Rich Habits Podcast - Q&A: Wedding Planning ($150K), AI Taking Your Job & $1.25M Invested

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Starting point is 00:00:30 and answer edition, these are our Thursday episodes. During these episodes, we answer your questions as if we were in your shoes going through whatever you're going through. You can ask us questions on Instagram at Rich Habits Podcast, or you can email us your questions at Rich Habitspodcast at gmail.com. Just please give us a little bit of patience and flexibility here. We get, I kid you not, thousands of questions from you all every single month. So if we don't answer your question, don't get all mad at us. You're, it just, it happens. That's right. We're popular guys and people want to get those questions in. And Austin's always trying to keep up and Eric and Christian and me. And it's a lot, but we are here for you. And if you're getting frustrated, join the Rich Habits Network. That is the best way to get as much FaceTime with Austin and I right through the Rich Habits Network. Actually, and if you are already inside the Rich Habits Network, don't forget to start coming to our Friday office hours. We started just offering hour long, office hours every Friday Robert myself Eric Christian the whole team will be bopping in and out kind of

Starting point is 00:01:35 coming and going but it's an opportunity for you to meet other people in the network get your questions answer maybe make your first post learn more about whatever's going on from an investment perspective all the fun stuff so definitely don't forget about those office hours now Robert before we jump into this episode of the rich habits podcast question and answer addition we got to give a shout out to public.com the investing platform for those who take investing as seriously as we do over here on the show. On public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea in your brain into an actual investable index using artificial intelligence. That's right, Austin. It all starts with your prompt.

Starting point is 00:02:16 From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and even lets you back-test it against the S&P 500, all with just a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs but with infinite possibilities. They're completely customizable. They're based on your thesis, not someone else's. So to learn more, go to public.com slash rich habits.

Starting point is 00:02:45 And don't forget, transfer your portfolio over to public. It's an incredible platform. That's public.com slash rich habits. Paid for by public investing, full disclosure in the podcast description. So our first question comes from an anonymous listener. They said, I am new to your podcast and I've enjoyed the episodes so far. Coincidentally, I was contemplating what to do with some working capital from both personal savings and a small S-Corp. I've got $40,000 combined in several accounts that range from a checking account earning 0.2%, a savings account earning 2%, and a high-yield savings account, earning 3.5%.

Starting point is 00:03:22 I need the funds relatively liquid over the next 2 to 3 months. but I have hated the fact that I had this money sitting, earning such a low return for me. I listened to your podcast on Neos funds, specifically SPI, and I was encouraged as I started considering options of moving money over to earn about 10%. After listening to your podcast several times, I felt the move was prudent to earn returns and keep that liquidity. However, I recently just listened and learned about the Waldo account, solid information and advice, thanks for the conversation with Ryan. However, why would I choose a Waldo account that has liquidity and a 3% return when I can choose SPYI that also has liquidity and a 10% return.

Starting point is 00:04:03 Even balancing for some losses and share value, I know Waldo is much more secure, it seems like a no-brainer to take the money and run with SPYI. I understand that the goal is to totally separate personal and business funds, which is why I'm working on setting up a business account with fidelity. But again, no disrespect to Waldo. I just don't understand the 10% versus 3% versus a high-y-old. savings, like help me understand all this stuff, knowing that I still need liquidity. Robert, this is a really good question from our anonymous listener.

Starting point is 00:04:33 I'd love you to start this one off. Yeah, I think it is a great question. And let me see if I can capture all of it, because this was a lot. You can't take your money from your business account and go right to public.com and open a high yield savings. So you do need a business account to be able to invest those funds unless you use Waldo. Waldo is specifically built for business accounts, like Austin's business. My Businesses, The Rich Habits Podcast, any small business that wants to earn money on the money they have sitting in their accounts during that time.

Starting point is 00:05:05 I would suggest you do that because you have three options within the Waldo account to be able to earn these gains of three, four, five percent. Because you're buying these short-term T bills, you're going to get those gains without the risk of investing in SPYI. So that is where I would go with it. we're doing it with our businesses using Waldo. I think it's a great opportunity because for so long, companies with cash in their business accounts haven't been able to make really good returns on that money while they're waiting to deploy it. And because you want short-term and liquidity,

Starting point is 00:05:39 I think Waldo is the better move because it prevents you from having the risk of putting that money in SPYI and maybe there's a downturn in the market or something that causes you to actually go backwards with these funds that you need almost immediately. Yeah, I think that last part is the most important. Sure, SPYI pays a 1% yield to their investors every month. There's 12 months out of the year. That's a 12% annual yield. Obviously, none of that's guaranteed, but they've done a pretty good job of keeping those distributions to be very steady and predictable. With that said, the objective of SPYI is to deliver similar total returns to the S&P 500. And so all you're asking us here is like, hey, do I take this money that

Starting point is 00:06:23 need liquid for the next two or three months, do I put it in a treasury T bills, right, like you can with Waldo, or do I invest it in the S&P 500? Those are completely different things. If you need the money liquid and you want to make sure that it's going to be there in two months when you need it and it's not going to be up, down, left, right, and in circles, go put it in Waldo, go put it in a T bill or something of that nature that's going to allow you to earn that three and a half percent, four percent per year. If you want to invest it and you are fully aware of the ups and downs that come with investing in anything, including the S&P 500, then sure, if you want to put it in SPII, like, be my guest. But just know, the price of SPII fell by 10% in the first three months out of the

Starting point is 00:07:03 year when Trump decided to do all the stuff and go to war with the Middle East like the S&P also did, right? So it's like you're essentially, I want to make sure you understand you're asking the right things. You're asking, do I want to be invested in the stock market and have liquidity there? or do I want to be actually sitting in a bona fide like savings account with T bills that have no volatility? Yes, one can come with more returns. We've seen the S&P deliver about eight or nine percent returns year to date, whereas T bills are around like, you know, one and a half to two percent year to date. So like there's give and take here, but you have to understand what you're actually signing up for. The last thing we want here is for anonymous listener to say, cool, I can go earn a little bit of yield on a monthly basis with NEO's funds. And then Trump says or does something wild or Kevin Warsh says or does something.

Starting point is 00:07:47 crazy or whatever's going on here, and the S&P falls off a cliff or, you know, whatever. So just make sure you understand exactly what you're asking here. And the key difference is between, yes, you do get liquidity because they're publicly traded entity, right? S-P-Y-I, the S-NP, you can do that. You can buy and sell whenever you want, but you do not get that locked in value you get with T-bills. So good question here. Just make sure you know the difference. Our next question comes from Cody. Cody says, I got a question for y'all about entrepreneurship. For context, if it's relevant, I'm about to turn 33 with a liquid net worth of $500,000. I've spent the last 12 years working in the energy field, specifically in operations of utility scale renewables. Within the last year, I was promoted

Starting point is 00:08:32 from a technician to a manager of my own site. I've been a fan of the show for a while now and love hearing you both talk about your business ventures. So my question is, as I've been investing heavily the last few years and working to progress at work, I've also found myself. having the desire to build something for myself. The problem I have is I don't even know where to start, what avenues to look at, I don't know what to do. You both are serial entrepreneurs. What advice would you give someone in my position who is motivated to start something

Starting point is 00:08:59 for themselves but doesn't necessarily know what direction to point that motivation in? This is such a great question, Robert. I'll let you start this one off. Cody, I love this question and I love your situation and the fact that you're 33 years old. You are in the catbird seat. You already understand you have to invest early and often. You've got your base built. You're in a very high paying field, but also a growing sector of the market. If you go to any interview about AI right now, whether it's Elon Musk or the president or whoever it is, all everyone is talking about is the bottleneck of energy and why we need more of it and we need more expansion

Starting point is 00:09:42 and more opportunities and energy to grow these data centers in the United States. So I think you're in a great spot. I would keep your job. I would keep doing what you're doing. But on nights and weekends, I would study, study, study, because for your skill set, there are a million opportunities for consulting right now, helping people integrate purchases, helping smaller companies with maybe their AI infrastructure of how to do these purchases.

Starting point is 00:10:10 So many ways you could go about this to start your own thing. But in the meantime, keep the job, keep stockpiling the cash, and then work towards getting that side hustle going. Because I feel like if you spent the next six months to a year, you'd be able to figure it out you're a smart person and get that thing up and running. Maybe it starts out really small and it's just you doing nights and weekends. And then you go from there to take it full scale and maybe in a year or two leave your job. and go out on your own because you're in such a great field and your skill set aligns so well with where the future of manufacturing is heading in the United States. I love that answer, Robert, and I don't think I could have said it better myself. Cody, you are crushing it. You're 33 with

Starting point is 00:10:56 half a million dollars in liquid net worth. That's straight up money invested in retirement accounts and brokerage accounts and savings. Like, you are absolutely crushing it. A couple things that I want to share from my experience, Cody. And I think this might help you navigate, you know, where you want to put that motivation. The first thing I would do is I would listen to Naval Rabacant's conversation with Joe Rogan. And I would also listen to Naval Rabakant's, I think it's like a YouTube video. It's like three hours long that essentially is him talking about his blog post, how to get rich without getting lucky. And it does a really good job of explaining what the most successful entrepreneurs have done and accomplished, like, you know, Elon Musk is a trillionaire now. He's not a

Starting point is 00:11:41 trillionaire because he's a trillioner because he's a trillionaire because he's figured out how to get rich and do these things and use leverage. And like, like, it's not leverage with debt, but leverage with, like, employees. And like, there's a lot of like interesting things, you know, that you will learn from this conversation with Naval Ravikant and Joe Rogan plus Naval Ravacant's just how to get rich without getting lucky. So, Cody, start there, take notes, write it all down. Ask yourself, how does this apply to me? Like, it's a wonderful conversation. It helped me so much six, seven, eight years ago when I was graduating college and I was trying

Starting point is 00:12:13 to figure out how to be an entrepreneur, what I wanted to do, and truly what levers could I pull to be someone in the future. So that's number one. The other thing that's really important is don't make the mistake. And Robert did a good job calling this out of quitting your job preemptively thinking you have an idea or something. You are in the catbird seat like Robert shared. You are operating in a wonderful field.

Starting point is 00:12:35 energy is very important right now. Keep doing what you're doing. You just got this great promotion. You got your own site going on. You're probably making six figures. If not, you know, I'm sure you're going to be there very soon. Like, you are absolutely crushing it. Please keep rocking and rolling with this. Do the things that that get you motivated and want to build something for yourself on the nights and weekends. And then the other thing I want you to ask yourself, and this is part of, I guess, Nival's thing. And so like, you know, I can't take credit for this. But it helped me think about for myself, what, as you kind of reflect upon, Cody, your ambition and what you want to build and you don't know what direction to take this motivation and what to build with it. What unique experiences or

Starting point is 00:13:16 perspective do you have, Cody, that allows you to help more people, allows you to build a business, like what unique experience or perspective do you have? Is it your unique experience and energy? Is it your perspective about where AI and energy is going to go? Is it your, Like what unique experience does Cody know really, really well that someone is willing to pay Cody for, right? How can Cody take that unique experience, that unique perspective and build a business, a consulting business, a services business, or anything else? Like that's where you want to really start this. And that's where a lot of people, like, you know, Robert was making the silicone bracelets and he was doing that a great job of that for years. That was his unique experience in perspective on manufacturing bracelets.

Starting point is 00:14:01 and then he found a different bracelet overseas and was like, wait a second, I already know how to do this. I wonder if I can do this even better because of this experience that I already have. And so like same thing for you, Cody. It's like, what experience are you really, really good at? What perspective? What did you endure? What did you learn? What is something that makes you so unique from everyone else that you are able to build something

Starting point is 00:14:20 completely from scratch that's going to allow you now to build a business that people want to pay you for? And once you figure that out, that's going to get you excited. The last thing I'll share with you, it's more important to go slowly up the last. that is leaning against the correct wall than to go up fast on a ladder that's leaning up against the wrong wall. Think about that for a second, right? If your ladder leaning up a wall is a business idea, oh, I got this idea. I'm going to jump into it. It's going to go fast. I'm going to like do all my time, whatever. And then you realize, I didn't want to do this in the first place. This is a terrible

Starting point is 00:14:49 business idea. Why didn't I spend more time vetting out the competition or understanding the cost or whatever it is? Make sure you pick the right thing or the thing that resonates most with you and then do it nice and slow. Like it's better to make sure you're rowing in the right direction. going nice and slow than in a jetboat going in the wrong direction. I love that take, Austin, and I'm glad you told that story because I see it all the time, and I've actually had people come to me and say, hey, I want to start this business, I want to launch this product. And I'll tell them, I think it's a bad idea, that the total addressable market's too small.

Starting point is 00:15:19 There's too much competition already, or whatever reason, and they still go ahead. They blow all their savings. Sometimes they pull money from their retirement accounts. It fails a year later, and I say, well, you paid me to help you. figure this out but then you didn't listen to me. So I really love that take for getting people to understand that they have to choose the right ladder. So great, great way to put it. I love that. So our next question comes from Cassidy W. Cassidy says, hey there, thanks so much of your podcast. I've been binge listening from the beginning and I've learned so much. Here's my question. My husband and I are in

Starting point is 00:15:52 our early 30s with two kids. We just sold our first home that we lived in for the last nine years. We fixed it up and we bought out a good time. We ended up profiting $300,000. on the sale. We moved across the state to be closer to family and saw an opportunity to start a welding business in a rural town. We're renting a home now and plan to do so for another two years. What would you do with the money in the meantime? Old me would have it just sit in a regular savings account, earning nothing, but now I want it to grow if possible. I really want this to be a jump start to a better future. I already have a fully funded emergency fund. We have no bad debt. I am contributing to an employer 401k up to the match. I have $140,000 in that $4,000.000. $40,000 in that

Starting point is 00:16:31 401k. I am considering putting half of this maybe in a high-yield savings, earning three and a half percent, and maybe the other half in the S&P or the NASDAQ, is that too risky for my goals, knowing that I want to buy a property in two-ish years. I have even considered putting 20,000 of this in a small growing business venture. I'd love to hear your take on all of it. Robert? Yeah, I love this setup, but I definitely have some issues here. Number one, congrats on the 300K.K. That is awesome. And it is a great way to get you guys jump started for a better future. However, you already have the emergency fund built. So I wouldn't take half of these funds and put it into a high yield savings account.

Starting point is 00:17:12 You already have your emergency fund. Hopefully that's up and running and making you that 2, 3, 4%. And then when you say SPY and QQQI with the rest, I wouldn't do that either. I think you could have a small portion of it in SPYI and QQQI for the benefits and long term growth from that from the dividends. and the income, but I definitely think somewhere in the middle here, you need to consider, I didn't hear you talk about a Roth IRA, so I think you should consider both of you having maxed out Roth IRAs with a portion of this money, so you can do $7,500 each for both of you. I would start there. I would also consider having that traditional brokerage account with the tried and true ETFs and index funds we talk about all the time, maybe four or five of these

Starting point is 00:17:57 funds with a big portion of that money, V-O-O-Q-Q-Q, A-I-Q, maybe V-T-I-K or something like that. But I would do that as well before I would jump right into more savings, too safe, and also going right into these dividend funds with NEO's funds, because you have to remember at your age, especially, every dollar needs to have a job. And I feel like you're moving past some of the things that are these tried and true wealth strategies that you should have in place early on because you guys are so young and have a long investing timeline ahead of you. Cassidy, I love that you're not in high interest debt. I love the idea of making sure you're maxing out that rot thyroid. You know, one to two years is a really

Starting point is 00:18:41 short period of time to try and time the market with. You know, over a one year period of time, it's kind of a coin flip if the market's going to be green or not. Over two years, it's, you know, 60, 70 percent chance will be green. But who knows, right? That's why investing over long periods of time, your odds of it being green and making money in the markets go up exponentially. And so one or two years, hard to say. If you definitely, like, here's the non-negotiable, this money has to be earning money for you in a high-yield savings account with inflation now at 4.2%. This $300,000 that you have will erode in buying power one year from now by roughly 3, 4%. Who knows? So you need to make sure it's earning 3 or 4% to have the exact same

Starting point is 00:19:23 buying power. So you can go to public and open up a high yield cash account. You can go purchase shares of C-S-H-I, which is the NEO's high-income T-bill. E-TF they've got. I think it pays like four and a half or five percent. You can also park this money into T-bills on public. You can think of a lot of different ways that this money is going to earn for you, but I would just be very weary about trying to use it to time the markets. And I know you're looking to see the S&P's up 8% year to date, but that was after it fell 10%. Or I know you're looking to see the NASDAQ up 30% in two months and you're like, what the heck? I could have $100,000 more if I bought the March 30 bottom in the NASDAQ. Yeah, you and me both, girl. So like, you can't time this stuff. I highly recommend not

Starting point is 00:20:09 trying to time anything. And by looking at a one to two year time horizon, which is what you mentioned here in your email to us, that's exactly what you're trying to do. So I'd park it in something normal, something that is safe, like a high yield savings account that's FDIC insurance. or a high-yield cash account or some T-bills on public or maybe some shares of CSHAI and let it ride up until you need the funds. Okay, Robert, I think we read this wrong. She said, we even considered putting about $20,000 into the growing business as well. I thought that was into a growing business. That wasn't her growing business. But now that I reread this question, I think she's alluding to putting 20,000 and investing it into their welding business.

Starting point is 00:20:50 Completely different question here. So let's answer that. Robert, would you take 20,000 of this 300,000 and putting it into their growing welding business in their rural town? I love this idea. If your business is growing and you guys have equipment you can buy or marketing you can implement or maybe use the $20,000 for a combination of hiring a new person, doing some marketing, maybe expanding, getting better signage outside or whatever, I love this idea because in my history of owning dozens and dozens of businesses, investing in yourself is one of the best investments you can make. So I love this if it's in your business.

Starting point is 00:21:29 Just make sure it's strategic and you're not buying things for expansion you may or may not need. I've been guilty of that where I'm like, man, I want this new cool equipment. It's only 40 grand. I'm going to buy it. And then it doesn't really do as much as I thought or gain us as much volume increases I thought or sales increases. So make sure it's strategic, but I love this idea. Yeah. Emphasize on the strategic side of it.

Starting point is 00:21:53 it, I feel like everyone's like, oh, but it's a business ride off. It's like, what is, you mean money you're spending? Like, money that's not in your profit side. It's an expense side now. So it's money you can't invest in the markets. That business right off, right? So don't fall for that. But yeah, definitely, I agree with Robert here. I think what's important is you have this money very much figured out, okay, where would this $20,000 go? And it's not so much like, hey, let's just make up a number like $20,000. It is what has to be true for our profits to grow 12 months from now. We need a bigger space. We need to hire two more employees. We need to promote Samantha. So she is a manager and she needs to now have people underneath of her.

Starting point is 00:22:36 We need to have this equipment because it will allow us to do more because we are falling behind with existing orders because we've got so much demand. Right. Like what has to be true? And then it's not okay, well, 20,000 that'll cover it. Maybe it's 13, 412. maybe it's 18,9006 or it's 22,487, right? Like back into what you need, what has to be true for you to grow your profits in your business and then figure out how much that will cost you. And then you can truly say, okay, the ROI on this investment into our business is now X whatever it turns into, right? Okay, we just invested $18,490. That's money we're not going to have here for the next whatever. It's going to take us four months then to repay from profits to get back to that. But now, we're making an extra $2,047 a month on average because we've got this extra two employees or this larger Bay Area or whatever's going on for these people to work harder or whatever. So like have it all figured out. You guys are smart.

Starting point is 00:23:37 You don't need us telling you that. But just in case. Our next question comes from an anonymous listener. Our anonymous listener says, hey, Austin and Robert, I love the show. Please keep me anonymous. I'm 24. I work in private equity. And I'm opening a brokerage account specifically for a wedding fund.

Starting point is 00:23:51 My goal is to have a very big wedding. in about five or six years from now, which means I have an investment horizon of five to six years and a target of $150,000 for this wedding fund. From a financial foundation standpoint, I feel solid. I've got my base built. I've got S&P 500. I've got it in my Roth IRA, brokerage account.

Starting point is 00:24:10 I've house hacked my way to now two properties in Philadelphia. My dilemma is, though, I plan to invest 10 to 20,000 a year into the wedding fund, but I'm debating what to actually put it in. I already have heavy ETF exposure and given the shorter time horizon, I'm leaning toward picking 10 to 15 single stocks inside the S&P and hopefully having them outperform the S&P over that five or six year period of time. Does that approach makes sense given the timeline and my goals? What would you do differently with the structure

Starting point is 00:24:40 or investment strategy to hit 150 grand? So to our anonymous listener, I would not roll the dice on 10 to 15 single stocks. I have no idea what meta or United Health Group or Google or Amazon is going to be in five years from now. The S&P 500 over the last five years has returned 87 and a half percent where maybe five years ago you put your stock in Amazon because you thought Amazon was going to be one of these great single stocks and it's only up 45 percent. So you've not performed as well as the S&P by half. So that is why it's a wonderful idea. If you literally have like, listen, I got this brokerage account. I don't need the money for five or six, seven years. whatever's going on here with your wedding plans.

Starting point is 00:25:25 Throw it in the S&P, throw it in the NASDAQ, throw it the Dow Jones, maybe some international via VXUS, and forget about it. That's what I would do. I would not try and pick single stocks, time the market, figure out whatever's going on. I'd do the indices, and I'd ride the wave. Robert, what's your take? I mean, at 24 years old, I get where the thought process comes from, but I agree with you, Austin.

Starting point is 00:25:48 The only thing I would change on this because I don't feel like we're going to win this battle is I would do 75% of these funds every single month of $10 to $20,000 in a basket of four, five, six of these funds we talk about, the VOOs and the QQs. Then I would take 25%, even though there will be some overlap, because you mentioned 10 to 15 individual stocks from the SP 500. And I would do 25% of it into those individual stocks that you want to choose and you feel you can manage properly. maybe you'll find some upside there rather than putting all 100% in the basket of funds. I don't know that you will in that timeline, but it's certainly something you could do, but I would not do all of it into these 10 to 15 individual stocks. I think that's a terrible idea.

Starting point is 00:26:36 I know it sounds cool when you're right and you're in a bull market and somebody picks Micron or Palantir or whatever it might be, but I think a blend of what Austin said and what I said would be perfect. I would probably do 25% maximum in these individual stocks and everything else in the funds. Yeah, I wouldn't even do the individual stocks. I would just do the funds. But if you do do some single stocks, yeah, I certainly don't have it be more than 25%. Because again, like what happens if 25% of this fund, Amazon, underperforms, right? So now we're talking about a fourth of this is left of money left on the table, which means instead of a hundred $50,000, you'll have $130,000.

Starting point is 00:27:20 You know, so just know that decisions you make now compound and turn into swings, you know, of tens of thousands of dollars in the future on your potential wedding budget. Now, before we jump to our next question coming from Donnie, got to give a shout out to generated assets by public.com. As a reminder, generated assets allow you to turn any idea you might have into an investable index using AI. You can say, I want to invest into the peptide revolution and it'll find names that are going to profit from peptides or I want to invest into the advertisers on Mr. Beast YouTube videos or I want to invest in companies that are going to profit from the World Cup happening this year or I want to invest in companies that insert

Starting point is 00:28:02 some idea, something cool here, right? You can do that on public. It's incredible. It's called generated assets. They then literally make it where you can just start investing in that theme. They'll do all the research for you, put it all together and it is awesome. So go check out public.com slash rich habits, transfer your portfolio over to public. Go learn about all the products and features they have on public. We are super fans of the platform and super fans of generated assets. Now, our next question comes from Donnie. Donnie says, hi, Austin and Robert. I've been a listener for over two years and really appreciate what you do and how you've helped me. My name's Donnie. I'm 57 years old and I've been working in IT for all of my career. And with the recent rise in AI, I've never

Starting point is 00:28:42 been more worried about the probability that I will become a victim of it due to my age and salary. My concern is if I lose my job, will I be able to find another one? This stress is affecting me to the point where I am worrying about it every single day. However, I have made some decent strides in saving for my retirement. I have 700,000 in a traditional IRA, 50,000 in a Roth IRA, $500,000 in a bridge account, and if I take Social Security at 62, I'll get $2,900 a month, and if I take it at $64, I'll make $3,300 a month. So should I really be worried financially, or can I let the chips fall where they may, because I may already be positioned well for an early retirement?

Starting point is 00:29:26 Robert, what's your take here for our friend Donnie? I think Donnie needs to stop worrying. I think Donnie needs to focus on the fact that he set himself up. He's got all these things dialed in and he's in a good place. Now, we don't know what Donnie's monthly budget is, but let's assume Donnie is a pretty normal person and lives off of $6,000, $8,000 a month. If that's the case, Donnie's going to be just fine. As long as this bridge account and the IRA are invested in some pretty good things and the growth is there, we're going to see enough money here for Donnie in the future to be totally fine. Now, could you go get another job, Donnie?

Starting point is 00:30:06 Sure, but it doesn't need to be an IT. You could just go get another job that offsets 50% of your bills a month or all of your bills a month, but doesn't pay you as well as what you've been making for so long, because that money is just going to offset and give you a longer time horizon to live retirement freely and not have to worry. At 57, I think you're doing great. I would definitely stop worrying and just keep doing what you're doing and let the fall as they may. Now, that doesn't mean take your eye off the prize. Go look at your brokerage

Starting point is 00:30:39 account. Make sure your bridge account is set up well. Make sure it's invested in the right things that we talk about all the time. So you're seeing some of the upside growth that's happening in the markets for the past three, four years. And then keep rocking and rolling. You've got Social Security coming. That's going to offset some things as well. So I would stop worrying. Enjoy life. You've earned it. And you've done a good job getting yourself to this point. I couldn't agree more. I think Donnie is crushing it. You know, you've got $1.25 million here invested across your three different accounts. That money is going to double to $2.5 million by the time you are 64. You do the 4% rule on $2.5 million. That's about $8,500 a month. You add the $3,300 that you're expecting at 64. Now we're talking about over $11,000 a month of sustainable portfolio income plus Social Security. If you can't retire off $11,000, $16,000, $6,000. at 64 years old every single month. I don't know what's wrong with you. That's a great income to have in your 60s. That's awesome. So Donnie, I love your situation here. I would not be worried.

Starting point is 00:31:42 Here's the thing. Okay. Donnie just got laid off because they think that they can replace Donnie's job with an AI agent. Donnie, you've got such great experience working with this stuff. Don't you think that there are dozens of companies out there that would love to have you on their team, assuming that you very AI fluent and you know what agents are and coding and you understand, you know, all the different types of if it's Hermes, if it's Claude Code, if it's OpenClaw, if it's, you know, MCPs, like whatever's going on, like you understand it all, you understand the architecture of it and you understand how to put it all together. Of course you do. You work at IT. You've been doing this your whole career. You're not just asleep at the wheel. So I really would not be that worried knowing that and

Starting point is 00:32:28 assuming that you are fluent. You are excited about using this stuff. And you're trying to to help and provide more value to these businesses that you work at. I think that you are going to be just fine. And let's say you do get laid off. That's okay because you literally have so much money here that's going to grow for you by the time you are 64, 65 years old and want to really, really live off of this portfolio income, that if you do not invest another dime, you don't contribute another dime to any of this, you're going to be just fine. So if you do get laid off and you have to find a job that's paying a lot less. You know, I can't afford to invest anymore.

Starting point is 00:33:04 Like, you know, that's okay. You've got so much money already invested for you. That's going to grow over the next seven, 10, 12, 15 years. You've got, you're in such a great situation, Donnie. So our final question comes from Damien E. Damien says, I've been listening to your show for about a year and I really appreciate all the advice you share. I'm 22.

Starting point is 00:33:23 I just graduated from the University of Texas three weeks ago. And I immediately started a sales manager role for a Fortune 200. company back home in South Texas. I'm currently living with my parents, so I've got very few expenses. My base salary is $73,000 a year, and I just received a $7,500 sign-on bonus. After taxes and a 3% 401k contribution, I will bring home $4,400 a month. So far, I've maxed out my Roth IRA every year since I was 19. That's now grown to $35,000. My Roth is invested into the index funds and ETFs you talk about. I also have about $90,000 in a brokerage account invested primarily in the same funds, along with some individual magnificent seven stocks in a very small crypto allocation.

Starting point is 00:34:04 I also have $2,400 in a high-yield savings and $3,000 in a private market fund through SOFi. I have no debt. If you're in my position, how would you prioritize the next dollar? Would you continue investing aggressively in index funds, build cash for a future home purchase, explore real estate, or something else? Inside my brokerage, I currently have $15,000 invested. into NEO's funds and was considering putting my sign-on bonus there as well. What would you do? I would prioritize the next dollar by trying to figure out how do I move out of my parents' house. You're 22 years old. You make

Starting point is 00:34:35 $73,000 a year. It doesn't sound like you've got student loan debt. I feel like you would have mentioned that. And if you do, I guarantee you between your brokerage account and your sign-on bonus and whatever else, you can probably pay that off pretty easily and pretty quickly. I would move out of my parents' house. I would begin to go flourish and find an apartment in South Texas, wherever, or around there. I don't know if you're going to the office every day. You're working from home. I don't know what that situation is. But I would start to like say, cool. Shout out to mom and dad for like allowing me to be here for a couple months as I got my money together, got my job figured out. I kind of got my foundation built. But my next dollar goes to I'm going to go put a deposit on an apartment first month, last month rent so I can go live on my own, start my life.

Starting point is 00:35:18 I'm in my 20s. I graduated college. I'm ready to go be an adult now. That's what I would do. Now, maybe there's a world where you also put $10,000, $15,000 total into this American Express high-yield savings account. You can take that if you want from your brokerage account and just flip it into that, sell some of those and just put it right into there. You already have the money. I don't think you need to go wait 10 months, four months, six months, whatever. So you're taking your income and putting it there.

Starting point is 00:35:44 I think you already have the money. But yeah, man, that's the first thing I would do is like, cool. How do I get out of mom and dad's house and go start and be an adult? So my only add to this is, yes, build up that high yield savings account, get that to three months of your total bills. But the only different take I'm going to have here is I would open a public.com account because I don't think you have one at this point. I would get a high yield cash account separate from your emergency fund and I would start putting funds in there. And as soon as possible, I would go get this Fannie Mae 5% down mortgage and I would house hack. you're at the perfect age exactly how old I was when I bought my first fourplex I lived in one unit

Starting point is 00:36:27 I rented the other three I got a first time homeowner's mortgage back then I don't know what it was called but right now anyone out there that wants the house hack you can get a fanny may 5% down mortgage and you can buy up to a million three with that and house hack away so you can start building equity in a property but also get out of the parents house and have home ownership through house hacking. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. And I got a good feeling that properties in South Texas are pretty affordable, especially those multifamilies, like duplex, triplex, quadplex, totally agree on that one. And listen, you got the $7,500 sign-on bonus. Just take all of that. Throw it into your, you know, high-gold savings account. Now you got 10 grand. Now you can, you know,

Starting point is 00:37:09 figure out, let's say you stay home for two or three more months. You've got another heck, I don't know, $12,000, $16,000. And that's now first month, last month. month rent and now you've got your whole budget figured out go do the honest budget don't move out of the house until you understand how your budget's going to change right you don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're blindsided by some sort of expense or some sort of utility bill or something that's you know oh my gosh i'm not eating mom and dad's groceries anymore who knew grocery shopping was three hundred dollars a month or whatever it is for me as a person so just make sure you get the budget all figured out but i love roberts take here on wanting to get in the house hacking as soon as

Starting point is 00:37:45 possible and I think you definitely can you found yourself in a really awesome situation you deserve it you've done a great job i'm sure since 19 being so disciplined with your investing and congrats on this awesome rule making 73 000 out of college you are definitely definitely crushing it and we're super super proud of you damien congratulations what a great episode so many in-depth cool questions everyone are figuring it out you got to tell us your age you got to tell us your pain points you got to give us all the goods the information in the questions so we can do our best to bring you and everyone else listening the most value because personal finance is personal. Everyone's situation is different. And that's what we're here for is to help you guys

Starting point is 00:38:26 figure it all out just like we have. And I have for sure over the last three, four decades. And Austin does such a good job with every single week here on the Rich Habits podcast. Everybody, thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of the Rich Habits podcast question and answer edition. DM us on Instagram. Email us at Rich Habits podcast at email.com, join the Rich Habits Network, do whatever you can to get in our ecosystem, get our attention, get rocking with us here. We're so grateful that over 100,000 of you tune in every single week to our show. If you don't mind, we'd really appreciate it. If you consider leaving us a five-star review here on Spotify, on Apple, or just liking this video on YouTube, we are so,

Starting point is 00:39:07 so grateful. Thanks, everyone, and we'll see you tomorrow for a very special episode of the Rich Habits Radar.

Rich Habits Podcast - Q&A: Wedding Planning ($150K), AI Taking Your Job & $1.25M Invested

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