028 | Inside the Entrepreneur’s Private Office: The Blueprint for Tax Savings and Wealth Building

[00:00:00] Welcome back to the vital strategies podcast. I’m your host, Patrick Lonergan. And in today’s episode, we’re diving into the world of finance with one of our very own. Ryan Johns is a financial advisor on the vital wealth team. Ryan brings a unique perspective to the table. Having transitioned from a career in law to thriving as a financial advisor, serving entrepreneur clients.

Together, we discuss the entrepreneurial journey. We dig into the ideal setup for what your advisor team should look like and how your advisor team evolves as your wealth and complexity grows. Stay tuned as we discuss the stages of growth, explore the increasing cashflow, and how our innovative cashflow calendar can revolutionize your financial management.

Ryan offers real world [00:01:00] examples. And practical advice on tax strategies and the power of being proactive rather than reactive. Let’s dive in with Ryan Johns. Ryan, thank you for joining us today. I’m excited to get into this conversation about the. What we call the entrepreneur private office, but I’d like to take a second and, uh, just introduce you and then you can, you can tell us a little bit more about your, your background.

So you’re, you’re an advisor on the vital team. So we, uh, love having you on board, love having you work with our clients. Um, can you give us a little bit of your, your background? Yeah, absolutely. Um, I’ve been in the financial services world working with business owners and, uh, high net worth executives for.

About a decade, um, have a financial background, accounting degree and MBA from my alma mater, Florida State. Uh, before entering the financial world, um, I worked as litigation attorney. So that gives me a unique perspective. Um, I like to tell people I’m a recovering [00:02:00] attorney. Uh, I don’t quite do the same thing anymore, but I still have a good understanding of insurance policies and contracts and all of the different corporate, uh, Structure questions that come up.

Yeah. Fantastic. I, uh, and we appreciate that, uh, diversity in your background. Um, you know, in the, the work we do, we, we talk about the four cornerstones of, of wealth building. There’s cashflow, there’s tax savings, there’s investments, and then there’s protection and protection is. You know, that those, those legal structures and then some of your experience in the litigation and insurance side of things, I think comes into play there too.

Yeah, it sure does. I spent, uh, about seven or eight years litigating insurance claims, some injury claims, but, um, a lot of, uh, business disputes as well. So I’ve seen the other side of it. Sure. Yeah. So I’m, I’m excited to get into our, our discussion today. You know, I, I thought it would make sense for us to really talk through.

You know, the entrepreneur entrepreneurial journey and what [00:03:00] an advisor team looks like for an entrepreneur as they sort of move through these different steps. Uh, you know, I think there’s probably three, maybe four different phases, but, um, I think we start off and there’s just the, I’m getting started bootstrapping, uh, trying to get the business off the ground, turning a profit.

Then we, we move into the phase where it’s like, okay, I’m making a little money. This, uh, this isn’t a side hustle anymore. I’m able to put some cash in my pocket and, um, make a living. And then, then we sort of move on to the third phase where it’s like, no, this is a going enterprise. Uh, it’s got real economic value.

Um, we’re concerned about the, the enterprise value of the business and how to increase that. And, um, in each one of those phases, we end up with a whole different set of problems. Uh, and I would say maybe the fourth phase could possibly be like, okay, I’m looking to exit, you know, I I’ve got a mature business and we’re going to move on somewhere else.

That’s probably, you know, a conversation for a different day. I think if we keep our focus and attention on sort of [00:04:00] those first three phases, it can be, uh, yeah, there’s a lot to, There’s a lot to dig into just in those first three phases. And I think what’s interesting is if, if you ask somebody what the ideal advisor team would look like for a successful entrepreneur, they might be thinking, well, What is, what is some well known, very successful business owners do?

What, what’s their setup? Well, their setup that they have presently now that they’re successful looks very different than when they were starting out, setting up out of their garage, even if, if they even had a team. Right, right. Yep. And I think that’s a really important distinction because I, uh, I read some of these business books and it’s like, Oh, Hey, go, go hire the best advisors.

And I think there’s some truth in that, but I think you need the best advisor for where you’re at in your business. Uh, you know, to some level of spending, like we have some clients that, uh, are spending tremendous amounts of money on, on legal fees. And it makes a lot of sense for them because it’s saving them millions of dollars in estate [00:05:00] tax and, uh, you know, protecting this very valuable asset.

But I don’t think that’s something that a new entrepreneur should be spending a lot of money on. There’s, um, there’s probably a more economically efficient way to do that. So before we get too deep into the legal fees and that type of thing, I think it makes sense for us to maybe work through those four cornerstones.

Where do we start with cash flow, tax savings, investment strategy, and then protection piece? So, um. Let’s just start off with cashflow. Uh, when, when I think about setting up our, our cashflow structures, who do you think is a good advisor to have on your team, uh, when you’re just getting started? Yeah. I mean, I, I think you’ve got to have good bookkeeping, right?

You have to have somebody that can produce accurate documentation of what’s happening within the business. So you’ve got good data, you can make good decisions based on that. Yep. And one thing that we found is a very [00:06:00] effective tool and almost all of our clients use it as QuickBooks online. Uh, the cool thing about it is, uh, interfaces with all of the bank accounts and that type of thing.

Uh, you can give access, like all of our clients give us access to their QuickBooks just so we can see real time. What’s what’s happening, uh, in their business. It’s almost like having. I don’t know, live feed into their blood work. If we’re thinking of it from a healthcare perspective, it’s like, we know moment by moment, you know, if, if anything gets a little bit sideways that, uh, uh, we need to start paying attention to those things early versus, uh, waiting until there’s, uh, a big problem.

So yes, I think, you know, QuickBooks online is a, is a great resource. Having a bookkeeper. I think. And from my perspective, finding a part time, you know, just paying somebody a few hours to like keep your books up to date is, uh, really a, a critical should almost be the first hire. Uh, I dunno, we, we see clients that, uh, I’d rather a [00:07:00] client spend their time looking at the reports versus creating the.

Reconciliations and all those other things, uh, just there’s enough things to do in the business that, um, spending your time on bookkeeping isn’t, uh, isn’t one. So that’s good. Okay. So we start off, we, we hire a bookkeeper, get QuickBooks online. I think that’s a foundational place to get, get rolling with, uh, uh, when you’re first starting your business.

How about tax savings? When we think about the, uh, You know, the, the tax piece, where do we, where do, where do you think advisors, not advisors? Where do you think clients should go from there? Entrepreneurs that are getting

started? Yeah. I mean, I think there’s some, there’s some basic strategies that they can take advantage of.

In fact, I know that we’ve got. Um, a free resource that people can access and take a look at to hear some of this stuff. Yeah. Um, that’s it. Five minute tax makeover. com. Like we think every entrepreneur should use these. We use them with our clients making, uh, 5 million a year. Uh, the level one strategies, uh, we help them execute on all those, but we’ve, we’ve made all [00:08:00] those resources available.

You can save clients, I don’t know, 10, 15, 000 in income tax, just doing good administration and bookkeeping type thing. So, uh, you can find those things at five minute tax makeover. Right. And, um, that’s a great resource. And to your point, the building block that comes before that is the good bookkeeping to get the good data.

Right. Um, and then after that, you know, I think we, most business owners know that at some point they’d like to have some retirement savings and there’s some tax efficiencies and having a retirement plan, even if it’s a solo. Okay. Just a really easy to administer retirement plan where you can get some tax deferred growth.

Yep. And so you bring up an interesting point. I’m a, I’m an advisor. You know, I, I look around, uh, I see financial advisors have these like minimum. Assets under management thresholds before they’ll take on, you know, certain clients. What is the best place for somebody to get started with a solo K or brokerage account or, or something along those lines?

Yeah, I think, [00:09:00] I think initially you don’t need to overcomplicate things. Um, the biggest, the most powerful element of that is the discipline to get dollars set aside. And so how do you do that in an easy way? It can be as simple as partnering with an institution like Vanguard, where you’ve got a target date fund.

You know, that adjusts on its own as you get older. And you’re just getting those dollars in there. You don’t have a real complicated allocation within there that you have to feel like requires a lot of attention from an advisor. And because of that, it’s low cost. Yeah. No, that’s, that’s fantastic. And I think that that also ties back to a cashflow piece that we, we like to look at as sort of the second level, maybe the third level of cashflow is like, let’s create some automation.

So it is so powerful to have dollars every single month, even if it’s a small amount, uh, going into those. Uh, either brokerage or solo K 401k or step IRA or simple, whatever plan you think makes the most sense, uh, getting [00:10:00] dollars just automatically going in there, uh, cause the thing that we find is when, when we start prioritizing our expenses and we, we wait to save until we see what we have left over, there’s just nothing left over, you know, so it’s like, if we put that at the top of the list, um, it, it, it happens, so it’s the idea of, uh, It’s the idea of pay yourself first, right?

Prioritize that, right? Yep. Absolutely. Um, so let me ask you, if, if you’ve got somebody who’s saying, Okay, I’m tracking with you. I’ve got decent bookkeeping. I feel like I can get some money into a solo K, maybe. But what if I need capital? Yeah. Like, what if I, what if I need funds to invest in the business or do something else with it now it’s in the, the 401k?

What do we need to be thinking about? Yeah, that’s good. I think there’s probably a level of, I would probably start with some automation to a money market account that is not tied to my bank account that I can’t go just like suck it out and grab it. Uh, so we, we think, you know, that discipline savings, uh, we [00:11:00] said minimum and maximum thresholds for liquidity.

And it’s. It’s the number one reason that businesses go out of business is lack of liquidity, lack of cash on hand. It’s the least sexy thing we do, but maybe the most important for our clients is we protect that liquidity at all costs. And so, uh, I think the first step would be set up some automation, but have those dollars directly going into a money market account.

Again, you can do that at Vanguard. Um, have it. Uh, tied to a brokerage account and just have it going into, to money market. Uh, it could be a Schwab too. You know, we’ve, um, we use Schwab as a custodian and you can set up a, your own, uh, portal there and just have those dollars go to Schwab right now. We know the Schwab, uh, as of this recording is paying north of 5 percent on the money market.

So, um, that’s, that’s a great place to just park money and start building your, your liquidity. And then once you hit that minimum threshold, and I think a thought that we have there is If you’re just getting started about six months worth of living expenses is a really good minimum threshold. [00:12:00] Uh, we like as again, the business grows and, um, we like to see one year’s worth of living expenses is just like our rule of thumb.

Now that number can go up if you’ve got lots of payroll and that type of thing. But if we’re just talking standard advice, we think starting off with six months worth of living expenses, just stuck in that, that money market, growing that to

a year. Then we start funding things like retirement accounts and whatnot afterwards.

But those gives you the, that, that pool of money. If I need to make an investment in the business, whether it’s a capital investment or human capital, you know, I need to hire somebody. Um, uh, unfortunately when you hire people, they’re not always. Generating profit for the business in the first day. So, uh, it takes a little time to, to make sure that you’ve got dollars set aside for, uh, that, that payroll piece.

So, yeah, I think those, the automation is good. And then once we hit those threshold thresholds, we flipped over the, uh, uh, from the money market to the. retirement accounts. So [00:13:00] yeah, yeah. And so that kind of dovetails from tax into investment. We’ve got a tax efficient, excuse me, tax efficient investment, investment that we’re working on.

Um, outside of the 401k, um, at what point is a business owner, is there a particular revenue goal? where a business owner should feel comfortable reinvesting in the business? Personally, for most of our clients, the business is the thing that drives their both their cash flow and their net worth. Okay. Um, so it’s hard to tell clients not to reinvest in their business.

I do think there is a threshold where Not necessarily a threshold. I think it can make a lot of sense to start investing outside of the business. You know, if we fill up that retirement account, um, we can’t put any more dollars in there now we start putting dollars into a brokerage account. Uh, and that can give us some flexibility to down the road to.

You know, pull those dollars out for capital investments. It can allow us [00:14:00] to reallocate those dollars to tax strategy. But, uh, I really do think if I’m thinking through, uh, the different levels of investment, I want to start building a brokerage account equal to one year’s worth of income. That, that should be a threshold that we’re shooting for.

Uh, and this is separate. This is separate from what we were talking about a moment ago in terms of having. Liquid cash on the sideline. Right. Absolutely. And, and the reason being is, uh, the liquid cash is there to handle, you know, fluctuations in the business. The, uh, the additional liquidity, the reason we like it is it’s, it’s an additional buffer if we need cash.

Okay. Things really go sideways. Uh, we’ve, we’ve seen that through, uh, COVID we’ve seen it actually through Too rapid of expansion, right? Uh, the problem with entrepreneurs is they have more ideas than they have time and

money to, to execute on all those things. And so they, they will like maybe [00:15:00] overestimate the profitability of the business.

Um, and so they, they make some. Either key hires or make some acquisitions. And then all of a sudden things didn’t go as smoothly as they like. They start working through all that liquidity and we need another source. And so that brokerage account can be a really nice, nice backup. And then we also look at if, if things go sideways in the economy, okay.

Your liquidity will help protect you through. The ups and downs of, you know, the, the economic challenges, but there might be some opportunities with your competitors that didn’t have proper liquidity. And now you can come in pennies on the dollar, buy up some of those assets. And that might be bringing some of those dollars out of the brokerage account and just going, all right, Hey, I know I can turn this into 30, 40, 50 percent return on my money because I can buy this and plug it into my business and go, uh, immediately.

So we think those, those liquid sources are. Just critical for, for business owners [00:16:00] to have access to. I think we touched on it before. I don’t know if, um, if we kind of got here conceptually, but all of the things that we’re talking about doing, at least at this stage, you know, you’ve got good bookkeeping and maybe you hire somebody for a couple hours a month.

Um, you want to have automate cashflow. Okay. Well, that’s still the business owner and saying, I’m going to be disciplined and automate cashflow. We talk about investment and say, well, let’s just get a basic solo. Okay. So these are all things that. We’re asking a business owner to do on their own. And we’ve talked about the idea of a private office, an entrepreneur’s private office.

And that’s the idea that somebody’s, somebody’s working on all of these things for you, but where we are so far in the conversation is The business owner is doing all of these things. So when do we get to the point where it’s time to start engaging with like the real deal? You need to get the attorney involved.

You need to get the investment advisor involved. That’s a great question. And we think early on, like there’s just not the free cashflow to go [00:17:00] hire, uh, expensive advisors. And there’s also the reality that your complexity isn’t to the point where you need, you need to go Uh, find somebody that can from a macro point of view, look at, look at everything.

So we think clients often cross over that threshold of, Hey, I need somebody that can strategically come look at these things. I need to switch over from that, uh, how to somebody who that can, that can show up in my life and, and

execute on these things. Cause the complexity has gotten beyond what. I can handle with a quick Google search because there’s so much going on between all these different areas that it’s, it’s, uh, it’s a challenge.

So I think there’s probably a threshold around. 150, 000, maybe of net income to the business owner. Okay. We’re, we’re entering into sort of a new level of tax, uh, concerns there that, that need to be addressed. I’ve got some, uh, hopefully some free cashflow. [00:18:00] I may have to make some changes in my legal structures that affect my tax situation, um, and then the investment strategy, you know, we start saving real dollars, the target date fund was a great place to start.

But sure. It’s not the best long term portfolio. Uh, there’s, there’s some, some fine tuning that can be done there that, that can make a real difference in, in somebody’s, um, you know, upside and, and managing the risk that, uh, didn’t make a huge difference when we had a few thousand dollars in there. But when we’ve got a few hundred thousand, uh, or a million dollars now, now there’s some, there’s some additional guidance that would be, would be worthwhile.

So now, now we’re starting to look at, okay. Let’s, let’s bring in, um, and, and one thing I think we, we could go back and touch on is just the CPA that we’re working with, like generally whoever was, you know, we think a CPA, once you have a business makes a lot of sense before that, you can probably file on TurboTax.

You can [00:19:00] use H and R block all, you know, no, no problem with those, uh, as solutions, but, uh, as our complexity levels up, we need to go find somebody that is. Used to dealing with, uh, business owners in that arena. Um, now I also wanna make sure that, uh, clients understand the role of the CPA. Their job is to get the right numbers in the right boxes, okay?

Like, that’s how their business model is designed. They may come to you after the fact and go, Hey, I put these right numbers in these right boxes. Next year you should consider this thing. Okay? And that is very much a backwards looking strategy. Like, okay, here’s what you did last year. If you keep doing that this year.

You know, here’s the things that need to, you could, you could implement, uh, and that’s, that’s sort of the best case scenario with CPAs, their business models, not designed to meet with you in June and July and go, Hey, we’ve got six months under our belt. Let’s take a look at where your business is going.

Let’s take a look at your goals. Let’s go find a third party that can help you execute [00:20:00] on a tax strategy. And Oh, by the way, let us help you

manage the cashflow to, uh, be able to get to that point. Like that’s just not inside of their, uh, their world that they live in. So, yeah. So I, I think there’s a level of like, you know, finding somebody to outsource the entrepreneur private office to that can look at all of these different pieces, the tax, legal investments, insurance, and make sure that all of the, the strategies or the tactics are working together in a strategy.

So, right. Because you can, we’re, we’re talking about as, as you’re growing and scaling your business, you have less and less time to do all of these, uh, Very important things are cash flow, tax investment protection. You were doing them before, but you’re just running out of time. Um, and so you can go and you can find those advisors that are very competent.

But who’s driving the bus, right? Who’s taking the holistic approach to say, let’s make sure everybody’s talking and they’re not kind of driving in their own lane. Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s, that’s really good. So if we, [00:21:00] one thing that we’ve touched on, but not spent much time talking about yet is protection. Um, so let’s say I’m a new entrepreneur.

Uh, I’ve started my business, who, who should I have on my team as far as an advisor, uh, goes in those areas of protection that, that would make sense. Yeah. And, and, you know, I think we talked a little bit to your point about, um, legal, right? Um, you want to make sure that you have proper estate planning documents put together.

And we’ve, we’ve talked to clients who have started out with legal zoom, um, and they’ve got a will and they’ve got, um, Um, a health care surrogate or medical power of attorney and a general power of attorney. Maybe they’ve got a trust put together, um, and they’ve got the basics in place and maybe that’s fine initially, um, but as things become more complex, you need to have somebody take a look at corporate structure and how, how you’re holding, whether it’s investment, real estate or your business, how are you holding that asset and what happens if something happens to you in your state?

And what are the [00:22:00] liability concerns where you’re, you know, if you’re incorporated in one state versus another, do you have stronger protections in one versus the other? Um, so as your picture becomes more complex, you need to have an attorney, not just an estate attorney, but you’re going to have to have a corporate business transaction attorney.

And then from an insurance standpoint, um, when we first start out, you know, you’ve got. Auto, maybe you’ve got a fleet of vehicles and you can work with somebody who can help you with the the fleet, make sure you got proper coverage in place, but it’s more than just auto homeowners umbrella policy. You

need to start looking at some businesses, errors and omissions, business coverage.

And oftentimes we find that when you’re first starting out and you’re meeting with your insurance agent, they can cover a few of those things. Um, but it’s a good idea to shop around and make sure you have somebody that can handle the specifics in your industry, with your coverage type, etc. Yeah, no, that’s, that’s a really good point.

And, and I think back to your, your comment about, you know, we’ve had some [00:23:00] clients come to us that, uh, got started on legal zoom. Like, I think it’s okay. It’s better than if I had to set up an LLC or a will or what have you, that’s better than nothing. But we’ve also seen an example of. Uh, a client that was saving a few bucks on legal costs, and then he got into a transaction and our client was on one side of the transaction.

This was not our client on the other side of a transaction and for about 400 bucks, he probably could have had an attorney take a close look at all of his stuff. Make sure that, you know, the operating agreement was buttoned up, make sure that the operator, the company that was being merged into this other company was actually owned by.

Himself. And we found out after the fact that the company was not owned the way he said it was, uh, him and his attorney signed a document because our, the legal counsel that we brought to the transaction on our side said, Hey, this is going to be a problem if it’s not done right. [00:24:00] And it ended up being the problem.

If we didn’t get it resolved was a 2 million tax problem. So instead of spending 400 bucks on the front end, we were looking at a 2 million tax problem on the back end. And it’s like. That’s right. Okay. So an ounce of prevention in that case is worth a ton of cure on the back end. And so, um, We just want to make sure that, uh, you know, we’re again, no problem with legal Zoom.

I’m sure it’s better. It’s absolutely better than nothing, but spending a little bit of money, a few hundred bucks on the front end, getting operating agreement, LLC, some of those like base level things done well, um, is again, worth, worth all of the investment. So we don’t end up with, uh, um, massive problems down the road.

I may be a bit biased. I’m going to add a little bit to that. I might be a bit biased when it comes to having kind of form documents put together on your behalf. And the reason is because the attorneys are schooled in the proper questions toask to understand your situation to a greater [00:25:00] degree. And that’s true on the basic estate planning side to say, Oh, well, you, you know, you selected the following documents put together, but have you considered this?

Um, and the example that you just gave. Is the same situation where an attorney who was asking the proper question could have saved a lot of time and money, but on an even greater scale. Yeah, absolutely. Good. Better than nothing. I agree with that. Yeah. So let’s just sort of recap the, the entrepreneur that’s just getting started with their advisor team looks like.

So on the cashflow side, we’re, we’re getting a cookbooks online account set up. And we’ll have a link to that in the show notes. Uh, it starts off pretty simple. We find a bookkeeper that can just make sure all the transactions come in. They’re categorized correctly. Uh, accounts are reconciled, like get those pieces buttoned up on the tax side.

I think having, you know, whoever’s doing your taxes currently, as long as it’s CPA, it’s probably okay to keep them, you know, on the team and keep things moving. On the investment side of things, again, [00:26:00] Vanguard Schwab, just doing it yourself. Uh, it’s okay to get those things set up, but I think it makes a lot of sense to automate it just every single month, having it pulling dollars out of your, uh, account, paying yourself first, like you mentioned is, is key.

And then when we look at the protection side on the legal, getting some basic documents put together, some estate planning documents, will trust, uh, power of attorneys, living will like, uh, there’s sort of a. Templated package that most attorneys have that make sure all of those, sure, those pieces are taken care of.

And then on the business side of things, just having an LLC set up that, uh, has the proper, uh, operating agreement. That’s going to handle, you know, where you’re at in your, your business life cycle. And then the last piece. Finding a business insurance broker that can just take a look at everything you’ve got going on, because we don’t read some sort of, you know, we think about the point of insurance, uh, it’s there to cover catastrophic situations.

Right. That’s going to put me out of business. So they’re just looking at [00:27:00] everything you’ve got going on and making sure that they’re, they’re managing the risk. Uh, yeah. And you’ve got appropriate coverage and you’re, you know, it goes back to the beginning. You have appropriate coverage. You don’t want to over insure and have a cashflow problem.

But the proper coverage will protect your cash flow and keep you liquid. And I think one last piece, we haven’t really touched on this, but like, just some basic term insurance for life insurance, uh, is, is good. You know, there’s, there’s lots of discussion out there about this whole bank on whole life concept without, oh, we, we should do a whole episode on, on like a whole life policy.

I think sometimes it’s oversold as this. It’s like financial magic at the end of the day, it’s, it’s like a bank account with a death benefit tied to it. So, uh, with not a lot of flexibility baked into it. So personally, I’d rather have a bank account and some term insurance, uh, as we get started. Now we have clients that are funding.

A million and a half dollars a year into a permanent insurance policy. So I’m not, I’m not opposed to it by any stretch, but I think we just need to make sure we’re right. Understanding the right tool for the right, right time. So now the entrepreneurs on the journey, it’s [00:28:00] working, they’re making some money.

They’re, uh, let’s say they’re, they’re moving past 150, 000 a year. They’re into a quarter million, half million dollars. Let’s, let’s start thinking about what the team needs to look like as, as they grow into that. That range. So if we start with cashflow, what do we need to start paying attention to, uh, on the cashflow side of things, both from how we do things to, uh, maybe the people that are on that, that team.

I think liquidity is still an issue, but the potential for larger, potentially surprising obligations becomes greater. And so not just bookkeeping, but projecting your cashflow and projecting your liquidity balance. Over the next 12 months, let’s say becomes something that can help you sleep at night and also a helpful planning tool.

I couldn’t agree more about what we call the cashflow calendar. Uh, we like to build out the cashflow map and the cashflow calendar. The map shows us where all the [00:29:00] dollars are coming from. And as our enterprise grows. We might have dollars coming out of the business. We might have some investments that are kicking off cashflow.

We might have real estate that’s paying us, maybe a spouse that, that has W2 income and the map can help us sort of understand where all those dollars are coming from. It can also give us some insight into the tax treatment of those dollars, which is, is important. Can you kind of give us a picture, just kind of describe that cashflow map and why it’s so, because clients love it, right?

It’s a snapshot, but help us understand what that looks like. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, we’ll put together a sample of this and make it available in the show notes, uh, for people to download. But really on the left side, we have We have all of these green boxes that are our income sources. It could be just the business.

Okay. That could be the one, one green box, or we we’ve had clients that, um, Have had dozens of boxes over there because they, they have lots of different things going on. Uh, now a little aside focus, right? [00:30:00] Focus matters. And let’s, we should focus our attention on one thing versus try to have 12 things going, but, uh, sometimes naturally the business, uh, spawns these different cashflow sources.

So that’s sort of on the left side of this sheet. As we move to the middle, we have. We call this sort of central hub is the cash management account. Uh, when we think about a lot of the work we do for our clients, it’s, it’s actually pulling the levers for them, uh, with their approval, obviously, but moving the dollars from place to place to execute on tax strategy, investment, liquidity, all of those, those different pieces, and then after the cash management account, We start moving a little farther to the right and we, we really have sort of three different categories that, uh, dollars fall in there’s living expenses.

And we’ve talked about this a little bit. Our entrepreneur clients that make a million dollars a year, typically spend about 30 grand a month on living expenses. Then the next bucket is the tax bucket. Okay. And we, we show how many dollars are going to the, uh, the tax piece. Usually [00:31:00] again, client making about a million dollars.

That’s about 30 grand a month. And then there’s the. Free cashflow, uh, which is, uh, the third bucket there that is just allocated towards investments. Okay. And now that investment could be retained earnings that we’re going to use in the business, or it could be going out of the business to Real estate projects, brokerage account, tax strategy, uh, could be going lots of different places.

So then that’s the farthest, right? Where, where are all those investment dollars going? Uh, they’re, they’re ending up in, in those different buckets. And it’s, it’s kind of a nice visual to go. Oh, geez. I’m putting a lot of money in this thing and not so much in this thing. And foundationally, there’s some, some truth to how we should do that.

So let’s maybe move some of those, uh, dollar figures around. And then an interesting exercise that we go through with our clients is we, we create a second cashflow sheet, uh, cashflow map, excuse me, that it starts to illustrate the tax savings. Okay. So we. We go, here’s how we’re going to attack the tax.

Right. [00:32:00] And, uh, you know, we, we go back and we do some of the research on the, the amount of tax we’ve saved our clients. And, you know, it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars for our, um, you know, high end consulting clients. And so it’s like, okay, that moves into a fourth bucket that is just new discretionary that we get to decide where those dollars are going to go.

And it might be a home remodel. It might be tax strategy. It might be business investment. We’re. Uh, we really have lots of flexibility on, on where that goes. So the cashflow map is a, is an awfully interesting tool just to give us a visual for. Where all the money is actually flowing. And that’s what I really like about the cashflow.

There’s, there’s a, the cashflow map, there’s a lot of information that goes into building it, but it creates a single picture, a snapshot to say, here’s what’s happening. Here’s the money flow. Right. Yep. Yep. And one thing we found is. Uh, attorneys love that document when they’re starting to work on the estate planning pieces and asset protection pieces.

They’re like, Oh, [00:33:00] okay, cool. I can see in one visual, like where all these dollars are going and, and then they can start to re maybe reorganize things and go, Hey, you know, this. This needs to be a holding company. And, uh, you know, these, these entities can move underneath there. So, yeah, it’s, uh, uh, it’s a valuable tool across the board for our clients and their advisors.

So I’d like to talk through the cashflow calendar a little bit as well. Would that be all right? Yeah, that’s great. And I think this again is maybe the, the most valuable tool we use with our clients and we use it almost every single month when we meet. So I’m going to, go back to the fact that, uh, all of our clients connect us to their accounting software.

Most of the time that’s, that’s QuickBooks. And so, uh, we can go into QuickBooks. We also have links to all their bank accounts, uh, that we can see real time balances. And so we can update the. The current liquidity levels, uh, in the cashflow calendar, and we’re working on a tool here that we can make available to people.

This is a more complex [00:34:00] tool that, uh, It’s hard to just give to somebody and have them understand, uh, what it is and how it all works, but yeah, there’s a lot of, a lot of pieces getting built in behind the scenes there. Yeah. I would, I would love to figure out how to like create a sheet that just sucks in all this data from all these other places.
But, uh, uh, right now we have data aggregated in places and we bring it in, but, uh, it’d be nice to be able to have it, uh, automated, but so, uh, to start off at the top of the sheet, uh, we’ve got just, where’s our income? Uh, where are we going to be from an income perspective and all this data is coming off of the cashflow map.

So, uh, the, the, the figures just keep flowing through. So, uh, income, what are our lifestyle expenses? You know, what are we spending on lifestyle again, coming from the cashflow map. What is our tax bill, um, shows up. And then the cool thing about the tax bill is it, it sets the. Quarterly payments that are due, uh, puts those in the, the, the appropriate months.

So we know like, Hey, in those months, those dollars need to get out [00:35:00] to, uh, the IRS. And we, we’ve got a strategy for setting those dollars aside. We’re not just spending them on, uh, new opportunities. So, um, and then, then on the sheet, it gives us a month by month free cashflow that we have available. And we also have all of the liquidity sources prioritized.

So it starts off with bank accounts. It’s the most liquid. If we need dollars, that’s where we’re gonna go get it. Uh, second, we beat up on life insurance just a minute ago. But cash value in a life insurance policy is a great liquidity tool. So, uh, that’s, that’s second on the list. Uh, then we start looking at.

Uh, a few different things like security back lines of credit. We’ll just call them lines of credit, both personal and business. And then there’s Roth dollars. Uh, excuse me. We’ve got a brokerage account, uh, in there after the life insurance. And then we’ve got lines of credit. Uh, then we go to Roth IRA.

Cool thing about a Roth IRA is my contribution dollars. I can always get back out now. I love the Roth IRA because it’s tax free growth, but if I really, really need the dollars, I can go get them out [00:36:00] of there. Uh, and then finally we have pre tax investments. This can be the most expensive money that we go get, but we like to have it on the sheet if I really need the dollars.

Uh, I’m going to pay tax and penalty on those when I pull them out. So probably not the best place to get dollars, uh, but it is an option. So, uh, we have all of those listed there. And then on the bottom of the sheet, month by month, it just shows us projected net cashflow and how many dollars are getting added into those, those different buckets.

And in the middle of the sheet, ending cash balance. Right. Yep. Our ending cash, ending cash balance at the end of each month with all with the revenue, the taxes and the expenses that are happening each month. We project what we

think your cash balance will be. And you’re probably thinking this too, but one of the, one of the most, uh, helpful things that we can do with that cashflow calendar is put out, Hey, there’s going to be an upcoming expense.

I know that I’ve got a hundred thousand dollars that’s going to be due [00:37:00] in November. And you’re telling me that you’d like me to put X into. The 401k plan. Well, if I do that, what’s going to happen to my cashflow when that a hundred thousand dollar liability comes up, right. And I’ve seen you build those in on the fly as we’re having conversations with clients.

Yeah, absolutely. Because we love how dynamic that tool is. And one thing that is also on the cashflow calendar, that’s not on the map is the minimum and maximum. Liquidity thresholds. The cool thing about that is when we put the minimum threshold in there, it’s comparing it to the current bank account balance.

And if we get below that threshold, those cells turn red, like, Hey, danger warning. And again, the number one reason is businesses go out of business is they run out of cash. So, um, we see that as a, a very effective tool because it does a couple of things. Uh, it brings peace of mind for us because we’re often looking at.

Tax strategy going, Hey, you need to put 300, 000 or a half million dollars into this strategy. Okay. [00:38:00] And what happens when we do that is the client has the question. Can I afford to do it? So we need to be able to answer that question. And so that’s where the cashflow calendar comes in. We say, okay, with everything from the home remodel to the business investment, to the tax strategy.

You see your liquidity number stays in that safe threshold. Okay. Uh, and they go, okay, cool. Uh, it’s my job to keep the business running like we forecasted. Um, but the neat thing is, is we update that every month with current balances. And so we’re, um, making sure that we shift all those expenses around to make sure they align with the.

The right timing and the client will say, Hey, I know I told you that was 150, 000. Now it’s 250, 000. So we just change it. And then we were like, okay, now when you need to start pulling some of these different levers to make sure that everything’s working, so. Yeah, very valuable tool. And like, we just had a client engage with us this week that, um, uh, was growing nicely, like really growing well, um, [00:39:00] had a million dollars, went and paid cash for a property, and now they’ve got a 600, 000 tax bill.

And they’re like, I don’t know what to do about this. You know, this is, uh, uh, this is a little scary where if we would have had a moment to like, look at the cashflow calendar, we would have said, yes, buy the building, but let’s get some financing lined up so we can get some of those dollars back out and be able to.

You know, pay the tax bill versus creating the stress of like, Oh, you know, I, I don’t have the dollars to, uh, pay the IRS, which, uh, you know, can, can be a not, uh, not so fun situation. So, yeah, those are, those are how we utilize the, the cashflow tools, cashflow calendar, uh, Probably the most dynamic tool, the thing that we’re using live with our clients, almost every meeting to just make sure that we’re on track for, uh, all the planning that we’ve got going on.

Good. Yeah. And we spent a minute there, but I think that was important. So. I really like the, the [00:40:00] cashflow calendar and the cashflow map, as you know. So I’m, I’m not upset that we spent some time on that. Yeah. Good. All right. So how about tax? Uh, now that we’ve got all of the tax strategy sort of built out, um, how about our tax advisor?

You know, cause I think tax strategy, you know, it went on the cashflow calendar. It’s interesting how we often see clients come to us, um, and they’re usually on their second or their third CPA because they’re frustrated, like, where do I find tax strategy? And we already talked about how, uh, CPAs don’t do tax strategy.

They get the right numbers in the right boxes, right? I, I think this is where, again, uh, on the, we think about installing this entrepreneur private office model, you know, and at first the entrepreneur is doing all the work, but now. Now the complexity is getting to the point where my cash flows, I’ve got some decent free cashflow.

I need to figure out where it can go. I need to make sure it aligns with my goals. I can make sure I can, you know, have all the dollars to, [00:41:00] to fund these things. This is where we work hand in hand with, uh, clients, CPAs, uh, oftentimes CPAs feel threatened by us, but we’re like, no, no, no, we are here to make your life easier.

We are here to get the client organized, communicate information, communicate proactively, Hey, here’s the strategy. Here’s the things we’re seeing. What do you see, you know, really gives us a three legged stool. That’s, um, awfully powerful. You know, when it’s just the client and the CPA, CPA is trusting that the client’s data is good.

Client’s trusting that the CPA’s advice is good. And, uh, it can be problematic when we enter the equation. It’s like, okay, now there’s, we can make sure that the client’s communicating all the data to the CPA. We can talk to the CPA, uh, as peers and go, Hey, here’s some strategy we’re thinking about. Okay.

What do you see that we’re not seeing? And then we can both communicate back to the client as to why it works. And, you know, then the CPA looks great. You know, they’ve got, uh, uh, a partner that’s, um, helping them get the [00:42:00] job done efficiently and effectively and the client saving more money. So the client’s like, Hey, this is a win all the way around.

So. That’s how we see the, the relationship sort of evolving with clients as they sort of move past that quarter million dollar threshold. And it’s like, the only time we see a change in CPAs is when we, and the client starts showing up with tax strategy that again, we like to walk. Uh, I have no interest in being in, You know, the danger zone, as far as like how we’re applying the tax code.

There’s just so many opportunities. Like we don’t need to abuse it, but sometimes CPAs, our clients are the wealthiest person that they, they deal with. And so they’re confronted with opportunities. They’ve never seen before, uh, from a tax planning perspective. And I get it on the CPA side of things. Like.

If there’s an audit, uh, they can get fined by the IRS if, you know, there’s, there’s problems there. So like, from their perspective, they’re like, look, I don’t feel like dealing with the [00:43:00] potential risk that’s, that’s out there. So we don’t, we think that risk is minimal. And if you find a CPA that is used to dealing with entrepreneurs, it’s not a problem.

So, uh, the only time we’re really interested in changing CPAs is when the CPA is consistently like, no. And then you show up with the tax code and go. Here’s where it says we can do this. And they’re still like, no, it’s like, well, okay. You know, this might cost us a hundred thousand dollars. Are we willing to stay with this EPA for a hundred grand?

If not, we’ll get you plugged into somebody else that, uh, uh, we’ve worked with, or if you have another option, we’re, We’re, we’re agnostic to the CPA. Uh, we’ve got some great relationships there. We can make introductions, but, um, that’s, that’s generally like the, the direction we need to, uh, to head once, uh, we start running into a CPA.

It’s just not open to new ideas. And, and the, the tax strategies that we may be employing for business owners. Um, these are not novel strategies. As you said, these [00:44:00] are established by the IRS tax code. Um, Um, oftentimes they

just need to be communicated and understood. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Like we have some level one tax strategies, like home office deduction and the Augusta rule.

Like there’s no, there’s nothing gray about those. We’ve had some CPAs say you can’t do both of them. And I’m like, okay, I could buy that. Please show me in the code where it says I can’t do both. Show me where it excludes one. If I do the other, and it doesn’t exist, you know, we can absolutely do both, but there’s some CPAs that are just that for some reason they’re like, Nope, you can’t, you can’t employ both of these strategies.

And it’s like, well, You know, that’s costing us thousands of dollars, um, in, in real tax savings. And, uh, so I think if that, if we’re running into trouble there, what is it going to be like when we get into real tax planning, so, so you talk about the CPA you’re working with and, you know, communicating those strategies.

And earlier we talked about how a lot of times a CPA might make some [00:45:00] observations after the taxes have been filed. So from a timing standpoint. When does it make sense to, to start having these conversations with, with us? Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s a great question. Uh, this is something we were just talking about.

Clients are most interested in talking about tax really two times a year. Uh, right around the April 15th deadline. Cause they usually just wrote a big check and they’re like, Goodness. Right. I don’t, I don’t like that. I don’t want to do that again. And we think that timing is almost perfect because we can get the client onboarded.

We can get a very clear picture of where they’re at, everything they’ve got going on, uh, sort of understand the map, like, where are we currently, and then it gives us opportunity to start. Uh, forecasting and vetting different strategies. Okay. The businesses on this trajectory, uh, let’s start looking at some different options that align back with your goals.

Cause that’s, that may be the most important thing. There’s an unlimited number of [00:46:00] planning strategies available to us. So if we know where the client wants to go from a goals perspective. It’s easy to start lining up some of those, uh, different strategies. So we start vetting those strategies and then we have plenty of time to fund it and make sure that everything’s going to work, uh, through year end.

Then the other time clients call us is October, November, December, when they’re like, Oh my goodness, I’ve, I’m having a great year. I remember the tax bill last year, and it’s going to be worse this year. What am I going to do about this? This is one of the worst times to call us just because the timeframe is so condensed.

Um, now we, we do a lot of tax work for clients at the end of the year. We get a lot of things going. It’s really good work. They’re really happy with it. Uh, but I think it’s, it’s fair to say that it’s stressful on everybody, uh, when we hop in and, uh, have to get a clear picture. Get third parties involved, get the CPA involved, legal counsel involved, everybody involved to just make sure that, uh, the, the path we’re on is, is a good one.

So again, we don’t mind doing that, [00:47:00] but it’s, it’s a, it’s a lot more work, a lot more stress on everybody at that time of year. So, and, and in addition to stress, I mean, have you seen situations where somebody comes in October and you go, well, we can do the following, but man, I wish we would have talked in April because we could have done X and Y, but now we’re going to have to wait on that.

Yep. And so generally right now, April, May, June, you know, the entire toolbox is available to us, uh, at the end of the year, we’re really looking at like, okay, uh, here’s some level one strategies, like last year, for example, we saved a client about 150, 000 just using level one strategies. So it’s like, we can really move the needle there.

Um, if we, we need to, um, and then we can also go, okay. Okay. There are a few tools available to us that we can implement in the following year that would give us a deduction for this year. There’s some retirement plans. There’s, there’s a few strategies there that we can, we can look at. And so we might, we might [00:48:00] identify those and then take a close look at some of the things that we could do year this year, you know, that need a December 31st deadline, and we need to compare the two, like which one most aligns with our goals that we can execute on.

And so. We can, we can cross some of those off the list that, uh, have December 31st deadlines. If, if we like some of those that, uh, move into the new year, but you know, our, our options do become less, uh, the closer we get to December 31st. So, so let’s talk about, uh, Ryan recently, you’ve been working with a client, uh, on the.

Protection side of things, uh, they’re doing some estate planning. I think we’re probably looking at almost a 60 million net worth somewhere in that, that ballpark. And so we’ve had to start paying attention to the, where we’re at from a legal structure perspective and making some changes, um, there, can you just talk a little bit about, you know, maybe the, the level of planning that comes in and the quality of counsel that we want to, uh, go look for when we’re, when we’re at that level?

[00:49:00] Yeah. Um, you know, at that point it’s. It’s not as simple as making sure you have a proper will drafted. Um, now we’re looking at ownership interests in the business, the types of, of share classes that are involved, um, and whether we’re bumping up against the estate, uh, gift tax. Um, and that doesn’t happen a lot, but we see it more commonly in our business and who we work with and other advisors likely do.

And so that’s, To your point, Pat, that’s not as simple as sitting down and saying, well, let’s understand that, you know, you’ve got your, you’ve got your will, you’ve got your healthcare surrogate, maybe you’ve got a trust. No, we’re engaging with an attorney who’s going to take a deep dive view of the operating agreement, the ownership interests, the goals to your point for the business, whether, you know, are we are we trying to build up the business in order to sell or what’s the goal?

Um, and putting together a full scale plan to transfer interests ahead of time, try to get [00:50:00] as much as we can out of the estate as possible so that we can greatly reduce the state taxes. Um, that’s not one meeting, right? Right. That’s, that’s some ongoing. So we do discovery with our clients, right? And what I mean by that is we sit down with our clients initially and we understand your goals.

We’re going to, uh, collect all of the information that we can to a detailed level. Um, and at that point we may identify you have some very, you have some great opportunities from a legal standpoint, but we need to get on this. And then with, with an attorney. Now we’re doing discovery new, fresh discovery from the legal standpoint to say, okay.

What are the tools that are available? What makes sense? And then we implement. Absolutely. And, and I think you, you, you touched on this, but I think it’s worth like bringing up, you know, the, you, you said most people don’t, uh, have an estate tax problem. Like right now we’ve got about $27 million exemption, right?

So if I’m worth [00:51:00] right, some number less than 27 million, uh, I don’t have an estate tax problem if I’m worth 60 million. I’ve got an estate tax problem, and this guy’s a young guy, the trajectory is on. It’s just going to keep getting worse. So, um, we, that’s right. There’s some strategies that we can start executing on now.

So we can sort of protect all that growth from an estate tax perspective. So you, you, you said a comment just a second ago, you said for now. Uh, can you tell me what you’re talking about there? Yeah, I’m talking about the, uh, estate tax exclusion sun setting. Yeah. So right now in 2024, we, we mentioned we’ve got almost 27.

22 million is the technical number that we’ve got available to us for a married couple, 13. 61 available, uh, for an individual. Uh, 2026, um, so the best time to start your estate planning, if you’ve got a huge estate is right now, please don’t wait to the end of 25 to, uh, [00:52:00] uh, call us or your estate planning attorney, they’re all going to be too busy.

So, uh, that’s my disclaimer now, but what does the estate tax look like? Uh, once we, we sunset where, where does that, that. Number go to, yeah, I believe it’s expected to be cut in half, you know, looking at, at 7 million. Yep. And so just a point there. So the estate tax is 40%. So if I’ve got a, let’s just call it a 30 million estate right now.

And I’m like, eh, it’s not that big a deal. I don’t need to worry about it. Uh, and then it gets cut in half and I only get a 15 million exemption. I’m going to have. 15 million that’s exposed to 40 percent tax. That’s 6 million I’d have to, uh, uh, give to the IRS after I die on money I’ve already paid tax on.

So it’s like, we look at the estate tax is the only. Voluntary tax. We’ve got enough runway that we should plan for that and make it something that we can completely avoid. So, uh, my encouragement to clients listening that [00:53:00] are in that 30 million range and up, like start taking advantage of the, the current tax code now.

Cause it’s, uh, yes, we might not have another opportunity, right? To your point, Pat, there are, there are things that can be done now, even though the exemption amount could drop, there’s things that could be put in place now to protect it even after it drops. But if you don’t take those steps soon, then we have a sunset.

Absolutely. You’ll be kicking yourself. For sure. It, uh, it’s one of those things that, uh, our whole focus is like, let’s be proactive on the planning side versus reactive. Most of our clients come to us because they’re experiencing pain in some, some arena and they’re like, I never want to do this again, please help me.

So, um, We want to make sure that, uh, there’s not a huge pain point for, for folks on the, the state tax, the income tax, the cashflow side of things like that’s, that’s really our, our focus. So, uh, I think it’s interesting as, as clients move into

this north of a million dollar range, you know, you, you hit [00:54:00] on it, the estate planning.

Like having specialists in your arena now matter. Last week, we had an interview with Robin Sears. Uh, she’s an MNA attorney. She’s fantastic. And so it’s like, Hey, there might be opportunities for, uh, you to acquire businesses to, um, merge to sell. Like you need a specialist. Please don’t walk down the street and talk to your, Local attorney that did your will and trust and expect him to do a great job on the mergers and acquisitions.

We want somebody that is specialized in these arenas. And so our, uh, their level of competency is way up here in this specific niche. They’re really good at what they do. Uh, you asked him to draft a will or trust. It’s probably, you know, they’re probably competent, but it’s not, uh, it’s not their, their best use, they’re going to be like laser focused on that, uh, that one particular thing, and especially now, once we move into the upper [00:55:00] realms, you know, our.

Our council is really used to working together, you know, and this is where we’ve moved out of the, what we’ll call the amateur ranks of, uh, how we’ve structured our, our council to professional status, everybody’s working together. There’s a main point of focus in the entrepreneur private office that is making sure that everybody understands the goals.

They have access to all the information. Um, Now who that person is for our clients, it’s us, right? Like we’re not filing the tax return. We’re not drafting the legal documents, uh, but we’re square in the middle of all of those things, making sure that, um, everything is integrated and coordinated. And so we’re working with the MNA attorney.

We’re working with, you know, there might be specific tax counsel, you know, on the transaction that, uh, uh, we’re working with that, um, is just making sure that, you know, these, the tax implications of a. An acquisition or sale are often very [00:56:00] complex. And so we like to have somebody that, that understands those, those pieces.

Uh, again, the CPA firm is, uh, beyond the guy that’s sitting in his shop by himself. Um, you know, we, we need a level of expertise that, uh, you know, a firm can, can provide, uh, same thing on the investment side. You know, you’ve got 10, 20 million of investment assets. It does not need to be in a target. Date fund, right?

And we need to have those specifically allocated, have alternatives, have opportunities that are, um, you know, beyond what you’re going to find on, you

know, a traditional, uh, investment platform. So on the investment side, you know, You think about on like an M and a example, um, and you want somebody who has seen the problems before.

And you already described an example of one of those in terms of, you know, preventing a 2 million mistake, um, on the investment side of things at 10 to 20 million taxable portfolio. You want somebody who has, has seen the problems created by certain tax [00:57:00] claims, tax efficient strategies, tax, tax efficient investment strategy.

So we want people on the team that have seen problems before and can anticipate. And be proactive. Yeah, absolutely. And then when we think about like the cashflow side, now we’re probably looking at, you know, we think about there’s, there’s levels, there’s bookkeeper, then we have a controller, you know, that person might be writing checks and actually moving dollars around.

And then we’ve got a CFO. Uh, and oftentimes there’s this concept of like, Oh, fractional CFO. Oftentimes that’s fancy bookkeeping because CFOs are strategic in how they’re looking at the flow of funds. They’re looking at everything from what are we going to utilize for debt? How are we going to optimize all of these different pieces?

Now, uh, it’s interesting. We, we work hand in hand with our clients, uh, cause even there we’ll say CFOs and controllers know what’s going on at a business level, but they don’t know what’s going on on a global macro level for the client. And so, uh, we’re getting [00:58:00] involved in saying, Hey, Here’s all of the factors that, uh, we need to be considering now.

The biggest piece is usually the business, but, um, you know, there’s, there’s these periphery things that are not insignificant that need to be taken into consideration too. So, uh, we think the cashflow just continues to evolve and, uh, You know, then we can all, all the way get into like, you know, audited financials and that type of thing.

If I’m, if I’m looking to exit my business at a hundred or 150 million, like I need super clean books, you know, and I need a second set of eyes looking at it, making sure that, um, Everything is, is in good shape there. So again, it just is continuing to, uh, as the business grows, as your wealth grows, uh, your advisor stack needs to grow, but I don’t need audited financials when I’m making a hundred grand a year, like it just doesn’t make any sense.

I’m going to be spending 7, 000 on my, my financials, you know, it’s all of my money. So, um, you know, those are, those are all things that we. We need to,

[00:59:00] uh, be aware of. And like, I just look at our job at vital. It’s so interesting as we see our clients grow, they’re all self made. They all started from that, that bootstrap, like figuring it out on their own and their advisor team has just continued to grow along with them.

And so, um, Uh, we’re creating some free resources, uh, for folks that, uh, they can go download and start to utilize. And then we move all the way up to, you know, engaging with us to just help, uh, bring a who into your life to manage all of these pieces so you don’t have to go figure it all out. So. Um, Ryan, I appreciate you being a part of the team and, uh, helping our clients, um, you know, not only just grow their, their enterprise value of their business, but their net worth.

And, uh, you know, at the end of the day, the whole goal is to not have a big bank account. It’s to live a great life, but, uh, you know, there’s something to, uh, the, the challenge of building the business and during the trials that come along with it, that, [01:00:00] uh, create a lot of satisfaction. So, um, any, any final thoughts before we, before we wrap up?

Well, I guess I, one final thought might be if, if someone’s listening to the podcast and I say, that’s really interesting. I’d like to have a conversation. How do they, how do they do that? Yeah, I think that the best way is, um, we’ve got a quick form. You can fill out vital strategies. com forward slash client, and you can just put your contact information in there, some company revenue, and then, uh, Uh, we’ll set up a time to just connect and talk through, this is what it looks like to work with us.

Uh, and again, one, one interesting thing we haven’t spent a lot of time talking about here is like, we try to be the best investment our clients make all year. You know, if a client is paying us 6, 000 a month, you know, 72, 000 a year, we want to show up and Show them here’s where you were at. Here’s all of the strategies we executed on for you.

Generally, those are tax strategies. Here’s the money we saved you. And if it’s [01:01:00] 300, 000, that’s 72, 000 is the best money you spent all year. And that doesn’t take into consideration all of the. Organization and peace of mind that comes along with, uh, tax savings. So yeah, that’s, um, that’s the best way to get in touch with us.

Vital strategies. com forward slash client, or you can connect with us. We’re, um, on most of the social platforms at vital strategies. So, um, yeah, that’s good. Thanks for having me. Yeah, right. It’s great. Uh, I’m sure this isn’t the last that, uh, uh, we’ll. We’ll see in your podcast. So thanks for joining us.

Have a great day. Thanks. You can access the tools and resources we discussed today by visiting vital strategies. com forward slash cashflow. Whether you’re looking to optimize your cashflow or fine tune your tax strategy. We’ve got you covered. Also, I want to remind you to rate and review the vital strategies podcast on your favorite platforms.

Your feedback helps us spread the word. Towards our goal of serving clients and listeners by saving over 1 billion [01:02:00] in income tax. These dollars are better used in your hands versus the government bureaucracy. Join us again next week for another episode of the Vital Strategies podcast, where we talk with Eric Cruz from Cruz Co on how to build and scale a business.

We look forward to having you back in the meantime. Thank you for being vital.