Your Smart Money Guide for 2026 #1084

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to had to Money. I'm Joel, I'm not and
this is your smart money guide for twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
You know what, buddy, is twenty twenty six. Let's go
New Year, New you. Baby. It's the first real day
of twenty twenty six. Well, it's not really the first
real day. It's the fifth, but it is. Though it's
your first real day. I think it's most people's first
real day of twenty twenty sixth you can't have the
you can't have New Year's Day be Thursday and expect
everyone to be like, Yeah, it's the new year, let's

(00:45):
be productive tomorrow in the office. That makes almost as
much sense as your kid's going back to school the
last last last fall on a Thursday, right, and then
we starting on a Friday, on a Friday, on an
actual Friday, which made even less sense. So we skipt
the first day of school. You're like, we're still going
to be at the beach. No judge, that was ridiculous,
I will say. Normally, so if folks haven't listened to

(01:06):
the podcast normally on Monday episodes, we hear directly from you,
our listeners. You would normally take a voice memo that
you can easily record on your phone and you email
it over to us. You say your name, you say
where you're from, because that's always fun. And I like
to google where it is that people live. People know
that at this point, which is actually bizarre. Yeah, the

(01:27):
last one she literally put her actual address so we
could I don't know, I don't want to go there,
but like the general town, if I haven't heard of
a town, I like to click around and get a
feel for it, see what they have to offer, see
if I want to go visit there at some point,
like if you know, if you're on a road trip
and you've heard of a small town. Matt's paying house
visits to listeners now, so get in there. But normally, yeah,
Monday episodes ask how to money episodes, we have the

(01:49):
voice memos and we you know, we were able to
directly answer listeners personal finance questions. But with this being
the first real episode of twenty twenty six, we wanted
to do something special.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
You set the table a little bit for the coming year,
and so yeah, we'll have kind of some general thoughts
on getting your money together in twenty twenty six. Will
cover a little bit of the money gears. We'll talk
about maybe what to expect in twenty twenty six and
kind of maybe a little bit of the current state
of the economy will kind of yeah, hit a bunch
of things. Matt run through a bunch of things that
we think are important for people to consider as they're

(02:22):
thinking about their personal finances going into this year.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
One. Does it Does it feel like there's too much
pressure on this episode because it's like the first it's
going to be the first perfect episode of the year.
I don't think so. I'm okay, you know, I don't know.
You were talking to me earlier like this is gonna
be a good one. I'm like, I know what's going
to be a good one. But also, you know, you
can't pack it all otherwise we'd be sitting here for
like five hours, right if it's like and then we're
gonna have on a guest who's gonna deliver some brilliant nugget,

(02:46):
and then we're gonna answer some listener questions. You and
I are going to crush two Kraft beers.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Because that's why I said. This is setting the table.
It's like a nice tablecloth on top of the table.
There's no food or anything. It's like, it's kind of
going back to the basics in some ways.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
We're bringing the food. There's going to be some actual
sustenance here. This isn't just fluff, all right, No, that's
not what you meant, not what I just that's not
what I meant.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
I think one of the things maybe I wanted to
suggest starting off as we're entering into a new year,
and one way to maybe at least start thinking effectively
about your finances for twenty twenty six is to reflect
on how things went last year.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Matt. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
About you, but like, yeah, what were your goals for
last year? How did you do in comparison to what
you'd set up to do? And then think about maybe
like what were the hurdles that got maybe thrust into
your path that frustrated you in your attempts to meet
those goals?

Speaker 2 (03:36):
What sticks did you shove into your own spokes?

Speaker 1 (03:39):
There's that too, right, How are you your own worst
enemy at times preventing you from being able to reach
that goal? And I'm sure all of us if we
do a little bit of thoughtful reflection, I think that
is one of the first good places to begin, because
it can help us then say, well, all right, now
that I know myself a little bit better, I know
how I did in comparison to what I want to
do last year. Maybe you're one of those incredibly disciplined

(03:59):
pace or you just got kind of lucky this year too.
Maybe your goal was like to grow your net worth
and like the say, the stock market doing well in
twenty twenty five really helps you to be able to
do that.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
And it's but like, what were your goals?

Speaker 1 (04:13):
How did you do in comparison to what those goals were?
I think is a really good, really good thing to
think through.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, I don't think we do enough reflecting as a culture.
Although with you know, with there being more attention being
paid towards mental health, I think folks are or at
least at least there's a whole lot of language around
it though. Right, how often are people actually sitting down
and reflecting and journaling and thinking about what happened? Not
only what happened, but then how do you feel about that? Right?
Because I think that that can have a larger impact

(04:41):
on your the steps that you take moving forward. It's
not just literally what happened and what goals you were
able to achieve and not achieve, but how are you
actually interpreting those results good or bad? And I think
that could have an impact on whether or not you
see yourself as, Oh, actually I'm a good investor, Oh
I'm a good saver, or I am a diligent worker.
This is what we're able to accomplish. And if you're

(05:01):
able to like internalize essentially some of those behaviors as
opposed to only fix, the results are good. Trust me,
Like I'm a data's guy, like I've got the Excel
spreadsheets going back. That is really important. But also to
sort of internalize some of the behavior that you set
out to achieve last year. I think that's really important,
and you might even find that you're able to hit
some of those goals and metrics that you wanted to hit.

(05:22):
And as you reflect back, you're like, man, I was
exhausted at the end of the year, and I needed
that break right like the fifth of January. I'm back
to work, like I'm a little worried because I don't
think I can keep up the pace and so maybe
you overdid it. Like that's even worth considering too. I
think for some people, especially people who listen to out
of money, Matt. They are like go getters, and so, yeah,

(05:43):
did you overdo it to the extent that maybe you
actually need to dial back some of those goals so
that you could live a little bit more of your life.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
In the here and now. Totally, that's worth considering as well.
So and really, like the truth is, twenty twenty six
is going to be different than twenty twenty five. We're
going to face different challenges, different opportunities, and there were
a lot of both, Matt in twenty twenty five for
investors and for people trying to get smart with their money.
And I think that the more you have your eyes
on your money in a healthy way, the more you're

(06:13):
going to be ready for whatever challenges come your way,
and you're going to be able to take advantage of
opportunity when it strikes. Think about even just the beginning
of last year, and like it was tariffs, Man, they're
going to destroy the economy, And there was a lot of.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
You shouldn't have sold I was telling you you shouldn't
sell out the bottom.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Joy See I didn't, And I was one of those
people who were like, man, tariffs are going to have
a massive impact. They had a more muted impact than
even I thought they would. It felt like a COVID blip.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, it did. Like honestly, it's like a mini little
COVID blip. When we look back, it's like similar actually
a lot of similarities, like kind of towards the beginning
of the year, just this false oh no, the world's ending.
But then in reality, oh, we are actually more resilient
than we think. And I think for economy, a lot
of investors, what the truth is, there are blips that
you can take advantage of, or there are ways that

(06:55):
maybe you might say, I don't know, man, that news
is freaking me out, or that agnostication prediction is freaking
me out, and so I'm going to invest less or
something like that. And then if you had done that,
if you had listened to those predictions, even then you
you would have missed out on ind abundance of returns totally. Yeah.
By the way, I want to mention too, you might
hear some leaf flowers in the background and Joel, Joel

(07:17):
almost called you something different what you want to call me?
I think that only speaks to kind of our like,
uh down homeness. We're just two dudes, best friends. We
record in this carriage house that we rent, and you
know what, We're surrounded by honestly beautiful like one hundred
year old oaks, but they drop a lot of leaves
and dude, I gotta hate the leaf blowers. They get

(07:39):
under my skin. They like find their way into like
my sinuses, like where the sound resonates rattles it around. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
No, And it's truly the bang of a podcast or existent.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Unless you live in the middle of some giant building
where there's no windows. But that's that's the other thing.
I mean. You can literally go to our website and
see a picture of us here recording. But like, I
love this space because we have windows to the outside
and the true real environment, the sunlight. Man, I don't know,
would you trade off having a view to the outside
world in order to have like perfect silence And no,

(08:10):
I don't think when I don't care that much about
it not sounding perfectly polished like a studio.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
When I worked at a radio station, we had all
of these pristine recording studios that had no windows to
the outside world, and.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
You come out of their pale and yeah, a lot
more terrible attached from the outside world. You feel like
a vampire. You feel like a vampire. How we roll
here well?

Speaker 1 (08:30):
And Matt like, when we're talking about what this show is.
By the way, if you are new here, like, this
show is all about removing jargon, keeping things simple. We
want you to achieve financial independence. We talk about all
facets of money, from saving and investing to debt payoff
and intentional spending. We also touch a lot on the
behavior and the mindset stuff too, because that really does matter.

(08:51):
Your emotions factor into your money, maybe more than you
think they do, and we just we attempt to run
the gamut so that you can make meaningful changes.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
In your life.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Deal for you is that money would become a less
painful endeavor, that you get more joy out of your
life because you handle money so effectively. We want everyone
listening to know that frugality does not equal deprivation.

Speaker 2 (09:12):
Matt.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
I think too often those two terms have become synonymous.
So you're telling me to become frual. You're telling me
that I need to hate my life. Not true. Frugality
can be fun. And want to give you thoughtful ways
to think about frugality and the truth is it can
lead to meaningful results, but it's also not frugality all
the way down.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
That's not how we roll. It's not frugality on top
of frugality all the way down. No, by the way,
we didn't mention our beer, and I feel like we're
kind of all over because this is because I'm used
to like list our questions and just the structure that
comes with us. So because of that, I feel like
this is a little more free wheeling. But we do
enjoy a beer during every episode, and we're enjoying if
only to be thoughtless once more, which is an ipa

(09:50):
by burial. We're enjoying that and we're gonna share our
thoughts at the end of the episode. Why do we
drink beer on this podcast? Because we talk about our
craft beer equivalent. This is something that we are splurge
on in the here and here now, in the moment.
Is it the best use of our money? There's an
argument to be made that it is, because sure, we
can forego all the pleasures of life today in order

(10:11):
to invest in safe for larger amounts down the road.
But you got to find that balance for you as
an individual, how are you going to enjoy and embrace
and seize the day today while also preparing for the future,
and for us, craft beer is one of the ways
that we literally demonstrate that and enjoy it here on
the podcast.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
It's the balance that we're trying to strike right It
is that like, let's be thoughtful and intentional about what
we want to achieve five, ten, twenty years down the road,
but not forget that we have a life to live
in the here and now. There's a lot of that,
I think in parts of the personal finance space, where
it's like nose to the grindstone, head down so that
you can achieve this massive savings rate in this goal

(10:51):
that you know it's at the end of the rainbow,
and really what happens for a lot of those years
it's a slog And I've met too many people who
went so dang hard for a slew of years that
it feels like they didn't even lift their head up
to enjoy their life. For like, for a lot of people,
it's it's in those like twenties and thirties that are
like years that you'll never get back when it comes

(11:12):
to forming relationships or making memories. So, just in case
you're wondering, we're not all about that lifestyle totally.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
And you mentioned goals, Joe. So, Joel, why do I
almost keep saying, Joe, I think that's what I'm saying.
Am I speaking too quickly? Joel? My best buddy? I
need to actually appreciate a new best buddy that's okay
over the holidays. His name is Joseph. I was gonna
say you mentioned goals, and I'm guessing that a lot
of folks are already tired of hearing about people setting goals,
sitting smart goals, setting you know whatever goal acronym, strategy,

(11:40):
approach to setting your goals. But still, and we're only
going to spend a second on this, but I do
think asking what it is that you want to achieve
this year is just so important to hitting the mark. Joel.
You mentioned like review and kind of looking at how
you did last year, But it's equally important to maybe
have a conversation with your spouse or your significant other,
your part, or do this by yourself if that's where

(12:02):
you're at. But I just think writing those goals down
to make them concrete, enacting some sort of plan is
going to be so vital to you seeing progress and
then just keeping those goals just front of mind, like
like literally in front of your face. I think actually
you can literally write it on a post a note
stick on your mirror in order to help remind you
of that. But I think knowing what it is that

(12:23):
you want to achieve and then just knowing that that
is what is fueling you to get up every day,
get up earlier in order to work a little bit
harder to self deprivation a little bit. Right, Like you
talked about frugality, not spending in a way that's going
to allow you to sock away a little bit more.
Maybe you're trying to eliminate some debt and you know
that every dollar that you're not spending on yourself is

(12:45):
something that's buying you some of that financial peace of mind.
And I said paying down debt, But it could be anything, right,
Like the name of this episode is your smart money
guide for twenty twenty six, but this could also be
like your guide to being a first time home buyer.
This episode could be your guide to paying down debt.
It could be your guide to juicing your four O
and K. Guess what money is fungible and everything that

(13:08):
we're gonna talk about here on the show. Certainly in
this episode, but like for the rest of the year,
you can apply to whatever specific goals that you might
have in your life. And so keep that in mind.
We're not talking about money generically, but it is up
to you to figure out what it is that you
are that you're striving after, and hopefully, man, you really
do need to think about this, because it's not just
about increasing your net worth, right, Like, if you're somebody

(13:29):
and you're just fueled by seeing bigger number, good, Like
that's boring, you know, Like I hate to say it,
but like I don't want to hang out with that
kind of person, someone who is only interested in the stats.
Like I don't know. I'm sure you might know as
statistician who's very interesting and fun to be around, but
like getting invited to Matt's Super Bowl party, it's just well, actually,

(13:50):
I don't know. If you're playing the odds and you're
doing more betting, we won't get into that right now,
but I'm just saying that the people who are striving
after like audacious, really cool, fun things. That is interesting,
and I think that's what It just makes you a
more well rounded person. And if you haven't done the
work to identify what it is that you're making these
sacrifices for man.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
That is your first step, and I think it's so easy.
The further along you get into the personal finance sphere
to you kind of start to understand how some of
these accounts work. You start to actually realize the impact
of compounding returns, and you're like, WHOA, that's really cool.
My money is starting to work really hard for me.
And at some point you even hit that place where

(14:31):
maybe your money is working harder for you than you
can work for it, and it's kind of enthralling. But
that is also we strive to recognize that's not the
end goal, because if that were the end goal, You're right, Matt,
that is a really boring end goal. The goal the
goal is to use that money to create a life
that you can enjoy, and part of that does take
some sacrifice now so you can set yourself up for

(14:53):
more options down the road. But it doesn't mean full
on deprivation now, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Totally agree, And I don't know, Matt.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
I like the idea of coming a person who enjoys
saving or who sees the value in fugality instead of
like that kind of forced mechanism of like, I guess
I got a handcuff myself so I can make progress
with my money. Maybe instead of could your goal be
to become the kind of person who enjoys some of
those things. Maybe like, man, I gotta go to thrift
store to save money instead of buying it on my

(15:19):
favorite clothing retailer.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
Well, maybe you can turn turn it into.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
The fun of the hunt, right to find something that's
completely undervalue to the thrift store, like your favorite name
brand sweater or something like that that's five dollars instead of fifty. Like,
that's a cool perspective to take on going to the
thrift store.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
That's my identity is shifting this place. There's still a.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Feeling like you have to or can you make cooking
at home more delightful because I think for a lot
of people it can feel really painful. How can you
set yourself up for success on that front? Because the
truth is, and we all know this, that eating out
has got become incredibly expensive. The more you do it,
the more money you are tossing down the drain. And
it's okay to carve some money out for that in
your budget, but maybe think of it as not just

(16:01):
something you have to do to save money, but something
that you can enjoy. Maybe whether it's like making the
meal together with your spouse or something like that. I mean,
whatever it is, I like the idea of becoming that
kind of person. Like, one of my goals this past
year was to run twelve hundred miles. And it wasn't
literally just to hit that number crazy. It was not
I have a friends who ran a lot more than that.
They're even crazier than I am.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
But say, I feel like that's when there's like at
a certain point it's too much, but I feel like
you're not there yet.

Speaker 1 (16:28):
Yeah, we'll see if I get there, I'll try to refrain.
I'll try to refrain. But like part of that goal
was yet to hit a numerical number at the end
of the rainbow. That was pretty arbitrary. But the other
goal for me, the main goal for me, was to
become the person. It wasn't like, oh, I'm training for
this one race that I want to do well in.
It was like, I want to be the kind of
person who in twelve hundred miles. Literally I said one
hundred miles a month because I wanted to be the

(16:49):
kind of person who was consistent doing it regularly and
and feeling you better because of it. You are a
runner because this is who you are as opposed This
is the kind of life that you're leading, as opposed
to some arbitrary goal, is what you're saying. So guess what,
the likelihood of me running like two hundred miles this
year is not high because I have become the kind
of person even though I don't actually I don't really

(17:11):
know what my running goal is yet for this year,
but I know it's not gonna be two hundred miles
because I'm just the kind of person who enjoys running now.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
And I couldn't have said that four years ago. You've
moved past that. Yeah, Like I think what I hear
you saying is like it might be even worth considering
like a theme for your year. So for some people,
I think this could be the year of like, let's
say you just are looking for some more financial clarity, right,
like like you are someone who understands you've gained more
insight about your financial mechanic, like where things are going,

(17:38):
like the nuts and the bolts. Right. For others, I
think the thing could be like a year of more
intentional spending, especially if you found that you spent way
too much over Christmas and you need a bit of
a financial detox. But I really like this idea because
it's less focusing on a specific numerical goal. It's less
it's even less like, oh, I want to completely eliminate
my student loans this year, or some folks are just

(18:01):
like dudes, I'm so far away from being able to
purchase my first home right like, So these are all
the whole. These are all like the pot of gold
at the end of the rainbow kind of goals. And
what we're talking about instead are habits, and these are
behaviors that you can put into action now before you
even know what it is that you're looking to move towards.
We talk about big savings goals for folks and having

(18:22):
cash on hand in liquidity, and we always talk about
how our tastes change and something new comes on the
horizon and all of a sudden, I want a new
car or whatever it is, right, And if you have
worked towards building up just a savings bucket for something
that you don't even know what it is that you
want to spend on, yet, it's going to lead to
you being able to achieve that obviously much quicker. And

(18:44):
so in a similar way, this is I think by
lashing onto a theme of different behaviors or actions that
you might take, even without an end goal, I think
that that's going to get you closer to whatever end
goal it is that you might end up identifying. Yeah,
later this year or a couple of years from now,
but you are going to be in such a better
financial position because of, hopefully some of the things that

(19:04):
you've done here.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
From listening to the podcast, it makes me think of
like families who come up with a motto, and I
think we did that in a while back. I don't
remember what it is now, Like I need to go
back and revisit that, because I've seen other families who
create one and they live by it right, And it's
like in this family, we prioritize this, and then when
you're trying to decide what you do with your time,
your efforts, and your money, it's really easy to revisit
that moto and be like, are we the kind of

(19:26):
family who does this thing? Yeah, because it's in our motto,
Like our motto says that we care about fun and
so of course we're going to get the season pass
to six Flags or whatever it is.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
But we're also the.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Family who cares about generosity, but we're not the family
who cares about this. And so like, maybe a theme,
Maybe it's not this overarching, lifelong theme, but just a theme.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
For the year.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
And the truth is we go through seasons things ebb
and flow, So maybe this season is maybe this year
is like the year of less, a year of minimalism,
a year of decluttering. Maybe you know, maybe it is
the year where you're like, debt payoff, I'm going so hard,
like this is going to be the year where I
get rid of credit card debt finally and I'm done
with it for good. Like but I love that idea
of having a theme so that you could always revert

(20:06):
back and be like, does this jive this move that
I want to make with my money? Does this go
along with what I'm trying to accomplish this year? And
sometimes just a theme, a few words spoken over what
you want to happen this year can make all the
difference from a mindset perspective.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Totally agree. Let's keep this party going, though we're going
to take a quick break. But when we come back
from the break, we're going to talk about the money gears,
which is what you should be doing with your money
and when you should be taking those actions. We'll get
to that and more right after this. All right, we're

(20:40):
back and that in just a bit.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
I want to talk let's talk about like the K
shaped economy and specifically kind of where things are happening
in what's happening in the economy right now, how people
can identify where they are on that spectrum, and how
we think that's like an informative way of thinking about things.
But let's get to the money gears.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
Matt. I feel like the money gears is. It's basically,
if you go to.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
The Ada money dot com you click start here, you'll
see the money gears, and it's been our way of
telling people an order of operations for your money so
you can figure out, well, where am I along this
spectrum in order to know what to do next. And
we call it the money gears because you and I
were fond of biking.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
We love biking. We still bike all the time, but
biked here today, Will Okay, Yeah, I'm gonna explain it.
And the reason we call it the money gears is
because everyone knows. When you are at a standstill and
you need to get biking, do you start on the tallest,
most hardest, fastest gear. No, absolutely not in my fastest gear.
I mean also, I can't turn the pedals if you

(21:37):
would hurt yourself or you might even like break your bike.
I mean eventually, yes, you will get rolling, but it's
going to be like literally it could be painful. And
in a similar way, you could start with more sophisticated investing.
But you know what, if you don't have a basic
emergency fund set aside, there are gonna be setbacks. You
can essentially, when you're on a bike and you're on
the proper gear, you can achieve your goal destination a

(22:01):
lot more efficiently. You can, you can, I think, achieve
it much quicker and in a similar way, that's what
we think about the money gears. By going in order,
we think that you're going to be in a stronger
financial position.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
So you mentioned emergency fund. That is always, always has been,
always will be money gear number one. We updated it
this past year though, because of inflation. We updated the
amount of money that you should be setting aside in
your high yield save music account and I'll tell you why.
I said hoig yield save us account just a second,
But it used to be two four hundred and six

(22:32):
and fifty seven. That's Arler, and that was because of
a survey by economists, and they said that most people
would be able to be able to get through an
everyday emergency with that kind of cash on hand for
without having to resort to using credit cards. Well adjusted
for inflation, that number is now three thousand and forty
five dollars. So that is the number we're rolling with
right now, thirty forty five. Yeah, So if you can,

(22:54):
if you haven't met this goal yet, that is going
to be the first thing on your to do list
is to find a way to slowly, surely get that
money in a high old saves account. I say high
old Saves account Matt too, because you and I were
not fans of the big banks. They don't pay much
on your money. They often have fees that are associated
with your account that some of our favorite online banks
do not. You could find those references to those our

(23:17):
favorite online banks up on our website. But this is
this is the first money gear and it is literally
like the easiest way to get going it's gonna save
you a lot of potential headaches down the road, if
you like, If you don't have liquid cash on hand,
it just puts you in a plethora of uncomfortable situations.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
That's right. So that's money gear number one. Money Gear two.
The next most important thing to do is to get
your company match if you have one available to you.
If you are getting let's say, like a fifty percent
or one hundred percent match in your four O one K,
there is no greater return on your money. And jel
do you know why I love money Gear number two
in the fact that it's the second thing that most

(23:56):
folks will pretty quickly be able to achieve. A side,
Why do you love this? Is it because plenty of reasons?
I love it? But why do you think I'm choosing
it right now asking I'm asking you to step into
my brain.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
That's the next one in line. But also, I think
part of the reason you love this is because you've
ever had access to one. You always wanted a match.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
That is true. Although you know we once we started
this company, we we technically have a solo four one
K and we matched, but you never had like that's
still us A third party. Yeah. Yeah, it's just me
taking off my employer hat and put taking off my
employee hat podcaster hat and sticking on the What am
I the CFO slash co founder employeer hat? I'll call
you the CEO. I don't know if that's one, so

(24:36):
also co founder. No. The reason I love it so
much is because it is I'll be the c CEO,
the chief creative officer. How does that sound? Oh, what's
the CBA chief beer Officer. No. I really like it
because it gives folks a taste early on of what
it means to be an investor. Right. It gives you
a taste early on of what it might feel like

(24:57):
to have compounding returns work in your favor as opposed
to against you, which a lot of folks that's that's
how they experienced interest, Right. They experience having to pay
more for less as opposed to as opposed to the opposite. Right.
And so let's say you sock away like five thousand
bucks into your four to one K and you got
a match on you know, like five percent of your
salary or something like that, and you basically at the

(25:19):
end of the year you get to see that grow
from five thousand to ten thousand at least, that's assuming
zero percent return in the market.

Speaker 1 (25:25):
That's just the employer match. And then let's say there
were returns.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
On top of that. Let's say it might be even
more than that. Yeah, but like that's incredible, because early on,
I think it can be disheartening. I think it can
be demoralizing because you're working and you're like, oh, I
feel like I thought I was investing, and then you
look down. There's not a ton of money there. Man's
it's fully purely one hundred percent dependent again, nine hundred
percent dependent, Like there are some returns from the market,

(25:48):
but your ability to grow your net worth by you
sacrificing and you depositing that money into your account, Like,
that's what it's predominantly dependent on. And you don't really
get to experience those ways of compounding until much further
down the road, right where your money starts working harder
for you than you are. This is like a nice
little foretaste of things to come where you can say, oh, man,

(26:11):
not like there is and just an aspect of this
that I am able to appreciate now, knowing that it'll
be amplified even more down the road.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
I remember those first years being an investor. I had
to trust what other people were saying to me that
compounding returns were coming down the pike, because hard to
believe it. It feels like, especially with like the low
salary I was making shoving six or eight percent, then
trying to grow it eventually into more. Putting that money
into the four one k. Getting a little bit of
a match, I was like, gosh, it still still feels paltry,

(26:40):
Like how I'm never going to get like become wealthy
this way?

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah, did you have much of a match?

Speaker 1 (26:45):
I had a fifty percent match up to three percent?
So if I put in six, they put in three, Okay,
So I mean that's I would say that nothing. Actually,
probably the average people are exactly expecting. And I've heard
from more people actually this past year where their matt
got cut. And that's a tough position to be in.
But I think, give you know where things are with
the economy, you might see more employers doing that. Then

(27:06):
you have to like reassess how much I'm going to
put in and how much is it worth it? But
I think money year number two taking advantage of the match.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
You're right, it's you can't be the You can't be
that return on that money, man.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
It's the free money. It's the investor mentality after that money.
Year number three is to work towards paying down high
interest credit card debt. And that was I think one
of the top stories of this past year, Matt, was
that credit card interest rates got worse, which means if
you have revolving credit card debt, it is doing more
damage to your finances than ever before. Instead of seventeen percent,

(27:37):
it's like twenty two percent right on your credit card.
It makes it harder to pay it off because you're
accruing more interest. Our thing here is to make a
plan to get it paid off quickly. And if you
feel like you're in over your head, you might want
to even turn to a nonprofit like Money Management International
or something like that. Think about the website undebt dot.
It is a good place to kind of create a

(27:57):
plan plot up. That's a few and like DII Wyatt.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, if you want a DIY and you still have
if you feel like it's not completely out of control,
that's a great great resource for me.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, and you can kind of have them list the
debts in order how much free cash do you have?
List out those debts and how long is it going
to take me to pay this debt off? I would
think that actually AI would probably be a good tool
for like in putting your debts and then saying, here's
how much free cash I have? HUW should I attack this?

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Fascinating? I haven't done that yet. I've actually used it
for some other things where I'm like trying to figure
out Yeah some time. Doesn't that seem like that would
be a perfect agains awesome? Yeah, I would like to
think that, it would say, but depends on how you
see the world. Yeah, what's the kind of nuance that
you would expect to find here on how to money? Eachol? Right?
Guaranteed human? Well, you know that's.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Us I we I did episode six twenty back in
the day, the full Proof Plan to ditch that. You
can go back and listen to that, especially especially if
you're new here. But that credit card debt, in particularly
the high interest rate debt, is the kind of stuff
that if you don't make a plan to stop the bleeding,
it's triage, it's going to continue to be a massive
problem for you. You have to have, Like I think

(29:01):
that needs to be a square focus after the first
two money gears, getting rid of that high intratrate debt.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah, it doesn't matter how much broccoli you're eating and
if you're getting enough sleep and taking your vitamins and
drinking enough water. If you're like bleeding out, you need
to fix that first. And that's like, that's the same
thing when it comes to cutting out some of these
just the worst debts, and we'll get to some of
the less worst debts, some of the lesser damaging debts.
But it makes me think of like folks will talk

(29:26):
about toxic relationships like that's something that's really bad, right,
They're like, oh, yeah, I toxic relationships. And I don't
know if this is this feels like counseling relational advice,
but like imagine you got somebody in your life and
you're like, man, every time I hang out with them,
they just want to tear me down or they're discouraging
blah blah blah, and you're like, I want to go
find some new friends. I would venture to say that
maybe you have to like be proactive about not hanging

(29:48):
out with that some of those toxic relationships before you
even have room in your mind, like before you have
like the mental bandwidth to get out there and to
meet some new folks. Or maybe it's you know, like
a partner who wasn't that great for you, If that's
somebody that needs to be completely cut out as opposed
to like keeping it around and being like no, no, I
can incorporate that relationship with these other relationships. I don't
think that's how it works. I think that really bad

(30:09):
relationship might end up like poisoning some of these other relationships.
There are certain things that we have to completely remove
in order to make some of the four progress. And
I think this is an instance where like you're kind
of streamlining too. It's like less is more, so like
in this way, you know, because like again you're freeing
up some of this mental bandwidth that you have in
your mind is not just like running circles around itself
trying to figure out how to just you know, make

(30:31):
minimum payments on some of this credit card debt?

Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yees, so did your toxic relationships and your toxic debt
in twenty twenty six debt? Yeah, Matt, I think you
just inspired people in multiple fronts. Congratulations the relational event.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, don't come to me for your relations advice.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Money gear number four, so we'll move on. Then GOAT
is really going back to the emergency fund. So money
gear one, the basic emergency fund. Next, get the company match.
Next is to pay down high interest debt and then
go back and fully fund your emergence fund. And so
much of how much money you need to save, there
is no number, there's no patented stock number for this,
like we did having money g you're number one because

(31:09):
it depends on the specifics of your household income. Right
three to six months should worth of expenses should suffice
for most people. And the truth is three thousand and
forty five dollars just isn't enough to get you through
bigger emergencies that can come along. It does not allow
for enough flexibility if you decide you want to make
a big pivot in your life, or if some like yeah,

(31:31):
let's say job loss or something like that, or you know,
hits you, or some sort of terrible medical diagnosis comes along,
the forty five dollars isn't going to be enough for
you to have the flexibility you need if you're compatied
with a larger emergency that three thousand dollars, that's like
for basic stuff right, like, hey, my transmission just went out,

(31:52):
and even that, I don't know, three thousand dollars quite competent.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Oh yeah, transmission is the number one. I'm pretty sure, Agil.
As I look at my twenty twelve into odyssey, that
is the repair that might total the van for a
big risk for you, It's like, yeah, it's just I've
just as it shifts, I'm like, oh, is it starting
to is it starting to slip a little bit. It's
something that I'm trying to stay on top of it.
If we get to that stage, I'm like, oh my gosh,

(32:14):
we have to get a new ride.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
I recently changed the transmission fluid and helped make it
shift a lot better.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
We talked about that. Yeah, privately, have you done it?
My next goal change? I'm one percent okay because I don't.
I was like, oh, dang, when's the last time I
had a fluid flesh And I don't know if I've
ever done that. Okay, it's time. There's some maintenance that
we've stayed on top of, like clockwork, but then there's
other things. When you bounce between different mechanics, it almost
like resets the clock on some of these other also

(32:41):
very important things that you need to do that are
going to maintain the longevity of your car. But yeah,
I think I've been a bit negligent. But let's keep
moving money gear number five. You just mentioned your number
four the fully funded emergency fund, oh, by the way,
which you're totally going to keep where in your high
deal savings account. This is not money that you invest
because you need it to be there, liquid, ready to

(33:02):
go in case case stuff hits the fan about money
year five tax sheltered retirement accounts, that is what's next.
You might be tempted to continue to hoard that cash
because for the first time you're like, oh my gosh,
this is what margin feels like. I can breathe. I
am not living paycheck to paycheck. And you might think, oh,
more of a good thing is just a good thing, right,
And no, because investing is going to be key to

(33:25):
outpacing inflation, it's going to be key to growing money
for your future for retirement. And there are a whole
slew of different accounts available and depending on where you work,
you know, you might have access to a four to
one K, you might have access to a TSP thrift
Savings Plan four fifty seven B. If you're a teacher
working for a nonprofit, you can also invest in an IR.

(33:50):
We're big fans of the roth IRA never having to
be taxed on those dollars ever. Again, but more than that,
I think prioritizing low costs and versification. What you're not
gonna hear us talk about are buying individual stocks. Occasionally
we'll say because less than five percent, we're okay with that.

(34:10):
For you to invest that much of your overall net
worth in individual stocks just for fun, But like that
should be I can't even believe I said that, because
like that should just not even be an issue. If
you are investing in tax deferred retirement accounts for the
first time, you need to be looking at total stock
index funds or the S and P five hundred and
specifically paying attention to the expense ratios on that. Anything

(34:33):
that's less than zero point two percent is okay. I
would prefer to see folks, though, closer to like point
zero three percent, because that's all it takes. Yeah, or
if not free with Fidelity, you got the FC rocks.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
And there are a lot of personal finance folks out
there who will talk a lot about a bunch of
different investing tactics you can take. And the truth is, man,
there's some really good content creators who are really smart
out there in space. We've even had some of them
on the podcast, even like Ben Felix, who we had
on at the end of last year, talks a ton
about investing. He's so smart. Loved talking to him. But

(35:09):
it's also possible, especially for a show like this, to
really over complicate things to actually the detriment I think
of listeners, and so if you feel like you're at
that place and you're like, man, I'm ready to create
my own like twelve fun portfolio, there are awesome folks
out there who you can listen to to figure that out.
But I think for the vast majority of folks, Matt,
they want just like simple and effective, low cost and diversified.

(35:30):
And so that's really what we talk about here on
the show.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
And that is literally how we invest as well. Yeah, exactly,
ninety seven, ninety eight percent of my net worth is
invested in either the total stock market index funds offered
by Vanguard or Fidelity YEP, or S ANDP with Fidelity.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
And so until you're investing fifteen percent of your income,
you're in money gear five. Don't beat yourself up if
it's taking while I think we're talking about these money gears, Matt,
like you just kind of moved through them like clockwork.
The truth is, especially think about money gear number one
might take somebody hopefully no longer than six months, but
it just depends on a whole lot of what's going
on in your financial scenario. Money gear number two that

(36:08):
hopefully doesn't take too too long to get the full match.
But like, the further you get along these money gears,
the longer it's gonna take to build up like let's say,
six months worth of expenses in a save these account.
That can take a really, really long time. So yeah,
be generous with yourself, be gracious. The same thing is
true with money year number five. Until you're really investing
fifteen percent, you're gonna be in money gear five. So

(36:28):
money gear number five all about getting more money than
into your investment accounts and just growing the amount of
overall amount of your income that you're able to stash
away for your future.

Speaker 2 (36:40):
That's right. Next, money gear number six, that's when you
can start paying off low interest debt with vigor. And
that could be if you've got one, that could be
a car loan. It could mean paying more on your
student loans than just the minimum. It could mean paying
off a heelock home equity line of credit more quickly
if you've if that's something that you've utilized. But in
money Gear number six, we've got savings, we've become good investors,

(37:03):
and now we are just eliminating some of the less offensive,
some of the less nefarious kinds of debt. That being said,
your mortgage. If you have a low rate interest rate
home loan, mortgage, hold off, don't do that just yet. Yeah,
that feels that's more like a money gear number seven.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Action item, right, Although I will say in money Gear
number six, if you were the kind of person if
you bought a house that's say, in the last two years,
and your interest rate is in that seven percent range, boom,
that fits in money Gear number six, you might want
to then be paying more towards your mortgage. Yeah, because
it's you're not able to earn more legit just in
a savings account than you are paying an interest right

(37:42):
towards towards your home lender.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
Yeah, and you said seven percent because that's what's that's
where it's If it's any more than that, absolutely slam dunk.
Any less than that, that's when it's like it's tough,
like that seven percent mark, it does not make it easy. Yep.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
So money gear number six is really about paying off
a lot of those other kinds of debt, with the
exception of the mortgage, or if you have some other
kind of debt like I don't know, Matt from people
who have student loans from twenty years ago, it might
still be at a really low interest rate, Like maybe
you can pump those off a little bit further, maybe
I can make those a top priority. And it's been
fun this year. Matter of fact, I feel like we've
seen a lot more money. How the money listeners reach

(38:19):
money gear number seven. Once you get here, yeah, you
can go in a million different directions, Like you can
go back to school to pursue another career. You can
pay for it with savings that you've been able to
ramp up, or you can increase your investment percentage so
you can reach financial independence sooner. So instead of stopping
at that fifteen percent of your income, now you're like, boom,
let me see if I can hit twenty or thirty
percent of my income just in money that I'm putting

(38:41):
into my investment accounts every month. That's a cool goal,
and it just allows you a lot more flexibility, sooner
you can take a sabbatical. We've got episodes on that
we took a sabbatical this summer. That was one of
those things where like we're buying more of our time back.
The truth is, once you're hitting those later money gears,
you're kind of cruising downhill. And a lot of folks
never achieve this. But I think a whole lot of

(39:02):
people in the how to Money community mat are going
to And it's not even because they make six salaries.
It's not like we've got everyone who lives in Silicon
Valley listening to this podcast. But it's because the people
who listen to this podcast are living intentionally. They're watching,
they're spending their prioritizing investing over consumption they could be
doing in the here and now, and they value the

(39:23):
lifestyle that you can't buy on Amazon right as the
Grinch would have said a few weeks ago, like it
came without packages, boxes or bags like that. We realize,
as how to money people that the truth is, the
best things in life are not consumables, and consumables can
be good, but they're not the end all be all.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
That's right, But we've got more to get to. Man.
We are going to cover some additional steps that you
can take to help your money to go further for
you to reach your financial goals. We'll get to all
that right after this.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
All right, Matt, We're back talked about the money gears,
which I think is just such a helpful framework for
most people just who are new to personal finance to
figure out. And even if you've been listening for a while,
you're like, oh, man, that's a good refresher. I forgot
where am I at? Oh I'm on money gear number four. Okay,
that's what I need to do next. It's a good idea,
and we'll link to it in the show notes, but
it's also on the start here button of our homepage
if you're like, I need to do more digging into

(40:23):
those and how they function. We just kind of gave
a brief overview. We actually have individual articles for every
money gear so that you can dig in and see
exactly how to attack it. But let's get a little
more current here. For the last section, Matt, and maybe
we'll even share our own priorities for twenty twenty six,
our financial priorities here at the end of this episode.
But I want to talk about the K shaped economy

(40:44):
for just a second. We've talked about like where you
are in the money gears, but it's also important to
think about what trajectory you're on. And we just hear
so much in the media about the extremes, like the
richest folks in the world, the people with multiple yachts,
and then folks living in impoverished situations. But I was
talking to my friend Pam recently Matt about this, and

(41:07):
we agreed that the K shaped visual is more accurate
and more representative, more helpful. I think that we exist
along a spectrum typically, and sometimes we're moving up that spectrum,
sometimes we're moving down it, or maybe we feel like
we're staying static. We're just kind of in the middle
of the K. And that K is like really just like, hey,
who's making improvements, doing better whether it comes to income
and lifestyle and the downward part of the K where

(41:29):
people feel like they're not doing as well as they
used to do. And I think people are increasingly worried
about the possibility of moving down rather than up. I
do think that's something that's on the top of people's minds,
especially higher prices and stuff like that. But instead of
thinking about the average or the extremes, I think the
visual can help you think more about your specific situation,

(41:49):
how you're doing right now, and where you feel like
you're headed, because I think that has so much to
do with how we feel about our money in our lives.

Speaker 2 (41:56):
Yeah, yeah, I agree, but yeah, hopefully folks are when
they see, like you say, K shaped economy and everyone
pictures the K and you're like, well, hopefully, like I
want to be on the K part that's going up.
And I mean, I do think that there are a
lot of listeners that is where they are. I do
think that there are a lot of folks and they're
they're encouraged by what's ahead. Like I always get frustrated

(42:19):
when folks talk about how gen Z, how they're just
so poor, But I'm like, these are this is the
generation that just finished college, Like, this is the generation
that's in their first job where they are making How
much did you make, Joel in your first job?

Speaker 1 (42:33):
I mean, I was part time in my literal first
job out and then my first time job. I want
to say I made like twenty four thousand dollars adjusted
for inflation.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
I don't know what that would be same. So in
preparation for the New year thirties, Kate and I, well,
then I made less than you because my take home
was less than twenty one thousand dollars. Wow. In two
thousand and seven, and Kate, we were looking over our
budget for the year as we're just kind of seeing
how we did in twenty twenty five things together, Like literally,

(43:01):
at the beginning of two thousand and seven, I had
eight hundred and sixty eight dollars to my name, Like
that's how much money I had in my savings account.
And guess what if you would have were to have
taken a snapshot right then they'd be like, guess what
millennials are so broke? Well, and they wrote those headlines
and they did, but like I'm just saying that those
headlines do not define you who are listening to this
and you are feeling like, oh my gosh, these guys

(43:23):
are talking about setting aside six months of living expenses,
Like I don't even have it enough to hardly pay
rent this this month to a certain extent, like we've
all been there, but I think that you've got what
it takes to be able to climb out of that.
And I want to see folks just identifying with that
k part that's going up as opposed to being like, yeah,
like the slow, lazy part of the downward kave that's

(43:44):
just like, yeah, it's going to peter out here for
a little bit and then things aren't going to be
looking up for me anymore. Well, I think that we've
got a lot of listeners who are going to be
optimistic about what liza ahead.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
And I also I get frustrated with the people who
crap on the small ways that you can claw back
money and you're life. Like we talked about frugality earlier
and how much of an impact that can have, because
I do think every dollar, especially in those early years
as you're trying to get that like Garner your first
ten thousand dollars in investments and then moving on up
that curve, like it's if every dollar matters, feels like

(44:17):
it matters more in those early years. And the reason
is that's true. Like when we talked with Brian Preston
the money guy, like he talks about how his koozy.
It's like this one dollar beer cost me eighty eight dollars.
And it's because a dollar invested really early on in
your life, let's say, when you're like twenty, can really
turn into eighty eight dollars later. A dollar invested at
the age fifty guess what it's it's it's not gonna
be worth eighty eight dollars unless you live to like

(44:39):
one forty or something like that, right, which is not
going to happen unless our AI overlords say that it will.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
But like if they allow it, if if they hook
you up to some sort of power generating machine and
you've got a plug into your Spinengel rather the matrix,
which nobody even knows that reference anymore.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
But probably right, So, my gosh, that's still worth watching.
I went back to watch it like a year ago,
did you great?

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Classic? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (45:01):
Well, and I think like this also just say hey
where are you? We'll also have some say over like
what you do next with your money and how much
Let's say, go back to money gear number four fully
funding your emergency fund. Well, let's say you are a
two parent household but you've got one income and that
income feels really precarious right now, you might want to
ramp up your savings beyond six months, like you might

(45:23):
even say, actually I need nine to twelve because.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Depends on your level of risk.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
Yeah, I work in an industry and my job, by
career is a little more at risk. These are all
things to take in mind, and like with economic fluctuations,
it's just crucial to build more resilience into your financial plan.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
That's right. You know this makes me think too, how
it's just so important to not do this alone. I
think it's so important to find friends who are down
to talk about money, and I would point folks to
join the how to Money Facebook group. If you spend
any time at all on Facebook, the only time I
do spend on time, The only time I do spend
on Facebook deal is if I'm like, you'll reference something

(46:01):
that's going on in the Facebook group and I'm like, oh,
let me let me go check it out. Or Facebook
Marketplace actually those area, it's the groups in Marketplace. The
only two good things about Facebook.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
And I actually plug for the Facebook feed eradicator plug
in so that even when I go to Facebook on
my desktop. I'm not confronted with any posts, and so
it's just like you literally get sucked into that hole. No,
it's like a Buddhist quote or something like that. Usually
that sits there where the feed would be, and so
I just go directly to the groups or directly to marketplace.
I don't have to see any of that nonsense.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
Yeah, but I mean one of the goals of the
show is for us to talk about personal finance, to
talk about money, to talk about what you're spending, how
much you're investing, and that's not typically something that happens
in real life. It's why we have the show. It's
why we encourage folks to head over to the Facebook group,
because they do do that, but we also want you
to get out there and touch grass and work to
talk about these types of topics in real life. And Joel,

(46:52):
this is something that you and I that we literally
were doing before we started the podcast. Like literally, the
original show is called Poor not Poor mm hmm, and
maybe you can imagine why we called it that. Originally,
it's still the name of our LLC, which I love,
but we changed the name of the show to how
to Money because it's more searchable But we were talking
about these things before we started the stupid podcast because
we enjoyed it and we saw that, oh my gosh,

(47:15):
by challenging each other, we are ending up in better places.
I know I am in a better position because of
our friendship, my friend same money winds in another way. Yes,
it's not just about the money, but it is how
to money, after all. But to have these conversations with
your spouse, with your partner, with your friends and man
the I know that this is life changing. I know

(47:36):
that the trajectory like where my family is right now, Jill,
it would not be it probably it would probably be
pretty close had we never met. But I know I
am in a better position because of our friendship. It's
a bunch of little things over time, yeah, stretched out
over the years. Those returns they compound. And we hear
from listeners too, like a little I was getting back
to an emailer, a listener this morning on email, and

(47:56):
she was talking about how I think she said it
was like life changing information is what she called it.
It's just a short little sentence. But what that told
me was that she is not only listening, but she
is putting into action some of the stuff that we
talk about and year after year, decade after dec I mean,
I've been the stuff that we talk about like this,
the quote unquote plan, Like I've effectively been doing that
for over twenty years now, and it's no surprise that

(48:18):
you see your net worth grow and you see how
it is that you view consumption and how it is
that you perceive enjoyment in the here versus enjoyment and
then now like, these are things that you think about
and it takes time, but I want to encourage folks
to have these conversations not only with your friends, your partners,
but also online.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
Yeah, I mean, you're making me think too about One
of the one of the trends that we covered maybe
early in twenty twenty five was loud budgeting, where people
were just like on social media, like yelling out the
ways that they were trying to save money and people
and just kind of making frugality normalizing it a little bit.
And I think there is this really important thing about

(48:57):
putting your hopes, your dreams, your goals out there in
front of the people who love and care about you
so they can ask about it. Like one of my
friends at the end of last year, he wants to
start a podcast. He wants to launch his first episode
in the next week or so he was, and so
he reached out to me in early December and he
was like, hey, man, can you stay on me? Can
you text me about this? And there's something about when
you say he told me this is what I want

(49:17):
to do, and then he was like, can you help me?
And man, bringing a friend into that alongside with you
is such a beautiful thing. So yeah, you better believe
I pestered him and I texted him, hasn't going, man, like,
how you making progress?

Speaker 2 (49:28):
So that's the topic.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
So it's actually he's worked for like a radio music station,
and so it's about like celebrity encounters.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
Oh yeah, super cool.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
Yeah, like a down to or a celebrity account of podcast.
So I'm curious to hear the first episode, which should
be coming out shortly. I'll text him again after we
finished recording here. Yeah, but that's the kind of thing
where when you say it out loud and when you
involve others in your plan, the plan is just so
much more likely to succeed than just keeping it locked
in your head.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
I love it. Do you wanna do you want to do?
You have any financial goals, Like we talked about goals
in the first you want to share any that you've
got for twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Okay, So I don't have any audacious money goals for
twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
I think like I want to keep on, keep it on.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
It's sort of like and I think that's okay, right.
There were a lot of years I had really really
big goals, and I think my goal right now is
actually to use more of the freedom that I've gained
using it well yeah, boy, right, Like speaking my language,
part of that is like, hey, supporting my wife and
her new and budding career, like that's a big part
of it, while still like building how the money and

(50:31):
having fun doing the work that we enjoy doing doing
it together. I think maybe if I was to call
out one big account that I care about this year
that like three years ago, if you'd ask me if
it mattered to me, I would have been like, not really,
the five twenty nine account. I'm putting more money into
the five twenty nines for my kids.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
But also you've been doing this for twenty years, right,
and so like that's a priority that it's a money
Gear seven priority that's a money gear seven kind of priority,
and a lot of folks will start putting the cart
before the horse, and like, ma, man, like, there's a
lot of different ways that you can pay for college,
assuming your kid even goes to college. And I know
everyone's like, well, of course my kid is going to
go to college. You don't know, like there's a good
chance they will, but at least some room for their

(51:10):
own decision making in autonomy. Well, which is why you
it's less of a priority, but not it's still super important.
And I'm glad you're doing that well.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
And like we've talked about, the changes to make five
twenty nine plans more flexible has made them at least
more interesting, Like from a parental perspective. Part of that
is too, because you can now pay for K through
twelve education with five twenty nine dollars. And so I
did not think our family would be a private school
family until this last year in our oldest of three.
It was the right move for her, for us to

(51:39):
do for her. And so the five twenty nine dollars,
it's like, hey, boom, if I stick more money in there,
I get a tax break at least on the money
I'm working over and yeah, I will say it kills me,
but it doesn't like it actually makes me really happy
to spend that money, even though I was like, we're
public school people.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
I was a public school shild it should and like
you're you're personal financing it by calling it. You know,
we're going to talk more money into the five twenty nine,
But what you're paying for is your values and your
and your priorities today, right, Like if you're using a
lot of those dollars to go towards that, and that's okay,
that's my craft beer equivalent that costs a lot more
than this IRPA. There you go, and that's I think
that's totally fine. In a similar way, like I don't

(52:14):
have again, like we've been at this for so long
that you look up and you're like, wait a minute,
how much money do we have set aside? Like not
only in retirement accounts but other investment accounts. And it's
just impressive what you can do by doing the hard,
fiscally responsible thing year after year. And I have very
few like serious financial goals like my I mean, we

(52:37):
talked about this years ago, how we're like Coast five,
but like I mean Kate and I were financially independent
to what extent it varies on what we choose to
spend our money on, right, Like, you can't you know,
we can't. I can't pick up some expensive hobby if
you develop those caveard tastes. Maybe no, maybe I'll work
for another year. But like, but that speaks to just
a different approach towards retirement as well, Like we're not

(52:57):
I'm not interested in kicking back and doing nothing and
just relaxing and going and playing golf. If I pick
up golf, I do have to work for another two
years because that's a really expensive sport, no shade, It
takes a lot of time too.

Speaker 1 (53:06):
If you like to play golf, everybody plays every Friday,
and I'm like, go for you.

Speaker 2 (53:11):
Yeahhh, no hate there. But similarly to you, like I
think about lifestyle and some of the different things I
want to achieve in my life, being able to pour
into relationships, and I feel like I've done that really
well with my wife. I mean, we've done a whole
lot this past year where we've instituted regular things that
grow and where we feel more connected than ever And
it's honestly, it's amazing. Same with the kids, but even

(53:34):
beyond that other friends, and I think that's not something
I've done as good of a job on over time.
And you look at the Harvard Happiness Study, all right,
it's like it's the longest standing longitudinal study on happiness,
and the number one thing the quality of close relationships.
And oftentimes we don't have time for relationships, because why

(53:54):
what do we spend two thirds of our life doing
half of our waking hours doing Joel, working oftentimes to
pay for the things that we've chosen to purchase or
that we have financed, and we're not putting our efforts
in our time towards the things that are going to
actually bring us true happiness. And so for me, that's something, honestly,
like that's more of a priority for me. It's less

(54:15):
the financial We're pretty comfortable. I'm still going to continue
to work because I love doing this podcast with you.
Don't you folks worry about the feed going cold? Even
if I let it go cold. I don't think you
would let it go cold, Joel. I think to say, Matt,
me too, me too, as as evidenced by this rant.
But more than anything, we have a community that like
we care about Yes, we care. We want folks to

(54:37):
make some like some of the things that we've been
able to experience over the years. I want so I
want everybody listening to also be able to experience that
and share the joy of the optionality that you've purchased
for yourself. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
I feel like this is the perfect way to end
an episode for the new year. I feel like there's
so many other things we could toss in here, but
we're not. We're gonna stop it there, and we'll say
that for Wednesday.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
Yes, that's right. For next Monday's episode, we will you.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
Stick with of money? Hit subscribe and just yeah, please
do ride with us. And if you have money questions,
especially after listening to this episode, you're like, I think
I'm in this gear?

Speaker 2 (55:09):
What do I do now?

Speaker 1 (55:10):
Like, please toss them our way. We'd love to take them.
Next week we'll be back to regular programming and answering
your listener questions. But that's that's one of my favorite
parts of this show. And look forward to riding.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
With you this year. Let's do it. Man. Should we
get back to the beer real quick? We should make
it quick. I just noticed that we are over or
we're like right out an hour, which I can't believe
we went that long, I know, but when you've.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Got stuff to say and when you're having fun, yeah,
i'd say this ipa from Burial it was like classic.
It was like a low key ipa from one of
the goats. It was. It was not like overly ridiculous.
Some of the Burial IPAs are just like so happy
that makes your brain melt. I would say this one
did not quite hit that level. But yeah, this one
kind of had like the juicy hotness going on. Like
this reminded me of a classic New England hazy ipa,

(55:53):
Like it had the happiness going on, but it was
more like a like an earthy happiness mixed with some
of that some of that juice. And I part of
me wonders if we let this one sit too long
in the fridge from last year, like it it almost
tastes does it taste a little bit old to you?
I pas, you want to drink as fresh as possible,
And this is one that almost had some almost like

(56:15):
metallocky kind of flavor, you know, like canned fruit juices,
like the giant can of dull pineapple juice, like it's
kind of metallocky, it's kind of tinny.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
I love that flavor. For some reason, you should be
sitting on all your classes. I should burial I. I
feel like it had a little bit of that, but
honestly it didn't detract too much at all from the
overall enjoyment. Yeah, we'll keep drinking good beer kee. I
got to enjoy it. Yeah, all right, that's gonna do it.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
For this episode, we'll have links to some of the
resources we mentioned up on the site. I had the
money dot com.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
You know it. And until next time, best Friends Out,
Best Friends Out.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Joel Larsgaard

Matthew Altmix

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

Stuff You Should Know

The Breakfast Club

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Your Smart Money Guide for 2026 #1084