Real Talk with Your CPA – Ep. 273

Welcome to the Accumulating Wealth podcast. I’m Hunter Satterfield. And I’m Judson Crawford. We’re CPAs, wealth advisors, and partners at Cain Watters and Associates, a financial services firm here to help business owners navigate the decisions they face every day. That’s right. Today, we’ve got a real treat for you. 

We have introduced a new segment called Real Talk With Your CPA here at Cain Watters, a short-form video series you’ll start seeing on YouTube and social media. Yeah, and it features two of our CPAs, Caitlin and Zane, having honest, practical conversations about the financial questions people are actually asking, especially younger professionals. 

And today’s topic is a big one: why so many young people are turning to social media for financial advice. So whether you’re getting money tips from TikTok, YouTube, or a group chat, this conversation is for you. 

Okay, Zane and Caitlin, welcome to the Accumulating Wealth podcast again. Thanks for having us. This is exciting. Happy to be here. Welcome to the table of finfluencers. Did you know that Judson and I are finfluencers? I knew that before you guys knew that. We named ourselves that after our episode on TikTok videos, which is great. 

We fluence lots of fins. We fluence. And having the two of you today greatly increases the intelligence as you’re both Texas A&M Aggies. Whoop. We don’t have any of that at the table, so welcome. But I think maybe a great place to start, I mean, y’all both been on before, but maybe a great place to start for the listeners is just – you actually, you’re both client-facing here at the firm, but you’re kind of in different roles. 

So, Zane, you want to start? And then we’ll go over to Caitlin on just kind of where you’re at the firm right now. 

Sure, yeah. So I’ve been here for 10 years. I am, as Judson put it, a nepotism kid. So my parents have been clients here forever. That’s how I got here. But I’ve been doing this for 10 years, senior planner, and kind of more on the traditional side. Traditional CPA, planner, wealth advisor working with primarily dentists.  

Yeah, and for those that might not like something Zane says today, if you take issue at all, Zane did grow up under Mason, so just email Mason@CainWatters.com to complain. He loves hearing from you. That’s right. Mason@CainWatters.com.  

Caitlin, you want to tell folks where you’re at at the firm? Absolutely. I am starting my 17th year at Cain Watters which really ages me. Boom. Not sure how I feel about that. You look 17. Perfect. So how could you have been here 17 years? Hey, we’ll take it. There we go. So wait, how far apart did y’all start? 

I’m October of 2007. I am February of 2010. Okay. Fun fact, I think one of the first people you talked to about coming was me because of Cynthia. Yeah, I think that’s true. So how about that? And Hunter and I are neighbors. Indeed, true. So also fun fact. My wife and her are good friends. How about that? Unbelievable. 

All right, keep going, Caitlin. Okay. Well, I help run our wealth advisory group. So we take care of dental and non-dental clients, family members, friends and family who want to invest in our platform but don’t need business consulting but want to be involved with the investments we have at Cain Watters. 

Yeah. So we do retirement planning, investment planning, distribution planning, just not business focused. Yeah, and you said the team. I mean, it’s a sizable team now. I mean, you’ve got folks… Because we – it’s not in the traditional sense, you’ve got… It’s a growing, a huge growing piece of the firm, and that’s why you’ve got so many folks on your team as well, which is cool. 

Absolutely. We went from one to six in a matter of a couple of years, so it is growing rapidly. And then, and next you’ll go from six to seven. Oh, good one. Oh, good one. My eight-year-old would love that. Speaking of TikTok. Yeah.  

I’m excited about this topic because at our house with two teenagers, two high schoolers, it’s funny, they actually are on their phone just swiping videos over and over and over again, and it just makes my head hurt. 

This is not a part of my life, so I kind of love that we’re talking about this today. Well, they can actually send you videos for our next TikTok release. That’s right. 

Okay, y’all, so this new segment on YouTube, which is – there are already some out there, right? How many have y’all recorded so far? 

Oh. 15 have been released-ish probably. We’ve probably recorded 21. They’re releasing every week. That’s awesome. So they’re dropping. All right. And fun fact, my kids legit think I’m famous now because I pulled up YouTube on our TV and I showed them. You are. And then it rolled to Zane’s, the one where you said how to pay less taxes, and you said go to jail. 

My eight-year-old laughed so hard. He thought that was so funny. I do have an eight-year-old sense of humor. And you are famous now too. So there you go. We made it. 

Well, we’re increasing that age because Judson has a four-year-old sense of humor. Yeah. So it works out quite nicely. Do you just have them on a loop on your TV now in your house? Totally. Yeah. That’s how we get the screens up – the counts up. 

Okay, so what’s the goal? I mean, you guys started this. What are you trying to accomplish with these 15 seemingly going on to 100 videos? 

Well, I think there’s probably a big need today, especially for younger folks, or even just folks that are not necessarily business owning, that is kind of like our more traditional type of client, but a big need for just the regular person to actually get good financial advice. 

I think that the regular person is ripe for getting bad advice, getting taken advantage of, and we want to make sure that we give solid advice in a really easy, digestible format that doesn’t bore people and maybe can make them laugh. 

Yeah, I think the numbers are staggering. Like, video is about 80%+ of all internet traffic that’s out there. And again, I think to my demographic, maybe it doesn’t seem – because I’m not on video that much necessarily, but this is a huge thing for the younger generations and how they consume content. Is that one of the reasons why? I mean, what else out there is it from a stats standpoint? Are there other stats out there that just drive so much-  

So glad you asked. Let’s play a game, shall we? Oh, I saw you had a… A game. A game. I mean, listen, you know I came prepared. Oh, no. All right. Okay. I think this would be a fun idea is to one, guess how long does the average person spend on social media in general per day. Oh, no. And then let’s break it down what you think the top and what you think… 

The bottom is really hard because no one uses Threads. So just remove Threads from the equation, okay? Shots fired on Facebook. I agree. But how about actually naming the top three, and then maybe throwing out- Top three … how long you think they spend on average per day on that app. Top three apps. 

Oh, the top three apps. Can I play? Yeah, you’re in. Okay. It has to be TikTok. TikTok has to be number one. I think TikTok for sure. Insta? Yes. I bet you that’s number two. And for video consumption? Just general. YouTube. Actually, I’m going to say YouTube number two, Instagram number three. 

Oh, see, YouTube surprises me. And I’m not going to disagree with you because I think that long format too on YouTube… So TikTok, YouTube, Insta. Yeah. Okay, I agree. Okay. Well, y’all really nailed it. So that was not nearly as fun. The only reason I might have thrown Facebook in there is because there’s, like, 80-year-olds on there that are spending all day long. 

Yeah. Facebook is done before. Yeah. That’s correct. So, well played. Y’all just crushed that. All of the 45-year-old women are very upset that you just called them 80-year-olds. Whatever. All right, how many hours per day? Minutes. Minutes per day. Well, we could do both. Minutes on TikTok, and then let’s do hours per day on social media in general. 

Minutes on TikTok. Per day? I mean, I don’t even know. Like, I don’t know. I’m going to go- 45 … I’m going to say, I’m going to say 90. I was going to say something really crazy, like… Okay, I’ll go 75. I said 45. Judson’s closest. 59 is the winner there. But over three hours a day on social media, which is baffling to me because I’m like, do they not sleep?  

And, and this is per- this is, like, on a user basis. It has to be a user basis, right? So people that use… Because they can’t- The people that are logged into TikTok on average are on that app for 59 minutes a day scrolling.  

We did this in my family over the holidays on screen time, and it was, like, an age range, and we all pulled it up. 

It was like, “Get out your phone right now and pull up your screen time.” And it was staggering. Yeah. I mean, some of these kids, like my… I mean, I’m not going to say who it is in my family. It’s not my kids, but it was, like, five, six hours on their phones. Yeah. This is, like, nieces, nephews, cousins. I was blown away. 

I’m pulling mine up right now just for giggles to see what my numbers are. Oh, gosh. I don’t have time to spend three hours a day. I’m, like, looking, like, where do these people not sleep? I’m thinking they’re sacrificing sleep for social media is the only thing I can guess. I can’t find where to check it, so. 

I can’t find anything. I’m still trying to figure out how to delete my history on ChatGPT since you said they can take it.  

So while we’re on these video, talking about these videos, the other thing about social media is you have to grab attention really quick. So the whole point of the Real Talk With Your CPA is to meet the people where they are, and people want short, clear, sound advice, like drowning out the noise. 

We’re not going to be able to answer all of the questions in 60 seconds, but the goal is to just give you enough knowledge to go back and be able to ask the questions of your CPA or your investment advisor. Like, “Hey, I heard this. Is it true or does this apply to me?” We’re not going to get all the answers, but we can at least give you the headlines is the goal. 

Well, and I like it. It really does span – what you guys are talking about spans all ages, right? Because it can be for somebody that’s young and new, or it can be for somebody that’s older that may be applicable to them, or it may be applicable to their kids or whoever. So I mean, these are great really for everybody. If you haven’t checked them out, you need to check them out. 

Yeah, so what, I mean, maybe give our listeners a little bit, what types of things have y’all covered already in your 15 that have launched so far? Just what topics? 

We talked about basic estate planning documents, what do you need there, when is too much, is there a dollar amount you need to have estate documents or- Boy, that one needs to be a short. 

I would just immediately tune out on that one. Yeah, estate documents. It was 60 seconds. It’s out there now. You can go watch it. Good. Yeah, basic documents. 

I’ll start off by saying we kind of divide this up into two categories. Caitlin takes things that are more on the wealth management side, more on the investing side, that sort of thing. 

I take questions that are more on the traditional CPA side. And so we really have a mix. It’s honestly an even spread of both, because it’s one for each of us. But that’s kind of how we mix it up, and then, yeah, from there we have our basic topics. So go on.  

So I put my initials on my shirt here. Can I deduct this shirt? Is it- Oh, okay, that was a different episode. We’ll see if you listen to our episode. That’s right. Okay, keep going, Caitlin.  

Well, I’ll say, generally speaking, going to Zane’s point, these are questions that everybody has, that some people are, quite frankly, afraid to ask. Like, how many times do you hear a client say, “Is this a dumb question?” 

Oh no, they’re not. They’re not afraid to ask. They ask. No, well- And some of them are dumb questions, but we still answer them. We, of course we do, but these are just, like, your basic general knowledge that maybe you think you should know but you don’t know. That’s where we’re trying to hit here with these. 

Okay, what other topics? Estate planning? When should I do tax deferred funding versus Roth IRA? Let’s see, what do we have? Debt management, buying a house, how much house can I afford, credit cards, should I extend my tax return? Like, just a lot of basic stuff, things that people, they hear maybe different things about, and maybe they’ve seen – here’s an important thing. These people are getting videos on their feeds about this stuff already. And I think that there’s a lot of, in my opinion, predatory stuff out there. And we need to make sure that we are out there combating this stuff. And this is stuff that most of them, they’ll watch a video, and then the way that these algorithms work is they start getting a bunch of this stuff, right? 

We want to be one of those. Yeah. And it makes sense, too. Like, I mean, especially for our clients that have been clients for a long time, they’re always like, “How can I tell my kids about this, teach my kids about this, or my nieces and nephews, or my friends, or whatever else?” And this is a great way for them to grab things that are immediate in their kids’ eyes.  

It’s relevant to everybody. I was getting my hair done today. Y’all didn’t compliment it, but it’s a little blonder today in case you didn’t notice. I noticed. And I was telling her, like, “I need you to style it nice, because I’m going to go on this podcast.” And she was like, “Tell me more about it.” And so I pulled up some of the videos, and, I mean, instantly, like, five people were around, like, asking, “Oh, what is that? Wait, what’s an UTMA again? Okay, when do I use a 529 plan?”  

I mean, it literally applies to everybody. So great. It was great. Look into the camera and show everybody your new blonde hair. Okay. Thank you. There you go. When was the last time you even thought about styling your hair? I have a haircut Monday. Okay. 

Yeah. It’s been a bit. Well, it’s due. I just got mine colored. I know. It’s a lovely red. Thanks. So- Zane was blonde yesterday.  

So, I think you brought up an interesting point about predatory. They’re not all predatory. Of course. I mean, there are some goods, there are some bads. But, and I think that maybe a good question for you guys is if y’all have spent some time in this, as you researched, what are the benefits of having quick, succinct advice, and then what are the drawbacks to it as well? 

Yeah. Well, I think, obviously one of the benefits is you get more informed, and it’s a very easy way to get more informed. If you’re going to be scrolling, you might as well have something that you’re going to actually learn from, and not just, like, watching cat videos. Yeah, you’re meeting people where they’re at, right? 

Exactly. So that’s the benefit of it, is that there are people out there that are going to be watching cat videos. If you can meet them with financial information or other information, then you’ve met a market that may not be looking for it elsewhere. Absolutely. Right? And then I think one of the biggest drawbacks is so much of this information people may only be getting part of the story. 

And I think that’s a big thing, because I have so many clients of mine that will email me a link to a video or an article or something that tells half the story of something, and say, “Why aren’t we doing this?” Or, “How does this apply to me?” And they’re just not getting told the entire picture. 

They’re getting told a fraction that sounds good. It sounds great as a headline. And that’s what’s making the money. That’s what’s getting the views. 

This is how great ideas are born. Would you consider taking cat videos and your financial videos and putting them together? I will get you a Real Talk cat. 

I do consider that. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. I’m allergic to cats. I’m out. Is this an office pet? Yeah. We’re not doing that. But it stays with Caitlin. At all times, yeah. Over my dead body.  

Well, and I think I loved on the benefits side that you were talking about, I love the concept of, like, at the end of the day, we do want to have questions asked, even if they’re on bad videos. 

I mean we had that episode where we went through the TikTok ones and we poked fun at some of them, but some of the things on there were good. Yeah. And when our clients give us these videos, even if they’re not great videos, there’s still things we can take from them that are good and allow us to expand the conversation beyond that to say, “But actually this is what you should be doing.” 

And I just appreciate that at least clients and others, this is bringing them something to start the conversation. Yeah.  

Yeah. That’s the goal. And a great conversation starter with your kids or anything else like this would be to show them these videos, and maybe even look at some of the videos that they’ve seen out there and have those conversations and be like, “Hey, look, this is a great point he makes, but here are the pitfalls or here are the problems with what they’re saying.” 

All right, so as folks are listening, not to your videos, which are going to be excellent in every way, but is there maybe grabbing some of this other content that the algo sends their way, what are some things, as you guys have done your own research, looked at them, what are some things that maybe trigger a red flag in a listener’s brain to say, “Huh, I wonder if this is not telling me the full truth,” right? 

I mean, you said like, hey, the reality is sometimes these videos, whether it’s because they cut off because they can’t get too long or whatever, are not telling the full picture. I mean, what are some things that listeners can be looking out for when they’re watching videos to say, “Maybe I should poke more into this?” 

I think for me, it’s like if they only provide one side. Most videos should provide you the pro and the con, and if they’re only giving you one side, they’re only telling you the piece they want you to know. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. The IRS doesn’t like us that much, right? So words like “always, never, guaranteed,” all red flags, right? Guaranteed is a big one.  

Or if they’re promoting a certain product, I think, right? Like ultimately, If they’re hawking something, 100%, right? And so many of them are leaning in that direction. Yeah.  

That’s the way I see it, too. I would say just from my clients, what seems to be the one that I get forwarded stuff the most, it’s the mega backdoor Roth IRA. 

I would say I probably field that 10 to 12 different times throughout the year of clients asking, “Why am I not doing this?” Because they heard mega backdoor Roth IRA, and that triggered them. Well, you combine mega with backdoor, which means secret. Yeah. I mean, mega secret has to be amazing. 

Yeah. Okay, but devil’s advocate, I do do that. You said you “do do.” Did I really? Yes. I just teed that up. Four-year-old humor sitting on the side of the table. Okay. Let’s go. Well, I retract.  

I will say working with more W-2 employees, if it’s an option in their employer 401k, you absolutely want to turn over that rock because it is there and it does exist, but you have to understand how it works. Yep. Right?  

Yeah, and I think again, that’s one, even the mega door backward… Beause I agree, that is one we get a lot. Even that one, though, still means couple things. One, the client knew enough about Roth to know that was of value for them to maybe dive deeper on. And then two, it is allowing that, “well, this actually is good in certain situations, but here is why it’s not good for you or it’s not applicable or whatever else.” 

And it allows them to know, okay, it’s something that they’ve already thought about, but I’m glad I brought it up, and I’m glad I learned a little bit more about it, too. Yep. Sure.  

Yeah, and I think the other thing is if it’s too good to be true, right? If it just sounds like everything, like you said, and it really goes along with the pros and the cons there’s a side to everything, you know? 

I’ll get ones about a tax saving strategy that we’ve never heard of or something comes up, and it’s okay, if this was legit, we’d have brought it to you. Of course.  

Okay, so let’s now talk about if there’s something that somebody were to view online, whether it’s y’all’s or another content video, and maybe they don’t have a relationship with somebody here at CWA. Beyond them saying, “Maybe I should go talk to CWA about it,” what are some other actionable things for them to do? Okay, I read about this, or I saw this video. Now what do they do to get more information? 

Yeah, I’m- Just AI it. Chat GPT … I’m biased. Yeah. I mean, everything that we’ve talked about on these shorts is also stuff that we have blog posts about. So if it’s someone who feels like this is definitely a trusted source the way that they’re delivering the information and the way that they’re packaging it, that this firm is somewhere that I can go and trust the content, then I 100% with confidence can say that we have an article about it. 

Sure. So that would be, in my opinion, the first place to start. So don’t just go read the comments? Are there comments? I thought that’s where you were going to go. I honestly have not read one comment. Oh, I … there are definitely comments, right? There is one that KelsieAnn sent me, and she goes, “Oh my gosh, you have a fan.” I was like, “That’s my mom.” So I don’t know if that counts. That’s awesome. But good job, Mom.  

No, I’m not talking about just y’all’s too, right? I see videos all the time. I’m on X, I’m not on these other things, but on X there will be a video. Man, you drop down to the comments and it is like World War III is happening down there. Some people are like, “Greatest advice ever,” or some people are like, “That’s fraud and here’s why.”  

I think what- You have no idea who those people are, though. Exactly. So I would not take those comments for anything. That’s why I made that joke, because the reality is that if you watch the video and you’re like, “Oh, that’s interesting,” and then you go read the comments and see everything, don’t let that trigger you one way or the other. 

I mean, you still need to do your own independent research, talk to other people, call your Cain Watters advisor, whatever else it is, before you rush into something and buy Fartcoin all of a sudden. As you should. Always. Fartcoin? Yeah. It’s a real thing. It’s not a real thing. It is 100% a real thing. Why wouldn’t it be? What is it benchmarked? I don’t know. It’s a cryptocurrency called Fartcoin. Okay. Yeah, you should check it out sometime.  

All right. So where do people find y’all’s videos, the good ones? Where would folks go, where do they subscribe so that they can get Real Talk With Your CPA? 

Well, I’m glad you asked, Hunter. Actually, you can find it on our YouTube channel as short series. Just search Cain Watters and Associates on YouTube and subscribe so you don’t miss future episodes. Ever. You don’t ever want to miss them. You never do. Yeah. What are your last words for us, guys? Real talk. Give us some real talk. 

Yeah. Let me tell you, fighting Texas Aggies are going to win everything next year. Oh my gosh. Amen. Whoop. That’s – Oh, she whooped, too. Yeah. That’s what we do. I won’t whoop. You know what? 75% of this table lost in the college football playoffs. That’s right. Awkward. Yeah. I’m good. Get us out of here.  

All right. Well, thanks for joining us. If you want to keep up with us, the best way to do so is to subscribe to this podcast, that way you never have to miss an episode, you can go back and listen to all of others. If you’re enjoying us so far, leave us a review. If you have a question, comment, or a suggestion for a future episode, drop us a line at cainwatters.com/wealth. We really do answer these.  

And if you want to learn more about what we do when we’re not recording these episodes, visit cainwatters.com to see how we’re helping our over 3,500 clients reach their longterm financial goals. No whoops.