X% of Young Americans Expect To NEVER Retire…

Introduction – Young Americans and Retirement (0:00)

Brian: Time to turn that frown upside down. Look, 27% of young Americans expect to never retire. We’re going to turn that upside down.

Bo: Brian, I am so excited about this because I genuinely believe that we can change this. I think a lot of young folks out there, they see all the stuff going on. They see housing prices increasing and cost of living getting more expensive and they just feel like, man, I can’t get ahead. I can’t get ahead. I can’t get ahead. I’m probably never going to get ahead. And I just don’t believe that that’s the case.

Brian: Yeah. I mean, there’s a drumbeat. We pay attention. We try to get to just know what’s going on out there in the world. And when a stat like this from YouGov comes out, 27%, 12% of Gen Z and millennial respondents expect to never retire or don’t know when they’ll retire. I think we can be kind of the unlock, the decoder ring that can help these people no matter what situation they’re in.

Bo: Yeah, I want to differentiate maybe never retire from people who are in the FINE movement. Hey, I don’t ever want to retire. I always want to do something. But I don’t think that’s the case. I think when I talk to young people today, there is this general sense of, oh, I’m not going to worry about retirement because that’s just not possible. I can’t even pay the bills. I can’t even buy a house. I can’t even fill in the blank. And it’s amazing that Brian, we’ve been doing this long enough now. We have so many different success stories. And we think about the clients with whom we work or we see success stories in the financial realm. It’s not always the same story. They all look very different.

Brian: Yeah. Look, for a young person I want you to come out with fire in your belly. If this is part of the financial independence next endeavor, I had that when I was young. I thought I was going to retire by the time I was 50 to 55 years of age. So I was saving accordingly. It wasn’t until later that I realized, hey, I never want to retire because I actually get a lot of fulfillment out of what I get to do for a living. But for young people, I need you to have that fire in the belly. And that’s why we wanted to go through some of the things we’ve seen, but we’ve got the solution to make sure you’re on the right path.

Success Stories from Late Starters (2:08)

Bo: Yeah. Again, when we think about the people that we’ve either interacted with at the show or the clients with whom we get to work, we’ve seen a lot of successful people who have had a successful retirement even though they started late. A lot of times we’ll do case studies where we’ll talk about, hey, here’s somebody who’s figured things out at age 20 or age 25 or age 30, but the truth is there’s a lot of folks who really don’t figure this out or don’t catch on until later. And even those folks when equipped with the right information are still able to set themselves up for successful retirement.

Brian: Also, we talk about our favorite annual tradition is doing the annual net worth statement because it’s not only a great barometer of how things are going for you financially. It’s a great communication tool with you and your significant others. But there’s a lot of you who might be coming right out of college and you’re like, “Well, why would I want to do something?” Because all it’s going to do is reinforce all the negative. Guys, it’s actually a fortunate thing that if you can just know where you’re beginning from. I look back, Bo started this thing pretty much from his early 20s and has an entire history of his wealth journey. I didn’t even start tracking my net worth until I was in my early 30s. So, there’s a big chunk of data that’s just completely excluded and gone. You’re going to look back as a financial mutant and be glad that you got to see the entire journey and get to see the entire vision of where you come from.

Bo: Yeah. A lot of our folks started in the negative. They started in the red. They started with debt. But how their journey started does not define how it ended. And they were able to go from a negative net worth by implementing the things we talk about, by implementing the three ingredients of wealth creation, they were able to get to successful retirement. It was okay that they didn’t start in a great spot because they were able to finish in a great spot. And it’s even interesting that a lot of the retirees that we work with, they never had these huge incomes. They were never the corporate executives. They’re never the people making a million bucks a year. We have a lot of folks, I’m thinking about Brian, we have school teachers who never even as a household crossed over six figures of income but were disciplined and consistent savers and were able to have a very comfortable retirement by making wise decisions throughout their working life.

Brian: Consistent small decisions to invest in the markets and for yourself will create your great big beautiful tomorrow. I don’t know how many times I feel like every week we share the same content on that because I just know and I see it. I live it and the fact that if you just make small decisions they really can have huge results for your future self.

Survey Results – First Generation Millionaires (4:44)

Bo: And then another thing that we’ve seen with retirees that are successful is that by and large they’re not special. And we don’t mean that unkind. They’re not special because everyone is special. But what we mean is there wasn’t something unique about them that got them to financial independence and financial success other than one very specific behavior. Brian, we did this wealth survey.

Brian: I want to make sure because I want to set the ground here. A lot of people when you’re outside looking in, you think of the virtuosos or the people that are professional athletes, professional musicians, performers, they make a gazillion dollars. That’s why they’re rich. Or we think you have to be in the executive suite in the corner office and you have to make a lot of money that way. Or you have to be born into it with the silver spoon. I’m here to tell you, we survey our millionaire clients every year, and it’s pretty consistent. 76.4% of our client survey respondents, these are millionaires, said they got to their first million being a saver/investor. So, you know, and you couple that with the data when I remember when I read Millionaire Next Door, you look at some of the Ramsey data that comes out and then even from what we find out from surveying our own millionaire clients, right around 80% of millionaires are first generation. So, that means that there’s a lot of opportunity if you can just be early and often and consistent with your good behaviors, you will be rewarded.

Building Your Plan (6:12)

Bo: So if you’re a young person out there, frankly, if you’re anyone out there and you’re trying, okay, what do I take away from this? What are the things that I ought to hold on to? Number one, no matter where you are in your financial journey, even if you are at the very beginning and you’re about to graduate or maybe you’re someone who is coming in for a landing at retirement, we want you to make sure that you have a plan in place. And if you don’t know how to build a plan or you don’t know what to do with your next dollar, we have a system built for you.

Brian: It’s almost like doesn’t matter if it’s raining outside, it doesn’t matter if it’s sunny outside, we got the all-terrain, all weather Financial Order of Operations.

Bo: And if you want to get your free copy, you can go to moneyguy.com/resources and download that. So, not only do you need to have a plan in place, but one of the things we do want you to do is we want you to take accountability. Just because you want to retire one day does not necessarily mean that retirement is going to happen. You have to put in the work, put in the effort, actually build a plan and then you have to begin executing that plan. I’m always struck, Brian, by how many people just let life happen to them, assuming, okay, well, I’ll worry about that one day or I’ll think about that in the future. No, the best time to start taking your finances seriously and start implementing your plan is right now. Today.

Brian: Yeah. So, let’s go figure out are you ahead of the curve, behind the curve, right where you’re supposed to be. If you’re right now asking yourself, man, I just wish that I knew where I was so I could use today to be exactly what Bo said, be the day that I started making myself financially better. Go check out our know your number course. It’s actually better than a course. It’s actually an executable tool to let you know exactly that answer. You put in the data. You even get to play around. What I love is you kind of goal-seek on this thing. If you think the inflation’s going to be high, we let you manipulate inflation. If you think your investment returns are going to be either below market or above market, we let you play around with that. We let you see what a few hundred extra of savings and investing can do for you to reach your financial goals. That’s why go check out and figure out very quickly, are you ahead of the curve, behind the curve, or right where you’re supposed to be. Learn.moneyguy.com and know your number.

Bo: Reaching financial independence and being able to retire does not need to be a frightening, daunting, or scary thing. We think that it realistically is attainable. It’s why we put out all this free information. It’s why that every single Tuesday at 10 a.m., we show up right here so that we can answer your questions on your path to financial success. So, if you have a question right now that you want us to weigh in on, if you have something you want to get our take on or our read on, make sure that you get it in the chat right now. We have the team out in the wings collecting your questions 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.

New Resource – Financial Planning for Children with Disabilities (9:09)

Rebie: Love seeing the live stream questions roll in. I do need to tell you we had a very cool launch just in the past week and I wanted to make sure everybody knew about it. Just in case you didn’t see this come through on social media or email or just haven’t had a chance to check it out, this is your reminder. Go to moneyguy.com/resources. We just released a free very robust resource. It’s almost like an ebook. So, please go check this out if this applies to you. It’s called Financial Planning for Children with Disabilities. It’s going to help you navigate ABLE accounts, tax benefits, and more. And it’s all about helping you build a great big, beautiful tomorrow for your child and for your family. And so, I wanted you guys to know that that’s out there because we get questions about this all the time, Brian. Right.

Brian: And now, look, you guys know this kind of hits very personal. I’ve been very transparent and open with my own journey, and that’s why I felt I know that this won’t be as big of a release as when we do something that hits 100% of our financial mutants out there. But this is one of those that breaks my heart when I know people are on this journey just like I am, and you’re just hungry for some basic information of where do you go. You’re already kind of getting popped around with all your expectations on what life is going to be has just been shook and now you’re supposed to navigate this not only from an emotional standpoint but from a financial. We don’t know all the answers and personal finance is definitely very personal, but I do like the fact that now we’ve created a resource so that if you are in this moment you will at least know hey here’s something I can go and really get a resource to kind of know some of the basics so that I can not only heal from the emotional side of figuring out how to make the next step, but I can also just kind of know some of the basics so when I go talk to attorneys or set up accounts, I’ll be in a better place for it. And the feedback on this has been awesome. I know for us that are in this community, it’s not the easiest journey to go on, but I like to know that we can create content that hopefully reaches you and helps you so that you can know that even though you might have some struggles, there’s still better days to come.

Rebie: No, I love that. So, moneyguy.com/resources. A lot of attention and expertise and personal experience, it all went into this. So, if you or someone you know is working through that, we would love for you to go check out Financial Planning for Children with Disabilities. So, just wanted to give that a shout out and let you know it’s there.

Live Q&A – Paying Extra on 3.6% Mortgage at 42 (11:43)

Rebie: Now, it’s time to dive into some questions from the chat. The first one is from devo6912. It says, “Age 42. I invest approximately 20%.” So, not 25%, but I pay an extra $120 per month on a 3.6% mortgage. At this rate, house paid off at age 62 and do not want mortgage in retirement. Money Guy thoughts. What are your thoughts?

Brian: Well, I mean, we just went over you need to know if you’re ahead of the curve, behind the curve, right where you’re supposed to be. Age 42 is definitely one of those where your wealth multiplier, you’re quickly about to be at that intersection point where your money is going to grow. Age 40, it’s seven times. At age 50, it’s only three times. So, there’s a big difference between a 40-something versus somebody who’s in their 50s. I just want to make sure you’re not behind because we are still a long way from 3.6% mortgages. I mean, I even think my cash is still paying pretty close to that. And I just want to make sure you don’t get to age 60 or 62 and plan to retire and you just don’t have as many options. It might actually be the determining factor that says yeah you know you have to work until you’re 65 versus retire at 60 or 62 because of this. And look, I want you to be debt-free. Everything we’ve talked about is trying to create debt-free retirements, but it’s one of those things I just want to make sure you do it at the right time and place.

Bo: Yeah, I would argue that personal finance is personal and so one of the questions I’d ask you DVO is if you’re going to lay out your goals how would you prioritize your goals? Most folks their primary goal from a financial aspect is that one day I want to be financially independent and then sort of a tertiary or secondary goal is hey I’d like to be debt-free. If you tell me that hey you know what being debt-free is a larger goal of mine than financial independence then okay yeah if you’re going to devote and point resources towards that low interest mortgage you can do that, but you need to understand the opportunity cost. You need to understand what you might be sacrificing. I’m putting this goal ahead of my other goal. And whenever we make decisions from a financial perspective to pursue one goal and not pursue another, often times we don’t get to go back in time. And at 42 years old, if you’re going to prepay that 3.6% mortgage, you’re not going to be able to go back and invest those dollars at age 42, 43, 44 when the wealth multiplier is so powerful. So, I would have you think through what are my primary goals and then what actions can I take that will most align with what those goals are and the way that you would triage that is by doing exactly what Brian said. Am I ahead of the curve? Am I behind the curve? Am I on the curve? Do I not even know where the curve is? I think a lot of people want to be debt-free so bad. They want to knock out the mortgage so bad. They lose sight of recognizing that actually doing that is costing them on the back end on being able to actually build towards financial independence.

Brian: Well, a lot of this conversation is framed around risk and a lot of people like DVO will probably say, “Hey, but I’m taking risk off the table by paying off this mortgage early.” Risk off the table. The thing, and I detailed this pretty in-depth in Millionaire Mission, is that the reason I talk about when I like people to hit step 9 if you’re going to pay off mortgages early, I like it to be post-45. Because I just want to give you enough opportunity while the column is on the compounding growth side of things. When you’re under 45, let that wealth multiplier work for you. Because I always see I get it. Debt in retirement can add a risk element, but you know what’s a bigger risk is that you actually get there and you just don’t have enough money saved and you have to start making really hard decisions and you look back and go, but is it really that big of a deal? Because I mean, $120 a month? If you look at for a 42-year-old it’s not as big of a decision as for a 28-year-old, but it still can move the needle to a degree that you ought to at least go through the exercise to see what you’re costing yourself by looking once again at our know your number course to kind of play around with those assumptions. That’s the beauty of having a tool that lets you not only adjust rate of return, inflation, but also what your savings rate is. So you can see, hey, what is this doing for me? You could even play around by making some assumptions with what that mortgage impact is in there as well. But look, it goes back to I want you to be debt-free. I just want to make sure that you live your best life and don’t have regrets. And the arbitrage of somebody who’s got a 3.6% mortgage. I mean, there’s a lot of people right now that are probably throwing tomatoes at the screen because they’re like, “What are you doing paying off a 3.6% mortgage?” Because that’s one of the things. It’s one thing if you’re prepaying a 6.5% mortgage right now at age 42. It’s another when you’re paying off a 3.6% and you should know better at this point.

Live Q&A – Completing Steps 5 and 6 of FOO (17:02)

Rebie: Well, devo6912, thank you so much for the question. It is your lucky day because it’s Tumbler day today.

Brian: Well, hey, can I say one quick thing? He also gave up, all my prepayment people that are debt avengers that are going to prepay it, they’re usually saving 30%, 35%. They’re always above 25%. DVO tattled on himself when he’s only saving 20%. So, that’s a problem right there. At least get yourself beyond 25% and then you can give yourself permission to prepay the debt.

Bo: I love how you called them debt avengers because it used to be debt crusaders. Now it’s debt avengers.

Brian: Well, by the way, can we go ahead and be clear on that because Crusaders is much better. I’m cold medicine-free today. Okay. But Bo came in last week and he was like, “Hey, I think I’m under the weather.” And I was like, “Oh, no.” Because I always, you know, they always say when your kids, if you have somebody in the office that puts their kids in daycare, you just know that your immune system is about to get a workout, too.

Bo: No daycare.

Brian: I was going to say, Bo is like that child in daycare because he brings home every bug. So I came in yesterday and I said, Bo, okay. I said, I got it obviously from you. The gestation period is 5 days. Williamson County is sick and he got it from me. I was like, what am I dealing with here? And you go, “Oh, good news. It’s only one day.” And I do want to give you credit because yesterday I was probably about at a 45%. Today I’m probably at about 73%. So this thing does have a pretty quick turnaround. So I want to at least thank you for that.

Bo: I don’t think it was me. I don’t think it came from me.

Brian: You never do though.

Bo: Okay. Neither confirmed nor denied. So I don’t know what to tell you.

Brian: Always patient zero.

Rebie: Oh well. devo6912, if you would like a Money Guy tumbler, since we answered your question on the show today, just email [email protected]. All right, back to the point.

Brian: That’s why I said Avenger versus Crusader is that this thing is because you weren’t 100%. It’s humming, but it’s not all.

Bo: And by the way, so you’re saying like Avengers?

Brian: And by the way, so you’re saying like Avengers? No, I’m saying that the elevator is almost there. Like it opened up and the door opened and it’s like, “Wait a minute, that didn’t line up with the floor exactly like it was supposed to.” It’s the cold medicine. And by the way, y’all, what y’all don’t know behind the scenes is we mixed up our entire recording schedule. We’ve already recorded a react this morning and I was like, “Whoa, we’re coming out hot with not even 100% Brian.” So, Lord knows if this content’s even good.

Rebie: 73% Brian is here today.

Bo: You know what? 73% Brian is better than 100% of most men. You know what I mean?

Brian: True that. We’ll see. Love it. It might be more entertaining.

Rebie: All right. We’re going to move on to Britney F’s question, but if you are watching live, we’re going to do a rapid fire segment again today. So, be sure to get your rapid fire questions in the chat. Just put RF at the beginning of your question. We’ll know that it is specifically for that segment. So, we’ll be prepping that in the background. Get your questions in. But for now, we’re going to go to Britany F’s question. It says, “Hey, Money Guys, at what point can you consider steps five and six of the FOO complete? Is it when your monthly investments hit a certain number? Is it year end when you actually max those out? Max out those accounts?” Thanks.

Bo: That’s a great question. You know what? I’m surprised we don’t get asked this question that often. Right. So, a lot of times when we say, Brian, you hold the thing up for me. If you’re following the Financial Order of Operations and you get to step five, it says that you should max out your tax-free account. You should max out your Roth IRA. You should max out your health savings account. Well, a lot of folks don’t max them out in one fell swoop. They don’t just do $7,500 or $4,400 right there. They start doing it monthly. Hey, I’m going to divide that out by month. I’m going to save that. I would argue that when it comes to following the Financial Order of Operations, if you are saving a monthly amount or a systematic amount that will max that out, I would say that you complete step five. So, it’s not at the end of the year once you fully fund the account. It’s when the savings is going in that will put you on pace to max out that account. So, if you have a monthly amount that’s maxing out your Roth and that’s maxing out your HSA and a monthly amount that’s also going to max out the $24,500 salary deferral in your 401k, I would argue even in January or February before you’ve had a whole entire year to do that, you’ve already crossed through step six. Agree, disagree, want to fight?

Brian: Well, I think this is what I love about the Financial Order of Operations is because it really has been built for people with good incomes and it’s been made for people with below average incomes and even above average incomes. Because I think for people we’ll take it from somebody who makes somewhere between $85,000 to $100,000 a year, but not over that. You’re likely going to max out step five, right? Because that’s a dollar amount to load up the Roth IRA, the health savings account. That’s a dollar amount that will trigger you coming through step five. Step six is going to be graduated from because you’ve reached a savings rate level. Once you exceed 25%, you’re not going to probably if your income is not super high, you’re not going to hit the maximum amount the government lets you. You’re just going to hit the savings rate of 25% and that’s going to move to step 7.

Bo: I think it’s $138,000 I think we calculated before you’d max.

Brian: That’s what I was pulling the calculator, but I was like, you know what, cold medicine, Brian. No way in the world I’m going to be able to get to that math in time. So I’m trying to play horseshoes with the numbers here. But for people who are in a high-income situation, when you get to yes, there’s a good chance you will load up your 401k, 403b, 457 in step six and still not reach 25%. Well, that’s where step seven, the hyper accumulation kind of lets you come in and pick up the pieces, look at the three account strategy to know how you’re going to use the money. I’m very proud of the fact that this thing goes beyond just saying, “Hey, save this and keep going.” It hits you whether you’re just starting out. It hits you if you’re reaching that six-figure status. It hits you if you’re making a million dollars a year. The Financial Order of Operations will help you walk through that process and the mindset.

Live Q&A – Dollar Cost Averaging During Geopolitical Crisis (23:16)

Rebie: That’s great. Brittany F, if you would like a Money Guy Tumbler, just email [email protected]. JP has a question next. “During times of geopolitical crisis, should I dollar cost average daily, weekly, monthly, or wait for a correction? Do you look for a percent drop to add additional investments?”

Bo: I’m so excited for you to answer this one first.

Brian: Look, there’s always going to be crazy stuff going on. So I will tell you, I don’t change my behavior at all on this type of stuff. I just set it, forget it. Look, I’ve already been crazy enough that I’m doing weekly dollar cost averaging. So, I don’t do daily. I think that starts to get a little eccentric at that point. But, I will tell you because I alluded to this last week’s live stream and with the collaboration we did with Austin and people have asked about it. I will tell you my behavior does change though when some of the geopolitical or the economic stuff causes us to hit bear market status. When the market goes down 20%, you should go and think about, man, I would immediately go ask myself, let’s go look at the S&P 500 and others and see what the price to earnings ratio and other things are because a lot of times when you get to bear market status, the markets are irrational. They disconnect from the value of what the companies are. And then if you have extra money around laying around at that point, I think it’s okay to kind of be opportunistic. Historically, I’ve never been I mean now look you have to grit your teeth and grip it tightly because you might have more volatility and that’s why there’s even an opportunity every 5% fall from 20% maybe you find a little bit more money if you have it. But it’s one of those things where I don’t change my day-to-day behavior off of just normal changes. It has to reach full bear market crisis mode for me to have a change in my consistent dollar cost averaging behavior.

Bo: But I want to speak to the average financial mutant out there because you have to understand what you’re talking about. Agree. I agree 100% with it.

Brian: You have to be in step eight and have extra cash.

Bo: Yeah. It’s the reason we’re able to do that is because in addition to saving the 25% plus of gross income, we’re also able to build up cash for other endeavors and those sorts of things. And so because you have cash on the sidelines above your emergency fund and above your 25% savings that’s sitting there, you can have some opportunistic funds. If there’s a pullback you can do something with or if you’re doing the dollar cost averaging strategy you can accelerate. Yeah. Or if you’re dollar cost averaging, lump sum. But if you’re someone who’s just a consistent saver saving 25% of your gross and the cash that you have on the sidelines is really your emergency fund you shouldn’t change anything. Just let your DCA happen and happen and happen. This accelerated is really for folks that are later on in the Financial Order of Operations. Don’t over-complicate it. What you do is as the volatility happens, as the geopolitical stuff happens, you just try to change your mindset to say, I’m not changing any of my behaviors, but while the rest of the world is freaking out, while the rest of the world is so concerned about what’s going on, I recognize that I’m buying in at opportunity, buying at opportunity, buying opportunity. You don’t change anything that you’re doing. What you change is what you’re thinking for the vast majority of financial mutants out there.

Brian: Hey, I appreciate you being my safety net because I feel like we’re at the circus and I’m on the trapeze and I’m swinging up and I’m trying to do a few somersaults and then if I don’t catch all the content, you’re the net down there at the bottom that’s going to catch it and bring it up and also keep me from breaking.

Bo: You know what’s funny is in my mind I saw Zac Efron and Zendaya like I saw that Greatest Showman but then you turned me into the net. I didn’t even get to be one of the acrobats.

Brian: By the way, whenever I’ve told you my favorite song from that Greatest Showman album is where the negotiation between Hugh Jackman and Zac? So I don’t know why you turned yourself into the love interest there. It’s a little weird. I want to be clear that feeling. I mean, we didn’t immediately put Bo in the Zac Efron.

Bo: No, because I’m the one that keeps him safe.

Brian: I’m the one on cold medicine, not you. Come on, keep it together.

Bo: Was not Zendaya in that an analogy.

Rebie: Who’s Zendaya, who’s Zac Efron? You can just ponder that.

Brian: What’s the name of the song? Somebody look it up though that has Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron and they’re negotiating. I forget. I don’t know. It’s a good song. What is the name of that song?

Rebie: Oh, “The Other Side.” Is that right?

Bo: That is it. Yeah, “The Other Side.” That’s right. That was a good one. Look at that.

Brian: I was hoping that see, that’s where the cold medicine’s messing up because I was going to sing a few bars of it, but it’s just not there right now.

Live Q&A – No Emergency Fund at 48 with $500K Invested (28:07)

Rebie: We were deprived. All right, we’re going to do one more long form question and then we’re going to move into our It Does Not Depend rapid fire segment. So, be sure to get those questions in. Just put RF at the beginning of your question.

Bo: Brian on rapid fire is going to be lit.

Brian: I already feel I feel like I’m in quicksand right now.

Rebie: All right, here’s the next question. It says, it’s from theK2fowler. “I’m 48, $500K in investable assets, no debt, 20% savings, trying to max Roth, HSA, etc. But I don’t have an emergency fund. Uh-oh. I came to the FOO late. Should I halt the 20% to build up the emergency fund?”

Bo: I mean, yes, but hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Let’s think through this, right? Here’s what I want to know. For the $500,000 that you have that’s currently invested. Yeah. What is it comprised of? Is it structure? Is it $500K in a 401k? Is it $500K across a 401k and a Roth IRA? Or do you have some after-tax brokerage account assets? Because whether you stop saving and devote your full attention to the emergency fund or you liquidate some after-tax assets to then fund your emergency fund is going to be dependent upon that. But I do think in your situation, you can’t be out there…

Brian: Naked.

Bo: I was going to say skinny dipping, but naked. You can’t be naked out there because you don’t know when that emergency is going to happen. Emergency funds are there for the unknown unknown.

Brian: Got to go put some drawers on.

Bo: You got to put drawers on. He said. You have to have an emergency fund in place to make sure that you keep your financial life out of the ditch when you’re out there.

Brian: Just like nobody wants to see a 48-year-old man naked. So, go ahead and get some drawers put on.

Bo: Prioritize the emergency fund is what we’re saying. So, let me bring this back in.

Brian: Correct. Look, you really need a triage situation. You’ve got to immediately figure out if you can fix this with if you have after-tax investments, just do a reallocation. And then go through the Financial Order of Operations. Figure out what your highest deductible is. Get that employer match and you’ve already said you’re debt free, so you should be pretty good on that. So steps one and four are going to happen very quickly for you. And then you’ll be all covered up.

Rebie: That’s fantastic. TheK2fowler, if you would like a Money Guy Tumbler, just email [email protected]. We would love to send you one since we highlighted your question on the show.

Bo: He said, “Put your drawers on” is what he said.

Rebie: That would have been a great rapid fire answer. Just all he said was put your drawers on. Put your drawers on.

It Doesn’t Depend – Rapid Fire Segment (30:50)

Rebie: All right, speaking of, it is now time for our It Does Not Depend rapid fire segment where Bo and Brian get 60 seconds combined to answer your questions and they are not allowed to say the phrase it depends. Now, as a consolation prize, throwing them a bone, we always at the end have our Maybe It Does Depend segment where they can air any grievances, expound on anything they didn’t get to expound on, and we just have that there at the end to make sure all the bases are covered. So, without further ado, let’s move into our It Does Not Depend rapid fire segment. First question says, “Is it okay to pay taxes from the retirement account when doing a Roth conversion?”

Bo: No.

Brian: I mean, look, if you still got 48 seconds. So, you don’t think.

Bo: if you have to use the pre-tax dollars to pay taxes, I’d argue you’re someone who Roth conversions likely don’t make sense.

Brian: What if your income is like nothing? You retired early last year.

Bo: If your income is nothing, then there won’t be any taxes due.

Brian: Then, yeah, you could use that money for the minimal taxes.

Bo: I stand correct. If there’s no taxes to pay, then sure.

Brian: The tax rates are so low on a Roth conversion that it makes sense when you’ve retired.

Bo: I think if someone only has pre-tax assets and they have to cannibalize some of those pre-tax assets to pay the tax on it, you’re likely not a candidate for Roth conversions.

Brian: I agree with that.

Rebie: Wow. That was 5 seconds remaining. Nicely done.

Brian: We didn’t say depends, but that was ugly.

Bo: It was a one word. It was an easy one.

Brian: I actually I was like when she said, “Should I pay my taxes?” Yes. And you just stop listening. Keep going. No, keep going.

Rebie: Next question says, “How do you adjust the 25% savings rule when paying into a teacher pension?”

Brian: Oh, I get to go first on this one. I mean, you go find out because there’s a funding there’s a formula, whether the employer you’re putting in 8% and they’re putting in 12%. Go figure out what that formula is. And you can as long as your income’s under $100,000 for an individual, $200,000 for a married couple, you can count it. And that’s just but you got to protect yourself and make sure that that pension is well funded by your employer. I don’t know.

Bo: If you’re early on in your career, I wouldn’t factor in the pension. I’d still try to save 25%. If you’re further along in your career and the pension is a higher likelihood of paying out and you know what your number is and you know what your number is net the pension amount I think you can adjust your savings then. But I would argue early on if you just don’t even factor in the pension, if you can still save 20% to 25%, what you’re going to do is set yourself up for more flexibility earlier on in life.

Brian: You heard it from Bo. Save more.

Bo: Well I just save more. You always pin that on me like I’m the savings guy.

Rebie: Next question says, “My employer pays for good family health insurance. No cost to me. Should I opt for a lower insurance to qualify for an HSA? Yes or no?”

Bo: This person’s under 26 and on their family plan.

Rebie: No, it said my employer pays for good family plan.

Brian: They have a Cadillac plan with the employer. Go when you have open enrollment, go look at your upcoming year. If you have life planning stuff like kids and other things, then you do the Cadillac version. If you get old like me and you got a bunch of medical procedures, then you do the Cadillac plan. But if you’re healthy and 26 and nothing’s coming up, take advantage of the high deductible plan, assuming you do the exercise and the math works.

Bo: Math equation in four parts. Premium you pay for each plan, expected out-of-pocket costs on each plan, any employer money that goes into each plan, and then tax savings from each plan. You add those up and it’ll tell you which one is most mathematically advantageous.

Rebie: You guys are getting way too good at 60 seconds. Okay. Next question.

Bo: Am I Darth Vader? Which one are you? Who are you in the in in the-

Brian: Oh, I’m I’m I’m either Han Solo or Luke Skywalker for sure. I know you want me to be chewy, but I’m better than that.

Rebie: You guys are getting way too good at 60 seconds. Okay. Next question. Why is Brian never so excited for a topic? Only Bo.

Brian: Oh, I think I naturally in life I’m excited. So, I don’t have to try to convince you guys I’m excited like Bo does. You just can tell anybody who hangs out with me, you want me around. Love it. Even on cold medicine. Even on cold medicine.

Rebie: Next question. “Should 529 be owned by kids, parents, or grandparents?”

Bo: Well, I mean the beneficiaries. If your children are under the age of 18 or under the age of majority, they can’t actually own the financial accounts themselves. There’s got to be some other custodian on it. Either a parent or a grandparent.

Brian: And I’m okay, by the way, if it’s your grandparents that are funding this 529, put the grandparents and then put the beneficiary as the child because what that protects you from is the parents. What if they go and get access to that? You put it in the parents’ names and then they go and they have other ideas for how this money is used. If you funded it, structure it that way. Is that okay?

Bo: No, no, no. That’s great. The only thing I throw out there sometimes when it comes to parents and grandparents funding, one thing that we remind people to think about is if they live in different states, whoever it doesn’t matter who owns the account, but whoever’s putting the money in the account. Sometimes a grandparent will give money to mom and dad and mom and dad will put money in, but grandma and grandpa live in a state where it would have been deductible if they would have put it in directly. You want to factor in the tax benefits.

Bo: Or the fact that if you’re doing financial aid.

Rebie: Time is up.

Bo: No, do financial aid. Keep going. She can’t stop you. I want to know what you say.

Brian: All right, next question. Grandparents sometimes can be better than parents.

Bo: I was thinking the same way.

Rebie: “Hi, Money Guy team. My employer has both a traditional and Roth 401k with a 50% employer match up to the $24,500 limit. Any minor changes to steps 2, 5, or 6 of the FOO with this special account?”

Brian: I really hope you don’t have debt. I’d really hope you don’t have debt because I want you to get as much of that free money as possible.

Bo: Same answer, man. If you can get half of $24,500. Is that $12,000? I can’t do the math.

Brian: $12,250.

Bo: That’s what I thought it was, but I didn’t want to screw that up. That’s cold medicine. I’m good at public math. That’s free money that if you can avoid walking away from, we’d love for you not to walk away from that. Because the question was, do you adjust 2, 5 or 6? Well, 2 would suggest you get all of it. But do you get all of it instead of doing your Roth? Well, maybe it makes sense to do.

Brian: Well, you can do Roth. Boom. So, now you’re doing tax-free. And if you’re going to get the max amount, you’re already doing 6. So, I think if your employer is that generous, get in there and get that.

Bo: I love it. Get in there and get it. He said, “Get it.”

Brian: Yeah. Just slop yourself around in it like a pig. Literally.

Rebie: Okay. Next question. “How old is too old to go back to school and change careers? 10 years out from retirement, 5 years out?”

Brian: Have y’all not seen Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School? Isn’t that the name of it? Was that the name of the movie?

Rebie: I have not. What was the name of the movie? Rodney Dangerfield.

Brian: No one in here has where he was a high diver. What is it? Back to School.

Rebie: You’ve wasted 16 seconds of your hand answering the question.

Brian: Well, look, here’s the thing. You have to really I will tell people.

Bo: Nailed it. Back to School.

Brian: If you have to figure out are you ahead of the curve, behind the curve, or right where you’re supposed to be. Did I say it depends there? I hope I didn’t. But you kind of have to do an assessment. I did say you said it. I wasn’t listening close enough.

Bo: You need to do the analysis. Anytime there’s a back-to-school conversation, there’s a cost-benefit analysis needs to take place. What will this cost me and what is the benefit on other side? Sometimes that benefit is qualitative and sometimes it’s quantitative. You need to make sure the ROI, however you define it, justifies going back to school. That’s it.

Brian: You get no respect around here. Next question.

Bo: Is that your Dangerfield? No, you nailed it. If I close my eyes and you do it, it’s like he’s sitting next to me.

Brian: That’s very absolutely horrible. No respect.

Rebie: Next question says, “Can I count my two kids 529 as part of my 25% savings? I’m saving 15% in Roth 401k and funding an HSA.”

Brian: You’re not at step eight then. It doesn’t sound like. I feel like I just did. I channeled my inner Bo Darth and that was. He’s not at step eight.

Rebie: I am not be Darth Vader. Not a chance.

Rebie: He might be. All right. Next question. “If I’m 35, have enough saved for Coast FI, and I’m on step nine, how can I find a partner to share it with?”

Bo: If you go to moneyguy.com/mutantmingle,

Rebie: That does not exist yet.

Brian: You’re on the wrong show. I mean, look, I’ve been married for 27 years.

Rebie: 40 seconds worth of advice.

Brian: I mean, what am I going to tell people? Go to church and hang out at the local bowling alley. I mean, I don’t know where people meet these days.

Bo: I do think there are tons of wonderful communities. If you want to go out there and check out the Reddit thread, if you want to go check out the Facebook page, you want to go check out the Discord, there are all kinds of great places where financial mutants hang out. I’m not saying use that to necessarily be your dating pool, but who knows if you’re out there interacting with other like-minded individuals, who knows what kind of connections you can make, whether it be in a romantic sense or just talking to people about sound, solid financial decision-making.

Rebie: Great. Last but not least, rapid fire question. “When it comes to your money circus analogy, which of you is Zendaya and which is Zac Efron?”

Brian: I think we I mean we all know the reality is I’m Hugh Jackman and Bo is Zac Efron. That’s where the Bo was the one that screwed that whole thing up.

Rebie: That was such a nice answer, but you didn’t answer the question.

Bo: You were doing a high dot. You were doing an acrobatic analogy.

Brian: I don’t know why you brought in Greatest Showman .There was no reference of Greatest Showman when I was talking about you being my safety net.

Bo: Give me one other example of acrobats besides those two.

Brian: I grew up going to Ringling Brothers every year for free by just doing the color contest out of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Bo: Isn’t that where this came from? Isn’t that where Greatest Showman came from? Barnum & Bailey. Isn’t that where that came from?

Brian: You know better than that. I look back on my childhood by the way since we have 18 seconds. I went to every game as a kid as well as to the circus off of just doing whatever giveaways they were doing at AJC.

Rebie: Financial mutant from a young age. Look at that.

Maybe It Does Depend Follow-Up (42:20)

Rebie: Love it. Well, that does it for our It Does Not Depend rapid fire segment. I did cut you off a couple times, so let’s move into our Maybe It Does Depend segment. Was there anything else you wanted to add, clear the air on, expound upon?

Bo: I want to make sure I didn’t give bad advice here because I’m thinking through on if someone is in a super low tax bracket and they want to do Roth conversions. One of the things I would think through is if all you have are 401k assets, but if you’re in that low of a tax bracket, is doing Roth conversions even all that advantageous, meaning accelerating taxes into the current year? If you’re going to be in a low tax bracket anyways, you might be thinking for estate planning purposes or whatever, but then you’d have to think through like, okay, what do my kids’ financial tax situation look like? I just think if someone’s in such a low income tax.

Brian: it’s a very specialized. But I will say I will tell you, we’ve had prospects come through that have had seven figure 401ks and nothing else. And that’s why you’re like, “Holy cow.” So you’re financing cars, you’re doing everything because you have access to no money but these 401ks. So, it was a little bit of too much of a good thing.

Bo: But you wouldn’t recommend those people do Roth conversions.

Brian: I mean, I’d want to see the entire picture. But I’d be trying to figure out how we could get the three buckets filled up really quick in step seven in those situations, but I’d want to see the full picture. It’s hard to do that on rapid fire, especially.

Bo: There was one other one about 529 assets. And I think where you were going…

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. I just don’t want people to that’s part when we do Financial Order of Operations. You always have to put your oxygen mask on first. And if you’re trying to count your kids 529 when you’re not fully funding your own retirement, that could be there’s an issue there.

Bo: And then I felt like there were two more but this is my notes that I got. It’s too rapid to remember.

Brian: All I did was count to five. I mean, if you look at my notes, these are the worst notes. It says rapid fire 25% traditional Roth and then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. It literally just says 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I don’t even know why I took notes. I should have drawn a picture of a unicorn or something.

Rebie: 529 question. That was the main one I remembered. So I think you covered it.

Brian: We did pretty good though because I feel like sometimes I feel like a buster and this thing’s already at 55 minutes when we just get through the rapid fire. I think I mean you’re doing too well at rapid fire. Maybe I should be sick all the time. I should go lick the lamp post outside and get myself as sick as possible so I give these answers that much quicker.

Bo: Go lick the lamp post. That’s all right. Whatever public service that’s out there. What’s the Christmas Story, right? Isn’t that the one where he gets his tongue stuck to the lamp post? It’s immediately the picture I saw right there.

Rebie: So many movie references today.

Bo: I was going to say that what I was wondering if we could do a rapid fire, but you have to use a movie reference to answer. You have to or you have to make an analogy on the spot to answer the question.

Brian: Hey, somebody’s noticed your meathead new addition to the backstep back there.

Bo: Well, this is what happened. I think Caleb or I think our production crew was feeling nervous like Brian. There’s so much that reflects Brian behind him and hanging out there. They’re like, “You know what? We really need something for Bo. We need some meat for Bo.” Yeah. It was either that or a giant protein shaker. So, this was the more aesthetic option.

Brian: Y’all miss out on so much when we don’t have the cameras on. Because Bo is like, “It was so warm that we opened the garage in the gym this morning.” It was great. The things that make you happy.

Bo: If you’ve been working out, if you were a gym workout outer and you’ve been in the garage all winter long and it’s like freezing and you’re bundled up. Today was the first day that we could actually open the garage. It was glorious.

Brian: It’s like I get a visual of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Conan the Barbarian like when they’re all sitting around the campfire and the garage opening. You know, because y’all shirtless and all, meating it up.

Bo: You ain’t wrong.

Live Q&A – 20% Down Payment vs Investing at 24 (46:40)

Rebie: Another reference. Look at that. You would be good at that segment. All right, let’s do a couple more long form. Let’s give the people what they want. This is Ask Money Guy after all. Max C has a question. It says, “Hi, Money Guy. I’m 24 with 20% saved for a house down payment.” Wow. “Should I change to a 5% down payment and invest the rest? I have $30K in retirement. I’m living at home and I have a $71K salary.”

Brian: Man, that’s like choose your own adventure. How rich do I want to be?

Bo: Yeah. 20% saved for a down payment at 24 is amazing. One of the things I’d want to know a little bit more about is what price point of homes are you looking at? Because you’ve given us a lot of variables. We know your salary. So, now we know that we can calculate, okay, what’s a 25% housing cost? Like what does that fit in there nicely if we do a 20% down payment, if we do a 5% down payment because that’s going to dictate how much of that you should. But let’s say that whether you do 5% or whether you do 20% based on the area in which you live housing is going to be less than 25% of your gross income. Well then you do have a choice to make. And I would argue for a 24-year-old, if you go to moneyguy.com/resources and you play with our wealth multiplier, you’re going to see every dollar that you can deploy, every dollar that you can put to work is going to be unbelievably powerful for you over the long term. You may arrive at the conclusion that, well, man, yeah, I could put an extra 15% on my mortgage and it’s going to save me some interest. I think 6.1% is what current mortgage rates are at right now. Or perhaps I could deploy that and I could go make 55 times on that money or whatever. I would work through that analysis to determine, okay, what do you said how rich I would be? But it is a true answer. What do I really want my financial future to look like?

Brian: Oh man, I had so many things just flashed in my head when this question came up because look, we just had a Making a Millionaire episode where it was, I love this couple. That episode just went live on Monday, by the way, where they both, one had a duplex, one had a quadplex, and then they started dating during the pandemic, and they’re like, “Oh my gosh, we both house hacked and we made a fortune off of it” and it was just a fun little exercise. Max could because you’re 24, you didn’t give us enough information. I don’t know if you have a significant other. I don’t know if you have roommates or considering having roommates. You could totally one version of yourself could house hack if you have roommates and you could do a duplex. You could do a quadplex. You’ve got really cool things that you could do. And then the other thing what I didn’t hear you say is you had a significant other. And I would if you’re not going to do the house hacking, be careful about buying the house you think you’re going to live in before you have a significant other because they might look at this house differently than you. So I always get nervous because I had an attorney, this probably been a year now. They came in, he says, “Hey, I love what you guys do. But I want to do this and I have a very strong specialty in the legal profession.” And I was like, he’s like, “What advice do you have?” And I said, “Who does what you where you want to be?” And he said, “Oh, that’s easy. This person.” I was like, “Well, go try to get a job there.” “Oh, but I bought a house already, so I’m kind of stuck in this community.” I was like, “No, don’t.” Well, then you screwed up because I want you to begin with the end in mind. And that’s what, Max, you’re 24. Don’t get caught in the achiever’s trap where you feel like the next thing you have to do is to go buy a house to go down that checklist of what achieving or successful people do. Actually make sure it intersects with where you want to be in life because at 24 you might need to move and if you can’t live in this house for 5 to 7 years that’s a disaster and for a 24-year-old to lock themselves down without knowing who you’re going to marry or what you want to do for a living completely, just measure twice, cut once.

Bo: We actually have a great resource you ought to go check out. It’s called our home buying checklist. Things to think through before you make this huge life decision. For most folks a home is the single most expensive thing you will ever spend money on. So, you want to make sure that you think about it wisely and you make a well-informed decision before you do that so that you don’t have regrets like the attorney that Brian just mentioned.

Rebie: That’s great. Great call out on the resource because we have the home buying calculator which is amazing and shows you the math but the download the home buying checklist gives you some of those more intangibles like really thinking through the decision. So, I love that. Max C, if you would like a Money Guy Tumbler as a thank you for asking a question today, just email [email protected].

Live Q&A – Will 25% Savings Rate Increase? (51:09)

Bo: You know what’s making me happy? There’s a lot of comments in here about other folks who get the open garage thing. Like open garage. If you know, you know, right? Like it just hits different, man.

Rebie: Love it. All right. Next question is from Brick House123. Says, “Hey, Money Guy team. I was wondering if you are ever anticipating on having to increase the recommended savings rate for the FOO beyond the current 20% to 25%. What factors would go into this decision?”

Brian: Well, this is an easy one. I mean, because look, it’s not like we just randomly said, you know what, we’re feeling 15%. No, no, no, no. It’s sunny. We open the garage. We could do 30% now. No. What? Actually, if you go to moneyguy.com/resources, what should I save? Can the content team pull it up? How much should I save? I got close. You got y’all would have given me a point. I would have gotten three.

Bo: We call that a leaner, right?

Brian: Maybe. But seriously, this is the intersection point. If you look at the typical American doesn’t start saving and investing until they’re in their 30s. That’s why you notice very nicely, the intersection point is right around that 25%. But here’s the reality of this. And if I was restructuring this question, if you’re somebody who’s 22 years old and you start watching our content and then you go download that resource I just gave, you’ll be like, “Wait a minute, I get a lot for 15%.” So maybe because to tell a 22-year-old that they need to be saving and investing 25% sounds pretty aspirational, but then you go look at the intersection of math and life and you realize, oh, you don’t have to because you got in there much sooner than the typical American did. Now, if you’re coming across our content and you’re 42 years old, you’re going to quickly realize, hey, I probably need to have a savings rate that’s 30% or more depending upon how your employer’s money and how much you make is structured. So, this thing’s already a very mathematical driven solution. And it’s not something that Bo and I just got in a room and said, “Hey, 25% sounds like that’s a quarter of 100, so let’s just do that.” No, there was actually some math involved in this.

Bo: And you know, the conventional wisdom used to be save 10%, save 10%, save 10%. And we started looking at it. We’re like, man, there’s a lot of people that are going to get to retirement. They’re going to get there. And pensions aren’t here. And people are saving later. And 10% just might not get it done for the average American. If the average American doesn’t start saving for retirement until sometime between age 30 and 33, 10% might not be the right number. And so that’s one of the ways we said, “Hey, let’s come up with a number. Let’s use the math to assign the highest probability of success for the most amount of people that can employ this specific strategy.”

Brian: Well, I think it’s, you know, this is where I love that I’ve been doing this long enough that I know the history of a lot of things is that I think about the books that inspired me, The Wealthy Barber, The Millionaire Next Door. And like the Wealthy Barber, well, we all know David is Canadian, so they have a completely different retirement savings structure than we do. So, his savings rate was much lower when he wrote that in the mid-90s. And then also a different safety net structure than what we have down here in the States. And then I think about like Millionaire Next Door, that was back during the pensions because that was also in the mid-90s when that came out. And then even books that have come alongside us. Dave came out with Total Money Makeover in the 90s. That was a lot of the same things that was talked about earlier with the pensions were much more prevalent back then. We’re like the modern system that really I feel like is the intersection point of where what people are doing, what the math says. And I’m proud of that fact because a lot of these things got really popular back in the 90s. But has anybody updated it? So, I’d like to say our system is kind of tested and it’s ready for you.

Rebie: That’s great. Go to moneyguy.com/resources and scroll down till you see How Much Should You Save and that will help you see a little peek behind the curtain on the math that they were just talking about on how much you should save. And then also Brick House123, if you would like a Money Guy Tumbler, just email [email protected].

Live Q&A – Judgment-Free Spending Budget (55:38)

Rebie: All right, let’s do one more from It’s Me, Jay Tolentino. It says, “My spouse and I are on step seven and want to add a judgment-free spending amount to our budget. Any rules or advice for calculating how much we can spend to bedazzle our basic lives?”

Bo: Is this judgment? I’m assuming this is going to be yours and my judgment free. Like I can spend this much and you can spend this much. That’s how I took it. Is that the way that you interpret it? So, what’s the safe spending number where it’s judgment free? Do you and your wife have that like a hey up to this much we don’t check in with each other but it’s kind of like oh yeah, no questions asked?

Brian: I mean first of all step seven, this is really a step eight question because you need to make sure you’re saving and investing at least 25%. So I’m assuming you’re saying that you’re beyond that point and then it’s very personal at that point. That’s why the technical term is prepaid future expenses but I always say the good time rock and roll title is the abundance goals and that’s more of a personal conversation. I know, I don’t, if my wife went and spent a few thousand bucks on something, I’d at least like to know about it, but we don’t really have accountability.

Bo: One of the great things about having a cash management plan and a systematic savings where you know that you’re already funding the savings. In my opinion, it doesn’t really matter. We don’t have a check-in because we know that we’re already funding the goals. We’re already putting money in the buckets. We’re already giving the way that we want to give. We’re already saving the way that we want to save. So that way when it comes to spending, there’s not really a lot of tension there because we’re highly aligned on stuff. Now, as a courtesy, in our marriage, and if my sweetheart, if you’re out there listening, I love you. She tends to be the bigger spender than I am. She gets more utility out of spending than I do. But she is good. Like if there’s something she wants to do, hey, I want to do this thing to the house or I want to work through this renovation or whatever, she certainly runs it by me. But it’s not so much because she’s worried about me judging her. Just because we like to do stuff together. We like to have these conversations. We like to talk about those sorts of things. And so, one of the things I’d figure out, and this is just I’m kind of getting to the other side of this question. I don’t really judge my wife on the things that she wants to spend money on because she values things differently than I do. Whether it be throw pillows, I put less than zero value on those or even hair care, skincare, or those sorts of things. And so I want us to feel like, hey, we can be on the same page for the goals that we’re working towards, but when it comes to the way that we both individually consume, judgment’s not even really a concern. It doesn’t even really come in the lexicon.

Brian: Well, one that came to my mind thinking about me and my wife, it’s cars. I’m in my 50s now and I’ve been very transparent and confessional. My wife’s new car, it was such a bad decision that we leased it. And I think about if you’re going to make a bad decision, you don’t want to own that. You want to rent a bad decision. You don’t want to own that bad decision. So there’s a difference between making that decision in your 50s versus if we had done that in our early 30s just because we were saving 25%. So I think that context definitely comes into play is what’s the obligation and what’s the opportunity cost of anything that you’re doing. Because I don’t want people to get to step eight of the Financial Order of Operations when they don’t have a lot of money and think, “Hey, now I can go live this great life.” Yeah. I mean, which I guess technically you could as long as you just know what you’re getting into and what the tail is for this decision. I mean, when I say tail, I mean like how long of an impact because obviously car purchases and big purchases is different than throw pillows.

Bo: And when I think about bedazzling the basic life, often times I think that’s a joint endeavor, right? Like I don’t think about bedazzling my basic life and her bedazzling her basic life. Those are the things that we do together that make both of our lives better.

Brian: Even when they’re judgment free, my wife knows I don’t love the car.

Bo: Oh, you’re very judgy about the car. She loves that car. I think that’s why every day she’s like I love this car. And I’m like okay I’m glad you love it. My wife knows how I feel about throw pillows.

Rebie: Someone said Bo bringing up throw pillows again. They live rent-free in his mind.

Bo: You know, it’s so funny because here’s the thing. This is how you know that trauma sticks around. Oh dear. She doesn’t even really have a throw pillow. I just remember early on in our marriage, that was the thing. We had so many. I was like your first I don’t know she probably hasn’t bought a throw pillow in ages at this point. But from early on in our marriage, it was an issue because I just perceived it as such a ridiculous waste of money.

Brian: Can I tell you something that I’ve learned? I learned this in the last two weeks on throw pillows. As you get into nicer throw pillows, they don’t even come with a pillow, that sham. Like even the decorative pillows, I saw my wife when they arrived, it was just the outside. It’s just the outside and then you’ve got to go buy when you buy these fancy ones, you’re buying you’re paying a fortune for how it looks and then you have to go pay a fortune for the filler.

Rebie: How it feels, the comfort. Yeah. Softness level of the pillow. Oh, and believe me, I could show you.

Brian: I’ll show you some throw pillows.

Rebie: Someone said, “Throw pillows haunt Bo’s dreams.”

Closing – Join Us Next Week (1:01:30)

Rebie: And on that note, thank you for joining us for this Ask Money Guy show. But for real, we love answering your questions, whether they’re long form or rapid fire. We love chatting with you about everything from throw pillows to 529s. So, we will be back here Tuesday at 10 a.m. Central answering more of your questions. And until then, be sure to check out moneyguy.com because we are always adding new resources, more to the archive of episodes, making it more searchable than ever. So, moneyguy.com is always there for you, even when we turn the cameras off. Thanks for being here, guys.

Brian: We have a blast. Thanks so much. I’m your host, Brian, joined by Mr. Bo, rest of the content team. Money Guy out.