Wealth Management and Financial Planning

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Casey Cease: Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Casey Cease Show. Casey here with my friend, Tara Seegers. Tara is a certified financial planner, working with high net worth families and multi generational financial planning. And she probably has a better term for that, but that’s as much as I understand. We’re, still uh, not quite yet multigenerational on my side, but we’ve met a strategic coach. And just really hit it off her and her husband and I, and really just enjoy learning from her. and, all my friends who are financial planners, they know that I love to “Pick their Brain” because I want to know what’s going on in the financial markets and what’s going on.

And I asked her, I said, Hey, [00:01:00] would you come on and share a little bit about what you do, who you are and who you like to help? Because I have a lot of people in in my network. And those of you listening may fall into this network of how do we plan for financial growth for our wealth management, but also how do we plan towards transitioning that wealth to future generations in our family?

And so as here to come on, just talk through a bunch of stuff and share a little bit more about what firm do and really focus on what she’s bringing to the table and maybe answer some questions for us along the way. So Tara, thank you so much for joining me today. Why don’t you take a minute and any gaps I left in the introduction, fill those gaps and then tell us how you ended up getting into financial planning as a profession.

Tara Seegers: Great. Yeah. Happy to be here. Thank you so much Casey for having me. Wow. Financial planning is really where I didn’t anticipate I would end up, but along the way, really felt like I needed to become proficient for my own life and planning. And also I felt like it was an area that most people didn’t feel proficient in.

And so, [00:02:00] by focusing on that, becoming an expert in this field, it’s always my goal to share that knowledge. And I love to educate. I love to bring people along. And I like to help people feel empowered where they understand why behind their finances, they understand how money is a tool to help give them the time freedom that they want. And I think a lot of people can get there quicker than they think, or maybe they’re already there and they just have never had anyone come alongside them to understand how to actually put a plan in place that allows them to get that time freedom, focus on the things that they’re passionate about, things that give them energy.

And to me, a more activated people in society means a better world. So that’s why I’m here.

Casey Cease: Yeah, I really love the way you approach talking to people about finances because you’re obviously understand what you’re talking about. But you also break it down in a way that’s understandable. One of my big complaints I had in my early 20s was that, there wasn’t much as far as training, as far as financial literacy goes. You go to college, [00:03:00] and they’re hanging out free t-shirts if you sign up for their free money card that eventually you have to pay back on.

I always joke with my eldest daughter who’s 17 that I paid $3,000 for a Nintendo GameCube because I put it on my little green AmEx I had at the time, and paid minimum balance on it for a really long time. But when it comes to even investing, right. and when it comes to how do I plan. Especially for those of us who are entrepreneurial. There’s not a necessarily an easy 401(k) to plug into. I have friends and family members that would plug into retirement at work and all that kind of stuff. But for those of us who are entrepreneurial, especially, that’s a different beast, right?

How to manage your money and all that. So, you know, when, people come to work with you, where do you usually find these folks? Where are they in the financial world as far as investing or savings? Because typically when you say high net worth, multi generational, it sounds like those other people down there, I’m increasingly meeting people who maybe grew up with not much money, but have a million million, five net worth and compared to some of the friends they work with, they’re still “poor”, but they’re not sure [00:04:00] if or when they ought to start engaging with the financial planner. So what’s your recommendation for people as they’re navigating, having some financial goals and all that, where should they start?

Tara Seegers: That’s great. I think, I’ll pull a few things out of what you said there and then answer your question directly. But it’s very easy to put a dollar in the capital markets, right? Every platform out there, you know, no commission. There’s a lot of availability to get into that. The thing that’s challenging is to understand what is your risk associated with that, and what’s concentration risk, what is a broad-based diversified asset allocation? Those are some things that a lot of people talk about, but I think everyday Joe’s and any of us really coming into the industry, we don’t always understand how to evaluate that. And most of the platforms that will invest your dollars don’t actually give you any sort of feedback to help you understand that.

So that’s something that I think broad-based, the DIYers oftentimes maybe take more risk than they think. And that can be a concern in major market corrections, right? [00:05:00] And that’s what caused a lot of fear in 2008 was, the lack of awareness around why their portfolio is contracted. Related to that, I think there’s a lack of awareness about what is the capital markets when I put my money into this stock, or I buy this bond? What really do I own, and how does it perform, and how is it correlated to the economy?

Like A lot of those things are not concepts that people are ever taught. And it takes time to understand that, but it is a worthwhile exercise for people to go through.

And thankfully with the internet, there is a lot of information out there. Different resources that can help people gather information and then distill it to have a little bit of a better understanding themselves. But most people, regardless of the size of their investment account, some of those gaps exist regardless.

Casey Cease: Absolutely. I mean, It’s human nature, right? When they see red, and a lot of red on, if they even have an idea how to read the charts, the human instinct is to bail out, to get out, right? There has to be, [00:06:00] you know, and I always tell people that if you have to know yourself, if you’re more risk averse, that means that you’re going to be overly cautious when you need to be a little bit more aggressive, and, probably overly cautious when you need to be even more cautious than you are to work with someone that can help you do that.

And so, when you’re talking with people about their investment, strategy, and portfolio, I mean, obviously, your expertise is really helping those with higher net worth who are thinking through generational and family wealth. But I think a lot of people at least that I talk with are wanting to set up their family the right way.

They want to build something that goes beyond just themselves. And I won’t use the word necessarily dynasty per say, but they want something of significance that they’re able to pass along. But then, they don’t know when they should start considering those things or how to even get started with something like that.

Tara Seegers: Absolutely. And so, you know, most people are familiar with the 401(k). Usually, they have some retirement planning program through their employer, or if they’re an entrepreneur and self directed, a lot of times it’s that bank account over there that [00:07:00] consistently gets bigger. And at some point, you might feel that you have some flexibility to put money into an investments, but it’s hard to know when the right time is. A lot of people in my industry will say, oh, I have a minimum of X and that makes it unattainable for people who are still in the accumulation stage.

One of the things I love about what I do and how I approach the capital markets is that I’m not here to be a solo provider of services to a very niche group of people. I want to be able to build a team that takes that knowledge and then spreads it out. So I want to bring up other financial advisors who understand how to engage with people from a human psychology-based approach, understand really where they’re going with their goals, and then tie that back to their money. Because until you know where you’re going, how can your money help you get there? It’s just about an investment return. If you don’t have any structure for what you’re trying to get to. And so, you hear a lot about those fire methods or ways to retire early. And that is math, right?

Anyone can get there if they [00:08:00] follow the discipline. But if along the way, you haven’t also identified. But what do I actually want to do with my time once I don’t have to spend 8 or 9 or 10 hours at a job, Monday to Friday or more? It’s not really fulfilling just because the bank account and the investment account is larger.

So that’s what’s fun for me is to work on the human side of capital and help people get clear on where they want to go and then on the structure side. So when we know we want to transfer wealth, or when we anticipate through our planning process, we’re going to end up with more than we’ll spend in our lifetimes.

Strategically, let’s make sure it’s structured in a way that’s going to help us pass those assets to our heirs or to the philanthropic efforts that we want to support in a way that’s efficient today and the day we leave the room.

Casey Cease: How do you help people to determine when enough is enough? That’s something I think, a lot of times that people at various stages are wondering that. And so, from a financial planner standpoint, when you’re working with people, cause you said something very important there, Terry, that a lot of [00:09:00] people when they don’t have to work as much and their life has been so full with the work they’ve been doing that the business side of accumulating wealth has done its thing. And I have a wealthy friend. I was talking to a while back and he said, for many people, money is like cocaine. Now, he had never done cocaine, but his point was, there’s never enough.

That’s the concept of like the, okay, I got 1.4 million. It’s only 1.4 million. There’s inflation. I have 10 million now, but 10 million isn’t going to go as far as 20. How have you noticed people who have handled that? Maybe Well, navigate kind of those benchmarks for those goals. What I’ve noticed in my background as a coach and as a pastor and as a friend is that I’ve seen people, they’ve either by my age, mid forties, either set goals and they far surpassed them. And so they’re lacking vision of what’s next.

And so, they go through the buying the new sports car, the boat, or the beach house that they never go to or whatever, right. but they don’t really have a plan. Or you [00:10:00] get people in my age that they’re hitting the midlife crisis because they don’t think they’ll ever be able to get where they thought they would be able to go.

And what I’m hearing you say on the rehumanizing the capital, humanizing capital and helping people get the human, what are some ways that you’ve seen people think better about their asset allocation, their wealth planning, their life vision at that point when you start sitting down with them and looking at their financials?

Tara Seegers: Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think it really comes down to discovery. And in my industry, how willing are we as guides and planners and financial experts, how willing are we to engage with our clients on that? Deep inquiry. So the ability to ask tough questions, but not even tough questions, just ask enough questions to actually understand contextually who our clients are. What they’re about, what drives them, how they spend their time, where they derive their value today?

Is all of their personal value tied up in their [00:11:00] work? Or is it tied up in the things they do on Saturday or when they take a few weeks off and go to a project somewhere else? Diving in to really understand what drives our clients is what allows us to then help curate the experience to back into the cash flow needed. Because at the end of the day, it’s all about cash flow. And whether you’re getting your cashflow from a paycheck, or from a new client you just signed, or whether it’s coming as a distribution out of your investment account, we got to know what that number is that’s going to support you in the way that’s comfortable so that you feel the freedom to do the things that you love. And the things that you love are the things that are going to energize you and build you up and make you feel fulfilled, and purposeful at the end of the day where you can sleep well at night.

So I think, it really is the approach and that’s not maybe the standard way of doing business in my industry, but it’s a really powerful way of doing business. And it’s the way that I’ve adopted [00:12:00] because I don’t know, just helping somebody have a larger number on a screen at the end of the day. Like, I don’t know how that really excites anybody.

Casey Cease: It’s like having gas cans in your garage. Hey, you have more gas cans. It’s money’s fuel. So if you don’t have a vision on how to deploy it in a life giving way, it’s just, you’re accumulating more fuel.

Tara Seegers: Yeah. And how it’s going to return the capital to you or how you’re going to be able to push the capital towards the things that you care about that causes the impact areas that are important to you. And all of that can be solved by math. If you understand where the client is and where they’re trying to go.

But sometimes the challenge is getting them to, be introspective in that way. But what I found is most clients are really willing. They just have never created the space for themselves to actually answer some of the questions. And so, sometimes in the relationship with me and the meetings that we have over time, and this isn’t a deep dive, everything gets solved in one or two meetings on the front.

Casey Cease: You’re not gonna heal marriages and make kids [00:13:00] and their family, parents get along.

Tara Seegers: But it is, it’s identifying like this is a relationship, it is long term, and it is based on trust. And if we’re going to be in that sort of engagement, sure, there’s a transactional nature of I’m helping you with a specific problem, which is the investing side, the allocating side of your life.

But what I want is it to be bi directional where we get to that level of trust, where I get the call when something changes, and we understand, we need to evaluate something within our plan and within our allocation to make sure that we can solve this problem that showed up in real life or this opportunity.

It’s not always bad things we’re solving with money. A lot of times it’s good things too, and freedom, and the creation of memories that get made because of the dollars that are available to facilitate those memories.

Casey Cease: Yeah. It’s funny. I worked with a lot of folks along the way. I mean, Entrepreneurs that I’m coaching. It’s funny because You know,

I

was, reflecting with a client a while back and [00:14:00] he’s only have 160,000 in my checking or right now. And personal checking, and I was like, but buddy, how much interest are you making on that?

Oh, it’s not an interest bearing account. And if just for so long, right. but you think about a lot of entrepreneurs who scrappy. Start up, did their thing, not venture back, but just pulled themselves up by the bootstraps and went after it. There’s a scarcity piece that they’re always like, if something happens, because for so long they went with not much cash, know, or they didn’t grow up around money.

And I said, you really ought to maybe visit with someone, cause it’s net worth a couple million. he’s not really doing other than investing in his businesses and all that has no real retirement structure, no real tax planning, and you know, he’s written big checks to the IRS. And I just ask him and his idea is, financial planners wouldn’t want to deal with me because he had this idea of the type of person. And I’m like, bro, financial planners want to deal specifically. Maybe not all of them, but with people like you that you can build trust with. And Tara, I have to say, one of the things I really have enjoyed about getting to know you at coach [00:15:00] is that you’re always approachable and you never just give me a pat answer.

I always test financial planners because I’m, what would you do here? And they just give me pat answers, right? And I’ve heard that robotic response all the time. And you’re like, well, that really depends. Whenever someone says that to me, I’m like, okay, they’re actually willing to consider what I’m saying.

Now, I’m annoying. Cause I’m like, what about Bitcoin? What about Crypto? And everyone’s, that’s risky, don’t do that. And I’m like, okay, I get it. Maybe not, but you’re like, well, Hey, that could be part of the strategy. Well, we Typically, you had a conversation. And I think, the way that you’ve been really approaching the rehumanization of the client to what are your goals? What do you want it to accomplish for you?

I have people all the time ask me, because I’ve started several businesses, how do I start a business? And I’m like, if you have any money, go buy when it’s already profitable. Don’t start it from scratch, but they want to do that. And I think in the same way, You know, having onboarding ways for people to approach you all. So do you guys primarily, I know you’re based in Colorado. Do you mostly deal only with clients in Colorado or can you work with people outside of [00:16:00] Colorado?

Tara Seegers: yeah, I work with clients nationally. Actually, Colorado is probably the state where I have the fewest clients currently, just because we’ve only lived here a few years. But that’s what I love about what the Internet has provided us. Even the conversation we’re having right now, we can see each other, we can connect. And it doesn’t matter that we’re in two different geographic locations. And it’s important to have face to face time. It’s important to engage. But at the end of the day, anybody who is a trusted person in your life for things like finances, or law, taxes, those types of things, it’s about them being available when you have the problem or the question.

And then being willing to understand your situation enough to give you a specific response. And in my industry, we do this interesting thing where we say, we personalize everything. And they’re talking about the investment portfolio. And at the end of the day, there’s only so many ways you can diversify an investment portfolio in the liquid side, right?

You can pepper in alternatives. You can create [00:17:00] nuance portfolios based on the size of the account, and the types of investment vehicles you use absolutely. But that is the commoditized part of the industry. And if the person that anyone is working with is utilizing that as their differentiator, you’re not getting the full service that really a financial planner should be providing you, because it is about our ability to understand you, synthesize that information, and then give the specific results, the specific outcomes. Your total picture, your total allocation, liquid, illiquid, Bitcoin or not, should not look the exact same as mine. Because what you’re trying to do with those assets is different, right?

But I’m not here to tell, you should only be invested in the capital markets, or you should only be invested in private real estate, or only invested in Bitcoin. Rules and structure of investments, you understand that there’s value of having diversification of the types of investments, the source of the investments, the type of [00:18:00] return that’s generated.

Those are all just basic things that anyone wants to have and should have to be a prudent investor, right? Overconcentration in any one thing is going to be a problem at some point regardless. Because market cycles exist and it’s not a straight line up. No investment is giving you a straight line up.

Casey Cease: No, they’re not.

Tara Seegers: think your house is only appreciating, but that’s just because it’s not valued every day, right? Now, if you check Zillow every month, you know, you might actually notice okay, some volatility. There’s even been some suppression of valuations in different places recently. Not traumatic, but it’s also not an asset that you’re planning to liquidate at any point. The

Casey Cease: So you’ve been in the market since 2008 though, right? You were you around the market in 2008?

Tara Seegers: So I’ve been an investment advisor for 11 years. So no, personally, I just experienced it as an investor not as an advisor. ” Yeah

Casey Cease: Cause I have a friend that was an advisor, and he was like, he had a switch over to chaplain [00:19:00] pretty much because people were so panicking about their investments and everything else. And I think, one of the things I talked to my financial advisor friends with is I’m going to work with a financial advisor cause I enjoy investing, I’ve learned a ton about it over the years, I’ve done pretty well with my investments. But there is going to come a point where as I age, and as my portfolio gets larger that I need to outsource more conservative plays to somebody that will be bored on my behalf.

Right. That’s what I tell them. I can feel a transition happening at 45 years old and not that I have arrived and figured everything out, but as I’m transitioning the need to say, Hey, okay, there needs to be some maturation in what I’m doing. I’ve worked with a great CPA. I worked with a great attorney on the structure for all my different companies and everything else.

But when I was visiting with you, it made me realize that there are financial advisors out there that are actually really willing to consider the goals of the other people and to then find a solution that makes sense.

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Casey Cease: So at what point would you recommend someone approaching, maybe not necessarily you, we’ll talk about you in a second.

I want to get there to when big dogs should come talk about family, you know, high net worth, all that kind of stuff. And not that you’re not willing to help, you’re willing to help me. And I haven’t gotten there yet, but it helps me set some goals. Like When can I you know, land with, Tara? But when should people begin exploring, visiting [00:21:00] with financial planners, because I know people that fully vest in their 401(k), but still have money to invest, and they’re just birdshotting it around. And maybe I’ll get a rental property or when should people really begin establishing relationship with someone like you?

Tara Seegers: Absolutely. Yeah. So if you’re targeting a certified financial planner, which is somebody who’s undergone rigorous programming and credentialing within our industry, we’re able to help people on a fee base or on an asset under management basis. So there’s a variety of ways that we can “work together.”

You can pay for a plan and not ever invest a dollar with that person. It’s just an exchange. And I would say, that is valuable. My personal approach is, know, anyone that I am happy to plan with, I hope to have a client in the future, even if today’s not the exact day. I don’t charge for plans just because I feel like it’s part of my business development.

right?

It’s It’s part of the way that we evaluate if we would work well together in the future. And 9 times out of 10, that [00:22:00] relationship is going to mature and the liquidity is going to come over at the right time. So that’s my own personal bias. A lot of people don’t approach business that way, but you can pay for a plan.

I would say, for sure, if you’ve maxed out your 401(k) and you still have discretionary income that you’re looking to place somewhere, you do need to work with somebody who can help give you an approach that you understand what you can do to get to that financial freedom reality. Because, a lot of us think hypothetically, oh, maybe, you know, maybe I’ll retire at 65 or maybe I never even want to retire.

But usually, those statements come from people who haven’t spent the time evaluating, or what could be. How soon might I be financially free? When could I move to a consulting role and only work 10 or 20 hours a week or on a per project basis and get 80 percent of my time back? right? Like there’s so many ways to look at getting time [00:23:00] freedom.

And it doesn’t always mean like on this exact date, at this exact age, I’m no longer going to be a creative financially, and I’m just going to live off my portfolio. People’s lives are more dynamic than that. Um, I would say, you know, don’t cheat yourself out of good guidance. And good guidance, you will leave with a set of outcomes that help you understand, if I do these things, here is the outcome that I can expect. It’s projections, it’s math, but there’s also a lot of data behind the recommendations that are given. And so, a great financial planner will be able to give you a great road map.

Casey Cease: Yeah, it’s so funny. I mean, as, we mature in our careers, I always tell people, like when I was a kid, I was always frustrated when I had to pay for an oil change in my car. Even as a young adult, even now it’s not my favorite expense, but I view it now as an investment for upkeep and reliability and those types of things.

But working with experts in their fields, yes, you might have to pay for it, but you’re [00:24:00] getting value in return. I have friends that, have complex businesses and everything else, they’re still insisting on doing their own taxes because they don’t want to spend a thousand or $2,000.

I said, but you have to understand the amount of money that working with an expert can actually save you. The amount of time, the amount of headaches, being able to have someone to really sit down with you and have that accountability. And I agree with you on, we tend to focus on what we’re measuring, right?

people that I’ve encountered that say, I’ll probably never retire. Some say it for a theological conviction or a personal conviction, or because they like working. But some of it’s because they’re afraid to look at what it might take? What sacrifices are required now, what that might mean, or what I’ve found chatting with you some and everything else is that there are ways that people, if they get serious about wanting to have some, like you said, freedom, more than just retirement, but freedom to where they don’t just have to work to make a living full time is important. Now, go ahead.

Tara Seegers: Let me ahead just add one thing. So like business owners, for example, I [00:25:00] come from a long line of business owners, and entrepreneurs, built businesses, bought businesses, sold businesses, and my husband and I do the same in our own lives. And what is interesting about people like us is, our bias is always to reinvest in the business. And often, we don’t stop and say, okay, well, what’s actually the return on that versus you know, skimming the cream? Reinvesting 80%, but pulling that 20% and paying myself.

To those of us who are Christians, we tithe. And beyond that, sometimes we also have to create a bucket that’s our choice money, or our freedom bucket, or however you want to define it. And it can be structured a lot of different ways. When we own a business, we can set up retirement plans that work to our benefit from a tax standpoint. And there’s a lot of opportunities as a business owner in terms of how you pull money from the business and set it aside, and diversify it, grow it into a different type of investment return for your future.[00:26:00]

Because hopefully, most business owners, I think, would say that they would expect to sell their business at some point. But the statistics would tell you, the majority of small business owners in America are just closing their businesses.

Casey Cease: They are, yeah it’s,

shocking,

or something. And so,

 

Tara Seegers: the opportunity set and the value that’s lost through that approach, all of that could have been circumvented by a great financial advisor who serves business owners, who understands what exit planning looks like, who understands how to help guide the client through the emotional part of saying, Hey, guess what? When you get ready to sell your business, even when you put it out for offers, you’re going to have some pretty emotional reactions. Even if you think you’re ready, even if you’re sick and tired of this thing, let’s go through the financials and understand A what is this business giving you tangible and intangible benefits?

What do we have to actually replace it with in order for you to continue living this lifestyle? If you haven’t skimmed the cream. [00:27:00] If all of your value is tied up in this business and the cash flow it’s been giving you over time and the business itself has been growing, but you haven’t created any other alternative wealth beyond your business, we have to have some pretty serious conversations to make sure you understand the full context of what it means to exit.

And No, that’s a great point.

If we need to look for buyers, if the ideal deal doesn’t come forward, but you can still get some liquidity out of it, these are big problems or big considerations and you need somebody to guide you. And it’s not going to be somebody who’s in your industry, right?

Even if your buddy who has a company like you has just sold his, everything behind the sheets on his business, it might not be anything like yours. And so, you need to go find experts. And usually a great financial planner, financial advisor that serves business owners can help you at least understand where to start.

They can give you some cursory guidance and then help connect you with business advisors who [00:28:00] can really take it to the next level, help market your business, maybe even help you understand what you could do before you get ready to sell it to make it more saleable. So there’s a lot of services out there that even when there’s a demand, the person doesn’t always know to look for that type of expert. And so, I think a lot of times that’s where the financial advisor comes in, in partnership with the CPAs, and the lawyers to help make sure that you have the right people at the table, giving you sound guidance and helping you get to the other side of monetization.

Casey Cease: No, that’s such great input. And you know, with my marketing agency, I help companies build strategic marketing plans because a lot of companies have some marketing tactics they do, or we need to do social, maybe some SEO, but they don’t have a strategy. And so, what we’ve helped them do is develop a documented strategy over a 90 day period that they can take and implement it.

It covers the, who are you reaching, what’s the journey we’re taking them on, and what are we measuring? Because what I’m looking for in a lot of business owners, I know that are looking to [00:29:00] acquire these retiring age folks businesses is it like a cigar butt, in the sense that if it gets some right marketing and some better systems in place, there’s still a lot of life left in it because they haven’t been doing online reviews.

They haven’t been doing digital marketing. They haven’t been doing any social media. They haven’t been Showing gratitude to their previous customers. And so, one of the things that we’ve been doing is helping some companies that are you know, a few years out from exit saying, we’ll help you develop a marketing strategy that you don’t currently have to implement.

But when you’re going to put your company on the block to sell that you are able to say, we’ve developed this marketing strategy that we think could grow it. We just know that we’re not the ones that are going to take it there. Because that opportunity where so many people, as a marketing guy, people chase around all day long ideas and then they get busy and they close some, but if they can build out replicating systems to generate leads and to cultivate relationships and get referrals, that’s the next level in doing that.

So, I know you don’t just do financial advising. You and your husband invest in companies and own businesses and all that stuff for any aspiring some. [00:30:00] So, a lot of people that are in my circles are entrepreneurial curious in the sense that they work a real job and want to know, should I take a leap and start something, or buy something or how do I want to transition?

So, if you’re just entrepreneur to entrepreneur, what are some financial things to take into consideration before someone goes full on with a side hustle and any thoughts you have just as an entrepreneur?

Tara Seegers: First of all, your time is your greatest resource. So if you have the interest in starting a side hustle, or you know, getting into the gig economy in some way, just start. Not everything has to be perfect on the front end. If you see a gap in the economy and you have a service that you can meet, or a product that can meet it, hit it!

you know, Service based businesses are the easiest ones to get off the ground. And the one that you try doesn’t need to be the one that you stick with, but you’re going to learn so much along the way. Even just running a set of books for a business gets you super far down the road in terms of understanding the types of [00:31:00] considerations that you’ve never worked on if you have just been a W2 employee so far.

I think, boots on the ground experience is the best way to get started. I agree with your advice, if you’re interested in being a business owner, and you can acquire a business, that’s going to pay you dividends way more than building something from scratch in terms of the time and the return.

But it’s also a big commitment. And if you have no idea where to start, you really do need counsel and guidance before you try to jump in. Cause there’s also a lot of businesses you don’t want to buy that are out there on any of the sites or even unmarketed deals that if you don’t understand how to evaluate them, you could get yourself in a big pile of debt and personal

Casey Cease: Yes, you can.

Tara Seegers: and not the cash flow, you need to cover it. So, That’s actually not to plug my husband, but that’s one of the areas that he is taking everything that he’s learned and now transferring it to both business sellers and business buyers and potential buyers.

And he has,

Casey Cease: You can plug your husband. He’s a sharp [00:32:00] guy. You’re allowed.

Tara Seegers: yeah he,

Casey Cease: I’ll bring him. He needs to come on the show sometime and

Tara Seegers: Yeah, he would be great. Yeah, That actually would be perfect. I’ll connect you guys on that detail. But because it’s needed and it is a gap, and the services don’t exist in a way that’s actionable. There’s a lot of theory out there. There’s a lot of guidance you can get by reading books.

I recommend to anyone who wants to do something they don’t know about, there’s so many resources available if you go looking for them. And all the information you can gather on the front end and things you can synthesize yourself, it’s gonna give you confidence to pursue. But we also need more people who can help business owners, and aspiring business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs to get to that level because at the end of the day, small business drives America. And it’s important that we continue to have people who are providing the services that we need. you know, I have young kids. And in almost every state that my friends live in, and even in other countries, signing your kids up for swim lessons is [00:33:00] one of the most challenging things to do.

There’s just not enough providers of swim lessons. And you have to get up at midnight to sign up for this list, right when it comes online in order to try to get a spot. It’s pretty amazing. So there’s tons of opportunity. Just look around in the services that you’re experiencing a gap yourself.

There’s probably a business opportunity right there.

Casey Cease: No, that’s such great advice. So I always like to ask a question, what should have I ask? What question should I have asked you that I haven’t asked you yet?

Tara Seegers: Oh, interesting. We hear about the great wealth transfer, right? Anyone who’s you know, reading any of the financial magazines or probably even on regular news channels, I’m not sure. I don’t frequent those sources very often, but know, we all know that there’s trillions and trillions of dollars that will be passing hands in the coming years.

So two things. One, if you expect that you’re a person who will be transferring wealth, make sure you find a partner that your children will enjoy working with and you [00:34:00] enjoy working with. The reality is, if you just keep everything as is, stick with your person, unless it’s a super dynamic person with a long lifespan, your children probably don’t want to work with that person, even if they’re great.

There’s just a dichotomy of age that sometimes doesn’t work. right? It might work for your lifetime, but not for the next gen.

And then second, I would say, if you’re somebody who has a hunch, you might come into some of that wealth transfer as a benefactor. Make sure you understand your own strategy, even if you don’t feel like you have a ton of liquidity, even if you feel like every dollar from your paycheck for your household is allocated, there’s a lot of costs as we’re going through our 20s, 30s, 40s that we don’t often feel like we have a lot of extra capital available, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need planning. We do need a guide. We do need somebody who we can trust and somebody who we can come to with questions, and build that relationship today. So that when and if that large sum of transfer of [00:35:00] assets or liquidity liquid, or illiquid wealth transfers to you, you have somebody who can ask. Cause it’s stressful to be a recipient of wealth and not know where to turn. And if you’re trying to interview the right person at the same time, as this event occurs, whether it’s a business sale, or an inheritance, or you know, you monetize the business that you’ve been building for the last 30 years, if you try to find the right person in that moment, you’re going to feel really stressed out. And you’re not really going to know if that’s a person you can trust.

So, you know, Find the person you feel like you can build with for a long time. Do the planning on the front end. Obviously, that means you need to work with somebody who’s willing to engage with you. But try to find somebody where it’s kind of the same thing as you’re the, some of the five people you’re around the most, right?

You kind of want to be the smallest fish, working with the person who works with bigger fish in an ideal world. Because you’re going to get the benefit of a breadth of expertise. [00:36:00] You’re not going to outgrow that person as opposed to when you start off with somebody who serves your current demographic. That doesn’t always translate when your financial life changes down the road.

Casey Cease: I think, that’s so wise. And for years, wanted to be the dumbest person in the room when I go hang out, no matter what’s going on. And that’s why I always go to my financial planner friends. What does my net worth need to be at when I can come work with you? Because like, I don’t want to go to the guy.

It’s, Hey, let’s work together now, buddy. I want someone who’s, like, yeah, man, when you get here, let’s chat. And I mean, you’ve been super gracious, you know, and I’m sure you’d help me today. But the idea of the aspirational type goal, but I have seen it happened here where people have gotten inheritances or they’ve sold their business and they’ve had a windfall of cash. And either they just, if it’s a sell of an asset or a business and they just take the taxes as they are and have no tax planning, have no financial planning. Or they come into money pretty quickly. They continue to treat money like they did before they had much, right? Either hoarding it, [00:37:00] and it’s depreciating in their bank account, or they’re spending it like crazy without thinking through, like, Hey, that 2 million house you bought is going to have taxes and insurance, and upkeep, and things that you’re not going to think about if you use all your cash upfront.

So, that’s great advice. So, where can people find you? If they want to learn more about you and your practice, how can people find you online?

Tara Seegers: Yeah, great. My website, TaraSeegers.com T A R A S E

E G E R S dot com.

Casey Cease: That’s awesome. Well, Tara, thank you so much for joining me today. And for those of you that are tuning in, thanks so much for listening or watching on YouTube. Feel free to like and share and let people know about this podcast and we’ll be seeing you at our next episode.

Tara Seegers: Awesome. Great to talk to you, Casey. Bye.

That wraps up this episode of the KCC Show. Make sure to visit our website, thekccshow. com, where you can subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, or via RSS, so you’ll never miss a show. While you’re at it, if you found value in this show, we’d [00:38:00] appreciate a rating on iTunes, or if you’d simply tell a friend about the show that would help us out too.

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