Wealth Building Tips from Drew

The big O—Organize!
Get organized, period. Pathfinder advocates separate files for each expense: utilities, phone, electric, Internet, auto, etc. Each month, invoices (such as repairs or maintenance) go in those files. The invoices are then categorized by group and chronologically (ex. January car bills, February car bills, etc.). When 2007 comes around, copy the file names from last year and start a new file bin for the next year. You can then take this to your accountant’s office along with your tax diary and you’re set.

If you don’t already have an electronic bookkeeping system such as Quicken, Quick Books or others, get one and use it immediately. I learned this lesson the hard way. When I was practicing law, my accountant had me list all of my expenses. It took me 40 to 50 hours to do. The following year I changed over to Quick Books, which condensed those countless hours to the push of one button. Lists off of Quick Books (or other like program) can easily be emailed directly to your accountant.

Get out of dodge
It’s absolutely necessary to get away from business. I need to get away 100 percent, meaning no calls, no email--no business at all. For me to be creative, I need to be recharged and take two or three weeks to see friends, ski, do nothing and relax. When I take a three-week break in December every year, I come back to business in January and it all looks different and I’m energized.

The wealthiest and most successful people don’t run themselves ragged. They stop long before running out of steam, taking small- and large-scale breaks to re-charge when needed. You can’t do your best thinking when you’re running at 80 percent. Take at least two or three three-day weekends each quarter to recharge your batteries.

[from Mastering your money Part 1, Track 1-12]

This is just one of many wealth building tips I have for you.

ROI-calculating accurately

The phrase “return on investment” (ROI) is thrown around a lot, but do you know what it really means and how to calculate it?

Three ways to calculate ROI
Cash-on-cash If $20,000 is invested and it grows by $10,000, it’s a 50 percent cash-on-cash rate of return, which is great for wealth building.
Total amount of investment If you put $20,000 down for a $200,000 mortgage, the growth is happening on the $200,000, not what you originally put in. This is arguably less relevant because the amount made on what was originally put in is more important and helpful.
Lost opportunity cost When you’re looking to raise money with another person’s money, you need to demonstrate the loss he could incur if he doesn’t invest. If you have an investment that pays a 20 percent interest and the lender has money in something that only pays 5 percent, you need to show him how much he is losing if he passes up your opportunity.

What the rich do that we don’t
The rich develop a wealth building niche that allows them huge rates of return on what they do—real estate, investing in the market, your day-to-day business. Once they make the money, without fail, the wealthiest of the wealthy buy bonds, key bills or some other type of fund that pays a return of three percent to five percent. They want to protect their principle. They only roll the dice in an area of expertise where they can expect a safe return.

Interested in Tax Tips and Wealth Building, be sure to visit the Pathfinder website.

Smart Yearend Planning—Corporate Formalities

There are three main areas we need to keep in mind as the year ends:
1. Taxes
2. Corporate formalities
3. Planning for next year


The power of documentation—shifting the burden of proof
For those who have an LLC (opposed to a sole proprietorship, S Corporation or C Corporation), it’s always better to over-document. By keeping a tax diary, you shift the burden of proof from yourself to the IRS, who then has to disprove its validity.

Annual meeting—an opportunity to have some fun
Make sure you’ve done your annual meeting by the end of the year. Why you’re at it, you might as well make it fun. You can hold it anywhere in the continental United States without a problem, and you can hold the meeting abroad or Hawaii or Alaska if you can show why you needed to hold the meeting there.

Get corporate minutes and meetings in line.
Prepare a notice or waiver of notice (available on Pathfinder’s Web site). When you have a corporation, you need to notify in writing by certified mail all the shareholders of the meeting. If you’re the only shareholder, you certainly do not need to send a notice to yourself; instead, you can print out a waiver of notice because the notice is unnecessary.
Print out a form for the meeting’s minutes. Minutes are what you discuss at the meeting (or think about, if it is just you at the meeting). You can hold your annual meeting in Aspen and ski. When you’re in the lodge thinking about what you want to do the next year for marketing, etc. and jotting down ideas, this could be your annual meeting.
Extracurricular things need a resolution. Resolutions are decisions you made at the annual meeting. You don’t need one to take a client to dinner or attend a seminar. You do, however, need one if you rent new space, open up a new bank account, buy a car. It’s better to be safe than sorry and have a resolution.
This is a good time to make sure you have a medical reimbursement plan in writing. Fill out the form off Pathfinder’s Web site and keep it in the corporate kit. Use the same advice in regard to your educational assistance plan. Preparing this document does not take long, but it’s very important.

Read more about IRAs and Wealth Building

Uneducated Tax System v. Educated Tax System

The line under your income on your pay stub is where these two systems differ. With the uneducated tax system, you deduct the three lines under your income and the remainder is what you receive. With the educated tax system, the first line is your reported income as with the uneducated tax system. However, the second line is the money you spent on the business, and you pay taxes on what is left. This is because when a business spends money it is called a business expense or tax deduction. Therefore, having your own business and being in the educated tax system, you can reduce your taxes by 40-70%. To break this down even further: If you are making $35,000 a year this could save you up to $10,000. That means it does not matter if you are making millions of dollars or a few thousand dollars. These strategies apply to you! A marginally profitable business can become a thriving business by applying these strategies.

A case study: One of my students, Stephanie, was making $50,000 a year. She took these strategies to her CPA who had been working with her families for years and always had her best interest in mind. He replied that although this program sounded interesting, he was already utilizing every deduction available able to her. Stephanie’s CPA agreed to participate in a conference call with me at Stephanie’s request. Stephanie’s CPA explained that she was paying $12,000 in taxes. While this was much less than the average person, she could have been paying even less. I introduced three strategies: helping her to reduce her FICA, deducting her healthcare, deducting education (both her and her daughter’s). We were able to reduce her total taxes paid to $800. In 15 minutes and with only three strategies, we were able to save her over $11,200!
I have had students save well over $100,000. Just think what you could do with that money!
We can start by converting your largest expenses into business expenses. We can teach you lesser known deductions (e.g. travel and entertainment, medical, seminars, books, etc.) and shift them over to business expenses. You pay them with pre-tax dollars and not after-tax dollars, reducing your taxable income.

Learn more Tax Tips with Pathfinder Business Strategies

Entity Structuring

Entity structuring is the use of limited partnerships, limited liabilities, and corporations. These can help you accomplish three things:1. Bullet-proofing your assets so that the bad guys are worse of if they try and take them away from you.2. Slashing your taxes so that they are within single digits.3. Protecting your privacy and building lasting wealth.
Let me explain how this works with the following example:
A case study: My friend Patrick grew up with the family business. His family sold expensive boats. His business grew. He was a financially intelligent man so he wanted to add a stream of income. Therefore, he decided to start a Marina, a land storage facility, a parts shop and a show room. I wanted to make sure he was properly protected and that he had bullet-proofed his assets. However, he was too busy making money to focus on it at that time. This was his fatal flaw. One day, I got that dreaded call from Patrick. The sheriff deputy was there to shut down his businesses: the Marina, the parts shop, the storage facility, and the show room. His business was locked down with pad locks in a matter of hours. Within six months, he lost all of his personal assets and filed both personal and corporate bankruptcy. The tragedy here is beyond his loses but the fact that this situation was completely avoidable. You can prevent this from happening to your business by using two power tools:1. Limited Partnerships: separate legal entities. They separate your personal assets from business investments. 2. Limited Liability: similar to Limited Partnerships as they form a wall between you and the creditors and predators.
These two power tools include a built-in charging order that does not apply to your typical “S” or “C” corporations. A charging order basically states that the “bad guys” can not go after your assets. They will be able to go after income but not after you employ the following strategy. We can set up a separate management company for you. Then, you can shift your money from your LLC or LP into your separate management company. The last step in your protection is called imputing income, and it finalizes the prevention of lawsuits. The IRS can step in and tax these bad guys for the money they are suing for (even when they are unable to collect this money.) This ensures the fact that suing you will not be worth the effort.
In summary: They can not touch your assets because you have protected them. They can not receive the income because you have shifted it out. They are left with heavy taxes imposed by the IRS. Therefore, the likelihood of you being sued is next to nothing.

Interested in Wealth Building or Tax Deductions?

Heads up on co-signing loans

In my opinion, if you co-sign a loan with a family member or a friend, you’re looking for trouble. Granted, if you want to help your child buy his first car, you may need to co-sign because the child does not have credit history yet. The danger is that if your son makes a late payment, the bank will come to you to pay it off. Be extremely judicious who you co-sign for. Because of the risk that another person could damage my credit, I will never co-sign for a friend or family.

It’s not homework, it’s an assignmentOutline the following; read these documents and understand every clause. There’s good and bad risk. Make sure you have the skill set to take a calculated risk?
1. home mortgage(s)2. credit card agreements and statements3. car loans or leases4. insurance contracts
Get answers to these questions:Do I understand the rules of this contract? Do I understand the amount of risk I’m taking by agreeing to this contract? Do I understand tax laws surrounding the contract?Does the contract fit my priorities? Forget whether you think you deserve it (because you probably do)—can you afford it?Can I afford to lose all or part of my money by engaging in this contract?

Another helpful strategy is realizing your possible Tax Deductions.

Smart Yearend Planning - Tax Deductions

There are three main areas we need to keep in mind as the year ends:1. Taxes2. Corporate formalities3. Planning for next year
Revisit the idea of converting your 10 largest expenses. This is an ongoing process that should be done at least twice the first year. It’s not realistic to expect you will convert all of your biggest expenses the first time around because it’s too big of a task—this is a habit needing to be developed over time. Our largest expenses, habits, and businesses all change over time. As your life evolves, so should your deductions, so keep current.
Strategy: upstreaming income. The goal of upstreaming income is to shift income from this tax year to the next tax year. Whatever your operating account balance is on December 31 will get added, as of January 1, to your last year’s income. If you have a $50,000 balance, for example, going into the next year, that’s taxable income. You therefore should upstream the money, making it no longer taxable for that year. This strategy is applicable if you have an S Corp, partnership, limited partnership or sole proprietorship.
How to upstream income Upstreaming income is accomplished by setting up a new entity such as a management company with a different yearend than your business. A business’s income can then be shifted out of the 2006 tax year to 2007. You will want a contract and invoices to reflect this agreement between your business and management company. Move the $50,000 balance to your management company with a June 1 yearend, for example. The money should be moved ideally at least on a monthly basis, not just once at the end of the year. I recommend taking five to 10 checks out of your checkbook and put them in a file for the upcoming year. In January, if you find out you had some expenses you missed—it’d be a lot better to have a check in sequence that you can write from December.

Tax Tips - By Drew Miles

Chew slowly and digest the rules

It’s hard to understand all of “the rules” and fine print on all of our policies since we have limited time. But it’s imperative you take the time to become familiar with your coverage. Go through your mortgage, note, insurance, bank statements, employment contract, tax deductions, shareholders agreement—at least once, then briefly once a year after that. You don’t need to review all documents at once; take one every few days until you’re done. Don’t trust others to make the right wealth building decisions for you instead of taking responsibility yourself, a pitfall too common for too many people make. You’re responsible for your own finances. Responsibility is the freedom to respond.
Case in point: One of my mentors is very well known and respected. He invested his entire retirement fund with an investor. The investor was featured in a publication and bragged a lot throughout the interview and raised some red flags. The FCC found out he was no longer successfully trading and had indeed lied to his family and the public about his company’s trading history. My mentor lost all of his savings for retirement with this investor and it took him years to get back on his feet. Eventually he was standing again, because he took responsibility.
Insurance—know your policies intimatelyWhether it’s homeowners, investment, car, health or another type of insurance, you need to know exactly what you’re covered for. There are always exclusions and it always seems like the exclusions apply to you. Know what you’ve got.

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The Two Biggest Thieves In Regards To Wealth Building

The two biggest wealth thieves a person will encounter are tax deductions and lawsuits. Taxes work against you by chipping away at your wealth. These include federal income taxes (deducting up to 39% of your income), state taxes (deducting up to 9.6%), and self employment or social security (over 15.5 %.). The average American is paying 42-55% in taxes. Ironically, the wealthiest people in the U.S. are paying only single digits taxes. Rest assured, because there is something you can do about this, and it won’t cost you the $500/hr that these wealthy people are paying for tax tips from their specialists.
Next, lawsuits are the other evil. This is not the slow reduction of your wealth as with taxes. It is the sudden confiscation of the money you worked hard to build. You can literally fall from the top of the totem pole to the bottom of the barrel overnight. I believe there are no winners in lawsuits because even “winning” a lawsuit takes up time and money that will set you back. Once again, you can protect yourself by learning how to structure yourself properly. You can "bullet-proof" your assets. You can even avoid lawsuits all together.
Crucial to understanding these strategies is differentiating the concepts of asset and liability. Ask yourself the following: Is a real estate investment an asset or a liability? You may be thinking, “It generates income and provides equity; therefore, it has to be an asset.However, the answer is more complex. You must look at how you hold title to that property. If you own it incorrectly and are not properly structured, you could be putting yourself at risk. If you have your home, your car, your bank accounts all lumped together, someone can take them all away in one sweep. Therefore, you must learn how entity structure.

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Take Waste Out Of Your Spending

Buyer Beware:The ability to save money has nothing to do with income. Take waste out of your spending and you’ll drive the haste out of your life. Continue to learn “the rules,” as they’re always changing.
Learn the rulesWe’re not taught “the rules” in school—high school, college, law school. So we go through life in the dark, not understanding why it’s so hard to get ahead. Hard work and perseverance unfortunately aren’t enough—you have to know the rules to become financially free.
CARThe first time I bought a new car, I’d just gotten out of law school. When I asked how much the car was, the salesperson asked how much I could pay each month, instead of telling me how much the car was. He never told me how much the car was, but I still bought it. This is not a smart way to buy a car. A few of unexpected life events and suddenly I was struggling to make the car payments. I bought it under their rules, not mine.
MORTGAGEPrepayment penalty—Many mortgage companies want to entice you to keep the mortgage in place for the life of the loan. For many people, very little money goes toward paying down the principle the first seven years of a loan. Some mortgage notes have prepayment penalties so that if you pay the mortgage off earlier, you get penalized. Know what is on your note. You need to make informed decisions instead of being whisked along by a strong breeze—direct your own choices.
Adjustable rate mortgages—These adjust no more than X%/per year and X% over the life of the loan, with a lifetime cap. Be prepared to pay the maximum adjustable amount, incase rates increase. When the stock market crashed in 1987, my mortgage increased $1,000/month, an amount I couldn’t afford and had no backup plan for paying.
The mortgage broker is trained to help you get in the home you want, as is the real estate agent. If you say your maximum is $300,000 for a home, the agent will show you homes at $350,000. Then when you insist on only seeing homes in your price range, suddenly you really want a more expensive home and are likely to buy something more expensive. Remember, money is emotional. Stick to what you can afford and master money’s power over you.

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