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My question, basically in a nutshell, is two weeks ago for my 62nd birthday,
I paid my mortgage off 16 years early. Good for you.
Well, all my friends, I mean, all my friends are telling me I made the biggest mistake of my life
and now I'm really terrified that they're correct given the current market situations and things.
So my question was to try to get some guidance from you based on my current situation.
You need new friends.
Well, let me give you just a quick content. I'm 62, I'm single, I'm in the midst of an
eight-year canceled battle, and my doctor said I won't be able to return to work for
the foreseeable future. So based on that, you know, my friends are telling me I took
my liquid assets that I had to pay it off 16 years early and that was a big mistake
because my interest rate was 3.5% and I could have been making all the things you hear,
but now I'm afraid maybe they were right.
Do you still have a nest egg?
So what I basically, I have is I'm currently, my income, I have a disability benefit from my
former employer that separated me last June for disability of $7,070 a month,
and that will end by three years the way the policy set up when I turned 65, but it could
end previous. I get a $3,000 monthly SSDI payment after the taxes and the Medicare are deducted,
and then I've got my assets, I have an $80,000 emergency fund in cash, and I have $23,000 in
cash for insurance premiums that are going to be changed in November, and then my investments,
I've got $1,430,000 in the traditional IRA.
You're okay.
Your friends are morons.
And I'll go a bit further. They're talking about a stratosphere that they've not yet
entered, so how can they know?
You're the only, stop for a minute, you're the only one who's actually done it,
so don't you think you have a better frame of reference than they do?
They've only had debt.
Right, so I'm debt-free, I've got $218,000.
You're a debt-free multimillionaire. You're okay. Calm down.
Okay, I'm just, you know, with the current situation.
Current situation's what?
If you're not in Iran and being bombed, I think you're okay.
You are in Seattle, but.
Because I can't, I can't go back to work like I'm going to be in.
Honey, you have a $10,000 a month income and a million dollars.
That's your current situation.
Okay.
You're okay.
Okay. Well, I was worried that I'm really not okay.
What do you think is going to happen?
How would you not be okay? What current situation are you referring to?
Well, so for example, my medical is going to change in November
because my secondary is, my premiums are going to go up really high.
To what?
A million dollars.
But a million dollars really doesn't, they tell me, go very far.
Yes, it does.
It goes a long way because it's making $100,000.
Is it invested in good mutual funds?
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But a million dollars really doesn't, they tell me, go very far.
It goes a long way because it's making $100,000.
Is it invested in good mutual funds?
Well, yeah.
So the traditional IRA is that.
And then I've got $218,000 in a Roth.
I've got $170,000.
Is all of that invested in good mutual funds?
Yeah.
Yes.
Okay.
So it's all going to make around $100,000 a year that you're not even touching.
Right.
So I basically structured the four buckets that you advised.
They're in the traditional and the Roth because I have to protect against Irma.
So any capital gains I make stays in the retirement.
And then I've got $440,000 in municipal bonds and $342,000 in some core equities that's managed.
But I'm trying not to touch any of that.
You're not touching any of it.
You have a $10,000 a month income without touching it.
And you're going to have that for sure for the foreseeable next three years.
Well, the long-term disability benefit, the way my employer wrote the policy,
it could go away before three years, but the max I have left on it is three years.
And depending on whether you remain disabled or not.
Yeah.
Even if it went away, you'd still be okay.
Okay.
You did not make a mistake.
The only mistake you made was in choosing your friends.
Okay.
Or in listening to them.
I have some friends that I actually liked that are also not smart, but that's okay.
Okay.
I just looked up how long it would take to wire the money and have it clear
so that I got my letter saying the write-off was closed on my birthday.
Cause for my present for myself, I wanted to deaf free scream.
Good.
So I told my, I told my friends and then they just,
I was in tears because they were like, that's ridiculous.
And I just think that's jealousy.
I do well or idiocy or both.
Yeah.
Who in their right mind, when somebody has done something incredible,
like that would not celebrate them.
Even if it's not your personal choice that you wouldn't celebrate what somebody else
views as a personal accomplishment and it's zero detriment to them.
Okay.
So, but I still have like a 600 a month HOA.
So I have, you know, a lot of expenses.
Mia, your worries and your math don't add up.
Okay.
Your worries are a 10 and your math is a one.
Or let's, let's, let's be as logical as humanly possible right now.
Who do you think knows more about this situation?
Dave Ramsey or your three little buddies at home?
No, I get it.
Okay.
You need to breathe.
You're okay.
You are in great shape.
You have done a wonderful job.
I don't know what the house is worth.
If it's worth a million, you're in Seattle.
It probably is.
And you got a million dollars.
You're a multi millionaire at 62.
I want you to concentrate on fighting cancer.
Not arguing about whether you should have paid off your house or not.
I want you to go beat it.
Go, go beat the big C and live your life.
Kiddo.
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