And now for something completely different. Forget everything you've been told by others before. Get ready for the real deal. The full story. Real talk about money, markets, life. Now it's the real investment show presented by RIA Advisors. And good morning. Welcome to the Financial Fitness podcast. We're so glad you're here. Or if you're listening later on, we do appreciate that very much. you know, um, we try to make sure that we can give you very holistic advice and, uh, your portfolio obviously is very important and and and so are other things that surround it. So here with Jonathan Mccardi, CHP, NSSA, CFA, yada yada yada yada. Between the both of us, we could fill up uh, a book of certifications. Alphabet soup. Alphabet soup. So, you know, listen, sometimes they want to tie in pop culture and I have to admit I was a bit shocked by the response to the Sydney Sweeney ads for great jeans and great jeans. Um, you know, it it's got to be absolutely difficult for an organization to brand today. Like I I you know, a woman in jeans shouldn't offend anybody. Um I you know so I'm a little bit displaced by by that. So whatever ads you run it's because you have a brand and this is your brand and you promote your brand and you'll have different people who will do it. Uh Beyonce has done GAN commercials you know but all the common denominator among all these people is they're sort of attractive and that's what companies want. So I don't know why people get obsessed. Maybe they don't have jobs. Um, I don't know what it is, but I don't know why people get obsessed with it. But then I thought of it from, you know, our perspective, Jonathan, of I read a lot of articles about Sydney Sweeney, who's like in her 20s, I think. Yeah. And they said she is they were mocking her because she is only worth $40 million. Wow. Yeah. Sydney Sweeney is such a failure in her 20s. That was the perspective of all these articles that I could not believe the volume of articles considering her a failure because she only had $40 million. That's ridiculous. At 20some years old and you realize how stupid that is. So obviously we want to take it from the perspective of younger people building wealth or perhaps sudden wealth regardless of your age. What do you need to do? And I've always learned these lessons. So when I was a kid there was something called I don't know if they still make it. They used to the almanac. They used to have the almanac every year. Do you remember that? It was a very thick book and every year you would get world facts and almanacs. But I always went to the movie star portion because I was always fascinated with stars like Abbott of you know from the 40s kids you know you know stars I would watch on reruns and they would have all these things about where they're buried and all that and net worth and all of that. Um so I was always fascinated on how you know with all this kind of money that you have you think you would have an estate plan. You would think that you would find ways to safeguard your wealth and make sure it passes on. That's right. And then you read all the stories. Now, I don't know if I have just representative bias. I'm sure there are a lot of high-profile people who have sophisticated estate plans. I mean, I'd like to think that I I in my mind, I don't know if this is true or not, so just take it for what it's worth. In my impression is that Taylor Swift probably has a razor sharp estate plan. Oh, yeah. I mean her her father was a financial adviser I believe with Merryill if I'm not mistaken you know right all the right trusts all the succession planning yes right all the different types of investments I think for the I don't remember the name of the dude with the crazy hair who was offering all this crypto stuff and she was he offered her bankman freed yeah Sam Bankman Freed so it was like I think it was something like was a hund00 million investment or her father said no absolutely not is this publicly traded Is this liquid? You know, all these questions would made me realize looked into her dad that he's financial adviser. Yep. So, I just making the assumption that her estate's probably ironclad. No matter who she marries, that money is not going anywhere. Well, that prenup was already signed long before she met her current boyfriend. Oh, no. That's what I mean. But I think regard you know, first of all, even in just the basics of wealth, you need to have the basics done. like you have to have at least a will and and a directive and and other ways to pass on assets, right? beneficiaries. we h how how common is it when we see Jonathan that beneficiaries don't get updated or added at all and then you have the estate which is you know a non-desated beneficiary and becomes the fact that now that your estate is the beneficiary it's got to be paid out over five years especially you know where you know it's not it's it's a non-human entity right so or certain types of trust so how common is it just for everybody to not update. Yeah. Unfortunately, things that they should, beneficiaries and so forth. It's far too common. Yeah. We see it all the time. Even expouses, you'd be surprised. Yeah. You know, people pass away and their expouse has left them a massive retirement account because they never went through and did the due diligence to update their beneficiaries. Or, you know, you have spouses, one passes, they both have each other as beneficiaries. And then when the other one spa when the one spouse passes they don't update their beneficiaries. Y so by so it's like a husband passes away um and the wife has say him as beneficiary she never updates it and she's gone now they're both gone. Yep. Right. So this is an estate situation. So you're taking a nonprobate asset and turning it into a headache. So I was thinking about it from the point of I was looking at Sydney Sweeny's getting all these movie roles. I mean for her this is probably the best thing. I think she did a Baskin Robinette and I never seen an ice cream cone smile before but it it was doing that. It the chips formed in the space of a smile and um you know you know sometimes you want to come back as an ice cream cone but that's another story. Um so you decide that uh hey this is a podcast we talk about what we want. So um I'm sorry. Um so the thing is I think about younger people building wealth and having the basics. So I thought it would be a good discussion for us. Absolutely. That these are things that even if you're not worth a pittance of $40 million pittance, one article called it a pittance. Wow. Yeah. So tell Rich, if I was ever worth $40 million, you guys would never see me again. No offense, right? Yeah. No, I love you guys, but I I would disappear. Hey, can anyone see how Jonathan's doing? I wonder if Mrs. No, I'm not going to go there. Um, all I'm going to say is I understand what you're saying. So, you know, it's sort of crazy how this girl is getting attacked. Um, and yet I we want to attack her with the state plan. What are you all doing? So, one of the things as a young woman, listen, age hits all of us, right? We're we're we're beautiful one day. We wake up, we look in the mirror and go, "That can't be me." Right? That what who's that monkey? Yeah. Like, you know, where's the my banana? Um, so you wake up and you figure it out like, "Oh my gosh." Years ago, I don't know if they still use it, but there was this and I wrote a piece about this that, you know, especially younger people, they don't think they're ever going to age. And they have all these aging apps and what a lot of financial advisors and I was using it for a while is, you know, you don't think you're going to get old, but let's put your face through this app. and just to see what you look like cuz your brain will will will perceive it as real. And you know, a lot of people I left my office crying and Connie was wondering what was going on. Uh like where did my hair go? Uh so you know and what that's my face in 30 years I'm not going to have an estate plan. I'm going out you know I'm going into the woods. I'm never coming back. um the rising wealth and it could be anybody but I use Sydney Sweeney just because we want to tie the pop culture because of all these movie roles she's getting and all these other commercials that she's getting and you have to realize that you know something could happen to you absolutely or you could get married and your assets aren't protective. So, one of the things I look at is from a good genes perspective, good genes versus good genes. Because you can have good genes, but if you're lifestyle sucks, your health is going to waver. And you got to realize that hopefully someone like that is following some sort of regimen to keep up, right? Because you feel young and you feel invulnerable, but and you say, "Well, my parents live, you know, my parents are going to live forever." Well, you know, part of your who you are from a health perspective, yeah, is genetics, but most of it's lifestyle. Yeah. So, what you want to look at from your perspective, even if when it comes to good genes, is you got to help them along as you get older. And you got to look at things like we talk about this all the time, health versus wealth. That's right. If you, you know, people will come in, do a budget, and say, "Yeah, well, I'm going to cut the gym membership and I'm going to cut, you know, eating all this uh, you know, healthy stuff. You know, I can get No, we're we're going to keep that." Yeah. Matter of fact, we're going to up it, right? Anything you want to do to enhance your health, I'm putting in the budget for you because we want a we want a lifestyle in retirement that's active and healthy. We don't want to be in retirement and be miserable, right? So, you have to take control of your health. And I hope that's one of the things that she realizes uh or a lot of people younger people raised well rise, you know, with rising wealth. Listen, listen, we we all did it, right? We get we went to bed late, we got up early, we drank a lot, we did all this, but then we we make a switch, right? So you got to keep that in moderation because good genes and good genes that that works. What else do you think I was thinking about this basic trust planning? Yeah. If I were a a movie star and even though you know or if I just want privacy there's there's a lot of um discussion on both sides of the fence pros and cons of revocable living trusts. Sometimes I get the well you know attorneys just want to sell you a revokable living trust. Oh it's such a pain in the neck because I have to reregister my assets in the name of the revocable living trust. But you know I think for Sydney Sweeney that would sort of get her trust muscles working. Yeah. So what would be Jonathan? What do you think would be some of the benefits of anybody setting up a revocable living trust? What what do you think? Well, first of all, I mean, you talked about it already, avoiding probate, not having to worry about those beneficiaries for your accounts. Well, if I'm like in California, right, especially in New York now, some states have different kind of, you know, probate's easier, but I remember after CO, every state was messed up. And even Texas co I mean the probate was the the length of time was absolutely insane. Yeah. Multiple months possibly years. So with a revocable living trust as you say we don't have to go through that probate process do we? Correct. Yeah. And for some people regardless of assets. Now, some people could do it through beneficiaries, transfer on death, uh, and so forth, but but there are a lot of people that may not be able to do it because yeah, I get this ease of probate, but if I have probate, if I have probate, I also don't have any privacy, do I? That's right. One of my public record, you know, morbid things is looking up the wills of movie stars and see what they what they're doing. I I don't know. You know, there I mean, do you really want that? I certainly don't. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So there's the privacy aspect of that. But can in mind the basics or the guts of revocable living trust, it is really an extension of you. There is no estate tax saving. And I think when people hear trust, they think I'm saving taxes. You may or may not be. You may be saving probate costs. But this might as well be an extension of you, right? It is a revocable trust, which means you have 100% control, which means it's not out of your estate. But it does afford you some of these other things like privacy. And I would think for somebody like her, I would probably look for that. Absolutely. I would probably look for that. And and I can actually springboard some of my more complicated estate planning or trusts. Yeah. From that, right? Overall, so she travels a lot. We all do. Having the basics of a will who takes care of things if, god forbid, she passes. Um, so these are things regardless of your wealth or not. And then you got to think about so this this hierarchy of what you would put in place. What else would you put in there? And I know we look at the revocable trust as sort of just a foundation. And and a lot of people will say, "Listen, I don't have to spend the three grand or four grand to do that because I could have a will and then that will will spawn testimeamentary trusts which will protect my children and do and my my family and carry out my wishes." Like I think with Lance, his is like kids don't get any money until they're like 45. The Warren Buffett approach. Very nice. Yeah. He's going to live beyond the grave. So, and that's okay if that's your prerogative. That's what a trust is is for. Yeah. So, what else would you what would you if you have this sudden wealth? What else would you think would be on this list? I've got a few other things that we'll go through with. Obviously, a tax adviser, you know, let's talk about that. I mean, that's a a glaring one, but not just a tax preparer, right? Right. Correct. Yeah. Because people don't understand the difference between tax preparer and a tax strategist. Exactly. Now, in some ways, your financial advisor can help with the educational part of it, right? And help you with planning strategies, helping you understand pros and cons, well arming you with education. But when it comes to the actual nitty-gritty of the taxes, you really do want a good tax strategist on your on your team. Yeah. There's there's an important distinction between tax guidance and tax advice. And you we tell clients this all the time. We do not give tax advice. We're not CPAs. We're not qualified to give that type of advice, but we can absolutely give guidance around what potential tax strategies would scenarios, different things you can run by your tax advisor to see if that works. Exactly. And then have them implement the necessary articles. So those professionals around her just like any of us are very important. Yes. Having a good financial advisor who is absolutely a fiduciary. Yes. Yeah. um who is looking out for her best interest. Yep. And hopefully get some free American Eagle jeans. Um overall, do they make men's jeans? I don't even know this. I mean, I pass it in the mall all the time and I try to avoid it. But I What makes me laugh is that their their target demographic, at least to my understanding, is you know, high school teenage girls. Yeah. Are they So why are people shocked that their spokesperson is Sydney Sweeney? I don't know. Who is incredibly popular with that demographic? That demographic, right? So they matched her to the demographic. Right. Right. And I even saw an article out that that there was a poll ran that really only 12% of Americans were offended by this ad. Who are those 12? Unfortunately, you have just a very vocal minority that you know these these internet warriors that get on social media and the Reddit warriors, Instagrammers, you know, all these there's not enough denim to cover some of these people. Yes. Yeah. Living in mom's basement just spouting off stuff on the internet. It's Listen, did I like a lot of the ads that had people that I don't want to see? I want to see them as clothed as possible. Yeah. Um, do I think that they have a right if if a if a company wants to do that. That's their prerogative. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's what America is. I had I saw one article, one one I unfortunately I go down this rabbit hole of videos. I send them to Brent all the time. probably he was like delete delete delete but um I don't like the I don't like the name of the company there was this whole series of people American Eagle you know because they don't really like America so how could you like the eagle so um I don't know where we were going with this but the point I'm trying to make is that you have to be prepared as your wealth grows and put in these boring structures Yeah, that are not pleasant. It takes time. You got to think it through. And this is a young woman that, you know, she hasn't had children yet. She was dating that dude Glenn Powell. Mhm. Who is like a god. I mean, he looks like I'm like, every time I look at this guy, damn it, what happened? I need to get back in the gym. No, it's like, you know, you know, when God was handing out the gene pool, you know, he put me in the Joe Peshy group and then he put he puts, you know, like Glenn Powell in the Atlas God, you know, thing like, oh my god, look at this guy, you know. So, um, and I'm like, what kind of kids? They'd have some amazing looking kids. And there I am, eugenics. That's where my brain's going. Um, but she would have to um she would have to look at if she has a good tax advisor. They're laying out the milestone of they see where her life is going. They also see how her private life can progress, right? And what vehicles could be there to open up that world to protect her wealth, right? That's right. Yeah. I mean, there's entire industries built around this for a reason. You know, some of the best advice I got was that the most important decision you can make is is who you decide to marry. And that's very, very true. You think about that. Now, again, there are so many reasons. I'm looking at from a financial perspective. you if you are not aligned with an individual financially, one's a spender, one's a saver, Mhm. one is, you know, just absolutely criminal with credit and one isn't. You know, it it it creates this negative synergistic kind of effect on your wealth, doesn't it? Yeah. compared to spouses that will come in and one will say, "Listen," you know, and I'm just saying he or she he or she made all the money. I stayed home with the kids and I'm like, "Wait, listen, you are discounting your role." Yeah. You both made this decision, but you are also in agreement on the wealth building. You're just as responsible for building that wealth. That's right. Than the person who was the highest wage earner. Well, and as somebody who's currently looking for child care for a newborn, that's expensive. That's that's a cost. So, if you did have a stay-at-home spouse, they're saving you thousands of dollars a month. We tried to get you a nanny who looked like Sydney Sweeney, but Mrs. McCarti was absolutely against it. She wanted some of the people that were against Yeah. Sydney Sweeney. Yeah. Yeah. Hello, Martis. But you're right, Rich. you know, and and we've talked about it in the past. It's important to have these these financial conversations heading into a marriage so that you guys are aligned making sure you know what's and one of the things we talked about is what's the private spending amount that you don't need to confirm with your spouse, right? My wife and I have that dollar amount figured out between the two of us. Uh but it's incredibly important and my wife works, she's corporate executive, so she calls us one cost center, right? She looks at it from a from a cost center perspective. So it's not about that's a pretty cool way to look at I Yeah, I agree. It's not about who brings in what. You know, we are going into I don't know, but I'm afraid of her. Honestly, so am I. Yeah. I don't even know her. I'm afraid of Mrs. Roberts, but I'm also afraid of Mrs. McCarti. So, she runs a tight ship. I bet she sounds like she's not taking any crap. Yeah. One day I'd like to meet her because I would like to just say, "My gosh, you know, you run a tight ship." Like, she does. Yes. And and and a lot of ways I really respect that. I think that that's great. Well, you know, I'm a I'm a fairly strong willed individual, so it would it would take somebody equally of strong will to to kind of keep me in line. And that's uh that's really what I was looking for. He's done that cuz he came in today and his spine came in later. Yeah. Um he he walked in first and his spine just slunk in like That's right. Wait for me. He's crying in the corner like a little girl. Uh Brett's having a kick out of the podcast this morning. Um, now let's get a little more complicated because now most people don't have to worry about the estate tax exemption, do they? The limits are so high. Yeah. Not many that most people, let's let's face it, they're not going to hit that hurdle cuz when people are worried about estate tax and they do have a lot of money, I said you do, but when you look at the ex, you know, both of your exemptions, 26 million. Yeah. Yeah. You know, again, Sydney Sweeney. Yeah, but again, Sydney Sweeney um is a disgrace cuz she's in her 20s with 40 million. Um which again, those ads, those those articles cracked me. I was like, "What?" Yeah. Uh you know, all right. So, the next level is how do I protect how do I preserve these exemptions, right? and and there is a portability kind of thing where you don't even need credit shelter trust trusts as much anymore. But if you're building massive wealth, the credit shelter trusts where I am preserving those exemptions and pulling assets or what we call let's say irrevocable trust where now I'm saying I have these appreciated assets. I want to freeze that value outside my estate for beneficiaries. That's a whole other level of trust planning that my thinking would be is she would need to go through and if she marries the god Glenn Powell who is in the right pile in the gene pool and I was on the other side going, "Hey, hey, am I funny? Do I make you laugh?" Um, I was in the shallow end of that pool. Yeah, me too. I was Yeah. So I was the brine, like brine at the bottom of the pool. So um that next level of trust planning sounds absolutely intimidating. Yeah. But if you explain it from the fact that let's take it from let's let's forget all the different types charitable lead trust you know intentionally defective grant or trust forget let's all let's just talk about irrevocable that you have ma you have assets that have grown over time or you want assets to blossom outside of the estate that you have no control over is something that I could absolutely for someone at that that level. Oh, certainly. I mean, she's she's still in her 20s. I mean, she's got Yeah, but she's only got $40 million a basically a popper. There are ways when you look at these credit shelter or even say she's got she's got charitable intent. Yeah. She looks at a charitable lead trust. She gets income taxfree, pulls money out and whatever's left goes to beneficiaries. These are all things down the road that even if you have this kind of wealth, not only to preserve your exemptions, but to look at valuations of what you own and freeze those valuations moving that out of your state. So the growth of those assets. So my thought would be is like I can't even imagine like going back to Taylor Swift what kind of investments she has whether it's real estate, apartment buildings. Yes. What? Yeah. Right. Yes. All of the above that you know besides the current tax benefits they're structured as such in trusts. Yes. with her sort of at arms length. So that that is all that wealth is growing outside of her current estate. Correct? So I guess at that level what you have to think of it is well how much do I want in my estate with outside of my estate or how do I still collect income? Right. Um but I like or how do I have a remainder interest in this because I still have a life and a lifestyle. Right. Right. And that's where your tax strategist, but you also brought up these professionals. What about an a board-certified estate planner? Yeah. Critical. That's pretty dynamic with these strategies, too, right? Critical. So, I think that also is something, but you don't have to be. You can have a really great estate planner as someone who just is a high wager or anybody, you know. Listen, there's nothing wrong with um trust trust in will and legal zoom and all that, but my thought is I think it's those are really okay for the basics. Yes. As opposed to having like a holographic will like Franklin just wrote a will like on a cocktail napkin, I think. Like then they had to figure out like and thankfully she was in a state that allowed handwritten wills or or like in I think Texas is one of those states too. Check with your estate planning person. But that leaves you open for all kinds of contests against you. Like all kinds of contention among family members. This was handwritten. Not even know. Like there's no notoriization. This is I leave my money to Brent. The bartender signed it. Yeah. The witness at the bar witnessed. Uh yeah, Rosie O'Donnell wrote hers on the at the rib joint. She wrote it on a napkin there. Yeah, they ran out of ribs though after a couple hours. But you're right, Rich. You know, it's important especially when you're looking at contested wills. You know, unfortunately, and I'm sure you've seen it. I've certainly seen it where somebody passes away and there may be, you know, children that are no longer close. Yes. Or, you know, have drifted apart over the years and there's a very contentious battle for what's going to happen with the leftover estate. And it's it's unfortunate to see and I'm sure any parent would be horrified to learn that their death rather than being a time of mourning is going to be a time of contention between their remaining family members. Yep. It's, you know, um we're going to have another podcast about just the qualitative part of inheritance, which is the actual conversations you need to have where you don't let cold dead documents make those speak for you, right? The documents are just solidifying pretty much what you already know. Oh yeah, dad told me this was the way it was going to be and this is exactly what it was. But you you're alive to explain your rationale because to your point, family members can get can fight over the dumbest things and then never speak again. Yeah. Exactly. fractures families and maybe it's a situation where you have multiple children and some of them are better off than others and so you want to provide more of a cushion for some of the less successful children you have but that can still breed resentment between siblings. That's right. It absolutely can. Um and then you have some where say you have multiple children and we get this all the time Jonathan I'm sure you do. Um, I have my my daughter as executive, not my son, because my daughter is just more responsible or good with numbers or business person or whatever it is. And I'm like, well, have you shared that? Have you told them why? Yeah. Because now if you don't those two, you fractured their relationship. Correct. Why didn't dad pick me? There's going to be this hidden resentment unless you sit with both of them. Not well, you know, I'll meet with them separately. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You meet with them together. Yes. Get it all out. You go over the rationale. Same thing like you're just saying. Yeah. And you know, I I don't know that I'm my parents executive. You know, they've never actually told me. I would assume I am only because of my background in in what I do. You'd be surprised. But yeah, they maybe they don't want me to be the executive and maybe it wants one of my other brothers. You know, we have not had that conversation. It's actually something I've brought up. Sweeney is your executive. Yeah, cuz she's broke and she could use that money. I'd give her all my money. Yeah. I mean, Jonathan be like, "That's fine." Yeah. Yeah. I'm okay with it. His spine just went to go home later. I can't go home now. I can't can't go home now. Now this is all more abundant kind of stuff but things you need to you know the rising wealthy people need to prepare for but even if not rising wealthy these are things that you need to consider right and these tools are available not just for the ultra wealthy I mean at the end of the day saving taxes should be a goal of anybody who's looking to pass on a legacy it's just the size of the savings or or say for example you most people I think most Americans are very charitable but Most Americans can't afford to just write a check for $100,000 to an organization. Correct. Like or a million dollars like you see like Tom Brady's donated, you know, his his pocket change to whatever. But even when they do that, there's deductions and other things. Correct. you know, it's capped out as part of AGI, but that does there are benefits to it, but some I would think there are some stars. Um, I had a chance to meet Linda Blair. We had a great conversation. Um, she's into her animals and talked about, you know, that's what she dedicates her life to is abandon animals. I mean, she's does an amazing job with that. And uh, and she's very tiny. You should see her. I was telling Amy, I'm like, "Oh my god, I don't think her shoe size is larger than four." Wow. She It's like like the devil got into her and shrunk her from The Exorcist. You know, it's like she's so small. Like I was like, "Oh my gosh." Um, so she might have a charitable trust, right? Or a charitable remainder trust that funds animal organizations with mega dollars, which also helps in the state, right? We may not have that. And there are a lot of people that use maybe donor advised funds, right? So great option. So and even Sydney, you could use a donor advised fund. Definitely. So let's just talk a couple of minutes about what are the benefits for everybody for these donor advice funds. Yeah. And we talk about these with clients a lot. You know, if for people who don't have massive estates but still want to take advantage of the ability for get getting tax deductions on charitable contributions, you know, maybe you don't have a charity in mind right now, but this is a high earning tax year for you. You want to try and defer some of that that tax implication. You can make contributions to a donor advised fund. You immediately recognize the tax benefits and then those those funds can sit in the donor advised fund until you decide where you want to issue a grant and they'll continue to be invested and they'll grow taxfree. So, it's a great way to start building up your own kind of wealth distribution system that gives you flexibility in in how you're dictating those funds. So, I have a charity say and I'm into the animals as well. So, I work I donate a lot to rescued pet move pets movement and so forth. They transport animals out of Texas into Colorado and so forth and kill you know they want to make sure these pe people want animals. We can we have them. We ship them to you. We got plenty. We have plenty. We got plenty. We have some people we'd like to ship to you too, but that's really for animal food. Um the um somebody's name starts with forget it. Um I have appreciated assets. I have a I own Nvidia and Nvidia has gone up tremendously and I don't want to pay the taxes and I have this charitable intent. Well, I can go ahead and set up a say we are custodians Fidelity set up the donor advice fund. I can move my Nvidia shares into the donor advice fund. Sell those shares, allocate them in a balanced portfolio or keep it aside because I know eventually I'm going to give that I I may not want to do it this year. I may want to do it in 2027, right? But I am going to get the tax break. First of all, I'm not going to get the capital gains for selling it, right? and you get the full share value and I'm moving the fully moving the appreciated assets over but I get it at that point I'm getting the tax benefit even if I don't give that money for seven years 10 years whatever it is I'm getting the benefit so what's great about donor advised funds it makes everybody charitable it does well and also for high income earners you know if you're in the top tax bracket then maybe you look at you know contributing the dividends and interest that you earn on your taxable portfolio IO, you know, those are going to be the highest tax portions rel relative to capital gains in your portfolio, right? You can set it up to feed into that donor advised fund all year long. That's right. Yeah, that's right. And we see a lot of people throughout the year, not only do they do codified charitable distributions, but they also will do donor advice funds, sort of coupled them together, which I think is great. You know, there are things called um so I always think of Taylor Swift because I think that I don't know why I'm making this guess based on her dad and some of the responses he's had to some investments that have come their way and he's turned them down. Uh which makes me think, you know, the dude's on knows what he's doing and he's protecting her interest, right? Um opportunity zones investing in these distressed areas and getting an incredible tax break for doing so. Y the one big beautiful bill has actually solidified the fact that these um benefits of investing in opportunity zones exist. So tax benefits to investors who want to defer tax on capital gains say I you know you got to see what's considered a qualified opportunity zone. This is an area distress, urban blight like most of Houston and um you have this ability to they want to revamp the area, right? They want to go through, okay, I'm going to invest in the qualified opportunity zone. If I'm moving it from appreciated stock, I'm if I can do it in a timely manner, I'm going to minimize I can defer some of that capital gains. But if I hold that opportunity zone fund for at least 10 years, then you get a shift up to your fair market value. In other words, no taxes at all. Now, this is sort of risky, sort of illquid. I actually seen ads on the financial channels of funds now that are opportunity zone funds, specialty. Yeah. Yep. that allow many people to participate, but understand that it's high risk and it's a lot of tax benefits, but for someone like Sydney Sweeney that wants to look at alternative investments, this could be a really good way to go. Absolutely. And her time horizon is is very long. So, more than suitable. Exactly. More than suitable. So the lesson we're trying to put together here for you is for everyone the estate planning is absolutely crucial. Sydney Sweeney can of course hire all these estate planning professionals. You can too. You want to do some homework before you do it. Um there are a lot of great books, booklets. um Five Wishes, which is one of the best organizations out there. They have a booklet that allows you to visualize everything or put together. Hey, what Yeah, I mean, people say, "Oh my god, it's so morbid." But it's not. What would you want said at your funeral? What what music would you like? What what who do you prefer as your who would be your healthc care, you know, directive? Who's who's handling that? Why? So you write all this in your five wishes. Now in some states that's actually legal document, not here in Texas. So you want to check, but then you can take that booklet, bring it to your board certified estate planner, and they'll give you documents to fill out, too. But at least, you see, you're getting your mind. It's like, it's like working out or exercising. You're getting your mind built up to the fact that I'm doing this. That's right. One step at a time. There's a company out there. I bought their stuff. It's called Knoxbox. Knox is amazing because it's it's so simple, but it's it's a waterproof fireproof box and it allows you to it it gives you instructions on, you know, who to write out like contact all that, but all these files for your papers. So your heirs don't have to go and look for all or search for everything. It's there in the box. But the box tells you what to do. Like it says this is what you do next, you know. So for a lot of people, I bought it because I wanted experience. I wanted to see what it was like. And I also thought it would be great for my daughter to have it so that it would make things easier for her. Yeah. Now I know maybe I have a copy of a statement, right? And so it's just amazing how they organize it. And it's really like a brother and sister who created this company because of the trials they went through. I think with their mother or father's trying to find everything. It was their dad. Yeah. Um, and before the age of the internet, okay, like my grandparents, like you shot, like it was like work. Like you couldn't bother my grandfather when he had to look through all the newspapers to figure out which bank to get the CD from. Important stuff. Oh my gosh. Don't bother me, stupid. I'm looking this stuff up. You know, it's important making money. You understand? Grandma, grandpa, they're CDs. You don't make a lot of money. You got to go to other shut up. So, we loved each other. Childhood drama. It's an It's an Italian thing. That's how we talk to each other. So, um those basics are for everybody. Yeah. And th those basics of putting all this stuff together, organization. But years ago, so when my grandfather passed away finally, we my I remember my uncle and my dad trying to figure out, oh my god, like they were finding out for years. I just looked and you all should do this. I always go to my family where they're where they're from to the sites, the abandoned property sites. Oh, yeah. I found one out there from my grandfather when he lived where he lived in Brooklyn. I wasn't even born yet. This was their first place when they got married. My grandmother and grandfather and I'm like and I called my uncle. This is how long this has been out there. Wow. Some check from credential. So I'm saying you don't never know. like like Brent, there's got to be a lot of Clantons who abandon property. It's worth it to look. It's just really worth it to look because you don't know. So that's what we had to do sometimes for my grandfather because he had banks everywhere today, at least electronically. That doesn't mean that you don't have to put all that stuff together. Right. When we offer something similar, Rich, for our clients, you know, we have a digital vault. That's right. as part of our planning software where you can go and upload those documents because you're correct, you know, when losing a loved one is is a traumatic experience. And the last thing you want to have to do during that time is go and try and dig for documents. It's it's so much easier to navigate that experience if you already have one location where you can go and find everything you need. It's already been shared with your financial team, so they also know what the process is going to be. you can really help that surviving spouse or those surviving family members navigate what what is an incredibly difficult time. Absolutely. So, Sydney Sweeney, you got some good jeans. You have I think your net worth is very respectable. What do you think? I'm pretty impressed. Y a lot of magazines aren't. Yep. She's just a popper. Um, but preparation because man, it goes by that fast and then all of a sudden you're out there and your spine's in the corner crying. That's right. Help me. And that's all we have for financial fitness. Um, we hope you enjoyed it. Um, we'll discuss a lot of other things. Sometimes we'll throw some pop culture in there. There are lessons in what we provide hopefully for everybody. Not just people with good jeans. You might have ripped jeans. You might have flare jeans. You may have no jeans at all. I wear khakis. Okay. What would those jeans? We'll talk about that the next show. We appreciate you being here, everyone. Take care.