When I'm not hosting this podcast, I am writing books, but it is really hard for me to write when I'm at home, so I like to find remote cabins in the middle of nowhere to just hang out and write. But I hate the idea of my house just sitting empty, doing nothing but collecting dust and definitely not collecting checks. And that's why I'm an Airbnb host. It's one of my all-time favorite side hustles. Other popular side hustles are awesome, too, don't get me wrong, but they often involve big startup costs. By hosting your space, you're monetizing what you already have access to. It It doesn't get easier than that. And if you're new to the side hustle game and you're anxious about getting started, don't worry, because you're not in this alone. Airbnb makes it super easy to host. I mean, if I could do it, you could do it. And your home might be worth a lot more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb. Com/host. I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. Money can't buy you love, but it sure can cost you a relationship because financial conflict is a huge source of tension for so many couples.

Today, I'm talking to Jason Tardik, entrepreneur, host of a top business and finance pod, Trading Secrets. And yes, he was on The Bachelor, but also he worked in banking for tenure, so he really knows his financial stuff. We talk about money and relationships because he is knee deep in this topic while writing his latest book, Talk Money to Me. We talk about how not to let money ruin a relationship, but we also We go way deeper. We talk about Jason's experience with being scammed, which companies he's bullish and bearish on, and what Elon Musk is like at a party. Here's Jason. I want to jump into the intersection of love and money, one of my favorite topics. In your latest book, you outlined eight questions that people need to ask their partners. I could not agree with you more. These questions are always hard. They're always awkward, they're always weird, but you can make them fun and sexy because you're really talking about your hopes and your dreams and your goals and your life together. So how do you start those conversations with couples?

Yeah. I mean, anytime I think you enter the discussion of money and love, it becomes like, where do I even begin? But I think in any type of conversation regarding love, there's so many hard things you have to step into. And we know that all at the end of the day, conflict is, is growth trying to happen. And we know that there is so much conflict when it connects love and money. And the statistics out there are wildly alarming about what happens when we don't discuss money in our relationships. And so knowing those statistics, like 50 % of couples don't feel comfortable even having conversations around money, or those that do have conversations, three quarters of them say that it creates material tension in the relationship So that gives us an indicator that we really need to step into it at some capacity. And so what I always say is when we think about money, it's just like we initially are like, What are you making? What's your net worth? What's your debt? And it's like, Whoa, slow down.

Yeah, like a police interrogation with the question. Yeah, It's light in your eye.

And it's like, well, we can have fun. Think about when you go out to drinks with your friends or a bite to eat, the fun conversations you have about whatever it is. Maybe it's gossip, maybe it's current news or what's happening. You could do that with money. And the classic example I give someone is if you earn or win a certain dollar amount, you get paid that amount today, like 50,000 or 500,000 or 100,000, you got to spend every dollar. How exactly are you spending it? And just in that answer, I can learn how you prioritize money, what your relationship with money, et cetera. So I say, introduce fun ways to these conversations, because it's hard to step in to the ones that aren't so fun. But we know we have to.

We know we have to. What if somebody has a financial skeleton in their closet? As you know with the stats, financial infidelity is real, which just means infidelity around money. So cheating on somebody infidelity physically can happen, emotionally can happen, it can happen financially. So what are some ways, let's say you're the one with the financial skeleton, what are some easy ways to make that confession a little bit more comfortable?

Well, first and foremost, I think that everybody has some form of a financial skeleton in their closet. At some capacity, There's some type of skeleton that needs to be worked on, literally from billionaires down. We all have something, so we're all there together. But the biggest thing is identifying them. And I think we live in a system where we We don't experience massive pain that it causes us to actually have to fix things immediately. Another example I always give is when you have a cavity or you have a super big pain point, you have to immediately fix it. With finance, it's not set up. It's a slow drip, it's a slow burn. And some people say, What are financial red flags that you look for in relationships? I'm like, If you have financial red flags, that's great. Let me just see them, because we know, statistically, as you said, it's 43% of married and cohabitating couples have one person that are committing, at least one person that's committing financial infidelity. So let's see the red flags. Let's understand them. Let's not blame, shame, or weaponize. Let's work on ways to improve them. Because within personal finance, with quick, quick solutions, you can see quick results.

You know what we say here at Money Rehab? What do you say? The only financial problem you can't fix is the one you don't admit you have.

There you go. Boom. That's the way to solve that question right there.

So are there any Any financial deal breakers, in your opinion? I think there was this big New York Times article where this woman who got out of debt was dating this guy, and he had a boatload of debt that she found out about it, and she was like, Yo, this is a breaker. I'm not here for this. What do you think?

The problem with that is, especially someone who's left over $100 million in the banking system, is debt's not terrible. And in fact, almost every large company that does revenue of over $10 million and greater needs debt to grow. Debt can be an amazing tool to build wealth. But it's like, what debt does that person have? The big question is why. And with those behaviors, have they been fixed? Are they going to continue to repeat? The big thing I hate about hearing headlines like that is we hear one thing, and we have been trained in the finance world to immediately assume the negative connotation with it. We hear bad credit and assume all this negativity. There are a lot of people that are worth multimillion dollars and some that have terrible debt or terrible credit score. It's okay to have certain issues. Let's understand them. Let's identify them and see if those patterns are going to repeat or can be fixed. That's it. In my book, there was an example we had of someone who had a situation that was wildly the example of financial infidelity, but she's making less than her husband. They got married pretty quickly.

He said that he'll pay half the mortgage via Venmoor Zell, and she had belief in that because she did that he made more. So her name's on the mortgage. They put both of their names on the deed. And then the day they closed, the IRS owned the entirety of her home because he had all these back taxes that were due. And so I think if we don't have these conversations, if we don't step into them, we're not doing our due diligence. And guess what? She went through a divorce. She was carrying his debt. She ended up getting happily remarried to a really supportive guy. They together paid off his debt, the prior husband, and now live a happy So that's the thing with finance. It can be fixed once identified, and we need to get rid of judging.

We had somebody on the show who was in a different situation, but he was broken up with because he wasn't making as much as his girlfriend at the time, and she wanted him to be making more. This feels like a uniquely male problem in hetero relationships, I think. What advice would you give men who are feeling financially insecure?

Man, I would say go to therapy and figure out what the real issue is, right? And we're seeing the wage gap is tightening, and in my opinion, it's 100 % going to flip. And this concept is something that needs to be broken into, that needs to be shattered because it is completely backwards and asinine.

Totally, totally agree. There's always something that's financially trauma-related that's leading to these issues. So getting to the core of that is super, super important. I want to quickly double click on something you said because our A lot of listeners might be wondering, debt is good potentially. And we've talked about this on the show. But just to be clear, what debt are you're talking about? You're not talking about a boatload of credit card debt. There's good debt, there's bad debt. You can use debt to create more wealth in some capacities, but also it could be a red flag.

Yeah, correct. I think the short answer is that good debt is any type of debt instrument that is used to hopefully support an appreciating asset of some nature. We know, historically, real estate United States appreciates. So a mortgage is collateralized by the home. And of course, it's more of a generalized statement, but in general, homes United States, as a macro perspective, appreciate. When we look at credit card debt, credit card debt is considered a bad form of debt because you are likely acquiring assets that depreciate or have no value, which is why I'm sure all your listeners know when you tie the risk associated with any form of debt with an interest rate, you know credit card debt is going to be the highest interest rate because the bank is taking on so much more inherent risk because there is no collateral for that debt that's being deployed. When I talk about good debt when it comes to businesses, I'm talking about companies that are buying equipment to continue to grow. I'm talking about companies that are buying real estate to grow. Companies that are supporting their employees through a line of credit to grow.

Companies that are using debt to acquire other companies. So there's a lot of forms in which you can use debt as a strategy to acquire appreciating assets, and that is night and day from assets that are bought through dollars that are spent on experiences or material items at depreciating value.

Stocks, not stuff. I like it. Back to love and money. What do you think couples should do with their bank accounts? Do you think yours, mine, and ours, something joint, a secret account?

No secret accounts. I think the biggest thing in finance, you need full visibility to everything you have and to everything your partner has, especially if you are married are cohabitating. Like 100% pure visibility into everything and where it goes. When you have visibility, it absolutely eliminates all gray area. When I think about joint accounts and separate accounts, at the end of the day, there is no cookie cutter solution for anything finance. It has to be customized. That's why I like some of these conversations could take weeks, months, even years to figure out after material, material due diligence based on everyone's circumstances and what their overall profile looks like. That being said, I think a good solution, I'll give you one that I recommend in my book, a Talk Money to me. If you have a 15 to 20% income within one another, I think putting a joint account and having your own individual accounts are good, creating an amount that you can both contribute to your individual account and then operating as individual entities as well. But at the end of the day, networth is your baseline for cash inflows and outflows. Even to go back to that earnings conversation, the amount of people I know that have less earnings than their partner but have more wealth is significant.

Earnings is just one small part of the equation to building your overall networth. And so that's why another reason to just immediately judge it is there's nothing intuitive about it.

And all of these financial conversations get more complicated. They become the advanced financial discussions when you have kids, of course, and then you start talking about wills and advanced directives and all of those other conversations. So when you start having kids It's a whole new cluster of financial questions. Former bachelor, nick Vial. And his wife, I have in my notes, I have a baby that's almost four months old. What advice would you give them about setting their kid up for financial success?

I think that Nick's kid is going to be set up quite well for financial success. Nick has had a ton of success. So any advice I'd give to anyone that has a newborn is before that newborn even comes to this beautiful Earth, have a 520 a 529 set up. All the birthdays, all the religious celebrations, all the graduations, and everything in between, friends can contribute to a 529, but you have to have that account set up. And it is the best way to contribute to a child's future. And as we know, time, I'm sure all your listeners are well aware of the impact of time on growth and making money on your money. And so making sure that you are putting money in a place where you have all All your tax incentivization set up with time moving in your child's direction is huge. And so make sure you're consulting with CPA, make sure you're working with an investment specialist or doing your own due diligence before you decide the investment selections in these 529 plans or wherever it is that you are saving for your child's future. But it's like anything, just like retirement, the earlier you start, the better you'll be off.

Yes, it's time in the market, not time being the market. Correct.

Exactly. Nailed it.

All right. Well, a lot of reality people... I've never seen a Bachelor or a Real Housewife show, but I know I'm the only one in the history of the world. But a lot of Real Housewives cast members have come on the show and talk about financial dysmorphia or money dysmorphia, and this has been getting a lot of play lately. What would you give as advice to reality alumni who are dealing with this type of thing?

Yeah, this is very prevalent with Gen Zs, too, right? We're seeing right now that the credit card debt that being amassed by Gen Zs is higher than any generation before. Obviously, inflation playing an impact on that. I think that the problem is everyone knows it. You're trying to keep up with the Jones, you're trying to keep up with Instagram, trying to keep up with the Kardashian, everything. And the only person at the end of the day that you're impacting is yourself. And it's weird that finance and therapy actually connect in a lot of ways. And one thing I tell people to consider is behavioral-based budgeting. So that's the idea of going to look at your last three credit card statements and just pay attention to outline purchases. You don't have to do Excel files, a calculator work. Just literally scan it and just ask yourself why. What was the purpose of that purchase? Are you a people pleaser? Are you sitting at dinner feeling like you have to pick it up or you have to buy a drink? Are you someone that's trying to impress others through your goods or what you're wearing or where you're going and how you're going and what you're doing?

And I think through that, you can understand behaviors about yourself. And the only way that you'll be able to cure those things are by working on yourself. One example I always give is, I was 21, I'm going through my credit card statements and I just see bar tabs that are absorbing it. And I'm like, Listen, I like to have a good time, but there's no way I could drink that much. Well, started to do some therapy within and looking at my behaviors. I was struggling with confidence. I was struggling with identity. I was in a city I didn't know many people. And where was that actually impacting me? My wallet and my credit card bill. I'd throw my credit card down, open a tab and say drinks on me. And so that was actually a me issue. And I think through our spending, through Gen Zs, through child reality stars, trying to keep up with other reality stars, it's actually behavioral issues with us that is showing up in our spending. And we can learn a lot about ourselves based on how we're executing transactions with our money. And once we work on those issues, you'll see a huge impact in return on our wallet.

I agree. I think you probably would suggest actual therapy could be helpful, but what you're saying is do your own DIY therapy by asking yourself, why? What was the purpose here?

Precisely. Exactly.

Hold on to your wallet. Money Rehab will be right back. Do you ever get FOMO, fear of missing out? Well, do you ever get FOMO-Tupita, fear of missing out on the perfect higher? If so, I have the antidote. It's LinkedIn jobs. Linkedin jobs helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else. Even those who aren't actively searching for a new job but might be open to the perfect role. In any given month, over 70 % of LinkedIn users don't visit other leading job sites, and that adds up to a serious squad of awesome candidates. Linkedin has over a billion professionals on the platform, and these candidates are super qualified, so much so that 86 % of small businesses get a qualified candidate within just 24 hours. I work with LinkedIn jobs for all of my dream team needs, so they're hooking up money rehabbers at linkedin. Com/mnen. Go there and you can post your job for free. That's linkedin. Com/mnen, as in Money News Network. Just post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Money Rehabbers, I got to tell you, I just got back from Industrius, and I am obsessed. Industrius is a company that provides co-working spaces and flexible office solutions for modern businesses, entrepreneurs, and remote employees who don't just want to work from their bedroom.

I live in LA, as you know, and I travel a ton. And when I do, I always worry about finding a good place to work with a strong WiFi connection and a legit desk situation. Industrius has a ton of different locations in major cities, so it really gives me the peace of mind that I have a home away from home when it comes to getting stuff done. But when I am at home, I love the Westwood locations floor to ceiling windows. It just makes you feel like you're on top of the world, which is definitely the vibe you want when you're trying to take over the world. I also love the telephone booths they have that allow you to take private calls there. But also, if you have a Zoom, there's a ring light because Zooms are always better that way. We know this. Go to industriusoffice. Com, click Join Now, and use the code moneyrehab to redeem a whole free week of co-working when you take a tour. A whole free week. Free. It's my favorite price. And now for some more Money Rehab. All right, we are both finance nerds. I would love to play some financial games with you, if you're down.

Let's play some financial games.

Let's go. Yeah, all right. I wanted you a round of financial never have I ever. Let's hear it. All right. Split the check on a first date.

Never done it. You? No.

Been in debt.

Been in debt. Never been in debt.

Fought with a significant other about money.

Oh, yeah.

Maxed out a credit card.

I have maxed out a credit card. So I paid for my MBA- You might need a whole other hand. I did a little thing where it was your interest rate credit card for 21 months, but I was working full-time. So I put my tuition from my MBA on my credit card, knowing that the cash inflow from my job was coming, but I didn't have to have interest on my debt, like with student loans. But I did max out my credit card for that.

I'll let it pass. Do you know your credit score, side note?

I think it's like a 815 or something like that.

I think mine is probably lower than that. I think the last time I checked it, it was like 780.

But again- That's incredible. You've beaten this down over and over. But the impact of credit is so significant on your cash outflows and the entirety of your life, what capital costs you.

For sure. But also don't get obsessed with having a perfect one because I. Correct.

Yeah, you don't need a perfect one. You just need a good one. You'll get the same benefits as everyone in the range of good.

For sure. Been fired from a job.

Yeah.

Signed a prenup.

No, I encourage it, though.

Great. And I think women should suggest it. There's this stigma that a guy is going to make me do it. No, my prenup is ready to go.

No. Discuss it. First of all, it forces you to step into it. Second of all, your state already has a prenup for you. It's the laws that create, customize it. And another one for your audience, which I'm assuming, based on this discussion, is a very female-based, postnumps are huge. If you are a caretaker after you are married for your family and you are putting your career on hold and your earnings and everything else that could come with the power of if you were working, but you are providing, which creates such massive value for your family entity as it is, a postnup can really help protect you in those circumstances, too. Okay, I'm done. I love it.

Never apologize for a financial rant here. Gambleed in Vegas.

Oh, yeah.

Fallen for a scam.

Oh, yeah.

Disputed a charge on a credit card. Disputed a charge on a credit card.

Oh, 100 %.

This is one of my My favorite thing's to. Had buyer's remorse on a big purchase.

Oh, yeah.

Bought a house. Mm-mm. Negotiated a raise.

Oh, yeah.

Invested in a company that went bankrupt.

Oh, yeah.

Written a Wall Street Journal bestseller.

Yay.

I don't know.

I'm lost at the same time. Writing a book sucks. I mean, I love it. It's there forever. I love the impact, but it's brutal.

I'm on my fifth one.

God.

I need to take both birth control. I know. Yeah. All right. Next game. I want to throw some bizarre headlines your way in the intersection of love and money and get your take.

Okay, let's do it.

A man went viral after asking his date for a refund after their unsuccessful first meetup. He paid for her drinks on their first date, and a few days later, he asked her to go on a second date, and she declined. So in response, he asked her if she could Venmo him back for their drinks. Was it fair for him to do that?

No, it's just ridiculous, right? Financial transparency is not etiquette. You can't go return something that is an experience. It's just ridiculous. I hear stories like that, and I'm just shaking my head. So no, I don't stand for that, and I think it's absolutely ridiculous. And I think it's so important to know that people see headlines like this and have these conversations because they make for good conversation. But this is not what we're talking about when we're saying you need to talk money with the people that you love and feel comfortable about it, right? This is a guy who is a loose cannon, and I think it's a good thing that there wasn't another date date.

I agree. A recent study shows that almost two in three Americans believe that spending more on a date will lead to a successful relationship. Should How would people be thinking about dates as an investment?

I don't think it's about the dollar spent on a date. I think it is about the time and thoughtfulness, intention that's applied to it. I do see what people would say that if I'm deploying time and resources and effort. I want to think about it as like, I want it to go well. I want them to know that I'm putting something into this so that I see a personal return and happiness. But I don't think that has to do with dollars deployed because I I think you could do a lot of creative, intentional, thoughtful dates that could actually go a lot further than just money deployed. So I do disagree with that.

I'm sure you've seen a new dating app score requires users to have a credit score of 675 or above to join. Do you like this idea?

I don't like the idea of exclusion, right? Because I think you're now excluding people that have a credit score less than, which is absolutely ridiculous. I do like the idea that an app like that is probably creating some transparency. It's allowing people to start thinking about what is a credit score and how does that apply to dating and let's be open about it. I think that's good. But the idea of excluding people that have a yellow or red score, I think, is a little silly, especially when you look at the full picture of finance and understand that, like you said, credit score is a piece of the puzzle, but it's not the largest piece, the most important. It's just a piece. That's all.

And it's changeable.

And it's changeable. In 90 days, your credit score can go from a red score to a green score. It's so changeable.

What about putting your credit score? Because score, I think you have to have a certain credit score to join. But there was this viral woman who put her credit score as one of her, I think, hinge pictures and got all of these different responses. What do you think about having credit scores on dating apps or using that as a filter? We have more arbitrary filters than credit score.

I don't know. I don't think it should be means as a... What are dating apps anyway? You're literally just swiping away to figure out if you want to go on a date. I don't think that's a pertinent thing to decide if you're going to go have a cup of coffee. I think before you get married, cohabitate, and continue to move along your relationship, that's super important. But just putting it in your profile, I don't know. It's weird. Do you see there's a new club now in New York City that is opening and to get into the club. So it's a nightclub, right? We're not talking about a country club or anything. It's a nightclub. And to get into the club, you have to show a bank account statement with at least $50,000 in cash.

That's so stupid, though, because smart money doesn't have 50 grand in their checking account.

Right. It's not a reflection of your entire wealth. There's a million reasons why it's just stupid. So I think I'm a huge proponent of financial transparency. I'm a huge proponent of getting comfortable with money conversations for education, insight, clarity, all the things. But there are so many toxic means of financial transparency that just don't all connect to anything productive. That is certainly one of them.

A Michigan woman sued a man for $10,000 after he stood her up on a date, citing extreme emotional distress. Who should win the lawsuit?

Oh, my God. This is so stupid. I don't know what connected to that lawsuit. Obviously, I don't have enough information, but just hearing it, it sounds absolutely ridiculous.

Have you ever been on such a bad date that you wanted to file a lawsuit?

Never. Never. I've definitely been on my fair share of bad dates, but then I file a lawsuit for distress. I mean, again, I don't know the situation. You got to give context. But as Assuming it was just a bad date that wasn't great, I don't know what the means of that lawsuit would be, nor my attorney, but damn.

All right. I'm going to throw out some stocks, and I would love if you tell me if you're bullish or bearish on the company for 2024. Cool?

Yeah.

Meta.

Love it. It's trading below its 52-week high. I own Meta. Big fan.

Reddit.

Not a fan of Reddit. I think from what I remember from their stock last time... Well, first of all, they're all mean to me on Reddit. Second of all- That's the reason enough to be bearish. Second of all, I think the ROI on that stock is pretty poor last time I looked into it.

I had a rough IPM. Alphab.

Investor, bullish.

Ai, all the good stuff.

Yeah, I mean, their position, their balance sheet's healthy. They've always been a market leader. They'll continue to be. I don't think you're going to get burned with Google. If they're not at the forefront of AI like a NVIDIA is, they will be eventually, or they'll just buy it. I mean, that will be, I think, they're a good place to be.

Nvidia.

It's scary how much the entire world economy is banking on the resource and the information that we get from this stock. But obviously, they're one of the biggest players. They're driving the market. All indices are at all time highs. As a major contributor is NVIDIA. And the big thing for people that don't know back home is this is a good indicator of where AI is going. And all indications showcase that AI is here to stay for the foreseeable future. And it's advancing in ways that if you don't advance with it, you will be behind. So just even a small thing you could do today, because that might sound overwhelming, is just go download a ChatGPT or something of the sort. I don't know, next email, just copy and paste your email and just say, Fix grammar, and it will do it for you. And now you're starting to embrace AI because the world's embracing it. Countries are embracing it at different speeds, and companies are embracing it. And if you don't embrace it, you'll be left behind.

Agreed. Tesla.

Tesla, I think, is a great company, a good product. I think the leadership is extremely volatile. And as a result of that, I am bearish of Tesla.

That was a nice way to say it. You're That was a nice way of saying Elon is cuckoo bananas.

I was at a party in F1 Miami, and he was there. I was like, How is that guy? Everyone was dressed. He was wearing like... I was just shocked by His power, just everything. You know when you see people and you're like, whoa. You could just see their energy from a distance. You're like, damn. Oh, my God. It wasn't there for him. I just couldn't believe. I'm like, This guy runs the entire world. It's Anyway.

He didn't have the Riz, as the kids say.

The Riz or just even... Steve Jobs didn't have Riz, but Steve Jobs had a presence where he took over a room. Most people at that level... Michael Rubin was at that party. Michael Rubin's presence, I mean, physically, very small guy. His presence is the size of the room. And with him, I was like, interesting. I don't know. Anyway, I digress.

Disney.

Love it. I I just think great leadership, innovative, creative, been around forever. When they're fallen, they always find a way to come back. They're acquiring the right companies under their portfolio. Hulu has done amazing. I'm bullish on Disney.

Gamestop.

I wouldn't touch Gamestop with a 10-foot poll. It's this essence of gambling in its finest form. Go to Vegas, right? There's massive volatility. You could have an individual that decides to speak for the first time in three years, and the stock is going to move over 200X. It's wild to see, though, how individual investors could have massive impact on individual securities. We saw Roaring Kitty literally just put out tweets. That's it. No words. Just tweets and video montages. Within 48 hours, institutions lost over $2 billion from their shorts. It's just wild to see how retail investors, everyday investors, can now come together like the minnows can literally unify and kill sharks. That's a wild thing to see. That's a big takeaway. Investing in game stock isn't for me, though. Reets. I like reets, but I like public reets. I like reets where there's all information that's available. There are private REITs that are very successful. I have seen private REITs in my day. I have massive issues and a lot of fraud. The idea of publicly traded REITs to me is a lot more comforting.

Bitcoin.

My issue with Bitcoin is that it's strictly... To any economist you speak to, it's strictly just built on speculation. There isn't much of a utility, and there's nothing backing it other than a limited supply and demand that is fluctuating based on the speculation of it. So there aren't many currencies in this world in which there's literally nothing behind it but a limited supply and speculation. You look at your United States dollar, there's the United States behind it. And so for that reason, I'm not very bullish on Bitcoin in the long run.

Yeah, we had Nouriel Rubini on the show, and he said he used I would call them shit coins, but that was offensive to manure because manure can be used for agriculture.

Yeah. I think it's a good place to start. It's like, go think about anything when it comes to money, where it's pure form of deregulation. And And every economist that's out there that has had extreme historical success in providing advice that is unbiased, it's one of the only things they're unified on, is that it's strictly just based on momentum and speculation.

Before I ask my last question, I want to circle back to one of the things you said in the never have I ever answers. You said you'd fallen for a scam.

Yeah. Tell us about it. I've fallen for a bunch of scams. It's gotten a lot better. I fell for one scam when I was on a train in Europe, and the gentleman told me that I didn't buy a ticket for the train, in which you didn't have to buy a ticket for, and he had a fake POS system. What he said was that you had to pay for the ticket plus the fine. I was by myself in a tough position, in a weird position. He had all the right uniform on, and I swiped away. He got my credit card information and then also charged me for that fee plus ticket when there was no ticket. So I learned the hard way there. I've also gotten, when I was in my early 20s, you have to rebook a flight and you're in a rush. I googled American Airlines customer service, didn't do my due diligence on the number. The number was not American Airlines. They were faking as though they're American Airlines. And I thought I was rebooking and rechanging my flight for a certain dollar amount. Meanwhile, I was actually providing a fraudulent phone number, my credit card information.

I've gotten better, but where there's so many things right now where they'll tell you there's fraud, like, Oh, there's been fraud on your card. Click this link to just verify it, and the link is full of fishing. I think in general, the scams have gotten so sophisticated. And so everyone has to keep an eye out and just do your due diligence before you make phone calls, before you click links, and of course, you ever provide information. And fortunately, it was credit cards, which had liability protection, and all that money was returned. But yeah, crazy stuff.

Crazy stuff. But yes, they are so good. So you don't feel Would you do that again, do you think? No. Are you just a trusting gullible dude?

No, no, no, no. I think I'm a good... I'm very good at falling on my face. I've mastered the fall on your face in all areas of life. But I've been very good at getting back up in the mirror, seeing the bruise and be like, Yeah, we're not going to fall like that again. We might fall, but it's not going to be from that way again. And that's life, right? Keep getting knocked down, get picked back up, but just figure out how to avoid the future fall. So I think none of the above would I get hit on again. That's for sure. I'm sure you're going to fall again.

We all will. I'll fall again. Maybe not the same way.

I won't fall that way. I won't fall on the train. I won't fall through the booking of the airlines with the wrong number.

We end our episodes, Jason, by asking our guests for One Money Tip listeners can take straight to the bank. What's yours? I know you have a bajillion. It can be anything. Tips for managing financial issues in your relationship, new investors, advice for budgeting, anything.

Okay, I'll give one top of mind. It's in the book, and it is about retirement. I think it's so easy to kick the can. I own a talent management agency. We work with different celebrities every day. I try and teach them some of the financial wherewithal when these big checks are coming in. It is so easy for anybody and everybody, regardless of how much income you have, to kick the can on retirement. And I think it's really important to put dollars and cents together so people can get a picture. But on average, if you want to retire today, you need to take your annual spend and multiply it times around 2025. So let's just say you spend $100,000. I'm just making a simple equation. You spend $100,000 a year. You're going to need $2.5 million to retire, to live off that for 30 years, assuming the same lifestyle. And so what I would tell people is if we quickly bring that number down to 50,000, you now need $1.25. And so the ideology of what we're spending today does impact how much we need to save tomorrow is critical. So think through that and think through that aggressively.

Also recognize I have a full table in my book, but this is an example. If you're 35 years old, you have a household income of 150K. To be on track for retirement, you need $330,000 saved up. If you don't have $330,000 $30,000 saved up with that income under your household in that age, you have to play a little catch up. And so you'll have to put about 21% of your gross income away to get caught up. Now, the longer you wait, the more you're going to have to put away. And so if you need a wake up call today, just know that the pain tomorrow or a year or five or 10 years is going to be so much more exorbitant than the small pain today of planning for your retirement. And the big thing is, think about what goes into a vacation when you go on it for a week. You're planning, you got to look up restaurants, your hotel, your flights. There's your packing. Who's watching the dogs? Is your security on? That's for a seven-day vacation. When we retire, it's a 1,500-plus week vacation. And for some reason, we just continue to kick the can.

So take some time, think about it, plan for it, and what you do today will really help tomorrow.

Money Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lappin. Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan LaVoy. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some money rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your moneyquestions, moneyrehab@moneynewsnetwork. Com, to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagram at Moneynews and TikTok at Moneynews Network for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for investing yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.