Speaker 1: Hey, hey, Hey, happy Brown Ambition. Wednesday, We are back
Speaker 1: with another show for you. This is Tiffany's last week
Speaker 1: of vacation, which means she will be back this week.
Speaker 1: But once again I am here with one of my
Speaker 1: favorite guests returning to the show. Why don't you go
Speaker 1: ahead and say, hey, the.
Speaker 2: Listeners, how you doing? This? Is Marcus Garrett of Paychecks
Speaker 2: and Balances?
Speaker 1: What you sound nothing like Sandy Smith?
Speaker 2: I should say, one half of Paychecks and Balances.
Speaker 1: One half very humble. Well, Marcus obviously is not Sandy Smith,
Speaker 1: founder of Yes I Am Cheap, who we teased in
Speaker 1: last week's show as being this week's co host. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: Sandy had a medical emergency and she's really taken ill,
Speaker 1: and we just wanted to wish Sandy first and foremost
Speaker 1: a speedy recovery of Sandy. Marcus and I both have
Speaker 1: known her for a while and really respect and admire
Speaker 1: all that she's done and just wish her, you know,
Speaker 1: a safe recovery.
Speaker 2: Same.
Speaker 3: Sandy just put me up on game recently and helped
Speaker 3: me out personally behind the streets in the DM, so
Speaker 3: I appreciate her and wish her well.
Speaker 1: Thanks to you, Marcus, for jumping in. I know it
Speaker 1: was last minute. I emailed you in a frantic you know,
Speaker 1: Hayes this morning like please be on the show. So
Speaker 1: thank you so much for taking the time.
Speaker 2: So good Black actors got to stick together, right.
Speaker 1: So you guys have been in the game, the podcast
Speaker 1: game about as long as we have. We had both
Speaker 1: you and your co host co host Rich on the
Speaker 1: show a few months ago, Battle of the Sexes dun
Speaker 1: Dune done. It was a fun show, it was.
Speaker 2: It was a good time.
Speaker 1: But I'm excited to get to know you a little
Speaker 1: bit better. So first of all, to remind you, guys,
Speaker 1: Marcus Scarett, on top of being one of the co
Speaker 1: hosts of Paychecks and Balances, which is forever in the
Speaker 1: roundups of best personal finance podcasts, is also an author
Speaker 1: author of the book called Debt Free or Die Trying.
Speaker 1: Debt is something that Marcus knows a little bit about,
Speaker 1: having paid off thirty thousand dollars worth of was it
Speaker 1: just credit card debt.
Speaker 3: Mostly credit card dead but broadly consumer did There was
Speaker 3: a car Loan in there with rims of course, because
Speaker 3: I have my taste of flat screen TV. For three
Speaker 3: thousand dollars and then just generally having a good time.
Speaker 1: There's always rooms involved when talking about debt. Exactly, well,
Speaker 1: thirty thousand debt by thirty thousand dollars in debt paid
Speaker 1: off by age thirty, right, that's correct, So pretty impressive,
Speaker 1: And he writes all about it in the book Debt
Speaker 1: Free or Die Trying. And let's just jump right in
Speaker 1: and talk about some of the headlines that are happening today.
Speaker 1: Cool first and foremost. Now, I just read that T Mobile,
Speaker 1: which is a phone company, all of a sudden, wants
Speaker 1: to be a bank. T Mobiles launching a four percent
Speaker 1: yield checking account. Have you heard of us?
Speaker 3: I haven't heard of this, but I have noticed everyone's
Speaker 3: rolling out the banks. Like I think Uber's getting in
Speaker 3: the game. I think they try to sell me a
Speaker 3: credit card. Chase just came out with like Chase Freedom Unlimited,
Speaker 3: but it ain't unlimited, it's just higher APR. Like the
Speaker 3: game is getting a little bit weird out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so like Uber, Yeah, Uber has a credit card.
Speaker 1: And it feels like a lot of companies are wanting
Speaker 1: to launch these like hybrid checking slash savings accounts where
Speaker 1: usually you expect to get a high yield on a
Speaker 1: savings account like an ally or Capital one three sixty,
Speaker 1: like these online banks have these really high yields on savings.
Speaker 1: But now there are these, you know, what they call
Speaker 1: cash management accounts where they want you to put all
Speaker 1: your money in one pot and they give you that
Speaker 1: higher yield. And that seems to be what T Mobile
Speaker 1: is launching with its new T Mobile Money account. But
Speaker 1: like your phone company and your bank, it's kind of
Speaker 1: net to me.
Speaker 2: Can you run that by me? A git? Did you
Speaker 2: say four percent?
Speaker 1: Four percent? Doesn't that get you excited?
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, that does have mob with the beard strokes,
Speaker 3: because and I do not get paid by this company's
Speaker 3: city was trying to lure me with two point four
Speaker 3: six percent, So I mean they might need to go
Speaker 3: back and revisit. So I don't have T Mobile. I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna drop who I have because I'm not really
Speaker 3: happy with them right now. So but yeah, I'm stroking
Speaker 3: a beard right now. I'm stroking a beard.
Speaker 1: Well, don't stroke your beard for very long, like you know,
Speaker 1: your beard deserves better. Because here's the thing. When I
Speaker 1: hear four percent, the first thing I ask is, what
Speaker 1: do you have to do to get that four percent,
Speaker 1: because there is gonna be some fine print, So I
Speaker 1: checked it out for you guys. Is this offer as
Speaker 1: sexy as it sounds? You know, the average apy on
Speaker 1: savings accounts is something like zero point two percent right now,
Speaker 1: you know, so four percent is huge. So the actual
Speaker 1: fine print is this? Okay, it's not, first of all,
Speaker 1: as exciting as it sounds. One, you have to be
Speaker 1: in a qualifying T Mobile wireless plan, which means you
Speaker 1: got to like ditch your wile wireless service and switch
Speaker 1: to T Mobile. Right number One, he's just like they've
Speaker 1: lost a bunch of people, including me. Two, you've got
Speaker 1: to register for something they call vaguely perks with your
Speaker 1: T Mobile ID. I have no idea what those perks are.
Speaker 1: But here's the real kicker. You have to have at
Speaker 1: least two hundred dollars in qualifying deposits and you're checking
Speaker 1: it count each month. And the four percent is only
Speaker 1: applicable to the first three thousand dollars you save once
Speaker 1: you've hit those first three requirements.
Speaker 3: Right, So then what happens after the three thousand is
Speaker 3: it go down to the point two percent that we're
Speaker 3: all used to or what's the These perks sound like scams.
Speaker 2: That's why I'm asking. I'm just kind of.
Speaker 1: Scam because you know, they got the fighting print, they
Speaker 1: covered their bases. It's actually not that bad. It's still
Speaker 1: one percent apy, but you can get that from any
Speaker 1: old bank, Like you don't need to go to T
Speaker 1: Mobiles bank to get that. You can go to ally
Speaker 1: Capital one, three sixty, Synchrony. I mean, there's a lot
Speaker 1: that we talk all the time about online banks that
Speaker 1: offer really competitive ap Wise's stay. So my vote, my
Speaker 1: personal vote, is it's a no for me.
Speaker 2: Dog.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like that average is out. If you
Speaker 3: do hit that three thousand, then that's what within a
Speaker 3: one percent return from there, if you did that for
Speaker 3: the next what I don't know how many months that
Speaker 3: would take the average person, but I just feel like
Speaker 3: the average of that is going to get you down
Speaker 3: to two percent. So then you're back to just sticking
Speaker 3: with your bank and your phone company, assuming you're happy
Speaker 3: with both exactly, because.
Speaker 1: I mean, at the end of the day, like why
Speaker 1: would what's in it for this company to be? You know,
Speaker 1: when banks compete on rates, they usually compete by like
Speaker 1: a fraction of a percent, So it's like, ooh, I'm
Speaker 1: going to raise mine one basis point. Well, I'm going
Speaker 1: to raise mine another half basis point. You know, they
Speaker 1: don't compete like to a factor of two, like you know,
Speaker 1: double what other people are offering, unless there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of quid pro quos. So you're totally right when you
Speaker 1: actually look at the average rate over the you know,
Speaker 1: over a year, you're right on tracks to what you
Speaker 1: could be earning at like a regular you know, high
Speaker 1: yield savings account from an online bank or something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a it's a pass for me too.
Speaker 1: Dug do you have are you one of those? Be
Speaker 1: cause Tiffany is always like on the down low, has
Speaker 1: some big banks in her you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: She's not all at the high yield account. It's hard
Speaker 1: to quit your big bank sometimes. So I'm wondering, like,
Speaker 1: when you choose banks, are you up on like the
Speaker 1: new online savings you know, online brokerage, you know, robo everything,
Speaker 1: or do you still stick with the old guys that
Speaker 1: have the brand names in the history.
Speaker 3: So the other half of the show, Rich Jones is
Speaker 3: better at this and that's his real name. I'm not
Speaker 3: making that up nor name dropping. That's actually his government name.
Speaker 2: He's better at this. I think he has like eight
Speaker 2: accounts or something to that effect. I have. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think it does.
Speaker 3: More better managing his money. So I have two. I'm
Speaker 3: a simple man. I'll go ahead and name drop. So
Speaker 3: I bank with Chase for the day to day direct depositive,
Speaker 3: and like you said, I'm probably getting like point two
Speaker 3: percent return. The thing is, I'm not using it, and
Speaker 3: it's gotten better, you know, the two percent. It used
Speaker 3: to be like you couldn't get a high return anywhere.
Speaker 3: So because interest rates are going up, you can get
Speaker 3: better returns. And so I have, because of that, started
Speaker 3: looking with more interest, uh not no pun, Like I'm
Speaker 3: literally interested. And so I have been looking around ally
Speaker 3: things like that, Like I said that before you told
Speaker 3: me about T mobile, and then I stroked my beard
Speaker 3: and then I stopped stroking. I was looking at city cards,
Speaker 3: and so I am becoming more interested in it. But
Speaker 3: I've been putting all my money either in the stock market,
Speaker 3: and I got in trouble with a financial planner that
Speaker 3: we actually on her show because I don't have an
Speaker 3: emergency fund, and that makes me like a black sheep
Speaker 3: of a literal black sheep, I guess of the personal
Speaker 3: finance community, but it just hasn't been a priority for me.
Speaker 3: I got a fairly secure job. I got fairly secure.
Speaker 3: I've never been laid off pay. I got a significant
Speaker 3: amount in savings. And I'm saying some of this to
Speaker 3: make myself feel better, so I have not gone out
Speaker 3: and explored. And then the other one is a credit union,
Speaker 3: which I have through my car loan at a one
Speaker 3: point nine percent interest rate, and I went to them
Speaker 3: specifically to get that low interest rate.
Speaker 1: Gotta love I love credit unions.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those are my two accounts right.
Speaker 1: Now, except for we all know who's listening to the
Speaker 1: show that Georgia Telco credit Union still has my fifty
Speaker 1: dollars that I had to posit it in college and
Speaker 1: I forgot my password ten years ago and they're just
Speaker 1: holding my money but still study sending me statements like
Speaker 1: on the down low, just sending me statements. The shade
Speaker 1: is real, anyway, So talk to me about this no
Speaker 1: emergency fund thing. I think this is actually a dude thing.
Speaker 1: Because my little brother, I call him little he's twenty
Speaker 1: seven years old. He came to you know. He he
Speaker 1: likes because he knows. He knows I'm in personal finance,
Speaker 1: and so he likes to pretend that he comes to
Speaker 1: me for advice. What he really comes to me for
Speaker 1: is to get my advice and then question it. Like
Speaker 1: when I telled him, you know, oh, you know, save
Speaker 1: your ten percent for retirement, but first, you know, contribute
Speaker 1: to emergency funds. He was like, why why would I
Speaker 1: do that? And he had the same reason as you.
Speaker 1: My job is stable. You know, he's in a sales,
Speaker 1: high commission paying job. He gets these big cash bonuses
Speaker 1: once a quarter, so why, you know, save his little
Speaker 1: five percent for emergency fund when he knows he's going
Speaker 1: to get these windfalls down the line. And I was like, what,
Speaker 1: you don't have to, and I just hung up the phone.
Speaker 1: But I'm curious because for me, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: like I'm a much more, I'm just a saverer. I
Speaker 1: get really nervous if I don't if my emergency fund
Speaker 1: gets low, I like to look at the numbers there
Speaker 1: and feel comfort. I was laid off from my first job,
Speaker 1: so I feel like that had a big impact on
Speaker 1: me too, of that sense of nothing is really in
Speaker 1: your control. When you're working from somewhere else. So tell
Speaker 1: me more.
Speaker 3: Well, I guess it's a three part and I'll try
Speaker 3: to hit it quick, and if we need to go
Speaker 3: in depth in any of them, just let me know.
Speaker 3: So the first part is I think you should save
Speaker 3: as much as you need to feel secure. And I
Speaker 3: have always felt secure, So savings hasn't really been a
Speaker 3: big priority to me lately later in my life. And
Speaker 3: I'll be writing about this on the site I write
Speaker 3: every week, typically on Thursdays, about you know, that's a privilege.
Speaker 3: I think what you're speaking to is a privilege that
Speaker 3: I have right now that I worked towards. So when
Speaker 3: I first came out of college, I made twenty thousand
Speaker 3: dollars a year. I thought I was gonna make six figures,
Speaker 3: but the industry on its ear didn't quite work out
Speaker 3: that way.
Speaker 2: And when I finally.
Speaker 3: Did get more security and I was like, okay, a
Speaker 3: savings account, typically where I would put my emergency fund,
Speaker 3: wasn't a priority for me. However, my I guess there's
Speaker 3: a bucket number two. My priority was investing, and so
Speaker 3: I started putting more of my money at originally ten percent.
Speaker 3: It got as high as eighteen percent, I'm back around
Speaker 3: ten percent.
Speaker 2: For some other things.
Speaker 3: I'm interested right now the stock market, which I funded
Speaker 3: through a four to one K provided by two different employers,
Speaker 3: but at one current employer. And I don't regret that
Speaker 3: because I was able to take advantage of all the
Speaker 3: growth it's been in the stock lately. You know is
Speaker 3: having eighteen twenty percent returns, apparently all these returns that
Speaker 3: millennials will never see again. So I benefited from that,
Speaker 3: and I have a secure amount of money there.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: Mind you, it's difficult access. There's all kind of penalties
Speaker 3: to get to it and things like that. I'm aware
Speaker 3: of that, but I kind of look at it. And
Speaker 3: I talked about this on another show, and I won't
Speaker 3: name Joub because I don't know how that works a year.
Speaker 3: Some people don't like that, But basically what I said was,
Speaker 3: you shul should just be conscious about your spending. A
Speaker 3: lot of people are kind of like zombies, going through
Speaker 3: life unconsciously spending on whatever feels good, instant gratification. I
Speaker 3: want this, I want that. I want to live paycheck
Speaker 3: to paycheck, or I will just get it my next
Speaker 3: commission check. Like it sounds like your brother. That's cool.
Speaker 3: As long as it's a consciousness. It sounds like that's
Speaker 3: a choice that he's made. Bucket number three would be
Speaker 3: you can also do as I say it, not as
Speaker 3: I do. And I typically tell people so, the average
Speaker 3: American right now, and I'm sure you've brought quote these
Speaker 3: stats cannot afford a four hundred dollars emergency. So clearly
Speaker 3: it's about seventy percent can't afford a four hundred dollars
Speaker 3: emurgency without using a credit card or borrowing it from
Speaker 3: a friend, peer payday loan, which I would definitely never do.
Speaker 3: So to me, I hear that, and I say, well,
Speaker 3: you need to start at five hundred dollars. The recommendation
Speaker 3: is typically one thousand dollars or three to six months.
Speaker 3: But when I say that to people who have zero dollars,
Speaker 3: I might as well tell them to go out and
Speaker 3: catch a leprechaun in the streets, because I try to
Speaker 3: make my advice practical, So conscious decision. Bucket number one.
Speaker 3: If you have a secure job and you have secure
Speaker 3: pay and you are doing something responsible with your money,
Speaker 3: typically I recommend ten to twenty percent something responsible. I
Speaker 3: automate everything because I am not naturally responsible with money.
Speaker 3: It's kind of humorous to me that I'm in this space.
Speaker 3: I am not good with money. I'm good with process.
Speaker 3: I'm an auditor by day. I do that for a
Speaker 3: dollar and doing it for fifteen years. I put processes
Speaker 3: in place that make me successful with money.
Speaker 1: I see and you know, like, oh, sorry to interrupt.
Speaker 3: You, No, I would say, then the other two is
Speaker 3: and if that doesn't work for you, are you like
Speaker 3: you said, I think you're more comfortable having that money available.
Speaker 3: So to a person like that, I would say, yeah,
Speaker 3: start with five hundred dollars because that'll cover most emergency expenses.
Speaker 3: Just by that that statistic and study is shown, and
Speaker 3: then work your way up to three to six months
Speaker 3: and then do either what I'm doing, or then start
Speaker 3: looking at greater investment in returns because as we open
Speaker 3: with four percent returns at Team Mobe, especially on three
Speaker 3: thousand dollars, isn't going to get you there. I mean
Speaker 3: typically inflations is between one or two percent. So every
Speaker 3: year you need to find something to either if you
Speaker 3: want to break even, you need to be making two
Speaker 3: percent returns, but if you want to make a profit,
Speaker 3: that's why people start investing in stocks, bonds and other
Speaker 3: secure investments, and then you just got to find what's
Speaker 3: your risk appetite.
Speaker 1: Right and pushing yourself because I feel like what you're
Speaker 1: saying right now is the reason why you know, I'm
Speaker 1: a recession graduate baby, and I feel like that had
Speaker 1: a profound impact on a lot of the people. You're
Speaker 1: not that much older than I were both kind of
Speaker 1: recession era. You know, came up started building wealth in
Speaker 1: our twenties around the time the recession was going on,
Speaker 1: and I think they had a profound impact on me
Speaker 1: and a lot of our peers to the point where,
Speaker 1: you know, you read these studies about millennials being afraid
Speaker 1: to invest in the market because they saw what their
Speaker 1: families went through and what their parents went through losing
Speaker 1: their homes and their four to one K investments and
Speaker 1: all that. But it's really to our detriment, like if
Speaker 1: you're not getting in the market, because look at people
Speaker 1: who left the market after the recession, took their money
Speaker 1: and ran, they actually would the people who who hung
Speaker 1: in there and stayed in the market have made back
Speaker 1: what they've lost and then some and actually came out
Speaker 1: ahead of people who left the market, and you know,
Speaker 1: the market is not It's not just what happens in
Speaker 1: one year. It's what happens over a decade or decades.
Speaker 1: And that's the kind of like I'm a logical person. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm like a risk averse in the sense that like, yes,
Speaker 1: I want to have my little cash fund so I
Speaker 1: can see it and touch it. But I also listened
Speaker 1: to logic, which is the logic of investing in the
Speaker 1: market and looking at how people who have invested have
Speaker 1: done over the years to build wealth and how that
Speaker 1: really is in this country at this time, the best
Speaker 1: way to build wealth, you know, for regular people is
Speaker 1: to get into the market. Somehow, that logic is what
Speaker 1: drives me to stay invested. So I have it just
Speaker 1: takes me more. It's just we both get to the
Speaker 1: same place. But I have to, like, you know, really
Speaker 1: force my brain to get over what my gut in
Speaker 1: my heart is saying, like no, like we don't want
Speaker 1: you know, we're scared. You know, I got to like
Speaker 1: talk myself out of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's interesting to say that. So for context
Speaker 3: for people listening, I'm thirty six and I got a
Speaker 3: job twice during the recession, so I kind of had
Speaker 3: a different takeaway from that, and I was saving the
Speaker 3: whole time that proof well, I mean, I kind of
Speaker 3: go through that, and I'm like, my greater fear. I
Speaker 3: took a different takeaway from the recession. My greater fear
Speaker 3: would be running out of money. So I'd rather take
Speaker 3: chances now while I'm thirty, thirty five, thirty six, and
Speaker 3: I can just work more jobs, because there was a
Speaker 3: point where I was working three jobs to talk about
Speaker 3: that the book, So I'm more geared towards I'll just
Speaker 3: work harder, I'll find something. I'll work six jobs if
Speaker 3: that's what's necessary. But I'd rather be financially secure at
Speaker 3: sixty seven when I want to chill, kick back with
Speaker 3: my cigars and whiskey.
Speaker 2: I'm a maker's mark man.
Speaker 3: I'd rather that sixty seven year old Marcus be secure
Speaker 3: for the sacrifice of thirty six year old Marcus. And
Speaker 3: so if that means thirty six year old Markets, that's
Speaker 3: to go a few years without an emergency fund, So
Speaker 3: sixty seven year old Markets can chill that.
Speaker 2: I'm more comfortable with that reality.
Speaker 1: And it's not like you're out there racking up debt
Speaker 1: to the point where you know, for people who are
Speaker 1: living paycheck to paycheck and then they have credit cards
Speaker 1: that they're just making the minimum payments on, but the
Speaker 1: debt is you know, astronomical, and then like in that situation,
Speaker 1: losing a job really does mean financial ruin because you
Speaker 1: have no way of keeping up with that, you know,
Speaker 1: those debt payments any longer. And that's where people get stuck.
Speaker 1: So as long as you like you talk about budgeting
Speaker 1: and again like being really conscious about your spending so
Speaker 1: that if something were to happen, it wouldn't be like catastrophic,
Speaker 1: you know for your finance, and you have time to
Speaker 1: get another job.
Speaker 3: Yes, And I tell people, not everybody, And you know,
Speaker 3: this is where it starts to get You know, you
Speaker 3: can't make this one size fits all planned for everyone,
Speaker 3: and I don't. That's actually I think what makes the
Speaker 3: show popular is like, this is our experience, this is
Speaker 3: our recommendation, here's our takeaway.
Speaker 2: Apply where it fits, walk if it doesn't. And that
Speaker 2: is that.
Speaker 3: It's not going to work for everyone. But I do
Speaker 3: believe that you can do it all. Now, mind you,
Speaker 3: some of that is my experience, but I did it
Speaker 3: at twenty thousand dollars, and I do it differently at
Speaker 3: where I am in my stage of my life. But
Speaker 3: I just had to automate it. I had to literally
Speaker 3: cut myself out of the process. So I set up
Speaker 3: the credit card payments and I will drop this because
Speaker 3: I still use them. It's bank rad dot com backslash.
Speaker 3: I always get this confused slash backslash. It's the slash
Speaker 3: on the bottom row of the keyboard calculators and I
Speaker 3: use their tools to figure out the exact amount of
Speaker 3: money I had to page month to reach my goal. So,
Speaker 3: for example, at that time, obviously I had a goal
Speaker 3: of paying off thirty thousand dollars in debt. My current
Speaker 3: goal right now is to fund my four to one
Speaker 3: K and then figure out what I'm gonna do next
Speaker 3: to one hundred thousand. And I've written about this as well.
Speaker 3: And the reason I want to do that is because
Speaker 3: I did the analysis. I used investor dot gov for
Speaker 3: this to see if that one hundred thousand, let's say
Speaker 3: I never contributed to it again, I want to get
Speaker 3: there by forty what would happen? And if it had
Speaker 3: an average return about five to seven, but I used
Speaker 3: seven percent, it would grow to six hundred thousand on
Speaker 3: its own, me doing nothing. And so I was like, okay, Marcus,
Speaker 3: thirty six year old, you need to race rally relay
Speaker 3: marathon to one hundred thousand, because then you can kind
Speaker 3: of take your foot off the pedal.
Speaker 1: And to me, to have one hundred thousand saved in
Speaker 1: your four to one k, yeah, I see, gotcha. Not
Speaker 1: like one hundred thousand dollars saved starting from scratch.
Speaker 3: Oh no, no, no, that's my place of security. I'm
Speaker 3: much more secure. And because I look at that, like
Speaker 3: my four one k. Now, mind you, this is my
Speaker 3: current employer. I can take a loan against it at
Speaker 3: a fairly low interest rate. I think last time I
Speaker 3: looked at was like three to four percent. And so
Speaker 3: to me having that six figures growing in the market,
Speaker 3: and I use a target date retirement fund, that gives
Speaker 3: me security, and then I will start to explore other
Speaker 3: things I can do with money my money. But I
Speaker 3: think most people, as I said, I feel like in
Speaker 3: the questions we get, they're just kind of unconscious what
Speaker 3: they're spending. They're intimidated by it, so they're not making
Speaker 3: any decisions. So to your point, they're not making anything
Speaker 3: in a good checking account. They're not making anything at
Speaker 3: a credit union, you're not making anything in the stock market,
Speaker 3: and then they're possibly also spending it all month to month. Now,
Speaker 3: I'm just like that. The no plan is also a plan.
Speaker 3: It's just the worst one to have.
Speaker 1: It's like the self fulfilling prophecy. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: have any money, I don't have enough, I don't know
Speaker 1: enough to save and invest. Well, then you're never going
Speaker 1: to build that wealth that way. I'm one hundred percent behind.
Speaker 1: I started automating my retirement fund before even you really
Speaker 1: what it was when I was twenty four at my
Speaker 1: not my first job, my second job post getting laid off.
Speaker 1: But I finally got it together and it's almost been
Speaker 1: ten years and I have this this now. I like
Speaker 1: you mentioned because I've worked at three different places where
Speaker 1: I've had a four to one k and at at
Speaker 1: a certain point I have one of them separate like
Speaker 1: in a Vanguard now or my first two job four
Speaker 1: to one k's, I combine there and just kind of
Speaker 1: left it. And I'm just like, I have twenty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars extra because I didn't do anything. And when I
Speaker 1: was twenty four, I did a small thing. So if
Speaker 1: you're but even if you're thirty four or forty four, like,
Speaker 1: just start, you know, just start and give yourself the
Speaker 1: time because sixty seven year old starting to save in
Speaker 1: your retirement fund, you don't have as much time as
Speaker 1: you did, you know, in your twenties and thirties to
Speaker 1: bounce back if there are any you know, downturns and stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you said.
Speaker 3: Their recipes to success for most people that I've seen
Speaker 3: is get started and start young, remain sistant, and get.
Speaker 2: Out of your own way one hundred percent. Keep it simple,
Speaker 2: keep it.
Speaker 1: I literally have that on my cubicle at work, is
Speaker 1: keep it simple, stupid, like, just get out of your
Speaker 1: own way. But I gotta, you know, and I find
Speaker 1: that the you know, I'm planning for a family now
Speaker 1: where just bought a house, my risk averseness has gotten
Speaker 1: more acute. It's a lot easier to say I can
Speaker 1: take more risks with my money and be like ninety
Speaker 1: five percent in the stock market with my four to
Speaker 1: one K when I'm like twenty five and now in
Speaker 1: my thirties, I'm wondering is it time to be more conservative?
Speaker 1: And I'm you know, I'm having different conversations now, so
Speaker 1: you know it changes with every decade. I feel like
Speaker 1: ta change. We're going to take a quick break, be
Speaker 1: right back with Marcus Garrett from Pigchecks and Balances. He's
Speaker 1: going to help me answer some of your questions and
Speaker 1: our read your mailbag. All right, we're back with my guests,
Speaker 1: Marcus Garrett of Paychecks and Balances, and I am combing
Speaker 1: the mailbox again. You guys can send us your questions
Speaker 1: at Brandambision Podcast at gmail dot com or hit up
Speaker 1: Brandnambition podcast dot com and click to ask us anything
Speaker 1: tab if you want to send your questions as well.
Speaker 1: Love hearing from our listeners. Let's see what we got.
Speaker 1: I love when you guys have some fun aliases and
Speaker 1: you don't want your real names out there. That's very safe.
Speaker 1: So first question from listeners, Simone, I have some thoughts
Speaker 1: on this. Simone wants to know is it okay to
Speaker 1: date in the corporate office or should we ask women
Speaker 1: focus on climbing the corporate ladder with tunnel vision? Good question, Simone.
Speaker 1: When it comes to dating and the corporate environment, honestly,
Speaker 1: keep it on the down low until you are like legit.
Speaker 1: Sure if there's a commitment there, because it's not worth
Speaker 1: the drama to have the rumors swirling at the office.
Speaker 1: I have seen a lot of people's reputations be tarnished
Speaker 1: by rumors about relationships happening at the office place. And
Speaker 1: you also want to like protect yourself, right. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you also work in corporate America, Marcus, so
Speaker 1: going to HR when you're you know, in a committed
Speaker 1: relationship to tell them about it is important too, so
Speaker 1: you can protect yourself. You know, let's say this person
Speaker 1: is your superior or could potentially be your superior one day.
Speaker 1: You want to have it on the record that there
Speaker 1: was a relationship in case anything ever goes south.
Speaker 2: I agree.
Speaker 3: I think it's different for each environment, which you know,
Speaker 3: I'm sure she would know better than us. Typically, you're
Speaker 3: right that you do have to report it to HR
Speaker 3: once you are in a relationships. I guess my only
Speaker 3: takeaway would be, I don't think you can limit it
Speaker 3: because we're at work too much. I read some crazy
Speaker 3: study it's like eighty percent of your total life is
Speaker 3: actually spent with your coworkers, not your friends and family.
Speaker 3: Like everyone else tips off like it's like a bell curve,
Speaker 3: except for work where it like plateaus, which makes sense
Speaker 3: because you're there for forty hours after college. And so
Speaker 3: what I would look at it more is, okay, is
Speaker 3: this somebody in a chain of command? So I'm definitely
Speaker 3: kind of finger wag or no, I guess a firm
Speaker 3: note to anybody like either in my chain of command
Speaker 3: above or below me. But you know, if you're on
Speaker 3: another floor, if you're in another building, you're in another division,
Speaker 3: you're on another campus, shout out to my technology workers.
Speaker 2: I mean, hey, you know, hey, it is what it is.
Speaker 2: We're we're all adults.
Speaker 3: But I just think it gets messy when it's like
Speaker 3: you're in the next cubicle.
Speaker 1: Oh no, one hundred percent, and especially if they're like
Speaker 1: the chain of command's important. So if there, if they're
Speaker 1: what do you call it? If they're not your superior,
Speaker 1: your direct report or something, or you know, could one
Speaker 1: but date could one day potentially be reporting to you
Speaker 1: or vice versa, like you report to them. It can
Speaker 1: get really messy, and some companies forbid it. I believe
Speaker 1: there's some rules around, you know, not being able to
Speaker 1: date someone who's your subordinate or you're superior. So you
Speaker 1: want to definitely check the fine print of your employee contract.
Speaker 1: I think, honestly I agree that in the fact that like,
Speaker 1: if you're you know, if you're in marketing and you're
Speaker 1: and you really are interested in this person who's you know,
Speaker 1: uh in it or something like that, that probably isn't
Speaker 1: a big deal. And a lot of people do meet
Speaker 1: their significant others in the workplace. But if you're just
Speaker 1: trying to casually date and there's someone in your immediate
Speaker 1: you know, one arm away or in the same floor
Speaker 1: as you, I think it's just a recipe for awkwardness
Speaker 1: at the very least and at the very worst opportunity
Speaker 1: for the rumor mill to get going, and for you
Speaker 1: to be even potentially treated differently by your colleagues. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, so date with caution. I have you ever,
Speaker 1: I actually have never dated any one at the office.
Speaker 1: I've just seen what happened when I was in my
Speaker 1: early twenties and one of my first jobs, all the
Speaker 1: intro office dating. It was too messy for me. I
Speaker 1: was like, no, thank you, ma'am.
Speaker 3: So first of all, work in a weird industry. So
Speaker 3: I've never dated anyone at my nine to five If
Speaker 3: you will since like age sixteen and maybe that was
Speaker 3: the last time I had to learn my lesson. But
Speaker 3: I will say it's a weird industry because for us,
Speaker 3: and I think a lot of people can relate, it's
Speaker 3: the conferences. So the work is pretty purified and sanctified,
Speaker 3: but like these conferences are like you just got to
Speaker 3: trade carefully, you.
Speaker 1: Know, that's where shit goes down.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's like the conference getaways is
Speaker 3: And like I said, that's why it's interesting how each
Speaker 3: industry has its own culture. But you know, most like
Speaker 3: there's some rumors that are accurate about auditors, mostly introverts,
Speaker 3: mostly keep to ourselves, So that's not socializing. Is it
Speaker 3: really one of our strong suits? So it's really not
Speaker 3: had something I've had to do with Fortunately.
Speaker 1: That's funny. Yeah, an auditor's conference is not where I
Speaker 1: would think there'd be like a lot of romantic entanglements
Speaker 1: and like excitement. So you're safe there.
Speaker 2: You gotta let your hair down some.
Speaker 1: Point, all right, simone. I mean hopefully that was a
Speaker 1: good answer. Again, just just think things through and you know,
Speaker 1: focus on your career. But as far as like I
Speaker 1: think finding a partner who helps you elevate your professional
Speaker 1: and personal life. That's the ouldimate goal. Like finding someone
Speaker 1: who lifts you up in your career and in your
Speaker 1: personal life. That is a recipe for success. So good luck.
Speaker 1: Let's see next question. Oh, I saw a good one.
Speaker 1: Where did it go?
Speaker 3: Where did it go?
Speaker 1: Ah? Here we go from listener Brianna. Brianna says, first,
Speaker 1: I love the podcast. Second, I am a recent graduate
Speaker 1: with a bachelor's of science and psychology. I have plans
Speaker 1: to continue my education within the next one to two years,
Speaker 1: buying a new car along with moving out of my parents' house.
Speaker 1: What advice would you get someone like me making about
Speaker 1: thirty five thousand dollars a year with about twenty five
Speaker 1: thousand dollars a student loan debt? Should I get a
Speaker 1: financial advisor? Or am I just being extra because I
Speaker 1: don't make that much? That's the question from Brianna. Good question.
Speaker 3: I mean my first response is to pump the brakes.
Speaker 3: I heard three pre break pumps in there, so because
Speaker 3: I made those mistakes. So this is one of those
Speaker 3: you know, do as I say, not as I did.
Speaker 2: Type of thing. Is the new car?
Speaker 3: Nope, thirty five thousand, especially with new cars, So I
Speaker 3: mean the average APR if it's new, it's like thirty
Speaker 3: eight thousand right now. I saw recently because I was
Speaker 3: putting a course together, that's twenty eight thousand dollars for
Speaker 3: a car Loans. So that's probably going to eat up
Speaker 3: all your budget right there. So maybe the first takeaway
Speaker 3: is to put a budget together with your thirty five
Speaker 3: thousand dollars and you'll probably have the takeaway that you
Speaker 3: can't afford a car. I just did a write up
Speaker 3: on this, so I know that if you search Google
Speaker 3: car calculator, Google actually now has a car calculator which
Speaker 3: is both weird and cool, and they'll tell you your exact
Speaker 3: monthly payments based on your estimated APR, and so you
Speaker 3: can figure out if that would fit in your budget.
Speaker 3: And then the other two is I moved out, so
Speaker 3: at age twenty two, I.
Speaker 2: Was like, I got to get out of here.
Speaker 3: I need to be free, let a bird fly, And
Speaker 3: then immediately went into additionally and more debt, just because
Speaker 3: in hindsight, I was moderately annoyed with my parents.
Speaker 2: And thus that takes me to number three.
Speaker 3: If I had probably stayed home for like six to
Speaker 3: eight more months put a financial plan together. So I'll
Speaker 3: defer to you if you think she needs a financial planner,
Speaker 3: she can get a cheap one. On my ANSWER's going
Speaker 3: to be yes or a free one. But if I
Speaker 3: just stayed home for like six to eight months instead
Speaker 3: of that seven year journey to get out of debt,
Speaker 3: I probably could have had a really focused plan to
Speaker 3: get out of debt because seventy percent of your expenses
Speaker 3: are going to be food, transportation, and housing, with housing
Speaker 3: being the largest cost. So I guess to wrap all
Speaker 3: that up, Pumpy Brakes three times and Tree, I would
Speaker 3: take some time to.
Speaker 2: Reflect over those things.
Speaker 3: Is it worth going in the further deb especially with
Speaker 3: that student loan birding that you're coming out with, or like,
Speaker 3: is there six months where you can at least knock
Speaker 3: one of those things out?
Speaker 1: Listen? I agree with literally literally every single word that
Speaker 1: just came out of your face just now, because first
Speaker 1: of all, Brianna, you have to go back two episodes
Speaker 1: ago and listen to the entire We dedicate an entire
Speaker 1: show to auto loan debt, because that is how infuriating
Speaker 1: I find it that people really put their financial security
Speaker 1: at jeopardy with these crazy expensive cars, and it's new cars,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty thousand dollars cars with you know, double digit,
Speaker 1: double digit interest rates even because people still don't shop
Speaker 1: around for auto loans. So I'm not going to go
Speaker 1: on and on about that. Go check out that episode.
Speaker 1: But no, I totally agree, you know, pump the brakes.
Speaker 1: Why not stay home for the next one to two years.
Speaker 1: You said you were looking to continue your education, you know,
Speaker 1: why not spend those next to you know, next couple
Speaker 1: of years living at home, rent free, hopefully and honestly,
Speaker 1: twenty five thousand dollars a student loan debt is not
Speaker 1: a lot of debt relative to like what the average
Speaker 1: is and what a lot of people are dealing with.
Speaker 1: I feel like, even on thirty five thousand dollars year,
Speaker 1: if you take the money you'd be saving on the
Speaker 1: new car note and you know, the rent for an
Speaker 1: apartment in your area, and just take that out of
Speaker 1: your paycheck and put it toward your debt, I bet
Speaker 1: you could pay that off in a few years one
Speaker 1: hundred percent if you wanted to be aggressive about it,
Speaker 1: and at the very least, you know, save it in
Speaker 1: a savings account if you want to give a really
Speaker 1: good head start for yourself, you know, emergency fund wise,
Speaker 1: or just saving for a down payment on a house
Speaker 1: or something. You know, think about the type of investments
Speaker 1: you can make in your future by taking that time
Speaker 1: to save.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, And I'm gonna hit this one more time,
Speaker 3: just in case I didn't say it right the first time.
Speaker 3: If you Google car loan calculator, that'll bring up Google's calculator.
Speaker 3: And then if you want to run some of those
Speaker 3: analysis for the credit card, and you can just put
Speaker 3: this all and just see most people don't even know
Speaker 3: if they can afford it. What I noticed is people
Speaker 3: go out by the car. They get a few months in,
Speaker 3: they're like, oh, I can't afford this. And so the
Speaker 3: other one that you could use is banker rate, dot
Speaker 3: com slash calculators. So between those two you can literally
Speaker 3: put your entire budget together. And I mean, maybe I'm wrong,
Speaker 3: maybe you can ball out get you the home, maybe
Speaker 3: you live in a casts to live, get you to home,
Speaker 3: to the car, and the student loans. But I'm pretty confident
Speaker 3: that these numbers might shock you when you crunch them.
Speaker 3: So i'd recommend recommend you at least hit those two
Speaker 3: tools one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: But thank you for the question. On the financial advisor front,
Speaker 1: I do feel like you're being a little bit extra like.
Speaker 1: I don't think you need to worry about that level
Speaker 1: of advice just yet. The advice for you is simple
Speaker 1: is keep your expenses low. See if you can stay
Speaker 1: home another one to two years, even if you need
Speaker 1: to leave, you know, get an apartment near near mass
Speaker 1: transit so that you can, you know, stay away from
Speaker 1: buying that new car, or at least, you know, buy
Speaker 1: a used car. Don't buy a new car, you know,
Speaker 1: save money wherever you can. You can get a nice
Speaker 1: little used car for you know, fifteen k maybe less,
Speaker 1: that can be reliable and financial advisor somewhere down the
Speaker 1: line for sure. One of the things that we recommend
Speaker 1: sometime on the show is the xy Planning Network. That's
Speaker 1: actually how I found my financial planner and she was
Speaker 1: helpful to me. But you know, if you're just graduating college,
Speaker 1: the basics is all you need. And if you get stuck,
Speaker 1: literally google it. There's so much good content out there
Speaker 1: that can help you with the first stage is post
Speaker 1: college and it's free.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I say, best of luck, and I hope that
Speaker 3: wasn't too negative. I'm just trying to, you know, give
Speaker 3: some advice and some insights from the things I've learned
Speaker 3: and the mistakes that I've made.
Speaker 1: Don't say sorry. I think it's real talk. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is the advice. The problem is the reason we're
Speaker 1: so passionate about it is because you and I probably
Speaker 1: made the same mistakes or similar mistakes, and you just
Speaker 1: want to help people from doing the same dumb shit
Speaker 1: that you did.
Speaker 3: Right, Well, I don't want to prevent the millennials or
Speaker 3: I guess actually she be zenial.
Speaker 2: I actually don't know what's after me.
Speaker 3: But you know, I also want to you know, the
Speaker 3: balance of fomo and yolo and all the things which
Speaker 3: I'm sure kids don't say anymore, but I don't want
Speaker 3: them to completely miss out. Just maybe go back hash
Speaker 3: those three things out and see if that's really something
Speaker 3: you afford. I don't think you can, but you know,
Speaker 3: if you can prove me wrong, more power to you.
Speaker 1: Listen, used car, Just take it a step back the
Speaker 1: used car. Maybe don't move all the way out of
Speaker 1: the house. Maybe just rent something nearby, like just baby steps,
Speaker 1: and you'll be fine.
Speaker 2: Conscious money decisions all.
Speaker 1: Right, that was fun. Thank you guys for your questions.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: Hit us up Brandabisionpodcast at gmail dot com or go
Speaker 1: to brannibisionpodcast dot com and select ask us anything. All right,
Speaker 1: are you ready to close the show with a boost
Speaker 1: or break?
Speaker 2: Cool?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make you go first as my guest of honor.
Speaker 1: Just put you on the spot with the first booster break.
Speaker 3: So my boost is also a hashtag plug, and I
Speaker 3: realized I could drop two, so I'd like to be
Speaker 3: respectful the show and can hold my plugs for the end.
Speaker 3: I no longer yeah, I no longer work for this organization,
Speaker 3: but I did have a good time with them. So
Speaker 3: I freelance write for go Banking Rates and actually I
Speaker 3: answered a few of these questions. Y'all can find that
Speaker 3: at Paychecks and Balances dot com slash GBR.
Speaker 2: Now you might be wondering.
Speaker 3: Where the heck that's gonna take you, It's gonna route
Speaker 3: you to my article, so feel free to visit that.
Speaker 3: That's my boost, But my other one is I'm actually
Speaker 3: putting a course together that talks about this. And so
Speaker 3: I'm six years removed from the thirty and now I'm
Speaker 3: kind of I read fifteen personal finance and investment books
Speaker 3: which I read and reviewed, and I'm kind of putting
Speaker 3: that in a course that I'm putting together. So it's
Speaker 3: a four week debt free starter course that will be
Speaker 3: out in a national financial literacy month. Our goal is
Speaker 3: a date to be determined, but we have promised that
Speaker 3: it'll come out sometime this month, in April twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: But y'all can follow any updates that are be available
Speaker 3: at Paychecks and Balances dot com slash Debt.
Speaker 2: Free and my break.
Speaker 3: I was thinking about this and I find myself in
Speaker 3: the existential place lately for several reasons, just being in
Speaker 3: my mid thirties, a lot of things going on with work,
Speaker 3: and the post that I'll be writing this week for
Speaker 3: those of you make it way over to the website,
Speaker 3: is just kind of reflecting back on Actually all the
Speaker 3: money I've made in my cutoff was from college to
Speaker 3: thirty six, and so I tried to go out.
Speaker 2: You can get this from the Social Security SSA dot go.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love this little pdf they give you with your
Speaker 1: Social Security benefits statement.
Speaker 3: Well, funny you say that, because I ran into a
Speaker 3: whole bunch of technical difficulties and basically they're like, I
Speaker 3: don't think this is just security number. You know, they
Speaker 3: gave me to fade, they gave me the curve. So
Speaker 3: it took a whole bunch of work. I was a
Speaker 3: little bit I got frustrated. I'm easily frustrated. No, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean they wanted me to send in some extra
Speaker 3: documents to prove who I was. I was like, you
Speaker 3: know what, I ain't got time for this. So I
Speaker 3: went out, got all my resumes, looked at all the
Speaker 3: money that I've made from age twenty two to thirty six,
Speaker 3: and I basically did a reflective analysis on where the
Speaker 3: money's gone, where I wish the money has went. And
Speaker 3: so y'all might find this interesting, especially the leader who
Speaker 3: just wrote in who just graduated college, Because I graduated
Speaker 3: at twenty two. I talk about that made twenty thousand
Speaker 3: dollars that has now grown. I talk about I did
Speaker 3: a Yahoo Finance interview about how I grew my income
Speaker 3: four hundred percent. That's in there, and it's really just
Speaker 3: a reflective piece on where the money's gone, mistakes I've made.
Speaker 3: Kind of one takeaway, for example, is that because of
Speaker 3: the irresponsible choices I made in my twenties, which you know,
Speaker 3: I think twenties are wont to do. I delayed financial
Speaker 3: independence by ten years very easily. And so if I
Speaker 3: had just made some of these decisions are different choices
Speaker 3: that I'm talking about on this particular show and several
Speaker 3: other shows, I'd probably it's like you're like, oh, hereby,
Speaker 3: I'd be balling out of control, out of bought apple stock.
Speaker 3: I'd have had a little bit of Walmart stock.
Speaker 2: You know. Boom, boom boom.
Speaker 3: I's already this, you know nobody, but it didn't cry out.
Speaker 3: It didn't quite work out that way. And so this
Speaker 3: piece will kind of walk you through the last fifteen
Speaker 3: years and where I foresee the next fifteen years.
Speaker 1: And where can they find that? That's in the Paychecks
Speaker 1: and Balances website.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that'll be the most recent post. Excuse me, that'll
Speaker 3: be the most recent post. So actually they just go
Speaker 3: to Paychecks and Balances dot com. They can see both
Speaker 3: our podcasts and our blog. But if they want to
Speaker 3: get directly to the bog, it's Paychecks and Balances dot
Speaker 3: Com slash blog.
Speaker 1: Look at you guys. Even writing on the blog post show,
Speaker 1: you guys make me feel like a lazy podcast host,
Speaker 1: just like, here's the episode, what more do you want
Speaker 1: from me? Here's your links to stuff? Dope, I'll leave.
Speaker 1: I'll put a link obviously to the show and the
Speaker 1: show notes. You guys can check out that post. That's
Speaker 1: a lot though, Man, I've downloaded. If you guys, go
Speaker 1: to SSA dot gov and download your Social Security benefit statement,
Speaker 1: you will literally see from the year you started paying
Speaker 1: taxes on your paycheck. It won't do under the table
Speaker 1: babysitting money money, or you know, working for your uncle's
Speaker 1: you know company in the summer and getting paid under
Speaker 1: the table, but any government check that you've gotten or
Speaker 1: government approof chech you've gotten, it'll it'll appear there and
Speaker 1: it will show you what you've earned. And it was
Speaker 1: a big wake up call, the unpacking of like where
Speaker 1: did that money go? I don't know if I'm quite
Speaker 1: ready for that kind of soul searching yet, but that's
Speaker 1: a good no, I mean, it's it's good to reflect
Speaker 1: and to see what you would have been differently, and
Speaker 1: then at least celebrate some of the positives, which is
Speaker 1: that you have any savings at all, which puts you
Speaker 1: well ahead of the nation honestly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was and I don't want a hashtag spoiler,
Speaker 3: but there was a lot of takeaways, a lot of
Speaker 3: lessons learn, and like I said, they put me in
Speaker 3: a reflective place. I did it for a National Financial
Speaker 3: Literacy Month and really a listener question. So I do
Speaker 3: presentations that you're out and I think you might have
Speaker 3: seen this picture. I think we follow each other on Instagram.
Speaker 3: But I did a presentation for Minti's and I like
Speaker 3: to talk about it. I like to, you know, set
Speaker 3: the bar high. So I was like, the first millions
Speaker 3: the hardest, you know, that perks them up. You know,
Speaker 3: they set up in their sheets, you know, I quote
Speaker 3: Drake and everything like that, try to be relevant. And
Speaker 3: I can't to this detail if it was a genuine
Speaker 3: comment or I got trolled. This person leans on the
Speaker 3: trolling side. They've been trolling a number of different comments
Speaker 3: and they're like, man, you ain't got no million, And
Speaker 3: so I was like, well actually, and so I went
Speaker 3: back and did this analysis and just wanted to talk
Speaker 3: about it. And you're right, it's it's pretty intimidating to
Speaker 3: see all the tax dollars ihould say government reported money
Speaker 3: that has come and gone, and then Uncle Sam has
Speaker 3: got his hands on. So I hope people like it
Speaker 3: as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll check that out. Okay, my boost. Because we're
Speaker 1: talking about investing and we get this question. We've actually
Speaker 1: gotten a few questions about this, which is, how do I,
Speaker 1: when I'm choosing investments, how do I pick companies that
Speaker 1: are doing good for the environment or just doing good
Speaker 1: for the world in general. So there's this movement of
Speaker 1: socially conscious investing which is growing. So your robo advisor
Speaker 1: tools that are more you know, more modern, like Betterment
Speaker 1: Wealth Front, they tend to have portfolios where you can
Speaker 1: choose that have these types of investments, and you can
Speaker 1: choose like eco conscious, you know, portfolio that has companies
Speaker 1: that pass certain metrics or certain guidelines for being considered
Speaker 1: an eco conscious company and all kinds of stuff. So
Speaker 1: what I thought was cool is I just read that
Speaker 1: SMP five hundred is now putting out a social social
Speaker 1: conscious index fund to kind of fall underneath the umbrella
Speaker 1: of its really popular SMP five hundred index fund, which
Speaker 1: real quick definition is index funds are think of it
Speaker 1: as taking like a buffet, like going to the buffet,
Speaker 1: but all the food is different companies, and you get
Speaker 1: to have a little piece of each company versus having
Speaker 1: to choose just one. And an index fund lets you
Speaker 1: kind of broadly expose yourself to a bunch of different
Speaker 1: companies versus a few different companies, and that just balances
Speaker 1: out your risk. And honestly, again and again, the S
Speaker 1: and P following these index funds and investing in index
Speaker 1: funds has proven to often beat people who are like
Speaker 1: actively choosing individual stocks and stuff like that. So I
Speaker 1: personally am an index fund investor. I always have been,
Speaker 1: and like I said, it's been working out fine for me.
Speaker 1: So I was looking at this and I thought it
Speaker 1: sounded really interesting, and I have you know, I have
Speaker 1: like an era on the side where I've invested one
Speaker 1: hundred percent in an S and P five hundred index fund,
Speaker 1: and I was just thinking, Okay, this is easy because
Speaker 1: with this fund they have done the work. Vanguard's done
Speaker 1: the work for you and selected companies that they've deemed
Speaker 1: to fit a certain profile of like a socially conscious company.
Speaker 1: And I can feel a little bit better. And what
Speaker 1: that means is like you may not be like when
Speaker 1: you get these the downside of index funds rather is
Speaker 1: that you know, you could be investing in like gun companies,
Speaker 1: like companies that you know don't pay their workers well,
Speaker 1: companies that are maybe backed by people or politics that
Speaker 1: you may not support yourself. And it's kind of hard
Speaker 1: to see what's actually wrapped up in this big index fund.
Speaker 1: So when you can actually, you know, choose a fund
Speaker 1: that has been vetted for you and meets these social
Speaker 1: conscious parameters, it gives you a little bit of peace
Speaker 1: of mind, at least for me to know that I'm
Speaker 1: investing in companies that are doing some good in the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for what it's worth, I use a different but
Speaker 3: index fund as well, so minds of target date index fund.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I'm being a proponent as well, and I
Speaker 3: plan to keep it in there. Like I said, until
Speaker 3: I reached that one hundred thousand dollars goal and then
Speaker 3: to your point, And that's kind of what I was
Speaker 3: trying to get at earlier. I feel like once you
Speaker 3: reach whatever your security point is, you can start to
Speaker 3: make different investment choices or maybe take greater risk or
Speaker 3: maybe more conservative risks, whatever the case may be. But I,
Speaker 3: as we said earlier, you got to get started somewhere,
Speaker 3: and these are safe for not completely risk free, but
Speaker 3: save for low risk investment strategies.
Speaker 1: I was just double checking because of what you said
Speaker 1: about one hundred k between the two four to one
Speaker 1: case that I have. I'm finally at that one hundred
Speaker 1: K mark for my retirement savings. So you're saying I'm
Speaker 1: an ad two hundred grand any decade.
Speaker 2: That's actually exactly what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm just going to stop. Then I'm done.
Speaker 3: I feel like those are all the appropriate questions to ask,
Speaker 3: because in some ways you can say it's never enough,
Speaker 3: but once you've reached whatever your goal may be, which
Speaker 3: is a personal decision, like you said, is it fifty five?
Speaker 3: Is it sixty seven? I read something and I'm a
Speaker 3: butcher this, but it's like some analysis where they were
Speaker 3: saying the difference between retiring at sixty seven and seventy two,
Speaker 3: it could be one hundreds of dollars a month on
Speaker 3: how much you need to get as a return because
Speaker 3: you're not depending on those funds for a longer period
Speaker 3: of time in retirement, Whereas if you're going to try
Speaker 3: to reach let's say, fire financial independence, retire early and
Speaker 3: most of those people are striving for thirty or forty
Speaker 3: Those people are living on like fifty percent or forty
Speaker 3: percent of their income in the present, So they can
Speaker 3: you know, fund a retirement for sixty seventy years, whereas
Speaker 3: you just have to fund a retirement for ten twenty years.
Speaker 3: That that's a completely different math, that different analysis, different
Speaker 3: funding goal. But like I said, most people just aren't
Speaker 3: even asking those questions, let alone answering them.
Speaker 1: I have my skepticism about those fire people. But we
Speaker 1: can get to that note show and just a quick correction,
Speaker 1: and so it's S and P dow jone indicase. I
Speaker 1: think I said Vanguard before, but that's where the new
Speaker 1: It's an environmental, social and governance version of the S
Speaker 1: and P five hundred index. So I'll put a link
Speaker 1: to that CNBC story. And again, Marcus and I are
Speaker 1: lovely people with backgrounds, you know, obviously in personal finance.
Speaker 1: But what are not we Wait, that doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: What are we not investment advisors or financial planners? So
Speaker 1: if you guys, you know, want to take our advice,
Speaker 1: that's fine, but just remember talking to us is like
Speaker 1: talking to your brother, your sister, You know, take it
Speaker 1: with a grain of salt, and of course consult a
Speaker 1: personal finance expert or financial planner if you want advice
Speaker 1: that's really applicable to your day to day finances.
Speaker 2: Agreed, don't come for us.
Speaker 1: In either words, Hi, this was so much fun. Thank
Speaker 1: you for making this happen Marcus, couldn't have done the
Speaker 1: show without.
Speaker 2: You today, of course, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again to Sandy feel better soon. We're thinking
Speaker 1: of you.
Speaker 2: Please do get Willson and.
Speaker 1: Next week Tiffany is back. Were back with a regular
Speaker 1: schedule programming with my co host with the most Tiffany, Alice.
Speaker 1: So we'll see you guys next week.