Wade Borth - Sage Wealth Strategy

Wade wraps up his review of The Richest Man in Babylon, covering chapters eight through the end. He pulls out lessons on taking responsibility for your circumstances, choosing a simple framework over more information or another product, and doing the work now so you're prepared when opportunity shows up. He closes with a reminder that you'll end up exactly where you're headed unless you change course.

• Your circumstances don't decide who you become. Awareness, education, and action start with taking responsibility for your own choices.

• A product won't solve a mindset problem. A framework gives your decisions guardrails, and framework beats information every time.

• Clarity creates conviction, not complexity. A few simple tools you understand beat a table full of tools you don't.

• Opportunity looks like luck when you've done the work before the work. It takes time, money, and discipline.

• Align your direction with your destination. Small course corrections made early are easier than one big correction made late.

• Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com

• Contact Wade: [email protected]

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• [00:03:00 - 00:05:00] Wade explains the chapter eight lesson that circumstances don't decide who you become, and how awareness, education, and action got one man out of debt.

• [00:05:00 - 00:06:00] Wade asks whether you'll keep behaving like a slave to your circumstances or start acting like a free man, and why debt can be a form of servitude.

• [00:06:00 - 00:08:00] Wade explains why a product can't fix a mindset problem, and why following the crowd into something you don't fully understand carries risk.

• [00:08:00 - 00:10:00] Wade shows how to find the pattern behind your circumstances, from tracking where your money flows to knowing your daily burn rate and freedom number.

• [00:11:00 - 00:13:00] Wade uses the water bladder and the mountain guardrail to show why every financial plan needs a framework.

• [00:13:00 - 00:16:00] Wade explains why framework beats information and how The Path of Money brings clarity to your decisions.

• [00:16:00 - 00:18:00] Wade contrasts complexity with clarity, using a carpenter's tools to explain why simple, properly structured whole life gives you a protected base.

• [00:18:00 - 00:21:00] Wade unpacks chapter ten, The Luckiest Man in Babylon, and why luck is really opportunity meeting preparation.

• [00:24:00 - 00:26:00] Wade uses a flight from Fargo to Dallas to show why course corrections matter when your direction and destination don't line up.

• [00:26:00 - 00:28:00] Wade closes with building before you need it and staying flexible enough that a change in the market or the economy doesn't break your plan.

Wade opens a book study on The Richest Man in Babylon, a nearly hundred-year-old book his agency is reading together, and walks through the first half's core lessons on saving, protecting capital, and controlling your own banking function. He explains why high income rarely equals real financial control, why guarding against loss matters more than chasing returns, and how the ancient walls of Babylon still describe what it takes to build wealth that lasts.

• Most people retain only about 5% of what they've earned over the last ten years, proof that high income alone doesn't build wealth.

• Pay yourself first and build your pool of capital before chasing investments. Savings is what creates liquidity and control.

• Guard your money from loss. Avoiding big losses matters more than chasing a high average rate of return.

• Someone is always the banker in your life. Ask who owns the capital, who controls the terms, and who receives the interest.

• Liquidity turns life's inevitable events into opportunities instead of disasters, and wealth that lasts requires passing down wisdom, not just dollars.

• Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com

• Contact Wade: [email protected]

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• [00:02:00 - 00:03:00] Wade reveals that people control only about 5% of what they've earned over the last decade.

• [00:03:00 - 00:04:00] Wade unpacks "part of all you earn is yours to keep" and why income isn't really yours until it stops moving.

• [00:06:00 - 00:07:00] Wade compares becoming a capital provider, like Warren Buffett and major insurers, to becoming your own source of liquidity.

• [00:09:00 - 00:10:00] Wade breaks down the math showing how a 50 percent loss requires a 100 percent gain just to break even.

• [00:12:00 - 00:13:00] Wade tells the story of Babylon's walls and how the city grew rich by protecting what it had built.

• [00:14:00 - 00:15:00] Wade introduces Mathon the gold lender and asks who owns the capital, controls the terms, and receives the interest in your life.

• [00:17:00 - 00:18:00] Wade explains why the goddess of good luck favors those who prepared with liquidity long before opportunity showed up.

• [00:19:00 - 00:20:00] Wade recalls his father's life insurance being canceled six months before he died, and what that meant for the family.

• [00:20:00 - 00:22:00] Wade contrasts the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts to show why transferring wisdom matters as much as transferring dollars.

Wade opens up about the real reason he's in the life insurance business: providing liquidity at the time of death, and every day before it. He traces that mission back to 1981, when his father died suddenly and a banker's advice to drop an "expensive" life insurance policy left the family with no death benefit and no liquidity. A farm auction, a sale bill a family friend recently rediscovered, and a mother who never had time to grieve are the backdrop for a conversation about why every family needs a real answer to one question: do I have enough death benefit?

• A banker convinced Wade's father to drop his life insurance policy months before he died in 1981, calling it too expensive, and the family was left with no death benefit and no liquidity.

• With no liquidity to cover the bank loan, the family had to hold a farm auction on September 25, 1981, selling off tractors, combines, and equipment to pay off what was owed.

• Wade's mother went to work as a school cook to support her two remaining sons at home, with no time to grieve her husband's death.

• A family friend recently sent Wade the original 1981 auction sale bill, which is what prompted this episode.

• Wade's mission comes down to one sentence: he helps families provide liquidity at the time of death, and then every day before that.

• Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com

• Contact Wade: [email protected]

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• [00:01:00 - 00:02:00] Wade describes the moment Pastor Hunter and his mother told him his father had died.

• [00:02:00 - 00:03:00] Wade defines his real job: providing liquidity at the time of death, and every day before it.

• [00:04:00 - 00:05:00] Wade explains how a banker talked his father out of his life insurance policy months before he died.

• [00:05:00 - 00:06:00] The family sells the farm equipment to pay off the bank loan with zero liquidity to fall back on.

• [00:06:00 - 00:07:00] Wade's mother takes a job as a school cook to support her two sons at home.

• [00:07:00 - 00:08:00] A family friend named Craig sends Wade the original 1981 auction sale bill.

• [00:11:00 - 00:12:00] Wade makes the case that everyone dies, so the only real question is what you do to prepare.

• [00:14:00 - 00:15:00] Wade recalls his mother saying she never had time to grieve or mourn.

Wade Borth marks the 200th episode of the podcast by bringing on Mike Brevik of Cyberdogz Marketing, the guest who first pushed him to hit record. Together they look back at what actually changed since episode one and look ahead to the next 100 episodes, where liquidity, preparedness, and adapting fast take center stage.

• Stop waiting for the perfect version of anything. The episodes, and the decisions, you're most tempted to redo are often the ones that connect the most.

• Build consistency before you build an audience. Showing up week after week is what earns people's trust to hear the harder truths.

• Treat liquidity as preparation, not idle cash. As AI accelerates change, the families and businesses with accessible capital are the ones who can pivot instead of panic.

• Measure your own success against your own purpose, not against the biggest name in your industry.

• Get your financial sequence right before you add more tools. A solid liquidity foundation has to come before infinite banking or any other strategy.

• Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com

• Contact Wade: [email protected]

• Factum Financial: [email protected]

• Mike Brevik / Cyberdogz Marketing: cyberdogzmarketing.com

• Cyberdogz on Instagram: instagram.com/cyberdogzmarketing

• Mike Brevik on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michaelbrevik

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• [00:01:00 - 00:03:00] Mike explains why almost everyone resists starting a podcast, and the moment it clicks that you already have plenty to say.

• [00:03:00 - 00:06:00] Wade reflects on the discomfort of listening to his earliest episodes and how podcasting forced him to bring clarity to his own thinking.

• [00:06:00 - 00:09:00] Why assuming your audience already knows what you know is the biggest mistake new podcasters, and new advisors, make.

• [00:09:00 - 00:11:00] Wade and Mike agree that chasing a perfect episode is the wrong goal. Push through and learn from the raw ones.

• [00:11:00 - 00:16:00] After 200 episodes, there are no surprises left. Wade explains why that vulnerability is actually a relief.

• [00:16:00 - 00:19:00] Wade's advice to his younger self: start sooner, be more consistent, and stop treating progress as a straight line.

• [00:21:00 - 00:22:00] Success doesn't mean becoming the next Joe Rogan. It means fulfilling the purpose you set out with.

• [00:22:00 - 00:25:00] Wade previews the next 100 episodes, shaped by the advice he'd give his own son heading into an AI-driven world.

• [00:25:00 - 00:30:00] Why the speed of change from AI makes liquidity and cash reserves more important than ever before.

• [00:34:00 - 00:38:00] Wade lays out the sequence he wants listeners to follow through the rest of 2026: savings first, then infinite banking.

• [00:43:00 - 00:51:00] Wade and Mike revisit five of the podcast's most requested episodes, from Cash Is King to Legacy Building.

Executive Summary

An article pitting Bill Bengen's revised 4.7% withdrawal rate against Suze Orman's 3% rule sent Wade Borth down a different road this episode. Rather than picking a side, he asks why anyone would build a retirement plan on a rule that only claims a 90% chance of success. His answer starts with rejecting scarcity thinking and becoming your own fiduciary.

Key Takeaways

• Bill Bengen's updated 4.7% rule and Suze Orman's 3% rule are both opinions, not guarantees, and neither promises a 100% positive outcome.

• Withdrawal rate rules ask how little you can spend without running out of money. That's a scarcity mindset, and it produces a cycle of sacrifice and fear.

• Pension plans once gave retirees certainty. The 401(k) that replaced them shifted that risk from the employer to the employee.

• Locking money away for 30 years is like freezing the best steak you own and never eating it.

• Becoming your own fiduciary starts with financial education, not with outsourcing the decision to someone else's opinion.

Links and Resources

• http://sagewealthstrategy.com/

Keywords

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Episode Highlights

• [00:01:00 - 00:02:00] Wade explains why money should be treated as our second most valuable asset after time.

• [00:02:00 - 00:03:00] Bill Bengen, creator of the 4% rule, now says retirees can safely pull 4.7%.

• [00:03:00 - 00:04:00] Suze Orman counters with a 3% rule, and Wade explains his skepticism of financial entertainers.

• [00:04:00 - 00:05:00] Wade argues both withdrawal rate camps set retirees up to either underspend or run out.

• [00:05:00 - 00:06:00] The scarcity mindset behind every withdrawal rate rule, and why it produces sacrifice and fear.

• [00:06:00 - 00:07:00] Pension plans once gave retirees guaranteed income. Most have disappeared.

• [00:07:00 - 00:08:00] How the 401(k) quietly shifted investment risk from employers to employees.

• [00:08:00 - 00:09:00] Why Wade treats every financial opinion, including his own, as an opinion and not a fact.

• [00:09:00 - 00:10:00] The frozen steak analogy: why locking money away for 30 years doesn't make sense.

• [00:11:00 - 00:12:00] Wade closes on what it means to become your own fiduciary.

Wade Borth revisits Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrants and picks up a thread the book never finishes: every quadrant, employee, self-employed, business owner, or investor, still depends on a bank. Wade argues the real shift isn't earning more new money, it's taking permanent control of the old money already flowing through your life. He lays out how a properly structured whole life policy lets you step into the banking function yourself.

• Every side of Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrant, employee, self-employed, business owner, or investor, still runs through a bank somewhere.

• Most people chase new money instead of gaining control of the old money already passing through their hands.

• Nelson Nash's Becoming Your Own Banker hinges on one word: becoming. It's a shift in thinking before it's a shift in dollars.

• A properly structured whole life policy lets you use the insurance company's money, not your own, while your cash value keeps compounding.

• Wade's exercise: of every dollar that will ever flow through your life, how much do you want permanent control over?

• Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com

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• [00:02:00 - 00:03:00] Wade unpacks Nelson Nash's core lesson: the real challenge in Becoming Your Own Banker is who you need to become.

• [00:04:00 - 00:05:00] Wade breaks down why Kiyosaki never fully explains where whole life insurance fits inside the Cashflow Quadrant.

• [00:06:00 - 00:07:00] Wade explains why banks sit in the middle of every transaction, profiting whether you're a saver or a borrower.

• [00:07:00 - 00:08:00] The distinction between chasing new money and controlling the old money already in your hands.

• [00:08:00 - 00:09:00] Wade lays out the shift: replace the banker in your life with yourself.

• [00:11:00 - 00:12:00] Why policy loans let you use the insurance company's money instead of your own, while your cash value keeps growing.

• [00:16:00 - 00:17:00] The $100,000 exercise: how much of the money that flows through your life should you actually control?

Recorded from the lake, Wade Borth uses a fishing analogy to talk about goal-setting and purpose: you won't catch fish by dropping the boat in the water and drifting, you have to start the motor and steer toward a specific spot. The same is true for financial and professional success.

Wade explains why so many agents and clients have never been asked to define success, encourages listeners to set specific, time-bound goals, and reminds them the path will shift along the way. He frames his own role as a "problem identifier" who empowers people once they know what they're aiming for, and closes with a caution against FOMO thinking, chasing the same crowded goals everyone else is chasing instead of finding your own unfair advantage.

• Success starts with a destination. Drop the boat in the water without a direction and you drift, you don't arrive.

• Most agents and clients have never once been asked to define what success actually looks like for them.

• Set specific, time-bound goals, then revisit them every week or two. The plan will shift, and that's expected.

• Wade sees his role as a "problem identifier" who empowers people with clarity and the right tools, not someone who hands them answers.

• Avoid the crowded fishing spot. Chasing the same goal as everyone else (like the standard 401k) rarely produces an uncommon result.

Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com

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• [00:02:00 - 00:03:00] Wade asks a group of agents what their goal is, and most say they don't have one.

• [00:03:00 - 00:04:00] The fishing spot analogy: you don't drift to a desired location, you steer to it.

• [00:04:00 - 00:05:00] A client wants to turn a lifetime of built assets into income instead of growth.

• [00:05:00 - 00:06:00] Wade defines his role as a problem identifier, not a problem solver by force.

• [00:08:00 - 00:09:00] Why so many agents and clients have simply never been asked to define success.

• [00:10:00 - 00:11:00] An example goal: a $30 million net worth in five years, and why naming it changes your brain.

• [00:11:00 - 00:12:00] The tools and thinking that got you here won't get you to the next stage.

• [00:13:00 - 00:14:00] Parkinson's Law applied to goals: without one set, everything counts as success.

• [00:16:00 - 00:17:00] The crowded fishing spot: why chasing what everyone else is doing rarely pays off.

Wade Borth is recording from the lake this week, and it gets him thinking about purpose, patience, and where people store their money. He shares a story about fishing with his son Josh and compares the pressure to fish once you've made the trip to the pressure people feel to invest cash the moment it's sitting in a bank account.

Wade introduces the "boat lift" analogy: money in a properly funded whole life policy is sheltered, growing, and protected, so you're never forced to deploy it before the timing is right. He walks through the guaranteed death benefit, tax advantages, and liquidity that come with a properly structured policy, and challenges the idea that "cash is trash."

• Money sitting in a properly funded whole life policy is like a boat on a lift: safe, protected, and ready to go the moment conditions are right.

• Feeling obligated to "put cash to work" the moment it's available often leads to bad financial decisions, the same way fishing in bad weather rarely pays off.

• "Cash is trash" ignores the difference between money with nowhere to go and money parked in a guaranteed asset that's already compounding.

• A guaranteed asset gives you liquidity, tax advantages, and a death benefit at the same time, so your family has a paycheck even if you're not there.

• Building a financial war chest means you can deploy capital fast when the opportunity is real, instead of forcing a decision because the money is just sitting there.

• Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com

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• [00:02:00 - 00:03:00] Wade shares a fishing story with his son Josh about seizing opportunity when conditions are right.

• [00:03:00 - 00:04:00] Wade compares feeling obligated to deploy money to feeling obligated to fish once you've made the trip.

• [00:04:00 - 00:05:00] Wade introduces the boat lift analogy for money sitting safely in a properly funded whole life policy.

• [00:05:00 - 00:06:00] Wade challenges the phrase "cash is trash" using Warren Buffett's cash reserves as a counterpoint.

• [00:07:00 - 00:08:00] Wade lists the benefits of a properly funded policy: guaranteed death benefit, compounding growth, tax advantages, and liquidity.

• [00:10:00 - 00:11:00] Wade asks listeners how many days their family would have a paycheck if something happened to them.

• [00:12:00 - 00:13:00] Wade closes with the Devil's Lake story and a challenge to build smarter financial fishing habits.

Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrant maps out four types of people in the money game: employees, self-employed workers, business owners, and investors. It's a powerful framework, but Wade Borth argues it's missing one critical player: the banker.

In this episode, Wade breaks down who actually controls the money game. No matter which quadrant someone occupies, they all need access to liquidity. The person providing that liquidity, whether it's Wells Fargo or a private individual with a pool of capital, holds the real power. Wade explains how anyone can begin building their own banking function, step into that role, and make their money work for them.

• The Cashflow Quadrant maps four roles (employee, self-employed, business owner, investor) but overlooks the most powerful player: the person providing liquidity.

• Every quadrant depends on access to capital. The person supplying that capital controls the money game.

• You don't need to be Wells Fargo to act as a banker. A private pool of capital, lent at a cost, creates genuine passive income.

• Real wealth isn't about earning more money. It's about making existing money work harder through the banking function.

• Breaking old money habits is the hardest part. Most people were conditioned by scarcity-era habits formed before they had any net worth to protect.

Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com

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• [00:06:08 - 00:07:34] Wade reveals the overlooked player in the Cashflow Quadrant: the banker, the person who provides liquidity to all four roles.
• [00:08:21 - 00:09:23] Wade explains how General Electric uses everyday investors as their banker by floating bonds on the open market.
• [00:11:13 - 00:12:27] Wade breaks down how anyone can step into the banking function and create true passive income, regardless of which quadrant they occupy.
• [00:16:17 - 00:17:52] Wade shares the story of a house flipper in his mid-30s who shifted one profit into a pool of capital and now earns 15% interest lending to other investors.
• [00:19:42 - 00:20:12] Wade introduces the yellow Jeep syndrome: once you start thinking about who needs capital, those opportunities will appear everywhere.

Wade Borth takes listeners inside a recent Tough Money live event, using real data to show what financial life actually looks like for a top 10% household earning $150,000 per year. The numbers may surprise you, starting with the size of the average family's liquidity bucket.

The episode builds to a direct challenge: if you are already aware of the problem, if you have been educated on solutions, what is holding you back from taking action? Wade argues that inaction is not neutral. It carries a real cost, one that your family, your business, and your legacy will ultimately pay.

• Habits inherited from parents define a financial ceiling most people never examine, let alone break through.

• Most top 10% earners carry far less liquid capital than their income suggests, and that gap creates real exposure.

• Wealth at every level demands different habits. Clinging to what worked before is what prevents progress to what comes next.

• The proper sequence of financial decisions matters as much as the decisions themselves. Out-of-sequence choices create setbacks that compound.

• Inaction has a measurable cost, one your family, your business, and your legacy will ultimately pay.

• Sage Wealth Strategy: sagewealthstrategy.com

• Factum Financial: factumfinancial.com

• Factum Financial YouTube Page (Tough Money live event, 45 min): Factum Financial on YouTube

• Contact Wade: [email protected] [email protected]

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• [00:01:22 - 00:02:05] Wade explains how habits inherited from parents define the financial ceiling most people never break through.

• [00:02:05 - 00:03:21] The awareness-education-action pyramid, and why action is the hardest step for even the most educated listeners.

• [00:03:21 - 00:05:16] Wade walks through what a typical top 10% household looks like financially, and why the liquidity number is smaller than people expect.

• [00:07:27 - 00:09:27] The climbing rope analogy: every level of wealth requires letting go of the habits that carried you to the last level.

• [00:09:27 - 00:12:07] The financial junk drawer. Too many choices with no clear sequence creates paralysis, not progress.

• [00:12:07 - 00:14:46] If you're aware, if you're educated, and you still don't act, what are the real consequences to your family and business?

• [00:16:30 - 00:19:02] Solving the problem costs pennies. Not solving it costs dollars. Wade shows why the math always favors taking action.