Mastering Teen Money Management: Jobs, Budgeting, and Investing

Mike Mills
(0:08) Well, hello, internet. (0:11) My name is Mike Mills, and this is the Real Estate and Finance Podcast. (0:15) And today, we are going to be doing just a little less real estate and a lot more family and money.
(0:22) So continuing on our series of financial education, or for teens, I should say teen financial education. (0:30) So today, we're going to talk all things budgeting, we're going to talk about jobs, we're going to talk about college, we're going to talk about all that kind of fun stuff that you can talk about with your teen at home, anybody that's getting ready to have a kid only for college or just ready to get those little suckers out of the house. (0:45) But either way, please welcome to the show, my favorite guest of all time, my beautiful and wonderful daughter, Katie Jane Mills.
(0:54) Hello, Katie. (0:55) Hi. (0:56) All right.
Catey Mills
(0:57) I'm back.
Mike Mills
(0:58) She's back. (0:59) This is round number four.
Catey Mills
(1:00) Yep.
Mike Mills
(1:00) Are you excited?
Catey Mills
(1:01) So excited.
Mike Mills
(1:02) So excited. (1:02) I know, I know. (1:03) You do this for dad.
(1:04) I such appreciate it. (1:05) We spend a lot of time because we live in the same house, but you lead a very busy life. (1:10) So this is my chance to talk to you a little bit and get you focused in on me for just a second.
(1:15) So I appreciate you as always helping me out with this. (1:18) Of course. (1:18) You're becoming a better and better sport as we go along.
Catey Mills
(1:20) I am. (1:21) I am.
Mike Mills
(1:21) Why do you think that is?
Catey Mills
(1:22) I don't know. (1:23) I just got used to it. (1:24) I just kind of accepted the fact that I don't have a choice, but it's fine.
(1:27) It's not that bad.
Mike Mills
(1:28) I mean, you have a choice, sort of.
Catey Mills
(1:29) Yeah, I do.
Mike Mills
(1:30) Sort of. (1:31) Kind of. (1:31) A little bit.
(1:32) A little bit. (1:33) All right. (1:33) So we're going to get into a few things today.
(1:36) We're going to talk about what her experience is like, has been on her job. (1:39) She actually is recently having to change jobs, sort of, kind of. (1:44) And a little bit about how the money situation is going.
(1:48) We're going to talk about possibly starting a new job in her own business, perhaps. (1:53) And then also get a little bit into, at the end, we'll talk a little bit about investing and some stuff that you might want to know as we head into this stuff, which we'll dig into later. (2:01) But before we start, so we just got back from vacation not too long ago.
Catey Mills
(2:06) We did.
Mike Mills
(2:07) Yeah. (2:07) We went to, where did we go? (2:08) Tell everybody about what we did.
Catey Mills
(2:09) We went on a cruise to Alaska. (2:11) We went to what? (2:12) Sitka, Juneau, Victoria, Canada.
(2:16) And what was the first one?
Mike Mills
(2:18) Skagway.
Catey Mills
(2:18) Skagway.
Mike Mills
(2:19) Yes. (2:20) So how was your, what did you think about that?
Catey Mills
(2:22) Well, I thought, okay.
Mike Mills
(2:23) You can be honest. (2:24) You don't have to.
Catey Mills
(2:25) Well, I liked the first cruise a little bit better just because I'm more of a beachy person and I like to tan. (2:30) Because like, when you're on the ship and you're bored, on the last cruise I could just go tan and like, whatever. (2:35) But this one, it was really cold.
(2:36) So you just kind of had to sit in the room if you were bored. (2:38) But besides that, I liked them both equally. (2:40) I think Alaska is super pretty.
(2:42) It was really pretty. (2:43) It was really fun. (2:44) Met a lot of cool people.
(2:45) So I liked it. (2:46) It was fun.
Mike Mills
(2:47) Yeah. (2:47) So the last time for anybody going on a cruise, tell everybody about what you did the last cruise about meeting friends and then how you did it this time.
Catey Mills
(2:53) Oh, well, so the last cruise, there was like something that came up on my feed on TikTok and it was like, Oh, like if you're going on a cruise, like put your cruise in the comments and you can like meet people. (3:02) So I did that. (3:03) And like a bunch of people responded.
(3:05) So like we made a group chat and we all kind of met up on the ship once we got there and we like kind of already had a friend group. (3:11) But this time I couldn't do that just because it was a smaller cruise. (3:14) And I mean, it was kind of lucky that I was able to find people on TikTok anyway.
(3:17) And so I just kind of had to like meet people. (3:19) But I met a lot of a lot bigger group and I actually ended up liking this group a lot more because there were a lot more people. (3:26) But yeah, it was fun.
Mike Mills
(3:26) Sorry old group. (3:27) But oh, and that's we have a we have a guest up here with us today. (3:32) Our kitty cat has joined us in our upstairs studio.
(3:35) He thinks there's mice up here. (3:36) So he's trying to find them. (3:37) So if you hear him talking in the background, I apologize, but all right, so let's start with your job.
(3:42) So I want you to tell everybody about, you know, we talked a little bit last time about how your experience was going. (3:47) So I want to recap that a little bit, how your job's been. (3:49) And this isn't by the way, love your job so that we're not talking about anything bad about it, but just more about the working experience, what working has been like with going to school.
(3:59) And then now that you've been out for summer, what's that like? (4:02) And then also you had to make a change. (4:04) So we'll talk a little bit about that as well.
Catey Mills
(4:06) So I started my job, I started training in like January, like the very beginning of January. (4:12) So I started about six or seven months ago. (4:15) It's been really good.
(4:16) I really like my job. (4:18) I love little kids and it's really fun. (4:20) And all my coworkers are really nice.
(4:23) The only thing is it's, it's a little bit difficult, especially it was really bad during school because it's not the kind of job where I could just go and like sit behind a counter and just like do whatever. (4:35) Like there's a curriculum you have to follow and you have to like give parents feedback.
Mike Mills
(4:39) You teach swim lessons by the way.
Catey Mills
(4:40) Yes, I teach swim lessons. (4:42) And you have to like give parents feedback. (4:43) And you're always like, I'm always stressed because there's like four kids on a bench and they're like wanting to jump in the water.
(4:48) And like, if I turn my back for a second, it's just really like stressful. (4:51) So it's really hard to go to school for eight hours, learn all this stuff, go home, have to do whatever, go straight to work from home, do whatever I can at work and then come home and study for my test next day. (5:04) Like at school, like there was just not a single brain break.
(5:06) So like my brain was just like fried and it's gotten better during the summer. (5:09) Cause I don't really have much else to do. (5:11) Like besides conditioning, I just came back from conditioning.
(5:13) That's why I look like this. (5:15) Strength and conditioning, but it's, it's just really like tiring, but if I didn't, so I have to quit or quit, I guess kind of leave because volleyball starts up in, we have team camp. (5:29) Yeah.
(5:29) We have team camp this week and then we have tryouts in like two weeks. (5:32) And so I can't, it's just not possible because a school practice is from like three to six and like my shift would start at four and it's every day after school. (5:42) So I can't do it after school.
(5:43) And then I would do Saturdays, but varsity practices on Saturdays. (5:46) So I can't do it then. (5:47) And then I would do Sundays, but we're closed on Sundays.
(5:51) So I have to leave and either find another job that I can work on Sundays or do the babysitting thing.
Mike Mills
(6:00) So we'll talk about the babysitting thing, but I want you to tell everybody, because when you came to me and said, okay, I got to, I've got to tell my job that I can't continue working after the next couple of weeks. (6:10) Now this is something that if you're a parent out there, you'll kind of understand. (6:14) And if you're a kid out there, you certainly will understand what was, how are you going to go about letting your boss know that you weren't going to be working there anymore?
Catey Mills
(6:20) So I'm not scared of my boss, but I am a, I'm a little scared. (6:26) And so I wanted to just like text her.
Mike Mills
(6:29) And what did I tell you?
Catey Mills
(6:30) You told me that I should not do that.
Mike Mills
(6:32) Well, I said you shouldn't do that, but what did I ultimately say?
Catey Mills
(6:35) Said that I can do whatever I want to do.
Mike Mills
(6:37) Whatever you want to do. (6:38) And what did you elect to do?
Catey Mills
(6:39) I told her in person. (6:41) I didn't text her just because.
Mike Mills
(6:42) So why do you, why do you think that I found that to be an important, like, why do you think that that's important? (6:47) Or why do you think that I think that's important?
Catey Mills
(6:49) Like telling people things in person. (6:52) I don't know, just cause it's better to be face-to-face and, um, words can come across differently over a text message then.
Mike Mills
(7:00) Well, like your generation is very bound up and everything happens online, right? (7:03) You guys snap each other, you text each other, you're, you're constantly on your phones doing stuff together. (7:08) And now I do think, and I don't know everybody else's kid's life and you know, you and Troy are different, but you do at least spend more time in person with your friends.
(7:17) Like you guys, you know, paint at the pool and you'll go out and do stuff and go to hang out at Sonic for all hours of the week. (7:23) But yes, it's everybody's favorite hangout. (7:26) But, um, but what you don't, what you guys, you know, your generation perhaps, and now I sound like an old guy is, you know, you guys are so digitally involved that you, that I fear that you won't know how to have hard conversations with people face to face.
(7:40) And the problem with that is that when you talk to somebody in person and you tell them, I know he's going to be fine when you talk to someone in person and you, and you give them either good information or bad information face to face, it is way better and way more effective that it, it, it's just learning how to have hard conversations with somebody in person. (7:59) Yeah. (8:00) Right.
(8:00) And does it matter if you text the person at your job that you've had for a year, barely a year that you're not going to, that ultimately doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. (8:09) But I'm trying to teach you skills on how to deal with people in real life once you get out. (8:14) Because I do feel like, unfortunately, there's going to be a lot of people your age, even in your twenties and thirties that just don't do a very good job or know how to have hard conversations or just real conversations with people face to face because y'all spend so much time on your phone.
Catey Mills
(8:27) Yeah, that's true.
Mike Mills
(8:29) Do you understand that?
Catey Mills
(8:29) Yeah.
Mike Mills
(8:30) Okay. (8:30) So it's, it's not an easy thing to do, but that's the point. (8:34) You're like, we're trying to do hard stuff, right?
(8:36) So that's where I'm trying to get with it is I, I just, I'm using these instances to try to teach you this stuff because once you're out these doors in a couple of years, which is coming on, it's pretty fast, which is kind of depressing. (8:47) But once that happens, then you're just going to be calling me and asking me, you know, how to do stuff or whatever then. (8:54) Yeah.
(8:54) All right. (8:55) So I'm going to vamp for a second, let him out just so we can deal with this. (8:59) But okay.
(9:00) So she had to tell everybody that she was leaving her job because she was not going to be in a situation. (9:05) Just grab him. (9:06) We're having cat situations here.
(9:08) I knew that was going to be a bad idea. (9:09) Hey Ringo. (9:11) So her situation was she's starting back to school again and going through volleyball practice because she's going to have practice every day after school.
(9:18) She's going to have practice on the weekends. (9:20) And so it just becomes really tough to hold a job down during volleyball season. (9:23) So I didn't even, when, when she got this job initially, I wasn't, I was expecting her just to work in the summer, but she really wanted to work and have her own money.
(9:32) And we she values kind of having her own cash. (9:35) So, so now we have the option where we have to look at saying, okay, now this, now that volleyball is back and that's our priority school first and then volleyball. (9:43) Um, yeah, just kidding.
(9:47) Yes. (9:47) So now we have to figure out, okay, what are we going to do for money right now? (9:51) Obviously you live here, we're going to help you out and all that stuff, but you really enjoy having your own money and your own autonomy, right?
Catey Mills
(9:57) Yes.
Mike Mills
(9:57) And what is it about that, that you really like?
Catey Mills
(9:59) I don't know. (9:59) I just, I don't know. (10:01) Cause like when I didn't have my own money, if I wanted to like go do something with my friends, I'd have to like ask you or I'd have to like do something around the house or like, I don't know.
(10:09) I just like to have it and be able to do it and not have to ask if I can like go get breakfast before school or do whatever.
Mike Mills
(10:15) How much money do you have in your bank account right now?
Catey Mills
(10:17) Let's see.
Mike Mills
(10:18) Give me a ballpark. (10:18) You don't have to be, you haven't looked.
Catey Mills
(10:20) I actually looked yesterday. (10:22) It's like 490 or something.
Mike Mills
(10:24) Okay. (10:24) So we almost have about 500 bucks. (10:26) Yeah.
(10:26) That's pretty good. (10:26) You've been saving money. (10:27) Haven't been blowing through it.
(10:28) Plus you have your money that's in your savings. (10:30) Yes. (10:30) Right.
(10:31) So, so that's good. (10:32) So now the problem is, is if you don't have any more money coming in, then you have to make that 500 bucks stretch. (10:38) Right?
(10:38) So that could be tough because volleyball season runs from what?
Catey Mills
(10:42) August to late October.
Mike Mills
(10:44) Is it late October? (10:45) November? (10:45) Let's say November.
Catey Mills
(10:47) Okay.
Mike Mills
(10:48) So a little presumptive there when you get in the playoffs.
Catey Mills
(10:50) I'm manifesting it.
Mike Mills
(10:52) So we've got August, September, October, November. (10:54) So that's four months. (10:55) So that's about 12 weeks, right?
(10:57) Or I'm sorry. (10:58) And that's like 16 weeks. (10:59) So if we take 16 and we are take 500 and we divide it by 16, that means you can only spend $30 a week.
(11:08) You think you'll be able to pull that off? (11:09) No, probably not. (11:11) So we're going to have to find another way to earn some money.
(11:12) If you want to have extra without having, I will always help you out, but if you want to have your own, so tell everybody kind of what we've been talking about and what you're thinking about doing there.
Catey Mills
(11:21) So I'm kind of wanting to do babysitting because it's still, I get to like be with kids and stuff. (11:27) Cause I just, I think that's fun. (11:28) It's just, you get paid to play with kids.
(11:30) Like it's not bad. (11:31) And then it's also a lot more flexible. (11:34) So like I can do it on Saturdays after practice or Sundays.
(11:38) And I don't have to have a strict like schedule and I can just do it kind of whenever I need to.
Mike Mills
(11:42) Yes. (11:43) So that would mean kind of working for yourself. (11:45) So, so what do you think, you know, when you think about right now, you have to go to a job, you have a shift, you have a person you have to report to.
(11:52) Now, if you do, if we go this route, then there isn't a responsibility for yourself that you have to do right now, you're going to want to do it, you know, cause you want to make some money. (12:02) So, so in your mind, when you've been thinking about this a little bit, what are kind of the pros and cons versus working for somebody and now working for yourself? (12:09) What do you think?
Catey Mills
(12:10) I'd say some of the pros are, um, I don't have to be afraid of my manager. (12:16) Not that I'm afraid of her, but like, it's intimidating. (12:19) Yeah.
(12:20) Like for example. (12:21) Oh yeah. (12:22) I actually didn't tell you about this.
(12:23) So like two days ago, there's something you have to do at my job where you give them like stars on an iPad for, um, like if they've completed skills. (12:32) Well, there was this one kid who did not know how to do literally anything. (12:37) I don't know how they got the stars.
(12:38) They had all the stars for the skill. (12:40) And if they have stars, you kind of have to graduate them. (12:42) But like this kid was not ready to graduate.
(12:44) So I had took away a star. (12:45) Like I just pulled a star back.
Mike Mills
(12:47) Yes. (12:47) Oh, dang.
Catey Mills
(12:48) Oh, not allowed to do that. (12:50) Oh, didn't know that. (12:51) Cause I've never had a kid that bad, but sorry, I actually shouldn't say that.
(12:55) Um, but it's okay.
Mike Mills
(12:57) Nobody else.
Catey Mills
(12:58) Yeah, it's okay. (12:59) I just, so I didn't get in trouble, but I was like, they're like, Hey, like can't take my stars. (13:04) I was like, Ooh, sorry.
(13:05) And so, um, it's just kind of nice to not have to be like, Oh, like, can I do this? (13:09) Can I not do this? (13:10) Like da da da.
(13:11) And I, oh my God, the curriculum of teaching, like I don't have to do that. (13:15) I can just hang out and it's going to be a lot more chill. (13:17) So that's a pro.
(13:18) A con is like, if I want to do something with friends, it's a lot. (13:23) Well, I guess it kind of be the same, but like, I can't call out of work. (13:26) Like I can, but I'm too scared to.
(13:28) So I don't like if I, unless it's an absolute emergency, I just don't call out of work or call in, I guess. (13:35) It's hilarious to me how you get a call at calling out, but apparently y'all calling it, calling in anyway, calling in. (13:43) Um, and, but I might be a little easier, um, to call in or like call and just cancel babysitting, but I probably wouldn't do that either way.
Mike Mills
(13:51) So you're not going to cancel that, but see, so the hard part is, is right now you have a schedule, right? (13:56) You have what it's kind of like when you work for somebody, you get to, you know, get to your schedule, you show up, right. (14:04) And then you work and then you go home and then you're done.
(14:06) Right. (14:07) And you don't have to do anything else until you go back and work again. (14:10) Okay.
(14:11) So that's, to some extent, that is great because you don't have, it's almost like you don't have the responsibility of having to deal with anything outside here and we're back. (14:19) All right. (14:19) Boom.
(14:20) Okay. (14:20) Sorry, man. (14:21) We have the internet struggles.
(14:22) We're going to, all right. (14:23) So anyway, sorry about that, everybody. (14:25) Um, all right.
(14:26) So where were we, we were talking about, uh, oh, okay. (14:29) Yeah. (14:30) So, so now you're outside of work, right?
(14:32) You're not working for somebody. (14:34) So now what you have to do is you have to handle all, you have to schedule yourself. (14:38) You have to advertise for yourself.
(14:40) You got to create your Facebook page. (14:42) There are, there are steps. (14:43) Now, the good thing is, is like, once you get it set up and once it's kind of off and running, then, then it's not as hard to maintain, but you still got to set it up.
(14:51) Whereas right now, as an employee, you don't have all those responsibilities, right? (14:55) You just show up, do your job, do what you're told. (14:57) And that's easy, right?
(15:00) So, so that's the part that's going to be different and challenging, but you do have more flexibility. (15:04) And you know, I think as far as babysitting goes, you can make more money, right? (15:08) All right.
(15:09) So let's go ahead and let's advertise our babysitting services again while we're here. (15:12) Okay. (15:13) So now we're back.
(15:14) I want to babysit. (15:16) Um, I don't know, what do I say? (15:17) We'll just tell them what you've done before, why you'd be good at it.
(15:21) Um, where, you know, what do you think you can probably work? (15:24) How to get, how to get in touch with you.
Catey Mills
(15:25) So I, uh, I was a cheer coach for two years of like five, six, seven-year-olds.
Mike Mills
(15:32) I'm a swim teacher currently from ages two to 10. (15:36) Um, so I've experienced with all ages of kids who need to be babysat. (15:41) Cousins.
(15:41) Cousins too. (15:42) Yeah. (15:43) Cousins.
(15:44) Um, I am CPR certified. (15:46) Ooh, boom. (15:47) CPR certified.
(15:48) You got, you got skills. (15:50) Yep. (15:50) I'm technically lifeguard certified, even though I don't really need to be.
(15:55) Swim instructor certified WSI. (15:57) So if you've got a pool in home, she can hang out. (16:00) Yeah.
Catey Mills
(16:01) But yeah, I can do weekends. (16:03) I have my own transportation. (16:05) I can get there whenever super late at night, super early in the morning.
Mike Mills
(16:09) Yep. (16:09) So hit her up if you need her. (16:11) Um, you can reach out to us too.
(16:12) We're going to, we're going to set up a Facebook page. (16:14) We're gonna get some scheduling done. (16:16) We're going to work on this part together.
(16:17) So next time when we come back, maybe we'll have some updates about that. (16:20) Yep. (16:20) Um, so the, so starting your business is going to be fun and interesting, but you're also going to have to spend a lot of time with me doing that, which may not be on the top of your list of things to do.
(16:33) All right. (16:34) So let's talk a little bit about, um, college. (16:37) Okay.
(16:37) So we're, we're, we're going to be a junior in high school this year. (16:41) This is when all of the college stuff really kicks in the gear where you decide you're going to go, especially if you decide, well, I think you've decided you want to play volleyball in college, what that's going to look like, how you're going to do. (16:51) So I want you to talk a little bit about what you're thinking right now, as far as college is concerned, where you think you want to go, what you think you want to do.
(16:57) And then also if you don't play volleyball, then what do you got to do? (17:03) Find another job. (17:04) So do we want to play volleyball or do we want to play it?
(17:06) Yeah. (17:07) Work a job and then how that all plays out and then what you want to do in college. (17:12) So I'll kind of, well, I'll honestly, I'm going to go wherever I can get a scholarship.
(17:17) If, if volleyball does is what I'm, which is what I'm planning on right now. (17:22) So just kind of wherever I can get a scholarship. (17:24) What do you got to do to make that happen?
(17:26) Send out emails and do all that. (17:29) Try to relay a little bit, anybody that's out there thinking about, they want to play and play any sport in college, baseball, volleyball, football, whatever. (17:37) Talk about how our experience has been going through that a little bit and what I've been encouraging to do and why maybe if UFC and calling you, which, you know, right.
(17:47) Right. (17:47) So, but, but why, why is it different between somebody that player that, you know, is the player versus somebody like you who can play in college just a matter of where, what have I told you about those players versus somebody like you and what you have to do and why it's different. (18:03) And I just have to send out, put myself out there.
(18:06) Well, yeah, but I mean, if you're, if you're the player, right. (18:10) If, if, if I'm a coach or a scout and I walk into your high school gym or I walk into a club and I see that girl that can just jump out of the gym, she's hitting 10 foot line every time she's athletic, she's not athletic, but you know, just, just that phenomenal athlete. (18:29) Well, does she have to send out a billion emails and contact a bunch of coaches?
(18:33) Why not? (18:36) Cause she's, she's that dude, right? (18:38) Like she's, she's, she, what's the word?
(18:40) How do y'all what's, what's the team? (18:41) Yeah. (18:44) Yeah.
(18:45) Yeah. (18:45) She's, she's her. (18:46) Right.
(18:46) So if that's the case, right. (18:48) Then, and you're not her. (18:50) Okay.
(18:52) We're all realistic around here, by the way. (18:54) Right. (18:54) Right.
(18:57) Yeah. (18:57) Yeah. (18:57) Yeah.
(18:58) LSU is not putting you on the front line as a freshman. (19:00) Okay. (19:00) So, so what does that mean?
(19:02) So now that means that you can play in a lot of different places, but if you're not that girl, if you're not her, then what do you have to do to get, get yourself to that point? (19:11) I just need to be as have all the things need to have education and do all the, sure. (19:20) You got all that, but I'm talking.
(19:21) Yes. (19:22) That's the part. (19:22) You've got to put yourself out there, right?
(19:25) You've got to email coaches. (19:26) You've got to contact him. (19:27) You've got to go to the clinics.
(19:28) You've got to learn how to talk to them. (19:29) And the thing is, is this just about volleyball? (19:32) No, this is the kind of stuff that gets you what you want in life.
(19:36) If you have the ability to walk up to an adult that you're intimidated by, like your boss or whatever the case may be, right. (19:42) And introduce yourself and tell them who you are and what you do and have confidence in that conversation. (19:47) Well, that skill is going to carry you for everything else that you're going to do in life, which is why, you know, when people and parents want to have their kids playing college, they look at it as, you know, like good thing with volleyball, there is a professional volleyball, but yeah, it exists.
(20:02) Okay. (20:03) How much money they make it, but you know, I don't know, but it's there, but the goal isn't, we're not trying to like earn a career for the rest of our life. (20:11) Right.
(20:12) We're trying to pay for school a little bit. (20:14) And, and what else, if you pay for school, you get, you get that money that I saved for you. (20:19) Right.
(20:19) So, so there's a little bit of motivation there, but, but really what it is, is this whole process of going through and trying to be recruited and talking to your coach currently about helping you with that, talking to your club coach, but these are all things that if you learn how to do this stuff and you develop these skills right now, this is going to carry you forward so much more. (20:37) So if you want to be a coach or you want to be a broadcaster, or you want to, you know, be involved in anything related to the sport, you're going to have all these skills and abilities to do that and network and meet people and create relationships because you develop this stuff now. (20:51) And I'm, I'm just telling you, I've told you this before, a lot of kids at your age, even going into their twenties, they don't have those skills.
(20:57) Right. (20:58) And so if we, if it sucks, it's not fun. (21:01) Right.
(21:01) It's embarrassing. (21:02) Sometimes it's uncomfortable, but the way you grow is by getting uncomfortable. (21:07) Right.
(21:07) That's the whole point is you have to be uncomfortable and do hard things or else you can't go to another level. (21:13) Like there's a guy listening, Albert, if you're still there. (21:16) Hi.
(21:17) But Albert's a friend of mine. (21:18) He's a realtor. (21:19) He's got, I believe he's got three or four kids and they all do jujitsu.
(21:23) Okay. (21:24) Cause he's a jujitsu guy and they're all little, little kids and they're out there doing, and that is jujitsu is hard. (21:30) Okay.
(21:31) Like it is tough and you get your butt beat all the time. (21:34) And, but there's a lot to be learned from losing and getting your head kicked in because not that they look, it's ridiculous, but just, just getting, having struggles and having difficulties in growing from that. (21:46) And when you have kids that have that kind of discipline, you're not used to losing, you get comfortable with it and it's okay.
(21:52) So then as an adult, when you're 25 and you lose your job or you fail a class or, or you don't get whatever it is you're trying to get, you're not devastated, right? (22:00) Life goes on. (22:01) Like it's all, you said earlier, you're manifesting, you know, the going to the playoffs for volleyball, kind of the same thing.
(22:06) Like you're, you gotta keep your head pointed in the right direction. (22:09) So we, we kind of pushed you in a direction or talked about going for your major for school, but tell me a little bit about what that is. (22:18) And if you're still thinking about that and why you like it and all that.
(22:22) Well, to be completely honest, I forgot what I told you I wanted to do. (22:27) What did I say? (22:29) Brain.
(22:30) Oh, psychology. (22:31) Right. (22:32) I'm still kind of looking to do that, but recently I've been looking, there's something called the SLP, which I think Crystal does this speech and language.
(22:42) She does something or she did some of that. (22:45) I think, I don't think that's what she just heard. (22:47) It just, it looks really fun.
(22:48) It's like helping kids who have like speech impediments, whatever.
Catey Mills
(22:55) Um, I don't really like how much it pays, but it doesn't pay very bad. (22:59) Um, it's kind of like psychology, like major, you do something with social sciences, learning behavior.
Mike Mills
(23:06) Yeah, that's similar. (23:07) Yep. (23:07) So that just looks really fun.
(23:10) You like have to learn my language and just, okay.
Catey Mills
(23:13) All right.
Mike Mills
(23:14) Well, Hey, you got to try different stuff. (23:16) Look at what, you know, look at what you find interesting. (23:19) If you like working with kids, which you seem to, then, you know, that's a great path to go down to.
(23:23) And, and, um, you know, I would say, and I've told you this before and I would tell any parents that are listening to this, here's the, here's the hard thing about college these days. (23:31) Okay. (23:32) We're in a world now where, you know, college is incredibly expensive as everybody knows, just like everything else, fricking eggs are incredibly expensive.
(23:39) Um, and so when you talk to your kids about what they want to do, you know, when I was growing up, um, you know, we went from high school to college to job, right? (23:49) That was the path. (23:50) And that's what everybody had to do.
(23:52) You graduate from high school, you go to college and then you go work for some company and do whatever. (23:56) Right. (23:56) And that sounded great.
(23:58) But the problem is, is like, it's really not, you know, and especially if you spent $200,000 on a four-year college degree and you got it in like me, like, you know, business or I'm in business is fine because you've learned economics and, you know, entrepreneurship stuff. (24:13) But, but if you've got, you know, basket weaving, I don't want to mention any specific, you know, degrees that may not be real beneficial. (24:20) Yeah.
(24:20) I don't want to piss anybody off, but, (24:22) but ultimately, you know, I think there's, if anybody knows, you know, I've spent four years (24:27) more now, cause it took me a little while, but, um, I spent several years in college getting a (24:32) business degree, which is helpful to some extent, but if I would have been like, you know, uh, (24:36) anything I do mortgages, so I didn't, I don't need a degree to do my job helps and it helps a lot of (24:42) other things.
(24:43) But, you know, even like with your brother, we're talking about right now, because, you know, he's doesn't know what the hell he wants to do. (24:48) He's 14. (24:49) So he's got some time, but, you know, looking at doing things like, uh, trades, like electrical and plumbing and carpentry, because now with AI being what it is, a lot of jobs that were really like accounting, probably going away to some extent, you know, not completely, but down the road computer programming going away, it stuff starting to go away.
(25:08) Um, uh, you know, software engineers, uh, even attorneys, because like AI can now interpret law and give you, you know, spit out pizza. (25:17) I know there's a lot of stuff. (25:19) So you have to look at what's the value of what I'm going to spend on this college degree.
(25:22) Do I want to come out with a bunch of debt versus what do I need to do to make sure that if I am going to go to college, I can use that to my advantage. (25:29) Cause right now you can go on YouTube and learn just about anything that you want to do. (25:33) If you focus on, right.
(25:34) So there is this, there we're in this weird world now where there's this transition from the standard path to become an adult and be responsible human to now it's changing because of AI, because of the cost of college. (25:46) And because we've just spent so many years of people wasting so much money. (25:49) Now, if you're going to be a doctor and nurse and engineer, you know, all these types of things that are professional jobs.
(25:54) Okay. (25:54) Yes. (25:55) You absolutely need psychologists.
(25:56) If you're going to be yeah. (25:58) Speech pathologist or something like that for sure. (26:01) But if you're going to, you know, open a shop or you want to, you know, if you're going to be a teacher, yes, but you know, there's certain things that you just don't need to do.
(26:09) So, um, you know, that's, that's a struggle for parents right now, because we have to figure out how much money do we want to force, you know, do we want to spend on college and what you, what are you ultimately going to do? (26:19) And there's no shame anymore. (26:20) And I think that's the biggest part that's gone away is if you say, you know, my son's going to school to be a plumber, I would be like, hell yeah.
(26:28) Like good job because that job's not going away. (26:31) You know, that's not yet. (26:34) Not yet.
(26:35) So, um, so that's, that's something that every parent has to consider right now, because you know, our job, and like I said, in the description of this, this is all a science experiment, right? (26:44) I have no clue what I'm doing. (26:46) I'm just figuring it out as we go.
(26:48) Right. (26:48) And unfortunately you're the first one to go through this. (26:51) Maybe we'll be better when your brother shows up, but, but I don't know.
(26:54) So that's, you know, that's kind of, uh, that's kind of where we've been. (26:57) So, all right. (26:58) Um, now, uh, I wanted to ask you, um, what you were thinking as far as, okay, so we're going to start this new career or this new job and, and, and where that's going to go.
(27:10) Um, where we've talked about college and where you want to go there. (27:13) Um, have you even thought about or considered anything like with the money that you have now, like how you can make money with that money? (27:22) Not a bit, right?
(27:26) That's okay. (27:27) Well, okay. (27:27) So I want to ask you, all right, so what do you understand?
(27:30) If anything about anything related to what we would call just investing and just, it's okay. (27:36) I don't know anything, but just tell me what you think, you know, so this could not even be money into a company. (27:44) And then you like can like, you know, what is that?
(27:47) Yeah. (27:47) You can buy a stock for a company.
Catey Mills
(27:49) Yeah.
Mike Mills
(27:50) Okay. (27:51) Oh yeah.
Catey Mills
(27:52) That's it.
Mike Mills
(27:52) Have you ever heard of like a retirement account? (27:54) Do you know what that is?
Catey Mills
(27:55) Nope. (27:55) No, I know you can like put money into account and it can like grow over time.
Mike Mills
(27:59) Okay. (27:59) Have you ever heard of like a 401k? (28:01) Do you know what that is?
(28:03) Okay. (28:05) So, um, the idea here, what did I tell you before we did this about time and money? (28:11) Do you remember what I said?
(28:13) Trading time. (28:14) Right. (28:14) What's the, what's trading time for money?
(28:16) Like what does it mean? (28:18) You people, your timing, you get money four hours in my time every day. (28:22) Okay.
(28:23) So, so what's the, what's the limitation on that? (28:26) I don't know what do you mean? (28:28) Well, why is, why is that to finance to some extent?
(28:33) Cause you can only make so much money per because how much time do you have? (28:40) 24 hours in a day, right? (28:43) That's all everybody gets.
(28:44) We get 24 hours. (28:45) So trading time for money, that is a job. (28:48) That's your job.
(28:48) Like when you, whether you teach swim lessons or you do mortgages or you sell real estate like your mom or whatever the case may be, when you have a job and you're working for someone, you are trading your time for money, right? (28:59) That's what you're doing. (29:00) Okay.
(29:00) So, and there's, there's nothing wrong with that. (29:02) That's what most people do is they trade time for money. (29:05) The problem is, is that you're limited on your time, right?
(29:09) How much time you have that you can actually put into something. (29:11) Now, the more skills you have, right? (29:14) The more per hour you make trading your time.
(29:18) If you're an attorney, you can make a couple hundred dollars an hour. (29:20) If you're, you know, if you're sitting at, at what's the, where do you go? (29:24) Do you tan?
(29:25) What are you like your nails or, you know, I'm just trying to think of something that you do. (29:29) Chick-fil-a, right? (29:30) Chick-fil-a, the person that's handing you your food, they're making, are they making that now these days?
(29:37) Where is it? (29:37) You were telling me somebody the other day was making like even more money than you were working. (29:42) I think that's what it's called.
(29:44) Yeah. (29:46) She makes 17 an hour. (29:49) It's pretty solid.
(29:50) I know. (29:53) But, but either way there's schedule shifts, times that are open. (29:57) So you're giving your time for that money, which again, there's nothing wrong with that, but that, but then you have, you just have limits on what you can do.
(30:03) Right? (30:04) So, so the ultimate goal in what everybody tries to do, but not as deliberate sometimes. (30:10) And the earlier you start, the better is using the money that you make, saving it, putting it somewhere.
(30:17) So it makes money while you sleep. (30:19) Yes. (30:19) Okay.
(30:20) That's the idea, right? (30:21) So if you can be in the hard part is discipline, right? (30:25) Because what, what we like nails, right?
(30:29) I get in our hair. (30:30) Did we like going places and burn gas in our car? (30:33) We like Starbees, right?
(30:36) So all these things are, are, sorry, Kelly, Kelly was enough. (30:40) She can send her kids over. (30:41) Look, I'm barely figuring this out.
(30:43) So, you know, this is, this is, this is the only time I get to do this with her. (30:46) Um, but so, so if you're, if you are trading that time for money, then you are limited. (30:52) But if you can put your money somewhere and you have discipline to do that, then as you get older, you are going to be able to use that money.
(30:59) So then you don't have to trade your time for money. (31:01) That's the ultimate goal. (31:03) Here's the hard part.
(31:05) You're seven, 16, about to be 17. (31:07) The difficulty with that is you don't have the benefit of experience like I do a 45 years. (31:11) I'm not doing that right or correctly or figuring it out later on.
(31:15) And, and being in a position now where I can be like, okay, at some point I can stop working or, or I don't ever, I'm never going to stop working, you know, really, really, truly. (31:24) Because when you get older, you start realizing like, you got to keep moving, you know, or you got, so, um, so you got to keep going, but I want to do stuff that I would, right. (31:35) I want to sit down like this and have conversations with you and not have to worry about if I have enough money to pay the mortgage or hopefully, but, um, so if you can find the discipline to do that, it's going to pay off for you down the road.
(31:48) It's kind of like working out, right? (31:50) What have you figured out? (31:51) Cause you're at kind of a gym right now.
(31:54) So what have you figured out about working out that has made you want to work out versus other people that don't want to go to the gym? (32:00) Just working out. (32:01) It just makes me feel better.
(32:03) The more breaks I take and the longer I go without working out, just the worse I feel, just get worse and worse. (32:10) And when you go to the gym, do you feel the benefit? (32:13) Like right then?
(32:14) No, no. (32:16) It's hard, right? (32:18) It's sacrifice.
(32:19) You're sweating. (32:20) You're sore. (32:20) You're tired, right?
(32:21) You, you, you smell like the outside as you say, right? (32:26) I'm smelling outside of the house. (32:28) I've been outside this morning.
(32:29) I woke up so early, like six 30. (32:31) That's too early for me in the summer.
Catey Mills
(32:33) But you smell like grass and like outside. (32:37) I don't like it. (32:38) Somebody here, somebody listening will go outside like moms.
(32:44) When the baseballers come home from practice, do they not smell just like a baseball field?
Mike Mills
(32:50) I think baseball fields smell great. (32:53) Okay. (32:54) Fair enough.
(32:55) Um, but the point is, is that you don't get direct benefit from working out the day you work out. (33:01) What did Christy said? (33:02) Like, like wet puppies.
(33:03) Yes, they did. (33:04) Christy, you're right. (33:05) Troy still doesn't smell bad yet because he listens to that.
(33:10) But, uh, but you don't get the direct benefit working out right there, right? (33:14) It's a long-term now when you don't work out for a week, you start to feel, do you feel like a little gross? (33:23) Yeah.
(33:24) You don't have the same energy level, you don't feel the same, whatever. (33:27) So it's the money's the same way, right? (33:29) When you save money and you put that $25 automatically out of your paycheck into your savings account.
(33:35) Okay. (33:35) You don't feel like you've, you lose it. (33:38) It doesn't give you a benefit right there.
(33:39) You won't feel the benefit for years down the road, but the earlier you start the better, right? (33:45) So there's several avenues to do this. (33:48) Okay.
(33:48) So stocks, you can invest in stocks. (33:50) Okay. (33:51) The hard part about doing stocks though, is it's like gambling.
(33:54) Okay. (33:56) Really investing's gambling, no matter what you want to call it. (33:59) Okay.
(33:59) To some extent, but there's safer gambling than others. (34:02) Okay. (34:02) And you're not going to the roulette table and losing all your cash.
(34:04) Although you can, Hey, look, he's not perfect, Christy, but I appreciate it. (34:12) But, but when you are, when you're investing your money in the stock market and you pick one stock, okay. (34:20) Well, if that company, you know, the CEO, you know, has an affair with his secretary and gets fired, well, that could affect your, your money.
(34:29) So if you put all, if you had a hundred thousand dollars and you put it all in Apple, right? (34:33) Well, if, if the CEO dies or if they come out with a product, that's terrible or whatever the case may be. (34:39) And let's say their, their price per share is like a hundred dollars.
(34:43) Well, if you have a hundred thousand dollars in there, right? (34:45) You know, like a million bucks. (34:46) Okay.
(34:47) Well, if something bad happens, that price could fall from a hundred to 50. (34:50) And then what happens to all your money? (34:52) Not all of it, but a good, a lot of it.
(34:55) Right? (34:55) So, so that's a hard thing to do. (34:57) And there are people that make a lot of money doing that.
(35:01) Okay. (35:01) But they study it all the time. (35:03) It's like what they focus on.
(35:04) And these days, part of trading is called day trading. (35:08) So day trading is like, I'm betting on a stock for like three hours and then I'm going to buy it. (35:13) And then I'm going to buy a bunch and I'm selling it.
(35:15) I'm going to make that money in that time because the stock moves every single day. (35:18) Okay. (35:19) So there's people that do that, but you can win really big by gambling or you can lose really big, right?
(35:25) But that's kind of the rush everybody gets excited about. (35:27) So that's a tough thing to do unless you're going to focus in on it a hundred percent. (35:32) Now, there are other ways that you can take that money and make money.
(35:35) So one way right now is what's called a money market account. (35:38) Have you ever heard of money market accounts? (35:40) Okay.
(35:40) So a money market account with before the last couple of years, wasn't a real popular thing because it's all based on interest rates. (35:48) Okay. (35:48) Do you know what interest rate is?
(35:50) Like how much interest there is? (35:52) Okay. (35:53) You can't define a word with the word.
(35:56) Okay. (35:56) So what is it? (35:57) What is it?
(35:58) Like, I know what interest is. (36:01) Like, it's like, it's okay. (36:04) Think through it.
(36:05) Okay. (36:07) It's like, if I give you a hundred dollars, yeah. (36:12) Okay.
(36:12) But I say you got to pay me back. (36:14) Yeah. (36:15) Okay.
(36:15) And I say, you got to pay me back $125. (36:19) Okay. (36:19) What is what, why am I asking for more money than what I gave?
(36:24) Because so you've benefited. (36:25) Right. (36:26) Yeah.
(36:26) So what does that call? (36:30) Interest. (36:31) There we go.
(36:31) There we go. (36:33) Okay. (36:33) So, so interest is whenever somebody lends you money.
(36:38) Yeah. (36:38) Okay. (36:39) You pay them interest unless they're your parents.
(36:43) You pay them interest. (36:48) Okay. (36:48) Because they are giving you money.
(36:50) So they're willing to give you money and lend you money, but they have to have a benefit too. (36:54) Right. (36:54) Because if they're just giving you money for, for funsies, then there's no benefit.
(36:58) Okay. (36:58) So this is what banks do. (37:00) Banks give you money.
(37:01) All right. (37:01) Well, you can also, you can lend a bank your money. (37:07) Okay.
(37:07) So a money market account and some savings accounts too, they will pay you interest for keeping your money there. (37:15) Okay. (37:16) So if you have $10,000 or a thousand dollars or whatever, and right now, like you have a, you have a money market account with the ECU.
(37:23) So we put a thousand dollars or something like that into that account. (37:26) Okay. (37:27) It was an interest bearing account.
(37:29) So you're letting ECU hold your money. (37:32) Okay. (37:33) And they're paying you 5% interest every, it's usually semi-annual, like every six months, they're paying you that interest for them to be able to hold your money.
(37:43) Okay. (37:44) Why do you think they're paying you interest on their bank? (37:47) They have a lot of money.
(37:47) Why would they want to give you money to hold it? (37:49) What do you think? (37:53) Maybe, so there's like people still using that.
(37:59) Okay. (38:00) You're, you're kind of on the right track. (38:01) So the idea behind that is, all right, if I, if I lend you money and you're paying me interest, you're going to go do something with that money, right?
(38:09) You're going to buy a car. (38:10) You're going to buy a house. (38:12) Hopefully you're buying shoes on a credit card, right?
(38:14) Because we don't want to pay interest on that. (38:16) Right. (38:17) So, but the money that I'm giving you, you're using it for something.
(38:20) Okay. (38:21) Well, when you give the bank your money, they're using it for something as well. (38:25) Okay.
(38:26) What do you think they're using it for? (38:29) To lend other people, other people. (38:32) Okay.
(38:33) So I want to start a bank. (38:35) I have to get people to give me their money and hold it in my bank so I can then make money. (38:39) But because that's how banks make money.
(38:41) They make money lending out. (38:42) They make it a lot of different ways, but, but the main way is they lend out money. (38:46) They give car loans.
(38:47) They give auto loans. (38:47) They give business loans. (38:49) They do all.
(38:50) And then those borrowers pay them interest. (38:52) Okay. (38:53) And the way the government works or what they say is like, you have to have, if I want to, it's kind of really messed up, but if I lend out as a bank, if I lend out a million dollars, I have to have, I think it's 10%, but let's just say I should've looked this up ahead of time.
(39:08) Let's say it's 20%. (39:09) Then I have to have $200,000 of money in my bank. (39:13) Okay.
(39:14) In order to lend a million dollars. (39:16) So it's called a reserve requirement. (39:17) So they have to have a certain amount of money in their bank in order to lend it out.
(39:21) So the more money that they can get in people, that's why like a chase bank and bank of America, they're so massive. (39:27) They have billions of dollars that people put into their bank accounts, right. (39:31) So they're checking and savings and everything else.
(39:33) Well, that gives them all that money to then lend out to everybody else. (39:36) So they can make a bunch of interest. (39:37) Whereas like a small bank in a small city like Mansfield, right.
(39:41) The first bank Mansfield, they're not going to have as much money as bank of American chase, right. (39:46) But they can still do smaller loans to give out money. (39:48) So the idea is that you want to find accounts first off, that you can put your money, let it sit there because it's safe, right?
(39:55) If I put it in an account, checking or savings or whatever, it's safe. (39:59) It's not going to, I'm not going to lose that money. (40:01) Hopefully the bank is, that's a whole other thing.
(40:03) So that money said, well, in that case, they're going to pay me interest or I'm looking for a bank that's going to pay me interest to hold that. (40:10) Well, a couple of years ago when interest rates were really, really low, they were like almost zero for, there's a, it's a longer explanation we'll get into, but it was almost zero. (40:20) Well then if I had a money market account or a savings account, the bank wasn't giving me, paying me very much interest to leave my money there.
(40:26) Okay. (40:27) Because they didn't have to because interest rates were low because they were lending out money to rates too. (40:32) Whereas now, like when I do a mortgage right now, it's cost 7% for someone to buy a house.
(40:37) Okay. (40:38) Well, it's high comparatively. (40:40) I mean, used to rates in the eighties were 18% but like three years ago, four years ago, it was like 2%.
(40:45) Okay. (40:46) So now the bank's like, well, we're, we're earning, we want more people to give us money because we want to lend out money at these higher rates. (40:53) So a money market account is like a savings account, but it'll pay you like 5% interest.
(40:59) So I can leave a thousand dollars in that account. (41:02) And every year I'm going to make $50 for doing nothing. (41:05) Okay.
(41:06) So, and then the more money you have, if you have a hundred thousand dollars, you make 500, you know, so it's.
Catey Mills
(41:10) So then like, so, okay. (41:13) So whatever, I have a thousand dollars in there. (41:15) I get $50 a year.
(41:17) So then next year I'll have a thousand dollars, 50 or a thousand. (41:21) I don't know.
Mike Mills
(41:21) A thousand, 50.
Catey Mills
(41:22) Well, I get in 5% of that.
Mike Mills
(41:26) Yes. (41:27) And you know what that's called? (41:29) It's called compounding interest.
Catey Mills
(41:31) Oh, I've heard that word. (41:33) We learned that.
Mike Mills
(41:34) That is the miracle of money. (41:37) Okay. (41:38) Is compounding interest.
(41:39) When you leave your money in a place and it earns interest and that number grows and you don't touch it, then every year it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. (41:49) And the bigger it gets, the more you make, right? (41:52) So the earlier you start, the more you can make much, much sooner.
(41:58) Right. (41:59) If I start investing when I'm 50, right. (42:01) And I have $10,000.
(42:03) Well, by the time I'm 70, I might have more, but I'm not going to have nearly as much as if I start when I'm 15. (42:09) Right. (42:09) So that's what it's hard to grasp the idea of compounding interest, but it is a miracle.
(42:15) Okay. (42:16) And have you ever heard of Warren Buffett? (42:18) Do you know who he is?
(42:19) Okay. (42:20) He's like one of the most successful, famous investors of all time. (42:24) And he's very, he's not a gambler guy kind of when maybe in his early years, but when people ask him like how he made so much money, because he's like a multi-billionaire, one of the richest people, he tells everybody it's, it's compound interest.
(42:38) I've just been doing it for a very long time because he started when he was young and he made some smart moves and made big money. (42:44) But now he's like 90 now, but he's really old now, but he made most of his money between like 50 and now. (42:55) Okay.
(42:55) Or 60. (42:56) That's when he made, he went from being a millionaire to being a billionaire like that because he had so much money. (43:02) Okay.
(43:03) So, so that's the idea. (43:04) Now that is an account where you can put your money and you can just sit there and it's safe and it doesn't move and it doesn't go down. (43:10) It never goes down.
(43:11) Okay. (43:12) Should never goes down. (43:13) So you just make money.
(43:14) That's a money market account, but it's only 5%. (43:17) Okay. (43:18) That's nice.
(43:18) It's safe and you don't have to worry about it. (43:20) It's good. (43:21) You want to make a little bit more.
(43:22) Okay. (43:23) Then you can do something called investing. (43:26) Now you can invest in the stock market.
(43:27) Okay. (43:27) But what do we say? (43:29) We're investing in one stock.
(43:31) Little iffy, right? (43:32) Unless you know what you're doing. (43:33) Okay.
(43:34) But you can actually invest in all the stocks. (43:38) Okay. (43:39) This is called an index fund.
(43:41) Okay. (43:42) So what an index fund is, is it takes some of them are built, you know, it's top 100 stocks. (43:47) Some of them are in the top 50.
(43:48) They create different funds, all this kind of stuff. (43:50) But what you're doing is you're giving your money to a brokerage. (43:54) Like I use company called Vanguard or there's a bunch of different ones out there and they create these funds and they're a bundle of stocks.
(44:00) So it's like they call them a basket of stocks. (44:02) So it's like a hundred stocks together. (44:04) Some of them go up, some of them go down, they all move up and down, whatever.
(44:08) But the idea is that you can put money into that and it's going to earn a rate of return a little bit greater than you would get typically. (44:15) Right now, 5% is pretty good. (44:16) But in the past, it's typically going to perform better than like a money market.
(44:21) So now you can earn seven, eight. (44:23) And if you have years like we had a couple of years ago when the stock market just went through the roof and it still is going up, you can earn 10% and that money just compounds faster and you don't have to do anything. (44:34) You're just putting money into this index fund every month.
(44:38) And this is part of what I do is like every check I get, I have a certain amount of money that goes into my Vanguard account and it automatically buys these funds. (44:45) Whether the stock market's up or down, I don't care. (44:48) Okay.
(44:48) Because there's something called dollar cost averaging, where if I buy the stock when it's $20, right, one day, and then I earn, let's call it the fund. (44:56) If I buy the fund when it's $20 one day and then the next day it's 15, well that sucks. (45:00) But then six months later it's 22, right?
(45:03) And then it's 17 and there's 25 and then it's 16. (45:07) But every time I'm buying, I'm buying, I'm buying, I'm always buying up or down, up or down, whatever. (45:11) Well, if I stretch that out over a long enough period of time, my average is going to be continuing going up, right?
(45:18) Because even though it goes up and down, I'm not selling it. (45:22) I'm just trying to continue buying it because it can go up. (45:24) So if you ever look up, if you ever get bored and you want to go look up like the stock market and see like the S&P 500 or NASDAQ, these are the type of stock markets are available.
(45:34) You'll see that they just kind of go like this. (45:37) Okay. (45:37) Now on the way up, they're going up and down and up and down, up and down, up and down, right?
(45:41) But they continue to go up and there'll be big moments where there's big crashes. (45:45) Like this was right when you were born, but there was this, what they call the great financial crisis in 2017, where all the people lost money in their 401ks. (45:56) They lost money everywhere because the entire stock market crashed and it was related to housing, you know, mortgages and real estate and all kinds of stuff.
(46:03) And so people lost a lot of money. (46:05) They're like 20%. (46:06) Okay.
(46:07) But if you were young or you were, you know, if you weren't trying to retire at that moment, okay. (46:13) And take, start taking money. (46:15) Well, all that, all those losses have more than recovered since then, you know, that was 15 years ago.
(46:21) So now if you just stay, left your money in there, you would have had a big loss, right? (46:25) 20%, 30% of your total portfolio. (46:28) But today it's worth three times, four times what it was.
(46:32) Okay. (46:33) So it's all about time. (46:35) So it's not about money.
(46:36) It's about time. (46:37) That's what interest is. (46:38) I tell people when I do mortgages every day, that interest is a function of time.
(46:43) It's not a function of money. (46:45) Okay. (46:45) If I pay 20% interest on a hundred dollars for one day.
(46:50) Okay. (46:51) That's 20 cents or whatever the math is, right? (46:53) If I pay 2% interest on a hundred thousand dollars for 30 years, that's a lot of money.
(47:00) Okay. (47:00) So the interest is higher, but it's a short-term thing. (47:03) That's why credit cards back, right?
(47:05) Cause you're paying 15, 20, 30% interest on that. (47:08) If you pay it off every month, doesn't matter. (47:10) You're fine.
(47:11) But if you let that balance run Senate bills, yes, it becomes really hard to pay off. (47:16) So that, but we all like immediate gratification, right? (47:20) Okay.
(47:22) So, so that's the, that's the thing about taking your money and putting it somewhere where it's going to make money for you. (47:28) And there's other ways like, you know, your mom and I do real estate, right? (47:30) Real estate's a good one too, because values go up on homes.
(47:33) You know, uh, you know, a lot of people's houses that they bought four years ago that were worth $200,000 are now $400,000. (47:41) Right. (47:41) And that was like five years ago.
(47:43) Like that's a lot of money that you made just for owning something that you don't get that money until you sell it. (47:48) Right. (47:48) Then you got to pay taxes and there's stuff that comes along with that, but that's how you can take money and you can make money with your money as opposed to having to go to your job every day or running your business or all that kind of stuff, other stuff.
(47:59) Right. (48:00) So, so understanding that concept (48:03) and then focusing on that when you're your age and really like every dollar I make or as many (48:08) and that's why budgeting is so important because if I can say, okay, this is how much money I want (48:13) to make in a month or in a week, whether I'm babysitting or working my job, I want to say, (48:18) I want to use this much money to, and really what you should say is I want to save 25% of my total.
(48:24) So if I make a hundred dollars, I want to save $25 a week or a month or whatever it is. (48:29) And then like I told you before, you take that 25 bucks and you just put it, you just automatically put it into your savings account. (48:34) And why should you do that?
(48:38) Outside of mind, right? (48:40) That's human nature. (48:41) It's not there.
(48:42) I'm not going to spend it. (48:43) Right. (48:44) So if you determine that ahead of time, right, then you, in your mind, now you're living off of $75 a week or whatever it is you're making.
(48:51) So that's what you're trying. (48:52) So if you do that and you just automatically do that, what you'll find is it's, it's like working out. (48:56) There's a reward there because we'll do this.
(49:00) Maybe after we're done, we'll go back and look at your money market account from what we originally put in. (49:04) We'll see how much money's in there. (49:05) Now you'll be like, Oh, that's just free money.
(49:08) I don't have to do anything. (49:09) It's just there. (49:11) Right.
(49:11) So, so when you start seeing that and you won't feel it for maybe like a year or two, but you'll start seeing that balance just keeps going up and up. (49:19) And then it's like a game. (49:20) It's like, Ooh, how much can I save?
(49:21) How much can I save? (49:22) Right. (49:23) That's where you want to be.
(49:24) You don't want to be, how much can I spend? (49:25) How much can I spend? (49:26) You want to be, how much can I save?
(49:27) How much can I save? (49:28) And then, you know, the good, I think like, well, let me ask you this. (49:32) We live in a different part town and sometimes it's a (49:35) little different, but what do you get from your friends and people that you hang around with when (49:39) it comes to like what they understand about money or if people are like, you know, really into fancy (49:45) clothes and stuff, or they're more, you know, well, I just want to like, I'm cool wearing like (49:50) that stuff, but you know, there was a period where it's like cool to go thrift shopping. (49:53) Yeah. (49:54) Well, I don't know everybody else, but my friends are all very there's no, no, I mean, there's no like, you know, off brand.
(50:11) Yeah. (50:13) Do you think like, is, I don't want you to name it. (50:19) Do you have any friends that are more like what you would call thrifty or even consider that kind of stuff?
(50:25) Do you have any friends that are like that? (50:26) Not really. (50:27) Only the only friends that I have that are like, I don't have very many friends.
(50:35) Right. (50:36) Right. (50:37) Do you have, have you seen more of your friends like wanting to get jobs or wanting to have their own money?
(50:42) Like, have you, with what you're doing, do y'all ever talk about it? (50:44) Like, have you ever told them about, because I think I'm really the only, in my like immediate friend group, I think I'm the only person who has a job, job, like babysit occasionally. (50:57) I'm like only person who has like a solid, like, whatever.
(51:02) And I mean, I get asked about it sometimes like, Oh, like, like, is it really worth it?
Catey Mills
(51:07) Like, I'm like, yes, it is worth it. (51:09) Like getting a paycheck of however much I get, like every two weeks, like when I did, I did my paycheck.
Mike Mills
(51:16) It's like the best. (51:21) But yeah. (51:22) And, but most of my friends, I mean, they don't most, they're yeah.
(51:26) They don't have to pay for anything. (51:28) So honestly, like, do you with, uh, with us going through all this stuff and talking about this stuff and everything, and, and, and you don't have to tell me this, cause I'm just sitting here in front of you. (51:37) Do you, are you kind of like, man, I wish no, I am.
(51:41) I honestly, I'm kind of glad that don't pay for everything.
Catey Mills
(51:45) I guess for some of those people, either their parents are just going to be paying for it. (51:49) Cause I mean, I'm only with y'all for two more years and then, I mean, y'all are still going to come back and be here. (51:55) I'm not going to text you while I'm 10 hours away and be like, Hey, can you pay for my Chick-fil-A?
Mike Mills
(52:01) I mean, you could, but you know, once you, some people are going to have to do that or their parents aren't going to, and it's going to come as a big, like, Oh my God, I have no money. (52:11) Your mom was that person when she was Well, it's different because like when I grew up, it wasn't, um, like I didn't need for anything. (52:23) I have fine, but my, my parents didn't teach me about any of this stuff, but they also like, you know, from the earliest I can remember, I was doing my own laundry.
(52:31) I was making my own food. (52:32) I had a job when I was 16 and, and I just had my own responsibilities. (52:36) And so as I grew up, I just knew how to do all this stuff.
(52:39) Cause I just had to figure it out. (52:40) Right. (52:41) Whereas your mom, she, her, you know, her Mimi pops are the greatest parents of all time.
(52:46) Right. (52:47) And they're, but they took care of her. (52:49) And so like we were, your mom and I were talking about last night in the hot tub and she would tell me that like her dad, which sounds awesome.
(52:55) Maybe I feel like a terrible father, but she had, he, he would fill up her car with gas every Sunday. (53:00) So she never like never had to put gas in her car ever. (53:04) Yes.
(53:05) Right. (53:06) Right. (53:06) So, and again, there's nothing wrong with that.
(53:09) It's just, it's just, it's just different. (53:11) Right. (53:11) And, and so it's one of those things where it's hard as a parent too, because we want to do everything for you all the time.
(53:17) We want to make your life amazing and awesome and all those things. (53:20) But it's your mom and I kind of bounced back and forth between, Hey, you got to let her do this, or you got to let him do this and not be up their butt the whole time about it. (53:29) Like I've told you with your, like going out and doing stuff, right.
(53:32) Like in my opinion, and by the way, I'm gonna brag on you for just a second. (53:35) Like we went on our vacation and when we got, as soon as we got home, she cleaned her, which, um, uh, we got it from Blake, whatever, but you, you cleaned your entire room. (53:45) You did all of your laundry.
(53:47) You cleaned your bathroom. (53:48) You clean your upstairs little area. (53:52) You went and wash your car and vacuum your car and you took care of all of those things.
(53:57) And then you sat down and watched your reality show. (54:01) Yes. (54:03) So, so, and, and you, you get up every single day, you get yourself ready.
(54:08) You go straight to conditioning at six 30 in the morning in the summertime, you come home and hang out and get your food. (54:12) You watch, you drink your, your, uh, your electrolytes and your, and your, uh, uh, creatine protein, like you're doing all the right thing. (54:23) So when you ask me if you can drive to Southlake to go shopping with your friend, okay.
(54:31) I'm always going to err on the side of being like, that's cool. (54:33) Like I'm cool with that because as long as you take care of your responsibilities and you handle, you're going to get all the freedom that you want. (54:40) Right.
(54:40) And, and that's, that's what being responsible buys you, right. (54:45) It buys you freedom and it buys you trust, right. (54:48) Except if you ever break that trust, obviously those things go away, but, but you haven't done that.
(54:53) And so like, I'm extremely proud of you because of all this stuff that you've been able to do. (54:58) And I told your mom last night, we were sitting there, I was like, she can be fun. (55:00) Like when she goes off to college and she gets out here, she's going to be great because you're, you're incredibly responsible and you have your head on straight and you make great grades and work your butt off.
(55:10) And so I, I, I appreciate it so much. (55:13) So, um, I'm going to start crying in a second, but, but I'm telling you like that, that is what makes me so proud of you because you have the ability and you've worked yourself so hard and yeah, your mom and I tell you this stuff, but you do this on your own. (55:26) Like we're not, you know, having to remind you this stuff every single day, your brother, you know, whether it's a whole or we'll see what his episodes look like when we get to him doing this stuff.
(55:35) But, um, but I'm extremely proud of you and I can't, I can't say that enough because you know, everything that you've been able to do and all the hard work that you've put in all the time, it's awesome. (55:46) Awesome. (55:47) There's, there's very few kids that do that.
(55:48) So, all right, well now we got, you got onto something else. (55:51) So, um, we're going to wrap this up. (55:54) Um, thank you baby for coming in and talking to me about this stuff.
(55:57) Uh, real quick, what did we learn today? (56:00) What do you think? (56:02) Okay.
(56:06) Okay. (56:07) What is the thing where you put all the stocks in the one index funds? (56:11) Okay.
Catey Mills
(56:12) Learned about, um, having my time job and training time for money.
Mike Mills
(56:17) I learned about, we just did the investing stuff. (56:22) Yeah. (56:22) And I learned, we talked about my college stuff and learning to have those conversations with people so I can, you know, have those skills in the future.
(56:33) Not be a good adult, be a good adult.
Catey Mills
(56:35) Yep.
Mike Mills
(56:35) Yep. (56:37) Okay. (56:37) All right.
(56:38) Well, well, I'm so parenting done. (56:41) I've done everything. (56:41) We're great.
(56:42) You can go off into the world and be fine. (56:44) No, I'm sure. (56:44) I'm sure.
(56:45) Uh, there'll be something you hate me for in the next 10 years. (56:47) We'll see what it is. (56:48) I know it's probably cause I talk too damn much or, uh, you know, smell like the outside.
(56:52) All right. (56:52) Well, everybody, thank you for sticking around. (56:55) I'm glad everybody was able to chat with us for a little bit today.
(56:57) Um, I'll be back with another market update next week. (56:59) So everybody have an awesome week and we will see you then. (57:03) Bye.