Michael is the Co-author of What Would the Rockefellers Do?, a speaker, wealth strategist, entrepreneur, influencer, creator of The 20/20 Personal Banking System, and owner of Optic Financial. His entrepreneur life started in August 1993.

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Resources Mentioned:

Your Big Idea: Successful Entrepreneurs have One Big Idea. Follow JLD’s FREE training & you’ll discover Your Big Idea in less than an hour!
Audible – Get a FREE Audiobook & 30 day trial if you’re not currently a member!
What Would the Rockefellers Do? – Michael’s book
Opticfinancial.com – Michael’s Website and Contact Info
Opticfinancial.com/fire – Special offer for Fire Nation

3 Key Points:

Make sound financial decisions with your business and your life.
The wealthy play by a different set of rules, and those rules are not a secret.
You are your number one asset and your business is your number one investment.

Time Stamped Notes

(click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.)

[01:08] – Started his entrepreneurial career selling cell phones. Made $20k at 23 years old
[02:20] – How do you generate revenue in your business today? Take people through an experience inspiring them around the topic of money, finance, and banking. Utilize a cash flow insurance policy offered by mutual life insurance companies
[03:29] – Worst Entrepreneurial Moment – lost $4 million in a bad investment.
[04:24] – As you’re building your business, it only takes one tsunami mistake to wipe it all away. Not making sound financial investments will get you.
[05:13] – What Would the Rockefellers Do? Context of the story: Two families with massive fortunes. The legacy of the Vanderbilt family didn’t move because they didn’t have a structure in place to generate wealth in future generations
[07:00] – “From short sleeves to long sleeves and back to short sleeves.”
[07:35] – The wealthy play by a different set of rules, but those rules are not a secret
[07:55] – Those rules can be boiled down to four things:
- Every financial institution wants money
- They want it on a regular basis
- They hold on to it for as long as possible
- When it comes time for the customer to come and get their money, they want to pay it back to them as slow as possible.
[09:00] – A bank is reusing a dollar over and over again, when they’re teaching us to do the opposite
[09:30] – Wealthy use their money in a strategic way that means a very high rate of return
[10:14] – There are rules that we can play by and can apply to our lives
[10:38] – How can we start making this money work for us? Focus on three areas:
- Your number one asset is yourself
- Your number one investment is in your own business
- Your number one strategy is putting your money where it is guaranteed, protected, and where it is liquid
[13:00] – There are ways to pay less in tax legally
[14:10] – We are 39% today (tax rate)
[14:34] – Save their cash in an area where they aren’t taxed on the growth and where it won’t be taxed to take it out in the future
[15:34] – Safeguarding money
[15:46] – Protected against creditor claims and lawsuits
[16:34] – Success tax, paying attorneys – the more we can protect our wealth, the more we can generate in our businesses.
[18:30] – Having access to that money along the way? The number one strategy is having liquidity of the money we are safe keeping: we pay ourselves the interest and we become the bank
[19:50] – A lot of risk relying on outside sources like the stock market.
[20:17] – Insuring money that survives generation to generation: basis of What Would the Rockefellers Do?
[22:25] – It’s all laid out in plain English and in black and white in What Would the Rockefellers Do? Not a difficult process…
[23:53] – Simplifying personal finance?
[25:08] – Best way to connect with Michael – opticfinancial.com
[25:22] – Parting piece of guidance – opticfinancial.com/fire = Michael’s book for free! There is a lot of money that has and continues to pass through your hands; set up a system to hold on to more of that money