Personal Financial Strategy the podcast

Attention Entrepreneurs: Payroll and Taxes with Charles Read

“Anytime you get a letter from the IRS, answer it, and if you don't understand what they're saying, ask for clarification.” Charles Read
In today’s episode, we welcome Charles Read to the podcast. He is the author of three books including Starting a New Business, Small Business Short Course, and the Little Black Book of The Beauty Biz. Charles has also written numerous articles and blogs throughout the years. He is a licensed CPA, and he has held Series 7 in Series 66 securities licenses. Charles has 50 years of financial leadership and experience. 
Today Charles talks to me about how he was able to successfully start and run his business, and also provides tips on how to deal with payroll and taxes.
Listen in!
After the military, I found out my military experience wasn't valued by business, so I went and got my credentials then went to work in corporate world for about 15 years.
Over 30 years ago, my wife Ruth and I, started our business and I'm still running it today.
I was working as COO for Financial Express, which was a franchise organization which we bought in 1991.
We later just changed the name and then got rid of the mobile aspect of it and kept going.
10 years ago, I sold the accounting side of the business to my partner who wanted more autonomy, and I kept the payroll.
We're now in exclusively a payroll provider providing services all across the US, to small and medium sized businesses.
Our biggest unique selling proposition is compliance, and we help our clients stay compliant.
Our clients outsource their payroll issues to our company because we are the experts with the most experience and knowledge.
I tell clients not to talk to the IRS themselves, because it's personal and will likely upset them and make them do things they shouldn't.
The first call from our clients doesn’t cost anything, and that's the nice thing about us as compared to our competitors.
My book titled The Little Black Book of the Beauty Biz is about all the back-office things that relate to the accounting and payroll.
70% of all US businesses misclassify employees one way or the other
There are some huge advantages to being an independent contractor and it is important for people to learn all these things about deductibility.
You can legally deduct anything that is business related whether you have a receipt or not, you just may not be able to prove on an audit but that doesn't mean it's illegal.
The IRS cannot penalize you for a simple mistake.
Anytime you get a letter from the IRS, answer it, and if you don't understand what they're saying, ask for clarification.
Send everything certified so that you can be able to prove you sent it when necessary.
One of the tips as we are approaching April is to make sure that if you've got stimulus payments, they get reported because they are not free, they are a part of your refund up front.
You can connect with Charles on his Social Media Handles:
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/GetPayroll/ 
Twitter - https://twitter.com/getpayroll 
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/getpayroll 
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxs-_RwC9NgfUcqbwvEaMIQ
 
The best way to get in touch with Charles;
Website: www.payroll.com  
Email: CJR@getpayroll.com  
Phone number: 972-353-0000.
 
To learn more about Tony King, visit;
https://www.instagram.com/personalfinancialstrategy/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-king-6563585
www.personalfinancialstrategy.com
 

Building Wealth - Pure and Simple Strategies with Howard Dekkers

“The number one thing that I recommend to anybody who wants to own a business is to just start and then follow the path.” Howard Dekkers
Today, we welcome Howard Dekkers to the Podcast. Howard is a financial and life coach, and he teaches people how to become financially free with a normal job. Coming from an average lower middle-class family in Detroit, Howard worked hard to become a self-made millionaire, and now, his passion is to help others achieve their part of the American dream.
After a successful run in the business world, Howard arrived at what we, at Personal Financial Strategy call “Choice Age”, which is that age at which an individual's passive income stream can support their lifestyle completely, thus affording them lots of choices.
Today Howard talks to me about how he's investing his life post choice age.
Listen in!
I was born in Detroit, Michigan and when I was three, my dad moved us to a suburb of Detroit.
Two streets down from me is where all of the wealthy people lived and one thing I noticed of every one of these homes, is that either or both of the parents owned the business.
From a young age, I thought that the only way you could become a millionaire was by owning a business.
After high school, I had an accident where I cut off my finger and it was totally a wake-up call for me to go to college and get my bachelor's degree in business.
I opened my first business at 28 and I kept opening up other businesses. I ended up making millions of dollars from selling my last company which took me 20 years to build.
One of the things my father told me when I was a teenager was to save and invest 10% of every one of my paychecks.
I was making a lot of money but was spending it all, and it wasn’t until when I was in my late 30s that I started saving and investing 10% and up to 20% of what I was earning.
My savings grew to over $2 million and then I sold my company for millions of dollars, and it was at that point that I didn't have to work anymore.
I decided that I was going to put a PowerPoint presentation to teach my children and their friends how to become multimillionaires.
As the numbers grew, I decided to put an online course together and now I have a seven-module seven- hour course, where I teach people everything they need to know to become multimillionaires sometime in the future.
My first business was advertising which led me to another business, international cash card, which was a telephone cover index that I sold 10 years later, to the biggest newspaper in town.
The number one thing that I recommend to anybody who wants to own a business is to just start, and then follow the path.
The other end of it is that you have to start your monthly financial freedom plan as soon as possible.
You definitely do not have to go to college to run a business.
I teach a concept called Money mindfulness where I show people how they're spending their money right now versus how much is coming in.
I show these people how to be money mindful because they were never taught.
Most people think that they have to save a million dollars, but the reality is that they don’t. They just need to understand how to take advantage of compound interest and doubling.
You can connect with Howard on his social media handles
https://www.linkedin.com/in/howard-dekkers-baa3727
https://howarddekkers.com/
 
You can learn more about Tony King on his social media handles:
https://www.instagram.com/personalfinancialstrategy/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-king-6563585
www.personalfinancialstrategy.com

”Working out of Authenticity” - with Bernadette Boas

“A life coach is not necessarily a business coach, but business coaches absolutely need to have the life coaching aspect.” Bernadette Boas
Our guest in today’s episode is Bernadette Boas. Bernadette is the author of a book called, ‘Shedding the Corporate Bitch Shifting: Your Bitches to Riches in Life and Business. She's also the founder and president of Ball of Fire Inc which is home to both Ball of Fire Coaching‒ a coaching, training and speaking practice; and Ball of Fire Media‒ a media communication and publishing firm. Both firms are dedicated to helping individuals optimize their personal and professional development.
Bernadette shares with us her journey and the events that led her to start a coaching business. 
Listen in!
I started working at Burger in an early age and by the time I was in college, I already had a corporate job.
My core role in those earlier years was consulting in retail and technology, which ended after being fired by my mentor of 12 years.
When I left corporate, I automatically knew I wasn't going back and I started a consulting practice in 2008.
Even with the 2008 recession, I had a full docket of clients. 
In that period, I found that there was a lot of confidence loss and personal growth loss where everybody started playing the victim as opposed to the victor. 
Based on my own experience, I thought that I would be much better not only consulting, but also coaching businesses and the business owners.
I went into a self-discovery journey and found myself looking in the mirror and seeing this very nasty corporate tyrant.
I just decided that I needed to start not only coaching, but also wrote a book to teach other people that they don't have to be anything but themselves to be successful in business and social life. 
Sometimes people go through life and never look inward, so they never discover their role and responsibility to an outcome.
Everyone has to discover themselves, and then have to confront what they like and don't like, then they have to make decisions as to what they want to share out of their lives.
I recognize that as good as a consultant and a business coach, what people deal with and struggle with is their mindset. 
It is critical that people be accepted for exactly who they are, and they learn themselves and what they need to do about it.
A life coach is not necessarily a business coach, but business coaches absolutely need to have the life coaching aspect.
My job as a coach is simply to ask questions, to listen to understand, and then help them answer their own questions and make their own decisions and guide them through their own challenges.
My view about the great resignation is that it is forced and not voluntary, and is due to circumstances that have made people take a second look at what what's important in life.
The great resignation could lead to the loss of expertise and intelligence due to many people who are leaving and moving out of the economy. 
People get to a point where they start to question what's really important in this world and in life.
The great resignation has accelerated the uprising and growth of small businesses which is absolutely fabulous. 
You can connect with Bernadette on her social media handles
https://www.facebook.com/shifttorich
 
You can learn more about Tony King on his social media handles:
https://www.instagram.com/personalfinancialstrategy/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-king-6563585

”Everyone has Goals, do you have targets?” with Janine Bolon

“When you have a vision board, and when you have targets that you've set for yourself, you and your partner are unstoppable.” Janine Bolon
Today we welcome Janine Bolon to the podcast. Janine has written 11 books and currently teaches 15 online courses. She is also a veteran podcast host and her podcast is aptly titled, ‘The Janine Bolon Show’. She mainly talks about money, solo partnership, writing and authorship and how to hold on to your sanity.
In today’s episode, Janine discusses her journey that saw her get into teaching people about personal finance. She also talks about the importance of having a vision board when working towards your targets.
Listen in!
I worked in the pharmaceutical industry and then later dropped out of corporate America and went to teach, because I love being able to share as well as learn from my students.
I noticed that as we got to the end of the semester, the grades would really start to drop, and after talking to the students I found the reason was because they were running out of money.
I started teaching the freshman class about money, and that is where the 60/40 principle was born.
I then ended up teaching their parents about personal finance and then moved to teach 11 to 16-year olds.
When I started moving around I began looking into the audio space and started doing audio blogging.
I've taken over seven different podcasts and shoved them into one show, and that is why there is such diversity in the content that comes out of The8gates, which is my company
I was taking the advice of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, about replicating yourself, and anytime I saw automation that allowed me to replicate I did that.
Technology opened up so many things to different types of people, and now is a wonderful time to be an entrepreneur, and to learn.
If you ever get a little too negative about life, just go listen to a podcast and learn how people out there are doing amazing things.
One of the things I like to recommend to people who do have a solid strong income, but yet they have anxiety is, to dig deeper and find if that's something they can actually address.
I'm a very practical teacher, and I always want to make sure that you walk away with at least one thing to do next.
I believe in vision boards because it helps calm that mindset, and it's just really a matter of what step do we take next.
When you have a vision board, and when you have targets that you've set for yourself, you and your partner are unstoppable.
With finances, everybody's going to have a different target, because everybody is in a different situation, which is why we have to go through so much training.
With the great resignation, we're coming out of schooling institutionalized programs that are no longer working.
 
You can connect with Janine on her social media handles
https://www.facebook.com/janinebolon1
https://www.instagram.com/janinebolon/channel/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/janinebolon/
 
You can learn more about Tony King on his social media handles:
https://www.instagram.com/personalfinancialstrategy/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-king-6563585

Three Fundamental Principles of Personal Finance - Alan Lazaros

“Learning how to earn more money, learning how to spend less money and learning how to invest money intelligently” -Alan Lazaros
Today we welcome a special guest to the podcast, Alan Lazarus. Alan is the founder and co-host of Next Level University, which is a global, top 100 self-improvement podcast, and they're now approaching 900 episodes. They reach over half a million people in more than 120 countries.
Allen holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration. He's a professional speaker and business coach and consultant specialized in helping businesses maximize their growth, impact and profitability online. He's inspiring, motivating, and educating others on what it really takes to get to the next level.
In today’s episode, Alan will be discussing personal finance and how people can achieve better financial outcomes in their lives.
Listen in!
My mom gave me the best lesson that I'd ever heard which was, aim high, and you'll have choices.
At 26 years I got an accident which messed me up mentally, emotionally and spiritually and had me contemplating my life and my choices.
Now I've got this North Star that I wear around my neck which is my guide.
You can't see the stars during the day even though they’re always there, but sometimes it takes the darkness to see clearly that which you simply could not see within the light.
I was contemplating my life, and I saw two stars I'd never seen before, Tony Robbins’ TED Talk and Bronnie Ware’s book called ‘The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.’
That’s how I got into business coaching and consulting and what fulfills me now is maximizing my own potential, helping others do the same, and helping them improve the quality of their life.
You’re not going to be fulfilled if you're if you're chasing the dreams of other people.
I help people improve their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.
I believe that personal finance comes down to three main fundamentals which include learning how to earn more money, learning how to spend less money and learning how to invest money intelligently.
One of the reasons why I think people struggle so much to be successful in every area is because they're thinking linearly in an exponential world.
1% growth can compound like crazy and if you don't understand that, you're not going to make decisions that are long term.
You can play now and pay later, or you can pay now and play later.
You get paid in proportion to the difficulty of the problems you solve because your intrinsic value is different than your economic value.
To earn more money, the first facet is you should learn how to do the things that the world desperately needs.
The second facet of earning more money is working to be good at what you do in statistical comparison to other people in your field.
The third facet of earning money is positioning yourself in such a manner that it will be difficult to replace you.

Ever wonder how businesses are $valued$? Listen to Bharat Kanodia tell it like it

“Nobody wants to buy an entrepreneur; they want to buy the castle the entrepreneur has built.” Bharat Kanodia
Our guest today is Mr. Bharat Kanodia. Bharat has a has a very rich background in the financial world. He values businesses which is a very useful tool in the world of mergers and acquisitions, as well as just general business finance. He has valued over 2000 businesses ranging from real estate, to governmental infrastructure. Some of the unique things he has appraised are things like the Golden Gate Bridge, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Mirage Casino in Las Vegas, and Yahoo. He's signed off on over 4500 valuations with 2.6 trillion in assets globally.
Bharat lives in San Francisco with his family, and he enjoys sailing, golfing, skiing and horseback riding. Welcome to the personal financial strategy podcast brought.
In today’s episode, Bharat talks about his experience valuing assets and the essential ingredients for business growth.
Listen in!
There is a big difference between valuing a product-based versus a service-based business because a product-based business would tend to have more tangible assets.
There are three metrics that are most important in valuing any business is growth profit and risk, and if you think of any business in these three metrics, you will never go wrong.
For your business to be very valuable you have to look at any business from a potential buyer’s perspective which is consistent cash flow and profitability.
The second thing is driving your business to run on autopilot, however you want to make it happen.
The most challenging and interesting thing I've ever evaluated is the I love New York campaign.
The biggest part of my job is just asking questions and to uncover the stories with the questions that I ask.
The science behind how valuations work remains the same but it is the art that changes.

”Dexter B. Jenkins on the importance of having a personal financial plan”

“Now is a great time for people to really take an inventory of what they want their life to look like, and then also begin to look at what avenues they can explore to help them to get there.” Dexter Jenkins
Our guest today is Mr. Dexter B. Jenkins. Dexter is an author of a book called ‘The Three Ships of Wealth Building. He is also the host of a podcast called Wealthy Conversations. Dexter is known for his personal approach to financial coaching, which he has labeled ‘Easy to Implement Wealth Building Strategies, God's Way’. He is now the CEO of his own financial consulting firm, DBJ enterprises.
In today’s episode, Dexter talks about why it is important to plan your finances regardless of your age. He also shades a bit of light into the principles discussed in his book.
Listen in!
The idea that people miss is how to plan the finances, and my goal is to help people to plan very simplistically, so that they can implement it.
Everything in finances is behavior based, and when you begin to change people's habits and behaviors and ways of thinking about money, they'll have a chance to do pretty well.
I think your late 20s to early 30s is really a key time for people to really wake up and start planning and knowing their finances
Having a plan early on for retirement both to transition and how it looks like for you is extremely important.
The principle we all know is that anything that stays at rest remains at rest, and anything in motion stays in motion.
Getting people to stay in motion in their later years and keeping their mind sharp is a very important part of what we do for our businesses.
When people don't have a purpose in retirement, it's very dangerous and having people see that they still can be very valuable and very productive is extremely important,
Most people don't think about what their biggest expense is but ignorance is the biggest tax.
I define Ignorance tax to be how much we pay, because of what we don't know.
We pay a high tax when we remain ignorant and so part of our job is to give people the information that they need, so that they can avoid paying the cost.
If I can have my finances working to their highest potential, I believe the outcome of that you become richer.
Being the best I can be in my finances is my target, and the outcome of that is I'll end up doing well financially.
The three ships a wealth building was birthed out of studying wealth over the last three to four decades.
The book was birthed out of partly things that I've read in other books, and also the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
The three ships of wealth building is stewardship, ownership and entrepreneurship.
Now is a great time for people to really take an inventory of what they want their life to look like, and then also begin to look at what avenues they can explore to help them to get there.
What people found out during a pandemic was that they can take control of their lives.
 
 

Leon Tompkins - Timing Markets and other Trading Hacks

“There is never more money made than just sitting tight with good positions.” Leon Tompkins
Leon Tompkins is the founder of the Tides Group, a registered investment advisor in the state of California. Leon has years of experience managing investments having worked for multiple organizations and clients among them being World Vison International. He currently lives and works in La Jolla, California.
In today’s episode, Leon will talk about his experience that led him to trading and managing clients’ investments. He will also be giving tips and insights on how best people can engage with the market and trade wisely.
Listen in!
I try to figure out what it is that drives companies from three different angles, the most important being financial health.
Secondly, I tie between how much they're growing and able to grow their top line, and how much they're able to manage that.
There is a couple of fairly predictable things that people can watch when trading.
First, when people get scared, the prices go down which means it is time to be buying.
The other thing is when people are so bearish, which means that they think the market is going down, and that happens to coincide with the price of options, then that tends to be a very good time to get involved in the market.
Before pulling the trigger on investment decisions, people need to first consider that one, when investing in stock market, you're looking at a company and not a product that you like.
The other thing is to be patient when you're buying and to always buy when they're giving you a little bit of an edge. Don't chase things.
FOMO which stands for Fear Of Missing Out, is such a big part of the way some people invest but more often than not, there's a lot of people taking advantage of people that will pay too much for stocks.
Another thing to know is that in a bull market, the second day downs, and this means that it is a pretty good time to buy.
Another one is don't add to your losing positions but rather add to your profitable positions.
You should always guard your profits because that is your money and the world is full of guys that almost had a great one.
The other thing is to let your winners run and don't take them off unless they start moving against you hard.
There is never more money made than just sitting tight with good positions

Chris Miles - The Anti-Financial Advisor

“Go away from the traditional stuff and start to do things to actually generate passive income now.” Chris Miles
Today we welcome a special guest to the podcast, Mr. Chris miles. Chris has a very rich background in personal finance. He's an author and the host of a podcast called The Chris miles money show. Chris has spent many years serving clients as a classically trained financial planner and investment advisor. Now Chris is the CEO of his own financial consulting firm, Money Ripples.
In today’s episode, Chris will talk about his transition from being a financial advisor to how he was able to retire within a few months after switching to real estate, and his current passion of teaching about passive investment options.
Listen in!
I actually started in the industry, not intending to become a financial advisor but a business consultant.
I was trained on how to sell the different types of mutual funds and different investments out there.
Later a friend of mine introduced me to real estate which enabled me to become financially independent in just a matter of months.
I was able to retire for the second time into 2016, this time with over five figures a month of passive income.
I doubted whether what I was doing was working when I started to see some commonalities where people that had invested in traditional investment vehicles weren't financially free.
While working as a financial advisor I knew deep down that I was probably over promising and under delivering and that's where the epiphany happened.
Switch to passive income mindset versus just accumulation mindset was big, because I started seeing the reality in terms of the returns and tax advantages.
My favorite passive income instruments is doing what's referred to as turnkey real estate investing.
Turnkey real estate investing involves paying up for property that is ready to be rented out and having the managers of the property taking care of everything else.
I also invest in things like syndications where we pool money with other people to buy a big project and get a percentage ownership that pays you passive income.
I did realize there are so many options out there one can invest in rather than in mediocre returning mutual funds.
The reason why I do what I do is because we're trying to reverse this financial education that has happened over decades from financial institutions.
Even though I've proven it to work, people still need to make sure they do it with the right amount of guidance and doing the right direction so that they are getting there as quickly and safely as possible.
The risks are there but you don't want to bank on just hoping that's prices go up, rather making sure that you're getting paid on your investments.
I advise people to go away from the traditional stuff and start to do things to actually generate passive income now.
Financial advisors get paid commissions at a rate that investors in traditional assets don’t get paid at.

Amy McLaren - Operating from Your Passion

“Until you actually take action and move forward on something, you don't know what can happen.” Amy McLaren
Our guest today is Amy McLaren. She's the author of a book, “Passion to Purpose:  Seven Step Journey to Shed Self Doubt, Find Inspiration and Change Your Life and the World for the Better.” Amy hit a crossroad a few years ago, where she found herself in that thinking spot that many of the people involved in the great resignation are now sitting, but she did something about it.
In today’s episode, Amy will talk about her experiences that led her to what she does today as well as her motivation to keep going.
Listen in!
I'm an entrepreneur of three businesses that are all founded around my passion but I started out as a grade one teacher where I worked for 10 years.
At some point I lost the joy in it and I was beginning to feel like I wasn't the best version of myself for my kids, for my husband for my community.
Once we had our daughter, I went part time and started diving into some entrepreneurial things and then eventually went full time.
While I was teaching, I was kind of helping my husband build his business on the side and starting this nonprofit that I wanted to run.
We raised some money and went down to El Salvador, helped an orphanage and lived with a community on top of a mountain for two weeks.
That was really the start of realizing that I wanted to go beyond the classroom and start helping others and learning from other people.
My non-profit grew and eventually, I resigned from teaching and now I run my nonprofit and two other businesses as well.
When you're clear on something, you have to move and take a step forward.
Today, I am proud to say that we've raised 8 million dollars in 10 years but ultimately it is about the impact that we have been able to have.
There were some things that didn't work out but we kept moving forward.
I've learned so much about myself as much as like they've learned and we've just really learned together as an organization.
Until you actually take action and move forward on something, you don't know what can happen. You don't know what opportunity is there or you don't know, you know what door it could open.
you've got to look at what fulfils you and break them down into these buckets, then make sure they're getting filled.
I've had naysayers in my life which led to a lot of self-doubt creep up on me when I was adopting our son or speak on stage about our nonprofit.
One thing I always say to myself is I've done hard things before and I have to remember that when talking to people.
Remember to live your story because oftentimes other people's stories and other people's views come to you and that's their and not yours.
We have to fill our brains with good things and be mindful not to let all of what people say come inside and change our thoughts or direction.
There is so much opportunity and so many little bits of time that you could use to fill your brain with things that could open up your mind to the possibility of what could be.
You don’t have to run multiple businesses to leave a legacy and make an impact, it is the little things that we do every day that add up overtime.
When you build that connection and involve the community and staff, they end up wanting to be part of something that has an impact.
I really believe that your passion is your purpose and then using what you love to do to leave more impact and to do more good in the world.