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

Summary

Money Guy Show – Episode Summary: "Should You Chase Your Dream or Play It Safe? | Making a Millionaire"

Release Date: July 21, 2025
Hosts: Brian Preston and Bo Hanson
Guest: Colin, a 28-year-old financial analyst

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1. Introduction to Colin’s Situation

The episode centers around Colin, a 28-year-old financial analyst facing a pivotal career crossroads. Colin discovered his department was unprofitable, effectively analyzing himself out of his current role. With a month before his layoff and a generous three-month severance package, Colin grapples with his next steps: continue in financial analysis or pursue his passion for financial coaching and music.

Notable Quote:
Colin (00:12): “I have this passion for talking about finance with people, seeing if I can grow that as like the main career rather than a side thing.”

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2. Colin’s Background and Passions

Colin hails from Colorado Springs and has a deep-seated love for finance and music. He’s particularly passionate about playing drums and guitar, with aspirations to record and release an album. His multifaceted interests paint a picture of a young professional eager to balance financial acumen with creative pursuits.

Notable Quote:
Brian (00:58): “You're going to fall in love with [Nashville]. Cuz it's one of the coolest, one of the coolest places on the planet.”

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3. Financial Snapshot and Strategies

a. Net Worth and Savings Journey

At 28, Colin boasts a net worth of approximately $200,000, achieved without incurring debt. His financial journey began post-college with a strategic decision to live at home, enabling an impressive savings rate of 90-95%. This disciplined approach, inspired by financial influencers like Graham Stephan, allowed him to aggressively save and invest early on.

Notable Quote:
Colin (04:55): “It was literally like 90 to 95% of my income.”

b. Transitioning from High Savings to Balanced Spending

As Colin moved out and shared living expenses with his brother, his savings rate adjusted to around 33%. After his brother got married and moved out, Colin continued solo, tapering his savings rate to 18.5% to rebuild his emergency fund. This shift reflects his evolving financial responsibilities and lifestyle changes.

Notable Quote:
Colin (07:08): “I did lower my savings rate some. I know I'm kind of doing two things at once with saving.”

c. Emergency Fund and Financial Order of Operations

Hosts Brian and Bo assess Colin’s financial standing, advising on the importance of building a robust emergency fund. With monthly living expenses estimated between $2,600 and $3,500, an ideal emergency fund should range from $20,000 to $25,000. Colin’s severance will significantly bolster this reserve, providing a buffer as he navigates his career decisions.

Notable Quote:
Brian (09:01): “We want you to have, depending on your circumstance, three to six months of living expenses.”

d. Investment Accounts and Tax Considerations

Colin manages multiple investment accounts, including IRA rollover accounts and Roth IRAs. He opted to keep his Roth assets separate for potential creditor protection, a decision influenced by his desire to safeguard his investments against unforeseen legal issues. Hosts discuss the complexities and recent legislative changes impacting retirement account protections.

Notable Quote:
Colin (13:04): “I like one of my big fears is somehow I would lose all like $200,000.”

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4. Career Dilemma: Financial Analyst vs. Financial Coach

a. Passion for Financial Coaching

Colin’s true passion lies in financial coaching—engaging with individuals to help them navigate financial decisions. He has already provided pro bono coaching to friends and family, garnering positive feedback and referrals. The prospect of transforming this passion into a full-time career is enticing but fraught with uncertainty.

Notable Quote:
Colin (19:00): “I have some confidence in it just because I've done some coaching for people before and had really good results from that.”

b. Challenges in Transitioning to Financial Advising

Exploring financial advising, Colin expresses skepticism toward fee-based advisors due to concerns about conflicts of interest and the predominance of commissions on products like life insurance. This unease drives his interest in independent financial coaching, where he can maintain integrity and focus on client-centric advice.

Notable Quote:
Colin (20:12): “They are trying to apply for this show, getting your guys advice on stuff. But I just love talking finance with people.”

c. Weighing Risk vs. Reward

Hosts provide a reality check on the risks involved in leaving a stable financial analyst position for a nascent financial coaching business. They emphasize the importance of having a solid financial cushion and a well-thought-out business plan to mitigate potential setbacks.

Notable Quote:
Brian (27:30): “The more risk I take, the greater the reward. Those are probabilistic.”

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5. Strategic Planning and Hosts’ Advice

a. Building a Robust Emergency Fund

Prioritizing financial stability, Brian and Bo underscore the necessity of fully funding Colin’s emergency reserves. With Colin’s severance and existing savings, they advise reallocating funds to ensure a secure financial base before embarking on entrepreneurial ventures.

Notable Quote:
Brian (50:00): “This is just kind of blocking and tackling. We wanted to get your emergency fund up.”

b. Crafting a Comprehensive Business Plan

Hosts advocate for a structured approach to Colin’s career transition, recommending the development of a detailed business plan encompassing dream, realistic, and worst-case scenarios. This "3D glasses" methodology ensures preparedness for various outcomes, enhancing the likelihood of success.

Notable Quote:
Brian (50:12): “Build the three, use your 3D glasses, do your dream plan, your down to earth plan, and then your doo doo plan.”

c. Maintaining Dual Roles for Stability

Given the uncertainties of starting a new business, Brian and Bo suggest that Colin continue his role as a financial analyst while gradually scaling his financial coaching services. This balanced strategy allows him to pursue his passion without jeopardizing his financial security.

Notable Quote:
Bo (33:58): “That's the more balanced approach.”

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6. Sustaining Motivation in Investing

a. Embracing the Wealth Multiplier

To combat feelings of stagnation as his net worth grows, hosts encourage Colin to focus on the long-term benefits of compound interest. By viewing investments through the lens of the wealth multiplier, Colin can appreciate the exponential growth potential over time, reinforcing his commitment to consistent saving and investing.

Notable Quote:
Brian (42:24): “The more things you have going on, 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.”

b. Setting Realistic Milestones

Bo and Brian discuss the psychological aspects of wealth accumulation, advising Colin to track his net worth periodically rather than obsessively monitoring monthly fluctuations. Celebrating small milestones can sustain motivation and highlight the progress made towards financial goals.

Notable Quote:
Brian (45:12): “You'll never see your grass grow if you stare at it every day.”

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7. Final Recommendations and Homework

a. Emergency Fund Completion

Ensure that Colin’s emergency fund reaches the recommended $20,000 to $25,000 threshold using his severance and current savings.

b. Path Decision and Planning

Colin is tasked with choosing between continuing his financial analyst career or fully transitioning to financial coaching. This decision should be followed by actionable steps and a comprehensive business plan.

c. Accountability and Tracking

Hosts emphasize the importance of accountability in Colin’s journey, encouraging him to adhere to his business plan and regularly review his financial progress to stay on track.

Notable Quote:
Bo (50:57): “Build the three, use your 3D glasses, do your dream plan, your down to earth plan, and then your doo doo plan.”

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8. Closing Thoughts and Encouragement

Brian and Bo commend Colin for his impressive financial discipline and foresight, reassuring him that his proactive approach positions him well for future success. They encourage him to pursue his passions while maintaining financial stability, emphasizing that a balanced strategy can lead to both personal fulfillment and financial prosperity.

Notable Quote:
Brian (35:30): “You're already on your way to be a multimillionaire already… It gives you time to get there.”

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Conclusion

In this insightful episode, Colin navigates the tension between financial security and entrepreneurial passion. With expert guidance from Brian and Bo, he gains clarity on building a solid financial foundation while thoughtfully exploring his dreams of financial coaching and music. Listeners are left with valuable lessons on strategic planning, risk management, and the importance of aligning financial decisions with personal aspirations.

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Note: This summary excludes advertisement segments and focuses solely on the content-rich portions of the episode to provide a comprehensive overview for those who haven't listened.

Transcript

[Colin]

I'm 28 and I'm for now a financial analyst because as part of my job I had to analyze how profitable our department is and found out that it's not that profitable.

[Brian]

Oh no, you literally analyzed yourself out of a job.

[Colin]

I have this passion for talking about finance with people, seeing if I can grow that as like the main career rather than a side thing. One of the things that's somewhat on my bucket list is to record and release an album. Very different from financial coaching.

[Bo]

As soon as you tell us where you're going, the food falls into place very easily. I can tell by your reaction you haven't completely figured out what you're gonna yet.

[Brian]

Are you from Denver originally?

[Colin]

Colorado Springs, which is about an hour away.

[Bo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's Air Force Academy.

[Colin]

Yep. Right? Yeah, right. My high school was like on the Air Force Academy.

[Brian]

Never been to Nashville before?

[Colin]

No, only Memphis. Like on a slight trip, just going through the. The state. But yeah, we're going to be checking out Nashville.

[Brian]

Be careful. You're going to fall in love with it. Cuz it's one of the coolest, one of the coolest places on the planet.

[Colin]

Yeah. I'm also huge into music too. So like we're excited about checking out all the mics and everything.

[Brian]

Listening music, playing music was what's huge into music, man.

[Colin]

Both. Okay. Yeah, like big into playing music. Both. Like mainly drums is like my main instrument, but a little guitar.

[Brian]

Did you know we have a drummer here on the money guy team? Right?

[Colin]

Yeah.

[Brian]

You know you sent us all your stuff and it's super. I got impressive. Right? Like so you sent us your net worth statement. Right. And it was awesome. Kind of seeing where you are, what you have going on. Do you recognize like you're way ahead of the curve for your. Because how old are you and what did you. What do you do for a living?

[Colin]

Yeah, I'm 28 and I'm a. For now, a financial analyst.

[Brian]

Okay, we got to talk more about. For now.

[Colin]

For now because as part of my job I had to analyze how profitable our company is or our department is and found out that it's not that profitable.

[Brian]

Oh no. You literally analyzed yourself out of a job.

[Colin]

Exactly. Yeah. So. So analyze myself out of a job. I have about a month from now before I'm going to be fully let go and then I get at least three months severance, which is, I mean that's nice.

[Bo]

I mean it's very noble. But was there not any part of you in your report that from a self Preservation standpoint, you said, hey, why don't we cord off this section of the.

[Brian]

We're not very profitable, except for this one department that is wildly saving you.

[Bo]

All this money, man. This department, we probably ought to protect this.

[Brian]

So, Rich.

[Colin]

Yeah, I mean, I didn't expect that they were going to fully lay people off with that. So, I mean, I'm lucky that I still get like a little more time before being laid off because a lot of people were right away.

[Brian]

So financial analyst is the industry in which you work, like a super niche industry, or is it like a broadly applicable skill set where, like, finding another job is not going to be a problem?

[Colin]

It's pretty broadly applicable. There's a lot of different companies that you can work for that are looking for financial analysts. The thing is, it's a really hot field right now, so a lot of people are trying to get into that.

[Brian]

Okay.

[Colin]

But now that I have like a little bit of experience, that's probably going to help with like, put you just a few years.

[Brian]

Have you already started that process? How's all that going now? Because this is relatively new news and you're trying to figure out, okay, what's the next step look like? Right?

[Colin]

Yeah. I haven't officially applied for anything yet, but I've been looking at a lot of the positions knowing that I have a month out. I'm torn on between applying for senior analyst positions, which.

[Brian]

Well, you're a senior analyst now.

[Bo]

Yes.

[Brian]

Okay.

[Colin]

Yeah. And with that, I'm making right now 80,000. But a lot of other senior analyst positions seem to be a little bit higher. So there's a good chance that I might be able to get like a little bit of a raise there, which would be nice.

[Brian]

Awesome.

[Colin]

But I'm also torn a little bit too, because I know right now I have a good situation knowing that, like, I'm in a pretty good spot financially to maybe take a little risk because I also, like, don't have kids or any like, extra huge responsibilities. So I'm also interested in trying to. Trying to build a financial coaching practice because I love talking about finance with people. And one of the reasons I applied for this show, getting your guys advice on stuff. But I just love talking finance with people and I have a big passion for that. And I've done some coaching for people for free, just for friends, family and people that just might need assistance. So I've done some of that and I'm interested in pursuing that a little bit and maybe using a little bit of that severance time to start Building up a little bit and seeing if I can get anything. If not, still then applying for other analyst positions.

[Brian]

So one of the questions it sounds like you want to answer is like, how to handle time in between jobs. Like, what's the appropriate way to tackle that? Well, let's talk about where you are presently. Right. Because you've done. Obviously you said, hey, I feel like I'm in a really good spot right now. And you were kind enough to share with us a net worth statement. We can see right now that you have a net worth of $200,000 at 28 years old. How did you get there? What was it for? Folks that are listening out there right now that maybe are just starting out, they just graduated college. How do they get to where you are right now at 28?

[Bo]

And I don't even see any debt on here either. So, I mean, this is really bizarro to me.

[Colin]

When I first graduated college, I was watching a lot of Graham Stephan at the time and he was fully encouraging. Like, if I was young, I'd be staying at home and trying to save up a little extra money. As much as I can save 90% of my income for a year or two. And I'm like, that fine, I'll do that. I'll start with that.

[Brian]

You're like, that makes sense. I can do that.

[Colin]

Yeah. So I really saw the compound interest being a huge incentive there to stay at home. So I did that. And then as I was starting.

[Brian]

How long did you do that? Like, how long into your career did you live at home?

[Colin]

Well, it's interesting timing because I first started making like 38,000 a year right out of college. It was a little tougher as I was getting closer to moving out, probably within like a year or two. That's when Covid hit. So then I'm like, social life's gone.

[Brian]

Anyways, so might as well stay at home a little longer. I love it.

[Colin]

So I ended up staying at home a little longer about another two years and never, like, there was no end date like we all expected, but.

[Brian]

Right, right, right.

[Colin]

But yeah, we ended up just like staying at home and saving up a lot of money and eventually moved out. Moved out with my brother, so ended up still saving money there and we just like rented a townhome and just split the cost of that.

[Brian]

Do you remember when you were living at home, what was your savings rate? Because obviously you started out at 38,000, but imagine income increased. Like, how much were you able to save by living at home?

[Colin]

It was literally like 90 to 95% of my income.

[Bo]

Graham would be so pleased.

[Colin]

Fire movement and everything. Yeah.

[Bo]

You extinguished some debt from that too. Didn't you have some student loan debt that you took care of?

[Colin]

Yeah, I did. Something that's maybe a little bit of middle ground between your guys's mindset and Dave Ramsey's mindset. I saw the big incentive of the people that continue to just invest and take the advantage of the extra arbitrage that you can take of just having a higher return in the market.

[Brian]

Sure.

[Colin]

So I let that grow and then saw eventually, just last year, that my income or the amount that my brokerage had grown was enough to fully pay off my student loans.

[Brian]

Like just the growth on it.

[Colin]

Just the growth on it was enough to pay it off. I was like, okay, well, I can. I can lump it down.

[Brian]

I'm playing with house money now. Right. I'm playing with house money.

[Bo]

I'm not going to get mad at you for that.

[Colin]

Okay.

[Brian]

I'm not going to fudge on that at all.

[Colin]

So, yeah, I sold the growth there.

[Bo]

Basically, you heard the 90% savings rate. Mad at somebody who's. If you want to extinguish that debt, I mean, that's. There's nothing wrong with.

[Brian]

Okay, so you're saving 90%. That was at least when you started out. Like when you're living at home. But even it's not like you moved out and your behavior changed a ton. What does your current savings look like now? Like, how are you building now as someone who's not probably at a 90% savings rate anymore?

[Colin]

Yeah. So when I first moved out with my brother, I was at like 33%.

[Bo]

That's still strong.

[Colin]

Still great.

[Brian]

Dude, that's awesome.

[Colin]

But then after that, he got married, so then he ended up obviously living with his wife. And then I.

[Brian]

They didn't say, hey, just. You were thinking, this is great. Third roommate. We're going to cut rent even cheaper.

[Colin]

It's going to be going thirds.

[Brian]

Yeah.

[Colin]

But yeah, so now moved out to my own just single bedroom, like apartment for myself and still trying to get as much as I can because my emergency fund's a little bit lower. I did lower my savings rate some. I know I'm kind of doing two things at once with saving. But right now I'm at. Yeah. 18 and a half percent is like my total number that I was. I also came up with that as well. I love it for what my current savings rate is while I slow that below the 25% just to rebuild the emergency fund.

[Brian]

So we have about 4800 going into your Roth. 401k. You get an employer match and based on your income below 100,000, you get to include that save about 3% or $2,400 match going in, you're maxing out your Roth at 7,000 and then you're doing HSA for $600. So total savings is about 14,800. So where would you say you are in the financial order of operations? I mean, when I see this, I kind of have a good feel about it. Where do you think you are in the foo?

[Colin]

So I know I'm in the rebuild the emergency reserves stage, but I know I'm also doing wrong.

[Brian]

He beat us to it.

[Colin]

He's dabbling and dabbling in a little bit of both.

[Brian]

When we look at your cash right now you have about $14,000 in cash on hand. Just so we know, what's the monthly burn rate? What's it cost for you to live your life on a month to month basis?

[Colin]

$2,600 a month. It's like bare minimum needs, no fun.

[Bo]

Now you're falling into one of those things. I always ask people, you're giving us the bare bones. What you could make it if you basically probably peeled some potatoes, threw them in a pot of water. I had a different number from our pre show planning. What's the realistic on what life costs though? A month?

[Colin]

Probably closer to 2,900 if I get a little extra fun in there.

[Bo]

Not 3500, is that what you came up with? I have numbers behind the scenes. I think it's around 3,500.

[Brian]

Let's go to the tape. When we looked at your budget that you sent, it was great. We know that right now your take home is right under about 4600. And then you did a great job of kind of breaking out your expenses for us across rent, utilities, groceries, car maintenance, insurance, gym giving and one offs. Right. So we have all of these needs, we've got your investments. We can like put a pin in that for a moment. And then we have the wants. Things like eating out, shopping equipment, lessons, subscriptions, gifts, travel. So we asked you like, what your living expenses are. You threw out a number like 2600. That means you'd be completely comfortable first wiping out all those wants. Like no eating out, no shopping, no equipment, no lessons, no subscriptions, no gifts, no travel.

[Colin]

I mean, I'd like to have more.

[Brian]

Okay, okay. And then you even said 2,600. So that's going to trim another Thousand dollars even out of the needs bucket. Right. And you're like, oh, okay. So whenever we. We tell people this all the time, they're like, oh, well, if I had to really cut to the quick, this is. When it comes to step four of the brown, we hold the thing up. When it comes to step four of the financial order of operations, we really want you to have, depending on your circumstance, three to six months of living expenses. But true living expenses, not like, oh, what would it look like? Because at the end of the day, what we hope is when unknown unknowns happen, like I analyze myself out of a job. We don't want your lifestyle to have to dramatically change. We want you to be able to maintain the same lifestyle as you transition from this season to the next season. So when we look at your overall financial circumstance, I think that your true spending is somewhere closer to like $4,000. At least 3,500 to 4,035 to 4,000. And so if we're just going to do some little math, not in my head on my calculator, that means that we're probably going to be somewhere around 40,000. No, that was bad math.

[Bo]

So you have a calculator.

[Brian]

We're just going to do this again.

[Bo]

I'm going to do 20s. It's going to be somewhere between 20 and $25,000.

[Brian]

It's the fives. I can't do the fives, man. 3,500 times six months, it's going to be about 21,000. Right. So somewhere around 20 to $25,000 is probably where you would likely need to be with a merchant fund. And we can see right now you're at 14,000.

[Bo]

Not bad. But we just need to boost it up a little bit to keep you safe.

[Brian]

It does give me a little bit of pause, though, because one of the reasons we want emergency funds there is because we want to be able to plan for the unknown unknowns. And it sounds like what you just said to us like 3 minutes ago is you are living in an unknown unknown. So in that realm, does it make you nervous that you only have, I would say, maybe three months of living, living expenses, or do you not. Are you not so concerned about that?

[Colin]

A little concerned. But I also know that I'm going to get three months severance here soon, which that's going to be closer to 20,000.

[Brian]

Great.

[Colin]

Around 19,000. That's before taxes, so after. We'll see. I think that's going to add a bit of a buffer as well. And I had to dip into my emergency fund because of some of those one off expenses, which taxes ended up being more last year because I like Colorado had some incentive that they would give every year. And I found out that it was renewed. But then I didn't see that they had an income limit on that made too much, which is, I mean, good problem to have, but, but still a tax problem. It caused me to unexpectedly have a random extra amount in taxes.

[Brian]

Sure. So the idea is with this three months of severance, it's nearly 20,000 in your mind, you're compartmentalizing is. Okay. I know that my emergency fund is probably underfunded to touch. I'm going to take a big chunk of that and dump that in my emergency fund to get it trued up.

[Colin]

Yes.

[Brian]

Okay.

[Colin]

Yeah, exactly.

[Bo]

Well, that makes me feel a little bit that definitely. Because that could get it well over the $21,000 that you calculated out.

[Brian]

All right, so now let's keep going. The net worth statement. I thought it. You have a couple of different things going on here. You have an IRA rollover account that has a little over $33,000 in it. And then you have sort of two Roth accounts. You have a Roth IRA rollover of about 12,900 and a Roth IRA with about 33,000. What's the difference in those? Why do you have two separate accounts there?

[Colin]

Yeah, I rolled over a 401K into two different rollover accounts. So I had a Roth portion that was my contributions to that 401k that I moved to the Roth rollover IRA. And then for the Roth IRA, just the one there with 33,000. That's like my own personal contributions.

[Bo]

Different custodians or are they the same?

[Colin]

Same custodian.

[Bo]

So why not just roll the, the 401k Roth assets right directly into that Roth IRA that you had.

[Colin]

It might not matter, but this was a deep like tax question I was curious about but or lawsuit question. I like one of my big fears is somehow I would lose all like $200,000. Like I don't want to, I don't want to lose everything. And I heard that 401k or retirement plan funds are more protected than Roth IRA funds if something horrible happens and I get sued for something. Yeah, just that extra protection there. So I wanted to keep it separate in case that ends up mattering, knowing it might not. But I figured it's easy enough to just set up another account, keep that separate.

[Brian]

Well, there's been some loose legislation, so. Yes, you are correct. One of the unique things About ERISA accounts is that there is ERISA creditor protection on there. If you were to face a lawsuit, there's a separate level protection. Generally speaking though historically the thought has been is if I roll those ERISA assets out of the ERISA plan, so I'll take it out of a 401k and put an Iraq, I end up losing that creditor protection. Now there have been some recent legislations come out that has maybe combated that a little bit that maybe it does follow. What I don't know is I don't know that keeping them separate in two separate IRAs is actually accomplishing anything additional.

[Colin]

Okay.

[Brian]

Meaning most often we see people consolidate accounts when they roll it over. If they're going to consolidate pre tax assets, they'll do it into a traditional ira. IRA rollover Roth assets into Roth ira. So that way you just have one account housed in one place. And that account is likely going to have the same protection as any other types of account you're going to open if it is at that custodian with the same registration. Does that make sense?

[Colin]

Yeah, that does.

[Brian]

Because that leads into the next question we had when we think about consolidation. You have taxable brokerage account and you also have a cash back brokerage account. What's going on there?

[Colin]

Yeah, so taxable brokerage. I originally was throwing a lot of money in that expecting for it to be a down down payment on a house which as I continued contributing to that. I was looking at buying a house at one point. But that's when house prices kept going up and up and up. And the same amount that I was raising my my brokerage account to just stay the house 20% downtown. Yeah, it was running away from me. So that made things a little bit tough. So I've kept that in there as potential future house down payment money. And then also the cashback part, I at one point had the Fidelity 2% cash back card that then you get away with it.

[Brian]

I mean you do away with it.

[Colin]

It doesn't work with rocket money, which I love using. But then I switched to SoFi which also has a cash back. I mean there was also convenience out of SoFi just because I was using them for my bank anyway. And then also if you use them as your bank and you have that card, you get 2.2%. So me trying to maximize everything.

[Brian]

So are those at two different custodians?

[Bo]

SOFI cashback brokerage account.

[Colin]

That's not Fidelity, that's the Fidelity one on there. But I also now have cash back through SoFi.

[Brian]

And where does the Sofi cashback deposit to separate?

[Colin]

Just right into the bank account.

[Brian]

Just right in your bank account?

[Colin]

Yeah.

[Brian]

Are both of these accounts held at Fidelity? The taxable brokerage account and the cashback account?

[Colin]

Yes.

[Brian]

So in theory, those could be consolidated into one because of the same. Again, it just makes life, in our experience life a little bit easier. It makes tax reporting a little bit easier. Just less things to have to keep up with, especially when you have a bunch of moving pieces. And it sounds like in a second we're going to talk about what you want to do and like as your next endeavor. So again, you're in a great spot. 28 years old, $200,000 total net worth. Now let's talk about where you're going, like, what the next steps are. All right, so you've analyzed yourself out of this job, and now you're trying to figure out what's next. Walk us through what you're thinking the next step is or your plan moving forward is.

[Colin]

I worked at a place that also managed retirement accounts for a while. So I got really deep into retirement and just finance in general. But then I started to find that, like, I have this passion for talking about finance with people and helping give especially, like, insights to people who might not have learned anything before. So I've had that as, like a side passion of mine. And then, yeah, now seeing that I'm in a place where I have less risk, just at least personally, I don't have any, like, responsibilities outside of just myself surviving. So I'm looking at, yeah, doing the coaching as seeing if I can grow that as like the main career rather than a side thing anymore. And then I am also just torn of do I go to another financial analyst position and then continue growing that on the side. And 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. Okay. 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 $5,000.

[Bo]

Vocal and instruments or. I mean, so. So you got lyrics as well as full songs written?

[Colin]

Yeah, full songs written with lyrics.

[Bo]

Which genre we perform in this in?

[Colin]

It's like a singer, songwriter, like, maybe.

[Bo]

Like not Sanders type, like, or country. You've thrown Out a few things.

[Colin]

Not super country, but which is kind of country. Kind of country I love.

[Bo]

So folksy.

[Colin]

Maybe a little folksy in some ways, but yeah, a little more like singer, songwriter, like Chris Stapleton.

[Brian]

Yeah.

[Colin]

Maybe a little less country than Staples. Yeah.

[Brian]

Yeah. Okay, 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, and they may decide, 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 of, 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?

[Colin]

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.

[Brian]

Did you get paid for it or was it free?

[Colin]

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

[Brian]

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 gonna 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 wanna go become a financial advisor and figure out what that looks like. Walk me through one over the other.

[Colin]

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 yeah, I just am hesitant to work for a place that's so heavily incentivizes one type of like investment like life insurance. And I'm skeptical of places like that.

[Bo]

Yeah, so it's the majority of the industry.

[Colin]

Exactly. So I've tried.

[Brian]

There are firms out there like ours that on the other side that are.

[Bo]

On the field and 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 inbound market your business too. But what's wrong with getting the reps in? Before we jump full headfirst into this.

[Colin]

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.

[Bo]

As being credible to the career pipeline. Yeah, okay. Yeah, okay.

[Colin]

I've fully looked at your guys website for careers too. In case you guys hire remote. If you build a bound wealth in Denver, just let me know.

[Brian]

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 gonna 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 gonna go pursue that field, I might even be able to move into a senior financial analyst role where I'm gonna get paid even more. 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, 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?

[Colin]

Yeah, it would probably be several months or a year or years. We'll have to see before fully getting up to that point looking at the normal coaching Cost from what I've seen for people who like have done like Ramsey coaching and other just independent coaches as well they tend to charge between like 120 to 150ish and I'd want to be able to help out people that are more lower.

[Brian]

Is that like hourly like 150 an hour. 150 for a plan, how does that work?

[Colin]

150 subscription like 150 I think for an hour for a session with them but then they are prepping before that as well.

[Bo]

I'm sure this is all new new data so it helps. Right now I see two paths that Colin just, just talking this out with you. You have to choose your hard in some ways like the easy low lying fruit is obviously go just be a financial analyst. You'll, 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. Right. If you are going to go this road less traveled which by the way I mean we've resembled this path so 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. Meaning 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 doo doo plan too when things go really bad and maybe getting just like I found the doo doo plan very easily when I was. I'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.

[Brian]

Of course I'm guy.

[Bo]

Did you see how good he was in math and on the math teams all these other I'm gonna go hire that smart boy. He's gonna 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 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 gonna take three years to get traction and you gotta 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 now 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 the dream doesn't just dry out and die because 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. Are you telling us this is, you know, you're in this? I mean, handicap this a little bit for us.

[Brian]

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[Bo]

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[Brian]

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[Colin]

Even if it's part time. I'm in that whole business and I like, 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 and 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.

[Brian]

Because that's what I'm thinking about is Brian always uses the analogy of cash and liquidity being like oxygen for us. Right?

[Colin]

Yeah.

[Brian]

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 on to that breath and you go underwater, it's not going to 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. 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. Yeah, 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? There's. Yeah, 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. 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. 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. 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.

[Bo]

First year I went out on my own. I went from right under, you know, I had a great gig. I never, you know, making close to six figures and first year I think I made $17,000.

[Colin]

Oh okay.

[Bo]

And that's by the way, and that's with me doing tax prep. I have a skill set that allowed me that I had an escape hatch that if I couldn't find money from being a financial advisor, I could go do a tax return for $300 and $400 and that. And so I'm almost embarrassed if I've had to go pull my financials and tell you how much of that 17,000 was probably tax prep more than it was financial planning because it's just, it's hard because you're going to suffer. Because I was approximately 28 years old when I started my company of financial firm. It's hard to convince 50 year olds to give 28 year olds money.

[Colin]

Fair.

[Bo]

I'm just being honest with you. And that's what. 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. 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 on that year's salary.

[Brian]

Before you, actually.

[Bo]

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 kind 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. You 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 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 going 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. And then you compare that with add your savings and you add your. 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.

[Colin]

So I can recognize that, yeah, that would be maybe too big of a risk to take just right away. But yeah, maybe I take a small portion of time between officially being laid off and starting my new position to just like. I can tell by a little more on the side.

[Bo]

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?

[Colin]

Well, I know I'm just like the favorite thing I've ever done as far as potential career things is financial coaching. So to me, that's the thing I 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.

[Brian]

And one thing I would think through is you don't know how long it's gonna take you to be a successful financial coach. Right. 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, if, okay, I know I have a skill set 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. 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.

[Colin]

Right.

[Brian]

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 right. Where you didn't have to do that.

[Colin]

Yeah, I mean, that, that makes sense.

[Bo]

And.

[Colin]

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.

[Bo]

That's the, that's the more balanced approach.

[Brian]

I like that. Yeah. Okay. You try not to have favorites when it comes to playing. I like that one.

[Bo]

That's the one.

[Brian]

Okay, here's what I love about it. You said you're 28. I'm not married, don't have kids, don't have all these obligations. So nights are available to you, 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.

[Bo]

I'm still. I'm open, by the way, Colin, if you want to. 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.

[Brian]

Your mind, he's Chris Stapleton. That's.

[Bo]

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.

[Brian]

Here's what I think is what I don't want 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. We know because 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, if you didn't add any more to it, you are 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 five and a half million dollars just based on the work you've done from graduation to 28.5/2 million dollars.

[Bo]

That's amazing.

[Brian]

Now, but you even said, hey, well, I've got maybe this. 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? 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. You're already Smoking that like, 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.

[Colin]

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. So, 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 it's going to turn into what I think it was like three and a half million.

[Brian]

Yeah. Yeah. Just retirement assets.

[Colin]

So. So that leaves me wondering, I know that's gonna matter in terms of 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?

[Brian]

Well, I think you're asking the wrong question at the wrong time right now. Only because you don't know what the next steps look like. Because 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, and in 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.

[Bo]

Well, it's only, it's only hard to design it because we don't know where you're going.

[Brian]

That's right.

[Bo]

As soon as you tell us where you're going, the Foo falls into place very easily.

[Colin]

Okay.

[Bo]

Because that's what, that's why I want to make sure everybody understands this thing is still an all terrain vehicle. It can handle anything. It's just. But you got to make sure you put into the navigation system where you're going so that you're. So you don't get lost, you know, wasting efforts or resources in the wrong places.

[Colin]

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 and you can approach.

[Brian]

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 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 gonna call this week. And then here's a list of 50 people I'm gonna call this week. And here's the list of the Rotary Club or Chant or whatever those things are. However you're gonna. If I'm gonna do YouTube videos, I'm gonna make sure that I get a new video out every single week. Like I'm gonna 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.

[Colin]

Right.

[Brian]

Does that like, yeah, I don't want the analyst job to be the thing to cause you it as aggressively and as you would have otherwise. If you can have the analyst job and still pursue the other thing, I don't see you're going to give your. 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. This is the. Even if it's my side gig, this is my dream plan. This is my down air, this is my doo doo, and these are the steps I'm going to take over one week, over one month, over six month, over one year. 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.

[Colin]

Yeah, yeah, I resonate with that really well. So, yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me.

[Brian]

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?

[Colin]

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. But 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 100,000 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?

[Brian]

I really think, and this is going to sound so silly, I think the wealth multiplier is your friend there. Because even, even small sums at your age, at 28. Oh well, 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.

[Bo]

Well, so 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%, is it 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 on a small incremental scale of the month, yes, the market change was bigger than my monthly savings. However, 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. You'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 multimillion dollar. It's a great portfolio, 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. Maybe, I mean there's a lot that goes in between $200,000 and $10 million and we just need to, let's get you to your first million, you'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.

[Colin]

To keep that motivation going. And yeah, I'll keep checking the wealth multiplier and seeing that is the motivation.

[Brian]

The way I say 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, because it's an awesome thing to be doing.

[Colin]

Yeah, I've done it monthly. And maybe that's also where there's a little less motivation.

[Brian]

You'll never see your grass grow if you stare at it every day. You got to give yourself some time, step away from it. And then when you look back, you'll be, holy cow, I can't believe it covered that much ground.

[Colin]

Yeah, okay, that makes sense.

[Brian]

Awesome. What other questions do you have for us?

[Colin]

I'm also curious. My pre tax money almost doubles what I have in Roth money. So it's like 2 to 1. 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.

[Bo]

What's your marginal rate right now? Are you 22? 22 doesn't get me as excited as 12.

[Brian]

That's right.

[Bo]

I mean, if you had an extended pro. So you start this new endeavor and you had the same success I did and you make $15,000 your first year.

[Brian]

Give me a lower tax bracket this.

[Bo]

Year, 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's why we always do the financial planner answer is. It depends is 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. Right now 22% plus you have a state income tax.

[Colin]

Yes.

[Bo]

So what is that? What's the marginal rate on that?

[Colin]

I don't fully know but it's like.

[Bo]

6, 7, 8 somewhere in there I.

[Colin]

Would'Ve think maybe even a little under that.

[Bo]

But Even if it's 5%, I mean if you add that to your 22, you're 27%. So you're not, it's not, it's not a slam dunk that you should start doing Roth conversions all over the place. If your income 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. But I wouldn't get in a hurry. While you have so many question marks on what your future looks like, I.

[Brian]

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 401 are you doing traditional or Roth 401k?

[Bo]

Roth.

[Brian]

Roth. So you're already building in your Roth salary deferrals. You're already building it when you're doing your Roth IRA contributions.

[Colin]

Yep.

[Brian]

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%.

[Colin]

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. I 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.

[Bo]

Now what was your monthly purchase?

[Colin]

It was 5:80 or 5:38 for that last month.

[Bo]

Okay.

[Colin]

But then there's other months because I think that's what it is.

[Brian]

100 bucks a month. Yeah, 100 bucks a week.

[Bo]

Look, I'm a mess from a behavioral standpoint. 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 does. And I think I try to give a disclaimer every time I, 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. I'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'd 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 gonna pick on anybody for doing the same things I'm doing.

[Colin]

Okay. That's fair.

[Bo]

I know you're making fun of it. It's not worth the hassle factor. I will admit it's not worth it. The hassle factor.

[Brian]

I want you to do the thing that's gonna 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.

[Bo]

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. If this is just one of those one offs because you just have a way that you're wired in this, 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.

[Colin]

Okay, that makes sense. Yeah. And I relate so much, so many ways that you think about money as well and the stories you've said. So. Yeah. 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.

[Brian]

I love it. Yeah. All right. Are you ready for your homework?

[Colin]

Yes.

[Brian]

Okay. Here's your homework that I wrote down. First thing. This is just kind of blocking and tackling. We wanted to get your emergency fund up. You said the severance is going to do that. Make sure you actually do that. Right. We came up with somewhere between 20 to $25,000 for an appropriate emergency fund. Step two. And this is kind of like Big picture is 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? If you're going to go get the financial analyst job, what's the next 1, 2, 3, 4 steps towards that? And then either path that you go on, the last thing for you is make sure you build a business plan. Build the three, 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, and follow up, we get to hear how successful the financial coaching business is. I'd love to hear that.

[Bo]

In the meantime, because I know after you record this show, you've never been to Broadway.

[Colin]

Nope.

[Bo]

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. Whiskey. I'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 and be a part of your journey as well.

[Colin]

Yeah. Cool. Sounds good.

[Bo]

Bo, if somebody wanted to join us for an episode of Making a Millionaire, what do they need to do?

[Brian]

That's right. If you'd like to be a guest on Making a Millionaire, you can go to moneyguy.com apply or if you'd like to check out any of our free resources, you can go to moneyguy.com resources.

[Bo]

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 for Brian Preston, Mr. Bo Hanson. Colin, thanks for joining us.

[Brian]

Money Got Team Out Making a Millionaire is hosted by Brian Preston and Bo Hansen. 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, 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.