Vanguard Predicts Market Collapse in 2026 (Are They Right?)

Introduction – Vanguard’s Market Prediction (0:00)

Brian: Oh no, Vanguard’s predicting the market’s going to collapse. What shall we do?

Bo: Brian, I am so excited about this because it seems like inevitably this happens. We’ve been here before. There are some market predictors out there suggesting, man, okay, we’ve had a decent run-up. It must mean that now is the time to start worrying.

Brian: No, it’s much more than that, Bo. You’re so polite. I actually think that if I was in another life, I want to be the Vanguard economic predictor because it’s going to be just very much like the Maytag repairman that’s in the commercials. You just go, “Hey, it’s time for you to come out and tell everybody your economic prediction.” And he goes, “It’s scary out there. There’s bad, below average returns coming your way. Below average returns. Set it.” And then we’ll do this for the next 10 years. And guess what? Nobody ever gets ticked off at this guy or gal because things always end up because when things are better, everybody’s like, “Oh, it’s okay. Things turned out better than he anticipated or she anticipated.” That doesn’t mean that we should give them awards or that the market pays attention to this report every year. You can set a clock to it. We’ll be covering this probably next year at the same time, same bat place, and it will be just as negative as it is currently.

Vanguard’s 2026 Market Outlook (1:29)

Bo: Yeah. So, they released this report. It’s called the Economic and Market Outlook. And this year, this is what it said. It says AI exuberance, economic upside, stock market downside. It doesn’t sound very good. It sounds like, man, we’ve been through this thing. And they even have some data in there that taken out of context might be alarming. They said that we could even potentially right now be at a wealth tipping point that’s worth recognizing. And this is how they quantified that. They said if-

Brian: Wait, wait a minute. Because this is no different than when I watch football or sports. There’ll be some they even put graphs around it on whatever network’s got the Super Bowl and they’ll say every year that Patrick Mahomes eats Taco Bell before he plays football, they typically win the Super Bowl. There’ll be some crazy data mine stat that they will pull up on screen and even gloss it up. I feel like what we’re about to see now is Vanguard once again will go cherry-pick some data on why you should be petrified. So, we’re doing it. We’re doing the same thing that the Super Bowl folks do. Is that what you’re saying?

Bo: Exactly. Well, we’re not doing it. The media, the financial media is doing this to the public. Well, this is what they said. They said, “Okay, if we look at five-year rolling periods, based on historical medians, how much does equity increase over a 5-year period?” Equity meaning like stock market, US equities, and then how much is real estate? And over a 5-year period, the historical median is about 23% rise in equity prices or stock prices and about a 22% rise in real estate value. So if you look at the increase in wealth across those two metrics over a 5-year period on average should be around 46%. That’s the historical median. Well they said if we think about the last time we saw a lot of exuberance, a really frothy market, we can go to the dot-com and we see that during right before the dot-com bubble crash if we look at how much equities had increased over that 5-year period it’s about 57%. If you look at real estate, it was about 26%. So there was an 82% increase in wealth across those two metrics in that 5-year period. And so this was the question that Vanguard posed. If that’s the historical median and this is what it looked like right before the dot-com crash, where are we today? And if we look at the last five years, you can see that based on stock market returns, equity wealth increase, it’s about 44% and real estate is about 28%. So, the conclusion that Vanguard drew from this data was that, man, it looks like we’re a lot closer right now to dot-com bubble territory than we are to historical mediums. Well, Brian, what do you say to that? How do you respond to that?

Vanguard’s Track Record and Hidden Optimism (4:19)

Brian: They don’t really know. And also, they buried some optimism within even their pessimistic report. And if you want proof on this, because look, we’ve started keeping score on this stuff. And if you look at the next slide is what they predict will be the weighted average annual performance over the next 10 years. They say it’s going to be between 4% to 5% annually. So the reason that I tell you there’s even a little bit of optimism in there is that we’re going to show you what they predicted in 2024 and what they predicted last year in 2025. And here’s what I think is interesting. The 10-year prediction in 2024 was 3.7% to 5.7%. Well, now we’re at 4% to 5%. So, somehow we’re a little higher. And then fast forward to 2025. What did they predict last year? 2.8% to 4.8%. So, even though they’re about to show you, because we’re going to show you what the headlines were the last two years, they’ve still now built themselves an out by going a little bit more optimistic on that 10-year annualized. What could that be? It’s all the technology changes. They’re just hedging themselves just in case we’re in a unique time from a technology perspective that pushes this up even higher.

Bo: Yeah, we thought it’d be interesting to go back to some of their historical reports to see what they said. And if we just go back just a few years, 2024, the headline was US equity valuations need to fall to return to fair value. Well, we have the benefit of history on our side and we can say, okay, well, what did the market do in 2024? It actually made 23.3%. So that headline did not lead to an appropriate market reaction based on what the headline was. What about 2025? It said digging deeper into US equity overvaluation. And what do we see in 2025? The markets again made 16.5%. So obviously what Vanguard is espousing, what they are saying is not necessarily true to what we’re actually seeing as investors in the real world.

Brian: Now look, the market could fall. Very well. It could fall this year. But the thing is, I’m always telling people it doesn’t matter as long as you have a plan that’s good before, during, or after. I’m just saying my big takeaway is don’t fall prey to the sensational headlines.

No One Knows and Always Be Buying (6:32)

Bo: Not only it doesn’t matter if the market falls. No one knows. And I think I’d be very careful of anyone out there telling, “Hey, this is what’s going to happen in the next 6 months, 12 months, 24 months,” because nobody actually knows. And what ends up happening is you see these headlines all the time around this. You know, someone says, “So and so market predictor has predicted 50 of the last three recessions,” right? Because they keep saying it’s going to be bad, it’s going to be bad, it’s going to be bad. Vanguard hasn’t been a whole lot different because they’ve had a pretty negative market outlook for really the last decade. And realistically, the last decade’s been a pretty great time to be an investor in US equities.

Brian: Well, the reality is, and this is because I never know how long somebody’s been an investor to understand what to anticipate or predict or even think is going to come your way. And I always remind everybody that investing is like walking up that hill with the yo-yo. Now, I know, look, I age myself because I went through a yo-yo phase in my childhood. I don’t even know if kids, young people even know what yo-yos are anymore. Is yo-yo still a thing? It is. Any young people over there on the content team that yo-yo, too? So, maybe everybody knows what yo-yos are, but you know, yo-yos, you throw them up, you throw them down, but if you’re walking up the hill, even though every time you throw the yo-yo up or down, and that’s what day-to-day volatility in the market feels like. If you’re walking to higher and higher ground, that day-to-day volatility or throwing the yo-yo up and down just doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of it. And that’s what I always try to remind everybody is don’t get caught up in the sensational headlines. Don’t get caught up in the predictions because you are going to find yourself in a completely different place if you just know how this game works.

Bo: But volatility is a thing that exists in investing. It’s not uncommon for the market to go down. If you invest for a long enough time, you’re going to experience that. And so what you want to make sure of is as an investor, you make sure that your plan is built for both the good and the bad times relative to where you are. Obviously, your portfolio, the way that you invest, what your allocation looks like should look very different if you were a 25-year-old at the very beginning of your journey or if you are a 55-year-old getting close to the end of your accumulation journey. You want to make sure that your plan appropriately accounts for the fact that yes, downturns could happen. What’s the best way for me to take advantage of those?

Brian: And that leads to First Trust does a great job if you want perspective on what’s going on in the markets. If you compare we as investors and this whole relationship with fear and greed and us as humans, the creatures of humans, we feel the pain of loss much more than we enjoy the wins of making money. And that’s why you see so much content, you see headlines and everything is preparing you for the losses because they know that’s the sensational stuff that’s going to capture you and keep your eyes and your ears focused on it. But when you actually when in doubt zoom out and look at the history of the financial markets, bull markets are so much more part of what you can expect than the bear. And then if you look at what First Trust put together, and this is as of the end of 2024, bull market periods typically around 4.3 years, cumulative returns of around 150%. Bear markets, the thing we’re all scared to death of, typically last less than right around 11 months, less than one year with an average cumulative loss of close to 32%. One-fifth of the upside. So it’s back to the point that it’s always better to be an investor. You essentially are part of the house, meaning things are in your favor to actually be a long-term investor if you just understand and I subscribe to this law of accelerating returns. You know, realize wealth creation is not a zero-sum game. Nobody has to lose for you to make money. If you actually go look at what the earnings of the financial markets were like back in the 60s and 70s, they are exponentially bigger now. Now look, inflation is definitely a portion of that, but a lot of that is also the innovation and that the pizza pie actually got bigger and I think as long as we’re growing this thing. Now look, I don’t know if we make the AI, the robots, and they eventually just it turns into the matrix. But you know, so there is that risk, but you know what? There’s not a financial product that’s going to actually help you survive that part of it. So it leads me back to what can we do assuming that this law of accelerating returns is going to make innovation and earnings and everything keep growing is that we can remember always be buying. Always be buying. That’s what you can do. And then promise yourself because all of you new investors who find our content that first 10 years is going to be an education for you. You have to promise that you’re going to hold on even if 2026 is the year that the stock market gets punched in the mouth. You’re going to be okay if you will just always be buying, stay consistent, and realize you’re throwing that yo-yo up and down as you walk higher and higher up the hill.

Bo: It seems like there’s always going to be voices out there that are trying to frighten you, scare you, tell you how scary and how uncertain things are. I hope that we get to be the counter to that. I hope we can be the ones that tell you, hey, if you have a plan in place and you stick to that plan, the markets are resilient. If you can be resilient as an investor, you’ll likely be rewarded over the long term. I love that we get to sit in this seat sharing that kind of information. I love that we get to sit here, Brian, every single Tuesday at 10 a.m. Central and we get to load you guys up. We get to answer questions about the things that you care about. So, if you have a question for us, you want to get our take, you want us to weigh in on something in your life, right now, we have the team out in the wings collecting your questions. So, if you have a question, make sure you get it into the chat right now because we really do believe that there is a better way to do money. So, with that, Creative Director Rebie, I’m going to throw it over to you.

Live Q&A – 529 vs Brokerage Account for College (12:40)

Rebie: Yes. Excited to dive in with William H’s question. It says, “Hi, Money Guy team. What do you guys think of saving for kids college in a brokerage account instead of a 529? The tax benefits of a 529 are great, but I love the flexibility of a brokerage account. Thanks.” Because I know you guys really appreciate 529s, too. So, what do you think?

Bo: Okay. So, here’s I’m going to give you an analogy. My wife and I recently went to Montana, and you may be wondering, what in the world does this have to do with this question, but I’m going to get there. And one of the things we did when we were in Montana is there were some frontier skills thing. And one of the frontier skills that I got to learn was how to take a stick and another stick and a rope.

Brian: You got to make fire.

Bo: I got to make fire. Right. And I was able to like if you really get that thing going, you can make a friction fire. And they can teach you how to do that. And that’s a fine way to make fire. If you’re out somewhere, that’s a great way to make fire. You will accomplish the goal of creating fire. But where we sit today, there are much more efficient ways to do that, right? Like I can just go get a lighter. I can get a match. And perhaps that’s going to be a better way, a less painful, more efficient way to accomplish the same goal. That’s how I would answer your question about saving for college. Can you save for it in an after-tax brokerage account? Absolutely, you can do that. You can build the money. You’ll have a little bit of tax drag there and you can pull those dollars out and you can pay for higher education. But if you know that your goal is going to be for college and you know that’s what those dollars are going to go towards, in my opinion, there is no better, no more efficient vehicle to be able to do that than a 529 plan.

Brian: So, William’s counterpoints will probably be, but yeah, I like the thought though with all the student loan debt and people questioning what’s going on in colleges. What if my kid doesn’t actually we need more flexibility? That’s what I would think somebody like William would be asking. Hey, let’s do the brokerage account because now it has some separation. There’s no penalties and I could have access to the money. Let me play even that angle because I’ll make a case that 529s have actually gotten better. I think when these things first came on the scene, they were specifically set up for college funding, but everything that I’ve seen coming down the pipe for the last two decades on 529s is they’re actually opening up and providing even more access to these turbocharged savings vehicles. Because here’s why we love them. And then I want to continue on with my line of thought there is that you put in contributions to a 529. Many states out there, if you’re funding your state funded plan and you have an income tax in that state, a lot of them are giving you tax incentives. You need to go and do your research, do your due diligence to figure out. Like we live in the state of Tennessee, there’s nothing like that, but in the state of Georgia there was a very large one. So, go and do your research because there might be some incentives even from a tax perspective to help you fund this thing. But here’s where they’ve made 529s even better. So you get the tax deduction in the current year. If you use these for qualified education expenses in the future, all the growth is completely tax-free. That’s right. And here’s the other thing. If your kids get a scholarship or some other way, you can even get access to the growth of these 529 assets and still pay income taxes, but you can waive the penalties if you get scholarships. There’s even a get out of jail free if your kid’s a gifted athlete or a gifted scholar. There’s even ways to get access to the money that’s going to be just like a brokerage account by the way. So, which is pretty cool in those aspects. But I love the opportunity and I used it. Remember my daughter is graduating this May from college. 529. Man, oh man. It’s a high five. It’s a high five moment because it was just so powerful to watch my little $2,000 a year contributions because that was the majority of my time that my daughter lived in Georgia. That was the most you could put in. Now they beefed that up even more. I think you can put $8,000 per beneficiary, but it was $2,000 for a lot of the time. And that’s what I was putting in. It was $500 a quarter. And to watch these accounts pay for literally three years of my daughter’s college because compounding growth was really spectacular. And here’s where these things have gotten even better. And I’m sorry to totally filibuster this thing.

Bo: You’re doing great.

Brian: If you think about now you can use it for trade schools, you can use it K through 12. They also used to be if you did it K through 12 for like private school and other things, it was capped at $10,000 a year. They just boosted it to $20,000 a year. So these things and now even you can fund Roth IRAs when they first come out into the workforce with 529s. They’ve really created a lot of avenues that even if your kid’s not traditionally college-bound, you’re going to be able to find use for this money. And then here’s the catch-all that even for later. If you think there’s a chance you might have grandbabies, meaning your children will have kids, even if they don’t go to college, there might be an opportunity to roll those assets over to even their own children or another family member. Pretty powerful stuff.

Bo: There’s a lot more escape hatches than there used to be. And if you’re thinking about this, I don’t know, did William say how old his children were? Did he mention that?

Rebie: He did not.

Bo: If you got a really young kid, you’re like, man, I just don’t know how this is changing. There’s nothing that says you have to do all of your savings in that vehicle. You can do both. It’s an and instead of an or. Maybe figure out, okay, what’s the lowest level I can fund to get the tax benefits? Or maybe I just want to shoot for 50% of college or 75% of college to come from the 529 and we’ll make up the rest in the brokerage account. There’s nothing wrong with doing that. You have to determine, okay, what’s the best way, but it’s an incredibly efficient vehicle to save for that goal.

Brian: I’m going to say something. This is probably not a great show idea, but we ought to do an and versus an or show because there’s so many concepts in the financial world. It’s just like, you know, when we hear people talk about Roth IRA or your 401k, it’s usually an and, but a lot of people ask questions, they’re looking for either or, and we’re like, no, it’s and. That’s probably not a great I think let’s put that on the title list. The Money Guy and or show this week on that show. I’m really good at kind of doing some of this stuff. Maybe I’m not the greatest for coming up with the next show idea.

Rebie: No, I think you got to get all the ideas out there, right? Then which one’s going to stick?

Bo: Hey, there’s no bad idea in content creation. They just don’t all make it all the way out to the public.

Brian: Oh, no. With YouTube, you quickly find out if it’s a bad idea.

Rebie: Well, William H, thank you so much for your question.

Rapid Fire Segment Prep (19:21)

Rebie: We’re going to do a few more questions, but in the meantime, let’s prep for our rapid fire segment. This is our It Does Not Depend rapid fire segment. So, if you would like to submit a question that Brian and Bo have to answer in under 60 seconds of the show together. Just drop a question in the chat, make sure you put RF for rapid fire in front of it so we know that you want to be part of that segment. And then remember at the end of the segment, we will have a maybe it does depend segment where you guys get to hash out anything that was left unsaid by your rapid fire answers. All right. So, we’ll be watching the chat.

Brian: I was trying to think of something that Bo doesn’t like to do. The low-hanging fruit is swimming. But we’re not going to go there because I do that too much. I pull that one too much. I’m trying to think of what else we can pull that Bo’s not good at. The problem is he’s good at everything. So, it just doesn’t hold water. But I like it’s so unfair that part of why I think this appeals to everybody is he likes seeing me squirm because I’m not good at.

Bo: Literally before he even got it out, Jake said, RF. Can Bo Swim. Like he literally got that. See, you have planted this seed in the minds of our folks that this is- It’s more like a fact sharing. I can swim.

Rebie: We should ask that and just hear you both in tandem. Brian goes, “No.” Bo says, “Yes.” Next question. All right.

Brian: If we ever do, you know how I always say, “Hey, if we hit like a million subscribers, we’re going to do this.” If we ever find the content team in the ocean together, we can test this probably. Here’s a sidebar. Here’s a sidebar on that scenario. Back when this is pre this is pre anybody, I think Bo’s the only one else in the room. Bo and I when Abound Wealth kind of started taking roots here in Tennessee. We went to the team and we said, “Hey, when we reach this assets under management level goal, I’m going to take everybody on a cruise. We’re going to do a big firm cruise. You and a plus one cruise.” And we quickly we hit this goal and I remember I was so excited. We’re going to go on a firm cruise and then I started and there was only like five employees, six employees. It was not many of us. And so this wasn’t even going to break the bank. But I went around and I quickly saw that the only people that wanted to go on a cruise together was me and both us two and our spouses because everybody else is like, “Oh, we actually hit that number. Oh, okay. Let me see if my calendar is open.” So, I actually had to amend the giveaway and I was like, “Okay, would you rather” I went and did a poll with our five or six employees at that time and I was like, “Okay, it’s an all expense for you and your spouse to go on this cruise or I can give you a cash bonus.”

Bo: It was me, you, and Carol, only one else. So, it must have been more than five or six because it was me, you, and Carol wanted to go on the cruise. Everybody else took the cash option. And I’ve realized to never joke about that.

Brian: I don’t want to know if the content team would want to go to the beach or not with us. He just doesn’t want to know because it would break my heart because I would like to go to the beach so we could not only in addition to spend time with the content team, we could do the exercise of throwing Bo out in the ocean and I would be ready. Don’t worry. I would be able to come, you know, get up behind him and save him and pull him in. But that’s probably never going to happen. I think Rebie would probably want to go to the beach with us.

Rebie: Go to the beach. Yeah, sounds fun.

Brian: Cruise. Money Guy cruise. I don’t want nobody else volunteer. I don’t want to know if you want to go to the beach with us because it might break my heart.

ESOP Shares and 25% Savings Rate (22:54)

Rebie: Oh man. All right, let’s dive into Jacob’s question next. It says, “Hey, my wife who’s 35 and I, 30, will make over $200K for household income for the first time this year.”

Bo: Big, young age, too.

Brian: Go on, player. Go on, player. Isn’t it play on player? Isn’t that the way I make up my own stuff, Bo? Don’t you figure this out? My brain creates its own go on player.

Bo: Go on, player. Isn’t it play on player?

Brian: Isn’t that the way I make up my own stuff, Bo? Don’t you figure this out? My brain creates its own go on player.

Rebie: The next part of the question.

Brian: Don’t hate the player. Hate the game. Okay, keep going. I’m sorry. Stepped all over your question.

Rebie: Jacob continues. “We both work for a private company giving us ESOP shares. Can we still include the shares in the 25%? We can’t buy in.”

Bo: Well, this is okay. So, what is your 25% savings rate for us? It’s the behavioral number that you’re putting away, right? Like, so why do we want you to save 25%? It’s, hey, if I make $1,000, $10,000, $100,000, I’m saving 25% of that gross for the future. Now, you’re in this situation where it sounds like your employer is gifting you ESOP shares. Now, not all ESOPs are created the same. And for those who don’t know, this is a unique entity structure where all of the employees or at least all the participants in the ESOP are actually owners of the company. So, it’s an employee-owned company. And ESOP stands for employee stock ownership plan. Well, if you’re just being gifted those shares, it’s nothing behavioral that you’re doing. And so, can that be included on your net worth statement, is that part of your overall net worth? Absolutely. But at a high income, at a $200,000 income, should that replace or take part in your 25% savings rate? Brian, as I’m thinking through this, I think it’s a lot like an employer match at that level. And what do we say?

Brian: I’m willing to go hard in the paint on that. This is a twofer. Because by the way, Jacob, you just shared you crossed $200,000 and y’all are young, 35 and 30. You have two big risks for you in the long-term future. First of all, and people because I saw this in the comment section over the weekend. Somebody goes, “Where is this? Why is it $200,000 for married couples, $100,000 for a single individual on this 25% where we get to count the employer versus not count?” It’s because of that social safety net. And realize the more success you have, the more responsibility falls on your shoulders. If you never make more than $80,000 a year as a household, as an individual, Social Security is going to probably pay you $20,000, $25,000, $30,000, depend upon where cost of living is at the time and inflation and so forth. That’s going to cover a big chunk of your retirement, especially if you’re only living on 60% or 70% of what you made. But for somebody who’s making two, three, four, because you’re assuming at y’all’s age, y’all’s income keeps going up and you start if you spend based upon what your income is, it’s going to require a big pot of money to replace that. So that’s one risk you have there is that you’re far away from the social safety net. So you better be saving accordingly because you probably have bigger taste, bigger consumption. So you need to plan accordingly. The second thing I worry about with an ESOP is that you know the viability of the company. Now this could be huge for you. No different than like Bo and I are small business owners on our net worth statements. That potentially could look big, but the reality is we don’t get to use that. I mean it’s not liquid. It’s kind of just something that’s sitting out there and it’s a cherry on top of your sundae. It’s not necessarily promised to you. So I would worry because what happens and we’ve seen this by the way where you have every year you get an annual valuation or whatever and it tells you how much this thing’s worth. That might turn into something that creates even more financial success for you. But it might not. We’ve seen businesses that have collapsed and then you don’t get that valuation. And what if you were now counting that with your high income? You didn’t save what you could have because you’re like, “Ah, I got that ESOP just sitting over there.” What if that didn’t come out? You might have an uh-oh, what do we do now? So, that’s why I consider this a twofer. You should definitely be trying to build up your 25% of your gross income savings habit because you have two risks. You’re building up well beyond the social safety net. Number two is you’re not promised that ESOP will turn into big money for you down the road necessarily if the company ever runs into any financial issues.

Bo: And if it does turn into big money and you have been saving, what that means for you is you have flexibility and options earlier in life. If you guys can begin saving that 25% at 30 and 35, life’s going to likely look really good in the 40s and 50s where you’re going to be able to do what you want because you want to do it, not because you have to do it. And that’s a fantastic place to be in.

Brian: Well, the big thing is it’s okay if you under-expect and you plan accordingly, then you get because that’s what I did when I planned on retiring at 50 and now here I am beyond 50. I don’t want to it’s not really a bragging as you get older beyond 50. But I love the additional flexibility. It’s not hard for me to process. I get more flexibility and options. What I don’t want you to do is start off poor, you build up some success, but then because of unfortunate things and not good planning, you go back to being poor. That hurts. I can tell you that that doesn’t feel good whatsoever. So, that’s more of a risk than it is if you are over-optimistic on your assumption planning and then you find or you underestimate your assumptions and then you pleasantly get surprised. That’s a better case study.

Bo: Love it. Better planning objective.

Rebie: Well, Jacob, thank you so much for the question. We appreciate it. We’re going to do one more before our rapid fire segment.

Pension and Investment Allocation at 33 (29:28)

Rebie: All right, let’s just do a normal Q&A question, though. Here we go. It’s from hrj7656. It says, “Hi, Money Guy team. I’m 33 and work in the trades and will get a pension at retirement. This is my first year maxing out a Roth IRA as well. I’ve heard I should keep my age in bonds in the account. Should I follow this or go harder with stocks since my pension is very stable and well funded in our union?”

Bo: There’s two things. Since you brought up the big one, I’ll leave that one for you. You have to be careful with these rule of thumbs. Hey, when it comes to investing, my allocation should be X. And you know, you can hear, hey, I want to hold my age in fixed income or I want 100 minus my age in equities or fill in the blank on whatever metric you’re using, you need to be really careful about that because if I were reviewing your portfolio now, not knowing your unique risk tolerance, your unique risk horizon, risk capacity, having an idea of your time horizon, but not knowing your other wealth, I don’t know that I’m going to recommend a 33-year-old have 33% of their assets in fixed income. That seems way overly conservative to me most likely. So, I worry that if you keep 33% of your assets in fixed income and conservative investments, your wealth multiplier is not going to be what it could be. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, go to moneyguy.com and you can play with our wealth multiplier tool and you can actually put in there your age and how much you’re saving. Think about that Roth IRA, that $7,500 that you’re going to max out for the first time this year and look at what that can turn into by the time that you get to age 65. Now, the wealth multiplier is precipitated upon the fact that that’s going to be a growth type investment, a growth type asset. If you have 33% of that in bonds or fixed income or CDs or cash or whatever, there’s a really good chance that you’re not going to recognize that and that’s probably going to be overly conservative for where you’re at. But Brian, you bring up another point. Just based on the type of account that has to factor in also.

Brian: Yeah. I mean, there’s two things that hit me hard on this. As I think about a lot of my early career when I started my first financial company, I had a lot of educators that were clients. And now I’ve worked with these people for 20 plus years. And I’ve gotten to experience what it’s like to work with all these educators in their retirement years. And what’s amazing to me is that for a lot of these educators, they don’t spend a lot of money. I mean, they have very low expenses and then a lot of them went and worked in the central office and a lot of those formulas is the last three, your highest three years. So, their pensions cover 85% to 100% of their living retirement and living expenses. So, we found out we never even really touched their financial assets. You’re crazy if you don’t take into these type of things is exactly what you brought up with the question. Your cash levels or your pension levels because those might be able to offset and act as the essential, the conservative side of your investment portfolio. So, that’s the first thing that I would because I will confirm that you’re right to even think about that. The second thing is what Bo is alluding to that ties into Roth accounts. The superpower of them is they grow completely tax-free. So, if you think about the decades that you’re going to have compounding growth working for you, the fact that they’re growing completely tax-free is something that you ought to maximize. That’s why I always, you know, when I talk about in Millionaire Mission, you want growth assets in your Roth IRA because you want to stick it to the man legally as much as possible to grow that. Now, you don’t want to be so aggressive that you potentially could lose the money because it’s not a place for speculative investing, but it is definitely a place that you want to maximize growth opportunities. So, I don’t know that I would recommend putting such a high level of conservative assets in the Roth. You know, we talk about the three bucket strategy. You’re going to have after tax assets, tax deferred assets, and then you’re going to have tax-free assets. When you put together your own personal jigsaw puzzle of your allocations by different account structures, you’re probably going to put your aggressive stuff in those Roth accounts and you’re going to put your conservative stuff in that tax deferred account because you’re going to already pay ordinary income taxes when you pull that money out anyway. So, let’s go ahead and put conservative stuff in there that’s going to be taxed as ordinary income. So, that way they work together. As you can quickly see, even if we give you all the detail pieces, this gets complex really quick. That’s why I always tell clients, your hardest years are typically those retirement years as you’re trying to figure out how we use the money in the three bucket strategy. When you get to that level of complexity, that’s where we leave the porch light on. So, you can consider taking the relationship to the next level.

Bo: And then just one last thing I’ll throw in there is you’re thinking about your allocation. This is your first year maxing out your Roth IRA and you’re kind of caught up on how do I allocate? What do I do? Where should I put it? This is one of the reasons why we love target retirement index funds because at your age if you pick a long-dated target funds, you know, 2060, 2065, you kind of figure out which one makes sense, the vast majority of that target retirement index fund is going to be on the equity side anyways. And it’s going to do the natural allocating for you so you don’t have to over-complicate it. You just got to answer two questions. When do I think I might need this money? When am I going to retire? Or when am I going to turn 59.5 for a Roth? And then how much can I save? You focus on those things and let the market do its job of allowing compound interest to be the wind at your back. The wind in your sails at your back.

It Doesn’t Depend – Rapid Fire Segment (35:29)

Rebie: He’s right to be doing that because it is time for our It Does Not Depend rapid fire segment where Brian and Bo will answer your questions in 60 seconds or less combined. So 30 seconds each. And they cannot say it depends or they’re disqualified from answering.

Brian: By the way before you start I’m not trying I am delaying it on purpose a little bit. Guys I’ve been saying we need a buzzer or something. You ought to have seen that weak sauce that came into the content meeting this morning and Rebie was even embarrassed like no we can’t use that. We’re trying to figure out if we’re going to do this. We need to find a way to really almost not the shot collar. I think that might have been not a great suggestion.

Rebie: That was your idea.

Brian: But we should probably have something that at least wakes you up a little bit if you break any rules. All right, we are going to dive into the segment. But remember at the very end we will have maybe it does depend segment where you can say all the things that you didn’t have time to say and expound upon if you wish. Okay. So with that, let’s dive straight into question number one.

Bo: Was there some unique? You said there’s a different thing about this one?

Rebie: Yes. Now, everyone watching is going to be able to see the timer counting down.

Brian: Oh, so they’re going to know if we screw it up. Look at us making an investment.

Rebie: All right. All right. It says the first question. I know you love Roth, but with two incomes, we have Roth 401k, Roth 403b, Roth 457, and MD, MBD Roth. How much is too much of a good thing?

Bo: There’s no such thing as too much Roth, but I want to make sure based on your income, you’re not missing out on current day tax benefits. If you’re in a higher tax bracket, 30% or above, when you make your contributions through retirement accounts, you’ll likely want to think through, man, every dollar I save could save me 30 cents in taxes. So, you can’t have too much Roth, unless you’re sacrificing current year big tax savings to build those Roth assets.

Brian: I disagree. There is too much Roth if you find that you’re miserable in life because you’re a miser. I have clients that have they so want to just stick it to the government as much as possible that they’re not going on vacations. They’re not enjoying the moment. Family members are uncomfortable around them because they’re so tight-fisted that it’s not even fun to be in their presence. That’s the balance. Look, I love Roth. Go out there and maximize it. But do not lose your life to where you look back with regret. And wow, stuck the landing.

Rebie: Oh, I see a timer. One second left. I see a timer now. Y’all wising up and now last week I was like, there’s a timer. I love the disagreement. I audibly gasped. That was fun. All right. Next question says,

Brian: Well, I mean, I was like, get as much as you want. Be a pig inside.

Rebie: He was asking a tactical question. 60 seconds are up. Oh, we’re coming back to this one. Question says, “Focus on HSA, Roth, or emergency first at 25.”

Bo: HSA.

Brian: I mean come on, is it even a question? Follow the Financial Order of Operations. There’s no guesswork in this. That’s why we tell you step one you’ve got to get your highest deductibles covered. Then we got to get off the debt. We got to get the free money from the employer. That’s actually number two. And then you know then you get into the HSA and the Roth.

Bo: I guess if you’re trying to figure out do you do HSA or Roth, we like the HSA because it’s triple tax advantaged a touch more but one of the ones was emergency fund in there, right? So, emergency fund has to happen before this, right? So, it’s got to be step four. If you follow the FOO, you will not be led astray.

Rebie: Love it. Next question.

Brian: Can I take his 20 seconds?

Rebie: No. What’s the best way to get over not wanting to spend money?

Bo: It’s a hard one because some people do not get as much utility from spending as they do from saving. So, the first thing I figure out is is there another party involved? Are there is there a spouse? Are there kids? Are there other people who might get utility from spending? And you might you don’t love the spending, but you love the memories and you love the things that you can create. You love what the money allows you to do. So, I would focus on those things and it might help you loosen the purse strings a touch.

Brian: Money is only a tool. So, go out there and do an audit of happiness. What actually makes you happy? What do you spend? Is it getting coffee? Is it going on trips? Is it buying gifts for people you love? Is it being charitable with organizations that you feel like are making the world a better place? There is something that moves the needle for you emotionally as well as reaches you from a happiness as well as fulfillment standpoint. Go out there and lean into that so that you can walk away from the regret because I don’t want you to be a miser. I want you to be a financial mutant.

Rebie: Wow. When Brian can see the countdown.

Brian: Here’s the deal. I think this might be like Rocky IV now that I have the tool. I feel like maybe week three of doing this. I’m starting to feel like I’m getting into a groove.I’m getting a little training. I feel like you know you see Rocky Balboa dragging railroad ties in his gray sweatsuit that’s me right now.

Bo: So I’m Drago.

Brian: Of course you’re Drago.

Bo: Of course I’m Drago.

Brian: I mean, you told us you eat cereal with no shirt on. I wear a shirt everywhere.

Rebie: All right, moving on. The next question says, “Assuming Roth conversions make sense in your situation, where do they fit in the FOO?”

Bo: Assuming Roth conversions, if it’s backdoor Roth conversions, step five. Backdoor Roth conversions in step five. If it’s Roth conversions, like I’m converting my pre-tax assets to Roth, meaning I’m incurring a larger tax liability than I would otherwise, I’m going to argue that’s a later stage, like a step sevenish in there.

Brian: That’s step eight.

Bo: I said step sevenish, like once you get to saving 25% Roth conversions, it’s kind of I’ll give you that. I think that I You just want to disagree.

Brian: I do. I do like to disagree, but actually I think Bo I’m going to bring it back on. I think Bo stuck the landing on that because I do think backdoor Roth contributions are step five. I think when you get into doing conversions, that’s more of a step seven and eight of the Financial Order of Operations.

Bo: What I’m noticing is when you can see the timer, you’re so much more efficient. 40 seconds. Could you still get it in? You think now that you see the timer?

Brian: The timer. Watch out. The timer definitely helps. Imagine what it’s going to be like when I have the shot collar around.

Rebie: Wild times. Next question is favorite Olympic event.

Brian: I have watched so much figure skating and ice dancing. It’s a good one. So I mean that’s I even personal disclosure. I actually set my DVR my YouTube TV to record all those events and I’ve watched a lot of them. This is the first year I’ve Bo’s like the Olympics are on. Oh what the Olympics?

Bo: Yeah, I’ve not been watching a ton, but a lot of people here have been watching a ton. So when I walk past their desks, I can see it. First year I knew that two person luge was a thing.

Brian: Oh. Oh, you’ve seen all the stuff on TV.

Bo: That’s what I’ve seen. I’ve seen all the stuff and I was like, I want to know more about this. And that’s a lot of sports like that. I’m like things that make you go hm. It’s a wild thing. Yeah. So two person luge. And by the way, this the question didn’t specify winter Olympics. So I bet you could have chosen a summer thing.

Brian: No, but we’re all thinking about the winter Olympics, right? By the way, the other one that just blows my mind because it’s like shuffleboard is the one where they all have the brooms out.

Bo: What’s it? It’s not fishing. Not fishing. What’s it called? What is it?

Brian: Curling. Curling. Curling.

Rebie: I was like fishing? No, it wasn’t fishing. We’re out of time and we’re on to the next question. The next question is, is having six figures in cash overkill in a high yield savings account?

Brian: It No, you That’s mean. That was that is such a mean question.

Bo: If you are not at financial independence and you’ve not built up your asset base to where now your circumstance justifies that much cash, you could be missing out on a lot of opportunity by having that cash sitting in high yield.

Brian: I would bring it back to what is your income and what are your living expenses in paying respect to the 3 to 6 months and then are there additional factors that need to be taken in consideration. If you own a business and you have a lot of employees that’s naturally going to push your cash up or if you’re in step eight of the Financial Order of Operations, you might decide to use cash as more of a wealth builder, an opportunity thing to go out there and grab it because you have cash when nobody else does. But otherwise let the Financial Order of Operations be your guide.

Rebie: Beautiful. Next question says, “You often talk about the three bucket tax strategy. Since Roth is so good and I’m not trying to lower my taxable income, why would I contribute to the other two buckets?” Go.

Brian: I don’t mind sharing that Bo and I had a whole conversation at the coffee machine this morning where he’s trying to convince me that I ought to quit doing pre-tax contributions.

Bo: You’re not supposed to tell them that.

Brian: And just do Roth only. Well, because I mean for legacy planning because I’m never going to be in a low tax situation based upon where the size of my retirement assets are.

Bo: I think a lot of people at lower incomes that don’t justify doing pre-tax will likely build the majority of their assets in Roth. They’re going to do Roth IRAs. They’re going to do Roth 401k. They’re going to have an emergency reserve that kind of serves as that after tax bucket even though it’s cash. And so the only way their pre-tax bucket would possibly get built is if their employer contributions are going in pre-tax. So it’s not uncommon for someone to get to financial independence at that level with all Roth assets, emergency reserve cash on the side, and a little bit of pre-tax because of the employer match.

Rebie: Great. Very efficient. Next question says, “Getting married next month. How does the Money Guy team recommend on bank account structure? We both work and have the same income.”

Bo: All joint. Oh, is it your turn or my turn?

Brian: If you’re young and there’s not any complications like kids from a previous marriage, I would prefer everybody just be joint. I prefer joint accounts because it takes the power out of the money because what I and by the way, even if y’all make the same income now, you’re not promised that in 10 years from now or even five years from now when you start having children and other things that one of you might decide to stay home with the children. You want to take the power out of the money.

Bo: My opinion is that joint accounts and joint assets is the best structure. Although we have a number of clients that do keep things separate and that’s okay. There are just different things you have to think through there. But if you’re asking for a newly married couple, the best way to navigate it, my advice would be to join everything.

Rebie: Great answer. See, I keep want to take his extra time because I think we’ll come back to that one. We’ll come back. We’ll come back. Two more for our rapid fire segment. This next one says, 27 male and 32 female. Should I put more than 5% on the first home if we have $100K saved for a down payment on a $350 to $400K home?

Brian: I would want to know are you ahead of the curve, behind the curve, or right where you’re supposed to be. So go to learn.moneyguy.com to see if you’re ahead of the curve, behind the curve, right where you’re supposed to be. Because look, there’s nothing that says I love if you can put down 20% on a house. What I’m trying to do is give you options so that you can get into a house, but also not stray too far away from the Financial Order of Operations. I don’t want you to be house rich, life poor. I want you to have the perfect balance of financial assets, housing assets, and so forth.

Bo: 32 years old, 27 years old. $100,000 down payment, $350,000 house. I’d want to look at your other accounts to see, do you have a solid financial foundation in place where those dollars are going to grow towards financial independence? Because if you’re behind the curve, it might not make sense to put 20% down. It might not make sense to put $100,000 down. You should go to moneyguy.com/resources. You should go check the wealth multiplier. See what those dollars can turn into. If you put them to work, it might be more efficient than putting them inside the mortgage.

Rebie: Right up to the end. All right. Last, but certainly not least, South Dakota resident here. What does it look like to be a client of you all? You mentioned last week that you don’t have any from South Dakota. I think that’s the only state we’re missing.

Brian: First of all, you hear harp music and then it’s like a dream sequence and you’re like, “Holy cow, I didn’t know it could be this good.” That’s what and then we might even have some extra swag we throw your way for being the 50th state that we have clients in. We need to go audit that to make sure we haven’t made some audacious claim without knowing it’s true. But we definitely could make it a celebratory moment if we had all 50 states covered.

And people ask all the time, what is it you do for clients? And the most simple way we can say that is our goal is to serve as your personal CFO. Meaning any financial question you have, anything that comes up in your financial life, we want you to feel like you have a team in place that can help you navigate that, that can help you answer that. Yes, we talk about tax strategy and we talk about investments. We talk about portfolio, but we also want to talk about the other stuff. How does your long-term goals align with the short-term decisions you’re making? How do you make sure your family’s protected? How are you making sure that your legacy lives on the way you want to? We want to serve as your personal CFO. I get it. The timer goes faster at the end.

Maybe It Does Depend Follow-Up (49:38)

Brian: I do have a sidebar. I just give you a little grace.

Rebie: We’re lucky because we have now reached the end of the It Doesn’t Depend rapid fire segment and we are moving into the maybe it does depend segment where you can say all the things.

Brian: Well, it just I found I chuckled I was entertaining myself because I was like harp music that’s such an interesting thing to say and then it hit me. I don’t want to break anybody’s confidence but we do have a content member that has a child that’s taking harp, a harpist. Oh see so this stuff actually could happen we might be able to you come in from South Dakota I might pull them out of school to come in here and play the harp.

Rebie: Oh, I love that. Okay, one thing that you did not get to say for our South Dakota financial mutant. If you go to moneyguy.com and click on become a client, that’s how you actually start the process. So, you kind of left out a key piece, but I added it back in. You’re welcome. That’ll let you see how to get the conversation started. It’ll give you a form to fill out and connect with one of our advisors.

Brian: Here’s the thing. I know on question five and six I put asterisks next to them because I had additional stuff to say, but I dumped so much data out of my brain to make this 30 second segment. No idea.

Bo: Six figures in cash. Number five was what if I have six figures in emergency cash? Is that too much?

Brian: Well, I mean that one is for sure. It depends, right?

Bo: What’s it depend on?

Brian: Yeah. I tried to do that one by actually going through the variables because most people, most financial mutants actually go the side of not having enough cash because you just feel like cash is trash. So this is unique if you’re building up extra cash in the background. So I was trying to give you all the ways in the Financial Order of Operations that it could potentially work. I don’t remember what my other point was besides that. There are people out there and we have clients of this. $100,000 represents their emergency fund. We have quite a few clients. I mean, I’m guilty of I carry so much cash because of all the businesses and other things. And I’ve been rewarded for having that cash when things are bad. I mean, because when you have cash and nobody else does when markets go really ugly, you’d think every two years out of every decade when we go into these dark periods where the economy goes into a recession, you’d make think, hey, I ought to have a little extra cash if you’re in step eight of the Financial Order of Operations. But so few people do it. It’s like me and Warren Buffett.

Bo: Well, I’d like to think I’m in that category, too, because there might be things like Me, Brian, and Warren Buffett. There we go. The three of us, Big Island. There might be opportunities. There might be a building that you were looking at comes available and now you can move on that or there might be an opportunity to renovate or whatever that thing may be.

Brian: Don’t mishear us. Don’t be loading up the cash if you hadn’t even funded your Roth IRA.

Bo: That’s cash built up after the 25%. That really is a step eight thing. This one was getting married joint finances was number six. If you had anything to say on that.

Brian: Yeah, that one is look because I do prefer joint accounts because I’ve seen the success I have in my own marriage. I’ve been married, my wife and I were trying to figure we did figure it out, but now I’m getting confused because of the math we were doing. I think I’m in my 28th year or am I 29th year close to 30 years of marriage and I like the fact that since we both came into the marriage, it’s worked out well. But as a financial planner I have very unique things. I have knowledge of seeing clients come in where maybe they met in their 30s or 40s and had children from other marriages and or there’s different account structures where maybe the parents of one of the spouses set up accounts when they were kids and there’s weird dynamics with that that you have to keep some assets separated. That’s why a financial plan, these are complications that it’s hard for me to say one-size-fits-all, but I know in generality, if you come into the marriage with no assets or you are just starting out, I always try to take the money as a power source out of the equation so it doesn’t create weird dynamics.

Bo: But even in that situation, because I’ve got some clients right now getting married later in life, successful assets are not evenly distributed. And one of the things we’ve talked about is, hey, let’s make sure we keep all this stuff separate. Let’s make sure we have the appropriate protections in place. But hey, once you guys come together, everything from here on forward is joint. And I think that’s great. Like the earnings, all the earnings are jumping into a joint account. That’s right. And it takes the power. Yeah. It’s still on the same. So in my mind, I still call that joint finances. And even if you have separate finances, it’s really important. You want to operate on joint goals. I have not seen this happen with clients yet where they said, “Hey, my money is my money and my spouse’s money is my spouse’s money. I hope that they’re okay to retire when I get to retirement.” You know, they have to have cohesive goals that hey, even though we might be doing things separately and we have separate structures and the allocations might be a little unique, we’re working towards a common goal and those common goals are goals that we have as an enterprise and a household. If you can structure it that way, the separate account thing works. But if it’s all like, “Hey, what I do with mine is mine, and what they do with theirs is theirs.” And there’s no conversation around that, it’s just likely going to be a very inefficient structure when it comes to goals, when it comes to saving, when it comes to taxes. There has to be some sort of at least integration around the purpose behind the dollars.

Brian: My most uncomfortable client meetings are clients that are doing running these separate accounts. Because man oh man it’s just so weird. Especially when you have success and by the way you can’t even I know everybody immediately jumps to stereotypes in their head. No I see it on both sides on the power structure play and when you talk start talking about paying off the house and they’re like well who’s paying? I’m not taking out my accounts. You pay. I did I covered this. I put the deck on last year and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, guys chill out. We’re in this together.” It’s so funny and it highlights to me that’s why I get a front row seat to seeing success. I see the possession of the assets and people is mine mine mine and that’s so two become one and maybe that’s traditional but I just think about it you know one of the things my wife and I have rules. We never in a fight say we’re going to get divorced or you bring that up that’s no go land and then another one that nobody talks about who makes the money. Because if you if that ever comes up, I know it’s probably a fight that’s going to take weeks to heal from. It’s not one that we come back to two hours from now and we say, “Hey, wasn’t that ridiculous?” No, don’t talk about who makes the money.

Final Question – Emergency Fund for Home Purchase (56:33)

Rebie: Yeah. No, that’s good stuff. Another thing that you mentioned, Brian, I remember you said if you want to know you’re ahead of the curve, behind the curve, right on the curve, go to moneyguy.com. I wanted to call out a few specific resources and maybe you had one in mind, but I know we have the prodigious accumulator of wealth calculator. So, you can literally go plug in some of your age and how much I have saved and it will kind of give you a sliding scale of like, oh yeah, you’re where you need to be or oh wow, you’re a prodigious accumulator of wealth, like you’re a financial mutant or hey, you’re a little behind. Here’s some stuff you can look at to catch up. So, be sure to go to moneyguy.com/resources and maybe check that one out. Did you have anything else in mind, Brian? That was the one that came to my mind.

Brian: No, there was the know your number. Know your number at learn.moneyguy.com. The spreadsheet to know so you can go out there. I’m excited whenever we get to share some of the updates that we’re doing on some of these things too in the future as well. I’m not going to say anymore.

Rebie: I love it. We have a built-in teaser strategy in everything we do.

Bo: It’s a built-in teaser strategy. Brian can’t keep a secret. Oh, that’s hilarious. Oh, I love By the way, for someone who poo-pooed the entire rapid fire segment, I felt like you crushed it.

Brian: I mean, self-rating myself, I felt like I was I think it was I felt like I was a Vanguard analyst. You stuck so many. I under-predicted what I was going to do and then I came in above.

Bo: Yeah. I mean, that’s what me and Vanguard like an Olympic gymnast, you stuck the landing over and over and over again.

Brian: So, maybe I like this.

Rebie: Oh, I love it. All right. Want to do one more long form question for good measure?

Bo: Yes, ma’am.

Rebie: Travis W says, “Hey guys, congrats on the Clips Channel.” Thanks. That’s very nice of you.

Brian: Oh, hey, tell them about the Clips Channel for those. We brought it up one time last week. We’re seven minutes in. What are we doing? Maybe we should have brought this up at the front end. We’re going to keep having the Clips channel. I did too. I forgot. Will you tell them tell the people tell them about the thing?

Rebie: We can talk about it as much as we want anytime. Tell them about it. You can now go to subscribe to the Money Guy Clips channel because we heard you and we are now at a point where we were able to make this happen. All highlights of our episodes that we were posting on our main channel are now posted exclusively to the Money Guy Clips channel. So if you like that kind of content, want the bite-size, you can go there. And now on the Money Guy Show channel where you are used to coming, that you know and love, that is posting only all original long form content there. And we hope you like it. So far, very positive feedback. Thanks for your support on both channels and we’re excited about the future.

Bo: People keep asking why we did it because you guys asked for it. Like we heard feedback, feedback, feedback, feedback. Man, it’d be great if you guys could bifurcate if you could separate those two. And so we did it. We did it for you guys.

Brian: But call to action because please go subscribe and then tell your friends and family about it because here’s the thing. We know that the machine’s going to be ticked off at us for probably a few months because anytime you change anything of the data, the way you’re feeding it to the algorithm, you have to wait for the monster to kind of give you it’s like the Wizard of Oz telling you yay or nay if this was a good idea. So, we need you guys organically. We don’t ask for a ton, but I’d love for you to tell friends and family about us so we can hopefully make it through the doldrums of upsetting the machine. But was there a question there? There was a question.

Rebie: There’s a question in there somewhere. Just being nice and said, “Congrats on the clips channel,” which is so nice. But his actual question said, “My wife and I are saving for a down payment. Should we also be bolstering our emergency fund to our predicted monthly burn rate, or does that come later?”

Bo: Well, I think a lot of people when they think about acquiring a home, they immediately think about down payment, down payment, down payment, down payment. They don’t recognize there are other costs that come with home ownership. Yeah, there are immediately after closing.

Brian: You don’t think ladders, lawnmowers, let’s just name a bunch of things. Trash cans, toilet paper holders.

Bo: Keep going, dude. You’re crushing it.

Brian: Oh, I mean, no, I could think of all the things that we have to buy. Buckets. I mean, all these things that you don’t think about, cleaning supplies.

Bo: And so, one of the things you want to do is you don’t want to just save just enough for the down payment. It’s nice if you get a little bit of cushion in there because one, there are likely to be closing costs associated with your mortgage that you either have to roll into the mortgage or you have to pay outside of the mortgage, but then you are going to have those getting in the home costs, moving costs, toilet paper holders, all the things that he just mentioned. So, whenever someone’s saving for a house, we always tell them, hey, save a little bit beyond that. Yes, I do think it makes a ton of sense to bolster your emergency fund to get a little bit more cash in there so that it’s more of a smooth and seamless transition even on the other side of homeownership.

Brian: Well, begin with the end in mind. In the plus also, I think about like a good quarterback. He doesn’t throw where the receiver is currently. He throws to where the receiver is going to be when the ball intersects with him. And that’s exactly I like what you’re doing there because I do think especially on that first house that 3% to 5% house down payment, it does because it takes a period of time to build it up, it does become kind of an extension of step four, the Financial Order of Operations and your emergency reserves. So, I like you kind of bolstering your emergency reserves, not only for the 3% to 5% down payment, but also what the new updated burn rate is on your household because there will definitely be an impact with having the new house and the carry cost.

Closing – Join Us Next Week (1:01:53)

Rebie: Love it. Well, thank you so much, Travis, for the question. We will be back here Tuesday at 10 a.m. Central taking your questions live on YouTube. And until then, make sure you go to moneyguy.com and check out all of the free resources that we’ve made for you. And also subscribe to both channels, the Money Guy Show and Money Guy Clips if you haven’t yet, because then it lets us know you’re out there and really helps us just spread the word about these powerful financial principles that we all know and love and that have really made a difference in all of our lives. So, thanks for your support.

Brian: Earlier, there was somebody who said, “Hey, how do I get to feel better about spending more money?” And I said, “Go do a happiness audit, figure out what makes you happy.” I hope you guys know because Bo, even at the coffee, we talk about big life things. He’s like, “You ever retiring?” And you guys make me so happy. I think the answer is probably no. Nope. Because I y’all are part of my happiness factor is coming to sit down every Tuesday and recording these shows knowing that our content’s intersecting, seeing the reviews even of Millionaire Mission on Amazon and Goodreads. It means the world to us and it really puts me in a happy place knowing we are changing the world for the better to help personal finance become that much easier. So thank you for tuning in. I’m your host Brian joined by Mr. Bo, Rebie and the rest of the content team. Money Guy out.