164: How to Build Wealth on $60K, $100K, & $250K Incomes

Hey everyone and welcome back to the Rich Habits Podcast, a top 10 business podcast on Spotify, brought to you by public.com. By the end of this episode, you'll understand how to build wealth no matter if your household income is $60,000, $100,000 or even $250,000 per year. My name is Austin Hanquets and I'm joined by my co-host Robert Croke. Robert is a seasoned entrepreneur with lifetime revenues of over 300 million and I'm a multi-millionaire and my late 20s with a background in finance and economics. As the show name might suggest every episode, we talk about rich habits as they relate to business, finance and mindset. So Robert, what are we specifically talking about in today's episode? In this week's episode of the Rich Habits Podcast, we're talking about the belief that quietly destroys more financial futures than almost anything else. I'll start investing when I make more money. We hear it constantly. It's $60,000. People think six figures will solve everything. At $100,000, people are shocked how it doesn't feel much different and even at $250,000, some of the highest earners in the country are still living paycheck to paycheck. So today, we're going to prove that with real numbers, what wealth building actually looks like at each stage from $60,000, $100,000 and even $250,000 annual household incomes. Robert, before we dive in, though, I think it's really important that we anchor this conversation with a stat that should motivate everyone listening right now, regardless of where they're starting. No matter what your income level is, this stat should get you excited. A 2025 survey found that Americans consider a net worth of about $2.3 million to be wealthy and $839,000 of a net worth to be financially comfortable. Those numbers, the good news here, again, is that that's all attainable on just that $60,000 salary. They are also completely out of reach on a $250,000 salary because it doesn't matter exactly how much you make $6,000, $250,000 a year if you are not being intentional in managing your money, how you should. Like we say all the time, it's not what you make, it's what you keep. And if you make $250,000 and spend $275,000, you're going backwards. While someone who makes $60,000 and only spends $50,000 is making more progress every single year than you, despite making a lot less money. And that's why so many teachers, engineers and accountants become millionaires over time. Teachers are literally the third most common job held by millionaires in America. And teachers annual salaries are $72,000 a year. And one third of millionaires in America never made a six figure salary. So let that sink in. It's so important to understand. It's all about the processes and the saving rate. So Robert, let's now walk people through how to build wealth on $60,000, how to build wealth on $100,000, and how to build wealth on $250,000 salaries. Kicking things off with the $60,000 salary because that is where a lot of the wealth-building journeys actually begin. It's where I began. I started making, I think it was $62,500 per year by first year out of college. It is also where the most common mistake happens. That mistake is waiting, waiting until your income goes up, waiting until your debt goes down, waiting until life feels a little less tight, waiting until you have kids, waiting until you get the bonus, waiting until you buy the house, waiting in general is the mistake people make here at that $60,000 year range. Because the problem with waiting is that the most powerful wealth-building tool available to anyone, no matter their salary, is time. And every year that you wait to take action costs you more than the income you've been waiting to earn. So the foundation at this income level isn't about picking the right investments or timing things and making sure that oh no, I'll start investing after this is where I'll start doing this or I gotta get the house first, gotta have the kids, gotta go into that big nice vacation or I gotta get the bonus. Do not wait. It's about building the financial structure that makes everything else possible. So when your income inevitably rises, your wealth-building explodes. That is so powerful to me because over the last 35 years of doing everything I do and helping people along the way and now in the rich habits network and throughout our ecosystem. So many people are always waiting on the sidelines because they think they need massive amounts of income and money to get started and it's so, so wrong. So if you find yourself getting started at $60,000, step one is that emergency fund we're always talking about. Three to six months of essential expenses, sitting in a high-yield savings account, good to go and ready because without an emergency fund, every unexpected expense becomes debt or caching in on your investments and debt at high interest rates is the single most efficient way to undo every bit of financial progress you're making currently. Remember, it takes several months to save that emergency fund, not a few, so don't panic. Sometimes it might take you eight to 12 months, but you'll get there if you stay consistent. And once you've done that, the next priority while you're in this 60,000-year income range is paying off that high interest debt. Credit cards, personal loans, anything above seven or eight percent interest rate, you've got to pay it off. By paying off that 22 percent interest rate, credit card is equivalent to a guaranteed 22 percent return on your money. There is no investment in the planet that's going to guarantee you 22 percent like that. So before you start talking about brokerage accounts or real estate or whatever cool, fun, sexy thing is think about paying off that high interest debt. Yeah, probably one of the best things we've said over the years on the podcast is you can't out-invest high interest debt. And in this episode, that's why we're covering this because I see people all the time that have all this credit card debt over here at 25 or 30 percent, but they're over here investing in Bitcoin or VOO or the things we want them to invest in. Gotta get this out of the way first. So now that you have your emergency fund up and running and you're not drowning in credit card debt, think about our phrase match beats Roth beats taxable. Because every dollar your employer matches to your 401k contribution is a 100 percent instant return on investment before your money even touches the market. So passing that up is one of the most expensive financial decisions a person can make and a lot of people at this income level are making it because they feel they can't afford to contribute anything. In almost every case, they can't afford not to. Yeah, Robert, the US personal savings rate in 2025 or so was sitting around 4 percent. The recommended rate for building long-term wealth is between 15 and 20 percent. That gap is massive and closing in on it even just partially by contributing up to the match in your 401k and also toward your Roth IRA. Even if it means you're only getting up to let's call it 6, 8, 10 percent total invested against your annual $60,000 salary, that will put you despite it not being the 15 or 20 percent that you hear online, that 6, 8, 10 percent is going to put you dramatically ahead of most Americans. The people who build real wealth with modest incomes are the ones who are completely indifferent to how their financial choices look to other people. They live below their means before they earn more money in their careers and even after they earn more money, they continue to live below their means. They invest the margin. There's also a moment at $60,000 where the honest conversation is about income growth, not just expense management because if you cut everything cutable, you're capturing the full 401k match, you have your emergency fund, you're contributing to your Roth IRA and you're still finding it nearly impossible to build an margin. That is a signal to focus your energy on increasing income. We say this a lot where you either have an income problem, a spending problem or both and at this $60,000 range, it might not be a spending problem. You just need to increase your income, a second job, maybe it's a skill that pays higher, a side hustle, whatever that may be at some income levels, optimization only goes so far and you have to grow that top line to have less stress and less of a tighter margin. Now Robert, let's pretend someone grew that top line to 100,000. I'm sure there's a ton of people listening right now who's household incomes here are $100,000 or more. So let's talk about how to build wealth on this salary. And Robert, I'd also argue this six figure salary, the hundred, hundred, ten, hundred, twenty, or this range is the most complicated psychologically because in your brain, you're thinking, listen man, I made it. I'm at six figures. I've arrived. And for a lot of people, it genuinely is a meaningful milestone. I remember making $108,000 one year and I was like, let's go dude, I did it. I made over a hundred grand. But a recent survey found that 83% of adults earning at least $100,000 have a retirement savings plan. But what that statistic doesn't share is how much money is in that retirement savings plan. Having a plan and executing a plan are two very different things. Yeah, this episode really strikes home for me because I remember in my 20s telling myself every day if I can just get to a hundred thousand dollars a year, I am set. And I cross that threshold and I was like, all right, if I could just get to 150,000, I'm going to be rich every step of the way if you can continue to level up your lifestyle. It just seems so unattainable to get ahead. And that's why this episode is so important. And to be honest, the brutal truth about $100,000 in income is that it's comfortable. But comfortable and wealthy are not the same thing. At this income level, you can afford a nicer apartment, a newer car, better restaurants, more travel. And most people take all of those upgrades at once. And that's lifestyle creep. And in my opinion, it's the biggest killer of wealth at this income level. Because your income went up, your fixed expenses followed immediately, and your savings rate barely moved. That's right. The people who break out of the zone are the ones who make one specific decision when their income rises. They keep to their fixed expenses stable. And they route the difference toward wealth building assets and activities. The target at $100,000 is again, that savings rate of 10, 15, 20%. And on the surface, sounds pretty aggressive. Whoa, guys, you want me to invest $15,000, $20,000 per year? The national average is only 4%. How am I going to achieve that? You're right. It's definitely aggressive. But it's what's actually going to move the needle over that 10, 20, 30, 40 year period of time for your wealth building. And at $100,000, you have real tools available to you right now that were not that impactful at $60,000. For example, match, beach Roth, beach taxable. It's really useful here. Up to the match with your 401K. Max out your Roth IRA at $7,500. Back to 401K contributions, assuming you have autonomy on those investments, and you're not just getting thrown into some cookie cutter, target date fund, but you can choose the index funds you want to be invested into. And if not, that's fine. Go take that money that you would have used to max out that 401K, put it in a taxable brokerage account on public.com, and get those index funds in ETFs we talk about. You can really turbocharge your investing here at this $100,000 range that you could not have done only at $60,000. Also Austin, tax strategies also become meaningfully more important at $100,000 in a way that it wasn't at $60,000. And at this income level, you're likely in a 22 to 24% federal tax bracket. And the decisions you make about pre-tax versus post-tax contributions about deductions, how you hold investments, those decisions have real dollar consequences. And one framework I love for this is when income increases, put at least half of that increase towards wealth building before you do any upgrades to your lifestyle. I want to say that again, as your income increases, take half of it, invest it towards your future before you level up your lifestyle, because it's so, so important, because every time you make more, you spend more, you're never going to get ahead. You still get to enjoy the raise, but you get to build something durable with it at the same time. And the upgrade can come after the investments are already set up and running in building towards your future. Speaking of investing, Robert, this episode of the Rich Habits podcast is brought to you by public.com, the investing platform for those who take investing seriously. They get the raise, and they put half of it on public. Because on public, you can build a multi-asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, cryptocurrency, and now generated assets, which allow you to turn any idea you might have into an investable index using artificial intelligence. Yeah, I love all these new tools with public, because it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high-free cash flow to some of my conductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one-of-a-kind index, and even backtests against the S&P 500, all would just a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs, but with infinite possibilities, they're completely customizable and they're based on your thesis, not someone else's. So go to public.com/richhabits and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com/richhabits. Paid for by public investing, full disclosure in the podcast description. So now let's wrap up the episode, Robert, with how to build wealth on a $250,000 household income. Because at this income level, this is where all conventional wisdom completely breaks down. We've seen this in the stats. What is it? 40% of people making a quarter million a year living paycheck to paycheck. Like this is very important, you guys listen up. Because I know a lot of you are in this range. I would argue probably a third quarter, third of people listening to this podcast episode, their household income is 200, 250, 300, 350. So like, y'all need to take notes right now. At this income level, options, flexibility, it's all there. But in terms of practicality, a lot of us starts to break down. These high earners, they're being documented, 40%. They're still living paycheck to paycheck and it's more common than you guys might think. So Robert, let's walk through how people can start building wealth at $250,000 a year household income salaries. Yeah, there's actually a number of high earning professionals. Let's talk about the doctors, the lawyers, the senior executives who have massive incomes and almost no net worth. Their income rises dramatically, but lifestyle rises to match it immediately. Taxes take a substantial cut because there's no tax planning. And the remaining money goes towards status, the house, the cars, the private schools, the country clubs, all the fancy dinners. And a $250,000 income can evaporate just completely as a $60,000 income. If the structure and discipline isn't there, this is the most important thing. I don't care how much you're making. You have to have the structure and the discipline to build wealth and become financially free. So the first thing from my perspective to think about when you're at this income level is the tax burden. Because your tax burden, when you make $250, $250, $350, whatever, if you're above $250, taxes are no longer like, "Oh yeah, I do my taxes." It's like, no, you need to do tax planning, right? There's real, we're talking thousands, if not tens, of thousands of dollars, that you could be optimizing for. Between federal income tax, state income tax, payroll tax, a $250,000 earner might net somewhere between 165 and 185, depending on their situation. That is still a lot of money, but it's meaningfully less than the gross number that they signed on there. Salary, high, I'll make $250, they got that in their brain now, but now they only take home one, 70 or whatever, right? So you gotta make sure you keep that in mind. It's a lot of high earners, they fail to mentally account for that gap when they're making these lifestyle commitments for the $1100 BMW lease or the $4800 mortgage. So at this income level, tax strategy is just not optional. For example, my yearly income is much higher than $250,000 a year. So I take tax strategy very seriously. I work with bunch of professionals and we identify together about six, seven things that I should be doing differently every single year that's gonna put roughly $200,000 back in my pocket in the coming year of 2026 that would have gone to the IRS if I didn't have these strategies and the team to help me figure it out. There are real strategies to consider, and at $250,000 a year in income or more, you shouldn't be relying on turbo tax or even chat GPT to do your annual returns, get a professional, spend the time and get ahead of it so you can really optimize your money because we always say it's not what you make, it's what you keep. And also, real estate enters the conversation at $250,000 a year in a way that it doesn't at lower income levels because now you have the capital for down payments and the income to be able to absorb carry costs and other associated fees and cash flowing real estate. Properties that generate income after expenses is one of the most effective wealth building vehicles at these income levels because it combines appreciation with cash flow while also offering meaningful tax advantages through depreciation. And this is something that I've been doing for decades and it is so, so important. And I actually talked to a lot of people in the Rich Habits network about this that are high earners that earn that $250,000 or more and they don't have any strategies. They're not thinking about the benefits of real estate. So please, for everyone listening at every step of the way today, make sure you understand, utilize the tools that are in front of you and have these strategies in place. - Another one to consider, Robert, is estate planning. A estate planning starts to matter a lot at this income level. If your net worth is growing and you are now inching closer if not above millionaire status and you've got dependents, you've got assets and multiple accounts, different structures, you need to have a will, you need to have a trust, you need to have beneficiaries, you need to have at minimum at least one conversation with an estate planning attorney. Go pay the two or $3,000 you need to have all this figured out because at the end of the day, it will save so much. It's responsible stewardship of what you are building and the people who do this work early are the ones whose families actually get to benefit from wealth that was created. That is how generational wealth gets passed on in generation after generation after generation. Last thing I wanna address here, Robert, is something that doesn't really get set enough at this $250,000 income level. That's the accountability gap and I would argue, I fell for this, Robert, I'm sure fell for this, a lot of people listening right now because at 60,000, 70,000, 80,000, the margin for error is small and it's small enough that your budget tends to keep itself in place. I clearly only have $800 a month for groceries. I clearly only have this much for transportation, whatever insurance right myself on. If I spend more than that, it hurts. I see it, it's really tight, right? At $60,000, you're not really bumping around too much, but at 250, 300, 350, right? There's enough slack in your budget that if you start making bad habits, those bad habits do not show up in your financial planning and could hide for years before they become visible. You could overspend, you can under-save, you can neglect tax strategy for a really long time at this income level because you feel comfortable right up until you do. The discipline required to build wealth at $250,000 a year of annual income is arguably higher than the discipline needed to build wealth at $60,000 a year because the temptations are bigger and the feedback loop on your mistakes is slower. Something I do, and if you are at this income level, I highly recommend doing the same thing, track every dollar you spend. It doesn't mean it has to be in the perfect column or category, I'm not saying, oh no, you went over your budget, I'm not saying to judge yourself on your spending, I'm just saying to track your spending because what I, and I'm sure Robert and many other people listening right now they're like, wait a second, I just made all of this money. Where did it go? I only invested X amount of dollars last year and I paid X amount in taxes that I really spend the difference, right? Like, please, if you are making 180, 200, 253, 50, you're up there in annual household income, you need more discipline than if you are only making 60, 70, 80,000 because the margin for error, you get a little wishy-washy and the bad habits don't present themselves fast enough. - Yeah, and I just wanna click back again. If you are making 50, 60, 75,000 dollars a year and you're not there yet, that is not a death sentence. It just means you have to have the practices and the strategies and all of the things we're covering today in the playbook, in your tool shed because you wanna make sure you're doing it right 'cause your income's gonna keep growing, but if you get all of these habits and structures in place early, you're gonna do so much better because Austin is 100% correct. People that make a lot of money many times don't have the structures in place and that's why they live paycheck to paycheck and also people that don't make a lot of money get it backwards. They think, well, rich people have all this money, they don't have to budget and actually it's the opposite. Most wealthy people that I know are very strict with their money. They budget everything, they watch every dollar, every dollar as a job, yet the people that aren't making a ton of money, they just spend their money, however they feel like and wonder why they're not getting ahead. So make sure on both ends of this spectrum, you understand the strategies and discipline are probably the most important 'cause you can always grow your income, but it doesn't mean you can always get those structures in place if you don't start early. So that's the big takeaway for me. And here's what ties all three of these income levels together. The number on your paycheck is not the primary variable. At every level, the people who build wealth are the ones who spend less than they earn, invest the difference consistently and make intentional decisions about where their money goes before lifestyle creep fills the gap. Remember that the average American considers $2.3 million wealthy. And that number is reachable on a consistent savings and investment discipline, even starting at $60,000, assuming time and compound growth do their work. And it's also completely escapeable on $250,000 if the income goes to status instead of assets. Income is not destiny, behavior is. And that's why the name of this podcast is Rich Habits. That's right. That is right. Mike drop, let's go. So Robert, let's now jump to the Q&A section of this episode. As a reminder for everyone listening, if you have a question to ask us on the show, DM us on Instagram at Rich Habits Podcast or email us at [email protected]. I think all of today's questions come from Instagram. So she just a little DM on Instagram, follow us on Instagram, right? We're always doing fun stuff over there. So our first question comes from Angela on Instagram. Angela says, hi, here is my question. I saw Invesco QQQ doing massive advertising during the March madness, 2026 college basketball. I hear you talk about this ETF often. And if they're spending massive money on advertising, is it still a low expense ratio ETF compared to alternatives with the same objective? It's kind of counterintuitive. Thank you so much. What a good question. Yeah. So like, it's kind of funny, Robert. You know, you see QQQ in these commercials all the time. I see them for college basketball, college football. I mean, I see them all the time. Now, the core of your question, Angela, came about the expense ratio. Austin, Robert, what is an expense ratio? An expense ratio is the management fee that investors pay to the issuer of the ETF for investing our money. All ETFs have expense ratios and they range dramatically. For example, you can get an expense ratio that's like literally 0.015% right? Like literally so small or you can get an expense ratio that's 1.5%. They can range dramatically. QQQ has an expense ratio of 0.18%. Arguably, that's a pretty good expense ratio. So let's put this in perspective, Robert. For every $1 million that someone has invested into QQQ, every single year you are paying 0.18% on that money to the issuer, investment, for having your money invested. That is $1800 per year paid to invest for investing in QQQ. I've seen other NASDAQ 100 ETFs like QQQM, which is arguably a little bit cheaper, but you're still paying $1,500 per year, per $1 million invested. VOO, you're paying about $300 per year, but you're now investing in the S&P and not the NASDAQ. But at the end of the day, again, if the expense ratio is around 0.2% or less, I generally think that is a pretty affordable expense ratio. 'Cause again, they've got expenses. Now their expenses are commercials on college basketball, but their expenses nonetheless, there's no free lunch and investing. So I'm okay to spend a little bit of money to ensure that I'm investing in the best benchmarks, using the most reputable ETFs with liquidity and good things of that nature. But Robert, what's your take on this question? - I love the question and it doesn't bother me a bit because QQQ, I think everyone watching this podcast or listening should own QQQ as part of their core satellite portfolio. We say that about VOO as well, because we want to make sure that we have these big funds, these ETFs like QQQ, in your portfolio at all times, especially as you're working towards your retirement, because we just think that they're just really great and they're very affordable to own. So I don't think there's any worry here that they did a bunch of advertising at the NCAA because the expense ratio has not changed in a very, very long time, and it's very affordable to own. And you normally are beating a lot of the benchmarks. I forget what it was the other day, but it was something like 85% of professional money managers don't beat the returns of VOO and QQQ yearly, over a 10, 20, 30 year period. So just keep that in mind, but I love the question. - Well, yeah, Robert, I just looked at the annualized historical returns, 'cause I agree, I think people should be invested in the NASDAQ 100 via QQQ or QQQM. And over the last 20 years, QQQ, if you reinvest the dividends, has annualized 15.2%, which means if you put $10,000 into QQQ 20 years ago, it's now worth about 170,000 without adding any more money to it, right? It's just 17Xs, essentially, right, over 20 years. So I agree, I think everyone should be invested. I got a ton of money in QQQ. I think the NASDAQ 100's a great mechanism for building wealth over a long period of time, 'cause tech is cool, and tech is gonna continue to do what tech does, and that is go up into the right. Now, before we jump to our next question, gotta give a shout out to NEO's investments. NEO offers ETFs that seek high levels of monthly income with a keen focus on tax efficiency, while providing core portfolio exposure across equities, fixed income, real estate, cryptocurrency, and cash alternatives like T-Bills. Their ETFs may be especially interesting for investors looking to generate tax-efficient monthly income inside of their investment portfolios. Their funds may serve as a compelling income-focused alternative or complement to many of the investments already in many investor portfolios. And if you're looking to add passive income-focused ETFs to your portfolio, consider learning more about NEO's ETFs at neospuns.com, and as with all investments, investors should carefully consider their investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of NEO's exchange-traded funds before investing. To obtain a prospectus containing this and other important information, please visit neospuns.com, and please read the prospectus carefully before you invest. An investment in NEO's ETFs does involve risk, including possible loss of principle, and there is no guarantee that the NEO's ETFs will make monthly distributions, and the amounts may fluctuate from month to month. And cryptocurrency is relatively new, and the market has its own specific risks. NEO's ETFs are distributed by four-side fund services, LLC. And they also have their own NASDAQ high-income ETF, QQI, so go check that one out. Our next question, comes from DB on Instagram. DB says, "Hi, Robert Austin. I freaking love your podcast with like nine different O's." Thank you DB. We're glad you love the pod. DB says AI has made so many changes to my financial situation and although I'm still far from where I wish I was, I'm better than I was 10 months ago and I've got your podcast to thank for it. I want to get your opinion. I'm married, I'm 38 years old, with two daughters. One is attending college next fall, the other is still an elementary school. I decided to go back to school to get my bachelor's degree in finance. Since I already have industry experience with the intentions of getting better financial opportunities in a higher paycheck, I still have one and a half years to go until I graduate. All the money for school is coming through fast-fuck and with AI knowing that a finance degree is highly at risk. Do you think it's a good idea to complete my degree or do I just drop out, save the one and a half years of student loans and invest that money instead? Maybe even toward my oldest college tuition. Ooh, Robert, you kicked this one off. I knew you were going to kick this to me. This is a tough one. Part of me thinks, save the money, don't get any further in debt with these loans, even though these F-A-F-S-A loans are lower interest. It's still a lot of money, but the other thing is you're two and a half years in. So maybe there's a world you have the degree. Some companies are going to care. Some finance jobs are still going to be out there, but if you're going to finish this degree, I would really, really focus on what's next in AI, how you can be the best of the best in AI integration into your work, because a lot of entry-level finance jobs are going to be gone, poof cooked in the next two, three, four, five years. And I would hate to see you have all this debt in a pretty degree plaque on your wall that you can't really do much with. So I'm leaning towards finishing because you're so far along, but if you are just getting started in your first year or anyone thinking about it, I would say don't do it. I would change my focus to a job that's going to have 10, 20 years of runway ahead. So that's what I would do, because I'm just a little bit nervous about all this debt coming out of college for a job that's literally not going to exist in two or three years. So that would be my take. Finish the degree, focus on AI, and make sure you're really good at understanding it before you even have the degree, because maybe there's a world you can consult, or maybe you can be a prompt engineer in two years helping people figure out how to invest their money, something like that could work, but that's my take. So I got a degree in finance and economics, as you guys know. And there's really like three things you can do with a finance degree. You can go to Wall Street and be an investment banker, and then do that, do private equity, whatever. You are 99% sure. Not going to do that. You're 38 with two daughters. Like you're not going to go be an investment banker. We're going to 100 hours a week in New York. Then there's the other side where you can go do corporate development, mergers, acquisitions, financial planning, and analysis. That's the kind of stuff that I did out of college. And then there's even a different side of it where you could do financial planning and the sense of like, you know, be a financial planner, wealth management, insurance, stuff like that. I would argue that the immediate money is what stuff that I did. I was doing mergers, acquisitions at a college, financial planning, and analysis, corporate development, stuff like that. You could go do that stuff, probably make 65, 85, 120,000 working at a fortune, 1000 company in the United States. I would argue you need experience. Before you do that, you mentioned you have some industry experience. I don't know what that experience is. Maybe there's a world where you can have some sort of summer internship this summer at a company that is local to you and your family. And you are able to apply your finance degree in a way that allows you to analyze income statements and cash flow statements and make financial planning and analysis decisions, right? FP&A is what it is. So maybe there's a world you can do that. But again, I don't think those jobs to what Robert said are going to be around for another five or 10 years. Like, I've seen artificial intelligence model out in Excel. What would have taken me hours and it doesn't in 10 minutes because it's what Claude can do, right? Like that stuff is nuts. And I think that's where the industry is going. On the flip side, maybe you're really into wealth management and financial planning and, you know, things of that nature. I think you have to go be a certified financial planner, which is I think a master's degree. If I'm not mistaken, if you really want to get into that, if not, maybe you've just jumped right in. Take the SIE exam, Series 7, Series 63. And you can start doing financial planning. Maybe you can work at a financial planning firm. Maybe that's what you're really into, right? There's a lot of different, I wish you gave us more than like, I have industry experience and finance. It's like, what does that mean? You know, mortgage, like, I don't know. But like, there's, there's a ton of different routes you can go here. I hope DB that when you took on this opportunity to go back to school, get your bachelors and finance that it was with a clear path that your employers said, hey, listen, DB, we want to make you a VP. We want to make you a director. We want to like get you that. But you can't do it until you have this bachelor's degree because you're just a high school graduate. We want you to have that bachelors and finance before you take over this department or before you have direct reports, whatever it might be, right? So I'm hoping what you can do is take that back to this degree, go back to your employer and say, listen, I grind it for the last four years and I got it. Give me that promotion. And hopefully that's all this turns into. But if you've got to figure out something beyond that, you got to start looking now. Need to start getting that experience now because again, three, five, seven, 10 years from now, those FPNA jobs and Excel and all that stuff. Like it's, it's going to be automated very, very, very easily by AI and they're not going to need you. Amazing takeaway Austin. I just want to clarify, you don't need a master's degree to become a certified financial planner, a CFP, but you do need a master's if you want to be covered in personal financial planning. Just a small distinction, but I wanted to make sure all of our listeners knew that. Yeah, great call out. I did not know that. I did have a friend though that was a CFP and choose like getting our masters in something. But regardless, appreciate the call out. That's super important to keep in mind. Yeah, we just looked it up and three years of experience, get you the CFP designation, don't need a master's degree. So I am corrected. Thank you, Robert. Great question though from DB. Let's now jump to our final question from D, another D name. Here we go. Once the anonymous says, hey, call me D. D says, high Austin and Robert, if you air the question, just call me D. I'm 42. I found your podcast a year ago up until then I was a Bitcoin maximalist, never investing in stocks, but I would buy Bitcoin like a madman. I was able to stack 72% of a Bitcoin. That's awesome. Good for you. It was a mix between IBIT and cold storage. So when I found your podcast, I made sure to stop doing that and go build my base. Now that I've been dollar cost averaging into the S&P and a few thematic ETFs and Bitcoin every time I get paid, I've got my base built on feeling good. Here's my question. Should I back off the Bitcoin? Should I sell any Bitcoin and reallocate it? Maybe I stopped DCAing for a while. Personally, I'm really proud of what I've been able to accomplish, but I'm starting to question if my money could be better invested elsewhere. Thank you for your time and thank you for your podcast. It's extremely valuable and I love sharing your show. D, thanks for sharing the show. That's awesome. We really appreciate it. Robert, you like Bitcoin? I like Bitcoin, but we have sort of a framework for people to consider when they buy Bitcoin, so I'll let you walk everyone through it. D, I'm so glad you found us and I'm really happy that you're crushing it. You're building the base. I think you're in a really good spot at 42 years old. So here's my take. I love that you have three quarters of a percent of one Bitcoin. Something that I tell everyone on their wealth building strategies is try to get to one Bitcoin. So my answer to you would be I would keep DCAing into Bitcoin to get to that one Bitcoin, especially while we're in this price drawdown. And then I would move away from that and DCA more into the other things you're doing and make sure you're fully diversified. I see you have a few thematic ETFs. That sounds fantastic. You've got the S&P 500, but I want to be clear. I would make sure a big portion of your money is going to the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ 100. Everything else is diversification and I'm okay with the Matic ETFs. I own them, Austin owns them, but I just want to make sure you're not chasing hype and you have a lot of this portfolio management going into the base. So I really like where you're at. I would keep DCAing into the Bitcoin to get to one full Bitcoin. I still believe Bitcoin in the next four or five, six years is going to continue to accelerate up over time. I could be wrong, but I do believe in it. I'm still buying Bitcoin and dollar cost averaging, but I would love to see you get to that one Bitcoin. I think it'd be really cool. Yes. And the framework I was alluding to is we like to tell people to keep their total Bitcoin cryptocurrency portfolio in between the five and 15% range of their portfolio. So, oh my gosh, I'm so conservative, whatever. I just want five percentage points of my portfolio in Bitcoin. That's great. Go do that. It's a little bit. If it goes to zero with this quantum computing stuff, you're not going to lose out on much. It's 5%. If it does really well, like it has done for the last 10, 15 years, congratulations. That 5% is now worth a whole lot more. So if I were new shoes, maybe there's a world where, because again, you probably have much more than 15%. Maybe there's a world where all net new dollar bills start getting deployed in to the S&P, the NASDAQ, the Dow Jones, some of these ETFs, and maybe even blue chip single stocks you're excited about, like Amazon or a Microsoft or a meta or a Google or a Tesla, things of that nature. And as that happens, the percentage of your portfolio invested in Bitcoin naturally decreases over time because you're not adding that new money to it unless it just goes up a ton in value, which would be great because we want Bitcoin to go up. But that's kind of how I'm thinking about it, right? So instead of pouring more money into your Bitcoin, maybe you start to say, "Hey, I've got a lot. This is cool. Net new capital. Maybe it goes elsewhere in the portfolio." And I let the Bitcoin ride the wave do its thing. You're a Bitcoin maximalist. You're excited for it. That's awesome. I'm also excited for Bitcoin. So rock and roll. Appreciate the question, Dee. >> I love, love, love this episode because we want to make sure everyone understands one thing that the fake grooves drive me nuts over when they say, "If you're not making $400,000 a year, don't even bother doing XYZ or you're a loser, don't listen to those people." Some of the wealthiest people in the most percentage of millionaires are retired teachers, engineers, Dennis, lawyers. People that sometimes make $670,000 to $80,000 a year, but they have the right structure, the right mindset, and they lived below their means to be able to retire comfortably. So make sure you understand that. Don't chase hype. Don't listen to them because they don't know the numbers and they don't care about your future like we do here in the Rich Have It's Podcast. >> Everybody, thanks so much for tuning in to this week's episode of The Rich Have It's Podcast. Please consider doing what Dee does and share the episode with your friends. If you know someone, you got a tight knit friend group here and you know your friends making $100,000 or this friend's making $60,000, that friend's making $250, share this episode with them. So they have the tools and resources they need to make the best decisions with their money over a long period of time. Let's put these episodes about giving you all the resources to make educated decisions with your money. We put so much research, time and energy into filming these episodes and we're so grateful that tens of thousands of you come back every single week to listen to the show. You read the newsletter, you're subscribed to the newsletter, you're in the Rich Have It's Network. It is just, we're so, so grateful and please consider sharing this episode with a friend because that is the easiest way that you can say, thank you. Oh, and drop us a five star review. We always appreciate those two. And I want to give a quick shout out before we sign off. We just updated Wall Street favorites dot com. It's 2.0. It's incredible. I wish we had time to share all the crazy stats we've been getting already out of the gate in the last few weeks since we launched. So make sure you go check it out Wall Street favorites dot com. We built it right here. The team inside of the Rich Have It's podcast and Rich Have It's Network. I think it's one of the best stock aggregating help you out tools on the internet right now. So go check it out. Thanks everyone and we'll see you on Thursday. (upbeat music)