Should You Chase Your Dream or Play It Safe? | Making a Millionaire

18:16And then I just have other like passion things that aren't as much career focus that I'm also excited about. So I'm also really big into music. One of the things that's somewhat on my bucket list is to like record and release an album. So very different from financial coaching, but I just love music so much. And I have some songs that I like want to be able to get out there and i mean that would cost a little bit like around like five thousand local and instruments or i mean so so you got lyrics as well as full songs written yeah full songs written with lyrics what genre we we perform in this end it's like singer songwritery like okay maybe like standards type like or country oh you've thrown out a few things not super country okay but just kind of country kind of country i love so folksy maybe a little folksy in some ways but yeah a little more like singer songwritery like chris stapleton yeah maybe a little less country than state.

19:05Okay.

19:08Brian Preston:Let's start with the first one. All right. You said, I have this idea. I want to grow coaching as my main gig instead of the side gig. Like walk me through the mindset there, right? Because most often what we see happen is someone will, they'll go to college, they'll get a degree, they'll begin to pursue a vocation. They made a side. I like this vocation, but maybe it's not what I want to do forever. They slowly begin building up something on the side. They do a side gig until that side gig reaches critical mass to where then the side gig can become the main thing. Walk me through the mindset that you have right now.

19:35Brian Preston:Okay. Rather than trying it that way, what if I just dive headfirst into the making the side gig that doesn't presently exist the main thing? I have some confidence in it just because I've done some coaching for people before and had really good results from that. And then I've already been like referred to other people because of that. It's not reached any critical mass though. So I know that that's a big risk. Did you get paid for it or was it free? I've always done free, but I have some referrals for people that right now are like wanting to schedule actual paid ones. So very early stages and maybe a bit aggressive to switch fully to doing that full time in a month from now.

20:11But yeah, I'm curious to see like if I could grow it enough over three months to at least help start getting a little bit more of the foot in the door.

20:18Brian Preston:What I'm not hearing you say is, man, I really just love financial analyzing and I'm just not going to feel like my true self if I'm not financial analyzing. I want to do this other vocation. Walk me through the thought process to like, okay, I'm going to start my own thing and be a financial coach as opposed to just pivoting careers and moving towards like a financial advising career. Hey, I want to go become a financial advisor and figure out what that looks like. Walk me through one over the other. Yeah. So I am interested like in either advising or coaching, but as I've been looking at advising and I have gone through this several different times looking at that, that there's a lot of positions that are not fee-based advisors like you guys do, which I admire a ton because Because, yeah, I just am hesitant to work for a place that so heavily incentivizes one type of investment, like life insurance.

21:03And I'm skeptical of places like that. It's the majority of the industry. Exactly.

21:09Brian Preston:But there are firms out there like ours that are on the other side, that are on the fee-only side. It is more of an apprenticeship. I mean, like everybody who we hire to be financial planners, we tell them, don't go get business. We want you to kind of be the best version of yourself. Get the four years, five years of experience. Become a monster of knowledge. and then yeah of course i want you to go get business but we'll we'll inbound market your business too but what what what's what's wrong with getting the the reps in before we jump full full headfirst into this i've searched quite a few different places in denver i'm sure there's some that are fee-based but i was having such a tough time finding one that i trusted as being access to to to the to the career pipeline yeah okay yeah okay i fully looked at your guys's website for careers too, in case you guys hire remote.

21:53So if you build a Bound Wealth in Denver, just let me know.

21:56Brian Preston:So the idea is, okay, there's not an opportunity for me to go get a job as a financial advisor in the area in which I live. So I'm just going to start this thing. But we know that right now, because anytime we face a financial decision, there's an opportunity cost conversation we have to have. If I do this, that means I do not do this. Or if I don't do this, that means that I can do this. We know that right now you said, hey, as a financial analyst, I make like 80 grand a year. And I'm likely if I'm going to go pursue that field, I might even be able to move into a senior financial analyst role where I'm going to get paid even more.

22:27Brian Preston:So maybe it's 80, 90,$100 ,000 a year. That's a lot of like income and opportunity to walk away from. I don't know what your fee schedule or what the cost you'll charge for your coaching services is, but I got to imagine you got to see a lot of clients to be able to replace$100 ,000 of income. Is that a fair assessment? Yeah, it would probably be several months or a year or years. We'd have to see before fully getting up to that point. Looking at the normal coaching cost from what I've seen for people who have done like Ramsey coaching and other just independent coaches as well, they tend to charge between like 120 to 150-ish.

23:06And I'd want to be able to help out people that are more lower income.

23:09Brian Preston:Is that like hourly? Like 150 an hour, 150 for a plan? How does that work? 150 subscription? Like 150, I think for an hour for a session with them. Okay. But then they are prepping before that as well, I'm sure. This is all new data, so it helps. And right now I see two paths that, Colin, just talking this out with you. You have to choose your heart in some ways. Like the easy low-lying fruit is obviously just be a financial analyst. You'll have this severance come your way that potentially if you get a job fast enough, you now get to roll that right back into all these other assets. But if you are going to go this road less traveled, which, by the way, I mean, we've resembled this path.

23:49So, I mean, it'd be a shame for us not to at least have the conversation and tell you some of the things that might be coming in your future. I would ask you, have you put on your 3D glasses, though? Because one of the first things, if you're going to do this big jump, because in your own words, you'd be taking on more risk. Have you actually written out kind of like the five-year business plan and then written it in the three, what we call the 3D glasses version? I mean, you've got your dream plan, you've got your down to earth of what you think will happen. Then you don't you don't skip a step and you actually do the do do plan to when things go really bad and maybe getting just like I found the do do plan very easily when I was.

24:25I'm glad I did that part of my business plan is because I thought everybody in my hometown that I grew up with that their parents would be like, oh, my gosh, Brian was such a nice guy. Of course. So good. Did you see how good he was in math and on the math teams? I'm going to go hire that smart boy. He's going to be great. And the problem is you start a business and nobody shows up because nobody wants to go work with the startup company. They want to work with the company that's kind of an assured shoe-in on success. And so I had a really hard road that first three years. And I always tell people when you start an entrepreneurial type business, you need to probably plan that it's going to take three years to get traction.

25:02You've got to have a plan that will cover all of your expenses. because your net worth statement looks completely different to me if you're going down the entrepreneurial path, because it's way too, you know, you've had some, fortunately you have that taxable brokerage account, but I'm going to tell you, we're not worried about houses anymore. You're going to probably need a lot of that brokerage account just to be your seed capital so you don't, the dream doesn't just dry out and die because, you know, you didn't give it enough time to catch traction. Which way are you really leaning? Or is this kind of one of those things where since you have possibilities, you're like, hey, this might be an interesting thing, but this is only a 10 % chance?

25:38Or are you telling us this is, you know, you're in this? I mean, handicap this a little bit for us.

25:44Brian Preston:This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, More time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks.

26:30Brian Preston:Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18 plus. Even if it's part-time, I'm in that whole business and I want to be active in that and continue just growing my knowledge more and more. So I think either way, I'm in it, but it's just a matter of am I in it as a full-time thing versus on the side? And maybe knowing that, hey, I'm losing my job. And also, yeah, like going to be in this situation where like, is that emergency fund going to last long enough to grow that?

27:04and do I want to take that risk? I see the questions there. It might make sense to push it towards being a side thing until it reaches that critical mass.

27:13Brian Preston:Now, because that's what I'm thinking about is, Brian always uses the analogy of cash and liquidity being like oxygen for us, right? Yeah. It's one thing if you decide to go scuba diving and you have an oxygen tank on, you can last a lot longer. Like you can actually enjoy that ride. But if you just take a deep breath and you're trying to hold onto that breath and you go underwater, it's not gonna be very long before you have to start freaking out. And when I think about you have a monthly burn of like$4 ,000, right? Or let's call it 3 ,500. Let's call it 3 ,000. And you're billing at$150 an hour.

27:45Brian Preston:It's very easy math to figure out how many hours do I have to bill to just do that. And that doesn't factor in any sort of overhead, any sort of other costs. The amount of pressure and tension that exists, if it's, oh, it's this side thing that I'm doing on nights and weekends when I have time, and I don't have to get that build hour to make sure that I keep my lights on versus, oh, I've got income coming in. I have, you know, I've got this analyst job. I can put as much or as little time into this side gig as I want so I can do it. Do you understand what I'm saying? There's a different level of pressure that you're going to put on yourself if you say, hey, I got to go do this.

28:19Brian Preston:Because the way I see it, you have a$20 ,000 severance and you have$14 ,000 in cash. That's going to give you$34 ,000. dollars, that's all you got before you have to have enough billable, enough billable hours that you can pay rent. And that's just a risky spot. That's a frightening spot to be in. A lot of people think risk and reward, the way it works is the more risk I take, the greater the reward. Those are probabilistic. It's a probability that if I take more risk, I can get a greater reward. But the other issue of risk is I can take more risk that ends up completely tanking my situation that ends up putting me in the spot that I don't ultimately want to be in.

28:57Brian Preston:I love the fact that you want to be a financial coach. I love that it's something you're passionate about. And I think there is even a way and method for you to move in that direction. I get real nervous when your ability to eat depends on your ability to get billable hours of coaching in for this brand new business. First year, I went out on my own. I went from right under, you know, I had a great gig. um i never you know making close to six figures and first year i think i made seventeen thousand dollars okay and that's with by the way and that's with me doing tax prep i have a skill set that allowed me that i had a an escape hatch that if i couldn't find money from being a financial advisor um i could go do a tax return for 300 and 400 dollars and that and so i i'm almost embarrassed if i had to go pull my financials and tell you how much that 17 000 was probably tax prep more than it was financial planning.

29:52Because it's just, it's hard because you're going to suffer, because I was approximately 28 years old when I started my company, a financial firm. It's hard to convince 50-year-olds to give 28-year-olds money. Fair. I'm just being honest with you. And I thought I had the hometown advantage and it just came up zeros. Now it's all, as you can see, it's all worked out beautifully. I mean, so taking a risk can turn out to be a magical thing, but you have to plan accordingly. I was very blessed that I had built up enough cash because my wife and I were very deliberate.

30:22Brian Preston:You saved up a year of salary before you actually - Yeah, I mean, we had built up a lot of cash to make sure. So you'd probably, if that brokerage account is invested, you'd probably want to try to, in a tax efficient way as possible, turn that into liquid capital as well. And then I would also try to, because you're in this new phase where you see all kinds of opportunities because you have the severance money coming your way. The other things like this album, unless the album is going to be your thing, just like the financial coaching is going to be your thing, you can't be the master of all domains.

30:50You kind of need to choose what the next thing is and then get just very sober serious about it. If you're taking this in a different direction of you want to start an entrepreneurial endeavor, we've got to get really serious about you've got to start dumping the water out of the boat to get yourself as lean as possible because every dollar is going to be very valuable because you really don't, it's not all the retirement assets you're never go to touch. So it's really your taxable brokerage account, which is 75 grand. You need to figure out what the net tax after tax amount that could become.

31:25And then you compare that with, add your savings and you add your severance after tax, take into account the taxes. Now you've got your powder money and you now can back into the math of how many months of protection does this give me while I'm trying to become this new version of myself and start this new endeavor? that makes sense so i can i can recognize that yeah that would be maybe too big of a risk to take just right away but yeah maybe i'd take a small portion of time between officially being laid off and starting my new position to just like i can tell a little more on the side i can tell by your reaction you haven't completely figured out what you're gonna do yet is that true is that a fair statement well i know i'm just like the favorite thing i've ever done as far as potential career things is financial coaching.

32:09So to me, that's the thing I like know that I want to do. It's just a matter of when can I fully pull the trigger on getting that as a full-time thing. So yeah, I feel like I feel confident in that part.

32:20Brian Preston:And one thing I would, I would think through is, um, you don't know how long it's going to take you to be a successful financial coach, right? If you, if you make this your main gig, it has to work or you have to find something else, right? Like if you try it for five, six months and it's just not taken, then you have to abandon this thing that you love so that you can go pay the bills. I do see a scenario where, hey, okay, I know I have a skillset that I can go get a job to pay the bills. You give yourself plenty of time to let yourself be a successful financial coach. And you may catch enough traction that after a year, after two years, you can make that flip.

32:55Brian Preston:And we've seen people all the time that turn their side gig into their main gig, but they give themselves enough time to allow that to happen as opposed to forcing it to have to happen right now. Right. If the dream plan and the down to earth plan don't work out and you have to go the doo-doo plan route, well, then you have to start making decisions you don't want to have to make. And you've already said you're at 28 years old. You're already, you're ahead of the curve. So you've given yourself some margin to be able to do some things. I'd hate to see you make a decision that isn't putting you behind.

33:26Right.

33:26Brian Preston:Where you didn't have to do that. Yeah. I mean, that makes sense. And yeah. So then does it still then make sense for me to like maybe continue going as a financial analyst, but then focusing on the coaching on the side? And because I'm still incredibly passionate about that. And that fully would be a dream, like a career of mine. I love that so much. That's the more balanced approach. I like that. You try not to have favorites when it comes to planning, but I like that one. Here's what I love about it. You said you're 28. I'm not married. Don't have kids. I don't have all these obligations. So nights are available to you.

33:59Brian Preston:They're open. weekends are available to you. They're open. You have some margin in your life that maybe later on in life you would not have that if you wanted to work two jobs, because that's essentially what you're doing, financial analyst by day, financial coach by night, and working those two jobs, you actually have the capacity where you can do that right now. And I think that's a great solution without taking all this risk that could potentially derail someone who's well ahead of the curve right now. I'm still, I'm open by the way, Colin, if you want to, I mean, I'd love to hear your rendition of Tennessee whiskey and we could we could go ahead and figure out if we could go ahead and in your mind he's Chris Stapleton that's no no I'm trying to give him every opportunity to make sure we I want to be the whisperer of Colin's dreams here I want to make sure that we have scratched all the itches and we have it all figured out here's what I think is what I don't want us to lose sight of the things that you have done thus far that are incredibly fantastic we know that right now you have$189 ,000 of assets, of liquid assets built up.

34:58Brian Preston:We know, because we've talked about the wealth multiplier on the show all the time, that just based on what you've done now, even if you didn't save any more, even if you didn't add any more to it, you were already on your way for that$186 ,000. If it all stayed invested, by the time that you got to retirement, it could turn into$5.5 million. Just based on the work you've done from graduation to 28, $5.5 million. That's amazing. But you even said, hey, well, I've got maybe this money I have in my taxable accounts for a house. So even if we take that out and we just look at the retirement assets, based on the work that you've done for retirement, you've got$112 ,000, you're already on your way to be a multimillionaire already, right?

35:37Brian Preston:So you've done some wonderful things. I just don't want to see you get in a spot where you derail this trajectory, where something happens, where you have to start making some dire decisions because then you do get behind the eight ball. You've done awesome things. You even hear us talk about, this is another one. We talk all the time about these like money guy markers, like these mile markers. Hey, where should you be at age 30? Where should you be at 40? Where should you be at 50? You know that we say that by age 30, we want you to have liquid assets, portfolio built up of at least one time your annual salary.

36:08Brian Preston:You're already smoking that. You are already ahead of the money guy markers. My hope for you is that you will be able to still accomplish all the goals that you want to accomplish and do all the things you want to do and still be able to hit those markers. I see the financial analyst job as a means to be able to ultimately live the life that you want to live. It might just be the conduit that takes you to your great, big, beautiful tomorrow of being the financial coach, but it gives you time to get there. I relate a little bit more to that thinking of, all right, let's, let's be safe with it. And still, I mean, it's such a motivating thing because I know everything I put into that would also then be helping somebody, but then also could then turn that into the dream career that I would love.

36:55So yeah, I think that makes sense. One thing I was curious about with my retirement there is I know we looked at that and saw that like it's going to turn into what I think was like three and a half million. Yeah. Yeah. Just retirement assets. So that leaves me wondering, I know that's going to matter in terms of like where I have my money invested of retirement versus brokerage. So I'm wondering, do I still contribute 25 % to try to keep that in retirement? Is that the goal? Or should I split it up a little bit more and just take like bare minimum match and make sure I do the minimum like Roth or maximum Roth IRA contributions and just like take that and then throw the rest into brokerage since like, am I overfunding my retirement?

37:35Brian Preston:Well, I think you're asking the wrong question at the wrong time right now. Okay. Only because you don't know what the next steps look like. Cause for you, 401k technically is about to go away, right? Like you do not know what opportunity is going to be available for retirement savings for you three months from now until, you know, once you get past that, you have to figure out what your next steps are. What I see more realistically playing out is let's say that you do get another job and let's say it's just$80 ,000. But then you do start to do this financial coaching thing on the side and maybe you have some success with it.

38:03Brian Preston:And then year one, you make another$20 ,000 and then this income goes up and this income goes up. And this, what's going to happen is it's going to create an allowance for you to save even more so that not only are you able to save all the retirement assets, but you'll also be able to save the brokerage assets. Your circumstance is so in flux right now, it'd be very difficult to design a FOO for you because what's going to be available to you six months from now is very different than what's available for you today. Well, it's only hard to design it because we don't know where you're going. That's right.

38:34As soon as you tell us where you're going, the FOO falls into place very easily for you. That's right, okay. Because that's why I want to make sure everybody understands this thing is still an all-terrain vehicle. It can handle anything. But you got to make sure you put into the navigation system where you're going so that you're so so you don't get lost you know wasting efforts or resources in the wrong places i think yeah what i would be wanting to do is likely then going to a financial analyst position that hopefully would be at least be the same maybe a slight upgrade in terms of pay and then going a lot harder on financial coaching at night and then seeing if i can get to that critical mass to then switch that to being the full-time thing but then i need to build a good cash reserve.

39:15Brian Preston:And you can approach it with the same fervor. If I were sitting on your side of the table and I were doing this, even if I had the financial lens position, I'm still for the coaching, I'm still setting deadlines. And if growing that is something that matters, okay, here's the list of 50 people I'm going to call this week. And then here's a list of 50 people I'm going to call this week. And here's the list of the Rotary Club or whatever those things are, however you're going to, if I'm going to do YouTube videos, I'm going to make sure that I get a new video out every single week. Like I'm going to approach it with the same level of fervor as Though it were my only thing, in reality, knowing that, okay, I've got my basis covered with my analyst job.

39:48Brian Preston:I don't want the analyst job to be the thing to cause you to not pursue it as aggressively as you would have otherwise. If you can have the analyst job and still pursue the other thing, you're going to literally stack the deck in your favor of having success with this thing. Even if the coaching is not your main gig, I would still prepare a business plan for it. hey, these are the things I'm going to do. Even if it's my side gig, this is my dream plan, this is my downer, this is my doo-doo, and these are the steps I'm going to take over one week, over one month, over six months, over one year.

40:22Brian Preston:So that way you really are treating it like a real business. Because if you don't treat it that way, then it is just a hobby. It's no different than, and not that I'm suggesting music being a hobby is a bad thing, but that's the thing that differentiates it. The level of intentionality behind each one of them is what will give it the necessary power to become your main gig. Yeah, I resonate with that really well. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me. What other questions do you have for us? What else can we speak to that might be helpful for you as you think about your next steps? One I'm curious about is just staying motivated because I know I'm in a good spot for my age, but it's also like I know the difference between$0 and$5 ,000 is$5 ,000 and it feels huge.

41:01But now seeing if I have like all of a sudden$200 ,000 versus$205 ,000, it feels more or less meaningless, even though I know it's not, and it's still like a$5 ,000 gain. So I don't know, like as you reach those higher levels of crossing a hundred thousand versus 200 ,000, like if I'm putting in 6 ,000 or 7 ,000 and like a Roth IRA every year, but then market fluctuation throughout a week can sometimes be enough to like change it just the same amount. It feels like, I know it's not going into an abyss, but like, how do you stay motivated with investing there?

41:35Brian Preston:I really think, and this is going to sound so silly, I think the wealth multiplier is your friend there. Because even small sums at your age at 28, what's the difference in 7 ,000 versus not doing the Roth this year? You go see what 7 ,000 for a 28-year-old can turn into by the time you get to 65, and it will blow your mind. You do that with$1 ,000, what it can turn into. You recognize that when you have a long enough timeline, even those small incremental changes can have these huge ripple effects downstream. That's why you want to keep doing it. Man, the more I can get in, the earlier I can get it in, the better I can do it, the more it's going to be able to compound, the bigger that snowball is going to get as it continues rolling down the mountain.

42:14Well, also you laid out that you see a monthly market change is bigger than your contributions could be. And that kind of dissuades you. I would say one of the illustrations we've done on some of our milestone episodes is we say, if you have 100 ,000, 200 ,000, you have 200 ,000. if you just let it grow upon itself, how long would it take to double? And you can use the rule of 72 or whatever you want. But what I always challenge people is watch what happens, though, if you start adding and you choose, you know, is it 20 % or 25 %? Is it just your Roth IRA? If you start putting what your annual contributions are on top of it, when you see that number now double in four years versus seven or eight years, you start realizing, yes, on a small incremental scale of the month, Yes, the market change was bigger than my monthly savings.

43:02However, the consistent behavior of building on top of it is what will accelerate it even more. And then I want to challenge you. You are way ahead of the curve right now. When we showed you that chart and we showed you the milestones or the money got markers at one or three times, you're ahead right now. And you should embrace that and be happy with it. but it wouldn't be that hard in a few decisions for you to be right on the curve. And then fast forward another two or three years, you might even be behind the curve if you didn't nurture this and just make sure you respect it. Because you're not assured, you're way ahead of the curve that you will be on the make wealth side of things before we reach maintain wealth.

43:44You're way ahead of the curve on the make wealth, but you're not actually wealthy yet. I mean, let's be honest. It's not like this is a multi-million dollar. It's a great portfolio for a 28-year-old. But that's the thing. And you hear us when we do all of our net worth by age and those shows. We always try to caution the 20-somethings who are way ahead of the curve because you are using the wealth multiplier. And you're saying, oh, my gosh, this is going to be$20 million if I do nothing else. Maybe. I mean, there's a lot that goes in between$200 ,000 and$10 million. And we just need to get you to your first million.

44:15You've already reached the$100 ,000 milestone. but there's still a lot of ocean between you and the first million. Let's make sure that actually you stay on that path. And because I don't like it when young people who are still at the beginning of their journey are already doing decisions like the maintain wealth phase when you're not there yet. I can try to keep that motivation going and yeah, I'll keep checking the wealth multiplier and seeing that is the motivation.

44:40Brian Preston:The way I stay motivated, annual net worth statement, I just get excited. Every year that I do it, I just get excited seeing how the numbers change because then the more things you have going on, yeah, you've got your, maybe it's just your Roth contribution, but your 401k, and then you see it year over year. You're like, holy cow, this thing's moving. So if you're not tracking your net worth annually, you absolutely should be. And you should tell all your coaching clients, they should also. So it's an awesome thing to be doing. Yeah, I've done it monthly. And maybe that's also where there's a little less motivation.

45:07Brian Preston:You'll never see your grass grow if you're staring at it every day. You gotta give yourself some time, step away from it. And then when you look back, you'll be like, holy cow, I can't believe it covered that much ground. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. Awesome. What other questions do you have for us? I'm also curious. My pre-tax money almost doubles what I have in Roth money. So it's like two to one. Does it make sense for me to take some of the pre-tax money that I had from my 401k previously? So from my employer and converting some of that to Roth, I know that'd be a bigger tax bill and I'd have to save up to cover that.

45:37What's your marginal rate right now? Are you 22? 22 doesn't get me as excited as 12. That's right. I mean, if you had an extended pro... say you start this new endeavor and you had the same success I did and you make$15 ,000 your first year. Now potentially you could convert some money, but now you see the conflict you have is because even though you could convert, you might need that money for it to be your powder money. So you're going to see the drama that, and that's why we always do the financial planner answer is it depends. You have to tell us the direction you're going, and then we can take those variables and tell you what the optimal path is.

46:13Right now, 22 % plus you have a state income tax? Yes. So what's the marginal rate on that? I don't fully know, but it's like - Probably six, seven, eight, somewhere in there, I would think. Maybe even a little under that, but - But even if it's 5%, I mean, if you add that to your 22, you're at 27%. So it's not a slam dunk that you should start doing Roth conversions all over the place. If your income in a prolonged way was really low and you could get below 12 % on your federal tax rate. Now we're like, yeah, that's historically, that's a pretty incredible thing at my age with the compounding tax-free growth.

46:47But I wouldn't get in a hurry why you have so many question marks on what your future looks like.

46:51Brian Preston:I think there's going to be opportunities in the future for you to begin, or for you to continue building Roth assets. I mean, in your 401k, are you doing traditional or Roth 401k? Roth. So you're already building in your Roth salary deferrals. You're already building it when you're doing your Roth IRA contributions. You're going to keep building tax-free dollars. I don't think that you have to be super aggressive about accelerating that tax bill today. Because I agree, 22 % is just not, it's not that exciting relative to like 0 % or 12%. Yeah. And then I'm curious about this one, Brian. I know you said recently on an episode that you like dollar cost averaging weekly in your accounts.

47:25I also have been doing that because I, especially seeing some of the more recent volatility, like knowing the more frequently I'm contributing, odds are I'm dollar cost averaging better. Now, what was your monthly purchase? so it was 580 or 538 for that last month okay but then there's other months because i think that's what it is 100 bucks a month yeah 100 bucks a week look i'm a i'm a mess from a from a behavioral standpoint yeah i'm doing it it's not it doesn't mean it's the best way just because you hear me say some of my crazy ideas doesn't and i think i try to give a disclaimer every time i say that is it i know that it probably it doesn't matter if you looked at the delta between me investing weekly versus if I just batched it all to monthly.

48:07I'm not so sure I'm really, probably the hassle factor is not being overcome, but it sure is fun from a behavioral scratch the itch standpoint for me. So you have to, I'll give you the same freedom is that because statistically it's probably not that big of a difference that you could just make this a monthly purchase. And that would probably be the most efficient way to do it. But if you find that you actually get enjoyment from it being weekly and there is some behavioral benefits from that, then I'm not going to pick on anybody for doing the same things I'm doing. Okay. That's fair. I know you're making fun of it.

48:39It's not worth the hassle. I wouldn't admit it's not, it's not worth it. The hassle factor.

48:43Brian Preston:I want you to do the thing that's going to give you the highest likelihood of sticking to the plan and staying on the plan. And if that's buying every week, then buy every week. If that's buying every month, buy every month, whatever that thing is for you specifically, that's going to allow you to stay the course, I want you doing that thing. And I don't want people creating behaviors that make their life stressful too. And that's the other thing, because we had a guest on recently that she was doing so many things that I felt like she was overwhelming her decision, her financial decision-making.

49:12If this is just one of those one-offs because you just have a way that you're wired and this is a positive for you, then do it. But if this is something where this is one more distraction and something that already feels overwhelming, I would encourage people to make your life as simple as possible when it comes to finances. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. And I, I relate so much, so many ways that you think about money as well and the stories you've said. So, uh, yeah, I, I also have that itch of like wanting to just every week, it feels nice, but then there is that burden sometimes where you have fives, but I'm going to be maxing it every year regardless.

49:44I love it. Yeah.

49:46Brian Preston:All right. Are you ready for your homework? Yes. Okay. Here's your homework that I wrote down. Uh, first thing, this is just kind of blocking and tackling. We said the severance is going to do that. Make sure you actually do that, right? We came up with somewhere between$20 ,000 to$25 ,000 for an appropriate emergency fund. Step two, and this is kind of like big pictures, you got to decide your path. What path are you going to go down? And then once you design that path, what are the next steps you're going to take? So if you're going to make financial coaching the main gig, what's the immediate next one, two, three, four steps towards that?

50:18Brian Preston:If you're going to go get the financial analyst job, what's the next one, two, three, four steps towards that. And then either path that you go on, the last thing for you is make sure you build a business plan. Use your 3D glasses, do your dream plan, your down to earth plan, and then your doo-doo plan. Either way you go and then hold yourself accountable. Make sure you actually see it through because I would love a year from now, two years from now, we follow up, we get to hear how successful the financial coaching business is. I'd love to hear that. In the meantime, because I know after you record this show, you've never been to Broadway, and you go to some honky tonks, I want you to send us a video of you up on stage singing some of that Tennessee whiskey.

50:58I'm not letting this music dream go completely away either. So I'm fully expecting an interactive video that we can share with the audience so they can be a part of your journey as well. Cool, sounds good. Bo, if somebody wanted to join us for an episode of Making a Millionaire, what do they need to do?

51:13Brian Preston:That's right. If you'd like to be a guest on Making a Millionaire, you can go to moneyguide.com slash apply. Or if you'd like to check out any of our free resources, You can go to moneyguy.com slash resources. Guys, we have a blast creating content, helping people live their best financial lives so they can also build their great big beautiful tomorrow. I'm your host, Brian Preston, Mr. Bo Hanson. Colin, thanks for joining us. Money Guy team, out. Making a Millionaire is hosted by Brian Preston and Bo Hanson. Brian and Bo are partners at Abound Wealth Management. Abound Wealth Management is a registered investment advisory firm regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance and compliance with the securities laws and regulations.

51:50Brian Preston:Abound Wealth Management does not render or offer to render personalized investment or tax advice through Making a Millionaire. The information provided is for informational purposes only, may not be suitable for all investors, and does not constitute financial, tax, investment, or legal advice. All investments involve a degree of risk, including the risk of loss. The guests featured on Making a Millionaire are not clients of Abound Wealth Management at the time of recording. Their participation should not be considered a testimonial or endorsement of Abound Wealth Management. I don't think I can be your friend, Isabella said.

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