Rich Habits Podcast - 105: The 5 Financial Accounts You Need to Have in 2025

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

In this week's episode of the Rich Habits Podcast, Robert and Austin give you the account-by-account blueprint for financial success in 2025. ---🎥 Join us for FREE at the GRIT Money Summit in Toronto, Canada! Click here. ---⭐️ Watch the new NEOS Monthly Income Podcast, click here!---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!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠---🚀 Sign up for the Rich Habits Network so you don't miss out on the next big investment opportunity,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠click here!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠---🔥 NEOS Funds has introduced yet another tax-efficient high-income ETF, their Russell 2000 High-Income ETF (IWMI). ⁠Click here to learn more!⁠---🔥 Check out what Robert and Austin are personally invested into with Blossom. Click here to learn more!---⭐ 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 2/17/25, 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 our⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Fee 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. See⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://public.com/disclosures/bond-account⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to learn more.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.

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 revenues 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 advised some of the most well-known fintech companies around the world. As the show name might suggest, every episode, Robert and I 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? I am so excited. In this week's episode of the Rich Habits podcast, we'll be walking everyone through step-by-step, the five financial accounts they need to have. in 2025 if they ever plan to retire with dignity. These financial accounts aren't some crazy insurance policies or iULs. This is the account by account blueprint for your financial future. So whip out the notepad, start taking notes and taking action on these accounts because every single one of them is important on their own and they all build upon each other and support the next.

This is not a suggestion. This is the make or break foundation that you need if you want to be successful with your money in your lifetime. Robert, this episode gets me really, really excited because I think a lot of people have those New Year's resolutions. We're now in February. We're kind of saying, okay, am I sticking to the budget? Am I feeling good about money this year? What actions am I really taking with my money in 2025? And sometimes those actions can be overwhelming. Sometimes those actions can have different reactions that we weren't expecting. Or maybe, you know, we saw a TikTok video from someone talking about an IUL account. I need to go open up this thing to be successful. Throw all that out the window. This is going to be the blueprint that you need that quite literally

says, open this account. Here's why it's important. Open up this account. Here's why it's important. Do not open up this one until you've done this one. Here's why that's important, right? So we're going to walk through every single one of those accounts, starting with the high yield savings account. You've probably heard Robert and I talk about this account a lot already, but you still might not completely understand why it is so important and why it's the foundation of every other investment account in the future. Without this account fully funded and having your back in case of emergencies, turmoil can quickly happen with your finances. Credit card debt can begin to stack up. Cashing out of retirements early to cover unforeseen expenses can begin to

trickle into your mind or even borrowing against the equity in your home and a high interest rate because you just have no other choice. Having an emergency fund, which we define as three to six months of expenses sitting in a high-yield savings account waiting to be used to cover those unexpected expenses that seem to happen all the time is the most important underlying foundation in your wealth-building journey that everyone needs to understand and really take to heart. Without having some money stashed away for a rainy day, you are easily susceptible to Murphy's Law, which we all know is if something bad can happen, it will happen. And it always just happens at the worst freaking times.

And it is so frustrating. But if you have an emergency fund in a high yield savings account, you can get ahead of it. This high yield savings account is not an investment account. Make sure everyone writes that down and understands it. It's an insurance against having to cash out your investments. So by having this money sitting and growing, you'll be able to keep your investments invested correctly without. worry. And this is very important to understand. We highly recommend using public.com's high yield cash account because there's no lockup fees. They pay over 4% APY, which is the highest in the

marketplace. And they have a wonderful customer support team. Understanding that your high yield savings account, your emergency fund is not an investment is really, really hard. It was hard for me in the beginning because I'm thinking, wow, I've got $30,000 sitting in this emergency fund. Shouldn't I be earning like 10 or 12 percent. I can go buy some property with that, throw in some crypto. Like, I'm so stupid for having all this cash sitting on the sidelines. What you need to understand is that's not cash sitting on the sidelines. That is an insurance policy against you having to cash out your existing investments. That's an insurance policy making sure you don't have to go get a he lock against the equity of your home to go pay for a funeral, right? Or swipe a credit card

to go pay for some new tires on your car because those are balding or whatever's going on in your life that's an emergency. So just really understanding that your emergency fund is not an investment. It is insurance against your investments to make sure that your investments can stay invested. That is a very, very important antidote to understand. I love this episode because it really does break down what the blueprint is. If you do these things, you follow it, you invest correctly. You're going to be set up for life. So we've talked about the high yield savings account, how important that is for that underlying foundation of your finances. now let's talk about the next layer, your retirement accounts. Think the 401k, think the Roth

individual retirement account, that Roth IRA, those are the accounts we're going to talk about next. So if you're like Robert and myself, you don't want to be working until you die, right? There's going to be a day where you don't want to clock in and clock out of your job anymore, which means the only way that you'll be able to sustain your lifestyle in retirement is through your investments. So investing early and often is what we say and what we firmly believe in by investing up to the match in your 401k at work to get the free money and then also maxing out your Roth IRA at $7,000 per year or $583 per month is what that comes out to. And then even contributing more to your 401k if you have the means to and the autonomy is the

easiest sort of process, right, that anyone, any average listener right now can take with their retirement accounts to ensure they were no longer have to trade time for money in retirement. and retire a millionaire. And one of the most important things to remember is when you open this Roth IRA, it is the vehicle for you to build wealth tax-free for life, but you still have to invest the money. So remember, when you're investing in this Roth IRA,

we want you invested into the index funds and ETFs we talk about all the time, like VOO, V-O-V-T-I-Q-Q-Q, S-C-H-D and V-U-G, and other funds that have outperformed the S&P 500 index over a long period of time. And the pro tip here when you're looking at the Roth IRA and these retirement accounts is this is your forever money. This isn't money that you cash out of because you and your spouse want to upgrade the kitchen or buy a boat or put your kids through college. This is the money that is going to ensure you get to retire gracefully and with dignity.

Without this money, you'll have to depend on Social Security, which is slated to go bankrupt in seven or eight years, or you'll be leaching off your children forever. So please understand, make a plan, keep it this simple, and look at these retirement counts as your forever money, not money that you're dipping in and out of. Remember, we've got the emergency fund. We're going to fund that up to three to six months of expenses.

Then we're going to be investing up to the match with our 401k at work to get the free money. And then we're going to max out that Roth IRA, assuming we still have some money after investing toward that 401K, once the Roth IRA is maxed out and it's actually invested into the index funds and ETFs that Robert just talked about. If we still have money in our monthly paycheck and we still have a little bit of flexibility to invest, we're going to go back and really load up on that 401K,

and that is the sort of order that we prefer and really recommend for people if they want to, like Robert said, retire gracefully and with dignity. So let's get into our next type of account. You hear Austin and I talk about it all the time. That's the bridge account, aka your taxable individual brokerage account. You have autonomy over this account. You've opened this account.

And this is a really, really important one for your future because you have the autonomy. And this account is very similar to your retirement accounts in the sense that you're investing money into the ETFs and index funds. However, this account does not have the same restrictions as your retirement accounts do on early withdrawals. For example, any money you make in profit with your investment in this account can be withdrawn to your checking account right then and there. You don't have to wait until your 59 and a half to touch it like a Roth IRA or the 401k. So assuming you have the emergency fund, you're now investing towards the 401k and the Roth IRA is completely maxed out and you

still have money left to invest. This is where it goes. We prefer and recommend people to use public.com for this account. Again, we highly recommend public for a lot of these financial accounts. They are so easy to use. There's no fees. Wonderful customer service. It is an incredible platform. You guys know we love it. We use it every day. And you can invest in everything, stocks, options, bonds, crypto, and the high yield cash account. And they even offer some of the highest yields in the industry, like the bond accounts at over 6% or higher yield. And that remains locked in, even if the Fed cuts rates. So what you all need to understand about, public.com is what sets them apart are the tools they have that allow you to make informed

investment decisions like their built-in AI tool called Alpha. It doesn't just tell you if an asset is moving. It tells you why that asset is moving. So you can actually understand what's driving your portfolio's performance every day, week, and month. Now, what's really important to understand is that Public is a FINRA registered, SIPC-insured, U.S.-based company with a customer support team that actually cares. So the bottom line is your investments deserve a platform, that takes them as seriously as you do. Fund your account in five minutes or less at public.com forward slash rich habits and get up to $10,000 when you transfer your old portfolio. That's public.com forward slash rich habits paid for by public investing, full disclosures in the podcast

description below. I think what's really cool is you can have all of these accounts on this one platform. So you can have your individual brokerage account, your bridge account, you can have the Roth IRA, you can have one login for all these different accounts on public. Now here's my pro tip, Robert. Whoever you end up using for your Roth IRA, your bridge account, we don't care, you make your own decisions, but what they should offer you is a service called fractional shares. This means that you don't need to go invest $550 right then and there every time you want to buy one share of stock. So for example, Netflix stock right now is $1,000 a share, which means if your broker doesn't offer fractional shares, you're going to have to literally get $1,000 together to buy

one share of a company. Fractional shares are the opposite of that. If I want to go buy $10 of Netflix on public, I can deposit $10 and I go buy a fraction of a share of Netflix stock, right? So it doesn't matter who you use for your bridge account and your Roth IRA, but you're really going to be, you know, doing yourself a disservice if you don't use someone that offers fractional shares. A lot of the brokers offer it, go find one that works for you. But to us, using a broker that offers fractional shares is the key. Now, this account is important because it allows you to have access to your investments before the age of 59 and a half. So if you want to enjoy your investment profits without paying penalties and fees to the IRS for that early access like you would with a

Roth IRA or a 401k, this is the account you want to use. Robert and I both have individual taxable brokerage accounts, bridge accounts, and they allow us to invest and grow our wealth, as well as access our wealth without paying retirement account related fees to the IRS. So if you want to see what's inside Robert and I's bridge accounts. You can do so completely for free by downloading the Blossom app. Remember, Blossom is not an online broker, but instead a social investing app built around transparency. You can think about them like a social media platform built specifically for investors. Additionally, they offer dual-lingal style educational video content for those of you still learning like we are every single day. They were recognized as a top 25 app for 2025 by the

app store for good reason. If you've not yet joined Blossom, we strongly encourage you to do so. So if you want to see what's in my bridge account, what's in Robert's bridge account, go download the Blossom app. It's free. Type in Robert Croke, type in Austin Hankwitz and be like, whoa, look what they're holding. I didn't know they had that stock or whatever, right? So that's Blossom. Go check them out. Go have your bridge account. It's a great way to build wealth and access the money before retirement. Now let's get to our fourth account on the list, Robert, and that is the 529 account. This account is specific. important for the parents out there who are listening right now. A 529 account is an investment

account where the profits in this account specifically have to be used to pay for tuition for school or other education related expenses. I've opened up a 529 account for my future children. I've already kind of got a head start on that. I put a couple hundred bucks a month into it. It's approaching $10,000 now in total account value because the markets have done well the last couple of years. But when I have children, I plan to use the funds here, which I hope is tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars when that time comes for their education and other education-related expenses, tuition, trade school, you know, things like that. But the best part about this, Robert, which I think is really interesting and people forget about this specific feature, is that

when your child turns 18 years old, you're allowed to roll over up to $35,000 from this 529 account to your child's Roth IRA. Now, why this is important is because what Robert said at the beginning of the episode, the Roth IRA is this way that you can build wealth tax free, right? So if you put $35,000 into your child's Roth IRA, let's say they're still in their early 20s, that $35,000, if invested correctly, turns into millions of dollars by the time they are in their 60s and 70s, adjusted for inflation. So when people talk about like generational wealth and like, making the right moves to set their family up for success. In my opinion, the 529 account is the easiest way to do that.

It's how I will be doing that for my family. Yeah, I love the 529 account, and I think it is just something all parents should look at because of the fact that you can convert up to $35,000 that might not be used for education into the child's Roth IRA. I think it's a huge, huge pro tip, as we say, to help people build wealth and get their children's wealth jump started. So I love it. and I think you covered it really well.

So our last account type is a crypto account. Austin and I believe that crypto is here to stay. And now that we have a pro-crypto government, we expect to see countless legislative actions, growth, and a ton of adoption of blockchain technology in the coming years, which means if you don't know how to use a crypto wallet or you've never staked a stable coin

or anything of the like, it's time to learn in 2025, I promise you, it is not too late to get into cryptocurrency. The simplest way to get going is to open a coin base account, connect your bank account, and you're off to the races. Practice sending and receiving small amounts in your account. And once you've done those test deposits and transfers, it's time to start purchasing crypto.

We believe you should start with some tried and true projects you've heard us talk about for years that have been around for a long time and have a lot more stability and less of the volatility that is in the crypto markets. So think like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Chainlink, XRP, and maybe some XLM and Ando Finance. I love those projects as well. And the pro tip here is open your laptop computer, get your Phantom Wallet Extension set up, as well as your MetaMask wallet extension. This way you can keep your crypto on your laptop at all times just in case. Personally, I have a few hundred bucks worth just sitting there because whenever I see something new or there's a presale or something is live to the market,

I want to be able to get into that new crypto as soon as possible. But for anyone just starting out, don't get too crazy. Just buy the tried and true projects we're talking about and have maybe that five or 10% of your investable capital into this type of account because I believe there's going to be a lot of wealth built in cryptocurrency in the coming years and everyone should have exposure to it. I'm right there with you, Robert. I think a lot of people forget just how important it is to have one, two, three, five percent of their investment account in Bitcoin, right? If you're scared about all, you know, all these other little coins out there, I get it. I was scared too. It might not be your thing. But it's pretty obvious that Bitcoin at least is here to stay. Trump announced a sovereign wealth fund. I'd be surprised if that doesn't have Bitcoin in it, you know, at some point. So there's just a world now where Bitcoin and cryptocurrency didn't matter. Well, now. it does. And so if you want to get left behind, do that, but we believe that you shouldn't.

You listen to the Rich Habits podcast because you want to stay ahead and you want to understand everything as it relates to personal finance and investing. And our reality today is now that Bitcoin is worth knowing about and having a little bit of. So go open up a crypto account if you'd like on Coinbase or whatever other platform you prefer. We think Coinbase is the easiest. Go connect your bank account, buy some Bitcoin, hang out there, and you're going to be just fine. And just always remember when you're dealing with anything, whether it's stocks or ETFs or cryptocurrency, don't try to time the market. Dollar cost average. Get as much automation as you can going if you get paid biweekly or if you get paid once a month. Just have that

amount already figured out ahead of time so you know what you're investing in, where the money is going, and have as much automation as possible. That'll prevent you from having emotional reactions to volatility in the markets because you're not trying to time the bottom or the top and trying to figure it all out. Just dollar cost average, do it like the pros, and you'll be all set in the future. So to recap this episode, the underlying most important foundation to all financial health is that emergency fund and the high yield savings, right? You want to be able to ensure against these crazy unexpected expenses that could come out of left field. Once you've got a fully funded emergency fund in a high yield savings account. Now it's time to start investing. We invest up

to the match with the 401k. We're maxing out the Roth IRA. We're having some fun in our retirement accounts. And if we have money left over, now we're investing toward that bridge account. This is an individual taxable brokerage account, right? You can go open this up on public, Schwab, Robin Hood, wherever you want to go open up one of these accounts. Just go open one. It's pretty smart. Once children enter the picture, time to think about generational wealth. So you want to go check out that 529 account. I personally use Vanguard. I think they've got like a $3,000 minimum investment you need to open the account. But once you've got it going, it's going forever. And then once you've got the children's figured out, the education, the generational wealth, and you want to dabble in the dark

arts of cryptocurrency like us, open up a Coinbase account, buy some Bitcoin, and join the club. I love it, Austin. I think this is a great episode because I feel like we're getting back to our roots. We're spelling it out. We're breaking it down. So many people talk about and say, They love how we take complex topics and make it sound so easy and simple and executable. And I just love this episode because we're really breaking down. What is the blueprint to build wealth and be able to have that dignity and that financial freedom everyone desires? So I'm so excited to see people's response to this episode. I am too, Robert.

And you just inspired me real quick. I, you know, you talked about the feedback we got from people. We're trying to have people leave us more comments on Spotify. So to encourage you all to leave more comments on Spotify, I want to personally shout out Gabby Ryan, AJ, Haycler, Giorge, Alexander, J. Lee, Kyle, King, Paolo, Alex, C.J. Teresa, J. Mori, Alex, Nathan, Duncan, and Sean for leaving us comments on Spotify for last Monday's episode. So if you could leave us a comment, give us some feedback.

here's what we loved. Here's what I didn't like. You guys are great. You guys suck. Whatever your feedback is. Give us some feedback. We're always trying to get better and we appreciate the comments. Now, Robert, we got the Q&A section of our show. We actually haven't done a Q&A in a couple weeks. We had Sahel Bloom, and that was a 50-minute interview. Then we had Christa Mewth, and that was another 50-minute interview. So it's been a bit since we've done this Q&A section of our Monday episodes. But we're back with three really, really interesting questions. But before we jump into those, I do want to remind people that NEO's funds has launched their own podcast. It's called the monthly income podcast. They sit down, Troy and Garrett's and Tom talk about whatever's happening in the market. So if you're on the financial advisor side, you're maybe someone who wants to really nerd out on the stock market. Go check out their podcast. We'll link it out in the description below. So our first question is from Annabella. Annabella says, hi, Austin and Robert. I've been a fan of the Rich Habits podcast since you guys first started it back in 2023. I've learned so much from your advice and appreciate all you do for this community. My question to you is, regarding my 401k. I have $20,000 in Charles Schwab's 401k and I recently switched jobs from a

9 to 5 to become a commercial real estate agent and so that means I no longer have an employer match. Now my 401k currently is growing at about 4% per year but I feel like I should transfer my balance out and put it in a Roth IRA so I have more autonomy and do that in fidelity. So here's my question. It's in a 401k right now which is pre-taxed. money. Do you all think that I should roll it over into a traditional IRA and keep it pre-tax? Or pay the taxes on the $20,000, roll it over to a Roth IRA so I won't have to pay taxes in retirement and have complete autonomy over my investments throughout my life. For context, I'm 25. I've got $37,000 combined between my existing Roth IRA and a different brokerage account. I've got $16,000 in my

high yield savings account, a couple thousand in my checking account, no debt besides a student loan at a low interest rate, and I make about $5,400 a month pre-tax. Thank you all so much, Anna. Robert, what do you think? I think this is a great question, and the answer and you're on the right track is yes. If you're only earning 4% per annum on this account, I would get rid of it, pay the taxes now while you're young, get that moved over to your Roth IRA because then you have autonomy on it. you can invest in that basket of index funds we talk about and make much more money over time and let that compound tax-free for life. I think it's a great idea. It's exactly what I would do. I'd rather see you pay the taxes now than kick the can down the road and get yourself in a better

position where this money is compounding on itself at a much higher rate of gain. I completely agree. And what I love about this question from her is she says it's currently growing at a rate of 4% but I want to transfer it out so I can have full autonomy over my investments. 100%. So she knows that 4% is not good. She knows that what it's growing at is underperforming the markets. And so she knows what the solution is, which is having that autonomy, the ability to pick her own investments, pick her own ETFs, put money where she thinks it needs to go.

And so, yes, Annabella, I completely agree with you here and with Robert as well. Roll it over to a Roth IRA. You have money in your high-yield savings account. and you have some money in your bridge account here that you could use to pay for the tax bill if it's overwhelming to you. But I would, one, get with an accountant to understand what that tax bill might begin to shape up as. And then two, after you roll it over, set the money aside so you do have it ready for the IRS when they come asking for it. So our next question comes from Aaron. Aaron says, hey, fellas, I'm a big fan of y'all's Spotify podcast.

I was wondering what steps I can take to get my design ideas in motion. I have a certain brand name in my head for some t-shirts, some pre-workout, and various gym and fitness merchandise, but I do not know what steps to take. Also, asking the same questions for an invention design I have in my head. What are your thoughts? Robert, what do you think? Aaron, this is right in my wheelhouse. Great question. And it's really the timing is fantastic.

You live in the best era known to mankind in existence to be able to start your own brand right now. but I just want to give you a few ideas and a few things to consider. Number one, getting the website, getting the social media handles, all of that stuff, get those secured first. You want to find the URL for your brand so you make sure you have a really good website name. Then you want to associate that with your social media handles. This is important. So you can go get a really good handle on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, wherever you need it.

Those are very important. But then also looking at it from how do you build the brand, how do you build the brand? start the designs. Super simple. Go to Fiverr, find a good person, sign a contract with them, and make sure you just, you can either write it yourself or find a simple design contract online. You can get a template for free, have them sign it, give them your ideas, your sketches or whatever, have them do some preliminary drawings for you so you can see how you like them. And then one of the pro tips I would look at if I were used starting out is go open an account with one of the online brokerages like Broder or Heritage or S&S Activeware.

Open one of those accounts so you get wholesale pricing. It's very easy to do. It's not scary. And then look at buying your own blanks and maybe using transfers just to get your first initial designs, placements on, samples ready so you can see what you like and what you don't like before you go place a big order. Because remember, if you go to a screen printing shop, most of them are going to. going to have a minimum of 48 units. So if you have five designs or four design ideas to launch with

and you have to buy 48 of four or five designs, it's going to add up to a lot of money. But if you do screen printed transfers, you can buy those very inexpensively, use a heat press and be able to put them on so you can get all your samples dialed in before you go spend a bunch of money and then it all comes down to marketing. Study the competitors. Study the big streetwear brands. what are they doing right? Are they doing a drop strategy? Are they doing a cold DM strategy to get eyeballs? What are they doing to get eyeballs on the product? Because merch always sounds fun, but it's not always the easiest thing to get launched because it's easy to get people to say they love it, but much harder to get them to actually pull the trigger and buy from you. Robert,

that breakdown was perfect. And if you don't want to use a template online, immediately where my head went was like chat GPT, right? That's free. I'm sure you can say, yo, chat, You are now a wonderful lawyer. I need you to write me up something good for this relationship on Fiverr. So my experience with any of this, I had a T-shirt company. I think it was like 13 or 14 years ago. I started it with 1,200 bucks. And Robert's completely correct on everything. I ended up using a friend who knew how to use Adobe Illustrator, which is essentially one of those like design softwares. And we were able to export the images, give it to a screen printer. We used one color per blubber. We got the blanks from the manufacturers. I mean, I was all in on these shirts for like $11 and I'd sell them for $20.

I mean, I'm in high school trying to just make a buck, right? So that's what it was for me. It is completely different now 12 years later. But I do want to encourage you to look at an example here. One of my friends, Hunter, is a model for this company called SquidHoss, S-Q-U-I-D-H-A-U-S-D-C-U-S-com. And they are, you mentioned this pre-workout and various gym and fitness merchandise. They are a men's fitness wear company. Maybe you can get some inspiration from their website.

Maybe you can get some inspiration from their social media. I know they've got some really successful ads that they're running right now on TikTok. They're making a killing with them. So there's a lot of cool things. And now to Robert's point on, you know, you're living in 2025, right? We've got AI. We've got fiber. We've got heat presses and transfers.

It's never been easier to start something like this. You just need to come out and say, okay, I'm willing to invest. $1,000, $4,000 and try and bring this into something amazing. But the biggest piece of advice I can give you is to not reinvest all your profits back into inventory. That's a major mistake I made. Whenever I took, you know, all these profits I made back in high school, I was like, oh, cool, I'm just going to go take this $800 and go buy a bunch more t-shirts and I'll sell

those t-shirts and then take that. After you do that so much, you realize that everyone already has a t-shirt and they don't want to buy them anymore. and now you're sitting on like 82 t-shirts and they're in your basement and it doesn't make sense and so now you lost the money so my advice is every time you make a sale even if it's like a t-shirt of a pair of socks a pre-workout whatever you're trying to sell here right but every time you make a sale set aside like 10% of your profit and put it in like a little piggy bank right something where it's always going to grow and be there for the life of the company so even if the company goes belly

up or you have all this inventory whatever happens you can look over here and say yeah but I do have $4,000 over here sitting in my little thing that is my money and I didn't reinvest it or spend it or do stuff like that. Yeah. And one last thing I would mention is two part. TikTok shops is your friend. So if you're going to do some fun, funky stuff, make sure you understand how to go viral or at least get some smaller influencers involved where you might have to give them a hoodie or a t-shirt or whatever it is. And then also take a look at Printify because they do everything for you if you just want to be in charge of creating the designs and doing the marketing. and let them do all the printing and shipping for you.

Printify is a great option as well. So just there's so many great tools out there. Do your homework, do your research, and good luck. So our last question comes from Yonko. Yonko says, hey guys, I recently discovered your podcast and I've been hooked for weeks now. Thank you all for what you do, specifically teaching financial literacy.

I'm 33 years old, and I've been in and out of different investments throughout my life, but never really committing to any of them. I'm currently working to pay off my high interest debt and build my base as you guys recommend. And but I just recently logged back into my Acorns account, and apparently all of my money has been invested into the VO-O-E-TF that you guys talk about. So here's my question. What are your thoughts on using apps like Acorns and Stash that essentially microdose investing? Would you

use any of these platforms for yourself in the long term? Robert, I'll let you take this one. Yeah, I love it. I don't think people should look at micro-investing as the end-all-be-all. I always look at it for like Acorns is what I use and have used for years and years as free money. Because I feel like it's money you find on the ground because when you round up every one of your purchases and that's one of Acorn's best features is the roundup feature or let's say you auto invest five bucks a week, 10 bucks a week, 20 bucks a week. It makes you automate and makes you not try to time the market because it auto deducts the amounts that you set every single day, every single. week and I love it. You should still have your individual brokerage account. You should still have your Roth IRA, but I think it's a great idea to do micro investing as well because it's money that you don't feel like you're giving up because it's small amounts over and over. That's why I love

Acorns. I actually told Austin this story a couple days ago that I hadn't logged into my Acorns account in like two years. And I have almost $8,000 in it just from roundups, just from the appreciation and I think I do $10 a week. So I strongly suggest everyone uses microinvesting as part of their portfolio and part of their investment strategies, but not all of it. I'm right there with you, Robert. And another app that we like for micro investing is Griffin, right? The Griffin app will connect to your bank account and then it will see, oh, you spent money at Walmart. We're going to take a dollar out of your checking an account and go buy a dollar worth of Walmart stock. So what it does is it automates the investing as to where you shop, right? So if it's Starbucks or Walmart or Home Depot

or Lowe's or Amazon, every time you buy from one of these places, it takes a dollar from your checking account, puts it in their stock. And yeah, I've got like four grand in my Griffin account. It's automatic. I don't think about it. And you look at it and you're like, oh, cool. That's fun. I didn't know. I forgot about it. Right. We definitely encourage this micro investing type habits and automation with your money. But it's not the end all be all. It's not the way that you're going to retire a millionaire. The way you're going to retire a millionaire is by maxing out the Roth IRA and going up to the match in the 401k and all the other fun things that we talk about on the show. I love it. Well, thank you all for stopping by showing us all the awesome support

you do each and every week. Always remember, these episodes might not be directly geared towards you, but you might have a family member, a friend, someone that's important to you that a specific episode could really resonate with. Make sure you share that episode because we, We want to get the word out to as many people as we can. And also, don't forget, if you find value, those five-star reviews also help us a lot to keep us high in the charts and really help us do well. And thank each and every one of you for stopping by every week, engaging with us, leaving those comments on Instagram and on Spotify. It means the world to us. And it helps us grow as well and continue to provide you a ton of value.

We are so grateful that you come back every single week to listen to. to what Robert and I have to say every Monday morning, and we just can't wait to continue to deliver value all throughout 2025. Thanks, everyone, and I have a... Hey, y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visitwayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Great start to your week.