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Rich Habits Podcast
Q&A: Retiring at 54, Becoming an Overseas Land Lord & Trading Oil Futures
00:38:26
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- [00:01]
LifeLock Advertiser
It's a historically hideous season.
- [00:03]
Robert
It's our 100th ugly house.
- [00:06]
Austin
And if these walls could talk. Do you cry a lot? I do. Ugliest house in America Season premiere Wednesday.
- [00:13]
LifeLock Advertiser
At 8 on HGTV.
- [00:16]
Austin
You're about to make a trade. Which u do you listen to? Is it get optioning those options.
- [00:23]
Robert
Or.
- [00:24]
Austin
Let'S do a little research. Learn more@finra.org TradeSmart hey everyone and welcome back to the Rich Habits Podcast, Question and Answer edition brought to you by public.com and a very exciting Happy New Year. Today is January 1, 2026. We've got so many tools and resources that have been published here on Spotify through, of course, the Rich Habits podcast that are going to help you win with money in 2026. Robert, what are you most excited about? Personally for 2026?
- [00:58]
Robert
I just think it's about having that abundant growth mindset and there being so many secular growth trends that we've been right about for the last three years in this podcast and in the Rich Habits network. And it's just more of that growing the network. Because the coolest thing for me in life, I'll be honest, is walking down the street or in an airport and a family stops me and says, hey, can we take a picture? You've changed our lives. We love the Rich Habits podcast. Or you've helped us so much financially. So that's it for me is more of that helping people figure out their money, figure out their mindset and figure out their businesses so they can live financially free. So that's it for me.
- [01:38]
Austin
That's exciting. I think the thing I'm personally most excited about for 2026 is the introduction of what we hope to have at least one, maybe two live events inviting as many of you as possible here to Nashville to host some sort of master series over the course of a weekend, calling it the Rich Habits Rodeo. Perhaps we'll figure out some fun stuff with that. But 2026, I think the year that we really try and introduce a in real life event where we get to meet all of you and learn and we all get to, you know, incorporate a bunch of different cool speakers and a lot of fun things of that nature. So 2026 is going to be the year where we do a little in person stuff and I could not be more excited about it, but we're wishing everyone a happy new Year. We hope you're not too hungover this morning, considering last night was New Year's Eve. At time of filming this, I'm in Nashville but on actual New Year's I will be in West Palm Beach, Florida so celebrating the New Year with my fiance and Christian and I'm just so excited for 2026 and so grateful that so many of you are following us into the New Year and tuning into the show on a weekly basis.
- [02:37]
Robert
Well make sure if we do this event you do not talk me into riding a mechanical bull. I want to keep this body intact for 2026 so we'll have a lot of fun. But no mechanical bulls for me.
- [02:48]
Austin
No mechanical bulls. Now this episode of the Rich Habits Podcast of course is powered by Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. Build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, crypto options and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index using AI.
- [03:10]
Robert
And it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and let AI do the work. It screens thousands of stocks and build you a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500 all within a few clicks.
- [03:32]
Austin
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- [03:52]
Robert
Public Investing in full disclosure in the podcast description. And for those of you that haven't joined joined the Rich Habits Network yet, you can get all of our generated asset strategies right in the Rich Habits Network and there is a seven day free trial in the show notes below.
- [04:06]
Austin
So our first question comes from Amber S. Amber says hey Austin and Robert, I recently found your podcast on a long drive and I started back at episode one. I'm currently at episode 100 and doing my best to get caught up. I really enjoy the nuggets of knowledge you guys share in every episode. Here's my question. I have money in a 401k from a previous employer that recently got moved by the employer from Mutual of Omaha to John Hancock. After looking at the statement it is definitely underperforming. On a previous episode you had talked about moving a 401k from a previous employer into a Roth IRA and as I consider the taxes at the point of moving it might cost me north of $34,000 to do this. Is it better for me to take the loss now so that I've got the Money growing for me tax free vs later. Or should I just keep it in this 401k? Adjusting the investments into something with a better rate of return and then perhaps adding to a Roth IRA Elsewhere for context, I'm married, I'm 42 years old, I have 164,000 in a 401K and my husband has 24,000 in a 403B. Or maybe I should roll it into public and get that uncapped 1% match. Thank you so much. Looking forward to your feedback. Amber, love where you're at. So let's talk about your situation. You've got, I'm assuming this 164,000 in a 401k. Maybe that's what the number is here. So you've got this 160,000 in your 401k from a previous employer because you no longer work at that employer. You are able to roll over that 401k without any penalties, taxes, nothing, into a traditional IRA, which is a pre tax IRA where you have full autonomy over how that money is invested. That is super simple. You can do that today and you can go open up this, you know, IRA on public roll over, get your bonus match and have some extra money and make your investments work harder for you. That is totally something you can do right now. But you're asking if instead of rolling it over into a traditional ira, completely normal, free, like, no taxes, right. You are considering rolling it over into a Roth IRA. And remember, Roth IRAs are all after tax contributions. So you would have to pay taxes on this entire rolled over amount. This is a really, really tricky question because in my opinion, you are in that kind of gray area. You're not so old where it's an immediate no, right? If you're like 55 and you've got money, roll it over to her. Like, no, it's all right. Just, I mean you're gonna be able to touch the money in five, ten years anyway. Like, just don't worry about the taxes, just do your thing. You're also not young enough where you're in your 20s or 30s, where I could say, yeah, like roll it over to a Roth. Pay your taxes now so you're good in the future. You're 42. You are, you're about 20 years away from being able to really en. But again, we're only talking about $160,000. I wish I had a better framework or sort of equation that I can share with you that's rules based. But to be quite honest with you, I'M just going to go off vibes on this one. I'm going to say no. I'm going to say take that money, roll it out of your John Hancock or whatever it is into a traditional IRA on public.com, and then what I want you to do is contribute to your Roth ira. So literally put it in a traditional ira, let it grow and compound for you over decades. Make sure it's invested into the index funds and ETFs we talk about. And then all of your contributions going forward are going to go toward a Roth ira. You're going to max that out every single year and you're off to the races. Now, the only part where this gets a little convoluted is when you want to start doing backdoor Roth IRA contributions because you make more than the income limits to do a backdoor Roth ira. You're not supposed to have any money in pre tax IRAs like a traditional IRA. Like Mesa messes up the conversion there, so it gets a little convoluted that way. But depending on your income and the way you describe this, I'd probably argue you and your husband make below that $236,000 a year. You said he's contributing to a 403B, which makes me think he's maybe a teacher or somebody like that. So if you're making more than 236, of course, like just do the Roth, pay the taxes, get over it. But if you're not, then I would do what I had said before.
- [08:18]
Robert
I agree 100%, Austin. Get that rolled over. No penalties, no fees, just rock and roll. Let it perform better because you have autonomy now. And then start maxing out that Roth IRA every year. You still have 20, 25 years of a really strong horizon to build your wealth. And getting the Roth started now is better late than never. And that's exactly the playbook. I agree with you, Austin. That I would do.
- [08:41]
Austin
Yeah, just kind of zooming out, right? I mean, at the end of the day here you're 160,000, assuming that's what you're rolling over to your traditional IRA. The Rule of 72 tells us the stock market doubles every seven years or so. So this 165, assuming it doubles, is north of two and a half million dollars. You're going to have so much money, don't even worry about it. You're going to do just fine. So our next question comes from Sam J. Sam says, hey, Austin and Robert, I found your podcast almost a year ago and I can't thank you guys. Enough for some background. I'm 19 years old, I live in California and I've got 30,000 in investments. I do dump runs in odd jobs for work. However, the issue is I have $0 in my Roth IRA due to not having any taxable income. My question is, should I take the hit and pay the 15.3% self employment 7,000 so I can invest that into the Roth IRA or should I just keep piling into a traditional brokerage account until I have taxable income? I personally would take the hit, I feel like if. Well, also it's like, what do you mean you don't have any taxable income? Like I understand like the odd jobs and stuff, but like, yeah, like just pay your taxes, dude. Like, I don't know what to tell you. Like, let's not do tax evasion. Right, let's pay our taxes, which is really not that much money. Especially if you just need to do that $7,000 to invest in the Roth and then, yeah, rock and roll that way. Robert, what do you think?
- [09:57]
Robert
Yeah, I would just form a single LLC so you could get the tax write offs against your gas and your auto repairs and you probably have a dump trailer repairs and all those things. You can also write off some Internet and mileage and all these other things and I would just claim the income. So many people try to cheat the system to save a little money, but you end up cheating yourself because like you said, you can't open the Roth without taxable income. So I would do that. Get yourself rocking and rolling, keep hustling. Do things the right way now, set up that foundation the right way and build your wealth along the way and you'll do just fine.
- [10:33]
Austin
Yeah, the thing that you need to be careful of though is to make sure that you are, you know, if you do this single member LLC and you've got these write offs, you're not writing off everything because again, you have to pay taxes on some sort of income of 7,000 or more. So if you're claiming 7,000 of income and then you have write offs of, you know, 3,000, well now your taxable income is only 4,000, which means you can only contribute 4,000 to your Roth. So like make sure that your taxable income after your write offs is that $7,000 a year. Our next question comes from Fernandes s on Instagram. Fernandez says, hi, I'm a big fan of your podcast and I appreciate all the insights and work you do and want to genuinely thank you for that. I was wondering what Your take is on oil and oil pricing for 2026, considering geopolitical changes in CFDs being and what to buy. If I want to invest in energy, primarily oil. Thank you very much, Robert. I'll let you kick this one off.
- [11:27]
Robert
Yeah, this is a tough one because we don't really have a backstory. We don't know what this person's net worth is. We don't know their age. We don't know if they're trying to get too fancy with their money. So we'll make some assumptions. I'm going to say Farnaz is 40 years old, has a net worth of a million dollars and wants to dabble in the fine art of contracts for difference. So what does this mean? You don't own any physical oil. You're not a JV or a GP or any of these in any of these funds. If I can understand this correctly. You're basically just investing in the difference. You're trying to arbitrage the difference on these oil contracts to be able to make a profit. So I wouldn't do it. I think sometimes people try to get too fancy, especially earlier on in their financial careers. So I personally wouldn't touch it. I've had bad experiences with investing in oil myself. Just illiquid and some other things and a lot of volatility. But that's what I would do. Because you have to be careful here because you're going to have a lot of leverage and you're going to have just a lot of volatility. And I just don't think it's a great strategy unless you're very well versed in it and understand what you're getting yourself into. That would be my take.
- [12:34]
Austin
So I'm looking at the price of crude oil right now. Doing this on trading economics.com A barrel of crude oil is currently at $56 a barrel. 57. Somewhere in that range here. It's down 20% over the last 12 months. And it's down dramatically, actually, from the peak that it experienced in 2022. It peaked at 116 a barrel. Now it's down to 56, which I think is just great in general because I don't like paying an arm and a leg for putting gas in my car, which also it's good because it should make it cheaper for people to move and companies to move goods around the world, therefore bringing down inflation. But again, who knows? Because capitalism. But anyway, to answer your question, would I invest in oil right now? What do I think of 2026 oil here's my perspective, and this is coming from a guy that is no expert by any stretch of the imagination in oil or many other commodities. But I don't invest in commodities. No one invests in commodities. In general, they trade commodities investing means. My name's Austin. I have a thesis that this is going to profit over the next three, five, seven, 10 years. And I'm going to invest my money into this underlying thesis because I think it's going to go up in value. And that is defined as dividends or share price appreciation or whatever else. Corporate profits, how you want to think about that, right? But it's like that's investing. Commodities are different. The price of a commodity is a function of supply and demand. And a commodity is defined as a good. Think soybeans, think oil, think gold, silver, precious metals are commodities, right? Commodities are things. And things don't pay you dividends. Things don't report earnings, things don't have profits. They're just things. And the price of that thing goes up or down again as a function of supply and demand for that thing. And so if you think that crude oil will go up in price because of geopolitical something or I don't know, like insert whatever your idea is here, then theoretically you could use a CFD to profit from that. A CFD is just making a bet on the price going up. Kind of like a call option is for a stock. And so if that's what you want to do. Rock and roll. I don't know enough about oil to want to put my hard earned money at risk to potentially go down if I'm wrong. But I do know a lot about companies. I do have, you know, conviction into, you know, Amazon, right? Like I'll buy Amazon stocks. And no, I understand it. I just, it's hard for me to put my money into things I don't understand. I guess the flip side of that is I do have money in things like gold and silver and palladium and different types of precious metals. But I see that more as a hedge against volatility than I see it as a trade to make a lot of money, if that makes any sense. So my opinion, I wouldn't do this. I think you're better off just putting your money into the s and P500, the NASDAQ. Maybe you're better off putting your money into a specific company that you really are passionate about and understand their growth trajectory for the next three, five, seven years. Buy Nvidia. Heck, I don't know. Like, put your money into Something that you clearly see is operating in a secular growth trend, cybersecurity, talking about that for a long time, Cloudflare, Crowdstrike, those names are crushing it. So I would put my money in something like that versus trying to roll the dice on the price of, you know, barrels of oil.
- [15:57]
Robert
Yeah. And the other thing I want to add to this for everyone else is to understand the opportunity cost. Because if you're going to trade forex or you want to day trade and you want to do all these things, it's a full time job. You have to be watching the markets, you have to understand why oil is going up, down, sideways and this is a full time. So you have to ask yourself, is it worth me spending three, four, five hours a day to do this strategy? Are the profits going to be there enough and consistently enough to do this versus being a long term investor, finding your convictions, finding the right stocks and ETFs that we talk about and just investing in dollar cost averaging. So that is another consideration when you're looking at these types of strategies.
- [16:39]
Austin
Our next question comes from E.F. on Instagram. E.F. says, hi Robert and Austin, what an amazing job you guys do. I really appreciate it. I built base and I'm still adding to it. I've got no debt, but I don't really have any real estate either. I now wonder whether it's time for me to enter the real estate game as well. I do have a friend who purchased a apartment in Dubai and they have an agreement with a property management firm and he's got some tenants, he's making some money from it and they of course take care of the maintenance. Do you think someone should do this with real estate? Be a long distance landlord? Thank you very much. Keep up the good work. E F Robert, what do you think about long distance landlording? What's been your experience as a long distance landlord?
- [17:20]
Robert
I think in the short term, if you're just getting started, it's a terrible idea because if you have something, especially out of the country, which is, you know, another level of long distance, I just don't like it because if something happens, you have to sue somebody, you have to chase somebody. Guess what? Depending on the contracts, you're gonna have to go to that country to fight for your money and your rights. So just keep that in mind. I've lost millions of dollars with international contracts where I've had to fight them in other countries and I don't like that idea. Now, long distance, if it's in the United States and I'M assuming you are. I'm okay with that because I can get in a car, I can get on a two hour flight in most instances, go to the property, go fight it, do what I need to do and fix the problem. But for any of you that are just starting out, don't fall for this because right now it's all the rage because Dubai has all these tax breaks and all of these really cool features for US citizens to be able to go buy real estate. But I don't like it because you can't touch it, you can't feel it and you can't control it. I would stick to the basics to get started. If you get yourself into millions of dollars of real estate deals and you want to venture out of the country, go for it. But not until then. You're just trying to get too fancy, chasing a trend and it's not worth it.
- [18:35]
Austin
So what advice would you give someone that is trying to do long distance landlording for their first time in general here in the United States?
- [18:42]
Robert
Use technology as your friend. I would find, you know, the right rental apps, the right management firms you want to check out and make sure whatever area you're buying, you have a really good management company that can handle it all. And that's okay with me because if you have established rental company that manages properties and you can verify that they're good at what they do, you're going to be in really good hands 95% of the time. And if not, then I would just stay out of the real estate game and invest in REITs like on, you know, fundrise or something like that where they do all the work for you and it's just passive income.
- [19:17]
Austin
If you are someone who is long distance landlording, just think about the opportunity cost on your time, right? Is the money you're earning long distance landlording worth the time and headache that might come with being a long distance landlord? Like Robert said, having to hop on a flight or you know, drive a couple hours, whatever it might be, versus just passively investing into real estate via the Iyri Neos Funds ETF that invests in real estate for you and then pays you a monthly distribution yield and all that other fun stuff. So yeah, really it's just balancing, you know, how you prefer to have, you know, exposure to the asset class that is real estate.
- [19:53]
Robert
Yeah, I agree with that. 100% real estate is something everyone should own. But I always like to tell people, start out small, get your feet wet, understand what you're doing, do your research, become Good at it and then expand and get a little fancier and do bigger projects elsewhere. But in the beginning, keep it simple, make the money and learn the industry.
- [20:13]
Austin
So our next question comes from Shane W. Shane says. Hello gentlemen. I've been listening to the show for a while and I really enjoy it. I was wondering if you could provide your opinion on who the best solo 401k provider is. I've got two small businesses and two rental properties. I also have an IRA with about 190,000 inside of it. My wife is working in corporate America where she has good benefits and stock options. Should we open up a solo 401k and max it out yearly? Do we keep maxing out our ira, our bridge account? What do you guys think? So in your situation it seems like you've got two small businesses and two rental incomes, which is awesome because I'm assuming that means you've got some business profits. Now how a solo 401k works is you're essentially creating a a 401k account except you're a solopreneur. Right? So you, it's like you're working for yourself here. You're a self employed individual and you're creating your own 401k because you work for yourself. You don't have a 401k elsewhere. Like you're going to do it that way. That's what I have. So Robert has. It's a very simple way to do it. We use carry.comc a r r y.com to do that. I do something called a mega backdoor roth solo 401k. I'm not positive if you'll be able to do that because I don't know if you pay yourself a salary. You need to pay yourself a salary to do the mega back door Roth. But assuming you do pay yourself a salary and it's not all just self employment tax, you should be able to contribute to a mega backdoor roth solo 401k. In that instance. Go check out carrie.com. they've got a bunch of awesome tools and resources here. The big thing you have to remember with a solo 401k is you don't have other employees in your business. You mentioned you have two small businesses and two rental incomes. If you have any employees on payroll and those two small businesses are those two rental incomes, that's not your spouse. You cannot do this. Right. This is only for people who are solo, right? No, no employees plus solo 401k doesn't work like that.
- [22:07]
Robert
Yeah, I like that. Breakdown. Austin and definitely Shane keep maxing out the ira. Always, always do that. You want to make sure you get as many benefits as you can every single year. And just like we always say, just don't get too fancy. It's not necessary. Austin laid out the blueprint. Hope this helps and just keep rocking and rolling and do things right.
- [22:25]
Austin
Robert Speaking of getting fancy though, we have been getting fancy behind the scenes when it comes to using Publix generated assets. We've created 13 strategies of our own generated assets inside the Rich Habits Network. They're the Rich Habits generated asset strategies and they are awesome. They what's so cool about generated assets on public is you can benchmark your strategy against the S&P 500 over the last 10 years. And like all of our strategies are in the, you know, 800, 900, 1,000% return backtest over the last 10 years, which is sick. So if you want to start using generated assets, go to public.com rich habits. Type in your own strategy. Something like one that has worked well for us that I think y' all should just steal and use is investing into companies that are growing revenue and their annual dividend by at least 10% per year over the last I think it was like three or five years or whatever I ended up using as a parameter there. Pretty good one. It's a good strategy back test pretty well. So stuff like that, right? Come up with your own strategy that you think will perform well. Right. We did one with R& D companies that are reinvesting at least 15% of their market cap into research and development. That one back tested well. So one go check out generated assets public.com rich habits and if you want more generated assets ideas, join the Rich Habits Network. And it's just pinned right there at the top.
- [23:43]
Robert
And I just want to put something out there for all the new people around here. We have been talking about public.com for years now. The reason is and why we love them so much, not just for you and for ourselves as our main sponsor, is because they build the coolest stuff to make your lives easier, our lives easier and help us make more money. So I want to clear that up because people are probably like why they talk about public so much because it's awesome. It's a really great platform that helps all of us build wealth. So make sure you check it out if you're new around here. Public.com There's a link in our bios, there's a link in the show notes and it's just a great Platform.
- [24:23]
Austin
Our next question comes from Chase M. Chase says. Hey, Austin and Robert. My name's Chase, and I'm a loyal listener to the show. Listen for about a year and a half in implementing your financial strategies. I'm 20 years old. I got engaged recently to my fiance. We're both still in college, but started to contribute to our Roth IRAs and brokerage accounts last year. Obviously, we're only just starting with a little bit of money each month, but. But a little bit is better than nothing. While our wedding is still well over a year out, I was wondering what your thoughts are and how we could continue our investing journey after we get married. We're going to graduate from college the year after we get married. We are currently investing through Robinhood, but I was wondering if we should roll over our investments to a joint account or remain separate after the wedding. When we get married, we plan to have both personal accounts and a joint bank account. What is your advice when it comes to combining finances? Thank you so much. Chase, Chase, Chase. If I give you a high five through the. Through the monitor here, I would. Good for you. That is so exciting. Well, congrats on getting engaged. Nothing better than falling in love. And it's just. It's great. As someone who's also engaged right now, it's incredible. Okay, so my best advice for building wealth after you get married. Three things. One, you need to be maxing out your Roth ira. She needs to be maxing out her Roth ira. And y' all do that congruently, side by side, until y' all are in retirement, right? Despite being married, she has her retirement account. You've got your retirement account. Rock and roll. Because that's how you double dip, essentially, right? You just keep on rocking. So do that Voo, QQQ, VGT, all the normal index funds and ETFs. We talk about the second part when it comes to combining finances. When I talk about combining finances, I don't mean so literally that you guys share Venmo accounts and you guys share PayPal accounts and you guys share like. I don't mean it that literally. I more mean it in a sense of every month, you and your fiance or your spouse now sit down and say, cool, we are graduated from college. We are living our lives. This month, we're going to bring in $5,800 in income. We have our bills to pay. We have expenses. But like, at the beginning of every month, we are combining. We're sitting down and we're saying, okay, our money goes into this one joint account. Let's now make sure that we're actually spending that money while we agree on how it should get spent. We're on the same page with money, right? That's the goal here. Yes. Let's pay this bill. Oh, honey, you want to get your nails done? You deserve that. Absolutely. Oh, I'm actually going to go, you know, I want to pick up a prime rib from Costco. I love prime rib. That's going to come out of this account. Right. It's like you're combining your finances in the sense that you guys are aligned with your budget before the month even starts. 100. Now, if you want to have your own checking account over here and she has a checking account there for maybe other expenses. But as long as you guys are not in an abusive relationship and everything's rocking and rolling there, having a combined joint checking account that some paychecks go into, money's flowing in and out of, I think that's totally perfect. Right? Assuming again, it's a happy, healthy marriage. If there's any sort of abuse or any sort of addiction or any like, like, separate. See you later. Bye. You can't trust people at that level and stage of craziness. But all is good. Rock and roll. Have a good time. And the last thing I'll add, and it's more of a high level mindset than it is a tactical step, which is make sure that it's not, hi, honey. This is what we're doing with our money. It's, hi, let's sit down and talk about what we both want to do. Get on the same page with why it's important so that we both are on, you know, we are aligned with where we're going with our money. I'm not telling you what to do with your money, just like you're not telling me what to do with my money. We are on the same page as to why this is an important thing for us both to do together. That is how you avoid money fights and money problems. And money fights. Money problems are the number one reason for divorce.
- [28:14]
Robert
Well, you took the words right out of my mouth. The biggest takeaway from your breakdown, which was incredible, was alignment. But I'm going to back the train up just a little bit and add one more piece to it before. Before your knee hits the ground. You need to have this conversation because you want to make sure you don't get all the way down and married and up and running and everything. And you didn't have the tough conversation of, hey, what are our financial Goals, how is this going to work and are we fully aligned? Because one of you might be a spendthrift and one of you might be really frugal and you want to make sure you're on the same page so you don't get into those money fights later. So I agree with Austin on everything, but have the conversation earlier than later. If you're in love, it's okay to have this tough conversation because you don't want to wait until it's too late and then find yourselves fighting down the road because you can't get where you want to go collectively, because one of you is not in alignment with the other financially.
- [29:09]
Austin
Yeah. And I think something else too that people do that maybe isn't a mistake but can cause a riff is one person is hyper focused on getting as much invested. I want to hit these goals like, let's rock and roll and the other person's aligned, but they're not like hyper obsessed like the other person. Right? I know, I know. Some money nerds are listening to this episode and they're like, oh yeah, I'm hyper obsessed with money. I want to make sure I'm hitting my goals and doing it all right and tracking everything. And their spouse who's listening, who might not be listening is like, yeah, I mean, I'm cool with money, but like, I'm not crazy obsessed. Just make sure that if your spouse, who is not the one that is crazy obsessed with money, like, you are listening to this episode because it's the Rich Habits podcast, make sure that you are not taking away from their joy with money in the sense that, honey, we got to invest tens of thousands this year. Like, oh my gosh, Meanwhile, your spouse is still driving a 14 year old car. Right? It's like, there's some things that you guys need to kind of trade off on. Like, it's cool to be investing, like we're talking about that, but don't do it to the expense of your spouse's happiness. I don't think I explained that too well, but I hope you guys are kind of understanding what I'm trying to say.
- [30:19]
Robert
I've got an immediate story just from the other day that piggybacks it perfectly. And that is a really good added take to this. And that is. I had a call with an anonymous person. She's been married to her husband for 20 some years, and right now he gives her $2,000 a month. He handles everything else, all the money. She doesn't know where they're at. And the 2000 is supposed to cover all of her joys, all of her bills, her daughter's bills, all these things. That is not alignment. You both need to be on the same page because even though one person might be hyper focused, which is too much and it's hard to deal with because you're not having any fun in life and you're not being able to enjoy life to the way you want because one person won't allow it, that's alignment as well that you have to figure out. So I think you did a great job, Austin. And it's such an important thing because I was thinking about this call I did and I felt terrible. It's 2026 and $2000 is just not enough in this era to live a meaningful, enjoyable life. Especially if you're paying for all your own bills and your daughter's bills to be able to make this happen. So I'm happy you went that route because I think it was important to understand.
- [31:28]
Austin
Yeah, that is definitely not alignment with money. I don't like that at all. So our last question comes from Pia. Pia says, I'm a new listener and I just listened to your December 3rd podcast episode. I have a question which I hope you can answer. My husband spent 25 years as a teacher for Mountain View School District. He wants to retire early. As he said, he's been working since he was 14. Today he's 54 years old. We have a paid off rental property valued at $600,000 which he bought 25 years ago for $180,000. He wants to sell it and invest the proceeds into stocks, bonds, T bills and other things. Basically make that money work for him to supplement his pension of about $4,000 a month. We're currently getting $2,000 a month of rental income from that property which we use to pay our $200 hoa. And the rest goes toward paying our which has been mortgaged for the last ten years at a fourteen hundred dollar a month payment, 3% interest rate. Do you think selling a rental property is a good idea or not? I've always believed that it's better to invest in real estate because property values always go up. Thank you in advance for your help. What a good question in a very interesting situation to be in. Robert, what do you think about the situation?
- [32:41]
Robert
Well, real estate doesn't always go up in value. There are a lot of markets around the country that are flat and go up 2, 3% a year, sometimes 4% which is still better than nothing. But there other ways to invest money and make More money with your money. In this instance, I would probably sell it because condos do appreciate less than primary homes and single family homes. So in that instance, I think you're definitely on track. I would sell the condo, take all that money, get it invested, get that additional income and you guys will be set. Because at 54 years old, you're right, you guys have made some good decisions and this money could really set you up because $600,000 invested right now, now making 8, 9, 10% a year is going to give you 50, $60,000 in income. You could use part of that as income and roll over the rest into growth. And I think it's a great situation to be in.
- [33:32]
Austin
Now. What do you think about how they're paying their mortgage right now from the rental income? So their, their rental income would go away and they wouldn't be able to pay their mortgage with it.
- [33:41]
Robert
True that. But they would have the growth, which I believe would be higher than the rental income. The growth in the 600,000 would give them more income than the net of the 2000amonth, the 1400. So I still think it's the right financial move long term.
- [33:56]
Austin
Yeah, I agree with that. Looking at some of these numbers after taxes, because you will owe taxes on your, you know, capital gain here of about $420,000 after taxes, you should have about 515 to play with. So you'd still have like $500,000 after. Let's say you put 15,000 aside and upgraded your lifestyle, got a new car, went on a vacation, something cool. Congrats, you're retired. Like, like, you know, have a little celebration, enjoy it. But with that 500,000 you mentioned, stocks, bonds, T bills, things like that, I think that's totally fine. I would also really encourage you to think about NEOS funds. NEOs funds, ETFs do a really good job of generating tax efficient monthly income. If you want to be more on the risk off side there, you can do their hedged equity ETFs like Spyh QQQH. You can also have some of their bond BNDI ETF. They have a T bill one as well. CSHI. They've got a lot of really interesting ETFs that'll pay you. I would say depending on how you pull this 500,000 portfolio together, you could probably earn between, I would say, 40 to $50,000 a year in extra income. So call it, you know, 3,000 ish dollars a month depending on how you break that out. So that would definitely supplement your monthly Mortgage and some. That's kind of how I think I'd play that game. Robert.
- [35:15]
Robert
Yeah, they did a. They're definitely thinking in the right direction of what to do and I would sell it and move on just because the capital appreciation on most condos around the country is probably 2 or 3% and there just isn't enough growth there and they'd make more money elsewhere to help him retire early.
- [35:33]
Austin
Now the thing that I also really believe in and of course you don't have to have this done at 54, but I don't know, maybe like I really hate seeing people go into their, their, you know, 60s and 70s, their retirement years with a monthly mortgage payment. I'd love to have people have their house paid off by the time they're 65 or 70. Right. Like, like no one wants to retire with a mortgage still. And so of course is at 3%. So there's no reason to pay this off. You said you have 10 more years, so I think that's good to know that by the time your 54 year old husband is 64. Right. Starts collecting on Social Security, you guys really will be able to take advantage because now you've got extra Social Security, you've got a pension, you've got your portfolio growing for you and you've gotten rid of a fourteen hundred dollar a month payment.
- [36:20]
Robert
Got it. Yeah, I agree. That's another way to look at it for sure. I mean the number one thing is for people in this situation is to understand don't pay off a house and leave yourself cash broke and poor. So let's say you do retire early, but you don't have access to any funds to be able to live the life you desire. So you just have to make sure you balance and understand not being a net worth millionaire, but you don't have access to the capital yet because you retired early.
- [36:45]
Austin
That's right, Everybody, welcome to 2026. We're wishing you a very happy new year. We're so grateful that you've joined us into this new calendar year here at the Rich Habits podcast. And so many of you, 77, 000 according to our Spotify Rap data, have us at the very top of your podcast rotation. Maybe in 2026 that number hits a hundred thousand. Robert, maybe get a hundred thousand people to have us as their number one show. Show. Who knows?
- [37:09]
Robert
I think we can get there because we get to wake up every day and let's get this straight, you guys bring us so much joy as well because Austin and I both love educating and really sharing the good, the bad and the ugly of all of our concepts and ideas and learnings and all the things we've done over the years. You know, especially me being the older guard. And so we just really appreciate each and every one of you and we wanted you to know that.
- [37:32]
Austin
Do not forget we're still running a seven day free trial to join the Rich Habits Network. We've also published a ton of recent podcasts episodes about helping you win with money in 2026. Please give those a listen. Please continue to come back every week as we've got tons of cool interviews, tons of cool topics and maybe a weekend event in 2026 here in Nashville that I just, I can't get over the cool title of Rich Habits Rodeo. It's going to be called the Rich Habits Rodeo. It has to, Robert.
- [38:01]
Robert
We just got to take the maybe out. We just got to put the steak in the ground, pick a date, wait and get it done. Because we're doing the Rich Habits Rodeo this year no matter what.
- [38:10]
Austin
So y' all stay tuned for that. And also stay tuned for a Friday episode. We're skipping it again this week. As you know, these Q and A's are a little bit on the pre recorded side right now. I'm actually, like I said, in West Palm beach, we're enjoying our New Year's. We hope you all are enjoying it as well. So no Friday episode tomorrow, but come next week, the Rich Habits Radar weekly episodes are back. So be sure to tune into those.
- [38:31]
Robert
Thanks everyone and see you on Monday.
- [38:57]
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