Brian Paid Off His Mortgage - Here’s What He Learned

28:29Compatibility and availability varies 18+. well you ought to do the 7k roth anyway yeah but is income high enough to do because usually we see mega backdoor roths occur with people with incomes high enough that they usually can't qualify for normal roth yeah if you think about what's the ultimate outcome here it's going to be kind of the same because doing a roth contribution or doing the mega backdoor and getting the money in the roth is getting money into the same bucket what's changing is how much you're able to do because with a backdoor Roth conversion, you can do$7 ,000 if you're under 50 years of age.

29:07With a mega backdoor, you can actually take those all the way up to the section 415 limit. So you have your salary deferral, whether you're doing Roth or pre-tax, then you have your employer portion, then you have your after tax on top of that. So for a lot of folks, it's 20, 25, 30, $35 ,000 that you're getting into this mega backdoor component, which is awesome. But I would argue that before you even get to mega backdoor, Brian, you got the thing you can hold up for me? we have a system that is nine steps that allows you to think through what's the best thing to do with my next dollar. Well, if you're working through the financial order of operations, you're going to notice that inside of step five, it says, Hey, you should go fund your Roth IRAs.

29:49You should go fund your HSAs. That's before you get to step seven. And I'm even going to say like somewhere bleed between six and seven, because that's where mega backdoor Ross would come in. So there's a good chance that if you're already doing the mega backdoor, but you've not yet funded the Roth or not yet funded the mega backdoor, you've kind of skipped a financial order of operation. So I think it would make sense to kind of reevaluate, have I done all the things I'm supposed to be doing before I get to this advanced stage? Yeah, we didn't really explain the mechanism of what a mega backdoor Roth is.

30:21because we're using language just real quick. I don't want to prolong it too much, but there's what's called backdoor Roth contributions or conversion contributions where if you make too much money to make Roth IRA contributions, assuming you have the right IRA structure, because you'll realize a lot of people walk into a pile of quicksand really quick if they have SEP IRAs, rollover IRAs, and other things where they mess up how it's allocated. But assuming you have the right structure, you can then make contributions to a traditional IRA and then convert it into a Roth IRA. And as long as you didn't take a deduction on the traditional IRA contribution, that's a tax-free transaction.

31:03So that's the backdoor conversion Roth contribution. When we say mega backdoor, that's employer plans that are designed specifically to not only allow salary deferrals, not only to allow the employer portion with matching and profit sharing, but they add what's called an after-tax. That's right. And then when they allow, because getting the money in after-tax is one thing, but then you have to figure out, well, how do you turn this into a Roth? well then they allow either in-plan conversions or they allow you to have in-plan distribution so then you can convert and when you have those perfect ingredients you can do what's called the mega backdoor whereas you can make those after-tax contributions and then convert it into Roth assets with the same thought processes there's no limit on how much you can convert into those Roth up to, you know, I will tell you the 415 limits.

32:00And also I'll add the caveat. You don't want to crowd out your free money from your employer. So make sure you're paying attention to matching funds, profit sharing funds, because you don't want to get so fund happy with your doing this mega backdoor that you squeeze out because the government does allow your employer just to say, oops, they've already funded and filled up these 415 limits. Employer, you get to keep your money because they were overzealous. So you always try to leave a little bit. It's one of those Goldilocks things where you have to kind of balance it out to just get it just right.

32:31Unless, can I say one, because this is just mind-blowing. There is an employer out there, I'm not going to say the employer's name, but you've all heard of it, who has the unbelievably most generous employee comp package I've ever seen because they do an above double-digit match on their employee's comp. and they don't just take into account IRS comp. They go above the limit. And even if you squeeze out, even if you squeeze out the employer contribution to 401k, they will then dump it into a cash balance plan. So it stays tax deferred. So this employer, I mean, this literally for some, for employees at certain income levels, it's like 60,$70 ,000 of employer money that flows into these plans.

33:18If you happen to work for this employer and there are hundreds of thousands of you out there who work for this specific employer, you know what I'm talking about. It's wild. So the whole reason I say this, make sure you understand the unique intricacies of your plan because not every single plan works exactly the same. So if it's something that you have a question about, ask HR. Or if you're doing some of these more complex strategies, it's worth getting a second set of eyes on there to make sure you're doing it correctly. I can't wait to ask you after the show who it is so I can apply for part-time work.

33:48Buddy, it's wild. I know I'm going to send in my application right now. It's wild. Just kidding. It is wild. I'm waiting. I keep waiting to see if like anyone's going to, because I... Can you tell me the industry? Nope, because you'll get, as soon as I say the industry, you'll get it. So, but I know we have tons of folks in our audience that, because there's hundreds of thousands of people that work for this employer. It's wild. I'm just going to let that dangle out there. We'll just leave it there. but what we won't leave there is need a tumblr if you would like to change your username to got a tumblr just email winner at moneyguy.com and we will send you one thank you for being here and for your persistence there it is no one was talking it was complete silence very well done I waited a question and a half because of you it was just sitting here what's it called when the water bubbles up condensating it was just condensating waiting for me to drink it because I didn't want to be rude.

34:48Water bubbles up on it. All right. Brandon M. has a question for you both. On the MoneyGuy resource, how much should you save? Which you can get at moneyguy.com slash resource for free. Why is a 6 % return used when 9 % return is used on other MoneyGuy resources? This is a great question. Is this just to be conservative or take into account the 3 % of inflation? I thought it was good too. Can you talk about kind of our philosophy on why we use certain percentages for certain illustrations? I'll let Bo give even more of the nerdy parts on premiums of investments and stuff. But I will tell you, one of the things as a financial planner we do in all of our illustrations is that I try to be conservative on what reaches success so that you don't get into those desperate moments.

35:41because I've sat across the table from people who think that they're ready to retire and they're interviewing us to hire us and I have the unfortunate position of telling them, you know what, I think you got to work three more years. And so anytime I've designed systems that are going to require you to make big life decisions to go across that threshold or that you're going to go tell your employer that you're no longer working or you're going to just drop out of whatever you're doing for a living. I'd rather be conservative with the assumption than to just assume everything is going to work out.

36:17Now, this is where it gets, from an educator standpoint, why do we use nine on other things? It's because I don't mind, from an education standpoint, showing you what the potential is on what assets can do because it really illustrates, from an educational standpoint, how big of an opportunity it is. It doesn't mean that you should use that in your conservative assumptions to make big decisions. It just ties into everything else we do. Think about all the times I talk about putting on your 3D glasses. I'm trying to always help you be the best decision maker out there so you can know when to be super optimistic, but also when to tighten it up because this is a measure twice, cut once type of decision.

36:58We've tried to build that into our illustrations so we motivate you when you should be motivated, but we also make it as conservative as possible. But now, Bo, you've actually, because you designed, if y 'all could see the beautiful architecture of what Bo has designed behind the scenes, because he is a whiz on macros and all kind of things with Excel templates and so forth. You have, there is some things behind that striving. I'll tell you, here's the real reason why. I mean, the whole, why do we share how much should you save? Like, what is it? what a lot of people don't realize, and this is where financial mutants, they get a little sideways, but not sideways in a bad way.

37:35We think so much about math, math, math, math, math. And that illustration is actually much less about math and much more about behavior. Because when it comes to how much can you save, what is the thing that you can influence? And there's only one thing you can influence how much you save. You don't get to influence what the market does. And so what we wanted to be careful of doing is putting in some really frothy rate of return assumption. Hey, we're going to do an 8%, 9%, 10 % because it's not a given. It's not a guarantee that that's what the market returns are going to give us moving forward.

38:07Now, past performance is not indicative of future performance, but man, it sure is pretty consistent. When you look at like the S &P 500 over the last 50 to 60 years, it's been pretty strong. What I would hate to do though, is create an educational illustration for someone that says, Hey, here's what you should do. And it's based on this like very aggressive or just overly comfortable rate of return. And it gives you a false sense of confidence that, you know what, I don't have to do as much, or I don't need to save as much because the market's going to carry me. And while that may be a truth, that may be a reality, what we want you focusing in on is the behavior.

38:44Because what it's supposed to do is get you started. And then as you get started, okay, how much did I save? 25%. Then you're going to start tracking your net worth and you're going to see what are my actual rate of returns that I'm recognizing. And then the actual things that you're doing are going to be the fuel that keeps you moving forward. We want that to be the motivation, not to be some 10 % rate of return assumption in there. So a lot of the stuff that we use, whether we use a 10 % for a 20 year old, when we talk about$1 can turn into 88 or a 6 % for what can 25 % do for you, it's because we're trying to influence the behavior of you beginning to take steps in the direction of moving towards financial independence.

39:25So that's why we landed on that for the 25%. Because if you really like dive into the illustration, there's so many assumptions in there around like, okay, what are we trying to do? Okay, we're going for an income replacement ratio. Well, we know that when it comes to retirement, we don't actually try to replace income. We want to replace expenses. So even there, there's some variables that went in that aren't perfect if you're going to use it for actually designing and structuring a financial plan. But directionally, we want your behavior to be right. So that's why we stayed super, super conservative on that illustration.

39:57Well, there's also, because when you do anything that has projections, it's 30 years in the future. Inflation comes into play. Rates of returns come into play. So that's why it's important to structure this in a way that does tie some very conservative assumptions, but also it's not disconnected from the reality. of what you see a lot of people in their walk towards financial success reach their great big beautiful tomorrow. And I think we've really balanced that well. But I love giving the clarification. We love the math. We love the behavior. We try to give you that perfect mix right in between so you can be the best financial mutant version of yourself.

40:38Love it. That was a great question, Brandon. Thanks for being the catalyst to let us kind of talk about the math behind those things. If you want to see those resources, moneyguy.com slash resources will take you there. It's full of free downloads, free calculators, and you can see all of the rate of returns that we've been just talking about. So go check that out. And Brandon M., if you want a Tumblr, just email winner at moneyguy.com and we'll work on getting that sent out to you. Josh O. is up next. How should a pension factor into your retirement investment mix? Does this fixed income reduce the needs for bonds?

41:16Assume pension is about 30 % of my retirement spent. What do you think? Pensions. Well, look, this is a mixed bag. It's because pensions, if you're forced to make only one decision, is that this is a promise that is going to pay to you when you retire, that's not really a net worth element. That's more of a reduction in what your need is from your assets at retirement because a portion of your living expenses is going to be covered by your employer through this promise. Now, the complicators in this are that a lot of pensions will allow you a lump sum option when you retire, where you could turn this into an IRA, roll it into an IRA or some other retirement.

42:03So that is going to be a complicating element. The other thing is that we just can't trust our employers in some aspects on these pensions because it's gotten to be a very strong planning opportunity that if your pension is made promises that are well above what the pension benefit guarantee corporations, the government's protection, there's a chance that if they've underfunded their pensions that they might just go to the government and essentially shed that responsibility. So you need to be aware of that because, like I said, it's a promise. from your employer that may or may not be fully funded in the background.

42:42So those are the kind of the things I'll let Bo kind of tell you now how you should triage or come up with a decision matrix on this. But that's kind of the complications when people ask me about pensions and net worth and even retirement planning. Yeah, and I think one of the questions depends on, Josh, when you're asking this question. Are you asking it as someone who's in their 20s or 30s who is paying into a pension, and is going to have a pension at retirement, and you're trying to figure out, okay, well, how should I change my allocation? Or are you someone who's right at the cusp of retirement, and you're about to utilize the pension, you're thinking, how should I employ this in my allocation?

43:18Because even the way that it affects the allocation changes based on the stage of life you're in. And I think so often people are looking for like a one-to-one metric. Okay, if this represents 30 % of my retirement spend, does that mean that I can reduce my fixed income by 30%. Well, not necessarily, because there are a ton of other factors that come into play. It's part science and part mathematics, but there is part art to it. We do have a number of clients who have really, really healthy pensions, and they're also drawing Social Security. And because of those two things, the majority of their living needs are met.

43:51And so it's really interesting in that situation, you could argue that these clients have a large capacity for risk. They could go really far out on the risk spectrum because their living needs are met. would that be appropriate? Maybe. You could also argue these clients have a very low risk capacity because they don't need the portfolio to grow anymore. They might as well focus on capital preservation and controlling and keeping the assets in store. And would that be an accurate assessment? Yeah, it could kind of go both directions. So, so much of it depends on the individual investor and the individual financial plan that's in place for that person.

44:27Sometimes we do indeed allow pensions to replace a portion of the fixed income in someone's financial portfolio. In some cases, we don't allow it to replace because they have a risk tolerance. It would suggest a more conservative portfolio anyways. And what we allow the pension income to do is control our cash position in the portfolio. So it changes through time based on your unique circumstances. And so you have to answer the question, okay, where am I today? where am I moving to and what am I ultimately trying to accomplish? And I don't mean just financially, but I mean like peace of mind wise, like what do I want my retirement to feel like?

45:05And then you reverse engineer an allocation that matches what those goals ultimately are. That's great. Josh O, thank you for the question. If you would like a MoneyGuy Tumblr, just email winner at moneyguy.com. All right. Next one is from Keith. it says my wife and i are in our mid-30s and looking to at an early retirement in our mid-50s can i be putting too much into roth currently 65 in roth out of 440k in investment accounts what do you think first of all do you know how you know how he knows that he has 65 in roth brian how he went to learn.moneyguy.com and he downloaded the money guy net worth template tool because one of the great things about this tool is right on the front page every single year when you fill out all your data it shows you your tax buckets it shows you how much do i have in pre-tax how much do i have in roth how much do i have in after tax and because keith has been tracking that every single year he knows right now today 65 percent in roth assets wouldn't you love to know that for yourself if you do go to learn.moneyguy.com and check that out y 'all have heard me make this statement before is you know as a parent you're not supposed to let anybody know you have a favorite child well it's the same way with your investment accounts um except that we tell everybody our favorite accounts are Roth accounts I mean because if you want proof of that just look at a financial plan and you'll see people the last you know the if you even in the financial order of operations Roth accounts get priority in funding because that tax-free growth is pretty spectacular.

46:42But then you'll see people, even in later years, they typically don't want to use their Roth assets because they have great legacy, meaning that you get 10 years to let them grow, continue tax-free before you pass them on to your heirs. So these are great accounts. People love Roth accounts in a lot of ways. The only thing that immediately popped in my mind is that we always tell people, look, when you're in a higher income situation, you have to ask yourself, is there a tax arbitrage for the future? Because it's not uncommon in your peak earning years if the top federal rate is 37 % and then you live in a high-tax state.

47:18Let's just pick on California. It could be as high as 13%. You quickly see 50 % of your money is going towards taxes. In that situation, you probably would want to take advantage of the tax deduction now. A lot of people then move to lower tax states or even tax states that have preferential treatment towards retirement assets later in retirement. And you might, and you look, even the most recent tax bill, a lot of giveaways for older retired people. So it's not uncommon that when you retire, the tax policy really rewards the large percentage of older people who vote with some little carve outs in there.

47:59So you might be in a tax arbitrage where when you leave your earned income, especially if it's a high earned income, your tax rates might actually go lower in retirement, especially if you're going to retire at 55, to where you might want to do a Roth conversion strategy then versus pay the highest possible rates now. But otherwise, I love Roth, but I think it's worth mentioning about the Roth conversions and the tax arbitrage, but there's a lot of assumptions that go into that plan too. Yeah, and I would argue, Keith, let's assume for a moment that you're not in this super high tax situation.

48:31Let's assume that you're following the financial order of operations and your combined tax rate is below 25 % when you look at the marginal federal and marginal state. And so, yeah, I'm doing Roth IRA and I'm doing Roth 401k and I'm building Roth and building Roth and building Roth. Is that a bad thing? You're in your mid-30s. And so when I think about this, if you're planning or retiring in your mid-50s, you really have 20 years, right? So you have 20 years to try to figure out, okay, exactly how am I going to use these dollars? So do I think it's bad that you have an emphasis on Roth right now?

49:03Not necessarily, because those dollars that you're saving right now in the Roth are going to be so valuable in your 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond. Now, as you get into your mid-40s or maybe into your late 40s and you start to begin to see where the actual landing strip is and you're preparing for that landing, well, yeah, then you might want to think, okay, well, how am I going to use these dollars? Where am I going to pull from in that gap from my mid fifties to 59 and a half? How am I going to structure that? You certainly want to put some thoughts into that, but there's a good chance that you're going to have plenty of time over the next 20 years to figure that thing out.

49:39And we actually did an episode. Oh my gosh. I can't remember the name of it. Ruby, will you come up with this? It was like three ways, three ways to get to your retirement assets early. If you have to, that was not the name of it but basically we walked through one of those ways is is you can always access basis inside of roth contributions pre 59 and a half with no taxes no penalties so there are some strategies that you can employ it was a show where we walked through 72t we walked through roth conversions okay i do remember this show we walked through a few different ways that you could retire early maybe it was three ways three ways to retire early that you may not know about was the name of the show.

50:22So you ought to go check that out because we actually walk through some of the scenarios for folks who do want to retire in that early fifties to mid fifties and how you can bridge that gap. So I don't think you can have too much Roth, certainly not at this stage of your financial journey, unless what Brian said happens. And it makes sense for you to be building pre-tax assets. Then it's not about having too much Roth. It's about being inefficient and how you're allocating your savings. Nice. Very thorough thoughts for Keith. Thank you for being here, Keith, and for asking a question. If you would like a MoneyGuy Tumblr, we'd love to say thank you and send you one.

50:59Just email winner at moneyguy.com. If you could have a superpower, you know what mine would be? I was going to ask you what would yours be, but mine would be, I wish I could recall the name of every episode we've ever done. That's the superpower you'd want? That's it? Well, it's like a MoneyGuy superpower, right? Not like a real superpower. I still think you're shooting way too low. Really? A money guy superpower, and that's what you choose? If you could archive and just pull the name of every... You had like, oh, we did a show on this. You know how many times I'm in that situation, I'm trying to tell somebody, oh, we did a show on this.

51:30Oh, yeah, can you send me a link? And I'm like, oh, I don't know the name of it. I remember talking about it and stuff. Well, you can just search in our... I know how to find that. I think superpowers are a slippery slope. Because think about it. Even if you could do Superman and fly, I mean, once you have a wife and family, you know. You're not going to fly anywhere. Well, I guess you could hold them, right? That seems unsafe. Well, no, no. And then you think about it. If you're Superman, you have like superhuman strength. So you could hold three kids, well, two kids and a wife and still fly and everyone would be safe.

52:03And then even if you thought like, okay, Tom Machine. He saved buses before. Think about Tom Machine or knowing the future or being able to go in the past. Sometimes I wonder, is there too much of that? I mean, if you knew everything, would that actually turn out to be a positive or would it be a negative? I think superpowers are overrated. Look at Brian. So content. We all agree flying. So wise. Flying would be the one, right? Flying, yeah. Like, it would be flying. So you had a bird strike and you took it out right there. If you're Superman and you strike a bird, that bird's kaput. It would be teleportation for sure.

52:33You don't get to be Superman. Oh, so if you fly, you do not have superhuman strength. You just have flight ability. We have to clarify. I mean, because it seems like all the above. Everybody, I want to be Superman. You can shoot lasers and you'll be able to be bulletproof. I'm tracking now. You're saying if you could fly, but you weren't strong enough to hold your family. It wouldn't be that useful. Can you fly strong enough that you can pull them behind you? You know, like when you have those. Oh, man, think about that landing. That'd be brutal. You know, like those buggies that you can put the baby in when you ride the bike?

53:03And we did, you know what I mean? I don't think his family would want to travel that way. Just a thought. Okay. Anyway, interesting sidebar there. He said superpowers are overrated. What a weird, that's not true at all. I wouldn't have expected that from Brian, but he's reached a new level of contentment. All right, want to do another personal finance question? Why not? Connor says, can you talk more about bedazzling your current life? 50 % plus savings rate. I'm 29. I'm on foo steps seven through nine. So you have a range. and one of my fears is lifestyle creep. What is the difference between the two?

53:47And then P.S. Bo, how much do you bench? But I really want to know the difference between bedazzling your basic life and lifestyle creep. Oh, Lord. Brian, I'll let you do the first part of the question. I'll take the second. I'm just gracious. Okay, bedazzle your basic life. I think this is a great question. Connor, you have an awesome question besides the over-the-top question for Bo. The bench press part. But, look, I talk about bedazzle your basic life and the fact that I want people, the power, you have this conflict that's going on for young people, is that the power of your time is just, it is a superpower, speaking of superpowers, is that if you can take it just a little bit today, it can turn into something really huge for your future self.

54:35and just a lot of people just don't take advantage of that opportunity. So when I was talking about bedazzling your basic life is that I do want to make sure that when you get to be my age in your 50s, you don't look back on your 20s and 30s with the regrets and go, man, I really felt like all I did was I was a miser and I saved and I didn't make memories. And that's why I always tell people there's nothing wrong with you taking your life and bedazzling it up. You know, and for those, I don't know, maybe we're getting so far away and people don't remember what a bedazzler is. it's where you're basically putting sequence on basic stuff you know and really making it fabulous without expensive costs other things so i i some of my favorite memories are going on road trips to i've told you guys my parents did timeshares because they were free we had no money to buy the timeshare but they give you basically a free vacation and that didn't cost any money but it was still pretty incredible thing um from a memory building standpoint um now i i tell people you can see how these things are imbalances because when when connor is asking this question i felt like his was not more in his lifestyle and worried about creep that is something now because you'll get to a point i never pick on people in their 20s and 30s when you're living a very modest life.

55:54You're saving a lot, but you're still making great memories. It's more when I see people get in their late thirties, even early forties, they got a family and you find out that they have multiple seven figure portfolios, but they're, they're still making the kids sleep in the closet at the hotel room. You're like, well, what are you doing? You know, because there does come a point that you you're pushing off. You're being a miser, um, under the terms of, Hey, you told me earlier when I was younger, bedazzled my basic life. So I think it's good that I have my 13 year old kids sleeping in the closet at the condo at the beach because we're saving all this money you know no or we're driving you know 14 hours to go on vacation versus buying plane tickets for that's the balance between bedazzle your basic life and then lifestyle you know there's there's things where i want you to be able to afford your life that's why we give you all the the guidance on 23 8 25 housing what you can do with student loans and all these other things is because we're trying to give you the boundaries.

56:52But there has come a point that I'm going to tell you, and this is why we don't talk about tightwads anymore. For years and years, I was so proud of how tight I was with every dollar that I spent. But then as I got in my 40s, and you start seeing the value of your investment starting to grow, and you realize, oh my gosh, I'm not going to die penniless like I was always worried about. I need to make sure I'm maximizing the memories because I won't have my children at this age ever again. I won't be able to do this physically for the rest of my life. And I try to give you the guidance of a person who's been poor now with resources and how you balance giving the most out of your life, but also being very responsible with what you're creating and building.

57:34Look, this is a little bit of a hot take, but lifestyle creep gets such a bad rap. I want you to hear this from the Money Guy show first. Lifestyle creep in and of itself is not bad. You said that, hey, one of my greatest fears is lifestyle creep. Where it becomes a problem is when your lifestyle advances faster than your earning potential or your savings. Like if those two things are not keeping up with your lifestyle, there you have a problem. But if you're saving the way that you're supposed to be saving and your income is increasing, it's okay if your lifestyle also increases. That's what you want.

58:11I mean money is a tool that allows us to do the things that we want to do. And for a lot of folks, one of the things I want to do are be more comfortable. I want to travel differently. I want to drive a different type of car. I want to live in a different type of house. None of those things in and of themselves are bad so long as they don't begin to get your priorities out of whack. So if you're already saving 50%, you're 29 years old and you're doing the thing that you're supposed to be doing, lifestyle creep should not be something you are afraid of. It should be something that you embrace. I say the same thing with people about aging all the time.

58:44Oh, I'm so afraid of aging. I'm so afraid of getting old. Well, don't be afraid of it because it's coming. It's going to happen. What decisions can you make right now so that as it happens, it's not a bad thing. It's not a negative. It's not something that works against you. And so it's okay if your lifestyle begins to creep. It's okay if you begin to spend money on those things, but do it because it actually adds value, not because you can. Because I found with my family, Brian, I told you about this. You know, we did this big, I've mentioned this in the show a bunch, we did like a big extravagant Disney trip a couple of years ago.

59:19And it was awesome and amazing and wonderful, but my kids were super young and they fought a lot and they cried a lot. And it was not like this magical, amazing, wonderful thing. It was a great trip, but like it wasn't the, it wasn't the poster. Like they, they did not ask us to film for the poster for doing it, right? But you know what? Like a year or two ago, we went to a local state park and it was like not expensive and it was not far away and we never fly there. And my kids loved it. We just went and walked through the woods and we hung out and we were just fully engaged. And some of that was based on their ages and that.

59:53So it didn't cost a lot of money. It was a bedazzling way to do something very basic, but it was so, so, so, so valuable. So don't just assume that you have to spend more money to have valuable experience. That's not necessarily true, but if that is something that is required to do the things you want to do, it's okay. So long as you're saving and you're staying on track with what your longer term goals are. Now, for the second part of the question, I want to put in a little bit of disclaimer is that y 'all have to be careful how much you encourage Bo because a few years ago, Bo really injured himself doing what's called muscle-ups.

1:00:31And he's very proud of the fact that he's... By the way, if you don't know what a muscle-up is, because I would say probably 99 % of the public can't do a muscle-up. Because that's basically where you're going from... You're one of those people, you do a pull-up, which is already hard. Most people can't pull up their body. It's kind of like I always think about in saving your life, if you fall off a cliff, but you catch on, just like in all the movies they do, Bo would at least be able to... Most people can pull up, but then Bo could actually save himself because a muscle-up means that you not only did a pull-up, but then you took your whole body all the way down to your hip.

1:01:04So there is some life-saving value to this because every movie plot for my entire life with an action-adventure is people typically have to pull themselves up from falling off of a cliff. He may really injure himself when he's alive. But Bo was doing this multiple times, and then there was a separation between your bicep and your – I didn't even realize those muscles were connected. Yeah, yeah. Pectorial and your bicep are connected in some way. I tore my pec. It was the same injury that one of the Watt brothers had. I think it was TJ Watt. So it's like, you know, it's a pretty common NFL injury.

1:01:36So be careful when you ask, because Bo is very strong, but I'm trying to make sure that we keep him in control so he doesn't hurt himself, because as he's getting older, we don't need to be doing crazy, crazy stuff, because it's also not how healthy you are, it's how healthy you stay. It's how healthy you stay. That's right. And so I have, look, I have, you know. Because he's, by the way, he's confessed to me in the last two weeks he did a muscle-up. And I was like, what are we doing? I was like, you promised me you were not going to do this anymore. It happened in October 2022. And I told myself, I'll never do them again, never do them again.

1:02:05But man, the other day, I was just feeling real good. And so I just took it for a spin. I don't do them a workout. I don't do them high volume. But yeah, it is one of those things. Like, I am at the age now. I have to be more careful about the kind of weight that I lift and the kind of movements that I do. Because I want to make sure that I stay healthy for as long as possible. So it's something that's a big priority for me. If you want to know the real good life advice, the way I've protected myself from falling off the cliff is I just walk around with Bo. So now he can just pull me up. I can just pull you up off the cliff.

1:02:35As long as I can hang on for a split second, hopefully Bo is going to pull me up off the cliff. That's hilarious. That's a good strategy. You didn't answer. Did you want to tell him your number? How much do I bench press? That was part of the question. I'm in the middle of a bench press cycle right now. It's a strength cycle we're doing. So I will find out here in a few weeks. Oh, my God. Okay. Immediately, pre-injury, I was right around 350. And I have a feeling I'm going to be right back in that range. That's my bold prediction. Interesting. There you go. Interesting. And by the way, Bo's not a small man.

1:03:10I mean, I always tell people about bench pressing. If you're over six feet, because Bo's 6 '30". You've got long arms. You've got long. Ganky these arms. It creates a lot of distance that you have to cover. A lot of distance to bear. Whereas all my buddies in college, when we used to do bench press stuff, I mean, all my 5 '8", 5 '9", guys, it's almost like they hit their chest and their muscles big enough that it bounced right back up and they're done. I'm like, whoa, that would be nice if you only had to go four or five inches versus this crazy plane with that much weight. So that's impressive.

1:03:43Connor, your question covered a lot of ground. And for that, we would like to thank you with a Money Guy Tumblr. if you would like one. Just email winner at moneyguy.com. Brian, cheers to this momentum occasion. Mortgage free. Mortgage free. Not debt free. Mortgage and personal loan free. But it's been a long time coming. So thank you for listening or watching, joining us for this momentous occasion. And even if you didn't get a Tumblr today, we still have a lot of good, really great free stuff for you at moneyguy.com slash resources. Go check out our downloads and our calculators they'll be right there for you and we'll be back next tuesday at 10 a.m central right here on youtube guys we have an absolute blast doing this show i do want to i have one little sidebar um i got to go to the dolly musical oh yeah that they were premiering in here right there is going to be in the coming months there is going to be broadway in new york is going to likely have the dolly show and y 'all know we love us some dolly parton and i'm happy to report also because they're doing previews out here at Belmont at the Fisher Center.

1:04:49Dolly has been showing up at all those shows. That's pretty cool. And it's so cool. I mean, it is so cool seeing her get up there, and she is just spectacular. And this show is good. And I just wanted to say that's something to be on the horizon for, for making memories. If you want to get a little bit of that mountain love in your life and a little of the Dolly magic, be on the lookout for that. That was something cool. But I'm your host, Brian Preston, Mr. Bo Hanson, Money Guy team, out.

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