Rich Habits Podcast - Q&A: Living at Home at 29, Tax-Deferred Annuities, & Amazon RSUs

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everyone and welcome back to the Rich Habits Podcast question and answer addition. These are our Thursday episodes where we take your questions via email at richhabitspodcast at gmail.com or via Instagram DMs at Rich Habits Podcast on Instagram and we answer them. We answer them right off the top of our heads. There's no real scripting that goes on here. This is just our raw, unfiltered thoughts in real time as it relates to what you are going through and we are super excited about this episode. We're not taking something from GROC or chat GPT in some highly crafted answer.

Starting point is 00:00:32 This is based on our experiences and our feelings of what we think is the best strategy moving forward for people. And it really relates to our common message of personal finances personal. So I really look forward to these episodes every single week. And what's fun about these episodes too, Robert, is like sometimes we answer questions from people that also answer other questions someone else has in their own mind. Right. So for example, like maybe we answer a real estate question or an entrepreneurial question or maybe something about investing. And it's not like exactly one for one for someone's like unique situation that's a listener

Starting point is 00:01:05 right now. But it kind of helps give them enough guidance to learn or maybe trigger an idea or give them a little bit of leeway to figure out some more research on their own. So it's just like these episodes are my favorite. But before we jump into the episode, we got to remind you guys that if you're looking for an online broker that was actually built during the century, you need to give public.com a try. This episode of the podcast is brought to you by public.com. On public, you can invest in almost anything.

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Starting point is 00:01:55 And for a limited time, public is offering a 1% match on all IRA contributions. So if you're finally investing towards the Roth IRA this year, do it on public and earn a free 1% match on all contributions paid for by public investing. And full disclosures are in the podcast description. So our first question is coming from Instagram. Again, ask us a question via DMs at Rich Habits Podcast on Instagram. And it's coming from Jay. Jay says, hey, guys, I just want to start by saying, I love the podcast.

Starting point is 00:02:25 podcast and I love what you guys are doing. You guys have helped me out personally a lot and I just want to thank you all for that. But I do still need some help. My current situation is I'm 22 years old, I'm in school and I have a full-time job with enough to invest at the moment and I have no high consumer debt. My car is completely paid off. However, I do live with my parents so I don't own a home or have any high crazy rent. Now, I'm currently paying for my tuition out of pocket because I can afford it and am currently enrolled in a local community college, but I tend to get my associates and then take that degree and enroll in a proper university so I can get my bachelors. My question is, do you guys think that I should continue to try and pay for my tuition out

Starting point is 00:03:06 of pocket, or do I take on student loans when I get to university? The idea of going into that much debt is a really scary thing to me, and I could use some wisdom on the subject. Robert, do you want to kick this one off first? Yeah, this is a tough one because you can go all over the place with this scenario. So let's start with college tuition. I would first do as much research as you can to find out what is the interest rate going to be. What is it going to cost you to have these student loans?

Starting point is 00:03:32 If you can find a situation where maybe the student loan interest rate is 5.5% or lower, I would say get the student loans. But also before you do any of that, make sure you fully flush out, what are you going to school for? Because I believe we're in a place now where unless you have a specified really highly skilled degree that you're going to go after, I don't know that it makes sense to go that much in debt for a college degree if it's just going to be generalized. So those are the two things where I would start because you also have to look at the future of the workforce. Is this degree that you're going to get in five years from now, four years from now,

Starting point is 00:04:10 or even two years from now with that associate's degree, you have to make sure that this role, this position, this career is even going to exist and be. be paying you enough to go through school for it. So make sure you guys all flush that out, because right now so many different career paths are going to change dramatically because of AI and humanoid robotics in the next four or five years. I love where you're at and I love where your heads at on this subject, but there's just so much going on. And I want to make sure you fully think ahead, not just what's happening today, but what it's going to look like for you in four or five years. I think that's a really great answer to this question, Robert. I really want to

Starting point is 00:04:50 give Jay some props here, though, because he's doing the exact playbook that I would encourage almost anyone if they could figure it out themselves to do, which is go to a community college, a junior college, some sort of cheaper education institution like that, get the associate's degree, and then take that associate's degree and all the credits that you've earned and go transfer to a proper university. So when you graduate with your bachelor's, it now says from the University of Tennessee, for example. Right. So there was Pellissippi Community college in Knoxville. A lot of people would go to that community college for two years, get their associates, pay a couple thousand dollars a year in tuition, and then they'd transfer

Starting point is 00:05:27 to the University of Tennessee, take all those credits with them, get their bachelors, and when they graduated, it said from the University of Tennessee, despite the first two years being at Pellissippi. So I love the way you're doing this, Jay. If I were in your shoes, I would do exactly what Robert just said. I'd make sure that whatever I was studying, if it was finance, or accounting or nursing or engineering, like you are studying something that has a clear path to earning 60, 70, 80,000 dollars a year entry level out of college, like right off the rip. So for me, for example, I studied finance. I got my degree in finance and economics.

Starting point is 00:06:04 I did mergers and acquisitions when I graduated and I was making $65,000 a year back in 2018. I was having a blast. It was a perfect segue. I was able to pay off my student loans. I was able to do everything because I had a clear amount of money that I was. I knew I was going to make ballpark that would supplement my life and allow me to pay this debt off. People sometimes make the mistake of getting a more generalized degree, if it's psychology or communications or something like that,

Starting point is 00:06:27 and then they try and go find a job, and either they one can't find one or two, are forced to take a job that pays much less, perhaps 30, 40, or 50,000. Now they've got the 40, 50, 60,000 of student loans, and it's a really tough situation to be in. So, Jay, here's what I would do. I'd continue to make sure that whatever you are studying and whatever you're trying to graduate with

Starting point is 00:06:48 has a career trajectory ahead of you. I'd also make sure that in total when you are at this university, which I don't think you will, but make sure you do not borrow more than the first year's salary of this potential role. So let's say you're going to earn $70,000 at this job. Make sure you do not borrow more than $60-70-ish thousand because affording that monthly payment now becomes a lot harder.

Starting point is 00:07:10 And then the last thing is, I would try and just kind of keep tuition in paying out of pocket if you could. You're living at home. You're making some money with a full-time job. If there's a world where you can graduate with no student loan debt and you're now making $60,000, $80,000 a year without a payment in the world because you don't have any credit card debt or high interest debt, you now have a really cool situation where you can invest $5,000, $10,000, $20,000 at the age of $24, $25, $26, and you've built your base very quickly. By the age of 30, you've got hundreds of thousands of dollars invested versus just tens of thousands like the average person. You

Starting point is 00:07:43 are setting yourself up for an awesome situation. So you really can't go wrong either way. There's just specific considerations to take into account depending on what situation you want to pursue. So our next question comes from Christina C. Christina says, hi Robert Nosson. I absolutely love listening to your podcast. Thank you both for all you do. I'm 29 years old. I live at home with my parents in New York, so I don't have to pay a mortgage or pay rent. I earn $94,000 a year. I've got $14,000 in student loans at 4.3% interest. A 19,000. thousand dollar car loan at a seven and a half percent interest rate and both of these monthly payments come out to about $170 and $380 respectively thanks to your advice i've opened up a Roth IRA in

Starting point is 00:08:24 2023 and i maxed it out every single year i have a hundred and nine thousand dollars in my roth 401k 76,000 in my bridge account and 77,000 dollars in a high-yield savings account however i feel like i could be doing more with my money and i want to take my wealth building to the next level. What would you both do if you were in my situation? Thanks so much. What an interesting situation to be in. Robert, do you want to kick this one off? Yeah, this is just an incredible, incredible situation, especially at 29 years old. And I think Christina's spot on. I think there's too much money in the high-ield savings account. I think that's going to underperform dramatically. And I would only have maybe 25 or 30,000 in there and get the rest invested. I'd probably add that

Starting point is 00:09:07 into the traditional brokerage account because you already have the Roth maxed out each year. That's what I would do. And I would also start looking at maybe some diversification. Now that you've got your base built and you're doing really well, maybe add some individual stocks in there, maybe a small portion, 5% of your net investable capital into some cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, XRP chain links, stuff like that. And really just get more diversification, but also do exactly what you're thinking, Christina. And that is get the money working harder for.

Starting point is 00:09:37 you because right now having 77,000 in a high yield savings, I applaud you because it is making probably 4%, which is better than most people because so many people just let it sit in a checking account. I think it's amazing, but I think it's too much money sitting in that account. So I would move 30, 40,000 of that out, get it into the traditional brokerage account, maybe get a public.com account opened up so you can start buying the cryptocurrencies we're talking about. And I think you'd be good to go there and in a much better position in the coming months. I agree with that, assuming that that 77,000 isn't already earmarked for some sort of down payment on a real estate purchase.

Starting point is 00:10:15 I feel like, Christina, you are primed to house hack. You're 29 years old, which means time to move out, right? No need to still live with the parents here. You're almost 30, right? Let's go, like, move on and start our lives and really begin to be that independent person. And I think the best way for you to do that now is to start house hacking. Robert and I always talk about the 5% down Fannie Mae, which means to buy a duplex, triplex, or quadplex, up to it's like 1.3 million. 1.3 million, yep.

Starting point is 00:10:43 And all you have to do is put 5% down. They lend you the money and you now live in one of the units, rent out the others, and you're rocking and rolling. So you could use part of this $77,000 that's in your high-yield savings account to go buy a duplex or a quadplex. And I would househack that. I would live in one of the units and then have someone else rent out the other unit or other three units, depending on how big of a multifamily that you bought, and then make sure that you don't forget that house hacking is not always a situation where people completely pay for your mortgage, but it could be a situation where it brings down your living expenses dramatically.

Starting point is 00:11:18 So by house hacking, sure, we would love for our tenants, quote unquote, to completely offset and pay for our mortgage, but even if it means that they don't, but instead of a mortgage of $2,300, we're only paying $1,800 or $1,100 because they are supplementing some of that with some rental income, that is a great situation to be in as well. I love what you've got here going on with the Roth 401k, the traditional brokerage account, and this big, beefy, high-yield savings account, I truly think the next move to make is go house hack. You're old enough to go start your own sort of independent life here, and house hacking at your age is a wonderful idea. I love it and couldn't agree more with that answer. Great take. So our next question comes from Jeff Z. Jeff says,

Starting point is 00:11:57 I've got a question about your advice on cryptocurrency. I currently only have a little bit of exposure in crypto via the GBTC ETF. How do you all feel about the gray scale ETFs? And would you recommend increasing exposure there? Or more directly via cryptocurrencies? Or do you think there's a better crypto ETF out there? We'd love to hear your perspective. Thanks. I'll kick this one off, Robert. Jeff, I love this question. BTC was like the OG Bitcoin ETF from back and like, gosh, I think it was like even 2018

Starting point is 00:12:26 or 2019. I remember it's been around for a long time. So the thing about GBT is two things. One, it's not exactly, at least how I remember it, it's not exactly a spot Bitcoin ETF. It's like a futures Bitcoin ETF in the sense that they are not exactly tracking the performance of Bitcoin one to one, but instead they're like trading and holding futures contracts, which are like derivatives and just all this fancy active management. And because of all that active management, the expense ratio on that ETF is, 1.5% which is egregious, right? So if you are someone who wants to have some Bitcoin exposure in their portfolio, there's a couple ways to do that. The first one is BTCI, which is the Nios

Starting point is 00:13:13 Bitcoin High Income ETF. It's a spot Bitcoin ETF essentially that does a covered call option contract strategy that allows you to have direct exposure to Bitcoin while also generating some income in your portfolio. It's got about a 25 to 30% annual yield on it. I hold a bunch of I think it's awesome. I also hold another Bitcoin ETF, I-B-I-T, I-BIT. This is the I-Shares-Spot Bitcoin ETF. It is a one-to-one up-and-down performance relationship with Bitcoin. There's no, like, sexy strategy around it. You're just get exposure to Bitcoin. And I think the expense ratio on iBITs, which is comparable to GBTC, is 0.25%, which is 1.25% less than GBT. I really like that answer. And the only thing I would add is,

Starting point is 00:13:59 the only ETF I think anyone should own at this point right now would be BTCI. Just because I love NEO's funds, what they're doing, everything is really good about it. Otherwise, in most instances, especially if you're just starting to get into cryptocurrency, I think you just have a public.com account and you start buying the asset directly. Because at the end of the day, it's not like when you're buying Bitcoin, you need anyone to manage it. It's not like the S&P 500 where they have to make decisions based on waiting or any of these other things. You're just buying that individual asset like you would an individual stock. So in my opinion, I don't think it's a good world to be owning the micro strategies and all these other ones like grayscale and all of this.

Starting point is 00:14:45 I think it is better to just own the asset directly. You can do that through public.com. You can do it through Coinbase. And that way, you know what you have. You have the ownership and you're not paying all these additional fees. So I agree with Austin on this one 100%. And I want to linger on that for a little bit because to your point, Robert, a lot of people go out there and they do buy like the micro strategies and they buy these covered call,

Starting point is 00:15:07 crazy leverage debt, all these crazy things thinking that it is a way to instead of getting a one-to-one return, they can get a five-to-one return. I can buy micro-strategy that'll go up a ton. And you are right. There are some situations where micro-strategy or Coinbase or whatever other I hold Bitcoin mining, whatever stock you can think of here, could outperform Bitcoin in a short period of time. All of these are very speculative trades and gambles, right? You're rolling the dice here, assuming that it will outperform Bitcoin.

Starting point is 00:15:41 Whereas Bitcoin itself, just owning 5 to 15% of your portfolio, having some crypto exposure, which we say essentially is Bitcoin, having that in your portfolio for a long period of time, will outperform. Right. That is what we've been saying for years now. I continue to hold several Bitcoin. Robert, same deal with him. And like, we are just such big proponents that you don't have to overthink this.

Starting point is 00:16:03 It doesn't have to be alt coins. It doesn't have to be futures trading. It doesn't have to be what Robert calls an action movie of investing. It really just means, oh yeah, every other week I systematically purchase some Bitcoin to my public account. And I forget about it, right? It could be as simple as that. Investing should not be an action sport. It doesn't need to be emotional.

Starting point is 00:16:22 It doesn't need to be fancy. So many people as they're getting started in their investing journeys or in the mid-stages, try to get too fancy and too cute with too many different things. And that, to me, is just a recipe for disaster. And that is why we try to lay out the blueprint of what works, what has worked for decades to help everyone understand. You don't have to be in the new latest, greatest, crazy, cockamamie, you know, investment strategy to really, really beat the markets and beat the benchmarks.

Starting point is 00:16:52 So I think it's important for everyone to keep. that in mind when you're selecting what to invest in. Here's a fun story before we move on to our next question I want to share about exactly that, Robert. I saw an interview with Warren Buffett that said when he bought his first stock, he was 11 years old, and he bought that first stock in 1944. He bought three shares of it for $114 of a total investment back in 1944. He said that that was a bad investment and ended up not working out for him, but if he instead took that $114 and instead invested it into the simple S&P 500 and reinvested his dividends from 1944 to 2024, that $144 would be $400,000.

Starting point is 00:17:36 That's not action sport anything. That is parking your money in a low-cost index fund that we've been talking about for as long as I can remember now and just letting it ride. $400,000. Now, of course, it's over a period of 80 years, the guy as old as sliced bread, but it's an interesting story to share because it just reminds you that to get outsized returns, you don't always have to be thinking like a John Wick movie. 100%. Yeah, I just see some of the best portfolios I look at are people that invested early in Apple and Amazon and some of those and they put five grand in 20 years ago and they just didn't touch it. Right now we live in an age where there's so much information in front of us all day, every day and so many clickbait headlines that people just let emotion take over

Starting point is 00:18:24 and a lot of times they end up buying high and selling low because they get caught up in that cycle. And that is why I enjoy doing this with you every day, Austin, because making a difference in thousands and thousands of people's lives and giving them the guidance and the understanding to keep the emotion out of it is so important. Now, before we jump into our next question, listen up, folks. Time can be running out to lock in a 6% or higher yield at public.com. You can lock in a 6% or higher yield with a bond. account, but remember your yield isn't locked in until the time of purchase, so you might want to

Starting point is 00:19:00 act fast. Lock in a 6% or higher yield with a diversified portfolio of high yield and investment-grade corporate bonds, only at public.com forward slash rich habits. All right, let's now jump to our next question. So our next question comes from Bo on Instagram. Bo says, hey Austin and Robert, I love your content. I've been listening to you guys for a year now, and it's been incredibly helpful. I'm 33 years old, and I don't own a house yet. I'm currently saving toward that goal. Most of what I hear around financial freedom and investing focuses on a retirement that's 25 to 30 years away, which is great, but I'm really curious about midterm goals that are more 10 to 15 years away. For someone like me who wants to grow their savings beyond

Starting point is 00:19:40 what money markets or high interest savings accounts offer, but still plan to use that money before retirement to buy things like a house, a boat, or maybe even a cottage or something, what kinds of ETFs or investment strategies would you recommend? How should I think about risk and allocation for these types of goals that fall between short-term safety and long-term retirement? I'd love to hear more about strategies for investing toward meaningful milestones that come before retirement. Robert, you want to kick this one off? I would love to, Bo. This is a great question, and I really love how you framed it. Yes, we are always talking about and educating about long-term investing.

Starting point is 00:20:18 But you're right. there are short-term goals you're going to want to meet, and sometimes you want to have those alternate ways to get to those goals. And that is why you always hear anyone listening and following along, here's Austin and I talk about two types of accounts, and that is the Roth IRA and the bridge account. Now, the bridge account is simply a traditional brokerage account that you have full autonomy over. You can invest in it. You can take the money in. You can take the money out. And you have no restrictions on your money in a traditional brokerage account. And I think that's where you fall in bow.

Starting point is 00:20:51 I would really focus on getting those ETFs you talked about into that traditional brokerage account and really build that up because then you can do whatever you want in five years, 10 years or 15 years while not ignoring a Roth IRA because I think that's super important for the long term and for retirement. But having that traditional brokerage account really crushing it is important. What would I do with it? You already alluded to it. Get those low-cost ETFs that Austin and I always talk. about the V-O-O's, the QQ's, the VUGs of the world. Get a mix of those, maybe some AIQ if you want to take a little more risk into the future of AI. But that's what I would do if I were you because then that money is growing what we believe to be at the best safest rate. But you still have full autonomy to do what you want with it in the next five, 10 or 15 years.

Starting point is 00:21:41 So here's the exact strategy that you're looking for, Bo. if you have a financial milestone or a purchase that is more than two years away, save your money by investing it in the S&P 500, the NASDAQ, VTI, VUG, everything that we talk about from an ETF perspective, more than two years away. If it is less than two years away, I would begin to scale out of those investments into cash to ensure that I have the money ready for that purchase. So let's say you plan to buy your dream house 15 years from now. So you have a lot of absolutely nothing saved for it but you're going to start putting aside eight hundred dollars per month and you're going to invest that money in the s and

Starting point is 00:22:21 p 500 so throughout that 15 year period of time it can grow for you much more than a savings account for example over this 15 years that we've talked about your total contributions would be about a hundred and forty four thousand dollars but the value of this account would grow to about 350,000 now to my point earlier around year 13, you would begin to scale out of these investments, which means that you would sell your shares of the S&P, sell your shares of these ETFs. So when you get closer to wanting to put a down payment on this house, you actually have the cash to do so, because like we saw during the month of April, volatility is real and it could absolutely wipe out a lot of the gains that you've

Starting point is 00:23:01 experienced over that period of time. So by scaling out two years ahead of your purchase, you're giving yourself ample time to still earn a little bit of money by having some money, but you don't have all 100% of these $144,000 of contributions sitting in this account and growing, as well as the 200 plus thousand of profit that you've probably experienced by that 15 year period of time, you begin to pull the profit out, pulling out your contributions, and now you've got this 350-ish-thous, $1st egg to then go use to go buy this dream house in 15 years. Yeah, I just love that people are really starting to take notes and take action and really kind of lay out the plan and then we're just here to tweak it, help, and give our insight so people

Starting point is 00:23:47 can really be financially free because that is our goal. If we can get a million people to become millionaires over the next five or 10 years through the education we're providing, then my life is complete and my career is a win no matter what else happens. Well, I think what's interesting, too, about what Beau said is he very much understands the opportunity cost, right? He said, for someone like me who wants to grow their savings beyond money markets or high interest savings accounts, what strategies do you recommend? That is exactly what we alluded to when it comes of these contributions. If you just put this $800 a month into a high yield savings account, you'll have saved about $144,000 plus or minus some interest, let's call it $160,000 total. So you'll

Starting point is 00:24:29 have $160,000 in this account. Or by investing it, letting it grow by 8, 9, 10, 12% per year, you'll have 350. So we're talking about $160,000. So we're talking about $160,000. about a $200,000 difference over that period of time by strategically investing it and being thoughtful about the risk you're taking on closer you get to that purchase. So our next question comes from Adam J. Adam says, Hi, Austin and Robert. Love the show, and I'm so grateful for what you guys do. I wish the show was around 20 years ago. Teachers in New York City have a retirement fund, which is a tax deferred annuity or a TDA. The selling point has always been that the money that goes in is pre-tax. The question has always come up about whether or not we should

Starting point is 00:25:08 additionally open up an outside Roth IRA through a company like Schwab or public, and there's been mixed opinions. I just read, though, that in 2026, we are now going to have the option for a Roth TDA through the teacher's retirement system. We will have the option to contribute to either one or both. So here's my question. What do I do? Which is better?

Starting point is 00:25:28 What's the best move from here? From listening to you guys, it seems like the Roth option is always better because we don't know what the tax rate is going to be in the future. but I'm curious to know if we'll be able to directly choose our investments or if it's going to be some sort of traditional TDA where they choose the funds for us. I don't really know. I have limited information, but I'd still love to get your guys' perspective on my situation. Adam, I think you're spot on in what you're thinking, and I'm here to flesh it out for you with Austin. It's always Roth. We want to make sure everyone is maxing out their raw every opportunity they get. You've already brought it up. It is

Starting point is 00:26:03 great that they're thinking about giving you this teacher's retirement system Roth. But again, if you don't have any way to control what you're investing in, you don't know what you're getting the money is being put into, and it's very limited, which I assume it will be, you're going to underperform in the long term, and that is going to be problematic for me. So the way I look at it is, I would always have an external Roth outside of the company, because then you can choose what goes in it. You can choose the investments. And you have a lot of the investment. And you have a lot of the rest of the investments and you have full autonomy to make sure that it performs well. But obviously if it's a company and they're going to issue this because you're in the teachers union or whatever it is,

Starting point is 00:26:42 you have to at least take a look at it and see if it's any good. But in most instances, you're going to have limited options, high fees, and it's not going to perform as well as if you set up your own autonomous Roth IRA on your own. I 1,000% agree with you, Robert. And that's not just for the teachers in New York City. That's for every single. person listening to this podcast right now. You not only should be investing up to the match if a employer-sponsored retirement account is offered to you to get the free money, but you should always be investing and maxing out your Roth IRA. Let's just do a quick like refresher here, Robert. So we've got two types of retirement accounts. We have employer-sponsored retirement accounts,

Starting point is 00:27:24 like a 401k or this tax-deferred annuity for teachers in New York. You also have like TSPs and 403Bs, right? These are employer-sponsored. You need to be working for somebody and they will allow you to invest into these retirement accounts. And then there's the individual retirement accounts, the Roth IRA and the traditional IRA. You can do both at the same time. Want to make sure everyone understands that. Because in this question, you said it's always come up about whether or not we should additionally open up a Roth IRA. Yes, everyone should always additionally open up a Roth IRA no matter if you've got an employer-sponsored retirement account or not. This is your retirement account tied to your social security number that you can invest

Starting point is 00:28:07 toward, be aggressive, be conservative, whatever you want to do inside this retirement account. And if you open it up on public.com at public.com slash rich habits, you get a 1% match on your contributions. Now, to answer your question, yes. 100% in agreement with Robert, you need to be choosing the Roth variance anytime you can, which means that you're not converting your traditional T-D. investments into a Roth, that's a taxable event. You're just hazing the traditional specified contributions over here

Starting point is 00:28:39 and instead diverting new money into the Roth TDA. So you're not converting, you're not doing anything like taxable here. You're simply not contributing anymore to the traditional account and now contributing to a new Roth account. This new Roth account will be with after-tax dollars, but remember it's going to grow tax-free. so when you are ready to retire, all that money that you'll be making is tax-free. 100%. I love it.

Starting point is 00:29:05 Great question and great take, Austin. So our last question comes from Jordan W. Jordan says, hey guys, my name is Jordan. I love the work that you all do. I'm currently 25 years old, and I work for Amazon as an engineer. I make $120,000 a year. I have $40,000 invested into ETFs, single stocks, reits, and more. And I also have $30,000 in a high-yield savings account for my emergency fund.

Starting point is 00:29:28 I'm wondering what I should do with my Amazon restricted stock units that will be awarded to me over time. I'm torn between selling them as soon as I get them and offloading that money into VOO straight away or being a little bit more risky and holding on to them to see if they can grow a little bit more. I know that I'm young and I can afford to take on the risk, but I also know that putting all of your eggs in one basket is not a good idea either. What are your thoughts? Robert, you want to take this one? Sure, I'll start this one off. I love it.

Starting point is 00:29:56 You're at a great situation. I think Austin and I will definitely agree 100% that in this situation, I wouldn't sell it all. I would take the risk. I would maybe do 50% cash out, 50% hold and ride the Amazon wave for the future. That's what I would do in your position. You're making great money. You're off to a really good start. At 25 years old, this is an amazing situation for you to build a lot of wealth.

Starting point is 00:30:21 Just make sure you don't live beyond your means. Keep your expenses low and really, really, really. stockpile money and this stock money as well, because if you do the work and really set yourself up for the next five or 10 years, you will be mega wealthy later on in life. So that's what I would do. I would definitely sell some, get it into the VOOs of the world, the QQQs, keep the rest and take the risk because you can do it at your age. I agree 100%. I would sell half of them and park that money in the S&P, and then I'd keep the other half and ride the wave. I think it's very obvious that Amazon's continue to be a wonderful multi-trillion dollar company over the coming years if it's with

Starting point is 00:31:01 a wus if it's with robotics if it's with whatever else amazon's doing andy jassy's got it figured out and he's going to keep that ship rocking up into the right in my humble opinion so jordan i would do exactly that take some risk have some fun you're 25 and just round of applause for this guy making a hundred twenty thousand dollars a year at 25 working at amazon as an engineer you know this goes back to our previous question with jay who's thinking about this college tuition and trying to go from a community college to a university, what do I study, you know, all that stuff. Jordan studied engineering, and now he's 25 making a $120,000 a year. That is unbelievable, unbelievable.

Starting point is 00:31:40 And he's got $40,000 invested, $30,000 saved. He's got $70,000 set aside, rocket and rolling for him, working for him in a correct manner because of this awesome income and these awesome habits that he has built since graduation. So, Jordan, round of applause for you, my friend. what an inspiring situation to be in for not just other people who are engineers, but also people who are thinking about what to study in college, what is an engineering degree turn into for me, things of that nature. So Jordan, you're crushing it. Congratulations. And keep up the good work. And I think it really speaks to what we talk about a lot is going to college is great. Getting a degree is great as long as the degree is valuable when you graduate. Doesn't matter what it does now. It's

Starting point is 00:32:21 what it looks like in that field of expertise when you graduate. So I love these questions. So many great questions in this episode. Yeah, I made your shout out to Jordan. And everyone else who asked an awesome question on this episode of the Rich Habits Podcast, don't forget if you want to ask us a question, you can either email us at richhabitspodcast at gmail.com, DM us on Instagram at Rich Habits Podcast, or always get your questions answered by joining the Rich Habits Network.

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Rich Habits Podcast - Q&A: Living at Home at 29, Tax-Deferred Annuities, & Amazon RSUs

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