Our final Star Wars themed episode.

Be your own banker, or the financial concept of "infinite banking," and a few other clever ways people are talking about how to use permanent life insurance while you're still alive.

You've probably seen any of a number of people on social media talking about this idea and using things like an I.U.L. or a Whole Life to do this.

You've also encountered the people and particular guru's that will tell you it's a scam and it's the worst thing out there.

So what is it?

The 30 second version is that you deposit money into a permanent life insurance policy that builds cash value. It grows within the policy tax free. When you want to use your money you take a loan from the insurance company and you pay yourself back.

What they don't tell you, in 30 seconds, is that it takes a high level of sophistication to build the "bank" or the policy well to actually perform in the way it's supposed to.

These work if they're built well and you're committed to savings and building wealth in this way.

Take a look below to learn more about the questions to ask so that you can get a well-built policy.

For the record - Ron loves life insurance!

For your own education, google "BOLI" - Bank Owned Life Insurance

Becoming Your Own Banker by R. Nelson Nash is the classic text on the subject.

What's Up With Money?! Pro Tip: You need to pay yourself back with interest in order to build wealth. Most of us never get this idea.

Questions To Ask Your Life Insurance Agent To Get A Good Policy or To Ask If You Already Have One!

What's Up With Money?! Book Club:

Killing Sacred Cows by Garrett Gunderson

Debt! Oh, no! Run far away!

Debt! Yes, please! Give me as much as possible!

If you have it, you're smart! If you don't have it, you're smart!

What is going on with these competing philosophies on debt?!

If you have spent any time looking into financial information you can probably name the cast of characters on each side of the spectrum. But, it's confusing since they are using the same term "debt" but talking about completely different applications of it.

Debt is a spectrum - from good to bad - not a singular idea. Debt factors include low interest to high interest, large and small debts, how long you have it, collateralized versus no collateral, debt for assets or liabilities.

Understanding these types of things can help you use debt properly and keep you from making bad debt decisions. Debt is a particular game that you can use as a financial tool, like a table saw. It is great at cutting boards, but bad for fingers.

Being mindful about debt can help you move past some of the myths or "sacred cows" we all have been taught or believe.

Myth #1 - All debt is bad because interest is bad.

Remember that you finance everything.

Myth #2 - There is "good debt."

Remember that it is only good or bad when compared to something.

As Ryan says, "Debt is a rainbow of colors."

What's Up With Money?! Book of The Month:

Killing Sacred Cows by Garrett Gunderson

There is one idea where it seems that 1980's financial advice and social media strategies converge... The Emergency Fund (cue ominous music).

It seems like everyone agrees that you should have one, but what is it exactly?

Is it a set amount of cash? Is it a certain number of month's expenses? Is it just the money in savings?

We think it could be any and all of those things, but we want to provide some strategy to this thing called "The Emergency Fund."

For us, the bigger idea is that we need access to capital (money). This could be for an emergency. This could be for an opportunity. This could be to fund a future thing you are hoping or need to do.

Often times, the idea of "emergency" can stunt our financial growth because we do not apply a financial strategy to the money we are saving. It sits still in checking or savings because we need it for the upcoming emergency. This is the default mode of us all!

AN EMERGENCY FUND IS NOT A FINANCIAL STRATEGY.

Long story short, money that sits for too long loses. We want to get your money moving while keeping access to it! That's an emergency fund strategy!

We share one strategy for how to do this so that you can get your money moving and prevent it from sitting still.

What's Up With Money?! Book of The Month:

Killing Sacred Cows by Garrett Gunderson

Occasionally, we have a "secret scene" segment we call, "It Doesn't Make Cents."

Cents. Get it? Money pun that is better written than said.

"It Doesn't Make Cents" is where we explore magical social media strategy videos that we have carefully curated for our enjoyment and yours.

They are magical because there is financial truth in them, but they often seem wild or unfeasible for most of us.

As you know - there are more of these videos than is possible to ever talk about once a week.

So, we jammed a bunch together for a fun episode chatting about a few of the recent ones we have come across.

If you have a favorite - we would love to see it and interact with it.

We also find it to be the fun side of what we do - especially the people that make fun of financial gurus and the magic advice.

"Next time you want to buy a $5 coffee... don't! Use that as a downpayment for a house."

Remember that money is fun! 🤑

What's Up With Money?! Book of the Month:

The Tax Bomb In Your Retirement by Josh Scandlen

Here it is!

We thought we would share our first conversation that we ever recorded. No notes. No plan. Just chatting about Ron's work, "The Future Poor," to see what we had.

Obviously, it was magical and the rest is history.

"The Future Poor" is a simple idea that the sub-50 (those under the age of 50) & the sub-150 (those making less than $150k) are going to retire at or below the poverty level of income in the future - hence, The Future Poor.

This is an idea that Ron has been working on developing over the past several years. It is not only from a financial perspective but an ethical issue for us as a society.

As we have talked about before, it is no longer 1980, but we are still applying the same retirement strategy and it won't work.

The entire situation of retirement income is now entirely on the individual. However, the way it works has left us with not enough saved, not enough time, and not enough margin in our cost of living to get there.

This creates an ethical situation of a large portion of the population being headed to poverty. This has potential to tax our economy in ways that could be rough unless we start doing things different.

What's Up With Money?! Book of the Month:

The Tax Bomb In Your Retirement by Josh Scandlen

Oh the Stock Market...

What are we to make of it?

We are bombarded with all kinds of information, recommendations, Stock Market shows, constant market updates, Robinhood, rates of return, mutual funds, Wall Street Bets, robot investors, stock picking algorithms, options trading - Now, I'm dizzy.

This episode is an intro - a very basic one - on stocks and bonds, but more focuses on a few things to think about before jumping head first and all-in on the Stock Market and any investment game.

Everyone should be in the Stock Market in some way. There are certain things that Stock Market involvement can do for us. Short-term can be high reward with some extra risk. Long-term investing can be more of a steady, safer ride. No matter what - they all involve understanding a bit about 5 important probabilities.

Probability of what you own appreciating or depreciating. Probability of being up when you need your money. Probability of favorable order of your returns. Probability of favorable tax situation. Probability of favorable inflation rate over time.

Not sure we did a good job of convincing Ryan to be in the market, but there will be more episodes to get that done.

What's Up With Money?! Gold Star Tip:

Make sure you ask to see "actual" returns for any investment recommendation. "Average" returns do not tell the investment story the same way and are less realistic when dealing with money!

What's Up With Money?! Book of the Month:

The Tax Bomb In Your Retirement by Josh Scandlen

Thanks for being with us!

Welcome to our first hard hitting, deep dive look at something financially specific - The 401(K) and retirement.

Even as a youngin' you hear adults talk about the goal of life being to get to the end and retire.

This has been the goal of the American middle class. For a time, we were able to do retirement well, exit the work force, and enter leisure - golfing, traveling, and spending half the year in Florida.

...What's the issue with that?

We started moving away from social and corporate ways of taking care of older people to individual methods in an ever changing and growing economy (basically, we have less and it's more expensive).

The impression we got growing up was there was this one account that took care of you. Your money went in and it worked to provide a good life in retirement. That was the idea of the 401(K).

Ronald has been heard saying the 401(K) is one of the worst things that has ever happened, because people thought the 401(K) was meant to provide all their retirement income needs.

If it's supposed to provide for your future income needs - it doesn't quite do the entire job. 401(K)'s do some of the lifting, but they aren't designed for entire income replacement in most cases. But we have the idea that it is supposed to do more!

The 401(K) is like a boat. You'll need to listen to know the analogy.

Things you need to have:

Market & non-market money

Taxable & non-taxable money

59.5 & non-59.5 money

What's Up With Money?! Book Club:

The Tax Bomb In Your Retirement by Josh Scandlen

If what you believed about money turned out to not be true, when would you want to know?

The financial "poles" seem to have become 1980's finance advice or magical social media strategies, and neither seems to work for us.

So, what are we to do? Listen to this podcast? (Of course!)

Jump into this financial conversation with us as we work to make sense of these extremes, relieve money anxiety, and help you out in this complicated world of finance.

We are going to talk financial philosophy, financial particulars, financial questions, and more!

Ryan is a millennial without a retirement account, and Ron is a financial advisor that (oddly) thinks that's okay.

Our hope is to get rich quick and sell out stadiums, but mostly to provide things that are helpful for your financial well-being.

We must "unlearn what we have learned" (Yoda) about money in order to make money fun again.

Money is tough. Money is anxiety provoking. Money feels scarce. Money is weird.

So, let's talk about money, change our relationship with money, and inspire a different money conversation.

Welcome to the prequel phase!

What's Up With Money?! Book of the Month

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

Getting off the financial anxiety ride is one of the most difficult things to do.

Certain times are better than others and sometimes we are off the ride. Yay! And yet, the ride invites us back on with complimentary fast passes.

If you are like us, you may find the alternative to the ride to be even more terrifying than the ride itself. We know the ride. We've memorized the turns and loops. Our body is used to the G-forces. To hit the ejector seat button and go flying through the air is often not an attractive short-term alternative.

Stable ground takes getting used to and can be that thing that allows you to move forward rather than be caught in the continual financial loop that the ride offers.

Think again the "5" and the practical things to jump off the ride:

Shoulds - Grace for you, grace for others

Behind - Start. You are beginning - not behind.

Others - That's them. You are you. What do you want to author?

Knowledge - Learn from many sources. Internet, professionals, etc.

Action - Jump off the ride. Start moving. Make money.

Remember that money has its own "being." It is a partner whether you are single, in a serious relationship or married. Make it a good one - and it can be!

Money can be a wonderful partner that allows for the freedom we want to have in our lives. If you don't tend to it - money can be the awful third wheel that wrecks your fun night out.

With your desire to get off the money anxiety ride and the help of others money can lose its anxious hold on us.

*Disclaimer: We do not recommend "Tom Cruise-ing it" and jumping off moving rollercoasters - that was a metaphor.

What's Up With Money?! Book of the Month:

The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

Do you like roller coasters as much as we do?

Money anxiety is like a roller coaster that we don't ask to get on. It's a dynamic between several factors that get us on, keep us on, and can be the keys to exiting the ride.

The "5"

Shoulds - Things you could have done. Things you should be doing.

Behind - The general feeling that you are not where you need to be.

Others - Family, friends, money gurus, and social media.

Knowledge - I don't know enough about these different things.

Action - Paralyzed. Held up from moving forward.

What do you see in your home growing up? Were there some things you saw your parents do and communicate with you about money?

A lot of things reinforce the entire money anxiety ride in your life.

The money world is a wild foreign language and world that needs a "Duolingo Finance" in order to make sense of it all. What are we to do?

Ignorance versus confusion???

Where do you feel that you are on the spectrum?

Are you drinking an ocean?

Are you afraid that you don't know what you don't know?!

What Up With Money?! Book of the Month: The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

SHOW CORRECTION!!!

They were not Jordan 5's. They were the Jordan 6 Infrared - probably had "The 5" on the mind.