Rich Habits Podcast - 102: Building Automation With Your Money

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

In this week’s episode of the Rich Habits Podcast, Robert Croak and Austin Hankwitz share their three favorite tips to build automation with your money in 2025. —Download our FREE Financial Planning Workbook for 2025!👉 ⁠CLICK HERE!⁠---⭐️ Open a Bond Account on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Public⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to lock in your 6% or higher yield today,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Click Here!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠—🎨 Skip the waitlist and invest in blue-chip art for the very first time by signing up for Masterworks: https://www.masterworks.art/richhabits.Invest in shares in great masterpieces from artists like Pablo Picasso, Banksy, Warhol, and more.---🚀 Sign up for the Rich Habits Network so you don't miss out on the next big investment opportunity,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠---⭐ Download our FREE Financial Planner –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⭐ Download our FREE Budgeting Template –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⭐ Earn 5.1% on your savings with a High-Yield Cash Account –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⭐ Trade stocks, options, music royalties and crypto on Public –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⭐ Automatically buy stock where you shop with Grifin –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⭐ Protect your family with term life insurance from Suriance –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⭐ Use code “Spotify” for 15% off our 4-module video course –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⭐ Optimize your portfolio with Seeking Alpha –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠---👤 Explore everything Austin does –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠👤 Explore everything Robert does –⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠❓ Ask us questions for our Q&A episodes – @richhabitspodcast on Instagram📬 Inquire about working together – [e-mail]---Disclosure: A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Deposits into this account are used to purchase 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. As of 1/27/25, the average, annualized yield to worst (YTW) across the Bond Account is greater than 6%. A bond’s yield is a function of its market price, which can fluctuate; therefore, a bond’s YTW is not “locked in” until the bond is purchased, and your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here. The “locked in” YTW is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTW of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity or if the issuer defaults on the bond. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. See our⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Fee Schedule⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. See⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://public.com/disclosures/bond-account⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more.---For further disclosure on Regulation A Offerings, Risks of Investing, Performance Metrics, Art Market Data, and more visit the offering documents filed with the SEC and Important Disclosures at ⁠https://www.masterworks.com/cd⁠.Hankwitz Group LLC has an existing business relationship with NEOS Investment Management LLC. The opinions expressed are those of the author, and the author owns several NEOS ETFs.

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spreadsheets. Yes? Good. This is for you. Because on Spotify, there's an audience that's different. Locked in. Loyal, invested. They're called fans. Fans don't just listen to music. They feel seen by it, like it belongs to them. So when your brand shows up on Spotify, that's who you're talking to. And you're right next to artists like me, Lizzo. So, are you ready to talk to fans? Spotify advertising. You're among fans. Hey everyone and welcome back to the Rich Habits podcast. a top five business podcast on Spotify brought to you by public.com. My name is Austin Hankwitz, and I'm joined by my co-host Robert Croke. Robert is a seasoned entrepreneur in his 50s with lifetime revenue of over 300 million,

and I'm an entrepreneur in my late 20s with a background in finance and economics. Since quitting my full-time job in corporate finance a few years ago, I've built a seven-figure media business and actively advise some of the most well-known fintech companies around the world. Now, as the show name might suggest, Every episode, we talk about rich habits as they relate to business, finance, and mindset. However, we try and bring you two unique perspectives. One from an industry veteran, which is Robert, and the other myself, someone who's still in the process of building wealth and figuring it all out. So, Robert, what are we going to be talking about in today's episode?

In this episode of the Rich Habits podcast, we're going to share with you how we build automation with our money and how you can too. Automating your money is a very important skill to learn when it comes to wealth building. because it enables you to take the emotion out of the equation and solely focus on your investment strategy. It also prevents you from sitting on the sidelines and trying to time the market because when you're automating your money, you're investing without even thinking about it. So I want you all to hear this loud and clear and really take it to heart. By automating your money, building wealth is inevitable. By automating your money, building wealth is inevitable.

I love that phrase. that term. I think we should put it on a t-shirt. Yeah. Yes. But at the end of the day, it's entirely true, right? Because if you've automated your investing, your budgeting, your spending, it's all automated, then all you have to do is project how much you can continue to invest, how much more you can invest, and what that's going to turn into throughout your life. So that is a wonderful phrase. Automating your money sounds complicated. It sounds intimidating, but we promise. This episode, we're going to break things down in a super simple format. We have three easy to implement strategies that will allow you to automate

your monthly spending, your saving, and you're investing. So if automating your money is something you want to dig into and try to master in 2025, this episode's going to be the playbook. Yeah, and I think it's really important for everyone to understand. This might sound complicated, like Austin said, but I promise you, once you get through this episode, and if you take notes and take action, life is going to get a lot easier and you won't have all that fear around when to invest, how much to invest, because you're going to have a plan, you're going to automate it, and it's just going to make it so much easier. So let's get into number one, automating your bills.

What does that mean? When it comes to automating your bills, having complete clarity into your monthly spending across all of your accounts, credit cards and subscriptions is paramount. The easiest way to start automating your bills is to, of course, create your honest budget using the link in the show notes below. And once it's created, you need to calendar your payments. So there's no surprises. This is a key, key element to this strategy to make sure you're doing it right and you keep consistent. So listen very closely.

I want you to open up a Google sheet or a notepad or anything you use for your note taking and write down every single date that you know a bill is due. This now allows you to have full clarity before the month even begins as to what you'll be spending. Write down things like your streaming subscriptions, your car insurance, cell phone bill, utilities, and everything else you're paying over and over on a monthly basis. This is really important. You will now have full visibility into when money will be leaving your checking account. This will not only prevent overdrafts, which can be very, very expensive, but also prevent surprises that might cause you to swipe a credit card. card during the month or sell your investments to cover a bill and we don't want to see you do that because we want to have it dialed in so you know where all your money is going throughout the month

and you can prepare ahead of time to make sure you have enough money on hand so now that you have complete visibility it's time to put all these bills on auto pay having them on auto pay one ensures they get paid on time and you're not liable for late fees and penalties but two you know week to week where your money is going so you know now to better prepare for upcoming investments or sinking funds. This is also very important to keep track of. So I guess what you're trying to say here, Robert, is that the key to automating your bills is to one understand exactly when that bill is due. Yep. And then two, put that payment on autopay. My girlfriend did this recently. I think this was like a big thing for her in 2024. She sat down and she said, okay, I've got why,

I've got my car insurance, my cell phone bill, you know, I've got all these subscriptions, whatever she's spending money on even groceries, right? So it's like, I've got these things that I know I have to pay for every single month. I go grocery shopping every Sunday. My auto insurance is on the 14th. My Wi-Fi is on the 7th, right? And sitting down, having a calendar in front of you and saying, okay, if I get paid on the 15th and the first, and I've got $4,000 in my checking account, and I know that my Wi-Fi bill of $90

is on the 4th, then I'm going to have, you know, $9,000. $90 less of whatever I started the week with. So having that visibility and having that clarity week to week, month to month as to what your money is going to be doing, and my opinion gives you a sigh of relief, I always have to know how much I'm starting the month with, how much I'm ending the month with, like, I love to know that. But also too, to your last point, this allows me to say, okay, what margin do I now have for investing?

Maybe I have a little bit more than I thought or have a little bit less than I thought. And if it is less, what side hustle can I implement to maybe get that up a little bit? having this part of your money management system automated in 2025 is going to work wonders from a wealth building perspective because spending is half the problem when it comes to building wealth, right? It's spending and it's investing. So once you get the spending part figured out, now you can focus entirely on the investing. Yeah, I want to tell a quick story. And I know I talked about this in the Rich Habits Network, but I had a client and a friend who owned multiple businesses. And I'm not going to say his name or the year that this happened. It was a few years ago.

but he wanted to go through and audit everything with him and figure out why he wasn't making any money. And because he wasn't planning ahead, he wasn't budgeting and he did not have any automation. In the year that I helped him, he had over $100,000 in overdraft fees throughout all of his accounts for these businesses. And right there was the big glaring thing. And that is why this part of this episode is so important. A lot of people are reactive with their money rather than press. proactive and they get themselves in trouble because late fees on payments, overdraft fees and checking accounts, all of this adds up. And no matter what the fake gurus tell you, little leaks

sink ships. And it's so important. And the more automation you have and the more preemptive planning you have, the better off you'll be, whether it's your personal account, your investment account, or your business accounts to have this in place. One of my favorite quotes that I think you might have shared a while ago was broke people react wealthy people forecast, right? 100%. Having these bills automated and this calendar figured out for when stuff is due, you can forecast months and years ahead of time.

It is wonderful for wealth building. So let's jump into our second way to automate your money in 2025, which is by automating your 401K contributions. As we know, Robert, 78% of Americans are offered a 401k, and half of those offer a match to their employees. So we are very big believers in investing up to that match to get the free money. In case you're new around here, the equation and sort of order of operations is very simple. You invest up to the match to get the free money.

And then everything above the match, you then take and you max out that Roth IRA. You invest that into the S&P 500, the NASDAQ and other awesome index funds. If you have autonomy over your 401K and you can choose the investments inside of it, a.k.a. it's not bonds and target date funds. Then you go back and try and max out that 401k. And if you still have money left over, that's where the bridge account comes into play. And you do that on public.com. So that's kind of how we think about the priorities here. But the priorities start with automating those 401k contributions, assuming you have a match. Now, we could not make an episode about automating your money in 2025 without mentioning how important it is to automate your 401k contributions.

I know, for example, Robert, when I first started working at a job out of college, I didn't didn't contribute to my 401k. I don't think for the first six or seven months, but once I went to our HR person, I was like, hey, can you help me set this up? They were, one, super impressed that I was a 20-something-year-old trying to invest to my 401k. But two, I only did it for like two years, two and a half years after I quit, right? And once I quit, I had like $20, $22,000 in this account. Like, that's awesome. It didn't feel like I was actively investing. It didn't feel like I was, you know, budgeting in a perfect way to, you know, saved a couple grand here and there. It was just automated. And sometimes having that automation for people is the only way they're going to be

investing because it's like, take it out of my check before I even see it. If I see it, I'll spend it. So make sure that you are automating your 401k contributions, but you only want to do this assuming you do not have high interest debt. Remember, Robert, we cannot out invest high interest debt. You've got $9, $10, $20, $30,000, $40,000 of credit card debt at 30, 40, 50,000, interest or a title loan or a, you know, whatever's going on, right? You've got these crazy interest rates. Pause the 401k investing, pay off the high interest debt, and then go back to the 401k match. That's the best way to do it. And I want to touch on a few things, and that's a great breakdown for this section of automation, is to get people, number one, remember, you're just going up to

the match. You want to get that free money because most 401ks are going to underperform the other strategies we talk about on a daily basis. So I want to make sure we understand that, but also understand The reason automation is so important, we've talked about this to where blue in the face over the years, is because if you have the money sitting in your checking account and your checks are deposited in there and there's no automation, you see that money, you believe that it's available to you. So you get bored on a Saturday, you go to the farmer's market. On Sunday, it's raining and you can't go outside. So you go to the mall.

And guess what? You spend the money because it wasn't automated. It wasn't spoken for. We don't want you to ever have money just constantly sitting and checking accounts or savings accounts, making no money. And that is why automation is so incredibly important because like Austin alluded to, over time, it just builds and compounds. And it seems like the easiest money you've ever made because it was taken out of your hands before you could get on it and spend it on something you don't need or something that's a depreciating asset. So please, please, really pay attention in this episode. because automation is your friend for the long term.

I love that breakdown. Robert, I want you to say that one more time about the spoken force. Say that one more time. That was good. It's just really all about you should not have money that is just sitting there because so many people have 10,000, 20,000. I see people with hundreds of thousands of dollars just sitting there and it's not spoken for.

I like Austin, my money is spoken for before it ever even hits my account because I have a plan every month. What am I investing in? Where is this money going? what are my bills so I know exactly because I don't want money sitting idly by because park money is dead money and we want your money always making money while you sleep I am 100% in agreeance there and to your point you're right I've already figured out it's January 22nd the day that we're filming this and I've already figured out what I'm investing and how much I'm investing what I'm doing in the month

of March I already know exactly how much is going to get deposited I already know exactly how much is going to get invested, where it's getting invested, what ETFs I'm buying, you know, everything. I already have it spoken for. So the only way I have that clarity, of course, goes back to automating my bills, calendaring, my payments, things like that and making sure I'm on the same page about that with my honest budget. But having that money and that clarity allows you back to this first sort of quote that we had, which is forecasting. We can now forecast days, weeks, and months ahead, allowing us back to this original point as well to jump on an investment opportunity that might come our way or begin to build a sinking fund to go buy a

multifamily or go start something new or do something like that. So it's just having that money spoken for. I want everyone to write that down and just like make sure your money is spoken for before it even hits your account. I love that. Yeah, one of my favorite things that we discuss and pass along to our millions of followers is make your money work as hard for you as you work to get it. That should be a t-shirt as well because if people understood that, they wouldn't just let it sit in their accounts so they could look at it. They would have it making money while they sleep. Totally agree. Now, this third way to automate your money in 2025 is probably my favorite, and that is the investment plan from public.com. An investment plan from public is a collection

of stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies that you can automatically contribute to on a recurring basis. Robert, you were talking about this earlier, how you had some. someone ask, hey, you know, I've got all these different brokers, I got these accounts. Like, how can I just like set it up where it just does it automatically? You know, the first and the 15th of the month, it takes 100 bucks and it goes, right? Fundrise does this for Robert and now. We got 100 bucks. It just goes every single week. It just, they do it automatically. Investment plans by public is how you can do this automatically in your public broker. So you say, I want to invest $100 bucks every Monday toward this specific strategy. And public.com will automatically withdraw that

amount of money from your checking account and then invested accordingly. Now, the cool thing about this is you have full autonomy as to how this money is invested, right? So you can, if you want to, choose from their catalog of plans, which covers a wide range of styles and themes and risk tolerances and everything in between, or you can do what I prefer to do and build your own investment plan from scratch using up to a total of 20 stocks, ETFs, or cryptocurrencies. So like, for example, you can go, all right, I want to make an investment plan, 100 bucks a week that goes into V-O-O, V-G-T, V-T-I-MOT, and then I also want to have some go to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and ChainLink, and I also want to have some go to like Palantir, Tesla, Nvidia, and Amazon.

You can do that. The total numbers there are under 20, and you can just have a plan go. You click the right percentage weightings for whatever names you want. Maybe you want, like, 80% of it to go to V-O and the other 20% to be evenly divided. Like, they do all the guesswork for you. So there's no hassle. There's no complication. When it comes to this, you don't have to ask yourself, okay, I got $100.

How many shares of this do I have to buy? How many crypto do I get on that? Like it's all done automatically, which I think is really, really cool, kind of allowing you now to just sit back and invest. Yeah. And like I talked about earlier, what this really does with this automation is prevents people from sitting on the sidelines. So many times people hear a news cycle or they hear a hype cycle and they're not sure when

to invest and they end up sitting on the sideline for months because, it's not automated. Austin and I, we don't look at day-to-day prices. We don't care. We know what our investment thesis is and we know what we're investing in. So we don't care what the daily or weekly prices are because we're dollar cost averaging through our automations of our investments. And not everything is going to be automated. There are going to be some things where you maybe get a bonus and that wasn't automated in the equation. But as long as you have a plan for it, you will utilize the money properly. So here's my favorite part getting back to public. is you can invest based on your risk tolerance as well.

So for example, if you're someone saving for a down payment on a house and want to be investing the money along the way, then you can select from one of their predetermined plans that includes diversified bonds and other low-risk investments to prevent you from dealing with any volatility or fears of a market downturn. And they also offer thematic investing as well. So if you're someone that wants to be a little more risk on through AI or bioscience or manufacturing or anything else in your portfolio, they've already

built an investment plan around that theme for you and you just deposit the money, let public do the work and just be in the market dollar cost averaging through the automation and you will continue to win over time. And let me be clear, Robert, public offers these investment plans, but so do a lot of other brokers. I'm sure like Fidelity has something like this. I know M1 Finance does. I'm sure maybe Robin Hood does.

I don't know, right, but like, it doesn't matter what brokerage you use. Obviously, this podcast is presented by public. So we're going to highlight an awesome product that public offers because we believe in it. But what's more important than using a public investment plan to automate your investing is that you're just automating your investing to begin with. Regardless. You don't care what you're using. The principle of this strategy is to automate your investing. If it's weekly, biweekly, monthly, whatever you're doing, you're investing into your bridge account or your Roth IRA, whatever it is.

It is completely automated. and all that money is spoken for before it even enters your checking account. You know it's going to get auto invested on the 14th or the 27th or the 9th or whatever it is. It's going to automatically be invested perfectly across everything that you've already described. Or maybe you're saving for a down payment. And by doing this, you can sort of start buying up some bonds or T bills or things like that and automatically save for something. But the key term here is to automate everything. If you do not automate it, your emotions are going to get in the way to,

to Robert's point before, you might get scared about a hype cycle in the markets or maybe some, you know, guy on Twitter is talking about how something's overvalued and you don't want to buy the S&P anymore, whatever it might be. If it's automated, you don't have to worry about emotions. You don't have to worry about analysis, paralysis, or anything like that. So if you do not already have your money automated in 2025, let this be your reminder to sit down and figure out what the auto pay is on your bills, have this be your reminder to go set up that 401K contribution. for the first time or have this be a reminder to start using investment plans on public or whatever other auto invest feature you use with your personal online broker and just keep in mind we love public they're a sponsor and we use them personally but there are some platforms that are great but do not allow the automation like public does so just do the research on what you feel comfortable

with and which platform does what you needed to do for this automation and then select that accordingly But it doesn't matter what platform you use. What matters is that you're investing and you're automating your money in 2025. Now, before we jump into this episode's Q&A section, let's take a moment to hear from this episode, sponsor, Masterworks. Now, here's something from Bank of America that I found pretty incredible. They said in just two years, so by 2026, ultra-high net worth individuals could be devoting approximately 11% of their portfolios to fine art and collectibles. And this is a generational investing change. that same report says 56% of collectors now consider their art as a part of their wealth management strategy, including 98% of younger collectors like millennials and Gen Z.

And it's important to keep an eye on multiple asset classes like we talk about all the time because we always preach diversification. And we have our own investments in art, and we've both been using Masterworks art investing platform to diversify for four or five years now. Both Robert and I invest with Masterworks, the sponsor of today's episode, and we even interviewed their founder and CEO, Scott Lynn, here on the Rich Habits podcast. So go listen to that episode if you haven't already. It is a wonderful one. Over the summer, they crossed over a billion dollars in capital raised.

They normally offer paintings that range from about half a million to $20 million, but on Masterworks, you don't need to spend millions of dollars to invest in artwork or even be an art expert. Exactly. Masterworks has offered investments in over 450 works with investors realizing annualized net returns including 17.6%, 17.8%, and 21.5% on works held longer than one year. Masterworks actually just crossed 1 million users and you can join them at Masterworks.orgs. Dot art, front slash rich habits, which is also in the show notes of this episode. As with any investment, past performance is not indicative of future returns. Investing involves risk. Sale returns are not inclusive of unsold works. Important regulation A disclosures can be found at masterworks.com forward slash CD. Highly recommend checking out Masterworks. We love using them. It's so cool to diversify into the Baski Yachts, into the bankseys and all the really cool things that they offer on their platform. All you need is a couple thousand dollars. So if you've already built your base and you're ready to start diversifying, start with Masterworks. It's a wonderful place to start. They've got some really, really cool things to offer. And they've got a wonderful customer service. team. They really do. So let's get into our questions. So our first question comes from Matt N on Instagram at Rich Habits Podcast. He sent us a DM. He says, hey, Austin and Robert, I was never taught how to

properly handle money. While my parents said their best, it was never really a priority in my family. I'm now 28 and I recently got a job that makes $99,000 a year. However, I have a credit score below $5.50. And I currently have $14,500 of debt. I did just recently sell my truck and I've been aggressively paying off my debts. My issue is, though, that I can't get approved for a car loan due to my bad credit, and I travel a lot for work. To make up for not having a car, I've been renting one byweekly. I do not have any credit cards at the moment. I only have closed debt in student loan accounts. I stress frequently about money, and I want to make sure that I'm doing the best I can to get out of my current situation. Do you have any advice or guidance on the best way to get out of

this situation? Robert, you want to kick us off? Yeah, Matt, you conquered one of the hardest things, in that is you're making a hundred k a year. Now you need to get your budget in order because I don't get it. How is it that you're making a hundred K a year at 28 years old, but you have all of this debt? It doesn't make sense to me and you got to fix it. But also, if you have parents around and they're helpful and they see that you have a good job, have them help you get a car. Don't go get a new expensive car, get something that's good enough for now to you get your base built, to you get the high interest debt cleared out and get your credit score up so you can get financing on your own because the problem is with you buying a vehicle and renting a vehicle on one of these biweekly payment things,

you're going to pay way, way too much for a car. And I know you need a car, but ask and see if your parents will help you. That's what I would do. So I would work on my credit score, get those debts paid down, see if you can get some help on a vehicle so you can get rid of what I assume is an egregious agreement on this current car and get your budget in order. because if you're making $99,000 a year, you should not be having these problems and you must have a spending issue and you need to get out of that right away. I like that advice, Robert. Yeah, so let's do some math, right? You're making $99,000 a year.

Let's assume you're taking home like 80% of that after taxes. So, you know, it's called it $79, $80,000 there. Divide that by 12. So you're taking home about $6,000, $6,500 a month after taxes after, you know, health care and all that stuff. You definitely don't want to be contributing to your 401k because we have a crisis going on right now, which is you got all this debt, you're renting, like there's a lot of stuff they get to figure out. So if you are contributing to the 401k, I would pause that. But now let's assume you're living off of $3,500 a month, $4,000 a month, maybe $4,500 a month.

Let's be a little aggressive here. You're 28, you're living off $4,500 a month. So you can save $1,500 to $2,000 every single month at this rate. I just looked up on Google, cars for $5,000 or below on CarGurus.com. And I got a 2009 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback in Hammond, Indiana for $4,995. It's got $126,000 miles on it. It's got a clean title, no accident reported to Carfax and two previous owners, right? So this is how you get your car.

You don't go into more car debt. You don't go into more debt in general. You save up five, six, six. $7,000 over the next three months. And by the way, you're side hustling right now. Maybe that means you can borrow a friend. Maybe you're renting a car. Maybe you can drive, you know, Uber with it. Maybe you can deliver DoorDash. There's whatever you can figure out for some side hustle money. But maybe even if you don't side hustle, we're talking about three or four months of saving two grand to go out and buy a car like this, a five, six, seven, $8,000 car with cash. And this completely allows you to sidestep that

550 credit score, right? You don't have to go into debt. No one's going to prove. you don't have to worry about a 22% interest rate on a car loan and now our only problem here because you're making a great living like robert said now the only problem comes down to this 14,500 of other debt which again if you are aggressively saving call it 1500 to 2,000 dollars a month you can knock this debt out within six seven eight months so call it by the end of this year if not summer of next year and now you are a 29 year old maybe 30 at the time you are making a hundred thousand dollars a year you don't have any high interest debt you're not worried about the credit card stuff and now it's time to build the base what a wonderful place to be at 30 years old you're making six

figures you're saving you know 500 a thousand 1500 bucks a month you're doing the 401k the roth IRA so mat there's so much to be excited about for 25 and 26 you're going to have so much money in your bank account i promise you by the end of the decade it's not about where you are today it's about where you're going so by automating your bills like we learned in this episode and by getting out of, you know, this high interest debt, and by giving yourself some margin every month to start investing and automate your investing, you will retire a millionaire by 65. You've got 35 good years ahead of you of strong investing.

I'm so certain of it, man. There's a lot to look forward to. Now, our next question comes from Fadie B on Instagram as well. Fadie says, hey, Robert Nossin, big thanks for all you guys do. I'm a new listener and my 2025 goal is to binge all of your past episodes while keeping up with the new ones. super excited for everything you offer. My wife and I just got married in September. I'm a dentist and she's a physician assistant and we bring in $24,000 per month post tax. I'm 29, she's 25 and we want

to set our family up for success. We're already maxing out our Roth IRAs and investing the money into the ETFs you talk about and we're investing up to our employer match. However, we do have $500,000 of student loan debt. We're currently renting, but we hope to buy a house and start a family in the next three or four years. Renting longer than that just kind of feels like we're throwing money away, but buying a house too soon, especially with how overpriced houses are and the interest rate environment right now could also be risky. We want to invest in further education for high income potential, and I plan to open my own dental practice in six or seven years. So balancing all of this feels overwhelming. What would you do in our position? Robert, what do you think about their

$500,000 of student loan debt? Yeah, I mean, it's tragic, but it's doable. because they're high earners. They have solved the problem of earning a lot of money, and now they just have to wipe out some of that debt, but also kind of mitigate making sure that they're getting money put away into these bridge accounts and into these Roth IRAs and making sure that they have some base built. And so for me right now,

I would look at this entire situation that I think the plan is pretty strong. Don't buy a house right now, get some of that debt paid down, get the bridge account, get the Roths going so they're making money while they sleep and then look to set themselves up for later to be able to open that practice successfully in six to seven years. That's what I would do. And don't look at it as overwhelming. You've already charted the plan out. You've very well stated the plan to all of us. We're sharing it with our audience. So you know where to go and you just need a few little bit of guidance to be able to help you achieve it. So try not to look at it as overwhelming and try to look at it as a challenge.

This is what I want to do. This is the financial way I'm going to do it and get there. But I think it all starts with sitting down and doing a really, really long meeting. You and the wife go through the entire budget, sketch it all out and understand how much can you carve out a month to get rid of this high interest debt, to get rid of all this other stuff and set yourself up for your financial futures. because with $24,000 post-tax every month, you should be able to put away a really good sum and knock all this out so you can set yourself up for the future.

I like that advice, Robert. Let's dig into the nitty-gritty. So you're 29 years old and your wife is 25. I'm a very similar relationship with my girlfriend. I'm 28 and she's 26. We comfortably spend living in Nashville and enjoying our weekends and like all the fun stuff. We comfortably spend $7,000 a month.

So I'm going to assume you guys are also comfortably spending about $7,000 a month, you know, against this $24,000. You have $500,000 of student loan debt, which means you're spending about $5,000 a month paying back those student loans. So all in, you're spending or should be spending around $12,000 a month. That leaves you with about $12,000 a month of unallocated money. Now, Robert and I are big believers in paying off high interest debt. I'm also, maybe not Robert, but I'm also a big believer in. like paying off like big debts that are just kind of weighing down on you. So I want you to pay off the student loan debt, but I don't want you to do it until you have equal amount of money invested

in the markets. If I were you, if I were in your shoes, I would take this $12,000 a month or like $150,000 a year and I would just deploy it in the markets for the next three years. So you'll have $450,000 and it'll have $500,000 invested by the time you're 32 and by the time she's 28. And then you can say, okay, this 500K, it's going to grow for us. It's going to turn into millions of dollars over the next 10, 15, 20, 25 years. Now, let's take that same, you know, 12,000, 13, 14,000 a month margin and start paying off this debt. And then once you pay off the debt, let's say that's three years later, you're now in your mid-30s, you're debt-free, you're likely making more money at this point. So not only you debt-free, but you have probably at this point six or 700,000

invested in the markets and you're bringing home 30k a month post-tax. Now it's time to either really enjoy your life because you've got that financial future figured out with that initial lump sum you invested, go on the vacations, get the cool house, drive the nice car. I mean, you're a doctor, you worked hard for it, like enjoy the life or maybe work hard toward retiring early. You know, at this point, if you're making $30,000 a month post-tax, there's absolutely a world where you can get $2 to $3 million invested by the time you're in your early to mid-40. and you can easily, easily retire off of that. So you have a really cool situation here,

but the key to this situation is to pay off the student loan debt after you have equivalent amounts invested in the markets. Because, Robert, I want you to talk about this, right, the simple interest of debt versus the compound interest of an investment. Yeah, I want to go back a little bit first, too, and explain something that there is always a chance, this is kind of the ace up the sleeve, chance that the government is going to do more with student loan debt. And so that is one thing why I love

your strategy of getting your base bill, getting yourself set up so there's money making while you sleep. You're letting this compound interest continue to grow, which simple interest does not do. And you're getting yourself ahead before you start chunking down the student loan debt. So I really love that strategy because at any given moment, the government could say, hey, all student loan debt is going to be X, Y, Z in the future, and you might be able to save on the interest there. They might chop it in half. You don't know what's going to happen. So I love your takeaway, Austin, of getting yourself built up first while making the minimum

payments on the student loan debt, then start working towards paying that off. Totally agree, Robert. You guys are setting yourself up for financial success for sure. Other quick hits for the family. Have the 529 plan for the kids once they're born. Don't feel bad about renting right now. Renting is actually cheaper than owning a home. you can go Google it.

It's cheaper in like 38 states. I'm assuming it's probably cheaper in yours as well. It's definitely cheaper here in Tennessee to rent than own a home. So renting, don't feel bad about that. Interest rates are high. You'll be fine. And then another idea is don't forget like you guys are young. You don't have to, I know you feel like you, now that you're making all this money,

you deserve to like go spend it on these cool vacations and travel and things like that. Do those things. But do it after you've started investing. Love it. Love it. Love it, love it. Now, before we jump into our final question coming from Madeline on Instagram, I need to talk to my serious investors.

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Madeline says, hey there, my name is Madeline and I'm 30 years old. I've always been exposed to a financial advisor and I have a few that I work with. I've had success and I love having a financial advisor to learn from. But I'm starting to build my wealth and I find more interest in podcasts such as yours and I'm curious of what your opinion is on choosing to work with an advisor first just investing on a platform like public Robinhood etc myself do you have a strong recommendation of using a financial advisor over self-management I'm in a great financial position and my thought is to maximize both to diversify but if the

fees through a financial advisor can be avoided it may make more sense to just lean on my personal platforms I'd love to hear your advice P.S. I really enjoy your podcast and I'm inspired constantly when hearing your conversations. Well, thank you so much, Madeline. Robert, you have more of a background in the financial advising space. So I'll let you kick this one off. I love this question from Madeline. And it's very important for people to understand. So give me a minute to really break this down. I think financial advisors are great. And here's why. If you get the right financial advisor, not only are you getting help selecting ETFs, index funds, stocks, cryptos, what to do,

but you're also getting retirement. You're getting structure because structure for your estate and your wealth and your businesses and your real estate is so, so important. So there's a lot more that goes into getting a really good wealth planner than just giving you stock picks or ETF picks. But I also want everyone to really be careful who they select. You want to make sure you go with a company that is a fiduciary. This is very important.

A lot of companies out there are no longer fiduciary. and so they can sell you whatever they want and they're not bound by law to sell you what is best for your gains and your future because they can charge commissions, they can charge assets under management fees, all of the traditional things. So I prefer if you're looking for a financial advisor or a wealth advisor, you go with a fiduciary. But also understand some of these advisors are just set it and forget it. They're going to put you in target date funds and mutual funds and annuities, so then your money is going to underperform the markets. I've been working with my family Crow Capital for many, many decades now, and we as an independent, we're different because

we're a fiduciary so we can sell you whatever we think is best for you. And you need to find that for your financial advisor so you're not pigeonholed into some of these plans that are not going to work well for you. So let's talk about the fees for a second. Most financial advisors are going to charge around 1% of the assets under management. And then if they're a non-fiduciary, they'll probably likely charge on top of that commissions for the ins and outs of their purchases. So keep that in mind, make sure when you go in and you're meeting with them, when you're making your decision, knowing their fees, make sure you totally understand the totalities

of their fees because I see portfolios every single day. I talk to clients every single day and people that follow us. And they'll say, I don't know what the fees are. I don't know what they charge. and they don't know anything about their performance, the fees, and you have to be careful because I've seen advisors out there charging two, two and a half percent to manage people's money, which I'd even be okay at 2% if they were doing a really great job

and they were crushing the benchmarks. But in most instances, find the fiduciary, find out the fees so you understand them, don't pay more than 1% if you can help it, and make sure that they are performing well and getting you into all the vehicles that Austin and I talk about and using the strategies we talk about on a weekly basis. I like that a lot, Robert. I guess my perspective is like, to start out, no one needs a financial advisor. If you are trying to start investing your first $100 a month and you're trying to build

your base and you're trying to just like go from zero to one when it comes to building wealth, throw the financial advisor out the window. You don't need someone that's going to be putting you all in these crazy different things. Like just go to public.com and buy V-O-O. go open up the Roth IRA, fund it with VOO, the S&P 500, and you're off to the races. And I would argue you can probably do that up to several hundred thousand dollars, maybe even a million if you're comfortable with it. But I argue that it's also time to explore having a financial advisor once it's time to raise a family, once you want to start thinking about the college, the trusts, the different, you know,

properties, maybe you've got some businesses, maybe you want to make sure that you've got your taxes in order, right? It just depends on like what that financial. advisor can help you do from a whole picture perspective. In my opinion, if you are someone who's in your 20s, 30s, or even 40s, and you're trying to build your base, you've got maybe a couple hundred invested, you got the 401k, and you're just tugging along, having a good time, and you don't feel like you need to do any of that. Like, that's cool. Like, you don't need to do those things. But if you are someone who has 1.9 million invested and you've got four kids and you've got two businesses and you've got a couple rental properties, yeah, probably good idea to pay someone, you know,

20 grand per year to have them in your corner to help you save on taxes, make sure your legal stuff is figured out, make sure your financial structure is figured out, right? I think that's a good idea. So it's really a, you know, we say it all the time. Personal finance is personal. Having a financial advisor is a personal decision. I've not yet made the decision to have a financial advisor. I'm confident in how I invest my money.

I've got a little over a million invested in the markets right now. I do have an accountant. I do have, you know, someone that helps me with my taxes and my legal. structure. I've got those like people in my corner, but I don't yet have someone that's like a financial advisor. I think I'm just confident enough to do it myself. Now, I'm an anomaly. I got a degree in finance. I worked in finance for several years out of college, right? So it's like, I'm an anomaly in that aspect. The average person probably doesn't feel comfortable investing over a million dollars in the markets. And, you know, back to your point too, Robert, what's so important about financial advisors is they take the

emotion out of investing, right? Call them up, hey, hey, Larry, I need you to sell my stock and Google, it's going down, it's down 2% today. Financial advisor says, no, I think you should keep Google. It's pretty good. We like it. Okay, all right, I won't do it, right? So they kind of talk you off the ledge when you get a little risky there and get scared. But it's totally personal preference, Madeline.

You said you're 30 years old. It really just depends on how much you have invested. Do you have kids? Do you have rental properties and businesses and, you know, do you need that support and that help? Or do you just have a public account that you want to fund with a couple hundred thousand dollars and a 401K, right? it's totally up to you yeah personal finance is personal you know i deal with it every single day and i just always look at it as the last anecdote that if you're a busy person you're growing your money you're growing your business you're doing well having a financial advisor can be great especially if they're good at

it because if they outperform the benchmarks by two three four percent a year and you're giving them back one percent but you have total access to them then that can be a great way to help you grow but like Austin said, do you need it in the beginning? Absolutely not. I don't think you need it until you at least get to $250, $350,000 in invested capital and you're buying businesses and rental properties because everything else you can learn right here and you can do it on your own until you get up and you need those tax strategies and retirement strategies and business structure strategies. All of that is where a real wealth advisor and financial advisor would come into play. You know, it's crazy, Robert. I met with a guy from inside the Rich Habits Network.

earlier this week. And he's like, yeah, man, I just like, I just want you to just like see how my money is invested here and just take a look at it. It was in his bridge account and fidelity. And I was like, all right, cool, what's up? Let's do it. Four million dollars in a bridge account, just hanging out. And he had it invested perfectly. It was all the nice ETFs. It happened. It was great. And he's like, so he's like, I don't believe in financial advisors. I want to do it myself. And I'm like, man, I thought you're going to show me some crazy penny stocks and some international, you know, indices. But you've got to figure it out. Right. So like, people do it. I'm one of them. He's one of them. but 99% of people don't, right?

99% of people want the financial advisor, at least in their corner, worth paying $800,900, $900,000 a month annualized there with that, you know, call it a million or $2 million invested. It's worth having that. So thanks for your question, Madeline. Everyone, thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode of the Rich Habits podcast about automating your money in 2025. If you'll learn something, if this inspired you, share the episode with a friend,

hit the follow button on Spotify, subscribe to our YouTube channel. follow us on Instagram. We post clips of the podcast over there. There's like 26,000 of you that follow us over there already, which is awesome. We sometimes post like funny Instagram stories. So if you want to see some behind the scene stuff that's over there as well. But most importantly, know that every single week we're coming back with the fire, the heat, the knowledge bombs all 2025. It's going to be a great year for the podcast and we couldn't have done it without you. So keep coming back every week. And we can't wait to continue to deliver more value through this podcast. And don't forget, if you have not signed up for the Rich Habits Network newsletter, you're missing out. It's free. Go to the link in the show notes. Go to the link in our bios. It is available. It is an awesome weekly newsletter.

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