rich Habits Radar episode.
- [36:58]
B
And don't forget for any of you that haven't joined the newsletter yet or checked out the seven day free trial for the Rich Habits Network, they are in the show notes below. And we just really appreciate you all stopping by each and every week and enjoying these Q and A episodes because we love making them right off the dome and doing our best best to just share as much value as we can to each and every one of you.
- [37:20]
A
That being said, be sure to come back tomorrow. Thanks again and we'll see you then. Sam.