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Episode 266

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Published on:

28th Jan 2025

Why Your 401k Isn’t Enough: The Real Path to Wealth

The Jeff Goldbum of podcasting, Chris Naghibi, and the Louie Anderson of podcasting, Saied Omar, are back, and this time they're tackling the economy with unfocused and unstructured charm. Starting with a light-hearted critique of Chris' newfound love for wearing green—a strategy he swears is to win favor at home but admits has been a complete flop. From there, the duo launches into the harsh realities of wage stagnation and rising home prices, painting a vivid picture of how even modest salary increases are devoured by the ever-growing beast of inflation. They break down why the average American is essentially on a financial hamster wheel, running faster but getting nowhere.

➡️ Amid the numbers and economic analysis, Chris and Saied keep it relatable with personal anecdotes, like Chris recounting his transition from being overly sensitive to criticism to leaning into the jokes—a move that’s made life a lot more enjoyable (even if Saied insists he still hasn’t fully let go). The conversation turns to actionable advice, encouraging listeners to take charge of their financial futures by stepping out of their comfort zones and treating financial growth like fitness: intimidating at first, but life-changing with consistency. If you’ve ever wanted a masterclass in turning financial stress into a strategy, this episode is your comedic and educational golden ticket.

💥 Have you left your "honest ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️" review?

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🔗 Resources:

These boys went so off script, there are no links. Amateur hour right?

⚠️ Disclaimer: Please note that the content shared on this show is solely for entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal or investment advice or attributed to any company. The views and opinions expressed are personal and not reflective of any entity. We do not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided, and listeners are urged to seek professional advice before making any legal or financial decisions. By listening to The Higher Standard podcast you agree to these terms, and the show, its hosts and employees are not liable for any consequences arising from your use of the content.

Transcript
Chris:

Rocking a lot of military green.

Syed:

I noticed the.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Okay.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Just a little bit more.

Chris:

Get you some brownie points.

Syed:

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

Syed:

As, well, something changes.

Chris:

Good man.

Chris:

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

Syed:

That's who we are.

Chris:

That is what we do.

Syed:

That's what we do.

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Thank you, my man.

Syed:

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

Syed:

They both got beards.

Syed:

They both look kind of sweetheart, which.

Chris:

Is acceptable if they listen to the show.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yeah, that's.

Syed:

That's.

Syed:

That's.

Syed:

That's a little Right.

Chris:

I had a listener send me.

Chris:

Send me a reel that they had seen.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

I welcome it.

Syed:

What are you gonna do?

Syed:

You stop it.

Chris:

Block.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

I've gotten way more.

Syed:

Social media has taught me anything.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

It was such a stigmatized thing back then.

Syed:

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

Syed:

How I responded to people.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

But.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

But I respond collegially, right?

Syed:

But it used to get under my skin.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Block.

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

Easy.

Chris:

Yeah, Easy solution.

Syed:

Don't even think twice about it.

Syed:

Just block.

Syed:

I wish I could do it in real life.

Chris:

Imagine.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

Block.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

Every time you.

Syed:

Every time you were blocked, you were blocked.

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

I know.

Chris:

And then my friends.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Say he takes it way too seriously.

Chris:

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

Syed:

I feel like you really haven't, though.

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

Know that off camera, you come back.

Chris:

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

Chris:

If you have real friends, they make it worse.

Syed:

Yeah, they make it worse.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Chris:

DJ Odoon.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

He does not exist.

Syed:

He's a figment of your imagination, Right?

Syed:

He is essentially Brad Pitt and Fight Club, right?

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

Or he may or may not be real.

Chris:

Or Bruce Willis.

Syed:

Or Bruce Willis.

Syed:

And sixth cents.

Chris:

Yes.

Syed:

Yes.

Chris:

Good job.

Syed:

Six cents.

Syed:

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

Syed:

No, I think he did.

Chris:

Really?

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

I think.

Syed:

I think I paid like a hundred million.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

It was.

Chris:

It was after I had kids.

Chris:

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

Chris:

That's true, though.

Chris:

Like, movies hit different now.

Chris:

Go back and watch some old movies.

Syed:

No, that's true.

Syed:

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

Syed:

No, it's.

Syed:

It's 100 true.

Syed:

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

Syed:

And it's just a very.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Oh, the kids don't see dad.

Chris:

Go back and watch John Q I.

Syed:

Never actually saw the whole thing.

Chris:

Oh, okay.

Chris:

Well, I mean, you get the concept.

Chris:

You can only imagine how it hits different now.

Syed:

There's a lot of movies like that that.

Syed:

That were really popular that I just chose not to.

Syed:

Not to.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

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

Chris:

So it's not the same anymore.

Chris:

I don't know.

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

You see that special snl, his monologue?

Syed:

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

Chris:

I mean, he's spectacular.

Syed:

And he went after your boy.

Syed:

Did he?

Chris:

Rightfully so.

Chris:

I thought it would.

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

The bit.

Chris:

It's like, it was.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Yeah, he was like.

Syed:

He's like.

Syed:

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

Chris:

All your friends were invited.

Chris:

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

Syed:

That's a terrible way to find out.

Syed:

You ugly.

Chris:

Yeah, exactly.

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

I thought today was the non financial literacy.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah.

Chris:

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

Chris:

But before we do that.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

Did you just, like, straight pimp slap my.

Syed:

My.

Syed:

My notes?

Chris:

No, no, I'm.

Chris:

I'm.

Chris:

This is the segue, bro.

Chris:

This is the alley to your oop.

Syed:

I don't feel like it is.

Syed:

I feel like.

Syed:

I feel like you just owned that.

Chris:

You see it coming.

Syed:

Jesus.

Chris:

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

Chris:

You should technically have more buying power and.

Chris:

And the reverse.

Chris:

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

Syed:

But that isn't quite how it works.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Well, they're skewed.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Sorry, I'm not getting emotional.

Syed:

You're getting emotional.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

Hold on a second.

Chris:

What's your allergies, bro?

Chris:

What's going on?

Chris:

You do need an air filtration system.

Chris:

Is that what's going on?

Syed:

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

Syed:

Happens a lot to me.

Syed:

Come on, try to restrain, restrain yourself.

Syed:

Restrain yourself.

Syed:

Yeah, yeah, wrong hole.

Syed:

data that comes out recapping:

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

So homes went up, no big deal.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah, absolutely.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Compound with us, baby.

Chris:

Yeah, compound with us.

Syed:

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

Syed:

It is some Gucci stuff, as the kids say.

Chris:

Hannah hooked up to.

Syed:

Hannah did hook it up.

Syed:

All right, so in:

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

But I mean, that's the average.

Syed:

That's the, that's the numbers.

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Exactly.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

% in:

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Not a huge delta right.

Syed:

year over year going back to:

Syed:

That's average.

Syed:

So this was still better than an average year historically.

Chris:

Okay.

Syed:

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

Syed:

econd smallest increase since:

Syed:

So home prices since:

Syed:

econd smallest increase since:

Chris:

Wow.

Syed:

That's pretty crazy when you think about it.

Syed:

It's 12 years later.

Syed:

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

Syed:

It just kind of is an inflationary trend.

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

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

Syed:

price in the United States in:

Syed:

$400.

Syed:

Right, we've covered that.

Syed:

And it's.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Okay, we'll get in there.

Chris:

Okay.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Oh, you did some homework tonight?

Chris:

I did do some homework tonight.

Syed:

That's so Weird.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Let's just call it 5%.

Chris:

Right?

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yes.

Chris:

So think about that.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Now we're well above $420,000.

Chris:

Right?

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

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

Syed:

So this really scares me.

Syed:

And I'm going to.

Syed:

I'll get back to this in a minute.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

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

Chris:

We could say that.

Syed:

We can say that.

Chris:

Years.

Syed:

We are tenured, seasoned.

Chris:

We are tenured.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

Am I tenured here?

Chris:

Am I good?

Chris:

Am I ever.

Syed:

I mean, I can't fire you.

Syed:

I've tried it.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right?

Chris:

Turn the cameras on.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Now, 266, this particular episode.

Syed:

We got to do something special for the 300.

Chris:

Have to.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Like what?

Syed:

I'm glad you asked.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

They're low cost wages.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Like, we have this arrogance about us as Americans.

Syed:

Well, they gladly took manufacturing from us.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Instead, what happened didn't happen.

Syed:

The American dream didn't happen.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Inherent truths are not necessarily inherent truths.

Syed:

They are truths that were manufactured.

Chris:

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

Syed:

We have.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right, who were going to employ all.

Syed:

These people, the Vanderbilts, the Rothschilds.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

They don't want those turnover.

Syed:

They wanted somebody who's disciplined.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

And for a long time that was true.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

That's when the American dream was being sold.

Syed:

That's how it was being sold.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

They were all the same.

Syed:

Cars were all the same.

Syed:

Everybody had effectively the same jobs.

Syed:

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

Syed:

You know, one person got a color tv.

Syed:

Oh my God, color tv.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

You just saw your neighborhood.

Syed:

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

Syed:

We're not a caste based system.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

But we thought we were superior.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Well, that didn't really materialize us.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Manual physical labor jobs, trade jobs are still very.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

Nor do they fear it.

Syed:

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

Syed:

That failed.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

It's going to sound facetious.

Syed:

I'll use myself as an example.

Syed:

I am taxed just under 50%, right.

Chris:

In large part due to the state.

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

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

Syed:

58%.

Chris:

Forget it.

Syed:

Yeah, right.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

I'm grateful for that.

Syed:

But how is a system that tax.

Syed:

Taxes you between 50 to 58%.

Syed:

How does that enable you to become wealthy?

Syed:

It doesn't.

Syed:

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

Syed:

It's an impediment.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

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

Syed:

And the tax laws completely change.

Syed:

Why?

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

But.

Chris:

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

Chris:

The law.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

Is.

Chris:

Is not taught well.

Syed:

It's not supposed to be.

Syed:

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

Syed:

They have sophisticated financial people.

Syed:

Some of them have CFOs that run their lives.

Syed:

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

Syed:

In managing their assets over time and building wealth.

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Chris:

E.

Chris:

G.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Private equity is in control.

Syed:

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

Syed:

How much?

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

And that's not me being braggadocious.

Syed:

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

Syed:

We all know each other.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

We should be in a recession.

Syed:

That's just the truth.

Syed:

But we're not.

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

tart really picked up back in:

Chris:

This problem is.

Chris:

Has not just been a pandemic Covid problem.

Syed:

No.

Syed:

When you look from:

Syed:

And it's a very.

Syed:

Home prices are good parallel.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

And that's been kind of the.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

And I posed the question, something has to break.

Syed:

Because if.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

So.

Syed:

Yeah, right, yeah, whatever.

Syed:

You know, it was pretty fair.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Right, yeah.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

They don't really understand what they are.

Chris:

Okay.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah, exactly.

Syed:

Let's keep it basic private money to invest.

Syed:

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

Syed:

It's usually institutional.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Lifecoat, Very, very cheap money.

Syed:

Banks, a little more expensive money.

Syed:

So it just depends on what their funds cost them.

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

Some private equity funds are incredibly aggressive.

Syed:

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

Syed:

They want big paydays.

Chris:

Oh, yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

And they've got longer durations in their.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right?

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

But there's an entire ecosystem built around this.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

And it scares me.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Fine.

Syed:

But housing isn't solved.

Chris:

No.

Syed:

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

Syed:

And government spending clearly has been a problem.

Syed:

Government hiring has been a massive problem.

Syed:

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

Syed:

And it's a spinning house of cards.

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

Everybody makes money until they don't.

Chris:

And that's a scary thing, Right.

Chris:

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

Chris:

That can ultimately prop up the economy.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

Whatever it is that they want to use.

Syed:

Oh, yeah.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

But that isn't the case anymore.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

Not just billionaires, trillionaires.

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

It's a huge difference.

Syed:

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

Chris:

And those.

Chris:

That word just gets thrown around now.

Chris:

Billion.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

So.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

But are they independent and free?

Syed:

No.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

Like, Shaq's not wealthy.

Chris:

Shaq's rich guy signing his check.

Chris:

He's wealthy.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Yeah, well, not anymore.

Chris:

I mean, this is the old shack.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Fast forward to now.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

And look, Shaq is now wealthy.

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Talking about back of his playing time.

Syed:

And he himself is a brand.

Syed:

But it's a very valid point.

Syed:

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

Syed:

And I'll use myself as an example.

Syed:

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

Syed:

I'm a multimillionaire.

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

I worry about money every day of my life still.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yeah, I got a lot of things going on.

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

Money.

Syed:

Yeah, I'm still getting fucked money.

Chris:

Getting fucked money.

Chris:

Yeah, exactly.

Chris:

What's the threshold?

Chris:

What do you think that threshold is?

Chris:

When does it cross over into fuck you money?

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Really, you know?

Syed:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Syed:

I don't.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Like, there's a real power money.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Well, he's in.

Chris:

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

Chris:

That can humble him very quickly.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

And that.

Syed:

That's.

Syed:

That's perspective.

Syed:

And I.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

It's so taboo.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Why did they even talk about it?

Chris:

They're more concerned with power.

Syed:

Yeah, and that's exactly right.

Syed:

They're more concerned with power.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

And often, more often, than not.

Syed:

They're the ones who get paid the most.

Syed:

But the money's.

Syed:

They almost, like, expect it.

Syed:

But they are obsessed with power and image.

Chris:

Mm.

Syed:

They are obsessed with it.

Syed:

I was having a conversation earlier today.

Chris:

With the power comes the money.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

But it's weird.

Syed:

Like, it's.

Syed:

It's never enough power.

Chris:

Yes.

Syed:

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

Syed:

I am powerful because I command this much money.

Syed:

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

Chris:

It's part of the game.

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Okay.

Syed:

This is the kind of guy who takes private jets.

Syed:

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

Syed:

He's doing quite well for himself.

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

And he's.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Right.

Chris:

Okay.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Wow.

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

Was making well over 30 million a year.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

They were making more at some points, I think.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

They're positioning people to.

Chris:

I know.

Chris:

There's a whole conversation about that dog fight.

Syed:

They named a new chief operating officer.

Syed:

I was very upset.

Syed:

I was looked off for that job.

Syed:

Very upset.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Not even like, hey, this position is available.

Syed:

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

Chris:

The Whatever crazy tenure organization knowledge.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Nothing.

Syed:

Not even, like a text.

Syed:

Like, yo, dog, heads up.

Syed:

I'm going with somebody else.

Syed:

Like, nothing.

Chris:

No appreciation for what we provide.

Syed:

Like, you know.

Syed:

You know, I'm here un.

Chris:

It comes with the podcast.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

I'm just.

Syed:

Is it because I'm on the podcast?

Syed:

You don't want the shine?

Syed:

That's what it is.

Chris:

That's what it is.

Syed:

You know?

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

Chris is too good at that.

Syed:

I can't take that away from him.

Chris:

Right, right, right, right.

Syed:

We don't want to disappoint the fans.

Syed:

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

Syed:

I want to continue giving you the gumdrops and lollipops.

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

All the moist.

Chris:

Good, good stuff.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

I chose the moistness over the power.

Syed:

Who knew?

Chris:

Right?

Syed:

But we were talking about.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

But these CEOs are not humble about it at all.

Chris:

How so?

Syed:

He was just telling me.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

I know they're making way less than me.

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Like I'm empowered.

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

I'm just saying.

Chris:

Yeah, I know that they were talking about.

Syed:

There's.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

No, no.

Chris:

There's always a bigger one.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

Usually Saudis.

Chris:

Yeah, always Saudis.

Syed:

It's much bigger.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

40% of homes are paid off in cash.

Syed:

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

Syed:

In Altadena, exactly.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

Tell that to people who got to rebuild their home.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

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

Chris:

So let me ask you this, then.

Chris:

It's.

Chris:

It's not sustainable.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Look, if you can buy, buy.

Syed:

I'm never going to say no to that.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Date the rate, marry the home.

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Make sure you can afford the.

Chris:

Afford the payment at what it is now.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

And your mortgage payment should fall somewhere with.

Chris:

It falls in line in the 60% range.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Everyone's being stretched a little bit more thin.

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

It's like a byproduct.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

That's a very.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

What are your thoughts?

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Right.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

No, I'll give advice.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

And home prices were $5.

Syed:

Okay?

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

You know what I mean?

Syed:

Like, I'm Just saying.

Syed:

Yeah, this is, this is what I do.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

Yeah, it's crazy.

Syed:

And for people to think that.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Rates didn't go down.

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

of fact, rates ended the year:

Syed:

% in:

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

So exactly.

Chris:

And that's a really good point.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

Yeah, it ended up being a spectacular.

Chris:

People are envious of that position.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

And I would.

Chris:

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

Syed:

So let me give you some color here.

Syed:

Right?

Chris:

Give me color.

Syed:

for the average American in:

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Don't worry, Daddy got you.

Chris:

Daddy got you.

Syed:

up with a monthly payment for:

Syed:

own on the average home, your:

Syed:

Now, excuse me, in:

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

That's not a lot.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Well, talk about swinging.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

If you financed the home in:

Syed:

Yes.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Combination of both are deadly.

Syed:

% of the wage increase in:

Syed:

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

Syed:

in:

Syed:

22 cents of wage growth the average American got.

Chris:

So you're all.

Chris:

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

Syed:

There's more.

Syed:

That's pre tax wage increase.

Chris:

There you go.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

And at its basic level.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

Even into long term low cost index funds.

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Syed:

I quite like it to go to the gym.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Like you see that person is just getting acclimated.

Chris:

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

Chris:

But once you get in.

Syed:

Yeah, right.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

They are willing to help and share information and knowledge.

Syed:

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

Syed:

They're trying.

Syed:

My mom just lost over half her body weight.

Syed:

She now weighs less than me for the first time.

Syed:

In my adult life.

Chris:

Shout out to Mama Bear.

Syed:

Shout out to Mama Bear.

Syed:

She's all into health and fitness.

Syed:

She jumped in.

Syed:

She's listening to podcast now.

Syed:

I got her on mind Pump Sex Seattle.

Syed:

So sexy.

Chris:

So sexy.

Syed:

Oh, I didn't mail him his shoes.

Syed:

Shit.

Chris:

More.

Chris:

More.

Chris:

More shoes.

Syed:

Yeah, I got him the Harto or.

Syed:

Damn it.

Syed:

There's special kind of dunks he wanted.

Chris:

Oh, he's.

Chris:

He's a dunk guy.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Chris:

When are you gonna give me some.

Chris:

Some of the white cements?

Syed:

You want those?

Chris:

I want those.

Syed:

I'll get them for you.

Chris:

At a premium.

Syed:

Seriously.

Syed:

No, I'll get them for you.

Chris:

Those are my.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Those are the fives, right?

Syed:

Jordan fives?

Chris:

No, the threes.

Syed:

Threes.

Syed:

Oh, okay.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Reimagine.

Syed:

The reimagine.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yeah, yeah.

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Really?

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

I've never worn them here though.

Syed:

These like my trophies.

Chris:

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

Syed:

There was a super luxe version.

Syed:

There's actually really cool too.

Syed:

You probably don't know this.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Like really, really nice.

Syed:

I want to buy those.

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

To customize it.

Syed:

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

Chris:

See all the kids on YouTube making videos, bro.

Syed:

I got like three pairs of those.

Chris:

You do?

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

You were done.

Syed:

No.

Syed:

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

Syed:

I've got a pair.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Those are made from the bloodlines originally.

Syed:

Not necessarily a white pair, but.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

Wow.

Syed:

I got some beaters.

Chris:

Some beaters.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Oh, there you go.

Chris:

Here's.

Chris:

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

Syed:

And they don't jump in.

Chris:

Approximately 38 of U.S.

Chris:

adults, equating to about 99 million individuals.

Chris:

Individuals do not invest in the stock market.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Damn.

Syed:

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

Chris:

What?

Syed:

And it pisses me off to no end.

Syed:

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

Syed:

And I don't give a.

Syed:

What anybody says.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

You're an employer.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yes.

Syed:

Everybody should want more.

Syed:

You want to know why not?

Chris:

But like not.

Chris:

It should be deserving.

Chris:

You should be working hard.

Syed:

Yes.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

Do whatever you got to do to earn it.

Chris:

But you should definitely.

Chris:

You should never be settling.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yes, I am encouraging people to be overly ambitious.

Syed:

Yes.

Syed:

Guess how you got your job, CEO.

Syed:

You were overly ambitious.

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

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

Syed:

They were ambitious.

Chris:

We wouldn't want.

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

Do we, do we want to raise a nation?

Syed:

They were satisfied.

Chris:

That are just content.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

But they're also gonna work harder for it.

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

As long as.

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

The, the proper expectations are laid out.

Chris:

Okay.

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Let me be clear.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Right?

Syed:

That ain't enough anymore.

Syed:

Okay?

Syed:

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

Syed:

Or in some cases they like their job.

Syed:

And good, you know, kudos to them.

Chris:

We had this conversation.

Chris:

We think the whole conversation over retirement is outdated.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Good for you.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Amazing.

Syed:

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

Syed:

You're in the workforce, I get it.

Syed:

I wouldn't want to retire either.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

And I'm telling them you should want more.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

This is, you know, years ago.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

And he goes, what is your expectation?

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

What do you mean, bro?

Chris:

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

Syed:

You know, I want to get in the PJ100.

Chris:

I want to get in the Yacht it Up Club.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Chris:

I want it all.

Syed:

I want boats and hoes.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

You know, now I just want boats.

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

Just the boats.

Syed:

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

Syed:

He's like, what?

Syed:

What are you thinking?

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

Why wouldn't I want that?

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

He was 55 when he stopped working.

Syed:

I said, yeah.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Bingo.

Syed:

You're not.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Yeah, Right.

Chris:

That.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Ultimately, if you can.

Chris:

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

Chris:

I mean, this.

Chris:

This stat right here tells it all.

Syed:

If.

Chris:

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

Chris:

You ready for this?

Chris:

The wealthiest 1% of Americans.

Chris:

I want to be one of the.

Syed:

I mean, I am not, by the way.

Chris:

You're not, right?

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

I AM the wealthiest 15 or 20%.

Chris:

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

Syed:

We should all aspire to that, Right?

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right?

Syed:

You cannot aspire to it.

Syed:

It's fine.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

Think about that.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Come on.

Chris:

Half dog.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

What are we talking about here?

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

We're talking about.

Syed:

Look again.

Syed:

Go back to the gym references.

Syed:

Because a lot of people listen to the show.

Syed:

They know.

Syed:

Right?

Syed:

We all know you should be lifting weights.

Chris:

Got to be.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

We all know you should be working out.

Syed:

We all know we should not be eating like fatties.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

And don't be wrong.

Syed:

I.

Syed:

I've been overweight in my life.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Diabetes runs in my family.

Chris:

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

Chris:

And there was definitely a downward spiral afterwards.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yeah, they.

Syed:

All right.

Syed:

But, yeah, look, I get it.

Syed:

We all know what we should be doing, right?

Syed:

But it's really, really, really hard.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah, Right.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yeah, that might be true.

Syed:

And Timothy might have good genetics.

Syed:

Timothy might be on some trt.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Chris:

He's putting.

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

There's reasons.

Syed:

There's a reason.

Syed:

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

Syed:

But we needed space.

Syed:

We needed to grow.

Syed:

Little financial motivation never hurt anybody.

Chris:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Syed:

Jesus.

Syed:

What are we doing?

Chris:

It's a step in the right direction.

Syed:

I hope so.

Syed:

Man, it's.

Syed:

The construction is gonna kill me.

Chris:

Mm.

Syed:

Yeah, probably.

Syed:

Literally, from the fiberglass.

Chris:

Did you get it on your hands?

Chris:

You're wearing gloves.

Syed:

I was wearing gloves.

Syed:

I was wearing a respirator.

Syed:

I had glasses on.

Chris:

Did it.

Chris:

You chose to do it without me?

Chris:

I don't understand.

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Is that what it is?

Syed:

No, no, not at all.

Syed:

I was looking out for your safety.

Chris:

Oh, thank you.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

So I'm slick.

Chris:

What does that mean?

Syed:

It means fiberglass particles won't stick to me.

Chris:

Oh, that's what it is.

Syed:

They'll stick to you.

Syed:

You're a giant all over the.

Syed:

You're basically like.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

It's just going to explode.

Syed:

All this fuzziness in the room rolling around.

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

It's just going to create a static charge.

Syed:

You know, whammy.

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

So back to this conversation.

Syed:

I'm just going to Leave that alone.

Chris:

I'm.

Chris:

Leave it alone.

Chris:

Because I'm Mr.

Chris:

Fuzzy Knuckles.

Chris:

It's okay.

Chris:

I'm okay with it.

Chris:

I've come to terms.

Chris:

I'm leaning into it, if you will.

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

It ain't that.

Syed:

Ain't that thick.

Syed:

Wolverine.

Chris:

Come on.

Chris:

Okay.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Like, what would you say to them.

Syed:

Man, this is going to sound.

Chris:

Because they wanted.

Chris:

Here's the problem.

Chris:

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

Chris:

I will let perfection get in the way of good.

Syed:

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

Syed:

I think for most people, like, if.

Chris:

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

Chris:

I need to get into the right one.

Syed:

You overanalyze you over, underwrite.

Syed:

You overthink.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

I do the same thing.

Syed:

Humans do that.

Syed:

That's just humans.

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

And there are some exceptions.

Syed:

Some people are just, like, wildly.

Syed:

Just type A aggressive, like, yolo.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Mm.

Syed:

I.

Syed:

Look, I don't know.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

In my stock market intelligence.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Certainly doing this.

Syed:

Excuse me.

Syed:

It's been a bad throw.

Syed:

Clearing item.

Syed:

Sorry.

Syed:

I think it's.

Syed:

Meet you.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

It all came together.

Syed:

There's still a lot missing.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

There's gaps in.

Syed:

In some of the things that even.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

And it's 100% accurate.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Let me see how much homes are in the Midwest.

Syed:

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

Chris:

You getting choked up over there?

Chris:

Talking about, getting emotional, bro.

Syed:

What's going on over here?

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

And then I did this simple math in my head.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

It was nerve wracking.

Syed:

It was scary.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

That he wouldn't invest in it.

Syed:

And that.

Syed:

That very much resonated in my head.

Syed:

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

Syed:

But I also thought technology was on my side.

Syed:

And I was very nervous.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

It was close.

Syed:

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

Syed:

It was in a different kind of community.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

The next year I bought another one.

Syed:

The next year I bought two.

Syed:

Next year I bought two.

Syed:

This.

Syed:

This kept going.

Chris:

And we understand that this.

Chris:

This situation isn't going to be for everyone.

Chris:

That's.

Chris:

That's not.

Chris:

That's not the driving point.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right, right.

Chris:

And just almost trusting the process.

Chris:

And what's the worst that could happen?

Syed:

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

Syed:

That's okay.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

So I just waited a couple months.

Syed:

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

Syed:

E.

Syed:

Tesla, I.

Syed:

E.

Syed:

Apple.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Chris:

The number rule number one, I think.

Syed:

Yeah, I may have read it.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

You haven't read it?

Chris:

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

Chris:

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

Look, some of these companies have peaks and valleys.

Syed:

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

Syed:

That's okay too.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

You're putting money away.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

But I stand by those decisions that I made then.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Could I invest in that?

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Don't be that guy.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yeah, don't do that.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

I'm now that guy in the gym.

Syed:

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

Syed:

What I do to train.

Chris:

Great page.

Syed:

Great page.

Syed:

Very wholesome.

Chris:

Yeah, exactly.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Your finances are the same thing.

Syed:

Same thing.

Chris:

Same thing.

Syed:

We're far enough into the show.

Chris:

That's a key takeaway where I can.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Oh, God, yeah.

Syed:

And I'm gonna.

Syed:

I'm gonna have to choose my words carefully.

Syed:

I love my wife.

Syed:

Love my wife.

Syed:

I adore her.

Chris:

Sounds like a disclaimer.

Syed:

It's a big disclaimer.

Chris:

It's a big ass disclaimer.

Syed:

She has gone down the rabbit hole.

Syed:

Started with gems.

Syed:

Gems, crystals and gems.

Chris:

Oh, gems.

Syed:

The energy and tapping in.

Syed:

Whatever.

Chris:

Okay.

Syed:

I don't judge people's religious beliefs.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Even my wife, people are close to me.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah, I, I respect that.

Chris:

That's my philosophy on religion as well.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Unless you're a sociopath.

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

But that being said, okay, whatever.

Syed:

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

Syed:

I drink energy drinks.

Syed:

That's my vice.

Chris:

Don't judge me.

Syed:

Maybe yours is rocks.

Syed:

You know, like so.

Syed:

And then it, then it escalated.

Syed:

Then she's like burning incense all the time.

Syed:

I'm alright, whatever.

Syed:

You know, smells good.

Syed:

Smoke around the house from time to time.

Syed:

All good.

Syed:

Whatever.

Chris:

I get that.

Chris:

Okay.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Okay, hold on.

Syed:

You.

Chris:

I know.

Chris:

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

Syed:

I want to support, but what is it?

Chris:

Was it.

Chris:

Where's this?

Chris:

Why can't it be her?

Chris:

Why does it got to be you?

Syed:

Because she's trying to help me.

Syed:

She's casting spells.

Chris:

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

Chris:

I'm good.

Chris:

I'm.

Chris:

I'm Gucci right where I am.

Syed:

So she's burning candles now.

Chris:

She should be coming home with Gucci belts on.

Syed:

It's trying to read the candles.

Syed:

Right?

Chris:

Read the candles.

Syed:

Because she's burning candles.

Chris:

What does read the candles mean?

Syed:

I don't know.

Syed:

Still trying to figure that out.

Chris:

Stop.

Syed:

When they.

Syed:

When they melt.

Syed:

You're not this person.

Chris:

You're not this person.

Syed:

I'm not.

Chris:

You're very inquisitive.

Chris:

You ask questions.

Syed:

No, no.

Syed:

But here's the problem, though.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Syed:

And I'm not.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

Why are you choosing to live Right?

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

The.

Chris:

What was it?

Chris:

It's the shower or.

Chris:

You're getting paste.

Chris:

You can paste it.

Syed:

I was kidding.

Syed:

I was getting pasted like a turkey.

Syed:

It was like cinnamon and, like, lemon.

Syed:

It was a whole.

Chris:

Yeah, it was the whole thing.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

It was warm.

Syed:

And I went.

Syed:

I wanted to wash it off.

Syed:

She told me I couldn't.

Chris:

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

Syed:

And you.

Chris:

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

Syed:

I couldn't wear black.

Chris:

It's like, that's my.

Chris:

That's my entire wardrobe.

Syed:

I do.

Syed:

I'm like.

Syed:

I'm just gonna walk around nude, then.

Syed:

Nude and sticky.

Chris:

You got this.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

Okay.

Chris:

So we got.

Chris:

We covered that.

Chris:

This is different.

Chris:

And now you're bathing.

Syed:

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

Syed:

I feel like it was coming to America.

Syed:

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

Syed:

No.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

It was just the royal look.

Syed:

It was peaceful.

Syed:

It was calm, whatever.

Syed:

Like, you know, again.

Syed:

So now there's, like a.

Syed:

There's a litany of things going on.

Syed:

There's tarot cards in.

Syed:

In the house.

Chris:

I'll be honest.

Chris:

I'm.

Chris:

I'm seeing a lot of growth in you.

Chris:

I'm very proud of you.

Chris:

You.

Chris:

I did not know you were okay.

Chris:

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

Chris:

I know under zero circumstances, I am.

Syed:

Trying so hard to bite my tongue.

Syed:

But today, something changed today.

Syed:

Today.

Chris:

Today is the day.

Syed:

Approximately three hours ago, I.

Syed:

I hit, like a inflection point.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

And I didn't go off.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Like, you know, enough said.

Syed:

No.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

I'm like, what?

Syed:

No.

Syed:

I'm putting my.

Syed:

No.

Chris:

Okay, Right.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

And a little table.

Syed:

It's got Buddha on it.

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

By the way, not a witch.

Syed:

Right.

Chris:

Okay.

Syed:

Right.

Syed:

So, you know, we got an evil eye.

Chris:

Gotta.

Chris:

Gotta have that.

Syed:

You know, I'm brown.

Chris:

Yeah, I got it.

Chris:

I got it too.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Chris:

What do you mean?

Syed:

The fuck.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Like some Harry Potter.

Syed:

Yeah, yeah, man.

Syed:

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

Syed:

And I'm like.

Chris:

What is it?

Chris:

So what?

Syed:

Hold on.

Chris:

You add.

Chris:

You asked.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Like a witch's broom by the front door.

Chris:

Okay?

Syed:

And she's like, yeah, yeah.

Syed:

It's just decorative.

Syed:

And I'm like, is it though?

Chris:

Decorative?

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah, yeah.

Syed:

But you know you can't fly, right?

Chris:

We're establishing.

Syed:

She said, what do you mean?

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yeah, yeah.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Okay.

Chris:

Okay.

Syed:

No, it's just decorative.

Syed:

And I'm like, but you have cauldrons.

Syed:

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

Chris:

So is that the only new piece at the house?

Syed:

Bro, that's a pretty significant piece.

Chris:

But hold on.

Chris:

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

Chris:

I mean, she's been.

Chris:

She's been straightforward with you about everything else.

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

I mean, what point?

Syed:

Where do I go?

Chris:

This isn't as.

Chris:

This isn't as bad as the.

Chris:

As the baths, bro.

Chris:

Or the Pasting.

Chris:

This is not.

Chris:

This is not.

Syed:

This came after that.

Syed:

This is.

Syed:

This is more.

Chris:

No.

Chris:

What?

Chris:

That's just one little broom, bro.

Chris:

It's not a big deal.

Syed:

How do I explain that?

Syed:

People come in the house.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

What is not Halloween, bro.

Chris:

In Carter things, all this is just normal.

Syed:

I do.

Syed:

And that's what I'm worried about.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Does your mom cast spells?

Syed:

No.

Syed:

Oh, yeah.

Syed:

It's.

Syed:

Look, and I know.

Syed:

I know.

Syed:

I know she means well.

Syed:

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

Syed:

I just.

Syed:

So we don't understand.

Chris:

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

Chris:

So some of the.

Chris:

Some of the fibs we have told the kids are.

Chris:

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

Syed:

They will.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

Really quickly.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

So our kids are.

Chris:

They're very.

Chris:

They like to be very clean.

Chris:

Okay.

Chris:

When.

Chris:

Especially when it comes around the bathroom time, right?

Chris:

They go number two.

Chris:

They like.

Chris:

They need to be washed.

Chris:

Okay.

Chris:

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

Chris:

They just feel the need for them.

Chris:

They just need to be clean for.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

I don't have a bidet, bro.

Chris:

You house.

Chris:

I got it from Amazon, bro.

Chris:

I installed it myself.

Chris:

What do you mean?

Syed:

I don't care.

Chris:

It attaches to your.

Syed:

Amazon also sells houses.

Syed:

What you want me to say?

Syed:

Amazon.

Syed:

Amazon supplies everything.

Chris:

We buy the house from Jeff.

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

Why?

Syed:

Because he looked Lauren Sanchez.

Chris:

Yeah, like that, bro.

Syed:

That's not his fault.

Chris:

That's.

Syed:

Don't put that on him.

Chris:

No, but that was like a glare, bro.

Syed:

She's wearing lingerie to the inauguration.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

That's a.

Chris:

That's like a bit like.

Chris:

Come on, Jeff.

Syed:

Jeff, talk to your girl.

Chris:

That's a.

Chris:

That's a bit much, bro.

Syed:

I mean, can we, like.

Chris:

If I'm Mark.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Here's what we don't know.

Syed:

You don't.

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

Why is Jeff behind her?

Syed:

Wasn't he behind her?

Chris:

No, no, he was next to her.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Why are you sitting on the other side?

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

That's a little weird, right?

Syed:

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

Syed:

What you doing?

Chris:

Yeah, come on.

Syed:

Can't afford a shirt.

Chris:

Yeah, exactly.

Chris:

Damn, man.

Chris:

Get that on prime right now.

Syed:

The Internet got him on.

Chris:

Yeah, he got.

Chris:

He's got a girl, right?

Syed:

Mark Zuckerberg.

Syed:

Yeah, he's married with kids, man.

Chris:

Married with kids.

Chris:

Oh, wow.

Chris:

I didn't know.

Chris:

Yeah, that's how.

Chris:

He's.

Syed:

Asian wife.

Syed:

Very smart lady.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

Very intelligent.

Chris:

Geez.

Chris:

Yeah, I forgot where.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

So the.

Chris:

The lies that are catching up to us is like.

Chris:

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

Chris:

We have to wash this.

Chris:

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

Chris:

This is at a very early age, Right.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Why would you do that?

Chris:

I.

Syed:

That's so scary.

Chris:

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

Chris:

I know, I know.

Chris:

It's really.

Chris:

I.

Chris:

Now, in hindsight.

Chris:

Worms.

Syed:

Fucking third world country.

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right?

Chris:

So they're like.

Chris:

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

Syed:

That's wrong.

Chris:

Right?

Syed:

That you're a terrible human being.

Chris:

So.

Chris:

So, so they.

Chris:

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

Chris:

So first of all, the first thing.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Chris:

And then Adam stays upstairs and he's like.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Come downstairs.

Chris:

Like, I have to wash myself.

Chris:

I don't want to get worms.

Chris:

And I.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Oh, why?

Syed:

Why are you going extreme?

Syed:

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

Chris:

I know.

Chris:

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

Chris:

But being itchy.

Chris:

At three, my kid.

Chris:

Bro.

Chris:

Both my kids potty trained.

Syed:

At two.

Syed:

Okay.

Chris:

At two.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yes.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

And close the door on my face.

Syed:

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

Syed:

I hear you.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

You're not.

Syed:

What you doing?

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

You're not.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

I know.

Chris:

I have.

Chris:

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

Chris:

This is not the area.

Chris:

This is gross.

Chris:

Stop.

Chris:

Leave this shit up.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

You know, when I was.

Syed:

When I was younger, a younger man.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

I turned the water on.

Chris:

I'm very.

Chris:

You know, I come to you.

Chris:

I'm still very much like that.

Chris:

I don't know why.

Chris:

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

Chris:

I don't want to gross other people out.

Chris:

That's the thing.

Syed:

Here's what you need to do.

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

You need to marry a Filipino.

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

My wife, from the very early onset.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

My wife moved in on the second date.

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

Early on, she.

Syed:

She did not.

Syed:

She has no boundaries.

Syed:

Like, she.

Syed:

She doesn't care.

Syed:

She wants come in and talk to you.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

Like, she.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

I didn't want her to hear or smell.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

Now I'm, like, talking to her.

Syed:

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

Syed:

Sorry.

Syed:

What's up?

Syed:

Yeah, it's.

Syed:

It's just so.

Syed:

I'm weird.

Chris:

I'm.

Chris:

I'm.

Chris:

I'm still very much the guy where.

Chris:

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

Chris:

I haven't been there before.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Where everyone's going to be sitting on.

Syed:

My House, the worst.

Chris:

I'm like.

Chris:

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

Chris:

This is unacceptable.

Syed:

My house.

Syed:

The worst.

Syed:

You're in.

Syed:

Everybody going to hear you.

Chris:

Yeah, everybody.

Syed:

You can't.

Syed:

You can't get away from it.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah, right there.

Syed:

It's the worst.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah, you don't care.

Chris:

You make people feel uncomfortable.

Chris:

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

Syed:

I'm outside.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

Hey, man, I hear you in there.

Chris:

You didn't sit down, bro.

Chris:

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

Syed:

What do you mean?

Chris:

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

Syed:

What do you mean not sitting down?

Chris:

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

Chris:

Don't be standing up there.

Chris:

This is not a public restroom.

Syed:

I'm a dude.

Chris:

What do you mean you're a dude?

Chris:

Sit your ass down.

Chris:

What are you talking about?

Chris:

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

Chris:

That's gross, bro.

Chris:

The splatter everywhere.

Chris:

Who's supposed to.

Chris:

I'm supposed to clean it.

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

So it's just going.

Chris:

Oh, okay, okay.

Syed:

It's not.

Syed:

There's no splatter.

Chris:

I see what you're doing here.

Syed:

Yeah, It's.

Syed:

It's just.

Syed:

You drop the anchor down.

Syed:

Do your thing.

Syed:

Pull the anchor back up.

Syed:

It's not like.

Syed:

I don't.

Syed:

I don't.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

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

Syed:

It's not.

Syed:

It's not doing you any favors, bro.

Chris:

Honestly, we could sell that.

Chris:

We could sell that online.

Chris:

Our own higher standard ass gaskets.

Chris:

People buy.

Chris:

So we have.

Chris:

So we have a.

Chris:

A picture in our bathroom.

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

For those.

Chris:

For the guests.

Chris:

No, no, no.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

You didn't bring up the picture.

Chris:

Otherwise you would have said something.

Chris:

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

Chris:

You know what I mean?

Chris:

It's the whole thing.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yeah, the neon pee.

Syed:

Pee everywhere.

Syed:

How did we get here?

Chris:

I know, I know.

Chris:

That's probably my fault.

Syed:

So it's definitely.

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

Somewhere.

Syed:

Worms.

Syed:

What a worse move.

Chris:

I know.

Chris:

I feel bad.

Chris:

I'm gonna have to admit.

Syed:

Should feel bad.

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Now they're questioning everything.

Chris:

If I admit.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Right.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Whatever.

Chris:

We got time, people.

Chris:

Probably checked out already.

Chris:

If you haven't.

Chris:

Thank you so much.

Syed:

Make.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Too late to do this.

Chris:

I know, but if you have.

Chris:

I know.

Chris:

They already have.

Chris:

Right?

Syed:

You would imagine.

Syed:

If you haven't subscribed by now.

Chris:

Who are you?

Chris:

Why are you here?

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

Oh, God.

Chris:

We got to read the review too.

Syed:

Okay.

Syed:

Do you have something else you want to talk about?

Chris:

I did want to say something.

Chris:

I lost my train of thought.

Chris:

Hold on.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Jesus.

Chris:

We got another five star honest review.

Syed:

We did.

Syed:

It was good one.

Chris:

This from Corey V1.

Chris:

Remember this review is from Corey V1.

Chris:

Not anyone from the higher standard.

Chris:

Right.

Syed:

Allegedly.

Syed:

We don't know that to be true.

Syed:

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

Chris:

Hottest show around.

Chris:

5 stars, hot.

Chris:

Clearly honest.

Syed:

Yeah.

Chris:

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

Syed:

A little too soon.

Syed:

Appreciate the sentiment.

Chris:

A little insensitive.

Chris:

I get where it's coming from.

Chris:

I respect.

Syed:

I do slightly Too soon.

Chris:

Slightly too soon.

Chris:

I respect it.

Chris:

I respect the effort.

Syed:

Yeah.

Syed:

Maybe after it rains here a little bit.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

Ever since Chris's guest appearance on Mind Pump.

Chris:

Mind Pump.

Chris:

Mind Pump.

Syed:

Yeah, I'm out here doing my thing.

Chris:

Yeah, I've been listening to it religiously.

Chris:

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

Chris:

Clearly not me and bodybuilder Chris.

Syed:

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

Chris:

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

Chris:

Let's see here.

Chris:

See Bodybuilder Chris in their full peptide pumping glory.

Chris:

There you go.

Chris:

Show just got flagged.

Chris:

I miss my baby girl maker.

Chris:

Odun, in the famous words of Papa Pal.

Chris:

Thank you.

Chris:

Just close the effing door.

Syed:

There you go.

Chris:

I respect it, Corey.

Chris:

Thank you, my man.

Syed:

Solid review.

Syed:

Thank you, Corey.

Syed:

I appreciate you.

Chris:

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

Chris:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

Yeah, he still left me on Red.

Syed:

That's a fact.

Syed:

That happened.

Syed:

He was saying it's busy though.

Chris:

No, he responded eventually.

Syed:

No, he didn't.

Chris:

Yeah, he did.

Syed:

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

Syed:

You left me on Reddit.

Syed:

You never responded.

Chris:

You're in, you're in.

Chris:

I got you right here.

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Syed:

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

Chris:

Let me respond on the show.

Syed:

Okay, thank you so much for.

Syed:

For doing that.

Syed:

It's approximately:

Chris:

There you go.

Chris:

You know what I'm hitting them with too.

Syed:

Four days later three days later Today was it?

Chris:

No, it was yesterday, bro.

Chris:

Relax.

Chris:

Why are you so.

Chris:

Don't be.

Chris:

Why are you so sensitive?

Chris:

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

Chris:

All right, you got anything else for the show?

Syed:

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

Syed:

But you know what?

Chris:

That's.

Chris:

No.

Syed:

Sometimes we need a mental break.

Chris:

No, not just that.

Chris:

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

Chris:

It's.

Syed:

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

Chris:

I have.

Syed:

No, you haven't.

Chris:

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

Syed:

Okay, fine.

Chris:

Yeah.

Chris:

It's going to be off the record.

Syed:

Okay.

Chris:

Yeah.

Syed:

Well, all right.

Chris:

Got any?

Syed:

No.

Chris:

Good night, everybody.

Syed:

Okay, bye.

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About the Podcast

The Higher Standard
This isn’t a different standard, it’s the higher standard.
Welcome to the Higher Standard Podcast, where we give you ultra-premium, unfiltered truth when it comes to building your wealth and curating the lifestyle of your dreams. Your hosts; Chris Naghibi and Saied Omar here to help you distill the immense amount of information and disinformation out there on the interwebs and give you the opportunity to choose a higher standard for yourself. Sit back, relax your mind and get ready for a different kind of podcast where we elevate your baseline with crispy high-resolution audio. This isn't a different standard. It's the higher standard.

About your host

Profile picture for Christopher Naghibi

Christopher Naghibi

Christopher M. Naghibi is the host and founder of The Higher Standard podcast — a rapidly growing media platform delivering unfiltered financial literacy, real-world entrepreneurship lessons and economic commentary for the modern era.

After nearly two decades in banking, including his most recent role as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of First Foundation Bank (NYSE: FFWM), Christopher stepped away from corporate life to build a brand rooted in truth, transparency, and modern money insights. While at First Foundation, he had executive oversight of credit, product development, depository services, retail banking, loan servicing, and commercial operations. His leadership helped scale the bank’s presence in multiple national markets from $0 to over $13 billion.

Christopher is a licensed attorney, real estate broker, and general building contractor (Class B), and he brings a rare blend of legal, operational and real estate expertise to everything he does. His early career spanned diverse lending platforms, including multifamily, commercial, private banking, and middle market lending — holding key roles at Impac Commercial Capital Corporation, U.S. Financial Services & Residential Realty, and First Fidelity Funding.

In addition to his media work, Christopher is the CEO of Black Crown Inc. and Black Crown Law APC, which oversee his private holdings and legal affairs.

He holds a Juris Doctorate from Trinity Law School, an MBA from American Heritage University, and two bachelor degrees. He is also a graduate of the Yale School of Management’s Global Executive Leadership Program.

A published author and sought-after speaker (unless it’s his son’s birthday), Christopher continues to advocate for financial empowerment. He’s worked pro bono with families in need, helped craft affordable housing programs through Habitat for Humanity, and was a founding board member of She Built This City — helping spark interest in construction and trades for women of all ages.