Strange question but think about it. Business tax deductions, asset protection, and high net worth tax planning strategies are easy to deal with compared to…. YOUR BELIEFS!

What are beliefs? A state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing. The very fiber of our beliefs drive our results through the words we speak, the words we hear, the actions we take, the habits we create, and the rules that are inflicted upon us.

At times the belief systems we create will generate success, at other times they will produce failure. It is like a mathematical equation, there is a formula and each time it will result in the same answers.

Consider the story of a king crab fisherman in Alaska. The new crew member saw the stillness of the ocean, and the sudden ferocity that created great instability. Concerned about the catch, he asked the Captain why they did not place a lid on the barrels containing the crab.

The captain responded to crewman by saying: it’s simple, when one crab attempts to crawl out of the barrel and back into the sea the other crabs pull it back down. There is no escape.

Beliefs can impact us the exact same way. As a child you may have been taught that “money doesn’t grow on trees” or “we can’t afford that” or “keep dreaming, but it’s never going to happen.” These beliefs can propel and underpin all of our thinking and the barriers we place every day on our success.

FROM A FAMILY LEGACY OF ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR PLAN

1. The Four I’s™  Inflation, Interest, Income Taxes, Insurance
2. Active business entity vs. passive business entity
3. Beating the 4 I’s
4. Recapturing the 65% of your income that’s currently going out in taxes and interest paid to financial institutes
5. Setting your salary – what’s the big deal with this?
6. Up streaming income
7. What happens when your P&L says you have the cash but your bank account says otherwise
8. Multiple corporation strategies
9. Growing  100% of your money in tax advantaged environments
10. Getting the right professionals to support your financial goals and objectives

Coming soon… The answers to each of the top 10!

To your wealth & success now,

Gabby Huguenin

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!

Small Business Tax-Reduction

Strategies With Solo K

Small business success is crucial for our economic recovery. Fortunately, there are some retirement/investment tools you can still use that will benefit your business and your personal financial situation.

There are lots of retirement plans available but let’s take a quick glance at the Solo K for small business. Of course, here’s my friendly reminder, this isn’t tax, legal, or investment advice and your situation is always unique.  Use this info as educational and call me if you want to discuss your specific considerations.

Six Small Business Tax Benefits of Using the Solo K

Here are six reasons small business owners should look into the tax-reducing, retirement friendly benefits of a Solo K:

1. Bigger Contributions Allowed - Solo K plans may allow you to redirect more tax dollars into a retirement account. In fact it may allow larger contributions than an IRA or a Roth IRA. As long as the business owner and spouse qualify with sufficient income from their business, you may be able to contribute $49,000 each in 2011. Even more if you are 50+.

2. Tax-Free Forever – A big difference between Solo K and traditional and/or separate Roth IRAs, Solo K’s may allow qualified taxpayers to add pre-tax and after tax contributions into the same account. You may also be allowed to invest through Roth Solo K’s as well. The Roth Solo K’s may allow you to make contributions after-tax and grow tax-free.

3. No Income Ceiling – The Roth Solo K permits business owners to contribute to their Roth Solo K regardless of their income. There may be some limitations on this so check with your tax advisor. Either way, the benefits of a Roth Solo K may go way beyond the typical Roth IRA.

4. Invest in S Corporations and More – There are some restrictions in other self-directed IRAs against investing in S Corps. But, there is a friendly loophole in the tax law that allows you to use your Solo K funds to invest in other types of legal entities such as Partnerships, LLCs, C and S Corporations. Now THAT opens up some interesting opportunities!

5. Unrelated Debt Financed Income Tax (UDFI) – This one is a little more complex but if you are investing in real estate you likely know about UDFI. The Solo K gives you some interesting options for investing in assets with related debt financing. The Solo K gives small business owners/investors a few more options. See your tax expert on this one but at least be aware of the leverage power you might gain with a Solo K.

6. Lovely Liquidity and Penalty Free – 401K accounts offer the ability to borrow funds from your account with certain restrictions. The Solo K also allows you to tap in for just about any reason without tax or penalties. This liquidity is a great tool for business, investing and emergency funds.

“So, would you rather pay the IRS or yourself?”

Small business owners need to take every opportunity to reduce their tax liabilities while they invest in themselves for the future. But like everything I ever say, building financial freedom starts with the “P” word. PLANNING!

Let me know if I can be of service!

Have a prosperous day!

Gabby Huguenin

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.

That higher perspective will change everything.

Have a prosperous day!

Gabby Huguenin

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 The Millionaire 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!

Have a prosperous day!

Gabby

Your children will learn a lot about money when they finish college and get into the real work world. But I believe that as a parent, your job is to start when they are young, teaching them about money, business and the principles of wealth.

The earlier you start the better. That leads me to a major point I want to make about the “P” word. PLANNING!

It’s not enough to get your kids through school with straight A’s. That’s nice but although their grades are important, most schools are not teaching anything about financial or business planning. We are continually amazed in our wealth coaching programs how little information adults have, let alone their offspring, about the importance and power of PLANNING.

In fact, for the rest of this post, I’m going to put the word PLANNNING in all caps in hopes that you’ll notice how passionate I am about this!

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a wealthy doctor, dentist, or lawyer…”

It doesn’t matter if you’re a wealthy doctor, dentist, or lawyer, your income has little to do with your long-term wealth. Unfortunately, I’ve run into a lot of broke doctors, dentists and lawyers who had plenty of income but way too much outgo. Their lack of PLANNING created an endless cycle of working harder and creating more stress versus working smarter and finding more peace.

Your wealth is a result of your PLANNING not your income. Here are a few things to teach your children about PLANNING (some of this might work for parents as well).

1.       LIVE like this is your last day on earth but PLAN like you’re going to live forever. In other words, enjoy this moment, let go of worry and be present to the joys of life all around you. And of course, that’s much easier to do when you’re PLANNING process gets those little worries out of your head and onto paper.

It’s easier to relax about money when you’ve automated your savings, you pay yourself first, your investing takes place automatically, the important things are insured and you have a clear understanding of where your money is going. This is part of the “First things first” philosophy that allows us to enjoy the day because our minds aren’t cluttered with unfinished business.

2.       Teach the positive and negative power of interest. We love earning interest and we hate paying it. Watch your child’s horror when you teach her that that brand new $30,000 car will really cost her $40,000 if she finances it. Watch her amazement when you show her the power of compounding interest. Show her how quickly she will double her money by teaching her the simple formula of the rule of 72. Divide 72 by the interest rate being earned on the investment to determine the number of years the investment will need to grow in order to double in value.

For example, if she’s making eight percent on her mutual fund you set up for her, then the $2000 she makes over the summer working at McDonald’s turns into $4000 in nine years. Now that might seem like an eternity to a teenager but putting this on paper in front of your children now is a powerful motivator for teaching them the power of PLANNING!

3.       Model the concept of Delayed Gratification. Teaching your children how a “cooling off period” before making a major purchase is in itself, a money maker! Teaching your child how to be aware of their purchasing process will save them from a lot of financial stress in the future.

Teach them to practice wealth building skills such as  – Research, Negotiation, and Saying No. Teach your children that the marketing campaigns bombarding them every minute of every day are based on hard core research. Big business has studied all the ways to play on the emotions of fear, greed and vanity to get us to buy things we don’t really need.

4.       Start PLANNING today! Keep it simple. Sit with your kids and write down three things they want to have, do or know in the coming year. That’s a plan! Now, tie in the financial components and you’ve got a good start on some highly beneficial long-term PLANNING!

I’m not saying that any of this is easy to teach or to practice but at the same time, they’re not really that hard! It doesn’t really matter if you have kids or not, these principles are powerful PLANNING principles that any of us can start using today!

And by the way, when you’re ready to start developing a solid long-term wealth plan for YOUR life, give me a call.

Have a prosperous day!

Gabby Huguenin

even though I spend endless hours talking about reducing tax liability, creating asset protection strategies, and finding ways to reduce taxes from double digits down to single digits, none of that really matters unless my client has clear goals. The one thing that separates successful people from everyone else is that the wealthy ones are clear about what they want. So, here’s a little tool you can use to begin your legacy wealth building journey.

S.M.A.R.T Goals.

Setting goals is a powerful way to bring your dreams into the real world. Without a vision of where you want to be, how will you know when you get there? In my new Legacy Wealth Building workbook, I give you 60-plus pages of ways to visualize your dream and get there. One of the most important aspects of achieving your dreams is committing them to paper (sign up for the book now, it’s FREE).

But sometimes sitting down and writing out a goal can be difficult. To make it a little easier and more likely to come true, use this simple formula that’s been around for a long time. It’s called a S.M.A.R.T. Goal.

It’s a simple acronym that helps you remember all of the elements needed to create realistic and meaningful goals. Print this little graphic out and sit down with your family and/or business partners and discuss your goals within the context of a proven formula. It’s not any more complicated than that!

Have a prosperous day!

Gabby

But does that mean I have to be greedy to get there? Is there an inherent conflict of interest between wanting higher levels of success and being satisfied with what I already have?

According to the famous author Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, in his book the Power of Intention, you CAN have success and still be respectful to the well being of others and the planet. Sure, we want to find all the tax deductions we can. Of course, we want to use aggressive business tactics and formulate asset protection strategies that keep the bad guys at bay. And yes, we want to keep our tax rates low. But Dr. Dyer says and I quote, “Let go of your need to have more.”

Here’s a wealth building tip that I think Dr. Dyer would approve of. Go ahead and create great wealth for you and your family and then use it to do good. Create that wealth in respectful and kind ways and be willing to share what you’ve created and what you’ve learned. Create a legacy of wealth for others to learn and prosper from.

When you come from a place of peace and calm as you pursue your dreams you don’t NEED anything. And, in a strange way, that makes it so much easier for prosperity to find you.

Dr. Dyer says, “When you stop needing more of everything, more of what you desire seems to arrive in your life.” Wealth building is not about getting more, it’s about appreciating and caring for what you may already have.

By the way, I know you don’t really NEED to pay more than your fair share of taxes either! Let me know if I can be of assistance!

Have a prosperous day!

Gabby

How is it Possible and How Will it Help me?

To some of us, the word creative smacks of illegal or certainly circumventing what is the right thing to do. There is another way to approach both this world and the world of taxes.

It is by focusing on using every single tax deduction permitted by the IRS in as defined and all encompassing way as possible. It is about a true connoisseur of  tax coding and regulations being let loose within your company structure to explore every last nook-and-cranny for you.

Then showing you exactly what you have been missing, and just how much money will be pouring back into your pocket and bank account.

“Tax codes and rules are meant for everyone, not just the rich and powerful.”

Creative Tax Planning is therefore a skill set that is definitely real and definitely works. Luckily for us, there are quite a few of these stellar folk out there who specialize in tax planning techniques for all walks of life, and focus on saving all of us as much money as they can.

Making your money work for you is another side-benefit, and a big one, when utilizing this way of thinking. It means that you get to use your money first, pay your bills first, invest first, replace equipment, offices, whatever you need for your company and pay your taxes last. Quite a concept.

This is how multi-millionaires such as Bill Gates continue to remain in the single digit tax paying brackets. It is not that they are doing anything they should not. Nor is that they are employing people 24/7 trying to find as many tax loopholes as possible. Rather it is that they do work with amazing wealth teams that are focused on utilizing every single deduction that the IRS allows for each and every situation.

There is no reason why you cannot benefit in the same way. Those tax codes and rules are meant for everyone, not just the rich and powerful. There is also no reason why you can not utilize the same forward thinking and create your own reduced tax liability and tax planning techniques.

All you have to do is find your own tax planning specialist. You may want them to be part of your own wealth building team. Perhaps have a coach or mentor, heading up your team and working on your behalf using well thought out strategies to build and protect your wealth. For you and generations to come.

Need help?

Call me at 208-263-7202.
Gabby

But when you need a good one, it’s probably not you! To protect your assets and secure your business you must build a wealth team around you.

Being successful in business requires the ability to create leverage. And that means finding coaches, mentors and advisors who know more than you do.

The people that know how to capitalize on the skills of others are the ones happily reaping the benefits of the financial advice received, or creative tax planning now implemented, or are sleeping well at night.

They are the ones that know that their assets have been protected for their lifetime (and beyond). They are the ones who have sought out the best coaches, who are masters at creating wealth and who know that there is more than one recipe available to create a perfect dish.

“The more you learn the more you earn.”

Wealth building specialists are not hard to find, just hard to duplicate! They, like doctors or lawyers, have dedicated their lives to learning everything there is to know about making your money work for you. They keep up-to-date with all the latest tax code changes, create dedicated wealth building courses, and operate solely on wealth building principles that are proven to work. It is like they possess wealth building DNA!

Why would you jeopardize your future by not creating the right knowledge base for your own situation?  There are some basic rules that apply to us all. Maintaining accurate “books,” filing your taxes, etc. These are “no-brainers.”  However, it takes more than the basics to create and maintain a healthy and thriving business presence.

Looking for that coach or mentor or advisor that will provide you with everything you need to succeed is as necessary as an oven is to a chef. You simply can’t do without it and experience any level of success!

At Legacy Wealth Building, LLC we work to create leverage teams. Teams that bring more expertise and a professional perspective to any long-term wealth building strategy.

There are two big threats to your financial future.

1. The economy

2. Taxes

While all of us are concerned about the economy, there’s not much one individual can do about it. So stop worrying about number one and focus on the second one, taxes. Taxes are the single biggest threat to your financial future that you can actually do something about.

We don’t give legal or financial advice on this blog because we are all about education. The more you learn the more you earn. And the more you earn, the more you need to know how taxes are cutting into your legacy.

If you want to reduce your taxes in 2011 please give me a call!

Have a prosperous day!

Gabby

208-263-7202