Personal Financial Strategy the podcast

”An Overview of Investing in Gold” with Simon Popple

He started his investment business in Real Estate, and eventually migrated to Gold investment.
Money market (UK) saw some of his publications on gold investing and enlisted Simon to write a column in Gold investing.
Opportunities with gold:
Invest in gold stocks.
Invest in gold – some low and other high risk. A place to look at and download some info on gold is goldprogram.go.uk.
Different levels of Gold investment:
Physical gold 
Gold keepers – large companies; invest in a lots of different companies – multinational, multi-commodity.
Defenders – diversity in terms of commodity and countries.
Forwards - High Risk, high rewards.
Mechanisms – exchanges that are available:
Physical gold – go through a reputable gold dealer. Check the World Gold Council recommendation list.
Defenders and Forwards – go through Australians or Canadians.
There is gold all over the world, but I have a jurisdiction preference, and I tend to buy and invest in Canadian, US, and Australian gold and access them through the Canadian, Australian, and US stock exchange platforms.
There are many other opportunities in Africa and other parts of the world.
Gold seems to be popping up the social media and internet a lot, why? Gold marketers tend to be more active during fearful economic times. Is this true and is there a reason for this?
Gold is a great and valuable asset, and there are terms like golden age, gold medal, etc. The risk in the world can be eased through gold, because the value of gold is the same across the world; this is not the case with other assets.
Is there any relationship or risk with the rise of cryptocurrency and decentralized digital currency? These things are separate, and they run separately. It’s not possible to see gold going to zero, but that can happen to any other value, including crypto.
I like the fact that I can hold in my hand a gold coin, but cannot hold a bitcoin.
Get Simon’s free gold investing advice in his beginner's guide to investing in gold: https://goldprogram.co.uk/free

”Salting Your Retirement Funds With Crypto, Tax Free” by Eric Tastet

Eric grew up in a single household – at times with mother and at times with father, quite a poor background.
I ended up going to a seminary, became a pastor, planted a church, but took a break to give full attention to entrepreneurship.
I learned financial management, but not financial strategies.
I’ve had a window washing company, a pressure washing company, wedding venue business, among others.
I started searching the market on cryptocurrency in 2017-2018, and that’s where I am.
When you are pastoring, you are not looking for money; but I was entrepreneurial even while a pastor to supplement my income, leading to learning about self-directed IRAs.
Collective Influence Group
This was started by 2 men I was in (Bible) college with.
Within 2 years, they started the company, “Impacting others”, hence initiatives such as clean water initiatives, orphanages, and Christian media radio. They buy companies, build them, and sell them.
Collective Influence is a private equity firm that has 15 -16 different companies in it. But the main goal is self-directed investment, especially as people become more educated on their personal finances. Self-directed investment frees people from investing through institutionalized processes. If we can release people from this “institutionalism”, we will have succeeded.
Tax Free Crypto – one of the companies that Collective Influence has acquired.
Tax Free and Retirement Accounts: I started with Roth IRAs while a pastor. I chose the fund. I thought this was self-directing but realized it was self-managing.
Analogy: we are good when it comes to self-directing our consumption, but it’s not the case when it comes to investment. One needs full control of where their money goes.
So instead of being given choices by someone else, I make a choice of where to invest and how.
Consider the case of the bank, who takes my money and makes money from my money, and I do not get a dime from the money they make from my money. They hand over a circa!!
But I want to self-direct my money; so, if I had accumulated some money, rolled it over to a self-directed IRA, got a deal, gave a company some credit, and got an 18% return over a 6-month period, I would have thought it was fantastic.
This is the kind of a thing that Mitt Romney did: he made about 13 different moves out of his Roth IRA and accumulated about $100M; How the hell did he achieve this? What is good about a tax-free IRA is that there is no limit to your gain.
If you self-direct on the promissory note, then you can gain as much. He gave a high debt to private equity.
Crypto currency is an asset.
So, if one gets a paycheck and contributes to their retirement benefit, they can’t do anything with their contribution until they are old enough to withdraw the money. But if this was released to a private equity, it is possible to buy real estate or other investments, or a rental property.
Crypto and risk
People make a mistake by equating volatility to risk, which are probably within the same meaning range but different concepts.
The same number of people buying and selling crypto currency presently is the same number of people who were using internet in 1997, i.e., 130mil people globally. Today, the internet is the main thing.
Bitcoin was invented in 2009, 14 years ago. The adoption rate trajectory is exactly the same with the internet in 1997.
Many people did not understand the internet those early days, so they abandoned it, but there are others who jumped in, and they are the market leaders today. So, it pays not to make same mistakes of ignoring an opportunity simply because one does not understand the crypto world.
Crypto currency is an opportunity. It is an asset. The block chain — which was started for the purpose of mining bitcoin — now has a “utility” behind it being used by other businesses. This is how they track damaged goods. What was invented for crypto is now a utility that is used publicly.
Pay pal is creating a new stable coin, which is attached to a reserve, always equivalent to the dollar.
Look at crypto currency from the same way you look at internet; it’s a free resource for sharing.
The crypto currency is taking 3rd world countries out of poverty, e.g., El Salvador.
Today 300 of the many companies in the US are taking crypto currency.
Bitcoin
Make sure when you invest, you are investing money designated for investment, not your utility money – food, bills, rent, etc.
Let’s address investment “volatility”, Warren Buffet; 46% of his portfolio is Apple (the most valuable company in the world). So, diversity is not really a panacea for volatility in Buffet’s opinion.
Crypto does not move the same way as a stock does.
Investing USD 5000 in crypto is really a low investment but will always have great returns; you will never go wrong with it (Eric’s opinion).
Connect with Eric on:
www.taxfreecrypto.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-tastet-05a320193
https://twitter.com/EricTastet
 
 

”A Bigger Life” with Adam Carroll

Adam Carroll – Host of build a bigger life podcast; curator of master of money.com and founder of the shred method:
Personal Background – pathway leading to him doing what he does
His family appeared affluent or middle class, but money wasn’t really there.
His family was loving and considerate.
I used to use my credit card in college, and so I became part of the debt stats; 
He was an entrepreneur in college, hence borrowed loans from students to build this business.
He studied books about personal finance and started applying the principles, and he was able to pay off all my debts at age 26, except the mortgage.
This enabled me to save between 3,000-4,000 USD per month, and made me feel like a millionaire, something I started sharing with other people.
Making this my career
I met a personal financial guide and mentor, who gave me a couple of books.
I became intrigued by the concept of passive income, and how to create it, especially as an educator, speaker, and creative.
I wanted to make money speaking, writing, and creating content; so I describe myself as a mediapreneur – meaning I like creating media in all its facets and then figure out how to turn around and sell it.
The Shred Method
One of the big things the podcast is dedicated to is retiring debts, hence the need to know every new dynamic, principle, and practice to achieve that.
The Shred Method is a tactic for optimizing people’s income.
Most people don’t have an income problem, they have a liquidity problem; they make enough money to afford what they are doing, but they are not able to go beyond that to save because money is tied up in their lifestyles.
The Shred Method tries to help people manage their finances by helping to knock off the debts one by one, maximizing how much money you have remaining at the end of the month, and then figuring out what one should do with the money that is left over; i.e. what is the most efficient use of that money that is humanly possible?
Our goal is to create certainty around retirement, to guarantee the working class that they can retire comfortably and never worry about debts and sustainability.
We rephrase words differently, for instance, we call retirement choice-age, because we want people at retirement to have many choices and not limited by money in any way.
The Shred concept:
I was a mortgage broker for a number of years; I started a company that I branded and packaged as the first socially responsible mortgage company in our State.
I witnessed the exploitation that was happening in the mortgage sector. This was underhanded and morally reprehensible.
I wanted to start a company that didn’t function that way; we would receive people who wanted to refinance their mortgage, and we would do the math and show them they could save between $50-$200 per month; but I would be left with this feeling that you have just paid $2000 or $4000 to refinance your mortgage, which essentially would send the client to the same square they were before.
I started digging deeper into this mortgage issue at the decision table, I realized that you pay interest for the first 36-40 months, and this is when most people would refinance before they got their hands on the mortgage game itself.
So Shred happens in the first 36-40 months of payment is where you can make the biggest difference in how much principal you can pay down on a mortgage
When you do that, you are paying in advance your mortgage; you are accelerating your decision table.
So we started realizing that one of our goals was to help people have more equity in their homes, reduce the amount of interest that they pay, and then figure out what to do with that extra equity and strategically deploy it in the right places to start building their own wealth.
What do you think about *HELOCs?, a sort of establishing an emergency fund or capital?
A broad brush statement: Anyone who has equity at home, must have a HELOC as an emergency fund – in addition to money saved which is liquid and readily available.
We use a HELOC very differently at Shred; it is not a spending account. For people who are disciplined in their expenditures and have a predictable income projection, this works well, provided you have money at the end of the month.
MasteryOfMoney.com 
This is a financial literacy resource.
We should all pursue mastery; mastery has no peak; you are forever climbing higher, and getting better and better at what you do.
MasteryOfMoney.com is built on this premise.
I also have books on MasteryOfMoney.com for students, and others on Amazon; we are gearing to launch a podcast by the same name.
We will be doing deep dives into a variety of topics from insurance, to mortgages, to investment in real estates, and people who are on their path to mastery can listen in.
How MasteryOfMoney.com podcast differs or dovetails with Building a Bigger life podcast:
Build-A-Bigger-Life was started in 2015, and it was born out of interaction with people who were asking, what do I do with my life if I am not satisfied with my current life?
I bounced this by the group I was coaching, and for instance, one of the ladies in the group just wanted to travel; when I asked her why she isn’t traveling she responded that she had just bought a new car, and new furniture, which she was presently financing, and she had a couple of gym memberships which she was paying every month.
I said to her, I think you have built a really big lifestyle, but you don’t really have a big life. That became the show. I interviewed people who were building a bigger life, people who were doing what they were doing versus what they were supposed to be doing; this was an awesome conversation with people who were inspired to change their life in a better way.
Major Takeaways from the 170+ shows of the Build-A-Bigger-Life podcast:
We are the architects of our own life, and we’ve got to decide what that life looks like.
The way to do this is to identify what your core values are, and then live by those core values on a day-to-day basis.
My interviews revealed that people who live by their core values are generally very fulfilled; and those who are missing out on some of their core values are always feeling unfulfilled, wanting to change some things, which they probably also do not know how to do.
For instance, we do a self-assessment and help them ask the foundational and bigger questions, which helps them think through why they are not building a bigger life.
Aiming for something for a lot of people requires permission – probably by family, employer, significant others, etc.
 
https://www.adamspeaks.com/
https://www.instagram.com/adam.carroll/
https://twitter.com/AdamCarroll
https://www.facebook.com/AdamSpeaks/ 
www.buildabiggerlife.com
www.brokebusteddisgusted.com

”Strategies for Paying College Tuition” with Beth Probst

Beth is the founder and CEO of the At The Core program for launching High School students into College and helping them prepare for the coming life transition.
Determining career aspirations, what courses of study will best support a given career:
The cost of college: this could be made a broader conversation within the family, for example, discussions on the broader “cost”  incurred by family. Such an approach can greatly prepare children on matters of money when they enter college and start living on their own. 
Without discussions about money – from the family level – there are no guards, no guidelines, and the child is not well positioned to handle finances/money at college level, whether in terms of negotiating fees and other axillary costs. As families, we need to guide our children on money and costs and how this interfaces with the choices we make whether in terms of which school, which career or which service(s) to consume. 
Practical Tips for Families on Managing Cost of College:
Embrace dual enrollment / dual credit program(s): this means doubling up both as a high school student and at the same time taking some college-level courses.
A benefit to this approach is that it can reveal if one is ready for college-level coursework. So one earns both college and high school credits. In most cases, they are at a reduced cost or completely free. The only condition: pass the class.
For every credit, the student can transfer the same to the college, reducing cost. 
AP Programs: if the goal is to save money in college, the AP class is an option.
Take advantage of community college – which offers continuing education. This is a great option for the student who would like to find out how academically fit they are? It's an opportunity to test that.
To connect with Beth:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethprobst
https://www.gettingatthecore.com/ 
https://twitter.com/GetAtTheCore
https://www.instagram.com/gettingatthecore/
 
 

”Have a Strategy for Choosing College” with Beth Probst

We come alongside families with students who are speeding toward a transition to college and career.
Personal Career Path:
Beth was in a sales and marketing career, selling tech products when she stumbled on students preparing to transition to high school, interviewing them as possible sales assistants, and realized they had no framework to make solid decisions about their life or career; this was the light bulb in her head moment. She asked herself: can I do something structured to help them make more informed decisions on their journey through High School into college?
The value question: does a college degree guarantee a commensurate high wage or more desirable job?
Are there alternatives that are viable and probably less costly?
3 big decisions to make at the end of high school:
Pick a college
Choose a course of study or major
Determine a career path
To help their ability to make the above 3 decisions, families should:
Help their students consider who they are – i.e. self-assessment
Tie that to careers they like, i.e. what kind of education do I need for the career I aspire to?
What major(s) do I need to consider that fit my career and which colleges offer them?
Optimal time to intercept and provide guidance on the 3 matters:
The pre college prep: we provide free webinars on this; the best time is when a family or Student starts to ask specific questions or considering college visits
Guided self-assessment – which actually requires a chunk of time; when the student has adequate experiences to enable a 5-hour interview, and this dovetails with their sophomore year in high school, but could extend to the first 2 years of college.
It is still possible to work with those who never had such guidance and are beyond their 2nd collegiate year and who come to a realization that what they are pursuing isn’t what they are cut out for; we call them career confused; we work with them to help them utilize what their college can offer.
We occasionally deal with those who have graduated, started their career, then realize this is not what they cut out for. Our help might lie in helping them dig through the layers of what they don’t want, and assess what things they want to carry into the next career and which to drop.
To connect with Beth:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethprobst
https://www.gettingatthecore.com/ 
https://twitter.com/GetAtTheCore
https://www.instagram.com/gettingatthecore/

”Finding the Relational fit in Financial Planning” with Jeff Bernier

Find the right partner, the right fit, by considering:
Capacity to provide the services the client needs
Relationships – are you comfortable with each other?
Economic fit – does the client understand the cost benefit?
What belief(s) do you hold? Resources are there to give you what you always want to be, to help you create capacity to enable you to do what you are supposed to do.
So we want to know your dreams, your purpose; can that dream be converted into a dollar and deadline?
Our role is to help you turn your dream into dollars, through advice, and investment within an acceptable timeline.
3 aspects to building an investment portfolio
Client’s need: what return are you looking at?
Client’s appetite for risk: this helps to determine the perfect portfolio
Client’s capacity to take risk: do you have debts, your risk is high and vice versa
We become your guide to help you develop strategy and mechanisms to realize your goals. Our approach, advice and intervention is individual-based and relational.
Issues to do with inflation and other market dynamics:
We communicate a lot with our clients especially on market volatility
You need rising income streams to deal with the reality of inflation; hence you have to accept some short term strategies for long term outcomes.
Connect with Jeff:
https://www.jeffbernierauthor.com/
https://www.tandemgrowth.com/team/jeff-bernier
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffberniercfp/
https://www.twitter.com/BernierJeff
 

”Non-Traditional Investing” with Maxwell Nee

Maxwell Nee, the Managing Partner of OENO Wine & Whisky Investment. He’s a multi-award-winning entrepreneur who earns his investors a recession-proof and market-beating return with wine and whisky alternative investments.
Here are the top tips from Maxwell.
Take advantage of alternative investments; for instance, wine and whiskey. Consider 28% of high-net-worth individuals have a connection with wine. They either collect wine, distribute it or maybe they are in the end a consumer. In all facets, wine as an investment is somewhat recession proof.  
54% of working individuals invest in alternative investments like wine & whiskey these assets are not correlated to normal investments and cushion against inflation and other market force dynamics. These alternative investments ride the inflation wave because they are in the category of “consumable”. 
Seek to acquire high value products at their early nascent stage and wait for them to mature.  
Spot a gap and leverage it, Example: Acquire a 12-yr aged whiskey at $25 and age it for an extra 6 years to sell it at $125, equivalent to 500% investment growth in only 6 years. 
Before investing, familiarize yourself with any legislative framework within your trading jurisdiction. 
Connect with Maxwell:
https://lp.oenogroup.com/aus/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxwellnee/
https://www.facebook.com/MaxwellNeeCoach/
https://www.instagram.com/maxwellprincenee/
As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind and confidence” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

”Sustain Your Lifestyle Into the Choice Years” with Jason Hamilton

Today’s guest is Jason Hamilton who is a fee-only registered investment advisor with over $40 million in AUM. The Keep It Simple Wealth Academy is a program helping 1st generation wealth builders transform their relationship with money and become robust wealth managers. Jason also heads up Family Financial Coaching at his family's nonprofit IDEAL, a community development corporation located in East Los Angeles.
Here are a few of Jason’s get wealthy hacks: 
Do not ignore your background - whether or not it favors your career or occupation - it provides certain values, cultural orientation and formation that plays a 'success or failure' factor in your career. 
"Read, read, read. Read all you can around your career. Enroll in a course and improve your understanding in the area of business or service you are offering. There is so much information about anything one may want to know!" 
Do not just work for title - whether big or small - find a real solution to a real problem. That way, the world finds you. 
Believe in your vision; it's not just about providing a solution to a problem. It is also about being passionate about it and staying on it regardless of challenges and setbacks. 
Get genuinely interested in people - their beliefs, goals and resources - and allow these three to interface as a jigsaw puzzle. This is how you develop and mentor people wholesomely. 
Connect with Jason:
Website: https://keepitsimplefinancial.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keepitsimplefinancialplanning
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keepitsimplefinancial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/keepitsimplefp
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-j-hamilton/
As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind and confidence” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

”Get in the Real Estate Game” with Pam Hill

"Get in the Real Estate Game" with Pam Hill
Today’s guest is Pam Hill. She is a Harvard and Dartmouth-educated entrepreneur and CEO of a multi-million dollar real estate company, a business and money expert, a podcaster and a blogger, a former Fortune-500 executive, and the founder of My Smart Cousin.
Here are the top tips from Pam.
“My Smart Cousin” is a real estate company that was born from the desire to treat clients like family.
When buying a home, rather than trying to qualify for as much money as possible for a mortgage, consider buying less. A cheaper fixer-upper might be a better long-term investment.
When investing in real estate, especially for houses that you will renovate, consider waiting to see the value of the property increase over time vs. making a quick flip.
Rental properties can allow you to earn income while also building long-term investment.
Rental properties can break even in 4-5 years, and even economically priced homes often increase in value over time.
Connect with Pam:
https://mysmartcousin.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MySmartCousin
https://twitter.com/MySmartCousin
https://www.instagram.com/mysmartcousin/
As always, if you are interested in complete “peace of mind and confidence” about your personal finances, visit us at: www.personalfinancialstrategy.com
 

”Managing Life’s Risks” with Logan Wease

Managing Life's Risks with Logan Wease
Our guest today is Logan Wease, the founder of an online insurance company called “We Insure Things.” He speaks to us today about the importance of the right insurance plan at the right time.
There are two categories of insurance that Logan discusses in this episode, and we dive into both.
The first category of insurance includes types that most people know about and probably have, such as car insurance, property insurance, life insurance, final expense insurance, etc.
The second category is disability insurance, which protects your income if you are injured and unable to work.
Umbrella policies, also known as extended liability coverage, provide protection beyond existing limits and coverage of other policies. Umbrella policies can provide additional coverage for accidents, property damage, certain lawsuits, and some personal liability situations. Once the liability limits of the insurance policy are exhausted, the Umbrella policy kicks in.
Logan concludes by discussing different types of insurances that we will need in different stages of our lives. Although the expense of insurance can seem burdensome, when you need it you will be very glad you made the investment.
Learn more about Logan Wease and his company “We Insure Things” at: https://www.weinsurethings.com/  https://www.facebook.com/we-insure-things-106005791865445
https://twitter.com/WeInsureThings 
Logan@weinsurethings.com 
 
You can connect with our host Tony King on: https://personalfinancialstrategy.com/