Wealth Formula Podcast

My goal with the Wealth Formula Podcast is to build a community of likeminded individuals who can learn from one another. A community implies some level of interaction. Therefore, every once in a while I like to do a little show called "Ask Buck". In this week's Ask Buck episode, we had some pretty interesting questions about gold, debt, and inflation. I bet you will find some real value in it. As a reminder, you can leave questions for me by going to wealthformula.com and clicking on the "ask Buck" icon. Also, if there is a topic that you think I should cover, let me know. Even if I don't know anything about the topic, I bet I can find the right person to interview! Also make sure to let me know how I'm doing by leaving a review on iTunes and sharing the show with friends and colleagues. Thanks to those of you who have reached out to me. It helps to know that I'm not just talking to myself :)

I have been talking to many high paid professionals like you lately who have found some inspiration from the guests that I have had on the show. Whenever I get a chance to ask people what kinds of things they want to invest in, they rattle off a lot of great stuff like real estate, […]

I have been talking to many high paid professionals like you lately who have found some inspiration from the guests that I have had on the show. Whenever I get a chance to ask people what kinds of things they want to invest in, they rattle off a lot of great stuff like real estate, mortgage notes, and even gold. Virtually everyone, including me, wishes they had all the money in the world to buy things and invest with others. It's stuff that actually has a good chance of making money and well…it's kind of fun isn't it? In many of the conversations I've had, the idea of using retirement funds to invest in some of these real assets has come up. What I realized is that most of you don't know that you're retirement account does not have to be limited to the garbage your wealth advisor recommends…namely stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. I spent all of my last podcast episode trashing these volatile and nonsensical derivatives so I won't do it again. But what really gets me irritated is the fact that Wall Street is behind most people's ignorance. You see, they don't want you to know that you can buy things like real estate and gold with your retirement funds. Why would they? Wall street is not there to make you money, they are there to take your money through huge commissions and fees and if you started investing in real assets instead of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, they wouldn't get to take advantage of you. In fact, if you have a wealth advisor, ask him or her if you can invest in real estate with your retirement funds. I guarantee many of you will, in response, get a blank stare or your advisor will simply say no. In rare instances, you might hear your advisor refer to this as alternative investments. Alternative investments??? Gold has had value for thousands of years. What's alternative about that? Wall Street will make you think it is difficult and risky to self direct your retirement funds but it's neither in my opinion. In fact, today's guest on Wealth Formula Podcast will tell you exactly how you can do it!

Ask any tax professional about the tax code and they will tell you that it is 90 percent gray. Then why is everyone being so conservative? Well, professionals have a terrible fear of being audited. They have a terrible fear of breaking the law. I get it. No one wants that kind of stress in […]

Ask any tax professional about the tax code and they will tell you that it is 90 percent gray. Then why is everyone being so conservative? Well, professionals have a terrible fear of being audited. They have a terrible fear of breaking the law. I get it. No one wants that kind of stress in […]

When you put aside money for retirement, who's advice are you taking? Are you taking the advice of the wealth advisor who makes money every time you make a deposit? Why do you trust your wealth advisor? Is he or she wealthy? These are questions that are critical to ask yourself if you want to avoid dying broke. That may sound ludicrous to you. After all, you might be making $200,000 or $300,000 per year right now. How could you ever die broke? Well, if you ever did a deep dive into the formulas used to help guide you to your golden years, you would understand. The reality is, the formulas used by wealth advisors to guide retirement saving/investing through conventional wisdom are outdated and dangerous. We live in unparalleled times. The stock market has essentially been sideways for three years. Earnings from major companies are poor yet their stock valuation are at record highs. Why? Because interest rates have been essentially zero for eight years and institutional investors can borrow money for free. That allows for corporate buy backs and the resultant massive equity market bubbles that we are seeing today. I am not exaggerating when I say that in the history of the financial world we have never seen this scenario. We are stuck at zero rates and no amount of money printing has been successful at getting us out of this new, artificial, normal. Even the United States federal reserve bank concedes that we are in unchartered waters. And don't just take my word for it, look at the big players on Wall Street. They are all shorting the market. Now, why would you keep putting money into it? Is it because your wealth advisor told you so? Did you know that your wealth advisor makes money on your investments? That's right, he tells you to cling to the old mantra of "investing in stocks bonds and mutual funds for the long run". Well, if you do this, you could very well die broke one day despite your current fancy job and high salary. It does not have to be this way. Understand that as a high paid professional you have many opportunities that your less fortunate brothers and sisters do not. You just have to take some responsibility for your own finances. In this episode of the Wealth Formula Podcast, I do a deep dive for you to show why the old paradigm of investing for retirement is not applicable to our new financial world. Following these antiquated paradigms will leave many professionals living with their kids in their final days. A group of highly educated professionals will go out with a whimper rather than a bang. The good news is, all of this is avoidable and I will tell you exactly why. Listen now!

The words "real estate investing" conjure up many different images. For some, it might make you think of Vanilla Ice's reality show on flipping homes. For others, The idea of real estate makes you think of real estate moguls such as Donald Trump. The reason for these very different images is because real estate is a very large industry with multiple different niches. Going through all of the different niches is a show in and of itself and we are not going to do that today. Instead, the focus of this week's Wealth Formula Podcast is a discussion on real estate as a business versus real estate investing. Both can be lucrative, but they have very different intents and outcomes. Andrew Holmes, called by some, aka the "king of cash flow" in Chicago, has experience and active participation in both kinds of activities. Therefore, he is the perfect guy to discuss this distinction. This is a great show and a must listen for anyone involved in real estate or even contemplating it. I hope you enjoy it and make sure to send me your comments. P.S. if you haven't done so, download my special report on little known ways of legally saving thousands of dollars in taxes at wealthformula.com.

Let's talk, for a minute, about how a bank works. You deposit money in the bank. These days, they pay you less than 1 percent interest. Because they are a bank, they are able to lend out most of the money you deposited. This is called the fractional reserve system. It's complicated and best addressed in detail on another episode. However, in a nutshell, this is how it works. The bank only needs to keep a tiny percentage of what you deposit and can lend out the rest. So, say you deposit $10. The bank lends out $9 and keeps your $1 in the bank. Of course you never told them to do that. You assume your money is in the bank and that you can access it anytime you want. And…in theory…you can. That is as long as everyone wants there money back at the same time. So, when the bank lends out your money to a borrower, they charge a much higher rate than what they are paying you and they make a lot of money. Did they pay you for putting your money at risk? Hardly. Wouldn't it be nice if a bank told you what it was doing with your money? What if they said, we are going to take your deposits and lend them out as secured loans. Furthermore, instead of paying you a nominal negative rate on your deposit, we will let you keep the majority of the profits. That might sound more interesting right? Well, that is pretty much what real estate debt investing is. Learn all about it on this week's episode of Wealth Formula Podcast as we talk to Rick Von Der Sitt from Tower Real Estate Fund.

Let’s talk, for a minute, about how a bank works. You deposit money in the bank. These days, they pay you less than 1 percent interest. Because they are a bank, they are able to lend out most of the money you deposited. This is called the fractional reserve system. It’s complicated and best addressed […]