Small Business
MyVideoTalk Asks; DO YOU REALLY WANT A JOB?
January 19, 2012 | Author dragonfly
DO YOU REALLY WANT A JOB WHERE YOU RISK BEING LAID-OFF OR FIRED?
For forty years I’ve been helping Americans—just like you—use the income and resources they already have to erect and sustain…
The Four Pillars of Financial Success…
- zero debt
- an abundance of cash
- passive income streams
- legacies for those they care most about
Imagine a home based business that raises your Four Pillars on a solid foundation and improves your lifestyle at the same time.
MyVideoTalk…
You don’t have to imagine. For the first time in my fifty years in business and forty years as a financial advisor, I am endorsing and participating in a direct marketing business that…
- is not a financial services business
- will revolutionize the lives of anyone that takes advantage of the opportunity it presents
Success in a MyVideoTalk business—and I define success as financial security based on the EUREKONOMICS™ Four Pillars Model mentioned above—takes little more than time and effort well spent. That’s not hype. Thousands of Americans—from stay at home moms to Warren Buffet, Robert Kiosaki and Donald Trump—are proving it every day.
What you have to add to the equation is an alphabet of traits and commitments to yourself…
Ambition, Boldness, Courage, Desire, Energy, Focus, Generosity, Humility, Ingenuity, Joy, Knowledge, Loyalty, Maturity, Nimble Mind, Openness, Persistence, Quick Thinking, Resilience, Self-Awareness, Tenacity, Unselfishness, Values, Wisdom, one X Chromosome (OK, that was hard), Youthful Spirit, and a Zany Outlook…
Your Destiny…
Look…everyone chooses their own destiny by how they react to the events and circumstances of their lives.
- One brother becomes a bum while the other becomes a billionaire.
- One parent of an abducted child becomes depressed and withdrawn while the other becomes obsessed and involved.
- One member of a team turns a loss into a reason to quit, another into a reason to try harder.
Skills And Experience Can Be Treasures, But They Are Not Measures…
Smart, well educated, and talented people fail every day. You could be a student, a senior executive, a medical, accounting, or legal professional, a small business owner, a handyman, a minister, a teacher, a craftsman, just out of school or recently laid-off or fired. None of that matters.
The true predictor of success and measure of a person is character. You develop character when you react to life events…
- by standing up to adversity, grasping opportunity, and accepting good fortune
- by making and admitting mistakes
- by doing all that with humility and gratitude
Character isn’t limited by race, religion, income, occupation, education, social standing, or any group or individual trait…and those who would deceive America by highlighting our differences on the stage of public discourse are doing a disservice to every one of us.
Every American can succeed because we live in a country with character—and some intriguing characters as well. If you have developed character, you will find a home with MyVideoTalk. You will also find colleagues that share your visions; friends that are more than willing to help you erect and sustain your Four Pillars; mentors that will help you help others do the same.
Act Today…
He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner.
Benjamin Franklin
Go to my Independent Rep site at MyVideoTalk Give yourself the gift of fifteen minutes to review the MyVideoTalk products and MVT’s outstanding business opportunity.
YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.
If I am not for myself, who is for me?
And if I am only for myself, what am I?
If not now, when? - Rabbi Hillel (fl. 30 BC – 10 AD)
In The Shadow Of The American Flag
November 26, 2011 | Author jr
Over the past few weeks, Sandy and I have been reorganizing our living space to create a client friendly home office where clients can discuss personal finances in comfort and privacy. I did much of the work for this project on our front patio where the American flag flies 24/7/365.
As I was painting, sanding, unpacking, and doing other tasks on the patio, the ever-present Colorado sun distracted me by waving a shadow of the flag over the patio. I would stop work to see who or what—unnoticed except for the shadow—was annoyingly approaching me.
As the days went by, it dawned on me that I have lived my entire life in the protective shadow of the American flag…
- From birth, through WWII, Korea, the turmoil of the ’60s–the assassinations of John, Bobbie, and Martin–the financial and social trauma of the ’70s, Vietnam—during which I served behind a desk in Dayton, OH—the inflation ravaged Carter years, the rebirth of the American spirit during the Reagan Presidency, the extraordinary boom of the ’90s and the equally extraordinary financial failures of the 2k0s, the terror of 9/11, the historic election of a black American President in 2008, and the failure of that President to fulfill the promise his election held for America.
- During the thirty-seven years that I have been a licensed life insurance agent, The Shadow of the American Flag has also protected the thousands of insurance and financial advisory practices that ethically and honestly serve American families and small businesses. (The financial services industry has brought both credit and discredit to the American entrepreneurial spirit. It has produced some of the greatest models of American ingenuity and some of its most infamous frauds. You can fill in the names. Regardless, ethical advisors and their clients survive and thrive.)
Now, it’s time for insurance agents, financial advisors, and their clients to assure that the Shadow of the American Flag continues to protect every American’s personal finances in the decades to come. It is not enough to make a living or make a killing in our business and for our clients. Insurance and financial advisors and their clients are in a unique position to raise their voices and employ their resources to revitalize America and restore the promise of the American Flag—in whose shadow we and our clients have all lived, survived, and thrived.
We can only make this real by…
- becoming actively involved in the political process
- supporting candidates and issues that…
- empower individual Americans and diminish the power of bureaucrats and politicians
- reduce the intrusion into the lives of individuals and the workings of small business by government takeovers, over-regulation, healthcare that interferes with the doctor-patient relationship and imposes an impossible burden on small business, and special treatment for large financial institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their Wall Street cronies
Let’s get to work.
PS – If you are not an insurance agent or financial advisor, you are likely the client of one. Join us and pass this on. Ask your agent/advisor to join in the effort to restore America.
Gift Tax Sale – 2011 and 2012 Only…
August 17, 2011 | Author dragonfly
Gift Tax Sale…
Gifting has always been a very effective estate planning tool. Not only does a completed gift generally remove the gifted asset from the donor’s estate, it also removes any future appreciation from the estate and may offer income-shifting advantages.
Important changes for 2011 and 2012:
- The lifetime gift tax/estate tax exclusion is increased to $5 million per person ($10 million per couple) with a top tax rate of 35 percent. This increase is unprecedented and creates a rare opportunity for large gift-tax-free wealth transfers.
- The generation-skipping transfer-tax exemption is increased to $5 million.
- The gift and estate tax is reunified. Simply put, to the extent the exclusion is used for gifts during the donor’s lifetime, it is unavailable for bequests upon death.
- Beginning in 2012: The exclusion amount is subject to indexing
- As the law stands today, these limits will be reduced beginning in 2013
Rare Opportunity to Transfer Wealth!
A case study…
- Ron and his wife are both in their middle-50s and have one son. Their net worth is over $8 million. Ron wants to provide a safety net for his wife and leave a legacy for their son and any future grandchildren, all the while minimizing transfer taxes.
- Ron establishes an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT), with spousal lifetime access provisions to the cash value. He gifts $1 million to the ILIT, using a portion of his lifetime gift tax exclusion and generation skipping transfer tax exemption.
- The trustee then uses the $1 million to purchase a 10-year certain immediate annuity. The annual after-tax guaranteed income payment is slightly more than $103,000.
- The trustee then uses $102,000 of the annual payment to purchase a universal life policy with a death benefit of approximately $4,400,000.
- Upon Ron’s death, the proceeds of the life insurance policy are to be held by the trustee, with income to be paid to his wife for life.
- Upon her death, income is to be paid to his son for life, and then to his son’s children for life, etc.
- The funds in the trust will escape estate taxation at each death.
- Also, any transfers out of the trust to skip persons (generally persons two or more generations younger than the grantor) will be exempt from any generation skipping taxes.
Discussion…
Gifts may be transferred outright or in trust. An outright gift gives the donee unrestricted control of the property. This may not be suitable if the donee is a minor or a spendthrift. Gifts in trust offer the donor the ability to control the distribution of income and principal, while providing asset management and creditor protection for the trust’s beneficiaries.
Properly structured gifts of life insurance policies and/or premiums offer the donor the ability to leverage the value of the gift by removing the death proceeds from the donor’s estate.
The unlimited marital deduction for gifts and bequests to spouses remains unchanged, as does the annual gift tax exclusion permitting donors to give up to $13,000 ($26,000 for a married couple) worth of gifts to any number of persons each year without incurring a gift tax.
The annual gift-tax exclusion amount is indexed for inflation and is available for certain present-interest gifts to trusts requiring the use of a special notice each time a gift is made to the trust. However, use of the gift tax lifetime exclusion, instead of using the annual gift tax exclusion, means no special notices are required.
Gifting strategies for 2011 and 2012…
Using a cash value life insurance policy to fund the trust provides flexibility in uncertain economic times and amid changing tax laws. Flexibility in drafting trust documents, such as spousal lifetime access or trust protector provisions, can also be beneficial. Taking advantage of the two-year gift tax sale by making gifts in 2011 and 2012 up to the maximum amount of your available gift tax exclusion may result in your heirs receiving significantly more wealth.
Your Financial Adviser & Your Physician …Two Peas In A Pod?
March 5, 2011 | Author dragonfly
Focus on Symptoms…
It appears that some financial advisers and doctors take the same training. They seem to have tunnel vision; they tend to focus on symptoms and overlook the root causes that create the symptoms. You can see an exaggerated example of a doctor that looks deeper by watching the TV drama House.
Media Misinformation…
Unfortunately, there is no TV drama that illustrates how a good insurance and financial adviser deals with clients and looks beyond the obvious. Much of what we see and believe about the people in this profession is derived from media attention to crooks and thieves–Bernie Madoff, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, etc? That creates a distorted picture. There are thousands of honest, intelligent, well informed, and well educated advisers across America.
However, the sad truth is that many of these advisors behave less like the hero on House and more like his antagonists in the TV drama. This situation presents a challenge to the small business owner and you deserve better. How do you sort through the tsunami of insurance and financial advisors that approach you on a regular basis?
A True Economic Model…
The one word answer is EUREKONOMICS™ – a true economic model that is as old as money, as current as the 21st century, and delivers with uncompromising integrity. The simple truth is that many of the planning systems that advisers use are rigged to produce a specific result…the sale of financial products–remember, a 401(k), IRA, mutual fund, etc, are products just like a sofa or an automobile are products.
Remember This…
If you remember just one thing, remember this: The difference between EUREKONOMICS™ and other financial planning systems is that EUREKONOMICS™ is the economic model upon which to base financial plans–it looks deeper.
Four Key Questions…
The EUREKONOMICS™ Economic Model first asks and answers the four key questions that every successful small business’s financial plan must address:
1. How does the business owner reduce and eliminate debt and the cost of debt?
2. How can the business accumulate cash to which it has easy access, which it can use at will, and over which it has complete control–no banks, no IRS, no creditors?
3. How can my business provide me and my family with security today and income in the future?
4. How do I use my business to make sure I leave a legacy of both wisdom and wealth to those I care most about?
Imagine how the EUREKONOMICS™ Economic Model, by answering these questions for you, will help you and your small business succeed!
You Decide…
YOU decide. Write to your EUREKONOMIST™ financial advisor – jr@EUREKONOMICS.com and demand your FREE copy of…
Hard Working Money
Four Proven Small Business Money Management Strategies, And Which One Works Best
Believe in better!
Posted in Personal Financial Management, Small Business | 
Tags: bernie madoff, economic model, fannie mae, financial advisors, freddie mac, lehman brothers, media misinformation, planning systems, root causes, simple truth, small business owner, successful small business, tunnel vision, uncompromising integrity | 
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