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1 - Is it worth paying $5,500 for a real estate investing course?
2 - Given the two options, should I choose a lifetime pension or an employer-provided match?
3 - How do I ensure that my younger kids don’t receive their inheritance all at once, were I to unexpectedly pass?
4 - Should I use the money saved from the 100 Envelope Challenge to pay debt, save, or to invest?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Had the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
We're gonna answer some of your listener questions.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
That's right, buddy, Let's kick the week off with a
fresh batch of listener questions that we're going to get to.
He got a batch makes me think of cookies. He
always like interrupt me, like right before I get into saying, well,
we're actually going to talk about it. That's what I do,
all right, listeners right in do you love it or
do you hate it? Because it's fun because we get
to we go, we screw around and talk about whatever
it is that we want to talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Right now, I just want a cookie?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Is that what you're saying? Is it makes you say
at yeah, making a batch of cookies chocolate chip? Is
there anything better than the glorious bait good smell of
fresh chocolate chip cokeys.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
The only thing better than that is me interrupting you.
I would take fresh.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Batch of cookies any day the way. No, we do
have some great listener questions. A listener is wanting to
make the most of a money challenge that he has
succeeded in. What to do with that money. Another listener
is wondering what the best free options are when it
comes to creating a will. We'll get to that plus
other aspects of his question, as well as if a
pricey real estate investing course is worth it. You remember
(01:22):
that show worth It where the two guys, Oh, that
was like the best food show of all time? Is
that still going? I don't know you saying something about cookies,
because they did all sorts of it was two dudes
was one of the three. One of the guys was Asian, because.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
The camera dude would come in and he would be
part of the show at times.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
But if they were rating different versions of a food item,
like the cheap version, the medium priced option, or like
the premium really expensive option, and their goal was to
decide whether or not there was it was worth it.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
He's like the three dollars Hamburger of the best or
is it two hundred and fifty dollars Hamburger the best?
The one with the one between with gold flake right right, Yes,
that kind of ridiculous. And I was like, always thought
that our show could be a version of that for
personal finance, but in podcast form, I don't think we're
as good as those guys.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
But is the course worth it. They were really getting
off course, off track this way, which is uh, well,
you gotta get going too, because you've got to make
a We got to record this episode.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
First appointment, I'm gonna have to go to the orthodonist
this afternoon, take my almost nine year old there, and man,
it just makes me think. This is one of those
things that parents need to plan for and think about,
and it's It can be expensive, but pain and cash
can save you a little bit of money.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Teeth costs money, yeah, and paying all all.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
In up front in a lump sum can also help
you save money instead of paying every single.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
But it's more painful.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Oh my gosh, it feels like a punch in the
face when you write that check the teeth, those are expensive.
Don't un her in the face. Those two are getting
corrected right now. But yeah, I guess pray for me
because I'm taking to get to the orthodonist this afternoon.
And yeah, for someone who likes to be frugal, I
realize this is painful. It's a necessary expense, but it's
also a big one.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah. All right, that's our banter, no other no other talk,
so that you can move on to that appointment. During
this episode, you and I are going to enjoy a
barrel aged Old rasputin which I am not sure if
I've I know I've had Old raspooton before. I don't
know if I've ever had the barrel age same variant.
This is by North Coast Brewing Company. Looking forward to
sharing our thoughts at the end of.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
The episode of Classic Beers. This has been around a
long time. Yeah, and when I saw the barrel age,
I was like, Okay, gotta pick that one up.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, I gotta pick what we do here the twist
on a great beer.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
How to money? That's right, enjoy craft beer? All right?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
If you have a money question for us, just record
a voice memo on the app on your phone, send
it our way via email. Hopefully we'll take it next
week on the show. And if you want the full
directions for how to do that, just got to have
to money dot com slash ask and there are tons
of great resources up on our site at howtomoney dot com. Matt,
let's get to our first question today. This one is
about an expensive online course.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Hi'm Matt and Joel. This is THEO in Atlanta. I
had a question regarding a real estate investor course for newbies.
I live a death free lifestyle and I own my
primary home outright with no mortgage. I'm a maximum retirement
saver to my four to one k, my Wroth, and
(04:09):
my HISA at work, and I wanted to kind of
diversify and get into real estate. And I came across
an online offering of a course that goes for about
twelve months, involves a lot of one on one mentoring
in small groups, but the price tag is five five
hundred dollars, which is pretty expensive. So I was wondering
(04:32):
if you could recommend some other options that I could
get my feet wet with learning what I need to
know as a first time real estate investor, but at
a lower price point than five hundred dollars. So love
the show and hope you can give me some help.
Thank you, COO.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I too hope that we can help you out. No promises,
though I'm going to do my part. We'll see if
Joel pull his end of the bar.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Because this is where we show where we state that
this show is for entertainment purposes only.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
It's for entertainment only. It's true. So when you know
what this makes me think of On a recent Friday flight,
we talked about drop shipping, of us becoming an attractive
pursuit is a side gig. I guess for some folks
at least a lot of people selling you a course
to try to tell you that big bust influencers trying
to basically sell you on their course. They're basically praying
(05:25):
on people's desire to make easy money as opposed to
focusing on the actual job of being a drop ship
or why like, why are you making a ton of
money that way as opposed to trying to lure people
in with marketing it's so lucrative, fancy videos.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Why aren't you spending your time making money instead of
trying to sell me a course telling me that I
can make it exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah. So I'm not saying that this is what's going
on here with this expensive real estate course, but it
seems like a familiar pattern, which is, you know, I
like seeing patterns out in the world, and anytime you
see something, you're like, wait a minute, that kind of
seems like this other thing that I know is a scam.
That does make you think twice about this other thing
that is perceived as a little bit more legit.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It's I feel like I'm seeing more and more online
courses pop up, and I'm not going to say that
none of them are worth the money. And there are
people that put a lot of hard work into creating
those online courses, and they've got some people are really
to have a ton of expertise. Still, I would be
really hesitant to fork over all this money for a
(06:20):
course to learn about real estate investing, especially when there
are such great, free and cheap resources already in existence.
And so it makes me think of hiring a property
management manager mat. I think some people think that that's
the silver bullet to invest in real estate and make
big bucks not have to really put much as much
effort as the average person into that investment. But I
(06:41):
would want to learn by doing first right, it's going
to help you know what questions to ask when hiring
a potential property manager and to not get hoodwinked by
potentially a bad property manager. So THEO I would say
this before plopping down big bucks on a course that
promises big results, DIY, you're learning via free and cheap methods,
for I would yes exhaust that, at least before I
(07:03):
kind of went down this path of inexpensive online course.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yep. So if you didn't hear anything else, there's your answer.
But in regards to some of the different free options
out there, I'm just thinking about there are tons of books.
I feel like I learned the most from the Keller
Williams A Millionaire Investor book when I was first getting
into investing in a great I want to start with. Yeah,
but there are tons of different podcasts out there. There's
Facebook groups, all of those can be free, and in fact,
we've got a few prior episodes that we'll link to
(07:26):
in the show notes and which actually makes me think
about our podcast. It is free, But I do know
that folks also don't love podcast ads. But this is
why we monetize our show in this way, Like we
like the idea of being able to do this full time,
but being able to give everything away going to cost
you a little bit of your time with the different
advertisements that you might hear. But we're not planning on
(07:47):
launching any courses that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars
because I don't know, we prefer the advertising model.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
What's more annoying paying Matt and Joel A ten dollars
grip every month or listening to a few ads, right,
And I agree. I think that I always prefer the
d support of model. I think ads can be helpful
something you get more annoyed with the streaming ads. I
don't mind because I know it's saying many big bucks.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
It's when it's when you have gotten used to the
fact that there haven't been ads to see with podcasts,
there have always been ads, Yeah, as opposed to when
you're used to watching a movie on DVD or something
like that. You're used to the movie experience where you're
sitting there, you're enjoying the cinematic marvel that is before you,
and then it's just like this great highly dramatized moment
and then boom it like cuts to a Huggi's commercial
(08:28):
or something like that. Like it's like, oh, come on,
you've totally killed the vibe here.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
We're less marvelous and also the cool thing. And we're
not supposed to say this out loud. You can skip bats.
So there's that.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Okay. So, as we're talking about some of these different courses,
I do want to highlight Chad Carson. He is, of
course one of our favorite folks within the rental real
estate game, but a lot of the different real estate
stuff that's out there, it's honestly incredibly complex, and it's
aimed at folks who are interested in building a real
estate empire. They're counting the number of properties they have
by the doors, and you hear people talking about how
(08:58):
many doors you got, Yeah, you know, they're like seventy eight,
two hundred doors.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So much of the time, the emphasis is on bigger
is better. That's how they market it, and then people
get their eyes get as big as saucers, Matt. But
typically then the follow through that feels overwhelming and most
people aren't going to go for that exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, most folks don't actually want that. And I think
a lot of folks what they're looking for is kind
of how we talk about real estate. They're looking for
a portfolio of like two or three or eight or
nine different properties right that can cash flow, they can
appreciate over time. You provide a little bit of income now,
but with major upside later. And I'm highlighting Chad because
he does have a course, it's not nearly the cost
(09:35):
of the one that THEO is talking about here. And
if you are going to pay for something. We think
for most people, that is the kind of model that
most folks are going to be drawn to as well,
versus the I'm going to build a real estate empire
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I also just want to say, Matt that THEO is
actually in a good position to invest in real estate
if he's so inclined, and it sounds like he is inclined,
he is interested. I think some people attempt to get
into real estate too early in the wealth building journey. Right,
They've got too much debt, they haven't really invested in
the traditional routes, and so they're looking for something exotic
before they've mastered the basics. That's not a good idea.
(10:09):
But in Theo's case, he has the basics covered. He
said he's a max retirement savers. He says, yet no mortgage, right,
so he's in a perfect position owns his home outright, right,
who is in that kind of position?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I think out.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Quality, he can save up money. I almost thinking like this,
like why not check out real estate when you're maxing
out retirement accounts?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
You have no debt?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And the truth is it could move the needle for
him in a major way. It could allow him more flexibility,
the ability to grow his net worth even faster, although
I do stress could because when we're talking about real estate,
it's not a sure thing and there's obviously more work
involved too than with traditional investing.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, especially given the current market. Right, Like, if we
were talking about buying a rental property back in like
twenty eleven, twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, well, it was a
lot harder to fail based on housing prices, based on
interest rates. If you took a buy and hold strategy,
were somewhat savvy, well you did quite well for yourself
as an investor.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Who's almost like shooting fish in a barrel back then, yes, right,
and now it's not Now it's like shooting fish in
the ocean, which is possible, it's just harder.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
It's a lot harder. I mean when we first met, like,
we first met around then, and the topic of real
estate it dominated our conversations, Joel, like, in fact, so
much so that even when we were thinking about starting
the podcast, and I think it was late twenty seventeen,
we thought about only focusing on real estate because in
the prior years, that's that was such a large aspect
of our personal finances. But I'm glad we didn't because
(11:34):
you like talking about the things you're interested in, and
I think we're maybe less interested in real estate because
the winds have shift. How much do we talk about
real estate now, Matt, not nearly, as Oden, We're less
interested now, so I wanted to I don't know mention
that as And that's not just because it's not because
we don't think real estate can be a good investment.
It's because it's much harder to do. Like we knew
back then. We're in a special era where it makes
(11:56):
it's easy. At least, I feel like we were like, hey,
there is a opportunity here, and because of that, it
was something that we're pouncing on as opposed to I
will say, it does seem like the market might be
shifting a little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Net it's not we always talk about this. You can
find a deal in any market. It's particularly hard as
a NEWB investor, and so you might just be getting
started at a really difficult time. And so I guess
more than i'd hate for THEO to drop more than
five grand essentially into this course. And we're talking about
affordability still being at record lows it's a tough time
to get started.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yeah. Also, i'd say if you're looking for the human touch,
if you're looking for the ability to learn from other folks,
we'll join a local real estate investors group. There are
a lot of these groups. They're kind of like region
specific or city specific. So if you're in Atlanta, you're
going to easily find a few. They typically meet like
once a month, and we would suggest for you to
hit those up and then just start asking questions based
(12:50):
on what it is that you've been learning from some
of the resources that we've already mentioned. Find someone who
owns a few rental properties, Find somebody who is doing
the thing that you are doing. Try to figure out
where does that they're seeing opportunity right now, maybe asking
them what mistakes they learned the hard way that you
can completely avoid.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Emily and I were at a dinner recently, and it's
kind of annoying because there was like some real estate
meet up, local real estate meet up in the background there.
Some guy was on the mic, but I was listening
to some of what he was saying, and I was like, man,
that guy's actually really smart. He's got a lot of wisdom.
When it comes to investing in real estate. He wasn't
over selling, over hyping it, and he was giving a
lot of good information. So if you can join a
group like that, don't do it at the restaurant Emily
(13:28):
and I are going to next week, please, But if
you can join a group like that and you're learning
from people who are doing it, I think that's really powerful.
And I think you can, Yeah, you can do that
without paying an arm and a leg to get that education.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I do think that there's a temptation for folks to
want to hit the easy button. And what I do
think you can get from a good course is a
well delivered packet of information, regardless of how it is
that you learn that information. But I think a lot
of folks are a tempted into paying for that, thinking
that it's also going to give them the results, right,
and so like, yes, that will be yeah, well, and
(14:00):
it is the silver bullet in the case of information,
Like you're gonna learn some great stuff and it's going
to be it's gonna remove all the legwork. You're not
gonna have to listen to all the different podcasts and
do all that. But it doesn't necessarily guarantee that you're
gonna find the right properties and that you're gonna be
making banks. So keep that in mind as well. But uh, Joe,
we got more to get to. We are gonna hear
from a listener who he's wanted to get all of
(14:21):
his ducks lined up in a row, maybe before he
kicks the bucket. We'll get to that and more right
after this. At what you said before the break kind
of scared me. Do we have a listener's on desk doork?
I'm no, not like that. Okay, it's I don't know.
It's something that we're all gonna face at some point,
(14:42):
so it may as well just be able to talk
about it in sometimes humorous ways.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Is now the right time to announce our really expensive
course that we just launched on how to Money dot Com?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
It's true, Okay, let's do it. Go check it out.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
It's only four thousand dollars how Money dot Com Forward
Slash course.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
What a deal.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
All, Let's get to our next question. This one comes
from a listener who's got a couple of differ retirement
options he wants to run by us.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Hey guys, this is Mike from Albany. I've been a
fan since last year when you graciously recorded a surprise
birthday video for my wife Emily, who's a huge fan.
Here's my question. I'm in my early forties and I
just started a job with New York State that's giving
me two different retirement options to pick from. The first
is a traditional pension that requires twenty years of service,
(15:24):
and I can get the full benefit at age sixty three,
which would be thirty five percent of the top three
year average salary. While I'm there, I do have to
contribute six percent of my weekly salary and perpetuity for this.
The other option has a little more flexibility and it's
brand new. It's called an enhanced four to one A
(15:45):
that also requires a weekly six percent paycheck deduction. However,
at the end of every year, New York State gives
me an eight percent match for self guided investment through
the four to one A. Now that does not require
a twenty year vesting period. It vests only after one year,
so if I leave, I can take that with me
somewhere else. Currently, my retirement savings are about five hundred
(16:06):
thousand dollars in an old IRA that I rolled over
from some four oh one k's and I also contribute
seven percent every week to a rowth four to fifty
seven B that has no match. So my question is
which retirement option do you think is smarter given my age,
given the fact that I have so much money already
in the market. Should I stick with the safety of
the traditional pension or should I roll the dice with
(16:28):
the enhanced four h one A and that eight percent match?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Ah, Matt, you remember making that video for Mike's wife. Yep,
we're happy to do it.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
We were. It wasn't just us, it was he was
putting together a bunch of like friends and I guess
podcasts maybe two that she listens to. Yeah, the folks
who are wishing her a happy birthday. And we are
not on Cameo. I know.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Cameo is one of those sites where you can hire
George Santos of all people, but really like the people
of all the different actual celebrities. He's a celebrity for
the wrong reasons. But yeah, like, we're not doing that.
But if I don't know, if you want Matt to
record a video for your loved one, let him know.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, I don't have to be both ways. So you
say that we aren't on cameo, Joe, but you are
so Joe. Actually he's a he's got an onlyfan since
it's only eight ninety nine a month, huh. And you
can basically talk to Joel at twenty four hours a
day like whenever it is that you want to talk to.
Those pictures of me and my no pick running shorts, No,
no pictures, it's just audio, which is like your dream
come true. So our ability to fire this and our
(17:27):
course up after the end of this recording exactly, no
my orthodonosy bo. Yeah, well I got to hurry up here, Mike.
Let's talk about your age, because you specifically mentioned you're
in your early forties, and that first retirement option, the pension,
it's all about you working there with the state for
another twenty years. So how long it is that you
(17:47):
plan on working, and whether or not you plan on
staying in one place, and I'm talking like literally geographically
there in New York State, or even just career career wise,
whether you want to stay in that same position. These
are things that are really important aspects of this decision.
So let's say maybe you're not planning on working until
you're sixty three, Well, I would take this option completely
off the table, and I think the same is true
(18:09):
if you don't plan on working for this specific government
organization for all of those years as well, you're kind
of taking the golden handcuffs direction by signing up for
option one. And this is only amplified to by the
fact that he said he just started working for New
York straight. I think he said last year, and so
it's kind of risky in my mind. He was ten, twelve,
fifteen years in. You've got a good feel for what
(18:31):
the company is like or just what's going on. But
this is a relatively I don't know, one year in
you might still almost be in like the honeymoon phase,
and so I would be very hesitant to say yes
to Option one at least at this point in the game.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
But Matt, it's also important to mention you said golden handcuffs.
There's a reason in this scenario the handcuffs are made
of gold and that stainless seel. Right, the payout can
truly be incredible if you jump through the hoops, if
you work there the required number of years and basically
can be ultimately more financially rewarding than contributing to a
defined contribution could be right. So dropping six percent of
(19:07):
your pay and getting thirty five percent of your top
salary in perpetuity for decades sounds like a pretty good
trade off.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
It's not the best. Like so we like, there's some
folks we've talked with and it was like seventy five
percent of their annual salary, which I'm like, all right,
that would be more. It's a no brainer. That is amazing.
Whereas I hear thirty five percent and it's like, eh,
you know it's decent. Yeah, yeah, agreed it always considering sure,
if it was a higher percentage, then I would think
that it would be I would be a little more attempted,
(19:34):
longer and harder. You say, oh, yeah, it seems like
a slam dunk.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Because the truth is that what you're getting to is
what you gain in potential retirement security you give up
in options. Yes, And so let's say you have family
somewhere else Mike in the country, you feel compelled to
move to be close by them. If your job can't
be done remotely with this employer, you might find that
your retirement savings plan that seemed off the charts great
is now non existent. Right that you're you basically lost
(19:59):
out on a good chunk of this pension that you'd
receive in retirement because you couldn't stick it out the
full length of time. Not because it wasn't your intention,
but because in reality, that's just not how your life
laid out.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, And it's hard to know what the future holds.
There are a lot of different scenarios, right Like, let's
just imagine you're eight years into the job. You get
a new boss who's a complete jerk. Well, are you
going to continue working under that insufferable jerk for twelve
more years because it's necessary to be able to have
a decent retirement and you want to make sure that
you snag that pension. That's tough.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah, Should I hate my life for the next time?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
You know? What do you want your life to look like?
And I know we're being kind of hard on option
one here, but if you like this potential job and
you see yourself there over the long term, even if
you can't be one hundred percent sure that you'll be
there for the full twenty years, I think maybe the
upside of the pension is pretty sweet, right, Like, maybe
you are taking a very different approach to work and
how it is that you view your job your your career.
(20:52):
I think it's a gamble either way. But I do
think it would be easier to say yes to option
one if you are ready to com completely hunkered down,
settle in, if you are sure that this is going
to be your final job. I just know that for me,
I couldn't say yes to that because the I mean
being locked down for twenty years. My goals they morph
(21:13):
over time, and they don't even more. Sometimes they completely shift,
and so new people every seven years. That's what I think, truly,
And so for me, like I haven't done anything for
twenty years. I haven't even been married for twenty years,
even though I certainly intend to be married for many
years beyond twenty years. But yeah, the idea, he told me,
that's not what you want, the idea of working in
the same job. It would just limit the optionality that
(21:35):
I might wouldn't want to have. And it's not that
I wouldn't want to work at some point off in
the future, It's just that I think I might want
it to look like something different than what it looks
like today.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I my first job, my first real long term job,
Matt was fourteen years that's a long time for a
millennial like that is, dude, doesn't really happen. And leaving
that job was in some ways really tough because I
loved it, I love the people I work with. But
in other ways I was ready to move on to
the next chapter and I and I had had to
stay there six more years even though I loved what
I didn't I love the people I work with in
(22:05):
order to jump through the golden handcuff hoop what I've
done it, I don't know. That's a tough decision. Probably not,
And it's been a tough six years. Yeah, so I
guess to learn from that, even just my own personal experience,
even when it's something you love, even if it's not
like all the bosses a jerk, still like, your goals
and what you want out of life can change totally
and you can't even predict those things. So let's talk
about the four oh one A for a second. Some
(22:25):
listeners might have thought you misspoke, dropped a different letter
after four oh one on accident or something, but no.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
The four one A yeah, yeah, kind of like, hey, Jessica.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
It's very similar to a four to one K. But
for government workers, you're getting essentially an eight percent match
for investing six percent, which is pretty darn good. Yeah,
that sounds better to me. That sounds really good. And
ultimately a man it might pay less than Let's say
he did this for twenty years and contributed the six
and got the eight, he might have well one less
of a guarantee and two less money in retirement. But
(22:57):
it's close enough. And this option adds so much more
flexibility that even if you don't stay the full twenty
you've done well for yourself. So I would say this
is probably the slam dunk option unless you're one hundred
percent sure you're going to be here for a long time.
The one thing I'd want to look into is how
the money's going to be invested in the four oh
onna because you typically have fewer options and they're more
(23:19):
conservative options. So like, for instance, you might not be
able to invest in a low cost s and P
five hundred fund. I would want to know that ahead
of time. So while the match is sweet, if the
investments are too conservative, that could also impact your decision.
And by the way, once you sign up for that plan,
you may not be able to dial back your contribution amount.
The employer decides if it's mandatory. But I guess really
(23:40):
neither one of these scenarios Matt, Mike is going to
have essentially a mandatory contribution that he's going to have
to give anyway, and ultimately we don't want him to
go below that investment percentage anyway.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah, a quick note about you mentioned how he may
not have access to the SMP, you know, like a
low cost, widely different slide index fund. Basically a lot
of times the four O one A options are bomb
because it's the government, it's super conservative, and so, like
you said, make sure that you are aware of your
investing options because if you're thinking ten percent annual returns
with this, you might not probably going to be less.
(24:10):
You might not have ACCESSI because Mike has done such
an awesome job when it comes to he said, he
rolled over a previous four to one K into his IRA.
He's got like a pretty fat IRA sitting over there.
And if it was me, if I was in the situation,
I would totally take the four to one A get
the match, knowing that at the end of every year
you're going to be able to collect that thing, as
opposed to having to have the carrot dangled out in
(24:32):
front of you for twenty years. Know that you're invested
perhaps in bonds, which is often the case, which is
much more conservative than a total stock exposure. But then
guess what he said, He's got like over five hundred
thousand over in his other ira go hog wild when
it comes to stocks over there. Maintain that exposure to
the overall stock market there to sort of make up
because typically in your forties you start seeing your portfolio
(24:54):
shift towards bonds in order to become more conservative. But
you're doing that with the contributions you're making to your
four O one A and that you're surely every year,
and so in a way, you're you kind of have
your own target date fund that is like yourself, just
by continuing to do this work. And so just if
it was me, I would one hundred percent make sure
that I was invested either in the total stock market
(25:15):
or the s and P of F hundred. I would
honestly even be tempted to like use my full five
percent that we say, hey for riskier investments or if
you want to dabble in individual companies. I think if
it was me, I would say, you know what, I'm
going to take full license of that, maybe in order
to pursue a little bit more risk to kind of
offset the bonds. Is that Paul Merriman small cap value,
(25:36):
it's a little a little riskier for the potential for
a higher payoff. I might do that with a solid
five percent. He does it with much more than that.
And so I guess I'm giving you license to certainly
not worry about being too aggressively invested within your IRA
because of the fact that you know you are likely
to be invested more conservatively when it comes to your
four WA I think what we're ultimately getting at is
(25:57):
it's really hard to predict the future and that that's
really at the heart of this decision that Mike has
to make. Even Matt it reminds me of they have
like specific state specific five twenty nine plans that are prepaid,
and it's a very very similar sort of situation where oh, hey,
actually it's going to be cheaper to send my kid
to a state school in Florida if you live in
Florida if I do this prepaid plan instead of doing
(26:19):
the post paid five twenty nine plan. And I get
why people want to do that, because it means ultimately
it's going to be a lower price tag for college,
But then you're also saying I'm going to indoctrinate my
child and to go to the University of Florida or
Florida State or whatever instead of what if they end
up like wanting to go somewhere else. I mean even
just in a neighboring state, but potentially across the country somewhere.
(26:40):
That's the risk you're taking you on, and it's an
unknown for something like for a lot of parents who
are starting early sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years down the road.
That's kind of what Mike is doing, and that's why
I'm kind of typically sour on some of those prepaid plans,
even though it will mean it's cheaper, but it also
just prevents any sort of flexibility and that can be
tough the stomach. That's right. Let's hear from our next listener, Joel,
(27:02):
who has the same number of kids that you do
and he's trying to make the right money moves.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
Hey man, Joel, this is Joe from Fairfax. I've got
a couple of not of fun questions, but hopefully you
all can help us out with some ideas My wife
and I have three kids, and we're lucky that her
sister and husband are willing to take them on if
the worst case were to happen and we were to
both pass away. We know they'll be great parents, but
(27:28):
we're just wondering, logistically, how do you work it into
your will so that the people who take custody of
the children get some money to upgrade their house, upgrade,
you know, buy a big van, provide our kids the
same type of opportunities we would hope to had we survived. Also,
(27:50):
relating to life insurance, we both have you know, pretty
sizable term policies so that the surviving parent would be
able to take care of the kids in an unfortunate event.
But if again, if neither parents survive, does someone need
to be listed in the policy for it to pay
(28:12):
out or does it always get paid out? And then
also just wondering if you have any ideas for how
to make sure our kids don't necessarily get that full
of them sum right at eighteen. Any information you guys
can provide on this would be much appreciated.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
All right, Matt, that's a good question, a tough one
right for parents, but it's a necessary one. And this
is I think because it's a tough question and you're
talking about subject matter that most of us.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Would prefer not to think about.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
A lot of people kick the can too far down
the road, whether it's we're talking life insurance for creating
a will, it's actually so much easier than you think
it's going to be. It's maybe take a few hours
of your time, and it's worth it because you're protecting
your family. So Joe, glad you're thinking about this. I
haven't told you Matt yet, but you're going to be
taking my kids. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 4 (29:01):
You?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Okay, sure, I've figured out I put you on the
spot in the middle of this answer.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I think we can handle it. Let's we'll have a
conversation off air. How about okay, actually your second in line.
I think my folks are first in line, as long as,
like Joe, you're gonna throw throw me a few bones. Uh,
don't worry, because I mean, well, Joe was saying that,
he's like, I want to make sure that they receive
some money so that they can whatever, upgrade the house,
make sure that to afford them the opportunities. I think
it's totally reasonable to like, whoever has my kids, they
(29:28):
have all my money, that's right, that's basically because I mean,
I want them to be able to afford all the
same opportunities that granted in the moment, maybe they're going
to make slightly different decisions, but hopefully it's not because
of money.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
It's not a lack of resources that prevents them from
being able to take care of your kids the way
you'd want them.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Exactly. Yeah, Okay, so some folks who have more complex situations,
they might want to hire an attorney, a lawyer who
specializes in a state planning. But many folks will be
able to turn to online will creation software that exists
out there, and they've gotten really good. So I'm saying
this because I don't want you to feel like Joe
that you've got to fork over big bucks in order
(30:05):
to get this thing done.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
You have to pay somebody thousands of dollars to sit
down and that massive fat hourly rate. Thanks to technology,
a lot of folks can avoid that and you save
a lot of money in the process, exactly.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
And so just when you're filling out that information online
and creating that will, you get to choose guardians if
you and your wife were to both pass at the
same time. But you can also choose secondary guardians as well,
and so like for some folks, Joel, like you mentioned,
you know, maybe picking your parents, but if they are
getting up there in years, you might want to have
your besties down there as those backup sort of secondary guardians.
(30:38):
That's what you are, You're the secondary guardian. Yeah, yeah, again,
we need to talk about this. Make sure we're prepared.
You want me to punch you down to tertiary, Well, no,
I'm fine being secondary, but that's just got to make
sure we we got to talk that through. I like
to you know how I am. I like to think
about things and talk about things. You know how I am.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
I don't like to plan and I just like to
spraying things on you last minute.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I would just like to wing it. But so we
kind of tease to the fact that there are free
options out there, but do your own will. Dot com
is a great free online option. If there's a lot
of folks listening and you're thinking, Okay, we don't have
a ton of assets, let's just kind of get this
ball rolling. This is a great option. There's also freewill
dot com as well. We can link to both of
(31:16):
those in the show notes. And Trust and Will dot
com that's one meth that I used myself and it
was great. They lead you through the process.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
It's like one of those tax filing softwares essentially that
ask you all the right questions and they put so
much work on the front end to make sure they're
asking you the right stuff that you end up with
the right product on the back end.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
So yeah, it works well. Yeah, yeah, Like you said,
they walk you through the process and it's just they
make it the easiest, whereas with do your own will
dot com it's going to be a little trickier as
you're trying to figure out like, oh, what am I
supposed to put here? What am I supposed to put there? Yeah,
you're not going to run into that with trust and Will. Yeah,
all right, So let's get onto the heart of Joe's question.
When you're creating your will, Joe, you can choose to
leave portions of your estate to certain individuals, and of course,
(31:55):
if only one of you were to pass away, you
or your spouse, you'd want the other partner to hear
it all the assets. Typically, that's typically the choice you make.
But if you're both to pass away at the same time,
obviously hopefully not, you can designate who would get what.
Just know that if you want to particularly call out
certain assets for specific people inherit to inherit, there's a
place for you to do that in the will formation process.
(32:16):
And you mentioned too your kids inheriting money but wanting
to wait until a certain age for that to take place,
which totally makes sense, Like, yeah, you don't want them
all to get all the money that you have stockpiled
right when they turn eighteen. Most people want to avoid that,
And so basically you can allocate each child or percentage
of your assets. But if you're wanting them to be
(32:37):
a certain age further off in the distance, that's when
you want to create a trust in exactly. And you
can create a trust with a lot of these online
companies too, exactly. Yeah, And I think this is really
wise because you're not doing this because you don't love them, right,
It's not like that you don't necessarily trust them. It's
because kids brains aren't fully developed yet. I think, is
it like males, Like, truly our brains aren't completely developed
(32:57):
into we're twenty five years old. Can you imagine what
would have and if one hundred and fifty grand dropped
in your lap at age eighteen? More right, I mean,
like I think back to the decisions I made between
I mean, certainly younger than eighteen, but like so eighteen
is quote unquote true adulthood, right, but like, eh, I mean, yeah,
I guess I would have made some terrible decisions as
a newly formed adult. But like, man, that period of
(33:18):
time between eighteen and twenty five.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
It would be like an Amazon Prime The Breaks Baby
documentary about.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
You if that had happened. Yeah, with it a trust
as well, you can specify even that money gets allotted
in different increments or at different stages of life. Even so,
let's say, oh, okay, you can use this much money for
higher education, or you can say, hey, once you're married,
this much, or hey once you have kids. This is
what you're looking at. And again this isn't to be
(33:45):
overly controlling from the grave, but it's just to safeguard
those funds, to make sure that you're setting your kids
up for success.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
You don't want to be that puppeteer from beyond right,
still pulling the strings, creepy the John Malcovich per SEC
and you can. You can also do the same byway
with a life insurance policy, which I'm hoping you have.
I'm assuming you have, but it's really crucial to at
least mention this. The will is one thing, but if
you're worried about the financial reality and the financial prospects
(34:11):
that the people who will be taking care of your
children will face, a term life insurance policy is the
right and necessary path to take. And we always say
term life because it's way cheaper than whole life and
you're not going to need life insurance in all likelihood
twenty or thirty years down the line, you will have
been saving and investing and you'll be financially independent right
once you hit that kind of sixty year mark.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Hopefully your kids.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Are going to be grown hopefully too by then. So
it just means that, hey, life insurance is far less
of a necessity. We have a life insurance step by
step guide we're going to link to. But just know
that having that life insurance policy is going to provide
a lot of peace of mind. It's going to provide
a big financial backstop to your partner if you were
to pass away. But then Also, if you and your
partner were to pass away to the people who would
be taking care of your kids, they can essentially be
(34:55):
the beneficiary of your life insurance policy, and that is huge.
You're setting them and your kids up for success from
beyond the grave matifest the case totally.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah. I don't want to say there's an order of
things that you should do here, but if it was
me and I didn't have either of these in place,
I'd be looking at getting life insurance in place first.
Because if you don't have a will, and if you
and your wife were to pass, that's called dying intestate,
which is always like that word, it always sounds like
a gi issue that's any might have. But the court
decides what happens essentially, but like eventually, and yes it's
(35:25):
a headache, but eventually they're going to figure things out, right,
It's not like everything evaporates and disappears, right, Like they're
gonna maybe not the way you would have drawn it out,
maybe not exactly, which is why you want to have
a will. It's the court and they're going to do
things in the manner that they believe is most fair
and most just. But like you said, if you have
particular requests. That's why you set this thing up. But
guess what, when it comes to having money to pass on,
(35:47):
it's not like if you don't get life insurance that
the government is going to be like, you know what,
we got your back. He didn't set this up. There's
no additional money that's like floating out there. That's that's
going to get paid to your next of kin or
any of your kids. That kind of thing. I agree
that takes top priority over the world, So keep that
in mind. But Joe, you're talking about like beneficiaries and
life insurance. Of course the first beneficiary should be your spouse,
(36:10):
but then make sure that you designate a second one.
In this case, your friends who are going to be
or your wife's sister. I guess who's going to be
tasked with providing for and taken care of your kids.
If you're leaving behind, let's say a home with four
hundred thousand dollars in equity, and if you're leaving behind
a life insurance policy for half a million dollars, well
that's going to go a long way towards helping them
(36:31):
to provide. It's going to help them to be able
to afford those upgrades that they're inevitably going to need.
But I think those two steps, those two things combined
should give you peace of mind and a financial backstop
for those worst case scenarios. One last thing, when it
comes to beneficiaries, remember too that the beneficial whoever you
designate as the beneficiary, when it comes to some of
your different accounts, so certainly life insurance, but also when
(36:52):
it comes to any investments that you might have, that
overrides what you have in your will, So pay close
attention to that. And may this be a reminder to
everybody else out there who maybe they set up their
different investment accounts a long time ago, and you just
want to make sure you don't have somebody the name
does a beneficiary who's no longer in your life. Maybe
double check x some sort. We covered that story on Friday,
(37:13):
Flag Telling Yeah, totally what I'm thinking of, And yeah,
it was like his ex girlfriend from thirty forty years
ago and the brothers are like trying to claw out
some of that money. Yeah, she's only around for like
two years. I know.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
It's like, oh, we haven't talked in ages, but I'll
take this inheritance. I'll take this money. Yeah and so yeah,
that overrides everything. It's two clicks of a mouse, Matt,
it takes almost no time. Double check your beneficiary. Make
sure that it's the person who you want to inherit
your assets, is actually the person listed as the beneficiary
on your accounts typically for most people listening that it's
the IRA and the four oh one K. Double check.
(37:45):
Log into your provider and make sure. We've got more
to get to on this episode. Map more money talking
and clear we're gonna talk about money challenges. We'll get
to that in just a second.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Right after this, all right, and we are back from
the break, and everybody knows we've got to get to
our Facebook question of the week. This one isn't just
a question, it's almost like a money win of sorts.
This one is from Alexander and he wrote, my wife
(38:14):
completed the one hundred envelope challenge and now we have
five fifty dollars sitting in cash. We really don't have
a set goal in mind for it. What would be
the best use or best destination for this money. We
owe about ten thousand dollars on her car and about
the same on our roof, and the rates are five
point two and six and change, respectively. Should we pay
(38:36):
down debt, find a high yield Javing's account, or put
it in the market into Sby or VTI. I'd love
a little direction or advice to get us going, Joel,
what you think? First thing?
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I think of, Alexander, Your wife's a rockstar. My wife
did this, and it's like, maybe you take on the
next challenge, Alexander, you take the reins, but your wife
did this one and guess what, she just found a
way to claw back five thousand bucks from your life.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
That could have gone elsewhere.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
So that's what's so cool about these money saving challenges
because and I'll explain the the.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Before you're not on the challenge, Before you move on
to the challenge, you're talking about his wife. I was
gonna say, so, Alexander, want you go ahead and let
your wife decide what is money because she's the one
that succeeded. Of course, it sounds like you'll have a
great relationship and your money is her money, and money
is your money. She do the hard work, she gets
seventy if it's fifty to fifty and you can't decide,
maybe she should be the tie Breik, that's right, that's right.
(39:27):
I agree with that. I'm just we're just being critical
picking on Alexis messing around. Well.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah, the cool thing about saving challenges, Matt is I
think it can because of the way humans operate. We
just like when something's a game. When you think about,
at least for most people, are fun. Working out sounds terrible,
going to play a game of tennis with a friend
sounds different, but that can be great exercise. And so
I think gamifying your money that can add some fun
to the equation. It could add some motivation to reach
(39:54):
your money goals more quickly. And it's amazing how just
small or seemingly insignificant. If on the surface you're like, Okay, cool,
I make it a game. Is really that really going
to change anything? But it does. It really does something
to our brains. And I've said this before the Garment
app that when I'm seeing what my friends are doing
with their runs or whatever, it just makes me want
to get out there and crush them, not to ruin
(40:17):
their spirit, break their spirit, but it makes me want
to win taking souls. And so yeah, so I'm running
even though I might otherwise not. And it's largely because
of the gamification thing.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
So we've got it. So when you see my activity,
do you feel superior? Cau, You're running way more than
I am. I feel inferior because you're cross inding so
many times.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
But we've got I'll say this, we have a few
different savings challenges up on the site that will link
to in the show notes. This one hundred envelope challenge
is cool because you literally write a number on the
each envelope, you pull one out at random every day.
You don't know what you're gonna say, you put cash
of that amount in the envelope, and at the end
of one hundred days you've saved over that five thousand dollars.
There are different ones, different strokes, are different folks on
(40:56):
the savings challenges, but truly, I think they can help
you accomplish something would otherwise take longer for you, or
something that you continue to put off if you didn't
make it a game.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Totally agree. Yeah, And I'll say to the one hundred
envelope challenge, it doesn't necessarily like what you're literally talking
about physical envelopes. We're talking about cash, and I know
for us, at least we don't deal in cash. And
so for me, I hear this and I think, yeah, no,
thank you. But listen up, folks, you can also do
this digitally, and so I know, at least with ally,
they call them savings buckets. You can designate you can
(41:27):
just label it envelopes, but regardless of who you bank with,
you can designate certain funds. And what I would do
is type out one through one hundred and copy and
paste that into a number randomizer. Just literally Google google
that number randomizer on the internet and you can paste
that into there and it will reshuffle those numbers in
such a way that boom, Now you have the numbers
(41:47):
that you're going to draw essentially for each consecutive day
over the next one hundred days. The digital solution, it's
the digital solution. And then just make sure that you
move that dollar amount over into that savings bucket for
that day, and you're doing the same challenge and you're
gonna end up with the same amount of money at
the end of this period of time. Think about that's
basically I just don't want folks to hear that and
get turned off by the fact that like they're like,
all right, guys, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go
(42:10):
and like what do I get the what do I
get the cash? What am I gonna hand with? Butter too?
Like do I have to go to like the ATM
every single day? Like how does this work? Right? There
are digital ways of doing this as well. But what's
so great about it, though, is the fact that that
you're clawing back sort of like you're saying, it's like
this magic money, but you're replacing like day to day
is sort of spending that you would naturally do and
you don't miss that money, right like that, like that's
(42:32):
just money that you just that kind of gets siphoned
out of your your bank account. But you're doing the
same thing, except that at the end of the day,
you've got the money. Yeah, and you probably don't miss
the fact that you didn't go get drinks with a friend.
Maybe instead you went for a walk. You can still
do the same thing, just don't spend the money. Yeah,
maybe you didn't go shopping after work when you're stressed,
and now you've got seventy seven dollars from that day
(42:53):
that is now in your account, as opposed to having
spent it in five thousand bucks in one hundred days, Matt.
I mean, that's that's a lot.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
That's a lot of money to have on hand, and
there are a lot of options for what you can
do with that. So that's really the hard of Alexander's
question here. The first one worth mentioning is the high
old savings account. This is the right choice if you
feel like your emergency fund is insufficient or non existent.
You know, I don't love the car or the roof
debt that you've taken on necessarily, but the interest rates
aren't egregious on those things either, and the peace of
(43:20):
mind that comes from a fully stocked emergency fund is clutched.
So I just think that's priority number one here, Matt.
I don't know. Maybe Alexander already has twenty five thous
in a same these account. And if that's the case,
if that covers nine months worth of expenses or something
like that, then you can skip past that and move
on to the next thing. But if you're not there,
if it's meager, this is the perfect place to stick
(43:41):
that money, to just beef up that savings account that
gives you the peace of mind, and hey, if something
happens where you lose your job or you know, just
something an unexpected automobile repair, whatever that is. You're fully
equipped to deal with that without freaking out because you've
got the cash on hand, that's right.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Yeah, But if you are beyond that, we're talking about
investing or paying off debt, which is a conundrum that
many people deal with, and it's not always clear cut
because from a psychological perspective, and to avoid paying interest
that pays more than your savings account. We'd love to
see you pay off these debts, especially if the other
option is going to be investing within a brokerage account,
(44:19):
which is not tax advantaged. That being said, if we're
talking about being able to contribute to your wroth IRA
or not, well there's a tax benefit there, well, we
would likely prioritize the WROTH because then if you miss
a year, well you can't get that back. You can't
go back in time and make your contributions for twenty
twenty four at seven thousand dollars. But if you are
already going to hit that goal, I think that yeah,
(44:41):
I think putting that five thousand dollars towards the roof
debt that just sounds like something I don't want to have,
you know, there's also just the psychological win of knowing
that there are different things in your life that you
see that are already paid for. And actually, now that
I say that out loud, maybe I would even focus
on the car because if that's got the higher rate
and you drive in the car every single day, I
don't know the ability to have a paid for a
(45:02):
car that you're driving around. I think it was vice
versus I think the was a roof debt was a
little more expensive because then you've got the appreciating assets
where you don't have the There's like a there's a
psychological win layer as well, where you don't have debts
on a depreciating asset, whereas you can kind of make
the argument that well the roof is a part of
the house that's appreciating. Maybe it's ok, you know, slightly
less painful that you're making payments on that.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
I would say this too, Matt, that in one hundred days,
this is what Alexander and his family were able to accomplish.
That's how much they were able to set aside. Thinking
about paying off all those debts, well, you'd be able
to get rid of the car debt, the roof debt,
and three more of these envelope sessions, And so I'm
not I'm curious to hear I would love to hear
from Alexander, like, how difficult was it for your family?
(45:44):
Did it feel like you were living a dramatically reduced
lifestyle in order to achieve this goal? Is this something
that I can do it for one hundred days, but
there's no way we can do it for four hundred days.
But when you talk about essentially a year of living
the way you've been living for the past hundred days,
you'd be able to get rid of both of these
debts your life as long as we're still investing too,
and we're being thoughtful about the future and not just
(46:04):
getting rid of debt with a myopic gaze. I think
that making it a goal to get both of these
things out of your life sooner rather than later. Yeah,
you've proven that you can do it.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
You can do it. Yeah. And the ability to just
laser focus on these things as debts that you want
to knock out, I think that could give you even
more encouragement and give you more gasoline port on the
fire right, because like he was talking about how they
didn't even have these set as goals when they just
started it. It's just like something that they were thinking,
I wonder if we can do this. Let's do the challenge.
See what happens. You've proven now that you can do it. Now,
(46:34):
imagine that you're going to completely eliminate these debts from
your life. That's really exciting. Like the ability to work
together as a team. And again you mentioned your wife
did this, not you, So what if you were both
able to kind of hunger down focus on this as
a goal, a shared goal that you'll have together. To me, man,
that sounds really exciting.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
And think about the difference in cash flow every single
month when you're not paying out money for both of
these debts.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
When you have two of these debts that.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Are probably larger in nature from an ongoing monthly expense.
You about the breathing room that that essentially gives you,
and how good that feels.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
If you deet snowball it right, all the money that
was going towards making the other payment, Boom, all that money,
it's going to be even easier to knock out that
second debt. I guarantee it. But anyway, yeah, Alexander, we
hope that gives you plenty to think about and hopefully
we've encouraged you in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Yeah, Roth, I ray or paying off debt and all
like that.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Yeah, but Joel, we got to get back to our beer.
You and I enjoyed a barrel aged Old raspootin what'd
you think, buddy? Did you like it? I did like
this one.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
This is we mentioned a kind of a classic beer already,
and so it's nice to have the barrel aged versions.
It's still a great beer, still holds up. I don't
think I've had this beer in years, and the bourbon
barrel just adds a depth of flavor to it, the
oakiness and just it's so good. Tiny bit of that
booziness to it, which tastes so nice. And this one
almost had like barley wine vibes. Some stouts can be
(47:49):
a little, a little sweet, a little cloying. This one
just had I don't know, some of those like dark
fruit vibes going on at the same time, which I dug.
Speaker 1 (47:57):
I like this one. I also say to me it
was almost like border line, like Ila Scotch Territory, well,
like the worry, almost like there was smoke coming off
of the roast. I feel like I could taste the
taste of smoke, yeah, off of the roasted sort of
coffee like flavors, even though there wasn't any coffee in
this actual to be the roasted mos right, so good,
so good us. I notice here too that it says
contains alcohol on here, like maybe somebody would have thought
(48:19):
that this was just like some sort of regular beverage.
Is that root beer? I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
No, it's much better than that. All right, that's gonna
do it for this, Matt. We'll put links to some
of the things we mentioned up on our website at
howtomoney dot com.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
We have new content, new.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Articles being created regularly that we're writing regularly every single
week to help you in your money journey, So please
do go check that out.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
There's a there's an.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Easy guide at the top to help you find what
you're looking for, whether you're looking to save better, invest wisely,
paydown debt more effect.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Whatever you're looking for, we've got something to help you
out there up on our site, So please do check
that out and sign up for the newsletter at how
to money dot com slash newsletter, Matt. That's gonna do
it for this. One Until next time, I'm best friends out,
best friends out,
Welcome to Had the Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
We're gonna answer some of your listener questions.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
That's right, buddy, Let's kick the week off with a
fresh batch of listener questions that we're going to get to.
He got a batch makes me think of cookies. He
always like interrupt me, like right before I get into saying, well,
we're actually going to talk about it. That's what I do,
all right, listeners right in do you love it or
do you hate it? Because it's fun because we get
to we go, we screw around and talk about whatever
it is that we want to talk about.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Right now, I just want a cookie?
Speaker 1 (00:45):
Is that what you're saying? Is it makes you say
at yeah, making a batch of cookies chocolate chip? Is
there anything better than the glorious bait good smell of
fresh chocolate chip cokeys.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
The only thing better than that is me interrupting you.
I would take fresh.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Batch of cookies any day the way. No, we do
have some great listener questions. A listener is wanting to
make the most of a money challenge that he has
succeeded in. What to do with that money. Another listener
is wondering what the best free options are when it
comes to creating a will. We'll get to that plus
other aspects of his question, as well as if a
pricey real estate investing course is worth it. You remember
(01:22):
that show worth It where the two guys, Oh, that
was like the best food show of all time? Is
that still going? I don't know you saying something about cookies,
because they did all sorts of it was two dudes
was one of the three. One of the guys was Asian, because.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
The camera dude would come in and he would be
part of the show at times.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
But if they were rating different versions of a food item,
like the cheap version, the medium priced option, or like
the premium really expensive option, and their goal was to
decide whether or not there was it was worth it.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
He's like the three dollars Hamburger of the best or
is it two hundred and fifty dollars Hamburger the best?
The one with the one between with gold flake right right, Yes,
that kind of ridiculous. And I was like, always thought
that our show could be a version of that for
personal finance, but in podcast form, I don't think we're
as good as those guys.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
But is the course worth it. They were really getting
off course, off track this way, which is uh, well,
you gotta get going too, because you've got to make
a We got to record this episode.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
First appointment, I'm gonna have to go to the orthodonist
this afternoon, take my almost nine year old there, and man,
it just makes me think. This is one of those
things that parents need to plan for and think about,
and it's It can be expensive, but pain and cash
can save you a little bit of money.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Teeth costs money, yeah, and paying all all.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
In up front in a lump sum can also help
you save money instead of paying every single.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
But it's more painful.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Oh my gosh, it feels like a punch in the
face when you write that check the teeth, those are expensive.
Don't un her in the face. Those two are getting
corrected right now. But yeah, I guess pray for me
because I'm taking to get to the orthodonist this afternoon.
And yeah, for someone who likes to be frugal, I
realize this is painful. It's a necessary expense, but it's
also a big one.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah. All right, that's our banter, no other no other talk,
so that you can move on to that appointment. During
this episode, you and I are going to enjoy a
barrel aged Old rasputin which I am not sure if
I've I know I've had Old raspooton before. I don't
know if I've ever had the barrel age same variant.
This is by North Coast Brewing Company. Looking forward to
sharing our thoughts at the end of.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
The episode of Classic Beers. This has been around a
long time. Yeah, and when I saw the barrel age,
I was like, Okay, gotta pick that one up.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, I gotta pick what we do here the twist
on a great beer.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
How to money? That's right, enjoy craft beer? All right?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
If you have a money question for us, just record
a voice memo on the app on your phone, send
it our way via email. Hopefully we'll take it next
week on the show. And if you want the full
directions for how to do that, just got to have
to money dot com slash ask and there are tons
of great resources up on our site at howtomoney dot com. Matt,
let's get to our first question today. This one is
about an expensive online course.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Hi'm Matt and Joel. This is THEO in Atlanta. I
had a question regarding a real estate investor course for newbies.
I live a death free lifestyle and I own my
primary home outright with no mortgage. I'm a maximum retirement
saver to my four to one k, my Wroth, and
(04:09):
my HISA at work, and I wanted to kind of
diversify and get into real estate. And I came across
an online offering of a course that goes for about
twelve months, involves a lot of one on one mentoring
in small groups, but the price tag is five five
hundred dollars, which is pretty expensive. So I was wondering
(04:32):
if you could recommend some other options that I could
get my feet wet with learning what I need to
know as a first time real estate investor, but at
a lower price point than five hundred dollars. So love
the show and hope you can give me some help.
Thank you, COO.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I too hope that we can help you out. No promises,
though I'm going to do my part. We'll see if
Joel pull his end of the bar.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Because this is where we show where we state that
this show is for entertainment purposes only.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
It's for entertainment only. It's true. So when you know
what this makes me think of On a recent Friday flight,
we talked about drop shipping, of us becoming an attractive
pursuit is a side gig. I guess for some folks
at least a lot of people selling you a course
to try to tell you that big bust influencers trying
to basically sell you on their course. They're basically praying
(05:25):
on people's desire to make easy money as opposed to
focusing on the actual job of being a drop ship
or why like, why are you making a ton of
money that way as opposed to trying to lure people
in with marketing it's so lucrative, fancy videos.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Why aren't you spending your time making money instead of
trying to sell me a course telling me that I
can make it exactly.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah. So I'm not saying that this is what's going
on here with this expensive real estate course, but it
seems like a familiar pattern, which is, you know, I
like seeing patterns out in the world, and anytime you
see something, you're like, wait a minute, that kind of
seems like this other thing that I know is a scam.
That does make you think twice about this other thing
that is perceived as a little bit more legit.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It's I feel like I'm seeing more and more online
courses pop up, and I'm not going to say that
none of them are worth the money. And there are
people that put a lot of hard work into creating
those online courses, and they've got some people are really
to have a ton of expertise. Still, I would be
really hesitant to fork over all this money for a
(06:20):
course to learn about real estate investing, especially when there
are such great, free and cheap resources already in existence.
And so it makes me think of hiring a property
management manager mat. I think some people think that that's
the silver bullet to invest in real estate and make
big bucks not have to really put much as much
effort as the average person into that investment. But I
(06:41):
would want to learn by doing first right, it's going
to help you know what questions to ask when hiring
a potential property manager and to not get hoodwinked by
potentially a bad property manager. So THEO I would say
this before plopping down big bucks on a course that
promises big results, DIY, you're learning via free and cheap methods,
for I would yes exhaust that, at least before I
(07:03):
kind of went down this path of inexpensive online course.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yep. So if you didn't hear anything else, there's your answer.
But in regards to some of the different free options
out there, I'm just thinking about there are tons of books.
I feel like I learned the most from the Keller
Williams A Millionaire Investor book when I was first getting
into investing in a great I want to start with. Yeah,
but there are tons of different podcasts out there. There's
Facebook groups, all of those can be free, and in fact,
we've got a few prior episodes that we'll link to
(07:26):
in the show notes and which actually makes me think
about our podcast. It is free, But I do know
that folks also don't love podcast ads. But this is
why we monetize our show in this way, Like we
like the idea of being able to do this full time,
but being able to give everything away going to cost
you a little bit of your time with the different
advertisements that you might hear. But we're not planning on
(07:47):
launching any courses that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars
because I don't know, we prefer the advertising model.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
What's more annoying paying Matt and Joel A ten dollars
grip every month or listening to a few ads, right,
And I agree. I think that I always prefer the
d support of model. I think ads can be helpful
something you get more annoyed with the streaming ads. I
don't mind because I know it's saying many big bucks.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
It's when it's when you have gotten used to the
fact that there haven't been ads to see with podcasts,
there have always been ads, Yeah, as opposed to when
you're used to watching a movie on DVD or something
like that. You're used to the movie experience where you're
sitting there, you're enjoying the cinematic marvel that is before you,
and then it's just like this great highly dramatized moment
and then boom it like cuts to a Huggi's commercial
(08:28):
or something like that. Like it's like, oh, come on,
you've totally killed the vibe here.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
We're less marvelous and also the cool thing. And we're
not supposed to say this out loud. You can skip bats.
So there's that.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Okay. So, as we're talking about some of these different courses,
I do want to highlight Chad Carson. He is, of
course one of our favorite folks within the rental real
estate game, but a lot of the different real estate
stuff that's out there, it's honestly incredibly complex, and it's
aimed at folks who are interested in building a real
estate empire. They're counting the number of properties they have
by the doors, and you hear people talking about how
(08:58):
many doors you got, Yeah, you know, they're like seventy eight,
two hundred doors.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
So much of the time, the emphasis is on bigger
is better. That's how they market it, and then people
get their eyes get as big as saucers, Matt. But
typically then the follow through that feels overwhelming and most
people aren't going to go for that exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yeah, most folks don't actually want that. And I think
a lot of folks what they're looking for is kind
of how we talk about real estate. They're looking for
a portfolio of like two or three or eight or
nine different properties right that can cash flow, they can
appreciate over time. You provide a little bit of income now,
but with major upside later. And I'm highlighting Chad because
he does have a course, it's not nearly the cost
(09:35):
of the one that THEO is talking about here. And
if you are going to pay for something. We think
for most people, that is the kind of model that
most folks are going to be drawn to as well,
versus the I'm going to build a real estate empire
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I also just want to say, Matt that THEO is
actually in a good position to invest in real estate
if he's so inclined, and it sounds like he is inclined,
he is interested. I think some people attempt to get
into real estate too early in the wealth building journey. Right,
They've got too much debt, they haven't really invested in
the traditional routes, and so they're looking for something exotic
before they've mastered the basics. That's not a good idea.
(10:09):
But in Theo's case, he has the basics covered. He
said he's a max retirement savers. He says, yet no mortgage, right,
so he's in a perfect position owns his home outright, right,
who is in that kind of position?
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I think out.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Quality, he can save up money. I almost thinking like this,
like why not check out real estate when you're maxing
out retirement accounts?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
You have no debt?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
And the truth is it could move the needle for
him in a major way. It could allow him more flexibility,
the ability to grow his net worth even faster, although
I do stress could because when we're talking about real estate,
it's not a sure thing and there's obviously more work
involved too than with traditional investing.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Yeah, especially given the current market. Right, Like, if we
were talking about buying a rental property back in like
twenty eleven, twenty twelve, twenty thirteen, well, it was a
lot harder to fail based on housing prices, based on
interest rates. If you took a buy and hold strategy,
were somewhat savvy, well you did quite well for yourself
as an investor.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Who's almost like shooting fish in a barrel back then, yes, right,
and now it's not Now it's like shooting fish in
the ocean, which is possible, it's just harder.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
It's a lot harder. I mean when we first met, like,
we first met around then, and the topic of real
estate it dominated our conversations, Joel, like, in fact, so
much so that even when we were thinking about starting
the podcast, and I think it was late twenty seventeen,
we thought about only focusing on real estate because in
the prior years, that's that was such a large aspect
of our personal finances. But I'm glad we didn't because
(11:34):
you like talking about the things you're interested in, and
I think we're maybe less interested in real estate because
the winds have shift. How much do we talk about
real estate now, Matt, not nearly, as Oden, We're less
interested now, so I wanted to I don't know mention
that as And that's not just because it's not because
we don't think real estate can be a good investment.
It's because it's much harder to do. Like we knew
back then. We're in a special era where it makes
(11:56):
it's easy. At least, I feel like we were like, hey,
there is a opportunity here, and because of that, it
was something that we're pouncing on as opposed to I
will say, it does seem like the market might be
shifting a little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Net it's not we always talk about this. You can
find a deal in any market. It's particularly hard as
a NEWB investor, and so you might just be getting
started at a really difficult time. And so I guess
more than i'd hate for THEO to drop more than
five grand essentially into this course. And we're talking about
affordability still being at record lows it's a tough time
to get started.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yeah. Also, i'd say if you're looking for the human touch,
if you're looking for the ability to learn from other folks,
we'll join a local real estate investors group. There are
a lot of these groups. They're kind of like region
specific or city specific. So if you're in Atlanta, you're
going to easily find a few. They typically meet like
once a month, and we would suggest for you to
hit those up and then just start asking questions based
(12:50):
on what it is that you've been learning from some
of the resources that we've already mentioned. Find someone who
owns a few rental properties, Find somebody who is doing
the thing that you are doing. Try to figure out
where does that they're seeing opportunity right now, maybe asking
them what mistakes they learned the hard way that you
can completely avoid.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Emily and I were at a dinner recently, and it's
kind of annoying because there was like some real estate
meet up, local real estate meet up in the background there.
Some guy was on the mic, but I was listening
to some of what he was saying, and I was like, man,
that guy's actually really smart. He's got a lot of wisdom.
When it comes to investing in real estate. He wasn't
over selling, over hyping it, and he was giving a
lot of good information. So if you can join a
group like that, don't do it at the restaurant Emily
(13:28):
and I are going to next week, please, But if
you can join a group like that and you're learning
from people who are doing it, I think that's really powerful.
And I think you can, Yeah, you can do that
without paying an arm and a leg to get that education.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I do think that there's a temptation for folks to
want to hit the easy button. And what I do
think you can get from a good course is a
well delivered packet of information, regardless of how it is
that you learn that information. But I think a lot
of folks are a tempted into paying for that, thinking
that it's also going to give them the results, right,
and so like, yes, that will be yeah, well, and
(14:00):
it is the silver bullet in the case of information,
Like you're gonna learn some great stuff and it's going
to be it's gonna remove all the legwork. You're not
gonna have to listen to all the different podcasts and
do all that. But it doesn't necessarily guarantee that you're
gonna find the right properties and that you're gonna be
making banks. So keep that in mind as well. But uh, Joe,
we got more to get to. We are gonna hear
from a listener who he's wanted to get all of
(14:21):
his ducks lined up in a row, maybe before he
kicks the bucket. We'll get to that and more right
after this. At what you said before the break kind
of scared me. Do we have a listener's on desk doork?
I'm no, not like that. Okay, it's I don't know.
It's something that we're all gonna face at some point,
(14:42):
so it may as well just be able to talk
about it in sometimes humorous ways.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Is now the right time to announce our really expensive
course that we just launched on how to Money dot Com?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
It's true, Okay, let's do it. Go check it out.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
It's only four thousand dollars how Money dot Com Forward
Slash course.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
What a deal.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
All, Let's get to our next question. This one comes
from a listener who's got a couple of differ retirement
options he wants to run by us.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Hey guys, this is Mike from Albany. I've been a
fan since last year when you graciously recorded a surprise
birthday video for my wife Emily, who's a huge fan.
Here's my question. I'm in my early forties and I
just started a job with New York State that's giving
me two different retirement options to pick from. The first
is a traditional pension that requires twenty years of service,
(15:24):
and I can get the full benefit at age sixty three,
which would be thirty five percent of the top three
year average salary. While I'm there, I do have to
contribute six percent of my weekly salary and perpetuity for this.
The other option has a little more flexibility and it's
brand new. It's called an enhanced four to one A
(15:45):
that also requires a weekly six percent paycheck deduction. However,
at the end of every year, New York State gives
me an eight percent match for self guided investment through
the four to one A. Now that does not require
a twenty year vesting period. It vests only after one year,
so if I leave, I can take that with me
somewhere else. Currently, my retirement savings are about five hundred
(16:06):
thousand dollars in an old IRA that I rolled over
from some four oh one k's and I also contribute
seven percent every week to a rowth four to fifty
seven B that has no match. So my question is
which retirement option do you think is smarter given my age,
given the fact that I have so much money already
in the market. Should I stick with the safety of
the traditional pension or should I roll the dice with
(16:28):
the enhanced four h one A and that eight percent match?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Ah, Matt, you remember making that video for Mike's wife. Yep,
we're happy to do it.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
We were. It wasn't just us, it was he was
putting together a bunch of like friends and I guess
podcasts maybe two that she listens to. Yeah, the folks
who are wishing her a happy birthday. And we are
not on Cameo. I know.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Cameo is one of those sites where you can hire
George Santos of all people, but really like the people
of all the different actual celebrities. He's a celebrity for
the wrong reasons. But yeah, like, we're not doing that.
But if I don't know, if you want Matt to
record a video for your loved one, let him know.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah, I don't have to be both ways. So you
say that we aren't on cameo, Joe, but you are
so Joe. Actually he's a he's got an onlyfan since
it's only eight ninety nine a month, huh. And you
can basically talk to Joel at twenty four hours a
day like whenever it is that you want to talk to.
Those pictures of me and my no pick running shorts, No,
no pictures, it's just audio, which is like your dream
come true. So our ability to fire this and our
(17:27):
course up after the end of this recording exactly, no
my orthodonosy bo. Yeah, well I got to hurry up here, Mike.
Let's talk about your age, because you specifically mentioned you're
in your early forties, and that first retirement option, the pension,
it's all about you working there with the state for
another twenty years. So how long it is that you
(17:47):
plan on working, and whether or not you plan on
staying in one place, and I'm talking like literally geographically
there in New York State, or even just career career wise,
whether you want to stay in that same position. These
are things that are really important aspects of this decision.
So let's say maybe you're not planning on working until
you're sixty three, Well, I would take this option completely
off the table, and I think the same is true
(18:09):
if you don't plan on working for this specific government
organization for all of those years as well, you're kind
of taking the golden handcuffs direction by signing up for
option one. And this is only amplified to by the
fact that he said he just started working for New
York straight. I think he said last year, and so
it's kind of risky in my mind. He was ten, twelve,
fifteen years in. You've got a good feel for what
(18:31):
the company is like or just what's going on. But
this is a relatively I don't know, one year in
you might still almost be in like the honeymoon phase,
and so I would be very hesitant to say yes
to Option one at least at this point in the game.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
But Matt, it's also important to mention you said golden handcuffs.
There's a reason in this scenario the handcuffs are made
of gold and that stainless seel. Right, the payout can
truly be incredible if you jump through the hoops, if
you work there the required number of years and basically
can be ultimately more financially rewarding than contributing to a
defined contribution could be right. So dropping six percent of
(19:07):
your pay and getting thirty five percent of your top
salary in perpetuity for decades sounds like a pretty good
trade off.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
It's not the best. Like so we like, there's some
folks we've talked with and it was like seventy five
percent of their annual salary, which I'm like, all right,
that would be more. It's a no brainer. That is amazing.
Whereas I hear thirty five percent and it's like, eh,
you know it's decent. Yeah, yeah, agreed it always considering sure,
if it was a higher percentage, then I would think
that it would be I would be a little more attempted,
(19:34):
longer and harder. You say, oh, yeah, it seems like
a slam dunk.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Because the truth is that what you're getting to is
what you gain in potential retirement security you give up
in options. Yes, And so let's say you have family
somewhere else Mike in the country, you feel compelled to
move to be close by them. If your job can't
be done remotely with this employer, you might find that
your retirement savings plan that seemed off the charts great
is now non existent. Right that you're you basically lost
(19:59):
out on a good chunk of this pension that you'd
receive in retirement because you couldn't stick it out the
full length of time. Not because it wasn't your intention,
but because in reality, that's just not how your life
laid out.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, And it's hard to know what the future holds.
There are a lot of different scenarios, right Like, let's
just imagine you're eight years into the job. You get
a new boss who's a complete jerk. Well, are you
going to continue working under that insufferable jerk for twelve
more years because it's necessary to be able to have
a decent retirement and you want to make sure that
you snag that pension. That's tough.
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah, Should I hate my life for the next time?
Speaker 1 (20:29):
You know? What do you want your life to look like?
And I know we're being kind of hard on option
one here, but if you like this potential job and
you see yourself there over the long term, even if
you can't be one hundred percent sure that you'll be
there for the full twenty years, I think maybe the
upside of the pension is pretty sweet, right, Like, maybe
you are taking a very different approach to work and
how it is that you view your job your your career.
(20:52):
I think it's a gamble either way. But I do
think it would be easier to say yes to option
one if you are ready to com completely hunkered down,
settle in, if you are sure that this is going
to be your final job. I just know that for me,
I couldn't say yes to that because the I mean
being locked down for twenty years. My goals they morph
(21:13):
over time, and they don't even more. Sometimes they completely shift,
and so new people every seven years. That's what I think, truly,
And so for me, like I haven't done anything for
twenty years. I haven't even been married for twenty years,
even though I certainly intend to be married for many
years beyond twenty years. But yeah, the idea, he told me,
that's not what you want, the idea of working in
the same job. It would just limit the optionality that
(21:35):
I might wouldn't want to have. And it's not that
I wouldn't want to work at some point off in
the future, It's just that I think I might want
it to look like something different than what it looks
like today.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
I my first job, my first real long term job,
Matt was fourteen years that's a long time for a
millennial like that is, dude, doesn't really happen. And leaving
that job was in some ways really tough because I
loved it, I love the people I work with. But
in other ways I was ready to move on to
the next chapter and I and I had had to
stay there six more years even though I loved what
I didn't I love the people I work with in
(22:05):
order to jump through the golden handcuff hoop what I've
done it, I don't know. That's a tough decision. Probably not,
And it's been a tough six years. Yeah, so I
guess to learn from that, even just my own personal experience,
even when it's something you love, even if it's not
like all the bosses a jerk, still like, your goals
and what you want out of life can change totally
and you can't even predict those things. So let's talk
about the four oh one A for a second. Some
(22:25):
listeners might have thought you misspoke, dropped a different letter
after four oh one on accident or something, but no.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
The four one A yeah, yeah, kind of like, hey, Jessica.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
It's very similar to a four to one K. But
for government workers, you're getting essentially an eight percent match
for investing six percent, which is pretty darn good. Yeah,
that sounds better to me. That sounds really good. And
ultimately a man it might pay less than Let's say
he did this for twenty years and contributed the six
and got the eight, he might have well one less
of a guarantee and two less money in retirement. But
(22:57):
it's close enough. And this option adds so much more
flexibility that even if you don't stay the full twenty
you've done well for yourself. So I would say this
is probably the slam dunk option unless you're one hundred
percent sure you're going to be here for a long time.
The one thing I'd want to look into is how
the money's going to be invested in the four oh
onna because you typically have fewer options and they're more
(23:19):
conservative options. So like, for instance, you might not be
able to invest in a low cost s and P
five hundred fund. I would want to know that ahead
of time. So while the match is sweet, if the
investments are too conservative, that could also impact your decision.
And by the way, once you sign up for that plan,
you may not be able to dial back your contribution amount.
The employer decides if it's mandatory. But I guess really
(23:40):
neither one of these scenarios Matt, Mike is going to
have essentially a mandatory contribution that he's going to have
to give anyway, and ultimately we don't want him to
go below that investment percentage anyway.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah, a quick note about you mentioned how he may
not have access to the SMP, you know, like a
low cost, widely different slide index fund. Basically a lot
of times the four O one A options are bomb
because it's the government, it's super conservative, and so, like
you said, make sure that you are aware of your
investing options because if you're thinking ten percent annual returns
with this, you might not probably going to be less.
(24:10):
You might not have ACCESSI because Mike has done such
an awesome job when it comes to he said, he
rolled over a previous four to one K into his IRA.
He's got like a pretty fat IRA sitting over there.
And if it was me, if I was in the situation,
I would totally take the four to one A get
the match, knowing that at the end of every year
you're going to be able to collect that thing, as
opposed to having to have the carrot dangled out in
(24:32):
front of you for twenty years. Know that you're invested
perhaps in bonds, which is often the case, which is
much more conservative than a total stock exposure. But then
guess what he said, He's got like over five hundred
thousand over in his other ira go hog wild when
it comes to stocks over there. Maintain that exposure to
the overall stock market there to sort of make up
because typically in your forties you start seeing your portfolio
(24:54):
shift towards bonds in order to become more conservative. But
you're doing that with the contributions you're making to your
four O one A and that you're surely every year,
and so in a way, you're you kind of have
your own target date fund that is like yourself, just
by continuing to do this work. And so just if
it was me, I would one hundred percent make sure
that I was invested either in the total stock market
(25:15):
or the s and P of F hundred. I would
honestly even be tempted to like use my full five
percent that we say, hey for riskier investments or if
you want to dabble in individual companies. I think if
it was me, I would say, you know what, I'm
going to take full license of that, maybe in order
to pursue a little bit more risk to kind of
offset the bonds. Is that Paul Merriman small cap value,
(25:36):
it's a little a little riskier for the potential for
a higher payoff. I might do that with a solid
five percent. He does it with much more than that.
And so I guess I'm giving you license to certainly
not worry about being too aggressively invested within your IRA
because of the fact that you know you are likely
to be invested more conservatively when it comes to your
four WA I think what we're ultimately getting at is
(25:57):
it's really hard to predict the future and that that's
really at the heart of this decision that Mike has
to make. Even Matt it reminds me of they have
like specific state specific five twenty nine plans that are prepaid,
and it's a very very similar sort of situation where oh, hey,
actually it's going to be cheaper to send my kid
to a state school in Florida if you live in
Florida if I do this prepaid plan instead of doing
(26:19):
the post paid five twenty nine plan. And I get
why people want to do that, because it means ultimately
it's going to be a lower price tag for college,
But then you're also saying I'm going to indoctrinate my
child and to go to the University of Florida or
Florida State or whatever instead of what if they end
up like wanting to go somewhere else. I mean even
just in a neighboring state, but potentially across the country somewhere.
(26:40):
That's the risk you're taking you on, and it's an
unknown for something like for a lot of parents who
are starting early sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years down the road.
That's kind of what Mike is doing, and that's why
I'm kind of typically sour on some of those prepaid plans,
even though it will mean it's cheaper, but it also
just prevents any sort of flexibility and that can be
tough the stomach. That's right. Let's hear from our next listener, Joel,
(27:02):
who has the same number of kids that you do
and he's trying to make the right money moves.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
Hey man, Joel, this is Joe from Fairfax. I've got
a couple of not of fun questions, but hopefully you
all can help us out with some ideas My wife
and I have three kids, and we're lucky that her
sister and husband are willing to take them on if
the worst case were to happen and we were to
both pass away. We know they'll be great parents, but
(27:28):
we're just wondering, logistically, how do you work it into
your will so that the people who take custody of
the children get some money to upgrade their house, upgrade,
you know, buy a big van, provide our kids the
same type of opportunities we would hope to had we survived. Also,
(27:50):
relating to life insurance, we both have you know, pretty
sizable term policies so that the surviving parent would be
able to take care of the kids in an unfortunate event.
But if again, if neither parents survive, does someone need
to be listed in the policy for it to pay
(28:12):
out or does it always get paid out? And then
also just wondering if you have any ideas for how
to make sure our kids don't necessarily get that full
of them sum right at eighteen. Any information you guys
can provide on this would be much appreciated.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
All right, Matt, that's a good question, a tough one
right for parents, but it's a necessary one. And this
is I think because it's a tough question and you're
talking about subject matter that most of us.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Would prefer not to think about.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
A lot of people kick the can too far down
the road, whether it's we're talking life insurance for creating
a will, it's actually so much easier than you think
it's going to be. It's maybe take a few hours
of your time, and it's worth it because you're protecting
your family. So Joe, glad you're thinking about this. I
haven't told you Matt yet, but you're going to be
taking my kids. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 4 (29:01):
You?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Okay, sure, I've figured out I put you on the
spot in the middle of this answer.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
I think we can handle it. Let's we'll have a
conversation off air. How about okay, actually your second in line.
I think my folks are first in line, as long as,
like Joe, you're gonna throw throw me a few bones. Uh,
don't worry, because I mean, well, Joe was saying that,
he's like, I want to make sure that they receive
some money so that they can whatever, upgrade the house,
make sure that to afford them the opportunities. I think
it's totally reasonable to like, whoever has my kids, they
(29:28):
have all my money, that's right, that's basically because I mean,
I want them to be able to afford all the
same opportunities that granted in the moment, maybe they're going
to make slightly different decisions, but hopefully it's not because
of money.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
It's not a lack of resources that prevents them from
being able to take care of your kids the way
you'd want them.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Exactly. Yeah, Okay, so some folks who have more complex situations,
they might want to hire an attorney, a lawyer who
specializes in a state planning. But many folks will be
able to turn to online will creation software that exists
out there, and they've gotten really good. So I'm saying
this because I don't want you to feel like Joe
that you've got to fork over big bucks in order
(30:05):
to get this thing done.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
You have to pay somebody thousands of dollars to sit
down and that massive fat hourly rate. Thanks to technology,
a lot of folks can avoid that and you save
a lot of money in the process, exactly.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
And so just when you're filling out that information online
and creating that will, you get to choose guardians if
you and your wife were to both pass at the
same time. But you can also choose secondary guardians as well,
and so like for some folks, Joel, like you mentioned,
you know, maybe picking your parents, but if they are
getting up there in years, you might want to have
your besties down there as those backup sort of secondary guardians.
(30:38):
That's what you are, You're the secondary guardian. Yeah, yeah, again,
we need to talk about this. Make sure we're prepared.
You want me to punch you down to tertiary, Well, no,
I'm fine being secondary, but that's just got to make
sure we we got to talk that through. I like
to you know how I am. I like to think
about things and talk about things. You know how I am.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
I don't like to plan and I just like to
spraying things on you last minute.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
I would just like to wing it. But so we
kind of tease to the fact that there are free
options out there, but do your own will. Dot com
is a great free online option. If there's a lot
of folks listening and you're thinking, Okay, we don't have
a ton of assets, let's just kind of get this
ball rolling. This is a great option. There's also freewill
dot com as well. We can link to both of
(31:16):
those in the show notes. And Trust and Will dot
com that's one meth that I used myself and it
was great. They lead you through the process.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
It's like one of those tax filing softwares essentially that
ask you all the right questions and they put so
much work on the front end to make sure they're
asking you the right stuff that you end up with
the right product on the back end.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
So yeah, it works well. Yeah, yeah, Like you said,
they walk you through the process and it's just they
make it the easiest, whereas with do your own will
dot com it's going to be a little trickier as
you're trying to figure out like, oh, what am I
supposed to put here? What am I supposed to put there? Yeah,
you're not going to run into that with trust and Will. Yeah,
all right, So let's get onto the heart of Joe's question.
When you're creating your will, Joe, you can choose to
leave portions of your estate to certain individuals, and of course,
(31:55):
if only one of you were to pass away, you
or your spouse, you'd want the other partner to hear
it all the assets. Typically, that's typically the choice you make.
But if you're both to pass away at the same time,
obviously hopefully not, you can designate who would get what.
Just know that if you want to particularly call out
certain assets for specific people inherit to inherit, there's a
place for you to do that in the will formation process.
(32:16):
And you mentioned too your kids inheriting money but wanting
to wait until a certain age for that to take place,
which totally makes sense, Like, yeah, you don't want them
all to get all the money that you have stockpiled
right when they turn eighteen. Most people want to avoid that,
And so basically you can allocate each child or percentage
of your assets. But if you're wanting them to be
(32:37):
a certain age further off in the distance, that's when
you want to create a trust in exactly. And you
can create a trust with a lot of these online
companies too, exactly. Yeah, And I think this is really
wise because you're not doing this because you don't love them, right,
It's not like that you don't necessarily trust them. It's
because kids brains aren't fully developed yet. I think, is
it like males, Like, truly our brains aren't completely developed
(32:57):
into we're twenty five years old. Can you imagine what
would have and if one hundred and fifty grand dropped
in your lap at age eighteen? More right, I mean,
like I think back to the decisions I made between
I mean, certainly younger than eighteen, but like so eighteen
is quote unquote true adulthood, right, but like, eh, I mean, yeah,
I guess I would have made some terrible decisions as
a newly formed adult. But like, man, that period of
(33:18):
time between eighteen and twenty five.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
It would be like an Amazon Prime The Breaks Baby
documentary about.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
You if that had happened. Yeah, with it a trust
as well, you can specify even that money gets allotted
in different increments or at different stages of life. Even so,
let's say, oh, okay, you can use this much money for
higher education, or you can say, hey, once you're married,
this much, or hey once you have kids. This is
what you're looking at. And again this isn't to be
(33:45):
overly controlling from the grave, but it's just to safeguard
those funds, to make sure that you're setting your kids
up for success.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
You don't want to be that puppeteer from beyond right,
still pulling the strings, creepy the John Malcovich per SEC
and you can. You can also do the same byway
with a life insurance policy, which I'm hoping you have.
I'm assuming you have, but it's really crucial to at
least mention this. The will is one thing, but if
you're worried about the financial reality and the financial prospects
(34:11):
that the people who will be taking care of your
children will face, a term life insurance policy is the
right and necessary path to take. And we always say
term life because it's way cheaper than whole life and
you're not going to need life insurance in all likelihood
twenty or thirty years down the line, you will have
been saving and investing and you'll be financially independent right
once you hit that kind of sixty year mark.
Speaker 1 (34:32):
Hopefully your kids.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Are going to be grown hopefully too by then. So
it just means that, hey, life insurance is far less
of a necessity. We have a life insurance step by
step guide we're going to link to. But just know
that having that life insurance policy is going to provide
a lot of peace of mind. It's going to provide
a big financial backstop to your partner if you were
to pass away. But then Also, if you and your
partner were to pass away to the people who would
be taking care of your kids, they can essentially be
(34:55):
the beneficiary of your life insurance policy, and that is huge.
You're setting them and your kids up for success from
beyond the grave matifest the case totally.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah. I don't want to say there's an order of
things that you should do here, but if it was
me and I didn't have either of these in place,
I'd be looking at getting life insurance in place first.
Because if you don't have a will, and if you
and your wife were to pass, that's called dying intestate,
which is always like that word, it always sounds like
a gi issue that's any might have. But the court
decides what happens essentially, but like eventually, and yes it's
(35:25):
a headache, but eventually they're going to figure things out, right,
It's not like everything evaporates and disappears, right, Like they're
gonna maybe not the way you would have drawn it out,
maybe not exactly, which is why you want to have
a will. It's the court and they're going to do
things in the manner that they believe is most fair
and most just. But like you said, if you have
particular requests. That's why you set this thing up. But
guess what, when it comes to having money to pass on,
(35:47):
it's not like if you don't get life insurance that
the government is going to be like, you know what,
we got your back. He didn't set this up. There's
no additional money that's like floating out there. That's that's
going to get paid to your next of kin or
any of your kids. That kind of thing. I agree
that takes top priority over the world, So keep that
in mind. But Joe, you're talking about like beneficiaries and
life insurance. Of course the first beneficiary should be your spouse,
(36:10):
but then make sure that you designate a second one.
In this case, your friends who are going to be
or your wife's sister. I guess who's going to be
tasked with providing for and taken care of your kids.
If you're leaving behind, let's say a home with four
hundred thousand dollars in equity, and if you're leaving behind
a life insurance policy for half a million dollars, well
that's going to go a long way towards helping them
(36:31):
to provide. It's going to help them to be able
to afford those upgrades that they're inevitably going to need.
But I think those two steps, those two things combined
should give you peace of mind and a financial backstop
for those worst case scenarios. One last thing, when it
comes to beneficiaries, remember too that the beneficial whoever you
designate as the beneficiary, when it comes to some of
your different accounts, so certainly life insurance, but also when
(36:52):
it comes to any investments that you might have, that
overrides what you have in your will, So pay close
attention to that. And may this be a reminder to
everybody else out there who maybe they set up their
different investment accounts a long time ago, and you just
want to make sure you don't have somebody the name
does a beneficiary who's no longer in your life. Maybe
double check x some sort. We covered that story on Friday,
(37:13):
Flag Telling Yeah, totally what I'm thinking of, And yeah,
it was like his ex girlfriend from thirty forty years
ago and the brothers are like trying to claw out
some of that money. Yeah, she's only around for like
two years. I know.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
It's like, oh, we haven't talked in ages, but I'll
take this inheritance. I'll take this money. Yeah and so yeah,
that overrides everything. It's two clicks of a mouse, Matt,
it takes almost no time. Double check your beneficiary. Make
sure that it's the person who you want to inherit
your assets, is actually the person listed as the beneficiary
on your accounts typically for most people listening that it's
the IRA and the four oh one K. Double check.
(37:45):
Log into your provider and make sure. We've got more
to get to on this episode. Map more money talking
and clear we're gonna talk about money challenges. We'll get
to that in just a second.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Right after this, all right, and we are back from
the break, and everybody knows we've got to get to
our Facebook question of the week. This one isn't just
a question, it's almost like a money win of sorts.
This one is from Alexander and he wrote, my wife
(38:14):
completed the one hundred envelope challenge and now we have
five fifty dollars sitting in cash. We really don't have
a set goal in mind for it. What would be
the best use or best destination for this money. We
owe about ten thousand dollars on her car and about
the same on our roof, and the rates are five
point two and six and change, respectively. Should we pay
(38:36):
down debt, find a high yield Javing's account, or put
it in the market into Sby or VTI. I'd love
a little direction or advice to get us going, Joel,
what you think? First thing?
Speaker 2 (38:47):
I think of, Alexander, Your wife's a rockstar. My wife
did this, and it's like, maybe you take on the
next challenge, Alexander, you take the reins, but your wife
did this one and guess what, she just found a
way to claw back five thousand bucks from your life.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
That could have gone elsewhere.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
So that's what's so cool about these money saving challenges
because and I'll explain the the.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Before you're not on the challenge, Before you move on
to the challenge, you're talking about his wife. I was
gonna say, so, Alexander, want you go ahead and let
your wife decide what is money because she's the one
that succeeded. Of course, it sounds like you'll have a
great relationship and your money is her money, and money
is your money. She do the hard work, she gets
seventy if it's fifty to fifty and you can't decide,
maybe she should be the tie Breik, that's right, that's right.
(39:27):
I agree with that. I'm just we're just being critical
picking on Alexis messing around. Well.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Yeah, the cool thing about saving challenges, Matt is I
think it can because of the way humans operate. We
just like when something's a game. When you think about,
at least for most people, are fun. Working out sounds terrible,
going to play a game of tennis with a friend
sounds different, but that can be great exercise. And so
I think gamifying your money that can add some fun
to the equation. It could add some motivation to reach
(39:54):
your money goals more quickly. And it's amazing how just
small or seemingly insignificant. If on the surface you're like, Okay, cool,
I make it a game. Is really that really going
to change anything? But it does. It really does something
to our brains. And I've said this before the Garment
app that when I'm seeing what my friends are doing
with their runs or whatever, it just makes me want
to get out there and crush them, not to ruin
(40:17):
their spirit, break their spirit, but it makes me want
to win taking souls. And so yeah, so I'm running
even though I might otherwise not. And it's largely because
of the gamification thing.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
So we've got it. So when you see my activity,
do you feel superior? Cau, You're running way more than
I am. I feel inferior because you're cross inding so
many times.
Speaker 2 (40:35):
But we've got I'll say this, we have a few
different savings challenges up on the site that will link
to in the show notes. This one hundred envelope challenge
is cool because you literally write a number on the
each envelope, you pull one out at random every day.
You don't know what you're gonna say, you put cash
of that amount in the envelope, and at the end
of one hundred days you've saved over that five thousand dollars.
There are different ones, different strokes, are different folks on
(40:56):
the savings challenges, but truly, I think they can help
you accomplish something would otherwise take longer for you, or
something that you continue to put off if you didn't
make it a game.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Totally agree. Yeah, And I'll say to the one hundred
envelope challenge, it doesn't necessarily like what you're literally talking
about physical envelopes. We're talking about cash, and I know
for us, at least we don't deal in cash. And
so for me, I hear this and I think, yeah, no,
thank you. But listen up, folks, you can also do
this digitally, and so I know, at least with ally,
they call them savings buckets. You can designate you can
(41:27):
just label it envelopes, but regardless of who you bank with,
you can designate certain funds. And what I would do
is type out one through one hundred and copy and
paste that into a number randomizer. Just literally Google google
that number randomizer on the internet and you can paste
that into there and it will reshuffle those numbers in
such a way that boom, Now you have the numbers
(41:47):
that you're going to draw essentially for each consecutive day
over the next one hundred days. The digital solution, it's
the digital solution. And then just make sure that you
move that dollar amount over into that savings bucket for
that day, and you're doing the same challenge and you're
gonna end up with the same amount of money at
the end of this period of time. Think about that's
basically I just don't want folks to hear that and
get turned off by the fact that like they're like,
all right, guys, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go
(42:10):
and like what do I get the what do I
get the cash? What am I gonna hand with? Butter too?
Like do I have to go to like the ATM
every single day? Like how does this work? Right? There
are digital ways of doing this as well. But what's
so great about it, though, is the fact that that
you're clawing back sort of like you're saying, it's like
this magic money, but you're replacing like day to day
is sort of spending that you would naturally do and
you don't miss that money, right like that, like that's
(42:32):
just money that you just that kind of gets siphoned
out of your your bank account. But you're doing the
same thing, except that at the end of the day,
you've got the money. Yeah, and you probably don't miss
the fact that you didn't go get drinks with a friend.
Maybe instead you went for a walk. You can still
do the same thing, just don't spend the money. Yeah,
maybe you didn't go shopping after work when you're stressed,
and now you've got seventy seven dollars from that day
(42:53):
that is now in your account, as opposed to having
spent it in five thousand bucks in one hundred days, Matt.
I mean, that's that's a lot.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
That's a lot of money to have on hand, and
there are a lot of options for what you can
do with that. So that's really the hard of Alexander's
question here. The first one worth mentioning is the high
old savings account. This is the right choice if you
feel like your emergency fund is insufficient or non existent.
You know, I don't love the car or the roof
debt that you've taken on necessarily, but the interest rates
aren't egregious on those things either, and the peace of
(43:20):
mind that comes from a fully stocked emergency fund is clutched.
So I just think that's priority number one here, Matt.
I don't know. Maybe Alexander already has twenty five thous
in a same these account. And if that's the case,
if that covers nine months worth of expenses or something
like that, then you can skip past that and move
on to the next thing. But if you're not there,
if it's meager, this is the perfect place to stick
(43:41):
that money, to just beef up that savings account that
gives you the peace of mind, and hey, if something
happens where you lose your job or you know, just
something an unexpected automobile repair, whatever that is. You're fully
equipped to deal with that without freaking out because you've
got the cash on hand, that's right.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Yeah, But if you are beyond that, we're talking about
investing or paying off debt, which is a conundrum that
many people deal with, and it's not always clear cut
because from a psychological perspective, and to avoid paying interest
that pays more than your savings account. We'd love to
see you pay off these debts, especially if the other
option is going to be investing within a brokerage account,
(44:19):
which is not tax advantaged. That being said, if we're
talking about being able to contribute to your wroth IRA
or not, well there's a tax benefit there, well, we
would likely prioritize the WROTH because then if you miss
a year, well you can't get that back. You can't
go back in time and make your contributions for twenty
twenty four at seven thousand dollars. But if you are
already going to hit that goal, I think that yeah,
(44:41):
I think putting that five thousand dollars towards the roof
debt that just sounds like something I don't want to have,
you know, there's also just the psychological win of knowing
that there are different things in your life that you
see that are already paid for. And actually, now that
I say that out loud, maybe I would even focus
on the car because if that's got the higher rate
and you drive in the car every single day, I
don't know the ability to have a paid for a
(45:02):
car that you're driving around. I think it was vice
versus I think the was a roof debt was a
little more expensive because then you've got the appreciating assets
where you don't have the There's like a there's a
psychological win layer as well, where you don't have debts
on a depreciating asset, whereas you can kind of make
the argument that well the roof is a part of
the house that's appreciating. Maybe it's ok, you know, slightly
less painful that you're making payments on that.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
I would say this too, Matt, that in one hundred days,
this is what Alexander and his family were able to accomplish.
That's how much they were able to set aside. Thinking
about paying off all those debts, well, you'd be able
to get rid of the car debt, the roof debt,
and three more of these envelope sessions, And so I'm
not I'm curious to hear I would love to hear
from Alexander, like, how difficult was it for your family?
(45:44):
Did it feel like you were living a dramatically reduced
lifestyle in order to achieve this goal? Is this something
that I can do it for one hundred days, but
there's no way we can do it for four hundred days.
But when you talk about essentially a year of living
the way you've been living for the past hundred days,
you'd be able to get rid of both of these
debts your life as long as we're still investing too,
and we're being thoughtful about the future and not just
(46:04):
getting rid of debt with a myopic gaze. I think
that making it a goal to get both of these
things out of your life sooner rather than later. Yeah,
you've proven that you can do it.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
You can do it. Yeah. And the ability to just
laser focus on these things as debts that you want
to knock out, I think that could give you even
more encouragement and give you more gasoline port on the
fire right, because like he was talking about how they
didn't even have these set as goals when they just
started it. It's just like something that they were thinking,
I wonder if we can do this. Let's do the challenge.
See what happens. You've proven now that you can do it. Now,
(46:34):
imagine that you're going to completely eliminate these debts from
your life. That's really exciting. Like the ability to work
together as a team. And again you mentioned your wife
did this, not you, So what if you were both
able to kind of hunger down focus on this as
a goal, a shared goal that you'll have together. To me, man,
that sounds really exciting.
Speaker 2 (46:51):
And think about the difference in cash flow every single
month when you're not paying out money for both of
these debts.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
When you have two of these debts that.
Speaker 2 (46:56):
Are probably larger in nature from an ongoing monthly expense.
You about the breathing room that that essentially gives you,
and how good that feels.
Speaker 1 (47:04):
If you deet snowball it right, all the money that
was going towards making the other payment, Boom, all that money,
it's going to be even easier to knock out that
second debt. I guarantee it. But anyway, yeah, Alexander, we
hope that gives you plenty to think about and hopefully
we've encouraged you in the right direction.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
Yeah, Roth, I ray or paying off debt and all
like that.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
Yeah, but Joel, we got to get back to our beer.
You and I enjoyed a barrel aged Old raspootin what'd
you think, buddy? Did you like it? I did like
this one.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
This is we mentioned a kind of a classic beer already,
and so it's nice to have the barrel aged versions.
It's still a great beer, still holds up. I don't
think I've had this beer in years, and the bourbon
barrel just adds a depth of flavor to it, the
oakiness and just it's so good. Tiny bit of that
booziness to it, which tastes so nice. And this one
almost had like barley wine vibes. Some stouts can be
(47:49):
a little, a little sweet, a little cloying. This one
just had I don't know, some of those like dark
fruit vibes going on at the same time, which I dug.
Speaker 1 (47:57):
I like this one. I also say to me it
was almost like border line, like Ila Scotch Territory, well,
like the worry, almost like there was smoke coming off
of the roast. I feel like I could taste the
taste of smoke, yeah, off of the roasted sort of
coffee like flavors, even though there wasn't any coffee in
this actual to be the roasted mos right, so good,
so good us. I notice here too that it says
contains alcohol on here, like maybe somebody would have thought
(48:19):
that this was just like some sort of regular beverage.
Is that root beer? I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
No, it's much better than that. All right, that's gonna
do it for this, Matt. We'll put links to some
of the things we mentioned up on our website at
howtomoney dot com.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
We have new content, new.
Speaker 2 (48:33):
Articles being created regularly that we're writing regularly every single
week to help you in your money journey, So please
do go check that out.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
There's a there's an.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Easy guide at the top to help you find what
you're looking for, whether you're looking to save better, invest wisely,
paydown debt more effect.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (48:50):
Whatever you're looking for, we've got something to help you
out there up on our site, So please do check
that out and sign up for the newsletter at how
to money dot com slash newsletter, Matt. That's gonna do
it for this. One Until next time, I'm best friends out,
best friends out,
Hosts And Creators
Joel Larsgaard
Matthew Altmix
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