Evaluate the Forest, not each Tree
Warren Buffett has a way of communicating financial principles in ways that hit home, and this year’s annual letter to shareholders is no exception. He’s managed Berkshire Hathaway since 1965, growing the company into a $500 billion conglomerate that owns and operates 66 different businesses generating $225 billion in sales.
Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Photo credit-https://www.fool.com
The Gift of More Freedom
What’s the use of achieving a high level of financial security and independence if you do not utilize this advantage to enjoy more freedom? Give yourself and your loved ones the gift of more freedom in 2019. Simply learn to utilize two tools we created to continually liberate yourself and enjoy higher and higher levels of freedom.
In doing so, you can exercise more control over your life. First, resolve to become Free FROM nagging situations that are holding you back. Then, resolve to participate in activities and pursue goals that are important to you and that you are now Free TO pursue with vigor.
Flourish
Two of the fundamental ways we help you (or can help you) flourish is to free you from the complexities of prudently investing and managing wealth. But, we are very aware that this state of flourish can be diminished if you are held back by other weaknesses, complexities or energy drains. That’s why we created a tool to help you engage in a continuous process of liberating (freeing) yourself from whatever else may be holding you back.
We also recognize that it’s not enough to only help you liberate yourself. We know it’s equally important for our clients to have exciting life enhancement goals they are pursuing with such freedom in order to fully flourish. In short, a “liberated from” needs to convert into a “liberated to,” in order to fully benefit by the transformation. That’s why we also created a tool to help you articulate the things you want to be free to do.
Joseph Janiczek, founding partner of Janiczek Wealth Management, recently wrote the following article about a project underway with Dr. Jeffrey Gladden, an interventional cardiologist and founder of APEX.
Within their respective disciplines, Mr. Janiczek (Wealth) and Dr. Gladden (Health) both advocate integrative, evidence-based programs tailored to the individual. Both recognize disciplined, pro-active resource management promotes performance optimization. Each pursues methods to help minimize risk, foster confidence, and support personal life goals.
However, even more remarkable than such parallels is the potential of wealth and health added together. -Cathy Wegner
The Wealth + Health + Longevity Breakthrough
Jeffrey Gladden, MD, a world-class longevity expert and founder of APEX, and I have discovered that it is quite beneficial to comprehensively look at wealth, health and longevity in an integrated way.
The Stages of Financial Freedom with Longevity animated illustration below shows the profound impact longevity has on wealth and the new possibility of reclaiming health and extending longevity that is now possible as a result of breakthroughs in medicine.
Exhibit 1: The Stages of Financial Freedom® with Longevity
Working together, we discovered two breakthroughs are possible, when looking at this dynamic together, that can be quite additive to proactive wealth management and optimum health management:
- The possibility of reclaimed health and expanded longevity brings an ideal financial mindset into play that can help you think, act and stay in peak financial form.
- The possibility of reclaimed wealth vibrancy brings an ideal resourcefulness mindset into play that can help you think, act to stay in peak health/fitness form.
Janiczek® Wealth Management is pleased to announce we have once again been named among the TOP RANKED WEALTH MANAGERS IN DENVER COLORADO by AdvisoryHQ. This ranking adds to a long list accolades going as far back as 2001 and as recent as 2018, including:
- Barron’s
- Financial Times
- AdvisoryHQ
- Worth Magazine
- Mutual Funds Magazine
- NAPFA
- CIPA (best Business/Finance Book of the Year)
Legacy planning goes beyond mere numbers, aligning traditional estate planning with a family’s goals and values. The process includes defining and expressing what wealth means to a family. It involves identifying the core values that bind the family, and in many cases it involves grooming children and grandchildren to be guardians of not just wealth, but also those values.
Investors in the U.S. are keenly aware of how managing taxes can help to build wealth—as evidenced by the trillions of dollars that we’ve invested in IRAs, 401(k)’s and other tax-sheltered accounts.
What too many of us fail to consider, however, is the need to remain tax-conscious even after we’ve built our wealth. For retirees seeking to preserve and appreciate their wealth, tax-savvy decisions are especially important.
One of retirees’ key tools for tax management is known as retirement withdrawal sequencing. In plain English, this refers to the order in which you make withdrawals from various account types to fund your retirement.
Those who have saved successfully often have a combination of taxable, tax-deferred and tax-free accounts. When that’s the case, proper planning about which accounts to tap first can allow you to defer a substantial amount in taxes while maximizing the opportunity for the remaining accounts to appreciate.
The other day I read a Bloomberg article that cited a recent survey suggesting that while the average U.S. employee calculates that he or she will retire at age 65, as a group the odds are around 50% that they will still be working at age 70. By the tone of the story, I would surmise this is less by choice and more by need.
At Janiczek Wealth Management, we are very fortunate to work with financially independent individuals and families, who have successfully put themselves in position to control their own destiny as it relates to their financial well-being. In the majority of cases, this independence did not simply happen overnight, but was the result of hard work and perseverance that eventually resulted in a major liquidity event or accumulation of wealth that changed the equation from “having to work”… to “choosing to work”. It is a very powerful edge to know that you are going to work simply because you want to, not because you have to.
Joseph J. Janiczek, MSFS, ChFC speaks at Selling Your Business – How to Create the Perfect Exit event attended by large audience of business owners in Colorado.
Janiczek Wealth Management is proud to sponsor an Expert Panel on Life-Changing Liquidity Events. Experts from EKS&H, Minor & Brown, The Forbes MA Group, Business Enterprise Institute (BEI), Denargo Capital and Janiczek Wealth Management convened to share stories and best practice tips on creating “the perfect exit.”
The panel includes Joanne Baginski, CPA (partner EKS&H); Lisa D’Ambrosia, Director/Shareholder, Minor & Brown; Bob Forbes, President/Founder, The Forbes M+A Group; Joseph J. Janiczek, Founder/CEO, Janiczek Wealth Management; John Brown, Founder of Business Enterprise Institute; and Pal Berg, Co-owner of Denargo Capital. Kumar Dandavanti, Founder, Dandavanti Group is on the expert team but was excused due to overseas travel. Check out great video snippets, quotes, tips, article and an infographic at: www.janiczek.com/expert-panel/. Also includes resources from the Selling Your Business – How to Create the Perfect Exit event several of the Expert Team panel members put on in conjunction with the Denver Business Journal.
The Issue
Earlier this month the Social Security program turned 80-years old, as the Social Security Act was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. The program was never intended to be the primary source of retirement income for most people, but rather one leg of the three-legged stool of retirement security; the other two legs being pensions and personal savings. Unfortunately, traditional employer sponsored and funded pensions have steadily given way to defined contribution plans (i.e. 401(k) plans) for the past 35 years and the level of personal savings by most Americans is inadequate to help meet their retirement income needs. Consequently, Social Security income is becoming more important to a growing number of retirees with each passing year.
I recently presented to a room full of successful business owners on the topic of “ensuring your business is part of your retirement strategy”. What became immediately clear was the level of success these individuals have recognized as they continue building their respective companies… and ultimately their net worth. The stories shared had many similar financial characteristics including: record sales growth, impressive earnings, strong revenues, great cash flow, ability to reinvest back into their companies, as well as healthy distributions back to the owner that allowed for living an enviable lifestyle.
Stepping away from the discussion of their shared business successes, I inquired on how many owners had a concise vision of when they planned to step away from their business and what their ideal retirement (or post-business life) looked like. Roughly 50% of the room raised their hand with the majority planning to exit within 3 to 10 years. They shared visions of extensive travel, second homes, giving back to their communities, spending quality time with family, new hobbies, starting a new business, etc. The overriding goal was to be financially independent of course!
