Financial Mutants vs. Average Americans: Wealth-Building Strategies

Manny the mutant builds wealth through disciplined financial decisions, while average Allen falls into common consumption traps.

### Financial Mutants vs. Average Americans: The Power of Small Decisions
* 💡  Financial mutants, like Manny the Mutant, make unique choices that lead to **extraordinary outcomes**, contrasting sharply with the average American's approach to money.
* 💰  In a consumption-driven society, many are pressured to **spend on items that do not enhance happiness**, leading to lifestyle creep and poor financial decisions.
* 🚗  Average Allen, burdened by anxiety over student loans, chooses to **pay them off quickly**, while Manny invests his extra funds, illustrating the **importance of following the financial order of operations**.
* 📉  Both individuals start with the same student loan debt of **$29,400**, but their strategies lead to vastly different financial outcomes after ten years, with Manny accumulating **$55,000 in savings** compared to Allen's **$49,000**.
* 🏡  When it comes to car purchases, the average American has a monthly payment of **$735 for a new car**, while Manny follows the "**238 rule**," resulting in a more **manageable payment and investment strategy that builds wealth over time**.
* 🏠  In the housing market, Average Allen spends **33% of his income** on a $443,000 home, while Manny wisely keeps his housing costs to **25%**, allowing him to **save and invest significantly more**.
* 📈  After 35 years of saving, Allen has $477,000 saved, while Manny's disciplined approach results in **nearly $3.5 million**, showcasing how **small, consistent decisions** can yield **substantial long-term benefits**.
* ⏳  The key takeaway is that the **small decisions made today** can lead to a **dramatically different financial future**, emphasizing the importance of **financial discipline and strategic planning**.

money Guy versus the [Music] world. Brent, I am so excited about this because we know that there is something unique about financial mutants, and we think that the financial mutants are a special breed that are worth highlighting. We want to just show you what it looks like when you go the money guy way instead of going the way of the world. We live in a consumption society, and but it's worse than that. There's actually an entire Industries out there pushing you to spend more and to go after things that actually aren't going to add happiness to your life. And that's one of the things I love that we get to talk about lifestyle creep. We talk about the real things that create wealth. We talk about don't fall into the Trap that you can afford anything you want at $200 a month. You know, if you want a nicer car, just spend out longer. You know, instead of financing it for 3 years, why not Finance it8 years? If you want a nicer house, you can do it without even

worried about paying it back with interest-only loans and all kinds of other gimmicks that we have in this consumption society today. We want to show you those small decisions that in the beginning seem like just little tiny decisions are going to have huge impacts in your future life. Yeah, what's wild is while they seem seemingly insignificant, when you actually begin stacking them on top of each other, when you have one small marginal decision and then another and then another, they become hugely impactful. If you are just one degree off at the beginning of a journey, any journey, specifically your financial journey, by the time you get to your destination, that small one degree can have a huge, huge impact. So we're going to talk about some of those small decisions, one of which right now you can make is to subscribe to the channel so you can stay updated on all the content that we put out there for you to do money better. So B, let's talk about these two people we're going to be covering a

lot today. We have our hero of the story, Manny the mut, Manny the mut for the world. We have average Allen, average Allen versus Manny the mutant. How do they go about making financial decisions? Specifically, we're going to look at four categorical areas about the average American and the decisions they make versus Manny, who follows the financial order of operations, who is a financial mutant. We're going to talk about what they do when it comes to student loans, buying a car, buying a home, and even saving for the future. I was thinking about this all weekend because I knew this show was coming up. I think we've laid this out as ordinary decisions that the average American makes, but I always, I started playing around with the word extraordinary. If you think about extraordinary, it's just extra strapped on the front of ordinary. I think that's what financial meetings are going to do. We're going to give you that little extra, those small decisions you can make that seem like at the time they're just not that much, but

They're going to lead to extraordinary changes in your future life. So, let's jump into the first one that I think a lot of people are facing right now, and a lot of people have faced: it's student loans. It's no surprise that the cost of higher education has increased, and so the proliferation of student loans being present and being a struggle that young people or recent graduates, or even folks who are not so recent graduates, are having to fight with is a reality in today's society. Education's noble, so it breaks my heart that half of recent college graduates actually report experiencing additional anxiety over their student loans. It's hard enough to just think about getting out of the real world, getting a job, starting in your career. Those are all anxiety-inducing things anyway, and when you strap on this huge financial burden along with that, it just makes the journey that much more difficult. Some of the things, you know, just setting the ground rules for how all the decisions today. We want everybody to know if you're trying to figure out what to do with your next

dollar how to make good decisions. We love the financial order of operations. We love thinking about what you can do to maximize your wealth-building journey. But Bo, I'd love for us to go a step further now and kind of talk through what is the average American doing and what do we think Manny the mutant would do differently. So let's assume that both of these individuals graduate with the average amount of student loan debt presently in this country, which just happens to be $29,400. And let's assume that they both have the same interest rate on that student loan debt at 4%. When we think about average Allen, he is one of those 50% of Americans that is stressed about student loan. So he says, I got to do something. I got to get out of this. I've got to knock this out as quickly as possible. But Manny recognizes that there is a better way to do money, that the financial order of operations is a thing that he should follow. And so he decides to follow the foo, so this is

what does Allan put all of his extra margin, so $600 a month total, towards the student loan payoff. He's going to try to pay off the student loan as quickly as he can. Now, Manny does it a little bit differently. Manny says, Okay, I know that I have a minimum student loan payment to pay this off over the course of 10 years, and if I'm going to pay this off in 10 years, my minimum monthly payment is going to be $298. So, I'm going to do that, but instead of using the margin, instead of using that difference to increase my lifestyle, I'm going to take the difference between what Allan is paying off his student loans and what I have, and I'm going to invest that $32 a month. So, one of them is going to pay it off as quickly as possible and then start investing. One of them is going to pay the minimum and invest the whole time. What I think is interesting is from the outside looking in, these two people are exactly the same, meaning that they both

have $600. We're not changing the dollar amounts; it's just the decision of how they're approaching each of these things. Average Allen really is going to be a debt Crusader and say, you know what, this gives me anxiety, I'm going to blow through this as fast as possible. Manny the mutant says once again, pointing back to the financial order of operations, there's a better way to do money, and I'm going to still take that same sum of money that Average Allen's using, but there is a better way to maximize this. So, let's look at the results. Let's see how this plays out. Well, we have Allen who we're starting with, and he starts with a student loan balance of $29,400, and he's paying $600 on that every single month. So, he actually knocks it off in less than half the time required for the student loan. It was a 10-year term, and he gets it paid off in less than five years. And then once he gets that paid off at that 55-month period, he

then begins saving, and he's going to invest that $600 for the future. And as he does that, if we assume that he can earn 8% on average, at the end of the 10 years, he has paid off his student loans, and he has almost $50,000 saved up. Not too bad. Average Allen has done something pretty impressive, but was that the best decision? Let's now talk about Manny the mutant. Let's talk about the one who follows some of the Money Guy Rules. And Manny says, You know what? I recognize that my money can work really, really hard for me. So I'm going to pay off that $29,400 over the 10-year term. I'm just going to make the minimum payment, and with that margin that I'm saving, I'm going to begin investing that. Well, if you just think about what happens by the end of the 10 years, not only has Manny paid off his student loans, but he has $55,000 saved up, about $6,000 more than Allen had accumulated. What I think is

really, really interesting. And this is my favorite part of this illustration. If you just think about Manny building up his dollars, he actually had enough in investments to pay off his outstanding student loan balance at 52 months. Remember, it took Allen 55 months to become debt-free. So, if Manny's goal were to be debt-free, implementing this strategy of letting his dollars work for him actually got him to the position to be debt-free even faster than Allen got there. What I just said, your favorite thing in this slide. Here's something I think that is somewhat of a contrarian take on this slide. A lot of people are going to see Manny ended up with a little over $55,000, but average Allen was just a little over $49,000. And they're going to say, Well, wait a minute, guys. For just under $6,000, you're making slides, and you're making all these. They're about the same. And that, in a lot of ways, I guess, like I said, small decisions lead to big results.

we're talking about a slight small difference that you can barely see. What makes these people different? We're talking about less than $6,000. But if you let that additional money stay invested for the next 30 years, small decision visions become large sums of money. Because check out this difference. If you didn't think little less than $6,000 was a big change, how about the fact that Allen average Allen his money grows to $542,000? And that's great. That's wonderful. It's great. And then this is the problem with the debt Crusaders. They end up okay. I mean because they, you know, paying down debt. It's just that they don't get to maximize or build the opportunity of these small decisions of just allocating resources a little bit better. But man, the mutant gets it. And so his money grows to $604,000. Or that's a $60,000 difference. Do you see how $6,000 quickly becomes $60,000? Because that slight course change, that slight

maximization actually yields tremendous long-term results. Here's what happened. Manny recognized that every dollar he has in his command is incredibly powerful. He knows that every dollar he can deploy to work for him, for his future, can multiply over and over and over again. And if you want to know that as well, you can go out to moneyguy.com resource. You can download our wealth multiplier resource, or you can even play with our wealth multiplier tool, or you can put in your age and put in either how much you're saving or how much you've accumulated, and it will show what your dollars can turn into. And when you begin recognizing that your dollars can be a powerful source in your wealth-building journey, you can also start making financial mutant decisions just like Manny the mutant did. All right, Brian, so we talked about student loans. That's one that a lot of people face. That's something that a lot of people navigate. Let's talk about the next one because I think, again, every American is faced with this decision. I need transportation. How do I think about

buying a car. Yeah, this is, I like to talk about this in terms of this is broke quicksand because you get into this and then you can't get yourself out, and it ends up just suffocating your entire financial life. And for most folks, they're really bad at this. They're really awful at doing this consumption decision well. You have to take control of your financial life because, unfortunately, most people are caught into the emotional of what's going to feel good in this moment. So, they choose temporary happiness, meaning that yes, for the auto industry, has set it up that if I'm willing to finance the car for forever, essentially even roll in negative equity. We'll cover that in a little bit more. I can afford this thing that I perceive will make my life better, will impress my neighbors, but that's temporary happiness 'cause I can go ahead and tell you I've been on this journey before, and I've seen it for other people. The new car smell wears off after just a few months. The payment keeps coming, but

that car gets a little curb rash on all those rims that you have. You start seeing a ding on the side, and before you know it, you're kind of really mad that you got yourself in this pickle of a situation. I don't want you to fall into that temporary trap. I want you to think more Perpetual. If you can think deferred gratification, if you can think discipline like a financial mutant, there is a better way. So, let's talk about how bad the average American is. When you look at the behavior of the typical American, the average monthly car payment right now is $735 a month. There's a lot of people have $1,000. That's disgusting. $735. Unbelievable. And then not only that, when you look at the average long term, it is over 67 months. So, we are borrowing money for cars for over 5 years, almost twice what we like, which is 36 months. That's exactly right. Then when you look at the interest rate, the average interest rate on auto loans right now

7.18%, and when you look at the average loan amount, the amount of money people are borrowing for an automobile, it is over $40,000. This is what the average American is doing. But Brian, it's even a little bit worse than that. Yeah, wait, there's more, because that $40,000 number on new cars unfortunately contains over $5,000 of negative equity, meaning that this—when I talk about Perpetual—these people are making Perpetual car payments, meaning that you go and you make one bad decision with this car, and then you drive it, it depreciates, and then you realize, I don't like this car anymore, but you didn't pay it off. You roll the negative equity, meaning you still owe money on this car, into the next bad decision. You see how you're going deeper and deeper? Remember when I was talking about that this was broke quicksand? This is proof that this is what the typical American is failing on right now. But we believe there's a better way to do money.

and so when it comes to buying cars, obviously cash is king. If you can pay cash for your automobile, that is the best scenario, that's the best outcome. But unfortunately, not everyone is in a situation where they can do that, or you might not be at the stage of your financial journey. Me, I fell into that where paying for cash is a realistic opportunity. So we came up with a solution. We came up with a rule that if you cannot pay cash for your car, if you can follow this rule, it will make sure you don't fall into that average American trap. So let's talk about what 238 is. Remember, this is because cars depreciate rapidly. We want to make sure you put down at least 20% on the vehicle because we know these cars depreciate rapidly, and we want to make sure you pay it off pretty quickly. Also, to keep you from getting big eyes and trying to impress your neighbors, we give you a payoff period of 3 years. This is going to make the payments big enough and

sting enough that you'll actually keep yourself pretty honest on this. And then we don't want your car payment to exceed 8% of your gross income. And remember, this is for affordable transportation to get to your first wealth builder, which is your job. This is not to buy a luxury vehicle. If you start thinking about anything that's European or luxury or has like BMW in the name, I want you thinking pay this thing off same as cash. This is not a 238 purchase. So you may be sitting there thinking, Okay guys, yeah paying cash, that sounds great, but that's not what successful people do. That's not what millionaires do. We actually do an annual survey of our clients and we say, Okay, tell us this: when you go to buy a car, do you finance it or do you pay cash? And when we look at it, millionaires right now, only 35% of them finance cars. That means that the remainder, the other, are paying cash. Said, Okay, well this is a rich person's game. That's just what

wealthy, successful people do. However, we flip the script and we asked this question of our current millionaire clients. Hey, when you started out on your financial journey, when you first began, when you bought your very first car, how'd you pay for it? Of our millionaires, 71% of them said, Hey, in the beginning stages, I had to finance. I had to borrow money. I could not come up with the cash. So, if you find yourself in the situation where you are having to borrow money or are having to finance, it's okay. You're not alone. A lot of people are there today, and a lot of people have been there. But you want to make sure that you have an accurate representation of how to do it the right way, even if you are going to finance. So, let me go ahead and give you a head start on this whole wealth-building journey and how to avoid this quicksand and the case that we've laid out. I want you to go to money.com/resources and look at how much car can I afford. Bo, don't just start test driving.

and going to dealerships. These guys are masterful at the emotional manipulation of telling you because they're going to say, Hey, what do you want your monthly car payments to be? That's the question, CP. So let's go ahead and get out in front of this, go to money.com resources, figure out how much car you can afford, so you're actually on the front end of this versus being manipulated into a bad consumption decision. Okay, so now let's look at our two individuals. Let's look at our case study that we're comparing. We're comparing average Allen and Manny the mutant. Average Allen goes and finances the average American amount of C Deb $40,000, finances a brand new car for $4,634.00, 68 months. So that means that average Allen payment is going to be $735 a month. Manny recognizes that $238 will keep him inside the guard rail, so he finances for 36 months. His monthly payment is $399 a month, which leaves some margin to where while he's paying off his car, he

can still be investing $336 a month. This is the part now hear me out Financial mutants. This is the part where you're going to feel a little different because outside looking in. Allen's going to look like the successful one because he's going to be driving the fancy new car. You're going to be driving the used car that's right around $20,000. From the outside looking in, you have to realize you get joy out of driving a paid-off car and knowing that your wealth sits on your net worth statement. That your money is going to work harder than you can with your back, your brains, and your hand in the future. You, you, you got to work on this but fall because that's why we try to educate you. Because in the temporary moment, it's going to feel better to be Allen but I'm telling you in the long term, watch what this happens. This is what empowers US Financial mutants Allan because he's doing what the average American does. He has no margin for saving and investing.

so he's going to have all of his discretionary capital going towards his automobile. But Manny, after he gets his car paid off in three years, he's going to keep investing. He was already investing some; he's going to begin investing $735 a month. So when we do the progress report, we look at the report card, let's see how this looks after 68 months. Guess what? They both have paid for cars. Allan did pay off the car; it just took him longer. They both have paid for cars, but that's only part of the story. Allan has zero dollars invested. Remember, everything went into that automobile. But Manny, because he was disciplined after the 68 months, because he was saving the whole time, now has almost $43,000 working for him in addition to a paid-off automobile. Do you see how? I mean, this is so interesting to me. Yeah, it's the same sum of money once again, same sum of money. There's nothing different except one looked fancier because he got the new car. The other one

is driving around the used car, and you look at the results of this, and you're like, Yeah, okay, Manny's got $43,000 likely in a Roth IRA CU. That's one of the early steps that you're going to start saving and investing in that tax-free growth Roth IRA. But Allan's got the cool car. But what's interesting when we get 68 months in the future, that brand new car is going to look a lot like Manny's used car. It's going to look like a used car. It's going to have the blemishes and everything else. So let's now see the rest of the story because we already see $433,000 is nothing to just throw away. That is a chunk of money. And then if you put that money to work, it actually has the potential to grow into that $43,000. Letting it grow for another 35 years turns it into $700,000. And by the way, we didn't get crazy with the assumptions here. We used

8% and we could have done $1,000 car payments because there's a lot of people on YouTube or TikTok telling you about their thousand car payments, and they're so proud of it. Guys, literally this one decision was close to seven figures. This is your retirement that you're riding around in. The question you have to ask is when you make these consumption decisions, when you go to buy that car, I want you to actually physically think to yourself, Is this decision I'm making worth 34 of a million dollar? Am I willing to rob my future self of nearly seven figures of wealth so that I can look cool today and drive this fancy car around today? We hope that you will fall into the Manny the mutant camp and not be like average Allen. All right, so BR, we've talked about student loans, and we've talked about automobiles. Now let's talk about what's probably the single most expensive asset that anyone will buy throughout the course of their life. For most people, this is the number one thing that they will spend their

money on, and it's buying a home, yeah, and buying a home. But we came through post-inflation. Housing has gotten very expensive, but here's the good news, and this all my financial mutants already know this. We've always been big on the grace for your first home purchase here at the Money Guy Show. There's been pundits forever that are telling you, Hey, you can't buy a home unless you can put down 20%. Those people have been left behind to the point that they've even had to update their rules because they realize, Yeah, with housing going up as fast as it did, we have to amend our rules. We never had to amend because we knew. We asked all of our financial mutants that are financial advisers and even looked at our own lives, and we realized most people who are even financially minded on their first house put down 3 to 5%. So, that's what we tell you, Financial mutants, is a-okay on that first house. Not only that, that we don't

Say you have to do 15-year mortgages. We're okay with 30-year mortgage. We want you to make sure that you're making wise housing decisions, but the average American's not doing that. The average American right now, the average homeowner, is putting 33 and a half percent of their income towards their mortgage. That means that one-third of their pay is going towards their housing. Well, you can imagine when your housing is sucking away that much of your resources, it does not leave a ton for all of the other areas and goals that you may want to pursue. That's why we do what we do. We take a little flack for the 25% housing expense, but it's so you don't end up with that house-poor life where all your money is going towards housing. And then we've even seen when you get the bigger homes, it's going to have more property taxes, it's going to have more homeowners insurance. We're trying to protect you so that you can actually have margin to

enjoy your life, but also have the margin to save and invest for the future, so you actually own your time that much sooner. And I know that that takes a little bit of discipline, it takes a little bit of sacrifice for a period, but that's why between the 3% down payment and then giving you this guidance, we've tried to give you the best of all the worlds. And that's why if you're not taking advantage of our home buying checklist, go to money.com/resources. We give you all the steps so that you can figure out and run it through the filter of our questions to make sure that this is really what you need at this point in time. And not only do we have the checklist where you can actually make sure, Is this the right time for me to buy a home? Am I thinking through all the things I'm supposed to think through? We actually have a calculator you can use. You can go to moneyguy.com/resources, and you can actually put in your information to see, Okay, how much

home can I afford when it comes to making this huge life decision based on my age, my income, my circumstances. What's the right amount of home, and this single decision can have huge impacts. Let's go back to our case study. Let's think about our two individuals, Brian. We have Average Allen, and we have Manny the Mutant. So, let's assume that Average Allen is going to do exactly what the average American does. So, Average Allen is going to put 3% down on a $443,000 home. Remember, the average American is putting 33% of his income towards his housing. So, 3% down is going to get him in a $442,000 home. Manny, on the other hand, recognizes, Hey, there are some home buying rules that I should follow. There's a checklist I should look at. I want to make sure I keep everything inside the guardrail. So, I go out to money.com resources, I use their affordability calculator, and I determine that I can put 3% down on a $321,000 home. So, when you look at Allen

he's going to have almost a $2800 mortgage. It's $2,783, which represents 33% of his gross income. When you look at Manny the mutant, his mortgage is only going to be about $2,100 to $283, which is 25% of his gross income. Again, we assume they both make the same incomes. We assume they're both $100,000 income households. One is just making the decision to buy a more affordable home. Well, Allan, because so much is going towards his house, he has no margin to save, no margin to invest for retirement. But Manny, recognizing that, I bought an affordable home. I still have an extra $700 a month that I can begin putting towards my future, that I can begin investing. Now you got to figure out, Okay, which one made the better decision? And again, just like when it was the car, you thought, Man, Allan's looking pretty good. He was in the nice fancy car, looking like better than Manny. The same might be true when it comes to housing because

Brian Allan bought the nicer house, and we know that houses are appreciating assets. So, if you buy a more expensive house and that house appreciates, surely Allen's going to end up in a better spot, right? Yeah, I mean, this is the part where debt is such a mirage because in the beginning, it actually lets you look like you're more successful than you actually are. It does look like a bridge towards all your dreams, all your wishes coming available, and that much sooner. But here's what we know: when you make this decision and you're not disciplined, you're not going the financial mutant. Because remember, once again, same dollar amounts are going out. We did not give one more money than the other. It's just the choice, the incremental decision. One spent their money this way, the other spent their money this way. And I think a lot of people, even the person who bought this big house and spent a third of their income towards the house, they're going to feel good, maybe even in the future. Oh yeah, because that

house. If we appreciated it just at traditional appreciation of inflation of 3%, that house that they bought for over $400,000 now 30 years in the future is worth close to $1.1 million. Hot Dog Millionaire right here, net worth millionaire for average Allen at this point. Yeah, but it's all in their house. Yes, it's a paid-for house. It's a millionaire. They are a Millionaire on paper, Manny the mutant. And we're going to be honest, we're going to tell you, Hey, because it was a smaller home, it didn't appreciate. It's just the law of numbers. This is the way math works. It has house is only worth about $800,000. So you're looking at this, an average Allen is feeling pretty smug and feeling really good. Now here's where the difference is. Manny has been letting his army of dollar bills building in the background. So not only does he have a paid-for $800,000 house, but he has slowly but surely been investing that.

$700 a month, and guys, that money is now worth over a million dollars. That's incredible. So then, when you think about their total net worth, when you add, you just take average Allen's value as home. Yes, he's a millionaire, but it's on his house, and you cannot eat the house. When you look at Manny's terminal net worth here, not only does he have an $800,000 house, but when you add that to his million-dollar portfolio, his terminal net worth is almost $1.9 million. That difference, that million-dollar difference by the time that they got to retirement, can be huge when it comes to what their retirement lifestyle actually looks like. Well, you think about it because even though Allen is a millionaire on paper, his net worth statement, if he wants to start eating the house or living off the house, he either has to take off more debt or he has to move and downgrade into a smaller house so he can actually start consuming that equity. That's not a great

decision, and those are all hard decisions 'cause change is hard. Meanwhile, Manny, because he's built up a million, almost a $1.1 million portfolio, it actually perpetually for the rest of his life could generate $43,000 a year of income off the $1.1 million. And then when he passes away, he's still going to be able to pass away $1.1 million of assets to people he loves, plus his million-dollar house 'cause that $800,000 will eventually become a million-dollar house. Guys, this is why we want your money working for you because when it's all just use assets, it's hard to actually get off the labor train where you actually own your time. You want your assets actually working harder than you can. I've said it before for your back, your brain, your hands, but you at some point have to actually start making the behavioral decision of investing to create that automatic millionaire status so your money and your army of dollar bills can do that heavy lift. But all of these decisions

are difficult. They require discipline. That's why one of the three ingredients of wealth creation is discipline. It's something you have to exercise in terms of your consumption behavior. You make a decision to consume one thing instead of another. Well, what the common theme that has been riddled throughout all of these is not only making that consumption decision to buy the less expensive car or let the money work for me or buy the less expensive home. The big thing that has been the difference is that Manny has recognized, Man, if I can get my dollars working for me, if I can put my dollars to work, they can do something pretty powerful. So, the last metric we want to look at with the average American relative to a financial mutant relative to Manny is savings rate. Oh, this one breaks my heart, guys. When I was doing prep for Millionaire Mission, the book, I here's a stat that just kind of haunts me a little bit is that if you look at 51% of Americans over the age of 65, they have

less than $100,000 saved for retirement. That's terrifying. The actual it goes even deeper. The median retirement savings for Americans over the age of 65 is $7,650. So, I, being a financial mutant, I thought about this even a little more differently. I was like, you know, most people work for 40 plus years. If you had to think about what your behavior had to look like to actually save up to this $100,000 over a 40-year working career, we quickly found out that people are, we're going to give you a stat that's higher than this, but people are saving right around 1% of their income. They're consuming, they're consuming 99% of what they make, and then they're potentially saving and investing 1%. Because even the people, we're going to show you that the average savings rate is somewhere around 3.9%. But what this doesn't tell you, that's what the average savings rate is. Some of these savings rates then get

consumed like that's your 401k and things, but then we know how leaky a lot of Americans treat their 401ks. So, guys, we wanted to kind of just walk you through when we tell you we want you saving and investing 25% of your gross income. We know that's a big ask. We get it. And in your 20s, that's completely aspirational because you're probably broke. But we want you to feel the pressure of you've got to get your army of dollar bills working so you can own your time that much sooner. But by the time you're in your 30s and above, once you've gone from a job to now a career, if you're not trying to really hit this, you're really missing out. And we'll go a step further, Bo. We have a great resource. If you go to money.com/resources, what will 25% do for you? I encourage you to go check that out so you can actually see, are you ahead of the curve, behind the curve? What does this mean for you for

your savings rate so you can take this that much more seriously. And if you don't believe that this is a big deal, let's revisit our case study. Remember, we just said that the average American saves about 3.9% of their income. So again, let's assume that average Allen and Manny the mutant both make the median household income in this country, just under $72,000 a year. Average Allen is going to have a savings rate of 3.9%. That's what the average American is saving right now. That comes out to about $232 per month. But Manny gets it, and he understands it. He says, You know what? I'm going to save 25% of my gross income. And we're not going to worry about increasing this for inflation; we're just going to assume static numbers. So Manny is going to save $1,490 per month. Average Allen saves 3.9%; Manny the mutant saves 25%. Well, if they do that for an entire career, for an entire working lifetime, for 35 years.

while Allen was still able to build up resources, he was still able to build up $477,000 in a retirement portfolio, which is better than $100,000, which a lot of folks don't have now, close to five times better than the typical American, by the way. But when you compare that to Manny, who saved and invested 25% for an entire work year, Manny has almost $3.5 million invested that he can now live off of. These two people are nowhere even close to the same stratosphere. What I love is we went through every one of these scenarios. We did student loans, we did car loans, we did housing, and of course, we've done now savings rates. They're all the same sums of money, but did they come out with huge differences? And it's all about those small decisions. What small decision are you making today that's going to build your great big beautiful tomorrow? That's what we're here for. We want you to have wealth, to own your time, to live life on your terms, so you

know you do things when you want, how you want, and the why is just accounted for where you actually are doing things that you were put on this planet to do. Guys, don't squander your most valuable resource; that's your time. Make it happen today. I'm your host, Brian Preston, Mr. Bo Hansen. Go check us out, money.com, money.got.team.out.

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The Money Guy Show

Financial mutants are individuals who make small, impactful decisions that lead to extraordinary changes in their financial future, contrasting with the average American's consumption-driven choices.

The discussion highlights the common struggle of student loan debt, with both individuals graduating with the same amount and interest rate.

While the average American, like Average Allen, stresses to pay off the loans quickly, Manny the mutant follows a better financial strategy, emphasizing the importance of the financial order of operations.

Allan is using his extra $600 a month to pay off his student loan as quickly as possible, aiming to be debt-free in less than five years.

Manny, on the other hand, is making the minimum payment of $298 and investing the difference, ultimately accumulating $55,000 in savings by the end of 10 years.

Despite the small difference in their approaches, Manny's strategy allows him to become debt-free even faster than Allan, and the slight variation in their decisions leads to a significant difference in their long-term financial outcomes.

The Importance of Financial Decision-Making

Manny's success comes from recognizing the power of every dollar and using it to build wealth.

Many Americans struggle with car financing, leading to a cycle of negative equity and long-term debt.

A better approach to buying a car is to put down 20% and aim for a 3-year payoff period, avoiding the common financial traps.

The Right Approach to Buying a Car for Wealth Building

It's important to keep your car payment under 8% of your gross income and prioritize affordable transportation to your job.

While many millionaires finance their cars, a significant number also start their financial journey by borrowing money.

Comparing two individuals, one who finances a new car for 68 months and another who opts for a used car and invests the difference, shows that the latter can build significant wealth over time.

The Impact of Financial Decisions on Wealth

Making consumption decisions, like buying a car, can have a significant long-term impact on wealth, with a $43,000 investment potentially growing to $700,000 over 35 years.

The average American is putting a large portion of their income towards housing, often leading to a "house-poor" lifestyle.

The Money Guy Show advocates for a lower percentage of income spent on housing and offers resources like a home buying checklist and calculator to help individuals make wise financial decisions.

Average Allen and Manny the Mutant both have $100,000 incomes but make different home buying choices.

Allen puts 3% down on a $443,000 home, resulting in a $2,783 mortgage, while Manny puts 3% down on a $321,000 home, with a $2,100 mortgage.

Despite Allen's house appreciating to $1.

1 million, Manny's smaller home and investments give him a paid-off $800,000 house and additional wealth.

The Impact of Money Management on Wealth Accumulation

1 million portfolio and an $800,000 house, leads to a terminal net worth of almost $1.

9 million by retirement, while Allen's wealth is tied up in his home.

Manny's portfolio can generate $43,000 a year in income and provide $1.

1 million in assets to his loved ones after his passing.

The common theme in wealth creation is discipline and making conscious decisions to let money work for you, contrasting with the alarming statistic that 51% of Americans over 65 have less than $100,000 saved for retirement.

The Importance of Saving and Investing 25% of Your Income

Saving and investing 25% of your gross income is crucial for financial independence, especially as you transition from your 20s to your 30s.

The difference in savings between the average American and someone who saves 25% is significant, with the latter potentially amassing $3.

Small financial decisions today can lead to a vastly different financial future, making it essential to prioritize saving and investing.