Ep. 187: Talk Taxes with a Financial Professional - More Knowledge, More Wealth

  📍 Good day. This is Gabriel Shaneen, certified Financial Planner and your host of More Knowledge, more Wealth here on every weekend, talking about all important topics of personal finance. My goal is to give you the knowledge you need to increase your wealth Now to the listener, you can always reach out to myself or any one of our colleagues here at Falcon Wealth Planning.

Our phone number is eight five five. 9 6 3 25 26. That's 8 5 5 96. Falcon like the bird, or visit our website@falconwealthplanning.com. That's falcon wp.com for short. Now I'm the president of Falcon Wealth Planning. We are a fee only non-commissioned, true fiduciary folks. We're an independent registered investment advisory firm with no broker dealer affiliations, and we focus on everything that involves a dollar sign.

That's where you are today, how retirement looks like. Talk about taxes, investments, the state churning, folks, you name it. Anything that involves a dollar sign. We would love to help. And we have offices all over and we help people nationwide give us a call. We would love to help. Our phone number is (855) 963-2526.

That's 8 5 5 96. Falcon like the Bird, or visit our website@falconwealthplanning.com. That's falcon wp.com. For short, we could put a personal confidential assessment for you to help relate this show to your specific situation and folks we're offering one to two hours, one to two meetings of our time at no cost.

Folks, we look forward for you guys to call. Now, I just came back last week from our office in Chicago and I had a fantastic time. We got some of our two top financial planners over there, certified financial planners in David Smith and Nikki Ammo, and it was just a great time. We went over a lot with my time over there and it just really got me thinking how.

It's different how the Midwest folks are different than people from New York, which are different for people here in Los Angeles, which is where the headquarters are for Falcon Wealth Planning, which is where I'm located. But the universal aspect of financial planning is the same no matter where you go.

And it was true. I, I felt like just my normal values and just, uh, the sense of humor to personality really meshed well with those in the Midwest. And the funny reason I bring that up is I would end ended up doing a presentation at Benedictine University. And we were talking about taxes, tax planning in general, and they hit me right then and there.

Now, number one, recommendations for financial planner. IT planning. It's universal. It doesn't matter where you are. Everybody needs financial help, which is why we're opening offices all over and why we're helping people in multiple states across the country and quite frankly, help people all across the country as we have, uh, clients in most of those states.

So what's my point with that conversation? It's so important to have a financial planning firm that has experience that's large enough of experience of having somebody in every single state. And this really hit me hard when I was presenting and in the middle of my presentation that I normally give on webinars, nationwide, webinars, going over, uh, multiple places across the country when in the state of Chicago, it hit me in mid presentation that it's a little different in the state of Illinois than it is in California or other states.

What do I mean by that? You ask? Well, something very simple. In the state of Illinois, you're allowed to save into a retirement account and get write-offs on the federal and state saving into a traditional IRA or a traditional 401k. So you save $10,000, maybe you save 30 thou or $3,000 in taxes, assuming 30% between federal and state.

Here's the cool part about the state of Illinois and why. Yet again, it's important, number one, to have a tax planning. Focus and number two, to help people nationwide and have an in-house tax department is in the state of California. Would you take money out of your retirement account? You are not taxed on any retirement income.

That could be your pension. Social security, like most states by the way, doesn't tax Social security and I ran 401K withdrawals, so that's great. You get a tax. Benefit on the way in, but completely tax free on the way out. This switches the recommendations and strategies of what you should do during your working and pre-retirement and deep retirement careers.

This is where you could take advantage of a tax deferred account and then even take advantage of. Roth conversions or withdrawing from Roths while you are still in the state of Illinois. And in addition to that, making sure you're, take advantage of the tax situation that you may be in. It's crazy to think that some people may be working with advisors that, number one, like I said, doesn't even look at your tax situation.

They don't look at your tax situation. How are they supposed to identify? What makes sense for you? Which account, which account you should save into? Maybe you should be deferring now depending on your situation, your income, what income will be in retirements along with write-offs and so on. What's my point with all this?

Guys? There is no substitute for a customized approach for you. Certain things I say here in the domicile state of Southern California may not apply to you in the state of New York, Pennsylvania. Florida, Texas, let alone Illinois. You get what I'm saying? This is why it's so important to talk to a financial professional, and this is why we're offering a free financial assessment really to help relate this show to your specific situation.

Folks, give us a call. We would love to help. We're offering one to two meetings, one to two hours of our time at no cost. Our phone number is nine six three twenty five twenty six. That's 8 55. 96 Falcon like the Bird. We can help put a personal assessment to answer those questions you have, and more importantly, tell you what you should be doing.

Cuz the advice is different depending on how much you make. What's your marital status? Where are you gonna retire, what state you live in. And so on, folks, we would love to help. By the way, folks, if you're just joining us, you're listening to Gabriel Shane, certified financial planner and your host of More Knowledge, more Wealth here and every weekend talking about all important topics of personal finance.

And today we're just talking about the simple concept of how advice in general is needed universally, uh, not just in the state of California or Washington state or Texas, let alone Illinois, but. Internationally as well. We are blessed to be in such a country. Now I'm gonna say it, we're so regulated. You could trust your money is safe.

We are still the most stable currency in the world. We are still the biggest economy in the world. And by far by the way, the only difference is why people always talk about China as we grow. At average 2%, they're upset when they're at 7% or 6%. So the point is, is we are blessed because now that we believe in our country, we know our money safe is how can you maximize it?

How can you put your money in a way. Where you can legally take advantage of the laws that are in place to make it stable and secure. Use these regulations to enhance your financial situation, and how do you enhance it by making sure that you are properly putting a plan and a strategy in place. Because here is the thing, I see people all too often and I get these things on Facebook.

Lately I've been on Facebook a little more than I should. And I get these advertisements of people trying to say, you can have tax free withdrawals on an IRA account now. It's so misleading and I love reading the comments on 'em more than anything sometimes, but I don't comment on 'em. I don't need people giving me bad publicity or anything like that.

Uh, so what I do is I just read the comments and I think to myself like, yeah, these are, it is a too good to be true. So I like certain people's comments on there. What's my point? There was some comments saying, can take your money of an ira? Be free. Now, there's a couple answers to that. Okay. Because this is all based on this same topic.

Number one, it could be free on the state level, like in the state of Illinois. Now, uh, we all know about the Floridas, the Texas, the Washingtons, the Nevadas of the world. We get that, but it could be so we get the state level part of it, like the state of Illinois. But let's continue the conversation. Can it be state on the, uh, tax free withdrawal on the federal level?

The answer is, it could be right. It depends. That always seems to be the right answer, but here's why. It depends because depending on what your taxable income is, The government gives you a free standard deduction of 13,000 or 26,000 roughly if you're married. So if you have no income, maybe you're living off cash or savings or whatnot, or your investments lost money and you had a bunch of write-offs, you may be in a negative tax bracket.

If your tax bracket is adjusted, gross income is negative 3000. The government gives you a negative 26,000, uh cuz they write off 26. Your taxable income is negative 29,000. You could take up to NE $29,000. Just to bring your income to a zero. So in a situation like that, yes, it could make sense to take money out of the account and you pay no taxes on those withdrawals.

This is a clear case reason why there is no substitute of talking to a professional. I'll give you an example. I had a lawyer over in Lake Arrowhead, California a few years back while his practice was struggling, while his real estate investments were doing poorly, he had a negative $47,000 of income.

Okay? That was justice as justice, gross income. He still got another. 30,000 as a, uh, itemized deduction on top of that. His income was almost a negative $70,000. You know what he ended up doing? He was saving into a 401k, a tax deferred 401k, getting a tax write off on nothing, getting a tax write off for nothing, for putting money into this account.

This was absolute craziness, folks, but that is what happened. So he was putting money in, in a tax deferred account and getting zero tax benefits. Only what to take it out later and start paying taxes on it's craziness. Folks, I see this all far too often, where people are doing things backwards. They read something one time saying, save 15% of your income, and then what do they end up doing?

They save 15%, but they save it in the wrong mechanism. Why? Because our industry doesn't allow the person you're getting advice from to give you tax advice. And folks, I'm sorry, taxes are gonna take more from you than the stock market will ever take away from you. You, but yet you go talk to a financial advisor selling you crap.

What are they selling you? Some index Universal life insurance, trying to tell you it's tax free. Good luck with that. Find me somebody who did it 25 years ago that made money on the thing that's tax free. And that's number one. Number two, some annuity that's taken advantage of you with high fees and high commissions and e-liquid issues.

Some commission-based mutual funds, some commission-based products. You're getting advice from somebody who's selling you things for a commission. Now listen, I have no issue with people making money on commissions. You buy an insurance product like a health insurance, they're getting commission life insurance, like a term life insurance.

They get commission. I have no issues with that. You're home in auto policy. Same thing. But for to take advantage, somebody of you is completely inappropriate and it happens far too often. Folks, yet again, this is why we're offering to reach out to a professional who can help. There is no obligation. We're not charging any fees to this folks.

We're offering one to two meetings, one to two hours of our time at no cost. Folks, give us a call, we'll be happy to help. Our phone number is (855) 963-2526. That's 8 5 5 96. Falcon like the bird folks will be right back after a few words.

This is Gabriel Shaheen certified financial Planner Your host of More knowledge more Wealth That's on every weekend We're going over all important topics of personal Finance We're going over retirement planning making sure you're prepared for retirement social security and strategies real estate taxes avoiding them now and in the future investments reducing fees commissions and so on Insurance and estate planning Folks we are offering a free financial assessment that you could take advantage of We have offices all across Southern California including the Inland Empire Give us a call to take advantage. Our phone number is eight five five. 6 3 25 26. That's 8 5 5 96. Falcon like the bird, or visit our website, falcon wealth planning.com. That's falcon wp.com for short. Enjoy the show.

We look forward to serving. You Welcome back folks. This is Gabriel Shane, certified financial planner and your host of More Knowledge, more Wealth on every weekend, talking about all important topics of personal finance. And today we're just talking about the general idea of a device and why it's so important to talk to a professional.

Why? Because you've only walked down this path once or twice in your life. You've only gone through retirement maybe once or twice in your life, just so when you're married or maybe even did part-time retirement work. You've only bought a house. Let's just say you even bought a bunch of houses. 5, 10, 20, 50, a hundred properties in your lifetime.

Well, guess what? We brought a thousand properties last year alone as a firm. You get what I'm saying? With this, you probably run, let's say one, maybe two, let's say 20 businesses. Guess what? We worked with thousands of business over owners just in the past 12 months alone. What's my point to you is nobody has everything figured out, including myself, including our planners.

But collectively, when you add the thousands and tens of thousands of people that we've helped at Falcon Wealth Planning, We absolutely can have a collaborative approach to your situation, and this is why you should just take a look at what you're currently doing right now and who are you bouncing ideas off of?

Are you in a mastermind's group? Are you in a cohort group? Are you in a leadership group? Are you even in one of those groups? And are they giving you specific advice of your financial and tax situation? And most of the times, You are not, and I don't blame you. I don't expect it to you cuz to you to have that.

Because like I said, even in the financial services industry, they tell you to talk to a tax professional. They're not allowed to give tax advice. And listen, we're not a tax shop, we're tax advisors. We're full wealth managers. And one of the biggest expenses in your situation is taxes, which is a big niche.

Investments are easy folks. I'm sorry, I'm gonna let the cat outta the bag here. All right. I'm gonna look around, make sure no one's listening. Investments are the easiest part of our job. Managing money is easy. You know why people hire us Because number one, you don't want to do this. Number two, you don't like this.

And number three, you just don't have the knowledge for this. Talk to a surgeon. Some surgeries are very, very easy, but because of their schooling, their certifications, and their absolute knowledge of it, you would never consider it do your own surgery. So it's the same concept with financial planning and investments just because you get something in your leg.

Are you gonna pull it out yourself? No. You want a hire professional. There could be infections, there could be problems that arise of that, and this is why you can't afford to be cheap in something like that. Going back to the commentary of, you know, your situation is more complicated, even if you think it's simple and you have, uh, one house and you have money in a retirement account.

And you're getting social security, you don't understand the implications of the money and the retirement account that you have. You don't understand that maybe taking it all out may cause a ridiculous amount of taxes on the federal and potentially state level. You don't understand the implication that it have on the taxation of your social security, and you don't understand the implications it has on your Medicare premiums.

How it can increase from 170 to over 500 bucks a month. There are so many different aspects to this, especially when you start factoring in, people wanna retire before the age of 65 and the planning they need to do before that. What do I mean by that? Well, with proper planning, you could take advantage of marketplace subsidy insurance that the IRS gives you.

I don't understand some of these concepts. That people think are just easy and for them to just ignore these planning strategies can save you tens of thousands of dollars. You've got hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout your lifetime. Some of these saves you tens of thousands and hundred thousands on an annual basis, yet again, depending on your situation.

But to think that this is just an easy walk in the park is just not reality. And we gave you the example in the previous segment of talking about the state of Illinois, how you get a tax benefit putting into a retirement account and there is no taxes on the way out. Don't understand why people are not taking more advantage of this and talking to specific professionals that are understanding these strategies where you can save in and get write-offs and take it out whether even if you don't need it, folks, it's okay.

Put it into a Roth ira that's called a Roth conversion. The state of Illinois will not tax you on that conversion. There are so many different planning strategies available to you where you could do some tax planning strategies, which may even put you in a tax-free situation for life, depending of course on how much you have in a retirement account, where all your other forms of income are coming from.

This could allow your social security to be tax-free and allow the standard deduction to put you in a completely tax-free situation. I see this often and people do not, are just not even aware of it. They think financial planning's only for the rich, and I get it. It makes sense, but it's also designed for those that have situations that apply to the masses and for those that have any money in a retirement account.

It can make a lot of sense for them to get advice, even if they think their situation is simple. You could potentially be sitting on a tax-free gold mine and not even know it folks. This is something you need to be aware of and act, and not just sit there, but act and take advantage of these strategies.

By the way, folks, if you're just joining me, you're listening to Gabriel Shaheen, certified financial planner and your host of more knowledge, more wealthier on every weekend, talking about all important topics of personal finance. And today we're talking about the simple concept of financial planning, and you are blessed to be put in a situation where there is.

Many planners you could choose from, but the issue is not many of 'em, if any at all, give tax planning advice. Give tax advice. There's too much liability. They don't have a CPA on staff. Most advisors out there are one to two people. Heck, you talk, look at the people at Wells Fargo Advisors, JP Morgan, chase advisors, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, ever, Jones, ubs.

They're sole practitioners. It's one person that you're working with. I don't care if it's at your credit union or whatever the case is, and they're commission based on top of that. How does this make any sense? You're literally, yes, there's a big name behind them, but they're operating as a silo. That one advisor might be selling you a commission-based product.

The other one might be selling you a commission-based mutual fund. The other one might be charging commissions on stocks and bonds. Other one might be charging commissions on an uh, uh, uh, options training and whatnot. Another one, selling annuities. Another one. You get what I'm saying with this folks?

They're operating completely independently. This is where you need to get an unbiased advice with a true team behind the firm. And you may be working with one advisor that knows your situation, which is great, but there is a team behind them, whether it's senior planners, financial planners, associate planners, where multiple people know your situation.

And they work collaboratively. And that's from our planning department to our ops department, to our trading department here at Falcon Mall Planning. We do everything in-house. There's a reason we're one of the fastest growing investment firms in the country, folks, is because of our approach of making it in-house, um, by spreading the word and doing good.

And one third of our business still comes from referrals folks, and it's very rare in this industry when it's so competitive. We do high quality work and investments, as I said, is the easiest part of our job. When you're not commission based, where you don't have to sell product, you sell, and we sell brain.

We're selling you our brain. The investments is the byproduct of our brain. It's the easiest part cuz guess what? We just choose the best investments out there. I don't care where people are invested. I don't care if it's an L P L Financial, I don't care if it's a Wadell and Reid, I don't care if Raymond James.

Then the day they have what's called broker dealers. And they're affiliated. They got their series seven license. They're affiliated with these broker dealers. They can only offer you whatever the broker dealer tells 'em they can offer you. You know what that's like going to a Ford car dealership. You can't ask for a Toyota or a Honda.

You can only ask for a Ford. And I'm not saying anything's wrong with a Ford. They got the best pickup in the world, highest selling at least. So the idea though is you are limited. Why are we an independent? Registered investment advisory firm, number one. We're non-commissioned and we can offer anything that's out there.

We have multiple custodians. Somebody at Arabia. James, your money has to stay at Raymond James. Ours are at Fidelity. TD Ameritrade, Charles Schwab. You can be on multiple different custodians, which gives you the best pricing, best execution, and best situation. Your money's not with Falcon Bank. There is no Falcon Bank.

It's at those custodians that I just named. We're just the advisor. And by the way, you know the last person to be the advisor and the bank. It was a guy named Bernie Madoff and it didn't work out too well, if you know what I'm saying. It's way too much control for one person. Folks give us a call. We would love to help with your situation.

There was so much out there in the world of personal finance that you just don't know. And it's not just for the rich. We don't like, listen, we help the rich. Okay, I'm sorry, cat's outta the back. Okay, but we don't just help the rich get richer, we also help the aspiring become financially independent. And that is a key goal of mine, of Falcon Wealth Planning.

This is why we help people from multiple different channels. We are the good guys in this industry, and gals got multiple people here that are here to serve you. And we are offering one to two meetings, one to two hours of our time. Folks at no cost. Give us a call. We would love to help. Our phone number is (855) 963-2526.

That's 8 5 5 96 Falcon like the Bird, or visit our website@falconwealthplanning.com. That's falcon wp.com for short. We would love to pro a personal assessment for you to help relate this show to your situation. We're we're offering one to two hours, one to two meetings of our time at no. Cost. Folks, we appreciate you for joining us this weekend.

A little stuffy this week and why I apologize here in Southern California, it goes from 89 degrees to 49 degrees in the span of two to three days. So allergies are an all time high, especially with all the rains we got here in Southern California. So thank you for bearing with me this weekend. If I sounded a little stuffy, But you can always reach out to myself or any one of our colleagues here at Falcon Wealth Planning.

Our phone number is (855) 963-2526. That's 8 5 5 96 Falcon like the bird. Or you could reach out. If you have a question, just send a message, an email or an audio clip of to radio falcon wp.com. That's radio@falconwp.com. We can play it on air. We didn't get anyone's this. The past week that we want to play on air that related to this show.

But please feel free to do that. Join us on our podcast, on our Spotify, where you're able to listen to these shows and multiple shows that we've had for the past, almost eight years now on air. Folks, I want to thank you for joining in with us. I want you to enjoy your weekend. Have a great week and God bless.