Rocking a lot of military green.
SyedI noticed the.
SyedMy continued wearing of green lately myself, so my wife's favorite color is green.
ChrisOkay.
SyedAnd I thought that maybe, just maybe if I covered myself in green, she would like me a little more.
ChrisJust a little bit more.
ChrisGet you some brownie points.
SyedIt has been very unsuccessful as of late, but I'm gonna keep at it until such time as.
SyedAs, well, something changes.
ChrisGood man.
ChrisWell, welcome back to the number one financial literacy podcast in the world.
SyedThat's who we are.
ChrisThat is what we do.
SyedThat's what we do.
ChrisSitting next to me on my left, my partner in crime, Chris Nahibi.
SyedAnd sitting next to me is my partner in time, the one, the only, Syed Omar.
ChrisThank you, my man.
SyedYou know, when people ask me if we're related, I think it's like an underlying racism thing.
SyedThey both got beards.
SyedThey both look kind of sweetheart, which.
ChrisIs acceptable if they listen to the show.
ChrisBut if you don't listen to the show, you can't.
ChrisYeah.
SyedIf you just seen it once and you're like, oh, those guys are related.
SyedYeah, that's.
SyedThat's.
SyedThat's.
SyedThat's a little Right.
ChrisI had a listener send me.
ChrisSend me a reel that they had seen.
ChrisThey're like, every time you talk about coaching your son's basketball team, this is what I think of.
ChrisAnd it's some, like, overweight guy teaching a rec team.
ChrisI was like, you know, it's acceptable because I know you listen to the show, so I'll allow it.
ChrisI welcome it.
SyedWhat are you gonna do?
SyedYou stop it.
ChrisBlock.
SyedYeah.
SyedI've gotten way more.
SyedSocial media has taught me anything.
SyedIt's taught me how to quickly not care and block somebody.
SyedWhen I first got on social media for, man, I wanna say, like, six or seven years ago, like, to really do this.
SyedIt was such a stigmatized thing back then.
SyedBut I knew, like, the social media policy where we worked, and I was trying to be thoughtful about how.
SyedHow I responded to people.
SyedEven today, I don't respond like, you know, hey, man, you can get after.
SyedLike, I don't do any of that stuff.
ChrisBut.
ChrisYeah.
SyedBut I respond collegially, right?
SyedBut it used to get under my skin.
SyedNow it's just happened so much that I'm like, okay, this guy's trolling me.
SyedBlock.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisEasy.
ChrisYeah, Easy solution.
SyedDon't even think twice about it.
SyedJust block.
SyedI wish I could do it in real life.
ChrisImagine.
SyedYeah.
ChrisBlock.
SyedYeah.
SyedLike, I want you to be able to, like, think you're Messaging me still.
SyedAnd I just want you to know that I can't see it.
SyedLike, I would love for it to say you were blocked.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisEvery time you.
SyedEvery time you were blocked, you were blocked.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisI 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.
SyedAnd you're in the wrong show for that, brother.
ChrisI know.
ChrisAnd then my friends.
ChrisMy friends at the time were like, dude, you can't joke with.
ChrisSay he takes it way too seriously.
ChrisAnd then at some point in my adulthood, like, I transitioned over and, like, leaned into it, and life has been so much more enjoyable.
SyedI feel like you really haven't, though.
SyedYou get it gets under your skin, like, there.
ChrisNo, because, you know, if you don't.
SyedKnow that off camera, you come back.
ChrisBut if you don't lean into it, it just.
ChrisIf you have real friends, they make it worse.
SyedYeah, they make it worse.
ChrisYeah.
SyedSpeaking of real friends, you know who's not behind the Ones and Twos?
ChrisDJ Odoon.
SyedYeah.
SyedHe does not exist.
SyedHe's a figment of your imagination, Right?
SyedHe is essentially Brad Pitt and Fight Club, right?
SyedYeah.
SyedOr he may or may not be real.
ChrisOr Bruce Willis.
SyedOr Bruce Willis.
SyedAnd sixth cents.
ChrisYes.
SyedYes.
ChrisGood job.
SyedSix cents.
SyedGet paid 100 million for the movie, didn't he?
SyedNo, I think he did.
ChrisReally?
SyedYeah.
SyedI think.
SyedI think I paid like a hundred million.
ChrisThat was the first movie that it was on in the background.
ChrisI can't remember where I saw it at somebody's house and I passed by it and I had seen it after having kid.
ChrisIt was.
ChrisIt was after I had kids.
ChrisI 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.
ChrisThat's true, though.
ChrisLike, movies hit different now.
ChrisGo back and watch some old movies.
SyedNo, that's true.
SyedI'd love to make fun of you a little bit here, but.
SyedNo, it's.
SyedIt's 100 true.
SyedLike, being a parent, it's weird how you automatically think about your child in those movies in those contexts right away.
SyedAnd it's just a very.
SyedLike when I watch Die Hard now, I think with the kids, I'm like, oh, they're divorced.
SyedOh, the kids don't see dad.
ChrisGo back and watch John Q I.
SyedNever actually saw the whole thing.
ChrisOh, okay.
ChrisWell, I mean, you get the concept.
ChrisYou can only imagine how it hits different now.
SyedThere's a lot of movies like that that.
SyedThat were really popular that I just chose not to.
SyedNot to.
SyedI just, like, you know, I was like, no, no, I don't need your emotional, just overwhelming story.
SyedRight.
SyedOkay.
SyedI can roll through my night watching some comedy, and then comedy died.
ChrisSo it's not the same anymore.
ChrisI don't know.
ChrisYou know, that they want to take it to another level and just society won't let them take.
SyedDave Chappelle clearly don't have a problem with that.
SyedYou see that special snl, his monologue?
SyedDude, that was arguably the best monologue on SNL ever.
ChrisI mean, he's spectacular.
SyedAnd he went after your boy.
SyedDid he?
ChrisRightfully so.
ChrisI thought it would.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisThe bit.
ChrisIt's like, it was.
ChrisThat was a messed up way for him to find out he was ugly.
SyedYeah, he was like.
SyedHe's like.
SyedCan you imagine if everybody in Hollywood's having an orgy and you were not invited.
ChrisAll your friends were invited.
ChrisAll your friends were invited to an orgy and you didn't get an invite.
SyedThat's a terrible way to find out.
SyedYou ugly.
ChrisYeah, exactly.
ChrisWell, listen, we do have a financial literacy podcast for everybody today.
SyedOh, I didn't realize we were doing that today.
ChrisYeah, we're doing that today right now, actually.
SyedI thought today was the non financial literacy.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
ChrisPeople 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.
ChrisBut before we do that.
SyedYeah.
ChrisWe did have a segment that we want to touch on.
ChrisOftentimes 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?
SyedDid you just, like, straight pimp slap my.
SyedMy.
SyedMy notes?
ChrisNo, no, I'm.
ChrisI'm.
ChrisThis is the segue, bro.
ChrisThis is the alley to your oop.
SyedI don't feel like it is.
SyedI feel like.
SyedI feel like you just owned that.
ChrisYou see it coming.
SyedJesus.
ChrisRight, so if your pay goes up and inflation is down, then, you know, you're.
ChrisYou should technically have more buying power and.
ChrisAnd the reverse.
ChrisIf your pay doesn't keep up with inflation, then you don't have as much buying power.
SyedBut that isn't quite how it works.
SyedIt's how you want to believe it works because some of the numbers that are presented to You.
SyedWell, they're skewed.
SyedThey're not skewed maliciously, but they're skewed in a way that doesn't give you the holistic picture.
SyedSo what you're seeing in the show notes is actually a bit of me going down the rabbit hole.
SyedAnd so I should point out I just choked a little bit on my energy drink.
SyedSorry, I'm not getting emotional.
SyedYou're getting emotional.
SyedThis is a great time of year for year end data for the previous year.
SyedRight.
SyedHold on a second.
ChrisWhat's your allergies, bro?
ChrisWhat's going on?
ChrisYou do need an air filtration system.
ChrisIs that what's going on?
SyedNo, I took a big drink of the C4 here and it went on the wrong hole.
SyedHappens a lot to me.
SyedCome on, try to restrain, restrain yourself.
SyedRestrain yourself.
SyedYeah, yeah, wrong hole.
SyedSo this is a great time of year for data that comes out recapping 2024.
SyedRight.
SyedSo one of the things I saw was year over year home prices and their increase.
SyedI 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.
SyedIt's just everybody's buying power went up.
SyedSo homes went up, no big deal.
SyedBut 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.
ChrisYeah, absolutely.
ChrisAnd 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.
SyedYeah.
ChrisYou know, and then the compounding effect of it all.
SyedCompound with us, baby.
ChrisYeah, compound with us.
SyedMerch available in the merch store thspod.com Go check it out.
SyedIt is some Gucci stuff, as the kids say.
ChrisHannah hooked up to.
SyedHannah did hook it up.
SyedAll right, so in 2024, the average salary in the United States reached $62,027, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
SyedThis represents a 4.5% increase from the previous year, showcasing a steady wage growth across various sectors.
SyedOkay, so you hear 4.5% wage inflation, you got up to average wages are 62,000, which frankly is still stunning.
SyedBut I mean, that's the average.
SyedThat's the, that's the numbers.
SyedRight.
SyedSo you think, okay, well, what happened to home prices?
ChrisRight.
SyedThis was higher than the inflation rate, which was about 2.7 to 2.9%.
SyedSo Americans are making slightly more money even accounting for inflation.
SyedExcept 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.
SyedExactly.
SyedThese things have gone up significantly higher than the average inflation number.
SyedBut 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.
SyedGranted, most Americans, on average, only 4.5% up in their wages.
SyedBut we'll break it down a little bit more.
SyedAccording 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.
SyedAnd that's immediately the number that popped out of me.
SyedSo wages went up 4.5% approximately, and home prices went up 5.4%.
SyedNot a huge delta right.
SyedNow, the average home price year over year going back to 1970 till now went up about 4.2% a year.
SyedThat's average.
SyedSo this was still better than an average year historically.
ChrisOkay.
SyedThat accounts for all years, including recessionary economies and whatnot.
SyedThis is the second smallest increase since 2013 in home prices.
SyedSo home prices since 2013 have started to increase at a much faster cadence than the historical average of 4.2%.
SyedSo much so that even this, at 5.4% being higher than 4.2% is still the second smallest increase since 2013.
ChrisWow.
SyedThat's pretty crazy when you think about it.
SyedIt's 12 years later.
SyedOkay, but that's what 14 years of artificial interest rate deflation does, right?
SyedIt just kind of is an inflationary trend.
SyedRight.
SyedWell, according to the recent data from the Federal Reserve bank of St.
SyedLouis, the average home price in the United States in 2024 is about 420,000 4.
Syed$400.
SyedRight, we've covered that.
SyedAnd it's.
SyedIt's volatility a little bit quarter over quarter on the show.
SyedNow let's take all this down, we'll summarize it, and we'll break it down a little bit.
SyedOkay, we'll get in there.
ChrisOkay.
ChrisDeep, deep, because I got numbers on this, too.
SyedOh, you did some homework tonight?
ChrisI did do some homework tonight.
SyedThat's so Weird.
ChrisSo 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?
ChrisLet's just call it 5%.
ChrisRight?
SyedYeah.
ChrisOver the last five years, it's gone up 44%, which is.
SyedIn two of those years, it went up like 45%.
ChrisYes.
ChrisSo think about that.
SyedYeah.
ChrisFive years ago, the median price of a home was just shy of $300,000.
ChrisNow we're well above $420,000.
ChrisRight?
SyedYeah.
ChrisSo 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.
SyedSo this really scares me.
SyedAnd I'm going to.
SyedI'll get back to this in a minute.
SyedLet me, let me take a little bit of a detour.
SyedOkay.
SyedLet's step off the road and take a nice little view of the veranda.
ChrisYeah.
SyedOkay.
SyedI have looked at data on the show with you for years now.
ChrisWe could say that.
SyedWe can say that.
ChrisYears.
SyedWe are tenured, seasoned.
ChrisWe are tenured.
SyedYeah.
ChrisAm I tenured here?
ChrisAm I good?
ChrisAm I ever.
SyedI mean, I can't fire you.
SyedI've tried it.
SyedYeah.
SyedI mean, who's gonna turn the lights on?
ChrisRight?
ChrisTurn the cameras on.
SyedYeah.
SyedSo 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.
SyedNow, 266, this particular episode.
SyedWe got to do something special for the 300.
ChrisHave to.
SyedYeah.
SyedAnd 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.
ChrisLike what?
SyedI'm glad you asked.
SyedSo at some point in American history, we decided that we were smarter than the rest of the world.
SyedOkay.
SyedAnd 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.
SyedWe were gonna take these menial, low paying jobs and we were gonna offshore them to China, let them take care of it.
SyedAnd we almost wrote China off as like, oh, let them handle it.
SyedThey're low cost wages.
SyedIt's a third world country, you know, whatever.
SyedLike, we have this arrogance about us as Americans.
SyedWell, they gladly took manufacturing from us.
SyedAnd 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.
SyedInstead, what happened didn't happen.
SyedThe American dream didn't happen.
SyedAnd then you compound this with some of the tax implications that we've put in place.
SyedAnd there's a popular comedian who did like a real short skit on this.
SyedBut I actually, I don't think I've talked about this in the show.
SyedI'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.
SyedI shouldn't say this corporate America is fine, there's nothing wrong with it.
SyedBut 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.
SyedInherent truths are not necessarily inherent truths.
SyedThey are truths that were manufactured.
ChrisYeah, we've talked about it on the show before.
SyedWe have.
SyedAnd 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.
SyedAnd 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.
ChrisRight, who were going to employ all.
SyedThese people, the Vanderbilts, the Rothschilds.
SyedAnd we said to them, what do you need from your employees?
SyedWhat do you need from American workers that work largely for you and your companies?
SyedNow, you don't think that their intention was to get us all wealthy and rich.
SyedThey wanted us to be good employees who were dedicated, who spent years there because they didn't have to retrain somebody, rehire somebody.
SyedThey didn't want a lot of people coming and going and leaving the company.
SyedThey don't want those turnover.
SyedThey wanted somebody who's disciplined.
SyedThe bell rings, you raise your hand, ask questions.
SyedSo 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.
SyedAnd for a long time that was true.
SyedIf 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.
SyedYou 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.
ChrisThat's when the American dream was being sold.
SyedThat's how it was being sold.
SyedAnd it was these neighborhoods where they were all cookie cutter and very similar.
SyedLook at photos of old school America and despite the race and ethnicity challenges there, look at the homes.
SyedThey were all the same.
SyedCars were all the same.
SyedEverybody had effectively the same jobs.
SyedI mean, the same, you know, aesthetic to the jobs.
SyedYou know, one person got a color tv.
SyedOh my God, color tv.
SyedOh, 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.
SyedAnd you really didn't see the lower class that often.
SyedYou just saw your neighborhood.
SyedAnd 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.
SyedWe're not a caste based system.
SyedWe're not like India where it's effectively, at the time where it was effectively like your royalty or your poor.
SyedAnd there's lots of countries around the world just like that.
SyedBut we thought we were superior.
SyedAnd over time we thought we could control other countries of the US Dollar.
SyedWell, that didn't really materialize us.
SyedStudents didn't get more and more complex and sophisticated jobs.
SyedManual physical labor jobs, trade jobs are still very.
SyedActually they're probably more in demand now than ever before, you know, and Americans weren't superior.
SyedAnd now we're trying to get manufacturing back here because we sent it offshore.
SyedThe dollar is not as strong as it once was relative to some other currencies.
SyedAnd some of these other countries have done a very good job of keeping up and they're not being controlled by us anymore.
ChrisRight.
SyedNor do they fear it.
SyedSo 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.
SyedThat failed.
SyedAnd 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.
SyedCapital gains taxes, a lot of the real estate laws.
SyedAnd look, I'm all for capitalism, like I'm all for everybody getting wealthy.
SyedBut let me ask a fundamental inherent question, and I mean this sincerely.
SyedIt's going to sound facetious.
SyedI'll use myself as an example.
SyedI am taxed just under 50%, right.
ChrisIn large part due to the state.
ChrisRight.
SyedI mean California federal tax, state tax for things like bonuses.
Syed58%.
ChrisForget it.
SyedYeah, right.
SyedI'm taxed and I'm not going to give the tax code and the nonsense.
SyedAnd I'm grateful for all the money that I make and the things that I have, the opportunities I have.
SyedI'm grateful for that.
SyedBut how is a system that tax.
SyedTaxes you between 50 to 58%.
SyedHow does that enable you to become wealthy?
SyedIt doesn't.
SyedIt's a prohibition about for you to get wealthy.
SyedIt's an impediment.
ChrisIt's a way to keep you right where you are.
SyedRight.
SyedBecause you're not meant to rise out of the system, yet you go work for yourself.
SyedAnd the tax laws completely change.
SyedWhy?
SyedNot 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.
SyedSo they said, if you want a company, this is what you do.
SyedBut.
ChrisAnd the worst part about it is these loopholes or these tricks or just learning the tax code.
ChrisThe law.
SyedYeah.
ChrisIs.
ChrisIs not taught well.
SyedIt's not supposed to be.
SyedSo, like, the uber wealthy have tax attorneys, CPAs, they have attorneys on staff.
SyedThey have sophisticated financial people.
SyedSome of them have CFOs that run their lives.
SyedSome of them have family offices with people who specialize in.
SyedIn managing their assets over time and building wealth.
ChrisRight.
SyedAnd 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.
ChrisRight.
ChrisWe, I mean, we had this conversation earlier today how our good friends over at bank of America, I.
ChrisE.
ChrisG.
ChrisRyan Moynihan, came out and recently said that, you know, the Fed isn't in control the way that we once thought they were.
ChrisPrivate equity is in control.
SyedAnd as much as I've disagreed historically with a lot of things that Brian Moynihan has said, I cannot tell you that.
SyedHow much?
SyedWell, so I should probably take a step back here.
SyedI often assume that people who listen to the show understand what I do for a living.
SyedOkay, that's probably because I don't even understand what I do for a living some days.
SyedBut needless to say, I've dealt with the secondary markets, I've dealt with private equity.
SyedI've dealt with a lot of the major players in finance and in capital.
SyedYou name a big player in the game, I've probably talked to them in the last six months.
SyedAnd that's not me being braggadocious.
SyedIt's just me saying I know all the key players in the space.
SyedWe all know each other.
SyedIt'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.
SyedSo 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.
SyedAnd that capital is changing the way we think about the economy.
SyedWe should be in a recession.
SyedThat's just the truth.
SyedBut we're not.
SyedAt least not declared and certainly not from a traditional metrics tracking standpoint.
ChrisAnd some of that has to be because of the amount of money that's been circulating that has.
ChrisThat had been injected into the economy during times of crisis.
ChrisThink of the great financial crisis is all start really picked up back in 2008.
ChrisThis problem is.
ChrisHas not just been a pandemic Covid problem.
SyedNo.
SyedWhen you look from 1970 till now, the problem has gotten more and more pronounced.
SyedAnd it's a very.
SyedHome prices are good parallel.
SyedYou see home prices kind of goes like a hockey stick straight up.
ChrisRight.
SyedAnd that's been kind of the.
SyedIf you look at that as symbolic of the greater problem.
SyedWe built a financial system on a house of cards that cannot continue like it is.
SyedI was talking to some guys today from a very reputable finance company.
SyedYou know the ones I had lunch with, brilliant guys.
SyedAnd they're like, yeah, our forecast is that home prices will go up similar this year that they did last year.
SyedAnd I posed the question, something has to break.
SyedBecause if.
SyedAnd 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.
SyedYou get wage inflation of 4.5%, housing inflation at 5.4%.
SyedSo.
SyedYeah, right, yeah, whatever.
SyedYou know, it was pretty fair.
ChrisBut I do think that private equity out there in the market.
SyedRight, yeah.
ChrisHas 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.
ChrisWaiting for the right opportunity so they can almost inject themselves in and continue to prop everything up.
SyedSo I think a lot of people hear the worst terms like private equity, Metro capital and they.
SyedThey don't really understand what they are.
ChrisOkay.
SyedPrivate equity, put down to its very simple core basic concept is people with money to invest.
ChrisYeah, exactly.
SyedLet's keep it basic private money to invest.
SyedNow, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's private, non institutional money.
SyedIt's usually institutional.
SyedInsurance company, lifeco, Saudis, for example, could be, could be your source of funds, but they have money they want to invest.
SyedAnd depending on what their source of funds are, like an insurance company, very, very cheap money.
SyedLifecoat, Very, very cheap money.
SyedBanks, a little more expensive money.
SyedSo it just depends on what their funds cost them.
ChrisRight.
SyedSome private equity funds are incredibly aggressive.
SyedThey don't want to chase annuity like returns over time where they're getting 5 and 6% here and there.
SyedThey want big paydays.
ChrisOh, yeah.
SyedSome of them are a little bit thoughtful and pragmatic and they want to go out a little longer.
SyedAnd they've got longer durations in their.
ChrisFunds because they have, they have investors that they've promised returns to.
ChrisRight?
SyedYeah.
SyedBut there's an entire ecosystem built around this.
SyedThere's, there's, you know, investment bankers, there's private equity, there's venture capital, there's hedge funds.
SyedThere's all sorts of, of different vehicles out there deploying capital.
SyedAnd never before have I ever seen this much money out there waiting on the sidelines to be deployed.
SyedAnd it scares me.
SyedIt 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.
SyedIt's certainly down from 9.1% to approximately just under 3% now.
SyedFine.
SyedBut housing isn't solved.
ChrisNo.
SyedUnemployment seems to be, at best unreliable as a number.
SyedAnd government spending clearly has been a problem.
SyedGovernment hiring has been a massive problem.
SyedAnd yet all this money is being deployed all over the place for people to try to make more and more money.
SyedAnd it's a spinning house of cards.
SyedRight.
SyedEverybody makes money until they don't.
ChrisAnd that's a scary thing, Right.
ChrisBecause, you know, back to your point about venture capitalists, they can begin to fund new businesses, Right.
ChrisThat can ultimately prop up the economy.
ChrisYou think of just these venture capitalists that could fund a new tech company, right?
ChrisAnd they go through multiple series and they get so much money behind them.
ChrisAnd then you could literally prop it up with buzzwords around AI or whatever.
ChrisWhatever it is that they want to use.
SyedOh, yeah.
ChrisAnd 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.
ChrisAnd you look at the S&P 500, let's say, and it's doing so unbelievably well.
ChrisBut it doesn't explain why majority of people out there feel so stretched.
ChrisRight.
ChrisIt's literally two different stories going on at the same exact time.
SyedAnd 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.
SyedWe, we used to say, and the vernacular hasn't changed, we used to say, oh, Billy's a millionaire, he's rich.
SyedBut that isn't the case anymore.
SyedWe're talking, we're on the verge of the first trillionaires.
SyedRight.
SyedNot just billionaires, trillionaires.
SyedAnd if you've ever seen a picture of what a billion is versus a million, it is a monumental difference.
ChrisOh, yeah, I love that there's a, that famous thing that, that goes around is a million seconds is just over.
Chris11 days in a billion seconds is over like 30 some years.
SyedYeah.
SyedIt's a huge difference.
SyedAnd I think people really, really don't understand how big it is.
ChrisAnd those.
ChrisThat word just gets thrown around now.
ChrisBillion.
SyedYeah.
SyedSo.
SyedAnd I honestly believe today's millionaires are not wealthy.
SyedThey're comfortable, maybe, or more comfortable than not.
ChrisYeah.
SyedBut are they independent and free?
SyedNo.
ChrisReminds me, it reminds me of that old Chris Rock bit.
SyedYeah.
ChrisLike, Shaq's not wealthy.
ChrisShaq's rich guy signing his check.
ChrisHe's wealthy.
ChrisAnd he's like, Shaq's money could be lost one summer with a drug habit.
SyedYeah, well, not anymore.
ChrisI mean, this is the old shack.
ChrisBut that was the point that he's making, like, especially now.
ChrisFast forward to now.
ChrisI mean, you could lose it on one bad deal.
SyedYeah.
SyedAnd look, Shaq is now wealthy.
SyedRight.
SyedHe's got several different investment vehicles we're.
ChrisTalking about back of his playing time.
SyedAnd he himself is a brand.
SyedBut it's a very valid point.
SyedAnd I think that that's the disparity, the wealth disparity that we're seeing in this country in a very meaningful way.
SyedAnd I'll use myself as an example.
SyedAnd again, not being braggadocious, I'm just being honest.
SyedI'm a multimillionaire.
SyedOkay.
SyedI worry about money every day of my life still.
ChrisYeah.
SyedI have never once been like, I'm good, I don't have to worry about it.
SyedI 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.
SyedYeah, I got a lot of things going on.
SyedI got a lot of real estate, fixed assets and all this, but I'm not in a point where I'm like.
ChrisI'm good, or what the kids like to call you.
ChrisMoney.
SyedYeah, I'm still getting fucked money.
ChrisGetting fucked money.
ChrisYeah, exactly.
ChrisWhat's the threshold?
ChrisWhat do you think that threshold is?
ChrisWhen does it cross over into fuck you money?
SyedYou know, I don't think that there's a certain number.
SyedI think it's really dependent on your circumstances, where you live and where you're at.
SyedReally, you know?
SyedYeah, yeah, yeah.
SyedI don't.
SyedI don't think it's quite the same thing.
SyedIt'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.
SyedHe looks at, like, someone like Elon Musk and Bezos and those guys, and he goes, they have.
SyedLike, there's a real power money.
SyedLike, I'm just the guy who's in the game and I'm doing okay.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisNot to say that he's stressing about it, but, yeah, I agree.
ChrisWell, he's in.
ChrisHe's in the room with some big heavy hitters that.
ChrisThat can humble him very quickly.
ChrisYeah.
SyedAnd that.
SyedThat's.
SyedThat's perspective.
SyedAnd I.
SyedI, too, have been in the room with some pretty heavy hitters, and I've been very, very humbled.
SyedYou know, it's different when you're talking to somebody about your challenges and you talk to them about their challenges.
SyedIt's so taboo.
SyedWe don't talk about money openly, and it's considered to be a bad habit, traditionally.
SyedAnd the uber wealthy never want to talk about money because they've got more than enough.
SyedWhy did they even talk about it?
ChrisThey're more concerned with power.
SyedYeah, and that's exactly right.
SyedThey're more concerned with power.
SyedAnd me having dipped my toe into that world, it's very difficult for me to understand people.
SyedI 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.
SyedAnd often, more often, than not.
SyedThey're the ones who get paid the most.
SyedBut the money's.
SyedThey almost, like, expect it.
SyedBut they are obsessed with power and image.
ChrisMm.
SyedThey are obsessed with it.
SyedI was having a conversation earlier today.
ChrisWith the power comes the money.
SyedYeah.
SyedBut it's weird.
SyedLike, it's.
SyedIt's never enough power.
ChrisYes.
SyedAnd the money for them is only a proxy of the power.
SyedI am powerful because I command this much money.
SyedBut then they hear about somebody else who commands more money, and they are now feeling less powerful as a response to it.
ChrisIt's part of the game.
ChrisRight.
SyedAnd I was having this conversation today with somebody earlier, and I'll use a different industry because I don't want to.
SyedI don't want to highlight the industry I was talking about, but this was a very affluent person in a very big company.
ChrisOkay.
SyedThis is the kind of guy who takes private jets.
SyedYou know, he's making all the money in the world.
SyedHe's doing quite well for himself.
SyedRight.
SyedAnd he's.
SyedHe's got a decent title in a very big company, but he's not like, CEO.
SyedRight.
ChrisOkay.
SyedAnd a lot of people don't understand CEOs oftentimes don't make the most money in the company.
SyedAs a matter of fact, for a long time, Jamie Dimon was not the highest earner in the company of JP Morgan Chase.
ChrisWow.
SyedThere was other guys on trading desk that made a lot more than him.
ChrisYour boy, Jamie Dimon, Uncle Jamie, that is to you, sir.
SyedYeah.
ChrisWas making well over 30 million a year.
SyedYeah.
SyedNow there's guys inside their system that was making.
SyedThey were making more at some points, I think.
SyedNow he is the highest earner, but I mean, he's also.
SyedThey're talking about, you know, he's talking about retiring and moving on and having, you know.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisThey're positioning people to.
ChrisI know.
ChrisThere's a whole conversation about that dog fight.
SyedThey named a new chief operating officer.
SyedI was very upset.
SyedI was looked off for that job.
SyedVery upset.
SyedI'm like, I didn't get the phone call, man.
ChrisNot even like, hey, this position is available.
SyedLike, this lady seems like she's talented and smart and, you know, been with.
ChrisThe Whatever crazy tenure organization knowledge.
SyedYeah.
SyedI mean, she might be the perfect fit, but I didn't get a phone call.
ChrisNothing.
SyedNot even, like a text.
SyedLike, yo, dog, heads up.
SyedI'm going with somebody else.
SyedLike, nothing.
ChrisNo appreciation for what we provide.
SyedLike, you know.
SyedYou know, I'm here un.
ChrisIt comes with the podcast.
SyedYeah.
SyedI'm just.
SyedIs it because I'm on the podcast?
SyedYou don't want the shine?
SyedThat's what it is.
ChrisThat's what it is.
SyedYou know?
ChrisYeah.
SyedChris is too good at that.
SyedI can't take that away from him.
ChrisRight, right, right, right.
SyedWe don't want to disappoint the fans.
SyedSo basically, it's because of you out there that I chose not to become chief operating officer of JP Morgan Chase.
SyedI want to continue giving you the gumdrops and lollipops.
ChrisRight.
ChrisAll the moist.
ChrisGood, good stuff.
SyedYeah.
SyedI chose the moistness over the power.
SyedWho knew?
ChrisRight?
SyedBut we were talking about.
SyedSo he goes out and meets executives of companies that he, from a private equity standpoint, invests in.
SyedAnd he was like, it never ceases to amaze me.
SyedI'll go talk to these CEOs that clearly need my help and my investment committee's decisions to, you know, to help their company.
SyedBut these CEOs are not humble about it at all.
ChrisHow so?
SyedHe was just telling me.
SyedHe'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.
SyedSo they talk to me like I'm beneath them because they're the CEO, but their company is way smaller than mine.
SyedAnd I know, because I've seen their financials, because they need my money.
SyedI know they're making way less than me.
SyedRight.
SyedBut he's like, the way they talk to me is like this.
SyedLike I'm empowered.
ChrisI think that somebody in that position, in that seat, someone like a CEO, would understand the value of building relationships.
SyedAnd I, look, I, you know, some do, some don't.
SyedI'm not, I'm not knocking, like every CEO out there.
SyedI'm just saying.
ChrisYeah, I know that they were talking about.
SyedThere's.
SyedThere's this perspective that can get lost on people really quickly when they're the king of their own castle.
SyedYeah, that castle might be a very nice castle, but it ain't the biggest one.
ChrisNo, no.
ChrisThere's always a bigger one.
SyedYeah.
SyedUsually Saudis.
ChrisYeah, always Saudis.
SyedIt's much bigger.
ChrisYeah.
SyedBut, you know, it never ceases to amaze me.
SyedI 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.
SyedYou can't have home prices go up that much over the course of that short of a time and not cause problems.
SyedAnd a lot of people in America are saying, hey, it's great.
Syed40% of homes are paid off in cash.
SyedTell that to people who had no hazard insurance in the Pacific Palisades or in Altadena.
SyedIn Altadena, exactly.
ChrisYeah.
SyedTell that to people who got to rebuild their home.
SyedNow 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.
SyedYeah, 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.
SyedNow they're getting offered a million dollars for land because people are undercutting them just like that.
SyedMeanwhile, they're going to want to go rent.
SyedPeople are jacking up their rents by, you know, 30%, taking advantage of.
SyedIn this kind of financial craziness that we've deemed normal because we just lived through it for the last 15 years, call it now.
ChrisRight.
SyedWe'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.
ChrisSo let me ask you this, then.
ChrisIt's.
ChrisIt's not sustainable.
ChrisBut when does it become a good time to buy for somebody?
SyedLook, if you can buy, buy.
SyedI'm never going to say no to that.
SyedIf you can financially afford, but don't do what people were getting told by real estate agents to do the last couple years.
SyedDate the rate, marry the home.
ChrisAnd what does that mean when they say date the rate?
SyedThey were saying, hey, be committed to the home long term.
SyedBuy the home, but don't be committed to this rate.
SyedDon't worry, the Fed's gonna cut rates.
SyedRates will go down when they cut rates and when they do, you can refinance to a lower rate.
ChrisMake sure you can afford the.
ChrisAfford the payment at what it is now.
ChrisAnd don't bank on the rate coming down to where you could refi out of it.
SyedYeah.
ChrisYou know, in the next year or so, you got to be able to afford it.
ChrisRight.
ChrisIt's got to be within, within that budget of yours.
ChrisAnd we've talked about it on the show, you know.
ChrisYeah, we talk about the, you know, 60, 30, 10 split.
ChrisRight.
ChrisAnd your mortgage payment should fall somewhere with.
ChrisIt falls in line in the 60% range.
ChrisAnd it should only make up approximately about 40% of of that.
ChrisRight.
ChrisAnd, but we understand that given the times and given what we're talking about, it's.
ChrisEveryone's being stretched a little bit more thin.
ChrisRight.
ChrisAnd 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?
SyedAnd you look a home as an investment is an anecdotal tertiary benefit.
SyedYeah.
ChrisIt's like a byproduct.
SyedYou 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.
SyedYou 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.
ChrisRight.
SyedThat's a very.
SyedAnd yes, if it goes up in value over time, great homes traditionally do go up in value over time.
SyedThat being said, you should not be banking on that as your exit strategy.
ChrisSo then let me ask you this as a follow up question.
ChrisWhat are your thoughts?
ChrisHow do you feel about what the rising costs of homeownership all around, not just, not just the mortgage payment.
ChrisWe're talking everything else that comes along with it.
ChrisRight.
ChrisWe all know no secret homeownership is expensive and how much this affects everyone else's goals for other financial goals of theirs.
SyedRight.
ChrisWhether that be education, you know, emergencies, retirement.
ChrisLike how much of that should they be considering when they're making their decision?
ChrisI mean, well, not, I know we don't want to give advice, but like, what's your comfort level?
SyedNo, I'll give advice.
SyedLook, I think that the American dream, as our parents believed in it, has effectively died.
SyedAnd I'm not saying that it should not be something you aspire to, but I'm saying that it's not easy.
SyedAnd 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.
SyedOkay.
SyedAnd I know it's gonna hurt people's feelings.
SyedMathematically, it is harder to buy a home now than ever before in history.
SyedAnd 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.
SyedYeah.
SyedAnd home prices were $5.
SyedOkay?
ChrisRight.
SyedSo don't, don't come at me with that nonsense.
SyedWell, Chris, you don't understand the business.
SyedYou know what, I probably understand it better than most of you.
ChrisRight.
SyedYou know what I mean?
SyedLike, I'm Just saying.
SyedYeah, this is, this is what I do.
ChrisThe whole, the home price to wage ratio was significantly less.
ChrisIt used to be forex, now it's well over 6x.
SyedYeah, it's crazy.
SyedAnd for people to think that.
SyedSo again, date, date the rate, marry the home, that was all well and good.
SyedWell, 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.
SyedThey had a home, they could refinance, lower the rate and their mortgage can be comfortable to be able to go, ah, well, guess what?
SyedRates didn't go down.
ChrisRight.
SyedAs a matter of fact, rates ended the year 2024 higher than when they ended in 2023.
SyedAnd to give you an idea, they were well over 6% in 2023 and they were just over 7% to end.
SyedSo 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.
SyedAnd 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.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisSo exactly.
ChrisAnd that's a really good point.
ChrisAnd 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.
ChrisAnd 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.
ChrisLook 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.
ChrisAnd 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.
ChrisYeah, it ended up being a spectacular.
ChrisPeople are envious of that position.
SyedYeah.
ChrisRight.
ChrisSo if you can afford it, consider yourself very lucky.
ChrisRight.
ChrisAnd I would.
ChrisAs long as it's used for, you know, the proper utility, I would recommend definitely doing it.
SyedSo let me give you some color here.
SyedRight?
ChrisGive me color.
SyedSo to summarize what we talked about, the top of the show, wages increased by approximately $2,791.22 for the average American in 2024.
SyedThis is based on the salary of $62,027.
SyedAnd you take 4.5% of that, you get about $2,791.22 a year increase in wages for the average American.
SyedMeanwhile, homes with the same average home price of $420,400 going up by 5.4% means that homes increased 22,701 and 60 cents.
SyedOkay, so you look at those two numbers and you go, okay, wait a minute, Chris.
SyedI can't really understand the math of how that impacts them on a, on a, on a monthly basis.
SyedDon't worry, Daddy got you.
ChrisDaddy got you.
SyedSo 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.
SyedAssuming a 20% to put down on the average home, your 2023 mortgage payment would be $2,055.37.
SyedNow, excuse me, in 2024, where home prices rose 5.4% and now valued at $420,400, mortgage rates ended slightly above 7% in 2024.
SyedSo that meant your mortgage payment was $2,241.29, a difference of $185.92 a month.
SyedWell, Chris, it's only $185.92 a month.
SyedThat's not a lot.
ChrisI mean, come on, you should be able to swing that.
SyedWell, talk about swinging.
ChrisYeah.
SyedIf you financed the home in 2024 versus 2023.
SyedYes.
SyedYour payment would be $185.92 higher due to both the rising home prices and the higher mortgage rates.
SyedCombination of both are deadly.
SyedAnd 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.
SyedSo basically what I'm saying is you take $185.92, multiply it times 12, and guess what?
SyedThat's 80% of the $2,791 in 2020.
Syed22 cents of wage growth the average American got.
ChrisSo you're all.
ChrisBut wait, all the wages you made are going right into the house.
SyedThere's more.
SyedThat's pre tax wage increase.
ChrisThere you go.
SyedSo 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.
SyedSo 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.
ChrisRight.
SyedSo, yeah, it's going the wrong way.
SyedEven if modest home prices go up, with rates still high, it's destroying the average American's income.
ChrisRight.
ChrisAnd you know, so I know a lot of people out there are like, well then, Chris, what should I do?
ChrisI feel like I need to own a home so I'm not losing money on rent every single month.
ChrisWhat, what, what, what should I do then?
SyedWell, number one, I don't think people are losing money on rent.
SyedIf you're able to invest and save or just even live a quality of life where you're happy.
ChrisAnd that's where I think the, the biggest shift needs to happen for, you know, the upcoming and the next generation.
ChrisRight.
ChrisIs okay, yeah, maybe we, maybe this thing does turn into a nation of renters.
ChrisBut people are going to have to learn how to invest whether.
ChrisAnd at its basic level.
ChrisAt its basic level, they're going to have to.
ChrisThere's, I can't remember the stats and I'll try to look it up right now while we're doing the show.
ChrisBut there's so many people out there that aren't investing.
ChrisRight.
ChrisEven into long term low cost index funds.
ChrisRight.
ChrisThings that have been, have a proven track record of growing 8 to 10% year over year.
SyedI quite like it to go to the gym.
SyedYou 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.
SyedSo they're somewhat shy and apprehensive about using the equipment.
SyedAnd then you can see them looking around, you know, you can see them in the room.
SyedLike you see that person is just getting acclimated.
ChrisAnd this is a great analogy too, because the gym in and of itself can be a very intimidating thing from the outside.
ChrisBut once you get in.
SyedYeah, right.
ChrisAnd if you circle yourself around, we said people don't like talking about finances, people don't like talking about money.
ChrisBut you find the right people that do like people that go to the gym.
ChrisThey are willing to help and share information and knowledge.
SyedBut people get so stigmatized and look like, you look at people at the gym and you say, oh my God, like, that's great.
SyedThey're trying.
SyedMy mom just lost over half her body weight.
SyedShe now weighs less than me for the first time.
SyedIn my adult life.
ChrisShout out to Mama Bear.
SyedShout out to Mama Bear.
SyedShe's all into health and fitness.
SyedShe jumped in.
SyedShe's listening to podcast now.
SyedI got her on mind Pump Sex Seattle.
SyedSo sexy.
ChrisSo sexy.
SyedOh, I didn't mail him his shoes.
SyedShit.
ChrisMore.
ChrisMore.
ChrisMore shoes.
SyedYeah, I got him the Harto or.
SyedDamn it.
SyedThere's special kind of dunks he wanted.
ChrisOh, he's.
ChrisHe's a dunk guy.
SyedYeah.
SyedNo, I mean we can't all be sexy for.
ChrisWhen are you gonna give me some.
ChrisSome of the white cements?
SyedYou want those?
ChrisI want those.
SyedI'll get them for you.
ChrisAt a premium.
SyedSeriously.
SyedNo, I'll get them for you.
ChrisThose are my.
ChrisI equate those as the best like dad shoe for when you go to your a kid.
SyedThose are the fives, right?
SyedJordan fives?
ChrisNo, the threes.
SyedThrees.
SyedOh, okay.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
SyedJust tell me what you want, I'll get it for you.
ChrisReimagine.
SyedThe reimagine.
SyedOh, you want the ones that are a little like worn.
SyedYeah, yeah.
SyedOkay.
SyedThere's another pair that I'd recommend that are really dope I got.
ChrisReally?
SyedYeah.
SyedI've never worn them here though.
SyedThese like my trophies.
ChrisOh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SyedThere was a super luxe version.
SyedThere's actually really cool too.
SyedYou probably don't know this.
SyedThere'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.
SyedLike really, really nice.
SyedI want to buy those.
SyedI have no reason to buy them because I'm never going to wear them.
ChrisBecause 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.
ChrisTo customize it.
SyedThat's not new, you geriatric, but I.
ChrisSee all the kids on YouTube making videos, bro.
SyedI got like three pairs of those.
ChrisYou do?
SyedYeah.
SyedYou were done.
SyedNo.
SyedJoanne has a pair of custom Louis Vuitton ones, Jordan ones.
SyedI've got a pair.
SyedActually, no, I don't have a pair of those.
SyedI have a pair of like before the Chicago ones came out, the reimagined ones.
SyedI had a pair of Chicago's made that I could just beat the out of.
SyedThose are made from the bloodlines originally.
SyedNot necessarily a white pair, but.
SyedYeah.
ChrisWow.
SyedI got some beaters.
ChrisSome beaters.
SyedYeah.
SyedI never wear them either, but yeah, like I think people look at.
ChrisOh, there you go.
ChrisHere's.
ChrisHere's A staff for you, by the way, finance.
SyedAnd they don't jump in.
ChrisApproximately 38 of U.S.
Chrisadults, equating to about 99 million individuals.
ChrisIndividuals do not invest in the stock market.
SyedSo one of the things I am probably criticized the most for professionally.
ChrisDamn.
SyedYeah, 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.
ChrisWhat?
SyedAnd it pisses me off to no end.
SyedI say, and I've said it on the show and I'll continue to say it.
SyedAnd I don't give a.
SyedWhat anybody says.
SyedYou should not be satisfied with the wages from your nine to five.
SyedEvery 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.
SyedYou're an employer.
SyedYou're telling them that they should, they should want more.
SyedYes.
SyedEverybody should want more.
SyedYou want to know why not?
ChrisBut like not.
ChrisIt should be deserving.
ChrisYou should be working hard.
SyedYes.
ChrisYou should be getting, you know, those performance reviews need to be exceptional.
ChrisYou need to be earning a job, earning more credentials, getting other certificates.
ChrisDo whatever you got to do to earn it.
ChrisBut you should definitely.
ChrisYou should never be settling.
SyedI, I have always just had this particular disdain from people like, oh my God, you're encouraging people to be overly ambitious.
SyedYes, I am encouraging people to be overly ambitious.
SyedYes.
SyedGuess how you got your job, CEO.
SyedYou were overly ambitious.
ChrisRight.
SyedGuess how all those managers that are top tier executives who make millions of dollars a year got their jobs.
SyedThey were ambitious.
ChrisWe wouldn't want.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisDo we, do we want to raise a nation?
SyedThey were satisfied.
ChrisThat are just content.
SyedBut Chris, if they all want more, then, then they're all gonna, they're all gonna just demand more.
SyedYeah.
SyedBut they're also gonna work harder for it.
ChrisRight.
ChrisAs long as.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisThe, the proper expectations are laid out.
ChrisOkay.
ChrisIf you want more, this is what you need to do.
SyedAnd invariably somebody will take my comment out of context and say that I'm encouraging something.
SyedLet me be clear.
SyedWhat I'm saying is, is after work, okay, you need to do more than just say, I've got a 401k, it's great.
SyedRight?
SyedThat ain't enough anymore.
SyedOkay?
SyedLook 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.
SyedOr in some cases they like their job.
SyedAnd good, you know, kudos to them.
ChrisWe had this conversation.
ChrisWe think the whole conversation over retirement is outdated.
SyedYeah.
SyedI don't think, number one, humans are just living better, healthier, higher quality lives for longer.
SyedGood for you.
SyedI know 75 year olds that are out running, riding their bike 100 miles a week.
ChrisAmazing.
SyedYou know, they're still very much sharp and look good for you.
SyedYou're in the workforce, I get it.
SyedI wouldn't want to retire either.
SyedBut there's ramifications to you being in the workforce longer because other people aren't coming up because you're in that spot.
SyedSo now you've got Americans being in this ecosystem, they're not able to rise up.
SyedWe're somehow demeaning the idea of people wanting more.
SyedAnd I'm telling them you should want more.
SyedAnd if you can't get it in your day job, find good.
SyedIf 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.
SyedBut that doesn't mean you shouldn't be investing in the stock market.
SyedDoesn'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.
SyedIt shouldn't mean you shouldn't desire to have more and try to find other sources to build wealth.
SyedAnd 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.
SyedAnd he goes, what do you mean because you paid fairly?
SyedI'm like, yeah, I'm probably paid market for what I do.
SyedThis is, you know, years ago.
SyedAnd I go, he's like, what's the problem?
SyedI'm like, I'm not making enough.
SyedAnd he goes, what is your expectation?
SyedI'm like, I'm gonna get rich, bro.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisWhat do you mean, bro?
ChrisYeah, I'm trying to be, I'm trying to be sitting here where you are.
SyedYou know, I want to get in the PJ100.
ChrisI want to get in the Yacht it Up Club.
SyedYeah.
SyedI want to be, I want to be out there.
ChrisI want it all.
SyedI want boats and hoes.
ChrisYeah.
SyedYou know, now I just want boats.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisJust the boats.
SyedBut so, you know, he looked at me and he was like, just confused.
SyedHe's like, what?
SyedWhat are you thinking?
SyedAnd I'm like, I, I thought we just cover this I want to get rich.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisWhy wouldn't I want that?
SyedYeah.
SyedHe goes, look, dude, let me tell you right now.
SyedI worked in corporate America my entire life until I was like, 55.
SyedHe was 55 when he stopped working.
SyedI said, yeah.
SyedAnd he goes, you're not going to make millions of dollars at your job.
ChrisBingo.
SyedYou're not.
SyedHe's like, your money will come from the investments you make outside of work.
SyedWork just gives you the tools to use that money to invest someplace else to build more money.
ChrisRight.
ChrisAnd whether that's investing or starting something for yourself where you can retain the equity.
SyedYeah, Right.
ChrisThat.
ChrisWe all know that's the name of the game, right?
ChrisUltimately, if you can.
ChrisTime is limited, but if you can plan it out, right?
ChrisI mean, this.
ChrisThis stat right here tells it all.
SyedIf.
ChrisIf we should all be doing what all the people who are successful are doing, then no stat tells it better than this right here.
ChrisYou ready for this?
ChrisThe wealthiest 1% of Americans.
ChrisI want to be one of the.
SyedI mean, I am not, by the way.
ChrisYou're not, right?
SyedYeah.
SyedI AM the wealthiest 15 or 20%.
ChrisBut I feel like that's something that everyone would want to be, Right.
SyedWe should all aspire to that, Right?
SyedUnless 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.
ChrisRight?
SyedYou cannot aspire to it.
SyedIt's fine.
ChrisWealthy as 1% of Americans hold 50% of all the stock.
SyedYeah.
ChrisThink about that.
ChrisSo if you're not in the stock market and you're not 50%, bro.
ChrisCome on.
ChrisHalf dog.
SyedYeah.
ChrisWhat are we talking about here?
SyedYeah.
SyedWe're talking about.
SyedLook again.
SyedGo back to the gym references.
SyedBecause a lot of people listen to the show.
SyedThey know.
SyedRight?
SyedWe all know you should be lifting weights.
ChrisGot to be.
ChrisYeah.
SyedWe all know you should be working out.
SyedWe all know we should not be eating like fatties.
ChrisYeah.
SyedRight.
SyedAnd don't be wrong.
SyedI.
SyedI've been overweight in my life.
SyedMy obviously family members and, you know, are overweight.
SyedDiabetes runs in my family.
ChrisSome of my happiest times were when I was overweight, but I didn't feel that great at the time.
ChrisAnd there was definitely a downward spiral afterwards.
SyedSome of those burritos, man, they hit, they smacked.
SyedYeah, they.
SyedAll right.
SyedBut, yeah, look, I get it.
SyedWe all know what we should be doing, right?
SyedBut it's really, really, really hard.
SyedAnd then you look at that guy who's like, Jacked in the gym.
SyedAnd you're like, oh, Timothy's on steroids.
ChrisYeah, Right.
SyedWe do the same thing financially, but we don't recognize it.
SyedYou go, oh, Billy just came from a wealthy family.
SyedYeah, that might be true.
SyedAnd Timothy might have good genetics.
SyedTimothy might be on some trt.
ChrisYeah.
SyedBut look, at least Timothy's doing something about it.
ChrisHe's putting.
ChrisYou can't take away from the work that he's putting in.
SyedAnd this is the part where I look at people and I say, stop making excuses for other people's success and start saying.
SyedIf you want that, start saying to yourself, I can get it, but I got to do the work.
ChrisAnd the hard part comes from when you do get that promotion.
SyedYeah.
ChrisAnd you do get that bonus or however else you get passed on some money, what do you do with it?
ChrisDo you upgrade your lifestyle or do you make more investments?
SyedFor the record, do as I say, not as I do.
SyedDon't buy a studio for $200,000 for no reason.
SyedDon't, don't, don't, don't do for no reason.
ChrisThere's reasons.
SyedThere's a reason.
SyedI'm an idiot is probably top of the reason list.
SyedBut we needed space.
SyedWe needed to grow.
SyedLittle financial motivation never hurt anybody.
ChrisYeah, yeah, yeah.
SyedJesus.
SyedWhat are we doing?
ChrisIt's a step in the right direction.
SyedI hope so.
SyedMan, it's.
SyedThe construction is gonna kill me.
ChrisMm.
SyedYeah, probably.
SyedLiterally, from the fiberglass.
ChrisDid you get it on your hands?
ChrisYou're wearing gloves.
SyedI was wearing gloves.
SyedI was wearing a respirator.
SyedI had glasses on.
ChrisDid it.
ChrisYou chose to do it without me?
ChrisI don't understand.
SyedOkay.
SyedI didn't want to have this conversation live on the show, but I get in the way.
ChrisIs that what it is?
SyedNo, no, not at all.
SyedI was looking out for your safety.
ChrisOh, thank you.
SyedOkay, we all know that I've had laser hair removal.
SyedOkay.
SyedSo I'm slick.
ChrisWhat does that mean?
SyedIt means fiberglass particles won't stick to me.
ChrisOh, that's what it is.
SyedThey'll stick to you.
SyedYou're a giant all over the.
SyedYou're basically like.
SyedYou know, when you rub your arm up against a balloon, it has a static electricity shock.
SyedLike, you walk in the room, the whole thing's going to just pop off.
SyedIt's just going to explode.
SyedAll this fuzziness in the room rolling around.
ChrisRight.
SyedIt's just going to create a static charge.
SyedYou know, whammy.
ChrisRight.
ChrisSo back to this conversation.
SyedI'm just going to Leave that alone.
ChrisI'm.
ChrisLeave it alone.
ChrisBecause I'm Mr.
ChrisFuzzy Knuckles.
ChrisIt's okay.
ChrisI'm okay with it.
ChrisI've come to terms.
ChrisI'm leaning into it, if you will.
SyedYou 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.
ChrisI would just leave you a trail of hair just so you could find me.
SyedIt ain't that.
SyedAin't that thick.
SyedWolverine.
ChrisCome on.
ChrisOkay.
ChrisFor people out there that want to get started and they don't know where to start, and it scares them, and it's intimidating.
ChrisLike, what would you say to them.
SyedMan, this is going to sound.
ChrisBecause they wanted.
ChrisHere's the problem.
ChrisA lot of people, and I'm guilty of this, more ways than one.
ChrisI will let perfection get in the way of good.
SyedYeah, I think that's a natural human instinct.
SyedI think for most people, like, if.
ChrisI'm gonna do this, this first chess move needs to be perfect.
ChrisI need to get into the right one.
SyedYou overanalyze you over, underwrite.
SyedYou overthink.
SyedYeah.
SyedI do the same thing.
SyedHumans do that.
SyedThat's just humans.
SyedRight.
SyedAnd there are some exceptions.
SyedSome people are just, like, wildly.
SyedJust type A aggressive, like, yolo.
SyedI'm gonna do it, and we'll figure it out.
SyedMm.
SyedI.
SyedLook, I don't know.
SyedThere's a perfect answer to this, but I'm gonna give you what happened to me.
SyedI 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.
ChrisYeah.
SyedI developed a strategy we talked about in prior shows, a low cost index funds.
SyedAfter really getting to understand Warren Buffett's methodology and realizing that I knew a whole lot that was missing in my.
SyedIn my stock market intelligence.
SyedAs I got farther and farther in my career, I started to understand things like the secondary market, like bonds.
SyedCertainly doing this.
SyedExcuse me.
SyedIt's been a bad throw.
SyedClearing item.
SyedSorry.
SyedI think it's.
SyedMeet you.
SyedWe 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.
SyedI started to understand things in a way that it kind of coalesced.
SyedIt all came together.
SyedThere's still a lot missing.
SyedLike, my accounting understanding is not where I would like it to be.
SyedRight.
SyedThere's gaps in.
SyedIn some of the things that even.
ChrisToday, that's got to be one of those things.
ChrisRight.
ChrisWhere like once you start to dive in, you, you realize, like, I remember, like being in my 20s, you think you know everything.
ChrisAnd then as, yeah, and as time goes on and you learn more, you learn how little you actually do know.
SyedAnd it's 100% accurate.
SyedSo I say all the things I didn't, I don't know and how recent.
SyedI've learned some of them as a way to say, like, I didn't wait to know everything.
SyedWhen I started buying my first property, I said to myself, man, sorry, I've got some extra cash.
SyedI can't afford to buy a home in Southern California.
SyedLet me see how much homes are in the Midwest.
SyedAnd I spent weeks looking around looking, damn hairball, what'd you do, bro?
ChrisYou getting choked up over there?
ChrisTalking about, getting emotional, bro.
SyedWhat's going on over here?
SyedI spent weeks looking around the Midwest and I realized the property there was much, much more attainable.
SyedSo 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?
SyedSo I went down this, this path of going, okay, well how much do I have now?
SyedHow much, how much longer would I have to save before I could buy a property?
SyedAnd would I live in it, would I rent it out?
SyedAnd then I did this simple math in my head.
SyedI said, okay, at the time I was paying $1,600 a month for rent.
SyedIt was a 580 square foot junior one bedroom in Irvine.
SyedAnd I was like, okay, if I invest my money in this, after piti, principal, interest, taxes and insurance, I should be able to make.
SyedI think at the time it was like 400 bucks a month, which really brings my rent down to twelve hundred dollars a month, right?
SyedWhere else can I go live for $1,200 a month or better?
SyedAnd I couldn't come up with the answer that someplace that would keep my lifestyle the same.
SyedSo I was like, okay, I'm gonna do this, maybe next year I'll buy another one.
SyedAnd then it brings me down to $800 a month after, you know, So I did.
SyedIt was nerve wracking.
SyedIt was scary.
SyedYou 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.
SyedI wasn't close to it, I couldn't get to it soon.
ChrisEverybody 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.
ChrisRight.
ChrisThat he wouldn't invest in it.
SyedAnd that.
SyedThat very much resonated in my head.
SyedI was deviating from rules that I had been taught were, you know, the gold standard.
SyedBut I also thought technology was on my side.
SyedAnd I was very nervous.
SyedI didn't understand everything about having third party outside management.
SyedI didn't understand about everything about having a home in tornado alley.
SyedI didn't understand what it was like renting to other people.
SyedYou know, I'd rented my home before, but it wasn't quite the same thing.
SyedIt was close.
SyedIt was somebody that I knew it was a bigger home.
SyedIt was in a different kind of community.
SyedThere was just a lot of stigma, but I just did it.
SyedI was nervous, I was scared, but it worked out.
SyedIt wasn't the best deal, you know, in the world, but it started me on the process.
SyedThe next year I bought another one.
SyedThe next year I bought two.
SyedNext year I bought two.
SyedThis.
SyedThis kept going.
ChrisAnd we understand that this.
ChrisThis situation isn't going to be for everyone.
ChrisThat's.
ChrisThat's not.
ChrisThat's not the driving point.
ChrisNot the point we're trying to drive home here.
ChrisIt's more about putting yourself in an uncomfortable position.
ChrisRight, right.
ChrisAnd just almost trusting the process.
ChrisAnd what's the worst that could happen?
SyedThe 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.
SyedThat's okay.
SyedI look at economic losses as part of the learning curve.
SyedAnd a great example I have of that is I started buying stock outside of my 401k in and around the same time.
SyedBut I was putting most of my money in real estate, so I couldn't afford to buy a lot of stock.
SyedSo 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.
SyedSo I just waited a couple months.
SyedAnd then if there was a company that I really liked that was going someplace, I.
SyedE.
SyedTesla, I.
SyedE.
SyedApple.
SyedI bought companies that I believed in, products that I used, things I thought had some legitimate legs.
ChrisRight.
ChrisThat's, I think, one of the number one tips in that Phil Town book.
ChrisThe number rule number one, I think.
SyedYeah, I may have read it.
SyedYeah.
ChrisYou haven't read it?
ChrisOh, he's part of the school of Warren Buffett in them.
ChrisOh, yeah, yeah.
ChrisAnd it was like investing companies that you understand the business model, you understand what they're selling.
ChrisSo like someone like me, it might be like Nike or Apple or something like that, right?
SyedLook, some of these companies have peaks and valleys.
SyedYou know, they do great some years and some years they don't do great.
SyedThat's okay too.
SyedI mean, I'm not looking to hit home runs of these things.
SyedIt'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.
SyedIn some cases, the capital gains now are so high that I wouldn't, I wouldn't do it.
SyedBut, you know, and a lot of these things are risks.
SyedYou're putting money away.
SyedAnd 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.
SyedPeople 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.
SyedOkay, fine, you can, you can not do that.
SyedBut 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.
SyedBut I stand by those decisions that I made then.
SyedNow some people are like, oh, well, Chris, I love cryptocurrency.
SyedCould I invest in that?
SyedDude, if you feel like you, you know cryptocurrency well enough to do that, then do it.
ChrisYou want to come up big on some of, some of the meme coins?
SyedYeah, but don't, don't do that.
SyedDon't be that guy.
SyedLike, look, you want to invest in Bitcoin or Ethereum, fine.
SyedYou want to invest in Hocktua, you know, don't do that.
SyedYeah, don't do that.
SyedBut look, there's never a good time to start.
SyedIt's always a bad time, like losing weight.
SyedYou're going to be sore as shit after the first couple workouts.
ChrisYou're going to be discouraged as all hell when you don't get that return over the first couple of weeks.
SyedYou're going to ask, how do people do this?
SyedBut five years of consistency, you're going to be like, okay, I know what I'm doing.
SyedI'm now that guy in the gym.
SyedEverybody, 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.
SyedWhat I do to train.
ChrisGreat page.
SyedGreat page.
SyedVery wholesome.
ChrisYeah, exactly.
SyedYeah.
SyedBut 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.
SyedAnd now you have what seems to be subject matter expertise because you look like you've been doing this.
SyedYour finances are the same thing.
SyedSame thing.
ChrisSame thing.
SyedWe're far enough into the show.
ChrisThat's a key takeaway where I can.
SyedSay something to you that I haven't said yet.
ChrisOh, God, yeah.
SyedAnd I'm gonna.
SyedI'm gonna have to choose my words carefully.
SyedI love my wife.
SyedLove my wife.
SyedI adore her.
ChrisSounds like a disclaimer.
SyedIt's a big disclaimer.
ChrisIt's a big ass disclaimer.
SyedShe has gone down the rabbit hole.
SyedStarted with gems.
SyedGems, crystals and gems.
ChrisOh, gems.
SyedThe energy and tapping in.
SyedWhatever.
ChrisOkay.
SyedI don't judge people's religious beliefs.
SyedI don't judge people's what they choose to believe in.
SyedEven my wife, people are close to me.
SyedLike, you feel better about at the end of the day, you know, Good for you.
ChrisYeah, I, I respect that.
ChrisThat's my philosophy on religion as well.
ChrisIf that's what makes you what you feel, makes you the best version of you, go do it.
SyedYeah.
SyedNow, me personally, I don't like the idea of you needing somebody to tell you how to be good.
SyedLike, we inherently should know what's good and bad.
SyedUnless you're a sociopath.
ChrisRight.
SyedBut that being said, okay, whatever.
SyedLike if you're, if you're getting through life and this is helping you get there, I'm no one to judge.
SyedI drink energy drinks.
SyedThat's my vice.
ChrisDon't judge me.
SyedMaybe yours is rocks.
SyedYou know, like so.
SyedAnd then it, then it escalated.
SyedThen she's like burning incense all the time.
SyedI'm alright, whatever.
SyedYou know, smells good.
SyedSmoke around the house from time to time.
SyedAll good.
SyedWhatever.
ChrisI get that.
ChrisOkay.
SyedAnd then I'm taking baths and what seemed to be like potions.
ChrisOkay, hold on.
SyedYou.
ChrisI know.
ChrisAnd your thought process in this is you're trying to be a supportive husband.
SyedI want to support, but what is it?
ChrisWas it.
ChrisWhere's this?
ChrisWhy can't it be her?
ChrisWhy does it got to be you?
SyedBecause she's trying to help me.
SyedShe's casting spells.
ChrisWhat if you're like, I don't need help.
ChrisI'm good.
ChrisI'm.
ChrisI'm Gucci right where I am.
SyedSo she's burning candles now.
ChrisShe should be coming home with Gucci belts on.
SyedIt's trying to read the candles.
SyedRight?
ChrisRead the candles.
SyedBecause she's burning candles.
ChrisWhat does read the candles mean?
SyedI don't know.
SyedStill trying to figure that out.
ChrisStop.
SyedWhen they.
SyedWhen they melt.
SyedYou're not this person.
ChrisYou're not this person.
SyedI'm not.
ChrisYou're very inquisitive.
ChrisYou ask questions.
SyedNo, no.
SyedBut here's the problem, though.
SyedWhen you ask too many questions, like, it sounds like almost like you're talking demeaning.
ChrisYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SyedAnd I'm not.
SyedI'm not trying to be that guy, like, you know, why are you ugly?
SyedI'm just trying to say, like, you know, hey, I don't understand this.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisWhy are you choosing to live Right?
SyedSo I've been very, very gentle around the whole thing because I'm trying to be respectful.
ChrisOkay, so you're taking bath baths in what?
ChrisI remember you told us the one on the show with the whole.
SyedThe.
ChrisWhat was it?
ChrisIt's the shower or.
ChrisYou're getting paste.
ChrisYou can paste it.
SyedI was kidding.
SyedI was getting pasted like a turkey.
SyedIt was like cinnamon and, like, lemon.
SyedIt was a whole.
ChrisYeah, it was the whole thing.
SyedYeah.
SyedIt was warm.
SyedAnd I went.
SyedI wanted to wash it off.
SyedShe told me I couldn't.
ChrisAnd then you find out you have to do it for two more days.
SyedAnd you.
ChrisOh, the kicker was you couldn't wear black, though.
SyedI couldn't wear black.
ChrisIt's like, that's my.
ChrisThat's my entire wardrobe.
SyedI do.
SyedI'm like.
SyedI'm just gonna walk around nude, then.
SyedNude and sticky.
ChrisYou got this.
SyedYeah.
SyedYeah.
ChrisOkay.
ChrisSo we got.
ChrisWe covered that.
ChrisThis is different.
ChrisAnd now you're bathing.
SyedSo now she made a bath that had, like, berries.
SyedI feel like it was coming to America.
SyedI thought there was going to be, like, you know, the washing.
SyedNo.
ChrisYeah.
SyedIt was just the royal look.
SyedIt was peaceful.
SyedIt was calm, whatever.
SyedLike, you know, again.
SyedSo now there's, like a.
SyedThere's a litany of things going on.
SyedThere's tarot cards in.
SyedIn the house.
ChrisI'll be honest.
ChrisI'm.
ChrisI'm seeing a lot of growth in you.
ChrisI'm very proud of you.
ChrisYou.
ChrisI did not know you were okay.
ChrisHonestly, if somebody asked me if you were capable of this, I would say absolutely not.
ChrisI know under zero circumstances, I am.
SyedTrying so hard to bite my tongue.
SyedBut today, something changed today.
SyedToday.
ChrisToday is the day.
SyedApproximately three hours ago, I.
SyedI hit, like a inflection point.
SyedYeah.
SyedAnd I didn't go off.
SyedLike, the old me would have been like, what in the actual fuck is going?
SyedLike, you know, enough said.
SyedNo.
SyedYeah.
SyedI'm like, what?
SyedNo.
SyedI'm putting my.
SyedNo.
ChrisOkay, Right.
SyedI walked in, and when you walk in the front door, there's a shoe rack.
SyedRight.
SyedAnd a little table.
SyedIt's got Buddha on it.
ChrisRight.
SyedBy the way, not a witch.
SyedRight.
ChrisOkay.
SyedRight.
SyedSo, you know, we got an evil eye.
ChrisGotta.
ChrisGotta have that.
SyedYou know, I'm brown.
ChrisYeah, I got it.
ChrisI got it too.
SyedYeah.
SyedAnd I put my shoes away, put my backpack down, and I'm like, yo, is it Halloween?
ChrisWhat do you mean?
SyedThe fuck.
SyedI'm looking around and I'm like, why is there a broom, like a stick, like a witch's broom by the front door?
ChrisLike some Harry Potter.
SyedYeah, yeah, man.
SyedLike some Harry Potter style shit with, like, some, like, flowers on it and shit.
SyedAnd I'm like.
ChrisWhat is it?
ChrisSo what?
SyedHold on.
ChrisYou add.
ChrisYou asked.
SyedSo I'm like, hey, honey, this looks like a.
SyedLike a witch's broom by the front door.
ChrisOkay?
SyedAnd she's like, yeah, yeah.
SyedIt's just decorative.
SyedAnd I'm like, is it though?
ChrisDecorative?
SyedSo I had to go upstairs and have a secret, like, a conversation with her.
SyedI'm like, honey, like, I don't want to be insensitive.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
SyedBut you know you can't fly, right?
ChrisWe're establishing.
SyedShe said, what do you mean?
SyedI'm just saying, like, I don't want you to get on this and jump off the balcony.
SyedYeah, yeah.
SyedLike, I just want to make sure we're cool.
ChrisOkay.
ChrisOkay.
SyedNo, it's just decorative.
SyedAnd I'm like, but you have cauldrons.
SyedLittle cauldrons in, like, you know, I'm worried.
ChrisSo is that the only new piece at the house?
SyedBro, that's a pretty significant piece.
ChrisBut hold on.
ChrisShe's saying it's decorative if you got to take her for her word.
ChrisI mean, she's been.
ChrisShe's been straightforward with you about everything else.
SyedAt what point do I come home and say, like, there's a problem when she's wearing the witch's hat?
ChrisNo, she's not doing the whole witch's hat thing.
SyedI mean, what point?
SyedWhere do I go?
ChrisThis isn't as.
ChrisThis isn't as bad as the.
ChrisAs the baths, bro.
ChrisOr the Pasting.
ChrisThis is not.
ChrisThis is not.
SyedThis came after that.
SyedThis is.
SyedThis is more.
ChrisNo.
ChrisWhat?
ChrisThat's just one little broom, bro.
ChrisIt's not a big deal.
SyedHow do I explain that?
SyedPeople come in the house.
SyedYeah.
SyedWhat is not Halloween, bro.
ChrisIn Carter things, all this is just normal.
SyedI do.
SyedAnd that's what I'm worried about.
SyedHow's he gonna go to school, tell people?
SyedDoes your mom cast spells?
SyedNo.
SyedOh, yeah.
SyedIt's.
SyedLook, and I know.
SyedI know.
SyedI know she means well.
SyedI know it's something that she feels deeply connected to, and I'm trying to be respectful, but, man, I.
SyedI just.
SyedSo we don't understand.
ChrisSo back to that point about Carter going to school and what conversations he might have.
ChrisSo some of the.
ChrisSome of the fibs we have told the kids are.
ChrisI'm worried that they're going to start catching up to us soon.
SyedThey will.
SyedYeah.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisReally quickly.
SyedYeah.
ChrisSo our kids are.
ChrisThey're very.
ChrisThey like to be very clean.
ChrisOkay.
ChrisWhen.
ChrisEspecially when it comes around the bathroom time, right?
ChrisThey go number two.
ChrisThey like.
ChrisThey need to be washed.
ChrisOkay.
ChrisWe've taught them how to use the bidet at home and do all that.
ChrisThey just feel the need for them.
ChrisThey just need to be clean for.
SyedAnybody listens to the show and they're like, you know, Chris has always talked about Saeed's house being big and having a.
SyedLike, a name and in being like, an estate, obviously.
SyedI don't have a bidet, bro.
ChrisYou house.
ChrisI got it from Amazon, bro.
ChrisI installed it myself.
ChrisWhat do you mean?
SyedI don't care.
ChrisIt attaches to your.
SyedAmazon also sells houses.
SyedWhat you want me to say?
SyedAmazon.
SyedAmazon supplies everything.
ChrisWe buy the house from Jeff.
SyedYou don't think the Saudis don't buy.
ChrisStuff from Amazon, by the way, y'all Rich buy Mark Zuckerberg in the doghouse for show.
SyedWhy?
SyedBecause he looked Lauren Sanchez.
ChrisYeah, like that, bro.
SyedThat's not his fault.
ChrisThat's.
SyedDon't put that on him.
ChrisNo, but that was like a glare, bro.
SyedShe's wearing lingerie to the inauguration.
SyedHe's probably thinking to himself, like, God damn it, I got to sit next to you.
SyedI'm being photos with you wearing a lace bra.
ChrisThat's a.
ChrisThat's like a bit like.
ChrisCome on, Jeff.
SyedJeff, talk to your girl.
ChrisThat's a.
ChrisThat's a bit much, bro.
SyedI mean, can we, like.
ChrisIf I'm Mark.
ChrisIf I'm Mark, I'm looking at Jeff like, yo, man, get it together.
SyedHere's what we don't know.
SyedYou don't.
SyedI mean, keep in mind, this guy just came out and said tossing.
ChrisAnd why isn't Jeff sitting next to Mark, who's on the other side of that?
SyedWhy is Jeff behind her?
SyedWasn't he behind her?
ChrisNo, no, he was next to her.
ChrisBut like, why aren't you sitting next to Mark?
ChrisWhy are you sitting on the other side?
ChrisRight.
ChrisThat's a little weird, right?
SyedFor all we know, Mark looked at her, looked at her bra and looked at Jeff and be like, yo, man, what's this?
SyedWhat you doing?
ChrisYeah, come on.
SyedCan't afford a shirt.
ChrisYeah, exactly.
ChrisDamn, man.
ChrisGet that on prime right now.
SyedThe Internet got him on.
ChrisYeah, he got.
ChrisHe's got a girl, right?
SyedMark Zuckerberg.
SyedYeah, he's married with kids, man.
ChrisMarried with kids.
ChrisOh, wow.
ChrisI didn't know.
ChrisYeah, that's how.
ChrisHe's.
SyedAsian wife.
SyedVery smart lady.
ChrisYeah.
SyedVery intelligent.
ChrisGeez.
ChrisYeah, I forgot where.
SyedOh, so you imagine being her and like, you've seen the memes on the Internet now.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisSo the.
ChrisThe lies that are catching up to us is like.
ChrisWell, we've told them why we always wanted to be clean about it all is like, if you go number two, you have to.
ChrisWe have to wash this.
ChrisYou have to let me know when you do go number two so I can wash you.
ChrisThis is at a very early age, Right.
ChrisAnd the questions of why, of course always happens, because if you don't, you're gonna get worms, bro.
SyedWhy would you do that?
ChrisI.
SyedThat's so scary.
ChrisIt's so, so, so why would you do that?
ChrisI know, I know.
ChrisIt's really.
ChrisI.
ChrisNow, in hindsight.
ChrisWorms.
SyedFucking third world country.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisIf you don't, your bubble is going to get worms in it.
ChrisRight?
ChrisSo they're like.
ChrisSo now we don't know how to backtrack and be like, oh, mommy, daddy lied about yo.
SyedThat's wrong.
ChrisRight?
SyedThat you're a terrible human being.
ChrisSo.
ChrisSo, so they.
ChrisSo they come home the other day from school and threaten your kid with parasites.
ChrisSo first of all, the first thing.
ChrisThe 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.
ChrisRight.
ChrisIt could come and take sticks that they both take their shoes off, wash their hands and face.
ChrisAnd then Adam stays upstairs and he's like.
ChrisAnd I'm like, adam, what's going on?
ChrisCome downstairs.
ChrisLike, I have to wash myself.
ChrisI don't want to get worms.
ChrisAnd I.
ChrisIn that moment, I realized, damn, I up.
SyedOh, why?
SyedWhy are you going extreme?
SyedWhy can't you say your butt will be itchy?
ChrisI know.
ChrisSay worms, but, bro, they don't know.
ChrisBut being itchy.
ChrisAt three, my kid.
ChrisBro.
ChrisBoth my kids potty trained.
SyedAt two.
SyedOkay.
ChrisAt two.
SyedFirst of all, my son, who's five.
ChrisYes.
SyedWill close the door on me and be like, dad, I want privacy.
ChrisYeah.
SyedAnd close the door on my face.
SyedAnd he's in there, like, playing around.
SyedI hear you.
SyedYeah.
ChrisYou're not.
SyedWhat you doing?
SyedYeah.
ChrisYou're not.
SyedHe's like, I'm going to the bathroom.
SyedI'm like, it doesn't sound like it.
ChrisI know.
ChrisI have.
ChrisI know I've caught my kids taking, like, books and toys, and I'm like, what are you doing?
ChrisThis is not the area.
ChrisThis is gross.
ChrisStop.
ChrisLeave this shit up.
ChrisGo in there, take care of business, come back out and do whatever.
ChrisSo you want to do, like, as if you don't get enough time to play with this.
SyedYou know, when I was.
SyedWhen I was younger, a younger man.
ChrisYeah.
SyedAnd I was single, I could not go to the bathroom with somebody hearing me.
SyedI turned the water on.
ChrisI'm very.
ChrisYou know, I come to you.
ChrisI'm still very much like that.
ChrisI don't know why.
ChrisIt's like, I don't view it as, like.
ChrisI don't want to gross other people out.
ChrisThat's the thing.
SyedHere's what you need to do.
SyedOkay.
SyedYou need to marry a Filipino.
SyedOkay.
SyedMy wife, from the very early onset.
ChrisYeah.
SyedMy wife moved in on the second date.
SyedOkay.
SyedEarly on, she.
SyedShe did not.
SyedShe has no boundaries.
SyedLike, she.
SyedShe doesn't care.
SyedShe wants come in and talk to you.
ChrisYeah.
SyedLike, she.
SyedI went from, like, not being able to be any.
SyedLike, I would go, literally go downstairs, go to the bathroom with the water running and then go back upstairs where she was.
SyedI didn't want her to hear or smell.
ChrisYeah.
SyedNow I'm, like, talking to her.
SyedI'm sitting there like, yo, what's up?
SyedSorry.
SyedWhat's up?
SyedYeah, it's.
SyedIt's just so.
SyedI'm weird.
ChrisI'm.
ChrisI'm.
ChrisI'm still very much the guy where.
ChrisIf I come over to your house, I'm invited over to your house for the first time.
ChrisI haven't been there before.
ChrisThe first thing I'm doing is scoping out where the bathroom is in comparison to where.
ChrisWhere everyone's going to be sitting on.
SyedMy House, the worst.
ChrisI'm like.
ChrisI'm like, oh, I can't come back here ever again.
ChrisThis is unacceptable.
SyedMy house.
SyedThe worst.
SyedYou're in.
SyedEverybody going to hear you.
ChrisYeah, everybody.
SyedYou can't.
SyedYou can't get away from it.
SyedIt's the worst bathroom place in between the living room and the kitchen.
ChrisYeah, right there.
SyedIt's the worst.
SyedThere is not a place that you will not be heard.
ChrisYeah, you don't care.
ChrisYou make people feel uncomfortable.
ChrisIf you hear somebody in the bathroom, you're calling them out while they're still in the bathroom.
SyedI'm outside.
ChrisYeah.
SyedHey, man, I hear you in there.
ChrisYou didn't sit down, bro.
ChrisFlush nothing, but nothing bothers me more than people coming over and not sitting down.
SyedWhat do you mean?
ChrisThe fact that you don't know that tells me exactly where you are.
SyedWhat do you mean not sitting down?
ChrisWhen you go number one in my house, bro, you ass better be sitting down.
ChrisDon't be standing up there.
ChrisThis is not a public restroom.
SyedI'm a dude.
ChrisWhat do you mean you're a dude?
ChrisSit your ass down.
ChrisWhat are you talking about?
ChrisYeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
ChrisThat's gross, bro.
ChrisThe splatter everywhere.
ChrisWho's supposed to.
ChrisI'm supposed to clean it.
ChrisI'm supposed to clean your piss on the floor.
SyedOkay, first of all, I don't have splatter everywhere.
SyedBy the time I'm actually going to the bathroom, it's probably like an inch and a half away from the water.
SyedOkay.
SyedSo it's just going.
ChrisOh, okay, okay.
SyedIt's not.
SyedThere's no splatter.
ChrisI see what you're doing here.
SyedYeah, It's.
SyedIt's just.
SyedYou drop the anchor down.
SyedDo your thing.
SyedPull the anchor back up.
SyedIt's not like.
SyedI don't.
SyedI don't.
SyedI 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.
ChrisYeah.
SyedOn the wax paper ass gasket and think you're safe.
SyedIt's not.
SyedIt's not doing you any favors, bro.
ChrisHonestly, we could sell that.
ChrisWe could sell that online.
ChrisOur own higher standard ass gaskets.
ChrisPeople buy.
ChrisSo we have.
ChrisSo we have a.
ChrisA picture in our bathroom.
ChrisRight.
ChrisFor those.
ChrisFor the guests.
ChrisNo, no, no.
ChrisSo if you were to sit down and you look at it, there's a picture there.
ChrisSo 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.
ChrisOr 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.
ChrisWhen they come back out, I'll be like, oh, I know you didn't sit down because you didn't.
ChrisYou didn't bring up the picture.
ChrisOtherwise you would have said something.
ChrisAnd 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.
ChrisYou know what I mean?
ChrisIt's the whole thing.
SyedSo what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna dehydrate.
SyedI'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.
SyedYeah, the neon pee.
SyedPee everywhere.
SyedHow did we get here?
ChrisI know, I know.
ChrisThat's probably my fault.
SyedSo it's definitely.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisSomewhere.
SyedWorms.
SyedWhat a worse move.
ChrisI know.
ChrisI feel bad.
ChrisI'm gonna have to admit.
SyedShould feel bad.
ChrisThe problem is, if I admit this lie, it's like.
SyedThen it's like gummy worms are real worms, too.
ChrisNow they're questioning everything.
ChrisIf I admit.
SyedIf I admit to this, you're a terrible human being.
ChrisRight.
ChrisOh, by the way, that's a minute, hour and 20.
ChrisWhatever.
ChrisWe got time, people.
ChrisProbably checked out already.
ChrisIf you haven't.
ChrisThank you so much.
SyedMake.
ChrisIf you're watching this on YouTube, it's.
SyedToo late to do this.
ChrisI know, but if you have.
ChrisI know.
ChrisThey already have.
ChrisRight?
SyedYou would imagine.
SyedIf you haven't subscribed by now.
ChrisWho are you?
ChrisWhy are you here?
ChrisYeah.
ChrisOh, God.
ChrisWe got to read the review too.
SyedOkay.
SyedDo you have something else you want to talk about?
ChrisI did want to say something.
ChrisI lost my train of thought.
ChrisHold on.
ChrisI got to read this review because we always promise that we do.
SyedJesus.
ChrisWe got another five star honest review.
SyedWe did.
SyedIt was good one.
ChrisThis from Corey V1.
ChrisRemember this review is from Corey V1.
ChrisNot anyone from the higher standard.
ChrisRight.
SyedAllegedly.
SyedWe don't know that to be true.
SyedAll I know is that it showed up and I'm grateful for it.
ChrisHottest show around.
Chris5 stars, hot.
ChrisClearly honest.
SyedYeah.
ChrisYou can tell this show was created in Cali because this show is fire.
SyedA little too soon.
SyedAppreciate the sentiment.
ChrisA little insensitive.
ChrisI get where it's coming from.
ChrisI respect.
SyedI do slightly Too soon.
ChrisSlightly too soon.
ChrisI respect it.
ChrisI respect the effort.
SyedYeah.
SyedMaybe after it rains here a little bit.
ChrisYeah, let's get out of the drought, right?
ChrisHonestly, this show is always my go to weekly podcast.
ChrisEver since Chris's guest appearance on Mind Pump.
ChrisMind Pump.
ChrisMind Pump.
SyedYeah, I'm out here doing my thing.
ChrisYeah, I've been listening to it religiously.
ChrisI even from time to time will watch them on YouTube to see number one dad.
ChrisClearly not me and bodybuilder Chris.
SyedAlthough, I don't know, you can be the number one dad when you're lying to your kids, telling them to get parasites.
ChrisI feel like you're lying to your kids about Santa and what is it?
ChrisLet's see here.
ChrisSee Bodybuilder Chris in their full peptide pumping glory.
ChrisThere you go.
ChrisShow just got flagged.
ChrisI miss my baby girl maker.
ChrisOdun, in the famous words of Papa Pal.
ChrisThank you.
ChrisJust close the effing door.
SyedThere you go.
ChrisI respect it, Corey.
ChrisThank you, my man.
SyedSolid review.
SyedThank you, Corey.
SyedI appreciate you.
ChrisYou can leave us an honest 5 star review on Apple Podcasts if you listen to us there.
ChrisOr you can just leave us a good five star review over on Spotify.
SyedI tried to talk around and come back and he left me on Red, but he's busy.
SyedYeah, he still left me on Red.
SyedThat's a fact.
SyedThat happened.
SyedHe was saying it's busy though.
ChrisNo, he responded eventually.
SyedNo, he didn't.
ChrisYeah, he did.
SyedNo, look at the last message I sent in the group thread, which, by the way, you don't read either.
SyedYou left me on Reddit.
SyedYou never responded.
ChrisYou're in, you're in.
ChrisI got you right here.
SyedJust to be clear, I sent a message to the group with you included, and you never responded to any of the messages.
SyedOh, why would I send a message to the group?
SyedHold on, let me respond for you not to respond.
ChrisLet me respond on the show.
SyedOkay, thank you so much for.
SyedFor doing that.
SyedIt's approximately 10:56 at night.
ChrisThere you go.
ChrisYou know what I'm hitting them with too.
SyedFour days later three days later Today was it?
ChrisNo, it was yesterday, bro.
ChrisRelax.
ChrisWhy are you so.
ChrisDon't be.
ChrisWhy are you so sensitive?
ChrisBecause I've got parasites and the toes are out.
ChrisAll right, you got anything else for the show?
SyedNo, I apologize that today wasn't this robust source of information.
SyedBut you know what?
ChrisThat's.
ChrisNo.
SyedSometimes we need a mental break.
ChrisNo, not just that.
ChrisI thought today's shows, I mean, it's informative.
ChrisIt's.
SyedYou've never walked away from a single show going, that's your socks act.
ChrisI have.
SyedNo, you haven't.
ChrisI'll tell you after the show on the ones that I thought.
SyedOkay, fine.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisIt's going to be off the record.
SyedOkay.
ChrisYeah.
SyedWell, all right.
ChrisGot any?
SyedNo.
ChrisGood night, everybody.
SyedOkay, bye.