Meaningful Conversations with Your Parents

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This is a part of the show where we answer questions about business pictech entrepreneurship And whatever else is on your mind If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to offfficehours ofpropertymedia. comot Again, that's offfficehours ofropertymedia d. com or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it in our next episode plus. You can now call or text us a question at two hundred one, four seven two three six five six. That's two hundred one, four seven two, three six five six. Let's bust right into it Our first question comes from Reddit user, the G Chalk Ice Hey guysy, you're a big proponent of the Trump accounts idea, minus the name, even as a replacement to social security This seems to be a deeply flawed idea to me as essentially you are taking money mostly from the working class via taxes and putting it into the stock market, which is overwhelmingly ninety three percent owned by the top ten percent of wealthiest Americans I don't see how this doesn't simply wind up as another scheme to enrich the top ten percent. interestnterested to hear your defense. Okay, so let's just look at some data here. Trump accounts give every child born between twenty twenty five and twenty twenty eight a one thousand dollars government deposit with families able to contribute up to five thousand dollars a year invested in stock index funds So what's the math problem Trump accounts a thousand dollars at eight percent annual return with zero additional contributions is four thousand dollars at age eighteen. That's less than a year of community college tuition The millionaire kid projections require maxing out at five thousand dollars a year for eighteen years. That's ninety thousand contributions from families who statistically, you know, many of them can't afford it. A wealthy family can build one hundred fifty thousand dollars nest egg by the time their child is thirty, a low income child ends up with around two thousand five hundred dollars. Who's paying for this? The thousand dollars in seed money isn indeed taxpayer money, but the total pilot cost is estimated to be around fifteen billion by twenty thirty four, which really is almost a rounding error in the budget The bigger subsidy is the tax deferral on gains, which similar to a four hundred one K or five hundred twenty nine account is worth more than, you know, is worth more of the higher tax bracket because it's growing tax deferred. So again, more to your point, benefits flow upward. In december twenty twenty five, Michael and Susan Dell announced that they would be donating six and a quarter billion to the program. I think Ray Dallio did something similar Okay, so You're saying that if there's an additional surge of purchases in the stock market that they'll take the stock market up and the The primary beneficiaries at the top ten percent around ninety percent of stocks. Okay, no doubt about it. But if you were to say give people money to buy housing, and housing stock would increase in value And it's mostly rich fing on home. So yeah, you're right, but I do think there is value. to letting trying to get everyone to participate in the demographics and productivity that typically take over the medium and long term the markets up and to the right And I think we need more people invested in the success of our economy, especially some of these high flyers. So I like the idea I would have gotone much bigger and been more paternal. What do I mean by that If you give every kid seven thousand dollars, which would cost Every kid born seventh out which would cost say a hundred billion dollars I thought it was forty billion do, but I guess during their math it would be close to a hundred billion byy the time, and then I wouldn't let them touch it until they was sixty five and then they'd have a million bucks when they retire. And then in thirty years I would announce we're doing away with Social seecurity and the budget deficits' going to go way down and interest rates would start to come down and the cost of servicing our more than pay for this. In other words, The thing that's going to gut this economy is the fact that we're now spending forty percent of our federal budget on prorograms for seniors, you know Medicare and social security and all these basically old people vote and the dean democracy is working too well and we keep transferring money from young people who are more productive to old people who are less productive So how do we do away with the The transfer and the cost of transferring money from an anxious obese, depressed generation to the wealthiest generation in the history of the planet, and that is baby boomers And I think savings accounts, seven thousand dollars every baby born can't touch u till you're sixty five low cost index funds. And then again, you might be able to do away with what is the second largest line item in the federal budget, and then it's so security So I like this idea. I would supersize it. I don't think it's about eighteen. I think it's about until they're sixty five. U this does feel a little scammy or trumpy, you know, it's while I'm president calling it Trump bombs, Jesus Christ, really But I do like the idea What is it called the Super Returns fund in Australia? They do something similar But I like the idea of giving every household participation in the equity markets, which in America have been you know, probably the most powerful economic force in the West and the fact that few households own stocks, the majority own debt. I like the idea of making every Every kid, a participant in the markets, I would just go bigger and force them to hold onto it longer and then use it as a basically a social construct for long term planning. We don't think long term. and I like the idea of saying, Um, you know, time goes fast and in ten or twenty years we'll be able to say, actually, in thirty or forty years, we're going to do a social security. becausecause these kids have this upcoming generation has got enough retirement to to help. I like that idea. I think that's I think that's giving everyone a chance to participate in the upside of the markets So what are some of the structural problems with the currently envisioned Trump accounts? Only twenty eight percent of households earning under fifty thousandars any stock at all You can already open a five hundred and twenty nine. I put five thousand dollars in a fiveive or ten in a five twenty nine when my oldest was born Now since then I've made a lot of money and so I didn't feel a need to keep contributing. But that fund, I just looked at it because my son's going to college in the fall, it's worth eighty five thousand dollars now. Now granted, the last seventeen years have been an unprecedentable market. Its still ten, ten to eighty five' pretty it's pretty staggering, right Um, So according to the Tax Foundation, the tax benefits are actually less generous than existing five and twenty nine s in and Roth IRA. so I would look at those Even the tax foundoundation, which supports the concept s Trump accounts do not offer much of additional incentive to save A prior U.S pilot called SED in Oklahoma gave families one thousand dollars plus matching incentives but only sixty two percent of eligible families open accounts Actually, I wouldn't argue two thirds is a lot And the most disadvantaged are likely less likely to opt in When families were auto enrolled, there was near universal participation. Trump accounts are opt in. So again, I just like the idea you're born. Congratulations. hereere's your social security number Here's your birth certate and here's an account number where we can track your seven ten thousand dollars and you don't have access to it until you're sixty five Uh, that's what I would do. I think that I think participation in the market is compounding the most powerful force in the universe and a long term fix and solution that addresses the structural issue around old people voting themselves more money and stopping this transfer of wealth I think it makes sense. So I like this. I would supersize it and I would use it as a means of long term planning to replace the entitlements that are bankrupting our country Thanks for the question Question number two is from Sector Z on Red End Hey Scott, I've averaged thirty extra days of work per year and overtime for four years with that. I'm not even clearing sixty thousand per year. in a very high cost of living area. Bottom line, I'm exhausted and burned out T put it into a question, whereere do you see journalists such as myself sloting into society as the collapse of local news continues Is this an upskill situation and don't look back? or should I take my skills someplace else? Thanks U Okay, so roughly, I assume it sounds like you're a local journalist. Roughly one hundred and thirty local news organizations closed in twenty twenty four And this year it'll be one hundred and thirty six or it was one hundred and thirty six last year moreore than two per week And bottom line is, look on newspapers of that who work for going away, more than twenty thousand five hundred of closents two thousand five. and over half of U S. countounty's lack of local news source But we've lost about a quarter of a million jobs at newspapers In thirty nine states, there are fewer than a thousand journalists remaining So I think these skills are highly transferable, whether it's writing customer service manuals or CMs departments for putting out press releases or trying to create a substack if you are really good at a certain niche and charge people a nominal fee. I think that The skill the skills for journalism, investigative reporting Corroborating evidence, writing well. I think those skills are highly transferable to different jobs. The thing you didn't mention is where you live, is there a lifestyle arbitrage? and that is sixty thousand dollars a year doesn't work in Boston But it might work in El Paso And is your job portable? and do you have Anyone who has geographic flexibility and a lot of people don't should really think hard about a geographic arbitrage And that is San Francco New York are worth it if you have the money. And that is it's like saying, yeah, Ferrari is worth it But only if you have the money And so I heard from a couple that they're retired, they make about one hundred forty thousand dollars a year in retirement income and the mom still works as a nurse part time They live in San Jose and they were complaining about the cost of living. I'm like, moveve to Costa Rica. You don't You have grandkids, but you can see them And there's just no reason for you to be in San Jose. You're not working any longer, and it's super expensive there. So one a geographic arbitrage to find there is there are a lot of positans that Need Re good riders. We're always looking for good riders at Prov G. I find that that skill has not been disrupted by AI And I would just I would what I would say is think about core scale around communications and the written word and what other professions might youd be able to do remotely make some good money or decent money and then a geographic arbitrage. And keepeep in mind, while journalism might be dying storytelling and also emerging journalistic outlets, whether it's semaphore or Axios or Daily Beast or I mean, there's a ton of these things, right? indndividuals I'm doing their own sub stacks. you know, there's different ways to kind of skin a cat here. and I do think those skills are pretty transferable. So in some I would create a kitchen cabinet of people, describe your skills, say what other types of jobs or a wasays to make money could I apply the skills I've developed as a journalist? and two Think about a geographic arbitrage because I was just in Chicago. Chicago's expensive, but I describe it as the old Navy of cities and then it's eighty percent in New York fifty percent of the price. And the audience booed and I said, lookook, powerful value proposition, you can have a good life here So anyway, I'm being redundant here, but I think your skills are more transferable than you think. And I just think you should think about moving to a lower cost area. Appreciate the question. We'll be right back up for a quick break Support for the show comes from Forora For most, traveling is a luxury. Getting to explore can change your perspective of the world. What about turning that exploration into a business? 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Riffling AI can turn these insights into a proposed reiteration strategy, including a recommended ten percent spot bonus for top performers All you have to do is tap confonirm and the spot bonus is added to the next month's pay run So don't settle for AI that's all talk, head to rippling. Ai slash proG And get AI that turns insight into action. That's R I PP Li NG. Ai slash proG signign up for exclusive access today Welcome back.Qestion number three is from Standing Gym. Hi Scott. I love the podcast and I appreciate your wisdom I have a sabatical from work this summer and we'll be spending one week of an on trip to Scotland with my dad I'm one of three sons and it's rare for us to get solo time together these days. I'm hoping to have some deep conversations with my dad. It's realistically one of the last times my dad and I will have this much time together by ourselves. without my mom, wife, and other family members Do you have any advice on topics advice I should make sure to touch on My wife and I will be starting to try and have a child soon so potentially becoming a parent soon is top of mind It's funny. I did the same thing with my dad. I took him when he was it was when my sister was pregnant So it was about seventeen We went about seventeen years ago to Scotland, I guess when he was about seventy eight thinking thatad was kind of the last time he was going gonna be able to travel, Take him mom to see his family where he was born Look. I would say I think what you're doing is great, but questions to ask or conversations to have I think they What I found is that I think it's really interesting as you get older, you realize you know, you come to this terrific realization that your parents are not perfect people You know, I would ask ' my dad age, I would ask a lot about my dad had been married and divorced four times. I would say, you know, I ask pretty pointed questions like You know, why did you leave mom or what What went wrong? Like four wives, like, come on, boss. like what went wrong? L what's wrong with you? What was wrong with them What happened You know, what was your childhood like? His sister had told me that he was abused by his father. He never brought it up and I brought it up. I said You know, I have friendnta said that you were physically abused by your father and u, you know, was that true? and You know, why did you leave Scotland at nineteen? What was that like? And I just asked a lot about him. very candid. I wasn't aggressive, but You know, when did you My dad basically left and I saw him two or three times a year and I'll ask him. I'm like, Do you think that was a right decision? Do you regret that? What What You know, what are your thoughts now and Um what You know, when were you happiest U My father was never that into me or my sister. He just doesn't I don't there's something broken there with my father. He never really attached to people But just asking him about growing up in Scotland, what his life was like When was he happiest? when was he saddest you know, looking back, is there advice he would have given to his twenty five year old self like what to do more of, what to do less of And I just asked him to tell stories about his youth and being a young man You know, I found out that first that he came home and his first wife had tried to kill herself and had a note around her neck. and to all the shit that helped kind of explain him more to me. He was in the Royal Navy at the age of eighteen and he had his first two months of wages stolen on the ship and started sending money home. and then when he got home and was hoping to have saved enough money to come to America, found out his mom had spent all his money on whisking cigarettes, which kind quite frankly