Solo K is A.O.K for Small Business Owners Seeking Lower Taxes and Retirement Contributions.
If you missed out on the millions of bucks sent to the big corps in Uncle Sam’s stimulus program, don’t fret, you still have some options (Although, they don’t involve big financial handouts).
The Solo (k) commonly referred to as Solo K is a retirement plan set up for small business owners. Small business owners drive this economy, (in spite of what the lobbyists in DC would have us believe). As a small business owner, your tax liabilities are the most threatening thing to your financial well being right after the economy. Learning how to reduce your tax liability should be a part of every small business owner’s wealth building strategy. Knowledge is power. Let me re-phrase that, knowledge is money! Continue reading →
Admit it. You Don’t Have a Practice – You Have a Job
Many of my tax reduction clients are high-income professionals including doctors, lawyers and even accountants. These are people with unique financial and tax-reduction problems. Having a respectable income isn’t the problem for most of them.
The three primary problems doctors, lawyers, and other professionals have in common are as follows:
1. Working too many hours.
2. No time left for financial planning.
3. Paying too much in taxes and being too tired to enjoy what’s left of their income.
Breaking exhausting cycles like this is not simple. It’s not really difficult but it’s going to take a commitment. Here are a couple of things you can do to shift from having a job to having a business. If you have a true business model that’s working, you can take time off and the business will continue to create wealth for you and your family. If you have a job, you are obligated to be there and you don’t get paid when you are not.
Which do you have? Does your practice allow you to leave without a big dip in income? Does your practice grow without consuming more of your time? If you said “no” to either of those last two questions, you don’t have a business or a practice, you have a job.
There’s nothing wrong with having a job as long as you are aware of that. But a practice that keeps you in the “job” mode is difficult to grow without more of your time. And that takes you back to problem number one. Trying to grow your business, when it’s really a job, means you’ll work too many hours and never get a commensurate reward.
Tax Deductions for Small Business – With all that time spent on the practice, you might have some good revenue coming in but too many doctors, dentists, or lawyers have little time left to do their own financial planning. So, they give it to their spouse, their bookkeeper, or their accountant. And, it’s likely that none of these people are specifically trained in tax-lowering strategies.
So, the money comes in, everyone does the best they can with it and the money goes out. Unfortunately the amount of money going out to Uncle Sam is usually much more than it should be in these situations.
So, my recommendation for anyone facing the endless cycle of work more, spend more, work more is this. Find someone who can help you design a strategy to break this cycle. There are two types of professionals that may be able to help you.
We are not on this planet to figure it all out on our own.
It’s okay to ask for a little help.
GET HELP – First, get a business/marketing consultant to help you find the leverage points in your business. Where is there more profit, less effort, and continuity in your business? Where are the opportunities for exponential growth in your business? Who EXACTLY are your best customers and how can you give them better service in return for greater profits? To turn your job into a business you want to know what your clients are looking for and then give it to them.
Take time this week to work ON your business not IN your business.
Second, get a tax-planning specialist on your team. That person will show you how to utilize legal entities that will protect your hard-earned money and make it work much harder for you. Notice, I said, your MONEY will be working harder, not YOU! Tax planning is beyond checking off the list of business deductions and putting numbers in the right columns. Any accounting person can do that for you.
A true tax specialist will have the ability to help you create a wealth-building plan that will solve the miserable cycle of working too many hours, no financial planning, paying too much in taxes, and being exhausted!
Finally, if you do nothing at all with what you just read, at least do this. Take time this week to work ON your business not IN your business.
You can’t go from rags to riches on the same path you’ve been following! We can talk about money, wealth, riches, and security until we turn blue in the face. You can take notes until your carpal tunnel gets the best of you. None of it matters UNLESS you make a shift in your thinking.
Without a Mindset for Success – Zig Ziggler, famous sales trainer and motivational speaker calls it, Stinkin’ Thinkin’. To achieve greater success you need more financial education tools, a clear understanding of goal setting, a wealth building strategy, and a little tune up from the neck up.
What the most successful (and wealthiest individuals in the world) understand that most others do not, is that the secret of their success is not in there education, the database, or their endless energy (although these are all very important). Their success comes from the way they view their world. It comes from their mindset.
Your thinking process, your perspective, your psychology = Your Mindset
The way you think about wealth, your attitude to achieve it, is what we call TheMillionaire Mindset. If you are already a millionaire then we could call it your Multi-Millionaire Mindset! It’s one of the most compelling laws of the universe and quantum physics is digging up more and more proof every day that our minds are all we need to succeed. Of course I want to help you reduce your taxes, build profitable businesses, and create long-term wealth strategies. But I can’t.
I can’t do anything to help you unless you are willing to take control of that gray matter between your ears. It’s all up to you. Not some of it, not most of it, but ALL of it!
It’s hard for many to believe but we do control our own thoughts. Nobody else controls them no matter what they do. Unless of course, we give our minds permission to believe another person’s words. When a teacher says you are no good at math, a coach says you are too small or a spouse says you are too this or that, the choice is yours whether to believe them or not.
If you’re ready to take greater control of your life and are ready to start building a Mindset for Success, then print the following graphic out and post it on your refrigerator and anywhere else you can to keep this message front of mind.
It takes practice but you can make conscious decisions about what to do with your thoughts. Notice the word CONSCIOUS! Those who don’t reflect on their own thinking are often easily lead through life and find it difficult to choose their own path. Building financial freedom takes effort. Building financial freedom takes practice. And most important of all, building financial freedom takes a Mindset for Success. I write a lot about this in my upcoming book because it is truly the foundation for everything related to wealth.
You can learn more about building a Mindset for Success in any of our coaching programs. The more you learn, the more you earn! Don’t let no Stinkin’ Thinkin’ get in the way of your dreams!
Seven Things You DON’T Have to Do to Grow Your Business in 2011!
Fire yourself? Yes! Put it on the calendar and fire your lazy, no good, self by the end of 2011! Now that you’re shocked, here are the details.
1. Don’t keep your job! Make it a goal to fire yourself by the end of the year. Work ON your business at least one day a week. You have to work IN your business for now but to grow you must work ON it. Think long-term, strategic, and high level. Get out of the day to day activities more and more. If you are in a production position right now, set a goal to be in a strategic position by the end of the year!
2. Don’t do the TWO STEP. If you take more than two steps from your desk/workstation to do a repeatable activity, you may not have efficient systems in place. If you are reinventing functions on your computer, in your communications, through your marketing, then you have not automated what can be automated. If you can get it down to one step, you’re getting closer to a business that you can leave once in a while! If you can’t leave, you don’t have a business, you have a job!
3. Don’t be a moaner and a loner! If you’re complaining about having to do everything yourself, you haven’t formed the proper team. Whether they’re on staff or outsourced, the only way to grow our biz is leverage! Don’t try do it all yourself. It won’t work. Period.
4. Don’t become a control freak. I’m not talking micromanaging here; I’m talking systems, procedures, best practices, checks and balances. For example is your bookkeeper that you’ve known and loved for years writing checks and reconciling the checkbook? If so, you’re playing with fire. Do you find yourself in a big hassle every time you replace an admin member? Is it because you didn’t have the discipline to set up the desk manual and all the controls that go with that position in a nice little three ring binder? Control is a good thing. Just don’t freak out over it.
5. Don’t forget to water and fertilize. Are you nurturing the controls, systems, vendors AND team members in a way that they are ready for greater growth? Are you training, preparing, and exciting your team for the future? Do they know how to do their jobs and think for themselves or are they more compliant than self-reliant? Your future depends on their ability to think. For themselves.
6. Don’t try to become a marketing maven. Do you depend on outside people to manage your marketing functions? Nothing wrong with that but you need to know enough about the rapidly changing marketing tactics to ask intelligent questions. Do you know how to Tweet? I’m just asking! It’s not necessarily something you should do but you should know what it means! Don’t try to be the expert at everything, be the strategist with the 30,000 foot view and your business stands a better chance of growing in 2011.
7. Don’t try to find Balance. There’s no such thing for the entrepreneur yet you can come from a place of calm more often than you think. Start your next meeting by asking your team to close their eyes and take three deep breathes. Start your next project at your computer with a moment of pause… slow down… breathe… enjoy the ride. Cooler heads prevail. It may never be a perfectly balanced life in your position but you can slow it down for a minute now and then to make sure you’re taking care of yourself so that when you are working on your business you are focused, clear headed and making your best decisions.
Go ahead, take ten minutes right now and walk around the block. You’ve got a lot of things we DON’T want you to do this year. You better get ready!
And, by the way, call me if you want to lower your taxes in 2011!
Our company, Legacy Wealth Building, LLC is not just about showing you how to make money and reduce your tax liability. That’s not that hard. What is sometimes very hard is keeping it. Keeping it away from lawsuits, taxes, and economic threats. What is even more difficult is keeping it beyond your time on this planet. But with a little planning and discipline, anyone can learn to hold onto more of their wealth and make sure it becomes a legacy for a future generation.
But the picture gets a little bigger than that. Not only do we want you to succeed in passing your success to your heirs, we want you to pass it on in a way that helps the rest of the planet. If you haven’t heard of the phrase, Triple Bottom Line, I would encourage you to watch this brief video by this amazing speaker and author named Will Marre.
He talks about how it IS possible to take care of the THREE P’s that make up the Triple Bottom Line. People, Planet, and Profit. When you watch him speak you begin to realize that we all as individuals need to do a better job of long-term planning for our own lives but long-term planning for our children, our grandchildren, and the rest of the souls on this planet! Check out this video and when you are ready for a little of your own long-term planning, give me a call!
Please drop me a note if there is anything I can do to help you stash more cash! More tax saving tips from an earlier post.
Term Sheets are legal documents that create a clear starting point for a business venture. Here is part of the definition from Wikipedia:
A term sheet is a bullet-point document outlining the material terms and conditions of a business agreement. After a Term Sheet has been “executed”, it guides legal counsel in the preparation of a proposed “final agreement”. It then guides, but is not necessarily binding, as the signatories negotiate, usually with legal counsel, the final terms of their agreement.
There are several major documents you need to be aware of before starting any company be it an LLC a C corp, a joint venture or whatever. You need to know what they are to keep yourself out of trouble and to make sure your business venture has a good shot at success.
There are a lot of legal issues around these documents and I’m not an attorney nor am I giving financial advice on this blog. All I want to emphasize today is that we just had a great educational call on term sheets and it reminded me of the power of planning.
The more time you put up front in the planning phase, the less time you’ll need to get to the profitability phase. Term sheets are crucial so do your homework. If you want to learn more about starting your own business, launching a joint venture, or just reducing your taxes, find out how one of our wealth coaching programs can help!
Have a prosperous day!
Gabby Huguenin
Legacy Wealth Building, LLC
208-263-7202
By the way, if you are facing some tax challenges, cash flow issues, or need a solid asset protection strategy, there is no charge to give me a call!
A True Wealth Building Coach Can Create True Long-Lasting Wealth Now and Long Term
Impossible you say, and where to you find one anyway? You would be surprised how simple it can be. Sometimes it is as easy as picking up the phone or visiting a web-site to start assembling information on who would be the perfect match for you. Many of these coaches offer outstanding information on tax planning techniques, asset protection strategies, tax planning courses or even something as simple as basic saving money on your taxes.
What else can you find? Some of the really great ones even offer a guarantee. More than that: the guarantee can be found to refund all monies if the same amount is not found via tax deductions not already utilized or some other wealth saving/producing strategy. How can you lose with that kind of guarantee? It also speaks volumes about the credibility and knowledge base of that company and their coaches.
A great place to start, but what next? Well, you should be asking as many questions as you want. Think about what is critical for you to address first. Is it tax strategy? Long term fiscal planning, perhaps you want to make sure your investment properties are securely locked away from prying law suits.
Or, your income has become high enough that you need some extra special care and attention or the tax-man will be taking much more than you are comfortable with.
If you are a professional, doctor, or busy entrepreneur, the idea of finding a mentor, building enough of a rapport, and maintaining a long term relationship can be a daunting task, however, true Wealth Coaches will have results, and guarantees to back up the work.
How can a Wealth Coach really help me? Every person is different, every scenario is different, but there are the same basic templates and values that are attached to us all. We all want to pay as little to the IRS as LEGALLY possible. We want our employees to be secure in their employment, we expect our family to benefit from our business acumen now and through old-age. We want also tax professionals, and accredited investors helping us with our day to day decisions. Guiding us on our path to ensure long term lasting wealth, and “peace” of mind.
The difference is in the application of knowledge to your specific situation: Once that template is created, a review of your personal picture is undertaken. Look to see if your prospective coach has a CPA on their team and perhaps even offers that they come on your first call, or perhaps are an integral part of your coaching experience. This kind of attention to detail really sorts out the good from the amazing and virtually guarantees all kinds of wealth flowing back into your pockets instead of out towards the tax-man.
Having your own banking system puts you in total control of your wealth. When it’s all set up and running properly, you decide what money comes in and what money goes out. You set the interest rates and terms you want to pay to borrow money, just like a banker does. You decide how much interest you will charge others when you lend money and of course, the terms under which they will pay you back.
If your plan for retirement has been modified by our economic situation, maybe it’s time to learn how to create a recession-proof wealth building strategy.
Plan for Retirement – Systematically
Again, there is no reason to compromise your lifestyle. We understand that it has been hammered into you since you started working that you must be saving for and planning for retirement. Of course, we all want to enjoy a retirement free of financial stress but why wait for retirement? This is the time to start building lifelong wealth.
To create truly massive wealth, there are four major systems you will eventually want to master. Here they are.
1. The Financing System. This is the core of wealth creation but it does not stand alone. The Financing System is how you currently use your credit cards, loans, and leases. This is how you manage all of the money coming in and going out. It is the process of transferring funds, documenting transactions, forecasting the future, and monitoring changes.
This is the system, the technology, and awareness of the flow of funds through your life. The banking system is a key element of the financing system that we teach
2. The Debt Management System. This is the math, the timing, and the best use of your funds to reduce, minimize, and eliminate debt in the most sensible, manageable and realistic manner. A solid debt reduction process must be a part of any wealth building program. Of course, in our wealth training we don’t want you to wait for anything. Eliminating debt and building wealth both begin immediately.
3. The Tax Management System – This is the process of leveraging your knowledge of legal tax benefits into the lowest tax category possible. A properly structured tax management system allows the power of compounding interest to work for you. There is no lifestyle change required to maximize your tax benefits. Saving tax money is not an event it’s a journey.
4. Investing System – This is an optional yet complimentary system to the first three systems. Investing does not have to be risky or require too much work when you know where to start and what to avoid. Many people invest in traditional ways such as stocks, trading, real estate, etc.
When a systematic system of investing is combined with a systematic financing system, the synergistic results can improve your wealth creation momentum dramatically. There are tons of online investment classes and dozens of magazines that offer great advice on how to make money yet few of them provide a system that you can set up to run on autopilot.
How many people do you know that have “Investments” that they talk about yet they still never seem to have enough month left at the end of their paycheck? If you have invested in real estate, the stock market or any asset with an opportunity to appreciate then you are on the right track. What we teach you is that by combining any of the four major systems above, your wealth grows exponentially.
Savvy Investors Still need Systems
If you already have your own successful approach to investing, that’s great. Adding just one more thing, that you are about to learn to your investment system will greatly enhance your returns. If you have income coming in from your job, rental properties, investments, or other sources, we want that revenue to flow through your debt management system and into your financing system. We believe in the synergy of the systems. They work best when they are working together.
Top Financial Advisors
If you already work with a top financial advisor or manage your investments on your own, it doesn’t matter to the team at Wealth Classes Coaching. Our goal is to help you eliminate distractions, delays, and excuses that keep you from creating massive wealth by automating as many of these systems as possible.
If you have to keep changing your approach, creating new tactics and re-inventing your strategies, then you don’t have a system. And if you don’t have a system, you don’t have control. And if you don’t have control, well, then somebody else does.
And there is only one person on the entire planet that cares as much about your financial well being as you do and that is… YOU!
Have a prosperous day!
Gabby Huguenin
Legacy Wealth Building, LLC
208-263-7202 office direct
P.S. If you’re working with a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan, Smith Barney, or any other big name firm, good for you. We don’t replace your financial advisors we simply teach you how to leverage your knowledge and relationships to build great wealth in efficient, safe, and sensible ways.
Asset protection solutions are more important for certain types of businesses and individuals than others. We all understand the value of insuring our homes, cars and lives but when things are going well it’s easy to forget about protecting yourself from the absurdity of pocketbook predators. Don’t let this craziness scare you because there is a solution. It’s called Asset Protection Solutions!
There have been crazy cases where judges found a landlord liable for the alleged damages of another tenant’s cigarette smoke. Ridiculous awards have been made to plaintiffs for a wide variety of things that nobody in their right mind would believe is fair! I won’t waste any more time on the absurd, we all see the stories in the news so let’s just get down to protecting ourselves, our businesses and our assets with proper asset protection solutions.
Who’s at Risk?
Well, with more attorneys in this country than any place on the planet, if you’re an American, you’re at risk. But, if you’re in one of the following categories, you’re at higher risk:
Architects
Contractors
Developers
Engineers
Physicians
Dentists
Medical Professionals
Corporate Officers
Financial Advisors
Legal Advisors
Real Estate Brokers/Agents
Landlords
Landlords
Landlords
Oh, did I mention, landlords? It’s kind of funny in a sick kind of way. You work your tail off to find and purchase your first investment property. It takes you five years to get to positive cash flow. You net a couple hundred bucks a month and voila! You look like you’re a rich landlord with a big asset so you’re easy to spot and easy to sue! Ahhh, the joys of being a landlord.
A few weeks ago I did a postabout the importance of getting all real estate out of your personal name and into appropriate operating entities that separate you from your assets and also allow you to fly a little more under the radar. Remember, if you cannot be found, you cannot be sued. Of course, you only do this in straightforward legal ways but it is possible to protect yourself better with a lower profile.
One of the asset protection solutions we teach our students in Wealth Classes Coaching is using LLCs, C corps or other entity to reduce your liability. We help our students find the state most favorable to their specific entity and then we incorporate all of these tactics into a long-term wealth building strategy that keeps the pocketbook predators at bay.
Effective asset protection solutions help to limit the ability of creditors to seize your assets or to even know where to find your assets. The typical attorney working for the plaintiff to attack your assets is going to do an asset search before she decides to take that person’s case. If there is nothing of value to be found, it’s harder for the predator to find a playmate!
If you want to learn more about asset protection solutions, give me a call for a no obligation phone consultation. Discover how my high net worth tax planning strategies and business tax write offs can put a little more cash in your pocket next year, call me for a free consultation. I sometimes joke about it but I really can spot significant tax savings opportunities for most people in a matter of minutes!
Have a prosperous day!
Gabby Huguenin
Wealth Coach
208-263-7202
P.S. Whether you are interest is reducing tax payment, setting up a small business, or creating an effective asset protection strategy, we have an individual wealth coaching program for you. Just call me!
Disclaimer:
This information does not constitute a complete description of all or any one aspect of financial planning. There is no offer to sell or buy any financial product in this video or on our website. Please consult with a qualified financial, legal and/or tax professional before investing or modifying any aspect of your taxes, assets or finances. This information is strictly educational.
Hey friends! I want you to hear what a professional in the financial services person thinks about our programs!
“I just wanted to shoot you off a quick note to say thank you for your guidance. Your coaching has opened my eyes to a world of opportunities. It’s amazing that after being a CPA for over 25 years, I was not aware of so many the tax saving strategies. Your coaching has helped personally as well as with my business. I couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks again.”
– Lynne H, CPA
, well, then somebody else does.