The Money Advantage Blog

Never Split the Difference is making waves in the business world by demonstrating that negotiation starts with the most counterintuitive skill of empathy.  That’s because author Chris Voss is likely the most qualified person to be teaching negotiation.  With a long history in international crisis and high stakes negotiations as the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator, and…

You can survive dying without needing a GoFundMe.  I’m living proof.  Three weeks ago, I almost died in an emergency operation after childbirth. Today, I’m looking down at the fluttering eyelashes of my snoring newborn, and my heart swells with enormous gratitude for the privilege of being alive to witness her life. In today’s podcast, my…

Scott Carson is the Founder and CEO of We Close Notes. He’s a distressed note buyer, real estate investor, entrepreneur, educator and podcast host. If you’ve heard of investing in non-performing notes and would like to gain an insider’s perspective, this is your opportunity to learn.  As you expand into any asset class, the first…

We often get the question, should I use a Self-Directed IRA for real estate investing? When you’re looking for the capital to get started in real estate, one of the most common sources is money inside of 401k’s and IRAs. However, using tax-deferred retirement plans to invest in real estate is a really bad idea.…

The best profit maximization strategies are the ones nobody’s talking about.  Why?  Because everyone is looking for the hardest, most challenging, and over-complicated techniques.  Maybe it’s our human tendency to believe that everything worthwhile has to be difficult. Or perhaps, we like the bragging rights we get after surviving the most grueling, tortuous feats. Like cutting…

Marco Santarelli is a real estate investor, author, and founder of Norada Real Estate Investments, a nationwide provider of turnkey cash-flow investment property. Turnkey real estate may be an excellent opportunity for you to create cash flow from assets.  With turnkey, you purchase property that’s already cash-flowing, reducing your barrier to entry into real estate…

Many people get stuck paying their kids’ bills long after the kids are grown and moved out of the house.  Often, it’s to the tune of hundreds, if not thousands of dollars each month.  Even commitments you initially made because you love your kids and want to help them can begin to feel like a…

Nick Raithel, creator of The 7-Hour Book, is helping entrepreneurs and thought leaders get their message out in record time.  He’s reducing the barrier to becoming an author, establishing credibility that comes along with it, and increasing your business visibility. We often talk about building a life and business you love.  Let’s focus in on…

Economic Value Added (EVA) is a little-known, but impressively effective measure to boost your profitability. Coca-Cola, AT&T, Quaker Oats, CSX, and Briggs and Stratton helped the term rise to prominence when they adopted EVA in the 80s and 90s.  Focus on this insightful accounting measure resulted in an overwhelming increase in business value, stock price,…

Mike Michalowicz is a champion of profitability, on a mission to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty.  Mike is the author of Profit First, Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine. He helps business owners realize their need for making a profit and design a practical, working system that doesn’t take ironman willpower to…

Business growth is often the commonly accepted end goal of all entrepreneurship.  And growth usually means higher earnings, sales, and revenue.  After all, you want to reap the rewards of more income and gain a better lifestyle. As a business owner, the path to get there seems to be generating more clients and more dollars. But…

Nicole Holland has one goal: to help established business owners and entrepreneurs make more money fast.  How?  By increasing their visibility, credibility, and profitability. Nicole is a first-rate podcaster, publicist, marketing strategist, and master connector of incredible humans.  She has built her business by building authentic relationships.  Nicole strategically teaches, and equips other entrepreneurs to do…

When buying life insurance, most people don’t have a complete map.  Without all the information to make the best decisions, many people make mistakes that lead to buyer’s remorse.  But you don’t have to worry.  Because you’re reading this, you can recognize and sidestep the common pitfalls people make in buying life insurance. Don’t end…

As a residential agent, Pat Hiban sold over 6,000 residential homes, earning the title of Billion Dollar Agent.  He’s also the host of Real Estate Rockstar Radio, best-selling author of Six Steps to Seven Figures: A Real Estate Professional’s Guide to Building Wealth and Creating Your Destiny, founder of Rebus University and Big Profit Agents…

One of the biggest mistakes people make in saving money is stepping over dollars to chase pennies.  This happens any time you put so much time and energy into cost-cutting tactics to save a few cents, that you ignore the greater opportunities to make money. The reason this is so attractive is that it takes…

Ross Stryker, CEO of Smart Asset Opportunities, is the poster child for taking control of your life and financial destiny.  In fact, just 4 years after he made a shift from typical thinking to investing in cash-flowing assets, he achieved financial freedom.  He was liberated by the power of his choices.  His key decisions to…

How do you find the best life insurance companies?  You want only the strongest, most stable companies to ensure the best results over the long-term.  But what criteria do you use to evaluate and discover which companies are, in fact, the best?  Is there an objective measure, or is it a matter of personal opinion…

Eddie Lorin has been building a real estate portfolio over the past 30 years. He has successfully purchased and transformed $3 billion worth of multifamily real estate.  That amounts to more than 180 thriving communities with approximately 40,000 apartment units throughout the United States.  Now, as the Managing Director and Founder of Strategic Realty Holdings, Eddie…

The real rate of return is objective, rational, and substantial. It delineates the exact performance of your capital from start point to end point.  It has actual value and meaning.  Like concrete beneath your feet, it’s solid ground. At its core, it is the truth.  But finding the truth is often much harder than it appears. Searching…

Jack Gibson, President and Co-Founder of High Return Real Estate, gets it.  After building a multi-million-dollar income with a multi-level health company, he had a serious wake-up call.  A bet was placed against his company’s stock, and he ran the risk of losing his financial footing.  He felt vulnerable watching his only income source teeter…

Why would I borrow against my life insurance instead of getting a regular loan? You might be thinking, I could get a great rate from the bank because I have a good credit score. You might be right, but do you want to rely on that? Let me propose this idea to you. Back in…

Life insurance loans are one of the superpowers of the Infinite Banking Concept.  They give you ready access to capital at any time, for any reason.  These loans make the cash value of specially-designed life insurance an ideal pool of seed capital for your investing strategy.  Providing the opportunity to earn uninterrupted compound interest, leverage your capital,…

Brian Robbins is a 27-year chiropractor, author, real estate investor, the owner of multiple companies, and the father of 10 children.  He’s not only making a great income, but he’s also found a way to create sustainable passive income as well.  This shift is crucial to doing it all and doing it well! We’ll learn from his…

A big part of building a life and business you love is doing fulfilling work that produces a high income.  Some may relegate that caliber of work to the one-in-a-million, unicorn-type anomaly – a dream job that doesn’t exist.  However, research-based evidence proves otherwise, finding that 38% of US employees report that they are “very satisfied” with their…

The ultimate goal of cash flow awareness is to save more each month.  Why? Because generously paying yourself first is the foundation of wealth creation.  With more savings, you build up capital to invest in cash-flowing assets so you can create time and money freedom.   But across all income levels, most people’s savings habits are anemic, or even…

As we transition into 2019, we wanted to bring you a personal message about how we bring closure to the end of 2018 and transition into 2019 with as much strength and intention as possible.  We think this will be really helpful to you as you’re building a life and business you love and taking…

When it comes to seeking out and mastering a profitable niche, Jefferson Lilly of Park Avenue Partners, a mobile home park investor, is a true leader.  Looking for a stable way to provide value and earn returns, Jefferson began analyzing real estate deals in multifamily housing across the Midwest.  What he found was perplexing, but he continued…

As you count down the days until Christmas, you’re also counting down the days you have before you tie up the loose ends on your fiscal year to prepare for 2018 taxes.  We’ll walk you through practical and strategic tax moves you can make to close out the books, stay organized, and save taxes.  This…

A typical whole life insurance policy won’t give you the high early cash value and long-term growth you need for Privatized Banking.  As enticing as its certainty and control are to wealth creators, it’s not enough.  You’ll need enhancements to convert your policy from a slow equity-builder into one that you can use quickly. Policy…

Connor Boyack is the author The Tuttle Twins, a series of a premier free market educational books for kids.  Once a web developer and online marketer, his passion transformed him into an economic, history and political philosopher and educator. Because he was perplexed by current events, he began studying history’s patterns, looking for answers to…

Although Trump’s Tax Reform cut taxes in many ways, millions of Americans will see taxes increase in 2018.  The lower standardized deduction and the $10K cap on deductions for SALT (State and Local Taxes) will primarily affect those in the upper-middle to mid-upper class.   Consequently, tax planning is becoming a growing priority for an increasing…

You’re on the hunt for the best life insurance policy to use for Privatized Banking. For this, not just any policy will do. You want to buy exactly the right kind of life insurance to get cash you can use, earn uninterrupted compounding, and have your dollars working in two places at the same time. Life insurance…

Get to know the team at Mid South Homebuyers.  This conversation will help you determine how and when turnkey rental real estate could help you invest for cash flow. Who Are Terry Kerr and Liz Nowlin Brody? Terry Kerr Terry Kerr was born in 1970 in Memphis Tennessee.  Except for some nomadic travel in his early twenties, has…

Piggy banks may seem best suited to our childhood era.  We mentally organize them with wagon-rides, tooth fairies, and the endless pencil-sharpening of early grade school.  But as adults, we need and use piggy banks; they just come in a different form.  When people need money for life’s setbacks and lean times, one of the…

You play a big game, and you want your money to keep pace. Being in control is essential to you, and your money is no exception.  You don’t have time to be strung along every year, hoping for better returns. Instead, you want to be able to count on your money to give you confidence…

You are a creator!  You can create and live your own extraordinary life, starting right now. And here are the tools to do so, right at your fingertips!  Jon and Missy Butcher, founders of LifeBook, have embodied creating their own life. And you can do that too. To quote Steve Jobs, “Everything around you that…

As entrepreneurs building growing businesses, it often becomes necessary to transform ourselves. Innovation requires shedding our old thought patterns and ways of operating, so we can embrace new ones that serve us better.  Dan Sullivan, of Strategic Coach, outlines this phenomenon in his growth-provoking article, Don’t Be a “Rugged Individualist” – Delegate! He contrasts two ways of…

Let’s say you’re in a position where you want to pay off debt. You have decided that the best and highest use of your money is to get rid of a particular loan or multiple loans so that you have more cash flow that’s not required to be paid to these fixed loan payments. The…

Most people struggle to get out from debt like they’re drowning in the ocean.  Like drowning, they waste energy, time, and money floundering and flailing instead of taking calculated, focused, strategically-timed strokes that would free them most efficiently. The Cash Flow Index removes this struggle. Before we dive into the Cash Flow Index, let’s talk…

Nelson Nash is an exceptional thinker who discovered a secret to prosperity that was too good to keep to himself. The Infinite Banking Concept® was born when he noticed what was already possible inside cash value life insurance; the ability to earn interest, gain access to capital and take control of your financial life.  Since then,…

For the business owner who wants to perform at their best and make the most out of life, the answer may be in working less, not more.  In his insightful article Taking Time Off Can Increase Your Productivity and Better Your Company, Dan Sullivan, of Strategic Coach, reveals the leverage that taking time off can…

Opportunity cost, like the submerged portion of an iceberg, is a part of your financial decisions hidden from view.  While odorless, colorless, tasteless, and silent, opportunity cost is a threat to your wealth creation. This wealth restrictor is no respecter of persons or purchase types.  Opportunity cost is the tag-along to every financial decision you’ll…

If you’ve been in our community for a while, chances are, you love cash flow, and you know we do too!  You’re interested in quickly creating income streams with cash-flowing assets.  You want assets you know and control that produce income for you so that your source of income is not restricted to the money…

Dan Sullivan shares a profound perspective on goal-setting, exponential vision, and staying energized to continue progressing, in his article Staying Positive by Looking Backward. We’re sharing this article, along with our experience of using these concepts, to help fortify your abundance mindset.  We know that developing a healthy, positive perspective is the secret weapon of…

Let’s talk about paying cash. Now it certainly has its pros, but it also has its cons. The reason people often pay cash is that they don’t want to pay interest. They don’t want to go into a position of what they feel is debt. They would rather pay cash to avoid an interest charge. However,…

Alexander Pope said, “To err is human, to forgive divine.” Financially speaking, it would be more accurate to say, “to spend money is human, to create wealth divine.”  No one ever needed a lesson in how to buy things. In fact, with no restraint, we manage quite well to find plentiful ways to spend money.  How you spend…

Here to encourage, enlighten, and empower you to improve your communication to create positive change is Joe Yazbeck, master speaker and coach.  In this rich interview, we’ll discuss: How do I get past the fear of speaking? I know I have the potential to be a much greater speaker than I am, but where do…

We brought Josh Thomas, of Profit Arc, onto the show to talk about sales, marketing, and growth.  This dynamic, authentic conversation covered that ground, and so much more. In his down-to-earth message of simplicity and focus, Josh shares the power of one person to make a difference, how to adapt to change, and the #1…

Becoming debt free is often listed as a notch on the belt of financial progress. It’s widely discussed, admired, longed for, celebrated, and even praised by so-called financial experts.  But, paying off debt may be risky or even altogether unnecessary.  In fact, you’re probably not in debt in the first place!  We want you to be debt…

Do you want to purchase cash-flowing rental real estate?  Are you are asking the question: should I pay cash or finance real estate investments? Assume that you have enough to pay cash and pay for the property outright. But do you want to do that? In order to determine if you want to pay cash or…

In this interview with Maureen McCann of Spartan Invest, we’ll answer: What is turnkey real estate? How can I use turnkey real estate to build cash flow from assets? What do I look for in a turnkey real estate provider? Why might I want to invest with Spartan Invest? How can I gain confidence when…

How does the cash value inside a life insurance policy boost investment returns in real estate? And why is this a better strategy than using cash? A properly structured whole life policy provides a competitive rate of return when compared to other savings vehicles. A whole life policy with a maximum paid-up addition rider accumulates cash…

How do you know if the advice of financial experts applies to you?  In fact, who are the financial experts?  Does fame or popularity make someone an expert? What about having the biggest stage or the largest reach?  Is it a degree, certification, or credential that qualifies them?  Instead, the litmus test for a financial expert…

In this fascinating interview with Paul Moore, we discussed opportunities for investors to build generational wealth through commercial multifamily investing.  Unfortunately, there are high barriers to entry into this investment sector.  New investors to this space may lack the capital requirements, loan qualifications, and experience needed to gain a seat at the table. Through real…

Why cash flow Today?  The goal of the typical financial model is to accumulate a pile of cash.  It is akin to climbing a mountain, where the journey to the top is all about creating a lump sum.  At the top, you’re hoping the lump sum generates enough income to live the rest of your…

The #1 most effective way to increase your cash flow today is to be the bank. In order to be the bank you have to think like the bank.  Banking generates voluminous cash flow.  There are rules for how the bank operates that have established banking as the most powerful business model in the world. …

If you listen to the “financial experts” on tv or the radio, you will hear the typical blanket advice that you should put money into a 401(k).  But the question is, does that advice apply to everybody?  To get as much of an insider’s perspective as we could find, we interviewed Ted Benna, “inventor” of…

Now, when you’re shopping, you want to make the best decisions, and it’s not always about the price.  If you wanted to save money on everything, you would buy only at the dollar store, right?  In this video, we discuss four ways to save money on life insurance without being cheap. We want to not…

Life, health, and disability insurance protect you, your body, your wellness, and your livelihood.  This range of coverage includes some of the most essential protections. Too often, people ask the wrong questions.  This leads them to draw the wrong conclusions about life, health, and disability insurance.   As a result, many remain drastically underinsured or forgo the protection altogether.…

Home and auto insurance are two pillars of insurance protection that are almost universally understood to be necessary. However, when it comes to choosing and paying for coverage, you have nearly infinite options.  The range of coverage details, exemptions, coverage amounts, and limitations add complexity.  This can make shopping for insurance seem like a maze…

When you shop for insurance, it’s best to start with a game plan.  Then you know what to look for and how to save on insurance without sacrificing value. It’s just like shopping for groceries, a marketing strategist, or an investment property. First, you need to know what you want.  Next, you want to know how…

If you have been reading The Money Advantage blog for a while, you may already know that The Go-Giver book played a central role in How The Money Advantage Began. We are huge fans of Bob Burg and John David Mann’s Go-Giver Series. The Go-Giver is an engaging parable about the unexpected system of getting…

To navigate your insurance decisions, you must weigh the costs and opportunity costs of each option.  While some choose to self-insure as a solution to reduce costs, there are additional costs hidden beneath the surface that you need to be aware of. Insurance is fairly polarizing.  Chances are, you either love it or you hate…

Content marketing is a powerful tool to reach your future customers before they choose to do business with you. We brought Maggie Patterson on our podcast because she specializes in making content marketing simple. If you’ve been in business for 20 years or 15 minutes, you’ve realized that one of the primary levers of success…

Insurance is about more than protecting your stuff. It’s about protecting your human life value. Often, you need insurance ranks pretty close on the motivation list with you need to change the oil in your car. Here’s the filtering mechanism your brain goes through when you hear it:  Not that pressing.  Things are going fine without it.  Why…

Rick Randall says that estate planning that works is not the norm, but it does not have to be that way. The goal of estate planning is to dictate how you will transfer the baton of your life’s wealth and wisdom to generations after you.  With it, you ensure your legacy will live on, beyond you,…

Throughout civilization, people have created tools to transfer risk, protecting themselves from negative circumstances.  This is the core function of insurance: to transfer risk.  It’s what makes insurance not only something you want but something to love. However, many people have a misguided and negative view of insurance, being inadequately insured or uninsured altogether.  As…

In this episode, we asked Richard C. Wilson, the CEO of the Family Office Club, to share his experience in coordinating the wealth teams of multimillionaire and billionaire families. There’s a divergence between the investing strategies of the status quo and those of the ultra-successful.  The ultra-wealthy leverage a family office model so they can…

Have you ever wondered, should I save or invest?  How does my investing strategy fit in with my cash flow creation system?  How do I get my saving and investing to work together so that I can maximize my whole personal economy? Where Investing Fits into the Cash Flow System We love cash flow.  Cash…

Diversification is typical financial planning advice that average investors use to protect themselves from losses.  Simply put, diversification is ignorance protection.  It is admitting that you don’t know what you are doing. It is common to think of investing and the stock market as one and the same. However, investing encompasses much more than just the stock market.…

In a sea of investment choices, it can be overwhelming to determine which are the best investments for you. But don’t let overwhelm keep you in the dark, procrastinating, making mediocre decisions, losing money, and perpetually frustrated. The first step to confident investing is having a clear picture of exactly what you want and WHY. …

Many successful REALTORS® struggle when it comes to planning for the future.  They have high incomes, live an upper-middle-class lifestyle or better, build growing businesses.  However, they don’t have a plan for future income that they’re confident will lead to financial freedom. This is no truer than in the REALTOR® community.  More than 50% of…

Most investing returns fizzle far beneath our expectations.  When we most want our money to generate cash flow, we end up flatlining, or even losing money. The prosperity and confidence we’d hoped for elude us, leaving us more anxious and uncertain instead. Could it be that we have our sights on the wrong target?  Let’s…

We interviewed Kevin Clayson, author of FLIP the Gratitude Switch.  He has made it his life’s work to empower people with a powerful, tangible formula that puts gratitude to work. Gratitude is a key ingredient in the abundance mindset recipe required for building a life and business you love.  It’s like the yeast in a bread…

As important as savings is in our financial life, there is a lot of confusion surrounding the idea of savings.   As a result, many people think they’re saving when they are not saving at all.  When you don’t know your financial picture, you lack clarity and likely won’t have money to save. In order…

So, here’s an action that you can do right away, in your personal financial life to determine how your savings stack up. Write down any places where you’re storing money. Now I say places because some of those might be accounts. It could be a savings account, a checking account, a money market account, a…

Often when we put money automatically into retirement plans, things like 401ks, 403bs, this is usually through a payroll deduction from an employer.  This is commonly referred to as ‘saving for retirement.’  However, this is investing because that money is often at risk in the stock market, and can lose value.  It’s time to save…

What Is Savings: Why We Need a Definition In all the financial pressure you feel to plan for the future, have you ever stopped to consider, fundamentally, what is savings?  Often the answer is in asking the right questions.  Concerning great questions, this is one that will behoove you to ask, understand, and answer that…

Trump’s tax reform has made a lot of big changes to the tax code.  Because of the overhaul, our proactive tax team posted a series of blogs outlining the changes and what they mean for you.  When we read them, we knew right away that we wanted to share them with you. So, we brought…

If you want to seize opportunities like the wealthy, you will need to save like the wealthy. Building a financial system is a lot like barrel racing. Far away from the roar of audiences, the outcome of the race is determined by the hours of preparation and conditioning spent outside the ring, out of the…

Jimmy Vreeland is maximizing his real estate returns by using the premier financing strategy of the wealthy. As stand-alone tools, both real estate and high cash value life insurance are top-notch.  Their powers of cash flow, appreciation, equity, leverage, tax advantages, and a hedge against inflation are unrivaled by any other product. But when you combine these…

The concept of holding cash – savings – is such an intricate, multi-faceted one.  This series will walk you through the WHY, the compelling reasons to value and build cash savings. Then, we’ll show you how to apply it and reveal the key distinctions to keep you on track. If you have a great enough WHY, then…

Kim Butler is a champion of Prosperity Economics principles who’s bringing them back into the mainstream.  She’s revitalizing the traditional way of thinking, condensing age-old wealth principles into the 7 Principles of Prosperity.  She helps people get their money doing more jobs and building wealth outside of Wall Street. She’s the owner of Partners 4…

Have you ever had conflicting thoughts about cash savings?  You’d feel better with more savings, but you’re not really sure it’s a winning financial strategy. Savings is pure magic.  Within its seed is infinite and tremendous potential.  This article will help you see and unleash the power of savings to accomplish your financial goals. Savings is…

“Tax Empowered” vs. “Tax Scared” It’s time to stop tipping the IRS and pay less in taxes legally, from now on. No one likes paying the IRS, but are you letting the government steal from you?  If you aren’t strategic, tax deadlines can feel like doomsday.  You’re stuck with hating that you pay so much…

Along the 12-year journey to becoming a top Amazon seller, Tyler Douthitt has accumulated a wealth of entrepreneurial wisdom.  It takes a considerable amount of grit, resilience, vision, and self-awareness to make it to the top 2%. In this interview, you’ll note: His abundance perspective to create a great life, not only for himself but…

Typical Financial Planning vs. Prosperity Economics The Prosperity Economics Movement is a wholesome and positive remedy to the limitations, guesses, and fear-based typical financial planning. On the one hand, the typical financial conversation holds an underlying opinion that you should give your money to someone else more qualified than you, put it aside for the…

Do you know if you’re maximizing your business tax deductions?  If the thought of the new year brings you tax anxiety, you’re not alone. Many business owners fear tax season and the “day of reckoning” when they find out how much they owe to Uncle Sam. No one likes to part with hard-earned dollars or…

Prosperity Economics has begun its renaissance as an alternative to typical financial planning.  An increasing number of courageous, conscious, independent thinkers have outgrown typical financial planning. They resonate with a different financial philosophy that provides more control, certainty, and permission to use their money now. For them, the financial status quo has been losing its…

Robert Murphy discusses an out-of-the-box strategy, Infinite Banking, that complements the entrepreneur.  He is an economist in an unconventional wrapper. His sense of humor and straight-talk help him convey the most difficult concepts with elegance and simplicity we can all understand. He’s a free market thinker with the courage to be contrarian. He goes against…

Your financial life should have come with the instructions: “For best results, abundance thinking required!”  Your financial results are a direct product of your way of thinking about money.  While it’s tempting to jump right into strategies and products and investments, you’ll never outperform your mindset.  You are your greatest investment, therefore exponential results are…

With naivety that makes me laugh now, after having my first child, I thought I’d have so much free time, why not start a business? As much courage as it takes to tell one’s story, it’s also tremendously freeing and empowering. I heard it said that the most important gift we can give is our…

At 25 years old, Bruce had chest pains and thought he was having a heart attack.  The crisis caused him to face his own mortality.  He re-evaluated the nobility of hard work, pushing himself, and hustling. Bruce’s backstory highlights two strategic mindset shifts that have developed him into the person he is today. Because of…

The Money Advantage was born out of unexpected collaboration in the most unlikely of circumstances. Three financial service professionals in an industry known for its undercurrent of competition, from across state lines, different companies, different levels of experience, and different generations. With the common ground of a desire to bring empowering education to business owners…