Years earlier, I had met Ted and Ellen while we were attending college. They were looking forward to building their life together—a nice house in the suburbs with the two children they planned. And back then, even though it was barely two decades ago, we all knew the surest route to success was the tried-and-true formula—get a good job, save to buy your first home, start your family, and live happily ever after.
Ted and Ellen were hardworking and achieved their success—new home and family—faster than most. And then one day I ran into them again. The first thing I noticed was how tired they both were. Ellen hadn’t been able to be the stay-at-home mom that she wanted to be and was ex-hausted from juggling the demands of a typical eight-to-five job with the demands of caring for their eight-year-old son, Josh, and three-year-old daughter, Sarah.
Ted worked days at a job for the state, traditionally a safe, secure job with good benefits. The benefits, though, were quickly being taken away. He was worried about how much longer he would have that job and had started a computer consulting business on the side. He spent his evenings and weekends locked away from his family in a corner of the family room working on his computer.
Both Ted and Ellen felt guilty about the time they spent away from their children and they worried about money for their future (would there be money for the children’s braces, education, and so forth?), and about their own personal future (would there be anything left for them when they were ready to retire?).
We met as friends, but it soon became apparent that I could help them in a professional manner.
I had established my career as a tax advisor and strategist for the wealthy, and as a result had learned many of the loopholes the wealthy used. The simple fact is that the wealthy approach their tax and financial planning in a radically different way than what we have been taught.
Ted and Ellen were happy to discuss their financial plans with me. Together, we created a strategy that reduced their income tax and used the money they previously paid to the government to build wealth, tax-free, for their future. That means that much of the money they used to spend on taxes is now being used to build their future.
Using the same process we still employ today at my CPA firm of (1) assessing, (2) team building, (3) evaluating, (4) implementing, and (5) reassessing, they learned how to jump-start their wealth.
In a series of conversations, they learned the basics of devising a tax plan, and then, together, we built a customized tax strategy, using the ap-proach of the wealthy.
