the best wealth strategist you will ever need | Eunicia Peret

 Eunicia is an accomplished wealth strategist and business owner with over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry. Eunicia honed her expertise by delivering significant financial improvements to the bottom line of Fortune 500 companies and renowned global brands across multiple industries. 
   
 Her passion is to help multi 6 and 7 figure individuals optimize their wealth creation efforts by empowering them to leverage wealth creating strategies that go beyond 401(k)s, IRAs and other typical savings accounts in order to minimize taxes, maximize growth & increase income in retirement. 
   
 Based on serving hundreds of clients, Eunicia is a strong believer that those that don't have a personalized and holistic financial strategy,  will only get a fraction of the results. 
 
   
 
 Eunicia’s Wealth Freedom Formula is a customized hands-on financial consulting program offering end-to-end wealth optimization strategies that have historically only been leveraged by the ultra-wealthy.  The tried-and-true personalized approach has delivered significant bottom line improvements to hundreds of clients because it leverages a quarterback approach to ensure the clients’ financial team is working in unison to minimize financial leakage. 
 
   
 
 Eunicia is a huge believer in empowering her clients with the tips, tricks and know-how to grow and protect their money in a way that aligns with the client’s values and beliefs.   
 
   
 
 In addition to managing her own business, Eunicia serves as a strategic advisor to several business-oriented and female leader groups. 
 
 Link:
 https://www.empoweredfinancialplanner.com/pitfalls

Transcript

Josh Bolton: 0:01

Welcome to the Josh Bolton show. Die interesting and inspiring conversations. And now your host, Josh Bolton. Yeah, that's that's true. But you're Steve AI. It's crazy how fast it's learning, especially knowledge it can have compared to one human. It's daunting.

Unknown: 0:28

It is daunting in and it's it's one of those things that I think it's it's both fascinating, but also very scary at the same time. And a lot of individuals out there that obviously there are the polar opposite. And individuals that are at either end of the spectrum, I think are going to have a rude awakening, because even those that are 100%, for AI are going to come to realize that hey, it's Yeah, well, it's great. It really diminishes that human impact. And so fewer and fewer or rather, more and more people are going to have a harder and harder time holding on to the things that they've been the way that they've been able to add value into the world historically, because of what AI is, is going to be positioned to do.

Josh Bolton: 1:12

Absolutely. I mean, in certain aspects, it's going to be great, but I always joke with people, like certain jobs, like air conditioning, air conditioning repairman and techs, and like janitors and stuff like that. Currently, I don't see an AI smart enough to clean a toilet. It could figure out like calculus level trading stuff, but clean a toilet, I don't see that happening, at least in the next 10 years.

Unknown: 1:35

Probably not. And same thing with some of the other trades jobs. So it's fascinating, because then the question becomes even with young adults, what should they do when, when it comes to the decisions that they make, and trade jobs, funny enough to just the way that that you articulated it, are probably going to be coming back in vogue, as several industries get disrupted by AI and robotics and automation in general.

Josh Bolton: 2:04

But from your perspective, as a financial planner, is AI very helpful tool for you to help your clients.

Unknown: 2:12

For us, a lot of what we do were more on the wealth strategy side, the company name is fairly deseeding. Unfortunately, it was where we started. And our intention was really to work with financial advisors until it was actually some of our clients who understand the industry from the inside out, brought it to our attention that financial advisors that are perhaps not acting in the highest level of integrity, as many individuals will blame the the industry, unfortunately, are probably not going to be the people that while they could benefit from what we had to deliver, it's the individual that ultimately ends up leaving so much money on the table, because historically, the Financial Services is not incentivized to necessarily operate in the in the always in the best interest of the client, even for those that deem themselves to be fiduciaries. So then kind of coming back to AI. I think AI definitely has its place when we're talking about the lower end financial products, think of, you know, so many platforms out there that will sell life insurance and things like that, for a quick, cheap way to do certain things that that are inexpensive. Yes. But when it comes to true strategy, and the ability to look at not only what is happening today, but more importantly, what is the trying the client trying to achieve in the long run, and being able to work backwards and forwards to not only devise that plan, but then make sure we take a boat along the way. And course correct. AI is probably going to it's I don't I can't say that at some point in time. It won't get there. But it certainly I don't see it in the very, very near future, just because it's so at least what we do is so hyper specialized.

Josh Bolton: 3:59

Yeah. And you have to know all the complexities of the tax rules to this to that to and me like you said, AI if it may eventually get there, but at least not within the next 10 years.

Unknown: 4:11

Oh, my God. Josh, you do? You brought up a topic yesterday, I had a conversation with, frankly, multiple CPAs. And it's just, it's just, I'm in awe, you're right. They you would think that every single CPA would understand the tax code forwards and backwards. Unfortunately, they know, most individuals know a sub sliver of what really is available to the client. And a great example for people that are listening and are wondering what do you mean, we were working with multiple CPAs for multiple of our clients and a couple of the CPAs last week Thursday, asked them a question of, Hey, are you familiar with this particular tax code? It's a very specific tax code that has very specific applications. And it's not we're not approaching it from a tax sale. savings, it's truly a business need. And not all businesses need it. And not all businesses should implement it. But for those that need it, it ultimately also becomes a huge tax advantage. And the response for both of them was No, keep in mind, this was last Thursday, yesterday, which yesterday was Wednesday. I'm on a call with Sid CPA and a couple of other tax experts. And the CPAs trying to push back to say, well, I don't think this is gonna work. And I don't I can't stand behind it, because and he had all these reasons. IRS doesn't like these transactions. And, and, you know, it could potentially put the client at risk for an audit and this and that, and the other night, just last week, you had no idea that this tax code actually existed. So how can we go from it? We don't know that you don't know that it exists to making such a hardcore statement as to it's not going to be applicable? Because it said, Are you afraid of something? Because the reality is, the tax code was written to be implemented in situations where it's applicable not to be taken advantage of? So if the client has the business need? Why would you direct him away from it? Unless there's something else that you've got that maybe I should know about? And he came back and he said, you know, you know, you're right, you're right, the business, he should be there. I'm like, we're basically, the clients get shot in the foot every single day. And sometimes they're shooting themselves in the foot because they don't work with a team of experts that actually know what's happening. And well, we're talking about high net worth and high income individuals. Consequently, the types of individuals and clients that we serve, I mean, we can talk about potentially hundreds of 1000s of dollars being left to chance year over a year. That's a lot of money, it adds up to big, big 10 bucks over a long haul. So I'm sorry, you said CPA and, and I got transport for the back to my conversations yesterday.

Josh Bolton: 7:01

It's very important, especially for the financial planning. I've had a lot of tax people come on and threaten tax strategists. And all of them say the same thing like when in doubt, ask like three CPAs? The same question to like, you can ask them a simple question. They're not going to like Bill you. And if you get three different answers, then you have a problem kind of thing. But if you have to answer the same, might want to go with the two that said to correctly.

Unknown: 7:26

Correct. Correct. Always ask questions. That's what I tell clients all the time. If, when in doubt. And even if not in doubt, if you have a question, ask it. Don't assume don't just jump at the conclusion and assume because you saw something on Google or someone some friend told you something at some dinner party, please don't do that. It could potentially jeopardize certain things in your financial outlook.

Josh Bolton: 7:51

Yeah, most definitely. Especially like, if you're, your business is pulling in hundreds of 1000s of dollars a month, you would definitely need to call someone like you can be like, Okay, what do I do? Because I'm pulling handle a lot of money. Who do I call? Exactly,

Unknown: 8:04

exactly. And that's the power part of what we do is to make sure that we understand where the client's financial team is, poke and pry and really help the client understand what are the questions that they should even be asking, because our job is not to say, hey, we need to displace your team. Not at all, we need to make sure that if they are coming with an open mindset, then we we bring everybody and we all work together. If they don't, then the client needs to be in that driver's seat to understand that, hey, maybe they have different options, but they have also have to have the conviction that, okay, we need to make changes. And without that conviction being there, it just creates a lot of mess, as you can probably imagine.

Josh Bolton: 8:44

Yeah, yeah, it does. So I'm just curious. You mentioned earlier you like sit down and ask questions to your client, let's just say hypothetically, I'm a new client for you. What would be the onboarding process?

Unknown: 8:57

So the onboarding process for our clients is one that is as everything we do very customized to them. First and foremost, we understand what is it that the clients even trying to achieve? We don't want to take clients on that we are not a good fit for and vice versa. So once we get past that, the one of the very first questions, one of the very first sessions that we're going to have is going to be a session to say it, where we're going to talk about, okay, what is it that we're trying to achieve? What is it that they're trying to achieve, specifically for the short term for the long term for, you know, an address any questions that they might have? And then based on that we, the approach that we take is grounded into three pillars of, of the type of work that we do, and sometimes they transcend. So to give you an example, the very first pillar we talked a little bit about CPAs and taxes. What we're finding is that a lot of high net worth and high income. Think of doctors think of executives in corporate America, think of successful business owners, pilots, you name it, they end up leaving a lot of money. Due to taxes, or they perhaps pay more in taxes than they should? Why? Because they don't have the right level of support from their existing financial team. So when we come in, we start understanding what are some of the strategies that historically has, they've been able to take advantage of or they've been able to implement for themselves? And then we ask the question of okay, we try to understand what does that strategy look like from a tax perspective, and what we find when we're looking at Josh, is that most individuals don't actually have a tax strategy. Funny enough, most of them, they might think that they have a tax strategy, but it's really just a meeting to say, Okay, here's what we think is gonna happen, and we're going to file taxes. Next thing, you know, taxes get fired. And so we try to understand from a tax perspective once again, and then the other thing that those are the taxes primarily for the current year, right for the current filing year, then we start asking the question of okay, when we look at building wealth, consequently, this is also also our second pillar. What are different ways in which people invest? And I know I've noticed on your show, you've got, you know, a lot of individuals that feel very passionate about the specific solutions that they individually offer. So when we start transcending all of those different things, right, from all of those individuals that that someone can listen to clients inherently will be confused. Because then the question is, okay, does that strategy apply to me? Well, what about the other strategy? What about the other strategy, and there is no way to truly decipher. So what we do with our clients, we want to give them the empowerment so that they understand what are the different options, whether it be Securities and Investment investing in the market, whether it be life insurance, cash, accumulating life insurance products, whether it be non traditional investments, that most financial even advisors don't touch? One A good example is real estate. What if people want to invest in real estate dude, have you heard a financial person ever seen? Absolutely, let me count the ways as to how that could be beneficial. It doesn't happen. Right? So what we do is we understand what is in what is in most alignment, what are the different strategies that are most aligned to what the client is trying to achieve. Because what that then gives us is an opportunity through the fact that the client understands what their options are. Now, they can actually help guide and steer their ultimately financial goals and their wealth creation efforts. It's funny yesterday at the conference, Mel Abraham actually said he said, one of the things you shouldn't do is let somebody else drive your financial car. So why is it that so? I have passionate about and let's say that it's it's the we're dealing with the end of the year, we're dealing with the playoffs, and you have been exceeding seat tickets. But you know, you really would just prefer for somebody else to, to just do it for you to just enjoy the experience for you. Would you ever in a million years, just give those tickets away to somebody else? And just have the expectation that somehow vicariously you're going to live through the experience? What had ever happened? Know? Exactly. So I use that analogy, because people are like, Oh, my God, I never thought about it that way. So again, when that pillar of understanding what are the different options is critical, because it ultimately, individuals end up not just saving a lot of money, but also making more money because the way that they grow their wealth is in alignment to their goals. It's in alignment, alignment to who they are. And then last but not least, we're gonna come back around. And we asked the question of as part of our third pillar, what does what about the exit strategy, whether it be an individual that's looking at retirement down the road, or it be someone that is looking at potentially divesting a business owner looking at divesting selling or possibly taking his his or her company public? What does that exit strategy look like? And what are some of the things that the considerations that we need to think about and take into consideration for today, considering we're talking about taxes? We're talking about ways to manage capital invest, build wealth, and are there any discrepancies that we need to make sure that we address and so once we kind of go through just an understanding of where folks are, across those different pillars, then what we know is we're going to start looking at a domino effect. It's near the interior end. So a lot of clients that have come on and and we onboard them in the last couple of months. The biggest area of focus for them was taxes. They said we need to focus on taxes. So we focused on taxes. And then because this is very flexible, our approach or methodology is very flat. Trouble, then we're going to catch everything up on the back end, when it comes to really after we roll into the new year. So I hope that gave you a little bit of, of an understanding of not just the onboarding, but also our overall approach and the different the different pillars that we we implement in our conversations and in our work with our clients.

Josh Bolton: 15:21

That was very well. So wow, that was very well put in especially like the complexities of the how to implement the task to your business. And a lot of I've recently heard it with my guests. But the exit strategy, I'm still realizing that's a big gap. Entrepreneurs keep missing

Unknown: 15:39

100% Not only do they do they mess up on and they miss out on when it actually comes time to exit. But a lot of companies and a lot of business owners suffer losses, Frank Klee because they're not able to demand as much money for their company, at the onset or at during the sales process, because they didn't know things that they should have known ahead of time, in terms of from an operations, perspective, optimization, etc. But the other thing is also on the tax side, I cannot tell you how many clients have come to us, asking us about transactions that they've done in years past with companies to say, hey, can we still, funnily enough, go right back to cut taxes? Can we still optimize our our exit? From a tax standpoint? Where was your team when you exit it 710 years ago, unfortunately, that costs individuals, in many cases, millions of dollars. And then the other thing is, on the personal note, especially when we're dealing with business owners, many of them put everything that they have into the company. And if we're running into a situation where a COVID happens, or some sort of national international pandemic takes place, and the world is in chaos, now we've put all of our eggs in the basket of the business, not to say that we shouldn't invest in the business. That's absolutely a given. But we have to also figure out how do we pay ourselves? How do we start separating that those risk compartments and the ways that our business is structured, in order to make sure that God forbid, something happens, we don't lose our minds over the fact that our businesses are not structured in a way that offer us some protection that ultimately will allow us to have a peaceful life and be able to sleep at night with as much peace as we can. Because we know that we're good. We've we've got our ducks in a row.

Josh Bolton: 17:36

Now 100% Yeah, that's the biggest one I've noticed. Well, I do martial arts out in Upland, California. And there was a entrepreneur starting the restaurant like no franchising. He did it all on his own. And he got a loan and everything. And he started it early 2019. And then, while COVID Hit it, he did not survive at all. Right? Good. No, go ahead. Go ahead. All right, and He put all his eggs in the basket. So he's like, I'm ruined, because he's like, I don't know what to do. Now.

Unknown: 18:11

On the contrary, though, when we're working with business business owners, when we're looking at things strategically, growing your business always is always always assumed and implies a lot of risk take taking, right. But that's exactly why your your example is so critical. That's it, it's a great example. And a lot of our listeners may say, Well, we're not going to see another COVID. It may not be COVID, and he might be something else. But the beautiful and the reality is even if there's nothing else, the reality is that having that peace, to know that worse comes to worse, we should always be prepared for that, that are our assets and our liabilities and are riskier business endeavors are protected and vice versa, our safe assets are protected from those risky endeavors is huge, because ultimately for most of us, it's not just us, it's our families. It's it's our neighbors, it's our lifestyle. It's so there's so much at stake that just, frankly, we shouldn't take it for granted, and we shouldn't play with it. And people shouldn't play with that.

Josh Bolton: 19:17

No, it's like playing with fire. You get like touch it every so often, and I get hurt. But if you keep doing it too long enough, you're gonna burn yourself.

Unknown: 19:24

Most likely. Absolutely. Yeah. That's awesome. Is there anything in particular that I might have missed? Getting up to this point that you want to go over? I'm not really I just, I'm here to answer your questions that you have, you know, your audience much better than I do. I've listened I've looked through some of your podcasts and it seems like you have a good mix of, of information, which is wonderful. But yeah, you know some of the needs that your audience has, so let's let's address them.

Josh Bolton: 19:57

I want to go over specifically the You touched on the both the tax part and the exit strategy. How does the like having certain vendors affect you with the taxes and selling your business?

Unknown: 20:09

When you say vendors, what specifically? Are you referring to?

Josh Bolton: 20:13

I guess like suppliers, contracts with certain companies that will produce your material kind of thing like that.

Unknown: 20:21

I mean, at that point, it's I think part of it is going to be negotiations right, negotiating those terms. And I'm, I'm a huge proponent for know who your vendors are, know what the possibilities are. Ask questions. A lot of people will say no. And I know this doesn't directly address your question. But a lot of people will say, No, I just know my vendor, they're not going to, they're not going to give me a price break. They're already giving me the best price break. And I'll never forget years ago, I was working with in collaboration with someone that was doing real estate investments in the Atlanta area. And he had a relationship with a company with a vendor company that was providing cabinets. And he came to me and he said, exactly that, right, we have the best price, they gave us the lowest price. And my job was to intervene for one of our clients. So I went to the supplier and I said, Hey, I know that you guys have a wonderful relationship, you guys clearly have done an amazing job. Just out of curiosity, what would it take for my client to actually be able to get perhaps even just a little bit more in terms of a discount, like a 10 15%? I know you guys are already strapped for margins, and all of that, is there any way we could potentially make that happen? And sure, long and behold, we were able to give our clients an additional to get them at additional 10%. And which was huge. That is that right? Especially when you're dealing with multiple houses, multiple rental units, multiple apartments, or men complexes, it's huge, it really adds up. And I'll never forget this, this he was this particular gentleman was actually a real estate mentor in the area. And he said, you know, most individuals that I work with, if they ever get a hold of my vendor list, they end up messing up relationships, and immediately looked at a mess, what kind of people do you work with? Right? You don't let me you don't want to put people in a situation where they're gonna mess up the relationship. So vendors, first and foremost, know your terms, know the terms of those agreements, be nice, be nice, you won't be in a nice individual, add value back to them. And then you can always revisit and ask questions on how can you work better with them. When it comes to taxes, obviously, it's going to be the cost of materials, or the cost of whatever it is that you're purchasing from that vendor, then most likely is going to go against your taxes. So working with one vendor or another, may not necessarily make a difference, especially if it's in the same industry. Now, if you're looking at different industries, and you're thinking now, from the perspective of hey, maybe I want to invest money, and there's a question of if I'm investing, we're particularly we're talking about individuals that are investing hundreds and millions of dollars, hundreds of 1000s of dollars in millions. What would that look like? Are there any tax advantages? Now we can have a different conversation, we don't want to start out by just saying, Hey, we just want to maximize minimize our taxes, although there are some situations where people genuinely are leaving opportunities on the table. But oftentimes there are opportunities to actually grow a portfolio and see huge tax benefits on the back end. What are those opportunities? There are a ton of opportunities. Unfortunately, some of those strategies are not necessarily being spoken about out there because they are reserved for some of the Uber wealthy. So credit investor and higher. Exactly. So why should Why is it It baffles me every day that individuals are putting themselves on this little island or dollar island where they'll say, Well, I'm not an accredited investor. I'm not I have not I don't have experience, maybe I'm not sitting on $3 million, or on a million dollar million you just whatever that some in their mind is. And because of that don't qualify when we tell clients is if you already fit that high income high, high higher net worth individual look at where you're at in terms of the rest of the population. Are you in the top 1% Up 5% Beautiful thing is Hello, you have a ton of opportunities at your disposal opportunities that unfortunately, the industry isn't speaking about. So it's a matter of again, finding the right team, having the right people in your quarter, having the right quarterback team, right to make sure that you not only have access to those opportunities, but somebody that can help you decipher through and figure out are they even the right opportunities for you and then be able to go from there.

Josh Bolton: 24:52

Yeah, that's very good point is especially as I've like talked to different real estate investors. I won I I was trying to book an art dealer, but he flaked out on me. But all of them told me like when you make that $200,000 a year for like two years and consistently, they're like, you're technically an accredited investor. And I'm like, But what about taxes? Like if they take off the 40k? For taxes, he's like, no, like, you earn $2,000 $200,000. That's what the IRS sees. So you're an accredited investor, and it might, Oh, wow. And that's where I was asking him like, then what can I do and he's like, really just his imagination. At that point, you want to invest in one pot down the street, go for it, and one invests in the farm up in Northern California, go for it, you want invest in my apartment syndication, go for it. I was like, Oh, that kind of sucks that I have to kind of exclude from the big boys club. He mentioned up handling that does a good job for you. He said, If you form an LLC, or like a holding company, and have people invest in it, then he can go out as an accredited investor. Is that true?

Unknown: 26:05

I was just gonna say there are different ways. And again, this is where a lot of people have very big limitations, because they're, again, they're putting themselves sadly on an island. And they don't do it intentionally. What I found is that, Josh, when they're looking at themselves, and they look at themselves in the mirror, similar to what you said, right? I'm not part of the big boys club. Why would you say that? Because if you were to think about it, even with a syndicate, for example, or other types of, of creative deal structures and different investments, there can be partnerships that can be formed. And it's not just you or the individual, it can be done together. Now, I do have to caution people, especially syndicates and other types of kind of creative ways to bring people together have popped up like mushrooms the last several years. And while the while the, the industry was doing wonderful, everybody was making money. But one of the things that I caution, and I urge my clients to be very vigilant about is to make sure that whenever they choose to work with someone, that that someone or those companies that they choose to work with, have trajectory, have they gone through 2008 2009? Have they gone through some sort of a major financial bubble? Because the reality is there's not one economist that I've heard to say the next year, for example, is going to be a bed of roses, or maybe even the next two years. So if we're dealing with individuals who don't have the right level of liquidity, who don't have the right level of experience, implementing and managing some of those projects, I've already heard of many, many individuals that really just in the last six year, sorry, six months. They've lost all of the investments that they've made, and some of those some of those deals. So it's not to say that the deals are not right. But we need to make sure that we have once again, it goes right back to the team. Who is that team? Do we trust them? Ultimately, if if the there is a likelihood that you're going to lose all of their money, don't just look at the promise, you're potentially going to lose all of their all of your money? Are you okay with that? And a lot of the time people will say, Oh, yeah, absolutely. I know, I'm taking a calculated risk. Okay. Then let's also think about, if let's play devil's advocate, you get a call and all the money's gone? What will that do to your life? What will that do to your mental psyche? What will that do to your family? Well, I don't know that I could bear it. Well, if you don't think you could bear it. But at the onset, you said, Absolutely, you know, because you've taken calculated risks, the answer is probably somewhere in the middle. So we really need to just make sure that when we're working, and we do it all the time when we're working with clients, we approach it even from just the the psychological perspective of how like, what are those impacts? What how could they potentially impact life in an in an alternative way other than what we're hoping to, or perhaps having desired?

Josh Bolton: 29:03

Now, it's a very, very valid point, because the only thing I even winced about the properties failing is I, one of my buddies, he got his whole retirement life savings, everything dumped into a, his best friend's project and he just blew up. And, and he's just, he's like, sitting there, like, I'm gonna have to work till I die now.

Unknown: 29:26

We've had clients honestly, that we took on, I'll never forget we have, we have a couple of CPAs. Actually, that came to us years ago. And it was the same thing because of what happened in 2008 2009. Some of them some individuals have also experienced the adversity of going through through divorces and family situations that frankly robbed him of a ton of their wealth, for one reason or another. And they had that same perspective. We're going to have to work until really the last days. So part of what we do remember I was telling you about that working things backwards is We have to people shouldn't have to live with that feeling. And the reality is I tell people, there's you shouldn't procrastinate they shouldn't procrastinate. Like in general, it's better to start getting your questions as there sooner rather than later. So that you don't get so close to retirement are so close to the point where you're starting to think about how will those those income streams that perhaps you've you've geared up for? How are they going to, to reward you, when the time comes for you to start taking and reaping those benefits? The sooner we look at those, and the sooner we look at what else can we do to optimize, the better off clients are, the better off individuals are, but sadly, number one, they risk it all, they put all of their eggs in one basket. And the other thing that happens is oftentimes people will not really think about it, because it's still five or 10 or 15 years, some cases even 20 years away, I mean, for somebody that's in their 40s, very seldomly, that is someone in their 40s really thinking about, hey, oh, my gosh, and 20 years, I'm gonna retire, I just lost 30% of my portfolio, but I think I'm hoping it'll come back and I'll be fine. It'll recuperate by then. Well, if we're looking at what history tells us, the money that you've lost is the is the money is the is the the worst money for you to have lost. And the money that we haven't lost is the best money we've ever made. Right. And so again, it kind of goes to to the risk profile, when we're talking also, from a tax perspective, a lot of high income individuals, particularly those that are executives, or that have, for example, 401 k Ira kind of accounts or pension type of account with their companies. Many times they don't know that they can actually minimize their taxes on the back end, by contributing, for example, to Roth accounts, because historically in their mind, and it's not like the the investment company would have told them this because they shouldn't have. But in their mind, they think that I'm making too much money to qualify for that.

Josh Bolton: 32:06

So I want to say there is the the 160k a year, if they are pulling in 200 Plus, I think I will correct me from for when they get tapped out if they're making 200 a year.

Unknown: 32:18

It is if it's if they're over $200,000 and change per year, for a family filing jointly married filing jointly, they tap out if they were to invest on the IRA site. But if they have access to a 401 K, they can contribute towards that in a Roth account, especially that Roth account was set up in years past. Right. So a lot of individuals, I mean, I can't tell you how many, one of the worst situations that I've seen was with pilots, and make too much money. So you haven't put anything you have nothing in what I call the text, never bucket, because you had this perception and you make too much money. And then of course, we validated with the CPA that they could have been they should have, but they did it. And then they go through and they want to do conversions and different things like that. And it's costing them a ton of money, because now they make more money than they did before. And a lot of people also have this misconception that you know what, by the time I retire, I'm going to actually be in a lower tax bracket. But just being in a lower tax bracket doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to pay less in taxes. And for people that want to rewind and listen to that, again, it's a huge misconception, I'm going to be paying I'm going to be in a lower tax bracket. But again, that does not equate to, they're going to be paying less in taxes. So then a big thing of that strategy needs to be again, looking backwards and forwards is we want to minimize our tax exposure today. But is that going to potentially hurt us in the future, especially if taxes end up going higher, or as they go continue to go higher? And so it's very, very important for people to realize that it's not just about that today. And it's not just about the tomorrow. It's about how do we make sure that whatever we do for today does not counter intuitively impact what it is that we're trying to achieve for the future and vice versa.

Josh Bolton: 34:21

Oh, 100% Yeah. So like for me, especially talking to awesome people like you on the show. I didn't realize like I could have been optimizing back in when I was 20. But to be honest, when I was 20 I was just partying and going to college and drinking. I wasn't thinking about saving for a Roth account.

Unknown: 34:38

Many people aren't right. Most people aren't in and I have. We don't really work with a whole lot of clients in their 20s. As a matter of fact, I took one of the last clients that I took that he's in his 20s was because I had worked with his parents and he just, it's a mindset. He came to us and he said I know you work with mom and dad. You do You what you did for them. And the peace of mind that you gave them is so amazing to see. I know, I'm young, I know I don't make as much money as most of your clients do. But would you please take me on as a client? So we sat down, we analyzed, we kind of went through, here's like, here's the deal. It's a mindset. So we're gonna go through this, but you have to really challenge yourself to elevate your your game to take your game to the next level as we work together, because you have access to all this amazing insight, all these amazing insights. Are you ready to do that? And he was he surprised us he he hunkered down, he got it done. And, and he's one of our super success stories when it comes to individuals in their 20s. But to your point, most people in their 20s, they just want to have fun. They they finally had legal legal age. And, you know, it's all about the friends and the booze. And then when they get they get into their 30s. It's like, oh my gosh, if I could have if I could just go back.

Josh Bolton: 36:01

Yeah, and that was a big one for me. Just talking to people, but the big thing I've learned, especially like I said, talking to us, and people like you, it's never too late. Now, you might not be able to optimize as well, but you're never too late for anything.

Unknown: 36:18

That is so true. That is true. But again, it goes back to people need to understand that it's a it's a give and take, were in their 20s, setting aside 150 $200 a month, maybe a little bit more would have gotten them to a really kind of good place in retirement, if they stick with it. By the time time during that their 30s, that number is going to more than double, in some cases triple. And by the time they get into their 40s, it's definitely going to at least triple if not quadruple. And so arguably a lot of people will say yes, but I'm going to be making more money. What many folks don't really sit down to think about is that as we make more money. So during our expenses, so do are the games that we like to buy, so do the toys that we like to buy the the the vacations that we take. And so I call that the the the wealth pie or the income pie. As that pie is kind of segmented, right about 50% of the income that comes in goes to life expenses, etc. About 25% goes to taxes, plus or minus, obviously, these are very rough numbers. And then the other stuff goes to that for most people. And if we're looking at the whole pie, very few individuals actually lived a sliver, a tiny little sliver to where they paid themselves. And so they will say, well, as my income grows, I'm gonna pay myself more, what ends up happening is that that sliver continues to stay low, because that half of the pie that's focused on life expenses will continue to grow, taxes grow commensurate even more, obviously, there are income, and that that the debt will continue to accumulate, if not at the same perhaps in many cases even faster, right. So that tiny little sliver of actually setting money aside in a way that's truly meaningful, continues to be diminished and be very small. And so one of the things that because of the strategy that we have is we focus on how can we get more savings coming from reducing our tax exposure, based on what's available on the tax code, figuring out what that looks like? And then what are the areas in our personal stent that we can not sacrifice, but redeploy in a way that's meaningful to us and will actually continue to help us truly build wealth.

Josh Bolton: 38:40

Now, it's a very good point. Yeah, that's, especially for me, because I'm always just thinking how you're saying like the percentage of the richest man in Babylon came to mind where it's like you, you pay yourself 10% That's like the minimum. And it's so funny, because people asked me to like, what are two, five, we're willing to read two books, what are the two books we should read him, like, Think and Grow Rich and richest man in Babylon? You can read those two, I'm like, those two will give you the foundation, if you want to read more great. If not, that's enough. You'll figure it out from there.

Unknown: 39:10

As long as it as you implement some of these items, some of the ideas that are in the books, both of them are amazing books, for sure. Definitely, highly recommend myself, but you gotta get in there and do some of this stuff. And as you're implementing it, right, as you're setting aside that 10% 15%, whatever that looks like, then the question comes in, okay, where does that money go? And that's exactly that takes us back to some of those pillars we were talking about previously, because it makes a world of difference. How the money grows, peace of mind, all of that so that we can, people can focus on thinking grow rich, and how to continue to change their mindset. They need to have the backing they need to have the support because they're seeing the money grow in order for them to change the mindset. It's going to be very hard for people to do that. If they put their money in next thing you know, they've lost 50% Now the money Sit goes backwards, right? So books are great, but we need to sometimes I tell my clients and I tell individuals, we need to be able to read in between the lines. And that's where your team of experts should come in to say, Oh, you read that book. That's wonderful. What are let's figure out what are the in between the lines for you specifically, because those in between the lines are going to be very different, very small nuances that are applicable in different ways, based on the individual situation.

Josh Bolton: 40:26

Yeah, yeah. It's, it is the biggest one I, I chuckled to myself. It's not like actually haha, funny, but it's like the we talk in general sense. But there's no sense. There's general events, but there's no general direction for one person you have, you have to cater each path to the person, my whatever you want to call it is like there's a million ways to the top of the mountain, which one you're going to take kind of thing 100% 100%?

Unknown: 40:55

Well, one of the, one of the one of those paths that I I oftentimes will tell people to really think about is this idea of taxes, right? There are so many books out there that will tell you just invest all of your money in IRAs, and 401, Ks and basically, in retirement type of accounts, that are traditional accounts, because it helps you minimize your taxes and you're going to your money is going to grow so much faster. And almost in every single one of those books, there's going to be the sliver of discussion, or the innuendos that will tell you and if you get to a point where you want to basically then convert somehow your retirement so that you'll have a tax free retirement, here's what you can do to to go through these backdoor conversions and things like that? And if if those people that are reading those books that are just kind of just absorbing it, because the book says it, where to think about it, Hey, was that book written for me? Or was it written for the individual that just is extra bump, that extra mindset shift so that they can start saving money? Which one, which of those categories Am I in? Because if we don't work things backwards, and those conversions end up costing us more down the road? Because we're in higher tax brackets, or we end up paying more taxes? Have we truly gotten more out of that equation? Or are we ending up in a situation where it's costing us? Oh, people go, Oh, my gosh, I never thought about it that way? Well, those books cannot address every person situation 100% customized from the get go, can it can they

Josh Bolton: 42:34

know? And? No, it can't. It's more like generally speaking, you could do this kind of thing without getting like a like financial advisors, like we can say, you can generally do this, but like, if you know what they're talking about, like that is a terrible idea. Don't do that?

Unknown: 42:52

Well, and oftentimes we have to this is where unfortunately, it comes from individuals that are in the financial services industry, that are different sides. And they will tell you that many of them are tired because they focus again on what they focus on. So somebody will tell you, that's a terrible idea. And other person will tell you this is a great idea. And when you're looking at what is it that truly they're representing their companies, oftentimes we're going to be representing those ideas that they're a huge proponent of. And it takes us right back to the very first part of our conversation. What is the right in between? Is there an in between? Or is there a silver bullet for everyone? And we know that silver bullets really don't exist? So if they don't exist, then what are the things that we need to do to establish that solid baseline and then go from there?

Josh Bolton: 43:44

Definitely sounds like everyone needs to call you on tech. Because I'm sitting here just like, wow, this is so much good stuff. I will say, I looks like our time is about to go up. I got three going out questions for you. Sure. So other than work, what have you been doing to keep yourself busy during these COVID times?

Unknown: 44:08

Oh, my goodness, that's a great question. personal improvement is one of the things that I focus on a lot, just on different different from different aspects, whether it's being part of masterminds with individuals that even though we were in a lockdown and COVID situation, we were still able to interact and, and just continue that mindset. And what I will tell you is that those individuals that that we did that with those that were serious about their businesses, they actually ended up seeing huge advancement and advancements in their business versus regression. So there was it was a great, not a great time but a great time to see them to see those. Spending time with family was also huge. It was it was very interesting at the very very onset. My daughter came to me she said Mom, this whole lockdown situation is going to either make make or break families? And I thought I mean, she was very young. And I said, What do you mean? She said, I can only imagine the families that have a hard time handling each other, right? They're probably at each other's throats being stuck in the house for weeks and days and months on end, versus the families that want more time together, it gives them an opportunity to actually do that. So we got to spend a lot of amazing time as part of the family and just really continuing on with, with looking if not from a business perspective. But what does life truly mean? And how do we approach life in general from a stance where, again, we live with no regrets. But we have that peace because we know that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, whether it's for business or for job, or just in our personal life.

Josh Bolton: 45:50

Oh, 100% Yeah, I've just from the stories I've heard offhandedly from co workers, how to COVID lockdowns during 2020 and 2021. Destroyed families, because they were already kind of like tolerating each other, but they were gone for eight hours out of the whole day. So they could just like, do the thing. The amount of divorces I've heard, I'm like, wow, that's painful.

Unknown: 46:16

It is very painful. And those families, I see some of them on the aftermath. And many of them have left on bad terms. Others have left on really good terms. And I have all the appreciation for the families that even though they ended up separating, and divorces ended up being there, at least or focused on their children, for those that do have children to say, Listen, I mean, just because we're not no longer in that relationship, we can still be human beings and just just add positivity to the world, even though we're not. We're not together anymore. Right? And I just have, I have a lot of friends who have been in that situation, I have so much regard for them.

Josh Bolton: 46:55

That's awesome. So second question, people inspired by you want to take action want to go down a similar path, what are some tips, tricks or advice you'd give them to start down a similar path you are on right now.

Unknown: 47:10

They have to have the right mentors. Number one, mentors are very important. And when I say they have to have the right mentors is very good. I've always been blessed to have amazing mentors, both in my corporate career days, as well as when I became a business owner. But I can also tell you that I've had to fire mentors, literally. And that leads me to the second point, which is you have to act from a place of integrity. Don't think about the money for me for many years. It was not it was it was one of those things where I want I just wanted to help people. And I was driven by by the joy and the tears and the happiness and the overcoming the sadness of people had done the wrong thing in the past. And they finally had a better, more clear, more defined path forward. It was those amazing emotions and devalued that I knew we were delivering to clients that were driving me and we're driving our team. But there are so many individuals, especially in financial services, that it's all about the bottom line. It's about the numbers. It's about the metrics, it's about the everything else in external that puts pressure on their ultimate success factors and how it is that they show up in the world. And my guidance would be if you do that, sooner or later is going to catch up. So find good mentors, act from a place of integrity, figure out your own way of adding value without adding cost to the clients bottom line. And if you can do that, then you're going to be genuine and the clients will will see that that genuine side of you and they will trust.

Josh Bolton: 48:45

That was really good. I have to say, the way you summarize that and just put a bow on it. Wow. Probably one of the best ones I've gotten yet.

Unknown: 48:53

Thank you.

Josh Bolton: 48:55

You're welcome. So third question, final question, the third. Where can everyone contact you as

Unknown: 49:03

well, I think you're probably going to be including some of those links in the summary notes. But for individuals that would like to learn more, they can certainly go to our website, www dot empowered financial planner.com. And for those that would like to understand more about what we do, and just overall my philosophy and and the things that we've seen our big blind spots and pitfalls and individuals approaches to building wealth, they can do so by going to www dot empowered financial planner.com forward slash pitfalls. It's a quick read, that folks can go through, it'll give them some idea of what maybe is playing against what it is that they're trying to achieve and the approach that they're taking, and maybe some of the things that they can look at doing things differently. And then of course, on social media, either under the company name or under yuneisia Paret you Wonderful it's been an absolute honor and a pleasure to have you on likewise Josh it was so much fun being here with you today thank you