Today is Saturday, August 2nd. We're talking all about building wealth, even if you're worried you're behind on saving for retirement, or fed up with rising prices at the grocery store, or trying to decide if buying a house is an option for you. We're talking about it all with today's guest, Brennan Schlagbaum. He's sharing practical strategies for everything from automating your finances, to investing for your kids' futures, to breaking down the beliefs that might be holding you back. He's a CPA, a national bestselling author, and host of the Money on My Mind podcast. He's also the founder of Budget Dog, a platform that's helped hundreds of thousands of people build a plan for long-term wealth. So whether you're in your 20s, 40s, or even just getting started at 60, we hope this conversation leaves you feeling

more empowered to take control of your money and more confident in your financial future.

Welcome, welcome to The Newsworthy Special Edition Saturday, when we sit down with a different

expert or celebrity every Saturday to talk about something in the news. Don't forget to tune in

every Monday through Friday for our regular episodes when we provide all the day's news in just 10 minutes. It's fast, fair, fun, and on the go.

I'm Erica Mandy. It's time for today's special edition Saturday. You ready? Let's do this.

Brennan Schlugbong, thank you so much for joining us here on The Newsworthy.

Thanks for having me.

So first, I'm just curious what you know about the average American who's working today,

their ability to retire with more or less wealth than their parents.

The biggest thing about wealth building is time.

Nothing else I will say today is more important than how much time do you

actually have invested? Because compound interest needs time. And so if you start early, if you start

and you consistently invest, you're going to be well off and you're going to be totally fine.

What I typically run into of those that aren't able to get to that point is they have limiting

beliefs around their ability to do so. So I always say, like, the belief system is the most important. Believing that you're able to do is the most important. Once you believe that you can, the rest of the stuff's actually easier. Once you start investing, the rest is actually easier. And I always say, create a system, create an automated financial system that's going to get you there so that you aren't reliant on yourself as a human being because we're limited. You know, the emotions, the biases, all that kind of psychology limitations. And if we get that together, it'd be very easy to not only just retire better than our parents, but actually early retire. What do you think, though, about the impact of things like inflation and housing costs today?

Yeah, I mean, if you look back in the 80s, for example, you're looking at total cost with

interest rates and inflation then versus now. It's much different. It's harder in today's world.

Like, our incomes aren't stretching as far as they once were. 100,000 back in 1990 is a lot different than 100,000 in

2025. It just is based on inflation. I think that you have to be more intentional and you have to be

more aware. What about housing costs? Because that's something I hear from young people a lot is

like it is impossible to buy a house today. Yeah, housing costs, if I remember off the top of my head,

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