Mailbag, incl: Should overtime be tax free? September 20, 2026

SPEAKER_1 (0:02)

A LISTNER production.

Cheers. The S&P.

Scott Phillips (0:06)

The ISX.

SPEAKER_1 (0:06)

Stocks. This is the Motley Fool Money Mailbag.

Scott Phillips (0:10)

Welcome to Motley Fool Money. Yes, it's Sunday. Yes, it's special. Yes, it's strawman.com. At least that is the Australia's premier online investment club, invented by my co-host, my partner in crime, the man we know as Ram, the man the rest of the world knows as the God Emperor. Here's of course, Andrew Page.

I'm Scott Phillips from the Motley Fool. Mr. Page, how are you?

Andrew Page (0:31)

Yeah, really good. Really good, sir. Sun is shining.

Opportunity abounds. I'm in a good optimistic mood. You see how long it lasts.

Scott Phillips (0:41)

I have talked to you for the last few weeks, mate. You are about as bullish and excited about life and about opportunity in business as I think I've ever seen you, which is always fun. It's energy, mate, you've absolutely revved me up to. So I'm loving that about you. I'm loving that for you. Isn't that what a kill could say? I love that for you. I know what that means, but apparently it's a thing.

Andrew Page (0:59)

It's a really, it's a really, I just think we live in the most interesting of times. Statistically, if I could have been born at any point in history, I just would have sucked in every way imaginable.

Scott Phillips (1:11)

And I like, but like- We're talking about Friday about that, right? 80 years ago. I mean, man.

Andrew Page (1:16)

Oh, I mean, I'm, yeah, I feel, I feel, I feel so, I think the agency has increased of everyone radically, for good or bad, depending on what agency you wanted to do.

Scott Phillips (1:32)

Oh, and probably.

Andrew Page (1:33)

Or how smart you want to be about it all. But it's sort of like, I think that there's always been, I'm sure this is not, I know it's not unique to me, but there is a frustration that comes with sort of being more constrained on what is possible, what you can do. Do I have the capital? Do I have the expertise? Do I have the time?

If only, I would love to. And I feel like all of those things are just falling down. And maybe it's to navel-gazey blue-sky kind of hopium. But yeah, I think it's an exciting time, man. I really do.

It's like all rapid technological changes and all big paradigm shifts. It brings with it incredible risk and change, and that's scary. But it always brings massive opportunity. And I just, unlike my normal stance, I'm choosing to sort of believe in the optimistic side of it. I think that we said to you while fair, we were just talking about it's funny how you can kind of like future can be here and still be denied. And like, you know, we were talking because we're old enough to remember and I vividly remember. It's just like the it must have been a good five, ten year period where the general consensus among very, very smart people was the Internet was no more than a little bit of a technical curiosity, you know? And it's sort of like, I feel like we're in that kind of phase of things. There'll be like ten years time where everyone will look back and go, yeah, it's obvious. And why are we even talking about it? Of course, the Internet is good, you know?

But I think we're in that stage now where it's like most people I still think haven't had the sort of penny drop in how the world has so irrevocably changed. And I'm excited by it. I'm fired up. I think it's great for investing. I think it's great for entrepreneurship. I think it's great for the environment. I think it's great for humanitarian stuff. It's just potentially so many good things. And it's probably worth injecting a little bit of that given that most of the AI doomerism that's sort of out there. And I don't throw shade at that, by the way. I think when the people who know about this stuff better than anyone else are a little bit nervous. It's like, you don't just wave it away. Yeah.

But as I'm fond of saying, two things can be true at once. And I think any major technological change has always had those kinds of issues. And so, you know, anyway, I don't know. Sorry, mate. I went off on a massive tangent.

Scott Phillips (4:00)

No, no, no. I'm going to do the same thing quickly. Because, you know, listeners, you're getting only a fraction of what Andrew and I talk about when we're off air. We spent a little bit of time talking about AI. I drove, so we're doing this on Thursday morning. I drove last night to TGV head office. And I did a half an hour on air with James Willis on the Money News program, which is very kind of him. We talked about the book and investing in other things, which was lovely. But the point is, so it's an hour and a half from my place to the studio. I'm back, right? I'm about three hours in the car. Normally, I listen to an audio book or music or a podcast or something. I open ChatGPT Voice and talk to it the whole way home, the whole way there and the whole way home. Because it's just like, it's just, and it's a combination of stupidly productive. Because I'm getting stuff done while I'm driving, right? It's doing the work. I'm not pressing any buttons. It's live the whole time. He's choked chat backwards and forwards.