George Kamel - Millionaires in Cars Getting Coffee with THE Money Guy: Brian Preston

Episode Date: July 31, 2023

Today, I'm hanging out with THE Money Guy himself, Brian Preston. He's a host of The Money Guy Show, and is featured in renowned publications like The New York Times and Forbes. He's joining me in the Tesla for a chat about financial success, millionaires' and the true motivation behind building wealth. I love a good deal, when you sign up using this link, I’ll hook you up with a 14-day free trial and $15 off your first year of the premium version of EveryDollar.   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up guys, George Camel here, and today we're hanging out with The Money Guy, literally. His god-given name, however, Brian Preston. Brian is a financial advisor, but don't let that debonair hair fool you. He's not your everyday CPA, CFP, PFS CEO, even though he actually is somehow all of those things. You know him as the founder and host of The Money Guy Show, which now has over 300,000 subscribers on YouTube. This guy has been featured in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Forbes, and now I bestow upon him, perhaps the highest honor, featured on my YouTube channel. He's gonna for sure add that to his LinkedIn profile. Yeah, he could use it.

Now, Brian and I are both Tesla guys, but he called shotgun. So I'm driving us to coffee today and letting you in on the juicy combo. We are spilling the tea. We talked about all kinds of stuff. I don't know if you're financially on track, what millionaires really look like, and the importance of finding the real why behind your wealth building. And the real why on my mind is why you haven't hit like and subscribe you. Why?

Why? Why? What's stopping you? Why you're at it? Share this video with a friend you want to do millionaire. coffee stuff with. Don't share it with me because I already, it's been shared. I know what I'm doing here. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Brian Preston. I'm here with Brian Preston, the money guy. I love the, who does the voice for the Money Guy show? You know, it's like Brian Preston.

Oh, you know what? That's the old one that we had was like a Canadian company. It's very nostalgic. I don't even know. It was like that came about in 2006. So we kept it forever. Now when you listen to the show, I love that you know the old. You got the sound. You've got the new bump, the kind of sound design on it. I had a screaming, in the old days, I had a screaming guitar and it was all the things. I mean, you could totally see Motley Crew or something else doing that, you know, a guitar riff. But that's where we started. Now we're trying to be a little more.

I want to do live announcing for your show. Just bring me in, just to be like, come on in. Brian Preston, Bow Hanson, it's the Money Guy show. We're right up the street. So you just come in whenever you want. Oh, that's, what's your, what's your tagline now? because I know you guys did some rebranding. What's your official, this is our tagline?

Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing is that, you know, respect the food because you've got to make sure that you are understanding the financial order of operations because there is a better way to do finance. And then the other thing I like to share is because I think if people can just understand, we're going to take a little bit of today for that great big, beautiful tomorrow is that deferred gratification. Yes, that's really good. I like that. Very Mr. Ronders-esque.

Makes me feel good. Respecting and loving your neighbor can give everybody a good feeling. I wanted to take you to some of the best local coffee, which irks everyone who's like... I see it coming up. You need to support local coffee shops. Listen, we need convenience right now.

We don't have time to go in and wait for a 19-minute pourover. So we're going to go to Starbucks. Thank you for choosing Starbucks, where my anxiety may be chronic, but my coffee is iconic. What can we get started for you? Because, you know, you guys are corporate.

You wealth, management folks. And your big suits and, uh, or you have a Hawaiian shirt. You can see. We all wearing suits in my purse. Do you have a favorite drink at Starbucks? Yeah, I have something like no okay. I'm pretty basic too. Hello. Hi, I'm here with my friend Brian. He's never been to Starbucks. What do you recommend for a, I don't know, a 50-year-old white male who's in wealth management? George aged me up, by the way. He likes coffee. He likes coffee, he says. He wants something hot or cold? Definitely hot. Hot. It's a thousand degrees and he's wants a hot beverage. That tells you a lot about the guy.

Got to keep this heart warmed up. This is fine. Here's what I'd like to have. Okay. Grandi Americano with just a splash of heavy cream. There we go. We'll do a grande Americano with a splash of heavy cream. And then I will do the cinnamon caramel cream nitro cold brew. And I'll do the Grande. Oh, yeah. Look at that fancy drink.

If you could fit another word in there, you guys would have done it. That was a very bougie. That was a very boozy order. Thank you. genuinely. Let's talk about 401Ks because, you know, as I scroll TikTok, I've never seen so much hatred for a retirement vehicle in my entire life. So everyone on TikTok says 401Ks are a scam. They were invented to be a scam to keep America poor.

What are your thoughts on this? You've got to follow the money. I mean, first of all, anybody who's telling you your 401K is horrible probably has an ulterior motive. And there's money at the end of the rainbow in the fact that they're selling a horse. They're selling life. insurance, or they're trying to get you to get into real estate, which we love real estate, but real estate is something you've got to have some pockets for before you jump right into that.

401Ks are glorious. And let me explain why. First of all, I use Ramsey Solutions. You guys have done a lot of studies on this. Eight out of 10 millionaires from y'all's research attribute their 401k being a big driving factor to that. The other thing, from our own studies of our clients, 69% if you ask them, what was the thing that gave you launch point or into millionaire status.

What created you becoming a millionaire? 69% of them say it's because I was a saver and an investor. And that's the 401K because you get the free money from your employer. Yeah. And then you're also contributing on a consistent basis. Every time you get paid, those behaviors make this thing a super weapon. It's the consistent savings rate plus the 100% return on the match. And you can't touch it until you get older usually.

Now, some people are touching their 401 case way too soon, but the way it's set up structurally, you shouldn't be able to touch it until you get closer to retirement. That's another thing that lets you overcome the behavioral stuff. So if it's an easy piggy bank access, you're going to do some stupid things. All right, nobody looked until I get my cork back in. What other trends are you seeing that bother you, the things that you guys make content from and go, hey, you're seeing this all over social media, don't do this. What are the big things right now? You know, we've done some content. And I think we align on this because I've seen some of your content on it.

I do think that this new trend where people are trying to cut the corner off with cryptos and other things, you know, nothing wrong with dabbling in that stuff. But I think a lot of people, I've reacted to some videos where people are using crypto as their emergency reserves, where they think that this is what's going to be their retirement. I think a lot of people have lost focus that you've got to be. Wealth is actually built over the long term. It is a long, slow, deliberate process. this get rich quick and all these things where people are cutting off the corner,

I think it ends up in emptiness and disappointment. Beautifully, said. I always say if you follow the trends, you'll fall for the traps. Anything that feels like, oh, this is the new, this is going to, I'm like, now what is the tried and true? Sometimes there's a new thing that pops off that's like, oh, okay, we can do this. You know, a high-yield savings account, online high-yield savings accounts. That's a newer invention in the modern era.

I'm like, that's a great place, a story of emergency fund. Cool trend. What is the best money advice you've ever heard? have that one thing that's always stuck with you that's like this is the thing I tell people this is the thing that changed me yeah I internalize um good things because I believe you know I'm from Athens Georgia Georgia Bologna so automatic for the people means a lot to me if you're an REM fan and some of the restaurants there and weaver D's and so forth but if you can make your good habits easy and that's what automatic investing like your 401k setting up something that happens in your Roth

IRA every month, you are making your wealth building inevitable. So that's one part of it. The other thing is let's make the bad stuff hard. Because if you have money in your pockets, you're going to go spend it. So we might as well create something that makes bad habits hard. And that's why I like what I call force scarcity. If you can set up every dollar in your army of dollar bills has a purpose, whether it's going into your Roth, whether it's going in your 401K, whether it's going in your emergency reserves, if you're allocating the money so it doesn't just sit in your account, it makes the bad habits hard

because you just don't have as easy access to it. Make the good habits easy. That's good. That's actually fresh advice, and I will take that, and I will steal it without credit. Benchmark it. Benchmark it is what we call it, George.

So here's the other thing that, you know, I guess grinds my gears, if you will, in the financial world. You know Rahmets Sethi out there. Yeah, yeah. He's doing some good work out there. He's got a new Netflix show. And one of his things is he was on the minimalist podcast,

which we're friends with those guys, And he said, hey, if you're working with a financial advisor, it's a scam. It's a scam that they're taking these fees. So what are your thoughts on all of this? And when should people work with a financial advisor? And how do you know if you're getting, quote, unquote, scam? I love this question. And I think people are shocked because I get this on our show, too.

And I think I push people back in a good way on this is because I agree with them in a lot of ways. If your financial advisor is only helping you with asset allocation, I mean, in the world of index investing now, where you can do index target retirement funds and other things. You don't need a financial advisor. So you're saying, hey, if they're just going to go, oh, yeah, choose this fund. Yeah, you've got to have a bigger picture. I mean, you can go to Vanguard, Fidelity, Charles Schwab. They make all that stuff so easy.

So just take advantage of that. However, here's why, and this is how I've built my entire business, that I call it the abundance cycle. I give away so much free information. You just come learn, apply. I've never given you a dollar. Yeah, well, that's what I just load people up with free stuff, because here's when you're going to know you need a financial

of a complexity of your finances is going to track you down with your level of success. So I hear because it only takes one mistake and you blow up your seven figure enterprise. I mean, this is, I get very passionate about it because I agree that there are a lot of people that are probably sold stuff, have a bad experience. Because I consider us the unicorns of the industry is that we're fee only, we're fiduciary. So we, you know, we have to. We're legally held to a standard that we have to put our client's interests ahead of our that is only 2 to 3% of the entire industry.

So I get why there's a lot of distrust of financial advisors, but if you can understand what the why is and know that you're actually picking up essentially a CFO for very, literally, pennies on the dollar for one. That's a good way to think about it. Because it is. If you have to go hire somebody to make sure you don't screw up your seven-figure enterprise, then I think it's a heck of a deal.

Really good deal. That's strong. That's a strong sales pitch. Now, I talked to Bo and I'm interested. interested in this. You are how old now? Can you say it out loud? I mean, let's just say I'm quickly approaching the 50s. Okay, so you're late 40s. We'll put it there. Yeah, there you go. And I heard that you had a plan once upon a time to retire by 50. Is this true? Yeah, I thought I was, you know, if you had met me in my 20s, I came up with this plan that I was going to retire at 50 years

of age. Was it a bad plan? I feel like you're... No, no, actually, I got to tell you, I am so glad that I had that plan because by doing the action when I was in my 20s, I now get to live a completely different life because now I make decisions not for the financial. I get I get to do it for the abundance for the purpose. Because if you take wealth plus purpose, that's really abundance. That's what we're trying to build for our listeners. So I'm at that stage where I just feel like I get to do things on my terms and I get to do it not for the money because I think a lot of people, unfortunately, when you start working, you are a servant. to your obligations.

You know, all the bills and all the other things out there, the sooner you can start saving investing, the sooner you own your time and own your life and do things how you want, when you won't, you know, and really for why you want to. And that's where I get to do things now. So, no, anybody who's worried, if you watch our content, I am doing this for decades more.

I just could not imagine ever retiring now. But I'm so glad that I made all the sacrifices in my 20s, because now I get to invest in things that don't necessarily look like they're going to have a dollar benefit, but they have a tremendous benefit to building abundance enterprise or helping my clients or helping my employees. It definitely lets you have the flexibility and freedom that when you're obligated or a servant to something, you're doing it because you have to. And that can be very constricted. I just really wanted to see you live in your best, like Florida life.

Like you already have the shirts. Like, you're ready to go. You could be Jerry Seinfeld's parents live in their best life in Boca Raton. Who eats dinner at 4.30? By the time we sit down, it'll be quarter to five. But that's not getting the cards for you. I am traveling more.

I'm very heavy on pushing the travel button because I'm all about blossoming memories because I don't think you get to take my assets, but I get to take my memories, my children get to keep my memories. But I love the blossoming memory aspect, and that's something that's super important to me. So I am spending time on that.

but why would I walk away from something that brings me so much delight and happiness? Well, here's the thing. Most people, they hate what they do. And so, like, how can I retire as early as possible so I can stop working for the man? And you're out here doing work that you love. You told me you love waking up and going to work. I wake up with purpose every day. When I'm putting on my socks every morning, I mean, I just can't wait to get to it.

And I think that's a positive thing. And anybody who's sitting in a life and wondering where does it get better, I would challenge you to kind of internally take an inventory and figure out, How do you change your life? What small incremental decision can help you build that great, big, beautiful tomorrow? And I think you'd be surprised if you'll just do the exercise, what it can create. Hey, guys, listen. I'm with Brian, and he is coveting a like, a subscribe, and to share on this video

because we want to see more people become millionaires so they can be in this car next. Wouldn't that be cool? That would be great. I can only fit a few people at a time. Like, subscribe. Come on. Make it happen. This was a blast, folks.

It was so much fun. Don't you just love that guy? I don't know if it's the Hawaiian shirts, but he's just so dang likable. So a huge thanks to Brian Preston for hanging out with us today and being on the channel. Let me know in the comments who else you want to see on this show

and in the millionaires and cars getting coffee segments. It doesn't just have to be financial experts. I mean, we could get some A-list millionaire celebs on here, right? Has Dwayne gotten back to us on the... Dwayne? Did you get those Omaha steaks we set them? I call him Dwayne. Some people call them The Rock or whatever.

Anyways, thanks for watching. We'll see you guys next time.