I want to share a story you may have heard before—but it’s worth telling again.

When I finished surgical training and joined a practice in 2008, we were in the middle of the Great Recession.

But for me, the recession didn’t mean anything. My net worth was below zero. I’d made less than $50K a year for seven years. I wasn’t worried about losing money—I didn’t have any.

What I did have was a new six-figure salary and a baby on the way. Suddenly, I had to start thinking like a grown-up. I needed to protect my family. I needed life insurance. But I had no idea what that really meant.

I started asking around. One of the younger surgeons told me to “buy term and invest the difference.” That’s what Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman were preaching on TV too.

But an older surgeon—close to retirement—told me something very different. He’d been financially wrecked by the market crash and said permanent life insurance was one of the only things keeping him afloat.

Here’s the thing: they were both kind of right.

The young guy was right that most permanent life insurance is designed in such a way that it is a terrible investment. But the older guy had discovered something the hard way—permanent life insurance can offer unmatched financial stability when everything else is falling apart.

Still, neither of them understood what I would come to learn just a few years later from some of my wealthiest friends.

You see, permanent life insurance isn’t one thing. It’s a flexible tool. In the right hands, it can be optimized for estate planning, tax-free growth, or even used as a powerful retirement income strategy—especially for those of us who started making money later in life.

That’s when I took a deep dive, even getting a life insurance license so I could fully understand the mechanics myself. What I found became the foundation for Wealth Formula Banking, Wealth Accelerator, and now, Wealth Accelerator Plus. 

In fact, some of these strategies are so effective that they’ve already helped people like me “catch up” on retirement income planning—even if we didn’t start earning real money until our 30s.

On this week’s show, I talk with one of my new partners at Wealth Formula Banking, Brandon Preece. We unpack common misconceptions about life insurance, discuss mainstream strategies, and then go further—exploring new protocols that could be game-changers for your financial future.

If you haven’t learned about this stuff yet, it’s time. And if you have, it’s time to revisit all of these strategies. These strategies have played a major role in my financial life—and in the lives of many in our Wealth Formula community.

And I can honestly say that I don’t know of a single person who ever regretted setting up a plan!