Dumb Money Lessons | Taylor Stewart | Growing Money with Sean Trace

I sat down with financial planner Taylor Stewart to do something nobody asked for but everyone needed: break down the financial disasters of Dumb and Dumber and find out why Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne might actually be the most relatable money story ever put on screen. 

We kicked things off with the IOU suitcase scene, which honestly hits different when you realize it's just a funnier version of swiping a credit card you can't pay off. Taylor made the point that borrowing is always stealing from your future self, and spending a lump sum feels like having all the time in the world right up until the hourglass is empty. 

That's the trap. Money that doesn't replenish itself disappears faster than you think, and no amount of optimism changes the math.

What would you actually do if you found a suitcase with $1 million? Would you invest it, spend it, or something in between, and be honest with yourself about whether your answer changes if nobody was watching?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Yeah. Well, there's another angle to it. Lifestyle inflation is a good one, but also like mental accounting. Like when you get a windfall, it doesn't always feel like your own money. And so this could be with like they're like you spent like if they if the worm farm would have taken off in the movie and they had earned a million dollars, they probably would have spent it very differently because they feel like they earned it, but somehow, like when it falls into your lap, it's like it's not real money. You see this with bonuses and I mean inheritance gifts and everything. People like, like, yeah, think about like you get a $5,000 Christmas gift from grandma or something, whatever, just you get something. People spend it because it's not real money. It feels so different than the money you earned and and worked for. And that's a it's fascinating how we mentally account for that just differently of like it's still money, it can still serve all of the same problems in your life, but nobody's like, I'm gonna pay off debt with this. It's like well, I'm gonna go buy this because it was, you know, it didn't feel the same.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Welcome everybody back to the Great Money Rashawn Trace Podcast. I have an awesome repeat guest here today. Uh, would you like to introduce yourself and tell people who you are and a little bit about what you do?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Yeah, Taylor Stewart. I'm uh the dumber of the two of us here. I think that'll make sense in a little bit. Um uh yeah, financial planner by trade, uh work with clients. I got an RAA and then uh a software platform for clients to use and work with their clients. So kind of getting all over the uh financial planning space. That's awesome, Matt.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

And uh yeah, you get you get multiple podcasts and launching a new one. So yeah, yeah, it's it's so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

I like talking.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

So right, that's a good thing. Uh today I we I had yeah, lots of thoughts in my brain, hard to articulate. Uh, we were gonna have you um come back on, and then I was like, Hey, are is there anything you want to talk about? And we were just shooting around some ideas, and I said, Well, what's your favorite movie? And you were like, Boom, dumb and dumber. And I was like, Oh god, no hesitation. It was like instant. And I was like, What can we do with the financial principles of dumb and dumber? So, ladies and gentlemen, yeah, we are gonna pull out the financial concepts from Dumb and Dumber today.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

If you haven't watched the movie, I don't even know what to say at this point in time. Like, shame on you, shame on you, pretty bird, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

It is like stupid comedy like that is actually brilliant, though. There's like people like dismiss it, like like comedians are like the philosophers of our generation now, and there's like a wit and a wisdom to all of it, and like that is a movie that it's so stupid but so brilliant at the same time, and I freaking love it. Even when I watch it now, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:42

I I re-watched it just so I could prep for this, and I was like, Man, why haven't not watched this more recently? Because it's so good, and like you know, I just sit there going, Is there any financial principles? But like, dude, I watched it like and I was just like, IOUs, man, and like yeah, IOU is like spending money that's not yours, and those guys go through so much money. Talk to me about that though, like like the IOU concept, man. If you were to pull some wisdom from that, what might you you think about from that?

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Oh man, it's just you borrowing, you know. Well, that well, that's a tricky one because like that's like a loan that they didn't ask for. Um, I mean, I mean I think if you just like IOUs in general, I think it's like a credit card, or like you can feel like you can have it, but you can't really have it. And so borrowing is just always taking from your future self. Like saving is like doing a favor to your future self, borrowing taking from your future self. So you they're front loading the fun in that instance. You know, they buy the cars, they go get the presidential suite and all these things, and then there's a huge problem on the back end, is like that's what just getting the like gratification timeline wrong of taking it now versus later just doesn't normally work out. I mean, yeah, so it's it's uh yeah, I mean, it's just it's yeah, it's basic math, man.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

But I it reminded me like I when I watched that scene, and I just was like, I remember college, and I don't know if when you were in college that happened, but when I was in college, all the banks lined up and they're like, Hey son, do you want a credit card? And I was like, Yes, I do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who doesn't want a credit card? And like I remember that. Like, I was just like, Well, don't mind if I do. I got money. I was like taking girls out, taking people out, and then the bill came around. I was like, Oh, damn, you mean you had to pay back?

SPEAKER_00 4:32

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, credit cards are even harder because you don't feel it leaving, you know, in Dumb and Dumber, it's a suitcase of cash, and so they can at least like see it dwindling and then replace it with you know IOUs on paper. But like, that's the problem with credit cards, you don't see or feel it. And I tell people all the time, like, I think all of us would spend so much less if we had to spend cash instead of credit cards. Because like there's something about like having a stack of cash and feeling it go away, you're like, ah, versus a credit card, swipe, swipe, you know, and then then there's the like I'm getting rewards. So it's like I'm spending 98 cents and I got two cents back, but I've got rewards, so it's like it's super tricky. Um, and I think something else that came to mind with that, like the just them and them getting this, it was a million dollars, right? And like they they think it's a ton of money, but this is where like yeah, recur like one thought I had is like a lump sum doesn't last very long because it feels like a ton, but it doesn't keep replenishing itself. So they just start there's the scene of him on the top of the of the hotel, like here you go, here you go, you know, passing out money because it's like it feels like so much, but it doesn't replenish itself, it goes so fast, and so uh it's just hard to turn like a balance, like a lump sum balance into like a long-term stream that needs to last. It's super challenging. You can feel like a ton today, but it's not, it doesn't spend like a lot. Like if you had in that movie was in '94, so like a million dollars a lot more, but like um, I just think that's another one that like there's something to like making that money work for you to replenish itself is so important because it just it can feel like a ton today, but it will go so fast if it's not growing, regenerating in a way.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

You remember those hourglasses when we were kids? You have the little hourglass flip over or the minute glass, yeah. Yeah, I just am always fascinated by that because to me, it always feels like when people are spending and they're not aware of it, like you you look at all that sand and you're like, wow, I've got so much time. Yeah. And then two seconds later, it's just like it's it's almost gone off the bottom.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Yeah, that's a great example of like if there's no sand coming in the top, then it's like, oh, one grain won't hurt, one grain won't hurt, but one grain bite at a time, next thing you know, it's gone.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

So yeah, so 100%. It's wild like that because, like, you know, it it like the quote was hey, what's the matter? We got plenty of money, but you don't because there's nothing coming in. And as much as they were lovely gentlemen with amazing suits, they didn't have the money, you know. I looked for a suit to wear today that was in that orange color, and I just could not find it, man.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

That would have been great if we had the orange and blue and the top hats to boot 100%. It would have been awesome.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Yeah, there was um another scene that really that stuck with me, and um when they check into the most expensive hotel suite without any hesitation, they like they just had no plan. And they're like, Hey, two first class tickets to Aspen, please. You know, I mean, like, it's wild. Like we laugh about it, but I've seen people that are like, hey, the other day I saw this guy, and he was a friend of mine, and he's like, I'm gonna buy a car. I was like, Okay, what car are you buying? He's like, I'm gonna get the one that it's got well, I got approved for this one. I was like, Cool, yeah, what should we get approved for? And I was like, and then he showed me the car and the price. I was like, dude, this is like $800 a month, and he's like, Yeah, but they told me it was a good deal, you know, it never goes this long. I'm like, of course they're gonna tell you that, man.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

And it's like one of the things that that's fascinating me is some people just go at stuff with no plan, there's no budget, no plan. Like, I got approved.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

Wait, because the problem is you eyes you make that decision in isolation that like I got approved for this. And first of all, everything you get approved for, whether it's a car loan or a house loan, is always way more than you should spend. Like, that's it's it's a bane of our existence as planners. Like, mortgage, you can get approved for like 43% of your income. And like every recommendation is like, don't spend more than 28% on a house. So, like it just approve is not what you can afford, number one. And then, yeah, you make it in isolation. Like, people, I watch it all the time. We're all guilty of it. Like, oh, this is a great deal for this one thing, but we're not realizing the money we're spending on this is in, you know, we're sacrificing something else instead. And so it's like this car may be a it may have been a thousand now, it's 800 a month, but it doesn't mean there's another car you couldn't get for 500, but we just get so like drop like zoned in on the one decision that we're making, we forget how it works with everything else. And I mean, I think I see people do that all the time, like whatever's kind of the the topic of the day. They're like I have a couple of personal examples like buying golf clubs or um looking at like Airbnb's or something like that. You can just like when you start just zoning in on that one decision, you kind of forget the trade-offs that you're like you're you're sacking, you like you wouldn't, I don't know, like if you if you took a more holistic took a step back, like I wouldn't spend an extra fifteen hundred dollars on that right now because there's this pile over here that I want to do something with. But um, I don't know if that makes sense or not, but like I watch people just get like like so zoned in on a single decision, they forget that they're making trade-offs for other things because it's just all about like like that car example, like, oh, it was a thousand, it's eight hundred, it's a great deal. Doesn't mean it's the best deal for you, though.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Right? And that's the thing too. Like, there are so many times where you know it's all perspective, you know. And I think that the wild part is you have two guys that were living in a tiny room, you know, a tiny like two-bedroom that suddenly gained access to all this money. Like, I've I handed my daughter a million dollars, it would be stupid. The stuff that she would buy would be stupid, you know. And I think that's one of the one of the reasons that I love Mr. Beast is because you get like he he makes these people go through. I don't like everything he does, but I I like he makes people question what would you do for money. It's like one of the core concepts of that channel, you know. Yeah, and that question of like it's fascinating, but like with my daughter, if I gave her a million dollars right now, oh man, it would be shoes, a bunch of hip-hop pants, hip-hop pants would be there. She probably would buy a couple old vintage iPods. I would be like, Oh, that's interesting. Oh, that's her yeah, like pretty cool. Yeah, uh, yeah, she just was like, Can you get me a Tamagochi for my birthday? It was like literally, we bought you one two years ago. I like she's digging into like 90s toys right now, and I was just like, Well, we're doing something right.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

See, that that's actually really that totally cool. Like, I bought like an N64 or something like that. But like, but like it is interesting how like okay, you say you give your daughter a million dollars, what would she spend? No, no, I bet nowhere on her list would be invest it and then spend the interest every year for eternity. It's just like we just like lump sum, spend it. We don't think about what our money can actually do for us in a longer term. That like a that cash is a like principle, capital is like useful and can be used for like not perpetuity necessarily, but for a very long term. It's just like I think part of it is like it's so hard to get to a balance that can generate like a meaningful amount that it's like, oh, it's hopeless. But like there is a point. If you just like I don't know, if you're like 35 or 40, and if you're like, if I would have just saved every like a lot for the last 10 or 15 years, right? My ink, my assets would be generating a crap ton of income right now. But it's like but then you sacrifice for 15 years. I don't know if it's just it's we don't nobody defaults that. If I give you a million dollars today, what would you do? House, car, whatever comes to mind. Nobody's like, invest it and then spend $40,000 a year on whatever I want because the principle's you know intact. Like, we just don't think that way.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

I think that that movie, hands down, though, also is the most dramatic example of lifestyle inflation that has ever existed. Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, he woke up something like a Lamborghini, man. He's like, hello, you know, and like, well, why not get a Lamborghini? Why not get the biggest hotel room if you've got the money? And like literally they're throwing money around the hotel room, like confetti, and like where's the white?

SPEAKER_00 12:24

They're they're they're uh crying and blowing their nose into the dollar bills and everything, watching the movie.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

Such a perfect example, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, if they could have, I would have, I think they would have had like I once saw um this one house and it was fake, but he had like a dollar bill toilet paper, and like it was like that's awesome. That's like dollar bill toilet paper, and it was to me just like I was like, Why do you have this? And he's like, Because I want to be that rich.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

And I was just like, That's such crazy lifestyle inflation. You know what I mean? Well, there's another angle to it. Lifestyle inflation is a good one, but also like mental accounting, like when you get a windfall, it doesn't always feel like your own money. And so this could be with like they're like you spend like if they if the worm farm would have taken off in the movie and they had earned a million dollars, they probably would have spent it very differently because they feel like they earned it, but somehow, like when it falls into your lap, it's like it's not real money. You see this with bonuses and I mean inheritance gifts and everything. People like like, yeah, think about like you get a $5,000 Christmas gift from grandma or something, whatever, just you get something, people spend it because it's not real money. It feels so different than the money you earned and and worked for, and that's uh it's fascinating how we mentally account for that just differently of like it's still money, it can still serve all of the same problems in your life, but nobody's like, I'm gonna pay off debt with this. It's like well, I'm gonna go buy this because it was a you know, it didn't feel the same, right? It it didn't hit the same way, you know.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

But you're right, like when you you I had my daughter, and um we she got money for the holiday, right? Everyone gives money for the holidays. It's a big thing for lunar new year here in Vietnam that they give the holiday money, and then the flip side though is like she just blows through that money, you know, versus we gave her some chores, and when she finished the chores, I was like, All right, here's your money, here's the you know, one dollar. She's like, Are you serious right now? Like, one like what are we doing? I was like, all you did was like swept the floor for like two minutes. Like, you didn't do much, it's not a lot of work, and she's like, Yeah, and then but she just she hung on to that dollar because yeah, it was something that it took her some time, you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Yeah, totally, totally, totally.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

One of the things too though, like I love about that movie is like um Lloyd, Lloyd's got to be one of the greatest characters ever in in cinema.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Lloyd Christmas, yeah, Lloyd Christmas, man.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah, dude has got optimism to a level that is incredible, incredible. Like, you know, he thinks Mary's heart is his. Like, let's be real. I'm gonna prepare for bears, yeah. It's like it's just like optimism versus planning, you know.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

Yeah, yeah. That's a that's that's a fascinating angle of like, so yeah, optimism, everything will work out. Like that's awesome to a point. It's also very naive in certain ways. Um, yeah, you're you know, but what one thing I'm not gonna get too philosophical, but like work out is totally subjective. If you're okay with you, if you're okay with whatever outcome, then you don't need to plan for anything. Like that, I think that's part of like Harry's thing, or Lloyd's thing, he just doesn't care. Yeah, yeah. But like, yeah, you you can't have. I mean, I'm guilty of this myself of I'm very much like roll with whatever, it'll all work out. But then, and that's bit me at times of like you need to still do the preparation, do kind of the unfun stuff to make sure that you've considered all the different outcomes. And so I do, I mean, I think, yeah, people definitely fall into that, yeah, it'll all work out. I'll do it later, I'll save later, you know, something will happen, and then it doesn't normally. And so, like, yeah, it's uh you can you gotta strike that balance of like preparation, not preparation out of like fear necessarily, just preparation out of like being responsible. I don't know. I don't really that's that's a fact. I had never thought about this optimism planning angle.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

That's really it. My my friends, like I I've interviewed a bunch of special forces guys on my growing on my Sean Tracy show podcast, you know, and they're really interesting, and they're it's cool because they're like you plan for the uh you you you hope for the best and plan for the worst. Yeah, you know, yeah, it's like it's the dichotomy you have, and where's this we hope for the best and the thing? Lloyd is not special.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Lloyd is not special forces. Oh man. Yeah, I love that. Optimism, yeah, how's your day? Yeah, fell off the jetway again. Just so good with it, just fell off the jet way again. I'm okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

You know, there is the I thought it was funny because like Lloyd is kind of self-aware, like he's self-aware of the struggle though, because he's like, you know, one of those quotes was I'm sick and tired of having to eat my way through life.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Yeah, yeah. Sick and tired of being sick and tired, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Right? Yeah, but still, like he complains about scraping by what he's like here. He complains like about scraping by while Lloyd secretly sits on the cache, you know. Like, there's this thing, you know, there's this disconnect for reality, you know. And I think one of the challenges too, like you can be in a sit in a situation where you can have an awareness that things aren't going right, but you're not ready to make the change, too, you know.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think I I I think most people, this has been a powerful unlock for me. Most people are exactly where they deep down want to be. If you really wanted to change it enough, you would do something. And I I don't I don't I did initially agree with that. Uh but I I've come to generally agree that like if if like whether it's health or wealth or whatever, just I think deep down there is like a comfort level with where people are at. And it's if it's ever like it has to get really uncomfortable for somebody to really make a change. I don't I yeah, I I think and then you reach that breaking point and generally make a big change. Um no, I it's just something I I come back to a lot.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

My wife uh last year got some more work uh internationally, and I'm gonna tell you, like, dude, I have I hate flying. I have this like I I get anxiety and I'd get panic attacks. When I was a kid, we were taking off. I went on a business trip with my dad, and we were taking off from Dallas. I got to spend two days with him in a Dallas while he was doing some business stuff. It was cool until we flew back. So we're going down the runway, and like we're we're pretty close to like that point where you can't stop. And we hear this this big loud explosion, like really loud explosion. The plane slams back down, brakes reach on, and uh the pilot gets on the flight, the on the on the uh he's like, Well, ladies and gentlemen, uh, we've got good news and bad news. And I'm just like, anytime someone's like this, we got good news and bad news, it means that stuff is really bad. He's like, Yeah, uh the uh the bad news is that we just had a generator explode on the plane and it just shut down all electrical. And he's like, the good news is we're lucky it happened on the ground.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

And we're just like, almost died, yeah, you know, yeah, that's crazy, man.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Right? Yeah, needless to say, after that, I had some issues with flying. 10-year-old me just over that too well. But last year, my wife pushed me beyond my limits, and it was like the thing was is like that growing pains of going like and getting flying a bunch, it actually helped me kind of deal with it. But like, I had to be willing to get uncomfortable, you know, like riding a small moped from your home all the way to Colorado, you know, it can be a bit uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Yeah, yeah. I mean, totally, like that's like your comfort zone is your chains, man. It it keeps you where you're at, and you've got to get uncomfortable to get to that next point. And so, like, whatever it is, like it and I mean, I could push some financial tie-ins to that as well. Um, yeah, you it's absolutely true. So, are you are you over your flying issues now? Would you say are you still they're still deep down in there?

SPEAKER_01 21:04

I'm better. I'm better. Okay, I'm better. It's it's noticeably better, especially after this last year. But like going back to that motorcycle ride, though, like I don't know. I ride motorcycles a lot. I ride motorcycles every day because it's what we're where we live, it's like scooter city, you know, and like and I I used to have a motorcycle in California when I lived there. One day I rode from the Napa Valley down to San Francisco and I turned around and we were driving back, and my friend was riding with me up on the back of my motorcycle, and a rainstorm hit like a cold rainstorm. And we we didn't have we didn't have like weather gear, and the only option at that point in time was just like we were like, we can stop, but we're wet, yeah, or we can, you know, turn around, keep going, man. And so I was like, You doing okay? He's like, I'm okay. And so we were just like, we pushed on for another hour and a half in the freezing cold rain, and we finally got to my mom's house. We were just pouring. And then when I watched that scene in Dumb and Dumber, I was like, Man, I've been there. I've been there. It's like something.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

You're talking about when they're like they're freezing and they're miserable. He's like, Harry, I gotta pee. And he's like, just go, man. Just and we'll just keep going. That that scene. Yeah, but you know, there's a less there's a lesson there too. Of sometimes j it sucks, just push through it because it'll be over in an hour and a half or whatever. And so, like, it's true. Like, just push through it, push through the suck. Yeah. And then guess what? They were there. Yo, they got there. Right? Yeah. And frozen to each other, but they got there.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

Frozen through each other. Fucking got there. It's something you gotta push through. But like, I also think, too, like, one of the things too with those guys is like, I think that it was interesting too, because I remember once I had this friend, and we were talking about, you know, it was like this, this, this self-help workshop that we were all going to. Everyone wanted to talk about. I'm here to learn how to manifest a million dollars a year. Right. And so my friend was like there next to me, and the guy was a cool guy. But I was like, he was like, next year I'm bringing in one million a year. And I was like, cool, what are you making right now? It's like 45k. I was like, cool. How can you get to 60k? He's like, I can't pull off 60k and that's crap. Like, I don't know how I could ever do that.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

I was like, Yeah, but you won't go to a million. Yeah, can you get to a million?

SPEAKER_01 23:17

And it's like one of the things that I think is crazy is they're always talking about aspen. Like it's this luxury dream life, yeah. But there's no plans to get there.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

They talk big, but there's no like reality check, you know. Oh my god, it's so many things going. First of all, as a Californian, did you like the like Aspen? Mmm, California, nice. And I don't know, Lloyd. The French are assholes. Oh, there's so many great things there. Um, I mean, yeah, there's a couple like it is interesting how like I'm talking about a little place called Aspen. Like, there's like this I idealize of like when we get there, things will be better. And uh, you know, well, for them it temporarily was because they spent all that cash that wasn't theirs, but like, yeah, we we do idealize kind of the future and like the destination, and like um kind of the journey is where it actually happens. And uh I I man golly, there's so many times everything we talked about, like the preparation piece, and like the like there's just oh my gosh, I um I got a lot of thoughts on that, but um yeah, I think people you know, we idealized that that destination, and that's generally not uh kind of like for them, it didn't totally work out long like it, you know, Mary didn't love them, nothing it didn't solve all their problems once they got there. They had a bunch of fun just for other reasons, but um it didn't change who they were deep down, which is kind of another parallel with all this of like money just amplified what they already were, you know. So um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

I that's a crazy thing. Like at the end of the movie, nothing changed.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

Those guys were like the end of that movie.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Oh great. Full circle. Yeah, like you know, it it like I feel like one thing too is there's another thing that I thought you, my daughter and I were talking, and she was like, I'm pretty I'm building my business right now, and you know, one of those things that I have to do is I have to take steps with getting computers and balancing the computers with the people, you know, and like the hardware for you know, I've got an editing machine right over there that cost about five. It was not a cheap, it was not a cheap build. Luckily, I don't have to have too many of that quality, but you know, it's still I have a bunch of different machines, and my daughter's like, I want one of those too. Why don't you get me one of those computers? And I was like, Well, I I want one for me too. She's like, You can load all the games, and I was like, I write, right? The the the taking those sounds like those guys, their financial risks were so crazy. Like they drive across country in a van that looks like a dog with no plan, no map, no clue, and then they trade the van for uh like you couldn't completely redeem yourself.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Traded with this kid back in town 770 miles a gallon on this old hog.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

Sorry, that's you know, for sure. When you sit there just looking at the and I I've ridden them, I I had a scooter that was that small. God damn, that thing was uncomfortable as hell.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Nuts. But you're talking about the the risk they take. I mean, this is like an interesting thing of like there's like risk tolerance is like what you can emotionally handle and risk capacity of like what you could like technically afford, and like kind of in a sad way, what was the death? Was it risky? Like, were they leaving anything behind? Were they losing anything back home? So in some ways, it's kind of it's kind of like um, I mean, I want to like people who like immigrate to another country or something, or take like some do what seems like a really risky move, like they swam across a river in the middle of the night to get somewhere. How risky was that? Well, not necessarily compared to where they were, and so like that's you know, risk is always relative to your other options there, too. And so, like, I don't know, it's just an interesting reframe of that kind of of like, was it risky, or did it just uh they were that willing to take that chance? I mean, because yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Uh right, I didn't think about risk is relative spot on because like you're right, like their their like their reality wasn't that great, and maybe maybe they didn't have you know a wife and four kids at home that they left behind.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

I was like, what was gonna change? They were you know they didn't pay the gas bill, their the worm farm wasn't going well, so why not? You know, yeah, Pete's head fell off.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

So, like you know, just get your back going and sold it to the blind kid, which is probably I don't think you could even do that in a movie now. Like, if you did that in a movie now, I don't think you could do it. I don't think like Dumb and Dumber would be hard to remake, and and like I think the movie that like you just you couldn't pull off now would have to be Tropic Thunder.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Like, I don't think oh, for so many reasons, like yeah, yeah, never go full and then Robert Downey.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

All of the above. I knew the guy, I got to work in Hollywood with the guy who did the makeup for Robert Downey Jr. Oh and people would ask him about he was just like yeah, yeah, that was fun. They're like, Yeah, that was fun.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Oh, it's amazing, it's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Um, a whole movie underrated. Isn't Tom Cruise in that at the very end? Dude, they were talking about making a spinoff with Tom Cruise as well, coming back and just playing his Lex Lex Grossman, was it?

SPEAKER_00 28:28

His character and John Bill Haders in there at the oh my gosh, yeah. Oh, that movie is uh comedy's dying, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

That movie of that, but that's for sure, man. Are there any other fun like things that you were um that you loved from Dumb and Dumber or Financial Principles that you thought like kind of rang true?

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Oh man, I mean, I love so much about it. I mean, I think uh this has been fascinating. Just like I nothing, nothing's we we've pulled out a lot of the really big ones, to be honest with you. Like, I think just showing that there's you know optimism, but you need to prepare. Um, kind of what is risk, and then bar like that I think just the biggest thing is you watch what happens when they spend money that's not yours, and that there's a it comes back around later on. I think that's just the biggest one. So um I don't know. I I'm sure there's more in there, but it's just uh you go for days, man.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

I I think one of the things too, though, and I mean we hated a little bit of them, but at the same time, like I think one of the things that I love about the characters, because I want to actually switch gears a little bit to what I admire about the characters. One of the things that I admire too was like the innocence to try, and you know, going back to the risk, you know, because I at times too, we get think about it. Like, I mean, most people wouldn't pack up on that, wouldn't grab the suitcase, wouldn't drive across country, wouldn't do all these things, but they were like, you know, it's for love, it's for love. She forgot it before you gotta do what you gotta do, you know.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

Yeah, yeah. That sense of duty. Yeah, I think one of the things that just came to mind is is also just like how the social circle you run in is so important too. You watch how their behavior changes when they start hanging out with this higher class and aspen, and and their behavior changes, and it's just so interesting how like the pressure changes, like all of a sudden what is normal changes in it all. It's that lifestyle inflation that you talked about, just how comparing doesn't help anything either.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

But there's also a degree of like one of the things too is like um that in a really weird way, they had like zero imposter syndrome, they just stepped into the and everyone accepted them. You know, you see that. Like, I wonder with like celebrities these days, people do ridiculous stuff, and people like, well, you know what? That's just normal.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Now I it goes back to if you just act like you belong there, nobody's gonna question it. That's the key, just confidence. You just if you think you belong, then you belong, you know.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

I've gotten the weird experience. Like, people ask me about my life sometimes, and I I don't get into it too much on here, but like it is a very surreal thing to live in a different country and be married. Like to be married to a celebrity because I got invited to the red carpet event for my like the med the Michael Jackson premiere, like the biopic of Michael really premiere two days ago. Yeah, it's so oh wow, I was there and we were there, like people were taking pictures because my wife is a singer and she covered some Michael Jackson songs a month ago. They're like, Oh, come on in and do the premiere. So we were there, and my wife is all dressed up, everyone's taking pictures of her, and I just am like, I'm just goofing off like crazy, man. I'm just like, I was taking things in no way seriously, and like there's one scene, like there was a red carpet. My wife sent me out to get popcorn, and she looked at me and she's like, Sean, don't do anything stupid. And I was like, Why would I do anything stupid? Like, I love that it had to be it had to be said. That's so great. It had that's all you need to know. And I just was like, so I got the popcorn and I went to get popcorn, and I was like, um, I was like, all right, I need some popcorn. And they were like, and suddenly I looked over and they had these giant Michael Jackson hats that were selling popcorn, and I was like, are you selling those? Like the Michael Jackson Health property, like, yes, we are. That is special only for tonight. I was like, I gotta take one of those right now. I need the giant hat. So I got the hat. And then as I was walking past the red carpet area, I didn't walk forward. I turned around and did my best horrible moonwalk backwards across like in front of the red carpet. And I'm just like, B. And a couple of the people turned and like some of the press looked at me. And by the time they were like, the cameras were coming up to film, I was already gone. And I just the wife was like, she came back in and she's like, Were you well behaved? And I was like, No problem whatsoever. And so that's awesome. Afterwards, like someone was texting her. Do you know your husband was doing the moonwalk upstairs? And she's like, Can you talk to me about this? And I was like, What's there to say? It was a perfect.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

I thought you were gonna tie that in back to Dumb and Dumber when he buys the big hat when they have like their last $20 or whatever, and he has to go to the store. Do you know what I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_02 33:23

I didn't tie it in.

SPEAKER_00 33:26

He comes back, he's like, just the essentials, like booze and whatever, something like that. Boo, like, and then he comes and he comes back, he's got the big hat, and he's like swinging something, and he's like, you know, he wasted all of his money, and then excuse me, little old lady. But yeah, it was just, but that's like impulsivity there. He can't control himself. That, like, even in a dire situation, he's down to his last 20 bucks and he buys a hat and he tries to buy, you know, the Rhode Island smut or whatever it was, and then he loses his ball. It's just you couldn't control it. Like, there was there was no planning preparation. You didn't like even but even if he had a loose plan and couldn't handle it.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

You know, it's like it's interesting psychology, too. I'm not a psychologist, so I'm not gonna say, you know, I have I'm the expert on that, but like I did teach children, and I do know that if you put like uh a stack of candies in the middle of a room and you're like, hey guys, I just gotta step out for five minutes, don't you get candy? That candy is gone. That candy is gone. There'll be like two seconds, they're looking at each other, and then there's that one kid. And in my class, it was a little Vietnamese kid named Bob. The fact that yeah the fact that his English name was Bob, I was like, dude, why did you think the name Bob? He's like, I know, I like Bob. And I was like, Okay, Bob. And Bob had zero impulse control, and he was like, and I was like, is it short for Robert? And he's like, No, I just like Bob. And I was like, okay, just Bob. Bob was like candy, and then like once Bob took a candy, and Bob didn't even like Bob wasn't even like, This is wrong to take this candy. And I was like, Bob, why are you eating my candy? He's like, It's your candy. I was like, Well, who else is candy? It's on my desk, man. He was like, Oh, well, it tastes really good. Yeah, it's that impulse control. These guys had none of it, you know. And I think we all would like to think that we're not Lloyd and Harry, but dude.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

Yeah, no, yeah. Yeah, we all are it's biology, it's biology. Yeah, I mean, there's also in you like your kid example, there's a couple of layers there. There's like they want candy, and then there's you telling them not to do something. You could tell they don't touch the table, they're gonna want to touch the table. And then there's like when somebody sees one person do it, you start doing it. So, yeah, there's a lot there. Yeah, we're uh we like to think we're like these super rational creatures who are in control of everything, but we're not. Yeah, man. Not at all. We're not at all.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

We're all Harry and Lloyd. We're all Harry and Lloyd. And like, was it in uh remember Finding Nemo? I mean, I haven't watched it in a while, but like don't touch touch the butt, don't touch the butt.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

You know, yeah. I tell somebody that was a don't click that button, click. Okay, you know, right?

SPEAKER_01 35:57

That was my daughter yesterday. I was like, Ilani, whatever you do, don't go to that page, don't do this thing. And she's like, Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

All right, let's open it up. We're curious, we want to find out why did he tell me not to? What's on the other side? What's he hiding? I mean, that's like not too like that's a biblical thing, all the way down to don't eat the apple, do everything else, but don't do the one thing, and we freaking eat that.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

So we're gonna my nephew, right? My nephew yesterday was like, we were watching a movie. I'm trying to get them off of devices, and we're watching good movies. And so we watched The Martian, we watched some other great movies, science movies, October Sky, stuff like that to get these kids thinking about cool stuff, right? And so the other day we watched a movie, we watched Ready Player One, but we couldn't finish it. Great movie, kids loved it. Yeah, we got halfway through, and I was like, It's late, you guys. We'll finish it tomorrow. And I said, Whatever you do, don't go look up spoilers. What did all three of them do?

SPEAKER_00 36:54

They all just planned it. Yeah, that's like that's a guaranteed way to get somebody to do something to tell them not to do it. I was just like, Why didn't I do what did I say that for?

SPEAKER_01 37:01

And the next day they came back, they're like, you know what happens? And I was just like, shut up, yeah. Yeah, man, it's wild like that. If someone, let's imagine, you know, don't not about the worry about like what you actually are supposed to do with it. Let's imagine that you find a suitcase with $10 million and you are allowed to do that. What are you doing? Yeah, me personally, you personally, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

I mean, like, I'm not trying this, isn't just the advisory answer. I think it's the more logical answer. Like, I would try to invest that with the highest yield to make it a long-term $10 million. I would certainly would spend a little bit here and there, but like, um, that's actually interesting that, like, certainly here and there, what is here and there? Where's that line drawn? And that's a super tricky one, super tricky one. So, but I mean, really true, like this point, like that's ingrained in me of like I just I see dollars as future potential of what they can do. Um, so yeah, I mean, 10 million is enough to generate pretty good. If you want to say like a million or something, maybe it's a little different. But um, I don't know, that's not a very fun answer, but that's general, genuinely. I would figure out what I could earn off of it and then say, okay, this is how much I get to have fun with forever, in a sense. That's pretty cool. That is cool.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

I remember once when I was younger, I got a lump sum of money. Probably one of the worst things that ever, you know, I ever did financially. And I was like, but yet it's really, really easy. And this is something I had to learn. And I I had brought coming into my business, I remembered this. It's really easy to justify anything. Like you, yeah, you can say, but you know, that's a really important thing. I really need that new thing. Yeah, I really need that, and yeah, you know, in your brain, your brain's gonna be like, Yes, you do, yes, you do, you know. But the reality is, is like, you know, you gotta slow down. I mean, and what we're looking at too, like, I know Dumb and Dumber is just a movie, but you know what? This is a cautionary tale for a lot of people to talk about. I am really happy that the NBA Players Association, the NFL Players Association is now working with athletes actively before they get all the money, before the first season, these guys have to do a camp where they sit down and they have financial planners who come in and say, Listen, you can't go and do that. You can't pay for your whole community to get a new house, you can't buy all your friends' money things. You gotta be careful with this because there are a lot of people that you know they're done with their careers and it's done, but then there's people like Shaq or Magic who they invested so well that now they have empire, you know?

SPEAKER_00 39:43

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, I know like the athlete thing is is you know is so hard because you basically have like not artificial, it's real, but just this like insane earnings potential for like five years or 10 years. And you go back to it, feels like you're getting a that back like that lump sum for five years, but you still have to make it last. And like in the moment, you're like, oh, five million bucks this year, of course this will be here forever, but it just won't be. And we just don't understand like how long it life can be and what it takes to generate long, you know, make it last. So I I mean, I don't envy that at all, like the athlete situation, because they're so young, number one. Um, like any of us, like if NBA guys can be like 19 making this money, NFL, you know, 22, 23, none of us would have done well making some of the money they have. And then there is just the aspect of I'm not like we don't know some of them come from rougher areas, but like so many people did contribute to your success. You feel like you owe them a little bit, and it can be so hard to not want to reward them because you genuinely want to, but it's oh, that's so hard. Yeah, I I I think I was talking to my wife about that like two days ago, actually, about that whole challenge of like really like the best thing for them is to not give them all the money up front. It's just like pay it out over a very long time, and that's are you know follow baseball at all? Show Hey Otani with the the Dodgers, of course he signed this like seven $750 million deal, but he's got he's getting it paid out over like a ton of years. And it on one angle, it helps the Dodgers defer the payroll, but also like for him, it's like like people talk about if you won the lottery, what would you do? And I like I would take the annuity, not the lump sum, because in my mind I can screw it up every single year and get a do over every year. I love that idea versus get the massive lump sums like if that's gone, it's gone. And everybody's oh, I could go and earn and invest this and that. Yeah, but I'm a freaking human and I'll make a dumb decision at some point because I'll rationalize some horrible thing at some point. And so I love the idea of like screw it up again next year, screw it up again next year. So yeah, I mean that's that it's uh all of this is kind of coming back to like generating income for the long term rather than just the lump sum today, because that lump sum today is so finite. Once it's spended, it's gone. But if you can earn off of it, it's again perpetual in a sense. And I think that's just such a we just don't think that way. We just see our capital and we spend it because nobody's gotten to a point where they've contributed or you know, accumulated enough capital to where it can actually work for them. And that's like true financial independence, and that's the place you want to get to. But it's so hard to build up to it. Um, you know, most of the examples we're talking about are kind of like the shortcut version, the windfall, the lottery, the huge contract. But like that's a that doesn't happen in most people. And so um it's just it's so hard because in the moment it feels like if I told you like in 20 years, you you wouldn't have to work again, which is actually like insanely short, people still like won't just won't do it because it's 20 years from your future use. So screw that person, you know. That's 45-year-old, 50-year-old. It just don't do it. It just or we do like, oh, it goes back to the car example of like, well, it's $800 a month, it's a good deal. Well, that's $300 more than you needed to spend that could have been contributed towards not having to do this ever again. And so, like, if you can get to that future thinking as much as possible, um, I just think it helps to make the decisions in the moment because we are humans, we want things now, we want that gratification, we want to eat the candy, we want to buy the funky hat, you know, we want to do all these fun things, but that's costing a future you.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

One of my wife's friends that I talked with tonight, and she called me for some advice. Um, is like my wife, she works with music, but um, one of the challenges is she was a Miss Miss Vietnam contestant. She has a music career, she's been on some shows with my wife, and she was with an agency that was not helping her. And she's like, I'm talking to these two agencies, and she is very aware that she has a window, just like an NFL player, just like an MBA player. There is this window of time where she can create something, and then they just they pass you by. And one of the things that she said, and I I I talked to her about was making sure that you have a long term plan. It's not just about focusing on today or tomorrow. You know, like what is it that you're looking at, you know? And for her, she's actually smart, and she's got two people or two teams that are working with her, and one team is just like, we just want to help you with your music. The other team is like, we want to help with your music, but we also know that you have this side clothing company. We know that you've got that clothing company that you're building, and we want to support you to build that because that's a cool brand and that's something that you have equity in. And I was like, Well, I'll tell you which person team I would talk to. I'm gonna be talking about the team that can see helping you build something larger and can really give you a little bit more value in the long term. Because you know, if you're not if you're thinking in the next one, two years, and I mean, granted, hopefully the next one, two years.

SPEAKER_00 44:32

Well, that's interesting too, because then like you gotta like, what's the you know you're which is a better option? Well, what's the time horizon? Like, it sounds like maybe the first agency might give you more today, but the other one gives you more long term, and then comes back to all of this the time, like thinking longer term with stuff that yeah, I would take you know a million dollars dollars a year for 30 years versus five million dollars tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 44:54

Yeah, you know, it's whatever the you know, find the number that makes it like a real trade-off there. Uh yeah, that's awesome, man.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

If you were to uh to to to to say another movie that you think has great financial principles, what movie would it be? Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 45:11

Uh oh no, no, put me on the spot with that one.

SPEAKER_01 45:16

Um Financial Principles of Tropic Thunder.

SPEAKER_00 45:19

Oh man, I'm trying to I'm trying to think more. Yeah. Oh, that's that's terrible. Yeah, I'm I'm completely blanking, but hold on. Um no, that one wouldn't do it. Oh, this is so much pressure. Dumb and dumb is just so perfect. You just can't you just can't replace it. No. I'm sorry I whiffed on that one. That's a great question.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

Oh, good, man. It's a great I I I think that it's a good, it's whatever direction you can go is fun. But brother, where can people go to find out more about you and what you do?

SPEAKER_00 45:45

Yeah, uh well, I actually have a little personal website blog thing that I spun up. I don't do much on there. t stew.com, ts-te-w dot com. Not doing much on there, but trying to centralize all the things I do. I have another book coming and a couple podcasts and the advice businesses. And uh pop in on LinkedIn every once in a while, Taylor Stewart on there, but um t stew.com. It's my new thing.