The ultra-wealthy don't sell. That's the whole trick. "They own things. They own stock. They own land," Liz Hanley says. "And so then what they do is they never get rid of the thing. What they do is they borrow against it." Buy the asset, let it appreciate, borrow against it to live AND never trigger the tax. It's the move Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are running while you get killed on your W2.
In Episode 003 of New Dimes Radio, we sit down with our own accountant, Liz Hanley — founder and head accountant at Liz's All Biz — to translate that playbook for the rest of us. Recorded three days after tax season closed, this one goes deep on values-aligned taxes: whether tax protest is actually worth the squeeze (spoiler: the IRS is almost fully automated now), why a Roth might be the wrong move when you're big mad about where your dollars go, the case for pre-tax everything, the tax-free magic of municipal bonds, the S-Corp move that saves 1099 folks real money, and how first-gen wealth builders can start owning assets and borrowing against them at a smaller scale. It's the "buy, borrow, die" strategy made knowable. Because, as Liz says, this is not calculus.
ABOUT LIZ
Liz Hanley (she/her) is the founder and head accountant at Liz's All Biz, a firm she built ~15 years ago after leaving a corporate role at Chanel Beauty as a single mother, because she was tired of making money for people who already had plenty of it. Today her firm serves over 1,000 clients, prioritizing the folks the industry overlooks, and her internal training program has launched Liz's All Biz alumni into a whole network of their own all-women accounting firms. A mother of three and a self-described political junkie, Liz is also a housing advocate who co-founded a New York super PAC for a pro-housing ballot initiative and helps rural communities navigate millions in state and federal affordable-housing funding. She literally cannot stop talking about taxes.
LINKS + RESOURCES
- Liz's All Biz website: lizisallbiz.com
- Liz on Instagram: @lizisallbiz
- New Dimes on Substack: newdimes.substack.com
- Concepts mentioned: values-aligned taxes, W2 vs. 1099 tax strategy, pre-tax retirement / HSA / FSA / 529 accounts, municipal bonds, capital gains, asset-based income, the S-Corp "lowest reasonable salary" move, "buy, borrow, never sell"
ABOUT NEW DIMES RADIO
This episode of New Dimes Radio was produced by 8 of Stones. Executive Produced by Renna Al-Yassini and Berna Anat. This episode was mixed and sound-designed by Creative Kubo.
New Dimes Radio is the podcast for progressive first-generation breadwinners — the ones building wealth without a roadmap, holding down their politics and their portfolios at the same time. Hosted by Kristen Brillantes, Berna Anat, and Renna Al-Yassini, with brilliant guests who've figured out how to do this in ways the wealth industry doesn't talk about.
🌐 Website | 📷 Instagram | 🎵 TikTok | 🔗 LinkedIn | ✉️ Substack
- (00:00) - - "They never get rid of the thing. They borrow against it."
