These Money Moves Feel Like Financial Cheat Codes

These Money Moves Feel Like Cheat Codes (0:00)

Brian: There are a handful of money moves that feel like cheat codes. They’re almost too good to be true, but they are 100% real and totally legal.

Bo: And Brian, I am so excited because the strategies that we’re going to share today can make a big difference if you know about them.

Brian: So, I’m Brian, he’s Bo, and this is the Money Guy Show, where two financial advisers give you the money cheat codes to help you beat every level of wealth. And with that, let’s press start.

Cheat Code #1: Get Every Dollar of Your Employer Match (0:34)

Bo: All right, Brian, let’s talk about this first one. Now, if you’ve been listening to our content for any amount of time, this is not going to be incredibly surprising, but it really is like a cheat code, and that is getting your employer match.

Brian: Guys, seriously, get in there and get that free money. Show me the money. There’s a reason this is step number two.

Bo: So, why is this a cheat code? What makes it so unique, so interesting, so earth-shattering? Well, on the surface, it’s pretty obvious. It literally unlocks free money for you. It is money that all you have to do is show up and your employer says, “Come take this and it is yours to have.” And it is literally that easy.

Brian: Well, I mean, your employer is already doing this for you. They’re counting this as part of their calculation when they hire you and put together your compensation package. They are expecting you to take advantage of this. So get in there and do that. This is legitimately free money, or even prepaid money if you want to be kind of trollish about it. It’s taken into account. But here’s the reality of it. This could truthfully set you up for a 50% to 100% guaranteed rate of return. And that’s just unheard of in the financial world to get a dollar for dollar or 50 cents on the dollar match. You’ve got to take advantage of that.

Bo: Even as amazing as this is, because if we were to set up a table and say, “Hey, all you’ve got to do is swing by our table after the show, we have bags of money with your name on it,” no one would not swing by the table and grab that. Yet, the truth is 34% of employees do not contribute enough to their 401(k) to actually get their full employer match. That means that one out of three employees says, “Hey, no thank you, boss. No thank you, employer. I don’t want free money.” Do not let yourself fall into that camp.

Brian: So if I ask you right now, what is your funding formula at your place of work? If you don’t know the answer, I want you right now, don’t go past go. Go ahead and reach out to your HR department. Reach out to your boss. Find out what do you need to contribute. What incentives are built into your retirement?

Bo: And what you’ll often hear is something like, okay, if you put in a dollar, we’ll put in a dollar. You put in $1, we’ll put in 50 cents. Or for every $2 you put in, we’ll put in $1. However it is structured, figure out what the formula is and then make sure that you’re putting in enough to get that full match. If you have to put in a full 5% to get a 4% match, then start putting in that 5%. Do not leave free money on the table. And then the second thing to realize when you fund your retirement is that a lot of times you make the election on not only how much you’re going to save out of your paycheck, but you’re going to elect to invest. But every now and then there are rollover options and other things. I’m always shocked at how many people’s 401(k)s default to cash or stable reserve funds. Ensure that your money is actually being invested. That’s the key part to actually put your army of dollar bills to work for you. And then we want to make sure that you’re revisiting this at least annually or every time you get a pay raise or every time your compensation changes. Make sure you revisit how much you’re putting into your employer sponsored plan. For many folks, this is the very first account that actually gets them into the two comma club. You have to start participating. Take advantage of the free money and then get better at it through time.

Cheat Code #2: Automate Your Investing (3:46)

Brian: All right, Bo. Let’s hit them with cheat code number two. Automate the investing. Make it automatic for the people.

Bo: This is what I love about this one. This is why it’s actually a cheat code: it makes discipline the default setting. You’ve heard us talk all the time about there being really three ingredients to wealth creation. You need discipline, you need margin, and you need time. Well, if you can automate your investing, you automatically insert discipline into the equation and it’s the default, not something you have to actively do every pay period, every pay cycle.

Brian: What I like is this will literally make you a Financial Mutant because it’s a volatility shield. A lot of people are worried about, well, I’m buying at all-time highs, or hey, the stock market looks pretty scary because it lost 20% over the last two or three months, should I even do this? Guys, if you’re automating the process, you’ve created a system. It’s not tied to your emotions or other things. It’s happening. And you’ll actually find yourself getting so excited. If the market is getting beaten up, you’re going to be super excited that you know you have a monthly contribution going in even while the market’s down. If it’s all-time highs, you’re holding your nose and you’re buying anyway because you’re making it automatic and creating the good behavior and discipline that Bo just talked about. This is a volatility shield.

Bo: And the technical term for automatically buying is dollar cost averaging. It’s investing an equal amount at regular intervals, either weekly or monthly, without thinking about it, over a long period of time. And just how powerful can it be? Let’s look at a very extreme real-world example. We think about the Great Depression. It was a 25-year period where the Dow Jones Industrial Average on September 3rd of 1929 closed at $381. 25 years in the future, it closed at $383. Only a $2 increase in the overall price of the Dow Jones over a 25-year period. But had you been investing every single year through that 25-year period where the market really did not make any money from starting point to end point, you would have had an annualized rate of return of almost 12%, just by being consistent, just by setting on autopilot, just by automatically investing.

Brian: Well, I mean, a lot of people talk about the lost decade. This was a lost two and a half decades. But yet, you see that in the brochure and you see what the news media would have probably been scaring you with, but the reality is if you’d have just taken care of and controlled the behavior you could and created a system of always be buying, you would be okay. So, that’s why ABB, always be buying baby, will get you through these volatile periods. It will get you through all these problems. Dollar cost averaging is your friend. And the reason it’s a rule for us is because it takes out the guesswork. It takes out the emotion. Is the market going up? Great. I’m going to buy. Is the market going down? Great. I’m going to buy. I don’t have to make it any more complicated than that.

Bo: So, how do you do it? What do you need to set up? Well, a really easy place to do this is just to set up recurring Roth IRA or HSA contributions. Maybe you can’t max them out, but you can just do $100 a month. That’s great. Set up your account to have $100 a month automatically go in, buy a low-cost index fund every single month, and you are on the automatic wealth building journey. The other big place, and the first accounts that typically cross into seven-figure status, are your employer retirement plans. You can set up automatic contributions. Every time you get paid, you’re going to have money coming into these plans. Every time you get a pay raise, let’s go ahead and increase how much is going into these accounts. They can create a lot of systematic behaviors that’ll reward you in the future. And a lot of people don’t realize this isn’t just for retirement type accounts like Roth IRAs and 401(k)s. You can actually set up recurring taxable account contributions where in your after-tax brokerage account you can have money going every single month, every single payroll.

Brian: And what’s wonderful is as you do that, it’s easier to access those dollars. And there are other cheat codes that you’re going to be able to unlock that we’ll talk about in a bit. And as I’ve covered, pay raises count too. Do the 60/40 rule. A lot of times people go, “Well, how much should I increase my lifestyle? How much should I put toward savings if I’m not saving and investing 25%?” There’s nothing wrong with you allocating 60% of your new pay raise to going towards additional automatic savings and letting 40% go towards lifestyle. So, you are getting some dividends from your success. But a lot of you are saying, “Guys, I need more than this.” And that’s all right. We’ve got you covered. If you go to moneyguy.com/resources, we actually have a great resource called How Much Should You Save? You can take the guesswork out of this altogether.

Cheat Code #3: Follow the Financial Order of Operations (8:24)

Bo: All right, Brian. We’ve talked about two cheat codes so far. Now, let’s talk about the third one. And you know what? I try not to have favorite cheat codes, but this one is one of my favorites because it really is a cheat code for you Financial Mutants out there. And it is following the Financial Order of Operations.

Brian: You know, this one, I consider it the umbrella that sits on top of everything. If you’re ever in doubt and don’t know what to do with your next dollar, we’ve got you covered with the Financial Order of Operations.

Bo: So, why is it a cheat code? What makes it a cheat code? Well, it actually tells you exactly what to do with your next dollar. No more guessing. No more I don’t knows. No more uh oh, am I making the right decisions? If you follow the Financial Order of Operations, you’re going to begin stacking your dollars in the order that they ought to be stacked to be as efficient and as effective for you as possible. And you don’t have to recreate the wheel to do it.

Brian: Yeah. And it also keeps you from making costly mistakes. A lot of times when you’re trying to create those early financial foundations, it’s getting just enough stuff right and also avoiding making the costly mistakes, whether it’s the expensive cars, whether it’s running up credit card debt. I think if you follow the Financial Order of Operations, you’re going to find that you’re not only maximizing the wins, but you’re making the bad habits that much harder.

Bo: So, how do you do it? What do you do? Well, first you can go to moneyguy.com/resources and download your free copy of the Financial Order of Operations. And then secondly, we want you to identify where you are. Are you in step one, deductibles covered? Are you at employer match? Are you at high-interest debt? Are you at emergency reserves? Are you putting money in your Roth IRA? Are you maxing out your employer sponsored plan, and so on and so forth? Identify where you are in the financial order so you can make sure that you’ve not actually gotten out of whack or gone out of order.

Brian: Yeah. Then you know exactly where to direct that next dollar. Just like we’ve shared, you get to keep pushing towards completing all nine steps. So when you come through all nine steps, not only are you going to have your financial foundation laid, but you’re more than likely going to have the kids’ college funded and your mortgage paid off. This thing is an all-terrain, all-season system to help you create success.

Bo: The other thing I love about the Financial Order of Operations is that oftentimes we find ourselves in the reality that we have competing financial priorities. Do I want to do this thing or do I want to do this thing? Do I want to save for retirement or do I want to save for my kids’ college education? If you let the Financial Order of Operations be your backstop, it’s going to allow you to reference, okay, where am I? Where should I be? How do I prioritize those competing goals? And it will again make sure that you’re prioritizing in the most effective and efficient manner possible.

Brian: Oh, I love that you left me with cheat code number four. Now look, a lot of you are watching personal finance content, so you think you’re good with money. But let me tell you, this next cheat code we’re going to share, if you do this, it will put you in the top 2% of the entire American population. So if you can without a doubt do this, you are a Financial Mutant.

Cheat Code #4: Optimize Your HSA (11:34)

Bo: Yeah. Cheat code number four is HSA, health savings account optimizing. Now, notice we didn’t say using an HSA. There are a number of people out there that use HSAs, but there’s a very small segment of the population that actually optimizes them to the maximum extent. So, why is this a cheat code? What is special about it? Well, it turns your savings account that many of us are familiar with that we get to use for medical expenses into a powerful extra tax-free retirement account.

Brian: Look guys, you understand we just talked about the Financial Order of Operations. Step number five is powerful because that is all your tax-free growth opportunities. We all love Roth IRAs because whatever you put in gets to grow tax-free, and even pull it out tax-free on all the growth. But you have to fund it with after-tax money, meaning money that you already paid tax on. Here’s where HSAs, health savings accounts, are so unique. They’re what we call triple tax advantaged. And in some cases, they can even be quattro if your employer offers these. And what we mean by that when we say triple tax advantage is that unlike the Roth IRA that is made with after-tax dollars, the health savings account gives you a tax-deductible contribution. And then after you put that money in there, if you choose, my Financial Mutants, to put this money to work, it grows tax-deferred, meaning you’re not having to pay taxes on any of the income or growth. And then if you use it for qualified medical expenses, you get to make tax-free distributions. And then for bonus points, if your employer is very savvy, call them even Financial Mutants, and sets this up as a payroll deduction, it’s quattro in the fact that you save on Medicare and Social Security. This thing is powerful. So if you’re someone who is HSA optimized, you get to take advantage of all three, if not four, of these.

Bo: And yet, only 10% of Americans actually use a health savings account. Only one out of ten does that. But it actually gets a little bit worse. 85% of health savings accounts have no invested assets. So only one out of ten people actually use them, and then 85% of those people that are using them don’t actually take advantage of the second and third tax opportunities with these accounts.

Brian: Now look, I’m going to take full credit for this because I feel like we are the people that have been ringing the dinner bell on it. This is the greatest opportunity because when we started covering this, only 4% of you who even had health savings accounts were actually investing. Everybody else was using this as a clearing account. We have been ringing the bell, letting everybody know, no, you need to be investing those health savings accounts and building these assets up. And I’m so happy to report the number has grown to now 15%, not four, 15% of you Financial Mutants. So, we are on the good side of history of growing this opportunity, but we still can do more. We don’t want you to use this as a clearing account. We want you to maximize the power of the health savings account.

Bo: All right. So, how do you do it? What needs to be true? Well, first you have to be eligible. What makes you eligible to be able to open a health savings account? You have to be participating in a high deductible health insurance plan. You can ask your benefits department, you can ask the insurance company, “Hey, with the health plan that I’m on, am I HSA eligible?” If you are indeed eligible, make sure that you go open a health savings account.

Brian: I want you to contribute to the health savings account. Get the deduction. This is what everybody’s good at. I’m going to let Bo do the part where it gets complicated, but there’s nothing wrong with maximizing this. If you’re like, how much is it to maximize in 2026? It’s $4,400 for self only. And if you’re doing family coverage, it’s right under $9,000 at $8,750. Bo, everybody who does health savings account, they get that part right. What happens next?

Bo: The next thing you have to do is once you actually get those dollars in the account, then you have to invest them. You don’t want to be one of the 85% of people that’s not investing those assets because the big benefit to HSAs is not the front-end tax deduction. It’s the tax-free growth. Well, in order for the dollars to grow, you have to get them invested. You have to get them growing. So, you can use a low-cost provider if you’re able to open up your HSA, or even if your employer has an HSA plan that they sponsor, find the low-cost index type investment options in there and let those dollars continue to grow. So then as you incur medical expenses, rather than using your HSA as this slush fund where you put money in and pull money out, you pay for all of your medical expenses out of pocket, you save the receipts, you take a picture of them, you scan them into some sort of electronic repository, you keep a running spreadsheet, and then you can actually reimburse yourself at any point in the future for those past medical expenses. So, if you incurred a $1,000 medical expense today that you pay for out of pocket, you can reimburse yourself 5 years from now for that medical expense that you incurred today from the growth inside of your HSA.

Brian: Yeah. This is really powerful. And by the way, we’ve done all the research for you. There’s no length of time that you have to pull the money out by. There are even rules written into it where if your estate is, make sure you don’t keep this a secret, but if you pass away, even the person running your estate could still qualify to take advantage of cashing the money out completely tax-free. And you’re asking, why would I even do this? Guys, the power of this compounding growth, just unleashing that can be so powerful. Especially when you hit retirement and you’re trying to figure out how do I get access to money and not pay taxes and manipulate the tax code legally, the health savings account is going to really pay off in a lot of ways. Not only can you reimburse yourself for medical expenses, but it also offers the cheat code that even if it’s not for medical purposes, you can get access to these accounts and pay income taxes on it, but still it’s not going to be desperate time trying to figure out where do I get liquidity, where do I get into assets. The health savings account is going to answer a lot of those questions.

Bo: Now, a brief pause here, Brian, because we’ve sold HSAs pretty hard, and they are incredible vehicles. But just like, you know, you were a big gamer growing up, just because you have the cheat code doesn’t mean that it always makes sense in the game to play the cheat code. There might be some reason for you not to do that. And HSAs are wonderful, amazing tools to take advantage of if the high deductible plan is what makes sense for you. But there might be times, seasons, or periods of your life where the high deductible plan doesn’t make sense. Maybe it makes sense to opt into your Cadillac coverage through your employer, your highly subsidized, non-high deductible health plan. That’s okay. Just because an HSA is there doesn’t mean that you have to take advantage of it. Every single year at open enrollment, you want to choose first which plan makes the most sense for my family. And if it happens to be the high deductible plan, then you want to take advantage of the HSA.

Brian: Yeah. Putting some meat on the bones on this: think about the years that you’re planning on having a baby. You might want the Cadillac plan more than you want the high deductible. Last year, I crossed into the 50 decade. And you start getting a few more medical procedures to make sure you’re healthy. My wife qualified the same year. So, I knew that these were going to be expensive procedures to do some of those tune-up things that you have to do to make sure you’re healthy. So I didn’t use the high deductible those years, but guess what? Now that I’ve made it through those tests that you have to do that are uncomfortable and kind of gross, I made it through. Now I’m back on the sauce with the high deductible. So, use your open enrollment. There is nothing wrong with you being proactive and being a Financial Mutant and maximizing those benefits.

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Cheat Code #5: Use the Backdoor Roth IRA (21:06)

Bo: All right, Brian. So, we’re talking about these cheat codes that are available. We just talked about one that’s in step five of the Financial Order of Operations, health savings accounts. Well, now let’s talk about the other thing that is in step five, and it’s actually a cheat code, and it’s not Roth IRAs. It’s actually backdoor Roth IRA.

Brian: Yeah. And look, just to kind of graduate you from step five, this is probably going to be somewhere between five and six. Because you know what? When you use a backdoor Roth, you make a lot of money. That’s right, because this is going to be a way for you to be able to make IRA contributions when your income is too high to make them directly. But don’t worry, the IRS has left a little loophole out there. Around 2010, they changed the rules where there’s actually no income limit on doing Roth conversions, and hence what created the perfect recipe for backdoor Roth contributions. This is also super valuable because Roth IRAs don’t have RMDs. They have low expenses and fees. You can have tax-free growth and distributions. And if you choose your own Roth IRA provider, you get to pick the investments in there.

Bo: So, if you want low-cost index funds or target retirement index funds, you get to do that. But Roths are so valuable and so exciting and so attractive that the government said, “Hey, we only want certain people to be able to use this. If you make too much money, if your income goes over a certain threshold, you can’t contribute.” So, if you’re a single person and you make under $153,000 of modified adjusted gross income, you can do Roth. For a married person, you make under $242,000, you can do Roth. But as soon as you cross over those thresholds, from $153,000 to $168,000 for a single person, you get phased out. And for married folks, between $242,000 and $252,000, you get phased out. And then over those income thresholds, you can’t actually contribute to Roth IRAs anymore. You don’t even get to take advantage of this amazing thing. And that’s where the backdoor Roth enters.

Brian: Now, look, I do need to give a little disclosure. If you have a rollover IRA, if you have a SEP IRA or SIMPLE IRA, I want you to proceed with caution because you might not have the perfect account structure. Because backdoor contributions, you don’t want to run afoul of the pro-rata rule. What we like to do to keep things simple is make sure your account structure is right. You can do that by actually rolling over old IRA assets or old employer plans into your 401(k) at your current employer. Now that money’s cleared out. But if you have these types of accounts, don’t do a backdoor Roth because you’ll create a huge tax headache. But assuming you have the right account structure, you can start funding a non-deductible IRA, a traditional IRA, maximize that every year, and then you can, if you have the right account structure, convert those dollars into Roth IRAs and it’s completely tax-free. If you made non-deductible IRA contributions, then made the tax conversion, Bo, the key part, and I’ll let you explain this, is making sure if you go through this transaction that you actually disclose and file this appropriately on your tax return.

Bo: Yeah. So often people go, “Okay, Brian, I heard you. I moved my IRAs over. I did that. I funded my non-deductible traditional. I did that. I converted my Roth. I must be done.” And then all of a sudden, tax time rolls around. And what you notice is now when tax time rolls around, you have all these 1099s that you receive from all these rollovers you did out of traditional IRAs, out of IRA rollovers into your 401(k). So you have a bunch of tax forms and then you have this complicated transaction where you made a non-deductible traditional IRA contribution that you have to somehow make sure on your tax return is reflected as non-deductible. And the way that you do that, the place you do that is on Form 8606. We have the privilege, Brian, for all of our clients every year, we get to review their tax returns. I would argue this is one of the most common mistakes we see on tax returns: Form 8606 not being filled out correctly. Because if it’s not filled out correctly, and if all you do is just drop your 1099 that you got from this conversion into the tax software or just hand it to your CPA with no context, it’s likely that they are going to mark that as a taxable conversion. Well, if it’s a taxable conversion, you’ve ruined the whole thing. You’ve not actually taken advantage of the backdoor. So, you want to make sure that you file Form 8606 correctly and that you report it accurately on your tax return so you aren’t paying taxes that aren’t actually due.

Brian: This would fall into that category where you start having more success to the point that you can do backdoor contributions and other things, and your simple life is going to get really complex. And that’s where we love helping our clients navigate these things because you don’t want to get IRS notices. That’s why I’ve written so many tax letters to the IRS explaining what was not disclosed appropriately. So that’s why, make sure not only do you get the 8606 right, but keep up with your 5498s and all the other tax forms that are coming because you might need that stuff just in case the IRS is confused about what’s going on.

Cheat Code #6: Tax-Loss Harvesting (26:18)

Bo: Brian, you know what I love about cheat codes? Oftentimes when we’re playing games, a cheat code is supposed to help you do something good better. It’s supposed to help you level up, level up, level up. I’m excited. Give you a lot of extra lives. Give you a lot of extra lives. That’s where I was going. But some cheat codes actually allow you to take a bad thing and make it better. And that’s exactly what cheat code number six is. And that cheat code is tax-loss harvesting.

Brian: Yeah, this is one, guys. Every time I have a big transaction, somebody calls me up and says, “Brian, I’m thinking about upgrading my house. I’m thinking about investing in this endeavor, going into this real estate venture. Can you get me some money?” I’m like, “Oh man, do they not realize their account is up well into the six figures on capital gains?” I always immediately go, “What have we got going on the tax return? Do we have some capital loss carry-forwards?” Unfortunately, if you’ve been with us long enough, we’re going to be through periods of not only good, because the good years definitely outweigh the bad, but when those bad years happen, this is like a silver lining in that dark cloud because it lets you really turn a lot of the volatility of the markets into loss harvesting gains that you can use to build carry-forwards.

Bo: Yeah. It lets you actually turn a loss, a negative thing, into an advantage. It makes something bad actually turn out to be something good for you. So, how do you do it? Well, step one, you have to actually have investments inside of your taxable brokerage account. This does not apply in an IRA. It does not apply in a Roth IRA or an HSA. It has to be in a taxable account. You have to actually have an investment that’s at a loss. And the way that you would execute this is you would then sell that investment at a loss. You would take the proceeds from that investment and then you would go buy something similar, but not identical. So, you can’t buy the exact same thing. I can’t sell stock X today and go buy stock X tomorrow or else it will disallow that loss. Or I can wait 30 days to go rebuy the same investment or the same fund. Well, once I’ve done that and I’ve transacted on that holding, I can then use the loss that I took and go use that to offset any capital gains I generate through the year. And even if I use it to offset all of my capital gains for the year, I can actually even use it to offset $3,000 of ordinary income. Anything I don’t use, I get to carry forward into future years.

Bo: Yeah. And I know a lot of you are like, “Well, guys, is this even necessary?” I’m telling you this will be a huge benefit for you. I am so thankful that we get to use this powerful tool. It’s completely legal. It does allow you to turn a negative event like market volatility into a superpower for future opportunities, not only to create paper losses to benefit your taxes this year, but also to help you get access to liquidity in the future. This is a powerful cheat code. Now, people ask me all the time, “But I don’t like selling my investments. I have an investment allocation for a reason. If I’m selling these losses, aren’t I changing my investment allocation? Aren’t I selling at the world’s worst time?” If you do it right, that’s not what you’re doing. You’re actually just selling one thing that’s gone down, and you’re going to buy something similar that’s also gone down. So, your actual investment allocation has remained the same. So when the market recovers, when it comes back, you still get to participate in that upside and that growth. All you’ve done is clipped that tax loss that you get to use for your advantage in the future.

Brian: And bonus points on this. As you think about it, yes, you’ve reset the basis when you’re in a volatile period. But more than likely, when you look back in the future, these are going to be some of your more highly appreciated assets. You’ve also opened up another tax hack with charitable giving of these appreciated assets. This is the gift that keeps on giving. So definitely check into this cheat code.

Cheat Code #7: When a Financial Advisor Becomes a Cheat Code (30:07)

Bo: All right, Brian. We’re going through cheat codes and things that can really help you master your finances. And cheat code number seven is one that you guys have heard about, but we want to explain to you why it’s a cheat code. And that’s actually taking the relationship to the next level.

Brian: Well, we’ve already kind of alluded to it. I mean, even Form 8606, you’re like, what are 5498s? What is all that stuff? What are these guys talking about? This starts to sound like Greek. No, these are the things we deal with on a day-to-day basis. You’ve created success in your life and you’ve always probably had this goal of keeping things simple. But this thing of success creates this level of complexity that you just had never imagined. You just don’t know what you don’t know. And that’s why I would encourage you, find somebody, if this is your first time, find somebody who’s done this thousands of times because we all know what happens with practice and experience: it just becomes commonplace and you have knowledge, you have wisdom and experience. This is what we do for our clients.

Bo: Well, and when you have an adviser, when you have a really good adviser, it actually unlocks a number of different benefits. I mean, obviously people think about the investment part of that. And certainly, if you’re looking for a money manager, that’s one piece of it. But a true financial adviser ought to be able to speak into all the different areas and facets of your life. They’ll help your estate plan be more efficient. They’ll help your tax situation. They’ll look at all of your insurance. They’ll help you with your portfolio allocation. They’ll help you with cash flow management, with risk. And what you hope and what we would encourage you to verify is that the value that you are receiving from this advisor far exceeds the fee that you’re paying this advisor. There’s actually a study done by Russell Investments, this was in 2026, that found that the potential advisor value in the US on an annualized basis, if you try to arrive at a numerical concept, actually came out to about 4.9% in real value. Now, that might not be a 4.9% additional rate of return over some stated index, but in terms of portfolio value add that an advisor adds to your financial life, it’s almost 5% on an annualized basis.

Brian: Well, and then take it to the next level. I love that Vanguard came out with research showing that 86% of clients who had a financial advisor reported having more peace of mind. Money is nothing more than a tool. And I want you to understand that the big thing I’ve always tried to make sure people understood about money and what you’re doing is in the beginning of your financial journey, you’re having to trade your time to build wages and other things to kind of start creating how you navigate this world that we live in. But if you do this right, you’ll eventually be able to use your resources to buy time because you realize, I don’t get any more time. I’m going to leave this planet at some point, and you’re going to find out that you have more money than you have time. Let’s see if we can get really smart with maximizing both my time and how we optimize the situation we have going on financially. And that’s why peace of mind is worth something. I pay for peace of mind for my health. That’s why I deal with concierge doctors. We are on that same branch of the tree. Even for people who have the knowledge and the experience to do this, I find that some of my most educated or most gifted clients financially still like us because it’s affirming and it also helps their spouse who might not be as financially minded as they are to know that they have a bridge just in case.

How to Take the Next Step (33:33)

Bo: So, how do you actually take advantage and unlock this cheat code? Go to aboundwealth.com and click on the orange “Work With Us” button. Once you click on that button, there’ll be a form that you can fill out so that we can learn a little bit more about what you have going on so that in our first conversation, our first interaction, we can tailor it to be as valuable for you as possible. So, fill out that form and then we will reach out to be in touch with you.

Brian: And it’s even better because if you go to our website, we have a great little video. I know as a kid, you know, this was before the internet was as valuable as it is now, you had to go subscribe to magazines, and you know when you bought your favorite game like Contra you had to go up, down, up, down, left, right, left, right, B, A. Guys, we just give you a web link. Just click, press play, we’ll hook you up. We’ll leave the porch light on. We work with clients all across the country. There is a better way to do money. Come see us. You’ve heard us give all the details. We love helping people all across the country. Come become a client. I’m your host Brian, he’s Bo. Money Guy Team, out!