Blog & Podcasts

“We're using innovative ways to do things that are cheaper than the traditional way that people may not have thought of.” — Gordon Stein

In today’s episode, we are joined by Gordon Stein. Gordon is a personal finance author, keynote speaker, and blogger at cashflowcookbook.com. Gordon, in his book, spells out certain recipes that can lead anyone to a bright financial future. Also in the book, Gordon has identified 60 different recipes for freeing up money. The key point in his book is “you can find money in your lifestyle, without making any sacrifices to your current lifestyle."

Gordon is also very good at demonstrating the impact these strategies can have on an individual's long-term financial goals.

• I discovered a few hacks that freed up some more cash flow with minimal effort.
• I’ve had a career transition from high-tech industry to kind of high-touch personal finance.
• By using innovation and new innovations that are cheaper than the traditional way.
• Step one is what I call “broiling a bill”. Pick a bill, and broil that bill!
• Step two is: “Savor the savings”.
• Discipline is more powerful than budgeting.
• The more ideas you get on how to free up more cash flow, the more you build wealth.
• Make those changes, reduce the bills, and then commit that money right away to something good.

Listen to this and so much more on the episode.

To connect with Gordon:
https://twitter.com/cashflowcookbk?lang=en
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordonstein
https://cashflowcookbook.com/
https://www.instagram.com/cashflowcookbook/

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“All traders and all investors are looking to improve themselves financially, to level up in their mindset, so that we can bring on more money and make it stick because that's the overall aim.” — Louise Bedford

In today’s episode, we welcome Louise Bedford. She is the founder of tradinggame.com, a trading company in Australia. She is a best-selling author with five books to her name, all topics on the stock market and behavioral finance. She is also a behavioral finance expert with degrees in both psychology and business.

Louise talks with me about approaching investment and trading not only from the money perspective but also from a behavioral side as well.

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• I started trading back in 1990 because I always had an interest in money.
• I had a physical affliction, which meant that I had trouble moving my arms and due to this condition, I had to leave my employment work.
• All traders and all investors are looking to improve themselves financially, to level up in their mindset, so that we can bring on more money and make it stick because that's the overall aim.
• Too many people are not happy with market volatility, where the market keeps going crazy up and crazy down and makes for a very unpleasant situation.
• I like the idea of how investors borrow from traders; this is the concept of a stop loss.
• You need to work out in advance what your level of pain is, determine what your exit strategy may be, and stick to your plan.
• Do your math and consider what you wish for your future, have a plan in mind from the start to the exit, and have the three main tenants for the system that people should see in trading.
• Whether we want to believe it or not, our behavioral and psychological well-being affects how we see investment and trading.
• In trading, it’s always good to consider specific risks versus individual risks.

To connect with Louise:
https://au.linkedin.com/in/louise-bedford
https://twitter.com/TheTradingGame
https://www.facebook.com/TradingGame
https://www.youtube.com/tradinggame

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“When you're a business owner, you're building cash flows as well as an asset in that business that you can sell as long as you run it halfway decent.”  — Jon Ostenson

Jon is CEO of Franbridge Consulting and Capital, a company devoted to serving franchise opportunities, then aligning investors with top-performing opportunities leading some of those investors to be actual operators.

In this episode, Jon is going to help us look at this exciting class of investments.

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• There are 4000 different brands roughly in the US involved in franchising across a number of different industries and sectors.
• Coming out of COVID, more and more people want that sense of control, flexibility and freedom that comes through business ownership.
• We do see an unprecedented level of interest out there towards franchising.
• I just see franchising as really going into business for yourself, but not by yourself because you've got that franchisor on the sideline and other franchisees around the country.
• While having that is not a guarantee of success, it does give you a lot of confidence going in.
• A study by Rancor School of Business found franchise businesses trading at a multiple typically of one and a half-time as compared to non-franchise businesses.
• I tell clients that there's a lot of ways to make money some more desirable and easier than others.
• To buy into a franchise, you pay a franchise fee and meet costs for the equipment build out.
• Some of the ways in which people fund their franchise business include self-funding, retirement funds through what is called a Rob's program or through SBA loans.
• The way I work with clients is I try to streamline the process and make it as easy for them and allow them to focus as well as possible.
• Franchising isn't risk-free, but you de-risk things a lot.

To connect with Jon:
linkedin.com/in/jonostenson
franbridgeconsulting.com
facebook.com/JonOstenson1
linkedin.com/company/franbridge-capital

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“We want to make sure that investing is more approachable and accessible for anyone with the same goal; building wealth for the future.” — Axel Thibon

In today’s episode, we welcome Axel Thibon to the podcast. Axel has founded a company called Wizest, a platform aimed at making investing accessible, transparent, engaging, and easy.

Axel received his MBA at MIT in Boston. And afterwards went into banking for a few years and now is on a journey of investing adventure.

Axel talks with me about his interesting approach to teaching investments as a solution for the long term. 

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• My own experiences have shaped how I do investment and how I teach others to do investment as well.
• The key thing is to customize investment for each person who comes to the platform.
• A novice’s investor will have different needs than an expert in investment.
• Unlike the traditional bank, where you go and they are assigned to you like an advisor that you don't choose, right here in wisest you are the one in control. The best part has been the conversations I've had with the kids about not only saving money, but spending as well.
• We have a human layer that makes investing much more like personable and approachable.

To connect with Axel: 
https://www.f6s.com/axelthibon
https://twitter.com/axelthibon
https://www.linkedin.com/company/wizestapp

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“The best part of teaching kids about finances has been the conversations I’ve had with them about their financial decisions.” — Chuck Jaffe

In today’s episode, we welcome Chuck Jaffe to the podcast. Chuck is the author of three books titled ‘Getting Started in Finding a Financial Advisor’, ‘The Right Way to Hire Financial Help’ and ‘Chuck Jaffe’s Lifetime Guide to Mutual Funds.’ His two books on working with financial advisors have made them a rare critical voice in financial planning. Chuck is host of Money Life, a veteran financial journalist, nationally-syndicated financial columnist, and his work appears in newspapers from coast to coast.

Chuck talks with me about his interesting approach to teaching finances and investments to younger children.

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• I am an expert when it comes to hiring financial advisors.
• The key thing to me which is really important is knowing that there is no one right way to reach your financial goals.
• I'm agnostic to approach unless the approach is going to hurt people.
• At home, Halloween is how I teach other people's kids about money choices and investment through games and lotteries.
• The best part has been the conversations I've had with the kids about not only saving money, but spending as well.
• Children start learning money lessons really early and I have been teaching my children about trading stocks and ownership of companies.
• The benefit to me, as a result of this has been my daughter telling me that she is maxing out her 401 K.

Connect With Chuck
www.moneylifeshow.com

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“When it comes to investing in real estate, it's not just about buying properties, but also having proper business structures.” - Joseph Griffin

In today’s episode, we welcome Joseph Griffin to the podcast. Joseph is the author of Tax Deed Investing and the owner of a business called Tax Deed Wolf Academy. Joseph teaches how to invest in real estate to generate consistent income with minimal risk.

Joseph talks about how he got into the business of tax deed investing, as well as the steps involved in executing the strategy.

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• I joined the Army while I was in junior in high school, and after graduating I was sent to medic school, and then to nursing school and later joined the National Guard.
• While I was doing the one weekend, a month, I started nursing on the side and became assistant manager of the ICU and I started making a little money and that's where tax deed investing came in.
• Tax deed investors buy property from tax deed auctions, which is where properties whose owners have failed to pay property taxes are auctioned.
• For properties with mortgage, the bank typically forecloses on them and will often not make it to a tax deed auction, since tax deed auctions are for people who own their property outright.
• The two cons for being a tax deed investor is that you only need cash, and that the properties aren’t always good properties.
• The first thing to do is figure out which type of state you live in because every state is different with different types of deed strategies which include tax deed, a tax lien deed, and a tax redemption deed.
• Once you understand which type of state you live in, your first step is you need to find the entity that conducts the sale by going to the county clerk of court website.
• The tax sale list or tax deed auction lists shows you when the next auctions are, and which properties are available for you to enter the auction on, as well as the money you have to put in to bid.
• The auctions are typically highest winner takes all, so we use the lists as leads to approach the property owners before the auction, because we don't want to be bidding against other people.
• The most important thing to know in real estate is that you don't have a deal until something is signed, and to take ample amount of time to do due diligence to the property.
• Time is important or opt to sign a quitclaim deed, which is how you transfer ownership of one property to another the deed, and doesn't need to be notarized.
• When it comes to investing in real estate, it's not just about buying properties, but also having proper business structures.
• We teach our clients on proper business structure, asset protection, and strategic tax filing.
• We also teach property acquisition where we encourage our clients to have at least three property acquisition strategies.

Connect with Joseph
www.taxdeedinvest.com

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“The first step to properly setup a business is ensuring that you are legally compliant in your state, and then also finding a CPA that you can trust to ask about taxes.” - Nissa Savage

In today’s episode, we welcome Nissa Savage to the podcast. Nissa is a CPA Mom's franchise owner, and an accountant serving law firms and business owners remotely from Alaska.

Nissa talks to us about her business, the CPA moms franchise, and what entrepreneurs should focus on to ensure that their businesses run smoothly.

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• I arrived in Alaska 10 years ago as a mariner working on the Alaskan ferries.
• I have an undergraduate degree in economics, and so transitioning that to a Master's of Science in Accounting was fairly straightforward.
• I have worked in the field of accounting in various capacities starting off as a bookkeeper, and now I'm a CPA and I own my own firm.
• I have wanted to stick with accounting because it's so phenomenal to see the power of information and how it allows business people to overcome the challenges that they face.
• I own a firm and I get support from a whole team of people from the CPA mom's franchise, which is a great community of CPAs who are moms.
• Due to the demands of raising a family, owning my own firm gave me the freedom that I needed, and the franchise helps me actually build out my services to my clients who are also entrepreneurs.
• The first step to properly setup a business is ensuring that you are legally compliant in your state, and then also finding a CPA that you can trust and ask about taxes.
• Beyond that, money flow and understanding credit is important, as well as embracing and understanding your bookkeeping system.
• I find so often that entrepreneurs do their own books, but they do not realize what the books are telling them.
• It is important to have meaningful reports that are correct as per the monthly reconciliations.
• Have a business plan extending over a five-year period, with every year mapped out with details on KPIs.
• Your business plan should be something you can show your CPA, who can collaborate with you on how to read the indicators from your bookkeeping.
• Entrepreneurs can embrace user-friendly tools such as Live Pan and bill.com, to plan in their businesses.

“When leaders are great human beings, so are their companies.” - Thom Shea

In today’s episode, we welcome Thom Shea to the podcast. Thom is a Retired Senior Chief Operator, Navy Seal, a best-selling author and founder of the renowned Leadership Program, Unbreakable Leadership.

Thom talks with me about the lessons he learned while serving in the U.S Navy, writing his best-selling book, and founding Unbreakable Leadership.

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• I grew up in the 70s in a small town in southern Indiana, and it was normal to fail, which I think is the precursor to success.
• From the bottom, you can do a lot of great things, because you're willing to risk things then.
• I went into SEAL training in 1990, and once you pass through that experience, you can actually determine what are you willing to commit to, and willing to give your life for.
• I define leadership as a commitment to other people.
• To get to that position of leadership in the Navy SEALs, you have to be operating at 100% of your capacity, in five areas that I think are unique.
• First is having to be healthy all the time; second is being interested and willing to learn anything on a drop of a dime.
• Third is being in a position to deliver value where you pursue what you value, and fourth is being relatable and able to operate on a team.
• The fifth is that you have to be spiritually inclined because that's what's going to save you when things go south.
• By the time I retired, I had written a manuscript to my kids which were 13 lessons I wanted them to be able to do, one lesson at a time.
• We published the book, titled ‘Unbreakable: A Navy SEAL’s Way of Life’ which made a national bestseller in 2014.
• It's a raw depiction of what a six-month deployment was like from a father, husband and leader’s point of view.
• When leaders are great human beings, so are their companies, and good leadership perpetuates itself.
• The word ‘Trust’ doesn't exist in the SEAL teams because usually when you trust somebody, you won't check them.
• Checking up allows for the grace of making mistakes because the team's going to be there to support, and this is much more effective in business, instead of emotional attachment.
• One of the great forms of leadership is never allowing emotions to solve any problems.
• I do private coaching as well as group training in five areas which are physical, intellectual, wealth, relational and spiritual.
• I also do process consulting for businesses to increase the verticals that they are working on.

In today’s episode, we welcome Jason Wojo to the podcast. Jason is the CEO of Lifeonaire, which is a Christian-based life and business coaching organization dedicated to helping people live truly abundant and prosperous lives.

Jason talks about his path to discovering what it meant to live a life of abundance and success. He also talks about his business and how he helps people live a free and more fulfilling life. 

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• I wanted to be successful and for most of my life, I thought the only way was to have a job because then I would be able to make money have a great life. 
• spent 15 years studying and finish my PhD which took a big part of my life. 
• I got my first job out of school and I realized within the first few weeks that I didn’t like the constraint resulting from someone controlling my future.
• I started investing in real estate full time after being coached through my first few deals and then left my job.
• I ended up having multiple businesses, all of them doing okay, but none of them doing what I knew they were capable of, but through some coaching, I was able to consolidate the businesses and to ramp things up. 
• I realized that my actual passion, now that I had accomplished this on my own, was to help other people do it, and I started to coach other people how to become successful business owners and real estate investors.
• It's easy to become addicted to more money, and that was an interesting challenge that I had to go through and explore that for myself.
• Most people who want to be millionaires are captivated not by the money, but by the life that they think the money will buy them.
• I know very few millionaires that are Lifeonaires, but I know a lot of Lifeonaires that are millionaires, and found that when you put life first, many times you'll also make more money.
• We resonate most with people who are business owners and are susceptible to working a lot and letting business take over their lives and these are the people that we reach out to.
• The first thing we encourage people to do is create a vision for their life, which is a really unique combination of aspirations, goals, beliefs, your values, and what you find important.
• We then help people figure out where to put in the work by putting it down on the calendar, and this helps to create very real boundaries to get work done in that period of time. 
• Learning to be focused on the important things in work and in business, really helps people do more within a short amount of time.

Connect with Jason
https://lifeonaire.com/

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"Getting your mind right is the most important part of owning and managing wealth." - Rebecca Jensen

In today’s episode, we welcome Rebecca Jensen to the podcast. Rebecca is a CPA at MaxQTC Incorporated, a business consulting firm focused on family office services. Rebecca has over 25 years of experience as a CPA and specializes in helping families retain assets and grow wealth across generations. Essentially, she helps families manage their family wealth like a business.

Rebecca talks to me about her experiences and how she helps families retain assets and manage their wealth.

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• I got into accounting and worked with Deloitte in Seattle until I had my children where I decided to open up my own accounting firm.
• We worked with small business owners until I sold off the firm and ended up working for a company as a CFO.
• I later ended up going independent, and I started working with clients, both individuals and businesses, to help them transfer wealth and do transition leadership for companies.
• We also run family office services where we combine our team of professionals and prepare taxes and help people with cash flow plans.
• One of the things that is really important is having clear communication between the family members on what's happening with assets.
• One of the first things we do is we run an analysis with our clients and make sure that they've got enough money to retire comfortably.
• For the generation of people who are good savers and have a lot of assets, the plan will be to help that next generation.
• It is important to be careful in transferring large assets, and make sure that whoever is in charge of them, has the experience to not have it ruin their lives.
• There's a lot of wisdom that needs to be passed on before you transfer the actual management of assets to allow the family to benefit from them for many generations.
• I realized that getting your mind right is the most important part of owning and managing wealth.
• If you try to just do your planning in the middle of tax season, you're not gonna get the best advice because they just don't have the time and mental energy.
• For people who get to inherit wealth without experience, find someone who is experienced to help in managing the wealth.

Connect with Rebecca
www.familythinkingstrategies.com

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