A Conversation on the Cash Flow Ninja

Craig, welcome to the show.

Oh, thank you very much for having me.

Can you please share a little bit about your background and journey with my listeners.

Oh sure. I’m a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Tax Coach, I’m a business owner and I’m a former New York City Police Lieutenant, was on the police department for New York City for over 17 years. In addition to being a CPA, I am a Certified Tax Coach, and as a Certified Tax Coach I belong to a select group of practitioners who are throughout the country and we undergo extensive ongoing training. I do about ten days a year in just tax planning training. I’ve co-authored an Amazon Best Sell, The Secrets to a Tax Free Life and my most recent book is The Ten Most Expensive Tax Mistakes that Cost Business Owners Thousands. I married for 28 years, I think it is, and I have three children, 22, 25 and 26.

Fabulous well, what an interesting background so how did you go from transitioning, and by the way as I mentioned in our pre-interview, who better to fight your battle with the IRS than a former law enforcement officer in New York City? But how did you make the transition over and what interested you in the tax field?

I was always really enthralled by Wall Street and finances and stuff like that and at some point, you know I started looking at taxes and getting involved in, you know just doing my own taxes and I kind of liked it. And in the police department you have a twenty year retirement, or they had a twenty year retirement at that time and I decided to go back to school for my accounting degree to kind of start planning on whatever I was going to do in the after life. I tell you, the adrenaline rush I get from doing the tax plan and saving somebody 20 to 30,000 dollars is far better than the adrenaline rush you get chasing a perp down the street.

Now, it sure is a rush, can you share a little bit about your philosophy around taxes? Because, I mean, its all about mindset right? People can be scared of this or afraid of this and very conservative but isn’t the IRS code technically a blue print of guiding you of how to reduce your taxes?

Yep, you just have to do what the code allows you to do. If it says you can do it, you can do it. Too many people failed to plan so they can take advantage of what the tax code allows them to do. So, most accountants are very good at putting the right numbers in the right boxes but they’re looking in the rear view mirror, instead of being proactive and looking forward with their clients.

That’s a very very important point there. Being proactive and planning, this isn’t something you rush over to an accountant to help you file your taxes, you know, come April of every single year. Can you talk about strategically planning and preparing throughout the year, especially for investors and business owners and the importance?

That’s, you know, the biggest mistake people make, is failing to plan. So, planning takes some time. It doesn’t take a whole lot of time, but you can’t plan for the year before when you’re in February, March and April. So you need to speak with your CPA and sit down and figure out how you can do it. Most people they do a lot of research when it comes to buying a car, making a big purchase at home but you know if you figure out the percentage of your income that goes to income taxes maybe you should spend a little bit of time there planning to see how you can keep more of what you make.

Exactly, and the investment, if not only in your time, but the financial investment. I mean the returns in the end of having great tax advice and a strategy in place is enormous.

Oh yeah, ROI is three to 500 percent typically the first year. So if you went to a broker and he said I can give you a return of 500 percent on your money guaranteed on the first year, you know you take everything you have and you give it to him. But he can’t say that.

Right, right, exactly. So so important, and I mean this is a topic I’m pretty passionate about as well because taxes truly are, it’s the greatest wealth destroyer that’s out there. If you are not strategic and proactive about your taxes, it’s going to become extremely difficult for you trying to build legacy and generational wealth for your family. If there’s continually someone sucking this cash flow leak out of you for taxes.

Oh yeah, I mean, you know the more you’re able to keep today the more that money can grow for the future.

Get your free copy of my book the Ten Biggest Mistakes That Cost Business Owners Thousands here.

Listen to the full episode of Cash Flow Ninja here.