Chris

Rocking a lot of military green.

Syed

I noticed the.

Syed

My continued wearing of green lately myself, so my wife's favorite color is green.

Chris

Okay.

Syed

And I thought that maybe, just maybe if I covered myself in green, she would like me a little more.

Chris

Just a little bit more.

Chris

Get you some brownie points.

Syed

It has been very unsuccessful as of late, but I'm gonna keep at it until such time as.

Syed

As, well, something changes.

Chris

Good man.

Chris

Well, welcome back to the number one financial literacy podcast in the world.

Syed

That's who we are.

Chris

That is what we do.

Syed

That's what we do.

Chris

Sitting next to me on my left, my partner in crime, Chris Nahibi.

Syed

And sitting next to me is my partner in time, the one, the only, Syed Omar.

Chris

Thank you, my man.

Syed

You know, when people ask me if we're related, I think it's like an underlying racism thing.

Syed

They both got beards.

Syed

They both look kind of sweetheart, which.

Chris

Is acceptable if they listen to the show.

Chris

But if you don't listen to the show, you can't.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

If you just seen it once and you're like, oh, those guys are related.

Syed

Yeah, that's.

Syed

That's.

Syed

That's.

Syed

That's a little Right.

Chris

I had a listener send me.

Chris

Send me a reel that they had seen.

Chris

They're like, every time you talk about coaching your son's basketball team, this is what I think of.

Chris

And it's some, like, overweight guy teaching a rec team.

Chris

I was like, you know, it's acceptable because I know you listen to the show, so I'll allow it.

Chris

I welcome it.

Syed

What are you gonna do?

Syed

You stop it.

Chris

Block.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

I've gotten way more.

Syed

Social media has taught me anything.

Syed

It's taught me how to quickly not care and block somebody.

Syed

When I first got on social media for, man, I wanna say, like, six or seven years ago, like, to really do this.

Syed

It was such a stigmatized thing back then.

Syed

But I knew, like, the social media policy where we worked, and I was trying to be thoughtful about how.

Syed

How I responded to people.

Syed

Even today, I don't respond like, you know, hey, man, you can get after.

Syed

Like, I don't do any of that stuff.

Chris

But.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

But I respond collegially, right?

Syed

But it used to get under my skin.

Syed

Now it's just happened so much that I'm like, okay, this guy's trolling me.

Syed

Block.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

Easy.

Chris

Yeah, Easy solution.

Syed

Don't even think twice about it.

Syed

Just block.

Syed

I wish I could do it in real life.

Chris

Imagine.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

Block.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

Like, I want you to be able to, like, think you're Messaging me still.

Syed

And I just want you to know that I can't see it.

Syed

Like, I would love for it to say you were blocked.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

Every time you.

Syed

Every time you were blocked, you were blocked.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

I can't remember when it was at what point in my adulthood, but I do remember being ultra sensitive to criticism or people making jokes about me to the point where I would get, like, really frustrated and upset.

Syed

And you're in the wrong show for that, brother.

Chris

I know.

Chris

And then my friends.

Chris

My friends at the time were like, dude, you can't joke with.

Chris

Say he takes it way too seriously.

Chris

And then at some point in my adulthood, like, I transitioned over and, like, leaned into it, and life has been so much more enjoyable.

Syed

I feel like you really haven't, though.

Syed

You get it gets under your skin, like, there.

Chris

No, because, you know, if you don't.

Syed

Know that off camera, you come back.

Chris

But if you don't lean into it, it just.

Chris

If you have real friends, they make it worse.

Syed

Yeah, they make it worse.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

Speaking of real friends, you know who's not behind the Ones and Twos?

Chris

DJ Odoon.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

He does not exist.

Syed

He's a figment of your imagination, Right?

Syed

He is essentially Brad Pitt and Fight Club, right?

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

Or he may or may not be real.

Chris

Or Bruce Willis.

Syed

Or Bruce Willis.

Syed

And sixth cents.

Chris

Yes.

Syed

Yes.

Chris

Good job.

Syed

Six cents.

Syed

Get paid 100 million for the movie, didn't he?

Syed

No, I think he did.

Chris

Really?

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

I think.

Syed

I think I paid like a hundred million.

Chris

That was the first movie that it was on in the background.

Chris

I can't remember where I saw it at somebody's house and I passed by it and I had seen it after having kid.

Chris

It was.

Chris

It was after I had kids.

Chris

I watched it prior to having kids, but when it was on someone's background after I had kids and seeing the little boy cry behind the couch, where actually it got me really, like, choking up because I was like, oh, it made me think of my son.

Chris

That's true, though.

Chris

Like, movies hit different now.

Chris

Go back and watch some old movies.

Syed

No, that's true.

Syed

I'd love to make fun of you a little bit here, but.

Syed

No, it's.

Syed

It's 100 true.

Syed

Like, being a parent, it's weird how you automatically think about your child in those movies in those contexts right away.

Syed

And it's just a very.

Syed

Like when I watch Die Hard now, I think with the kids, I'm like, oh, they're divorced.

Syed

Oh, the kids don't see dad.

Chris

Go back and watch John Q I.

Syed

Never actually saw the whole thing.

Chris

Oh, okay.

Chris

Well, I mean, you get the concept.

Chris

You can only imagine how it hits different now.

Syed

There's a lot of movies like that that.

Syed

That were really popular that I just chose not to.

Syed

Not to.

Syed

I just, like, you know, I was like, no, no, I don't need your emotional, just overwhelming story.

Syed

Right.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

I can roll through my night watching some comedy, and then comedy died.

Chris

So it's not the same anymore.

Chris

I don't know.

Chris

You know, that they want to take it to another level and just society won't let them take.

Syed

Dave Chappelle clearly don't have a problem with that.

Syed

You see that special snl, his monologue?

Syed

Dude, that was arguably the best monologue on SNL ever.

Chris

I mean, he's spectacular.

Syed

And he went after your boy.

Syed

Did he?

Chris

Rightfully so.

Chris

I thought it would.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

The bit.

Chris

It's like, it was.

Chris

That was a messed up way for him to find out he was ugly.

Syed

Yeah, he was like.

Syed

He's like.

Syed

Can you imagine if everybody in Hollywood's having an orgy and you were not invited.

Chris

All your friends were invited.

Chris

All your friends were invited to an orgy and you didn't get an invite.

Syed

That's a terrible way to find out.

Syed

You ugly.

Chris

Yeah, exactly.

Chris

Well, listen, we do have a financial literacy podcast for everybody today.

Syed

Oh, I didn't realize we were doing that today.

Chris

Yeah, we're doing that today right now, actually.

Syed

I thought today was the non financial literacy.

Chris

Yeah, yeah.

Chris

People seem to really like the whole crypto conversation, which we could dabble into more later in the show if people wanted it and you want to get into it.

Chris

But before we do that.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

We did have a segment that we want to touch on.

Chris

Oftentimes when the conversation about wages comes up, it's always coupled with inflation because people want to know, are we better off today than we were before?

Syed

Did you just, like, straight pimp slap my.

Syed

My.

Syed

My notes?

Chris

No, no, I'm.

Chris

I'm.

Chris

This is the segue, bro.

Chris

This is the alley to your oop.

Syed

I don't feel like it is.

Syed

I feel like.

Syed

I feel like you just owned that.

Chris

You see it coming.

Syed

Jesus.

Chris

Right, so if your pay goes up and inflation is down, then, you know, you're.

Chris

You should technically have more buying power and.

Chris

And the reverse.

Chris

If your pay doesn't keep up with inflation, then you don't have as much buying power.

Syed

But that isn't quite how it works.

Syed

It's how you want to believe it works because some of the numbers that are presented to You.

Syed

Well, they're skewed.

Syed

They're not skewed maliciously, but they're skewed in a way that doesn't give you the holistic picture.

Syed

So what you're seeing in the show notes is actually a bit of me going down the rabbit hole.

Syed

And so I should point out I just choked a little bit on my energy drink.

Syed

Sorry, I'm not getting emotional.

Syed

You're getting emotional.

Syed

This is a great time of year for year end data for the previous year.

Syed

Right.

Syed

Hold on a second.

Chris

What's your allergies, bro?

Chris

What's going on?

Chris

You do need an air filtration system.

Chris

Is that what's going on?

Syed

No, I took a big drink of the C4 here and it went on the wrong hole.

Syed

Happens a lot to me.

Syed

Come on, try to restrain, restrain yourself.

Syed

Restrain yourself.

Syed

Yeah, yeah, wrong hole.

Syed

So this is a great time of year for data that comes out recapping 2024.

Syed

Right.

Syed

So one of the things I saw was year over year home prices and their increase.

Syed

I thought to myself, okay, if homes went up year over year, but wages went up year over year, you could easily look at the numbers and we'll go to those in a minute and you could say, okay, well then it really wasn't different.

Syed

It's just everybody's buying power went up.

Syed

So homes went up, no big deal.

Syed

But when you start looking at the impact of what that looks like on a payment year over year, and I'll explain the how I did this and broke it down, it actually winds up being an economic loss to you, the individual, even with wage inflation.

Chris

Yeah, absolutely.

Chris

And especially the numbers get really skewed if you're just comparing year over year figures when we know the bigger picture here is look at what's gone on the last four years, the last five years.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

You know, and then the compounding effect of it all.

Syed

Compound with us, baby.

Chris

Yeah, compound with us.

Syed

Merch available in the merch store thspod.com Go check it out.

Syed

It is some Gucci stuff, as the kids say.

Chris

Hannah hooked up to.

Syed

Hannah did hook it up.

Syed

All right, so in 2024, the average salary in the United States reached $62,027, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Syed

This represents a 4.5% increase from the previous year, showcasing a steady wage growth across various sectors.

Syed

Okay, so you hear 4.5% wage inflation, you got up to average wages are 62,000, which frankly is still stunning.

Syed

But I mean, that's the average.

Syed

That's the, that's the numbers.

Syed

Right.

Syed

So you think, okay, well, what happened to home prices?

Chris

Right.

Syed

This was higher than the inflation rate, which was about 2.7 to 2.9%.

Syed

So Americans are making slightly more money even accounting for inflation.

Syed

Except what I would say, and you've heard us say on the show before, that the true inflation to you, the consumer, is probably closer to 20%, because the things that you're paying for every single day, like shelter, like food, energy.

Syed

Exactly.

Syed

These things have gone up significantly higher than the average inflation number.

Syed

But let's just say for the purpose of this conversation, that you've been able to afford that extra expense with the extra money you've made.

Syed

Granted, most Americans, on average, only 4.5% up in their wages.

Syed

But we'll break it down a little bit more.

Syed

According to Redfin's home price index report, and this was the report that came out today, which kind of provoked this whole thought process, home prices rose 5.4% in 2024.

Syed

And that's immediately the number that popped out of me.

Syed

So wages went up 4.5% approximately, and home prices went up 5.4%.

Syed

Not a huge delta right.

Syed

Now, the average home price year over year going back to 1970 till now went up about 4.2% a year.

Syed

That's average.

Syed

So this was still better than an average year historically.

Chris

Okay.

Syed

That accounts for all years, including recessionary economies and whatnot.

Syed

This is the second smallest increase since 2013 in home prices.

Syed

So home prices since 2013 have started to increase at a much faster cadence than the historical average of 4.2%.

Syed

So much so that even this, at 5.4% being higher than 4.2% is still the second smallest increase since 2013.

Chris

Wow.

Syed

That's pretty crazy when you think about it.

Syed

It's 12 years later.

Syed

Okay, but that's what 14 years of artificial interest rate deflation does, right?

Syed

It just kind of is an inflationary trend.

Syed

Right.

Syed

Well, according to the recent data from the Federal Reserve bank of St.

Syed

Louis, the average home price in the United States in 2024 is about 420,000 4.

Syed

$400.

Syed

Right, we've covered that.

Syed

And it's.

Syed

It's volatility a little bit quarter over quarter on the show.

Syed

Now let's take all this down, we'll summarize it, and we'll break it down a little bit.

Syed

Okay, we'll get in there.

Chris

Okay.

Chris

Deep, deep, because I got numbers on this, too.

Syed

Oh, you did some homework tonight?

Chris

I did do some homework tonight.

Syed

That's so Weird.

Chris

So if you just to piggyback off this to probably drive your point home even further, it's gone up 5% over the last 12 months, right?

Chris

Let's just call it 5%.

Chris

Right?

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

Over the last five years, it's gone up 44%, which is.

Syed

In two of those years, it went up like 45%.

Chris

Yes.

Chris

So think about that.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

Five years ago, the median price of a home was just shy of $300,000.

Chris

Now we're well above $420,000.

Chris

Right?

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

So you can look at just the past 12 months, but the whole picture here, you have to date it back to see really what's going on.

Syed

So this really scares me.

Syed

And I'm going to.

Syed

I'll get back to this in a minute.

Syed

Let me, let me take a little bit of a detour.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

Let's step off the road and take a nice little view of the veranda.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

I have looked at data on the show with you for years now.

Chris

We could say that.

Syed

We can say that.

Chris

Years.

Syed

We are tenured, seasoned.

Chris

We are tenured.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

Am I tenured here?

Chris

Am I good?

Chris

Am I ever.

Syed

I mean, I can't fire you.

Syed

I've tried it.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

I mean, who's gonna turn the lights on?

Chris

Right?

Chris

Turn the cameras on.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

So I have looked at data for the last several years, the year, and we've gone over it quarter after quarter, week after week, putting out really 52 shows a year, you know, hundreds of shows.

Syed

Now, 266, this particular episode.

Syed

We got to do something special for the 300.

Chris

Have to.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

And I can tell you there's some alarming trends that I think nobody really thought about decades ago that are starting to really become prevalent now.

Chris

Like what?

Syed

I'm glad you asked.

Syed

So at some point in American history, we decided that we were smarter than the rest of the world.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

And I don't know the full political context as to why, but we decided we were going to try to control the rest of the world with our currency.

Syed

We were gonna take these menial, low paying jobs and we were gonna offshore them to China, let them take care of it.

Syed

And we almost wrote China off as like, oh, let them handle it.

Syed

They're low cost wages.

Syed

It's a third world country, you know, whatever.

Syed

Like, we have this arrogance about us as Americans.

Syed

Well, they gladly took manufacturing from us.

Syed

And it became quickly a country that exported a lot to the United States, you know, and we thought Americans were gonna get smart and get more complex, cerebral jobs, go to school do math, do reading.

Syed

Instead, what happened didn't happen.

Syed

The American dream didn't happen.

Syed

And then you compound this with some of the tax implications that we've put in place.

Syed

And there's a popular comedian who did like a real short skit on this.

Syed

But I actually, I don't think I've talked about this in the show.

Syed

I've written, for the most part, a book, and it covers this along with kind of the deception of what corporate America is versus what we were.

Syed

I shouldn't say this corporate America is fine, there's nothing wrong with it.

Syed

But you need to understand how we got to this variant of corporate America from when the United States put together the educational system, the things that you've been ingratiated to believe as just default.

Syed

Inherent truths are not necessarily inherent truths.

Syed

They are truths that were manufactured.

Chris

Yeah, we've talked about it on the show before.

Syed

We have.

Syed

And you know, to paraphrase, during the Industrial Revolution, we decided we were going to figure out a way to educate our children in a non homeschool setting in a more federal, you know, nationwide type program.

Syed

And in doing so, we went to the largest families in the country who happened to be in the Industrial Revolution, the owners of some of the largest companies in the country.

Chris

Right, who were going to employ all.

Syed

These people, the Vanderbilts, the Rothschilds.

Syed

And we said to them, what do you need from your employees?

Syed

What do you need from American workers that work largely for you and your companies?

Syed

Now, you don't think that their intention was to get us all wealthy and rich.

Syed

They wanted us to be good employees who were dedicated, who spent years there because they didn't have to retrain somebody, rehire somebody.

Syed

They didn't want a lot of people coming and going and leaving the company.

Syed

They don't want those turnover.

Syed

They wanted somebody who's disciplined.

Syed

The bell rings, you raise your hand, ask questions.

Syed

So that entire framework which was in place in their defense long before that, but it was weaponized against us to believe that if you did certain things as an American, you were guaranteed success.

Syed

And for a long time that was true.

Syed

If you worked a job and you worked your way up and you got a post, you know, graduate, or you got a graduate degree or post, you know, bachelor's degree, you were guaranteed to move up in your company with time and tenure and you could afford to keep up with the Joneses next door.

Syed

You could buy an Oldsmobile or a Cadillac, you could have a home, you could stay in that home for long enough, build some equity, buy a Bigger home.

Chris

That's when the American dream was being sold.

Syed

That's how it was being sold.

Syed

And it was these neighborhoods where they were all cookie cutter and very similar.

Syed

Look at photos of old school America and despite the race and ethnicity challenges there, look at the homes.

Syed

They were all the same.

Syed

Cars were all the same.

Syed

Everybody had effectively the same jobs.

Syed

I mean, the same, you know, aesthetic to the jobs.

Syed

You know, one person got a color tv.

Syed

Oh my God, color tv.

Syed

Oh, you must be ballin'you, know, but there wasn't like everybody kept to their classes and you really didn't know what was going on in the wealthy class.

Syed

And you really didn't see the lower class that often.

Syed

You just saw your neighborhood.

Syed

And that when you think about it in context like that's not a big deal, like you had upper class, you had middle class, you had lower class, no big deal.

Syed

We're not a caste based system.

Syed

We're not like India where it's effectively, at the time where it was effectively like your royalty or your poor.

Syed

And there's lots of countries around the world just like that.

Syed

But we thought we were superior.

Syed

And over time we thought we could control other countries of the US Dollar.

Syed

Well, that didn't really materialize us.

Syed

Students didn't get more and more complex and sophisticated jobs.

Syed

Manual physical labor jobs, trade jobs are still very.

Syed

Actually they're probably more in demand now than ever before, you know, and Americans weren't superior.

Syed

And now we're trying to get manufacturing back here because we sent it offshore.

Syed

The dollar is not as strong as it once was relative to some other currencies.

Syed

And some of these other countries have done a very good job of keeping up and they're not being controlled by us anymore.

Chris

Right.

Syed

Nor do they fear it.

Syed

So you've got this system which was built under a preconceived set of notions that we would be superior and that we would continue to be.

Syed

That failed.

Syed

And rather than correct it, we were so steeped in it that what we did is we changed the tax laws to help the wealthier, the wealthy continue to be wealthier.

Syed

Capital gains taxes, a lot of the real estate laws.

Syed

And look, I'm all for capitalism, like I'm all for everybody getting wealthy.

Syed

But let me ask a fundamental inherent question, and I mean this sincerely.

Syed

It's going to sound facetious.

Syed

I'll use myself as an example.

Syed

I am taxed just under 50%, right.

Chris

In large part due to the state.

Chris

Right.

Syed

I mean California federal tax, state tax for things like bonuses.

Syed

58%.

Chris

Forget it.

Syed

Yeah, right.

Syed

I'm taxed and I'm not going to give the tax code and the nonsense.

Syed

And I'm grateful for all the money that I make and the things that I have, the opportunities I have.

Syed

I'm grateful for that.

Syed

But how is a system that tax.

Syed

Taxes you between 50 to 58%.

Syed

How does that enable you to become wealthy?

Syed

It doesn't.

Syed

It's a prohibition about for you to get wealthy.

Syed

It's an impediment.

Chris

It's a way to keep you right where you are.

Syed

Right.

Syed

Because you're not meant to rise out of the system, yet you go work for yourself.

Syed

And the tax laws completely change.

Syed

Why?

Syed

Not because they wanted Americans to get rich, because the wealthy people who owned companies took advantage of those tax laws and they couldn't isolate them for existing companies or segregate everybody else.

Syed

So they said, if you want a company, this is what you do.

Syed

But.

Chris

And the worst part about it is these loopholes or these tricks or just learning the tax code.

Chris

The law.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

Is.

Chris

Is not taught well.

Syed

It's not supposed to be.

Syed

So, like, the uber wealthy have tax attorneys, CPAs, they have attorneys on staff.

Syed

They have sophisticated financial people.

Syed

Some of them have CFOs that run their lives.

Syed

Some of them have family offices with people who specialize in.

Syed

In managing their assets over time and building wealth.

Chris

Right.

Syed

And you have this overabundance of private equity out there, which frankly, is now really more in control of the zeitgeist of our financial world than people like the Fed are.

Chris

Right.

Chris

We, I mean, we had this conversation earlier today how our good friends over at bank of America, I.

Chris

E.

Chris

G.

Chris

Ryan Moynihan, came out and recently said that, you know, the Fed isn't in control the way that we once thought they were.

Chris

Private equity is in control.

Syed

And as much as I've disagreed historically with a lot of things that Brian Moynihan has said, I cannot tell you that.

Syed

How much?

Syed

Well, so I should probably take a step back here.

Syed

I often assume that people who listen to the show understand what I do for a living.

Syed

Okay, that's probably because I don't even understand what I do for a living some days.

Syed

But needless to say, I've dealt with the secondary markets, I've dealt with private equity.

Syed

I've dealt with a lot of the major players in finance and in capital.

Syed

You name a big player in the game, I've probably talked to them in the last six months.

Syed

And that's not me being braggadocious.

Syed

It's just me saying I know all the key players in the space.

Syed

We all know each other.

Syed

It's actually a much smaller community in the bigger names are all in contact with people when you have something to offer them or, you know, you're kind of in rhythm, if you will, without being specific.

Syed

So I have spoken to a lot of the people that he's referencing and I can tell you that there has never been a time that I can tell you there's been more capital out there willing and able to be deployed.

Syed

And that capital is changing the way we think about the economy.

Syed

We should be in a recession.

Syed

That's just the truth.

Syed

But we're not.

Syed

At least not declared and certainly not from a traditional metrics tracking standpoint.

Chris

And some of that has to be because of the amount of money that's been circulating that has.

Chris

That had been injected into the economy during times of crisis.

Chris

Think of the great financial crisis is all start really picked up back in 2008.

Chris

This problem is.

Chris

Has not just been a pandemic Covid problem.

Syed

No.

Syed

When you look from 1970 till now, the problem has gotten more and more pronounced.

Syed

And it's a very.

Syed

Home prices are good parallel.

Syed

You see home prices kind of goes like a hockey stick straight up.

Chris

Right.

Syed

And that's been kind of the.

Syed

If you look at that as symbolic of the greater problem.

Syed

We built a financial system on a house of cards that cannot continue like it is.

Syed

I was talking to some guys today from a very reputable finance company.

Syed

You know the ones I had lunch with, brilliant guys.

Syed

And they're like, yeah, our forecast is that home prices will go up similar this year that they did last year.

Syed

And I posed the question, something has to break.

Syed

Because if.

Syed

And we'll explain later on, we go through the rest of the housing numbers that I brought up and kind of what we started the show with, why this is a problem just based on this and this is a good year.

Syed

You get wage inflation of 4.5%, housing inflation at 5.4%.

Syed

So.

Syed

Yeah, right, yeah, whatever.

Syed

You know, it was pretty fair.

Chris

But I do think that private equity out there in the market.

Syed

Right, yeah.

Chris

Has gotten a lot smarter than what maybe it had been in years past where we know, we know of so many companies that have been sitting on cash for so long waiting for something to happen that they.

Chris

Waiting for the right opportunity so they can almost inject themselves in and continue to prop everything up.

Syed

So I think a lot of people hear the worst terms like private equity, Metro capital and they.

Syed

They don't really understand what they are.

Chris

Okay.

Syed

Private equity, put down to its very simple core basic concept is people with money to invest.

Chris

Yeah, exactly.

Syed

Let's keep it basic private money to invest.

Syed

Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's private, non institutional money.

Syed

It's usually institutional.

Syed

Insurance company, lifeco, Saudis, for example, could be, could be your source of funds, but they have money they want to invest.

Syed

And depending on what their source of funds are, like an insurance company, very, very cheap money.

Syed

Lifecoat, Very, very cheap money.

Syed

Banks, a little more expensive money.

Syed

So it just depends on what their funds cost them.

Chris

Right.

Syed

Some private equity funds are incredibly aggressive.

Syed

They don't want to chase annuity like returns over time where they're getting 5 and 6% here and there.

Syed

They want big paydays.

Chris

Oh, yeah.

Syed

Some of them are a little bit thoughtful and pragmatic and they want to go out a little longer.

Syed

And they've got longer durations in their.

Chris

Funds because they have, they have investors that they've promised returns to.

Chris

Right?

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

But there's an entire ecosystem built around this.

Syed

There's, there's, you know, investment bankers, there's private equity, there's venture capital, there's hedge funds.

Syed

There's all sorts of, of different vehicles out there deploying capital.

Syed

And never before have I ever seen this much money out there waiting on the sidelines to be deployed.

Syed

And it scares me.

Syed

It scares me a great deal because to Brian Moynihan's point, the Fed did everything they could to get inflation under control, and they weren't very successful at it.

Syed

It's certainly down from 9.1% to approximately just under 3% now.

Syed

Fine.

Syed

But housing isn't solved.

Chris

No.

Syed

Unemployment seems to be, at best unreliable as a number.

Syed

And government spending clearly has been a problem.

Syed

Government hiring has been a massive problem.

Syed

And yet all this money is being deployed all over the place for people to try to make more and more money.

Syed

And it's a spinning house of cards.

Syed

Right.

Syed

Everybody makes money until they don't.

Chris

And that's a scary thing, Right.

Chris

Because, you know, back to your point about venture capitalists, they can begin to fund new businesses, Right.

Chris

That can ultimately prop up the economy.

Chris

You think of just these venture capitalists that could fund a new tech company, right?

Chris

And they go through multiple series and they get so much money behind them.

Chris

And then you could literally prop it up with buzzwords around AI or whatever.

Chris

Whatever it is that they want to use.

Syed

Oh, yeah.

Chris

And then they have an IPO and then the stock comes out and it's literally, it begins to prop up an entire market like the S&P 500.

Chris

And you look at the S&P 500, let's say, and it's doing so unbelievably well.

Chris

But it doesn't explain why majority of people out there feel so stretched.

Chris

Right.

Chris

It's literally two different stories going on at the same exact time.

Syed

And I truly believe that the, the reason why that this is a phenomenon that's happening now is that America no longer has a middle class.

Syed

We, we used to say, and the vernacular hasn't changed, we used to say, oh, Billy's a millionaire, he's rich.

Syed

But that isn't the case anymore.

Syed

We're talking, we're on the verge of the first trillionaires.

Syed

Right.

Syed

Not just billionaires, trillionaires.

Syed

And if you've ever seen a picture of what a billion is versus a million, it is a monumental difference.

Chris

Oh, yeah, I love that there's a, that famous thing that, that goes around is a million seconds is just over.

Chris

11 days in a billion seconds is over like 30 some years.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

It's a huge difference.

Syed

And I think people really, really don't understand how big it is.

Chris

And those.

Chris

That word just gets thrown around now.

Chris

Billion.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

So.

Syed

And I honestly believe today's millionaires are not wealthy.

Syed

They're comfortable, maybe, or more comfortable than not.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

But are they independent and free?

Syed

No.

Chris

Reminds me, it reminds me of that old Chris Rock bit.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

Like, Shaq's not wealthy.

Chris

Shaq's rich guy signing his check.

Chris

He's wealthy.

Chris

And he's like, Shaq's money could be lost one summer with a drug habit.

Syed

Yeah, well, not anymore.

Chris

I mean, this is the old shack.

Chris

But that was the point that he's making, like, especially now.

Chris

Fast forward to now.

Chris

I mean, you could lose it on one bad deal.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

And look, Shaq is now wealthy.

Syed

Right.

Syed

He's got several different investment vehicles we're.

Chris

Talking about back of his playing time.

Syed

And he himself is a brand.

Syed

But it's a very valid point.

Syed

And I think that that's the disparity, the wealth disparity that we're seeing in this country in a very meaningful way.

Syed

And I'll use myself as an example.

Syed

And again, not being braggadocious, I'm just being honest.

Syed

I'm a multimillionaire.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

I worry about money every day of my life still.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

I have never once been like, I'm good, I don't have to worry about it.

Syed

I worry every single day about continuing to make Money continuing to build, because I'm afraid I'm still at that point where I'm shacking that early playing career where I could lose it all.

Syed

Yeah, I got a lot of things going on.

Syed

I got a lot of real estate, fixed assets and all this, but I'm not in a point where I'm like.

Chris

I'm good, or what the kids like to call you.

Chris

Money.

Syed

Yeah, I'm still getting fucked money.

Chris

Getting fucked money.

Chris

Yeah, exactly.

Chris

What's the threshold?

Chris

What do you think that threshold is?

Chris

When does it cross over into fuck you money?

Syed

You know, I don't think that there's a certain number.

Syed

I think it's really dependent on your circumstances, where you live and where you're at.

Syed

Really, you know?

Syed

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Syed

I don't.

Syed

I don't think it's quite the same thing.

Syed

It's funny because I'll listen to, like, Joe Rogan from time to time, and I know how much his Spotify deals were, and I know how much he's made, and I know that, you know, he has the number one podcast in the world, and he still clearly doesn't feel like he's got that level of money.

Syed

He looks at, like, someone like Elon Musk and Bezos and those guys, and he goes, they have.

Syed

Like, there's a real power money.

Syed

Like, I'm just the guy who's in the game and I'm doing okay.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

Not to say that he's stressing about it, but, yeah, I agree.

Chris

Well, he's in.

Chris

He's in the room with some big heavy hitters that.

Chris

That can humble him very quickly.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

And that.

Syed

That's.

Syed

That's perspective.

Syed

And I.

Syed

I, too, have been in the room with some pretty heavy hitters, and I've been very, very humbled.

Syed

You know, it's different when you're talking to somebody about your challenges and you talk to them about their challenges.

Syed

It's so taboo.

Syed

We don't talk about money openly, and it's considered to be a bad habit, traditionally.

Syed

And the uber wealthy never want to talk about money because they've got more than enough.

Syed

Why did they even talk about it?

Chris

They're more concerned with power.

Syed

Yeah, and that's exactly right.

Syed

They're more concerned with power.

Syed

And me having dipped my toe into that world, it's very difficult for me to understand people.

Syed

I mean, I understand it, but it's hard for me to rationalize the subset of people that I deal with who are more concerned with power than they are with money.

Syed

And often, more often, than not.

Syed

They're the ones who get paid the most.

Syed

But the money's.

Syed

They almost, like, expect it.

Syed

But they are obsessed with power and image.

Chris

Mm.

Syed

They are obsessed with it.

Syed

I was having a conversation earlier today.

Chris

With the power comes the money.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

But it's weird.

Syed

Like, it's.

Syed

It's never enough power.

Chris

Yes.

Syed

And the money for them is only a proxy of the power.

Syed

I am powerful because I command this much money.

Syed

But then they hear about somebody else who commands more money, and they are now feeling less powerful as a response to it.

Chris

It's part of the game.

Chris

Right.

Syed

And I was having this conversation today with somebody earlier, and I'll use a different industry because I don't want to.

Syed

I don't want to highlight the industry I was talking about, but this was a very affluent person in a very big company.

Chris

Okay.

Syed

This is the kind of guy who takes private jets.

Syed

You know, he's making all the money in the world.

Syed

He's doing quite well for himself.

Syed

Right.

Syed

And he's.

Syed

He's got a decent title in a very big company, but he's not like, CEO.

Syed

Right.

Chris

Okay.

Syed

And a lot of people don't understand CEOs oftentimes don't make the most money in the company.

Syed

As a matter of fact, for a long time, Jamie Dimon was not the highest earner in the company of JP Morgan Chase.

Chris

Wow.

Syed

There was other guys on trading desk that made a lot more than him.

Chris

Your boy, Jamie Dimon, Uncle Jamie, that is to you, sir.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

Was making well over 30 million a year.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

Now there's guys inside their system that was making.

Syed

They were making more at some points, I think.

Syed

Now he is the highest earner, but I mean, he's also.

Syed

They're talking about, you know, he's talking about retiring and moving on and having, you know.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

They're positioning people to.

Chris

I know.

Chris

There's a whole conversation about that dog fight.

Syed

They named a new chief operating officer.

Syed

I was very upset.

Syed

I was looked off for that job.

Syed

Very upset.

Syed

I'm like, I didn't get the phone call, man.

Chris

Not even like, hey, this position is available.

Syed

Like, this lady seems like she's talented and smart and, you know, been with.

Chris

The Whatever crazy tenure organization knowledge.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

I mean, she might be the perfect fit, but I didn't get a phone call.

Chris

Nothing.

Syed

Not even, like a text.

Syed

Like, yo, dog, heads up.

Syed

I'm going with somebody else.

Syed

Like, nothing.

Chris

No appreciation for what we provide.

Syed

Like, you know.

Syed

You know, I'm here un.

Chris

It comes with the podcast.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

I'm just.

Syed

Is it because I'm on the podcast?

Syed

You don't want the shine?

Syed

That's what it is.

Chris

That's what it is.

Syed

You know?

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

Chris is too good at that.

Syed

I can't take that away from him.

Chris

Right, right, right, right.

Syed

We don't want to disappoint the fans.

Syed

So basically, it's because of you out there that I chose not to become chief operating officer of JP Morgan Chase.

Syed

I want to continue giving you the gumdrops and lollipops.

Chris

Right.

Chris

All the moist.

Chris

Good, good stuff.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

I chose the moistness over the power.

Syed

Who knew?

Chris

Right?

Syed

But we were talking about.

Syed

So he goes out and meets executives of companies that he, from a private equity standpoint, invests in.

Syed

And he was like, it never ceases to amaze me.

Syed

I'll go talk to these CEOs that clearly need my help and my investment committee's decisions to, you know, to help their company.

Syed

But these CEOs are not humble about it at all.

Chris

How so?

Syed

He was just telling me.

Syed

He's like, I don't know if it's like the, the, the, you know, the type a personality, arch type, but I'll go in there and they perceive me as being like a senior vice president of this company, not the CEO myself.

Syed

So they talk to me like I'm beneath them because they're the CEO, but their company is way smaller than mine.

Syed

And I know, because I've seen their financials, because they need my money.

Syed

I know they're making way less than me.

Syed

Right.

Syed

But he's like, the way they talk to me is like this.

Syed

Like I'm empowered.

Chris

I think that somebody in that position, in that seat, someone like a CEO, would understand the value of building relationships.

Syed

And I, look, I, you know, some do, some don't.

Syed

I'm not, I'm not knocking, like every CEO out there.

Syed

I'm just saying.

Chris

Yeah, I know that they were talking about.

Syed

There's.

Syed

There's this perspective that can get lost on people really quickly when they're the king of their own castle.

Syed

Yeah, that castle might be a very nice castle, but it ain't the biggest one.

Chris

No, no.

Chris

There's always a bigger one.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

Usually Saudis.

Chris

Yeah, always Saudis.

Syed

It's much bigger.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

But, you know, it never ceases to amaze me.

Syed

I look at some of the stuff in the wealth gap disparity, I look at the way we're doing things, I look at how the economy has gone and all of this, you know, 30 minute backlog to say, this is Untenable stuff.

Syed

You can't have home prices go up that much over the course of that short of a time and not cause problems.

Syed

And a lot of people in America are saying, hey, it's great.

Syed

40% of homes are paid off in cash.

Syed

Tell that to people who had no hazard insurance in the Pacific Palisades or in Altadena.

Syed

In Altadena, exactly.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

Tell that to people who got to rebuild their home.

Syed

Now when they're trying to, they're getting bids from neighboring neighbors whose homes didn't burn down for way less than what was the land value.

Syed

Yeah, people always banked on like, you know what, the land value here is so expensive, no matter what happens, I'll be okay because I got 10 million in land.

Syed

Now they're getting offered a million dollars for land because people are undercutting them just like that.

Syed

Meanwhile, they're going to want to go rent.

Syed

People are jacking up their rents by, you know, 30%, taking advantage of.

Syed

In this kind of financial craziness that we've deemed normal because we just lived through it for the last 15 years, call it now.

Chris

Right.

Syed

We've gotten so normalized to this extreme growth that people don't look in the mirror and go like, this is just not sustainable anymore.

Chris

So let me ask you this, then.

Chris

It's.

Chris

It's not sustainable.

Chris

But when does it become a good time to buy for somebody?

Syed

Look, if you can buy, buy.

Syed

I'm never going to say no to that.

Syed

If you can financially afford, but don't do what people were getting told by real estate agents to do the last couple years.

Syed

Date the rate, marry the home.

Chris

And what does that mean when they say date the rate?

Syed

They were saying, hey, be committed to the home long term.

Syed

Buy the home, but don't be committed to this rate.

Syed

Don't worry, the Fed's gonna cut rates.

Syed

Rates will go down when they cut rates and when they do, you can refinance to a lower rate.

Chris

Make sure you can afford the.

Chris

Afford the payment at what it is now.

Chris

And don't bank on the rate coming down to where you could refi out of it.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

You know, in the next year or so, you got to be able to afford it.

Chris

Right.

Chris

It's got to be within, within that budget of yours.

Chris

And we've talked about it on the show, you know.

Chris

Yeah, we talk about the, you know, 60, 30, 10 split.

Chris

Right.

Chris

And your mortgage payment should fall somewhere with.

Chris

It falls in line in the 60% range.

Chris

And it should only make up approximately about 40% of of that.

Chris

Right.

Chris

And, but we understand that given the times and given what we're talking about, it's.

Chris

Everyone's being stretched a little bit more thin.

Chris

Right.

Chris

And you have to consider, is this, are you using it for utility or are you using it as an investment because you don't want to get into it and then become house poor?

Syed

And you look a home as an investment is an anecdotal tertiary benefit.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

It's like a byproduct.

Syed

You should not be buying your home going like this is going to go up so much in value the next couple years, going to be amazing.

Syed

You should be buying the home saying like, this is going to provide a great place for my family or for myself to live in because it's what we need.

Chris

Right.

Syed

That's a very.

Syed

And yes, if it goes up in value over time, great homes traditionally do go up in value over time.

Syed

That being said, you should not be banking on that as your exit strategy.

Chris

So then let me ask you this as a follow up question.

Chris

What are your thoughts?

Chris

How do you feel about what the rising costs of homeownership all around, not just, not just the mortgage payment.

Chris

We're talking everything else that comes along with it.

Chris

Right.

Chris

We all know no secret homeownership is expensive and how much this affects everyone else's goals for other financial goals of theirs.

Syed

Right.

Chris

Whether that be education, you know, emergencies, retirement.

Chris

Like how much of that should they be considering when they're making their decision?

Chris

I mean, well, not, I know we don't want to give advice, but like, what's your comfort level?

Syed

No, I'll give advice.

Syed

Look, I think that the American dream, as our parents believed in it, has effectively died.

Syed

And I'm not saying that it should not be something you aspire to, but I'm saying that it's not easy.

Syed

And at one point in time, your parents will, I'm sure everybody around you will say, oh my God, it was so hard for me back then, mathematically.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

And I know it's gonna hurt people's feelings.

Syed

Mathematically, it is harder to buy a home now than ever before in history.

Syed

And don't be the troll who hits me in the comments and, you know, says, oh, when I was a kid, 18 was rates and we struggled about.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

And home prices were $5.

Syed

Okay?

Chris

Right.

Syed

So don't, don't come at me with that nonsense.

Syed

Well, Chris, you don't understand the business.

Syed

You know what, I probably understand it better than most of you.

Chris

Right.

Syed

You know what I mean?

Syed

Like, I'm Just saying.

Syed

Yeah, this is, this is what I do.

Chris

The whole, the home price to wage ratio was significantly less.

Chris

It used to be forex, now it's well over 6x.

Syed

Yeah, it's crazy.

Syed

And for people to think that.

Syed

So again, date, date the rate, marry the home, that was all well and good.

Syed

Well, people, you know, got into these homes, they could not afford the monthly cash flow of these mortgage payments, but they were hoping that rate, the rates would go down.

Syed

They had a home, they could refinance, lower the rate and their mortgage can be comfortable to be able to go, ah, well, guess what?

Syed

Rates didn't go down.

Chris

Right.

Syed

As a matter of fact, rates ended the year 2024 higher than when they ended in 2023.

Syed

And to give you an idea, they were well over 6% in 2023 and they were just over 7% to end.

Syed

So anybody who thought, oh my God, in a year or two from now, refinance, lower the rate, take the pressure off myself financially, that didn't work.

Syed

And there was a whole like gambit of homes that hit the market that people who said, I can't fucking do this anymore, absolutely cannot do it anymore.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

So exactly.

Chris

And that's a really good point.

Chris

And you gotta, you gotta remember, so if you gotta be able to afford that, the payment for, for what it is currently as of today.

Chris

And you gotta also remember, I'm not saying that it's always going to be like this, but at the trajectory and where home prices have gone.

Chris

Look at, look at home prices 16 years ago, if you would have bought on the wrong side of that bell curve right now, those people bought at technically the worst time ever at that time.

Chris

And right now you would be sitting in a very spectacular position, assuming you hadn't lost your job and you know, you didn't have to, you know, they didn't have to foreclose on your home, but if you were able to stay in that home at that, at that price compared to what it is today.

Chris

Yeah, it ended up being a spectacular.

Chris

People are envious of that position.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

Right.

Chris

So if you can afford it, consider yourself very lucky.

Chris

Right.

Chris

And I would.

Chris

As long as it's used for, you know, the proper utility, I would recommend definitely doing it.

Syed

So let me give you some color here.

Syed

Right?

Chris

Give me color.

Syed

So to summarize what we talked about, the top of the show, wages increased by approximately $2,791.22 for the average American in 2024.

Syed

This is based on the salary of $62,027.

Syed

And you take 4.5% of that, you get about $2,791.22 a year increase in wages for the average American.

Syed

Meanwhile, homes with the same average home price of $420,400 going up by 5.4% means that homes increased 22,701 and 60 cents.

Syed

Okay, so you look at those two numbers and you go, okay, wait a minute, Chris.

Syed

I can't really understand the math of how that impacts them on a, on a, on a monthly basis.

Syed

Don't worry, Daddy got you.

Chris

Daddy got you.

Syed

So in order to come up with a monthly payment for 2023, which again, that was about 6.69% day in 2023 is the average mortgage rate for a 30 year mortgage.

Syed

Assuming a 20% to put down on the average home, your 2023 mortgage payment would be $2,055.37.

Syed

Now, excuse me, in 2024, where home prices rose 5.4% and now valued at $420,400, mortgage rates ended slightly above 7% in 2024.

Syed

So that meant your mortgage payment was $2,241.29, a difference of $185.92 a month.

Syed

Well, Chris, it's only $185.92 a month.

Syed

That's not a lot.

Chris

I mean, come on, you should be able to swing that.

Syed

Well, talk about swinging.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

If you financed the home in 2024 versus 2023.

Syed

Yes.

Syed

Your payment would be $185.92 higher due to both the rising home prices and the higher mortgage rates.

Syed

Combination of both are deadly.

Syed

And it doesn't sound like a lot, but approximately 79.94%, almost 80% of the wage increase in 2024 would go towards covering the cost of the higher mortgage payment caused by the rising home price.

Syed

So basically what I'm saying is you take $185.92, multiply it times 12, and guess what?

Syed

That's 80% of the $2,791 in 2020.

Syed

22 cents of wage growth the average American got.

Chris

So you're all.

Chris

But wait, all the wages you made are going right into the house.

Syed

There's more.

Syed

That's pre tax wage increase.

Chris

There you go.

Syed

So if you take, let's just say 40% for most Americans away from that, let's you know, say 35%, you've now spent more on a mortgage payment than you made.

Syed

So that wage inflation didn't Cover just the increase in your mortgage payment, much less inflation in your daily life for food, for energy, for shelter.

Chris

Right.

Syed

So, yeah, it's going the wrong way.

Syed

Even if modest home prices go up, with rates still high, it's destroying the average American's income.

Chris

Right.

Chris

And you know, so I know a lot of people out there are like, well then, Chris, what should I do?

Chris

I feel like I need to own a home so I'm not losing money on rent every single month.

Chris

What, what, what, what should I do then?

Syed

Well, number one, I don't think people are losing money on rent.

Syed

If you're able to invest and save or just even live a quality of life where you're happy.

Chris

And that's where I think the, the biggest shift needs to happen for, you know, the upcoming and the next generation.

Chris

Right.

Chris

Is okay, yeah, maybe we, maybe this thing does turn into a nation of renters.

Chris

But people are going to have to learn how to invest whether.

Chris

And at its basic level.

Chris

At its basic level, they're going to have to.

Chris

There's, I can't remember the stats and I'll try to look it up right now while we're doing the show.

Chris

But there's so many people out there that aren't investing.

Chris

Right.

Chris

Even into long term low cost index funds.

Chris

Right.

Chris

Things that have been, have a proven track record of growing 8 to 10% year over year.

Syed

I quite like it to go to the gym.

Syed

You ever see like a guy or girl in the gym who clearly is kind of timid because they've never really learned to work out or lift weights and they think they know because they've seen other people do it, but they don't really know.

Syed

So they're somewhat shy and apprehensive about using the equipment.

Syed

And then you can see them looking around, you know, you can see them in the room.

Syed

Like you see that person is just getting acclimated.

Chris

And this is a great analogy too, because the gym in and of itself can be a very intimidating thing from the outside.

Chris

But once you get in.

Syed

Yeah, right.

Chris

And if you circle yourself around, we said people don't like talking about finances, people don't like talking about money.

Chris

But you find the right people that do like people that go to the gym.

Chris

They are willing to help and share information and knowledge.

Syed

But people get so stigmatized and look like, you look at people at the gym and you say, oh my God, like, that's great.

Syed

They're trying.

Syed

My mom just lost over half her body weight.

Syed

She now weighs less than me for the first time.

Syed

In my adult life.

Chris

Shout out to Mama Bear.

Syed

Shout out to Mama Bear.

Syed

She's all into health and fitness.

Syed

She jumped in.

Syed

She's listening to podcast now.

Syed

I got her on mind Pump Sex Seattle.

Syed

So sexy.

Chris

So sexy.

Syed

Oh, I didn't mail him his shoes.

Syed

Shit.

Chris

More.

Chris

More.

Chris

More shoes.

Syed

Yeah, I got him the Harto or.

Syed

Damn it.

Syed

There's special kind of dunks he wanted.

Chris

Oh, he's.

Chris

He's a dunk guy.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

No, I mean we can't all be sexy for.

Chris

When are you gonna give me some.

Chris

Some of the white cements?

Syed

You want those?

Chris

I want those.

Syed

I'll get them for you.

Chris

At a premium.

Syed

Seriously.

Syed

No, I'll get them for you.

Chris

Those are my.

Chris

I equate those as the best like dad shoe for when you go to your a kid.

Syed

Those are the fives, right?

Syed

Jordan fives?

Chris

No, the threes.

Syed

Threes.

Syed

Oh, okay.

Chris

Yeah, yeah.

Syed

Just tell me what you want, I'll get it for you.

Chris

Reimagine.

Syed

The reimagine.

Syed

Oh, you want the ones that are a little like worn.

Syed

Yeah, yeah.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

There's another pair that I'd recommend that are really dope I got.

Chris

Really?

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

I've never worn them here though.

Syed

These like my trophies.

Chris

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Syed

There was a super luxe version.

Syed

There's actually really cool too.

Syed

You probably don't know this.

Syed

There's a Jordan one that came out that was a super high end luxury version of it that was all white, but the leather is like super premium.

Syed

Like really, really nice.

Syed

I want to buy those.

Syed

I have no reason to buy them because I'm never going to wear them.

Chris

Because the really popular thing I see the kids all doing now, they buy the all white high top Jordan ones and they send it to somebody to customize.

Chris

To customize it.

Syed

That's not new, you geriatric, but I.

Chris

See all the kids on YouTube making videos, bro.

Syed

I got like three pairs of those.

Chris

You do?

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

You were done.

Syed

No.

Syed

Joanne has a pair of custom Louis Vuitton ones, Jordan ones.

Syed

I've got a pair.

Syed

Actually, no, I don't have a pair of those.

Syed

I have a pair of like before the Chicago ones came out, the reimagined ones.

Syed

I had a pair of Chicago's made that I could just beat the out of.

Syed

Those are made from the bloodlines originally.

Syed

Not necessarily a white pair, but.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

Wow.

Syed

I got some beaters.

Chris

Some beaters.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

I never wear them either, but yeah, like I think people look at.

Chris

Oh, there you go.

Chris

Here's.

Chris

Here's A staff for you, by the way, finance.

Syed

And they don't jump in.

Chris

Approximately 38 of U.S.

Chris

adults, equating to about 99 million individuals.

Chris

Individuals do not invest in the stock market.

Syed

So one of the things I am probably criticized the most for professionally.

Chris

Damn.

Syed

Yeah, it's a big number and I'll get back to in a second so is I constantly tell people on the show and every time I do this, somebody will come at me and say that it's unprofessional.

Chris

What?

Syed

And it pisses me off to no end.

Syed

I say, and I've said it on the show and I'll continue to say it.

Syed

And I don't give a.

Syed

What anybody says.

Syed

You should not be satisfied with the wages from your nine to five.

Syed

Every time I've said that, somebody's been like, oh my God, man, you're telling people that they should not be happy with wages.

Syed

You're an employer.

Syed

You're telling them that they should, they should want more.

Syed

Yes.

Syed

Everybody should want more.

Syed

You want to know why not?

Chris

But like not.

Chris

It should be deserving.

Chris

You should be working hard.

Syed

Yes.

Chris

You should be getting, you know, those performance reviews need to be exceptional.

Chris

You need to be earning a job, earning more credentials, getting other certificates.

Chris

Do whatever you got to do to earn it.

Chris

But you should definitely.

Chris

You should never be settling.

Syed

I, I have always just had this particular disdain from people like, oh my God, you're encouraging people to be overly ambitious.

Syed

Yes, I am encouraging people to be overly ambitious.

Syed

Yes.

Syed

Guess how you got your job, CEO.

Syed

You were overly ambitious.

Chris

Right.

Syed

Guess how all those managers that are top tier executives who make millions of dollars a year got their jobs.

Syed

They were ambitious.

Chris

We wouldn't want.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

Do we, do we want to raise a nation?

Syed

They were satisfied.

Chris

That are just content.

Syed

But Chris, if they all want more, then, then they're all gonna, they're all gonna just demand more.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

But they're also gonna work harder for it.

Chris

Right.

Chris

As long as.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

The, the proper expectations are laid out.

Chris

Okay.

Chris

If you want more, this is what you need to do.

Syed

And invariably somebody will take my comment out of context and say that I'm encouraging something.

Syed

Let me be clear.

Syed

What I'm saying is, is after work, okay, you need to do more than just say, I've got a 401k, it's great.

Syed

Right?

Syed

That ain't enough anymore.

Syed

Okay?

Syed

Look at all the 65 and 70 year olds that are working today because they need a continued stream of income because their retirement isn't enough.

Syed

Or in some cases they like their job.

Syed

And good, you know, kudos to them.

Chris

We had this conversation.

Chris

We think the whole conversation over retirement is outdated.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

I don't think, number one, humans are just living better, healthier, higher quality lives for longer.

Syed

Good for you.

Syed

I know 75 year olds that are out running, riding their bike 100 miles a week.

Chris

Amazing.

Syed

You know, they're still very much sharp and look good for you.

Syed

You're in the workforce, I get it.

Syed

I wouldn't want to retire either.

Syed

But there's ramifications to you being in the workforce longer because other people aren't coming up because you're in that spot.

Syed

So now you've got Americans being in this ecosystem, they're not able to rise up.

Syed

We're somehow demeaning the idea of people wanting more.

Syed

And I'm telling them you should want more.

Syed

And if you can't get it in your day job, find good.

Syed

If you like your job and you're good at it and you're happy there and you're waiting for an opportunity, good, you should do those things.

Syed

But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be investing in the stock market.

Syed

Doesn't mean you shouldn't be investing in real estate, doesn't mean you shouldn't be being thoughtful about your 401k and looking at it consistently.

Syed

It shouldn't mean you shouldn't desire to have more and try to find other sources to build wealth.

Syed

And somebody much smarter than me, who is a very, very wealthy individual, once got so pissed off at me whenever I told him, you know, man, I'm just not making enough of my job.

Syed

And he goes, what do you mean because you paid fairly?

Syed

I'm like, yeah, I'm probably paid market for what I do.

Syed

This is, you know, years ago.

Syed

And I go, he's like, what's the problem?

Syed

I'm like, I'm not making enough.

Syed

And he goes, what is your expectation?

Syed

I'm like, I'm gonna get rich, bro.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

What do you mean, bro?

Chris

Yeah, I'm trying to be, I'm trying to be sitting here where you are.

Syed

You know, I want to get in the PJ100.

Chris

I want to get in the Yacht it Up Club.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

I want to be, I want to be out there.

Chris

I want it all.

Syed

I want boats and hoes.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

You know, now I just want boats.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

Just the boats.

Syed

But so, you know, he looked at me and he was like, just confused.

Syed

He's like, what?

Syed

What are you thinking?

Syed

And I'm like, I, I thought we just cover this I want to get rich.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

Why wouldn't I want that?

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

He goes, look, dude, let me tell you right now.

Syed

I worked in corporate America my entire life until I was like, 55.

Syed

He was 55 when he stopped working.

Syed

I said, yeah.

Syed

And he goes, you're not going to make millions of dollars at your job.

Chris

Bingo.

Syed

You're not.

Syed

He's like, your money will come from the investments you make outside of work.

Syed

Work just gives you the tools to use that money to invest someplace else to build more money.

Chris

Right.

Chris

And whether that's investing or starting something for yourself where you can retain the equity.

Syed

Yeah, Right.

Chris

That.

Chris

We all know that's the name of the game, right?

Chris

Ultimately, if you can.

Chris

Time is limited, but if you can plan it out, right?

Chris

I mean, this.

Chris

This stat right here tells it all.

Syed

If.

Chris

If we should all be doing what all the people who are successful are doing, then no stat tells it better than this right here.

Chris

You ready for this?

Chris

The wealthiest 1% of Americans.

Chris

I want to be one of the.

Syed

I mean, I am not, by the way.

Chris

You're not, right?

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

I AM the wealthiest 15 or 20%.

Chris

But I feel like that's something that everyone would want to be, Right.

Syed

We should all aspire to that, Right?

Syed

Unless you're that guy at work or that girl at work who's telling me that I'm motivating people to do the wrong thing.

Chris

Right?

Syed

You cannot aspire to it.

Syed

It's fine.

Chris

Wealthy as 1% of Americans hold 50% of all the stock.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

Think about that.

Chris

So if you're not in the stock market and you're not 50%, bro.

Chris

Come on.

Chris

Half dog.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

What are we talking about here?

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

We're talking about.

Syed

Look again.

Syed

Go back to the gym references.

Syed

Because a lot of people listen to the show.

Syed

They know.

Syed

Right?

Syed

We all know you should be lifting weights.

Chris

Got to be.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

We all know you should be working out.

Syed

We all know we should not be eating like fatties.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

Right.

Syed

And don't be wrong.

Syed

I.

Syed

I've been overweight in my life.

Syed

My obviously family members and, you know, are overweight.

Syed

Diabetes runs in my family.

Chris

Some of my happiest times were when I was overweight, but I didn't feel that great at the time.

Chris

And there was definitely a downward spiral afterwards.

Syed

Some of those burritos, man, they hit, they smacked.

Syed

Yeah, they.

Syed

All right.

Syed

But, yeah, look, I get it.

Syed

We all know what we should be doing, right?

Syed

But it's really, really, really hard.

Syed

And then you look at that guy who's like, Jacked in the gym.

Syed

And you're like, oh, Timothy's on steroids.

Chris

Yeah, Right.

Syed

We do the same thing financially, but we don't recognize it.

Syed

You go, oh, Billy just came from a wealthy family.

Syed

Yeah, that might be true.

Syed

And Timothy might have good genetics.

Syed

Timothy might be on some trt.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

But look, at least Timothy's doing something about it.

Chris

He's putting.

Chris

You can't take away from the work that he's putting in.

Syed

And this is the part where I look at people and I say, stop making excuses for other people's success and start saying.

Syed

If you want that, start saying to yourself, I can get it, but I got to do the work.

Chris

And the hard part comes from when you do get that promotion.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

And you do get that bonus or however else you get passed on some money, what do you do with it?

Chris

Do you upgrade your lifestyle or do you make more investments?

Syed

For the record, do as I say, not as I do.

Syed

Don't buy a studio for $200,000 for no reason.

Syed

Don't, don't, don't, don't do for no reason.

Chris

There's reasons.

Syed

There's a reason.

Syed

I'm an idiot is probably top of the reason list.

Syed

But we needed space.

Syed

We needed to grow.

Syed

Little financial motivation never hurt anybody.

Chris

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Syed

Jesus.

Syed

What are we doing?

Chris

It's a step in the right direction.

Syed

I hope so.

Syed

Man, it's.

Syed

The construction is gonna kill me.

Chris

Mm.

Syed

Yeah, probably.

Syed

Literally, from the fiberglass.

Chris

Did you get it on your hands?

Chris

You're wearing gloves.

Syed

I was wearing gloves.

Syed

I was wearing a respirator.

Syed

I had glasses on.

Chris

Did it.

Chris

You chose to do it without me?

Chris

I don't understand.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

I didn't want to have this conversation live on the show, but I get in the way.

Chris

Is that what it is?

Syed

No, no, not at all.

Syed

I was looking out for your safety.

Chris

Oh, thank you.

Syed

Okay, we all know that I've had laser hair removal.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

So I'm slick.

Chris

What does that mean?

Syed

It means fiberglass particles won't stick to me.

Chris

Oh, that's what it is.

Syed

They'll stick to you.

Syed

You're a giant all over the.

Syed

You're basically like.

Syed

You know, when you rub your arm up against a balloon, it has a static electricity shock.

Syed

Like, you walk in the room, the whole thing's going to just pop off.

Syed

It's just going to explode.

Syed

All this fuzziness in the room rolling around.

Chris

Right.

Syed

It's just going to create a static charge.

Syed

You know, whammy.

Chris

Right.

Chris

So back to this conversation.

Syed

I'm just going to Leave that alone.

Chris

I'm.

Chris

Leave it alone.

Chris

Because I'm Mr.

Chris

Fuzzy Knuckles.

Chris

It's okay.

Chris

I'm okay with it.

Chris

I've come to terms.

Chris

I'm leaning into it, if you will.

Syed

You know, if we ever got lost someplace in the woods and you rubbed your knuckles together to start a fire, I would totally appreciate that.

Chris

I would just leave you a trail of hair just so you could find me.

Syed

It ain't that.

Syed

Ain't that thick.

Syed

Wolverine.

Chris

Come on.

Chris

Okay.

Chris

For people out there that want to get started and they don't know where to start, and it scares them, and it's intimidating.

Chris

Like, what would you say to them.

Syed

Man, this is going to sound.

Chris

Because they wanted.

Chris

Here's the problem.

Chris

A lot of people, and I'm guilty of this, more ways than one.

Chris

I will let perfection get in the way of good.

Syed

Yeah, I think that's a natural human instinct.

Syed

I think for most people, like, if.

Chris

I'm gonna do this, this first chess move needs to be perfect.

Chris

I need to get into the right one.

Syed

You overanalyze you over, underwrite.

Syed

You overthink.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

I do the same thing.

Syed

Humans do that.

Syed

That's just humans.

Syed

Right.

Syed

And there are some exceptions.

Syed

Some people are just, like, wildly.

Syed

Just type A aggressive, like, yolo.

Syed

I'm gonna do it, and we'll figure it out.

Syed

Mm.

Syed

I.

Syed

Look, I don't know.

Syed

There's a perfect answer to this, but I'm gonna give you what happened to me.

Syed

I got into banking and started making some pretty good money, and I really wanted to be in the 401k and know what I was investing in.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

I developed a strategy we talked about in prior shows, a low cost index funds.

Syed

After really getting to understand Warren Buffett's methodology and realizing that I knew a whole lot that was missing in my.

Syed

In my stock market intelligence.

Syed

As I got farther and farther in my career, I started to understand things like the secondary market, like bonds.

Syed

Certainly doing this.

Syed

Excuse me.

Syed

It's been a bad throw.

Syed

Clearing item.

Syed

Sorry.

Syed

I think it's.

Syed

Meet you.

Syed

We went to the new studio space, and it just popped off, you know, as we got into the secondary market, as I started to understand things, I got farther into my job, more tenured.

Syed

I started to understand things in a way that it kind of coalesced.

Syed

It all came together.

Syed

There's still a lot missing.

Syed

Like, my accounting understanding is not where I would like it to be.

Syed

Right.

Syed

There's gaps in.

Syed

In some of the things that even.

Chris

Today, that's got to be one of those things.

Chris

Right.

Chris

Where like once you start to dive in, you, you realize, like, I remember, like being in my 20s, you think you know everything.

Chris

And then as, yeah, and as time goes on and you learn more, you learn how little you actually do know.

Syed

And it's 100% accurate.

Syed

So I say all the things I didn't, I don't know and how recent.

Syed

I've learned some of them as a way to say, like, I didn't wait to know everything.

Syed

When I started buying my first property, I said to myself, man, sorry, I've got some extra cash.

Syed

I can't afford to buy a home in Southern California.

Syed

Let me see how much homes are in the Midwest.

Syed

And I spent weeks looking around looking, damn hairball, what'd you do, bro?

Chris

You getting choked up over there?

Chris

Talking about, getting emotional, bro.

Syed

What's going on over here?

Syed

I spent weeks looking around the Midwest and I realized the property there was much, much more attainable.

Syed

So I was trying to be, trying to be cautious, but then I was like, you know what, if I don't buy a property now, when am I going to buy a property?

Syed

So I went down this, this path of going, okay, well how much do I have now?

Syed

How much, how much longer would I have to save before I could buy a property?

Syed

And would I live in it, would I rent it out?

Syed

And then I did this simple math in my head.

Syed

I said, okay, at the time I was paying $1,600 a month for rent.

Syed

It was a 580 square foot junior one bedroom in Irvine.

Syed

And I was like, okay, if I invest my money in this, after piti, principal, interest, taxes and insurance, I should be able to make.

Syed

I think at the time it was like 400 bucks a month, which really brings my rent down to twelve hundred dollars a month, right?

Syed

Where else can I go live for $1,200 a month or better?

Syed

And I couldn't come up with the answer that someplace that would keep my lifestyle the same.

Syed

So I was like, okay, I'm gonna do this, maybe next year I'll buy another one.

Syed

And then it brings me down to $800 a month after, you know, So I did.

Syed

It was nerve wracking.

Syed

It was scary.

Syed

You know, I had owned a property before, but I had sold it and you know, it was a whole thing and it was really nerve wracking buying a property in the Midwest.

Syed

I wasn't close to it, I couldn't get to it soon.

Chris

Everybody remember you mentioned somebody in your family had a rule of thumb where if you couldn't get to it within 45 minutes, your uncle.

Chris

Right.

Chris

That he wouldn't invest in it.

Syed

And that.

Syed

That very much resonated in my head.

Syed

I was deviating from rules that I had been taught were, you know, the gold standard.

Syed

But I also thought technology was on my side.

Syed

And I was very nervous.

Syed

I didn't understand everything about having third party outside management.

Syed

I didn't understand about everything about having a home in tornado alley.

Syed

I didn't understand what it was like renting to other people.

Syed

You know, I'd rented my home before, but it wasn't quite the same thing.

Syed

It was close.

Syed

It was somebody that I knew it was a bigger home.

Syed

It was in a different kind of community.

Syed

There was just a lot of stigma, but I just did it.

Syed

I was nervous, I was scared, but it worked out.

Syed

It wasn't the best deal, you know, in the world, but it started me on the process.

Syed

The next year I bought another one.

Syed

The next year I bought two.

Syed

Next year I bought two.

Syed

This.

Syed

This kept going.

Chris

And we understand that this.

Chris

This situation isn't going to be for everyone.

Chris

That's.

Chris

That's not.

Chris

That's not the driving point.

Chris

Not the point we're trying to drive home here.

Chris

It's more about putting yourself in an uncomfortable position.

Chris

Right, right.

Chris

And just almost trusting the process.

Chris

And what's the worst that could happen?

Syed

The worst that can happen is, look, so I made some bad choices, you know, in some instances, and you get properties that are a little more of a headache, you might have to spend more money, you might lose some money.

Syed

That's okay.

Syed

I look at economic losses as part of the learning curve.

Syed

And a great example I have of that is I started buying stock outside of my 401k in and around the same time.

Syed

But I was putting most of my money in real estate, so I couldn't afford to buy a lot of stock.

Syed

So I would wait, put some money together, and what I was doing is I was taking $500 a month and putting into my stock account, but I couldn't buy all the stock I wanted to with $500 a month.

Syed

So I just waited a couple months.

Syed

And then if there was a company that I really liked that was going someplace, I.

Syed

E.

Syed

Tesla, I.

Syed

E.

Syed

Apple.

Syed

I bought companies that I believed in, products that I used, things I thought had some legitimate legs.

Chris

Right.

Chris

That's, I think, one of the number one tips in that Phil Town book.

Chris

The number rule number one, I think.

Syed

Yeah, I may have read it.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

You haven't read it?

Chris

Oh, he's part of the school of Warren Buffett in them.

Chris

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Chris

And it was like investing companies that you understand the business model, you understand what they're selling.

Chris

So like someone like me, it might be like Nike or Apple or something like that, right?

Syed

Look, some of these companies have peaks and valleys.

Syed

You know, they do great some years and some years they don't do great.

Syed

That's okay too.

Syed

I mean, I'm not looking to hit home runs of these things.

Syed

It's just I'm looking to augment my 401k with investable assets and stuff that I can tap into in a worst case event scenario that I need or want to.

Syed

In some cases, the capital gains now are so high that I wouldn't, I wouldn't do it.

Syed

But, you know, and a lot of these things are risks.

Syed

You're putting money away.

Syed

And when the stock market, other than the dividends you'll get from some of these stocks, you're never gonna see that money, you know, the next 10, 15, 20 years.

Syed

People who are like, oh my God, man, I don't want to use that money when I'm 72 and homes are, you know, $2 million.

Syed

Okay, fine, you can, you can not do that.

Syed

But now I've got real estate assets, I got stock assets, and I wasn't, I know way more about the stock market, about the, just the financial sector in general today than I did when I started investing.

Syed

But I stand by those decisions that I made then.

Syed

Now some people are like, oh, well, Chris, I love cryptocurrency.

Syed

Could I invest in that?

Syed

Dude, if you feel like you, you know cryptocurrency well enough to do that, then do it.

Chris

You want to come up big on some of, some of the meme coins?

Syed

Yeah, but don't, don't do that.

Syed

Don't be that guy.

Syed

Like, look, you want to invest in Bitcoin or Ethereum, fine.

Syed

You want to invest in Hocktua, you know, don't do that.

Syed

Yeah, don't do that.

Syed

But look, there's never a good time to start.

Syed

It's always a bad time, like losing weight.

Syed

You're going to be sore as shit after the first couple workouts.

Chris

You're going to be discouraged as all hell when you don't get that return over the first couple of weeks.

Syed

You're going to ask, how do people do this?

Syed

But five years of consistency, you're going to be like, okay, I know what I'm doing.

Syed

I'm now that guy in the gym.

Syed

Everybody, you know, I'm the guy get stopped by a body by Mark on the street and they asked me what I, you know, how would I.

Syed

What I do to train.

Chris

Great page.

Syed

Great page.

Syed

Very wholesome.

Chris

Yeah, exactly.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

But you know, it's one of those things where you get stopped in the street and people ask you and you go, okay, like, yeah, I'm doing this.

Syed

And now you have what seems to be subject matter expertise because you look like you've been doing this.

Syed

Your finances are the same thing.

Syed

Same thing.

Chris

Same thing.

Syed

We're far enough into the show.

Chris

That's a key takeaway where I can.

Syed

Say something to you that I haven't said yet.

Chris

Oh, God, yeah.

Syed

And I'm gonna.

Syed

I'm gonna have to choose my words carefully.

Syed

I love my wife.

Syed

Love my wife.

Syed

I adore her.

Chris

Sounds like a disclaimer.

Syed

It's a big disclaimer.

Chris

It's a big ass disclaimer.

Syed

She has gone down the rabbit hole.

Syed

Started with gems.

Syed

Gems, crystals and gems.

Chris

Oh, gems.

Syed

The energy and tapping in.

Syed

Whatever.

Chris

Okay.

Syed

I don't judge people's religious beliefs.

Syed

I don't judge people's what they choose to believe in.

Syed

Even my wife, people are close to me.

Syed

Like, you feel better about at the end of the day, you know, Good for you.

Chris

Yeah, I, I respect that.

Chris

That's my philosophy on religion as well.

Chris

If that's what makes you what you feel, makes you the best version of you, go do it.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

Now, me personally, I don't like the idea of you needing somebody to tell you how to be good.

Syed

Like, we inherently should know what's good and bad.

Syed

Unless you're a sociopath.

Chris

Right.

Syed

But that being said, okay, whatever.

Syed

Like if you're, if you're getting through life and this is helping you get there, I'm no one to judge.

Syed

I drink energy drinks.

Syed

That's my vice.

Chris

Don't judge me.

Syed

Maybe yours is rocks.

Syed

You know, like so.

Syed

And then it, then it escalated.

Syed

Then she's like burning incense all the time.

Syed

I'm alright, whatever.

Syed

You know, smells good.

Syed

Smoke around the house from time to time.

Syed

All good.

Syed

Whatever.

Chris

I get that.

Chris

Okay.

Syed

And then I'm taking baths and what seemed to be like potions.

Chris

Okay, hold on.

Syed

You.

Chris

I know.

Chris

And your thought process in this is you're trying to be a supportive husband.

Syed

I want to support, but what is it?

Chris

Was it.

Chris

Where's this?

Chris

Why can't it be her?

Chris

Why does it got to be you?

Syed

Because she's trying to help me.

Syed

She's casting spells.

Chris

What if you're like, I don't need help.

Chris

I'm good.

Chris

I'm.

Chris

I'm Gucci right where I am.

Syed

So she's burning candles now.

Chris

She should be coming home with Gucci belts on.

Syed

It's trying to read the candles.

Syed

Right?

Chris

Read the candles.

Syed

Because she's burning candles.

Chris

What does read the candles mean?

Syed

I don't know.

Syed

Still trying to figure that out.

Chris

Stop.

Syed

When they.

Syed

When they melt.

Syed

You're not this person.

Chris

You're not this person.

Syed

I'm not.

Chris

You're very inquisitive.

Chris

You ask questions.

Syed

No, no.

Syed

But here's the problem, though.

Syed

When you ask too many questions, like, it sounds like almost like you're talking demeaning.

Chris

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Syed

And I'm not.

Syed

I'm not trying to be that guy, like, you know, why are you ugly?

Syed

I'm just trying to say, like, you know, hey, I don't understand this.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

Why are you choosing to live Right?

Syed

So I've been very, very gentle around the whole thing because I'm trying to be respectful.

Chris

Okay, so you're taking bath baths in what?

Chris

I remember you told us the one on the show with the whole.

Syed

The.

Chris

What was it?

Chris

It's the shower or.

Chris

You're getting paste.

Chris

You can paste it.

Syed

I was kidding.

Syed

I was getting pasted like a turkey.

Syed

It was like cinnamon and, like, lemon.

Syed

It was a whole.

Chris

Yeah, it was the whole thing.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

It was warm.

Syed

And I went.

Syed

I wanted to wash it off.

Syed

She told me I couldn't.

Chris

And then you find out you have to do it for two more days.

Syed

And you.

Chris

Oh, the kicker was you couldn't wear black, though.

Syed

I couldn't wear black.

Chris

It's like, that's my.

Chris

That's my entire wardrobe.

Syed

I do.

Syed

I'm like.

Syed

I'm just gonna walk around nude, then.

Syed

Nude and sticky.

Chris

You got this.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

Okay.

Chris

So we got.

Chris

We covered that.

Chris

This is different.

Chris

And now you're bathing.

Syed

So now she made a bath that had, like, berries.

Syed

I feel like it was coming to America.

Syed

I thought there was going to be, like, you know, the washing.

Syed

No.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

It was just the royal look.

Syed

It was peaceful.

Syed

It was calm, whatever.

Syed

Like, you know, again.

Syed

So now there's, like a.

Syed

There's a litany of things going on.

Syed

There's tarot cards in.

Syed

In the house.

Chris

I'll be honest.

Chris

I'm.

Chris

I'm seeing a lot of growth in you.

Chris

I'm very proud of you.

Chris

You.

Chris

I did not know you were okay.

Chris

Honestly, if somebody asked me if you were capable of this, I would say absolutely not.

Chris

I know under zero circumstances, I am.

Syed

Trying so hard to bite my tongue.

Syed

But today, something changed today.

Syed

Today.

Chris

Today is the day.

Syed

Approximately three hours ago, I.

Syed

I hit, like a inflection point.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

And I didn't go off.

Syed

Like, the old me would have been like, what in the actual fuck is going?

Syed

Like, you know, enough said.

Syed

No.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

I'm like, what?

Syed

No.

Syed

I'm putting my.

Syed

No.

Chris

Okay, Right.

Syed

I walked in, and when you walk in the front door, there's a shoe rack.

Syed

Right.

Syed

And a little table.

Syed

It's got Buddha on it.

Chris

Right.

Syed

By the way, not a witch.

Syed

Right.

Chris

Okay.

Syed

Right.

Syed

So, you know, we got an evil eye.

Chris

Gotta.

Chris

Gotta have that.

Syed

You know, I'm brown.

Chris

Yeah, I got it.

Chris

I got it too.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

And I put my shoes away, put my backpack down, and I'm like, yo, is it Halloween?

Chris

What do you mean?

Syed

The fuck.

Syed

I'm looking around and I'm like, why is there a broom, like a stick, like a witch's broom by the front door?

Chris

Like some Harry Potter.

Syed

Yeah, yeah, man.

Syed

Like some Harry Potter style shit with, like, some, like, flowers on it and shit.

Syed

And I'm like.

Chris

What is it?

Chris

So what?

Syed

Hold on.

Chris

You add.

Chris

You asked.

Syed

So I'm like, hey, honey, this looks like a.

Syed

Like a witch's broom by the front door.

Chris

Okay?

Syed

And she's like, yeah, yeah.

Syed

It's just decorative.

Syed

And I'm like, is it though?

Chris

Decorative?

Syed

So I had to go upstairs and have a secret, like, a conversation with her.

Syed

I'm like, honey, like, I don't want to be insensitive.

Chris

Yeah, yeah.

Syed

But you know you can't fly, right?

Chris

We're establishing.

Syed

She said, what do you mean?

Syed

I'm just saying, like, I don't want you to get on this and jump off the balcony.

Syed

Yeah, yeah.

Syed

Like, I just want to make sure we're cool.

Chris

Okay.

Chris

Okay.

Syed

No, it's just decorative.

Syed

And I'm like, but you have cauldrons.

Syed

Little cauldrons in, like, you know, I'm worried.

Chris

So is that the only new piece at the house?

Syed

Bro, that's a pretty significant piece.

Chris

But hold on.

Chris

She's saying it's decorative if you got to take her for her word.

Chris

I mean, she's been.

Chris

She's been straightforward with you about everything else.

Syed

At what point do I come home and say, like, there's a problem when she's wearing the witch's hat?

Chris

No, she's not doing the whole witch's hat thing.

Syed

I mean, what point?

Syed

Where do I go?

Chris

This isn't as.

Chris

This isn't as bad as the.

Chris

As the baths, bro.

Chris

Or the Pasting.

Chris

This is not.

Chris

This is not.

Syed

This came after that.

Syed

This is.

Syed

This is more.

Chris

No.

Chris

What?

Chris

That's just one little broom, bro.

Chris

It's not a big deal.

Syed

How do I explain that?

Syed

People come in the house.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

What is not Halloween, bro.

Chris

In Carter things, all this is just normal.

Syed

I do.

Syed

And that's what I'm worried about.

Syed

How's he gonna go to school, tell people?

Syed

Does your mom cast spells?

Syed

No.

Syed

Oh, yeah.

Syed

It's.

Syed

Look, and I know.

Syed

I know.

Syed

I know she means well.

Syed

I know it's something that she feels deeply connected to, and I'm trying to be respectful, but, man, I.

Syed

I just.

Syed

So we don't understand.

Chris

So back to that point about Carter going to school and what conversations he might have.

Chris

So some of the.

Chris

Some of the fibs we have told the kids are.

Chris

I'm worried that they're going to start catching up to us soon.

Syed

They will.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

Really quickly.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

So our kids are.

Chris

They're very.

Chris

They like to be very clean.

Chris

Okay.

Chris

When.

Chris

Especially when it comes around the bathroom time, right?

Chris

They go number two.

Chris

They like.

Chris

They need to be washed.

Chris

Okay.

Chris

We've taught them how to use the bidet at home and do all that.

Chris

They just feel the need for them.

Chris

They just need to be clean for.

Syed

Anybody listens to the show and they're like, you know, Chris has always talked about Saeed's house being big and having a.

Syed

Like, a name and in being like, an estate, obviously.

Syed

I don't have a bidet, bro.

Chris

You house.

Chris

I got it from Amazon, bro.

Chris

I installed it myself.

Chris

What do you mean?

Syed

I don't care.

Chris

It attaches to your.

Syed

Amazon also sells houses.

Syed

What you want me to say?

Syed

Amazon.

Syed

Amazon supplies everything.

Chris

We buy the house from Jeff.

Syed

You don't think the Saudis don't buy.

Chris

Stuff from Amazon, by the way, y'all Rich buy Mark Zuckerberg in the doghouse for show.

Syed

Why?

Syed

Because he looked Lauren Sanchez.

Chris

Yeah, like that, bro.

Syed

That's not his fault.

Chris

That's.

Syed

Don't put that on him.

Chris

No, but that was like a glare, bro.

Syed

She's wearing lingerie to the inauguration.

Syed

He's probably thinking to himself, like, God damn it, I got to sit next to you.

Syed

I'm being photos with you wearing a lace bra.

Chris

That's a.

Chris

That's like a bit like.

Chris

Come on, Jeff.

Syed

Jeff, talk to your girl.

Chris

That's a.

Chris

That's a bit much, bro.

Syed

I mean, can we, like.

Chris

If I'm Mark.

Chris

If I'm Mark, I'm looking at Jeff like, yo, man, get it together.

Syed

Here's what we don't know.

Syed

You don't.

Syed

I mean, keep in mind, this guy just came out and said tossing.

Chris

And why isn't Jeff sitting next to Mark, who's on the other side of that?

Syed

Why is Jeff behind her?

Syed

Wasn't he behind her?

Chris

No, no, he was next to her.

Chris

But like, why aren't you sitting next to Mark?

Chris

Why are you sitting on the other side?

Chris

Right.

Chris

That's a little weird, right?

Syed

For all we know, Mark looked at her, looked at her bra and looked at Jeff and be like, yo, man, what's this?

Syed

What you doing?

Chris

Yeah, come on.

Syed

Can't afford a shirt.

Chris

Yeah, exactly.

Chris

Damn, man.

Chris

Get that on prime right now.

Syed

The Internet got him on.

Chris

Yeah, he got.

Chris

He's got a girl, right?

Syed

Mark Zuckerberg.

Syed

Yeah, he's married with kids, man.

Chris

Married with kids.

Chris

Oh, wow.

Chris

I didn't know.

Chris

Yeah, that's how.

Chris

He's.

Syed

Asian wife.

Syed

Very smart lady.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

Very intelligent.

Chris

Geez.

Chris

Yeah, I forgot where.

Syed

Oh, so you imagine being her and like, you've seen the memes on the Internet now.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

So the.

Chris

The lies that are catching up to us is like.

Chris

Well, we've told them why we always wanted to be clean about it all is like, if you go number two, you have to.

Chris

We have to wash this.

Chris

You have to let me know when you do go number two so I can wash you.

Chris

This is at a very early age, Right.

Chris

And the questions of why, of course always happens, because if you don't, you're gonna get worms, bro.

Syed

Why would you do that?

Chris

I.

Syed

That's so scary.

Chris

It's so, so, so why would you do that?

Chris

I know, I know.

Chris

It's really.

Chris

I.

Chris

Now, in hindsight.

Chris

Worms.

Syed

Fucking third world country.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

If you don't, your bubble is going to get worms in it.

Chris

Right?

Chris

So they're like.

Chris

So now we don't know how to backtrack and be like, oh, mommy, daddy lied about yo.

Syed

That's wrong.

Chris

Right?

Syed

That you're a terrible human being.

Chris

So.

Chris

So, so they.

Chris

So they come home the other day from school and threaten your kid with parasites.

Chris

So first of all, the first thing.

Chris

The first thing they do when they come home is always like, take your shoes off, go wash your hands and face, and then come back down so you can eat something.

Chris

Right.

Chris

It could come and take sticks that they both take their shoes off, wash their hands and face.

Chris

And then Adam stays upstairs and he's like.

Chris

And I'm like, adam, what's going on?

Chris

Come downstairs.

Chris

Like, I have to wash myself.

Chris

I don't want to get worms.

Chris

And I.

Chris

In that moment, I realized, damn, I up.

Syed

Oh, why?

Syed

Why are you going extreme?

Syed

Why can't you say your butt will be itchy?

Chris

I know.

Chris

Say worms, but, bro, they don't know.

Chris

But being itchy.

Chris

At three, my kid.

Chris

Bro.

Chris

Both my kids potty trained.

Syed

At two.

Syed

Okay.

Chris

At two.

Syed

First of all, my son, who's five.

Chris

Yes.

Syed

Will close the door on me and be like, dad, I want privacy.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

And close the door on my face.

Syed

And he's in there, like, playing around.

Syed

I hear you.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

You're not.

Syed

What you doing?

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

You're not.

Syed

He's like, I'm going to the bathroom.

Syed

I'm like, it doesn't sound like it.

Chris

I know.

Chris

I have.

Chris

I know I've caught my kids taking, like, books and toys, and I'm like, what are you doing?

Chris

This is not the area.

Chris

This is gross.

Chris

Stop.

Chris

Leave this shit up.

Chris

Go in there, take care of business, come back out and do whatever.

Chris

So you want to do, like, as if you don't get enough time to play with this.

Syed

You know, when I was.

Syed

When I was younger, a younger man.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

And I was single, I could not go to the bathroom with somebody hearing me.

Syed

I turned the water on.

Chris

I'm very.

Chris

You know, I come to you.

Chris

I'm still very much like that.

Chris

I don't know why.

Chris

It's like, I don't view it as, like.

Chris

I don't want to gross other people out.

Chris

That's the thing.

Syed

Here's what you need to do.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

You need to marry a Filipino.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

My wife, from the very early onset.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

My wife moved in on the second date.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

Early on, she.

Syed

She did not.

Syed

She has no boundaries.

Syed

Like, she.

Syed

She doesn't care.

Syed

She wants come in and talk to you.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

Like, she.

Syed

I went from, like, not being able to be any.

Syed

Like, I would go, literally go downstairs, go to the bathroom with the water running and then go back upstairs where she was.

Syed

I didn't want her to hear or smell.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

Now I'm, like, talking to her.

Syed

I'm sitting there like, yo, what's up?

Syed

Sorry.

Syed

What's up?

Syed

Yeah, it's.

Syed

It's just so.

Syed

I'm weird.

Chris

I'm.

Chris

I'm.

Chris

I'm still very much the guy where.

Chris

If I come over to your house, I'm invited over to your house for the first time.

Chris

I haven't been there before.

Chris

The first thing I'm doing is scoping out where the bathroom is in comparison to where.

Chris

Where everyone's going to be sitting on.

Syed

My House, the worst.

Chris

I'm like.

Chris

I'm like, oh, I can't come back here ever again.

Chris

This is unacceptable.

Syed

My house.

Syed

The worst.

Syed

You're in.

Syed

Everybody going to hear you.

Chris

Yeah, everybody.

Syed

You can't.

Syed

You can't get away from it.

Syed

It's the worst bathroom place in between the living room and the kitchen.

Chris

Yeah, right there.

Syed

It's the worst.

Syed

There is not a place that you will not be heard.

Chris

Yeah, you don't care.

Chris

You make people feel uncomfortable.

Chris

If you hear somebody in the bathroom, you're calling them out while they're still in the bathroom.

Syed

I'm outside.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

Hey, man, I hear you in there.

Chris

You didn't sit down, bro.

Chris

Flush nothing, but nothing bothers me more than people coming over and not sitting down.

Syed

What do you mean?

Chris

The fact that you don't know that tells me exactly where you are.

Syed

What do you mean not sitting down?

Chris

When you go number one in my house, bro, you ass better be sitting down.

Chris

Don't be standing up there.

Chris

This is not a public restroom.

Syed

I'm a dude.

Chris

What do you mean you're a dude?

Chris

Sit your ass down.

Chris

What are you talking about?

Chris

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris

That's gross, bro.

Chris

The splatter everywhere.

Chris

Who's supposed to.

Chris

I'm supposed to clean it.

Chris

I'm supposed to clean your piss on the floor.

Syed

Okay, first of all, I don't have splatter everywhere.

Syed

By the time I'm actually going to the bathroom, it's probably like an inch and a half away from the water.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

So it's just going.

Chris

Oh, okay, okay.

Syed

It's not.

Syed

There's no splatter.

Chris

I see what you're doing here.

Syed

Yeah, It's.

Syed

It's just.

Syed

You drop the anchor down.

Syed

Do your thing.

Syed

Pull the anchor back up.

Syed

It's not like.

Syed

I don't.

Syed

I don't.

Syed

I mean, look, I hear what you're saying, but you're also the kind of guy who, like, triple layers up if you go to the bathroom in public.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

On the wax paper ass gasket and think you're safe.

Syed

It's not.

Syed

It's not doing you any favors, bro.

Chris

Honestly, we could sell that.

Chris

We could sell that online.

Chris

Our own higher standard ass gaskets.

Chris

People buy.

Chris

So we have.

Chris

So we have a.

Chris

A picture in our bathroom.

Chris

Right.

Chris

For those.

Chris

For the guests.

Chris

No, no, no.

Chris

So if you were to sit down and you look at it, there's a picture there.

Chris

So if people who have never come to our house use our restroom and they don't come out asking like oh, that's a really.

Chris

Or they don't say, that was a really cool thing that you have on your wall, because there's no way you wouldn't mention it.

Chris

When they come back out, I'll be like, oh, I know you didn't sit down because you didn't.

Chris

You didn't bring up the picture.

Chris

Otherwise you would have said something.

Chris

And then I got to go in and check to see, because if other guests come in and it's all dirty, I gotta clean it because I don't want there to be.

Chris

You know what I mean?

Chris

It's the whole thing.

Syed

So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna dehydrate.

Syed

I'm gonna take, like a vitamin, multivitamin, so that really, really bright yellow pee, and I'm gonna go to your house, I leave it in, and I'm gonna pee on everything just to mess with you.

Syed

Yeah, the neon pee.

Syed

Pee everywhere.

Syed

How did we get here?

Chris

I know, I know.

Chris

That's probably my fault.

Syed

So it's definitely.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

Somewhere.

Syed

Worms.

Syed

What a worse move.

Chris

I know.

Chris

I feel bad.

Chris

I'm gonna have to admit.

Syed

Should feel bad.

Chris

The problem is, if I admit this lie, it's like.

Syed

Then it's like gummy worms are real worms, too.

Chris

Now they're questioning everything.

Chris

If I admit.

Syed

If I admit to this, you're a terrible human being.

Chris

Right.

Chris

Oh, by the way, that's a minute, hour and 20.

Chris

Whatever.

Chris

We got time, people.

Chris

Probably checked out already.

Chris

If you haven't.

Chris

Thank you so much.

Syed

Make.

Chris

If you're watching this on YouTube, it's.

Syed

Too late to do this.

Chris

I know, but if you have.

Chris

I know.

Chris

They already have.

Chris

Right?

Syed

You would imagine.

Syed

If you haven't subscribed by now.

Chris

Who are you?

Chris

Why are you here?

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

Oh, God.

Chris

We got to read the review too.

Syed

Okay.

Syed

Do you have something else you want to talk about?

Chris

I did want to say something.

Chris

I lost my train of thought.

Chris

Hold on.

Chris

I got to read this review because we always promise that we do.

Syed

Jesus.

Chris

We got another five star honest review.

Syed

We did.

Syed

It was good one.

Chris

This from Corey V1.

Chris

Remember this review is from Corey V1.

Chris

Not anyone from the higher standard.

Chris

Right.

Syed

Allegedly.

Syed

We don't know that to be true.

Syed

All I know is that it showed up and I'm grateful for it.

Chris

Hottest show around.

Chris

5 stars, hot.

Chris

Clearly honest.

Syed

Yeah.

Chris

You can tell this show was created in Cali because this show is fire.

Syed

A little too soon.

Syed

Appreciate the sentiment.

Chris

A little insensitive.

Chris

I get where it's coming from.

Chris

I respect.

Syed

I do slightly Too soon.

Chris

Slightly too soon.

Chris

I respect it.

Chris

I respect the effort.

Syed

Yeah.

Syed

Maybe after it rains here a little bit.

Chris

Yeah, let's get out of the drought, right?

Chris

Honestly, this show is always my go to weekly podcast.

Chris

Ever since Chris's guest appearance on Mind Pump.

Chris

Mind Pump.

Chris

Mind Pump.

Syed

Yeah, I'm out here doing my thing.

Chris

Yeah, I've been listening to it religiously.

Chris

I even from time to time will watch them on YouTube to see number one dad.

Chris

Clearly not me and bodybuilder Chris.

Syed

Although, I don't know, you can be the number one dad when you're lying to your kids, telling them to get parasites.

Chris

I feel like you're lying to your kids about Santa and what is it?

Chris

Let's see here.

Chris

See Bodybuilder Chris in their full peptide pumping glory.

Chris

There you go.

Chris

Show just got flagged.

Chris

I miss my baby girl maker.

Chris

Odun, in the famous words of Papa Pal.

Chris

Thank you.

Chris

Just close the effing door.

Syed

There you go.

Chris

I respect it, Corey.

Chris

Thank you, my man.

Syed

Solid review.

Syed

Thank you, Corey.

Syed

I appreciate you.

Chris

You can leave us an honest 5 star review on Apple Podcasts if you listen to us there.

Chris

Or you can just leave us a good five star review over on Spotify.

Syed

I tried to talk around and come back and he left me on Red, but he's busy.

Syed

Yeah, he still left me on Red.

Syed

That's a fact.

Syed

That happened.

Syed

He was saying it's busy though.

Chris

No, he responded eventually.

Syed

No, he didn't.

Chris

Yeah, he did.

Syed

No, look at the last message I sent in the group thread, which, by the way, you don't read either.

Syed

You left me on Reddit.

Syed

You never responded.

Chris

You're in, you're in.

Chris

I got you right here.

Syed

Just to be clear, I sent a message to the group with you included, and you never responded to any of the messages.

Syed

Oh, why would I send a message to the group?

Syed

Hold on, let me respond for you not to respond.

Chris

Let me respond on the show.

Syed

Okay, thank you so much for.

Syed

For doing that.

Syed

It's approximately 10:56 at night.

Chris

There you go.

Chris

You know what I'm hitting them with too.

Syed

Four days later three days later Today was it?

Chris

No, it was yesterday, bro.

Chris

Relax.

Chris

Why are you so.

Chris

Don't be.

Chris

Why are you so sensitive?

Chris

Because I've got parasites and the toes are out.

Chris

All right, you got anything else for the show?

Syed

No, I apologize that today wasn't this robust source of information.

Syed

But you know what?

Chris

That's.

Chris

No.

Syed

Sometimes we need a mental break.

Chris

No, not just that.

Chris

I thought today's shows, I mean, it's informative.

Chris

It's.

Syed

You've never walked away from a single show going, that's your socks act.

Chris

I have.

Syed

No, you haven't.

Chris

I'll tell you after the show on the ones that I thought.

Syed

Okay, fine.

Chris

Yeah.

Chris

It's going to be off the record.

Syed

Okay.

Chris

Yeah.

Syed

Well, all right.

Chris

Got any?

Syed

No.

Chris

Good night, everybody.

Syed

Okay, bye.