---
title: 'The Real Reason Americans Are Broke (It''s Not What You Think)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=5NyglWYIEjo'
video_id: '5NyglWYIEjo'
date: 2026-08-04
duration_sec: 2022
---

# The Real Reason Americans Are Broke (It's Not What You Think)

> Source: [The Real Reason Americans Are Broke (It's Not What You Think)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=5NyglWYIEjo)

## Summary

In this video, financial advisors Brian and Bo from The Money Guy Show discuss the three main reasons why Americans are broke: not knowing basic financial principles, doing things they shouldn't do (like overspending on cars and housing), and not doing things they should do (like budgeting and saving). They provide actionable rules and frameworks to help viewers avoid these pitfalls and build wealth.

### Key Points

- **Three Main Reasons Americans Are Broke** [00:32] — Brian and Bo introduce the three reasons: 1) We don't do what we should do, 2) We do what we shouldn't do, and 3) We don't know what we don't know.
- **Lack of Financial Literacy** [01:25] — Most Americans have never been taught basic financial principles. A study shows that for the last 9 years, financial literacy has stayed at 49-50% low literacy among Americans.
- **Dangers of Debt** [03:26] — Debt, especially student loans, is dangerous. 52.3% of borrowers in school knew nothing or very little about loans when they started college. It's easier to get student loans than a mortgage, leading to massive debt without understanding.
- **Credit Card Misunderstandings** [05:12] — 44% of college students aren't taught about credit cards before signing up. 38% of Americans falsely believe you must carry a balance to build credit. Credit Karma found 2/3 of people in credit card debt are trying to maximize rewards while carrying a balance, which is wrong.
- **Missing Free Money from 401(k)** [06:47] — 34% of employees don't contribute enough to get their employer match, leaving free money on the table. Additionally, 401(k)s are leaky: for every $1 contributed, 40% comes out as premature withdrawal.
- **Keeping Retirement Funds in Cash** [08:32] — Vanguard found that 55% of direct contribution investors stayed in cash for at least 12 months, not investing their retirement savings, which prevents compounding.
- **Overspending on Cars** [12:15] — The average car payment is $772/month, with an average loan term of 69 months and interest rate of 7%. This is on a depreciating asset, which is a bad financial move.
- **Buying Too Much House** [13:55] — The average American spends 33.4% of income on mortgage, crowding out other financial goals. They recommend not being 'house rich, life poor'.
- **High-Interest Debt Burden** [15:10] — 35% of Americans say they're carrying close to or at highest levels of debt. Post-pandemic, debt levels have slingshotted up, moving people away from financial independence.
- **Marketing Industry Encourages Overspending** [16:04] — The global marketing industry is over a trillion dollars, encouraging people to spend more and live beyond their means, working against wealth creation.
- **Debt Payments Eat Up Income** [16:45] — Those with personal debt spend 30% of income on debt payments. Combined with 33% on mortgage, that's over 60% of income gone, leaving little for saving.
- **Saving 15% Can Build Wealth** [17:13] — If instead of 30% on debt, you saved 15% of a median household income ($83,000) over 30 years, you could accumulate over $1.5 million.
- **23/8 Rule for Car Buying** [18:25] — To avoid overspending on cars: put 20% down, finance for no longer than 3 years (36 months), and keep all car payments under 8% of monthly gross income.
- **3/5/25 Rule for Housing** [19:35] — For housing: put down 3-5% on first house, plan to stay for at least 5 years, and keep monthly payment below 25% of income to maintain margin.
- **Treat Debt Like a Chainsaw** [20:42] — Debt can be useful but dangerous. In the financial order of operations, after covering deductibles and getting employer match, focus on paying off high-interest debt.
- **Debt Guidelines by Age** [21:21] — Student loans: don't exceed first-year salary. Car loans: 10% in 20s, 9% in 30s, 8% in 40s. Credit cards: 0% - pay off monthly.
- **Emergency Fund Importance** [22:42] — Having 3-6 months of living expenses in savings prevents desperate decisions like racking up credit card debt when unexpected expenses arise.
- **Total Debt Load Under 35%** [23:09] — Keep total debt load (housing, cars, student loans) below 35% of income to allow for taxes, living expenses, and saving.
- **Not Tracking Spending** [23:51] — Most people have no idea where their money goes. 84% of people who budget say they exceed their budget regularly, showing lack of follow-through.
- **Emergency Reserves in Financial Order** [25:23] — Emergency reserves get two steps in the financial order of operations, emphasizing their importance. 46% of Americans have less than 3 months of expenses saved.
- **Low Savings Rate** [26:32] — The typical American savings rate is under 5%. Those aged 55-64 have an average of $185,000, which at a 4% withdrawal rate yields only $7,400 a year.
- **Make a Plan and Follow Through** [27:24] — Financial success is intentional. Make a plan, be consistent, and start early. Break goals into small steps and take the next step.
- **80% of Personal Finance is Behavioral** [29:53] — 20% is mathematical, but 80% is behavioral. Automate saving and investing to make good habits easier and bad habits harder.
- **Use Resources to Determine Savings Rate** [31:16] — At moneyguy.com/resources, you can find a tool to calculate how much you should save based on your age and retirement goals.

### Conclusion

The video emphasizes that Americans are broke due to a lack of financial education, making poor financial decisions, and failing to take positive actions. By following the provided rules (23/8 for cars, 3/5/25 for housing, and keeping total debt under 35%) and automating savings, viewers can build wealth and avoid the traps of consumption.

## Transcript

prices, or interest rates. They're actually things you have much more >> But, I am so excited because today, we're not just going to show you the three main reasons Americans are broke, but we're also showing you how to make
sure you don't end up on the wrong side of the statistics. >> I'm Brian, he's Bo, and we're financial advisors here to show America there's a better way to do money, and with that, let's dive right in.
>> Yeah, Brian, right now, it's really easy to put all the blame on our finances on factors that are working against us right now. We can think about high inflation, low housing affordability, all the other things going on. And while
all the other things going on. And while those do have an impact on our finances, we think that there's something deeper going on that's likely impacting the >> We're financial advisors. We've been doing this for decades, so we know that
there's more than just the economic stuff that's the problem. >> Yeah, we really think there are sort of three main reasons why a lot of Americans are broke. Number one, we don't do what we should do. Number two,
we do do what we shouldn't do. And number three, we don't know what we >> I I think it's important. Let's go ahead and let's do that backwards. Let's start with we don't know what we don't know. What do we mean by that?
one. There's some stuff, some basic financial principles that we think are necessary for you to understand in order to make wise financial decisions. But, at the end of the day, most Americans or a vast majority of Americans just don't
understand or have never been taught those basic financial principles. actually been tracking how much Americans understand basic core >> Mhm. >> And for the last 9 years, it's stayed at
the exact same level, right there at the 49 to 50% of of people who answered this have low financial literacy among Americans. So, this isn't improving.
>> And it's no surprise that Americans struggle with financial decisions when they've never actually been taught. They've they've not been educated on how to make this, but there are some signs of improvement. There are some things
there are 30 different states that require personal financial literacy in was the case when I was coming through high school. >> Well, also, even if you're taught, we don't know the caliber of that and where
is the actual instruction coming from? And then I even think about what happens in the in the home front. I mean, I think about my own childhood. Look, I had great parents, lots of love, really supportive, but their thoughts on what
created wealth or what head start people who were wealthy had over the people who >> wrong. >> It wasn't until I actually learned how through the noise that they had created. >> And what's so sad is your parents had
that they were great savers, diligent on living on less than they made, but not and do something with it and actually turn it into true life. idea of investing was CDs. It wasn't
learning how money worked that I learned, you know, no, there's something much better like investing in markets and then there's economy. There's lots >> So, there's obviously foundational principles that we don't know, but we
also are not taught and don't really understand the true dangers of debt. And debt can take many forms. I think the one, especially right now that's getting a lot of headlines, are student loans. A lot of 17, 18, 19-year-olds are being
empowered to make gigantic life decisions at a very, very, very young >> Yeah, this one breaks my heart because, you know, education, I have such a warm fuzzies for it because I really do believe education is the ladder that
gets held for you to climb and become the better version of yourself. But then loan debt is getting and cost of education is going up up up, and then you find out that 52.3% of borrowers borrowers currently in
school said they knew nothing or very little about loans when they started college. Well, all these people are getting very dangerously close to six without even knowing what they're getting into. It's wild to think about.
getting into. It's wild to think about. It's harder to borrow money to go buy a home, to go make a huge asset purchase, than it is to go take on student loan. At least if you want to go buy a home, you have to show income verification, or
you have to show that you have a job, you have to show you have assets. When you're a student When you're going to get student loans, often times that's of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of debt. And when I When I was
coming through school, Brian, I remember you could go get a free t-shirt if you signed up, if you could go get These things exist to take advantage of young people without them really understanding what it is they're getting them into.
>> I think you make a key point. It is harder to get underwriting on an appreciating asset than it is just to go sign up for a student loan. And then I'll take you even a step further. Look at what's going on with consumption into
credit cards. You It's obvious Americans have a problem with credit cards is that we're not paying it off in nearly half of college students, that's 44%, aren't taught about credit cards before they even sign up to get that first credit
up, there's a table there, it says, "Hey, come sign up. Come get this. Come do this." Without understanding how dangerous that can be, how swiping and living off of one swipe at a time, and pushing that consumption into the future
can be devastating, cuz it gets worse and worse and worse, and the hole gets >> Well, and then we Here's how the little bit is that because of our lack of education, we know that credit scores
are important. They they impact your property and casualty insurance. They they impact your house purchase, you know, the cars you drive, and so forth. And then this is how bad the education is. 38% of Americans falsely, I want to
repeat, falsely believe that you have to keep a balance month to month to build >> That is false. You want to pay off the credit card every month. Do not make the >> A second study by Credit Karma found that 2/3 of people in credit card debt
>> Hey, hey, no, no, I've got this debt. I know what's going on. I know I've got getting the points and I'm racking up. If you are doing that, if you're trying to maximize rewards and you are carrying
to maximize rewards and you are carrying a balance month over month and paying uh predatory interest rates, you are doing it wrong. You do not understand just how dangerous credit card debt can be.
just don't think we understand how investing works. And and let me let me give a little color to this is that here we are running up debt and we're not even taking advantage of getting our free money from our
reasons when when we came up with the financial order of operations. Beyond highest insurance deductible covered for the catastrophic stuff, the next thing >> that free money. Get your employer match. And yet we find out that 34% of
employees don't contribute enough to get their 401k to even get the free money. >> to say that again. One out of three, so 34% of folks say, "Hey, I don't want free money. I'm going to choose to walk away from it and not
take advantage of it." If you're doing that, you are leaving hundreds, if not thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars on the table by not going out to get there. But not only that, not only are they not getting as much money into
their 401(k)s as possible, 401(k)s are actually leaky. We know that right now, actually leaky. We know that right now, for every $1 contributed to a 401(k), every $1 that goes in, 40% of that comes out as a premature withdrawal, on
enough money into these accounts and growing these accounts to build for our treating them like a piggy bank, where we are pulling those soldiers in our army of dollar bills off of the field early, not letting them actually work
>> that it could be distributions, it could be loans. It's just these things are way too leaky. The other thing I don't like is is that people are actually putting money into these retirement plans, whether it's your 401(k), your IRAs, and
living less than you make and putting the money into the accounts, but they're letting it sit in cash or stable reserves, to the detriment of their army of dollars actually compounding and growing upon itself and becoming the
>> Yeah, the numbers actually substantiate this. Vanguard found that 55% of direct contribution investors stayed in cash for at least 12 months. I mean, they chose to defer the money out of their paycheck into their retirement
account, but they did not get it invested. If you're doing that, you're not actually allowing your dollars to work as hard as they could be. So what do you do it better? Well, the first
yourself. >> Yeah, I mean, on that part that you just There's the funding and then there's the investment. Make sure you're not skipping out on that, but I definitely love the education yourself. This is
This is what the whole Money Guy was built off of is that we saw there was a need in the marketplace. People just didn't understand personal finance, so everyone. >> And then we also think you should
recognize, even though you educate yourself, there are going to be things not familiar with. So, know when to ask for help. Don't assume that you have to go out there and figure out the entire financial world on your own. There are
blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, articles where you can educate yourself, professionals, reach out to providers, reach out to conquer content creators
and say, "Hey, what does this mean? How do I do this? What do I need to know about how this works?" Rather than assuming you know how it works and then situation. >> you know, we kind of this sounds like an
want you to be scared of debt. >> Mhm. >> If you're not chainsaw scared of debt, I think you're using debt wrong. It's because every time you have to go use this financial tool, and it is a tool. I
mortgage, more than likely you're going to do that. >> And there's a chance, even for paying for college, you might have to touch >> Sure. >> And like for me, on my first car, I had
any money and I needed reliable transportation, but you should be scared when you go through that process. >> Hey, Bo. It's almost summer, and people their vacations. >> Yeah, but have you seen all these
>> Yeah, people got some strong feelings. >> They do, Brian, and I got to say, I think they're right. Monarch and Money Guy really is a fantastic partnership. >> You're absolutely right, Bo. I mean, it's really a no-brainer. We love
to our clients for years. And did you know, even Reebie uses it. you who missed it, Monarch is the personal finance app that tracks everything, accounts, investments, saving goals, and spending. Get your
first year of Monarch Core for half off, just $50 with promo code Money Guy. feedback and let us know how we're doing, kind of like how Monarch gives finances. >> And I love that you can ask Monarch's AI
assistant anything about your finances, like how much did I spend on travel last year? Or, should I monetize an ad on YouTube so that I can pay for this year's vacation? >> And you can actually relax on vacation
when you know you can afford it. Look, Monarch really can help you make smarter decisions with your money, and it's a great tool for handling your finances. >> And we have a special discount for Financial Mutants just like you. Use
code moneyguy at monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at >> That's 50% off your first year at monarch.com with code moneyguy. mistakes that are keeping Americans broke. We said the first is we don't
know what we don't know. We just have this lack of information. The second one is a little bit different. We do the very financial things that we shouldn't do. There are things that we should completely avoid or try to avoid, and
yet we go headlong into them. The first one, I think we see this all the time in the society in which we live, we spend way too much money on automobiles. >> Yeah, this is this is this is the ego. I mean, let's face it. How often do we sit
around and think people around us care what car we drive? I mean, and I think this starts cuz maybe there is an ounce of truth and this is why it catches on. cars a lot of times >> a lot of times they get a little credit
and it gives them a little more social credit or walking around campus. But I got to tell you, in adulthood, I just don't know that I think that cars give you that pizzazz that we give it the credit. Meanwhile, here we are, the
average car payment in the United States right now on new cars, $772 story. It's $772 a month, but do you recognize the average loan term for a new car purchase right now is 69 months.
>> Six years. >> The average interest rate on a new car >> The average interest rate on a new car loan is 7%. So, think about paying a 7% loan over 69 months on a depreciable asset. If you're doing that, you are
doing. And oftentimes though, it doesn't just stop with cars, stop with doing that we should not do is we're buying way more housing than we can
>> Yeah, I mean I I think people are are making this decision Look, housing already is complicated. And we've seen post-pandemic it ran up in prices. We're
not minimizing that. We're just saying we want to make sure that you're not house rich, life poor. We want to leave some margin in your life so that you can actually afford to not only live a life, but also to save and invest in your life
>> Yeah, we know right now and again, do not mishear us. We're not minimizing but we do know that right now the average American is putting 33.4%
of their income towards their mortgage. That's a third of their income going towards their mortgage. Well, if you have that much of your income going towards housing, it is really crowding out the other things in your life that
you likely would should be doing like saving for the future, building towards memories and getting to enjoy life today. So, when it comes to buying a home, we're not anti-home ownership, we're not anti-buying, but if you're
that you do it the right way. >> Yeah, and the other thing we're doing too comfortable carrying on high interest debt. >> And and this is one of those things where I think it's um
just because everybody else around you or the the society, the consumption society we live in makes it feel like this is normal, it doesn't mean that the way success is found. And look at this stat. This freaks me out a little
bit. It's 35% of Americans say they're carrying close to or at highest levels >> think, you know, we came out of the pandemic and we saw debt levels decrease thought, "Okay, man, we're turning a corner. Things are getting better.
Things are improving." But now, post-pandemic, we have slingshotted right to the other side of the equation where now people are racking up more debt than they've ever had, a heavier financial burden they've ever had. If
you are doing that, if that's true of your financial situation, I believe that you are moving in the wrong direction, not towards financial independence, but financial independence. >> also, look,
it's it's easy to fall in this because the entire system in a lot of ways is encouraging you to fall into these traps. You realize the global marketing like industry is now over a trillion dollars. So, it is a it is literally a
trillion-dollar empire that's out there trying to get you to spend more, live beyond your means, do the exact opposite of the discipline that's going to create wealth. You just need to be aware of that so you don't let that change or
>> And what's super frightening is that for those that are in personal debt right now, those that report having personal debt on their balance sheet, they're their income on debt payments. I want you to think about the mathematics. We
spending 33% on their mortgage. And then, you think about all the other debt and that represents 30%. You can see that rapidly we are eating up an entire paycheck. Not only are we not saving for the future,
actually often times living beyond our means, borrowing from our future self to pay for today. And we want you to see the contrast cuz if you could just take half of that amount, instead of 30% going towards debt payments, if you
could just save 15% over a working career, you just take the median household income in this country. So, someone making $83,000, a household saving 15% over a 30-year working career, just doing that could
turn that 50% payment into over a million and a half dollars by the time get to financial independence. If all that 15% is doing is going towards debt
payments, you're paying for past financial decisions, not future >> I think it's a stark contrast in the fact that we cut in half. We took the 30 and made it 15, and it was still an over 1 and 1/2 million dollars. So, if you if
you just stood that up and thought about what you just shared, that means the typical person, it's like $3 million is is going to make the banks richer instead of for yourself. Guys, that's
why we say little actions can create big results. So, Bo, how should people think >> actually have some rules to keep you inside the guardrails when it comes to these huge purchases like cars and like homes. We believe there's a better way
to do money. When it comes to cars, we want you to follow 23/8. We want you to put 20% down as a down payment. We want you to finance a car for no longer than 3 years or 36 months. We want you to make sure that all of your car payments,
not just one car payment, but all of your car payments do not exceed 8% of your monthly gross income. If you can do that, if you can stay inside that framework, you're going to prevent yourself from buying more car than you
were this one covered cars, we're about to cover houses. The reason having a framework or a system, it takes out the emotion. Because everything we're about to discuss, the the system already is trying to encourage more consumption.
It's trying to get you to live the best and biggest life on paper, but they trading off. Like I said, you're making the banks wealthy instead of for yourself. So, follow these rules. 23/8 will let you keep yourself going to your
job in a reliable way. It doesn't let your ego start pushing you into bigger and bigger consumption decisions. Same thing can be said about housing. 3/5/25 is going to be your path forward because we look we've been doing this for years
and decades. Actually, decades, over two decades where instead of telling on houses, we are honest with you. We have a a very transparent, non-hippo, you know, hypocrisy pro, you know, way we communicate. We said, "Look, for our
own first houses, we only put down 3 to 5%." So, you too should only have to put down 3 to 5% on your first house. Now, when you upgrade, yes, you you likely should use those proceeds and put down 20%, but 3% to get in the first house,
A-OK. You also be honest with yourself. If you can't be in this house for at least 5 years, you're probably not going to have a long-term enough horizon to absorb the consu, you know, the the friction costs of the closing, the real
you don't need to be doing this unless you can stay in the house for 5 to 7 years. And then, we want you to keep your monthly payment below 25% because, like I said, we don't want you to be house rich, life poor. We want you
to have margin in your life to live your best life. So, when it comes to these big decisions, we have rules for you. We have guidelines or guardrails you can But then, when it comes to all the other debt in your life, whether it be
consumer debt, whether it be student loan debt, whether it be any other kind of debt you might incur, we want you to treat it like a chainsaw. We want you to recognize that debt can be useful, and it can be valuable, it
can be very helpful in certain situations. But, if used carelessly, if used recklessly, it can be unbelievably dangerous. It's why, bro, will you hold up the thing for me? It's why in step three of the financial order of
deductibles covered, after you gotten that free employer money, we want all of your effort going towards knocking out that high-interest debt because we want not working against you. >> And all of you are saying, "Well, what
actually have a great deliverable. If you go to moneyguy.com/resources, go over it for you. We have some columns here, and then you can cross-reference this with your age. But for like student loans, look, we want you to remember our
guidance on student loans is try not to run up more student loan debt than you're going to make your first year out right out of school. But then, if you're in your 20s, we don't want you to exceed 6%. We don't want you to for car
loans. We we ideally, we want you paying cash for cars. But maybe you're broke as college and I needed just reliable transportation. We try to give you grace with understanding that since cars are going to be paid off within 3 years and
transportation, it's okay if you're in your 20s that that car loan's 10% or in your 20s that that car loan's 10% or in your 30s 9% or 40s 8% because we know you need to use your time to start building wealth by going to that job.
building wealth by going to that job. And then, credit cards, 0%. I don't care like, "Hey, you can play some crazy reindeer games, build your wealth through their 0% offers." No, we want you paying off credit cards month to
month carry 0% If you're not paying your credit cards off monthly, you might not be a credit card type person. >> So, how do you prevent yourself from getting into this situation? Well, it it's not all that complicated. If you
have an emergency fund in place, if you have three to six months of living expenses in your savings account to cover you, then when the unknown unknown comes your way, you might not have to go rack up credit card debt. Or when it
comes time to buy an automobile, you can go follow 23/8. The emergency fund is that thing to keep in place that can keep your life out of the ditch when those unknown unknowns come your way? >> And then also, look, we just told you
housing could be 25%, your cars could be 8%, and then we got student loans. A lot these are a lot [snorts] of debts. What's the total?" We'd like you to keep your total debt load below 35% because then that allows you pay your taxes, pay
your debts, but also make sure you have margin to live your life and actually save some money to start building your great big beautiful tomorrow. >> All right, Brian. This is why Americans are staying broke. We don't know what we
don't know. We do the things that we shouldn't do. And then, the third reason why we think Americans are broke right now is that we don't do the things that we should do. When we think about some of the things that we don't do that we
ought to be doing, most people have no idea where their money is going. They they hope it gets them to the next paycheck, not actually understanding >> I actually think I'm glad we closed with this cuz I think it's actually we we
saved the best for the last. Doing what we, you know, we don't do things that are actually going to create change agents in your life. And the fact going, you have to know where you are right now. So, you have to track your
spending. If you haven't, look, nobody likes to budget. I'll just go and tell you, it's not fun. But, if you're not doing those type of behaviors, I think you're just putting yourself out there to the the the industries that are
pushing consumption. And that's why nobody's doing this well, but it's an know how badly, even the people who do budgeting, 84% of them say that they exceed their budget regularly. >> Uh uh you you have to actually do the
action. It's like, "Hey, you know what? I wrote workouts this whole week long." do the workout, it was not viable. So, if you set a budget, "I'm only going to if you set a budget, "I'm only going to spend this much in this category," and
you blow through it, you're not budgeting. That's not what you're do You actually just build a budget and build something you can actually stick to. >> Well, but I Even the people I know 84% are exceeding their budget, but at least
>> They're doing the work. And you know how you get better is by doing something and it gets better. Practice makes you better at the exercise. So, just be part of that solution. And then another thing that's going to keep you safe, it's it's
>> financial order of operations that cash reserves doesn't get one step. It actually gets two steps in the financial order of operations with highest three to six months in your emergency reserves. Don't sleep on this because
this is going to be the margin in your life that keeps you from making desperate decisions. >> Again, why do we say that most Americans should be? We know that right now 40% 46% almost one in two Americans report
having three months of expenses saved for emergencies. And I would argue that for most families, most single income households, most folks with young children, three months of living expenses is probably not enough. I'm
happy that that's there, but that means that there are 50% of people who have either no emergency fund or an underfunded emergency fund. It's the thing that you need to have in place to prevent your financial life from going
>> And then here's another thing we we don't do what we should be doing is we >> You know, you think about building your army of dollar bills so you don't have to work so much with your time cuz what you want to do is have enough money that
you can start buying your time back. Unfortunately, most Americans just not good at saving. If you look at just the typical savings rate of Americans, it's a little under 5%. You know, and I know look, we can hopefully with the
push this thing up over 10%, but needless to say, I think when you look at the stats that the typical American, those between the ages of 55 to 64, are ending up with $185,000.
If you just use a safe withdrawal rate of 4%, that's only $7,400 of 4%, that's only $7,400 a year. Not a month. That's a year. >> So, you can quickly see we're just not you know, understanding this concept of
deferred gratification and discipline and and discovering this early enough. I think most people, unfortunately, figure this out way too late. That's why we want you to start early and do it often so you can live your better life.
>> So, how do you do this better? Well, number one, make a plan and follow through with it. Success, financially, is not an accident. It is a very intentional endeavor, but the earlier you figure it out and the more
consistent you can be, the more intentional you can be, the easier the path is going to be. The longer you wait or the less consistent you are, the harder the path is going to be. So, if you do the hard work today of putting a
through with it, it's going to make life tomorrow easier, no matter where you're to make this as easy as possible. And you notice things are different for a 20-something versus a 40-something. And we recognize
that's why we do so much by age content. And if you're looking for a great starting place, we actually had a recent show come out how to build a financial plan by age. So, if you're 40-something and you don't have any money invested,
we got you covered. If you're young and you got the world by its tail cuz you're in your 20s, we've got you covered. Please go out and check out this content is give and love on you so you can live your best life and not fall into the
trap of consumption like most Americans. >> But, don't make it more complicated than it has to do. Think about the goals that you have, break them down into small, achievable steps, and then get started. Cuz it's not about hitting all the big
goals or achieving all the big steps, it's about taking the next step and the next step. Maybe your goal this month is just to track your spending. Okay, that's great. Okay, next month I'm going to build a budget. Okay, great. Next
stick within my budget in these categories. It's not about doing everything right today, it's about doing a few things better today than I did >> And you know, people learn through repetition, and that's why it's worth
for me to repeat emergency reserves are so important in your financial success so you don't have to make desperate decisions. We actually gave it two steps in the financial order of operations. Guys, if you don't have enough money to
cover your highest insurance deductible, get to work on that. But if you get to and then you get your interest your high interest debt paid off, you got your free money from your employer, let's get you to three to six months of margin. So
once again, if you lost your job or something bad happens, you're not stuck making desperate decisions. >> When it comes to personal finance, we know that 20% of personal finance is mathematical. It's mathematics, it's
knowledge, it's education-based, but 80% of personal finance is behavioral. So if you can do things to prevent yourself from making bad behaviors and encourage yourself to make good behaviors, you're going to set
yourself up for success. That's why another thing that you can do is if you can automate your saving and automate your investing via auto contributions to your 401k, auto contributions to your Roth IRA, auto transfers monthly from
account. If you can do it automatically, pay yourself first, have that money even have a chance to see it, you're going to have a much higher likelihood
term. >> What I like about the automation part of this is that it makes the good habits that much easier. Saving for the future going to be something that your future self will get super excited. I always
talk about that sloppy tears coming down your face bear hug that your future self good habit that much easier. The other thing about automation is it makes the bad habits, if you don't have discipline it seems like if you have money in your
pocket, you spend it. If you can set up an automated savings and investment that much harder. >> And so you may be asking, "Okay, well I guys I want to do this. I'm in. How much should I save?" Well, we actually have a
great deliverable for you. Go out to moneyguy.com/resources. should you save? And all you do is you pick your age uh that you are today and you pick the age that you want to retire or build financial independence and we
will show you what you would need to save of your income today to be able to replace 80% of your income in retirement. I know retirement spending is based on expenses, but if you're a 25-year-old or a 30-year-old right now,
you might not know what your expenses are going to be when you're 65. Let this be your guide. Perhaps you are not as far behind as you thought you were or perhaps you're not quite as far ahead as you thought you were. Go out, download
the deliverable, and let this be your motivation to start building towards the >> Hey, be honest with yourself. I want you to right now put yourself in two camps. If you if you learned something today and you're like, "I could do better." I
moneyguy.com/resources. We just shared how much you should be saving is one of the resources there. Guys, there are literally tons of free resources to help you become better with money so you don't
don't have to come from money. There's definitely a better way to do money, but watching this and go, "This is great. I knew a lot of this, but I am so successful. I've already figured this out, but what I'm struggling with is
is the early part of the journey when it was simple, but I'm now in this place where it seems like things are just so much more complicated. And I it's more of that first category. I just don't know what I don't know anymore. Guys,
for you, too, because that's one of the things this channel started as a platform for education. I wanted people to live their best life and understand realized, you know what? Even though I can do that very well,
you're going to find out you need personalized advice. That your situation you're so successful you don't have the time to do this, or you don't know where make sure your spouse, who's the non-financial person, has a backup plan
if you weren't here to speak for what happens to the money. We're going to leave that porch light on. I'd encourage you, come become a client. We work with clients all across the country, and we really do believe there's a better way
waiting for you. I'm your host, Brian, joined by Mr. Bow. Money Guy team, out.