He started his investment business in Real Estate, and eventually migrated to Gold investment.
Money market (UK) saw some of his publications on gold investing and enlisted Simon to write a column in Gold investing.

Opportunities with gold:

Invest in gold stocks.
Invest in gold – some low and other high risk. A place to look at and download some info on gold is goldprogram.go.uk.

Different levels of Gold investment:

Physical gold
Gold keepers – large companies; invest in a lots of different companies – multinational, multi-commodity.
Defenders – diversity in terms of commodity and countries.
Forwards - High Risk, high rewards.

Mechanisms – exchanges that are available:

Physical gold – go through a reputable gold dealer. Check the World Gold Council recommendation list.
Defenders and Forwards – go through Australians or Canadians.
There is gold all over the world, but I have a jurisdiction preference, and I tend to buy and invest in Canadian, US, and Australian gold and access them through the Canadian, Australian, and US stock exchange platforms.
There are many other opportunities in Africa and other parts of the world.

Gold seems to be popping up the social media and internet a lot, why? Gold marketers tend to be more active during fearful economic times. Is this true and is there a reason for this?

Gold is a great and valuable asset, and there are terms like golden age, gold medal, etc. The risk in the world can be eased through gold, because the value of gold is the same across the world; this is not the case with other assets.
Is there any relationship or risk with the rise of cryptocurrency and decentralized digital currency? These things are separate, and they run separately. It’s not possible to see gold going to zero, but that can happen to any other value, including crypto.
I like the fact that I can hold in my hand a gold coin, but cannot hold a bitcoin.

Get Simon’s free gold investing advice in his beginner's guide to investing in gold: https://goldprogram.co.uk/free

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Eric grew up in a single household – at times with mother and at times with father, quite a poor background.
I ended up going to a seminary, became a pastor, planted a church, but took a break to give full attention to entrepreneurship.
I learned financial management, but not financial strategies.
I’ve had a window washing company, a pressure washing company, wedding venue business, among others.
I started searching the market on cryptocurrency in 2017-2018, and that’s where I am.
When you are pastoring, you are not looking for money; but I was entrepreneurial even while a pastor to supplement my income, leading to learning about self-directed IRAs.

Collective Influence Group

This was started by 2 men I was in (Bible) college with.
Within 2 years, they started the company, “Impacting others”, hence initiatives such as clean water initiatives, orphanages, and Christian media radio. They buy companies, build them, and sell them.
Collective Influence is a private equity firm that has 15 -16 different companies in it. But the main goal is self-directed investment, especially as people become more educated on their personal finances. Self-directed investment frees people from investing through institutionalized processes. If we can release people from this “institutionalism”, we will have succeeded.

Tax Free Crypto – one of the companies that Collective Influence has acquired.

Tax Free and Retirement Accounts: I started with Roth IRAs while a pastor. I chose the fund. I thought this was self-directing but realized it was self-managing.
Analogy: we are good when it comes to self-directing our consumption, but it’s not the case when it comes to investment. One needs full control of where their money goes.
So instead of being given choices by someone else, I make a choice of where to invest and how.
Consider the case of the bank, who takes my money and makes money from my money, and I do not get a dime from the money they make from my money. They hand over a circa!!
But I want to self-direct my money; so, if I had accumulated some money, rolled it over to a self-directed IRA, got a deal, gave a company some credit, and got an 18% return over a 6-month period, I would have thought it was fantastic.
This is the kind of a thing that Mitt Romney did: he made about 13 different moves out of his Roth IRA and accumulated about $100M; How the hell did he achieve this? What is good about a tax-free IRA is that there is no limit to your gain.
If you self-direct on the promissory note, then you can gain as much. He gave a high debt to private equity.
Crypto currency is an asset.
So, if one gets a paycheck and contributes to their retirement benefit, they can’t do anything with their contribution until they are old enough to withdraw the money. But if this was released to a private equity, it is possible to buy real estate or other investments, or a rental property.

Crypto and risk

People make a mistake by equating volatility to risk, which are probably within the same meaning range but different concepts.
The same number of people buying and selling crypto currency presently is the same number of people who were using internet in 1997, i.e., 130mil people globally. Today, the internet is the main thing.
Bitcoin was invented in 2009, 14 years ago. The adoption rate trajectory is exactly the same with the internet in 1997.
Many people did not understand the internet those early days, so they abandoned it, but there are others who jumped in, and they are the market leaders today. So, it pays not to make same mistakes of ignoring an opportunity simply because one does not understand the crypto world.
Crypto currency is an opportunity. It is an asset. The block chain — which was started for the purpose of mining bitcoin — now has a “utility” behind it being used by other businesses. This is how they track damaged goods. What was invented for crypto is now a utility that is used publicly.
Pay pal is creating a new stable coin, which is attached to a reserve, always equivalent to the dollar.
Look at crypto currency from the same way you look at internet; it’s a free resource for sharing.
The crypto currency is taking 3rd world countries out of poverty, e.g., El Salvador.
Today 300 of the many companies in the US are taking crypto currency.

Bitcoin

Make sure when you invest, you are investing money designated for investment, not your utility money – food, bills, rent, etc.
Let’s address investment “volatility”, Warren Buffet; 46% of his portfolio is Apple (the most valuable company in the world). So, diversity is not really a panacea for volatility in Buffet’s opinion.
Crypto does not move the same way as a stock does.
Investing USD 5000 in crypto is really a low investment but will always have great returns; you will never go wrong with it (Eric’s opinion).

Connect with Eric on:

www.taxfreecrypto.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-tastet-05a320193

https://twitter.com/EricTastet

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Adam Carroll – Host of build a bigger life podcast; curator of master of money.com and founder of the shred method

Personal Background – pathway leading to him doing what he does
- Family appeared affluent or middle class but money wasn’t really there.
- Family was loving and considerate
- I used to use my credit card in college and so became part of the debt stats;
- An entrepreneur in college, hence borrowed loans from students to build this business
- Studied books about personal finance and started applying the principles, and was able to pay off all my debts at age 26, except the mortgage,
- This enabled me to save between 3,000-4,00 USD per month, and made me feel like a millionaire, something I started sharing with other people
Making this my career
- Met a personal financial guide and mentor, who gave me a couple of books
- I became intrigued by the concept of passive income, and how to create it, especially as an educator, speaker and creative
- I wanted to make money speaking, writing and creating content; so I describe myself as a mediapreneur – meaning I like creating media in all its facets and then figure out how to turn around and sell it.
The Shred Method
- One of the big things the podcast is dedicated to is retiring debts, hence the need to know every new dynamic, principle and practice to achieve that.
- Shred Method is a tactic and is about optimizing people’s income
- Most people don’t have an income problem, they have a liquidity problem; they make enough money to afford what they are doing, but they are not able to go beyond that like to save because money is tied up in their lifestyles
- Shred Method tries to help people manage their finances by helping to knock off the debts one by one, maximizing how much money you have remained with at the end of the month, and then figuring out what one should do with the money that is left over; what is the most efficient use of that money that is humanly possible!
- Our goal is to create certainty around retirement, to guarantee the working class that they can retire comfortably and never worry about debts and sustainability.
- We rephrase words differently, for instance, we call retirement choice-age, because we want people at retirement to have many choices, not limited by money in any way
The Shred concept:
- I was a mortgage broker for a number of years; I started a company that I branded and packaged as the first socially responsible mortgage company in our State..
- I witnessed the exploitation that was happening in the mortgage sector. This was underhanded and morally reprehensible
- I wanted to start a company that didn’t function that way; we would receive people who wanted to refinance their mortgage, and we would do the math and show them they could save between $50-$200 per month; but I would be left with this feeling that you have just paid $2000 or $4000 to refinance your mortgage, which essentially would send the client to the same square they were before.
- I started digging deeper into this mortgage issue at the decision table, I realized that you pay interest for the first 36-40 months, and this is when most people would refinance before they got their hands on the mortgage game itself.
- So Shred happens in the first 36-40 months of payment is where you can make the biggest difference in how much principal you can pay down on a mortgage
- When you do that, you are paying in advance your mortgage, you are accelerating your decision table
- So we started realizing that one of our goals was to help people have more equity in their homes, reduce the amount of interest that they pay and then figure out what to do with that extra equity and strategically deploy it in the right places to start building your own wealth.
What do you think about *HELOCs?, a sort of establishing an emergency fund or capital?
- A broad brush statement: Anyone who has equity at home, must have a HELOC as an emergency fund – in addition to money saved which is liquid and readily available.
- We use a HELOC very differently at Shred; it is not a spending account. For people who are disciplined in their expenditures and have a predictable income projection, this works well provided you have money at the end of the month
MasteryofMoney.Com
- This is a financial literacy resource
- We should all pursue mastery; mastery has no peak; you are forever climbing higher, and getting better and better at what you do.
- Mastery of Money.Com is built on this premise.
- I also have books on Mastery of Money.Com for students, and others on Amazon; we are gearing to launch a podcast by the same name.
- We will be doing deep dives into a variety of topics from insurance, to mortgages, to investment in real estates, and people who are on their path to mastery can listen in.
How Mastery of Money.Com podcast differs or dovetails with Building a Bigger life podcast:
- Build-A-Bigger-Life was started in 2015 and it was born out of interaction with people who were asking, what do I do with my life if I am not satisfied with my current life?
- I bounced this by the group I was coaching, and for instance, one of the ladies in the group just wanted to travel; when I asked her why she isn’t traveling she responded that she had just bought a new car, and new furniture, which she was presently financing and she had a couple of gym memberships which she was paying every month
- I said to her, I think you have built a really big lifestyle but you don’t really have a big life. That became the show. I interviewed people who were building a bigger life, people who were doing what they were doing versus what they were supposed to be doing; this was an awesome conversation with people who were inspired to change their life in a better way.
Major Takeaways from the 170+ shows of the Build-A-Bigger-Life podcast
- We are the architects of our own life, and we’ve got to decide what that life looks like
- The way to do this is to identify what your core values are, and then live by those core values on a day to day basis.
- My interviews revealed that people who live by their core values are generally very fulfilled; and those who are missing out on some of their core values are always feeling unfulfilled, wanting to change some things, which they probably also do not know
- For such, we do a self assessment, and help them ask the foundational and bigger questions, that help them think through why they are not building a bigger life.
- Aiming for something for a lot of people requires permission – probably by family, employer, significant others, etc.

https://www.adamspeaks.com/

https://www.instagram.com/adam.carroll/

https://twitter.com/AdamCarroll

https://www.facebook.com/AdamSpeaks/

www.buildabiggerlife.com

www.brokebusteddisgusted.com

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Founder and CEO of At the Core program for launching High School students into College and Life.

Helping them prepare for the coming life transition.

Determining career aspirations, what courses of study will best support a given career.

The cost of college: this could be made a broader conversation within the family, for example, discussions on the broader “cost” incurred by family. Such an approach can greatly prepare children on matters of money when they enter college and start living on their own.
Without discussions about money – from the family level – there are no guards, no guidelines, and the child is not well positioned to handle finances/money at college level, whether in terms of negotiating fees and other axillary costs. As families, we need to guide our children on money and costs and how this interfaces with the choices we make whether in terms of which school, which career or which service(s) to consume.

Practical Tips for Families on Managing Cost of College:

Embrace dual enrollment / dual credit program(s): this means doubling up both as a high school student and at the same time taking some college-level courses.

o A benefit to this approach is that it can reveal if one is ready for college-level coursework. So one earns both college and high school credits. In most cases, they are at a reduced cost or completely free. The only condition: pass the class.

o For every credit, the student can transfer the same to the college, reducing cost.

AP Programs: if the goal is to save money in college, the AP class is an option.

Take advantage of community college – which offers continuing education. This is a great option for the student who would like to find out how academically fit they are? It's an opportunity to test that.

To connect with Beth:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethprobst

https://www.gettingatthecore.com/

https://twitter.com/GetAtTheCore

https://www.instagram.com/gettingatthecore/

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We come alongside families with students who are speeding toward a transition to college and career.

Personal Career Path

o I was in a sales and marketing career, selling tech products when I stumbled on Students preparing to transition to high school, interviewing them as possible sales assistants, and realized they had no framework to make solid decisions about life and career; this was the light bulb my head moment for me. I asked myself: can I do something structured to help them make more informed decisions on their journey through High School into college!

The value question: does a college degree guarantee a commensurate high wage or more desirable job?

o Are there alternatives that are viable and probably less costly?

o 3 big decisions to make at the end of high school:

Pick a college
Choose a course of study or major
Determine a career path

o To help their ability to make the above 3 decisions, families should:

Help their students consider who they are – i.e. self-assessment
Tie that to careers they like, i.e. what kind of education do I need for the career I aspire to?
What major(s) do I need to consider that fit my career and which colleges offer them?

o Optimal time to intercept and provide guidance on the 3 matters

The pre college prep: we provide free webinars on this; the best time is when a family or Student starts to ask specific questions or considering college visits
Guided self-assessment – which actually requires a chunk of time; when the student has adequate experiences to enable a 5-hour interview, and this dovetails with their sophomore year in high school, but could extend to the first 2 years of college.

o It is still possible to work with those who never had such guidance and are beyond their 2nd collegiate year and who come to a realization that what they are pursuing isn’t what they are cut out for; we call them career confused; we work with them to help them utilize what their college can offer

o We occasionally deal with those who have graduated, started their career, then realize this is not what they cut out for. Our help might lie in helping them dig through the layers of what they don’t want, and assess what things they want to carry into the next career and which to drop

To connect with Beth:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethprobst

https://www.gettingatthecore.com/

https://twitter.com/GetAtTheCore

https://www.instagram.com/gettingatthecore/

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We come alongside families with students who are speeding toward a transition to college and career.

Personal Career Path

The value question: does a college degree guarantee a commensurate high wage or more desirable job?

o Are there alternatives that are viable and probably less costly?

o 3 big decisions to make at the end of high school:

Pick a college
Choose a course of study or major
Determine a career path

o To help their ability to make the above 3 decisions, families should:

Help their students consider who they are – i.e. self-assessment
Tie that to careers they like, i.e. what kind of education do I need for the career I aspire to?
What major(s) do I need to consider that fit my career and which colleges offer them?

o Optimal time to intercept and provide guidance on the 3 matters

The pre college prep: we provide free webinars on this; the best time is when a family or Student starts to ask specific questions or considering college visits
Guided self-assessment – which actually requires a chunk of time; when the student has adequate experiences to enable a 5-hour interview, and this dovetails with their sophomore year in high school, but could extend to the first 2 years of college.

To connect with Beth:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethprobst

https://www.gettingatthecore.com/

https://twitter.com/GetAtTheCore

https://www.instagram.com/gettingatthecore/

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Find the right partner, the right fit, by considering

o Capacity to provide the services the client needs

o Relationships – are you comfortable with each other?

o Economic fit – does the client understand the cost benefit?

What belief(s) do you hold?: resources are there to give you what you always want to be, to help you create capacity to enable you to do what you are supposed to do.

o So we want to know your dreams, your purpose; can that dream be converted into a dollar and deadline?

o Our role is to help you turn your dream into dollars, through advice, and investment within an acceptable timeline.

3 aspects to building an investment portfolio

o Client’s need: what return are you looking at

o Client’s appetite for risk: this helps to determine the perfect portfolio

o Client’s capacity to take risk: do you have debts, your risk is high and vice versa

o We become your guide to help you develop strategy and mechanisms to realize your goals

o Our approach, advice and intervention is individual-based and relational.

Issues to do with inflation and other market dynamics:

o We communicate a lot with our clients especially on market volatility

o You need rising income streams to deal with the reality of inflation; hence you have to accept some short term strategies for long term outcomes.

Connect with Jeff on his socials on:

https://www.jeffbernierauthor.com/

https://www.tandemgrowth.com/team/jeff-bernier

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffberniercfp/

https://www.twitter.com/BernierJeff

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Maxwell Nee is the Managing Partner of OENO Wine & Whisky Investment. He’s a multi-award-winning entrepreneur who earns his investors a recession-proof and market-beating return with wine and whisky alternative investments.

Maxwell Nee is the Managing Partner of OENO Wine & Whisky Investment.

Here are the top tips from Maxwell.

Take advantage of alternative investments, for instance, wine and whiskey. Consider: 28% of high-net-worth individuals have a connection with wine. They either collect wine, distribute it or maybe they are in the end a consumer. In all facets, wine as an investment is somewhat recession proof.
54% of working individuals invest in alternative investments like wine & whiskey these assets are not correlated to normal investments and cushion against inflation and other market force dynamics. These alternative investments ride the inflation wave because they are in the category of “consumable”.
Seek to acquire high value products at their early nascent stage and wait for them to mature.
Spot a gap and leverage it, Example: Acquire a 12-yr aged whiskey at $25 and age it for an extra 6 years to sell it at $125, equivalent to 500% investment growth in only 6 years.
Before investing, familiarize yourself with any legislative framework within your trading jurisdiction.

Connect with Maxwell:

https://lp.oenogroup.com/aus/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwellnee/

https://www.facebook.com/MaxwellNeeCoach/

https://www.instagram.com/maxwellprincenee/

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind and confidence” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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Today’s guest is Jason Hamilton who is a fee-only registered investment advisor with over $40 million in AUM. The Keep It Simple Wealth Academy is a program helping 1st generation wealth builders transform their relationship with money and become robust wealth managers. Jason also heads up: Family Financial Coaching at his family's nonprofit IDEAL, a community development corporation located in East Los Angeles.

Here are a few of Jason’s get wealthy hacks:

Do not ignore your background - whether or not it favors your career or occupation - it provides certain values, cultural orientation and formation that plays a 'success or failure' factor in your career.
"Read, read, read. Read all you can around your career. Enroll in a course and improve your understanding in the area of business or service you are offering. There is so much information about anything one may want to know!"
Do not just work for title - whether big or small - find a real solution to a real problem. That way, the world finds you.
Believe in your vision, so, it's not just about providing a solution to a problem. It is also about being passionate about it and staying on it regardless of challenges and setbacks.
Get genuinely interested in people - their beliefs, goals and resources - and allow these three to interface as a jigsaw puzzle. This is how you develop and mentor people wholesomely.

Connect with Jason:

Website: https://keepitsimplefinancial.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keepitsimplefinancialplanning
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keepitsimplefinancial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/keepitsimplefp
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-j-hamilton/

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind and confidence” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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Today’s guest is Pam Hill. She is a Harvard and Dartmouth-educated entrepreneur and CEO of a multi-million dollar real estate company, a business and money expert, a podcaster and a blogger, a former Fortune-500 executive, and the founder of My Smart Cousin.

Here are the top tips from Pam.

“My Smart Cousin” is a real estate company that was born from the desire to treat clients like family.
When buying a home, rather than trying to qualify for as much money as possible for a mortgage, consider buying less. A cheaper fixer-upper might be a better long-term investment.
When investing in real estate, especially for houses that you will renovate, consider waiting to see the value of the property increase over time vs. making a quick flip.
Rental properties can allow you to earn income while also building long-term investment.
Rental properties can break even in 4-5 years, and even economically priced homes often increase in value over time.

Connect with Pam:

https://mysmartcousin.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MySmartCousin

https://twitter.com/MySmartCousin

https://www.instagram.com/mysmartcousin/

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind and confidence” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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Managing Life's Risks with Logan Wease

Our guest today is Logan Wease, the founder of an online insurance company called “We Insure Things.” He speaks to us today about the importance of the right insurance plan at the right time.

There are two categories of insurance that Logan discusses in this episode, and we dive into both.
The first category of insurance includes types that most people know about and probably have, such as car insurance, property insurance, life insurance, final expense insurance, etc.
The second category is disability insurance, which protects your income if you are injured and unable to work.
Umbrella policies, also known as extended liability coverage, provide protection beyond existing limits and coverage of other policies. Umbrella policies can provide additional coverage for accidents, property damage, certain lawsuits, and some personal liability situations. Once the liability limits of the insurance policy are exhausted, the Umbrella policy kicks in.
Logan concludes by discussing different types of insurances that we will need in different stages of our lives. Although the expense of insurance can seem burdensome, when you need it, you will be very glad you made the investment.

Learn more about Logan Wease and his company “We Insure Things” at: https://www.weinsurethings.com/ https://www.facebook.com/we-insure-things-106005791865445

https://twitter.com/WeInsureThings

Logan@weinsurethings.com

You can connect with our host Tony King on: https://personalfinancialstrategy.com/

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Title : The power of self-directed retirement accounts with Daniel Blue

Our guest today is Daniel Blue, a Forbes contributor, a best-selling author, and owner of a 7-figure business called Quest Education. His company focuses on helping people learn how to make money tax-free, pay off debt, and get capital to grow their businesses.

Show Highlights:

While working in real-estate early in his career, Daniel learned about the power of self-directed retirement accounts and how they could allow people to access and direct their own funds for a variety of reasons.
Intrigued by the concept, he eventually worked in this unique financial space, helping people to see the benefits of using some of the money in their retirement accounts, penalty, and tax free, to fund their business.
A Solo 401K is an IRS approved retirement plan for entrepreneurs that allows you to take out fifty percent of the account value or fifty thousand dollars, whichever number is less. You can then use these funds to build or grow your business. With this approach, you become your own bank, and you pay yourself back principal, plus interest.
Solo 401K’s are not for everyone, and you do need to work with a broker to take advantage of this financial product. Make sure you understand the risks to you and your retirement accounts.
Today, as owner of Quest Education, Daniel helps people navigate the questions, risks, and opportunities with Solo 401K plans. Go to www.DanielBlue.Me to learn more, as well as access:
- Free resources
- Links to his best-selling book “Blueprint to Your Best Retirement”
- Links to his podcast, “How Winners Win”

For more information about Personal Financial Strategy and gaining peace of mind regarding all your finances, Tony King:

https://personalfinancialstrategy.com

For more information about our Guest Daniel Blue:

https://www.danielblue.me/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-blue-5b1339113/
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100026753792739
https://www.instagram.com/danielblue__/
https://www.blueprintretirementbook.com/

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“The way you think about money determines how you behave and your behavior shapes who you are and how you interact.” Florian Fritz

Florian is the founder of the Money Hero Academy, where he teaches how to create financial freedom by improving:

your money mindset
money management skills
money making skills

By 2008 Florian was a “financial advisor” and during the financial crisis that year, he started learning from some of the world's best financial coaches like Robert Kiyosaki and others how wealth creation really works. He tested many learnings while working with a real estate company, increasing their sales by 86% per year on average and helping hundreds of people to improve their investment returns. Today he teaches what he learned , encouraging everyone to take control of their finances and create the life of their dreams instead of always hoping for the next raise or the next client.

Listen in as Florian shares his thoughts on creating freedom and prosperity.

Florian realized that he could inform clients about the problems that were happening but he had no solutions for the problems.
It’s interesting that he was over half a million in debt but was teaching about money. He was the perfect example of how and when to begin thinking about your wealth.
Florian, in his own story, shows us that you can begin your journey no matter where you are, from zero or negative and build your wealth.
His journey began with free courses on Facebook and has grown to several programs that he runs every week.
Thinking about money is better than working hard for it. (take time to think about it)
What you associate money with, especially the negative side of money will automatically make your subconscious protect you from money.
We’ve been conditioned in a certain way about money. It’s good for one to identify your conditions.
In investment, you need to be consistent in what you are buying, no matter the circumstances.
An Inverse ETF is one way to “hedge”.

Connect with Florian:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/moneyhero

https://www.facebook.com/florian.fritz.526/

https://www.instagram.com/fritz.florian/

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind and confidence” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“Traditional financial advisors counsel us to plow our money into traditional investments, mutual funds, bonds, insurance, stocks, etc. I no longer take that position” — Chris Miles

Chris Miles, the Cash Flow Expert and Anti-Financial Advisor, is a leading authority teaching entrepreneurs and professionals how to get their money working for them TODAY! He’s an author, podcast host of the Money Ripples Podcast, has been featured in US News, CNN Money, Entrepreneurs on Fire, Bigger Pockets, and has a proven reputation with his company, Money Ripples (moneyripples.com/) getting his clients fast, financial results.

Listen in as Chris shares his thoughts on creating freedom and prosperity.

I was raised by great parents, hard-working parents who taught good values. When it came to money, they lived with a scarcity mindset, they really felt like there was never enough.
Before I finished my bachelor's degree, I decided to actually get real-life experience because I wanted to become a business consultant.
My father was my biggest inspiration, and I wanted to make him financially free before he was too old to enjoy it.
My father did everything “right”, yet did not have enough money to retire when he reached retirement age.
I started to learn the things that others were learning and more about a perspective around money first, which was really like Robert Kiyosaki stuff more applied.
I discovered how to invest and create passive income, which was really the trick to get out of the rat race versus just accumulating and saving money, hoarding it, and hoping that someday you might have something.
Traditional financial advisors counsel us to plow our money into traditional investments, mutual funds, bonds, insurance, stocks, etc. I no longer take that position.

To connect with Chris:

https://www.moneyripples.com/

https://www.facebook.com/moneyripples

https://www.linkedin.com/company/money-ripples

https://twitter.com/Moneyripples

https://www.instagram.com/moneyripples/

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“We're using innovative ways to do things that are cheaper than the traditional way that people may not have thought of.” — Gordon Stein

In today’s episode, we are joined by Gordon Stein. Gordon is a personal finance author, keynote speaker, and blogger at cashflowcookbook.com. Gordon, in his book, spells out certain recipes that can lead anyone to a bright financial future. Also in the book, Gordon has identified 60 different recipes for freeing up money. The key point in his book is “you can find money in your lifestyle, without making any sacrifices to your current lifestyle."

Gordon is also very good at demonstrating the impact these strategies can have on an individual's long-term financial goals.

I discovered a few hacks that freed up some more cash flow with minimal effort.
I’ve had a career transition from high-tech industry to kind of high-touch personal finance.
By using innovation and new innovations that are cheaper than the traditional way.
Step one is what I call “broiling a bill”. Pick a bill, and broil that bill!
Step two is: “Savor the savings”.
Discipline is more powerful than budgeting.
The more ideas you get on how to free up more cash flow, the more you build wealth.
Make those changes, reduce the bills, and then commit that money right away to something good.

Listen to this and so much more on the episode.

To connect with Gordon:

https://twitter.com/cashflowcookbk?lang=en

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordonstein

https://cashflowcookbook.com/

https://www.instagram.com/cashflowcookbook/

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“All traders and all investors are looking to improve themselves financially, to level up in their mindset, so that we can bring on more money and make it stick because that's the overall aim.” Louise Bedford

In today’s episode we welcome Louise Bedford. She is the founder of trading game.com a trading company in Australia. She is a best-selling author with five books to her name, all topics of the stock market and behavioral finance. She is also a behavioral finance expert with degrees in both psychology and business.

Louise talks with me about approaching investment and trading not only from the money perspective but also form a behavioral side as well.

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I started trading back in 1990 because I always had an interest in money.
I had a physical affliction, which meant that I had trouble moving my arms and due to this condition, I had to leave my employment work.
All traders and all investors are looking to improve themselves financially, to level up in their mindset, so that we can bring on more money and make it stick because that's the overall aim.
Too many people are not happy with market volatility, where the market keeps going crazy up and crazy down and makes for a very unpleasant situation.
I like the idea of how investors borrow from traders; this is the concept of a stop loss.
You need to work out in advance what your level of pain is. Your exit strategy as it may be and sticking to your set plan
Do you math and what you wish for your future, have a plan in mind from the start to the exit and the have three main tenants for the system that people should see in trading
Whether we want to believe it or not our behavioral and psychological well-being affects how we see investment and trading.
In trading it’s always good to consider specific risks versus individual risk.

To connect with Louise, check;

https://au.linkedin.com/in/louise-bedford

https://twitter.com/TheTradingGame

https://www.facebook.com/TradingGame/

https://www.youtube.com/tradinggame

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“When you're a business owner, you're building cash flows as well as an asset in that business that you can sell as long as you run it halfway decent.” — Jon Ostenson

Jon is CEO of Franbridge Consulting and Capital, a company devoted to serving franchise opportunities, then aligning investors with top-performing opportunities leading some of those investors to be actual operators.

In this episode, Jon is going to help us look at this exciting class of investments.

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There are 4000 different brands roughly in the US involved in franchising across a number of different industries and sectors.
Coming out of COVID, more and more people want that sense of control, flexibility and freedom that comes through business ownership.
We do see an unprecedented level of interest out there towards franchising.
I just see franchising as really going into business for yourself, but not by yourself because you've got that franchisor on the sideline and other franchisees around the country.
While having that is not a guarantee of success, it does give you a lot of confidence going in.
A study by Rancor School of Business found franchise businesses trading at a multiple typically of one and a half-time as compared to non-franchise businesses.
I tell clients that there's a lot of ways to make money some more desirable and easier than others.
To buy into a franchise, you pay a franchise fee and meet costs for the equipment build out.
Some of the ways in which people fund their franchise business include self-funding, retirement funds through what is called a Rob's program or through SBA loans.
The way I work with clients is I try to streamline the process and make it as easy for them and allow them to focus as well as possible.
Franchising isn't risk-free, but you de-risk things a lot.

To connect with Jon:

linkedin.com/in/jonostenson

franbridgeconsulting.com

facebook.com/JonOstenson1

linkedin.com/company/franbridge-capital

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“We want to make sure that investing is more approachable and accessible for anyone with the same goal; building wealth for the future.” — Axel Thibon

In today’s episode, we welcome Axel Thibon to the podcast. Axel has founded a company called Wizest, a platform aimed at making investing accessible, transparent, engaging, and easy.

Axel received his MBA at MIT in Boston. And afterwards went into banking for a few years and now is on a journey of investing adventure.

Axel talks with me about his interesting approach to teaching investments as a solution for the long term.

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My own experiences have shaped how I do investment and how I teach others to do investment as well.
The key thing is to customize investment for each person who comes to the platform.
A novice’s investor will have different needs than an expert in investment.
Unlike the traditional bank, where you go and they are assigned to you like an advisor that you don't choose, right here in wisest you are the one in control. The best part has been the conversations I've had with the kids about not only saving money, but spending as well.
We have a human layer that makes investing much more like personable and approachable.

To connect with Axel:

https://www.f6s.com/axelthibon

https://twitter.com/axelthibon

https://www.linkedin.com/company/wizestapp

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“The best part of teaching kids about finances has been the conversations I’ve had with them about their financial decisions.” Chuck Jaffe

In today’s episode, we welcome Chuck Jaffe to the podcast. Chuck is the author of three books titled ‘Getting Started in Finding a Financial Advisor’, ‘The Right Way to Hire Financial Help’ and ‘Chuck Jaffe’s Lifetime Guide to Mutual Funds.’ His two books on working with financial advisors have made them a rare critical voice in financial planning. Chuck is host of Money Life, a veteran financial journalist, nationally syndicated financial columnist, and his work appears in newspapers from coast to coast.

Chuck talks with me about his interesting approach to teaching finances and investments to younger children.

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I am an expert when it comes to hiring financial advisors.
The key thing to me which is really important is knowing that there is no one right way to reach your financial goals.
I'm agnostic to approach unless the approach is going to hurt people.
At home, Halloween is how I teach other people's kids about money choices and investment through games and lotteries.
The best part has been the conversations I've had with the kids about not only saving money, but spending as well.
Children start learning money lessons really early and I have been teaching my children about trading stocks and ownership of companies.
The benefit to me, as a result of this has been my daughter telling me that she is maxing out her 401 K.

To connect with Chuck, check www.moneylifeshow.com

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“When it comes to investing in real estate, it's not just about buying properties, but also having proper business structures.” - Joseph Griffin

In today’s episode, we welcome Joseph Griffin to the podcast. Joseph is the author of Tax Deed Investing and the owner of a business called Tax Deed Wolf Academy. Joseph teaches how to invest in real estate to generate consistent income with minimal risk.

Joseph talks about how he got into the business of tax deed investing, as well as the steps involved in executing the strategy.

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I joined the Army while I was in junior in high school, and after graduating I was sent to medic school, and then to nursing school and later joined the National Guard.
While I was doing the one weekend, a month, I started nursing on the side and became assistant manager of the ICU and I started making a little money and that's where tax deed investing came in.
Tax deed investors buy property from tax deed auctions, which is where properties whose owners have failed to pay property taxes are auctioned.
For properties with mortgage, the bank typically forecloses on them and will often not make it to a tax deed auction, since tax deed auctions are for people who own their property outright.
The two cons for being a tax deed investor is that you only need cash, and that the properties aren’t always good properties.
The first thing to do is figure out which type of state you live in because every state is different with different types of deed strategies which include tax deed, a tax lien deed, and a tax redemption deed.
Once you understand which type of state you live in, your first step is you need to find the entity that conducts the sale by going to the county clerk of court website.
The tax sale list or tax deed auction lists shows you when the next auctions are, and which properties are available for you to enter the auction on, as well as the money you have to put in to bid.
The auctions are typically highest winner takes all, so we use the lists as leads to approach the property owners before the auction, because we don't want to be bidding against other people.
The most important thing to know in real estate is that you don't have a deal until something is signed, and to take ample amount of time to do due diligence to the property.
Time is important or opt to sign a quitclaim deed, which is how you transfer ownership of one property to another the deed, and doesn't need to be notarized.
When it comes to investing in real estate, it's not just about buying properties, but also having proper business structures.
We teach our clients on proper business structure, asset protection, and strategic tax filing.
We also teach property acquisition where we encourage our clients to have at least three property acquisition strategies.

To connect with Joseph, go to www.taxdeedinvest.com

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“The first step to properly setup a business is ensuring that you are legally compliant in your state, and then also finding a CPA that you can trust to ask about taxes.” - Nissa Savage

In today’s episode, we welcome Nissa Savage to the podcast. Nissa is a CPA Mom's franchise owner, and an accountant serving law firms and business owners remotely from Alaska.

Nissa talks to us about her business, the CPA moms franchise, and what entrepreneurs should focus on to ensure that their businesses run smoothly.

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I arrived in Alaska 10 years ago as a mariner working on the Alaskan ferries.
I have an undergraduate degree in economics, and so transitioning that to a Master's of Science in Accounting was fairly straightforward.
I have worked in the field of accounting in various capacities starting off as a bookkeeper, and now I'm a CPA and I own my own firm.
I have wanted to stick with accounting because it's so phenomenal to see the power of information and how it allows business people to overcome the challenges that they face.
I own a firm and I get support from a whole team of people from the CPA mom's franchise, which is a great community of CPAs who are moms.
Due to the demands of raising a family, owning my own firm gave me the freedom that I needed, and the franchise helps me actually build out my services to my clients who are also entrepreneurs.
The first step to properly setup a business is ensuring that you are legally compliant in your state, and then also finding a CPA that you can trust and ask about taxes.
Beyond that, money flow and understanding credit is important, as well as embracing and understanding your bookkeeping system.
I find so often that entrepreneurs do their own books, but they do not realize what the books are telling them.
It is important to have meaningful reports that are correct as per the monthly reconciliations.
Have a business plan extending over a five-year period, with every year mapped out with details on KPIs.
Your business plan should be something you can show your CPA, who can collaborate with you on how to read the indicators from your bookkeeping.
Entrepreneurs can embrace user-friendly tools such as Live Pan and bill.com, to plan in their businesses.

To connect with Nissa, go to https://5.cpamoms.com/ ; https://www.cpamoms.com/nissa-savage

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“When leaders are great human beings, so are their companies.” - Thom Shea

In today’s episode, we welcome Thom Shea to the podcast. Thom is a Retired Senior Chief Operator, Navy Seal, a best-selling author and founder of the renowned Leadership Program, Unbreakable Leadership.

Thom talks with me about the lessons he learned while serving in the U.S Navy, writing his best-selling book, and founding Unbreakable Leadership.

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I grew up in the 70s in a small town in southern Indiana, and it was normal to fail, which I think is the precursor to success.
From the bottom, you can do a lot of great things, because you're willing to risk things then.
I went into SEAL training in 1990, and once you pass through that experience, you can actually determine what are you willing to commit to, and willing to give your life for.
I define leadership as a commitment to other people.
To get to that position of leadership in the Navy SEALs, you have to be operating at 100% of your capacity, in five areas that I think are unique.
First is having to be healthy all the time; second is being interested and willing to learn anything on a drop of a dime.
Third is being in a position to deliver value where you pursue what you value, and fourth is being relatable and able to operate on a team.
The fifth is that you have to be spiritually inclined because that's what's going to save you when things go south.
By the time I retired, I had written a manuscript to my kids which were 13 lessons I wanted them to be able to do, one lesson at a time.
We published the book, titled ‘Unbreakable: A Navy SEAL’s Way of Life’ which made a national bestseller in 2014.
It's a raw depiction of what a six-month deployment was like from a father, husband and leader’s point of view.
When leaders are great human beings, so are their companies, and good leadership perpetuates itself.
The word ‘Trust’ doesn't exist in the SEAL teams because usually when you trust somebody, you won't check them.
Checking up allows for the grace of making mistakes because the team's going to be there to support, and this is much more effective in business, instead of emotional attachment.
One of the great forms of leadership is never allowing emotions to solve any problems.
I do private coaching as well as group training in five areas which are physical, intellectual, wealth, relational and spiritual.
I also do process consulting for businesses to increase the verticals that they are working on.

To connect with Thom, go to https://www.unbreakableleadership.com/

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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In today’s episode, we welcome Jason Wojo to the podcast. Jason is the CEO of Lifeonaire, which is a Christian-based life and business coaching organization dedicated to helping people live truly abundant and prosperous lives.

Jason talks about his path to discovering what it meant to live a life of abundance and success. He also talks about his business and how he helps people live a free and more fulfilling life.

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I wanted to be successful and for most of my life, I thought the only way was to have a job because then I would be able to make money have a great life.
I spent 15 years studying and finish my PhD which took a big part of my life.
I got my first job out of school and I realized within the first few weeks that I didn’t like the constraint resulting from someone controlling my future.
I started investing in real estate full time after being coached through my first few deals and then left my job.
I ended up having multiple businesses, all of them doing okay, but none of them doing what I knew they were capable of, but through some coaching, I was able to consolidate the businesses and to ramp things up.
I realized that my actual passion, now that I had accomplished this on my own, was to help other people do it, and I started to coach other people how to become successful business owners and real estate investors.
It's easy to become addicted to more money, and that was an interesting challenge that I had to go through and explore that for myself.
Most people who want to be millionaires are captivated not by the money, but by the life that they think the money will buy them.
I know very few millionaires that are Lifeonaires, but I know a lot of Lifeonaires that are millionaires, and found that when you put life first, many times you'll also make more money.
We resonate most with people who are business owners and are susceptible to working a lot and letting business take over their lives and these are the people that we reach out to.
The first thing we encourage people to do is create a vision for their life, which is a really unique combination of aspirations, goals, beliefs, your values, and what you find important.
We then help people figure out where to put in the work by putting it down on the calendar, and this helps to create very real boundaries to get work done in that period of time.
Learning to be focused on the important things in work and in business, really helps people do more within a short amount of time.

To connect with Jason, go to https://lifeonaire.com/

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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‘Getting your mind right is the most important part of owning and managing wealth.’ Rebecca Jensen

In today’s episode, we welcome Rebecca Jensen to the podcast. Rebecca is a CPA at MaxQTC Incorporated, a business consulting firm focused on family office services. Rebecca has over 25 years of experience as a CPA, and specializes in helping families retain assets and grow wealth across generations. Essentially, she helps families manage their family wealth like a business.

Rebecca talks to me about her experiences and how she helps families retain assets and manage their wealth.

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I got into accounting and worked with Deloitte in Seattle until I had my children where I decided to open up my own accounting firm.
We worked with small business owners until I sold off the firm and ended up working for a company as a CFO.
I later ended up going independent, and I started working with clients, both individuals and businesses, to help them transfer wealth and do transition leadership for companies.
We also run family office services where we combine our team of professionals and prepare taxes and help people with cash flow plans.
One of the things that is really important is having clear communication between the family members on what's happening with assets.
One of the first things we do is we run an analysis with our clients and make sure that they've got enough money to retire comfortably.
For the generation of people who are good savers and have a lot of assets, the plan will be to help that next generation.
It is important to be careful in transferring large assets, and make sure that whoever is in charge of them, has the experience to not have it ruin their lives.
There's a lot of wisdom that needs to be passed on before you transfer the actual management of assets to allow the family to benefit from them for many generations.
I realized that getting your mind right is the most important part of owning and managing wealth.
If you try to just do your planning in the middle of tax season, you're not gonna get the best advice because they just don't have the time and mental energy.
For people who get to inherit wealth without experience, find someone who is experienced to help in managing the wealth.

To connect with Rebecca, go to www.familythinkingstrategies.com

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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"The real way to determine whether to place investment dollars in a Roth IRA or traditional 401K is to consider your current tax bracket vs. what you think your future (at the time you will withdraw money) tax bracket will be." - Ryan Morrissey

In today’s episode, we welcome Ryan Morrissey to the podcast. Ryan is the founder of Morrissey Wealth Management, where he partners with individuals to help them plan their retirement by reducing taxes, investing smarter, and optimizing their income.

Today, Ryan talks about the reason why he got into the investment business, as well as the options available for people who are looking to invest for retirement.

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I'm a wealth advisor, focused on helping people within five years of retirement to figure out how they can retire and manage their wealth.
I studied economics at the University of Delaware and later got a job with Morgan Stanley, and that's what launched me into doing what I do now.
My why is to try to help people make the best of their situation and not be in a bad situation due to either not knowing what they're doing or just getting bad advice.
When referring to Roth money, you pay tax on that money as you earn it.
Upon qualification, you can put your Roth Money into the Roth account where it grows tax-deferred, and as long as the tax rates stay the way they are, the money comes out tax free.
The real way to determine on whether to go for a Roth account or a traditional 401K is by looking at what your current tax bracket is, and what you think your future tax brackets are.
Most people that make it to retirement age will need some type of long-term care help, and therefore health insurance is important to cater for the cost.

Connect with Ryan

www.retirewithryan.com

www.morrisseywealthmanagement.com

https://www.facebook.com/morrisseywealthmanagement

http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-morrissey-cfp-46714810

https://twitter.com/ryanrmorrissey

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“If you're surrounded by people and systems that are draining your battery every single day, I strongly recommend that you silence those and move towards direction of charge, guidance, and positivity.” Judson Burdon

In today’s episode, we welcome Judson Burdon into the podcast. Judson is the president of Asphalt Kingdom. It's the top website for asphalt maintenance resources, equipment, and supplies for the United States and Canada. He is passionate about helping people build their own businesses and achieve the life of their dreams.

Judson talks about finding his purpose and how his company is helping people build their business and live a life of purpose.

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It took some drive and field experience to realize what I really wanted to chase and hunt for in my life.
When I was 18 years old and fresh out of high school, I became an integration aide at Sunnydale Elementary School in the West Island of Montreal with autistic children.
I love adversity and challenge because it gives you the opportunity to overcome it, and become stronger from it.
I worked with an autistic child and helped him to excel tremendously, but later passed on which left an emotional impact on me.
I knew I helped him and his family, and that was a special moment of feeling a little bit of purpose, and it helped me have some purpose about what it is that I wanted to do.
I got a sales job making $500- $800 a day, and after three months I opened my own company and to become the biggest pavement asset management company.
I sold the company off and moved to Anguilla in the Caribbean, where I later started Asphalt Kingdom which has grown over the years to an eight-figure company.
When I look back, at those two years working on the company before it picked, the thing that really pulled me through was surrounding myself by a circle of people that really believe and having mentorship through that process.
If you're surrounded by people and systems that are draining your battery every single day, I strongly recommend that you silence those and move towards the direction of charge, guidance, and positivity.
The most exciting part of my journey happened about four years when we lost our son for 17 minutes and then came back to life.
In my moment of grief, I got the message that I needed to help as many people as I possibly could in my lifetime and that's what I do today.
What we truly do at Asphalt Kingdom is we help people build their own business, in the asphalt maintenance industry, to allow them to work towards a future that allows them to be freer.
Let's not be drawn back to average but be powerful and remember that we are here to impact people's lives positively.

Connect with Judson:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/judson-burdon-70402262/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=517588482

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“We need to begin to get people more accustomed to having the patience to wait until they have the money to spend.” Natasha Davis

In today’s episode, I welcome Natasha Davis in to the podcast. Natasha is the founder and CEO of a company called Impact Branding. She's also an author of several books including ‘Get Grounded, Stay Grounded,’ ‘Unleash Your Millionaire Mindset’ and ‘Build Your Brand,’ among others.

In today’s episode, Natasha talks about her journey to financial recovery, and why it is important to not only understand how money works, but also to respect it as well.

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I pursued my first degree as a registered nurse and worked as a nurse and the I crossed over and stepped into the world of entrepreneurship.
After some unfortunate events happened in my life and caused me financial turmoil, I had to make some real serious adult decisions, on not only understanding money, but respecting it as well.
I also had to figure out how I was going to make the business work for me.
Understanding money means understanding that it is a current and it is always flowing, and whether it's flowing to you or away from you is really your decision.
I had to understand the basic principles and the entire purpose of money which includes bringing wisdom, knowledge, relationships and property.
Respecting money entails respecting every single dollar earned and spent, and therefore I learned to develop a healthier relationship with money.
I've had to learn to respect the whole essence of saving and I think of it as strategically allocating for ventures and expenses.
We need to begin to get people more accustomed to having the patience to wait until they have the money to spend.
Money is a current, and you can become a money magnet if you're not always chasing after money.
My first book, ‘Get Grounded, Stay Grounded,’ was born at a time when I needed to work on me and know myself.
My second book was ‘Be Unleashed,’ which was written at a point where I was recovering and at the edge of restoration from everything in my life that had broken me.
My third book came right in the midst of COVID and it is titled ‘25 Valuable Golden Nuggets.’ It is about everything that I've learned over the 18 plus years in business.
I do strategic planning and process improvement where we work with service based companies and health care organizations to really strengthen their brand so they make more money.

Connect with Natasha at www.impactbrandingconsulting.org

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“You want to make sure that if something were to happen to you, your loved ones will be protected and taken care of.” Larissa Steffan

In today’s episode, I welcome Larissa Steffan. Larissa helps young professionals to eliminate debt, build wealth and retire early.

Larissa talks about the investment options that are available and ideal for her clients as they work towards financial security.

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I started out my adult journey in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is one of the most expensive places to live in.
It became too much to keep up with the lifestyle at Bay Area, and after putting things into perspective on what my circumstances actually were, I realized that I needed to move.
I moved out to Idaho, and I started to realize that there were a lot of people living in the same circumstances that I was living in.
I decided that this would be a great place for me to break into finance and be able to help people out.
My focus is on investment strategy and retirement strategy, because I find that it's something that people in my generation aren't being really preached to about.
For people who come to me, I like to try and look at some alternative retirement strategies where they don't have to wait until they're in their 60s to access it.
There are certain life circumstances that do make the most sense for you to have a life insurance policy because you want to make sure that if something were to happen to you, your loved ones will be protected and taken care of.
I honestly offer retirement coaching, where we just go over your employee benefits and we start talking about how we can leverage those benefits.
David McKnight’s book ‘The Power of Zero,’ is a great resource if you want to learn more about the different types of savings account and how they can end up affecting your retirement in the end.

Connect with Larissa at: https://sites.google.com/ssgincfinancial.com/larissastefcom/home

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“It is that drive for personal excellence, that actually helps you create a life of fulfillment, which ultimately ends up being longer, stronger, and more fulfilling.” Joe Templin

In today’s episode, I welcome Joe Templin in to the podcast. Joe is an author of a book called ‘Everyday Excellence: A daily guide to growing.’ Reformed physicist, financial planner, startup founder and autodidactic polymath best described as a Swiss Army Knife, Joe Templin has invested the past two and a half plus decades to helping others reach their financial potential as a planner, trainer, mentor and creator.

In today’s episode, Joe talks about the freedom that discipline brings, especially in personal finance.

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I started college at 13 and studied communication and went to Rensselaer Polytechnic and became a physicist and worked for government.
I am financial planner, a martial artist, and also studied sales psychology and performance psychology which led me into doing more training and development work.
I have drifted even further into behavioral economics, and authored multiple books which are very much reflective of the multiple components to knowledge that you need to assemble to properly do financial planning
It is that drive for personal excellence, that actually helps you create a life of fulfillment, which ultimately ends up being longer, stronger, and more fulfilling.
When we talk about financial planning, it's not cookie cutter, and this is because clients are all very different individuals.
In personal finance, discipline equals freedom.
We live in a disposable society in a lot of ways and things have planned obsolescence.
Having the capability of taking the time to allow things to develop makes people more successful.
If you choose what feels good in the moment, it creates a downward trajectory overall, and ultimately makes things harder.
If you choose what is more difficult in the moment, it leads to a better outcome in the long run.
It comes down to the easy choice or the right choice and just consistently trying to make the more difficult decision in order to increase your excellence factor across all components of your life.
EASY NOW, HARD LATER vs. HARD NOW, EASY LATER choose hard now,..always!

Connect with Joe Templin at https://everyday-excellence.com/

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“If you look at your credit report as a lender would, you will understand why you need to have good credit score.” Nathalie Noisette

In today’s episode, we welcome Nathalie Noisette. Natalie is a credit expert and financial strategist, dedicated to providing information for individuals looking to improve their score. She is also the author of a book titled, ‘Converted: Uncover The Hidden Strategies You Need To Easily Achieve Massive Credit Score Success.’

Today Nathalie talks about the relationship between trust and credit, as well as the importance of building a positive credit score.

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I came across my credit score for the first time when I was 18 years and had gone to buy a car but was denied the purchase because the credit score was just not there.
I went home and went into a really deep hole into the internet of what credit was, because I had not made contact with this credit thing before that experience.
I was able to fix my credit, and then a lot of my friends and people started asking me to help them fix theirs as well, which led to me turning it into a business.
It is not really just about credit, but also about understanding your needs and lifestyle, and creating a plan around that.
I like watching how people transform their lives and seeing that gap close.
Watching my daughter grow up and not have to deal with a lot of the things that I did also became a passion for me working with women especially mothers.
I got to a point where I felt like this was something people could do by themselves anyway, and decided to package everything I had done in the last 10 plus years in a book.
The number one misunderstanding that people carry about credit is thinking that credit really has to do with money at all.
If you can look at your credit report as a lender would, you will understand why you need to have good credit.
Every single institution that you have a relationship with sees a different version of your score.
It makes sense that your credit score may vary depending on whether the potential lender is using the FICO or Vantage Score model.
The scores from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax might vary slightly not because of the model that's being used, the data points that are being presented on the actual report are different.
Credit repair is not like a magic pill that you take and everything goes away, but a way to rebuild trust with institutions.

The best way to keep in touch with Natalie is through

www.convertedcredit.com

https://www.facebook.com/iamnatnoisette

https://www.instagram.com/iamnatnoise/

As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“Triple bottom line is investing in a way that you do get profit, but you also look after people and you look after the planet as well.” Dionne Payne

In today’s episode, we welcome Dionne Payn to the podcast. Dionne is an author, as well as a speaker. She speaks on the topics of ethical property investing, affordable housing, and ending homelessness. She is the CEO and founder of high impact property investments, where they specialize in connecting investors with double digit returns and projects that provide affordable homes, build communities and provide inclusive homes for people with disabilities.

Dionne talks to me about the events that led to get into real estate business, and also highlights the triple bottom concept in ethical property investing.

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My early life was very much about being part of a church community, and it was lot about service and helping other people which was where I've got my service ethic from.
At the university I studied pharmaceutical chemistry, and I ended up at the pharmaceutical industry specifically at the natural products chemistry where I ended up doing a PhD in the same field.
We wanted to buy a property and in the area that we lived at the time, it just wasn't affordable on one income.
We decided to learn about property with the hope that we'll find a creative way to get involved in property and then be able to purchase our home.
After our first course, we found a joint venture partner whom we partnered with to deliver a project that was a renovation and a subdivision of a property.
We delivered on the project and did a couple more projects which were quite small.
We got involved in a project that even though we did finalize it, I got the motivation to keep going because it was important to the community.
It was a combination of there being a need for it and a way that we could make money, but also a way to service the community as well as sustainability.
We haven't always been thinking about sustainability and community, our primary motivation for a long time has been about profit.
As we progress, what we're seeing is just a bit of a collective shift and a bit of an evolution in the way that we live and think.
Millennials do seem to be leading the charge by wanting to work for companies that are ethical and investing their money in things that they believe that are going to make the world better.
As consumers/ investors, we have a lot of power, but sometimes we give away our power because we don't think that we have any.
The central message in the book, Ethical Property Investing, is that if we exercise that power, we can actually create the world that we want to see.
Triple bottom line is investing in a way that you do get profit, but you also look after people and you look after the planet as well.
Our money has to work for us, but investors do want to be investing in alignment with their values.
We partner investors with developers that have a really great track record and are a lot more risk aware and know how to mitigate them and find creative solutions for them.
Property development in and of itself is a huge beast, and you need to have people that are committed on all aspects to deliver the outcomes that that you've signed up to deliver.
Property really has the power to transform lives.

You can connect with Dionne on her social media handles:

Facebook - https://web.facebook.com/highimpactproperty.investments

Twitter - https://twitter.com/hipinvestments?lang=bg

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dionnepayn/

The best way to get in touch with Dionne;

Website: https://hipi.global/

To learn more about Tony King, visit;

https://www.instagram.com/personalfinancialstrategy/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-king-6563585

www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“Anytime you get a letter from the IRS, answer it, and if you don't understand what they're saying, ask for clarification.” Charles Read

In today’s episode, we welcome Charles Read to the podcast. He is the author of three books including Starting a New Business, Small Business Short Course, and the Little Black Book of The Beauty Biz. Charles has also written numerous articles and blogs throughout the years. He is a licensed CPA, and he has held Series 7 in Series 66 securities licenses. Charles has 50 years of financial leadership and experience.

Today Charles talks to me about how he was able to successfully start and run his business, and also provides tips on how to deal with payroll and taxes.

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After the military, I found out my military experience wasn't valued by business, so I went and got my credentials then went to work in corporate world for about 15 years.
Over 30 years ago, my wife Ruth and I, started our business and I'm still running it today.
I was working as COO for Financial Express, which was a franchise organization which we bought in 1991.
We later just changed the name and then got rid of the mobile aspect of it and kept going.
10 years ago, I sold the accounting side of the business to my partner who wanted more autonomy, and I kept the payroll.
We're now in exclusively a payroll provider providing services all across the US, to small and medium sized businesses.
Our biggest unique selling proposition is compliance, and we help our clients stay compliant.
Our clients outsource their payroll issues to our company because we are the experts with the most experience and knowledge.
I tell clients not to talk to the IRS themselves, because it's personal and will likely upset them and make them do things they shouldn't.
The first call from our clients doesn’t cost anything, and that's the nice thing about us as compared to our competitors.
My book titled The Little Black Book of the Beauty Biz is about all the back-office things that relate to the accounting and payroll.
70% of all US businesses misclassify employees one way or the other
There are some huge advantages to being an independent contractor and it is important for people to learn all these things about deductibility.
You can legally deduct anything that is business related whether you have a receipt or not, you just may not be able to prove on an audit but that doesn't mean it's illegal.
The IRS cannot penalize you for a simple mistake.
Anytime you get a letter from the IRS, answer it, and if you don't understand what they're saying, ask for clarification.
Send everything certified so that you can be able to prove you sent it when necessary.
One of the tips as we are approaching April is to make sure that if you've got stimulus payments, they get reported because they are not free, they are a part of your refund up front.

You can connect with Charles on his Social Media Handles:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/GetPayroll/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/getpayroll

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/getpayroll

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxs-_RwC9NgfUcqbwvEaMIQ

The best way to get in touch with Charles;

Website: www.payroll.com

Email: CJR@getpayroll.com

Phone number: 972-353-0000.

To learn more about Tony King, visit;

https://www.instagram.com/personalfinancialstrategy/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-king-6563585

www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“The number one thing that I recommend to anybody who wants to own a business is to just start and then follow the path.” Howard Dekkers

Today, we welcome Howard Dekkers to the Podcast. Howard is a financial and life coach, and he teaches people how to become financially free with a normal job. Coming from an average lower middle-class family in Detroit, Howard worked hard to become a self-made millionaire, and now, his passion is to help others achieve their part of the American dream.

After a successful run in the business world, Howard arrived at what we, at Personal Financial Strategy call “Choice Age”, which is that age at which an individual's passive income stream can support their lifestyle completely, thus affording them lots of choices.

Today Howard talks to me about how he's investing his life post choice age.

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I was born in Detroit, Michigan and when I was three, my dad moved us to a suburb of Detroit.
Two streets down from me is where all of the wealthy people lived and one thing I noticed of every one of these homes, is that either or both of the parents owned the business.
From a young age, I thought that the only way you could become a millionaire was by owning a business.
After high school, I had an accident where I cut off my finger and it was totally a wake-up call for me to go to college and get my bachelor's degree in business.
I opened my first business at 28 and I kept opening up other businesses. I ended up making millions of dollars from selling my last company which took me 20 years to build.
One of the things my father told me when I was a teenager was to save and invest 10% of every one of my paychecks.
I was making a lot of money but was spending it all, and it wasn’t until when I was in my late 30s that I started saving and investing 10% and up to 20% of what I was earning.
My savings grew to over $2 million and then I sold my company for millions of dollars, and it was at that point that I didn't have to work anymore.
I decided that I was going to put a PowerPoint presentation to teach my children and their friends how to become multimillionaires.
As the numbers grew, I decided to put an online course together and now I have a seven-module seven- hour course, where I teach people everything they need to know to become multimillionaires sometime in the future.
My first business was advertising which led me to another business, international cash card, which was a telephone cover index that I sold 10 years later, to the biggest newspaper in town.
The number one thing that I recommend to anybody who wants to own a business is to just start, and then follow the path.
The other end of it is that you have to start your monthly financial freedom plan as soon as possible.
You definitely do not have to go to college to run a business.
I teach a concept called Money mindfulness where I show people how they're spending their money right now versus how much is coming in.
I show these people how to be money mindful because they were never taught.
Most people think that they have to save a million dollars, but the reality is that they don’t. They just need to understand how to take advantage of compound interest and doubling.

You can connect with Howard on his social media handles

https://www.linkedin.com/in/howard-dekkers-baa3727

https://howarddekkers.com/

You can learn more about Tony King on his social media handles:

https://www.instagram.com/personalfinancialstrategy/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-king-6563585

www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

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“A life coach is not necessarily a business coach, but business coaches absolutely need to have the life coaching aspect.” Bernadette Boas

Our guest in today’s episode is Bernadette Boas. Bernadette is the author of a book called, ‘Shedding the Corporate Bitch Shifting: Your Bitches to Riches in Life and Business. She's also the founder and president of Ball of Fire Inc which is home to both Ball of Fire Coaching‒ a coaching, training and speaking practice; and Ball of Fire Media‒ a media communication and publishing firm. Both firms are dedicated to helping individuals optimize their personal and professional development.

Bernadette shares with us her journey and the events that led her to start a coaching business.

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I started working at Burger in an early age and by the time I was in college, I already had a corporate job.
My core role in those earlier years was consulting in retail and technology, which ended after being fired by my mentor of 12 years.
When I left corporate, I automatically knew I wasn't going back and I started a consulting practice in 2008.
Even with the 2008 recession, I had a full docket of clients.
In that period, I found that there was a lot of confidence loss and personal growth loss where everybody started playing the victim as opposed to the victor.
Based on my own experience, I thought that I would be much better not only consulting, but also coaching businesses and the business owners.
I went into a self-discovery journey and found myself looking in the mirror and seeing this very nasty corporate tyrant.
I just decided that I needed to start not only coaching, but also wrote a book to teach other people that they don't have to be anything but themselves to be successful in business and social life.
Sometimes people go through life and never look inward, so they never discover their role and responsibility to an outcome.
Everyone has to discover themselves, and then have to confront what they like and don't like, then they have to make decisions as to what they want to share out of their lives.
I recognize that as good as a consultant and a business coach, what people deal with and struggle with is their mindset.
It is critical that people be accepted for exactly who they are, and they learn themselves and what they need to do about it.
A life coach is not necessarily a business coach, but business coaches absolutely need to have the life coaching aspect.
My job as a coach is simply to ask questions, to listen to understand, and then help them answer their own questions and make their own decisions and guide them through their own challenges.
My view about the great resignation is that it is forced and not voluntary, and is due to circumstances that have made people take a second look at what what's important in life.
The great resignation could lead to the loss of expertise and intelligence due to many people who are leaving and moving out of the economy.
People get to a point where they start to question what's really important in this world and in life.
The great resignation has accelerated the uprising and growth of small businesses which is absolutely fabulous.

You can connect with Bernadette on her social media handles

https://www.facebook.com/shifttorich

You can learn more about Tony King on his social media handles:

https://www.instagram.com/personalfinancialstrategy/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-king-6563585

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“When you have a vision board, and when you have targets that you've set for yourself, you and your partner are unstoppable.” Janine Bolon

Today we welcome Janine Bolon to the podcast. Janine has written 11 books and currently teaches 15 online courses. She is also a veteran podcast host and her podcast is aptly titled, ‘The Janine Bolon Show’. She mainly talks about money, solo partnership, writing and authorship and how to hold on to your sanity.

In today’s episode, Janine discusses her journey that saw her get into teaching people about personal finance. She also talks about the importance of having a vision board when working towards your targets.

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I worked in the pharmaceutical industry and then later dropped out of corporate America and went to teach, because I love being able to share as well as learn from my students.
I noticed that as we got to the end of the semester, the grades would really start to drop, and after talking to the students I found the reason was because they were running out of money.
I started teaching the freshman class about money, and that is where the 60/40 principle was born.
I then ended up teaching their parents about personal finance and then moved to teach 11 to 16-year olds.
When I started moving around I began looking into the audio space and started doing audio blogging.
I've taken over seven different podcasts and shoved them into one show, and that is why there is such diversity in the content that comes out of The8gates, which is my company
I was taking the advice of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, about replicating yourself, and anytime I saw automation that allowed me to replicate I did that.
Technology opened up so many things to different types of people, and now is a wonderful time to be an entrepreneur, and to learn.
If you ever get a little too negative about life, just go listen to a podcast and learn how people out there are doing amazing things.
One of the things I like to recommend to people who do have a solid strong income, but yet they have anxiety is, to dig deeper and find if that's something they can actually address.
I'm a very practical teacher, and I always want to make sure that you walk away with at least one thing to do next.
I believe in vision boards because it helps calm that mindset, and it's just really a matter of what step do we take next.
When you have a vision board, and when you have targets that you've set for yourself, you and your partner are unstoppable.
With finances, everybody's going to have a different target, because everybody is in a different situation, which is why we have to go through so much training.
With the great resignation, we're coming out of schooling institutionalized programs that are no longer working.

You can connect with Janine on her social media handles

https://www.facebook.com/janinebolon1

https://www.instagram.com/janinebolon/channel/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/janinebolon/

You can learn more about Tony King on his social media handles:

https://www.instagram.com/personalfinancialstrategy/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-king-6563585

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“Learning how to earn more money, learning how to spend less money and learning how to invest money intelligently” -Alan Lazaros

Today we welcome a special guest to the podcast, Alan Lazarus. Alan is the founder and co-host of Next Level University, which is a global, top 100 self-improvement podcast, and they're now approaching 900 episodes. They reach over half a million people in more than 120 countries.

Allen holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration. He's a professional speaker and business coach and consultant specialized in helping businesses maximize their growth, impact and profitability online. He's inspiring, motivating, and educating others on what it really takes to get to the next level.

In today’s episode, Alan will be discussing personal finance and how people can achieve better financial outcomes in their lives.

Listen in!

My mom gave me the best lesson that I'd ever heard which was, aim high, and you'll have choices.
At 26 years I got an accident which messed me up mentally, emotionally and spiritually and had me contemplating my life and my choices.
Now I've got this North Star that I wear around my neck which is my guide.
You can't see the stars during the day even though they’re always there, but sometimes it takes the darkness to see clearly that which you simply could not see within the light.
I was contemplating my life, and I saw two stars I'd never seen before, Tony Robbins’ TED Talk and Bronnie Ware’s book called ‘The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.’
That’s how I got into business coaching and consulting and what fulfills me now is maximizing my own potential, helping others do the same, and helping them improve the quality of their life.
You’re not going to be fulfilled if you're if you're chasing the dreams of other people.
I help people improve their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
I believe that personal finance comes down to three main fundamentals which include learning how to earn more money, learning how to spend less money and learning how to invest money intelligently.
One of the reasons why I think people struggle so much to be successful in every area is because they're thinking linearly in an exponential world.
1% growth can compound like crazy and if you don't understand that, you're not going to make decisions that are long term.
You can play now and pay later, or you can pay now and play later.
You get paid in proportion to the difficulty of the problems you solve because your intrinsic value is different than your economic value.
To earn more money, the first facet is you should learn how to do the things that the world desperately needs.
The second facet of earning more money is working to be good at what you do in statistical comparison to other people in your field.
The third facet of earning money is positioning yourself in such a manner that it will be difficult to replace you.

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“Nobody wants to buy an entrepreneur; they want to buy the castle the entrepreneur has built.” Bharat Kanodia

Our guest today is Mr. Bharat Kanodia. Bharat has a has a very rich background in the financial world. He values businesses which is a very useful tool in the world of mergers and acquisitions, as well as just general business finance. He has valued over 2000 businesses ranging from real estate, to governmental infrastructure. Some of the unique things he has appraised are things like the Golden Gate Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Mirage Casino in Las Vegas, and Yahoo. He's signed off on over 4500 valuations with 2.6 trillion in assets globally.

Bharat lives in San Francisco with his family, and he enjoys sailing, golfing, skiing and horseback riding. Welcome to the personal financial strategy podcast brought.

In today’s episode, Bharat talks about his experience valuing assets and the essential ingredients for business growth.

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There is a big difference between valuing a product-based versus a service-based business because a product-based business would tend to have more tangible assets.
There are three metrics that are most important in valuing any business is growth profit and risk, and if you think of any business in these three metrics, you will never go wrong.
For your business to be very valuable you have to look at any business from a potential buyer’s perspective which is consistent cash flow and profitability.
The second thing is driving your business to run on autopilot, however you want to make it happen.
The most challenging and interesting thing I've ever evaluated is the I love New York campaign.
The biggest part of my job is just asking questions and to uncover the stories with the questions that I ask.
The science behind how valuations work remains the same but it is the art that changes.

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“Now is a great time for people to really take an inventory of what they want their life to look like, and then also begin to look at what avenues they can explore to help them to get there.” Dexter Jenkins

Our guest today is Mr. Dexter B. Jenkins. Dexter is an author of a book called ‘The Three Ships of Wealth Building. He is also the host of a podcast called Wealthy Conversations. Dexter is known for his personal approach to financial coaching, which he has labeled ‘Easy to Implement Wealth Building Strategies, God's Way’. He is now the CEO of his own financial consulting firm, DBJ enterprises.

In today’s episode, Dexter talks about why it is important to plan your finances regardless of your age. He also shades a bit of light into the principles discussed in his book.

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The idea that people miss is how to plan the finances, and my goal is to help people to plan very simplistically, so that they can implement it.
Everything in finances is behavior based, and when you begin to change people's habits and behaviors and ways of thinking about money, they'll have a chance to do pretty well.
I think your late 20s to early 30s is really a key time for people to really wake up and start planning and knowing their finances
Having a plan early on for retirement both to transition and how it looks like for you is extremely important.
The principle we all know is that anything that stays at rest remains at rest, and anything in motion stays in motion.
Getting people to stay in motion in their later years and keeping their mind sharp is a very important part of what we do for our businesses.
When people don't have a purpose in retirement, it's very dangerous and having people see that they still can be very valuable and very productive is extremely important,
Most people don't think about what their biggest expense is but ignorance is the biggest tax.
I define Ignorance tax to be how much we pay, because of what we don't know.
We pay a high tax when we remain ignorant and so part of our job is to give people the information that they need, so that they can avoid paying the cost.
If I can have my finances working to their highest potential, I believe the outcome of that you become richer.
Being the best I can be in my finances is my target, and the outcome of that is I'll end up doing well financially.
The three ships a wealth building was birthed out of studying wealth over the last three to four decades.
The book was birthed out of partly things that I've read in other books, and also the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
The three ships of wealth building is stewardship, ownership and entrepreneurship.
Now is a great time for people to really take an inventory of what they want their life to look like, and then also begin to look at what avenues they can explore to help them to get there.
What people found out during a pandemic was that they can take control of their lives.

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“There is never more money made than just sitting tight with good positions.” Leon Tompkins

Leon Tompkins is the founder of the Tides Group, a registered investment advisor in the state of California. Leon has years of experience managing investments having worked for multiple organizations and clients among them being World Vison International. He currently lives and works in La Jolla, California.

In today’s episode, Leon will talk about his experience that led him to trading and managing clients’ investments. He will also be giving tips and insights on how best people can engage with the market and trade wisely.

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I try to figure out what it is that drives companies from three different angles, the most important being financial health.
Secondly, I tie between how much they're growing and able to grow their top line, and how much they're able to manage that.
There is a couple of fairly predictable things that people can watch when trading.
First, when people get scared, the prices go down which means it is time to be buying.
The other thing is when people are so bearish, which means that they think the market is going down, and that happens to coincide with the price of options, then that tends to be a very good time to get involved in the market.
Before pulling the trigger on investment decisions, people need to first consider that one, when investing in stock market, you're looking at a company and not a product that you like.
The other thing is to be patient when you're buying and to always buy when they're giving you a little bit of an edge. Don't chase things.
FOMO which stands for Fear Of Missing Out, is such a big part of the way some people invest but more often than not, there's a lot of people taking advantage of people that will pay too much for stocks.
Another thing to know is that in a bull market, the second day downs, and this means that it is a pretty good time to buy.
Another one is don't add to your losing positions but rather add to your profitable positions.
You should always guard your profits because that is your money and the world is full of guys that almost had a great one.
The other thing is to let your winners run and don't take them off unless they start moving against you hard.
There is never more money made than just sitting tight with good positions

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“Go away from the traditional stuff and start to do things to actually generate passive income now.” Chris Miles

Today we welcome a special guest to the podcast, Mr. Chris miles. Chris has a very rich background in personal finance. He's an author and the host of a podcast called The Chris miles money show. Chris has spent many years serving clients as a classically trained financial planner and investment advisor. Now Chris is the CEO of his own financial consulting firm, Money Ripples.

In today’s episode, Chris will talk about his transition from being a financial advisor to how he was able to retire within a few months after switching to real estate, and his current passion of teaching about passive investment options.

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I actually started in the industry, not intending to become a financial advisor but a business consultant.
I was trained on how to sell the different types of mutual funds and different investments out there.
Later a friend of mine introduced me to real estate which enabled me to become financially independent in just a matter of months.
I was able to retire for the second time into 2016, this time with over five figures a month of passive income.
I doubted whether what I was doing was working when I started to see some commonalities where people that had invested in traditional investment vehicles weren't financially free.
While working as a financial advisor I knew deep down that I was probably over promising and under delivering and that's where the epiphany happened.
Switch to passive income mindset versus just accumulation mindset was big, because I started seeing the reality in terms of the returns and tax advantages.
My favorite passive income instruments is doing what's referred to as turnkey real estate investing.
Turnkey real estate investing involves paying up for property that is ready to be rented out and having the managers of the property taking care of everything else.
I also invest in things like syndications where we pool money with other people to buy a big project and get a percentage ownership that pays you passive income.
I did realize there are so many options out there one can invest in rather than in mediocre returning mutual funds.
The reason why I do what I do is because we're trying to reverse this financial education that has happened over decades from financial institutions.
Even though I've proven it to work, people still need to make sure they do it with the right amount of guidance and doing the right direction so that they are getting there as quickly and safely as possible.
The risks are there but you don't want to bank on just hoping that's prices go up, rather making sure that you're getting paid on your investments.
I advise people to go away from the traditional stuff and start to do things to actually generate passive income now.
Financial advisors get paid commissions at a rate that investors in traditional assets don’t get paid at.

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“Until you actually take action and move forward on something, you don't know what can happen.” Amy McLaren

Our guest today is Amy McLaren. She's the author of a book, “Passion to Purpose: Seven Step Journey to Shed Self Doubt, Find Inspiration and Change Your Life and the World for the Better.” Amy hit a crossroad a few years ago, where she found herself in that thinking spot that many of the people involved in the great resignation are now sitting, but she did something about it.

In today’s episode, Amy will talk about her experiences that led her to what she does today as well as her motivation to keep going.

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I'm an entrepreneur of three businesses that are all founded around my passion but I started out as a grade one teacher where I worked for 10 years.
At some point I lost the joy in it and I was beginning to feel like I wasn't the best version of myself for my kids, for my husband for my community.
Once we had our daughter, I went part time and started diving into some entrepreneurial things and then eventually went full time.
While I was teaching, I was kind of helping my husband build his business on the side and starting this nonprofit that I wanted to run.
We raised some money and went down to El Salvador, helped an orphanage and lived with a community on top of a mountain for two weeks.
That was really the start of realizing that I wanted to go beyond the classroom and start helping others and learning from other people.
My non-profit grew and eventually, I resigned from teaching and now I run my nonprofit and two other businesses as well.
When you're clear on something, you have to move and take a step forward.
Today, I am proud to say that we've raised 8 million dollars in 10 years but ultimately it is about the impact that we have been able to have.
There were some things that didn't work out but we kept moving forward.
I've learned so much about myself as much as like they've learned and we've just really learned together as an organization.
Until you actually take action and move forward on something, you don't know what can happen. You don't know what opportunity is there or you don't know, you know what door it could open.
you've got to look at what fulfils you and break them down into these buckets, then make sure they're getting filled.
I've had naysayers in my life which led to a lot of self-doubt creep up on me when I was adopting our son or speak on stage about our nonprofit.
One thing I always say to myself is I've done hard things before and I have to remember that when talking to people.
Remember to live your story because oftentimes other people's stories and other people's views come to you and that's their and not yours.
We have to fill our brains with good things and be mindful not to let all of what people say come inside and change our thoughts or direction.
There is so much opportunity and so many little bits of time that you could use to fill your brain with things that could open up your mind to the possibility of what could be.
You don’t have to run multiple businesses to leave a legacy and make an impact, it is the little things that we do every day that add up overtime.
When you build that connection and involve the community and staff, they end up wanting to be part of something that has an impact.
I really believe that your passion is your purpose and then using what you love to do to leave more impact and to do more good in the world.

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“It is the act of trying, that gives you that inner satisfaction and happiness.” Robert Miller

Today, we're going to be talking with Robert Miller, host of the follow your dream podcast, where he interviews lots of dream followers, some who have taken the leap to pursue their passions and dreams.

In this episode, Robert will be sharing with you his own pursuit and passion story and his motivation to venture into what he does today.

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I started out with a dream when I was young, which was a music dream and I studied music and played several different instruments.
Like so many people, I got way off track and I attribute it to life getting in the way.
I graduated college, and I was a broadcasting and film major but in between my filming and my music I was very unhappy about the whole thing.
A friend of mine suggested that I join law school which I did and ended up doing well enough in law and started working as a lawyer which commanded 23 hours a day from me.
My goal was to do law during the day and play music at night but I had no way in the world to do that and so I stopped playing music for 15 years.
I always had the dream inside of me and it took me decades to finally get to the point where I did return to music on a full time basis.
When I was in my 40s I started to play music again but more like a hobby and I put a band together and did some recordings.
It took me until I turned 60 to live the life I always wanted to live and that was the big wake up call for me and I jumped into the deep end of the pool.
Dreams come in all different shapes and sizes and there's all different ways that you can approach these things.
You have to be flexible to adjust your plan and take a series of baby steps.
When I decided to do what I'm doing now, which is music full time, plus my podcast, I sat down and I wrote on a napkin the first five or 10 steps that I needed to take.
I encourage anybody that is thinking of the kind of move that I made, or just any move at all, to break it down into baby step.
We all live to some extent with regrets and this was a big regret for me which I didn't want to wake up at any other point in my life wishing I had given it a shot.
It is the act of trying, that gives you that inner satisfaction and happiness.
If I've given the impression that it's all a straight line to success, I don't want to give that to your audience.
You have to be willing to go through obstacles that you face because nothing is a direct line and you just have to keep your eye on the goal at all times.
Probably in your life, you have more doubts and more inhibitions than anybody else does and for me, I kept fighting that.
My message to people is that not every dream is going to succeed and if you simply make success as your load store, that is a pretty steep hill to climb.
People said to me that I had a pretty inspiring and motivating story and that led me to start the podcast and it started to grow and get an audience.
I don't focus on one type of person as my guest but get all people that follow their dream one way or another to success.
I also finished up and released, what I call the follow your dream handbook which is basically a combination of my journey, my memoir, and how I did it and right away, it became a best seller on Amazon.

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“When you're a business owner, you're building cash flows as well as an asset in that business that you can sell as long as you run it halfway decent.” Jon Ostenson

John is CEO of Framebridge consulting in Capital, a company devoted to serving franchise opportunities, then aligning investors with top performing opportunities leading some of those investors to be actual operators.

In this episode, Jon is going to help us look at this exciting class of investments.

Listen in!

There's 4000 different brands roughly in the US involved in franchising across a number of different industries and sectors.
Coming out of COVID, more and more people want that sense of control, flexibility and freedom that comes through business ownership.
We do see an unprecedented level of interest out there towards franchising.
I just see franchising as really going into business for yourself, but not by yourself because you've got that franchisor on the sideline and other franchisees around the country.
While having that is not a guarantee of success, it does give you a lot of confidence going in.
Every franchise system is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission which requires them to have a Franchise Disclosure Document that contains all the information about a business.
When you're a business owner, you're building cash flows as well as an asset in that business that you can sell as long as you run it halfway decent.
As a business owner, you're able to write off expenses that you might not otherwise be able to if you just have a W two income.
I've seen firsthand that the labor market is a challenge right now but it can also create a unique opportunity.
The majority of the opportunities, and the deals that we're doing right now for clients are opportunities that allow them to work remote.
A study by Rancor School of Business found franchise businesses trading at a multiple typically of one and a half times as compared to non-franchise businesses.
I get calls every two or three days from private equity firms looking to invest in franchises.
About the cons, it is mainly when there are other franchisees, you're somewhat landlocked and limited to the area that you can control.
Another issue is if you're too entrepreneurial and want to go outside guardrails and do things your way, franchising may not be for you.
Obviously with franchising, you're paying a royalty back to the franchisor which means that the franchisor should be giving you great support for that so we ask the question around that.
I tell clients that there's a lot of ways to make money some more desirable and easier than others.
To buy into a franchise, you pay a franchise fee and meet costs for the equipment build out.
Some of the ways in which people fund their franchise business include self-funding, retirement funds through what is called a Rob's program or through SBA loans.
The way I work with clients is I try to streamline the process and make it as easy for them and allow them to focus as well as possible.
Franchising isn't risk free, but you de-risk things a lot.

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Welcome to personal financial strategy the podcast; a podcast wholly devoted to you and your money bringing expertise to bear on how you earn, invest and spend your hard earned cash.

I am your host,... Tony King,... and Today I would like to spend a few minutes chatting with listeners who are about to buy their first home or about to “upgrade” their home.

Let me start by stating “there has never been a better time to leverage a real estate purchase than today”

Cost of Money =Low

No crystal ball,.. But I can not see a time in our typical mortgage horizon (30 years) when interest rates will be significantly lower, but I do think it’s a solid bet that over the next 30 years we will see significantly higher mortgage interest rates.

2020 and 2021 has seen large amounts of cash infused into the economy and even my High School economics book would predict two outcomes:

Inflation - we are already experiencing this,.. We see it at the grocery store, at the gas pump and it has started to push home prices up. At least in my area of the country

The other historically predicted outcome would be a significant uptick in the cost of money i o w Interest Rates.

To Date November 2021 we have not seen this with 30 year mortgage rates at: 2.9%

And 15 year notes at: 2.25%

From a cost of money standpoint the time to buy a home or upgrade is ……… now!

Of course there are more things to consider than the cost of money and in fact, the primary consideration is “How much home should I buy”?

Let me rephrase that into a better question: “How much home can I buy while still making a real monthly investment into my financial future?”

Whew ! That is a loaded question,... loaded with assumptions. Did you catch all the assumptions in that question? Here they are:

1 - The question assumes you have saved up a minimum of $2000 cash,.. ready to cover any emergency that may suddenly pop up!

2 - The question also assumes that in addition to the $2k emergency fund you have tucked away 6 months worth of living expenses just in case there is an unanticipated change in your earning ability.

3- The question assumes you have paid off all existing debt and are now prepared to take on a mortgage.

4 - The question assumes you are on track with a solid monthly Spending Plan that contributes 15% of your monthly income toward a retirement account.

And finally the question assumes you are “ready to buy” meaning you have saved a few thousand dollars for a downpayment. We recommend 20% down payments to avoid spending anything on PMI,... our next calculation will not only reveal what price range of home you can afford but by doing so it reveals how much money you will need for a downpayment.

Hey ...there you have it 2 birds one stone!

To calculate the correct price range to shop in,.. you must have a firm grip on the Cash Flow of your household.” for details on how to form a Cash Flow Map and Cash Flow Plan review episodes 3 and 4 of this podcast,.. It is the best investment of 16 minutes you will ever make.

One of the magical outcomes of a bonafide cash flow plan is: you will know, to the penny, how much money you have on a month-to-month basis for “investment contribution” and investment contribution is everything when it comes to your financial future.

It's pretty obvious,.. The more $ you can invest monthly,... the brighter your financial future will be.

The takeaway here is: It is important to guard your monthly contribution to investment while purchasing a home

guiding principle,.. Keeping the home mortgage payment inside our recommended range of 25% to 35% of your net monthly income, serves to provide you a home and set you up to maximize contributions to investment every month.

I know this all seems like ,.. Kinda obvious,.. And it is,.. But ask any homeowner you know,... “When you were buying your home how did you determine what price range you would shop in?”

I would lay money you will never hear: “We bought in the price range that would allow us to maximize our monthly contribution to investments, really setting us up well for our financial future”

And if you did hear that , you probably wouldn’t want to be friends with that person. There are so many things to consider in buying a home, all we are suggesting is that this be on your “Criteria List” and that you measure this before signing on the dotted line.

Signing will be so much easier if you know exactly what impact this decision has on your future,...,..

In keeping with our pledge to bring to our listeners:

“Practical Tools You Can Use” visit our webpage at PFS.com, click on the “resources” button and there you will find a simple , easy to use calculator to determine the price range of the home you should be shopping for based on your net monthly income.

And if you are interested in how to formulate your own CFM and CFP ,.. Attend one of our Financial Wellness Webinars,.. They are live webinars and free of charge,.. Just click on the “Join the Webinar” button on the web page and choose a date and time that works for you.

Hey … thanks for listening and until next time,... kkeeeepp Strategizing!

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Mack,.. Invests $250 dollars a month in front line investments. ETFs IFs etc. yield ,... let's say 7%, probably more but we scale it back to account for inflation,.. We are doing rough numbers

In 25 years Mack has a pile of money in the neighborhood of @ $197,000

Vs.

Michelle,.. Invests $1000 per month in front line investments ,. yielding the same 7%,.. In 25 years Michelle has a pile of money in the neighborhood of @ $788,000 roughly Half a million dollars more!

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“When one’s life is value based, it's just setting intentions and being guided by your sense of values.” Krisstina Wise

Krisstina Wise is a real estate investor extraordinaire. She has created three businesses during her career including Good Life Luxury, The Paperless Agent, and currently the most active is a new concept called WealthyWellthy.

In today’s episode, Krisstina talks about her journey into financial wellness and why building a healthy relationship with money is key to understanding the concept of wealth and financial wellness. She is coming to us out of Park City, Utah today.

Listen in!

Wealth really comes from the kind of the etymology of wellness.
The derivative of wealth, and when we think of in terms of money, came from the root words of a life well lived.
When we are just in the hunt and chase of money, it becomes all about money and we get off track of really understanding money and its purpose.
When it's really about wellness, then there's all these different elements of wellness to live a whole and full life that's fulfilled.
What I learned through my own journey was because it was all about the money, it wasn't until I lost my physical health that I really recognized the importance of money.
The purpose of money is not to attain it.
When our whole money's about the chase, no matter how much money you make, it will never be enough because we're really missing the wellness piece.
Financial wellness takes knowledge, it takes work, passion, desire, but it's all around being healthy.
The biggest form of wealth is health.
The first two places to start is inquiring whether you have a healthy relationship with your money and knowing how much money is enough.
The language of money is really important and we use language that's been given to us as opposed to really understanding what the words mean.
For me, it's all about how much money I can manifest through creation.
I intentionally use the word create, because I'm always looking on how I can create something out of nothing, which is really what entrepreneurship is.
Our language that we use describes the mindset that we have and we can break those and start to create a whole different potentiality.
How much money is enough is organized around a philosophical question of what your good life is.
The practical piece after the philosophical piece is figuring how much it costs to live it and since your good life is different than my good life, your life will have a different number than mine.
Everybody is spending kind of 100% of what they make and the problem is people spend it in the wrong places.
Money can be a really powerful energy that can fuel us and propel us to be able to live a really good life.
Once you know the numbers and you know you're on track by putting your money away, your anxiety reduces because you have your plan.
The universe works with clarity with these fundamental laws which are always at work that once we learn them and can discover them and see them, we can work in tandem in alignment with them.
The most valuable resource is not money but time, and our money allows us to buy time.
We keep thinking that if we just work harder, then everything will become easier but the reality is this will be the pattern forever unless we're changing the way we think and behave.
My whole life was based on goals and achievements and now it is more about setting intentions and then manifesting it without being attached to the outcomes.
When we're chasing these targets and they become the goal, people end up bending their values, and justify the bending of values on hitting those targets.
When one’s life is value based, it's just setting intentions and being guided by your sense of values.

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Welcome to personal financial strategy the podcast, a podcast wholly devoted to you and your money bringing expertise to bear on how you earn, invest and spend your hard earned cash.

I am your host,... Tony King,... and Today I would like to spend a few minutes discussing why it is important to have a “trusted advisor” (or two or three) and pull together your own financial strategy team.

In conversation, when appropriate, I like to ask people the question: How did you learn personal financial management?

1 answer,...I DIDN’T ! … I’m winging it !

2 answer,... my parents got me started and I took it from there.

Here’s the thing,.. I believe the majority of us are really just winging it.

This is not an accusatory statement, it is a statement based on observations, my most intimate observations are my personal experience with managing our own finances.

Confession: for a large part of my adult life, I have been winging it! not blindly winging it, I mean I had some sound but vague advice given to me as a young man, things like:

Spend less than you earn
Save/Invest 10% of what you earn
Avoid debt (unless you have to)
Give away 10% of what you earn

These are all good tenants of a sound financial strategy, however,.. They lack a couple of qualities that would be really helpful,.. Like “HOW” and “WHY” and TACTICALLY how do I go about this?

Why all the vagueness and mystery? Here is a strange thing about personal finance,.... NOBODY WANTS TO TALK ABOUT IT!

For reasons never openly discussed, the topic of personal finance has this cultural fence around it,.. for many people its on the same level as talking about your sex life.

Though I no longer hold this view,.. I did in the past. And, there has been a price to pay.

I have been deprived of the valuable input of others, friends, even family. People that in this life “are on my side”.

I know that had I been more willing to talk personal finance with others, even partner with others along the way, I would be miles ahead of where I am today.

When I say miles ahead, I am not saying I would have more money…. I mean I would have helped more people, experienced more joy and avoided some financial mis-steps along the way.

Seems like a BIG ...NO DUH,.. doesn’t it? But just look:

Remember when you graduated from High School,.. Before you launched out into Career or College,.. That very helpful personal financial management course that was mandatory or no diploma for you?

You know the seminar/right of passage thing where you were taught the tactics of setting up your financial independence so that you not only ended your dependence upon your parents but were taught how to financially thrive in this world! Even to the point of not just covering yourself but helping others.

No, of course you don’t remember this EVENT/COURSE because it never happened, it doesn’t exist! ISN’T THAT AMAZING!

Think about it,.. An indispensable right of passage in life, (instruction on personal finance) ….

WE DON’T EVEN TALK ABOUT IT.

The question is ,... why? Why do we not talk about our personal finances with friends and why do we not teach personal finance, in detail, to our kids?

I think I know why personal finance is a no fly zone in our culture,.... Fear

More specifically …. fear of being judged by others.

More specific still,.. The judgement of choices I have made

And you know what,... I get that. I feel that. It's one of the worst feelings I can think of and I don't think it is an irrational fear. It is a legit fear.

The culture we live in is rife with people who are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to judge others, take people down a notch or two. I don’t pretend to know why,.. I just file this under the “Sad but True” category.

Something to think about:

I believe we all need a “team” behind us, people who want nothing but the best for us in this life. People who will help protect us from our weaknesses and encourage us in our strengths.

It has taken a lifetime for me to gather my team and everyone on my team has a role or position.

Can I be so bold as to encourage you to have a Team or at least a couple Trusted Advisors that you allow into your personal financial life?

You discuss with them: financial decisions, goals, plans and dreams. Not once, but create a conversation that has regular check-ins and lasts all of your days!

Remember the criteria for Team members,..

They want nothing but the best for you in this life
They help protect you from your weaknesses
They encourage you in your strengths,...............................always

Doesn’t that sound splendid? Fair warning,.. #2 the whole “protect you from your weaknesses” thing, well,.. that can get pretty uncomfortable. Being informed of a personal weakness is never a good time.

When someone on your team informs you of an opportunity to improve,... remember #1 - they want nothing but the best for you in this life. This is the guiding principle for team members.

My final call to action:

Start talking about your finances to someone,... not anyone,.. But seek out a team members who can play the position of:

Wanting only the best for you in life
Who Will protect you from your weaknesses
Who Will encourage your strengths
And is willing and worthy to wear the “Trusted Advisor” hat.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO THE PERSONAL FINANCE THING ALONE!

What's that? Say it stronger you say? OK

YOU SHOULD NOT DO PERSONAL FINANCE ALONE!

Find that trusted advisor (or advisors), who will assist you to help more people, experience more joy in life and avoid financial mis-steps,...open that conversation and get to strategizing ,.... Today!

Shameless plug: This is all we do at PERSONAL FINANCIAL STRATEGY,.. The fastest way to connect with us is @ our webpage: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com , Sit in on one of our Thursday evening webinars or set up a free 15 minute consultation. We would love the opportunity to help you in any way we can.

Thanks for listening

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Welcome to personal financial strategy,..... the podcast

a podcast wholly devoted to you and your money bringing expertise to bear on how you earn, invest, and spend your hard-earned cash.

A brief review for strategists just joining us, ….

In episode one we defined a personal financial strategy in episode 2 we discuss an essential tool called the cash flow map.

In episode three we talked about how the cash flow map is used to determine a cash flow plan.

The tools we are handing out here, build one upon the other if you missed episodes 1, 2 or 3 we recommend listening to those before proceeding to this episode.

Today,..I would like to introduce you to a concept that will add a ton of value to your PFS.

The employment of a proper banking structure.

Most people employ a banking structure that consists of a checking account and a savings account.

I think we fell into this natural ... when we first started working, we were told we needed a checking account to send our paycheck to,..and to use this account to pay our bills,...fair enough.

So we ran down to the local bank and we opened a checking account .. the nice banker there offered to open a savings account as well and we have been operating on this two account system ever since transferring money back and forth as we try and pay all of our bills on time and save some money.

I probably don't need to go into how inefficient this is from a cash flow standpoint. Essentially it is cash without the “flow” piece added !

I propose a banking structure that I think puts the flow to cash here we go.

This is going to be a little bit difficult to do without visual representation but I will do my best to describe it so you can picture it in your mind.

1st - a proper banking structure answers a few questions:

How many bank accounts do I need?
What type of bank accounts do I need?
and how can I make these accounts work together to optimize my cash flow?

What I will describe next is what we consider a minimal banking structure.

At bare minimum everyone needs:

1 brokerage account
2 checking accounts
1 Savings account

Using these four accounts let's give them each their proper assignments:

First the Brokerage account

Everyone should have a flexible brokerage account at one of the large brokerage houses; Schwab, Fidelity Vanguard, etc.

This account should have the ability to pay for what I will call “Frontline Investments",... Purchase of stocks, bonds, index, and mutual funds as well as the ability to transfer money to our checking and savings accounts which in all likelihood will be outside of the brokerage house.

For example, I use Charles Schwab, the account I have at Schwab can fund Stock purchases as well as transfer money to an outside bank … I use Midfirst Bank for checking and savings accounts and transferring cash between my primary brokerage account and my outside bank accounts are seamless.

The first assignment given to the brokerage account is to accept our monthly income from all sources. whether it be salary $ wages/ earned interest / or paid dividends …. all income should be ported to your brokerage account.

Why? 3 reasons

Small Interest
Frontline Investment contributions can be easily made and scheduled from a Brokerage Account
Simple / Scheduled funds transfer to my neighborhood bank

Moving on,..

Billing Checking Account or account #2 - the assignment for this account is:

Paying our monthly bills! Using the bill pay feature, take the monthly bills identified in column two of our cash flow plan (refer to episode3,.... apologies but episodes 2 and 3 are building blocks and this, optimized banking structure is very dependent on having a cash flow map & plan,.. If you haven’t listened to episodes 2 and 3 ,.stop now and listen,.. They are brief and essential,..OK let’s move to the next acct).

OOP Spending Checking account or account #3 - the assignment for this account is:

This account's main feature is debit cards … everybody in the family who is spending out-of-pocket cash should have a debit card attached to this account.

This account pays for all of the spending's we identified in column three of our cash flow plan. All Monthly out-of-pocket spending is conducted using these debit cards, the reasons are pretty obvious … Each transaction will have an electronic record which is easily tracked and categorized.

Savings Account or Account #4 - the assignment for this account is:

The primary purpose of this account is to house accrued cash toward your specific funds.

Example: In making your cash flow plan you determined that you would take a vacation 12 months from today that would cost $3600. In your brokerage account, you would schedule a $300 cash transfer on the 15th of each month to this savings account. When vacation time rolls around next year, you know exactly where to go for the money to pay for it in full,.. no credit needed.

This savings account is a short-term savings account, a place to park money, short-term for future purchases, a new car, a big-screen TV, vacation, new furniture, … things like that.

This account is optional,.. If you have more discipline than I do,.. You can let this cash accrue in your Brokerage account until you make a purchase. Personally .. I like to watch the savings account total build overtime,...this adds to my anticipation of making purchases, it also contributes to my peace of mind as I watch the number grow ,...It feels like I am stepping toward the goals I made in the cash flow plan.

Remember Your banking structure works in tandem with your cash flow plan, funding your lifestyle at the pace of your choosing.

Let's talk for just a second about how these two concepts work together.

Done Properly, your cash flow plan is a detailed guide to how you will reach all of your financial goals so let's refer back to the plan and reference our assignments for our banking structure.

This is the fun part,.. TELL YOUR MONEY WHERE TO GO ...AND WHEN TO GO!

Once you have prescribed all of your income to flow into your brokerage account you can then go into the brokerage account and give assignments for each of the following three accounts.

for account number 2 the billing account

Reference your cash flow plan which gives you the monthly total needed to pay all of your monthly bills, Take that total and multiply it by .51, then schedule your brokerage account to cash transfer on the 1st and the 15th of each month. This amount.

Example simplified for podcast purposes”

Cash Flow Plan says we have monthly bills that total $1000, .51 of $1000 = $510, In the Brokerage account I set up scheduled transfers on the 1st and the 15th of each month of $510, total transferred = $1020 more than enough to cover the monthly bills.

You may discover that you pay more monthly bills in the first half of the month. If that is the case you would change how much is transferred on the 1st transferring more on the 1st and less on the 15th I hope that makes sense?

It might take 2 - 3 months to figure out the monthly “demand” of your Bill Pay account but that is ok,.. As long as you stick to the “Plan” … in our example,..no more than $1020 goes into the account each month.

Once you get this set,.. It is just like the infomercial says “Set it and forget it” unless one of your monthly bills changes you never think about these bills again.

For account number 3 the out of pocket expense account

Again going back to the cash flow plan you will have a monthly total but a small change is recommended here. We recommend transfers on the 1st and 15th of the month - 53% of the monthly total.

It is easier to program this account to meet your plan because out of pocket spending happens throughout the month and typically is not loaded on one end of the month or the other however we recommend monitoring this for the first three months you may be able to reduce the twice monthly deposits If you find that @ the end of the month you have significant cash building in this account.

For account number 4 - the savings account

As discussed earlier this account is actually optional but if you put it to use ... just make sure that all of your monthly “funding of funds” hits this account on prescribed dates.

Personally I like the visual this account represents. It's always there saying keep going you're on the right track!

OK I have to be honest … describing the banking structure with words difficult if this was as clear as mud to you please go to our website at www.personalfinancialstrategy.com and click on the resources Tab, there you will find a graphic depiction of a proper banking structure

Key Takeaways:

Invest time in forming your cash flow plan,..its critical
Combining a CFP with proper banking structure allows you to automate your financial life
Using a brokerage account to house your cash, leverages modern banking technology to add structure to your:
frontline investing
bill paying
out of pocket spending
& saving for future purchases

They say “a picture is worth a thousand words,.. Visit the website www.personalfinancialstrategy.com and get your Cash Flow Mapping Tool and take a look at our recommended banking structures.

Until next time.

Keep strategizing

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Welcome to personal financial strategy….. the podcast

a podcast wholly devoted to you and your money

bringing expertise to bear on how you:

earn
invest
spend your hard earned cash

Hopefully you have visited our webpage at www.personalfinancialstrategy.com and you have picked up your free cash flow mapping tool…if so,.. You will find today's episode especially gratifying!

To review, in our last episode,. I laid out the five categories needed for a comprehensive cash flow plan they are:

Again visualizing spreadsheet with five columns from left to right the first column is:

income from all sources
monthly bills
monthly out of pocket spending
savings funds
And investment contributions

Now let's go to each column and talk about where we get the data to populate each of them.

Column 1 should contain our monthly income from salaries and wages to interest income you might be earning, passive income you might realize from investments, everything that comes in on a monthly basis should be listed in column one. Sources for this data will be statements that you receive on a monthly basis like your paycheck stub the, a monthly statement from your brokerage account etc.

Column 2 is populated by all of our repeating monthly bills. For example our utility bills, our car loan payments or rent/mortgages payments. In sourcing this data we recommend using the online technology from your bank. The simplest way to do this is; Sign into your banking software, go to your checking account and download all historical transactions from the first of one month to the 31st or last day of that month. typically your online banking software will download these transactions in a spreadsheet format, from there you can pick out your monthly/repeating bills to populate column number 2

Column 3 is monthly out of pocket spending, ideally this spending should be categorized. This data will be in the spreadsheet that you downloaded to grab your repeating monthly bills, column number 2, however there will be many transactions to all kinds of vendors we recommend for the first pass on a cash flow map that you not categorize every expenditure but concentrate on the “Big 5” categories, getting total monthly spend for:

Restaurants
Groceries
Gasoline
Clothing

and a catch all category... Merchandise (lately the easy way to track this is to total your spending on Amazon

Column number 4 is titled funds FUNDS

funds are a little set aside or accrual for a financial goal that you have placed in your future for the exercise of cash flow mapping we recommend a few like an Emergency Fund .. holiday fund,..or a fund to make a large purchase like a new car.

What we are doing here is setting aside money each month for large purchases to avoid carrying balances on credit cards. You can still use credit cards for major purposes gaining all those sexy air miles but you pay them off in full at the end of the month using the funds accrued in your “Fund”.

For sure this is the practice of delayed gratification (not popular in today's online get it now world) but it's one we highly recommend and in practice we think you will find that you have more cash available than you realized. That's a great feeling.

Lastly in Column 5 goes your desired amount of monthly contribution to Investments

There .. now you have it laid out in five neat columns totaled at the top…. I cannot emphasize enough how important this one tool is... as it is the starting point to attain financial clarity.

this one sheet will inform you,.. will give you insight,... and is the single best tool to get control over your finances.

If you have a populated CF Map,.. it's time to Harvest Information Insight and control over your personal finances by employing a cash flow plan

This plan is based on real numbers, your income from pay stubs and investment reports and downloaded spending from your checking account(s) and pulled from your Card statement … now looking at your map.

What do you notice? What pops off the page for you?

The first time I did this … there was a number that leaped off the page and hit me square between the eyes.

my wife and I were spending,...I'm embarrassed to say this but Our restaurant spending for the month was about 75% of our mortgage payment at the time.! You see, I am so embarrassed that I can't even tell you the exact number!

OK so this is a good starting point for turning the dials on your cash flow map...to make a cash flow plan.

My wife and I agreed that the restaurant spending was completely out of hand while we enjoyed going out to restaurants with our friends, this is definitely a valued part of our lifestyle but,.... The amount we were spending bordered on the irresponsible.

That's the bad news,.. the good news is we agreed on a number about half of our monthly average spending in restaurants not only leaves us opportunity to dine out with friends on a fairly regular basis but also freed up a few $100 that we could then add to our monthly investment column. After a few months of this one changed behavior,.. eyeing the new rate of growth in our investment column,..we felt great!

It gets better,.. Restaurant spending was just the 1st item we adjusted to create what we like to call a “Spending Plan”. We began a process of twisting the dials in every column to maximize our cash flow. It is an eye opening experience. We had money leaking out of the bucket everywhere,.. And this was the big contributor to the “out of control” feeling attached to our personal finances.

I know what you are thinking “ oh so you started living on a budget” no it's much more than that,.. we started to live by a spending plan. We like the term SPENDING PLAN better than BUDGET for a few reasons.

A budget may be necessary in the beginning of getting your finances under control, depends on the situation but budgets typically are one dimensional they are focused on spending exclusively whereas our cash flow plan gives us the opportunity to address each of the five categories on our map making it more comprehensive, more dialed in and allowing us to optimize our cash flow month in and month out.

Every plan has an author and that author is responsible for the plan he or she writes it and it is up to the author to execute the plan.

Budgets On the other hand once constructed feel like the budget is acting on me. The BUDGET is not really a part of me,.. It can take on a life of its own, an outside force trying to get me to change my behavior and , at least for us,.. It contributed to a scarcity mentality many of us battle when thinking of money as the author of the spending plan … I am in control!

If the plan goes wrong…. I have no one to blame but myself … I made the plan.

With a SPENDING PLAN you are literally telling your money where to go.

This is the very definition of Gaining Control over your personal finances.

I hope you are following along, using the tools we have provided.

This is a place to spend an ample amount of time reviewing all of your income, all of your spending and all of your investment, setting priorities, agreeing on priorities and adjusting the cash flow plan to live up to what you truly value in life.

Hammering out a Cash Flow Plan is a very gratifying experience, watching the plan work toward your goals month to month is even better.

If you have not picked up your free CASH FLOW Mapping tool at our webpage: personalfinancialstrategy.com

Please do so,.. It is absolutely free and it is the single best tool available to get control of your personal finances … next stop I will impart to you what we believe is the best banking structure to use for personal finances this is important because it adds a whole layer of automation and efficiency to your personal financial plan

You will not want to miss this very practical, very valuable Personal financial hack until next time keep strategizing.

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Welcome to personal financial strategy….. the podcast. A podcast wholly devoted to you and your money bringing expertise to bear on how you:

earn
invest
spend your hard-earned cash

Let's start with the definition of the cash flow map - It is a Monthly view of all Income and all Expenses

Sounds simple,.. And it is,.. But obtaining accurate data to post in the CF Map can be a bit tricky and it requires time and effort to produce a CF Map with long term value.

The cash flow map is the cornerstone report from which all your financial strategies should flow !

I will even go so far as to say that if you are making financial decisions in the absence of a well founded cash flow map you are driving blindfolded.

Many financial coaches encourage starting with a cash flow map … however where they fall short is in developing the map to its full potential.

Most advisors do the quick math to find out if an individual is living on less than they earn. THIS IS IMPORTANT even fundamental in setting winning strategies…. But …

A competent cash flow map uses real income data, real spending data and real investment data , to achieve an accurate snapshot of the individual's financial reality,... today.

The cash flow map is where we get all the data needed to actually make a cash flow plan kinda makes sense right? You pull out the map,.. Then you plan your route

As much as I detest old cliches,.. I am going to use one here: GARBAGE IN GARBAGE OUT. And This is why it is important to put ample time into constructing your cash flow map if we do not spend an appropriate amount of time making sure that our cash flow maps are up to date and accurate there is really no way to make sound financial plans going forward.

It is astonishing to me that cash flow mapping is not taught in school,.. It is so foundational … it should be taught in High School.!

OK well … Let's get to it

The cash flow map has five basic components... All of which should be viewed…. on a monthly basis …..sorry to say this ... but the best way to make a cash flow report is to use a spreadsheet,

If the S word just made you cringe a bit,.. Hang in there we have something for you at the end of this episode.

For now just picture in your mind a blank sheet of paper, turned horizontally with 5 columns, at the top of each column is a label which describes the contents of that column,.. We will come back with tactics on how to get this data,... buckle your seatbelt,.....here we go …. Column labels from left to right:

income from all sources
monthly bills
monthly out of pocket spending
savings funds
And investment contributions

Now that we have the columns laid out ... lets talk definitions for each:

Income from all sources is pretty self explanatory

This column should include any source of monthly income like

Salary & earnings

Dividends

Interest Income

Monthly income payments from other sources for example rental property you own

Monthly Bills - Are bills that repeat month to month such as loan payments, utilities, mortgage payments, insurance payments … all of these bills are easily automated using your bank's online bill pay tool.
Monthly out of pocket spending typically this is spending not included in monthly bills

And This spending varies month to month ...the biggies for this column are usually gasoline, groceries, restaurants, medical expenses .. clothes etc.

Savings funds this is money set aside each month to pay for future spending or unplanned spending examples of funds would be:
An emergency fund
A auto maintenance fund
A Christmas fund
A Vacation fund

Having “Funds” is a great way to inject planning into spending

Investment contributions:

We view Monthly contributions to retirement plans as investments,.. but we also want to consider things such as monthly contributions to traditional investments like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange traded funds and other easily purchased investments through a brokerage account.

Now in your mind's eye …. picture column totals for each column

And from there sum the totals of columns 2 through 5

subtract that number from the total of column one this will answer the fundamental question of whether or not you live on less than you earn.

However, a well constructed cash flow map can tell you so much more it is the basis from which you can begin a process I like to call “turning the dials” to create the best cash flow plan imaginable

Have you ears glossed over yet,.. I hope not because this is good stuff and an essential element to Financial Wellness

Hopefully I have piqued your interest to the point where you are at least curious about what your own cash flow map might look like

I have good news go to the personalfinancialstrategy.com web page and there you will find under the tools section an actual spreadsheet tool prepared just for you.

It's in an easy-to-use format ... all you need to do is fill in the blanks!

You can do this using income and spending numbers off the top of your head to get a sense of your map, but to get an accurate map capable of informing your financial future I recommend you attend one of our Financial Insights Webinars.

A word about ..OUR WEBINARS .. we do not run canned/recorded webinars, our webinars are actually mini-courses in Personal Finance and all of our classes are live via Zoom, and have a capacity of 15,.. use the “join a webinar “ button at personalfinancialstrategy.com to save your seat.

Next Episode we will put the last two bricks in our personal financial strategy foundation and then we are off to interview guests specializing in:

Earning more

Investing more

And yes,.. Spending more ,..stretching those hard earned bucks until they scream!

We have a dandy guest line-up headed your way,..

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Welcome to personal financial strategy the podcast a podcast wholly devoted to you and your money bringing expertise to bear on how you earn, invest and spend your hard earned cash.

Today we will be covering the baseline:

what is a personal financial strategy? and why do I need one? let's get to defining a personal financial strategy.

First of all,..it’s a mouthful,...isn’t it,... PERSONAL FINANCIAL STRATEGY is a system.

One that is organizes everything you own everything you owe and all of your transactions/spending.

Then tracks these things overtime, giving the strategist the ability to measure progress and velocity toward a desired financial lifestyle.

A strategy is different than a “plan” in that a strategy can contain many “plans” all of them designed to achieve an overall aim or outcome.

Why does anyone need a PFS?

Check this out:

A Federal Reserve survey reported in 2019 (remember 2019 the year of abundance) almost 40% of American adults wouldn't be able to cover a $400 emergency with cash, savings or credit card charge they could quickly pay off.

Could this possibly be true?

Honestly I doubt the accuracy of this report but let's just say it's directionally accurate.

So let's double the figure from $400 to $800 and say that 40% of Americans could not cover a $800 emergency with their saved cash or even a credit card that they could pay off quickly.

If this is true friends … There are a lot of people in this country with a weak personal financial strategy.

Quick Story: During the last 30 days , at the king household; our pool pump went out and we sprung a leak in the roof … together those two very unexpected expenses totaled about $2300.

Fortunately we have a personal financial strategy that includes an emergency fund and we were able to easily cover that sudden expense.

However the statistic from the Federal Reserve Indicates that a fair amount of people have less than $400 in cash available to address even the slightest curveball life will throw at you.

And it's no wonder really

personal finances have never been so complicated so average Joe here likely has

some assets
some investments
A few some credit cards
multiple bank accounts
a truckload of bills
A couple of loans
a big fat mortgage

How the heck are you supposed to keep track of it all?

It might surprise you to know that in today's modern banking world it's quite possible to do it yourself.

All you need to do is keep listening to this podcast we will give you brick by brick the material needed to build your own personal financial strategy.

So let’s take a look at what we would call a sound PFS.

There are two foundational components to a great FS:

Cash Flow Map & Plan

Investment Plan

The cash flow Map has a few components , which we will go into in detail in the next episode.

However, for now let's agree that a cash flow plan is what is happening with your cash now, today,

but because cash is not static ...it is always on the move,.. Let’s look at how it flows on a monthly basis in five categories:

Your combined monthly income from all sources
Your monthly total of recurring bills.
Monthly,.. What is the average of your out of pocket spending.
What cash set asides do you contribute to every month (smallish funds for events like auto maintenance, emergencies etc.)
what investments do you fund on a monthly basis.

While the cash flow mapping plan is all about today,... the investment plan is all about tomorrow or the future.

A solid Investment Plan has one aim,..and that is:

To fund your lifestyle 100% at some point in the future …. we call it “Choice Age”

Choice Age should not be confused with retirement age.

In fact,.. it is a concept altogether different and one we suggest in place of the traditional idea of retirement age.

Choice age is a date in the future when money will no longer limit your ability to live the lifestyle of your choice. It quite literally means the day you start “Livin the Dream”.

How much money “Livin the Dream” requires depends on the definition of your dream life. Which of course is an individual thing.

That number should account for traditional events,.. The most common consideration is: “You stop working,.. What effect does this have on your lifestyle?”

Of course making a “Livin the Dream” investment plan requires some amount of forecasting and few people have the resources to to get an accurate gaze into the financial crystal ball.

This is what we do for people at PFS we will help you set up a complete Personal Financial Strategy. One that at a minimum delivers.

A Cash Flow Map & Plan

An Investment Strategy -

Keep in mind,.. We are all about building your financial engine, i.e. calculating real life numbers that you can invest on a month to month basis.

We do not give investment advice; or sell investments .. We believe you should be in the driver seat for any investment you make.

Once you make an investment then we can handle the forecasting (always based on historical assumptions).

We are all about getting you the information & knowledge you need so that you can get your finances under control.

I know there are some of you listening who are saying to themselves “I would rather brush my hair with a trout” than spend my time organizing and forecasting my financial future.

It's a valid point …. But this is really important now and I have a sense,.. the importance of this,.. Is growing.

Remember my fellow Strategists,... if you are serious about getting your personal finances under control then investing and spending money wisely this is the podcast for you, listen to our next episode where we will teach everyone how to make a CF Map and a CF Plan.

Thanks for listening and if you want to skip ahead please visit PFS.com and schedule a phone call with us or jump into one of our live webinars.

Until next time,...

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Personal Financial Strategy the podcast: Recent Episodes

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1 - The question assumes you have saved up a minimum of $2000 cash,.. ready to cover any emergency that may suddenly pop up!

2 - The question also assumes that in addition to the $2k emergency fund you have tucked away 6 months worth of living expenses just in case there is an unanticipated change in your earning ability.

3- The question assumes you have paid off all existing debt and are now prepared to take on a mortgage.

4 - The question assumes you are on track with a solid monthly Spending Plan that contributes 15% of your monthly income toward a retirement account.

1 answer,...I DIDN’T ! … I’m winging it !

2 answer,... my parents got me started and I took it from there.