Avoid these 2 common financial mistakes to live a more stress free life.
These two common financial mistakes lead to a greater sense of uncertainty and a more stressful life. The Life You Can Afford to Live is designed to provide you with tools to lead the best life possible. So, naturally we wouldn’t want you to miss two of the most common mistakes that we see people make in their financial life.
Most often when someone speaks with authority on a subject its because they’ve had personal experience within the subject matter. Certainly true in this instance. I am bringing you this message from a point of I’ve been there and didn’t enjoy it and didn’t even get a t-shirt. Fortunately, my experience with this was early in my business life therefore the results weren’t catastrophic. However, the stress and tension that resulted taught me valuable lessons.
My goal is to provide you with enough information for you to know when to ask for help. We certainly can’t get to specific in this format but you should be able to glean enough that you know whether to raise your hand or not. Our team stresses these points throughout our process so we are well equipped to answer any questions that may surface.
The 2 Common Financial Mistakes to Avoid
1. Not Creating Contractual Wealth
Contractual Wealth is when someone else has a legal obligation to you. Contractual wealth also means that you have recourse if they do not fulfill their contractual obligation. This type of wealth provides you with a higher level of certainty and predictability. Certainty and predictability provide you with a more stress-free financial life.
Before sharing examples of Contractual Wealth building tools lets look at its counterpart, Statement Wealth. Statement Wealth is the most common form of saving and investing. Likely due to ease or someone lacking in knowledge of alternate investment options. The premise of Statement Wealth is that you save or invest into vehicles in which you have little control over the outcome as well as any recourse should it not have your desired result. Common examples are 401(k)/IRA Plans, Stock Portfolios, Mutual Funds, ETF Investments and Savings Accounts.
Some examples of Contractual Wealth include:
Secured Bonds – Mortgages – Rental Real Estate – Commercial Real Estate – Annuities – Life Insurance – Reverse Mortgages – Private Lending with Collateral – Asset Care Plans – Business Ownership – Grantor Retained Annuities
Click here for a quick 2 minute video explanation of Statement Wealth vs Contractual Wealth
2. Not Creating Tax Free Income
Mark Twain once said, “the only certain things in life are death and taxes”. So true, but one thing Twain failed to mention is that Tax Rates are always changing. You certainly can’t ever count on paying the same tax rate. In an effort to reduce or even eliminate the risk of Higher Tax Rates we want everyone to take a more intentional approach towards creating Tax Free Buckets of money. The ease and allure of Tax deferral is great and we want you to have some funds in that environment, but not solely.
Particularly Tax Free money helps you to manage how and where you withdraw money from during retirement. Thus, creating the aforementioned predictability and certainty that reduces stress in the Golden Years.
Some examples of Tax Free Investments include:
Real Estate – Municipal Bonds – Life Insurance – Roth IRA – Roth 401(k) – SLIRPS – Some Captive Strategies
Hopefully, this will give you the ability to AVOID these two common financial mistakes. I’ll close with a couple of questions.
Have you addressed these two financial mistakes in your own plans?
Would you like help in avoiding these pitfalls?
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