Understanding Young Adults in Financial Launch Mode: The Last Slice of the Sandwich Generation Series

Arsenal Financial advisors Doug Orifice and Jeremy Vaille are trying really, really hard to make a listenable podcast about money and finance. In this episode, they discuss the last group in the sandwich series: the peanut butter and jelly, the people with young adults trying to set out on their own. Doug and Jeremy talk about:

• The current realities facing young adults in launch mode (and why that's stretching later than previous generations).
• Takeaways from conversations with young folks and their perspective on their situation.
• What does the data say? From housing to jobs to education and more.
• What can a Gen Xer or above do to help?
• Jeremy's Mythbuster: Does the American Dream still exist?
• And of course they wrap it up with a couple dad jokes from Jeremy.

Find Doug, Jeremy, and Arsenal Financial at arsenalfinancial.com or call (781) 335-9100.

Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC. The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener’s personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific, individualized financial, legal, or tax advice. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a final decision.

Transcript

Doug 0:03

Thank you so much for joining another episode of the Arsenal Money Clip Podcast, where we're trying to give you a listenable, listenable podcast about money and finance. My name is Doug Orifice. With me is my pal and partner, Jeremy Vaille. We run a company called Arsenal Financial. We do investment management and financial planning with a couple of offices here in Massachusetts, located in Watertown, Mass and Hanover, Mass, down on the South Shore. Oh my God, JV, it's Friday. How are you, sir?

Jeremy 0:33

I'm all right. I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay. Feels like it was a long week. A little under the weather this week, so that's not great, but you know.

Doug 0:40

Again, you know, like we build these podcasts to be, quote, evergreen and hopefully listenable at any time. But we're recording this during an interesting time in our world here. We are two weeks into a geopolitical conflict here. It's wartime, I guess. So we are in a conflict with Iran and we'll see how long that lasts. But during these times when we have the rug moving underneath us, JV, you know, our job becomes just a little bit different. And, you know, in addition to our roles of trying to measure where our clients are towards their goals and watching the markets and taking care of our folks, you know, a bit of our psychology and like caretaking hat has to come on during these times, and we just got to make sure that people are okay and just be as open as we can about what we know and what we don't know, right? 

Jeremy 1:26

Yeah, exactly. This is when, you know, I always talk about this being the greatest, I guess, unintended consequence of this walk of life, is that the math's easy. And when people are feeling anxious and there's lots of things going on in the world, they want to know that they're okay. Having those conversations on a daily basis, it's good, it's tiring, it's hard because you know, we're not immune to these things ourselves. So yeah, and the front yard's melting, so that's good.

Doug 1:55

So we'll dovetail and tie this into our topic. And we've been doing several podcasts here on the sandwich generation. Today we're going to talk about the PB and J, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And I think maybe a good segway here is our job, whether there are geopolitical conflicts, bull markets, bear markets, whatever's going on, is to try and take some of the burden off of our clients so that they can focus on whatever they need to focus on, right? Which is their professional lives, their family, their community, their household, all that stuff. So, really, in some respects, it's no different. Except you and I are just thinking about, okay, hey, the game has changed, the calculus has changed. We had inflation that was calming down a little bit, and now we're looking at $100 a barrel oil here on March 13th, 2026. Where do we go from here? Our job is to kind of think about that behind closed doors and whatnot, and then to share with our clients where we're at, where their plan is, how we might be doing things differently, and more often than not, how we're not doing things differently from a risk point of view, because hopefully we've already had these conversations with clients and we've outlined risk in advance, right?

Jeremy 3:01

Yeah. Yep, exactly. 

Doug 3:03

So I think our clients where this becomes even extra important is again, let's harp on it, man. The sandwich generation. So our clients that are the family glue, and we've been talking about this, they're taking care of sometimes their parents or generation above them. They're taking care of kids that could be school age, high school age, college, or just trying to launch. We've talked about those folks who are the family glue. We've talked about the generation above them, the parents and family that's a little north of them in age. But what we haven't talked about yet is their kids. You and I have been talking about this a little bit, and I feel like there was a whole bunch of themes in 2025 for the both of us. And I felt like one of my themes was I ended up talking to a whole bunch of my clients' kids who are in launch mode. I don't know what age we want to call launch mode, but 21 to 30, is that fair?

Jeremy 3:53

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, probably traditionally earlier than that, but now it's creeping up into the 30 range, right?

Doug 4:00

Yeah. So these are conversations about anything from hey, I have had a checking and a savings account and I'm 20 years old and I actually have $9,000. What do I do? To getting their first job and getting enrolled in benefits, to buying a first home, to having a family? So it's great. And I think what we try and do, and we're not always able to do this as a practice, is we try and keep our family trees together as much as possible and help our clients' kids. But in terms of the sandwich generation conversation, I think this is a good time to jump into it too. We're trying to address maybe from the perspective of that younger person who's trying to launch, the struggles that they're going through. And maybe we can kind of talk about from like a sandwich generation family glue, right, that person who is like 50 something right now, who has it on both ends, maybe interject some of the perspective from some of these younger people about what they're feeling, what we're hearing. We had a cool impromptu interview just yesterday with a what do we call it? A young millennial, late Gen Z person, right?

Jeremy 5:02

You know, it's interesting when we were having that conversation with our interviewee yesterday and talking about like our peer group. Our kids are a little bit younger, but a lot of our peer group have kids that are in that launch phase. And when we were coming out, it was like, all right, you went to college, you got out, you got your apartment, you got your job, you got your spouse, you bought your house. Then you had the kids. And that was just kind of what you did. And it seems like that's changed quite a bit.

Doug: 5:29

Yeah. Yeah.

Jeremy: 5:301

You know, maybe we have, or our peer group has the same pressure on that group that's like, hey, we expect you to do what we did. That's how it was for us. And I'm sure that's how it was generations in the past of that too, right? But we have that expectation. Like you go to college, you get a great job, you continue to be a part of the machine, and you go through the process like we did.

Doug 5:50

Right. And I guess to that point, all of that's changing right before our eyes. One of our favorite conversations last year was talking to college planner Tom O'Hare, who was just talking about the changing face of like, quote, purchasing an education. So yeah, I feel like I have a different perspective now as an advisor, as a parent, as like a 40-something. I think I feel a little bit more understanding and empathetic about where younger people are at, especially in that 21 to 30 bracket. I want to share a few quotes from our friend that we interviewed yesterday, who, again, we'd mentioned this, a younger millennial, just outside of that Gen Z, late 20s, and she did an impromptu focus group with her friends. Couple quotes that we got from her, they're talking about like, hey, our parents, to your point, JV, our parents did it. Why can't we? And we were having this conversation. You were talking about how the age of a home buyer over the last 30 or 40 years has increased by about 10 years.

Jeremy 6:48

Average age of a first-time homebuyer is like 40 years old. 

Doug: 6:50

That's wild. 

Jeremy: 6:51

Can you believe that? That's crazy. That sounds asinine. That was early 30s, not too long ago.

Doug 6:58

And you and I both did that in our 20s, right? 

Jeremy: 7:01

20s. Yeah. 

Doug: 7:02

I mean, that just seems  impossible these days, especially here in the Northeast. Some other quotes that kind of came out too. She was talking about how for younger women, especially she was saying that a lot of young women that she knows, are terrified to have a family, mostly because of the cost. How do you do it? And that there's some societal pressure to go and have that family, but how do you put those financial pieces together? And it's just, it's daunting for anybody, right? Because we did it once upon a time too. But there's just this extra layer of just like, oh my God, how late do I have to wait to do this? 

Jeremy 7:33

Well, think of the expectations too, right? Now, not only do you have to do all the things that women used to have to do, but now you got to go be a career person too. 

Doug: 7:41

Right. 

Jeremy: 7:42

Right. So you got to go have a high-paying job and a great career, in addition to taking care of the household, doing all the stuff at home. Hopefully, you get some help from your spouse, but the demands seem much greater than they ever have been.

Doug 7:54

Yeah. Some other things that were mentioned too was just the anxiety of the world that kids will grow up in. I mean, we're seeing every single day in our walk of life, whether we like it or not, we have to keep abreast of what's going on in this rapidly changing AI environment, the geopolitical issues that we're going through right now. So there's a lot of anxiety around launching.

Jeremy 8:16

I wonder on that point, though, I wonder how different that is from previous generations, right? 

Doug: 8:21

True.

Jeremy: 8:22

There's a lot of stuff going on all the time. It seems like, you know, you're in the late 70s, 80s, you probably weren't feeling too great about having kids then either. 

Doug: 8:29

Right. 

Jeremy: 8:30

Right. So, I mean, I get that in the place and time that we're at now, that that always exists, whether you're now or you were 20, 50 years ago. 

Doug 8:39

You're right. You're right. I agree with you. Here's some things that I've been surprised by, though. Again, anecdotal conversations, because we're not talking to 20 somethings every single day. But I feel like I've talked to enough of them in the past six months or so. I am surprised at how 20 somethings are interacting with their finances. So I feel like there is, at least from what I've seen, a little bit less recklessness with debt. And people are a little bit more in touch with their finances and financial literacy. My thesis on this is that when you and I were 18, we did not have a phone in our hands that would let us know what our bank balance is, what our credit card balance is, and what our brokerage account balance is at any minute of the day. So if somebody is doing all their business with, let's say SoFi, which is a place where you can do bank and credit card lending, brokerage, all that stuff. 

Jeremy: 9:35

Insurance.

Doug: 9:36

Yeah, neat little app. Yeah, right. That company's really cool. You can have a savings account, then you can take your savings account and break it up into different vaults, which is neat. The financial industry has moved so that it's a little bit easier to engage with your finances. So I feel like there's a little bit more of an awareness. 

Jeremy: 9:53

Yeah. 

Doug: 9:54

But I think that's also precipitated into some of the reluctance, right? So it's okay, if I'm not willing to go into debt as much and I do have an idea of how much I have or don't have, then how in the heck am I going to buy a home? When can I afford to even move out, depending on who that is.

Jeremy 10:10

Yeah. And then you also see it on the other side where having that access, having the ability to buy crypto, you know, at any minute, right? Or something else speculative, not really have the understanding and wherewithal to know what you're investing in. That's also a risk that comes of that unintended consequence of that technology that can be helpful in some cases, but also there's pros and cons to both, right? 

Doug 10:31

Right. So maybe the message to our clients who might be in the middle is that for those who are coming of age, for those who are, you know, 21 to 30, it is different. It is a different set of circumstances. Cost of living is higher depending on what part of the country that you're in. And clearly we're biased here to the Northeast. It's just harder than it's really ever been right now. 

Jeremy: 10:54

Yeah. 

Doug: 10:55

But to your point, it's always been hard. We all had our struggles getting going. And that is something that is similar. We have great partners over at JP Morgan Asset Management. We get these really, really cool charts. Shout out to our buddy Matt Doss from JP Morgan Asset Management. He provided us with a few charts which give us some 40 to 50 year context about that 21 to 30 group, some of which I was a little surprised about. 

Jeremy: 11:22

Yeah. 

Doug: 11:23

US unemployment rate for persons aged 21 to 30. Right now, that unemployment rate is a tick under 6%, which is historically low. 

Jeremy: 11:35

Yeah, it looks like that average since the 70s is probably in the 8% range?

Doug: 11:37

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we don't have that number right in front of us, but I mean, just eyeballing that chart, that is probably like an 8% average over 50 years. Looking at this chart from 1976 to 1997 or 8, it was firmly above 6% with pops over 8%. One, two, three, four times. 

Jeremy: 11:59

Probably in the nine to ten range. 

Doug: 12:00

Yeah. So unemployment is not really that bad for that 21 to 30 cohort, right? I know there's lots of concerns about right now entry-level jobs going away, AI taking away some opportunities, some kids who are graduating college having a harder time finding a job. And, you know, looking at the chart from 2021 to 2024, that unemployment rate for 21 to 30 has ticked up, probably about a full percent from five to six. So there's definitely something going on there for sure. And we're seeing it and we're hearing about it. But, you know, historically speaking, it's been historically hard to find work early on. It's not supposed to be super easy, but it's doable. Some of the jobs are there.

Jeremy 12:44

Yeah, and I don't know if you saw the the guide to college came out yesterday. 

Doug: 12:48

Oh, I haven't had a chance to look through it. 

Jeremy: 12:50

You know, they're just talking about how important it is to have a college education. And let me see if I can pop that up real quick because there was one stat that was really striking to me. College is a must. More education equals more job opportunities. 70% of all jobs now held by workers who attended college. So jobs created, employment landscape by education level since 2000, 29.7 million jobs created for a bachelor's degree or greater. Some college is 3.4 million. So quite a quite a drop-off, like 10%. And then actually negative job created for no college or no high school. Pretty crazy.

Doug 13:29

Yeah, that is wild. As we tick through some of these numbers too. We heard this on recent employment reports too, that the bulk of job growth has been in the health sector. I guess not too surprising as I'm looking at this chart from the end of 2022 to the end of just this January. Most of the job growth has been in private education and health services. Over that time period, over the last, what are we here, like three and change years, showing a couple charts of negative job growth in the retail trade, negative job growth and leisure and hospitality. So a couple of areas where there's been some pain points and contraction there. 

Jeremy: 14:07

Yeah. 

Doug: 14:10

So now we have a bit of a window into what's going on with some kids who are in that 21 to 30. It's a different environment and it's harder and it's not what we went through. So I think we've identified that. They have some tools at their disposal that I think have been net net helpful. So, like you are in greater risk of running up a credit card balance when you're not paying attention to it and you're not looking at it, and you're certainly not looking at it if it's 30 years ago and the only time you're aware of your balance is when you get your statement once a month. And now maybe you're checking it like every couple of days. So I do feel like technology has given a bit more of an awareness to it and there's a bit more aversion to debt.

Jeremy 14:50

You know, I think it's, not only is it that awareness, right? Because what we measure gets managed, right? So when it's out of sight, it's easy to get in trouble. But I feel like my, the ones I've been talking to are usually children of clients. And a lot of our clients, hopefully, we've helped them along the path to be more financially literate. I think that's getting passed down to the younger generation, which is awesome. So that's I think partially why we're seeing a lot of pragmatism with this group. We're also seeing a lot of our clients work really hard. So they're hardworking children. You know, the traits kind of fall down from the tree, which is something that I kind of am recognizing in children of the clients that we have.

Doug 15:30

Yeah. And to your point, it's important to realize that bias that we have too, right? Like I've said to people, it's just like, hey, what's going on out there? It's like, admittedly, we don't get the best cross-section of what's going on because most of our clients are in the Northeast, and then most of our clients have resources or income. So we're not getting a completely fair picture. 

Jeremy: 15:48

Yeah. 

Doug: 15:49

But when you look at a youth unemployment report at less than six, that's nationwide.

Jeremy 15:54

And a lot of their jobs, for instance, they're in a lower income bracket typically, right? When they're starting out. So we get a glimpse into what it's like or what the perspective is when they're trying to go out and buy a house or they're trying to go out and buy a car or whatever they're trying to do. I think that gives us a good insight into kind of what it's like to live at that income level.

Doug 16:13

So let's bring this back to the sandwich generation. So we've talked about both loaves of bread and the filler over our last couple podcasts. Our Gen X client who's in the middle, well, what can they do? Again, as like themes come around, you and I have been talking a little bit about giving and gifting. In our world, I joke with clients, and if clients are listening to this, they've probably all heard this from me. Our job is pretty simple. It's point A to point B, point B to point C. Point A, you're working full time. Point B, you're no longer working full time. Point C, you die, right? And our job is to get you from A to B and then B to C without running out of money. If our clients done all the right things, we get to show them some evidence that they have a low risk of running out of money before point C happens. So if that happens, they know that they can retire, they know they can be work optional at some point, and they know that there's a good chance that there's going to be something left over for their kids. Aha. Now we can actually start to enter into the conversation about like, do you want to die with X? Or is this a time where maybe you can financially help out now, as opposed to waiting a little bit later on? We've had these very interesting conversations with clients where we might actually know all three generations. One thing I have observed is that the better and more open the communication is between the generations within the sandwich generation, the better they're able to solve for X with the issues that they all go through.

Jeremy 17:49

Yeah. To your point, I mean, we're talking about like gifting during life as opposed to gifting at the end, which has been the historical process, right? We've all accumulated the assets and then we die, and there's an inheritance. But what better way to gain fulfillment or satisfaction than to gift during life and at a time when your children or grandchildren need the money, as opposed to once they've gone through the growing pains and then getting a big chunk in the end. So I think maybe that gives flexibility and optionality, which we're always talking about with clients, is how do we give you as much flexibility and give you the options to do whatever you want to do at some point? So I think that's a good point.

Doug 18:26

So maybe a couple bullet points that we can leave some of our listeners and clients with is from a gifting point of view, there's a bunch of ways to do that. And I think a lot of times when we think about gifting, mentally we're wrapped around that IRS gifting limit of $19,000. Whereas it is not always the case that you have to stay within those limits. I guess we should preface this with, we are not tax professionals, neither one of us is a CPA. We're not giving tax advice. But here's what we can tell you is, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts does not have a gifting limit. So if you do need to gift a larger amount of money for a home down payment, for a large purchase, for a wedding, we don't necessarily have to be wrapped into this $19,000 per person boundary. Please consult your tax professional. Please consult your accountant for your own specific situation, but you do have some flexibility where if you feel like you have solved for point B to point C, don't run out of money before you die. And you're thinking about how can I be most impactful as I'm here in the sandwich generation and I happen to be like the family glue and I'm the financial family glue, you have some flexibility, which is great. 

Jeremy: 19:38

Yep. 

Doug: 19:39

Also gets us into some of the topics that we've been talking about lately is that there's a million ways to be charitable. There's a million ways to give. You and I have been talking about recently, charitable giving, donor advise funds. This doesn't always happen to solve for Gen X, but I think having a well-articulated giving plan, you know, like the sooner that we can get somebody to solve point B to point C, the sooner they can think about their giving plan, the sooner they can think about, all right, hey, I have an estate plan done. Okay, good. I'm thinking about the end game and who I might leave money to when it's over. Fine. Let me back into right now and see what might actually be available now for me to help people who are in a financial jam because they have some debt they need to pay down, because they need to buy a house, whatever it is.

Jeremy 20:27

And it's good to mention that, you know, although the federal estate tax limits are high, in Massachusetts it's pretty low. So there's an exclusion amount that you can put on your estate tax return. But then beyond that, you're gonna have a tax on the whole inheritance. So if you're able to take some of those assets, especially in Massachusetts, where you might have a house that's worth seven, eight, one million, one and a half million dollars, right? It's pretty easy to get over a two million dollar threshold. But if you gift those out of your estate during life, then you can avoid some of those issues. Again, that's an estate tax or an estate planning attorney question, but something to keep in mind as you go through that process of gifting.

Doug 21:07

Maybe this gets us to the point of this sandwich generation series. We've seen this in our own households. We're kind of going through this right now. We see this with our friends and family. Being in the middle of that sandwich is hard. And it is really hard to help your kids, and it's really hard to help your parents or those above you if you're not taking care of yourself, whether that's taking care of yourself from a physical point of view, a mental point of view, but also from a financial point of view. So I think where we've been able to impact these multi-generational households, and we're working with the person who's in the middle. If we can kind of help that person in the middle understand where they're at on the timeline, understand, okay, hey, you know what? I can feasibly retire in four more years so long as I continue to retain this job and save at a certain rate and pay down debt at a certain rate. You can understand the playing field so that you can be in a spot both mentally and financially to go and help those above you, those below you, and then know that you're okay. So that you don't have this like underlying stress about, hey, you know, I gotta help my kid today, I gotta help my folks today. I'm gonna wait on me. I'm gonna pay attention to myself, whatever, when I have time. You're gonna be able to make much more informed decisions and maybe have less stress about the whole thing if you can understand where you are as the person in the middle as you're making these decisions to help others and your family.

Jeremy 22:34

Is that the put the mask on yourself first? 

Doug: 22:36

Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is. You're making the airplane reference, right? 

Jeremy: 22:40

Yeah. 

Doug: 22:41

Yeah, yeah. It's important. So, anyways, I hope this series has been a window in for those who have listened to it into like the day-to-day. If it's resonated with you, please feel free to reach out. These are our everyday conversations. And I don't know, man. Like, I feel like dealing with these family trees have been, it makes our role more enjoyable, more intimate, especially when we're getting to know some of our clients' parents, some of our clients' kids. I don't know. 

Jeremy: 23:07

Is it a good time for the mythbuster?

Doug: 23:08

Yeah. Yeah, let's talk about that. 

Jeremy: 23:14

So here's the real question, Douglas. Does the American dream still exist?

Doug 23:19

A lot of people say no. I feel like maybe in our impromptu interview yesterday, there was some challenge to that. But I feel like you and I have had enough evidence that it does. It still does. But I would love your take.

Jeremy 23:35

Well, I did a little bit of half-assed internet research, which I typically do. 

Doug: 23:38

I love your half-assed internet research.

Jeremy: 23:40

Wikipedia. The American dream is a phrase referring to a national ethos of the United States that every person has the freedom and opportunity to succeed and attain a better life. And this was popularized during the Great Depression in 1931. So I think we've, I guess you could say, boiled that down to get a good job, get a house, get a family, have the white picket fence and the two-point whatever kids, and you know, live happily ever after and retire, right? But I think the goalposts have changed a little bit. 

Doug: 24:12

For sure. 100%. 

Jeremy: 24:13

Society has made it such that everybody feels this pressure to buy a house. Everybody feels this pressure to buy a car. And I think even our own philosophy on that has changed over the last few years. Like I always was raised to buy a car and pay off the debt, and then you have a car and you sell the car. But what have we talked about recently that is a viable option? We've talked about leasing cars, we've talked about renting cars, we've talked about all different kinds of options, right? 

Doug: 24:38

Right. 

Jeremy: 24:39

So it feels like the pressure of buying a house. Well, maybe it's okay to rent. 

Doug: 24:43

Yeah. Yeah. 

Jeremy: 24:44

We've talked with some pre-retirees or retirees going in, and they're typically baby boomers, and they're like, oh, I couldn't possibly rent because they just know that they go buy a house. They've got assets. Why wouldn't I buy a house? But when you rent, you don't have to put a roof on. 

Doug: 24:58

Yeah. 

Jeremy: 24:59

You don't have to pay taxes. 

Doug: 25:00

Yep. 

Jeremy: 25:01

You don't have to fix the siding. You know, you don't have to insure it. So there's a lot of pros and cons to that. And especially in our conversation yesterday, there's this pressure to go do these things that are, for lack of a better term, defining the American dream. But is that really the case anymore? 

Doug 25:15

Right. Right. I guess a couple other things I'll point to that relate to that too is, the flexibility in terms of where you live and where you work has never been more open. Mobility is greater than it's ever been before. You know, I didn't mean to work so many hours remotely this week, but I had a set of circumstances where I worked many of my hours remotely, including right now. So that is a positive. So that, you know, if people are looking to relocate to a lower cost of living area, in some ways it's a little bit easier than it has been in the past because you're not tied to a geography for your job always. I know that's changing right before our eyes.

Jeremy 25:55

And we've heard of that ever-moving retirement, right? You used to get a job with a company and have a pension and you'd work for 30, 40 years. Now you stay at a job three, four years, maybe, do a little pre-retirement for a year, take a sabbatical, get another job. The whole like construct and way we go about things has definitely changed. And you've talked about that with the gig economy in other contexts.

Doug 26:16

And that was the thing I was going to bring up is when we had our impromptu interview yesterday, our friend was saying that it's very rare for her and her circles for somebody to have been at a company for 10 years with the benefits in a place that they expect to stick around. And it's way more common to have multiple gigs that they're stitching together for full-time work. And gosh, you know, like we're even seeing that with some of our clients too, that as they get a little bit closer to retirement, they somehow either purposefully or accidentally end up entrepreneurial. So you ask about the American dream. One of the things that's attached to that is free enterprise and the ability for somebody to open a business and walk their own path. That is certainly super difficult, but we're watching that be something that is available, right? Is somebody may have a specific skill set, whatever it is, and they're able to make something out of it. They're able to make a business out of it, they're able to make a partial living out of it, maybe stitch it together with something else. So, and especially for our clients who are those Gen Xers who are looking to retire in T minus 10 years too, being work optional and having something that is a small business venture of their own that they're able to stretch a little further into retirement, that certainly changes the retirement math.

Jeremy 27:32

Yeah, just to wrap the whole myth up, every person has the freedom and opportunity to succeed and attain a better life. I don't know if that's completely true, but I don't think it's false either. So I think it's mixed. You can't bust the myth. 

Doug 27:45

We'll wrap that there. Gotta ask, do you have any dad jokes for us today? 

Jeremy 27:49

Yes. Of course I do.

Doug 27:51

Awesome.

Jeremy 27:51

It feels like it's kind of a farm theme today. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the grass.

Doug: 28:04

Yeah, why?

Jeremy: 28:05

Maybe it's the grass I finally see out there. 

Doug: 28:07

Maybe that's it. 

Jeremy: 28:10

All right, here we go. Two. Two for you guys. After an unsuccessful harvest, why did the farmer decide to try a career in music? It's kind of fitting for our group anyway. 

Doug: 28:25

Hey, Matt Hannaa, you got anything? We got nothing, JV. What do you got? 

Jeremy: 28:30

Because he had a ton of sick beats.

Doug 28:36

That's ridiculous. That's absolutely ridiculous. I think I like it. I think I like it a lot. 

Jeremy 28:43

That was appropriate for the musical crowd we got here. What do you call a beehive without an exit?

Doug 28:56

Beehive without an exit. What is it bud?

Jeremy: 29:00

Unbelievable.

Doug: 29:05

Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. 

Jeremy: 29:09

Oh man. 

Doug: 29:10

I needed that today. 

Jeremy: 29:11

I'm running out of jokes. 

Doug: 29:12

No, you are a never-ending fount of these. Thank you. Thank you guys for all tuning in. Quick shout out to our team, marketing team at Alchemy 3, and a special shout out to Jade Thai for giving us some insight on some of the struggles and experiences of our younger folks. Shout out and thank you to Matt Hanna. Thanks as always for producing this, making this easy. If you're in and around the Watertown area, please check out Matt's podcast, Little Local Conversations. Matt does a great job interviewing people around town. And if anybody here has any questions for us, you can check out our website at www.arsenalfinancial.com. Drop us a line at info at arsenalfinancial.com. Thanks for tuning in. JV, thanks for making me laugh and spending a Friday morning with me. 

Jeremy: 29:54

Absolutely. Have a great weekend. 

Doug: 29:56

Yeah, you have a great weekend, and we'll see you all next time on the Arsenal Money Clip Podcast.

Matt 30:03

Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a registered investment advisor, member FINRA SIPC. The information in this podcast is educational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. Therefore, it is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized financial, legal, or tax advice. To determine which strategies or investments may be suitable for you, consult the appropriate qualified professional prior to making a final decision.