The Best Financial Strategies (BY INCOME!)

21:15And if you don't know what that is, you can use a service like Delete Me to go out there and get your personal information removed. And what they do is they go to data brokers. I mean, you can do this right now. You can Google your name or your address and quotations and you'll see a bunch of information pop up about you. And there's all these different websites that have your information. Well, if they continue to have your information, they can sell it to scammers. They sell this information to other people who are willing to pay for it. And so if someone gets a piece of your personal information and then they go on these data broker websites and try to get the rest of your information, they can open bank accounts in your name, they can open student loans in your name, they can open credit cards in your name.

21:51So it is very, very important to make sure you get that information removed, especially in today's day and age. As AI is advancing, these scams are getting very, very good. And I have heard of people getting their entire net worth wiped out just because they didn't have a financial protection plan in place. Guys, this is so incredibly important. So Delete.me is the great place to do that. They make it so incredibly easy. And we have a link. If you go to joindeliteme.com slash PFP20, you can actually get 20 % off of Delete.me. And that is one of the best services that I spend money on every single year.

22:22So I highly encourage each and every single one of you to do that as well, because it is by far the best place to get your personal information removed. Now, another thing to do, and this sounds obvious, but is to make sure that you have very unique passwords for each and every single website. Too many of you are still using your dog's name or the same password that you've been using for the last 10 years or all this other stuff. No, there are so many different tools out there now that can help you generate unique passwords and have those passwords stored. And so you need to make sure that you are generating those unique passwords.

22:50Just doing those three things is going to put you 10 steps ahead of most people that are out there, but you need to start it now. And if you are at the higher income levels that we're about to talk about, and you don't have that, by golly, you are a huge target. And you need to make sure that you have that because every single person now is going to be a target in the age of AI. You need to make sure that you have this plan in place. Tier three is folks making$50 ,000 to$70 ,000 per year. If you make that income level and you're in that income range, you need to do a number of different things.

23:19Number one is expand that emergency fund to six months of expenses. You need to make sure that you have six months of expenses and every single person listening at every single tier needs a minimum of six months expenses. This is not a debate. This is not something that, oh no, I'm going to do three months of expenses. No. In 2026, the need to have an emergency fund has increased dramatically because of the job market that is out there. I am not saying this to scare you again. I am saying this because it is the reality of the situation that we are in right now. And so you need to make sure that you have this emergency fund in place at a minimum of six months.

23:53Now, can you go longer than six months? Absolutely. Because anything beyond six months, I want you to find out what your SWAN number is. What does SWAN stand for? Sleep well at night. That is what the SWAN number stands for. And you can have nine months of expenses in place if you're a business owner. Maybe you want to have a year of expenses in place, but you want to make sure that you understand what your burn rate is every single month and you have six months saved in a high yield savings account. Can you invest these dollars? No, you cannot invest these dollars. These need to stay in a high-yield savings account because if the market takes a dip, the last thing you need is to lose your job and then the market takes a dip and you have 50 % of your emergency fund gone.

24:27No, instead, we need to make sure that we have this money in cash. Sure, you are just going to be pacing with inflation in a high-yield savings account, but you're going to make sure that that money is safe and it is there for its intended purpose. Number two, max out that Roth IRA every single year. Once you get to this income level, Roth IRA max out is at$7 ,500 per year. I want you to try as hard as you possibly can to make sure that you max that out. If there are two people in your household, each of you should try to max that Roth IRA out. This is going to help you tremendously when it comes to retirement.

24:59And the sooner you can get the ball rolling and max out that Roth IRA, the faster this money is going to compound and you can get that tax-free growth. And tax-free growth is the most powerful methodology when it comes to the Roth IRA. Now, if you are maxing out your Roth IRA, you can also increase those 401k contributions. You're already doing the 401k match if your employer has a match. And so increasing those contributions are very, very helpful. Also, getting serious about your credit score is important during this time frame. Making sure that if you have a bad credit score, we need to get that credit score increased.

25:27Why? This could save you a million dollars over your lifetime if you have a good credit score because you get lower interest rates on your mortgages. You get lower interest rates on your car loans. You get lower interest rates on any other debt that you need to take out. And this is going to be a very, very important metric that over time, the difference between you having a lower interest rate can be hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially if you have a mortgage. Number six is if you are in this situation, you're like, man, I can't get ahead. I still don't have extra cash on hand. I want you to review your insurance coverage.

25:58I want you to look at your health insurance. I want you to look at your auto insurance. I want you to look at your home insurance. And I want you to start shopping these things once a year. It is time well spent where it's going to take you a couple hours max. And I want you to get three different quotes from independent insurance folks, if you can. Let's use car insurance for an example. I'm going to put a link down below in the show notes that we use where you can compare car insurance rates. Now, this is a great tool if you are looking to reduce your overall insurance coverage. We'll put it down in the show notes.

26:28But basically what you do is you get a bunch of quotes from different providers instead of just going to State Farm and they tell you a price and then you just say, oh, okay, I'll just pay it. That's what the price of car insurance is. No, you need to make sure that you are comparing different quotes. This is going to save you hundreds of dollars every single month by reducing your overall insurance. You need to make sure that you are doing that. Number seven is making sure that you have some sort of system and bucket system in place. If you did not do that upfront, we need to have that bucket system in place.

26:55And if you are eligible, considering a health savings account is great to start at this level, meaning an HSA or a health savings account is if you have a high deductible health plan, then this is the super retirement account is what we call it because money goes in tax free. You can invest it and it can grow tax-free and you can pull the money out tax-free as long as you have a qualified medical expense. But the laundry list of qualified medical expenses is growing every single year. Amazon has this great page now where you can look at HSA eligible things. But in addition, there's things like treadmills.

27:25I've seen Pelotons are HSA eligible now. There's just so many different things out there where you can find and increase the amount that you have in expenses based on having that HSA. Also, it's during this level is continuing that financial education, making sure that you are reading, making sure you're listening to podcasts, making sure you're watching YouTube videos on finance is gonna be very important. So you just have that education in place. You don't have to be an expert. You just need to know the basics and have an understanding because you can build a tremendous amount of wealth just knowing the basics.

27:52It's more so mastering that psychology and having an understanding of how you think about money. Now, tier four, this is gonna be the tier where a lot of folks are getting some traction. This is where you could be getting traction in your financial life, in your career, and you could be seeing a big, big difference overall. So this is the folks making$75 ,000 per year to$100 ,000 per year. We are approaching that six-figure mark, and we want to make sure that we are taking advantage of our finances based on that. We have a lot of listeners in this tier, and so we want to make sure that we are making sure we're taking advantage of this.

28:23So this is the tier where I really want you to make sure that you are hitting at least that 15%, 20 % towards your retirement every single year. Our goal is, at a minimum, we want you to save 20 % of your income. Some of it needs to go to emergency fund, and then the rest of it can go to your investments. But making sure that you are saving a good chunk of your money in your Roth IRA and your 401k, and getting close to that 20 % number is going to be very important at this level. And also, as you're starting to get to 20%, maxing out that HSA is also very important if you have a high deductible health plan.

28:55In addition, if you have extra cash left over at this tier, opening a taxable brokerage account could be a great option, especially if you want to retire early, because you can pull down that money at any given time. I know a lot of people who made between$75 ,000 to$100 ,000 per year who have been able to retire early because they increased their savings rate and they reduced the amount they spent every single year. Early retirement is very possible at this level. And I think for most people out there, if you are aggressive enough, you can definitely make a big, big difference in your situation.

29:24Also, let's look at optimizing our tax withholding at this level. We'll talk more and more about taxes as we get later on down the line here, but tax withholdings are gonna be important in this level because at this income level, you need to start having conversations with tax professionals and seeing if you can optimize some of your tax savings so you're not over or under withholdings. And so making sure you look at your withholding, seeing how much you have in place so you're not giving the government a free loan can be very, very important. Also at this level, and every single person at the level before this, but also at this level, you need to make sure you automate everything.

29:56All of your investments should be automated. All of your bills should be automatically paid and you just monitor it. Your budget should be, for the most part, automated. The way that you think about money, the way that you spend money can be automated. There are so many different areas that it's very, very important that I think you need to automate everything. Now, we have a money automation checklist that we will link up down below in the show notes if you've never automated your money before. I want you to check that out and see if it is of interest to you. Also, in Master Money Academy, we have a course called Automate Your Money in a Weekend that helps you and walks you through the steps to automate your money over the course of just one single weekend.

30:31So if you're interested, check out Master Money Academy down below. Next is I want you to start building additional income streams. So if you are someone at this level, and any level below this, but someone at this level, additional income streams are really gonna help you accelerate your path to financial independence. And I know for most people listening, we wanna get to financial independence as fast as we possibly can, or at least have the option to have financial independence if we want to. And maybe you love your job and you wanna continue working, but having that option can be really, really great.

30:57So looking into maybe freelancing or consulting or doing digital products or figuring out ways to integrate AI into your life. We're going to talk about AI a lot in terms of increasing your income over the next couple of months because it is the way to increase your income faster than anything, any opportunity that has ever happened over the course of the last couple of years. I highly, highly recommend you really work through this and find ways to make this work. Number eight is then again, review your life insurance coverage because as your income continues to increase, you need to make sure that you have between eight to 12 times your income in term life insurance.

31:30And so making sure that if your income has increased, you increase the amount that you have within that life insurance. Again, you can get up to a million bucks with Policy Genius and I've seen it as low as$30. So it depends on your age, it depends on your health, but it is something that I think most people need to make sure that they are reviewing every couple of years to ensure that they are in the right spot. If you've gotten a raise recently, making sure you are careful with lifestyle inflation, making sure you are careful with increasing the amount that you're spending every single month is also very important at this level because there are way too many people making 75 to$100 ,000 per year that still live paycheck to paycheck.

32:03And every level above this, if you're living paycheck to paycheck, you really need to check your lifestyle inflation and your spending. It is very, very important to make sure that you do that. All right, let's get to tier five. So at tier five, we are gonna be making 100 ,000 to$150 ,000 per year. And this I call the six-figure foundation level. This is the level where most people need to make sure they are optimizing their financial situation. So one is I want you to focus on maxing out your retirement accounts if you can. Maxing out as many of them as possible. So the Roth IRA is at$7 ,500 per year and your 401k, and this is the big one, is$24 ,500 per year.

32:42Now, some of you may be saying to yourself, how am I ever gonna do that? But also I have kids and a family and all this different stuff. Well, if your household income is at that level, trying to get as close as possible to doing that, if you really want to get aggressive, is very important. If becoming financially free is your goal, then you really wanna get towards that. If not, make sure you're just at least saving that 20 % of your income towards these accounts, and that's gonna help you get there as your income increases. And so, number two, is I want you to work with a CPA, if you can. A CPA is gonna help you optimize your finances, and is going to help you make sure that you have the overall best tax situation.

33:16Now we have in Master Money Academy, we have this document that shows people what questions to ask your CPA and why you would even want to have a CPA in the first place and how to interview a CPA. So if you're interested in that, make sure you join Master Money Academy. And again, for podcast listeners, we give you a seven day free trial down below. So make sure you check that out if you haven't already. Then implementing task loss harvesting in your brokerage account. If you have a really large brokerage account, you've been at this level for a long time. Some of you I know out there are making between$100 ,000 and$150 ,000 per year.

33:47And you've been making that amount for a very long time. You've been increasing the amount that you've been making every year, but you've been in this range for a long time. And if you have, maybe you have a pretty large brokerage account now. Maybe you've been taking some of those extra dollars, you've lived below your means, and you've been investing those dollars. Well, then tax loss harvesting can be a consideration and you could talk to your CPA about that, but that is gonna help you when it comes to your tax situation. But I also want you to consider things like the backdoor Roth. The backdoor Roth, there could be optimal times for you to look at this as your income is this high, because if you think you're going to continue to get raises and promotion and jump into the next levels, then the backdoor Roth may be something that we want to look at at the upper end of this range, because you're going to start to hit those income phase-out limits if you are at the upper limit of this range.

34:29Also, as you can start to diversify into real estate investing, if you are maxing out some of those accounts, looking at real estate investing can help you with your tax situation. It can help you with some cash flow. It can give you some appreciation. There's a ton of ways to build wealth with real estate. And at this level, this is a great time to take some of your extra dollars. And if you're interested in real estate, going there. Real estate is not for everyone. And I want you to make sure that you understand that. Fixing toilets, understanding tenants, managing a property manager. It doesn't matter.

34:56All of this is still a business. And so it's a second business, a second thing you have to worry about, and a second household that you truthfully have to manage. If something breaks, it is your responsibility, not someone else's. And so if you want to diversify into real estate, just know what you're getting into first, because it is definitely more work than maybe some other stuff. Now, if you want real estate exposure, then you can also consider things like REITs. Those are great options if you just want the passive way to look at this. But again, there's index funds and ETFs that have REITs in them, and there are other things that you can do your research on.

35:24Number six is to review your asset allocation at this level. Make sure your asset allocation, meaning the mix of stocks and bonds that you have in place and other investments, making sure it is actually aligned with where you are at your income level. That is something everyone should do on a yearly basis anyway, but at this level, it becomes more and more important because your asset allocation is what we call a million-dollar money decision. And when we talk about these million-dollar money decisions, they are decisions that you can make that can change the trajectory of your finances by a million dollars, and your asset allocation is one of those.

35:53We need to do that episode and do an updated version of that episode of the million-dollar money decisions because it is one of my favorite topics to talk about, and it really opens people's eyes to the power of these big financial decisions and how they impact their bottom line. Next is protect your wealth with something like an umbrella policy if you are getting to the upper level of this. If you've made this amount of money for a long time and you have a million dollar net worth, then you may wanna start looking at an umbrella policy and looking to see if you need that. So do your research into umbrella policies and see if you need that insurance in place.

36:25For most people out there who are making more money or have a higher net worth and their net worth is increasing over time, that is when I would start to look at this. Once your net worth starts to hit 800 ,000, 900 ,000, a million bucks, That's where you really want to look at umbrella policies and see if it should fit your lifestyle based on your day-to-day actions and what you do each and every single day. So that is tier five is the 100 to 150 ,000 level. Let's take a break and then we're going to jump into tier six. So lately, I've been noticing how fast things are changing at home. The kids are growing like crazy.

36:58Clothes don't fit anymore and routines are changing and it just hits you. Life is expanding. And when your life grows, your responsibility grows with it. That's something I've been thinking about more this spring, making sure the safety net we have in place actually matches the life that we're building. And that's where Policy Genius comes in. Policy Genius is an insurance company. They're an online marketplace that helps you compare life insurance quotes from some of the top insurers in America, all in one place for free. And their licensed team works for you, not the insurance companies. So they help you find the right coverage for your situation without all the guesswork.

37:33And they walk you through everything. Answer your questions, handle the paperwork, and help you get the coverage that actually fits your life today and where it's going. So protect your family with a policy that grows with your life. With Policy Genius, you can see if you can find 20-year life insurance policies starting at just$276 a year for$1 million of coverage. Head to PolicyGenius.com to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you can save. That's PolicyGenius.com. Starting something new is uncomfortable. I remember when I first started building this podcast and business, there were so many what ifs.

38:07What if no one listens? What if this doesn't work? And what if I'm wasting my time? But pushing through was one of the best decisions I have ever made. And having the right tools makes a huge difference. That's where Shopify comes in. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses and handles 10 % of all e-commerce in the US. Whether you're just getting started or scaling something big, it gives you everything you need all in one place. You can build a clean, professional store with ready-to-use templates, use AI tools to write product descriptions and improve your listings, and run email or social campaigns to actually get your product in front of people.

38:42And the part I love is it simplifies everything. Inventory payments, analytics, marketing, it's all in one place. So you're not trying to duct tape a bunch of tools altogether. Plus, if you ever get stuck, they've got 24-7 support to help you through it. It's time to turn those what-ifs into ka-ching with Shopify today. Sign up for your$1 per month trial today at shopify.com slash pfp. Go to shopify.com slash pfp. That's shopify.com slash pfp. I remember when I needed to hire someone fast, but finding the right person quickly felt impossible. And if you've ever been there, you know how stressful this can be.

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39:55Just go to indeed.com slash personal finance right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash personal finance. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. For a long time, I thought investing was something you did later. Like once you had everything figured out. more money, more knowledge, and more time. But the shift for me was realizing you don't need to have it all figured out. You just need to start. And that's why I like Acorns. Acorns is the financial wellness app that makes it simple to give your money a chance to grow. You can sign up in minutes and start automatically investing your spare money, even if all you've got is spare change.

40:33What really stands out to me is the potential screen. It shows you what your money could become over time. And that's powerful because it keeps you focused on the long-term instead of getting caught up in the day-to-day. It's also all in one place. You can invest, save, and stay on track with your goals without juggling a bunch of different apps. Sign up now and Acorns will boost your new account with a$5 bonus investment. Join the over 14 million all-time customers that have already saved and invested over$27 billion with Acorns. Head to acorns.com slash PFP or download the Acorns app to get started.

41:06Paid non-client endorsement. Compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns. Tier 2 compensation provided. potential subject to various factors such as customer accounts, age, and investment settings. Does not include Acorns fees. Results do not predict or represent the performance of any Acorns portfolio. Investment results will vary. Investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. View important disclosures at acorns.com slash pfp. All right. So at the tier six level, this is going to be people making$150 ,000 per year to$250 ,000 per year. This is what we call the wealth building phase, because if you're in this range, depending on where you live, but pretty much wherever you live, you can start to build some sort of wealth.

41:40If you live in New York City, maybe you have less leftover than someone who lives in Alabama. But at the same time, anybody making this amount of money can build wealth and you should have something left over every single month. And so here's what I want you to do. For most people out there, you need to aggressively stack tax advantage accounts, meaning your 401k, your Roth IRA, your HSA. This becomes increasingly important because these are going to be things that are going to help you with your taxes long term. So this is the level where it starts to become a question, and you need to talk to your CPA about this, about do you need to think through contributing to a 401k or a traditional IRA before you contribute to the Roth?

42:18Or is it great to still continue investing in the Roth? You need to look at your tax situation and start to have these conversations. Now, if you are a business owner, a solo 401k is a wonderful option. There's also a SEP IRA. And if you are someone who is a business owner who has employees, a simple IRA is also another thing that you can look into. These are all fantastic options that you need to take advantage of as much as possible. It's going to reduce your overall tax bill and you need to make sure that you are looking at this. Two is if your plan allows it and you're making this amount of money, try to execute a mega backdoor Roth IRA.

42:51Now we've done an entire episode on the mega backdoor Roth IRA, but this allows you to get more money into your traditional IRA and some 401k plans allow you to contribute after tax contributions that can also be converted to a Roth in the future. And this can add tens of thousands of dollars into your Roth annually. And so you want to make sure you are doing this. Number three is if you are interested in real estate, building a real estate portfolio intentionally at this level can be a very powerful asset class for those who are interested in real estate. Even just having one to three rental properties can really help diversify your situation if you are interested in real estate.

43:27It is not a requirement and I don't think it's for everybody. But if you are interested in real estate, it can definitely be something that could be helpful. Number four is if you are feeling uncomfortable about the market, you can also diversify outside of index funds. We mentioned real estate, maybe a small business, but diversifying some of your portfolio outside of index funds could be beneficial. But again, not for everybody. Some people want that passive income. They want it to be completely passive. And so index funds are one of the best places for that. And so you want to make sure that you are looking at.

43:53Now, number five is very important. And this is where at this income level, you need to make sure that you were doing that. One is you need to run quarterly tax projections with your CPA. So my CPA and I, we meet quarterly and we talk through my tax situation. Now I have businesses, I have a complicated situation, but for not for everybody else, but for even someone who is just a W-2 earner, you want to run quarterly projections with your CPA to understand where you currently stand. You need to figure out, okay, well, if I run a business, what are my estimated taxes going to be? Am I on track with my estimated taxes?

44:25Am I on track with my deductions? Am I on track with making sure I take advantage of every single tax benefit that I can currently? Because this is gonna help you stay on top of this and ensure that you are making the right moves throughout the year. What way too many people do is they get to November and they get to December and then all of a sudden realize, oh no, I am gonna be paying way too much in taxes. I need to figure something else out now. They call up their CPA and then they try to do tax strategy within a month and it is a very stressful time and it is very difficult to do within a month.

44:55Instead, you need to have these quarterly meetings. So we call it the tax plan with my CPA, but go find a CPA who will run these quarterly things for you and make sure that you have a plan in place to do so. Next is you can also set up things like donor advised funds at these levels if you are charitably inclined. If you are someone who is interested in giving money away to cost as you believe in, donor advised funds can be something that can help you. There's companies out there like Daffy who can help you set this up simply that it will be really, really beneficial for a lot of people. And then number seven is you really need to, at this level, and if you don't do this, you're gonna be very wasteful with your money, is you need to have defined and clear goals with what you wanna do next with your money.

45:34Because you're gonna have some excess cash on hand. And if you have that excess cash and you burn through all of it, you are working so incredibly hard for nothing. You need to make sure that you have a defined plan in place if you don't already have that, where it talks through, hey, this is my investment plan. This is my spending plan. This is my tax plan. All of these are super, super important to make sure you stay on track with your dollars going forward. And so as we start to think about this, I really want you to make sure that you have that plan in place. Now let's jump to the next tier, which is tier seven.

46:08Now tier seven is for folks making$250 ,000 to$500 ,000 per year. As you can imagine, taxes become very important at this level. And for those of you at this level, And we do have a lot of listeners that I have spoken to personally at this level, folks who are in a really good position, but taxes are eating them alive. I have talked to people who listen to this podcast who make over a million dollars per year. I have talked to people who listen to this podcast who make eight, seven, six hundred thousand dollars per year. And I've talked to people on this podcast who have made a lot of them within this range, two hundred fifty to five hundred thousand dollars per year.

46:40And so you need to make sure, number one, and this is what I've seen time and time again, is that you maximize every single tax deduction and credit systematically. A CPA is the only way to really do this, to make sure that they are in your corner to help you with this. Because at this income level, every single deduction that you can find is worth so much more. And it's worth literally 35 cents or more in actual tax savings. Because you're gonna start to get taxed more based on where you are at this income level. And so you wanna make sure that your tax strategy is locked in. If you're at this level and you don't have a CPA, what are you doing?

47:11You gotta have a CPA in your corner. And I am not a CPA. I'm just a big proponent in saving money on taxes and not paying Uncle Sam every single dollar. And so that's for you because you can take those extra dollars and put them towards wealth building. And again, I want you to become a multi-multi-millionaire. And so that's the overall goal. Next is you can also consider a defined benefit plan or cash balance plan if you're self-employed. So a cash balance plan is actually pretty cool. I had a couple of family members who own businesses that did this last year. and they had a really high income year.

47:41And so this allows you to have contributions far beyond your standard 401k limits. And you can shelter hundreds of thousands of dollars from taxes annually by having something like this. And so these are great plans to look into if you have a really, really big year and you are jumping into a bigger tax bracket or if you're a business owner, this can be really, really important for you to look through that. The next one is to build a real estate portfolio with a focus on depreciation. So for folks in the higher income levels, We want to force some depreciation in some of these properties. And so there are things that you can do like bonus depreciation or cost segregation studies that are going to help you claim depreciation early on in the life cycle of that property.

48:22And so really, if you invest in real estate, there are things like cost segregation studies that you can go out and get. It can help you make sure that you're in a place to get bigger deductions if you are a real estate investor. Also, if you own businesses, and a lot of folks who are in this income level, they own businesses. is. But if you do own a business, consider looking at an S-corp if you're just a standard LLC right now, because an S-corp can help you save a lot in taxes, depending on how your business is set up. Talk to your CPA about this. But it does help a lot of folks save anywhere from$20 ,000 to$50 ,000 per year in taxes if you are self-employed.

48:53Also, at this level, I would work with a team. You don't just have to work with a CPA. But if you don't know what you're doing, having a good advisor in place where you pay a yearly fee is going to be something that could be very, very helpful as well because they can help position you and help you with tax planning when you are looking at some of your situation. And then also at this level, you need to begin serious estate planning because when you're making this amount of money and you're taking a good chunk of extra dollars and putting it towards wealth building, you'd make sure that is protected.

49:23And so as you start to approach that million dollar mark, you need to have a trust in place. Or if you own multiple businesses, you need to have a trust in place. And, or if you are someone with a complicated financial situation, you need to have a trust in place. Trust is gonna help protect you against probate. It's gonna help protect you against a lot of different things that could come down the line if anything were to happen to you. And you want your assets to go to the actual people that you want them to go to. And so estate planning becomes very important. And so you can go to an estate planning attorney, just make sure they know what they're doing, interview a few different ones, because that is gonna help you tremendously just protect your wealth, protect your assets.

49:57And you can customize these. So if you have kids, you can customize the way that you give them money if you're going to give it to them. There's charities. You can customize the way that you're giving to charities. And if there are other things that you want to get creative on, a trust allows you to get creative with your dollars and the way that you think about your money. So trusts are very important and knowing having someone with a lot of experience who knows what to do with trust is important. An attorney, for example, in my state where I live, we paid our attorney about$6 ,000 to create our trust.

50:23So that's around the range that it would cost, you know, at least I live in Florida. So that's the range that we pay for ours. There could be less or more that you pay in different states, but having a good one in place is somewhere around that range. Some costs way more than that. And I think if they charge a 20, 30 ,000 bucks, it better be pretty complicated for them to be charging you that because my trust is pretty complicated in and of itself. And so I think for most people out there, just having the right mindset going into this is very, very important. Now, number eight is if you have a lot of extra money on hand and you want to diversify, looking at alternative assets, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

50:55If you want to do that, for most folks out there, you could just look at index funds and ETFs. If you want to diversify into the market, you definitely can. You want to diversify into real estate, you definitely can. But looking at things like small businesses, if you really want to grow your wealth, can be something that is huge. Looking at laundromats or car washes, or if you want to acquire some sort of small business, I think that is a great way to diversify. It is one of the best opportunities that we are going to have over the course of the next couple of decades. And so ownership becomes increasingly important in the increasing age of AI.

51:24And so I really want you to look at that if you can. And then automate philanthropy to align with your values. So obviously, if you want to give to more causes that you believe in, automating that could be a very powerful way to do this. And so I highly recommend doing that with a donor advised fund or a family foundation, depending on how much you're making. And that'll help you get to that point in time. Now let's get to tier eight, which is$500 ,000 per year. And this is for legacy and advanced wealth building. So number one is you want to make sure that you have a plan in place on how you're going to do this.

51:52Are you going to go from accumulation to shifting to preservation and then shifting to legacy mode? Those are the three modes that I believe most people shift into throughout their life when they are building wealth is accumulation, preservation, and legacy. And those three areas, I think, are the three areas that you need to plan out for, and especially when you're at tier A at this level where you're making$500 ,000 plus per year. I want every single person to listen to this podcast to get to this level at some point in time in their life if they can, because honestly, the abundance that's out there is tremendous.

52:23But if you think you will never hit this, nothing wrong with that whatsoever. You can build a crazy amount of wealth and become a millionaire making under$100 ,000 per year and a multimillionaire under$100 ,000 per year. So this is something that if you are just a high earner, maybe you own a business or maybe you work for a growing company that's paying you a lot. Maybe you're an executive. All of those folks, maybe you're an attorney, maybe you're a doctor. Making this amount of money, I want you to first realize is a blessing. And you need to make sure that you are a good steward with these dollars.

52:50You need to make sure you are a good steward with your money and you are putting it in places that is going to benefit you. You did not work hard to get to this point in time to just waste all this money. And way too many high earners at this level that I talk to and that I meet. There's a lot of them living paycheck to paycheck. And it breaks my heart because they have the greatest opportunity of their lifetime where they can take large chunks of cash and allow that cash to work harder than they ever could. But instead, they throw it at just random things like random private equity deals or just random investments that they have no understanding of.

53:22Instead of looking at ways that they could grow that money over time in a safe way, but also helps them accumulate wealth, that is the best way to look at this. Two, is establishing those trusts need to be in place if you're making over$500 ,000 per year. It is very important to have a trust in place and it's gonna have all the information that you need in there. It's gonna help protect you. Implementing advanced tax strategies is very important at this level as well. Your CPA and your advisor needs to be helping you with these tax strategies so that you can make sure that you are paying less to Uncle Sam and more of that money yourself.

53:51Number four is I would say to diversify concentrated stock positions tax efficiently. And so people can help you with this. But if you have just a bunch of wealth tied up into a single stock or a single business, making sure you diversify out of that can be really, really important. If all your eggs are in one basket, then you are at huge risk to market conditions. You are at huge risks to just a number of different things. And so you need to make sure you diversify out of those situations. Also, number five is you can use annual gifting strategies to transfer wealth during your lifetime. So if you're someone who is getting from, you know, that accumulation stage and moving on to the preservation stage, or you're still in the accumulation stage, but you just have more money than you need, then you can start to gift money to your heirs while you're alive.

54:33And I think that's the best way to do this, to be honest, is that you can see and help them through their financial situation. A lot of people out there, what they do is they wait till they die. And a lot of times when they die, and especially if you die at an old age, your kids don't need the money at that point in time. They've already grown up and they've already established themselves financially. When they need it is, you know, in their 20s, when they're paying off their student loans, in their 30s, when they're trying to figure out and navigate their financial life. And so those are the times when your kids need it the most.

54:58And so you can figure out plans to put this into place where you can start to give while they are alive. Number six is I would build a personal board of advisors. Mentors are going to be very important. I would develop business coaches or executive coaches to help you through tough situations. I would have a CPA in your corner. I would have an advisor in your corner when you're at this high level and making sure that you position an advisor in place that is not just someone who is taking a huge percentage of assets. But if you can find someone who will put together plans for you on a yearly basis and help you through that process for maybe a fee, that is going to be a really important thing that's going to help save you a lot of money as you have a high income.

55:37And so all of these are really, really powerful. But having these folks in your corner can be helpful. Having an insurance specialist in your corner can save you a lot of money. and maybe even a business advisor who helps you through all the things you have in place and an executive assistant. All of those can help you save more time so you can spend more time either focusing on where to put this income, where to grow your business and or spending more time with your family and having that financial freedom. That is the overall goal for most of us. And then number seven, and I would highly encourage each person who is a really high earner to do this, is define your legacy intentionally.

56:09What do I mean by that? I mean, making sure that you understand and think through your legacy a little bit. What do you want your legacy to be? Meaning, being a good steward of your money. How do you want your money stewarded? How do you want your dollars distributed? How do you want to be remembered? Because if you want to be remembered for someone who just works all the time and you built up this really high income because you're just constantly working and that's all your kids remember, that's what's going to happen. But if you are someone who wants to have this balanced life and you want to be there for every single one of your kids' games, or you want to be there for your spouse, or you want to be there for your family, then maybe we need to define our legacy in a different way.

56:43And so I want you to think through this and I want you to actually write this out on what you want your legacy to be. Think deeply about this and see where you land. Because I think for most people, when you think about your legacy, it can shift the way that you act day in and day out. Listen, thank you so much for listening to this episode. We love doing these by income episodes because I think they're really helpful for a lot of folks out there who are at different income levels. Because you got to make different moves based on you looking at different income levels. So I think it's very, very important for most people out there to think through where you are and where you stand.

57:17Now, if you are someone who wants to build wealth and you want a step-by-step financial plan and you want to reduce stress and anxiety around money and you want to have hope around your money and you want to make sure that you know that going forward you are confident in your financial future, that's why I built Master Money Academy. Master Money Academy is a community. And it is a place where you have access to all of our members who are all wealth builders who are working on the same common goal to become financially free. We have the Wealth Builders Journey inside Master Money Academy, which is the step-by-step guide to exactly what you need to do with your next dollar.

57:51In addition, when you get stuck on a step, you can ask me live every single week during our coaching calls. I am on there every single week for our coaching calls, making sure I'm helping you as much as you possibly can. And throughout the week, people are asking questions And the coolest thing about this is our wealth builders inside Master Money Academy are able to answer a ton of your questions because they've been with us so far and they know exactly what to do next. And so this has been people helping out other people. So if you're looking to grow your wealth, if you're looking to build your wealth, I invite you to Master Money Academy.

58:20For podcast listeners, we give you a seven-day free trial so you can see behind the curtain to see exactly what Master Money Academy is all about. and we are growing every single month and it is so fun to meet every single one of you and to work on your financial plans together. So Master Money Academy, highly encourage each and every single one of you to join and can't wait to see you inside of there because you're about one year away from transforming your finances and that is what Master Money Academy is built to do. Again, thank you so much for listening to this episode. Please leave a five-star rating and review if you're getting value out of this episode or if you're watching on YouTube, make sure you're subscribed.

58:53A lot of you are not subscribed yet and so would love to see each and every single one of you subscribed. It means the world to me for those reviews and subscribing. So thank you again so much for being here. We will see you on the next episode.