Are You a Wealth Builder Or Buster?

Money Guy Show

Hosts Brian Preston and Bo Hanson explore the fundamental habits that distinguish 'wealth builders' from 'wealth busters,' drawing inspirati

Key takeaways

• Millionaires frequently drive practical vehicles, with Toyota (16%) and Honda (15%) leading the list of top brands.
• Approximately 80% of millionaires are first-generation wealth builders rather than inheriting wealth.

Main topics

• Wealth building traits
• The Millionaire Next Door

Notable quotes

Do you live below your means?

Conclusion

The episode serves as a motivational guide for disciplined, long-term

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:05) Are you a wealth builder or a buster? Seven questions you need Speaker 2 (0:09) to Speaker 1 (0:10) answer the TLC episode. Speaker 2 (0:11) Brent, I am so excited about this because when it comes to being wealthy, when it comes to being a mentor, having financial success, when you look at all the people that have been able to do that, all the people that have achieved that level, it seems that there are some common traits, some common characteristics that exist amongst that population. So if we can... define what those characteristics are, and then ask ourselves the question, do I possess these characteristics? It should give us an indication of, are we on the right path? Speaker 1 (0:39) Well, and we were like, look, somebody who has literally written the book, Dr. Thomas Stanley and Danko, when they did The Millionaire Next Door, they list the seven traits that millionaires have. Now, we took some, we massaged a few of these to bring them up to 2026 as we cover it. And we also were like, while we're doing this mashup, Why not incorporate also, because I couldn't help but think about it when you're thinking about wealth builder versus a buster or said differently, bust-a. Why not bring this out to we have six TLC references in today's show because at the end of the day, we don't want no scrubs. And I want to invite you to figure out. If you can find all six of them and put them in the comments. I Speaker 2 (1:23) love it. I Speaker 1 (1:24) love Speaker 2 (1:24) it. All right, let's talk about the very first trait. And this is one, I would say a money guy echo, but they probably were saying it before we started saying it. But it's something you've heard here a lot. Answer this question. Do you live below your means? Are you actually saving and deferring a little bit of today for a great, big, beautiful tomorrow? And I think, Brian, most Americans, they actually don't fall into this camp. Speaker 1 (1:47) No, there's, you know, look, we've known this. Most people are bustas in the fact that they just don't live within their means. I mean, they're basically using leverage. They're using debt. They're living a life beyond what they actually can afford. So I don't like the living paycheck to paycheck. You know, and that's the thing Dr. Stanley said. Operating a household without a budget is akin to operating a business without a plan, without goals, and without direction. So we've got to do better than that. Speaker 2 (2:16) Yeah, if you're someone who finds yourself not doing this well and you recognize that, man, at the end of every pay cycle, end of every month, there's just not enough money left over, perhaps you should start budgeting. Are you at least just listing out where are my dollars going? It's hard to know what to change and what to alter if you don't have a clear picture of where those dollars are disappearing to. Because when it comes to changing your financial life, most of us really only have two options. We can either make more money, increase our income, or we can spend less money to create that margin. So you have to figure out which one of those two do you have control over and what are the steps that you can take to move into that direction. The Speaker 1 (2:55) next one, question two to ask yourself. Now, Dr. Stanley, when you read... millionaire next door, he frames it as time, money, and energy. Well, we were like, well, energy, I would, I would rephrase it as our three ingredients to wealth building, which is, are you making the most of your time, money, and discipline? As I just alluded to, we lay out that there are three key things. And we've kind of, if you, if you kind of look at this in the order that we typically talk about it, I go backwards discipline. Are you exactly the point of The first thing we covered is are you living within your means or on less than you make? And if you do that, you'll create margin or the money that if you give it enough time, this thing gets magical with this power of compounding growth. And what's really Speaker 2 (3:39) interesting is no matter where you are in your financial journey, the amount of these ingredients you have available. might not be the same. You might be someone who perhaps you didn't figure this out early on in life. And so you don't have as much time. So that means you have to increase how much discipline you're exercising, or maybe you are brand new in your financial journey. And it's very difficult for you to create a ton of margin or a ton of money in your life. But if you have a lot of time, you can then use that to your advantage. So Speaker 1 (4:07) you Speaker 2 (4:07) have to figure out. Where do I fall in each one of these three ingredients and how can I maximize them for my own personal benefit? Speaker 1 (4:14) So at the end of the day, make sure you respect the three ingredients to wealth and don't go chasing waterfalls. Speaker 2 (4:21) Let's talk about question number three. When you think about the way that you consume, do you value financial freedom over financial status? And I think. that most people, especially in this country, they care more about the way they look, the way they perceive, the way that they show themselves, the world around them, rather than what their balance sheet actually says. We have Speaker 1 (4:43) a show coming up that I can't wait to record where we show just three small decisions in your life will change how your entire wealth building journey goes. And that one of them, I'll go ahead and give the... the kind of peek behind the curtain is the car you drive. And because I can just tell you in my own life, I've watched so many of my friends, family, and peers who as soon as they graduate and get their first big job, they go and load it up with the new car loan. And you see that across the board with most people. And I think you have to quickly realize if you're going to be a financial mutant, you value more the freedom than definitely how you look. And if you don't believe that... This is what true wealth builders do. Look at the stats on the top car brands that millionaires are driving. And it's no surprise that Toyota's number one at 16%, Honda's number two at 15%, Ford with that F-150 stat that Millionaire Next Door made famous, you know, is right there. Lexus, Subaru, surprisingly, BMW is number six. But it is one of those things where I think when you look at this data, It doesn't shock me to see Toyota and Honda at the top of the list. Yeah, when Speaker 2 (5:50) you think about millionaires, they value staying out of high-interest debt. They value building up their investments. They value building up and saving for large future purchases. They don't care as much about what other people think. They care more about how they're providing and saving for their future financial self. Speaker 1 (6:08) I think the big takeaway is that truly being wealthy, Wealth on your net worth statement is stealth wealth. You don't hear it. So in other words, you've got to creep. I'm telling you, do it stealthily and creep. Speaker 2 (6:22) All right. Question number four. You're Speaker 1 (6:26) not doing a good job of hiding this thing, but we're supposed to be putting pine straw over Speaker 2 (6:30) it. Speaker 1 (6:30) You think I'm the one that's giving it away? You think that I'm the one? Stay cool. Stay cool. Yeah, Speaker 2 (6:34) no, that's totally cool. It's on me. All right, I'll do better. All right. Question number four. When you think about how you're building wealth, are you building wealth without parental support? Are you someone who actually was able to leave the nest and get out from under the wings of your parents, meaning that you are self-sufficient, independent, without someone else pouring into you economic outpatient care? Now listen, we Speaker 1 (6:56) ain't too proud to beg. But at some point, you have to ask and figure out, do you really need help or can you do this on your own without help from loved ones? Speaker 2 (7:06) In a survey that we do for our millionaires and our Abound clients every single year, we ask, hey, how much did an inheritance play a role in you building wealth and you getting to the financial status that you're at? And 74 % of our clients here at Abound Wealth received less than a $25,000 inheritance. on their way to reach $1 million. So what that means is these are first-generation, self-made people, or people that were not depending on their parents to prop them up to get them to financial success. And by the way, Speaker 1 (7:36) it's not just our surveys. This was one of the big stats that came out of Millionaire Next Door that shocked me. It was because they had 80%. I know when Sarah, you know, Dr. Stanley's daughter, came out with the updated version of the... the next millionaire is next door. That's right. She also found the same stats, as well as Ramsey Solutions found it in their own survey. So this is a pretty consistent throughout the ages. It's close to 80 % of millionaires are first generation. But that also means 70 % goes by second generation, 90 % by the third with the grandkids. Be deliberate with how you're using your money. And this actually goes both ways. Speaker 2 (8:14) One trait is that millionaires don't receive economic outpatient care from their parents, but they also have the ability to build self-sufficient children on their own. Millionaires have the tendency that they teach their kids how to make wise financial decisions, how to fly out of the nest and be self-sufficient on their own. Speaker 1 (8:35) Yeah, I mean, that's why. Here's a shock stat for you. 75 % of parents are supporting at least one of their adult children out there to the tune of around $7,000 a year, according to AARP. This is one of those things where, look, I know we love our children. And I think we get a lot of pushback whenever I cover the financial order of operations with the fact that we have, you know, there's a reason we have the diploma. I mean, the cap and gown. on step number eight is that we want you to build your financial security first before you help the kids out. But also we want you to build, help them build the skillset to have independence. When I gave you that 70 % is gone by first, by second generation, 90 % by second, this is so you don't have to fall into that trap. Make sure that your kids' best days are not just the days that they live under your roof. Speaker 2 (9:28) And again, it's just, it's worth repeating. It's okay if you help your kids out if they're in a tight spot, or maybe you have the means and mechanism to create an opportunity for them that might not have been available otherwise. That's different than subsidizing lifestyle. If what you're doing is covering the mortgage payment or covering the car payment or paying for the fill-in-the-blank, that's where the line becomes very blurred, and it can be not a super great situation. Yeah, Speaker 1 (9:54) and I just don't like these results definitely end up being unpretty. Speaker 2 (9:59) All right, Brian, let's look at this next question. Question number six. Speaker 1 (10:03) Are you Speaker 2 (10:04) good at identifying market opportunities? When Dr. Stanley and Dr. Danko looked at their millionaires, they found that their millionaires could find specific niches and they were able to take advantages of needs in the marketplace to find ways to position themselves for the opportunity to build wealth. They didn't sit back and let life happen. They were. very proactive and opportunistic when opportunities presented themselves. Speaker 1 (10:31) Yeah, I mean, this is one of those things, you know, one of the big things we're always talking about is always be buying is because I think that all humans struggle with this fear and greed component. But I think once you build a little wisdom or depth of understanding of how money works, you're going to find that you won't be prone to all those emotional things and you'll be right there in the right position with your cash, with your structure, with your financial order of operations. to where you get to identify and then maximize any market opportunity that comes your way in life. Speaker 2 (11:01) And then one of the final things, one of the ways that you make sure you're recognizing opportunities is did you choose the right occupation? When you set out to say, this is what I'll do professionally for my career, did you choose an occupation that aligned both with what the marketplace desired as well as your unique skill set? Speaker 1 (11:20) Yeah, something you want to know. is that not everybody's a brain surgeon, not everybody's a professional athlete. You'd be kind of shocked to see the typical careers that millionaires occupy are everyday things. It's like your engineers, your accountants, your teachers, your management, your attorneys. These are people who consistently are just saving and investing, putting money forward, consistent income that allows you to let this wealth build up slowly in the background. Speaker 2 (11:49) Yeah, they provide ample opportunities, job stability, stable income, the ability to create margin, the ability to exercise the three ingredients of wealth creation. So if you were going to summarize what these seven traits were, these seven questions you ought to ask yourself. This is what's true of millionaires, of people that are able to build wealth. They live well below their means. They make the most of their time, their money, and their discipline. They value financial freedom over luxury or financial status. They don't depend on their parents for financial support. They have self-sufficient children. They recognize and take advantage of market opportunities, and they chose the right job and they chose the right vocation. Speaker 1 (12:28) At the end of the day, I want you to be a builder. not a busta. And how you do that is with the financial order of operations. If you were one of these people, just like I was, just like Bo was, where you don't come from money, but you have a lot of ambition and you know you want to better yourself, we have created the thing to tell you exactly the instruction manual to know what to do with your next dollar. Speaker 2 (12:48) Brian, I love that we get to sit here and we get to define what makes a builder and what makes a buster. And we can even answer your questions around How do I make this decision as a builder and not a buster? And so with that, we want to answer your questions and load you up. So if you have a question right now, we have the team out in the wings collecting them. Make sure you get them in the chat because we do believe there is a better way to do money. Now, Speaker 1 (13:17) Reby, we, and just as you can see, we surveyed our clients and that content showed up in this. Right now, I would be amiss if I didn't share. that there's a lot of wealth builders who could share what they're doing with their money right now through our listener survey. Can you give us some details on that? Moneyguy Speaker 3 (13:38) .com slash survey. If you want your voice to be heard and your voice and perspective to shape the Money Guy show really into the new year and for the whole next year, every fall, we give our audience a chance to fill out the financial mutant survey and tell us where you are. What are your pain points? What does your financial situation look like? What problems are you trying to solve? And how can Money Guy help you figure that out? That's what it's all about. So that survey is only going to be open for one day. Speaker 2 (14:07) more. So Speaker 3 (14:08) this is your last chance to get in and figure out how your voice can shape the show. And I really mean it. I want to know if you are still paying off debt. I want to know if you're on step nine of the food or if you've hit your coast fine number or if you're in the messy middle. I want to know all of it because we want to know who is out there listening and how we can speak to you specifically. So I'm very excited about that. Be sure to go out to moneyguy.com slash survey to take part of that because we're going to be creating not one but two episodes off of that content sharing the results. Speaker 1 (14:42) Yeah, this thing closes down in the next day, correct? Speaker 3 (14:45) Yes, sir. Speaker 1 (14:45) I need you guys to do this, you know, because it really, we count on the more of you who get in there and do this survey, the better the content gets because we actually get the numbers that make this more worthwhile and I think have a bigger reach. So I'd love for everybody to get in there. Help us out with this. Y'all know when we do these surveys and stuff, we don't pepper you with a lot of things. We're just trying to get the best information so we can give you the best content and make it the most educational version that it can possibly be. Yep. Speaker 2 (15:15) Love it. Speaker 3 (15:16) Well, Speaker 1 (15:16) I don't Speaker 3 (15:16) get Speaker 1 (15:16) the feeling that you're a big TLC fan like I am. Speaker 2 (15:19) I knew, well, I knew, do you remember Total Request Live? Was that big in your, was that big in your? I see Carson Daly. Speaker 1 (15:25) He's like, you know, he's on the Today Show every morning. Speaker 2 (15:27) Didn't know that. I mean, I did know that, but I don't like, well, I'm not familiar with that. But I remember TLC when they had like TRL hits, like no scrubs. I got that. I mean, you