Ep. 213 - Navigating Wealth: The True Cost of Your Commute

Good day. This is Gabriel Shahin certified financial planner and your host, more knowledge, more wealth here on every weekend talking about all important topics of personal finance. My goal is to go over the knowledge you need to increase your wealth. Now to the listener, you can always reach out to myself or any one of my colleagues here at Falkland wealth planning.

My phone number is eight five five. 963 2526. That's 855 96 Falcon. Like the bird or visit our website at falconwealthplanning. com. That's falconwp. com for short, where you can get this episode to any one of our previous episodes as well, and through our Spotify and podcasts. We also have the Knowledge Center on YouTube, where we have a bunch of videos that can help you in your specific situation.

Now, I'm the president of Falcon Wealth Planning. We are a fee only, non commissioned, true fiduciary folks. And we go over all important topics of personal finance, like where you are today, how retirement looks like, talking about taxes, investments, estate planning, insurance, folks, you name it. Anything that involves a dollar sign.

We can help you with, which is why we're offering a free financial assessment where we'll give you one to two meetings, one to two hours of our time at no cost, folks, give us a call. We will help answer those questions that you have, keep you up at night and we have offices all over. It doesn't matter where you're located.

We can help our phone number. That's 855 963 2526. That's 855 96 Falcon. Like the bird. Let us answer those questions and help you in your situation. Now I'm going to switch gears here and just talk a little bit about just conversations that people are having with themselves on just finding affordable housing.

We've talked about this in the past and just things maybe some people aren't fully aware of when they're looking to buy a home. And I've seen people here. California, they go further east or they go deeper into the valley. Okay. You got Los Angeles. Then you can go outside of East LA County, Claremont being the last city, San Bernardino County, Upland being the first city.

And then you can keep going further and further east to further and further counties as far as. Beaumont or even Palm Springs. People are moving that far to save money or near to Temecula area you have Menifee, you have Paris, you have all these newer communities. Beautiful homes by the way But it's a bit further and they're doing that to save money because where else are you gonna be able to get a five bedroom house?

Depending on how many kids that you have or how many people you have living with you. So I get all that But sometimes I have a saying, you can't afford to be cheap. And now listen, I say that with respect because I respect money. But let me just tell you things that people don't think about when they're making that type of a decision.

I'll give it a kind of put it in the simplest way. Let's just say, instead of working or living near your work, you now go 40 miles further. Right. So maybe you could have bought a house within 10 miles and now you're going within 50 miles, so you're driving 40 miles more. Each way. Okay, let's say 35 miles more each way just to be even nice.

That's 70 miles more a day, five days a week. That's

350 miles a week. You multiply that by four weeks. I know some for four months of the 12 have five weeks, but let's just say four because there's also holidays and vacations and so on. So 350 miles a week times four. That's on average 1400 miles. That you drive on a monthly basis. Let's say you have a car that gets you 20 miles a gallon.

That's 70 gallons that you're spending, that you're filling on a monthly basis. At 5 a gallon, which here in California is like 6 a gallon, it was almost 7 a gallon, but that's an extra 350 a month. Now, back then, when it was a 2. 5 percent interest rate, if you back in on a 30 year mortgage at 2. 5%, you're able to spend an extra 100, 000.

That's back then, okay? Now, the rate's not 2. 5 percent anymore, okay? It is, uh, now let me back up, let me back up. For every 100 saving, like you spend more on gas, it affects 25, 000. Of a home price that two and a half percent, right? So 350. I said roughly 400. That's roughly 100, 000 more You could spend on a house.

Okay. Now this is not just Southern California. This is anywhere, right? The only variable there is how much you pay per gallon All right Now the interest rates now are not two and a half percent They're eight percent which means for every hundred dollars that you spend extra in gas That means you could spend an extra fourteen thousand dollars on a home In the situation that we just went over, that's almost spending an extra 60, 000 more on a home.

The thing is, you pay off a home eventually, but that drive doesn't change. And I'll take it a step further you guys that doesn't that's just gas that's not talking about oil changes Brakes, that's not even talking about just uh, uh tires. That's not talking about any type of uh, 30, 000 mile service and uh, 100, 000 15, 000 all of those it's not talking about any of those So you get what I'm saying?

Sometimes you look just on the base of just say, that house saves me an extra 500 a month. But you're forgetting how much more it's costing you just in gas alone. I'll take it a step further. Maybe instead of looking at a house that has a homeowner's association, HOA of 250 to 300 a month, You back that out and see how much more of a house could you buy with no HOA costs.

Same thing with property tax. Certain states have additional tax, like in Florida. Certain communities have like a bond, a 30 year bond. California has something like that. They call it Mellow Roost in certain places. Those never expire. What is the point of that? Well, if you're paying an extra 1 percent on a 500, 000 house, that's 5, 000 more a year.

Well, you divide that by 12, let's just call it 400 more a month. Like I said, in today's interest rate environment, that is an extra 60, 000 a year that you could spend on a high on a house that feels like it's more money. But in reality. It's the same monthly output when you factor that in my whole point is you find a place close to work You can save on gas and other things.

I'm having you out think outside of the scope of just work But now with property tax and HOA by the way folks If you're just joining me you're listening to Gabriel Shaheen certified financial planner and your host of more knowledge more wealth here and every week And talking about all important topics That's a personal finance.

And today I just wanted to discuss the basic concepts of just like finance, the value of a financial planner, the things that we think about, right? You think about how nice is the home? How nice is the front yard or backyard? Is it a remodeled kitchen? I get it. But we look at the numbers. It's funny. You almost hate somebody like us, right?

Imagine always thinking about something with numbers. Now that's not how we think in life. Right, if that's the case, me and my family would live in a one bedroom studio in a bad part of town just so we can have all this money. You know, if you think like that all the time, you would never enjoy life, never have vacation, never have nice cars, nice home, nice anything, and you would just have millions upon millions of dollars.

Obviously, life is balance. All I'm saying is a financial planner will help, help you choose between point A and point B. So, make sure you take a look at your situation. Make sure you are not looking at the short end savings, because that could cost you so much money long term. Looking at that good area for future family, if that's in the cards. Looking at close to work. As there's oil prices are continuing to increase. I know some of you may be saying, well, that's why I'm going to buy a Tesla or an electric car, which, Oh, by the way, it was about 20 percent of the sales in Q3 of all cars sold in California, 20 percent of them were EVs.

Well, guess what? Electric costs are continuing to go up the savings there. You're probably saving. 60 percent of the costs, but there's still an outlay for that as well. That's another analysis that needs to be done. Folks. If you need help with this, you want the analysis. We can do it. That's what we do.

Our phone number is 855 963 2526. That's 855 96 Falcon. Like the bird. Give us a call. We'd be happy to help folks. We're going to go on a quick break. We'll be right back after a few words.

 Welcome back folks. This is Gabriel Shane, certified financial planner and your host of more knowledge, more wealth here on every weekend, talking about all important topics of personal finance. And in that first segment, I spent some time talking about just the good old buying a home and how interest rates have gone up.

But even then, by, Having a home that's maybe too far away, you may spend and what's too far away. I use 35 miles further than maybe a normal drive. And by doing that could cost an extra 350 a month. Well, that 350 a month maybe can get you between 000 more of a home purchase. Just getting it a little closer.

It might seem like a little bit more money on the front end, but it's actually less. And even when you, it's actually the same when you factor how much you're spending in gas, not including any maintenance on the car. And so here's another thing. Part of that increased cost, you'll get increased tax benefits as well.

These are things that people sometimes do not think about. I'm just here to say there's different ways to look at and analyze life and decisions that are made in your financial situation. This is why sometimes it makes sense to just get a second opinion. Talk to a professional that does this on a daily basis.

You should hear some of the things that professionals are, excuse me, our clients are talking to us about. As professionals, we deal with these things every day. We have these conversations every day for us. It's second nature. It's not that we're not human and don't analyze and care where we think of everything as money and nothing as a person.

We get it. Personal finance is more personal than finance. But the idea, the logic is to make sure that you understand and have the full facts necessary. Yes, that house might be more expensive. But, have you ever thought about the non private schools, so on and so forth. So, I just wanted to talk about that in that first segment.

Now, I want to continue that conversation on the things that you value most. I asked the question, what does money mean to you? For myself, it allows me to spend more time with family and allows me to help other people, whether it's other family or my church or whatever the case is. So it's whatever it means to you.

Okay, so now that indirectly tells you what's important to you. Well, what if you have kids and they get married and have grandkids? Where are you going to be? Where are you going to stay? What are you going to decide to do? I've seen people that sold their house, their dream house, to be closer to the kids, and guess what?

The kids that now have kids, which means they're grandparents, are now, the kids now get relocated to another place. Well, now they have to sell their house again and move. Well, on a 500, 000 house, at a 6 percent commission, every time they're doing that, it's 30, 000, 30, 000, 30, 000. And are you really going to keep chasing the kids around?

What if they go to a place that's miserable, like Minnesota? Or Michigan? I mean, listen, I'm sorry, I gotta... Uh, family and friends that live in both of those states is by the way, I'm just saying that because it gets cold and typically retirees, what do they do? They like to snowboard. They go in the warm weather where there's Palm Springs, Arizona, Florida, you get what I'm saying?

I'm not bashing those states. I'm just saying that's not preferred. So the idea is these life decisions. Now you only probably have to make once or twice in your life that we make 30 to 40 times alone last month. How about you learn from them? I always say a smart person, yes, they learn from their mistakes, and bravo.

But a smarter person learns from others mistakes. That, isn't that the whole concept of our job? Isn't that what we do for a living? We talk to so many people, that's why experience matters, right? I mean, this past April was 20 years in the industry. April of 24 will be 21 years. I've probably spoken to a hundred thousand people in my career, learning every time I talk to somebody new.

And so the idea is, yes, you may lose the money, but you earn the lesson. Well, how about instead of losing the money, you spend the money and learn the lesson and do it in the most efficient way possible for the person that typically and always will have your best interest at heart. I say typically because not every advisor has that mentality.

Here at Falcon Wealth, we are fee only, non commissioned, true fiduciaries. We are always doing what's in your best interest at all times. There's no product we sell. There's no commission we receive of any kind. We sell brain at our firm. And my point is we are offering a free financial assessment. We're offering one to two meetings, one to two hours of our time.

at no cost. Folks, we'd recommend give us a call. You have nothing to lose. It doesn't matter the situation. Our phone number is 855 963 2526. That's 855 96 Falcon, like the bird, or visit our website at falconwealthplanning. com. That's falconwp. com for short. And we've got people right now at the office that can help.

They're there seven days a week, and they're there to answer your calls. And we're blessed. We have an inflow of calls that people call us all the time asking for help. Now, we might not have an advisor that's available to talk to on a Sunday, but the idea is we have somebody there that can add value and help.

By the way, folks, if you're just joining us, you're listening to Gabriel Shaheen, certified financial planner, and your host of more knowledge, more wealthier on every weekend talking about all important topics of personal finance. And the idea here today is just making sure you're understanding the concepts that could save you money.

And the funny thing about that is sometimes you have to spend money. To make money, you have to spend money to save money. One step back for infinite steps forward. Some people say, I'd rather just rent my whole life versus owning a house. And I get it. Well, buying a house, you have to put it down payment, maybe 20 percent one step back, right?

Now you have less money and then you have to do some remodels. Some people like to do floors, paint the house, swap out toilets, whatever the case is. I get it. More money. People say renting is better. If something major breaks out, I have to fix it. I call the tenant. Hey, if I don't like the house, I can go to another house.

Okay. But you get no tax benefits. You're going to have a payment forever. It's never going to change. And Oh, by the way, rents go up. Always. I mean, so versus having a tax benefits, principal buy down, have an equity at the end, not including the appreciation, the tax benefit. I mean, guys, it's not a comparison.

I'm sorry. And Oh, by the way, if you bought your house within the past seven years, I'm not even, I used to say 10 to 20, I'm going to say seven years. I bet you can't rent your same house for as cheap as your mortgages. Yeah, good luck running guys. And what I don't want is for you to say that because you can't afford to buy, because then you're just finding excuses not to achieve a goal.

I'm trying to say there's a way to do it. There are programs out there worth three and a half percent. There was a program out there where it was zero, where the government was paying for your down payment up to 20, 000. So there are ways out there, but you don't know about that. How do you know about those programs?

Gabriel, what's that program? Well, guess what? That program's not around anymore. It used to be through Bank of America. Like, and now there's other banks that are doing it. So my comment to you is you do not know what you do not know. Talk to a professional that does this every day. These professionals, like I'll just talk for Falconwood planning.

Yes, some of them are out there trying to sell you, trying to take advantage of you. I get it. They're trying to say something that sounds good. So you come in and they sell you some insurance products and some whole universal index life, whatever. That's a completely useless and wasteless. Unless you die or your kids die because they try to sell it on your kids.

Like that's smart, which it's not, if you can't tell by my sarcasm,

what do you do? You just ignore all advice because you have one bad apple. That's like going on one bad date and saying I'm never going on another date ever again. All people are bad. There's some bad people out there, but they're not all bad. There's some bad advisors. Now here at Falcon Wealth, we are a fee only, non commissioned, true fiduciary.

We do what's right. We help you. That's why we offer one to two meetings, one to two hours of our time, folks, at no cost, folks. Give us a call. We would love to help. Our phone number is 855 963 2526. That's 855 96 Falcon, like the bird. Or visit our website at falconwealthplanning. com. That's Falcon, WP. com for short.

My whole thing is valuing time. I stopped doing my oil change when I started making over 20 an hour. I value time. And my point to you is, Hey, we didn't even talk about the time savings of being in a car an hour each way versus 15 minutes. That's an hour. I'm gonna use my calculator here. That's an hour and a half a day times five.

That's seven and a half hours Okay times four weeks. That's 30 hours a week in a car per month times 12 months That's 360 hours. My goodness. I mean if you look at it 24 That right there is like 15 days a year. Now, you're sleeping 8 of those hours. You know what I mean? So, I mean, really that 15, that's 15 full days.

So let me, let me do a different math here. Let's say you're sleeping for 8 hours, right? So let's divide that by 16. That's like 22 awake days a year. In that car. Now I'm not bashing. If you're working far from home, I get people switch jobs. They have to drive far. I'm just saying for P some people like it.

I actually enjoy, I get to listen to podcasts. I get to listen to audio books. I get to listen to things. Well, I'm in the car. I get to call my mother who's in a different state and catch up with family, friends. So I don't mind it, okay? So that's just me talking. But for those who do mind it, and more importantly those who are looking to purchase a house now, don't look strictly at what you can afford.

Look at the whole picture of your situation. Yet again, that's a financial planner folks. What I'm saying makes sense. What I'm saying sounds like you can relate. What you're saying sounds like you want help, whether it's with a home, whether it's for a house, whether it's for a boat, whether it's for a plane, whether it's for a business, whatever the case is.

Adding a pool, solar, right? You name it. Give us a call. We would love to help. This is what we do on a daily basis. Our job, I know one person once said it, we help the rich get rich. And listen, I get it. That's kind of what we do. Um, I say kind of because I'm so reluctant to even say that's what we do. But we also help the aspiring become financially independent.

That's what we value and put pride in. Give us a call. We would love to help. Our phone number is 855 963 2526. That's 855 96 Falcon. Like the bird. Or visit our website at falconwealthplanning. com. That's falconwp. com for short. Folks, that was the Fast Fast Show. I want to thank you for tuning in with us this weekend.

You can always reach out to myself or anyone of my colleagues here at Falcon Wealth Planning. Our phone number is 855 963 2526. And 9 6 3 25 26. That's 8 5 5 96 Falcon like the Bird, or visit our website@falconwealthplanning.com. That's falcon wp.com for short where you can get this episode at any one of our previous episodes on podcasts or on Spotify.

And we have the knowledge center that you can always visit. If you have any questions you want us to read off on air, please send it to radio@falconwp.com. That's radio@falconwp.com folks. Thank you for tuning in with me. I want you to enjoy your weekend. Have a great week and God bless.