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The hidden financial traps in your 30s and 40s (and how to avoid them) · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

0:08
You're listening to the Hidden Lightness on America Out Loud Talk Radio.
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I'm your host, Jimmy Hinton.
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Well, off to happier things today.
0:16
And uh, well, maybe not for some people, but we're gonna talk about a subject that we talk about often on this show, and that is personal finances.
0:25
And the reason is it's critically important that we get our ducks in a row.
0:31
When it comes to finances, there are a lot of things that we can and need to be doing in order to keep our house in order.
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And there are too many Americans right now who struggle going into retirement, and the solution is actually a lot easier than what people imagine.
0:52
It's not a get rich quick scheme.
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It's not uh playing the lottery and and winning the lottery and and hitting it just right.
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It's not about winning the raffle and getting the the new appliances that that you only put 10 bucks in for and you won a refrigerator.
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It's nothing like that.
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And it boils down to one thing that Americans are not yet good at, and that is discipline.
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That is all it boils down to discipline and a little bit of knowledge.
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You don't have to have tremendous knowledge, you don't have to be a financial guru, you don't have to be good at math.
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This is a a little bit of a uh an inside scoop here, but I'm terrible at math.
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I don't like math.
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I probably could be okay at it, but uh I just I never liked it.
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From the time I was a little kid, math bored me to tears.
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And I was good at it in elementary school.
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Then as I got up into middle school, junior high, I I literally could care less about math.
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And so I put exactly zero effort into it.
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I was mediocre at best, and to this day, I'm not good at even simpler arithmetic.
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I I'm just not, and uh that doesn't mean that you can't be good with numbers.
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All right.
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So you you don't have to have this incredible knowledge, you don't have to have a sixth sense or some kind of instinct to uh be able to manage money.
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It simply boils down to having a little bit of knowledge and a whole lot of discipline.
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And if you have those two things, that is a powerhouse for building wealth.
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Well, the warning signal is being sent, and it's been for a long time.
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There are banks and financial gurus and uh people like me, ordinary people who are stowing the alarm saying Americans aren't sent a saving.
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I I don't really like the word saving because it's more investing.
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Americans are not investing enough.
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And the proof is in the pudding, so to speak.
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We really need to look at what the median amount of retirement savings are by age.
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That's a really important number, and the median number is kind of the middle ground.
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So uh when you're talking about averages versus medians, the median amount is a more accurate indicator of where people actually stand because the median kind of is the halfway point, and that means that whatever the median number is, 50% of people have more money than that, and 50% are below that line.
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50% of people have less.
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So we need to look at the median number of retirement, what that number actually is, and people have to calculate the number that they need to retire.
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So right now, as it stands, over half of American households, 54% report having no dedicated retirement savings.
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None.
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That's according to the Federal Reserves Survey of Consumer Finances, SCF.
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And yet the total 401k savings rate remained steady for a third consecutive quarter at 14.2% in Q4 2025.
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So it seems contradictory.
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And this is coming from Kiplinger, Kiplinger.com, uh, the Kiplinger retirement report.
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Pretty fascinating article here.
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But the numbers seem to contradict each other.
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Right?
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54% of Americans say they don't have any dedicated retirement savings whatsoever.
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Over half.
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Over half.
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That ought to have us cowering in a corner.
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Now, I'm not somebody who raises alarm bells, and I I don't like to live in fear, but this is definitely alarming.
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When you have 54%, over half of Americans say that they have no dedicated retirement savings whatsoever.
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They're just gonna they're living on a hope and a prayer.
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And I believe it's my firm belief that they're gonna raise it into the 70s before you can actually start taking your full retirement in Social Security if it's even there, if it's even available.
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Now, I think the government's gonna do what the government does, they're gonna keep racking up debt, they're gonna keep Social Security on life support.
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And I'm not a fan of that.
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I say let it die, let us take that 15% that you that the government scams from every single, it's not skim, it's scam.
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They scam from every single paycheck.
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15%.
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Let us keep that and let us invest that on our own.
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If you're investing 15% of your income, you're doing exceptionally well.
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Exceptionally well.
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And if you can do more, that's that's always better.
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But 15% is considered very good.
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So what are the balances here?
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The total median, the mean and median retirement savings by age.
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All right, here we go.
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Here we go.
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Here's the breakdown.
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Here's the breakdown.
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So keep in mind here that the mean is the average savings.
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So keep in mind here that the mean is the average savings.
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The mean is the average, and that gets skewed when somebody has say millions of dollars in a retirement account that skews the entire average.
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The mean is the average.
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And that gets skewed when somebody has, say, millions of dollars in a retirement account.
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That skews the entire average.
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And that's why the median is a more accurate number, because that means 50% of people have more money in in their savings, and 50% of people have less.
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And that's why the median is a more accurate number, because that means 50% of people have more money in their savings, and 50% of people have less.
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So if you're hitting the median savings.
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So if you're hitting the median savings, you're pretty much right in the middle ground.
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You're you're you're on par with most Americans.
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All right, so under 35 years old, the median retirement savings is 18,350.
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The average is only 50,000, 49,130.
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All right, ages 35 to 44, the median retirement savings is 45,000.
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The average is 141,520.
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Ages 45 to 54.
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Now you're flirting with retirement.
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Yeah, it's we think of your 40s as being middle age.
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Well, yes and no, because if you want to retire at 62 years old, in this age bracket, age 45 to 54, you're really flirting with retirement.
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If you want to retire at 62, by age 54, you're only eight years away.
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So the median savings, you have eight years to get this number up.
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The median retirement savings is 115,000.
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The average is only 313,000.
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And I say only because try to live off of 115,000.
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And by the way, this is not per individual, this is per household.
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This is both husband and wife.
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Uh this is the entire household retirement savings.
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It's not very much.
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115,000, that's the median.
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That's where most Americans are, if they even have any.
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They're at 115,000 ages 45 to 54.
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That's frightening.
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Ages 55 to 64.
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Now you're at retirement.
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How many 64 year olds say, man, I wish I could retire.
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I wish I could have retired at 62.
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I wish I could retire right now, but I have to keep working.
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That's most Americans.
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That's over half of Americans are in that boat.
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It's probably closer to three quarters because the median for ages 55 to 64, median retirement is 185,000.
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Good luck living off of 185,000 as your income.
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That might last three years, maybe.
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If you're living in it, if you're debt-free, if you're living in a place that isn't that expensive if your taxes aren't that high on and on and on, 185,000 might get you three years.
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That is, after all, a salary of less than 61,000.
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And that's if you're using all of it.
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So the rule of thumb is you use about 4% per year of your retirement investments.
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So if you're using 4% per year, you're not going to run out of money.
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So 4% of 185,000 is $7,400.
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That's your income.
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If you want that to stretch throughout your retirement years, 185,000, you're going to be living on about $7,400 per year for the entire year.
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Now this maxes out at ages 65 to 74.
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The median is 200,000.
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200,000.
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The average is 609,230.
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That's the absolute highest.
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So 200,000 is actually where most Americans are who have retirement savings.
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At 4%, you're now drawing a salary of $8,000 per year for your entire household.
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That's for your entire that's for husband and wife.
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That's it.
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8,000.
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Folks, we are in major crisis here.
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We're in major crisis.
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So what do we do?
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What do we do about that?
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How do we how do we make it better?
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Well, there are a couple articles here, and I I saw these articles, and this is kind of what prompted this.
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There are two different articles of steps that you can take in your 30s and 40s.
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Now I know some people are definitely well beyond that, but you can still take steps.
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In my opinion, it's never too late.
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Now it's a lot harder the older you get.
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And so I can't over-emphasize the importance of starting when you're young.
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Here's an article from Yahoo.
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This is finance.yahoo.
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It's a very recent article.
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And the article is the financial mistakes people make in their 30s that haunt them later.
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And I think this is really, really important because we have to know what mistakes people are making in order to avoid them.
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You know, don't we teach kids from the time they're young?
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Don't put your hand on the stove.
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It could be very hot.
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Well, why do we teach them that?
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Why do we teach kids that?
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Well, because at some point, young kids put their hand on a stove and they get burned.
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So we learn from other people's mistakes.
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We teach our kids to learn from other people's mistakes.
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And we ingrain that in them.
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Don't put your hand on the hot stove.
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Don't put your hand on the hot stove.
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What's another one that we teach them?
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Over and over and over.
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Every single one of us parents teaches our kids to the point where we get the infamous eye roll.
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Here's what it is.
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Look before you cross the street.
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Look left, look right, look left again.
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At least that's what was taught when I was a kid.
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I don't know if they still teach that sequence, but they still teach kids.
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Look before you cross the street.
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Look before you cross the street.
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Like over and over and over and over again.
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Over and over again.
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We create so much repetition, so much repetition, that our kids get absolutely sick and tired of us staying it.
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We create so much repetition, so much repetition that our kids get absolutely sick and tired of us staying it.
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All right, we ingrain that in our kids, and apparently it pays off because the numbers are pretty low, I think, for how many ridiculous drivers are on the road, and just people who are absolutely noses buried in their phones, or they're just oblivious to things around them, and there's a lot of pedestrian traffic, but roughly 7,000 to 7500 pedestrians are killed each year in the United States.
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All right, we ingrain that in our kids, and apparently it pays off because the numbers are pretty low, I think, for how many ridiculous drivers are on the road, and just people who are absolutely noses buried in their phones, or they're just oblivious.
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Now, given our population, that's a very small percentage.
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Over 68,000 are injured by motor vehicles each year.
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Now, that's a lot.
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Don't get me wrong.
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That's a lot of pedestrians being hit by cars, but those numbers would be astronomically higher.
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They would be much, much higher if we didn't ingrain this in our kids from the time they're very young.
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Look before you cross the street.
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Look before you cross the street.
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We ingrain that in our kids.
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And so the question is why aren't we ingraining good financial advice into our kids?
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Invest your money.
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Invest your money.
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Invest your money.
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You see, we don't do it.
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We don't teach it in the schools.
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We just simply don't teach it.
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And it's hurting Americans.
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People are literally starving at retirement age.
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And if you look at inflation, and this is why I talk about this so often, because inflation is it could literally happen at any time.
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Nobody predicted a pandemic.
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Nobody expected that to happen.
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It created hyperinflation.
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Nobody expected President Trump to begin a war in Iran.
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I mean, that caught, I think, the whole world off guard.
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And look what it did for inflation.
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Look what it did to fuel.
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Look what it did to look what AI is doing to uh to utility bills.
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Nobody predicted that.
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But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't expect it.
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You see, inflation is a part of life.
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Inflation is a part of every single economy.
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Inflation happens.
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It's going to happen.
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It's going to continue to happen.
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Things will continue to inflate for the rest of time.
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So we've got to be prepared for that.
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And our money has to outpace the growth of inflation.
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And the only way to make that happen is to invest it.
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Now there are different ways to invest it, but we have to be investing, and we have to do it and start as early as humanly possible.
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All right, we're coming up on a break here.
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Well, did you just see Google quietly updated its AI principles removing its pledge not to use AI for weapons or surveillance?
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A promise they agreed to in 2018.
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Well, the American people have seen Google's track where I could prompt them question.
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Is Google an untrustworthy player in the AI race?
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Now is our time, my fellow Americans.
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America of Mao dot news.
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Liberty and justice for all.
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Americans are literally starving.
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They get to retirement age.
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The majority of Americans are not saving anything for retirement.
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I mean, literally nothing.
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54% of Americans right now have saved nothing for retirement.
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That's over half of working Americans.
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They have literally nothing.
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And yet we have the nice cars.
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Look at the roads, look on the roads at what people drive.
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You see, what people drive and what they have parked in their driveway, the boats, the all the trinkets, all the toys, the four-wheelers, the ATVs, the UTVs.
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That's not indicative of how much wealth somebody has.
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In fact, I think it's more indicative of how much debt somebody carries.
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So there are articles.
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Here's a good finance Yahoo article that talks about the mistakes that people make in their 30s that haunt them later.
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Talk to these with your kids and your grandkids.
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Talk about this stuff.
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We talk about finances routinely in our home.
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We literally just had a meeting last night.
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We talk about these things.
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We talk about them very often.
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We talk about how what percentage goes to taxes, what percentage goes to or should go to investing.
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Not just back into the business, but into the stock market, into other people's businesses.
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That's called diversification.
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All right, so the article here says here's some of the most common financial mistakes people make in their 30s and how they end up following people for years.
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Here says, here's some of the most common financial mistakes people make in their 30s and how they end up following people for years.
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Number one, paying the minimum amount due on credit cards.
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Number one, paying the minimum amount due on credit cards.
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Now, I would say not just credit cards, but on everything.
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Now, I would say not just credit cards, but on everything.
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Paying the minimum minimum amount on your vehicle.
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Paying the minimum minimum amount on your vehicle, paying the minimum amount on your mortgage.
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Paying the minimum amount on your mortgage.
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Paying the minimum amount due on credit cards is wildly dangerous because the percentage rate is absolutely insane.
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Paying the minimum amount due on credit cards is wildly dangerous because the
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Like what, 27%, 29%?
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And you're you're being charged 27 to 29% for carrying a balance on your credit card.
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That's being tacked onto your principal every single month, and that money compounds, that debt compounds.
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So the article says credit cards are designed to be paid in full.
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Amen.
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Unfortunately, it's all too easy to fall into the habit of making minimum payments only.
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See, a lot of people think that credit cards are like uh they're kind of like a bank.
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It's an easier way, a less hassle free way to get a loan, a personal loan.
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That's not how credit cards are designed.
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Well, I guess they are because banks cleverly designed them to rip off the American people and to get rich themselves.
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But they really were designed to be paid in full, to not carry a balance.
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My wife and I have never, never once have we carried a balance on a credit card.
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Never.
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Never.
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Carrying a balance on a credit card is a surefire way to get into and to remain in debt for the rest of your life.
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The article says, although you may intend to pay off your balances every month, when you're in your 30s, it can seem as if there's a new, quote, emergency or quote, need every month that steals from your cash flow.
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Between the weddings, whether for you or your friends, right?
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It's very expensive to go to a wedding.
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People have destination weddings.
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People, the bridesmaids, the bridesmaids' dresses, they pick the most expensive dress.
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Oh, here's a dress for $4,000.
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Will you be my bridesmaid?
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And if you're not, then you know, wink wink.
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Maybe we were never really that good of friends to begin with.
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All right, you're guilted into being a bridesmaid.
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And I know people who are bridesmaids for like four or five weddings in a summer.
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Like, how do you afford that?
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That's wild.
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Sometimes you just have to say no.
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Uh, credit cards allow you to pay off less than the full amount.
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And this seems like the path of least resistance.
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I would argue that it seems like a gift.
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People view that and they're like, wow, that's a really generous offer.
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I can make the minimum payment on my credit card.
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That's incredible.
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No, it's not.
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It's going to cost you, and it's going to cost you dearly.
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Paying on the minimum keeps you in debt longer.
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It increases your interest costs.
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High interest debt competes directly with goals that depend on time.
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That's your retirement contributions, your emergency savings, your home down payments.
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The longer that balance stays, the more your future options narrow.
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This is why people are postponing buying houses.
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The average age now that people are buying houses is in their 40s.
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First time home buyers are now in their 40s for the first time ever in American history.
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There's a reason.
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Now, a lot of people say, well, it's because the housing market is crazy and houses are more expensive now.
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That's part of it.
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But the bigger part is that nobody's saving to buy a house.
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Nobody's saving to put a down payment on a house.
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People are stuck.
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They're financially trapped.
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They financially paint themselves into a corner.
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All right, number two, postponing retirement savings.
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Your greatest asset when it comes to saving for retirement is time.
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Thanks to the power of compound interest.
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The earlier you start, the less money you have to set aside every month to reach your savings goals.
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According to the U.S.
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Securities and Exchange Commission, their compound interest calculator, you'll need to invest 280 per month at an 8% annual return, compounded monthly to generate $1 million after 40 years.
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All right, so 280, that's the consistency.
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That's if you never miss a month.
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You always put 280 in every single month.
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You compound at 8% annual return per year, which I think is pretty sorry.
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8% is that you're barely keeping up with inflation at 8%.
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Inflation is supposed to be between 2 and 3.
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Like I think 2.5% is considered the sweet spot.
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But every year you're losing 2.5% to 3.5% or 4%, or in some years, what do we have?
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Like 20% inflation.
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It was absolutely insane during COVID.
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Your money is losing value.
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So a million dollars after 40 years is going to be worth a whole lot less than what a million dollars is now.
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So it sounds like a lot of money.
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You're like, wow, I'm going to make a I'm going to have a million dollars if I put 280 dollars in.
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Well, because of inflation, that money's not going to be worth very much.
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So I think we need to way overshoot this.
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I think we need to find more aggressive stocks, more aggressive ETFs, exchange traded funds, mutual funds.
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We need to find whatever it is that you're investing in, it needs to be pretty aggressive.
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And I have mentioned this right at the beginning of the war.
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I said now is a really good time.
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The stock market is going to absolutely take off like a rocket.
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Going to absolutely take off like a rocket.
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It always has.
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It always has.
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When the war comes to an end, and the market is already priced in the end of the war in Iran.
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It's already priced it in.
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It does this every single time.
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The stock market initially has a knee jerk reaction when a war is started, when America's involved in a war, there's a knee-jerk reaction, and the market goes down.
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Sometimes by 20%.
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People panic, they panic sell, they start selling off their retirement, they cash in after they've lost a whole bunch of money, and they're like, oh my goodness, the market's never going to recover.
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Lo and behold, in a matter of this time, it was in literally in a matter of weeks.
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And remember, I kept saying, I said it over and over.
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If I had a whole stockpile of money right now, I'd I'd be injecting as much of that as I could into the stock market.
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In my investments, my retirement account has done quite well.
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And I'm certain that all of you who have a retirement account, it's done quite well.
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This happens every single time.
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It's very predictable.
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And we need to know how the stock market responds.
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You never panic sell.
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That's the worst thing you can do.
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The best thing you can do is when you see the stock market taking a nosedive, you just start buying.
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Just keep adding.
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And you don't even have to wait for that.
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You don't have to time the market.
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Warren Buffett talks about that all the time.
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A lot of people, most people, almost nobody can time the market.
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You never know when the stock market's going to make a correction.
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So the best thing you can do is just consistently put in whatever it is monthly that you decided, or whatever percentage of your income, you put that in every single month faithfully, month after month, year after year.
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You never stop.
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You just don't stop.
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You keep doing it.
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So here we go.
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Um what's another one?
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Number three, becoming house poor.
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Spending too much in order to get a nicer house is something all too common for Americans.
30:30
And those who do so end up in the position of being house poor.
30:35
Pressed to reach for a new home.
30:39
Many Americans focus on the monthly mortgage payment and underestimate the total cash demands of owning.
30:45
Let me tell you, owning a house is expensive.
30:51
It's expensive.
30:54
All of you who own a home, you know what I'm talking about.
30:57
People look down on people who rent, and they're like, oh, you know, you lowly human being, you don't have a house to call your own.
31:07
You can't just up and paint a room whenever you want to paint a room.
31:12
You can't landscape and do whatever you want to do to personalize your yard.
31:17
You lowly person, and you're going to be making a payment for the rest of your life.
31:22
Meanwhile, somebody buys a house that's way too expensive, way above their means, way above their income, and they get a 30-year mortgage.
31:34
They pay the minimum payment, and they end up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars more just in interest than what they actually bought the house for.
31:45
That's money that could have been invested.
31:48
That's money that should have been invested.
31:52
And they're now house poor.
31:54
Now you don't have money for the roof, so you let it go for a few years, the roof starts to leak, your house deteriorates.
32:04
What once was a nice house 25, 30 years ago is now a hunk of junk.
32:12
You have holes in the walls, you have siding that's that's bad, and so the side of your house is rotting.
32:21
I know from experience.
32:24
You have shifting in the walls, you have walls that crack.
32:32
I know from experience.
32:41
That just because of time and freezing and thawing and the harsh winters, it buckles and it starts throwing water up against your house.
32:51
Your walls begin to wick that water in, and your walls begin to rot.
32:58
I know from experience.
33:03
And these are all things that you either get them fixed, or you just literally watch your house crumble right before your very eyes.
33:11
Well, we choose to fix our things, we budget for it, we budget for those things, and we do our house repairs religiously.
33:22
A house is just like a car.
33:25
If you don't keep up with it, if you don't maintain it, if you don't take it to the quote unquote mechanic, your house will deteriorate.
33:34
It will.
33:35
Even if you have a brand new house, if you do nothing to it, your house will deteriorate in a matter of years.
33:43
It doesn't take real long if you're not taking care of it.
33:47
So people become house poor.
33:51
They they fall in love with a house and they're like, well, I think I could pull, right?
33:56
The mortgage, um, the mortgage person is like, well, could you could you swing a payment of $1,500 per month?
34:03
Yeah, I think I could do that.
34:06
I think I could do that.
34:09
All right, well, they lock them into really horrific rates.
34:16
You have extremely high PMI, you stretch that mortgage out 30 years, and you take out home equity loans in the process.
34:26
When you do need the house repairs, you're like, well, I'll just use my house's equity and I'll borrow against the value of my house.
34:35
Please don't ever do that.
34:37
Unless you know that you can pay it back extremely aggressively.
34:42
Don't ever take a home equity loan.
34:44
That's just another way to stay house poor.
34:48
So the consumer financial protection bureau notes that closing costs typically run around two to five percent of the purchase price.
34:58
That expense is separated from the down payment, and once you own your maintenance and repairs have to be addressed.
35:00
Payment.
35:01
And once you own your maintenance and repairs have to be addressed.
35:06
Whether you're having a bad financial year or not.
35:06
Whether you're having a bad financial year or not, your house doesn't care.
35:09
Your house doesn't care.
35:11
Your house could care less about your job.
35:11
Your house could care less about your job, your house could care less about your health, your house could care less about you.
35:13
Your house could care less about your health.
35:15
Your house could care less about you.
35:18
Your house will do what your house is going to do.
35:18
Your house will do what your house is going to do.
35:21
It's gonna deteriorate whether you're having a great year or a bad year.
35:21
It's going to deteriorate whether you're having a great year or a bad year.
35:27
Your house does not discriminate.
35:27
Your house does not discriminate.
35:34
They're going to happen.
35:36
And they're going to happen routinely, year after year after year.
35:43
You're going to have lots of repairs.
35:47
So the best thing to do is to be completely prepared.
35:50
Be prepared for it.
35:51
Budget for it.
35:52
And if you can't budget for it, then don't buy the house.
35:55
Or buy a house that's smaller.
35:57
Buy a house that's more affordable.
36:00
But this happens routinely.
36:03
People are house poor in America, even wealthy people.
36:06
Did you know that Jim Carrey went back to work?
36:09
He retired and came out of retirement because he said, I can't afford my lifestyle.
36:15
And that's the fourth one that we'll talk about after the break.
36:19
Lifestyle creep.
36:22
Even Jim Carrey, whose net worth at one time was 300 million dollars, says that he couldn't afford his lifestyle.
36:31
He had to come out of retirement and he went back to work.
36:35
He did Stonic the Hedgehog, I think was his coming out of retirement movie.
36:42
So it it's a real thing, and it's happening whether you're making millions, tens of millions of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars.
36:51
All right, we're coming up on a break here.
36:53
All of our shows do go to podcasts the next day after the broadcast is heard on talk radio.
36:58
You can hear them on your favorite podcast app.
37:00
Check out the America Out Loud app.
37:02
It's incredible.
37:04
Phenomenal.
37:05
Very, very good, not clinky at all.
37:09
It works, it works well.
37:11
Check it out.
37:14
Be sure to subscribe, rate the show, share it, and when we come back, we'll talk about what steps we can take to not let lifestyle creep take over.
37:23
Sit tight, we'll be right back.
37:25
I'm Doug Evans, author of the Sprout Book.
37:27
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38:40
Americans are making a lot of difficult financial decisions.
38:45
I don't want to say bad because that sounds judgmental, but they're not the best financial decisions.
38:51
And there's an article on Yahoo Finance that talks about mistakes.
38:55
These are common mistakes that people make in their 30s.
38:58
And I like to highlight these because it really helps us get a picture of what people are doing wrong so that so that we can judge, but so that we can avoid the same kinds of mistakes.
39:11
I wish that somebody had told me this kind of stuff when I was in my teenage years.
39:15
I really wish that somebody would have sat me down and said, here are the common mistakes that Americans make.
39:21
You can avoid these mistakes by being financially responsible and investing your money.
39:27
And if I had done that, I've been working from full time from the time I was 11 years old.
39:34
Most of us get jobs whenever we're young.
39:38
Most 15, 16-year-old kids get jobs because they want the car, they want to be able to afford the insurance, they want to be able to buy their own gas.
39:47
Uh it's great having that kind of independence.
39:52
As teenagers, we can't wait until we're 16 or whatever age, you can get your license in in your particular state.
40:01
But most states are at the age of 16, you can get your license.
40:05
Well, people love that.
40:06
The independence.
40:08
Having the wind go through your hair.
40:11
It's like the midlife crisis before you even get close to your midlife.
40:16
It's fantastic.
40:19
We all wanted the car, we all wanted to buy our own car.
40:24
Now parents like to buy cars for their kids.
40:27
We tell our kids that's not going to happen.
40:32
If you want a car, you can purchase your own car.
40:37
And that's just the way it is.
40:41
But you purchase a car and make good decisions.
40:46
Don't overextend yourself.
40:48
If you can't afford a car now, drive our cars.
40:53
You can borrow our cars, you can you can drive our cars, that's perfectly fine.
40:57
So this is right to the next point.
41:00
Lifestyle creep is huge.
41:03
The 30s are your prime lifestyle creep years.
41:07
As you earn more money, a common tendency, according to the Yahoo Finance article, is to spend more money on better restaurants, nicer vacations, upgraded cars, and convenience spending.
41:21
None of that is automatically bad.
41:24
But when the increased spending consumes money that would otherwise be used for savings or debt service, it becomes a problem.
41:35
And I see lifestyle creep like crazy.
41:41
Literally saw somebody post just yesterday.
41:47
Look at my new car.
41:52
And then parentheses, which I deserve.
41:58
End parentheses.
42:02
The car that I deserve.
42:02
The car that I deserve.
42:04
It was a and then it went on to say, I found a good deal on financing.
42:04
It was a and then it went on to say I found a good deal on financing.
42:12
I was able to get rid of my other car, and I was able to find good financing on this car.
42:12
I was able to get rid of my other car, and I was able to find good financing on this car.
42:16
Now, again, I can't pass judgment because I don't know what their financial situation is.
42:16
Now, again, I can't pass judgment because I don't know what their financial situation is.
42:25
Uh I don't have a clue.
42:25
Uh I don't have a clue.
42:28
Maybe they intend to pay the car off in.
42:28
Maybe they intend to pay the car off in a year.
42:31
It's very possible.
42:34
I doubt it, but it's possible.
42:38
But it's the idea that I deserve this.
42:41
I deserve this upgrade.
42:43
Look at this shiny new car.
42:45
And they're posting it on social media.
42:48
We bought our first brand new car three years ago.
42:53
Almost to the day, three years and a month now, which is fully paid.
42:57
It's paid off.
42:58
We have zero debt.
43:01
We bought it brand new.
43:02
I didn't post it on social media.
43:06
I wasn't like, look at the new car that the new shiny car that we deserve.
43:12
We bought the car and we like we were kind of embarrassed about it.
43:16
We're like, we can't believe that we got to the point in our life where we had to buy a brand new car.
43:21
We vowed that we would never buy a brand new car.
43:26
And of course, it was the COVID prices on used cars, which kind of forced us.
43:31
I say forced.
43:33
I mean, we could have gone with one car, but it would have been extremely difficult.
43:38
But you could not find used cars.
43:40
We looked.
43:41
I mean, we looked for months and months, and our other car had completely been junked out.
43:48
We we could not keep driving that car.
43:52
We drive our cars literally until they don't run anymore.
43:58
And the issue was we were embarrassed.
44:01
We were like, we can't believe that we bought a brand new car.
44:04
We're not posting that on social media.
44:06
We're not proud that we bought a new car.
44:08
We felt defeated.
44:09
We were like, crap.
44:13
We really did.
44:14
Like it was so frustrating.
44:17
Because we were like, this is money that we would much rather take this money and invest that in the stock market.
44:23
We'd so much rather do that with that money.
44:27
All right, so lifestyle creep is a real thing.
44:30
As I mentioned, Jim Carrey went back to work.
44:33
He came out of retirement because he said, I can't afford the lifestyle.
44:38
I can't afford it.
44:40
At least he was honest about that.
44:43
All right, so here's another article.
44:45
This is a Fox Business article.
44:47
Five financial mistakes Americans in their 30s and 40s are making.
44:52
Expert warns.
44:54
It's an article that just came out.
44:57
But that doesn't mean that these are brand new things in 2026.
45:00
These are age-old things.
45:03
But these articles come out routinely because they're routinely problems that Americans face.
45:09
Number one, not investing early enough.
45:13
I cannot overemphasize the importance of investing and starting early.
45:20
In 2025, 62% of Americans said they owned stocks, according to Gallup.
45:27
That's surprising to me.
45:30
That's surprising, but I don't think that most of those stocks are actually profiting.
45:35
62% of Americans.
45:38
Many people in their 30s and 40s keep their savings in cash, missing out on the power of compounding.
45:47
This says uh Udina.
45:52
Uh trying to see who Udina is.
45:54
Sometimes these articles, oh, here we go.
45:56
Financial expert.
45:59
All right, so financial experts saying many people in their 30s and 40s keep their savings in cash.
46:04
They put it under a pillow, they put it under the mattress.
46:07
They're not compounding it, and so your money is losing value every single day because of inflation.
46:16
Yodina said the time is the most valuable asset you have in investing, and delaying even a few years is one of the most expensive financial mistakes you can make.
46:27
As of September 2025, 48% of Americans in their 40s and 44% of those in their early 50s say that they lack confidence that their savings will last through retirement.
46:40
Where they believe they may not be able to retire at all.
46:44
Half of Americans.
46:47
Half of Americans.
46:54
Number two, taking on too much debt.
46:58
Total U.S.
46:59
household debt rose by 191 billion dollars, reaching 18.8 trillion dollars in the fourth quarter of 2025.
47:10
18, almost 19 trillion dollars in personal debt that Americans hold.
47:47
In their minds.
48:01
Almost half of Americans, working Americans, say that they couldn't cover it in a thousand a $1,000 emergency.
48:13
That's scary.
48:29
Easily.
48:30
Easily.
48:33
One third say that they lack enough savings to cover even one month of living costs.
48:40
That's a U.S.
48:41
news survey conducted just this year, beginning of this year.
48:47
Unexpected expenses are inevitable.
48:50
They happen.
48:52
They're going to happen.
48:53
They're going to keep happening.
48:55
This is a way of life.
49:01
I can't stress that enough.
49:01
I can't stress that enough.
49:05
Emergencies happen.
49:05
Emergencies happen.
49:07
Emergency pets get sick.
49:07
Emergency pets get sick.
49:10
People have to take their pets to the emergency doctor.
49:10
People have to take their pets to the emergency doctor.
49:16
People spend $4,000, $5,000 on emergency surgery for their pets.
49:16
People spend $4,000, $5,000 on emergency surgery for their pets.
49:25
That's not a judgment.
49:25
That's not a judgment.
49:28
It happens.
49:28
It happens.
49:29
This happens.
49:29
This happens all the time.
49:30
It happens routinely.
49:33
Number four mistake that people in their 30s and 40s make, not planning for their children's education early.
49:41
College funds.
49:43
Not planning for their kids to go to college.
49:47
And then those finances hit.
49:49
American families spent an average of 30,837 on college last year.
49:57
A 9% increase from the 28,409 the year before, according to Sally Mae.
50:04
Listen to that inflation.
50:08
That's per year.
50:10
That's how much college is costing per year.
50:16
A 9% increase year over year.
50:20
That's what you call inflation.
50:26
One year you're spending 28,409.
50:29
The next year you're spending 30,837 on college.
50:35
Many parents assume they'll deal with college when the time comes, but education is one of the largest financial obligations families face.
50:46
College costs continue to rise, and many families underestimate how much time matters.
50:52
The earlier you start, the less painful it becomes.
50:59
Amen, amen, amen.
51:05
Nobody told us this.
51:08
Nobody told us this, and now we're struggling.
51:13
As Americans, people are struggling.
51:16
People are barely scraping by.
51:25
That's not what we deserve.
51:28
Now I'm going to pull out the deserve card.
51:31
We don't deserve the shiny new car.
51:35
I mean, yeah, if you work for it, if you if you have your retirement set in place, if you have other investments set in place, yeah, you deserve it wholeheartedly.
51:44
Go for it.
51:46
100%.
51:49
But taking out a loan, overextending yourself, putting yourself in a terrible financial position, making it impossible for you to retire.
52:02
That's not something that you should boast about and say, Well, I deserve, I deserve this car.
52:09
I work hard.
52:10
I deserve this house.
52:12
I work hard.
52:13
So what?
52:14
We all work hard.
52:17
That doesn't mean we deserve those things.
52:18
What we do deserve is to take a portion of what we make to invest it, to invest it well, to invest it long term, to be disciplined, and to retire with dignity and grace.
52:34
To be able to breathe.
52:37
To be able to say, hey, I worked hard my whole life, and I'm now going to take off, and I'm just gonna, I'm gonna relax.
52:47
I'm gonna eat at whatever restaurant I want to eat at.
52:51
I'm gonna vacation at whatever vacation spot that I want to vacation at.
52:56
I'm gonna do whatever I want to do.
52:58
I'm gonna help whoever I want to help.
53:02
Because I've worked hard my whole life, and I've invested and I've calculated and I've planned and I've prepared and I'm just gonna chill out and enjoy life.
53:17
Isn't that a much better route?
53:18
Isn't that a route that Americans deserve?
53:21
We live in I say this so often.
53:24
My goodness, we live in one of the best blessed nations on planet earth.
53:32
The ability for us to make money and to do well is not seen anywhere else in the world.
53:41
Not like this.
53:43
And so we ought to do that wisely.
53:46
We ought to take the money that we earn.
53:48
We work hard for it.
53:49
We ought to take the money that we earn and invest that in the best way possible.
53:54
Create the best life possible.
53:58
Be able to leave money behind for your kids, for your grandkids.
54:05
That's what I envision.
54:07
That's the American dream to me.
54:09
The American dream is not to be working until you're 75, 76, 77, 80 years old, still doing backbreaking work because you have to.
54:51
A cry for people to listen and to take heed, it's this.
54:57
Don't squander the blessings that God has given us.
55:09
Do not squander that.
55:11
Don't let a day pass you by where you let opportunity go by.
55:17
If you're on the fence about something, if you're on the fence about making a wise financial decision, just do it.
55:24
Just do it today.
55:31
Just do it.
55:34
Start that journey, or if you pause the journey, continue that journey to build wealth and to be prep prepare for retirement.
55:44
There are too many people struggling in America right now.
55:47
And they're not struggling because they don't make money.
55:50
They're struggling because they didn't invest money.
55:54
They weren't prepared.
55:55
Nobody told them.
55:57
Nobody warned them.
56:00
And that, my friends, is the hidden lightness.
56:01
And that, my friends, is the hidden lightness.
56:04
Opportunity is in front of us.
56:04
Opportunity is in front of us.
56:06
Take hold of it.
56:06
Take hold of it, take it, bless other people, bless your own family.
56:08
Take it, bless other people, bless your own family.
56:12
You won't be disappointed.
56:12
You won't be disappointed.
56:13
You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the menu navigation bar at America Outloud.news under our shows or schedule.
56:13
You can find more out about my show and get all the latest podcasts if you go to the menu navigation bar at AmericaOutloud.news under our shows or schedule.
56:21
You'll be in the know.
56:21
You'll be in the know.
56:22
There is a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us.
56:22
There is a hidden lightness that shines inside of all of us.
56:24
When there's so much darkness that envelops the world, remember that it doesn't take much light to expose that darkness.
56:24
When there's so much darkness that envelops the world, remember that it doesn't take much light to expose that darkness and to ultimately inspire other people.
56:32
Join me in being a light.