YOUR PIGGY BANK WON'T SAVE YOU

Your piggy bank won't save you. Actually, the funny thing about this piggy is it's got a story. And a lot of our houses that we buy, we've acquired over a thousand homes and sometimes we have little trinkets laying around and this is one of them. The interesting part about this is, as sad as it is, this came from a house, from the organ player of our wedding. She's an amazing woman and her family has been part of my family for a really long time. She. She got sick and we had to go in and solve a problem. We created an income source for their family through the equity of their property. And so I was going through there. It was just a memory and share is such a special place in my heart. And so does her family. And so it's a strategy that we provided for them. But here's the thing, the piggy bank didn't save them, but a strategy did. So here's the important part about financial wealth and strategy. You can think you have everything in line on your own and online thing. You need a team of people in your vicinity that has wisdom and guidance. So I want to break down the people that you should have in your life and where you want to go eventually. Based on the business you're building or the job you have or the wealth that you want to build, the team is critical. Here's why. The wisdom that's around you will save you a lot of money, even though you're investing a lot of money. And that's the difference in having a team is that you're going to invest in a team that's going to give you a rate of return, which is saving money, financial planning plans, how to do things the right way, how to avoid paying taxes legally. So let's start here. Who do you need on your team to be financially successful over time? Well, one, you probably should have some good crusty old guys in your surrounding, right? I have a couple of good. They're not crusty, but they're really good people. They're great mentors and I have a lot of conversations with them. They're in their 70s and 80s and I get to ask questions. How did you do this? Why did you do it? What would you do different? Because I start to glean wisdom from them and they give me a lot of advice as to how to do it or not to do it. Find people that have screwed things up. Trust me, they're the best advice possible because they're going to know how they fix the problem and they're going to give you advice what not to do, which will save you a lot of time, energy and money. At the end of the day, the next person, probably the person that most people overlook and cut cost on every year, and that is your CPA. Now you can, you can do TurboTax. My dad had me do that for years. That's how I was taught we're saving money by using TurboTax. What I wasn't taught was the amount of money that actually cost me by using TurboTax. Because when you're self employed or you own businesses, you don't understand all the questions that TurboTax is asking. And by the way, if you didn't know this, the IRS tax code, I think my CPA said, is 7,600 pages. Currently the Bible is only 1200 pages. So if you think that TurboTax, H&R Block and the random person that charges you 500 bucks to do your taxes, has the wisdom to appropriately help you structure your taxes for the best advantage of saving money and future, you're probably missing a few things. So CPA is important. And by the way, you can start with an investment of a smaller cpa. And as you grow in wisdom and time and money, you start to move to other CPAs that are going to have better strategies and advice based on the wisdom you need for your future. For instance, me, I had to have a CPA that believed in real estate, understood real estate and how we capitalize on it in our business through the flips, through our rental properties, all the different things that we do that wrap into it. She had to have specific knowledge into how all this works. Because we have a very complicated structure. We invest a lot of money into my CPA's wisdom. It is so important as the most expensive team member that we invest in and it's by far saved us the most amount of money. Let me give you a quick example. When we started coaching and doing a podcast, because it was real estate related, there was a tax credit. At one point in time in the past years, there was a big chunk of money. And because of those things, our CPA said, hey, you guys started doing this and it creates research and development and there's a tax credit for it. We were able to write off all the expenses of the studio, the coaching, the things that we did because it was research and development for my own business that never would have come from H and R Block. Did you do an R and D credit or do you qualify for this? In fact, I can't even imagine Trying to do my taxes on TurboTax right now. Pretty sure I would die. Yeah, no thanks. No offense. TurboTax CPA. Most important, you may have a tax advisor right now that kind of looks at that as your cpa. So those are going to be critical. But don't try to do your taxes on your own. It just isn't good. I mean, if you're a W2 employee and that's where you're starting, but as you start to grow your wealth, CPA tax advisor, very, very important. Searching out the wisdom on those pieces. The second person is really going to be your, your financial planner. Right. So having a financial planner, that's more of a fiduciary. Right. So they're going to be wisdom and guidance, not selling you products you don't need. Now, some financial advisors will have access to certain insurance policies and different pieces that you can put in place. I would definitely advise looking at insurance policies or having an insurance broke or agent. They can help you navigate through life insurance, your kids insurance, all those different parts that are really important to your future. The third person, well, is you and it's you seeking wisdom in different areas of your life in order to build the wisdom and the people around you to gain guidance and wisdom in your finances. And some of the people in my life that I learned a lot from was my dad. And it wasn't all the good stuff. It was actually negative clarity from my dad. My dad did the absolute best he could with what he knew how, 100%. And I appreciate the lessons that I've been taught that he left me. My dad passed 10 years ago. He left me with things both good, what I should be doing and things that I shouldn't do. And so sometimes the wisdom around you is watching the people around you, the things you should do and shouldn't do and what you're learning from. You can learn a lot without spending a lot of money just by watching. And you know social media these days, there's a lot of great advice out there, but be careful. If you get an idea, vet the idea with somebody that has some wisdom. Don't take it and run with it. It could get you in trouble. I mean, what was the HOC to a girl, right? I'm pretty sure she got some bad advice on her coin and whatever happened, I don't know, I think she's in jail or something because she spit on something and next thing you know, it's game over for her. Right. But I believe like in her case, she was not surrounded by good People when she got money and well, she blew her wad. There's a lot of wisdom on social and there's a lot of people that I follow on social media that give great advice. We'll put some of those in the notes. I've learned a lot from those. But you take the idea and then you vet it with wisdom, right? Does it apply? How does it apply? Is it a short term fix, long term fix? I don't know about you guys, but I see all the stock advisors out there, day traders, this, that and the other. I still don't take advice, but it does give me ideas, which is uninformed excitement that you can then vet and figure out if you're informed, excited to keep doing it because there's potential of loss and you're looking for wisdom and guidance on how you're doing that. The fourth is that if you're running and operating a business as an entrepreneur or CEO or whatnot, you need to have somebody that is monitoring and maintaining the financials so that you can inspect what you expect and understanding the P and LS and where your money's going and where it's flowing and have somebody putting it all in one place that you can see it is absolutely critical. I've been very fortunate to have the same woman in my life, Tammy, who has managed all of our finances, both personal and professional. And it is really important to find that person that can understand and communicate with your CPA so that they're constantly moving those things in the background and then they're coming to you with either ideas or ways to either save money, spend money. They're really good at spending money. We need to save money. It's a really weird thing, but it happens. A lot of us are trying to spend money at the end of the year for the write off and that's the guidance you need because it can save or impact you in a lot of different ways. So what's really important in life is that if you want to have good, stable finances is that you have to surround yourself with a really good team and a lot of wisdom and ask a lot of questions before you go jump into thing, really understand what the purpose of it is, how is it going to impact your life and more importantly, how is it going to impact your future and, and what you'll be able to do with it. And for me, all the real estate that we owned and invested in, it's really about solving for the future. You see, owning those properties allows us to cut them out and do lease purchases for people or impact families. Like one I can think about, you know, as my son sits on the other side of the camera is, you know, one of the rental properties that we own solved a divorce problem when they were kids in school and that family still lives there. They've been there almost nine years and it has been their home. And so when you start to invest and you see these different ways that the money that we invested is having a severe impact not only on that single mom, but her now 18 and 20 year old kids that got to grow up and have a home and have a stable place to call home. And that is the purpose of being able to be financially free and invest your money and have a team of financial wisdom around you so that you can continue to increase and impact. Hey, I'm Steve Valentine. I'm a real estate strategist here in Phoenix, Arizona. I do real estate strategies all over the country. Alright, I'm getting out of here. The main thing right is just surround yourself with wisdom, ask more questions. Just like, hey, if you're looking to do real estate, ask more questions. I'm Steve Valentine, I'm a real estate strategist in Phoenix. I would love to connect with you on anything real estate wise. You can jump into our website, it's in the notes. Follow me on Instagram and let's just start a conversation. I'd love for you to be in community with me and let me show you what's possible before we actually jump in. Because what's really important is that you know who I am, not what I do.