The Playbook to Build Wealth With An Average Income

Building Wealth on an Average Income (0:03)

Brian: The playbook to build wealth with an average income.

Bo: I am so excited to talk about this because we say that building wealth is available to everyone, and we really do mean that. There are a lot of people out there that don’t have huge incomes, don’t have six-figure incomes. And we think that even if that describes you, even if that’s where you are right now in your financial journey, it is still possible for you to build meaningful wealth.

Brian: So let’s reach people where they actually are. If you look at where the median income is per household here in the United States, it’s a little under $84,000. And look, we used household, so if you’re married, that’s two people. It’s going to be tough. A lot of people are out there telling you that you can’t do it. I think you can. It is doable if you have a plan.

Bo: You have to understand that if you want to win the game, you have to describe for yourself what winning looks like. You have to decide, okay, this is what the number looks like for me to be able to live the life that I want to live on my terms. And we’ve got to give credit where credit’s due. The FIRE community has done a wonderful job of this. Once they know what their objective is, once they’ve defined the goal, they’re able to really dive in and stay laser focused on moving in that direction. But I think the average American hasn’t quite figured that out.

Brian: I remember we did a Making a Millionaire with Danielle, and I loved the idea she had around CoastFIRE, where we said, “Hey, you can do this. Why don’t we show you what you need to save and be hot and heavy with the discipline so that you can down the road take your foot off the accelerator and actually make this retirement and financial plan work.” Once the objective was clear, once we said, “Okay, this is what you have to do, and if you do this, then you’ll end up here,” it made it much easier for her to think, “Okay, I can execute.” The same is true for you in your financial life, whether you’re someone with a high income or a lower income.

Bo: We want to specifically speak to those folks who maybe feel like things are tight right now. We want to walk you through what the plan looks like and how you should think about it. And we thought about a sports analogy, because when it comes to having limited resources, the thing you have to focus on first, and this may be a little bit counterintuitive, is defense. It may not be sexy or super exciting, but you’ve heard the expression: defense wins championships. That’s true in your personal finances as well.

Play Defense First: Emergency Funds, Insurance, and Budgeting (2:59)

Brian: The first thing on defense is your emergency reserves, because this is the margin that keeps you from making desperate decisions that get you into high-interest debt and all the other bad things that lead to you being stuck and not getting out of the starting blocks of building wealth.

Bo: You need to define what your emergency fund looks like. Is it three months? Is it six months? How do you decide, and how do you get that in place? Because exactly what Brian said, if you don’t have that first step in place, it’s really easy to get derailed. The next thing when it comes to defense, especially at lower incomes, is one that becomes tempting to try to get around. We’ve seen young people who like to skinny dip when it comes to health insurance. But we know that a lot of financial failure is due to medical expenses and unknown unknowns coming your way. So if you have a lower income, don’t just decide to go with the cheapest health insurance and the highest deductible possible, because a $15,000 deductible does you no service if there’s no way you can possibly meet it. Maybe you’re doing it from a noble place. Maybe you say, “I want to fund an HSA and take advantage of that.” But perhaps the high-deductible plan is not the best fit for you. Make sure you’re figuring out how to navigate the health insurance side of your equation.

Brian: And then there’s having reliable transportation. I know looking cool is important, but that’s not actually what’s going to build your first million dollars.

Bo: We know that cars can be financial traps. That’s why we have rules in place like the 20/3/8 rule to make sure you stay inside the guardrails. And when you think about staying inside those guardrails, one of the single best things you can do, especially if you have a lower income or limited resources, is figure out how to budget. How do I put together the matrix of where my dollars should go? Because if I don’t know where my dollars are going, I can’t know if I’m wasting them or putting them in the right places. Once you put down the budget and begin tracking your expenses, it becomes more clear where you can cut, where you can save, and where you can triage your financial situation to hopefully move into the offensive side.

Brian: The reality is 83% of Americans say they overspend. So if you’re not at least keeping track of what’s going on, how are you ever going to own the discipline that creates the margin to put money to work?

Moving to Offense: Grow Your Income and Seize Opportunities (5:50)

Bo: Once you’ve mastered defense, you can think about the offensive side. What are the things you can do to now start positively impacting your financial life? The first thing is that this might be the easiest time ever to figure out how to increase your skill set, whether through advances in technology, blogs, podcasts, articles, YouTube channels, or whatever it may be. There are ways you can increase your skill set, further your education, and ultimately make yourself more valuable either as an employee or potentially as an entrepreneur.

Brian: I always try to find the edge. How can you make yourself stand out so you can monetize that expertise and skill set that Bo just talked about? And once you figure out how to monetize that, think about how to be opportunistic. How do I find the places where I can insert myself to give myself the highest likelihood of a positive outcome? This might mean changing jobs, looking at a different company, or even changing geographies, moving to a city or town where there are more opportunities. If you can hone in and figure those things out as you’ve increased your skill set and figured out where the monetization opportunities are, it puts you in a position to start building something.

Brian: Keep the business up front and the party in the back, if you know what I mean.

Bo: That’s right. If you can keep the business up front, it allows you to keep your foot on the gas. You’ve done the hard parts. You’ve found the triage. You’ve created the margin. Now you’re going to start devoting yourself to doing the right thing and continuing to plow forward. And it’s amazing that even if you don’t have a huge income, if you don’t have a ton of margin, but you have a lot of time, even a little bit can do a whole lot for you. That’s why we talk about how for a 20-year-old, $1 has the ability to turn into $88 by the time you retire. If you can start early and stay consistent, even at low incomes and with little margin, you can still build meaningful wealth over the long term.

April Fools in the Studio (8:24)

Brian: So when I walked into the studio at 9:50 this morning, on our microphones were mullet wigs, sunglasses, and gold chains.

Bo: Mullets are back, mustaches are back, I think aviators never went out, and gold chains are apparently back too.

Brian: You have to know your why. The admin team thought they were going to pick on us, but I picked it up and embraced it. Now, look, it is a thumbnail day, which is the only thing I had to commit to. We probably have messed up the hair. So we’ll see how this goes.

Bo: Can you imagine if we did all of our thumbnails for the next month like this? Did I screw it up? Ken gives me the thumbs up. I think you should just keep the glasses and the necklace on.

Brian: I can’t grow a mustache, but I can sure wear some glasses. And y’all should know there was a whole outfit for Bo, too. He just didn’t want to embrace it.

Bo: I just felt like we needed some sort of balance. Yin and yang. We like to restore order to the financial chaos in your lives. It’s why we like to show up here every single Tuesday at 10 a.m. to load you up. We want to answer your questions and speak to the things that you care about. It’s why we have our team out in the wings right now. If you have a question you want to get our take on, get it in the chat right now, because we really do believe there is a better way to do money.

Rebie: We have some great questions queued up. Keep dropping them in. The admin team did this because April Fools is tomorrow and they never let a day go by without doing something fun. There was a lot of talk about mullets last week, and Brian in a mullet. There were some AI images of Brian in a mullet. They just wanted to see it in real life.

Brian: Did we release the AI Brian Braveheart? That was awesome.

Rebie: If you’re on our email list, you saw it. If you’re in the Moneyverse, you saw it. It’s out there.

Bo: If you wonder if this is an awesome place to work, it is. These are the kinds of shenanigans we do. And if you’re out there looking for a work home, we have a few positions available. Rebie, where can they go to check out our available positions right now?

Rebie: Go to moneyguy.com and click on About, then Join the Team. We have all kinds of positions listed right now, including administrative, advisory, editor, and writer. We’re looking for some high-quality, amazing team members who love Money Guy and personal finance.

Q&A: Should I Tap Retirement Accounts to Buy a Home? (13:10)

Brian: Bo earlier asked for 10 scrambled eggs. So egg bacon and cheese you have no idea what you’re doing right now.

Bo: I am literally so hungry right now.

Rebie: First question is from Egg Bacon and Cheese. “Hi team, what is your advice on taking from retirement accounts to buy a home? I am 40 years old, $104,000 gross income, single, $450,000 in retirement accounts. I will be in this home for more than five years.”

Bo: We don’t like it. We know that there are certain provisions and rules where you can pull out certain money to use it for that. But retirement accounts are there specifically for retirement. If you and I were sitting down having a conversation, one of the questions I’d want to ask you is, what other resources do you have? Is there a way we could adjust our savings rate? Can we go back in the Financial Order of Operations? Maybe we’ve been on step five or step six, but perhaps we want to go back to step four so we can begin building up a down payment. And then I’d want to think through all the aspects of home ownership. You said you’re 40, you’ve got $104,000 in income, $450,000 in retirement. You said you think you’re going to be in the home for five years. I want to ask the question: why home ownership? Is it just because this is the next box you want to check, or is there something else driving that decision?

Brian: Coming from a public accounting background, I always see T-charts, pros and negatives. And I start looking at this. I know what you’re thinking. “Hey, this is a big pot of money. I want a house.” That’s a positive. Access to capital. But then on the cons column, any of this money, especially if it’s traditional retirement money, there’s big friction cost to getting it. Not only do you pay income tax on it, but for the majority, you’d even have the 10% early withdrawal penalty. And you need this money for retirement. You’re slightly ahead of the curve if you think about the three-times-income benchmark, but that’s actually a wind at your back for the future because your army of dollar bills are now starting to compound on top of each other. If you start using that money right now, you’re essentially gutting the point where all the magical compounding happens. I would strongly encourage you to figure out: can you really afford this house, or are you trying to force it by making your retirement accounts leaky? We’ve done a lot of research on the fact that this is a trap a lot of Americans fall into, raiding retirement accounts to fund a house, a car, a swimming pool. Your future self will thank you for the discipline. Find another way to get into this house.

Bo: And if buying a house has checked all the boxes after going through that conversation, go to moneyguy.com/resources and use our home buying calculator. You’ve already told us your age and your income. When it comes to buying a first home, we subscribe to the 25/3/5 rule: you don’t have to put 20% down, so long as you plan on being in the house for at least five years and your total housing costs don’t exceed 25% of your income. At $100,000 income, $25,000 in annual housing costs is kind of where you’d be. Use the calculator to back into how much house you can afford based on that number and how much down payment you need to save. Depending on the price of the home you’re looking at, it may not be super difficult to save for that down payment without ever having to tap into the retirement accounts.

Can I ask a question? Is it Benson Boone? I go to church Sunday and my pastor shows up with a stash you know that we have reache critical mass for for maximum stashhood and I’m just trying to figure out where we go as a society from here.

Q&A: How Important Is an HSA When Switching Jobs? (20:13)

Rebie: Next question from Stonyy13: “Hey money guys, I’m 26 with $60K per year and I’m saving 25%. Let’s go. I’m swapping jobs soon and was curious how important it is to find a job with an insurance plan that offers an HSA if I’m already saving 25%.”

Bo: Benefits in my opinion are toppings, not the main course.

Brian: Whipped cream and cherries.

Bo: That’s it. These are the cherries and the whipped cream and the sprinkles. These are not the brownie. When you’re looking for a job, you want to look for somewhere you fit in culturally, somewhere your skill set will be valued, somewhere you have career trajectory and opportunity for vertical movement. Once you’ve narrowed it down to a number of different positions that satisfy those criteria, then you can start comparing the benefits. But I would never let the health insurance plan dictate the job I took. If you focus on that, you’re majoring in the minors and you could end up in a bad spot. If you’ve got two great opportunities that are otherwise equal, then yes, benefits have a place in the coin-toss moment. But don’t let that be the driving factor.

Brian: Don’t let the tax tail wag the dog. We love health savings accounts, but an HSA is not the driver of your financial success. Investing in yourself is one of the best things you can do. And two other things: don’t assume that because a company doesn’t offer a high-deductible HSA option that their health insurance benefits are bad. And don’t assume that if they do offer a high-deductible option with an HSA, that’s automatically the one you should choose. Often we steer clients away from the high-deductible plan because other options are more highly subsidized, have lower deductibles, and are a better fit for their family. Don’t just default to the HSA because we love them. It’s an option to investigate, not an automatic answer.

Q&A: How Do I Help a Friend Start Managing Her Finances? (24:27)

Rebie: Next question from QuiltAudit: “Morning. I’m meeting with someone in my church to talk about finances, specifically to help her budget better. What would be the best place to start? What kind of documents should she prepare? What should she bring to this meeting?”

Brian: There’s something you can go to at moneyguy.com/resources. It’s an all-terrain, all-weather vehicle for telling you what to do with your next dollar. We’ve got you covered with the Financial Order of Operations. But what would you add to that, Bo?

Bo: If I was going to sit down with someone from church and help them out, the starting point I’d want is a net worth statement. I want a list of all the things they own and all the things they owe. We have a great template. You can go to moneyguy.com/resources and download a free one, then email or text it to her to fill out. What you’re going to uncover when she lists out all the things she owns and owes is the types of investment accounts she has access to, the types of retirement plans, and the debts she carries. That’s step number one, knowing the starting point. Step number two: ask her to bring her last month of credit card statements or bank transactions, however she spends money. Or better yet, tell her to download a free budgeting app such as Monarch Money or YNAB and start tracking where her dollars are going. Let’s look at it after a month. What I want to see is, “Hey, do you realize 25% of your money every month is going toward eating out or transportation?” Then I’ll begin to triage that, figure out how much should be going into each bucket, figure out the margin, and then come to the Financial Order of Operations. Is she getting her employer match? Has she knocked out high-interest debt? Does she have a fully funded emergency fund? Is she putting money in a Roth? Walk through that three-step process to get her on solid foundational footing.

Brian: The reality is you’re probably only going to have 20 or 25 productive minutes over lunch. That’s why you need something that speaks after the lunch. The free FOO download is great for that. Also, the backbone of Millionaire Mission is the Financial Order of Operations. If you ever want to know the origin story, how to go deep into it, and how the ground rules all come into play even before step one, the book allows that to continue to work for her after the lunch. Use it as a parting gift so more action can occur.

Q&A: How Do I Convince My Risk-Averse Spouse to Invest? (28:19)

Rebie: Next question from Jim: “How do I convince my spouse, who is very risk-averse, to invest a portion of our cash reserve in the stock market? We have no debt and two years of expenses covered by our savings. I max my IRA only.”

Brian: When I was writing Millionaire Mission, I was trying to get people to understand that what feels safe in the short term can actually be risky in the long term. And what feels risky in the moment can actually be an incredible wealth-building opportunity in the long term. That’s exactly what the financial markets are. And Jim, you’ve done the right thing. That’s why I love how the Financial Order of Operations can help you here. It’ll let you show your wife: we don’t have high-interest debt. We’ve got emergency reserves set up. Now we need to make this money start working harder than we can with our back, our brain, and our hands so we don’t get beaten down by inflation and we can actually grow this over the long term. That’s what starting a Roth IRA and buying some index funds is going to do. Sell the vision of where you want to be. Don’t you want our money to work harder than we can so we can go do trips and do all the things we love doing as a couple? Share that vision and build some collaboration.

Bo: I’m curious how old you guys are, because having two years of expenses saved in cash is a lot unless you’re right at or approaching retirement. I love Brian’s idea of starting with the why. Let’s say you define, “Hey, we want to retire one day and we need to save a million dollars.” I would use math to show my spouse: if we’re just going to save in a savings account at this rate, how many decades is it going to take us to reach a million dollars in cash? What you’re going to find is, “Holy cow, we’re not going to hit a million until we’re 75 or 85 years old.” And then I would show her: do you realize that if we started investing these dollars and earned a conservative 7% or 8% annualized rate of return through low-cost index funds, we could reach that same goal 10, 20, or 30 years sooner? I’d present the same goal with different paths and ask, “What’s the most appropriate, most efficient path to get there?”

Brian: It’s also worth noting that we say don’t invest unless you can do it for five to seven years, because yes, in the short term there may be some volatility. But if you can stay invested for that five to seven years, there’s an incredible track record of consistency. I talk about this in the book as well, the law of accelerating returns. As long as we don’t make the robots that kill us, we’re going to be able to grow this thing and make even more money off of the ever-expanding economy. Your dollars will have a chance to work for you, not against you.

Rapid Fire: It Does Not Depend (32:40)

Rebie: It’s Brian and Bo’s favorite part of the show, the “It Does Not Depend” rapid fire segment, where they will answer your questions in 30 seconds combined and cannot use the words “it depends.” I’ll throw them a bone at the end with a “Maybe It Does Depend” segment where they can say all the things they didn’t get to say in 30 seconds. Let’s dive into question number one. When it comes to 401(k) maxing out, should you opt for Roth, traditional, or a mix of both?

Brian: Majority of people, go Roth. If you maximize the value of time and you’re a younger person, I love Roth. Most employers now offer Roth, and I think that’s where a large portion of the population would do really well.

Bo: Agree to disagree. By the time you’re maxing out and putting $23,500 into your salary deferral, if you’re able to save that much, you’re likely in a higher income bracket, which means you’re probably going to be better served by the pre-tax side.

Brian: He ain’t wrong.

Rebie: We got to disagree. Question two. Why do you never mention public transit as a possible form of reliable transportation?

Bo: Because we’re from the South, there are a lot of places where it’s not a viable option. Whenever I go to Europe or New York or D.C., I think it’s awesome, especially with how well the mobile apps make it work. But public transportation simply doesn’t come to mind initially because neither of us has ever lived somewhere it really functions well. That’s a little personal bias on our part.

Brian: Agreed. A walkable community with solid public transportation is an amazing opportunity for folks who can live in that place. We just can’t speak to it from personal experience.

Rebie: Question three. What is the money topic Brian and Bo differ on the most, and who’s right?

Brian: Paying off debt. That’s what we fought on for a long time. It made it into the book because Bo kept telling me I was bad with money or bad at math because I was trying to pay off my low-interest mortgage. And I was right.

Bo: We actually agree on almost 100% of financial topics. It’s fairly cut and dry. There’s not a ton to disagree on.

Rebie: Question four. If I retire before age 55, should I do a 72T or a Roth ladder?

Brian: I don’t love Roth ladders. The 72T is complicated, but your Roth is going to be your favorite savings vehicle. It’s going to be first in, last out.

Bo: 72T.

Rebie: Question five. When the market is going down sharply, what are some financial mutant actions to take?

Bo: Always be buying.

Brian: If you’re dollar cost averaging and you have a lump sum, once you get past a 20% drop, every additional 5% drop you can accelerate another month forward on your plan.

Bo: Look for opportunities. Be opportunistic.

Rebie: Question six. Comb or brush?

Brian: Both.

Bo: Neither. Fingers.

Brian: I use a comb to part the hair because I’m not an animal. And then after I dry it, I run a brush through to give it the poof.

Rebie: Question seven. What should I do first? Pay down my mortgage at 3.25%, which has $29,000 left, or my student loan at 6.1%, which is $44,000?

Brian: Student loan.

Bo: Student loan. I can see what you’re thinking with the debt snowball, wanting to knock out the lower balance first. But that’s going to be suboptimal when the interest rate on the student loan is nearly twice as high as the mortgage, and the mortgage is on an appreciating asset at a super low rate. Student loan.

Rebie: Question eight. Which step of the FOO would you place paying back a 401(k) loan you took out before you were financially enlightened?

Brian: That depends on the interest rate. I was thinking step three or nine.

Rebie: You both lose the time. Question nine. How do you know when it is the right time to tax-loss harvest?

Bo: When you have losses inside your taxable account.

Brian: Find the silver lining when the market starts getting rough.

Bo: Now, sometimes you might have an individual position you really believe in and don’t want to sell to potentially miss out on the 30-day wash-sale window. So you may not harvest that. But indices that are easily replaceable, when you’ve got some losses.

Rebie: Question ten. Best strategy for handling mileage reimbursement when the rate is generous and you always have extra?

Bo: Track your mileage and report it. Automate the process. There are apps out there to help make sure you get every mile you’re entitled to.

Rebie: Last but not least. What really went through your head when you walked in and saw the mullet wigs on your desks this morning?

Brian: I was like, “What crazy thing are they trying to do?” But when I found out the admin team did it for April Fools, I was like, “Yeah, come on. Let’s get in.”

Bo: I thought it was our writing team that did it. When I found out it was the admin team, I was like, “Oh, okay, that’s on brand.” I couldn’t figure out the angle the writing team was going with. But let’s face it, our admin team is out there sitting on exercise balls right now. They are not serious people. Health is wealth.

Brian: We desperately need a new administrator. So if you’d love to be an administrator for a financial advisor firm and you like building your core strength at work on a big bouncy ball, go to moneyguy.com and look under Join the Team.

Maybe It Does Depend: Deeper Dives on the Rapid Fire Questions (42:52)

Rebie: All right. Now we’ll move on to our “Maybe It Does Depend” segment where you can say everything you didn’t get to say. On the very first question about the 401(k), you guys disagreed. Anything to add?

Bo: So I said that if you’re at a high enough income to max out step six, that means you’ve already maxed out step five, meaning you’ve put the max into Roth, the max into your HSA, and now you’re doing the full salary deferral on the 401(k). We did the math on a Manny case study, and you have to be making around $137,000 as a household for 25% savings to have you maxing out all of those buckets. So odds are, if you’re maxing it out, you’re in a higher income situation that likely justifies doing pre-tax.

Brian: My logic was that only the top 10% will be in that situation. The 90% would probably benefit from doing Roth. So I went with the 90. The real answer is Bo’s answer, which is it depends. But I was trying to play the numbers. It’s the 90/10. Bo is right.

Rebie: On the 72T vs. Roth ladder question, anything else to add?

Bo: For those unfamiliar, a 72T is a way to access pre-tax assets prior to age 59 and a half. You have to take substantially equal periodic payments and there are rules associated with it you have to follow closely. A Roth conversion ladder means you convert to Roth, let it sit for a while, and then pull the basis out. Both of us ended up saying that you want your Roth dollars to stay in the Roth accounts as long as possible to maximize the tax-free growth, because that’s the real benefit of Roth. So if you’re giving us a binary option between the two, we’d probably say 72T. But we don’t really love 72T either. We’d rather see you plan ahead, build an after-tax account, or use another option. A lot of people don’t realize that if you’re working at an employer and you have a big IRA rollover from previous employers, and you’re planning on retiring at 55, you can roll those pre-tax assets into your current employer’s 401(k) before you retire. That opens up your ability to access those assets between 55 and 59 and a half without the early withdrawal penalty. There are other ways to get access to those dollars that aren’t quite as complicated.

Brian: I’m not against Roth ladders in concept. But when clients come to us and say, “Hey, I’ve built up this big Roth so I can do a Roth ladder and pull the basis out,” the reality is that when we look at all of their accounts, their tax rates, and everything else, that money grows tax-free. If you die with that money, it gets to continue to grow tax-free. In practice, when I look at people’s actual assets and I’m trying to create a real plan, we usually don’t start raiding the Roth account first. It’s first in because it’s step five of the Financial Order of Operations, and last out because it’s your favorite child when it comes to your assets. In fact, Bo has pulled me aside before and said, “I know your income tax rate is high, but you ought to be doing Roth contributions even now.” And he’s right. I’d rather pay a little bit more in taxes today so that my daughter, who has autism and qualifies as an eligible designated beneficiary, can stretch distributions over her lifetime rather than being subject to the 10-year rule. Paying more taxes now to create that alternative stream for her is pretty powerful planning.

Rebie: On the 401(k) loan question, what would you have said?

Bo: Why do we dislike high-interest debt? Because the high interest rate works against you aggressively and we want your money working for you, not against you. I would argue that a 401(k) loan, irrespective of the interest rate and irrespective of the fact that you’re quote-unquote paying yourself interest, has taken valuable soldiers in your army of dollar bills off of the battlefield. So I would treat it like step three. Knock that out, get it paid off, let your dollars start working for you, and then begin progressing through the Financial Order of Operations.

Q&A: Where Does an ESPP Fall in the FOO? (52:15)

Rebie: Next question from Winkinator 21: “Where would an ESPP, or Employee Stock Purchase Plan, fall into the FOO? I’m putting 15% of my take-home into the program, which means I can’t max out my retirement.”

Bo: It depends on how your plan operates. An ESPP is an employee stock purchase plan where your employer says, “Hey, we want you to participate in owning a piece of this company, so we’ll allow you to buy shares at a discount.” If they’re letting you buy at a 15% discount, or if they’re looking at a trading window and giving you the lowest price in that window, that is essentially a lot like free money. And if something like that is happening inside your ESPP, we would argue you should take advantage of that aggressively. It really is that good.

Brian: But here’s the asterisk. You have your human capital, and this will be part of your investment capital. Those two things need to decouple at some point because you’re trying to build financial independence outside of your human capital. If you have all your eggs in one basket, it can be great or it can be disastrous. We want you to have an all-terrain plan. We love these type of opportunities, but we always say there are limits. Create a system where this is cleansing itself out, perhaps every year automatically selling your ESPP shares and flipping them into diversified holdings that can start building your army of dollar bills outside of the company you work for. I’ve seen too many people, going back to my time in Atlanta working near Lucent Technologies, who on paper were worth a lot of money only to watch it go to nearly nothing because their human capital and their investment capital were sitting in the exact same place.

Closing and Q&A Wrap-Up (55:10)

Rebie: If you don’t want to stop chatting or stop thinking about personal finance even when we turn the cameras off today, no problem. Go to moneyguy.com. Not only do we have tons of free resources and calculators that go deeper on the topics we’ve talked about today, we can also send you to the Moneyverse, our Discord server where you can keep chatting with each other, asking questions, and sharing experiences. We even just posted a poll about your savings rate today so you can compare notes with others and talk about your goals. Go to moneyguy.com/moneyverse to join. We’re trying to make moneyguy.com better and more searchable for you every single day. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t yet.

Brian: And since we have some time left, let’s talk about the important stuff. Bo, you hung out at Universal this week. What was your favorite ride?

Bo: My wife and I took our oldest girls down to Universal in Orlando and it was unbelievable. So much fun. A number of you were kind enough to say hello in the Nashville airport and in Orlando, and even in the parks. Thank you so much for that. It was wonderful to meet you. The easy answer is Hagrid’s is just incredible. It’s an unbelievable ride. But Velocicoaster and the Hulk were big fan favorites for my kids as well. They crushed them all.

Brian: And the real question everybody wants to know: did you check a bag, gate check, or carry on?

Bo: We had four carryons between me and the kids. We volunteered to gate check at the first call. They took the bags, we went and sat down, and it was so easy. When we landed in Orlando, I walked to the carousel and all three of the four bags were just right there. Gate checking is a Financial Mutant hack, especially now that so many airlines charge for checked bags. It’s the same idea as anything else: you want it to be a choice, not something that’s mandated on you.

Brian: I’m your host Brian, joined by Mr. Bo. We’ll see you next week. Money Guy out.